I want to read this to us again. We begin this, as I said this
morning, and I want to spend the rest of our afternoon in
Psalms chapter 32. But let me read it in your hearing
again in verse 1. Blessed is he whose transgressions
is forgiven, whose sins are covered. 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. I acknowledged my sin unto thee,
my iniquity have I not hid. I said I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord, and thou forgivest the iniquity of my sin. For this
shall every one that is 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. Salah. I will instruct thee and
teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with
mine eyes. 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."
I want to borrow you a title, and I want you to think of this
maybe as we study this psalm. And I want to borrow this title
here from David's writing in verse 6. You'll see it here in
verse 6. For this shall every one that
is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found. The
prayer of the godly. The prayer of the godly. Now,
we may listen to one another pray and we're just not sure.
We're just not sure. Is he godly or not? But when
you read the Bible, And you know these men. They were men who
were filled with the Spirit of God, who walked with a living
God. You can say they're godly men. But I doubt seriously if
you and I would, well we might, but there are some I'm sure that
wouldn't recognize the prayers of these men as being prayers
of the godly. If we could write a prayer book
and On each prayer put these titles. I doubt if many would
recognize them as the prayers of the godly. Let me tell you
some examples. Listen to this. I am but dust
and ashes. You know who said that? Abraham,
when he was standing before the Lord. Oh, let not the Lord be
angry with me, and I will speak." That's the prayer of a godly
man. I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies. You know who said that? Godly
Jacob. God made a covenant with this
man. Man at his best state is altogether You know who said that? The man
after God's own heart, David the psalmist. I abhor myself and I repent in
dust and ashes. The man that said that was the
man that God said he's perfect in his generation and upright. There is not a just man upon
earth that doeth good and sinneth not." Solomon prayed that prayer
on his knees before the Lord. The prayer of the godly. Woe
is me, for I am undone. Isaiah said that when he saw
his glory. The prayer of the godly. O Lord, the great and dreadful
God. Here is a long title for a prayer.
We have sinned. We have done iniquity. We have
done wickedly. We have rebelled. Do you know
who wrote that prayer? A man who was said to be greatly
beloved of his God. Daniel. Daniel. And listen to this one. Depart
from me for I am a sinful man. Oh Lord. Do you know who said
that? The apostle of Christ, when he
saw the power of Christ. Depart from me. God doesn't require
pretty prayer. He just requires honesty. He
does require that. Honesty. But here in verse 3
of our Psalms is a godly man. Here is the sweet psalmist of
Israel. And he says here, I kept silent. And we find out here in the context
that he kept silent when it come time to confess his sins. He
had just told us in verse 1 and verse 2 what a blessing it was
to have your transgressions forgiven and your sins covered. But for
some reason or another, here he says in verse 3, I kept silence. He wouldn't confess his sins.
Isn't that amazing? We're not told. It doesn't even
hint as to why he kept silent. Could it have been ignorance?
David had been deceived by sin. Could it be that he didn't realize
he had sin? We're not told. But he said,
I kept silent. Could it be out of neglect? He's
a busy man. Could it be he didn't take time
to confess his sins? We don't know. Could it be stubbornness? Willful, willful rebellion in
his heart. Could it have been fear? A fear
of the consequences? What God will do? Unbelief? We're not told. But we know this. that God requires a confession. He requires an acknowledgment
of our sin. Listen to what he says. Come
now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Come and reason
together. About what? My goodness? No, your badness. About your
sins. About your iniquities. Come and
let us reason." But David kept silent. He didn't come. He didn't reason. Take with you
words and turn to the Lord and say this to Him. We're going
to have to do business with Him. Saint and sinner. Saved and the
unsaved. We're going to have to do business
with the living Lord. Take with you words and turn
to Him and say, Lord take away all iniquity. and receive us
graciously. But we're told here in our text
that David kept silent. And man, he got in trouble when
he did. He said, there my bones waxed
old. I felt like an old man. An old worn out lion that all
I could do was roar. Sickly in pain and weak. I spent my days and my nights
roaring. You know, we may continue to
sing and not confess our sins. We
may continue to pray and not confess our sins. We may be silent
with our lips when we come before the Lord and not confess to Him,
but you know what's going to happen in our hearts? What's
going to be full of sorrow and sadness and roaring. The Lord is good to His people.
