The Joy Pill

February 28, 2016 (rev. 031311)

The Joy Pill                                      NOTES NOT EDITED

Psalm 32

SIS: This year, in celebration of Lent, I am giving up despair, disappointment and anything that brings dissatisfaction in my life, and I am receiving the blessed joy that Jesus purchased for me on the cross.

Lent is the 46 days before Easter that serve as a time to reflect upon the life and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Our text this morning from Psalm 32 causes us to reflect upon the great change that takes place when we accept the forgiveness God offers.

Our change is not just a “religious” transaction.  Religion actually makes people do some strange things.  Like John Smith.  John Smith was the only Protestant to move into a large Catholic neighborhood. On the first Friday of Lent, John was outside grilling a big juicy steak on his grill.

Meanwhile, all of his neighbors were eating cold tuna fish for supper. This went on each Friday of Lent. On the last Friday of Lent, the neighborhood men got together and decided that something had to be done about John. He was tempting them to eat meat each Friday of Lent, and they couldn’t take it anymore.

They decided to try and convert John to Catholicism. They went over and talked to him. John decided to join all of his neighbors and become a Catholic, which made them all very happy.

They took him to church, and the priest sprinkled some water over him, and said, “You were born a Baptist, you were raised a Baptist, and now you are a Catholic.”

The men were so relieved, now their biggest Lenten temptation was resolved. The next year’s Lenten season rolled around. The first Friday of Lent came, and, just at supper time, when the neighborhood was settling down to their cold tuna fish dinner, the smell of steak cooking on a grill came wafting into their homes. The neighborhood men could not believe their noses! What was going on?!

They called each other up and decided to meet over in John’s yard to see if he had forgotten it was the first Friday of Lent. The group arrived just in time to see John standing over his grill with a small pitcher of water. He was sprinkling some water over his steak on the grill, saying, “You were born a cow, you were raised a cow, and now you are a fish.”

People use religion to justify many different types of behavior.  Religion, however, does not change the fact of who we are without the forgiveness of Christ.  We are born sinners, we live as sinners, but we can die as saints only if we have our “transgression, our sin, forgiven.”  Then, and only then, we experience a true and lasting—in fact, an eternal joy.  Let’s read our text together:

¹ How joyful is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! ² How joyful is the man the Lord does not charge with sin

and in whose spirit is no deceit! ³ When I kept silent, my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long. ⁴ For day and night Your hand was heavy on me; my strength was drained as in the summer’s heat.        Selah

⁵ Then I acknowledged my sin to You and did not conceal my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”

and You took away the guilt of my sin.                        Selah

⁶ Therefore let everyone who is faithful pray to You at a time that You may be found.  When great floodwaters come, they will not reach him. ⁷ You are my hiding place; You protect me from trouble.

You surround me with joyful shouts of deliverance.      Selah

⁸ I will instruct you and show you the way to go; with My eye on you, I will give counsel. ⁹ Do not be like a horse or mule, without understanding, that must be controlled with bit and bridle or else it will not come near you. ¹⁰ Many pains come to the wicked, but the one who trusts in the Lord will have faithful love surrounding him.

¹¹ Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous ones; shout for joy,

all you upright in heart.

Sin is painful.  Look again at verse 10:

10 Many pains come to the wicked,

God has a remedy for sin.  Verse 10 continues:

but the one who trusts in the Lord will have

faithful love surrounding him.

How many people here today take at least one pill that is prescribed by a doctor every day?  I figured there would be many hands go up.

It seems we have a pill for just about any condition.  I take about 13 pills a day.  Prior to last October, I almost never even took Tylenol.  I have pills that keep my blood pressure down, my good cholesterol up, and my stents clear. 

We live in a giant “pharmacy” as Americans.  Just witness the many commercials throughout the day that advertise a pill for this or a pill for that.

Someone has said we are headed for “pharmageddon” when our entire lives will be reduced to “pill popping.” 

