Psalm 32. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven. whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man under whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile, no deceitfulness. 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
a desert, the drought of summer. 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 forgavest the iniquity
of my sin. Selah. For this shall everyone
that's godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found.
Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh
unto him. Thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with
songs of deliverance. Selah. I, this is God speaking, I will
instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shall go.
I will guide thee with mine eye. Be ye not as the horse or as
the mule which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with
bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. Many sorrows
shall be to the wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord Mercy
shall compass him about. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice,
ye righteous, and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart. In the fall of 1988, some of
you would remember this, some of you aren't old enough to,
but I became very ill and I ended up having lymphoma. is what it
was, and I didn't know that at the time, but I was very sick,
put in the hospital, and they actually called my family. This might be the last night
you see him. I mean, that really took place,
and I remember that night. I can remember thinking, I'm
going to die. I felt sure of it. I think it's
almost interesting that I always felt like I'd probably die at
29. I was 29. Lo, it's coming to
pass. And I started looking for reasons to think that I would
be saved. Now, I was already a preacher,
but I started looking at myself. That's always a black place to
look. I started looking at myself and I concluded, there's nothing
in me but sin. There's not one thing about me
that would recommend me to God. And I thought, I'm going to hell.
This very night, I'm going to hell. I'm gonna be cut off. And
I remember hearing those machines, you know, in a hospital room,
and I was, I'm going to hell. And then the Lord brought this
scripture to my mind. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute iniquity. And at that time, I saw that
everything that I thought about myself was true, but here's my
hope. God does not impute it to me. Now, how can that be? How can that be? If a judge said to someone who
had committed a horrible crime, well, I'm not going to impute
that to you. What would we think of a judge like that? He's an
unjust judge, isn't he? If he can just up and say, well,
I'm not going to impute your crime to you. That wouldn't be
right. How can this be? There's not a more important
question we can consider than this. How can this be? Well, David says in Psalm 32,
one and two, 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. Now what I would like to point
out first about those two verses, we read of sin, of transgression,
and of iniquity. Three different words that describe
the state of every natural man. Sin, transgression, and iniquity. Now, what is sin, transgression,
and iniquity? Why does God use three different
words to describe the human plight? Well, sin has to do with my nature. In sin, what did David mean when
he said, in sin did my mother conceive me? He didn't say her
act of conception was an act of sin. He was saying, I was
born bad. In sin did my mother conceive
me. Transgression is called the transgression
of the law. When you lie, that's a transgression. When you steal, that's a transgression. When you murder in your heart,
that's a transgression. That's overstepping the bounds,
breaking God's holy law. Well, in the book of Exodus,
we read where the Lord will pardon the priest for the iniquity of
the holy things. Iniquity has something to do
with the good stuff we do, that we consider good. In reality,
it's nothing but iniquity. The sinful nature, sin, creates
transgression, breaking God's law, and iniquity. That's the good stuff that we
do. It can't be presented before
God because it's no good. I love what Charles Spurgeon
said, one of the best things I've ever heard. He said, when
I look at my sins, my good works and my bad works, I can't tell
the difference between the two. And the only safe thing for me
to do is to come into heaven on the plank of pure, free grace. Amen to that. Blessed is he,
now notice what he says, blessed is he whose transgression is
forgiven. And there's only one reason your
transgression will be forgiven, the blood of Christ. Blessed
is he whose sin is covered. The only
way your sin can be covered is through the blood of Christ.
Amen? No other reason. And then he
says, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. The only way the Lord can not
impute iniquity to you is through the blood of Christ making that
iniquity to not be. Now, God does not impute iniquity
where there is none. Now, do you catch that? God does
not impute iniquity where there is no iniquity to be imputed. This is what the blood of Christ
actually does. This is how God cannot impute
my sin to me. There's nothing to charge me
with because of what Christ's blood accomplished. First John
3, 5 says he was manifested to take away our sins. In him is no sin. If I'm in him, I stand before
God without sin. The reason God doesn't impute
my sin to me is because Christ put it away and it is not. Now what a state of blessedness,
blessed. Oh, how blessed is he? Whose transgression is forgiven. who sin is covered, covered by
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ so as not to ever be seen because
it's not there. Blessed is he whose iniquity
is not imputed to him. Now look at this fourth statement
he makes in verse two, in whose spirit there is no guile. Now let's take that for what
it says. In this person whose iniquity is forgiven, whose sin
is covered and so on, in his spirit there is no guile, no
deceit. Now all that is talking about
is the new nature. That's the only nature that has
no guile and no deceit. The nature you have, it's filled
with guile and deceit and lies and cover-ups. That's the way
we all are by nature. But the nature he's speaking
of here is that new nature, born of God, birthed of God. Can God birth something that's
sinful? Well, that's ridiculous, isn't
it? If I'm born of God, that new nature He's given me is without
guile. This is the nature that's honest
before God. I'm the old nature. I'm always
going to have a cover-up of some kind. I'm always going to excuse
myself. I'm always going to justify myself. I'm always going to blame
somebody else. Every one of us knows something
about the blame game. It's so-and-so's fault. It's my circumstance's
fault. You know, I thought it was interesting. I was talking
to a pastor this week, and he said someone had come up to him
and said, do you think so-and-so will be back? They haven't been
back for several months. He said, well, I don't know.
