The Joy Of Being Forgiven

The superscription calls this a maskil of David.! A maskil is a bit ambiguous, What does that tell us about Psalm 32?

Well, it tells us that though it may be categorized as a penitential psalm or categorized in some sense maybe as a lament, though I don't think this is a lament, in some sense as a praise, just fundamentally based on what David has given us here at the beginning, Psalm 32, the king calls the worshipers to meditate on the nature and the joy of being forgiven by God and then he instructs us on how to receive and continue in that joy of being forgiven.

That's essentially what this Psalm's about. David says, here's what it means to be forgiven by God. Here's how you need to meditate on this great truth. Here's how you can receive this great forgiveness and continue in it.

It's a psalm of instruction. It's a psalm of contemplation and impartation of wisdom from the king. And how is it that he accomplishes this?

Well, first he gives us something of his doctrine of forgiveness and this is born of his own experience. We see that in verses one to five and then he takes that doctrine, that experience of forgiveness and what he knows to be true of God and of God's mercy and then he applies it to us.

First in a praise and then in explicit exhortations. Now Psalm 32, it doesn't speak of the joy of forgiveness in abstract.

It's not forgiveness and mercy in theory. It's actually quite real. It's very personal as we read it here. Even more, it's offered to each and every one of us in the gospel.

This great joy and gladness and excitement that we've said cannot compare to anything else is offered to you. It's offered to me in the person, in the work of Jesus Christ and we can get there from Psalm 32.

And no matter how great your debt is, no matter how great your sin has been, we learn in Psalm 32 that you can have forgiveness from God, full forgiveness, and you can live in a blessed state of joy that David describes here.

This can be your song because of what we learn here in Psalm 32. Let's look first at David's experience of being forgiven.

We find this experience explained and expressed in verses one to five. We might think of this, as I said, as the doctrinal statement of forgiveness in David's life and in this Psalm.

He is the blessed man who has received this forgiveness from God. And that's why we say it's more than a theory. He's telling us something that he has actually personally experienced himself.

And it's through that experience that we're instructed on the nature and receipt of God's forgiveness. Let's just break it down. Three things I think are worth noting here in this doctrinal statement of forgiveness.

First, we find that true happiness comes from complete forgiveness. True happiness comes from complete forgiveness. Look at verses one and two. Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Now, we're familiar with this term blessed, but as it comes to the Psalms, we haven't seen it since the very beginning.

We haven't seen it since Psalm number one. And there in Psalm number one, true happiness belongs to the one who does not sin, but instead delights himself in the law of God, in the word of God.

You remember, perhaps you memorized it growing up. The blessed man, the happy man, all the happiness of the one who does not follow in the way of sinners, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord.

He's like a tree planted by the rivers of water. He gives us fruit in his season. It's a beautiful picture of the blessing of God on the righteous. In Psalm one, we have a target at which to aim, but the problem with Psalm one is that none of us hit that target.

It's a picture of sinlessness, a picture of perfect righteousness that each and every one of us have failed to hit.

So none of us then, in the context of Psalm one and the blessed man of Psalm one, none of us then can be truly happy because none of us is truly holy.

That's the problem. So it's of tremendous importance. It's of tremendous help that we discover another means of obtaining true happiness in Psalm 32.

And what we find is that the blessing, the happiness of the righteous one in Psalm one is freely given now to the forgiven one in Psalm 32.

Do you see they link there? The blessing of the righteous one in Psalm one is now given freely to the forgiven one in this Psalm.

And I want you to notice the nature of this forgiveness that brings this happiness and joy. It's not simply the pardon of a particular act. That's not what David is describing here.

It's a full pardon. A full pardon such that the transgressor now stands before God as if he's truly righteous.

As if he had actually met the conditions of someone. That's what David seems to be describing here. It's not just the Lord forgives you for this one thing.

No, it's he just forgives you. It's all clean. It's all wiped away. It's as if you had actually done what Psalm one demands.

And that comes through here in the three terms that David uses for his own moral failure. Notice the three. First, there's transgression. Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven.

Transgression, each of these terms has a particular nuance that's worth considering. Transgression is explicit rebellion against God and his law. It is a brazen crossing of a boundary.

Transgression is when we say, this is what God says. This is what God's word says. And I just don't care. Or I don't believe that it's good and that it's right.

