Word of Salvation – Vol.24 No.11 – December 1977
The Blessing Of Forgiveness
Sermon by Rev. P. J. Berghouse, Th.Grad. on Psalm 32:1
Scripture reading: Psalm 32
Psalter Hymnal: 314; 77; 70:1,2,3 (Law); 283:1,2,10 (Offering);
55:1,2,3 (Sermon); 51:1 (Dox.); 115 (Conf.)
NOTE: Readers, please observe comma’s as a SHORT PAUSE!
Congregation of the Lord Jesus Christ, Boys and Girls, do YOU find it difficult, to ADMIT wrong???
When a group is asked that well-known question: Who’s done it?
Do YOU then find it hard, to ‘OWN UP’?
Is it not often so that we WAIT… till we see NO other way out? In the meantime we keep on asking ourselves:
“Do I really HAVE to say it??”
OR… “How long will I be able to HIDE the fact,
that I am the one who did the wrong thing???”
How long, are YOU able to ‘cover up’ with all kinds of excuses???
You probably have found too, that as long as THIS goes on, your heart is in your throat – you ARE… uneasy!
It seems to me that THIS is not a problem that is limited to boys and girls in-a-group.
To admit that we are GUILTY, IS one of the biggest problems of our day… for ALL people!
This is particularly true, over against GOD!
One of the HARDEST things in life, is to realise, the EXTENT of our transgressions…
HOW MUCH wrong have you and I done in the eyes of GOD?
HOW MUCH are WE trying, to cover UP our sins???
What IS the extent of our ‘iniquity’???
Many people do not LIKE to feel guilty.
SO… they try to ‘explain it away’:
MISbehaviour, becomes a ‘wrong reaction to the environment’.
Crime, becomes ‘an illness’; and..
the criminal, ‘a patient’, who suffers the effects of an ill-adjusted environment.
This reasoning denies the people the RIGHT and DUTY to feel guilty.
And consequently it denies them the PRIVILEGE to ENJOY forgiveness!
Let us see, how GOD’s WORD deals with this problem:
Psalm 32 has been written by a man, who has struggled with this problem IN DEPTH….!
HE has gone right through it, and has come out ‘on top’!
The answers HE found, have excited him SO much, that he wrote a Psalm about it, for OUR instruction.
You look at this Psalm, for instance, and WHAT do you find???
You do NOT find, that the Psalmist bores you with some sort of Technical Church Jargon!!! There is NO systematic reasoning about some ‘dogmatic article’ such-and-such.
All the Psalmist does, is speak FROM, rather than ABOUT his own experience!
THAT is why he BEGINS our text, with the exclamation: “BLESSED is he..!”
You see, David is OVERWHELMED by the way in which he actually EXPERIENCED what it is, to be forgiven!
To HIM, this was such a miraculous GIFT, that in the verses 1 and 2, he simply REPEATS the same idea with different words.
Forgiveness – to him – was like a precious JEWEL.
He rolled it – as it were – from one hand into the other;
so that he might see, the different aspects of it, in all their glittering beauty!
And his eyes light up, as he becomes more and more aware of the WEALTH – he is holding in his hand…!
“How BLESSED is he, whose transgression is forgiven, whose SIN is covered!
HOW BLESSED is the man, to whom the Lord does NOT impute iniquity.”
Ah, THIS is the response of the soul, of the PERSON, who KNOWS what it is to have his sins FORGIVEN – by the very GOD, he had so greatly insulted! Such a person cannot but SING of the greatness of God’s GRACE!
Young people, do YOU know, HOW great that Grace is???
You will find an attempt to describe its measurements in the 103rd Psalm:…
“As high as heaven is above the earth,
SO great is God’s mercy towards them that fear Him.
As far as the East is from the West,
So far, does God remove our transgressions from us!”
Indeed, this is but an attempt to describe that what ultimately is UNMEASURABLE.
Yes, the JEWEL which the Psalmist sings about, is the greatest miracle, next to Creation itself!
It is the RESTORATION of lives-ruined-by-sin!
Brothers and Sisters, Young People,
THIS is the most VITAL point, in your and my existence!
Without this restoration, you can only expect to see your life CRUMBLE away.
While ‘Being Restored’ means that you begin to see the pieces being fitted together again, SO THAT harmony and peace are being established.
HARMONY AND PEACE…!
Are these not the BLESSINGS-of-forgiveness, which make us “glad in the Lord”, yes, which make “the righteous to rejoice, and SHOUT for joy”????… (verse 11)!
