All right, Psalm 32, verse number 5 begins by saying, I acknowledge my sin unto thee,
which I've decided to call the sermon tonight, I acknowledge my sin, I acknowledge my sin.
Now one thing I've noticed since becoming a pastor, one of the topics I keep hitting
like over and over again is the fact that we need to keep acknowledging our sins.
Now often we talk about, you know, the first thought about this of course is salvation.
In order for us to be saved we have to acknowledge that we're a sinner, acknowledge that we
sinned against the Lord to understand that we're not where the Lord wants us to be,
we're not right with God, that the Lord's judgment and curse is upon us.
And so as sinners that have a need for a Savior, we recognize the fact that we need to acknowledge
our sin, acknowledge that we're a sinner, acknowledge that we need a Savior to be saved.
But then one thing, the thing that I seem to be preaching about constantly, and it's
not so much that this is a hobby horse of mine, it is something that I love preaching
about, but at the same time it's just found over and over and over in the scriptures.
Is the fact that even as Christians we need to keep confessing or acknowledging our sin
before the Lord.
All right?
Now this is important because there is a certain sect of Christianity, I'm talking about the
hyper, hyper, hyper dispensationalists.
I mean you've got your rock-tard dispensationalists.
I'm saying these are the rock-tards of the rock-tards dispensationalists.
They try to divide the Bible all over the, I mean it's just, it's division after division
after division, and they just fail, and look, many of these people are not even saved, okay?
But they fail to understand the difference between having your sins acknowledged and
forgiven for salvation, which is your position before God, and failing to understand that
we also have our walk with God, where we need to, in order to maintain close fellowship
with God, we need to confess our sins on a regular basis.
There's a difference between those two things.
But these people that are on the extreme case, they say, well, we don't need to ask God
to forgive our sins, we don't need to acknowledge our sins in our daily life, because Jesus
Christ has already paid for all of those things, why do we keep going to the Lord to forgive
our sins?
And that is one extreme, that is one extreme view that we never need to go to God, now
that we are saved, now that His blood has been applied for us, we never need to go to
the Lord for salvation, because they apply it to the position.
Well this Psalm is a Psalm of David, and I do believe the first two verses is about salvation,
but the following verses is about a saved man still having to go to the Lord, confessing
his sins.
And I think this is such an important topic, because we actually see in this Psalm as well,
the consequences of not being people that go on a regular basis to the Lord confessing
our sins.
So let's start there in verse number one, Psalm 32 verse number one, if your Bible might
mention a Psalm of David, so definitely about a saved man here is writing this.
But it begins by saying, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
So we start immediately here, right?
Your transgressions are forgiven, your sins are covered.
Now this isn't a very long Psalm, so I am going to be using other passages in the Bible
to expound these verses a lot more, so keep your finger there, and please go to Hebrews
chapter nine.
Please go to Hebrews chapter nine verse number eleven.
Hebrews chapter nine verse number eleven.
Now I do believe these first two verses in this Psalm is definitely about salvation.
That if you have had your sins covered, you are blessed.
It's a great blessing to know that your sins have been paid for in Jesus Christ, and positionally
before God, when the Father looks down at you, he sees those sins completely covered
by the righteousness, by the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Hey, that's a great blessing.
You're blessed if you are saved, okay?
Your transgression is forgiven, it's been paid for in Jesus Christ.
Now remember when David wrote this, he was not operating under the new covenant, he was
operating under the old covenant.
And under the old covenant, you know, the Israelites were instructed by God to go and
offer sacrifices.
There were different kinds of offerings, different types of sacrifices that they would bring
before into the temple, and you know, there are different views as to what these sacrifices
represented.
Now, we all kind of understand that those sacrifices pointed us to Jesus Christ, okay?
But were they just symbolic of Christ, or was there something more with these blood
sacrifices?
For those that are on the extreme view of dispensationalism, many of them actually do
believe that in order for someone to be saved in the Old Testament, that they had to offer
a sacrifice.
They actually believe that the blood of that animal that was being spilt covered somebody's
sins.
And so when David says, blessed is the man whose sin is covered, he's talking about,
well, you know, when he was going to the temple and offering blood sacrifices of animals,
that's what covered their sins, they'll say.
That is so wrong.
It is so wrong.
The blood of an animal, brethren, cannot cover your sins.
I mean, look, just think about that for a moment.
If the blood of animals could cover our sins, okay, why would Christ have to come?
Think about that, right?
I mean, God could just allow animals to continue, you know, reproducing, being fruitful and
multiply.
Just keep bringing animals, keep bringing animals for every sin you've committed.
Just shed the blood of animals, shed the blood of animals again and again and again and again.
Why would you need to sacrifice your only begotten son if the sins of an animal could
cover your sins or take away your sins?
It's ridiculous.
So whether in Hebrews chapter 9, look at verse number 11, Hebrews chapter 9, verse number
11, it says, But Christ, being come and high priest of good things to come, by a greater
and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
look at verse number 12, neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.