Or I don't believe that God actually said it. I'm gonna do this instead. It's a brazen crossing of a boundary. Something each and every one of us has done. We have transgressions.

We have rebellion against our God. Well, then he uses another term in verse one. Not only is he blessed the one whose transgression is forgiven, but also whose sin is covered.

Well, what is the nuance of sin here? Sin is a wandering away from or a falling short of God's moral desires.

We see this maybe most clearly in Romans three, don't we? For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All have sinned, meaning all have fallen short of God's standard.

We have missed the mark of Psalm one. And yet we get to Psalm 32 and there's this blessing offered for having that failure covered, made clean.

Then there's this third term, iniquity in verse two. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity. Iniquity refers to an inner distortion or depravity that marks the sinner's nature.

It's moral corruption. It's transgression, an explicit rebellion against God. It's sin. It's a falling short of God's demands.

It's failing to hit the mark of God's desire. And then there's the iniquity. That's the part of you that's not so much based on action, but actually causes the action.

And it's the corruption of your nature. This iniquity that seems to be pervading your flesh. David says, all of this is forgiven.

It's covered. It's not counted against me. And therefore I am happy and blessed. And I have the joy of the Lord. It's not just the pardon of an act.

It's the forgiveness of the whole person. That's amazing. True happiness comes from complete forgiveness.

But then there's this other phrase here at the end of verse two. Just look at it. He gets to the end of the blessing and he said, this person, this blessed man, there is no deceit in his spirit in whose spirit there is no deceit.

What is this deceit? It's not a deception of God. It's not as if, not yet at least. It's not as if he is denying before God that he has done wrong. It's not as if he's trying to deceive God.

No, this is self-deception. This is self-deception that says, no, I don't actually have that kind of transgression that needs to be forgiven. I don't have that kind of sin that really demands this kind of concern.

Iniquity, moral corruption. No, I'm morally good. Basically good. Good person. Self-deception. John says in his letter in 1 John 1.8, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth isn't in us.

You see, there's a kind of person that will come to a passage like this and they just, they cannot relate whatsoever. They can't relate really to the blessing and to the joy that David describes in these first two verses.

They can't relate to the grief that we'll eventually get to in the next few verses. They come to this and this whole psalm is basically a non-starter. I have a friend a few years ago, a good friend, professing Christian friend, a few years ago finally told me, she said, I just don't, I don't think I've done anything that really deserves the kind of judgment that we keep talking about in church.

it's just not that bad. Grown up in church, says I'm a Christian, I follow Christ.

I just, I don't know that I've really done anything that bad to deserve this, this kind of judgment. There's a prevailing thought in our culture that if there is a God and if he's good, he will reward those who do their best and try their hardest.

Those who are good people, the Lord will be kind to them. He will reward them in the end if he's there and if he's good, that's how it will play out. And what they end up doing is rather than judging themselves by God's standard, they judge themselves by the standard of other people around them.

They say, well, I'm not this bad and I haven't done this thing. And maybe you would say there's some things that I haven't done well or certainly I'm not perfect, but it's not this kind of corruption, not this kind of transgression that deserves God's hand to be heavy upon me.

I mean, look, I'm not like these other people. I'm a good guy doing good things. Surely God will be pleased. Surely God will reward me in the end.

The problem is there's a fundamental flaw in their understanding of God's nature. let's try to correct that prevailing thought for just a moment. Rather than saying, if there's a God and if he's good, he will reward those who do their best and live a good life.

Maybe we shift that and say, okay, something more logical would go like this. If there's a God and if he's good, he will make sure that every wrong is punished justly.

doesn't that make more logical sense? Doesn't it make more logical sense that if there's a divine being and if he is perfect in his divinity and if he's good, meaning he's righteous and he always does the right thing and he always does the good thing, doesn't it follow logically that not that he will just let things go and reward those who really just work hard at it?

Doesn't it follow more logically that in his goodness, he would never let any wrong go unpunished because that would make him unjust, wouldn't it?

And we get to a passage like this and we see and we think about people in our lives and people that are around us and what is it that we find? We find that they've never really experienced the blessing of forgiveness because they've never actually come to terms with the fact that they need it.

they're self-deceived. But this blessing, this happiness, it only comes to the one in whose spirit there is no deceit.

They're not lying to themselves. Now David uses all of these terms here so that we might understand this, that this forgiveness from God is full and complete.

