Series:
Psalms
Title:
Blessed Conjunction
Text:
Psalm 32: 1-11
Date:
December 17, 2017
Place:
SGBC, New Jersey
Psalm 32: 1: « A Psalm of David, Maschil. »
The word
“Maschil” means “to give instruction.” This is a Psalm to give us instruction
Psalm 32: 1: Blessed [happy] is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2: Blessed is the
man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile.
Subject: A
Blessed Conjunction
Did you
notice the conjunction?—Psalm 32: 1:
Blessed is he whose transgression is
forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2: Blessed
is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity, AND in whose spirit there is no guile.
In order
for God to save a sinner and for the sinner to be truly happy (blessed), that
which is declared before the
conjunction AND that which comes after
the conjunction are absolutely necessary and both by Christ. The songwriter declared:
“The water AND the blood
From Christ’s wounded side which flowed
Be of sin the DOUBLE cure
Save from wrath AND make me pure”
Proposition: Before
the conjunction is the blood of Christ, the
work of righteousness accomplished for
his people; after the conjunction is the
water, the work of sanctification
accomplished within his people—both
are necessary, both by Christ.
Divisions: 1)
Our problem 2) Christ’s work of righteousness 3) Christ’s work of sanctification
OUR PROBLEM
Before
the conjunction we see our problem—transgression,
sin and iniquity. After the conjunction we see our problem—death and guile in our nature. Both came
from our first Head, Adam:
Romans 5: 12:…by one man SIN entered into the world, and DEATH
by sin; and so DEATH passed upon all men, for that [in Adam] all have SINNED:
Our text
speaks of our sin in three ways:
Transgression is trespass,
rebellion. From whom? From God. It is like a man who sees a “no trespassing”
sign and breaks in anyway.
Sin is missing
the mark of God’s law. In Adam, we broke God’s law and all we ever do is break God’s
law. Our chief end is glorify God but we missed the mark. Romans 3:23: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Iniquity has to do with what we thought were our good works. They
were all inequitable, not equaling the righteousness God requires. They were a
false balance and measure which God hates.
In
addition, our second problem by Adam is spiritual
death—a heart of guile. Peter
describes guile:
1 Peter 2:1:…all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies,
and envies, and all evil speakings
Genesis 6: 5: And God saw that the wickedness of man was
great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually.
By nature
we deal deceitfully, dishonestly with our own selves. We cover our sin trying
to deceive God but we only deceive ourselves. So God says our sinful man is so
corrupt that man can never improve it and so abominable that God will never
mend it. It must return to the dust. This
sinful-nature is in sinner and saint.
David was a believer when he sinned with Bathsheba and killed Uriah. For well
over a year, guile and deceit ruled him as he tried to cover his sin. How then
can a sinner be just with God.
CHRIST’S WORK OF RIGHTEOUSNESS FOR US
Psalm 32: 1: Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose
sin is covered. 2:
Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity,…
Just as
all who Adam represented were made sin by Adam’s offence, all who Christ
represented are made righteous by Christ’s obedience.
Romans 5: 19: For as by one man’s disobedience many were
made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.
For all
who believe on Christ, this is our true happiness. God sent his only Son, Christ
Jesus, the spotless Lamb of God, to lay down his life the Just for the unjust.
Concerning our transgression—Isaiah 53:8…for
the transgression of my people was he stricken. Christ was stricken by the weight of the
transgression itself. He was stricken by
the hand of God’s justice. Now for
all who believe on him, “Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven.” It means Christ lifted up and bore away
our heavy load of transgression.
Concerning our sin—2 Corinthians 5:
21: he hath made him sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Christ bore our law-breaking and the
punishment. By his obedience, Christ established the law for God’s elect,
making us the righteousness of God in him
by his obedience. Now for believers, happy
is he whose sin is
covered. Christ is our mercy seat
whose blood covers the broken law. He satisfied God. So that all our sins are
all covered—blotted out—by the blood of Christ. And God promises to remember them no more. Brother Bob Coffey said, “God sees through all. But the only thing God
cannot see through, is the blood of Christ.”
