1st John chapter 1 verse 5 to chapter 2 verse 2 it's page 1225
this is the message we have heard from him and declare to you god is light in him there is no
darkness at all if we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness we lie and do
not live by the truth but if we walk in light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one
another and the blood of jesus his son purifies us from all sin if we claim to be without sin
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us if we confess our sins he is faithful and just
and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness if we claim we have not sinned
we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives my dear children i write this
to you so that you will not sin but if anybody does sin we have one who speaks to the father in our
defense jesus christ the righteous one he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins and not only for
ours but also for the sins of the whole world okay so next reading from um sam 32 i don't have a page number
so i'll be called it
560
okay
sam 32 blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven whose sins are covered blessed is the man
whose sin the lord does not count against him and in whose spirit is no is in no deceit
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 soft as in the heat of summer then i acknowledged my sin to you
and did not cover up my iniquity i said i will confess my turned transgressions to the lord
and you forgave the guilt of my sin therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be
found surely when the mighty waters rise they will not reach him you are my hiding place you will
protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance i will instruct you and teach you in
the way you should go i will counsel you and watch over you do not be like the horse or the mule which
have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you
many are the woes of the wicked but the lord's unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him
rejoice in the lord and be glad you righteous sing all you who are upright in heart
thanksgiving peter's going to come and speak to us now and apparently johnny thinks that the only
things worth noting about peter are that he's originally from tipperary he now lives in cork
um as a monster staff worker with ice and he's married to maive and i'd like to add that peter's so
much more than all of those things he's also um a tipperary man but he's probably quite nervous about
today's match against waterford where's it in the bag and i'm gonna keep on you in the bag as well
thanks for thanks for having me sharing it
good morning everybody
yep um as rightly noted my name is peter originally from feathered
in county tipperary which is a very important point uh married to the beautiful maive for
uh a year and a month and a bit um yeah so we're looking at sam 32 this morning i was thinking as we
were standing up and sitting down earlier on it's interesting how our body language can uh just
display something of what we're thinking or what we're feeling in our hearts um and i think for this
um probably initially the body language is certainly one of kneeling um and then it goes on to one of
standing or rejoicing i'm not going to ask you to kneel i know some of you have babies in your
hands and things like that so uh that wouldn't be appropriate um yeah i'd just like to ask as well
does does everybody know who tiger woods is vaguely yeah okay cool well in 1996 earl woods who is tiger
woods and his dad said of his 21 year old son listen to this now tiger will do more than any other
man in history to change the course of humanity when i found that quote i was just like wow
this is gold for sermon material it didn't take so it takes so long to read actually though through
all of tiger's uh achievements on and off the golf course um that i had to cut it out it'd take just
too long to read through it all so you begin to wonder if his dad's prophecy is coming through to a
certain extent and he is an amazing god for probably the best of all time and through the likes of his
tiger woods foundation uh he raises a huge amount of money for charity he's married to ellen who's a
former swedish model with whom he has two children however in recent times you may have heard that tiger
has admitted to having a string of extramarital affairs uh offering the following reasoning i convinced
myself that normal rules didn't apply i thought only about myself i thought i could get away with
whatever i wanted to i felt i was entitled i suppose it's easy um to look at tiger and to look at others
and judge them but the truth of the matter is that we've all been there haven't we we may not be the
most successful sportsmen in history even though sometimes a thursday night soccer as i rack up goal
after goal i just wonder uh we may not be all um part of multi-million pound sponsorship deals
um we may not have had uh affairs outside of marriage but we've all been there we've either done
things that would have shocked us in clear conscience or we've not done things that we should have done
and then even when we do things right we get all proud about ourselves and think that we're great
like tiger we've covered our sins in the hope they wouldn't be uncovered we've kept silent
and not confessed our transgressions like tiger we all know what it's like when we've had
a spirit of deceit when we've been trying to fool ourselves and others what tiger has done is
extremely serious many of the companies sponsoring tiger have either suspended or cancelled their support
of them all together resulting in the value of the companies falling and one economics professor
estimates that the loss caused to companies because of what tiger has done is between five and twelve
billion u.s dollars when you consider that the the outfall or the fallout of the islandic
um ash cloud was i think something between one and three billion dollars it kind of puts it in
perspective um but far more serious than the the financial cost is the emotional mental and spiritual
cost that has been accumulated and will continue which someone will have to pay for so he's called
this huge um cost to be put on his family on his wife imagine if he came home one day and his wife
ellen said to him tiger i know exactly what you've done but never again will i bring up your transgressions
to hurt you or make you feel guilty or remind you it's at huge cost to myself but i forgive you
wouldn't that be amazing wouldn't that be incredible
