Address—H. Brinkman
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We have no doubt enjoyed many thoughts on the restoring grace.
Of God in the life of his people. And I thought we might benefit by reading Psalm 32A. Brother already read one of the verses to us.
During this conference and what we have to remember when we read this Psalm.
That David.
Is the one that has written that song.
And that he is really expressing in this Psalm experiences through which he passed in his soul. You know he had.
Very seriously dishonored God, and made the enemies of God to blasphemy by what he had done.
And here in this Psalm now.
He is rejoicing in the forgiveness that he had received. We sometimes use this Psalm in the gospel, and I don't find any fault for anybody to do that, but I do believe we find especially instructions for us as believers.
After we fall into sin, and that there are certain experiences through which we have to pass in order that the work of restoration be complete in our souls, so we read this Psalm. 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 all through the roaring to 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, Sila.
I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hidden.
I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin. Sila. 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, Sila.
I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye. Be not as the horse or as the mule, which has 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 trusted in the Lord mercy shall compass him about.
Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice he righteous, and shout for joy.
All ye that are upright in heart.
And has been remarked, and it is worth repeating.
That these were not David's David's experiences.
Immediately after the Prophet came to him and told him, Thou art the man when he was under the conviction of sin.
We have to read Psalm 51.
In order to get the experiences that were necessary for David to pass through when he came to realize the awfulness of what he had done.
How he had dishonored the name of God. And when he says against thee, against thee only have I sinned. When he comes to see not only what he has done, he comes to see his utter wretchedness.
Is sinfulness before God necessary experiences for any soul to pass through, when they have fallen into sin, of such a nature as we find in the life of David? And let me say, beloved, that we might be inclined to think.
That immorality.
And this kind of a thing is the worst kind of evil that one can fall into, and one does not want in any way to belittle immorality. But when you look into the epistle of First Corinthians, you will find that they're taking up according to the order and that which was especially of importance to the Spirit of God and to Paul.
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And those who divide the people of God.
'Cause divisions among God's people.
Seems to be in the side of God, a far more serious thing than immorality. And like I say, I do not in any way want to belittle immorality. It is important, beloved, in in whatever sin we happen to fall, that we come to face that sin.
And look at it from God's point of view to get his view of the thing.
And these unnecessary experiences?
And we have to be careful in our love for souls that we do not try to cut short those exercises, that they might be indeed a complete period, you might say, or that that exercise, that side of the exercise through which a soul has to pass, be complete.
We find in Numbers 19 that the water had to be applied under third and under seven day, and I believe the water applied on the third day is exactly that kind of an experience that the soul comes to realize the awfulness of the sin committed.
And then on the 7th day, the soul can rejoice, seeing that it is all under the blood, that the Lord Jesus died for it, and that the soul can rejoice in the forgiveness. David is rejoicing in it here, but while he is rejoicing in it.
He tells us, on the one hand what is necessary to get to that point and what hindered him to get to it. You know, there has to be a soul in which there is no guile. You know, this is so important when it comes to evil that concerns me that I don't try to cover up or belittle.
Or find fault with those who take up the question.
And guile is a question of deceit or misrepresentation.
Oh beloved, this is not going to help a soul to be restored. We have to realize that God knows us through and through. He knows all about it. We certainly cannot fool Him about what we have done, and we might fool our brethren.
As young people, we might fool our parents, but we can never fool God. We have to come to realize, beloved, that we have to be open and honest about what we have fallen into before God. This is one of the greatest hindrances to come to that point. To rejoice again in the salvation for which He prayed. Restore unto me the joy of salvation.
For to have that kind of a state of soul.
Before God, no guile.
And now in verse three and verse four, he tells us what he went through when he was trying to cover up his sin. 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.
Sila.
Well, that is what happened all during that time when he was trying to cover up. And you know he went to such an extent that he committed murder to try to cover up that sin. One sin leads to another as long as the soul is not honest before God and seeking to cover up to conceal.
And what is the soul like? Or what does the soul go through? He says.
My bones waxed all through my roaring, all the day, night along for day and night. Thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the drought of summer, You know there is no refreshment, no communion or fellowship, no joy, misery, misery. But the Lord doesn't want us.
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To go on in this, he puts his hand upon us to make us feel a misery that hopefully we will come just like David, to the point.
I acknowledged my sin.
He opened up. I acknowledged my sin unto thee.
And my iniquity have I not hid? I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord. And thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin. Selah. Isn't it wonderful to see when we open up, when we are honest?
Before him and acknowledge our sin, then he covers up.
He forgives, and as we have reminded ourselves.
He will remember our sins no more. He removes them from us. As far as the East is from the West. He doesn't forget. That's human weakness, but he chooses not to remember.
He will not remember them. He is forgiven. But we have in the New Testament more than just the forgiveness of sins.
In the New Testament we have justification.
That God, and only God can justify the ungodly. What a wonderful truth that is. And it does not just mean that we stand before Him as if we had never sinned. We stand before Him as new creatures in Christ. They could have never sinned and that never sinned once we come to Him and are forgiven.
We stand that way before God.
Here we have much more in the New Testament than mere forgiveness. Yet how wonderful it is to be forgiven and to rejoice in the perfect forgiveness of God. We have justification cleared of all guilt. You know, someone has said it is not just as if I had never sinned. He says that puts me in a position where Adam was before he fell. That's not what God has for me.
