The Expository Word

1. Suffering, Psalm 32, 51

April 18, 2023 Kimber Kauffman Season 97 Episode 91
The Expository Word
1. Suffering, Psalm 32, 51
Show Notes Transcript

This message originally delivered on November 16, 1997 AM.

This is a short series of 6 topical messages that are collected together under the “Suffering Series” title.  The sub-title on a couple of the tapes is “Why God Allows Suffering & Pain in Our LIves” and “Blessed are the Poor in Spirit”.  Some of the scriptures used are Psalm 32, 51, Matthew 5:3, etc.

Kimber Kauffman:

Have you ever thought about trying to impress God? Never thought about trying to impress the Almighty? Did you know that God can be impressed? You know, it's possible to impress God did you know that our world is big into show business. They're big into making a good impression. You remember the books dress for success and and there's all kinds of material out there how to make a good impression in the interview. You know, I've heard of those. Our tastes differ. But we all know how to make a difference. I was talking to a man this week who said tonight is the third anniversary of I, my wife a nice first date. He says I'm going to go home tonight and bring her flowers. And boy, she's going to be happy shouldn't be impressed. I walk in, I can just sort of envision this man walking home with flowers behind his back and whipping them out to show his wife a big beaming smile on her face. And she probably wouldn't be impressed with I think most of the time your wives are impressed when you bring them flowers, aren't they? They are. Maybe you don't know that well enough, you better practice. But did you know that in several different ways, the Bible tells us that what a man can do for his husband and bring her flowers that you can do for the Almighty. You know, the Scripture talks about the fact that you can bring delight to the heart of Almighty God, that you can please him that you can only say this carefully, and yet confident you can make him want to bless you. Hopefully I have you asking you to just exactly what am I supposed to do? And I hope that you are thinking down those lines, because 98% of the way Christians think today is how can I get God to bless me and this is really taking it from quite a different angle. And that is this Do you know that you can be a blessing to God? You can cause him to delight in you. What pleases God and what impresses God is a little bit different than what may depress a human, but stop and think about trying to impress the Almighty. I mean, stop and thinking about you piddly Oh, you are me, causing the Almighty Creator God's heart to rejoice. Now that is quite a thought. And I'm wondering how you could do that. I mean, it's impressive today to have a fast sports car. I used to be into weightlifting. And I would be impressed the biggest the most weight I ever heard anybody could benchpress I met a guy that benched 505 pounds one time, that was the most that's impressive in the world of benchpress. But I don't think God so please, I don't think God went Wow, 505 pounds, that's great. Or how about a person with an IQ? I mean, I don't know the highest IQ of anybody I've ever met. But some people have IQs in the 190s. I heard. Just stop and think about that. Wonder if God goes wow, I'm a little intimidated by them. Just recently, we've heard about a car that can break the speed of sound out in the desert car, going over 700 miles an hour and a car. I wonder if God's impressed with that. I mean, what would really impress the Almighty and stop and think about making an impression on the almighty John Piper writes this concerning this, the talking about the greatness of God and what it would take to impress him think of this, the earth where we live as a small planet revolving around a star called the sun, which has the volume of 1.3 million times that of the Earth. There are, there are stars a million times brighter than the sun. There are about a billion stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way, which is 100,000 light years across. A light year is 6 trillion billion miles, the sun travels at 155 miles per second. And so it would take 200 million years to make a single revolution in his orbit around the Milky Way. And this is one of the smallest galaxies of all. Think of that. Think of impressing the God of the who made all of the creatures in the ocean. And all of the little microscopic life that we have. Or that can bring the tides and do so much with the tides are can change. The weather can change so much you can paralyze a city even with the high technology we can all be brought down by our God with with a bad storm. Think about the human body. scientists can study one little segment of it for their entire life and still not even begin to know one little part of the human body. That's how great our Creator is. What is I wonder what it takes to impress him? I wonder what we can say well, I wonder what turned his head Wow. That's something well, he is a revealer besides being a creator, and He reveals something about himself, listen to this verse. I'm quoting another song. Now listen to this. His that his God, His delight is not in the strength of a horse. Nor is His pleasure in the legs of a man. But the Lord takes pleasure You're in those who fear Him in those whose hope is in His steadfast love. What what makes what does God take pleasure in God takes pleasure in those who fear Him. God takes pleasure in those who put their hope in a steadfast love that impresses