The truly happy man is the one who, though actually guilty, receives from God a full and complete pardon.

God counts none of his sins against him but credits him as if he were actually righteous. and then that begs another question and says, but doesn't that also make God unjust?

Isn't that saying that God just looks at our sin and just turns a blind eye to it? Well, no, that's not at all what God does. That's not at all what this forgiveness is.

No, it comes at a great cost. David's confidence here in this forgiveness. It comes from trusting God's promise to show mercy to those who believe.

But there's mystery here for David, isn't there? David is trusting a promise that's yet to be fulfilled. When we get to the New Testament, the mystery of God's mercy is revealed to us.

It's revealed to us in the person and the work of Jesus Christ who is the truly righteous one of someone. Now I want you to consider this. The Apostle Paul quotes these two verses directly in Romans chapter 4.

You don't have to turn there but you'll remember Romans chapter 4. Do you remember the argument that he's making there? He's arguing that we are justified and we stand righteous before God not on the basis of our works but on the basis of faith.

That we are justified by faith alone. That God counts faith as righteousness when we're trusting in him and trusting his promises. Now that's the argument Paul's making there and he's making it by saying that's not only true now but that's how it's always been and he goes all the way back to Abraham and he says consider Abraham before the law ever even comes Abraham is justified by God on the basis of his faith.

That's the argument that Paul's making there and in the middle of that argument he quotes these verses directly and he says just as David said blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven and whose sin is covered and against whom the Lord does not count his iniquity.

Quotes it directly. Why? To say that David was saying in Psalm 32 the same thing that he saw was true in Abraham's life and now he's applying in this doctrinal statement in Romans 4.

So that's the argument that he's making but that doesn't answer the question of how does that actually work. We get to the end of Romans chapter 4 and that's where Paul tells us how that actually works.

Let me read it to you. Romans 4 24 and 25 Paul says righteousness will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

righteousness will be counted to those who believe. That's justification by faith apart from any works but believe in what?

In the God who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. Well what's so significant about that? He continues because this Jesus was delivered up first for our trespasses.

Now we can begin to see the shape of how this works. How is it that we can go to Psalm 32 and see the blessedness of complete pardon and full forgiveness and not say God is unjust in this because he's just letting things go because he didn't let it go.

He just punished someone else for it. Jesus God's son perfectly fulfills the law that we've all broken.

and he is the righteous one of Psalm 1. He is the fulfillment of that blessed man and on the cross he bore the guilt of sinners in their place.

And God the Father credits our sin to Jesus so that he might take the righteousness of Jesus the perfect righteousness of Christ and credit it then to all who will believe.

But he doesn't stop there. He raises him from the dead. Why? To show his victory over death. Death had no claim on him.

He was truly righteous. And to prove the sufficiency of Christ's atonement on the cross to prove that what he did on the cross is actually enough for you.

And it's in this way that God can justly deal with sin while completely forgiving the sinner. Again Paul tells us this in Romans 3.

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and they're justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood.

That's such an important word isn't it? Those of you who have been Christians very long at all you know that's an important word. What does it mean? The satisfaction of God's wrath. God puts his own son forward to satisfy his wrath by the shedding of his blood on the cross.

Paul continues and this is what is to be received by faith. The forgiveness and justification comes by believing in this trusting in this and then he says this was to show God's righteousness that God isn't unjust.

It is to show God's righteousness so that he might be just in punishing sin and also the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus.

Isn't that amazing? We've sung about it again and again this morning already. Oh what a glorious exchange we sang just a few minutes ago.

He bore my sin I bear his righteousness. Oh what a glorious exchange. This is true happiness.

This is true happiness. It is to know that you are forgiven in Christ. David experiences this by looking forward in faith to God's promise being fulfilled in the coming king.

And he discovered that through faith he received complete forgiveness. Amazing. Now that was a long way to say true happiness comes from complete forgiveness. That's what we're dealing with here.

It's not just the pardon of a particular sin. It is the part of the whole person. That's what we're dealing with in this psalm. There's another thing we find here in verses 3 and 4 is this. The blessing of forgiveness follows grief of guilt.

The blessing of forgiveness it doesn't come in a vacuum. It follows a pattern. It follows grief. Grief that comes from acknowledging our guilt.

Look at 3 and 4. 4 is a key word here. It's a grounding statement. It means that David knows this is true in verses 1 and 2 because he's experienced this other thing in verses 3 and 4.