He makes you and me.
To be such before him who never sinned, who could not sin, because we stand before Him in Christ as new creatures.
Well, in verse six and verse 7.
We have.
A prayer.
And how to pray?
This shall everyone 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.
You know, I believe we can look at these two verses in two ways.
The one is that the same temptation?
That became my fault.
Might come to me again.
But realizing that I need the Lords help and I turn to him in prayer. He helps me. When that same temptation comes, it won't overcome me.
But I believe we can also see in this.
That, you know, in the government of God, He might allow us to pass through difficulties and through things which really are the result of that sin which he had forgiven or has forgiven. We see that with David and.
We find David fleeing.
From epsilon.
And Shimmy Eye comes and curses him, throws his sin into his face, you might say.
But the Lord proves himself to David. A hiding place, you know the Lord is with David.
When he passes through the results of his sin, but in the government of God, he brings difficult circumstances upon David. He is at David's side and helps him. Isn't it beautiful? Isn't it nice to see that the Lord Jesus?
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Is a hiding place to us, you know one or the other might have.
Dishonored the Lord in a way that he had to be removed from the assembly, put outside, and then the Lord comes in, in his grace and restores that soul. And a carnal Christian, or even a person in the world at one time or another might throw it into your face. Remember what you did.
But at that time the Lord Jesus proves himself to be a friend that is at our side, that helps us bear and look. David really manifests that he is in the enjoyment of forgiveness. This behaviour of Shimia does not upset him because the Lord is at his side. He helps him bear it.
But now we have.
The Lord speaking to David.
That isn't David speaking anymore. And the Lord says, I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way in which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye.
Be not as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest thou come near unto him.
You know, in order to be guided by the eye of the Savior, we have to be near to Him. We have to be able to look into His eyes. So for us.
It is like the Lord Jesus telling us, look.
I'm going to teach you.
In the way in which thou shalt go, And I'll direct you with my eye. You know, when we were children.
Or when we had children little in the home and they behaved out of place. Or when we behaved out of place when we were little children, all we had to do is look at our father or at our mother, and we knew immediately whether we were out of place, because by the look.
In their eyes.
But all we would like to see that look of approval to Vinod, we like to walk for the Lord in the way that we have His approval, that it is not sorrow that meets us when we look into His eyes, when it is joy brought to his heart because we're walking.
In his footsteps, in his path below.
But you know the Lord Jesus.
Has paid a tremendous price for us in order to make us his own. And if we do not?
Listen to him, to that still small voice as we have it in the Old Testament. He has means to bring us where he wants us to be, but he does not like to guide us in that way. Like a horse, like a mule which has no understanding.
He likes to direct us.
With his eye, so he should not be.
As those that are unintelligent creatures, you know we are his.
And we can.
Be doors that walk in communion and fellowship with the Lord Jesus, and be directed by Him in the path below. Many sorrows.
Shall be the wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord mercy shall compass him about. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice he righteous, and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart. Now here we have again a similar thought as we have in verse 2, where there is no guile.
Upright in heart, you know the Lord does not look for us.
To comply with certain rules and regulations because we have no other choice. He wants to see in us that we are from the heart, joyfully doing His will. And we have already reminded ourselves, and it's really not that hard for the Christian because the Lord has given us a nature.
Which is wholly.
It is His nature that He has given to us, and that nature delights to do His will.
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And He is looking for us to do what we do from the heart, joyfully, gladly, because that's how the divine nature manifests itself in us, the believer. Well beloved, maybe this can be of help to us and the Lord.
Is the one that restores our soul. You know in Psalm 23 we have thou restorers my soul and we have to recognize, do we not that only he can really bring about in the believer restoration. You know we cannot speak of restoration.
In the midst of the believers before.
That takes place in the individual and, for us, in the assembly.
Those in responsibility, those who have to perform priestly functions, discerning the state of souls. We have to first of all, look, where is that soul? Is that soul?
Have restored to the Lord. We cannot think of a soul being restored to the assembly when that soul is not restored to the Lord. That comes first. Only He can do that, and then we have Him restored.
The believer restored in the midst of the assembly. Well, we can, I believe, even there perhaps at times be used of God to bring a soul into exercises that would make the soul realize when we come in contact with somebody who is not broken down before God about his sin, we might perhaps be used of God to bring scriptures.
Soul that would lead to repentance. I'm told that in Germany there was a real difficult problem in one of the assemblies and.
Brethren had visited this brother that had been dealt with in discipline and could not seem to accomplish anything. So they asked an older brother if he would please go and visit that brother. Maybe the Lord could use him.
To accomplish something in this brother's heart. So what he did is he came into that house and I understand the man was on a sick bed and he came into his room and he said to him, Brother so and so I have a few scriptures to read to you and to leave with you. And he read those scriptures and he walked out. And it had the result of that brother to really come to realize his sin.
That led to his restoration, that he was restored to the Lord and to his brethren. So maybe the Lord can use us and give us that priestly discernment that we can see where that soul is in the experience. Hopefully restoration has begun, that the Lord Jesus has worked, and if not that we might be used of Him to bring scriptures before him that would lead Him to.
Proper exercises which ultimately will lead to his restoration.