But here is how His goodness is seen. Here is how His goodness
is seen. Here in verse 4. For day and
night thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned to
the drought of summer. The Lord is good to His people.
But His goodness doesn't appear always by Him embracing us with
the arms of love. Sometimes His goodness appears
when His hand is heavy upon us. When He afflicts our souls, when
He brings us to repentance. You know what the Bible says
about repentance? The goodness of God leadeth thee
to repentance. And what is the goodness of God?
A heavy hand. A heavy hand. People don't understand
this. A man came to me one time I worked
with and he said, Preacher, I want you to go visit my mother and
have a prayer with her. He said, she's never made a profession. And I went and talked to her
and I left there and the poor thing was so upset. So upset. Always dread to do that. Because
they send the preacher to visit one of their lost loved ones.
And then when they see their lost loved ones, he said, don't
you ever send a man like that to tell me and talk to me like
he talked to me. It upsets them. We don't like
to see people go on, do we? Content and at ease. What do we want to see people?
We want to see their conscience heavy. Those who won't come and
do business with God and confess unto Him, we want to see God
break them. He healeth the broken in heart.
He saveth such as be of a contract spirit. David said, I'm not confessing. I'm not going to acknowledge
my sin. And God says, yes, you are. And He presses him. He afflicts him. But you know
what David said? It's good for me. It was good
for me that I was afflicted. Why? Before I was afflicted,
I went astray. And I was so astray that I would
not confess my sin to the Lord. I hid it. I kept silent. But
oh, He made my heart heavy. He took my joy from me. He took
my moisture, my strength. And my bones, my heart, my affections
ached within me. No chastening for the present
seems to be joyous, but grievous. That's what David is talking
about. That's that heavy hand. He scourgeth every son whom he
receiveth. Look here and over to your right.
I want you to hold that psalm. Look here in Psalms chapter 39. And look in verse 9. Look in verse
9 of Psalms 39. Here's the same thing David's
talking about in our text. I was dumb, I was mute, I was
silent. I opened not my mouth, because
He did it. Remove thy stroke away from me. Your hand is pressing me hard.
Remove it. I am consumed by the blow of
thine hand. What happens when the Lord lays
His hand heavy upon a man? Now look in verse 11. When thou
with rebukes doest correct man for iniquity, thou makest his
beauty to consume away like a moth. Surely every man is Brothers and sisters, if the
Lord has put His hand heavy upon your heart and brought you to
His throne to confess your sin, be thankful unto Him for doing
it. It's not in you that walk to
direct your steps. No man can correct himself. It's God who does it, and He
hits that deep, heavy strain. He presses upon the heart of
an individual. And He turns your comeliness,
your beauty into ugliness. And He makes you sad. He makes
you sorrowful when He rebukes us for iniquity. No chastening
for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous. But listen to this.
But afterwards, it yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness. Fruits of righteousness. Peace. Peace. Here's what the old prophet
Isaiah said. The Lord said to him, He said,
I'm going to appoint them that mourn in Zion. I'm going to appoint
unto them that mourn in Zion. To give them beauty for their
ashes. Ashes. They're sitting in ashes. I'm going to give them beauty.
The oil of joy for their weeping, their mourning. The garments
of praise for the spirit of heaviness. And they're going to be called
trees of righteousness. The Lord's planet. And the Lord
will be glorified. I wouldn't confess, David said.
I wouldn't confess my sins. But the Lord pressed me. He pressed me. And I was so heavy. Lost all my joy, my peace, my
strength. He pressed me. Until what happened? Well, look back at our text.
