The scripture reading this afternoon is Psalm 32. Psalm 32. A Psalm of David, Mashil. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the drought of summer, Selah. I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord. and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin, Selah. For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found. Surely in the floods of great waters they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding place, thou shalt preserve me from trouble, Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance, Selah. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye. Be ye not as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord, mercy shall compass him about. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, ye righteous, and shout for joy, all ye that are upright in heart. So far, the reading of God's holy word. This afternoon congregation, we consider Lord's Day 21, question and answer 56. of the Heidelberg Catechism. Lord's Day 21, question and answer 56. And there we confess with the Church, What believest thou concerning the forgiveness of sins, that God, for the sake of Christ's satisfaction, will no more remember my sins, neither my corrupt nature, against which I have to struggle all my life long, but will graciously impute to me the righteousness of Christ, that I may never be condemned before the tribunal of God." So far. Beloved congregation, the Heidelberg Catechism is explaining to us the benefits merited by the Lord Jesus Christ, by his death and resurrection. His merits are that he has merited the Holy Spirit. We consider that in Lord's Day 20. But he is also at work gathering a church. That's what we found in Lord's Day 21. and He is leading people into communion with Himself. That's what we saw last week. And so there's communion between God's children. And now there's another benefit that the Lord Jesus has merited by His death on the cross, and that is what we see today, that is the forgiveness of sins. And after this we will see in Lord's Day 22 the benefits that the Lord Jesus has merited for the future life, that is, the resurrection of the body and eternal life. So now we are called to consider this benefit merited by the Lord Jesus, the miracle of the forgiveness of sins. And that's why we read that well-known Psalm 32, in which the Lord God explains to us the miracle of forgiveness of sins, the rich blessing when one's sins are covered. It can happen in life that people for many years have a burdened conscience, but when they find the Lord Jesus Christ, that the burdened conscience is relieved and they have true peace, That's what the Lord God does. And David knew about that. He experienced that. For a year he had lived in sin, with the sin of Bathsheba, taking her as his wife and having her husband killed in battle. And for about a year he did not want to confess that sin, because after all he thought, I'm a king, a king may do that. But he had no peace. And that's what he writes about in this beautiful Psalm 32. When I kept silence, my bones grew old, and there was a roaring in him all day long. But once he confessed his sin, then he received peace with God. And it says there three times in verses 1 and 2 how blessed it is to have forgiveness of sins, that the conscience is relieved, that the sins are forgiven. It says there, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Three times, how blessed it is. And then also three times, David explains how good it is to confess one's sins. In verse 5, I acknowledge my sin unto thee, mine iniquity have I not hid. I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord. And so we see the great need of confessing sins. When there are sins in your life, maybe of long ago, don't hide them, but lay them before the Lord. And if you need to make up with someone, something that went wrong, do that. Because blessed you then will be when your sins are forgiven. And then there's a threefold jubilation of deep joy that the Lord no longer imputes the sins of His people, that Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. That's a great jubilation. It is a threefold jubilation of deep joy that the Lord is His refuge. Verse 7, Thou art my hiding place, Thou shalt preserve me from trouble, thou shalt come past me about with songs of deliverance." And then we see how the Lord explains three times that He will lead such a person through life. And blessed you are when the Lord is leading you through life and guiding you. In verse 8, I will instruct thee, I will teach thee in the way thou shalt go, I will guide thee with mine eye. And so we see how this Psalm 32 is a beautiful psalm of forgiveness of sins. It's a psalm of praise, because the Lord imputeth not iniquity. The miracle that God forgives sin is repeatedly found in God's Word. The prophets proclaim this forgiveness of sins. The apostles had to go out and to preach repentance and remission of sins through the blood of the Lord Jesus. And the Lord Jesus Himself preached that He had come to lay down His life as a ransom price for many. And therefore, He alone can give rest and peace to a soul. He only can grant life everlasting because He forgives sins, because He paid the price of sin. The Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. And therefore, this forgiveness of sins is a miracle, a blessed topic to meditate on. By nature, man doesn't see his sins. Sure, he may have done something wrong, but everyone does something wrong. Nobody's perfect. And modern man thinks that he's good. And most people you will meet, they think they are good. They think they are better than other people. They don't really think they commit sin. They're law-abiding citizens, they're friendly. And if there are things wrong in your life, then, yeah, modern man speaks more about frustrations, or dissatisfaction, or being biased. But