“The Happiness That Comes from Forgiveness”
Sunday, March 14, 2010; Psalm 32:1-11

Introduction: Happiness is a word that people like to talk about. It is a positive word. The word causes you to think of smiles and laughing, singing and playing. It might remind you of those special family times you have, or hanging out with a good friend. It might cause you to dwell on times in your life that were low stress and void of conflict. We want to be happy. We long to be happy. We strive to be happy.
The trouble with happiness, is that it really only comes when things are good. And one of the things that can break our happiness the quickest is our sin. The problem with this, is that we are prone to sin. We are told in Romans 3:10, “There is no one that is righteous, not even one.” Understanding this, we know that we will sin, and our sin breaks the bond of our happiness. As we move along this Lent season, I want us to focus on how even in the midst of our sin we can experience happiness, because we have forgiveness from God!

I. Abraham, David, and Faith- (Romans 3:21, 4:1-3, 6-7; Psalm 32:1-2)

In Romans 3:21 the apostle Paul says, “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.” The phrase “Law and Prophets” is actually referring to the Old Testament. The first 5 books of the Old Testament (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy) were known as the books of the Law. The rest of the Old Testament was referred to as “the Prophets.” What the apostle Paul is telling us in the third chapter of the book of Romans is that in the midst of the unrighteousness of all people, God is making known His righteousness which He Himself has given over to us as guilty sinners. This is testified to by the books of the Law, and the books of the Prophets. In other words, the entire Old Testament bears witness to the fact that God was going to bring His righteousness to us who cannot be righteous on our own.

a. The law- If you were to ask an orthodox Jew who is the most important person in all the books of the Law, without question he would answer, “Abraham, because Abraham was the father of the Hebrew people, and Abraham was the one with whom God established His covenant.” The apostle Paul already knows this, that is why he writes the fourth chapter of the book of Romans.
Paul is basically saying, “Okay, since Abraham is the most important person in the books of the Law, let us see how he is justified by God. Let us hear from Romans 4:1-3, “What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? 2If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. 3What does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.’” Did you hear what Paul is saying? If Abraham was justified by his works, then he would have something to boast about. But Paul lets us know in verse 3 that Abraham was justified by his faith, not his works. That’s why he says “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness.” Any righteousness that is given to Abraham, must be given to him by his faith, not his works!
So we see here, that the greatest person in the first part of the Old Testament is justified by faith, not works. The one to whom God made His covenant is justified not by what he ultimately does, but by what he believes. This faith was exhibited right in the beginning, as God tells Abraham to go on a journey, but doesn’t give Abraham the final destination, just the general direction. Abraham, by faith, uproots his family, and begins the journey. And we see this faith in Abraham exhibited time and time again.

b. The prophets- Going back to that orthodox Jew, if you were to then ask him who is the most important person in the books of the Prophets, he would answer: “Our great King David, because God confirmed His covenant with David saying, ‘I will give you the sure mercies of David,’ and the Messiah is to come through David’s line.” The apostle Paul also addresses David in the fourth chapter of the book of Romans to see how he is justified. In Romans 4:6-7 Paul is quoting David from Psalm 32, when he says: “David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works:
7’Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered.’”
Psalm 32 is one of the great scriptures that shows how God justifies ungodly sinners. In these verses, David is telling us exactly what we learned with Abraham, that people are not justified by their works, but by their faith. We are credited with righteousness not because of what we do, but because our transgressions are forgiven and our sins are covered. In this way we are blessed.
In these first 2 verses of Psalm 32, we have the consummation of the gospel. The psalm starts off with how believers are blessed. David here gives us the fourfold blessing that comes from God: first, blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven. Second, blessed is the one whose sin is covered. Third, blessed is the one who the Lord does not lay on blame. Fourth, blessed is the one in whom there is no deceit.
It is not about the fact that we never go astray, but rather that we come back to God after we have gone astray. There is great blessing in knowing that even after we have strayed, God receives us back. God not only receives us back, but the wrong that we have done is covered over, and not held against us.
You might notice that in this psalm, while it is the message of the gospel, it is not the complete message because Jesus hadn’t come and died yet; there is no mention of Jesus in this psalm. Those in the Old Testament knew that the Messiah would come and take away their sins, but it wasn’t yet a reality. Today, we can know the whole gospel, because we have the whole story before us. So we can read back into what David is talking about, to help us understand the whole message of the gospel.