Look back at our text. Here's what happened. Verse 5, I acknowledge my sin
unto thee. That's what happened. That's
what happened. And my iniquity have I not hid. I said, Lord, I will confess
my transgressions unto the Lord." What's involved in acknowledging
transgression? What's involved in the confession
of sin? Maybe this had something to do
with David being silent, being so slow to acknowledge and confess. I want to show you four or five
things that's involved in confession, and it's not mine. I know these
things are true because we're going to find them here in the
Word of God. In one chapter, this same man had got caught
up in sin, went for almost a year and never confessed. God puts
His hand upon him. sends a prophet to him and breaks
his heart, and then he confesses his sin. And I want to show you
four or five things that's involved in true confession of sin. I want you to turn there. If
you want to hold this chapter, you can. We'll be back in a minute.
But I want you to turn to Psalm 51. Now, this is straight out
of the Bible. This is a true confession of
sin. What's involved when I, as a
person, Come before God to confess and acknowledge my sin. What
does God require of me? Where is He going to bring me
to in the confession of my sin? Well, I want you to see that.
In Psalm chapter 51, here's where David had went in to Bathsheba,
committed adultery with her, killed Bathsheba's wife. God
sent the prophet to it. And he said, David, you're the
man. You're the man. You're the man
who sinned against God. You've committed adultery and
you've killed this woman's husband. You're the man. And boy, David's
heart is broken. And he comes here now to confess
before the Lord. And I want you to look at this.
I want you to look at this Psalm, chapter 51. I want you to look
in verse 6. Here's the first thing that's
involved in confession of sin. Behold, thou desireth truth in
the inward What's the first thing in the
acknowledging of sin? Truth. Heart, truth. Truth in my uttermost being before
God. Man, this is difficult. This
is difficult. I have noticed in myself that
I am so willing to impress other people. I am so willing to deceive
other people. I have to watch myself continually
when I am around people, when I am talking to people, because
if they shut me up in a corner where I don't want to be, I've
got ways of wiggling out of it. I don't outright lie, but I can
imply things. I can make myself look so good
when I'm really so bad. We deceive one another, don't
we? We're good at it. We've done it all of our lives
until we come before the Lord. And we're so used to deceiving
others that sometimes we have this secret notion that we can
deceive Him, but we can't. Sometimes we have to spend some
time in prayer. Sometimes we have to struggle
and wrestle with Him before we come to the place where we're
absolutely honest in our heart of hearts with the Lord. He won't let us imply things. He won't go on and overlook something
that he knows isn't right and isn't true. He was talking with
that Samaritan woman, and he said, Woman, go call your husband
and come here. She said, I have no husband.
Wasn't that the truth? She had no husband. If that would
have been us, we would have let it go, wouldn't we? Well, she
has no husband. Probably dead. Maybe divorced. But the Lord didn't let that
rest, did He? No, He's going deeper than that. He's going
to wring a thorough confession out of that woman. He said, I know that you have
no husband. But I know this about you, too.
And you're hiding this, aren't you? You're ashamed of this. You won't tell me this. You won't
be honest about this. You have had five husbands. And you're not living with a
man now that's your husband. He's somebody else's. Why? When we come before Him,
He requires truth in the heart. Everything is naked. Everything
is open in the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. The only way God can walk with
us in sweet fellowship and communion is to walk with us in absolute
light where everything is known and everything is exposed. If
we walk with Him in the light As he is in the light, what kind
of light is he in? The Bible says in him is no darkness
at all. That's the kind of light we walk
with God in. No darkness, no shadows. What
does this light do? It shines out the darkness of
lies and hypocrisy and pretenses. It illuminates and dispels the
shadows Where things hide absolute light, absolute honesty. We cannot come into his presence
and confess sins without every room being illuminated in our
hearts. Now I went to him, I went to
him and I've tried, where I knew it or where I was in my ignorance
or where I did it willingly, I've tried to get around him.
