Restoring the Joy of Forgiveness: A Path to Revival

I ain't concluding next Wednesday, but it may go into three. And since we're about to enter into the week of revival meetings with Brother Sam Davidson, I decided to preach on revival in Psalm 32.

That's what we're going to be tonight. Go ahead and turn to Psalm 32. This might not be your typical sermon on revival, but it's got everything in it that tells us how to have revival.

Say amen when you get there. Alright. We're going to pretty much stay in this chapter for the duration of the message.

So in this psalm we see that King David identified something that he used to have. And then he shows us how he lost it. And then he proceeds to show us how he got it back.

So I want to preach just for a minute or two on this particular subject. The beginning of revival. The beginning of revival. Let's pray just for a moment, Father. Again we just say thank you for the privilege of serving you.

We thank you for the privilege of being behind this pulpit and pray that you would, Lord, just fill me with your spirit. Help me to say only those things that are necessary and the things that would edify the saints and glorify you.

And I pray that each person in a pew would also be filled with your spirit, would be attuned and attentive to your word tonight that we can receive all that you have for us in Jesus name. We pray it. Amen. If I think that I'm not in need of revival, then revival will never be mine.

Folks, if you're a Christian here tonight and you've read biographies on revival, stories on revival, I don't know how you don't want revival, how you couldn't want revival. It'll touch your heart in a great way. It'll make you hunger and thirst for revival. If you've never read a book on revivals, you ought to ask Pastor.

Ask me about some of the good books that'll stir you and I promise you it'll really help you to want to seek revival. But if I think that I'm in need, if I think that I'm not in need of revival, revival will never come to me.

I'm not too proud to admit that I'm not all I could be or all I need to be for Jesus Christ. I know I'm not. And as I read this psalm, God spoke to me and said, reckon you lost some things along the way? And I said, yes, I reckon I have.

Then he said, well, come on, I'll show you how and where you lost them. But more importantly, I'll show you how to get it back.

And so, as I dig into this psalm, I want you to notice that David shows us first of all what he had in verse 1 and 2. He said in Psalm 32, verse 1 and 2, 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. You know what David had at one time, he's revealing that to us right here. He had the joy of forgiveness. He had it, the joy of forgiveness.

Now, that word in there, blessed, it's one of those religious words it's hard to translate really into practical terms because it's not just one word. You've got several words you got to roll in there. I mean, like when I say, I'm blessed, I guess the word blessed, like, hey, how you doing? Blessed.

That's different than saying, I'm a blessed. Is this individual blessed? Not just blessed. Blessed is so one of those. It's hard to translate into just practical terms.

I. I think happiness, joy, contentment, gratefulness, all of those rolled into one would probably be a good definition of the word blessed. All of those. Blessed is the man happy, full of joy. He's content. He's grateful. Blessed is the man whose transgression is forgiven.

The psalmist says that the blessed person is the one who understands forgiveness. And you can't really understand the reality of forgiveness if you don't understand the concept of sin.

When I'm trying to tell somebody about Jesus Christ. In fact, some my friends here, they witnessed it the other night. I was talking to a young man and.

And I told him all about the things that will befall us if we don't accept Christ as our Savior. And you know what's going to befall us if we die? Hell. Hell and the lake of fire. Those are the things that await us.

And so I said, as I always do, I said, now, everything I've told you up to this point is just bad news. It's just bad news. And so you have to follow that up with the good news. That's the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

But the good news, many times, it isn't very good unless you compare it to bad news. What makes it good news is the bad news. And so it's the same thing here.

We can't really understand and we can't grasp the reality of forgiveness that is ours until we first understand the concept of sin. Now, notice that David uses three words to describe sin in this passage, he uses the word transgression, which is just rebellion against God.

He uses the word sin, which means missing the mark. It means falling short of God's standard. He uses the word iniquity, which means treachery and deceit.

You know, it's bad enough that Jesus died for my sin as a lost man, and I don't think on that often enough. And that's one of the avenues to revival, is thinking about what God did for us and how Jesus died for my sin.

For me, revival starts with James Stone. It's got to start with me. It's got to start in your heart. We can't look at our neighbors and say, boy, they really need it.

