Bibles turn if you would to Psalm 32. Psalm 32. We're going to read the first five verses this evening. One of the commentaries I read called this David's Pauline Psalm. Pauline meaning a psalm that is reminiscent of the apostle Paul.

Okay? That's what Pauline is not a some girl that David knew. Okay? It refers to Paul. Okay?

Pauline epistles, those written by Paul. Okay? So this Psalm could it be written by Paul. Matter of fact, Paul quoted part of this psalm in the book of Romans. So it fits very well with Paul's message, God's message of forgiveness for our sins.

So let's read it, verses one through five. Psalm 32. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long.

For day and night, thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah, I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgression unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more. Dear heavenly Father, thank you, Lord, for your word this evening. Lord, I pray that the Holy Spirit would take it and use it in our life, Lord, to encourage us tonight, to challenge us, to convict us if it need be, and Lord, to give us peace in our heart knowing, that Jesus Christ has pardoned and taken away our sins. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

It starts out with blessed is he. In verse two, blessed is the man. The word blessed, particularly the Hebrew word in the Old Testament for blessed, can be translated happy. Okay? It really is describing someone who is happy.

Okay? They're not sad. They're not sorrowful. They're not depressed. They're not discouraged.

They're full of joy and they are happy. Okay? So none of you tonight in here wants to be happy. Right? We want to be miserable and depressed and discouraged and no.

No. We want to be happy. You know something? I think God wants us to be happy. Okay?

Yeah. We should, shouldn't we? God wants us to be happy. He wants us to be full of joy. He wants us to be at peace.

He desires for his creation, for his children to be happy. We desire for our children to be happy. God desires for his children to be happy as well. Now, people have been looking for happiness for a long time. A matter of fact, most people all throughout history, they want to be happy.

They want to be fulfilled. They want to be satisfied in life. They they they want to be happy and so, they've gone about different ways to try to find happiness. Ponce de Leon came here to Florida a long time ago looking for the fountain of what? Youth.

Thinking that youth might make him happy, okay? And well, he didn't find the fountain of youth because there is no fountain of youth other than the youth that God gives us in Christ Jesus, our savior. Eternal life that is. Today, go to great lengths to stay youthful. They spend millions of money on surgeries and Botox and injections and all kinds of stuff in order to stay youthful that they think will make them what?

Happy. Okay? Money brings happiness. Right? Everybody that has money is happy.

No. No. It doesn't work that way, does it? Matter of fact, the most miserable people in the world are very rich people. Okay?

They have much to be concerned about because they have much riches to worry over. Money does not bring happiness. The rich young ruler intuitively understood that when he came to Christ and said, what must I do to have eternal life? Unfortunately, he was still too attached to his money and his things to put his faith in Jesus rather than in material things. The prodigal son thought that by wild living, he would be happy.

And he wasn't happy. No. His life went in another direction and he found himself in misery. People turn to drugs and alcohol and morality. It does not bring lasting happiness.

Jesus brings happiness. Forgiveness brings happiness. Salvation brings happiness. The hope of eternal life, knowing that there's a place reserved in heaven for us, brings happiness and contentedness. Knowing that he will never leave us nor forsake his children in the worst of times makes us happy.

That poem that I learned a long time ago called Footprints where the the guy was having a dream, and I can't quote you the poem anymore, But but he he wondered in the dream why is when he got to the he there were two he was walking. There were two sets of footprints, and he thought, well, one's me and one's the Lord. And when he got to the hardest parts in life, there's only one set of footprints. It's like, Lord, where'd you go? When I got to the difficult part, you said you'd stay and you left.

And what did the Lord say? Well, the Lord said, no, those were the times that I carried you. So and that isn't scripture, but it but it goes along with the teaching of scripture. I'll never leave you nor forsake you. And so those kind of things brings true joy and happiness, particularly forgiveness and not carrying that weight around every day of our guilt and of our sin.

And that's what David is talking about here. Did David had sin? Yeah, he did. But even though Christ had not yet come and died on the cross, God still forgave his sin, and David still understood that. And despite his mess ups and his troubles and he had troubles.

We studied them in the last few weeks, didn't we? David had his share of troubles. A lot of them, not his fault. Some of them, his fault. But the Lord did not leave him.

And the Lord gave him joy in the midst of his trial. So how did David find happiness? Well, he didn't find it by keeping the law. Trying to keep the law only brings despair and guilt because you can't keep the law. Try it.