You’re watching television, and you see all these ads featuring happy and attractive people walking in the woods, mountain biking, sitting in bathtubs and throwing footballs through tires because they took a pill that made it all possible. Want to lose weight, get more sleep, get stronger, or deal with an embarrassing social disease? Just ask your doctor, pop the pill, and relax. Call it “better living through chemistry.”

Well, the sad reality is this:  the most dreaded ailment to have stricken mankind cannot be “cured with chemistry.”  I’m talking about “sin.”  The only antidote for sin is the forgiveness of our sin when we accept Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior.  We pop the pill of trust and our “sin and sorrow miraculously becomes great joy.”  I call forgiveness, the “Joy Pill.”

However, for this remedy to work, we must act upon what we know about who we are—sinners—and Who Jesus is, the Savior.  Through an act of our will we accept the free gift that God provided when Jesus died on the cross in our place.  The cure for sin can only—and I stress, only—be found in the blood of Jesus.  But, for medicine to work, one must act in faith and take it as prescribed.

Our text shows us the simple “act” of faith that results in great joy.

1.  First, we must acknowledge our condition (1-5a)

5 Then I acknowledged my sin to You

and did not conceal my iniquity.

As I was praying and meditating on this scripture, God impressed upon me something I never considered before.  As if he were sitting beside me and speaking directly to me, He said,

“The problem with people today (and in general throughout time) is not that they do not acknowledge their sin, but they do not acknowledge the horrible nature of sin.”

As we find ourselves in the midst of this primary season leading to the election of a new president, one particular candidate has caused a stir like no one else in recent history.  That man is Donald Trump.  In the course of the many things Trump has blurted out, many Christians have noted what he said in at least one interview:  “I have not asked forgiveness from God or anyone else.”

Now, what shocks many is that Trump professes to be a Christian—a Presbyterian in fact.  The problem many Christians have with Trump is that many believers—especially evangelicals—connect receiving forgiveness with “asking for it.”  Yet, some religious supporters of Trump try to split hairs and say that nowhere in Scripture does it say one must ask for forgiveness to receive it.  Of course, that simply is false.  The Lord Himself taught that the pattern of our prayer includes asking for forgiveness—“Forgive us our debts (sins)” (Mat. 6:11). 

Forgiveness—pardon, propitiation, expiation, or redemption in all its various aspects—is described in the Bible as a “gift of grace.”  A gift requires a two-part transaction.  One party must purchase and provide the gift, and another party must receive it.  The problem with Trump’s statement, for me, lies not in the fact he did not use a “proper Biblical formula” but that he does not seem to “acknowledge” the gravity of what it means to “sin against God.”  Most people acknowledge that sin exists, but do not acknowledge the gravity of what it means to “sin against God.”  A common Proverb suggests this by stating, “To err is human but to forgive is Divine.”  Or, in a more modern vernacular we hear people acknowledge sin by saying, “well, nobody’s perfect.”  This is NOT what the Bible means when instructing us to “acknowledge our sin to before God” (v. 5).

 In verses 1 through 4 four different words are used for sin to demonstrate the scope of the problem and describe the horrible condition of a person whose sins have NOT been forgiven.

“Transgression” (1a).  (Hb, pasha). This word has the basic meaning of “rebellion.”  “Sin.” (1b). Hb, chata’ah. The basic idea of this word for sin often refers to a deliberate offense against the law.  A different word is translated, “sin” the first time in verse 2 (2a).  The ESV translates this Hebrew word as, iniquity (Hb, ‘awon).  The idea here is wandering away and getting punished for it.  The fourth word related to “sin” used in these verses is, “deceit (2b)” (Hb, remiyyah).  The idea is one of presenting a falsehood, or hypocrisy.

These are not even all the words used in the Scriptures to describe sin.  If you add all the words up together in the Scripture and give them the most intense expression, you will still not have exhausted everything that can be said about how “horrible” sin is because it is first and foremost, an affront and offense against a Holy God.

It has become commonplace for people to overlook the seriousness of sin.  We prefer words like mistake, mea culpa, or indiscretion, if we bother to acknowledge sin at all.  Acknowledging our sin before God goes beyond simply admitting we make mistakes, but acknowledging our sin recognizes the horrid stench it leaves in the nostrils of God.  Sin is a “big deal” and we must acknowledge it as such.