to say that I'm a sinner, that I'm worthy of punishment? No, that's a bit obscure, that's weird to say that. He doesn't want to hear that. A modern man doesn't even know God's law, the law of love. But it is through God's law that we see what sin is. And that's why boys and girls in church every Sunday morning we read God's law. Why do we do that? To show what sin is. And also to teach the way we must go through life, listening to His commandments. That's the way the Lord leads His people. But you see, when I don't see my sins, I don't need forgiveness of sins either. And then I do not experience the joy of forgiveness of sins And it's a disaster when people no longer recognize sins in their life, because then they do not need God. They think they are good, and they are heading for the judgment throne of God, who is too holy to look upon one sin. And it will be terrible to fall into the hands of the living God with sin. So by nature we consider ourselves, also we in church, we consider ourselves overall to be quite good. And that others are actually, to say the least, they are, well, worse than we are. We think we're very balanced. It's also a very interesting word, we're all balanced. And we do quite a lot of good things. But if that's our self-perception, we are deceiving ourselves. We are not balanced. We veer towards that which is iniquity. And the more God's Spirit shines upon you, the more you will see that you veer off, that you curve away from the right track. That's our problem. But if man doesn't want to see that and carries on in life, then what happens is you indeed get all kinds of anxiety and stress. People are imprisoned by all kinds of tensions and frustrations and they try to get their life in order. Unconfessed sins can make a person to be depressed. You can even fall ill because of this. Now, of course, not every anxiety in life is caused by unconfessed sins. Some people have a certain psychological character. One may be more susceptible to depression than another. One may have endured difficult experiences in life, and they can lead to a certain tension or psychological difficulties. But it's also true when a person refuses to confess his sins and refuses to look at reality as the Lord lays it before him, then he will end up into all kinds of tensions. At Psalm 32, when I kept silence, My bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long, for day and night thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the drought of summer." So the strength of his life that was all dried up. And how many people are there not now in society who are worn out while they are young? They have ruined their lives, and the only way for them is to find rest is coming before the Lord, confessing what went wrong, and to plead upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And in that way, their poor souls will be relieved. And that's why it's a good thing to confess your sins before the Lord, As soon as you fall into sin, and you know you've committed that, don't lie in that sin, but get up as soon as possible and immediately confess your sin so that the devil will not have his advantage over you by harassing you and hurting you with all kinds of guilt feelings. Flee immediately to the Lord Jesus Christ and asking Him to cleanse you and to give you grace that you would resist these certain sins. That's what Psalm 32 also says. In verse 5, I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not had. I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sins. It's therefore a blessing when you become restless and you become cast down and you become convicted and it's all because of unconfessed guilt that you did not want to confess that you were that man or that woman What a blessing when you become honest before God, and you confess what went wrong in your life, and when God's Spirit opens your eyes to see these realities. It can be painful, but it's very helpful. It's very good that you confess, I sought my own desire. I sought my own honor. I did things my way, and I failed to do what thou hast told me to do in thy word. And then again, Psalm 32, I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. As soon as the sinner looks to the Lord Jesus Christ with the smallest amount of faith, looking to Him and His finished work, the sins are remitted. That's the miracle of God's Word, the forgiveness of sins. And that's why Psalm 103, "'Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name, and forget not all His benefits, who forgiveth all thine iniquity.'" Further on in Psalm 103, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide, neither will He keep His anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. And this is the miracle that the Catechism is explaining to us. In question and answer 56. What believest thou concerning the forgiveness of sins? And the answer is that God for the sake of Christ's satisfaction, will no more remember my sins, neither my corrupt nature, against which I have to struggle all my life long, but will graciously impute to me the righteousness of Christ, that I may never be condemned before the tribunal of God. It's like a heavy weight of guilt resting upon a person. And in forgiveness, those sins are lifted off. God does that. And what does God do with that heavy weight of sin? He takes them and He lays them upon His Son, the Lord Jesus. That weight of sin must be removed. And Christ bears those sins away because He is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world. The forgiveness of sins is a miracle. Out of free grace, there's no religion that has that. In all other religions, you have to work, you have to do something, you have to atone for sin. But God is so holy, all our work will not meet His high standard. All our tears will not meet His high standard. The most high and glorious God needs the highest payment