II. The fourfold blessing- (Psalm 32:1-2; Acts 10:43; Hebrews 8:12)

So let’s look at this fourfold blessing a little closer.

1. Transgressions are forgiven- Back in the Old Testament, forgiveness was received by going to the temple and having a pure animal sacrificed on your behalf. The priest would make the sacrifice, and then the forgiveness would be imparted to you by this ceremony. This sacrifice needed to happen on a regular basis for you to receive forgiveness. This process was anything but complete.
When Jesus came, it changed everything. Jesus came so that we might have forgiveness once and for all. Jesus took our place by going to the cross and dying for us. Once this sacrifice took place, there was no longer a need for animal sacrifice. Now the forgiveness that is needed is found in Christ. As Peter said in Acts 10:43, “All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him shall receive remission of sins.” Remission is forgiveness, and so we receive forgiveness through believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not just for some, but for all sinners who believe in Jesus.

2. Sin is covered- But God does more than just forgive our
sins. God covers over our sins. This really is speaking about the atonement of Christ. This atonement, this covering over of our sins comes by way of Jesus Christ. It is not something we can do. We cannot cover over our sins.
EX. I remember when I was in college I did many kinds of jobs. Since my father was a painter, painting was one of the jobs I did. One time I was helping a friend paint this house, and the house was painted in a dark color; I think it was red. The homeowners wanted us to paint the new house white. Most times when you paint, you only need 2 coats of paint. The first coat doesn’t quite cover I, so you put on a second coatt. But in this house, 2 coats wasn’t enough. We had to use 3 coats. Now when you are painting a whole house, that extra coat is very time consuming, especially when there were high ceilings, and high stairwells.
When trying to cover over our sins, we can’t just pretend that they aren’t there. We can’t bury them in the recesses of our mind. We can’t paint over them; not even 3 coats of paint will work for that. To cover over our sins we need Jesus. The blood of Jesus is what is needed. Jesus’ blood is so powerful that it completely wipes away the sin we have committed. Jesus’ blood is so powerful, that it is as if the sin never happened in the first place. That is why the scripture tells us, in Hebrews 8:12- “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
When our sin is covered, we no longer have shame. The beauty of this truth is that what Jesus covers us with is His righteousness. So we go from being sinners, to having our sin forgiven, to having our sin covered over with the righteousness of Christ. It’s the ultimate make-over! On some of the reality TV shows people go through some pretty amazing transformations, but that is just the physical appearance. The ultimate make-over comes when we are transformed in our inner being. And Christ can do this for us.

3. The Lord does not impute iniquity- The next phrase is that the Lord does not impute iniquity. What does this mean? To impute iniquity is to mark our sin down. When we accept Jesus Christ as our Savior, our sins are forgiven and done away with. But immediately we have sin in our lives again. That is the nature of a sinner, to sin.
The Lord could begin to write down our sins, even after we were saved. This would in many ways put us back into the position where we started; lost in our sin. The good news is that we are blessed, because what Jesus did for us on the cross is something that we retain throughout our life and into the next one. While Jesus could mark down our sins, He doesn’t, because He is the one who has removed them, and will continue to remove them. It is not a one-time gift.
The moment we trust in Jesus, His blood covers us from all the sins we do from the time we were born, to the time we die. Does that mean that I can willfully sin and it doesn’t make a difference? No. We have the responsibility to seek to live for the Lord. Those who are truly in Christ, will not want to sin, and will try to avoid sinning. This is how we are changed. We become slaves to righteousness rather than sin, as Paul says in the book of Romans. And because this iniquity is not imputed to me, I will not have to deal with judgment when I get to heaven.

