December 9, 2018
Scripture:
Scripture:
Hymn 193 - There comes to my heart a sweet strain,
Prayer
Psalm 32: 3-5, 1, & 2
The first two verses talk about the psalmist blessings; but the next three verses are about how he got there. He admits that at a point in his life he wasn’t confessing his sins and they were a burden to him. If we keep our iniquity in our heart we will not be blessed. Here’s a story to illustrate it.
Johnny and Sally were staying at their Grandparents house for the summer. Johnny had just gotten a new slingshot that he was testing it out on a bunch of different things. Just as Grandma called for lunch he saw her prize duck walk out from behind the woodpile. One shot won’t hurt he thought. Much to his shargrin when the rock hit the prize duck it fell over died. In a panic he ran over and hide the duck in the woodpile; when he turned around he saw Sally watching him. She didn’t say anything and they went in for lunch. After lunch Grandma asked Sally to help her wash the dishes.
“Oh, I think Johnny wants to wash the dishes,” she replied. Then she wispered to him “Don’t forget the duck”.
These things went on for a couple days. Finally Johnny couldn’t take the blackmailing anymore. He went up to Grandma. Gave her a big hug and said, “Grandma, I killed your prize duck.”
Grandma answered, “It’s okay, I saw you kill my duck from the window; I was just waiting for you to tell me.”
What a relief it was for Johnny to be forgiven.
The psalmist came to the Lord and acknowledged his sin. Even though we are saved we have to confess our sins to God. He will forgive you. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).”
When we went through Proverbs we talked about the verse that says if we cover our sins we won’t be blessed. Because the psalmist repented he had the blessings of verses one and two. In Darby the French translation of blessed is very happy. To have God’s forgiveness and blessing will give you so much joy and happiness.
I was trying to think of a time that I was relieved because of forgiveness. I was reminded of the time I got into a car accident and was charged with careless driving. Now it’s really bad to get charged will careless driving, because a lot of insurance companies won’t insure you. So I took it to court. Now the court had asked a particular witness to come in. When my turn came the witness wasn’t there and the judge said all charges get dropped. I was so relieved.
Just a couple thought on the rest of the verses. There is a place of refuge and safety knowing that we have his forgiveness and he will help us. When we are near to God and have a clear conscience before him we will know his will and what he wants us to do. He won’t have to force us to do what he wants.
We can see in this Psalm that when we confess our sins to the Lord we will get forgiveness, joy and blessing.
John 8:12-32
Jesus was teaching early in the temple, and the scribes and Pharisees come trying to trip up Jesus in the law. The Law came by Moses, though Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. So Jesus replied with grace. The Pharisees liked to apply the law to others, but didn’t like it when Jesus turned it around on them.
V.12 Chapter revolves around this verse. One of many”I am” verses, like V.58, which was Jesus proclaiming His divinity. Here, says He is light, He saw the world in darkness, Usually, when you turn a light on darkness is expelled; but John 1 told us that the darkness didn’t comprehend the Lord’s light 2 Cor. 4:3 - Those that are lost can hear, but not comprehend the gospel. Satan blinds them so that they can’t see.
However, God commanded the light to shine in Genesis, and them commanded it to shine out of darkness, out of us,
Light is knowledge, and in looking at the Lord, we certainly gain the knowledge of the glory of God. How would you explain the Glory of God? “He is the monifestuly of the excelteoutcies of God,” when look at God’s glorification of Christ; we see God’s excellecutcius. There’s more; we’ve been saved, justified, glorified, and more, These are the ‘things above’ to set our offections on.
This world darkness, but Lord gives light for our pathway, if we follow Him. But more then that, that light will shine out of our darknered hearts.
Hymn 341 - Jesus bids us shine
Prayer