I'm going to quote that song.
It's already in my notes. So, you know, thou art my hiding
place. Hold your finger there in Psalm
32 and turn to Romans chapter four. Paul quotes these first two verses
of Psalm 32, beginning in verse six. even as David also describeth
the blessedness." That's what I've entitled this message, the
blessedness. The blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without works. Saying, blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven. whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Now, Paul calls this blessedness. I like that word, don't you?
blessedness. And I want this blessedness more
than I want anything else. I want God to extend his favor
toward me to where I am blessed of God. Like it was said of David,
David found favor before God. Now, I want this blessedness. Now, what is it the world is
seeking? I think I could be very accurate when I say that
the world seeks riches, wealth. The world seeks popularity. The world seeks health. Everybody
wants to be healthy. And if you have these three things,
you're blessed. Oh, Lord. Give me a heart to
seek thee. David said in Psalm one, one
blesses the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly.
nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the
scornful. Starts with a walk, then all
of a sudden he stands, and then you find him sitting. Blessed
is the man that doesn't do that. Psalm 212, blessed are all they
that put their trust in the Lord. Now, what does that mean to put
your trust in the Lord? I don't want to just go on and
pass that by without thinking about what that means. Who is
the first one to trust the Lord? God the Father. He trusted the
Lord Jesus Christ with our salvation. Question, how much of our salvation
did he trust Christ for? All of it. Every bit of it. He didn't look for a thing out
of me or you. He looked wholly to his Son. And we're to look
to Christ the precise same way. We're to trust Him for all of
our salvation. And blessed is that man. Blessed
is that man. Blessed are all they who put
their trust in Him. Psalm 41.1 says, Blessed is he
that considereth the poor. Now I know that that's primarily
talking about the Lord Jesus. He's the one who considered the
poor. But blessed is that man who considers the poor. Poor
in purse, yes, but poor in spirit. Psalm 65, four, blessed is the
man whom thou choosest. and causes to approach unto thee. Is that blessedness? To be chosen
of God and to be caused to approach into his very presence. Psalm
84, 4, blessed are they that dwell in my house. Now what that
means is all the only place I ever want to be is in Christ. And
if you have that desire, oh, how blessed you are. God caused
you to do that. Blessed Psalm 84 5 blesses the
man whose strength is in thee. Not human strength, but the strength
of his grace, the strength of God. What a blessed man that
is, whose strength is in thee. You have no strength of your
own, and you know that. You know in and of yourself, you're nothing
but weakness. But oh, when we were yet without strength in
due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Psalm 89, 15, blessed
are they that know the joyful sound. They know the gospel when they
hear it. And it's a joyful sound unto
them. Psalm 94, 12, blessed is the
man whom thou chastenest, O Lord. Now, I don't want to be chastened,
but I don't want to be without it. Do you? Because whom the
Lord loveth, he chasteneth. And blessed is that man whom
the Lord chasteneth. And then we read in Psalm 106
3, blessed are they that keep judgment and do righteousness
at all times. Now, what is that justification?
If you're justified, that means you keep judgment and you do
righteousness at all times. If you're justified, that describes
you. Did Christ do righteousness at
all times? Then so do you. You're in him. And then we read in Psalm 112,
one blesses the man that feareth the Lord, that delighteth greatly
in his commandments. Psalm 119, one blessed are the
undefiled in the way they look to Christ only. Psalm 192, blessed
are they that keep, that guard over thy testimonies. And then
our text in 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, no deceit. Now, the first thing that I would
notice in this psalm is this three headed monster that every
one of us knows something about. Transgression. Sin. And iniquity. Now you find these
three named together in many verses in the scripture. Transgression,
sin, and iniquity. But what's the difference? We
know they're all bad. Well, transgression is rebellion. It's the bad things that I do.
