Good morning, grab your Bibles and turn with me to Psalm 32. We’re going to start here in verses three and four in just a moment. The title of the message today is “Justified And Joyful”. Two weeks ago, if you were here, we covered “Justified And Miserable”. So, it’s only right for us to land the plane here. No doubt, David was miserable for a season, and he was miserable because of his sin and his unwillingness to repent of his sin after he sinned in 2 Samuel chapter 11. And what you see as you as you read that is really just one sin giving birth to another. After he committed all those sins, instead of running to the throne room of grace to find mercy and grace for his time of need, he stiff arms the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and he covers his sin. He conceals his transgression, as Solomon talks about in Proverbs. And the end result of that was misery.
And this is why he wrote in Psalm 32:3-4. Take a look at this: “For when I kept silent.” And this is referring to the nine plus months of his unwillingness to turn from his sin and just be honest with God. “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.” Now, what’s interesting here is that David is-he’s using the past tense language and he’s doing that purposefully to describe to us metaphorically what it was like when he concealed his transgressions. However, this psalm was ultimately written by David to describe the newfound joy that he has as a result of experiencing the forgiveness of God and God answering his plea in Psalm 51:1: “Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your steadfast love, according to Your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.” 32 was actually written after 51 in Psalm 32 is proof that God answered David’s prayer for his joy to be restored, I want you to consider the bookends of Psalm 32:1-2. Here, David writes, “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.” So clearly, this is no miserable man. He’s living the blessed life now, and he wants everyone to know his transgressions have been forgiven, his sin has been covered. Look at the last verse. Psalm 32:11, he says, “Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, O righteous and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!” I’ll put it to you this way: the prayer that David prayed in Psalm 51:12, namely, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.” Yeah, that prayer was answered in Psalm 32 is proof that God answered that prayer. Now I’ve got three points, okay, and these points are distinct, okay, so they need to be separated from one another. But what we’re going to see today is that there’s some connectivity and some overlap that we just need to lean into.
Here’s 1. God’s Discipline And Your Joy
God’s discipline and your joy. What do those two have in common? Well, prior to David repenting in Psalm 51, he got rebuked. In other words, God disciplined David. I’ll put it to you this way: David didn’t see his sin on his own, and I get it, on one hand, we never see our sin on our own. We always need the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, to you know convict us of sin so that we can see where we’ve missed the mark in Scripture. What I mean by that statement is David needed another brother to put his sin on a silver platter and show it to him. Okay, this man’s name was Nathan. Okay, Nathan was a prophet. Remember the role of a prophet. Okay, it differs than the role of a priest. A priest goes to God on behalf of the people. Prophet goes to the people on behalf of God. Okay, and I’ve referenced Nathan earlier in August in the first two sermons in this miniseries, if you will, on David’s sin and his restoration. But I want you to see verbatim. I want you to see the actual words that God speaks through the prophet Nathan, that actually led David to repent and walk in the subsequent joy that followed. This is 2 Samuel 12:1-9, beginning in verse one. The text says, “And the Lord sent Nathan to David (so the Lord is ultimately behind this. The text is clear). He came to him and said to him, ‘There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor.’” Now it’s really important at this juncture to understand who represents who. In this text, “the rich man” represents David. David is the one who has an abundance of resources. David is the one who has delegated authority. “The poor man” represents. Uriah. Uriah was the husband of Bathsheba. David committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then after that, he killed Uriah to cover up his sin. Okay, tracking with me so far? Verse two: “The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb (and this lamb is representative of Bathsheba, Uriah had one wife, unlike David) which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guests who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man. He said to Nathan, ‘As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity.’” So David is angry. Okay, but you do see what he’s doing here, right? He’s actually pronouncing judgment on himself. He doesn’t know yet that he’s the rich man in the story, but he’s about to find out. Take a look at verse seven, “Nathan said to David, (look at this) ‘You are the man!’” In other words, you’re the rich guy. You’ve abused the poor man. You’re the man. “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul.’” In other words, that wasn’t your doing, David. You’re not a big deal. You don’t run the show. After all, I’m over you, and every good thing that you have is from Me. Do you see what God is doing here for David? He’s bringing him low. You got to remember, David was up here. He was posturing himself above the Word of God, and this is Yahweh in His kindness humbling him and bringing him low for the purpose of his joy. Story goes on in verse eight and says, “‘And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord to do what is evil in his sight.’” In other words, David, I’ve been so kind to you. I’ve been gracious and I’ve been loving. Why would you do such a thing and despise My Word? And then he says, “‘You’ve struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.’” So just in case David had a bit of amnesia pertaining to his past sins, God is abundantly clear. Here it is, David. Here is how you have sinned. You committed adultery with Bathsheba, and you murdered her husband. Now skip down to 2 Samuel 12:13a. After all of this, plus some information pertaining to the consequences of David’s sins that I would encourage you to read about. Verse 13 says, “David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’…” Not “I’ve made a mistake.” Not “You know I was under all this pressure and she made me do it.” But rather, “I’ve sinned against Yahweh.” Now we’ve already covered certain aspects of David’s repentance in in prior sermons, but I want us to understand this within the context of God’s discipline and David’s joy, because it was the discipline of God exercised through the prophet that actually led David to take off his mask, repent, and then walk in joy.