if tiger were to read the opening verses of sam 32 he would come across a mouth-watering prospect
that david sets before us this morning a person there in verse one whose transgressions are forgiven
whose sins are covered whose sin the lord does not count against them in verse two and in whose
spirit there is no deceit these two verses they're like a headline over the psalm and a headline that's
far more interesting than anything written in recent times in the tabloids or the broadsheet about tiger
how extraordinary it would be if ellen forgives tiger how much more so if god who is perfectly holy
forgives us how could this be
well as we've mentioned david writes verse one and two as a kind of a headline which grabs our attention
but in verses three to five he brings us back in time to understand how verses one and two came about
we shall see something of how david got to this point and how if at all we can share in the same
experience of forgiveness i don't know if like me you enjoy watching wildlife documentaries on tv
um as mabel tell you and sometimes what they'll do especially in the good quality bbc ones is that
they'll have uh an image of a desert for example and they'll have it speeded up so the video will be
taken over months uh of time and they'll have this picture of this dead dull dry desert and just as
the rain starts to come in the desert uh bursts into life so it becomes full of life full of water
rich green grass um and the whole scene is amazing really it's just a total transformation
well it's like the total opposite here in verse four david's strength was sapped as if in the heat of
the hottest summer and we're left wondering has he taken a vow of silence in verse three when i kept
silent my bones wasted away but it seems there's something much more sinister going on as we look
at the results of his silence it's as if the spiritual air pressure is high while david was silent
you can see there in verse four god's hand was heavy upon him resulting in the groaning of verse
three his bones wasting away and his vitality or his strength being sapped as it says in verse four
well if verses three and four um describe the drought of summer verse five is surely the first sign
of much needed rain we'd already seen how blessed is the man in whom spirit is no deceit
and here in verse five david is explaining what it looks like when he stops trying to fool
or to deceive god because self-deception i suppose by its very nature is difficult to see in our lives
it obviously means that we're deceiving ourselves i think it'd be good to spend just a little bit of
time thinking about david's way out of the trap of self-deception and there are four things briefly
worth noticing firstly you'll see that david owns up to his sin in verse five i acknowledged i did not
cover i said i will confess so the onus was on david he doesn't blame other people he doesn't blame his
circumstances he doesn't blame god even though he had great opportunity as king to pawn off
responsibility to others he doesn't do that here and he also doesn't pretend that it isn't that big
a deal so secondly he doesn't water down the seriousness of what he has done it's thought that
this psalm is part of david's reflection on the sins of his scandalous affair with bathsheba
but he doesn't dilute it he doesn't pretend that it isn't that bad he calls it like it is he calls
sin sin thirdly he realizes that that it's primarily against god that he has sinned so
this this whole verse here david is talking to god he's communicating with god with the lord
and fourthly there's a serious intentionality to what david does in verse five he can see it in the
language i said i will confess so he makes up his mind to do this and i think i really think those
four things are a good pattern for us to learn to get out of this trap that we so often fall into
of self-deception firstly to own up to our sin secondly to not water down how serious it is
thirdly to realize that that it's against god who is holy that we've primarily sinned
and fourthly to be intentional to make a decision and follow through on the confession no matter what
so in very stark contrast to the hiding and the cover-ups of verse three and four david here
acknowledges his sin to god he doesn't hide his iniquity and he says i will confess my transgressions
to the lord now the tiger has confessed and his wife ellen to put it mildly can withdraw her love from him
she can pour out her anger on him she can take his fortune and his children and she can sell her story
to the media if she likes or she can forgive him she can bear the cost of that forgiveness herself
you see the person we have offended the person to whom we confess our sins has the right and the
ability to become our savior or our destroyer so they can accept or reject our confession it's a bit
unnerving when you think about it not that i'm taking pity on politicians but it's no wonder in the
doll when politicians have to be before the opposition parties and they're sometimes so reluctant
to admit that they were wrong it's no wonder as children before our parents how we always blamed
our siblings and didn't admit our own wrongdoing it's no wonder breaths i'm sure were held as tiger
finally admitted to his transgressions how will the offended party react what will they say what will
they do in the case of hand in this psalm here with david and god it's even more tense because we know god to be holy and totally opposed to sin
it's god's hand which is heavy upon david back in verse four god is already showing his holy opposition to sin
by sapping david's strength by david's bones wasting away etc and so we wonder if david confesses sin
excuse me if david confesses sin surely god will destroy him altogether will withdraw his love
will pour out his anger destroy david altogether
what's been going on up to this point is that david has been trying to bear the cost of the particular
sins in view
it is by those same means so what we see back in verses three and four it's by those means that god
has been pressing david to confess to come clean with god so that he would be forgiven
or in other words so that god himself might bear the cost of david's sin rather than david being destroyed
by trying to bear the cost himself
well how does god bear the cost of david's sin we might ask
and the simple answer is that god bears the cost of david's sin in the cross of christ
god the son becomes man so that we might so that he might associate with mankind with david