the Almighty. Do you ever stop and remember Jesus when He was on earth? What did Jesus do? You remember, Jesus Christ was impressed. One day, he was at the temple, and he says, Hey, Phil, let's come over here and watch this. Watch these people give. And as they gave, a very rich person came in, they gave a huge sum of money. Jesus goes, no, not that person. And someone else came, and they gave another large gift, and they were very rich. And Jesus goes, no, not that person. And then the widow came and she just gave two mites, it would be like throwing in two pennies in the offering plate. And she just goes, Did you see that? I'm impressed. Because she gave out of all that she had. Jesus was impressed with the way people sacrificially gave. Jesus talks about the centurion, he was a Roman soldier. And he was so impressed with this guy's faith when he says, You don't even have to come to my house, just speak the Word. Jesus was so impressed with him, that he says, I have not seen such a great faith in all of Israel. In other words, nobody among the Jews has this kind of faith. He was impressed with people's faith. Jesus is often was astounded. In fact, Jesus was also astounded with unbelief. He shook his head at Jerusalem. He goes, I just can't believe this place. They don't believe no matter what. So he's astonished and unbelief and he is pleased with belief. You know, a famous verse, If I said, Give me a definition of faith. One of the verses that you would give is Hebrews 11 Six, which says this without faith, it's impossible to please Him, you remember, what is the what is the opposite then, with faith, it is possible to please Him. And so when people demonstrate faith, the Almighty His heart delights in them. He loves those Olympics pleasure and those who fear him who put their hope and his steadfast love who believe His promises. So let this concept about pleasing God and delighting our creators hard and impressing him. Bring us down to Psalm 32. Because David talks about a blessing man, and the word blessed here, look at verse, Psalm 32, verse one, Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are is covered, blesses the man to whom the Lord does not count his sin against Him in a new spirit, there is no deceit. You see, the sweet singer of Israel, David writes this song, and he teaches us something here. But he starts by talking about this blessing man, a blessed man is one who is approved of God, the blessing man is the man who maximum Kaito says it's the applause of heaven. He is pleased, he takes the light in a certain kind of man. Now, this, this song is so powerful, there's so much to it, I would probably say of all the scriptures in the Bible, the scriptures that I have spent more time with and on Psalm 32, more than any place in all the Bible, it has been a constant refuge for me in a constant place where I have I have run again and again, because do you know what it's about? Psalm 32, is from God to you to explain this? What to do when you have failed? What to do when you have blown it? What are you supposed to do when you have sucked up your life so bad? That you just ruin your life and all the people around you? What are you supposed to do when you blown it? What is the person supposed to do? Now listen carefully, because this is so important. This song which was Augustus favorite in fact, Agustin the church father had written on the ceiling above his bed, so on his last days, he could look up and remember and he said, he often wept over this song. This song, which is quoted by Paul in Romans chapter four, to prove that salvation is by faith and not by works. This Psalm, which was the favorite of Martin Luther, as they asked Martin Luther one day, what's your favorite song? The first thing he said, was Psalm 32. In this psalm, which, of course, was written by the one who loved God so much, David, the one who was who was so gifted by God, the one that could do so much this song written by David, I'm going to tell you something. When David wrote the words of this psalm, it was one of the best days of his entire life. And you know why? Because David is writing about a period of time where he has so badly blown it watch this now, here's the context of Psalm 32 and a watch right here before we left to right think of this time right here. David commits adultery with Bathsheba, do you remember the story in Second Samuel chapter 11. He's on the roof. He sees a woman taking a bath. He find who is the woman she's married to your I don't care who she's married to bring her. I want her. And then she gets pregnant. And word comes back. I'm pregnant. So he brings Uriah who was one of his 30 men of valor back from the battlefield and says, Hey, Uriah, just want to check up how's the battle going? Tell me how's it going with the boys? Hey, go home and enjoy your wife and spend some time there. Uriah sleeps on the porch of the temple that night. David goes, now what am I going to do? And let's have a party you got Hey, David, Uriah, have another glass of wine, you got your riot drunk. But a drunken Uriah was a better man than a sober David. And back Uriah goes to the steps and sleeps. And he says to me, he says, How can I enjoy the peace of my home and enjoy my wife and be around the benefits of home when my fellow soldiers are out battling the Lord's battles, I will never do that, and he sleeps there. So finally, David is, you know, the story sends Uriah back to in the puts, and put them right in the forefront of the battle, and says, haven't