Message for Sunday Night, October 24, 2010 SERIES: Psalms For Everyday Living Message 9 in Series Christian Hope Church of Christ, Plymouth, North Carolina by Reggie A. Braziel, Minister Coming Clean Message 9 in Psalms For Everyday Living Series PSALM 32 Read: Psalm 32:1-11 P R A Y E R ****************************** I N T R O D U C T I O N If you have ever watched the TV Show The Closer no doubt you are familiar with Kyra Sedgewick s character, Chief Brenda Lee Johnson, Deputy Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department. Using her Georgia southern-belle charm, Chief Johnson specializes in getting people to come clean by confessing to the crime they have committed so they can receive their due punishment. Thus her nickname: The Closer. ******* In this 32 nd Psalm, David comes clean before God. Psalm 32 is one of seven penitential psalms. In other words, Psalms of repentance. (Psalm 6, 38, 51, 102, 130, and 143 are the others) The tragic background of both Psalm 32 and Psalm 51 is David s sin with Bathsheba..his unsuccessful attempts to hide his sin.then his confession and God s forgiveness of the sin.
This one event was an ugly blemish on what was otherwise a faithful life. And it is sad that more people think of David and Bathsheba rather than David and Goliath. Remember David is referred to in the scriptures as a man after God s own heart. Now I m sure that many of you have always wondered, how could that be? How could a man who committed adultery with another man s wife and subsequently set her husband up to be killed on the battlefield to cover up his sin, be called a man after God s own heart? Listen very carefully to this scriptural truth! Godly people are not perfect people. Godly people sometimes do ungodly things. And while God hates all sin, what matters most to God is what we do about our sin after we commit it. Godly people come clean about their sin! Godly people confess their sin to God, not to receive their deserved punishment like a criminal, but to receive God s undeserved grace and forgiveness. And Godly people do not continue in sin. In other words sin does not become a way of life for a godly person. Did David sin? YES! Did he initially try to cover up his sin? YES! But did David eventually come clean and confess his sin to God and walk away from his sinful ways? YES! This is why David is called, the man after God s own heart. ********************
Well let s see what David teaches you and me about Coming Clean in this 32 nd Psalm. First of all notice. I. The Blessing of Forgiveness (vs. 1, 2) v.1 Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. v. 2 Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. 1. Every devout student of God s word knows that word blessed most commonly means, happy. In the Bible, God is always the one who gives the blessing and blessed or happy is the one who receives God s blessing. 2. Happy is the person who has been forgiven! It is an emotion that defies description. (A) The Blessing of forgiveness is like the relief one experiences when a heavy burden has been removed from his shoulders. Have you ever said, Boy I feel like a 1,000 pounds has been taken off of me? That made you happy didn t it? Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven! (v.1a)
(B) The blessing of forgiveness is like the relief one experiences when a tremendous debt has been canceled. Imagine you walk into your bank one day to pay your monthly mortgage payment. And the teller pulls up your account and says, Oh, I see here that someone paid off your mortgage in full. You don t owe us anything! You would be more than happy! You would be elated wouldn t you? Blessed is he whose sins are covered! (v.1b) (C) The blessing of forgiveness is like the relief one experience when acquitted of a crime. Recently I saw a story on the news of a man in Texas who spent 26 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. What set that man free after all those years came down to a matter of the blood. DNA test results proved he wasn t at the crime scene and pointed to the real murderer. Doesn t our forgiveness come down to a matter of the blood also? I ll say more about that in a few moments. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him. (v. 2a)
(D) The blessing of forgiveness is like the relief one experiences after revealing a deep, dark secret he has kept bottled inside for a long time. It has often been said, Everyone has some skeletons in his closet. That means all of us has said some things or thought some things or done some things over the course of our life time that we are ashamed of. And our human nature causes us to do what Adam and Eve did in the Garden of Eden. We try to hide our sins from God and others by putting on a hypocritical mask, so no one will ever suspect us. In verses 3 and 4 David talks about what happened to him physically, psychologically and spiritually during that period when he tried to hide his sin with Bathsheba. READ: Verses 3 and 4 Hiding deep, dark sinful secrets damages us PHYSICALLY. Concealing sin causes one s immune system to start breaking down. The mind wars with the heart, the heart wars with the spirit, the joints and muscles ache. The body becomes more susceptible to sickness and disease. Blood pressure increases. Appetite dramatically increases or decreases. Insomnia or sleeplessness is also one of the common side-effects of hiding sin. Hiding deep, dark sinful secrets also damages us MENTALLY. Just like hiding sin breaks down the body, physically it breaks down the mind psychologically and emotionally. When one hides sin he or she has to resort to lying to cover their tracks. And one lie always leads to another, then another, and then another. And eventually it gets to the point the person can t remember all the lies he or she has told or who they told them to. And the fear of being found out nearly drives them crazy.
