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Giving Thanks for God’s Forgiveness Msg 12 - Pastor Chuck Swindoll Insight for Living · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: We love our God because he has spoken to us
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  Speaker 1: in ways we can understand. He has not chosen angels
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  Speaker 1: to speak for him. He has not dispatched a body
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  Speaker 1: of saints to return as his voice. He's not written
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  Speaker 1: his word in cloud formations or in night visions. His
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  Speaker 1: word comes to us in written form.
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  Speaker 2: In the book of God.
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  Speaker 1: Today I'll speak on giving thanks for God's forgiveness. Based
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  Speaker 1: on this psalm. Psalm number 32. Next week giving thanks
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  Speaker 1: for God's grace. Because of our love and respect for
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  Speaker 1: our God. We're going to be standing for the reading
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  Speaker 1: of psalm number 32.
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  Speaker 2: Please stand.
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  Speaker 1: How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin.
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  Speaker 2: Is covered.
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  Speaker 1: How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does
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  Speaker 1: not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.
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  Speaker 1: When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away.
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  Speaker 1: through my groaning all day long. For day and night,
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  Speaker 1: your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was drained
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  Speaker 1: away as with the fever heat of summer. Join with
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  Speaker 1: me in reading the Hebrew word that follows this.
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  Speaker 2: Together, Selah.
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  Speaker 1: I acknowledged my sin to you and my iniquity I
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  Speaker 1: did not hide. I said I will confess my transgressions
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  Speaker 1: to the Lord. And you forgave the guilt of my sin.
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  Speaker 2: Together. Selah.
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  Speaker 1: Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you in
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  Speaker 1: a time when you may be found. Surely in a
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  Speaker 1: flood of great waters they shall not reach him. You
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  Speaker 1: are my hiding place. You preserve me.
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  Speaker 2: From trouble. You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.
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  Speaker 1: I will instruct you and teach you in the way
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  Speaker 1: which you should go. I will counsel you with my
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  Speaker 1: eye upon you. Do not be as the horse or
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  Speaker 1: as the mule which have no understanding. whose trappings include
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  Speaker 1: bit and bridle, to hold them in check, otherwise they
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  Speaker 1: will not come near to you. Many are the sorrows
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  Speaker 1: of the wicked, but he who trusts in the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: loving kindness shall surround him. Be glad in the Lord
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  Speaker 1: and rejoice, you righteous ones, and shout for joy. all
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  Speaker 1: you who are upright.
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  Speaker 2: In heart. You may be seated. May we bow for prayer, please.
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  Speaker 1: We're so glad, our Father, that we arose today and
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  Speaker 1: came to Jesus sick, sore, broken, guilty, ashamed. We're even
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  Speaker 1: more glad, our Father, that you would accept us and
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  Speaker 1: forgive us. Today, we exalt in both. Thank you for
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  Speaker 1: your grace to forgive those of us who have come
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  Speaker 1: to you, each one undeserving, unworthy. And because of that,
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  Speaker 1: we are cleansed forgiven, renewed, and redirected in our journey
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  Speaker 1: from earth to heaven. You are our God, and we together,
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  Speaker 1: this week especially, give you our thanks. For home and family,
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  Speaker 1: For country and constitution. For warriors who defend us. And
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  Speaker 1: faithful servants of God.
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  Speaker 2: Who prepare us. For the life beyond. Use these gifts
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  Speaker 2: to further the cause. Of our matchless savior. Our Lord.
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  Speaker 1: Our forgiving, faithful friend. In his name we pray and
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  Speaker 1: we give. Everyone said, Amen. Of all the struggles we
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  Speaker 1: wrestle with, none is more relentless than sin.
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  Speaker 2: Just as Plain sin.
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  Speaker 1: It dogs our steps. It plays no favorites. It refuses
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  Speaker 1: to go away. It knows no barrier like a coiled
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  Speaker 1: rattler that strikes and bites. It leaves in us the
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  Speaker 1: venom of guilt and shame. It is ugly and even
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  Speaker 1: though we know that to be true, we return to it.
