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Colin Smith: Listen to your heart. Follow your heart. That sounds wonderful, doesn't it? The assumption behind this advice, of course, is that your heart is a reliable indicator of what is right. And the problem with that is that it completely ignores the Christian doctrine of sin.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. Colin, sounds like it could be a little heavy today, talking about a Christian doctrine of sin.

Colin Smith: Christian doctrine of sin. That's quite a lead-in, don't you think, for the program? You know, a lot of folks have the idea that sin is simply mistakes or doing bad things. The Christian doctrine of sin—in other words, what the Bible teaches about sin—is that it has a profound effect on every part of the human personality and that that's true of every person on the face of the planet.

Sin has affected the mind, so that we do not see the glory of God as we would have done if we were not infected by sin. It affects the human heart; it affects the human will. So as soon as a person sees that—I mean, if you believe that my heart has actually been affected by sin—then simply to follow the impulses of my heart would be crazy because that's going to mislead me.

Steve Hiller: Sure. So it's going to mislead me. So then I need to make sure I'm taking sin seriously in my own life. How do we begin to do that?

Colin Smith: Well, the good news for a Christian is that God gives us a new heart. But what I've got to be realistic about as a Christian is that even with the new heart, I live this life in the flesh and therefore there are going to be many, many things on an ongoing basis that I have to confess to God.

I have to get used to doing what the Bible says: examining myself to look at where sin is working its way in the inner life so that confessing that to God and bringing it under the blood of Christ, there may be progress against sin rather than sin making progress against the new life of Christ in me.

Steve Hiller: Well, and that's what today's message is all about. If you can, join us in Psalm 73. Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Now, as we come to these verses today, this is the toughest part of the whole psalm. You need to brace yourself for this. This is brutally honest. But here's the good news: the kind of honesty that we find here is the honesty that leads to a changed life.

"When my heart was grieved," verse 21, "and my spirit was embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you." Now, we'll come to the detail of what Asaph says here in a moment, but let's start with the big picture. This is a confession of sin. A confession of sin, remember, from one of the most godly men who has ever lived. And that teaches us the first thing that we've got to grasp today, which is that confession is a normal part of a healthy Christian life.

Remember the apostle John says in the New Testament, "If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." And John wrote these words to Christians, to the children of God. And then he added to Christians, "If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves."

In other words, if you cannot see anything in your life right now that you could appropriately confess as sin to God, you are simply not seeing clearly. You're blind. If we're walking around thinking that there is no sin within us, we are deceiving ourselves. So confessing our sins is not some kind of aberration of the Christian life, not something abnormal, not some sign of dysfunction. It is a normal part of a healthy Christian life.

Now here's the second thing. Confession exposes what's hidden in your heart. Here we look in a little more detail at what Asaph actually says in his confession. Verse 21: "When my heart was grieved." These verses then open up what was happening in Asaph's heart. Remember, the heart of a godly man.

What had been happening in that heart before he came into the sanctuary and God turned on the light in his mind? These things had been hidden even from Asaph himself. But when he came into the presence of God, God turned on the light and he saw things in himself that he had not seen before. And that was why he was able to make this confession.

"When my heart was grieved." Now, when your heart is grieved, there are some sins to which you will be especially prone, and you need to be aware of what they are. We're going to find them and see them clearly in these very verses. Notice the three sins therefore that Asaph confesses, so that you can be on your guard against them, especially at times when your heart is grieved, because they're going to be near to us at these times.

Number one: my spirit was bitter. That's his first confession. "My heart was grieved and my spirit embittered." Now, it may be that "my heart was grieved" and "my spirit was embittered" are actually two ways of saying the same thing; that is often the pattern in Hebrew poetry. But we all know that you can have a grieved heart without a bitter spirit.

I'm suggesting that the first sin that Asaph confesses here is a bitter spirit. Lord, I see now what's been happening. I became bitter. There were things in my life that made no sense to me, and what happened was I was soured toward you and soured toward other people. I saw how you were blessing others more than me, and it churned away at me. Self-pity came in. I began to feel sorry for myself. My spirit was embittered. This is my confession: my spirit was bitter.