Look at verse number 13, for if the blood of bulls and of goats and the ashes of an
heifer, sprinkling the unclean sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, how much more
shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot
to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
So we see in Hebrews chapter 9, that Christ's sacrifice is much greater, more perfect than
what they were doing in the Old Testament, okay?
Now if you look at verse number 13, this is where you need to be careful with God's Word,
okay?
Look at verse number 13 again, it says, For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes
of an heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, saying, If
it did, or is it if it could?
This is where you have to ask the questions, right?
As you read your Bible, as you become a student of the Bible, you start to understand the
differences of the Old Testament and the New Testament, is it saying that if it did, therefore
Christ's sacrifice is in effect, or is it saying if it could, okay?
And that's what you need to understand.
Is the blood of, you know, in the Old Testament, did it cause, you know, any kind of sanctification
of the flesh?
Or is the if here conditional, you know, if it could do it, you know, then of course Christ
could do so much more.
Well, this is why then as you read the Bible, you know, to have the answer to that question,
we go, you know, when you look for context, you look for a greater understanding, you
need to look within the contents of that book.
So if we just look further into the book of Hebrews, go to Hebrews chapter 10 and verse
number one, Hebrews chapter 10 and verse number one, and the answer gets given to us here,
just one chapter later, the answer is given to us, okay?
So did the blood of the bulls and goats of the Old Testament cover people's sins or
not?
Now, the reason I'm going into this is because even in mainline IFB churches, they'll say
silly things like this, well, the blood of the bulls and goats covered people's sins,
but they didn't get forgiven for their sins until Christ came.
I mean, when you look at the psalm, it talks about blessed is he whose transgression is
forgiven, whose sin is covered.
So it's basically saying if your sins are forgiven, it means you've been covered.
Because they've been covered, they've been forgiven, okay?
It's not like one or the other.
They both come together.
Your sins are covered, it means you're forgiven, okay?
So when you go to Hebrews chapter 10 and verse number one, it says, for the law, having a
shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things can never, listen
brethren, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually
make the comers they're unto perfect.
Those sacrifices could never cause somebody to be perfect before God.
It had no effect of covering any sins, brethren, okay?
What was the purpose?
The purpose of the sacrifice of the Old Testament was to be a shadow of good things to come.
They were to point us to Christ.
They were object lessons that one day Christ himself, God will send the perfect Lamb of
God one day to sacrifice himself for the sins of man and these animal sacrifices were
just a picture, a shadow, a foreshadowing, symbolizing what Christ would ultimately do.
And so when David the psalmist says in Psalm 32, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered, yes, he's speaking about Jesus Christ, that the blood of Christ
has saved him, has caused his sins to be forgiven, his sins have been covered by the blood of
Christ but he would see that symbolically or as a shadow as he would go into the temple
offering his sacrifices for his sins.
This is important because I'm telling you, I mean think about what Christ had to do,
who Christ was, the blood of God, right, was necessary to cover our sins and to forgive
us of our sins.
Are you going to compare that to the blood of animals who could maybe temporarily cover
your sins?
It's ridiculous, okay?
It's ridiculous that the blood of a created animal can take away sins, no, it needed the
blood of God, okay, which was in the veins of Jesus Christ.
Now look at verse number 3, you're in Hebrew chapter 10 verse number 2, for then would
they not have ceased to be offered because that the worshippers once purged should have
had no more conscience of sins but in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made
of sins every year.
Look at verse number 4, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should
take away sins.
I'll read that again, for it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should
take away sins.
That completely destroys any thought that people in the Old Testament got saved by offering
sacrifices.
It could not take away sins, not possible, that's why Christ had to come.
This seems like basic things to us.
Christ had to come because those sacrifices were never going to accomplish that, okay,
they were just shadows of Christ, they were to point people to Christ.
Verse number 5, wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith, look at this, sacrifice
and offering thou wouldst not but a body hast thou prepared me, in burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
Wow, so all the sacrifices, all the burnt offerings of the past gave God no pleasure.
It did not satisfy his need for justification.
The only thing that satisfies God is the blood of Jesus Christ.
So when we look at the psalmist in Psalm 32, when he says blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered, it's not the animal sacrifices, it's the blood of Christ
that has saved him from his sins, okay.
Now can you please go to Romans chapter 4 verse number 5.
Romans chapter 4 and verse number 5.
Romans 4, 5 it says, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth
the ungodly, his faith is countered for righteousness.
This is important because then it says in verse number 6, remember David is the psalmist.
Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works, saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are
covered.
Where did he say that?
In the psalm.
Psalm 32, right.
Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
That's what he says in Psalm 32, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose
sin is covered.
And so when David the psalmist is saying this in verse number 1 in Psalm 32, what is he
speaking about?
He's speaking about the faith on Jesus Christ, okay.
Verse number 8, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
Alright, now go back to Psalm 32 and verse number 2 because what we just read there in
Romans 4 verses 7 and 8 is basically Psalm 32 verses 1 and 2, okay.
The New Testament writer Paul there, through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, is taking
what David said in Psalm 32.