possible. That's everlasting outer darkness. And only His Son could do that, the everlasting Son of God. And so God gave His Son, for He so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. He did it all. That sinful woman who fell at the feet of the Lord Jesus and weeping about her sins did not earn forgiveness by her tears, did not earn forgiveness by anointing the feet of the Lord Jesus. She loved the Lord Jesus. because she knew He forgives sin. Probably that woman had already experienced the forgiveness of sins by coming to the Lord Jesus. And out of love to Him, she gave what she could, because she found peace and deliverance through the Lord Jesus. And that's why she knelt quietly at His feet, and shed tears of love and gratitude, tears of repentance. And she washed his feet with her tears, drying them with her hair, and anointing his feet with precious ointment. But it was out of free grace that God forgave her the sins. And the prodigal who came home He didn't first have to meet certain qualifications. He came, and that's enough. You only have to come, and you will be embraced. You only have to come. He didn't have to prove himself, but the Father forgave him out of free love Forgiveness of sins is not about what I do with my sins. You can't do anything with them. They are stains upon your life. But it's all about what God is doing with my sins. And as I said, He takes those sins away and lays them upon His Son. And He had to suffer for that, suffering on the cross. He is the surety, the guarantee. fully sufficient payment for sin. And His blood is enough for the sins of the whole world. And therefore, anyone who is under the proclamation of the Word of God is invited to come, because the blood of Christ is enough. Enough. And that's why He was cast out by God, so that His people would never be separated from God. He entered the furnace of the wrath of God, hotter than Nebuchadnezzar's furnace, so that his people would never have to enter that furnace. And then the Lord does not even want to remember my sins anymore. then the Lord is not, after half a year, coming back to you and saying, Remember, that's what you did then, that's what you did then, I know you confessed them, but you still did them. No. The sins are cast into a sea of forgetfulness, and He will never come back to that, never more to be found. And the prophet Micah said, Who is a God like unto thee, that forgiveth iniquity. Thou hast cast our sins into the depths of the ocean, of the sea. They are gone, never more to be found. And then a child of God may exult that because of the satisfaction of Christ, God will no more remember my sins. Then I'm no longer a person who has a past, at least in the sight of God. In my own sight, I remember what I did, and that makes the miracle even greater, that God looks down at such a person The fire of his wrath should have consumed me, but the wrath is removed. And therefore the Lord lets this proclamation go forth that people are called to be right with God, to have peace with the Lord, instead of a fearful conscience, Because God has cast all my sins behind His back, and He's never going to look at them anymore. What a comfort! What peace! What consolation! He remembers my sins no more. But there's something else. Because the Catechism goes on to say, God will no longer remember my sins, neither my corrupt nature, against which I have to struggle all my life long. God will never raise my corrupt nature against me. What a miracle! Because even after forgiveness of sins, we are inclined to all kinds of sins. One may have an inclination to a proud heart. The other may be indifferent somewhat. We have our weaknesses. There may be certain sins we are sensitive to that we know deep down in our heart. But through trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, God no longer remember my sins, but also does not cast into my teeth the sinful nature that's still there, against which you have to struggle. That's a mark of Christian life, that when the Lord is your Savior, and when you know Him, and you've learned to love Him, then you will also fight against your sinful nature, your indwelling sin. And you may never give up that battle, as long as you live, If you give up that battle and just go with the inclinations of your heart, then darkness comes upon your soul, and then the Lord hides His face from you, and then you experience that your bones wax old in your roaring all the day, and your moisture is turned into summer. It becomes an unbearable situation until you finally buckle under and you confess your sins. The battle continues on. Christian warriors. And the words of Psalm 18 are applicable here. He teacheth my hands to war, so that a bow of steel is broken by mine arms. The spiritual battle the Lord leads his people into. God's Spirit teaches him. to war against my old nature, out of love to Christ, because of the joy of experiencing remission of sins. I hate all manner of sin, and I strive against my old nature. But why does God not eradicate my old nature? Why does God not, in conversion, not only forgive sins, but that He also removes that old nature and makes a person perfect, then there will be no battle anymore, then we would live perfectly before God, there'll be no more sin, and nothing annoying or harming would enter our hearts. Why does God not remove that sinful, corrupt nature completely now already in this life? Well, there are various reasons for that. The first reason is that you couldn't live here anymore, because there's so much going around. If you would see all that iniquity, it would hurt you. Jesus suffered his life long, not only on the cross, but his life long he suffered innumerable reproaches, because he saw all the sin around him. He saw the harsh attitudes of the people of Nazareth, the indifference of scribes and Pharisees, and it cut