The Bible has so much to say about discipline, whether we like it or not. It’s for our good, so let’s lean into these texts. Galatians 6:1a. Paul here is writing to the church in Galatia and to us by way of extension. He says, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression.” And this would be David in the Samuel narrative. David got caught. He didn’t uncover his sin. No, he covered it. Paul says, “If anyone is caught in any transgression. You who are spiritual. And that word means “mature”. This would be Nathan in the story. Nathan was under the Word of God. He was humbly submitted. Paul writes, “You who are spiritual should restore him.” And this word “restore” in the Greek it paints a word picture of a bone being put back into place. “You should restore him in a spirit of gentleness…” And that’s the least amount of force required to get the job done. You are the man was actually gentle. Perhaps you can relate to this story. Maybe you can think back to a time in your life whereby God, in His kindness toward you, sent a Nathan in your direction, a brother or sister who rebuked you over your sin, called you out for sin in your members that that you weren’t taking seriously and that you weren’t repenting of. I would argue this morning that those are the people in your life who actually love you, who actually care for you. Those are the people in your life who are willing to risk a relational consequence, ultimately for the glory of God and for your joy. Nathan loved David; he loved him deeply, and so he goes to him. He says, “You’re the man.”
Consider Hebrews 12:5-6, speaking of the love of God being at the root of discipline, take a look at this. The author says, “And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? ‘My son, (and this is, by the way, a quotation of Proverbs 3:11) my son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him.’” In other words, don’t get tired of it, and don’t blow it off. Don’t deem it a small account. It’s a big deal, family. This is a loving warning. We heard one last week when we studied the life of Achan in Joshua chapter seven. You remember that memorial that’s there? That pile of stones that shouted to the Israelites, sin is serious. You never sin in isolation; it affects people. This is a loving warning. Don’t take it lightly. Don’t get tired of it. God’s glory is at stake. The church’s fellowship at a horizontal level is at stake, and chiefly the glory of God is at stake. Now look at verse six. The author says, “For the Lord disciplines the one He loves.” Now, did the Lord love David? Well, you bet He did. David was in the covenant. David was loved with an unbreakable, never-ending love. It’s not contractual. If God’s love toward David was contractual, then David would have lost it immediately. This is a deep covenant love that’s actually rooted in a covenant that God made with Himself before the foundation of the world. Now look at the next line, “And He chastises every son whom He receives.” So not one son can escape the discipline of God, and that truth is rooted in a deeper truth, namely, not one son can escape the love of the Lord. The discipline of God, family, is rooted in the love of God, and in David’s eyes are being opened to this reality through the process of discipline. And I can actually show you this explicitly in Psalm 32:10. This is verse 10 again, written after Psalm 51. Psalms weren’t written in chronological order. Take a look at what David says. He writes, “Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.” I love this Imagery. It “Surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord”. This is the Hebrew word, hesed, and let’s apply this truth to David, specifically David in 2 Samuel chapter 11, as he was going from sin to sin to sin to sin. Let’s just think about it for a moment. When David was on the couch, rejecting his next, and not on the battlefield. Where was the hesed of God? It was right here. What about when he began lusting after Bathsheba? Where was the steadfast love of the Lord then? It was here. What about when he committed adultery with her? Did it like go away? No, it was it was here. It surrounded him. And what about when he had Uriah murdered? Where was the steadfast love of the Lord then? It was here. And what about when he when he put on the mask and he played the hypocrite, right? And he concealed his transgressions. Where was the hesed of God? Oh, it surrounded him. The legalistic mind can’t wrap their mind around this truth because love to them is contractual. But to the redeemed mind, the mind that’s being renewed and growing day by day in gospel truth, oh, we embrace this truth like a warm blanket. You see, David’s love for Yahweh wavered, but God’s love for David never wavered. Family, He’s that committed to us. In fact, He’s more committed to us than we are to Him. And discipline is a sign of that loving commitment. He loves us.