This is why to separate, you know, well the Old Testament did it like this and the New
Testament's like this, it's so ridiculous.
You know the New Testament keeps drawing from the lessons of the Old Testament.
Again, everything points us to Jesus Christ.
Verse number 2, Psalm 32 verse number 2, blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not
iniquity in whose spirit there is no guile.
So we read in Romans 4 which said, sorry verse number 6, even as David also described the
blessed of man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.
Salvation is without works.
We are made righteous with God through faith and not with works, okay.
And so we have been imputed the righteousness of Christ and then we will read Psalm 32,
blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity in whose spirit there is no guile.
We can see that once we have the righteousness of Christ imputed upon us, we no longer have
sin imputed upon us, okay.
That sin has been completely removed.
Again, this is our position before God.
This is salvation.
We stand before God the Father.
He sees the righteousness of Christ and He doesn't see our sin, okay, positionally, okay.
Now the rest of the verses would make no sense, okay, if there was no further need
to ask God for forgiveness in our Christian life.
This is not teaching we can lose our salvation and then we need to go back to God and ask
for forgiveness again, okay, no.
Understanding the Bible is understanding those two basic principles, your position and your
walk.
You know, you can be saved and have a walk that is far from the Lord.
You can be saved and you may have no desire to be in the house of the Lord, you have no
desire to pick up the Bible, you have no desire to be in fellowship with God, you can be someone
who has no desire to sing praises to the Lord, but you know what, if you've put your faith
and trust on Jesus Christ, you're saved, your sins have been covered, okay.
But shouldn't we desire something more than that?
I mean, for me, yeah, being saved is wonderful, but I want to spend time with my Savior.
I want to know more of this God who loved me enough to send His Son to die for me.
And so the Christian life isn't just salvation, which is wonderful, hey, that's step one, okay.
Now God wants to be in fellowship with us.
God wants to guide us, He wants to direct us, He wants us to have a life that is abundant,
a joyful life, okay, and you can only find that by walking in His ways.
And so, you know, as I was kind of thinking about this psalm, when I read verse number
three, you'll see that there's a need, even though he's saved, there's a need for him
to keep going to the Lord and confessing and acknowledging his sin, okay.
Now you might say, well, maybe this was before he got saved, this is how he was feeling before
he got saved, and now that he's saved, you know, okay, you know, I think you can apply
those verses to someone that is not saved, but the reason the following verses is of
someone who is definitely saved is if you just look at verse number six, how it begins,
it says, for this, which we're about to read, verses three, four and five, for this
shall everyone that is godly pray unto thee.
Could you say about an unsaved man that they're godly?
Of course not, okay, the only people that can be given that name of being godly is of
course a believer who is already saved.
And so the next verses that we're about to read is about a saved person, okay, who
positionally before God has had the imputed righteousness of Christ put upon him, okay,
but we still have our spiritual walk, our fellowship with God the Father.
So let's start there in verse number three, verse number three.
Now we know this man is saved, he's already described that, okay.
So now this is about a saved man, I want to make this very clear, verse number three.
When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long, okay.
So what is he saying now?
He's saying, look, now that I'm saved, okay, and I live my spiritual life, I'm going to
commit sin, and I've committed sin, and we all commit sin every day, okay.
We're going to commit sin to the day we die.
But you can choose to either acknowledge your sin to the Lord, or you can choose to keep silence.
Say, well, I've sinned and I'm full of pride, you know, not having the shame of your sin,
maybe being embarrassed to go to God.
Say, well, I'm not going to confess this sin.
I'm not going to do it, I'm just going to keep silence.
You can do that if you want, as a Christian, okay.
You're still going to heaven, okay.
You're just not going to have a very happy life, okay.
When I kept silence, my bones waxed old, okay.
So he's feeling wretched.
You know, while he has this default walk in his Christian life, you know, he's feeling
wretched, he's feeling like he's aging rapidly, okay.
And it says waxed old through my roaring all the day long.
Now, I'm not sure exactly what the roaring, I guess the roaring of a lion, you can kind
of think about that, or the roaring of waves.
The thought there that the fact that it's going all day long is that as he keeps silence,
as he has no ambition or desire right now to confess his sins to God, that while he's
trying to ignore that sin, while he's trying to ignore the fact that he needs to humbly
go before God, there's this constant reminder, like there's this constant roaring, saying
you're not right with God, you got to get right with God.
You know, you got to go and confess your sin.
And this has affected him all day long.
And because it's affecting him all day long, it's in the back of his mind, it's bothering
him, he's feeling like he's aging rapidly, okay.
It's having an effect on his physical body.
And this is what unconfessed sin will do to you, brethren, okay.
It'll cause you to feel like you're aging rapidly.
It'll cause a physical, you know, issues and this constant, you know, your conscience
is constantly bothering, like roaring at you, the fact that you're not right with God.
And so you don't want to be someone that keeps silence.
When you sin, let me encourage you, just say, I'm going to confess it straight away.
Okay, like, don't wait till the end of the day to rack up all your sins during the day.
All right, Lord, now's the time for me to confess my sin, right?