he willingly lays down his life for david on the cross as god the father pours out the wrath that
david deserved on god the son jesus bones wasted away because of david's sin jesus groaned because of
david's sin god's hand was heavy upon jesus and his strength was sapped to the point of death
for david's sin
as paul tells us in second corinthians god made jesus who had no sin to be sin
or in this case god made jesus who had no sin to be sin for david
so that in jesus david might become the righteousness of god
so rather than withdrawing his love for david and pouring out his anger on him
god father son and spirit shows his love for david by diverting his anger to jesus on the cross
who laid down his life for david god bears the cost as the father gives up his only son
as the son becomes man and dies the death of a criminal
as the son bears the outpouring of the father's wrath
and the love of the father is withdrawn from him
it's for that reason and that reason alone that the beautiful words
at the end of verse five are true
god forgave the guilt of david's sin
as augustine said the word is scarcely in his mouth
before the wound is healed
you see david has realized how unnecessary it is
for him to be experiencing the things of verse three and four
because jesus has already experienced those things fully
to their limit and in their most awful sense on the cross
and so david and us and we are brought back
to the happy man of verses one and two
when david stopped trying to cover up his sin
god really covers it up
through christ
oh what joy for those whose disobedience is forgiven
whose sin is put out of sight
yes what joy for those whose record
the lord has cleared of guilt
whose lives are lived in complete honesty
oh is that embarrassing moment when the priest takes his stuff of water
as we've been reading this morning the question naturally arises
how much do we relate to david here
how much or how much should we relate to it
well david gives us an amazing answer in verse six
he says therefore
or in other words because of the reasons i've just outlined
let everyone who is godly pray to you
or pray to god
while he may be found
did david have saving faith prior to the experience of this psalm
i would say he did
what he's reminded of in this psalm though
as we need to be reminded
is that this honest confession of sin
is something that's an ongoing part and parcel
of life as a christian
as we heard already
if we say we have no sin
we deceive ourselves
while we're in this fallen world
the battle rages on
sin still wields its power
the battle rages on
there's a warning from david in verse six
god is truly patient with us
but we shouldn't take this for granted
perhaps this morning there's something in our lives
in our minds even
that's eating us up
that's wasting our bones
and we're avoiding god
sometimes it's easy to be in the midst
of sunday morning worship
and to be totally avoiding god
i've been there myself
this psalm warns us that in a flood of great waters
we shall not come near him
in other words there will come a time
when it will be too late
when we have covered it up too often
and for too long
we should realize that not only
will this prayer be often on our lips
as christians
but with great urgency as well
in a time when god may be found
but also be encouraged
we should be encouraged
by our merciful god
that presses us
to be honest with him
and not cover this matter
for the christian the cross of christ
plunges deeper
than the depths of our sins
and surely the delight that we will see
in the following verses
should inspire us
to come clean with god
and not to cover our sins
the joy we see in verse 7
it's a most delicious
a most immediate thing for the christian
who has like david said
i will confess my transgressions to the lord
god who before was pressing down on us
becomes our hiding place
becomes the one who will preserve us from trouble
the one who will surround us
with songs of deliverance
we're told in the book of revelation
it's a most important thing for the christian the people will hide themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains and will say to the mountains and rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb
it is true that we need a hiding place from god's wrath
but the question is
are we hiding in the chlorine and this morning
are we desperately trying to preserve ourselves
are we like david saying that the author of life will preserve us
are we surrounding ourselves with deception and defence and denial
defence and denial, or are we allowing the almighty Lord of creation to surround us with
songs of deliverance?
As Tiger made his apology in front of the world media, one very astute journalist made
the observation that we felt Tiger wouldn't have been there if he hadn't been caught,
but a tiger doesn't change his stripes. We shouldn't be like the horse or the mule of
verse 9 or the tiger which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle
else they will not come near God. God out of his love for us will be heavy handed with
us if needs be, if we are like David or like the horse or the mule of verse 9, but that
is not his preferred way of relating to us. Even as we dwell on the example of David this
morning, God, as he promises in verse 8, is instructing us and teaching us in the way we
should go. He is counselling us and watching over us. What sweet truth this psalm contains.
Verse 10 and 11 say, Many are the woes of the wicked, but the Lord's unfailing love surrounds
the man who trusts in him. Rejoice in the Lord and be glad you righteous. Sing all you who
are upright in heart. Father God, we thank you so much for your plan of salvation. We thank you for
the cross of Christ. We thank you, Father, Son and Spirit, for how wonderful, how perfect and how amazing
what you have done is. And Lord, we pray that, like David, we would realise quickly, or even more
quickly, Lord, when we are not coming clean with you. And Lord, that we would know that the cross of
Christ, what Jesus has done, is not just, Lord, for our conversion experience, Lord, but that we should
live in the shadow of the cross, day by day, Lord. We thank you for these wonderful truths, and we pray,
Lord, that they would be sinking deep into our minds, into our hearts, into our actions. Lord, that
throughout the week, we may live out of the truth of your word, rather than out of the deception of our
hearts. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Our final, uh, choading in number 793, and where are my choading faces?