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  Speaker 1: We serve it. We live with it. And that kind
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  Speaker 1: of guilt and shame can drive us mad. And for some,
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  Speaker 1: it has. Back in the mid-1980s, Albert Speer was interviewed
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  Speaker 1: regarding his last book. Chuck Colson writes of it in
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  Speaker 1: his work, Who Speaks for God? It's in the chapter titled,
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  Speaker 1: The Stink of Sin. Albert Speer responded in this interview
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  Speaker 1: To the words of David Hartman, who asked, you have
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  Speaker 1: said the guilt can never be forgiven or shouldn't be.
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  Speaker 2: Do you still feel that way? You remember Speer.
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  Speaker 1: It was his technological genius that kept the engines of
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  Speaker 1: Nazi Germany humming. It was Speer who was Hitler's personal confidant.
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  Speaker 1: He alone was the only one of the 24 who
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  Speaker 1: stood on trial at Nuremberg to admit his guilt. You
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  Speaker 1: still feel that way. You still feel that the guilt
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  Speaker 1: has never been forgiven, Speer responds. I served a sentence
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  Speaker 1: for 20 years. And I could say I'm a free
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  Speaker 1: man now. My conscience has been cleared, but I can't
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  Speaker 1: do that. I still carry the burden of what happened
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  Speaker 1: to millions of people during Hitler's lifetime, and I can't
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  Speaker 1: get rid of it. The ABC interview was his last
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  Speaker 1: public statement. Speer died shortly thereafter. That true story reminds
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  Speaker 1: me of the statement made by a prison psychiatrist.
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  Speaker 2: Who shared his own professional frustrations.
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  Speaker 1: And I quote, I can cure people's madness, but I
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  Speaker 1: can't cure their badness. I can turn a schizophrenic bank
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  Speaker 1: robber into a mentally healthy bank robber. A good teacher
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  Speaker 1: can turn an illiterate criminal into an educated criminal. Bottom line,
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  Speaker 1: the stink of sin can only be erased by the
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  Speaker 1: forgiveness of God.
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  Speaker 2: Never forget that.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, it was evangelist Billy Graham who was told
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  Speaker 1: during his England crusade many years ago as a local
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  Speaker 1: psychiatrist spoke.
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  Speaker 2: To him, Mr.
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  Speaker 1: Graham, 70% of those in mental institutions could be released
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  Speaker 1: immediately if they could only find forgiveness, release from their
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  Speaker 1: tormenting The sinful madness that almost drove King David to distraction.
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  Speaker 2: Became ultimately more than he could bear. It kept him
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  Speaker 2: awake at night. It haunted him through the day.
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  Speaker 1: He could never get away from his wrongdoing for many, many,
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  Speaker 1: many months.
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  Speaker 2: You remember them. You remember his acts.
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  Speaker 1: He took the wife of Uriah and committed adultery, knowing
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  Speaker 1: it was against.
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  Speaker 2: The will of God.
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  Speaker 1: Weeks later, when Bathsheba came and whispered, I am pregnant,
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  Speaker 1: Not even that turned David's heart around.
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  Speaker 2: You remember he lived a lie.
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  Speaker 1: He put Bathsheba's husband on the front line so he
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  Speaker 1: could be killed by the enemy. And then shortly after
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  Speaker 1: the death of Uriah, he took this woman and became
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  Speaker 1: her husband. drew the shades, locked the door, laid aside
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  Speaker 1: the stylus, wrote no psalms, did a poor job of
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  Speaker 1: leading as he conducted himself as a hypocrite, though he
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  Speaker 1: served as the highest office on the throne of God's
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  Speaker 1: special nation.
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  Speaker 2: But the guilt and shame didn't go away. One day, there.
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  Speaker 1: Was an ominous knock at his door. He knew even
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  Speaker 1: the knock because he had been familiar with this confidant
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  Speaker 1: of his over the years. In fact, David named his
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  Speaker 1: third child after Nathan. Quite likely scholars tell us Nathan
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  Speaker 1: was in fact.
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  Speaker 2: The tutor of David's children as he schooled them.
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  Speaker 1: Nathan's voice, familiar voice, even the knock he had heard
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  Speaker 1: so many times. What could bring Nathan to my door?
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  Speaker 1: Nathan stood before the king, took his life in his
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  Speaker 1: own hands, As he told him a story, there was
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  Speaker 1: a rich man and a poor man. The rich man
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  Speaker 1: had many herds and flock of sheep. The poor man
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  Speaker 1: had one ewe lamb that he and his children loved.
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  Speaker 2: It ate at his table. It slept on his bosom.
