It is my pleasure to be here and to see you again. It's been
a little while. I did watch Sunday night on live
streaming the message. What a blessing that is. It's
the first time I've done that. It takes me a while to catch
up. I'm slow. But I enjoyed the message and
then the baptisms that the Lord has given here. What a blessing. How humbling, how humbling to
have God's favor in such a way. I want to ask you a question. If you could choose whatever you believe that would
make you happy, that would really give you joy, what would it be? What would
you choose? Turn to Psalm 32. We have the basis for real happiness,
real joy. The world seeks after that. Everybody,
you know, people just seek after being happy. I just want to be
happy. I want to be happy on my job and there's nothing wrong
with being happy. as long as it's the right kind
of being happy. But the real basis, the real happiness is forgiveness,
to be forgiven, to be forgiven of my sins, my transgressions,
my iniquity. Let me have that. and I can endure whatever else
God sends our way, or my way. But if I can have real forgiveness
with God, real cleansing, real peace, and real joy, priceless. That's priceless. But I know this, only, only a
sinner who has experienced real conviction of sin can identify
with what David is saying here in this psalm, can identify with
him. David was guilty. God made him
to know he was guilty. He deserved death. But the prophet
said to him, thou shalt not die. God has put away your sin. You
deserve it, David. You deserve to be put in prison.
You deserve to be executed, but God has put away your sin, and
you're not going to die. Can you imagine the joy and happiness
that brings when God makes us to know our forgiveness, our
liberty in the Lord Jesus Christ? Oh, my soul. David, speaking
of the blessed man, Well, that happy man, that's how it's translated,
blessed or happy. When he speaks of this, he speaks
of God's forgiveness of his sins, his transgressions and his inequities
being forgiven. Go on. David did not get what
he's giving us here in this psalm from some commentaries and then
giving us the cliff notes of it. He is giving us His experience. This is a real experience that
this man of God is giving to us. You know, the one thing that
I have noticed between an old preacher and a young one is the
old one has lived his message. He's lived it. He knows. He's
been there. He's been in that valley. He's
been there. He's lived it. And David, now
listen, David has lived what he's telling us here. He's lived
it. David sinned and he tried to brush it aside. He tried to
hide it for a year, nearly a year, nine months at least anyway.
Because when Nathan came to him, he said, the child that is born
shall die. And you'll see here, as we get
to it, David said, well, I kept silent. Well, he kept silent
for nearly a year over this. And it ate him alive. It about
ate him up. There was a therapist that said
this. I heard this a couple weeks ago. He said, we could empty
50% of mental hospitals if we could just get rid of guilt. If you could just get rid of
guilt. Guilt can drive a person insane. You'll see this here in a minute
with David. But here's the good news of the gospel. There is
a way to get rid of it properly. There is a way to dispose of
guilt. And that way is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said, come to me, all you
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest, relief
from your guilt and your sin and your laboring under it. Come
to me. There is a way. God has made
a way whereby you and I can properly
get rid of guilt. And Christ Jesus is that way. He is that way. He alone can
put it away. His blood can wash away all my
sins, all my transgressions, and all my iniquity. He can make
a clean sweep of it. A clean sweep of it. David mentions three things here.
He mentions sin. That's missing the mark. coming
up short all the time. It's like taking a bow and shooting
at a target and you never hit the target. It's always coming
up short. We always, always are coming
up short of the glory of God. We are always coming up short
of the standard that God holds. Always. And transgression is
going beyond the bounds. It's passing on the double line.
The law said don't do this. The law says you can't pass on
the double line. And we do it anyway. Do it anyway. My sister, my youngest sister,
she was behind the state police and passed him on the double
line. I get it honest. She passed him
on the double line. He pulled her over. He said,
what are you doing? She said, you were going too
slow. That's called transgression.
Right in the face of the law. That's true. I don't know why
she even told on herself. She did. But right in the face
of the law, we pull out and pass. The law says don't and we do.
Don't cross this line, we step across it. Don't go into that
room, we go into that room. transgressions, constantly breaking
God's law. Now, I know men don't think much
of God's law, but God does. God sure does. And that's what
matters. That's what matters. Now, the
believer does. David said, I love thy law. But you didn't at one
time. At one time, you and I did not
love it. You didn't love God's word or God's law. We loved ours,
our way. inequity or moral perversion,
moral perversion. And God in Christ can put that
away. God can put away and does put
away all my shortcomings, all my law-breaking, and all my moral
perversion. gone. There's a way. There's
a way. Now I ask you again, what would
you choose that would make you truly happy? What would you choose?
