Guilt, Forgiveness, & Knowing God Is for Us

who are joining us online, would you join me in prayer? Father, we come to you this morning. We ask that you would bless our time together, Lord. That we would sing as unto you, whether or not we have a good singing voice or whatever.

You basically say, make a joyful noise. Lord, we want to make a joyful noise to you this morning, Lord. You're worthy of our praise.

There's nothing without you. We give you praise this morning and ask that you bless our time. The man there, too, brings transformation.

It's the doorway into resurrection life. If I join you in light and soul, Lord, in this world, may our speech be seasoned with grace and soul.

My soul, I worship you. Yes, the rapture and death, glorious time.

You're so worthy of our praise. You're so faithful. But meanwhile, while we're still here, Lord, may we be willing to be used of you, to serve you with our hearts, Lord, to be real before you, that we know from us at times, Lord, we trust you. We are your creation. We're created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God had before a day that we should walk in them.

We thank you, Jesus. We praise you. Beautiful name.

What a beautiful name it is. The name of sin was great. Nothing could save Jesus. Every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. And so, Lord God, we know robbery or something to grasp to be equal with God, but took upon yourself the form of a servant and humbled yourself and died even a death on the cross for us. But then, Lord God, you highly exalted him. Give him a name above every name.

Yes, we in the name of Jesus bow and confess things in heaven, things under the earth. And so, Lord, as we consider, we are your creation. Before the foundations of the earth, you called us, Lord. You saved us. And then you provided the means by which we'd be saved through Jesus Christ. And then, as Jesus pointed out, he wouldn't leave us as orphans. You provided, Lord.

He sent the Holy Spirit to seal us, guide us, to encourage us, Lord. We thank you. And so, Lord, in this world in which we're living, Lord, may we remember that you are God almighty. You are in control. And you are not out of control. In spite of the chaos behind the scenes, you are doing a work, Lord. And we praise you for that.

We're still on the top side of the earth. We can still breathe. If we couldn't walk bed fast, we could pray.

We thank you. Would you all stand? A little stretch time before the word time, huh? Fellowship time.

The saints adore.

Praise you, Lord. Our hearts right now.

That salvation is being. We've been saved. We're living out that salvation. Then we'll be in that glorification period, that third part of salvation. We're going to be with you. Oh, help us be faithful, Lord, in the small things. And then you entrust us with more. Thank you for your loving kindness, your forgiveness, Lord. We are sinners saved by grace, fighting with this old, dealing with this old nature.

Thank you for the new nature we have. We give you all the praise in Jesus' name. Amen. We lift up past you. Lord, brick and ask that you would just speak to him by your Holy Spirit. Lord, that you would just move by your Holy Spirit and move upon our hearts by your Holy Spirit. Fill us afresh. Give us open hearts to hear, open ears to hear, hearts to perceive, and eyes to see what you'd have us to.

In Jesus' name, amen. The Lord bless you.

Good morning. I'm going to go over a few announcements real quick. First of all, I want you guys to know that the pastor and the kids are coming back from, uh, Silver Dollar City. The youth, Christian youth weekend was this weekend, and I think they all had a good time, so I'm kind of excited to see what happened when they get back. Uh, tonight is intercessory prayer.

It starts at 6 o'clock in the agape room in the back. Uh, the women's breakfast is this Saturday, April 13th. The Daisy Mays at 8 o'clock. Uh, all women are welcome. And, uh, there's still two spots available for the, uh, Guatemala mission trip. It's from May 27th to June 3rd. If you're interested, and maybe want to be a part of that, there's still two openings.

Uh, this young couple over here in the middle, raise their hands right there. Uh, just talk to one of them, and they'll fill you in if you want to go on the trip or not. Also, Doc Sellers, most of you know Doc. Uh, he's needing somebody to give him a ride to, uh, medical treatment in Wichita from the Presbyterian Manor, uh, on Wednesday. He doesn't know what time his appointment is yet,

but I've left his cell phone number with the, the ushers. Michael's got, got it back there. Uh, if you're interested, maybe giving him a ride to Wichita that day, uh, just get with Michael, and he'll give you that phone number so you can call Doc and get things worked out. Uh, other than that, I think that's it on the announcements. Uh, we'll do our responsive reading.