him through his soul every time, because he was holy, he had no sin, no sinful thought, but he had to live with that, that was his suffering. and life becomes unbearable. I think I said it before, there are examples of people who came to conversion, and they remained in that first love. It was so full of the goodness of the Lord that stayed, and God's people said, God is going to take him. And that's what happened. You couldn't live here anymore. But at the same time, God does not remove that corrupt nature because your dependence upon Christ will increase. You see more and more value in Him. There were great sins in your life. covers them, you rejoice in Christ, but then you see the undertow of all kinds of other filth and sin, and you go a bit deeper, you see more, and so you see the value of the sacrifice of Christ increases. You become more and more dependent upon Christ. The Lord Jesus increases for you, and you learn that through spiritual battle. If you don't have that struggle, you don't have sight upon the value of Christ's blood and also through that spiritual struggle you realize how corrupt you still are you can be shocked at yourself and so you become lowly, meek and humble because you know who you are and you're not ready to point fingers at others because you realize that you are a sinner. You become lowly of heart and meek. And also by this spiritual struggle, the Lord keeps you from laziness, from spiritual laziness, from presumption, because the battle against sin so that faith is purified and fruit is brought forth, that all happens through the struggle. Through the struggle, a child of God is strengthened, and he is led further. He becomes more steeled, more strengthened, if you wish, hardened against sin, and more acceptable for Christ. And so you become gentle. and have zeal to live for the Lord. And also that spiritual struggle leads you to long for the life to come, to long to be with Christ. You look forward that something a Christian may do, to look forward to perfection in the Lord Jesus Christ in heaven, that I look forward to the moment when I may serve Him without sin. I am now already amazed at His patience, His lovingkindness, but then it will be to the full extent And then there's someone who says, well, I wish I always could experience that forgiveness of sins. There were times in my life when I sensed something of that, and then I rejoiced in that, that I sensed something of that peace and of that love and of that joy. I wish I could feel that more. Or maybe there's someone who says, I've never felt that. I've never felt that joy. I don't think I have. I haven't felt that profound joy, heavenly joy. No, I don't dare say I've felt that. But the catechism doesn't ask here, what do you feel about the forgiveness of sins, but says, what do you believe concerning forgiveness of sins. You see, it's not about our feeling. It's about faith. Faith supersedes feeling. Feelings can deceive us. And faith is not based upon what I feel. There are times in the life of faith that you feel nothing. But there's still faith. There's still faith. You still look to Him. You hope upon the living God. You hope upon His Word. Faith is based upon Christ, not upon our feelings. Christ paid the price, and I may simply come to Him and express in my English words that I need Him. And I look to Him, I look up to Him, I pray to Him. And He who brought the ram to Abraham that was caught in those bushes, in those thorns, and Abraham could sacrifice that ram, that ram together with all the other sacrifices of the Old Testament, look forward to the Lamb of God. and pleading upon that perfect sacrifice, your sins are forgiven. And connected to that forgiveness is also repentance. It's not that you ask a prayer of forgiveness, sins forgiven, and now just carry on in life. No, no. Of course not. Forgiveness of sins and remission of sins and repentance. They come together. There's a turning. Then you say, Lord, my life is not my own anymore. Teach me the way I must go. There's repentance, a turning to God that dovetails with remission of sins. And God accepts the sacrifice of Christ that he is the Lamb of God, accepted by God. How do we know this? That the sacrifice that Christ brought was received by God, by the rent curtain, the veil in the temple. Then the Lord caused the temple to be torn from top to bottom. That was God's declaration, that indeed it is finished, it is paid for. And also we know that God accepts the sacrifice of Christ because His Son arose from the grave. There's an empty grave in Palestine, Israel. And also we know that God accepted the payment of His Son because the Holy Spirit came down so that God would live in hearts of people, no longer Immanuel God with us, but now it is God in us. You become a temple of the Holy Spirit, not that you become God. There's no deification. But He lives in you. His Spirit dwells in you. And that's how you know that Christ's sacrifice was perfectly well received. by God. And if we dwell on this a bit more about that question that may be pertinent to some of you, maybe to all of us, that how does this Savior become my Savior? How shall this payment His payment become my payment for my sins. Well, that happens by faith, we mentioned that, by faith and repentance, by calling upon the name of the Lord. I said that already. But if we dwell on that a little bit, you may think about what happened in the Old Testament when an Israelite came to the temple and he wanted to confess his sins before the Lord, and he took a sacrificial animal along. He would tell that to the priest. And so this Israelite had to lay his hands upon the head of that animal, as it were, imputing his sins upon that animal. And that animal would be considered guilty. That animal was taken to the altar and was there sacrificed. And now Christ is the Lamb of God. And how does He