Forgiveness or promotion? Forgiveness or a nice home, better
home, bigger home? What would you choose? The sinner who understands By
the conviction of the Holy Spirit, sin will choose forgiveness.
Give me forgiveness if I have to live in a shack. Because without
that, it's going to become eternal misery. Without forgiveness. So David says here in verse 1,
Blessed that is happy is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose
sin is covered. As I said, we've broken God's
law. We are transgressors. And David said, blessed is that
man. Blessed is that man whose transgression
is forgiven. David's writing this with the
conviction. Oh, if we could just feel the
conviction that David is writing this with. I mean, by the end
of this, he's soaring because he's that man. He's that man. I pray God I'm that man and you're
that man. each one of us, that we know what this is. Blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Remember that broken law that
was in the ark? What covered it? The mercy seat. The mercy seat. Oh, it's blotted out. That old
word also means blotted out. Blotted out. They don't exist
anymore. Don't exist. Now I want us to
get this right. We are not forgiven just because
we ask for it. Now listen, just because a person
asks for forgiveness, is he forgiven? We are forgiven for Christ's
sake. Forgiven for Christ's sake what
God forgives us of now listen what God forgives us of Jesus
Christ died for and Jesus Christ satisfied God for What God forgives
us if I ask for forgiveness and God forgives me if he convicts
me of sin, and I pray Lord forgive me It's because Jesus Christ
died for my sins and God's already satisfied He's satisfied Forgiveness of sin is based on
the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ alone. I had a lady tell
me one time, years ago. She said, John, I ask the Lord
to forgive me all the time, but I don't seem to get anywhere. And I said to her, I said, the
Word of God says repentance toward God Does it stop there? And faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. I said, your problem is you don't
know anything about Christ. Your problem is you don't believe
on Christ. Your problem is you're not looking to Christ. You ask
God to forgive you all day long. But apart from Christ, it's not
happening. It's not going to happen. Because God is only satisfied
in Jesus Christ. And sin is only put away in Jesus
Christ. through His blood and righteousness. Forgiveness of sin is based on
the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Samuel said to David, God hath
put away thy sin. Who put it away? God put it away. And the result is, thou shalt
not die. Because God put it away. I can't
put it away. You can't put it away. Quitting
something doesn't put it away. If you just stop doing something,
I'm not going to do that no more. That didn't put anything away. The only way it can be put away
is through the blood of Jesus Christ and Christ alone. And he says blessed again here
in verse 2. Blessed, happy. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth not iniquity. Here's the doctrine of justification.
And in whose spirit there is no doubt. That's the doctrine
of sanctification. Not charging. Not charging my
inequity. my sin, my transgression, my
moral perversion to me. Now if God doesn't charge it
to me, it still has to be dealt with. He's got to charge it to
the Lord Jesus Christ to substitute. It has to be. It's the only way
it can be. But blessed is the man to whom
God does not charge sin. and iniquity and transgression. Nathan said to David, thou art
the man. He shot him right in the heart.
That sword cut both ways, the word of God. And he said, you
are David, you that man. You committed adultery. You committed
murder, premeditated murder. This wasn't just a situation
where he got upset and accidentally killed a man. He premeditated
this thing. He planned it out. God made David look into the
mirror and say, David, you're an adulterer and you're a murderer. You know the sting of that? You
know how that had to have just... Because he's a child of God.
This is a believer. This is a believer. And he said, you're the man.
You're the man. You're guilty. You are guilty. But you're not going to die.
Because God has already put that away. He's put it away. He's imputed. He imputed your
murder. He imputed your adultery, your
sinfulness, your wretchedness to his son. To his son. That's why you're not going to
die, David. That's why. Happiness, blessedness is not
in the things that we buy, we purchase, we have. They're absolutely
not in these things. People think that certain things
are going to make them happy, and what do they do? They go
out and they get in debt and they're more miserable than ever trying to
take care of it. Happiness, real joy, real blessedness,
is in a right relationship with God and Jesus Christ. It's having
peace with God. That's what I want. That's what
I want. I want that joy and I want that
real happiness now in this life. I want to know like any walked
with God. He did it by faith. He did it
by believing in God. He did it by looking to Christ. Now David, As I said, lived His
message. And He's going to give us His
experience of a real conviction of sin. There's no salvation
without this. There's no salvation without
it. And it is a lifelong process. It's a lifelong process. Because
you and I sin every day. A whole lot more than we know.