Uh, it's gonna be in Psalms chapter 32. And we'll be reading from the New American Standard, uh, just so that we all sound the same. And, uh, once you find it, man, you're there. Uh, if you'll all stand with us for the reading, the reading of the word, and then we'll, we'll get started. Okay. How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away, through my groaning all day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. Fatality was drained away as with the fever of heat of summer. Selah. I acknowledged my sin to thee, and my iniquity I did not hide.

I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and thou didst forgive the guilt of my sin. Selah. Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely, in a flood of great waters, they will not reach him. Thou art my hiding place. Thou dost preserve me from trouble. Thou dost surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Do not be as a horse or as a mule which have no understanding, whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check. Otherwise, they will not come near to you. Many are the sorrows of the wicked, that he who trusts in the Lord, lovingkindness, shall surround him.

And read verse 11 with me. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones, and shout for joy all you who are upright in heart. Father, we just come to you this morning, and we just thank you for your bountiful grace in our lives. We just want to worship you, and we just ask that you would just teach us this morning. Just take your word in the Holy Spirit

and just apply it to our lives and allow us to just know your presence in our lives and to be able to be used by you. We just give you the praise now and thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. We're going to be in Psalms 32, the psalm that we just read is the main text. But Psalms 32 is what David wrote it after he wrote Psalms 51, which is a confession.

And the confession that he made in Psalms 51 was because of what he did with the adultery that he committed with Bathsheba and killing her husband. And that's recorded in 2 Samuel chapter 11. So we're going to start in 2 Samuel chapter 11, look a little bit at chapter 12. Then we're going to go to look at his confession in Psalms 51. And then we're going to look at his instructive psalm

as he looks back on everything that has happened in Psalms 32. And that's the main text that we'll be trying to get to. But we have to have all that background to get there. So we're going to start in 2 Samuel chapter 11. It says, Then it happened in the spring, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel,

and they destroyed the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David stayed at Jerusalem. Now when evening came, David arose from his bed and walked around on the roof of the king's house. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. And the woman was very beautiful in appearance. So David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam,

the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent messengers and took her. And when she came to him, he lay with her. And when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house. And the woman conceded and sent and told David and said, I am pregnant. Now, I want to set some of the background for what's going on. First of all, this is the time of the year when the kings are out to battle.

But where's David at? He's not out to battle where he's supposed to be. He's sitting in his house. It mentions that Bathsheba's husband was a Hittite. And the Hittites were some of the people that lived in Canaan before the Israelites came in and moved into the area. They were supposed to get rid of them all, but they didn't. They ended up intermarrying with some of them.

Uriah converted to Judaism. So Bathsheba's a Jew, but she's married to a Hittite, but he converted to Judaism. And where it's talking about, in verse 4, about her purifying herself from her uncleanness, it goes back to verse 2 with her bathing. In verse 4, I'm going to read it from the New Living Translation because I think it brings out the meaning a lot easier.

It says, Then David sent messengers to get her, and when she came to the palace, he slept with her. She had just completed the purification rites after a menstrual period. Then she returned home. When David saw her bathing, she just was announced skinny dipping. She had, in Luke chapter 15, it goes through and talks about the purifying rites that women have to go through and stuff.

And one of the things they have to do is after a woman has their period, their menstrual cycle, when it finally ends, the first day after it stops, they have to count seven days. And at the end of that seventh day, they're to take a ritual bathing. And that bathing has to take place in either a moving stream or in a pool that's been created by rain. And it's called a mikveh, M-I-K-V-E-H.

And there are several archaeologists have found several of these mikvehs in the Jerusalem area, especially around the Temple Mount. And if you kind of know how the area is laid out, you have the city of David is here, kind of in a valley. And then you have the Temple Mount sitting up here on top. And David's palace was right in between the Temple Mount and the city of David.

And he was able from his palace to be able to look down on the city of David and see what was going on. So even though she was bathing, privately in an area where she couldn't be seen because of his location, he was able to see down over the walls and stuff and see what was going on. And when a woman would take this bath, this ritual bath, she couldn't have anything that was touching her skin that would hinder the water from touching her. So she'd have to have all her clothes off, all her jewelry off, nothing, no braids, no nothing like that, had to have everything off of her.

