The Bliss of Forgiveness

1:38What does it look like to live life to the fullest? Where do we find true bliss? David is going to paint a vision for our life, one that is filled with the deepest satisfaction, real, rich, deep satisfaction in our life. He begins by just declaring it in verses one and two, like we read, that there's only one kind of life that leads to true, lasting, abiding happiness. And then for the rest of the psalm, he's going to go back and explain a story and explain himself and give us some counsel. So we're going to treat verses one and two as our big introduction to the psalm. And then we'll go and our outline will be based on the rest of the psalm as he explains himself. So let's jump right in with verses one and two.

2:33David says, 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. What a freedom as he talks about. About this forgiveness. Even on a human level, we feel this deeply, don't we? When you have sinned against a brother or sister in Christ, or when you know that you sinned against your spouse for the thousandth time, and you go to them and you confess and you ask for their forgiveness, to hear them say, Hey, I love you.

3:24Of course, I forgive you. Consider it forgotten. Consider it gone. As far as the East is from the West, you don't have to worry about it anymore. You know, how wonderful. There's such freedom. I know that I have a debt against that person, and yet they are refusing to count that debt. And now it is released. The tension is released. I'm forgiven. Well, how much more release and freedom and joy when we're forgiven by God Himself? We have this mountain of sin against a holy, holy, holy God. We have an infinite debt and it's gone.

4:17It's gone forever, as far as the East is from the West. David uses three phrases in our psalm. He says, Transgression is forgiven, sin is covered, iniquity is not counted. So I have transgressed. I have broken God's commandments. I have sinned. I have missed God's standard. I should be stained with iniquity. But David says that it is forgiven, like a debt that is erased and gone. It is covered over. It's never to appear again. It is not counted. And that word for counted is the same Hebrew word in the famous verse in Genesis where Moses writes, Abram believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness. Abram believed the Lord and he counted it to him as righteousness. This is central to our faith as believers. That saints in every age can believe in God and then our iniquity is not counted towards us. Instead, we are counted as righteous because of what Christ has done. That is what David is reveling in in Psalm 32. 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. This is such a happy state to be in.

5:48And this freedom of forgiveness, this is a release, a joy, a gladness that the Lord wanted. us to feel. God is good, and just as he delights in bringing rain and good gifts into our life, he delights also in releasing us to feel this freedom, this freedom from the burden of our sin, to feel the freedom of forgiveness that David delights in. Now, David says that it is only broken and honest confession that gets us there. He'll explain that more later, but he already hints at it in verse 2. He says, in whose spirit there is no deceit. So this joy that he's talking about is unavailable to those who stubbornly resist true openness about their sin, who snag onto the idea that their sin is not quite as bad as others, who confess one area of sin profusely, but then hold back in other areas in their heart.

6:58That kind of heart misses out on the joy that David is speaking about. But for the spirit that holds no deceit, that is open, that is broken, there is relief and freedom and forgiveness. That's the declaration in verses 1 and 2. Now for the rest of the psalm, David is going to explain himself. What does the believer go through emotionally as he thinks through this forgiveness, as he walks down the old road of joy of God? Again and again, what does he experience? David will share four experiences of a forgiven saint.

7:39Four experiences of a forgiven saint. The heaviness of sin, the relief of confession, the urgency of prayer, and the joy of nearness. Four experiences of a forgiven saint. Now, if you're an older saint in the room, I'm sure that all of these things sound familiar. You're hearing David's experiences and you are resonating with them because you've walked down these old roads over and over and over. You remember the times when you held your sin back and you weren't open and you felt this sorrow and you remember the times when you came to your senses and you finally confessed and you felt this relief.

8:22But if you're younger in the faith and these old roads are not as well worn in your life, if maybe you're stuck in point one, the heaviness of sin, well, then today is an opportunity for you to, yes, first, kick yourself. Of course, I know better. Of course, I know I have no reason to be staying in this heaviness of sin. But don't just stay there and beat yourself up. After you realize that, then move back into close communion with the Lord and walk in joy and gladness like David speaks. About. Come back into freedom and joy and experience the bliss of forgiveness.

9:08Before we start stepping through the outline, I'd like to pray one more time. So pray with me. Father, we pray that as we study your word, we pray that you would give us undistracted minds, help us pay attention to your words, help us be undistracted as we seek to interpret, help us interpret well and understand well, help us apply correctly to our lives, help us be convicted where we need to be convicted, help us be filled with joy at the gladness that we can receive because of the forgiveness that is available in Jesus Christ. We pray all these things in His name. Amen. The first experience of a forgiven saint is the heaviness of sin.