Notice what he says. For when I kept silent that is when I would not confess when I would not acknowledge my sin my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

Why? For day and night your hand God's hand was heavy upon me so that my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

If you were to come to my house right now you'd look out in my front yard and you would not be impressed. It's just all dead. Significant drought significant heat very little water it's dried up strength is gone its color is gone David says that's what this was like for me during this period of time when I was not acknowledging my sin and I was not acknowledging my failure before God his hand was heavy upon me my soul felt like the summer grass was hot it was dried up it had no strength it was weak and it's here that David describes how he came to understand the joy of being forgiven it begins with this tremendous grief we learn that you cannot experience the immense blessing of being forgiven until you have felt the grief of being convinced of your own guilt there was a time in David's life when he would not acknowledge this sin perhaps this is a reflection on the period of time after his great sin with Bathsheba perhaps some other sin we don't know he doesn't tell us that whatever it was there was a time when he would not confess he would not acknowledge and God caused him to feel miserable emotionally distraught this was a divinely purposed depression that came as a result of his sin

God's hand was heavy upon him so that his guilt was always before him it was eating away at his soul and here's the thing this was a great mercy from God it's a great mercy of God because it is in convicting us of our guilt that God graciously leads us to repentance this real sense of guilt is essential isn't it without it we will either refuse to confess our sins or our confession will be superficial reflecting mere remorse rather than true repentance just think of my friend I told you about here they are as an adult they grew up in the church as a kid they raised their hand they walked the aisle they filled out the card they got baptized said yeah I know Jesus I believe in Jesus I'm not sure why

I believe in Jesus because I never really felt like there was a need for me to have him do what he did that's really for the really bad people and I'm not really all that bad but I follow Jesus whatever whatever they can't possibly understand the true joy of the Christian life because they've never come to terms with the fact that they are actually truly guilty they've never felt that sense of God's hand being heavy upon them so their confession either doesn't happen because they just don't recognize that that they have real sin against God that needs to be dealt with or it's just superficial it's superficial it's yeah I'm supposed to feel bad about this so I'll I'll confess it to the Lord but there's no there's no real repentance that's happening in their lives what a terrible place to be it sounds a lot like Romans 1 where over and over

Paul tells us that there there were these people who were so dedicated to their sin that God just gives them over to it just gives them over to it we have a different thing here with David David has the mercy of God on his life through the heavy hand of God on his guilt you cannot truly repent until you've acknowledged your guilt and if you're unsure about that you should pray you should beg God help me know the guilt of my life help me know the sin that I've covered that's buried if it takes you putting your hand heavy on my life in order for me to know the true joy of knowing your forgiveness then Lord put your hand heavy on me bring me to this place have you ever experienced that sense of guilt before God that brings us to the third thing here true forgiveness is received through true repentance true forgiveness is received through true repentance so track with me here what

David's saying in these first five verses we're spending most of our time there we're gonna go quick through the second half but the truly happy person is the one who has been completely forgiven you can't understand the joy of that until you've been fully convinced of your guilt that's a divine work that happens God convicts us and he leads us to repentance and that's where we get to this point that that this forgiveness is received through true repentance look at verse five David says I acknowledged my sin to you I did not cover my iniquity I said I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and you forgave the iniquity of my sin now a sense of guilt it doesn't make any difference unless it drives you to repent in faith and that's what David shows us here now I want you to notice the terms he's using in verse five it's the same three terms that he uses in verses one and two isn't it he acknowledged his sin he uncovered his iniquity he confessed his transgression and why does he do that his point is that full forgiveness comes through full repentance

David holds nothing back in his confession and God holds nothing back in his forgiveness true forgiveness comes through true repentance now let's make sure we understand this the right way it doesn't mean that our aim is to be precise in our confession of sin as if failing to name them all will result in us remaining in a state of condemnation do you understand what I mean by that David isn't teaching us here to have a list of all of our sins and just work through the list in a prayer he says Lord I did this and I did this and I did this and I did this and you just check them off and as long as you hit all the things then God will forgive all the things but only forgive the things that you know that's not what David is teaching us here we need to get that right repentance isn't naming your sins it's acknowledging your guilt before God and trusting his mercy as you turn to obey him it's not about naming all the things you've ever done wrong and all the bad thoughts you've ever had and it's not about that it's about just recognizing that I'm a sinner