And a lot of times the women would sit by the bathing area first and sponge bathe themselves first before they actually got into the water. And so David's up here, he's watching all this that's taking place. And the reason the scriptures bring this out, what was actually happening, is because the scriptures want us to understand that she wasn't pregnant before David had sex with her. She wasn't pregnant at that time.

And so wanted to make sure that that was all clear, that that was David's baby. Then in verse six it says, Then David said to Joab, saying, Send me Uriah the Hittite. So Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to David, David asked concerning the welfare of Joab and the people in the state of war. Then David said to Uriah, Go down to your house and wash your feet.

And Uriah went out of the king's house, and a present from the king was sent out after him. The present that David sent out was a portion of food from the king's table so that they could have a nice, romantic meal. I picture him even throwing in a couple of candles with the deal. He's wanting to set the mood for the evening as best he can. But what's Uriah do?

But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord and did not go down to the house. Now they told David, saying, Uriah did not go down to his house. David said to Uriah, Have you not come from a far journey? Why did you not go down to your house? And Uriah said to David, The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in temporary shepherds.

And my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go down to my house to eat and drink and to lie with my wife? By your life and the life of your soul, I will not do such a thing. Uriah's devotion, who was a convert to Judaism, was more devout than King David's devotion, because David was supposed to be out fighting, and he wasn't.

And Uriah was more upright than David was, even in just, going out to battle. Then David said to Uriah, Stay here by the hand of Uriah. And he had written in the letter, saying, Place Uriah in the front line of the fiercest battle and withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and die. So it was, as Joab kept watch on the city, that he put Uriah at the place where he knew that there were valiant men.

And the men of the city went out and fought against Joab. And some of the people among David's servants fell, and Uriah the Hittite also died. Then Joab said to David, And Joab sent and reported to David all the events of the war. He charged the messenger, saying, We have finished telling all the events of the war to King. And if it happens that the king's wrath rises and he says to you,

Why did you go so near to the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the walls? Who struck down Amalek, the son of Jabeshoth? Did not a woman throw up an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thea? Why did you get so near the wall? Then you will say, Your servant Uriah the Hittite died also. This reference to Amalek is either in Joshua or Judges.

But he went up to battle against this town. This woman had this millstone, and she just dropped it off the wall and landed right on his. Ryan had just gone through it not too long ago, and I can't remember which book it's in. But he's using that as an example because he figured the king would be upset about all this. And in verse 22, it says, So the messenger departed.

Oh, excuse me. Yeah. So the messenger departed and came and reported to David all that Joab had sent him to tell. And the messenger said to David, The men prevailed against us and came out against us in the field, but we pressed them as far as the entrance of the gate. Moreover, the archers shot at your servants from the wall. So many of the king's servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead.

Then David said to the messenger, Thus you shall say to Joab, Do not let this thing displease you, for the sword devours, the one as well as another. Make your battle against the city stronger and overthrow it, and so encourage him. David normally would have made a big deal about them not using smart tactics in fighting this battle. But because Uriah died, he just kind of blew it off and said, Well, that's what's happened in war.

People die. And just wrote it off. Now, when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband, was dead, she mourned for her husband. When the time of mourning was over, David said, David, in just this one chapter, had broken four out of the Ten Commandments. He broke the Seventh Commandment, you shall not commit adultery. He broke the Sixth Commandment, you shall not commit a murder.

He broke the Ninth Commandment, you shall not bear false witness, because he tried to hide the fact that he had Uriah killed. And he broke the Tenth Commandment, you shall not covet after your neighbor's wife. He broke four out of Ten Commandments, and you shall not enter into the Ten Commandments. Theeen Commandments. And the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments.

And I want to spend a few minutes here at this point just to help you understand the purpose of the law, because a lot of people, especially nonbelievers, think that the purpose of the law is to show you it's something you're supposed to live by, so you can earn your salvation, so that you can be sure that you're right. But that's not what the law's all about. In 1 Timothy 1 it says, But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching.