I can pick out three or four in here that you know, I'm glad I ain't like him. Boy, God, they sure need revival. Amen. We can all find someone like that.

But the fact of the matter is, it's that guy in the mirror, that guy who I shaved tonight. That's the one who needed revival the most. And it's bad enough that Jesus died for my sin as a lost man, but think about this sin.

When we sin after salvation, that's just pure rebellion, folks. It's one thing for Jesus to die for us when we realize he died for me while I was a sinner, but then after I became a Christian, I still sin.

That's rebellion. That's pure rebellion. That's pride. That's saying, I don't care what you did for me, I'm going to do it my way.

That's trampling the blood of Jesus Christ under our feet. When we.

When we sin after we've been saved, when we understand what Jesus had to do in order to save us, the death that he died, the shame that he endured, the suffering and the agony that he endured, and yet we go into sin with our eyes wide open. That is taking the blood of Christ, putting it down on the ground and walking all over it.

When we see people who are not saved, when we see them sin, what's. What do we always say? We always say, well, you know, they're just acting like a lost person. Lost person acting like a lost person.

But what happens when you see saved people acting like lost people? David was happy. David was happy that his transgression was forgiven. He was happy that his. That his sins were lifted from him, carried away.

That word forgiven means lifted. And I don't put much stock in feelings when a person gets saved. I said that the other day.

I said, I Had the privilege of leading a young man to Christ. And I told him straight up. I said, look, you're not going to feel electric up and down your spine.

There's probably not goosebumps you're going to follow. But the fact of the matter is, when I got saved and the life that I lived, I'm not going to get into all that.

But when I did get saved, when I trusted Christ as my Savior and I just knew there was a burden of guilt lifted off of my soul, for lack of a better word, I felt lighter. I felt the sin just gone. I felt forgiven. I don't really know any way to explain it other than just say I felt like everything was lifted off of me.

And that's what the word means when he says his transgression was forgiven. It was lifted, it was carried away. His sin was covered. He was happy that his sin was forgiven. His sin was covered. It was hidden. Hidden. Concealed.

Concealed by what? Concealed. Not just concealed by the blood of the Lamb, but gone by the blood of the Lamb. The Lord doesn't impute iniquity.

And that's an accounting term, as in reckoning to an account. It's not counted against us. Oh, my soul. I've said this so many times from the pulpit.

Pulpits, every pulpit I've been in, I've said when I talk about sin, I can't help but to think about the fact that the worst thing that you've ever done in your life, the most absolute horrible thing, and I'm glad only you and God know about it, and I'm sure you are, too. And I'm glad that only God knows about some of the things that I've done in my life. God forgave me for that. And he'll never bring it up again.

And it's a good thing that our spouses don't know some of the horrible things that we've done in our past, because they'll bring them up and we'll bring them up, but God never will. He never will. It's not counted against us ever. You know, it's kind of like being pulled over. This is a. This is a really light illustration.

It doesn't really fully explain all that happened in our forgiveness, but. And you may have never been pulled over, so it may not even register with you. But I've been pulled over for going really fast, and I've actually had.

And by the way, I'll qualify this in just a moment.

I got pulled over on the freeway going really fast, and this police officer Walked up to the truck, and he walked to the other side of the vehicle where my wife was sitting, and he let us go without even a warning. I mean, he just gave me a warning. He said, this won't even count. I'm not even going to put it on your record.

And by the way, it always goes on your record. You may not get a ticket, but it does go on your record.

And as a professional driver, you don't want to be pulled over and have that against your record. It'll cost in your insurance and everything. Anyway, it's points. It's called points.

Anyway, so that police officer, he looked down into where my wife was sitting. I had my daughters in the back, and the police officer looked down into her lap, and she had a songbook there.

The fact is, my daughter and my daughters and my wife were practicing a song that they were to sing in Oregon, some city in Oregon at a church where my wife was going to be the guest speaker at a ladies conference. And the police officer said. He said, why are you going so fast? I got to get them to this city in Oregon at a certain time.