I mean, really try. Know, go back to Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and try to keep the law that Israel was at. Not us, but Israel was asked to keep. Okay? It's it's it's impossible.

Okay? It's it's a lot. You think you're doing good, then you turn around and go, oops, I messed up. They struggled under the burden of the law. The mall did not bring happiness.

Rigid obeisance to religion doesn't bring true happiness. Look at one of those pictures of that Hindu guy in the Himalayas all in whatever position that he's, you know, in meditating. You tell me, does he look happy? He spends half of his day in that pretzel position thinking that that is going to make his life worth something. In the meantime, he's not redeeming the time God gave him because he's spending all his time emptying out his mind sitting in a pretzel position.

That that that doesn't make him happy. Doing good works alone is not going to make you happy because you're never going to feel like you've done enough. You're not going to find happiness in sin. Bible says there's pleasure in sin. I heard some of you finish finish the verse.

For a season. Right. For a season. In other words, it comes back to get you. And if you're a Christian, you know when you're sinning, you're doing wrong.

That's not a happy feeling. That's not a happy feeling at all. And the world out there that thinks they're happy because they're out partying every night or on the weekends and doing whatever they want to do regardless of what God says, they're not happy. They pretend. I worked with a guy in college over the summer at the brother Al?

Tire factory. Tire factory. Alright. He came in every Monday. He had to go sleep off his hangover before he could work.

He went to, Virginia Military Institute, which is a military college in Virginia. But but he asked me on more than one occasion, how do you have any fun if you don't get drunk? What does that tell you? Well, tells you he never had any fun unless he was what? Drunk.

And it's not too fun coming off the drunk. And it's really, I don't understand how it's fun when you're not in control of what you're doing and you don't remember what you did last night. But he thought that was fun. Why did he think that was fun? Because he didn't know what true fun was.

He didn't know true happiness. He was trying to drown out his sorrows and his guilt for his sin, And it wasn't working. David didn't find happiness in sin. No. He didn't find happiness in sin.

When he did sin, it made him miserable. He didn't find happiness in hiding or running away. That doesn't work either. Eventually, you have to pay the price. You can't run, can't hide.

No. He found happiness in forgiveness. He found happiness in the grace and the mercy of God. In Romans chapter four, Paul repeats this. He says in Romans four verse six, even as David 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, whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. So let's look at those phrases for a moment. Whose transgression is forgiven. What is a transgression? A transgression is a rebellious act.

Okay? Now, have you ever committed a rebellious act? More than one? Yeah. We have transgressed many times.

The heart of man is desperately, what? Wicked. Only Christ can give us victory over that wickedness. We have committed many rebellious acts. Blessed is the man whose transgression, his rebellion has been, what?

Forgiven. Forgiven. You know, rebellion, breaking God's law carries a penalty. The Bible says in Revelation chapter 20 that those that appear before the great right throne judgment, that the books will be opened and they'll be judged out of the things written in the what? In the books.

What's written in the books? They're what? They're transgressions. And they will be cast into the what? Lake Of Fire.

There is a penalty for rebelling against our creator and it is separation from him in a place called the Lake Of Fire. Doesn't sound like a place you want to be. That foreboding, impending judgment is going to weigh heavily. But you know something? David didn't have that impending foreboding judgment hanging over his head.

And if you know Christ, you don't either. Why? Because your rebellious acts have been what? Forgiven. Happy is the man whose transgressions have been forgiven.

That is, they've been taken away. They've been pardoned Whose transgressions has been, the word implies, lifted off. So we're weighed down with these. And what does Christ do? He lifts them off of our shoulders.

He does what? He forgives us. If somebody owes you a thousand, 10,000, a $100,000 and they can't pay it, that might weigh heavily upon them. Now, some people, maybe not, but most people. Okay?

May heavily upon them because they owe you all that money and they can't what? But if you forgive that debt, now do they have to walk around with that heavy burden if you have forgiven the debt, if you have said, you don't owe me. You don't owe me. That's what God has done for us. Happy is the man whose debt has been what?

Paid. Lifted off of our shoulders whose transgressions have been truly forgiven. Jeremiah fifty twenty says, in those days, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none. The sins of Judah and they shall not be found. Now, that was different than what was happening to Israel at the time.

Jeremiah laid in ruins because of the judgment of God. And why? Because of their what? Because of their sin and rebellion. But Jeremiah wrote, in those days, the days are coming, and they came in the person of who?