been killed. And Uriah is killed. So from from the time he first saw his wife until he killed his, her husband was a period of a couple of months, but from the time that he first saw his wife and committed adultery until he repented when Nathan the prophet came to him and told him the story about the rich farmer that had many sheep, and the poor farmer that had one little sheep, and the rich farmer had a friend coming. So he stole the ones little sheep that they use to sleep in the bed with them, and he killed that sheep. And David goes on the man, that was a period of about a year. Now listen, when Nathan came to David, David wrote the 51st Psalm and the 51st Psalm was a great Psalm to know how to repent. But the 32nd song is about this period. From the time he saw Bathsheba and committed adultery until the time he repented, there was a period of about a year out of David's life. And David is writing this song explaining to you how happy he is that he is no longer living in that period of time. In fact, if you want to know what it was like for him to live during this period, look at verses three and four liquid it says, 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 sapped as in the heat of summer. There David is expressing what life was like being in the backslidden condition is terrible. We'll explain that phrase by phrase in just a moment. But David knew the bitter experience the sin brings seems so innocent, yet cost so much. He knew the agony of living days on end out of fellowship with the God that he loved. And I hope you'll be open to to the teachings of this song because there is so much to it. Well, let's begin. If we want to break this down, as far as an outline, it's very simple outline. But point number one is this, the blessings of sin forgiven, you know that all of these songs were put to music. And I want to remind you that this would not have been one that started like this, that the witness started like this, this song started I guarantee you with some heavy drums or some heavy cut percussion instruments of some sort, because he burst on the scene, first in the singular with blessing and then in verse two in the plural with blessing, and it's the idea is blessing as he was transgressions is forgiven. Now, I'm not sure exactly how it started, but I guarantee you there was some oomph to the way this song got started. And when you sing it, you sing you don't say blessedness you use transgressions are forgiven. It's blessing. How blessed is the man whose transgressions are forgiven, How blessed is the man whose sin The Lord doesn't count against him. I mean, this guy is really happy. It's a bed BOUND bounding with joy, he is so glad not to have that sin over his head anymore. You man rejoicing in God's forgiveness, which is totally apart from works and David bursts on the scene with this. And notice what he says, Blessed as he Happy is the man approved of God, this man receives the applause of heaven because his sins are forgiven. Watch. He mentioned first transgressions, verse one, you see the word transgressions. That means willfully breaking away from God's authority. It means to purposely disobey, you know, you know, friends know what that means. got, you know the line, here's the line, you shall not cross this line. The 10 commandments, which David loved, thou shall not commit adultery, David knew that he had a memorized he was the lover of the law of God. And yet what happened? Here's, here's the law right here. And David goes like this. And steps right across. I know what I'm doing is wrong. I know what I'm doing violate scripture. I know this isn't God's will. Nevertheless, I'm gonna do it anyway. And that's what he did. That's transgressions. It means you know what's wrong, you know, you're not supposed to cross you purposely willfully do it. He says, How blessed is the man that has done that, but it's taken away. In fact, notice what it says in verse two, one, their blessing as he who's transgressions are forgiven. And that is, they're taken away as to what the word means. They are buried in the deepest sea of God's forgetfulness, and they're no longer on record. Now that's a blessing is the thing you stop and think of the times in your life when you have willfully violated the law of God and it's no longer on record. What's exciting, but blessed is he who sins are covered. This is a word which means to miss the mark or to come up short. It Everything less than perfection. So bless this he whose sins are covered, they're concealed not by man but by God. You see, ever since I haven't even put on the fig leaves, we've been trying to conceal our sins, but we can't do it but God can. God can conceal our sins, blesses us, forgive them his transgressions forgiven his sins covered. Notice what he says in verse two, Blessed is the man who sin, the Lord does not count against him. Wow. The the iniquities are not laid, you are charged and not put on our account, all the mountains of joy that This man must know if the Almighty Creator God is great as he is is no longer angry with you because your sins have kept you from God. But they are now put someplace that no one can ever find them. They are lost, they can't even be brought up by God himself. He is forgiven forever. Blessing is this man who said the Lord does not count against him and in whose spirit there is no deceit. Now look at this little phrase. Notice the last phrase of verse two. Can you see that with me? Look what he says in whose spirit there is no deceit. My friends. You