And he looked down at that songbook and he said, I bet it has something to do with this right here, huh? I said, and she said, yes, sir, I'm scheduled to sing and speak. And he let us go for her sake. He didn't do it for me.

See, again, speaking to her, I'm so forgettable.

But what I'm trying to say, the point that I'm trying to make is when you get pulled over for speeding, but the officer's in a good mood, and you just know you got an ugly ticket coming. And he says, look, I'm just going to give you a warning this time. Be careful, sir. Slow down. How many of you have been there? How many?

Has that ever happened to you? Did you. And ladies, how many of you did not just swipe the sweat off your brow and go, whoo? That was a close one.

Well, you know, like I said, that is not a very good illustration about what Jesus did and what God continues to do. The worst of the worst that you ever did. He said, I'll not count it against you. I'll not count it against you. He forgave you. He forgave you.

And there's joy in forgiveness when you understand what God did, When you understand that you're never going to have to answer for that sin again, when you're not going to have to stand before the great White Throne judgment and give account for the sin that you've committed. There's joy in that. What did David have? He had the joy of forgiveness. But I want you to notice. Next, he tells us how he lost it.

How did he lose the joy of forgiveness? Look, I hope, before I jump into that, I hope that you. I hope that that resonates with you.

I hope that some of you, when you got saved, it was very, very real that God forgave you of everything that you've ever done. I like to do this. I did it the other night. I don't. I don't. I think I've done it from this pulpit before. I don't know if I have a clean page.

Here we go. When I got saved. The moment I got. I got saved. And I went to the church at night. I walked the aisle.

And when I came out back into the auditorium, this is what the pastor did. He turned his Bible around to me just like this.

And he said, james, he said, you are in the eyes of God like that right now, as though you never sinned. And you rotten wretch, some of you could stand here and write a list of how wicked you were. Do you understand that?

That's how you look in the eyes of God. When your sins are forgiven, when you confess your. That's how you look.

The joy of forgiveness, of knowing that you can stand before God with a clean heart and your slate is clean. I mean, there's joy in that. You can actually live a life and not have to look over your shoulder and worry. You can go to sleep at night.

Clear conscience is the softest pillow. David, he had the joy of forgiveness, but he lost it. He lost the joy of forgiveness. Look what he says now. He's in verse three and four.

Now, I want you to notice before we read it, he's going to tell us about the misery of unconfessed sin. Notice the shift to a personal pronoun. He's given us a personal illustration about the power of unconfessed sin. I'm going to say it again.

He's giving us an illustration of the power, the stronghold, the clutch, the power of unconfessed sin. Now, he is speaking metaphorically, but I want you to look in three, three. And look at the first part of that.

He said, when I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. How did he lose the joy of forgiveness? I mean, you're going along one day and you mess up.

You do something stupid, you do something that offends God, and then you don't Confess it. You let that fester. How did he lose the joy of his forgiveness? Unconfessed sin, that's how he lost it.

He said, when I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. He tried to subdue the sin by not confessing it.

I dare say there's got to be a few of us in here, a crowd this size, and this is only part of our crowd. But even with this many in here, there's bound to be folks in here this evening who have sin that you're keeping down inside.

And you haven't confessed that to God. And because of that, you don't have the joy of forgiveness that you could have and that you once had. He tried to subdue the sin by not confessing it.

That's like, look, sweeping the dirt under the rug. Never removes it, does it? Because one day that rug is going to get moved.

One day that rug is going to get lifted up and it's all going to be revealed. You can't sweep it under the rug and expect it to go away. The conviction that David was experiencing it was affecting him physically.

In this passage, he said, when I kept silence, my bones, my bones wax old.

And again, it's metaphorical, but many times the physical ailments that we humans have, just humans in general, many times they're a result of just sinful lifestyles, poor choices in life. Some people, they get old quicker than they're meant to get old because of poor choices in life.

But it's worse for Christians because we typically walk into sin with our eyes wide open. We know what we're doing, and it's worse for us. Trying to subdue or ignore our sins is like trying to put out a grease fire on the stove with water.

When we try to subdue our sins, when we try to ignore our sins, when we try to sweep it all under the rug. You know what happens in a grease fire when you throw water on it? The water, it's dense. It's more dense than the grease.

