SPF 159: Judgement of the Lord & Divine Forgiveness

September 3, 2020

There are small judgements of the Lord and there will be a final judgement. What do we do in either case? You know I like a good message on repentance and belief. Today we will be looking at the Prophet Joel in the Old Testament and see how the message of repentance applies to us even now.

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Judgement and Divine Forgiveness: Joel

Sermon clip from New City Church series on Joel AUDIO:

http://newcitydenver.buzzsprout.com/270730/5032040-repentance-o-t-style-joel-1-13-2-11

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BcTW4xHCQM&t=1634s

One of my favorite quotes:

“I have a controversial epic statement. . .

God won’t bless sin.”

“All Christians are eternally forgiven, but if you as a Christian think you can wallow in sin and manage sin and not deal with it through repentance and belief and think you will be blessed – you’re crazy.”

That’s the crux of gospel centered living – it’s turn to the Lord Jesus Christ, away from our sin, to receive the grace and mercy of the Lord and live for Him and His glory.

Psalm 32

The title given to this Psalm is literally blessed are the forgiven. Not blessed are those who keep on sinning.

What happened when David kept silent?

For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away

through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me;

my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.

That does not sound like blessing. I mean, it’s a blessing in the fact that it’s a wake up call to come to the Lord, but it is a life that lacks the fullness of joy and relief that flows from grace and mercy.

Instead David found blessings in the repentance of his sin:

Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven,

whose sin is covered.

Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity,

and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

Charles Spurgeon Morning and Evening

“I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord; and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.”

Psalm 32:5

David’s grief for sin was bitter. Its effects were visible upon his outward frame: “his bones waxed old”; “his moisture was turned into the drought of summer.” No remedy could he find, until he made a full confession before the throne of the heavenly grace. He tells us that for a time he kept silence, and his heart became more and more filled with grief: like a mountain tarn whose outlet is blocked up, his soul was swollen with torrents of sorrow. He fashioned excuses; he endeavoured to divert his thoughts, but it was all to no purpose; like a festering sore his anguish gathered, and as he would not use the lancet of confession, his spirit was full of torment, and knew no rest. At last it came to this, that he must return unto his God in humble penitence, or die outright; so he hastened to the mercy-seat, and there unrolled the volume of his iniquities before the all-seeing One, acknowledging all the evil of his ways in language such as you read in the fifty-first and other penitential Psalms. Having done this, a work so simple and yet so difficult to pride, he received at once the token of divine forgiveness; the bones which had been broken were made to rejoice, and he came forth from his closet to sing the blessedness of the man whose transgression is forgiven. See the value of a grace-wrought confession of sin! It is to be prized above all price, for in every case where there is a genuine, gracious confession, mercy is freely given, not because the repentance and confession deserve mercy, but for Christ’s sake. Blessed be God, there is always healing for the broken heart; the fountain is ever flowing to cleanse us from our sins. Truly, O Lord, thou art a God “ready to pardon!” Therefore will we acknowledge our iniquities.