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  Speaker 2: How they loved the ewe lamb.
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  Speaker 1: And when the rich man had a stranger come for
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  Speaker 1: a visit, To feed him rather than taking from his
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  Speaker 1: own flock. He took the ewe lamb from the poor man.
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  Speaker 1: David never let Nathan finish the story. The man, we
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  Speaker 1: need to find him.
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  Speaker 2: He is guilty.
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  Speaker 1: He should die for that act. And Nathan, staring in
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  Speaker 1: the face of this king.
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  Speaker 1: In four single syllable words said it all. You are
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  Speaker 1: the man. Not a word of excuse at that moment.
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  Speaker 1: We all would commend David for his honesty as he responds.
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  Speaker 2: I have sinned against you.
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  Speaker 1: Nathan tells him the sword will never depart from your house,
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  Speaker 1: though the Lord has forgiven you. Consequences for those acts
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  Speaker 1: of unrighteousness will follow you to your grave.
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  Speaker 2: But be assured, you are forgiven in God's eyes.
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  Speaker 1: What follows is of interest to everyone. I believe for
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  Speaker 1: the first time in many, many months, David fell before God,
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  Speaker 1: reached over to his table by the bed, and began
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  Speaker 1: for the first time to write again. I think the
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  Speaker 1: first thing he wrote was the 51st Psalm. Read it sometime.
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  Speaker 1: You will see why I place it before the 32nd.
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  Speaker 1: And by the end of that psalm, He has another
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  Speaker 1: on his heart that he must write. And now with tears,
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  Speaker 1: he writes the 32nd. Of course, psalms were not originally numbered.
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  Speaker 1: They were songs. Understand that. Psalms are sacred hymns meant
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  Speaker 1: to be sung. These are inspired songs originally written not
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  Speaker 1: to be preached.
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  Speaker 2: But to be sung.
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  Speaker 1: These are not narratives to be analyzed. They're poems to
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  Speaker 1: move us emotionally, to touch us deeply. The lyrics come
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  Speaker 1: from the Spirit of God as David pours out his soul.
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  Speaker 2: Before his God.
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  Speaker 1: When we come to this psalm, we're immediately met with
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  Speaker 1: the name of the composer. This hymn is written by David.
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  Speaker 2: You see there?
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  Speaker 1: It's called a part of the superscription. You will notice
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  Speaker 1: a psalm of is in italics. The Hebrew simply says,
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  Speaker 1: from David, a.
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  Speaker 2: Maskil.
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  Speaker 1: We don't speak Hebrew, and so we don't understand the title.
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  Speaker 1: Maskil is probably from the verb sakal, which means to
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  Speaker 1: be prudent, circumspect, wise. And when used in certain contexts,
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  Speaker 1: I believe this one, it means to give insight. This
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  Speaker 1: is from David to give the reader, the singer of
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  Speaker 1: the psalm, insight.
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  Speaker 2: The ability to see into a situation.
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  Speaker 1: If you will allow me a little preacher's imagination, I
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  Speaker 1: believe David wrote the 32nd on his knees.
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  Speaker 2: And I think at the pauses, he wept. Selah. Selah. Selah.
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  Speaker 2: You will see why he paused at those places as we.
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  Speaker 1: Sing our way through this song. Songs have stanzas. And
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  Speaker 1: this song has five stanzas. The first stanza is the
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  Speaker 1: blessedness of forgiveness.
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  Speaker 2: We'll return to it in a moment. That's in the
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  Speaker 2: first two verses. The blessedness. Of forgiveness.
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  Speaker 1: The second stanza provides us with the agony of guilt
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  Speaker 1: and shame.
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  Speaker 2: Selah.
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  Speaker 1: By this time, verses 3 and 4 covering this second stanza,
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  Speaker 1: David begins to weep tears of remembrance.
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  Speaker 2: He recalls.
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  Speaker 1: He remembers.
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  Speaker 2: He remembers.
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  Speaker 1: And we'll see what he remembered as we go through
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  Speaker 1: the song. The third stanza is the relief of confession.
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  Speaker 1: That's a single verse. Verse 5. These are tears of release.
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  Speaker 1: I have confessed he has forgiven even the guilt of
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  Speaker 1: my sin is gone. You and I who have known
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  Speaker 1: that release understand the tears. Sometimes it's the only emotion
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  Speaker 1: that fits. Having been so wracked and broken.
