Blessed Are The Forgiven

Please take your Bibles and open them up this morning to the book of Psalms. The book of Psalms in our chapter this morning is Psalm chapter 32.

! We're continuing our series this summer through the book of Psalms. We've done that in the past, this is year four, right? So ten at a time, and we're working our way through the thirties this summer.

So we've come to chapter 32. And when you've found that, if you would please, let's stand in honor of the reading of God's Word this morning. Psalm chapter 32. David writes, 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. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity.

I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. And you forgave the iniquity of my sin. 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 a hiding place for me. You preserve me from trouble. You surround me with shouts of deliverance.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.

Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, O you upright in heart.

Grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of the Lord endures forever. Would you bow and pray with me once more? Father, we pray, God, would you empower the preaching of your word by the power of your spirit for the good of your people.

Lord, would we grasp the depth and the glory of this great blessing of having our sins forgiven. Would we rejoice in what you've done for us in Christ this morning. We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. You may be seated. There is a Viking legend of a man named Orm Sterolfsen that I read recently.

Orm made Viking history in Norway about a thousand years ago when he and the Earl and several other Vikings went to cut down a large tree in order to create the giant ship mast of the Viking ship.

If you can imagine a Viking ship in your mind, you probably recognize that long protruding ship mast coming off the front of the ship. That's called the Ormren Lange, which translated means the long serpent.

And it is a giant tree whittled down. Apparently this tree was 32 feet long. It weighed 1,433 pounds. And so naturally the Earl wanted to see, well, how many Viking men does it take to pick up this tree?

And he had 60 go. And together they lifted it up and they put it on their shoulders. But then two by two, they filtered off the edges until only Orm was left right there in the middle, bearing the entire weight all by himself.

And you can imagine how heavy that must have felt. 1,433 pounds on his shoulders. It says that Orm was able to hold it for a minute, which is impressive enough.

But then he decided that he was going to try and take some steps forward and walk bearing this heavy burden on his back. And so the legend says that Orm took three steps forward holding this giant beam on his back until finally after step number three, the weight became too much.

And Orm broke his back under the burden and was never the same again. Would it surprise you if I told you this morning that I have carried a heavier weight than that?

And that I've carried it for much longer than three steps, four steps, five steps, that in fact I have carried that weight for years of my life going through trying to put one step in front of the next and live my life carrying this burden on my back?

Would it surprise you if I told you that probably some of you in this room this morning are carrying this heavy burden right now? You brought it into here with you this morning. And of course the weight that I'm talking about, the weight that Psalm chapter 32 is talking about this morning, is the crushing heavy burden of our sin.

King David in our passage this morning, he admits that even he has carried this heavy burden on his back before. And he tried to live with it. He tried to put one step in front of the next.

He tried to keep walking forward until by God's grace, he realized that he's not strong enough to bear this burden. None of us are. And so by God's grace, he called out to the Lord and experienced the blessing of having that weight removed.

This is the main message of Psalm chapter 32 this morning. It's this, the greatest blessing in the world is the forgiveness of sins. The greatest blessing in the world is the removal off of our back of the great burden, the great weight of our sin.

It's the transfer of that guilt onto someone somewhere else. And the good news of the gospel is that this blessing is available for any sinner, for each and every one of us in Jesus Christ.

So let's take a look at Psalm 32 together this morning. And as we do, we'll consider three parts this morning. We're going to consider the greatest blessing in the world in three parts.

This will be our outline if you're taking notes. It'll help you follow along. First, we see true blessing explained. True blessing explained.

Here in verses 1 and 2, we get to see David's explanation of true blessing. Look there with me, verses 1 and 2. And the first thing that we should notice here is the good news that David believes real, genuine, lasting blessing is possible.

Real, genuine, lasting blessing is actually out there for us to be, to be, for it to be experienced, for it to be known, for it to be received.

And we need to be reminded of this because it doesn't always feel that way, does it? And we live in a world where, to put it simply, right, bad things happen, right?

