Introduction: The Problem of the Past
The past is a problem for us for two reasons.
First, somewhere or other, you and I have stuffed it up. We have sinned, transgressed God's law. And neither you nor I can go back in time and undo it. Some people, of course, make it a policy not to look back. 'I never look back darling, it distracts from the now!' Or the hero in the western, with his last words: ‘If I had my life over, I wouldn’t change a thing’. Or the Frank Sinatra song, ‘Regrets, I’ve had a few, but then again, too few to mention’. But this bravado in the face of failure is either arrogant, ignorant, or both.
There is the story in John’s gospel, not in the earliest manuscripts, but it may indeed relate an historical event. The woman is caught in adultery. And Jesus says, ‘Let he who is without sin cast the first stone’. The narrative tells us that the men dropped their stones and walked away, the oldest ones first. And because the past is a problem for us, the future is a problem.
This is the second reason why the past is a problem for us. The past is a problem because in the future the past will come back to bite us. The future is a problem because the past is a problem. The future is a problem because God will bring every person he has created to judgment.
God has created us moral beings. God has built into us a sense of right and wrong. Our consciences are the court of our mind. They are quiet when we’ve done what we think is right. But they are an early warning system, an in-built moral alarm, warning us when we are about to do wrong. And then, if we've done wrong, our consciences are a judge, jury and executioner, carried with us everywhere we go, watching our every move. And when we do wrong, they punish us. They stand over us and flog us for our disobedience and compromise and sin. And in this they are only a testimony to the holy God, who is really everywhere, and is the real judge, jury and executioner, the real judge of the earth.
There are all kinds of ways people try to silence God-given conscience: alcohol, pot, TV, sport, sleep, comfort food, sex. At the extremes, people throw themselves into the things they know are wrong. It’s their attempt to dull the pain of an accusing conscience, and to sear it with the hot iron of continued hardness to its demands, so that conscience won’t torment them anymore. But most of the time, we try to quieten conscience by distracting ourselves with the permissible things that we fill our lives with.
But lying in the future is the judgment day. Because our past is our problem, our future is our problem. For up ahead, waiting in the future for us, is the all seeing, all knowing God. He knows what we’ve set our hearts on. He knows our deepest desires and lusts and motivations. Like a tractor beam, like a massive magnet, each of us is being drawn to him, in the future, to that one great meeting that we must have with our maker.
Friends, judgment is coming. And after that, punishment or reward, or better, mercy. Heaven or hell is our ultimate destiny. God our maker is also our judge. Our past is before him. He has forgotten nothing, and missed none of it. Every thought word and deed is before him. Jesus said that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken (Matthew 12:36). Paul said we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad. (2 Corinthians 5:10).
God works by the principle, ‘the soul that sins shall die’. The pagans, the gentiles, who don’t have God’s law written, and sin, will perish (Romans 2:12). Because they have the work of God’s law written on their heart (Romans 2:15-16). And the Jew that sins, knowing the written law will be judged by the law (Romans 2:12). And we already know the outcome, because ‘no one will be justified before God by observing the law. Rather, through the law we become conscious of sin’ (Romans 2:19-20).
So God, in the person of his Son, is coming to us to individually in judgement. He has said that everyone who sins deserve punishment, because everyone has rebelled against him, who has sinned, who has thought, said, or done anything wicked or evil. And he has warned that he will bring upon them trouble, distress, weeping and gnashing of teeth. But to others, not because of any merit in themselves, he will extend mercy and grace. For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he might have mercy on them all.
Do you believe this? Do you think that this is true? Do you agree with the bible that this is going to happen?
Then isn’t this Psalm wonderful? Isn’t this remarkable good news for us? Psalm 32 is a psalm that bring joy to the heart, quietness to the mind, strength to weak arms. For it talks about the cover up of God.
King David writes this Psalm about a thousand years before Jesus. King David is of course the model King, or Christ. He is described as ‘the man after God’s own heart’. He is the yardstick by which all other Christs are judged. David was an Old Testament Christ, or Messiah. Empowered by the Spirit, David Christ rescued God’s people from their enemies, and he proved himself faithful through suffering.