could say it this way. Blessed is the man who has stopped trying to justify himself. Bless this the man who's no longer denying what he has done, blesses the one who's no longer grabbed and taken hostage by immobilizing. Guilt. No, this guy has come clean. This last phrase of verse two tells you the inward aspects of forgiveness. Here's what happens when God cleanses a person. Even in his spirit, there's no deceit. In other words, stop and think of all the covering up that David did stop and think of all the things David did to try to make this situation look like Bathsheba was chewy, if David would have had his way, Uriah would have thought to lay down his life forever. For the rest of his life. That baby of theirs was his. He was gonna live in deceit and guile the rest of his life. And David says, oh, How blessed is the no longer to be clean on the inside to no longer have a conscience that has nothing between my soul and the Savior. This is a blessing condition. And please notice this this blessing condition, this joyful condition, this happy condition is only for the person who sees their sin. Now, this is such an important point, this joy is only to the guilty. The blessing is only those who are poor in spirit, the proud person, the self righteous person, the person who's not as bad as somebody else, the person whose sins are not clear before them, this person will never know this blessedness because why would you care? You can't say blessed his he whose transgressions which aren't that great are forgiven, then it's just a little tiny blessing. But David is really thankful for what has happened here. You remember in Luke chapter five, when Jesus Christ came in to spend time with his disciples and the tax collectors and and he was spending time with the tax collectors and the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And the teachers of the law, they came to his disciples, and they said, Why is your master spending time with tax collectors? I mean, that's the scum of society. And then Jesus answers for them. And he says, the physician doesn't go to the healthy does he, he goes to the sick. And she said, I did not come to save the righteous, but sinners. And the whole message of the Bible, that if there's ever a reason for people to and this is one of the reasons why the joy in American Christianity is so shallow, because we're trying to get all whooped up about a God that is so full of love when we ourselves don't understand how bad we need his love. This is the blessing person, the person who understands I have transgressed I have done what's wrong, and is no longer held against me. My sins are no longer going to be called into account. my iniquities are gone and buried in there, and the Almighty has forgotten them. And they've been paid for. You see the psalm, this this person who understands that they are sinful, this person matches the joy of the of the prodigal returning home and the father runs out to meet him and puts his clock over him and takes him home and throws a big party. And the person that doesn't see themselves as sinful is like the elder brother that goes, Why are these people getting so fanatical about? What's all this? Hallelujah? Praise the lordship? Why are you getting so wrapped up in all this? Why don't get it. But the person that knows their center is the person that says, Oh, you mean, there's this party thrown? You mean I am I am. Except that you mean the father still loves me. And there's a blessing joy that the David knows about to think, oh, all that I've done. And by the way, you stop and think about this, David. David knows that he's had a man murdered. David knows that he took a man's wife. David knows that family members that found out about it in the all the hostilities that they must have had and stop and consider how wonderful is to know that the Almighty God is no longer angry with you. And the truth is that you can rejoice in the fact that he has forgiven you and not only forgiven you, but even in your own spirit. There's no more deceit. He's so cleansed you and so washed you there's nothing else to hide Oh, wow. You see, you know what else versus wanting to tell us listen, see the blessings of sin forgiven. Listen, friends, you know what a lot of people don't understand in our world. A lot of people today don't understand that you can know that your sins are forgiven. But I want you to know David clearly knows that his sins are forgiven. He says blessed as he was transgressions are forgiven. And that's the message of the gospel, you can know that your sins are forgiven. And David knows it clearly. In fact, I believe David feels it. He believes Hey, there's there's something quite different from that period when I was in that agony. Now I'm full of joy and happiness, I'm rejoicing over the fact that my sins as great as they are, have been forgiven. You see, there's a direct contrast this blessing person has to be a guilty person. And listen to this friends, Jesus Christ said this, to him who has been forgiven much loves much. And I'd like to add change the words a little bit and say this, he has been forgiven much rejoice as much. You know, there's a direct parallel between how guilty you have been or are versus the amount of kind of rejoicing that you will have the people that truly know the depths of their own sinfulness. They are the ones that sing with real joy. The people that don't really see themselves as that bad compare themselves with everyone else put themselves on the grading