Hebrews 12:7-11, text goes on in verse seven, “It is for discipline that you have to endure. God’s treating you as sons, for what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are (look at this) you’re illegitimate children and not sons.” You might be out there thinking, “My God doesn’t discipline me.” Well, be careful. If your God doesn’t discipline you, that means that your God is not the God of the Bible, Jesus Christ, because the Lord disciplines the one whom He loves, and those whom He disciplines are legitimate children. Text goes on in verse nine. “Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined. And we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them. But He disciplines us for our good, that we may (what? that we may) share His holiness.” That’s sanctification. Now notice here that the author is he’s comparing and contrasting the discipline that an earthly father gives to his children, with the discipline that our Heavenly Father disseminates towards His kids. If you’re a dad in the room today, like you’ve given discipline a good shot, right? And if you’re regenerate, like you take it very seriously, and you want to discipline according to the Word, and you, you know, you desire in your spirit to discipline out of love, and discipline your kids for their good, you know, and remember their joy. But the truth is, we’ve missed the mark, and at times we provoke our children, and at times we discipline them for our good, not for their good, and at times we, we don’t have their joy in mind. Listen, God is not like us. He is a perfect disciplinarian, always disciplining His kids for their good and for their joy. Verse 11 continues, the author says, “For the moment, all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant.” You agree with that? Yeah, it’s true. But look at this, “But later”. I want to encourage us this morning to have a long-term vision when it comes to discipline. And please don’t freak out over that word “vision”. I get it. Some people hijack it and they’re referring to a new revelation, a fresh word from God. That’s not what I’m talking about. Okay, we have the Bible. God’s Word has been revealed to us. It’s sufficient. The canon is closed. What I’m talking about here is developing a long view when it comes to what discipline produces in the life of a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because look at the text, “But later, it yields or produces the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who’ve been trained by it.” Now, the righteousness in view here is not the imputed righteousness of Jesus. We learn about that in 2 Corinthians 5:21. Right? “He who knew no sin became sin for us, so that in Him we could become the righteousness of God.” That’s not the righteousness the author is talking about here. This is “practical righteousness”. This is right living that does stem from a believer rightly understanding the gospel of Jesus Christ. And this is precisely what happened in David’s life. The discipline came by way of Nathan, and David received it by faith.
And that’s why, as you keep on reading the narrative, you actually see him going from napping on a couch to 2 Samuel 12:20a, that says, “Then David arose from the earth, and he washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes (this was right after the baby died, as a consequence for his sin) and he went into the house of the Lord, and he worshiped…” You see it? He’s no longer doing his own thing. The cover-up plan is over. He’s no longer deceived by the deceitfulness of sin. He’s no longer worshiping the little G gods of comfort and self-preservation. Oh no, he’s in the temple and he’s worshiping Yahweh. And I would posit to you, this is the first time he’s actually worshiped from the heart in about a year. Again, the mask is off, and if you keep on reading the narrative, you’ll find him go from the temple to comforting his wife Bathsheba, to then Solomon being born, to then David on the battlefield. What was underneath all of those things? Discipline. It’s true. This is Proverbs 12:1. Take a look at this. Solomon writes, “Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge.” Now, is knowledge important? Oh, you bet it is. Knowledge is actually the prerequisite to the apex of discipleship, which is love. You read about that in the progression In Peter, look at the next line, not everyone might love this, but it’s in the Word. Let’s lean into it. “But he who hates reproof is (what? is) stupid.” Now you might be out there thinking to yourself, “That’s harsh, and I didn’t come to church today to be spoken too harshly.” Listen, it’s not harsh; it’s loving. I mean, just think about it. When you say “no” to discipline, you say “no” to knowledge, and you say “no” to horizontal fellowship with the church, and you say “no” to an intimacy and a nearness with God, and you say “no” to joy, and ultimately you say “no” to the glory of God, and at the end of the day, that is, that’s foolish. That’s point number one.