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  Speaker 2: By the guilt and shame of our acts or thoughts. Selah.
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  Speaker 1: The fourth stanza is a prayer of protection. Interestingly, it
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  Speaker 1: is as if God takes up a stylus.
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  Speaker 2: Even the pronouns change.
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  Speaker 1: I will instruct you and teach you in the way
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  Speaker 1: which you shall go. I will guide you with my
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  Speaker 1: eye upon you. This is the Lord speaking. So this
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  Speaker 1: would be the prayer of protection. For this shall everyone
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  Speaker 1: who is godly pray unto you in a time when
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  Speaker 1: you may be found. Surely in the floods of great
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  Speaker 1: waters they will not come nigh to you.
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  Speaker 2: What are the waters? What is the flood? What could
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  Speaker 2: come nigh to the praying person who come to that? Selah.
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  Speaker 2: Tears of gratitude.
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  Speaker 1: And finally, this climactic fifth stanza, eight through eleven.
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  Speaker 2: The wisdom of instruction. Here's the insight.
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  Speaker 1: This will assist you in living your life, whether in
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  Speaker 1: my century, the first century, or the 21st century. This
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  Speaker 1: is a psalm to guide your life by. Let's observe
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  Speaker 1: the first stanza. I almost find myself saying, let's sing
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  Speaker 1: it together.
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  Speaker 2: But we have no melody. We only have lyrics. But remember,
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  Speaker 2: it is a psalm to move us, to touch us.
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  Speaker 2: How blessed. It begins like a beatitude, remember?
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  Speaker 1: Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who
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  Speaker 1: are persecuted for righteousness. It reads like a beatitude. Every
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  Speaker 1: time blessed appears in the Hebrew text, it's.
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  Speaker 2: In the plural.
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  Speaker 1: How blessed many times over, what multiple blessings come, how
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  Speaker 1: often are the benefits that come to the one who, look,
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  Speaker 1: whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. How blessed
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  Speaker 1: is the one whom the Lord does not impute iniquity to.
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  Speaker 1: In whose spirit there is no.
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  Speaker 2: Deceit.
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  Speaker 1: Remember David's writing. He's lived all of these. He's lived
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  Speaker 1: out transgression. The word means willful disobedience.
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  Speaker 2: Rebellion.
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  Speaker 1: That's what happened on the roof. When he looked down
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  Speaker 1: on the backyard and saw Bathsheba. He knew she was
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  Speaker 1: another man's wife. He ignored the fact that she was
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  Speaker 1: another man's wife, even asking a servant, who is this?
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  Speaker 2: Is this not Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah?
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  Speaker 1: You may not remember, but Uriah is numbered among the
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  Speaker 1: 30 great warriors David names as he comes toward the
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  Speaker 1: end of his life. These are men who stood for
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  Speaker 1: me as few others. Uriah is one of his heroes.
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  Speaker 1: Can you believe it? You can when you realize that
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  Speaker 1: rebellion ignores all friendships. That's why some husbands take other
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  Speaker 1: men's wives. That's why some wives steal other women's husbands.
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  Speaker 2: It's rebellion.
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  Speaker 1: It's called here transgression. How blessed many times over is
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  Speaker 1: the one whose transgression.
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  Speaker 2: Is forgiven. Mine. Mine.
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  Speaker 1: David would say, these are my transgressions that have been forgiven.
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  Speaker 1: I'm blessed many times over, not because I'm the king
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  Speaker 1: of Israel, not because I have a wife and family,
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  Speaker 1: not because I am rich and famous. I am blessed
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  Speaker 1: many times.
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  Speaker 2: Over because I serve and worship a God who hasn't
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  Speaker 2: killed me. He has forgiven me.
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  Speaker 1: And look next, whose sin is covered. The word means
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  Speaker 1: missing the mark. Missing the aim. The mark of David's
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  Speaker 1: life was to lead in a godly way when he
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  Speaker 1: brought in Bathsheba. He departed from that mark. He left
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  Speaker 1: the target. He mis-aimed the arrows of his life.
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  Speaker 2: He sinned.
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  Speaker 1: He doesn't call it a misunderstanding. He doesn't say it
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  Speaker 1: was a mental mistake. It wasn't just all of a
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  Speaker 1: sudden a momentary insanity.