4. No deceit- This is where the fourth statement of blessing comes in; blessed are those in whose spirit there is no deceit. There are some people who are great at being deceitful. In fact, some of the most intriguing movies are about people who seem to be one way, and then at the end they have tricked everyone, because they were someone else.
EX. One of the most deceitful characters in a movie is found in the movie starring Matt Damon, The Talented Mr. Ripley. In this movie Ripley is hired to bring back the son of a wealthy man so that he can carry on the family business. Ripley flies to Italy and finds a way to “run into” this son, Dickie Greenleaf. Ripley concocts a story where he and Greenleaf went to school together at Princeton. After Ripley is suspected to not be forthright, Ripley kills Greenleaf, and then assumes his identity, living off Greenleaf’s allowance, even going so far as to rent two hotel rooms, in his and Greenleaf’s name, and send notes back and forth.
This sounds farfetched, but there are many in our world that live deceitful lives. In fact, there are many Christians, who appear one way, but then when they are away from the church, they are completely different people. While it is fairly easy to deceive the average person, we cannot fool God. If we are deceitful in our lives, we will not be blessed by God! For us to be blessed, to have our sin forgiven and covered over, we must be people who confess, not who pretend and deceive.

III. The Prayer of Confession- (Psalm 32:3-11)

Every Sunday we lift up a prayer of confession. Because we do it each week,
its importance can be overlooked. Confessional prayer is vital to our experiencing God’s blessings, and to feel a sense of happiness in life. In the rest of the psalm, David helps us to understand why.

a. Wasting away- David is very explicit in his description of his life when he
is deceitful, trying to keep his sin from the Lord. He says in verses 3-4: “When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.” The contradiction of trying to seem good on the outside, while on the inside you know your sin, is very tiring. While we can’t be open to everyone who asks us, “How are you doing?” we do need to find outlets for confession.
As Christians, we have the Holy Spirit residing in us. Because this is true, when we sin, the Spirit works on our heart and mind to confess. When we resist this need to confess, it will only drain us of our energy, our enthusiasm, our happiness.

b. Faithful prayers- David continues in verses 5-7, saying, “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. 6 Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found; surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him. 7 You are my hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance.” Do you hear the sincerity of David’s prayer? He acknowledges his sin before the Lord, and entreats everyone who is godly to confess and to pray faithfully to the Lord. In the faithfulness of our prayers we will have our guilt removed.
David also lets us know that the Lord is a place for us to go and hide from our temptations and sin. When we seek the Lord out, He will deliver us, and will protect us, and will surround us with His presence.

c. The instruction of the Lord- In his faithfulness, David opens himself to
God’s instruction through his confession. Without confession our sin will keep us from being able to connect with God and God’s instruction. As David says in verses 8-9, “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. 9 Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.”
When we are lost in our sin, we do not want to know what God wants to teach us, or go in the direction God wants us to go. When we are lost in our sin we are stubborn like a mule and struggle with God. When we are lost in our sin we cannot be faithful to God because we do not understand what God has for us. When we are lost in our sin, we cannot be faithful to God, we are not accountable to others, and we are not teachable. There is not much that God can or will do in our lives when we are in this place. Confession helps us to move to a place where God can bless us.

Conclusion: There is a story of a town in Switzerland that wanted to come up with a motto to be painted on the town clock. A painter was hired to do the job, but given no instruction on what to paint. The painter came to the mayor, since it was his idea, and asked for a suggestion of what to paint. The mayor simply said: “It’s up to you.” The painter went away to think, but didn’t come up with anything, so he came back to ask the mayor again the next day. Again the mayor told him that he didn’t want to be bothered with this, and sent the painter away again. Day after day the painter, not wanting this responsibility kept coming to the mayor for an idea. Finally, when the painter came, in his exasperation the mayor called out: “Go about your business.” Thinking this was the motto, the painter went and painted it on the clock.
While life isn’t meant to keep us happy, happiness is and can be a part of life. To do this, we need to go about the business of God. Only then will we be happy. But to do this we need to be free from the burden of our sin. Let us give thanks for this great word from David in Psalm 32, that lets us know that we are blessed because we are forgiven and our sins are not held against us. And may this knowledge lead us to do our business with happiness. Amen.