I've tried not to be honest with him, but he requires truth in
the inward part. That's the first thing about
confession and acknowledging my sin. The second thing about
it is we have it here. What is it to acknowledge sin
and confess it? It's to confess it for what it
really is. You know, when we confess our sins, we're so general,
aren't we? And a lot of times, we're more
than just general. Lord, if we've done anything
wrong, forgive us. I don't know about your wife,
but mine wouldn't even accept that confession. Baby, what did
I do? If you don't know, just shut
up. You think the Lord let us come
to Him and say, Lord, if I've done anything. Just shut up. Just shut up. If you don't know,
why are you here confessing? David knew. And he not only knew,
but he acknowledged what his sin was. What did he say about
it? Well, he said there in verse
4, boy. He said there in verse 4. Look at this. Against thee
and thee only have I sinned and done this evil." This evil in
thy sight. In verse 1, he called it what
it is, a trespass. In verse 2, he said, it's my
iniquity. In verse 3, it's my sin. Verse
14, blood, guiltiness, murder. He calls sin what it is. He didn't paint it over. He didn't
make it pretty. He went right to the Lord in
prayer and He says, it's evil. What I've done is ungodly. It's terrible. Boy, we can pretty sin up, can't
we? Lord, I've made a mistake. Lord, I've slipped again. Don't we say things like that?
David said, it's evil. I've done evil. The very thing
you told me not to do, I did it. I did it. It's easy to confess sin if we
just, Lord, we've sinned and forgive us. And that's what we
have to do. I don't want you coming up here. You don't want
me coming up here. Going into detail. You say, Bruce, you need
to be home in your closet or your office. We have to confess
it in general. But, boy, when we sin and we
get along with Him, we call it what it is, don't we? But thirdly, look in verse 4
again. Here's something else about sin. Boy, here's something. Get a little bit closer here.
Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in
thy sight. And I'm confessing it to you,
Lord. I'm acknowledging it for this reason. that thou mightest
be justified when you speak, and clear when you judge." What's
the Lord going to do with me, David said? I don't know. But whatever He does is going
to be right. David, He's taken your child.
What do you think about that? He just... He just... He may take His Holy Spirit from
you. He may take His presence away
from you. What's he going to do with you?
I don't know what he's going to do with me. But I know this,
I acknowledge this before God, that I have sinned and done evil
against him and he's right in however he treats me. If he forgives
me, he's right. If he condemns me, he's right. Well, we acknowledge that, don't
we? We acknowledge that. It is the Lord. Let him do what
seemeth him good. It's the Lord. Oh boy, his attitude had changed,
hadn't it? This man's attitude had changed. Before, he was demanding of people. Getting people implicated in
his own sin. Boy, but now, now he says this,
God owes me nothing. God owes me nothing. But what's right? What's just? A true confession acknowledges
that I have offended God who is good and holy and right. And I've done this evil in His
sight. And now whatever He does with
me is right. And it's only on this grounds
that we can plead for mercy. Until we come and take our place
at His throne and confess that we're not worthy of the least
of His mercy. Just like that thief on the cross,
we are getting just what we deserve. Until we are brought to that
point, we are not on any grounds to plead for mercy. Mercy is
not owed. Mercy is not earned. Mercy is
free. It is to the miserable. It is
to the guilty. And that is what David pleads.
How do you plead, David? Guilty. Guilty. You got any excuses? You going to complain when God
deals with you? No. He's just. God's just. Let's go just a little bit deeper.