Thus we listen to our text, as it speaks to us of…
“THE BLESSING OF FORGIVENESS”
We see how this is brought about,
- By Righteous Punishment; and
- By Upright Confession.
A] The Blessing of Forgiveness is brought about, FIRST of all by RIGHTEOUS PUNISHMENT.
Did you ever realise, that the biggest obstacle which God has to overcome, when He wants to forgive us ..is …our OWN sinful nature???
It is indeed that problem of ours – about which we spoke earlier – namely, that we want to ‘hang-on’ as long as we can, BEFORE we are willing to admit that we have sinned against GOD.
David brings this out in verse 3 by saying: “When I kept silent..!”
You see, there WAS that period in his life, during which he simply refused to ‘own-up’. HE wanted everybody – including GOD! – to forget about what he had done wrong. HE wanted to go on living, as if nothing had happened.
Well, have YOU never tried to ‘cover up’ your sins before the Lord?
There ARE of course VARIOUS ways in which we can TRY this:
SOME try to make-up’ for what they have done wrong, by being EXTRA good in some other way. They suddenly become over-friendly; or sometimes even ‘over-religious’.
They realise that they are ‘in DEBT’ with the Lord. They want to get rid of this debt, through the payment of some ‘good deeds’.
It is not uncommon, for instance, to find people who make a substantial financial contribution to the Church in order to soothe their conscience.
OTHERS try to cover up their sins, by telling themselves, AND everybody else, that what THEY did was really not so wrong.
And do we not ALWAYS tend to think, that OUR circumstances are SO exceptional, SO unique, that we were RIGHT in the way WE handled the situation?
“Because, you see, whatever the Bible may say about SIMILAR circumstances, does NOT really apply to OUR case.”
And SO we THINK that WE have not sinned.
Any difficulties, which we MIGHT encounter as a result of our failures, are quickly explained as the outcome of someone else’s faults.
Brothers and Sisters, this reasoning is NOT only found with some of the official ‘Stirrers’ on the industrial scene!
It is a part of sinful human nature, through which we BOLSTER our hearts and lives, against the WARNINGS of God’s Word.
The result is, that we become DEAF to His message for us!
Now, …just as the Bible COMMANDS parents that they must NOT spare the rod, on children who refuse to listen, SO …GOD Himself applies this SAME principle on HIS children, when they refuse to take notice of what HE says to them in His holy Word. HE does not shrink back from using the ‘rod-of-punishment’.
The Psalmist refers to this in verse 4, when he says:
“For day and night GOD’s HAND was heavy upon me.”
The effect of this was that there was neither pleasure, joy, nor gladness in his life.
Beloved, is it not striking, that in a society as ours today wherein ‘punishment’ has become something like an ‘old-fashioned and outdated’ idea, which WE – in an age of ‘enlightened psychiatry’ – should have outgrown long ago; IS it not striking, that in SUCH an age, people find it MORE difficult than ever, to believe that God DOES punish, that HE can (and sometimes DOES) take the joy and peace out of YOUR life?????? People say that a GOD-Who-punishes is ‘not fair’!
But no one rejoices MORE at this kind of talk, than Satan himself! However, the Word of God shows us the fallacy of THIS way of reasoning. DAVID places the whole problem in the right perspective. Listen how he puts it:
“When I kept silent about my sin
(“The LORD placed His holy Hand upon me,
and made me feel VERY DEPRESSED”)
Then, in verse 5
“I acknowledged my sin, my iniquity I did not hide!”
Yes, David confessed his transgressions to the Lord.
AND – the Lord forgave the iniquity of his sin!
You see, as soon as David stopped moaning and groaning about his circumstances, in order to CONFESS his sins instead; SO SOON he begins to SING about the BLESSING OF FORGIVENESS.
THE LONGER he refused to CONFESS, the worse his situation became BECAUSE the Lord was using a righteous punishment, in order to draw David back to Himself!
But when David began to see his circumstances for what they were – God’s punishment for the sin David had committed – THEN David surrendered to the Lord, CONFESSED his sin… as ‘SIN’… and received forgiveness!
Boys and Girls,
Do YOU know, how David could be SURE, that his sin WAS indeed forgiven???
He gives the answer himself in the Psalm.
Verse 1 speaks of sin… “being COVERED”.
You see, THAT is the language of the Temple, where daily sacrifices were brought for the forgiveness of sin!
The MESSAGE of these sacrifices was, that GOD is the ONE Who takes away ALL the guilt of ALL the believers!