Sin is my nature. I don't become a sinner when
I sin. I sin because I already am a
sinner. That's my nature. And iniquity, I got this from
Exodus where it says that the great high priest will bear the
iniquity of the holy things of the children of Israel, the iniquity
of the holy things, iniquity, inequity, unequal, that has something
to do with the things we think are good, the righteous things
we do. Transgression, the bad things,
sin, the nature, iniquity, the good things. I like what George
Whitefield said, a man has never repented of sin. And what is
repentance of sin? Let me say this clearly. Most
people look at repentance of sin as well. It means you turn
from your sin and you quit committing it. You don't do it anymore.
Well, if that's what it is, then you're in trouble. Let's be honest. That's what it is. You've never
repented. But that's not really what repentance
means. It means a change of mind, a
change of mind regarding sin. A change of mind regarding my
nature. A change of mind regarding my
good things. a complete change of mind with
regard to sin. You haven't repented until you've
had a change of mind about your transgressions, your bad things,
your nature, and your good things. Now, blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven. Now, you know, when the Lord
forgives sin, here's what he does. It carries with it in the
meaning in the Hebrew word, to lift off and take away. If your
sins are forgiven, you know what? That means they've been lifted
off of you and taken away, borne away by the Lord Jesus Christ.
What a wonderful thought. Blessed is he whose sin is covered. Covered by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And when God covers something,
it's not like me and you covering something. If there's a penny
here and I have my hand and cover it, it's still there even if
you don't see it. But when God covers something,
that means it's gone. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute iniquity. Now, this scripture came home
to me some time ago. I can remember trying to look
for something in me that would make me believe that I was saved.
I was trying to look for some kind of faith, something in me,
some desire, something in me that would prove God had done
a work of grace in my heart. I was looking for something,
and I was looking within, and I could not see one thing about
me that would make me think I was saved. Everything was seen, everything. But the Lord brought this scripture
to my mind. Everything you think about yourself is true, but I
don't charge it to you. It was charged to my dear son
and his glorious righteousness is charged to you. Now, what
a state of blessedness. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, taken away, whose sin is covered God doesn't see
it because it's not there. Who does not have his iniquity
imputed to him. And don't miss this in verse
two. And in whose spirit there is no guile, no deceit. All this can possibly be talking
about is the new nature. the new man. Because everything
about me and you is deceitful. You agree with that? So? If so, everything about me and
you is deceitful and filled with guile. But not this new man. You see, the new nature is that
which God has birthed. And he's holy. He's pure. He's
without iniquity. He can't sin. God the Father
can't sin. God the Son can't sin. God the
Holy Spirit can't sin. I've heard preachers say, well,
Christ, if He couldn't have sinned, where was the merit in His temptation?
He didn't sin. He didn't give in. But if you
say He couldn't, you're not saying there's anything to His obedience.
That's foolishness. If He had the potential to sin,
that means He's not immutable. But He's the same yesterday,
today, and forever. Christ can't sin. That which
is born of God cannot sin. That which is birthed of God,
given in the due birth, it cannot sin. And this is precisely what
he's talking about when he talks about it in whose spirit. You
know, a natural man doesn't have a spirit. It's dead. It died
in the fall. He's got a soul. He's got a body,
but he doesn't have a spirit. But when God gives somebody life,
they have a new spirit, a living spirit that is godless, that
does not sin. And it's this new man that recognizes
the sinfulness of the old man. You know, if you're an unbeliever
and I say nothing but you do, everything about you is deceitful
and sinful, you're just gonna get mad at me. You're not gonna
agree with that. But if you have God the Holy Spirit, if you've
been given a new spirit, that's what perceives sin. That's what perceives your need
of Christ. That's what worships God for who he is and loves God
for who he is and loves all of his attributes. That's who sees
the beauty and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who believes.
You know, this new man actually owns the sins of his old man
is his own. This is just stuff, you know,
the scripture teaches, you don't really know much how to explain it.