Here’s 2. God’s Word And Your Joy
Nathan spoke the very words of God to David, and when David received those words in 2 Samuel chapter 12, he came beneath them, and he said the same thing. This is 1 John 1:9. Let’s review this. I know that Pastor Jeff covered it last week. Let’s look at it again. It never gets old. John writes, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” This word “confess” is homologos. It’s a compound Greek word, “homo” meaning same, “logos” meaning word. So, let’s do a little exercise. If God, the Holy Spirit, okay, in conjunction with the Word of God, convicts you of being prideful, what do you say in return? You say, “I’ve been prideful.” And if the Spirit of God convicts you of stealing from God, right? And lying to God. What do you say in return? “Lord, I’ve sinned. I’ve stolen from You, and I’ve lied to You.” And in David’s case, let’s think through it in terms of 11. If the Spirit lovingly convicts you and pierces your heart to the point where you know that you’ve rejected your next, you’ve lusted, you’ve committed adultery, you had someone murdered, and then you wore a hypocritical mask for a year. What do you say? You say, “Lord, I rejected my next, and that’s a sin, and then I lusted, and that’s another sin, and then I committed adultery, and that’s sinful in your eyes, and then I had Uriah murdered, and that sin, and then I sin some more because I didn’t believe Your gospel, and I put on a mask, and that’s sin. And here I am, Lord, I’m saying the same thing, and as I’m saying the same thing. I’m remembering the gospel, and I know that You love me, and I know that the cross is outed me. And I know that the righteous robes of Jesus Christ are upon me.” So here I am, as a loved, broken saint, saying the same word. Family, saying “yes” to the word of God is the prerequisite to walking in the joy of the Lord’s salvation. You will not have the latter without the former. You got to say “yes”. You got to come underneath it. That means you got to humble yourself. Jesus makes this clear in John 15:9. He says, “As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you. Abide in My love.” Now this is astonishing and incredibly deep. Jesus is equating His love for His bride, the church, with the Father’s perfect and eternal love for Him, and that begs the question: How has the Father loved the Son? Well, let’s look at one angle real quick. John 17:24, “‘Father, I desire that they also whom You have given Me may be with Me where I am to see My glory that You have given Me, (look at this) because You loved Me before the foundation of the world.’” Now, if you connect this truth back to John 15, you conclude that Jesus’ love for the church was active before the foundation of the world. In other words, there was no beginning to it.
I’ll illustrate it to you this way, but by way of contrast, I met my wife in 2004. Okay, and we were in college together. I was a junior, she was a sophomore, and we met through a mutual friend. His name was Brian Bennett. He became a really good friend of mine. We were workout buddies, so I saw him often, and it didn’t take him long to try and play matchmaker in my life, and he started talking to me about this girl named Erica, and he just wouldn’t stop. And at first, I was like, “Brother, I’m just not that interested right now. Can you just, you know, hold off? You don’t need to talk to me about her every day.” And he would just-he was annoying about it. He just-he persisted, like “Matt. telling you, man, she loves the Lord. She’s a woman of the Word. I think you guys would be a great fit together.” So finally, I give in to his prodding and I say, “Okay, man, I’ll meet her.” It was partly to get him off my back, and I looked at him and I said, “Okay, where are you going to be tonight?” He said, “We’re going to be at the bonfire.” I said, “Okay, well, I’ll show up to the bonfire.” So, I show up to the bonfire, and there’s you know hundreds of people there, probably five, 600 people. I don’t know where they are, so I pull out my flip phone. You remember those? And I call them up, and I’m like, “Brian, where are you?” Tells me. So I make my way through the sea of people, and I, you know, I eventually meet Erica, and I talk to her, and I get to know her, and you know, each and every day we talked, and as I got to know her more, love blossomed in my heart for her. In that love, over time, and we’ve been married for over 20 years, been together for over 22 years. That love has grown stronger and stronger and stronger. Now that’s real and that’s deep, but