10:07As David explains his big declaration in verses 1 and 2, he starts with a story of his own conviction of sin and what it felt like. And I'm certain that if you are a true believer, that you have felt this conviction or something like it many times in your life as the Holy Spirit convicted you of your sin. In fact, If this experience that David's talking about in verses 3 and 4, if this is totally foreign to you, and your sin has never felt like a burden like this, then I think you can be reasonably certain that you're not a true believer, that you haven't been convicted of your sin. So listen to how David describes it. Look at verses 3 and 4. 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. So David has sinned. And maybe this is the occasion where he sins with Bathsheba. Maybe this is another occasion. We're not told this time. But he sinned and he doesn't come to God and confession. He doesn't want to.

11:24He would rather pretend like the sin didn't happen. He would rather move on and not be laid low before God and come with a broken heart and confess his sin again. He would rather be stubborn and not admit or confess and agree with God about the wickedness of sin. Perhaps his flesh is telling him that he's too sinful to draw near to God. Maybe he's believing a lie that he needs to do something first, maybe make a sacrifice or do it. Good deed.

12:02Maybe he's forgetting what he knows in Psalm 51. You remember this verse? Psalm 51, verses 16 and 17. David writes, For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. You will not be pleased with the burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Well, we read Psalm 32. David is unwilling in this moment to have that broken spirit. And so he is stuck in the heaviness of his sin. There is no relief. He feels it in his bones. It feels like they are wasting away. He groans all day long. And I don't think this is just because of the consequences of his sin. I think this is because of his sin itself. He's mourning his sin itself. He's stuck in his sin. He knows that it's God's hand that is heavy on him day and night.

13:03God is the one who's chasing him. God is the one who's convicting him, not letting him find relief in other ways. And because God's hand is heavy, then David is zapped. Like when the summer sun steals our strength, David is empty. He's weak. If you are walking in sin, If you are giving in to your lusts, if you are stewing in bitterness, if you are pridefully stiffening your stubborn neck, I hope that you feel what David feels in verses 3 and 4. And I hope that it drives you crazy. I hope that it drives you into a pit.

13:58I hope that it drives you into depressive sorrow, if it has to, where even your bones hurt. Whatever it takes to shake you out of the delusion that relief can be found anywhere else, that relief can be found in distraction, that relief can be found through drunkenness, that relief can be found in pleasure. All of that is a lie. There is only one place to find true relief for this real conviction of sin and the heaviness of sin.

14:36The second experience of a forgiven saint, the relief of confession. Look at verse 5. 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. Released. Of course, when we sin against others, other scriptures tell us that we need to be reconciled with them. We need to seek peace. We need to confess and seek forgiveness and repent and restore that relationship. But it always starts here first. Just like after David sinned egregiously against Bathsheba and Uriah, do you remember this? He says in Psalm 51, he says, Against you, speaking to God, against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. So our sin is always chiefly against God, and so our confession always needs to start with God. 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.

16:04The Christian must learn to stop running away from God after we sin. Our sin is paid for. We are always forgiven. The only right answer is to run toward God after we sin. God saw every deed of our hands. He hears every thought of our heart. He knows every careless word we speak. He discerns our thoughts from afar. Wherever we go, he's with us. Why would we think that we could try to hide from him? And yet we do.

16:44We try to cover our iniquity ourselves until our sense comes back to us, like David. I acknowledged my sin to you. I did not cover my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Now, for New Testament believers, those who have believed after the coming of Jesus Christ, this happens first and chiefly when we first believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. We're forgiven of all of our sin, past, present, and future. We're held fast by our loving Lord Jesus Christ for all of eternity. We do not believe, as other traditions believe, that if we happen to die after we sin certain sins, before we get a chance to make the right kind of confession, that we die without hope or we die with consequence. Any saint who is in Jesus Christ is blameless forever. Praise be to God.

17:53But after we believe, this becomes the regular practice as we stay near to God. Whenever we sin and whenever we're made aware of our sin, we come right to God. That's the right answer for us, to come right to him. We confess. We confess weekly together as a church body. We confess daily on our own. I've sinned again. Please forgive me, Father, because of what Jesus has done on my behalf. What David experiences so vividly in this psalm, this relief, this forgiveness. What David experiences so vividly is later spoken to us as a promise by the Apostle John. He says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When we confess, we are cleansed, we are restored, we're near to God. We experience this deepest relief.