ILLUSTRATION: I remember when I was a student at Johnson Bible College, we had a Doctor from a psychiatric hospital in Louisville, Kentucky, speak in chapel one day. There s one thing that doctor said I ll never forget. He estimated that as many as 80% of of the patients in that psychiatric hospital were there because of GUILT they were carrying because they had hidden dark, sinful secrets. He said, The guilt had literally driven them to the brink of insanity. Hiding deep dark, sinful secrets also damages us SPIRITUALLY. v. 4 For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. Notice David said, Your hand (speaking of the hand of God) was heavy upon me.. When we hide sin, God frustrates our plans He puts blockades in our path He closes doors..he allows us to experience the fear and anxiety of being separated from Him. That is God s tough love approach to bringing us to repentance. Remember I told you while ago.. The blessing of forgiveness is like the relief one experiences after revealing a deep, dark secret he or she has kept bottled inside for a long time. Notice how David found physical, psychological and spiritual relief.. v. 5 a Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not cover up my iniquity. According to the scriptures it was about one year before David uttered those three words God had been waiting on him to say, I have sinned. It was the most miserable year of David s life. Whenever we have sinned there is only one way we can ever be happy again, one way we can have peace again, one way we can rest easy again and that is to come clean by confessing our sin to God! Well that s THE BLESSING OF FORGIVENESS.
Secondly, let s consider. II. The Basis of Forgiveness (vs. 5 ) v. 5 Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, I will confess my transgressions to the LORD-----and You forgave the guilt of my sin. 1. Notice David said: I acknowledged my sin to YOU. And YOU forgave the guilt of my sin. 2. Only GOD can forgive sin! The Catholic Church teaches one can go to confession and confess his or her sins to the priest and the priest has the power to forgive them or absolve them of their sin. The Catholics even start out their confession by saying, Father forgive me, for I have sinned. No priest..no preacher..no rabbi No religious guru NO MAN CAN FORGIVE SIN! Only GOD can forgive sin! 3. The reason GOD is the only One who can forgive sin is because ultimately ALL sin is against GOD! -Did David sin against Bathsheba? YES! -Did David sin against Uriah, her husband? YES! -Did David sin against the nation of Israel by morally failing them as their King? YES! But ultimately all sin is against God, because God is the One who paid the ultimate price to save us from our sins by sacrificing His only begotten Son.
4. Once we confess our sin, does God make us earn our forgiveness? Does He slowly forgive us over a period of time? NO! Once the sin is confessed, God forgives our sin and remembers it no more. That means God will never hold that sin against us again. 5. How is that forgiveness possible? Only through the blood of Jesus Christ. Without the shedding of blood there can be no forgiveness. ************************** Finally, let s consider III. The Benefits of Forgiveness (vs. 6-10) (1) In verse 6 we see the benefit of restored PRAYER. v.6 Therefore let everyone who is godly PRAY TO YOU while You may be found. In Psalm 66:18 we read: If I had cherished sin in my heart, the LORD would not have listened. Hiding SIN in our heart greatly hinders our prayers. It breaks down our line of communication with God. When we hide sin in our heart our prayers God turns a deaf ear to our prayers. It is only when we pray a prayer of confession and repentance that our prayer life is restored.
(2) In verse 7a we see the benefit of restored PROTECTION. v.7a You are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble. As long as David was outside of God s will, everything worked against him. He was in constant danger. But when he finally confessed his sin, he brought his life back under God s protective care. The same is true for you and me. There is not one single verse of scripture in the Bible where God promises to protect us and bless us when we knowingly sin. To knowingly sin is to step outside of God s protection and that is a very dangerous place to be in. It is only when we we come clean and confess our sins that we bring our lives back under God s protective care. (3) In verse 7b we see the benefit of restored PRAISE. v.7 You are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble AND SURROUND ME WITH SONGS OF DELIVERANCE. When one hides sin in his or her heart it steals their song. Hiding sin stops the music in our life. It steals our joy and our zest for living. There s only one thing that will put the music back in our heart and that is to come clean by confessing our sin.
(4) And in verse 10 we see the benefit of restored PASSION. v. 10 Many are the woes of the wicked, but the LORD S unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in Him. HIDING SIN in our heart takes us out of sweet fellowship with God. When we hide sin it makes it seem as though God doesn t love us any more and that God is a million miles away. Like the old saying goes, If God seems far away, guess who moved? There s only one thing that can restore that PASSIONATE relationship with GOD and that is to come clean and confess our sins! ************************************* C O N C L U S I O N Normally I end my messages with a story or an illustration. Tonight I want to bring this message to a conclusion by asking you to simply look inside your heart. -Are you hiding anything from God? -Are their secret sins you are clinging to? -Are you burdened down with guilt and shame? -Does God seem far away? If you answered yes to any one of those questions, there is only one thing you can do to get right with God and that is to confess your sins and accept God s amazing grace and forgiveness. ITS TIME TO COME CLEAN!