And we live in a world where the world is not as it should be. You go out to enjoy the sun and guess what? It burns you. And you go to sit out on your front porch at night and guess what? The no-see-ums come and they bite you.

But it's often more serious than that, right? We live in a world where sometimes we struggle financially, sometimes we struggle mentally, sometimes we struggle emotionally.

We live in a world where sickness is a thing and loved ones get sick. Sometimes we live in a world where we experience the grief and the loss of loved ones.

And if we're not careful as we look around at all the hard things, all the hardship in the world that we live in, we can easily let ourselves think that real blessing is not really possible.

That's just a pipe dream that those religious people talk about, right? It's not real. David here says, yes, it is. It is real.

In fact, he starts this psalm with the word blessed. And that word, it can also be translated happy. It's the first time since Psalm 1 that that word has appeared in the Psalter.

It's been 31 other psalms until we finally return to this idea of blessing. And you'll notice as we keep going, that term, that idea, keeps coming up again and again and again and again.

And here he repeats it twice. He's doubling down here. Blessed, happy is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity.

He says, that is where true blessing can be found. But that blessing, here's the bad news. It requires that we grasp the depth of our sin.

Before we can get to the good news and really understand what this blessing is, we have to first grasp the bad news. I want you to look at how David describes our sin here in the first two verses.

David uses three terms here to give us a full picture of our sin. Look there with me. He says, we are guilty of transgression. What's that? That's rebellion.

That is high treason against God, the King of Kings. He says, we are guilty, all of us, we are guilty of sin. We've all fallen short of the glory of God.

He says, all of us, we're all guilty of iniquity. That's corruption. We're corrupted. Everything in us is twisted up and polluted. We are not as we ought to be.

These three terms are the full picture here. These three terms are the most common three terms used in the Old Testament for our sin. In fact, all three terms show up together in another place in the Old Testament, Leviticus 16, verse 21, which, if you want me to describe that to you, this is where Aaron is instructed to lay both of his hands on the head of a live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel and all their transgressions, all their sins, and he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness.

This is what we call expiation. It's a big word, but all it means is the full wickedness of the people is placed upon this goat and then he is sent out and all of their full sinfulness, all the fullness of their wickedness is sent out with that goat out of the camp and into the wilderness.

I think David has that picture in mind here as he's writing this psalm. David uses these same three terms to give us a full picture of our depravity.

He says, we are all guilty of sin, we are all guilty of iniquity, we are all guilty of transgression, and so our greatest need is for someone to remove that from us and get it as far away as the east is from the west.

Do you see that as your greatest need? when you read these terms, do you see a reflection of your own heart here? If not, if you read this and you're thinking of someone else, you may be guilty of what David says in verse 2 where he says, in whose spirit there is no deceit, you may be guilty of deceiving yourself into thinking that you're better off than you really are.

1 John 1.8, we just read it this morning, tells us, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. This is what David's talking about here in verse 2.

Again, blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit, meaning, we're not trying to pretend to God, we're not trying to pretend to ourselves, we're not trying to pretend to one another that we're better off than we really are.

David says that there is real and lasting blessing available for sinners of all kinds, transgressors, sinners, those who are riddled with iniquity.

How? Stop deceiving yourself. Acknowledge your sin before God, confess your sin to the Lord, and experience the grace and blessing of forgiveness.

forgiveness. David has experienced this incredible blessing. David, we know David is a sinner, right? And we don't know the full back story of the exact sin that led him to write this psalm, but we do know just reading the story of David, David was a great sinner, right?

I mean, this is David who stole another man's wife while he was off fighting David's war, who took her, impregnated her, and then had her husband killed to cover it up.

And David knows all about great sin, but here, in this psalm, he's telling us he knows all about a great God who forgives great sinners. In fact, look at this.

This three-fold picture of our sin is met here with a three-fold response of God's grace. I love this. Look at this. David's transgression, forgiven. David's sin, covered.