He said, but I do know this. It's my fault that they're not
here. I found that so many times people are quick to blame the
preacher when they want to vindicate themselves. And I would do the
same thing. We want to vindicate ourselves.
We want to justify ourselves, but it's the new nature, the
guileless spirit that comes into God's presence in honesty. And you know, it's the new nature.
Listen to this. It's the new nature that takes
ownership of the sins of the old nature. You'll never do that
in and of yourself. It's only the new nature that
takes ownership of the sins of the old nature. Now, this person,
this guile of spirit, let's go on reading. When I kept silence, my bones
waxed old through my roaring all the day long. Now, most commentators,
and I would agree with this, they think this is that period
of David after Bathsheba, when he went through the full period
of nine months, the baby was born and the baby died, we don't
read where David ever said anything about his sin. Business as usual. He went on, everything's fine. He never dealt with his sin before
God. He never confessed it. He just
thought, well, you know, things happen and business as usual. Now you'll remember in the scripture,
it says the thing David did displeased the Lord. Don't ever think of
your sin in any way as okay. It's not. The thing David did
displeased the Lord, but David went on business as usual for
over a year. Somebody says, can a believer
do that? David did. You know, anytime we ask the
question, can a believer do something? That's a very dumb question,
isn't it? You ought to know yourself enough to know that, yeah, you
can do that apart from the grace of God. But David remained in
a state of not confessing his sin. But look at what this did
to him. For day and night, thy hand was
heavy upon me, my moisture is turned into a dry desert. He didn't say anything, but underneath
it all, that is the way he felt. Verse five. I acknowledged my
sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid." Now, notice
my sin, my iniquity, and my transgressions. They're all mentioned again in
verse five. And notice how he takes ownership
of them. my iniquity. I acknowledge my
sin. I'm not trying to cover my sin. Turn with me to Proverbs 28 for
a moment. Now remember, don't confess your
sin to anyone but the Lord. Don't confess it to men. They
can't do you any good. But you confess your sin to the
Lord. And this thing of confession, somebody says, I got to get it
out audibly. No, that's not really the point. You should get it
out audibly, I suppose. But the point behind confession
of sin is agreement with God. Now that's what I'm doing when
I confess my sin. I'm agreeing with God. I'm agreeing
with what God says. I'm taking sides with the Lord
against myself. That's my attitude when I am
truly confessing sin. That's what the word means. The
word means agreement. Speaking the same thing. I'm
saying what God says with regard to my sin. Now look at Proverbs
chapter 28. Verse 13. He that covereth his sins shall
not prosper. That's what Adam did in the garden,
isn't it? That's what Eve did. They tried
to provide a covering for their sins. He that covereth his sins
shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them
shall have mercy. Now, this is so important. The
word them is in italics, isn't it? That means the translators
put it there. And you can read that passage
of scripture and think with that them in there, that you won't
receive mercy unless you first forsake your sin and all your
sin. Now, if that's the case, me and
you ain't gonna get any mercy. Is that clear? If that's the
case, salvation is by works. Your receiving mercy is dependent
upon your ability to get things straightened out. But that them
is in the italics. Read it without the them. He
that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but who so confesseth
and forsaketh, forsaketh this thing of trying to cover your
sins and trying to pretend to be what you're not. That person,
that's the dial of spirit, shall have mercy. Now what does David
say back to our text? I acknowledged my sin unto the
mine iniquity, have I not hid? That word hid is the same word
translated covered in the previous verse or verse one or two. It's
my sin have I not covered. I said, I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord. And thou forgavest the iniquity,
the moral perversity, the wickedness of my sin. And that's how David
considered his sin. The iniquity, the moral perversity
of my sin. That's something to consider,
isn't it? See, that's something to meditate
on. Verse six, for this, Mercy, forgiveness,
covering, non-imputation. For this shall everyone that
is godly pray unto thee. This is what godly people seek.
to not have my sin imputed to me because it's put away, that
my sin might be covered, that I might be shown mercy, that
I might be forgiven. For this shall everyone that's
godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found. Now,
I love it that he said that. In a time when thou mayest be
found. You know what that does? That
keeps us from presuming, doesn't it? Well, I can just put this
off. I'll seek forgiveness tomorrow.
