“But Jesus Can!”
Psalm 32:1-11
David P. Nolte
You’ve heard the phrase, “Jack Of All Trades, Master Of None” or, it might be, “Jill of all trades” for a woman. Such a person may set a hand to any number of tasks with greater or lesser skill but is likely not master of more than one or two.
Then we all know the guy who, according to him, knows how to do it all and in a better way than anyone else. And to be honest we meet the rare, enviable, person who actually seems to be able to do anything he or she sets out to do.
Most of us can do something with somewhat better than fair proficiency, and it is up to us to learn what God has equipped us to do and to do it with diligence.
There is that One Who has it all together in one package: He knows everything because He is omniscient. He can do anything because He is omnipotent. He is with us always, everywhere and knows our needs because He is omnipresent! And He wants to do for us what none other can do because He is omnigracious.
The song the trio sang puts it this way:
“I can’t take a heart that’s broken, Make it over again
But I know a man who can.
I can’t take a soul that’s sin sick make it white as the snow
But I know a man who can.”
There are numerous things we can’t do that Jesus Christ does easily. Among those things would be, He saves, He keeps, He satisfies, He sanctifies, He provides, He enables and on and on. But let’s look at what God did for King David – and let us be assured that God, in Jesus Christ, will do that for us as well!
“Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. 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 sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, ‘I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’ -- and You forgave the guilt of my sin. Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to You while You may be found; surely when the mighty waters rise, they will not reach him. You are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. I will instruct You and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you. Many are the woes of the wicked, but the LORD’s unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in Him. Rejoice in the LORD and be glad, you righteous; sing, all you who are upright in heart!” Psalm 32:1-11 (NIV).
I want to tell a story about a greedy and dishonest tailor who, like David, made bad choices and suffered for it.
In a small town in Bohemia there lived a tailor so skilled that customers came to him from far and wide. His sewing was expert and the clothes he made were beautiful and hardy. But the tailor was greedy and dishonest. When asked how much silk or wool or satin he needed to make this coat or that suit, he always demanded more than was really required. Thus he was always able to keep a good piece of fine material for himself.”
One day a gentleman entered the tailor’s shop, carrying a package of fabric. “I want you to make a hunting jacket with this red satin,” he told the tailor. And immediately the tailor got busy. First he brought out the patterns so that the gentleman could choose just the style jacket he wanted. After measuring the man the tailor said, “There isn’t enough material for a jacket.” He planned to steal some of it. The man insisted there was enough fabric and left the shop.
Like that tailor, David got greedy and took Bathsheba, his neighbor’s wife, and then selfishly tried to cover up his sin by murder. This part of his past was unholy. Our past, too, might be unholy and shameful. But Jesus can handle even that for us.
I. HE CAN FORGIVE OUR UNHOLY PAST:
A. “Blessed is he whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.”
1. David was chosen by God to be King when he was tending sheep.
2. Things seemed to be going well in the kingdom when David saw his neighbor, Bathsheba bathing; he lusted, she yielded and she became pregnant. To protect himself, he ended up having her husband, Uriah, put into a hot spot of a battle and left alone so that he died.
3. David was guilty of coveting, of adultery, of murder and of deception. His own choices left him with an unholy past.
4. Nathan the prophet confronted David and angrily pronounced David’s guilt!
B. Nothing cuts to the quick like the rebuke of a friend when we are guilty. We ought to rejoice when we are convicted, “You are the man!”
C. It is that conviction, lovingly spoken, that leads us to repentance, and God’s forgiveness. David said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD’-- and You forgave the guilt of my sin.”
D. What unrepented, unforsaken and unforgiven sin is in your past? As He forgave David, He will forgive you when you forsake and confess it.
BUT FIRST COMES THE DISCIPLINE. THAT LEADS TO REPENTANCE.
So it was for the tailor. In a few days a servant came to get the coat but the tailor had kept some of the fabric and he whined and complained about the great difficulty of tailoring a coat with “so little material.” But he boasted that because of his great skill and experience, he accomplished the task.
The next day, the tailor saw a huge black car and driving it was the young man dressed in the red satin hunting jacket. “So here we meet again,” said the gentleman. “You and I still have to settle our account. Your bill was too high. And what’s worse, you stole two yards of material from me. Jump into the car and we’ll talk.”
The tailor whimpered, “I don’t know what you are talking about. I don’t like riding in automobiles! They frighten me! I will gladly return the material to you, and I will also return all your servant paid me.”
“Get in!” the angry man shouted. Being also a coward, the little tailor got in. The man said, “Sit down, hang on and shut up!”