curve. What's the big deal here? But there is a deep rejoicing that is only known by the guilty as they revel in the love of God. You see, if you had to ask yourself this, some of you can remember when we studied the life of David, we considered David and Saul. And you remember Saul was the first king of Israel, David was the second king. And if you remember, David was the man of the heart of God. Saul did not have a heart for God. And he was constantly doing things. And if if he if he had to make a quick comparison of the two, and you may want to remember, we talked about this a lot in the past, but stop and remember the difference between Saul and David. in First Samuel 15. Saul commits a terrible sin. And Nick, Samuel, the prophet comes to him and Saul says, not me, the people. And then Samuel continues to depress it. And David, and Saul says, not me, the soldiers they took up the spoil. And then Samuel continues to press it. And finally Saul goes, okay, okay, I did it. I did. But could you save my face before the elders? Could you make me look good before the elders before my cabinet? In other words, whereas in Second Samuel chapter seven, Nathan, the prophet comes to David, and he tells him the story catches David into sin. And David could have responded like Saul just says, This I have sent. Now not only that, he then writes the 51st song. Now that you can see that on there, but there's a psalm 51. All right, he says, I have sinned, and he writes the 51st Psalm. And then of course, we got this from the 32nd song. So we stop and learn. And you know, one of the things we learned is the difference between Saul and David is not that one, send more than one send less. The difference in the two is what they did when they sinned. And this person knows the blessings of forgiveness. Now, that's verses one and two. Now let's look at the second part of this outline. There's only five verses all together, but I want you to notice Secondly, the burden of sins concealed. Right? And don't look at verses three and four. Again, When I kept silent, do you see what David is saying there everybody verse three, and a watch this from the time I committed adultery with Bathsheba, until Nathan, the Prophet came to me during that nine months to a year when I was silent. Now please notice that he describes this burden. Now look at the burden my bones waist away groaning DNA, Your hand was heavy, probably stringless. If you can see that in a watch, you're ready. Here's the question. What was the main thing? David did that was wrong? After he's committed the sin after he committed the sin, what was the main thing that he did that was wrong? Was this my friends? The sin of silence, note the cause of the burden of silence. He said When I kept silent, the silence, don't net net stop with me and think a second. This is the opposite of the deceit found in the last part of verse two. In this Hebrew word, but no watch to see the word silence. The Hebrew word is to have your tongue shot through with an arrow. Now if I could shoot through my tongue with an arrow, and then try to talk if you have a hard time talking, right, to stop and think about this, the word for silence is your to be smitten in the tongue or to be shot through with an arrow. But now listen, friends, it means this it's a willful voluntary silence. When he said what I kept silence Now listen, it's willful, it's voluntary. David refuses to talk to God. Now stop and think about this friends what we do in our society today, we blame shift. We try to escape we try to run we're guilty with we're frustrated with immobilizing guilt. We have all kinds of problems, but what should you do when you bloated? Here's the worst thing you could ever do. Stop talking to God. Silence is the enemy which keeps you prolonged in the state of carnality sign This is what keeps you from God. David says when I kept selling, I said, notice the emphasis on this. Look at verse three, When I kept silent, go down to verse five, then I acknowledged my sin to You, and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions and you forgave. Notice the emphasis on this, the key thing you've got to do when you've really sinned against the Almighty God is you've got to go back and tell him, You can't keep silent. Now, isn't it amazing, the guilty conscience refuses to talk to God. Now think with me a second about this. If I did something miserable to rich, if I just came up and just did something miserable to rich and just punched him right in the nose, or did something to really hurt him? And I was clearly the one that was guilty. Now, what would you all do? If you saw that happen? I come up and I punch rich. And then you see me get cold towards rich. You would all go this is really weird. You're the one that's guilty, and yet you're the one getting cold. You see, I punched rich Richard the one be the one getting cold towards me. Because I sinned against him, right? Well listen to what I'm saying. here's the here's the this curliness of sin. Here's the awfulness of sin, we sinned against God. It's what we do. We transgress against God, and then it's us that grows cold. That's what sin does. Sin causes us not only to rebel against God, but now that we've rebelled, we continue in that state of rebellion by silence, and you know what you've done, please don't do what I have done many, many times. We stop and think, Oh, I'm so I'm so ashamed of what I've done. I'm, oh, I'm embarrassed, I can't even bring that back up to God. That is, Oh, I'm so sick of it. I