I'm with you this morning to
turn back with me to Psalm chapter 32. Psalm chapter 32. I'd like to read down through
verse 5. Verses 1 through 5. Psalm 32. Blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the
man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit
there is no guile. When I kept silence, my bones
waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and
night thy hand was heavy upon me, my moisture is turned into
the drought of summer. Selah. I acknowledge my sin unto
thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess
my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgave us the iniquity
of my sin. Selah. Why don't we sing, Oh
How Merciful, before we get into the message. Chapter 32. I'd like at this
time to read a quote from John Owen. John Owen was a writer
of spiritual books. He was a theologian, a very intelligent,
wise man, and a man who many found fault with because John
Owen being a scholar such as he was, he would go listen to
John Bunyan preach. And John Bunyan was called the
tinker, you know, and he was not an educated man, a very blunt,
very plain, very simple man. But fault was found with John
Owen because he would go listen to him preach. And John Owen
made this statement, and I want to give it to you at the very
outset of our message this morning. Now last week, we preached a
sermon out of Nehemiah chapter 9 on the subject, but thou art
a God who is ready to pardon. This morning, I want to preach
on that pardon, that pardon which God gives unto sinners. But this quote, let me give it
to you. John Owen said, poor souls are
apt to think that all those whom they read of or hear of that
has gone to heaven went there because they were so good, so
pious, and so holy. Yet not one of them, not anyone
that is now in heaven, Jesus Christ accepted, did ever come
there any other way but by the forgiveness of sin. Now what he's saying is that
many, many times people hear about some old saint that has
died and went to heaven, and they say, well, it's because
they were so good, they were so holy, they were so pious.
And they get the idea that that individual lived their entire
life, never offended God, never committed a sin, and they had
no need to be forgiven of their sin. But nobody is in heaven
today that has not been forgiven of their sin. They had to be
pardoned before they could go to heaven. And that, of course,
will introduce to you our subject. Now, the scripture says here,
blessed, or means happy, most blessed is the man whose transgression
is forgiven. Most happy is the man whose sin
is covered. Most happy is the man to whom
the Lord will not charge iniquity. Now most Bible scholars will
agree that this is a psalm of David, we agree with that, and
that this psalm was composed at a time when David was under
great conviction of sin. Of course, David wrote this psalm
under the leadership of the Spirit of God. The Bible says that all
scripture is given by inspiration of God, and that means that all
scripture is God-breathed. Holy men of God speak. as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost. Most writers believe that this
psalm was composed by David just after the murder or sometime
after the murder of Uriah the Hittite. You remember that David
had committed adultery with Uriah's wife. Uriah was a soldier in
David's army. He was actually a friend of King
David. But David had an affair with
his wife, and she came with child, and so David had to get rid of
Uriah the Hittite. So he had Joab, the leader of
his army, to put him up in the front of the battle, where he
most surely would be killed, and he was. and David was guilty
of the murder of Uriah the Hittite and so this psalm was written
after the murder of Uriah and so after his confession of sin
and after the prophet of God had come to him and brought to
his attention God's anger and wrath for his sin because you
know as we said last week the Lord was ready he's a God ready
to pardon And after the prophet Nathan came and brought to his
attention that he was a man and that he had sinned against God,
then David repented of his sin. But there was a period of time
when David did not confess his sin. When David, as the scripture
says here in verse 3, when I kept silent, my bones waxed old through
my roaring all the day long. For day and night Your hand was
heavy upon me, and my moisture is turned into the drought of
summer." So there was a time when David was under the conviction
of the Spirit of God, knowing that he had transgressed the
law of God, knowing he had offended God by his sin, knowing that
God's frown was toward him. Now, as we said, the Bible teaches
that God pardoned David. The Lord was pleased to put away
his sin, and he did not die for his sin. Now, there was a time
after the murder of Uriah that he did not seek the Lord. Not
only did he keep his mouth shut about his sin, but he was not
seeking the Lord. Now, David was one who would
seek the Lord at all times. He was one who said that his
heart panted after the Lord as a deer would, after running many
miles, would be panting for the water brook. David was a seeker
after God, but he kept silent, he hid his sin. And the Bible
says, he that covereth his sin shall not prosper, but he that
confesseth and forsaketh his sin shall have mercy of the Lord. Now David knew then that the
hand of God was upon him, and the frown of God was toward him. And my little children, John
said, these things write unto you that you sin not. And if
any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ
the righteous, 1 John 2 and verse 1. And if we confess our sin,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. And I wanted to insert those
verses right there, lest you this morning, maybe coming into
this place feeling guilt in your own soul, maybe you feel this
morning that you're at this stage in your life yet unforgiven,
your sin is yet uncovered before God, and that you stand naked
before God, stripped of all righteousness and holiness which God demands
of you, and you stand as a sinner before Him today. I want to tell
you that the Bible says that if any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous, and tell you that
if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now,
if you would, I want you to look at verse 5 here in Psalm 32. And then we're going to go back
up and use verse 1 and 2 for our primary text. But in verse
5, he said, I acknowledged my sin unto thee. In other words,
there came a time when David admitted before God that he had
committed this awful crime, this awful sin. And mine iniquity
have I not hid. I have not hid my moral perversity
from you. I've not hid it. I've admitted
that morally I'm bankrupt and that I'm a sinner. And that's
what the word iniquity means, as we'll find in a few moments.