Second: my heart ruled my head. Look at this: "When my heart was grieved, I was senseless and ignorant." Now, these two words "senseless" and "ignorant" are words about the mind. So you see what he's saying. When my heart was grieved, when my emotions were stirred up, everything I knew and believed about you, O Lord, seemed to just fly out the window.

You know how this happens. You've got your faith, and then you hit some crisis, and when the emotions get going and somehow your heart rules your head, everything you ever said you believed about God suddenly seems to fly out the window. I started thinking like an unbeliever thinks. I started to talk to my friends in gloomy terms as if there was no God, no help, no hope, no future. What was I thinking about? I was senseless. I was ignorant. I let my heart rule my head when my heart was grieved.

I've enjoyed watching the film *Home Alone*. You seen that one? I don't know, we must've watched it a dozen times at Christmas. And you know the story of the small boy who is accidentally left at home when his family takes a trip at Christmas, and then the whole house is turned into chaos as he defends the home from burglars magnificently by pouring tar out on the basement, swinging pots of paint from the staircase, pulling shelves on the wall, smashing glass Christmas tree decorations on the carpet.

And the amazing thing is—and it amazes me every time I've seen this film—that when the parents come back, there isn't the slightest sign that anything has happened. The whole home is restored to perfect order. How in all the world did that happen? Letting your heart rule your head is like letting the kids run the home.

Think about it. Your kids bring life and joy to the home—and a few problems as well. But home wouldn't be the wonderful place that it is with all the joy if they weren't there. But if you let the kids take over running the home, it will not be long until there is chaos. Your heart is like a child; your head is like a parent.

The heart, like the child, brings you great joy and a few problems as well. But it is the head that is to bring order to your life. Now, here's what happens when the heart is grieved: the heart gets kind of worked up, and the heart comes to the head and says to the head, "Head, I, the heart, would like to take over running this house of your life for a while."

And if the head says to the heart, "Well now, that will be just fine," and hands over control of the house, it will not be long before chaos reigns. And that is precisely what happened to Asaph. His heart was grieved, and he allowed his heart to rule his head. His emotions got all stirred up; he allowed them to take over. No wonder chaos reigned in his life.

And he confesses this to God. "Here's what I see now in the light of your truth that's been happening to me. When my heart was grieved, the head checked out. I became senseless, I became ignorant. Everything I ever believed about you went flying out the window. I allowed my grief to rule my life. Lord, have mercy upon me."

My spirit was bitter. My heart ruled my head, and chaos was the result. And then look at the third thing. Remember the sins to which we're especially prone at times when we are grieved: I was acting on impulse.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called "Confess!", part of a larger series "I Almost Gave Up", where we're taking a look at Psalm 73. And if you missed any part of today's program, or you want to go back and listen to a broadcast you may have missed, you can always do that at our website. Just come to openthebible.org. You can stream the program or download an MP3 for free. Back to the message. Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: And then look at the third thing. Remember the sins to which we're especially prone at times when we're grieved: I was acting on impulse. "When my heart was grieved, I was like a brute beast before you." Now, what does that mean? Well, the point about a brute beast is that, of course, the animals act on impulse.

One of the great gifts that God has given to men and to women is the gift of reason, logic, reflection, analysis. These gifts are not given to the animals. The animals act on impulse. And Asaph says, "This is what I was doing. I was not acting on reason; I was acting on impulse. When my heart was grieved, I was just being pushed around by the impulses of bitterness, and of unbelief, and of despair. No wonder my feet had almost slipped."

This is important for us, especially because we live in a culture where people just love the idea of acting on impulse. One of the greatest slogans of our time—and I'm going to give you the first half, and you're going to complete it for me—is this: "If it feels good, do it." That's the slogan of our time, isn't it? What is that? That is acting on impulse.

If you have absolutely nothing else that you can think of to do, spend some time watching a radio or television show where people call in with their problems. And you will hear the same thing over and over and over again: "Listen to your heart. Follow your heart." Now, it sounds wonderful, doesn't it? And some of us are drinking it in.

The assumption behind this advice, of course, is that your heart is a reliable indicator of what is right. And the problem with that is that it completely ignores the Christian doctrine of sin. A person who passes out the advice to everyone, "Follow your heart, follow your heart," simply doesn't believe the Christian doctrine of sin.