The law is not written for the righteous. The law is written for sinners. And the purpose of the law is stated in Romans chapter 3. It says, Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under law, that every mouth may be closed and all the world may become accountable to God, because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

The purpose of the law is to show us that we're sinners. Until you know that you're a sinner, you will never see your need for Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. That's the whole purpose of the law. I know a lot of people, when you're talking with people, they'll tell you, say, Well, when you stand before God, what do you think he's going to say? He goes, Well, he's going to look at my good, he's going to look at my bad,

he's going to see that my good outweighs my bad, and he's going to say, You're not such a bad person, come on in here. But it doesn't work that way. God's a holy God and a righteous God, and he demands perfection. I'll usually ask some questions. Have you ever used God's name in vain? Yeah. Well, have you ever lied? Well, you are now. Have you ever not kept the Sabbath?

Well, I've hardly ever kept the Sabbath. Have you ever committed adultery? Well, no, I've never committed adultery. Well, Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5 that if you even look at a woman to lust after, you're guilty of committing adultery. Have you ever lusted after a woman? Yes. Well, you're not doing very good. How do you think you're going to stand before God and say,

Well, look at my good and my bad, my good's going to outweigh my bad? It doesn't work that way. The whole purpose of the law is to let us know that we don't measure up, that we're sinners, and the only way we're going to get there is by the grace of God. Galatians chapter 3. It says, But the scripture has shut up all men under sin, that the promise by faith is Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

Therefore, the law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, that we may be justified by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor, for you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. The law helps us understand that we're a sinner, and the law at the same time points us to Jesus Christ. So once you know you're a sinner, then you know that you need a Savior, and it points you to Him.

And once you come to Him, you're no longer under the law. He begins to write His law in your hearts. It's He who puts the laws in your hearts as He begins to mold and shape you. Now David, he was still in the Old Testament. And in Deuteronomy 22, Him and Bathsheba both deserved to die. It said in verse 22, If a man is found lying with a married woman, then both of them shall die,

the man who lays with the woman and the woman. Thus you shall purge evil from him, For almost a year after David committed adultery with Bathsheba, he tried to hide his sins. But Nathan the prophet reproved him in chapter 12 in the first 14 verses. He said, Then the Lord sent Nathan to David, and he came to him and said, There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor.

The rich man had a great many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb, which he brought and nourished. And he said, And he grew up together with him and his children. He would eat of his bread and drink of his cup and lie at his bosom, and was like a daughter to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take from his own flock of his own herd to prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him.

Rather, he took the poor man's ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. Then David's anger burned greatly against the man. He said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die. And he must make restitution for the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and had no compassion. Nathan then said to David, You are that man.

Thus says the Lord God of Israel, It is I who anointed you king over Israel. It is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul. I also gave you your master's house, your master's wives into your care. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these. Why have you despised the word of the Lord?

Why have you despised the word of the Lord? Why have you despised the word of the Lord? By doing evil in his sight. You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with a sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the swords of the son of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.

Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household. I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companions. And he shall lie with you. And he shall lie with your wives in broad daylight. Indeed, you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and under the sun. Then David said to Nathan,

I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, The Lord has also taken away your sin. You shall not die. However, because by the deeds you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to bless me, the child also that is born to you shall surely die.

God forgave David of his sin, what he did. But that doesn't take away the consequences. When we get into sin, others are affected by what we do. In James chapter 1 it says, Let not one say that when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself does not tempt anyone. But each man is tempted when he is carried away

and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Whenever we fall into sin, the results are always negative. There's always some kind of a death. Either a relationship is damaged, or we just have that heavy guilt that's keeping us from having fellowship with God.

What happened to David was that not only did David and Bathsheba's baby die, David had three of his sons who died violent deaths. In chapter 13, Amnon, David's oldest son, raped his half-sister, and David did nothing about it because he was guilting himself of sexual sin. So his brother Absalom had his son, his servants, kill him. In chapter 15 and 18, Absalom tried to take the kingdom from his father David, and in the process, he openly had relations with David's women.

Joab, who was in the command of David's army, thrust three spears into Absalom while he was hanging from an oak tree. In 1 Kings chapter 2, Adonijah, who was the commander of Solomon's army, and also the half-brother of Solomon, wanted Solomon's throne. So Solomon had one of his men kill Adonijah and take his place. as the commander of his army. After David sinned,

what ended up happening was David ended up having a very dysfunctional family. And that's what's happened a lot of times when sin takes place, is not only you damaged, but a lot of the people damaged too. In Joshua chapter 6, when the Israelites took Jericho, nobody was to take anything for themselves. Everything belonged to the Lord. But in chapter 7, one guy took some stuff

and hid it under his tent. As a result, the next time they went out to fight, they lost the battle because of secret sin. Secret sin not only affects you, it affects everybody else. And a lot of times, because we like to hide our sin, we don't think it affects anybody else. But I tell you what, the body of Christ is only as strong as we allow the Holy Spirit to move in our lives.

