February 1

Psalm 32
Somewhere in 2000 or 2001 my oldest brother was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. They gave him about 10 years to live. Myeloma is a bone marrow cancer that often occurs in multiple spots. It was treatable with chemotherapy. The cancer would go into remission. He would quit taking the chemo. Sometime later the cancer would come back again. I remember when I visited him during his first round of chemo. He looked so weak from the chemo that I thought he was going to die while I was visiting him, but he bounced back after the chemo was over. The chemo never removed the disease. It just covered it for a while. Each time he took the chemo, his body was less able to finish the chemo course. He finally succumbed to death in the fall of 2009, almost ten years. When he died it really wasn’t from the cancer but from the ravages of the chemo and the cancer on other parts of the body.
“Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.” In the religious system of David’s day the sins were covered once per year on the Day of Atonement, but the sacrifice had to be completed every year. Why? In reality, it was not the blood of bulls and goats that covered the sin of the people. The sacrifices always looked forward to one final sacrifice. They were mere pictures of a future truth. They were pictures of the sacrifice of Jesus. Christ’s sacrifice is once and for all. When a sin is committed, the eternal Holy God sees that sin. Because He is eternal, He sees it eternally. Because He is Holy, He is offended by that sin. Because He is eternal and Holy, He is eternally offended. Because He is just He must punish that sin. Because He is eternal and just, He must punish that sin eternally. No wonder there is a hell, but that is bad news for all of us who have sinned. But the good news is that the blood of Jesus eternally satisfies the justice of our eternal, holy God. When his blood is applied to my life, first it covers my sin, and second it washes it away. God chooses to forget about my sin. He has the ability to recall my sin, but because the blood is there, it covers it eternally and He does not recall it. It is gone. There is no need for anymore sacrifice. Wow! That makes me happy!
Before I repent and confess my sin, my sin is like a cancer in my bones. When I repent and confess, He removes it from me. Because He has removed that sin from me, He is the one place to which I can run to hide out in times of trouble. If He will receive me and remove my sin, what place or person could be any safer? He delivers me and then gives me instruction in the way that I should go. Now if He is willing to do all that, why am I so hard headed about listening to His instruction. Wouldn’t it just make sense that I should instantly listen to and obey His instruction? Lord, help me not be like the mule that needs a bit and bridle or it will not come near. I will shout for joy to the Lord, who takes my spiritual cancer from my spiritual bones. Indeed we serve a glorious King. Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john