However, as a Christ, David was a failure, because he was found in bed with his loyal leiutenant’s wife. And then he betrayed him and organized his death once his sin was found out. David had attempted his own version of a cover up. But God saw it all, and revealed the truth. He announced the sin with headlines and loud speakers not only to King David, not only to the whole nation of Israel, who learned that the reason for the civil war the they were suffering was because the Messiah sinned, but to every bible reader for the last three millenia.
David’s sin has not been hushed up. It has become notorious. For there is no secret sin. There will be no secrets on the day of judgment. And when God’s Christ, the Messiah sins, it affects everyone. David’s attempted cover up was a worse failure than his sin that required it.
But where David failed, God succeeded. For God is remarkably good at covering up sin. After all, we’ve made sure he’s had a lot of practice.
But it’s not the cover up that hushes everything up. God’s cover up is not like some denial of facts and reality. 'No, we don’t talk about that sort of thing here. Whatever you do, don’t mention the war.' God isn’t a child chided when he wants to say that the emperor has no clothes on. God isn’t one of the three wise monkeys: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. He is not like Admiral Nelson, who puts his telescope to his blind eye and says: ‘I see nothing’.
God takes a good long look at our sin in all its ugliness: from above, below, square leg, super slow motion, snicko, stump cam, ump cam, hot spot. Yep, no doubt about it, it’s definitely sin. It’s putrid, it’s rotten, it stinks to high heaven.
And then God says, I’ve got to do something about their sin. I’ve got to cover it up. So God doesn’t ignore our sin, tip toe around it while holding his nose. He crouches down, look at it face to face in all its wretched disgustingness. And when he sees it clinging to us in all it’s vileness, he sends his Son to take it off us, to suffer for it, and to die under its weight. And then God covers up our sin by burying it with his dead Son.
It is a public burial of our sin. Our sin is not hushed up. In fact, by God treating it this way, he wants us to concentrate and pay attention to it. He wants us to see how serious our sin is, and the great cost of forgiving it. But God still performs the cover up. He buries our sins with his Son, who knew no sin, but became sin for us.
God isn’t hiding our sin from other people. That’s what David sought to do. And God publicized it all the more loudly for the attempt.
No, God must hide our sin from his own sight. But God says, 'I will do the grave-digging myself'. Like Harry Potter when Dobby dies, Harry buries his dead friend without magic. So God, consents to have his only beloved son bear our sins in his body on the tree. And that Jesus Christ be buried under our sins.
Can you see why there is the blessedness spoken about in verses 1 and 2?
Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. 2 Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. (Psalm 32:1-2)
David is excited, relieved. He knows what it is to be forgiven and washed clean of his wretched sins. And so he sings about the wonder of forgiveness. David is not going to hush up what God has covered up. David wanted to hush up his sin. That was a mistake. He was in denial, and deceiving himself. So now he isn’t going to hush up the forgiveness of his sins.
And neither should you. If your sins have been forgiven, talk to others about it. That’s called evangelism. Tell others about the blessedness of sins forgiven.
And if you don’t know that your sins are forgiven, come and talk to me. I’ll tell you about the gospel of Jesus Christ. The gospel is all about the forgiveness of sins. What I received I passed onto you as of first importance… That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. That he was buried and raised on the third day according to the scriptures. And then I will talk about the need to repent and believe. And about the promises that are in the bible. And the need not to deceive yourself.
David had of course tried denial. He had tried to cover up and hide his sin. But what was the result?
Verses 3-4: 3 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.
This was an expensive secret to try and keep. Denial is costly. And God wasn’t going to let him get away with it. So it was God who laid his hand of suffering on David. The pain of an accusing conscience. The effort to silence his conscience cost David all his strength.
Who knows how long David wandered around in this daze, with this internal battle going on? It took David almost a year to confess his sin of adultery and murder. If that was the occasion, David endured for that brief moment of pleasure with Bathsheba a year of unremitting pain and torment. Was it worth it?
The turning point came when David stopped denying his sin. Verse 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.
Solomon says ‘He who conceals his sins does not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy’. And that is what David finds. He stops the whole denial, he admits to God what he has done. And God pardons and sets him free from the sin. The truth will set you free. And here, David acknowledges the truth about himself. And that truth sets him free from his sin.