You probably forget a lot of them, you know, and I'm sure there are so many sins we've
done, we just completely forgot, you know, or we just didn't even recognize the sins
or, you know, whatever, we live busy lives.
You know, let me encourage you just as your pastor, and I want you to be, have happy Christian
lives, like, I want you guys to just enjoy life, you know, enjoy your salvation, enjoy
your Lord, enjoy your work with God.
I'm just encouraging you, when you do wrong, don't be prideful.
Don't keep silence, you know, go and acknowledge your sin to the Lord.
What are the other consequences of keeping silence?
Verse number four, he says, for day and night, thy hand was heavy upon me.
Now, last week, we looked at this being the hand of God's chastisement on the sinner,
right, on someone who is of the Lord, someone that is saved, day and night.
So, the Psalmist is going a long period here of unconfessed sin, okay.
I don't know if this is one single day or night, or maybe several days that he's going
through with unconfessed sin.
One thing we definitely know with King David, you know, we know the great sin of King David
with Bathsheba, and, you know, it wasn't till the baby was born that Nathan came and
confronted David about his sin.
So, we know that King David can go over nine months, okay, because that's how long it
takes for a baby to come out, right, can go over nine months before we confess this sin
before the Lord, and there are grave consequences because of that, okay.
But you can see, we can be, you know, yeah, we talk about David here, but we are people
as well, okay.
We're Christians as well that are saved, we can be stubborn as well, we can be prideful
as well.
Look, you don't want to be going day and night, okay, having that hand of God, of his
chastisement heavy upon you.
That'll be your consequence if you have unconfessed sin, by the way.
God's chastisement will fall upon you.
He says, my moisture is turned into the drought of summer, Selah.
Now, keep your finger there.
Please go to Hebrews 12, Hebrews chapter 12, and this is why it's definitely about the
believer, okay, because if you go to Hebrews 12 verse number six, I should have told you
to stay in Hebrews before, but anyway, Hebrews chapter 12 verse number six, it says,
for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son, every son whom he receiveth.
Brevin, you know what this tells me?
We've all faced the chastisement of the Lord.
We've all, me, even me, even Pastor Kevin, right?
Yeah, wow, right?
The mature Christian, pastor, you know, pastor of two churches, you know, yeah, I've been
chastised by God as well.
We all have, okay.
In fact, it's good, okay, because that proves that I'm one of his sons.
That proves that he loves me, that he wants to get me right.
Verse number seven, if you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons, for what
son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards and
not sons.
Brevin, you know what?
The ungodly, the wicked, unsaved, ungodly, they can get away with murder.
Like literally, seemingly anyway, seemingly on this earth.
It can seem like they get away with significant sins.
You know why?
Because they're bastards.
They're not sons of God, okay?
They're not sons of God.
God will chastise his children, okay?
But he will chastise us as sons, okay?
I'd rather be judged by God as a son of God than be judged by God as a bastard.
So listen, chastisement is good for us.
Don't get frustrated.
Well, you know what?
You get chastised, maybe it's because you have unconfessed sin.
Maybe you've been going a long time without confessing your sins to the Lord.
And yeah, you need to learn your lesson.
But at the same time, don't get angry at God because he loves you.
He's doing it out of love.
The same love that he had for you to save you is the same love that is causing him to
chastise you as a son of God, okay?
So we can definitely say this is about a believer as we're going through Psalm 32.
Now, please go back to Psalm 32, verse number five.
So you can see he's having a miserable time.
He's not enjoying his Christian walk, is he?
Okay, he's feeling old.
He's bothered by his conscience.
He's being chastised by God.
He says, my moisture is turned from that.
I don't even know what really, what he's trying to explain.
I guess, you know, he's just not living a full and abundant life, right?
He feels dried up.
And then he finally gets to the point where he's broken enough in verse number five where
he says, I acknowledged my sin unto thee.
Yeah, you know what?
That's why, brethren, just get in the habit.
Please try to develop in your Christian life.
Get in the habit.
As soon as you sin, just get it right with God.
Why put yourself through more turmoil and difficulties than you have to?
Why?
Why do it?
But here's the thing.
We're all going to do it.
This is why it's in the Bible.
So we remember, okay?
So you don't start doubting like, oh, am I really saved?
The fact that you've been chastised by God proves you are saved.
Praise God.
Okay.
But, you know, we don't want to go through more turmoil than we really need to.
If we just remember these simple truths, I've sinned.
I better acknowledge it to God.
Okay.
He says, I acknowledge my sin unto thee and my iniquity have I not hid.
That's the thing, by the way.
It's about not hiding your iniquity.
When you go and you confess your sins to God, don't be like, ah, God, just forgive me for
all my sins, you know, since I woke up at 6 a.m. till I went to bed at 10 p.m.
Just all the sins in general, God, you just cover them.
Can you forgive them?
No, don't hide them.
Actually name your sins.
You know what I believe?
I truly believe if you're willing to name your sins before God, say, God, this is what
I'm struggling with.
This is the sin I committed, that you're going to have the greater capacity to overcome
that sin.