David had original sin, sin that was passed on to him from his
parents, which came down from Adam in the Garden of Eden. And
he says, I've not hid this, I said, I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord, and he said, and thou forgave us the iniquity
of my sin. Now then, I want you to take
note of the fact that David said, I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord. And I want you to take note of
this because I believe it's very important that you understand
that here as you are this morning in this building, as you sit
here, that if there's sin in your life, that sin has been
committed against God. Now, David does not say, I went
to the priest and confessed my sin unto the priest. But he said
to the Lord. He did not say, I will confess
my sin unto the church. He did not say that. But he said,
I will confess my sin to thee. I will confess it unto the Lord. He did not say, I will confess
my sin unto my best friend and we'll talk it over and if everything
seems to be alright then I'll be happy in my heart. He didn't
say that. He said, I will confess my sin
unto the Lord. And he said when he did it that
the Lord forgave him of all of his sin, all of his moral perversity. God forgave him of that. Now that is what I believe that
this psalm here is all about. As we said it was written in
a day of deep water. When David was in deep, deep
water. Have you ever been there? in
a day of deep sorrow over sin. Now in 1 Kings chapter 15 verse
5, I just want to call this verse to your attention so that you
would understand that David was not a man that was accustomed
to standing in God's face. Now I'm not saying that he wasn't
morally bankrupt from the beginning like all sinners are. But I'm
saying that David walked in obedience unto God in the most and in the
greater part of his life. And in 1 Kings chapter 15 and
verse 5 we read that because David did that which was right
in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from anything that
he, God, commanded him all the days of his life, save only,
save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. So David was accustomed,
don't you see, of walking in full fellowship with his God.
And so when this day came, you see David in pain and agony and
misery. because he lost the fellowship
of God and he lost the nearness of the Lord to his soul. And
that's what I mean when I say that this was a day of great
conviction, a day of great sorrow, a day when David was in deep
water. Now let us look back at verses
1 and 2 here, and these words we'll take as our text, and so
much then for the preface that we've given. Now there are three
words here in our text in the first two verses which describes
the nature of evil. Now these three words gives us
some insight into what evil really is. I wonder why that David used
three different words to talk about or to set forth his sin. First of all, we find in verse
1 the word transgression. Now the Hebrew word for transgression
means revolt or it means rebellion. Now we know that Adam in the
Garden of Eden revolted against God. He rebelled against God.
And from the Garden of Eden right down to this very day, man has
been in rebellion against God. Man has thumped his nose at God. Man says, I will not obey the
Lord. Like Pharaoh, who is the Lord
that I ought to obey Him, that I ought to do His will. Man's
nature is bent toward sinning. Man's nature is bent toward that
which is contrary to God. Man is in revolt against God. He's in rebellion against God. I once knew a man back in Indiana
years ago who told me that when anyone tells him what to do,
he says, that's exactly what I'm not going to do. He was a
rebel, you see. He was in rebellion against God.
He said, I'm not going to do it. Now, this is man's nature
since the first sin was committed. You're here this morning, you
said, well, that's the way I am, preacher. You're not unique.
No, you're not. You say, well, I'm one of a kind.
No, you're not. You say, well, preacher, I'm
a rebel. You're not the first rebel that ever lived. All the
sons of Adam are rebels to one degree or another. Now, revolt. We all like sheep, the Bible
says, have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. And when a man walks in his own
way, he's revolting against the God of the Bible. We want our
own way, not God's way. We want our own will, not God's
will. And that's what transgression
is. It's rebellion. It's revolting against God. If the sign says no trespassing,
we walk there anyway. If the fence post is painted
yellow, we just cross the fence and hunt there anyway. If the
speed sign says 70, we drive 80, because we're rebels against
the law, rebels against the government, and rebels against God's government. That's what we are by nature.
We're sinners by nature. We're transgressors of God's
holy law, and we've been in revolt against God all of our lives.
unto this very good hour. Now number two, there's another
word here, and that word is S-I-N, sin. He says, blessed is the
man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. And so we have this word sin.