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  Speaker 2: It was sin. Calls it that. I love it. Whose
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  Speaker 2: sin is covered.
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  Speaker 1: Whose iniquity has not been credited to his account.
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  Speaker 2: Don't you love that?
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  Speaker 1: How blessed is the man many times over whom the
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  Speaker 1: Lord does not credit to his account a continuation of
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  Speaker 1: the reminder of his iniquity that's gone. The word means
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  Speaker 1: twisted perversity.
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  Speaker 2: Which is exactly David's act. Nothing less than that. And finally, in.
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  Speaker 1: Whose spirit there is no deceit. Here it could quite
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  Speaker 1: likely mean self-deception. Which is what you live with when
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  Speaker 1: you go on with unconfessed sin in your life.
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  Speaker 2: You fake it. He looked like the leader he had been.
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  Speaker 2: He wasn't.
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  Speaker 1: He acted like he was really the king they could respect.
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  Speaker 2: He wasn't. He lived under self-deception.
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  Speaker 1: How blessed many times over is the one in whose
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  Speaker 1: spirit there is no longer any deception.
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  Speaker 2: He could live his life as an open book. How
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  Speaker 2: great is that?
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  Speaker 1: And that's just the first stanza. Sing with me the
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  Speaker 1: second stanza. Verses 3 and 4, he's remembering, he's reflecting.
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  Speaker 1: In case you wonder if David danced along and enjoyed
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  Speaker 1: life behind those closed drapes and those locked doors, was
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  Speaker 1: life fun and games for David? No, look at verses
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  Speaker 1: 3 and 4. When I kept silent about my sin, my.
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  Speaker 2: Body wasted away. Through my groaning, all Day long.
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  Speaker 1: Silence doesn't take away sin. Saying nothing about it doesn't
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  Speaker 1: bring any relief. As a matter of fact, the groaning
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  Speaker 1: went on all day, verse 4, day and night.
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  Speaker 2: Why?
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  Speaker 1: Because God's hand is heavy on his child when he's
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  Speaker 1: living in open transgression.
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  Speaker 2: You've known it. I've known it.
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  Speaker 1: It's a miserable way to live. And David is remembering
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  Speaker 1: the misery. He says, my vitality was drained away as
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  Speaker 1: with the fever heat of summer. I'm speaking to people
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  Speaker 1: from the Dallas area. You don't need that illustrated.
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  Speaker 2: We know the blistering, endless heat of summer.
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  Speaker 1: Day and night, day and that's his soul, parched, barren, unproductive.
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  Speaker 1: My soul, my vitality was trained away.
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  Speaker 2: And he breaks and weeps. Selah.
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  Speaker 1: The word means to pause. If you were a musician,
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  Speaker 1: it would simply be a break in the score or
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  Speaker 1: you pause. There is no sound. Except the sound of weeping.
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  Speaker 1: I can almost hear it in this song. And this
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  Speaker 1: leads him to this third stanza. While David is caught
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  Speaker 1: in the web spun by the spider of sin. And
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  Speaker 1: that knock came at his door. Remember, that's what happened
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  Speaker 1: in 2 Samuel 12, which follows on the heels of
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  Speaker 1: chapter 11, the story of the failure. Chapter 12, the
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  Speaker 1: story of the confrontation from Nathan. That's in between verses
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  Speaker 1: 4 and 5. He doesn't just suddenly acknowledge his sin.
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  Speaker 1: Who knows how long you would have gone in it
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  Speaker 1: had it not been for the bravery of Nathan to
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  Speaker 1: come and say, you are the man. Now David remembers
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  Speaker 1: and says, I acknowledged my sin to you. Remember how
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  Speaker 1: he put it? I have sinned against the Lord. He
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  Speaker 1: saw it all. He read my mind when I first lusted.
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  Speaker 1: He knew at the very moment of that passion on
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: my bed. He saw it all. And I acknowledged to
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: him I ran no longer. I denied it no longer.
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: I faced it. I faced it. My iniquity I did
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: not hide. I said I will confess my transgressions.
• 30:21
  Speaker 2: To the Lord.
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: I've dealt with an individual who has been in deep
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: sin where it was my responsibility to confront that person
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: When there was true repentance, there have always been tears.