the love that we’re talking about here in John 17 and John chapter 15 is much much deeper. In fact, there is no beginning and there is no end to Jesus. His love for His church. Additionally, it doesn’t grow over time. It’s always operated at maximum capacity. This is the love that we’re dealing with here, and we need to hold that in our hands as we work our way through this text. Look at John 15:10-11 verse 10, “‘If you keep My commandments, (Jesus says) you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things (that’s these words, these words that are rooted in deep covenantal love) I have spoken to you that my joy (look at this) may be in you (not on you) but in you.” “Joy” is different than “happiness”. “Happiness” is based upon what’s happening around you. That’s actually the root term of the word “happiness”. “Joy” is deeper than that. “Joy” is an inner spirit-given knowledge that ultimately all is well based upon the person and the finished work of Jesus Christ, and it transcends happenings in moments. I mean, you can have cancer and be joyful in Jesus Christ. You can be experiencing deep pain, as a result of a relational conflict and have joy in Jesus Christ. This is the type of joy that Jesus is talking about here. I’ll put it to you this way, and I’m not going to draw because I can’t draw like Jeff. But let me, you know, give you a visual. If the Word of God is here and you’re up here, I’m here to tell you on the basis of the word that there’s no joy up here, temporary happiness, perhaps, but that’s fleeting pleasure, maybe, but it’s a pseudo pleasure that doesn’t compare to true pleasure that exists when a disciple comes underneath the Word of God. All the joy is down here, family. As you submit to the Word of God, so if you’re here today looking for joy, my exhortation is: look to the Word, study the words, seek to understand what the words say, what they mean by what they say and how they apply in the person in the finished work of Jesus Christ, and keep in mind, unlike the deceitfulness of sin, Jesus always tells the truth. All the words in your Bible are true. Jesus Himself is the truth. Per John 14:6, let’s see this concept in the in the Old Testament, from Jeremiah, the prophet. Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet. He had a lot of haters. Jeremiah 15:16a, he writes, “Your words were found, and I ate them, and Your words became to me a joy and the delight of my heart..” Notice he doesn’t say, “And Your words became to me the joy and the delight of my heart. So, I decided after that to eat them.” No, it was God’s words that produced the joy. Psalm 119:47, the psalmist writes, “For I find my delight in Your commandments, which I love.” Do you see the connection here between the commandments of God and the joy of the disciple? You can’t disconnect the two. I was in the community this week. I think it was Tuesday, and a gentleman came up to me, and he looked familiar. I didn’t know his name, but he came up to me, introduced himself, and then he said, “Matt, I got to tell you, for the past two years, my wife and I have been coming to Sherman Bible Church, and our lives have been changed.” And then from there, he proceeds not to talk about the building, or the sound system, or this gigantic wall. Now he, this man, could not stop gushing about the Word of God, specifically their daily Bible reading. He said, “Matt, we haven’t read through the Bible cover to cover, but we’re doing it, and we’re in 2 Kings,” and we had a great conversation about how in the Old Testament we see our need for a Savior. And listen, I get it. You can’t see joy. Joy is not a personality trait, right? It’s a fruit of the Spirit flowing out of love. But I bet my bottom dollar this man has it, and he has it because he’s abiding in the Word. He’s coming under the Word. He’s submitting to the Word, and the result of that is deep delight and joy. This is 1 John 1:4. John writes, “And we are writing these things (that’s these words) so that our joy may be complete.” This word “complete” means filled to the full. Sound familiar? You bet it does. The Apostle John is mirroring the very words of Jesus Christ that we study in John chapter 15, and he’s making it clear that the entirety of this letter, from the very beginning, like the purpose statement, if you will, of the letter that we’re looking at here in verse four. To the very end, which is 1 John 5:21, that says, “Little children, keep yourself from idols.” Every single word in the letter was written down for the church’s joy. This is good news, guys.