don't want you to think about it. And so what do we do, we secretly think I will behave well, for a period of time, I will do some good things, and then I'll get back with God. But you see, my friends. That's why Paul uses this in Romans for that salvation is by faith and not by works, because we are saved by faith. And we continue by faith. And what happens when we sin against God is just like when you sinned against someone else. If you if I really did punch rich in the nose, and here he was got blood all over his suit and everything and he's all messed up. The right thing for me to do is to go back and say, rich, I'm sorry, I got mad I punched you in the nose, would you please forgive me? And then I could be reconciled. The same thing is true. You can't keep silent. Silence is what causes the rebellion to continue and which will keep you David is now telling you because he kept silent look at what happened. Don't get this are my watch here. Watch. Here he is right here. He commits adultery with Bathsheba. Now the clock starts tick, tick, tick tick nine months to a year. And David now describes what that period was like, look at verse three. When I kept silent now watch. My bones wasted away. Notice the effects of the burden. First off, he says my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night, Your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was sapped, as in the heat of summer. Allow me phrase by phrase to break this down. When he says his bones wasted away he's referring to this the strongest part of the human body became frail. In other words, the bones became like an old person's frail and brittle, brittle. My bones wasted away. Luther said since I would not confess that I was nothing but a center my conscience had no rest. Now these are all statements of what it's like to be backslidden anybody good at backsliding can really identify and you go man, the Bible is true. I know exactly what he's talking about. I had several people come up to me say like that. It's amazing how clear and first of his how clear that's that describes me. And this is how should be when one of God's children are no longer walking with the Father hand in hand, but instead of spurned the father's war and gone the other way. Life should not be right, we should not feel right when we are rebelling against God and living in that state. In fact, he says my bones washed away the strongest part of my body became brittle. In other words, I I grew weak. Notice secondly, he says this through my groaning all day long. Notice this effect, this the roar of a lion. It's a person in extreme pain, this word groaning in other places, it's talking about a person that's going oh, and the screen pain. It's the cry of a wounded beast, a beast that has been shot and wounded is in the field groaning and David says, I groaned all day long. I had the cry of a wounded beast, the cry of someone in great pain. Not only that, I find myself physically weak, but inside I was I was tremendously in turmoil. Now watch. He says, and by the way, I think it's so great to consider what the Bible does for us and God's mercy. He gives us the Bible and this is the way it should be for a child of God living in rebellion. Listen, Misery should describe the life of the backslidden. And you know why? Because we have a father who chases us. Stop and think of this. We have a father who chases us, his bones waste away. He chases us so much that notice description number three Look what it says, for day and night, Your hand was heavy upon me. If you ever want to read of the mercy of God, here it is, look down and rejoice in God's mercy. Because day and night is a way of saying constantly, moment by moment, no matter what, during that period of nine months to a year over and over your hand was heavy upon me constantly to get this. Our heavenly Father knows how to discipline his children. And it was the hand of the Father disciplining David, his son. And what a marvelous work of the Father's love instead of doing this, and by the way, friends, God could easily have done this. God could have said, Get out of here, I'm sick of you. I've had enough. Not only do you sing about my commandments, and not only do you brought my name in the mud, by sleeping with another man's wife, when you yourself used to sing about my law, and you knew it backwards and forwards, you knew what you're doing was wrong. I'm sick and you, you violated my commandments, get out of here. But instead of having that kind of attitude, listen, he works, his convicting work, that's the love of God. Look at verse three, the love of God day and night trek, trapping you seeking you hunting you down, not letting you rest in your sin. If we had a God that didn't love us, you could sin and you could just live contently. But when you have a God that loves you, he won't let you stay. He seeks you out, he seeks after you. He works to make your life miserable. In other words, here's what's so wrong with counseling that will tell this person who's in misery and groaning and the cry of a pain base, they go to a counselor and they say, Oh, don't feel bad, you know, God loves you. Well, now, there's a side to this true, but there's another side to it, that will, this person will never get right until they're ready to acknowledge what they've done. And it's so important. Now, watch, watch what happens. God's mercy is that he he makes us live a terrible life. When he makes us frustrated, he brings on the guilt. And everywhere we go, we cannot rest. The