David's iniquity is not counted against him. This is a blessing that David's describing for us this morning. The glorious good news of the gospel is this, that as great and as deep as our sin is, and it is great, our God and His grace towards sinners is even greater.

David knows what it's like to have all of his sin, all of his transgression, all of his iniquity removed from off of his shoulders. I'll give you another important term here. This is what it means to be justified.

To be justified. Another weighty theological term. You know what it means? Counted righteous in the sight of God. Every religion seeks to answer that question.

How can a sinner be made right with God? And every other religion gives you a ladder to climb your way up to Him. Only the gospel of God's grace says, you can't bear the weight, I will take it off your back for you.

In fact, the Apostle Paul quotes this psalm in Romans chapter 4 to prove that very point, to prove his argument, that there is one way for sinners to be made right, declared righteous, justified before the sight of a holy God.

One way. And it's this. Sinners can be counted righteous in the sight of God simply by confessing your sin and putting your faith in Jesus Christ.

This is King David's explanation of true blessing. And church, it is the greatest blessing in the world. Amen? Do you grasp this?

Do you share David's understanding of true blessing? I hope you do. But you should know that's only one aspect of this. And our second point, we see that David has personally experienced this great blessing.

Second, we see true blessing experienced. And we see this in verses 3 through 5. Here in 3 through 5, we see the king's personal experience of true blessing.

This is not just theory for him. It's not just like classroom knowledge. This is deeply personal for David. And we see this personal experience here in two parts.

There's a before in verses 3 and 4 and then there's an after in verse 5. You know, it's interesting when I read about that Viking legend, I actually learned that that record was broken in 2015.

About 11 years ago, a guy named Hafthor Bjornsson, maybe you've heard of him, got up under a 1,433 pound tree and I watched the video, you can look it up, pull it up on YouTube, watch it later.

and Hafthor Bjornsson took five baby steps forward with this incredible burden on his back. It's just incredibly impressive. But I watched the video and I'm telling you, as he did it, that man looked miserable.

He looked like he was about to pop. His face was red, his neck was, the veins were bulging, he looked terrible until the weight came off of his shoulders.

And then there was rejoicing and celebrating and cheering and everyone was rejoicing with him. That's exactly what's happening here with David. We see this clear before and after here in our psalm.

Verses 3 and 4 give us a picture of the before. This is David's agony of not confessing his sin. This is David still holding the weight on his back. David says, when I kept silent, my bones wasted away.

He's falling apart. Ironically, because he's silent, he says he's groaning all day long. He's miserable. And we see a connection here with a psalm that was preached last week.

Psalm 31, verse 10. There he said, his life is spent in sorrow. His strength fails because of his iniquity. His bones waste away.

Bones are like his inner self. It's not just physical. This is all encompassing for David. He says his strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

I mean, go outside. My phone says there's a heat advisory today. I told you about my trip to Ghana last month, how hot it was there, 107 degrees.

You know, every single day in Ghana, we would leave the house and drive by this giant lake right there, right in the neighborhood, except the thing was there was no water. It had been entirely dried up.

You look at all the animals that walk by, they looked entirely dried up. And by the end of the day, the long day of working and teaching there, my strength was entirely dried up as by the heat of summer.

David says that's what it's like to hold on to his sin. All of his strength, emotionally, physically, mentally, especially spiritually, is all dried up.

He's got nothing left. Why? Because ultimately, he says, verse 4, God's hand was heavy against him. You see that in verse 4?

Day and night, your hand, God, your hand was heavy upon me. Now stop right there for a minute. Isn't that mean of God?

God? Now I thought God was supposed to help you when you're spiritually dry, right? I thought God was there to be a help and a lifeline and get you out of distress.

I mean, isn't God just supposed to do nice things for us, right, and help us out when we need them? What in the world is going on here? David says God's hand was heavy upon him.

Why would he do this? We need to know that God in his mercy will sometimes allow his people to feel the crushing weight of our sin.