19:02All right, well, based on all of this, David is going to give us some advice. If it's true that sin weighs on us so heavy, and if it's true that the only relief is by going straight to the Lord, confessing our sin, well, then the next thing we should experience is the urgency of prayer. I want to do this right away. Look at verses 6 and 7. Therefore, let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be faithful.

19:31Surely, 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. Now, I want to speak to those of you in here that are not sure that you're a Christian yet. David is telling you, don't be a fool. If you're feeling conviction over your sin and you're feeling this heaviness, and if you understand that Jesus is calling you to come and confess that sin and be forgiven, don't tell yourself, yeah, I'll do that soon, or I'll do that later.

20:15You know that's probably a lie. You know that your life is a rush of great waters. You know that very soon you're going to get busy again with work and your mind's going to be off of it. You know you're going to get distracted again. You know that your life, as you're getting older, is only clicking by faster and faster and faster. You're not going to reach him in the rush of great waters. Don't pretend like you are going to be miraculously lucid in the final moments before death so that you'll suddenly reverse. A lifetime of stubbornly resisting God as you make a stunning last-ditch profession of faith.

21:08Yes, that's possible. Yes, that's happened. But no, it's not likely. Now is the time for you to slow down, to push everything else away, and to run to God and hide in Him and ask for the forgiveness of sins. Confess. Repent. Ask for forgiveness. But I believe that these verses also apply to the believer who's coming in regular confession. In fact, they might primarily apply to the believer based on the beginning of verse 6. Look again, he says, 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. So don't fall for the idea that you can wake up and just jump right into work. You have tried that a thousand times and it has not worked.

22:21Don't jump into the rushing water and expect it to be calm like you're going to have a thriving prayer life. For the rest of the day, I think this rush of great waters is why we so often get stuck back in point one in the heaviness of sin. Why we go so long without staying near to God, without hiding in Him. We think that we're going to be just fine. We'll do that later. And before we know it, we've wasted another day not being near to God. We've wasted the greatest privilege of that day, not walking through that day, being near to God.

23:06We should follow David's advice. We should make ourselves jealous for what He has in verse 7: He has closeness, hiding in God. When we respond to the truths of Scripture by coming near to God in prayer, we draw near to God. We experience that He is a hiding place for us, that He does preserve us from trouble, that He does surround us with shouts of deliverance. We see the blessings He has put in our lives. We stop having discontent eyes about all of our circumstances. We stop having grumbling lips. How could we when we're walking in nearness to God? We see that He holds us fast every day, surrounding us with shouts of deliverance.

23:59If we walk, This kind of close walk with God, then we need to consider prayer as urgent. We need to drop everything and come as soon as we can. Draw near to God, hide in Him. When we do, we experience the fourth and final experience of a forgiven saint: the joy of nearness. Look at verses 8 through 11. David says, I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go. I will counsel you with my eye upon you.

24:34Be 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, all you upright in heart. We have some loving instruction here from David. We have some biblical counseling from the king. He says, Don't be so stubborn that you keep needing to be pulled back to closeness with God.

25:26Yes, if you are in Christ Jesus, then you belong. To Christ Jesus. And yes, he will pull you back. You can count on it. But why do you want to be yanked again and again with the reins? Many are the sorrows of the wicked. Wouldn't it be better for you if you just stayed near God? Wouldn't it be better if you trusted and stayed surrounded by steadfast love? Wouldn't it be better for you to bask in the gladness that David describes? He says, Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart.

26:17Don't you want that joy? And stay near. Stay near to him by walking in obedience, loving the light, and walking in the light. And when you stray and when you sin, then stay near by running straight to God again, not waiting until you've done some penance. Run straight to him again. Don't let anything separate you from him. Don't sit in the heaviness of sin while you wait for him to yank on the reins like a horse or a mule. Come to him again, broken in spirit.

27:00Confess. Lose your burden. Be glad. Cherish the closeness that you can have with God. The nearness that Christ has paid for on your account. Every single night when my kids are in bed, no matter what happened that day, I draw near to them. And I put my face close to their face and we make eye contact. And it might be that we're in the middle of a conflict. It might be that they just disobeyed. And it might be that we have to say, we'll deal with that tomorrow.

27:54But right now, we're not going to tolerate distance. We're not going to let ourselves end a day by being distant. We're going to draw near and be close. We're going to do whatever it takes to be close. That same kind of gardening and tending is what we need to do in our marriages. It's what we need to do in all of our relationships. And in Christ, we have the wonderful freedom to do this with God Himself.

