Don’t Be A Mule Repent Before The Rod Falls - Psalm 32:3-5, 8-10 Series

You will learn how to know when you are experiencing God’s rod and what to do when it happens. This message destroys once for all the insanity that says, “I’ve already blown it for today—might as well get it out of my system and start fresh tomorrow.” When you find yourself saying that, ask, “Would God agree? Would Satan?” If you cut off your finger with your table saw, would you say, “I’ve already blown it, might as well cut off the rest?”

Psalms 32:1A Maskil of David. Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. 3 For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. 4 For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Selah. 5 I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah. 6 Therefore let everyone who is godly offer prayer to you at a time when you may be found; surely in the rush of great waters, they shall not reach him. 7 You are a hiding place for me; you preserve me from trouble; you surround me with shouts of deliverance. Selah. 8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. 9 Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. 10 Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD. 11 Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!

Review

It is good to be forgiven, amen? That was our topic in the last sermon - how good it is to be forgiven. Today we find out how serious God is about getting us there. The first two verses are about how blessed it is to be forgiven, the rest of the psalm is all about the two different pathways to get forgiveness. Actually there is only one pathway to forgiveness - and that is repentance. But there are two different pathways to get to repentance. Two different ways to break that love affair your heart has with sin so you will be able to reject the sin in your heart and turn back to God.

Sin does massive harm to the soul. It is poison. How could God claim to love us if He just let it remain in us? Our dog ate some chocolate not long ago, and chocolate is toxic for dogs. The vet told us that if we did not induce vomiting the dog would die. Our sin is like that. As long as we keep it in us, it destroys us. It is so tasty going down, but once it gets into the system, it kills. And the only rescue from that is if our soul rejects it and expels it from the soul like the body expelling poison from the stomach. It is an unpleasant process, and so sometimes we think, "I don't want to go through the discomfort of throwing up, so I'll just keep it in my stomach and hope it digests." It won't. The sin must be expelled from the heart through confession. And there are two ways to do that - two ways to “induce vomiting” - two ways to get from loving a sin enough to commit it, to hating that sin enough to repent of it.

Repentance By Way Of The Rod

Training Wheels For Contrition

The first is repentance by way of the rod. God will use discipline to bring us to break our love affair with the sin so we can repent. It is absolutely essential that we repent, and so if necessary God will bring hardship into our lives to make it happen.

That is a very important principle to understand, because very often people disparage repentance that comes only after painful consequences. They say, "You're not sorry that you sinned. You're just sorry you got caught. You have all these crocodile tears now that you’re suffering consequences - where were the tears before the sin was exposed?" People who say that fail to understand that the tears that come from getting caught, and the sorrow and brokenness that come from the painful consequences and embarrassment of exposure, are designed by God to teach us how to become sorrowful and broken and contrite over the sin itself. The earthly, temporal consequences for the sin are designed by God to serve as training wheels for contrition. Just like the pleasures of life are supposed to serve as training wheels to teach us how to have joy in God, so the pain of getting caught and all that goes along with that is designed to help our hearts along. We need to weep over having offended God. But sometimes when we just are not there yet, it can really help if God sends some other pain into our lives to get the ball rolling with the tears, and once the tears are flowing over the consequences, it is much easier to weep over the fact of having displeased God. That is exactly how God brought David to repentance. God exposed David's sin to Nathan, God brought horrific consequences - even taking David's child, and the agony of those things made David weep. And it was not long before that weeping was not just weeping over the pain, but weeping over the sin. And you can see that clearly in Psalm 51. And you can see it here in Psalm 32 as well. What was David's response to all the pain?