I am unworthy and I am guilty but I trust that God is merciful and I'm going to cling to his mercy and I'm going to trust his mercy and I'm going to turn to follow him and obey him with my life to love him as I ought to love him that's what David is describing here Christopher Ash says it this way I think this is helpful this is not confession in order to earn forgiveness as if by sufficient contrition we might earn God's mercy it's not what this is it is the outflow of faith in the God who justifies the ungodly it's a recognition that you are guilty but that he is kind and that he will show mercy to whomever will come to him for it now the astonishing thing about this verse is the last phrase and you forgave the iniquity of my sin that's quite simple isn't it but isn't it astonishingly simple in David's experience

God just forgave him no penance no place of purgatory that he will have to go to in order that whatever is left over in his unrighteousness will finally be fully sanctified so that he can go to there's no purgatory here there's no stipulation we confess your sin but then make sure you kiss the icon as well it's not here no let's wait and see if you really mean it God's forgiveness was immediate it was complete it was permanent is that not amazing you come to him and he just gives it to you it's not until we look at the cross that we can see what this forgiveness cost

Christ righteousness was so perfect his death so sufficient that God offers us full and complete forgiveness to all who will come and receive it by faith and that's it he requires nothing more of us because in Christ it truly is finished there is more significance in those three words cried out by our savior from the cross than we ever dare imagine it really is finished there's nothing left for you to do he's done it all he is sufficient and he will forgive if you will just come and believe that he'll forgive you it's amazing well that's

David's experience it's his we might say his doctrine of forgiveness here he then takes the rest of the psalm and he applies all of that we'll go through it quickly but want to make sure we give it the time that it needs at least the second thing that we see here in this application of these truths is we find in a praise in verse six and seven therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found surely in the rush of great waters they shall not reach him you are my hiding place you preserve me from trouble you surround me with shouts of deliverance and what's interesting about this is these verses are not addressed to us these verses are addressed to god this sounds like an exhortation it's not an exhortation yet this is a praise he's praising god for bringing salvation and refuge to his soul in the context of this psalm we would understand great waters in verse six and the troubles of verse seven to be the judgments of sin god has not let the judgments of his sin touch him because he's been forgiven he's preserved him from the consequences and punishment of his sin from that trouble being his hiding place so all of david's assurance here rest on the fact that god is merciful nowhere does he say i'm convinced of this because i i followed this this kind of ritual confession he doesn't say that it's all resting on the goodness of god here it's all resting on the character of god god is his hiding place he is his deliverer now what seems like an exhortation then in verse six is actually a praise david isn't actually necessarily commanding us to confess to god indeed he wants us to do that but in this phrase that's not that's not the the grammatical framework of this sentence he's not saying you must confess to god he's saying you can confess to god that's what's amazing about it it's an open invitation to receive this forgiveness this praise that tells us that verses one to five are not exclusive to david it's for all the godly he says in verse six godly here meaning those who will seek god in repentance and faith and he says let all the godly then because you are good and merciful and you offer complete forgiveness let all those who seek it come to you and find it while you may be found because you are the hiding place you preserve us from trouble you surround us with shouts of deliverance amazing now is the time that god can be found and david hopes that more will confess and receive this forgiveness and indeed more and more do confess and receive this forgiveness because he says god surrounds him with shouts of deliverance it's a picture of war victory in a battle except david isn't in a physical battle here he's surrounding him with other people who are shouting because they are the blessed forgiven ones god has delivered them from sin and from its punishment and he's glorying in that now here's my point in this section the joy of being forgiven is for you it's for you it's for me god is merciful he will be your deliverer and through christ he invites you to receive it and it is his great delight to provide it he does not delight in the destruction of the wicked but he delights

himself in mercy the scripture says but the implication of verse six is that there will come a time when his forgiveness cannot be found therefore let all the godly offer prayer to you at a time when you can be found meaning there will be a time when he can't be found so don't delay now is the time that's what paul says now is the time today is the day of salvation and god stands ready to forgive you if you will just come and receive it and then we get to the final section here where we actually do get to explicit exhortations in this application of truth we see the exhortation to those who are forgiven in verses 8 and 11 what's interesting here is that 8 to 11 mirror 1 to 5 so that in verse 5