These sacrifices pointed forward to the coming Messiah.
Through them, David was TAUGHT to TRUST in the Mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Young People,
Have YOU come to grips with the Message of the Sacrifice, which Jesus brought???
At every Lord’s Supper this sacrifice is held before us. Every time you read – or hear about – the Bible…. THIS same Message confronts us.
For it is at the CROSS, that we learn HOW our sins ARE covered.
THERE we learn, that the debt is COMPLETELY paid!
Yes, SO completely, that there is NOTHING left.
Indeed, God IS righteous! NO sin escapes His punishment!
Therefore: it is NOT as the Roman Catholics say, that Jesus paid for the BIG sins, and we have to do it for the little ones!
As Reformed people we sing:
“How blessed is he, whose sin is WHOLLY covered…!
Ah, but HOW is this in the PRACTICE of our life???
IS it not often so, that somehow, somewhere,
“ we secretly try to ADD our own bit???
How often is it that YOUR life is robbed, (in part at least,) of the Blessing of Forgiveness, of the Joy and Peace it brings???
And THIS SIMPLY because there is something lacking, in your surrender to the TRUTH, that the sacrifice-of-Jesus, covers your sins COMPLETELY, and… ALL OF THEM???
CAN it be, that the HAND of the Lord is upon you… so that your ‘bones wax old’, and you life becomes as DRY as a Drought???
Is this because YOU are the one who keeps silent,
OR…. because you keep on HIDING your sin from the Lord…
persistently REFUSING to CONFESS your wrong???
Oh, WHY do we not pay more attention to the fact, that the BLESSING of FORGIVENESS is brought about…
FIRST of all by Righteous PUNISHMENT;
B] But then SECONDLY – also by an UPRIGHT CONFESSION.
The Psalmist teaches us to say:
“I ACKNOWLEDGED my sin to God,
and my iniquity I did NOT hide,
I will confess my transgressions to the Lord
AND the Lord forgave the guilt of my sin!“
Did you ever notice, that NOTHING is mentioned, IN BETWEEN the confession AND the forgiveness??
Here again we are faced with the problem of human PRIDE.
If we had it OUR way, WE would expect a whole lot of things to happen IN BETWEEN confession on the one hand, and forgiveness on the other.
The Roman Catholics call this ‘PENANCE’.
It means that MAN must DO certain things BEFORE forgiveness can become effective!
In Reformed circles, we tend to insist that ‘signs of a contrite heart’ must be evident BEFORE we are satisfied, and assured, that forgiveness indeed HAS taken place.
And THAT must take time of course!
“Just imagine, ….Salvation would come all too easy, if forgiveness IMMEDIATELY followed Confession!”
Sometimes we ACT as if it takes YEARS and YEARS… before the Blessing of Forgiveness can actually be experienced.
THIS again is the way SATAN tries to ROB God’s people of the JOY, which the Gospel of Christ brings!
Now, a contrite heart’ indeed there MUST be!
TOO many Christians today, seem to forget this.
BUT… you look at how the Psalmist explains what such a contrite heart is like:
It says: “I will own-up,
I will confess rather than HIDE my sin.”
And continues: “Don’t be like a horse or a mule…!”
– many people are like that.
– “trying to see if you can GNAW God’s law to pieces,
so that it won’t hurt anymore.”
And THEN… in verse 11:
“Be GLAD in the Lord, and REJOICE,
yes, SHOUT for joy, all you who are upright in heart.”
THAT, you see, THAT is how a contrite heart makes an upright confession!
– It does not come with flimsy excuses.
– It mentions sins, as-GOD-sees-them….!
Too terrible to be taken lightly.
The WORLD tries to cover up, to camouflage; it tries to make it look better than it IS. Or, perhaps, it gives in – just a LITTLE.
BUT, there is NEVER that TRUE confession…
that wholehearted SURRENDER to the Grace of God!
And THUS … it MISSES the Blessing of FORGIVENESS.
The WORLD can never “BE… glad-in-the-Lord”!
The contrite heart, however, moves from confession to REJOICING!
Yes, it SHOUTS for joy;
because it has been SET FREE from the oppression of guilt!
Brothers and Sisters, Young People, Boys and Girls,
WHEN you experience God’s hand upon you…
and you do NOT hide your sin, but rather…
ACKNOWLEDGE God’s Righteous Punishment
with an Upright Confession, THEN… you ARE… BLESSED indeed!!
AMEN.