Of Jesus Christ who died on the cross for our sins and theirs. When Israel's iniquity shall be sought for, and they won't be able to find it, when the sins of Judah shall not be found, and they will no longer be weighing heavy upon them. Isaiah forty three twenty five says, I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake. Is that Isaiah talking or God talking? That's God talking through Isaiah.

I, even I, am he that blotteth out, eraseth thy transgressions for my own sake. Why did God send Jesus? Why does God choose to forgive our sins? For whose sake? For his sake.

Yeah. Why? Because he wants to have a relationship with us and our sin is ruining that relationship. So he sent his son to die on the cross for our sins that he might cleanse us from all sin, that he might forgive us so that we can once again have fellowship with him. We have a song in our hymn book called Burdens are Lifted at Calvary.

Jesus is very near. Burdens are lifted at Calvary. Calvary. Calvary. Burdens are lifted at Calvary.

It says that over and over again. It's like one of those if you just sing the chorus, it's like one of those seven eleven songs. It just burdens are lifted, burdens are lifted, burdens are lifted. But you know something? Sometimes that's okay.

Be reminded, burdens are lifted. Our burdens have been lifted. I in college, I did something stupid. I should say I did something stupid. I did several things that were stupid.

And one of them was in order to go off campus to especially to go certain places off campus, particularly to leave town to go somewhere off campus. I had to have permission. And I wanted to go make a visit that I couldn't get permission to make. So, therefore, I said, Saturday morning, all the gates are open from seven to seven. So as long as I leave right at seven and I get back before seven, I won't be stopped at the gate and nobody will notice that I was gone.

Now, I wasn't doing anything immoral or bad or wicked, but I knew I couldn't get permission. So, I didn't. I transgressed the law of the school. And that in itself was a what? A sin.

And I told a few people about it. I made it back before seven. Everything was okay, but I couldn't keep my mouth shut. And so I told a few people. I told the wrong person.

A friend of mine, his name was Michael or Mike. And, he came back to me a few days later and says, you you gotta go turn yourself in because, you know, you you just can't let that go. You and it's like, oh, you gotta be kidding me. This anyway but whose fault was it? Well, I did it, and then I had to go and what?

Tell him about it. So so for I try I put him off for weeks. I said, oh, don't worry. You know, we'll take care of it. You know, don't worry about it.

He came back to me like three times and was like, oh, you've got to be kidding me. And I and I was weighed down with this because I knew if I went and told somebody I was toast and, I was in trouble. But finally, I said, okay. So what I did is I went to the highest person in the school that you could go to. His name was Jim Berg.

He was the dean of students at Bob Jones University. I made an appointment. I walked into his office, and I humbly and repentedly and sheepishly told him what I did. And he just forgave it. And I walked out of that office, and I didn't know what to think.

I thought, oh, no. I am going I am in so much trouble. And he forgave my sin, and I owed the school nothing. And I did not commit that particular sin again. Kate and I had just met.

We had just started dating. I told her I gotta go to mister Berg's office, and I don't know. They might send me home. And I got to come back and say, I'm okay. So, it was such a relief.

Happy is the man whose transgressions are what? Forgiven. They've been lifted off of our shoulders by Christ. Whose sin is covered. This is a parallel statement.

It means something very similar to the phrase before it. It's a Hebrew literary technique where you basically repeat the same thing with different words, but the different words do mean something. Sin, Romans three twenty three, for all have what? Sinned and come short of the glory of God. Sin is missing the mark.

Sin is committing an offense to God. It's similar to transgression, but a slightly different nuance. It is an offense to God. Sins offend who? They offend God who is righteous and holy.

And sin brings shame. Sin brings shame. One after Adam and Eve sinned, they went and what? They went and hid themselves. They tried to clothe themselves.

That didn't work very well. They went and hid themselves. And when God came in the garden, he said, Adam, where are you? He knew where Adam was. He just needed Adam to admit what he had had done.

Because Adam was full of what? Shame because of his sin. And what did God do? He killed an animal. He shed its what?

Its blood. And he covered Adam and Eve with those skins. Now, that was merely symbolic, but it was an important symbolic act. Without the shedding of blood, there is no what? Remission of no remission of sins.

Sin brings shame. And what does David say? Blessed is the man whose sin is what? Covered. Covered.

Very visual. Okay? The one whose sin is covered. If it's covered, you don't what? You don't see it.