At that very moment the car jumped forward and took off at top speed. The man took corners on two wheels, The tailor shouted, screamed, and sobbed with fear. And just when it seemed that he could stand no more, the man stopped the car and made the tailor get in the back seat of an open cockpit bi-plane. Taking the petrified man on a horrendous flight, much of it upside down, the man landed the craft near a bog, into which he shoved the by now trembling tailor. When he crawled out, he was caked with mud, soaked with mud, spitting mud, sneezing, coughing, dripping and oozing mud, so he sadly made his way home on foot.
Like the tailor, David suffered for his sin, because there are always consequences. But God wasn’t done working in his life, and He is not done working in ours no matter how bad things are. Solomon said, “My son, do not reject the discipline of the LORD Or loathe His reproof, For whom the LORD loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in whom he delights.” Proverbs 3:11-12 (NASB). God uses our afflictions and difficulties to teach us to surrender.
BEFORE FORGIVENESS COMES CORRECTION. TO THAT END:
II. HE CAN USE OUR UNHAPPY PRESENT:
A. David said, “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 sapped as in the heat of summer.”
1. His suffering was beyond unhappy.
a. It included shame: he defrauded his friend and neighbor and was filled with remorse and regret.
b. It included physical illness. Unconfessed sin can produce sickness as the stress of guilt nags and pressures and torments us.
c. It included grief at the death of the child born of their sin.
d. It included being confronted by Nathan the prophet who told him a story about a wealthy man who had many flocks but, to feed a guest, stole his neighbor’s pet lamb and served it for a meal.
(1) David was irate at such a lowlife deed and decreed severe penalties on that wicked man.
(2) With fire in his eyes, and contempt in his voice, Nathan said, “You are the man!” David had much and yet he stole his neighbor’s wife.
2. He was obviously physically, mentally and spiritually ill and in painful remorse for his wrongs.
3. But God used that pain to produce the desired result of repentance.
a. David said in Psalm 119: “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.” Psalm 119:67 (NIV).
b. And, “It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.” Psalm 119:71 (NIV).
B. I am not suggesting that every pain, problem, sorrow, etc. is the direct result of some particular sin. I am saying, however, that all of them will be used by God for our good.
1. To keep us humble as He did Paul with a physical infirmity.
2. To teach us patience.
3. To teach us to trust Him.
4. To help us sympathize with others.
5. To break our stubbornness and bring us to repentance if we have sinned.
C. It may surprise you to realize that what God wants for us is often the reverse of what we want for ourselves
1. We want comfort, but God s more concerned about character.
2. We want to be happy, but God wants us to be happy only in holiness.
3. We want ease, but God wants edification.
D. And God will use whatever it takes to guide, teach and correct us. Even unpleasant things.
The tailor was subjected to an unpleasant, frightening experience. But it woke him up to the reality of inescapable and miserable consequences of wrongdoing.
Like that tailor, David got a wake up call from God. He learned repentance through God’s discipline. God used David’s unhappy experience for David’s good.
HE CAN USE OUR UNHAPPY PRESENT TO DISCIPLINE US AND THEN:
III. HE CAN DETERMINE OUR UNKNOWN PROSPECTS:
A. “You are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of deliverance. I will instruct You and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.”
1. “You will protect me from trouble.” The word for “trouble” means, “a tight place.”
a. That could be facing enmity.
b. That could be adversity.
c. That could be extreme stress and pressure.
d. That could be anything that squashes you between a rock and a hard place.
2. He will teach and lead and counsel us if we don’t resist Him.
3. Our part is to, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV).
4. His is to determine what is ahead of us and to guide us to it.
B. Yet, people try to be in full control of the future. But James said, “Come now, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.’ Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, ‘If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.’ But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.’” James 4:13-17 (NASB).
C. There may be stormy days ahead. Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33 (NIV). And, as the ladies sang,
“I can’t walk upon the waters or calm the trouble sea.
But I know a man who can.”
D. Trouble will come, but be assured, whatever prospects the future holds are under His control. Wherever our path takes us, He has already been that way and walks it with us. And if we trust and obey things will be better.
The next day when he started his work bright and early he was a different man. Never again did he steal material; nor did he over-charge. Prospects improved and he was even more successful than before. Through the lesson taught to him by the gentleman’s discipline, he became a generous and honest man.
We need to come clean before God as David did:: we need to humbly acknowledge our sin; turn from it; and, if you have not been, be baptized by immersion in water for the forgiveness of sin, because that’s a command to be obeyed, not an option to consider.
He will cleanse and forgive and bless you when you humbly obey Him! I can’t, you can’t, religion can’t, the world can’t – but Jes us can!
PRAY / INVITE
Let this song be your prayer and decision as we all stand to sing. He Is Able To Deliver Thee. That’s true for the Past, the Present and the Future.