I dare say that not too many people know anything about what
sin is. But sin means an offense. That's what it means, an offense
against God. It can be a thought of offense,
it can be a word of offense, it can be an act of offense. Romans 3 and 23, it says all
have sinned, all have offended against God. Everybody born into
this world are offenders against God and against His law. Now
sin is the lust and the motions and passions of evil that comes
forth from the heart. That's what sin is. Whether it
be in thought, whether it be in word, whether it be in deed,
sin is the lust and motion and passions of evil that comes forth
from the heart. Now we have a third word here
in verse 2, and that word is iniquity. Now then, the word
iniquity, David uses these three words to describe his sin. And this third word here is moral
perversity. Moral perversity. Now the word
impute that we find here in this verse, imputeth, that word means
to charge. Charge. So blessed or happy is
the man to whom the Lord will not charge his moral perversity. Now this is the root of the whole
matter with David. This is the root of the whole
matter with us. Now, this is what causes us to trespass. This
is what causes us to sin. This is what causes us to engage
in offenses that are contrary to God. This is where the thought,
the word, the act, the deed springs from that is our moral perversity,
our iniquity, don't you see? Now, this is original sin. Have
you ever heard that word? Have you ever heard that expression
or that phrase, original sin? Well, what that's talking about
is that this is the fallen wicked nature which came in and upon
Adam when he sinned against God in the Garden of Eden. That's
original sin. And because you were in Adam,
just like you were in your grandfather's loins, when you, listen let me
say this, I was illustrating this the other day, somebody
back along the line, and I believe his name was Abraham Mitchell,
determined that I would not be born in Scotland, but that I
would be born in America. And he came over here in the
1700s, late 1700s, from Scotland, and I was in him when he came
over here. And I will not go through the
process, but I could name the various ones. Jacob, I was in
his loins. That's the son of Abraham. Abraham
Mitchell, Jacob Mitchell I'm talking about. And then I was
in the loins of Preston, his son. And then in the loins of
Isaac Willis Mitchell. And then in the loins of Hassell
Mitchell. And then here I am. But because
of Adam, we are sinners. Adam determined that we would
all be born sinners in this world. That we would come into this
world with a nature that was vile, with a nature that was
sinful, with a wicked nature that hates God and is an enmity
against God. Now in Matthew chapter 15, and
I certainly would invite you to turn there, Please do so if
you never intend to ever hear another sermon preached I hope
you'll listen to me today and just give me one last hearing
if you say I'll never hear that preacher again Just give me a
hearing today before God Oh for your soul's sake for your never-dying
soul's sake listen to the Word of God Matthew chapter 15 and
let's read beginning with verse 17 Jesus here is teaching And
he said, do you not yet understand that whatsoever entereth in at
the mouth goeth into the belly and is cast out into the draught?
or draft, but those things which proceed out of the mouth come
forth from the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the
heart proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications,
thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies. These are the things which defile
a man, but to eat with unwashing hands defileth not a man. Now, our Lord is here teaching
the doctrine of depravity, and we all believe, those of us that
have been saved and have been taught anything about our condition
prior to our salvation and our present condition in this body
of flesh, we believe in the doctrine of total depravity, and that's
the root of the matter, the iniquity, the moral perversity of our heart. This plagues every person who
comes into God's world, that nature, that spirit, spring,
that fountain of evil, man's heart. Men put much emphasis
on what they put into their mouth. Somebody says, oh, I eat the
healthiest diet, preacher. I mean, I don't ever eat anything
that a person ought not eat. I am very careful about my diet. And I don't do this, I don't
eat that, I don't eat something else. But beloved, let me tell
you something this morning. That's not what it is that defiles
a man. Not what you put into your mouth.
It's what comes out of your mouth. And that is because whatever
comes out of your mouth comes from your heart. And your heart's
bad. Your heart is corrupt. Man's
heart is a fountain of evil. And God says that it's not what
you put in, but it's what comes out. Now the heart is the spring,
and that's what defiles us. You can take a pure spring of
water, and you can pour corrupt water into the spring, and it
will not corrupt the spring. But you can stand over a corrupt
spring and pour pure water into it, and it'll not change the
nature of that spring. It will corrupt the water that
you pour in it. It'll just corrupt it all. Look
at what comes out of the heart. Verse 19. For out of the heart
proceeds evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts,
false witnesses, blasphemies. Now what I'm trying to show you
is how you got into the mess you're in. How you got into this
mess. How you got into this situation.
Out of your heart proceeds these sins. Now here we have an awful
discovery. We find out what really is in
our hearts. Our hearts are a den of iniquity.