If you just pray the general, ah, just all my sins in the last 24 hours, God, no, you
know, just name them specifically.
That's why it's good to do it as soon as you sin.
Because you're having to address that specific sin before God right there, you know.
It's good for humility.
You know, we all struggle with pride.
We all think we're all that.
You know, it just, it creeps up in life.
It just happens, okay.
Someone might offend you, upset you, you know, it's good to be reminded that we need
to stay humble, that we are forgiven children of God.
And let's not hide our sins before God.
And then in verse number five, it continues by saying, I said, I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord.
And this is the best part.
And thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.
Wow, you know, it takes us sometimes a long time to confess our sins.
But then God is very quick to just forgive them.
I mean, it's so simple, right?
It seems so simple.
God, I messed up.
I committed X, Y, and Z sin.
God, I don't want to hide my sin.
Please help me.
Please forgive me.
God says, I forgive you.
Done.
Oh, right.
Like when you get in the habit of this and you understand it's that quick, where God
forgives you, then it's a blessing.
Because now you're close to God again.
You're in fellowship with God once again.
You're in the light once again.
Okay, God can use you, God can use you as a channel to do great works for Him.
But if you're having unconfessed sin for a long period of time, how do you think God
can use you when you're so far from Him?
Now, in Proverbs 28, I'll just read it to you, verse 8, 13.
Proverbs 28, verse number 13.
It says, he that covereth his sins shall not prosper.
So if you hide your sins from God, you're not going to prosper.
You're not going to do well in your Christian life.
Okay, maybe a lack of prosperity, not prosperity gospel, maybe a lack of prosperity of an
abundant, happy Christian life just comes down to you not willing to confess your sins
to God.
It could be.
I don't know.
I don't know your life.
Okay, but then it says in Psalm 28, 13, it says, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh
them shall have mercy.
Amen.
God's mercy.
That's what we do when we go before God asking for forgiveness of sins.
We're appealing to His mercy.
Okay, God, instead of chastising me, God, instead of this making
significant consequences and damages in my life, Lord, please have mercy upon me.
Please protect me from the dangers of this sin that I've committed before you.
Lord, please forgive me.
You know, you need to beseech and ask God for His mercy.
It's so important.
Now, this is important because when you go to Psalm 32, verse number 6, it says, for
this shall everyone that is godly, so that's again the believer, pray unto thee in a time
when thou mayest be found.
When I was looking at the Psalm, verse number 6 to me was the most interesting.
Okay, that there is a time when God may be found.
That would mean to me there is a time when He cannot be found.
Amen.
Does that make sense?
That if we're trying to find Him at a time, we're going to pray unto Him at a time when
thou mayest be found, we're going to understand there's a time where He may not be found.
Okay, again, this is why it's so important for us to be quick in our confession of
sins.
We've wronged God.
Hey, He can be found now.
I've just wronged Him now.
He can be found.
He's close by.
I'm going to confess now because if I hold on to this too long, I'm not going to find
Him.
What aren't you going to find?
Well, we know God is everywhere.
I'm not saying that He's disappeared or something, right?
It's just that His mercy will not be found.
Okay, His mercy, because that's what we're looking for.
We're looking for God's mercy, God's forgiveness in that sense where we need to understand
there is a period of time that we're given by God to be made right with God in our walk
for Him.
Otherwise, you're not going to find the time.
You're not going to find the mercy that God would have for you.
And then look at verse number six.
The end of verse number six.
Surely, in the floods of great waters, they shall not come nigh unto Him.
All right, so this is speaking about, you know, poetic language, the floods of great
waters.
This is the turmoil, the problems of sin, maybe tribulations and hardships that you're
going through.
We all face those floods.
We all see those waves, you know, looking to overtake us, maybe seemingly feeling like
we're about to drown in those waters to calm the turmoil, the problems.
But if we do go and praise the Lord, if we do find Him and we find His mercy, it says
at the end of it, they shall not come nigh unto Him.
So we'll see those problems.
We'll see the hardship.
We'll see the potential of drowning.
But if we go and confess our sins, the waters aren't going to even come close to us.
And God's going to give us the ability to escape the trials of many, many trials of
our life if we simply go to the God when He can be found.
Okay, now keep your finger there.
Please go to Isaiah 55.
Go to Isaiah 55.
So basically, verse number six is basically saying that if we don't confess sin, it'll
be like drowning in life's difficulties.
We're not going to find safety and security in all of life's difficulties if we don't
confess our sins to the Lord on a regular basis.
Please go to Isaiah 55 and verse number six.
Isaiah 55 and verse number six.
It reads, seek ye the Lord while He may be found.
Call ye upon Him while He is near.
But look, and that verse gets quite a lot.
Very famous verse.
But look at verse number seven.
Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto
the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him.
There's the mercy again.
He will have mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.
Wow, abundantly pardon.
You know what?
You can't out sin God's pardon.
You can't out sin God's mercy.
But what you can do is withhold, be silent, hide your sins before God.
Yeah, and you're going to find a time when God's mercy will not be found.