And if you're allowing sin to keep that fellowship with God from taking place, not only are you weakening your walk, you're weakening the body of Christ. Because the body of Christ depends on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit moving through its members. And if you're just living your life however you want without any care to God, all you're going to have is a lukewarm church full of people that are just going to be dead.

I think one of the churches in Revelation says, you have your reputation for being alive, but you're dead. And we don't want that. We want to be a church that the Holy Spirit is moving in and God is touching people's lives through us. And that can only happen when we are living in a life where we have a solid relationship with God going on. I'm going to read

a passage from the book of Acts. It's David's confession now. I'm going to read it out of the New Living Translation because I think it reads a lot better.

I'm going to read the first 17 verses of chapter 51. He says, Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love, because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins. Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin, for I recognize my rebellion. It haunts me day and night. Against you and you alone have I sinned. I have done what is evil,

evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say. And your judgment against me is just. For I was born a sinner. Yes, from the moment my mother conceived me. But you desire honestly from the womb. Teach me wisdom even there. Purify me from my sins and I will be clean. Wash me and I'll be whiter than snow. Oh, give me back my joy again. You have broken me.

Now let me rejoice. Don't keep me, keep me, keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt. Create in me a clean heart. Oh, God, renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence and don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and make me willing to obey you. Then I will teach your ways to rebels and they will return to you.

Forgive me for shedding blood. Oh, God who saves. Then I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness and seal my lips, oh Lord, that my mouth may praise you. You do not desire a sacrifice or I would offer one. You do not want burnt offering. The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, oh God. That was his prayer.

And God wants us to humble ourselves before him. He wants a broken, contrite heart. He can work from some people that's broken. He wants us to be broken before him. When Jesus talked about how that he who falls on the rock will be broken, but who the rock falls on will be crushed. And God wants us to be broken so that he can work through us. When we were at the conference a couple of months ago,

this example was given, but water flows to the lowest place. It's always going to flow to wherever it's lowest. And it's important that we humble ourselves before the Lord because the water is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. And as we humble ourselves before the Lord, then God can pour himself into us because he goes to where it's the lowest. And it's important that we humble ourselves before him

because he wants to fill us. He says in 1 Peter, Okay, we're going to go to Psalm 32 now. This is the main passage I wanted to be at.

He starts out in the first two verses. Oops, I got the wrong one.

Let me get there.

Starts out in the first two verses. He says, How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and whose spirit there is no deceit. This psalm is up at the top. If you got, you'll see a little word called maskel, M-A-S-K-I-L. That word means that this is an instructive or a contemplative psalm.

This is the first of maybe 12 or 14 of them in the 150 psalms that there are. But David wrote this as an instructive psalm for us based on what happened in Psalms 51 with his confession. And what happened with David and Bathsheba. But it says, How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven. That word blessed is in the plural in the Hebrew. And it doesn't mean how many blessings.

It means the fullness of blessing. It's the same way with the word in the tree of life in Genesis where it says the tree of life. The word life in the Hebrew is in the plural. It doesn't mean the tree of many lives. It means the tree of the fullness of life. And that's the same way that David's doing here. He's talking about how blessed, how fully blessed is the man

whose transgressions are forgiven. Then we take a look at some of these different aspects of sin. Transgression is willful disobedience. Sin means to miss the mark or to fall short of God's righteousness. Iniquity here, there's several different meanings for iniquity in the scriptures. But the one that was referred to here means distortion or perversion. And that talks about having no disobedience.