Our hearts are a corrupt spring. But you say, I never felt any
of these awful things in my heart, preacher. And we resent, do we
not, what the Lord Jesus Christ reveals here about our hearts? He says this is the condition
of every man, woman, boy, girl born into this world. This is
their heart condition. And we resent it. But we're mistaken,
my friend. We are trusting our innocence
and calling it purity. You say, I never felt that, preacher.
I never felt anything like that, adulteries and fornications and
all of this wickedness. I never felt anything. You're
trusting in your innocence and you're ignorant of the truth.
You're calling that purity. It's not purity, my friend. Let
me say to you that Jesus Christ is the supreme authority on the
human heart. He knows what is in man, and
what he says is truth. It's reality and your heart is
a cesspool of iniquity and you have moral perversity before
God. You have iniquity, original sin,
and you need to have your sin covered. You need to have your
transgression forgiven and you need to get to that standing
with God where he no longer will charge your moral perversity
to you. but charge it to another. Now,
oh, I know you would rather trust your innocent ignorance, but
you're living in a fool's paradise, my friend. You're living in a
fool's paradise. When we're undressed and naked
before a thrice holy God, it'll come to light that the seed and
the possibility of all evil and wrong is in every one of our
hearts. That's what we are before God. Your heart is a den of iniquity.
This is the root of David's trouble, transgression, revolt, rebellion,
sin, offense against God, iniquity, moral perversity. Now look again
at the text, and as there are three words that describe the
nature of evil which we've talked about, Here, in the last few
moments, there are also three words that describe the nature
of God's pardon of transgression, sin, and iniquity. Notice, if
you would, we have the word forgiven here. Blessed, most happy, is
he whose transgression is forgiven, whose rebellion is forgiven. Now, this rebellion, as we said,
was against God's government, against God's law, against God's
rule. And David said, blessed is the
man who's forgiven of all of that, who's forgiven of it. Well,
what does the word forgive mean? It means to carry away. It means
to be taken away. It means to bear it away, the
guilt, just to be taken out of the way and to be removed. Behold
the Lamb of God who carries away the sin of the elect world. Atonement has been made. The
rebelling is dismissed and the traitor is reinstated. Notice now there's another word
and that word is covered. in this first verse. Most happy
is the man whose sin, whose offense, whose thoughts of evil, whose
words are spoken too quickly, whose acts of evil thought, words,
and deeds are blotted out. And that's the meaning of the
word, to be blotted out, covered. And the picture here is of Pharaoh's
army, Pharaoh's forces. You remember when the children
of Israel was delivered out of Egypt, and they were on their
way there, they started out on their wilderness journey, and
ere long, Pharaoh's army came down upon them. The children
of Israel stood at the Red Sea, they saw the salvation of the
Lord, the water stood up, they walked through on dry land and
the Egyptians are saying to do the same, they got out into the
water and what happened? The water came over them and
covered them over. Just covered them up in the water. That's the meaning of the word
forgiven. Covered so that it is no longer
visible. It's taken away. It is covered
over. Now they're blotted out as writing
in the sand. Let's say you go to the beach,
maybe one of the beautiful beaches down in Florida, and you go out
on that beach and you write in the sand your name. And then
as you stand there, the water comes in, a wave comes in, and
it covers your name there in the sand, and then it goes out,
and maybe half of it's still there, and then two or three
other waves come, and then it's all gone. It's completely blotted
out. It's completely covered. That's
the meaning of the word. Most happy is the... Defense
in thought, word, and deed has been so covered by the blood
of Christ that it has been blotted out and that it does not exist
anymore. And Thomas Adams said, sins are
so remitted as if they had never been committed. so covered as
if they had never been committed. And this covering is by the Lord.