I'm doing my best. But in whose spirit is no God. He he's honest
before God. He doesn't pretend to be what
he's not. He's honest before God. He sees that he's nothing
but sin. That's the person who looks to Christ only. That's
the person whose sins are forgiven. whose transgressions are covered,
whom the Lord does not impute iniquity. What a state of blessedness. They're honest before God. Now,
verse three. 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, turned into a desert. Sheila, consider that,
think about that. Now, from what I understand,
from what I've read, when he's talking about when I kept silence,
is that time between his sin with Bathsheba and murdering
Uriah, and that time when Nathan came to him and confronted him
saying, thou art the man. And over a year of time took
place during that time. Now, how did he handle this?
You think about it. He murdered somebody. He had him murdered
to cover up. He committed adultery. He stole
another man's wife. There was a terrible abuse of
power on his part. He was, I mean, David was as
evil as he could be in something like that. But you know what
he did? He kept silent. I don't know how he handled that.
I guess he didn't think about it. He didn't think about it. He didn't deal with it. He just
didn't think about it. He kept silent. And while he
kept silent, He said, my bones waxed old through my roaring
all the day long. I kept silent about it. I didn't
confess my sin. I didn't acknowledge my iniquity.
I pretended like it wasn't there. And all it did underneath was
destroy me. For verse 4, for day and night
thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture, my vitality is turned
into a drought. I've turned into a desert. My
heart's like a desert. There's nothing there. That's
how he felt as long as he refused to acknowledge his sin. But look
in verse five. I acknowledged my sin unto thee,
and mine iniquity have I not hid. Now, most of us are good
at hiding iniquity, aren't we? We're good at hiding it. But
when the Lord presses his hand upon you, you can't hide it before
him. Turn to Psalm 51. This is what
he's talking about when he says, I acknowledge my transgressions.
Psalm 51. And this was written after he'd
gone into Bathsheba and Nathan came to him. Look what he says,
this is when he acknowledged his transgressions. Have mercy
upon me, oh God, according to thy loving kindness. not according
to my sorrow or how I promise to never do it again, but according
to Thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of Thy tender
mercies, blot out my transgressions." Now, he's not talking about what
he's going to do about his sin. He said, you do something about
it. There's nothing I can do about it. Do this for me because
of my transgressions. Blot them out. Make them to where they're
not. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from
my sin, for I acknowledge my transgressions. And my sin, it's
ever before me. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when you speak and be clear when you judge. He's
acknowledging his sin. You go on reading in that Psalm,
Psalm 51. What a Psalm when he's acknowledging
his iniquities. Now back to Psalm 32. I acknowledge my sin unto thee,
mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord. Now, what's it mean to confess
your sin? What's it mean to confess your sin? Does it mean you just
audibly name it before the Lord and say, I'm guilty of the commission
of that sin? Well, that could certainly be involved. But the
problem with that is, is what about the sins that you don't
confess that you didn't even know you committed? If what this
is is some kind of confession where you actually verbalize
everything unto the Lord, most of the sins me and you have committed,
we don't even know what they are. I confess my sin when I take
sides with God against myself. And I agree with what God says
with regard to my sin. No more excuses. No more self-justification. No more vindication of myself. Not at somebody else's fault.
If they hadn't have done this... No! I stand guilty before God. It looks like this. Romans 3,
verse 19, We know that what things whoever the law saith, it saith
to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world stand guilty. guilty as charged. No excuses, no vindication, guilty
as charged. And thou forgavest the iniquity
of my sin. Thou forgavest the moral perversity. He didn't justify, I like the
way he said that. Thou forgavest the iniquity,
the perversity, I forgave us that of my sin.