Deceit and primarily the deceit that's talked about here is self-deception because we have a tendency when we fall into sin to think we can hide it from God and we deceive ourselves because it doesn't work that way. But look at how God deals with our sin. Our transgressions, our willful disobedience, he forgives us. Our sin, he covers. When he says that he covers our sin,

that doesn't mean he hides our sin. It means that he atones for our sin. He deals with it. It means that the debt has been paid. If you go out to eat dinner with some friends and the waitress comes up after your meal and says, all right, how do you want to buy this ticket up? And you say, I'll take care of it. I'll cover it. When you say you're covering it,

you're not saying you're going to hide that bill. You're saying you're going to take care of the cost of that bill. And then when God says he covers our sin, he's not hiding our sin. He's dealing with it once and for all. In Psalms 103, it says, he has removed our sins as far from us as the east is from the west. He deals with it. He doesn't just hide it. He doesn't just cover over to where it's hidden.

He actually deals with it. And then it talks about how that he doesn't impute iniquity unto us. In other words, he doesn't lay it to our charge like an account keeping a record of something we did wrong. God doesn't hold it over our heads whenever he wants to to bring us under condemnation. That's what Satan does. Satan is the accuser. He's the one that constantly brings up

our past and the sins that we've done. Because he wants to keep us under condemnation. God, on the other hand, brings conviction. When he brings conviction, it causes us to want to turn to him. It causes repentance to take place. All condemnation does is cause us to beat ourselves up. In verse 3 and 4, it says, When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away

through my groaning all day long. For day and night, thy hand was heavy on me. My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. When you have sinned and that guilt is weighing on you, if you're a believer, God is going to discipline those whom he loves. That's just the way he works. If he loves you, he's going to discipline you. And there's nothing more miserable

than to be a believer out of the will of God. That's the most miserable position that you could ever experience is to be a believer out of the will of God. And I know because I've been there. Back in 1990, I started a Calvary Chapel. And I knew that I wasn't supposed to be the permanent pastor there. In fact, I told the people to be praying that God will send somebody back from California

to take over as the pastor. And after we'd been praying for that about a couple of months, I got a call from a guy out in California. And he saw our... I was advertising. We had three Bible studies going on, one in Joplin, one in Goodman, and one in Pierce City. And we were advertising in the Joplin newspaper. Had a little Maranatha dove with it. And he called and goes,

The Lord laid on my heart to come back and pastor a church in Joplin. But I thought maybe I might be too late. And I said, No, you're not too late. You're right on time. And so he sold his business out in California and came back, took over as pastor. But what I wasn't prepared for was that feeling I would have when I turned the church over to him. Because it was like turning your kids over

to somebody else to raise. And I went into a very, very deep depression. And I came back to Ark City. And every time I came into the church, all I would do was beat myself up. And I'd think, What if I'd have done this different? What if I'd have done that different? And I would just beat myself up. And I got to the point where I quit coming to church because I got tired every time I came in here.

I'd just beat myself up. So I started drinking. And I threw myself into work. And I worked two full-time jobs, partly because I needed the money. But part of it was because that working all the time was a painkiller. Because then I didn't have to deal with the issues in my life. As long as I kept working, kept focused, I didn't have to deal with the issues in my life.

And when I wasn't working, I was drinking. And after seven years of not being in church, and drinking, and being a workaholic, my wife had enough, and she divorced me. And I ended up moving to a little house on the north side of town. And there was a little Pentecostal church not too far from there, walking distance. And I went over there on a Sunday evening.

And it took me losing everything I had for me to realize how far from God I'd gotten. And I went to that little church, and Sunday night, I was just praying. And this little old man, came up behind me, and put his hand on my shoulder. And he started praying for me, and he just started crying. And the tears were just dripping off his cheeks. And he didn't know what I was going through,

but he knew that I had pain. And the Lord used that, those people in that little Pentecostal church, to help heal me. And, but anyway. And just like David, after I sinned, I had a dysfunctional family too. Because as a workaholic, I had spent no time with my kids. And I can't remember how the song goes, but you know, there's that song where the kids want to spend time with his dad,

but his dad's too busy, Sunday we'll do it. And then later on, the dad's not busy anymore, and he wants to spend time with his kids, but he can't because the kid's busy now. And so they never get together. Well, I've missed out on my kids, because I worked it all the time. Just trying to avoid the pain in my own life. So, but anyway, there's nothing more miserable

than to be a believer out of the will of God. And God will, He will discipline you, and just be expecting it. If you're going to run from Him, you can't run far, because He's going to catch up with you. I remember this one guy, I was in Emporia, at a gas station, on my way to Emporia, and this guy was getting gas, and I pull up next to him, and something, I don't know how we got to talk about the Lord, but he said he was from one of the Calvaries out in California, and he said his psychologist told him to get away from Calvary.