You're going to face the full brunt of God's judgment, the full brunt of his chastisements.
Okay, when you can't find the mercy, you're just going to get the full brunt of the judgment.
I truly believe there's been times where God's hand of chastisement would have been
significantly more heavy upon my life if I didn't run to him first and sought his mercy.
Okay, I mean, think about your children, parents.
You know, if your children have done wrong, and you know they deserve it, right?
But before, you know, you get to that point where they need to cop it, right?
They come to you, Dad, I'm sorry.
I know I messed up, right?
If they're fighting their sibling, they go to the siblings, they sort it out.
I'm sorry, you know?
If you see that kind of behavior, right?
Admitting their sin, admitting their mistakes,
aren't you going to be so much more merciful toward them?
In fact, so much more merciful, where you might just be entirely,
all right, you know what, you look like you've learned your own lesson here.
I'm just going to apply grace in the situation.
Like, I would have smacked you, okay?
But you know what?
God many times gives us grace, you know, I'm just going to look over this now.
You know what?
No correction, not even any correction, because you've learned the lesson.
Like, you're willing to admit and confess your sins.
Well, if we as parents are able to do that, I mean, that's how God is to us.
He's our Father.
He's our loving Father, we're his children, okay?
And the longer you take to not confess your sins, you're just hardened, you know?
Well, you're not going to find his mercy, and then it's going to be heavy.
Then it's going to be hard.
Why do you want that in your life?
I don't want that in my life.
I don't want that in my children's life.
I would love it if my kids are listening online.
I would love you guys, right?
When you do wrongs, you just come to mom and dad and say, look, I messed up.
You know, we will be a lot more merciful to you.
And we learn that from God.
That's how God operates, okay?
But notice as well what we saw in Isaiah was not only are we seeking the Lord while he may be found,
but then we want to forsake our ways, forsake our evil ways.
Verse number seven said, let the wicked forsake his ways.
Many times when we read the Bible, the word wicked,
like we immediately kind of think about the unsaved, okay?
But no, the wicked here is the man who's not confessing his sins, okay?
I'll read it again.
Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.
By the way, it's not just what you do.
It's what you think up here.
Boy, if you have some evil, wicked thoughts up here, brethren,
you better go and confess it to the Lord as well, okay?
It's not just your way, it's your thoughts as well.
And then it says, and let him return unto the Lord.
So he's already saved, okay?
So if you live a life where you're just living unconfessed sin before the Lord,
God will call you wicked.
And we like to reserve that word wicked for the unsaved, all right?
No, but you're wicked because you're not willing to go and admit your sins before God,
to confess your sins before the Lord.
And brethren, yeah, the next step, confess your sins.
Let's forsake that way.
God, help me overcome this.
You know I'm flesh and blood, Lord.
You know this is a sin I've been struggling with for the past 10 years, 15 years.
Every day, Lord, I might be struggling with this sin.
God, I need you to help me forsake this.
These thoughts, these ways.
And again, the end of verse number seven says,
and he will have mercy upon him and to our God,
for he will abundantly pardon.
That's the best part about confessing your sins.
It can be uncomfortable at the beginning.
Oh, it's telling God, God, I did it again.
I messed up again.
But then you promised me in your word, you forgive me if I do this.
That's the best part, okay?
Now it's forgiven, all right?
Now I can continue in my walk with the Lord.
Back to Psalm 32.
Actually, before I read verse number seven,
I'll just quickly read to you from Hebrews chapter four, verse number 16.
So this is not just an Old Testament principle.
This is New Testament as well.
Because in Hebrews 4 16, it says,
let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace.
Why do we do this?
Why do we come boldly in prayer before God?
It says that we may obtain mercy.
There's that word again.
That we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
You know what?
In order for us to forsake our sins, we need God's help.
We need God's help.
You're not going to reform your life without God.
You're not going to fix your life without God.
It's not going to happen, okay?
We need God's help to help us overcome our sins.
You know, I want you to be someone where,
I don't know if this is the case.
I think, think about it for yourself.
I hope you can say, you know, in 2021, I'm less of a sinner than I was in 2020.
I hope you can say that.
And I hope in 2020, you could say, you know what?
In 2020, I'm less of a sinner than I was in 2019.
You know what?
But here's the thing.
You're going to sin today.
We understand that.
Just because we acknowledge that doesn't mean
that we don't put the effort in to forsake our sins, okay?
It doesn't mean we just stop going to the Lord and asking the Lord,
well, you know what we like.
You know the kind of sins that go through my mind.
They're going to continue till the day I die.
So who cares?
That's a horrible way to live, okay?
It's a horrible way to live.
You know, understand that you need to be somebody
that goes to the Lord on a regular basis confessing your sins.
Verse number seven, Psalm 32, verse number seven.
So now, okay, he's learnt his lesson.
He kept silence.
He had a miserable time, right?
He was really upset, depressed, feeling bad.
Conscience was bothering him.
I'm going to confess my sins.
He does it.
He finds the forgiveness of God, all right?
So what's the next thing?