Now in Isaiah 43 and verse 25, the prophet said, I, even I,
am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for my own sake, and will not
remember thy sins. And so the Lord said, I even
I am he that blotteth out your transgressions, and for my own
sake I'll not remember your sins. I'll not remember. That's the
covering, God covering our sins. And so happy is the man that
whose sins are covered. And then in verse 2 here, he
says, Blessed are most happy is the man into whom the Lord
will not charge iniquity. Now, this word imputeth, as we
said earlier, means to charge, and blessed is the man whose
evil nature, whose iniquity, whose inherited evil nature from
his father Adam is not charged any longer to his account. Blessed
is that man. Now this spring, I went up to
Choteau and my last installment of property tax were due at the
end of May. And I went up on the first or
second day of May to pay my property tax. I went up to see the treasurer
and I told her what my business was. I had the receipt In my
hand, I had a check made out for the amount of my taxes on
my property. And I laid it down on the counter,
and she went and got the book. And she comes back, and she looks
at the book, and she looks at and looks at the receipt that
I've got, and she said, you know, she said, some angel came in
here and paid that bill. There is nothing, I mean, it's
paid in full. You don't owe a dime. It's all
paid. Paid in full. Now, I don't know
who it was that paid it. But I'll tell you what, I was
kind of confused at the first. But then I walked out of that
place and I was most happy in my heart because there was nothing
charged to my account. You know what a charge account
is. That's when your name is on a piece of paper and sooner
or later it comes due. And you have to pay up. But I'll
tell you what, the Bible says most blessed is the man whom
the Lord does not impute charge, moral perversity, unto him. And so don't you see, God has
a remedy for the condition you're in. And God has a remedy for
your sin. Now then, what you owed, and
sin has left a mark, left a stain on you, but our Lord Jesus Christ
washes it as white as snow. He blots it out. He covers it
over, and sin is put away. So happy is the man. And this
is permanent happiness. that a believer has. Not some
of this little stuff you know they sing about, be happy, happy,
happy all the time. No! But this is permanent soul
happiness. A deep happiness based on forgiveness
through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I'm hurrying.
Whether you think I'm laundering or not, I don't know, but I'm
hurrying here this morning. I've got three things that I
want to talk to you a little bit about, about this pardon.
Let me first of all say, number one, that the author of this
pardon, let's talk about who the author of this pardon is,
this is very important. Now Stephen Charnock, who was
an 18th century writer, said, Pardon is the sovereign prerogative
of God Almighty, whereby he doth acquit completely a believing
sinner. He acquits that sinner from all
obligation to punishment upon the account of the satisfaction
and righteousness of Jesus Christ. And so who is it that pardons?
It is God that pardons. God is the only one that can
pardon. In Exodus 33 and 18, we see where
God talks about, He said, I will be gracious unto whom I will
be gracious. I will be compassionate to whom
I will be compassionate. I'll have mercy on whom I'll
have mercy. And in Romans 9 and 15, Paul
quoted the same thing, setting forth the fact that it's a prerogative
of God to have mercy and have compassion on whom he will. God is the author of pardon,
and you cannot get pardon anywhere else. So then it is not of him
that willeth, Paul said, nor of him that runneth, but it's
of God that showeth mercy. Now the guilty cannot pardon
himself. He can desire pardon, and he
can plead for pardon, but he has no power to pardon himself. And we have no power to pardon
anyone. I know there's some preachers
that feel that, you know, some of the priests in some religion
feel that they have the power to absolve sinners and to put
away sin. No man on earth has the power. Since the God-man went back to
glory, no man has the power on earth to forgive your sin. That
is the sovereign prerogative of God Almighty alone. He's the
king, and your sin is against Him, and He's the only one that
can pardon your sin. We read out of Isaiah 43, 25
a few minutes ago. I call these five words to your
attention. He said at the outset, I, even
I, am He that blotted out your sin. God does the pardoning. Look at Romans 8 and 33 where
it says, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It is God that justifies. It's God that does the justifying.
Your sin is against God and until he forgives it, it is unforgiven. And you stand this morning charged
Fully charged by God for all of your moral iniquity, moral
perversity. Now there was a story that was
told by a friend of mine down in Kentucky and I never forgot
it. And it illustrates the point that I'm making that God only
can pardon. This particular individual had
a friend, and that friend was charged with a crime, and he
was put in jail. He was charged, and he went through
a trial, and the judge sentenced him to prison. And he went to
prison. Well, this brother, this preacher
friend of mine, he knew the fellow, and he knew the fellow wasn't
guilty of the crime. And so he went to this fellow's
lawyer. He talked to the lawyer. The
lawyer couldn't do anything for him. He went to the judge, and
he pleaded with the judge, saying, You've sentenced this man. He's
not guilty. Even though the jury found him
guilty, he's not guilty. He ought to be pardoned, and
the judge just laughed at him and just wouldn't have anything
to do with him. And so then he went to some influential friends,
and he discussed the situation with them and asked if they could
intercede on his behalf, and they couldn't do anything. Couldn't
do a thing. So finally, in despair, he said,
I will write the governor. I'll write the governor. I'll
write the governor of the state of Kentucky." So he wrote the
governor of the state of Kentucky, two or three letters passed back
and forth between them, and lo and behold, the governor issued
a pardon. I mean they got the signature
of the governor on the pardon and the man was pardoned, don't
you see? Because the governor had the
power to pardon this man. The judge didn't have the power
to do it, the lawyer didn't have the power, the influential friends
didn't have the power, but the governor had the power to cancel
out and to pardon that man's sin, and he walked free. And so don't you see that pardon,
beloved, comes from the King. Pardon comes from the God of
the Bible. It comes from the Father, the
Heavenly Father. And the lawyer cannot pardon.