Now, whenever you find somebody confessing their sins, you're
going to find someone, the Lord, who's already forgiven their
sins. And he brings this about. Now, let's go on reading. Verse
six. For this, forgiveness. Forgiveness. You and I need more
than anything else. Same thing you need more than
anything else. The forgiveness of my sins. Oh, how desperately
You and I need the forgiveness of sins. Now, for this shall
everyone that's godly pray for. The Hebrew word for forgiveness,
I've already alluded to this, is lifted off and taken away. Now, if my sins are forgiven
by God, now, if you forgive me of my sins, you don't make that
sin gone, it's still there. It's still there. And there's
nothing you can do to make it go away. It's still there. You
know, I've heard people say, you know, if you really forgive
somebody, you forget about what they did. Well, that'd be good. That'd be good. I'd like to forgive
everything that's ever been done wrong to me, you know. And most
things actually don't need to be forgiven. They just need to
be overlooked. Remember that. Remember that and let it go.
But I still think of what, I love what Joseph said. We're going
to continue it this Sunday. He said, I am your brother, Joseph,
whom you sold into slavery. He didn't forget that, did he?
But he forgave. What I need is the forgiveness
of sins. Now, the Lord, like I said, this
is so glorious that God can do this. He can lift my sins off
of me. You say, how can he do that?
Because he's God. Is anything too hard for the Lord? He can
lift my sins off of me. He gave them to his son. His
son buried them in his own body on the tree. And his son gives
me his righteousness. Now, God can do that. Christ
willingly took my sin, willingly gives me his righteousness. This
is the gospel. This is the mystery of the gospel. For this shall
everyone that's godly pray unto thee, in a time when thou mayest
be found. Now, when is the time that he
may be found? Right now. If you're looking to something
that happened yesterday or some experience you had yesterday,
that's works. If you're looking to something
you're going to do tomorrow, that's works. Faith is for right now. Right now, you look to Christ
and rest in Him. Don't wait for something to happen.
Don't wait to where you understand more or know more or have a deeper
experience. Right now, look to Christ. That's the time. Yesterday and
tomorrow are false refuges. Every time. When is the time
to look? Right now. And beloved, faith
is always in the present. If I'm looking to something in
the past, it's not faith. It's not faith. I'm looking at
some experience I had, something I learned then, something I felt.
If I'm waiting to get better tomorrow or understand more tomorrow,
that's just a work. When's the time to rest in Christ? Right now. Surely in the floods of great
waters they shall not come nigh unto Him. There's no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation. Verse seven,
Drew, thou art my hiding place. That's what you're just saying. Let me remind you of the words.
Hail sovereign love that first began the scheme to rescue fallen
man. Hail matchless, free, eternal
grace that gave my soul a hiding place. Against the God who ruled
the sky, I fought with hand uplifted high, despised the mention of
His grace, secure without a hiding place. But thus the eternal counsel
ran, Almighty love, arrest that man. I felt the arrows of distress
and found I had no hiding place. indignant justice stood in view. To Sinai's fiery mount I flew,
and justice cried with frowning face, this mountain is no hiding
place. Ere long a heavenly voice I heard,
and mercy's angel form appeared that led me on with gentle pace
to Jesus Christ, my hiding place. On him eternal vengeance fell
that must have sunk a world to hell. He bore it for a chosen
race and thus became their hiding place. Should storms of sevenfold
thunder roll and shake the earth from pole to pole, no flaming
bolt can daunt my face, for Jesus is my hiding place. A few more
rolling storms at most shall land me safe on Canaan's coast.
There I shall sing of sovereign grace to Jesus Christ, my hiding
place. Oh, what a hiding place. A man
shall be for a hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. You know why? The only reason
I'm going to persevere is because He preserves me. That's it. If
I could fall away, I would fall away, but I can't because he
preserves me. Thou shalt compass me, surround
me with songs of deliverance. Oh, the deliverance of my God. He delivers me from a law that
I can't keep and I can't live up to. He delivers me from my
evil nature. He delivers me from my sin. Oh,
He surrounds me. He envelops me with songs of
deliverance. And this is God speaking. He
says, I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou
shalt go. I know what happens when the
Lord teaches somebody. They shall all be taught of God.
Every man that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh
to me. That's what folks do that God
teaches. They find Christ as all they
have and they're continually coming to Him as all they have. He said, I will instruct thee
and teach thee in the way which thou should go. Christ the way.