And it goes to the bottom of the pan and. And immediately it evaporates.

And then it causes the grease to sizzle and to jump and to pop, causing sometimes an explosion, causing a far worse situation than if you'd never thrown the water on it.

Do you understand that trying to subdue sin by just covering it up or ignoring it or just not talking about it, that's going to make the situation far worse down the road? He said in the second part of that verse, through my roaring all the Day long through my roaring. Now he said it was my roaring.

And so this was a personal thing for David. This was a personal thing for King David. There was such conviction in his heart about the sin.

Now some of the commentators, we don't really know exactly which sin it was. Many commentators say it was the sin that he committed with Bathsheba when he sent Uriah to his death. And then he committed adultery with.

Well, he committed adultery with Bathsheba and he sent her husband to his death. Many say it was that, but we don't really know that. It could have been anything, could have been something else. But whatever it was, it was, it was.

He was under great conviction. He was under great conviction about this particular sin. And nobody could hear inside of him.

But within his own guilty heart and in his own guilty mind, the conviction was as loud as a lion. And I use the word lion just because of the word roaring. That's there, the conviction over his sin as a child of God.

Look, if you're not saved, if you don't have Jesus Christ as your Savior, you can sin, you can live like the devil and it won't even bother you. But if you're a child of God this evening, you can't live like that and it not bother you.

The Holy Spirit is going to be in there and he's going to be telling you, you know better than that. You know better than that. Don't do this. You ought to do that. We know what's right. Hey, that doesn't please God. What are you doing, James?

Why are you doing that, son? Straighten up. And inside my guilty heart and guilty mind, there's a roaring inside of me called guilt. It's called conviction.

He said in verse four, for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me. Day and night thy hand was heavy upon me.

Christian, we can't live or continue in sin without a constant, ever present reminder from the Holy Spirit that we are offending a thrice holy God and grieving his spirit within. And if you can, if you know that you're saved.

Look, it is possible, it is possible for a child of God to get so far away from God that when he sins, that conscience is hard. His conscience is seared.

In fact, the Bible says you can get so far away from God you forget that you were removed from, you were forgiven of your old sins, your past sins. You can even get to the point where you say, I'm not even saved. But that doesn't change the fact that, that you will stand before God.

You will stand at the judgment seat, you will give an account for every idle word as a child of God. And I'll just say this. How grateful should we be for a God that won't leave us alone about sin?

How grateful should we be about a God that won't give up on us? They'll just keep on nudging us. Keep on. Look, at home we call that nagging. Amen. But I wouldn't dare do that to God.

I'm grateful for a God that continues to convict my heart when I do wrong. I don't want him to leave me alone. I'm so grateful for a God that won't leave me alone about sin.

And look, I just don't understand bleeding heart liberals and I'm sorry, I don't mean to be offensive. Maybe I did offend you. At this point, I don't mean to. But if you're a Christian, follow the Bible, follow the word of God.

Sometimes you're young and just needs it. Just needs it. And that rod. And I'm not talking about a literal rod anyway. Children, discipline is in the Bible. It's in the Bible.

Now granted, granted, you may have a child who all you have to do is look at them and their heart will break. And that's true, there are some kids you don't have to do much to. But then there are others where they need it betimes. And why do they.

Why do we give it to them betimes? And I can tell you what I did to my kids now because they're grown. Amen. You can call CPS all you want to on me. They're grown. They're grown and gone.

And some of them needed it more than others. And I didn't hesitate to give it to them. I didn't like giving it to them. But I loved them. That's why I gave it to them.

And the fact of the matter is, the Bible says if you spare the rod when your child needs it, the Bible says you hate your child. Thank you, Pastor. That's what the Bible says. But I want you to notice, just listen to this.

In Job, chapter 5, verse 7, the Bible says man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward. Just as sure as you put a log on that fire and all the sparks are going to go up, just as sure as those sparks Go up.

We're going to have problems as soon as that baby is born. He's already having problems already. Just wait, Brother Jar. Just wait. Wait till Asher gets up there. Oh, man. Or is it too late? It's already started.