How much more encouragement do we have to confess? David had the Old Testament sacrificial system. But there is some doubt whether high handed, deliberate sin would be forgiven. And anyway, we know that the blood of bulls and goats did not cleanse the worshipers conscience.
But we have our mediator and high priest in heaven, Jesus Christ. He has shown us that God is willing and able to forgive us all our sin. The thing we are called to do is confess it, and repent of it.
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 1:8-2:2)
When we have sinned against God, we are to confess it to him. And all sin is against God. But when we have sinned against other people, we are to confess, apologise and make restitution. We need to pay back what we took, and ask for forgiveness from our neighbor, and restore the relationship, as much as it lies in our power.
When we become aware of our sin, we should do this. And in church life, there are helps for us. So communion is meant to be a time when we think about whether we’ve got a problem with God or someone else. Page 112 is an important part of Holy Communion in our churches. Yet for all the times I’ve had communion, I can only recall hearing it once read prior to a communion service. AAPB Bottom of page 112 and top of 113. The two principles of properly receiving the Lord’s supper. Confession of sin to God, against whom is all sin, and apologizing and making good our offenses against our neighbor, as much as possible.
There is a place for getting help. It is not in the absolute secrecy of the confessional between priest and confessor. We don’t have such a thing in the Anglican Church, nor such a thing as absolute secrecy. We have ministers, servants who can discreetly help. Fellow sinners, who can sit with you, look at sin or some other problem, call the sin, ‘sin’, and then apply to it God’s remedy, repentance and forgiveness.
That’s what I’m here for. You know where I live. Most Sundays you can find me around. And if you don’t think I can help you, go to someone else, a mature Christian you trust, and open up your grief. But don’t bottle it up or keep it quiet. Because you will just groan in pain under the burden of your sin and an uneasy conscience. And there is no need. Jesus Chris has died and risen again. He wants you to serve him with a quiet mind, and rejoice in blessed forgiveness.
That is why David is so urgent in verse 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.
What should we do when we find ourselves in sin? Go to the fridge? Go to the television? Turn up the music? Drown the pain in some pursuit? Dull the pain of conscience with our culture anesthetic?
No, pray about it. Take it to the Lord in prayer. What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry. Everything to God in prayer. O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, All because we do not carry Everything to God in prayer!
Have we trials and temptations, Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged: Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful Who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness: Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Are we weak and heavy-laden Cumbered with a load of care? Jesus is our only refuge: Take it to the Lord in prayer….
Why don’t we take it God in prayer?
Is it laziness? What silliness, to struggle under sin, denying and battling it, but not taking the way out God has provided, by praying.
Is it not believing that God is not willing or able to help? He gave up his only son! What more could he give us. Is it pride, arrogance.
I’ve done nothing wrong, I don’t need to pray.
Be sure of it! Maybe you’ve done nothing wrong. Or maybe, in the middle of doing good, you’ve also done bad. Bad motives and evil attitudes cling to the best of our actions. In verses 8 and 9, God offers us this instruction:
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. 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.
Stubbornness has its cost. It took David a year to come to God about his adultery and murder. It took a face to face rebuke from Nathan the prophet. And it was followed by the death of one, two, three sons. A son raping his sister, a son sleeping with 10 of his concubines. Fleeing Jerusalem with all his citizens. Fighting a civil war with his son.
Do not be like the horse or the mule. Only with bit or bridle will they come. Come to the Lord now, easily, accepting his correction, rebuke and forgiveness. For he can make us come to him with whip and spur, or what is much worse, let us go our own way.
No, let us come to the Lord, now, in the midst of wherever we are. Taking whatever we’ve got to the Lord. And finding in the Lord Jesus Christ the blessed forgiveness we so desparately need.
Let’s pray
Father, make us come to you in our stubbornness. And give us a heart that flees to you in our time of need. Let us not be stubborn like horse or mule, that has to be brought kicking and screaming to you. Rather, enable us to come humbly, maturely to your throne of grace. To find the forgiveness, mercy and strength we so desparately need. Turn us from our many sins, we pray. And enable us to put right whatever needs to be put right with our neighbour. Let us not rest until we have a peaceful conscience before you, so that we can serve you with a quiet mind and give ourselves fully to your service. Have mercy most merciful Father, according to your unfailing love, and according to your great compassion, blot out all our transgressions, through the blood and in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.