Here is 3. God’s Salvation And Your Joy
2 Samuel 12:13b, “…And Nathan said to David.” This is post repentance, right? He’s already had the change of mind concerning his sin. “And Nathan said to David, ‘The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.’” Now, this is actually gospel talk, right? And we know it’s gospel talk because the Lord would put away David’s sins by putting them on the Lamb. This was prophesied, Isaiah 53:6: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone (no one’s excluded) to his own way. (This was David in 2 Samuel chapter 11. He turned to his own way. That’s the bad news. Look at the good news) and the Lord (the first person of the Trinity) has laid on Him (that’s Christ, the greater David) the iniquity of us all.” Now prior to David sinning in 11, he believed this message and he was justified. Okay, Old Testament saints-they’re justified in the same manner that New Testament saints are justified. It’s always by grace through faith in Jesus Christ alone. And after Nathan assured him in chapter 12 that the Lord had put away his sins. It was David’s turn to believe the message of the gospel again, not for justification but for sanctification. Family, this was part of his repentance. It didn’t consist only of him thinking rightly about his sin. It also consisted of him thinking rightly about his Christ, and so on. One hand, it was fitting and right in the will of the Lord for David to say the same thing back to God. “Lord, You tell me I have sinned, therefore I have sinned.” And it was the will of the Lord for David to say, “Lord, You have told me that my sins have been put away. Therefore, I believe that my sins have been put away. If You tell me I’m forgiven, then I’m going to say back, ‘I’m forgiven’.” This was part of his repentance.
Let’s look at Psalm 51:12, again, perhaps with fresh eyes. Here, David writes, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.” I do want you to notice. I think I said this in a previous sermon, but it bears repeating. David is not praying here that his salvation be restored. His salvation was in perfect shape in 2 Samuel chapter 11. It was in Christ. It wasn’t going anywhere. The prayer here specifically is for the joy of the Lord’s salvation to be restored to him. This word “restored” in the Hebrew means to return again, so you get the idea that it was there and then it was gone. And I would posit that it left him because he wasn’t rightly believing the gospel after he sinned. And the reason why he delayed and he shrunk back and he wallowed in unbelief is because he wasn’t believing the gospel in real time. Now, the salvation that David speaks of here in Psalm 51 is deep. It’s very deep, and it’s multifaceted. There’s a past, present, and future component to it, and there’s joy for us to walk in here. Let’s look at the past tense. This is 2 Timothy 1:9, speaking of God’s salvation, Paul to Timothy says, “Who saved us and called us to (a what?) To a holy calling.” This is regeneration, the act of God, the Holy Spirit, as the Word of God is being preached, causes a sinner to be born again. God through Paul says, “Yeah, I did that. I saved you through Christ by the power of My spirit,” and then he says, “Not because of our works.” So, it wasn’t like God was up in the heavens canvassing His creation, and then after a thorough eval, think to himself, “You know what? I got this group of people over here, this camp of people, and they’re really nailing it. But these people, they’re not nailing it. So, I’m going to choose these people over those people.” No, that’s not how it worked. There’s only one who nailed it. His name is Jesus Christ. It’s a perfect Jew. It’s a faithful Israelite, not because of our works, “But because of His own purpose and grace, which He gave us in Christ Jesus, (here it is again) before the ages began.” Here’s another one: Romans 5:1. You remember this? “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith.” Past tense, we have been declared righteous. We’re not being justified. We have what? “We have peace with God (and it’s always) through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Listen to me. No matter how hot the battle gets, and no matter how many times you stumble. No matter how many times you say “yes” to that besetting sin, this right here is not changing. It’s fixed. It’s in concrete. So, when God sees you, He doesn’t see you through the lens of your sin. He sees you through the lens of His Son’s righteousness. Therefore, positionally speaking, you’re not a sinner anymore. You’re a saint who still struggles with sin in your members. Additionally, you’re just as righteous on your worst day of sinning as you are on your best day of obedience. This is the doctrine of justification. David was just as justified in chapter 11 of 2 Samuel as he was in chapter 12 when he was in the temple worshiping Yahweh. Is there joy here? Oh yeah, tons of joy, especially as you fight the good fight of faith. Seek to believe the gospel and repent of the sin that’s in your members. What about the present tense? This is 1 Corinthians 1:18, “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are (look at this) being saved, it is the power of God.” Notice Paul doesn’t say, “But to us who have been saved.” Now, if he did say that, that would be true because we’re saved by the power of God, and the power of God is the gospel of Jesus Christ, per Romans 1:16. But it was the Holy Spirit’s intent here for us to lean into the fact that we haven’t just been saved, but we’re also being saved. This is the process of sanctification, and it does not happen detached from the Word of God. Jesus says, John 17:17, “‘Sanctify them in the truth. (Look at this) Your Word is truth.” True disciples know deep down in their toes that there is deep and abiding joy in this process right here, and it’s a joy that really does blossom over time. I mean, how many of you can look back on your life and say, “You know what? I have more joy in the gospel today than I did a year ago.” That’s actually the testimony of a maturing disciple. As we grow in the Word of God and as we increase our knowledge of what Christ has done for us, right? We see Him more and more in the Scriptures. Like we open up the Bible, we’re in Genesis, first book of the Bible, and there He is, right? As the seed of the woman who’s going to bruise the head of the serpent, then we flip a page, right? We see Him as the greater ark, you know, shields us from the wrath of God. Then we flip more pages. We get to the end of Genesis, and we see him as the greater Joseph who provides for our deep spiritual needs. Then we go to the next book, the book of Exodus, and who do we see? We see Jesus as the commander of the Lord’s army, and we see Him everywhere, and as we behold Him in Scripture, like the psalmist, we cry out from the depths of our soul, “All my springs are in You, Jesus. You are the fountain of my joy, all of my rejoicing. Every ounce of it is because of Your person and Your finished work.” There’s joy here, so we have been saved. We’re being saved, and one day we will be saved.