Sin, if it ever was big deal for man, is certainly no big deal in our modern culture.  In fact, the word, “sin,” no longer even appears in the Oxford Junior Dictionary for children.  According to Vineeta Gupta, head of children’s dictionaries at Oxford, sin was not deemed an important enough word to include.  According to Gupta, “‘We are limited by how big the dictionary can be – little hands must be able to handle it.” 

Thirty-seven years ago one of the most famous psychiatrists of the modern period, Dr. Karl Menniger, wrote a book entitled, “Whatever Became of Sin.”  Dr. Menniger wrote:  “The very word ’sin,’ which seems to have disappeared, was a proud word. It was once a strong word, an ominous and serious word. It described a central point in every civilized human being’s life plan and lifestyle. But the word went away. It has almost disappeared—the word, along with the notion. Why? Doesn’t anyone sin any more? Doesn’t anyone believe in sin? (p. 14)”

No, all men and women sin, and most still believe in the idea of sin, but very few understand how “horrible” sin is.  Even King David, a realized the gravity of failing to “acknowledge” our sin.  

3When I kept silent,  my bones became brittle from my groaning all day long.  4For day and night Your hand was heavy on me; my strength was drained as in the summer’s heat.

David failed to acknowledge his sin and it ravaged his life—as it does with all.  His health was ruined, his integrity destroyed, and his joy completed erased, until he acknowledged the “horror” of sin in his life.

“All have sinned and fallen short of God’s glory.”  History well establishes the fact of sin.  Sin does not disappear simply by eliminating the word for our vocabulary.  Acknowledging both the reality and the deep depravity of our sinfulness is the first step in swallowing the pill of joy in our lives.  We must then,

2.  Confess our sin (5b)

I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,” and You took away the guilt of my sin.

When most people think of “confession” they picture of a little booth.  A person enters on one side and a priest on the other side.  The person then goes through a ritual of explaining bad thoughts and deeds to the priest who pronounces an appropriate act of penance.

Let me say you can talk to a thousand priests and say a thousand hail Mary’s while clutching a beaded string and you will be just as guilty of sin as before you entered the confessional.  Confessing has nothing to do with telling someone in a little booth about our sins, in regard to having those sins forgiven.  

Now, don’t get me wrong, along with our confession there may need to be some act of apology if we have sinned before or against another.  That has nothing to do with the removal of our guilt.  That has to do with the restoration of our fellowship with others.  Full confession or our sin must be as large and wide as the circle of our transgression—but confession must begin with speaking to God.

David’s concern in this Psalm—as with the psalms of repentance as a whole—focus on sin in relation to God.  That is where the offense lies with sin—it is an affront to a Holy God.  The heinousness of sin is to the Holiness of God what the black, velvet case is to a sparkling diamond.  Sin sets us in absolute opposition—total contrast—to God.  As horrible as sin’s consequences are to man, the sin at its core is an offense of infinitely greater consequence to God. 

Confession is the act of formally expressing to God that we understand the grossness and gravity of our offense in regard to His Holiness.  We do not confess our sins in order to tell God something He does not know, but to tell God WE know He knows.  Confession is saying the same thing about sin that God says.  John makes this clear in the New Testament:

1John 1:9  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive  us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The word, used in 1John 1:9 is “homologeo.”  It means, “say the same thing.”  By confessing our sin, we are “agreeing with God in regard to our horrible state of rebellion” with the sincere intent to turn away from our sin (repent).  True confession means we fully admit our guilt without any excuse or equivocation.

Prussian king Frederick the Great was once touring a Berlin prison. The prisoners fell on their knees before him to proclaim their innocence-except for one man, who remained silent. Frederick called to him, “Why are you here?” armed robbery, Your Majesty,” was the reply. “And are you guilty?” “Yes indeed, Your Majesty, I deserve my punishment.” Frederick then summoned the jailer and ordered him, “Release this guilty wretch at once. I will not have him kept in this prison where he will corrupt all the fine innocent people who occupy it.” (Today in the Word, December 4, 1992).