I've got more sins that I don't know about than ones I do know
about. I assure you. But he's going to let us in on
a real conviction of sin. And we are going to see that
it's painful. Painful. Open heart surgery without
being put to sleep is painful. And that is the only way God
operates. That's the only way he operates.
He doesn't numb us. He does not put us to sleep.
He wakes us up and does the operation. And we feel every stroke of the
knife. Now, David, like all of us, he
tried not to deal with it at first. He tried to hide it. He tried to hide it. Let me read
this. When I kept silent, When I kept silence for almost
a year, for almost a year, he tried not to deal with this.
Even with God, he tried not to deal with it. He just kept silent. He said, when I kept silent,
unconfessed sin, hiding sin as he tried to hide his sin, and
guilt will eat you up. It will eat you up. if the Holy
Spirit is involved in it. David's internal, internally,
he was absolutely in misery. He looked like the king. For
a year, he went about doing his business as a king. He went to
the services. But this man was leading a double
life. He was, this is the kid, this
is the sweet, the sweet psalmist of Israel was leading a double
life. And for nearly a year, he was
in total misery. I had no doubt he fell into depression. Probably couldn't eat. Absolutely
nothing, he absolutely enjoyed nothing. Because God did not let him. On the outside, he looked good.
On the inside, he was an absolute disaster. God is not going to let his children alone. He's going to teach us,
instruct us, convict us, and bring us to him constantly, whatever
it takes. Whatever it takes. God will not allow his children
not to confess their sins. He won't do it. He's not going
to do it. Not to own up to them. It's not
easy owning up. It's not easy looking into that
mirror and saying, oh, wretched man, that I am. That I am. Knowing the vileness
of our sins is one of the reasons, listen now, it's one of the reasons
that Jesus Christ is so precious. Because he's the only one who
can put it away. He is the only one who can put away the vileness
and wretchedness of my sins. And that makes him so precious.
So precious. Because there's no one else can
do that. There's nothing else can do that. You can go to all the therapy
you want. It won't put away one sin. I'm telling you, it won't
do it. But the Lord Jesus Christ, He's
very real. He sees that God's right hand.
He sees there's a high priest. He sees there's our sacrifice.
Our atonement, and he can remove every ounce of guilt, every ounce
of it. Now you have to know what sin
is to enjoy this. You have to know it. Other than
that, it's just a message. Saying I won't do it again won't
put away the guilt. Won't do it, won't put it away. Not dealing with it, not going
to put it away. Scripture says, he that covers
his sins shall not prosper. He'll not prosper. David said,
God's hand, he says there in verse 4, he says, for day and
night thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture, my joy is turned
into the drought of summer. Can you imagine? Get a picture
in your mind here of this man of misery. He said, my joy, my moisture
is turned to the drought of summer. Isn't it amazing? Isn't it amazing
what God must do to get us to say guilty? We absolutely will do everything
under the sun if we can to not say guilty and not blame somebody
else. You know, Adam said, the woman
you gave me, David could have said, well,
Lord, if you hadn't let Bathsheba been down there at that time, this wouldn't have happened.
No, David didn't. God brought him to a real honest
confession of himself, his sin. He said, I acknowledge my sin.
I acknowledge it. Over in Psalm 51, against thee
and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. No excuses. That's what real
conviction of sin does. It brings us to the point, it
brings us to the end of ourselves, and we make no excuses for anything
we've said, done, thought. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. It's nobody else's fault. Nobody
else's fault. It's my fault. And David said God's hand of
conviction was heavy, heavy upon him. until he confessed his sin. Try not to face it for nearly
a year. Try not to deal with it. It about
drove him mad. It about drove him insane. But
here's the end result of conviction and confession. Here's the end
result. David says here in verse 5, I acknowledge my sin unto
thee. Not trying to hide it anymore.
Not trying to hide. This is what real conviction
does. It brings us to the place to where we are honest with God
and honest about ourselves. I acknowledge my sin unto thee.
Not some priest. We don't go out here and find
some priest. Not the pastor. He can't put it away. I acknowledge it to thee. Why? Well, first of all, it's against
God. Secondly, he's the only one who can put it away. My iniquity
have I not hid? He tried to, didn't he? He tried to. God made an honest
man out of him, which is sanctification. I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin." Another
translation, it says, immediately. Immediately. Why did you wait
so long? You ever think, why did I wait
so long? David kept silent. He didn't
want to deal with it for a year. And he said, when I confessed
my sin, when I acknowledged it, God immediately forgave me. Why did I wait so long? Isn't
that amazing? I acknowledge and thou forgavest. I acknowledge and thou forgavest. It says in 1 John, if we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Look at all that fellowship that
David missed for nearly a year because he would not deal with
this situation. He wouldn't do it. All that fellowship
and all that misery he had to go through because he wouldn't
deal with it. He didn't want to deal with it.