become your Savior? That you lay all your sins upon Him. The sins of youth, your daily sins, your corrupt nature, that you confess it all, and you lay it all upon Him. He wants you to do that. And just as a priest would have taken that sacrificial animal and slaughtered it, and the blood was sprinkled, and the priest would instruct that Israelite that now the Lord accepted the payment of that animal for the sins of that person. And he could go home with gratitude and joy that God had put his sins away. And in like manner, you may consider that sacrifice of Christ upon the cross And when the sins are confessed, and you look at the Lord Jesus as the only payment for your sins, then all your sins are laid upon Him, and they are carried away, and the crucifixion of Christ becomes then your payment for your sins. And when you see that, then you get up from prayer with joy in your heart. and you want to love and follow and fear this God. You are so unworthy and He is so good and you wish to follow Him. For this shall everyone that is godly pray unto thee in a time when thou mayest be found. And you say, I can never repay, Lord, what thou hast done for me. But what happens if you do not confess your sins before the Lord, and if you just live on with your troubled heart, live on in your sins, not being serious about what you've all done in your life, not asking the Lord, show me my sins, O Lord, and not confessing them before God? What happens then? Well, your sins still need to be paid. And if the Lord Jesus doesn't do that, then you will have to do it yourself. But remember, God is a consuming fire, and we are like hay stubbles. And you know what happened when fire and straw meet each other? How did Christ suffer? He suffered pain in His body and in His soul. He was in outer darkness. He endured the shame. He was assaulted by the devils. He was mocked by people. Isn't that how the sufferings of the Lord Jesus were? And when you have to pay for your own sins, then all these sins, all these afflictions will come upon you. You will suffer in your body. You will suffer in your soul. You will be forsaken by God. You will be mocked by the devils, because the devils know for them there was no grace possible, but for you there was grace possible. But you didn't listen. You listened to those devils, and they tore you away, they sucked you away from your redemption and your salvation, and they will laugh you to scorn. There was grace for you, but you rejected it. That's horrendous. You have to bear your shame, and it will go on forever and ever. And therefore, do not live on without this blessed salvation. It's the best thing going. It's the best thing in life to know and to love the Lord. to know the remission of sins. Don't live on in hypocrisy, pretending for the people. You know, in tropical countries, that's where they have termites. And termites, they can eat a wooden structure, a home. They can eat it from the inside out. And the whole structure is still there from the outside, but it's all rotten. If you push against it, the whole structure collapses. That's what happens when we have a life of just pretending, just telling ourselves it's no problem. Later on, enough time, and you're pushing it off, and you're pushing it off. You're like that structure, man. You're like that building looks quite something. You've achieved something in life. People may even have a certain respect for you. But it's all rotten. One push and you plunge into the abyss. But you're still invited. And when it is that Christ has become your payment of sin, what should you then be doing? Never forget what He has done for you. And I'm saying that to you, I'm saying that to myself. Never forget what He has done for you, in whatever circumstance you may be in. Never forget that He had mercy upon your soul. He drew you to Himself. It wasn't you coming to the Lord, but He was drawing you all along. Others were left behind, but He drew you. And let then this gratitude be reflected, that you give yourself as a living sacrifice of thankfulness. that you no longer want to be your own, but everything I have is at thy disposal, everything. And then you're even willing to lose your life in Christ, for not my will, but thy will be done. For he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it, life everlasting in glory. Amen. Shall we close with thanksgiving and prayer? O most blessed Lord God, how glorious Thou art, how divine, how truly loving and caring and wonderful in Thy grace that Thou dost purge the sins of Thy people and that Thou dost receive sinners, whoever they are, and granting them remission of sins and repentance to God. O, we thank Thee for this precious, blessed, and glorious gospel. This is truly good news. O Lord, wilt Thou work powerfully with that gospel in our hearts. But also, Lord, in our environment, wherever we may be placed, give us words that we may speak our good word in due season, that there is remission of sins in the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, Lord, if Thou wilt lead us into that mystery. of the forgiveness of sins, something we cannot comprehend, but that we do rejoice in, and that we may worship Thee, for all Thou hast done and shalt do, not only the sins, but also the sinful nature Thou dost not remember any more. O Lord, give Thy people grace and strength to continue that battle against their old nature, and may they in this way be led closer and closer to Thee, Lord Jesus Christ, and become more meek and humble. And wilt Thou give that those in our midst who may not know the reality of remission of sins? Wilt Thou stop them? Will Thou have compassion upon them? Will Thou display to them how Thou dost view them, so that they would turn to Thee? We pray Thee for loved ones, also for loved ones we are praying for. Will Thou yet do miracles of grace? For Jesus' sake, amen.