only day where we can make the rest is to is to try to escape somehow from it. He says day and night Your hand was heavy upon me. But get this look at effect number four, my strength to a sap is in the heat of summer. In your King James it says my moisture was scepters incidences live. It's the vital moisture. It's the lifeblood is the vigor. Those that practice Eastern medicine that like an acupuncturist or something would call this the Chi net is the life giving substances gone. You have no more strength. It's as if you've been out working in a hot summer day. And you're just wearied from it. It's sapped drained away. No more vigor, no more spunk, no more energy, which which, by the way, stop and think about this. I'm I mean, I'm not at all against this stuff, what I'm about to say, but stop and think of the emphasis that's put on vitamins, and on nutrition, and on exercise. And then all of those things, and they all certainly have a place and I wouldn't be against any of those. But stop and think with me a second friends. What this scripture says is that physically, his life was draining away. Emotionally, He was whipped. And every his strength was gone. And he was just there. And the problem was not vitamins. And the problem was not that he hadn't exercised enough. The problem was he had not confessed his sin. And there would be no relief from the chasing Hand of God until he came to grips with what he had done. And this is important to know. And you know why? Because the world doesn't understand fast answers and fast remedies. If you've got some problem, oh, it's gonna take you weeks and months to work through it. But you know, that may not be true. Now, it may be true in some cases. But it also may not be true. It may be so simple that a thorough job of repenting will restore life and vitality back to you. As soon as the Holy Spirit starts to work in your life. Now I want you to do something which I haven't always done. And it see the word slaw here. Notice right after verse four, see the word. And you all know that that's possibly some kind of instrumental note for the musicians. But it also could mean stop and think about this pause for a moment and reflect on whether it that's exactly what it means here or not. I'm not sure but let's do what it says there. Let's stop right now in verse four. And everybody stop and reflect upon this. Think about this for a while let it really sink in consider what sin offers and what it delivers. Now stop with me. And remember something if you were with us in Second Samuel and if you weren't just just pay attention and listen. In Second Samuel, we studied in chapter 11, where David's sin with Bathsheba in chapter 12 Nathan approaches them. And in chapter 12 There's misery and David's life now watch in chapter 1314 15 1617 And I'm doing it like this because if you were there during that time, you remember how long and drawn out it was, it seemed like it was never going to end. 1819. And you remember, it was like, Oh, another it was this almost like there was an oppression to what Sir, during those weeks, I had to preach this again to these people, but to be faithful to the text 20. And when all those chapters represent years of David's life, full of tears, full of sorrow, full of trouble. Why? Because he looked and saw a woman and he wanted a night of pleasure. And if you remember, we put we put up on a scale, a night of pleasure versus the consequences. And what a David get out of it, he got a night of pleasure. And what happened over here on this scale, she four of his children die, and all kinds of problems and trouble come into his life. And it just seems to go on and on. Now stop and think of what a lie sin is. Sin comes to you and says, Hey, this is really living, man, this is what it's all about. Go for get this but it's a lie. Sin will always say sacrifice the rest of your life on the altar of the immediate. It will always say, hey, live for the now it will always be secular will for the now go for it now. And you'll miss all the risks. You don't want friends. It promises so much and delivers for only the moment. And then you must live with the consequences. And I want you to think not remember chapter 12 1314 kept going. But note, I want you to remember something. This verses three and four is even before chapter 12. It's during that period before chapter 12 When he was living under the guilt of the sin, this type of thing. How much pleasure did he have to get out of that night with Bathsheba to equal just the verses three and four? stuff to think about? It's crazy. It's insane. To stop and consider that we could follow the devil or live in disobedience to the good commandments of God and be better off. It's crazy. You see? That's what sin does. It makes us crazy. So look at this the blessings of sin forgiven the burdens of sin concealed. Now notice that one last verse and we're done. Watch this last verse, everybody watch. The beauty of sin confessed. Notice everything changes when David does something. Now look at verse five, my friends, then I acknowledged my sin to You. And what did he say there? I acknowledged my sin. Listen, I made known my sin. I did not cover up my iniquity. That is I did not hide it. I did not make it look normal. Here's a verse I forgot to show you by the way about covering up. Notice he says I did not cover up my iniquity watch. He who conceals his sins, does not prosper. But whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy. Dave is living this out. Please, please