David repented to receive forgiveness but notice what he does in 8 and 9 he counsels us to continue in that same pattern verse 8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go I will counsel you with my eye upon you don't be like a stubborn mule don't be like the horse or mule who does not have understanding and has to be curbed about with a bit and bridle or it won't stay near you here here he has in verse 5 he said I confessed my sin to the Lord and the Lord forgave me and now he's practically applying that to us and he's saying let me instruct you on something confess your sin continue in this don't be stubborn obey the Lord quickly confess when you fail in verses 3 and 4 remember David described the misery of his guilt but notice what he does to mirror that in verse sorrows of the wicked he reminds us but he sets that in contrast but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the

Lord he reminds us of the sorrows of sinners but the steadfast love of God that surrounds the faithful is amazing we often think of God's mercy and steadfast love as the end of a logical sequence I like the picture of this the surrounding of steadfast love it's not that steadfast love the steadfast love of God is at the end of the road and if you walk the right path down that road he will reward you with it it's more like here is an ocean of steadfast love and he just invites you to jump in I love that it surrounds us many are the sorrows of the wicked of those who are like their guilt but to the faithful the ones who do acknowledge their guilt and trust in the Lord it's like stepping into an ocean of his steadfast love it's everywhere they can't get away from it it's everywhere and then finally we see in verse 11 that the blessing of the forgiven one in verses one and two is now met with a call to worship for the forgiven ones in verse 11 be glad in the

Lord he says rejoice so righteous shout for joy all you upright in heart if nothing else perhaps this psalm is just a reminder that you have a reason to be glad and to shout for joy you are forgiven not just in part in full everything you have done everything you are doing everything you will do wiped clean by the blood of Jesus that's a reason to shout for joy and to be glad in the Lord that's why we say the blessing and the happiness of this psalm it can even compare to anything else that we might experience in this life and there is so much joy that the Lord allows us to experience in this life even on a day like today on Father's Day you fathers know the joy of your children in incredible ways.

And that's nothing compared to this. It's nothing compared to the mercy of God. You're forgiven. That should affect the way you worship Sunday by Sunday when you come in.

When you come in and sing a song like, but for the cross of Christ, or the battle and the blessing, or as we will hear in just a moment, bless the Lord, O my soul.

The way you sing that should be affected by this, that you're forgiven. The way you carry your life, even in hardships and in discouragement, ought to be affected by this, the fact that you're forgiven.

That God's mercy has been handed to you. Martin Lloyd-Jones, many of you know who that is. He used to say that a person could not understand the gospel until he understood the magnitude of his debt and the measure of the payment to satisfy it.

Meaning that if you came to my house, let's say you came to my house today and you got in my mailbox and you found a bill. I don't even know if bills come in the mail anymore, but if you found a bill there and you said, you know what, I'm gonna do Jared a favor, I'm gonna pay this bill for it.

Well, that would be great. But my reaction to that is really just based on the magnitude of the debt and what it costs you to pay it.

Maybe it's just a streaming bill, just a few dollars. And I might say, wow, that's very kind of you. You didn't have to do that and acknowledge it and move on. Be great, right? Probably won't think much about it thereafter, except it's kind of weird that you went through my mailbox and found my bills.

What if it's that crippling debt that I'm never gonna be able to get out of, no matter how hard I work, no matter how many changes I make in my life, it's just never gonna happen.

And you pay that one, but it's not because you've just got some spare change that you could deal with it, but it costs you everything to do it. That's a different kind of reaction you're gonna get from Jared on that day.

If you're struggling today, like my friend, to really understand the weight of your guilt and the weight of your sin, I think probably the problem is that you're spending too much time comparing yourself to other sinners.

That's not gonna help you. What you need to do is look at the cross and just ask, how great is my guilt to require that?

That God himself would have to take on flesh and suffer in that way so that I could be forgiven.

It's only then that we'll really begin to understand what's at the heart of the gospel. What God's steadfast love really is like.

What it cost Christ to provide this forgiveness and the fullness of this forgiveness that he now offers. If we just look at the cross, the answers are there.

The good news is that Christ has indeed paid all our debt and God offers this complete forgiveness to us and I know most of you know that.

you're a blessed man today if you stand forgiven and you ought to be glad in the Lord and shout for joy and then maybe go tell somebody else that they can be blessed too because now is the time and whoever will come to him he will not cast away.

Let's pray.