The advocate cannot pardon. He can plead for it. He cannot
pardon. God only can pardon a sinner.
And so the first thing we want to establish here in these three
things is, number one, God is the author of all pardon. Nobody gets to heaven unless
God Almighty personally takes their case and pardons their
sin. Picture a man in prison. Picture
him in prison. Shut up! The iron gates have
closed and there's no way out. And he sits there and sits there
and waits for a word from the governor. And I'll tell you what,
that's where you are this morning. You're waiting for a word from
the God of the universe to say unto your soul, I am thy salvation. My son, my beloved son, he died
in your room instead in place. and I pardon your sin and your
transgression and your iniquity. Now, the second thing I want
to talk about is that pardon is an act of His mercy. Now,
I think we should understand that when we plead for mercy,
and I read a story one time of a mother who way back in Napoleon's
time, her son had been charged with treason And she went to
Napoleon himself to plead for her son. And Napoleon said, well,
your son's guilty. And she said, sir, I would not
be here if my son was not guilty. I plead mercy. I don't want justice. I want mercy for my son. And beloved, let me say to you
this morning that when God pardons a sinner, that's an act of mercy
on his part. He does not have to pardon you
or anybody else. It's an act of sovereign mercy. We do not deserve his grace.
We do not deserve His love. We do not deserve His forgiveness. We do not deserve His pardon.
It was mercy that spread the gospel feast. It was mercy that
drew up the covenant of love from before the foundation of
the world. Was it not mercy that did that? Mercy sent Jesus Christ
into the world. Mercy nailed God's only beloved
Son unto that unto that gory tree outside the city of Jerusalem. And mercy puts up with us in
our rebellion and in our resistance before our conversion. And mercy
it is that calls us out of darkness into light. Mercy translates
us out of the kingdom of darkness into light. Mercy leads us to
repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm talking about
the mercy. Almighty God now I've heard people
say that all they wanted the judgment all they wanted the
judgment is justice well I Don't think you mean that No, you don't
listen listen believe me this morning Justice is not what you
need now Do you want to be judged by God on the basis of? your thoughts On the basis of
your words, on the basis of your deeds, do you want to be judged
by God on that basis? Oh my friend, God has a book,
does he not? And I believe down in that book
is every offense, every transgression that you ever committed against
God. Do you want Him to bring out the book at the judgment?
To bring it out? Oh, don't bring out the book!
Don't bring it out! Oh, please don't open that book!
Ah, but listen to me. What you need is mercy, my friend,
not justice. You need mercy. You need, listen,
if you get justice, you'll go to hell. That's exactly what
will happen if you get justice. If God deals with you on the
basis of your thoughts, your best thoughts, If he deals with
you on the basis of your deeds, on the basis of your speeches,
what you had to say, and so on and so forth, as you lived out
your days, you go to hell, my friend! I'm here to say that
you need mercy. I want to turn to the book of
Micah, chapter 2. And if you would turn there with
me, I want to read here a few verses here, a couple verses.
And I said Micah 2, but it's Micah 7. And here it is, who
is a God, verse 18, likened to thee? Who is a God likened to
thee that pardoneth iniquity, and passes by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever,
because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have
compassion upon us, he will subdue our iniquities, and thou wilt
cast all their sins into the depths. of the sea. Now listen
to me, my friend. I said earlier that God is a
sovereign and you cannot obligate God. You cannot obligate. The king can. He can pardon you,
my friend. He can pardon you. The question
is, will he? Will he pardon you? Is he willing
to pardon you? Well, you know that leper had
the right idea when he come to the Lord Jesus in the book of
Matthew and he said this, to Jesus. He said, If thou wilt,
you can have mercy on me. If thou wilt. And that's the
way you come, my friend, before God. If you will, Lord, you can.
If you will. Because He's the sovereign. He
can. But you don't have to. And you ought to remember that.
My point is this. I said, first of all, that God is the author
of pardon. Secondly, that pardon is of the
mercy of God. And thirdly, pardon is an act
of God's power. An act of God's power. Now this
is very important to see. In Ephesians chapter 2 and verse
1, it says, and you hath he quickened, that word is made alive, who
were dead in trespasses and sins. Now I and so of you, many of
you here, have had loved ones that grew sick, and that died,
passed away. Some were at home when they were
ill and some in the hospital. And while they were sick, either
at home or in the hospital, as long as they were alive, we had
hope for them. We had hope for them indeed.