Concerning our iniquity—Isaiah 53: 6: All
we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and
the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. God imputes what is fact.
Before the throne of God, by Christ’s obedience, we have no iniquity to impute.
So
now, for all who believe on Christ, Blessed
is the man unto whom the LORD
imputeth not iniquity.
Understand,
we establish the law, we are made righteous, not by our works but through faith
in Christ. Abraham established the law 430 years before the law was given. How?
Romans 3: 31: Do we then make void the law through faith?
God forbid: yea, we establish the law. [through faith] 4:1: What shall we say
then that Abraham…hath found? 2:
For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but
not before God. 3: For what
saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for
righteousness. 4: Now to him
that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. 5: But to him that worketh not, but believeth
on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. 6: Even as David also describeth the
blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, 7: Saying, Blessed are
they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. 8: Blessed is the man to whom
the Lord will not impute sin.
Christ is
teaching us through David that this is true happiness. Christ knows. He is the
preeminent happy Man. Christ knew no sin
and God would not impute sin to him. But
when Christ was made sin then God imputed our sin to him. And until Christ justified his people, he waited on God to justify him, which
God did. (Is 50: 8) So Christ knows the happiness of being delivered from dying unto sin to now live unto God. He
even raised his people in him without sin. So Christ is the preeminently the
happy Man.
Therefore,
Christ is not only our justification by his work for us, Christ is he who
instructs us in the heart, teaching us effectually through the Holy Spirit what
he has done for us, teaching us this is true happiness to have no sin.
Now, some
stop with this work of Christ for his
people. But since our sin-nature is guile, we also need Christ to give us an honest
spirit, with no guile, we need him to instruct this psalm in our hearts effectually.
CHRIST’S WORK OF SANCTIFICATION WITHIN US
Psalm 32: 2:…AND in whose spirit there is no
guile.
Knowing
my sinful nature, oh how thankful I am for that conjunction. Christ is our Righteousness and Christ is our
Sanctification. We sing,
Grace, grace, God’s grace
Grace that will pardon AND cleanse within
Under the
old covenant, every priest had to be washed and made pure to enter into God’s
holy presence.
Exodus 29: 4: Aaron and his sons you shall bring unto the
door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and shall wash them with water.
So it is
when Christ makes us priests unto God. The Holy Spirit washes through the
abundant grace of our Lord Jesus so that as we are justified freely, we also might
have eternal life. Then we are holy to approach God in the holiest of holies.
Hebrews 10: 19: Having therefore, brethren, boldness to
enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,…22: Let us draw near with a true
heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil
conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.
Once
washed in regeneration, we never need that washing again. We are able to come
to holy God. But we defile ourselves by
our walk through this world. That is why when Christ was washing the disciples
feet and Peter asked to be washed all over, Christ said, “If I wash your feet
you need not be washed elsewhere because you are clean ever whit.” So Christ
continues to cleanse us from the defilement of our walk.
Yet, no
sinner, even a believer, will or can repent and be honest with God so long as
his sin-nature reigns in guile. But Christ our Head knows how to deal with his
people. Listen to David, the believer, the man after God’s own heart—Psalm 32: 3: When I kept silence, my bones
waxed old through my roaring all the day long. 4: For day and night thy hand
was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah.
David was
a believer, but for more than a year, he used guile, trying to hide his sins.
So the Lord used a heavy hand, to turn him from hypocrisy.
I was
illustrating this to Will this week by what happens when a young person
disobeys their parents rather than submit. The disobedience is not worth it
because it is so painful to the conscience to know you have disobeyed the
parents who love you. Then if you use guile to cover it up, your conscious
screams more because of the lies. Your
bones wax old and your moisture is dried up: it is physically and inwardly
exhausting; a burning hot conscience zaps your strength. In a natural man that
is simply a guilty conscious. But in a spiritually born child of God, it is
God’s hand heavy upon you.
Christ
also experienced this on the cross. He
knew no sin and there was no guile in his mouth. But he bore our sin, and
for a time, he opened not his mouth. So he experienced having God the Father’s
hand heavy upon him:
Psalm 22: 14: I am poured out like water, and all my
bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my
bowels. 15: My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to
my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.