28:30To stay near even after we sin, to not tolerate distance and stay away from God and pretend like we can't come near to him again. Our stubbornness and our shame create a desire for distance with God that should not be tolerated. Our stubbornness and our shame create a desire for distance that should not be tolerated. So listen to the advice of the king and stay near to God. Stay near to God. Four experiences of a forgiven saint. The heaviness of sin, the relief of confession, the urgency of prayer, and the joy of nearness.

29:25To the young believer in this room, don't be satisfied with tolerating distance between you and God. Don't be satisfied with a life that stays stuck in point one, the heaviness of sin. I understand that you feel dirty and stained when you sin. I understand that you feel this deep conviction and this heaviness over your sin. The answer. Is not to try and pay for that sin by doing something or making some sacrifice. The sacrifices of God are a broken and contrite heart. So you come to him.

30:11Confess. Find relief and freedom and joy and gladness. You don't need to wait another moment. Why are you content with not feeling this freedom when it's available to you? When we celebrate this and we remember our forgiveness, our load is light. Our joy is deep. All of a sudden, we are quick to forgive others. We forget their sin. We're quick to do this because we want them to taste the sweet relief of a forgiven debt and tension released, just like we have.

30:57For the believer who has walked down these old paths so many times, that the path is clear and well worn, and you stay near God because you know there's no better way to live. I have a special application for you. My application for you is to join the psalmist as he testifies about this. Tell others about this. The younger believers around you, they need to hear this from you. The working men. Who are so busy, they need to hear this from you. The busy moms, they need to hear this from you.

31:39They get stuck, they're going through the motions again. They're distracting themselves, they're letting there be distance between themselves and God. Give them the advice that you know, that that is a stupid way to live. Why would you live that way? There is bliss and gladness and light and joy, but it's only found in staying near to God. Quick to confess. So share about the times that you tolerated distance between you and God. And then share about the times when you finally came to your senses and you confessed and you came with a broken heart to the Lord. And share about the seasons of sweet closeness to Christ.

32:34For those of you who have never experienced what David has experienced, there is wonderful joy available to you. Relief. Relief from the burden of your sin. In David's day, it was a mystery exactly how this relief was paid for, exactly how this forgiveness. Was paid for, but in the New Testament, it's revealed. We know exactly how this is paid for. It was paid for by Jesus Christ on the cross. He died so that we can be forgiven, so that our debt can be paid, so that our sin can be removed from us as far as the east is from the west, and we can be filled with glorious relief and forgiveness. The burden of our sin gone.

33:24But it's not by works your heart is going to try and deceive you that you should come by works, that you should do something, that you need to get your life in order, you need to get right with God before you can come to Him in confession. That's all a lie. The Apostle Paul actually quotes this psalm. He quotes Psalm 32: to prove that it's not by works, that it's by faith that we come. We believe, we ask for this forgiveness.

33:53So come by faith. And when you come, you are counted as righteous. Your sin is counted against you no more. You are counted as righteous. So please come. Slow down. Don't wait for the rush of life to come back. Slow down, push everything else away. Run to God. Confess your sin. Repent. Ask God for forgiveness. And then take a deep breath. Blessed is the one. whose transgression is forgiven. Pray with me. Father, we know we don't deserve this.

34:48We deserve infinitely the opposite of this. And yet, because of what Jesus Christ has done on our behalf, we can experience full, free, eternal forgiveness. Every ounce of debt paid. Father, I pray for those who have not come and asked for this forgiveness. I pray that they would do so today, that they would come and find this full and free forgiveness. And I pray for those believers who have done this, but who so regularly tolerate distance between themselves and you. I pray, Father, that you would shake them out of that.

35:44Help them see how foolish. Help them see that they can draw near to you. They don't have to wait for a certain amount of time. They don't have to wait for a certain amount of time. Of good deeds to be done, they can come directly to you and experience that deep breath, relief of forgiveness and joy, and gladness in being near to you. Father, for those of us who have experienced this many times, who live by this, we thank you.

36:34We thank you for the deep and abiding joy that this provides. We thank you for the rich gladness that we can have in Jesus Christ. We thank you that our burden has been removed. We thank you that we can now walk in the light with a clean conscience. Truly, so blessed, so happy, because our transgression is forgiven. So help us revel in this gladness like King David. Help us be joyful as we remember our forgiveness as we draw near to you. In Jesus' name, amen.

37:29Thank you for listening. To the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.