That is uncomfortable and we don't enjoy it. But this is mercy from the Lord. God lets David tremble and shake under that heavy weight.

He lets him sweat. He lets him feel like it's about to fall down and crush him. Why? Why? So that he'll realize this is far too heavy for me.

I can't hold this weight. I'm not strong enough to hold it. So that he'll cry out to the Lord for help because the fact is you will not cry out for help until you've come to the end of your own strength.

death. You will not cry out to the Lord until you realize that only he can remove this burden from you. That's exactly what happens here in verse 5.

Look there with me. This is the after here in verse 5. He was silent but now finally at last he confesses his sin to the Lord and he does so with a threefold confession.

Look there. He says my sin I acknowledge my sin to you. My iniquity I did not cover my iniquity. Why? I can't cover my iniquity only you can cover it.

He says my transgressions I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. This is a full and total complete confession. David's not holding anything back.

He lets God hold all of the weight and I have to ask you friend have you ever spoken with God like this? have you ever confessed your sin in full to the Lord?

And not just broad strokes in general. I'm sorry let's move on. I mean have you ever gotten alone with God taken full inventory of all the ways that you've fallen short as far as your mind can reach.

Asked him to show you God uncover even hidden sins in my heart that I might bring them before you. Have you ever given full account of your sin to the Lord and confessed the fullness of your sin, the fullness of your iniquity, the fullness of your transgressions to him?

If not then friend you are missing out on the greatest blessing in the world. Maybe one reason that we don't do this is because we think in some way maybe God doesn't want to hear it.

Maybe we just think God in some way he's tired of dealing with repeat offenders like me. God doesn't want to hear that. We tend to think that way don't we? But I would argue if we think that way about God we're not thinking about the God of the Bible.

And if we think that way about God if we think that God is harsh towards sinners that he's unforgiving that he's reluctant in any way to hear us and to cleanse us and to forgive us guess what?

We have created a God after our own image as a figment of our imagination. The God of the Bible praise God is not like us.

Just notice what happens here when David confesses his sin. It's so simple here but it's my favorite part of the song. He says I will confess my transgressions to the Lord and build up.

I drum roll how is God going to respond? Will he be angry? Will he chide? Will he give a lecture here? What's he going to do? And you forgave the iniquity of my sin.

What? Just like that? Is that easy really? Are you serious? No terms and conditions? No delay?

No lecture? No. Just quick immediate prompt forgiveness of sins. makes you wonder what took him so long to confess?

But church what takes us so long to go and confess our sins to the Lord? Do you realize that the same immediate forgiveness paid in full atonement for your sin, covering of all your transgressions, removal of all of your burden?

That is available to the very worst of sinners right now if you would simply confess your sin and come to the Lord in faith. If we confess our sins, 1 John 1 9, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

It really is that simple. David the king knows that this is the greatest blessing in the world. He has personally experienced it and so third what we see in our third and final point this morning is that he desires nothing more than for all his people to know and experience this blessing as well.

Which is what we see here in verses 6 through 8. Third we see true blessing extended. Look there to verse 6. The king's attention turns from himself now.

He is thinking about his people. He calls them. He says, Therefore in light of all of this great blessing that is available to you, therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you, the Lord, at a time when you may be found.

Surely in the rush of great waters they shall not reach him. You are a hiding place for me. You preserve me from trouble. You see the king's desire, the king's burden here is for all his people to know this blessing.

And he knows that this need is so great and it is so urgent that the people must call out to the Lord right now without delay. Why?

Because now is the time when this blessing can be had. He says now is the time when the Lord may be found. The rush of great waters of God's judgment will come quickly and suddenly just like in the time of Noah's flood and in that day this window of opportunity to find this blessing of forgiveness, that window will be closed shut.

There will be no opportunity to repent. The time of God's offer of forgiveness forgiveness is now. A couple of weeks ago we had Chad come and preach for us in God's providence.

