May 14 -#3 The iniquity Plan

May 14

      The Planning of Iniquity

Ps 32:1  Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. 2 Blessed is the man

unto whom the LORD imputeth not iniquity

       He only yelled once when I stabbed him. He was a soldier in Germany during the cold war with Russia. I was serving with the US Army and had access to top secret documents. He had slipped in behind me and when I realized he was there I only had a couple seconds to decide how I could prevent him from taking what he was after. So I stabbed him. It happened almost 50 years ago so I am free to discuss the details now.

It had started like any other morning as I sat down in the mess hall for breakfast.  As I started to eat I felt a tap on my shoulder. I had no idea who wanted my attention but I knew instinctively it was a bad omen. As I turned my head I stabbed my fork into the delicious looking cinnamon roll on my tray. That is when I heard him howl in pain as he jerked back his hand from my cinnamon roll. The whole table of guys roared in laughter as the would be thief rubbed the fork marks in the back of his hand.

He had planned to steal my cinnamon roll when I turned to see who had tapped me. Pranks like that are usually done just for fun. But another kind of planning is not humorous at all. There is nothing funny about the Iniquity plan!

Yesterday we looked at the same verses that we are considering today. These two verses contain a valuable lesson we should not skip over. The opening two verses of Psalm 32 contain three aspects of Christian failure; transgression, sin and iniquity. David was guilty of all three.

We find the word “transgression” in the opening phrase of psalm 32:1 - Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven…

Transgression is to step over a boundary. The Bible says don’t and we do it anyway. God says thou shalt not…and we ignore what is prohibited and do it anyway. Sometimes the devil gets the blame, as in “the devil made me do it!”  But unless you are demon possessed you can’t blame the devil. Even Eve in the garden was drawn to eat of the forbidden tree by her own lusts after she believed the serpents lies.

1Ti 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman

being deceived was in the transgression.

Next we find the phrase “...whose sin is covered…”. Sin is best thought of as missing the mark. We wanted to do well but fell short. The Bible says do and we try but fall short or miss the mark. We know we should do some good thing but for whatever reason we don’t. For some things it isn’t important, but when we miss the target or fall short in some spiritual way, it is sin.   

Ro 3:23 For all have sinned,

and come short of the glory of God; 

Verse two contains the third kind of evil David was guilty of committing. “ .. the LORD imputeth not iniquity…” David did not go up on the rooftop to look at a bathing woman. He also had not planned to send for her. Those were sins and transgressions. But Iniquity is different. Iniquity is premeditated. We plan on sinning. When David did not confess his adultery but made plans to hide it he started practicing iniquity. It is no mistake or sudden flaw in our character. David planned the murder of Uriah. It was iniquity.

Even when we confess our sins and transgressions our subconscious may be planning how we will do it again. We may ask forgiveness for getting drunk even while we know we will be going to another drinking party on Friday night. That kind of thinking is iniquity and iniquity is the foundation of hypocrisy. When we have iniquity in our lives, and plan to sin secretly, we have become a hypocrite. 

 

2Ti 2:19 …The Lord knoweth them that are his.

And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ

depart from iniquity.

Sin may be a tongue out of control, and transgression may be a moment of rebellion, but iniquity is in the bones. All three come under the general heading of sin. Iniquity appears more deadly to our souls than the rebellion of transgression or the sin of failing to meet Godly expectations but all fall short of the glory of God. As such all are equally bad. We can define different kinds of sin, but they all are just different ways at looking at the same human defect. Sin. They all wind up in the same place.

Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death;…

And all have the same cure.

Rom 6:23 …but the gift of God is eternal life

through Jesus Christ our Lord

No wonder David felt like the blessed man. He had recognized his great sins, transgressions and iniquity’s. He had confessed and repented and God had forgiven him. David would still suffer the consequences of his actions, but his soul was now free from the burden of guilt. 

Ps 34:8 O taste and see that the LORD is good:

blessed is the man that trusteth in him.