notice everybody, as long as we try to conceal it like Adam and Eve did in the garden, they put on the fig leaves, as long as we try to hide and run. But the person that will find the mercy of God that is from everlasting to everlasting, the person that will never run out of the mercy of God is the one who confesses and renounces his sin. And it is that person here that David is talking about, that is the blessings and blessings of sin confess, notice this, he acknowledges it. He makes it which means make known he did not cover up his iniquity. He said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. That means I will own them, I will hold them in the hand and you forgave the guilt of my sin. It's like what he says is this. Instead of hiding, like it's not there, I hold it right out and say, here's what I've done. In other words, listen to this. David, after Nathan approached him, David had a time with God, we raised the 50 for Psalm and he really spells it out there, you can do that study on your own. But listen, there was a time where David had to go to God and say this. I violated your seventh commandment. I looked. I lusted. Because I was the king. I took one of the 30 mighty men of Israel's wife. I slept with her. She got pregnant. I lied, I deceived to try to cover it up. And then I had Uriah her husband killed. And he had to actually say that to God. And what I'm telling you is when you've blown it, there is no forgiveness until you're ready to acknowledge to God what you've done. Where you go to him and you say it and and it is humiliating. In one sense. It is very humbling, which it should be. But it is the only way to handle life when we blown it is we go to God and we don't go like this or we're hiding it we go like this. Father. Here I am again, in need of your mercy. This is What I have done? Would you please forgive me is that person that really knows the love of God is that person that will not have a pity party, but will be able to go on with their life. It's that person that will rejoice in the goodness of God and will say, Oh, what a God I serve I want you to know this little insight that just knocked me off my feet this week. Looking Look back at verse five, he says this no watch, follow along with me. Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. And please get this. Who is David talking to when he says I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. David is talking to himself. And that is we're getting the inside scoop of a man's heart. After Nathan the prophet has exposed him and David says, Okay, I'm going to go clean. I'm going to tell the truth. I'm no more hiding. And people that have never come clean, have to hide the rest of their lives. What a way to live, don't do that. And to come clean means this. He says, get this in his heart. He said, I said, I will confessed. Now watch. If you want to know how great God's mercy is, you want to leave here rejoicing in the kind of God we serve. All David is doing is thinking this, he just thinks Okay, I am going to take truthful, okay, I am going to repent. And just the thought of repentance. Notice what it says and you forgave the guilt of my sin. And that is we see a god that is so ready to forgive. And let me again remind you of the prodigal son, the father is looking looking down the road, day after day wanting to come back. And one day he looks they see someone who's walking like his son who hasn't seen for years, and the father runs out of the house, throws his coat over and brings him back in throws a big party rejoices that he has returned. That's a picture of God ready to accept us back. That's a picture of the Father's mercy towards us. Bam, I said, I will confess and just in the thought of it whom God forgives the guilt of our sin. This brings us into a joy that is hard to understand. But it makes David Right again and again. His mercy endures forever. His mercy is higher than the heavens. It goes on forever. What? What better what more wonderful words and all the Scripture than the last words of verse five? Look what it says and you forgave the guilt of my sin. The question ask ourselves is this is David, a child of God when he writes Psalm 32? And the answer is yes. And you know how you become a child of God? Well, Romans 10 says this, If we confess with our mouth, the Lord Jesus, and believe in our hearts to God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. But there's even the confession to become a Christian, you must confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, but to live in fellowship with God. You've got to be talking. You've got to be confessing. You've got to be willing to go back to him. And not go back and good works and have all all all polished up and looking good, but we go back just as we really are. And Father, only you could love me knowing these things. Here again, I have to tell you what I've done. Would you forgive me, I own up to it. This is what I've done. That's the person that heaven applauds. That's the person that God longs to show His mercy to listen, humble yourselves before the Lord and He will exalt you. But God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble spray we thank you our father. For scriptures which tell us how we are to live I would ask that you would work in the lives of the people at College Park that we would be a humble people. A people quick and ready to confess our sins. Thank you that there is mercy for us when we are born. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.