That was not what we had planned but that was what he had planned. And he referenced a sermon from Charles Spurgeon called Now. And some of you, several of you told me that that was meaningful for you and some of you even looked it up and sent me a further explanation of that sermon.

I'm going to quote it for you. Spurgeon says, the great mischief of the most of men is that they procrastinate. It is not that they resolved to be damned but that they resolved to be saved tomorrow.

It's not that they reject Christ forever but they reject Christ today. Here comes the beauty of my text. As a sinner under the gospel I pray thee to recollect that now is the accepted time.

The most of my unconverted hearers do not believe this. I know what you're saying. You say, I've had a great many thoughts about religion but why does thou not believe in Christ now?

Well, you say, I'll endeavor to think seriously of it but what will be the result of your thinking? After you've thought ever so much, do you imagine you're going to think your way into salvation?

If the command were think and be saved, I would cheerfully allow you a month's thinking. But the command is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and now is the accepted time.

David says, sinner, come now. Seek him now. The doors of the ark are open now but soon they will be shut.

God, his call to confess your sin to him is urgent. And look what David says happens when you do. He says, you surround me with shouts of deliverance.

I love when we get to celebrate a baptism. We're going to get to do that in a few weeks, Lord willing. And we get to hear someone's testimony how by the grace of God they saw the depth of their sin and they saw their need for a Savior.

They recognize they couldn't lift that weight anymore and so they call out to Christ for grace of salvation and then they go down into the waters and they come up. They're buried with him in baptism.

They're raised to walk in newness of life and then as they come up, what happens? What happens out here on the lawn, see we bang? There is cheering and celebrating.

There are big wet hugs and there's a feast afterwards. We surround them with shouts of deliverance. That's how it's meant to be.

David longs to see all his people know this blessing. And so he says, verse 8, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.

I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Don't be like a horse horse or a mule without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle or it will not stay near you.

This is the burden of the king for his people. But do you realize, church, this is also the burden of your pastors for you? Sometimes, as a pastor, I can say that I know how David feels.

Week after week, we hold out to you the greatest blessing in the world. And sometimes we see our people walking down some path that we know is not good, we know it's not satisfying for them.

Sometimes we know, we see non-believers here and reject this offer of the gospel every single week. And we just want to get you to come and take it.

Would you just rest in this blessing of God's grace for you in Christ? Would you just receive this greatest? Nothing else will satisfy like this. Would you please just come?

We want to just curb you with bit and bridle and make you come, but we can't. Only by the power of the Spirit can He break you and show you your weakness and drive you to His strength.

But that's our burden for you. And that's the burden of godly parents for their children. I know you pray for them, you pray for safety, for their lives, for their jobs, just for them to be blessed in every way.

But above all else, the burden of godly parents for your children is that they would know this blessing of forgiveness of sins. This is the greatest way we can bless our community, church.

We can bless this community of all and all and Mount Pleasant and Hugee and McClellanville. We're in a lot of places. We can bless those communities in a lot of different ways, but the number one way we can bless these communities, you know what it is?

It's to make certain that they have heard this invitation to come and have their sins forgiven in Christ. This is the blessing and the burden of the king for his people.

But ultimately, church, I hope you see, this is the burden of Christ Jesus himself for his people. David's desire for his people to know this blessing anticipates Jesus' desire, the desire of the true king for all of his people to know this blessing.

Jesus understands true blessing the same way David does. Jesus understands his explanation of true blessing is the forgiveness of sins, that we may be made right with the holy God.

And Jesus never experienced that blessing by his own right. He never sinned, so he never needed the forgiveness of his sins, but yet he was made sin for us. Jesus came so that you, sinner, may know the blessing of forgiveness and be reconciled to God through his blood.

Jesus' mission was that sinners like us would know true and lasting blessing. He came to extend this blessing to us. Purchased by his own blood, he is the one upon whom the Lord God himself has placed all of the sin, all of the iniquity, all of the transgression of his people, so that by faith in him, all of our burden is removed as far as the east is from the west.