You don't see it. And the blood of Jesus Christ and the righteousness of Christ covers our sin. Our ways and even ourselves are offensive to God, but God in his mercy and grace wish to clothe us in the righteousness of Christ, making us acceptable to God. God cannot look on sin. It must be covered.

It was and is in who? In Jesus Christ. The blood of bulls and goats did not suffice. Praise the Lord. God sent his only son.

And therefore, he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the what? The righteousness of God in him. Hebrews ten seventeen says, and their sins and iniquities I will remember no more. And we do not have to walk around hiding from God in shame because our sins have been, what? Covered in the blood of Jesus Christ.

We have been robed in the righteousness of Christ, And we will one day in heaven. Revelation three five says, he that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment. And I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father and before his angels. How do you become an overcomer? Through Jesus Christ.

Because he's the one that overcame. He overcame sin for us. He overcame death for us. And if we are in Christ, we are overcomers through him that loved us. And we one day will put on a robe, a literal robe of righteousness in heaven.

And our sins will be covered and atoned for and remembered what? No more. Remembered no more. God has taken our sins, locked them in a chest, thrown them thrown away the key and dropped it in the bottom of the sea where they will be remembered no more. Now, that makes me happy because I have a few things, and I'm glad that they're covered.

And I'm glad that they're forgiven. It goes on to say in the next verse, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. To impute means to count against. To count against. Iniquity is moral impurity, another kind of sin.

Okay? Blessed is the man whose iniquity is not imputed, whose sins are not counted against him. Not counted against his debt. Not charged. Second Corinthians five nineteen says, to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.

That was what he was doing on the cross of Calvary. He was reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses onto them and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Paul says, God has given me a wonderful job. Here's my job. I'm to go out in all the world and tell them that their sins can be forgiven, covered, and that God will not impute their trespasses, will not charge them against them if they will receive who?

Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. That's a wonderful thing to tell people, isn't it? Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin, Romans five four eight, as Paul repeated it. Down the street about two blocks on the left, there used to be a car lot. I don't know if it's still there or not.

But when we we moved here, about two years after we moved here, maybe three, we needed a vehicle. And I went down to that car lot, and I found this Ford Contour. It was $3,000. Can you imagine now? I mean, it's only been it's been, like, fifteen years.

And this was a decent car for $3,000. And so we bought it. And we put it on the credit card. And we got the credit card bill, and it wasn't there. See, what happened?

I have the title. He signed the title over to me. He took my credit card, but it wasn't on the bill. So we went back twice and told him that I don't know what happened, but it's not coming through on my credit card. And he took my card again, and then and then I finally figured out, oh, he doesn't want me to pay for this car.

I came to find out a few months later him and another fella were looking for some help in related to their ministry that was a little different than our ministry, but he came by the church. He was a Christian, and, he just decided not to charge our account for the car. So the car was what? The car was free. Never charged.

Never charged. In Christ, who took our paid our penalty, our price on the cross of Calvary, we have received a free gift in Jesus Christ. Like a a license to which the points don't stick or a ledger upon which the ink disappears, Our sins in Christ are not written in that book. They've already been what? They've already been forgiven.

I do an illustration with a a bowl. I put a bowl of water up here, glass bowl. Didn't do it tonight, but you can imagine. Okay? Use your imagination.

Bowl. Okay. Here's cup. See the cup of water? Alright.

Take iodine and squirt it in the water. It turns what? This rusty looking color. Take bleach and drop a few drops of bleach in that water and guess what happens to that nasty looking rusty color? It goes away.

I mean, it goes completely away. If you put enough bleach in there and you don't have to put much, I can turn around and pick up the iodine bottle and squirt it in there. You know what happens when the iodine hits that water with bleach in it? It disappears. It doesn't stick.

It doesn't stick. And it doesn't stick to those who are under the blood of who? The blood of Jesus Christ. Blessed is the man. Happy is the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity.

We won't face the lake of fire. Why? Because our names are written in the what? The book of life. And therefore, we will not be judged out of the things written in the other books because Christ took our judgment on the cross of Calvary.

He took the punishment for how many of our sins? All of our sins. And the blood of Jesus Christ continues to cleanse us from sin, and they just don't stick. Happy is the man whose iniquity is not imputed. Blessed is the man whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and whose spirit there is no guile.