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: I've seen grown men sob to the point that they
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: cannot put two sentences together. David cannot go on. He
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: must pause again and let the tears flow. I read
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: somewhere back years ago when I was preaching on Samson.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: a statement I will never forget. As Samson has wound
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: up grinding like a common criminal in the Philistine dungeon,
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: the words I read were, sin binds and blinds and grinds.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: This all happened to David.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: And he finally, finally acknowledges that has gone on. I
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: poured it all out. I confessed it. I spoke openly
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: of every ugly detail. Nathan heard it all. Nathan was
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: there to remind me of being cleansed. If you ever
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: travel to Israel, you must make certain that you visit
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: the caves of En Gedi. There's a narrow path that
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: is a bit dangerous. And people are warned along the way,
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: if you have disabilities, you perhaps should not go any further.
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: Because it is not only a steep climb, there is
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: a drop-off. And these narrow paths are marked along the
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: way by caves. In one of those caves, David lived,
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: the cave of Adullam. And other caves must have been named.
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: And when you travel there and you have finally done
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: the climb, by the time you reach.
• 32:28
  Speaker 2: A flat plateau area, the.
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: Streams of En Gedi are pouring over the rocks and
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: falling several stories.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: And splashing on the flat rock down below. It's beautiful.
• 32:41
  Speaker 2: You can hear it. You can hardly wait to get
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: to it.
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: And when you do, I've seen people on our tours
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: walk right under the stream fully clothed and just take
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: it in. My sister would do something like that. Confess
• 32:56
  Speaker 1: to you, I have done that very thing.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: You don't care that you are clothed.
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: It's the cleansing, refreshing waters of En Gedi in the
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: midst of the barrenness and heat of.
• 33:10
  Speaker 2: The caves and the trail. This is David. He's cleansed.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: You and I know how fresh a wonderful, cool shower
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: can be after hard work on a summer day.
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: You forgave the guilt Of my sin. And he weeps.
• 33:38
  Speaker 2: Of course. This brings us to the. Fourth stanza. Verses
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: six and seven. The tone changes.
• 33:51
  Speaker 1: Notice. David is no longer speaking of just himself. He
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: now sums it all up.
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: Saying therefore. Therefore. Therefore.
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: God has given me a message for anyone who may
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: read my song in the centuries to come, should they
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: be preserved.
• 34:11
  Speaker 2: Should this one be preserved.
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: Let everyone, this is no longer just David, this is
• 34:16
  Speaker 1: speaking to you and me. Your name is there. My
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: name is there. You who are godly, remember when you pray,
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: it will be at a time when the Lord God
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: will be found. Now, you will have all kinds of
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: things that will keep you from doing that.
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: It's called here the floods of great waters.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: They will rise. They will try to convince you. Don't
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: waste your time. You're too far gone. Your sin is
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: too heinous. You've carried on too long.
• 34:51
  Speaker 2: You're over the hill. Give it up.
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: No, those are the floods of great waters. When you
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: come to God, you will not be overwhelmed by those waters.
• 35:02
  Speaker 2: You see the verse?
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: Surely in a flood of great waters they shall not
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: reach him. You are my hiding place. You don't provide
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: me with a hiding place. There's not a cave I
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: run and get into. You are now my hiding place.
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: You are the one who preserves me from trouble. You
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: surround me with songs of deliverance. Can you feel the relief?
• 35:22
  Speaker 2: The release? No wonder he.
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: Weeps at this point. Maybe uncontrollably. So the Lord says
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: to him, give me the stylus. Let me now speak
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: to all my people. Verse 8, I will instruct you
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: and teach you in the way which you should go.
• 35:46
  Speaker 2: Look at this.
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: I will instruct you. I'll be your divine teacher. I
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: will be the one, you see it, in the way
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: which you shall go. I'll be your divine GPS. I'll
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: guide you Not from cyberspace. Wherever that is. I will
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: guide you from heaven. The way you should go. And
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: will you observe. I will be your therapist. I will
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: counsel you with my eye on you.
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: Let's love that.
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: You'll never leave my sight. You can't escape omnipresent sight.
• 36:32
  Speaker 2: You're right there. And in fact, I will surround you
• 36:40
  Speaker 2: with psalms of deliverance. And he weeps.
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: The Lord doesn't end the psalm before he brings a
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: warning to the rest of us who are reading over
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: David's shoulder. He says, do not be as the horse.
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: Or as the mule.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: I don't know much about horses. I'm scared of them, frankly.