Have you experienced this blessing by faith in Christ? If not, then friend, would you consider the two paths ahead of you?

The psalm ends here with a reflection and an application for us. Here in verse 10, David reflects on the two very different paths ahead of him and his people, but in fact, ahead of all of us this morning.

He says, many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord. Do you see those two paths?

David has known the sorrow of holding on to his sin. I have known it. I have known the crushing weight of holding on to my sin, but now by God's grace, David and I have something in common, church.

God has lifted the weight, and in Christ I am surrounded by the steadfast love of the Lord for me. Do you know this blessing? If not, then friend, what would keep you from calling out to the Lord in faith right now?

Maybe for the first time, but even so, even as we've been walking with the Lord for a long time, Christian, I know there's still the temptation to put that weight back on your shoulders, right?

To carry this weight of your sin. Maybe there's some sin lingering in your life even now that you need to just take a moment this afternoon or even right now to confess to the Lord.

He urges you to come and receive this blessing of forgiveness. And when you do, David makes it clear how we ought to respond.

Look at this, verse 11. This threefold picture of our sin that was met with a threefold covering of God's grace now results in a threefold response of joy.

Look at there. He says, be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

Be glad and rejoice and shout. That's the response of someone whose burden has been lifted. You all are probably familiar with John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.

It's an allegory of the Christian's experience in this life journeying to the celestial city. And if you know the story, you know that the whole time Christian is weighed down by this heavy burden on his back.

And at times it's so heavy on him that he can hardly even move. I love the scene that he paints. I'm going to read it for you. When Christian finally comes to the foot of the cross, he says, now I saw in my dream that the highway up which Christian was to go was fenced on either side with the wall.

And that wall was called salvation up this way. Therefore, it had burdened Christian run, but not without great difficulty because of the load on his back. He ran thus till he came at a place somewhat ascending and upon that place stood across.

And a little below in the bottom, a grave. So I saw in my dream that just as Christian came up with the cross, his burden loosed from off his shoulders and fell off from his back and began to tumble and so continued to do till it came to the mouth of the grave where it fell in and I saw it no more.

Then was Christian glad and lightsome and said with a merry heart, he has given me rest by his sorrow and life by his death. Then he stood still a while and to look and wonder for it was very surprising to him that the sight of the cross should thus ease him of his burden.

He looked therefore and looked again, even till the springs that were in his head sent the waters down his cheeks. Now, as he stood looking and weeping, behold, three shining ones came to him and saluted to him with peace be to thee.

So the first said to him, thy sins be forgiven thee. And the second stripped him of his rags and clothed him with a change of raiment. And the third also set a mark on his forehead and gave him a roll with a seal upon it, which he bid him look on as he ran and that he should give it in at the celestial gate.

And so they went their way. Then Christian gave three leaps for joy and went on singing. Thus far did I come laden with sin, nor could I ease the grief I was in.

Till I came hither, what a place is this? Must hear be the beginning of my bliss. Must hear the burden fall off my back. Must hear the strings that bound it to me crack.

Blessed cross, blessed grave, blessed rather be the man that was put to shame for me. Friend, if you are burdened by sin, crushed under a weight that you cannot lift, the good news of the gospel is that Jesus is strong enough to bear your burden.

In fact, he has. Christ has borne the full weight of our sin. Christ has suffered and died under the rush of the great waters of God's judgment.

Judgment that he did not deserve. Judgment that we deserve. He has lifted our burden from off of our backs, placed it upon his, and risen from the grave in victory, never to die again.

So that now he stands to offer forgiveness and true blessing to any who would come. Father, the only right response to this is to rejoice, God, in the great blessing of the forgiveness of our sins.

And to bring them freely and quickly to you, knowing, God, that you stand ready and willing to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Father, even as we stand to sing, God, my sin or the bliss of this glorious thought, my sin, not in part, but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more.

Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.