Verse number seven says, thou art my hiding place.
Thou shall preserve me from trouble.
Thou shall compass me about with songs of deliverance.
Sealer, okay?
So here's what you do, brethren.
Once those sins are forgiven, okay,
then you can go and find that hiding place in God.
You can go and find protection and strength from God, okay?
So what is this teaching me?
This is teaching me and teaching us
that if we don't go confess our sins, you can't run to God.
You can't run to his hiding place with unconfessed sin, okay?
That's step number one.
You confess your sin.
Lord, I messed up.
Now he's available to be that hiding place.
Now he's available to help you, to preserve you
in a time of trouble.
I love how it says thou shall compass me about
with songs of deliverance.
God will say, you know what?
I'll take care of it.
Your trouble, your difficulties,
those sins that you're strong with,
I'll deliver you from all these things.
Beautiful words from God that he sings back to us.
But we love singing to the Lord.
Hey, he sings these songs of deliverance to us
when we go to him for help.
The next two verses, verses number eight and nine,
goes from the Psalmist, or ourselves in a sense,
and now verse number eight and number nine
are the words of God in response, okay?
Verse number eight, God says,
I will instruct thee and teach thee
in the way which thou shalt go.
I will guide thee with mine eye.
Notice that.
Do you wanna have a life where you're being led by God,
where God is directing your paths?
You want that life?
You can't have it if you have unconfessed sin.
The fact that God is saying this,
I will instruct thee and teach in the way
that thou shalt go.
It means the Psalmist was not going
in the way that God wanted him to go, okay?
Why?
Because he kept silent.
He would not admit his sin before God.
In order for us to be led by God,
we need to confess our sins, okay?
Then God will guide our steps.
Then he will direct our paths.
I like verse number nine as well.
God says, be not as the horse,
because don't be an animal, okay?
Don't be a horse or as the mule,
which have no understanding.
God is saying, don't be a stupid animal to us.
He's saying that to us, okay?
Don't be stupid.
Don't be dumb like a horse or dumb like a mule,
which have no understanding,
whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle.
How do you pronounce that?
Bridle, bridle.
Lest they come near unto thee, okay?
God does not want us to be dumb animals, all right?
A dumb horse with no understanding.
A dumb mule.
He doesn't want that.
Reverend, if you have unconfessed sin today,
you're a dumb animal, okay?
Don't be that way, please.
God says, don't be that way, okay?
Otherwise, you're gonna have to shove something
in your mouth and forcibly do something
and correct you, chastise you, all right?
Don't be that way.
Now, when I read verse number nine,
the thought immediately,
the verse that popped into my mind was in James three.
So let's go there.
Keep your finger there.
Let's go to James chapter three and verse number one.
James chapter three and verse number one.
You know, when we sin before the Lord,
what we've seen so far is sinning,
yeah, with our bodies, sinning in our thoughts.
Okay, but one great way that many commit sins
is simply by what we say through our mouths, okay?
And in James chapter three, verse number one,
it says, my brethren, be not many masters,
knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.
Now, this passage is something I read over
on a regular basis, especially as a pastor,
because, you know, we shouldn't call any man master,
but the idea there, basically,
is if you're a master, you have authority, okay?
And so, fathers, you are the master in your family, okay?
And as a pastor, I am the master, as it were, in the church, okay?
So there's, you know, some people really seek the authority
that they want that position where there are people under them
and really desire that,
but there's a bit of a warning there
because if you want that position,
there's also greater condemnation, okay?
Now, what encourages me is verse number two, in a sense,
because it says, for in many things, we offend all.
So this is about the masters, these are people in authority.
In many things, we offend all.
So I can't be a good pastor without offending somebody.
Like, I'm always going to offend somebody.
Like, it's just going to happen, okay?
People get offended at God's word, okay?
You preach God's word, people get offended.
There's nothing you can do about it, okay?
You do what's right, serving the Lord,
you stand for the truth, you speak the truth,
you're going to offend everyone, okay?
But there is a type of offense that we should avoid.
And yes, this is about people in authority,
but this applies to all of us.
Because then it says, in verse, rest of verse number two,
if any man offend not in word,
so if we don't offend people by our words,
the same is a perfect man and also, sorry,
and able also to bridle the whole body.
So the perfect man talks about a complete man, a mature man,
so a mature man will not offend people by his word.
They say, hold on, Pastor Kevin,
you just said you might offend people
by preaching God's word.
Yeah, of course, even when you go door-to-door soul-winning,
you tell someone they're on their way to hell,
and you're doing it lovingly
because you want to win them to the Lord,
they're going to get offended by that as well.
When you tell them that salvation is not by how good you are,
they're going to get offended at that as well.
When you tell them that false religion
is not going to save them,
they're going to get offended at that as well.
Does that mean, let's just not offend anybody,
that we just don't speak, right?
No, this is not talking about, you know,
speaking the truth, okay?
This is about actually going out
and actually offending somebody,
like sinning against someone,
transgressing against someone, right?
Speaking harsh words, false accusations,
this kind of language toward other people.