We held out hope. We prayed for their restoration
to health and their healing as long as there was life in their
body. But when they died, but when they died, hope It was all
gone. It was all gone. Now, it was
beyond the power of the doctors, no matter how skilled those physicians
were. It, soon as they died, it was
beyond, out of the hands of the doctors, they couldn't do anything
then. It was beyond the power of their preacher, made no difference
how charismatic he was, it was out of the hands of their preacher.
The preacher couldn't do anything. They were dead, don't you see?
They had died. It was beyond the power of their
loved ones. The loved ones could pray, the loved ones could plead,
but it was out of their power and that was because their loved
ones were dead. They were dead. Now there's no
more helpless, I suppose, hopeless feeling in the world than to
look into the face of a dear loved one or a dear friend and
know that they're dead. They're dead. Life is all gone. It's out of their body because
there's nothing anybody on earth can do. They're dead. Now, beloved,
say what you will and be critical if you want to of this preacher,
but that's exactly how God sees you this morning if you're outside
the Lord Jesus Christ. You're dead before God. Oh, you're
very much alive as far as the world is concerned. But you're
dead before God. You're a dead sinner before God
and you need life. And it takes the power of God
to raise the dead. You're dead in your transgression,
in your sin, and in your moral perversity. And you, hath he
quickened, Paul said. And he was, you know, he was
speaking to those Ephesians that had been raised from spiritual
death unto life. And you remember the Lord Jesus?
When he was there at Lazarus' tomb, and he spoke, didn't he? He said a word, didn't he? He
said, Lazarus, come forth! Come forth. And you know what
happened? Oh, Lazarus, he come out of the
grave. Been in there four days. He come out! Only the power of
God can raise the dead. Now, you listen to me. Only one
voice. in all the universe that can
raise you out of your spiritual death unto spiritual life. One
voice. Oh, my friend, listen to me.
It's not the voice of an angel. No, it's not. And even a demon
can't do it. A man can't do it. It's not the
preacher's voice that you must hear It's not the voice of mother
and daddy. It's not the voice of brother
and sister. Not the voice of a dear friend.
Not the voice of an evangelist. Not the voice of the missionary.
A missionary's voice cannot give life to dead sinners. Only one voice. And in John chapter
5 verse 21 and 25 speaks there. It says the hour has come and
now he is. when men shall hear the voice
of the Son of God. The hour is coming and now is
present right now when men shall hear the voice of the Son of
God and they that hear shall live. You gotta hear some of
the voice besides the voice of the preacher. Say, I've heard
you, preacher. You've got to hear another voice.
Somebody else has got to speak to you, my friend. I'm telling
you, pardon is an act of the power of Almighty God. God must
visit you in power. His voice is the only voice.
His power alone can make a dead sinner live. I'm telling you,
it's an act of God for a man or a woman, boy or girl, to be
saved. It takes the power of God to speak peace to a troubled
heart. It takes the power of God to
make the lame to walk. It takes the power of God to
make the rebel a submissive son. It takes the power of God to
make the blind to see. It takes God's power. Well, how,
you say, on earth, is all this possible? How can God do this? How can God forgive? How can He cover? How can He
not charge? How can He, being God, have mercy
on me? How can He, by His mercy, show
me and deliver me and put me among his children. How can he
do it? How can he by his power deliver me? Turn with me to Isaiah
chapter 53 right quick and we're going to be done here in just
a few moments. Isaiah chapter 53 and look if you will at verse
5. Well here it is. But he, that's
Christ, was wounded for our transgression. That means that the Lord Jesus
Christ for my rebellion he was punished. He was punished for
my sin, my transgression. He was bruised for my moral perversity. He suffered the punishment, do
my sin and I'm healed. Jesus Christ, by His death and
resurrection, He bought My pardon and the pardon of every believing
sinner. He bought it by his sacrifice,
his death. Well, somebody says, what is
the effect of being pardoned? Well, the Bible says most blessed,
most happy are they whose sin is forgiven, whose sin is covered,
whose iniquity is not charged to them anymore. Well, they're
happy. They're happy. Well, you say,
well, explain that kind of happiness. Why, really, would a man be happy? Well, I think this is a way to
do it. And I believe this is wisdom,
so you listen to me. We said earlier that for a man's
sin to be taken away or to be covered meant for it to just
be blotted out or taken away. Now, the human race is not the
only race in the universe that sinned. Now you follow me, the
human race is not the only race that sinned against God. Angels,
we read in Jude verse 6, which kept not their first estate,
but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting
chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Again,
Peter said, 2 Peter 2 and 4, for if God spared not the angels
that sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into
chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment, Paul said, listen
to me now, he said, Christ took not on himself the nature of
angels. Now what am I saying? I'm saying
there's some angels that sinned, and what the Lord did, He put
them in chains of darkness. That's where they are now. No
hope ever of coming out until the judgment of the great day,
and then there's a place made for them in eternal burnings
for all eternity. There's no escaping. Because
the Lord Jesus Christ took not upon himself the nature of angels,
but he took upon himself the nature of Abraham's spiritual
seed. He did not become an angel, he
became a man! That's what I'm trying to say.