He didn't want to acknowledge, he didn't want to acknowledge
what a wretched man, what a wretched king I am. I told Mike coming
down here, I said, I bet you after this ordeal, I bet when
he had to sit in judgment on somebody that committed murder,
adultery, or any other sin, I said, I bet he did it with a little
more kindness, with a little more heart. I guarantee he did
it with a little more heart. Because every time he would have
to condemn somebody, he would be putting himself in that guy's
place. That ought to be me. That ought to be me. You know, sometimes we say, we've
heard this said, but for the grace of God there
go I. And then complain about that
person. And then complain about that person. A real conviction
of sin. A real conviction of who and
what I am. Says, but by the grace of God there go I. And you don't
complain about that person. Because you know that's who you
are. You know it. You know it. Now the end result
of conviction is to bring us into a right relationship with
God in Christ. That we may have fellowship with
the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. What God is doing,
He's taking David make him confess his sins to own up to them, that they may have fellowship
once again. They could all be resolved and
put away. And God and David could have
fellowship again. Now we have a paradox in verse
six. 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. But you notice this, it's jumped out at me. For this, this
what? This forgiveness, this forgiveness
I need. Through Christ, this forgiveness,
shall everyone that is godly For everyone that's godly pray
for. You say, I pray for forgiveness.
I pray that God forgive me my sins, my wretchedness, my vileness,
my iniquity. You know that that person is
godly? Godly? Listen to him. Sin? My sin? My transgression, my
iniquity, that doesn't sound very godly, does it? Does that
sound godly? Does that sound like a godly
man? No, this sounds like a godly man. God, I thank you, I'm not
like other men. The world would listen to that,
would say, you know, that's, oh, that man's godly. But here's the godly one. Lord,
be merciful to me, the sinner. And he went down to his house
justified. That one did. His sins that he
asked mercy for were charged. They were laid on Jesus Christ. And that Pharisee who said, God,
I thank you, I'm not like other men, when he died, He faced his
own sins. He had to face his own sins.
Be charged with his own sins. Look in verse 7. Here's a work
of grace. Here's a work of grace. Thou
art my hiding place. Yes, I'm a wretch. Yes, I committed
murder. No, he actually did. Yes, I committed
murder. I committed adultery. Now, where am I going to hide
from God? Adam tried to hide behind a tree. Like a tree, you're
going to hide you from God. The best place to hide from God
is in God. Thou art my hiding place. My
refuge. My refuge from the wrath of God
is in God. Thou art my hiding place. Thou
shalt preserve me from trouble. Trouble. Eternal. Eternal trouble. You know, that's the trouble
we should be concerned about. That's the trouble we should
be concerned about. Eternal, everlasting trouble.
That rich man who had everything in his life, when he died, he went straight
to hell. He lifted up his eyes in torment,
it says. He's still there. He's still
there. He's still in torment. And that's
not going to change. Not going to change. But God,
but God, but God who is rich in mercy, for His great love
wherewith He loved us, shall preserve me, keep me, keep me,
kept by faith in Christ. He shall preserve me from that
eternal trouble that's coming on this world. And notice here,
God speaks now. Oh, God's going to speak. And
verse 8, God is going to speak. David's been speaking. He's been
giving us his experience, giving us the blessed man. His conviction of sin and how
God forgave him when he asked. And now God's going to speak.
God's going to speak. What's he going to say? Is there
going to be thunder and lightning? God cannot behold sin, he can't
bear, you know, he can't deal with that. He's not going to
have it in his presence, that is. Here's what God says to David,
David, I will instruct thee. I'm your teacher. I, not somebody
else. He didn't say, now go over there
and sit down in the temple and learn some things. No, he said,
David, I'm going to instruct you. God is my teacher. God is my teacher. Christ said,
take my yoke upon you and learn of what? Me. The Virgin said
he's the teacher and he's the lesson. I will instruct thee. I'll teach you. I'll teach you
by my word. Look, I saw this sitting over
here. Psalm 119. Turn over there and see if I
can find it. This is why we should saturate
ourselves in the Word of God. Psalm 119. Look in verse 24. Thy testimonies also are my delight
and my counselors. God's Word fits every situation
you and I will ever come into in this life. Everything, I mean
absolutely, now listen to me, absolutely everything that you
and I will ever face in this life, we have an answer for in
the Word of God. Saturate yourself in it. Saturate
yourself. I will teach thee. out of my
word, by my spirit. And conviction of sin, conviction
is by his spirit, is a part of the process. And that process
lasts throughout our whole life on this earth. And he makes us experience the
lesson. I didn't experience the lessons I learned in school.