You know, the mature person,
the person that's complete and perfect
will overcome their tongue,
will overcome their mouth from just outwardly offending people.
In that sense, okay?
Verse number three, it says,
behold, we put bits in the horse's mouths
that they may obey us,
and we turn about their whole body.
So there's that reference going back to Psalm 32.
And then verse number four, behold, also the ships,
and though they be so great and are driven of fierce winds,
yet are they turned about with a very small helm,
whithersoever the governor listeth.
And then it says, verse number five,
even so the tongue is a little member,
and boast of great things.
Behold, how great a matter of little fire kindleth, okay?
So your tongue can light fires, okay?
Your tongue can do a lot of damage, right?
Verse number six, and the tongue is a fire,
a word of iniquity, there it is, okay?
So we're talking about offending people
by iniquity coming out of our mouths.
If we just speak the truth of God's word,
and people get offended, well, that's not iniquity.
That's not iniquity, okay?
The iniquity is when you speak words
to destroy individuals, right?
You make false accusations, you lie about somebody, all right?
That is what we need to control.
It says, so is the tongue among our members,
that it defileth the whole body,
and seteth on fire the course of nature,
and it is set on fire of hell.
Boy, so think about hellfire, all right?
The purpose of hellfire, God's wrath,
destroying the wicked, your tongue has the same fire.
It can cause the same damage, right?
It contains that same wrath, you know?
So we need to be careful of this tongue.
Verse number seven, for every kind of beast,
and of birds, and of serpents,
and of things in the sea is tamed,
and have been tamed of mankind,
but the tongue can no man tame.
It is an unruly evil full of deadly poison.
Wow, so our tongue can no man tame.
You can't even tame your own tongue.
That's why you need God.
That's why you need God's help, okay?
That's why you need to walk in the new man, okay?
And you need to make this body subjective,
your subject under the Holy Ghost,
under the new man, okay?
Under God.
But I want to just show you that,
because as soon as I read Psalm 32
about the bit in the horse's mouth,
I just immediately thought of James 3.
You know, we sin in many ways, don't we?
Outwardly, we might do things in the flesh.
You know, thoughts, the thoughts that enter our mind,
our wicked thoughts that might come in there,
but also our tongue.
You know, when you speak something,
and you know you've caused offense,
I'm not saying you've spoken the truth.
I'm not saying you stood for God's word, you know,
or someone's just been, you know,
the snowflake generation that get offended for no reason.
I'm not talking about that.
I'm talking if you've gone out
and you've said some harsh things,
you've caused harm on somebody, right?
You've caused, you know you've spoken iniquity.
Then you need to get that right.
That's something else you need to confess before the Lord.
Okay, all right, back to Psalm 32, verse number 10.
Psalm 32, verse number 10.
Now remember, the wicked in this context
is about a believer, okay?
So I don't think verse number 10,
we should remove it from the context
of what we're reading here, okay?
Because it says,
many sorrows shall be to the wicked.
Okay, so who is this?
But hear that trust of the Lord,
mercy shall come past him about.
So again, we're looking for the mercy of God,
the forgiveness of sins.
But if you don't do that,
if you don't confess your sins,
well then many sorrows shall be to the wicked, okay?
So without confessing your sins,
the Bible's referring to you as a wicked person.
You're gonna have a lot of sorrows.
You're gonna have unnecessary burdens, depression, okay?
If you are not somebody that actively goes
and confesses your sin to the Lord.
Verse number 11.
Now, we've had our sins forgiven by the Lord.
We're right with the Lord now, okay?
He's protecting us.
And then verse number 11.
It says,
be glad in the Lord and rejoice,
ye righteous.
So you see the righteous here
are those that have confessed their sins
on a regular basis, okay?
And shout for joy,
all ye that are upright in heart, okay?
So once we are forgiven,
once we are no longer wicked
in our walk with the Lord
and we're made righteous in it
and we're in fellowship with the Lord,
we're having the best thing to do.
I'm forgiven by God.
Go and rejoice.
Go and thank God.
God, thank you for forgiving me of my sins.
Pick up a hymn book.
Sing a praise unto him.
Open the Psalms and sing a Psalm
from your heart unto the Lord.
Just give him thanks.
Rejoice in the Lord, brethren.
Once forgiven, take time to rejoice in the Lord.
So I hope you see this
and you need to apply this in your life.
Again, I don't want you to be a Christian
with unnecessary sorrows.
I don't want you as a Christian
with unnecessary hurt and depression,
unnecessary chastisement by the Lord.
You're going to learn the lesson.
You sin.
You go quickly to the Lord.
Keep a short account.
Specifically name the sin.
Seek God's help.
You know, this is so important in our walk.
I promise you, you do this on a regular basis.
You're going to be a lot more happier.
You know, your conscience is not going to bother you,
you know, in that roaring sense.
You're not going to feel cast down and upset.
If you just keep that close account with God,
it's so easy to do.
OK, and then when we do it,
He'll forgive our sins abundantly.
All forgiven.
OK, and we can be restored in our walk with God.
OK, let's pray.