And, well, I go to Calvary. Yeah. And, you know, so we, you know, the Lord just works in different ways, but you can't run from God. It just doesn't work that way. In verse 5, it says, I acknowledge my sin to thee, and my iniquity I did not hide. But what had he been doing for a whole year? He'd been trying to hide his sin. And then he says, I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,

and thou didst forgive the guilt of my sin. When we confess our sin, it means to acknowledge our sin and to agree with God about our sin. Confessing your sin doesn't mean, it's not a way to earn your forgiveness. You know, you don't go and say, I'm confessing my sin, and then you just go back and live your life however you want to. That's not how it works. If you're genuinely confessing your sin to God,

and you're agreeing with him about it, then God's conviction is going to work in you, that repentance that needs to take place. And you're going to turn from that sin, and you're going to allow God to do a work in your life. And you're going to understand how wonderful this forgiveness is. Otherwise, if you're just using it as a way to earn your forgiveness, you're actually turning the grace of God into a license to sin.

And that's not true grace. Because true grace will cause you to repent. It will cause you to turn towards living a holy life. In 1 John 1, 9, it says, If we confess our sin, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us of our sins, and to cleanse us from, from all unrighteousness. In verse 6, it says, God wants us to come to him willingly. Don't wait until God's hand of discipline is on you

before you turn to him. When you get into sin, first thing you need to do is just turn to him, and confess it, and get it right. Keep that fellowship with him open. In verse 7, it says, Thou art my hiding place. Thou dost preserve me from trouble. Thou dost surround me with songs of deliverance. He is our hiding place. That means he's our safe place that we can go to.

He's not our enemy. In verse 8, it says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go. I will counsel you with my eyes upon you. This is God speaking to us. But I want you to understand that back in, when David was praying in Psalm 51, when he was making that confession, he said, Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.

Then I will teach your ways to rebels, and they will turn to you. This Psalm 32 is David teaching us. This is him saying, Even though it's God speaking, I will instruct you and teach you in the way in which you should go. I will counsel you with my eyes upon you. This is God speaking through David, using David to teach us. That's what God wants to do with each of us,

with other people in our lives. He wants to use us to affect other people. In verse 9, it says, God doesn't want us to be robots. He didn't create us to automatically worship him. He wants us to worship him with our own free will. In Philippians chapter 2, it says,

Not in my presence only, but now much more in my absence. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work his good pleasure. We're talking about working out your salvation. A lot of people really get bent out of shape about that because it sounds like you have to work for your salvation. That's not what I was talking about.

It actually says it better if you say, Work your salvation outward. Because he's giving you salvation inward. He's there, but he wants to penetrate your whole life with it. And he wants you to live your life out loud for him. He wants you to give up your will, surrender your will to him so he can move through you. In verse 10 and 11, it says,

He says, One of the things that I enjoy the most as a believer is I enjoy being in the presence of God. I want to be surrounded by his presence. I want to have his loving kindness around me at all times. And you know, you can sense when you've been spending time in his presence. I love to just bathe in his presence and just be there. But he wants us to know his loving kindness.

Now, this psalm had three salas in it. There's only 11 verses, but there's three salas. And a sala is a musical notation. Its purpose is to indicate a pause. And the purpose of that pause is to think back on what, what was previously said. The first sala takes place after verse 3 and 4. When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night, thy hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was drained away as with the fervor heat of summer. In verses 3 and 4, David is thinking back on his guilt, the guilt that you feel when you fall into sin, and that guilt just weighs on you. And he's thinking back, he's pausing. And he's thinking about that. And while I'm pausing and thinking about that right now,

you ushers, are you out there? It's a good time for you to go get the kids ready.

The second sala takes place after verse 5. It says, I acknowledge my sin to thee, and my iniquity I did not hide. I said, I will confess my transgression to the Lord, and thou didst forgive the guilt of my sin. In the second sala, he's focusing on God's forgiveness. First, he focused on his guilt. Now, he's focusing on God's forgiveness that he's been given.

And then the third sala is after verse 7.