It's already started. They're both. Yep, yep, yep. That boy. That boy like his daddy, not like his mama, right? I tell you. And then what else does it say? Job 14.

One man that is born of a woman is a few days and full of trouble. We have problems, and it doesn't stop when you get saved. So I'm saved, but I still sin. You're saved, but you still sin.

And we need God to act like a father, and he treats us like a son because we're constantly making problems for ourselves and maybe for others, but certainly for ourselves. And when for ourselves, as a child of God, we cause problems for the cause of Christ. And so I'm grateful for a God that won't leave us alone.

By the way, we ought to be equally grateful for a pastor that won't leave us alone about sin and judgment and hell. We ought to thank God.

Thank God that you're in a church where a preacher will stand up and unapologetically take a strong, confident, unyielding stand for doctrines of the Bible, the kjv, the church, and many other, many other doctrines that he stands up here and proclaims, thank God for a pastor who doesn't stand up here and say, ah, doctrine just divides. We're just going to join hands on the things that unite us. Doctrine does divide.

It divides the sheep from the goats, and sometimes that's what we need. So thank God for a we're grateful for a God that won't leave us alone. David said, day and night thy hand was heavy upon me day and night.

I know, I've. I hope I don't wear you out with this illustration. When I was in the army and I was away from God for those three years, I was away from the Lord.

I'm telling you, I mean it. I mean it with every breath in me. When I laid my head down in the bunk at night, I'm telling you, God wouldn't leave me alone every day.

And I made dumb bargains with the Lord. I would lay down and, well, he didn't take him as bargains. I thought I was making a bargain. It was just dumb thinking.

I'd lay my head down and I'd say, lord, you get me back to the States and I'll quit living like this. Stupid, stupid. But I'm sure grateful that he did let me live. Every night the Lord would prick my heart because I knew I was away from him.

And I'm grateful that he never gave up on me. Look what he says in the last part of verse four.

He says, my moisture is turned into the drought of summer Selah Again, it's metaphorically speaking when he says this. He's talking about the fact that the SAP of his soul just being dried up. He said, my unconfessed sin is just drying me up. I'm useless.

I'm no good for anything. And it will render us useless as well for the cause of Christ. You know what? We're supposed to come here and get filled up.

We're supposed to get filled up with the word of God. And then we're supposed to go out there and allow God to wring us out into a lost and dying world.

Wring us out in the form of blessing and helping and loving and being Christ to a lost and dying world. But when we have unconfessed sin in our life, sometimes the conviction over that just causes us to be too dry to help anybody else.

And we can become a castaway. You know that word, castaway? You know what I thought about? I think Brother Bob Smith is the one who actually said this, and I've never forgotten it.

He said, lest I become a castaway, and you don't want to be a castaway. And Dr. Bob Smith said this. He said, you ever stepped talking to us men, there was a bunch of preachers in the room.

He said, did you ever go into your drawer, into your sock drawer, and you're going to pull out a pair of socks and you always reach in and you pull out that one that don't have no match, and what do you do with it? You just throw it back in there. You don't even throw it away. You think, well, maybe one day it'll turn up. But you just keep pulling it out.

And how long before finally you just throw it away? Finally? I know I do. I think, well, it'll come out in the next load. It never does. But you know what? That sock is useless. It's just cast away useless.

And I don't want to be like that. I don't want to be useless for the cause of Christ. An unconfessed sin will render us useless for Jesus Christ.

Okay, so now we understand the blessings of forgiveness, and we only understand the blessing of forgiveness, of sin because we contrast it against the misery of unconfessed sin. And we realize that it's something. Sometimes it's physically debilitating, but it's always spiritually debilitating. Unconfessed sin. Unconfessed sin.

And this is something every Christian deals with. Unconfessed sin. What he had, he had the joy of forgiveness. How he lost it. Unconfessed sin. Now, how did he get it back?

Look with Me in verse 5, verse 5, we see confession and repentance. I acknowledge my sin unto thee and my iniquity have I not hid.

I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Selah. Now, notice this. David uses the same three words in this verse that he used in verse one and two.

He acknowledged his sin, he exposed his iniquity, and he confessed his transgression.