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: And I know even less about mules. But I do
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: know that horses run very fast. How's that for a
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: great observation? They are very strong, four-legged, muscular animals. that
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: have to be broken, trained. Don't be like a wild horse.
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: How about the mule?
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: Every one of you is thinking of the same word.
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: Every one of you. The sentence starts with stubborn as
• 37:53
  Speaker 2: a mule. That's right.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: Don't be like the mule. You see, we all have
• 37:58
  Speaker 1: this old sin nature within us and we'll want to
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: run wild on our next walk on the roof. That
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: other woman will always look more beautiful than your spouse.
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: That man will be far more gifted than your husband.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: And your wild horse nature will run for that. And
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: you'll stubbornly resist the whole thought of holding back and
• 38:30
  Speaker 1: remaining faithful. I love the way Charles Haddon Spurgeon put it.
• 38:36
  Speaker 1: There's a hair of the mule's tail in every one
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: of us.
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: And he closes with.
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: These faithful words of God.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: You have a path to walk.
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: Many are the sorrows of the wicked.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: You can go there or.
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: You can take the path of the righteous as you
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: trust in God and are surrounded by his loving kindness.
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: The blessedness many times over of forgiveness, the agony of
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: guilt and shame, the relief of confession, the prayer of protection,
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: and now the wisdom of instruction closes the song. Am
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: I speaking today to.
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: A horse or a mule?
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: I can't tell by looking, but you know your nature,
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: you know where you are, Have you been wild and
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: unbroken in your pursuit of what.
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: Is sinful and wrong?
• 39:59
  Speaker 1: Today's the day to put on the bridle and the bit.
• 40:03
  Speaker 1: By the way, those are trappings, called here trappings, to
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: pull you closer, not let you run free. He's got
• 40:12
  Speaker 1: a bridle and bit just for you.
• 40:16
  Speaker 2: Am I speaking today to a David?
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: Overwhelmed with your transgression and your iniquity so that you
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: about talked yourself out of confession. Today is a day
• 40:28
  Speaker 1: to come to terms with the fact that your wonderful
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: God is filled with forgiveness. I've never come to the
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: Lord and heard him say back to me, you again?
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: Sometime I've been tempted to say here I am with
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: the same sin. I've never heard him say Anything but.
• 40:52
  Speaker 2: What sin?
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: I've forgiven you of everything else. You know, I may
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: speak today to a Nathan. You know someone. You care
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: about someone. You know they're adrift.
• 41:12
  Speaker 2: And for all you know, nobody else knows. Today's the
• 41:18
  Speaker 2: day to decide to go say the hard thing.
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: I've never once had a man or woman say to
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: me after I've confronted their wrongdoing, when I've done it
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: in the power of the Spirit and with a broken heart,
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: I resent you for talking to me. Every time I've heard,
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: thank you for saying the hard thing.
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: Let's bow our heads, please.
• 41:56
  Speaker 1: Today, God has asked me to be your Nathan, to
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: call you into account. And with absolutely no pride on
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: my part, remember I have often used the word we.
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: I come to you today pleading that you wait no
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: longer before you break it off Come to terms with wrong.
• 42:28
  Speaker 1: And find relief from the debilitating venom of guilt.
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: And shame.
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: If you've never trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ, all
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: of these statements of forgiveness are yours to claim at
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: the cross.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: Come to him now. Come now. If you know the
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: Lord and there are those things in your life that
• 42:57
  Speaker 2: have no business continuing, come now. Come on home.
• 43:07
  Speaker 1: You've wandered long and far enough away. Thank you, Father,
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: for speaking to us in ways that we will not
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: soon forget. Thank you for putting it in terms we
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: can all understand. Thank you for your grace in never
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: turning us away when we come weak and wounded, sick.
• 43:39
  Speaker 2: And sore.
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: May we be reminded among other things that you have
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: forgiven us all our sins. Thank you for your grace.
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: In the name of Jesus, we pray and thank you.
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: Everyone sit. Amen.
• 44:05
  Speaker 3: The preceding message, Giving Thanks for God's Forgiveness, was copyrighted
• 44:10
  Speaker 3: in 2011 and 2012 and the sound recording was copyrighted
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: in 2012 by Charles R.
• 44:16
  Speaker 2: Swindoll, Inc.
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: commercial use is strictly prohibited.