This is Hebrews 9:28, “So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time (that’s future tense) not to deal with sin, but to save those (that’s the church) who are eagerly waiting for Him, and there is an eagerness to our waiting.” Right? Because we’ve read the book and we know how it ends, and regardless of what any fake preacher in the world says, our best life is not now. Our best life is to come, and there’s a greater joy that actually awaits us. This is Revelation 21:3-4, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, ‘Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. (Look at this) He will dwell with them, and they will be His people. And God Himself will be with them as their God. (Verse four) He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things (that is the tears and the death and the mourning and the crying and the pain, the former things have what?) they’ve passed away.’” Christian. The pain that you experience right now, and the pain that I experience right now, as a result of indwelling sin in our members, one day will not be there. It will cease to exist. The war of the will, I should say, the war that we’ve studied throughout, you know, the series in the book of Romans, that that will come to an end. In one day, we will actually sin our last sin. It’s hard for us to wrap our minds around that right now, but that is truth. There will be a last sin in your life, and you will grieve and quench the Holy Spirit one last time in in what you desire in your spirit right now, namely perfection. That’s what you want, right? You want to perfectly obey Him because of what He’s done for you, that desire that you have right now will be fully realized in the presence of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Is there joy in these salvific realities? Of course there is. There’s bottomless joy.
So, what is our next? This is our next, Hebrews 4:16, “Let us then.” In other words, based upon what Christ has done, that He’s passed through the heavens. Thirty three years of perfect law keeping. He’s our intercessor. He sits at the right hand of the throne of God. He has saved us. He is saving us, and one day He will save us. “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” So, David had a need, and that need was mercy, and that need was grace, and that need was met in the person and the finished work of Jesus Christ. He went from justified and miserable to justified and joyful, and so can you. You can too. You can have joy today. You can. Your will’s been freed. You can choose grace. Listen, the things that we have studied were written down for our instruction, no doubt, but they were also written down for our joy, for us to see our sin for what it rightfully is-an offense against a holy God-and for us to see our Christ living the life that we can’t live, bearing and exhausting the wrath of God in our place, being buried, resurrecting, and saving us by grace-these things have been written down so that we would behold Christ and say, “You know what, Lord? The cross has outed me. I’m righteous in You. You’ve loved me since before the foundation of the world. You’re going to love me till the end. I have nothing to prove. Therefore, here I am. I’m drawing near to You, and I need mercy and I need grace for my time of need.” That phrase “draw near,” by the way, is in the present tense, which means it’s not a one-and-done thing. This is the next step for every single disciple every single day until Jesus comes back or takes us home and delivers us from the presence of sin. This is your next to draw near, and tomorrow this is your next, and the next day, this is your next. I pray that you would heed this exhortation, and that you would come to Him with confidence, knowing what Jesus Christ has done for you.
KEYWORDS
David, Nathan, Bathsheba, Uriah, Lamb, Justify, Justified, Justification, Joy, Repentance, Discipline, Sin, Forgiveness, Grace, Salvation, Sanctification, Gospel, Scripture, Holiness, Mercy, Christ, Practical Righteousness, Homologous, Hesed, Paraclete, Restore, Spiritual, Mature, Gentleness, Joy, Happiness, Happy, Joyful, Complete, Non-Denominational Churches, Churches In Sherman Texas, Sherman Texas Churches, Grayson County Churches, Bible Churches
Speaker
Matt Hahn