God is our hiding place. He has always been there for us. And when we try to run from God, it's our natural instinct to do that because Adam and Eve, when they sinned, the first thing they did was go hide themselves from God when he came looking for them. And that's because... And whenever we fall into sin, our first tendency is not to move to God, even though we know he's our safe place,

even though we know he wants to forgive us, even though he wants to move in our life and surround us with his loving kindness. Our first thing we do when we sin is we want to move away from him. And sometimes it just takes us longer than other times to finally realize that we don't have to do that. He's right there for us. Now, in second... One of the things that...

He has done to show us how much he's there for us is that... Did you notice that God did not impute iniquity unto us? But do you know who he did impute our iniquity unto? Jesus. In 2 Corinthians it says, He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might become the righteousness of God. The iniquity that was ours to be imputed unto us was placed on Jesus Christ.

And he, instead of imputing... Instead of imputing sin unto us, he imputed his righteousness unto us. So God sees us now in his righteousness. That is love. In Hebrews 9, verse 28, it says, So Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sin of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin to those who eagerly await him. And as I shared in the first service,

some of us are end-time buffs. We keep up on this end-time stuff, and I'm telling you, it's not going to be that much longer. We're going to go home and be with the Lord. Things are getting exciting. We've got some rough times we're probably going to go through first, but we're getting close to that time. We're going to go home to the Lord. And we should be excited by the fact

that when we do see him, he's not going to make reference to our sin. He just wants to be with us. He wants us to be with him. So today is communion, and I can see them. They're all out there waving at me. And I want to paraphrase Psalms 33, too, as we get ready. How fully blessed is the person whose transgression is forgiven? How fully blessed is the person

whose sin is covered? How fully blessed is the person to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity? If you're a believer here and you've got your walk going right with the Lord, this communion time is a beautiful time if you're just fellowshipping with the Lord because you have unhindered fellowship with him. And you can take that communion and rejoice in the forgiveness that you have.

You have fully been blessed. If you haven't, if you have fallen into sin and your fellowship with God is broken, if God's hand of discipline is on you right now, this is a good time for you to confess your sin, to acknowledge your sin before God and agree with him about it and humbly turn to him so that he can deal with it. If you don't know Christ at all and you're here and you're just doing the Sunday morning thing because maybe that's what you've always done, but you've never actually come to Christ, this is a good time for you to come to him and realize and confess. To him that you're a sinner and thank God for loving you enough to send Jesus Christ to die on the cross for your sins and for Christ rising from the dead

so that you can live a new life in him. When you receive Christ as your Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit will take up residence inside your spirit and your spirit will be born again. The Holy Spirit will bear witness with your spirit and your spirit that you are a child of God. So kids, come on in. Come on in, guys.

And parents, if you want to stand up, if your kids can see you coming, that might help them.

I always go to the old folks' service on the first service. We don't get to see all these kids on the first service.

You guys ready to come down?

Oh, now or after? Oh, yes. I'm being reminded to remind you that after you get your communion cups, if you'd all stand so that way we could know when everybody's got their stuff, that everybody's got their stuff. And then we can do it. Jesus, Lord of heaven,

grace that you have given. Come on, let's go.

You have forgiven us. You sent your son to die on the cross for us. Our iniquity was laid on him on the cross. Our guilt was laid on him on the cross. And you have made us righteous in Christ. We are truly, fully blessed. As we take this communion, Lord, we thank you for Christ died on the cross for our sins. As we take this, Lord, we thank you for Christ died on the cross for our sins.

As we take this, Lord, we thank you for Christ died on the cross for our sins. We look forward to the day when we're going to drink it in fresh with you in the kingdom. And we just give you the praise and the glory now in Jesus name. Amen. You can partake. One more time. Father, I just lift this up to you and just ask that you would help those living waters

that you have placed inside of us to flow outside of us to touch other people. Help us to not become stagnant, but to allow your holy spirit to flow inside of us. help us to not become stagnant, but to allow your holy spirit to flow inside of us and touch other people. Thank you for the many things that you do for us. Let us not lose sight of the many blessings you have given us.

Help us just to yield our lives to you so that you can live your life through us and touch other people. We just want to glorify your name and we give you the praise in Jesus name. Amen. I'm going to be hanging around up front like I usually do when this is over. So if anybody has anything they need some prayer for, want to talk about something, I'm just going to be hanging out up front today.

So you guys have a good week.