Two more things. Look in verse 5. Look at this. Behold, I was shapen
in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." What does
he do here? He goes to the very root of his
problem. He goes to the very root of his
problem. How in the world, he says, could
I have committed such evil in God's sight? I know Him. I know how good He is. I know
how merciful He has been to me. How in the world could I have
done what I did? And He traces it to the very
fountainhead, the reason, the root of His problem. And He says,
I am an evil man. I have been all my life. For
my mother is one of them. I have been a bad person." Ain't
that what he said? He didn't say, Lord, I'm a good
man and I just got caught up in something bad. He says, I've
committed this evil because I've been an evil man all my life. I did what I've done because
I am what I am. Well, he traced it right to the
root, didn't he? What's your trouble? What's my trouble? What's
the trouble of the human race? Is it what they're doing? Oh,
that's evil. They'll be judged for it. But
they do what they do because we are what we are. We're sinners
by our birth. We come forth from our mother's
womb speaking lies. Isn't it ridiculous to go down
a muddy stream about halfway and try to start clearing the
stream up? What's the problem here? Look
at the mud in the stream. Let's try to filter everything
out. If you want to know the trouble,
go to the fountainhead. Go where it's coming out of the
ground. That's where you'll find the trouble. You want to know
why we sin? You want to know why there's
no sin that we're not capable of doing if God don't keep us
from it? Here it is. We're evil. We're sinners. Oh, what do we see in this man
now? What do we see in this man David now? We see a man who has
fallen out of love with himself. fallen out of love with himself.
Before this, he was so selfish, self-centered, demanding, conniving. Everything he did was to please
himself, and he didn't care what it cost anybody else. You got
in this man's way in the last year of his life, and he'd have
you killed. Whatever he wanted, he took it.
Me, me, me. Boy, it's all changed now, hasn't
it? God has broken his heart. God has pressed him with his
hand. And now he's taken sides with
God against himself. He's despised what he's done. He despises what he is. All that he is, he's thrown in
the lap of his Savior. And on those grounds, he seeks
for mercy. That's what it is to confess.
That's what it is to acknowledge our sin. One more thing. We'll go back quickly to my text.
And this is so critical. This is so critical. Without
this, there's no true confession and knowledge of sin. Listen
to this. What does David plead? What does he plead? Does he just
throw up his hands and wallow in his guilt? I know a young man, and he'll
go along for a while, and he'll do pretty good. He falls into
some awful sin, and he just lays and wallers and wallers and wallers
in his guilt. And finally, after he's wallered
enough in his guilt, I think sometimes he thinks his wallering
in his guilt is some kind of an atonement that he makes. And
he gets up out of his guilt and he goes on and tries it again.
For a year or two, then down he goes again. It's almost like
Luther and those fellows were that joined these convents. And
they punished their bodies, thinking it would satisfy their conscience. What did David do? Oh, he was
feeling bad. He was heavy hearted. But you
know, he didn't despair. He had a plea. And what did he
plead? Look in verse one. Have mercy
upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness. And look
at this. Blood out my transgression. What with? Look in verse two. Wash me thoroughly from my sins. Cleanse me from my iniquities. What was he pleading? He was
pleading the cross. He was pleading the blood of
His Savior to wash him and to cleanse him. A confession is not a true confession,
but as it looks out of its misery to God's remedy for sin. David looked out of his tear-stained
eyes and his heavy heart, and he saw God's remedy. And that's
what he pleads. cross of Jesus Christ, blot out,
wash it. He says there's a fountain open
for sin and uncleanness, and He pleads it. He knows that God has punished
sin, that God has been honored, that God has been glorified,
justice has been satisfied, and He pleads it. He pleads it. God is pleased when we believe
Him concerning His Son. David said, I've sinned and done
this evil, but there's more merit in Jesus Christ to save me than
there is guilt to damn me. Oh, ain't that wonderful? That's
wonderful. This is the only way to walk
with God. If we want with Him, we have
to be in agreement with Him about the way in which He has dealt
with our sins. And how has He dealt with them? In His Son. He's punished His
Son for our sins. He was wounded for our transgressions. David says, don't cast me away
from Your presence. On what grounds? Because you
cast your son away from your presence. You hid your face from
him. Forgive me because you punished
him. That's what he said. That's what
he said. I'm sure David shed some tears,
but at the same time, I'm sure he sang this old hymn, Could
My Tears Forever Flow? These for sin cannot atone. These for sin cannot atone. Thou must save. And thou alone. There's a most
amazing verse. We read over it so easy and don't
think much about it. But it's in 1 John 1 and 7. And
it says this. If we walk in the light as He
is in the light, we have fellowship. One with another. Sweet communion,
one with another. But the last portion of that
verse is absolutely amazing. And it's difficult for the self-righteous
and the legalists to understand it. And it says this, and the
blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. If we're walking in the light,
it's His in the light. Why do we need to be cleansed
from sin? But we do, don't we? And as we
walk in this light, as we confess our sins, as we acknowledge them
as David did, you know what he does? He cleanses us. He cleanses us. David said, I
confess my sins. I acknowledge my transgression.