I'll seek mercy for tomorrow. Tomorrow's a false refuge. That's
all it is. It's presumptuous. It's saying,
I can do this tomorrow. Now is the day. Now is the time. Today is the accepted day. The
time to look to Christ is right now. The time to confess your
sin is right now. The time to seek His mercy is
right now. Not putting it off. He says,
for this shall everyone that's godly pray unto thee in a time
when thou mayest be found. Surely in the floods of great
waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Now that's talking
about judgment. That person is not going to face judgment because
there's no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. The
floods of waters of judgment are not gonna come nigh unto
that person because there's no condemnation. No condemnation
now I dread. I am my Lord's and he is mine. Alive in him, my living hand
and clothed with righteousness divine. Verse seven, thou art
my hiding place. And what a hiding place he is. Hail sovereign love that first
began the scheme to rescue fallen man. Hail matchless, free, eternal
grace that gave my soul a hiding place. I need a hiding place. And this is one of the things
about having the Lord as your hiding place. When you're hidden in him, it's
not simply that your sin is covered up so as it can't be seen. It's
not there because there is none. What a hiding place he is. You
know, you don't have to worry about being found out in this
hiding place because you are perfect in this hiding place. There is no sin to impute to
you. That's how glorious this hiding
place is. Thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Preservation. Don't you want
to be preserved? The only way I'll continue in
the faith is if he preserves me. And here's this promise. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with
songs of deliverance. Don't you love it when the Lord
gives you the grace to even sing a hymn and bless from it? Jesus
paid it all. Well, there's a song of deliverance,
isn't it? All the dead I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. What a song of deliverance. I
wish we would just sing hymns all the time in our heart. I
might want to turn on Rolling Stones or something like that.
It doesn't do any good, does it? I'm not saying it's wrong
doing that. I love music. I do. There's all
kinds of music I love. But I wish I just, I make myself
feel guilty for the next time I turn on the radio. Songs of
deliverance. Songs and hymns and spiritual
songs. Singing and making melody in
our hearts to the Lord. That's what the scripture says.
Now, this is God speaking. He says, I will instruct thee
and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. Christ said, I
am the way. And when the Lord's teaching
you, you know that Christ is the way. No man comes to the
Father, but by Him. I am the way. Now, this is what
happens when God instructs. Oh, what a teacher He is. What
a teacher He is. I hate it when people say, God's
trying to teach me something. No, He doesn't try to do anything.
He never tries to teach. He instructs. And you're made
to know that Christ is the way. You know that. When he teaches,
you know Christ is the way. I will guide thee with mine eye.
Oh, what a guide. Be ye not as the horse or as
the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with
bit and bridle, lest they come near to thee." What's the point of not being
like a horse or a mule? They don't have any understanding.
All they understand is restraint. That's it, just restraint. Put
a bit in their mouth, put a bridle, keep them from going. They don't
know anything about love to Christ. They see no beauty in his person.
All they know is restraint. He said, don't be as the horse
or as the mule, whose mouth must be held in with a bit and a bridle,
lest they come near to thee and bite thee. That's what they'll
do. Many sorrows, verse 10, shall be to the wicked. Now, the wicked describe everyone
outside of Christ. There are the righteous and there
are the wicked. Now, many sorrows shall be to
the wicked in this life. There's so much sorrow in this
life. I mean, if you talk to anybody, I don't care who they
are, they've got trouble. They've got sorrow. Somebody
says, I'm in trouble. Join a club. Join the club. Many sorrows shall be to the
wicked in this life, but most especially in the life to come. are nothing compared to the sorrows
of the life to come. You know, I cringe anytime somebody
says I'm going through hell. No, you're not. No, you're not. The life to come for the wicked,
many sorrows. But he that trusteth in the Lord,
And there's what the righteous do. They trust in the Lord. They believe the Lord is their
salvation. They trust him. Oh, how they trust him. Listen, I'm trusting who he is and what
he did only to save me. Are you? Trust is in the Lord. I trust who He is and what He
did only to save me. When He said it is finished,
before I was ever born, I was saved. Second Timothy 1.9 says
he saved us and he called us. I bring this out. It's important
to bring this out. What came first, the saving or
the calling? The saving. He saved us and he called us. Verse 11, be glad in the Lord. and rejoice ye righteous and
shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart. Be glad you're
righteous. I don't feel righteous. That
didn't take away from the fact you're righteous. You believe
that? Because of what Christ did, you
are righteous. and you're upright in heart.
That's that guileless spirit that He gives. That's the new
nature that He gives. Now, in closing, turn to Romans
4. I'm just going to read this.
This is how God the Holy Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to
use this passage of Scripture. Verse 5. to him that worketh not. This man has been convinced that
he cannot be saved by his works in any fashion to any degree,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. His faith is counted. for righteousness. Now, here's
what this means. Even as David in Psalm 32, one
and two, even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth righteousness. Now, why would God impute righteousness?
Because there's righteousness. That's why. You see, when Christ
took my sin, he put it away and gave me his righteousness. And
when God imputes righteousness to me, you know why? Because
there's righteousness there, the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
That is the point. Even as David also described
the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works. without works, without you doing
something for him to do this for you. Say, and he quotes David,
blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are
covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Now that is a reason to shout
for joy, isn't it? Amen.