But when
he cried out in the darkness, vindicating God’s holiness and owning our sin to
be his own, God delivered him. (Psalm 22: 1, 3, 6) So Christ knows the time when to send the
Spirit to regenerate the dead and how to deal with a strong hand to turn
believers. So Christ says we can do this the hard way or the easy way in Psalm 32: 8: I will instruct thee and teach
thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with mine eye. 9: Be ye
not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding: whose mouth must
be held in with bit and bridle, lest they [troubles] come near unto thee.
Does
Christ really know our hearts? Remember Nathaniel? Having never met the Lord
face-to-face, the Lord knew his heart. Christ said, ‘Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.” He was saying
behold a man whose name has been turned from Jacob to Israel, a true Jew, in
whose spirit is no guile.
Remember,
how Christ wrestled Jacob? Christ pinned him with a strong hand until Jacob had
no strength in his old spirit then Christ gave him a new spirit. Then Jacob was honest, confessed his need for
mercy—that is how he prevailed with God—so Christ changed his name to Israel—an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile.
Christ said
he knew Nathaniel’s heart, “when you were
under the fig tree I saw you.” Christ was saying, I saw your heart and I saw
an Isralite in deed in whom is no guile. This
tells us Nathaniel must have been under the fig tree praying to God from a
spirit without guile, in unfeigned faith, confessing his sin, and glorifying
God by asking God for mercy.
That is
why Christ commended Nathaniel? Christ had sent the Holy Spirit and regenerated
him and given him a new spirit without guile.
Romans 2: 28:
For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that
circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: 29: But he is a Jew, [an Israelite indeed] which is one
inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and
not in the letter; whose praise [commendation] is not of men, but of
God.
Christ
commended Nathaniel for that which he had done in him through the Holy Spirit.
He said,
Ezekiel 36:26: A
new heart also will I give you,
and a new spirit will I put within
you:…
Titus 3: 5: Not by works of righteousness we have done,
but according to his mercy [God] saved us, by the washing of regeneration and renewing
of the Holy Spirit 6: which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus our Savior;
that being justified by his grace, [by Christ’s work of righteousness for his
people] we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. [by Christ’s
work of sanctification giving us life within]
Romans 4: 10: For by the obedience of one shall many be
made righteous. [by Christ’s work of righteousness for is people]…21: That as sin
hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto
eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. [by Christ’s work of sanctification in
his people through the Holy Spirit.]
Do you
see why we preach both sides of the conjunction? If I preached Christ’s
sanctification without preaching his righteousness, I would be telling sinners
righteousness is by their obedience. Likewise, if I preached Christ’s
righteousness and leave out his sanctifying work, I leave the sinner thinking
this new spirit and holiness is of himself rather than of Christ. It is the
Lord who makes us righteous AND it is the Lord who subdues the cunning crafty
spirit so that it cannot reign over us by giving us a new spirit in which is no
sin because the new man is born of his incorruptible seed and remains in us.
So in the
new spirit, Christ makes us honest with God, confessing our sin. David said, Psalm 32: 5: I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not
hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the LORD; and thou forgavest
the iniquity of my sin. Selah. 6:
For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou
mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh
unto him.
In the new spirit, Christ makes us honest to glorify God. David
said, Psalm 32: 7: Thou art my hiding place; thou shalt
preserve me from trouble; thou shalt compass me about with songs of
deliverance. Selah.
And
sinners are never able to continue in guile after this work. When Christ has given you a new spirit, you
behold by faith that Christ has made you without fault before the throne of
God. For this reason, in your mouth is no guile—you cannot continue using
deceit and lies.
Revelation 14:5: And in their mouth was found no guile: for
they are without fault before the throne of God.
Oh, sinner,
be honest with God! God only saves honest sinners. Only the honest sinner
receives from Christ this double blessing: free from sin and free from guile.
1 John 1: 9: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10: If
we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
There is
no greater happiness than knowing I am without fault before the throne of God
so I can be honest with God!
Amen!