I mean, two plus two is four. It always has been, always will
be. What's that? I mean, I'm not going to experience that.
But God makes us to experience our depravity. We talk about
total depravity and then one day we experience it. One day
we experience it. What a wretch we really are. We experience his sovereignty.
We make our plans and I tell you what, There's no use for
me to make plans. I'm telling you the truth. There's
no use for me to make plans. It ain't going to happen that
way. It never works that way. God orders our steps. I just wonder how long it's going
to take me to realize, Lord, thy will be done, and get on
along with it. We learn His sovereignty. We
learn of His grace by experience. We learn what real forgiveness
is. We learn what real sin is. We learn our real need of righteousness. And in learning these things,
we learn our need of Christ. We run to Him. You know, every
lesson that God teaches us has its application in Christ. It's
to keep bringing us to Him and keep learning of Him. You want
forgiveness? Go to Him. Rest? Go to Him. Cleansing? Go to Him. Healing?
Go to Him. Our God, He said, Our God, I
will instruct thee, and I'll instruct thee. Now listen, here's
a lesson. In the way thou shalt go. Christ said, I'm the way. I'm the way, the truth, and the
life. Follow me. Follow me. David wasn't following
the Lord when he did that. He was following the lust of
his flesh. That's what he was doing, and
he fell. Christ said, follow me, I'm the way. God said, I'll
instruct you in the way. What have you learned of Christ?
What have you learned tonight? Have you learned anything tonight?
I know I'm not much of a teacher, but God's word is. He said, my
words will counsel you. I'll instruct thee in the way
thou shalt go. I'll guide thee or counsel thee. That's what he's saying, I'll
counsel thee. Now don't you be like the mule. Don't you be like, he says here,
be not as the horse or as the mule. which have no understanding.
John said, the Son of God has come and given us an understanding.
God has given us a spiritual understanding of who He is, who
Christ is, what we are, our need of Him, what we have in Christ.
He's given us an understanding. But don't you be like the horse.
He was. David acted like a beast. Don't you be as the horse or
as the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in by
bit and bridle, or they won't come to you. That's why he's
saying, David, don't you ever, ever again. He's instructing now. Are we
listening? This instruction's for us too.
Don't you ever again be like the horse or the mule, which
have to have a bit and bridle in their mouth so you can draw
them to you. You can guide them. You and I
do not need the bit and bridle of the law to pull us and draw.
It's the love of Christ that constrains us. That's what constrains
us. And we understand that. You understand
that? We understand how God saves sinners.
I understand how God can be a just God and have anything to do with
me and you. Where did you get that? Where
did you get that understanding? God gave it to you. God gave
it to you. Many sorrows. I'll wind this
up. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked. Eternal sorrows. I believe that's
what he's talking about. Eternal sorrows. I said that
rich man. That rich man's still there. Many sorrows, eternal sorrows
will be to the wicked. He'll suffer forever for his
sins. And David knew, I mean, he knew with conviction that
he could just as easily be that wicked and suffer all the sorrows
that belonged to him. He knew that. Oh, many sorrows shall be to
the wicked. But he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall accomplish
him about, and I wrote out by that, even when he sins, even
when he stumbles, even when he falls. Oh, the sweet psalmist of Israel
knew exactly what he was talking about. I'm telling you, by the
time he gets to this part, he is soaring. This man is soaring. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice,
you righteous, and shout for joy all you that are upright
in heart. We have something to rejoice in. We've been forgiven. Did you hear what Jesus said
to me? They're all taken away. You have
to know what a real conviction of sin is to enjoy what this
man's saying, to enter into what he's saying. If any man sins, We have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. David, why did it take you so
long to come to him? Look at the happiness and the
joy that we forfeit by trying to deal with this thing ourselves.
You can't deal with it. Only the Lord can put it away,
and the sooner the better. of real happiness, real joy,
is through forgiveness. Peace with God, through our Lord
Jesus Christ.