The Lord Jesus became a man. Now, sin stripped the angels
of their position before God and they're shut up to judgment.
Sin stripped us of our position and condemned us to eternal punishment,
but Christ took upon himself our nature and he undertook our
redemption. and came into this world, and
by His righteousness and death, He restored us. David said, He
restoreth my soul. Now that's where I am. I'm here
today with hope. I'm here today, my sin has been
blotted out, pardoned, but them poor angels are sitting in the
dungeon, I mean the chains are on them, and they're reserved
to judgment, and they'll never be forgiven, and they must suffer
eternal punishment from the hand of a Christ holy God, forever
and ever. Happy, blessed, most happy is
the man who has been forgiven. whose sins have been covered,
whose iniquity is not charged to him anymore. Hallelujah, what
a position to be in. Most happy, most blessed. Glory to God. Praise his name. How wonderful to be saved, to
be a child of God, to be pardoned of your sin. Poor angels. God, God help us to understand
this and to see this. What a favored position that
we're in. He restored my soul and that's
why we're happy. And then let me say that because
we're restored, pardon, we have also access to God. Hebrews 10
and 19 says, having therefore brethren boldness, we're not
shy, we're not afraid, we're pardoned. God's blotted out our
sin, they're covered, they're cast into the depth of the sea,
and we're not shy anymore. We enter into the holiest by
the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath
consecrated for us, that is, through the veil, that is to
say, his flesh. We can come into the presence of God. We have
fellowship with Him. We're not afraid of God anymore.
Our sin has been blotted out. I guarantee you I'm about done,
so don't anybody get too antsy. I'm going to let you go just
in a moment. Now back to Psalm 32 there. There
is a true sign of a pardoned man that I want you to see, and
we're going to be very brief on this. A true sign of a man
whose sin is covered. whose sin is forgiven, whose
iniquity is not charged to him. And we read there in Psalm 32,
the last phrase, or last part of verse two, in whose spirit
there is no guile. In whose spirit there is no guile. It doesn't say the man in whose
flesh there's no fault. It doesn't say that. It doesn't
say the man who never does have an evil thought go through his
brain. It doesn't say the man who never
makes a mistake, man who never falls, man who's never found
to be in some kind of error. It doesn't say that. It doesn't
say it's the man who wears his sleeves just long enough and
his collar just high enough, his face just plain enough, and
doesn't eat certain meat on certain days and he keeps certain holidays. Doesn't say that. Doesn't say
that at all. I'm talking about the true mark
of a forgiven man. He's without guile. And it says
he's sincere. That's what that means. He is
sincere. Means he is no hypocrite. Means that he's no phony. He's real, absolutely genuine. He's real. When he comes before
God to confess his sin like David did, he means it. He absolutely
means it. He's not polyparenting somebody
else. He means it. He's not playing games. He's
not playing church. He's sincere. He's without God. When he says he believes that
Christ died for his sins, he means it. And he means for that
to affect every part of his life. He's not just trifling with this
glorious truth that God puts away sin. He believes that Christ
died for him. It's a man or woman who says,
I love the Lord Jesus Christ. And when he or she says that,
they're not ashamed of it. They don't say it for show. They
don't say it to attract attention. They mean it. They're real. We
love the Lord Jesus Christ. And wherever you find me, I'll
be loving the Lord Jesus Christ. I love Him, and I'm sincere about
it. He's not trying to be pious.
He's not trying to con you, make you think He's something He's
not. His spirit is without guile. He loves Christ, and loves Him
sincerely. And when they say, oh, let's
go into the house of God, He's genuinely glad. He's genuinely
glad. Now, our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Bible says this in the book of Ephesians 6 and verse 24, and
I'm done. Grace be with all them that love
our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. That's the mark of a forgiven
man, he's sincere. Away with this hypocrisy and
trying to influence somebody but your actions. Are you real? Have you acknowledged your sin?
Has God forgiven and covered? And has he put you in a position
where he no longer charges you anymore, where there's nothing
on your account? Praise his name. Charles Wesley,
the day after he was converted, he wrote these words. Long my
imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine
eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke the dungeon flame with
light, my chains fell off, my heart was free, I rose and went
forth and followed Thee.