And you forgave the iniquity of thy servant. Turn back over to our text now.
We'll see this walk. I'll just read this and we'll
finish. We'll go home. You want to see a beautiful picture
of two walking in fellowship and communion? You want to see
God walking with this man? Who had refused to confess his
sins until the Lord put his hand heavy upon him and brought him
to a confession. You want to see now the beauty
of their walk? You want to see their fellowship?
Look in chapter 32. Look in verse 7. Thou art my hiding place. You guilty sinner. Yes. Yes,
I was guilty, and He brought me to confession. And He forgave
all my sins. And here's what I'm saying about
Him. Thou art my hiding place. You know Jesus Christ is a hiding
place. Oh, He's a hiding place from
the enemy, from the sting of death, from the judgment to come.
He's a hiding place. From the storms of life, sickness,
He's a hiding place. Oh, my hiding place. David said,
Lord, You're my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Oh, He may not keep you from
all trouble. Some trouble He uses for your
good. But He'll keep me from that trouble
that would do me harm. He will preserve me from trouble.
Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. I was talking with dear old John
Mitchell the other day before he got so sick he couldn't talk
to me. And he can't read the Bible anymore. They read it to
him, but he can't read it anymore. And I said, John, how are you
doing? He said, the Lord's been giving
me songs in the night. Songs in the night. Lay him there
and an old hymn will come to me, he said. Songs of deliverance. Oh, ain't that wonderful? What
fellowship. What sweet, sweet communion. And here the Lord says something
to David. What sweet talk they're having
together. David, I will instruct thee And I will teach thee in
the way which thou shalt go. I will guide you with mine eyes."
Clarence brought one of the little girls out a while ago and Gail
said, you keep your eye on her. We know what that means, don't
we? Don't you let her get hurt. You keep her. You watch her.
That's what David said. That's what the Lord said to
David. I'm going to keep my eye on you, David. not to pounce
on you, not to judge you. I'm going to keep my eye on you
to protect you and watch you every move you make. I'm going
to get the big picture, everything around you. I'm going to see
it. If anything gets close to you, I've got my eye on it, my
eyes on you." And he said, David, listen, you've been sort of stubborn
about confessing your sins. And he said, listen, be not as
the horse. He reproved it. Or as the mule
which hath no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with
bridle and bit lest they come near to you." Don't you be like
that anymore, David. Don't be like that. Oh, isn't
it sweet when the Lord checks you, when He reproves you? Oh, I love it. I love it. He
rebukes those He loves, doesn't He? And He gives Him something
here for the wicked. Many sorrows shall be to the
wicked. Oh, they're not going to confess their sins. They're
going to hide them. But many sorrows are going to be filled.
But he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. It's going to be in front of
him. It's going to follow him. It's going to be on the sides
of him. Mercy. Every word, mercy. Mercy. Mercy is all around. Be glad where? I don't know how
many times I've heard Glenn say this. In the Lord. Be glad in
the Lord. Oh, if you're in the Lord, brothers
and sisters, be glad. Think of what that means. In
the Lord. And rejoice, ye upright. And look at this. Be so glad
and rejoice unto the point that you can't contain yourself. And
finally, you shout for joy. My cup runneth over. And you shout for joy. You that
are upright. in heart. You that are poor sinners,
you that are poor sinners, the prayer of the godly, the prayer
of the godly, you that are poor sinners who have a great Savior
and a fountain open to cleanse you, rejoice and be glad and
leap for joy. Let's pray.