When we acknowledge, expose and confess to God what he already knows and sees, then we get to experience all over again what the first two verses are talking about. Blessed is the man. Blessed is that man that's ours all over again. But it has to come with confession and repentance.

And then look what he says in the second part of that verse. And thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. When confession and repentance are there, there comes forgiveness all over again.

That's what we were talking about in the beginning. That's what he lost. He had the joy of forgiveness and he lost it.

Well, he comes down to verse five, and he found how to get it back through confession and repentance. What's the big deal about forgiveness? That's where the joy comes from. That's where the restored and sweet fellowship comes from. Blessedness.

This one, David, King David, the man who was beat down by his own sin and subsequent conviction and guilt and sorrow, he says in verse 11. Look at verse 11.

After he repents and confesses his sin to God, he says, be glad in the Lord and rejoice, ye righteous, and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart. You know, there was a day, honestly, and man, I hate to even confess this.

And we have a tendency to kind of justify it by saying, well, you're older now, or whatever, but there was a day when I was so much more zealous for the Lord than I am now. And I know we have a tendency to say, well, you were young, you'll temper that. Don't worry. Old age will take care of that.

I don't want it to be taken care of. I want to be zealous for God. I'D love to be as zealous as I was when I was 20. And 30 and 40. I would love that. And 50, as far as that goes.

I would love to be as zealous as I used to be. I'm not. I'm not. I had it, I lost it, and I got it back a measure. But am I. Is there still room for more? Yeah.

There's still room for revival in my life. There's still room for revival in my heart. And it comes with confessing my sin. It comes with repentance.

Then I'll find that joy that I had once before. While it's true that I received forgiveness of all my sins when I trusted in Christ over 40 years ago.

First John 1:9 was written for all of us imperfect Christians who still sin. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's you. That's you. That's me.

Surely to goodness, once you got saved, you didn't stop confessing your sins. Surely to goodness, you didn't think there was no more sin in your life. Not at all. I mean, when we got saved. Good night. That was just the beginning.

Satan put a target on our back and he went after us. And we found ourselves doing things we didn't think we would do. Good night. How did I do that? I thought I was saved.

That's what the Devil likes to bring up. And then I read that verse. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

And guess what?

I can wake up every single morning and I can thank God that I have confessed sins and I'm cleansed and I'm righteous and I'm forgiven and I can start the day with a clean slate every single day. And you can, too. But you know what? There's some of us. We have a book, all right? And it looks like that it's just full.

It's full of stuff because we've let our sin account. Build up, build and build and build and build. And there's so many things in your life that need to be confessed and repented of.

And that's the beginning of revival. That's the beginning of revival. That's the beginning of revival for me. Brother Sam's going to come.

We're foolish to think that Brother Sam's going to bring revival in his hip pocket. He doesn't carry revival around in his wallet.

Revival begins with us, it's remembering what you had, understanding where you lost it, how you lost it, and then following the recipe here to get it back. Confession and repentance, we can do that. Do you see now how that this psalm has the makings of revival all over it? And I didn't even read it all.

How about you? Tonight, David identified what he used to have. He explained how he lost it and then he gave us a recipe on how to recover it.

That sounds like revival to me. Let's all stand together tonight. We'll get ready for invitation. And brethren, I truly.

I truly and wholly mean it when I say that the Lord preaches to me first. But if you're here tonight and God spoke to your heart, maybe you need to do some confessing and repenting yourself.

We're going to have a week of revival meetings. But that doesn't mean revival is going to happen just because the preacher's here. Are you going to be revived? Do you see your need for revival?

Why don't you come this evening? Pour your heart out to God. Not to man, but to God. Lord, revive me. Revive me. I used to have it and I lost it. And I want it back. Let's pray.

Father, we love you. Tonight we thank you again for your word. And I pray that you'd help us to take these truths and apply it. I know it wasn't soft soap at all.

It really wasn't even maybe not an easy pill to swallow. But it's something that we need. We need if we want revival. This is certainly the direction. So I pray that you'd help us to apply this to our lives.

For our good and for your glory, we pray in Jesus name. Let's do this with head bowed and eyes closed just for a little while.