I will guide thee with mine eye. I'll guide your steps and order
your steps. 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. Don't be a beast. You know, I don't want to be
one of those people where I want the Lord's bridle to be in my
mouth. But I also want to be somebody who's willing in the
day of His power. Not like a beast who's just forced
one way and forced the other way and doesn't really understand
what's going on. I want to be somebody who's willing in the
day of His power. Willing to follow Him. Willing
to take up my cross daily, deny myself, and follow the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now don't be as a horse or as
a mule. who have no understanding, whose
mouth must be held in with a bitten bridle as they come near unto
thee. Many sorrows, verse 10, many sorrows shall be to the
wicked. Now, he's gonna have happy times, times when he's healthy, when
he's got plenty of money in the bank, doesn't have any real bad
troubles going on. He's happy during those times,
but his happiness is all based upon happenings, upon circumstances. And take away those happy circumstances
and his happiness leaves. And I think of the sorrows that
an unbeliever is going to have in hell. Separated from God,
separated from all that's good, left to yourself. Oh, the sorrow,
the sorrow. And when I see, when I even think
about what a wicked man deserves going to hell, I think, why me? I'm just as bad as he is. Deserve
the same thing he does. I like that song by McShane,
when it said, when I hear the wicked call on the rocks and
hills to fall, when I see them start and shrink at the fiery
deluge brink, then, Lord, shall I fully know, not till then how
much I owe. Oh, when we see the many sorrows
that are given to the wicked, we know that's what I deserve. Many sorrows shall be to the
wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord. Now I love that simple description
of a believer. He that trusteth in the Lord. I don't have any confidence in
anything but in the Lord, who he is and what he did. My trust has nothing to do with
me, my preaching, my life. Now I want to have a life that
honors Him. You do too. I really do. But do you think
that I trust anything about me? I don't. I trust in the Lord. Here's what I'm trusting. I'm
trusting that everything that God requires of me, He looks
to His Son for. And I'm trusting Him in that
light. Now that person who trusts in
the Lord, that's what faith in Christ is. 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.
Now, last verse. Listen to this twofold description
of every believer. Righteous and upright in heart. That's every believer. Same fellow who confessed his
sin and acknowledged his iniquity and spoke of his transgression.
Same fellow. What's he do? He's described
as righteous and upright in heart. Now that is the work of Christ
for you and the work of Christ in you. He makes you righteous
to where you really are righteous. You've never sinned. You're without
guilt. You're perfect in God's sight.
Righteous. Upright in heart. That's the
same spirit in which is no guile. That's the new heart. The new
man that looks to Christ only. Now this person, if you would
ask him, are you righteous and upright in heart? Well, you'd
know to answer no to that in yourself. No, I'm not. No, I'm
not. But in Christ, I'm righteous. I really am righteous. This is
not somebody says, well, you're righteous legally. Well, no,
I'm righteous. Really? Really? I am righteous
before God. Perfectly righteous. And I'm
upright and hard. I'm erect. I look to Christ only. Now, what does that person call
upon to do? Be glad. Be glad. In the Lord. Rejoice. Shout for joy. Now, shouldn't we be shouting? Well,
you should be in your heart. You should be in your heart.
What about out loud? I don't know. I know if I start
shouting out loud, I know it's going to be, people think, first
thing will happen, how come I'm not shouting like he is? And
all this kind of stuff going on. So shout your heart. If you
have to shout out loud, go ahead. Well, listen, but what a gospel
we have. Indeed, blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit, that spirit
that he's given, is no guile. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for your
word. It tells us things that we could not possibly believe
unless you said them in your word. Lord, how we thank you
for forgiveness. For covering. For non imputation
of our sin. How we thank you for the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ and Lord, we ask that we would be
delivered from remaining in silence. but that we would before they
acknowledge our transgressions and confess our sins. Lord, we
give thanks for the gospel. In Christ's name we pray, amen.