The word guile means treachery or deceit. Spirit means your mind and heart. Blessed or happy is the man who doesn't have anything to hide from who? Who doesn't have anything to hide from God. If we're not hiding stuff from God, then we're going to be a lot more happy.

And child of God, you have nothing to hide from him. He knows. He knows who you are. He knows who he he knew who you were before he even made you. He knew what you would do, and he died for you anyway.

And he gave you eternal life when you accepted Jesus Christ as your savior for his severe sins. And in Christ, there is no reason to hide. In verses one and two, we learn how to be happy. In verses three and four, quickly, we learn how to be miserable. You want to be miserable?

Okay. Well, here's how to be miserable. David writes, when I kept silence, my bones waxed old through the roaring all the day long. Roaring mean crying. For day and night, thy hand was heavy upon me.

My moisture has turned into drought of summer Selah. You wanna know how to be miserable? Well, David tells us here how to be miserable. Hide. Run.

Keep it secret. Keep it secret from God or try to. You keep trying to make it secret, and it's still going to be on your what? Your mind and heart, and you're going to be you're gonna be miserable. Proverbs twenty eight thirteen says, he that covereth his sins shall not prosper.

Whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. You wanna experience the fullness of God's mercy and grace? Then don't don't try to keep secrets from God. Do what David said last week in Psalm one thirty nine. Search me, o God, and know my heart.

Try me, know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me. Invite him to see you. He already does. You wanna be miserable?

Keep it secret. You wanna be miserable? Justify and excuse it. Psalm 6six 18, If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my prayer. Well, yeah, it's sin.

Well, but it's not sin. But you know, it's but I did the wrong thing, but I did it for the right reason. Do you think that holds water with God? Do you think God is a pragmatist? I don't think so.

Don't try to justify your sin. You're gonna spin your wheels and spin your wheels in your head and make yourself dizzy and miserable and get nowhere because you know it's wrong. So just what? Just admit it. Admit it and don't do it again And don't deny it.

First John one eight and ten say, we say we have no sin, we deceive who? Ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Don't deny it. Don't justify it.

Don't keep it secret. Instead instead, do what? Confess it. David sinned against God and he tried to keep it secret. And he tried to justify it, and he tried to deny it, and it made him miserable until somebody came along, a friend named Nathan, and said, David, you've sinned.

I know what you've done. God told me. And David finally confessed it, and God took away that burden that was crushing him. How to be forgiven? Confess it.

Acknowledge it. Acknowledge it. Don't deny it. Repent of it. Turn away from it.

Be honest. It's sin. Don't try to paint a pretty picture. Don't try to sweep it under the rug. If we confess our sin sins, he is faithful and just what?

To forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And he'll take that burden off our shoulders. Are you hiding sin? Are you trying to keep it secret? Are you justifying and putting it off?

Say, I'll deal with it tomorrow. Don't. Talk to God about it today. If you've received Christ as savior, that sin was nailed to his cross, now let it go. How do you let it go?

You've got to confess it. Don't hold on to it. He wants to cleanse you. Let it go. Do you want happiness, peace, fulfillment, and joy?

Stop playing games with God. That doesn't work. Be not deceived. God is not mocked for whatsoever man soweth that shall he also reap. Stop playing games with sin.

Be sure your sin will find you out. Come clean with God. Blessed is happy is he who has no guile, in whom is no guile, who has come clean with God. And he will lift that burden from your shoulders. And his mercy is our new what?

Every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you, Lord, for your mercy and grace and love. Lord, forgive us of our sins.

Lord, help us to come clean to you, be honest, be open. Lord, thank you for forgiving. Thank you that in Christ our sins are no longer written on our account and will will no longer be held against us on that day of judgment because they were judged in Jesus Christ. But, Lord, help us to be willing to admit and confess our failures, Lord, so that you can take those burdens from our shoulders day by day and remind us of who we are in Christ Jesus, that we might be happy people as we ought to be who know Christ Jesus as savior and have eternal life. Lord, we pray for those we know this evening that are carrying a heavy load.

We have friends and family members and neighbors who are crushed beneath the load of their sin and are trying to find a way out. Lord, would you give us the opportunity and would you help us and give us wisdom to take it, to share with them the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ that there is joy and happiness and peace to be found. There is hope in Jesus Christ and to give them the gospel. And, Lord, we pray that you would open their eyes. Lord, make us your ambassadors to share the word of reconciliation with the world that desperately needs to hear it as Paul in his day.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.