Confessing our sin goes one step beyond simply acknowledging we are sinners.  Confession takes full responsibility for our state of rebellion against a Holy God with a complete understanding of the consequences of remaining in that state and full intent to change.

The first step toward obtaining an describable joy is to acknowledge we are sinners and sin is a horrible state.  Second, confession moves us into full forgiveness as we accept complete responsibility for our rebellion.

If we stop at mere acknowledgment or simply confession, we will be most miserable.  We must “act” upon the forgiveness and grace we receive.  We cannot swallow the pill of joy if we only reflect upon our wretchedness.  Forgiveness, and the joy it brings requires that we

3.  Trust God to forgive us (6b-9)

When great floodwaters come, they will not reach him. 7 You are my hiding place; You protect me from trouble. You surround me with joyful shouts of deliverance.  8 I will instruct you and show you the way to go; with My eye on you, I will give counsel.

God does not save us and then abandon us.  Forgiveness welds us to God and we become one with Him.  Faith, as I have said many times, is an “act.” Faith is moving every moment in conscious dependence upon God.  The Psalmist, after acknowledging and confessing his sin, declares his full trust in God for deliverance from the bondage of sin.  God is our high ground when the Tsunami of sin strikes.

A tsunami is a killer wave that is created by earthquakes centered in the oceans, like the killer wave generated by an 8.9 quake in 2011.  This earthquake sent a shock wave that was felt even on our own coas.  Debris from that tragedy is still washing upon beaches around the world.

The only hope in a tsunami is to get to high ground.  A great tsunami of judgment will soon be released upon our world by God.  It will be more devasting than anything this world has ever seen.  It will make the great waves of a tsunami look like ripples in a pond.  Trusting God is the only “high ground” that will save a soul from the flood-waters of comng judgment.  Trusting God is the only safe refuge from the assault of sin and temptation upon one’s soul.  Trusting God is the only reliable “counsel” when we find ourselves wandering in the desert of sin and uncertainty.  Trust is not a doctrine, but a lifestyle.  This is what Paul meant when he declared before the philosophers of Athens:

^{Acts 17:28} For in Him we live and move and exist.

It’s not that we can do MORE if we trust God—it’s that we can do NOTHING if we don’t.  To think otherwise is foolish self-delusion. Forgiveness requires placing one’s complete trust in Almighty God.  Forgiveness is found nowhere else.  There is no forgiveness in good works.  There is no forgiveness in religion.  There is no forgiveness found anywhere but through trusting God, and His Son, Jesus Christ.

Acts 4:10  Jesus Christ the Nazarene—whom you crucified and whom God raised from the dead—by Him this man is standing here before you healthy.  11 This _⌊Jesus_⌋ is the stone despised by
you builders,who has become the cornerstone. 12 There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to people by which we must be saved.”

When the Psalmist begins by saying:  ¹How happy is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! the Scriptures are looking down through history to the moment that Jesus Christ died upon the cross as a payment for the penalty of sin.  This was God’s ultimate expression of His trustworthiness—He Himself provided the payment for the offense mankind committed against Him in our rebellion.

The joy a person feels when the weight of sin has been lifted is beyond description.  John Newton expressed it very well: Amazing Grace How Sweet The Sound // That Saved a Wretch Like Me.

Happy is the one whose sin is forgiven!

We discover an unbelievable happiness and joy when we ACT upon what we know about ourselves—we are sinners in grave and serious danger—and who God is—the Only One Who can forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  Joy, joy unspeakable joy.

As I said when we began this study, we live in a world where they advertise a pill for whatever ails you.  But, it is not in a pill that you will find true joy, but it is in an act of your will—to place your trust in God alone to forgive you.

As we move toward the celebration of Israel, I have decided what I will give up for Lent:  I am giving up despair, disappointment and anything that brings dissatisfaction in my life, and I am receiving the blessed joy that Jesus purchased for me on the cross.