The problem with me following my heart is that there are way too many impulses in my heart that would lead me into sin if I followed them. There are impulses in here to pride, impulses to greed, impulses to self-justification, and a whole lot else besides. Following your heart is a dangerous business.

Let's not swing the other way. I'm not suggesting for a moment that your heart is always wrong. The Holy Spirit lives within your heart. But plainly from the scripture, a Christian who understands his or her self will know and believe that the impulses of your heart and the impulses of mine are mixed.

Sometimes your instincts will be enlightened by the Holy Spirit. Sometimes your instincts will be guided by the flesh. That is why you and I have to submit all our instincts to the word of God. So that we can discern and discover what impulses I need to fight against and what impulses I need to follow.

Asaph said, "I'd given up on that altogether. I just lost it. Here's what was happening. And Lord, since you've touched me to open up my mind to the truth in the sanctuary, I see it so clearly. My spirit was bitter, my heart ruled my head, I was acting on impulse." This is a serious confession of sin. It's going way beyond a list of things that Asaph had said or had done.

What he's doing is, in the searchlight of God's truth, the hidden movements of this man's heart are uncovered. And he's brought to a position where he finds liberty as he confesses it before God. "When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast."

But the deepest part of this confession is in the last two words. You notice them there? "I was like a brute beast before you." Before you, O God. There really is an appropriate sense of shame here. See earlier, I think we engaged with Asaph when he made the point, "If I'd followed the thoughts of my mind, I would have let everybody down."

Here he's now saying, "Oh Lord, I see now that all this junk that was going on inside of me, it was all before you. What a fool I've been. My spirit was bitter, and that was before you. I let my heart rule my head, and you watched all the chaos that followed. I was acting on impulse, and you saw what I did.

"You saw me act on impulse on that website. You heard me speak on impulse at that breakfast. It was all before you." This is the confession of a godly man. And Asaph's not a man who needs counseling; he's a man who needs cleansing. He needs to bring out the junk of his inner life in the presence of God. He needs to confess.

I expect that all of us feel that we need to enter into this third dimension of Asaph's five-point turn today: stop, think, confess. Here's some good news. You are never closer to Christ than when you are most aware of your own sin. Luke tells us about what happened when Jesus called the first disciples to follow him.

Do you remember the story? Peter had been out fishing all night, didn't catch a thing, and Jesus tells him to throw out the net one more time, and suddenly there are more fish in the net than Peter can pull in. And Peter immediately realizes that he is in the presence of the Lord. And what's the first thing he says? "Depart from me, I'm a sinful man." That's what he says to Jesus.

You feel that instinctively. Of course, Jesus didn't go. What Jesus said: "No, no. You follow me. You follow me." Actually, it was the nearness of Christ that made him see his sinfulness as never before. You are never closer to Christ than when you are most aware of your own sin.

And so if that awareness is strong for you right now, thank God for it. It's the one who shines the light who's drawing near, and he's drawing near not because he wants to leave you, but because he wants you to follow him. That's what happened to Asaph. It was the turning point of his life.

Confession is a normal part of a healthy Christian life. Confession exposes what's hidden in your heart. And lastly, and very briefly, confession opens the door to hope. What would you think that the outcome of this confession would be? Listen to it just one more time.

"When my heart was grieved and my spirit was embittered, I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you." What would the outcome of that be? Therefore, I am a total failure. Therefore, my life is messed up and is a loss. Therefore, there is no future usefulness for me in your kingdom or in your purpose.

No, that's not the outcome. What is the outcome? Verse 23: "Yet I am always with you." Would you have expected that to be the next statement? See, true confession never leads to despair. It always opens the door of hope. I love this word "yet". "My spirit was bitter, my heart ruled my head, I was acting on impulse—yet I am always with you."

Only a believer can pray like this. We often think about the Lord walking with us through life on our path. But a better way to think about the Christian life is that you are walking with Christ on his path. And that's what Asaph gets here. He says, "Yet I'm always with you."

"Yet Lord, here's the miracle: despite everything that has happened and all the junk that's in my life, I'm still here in your presence today, Lord. Thank you for that." And why is it that I'm here in your presence today? It is because "you have held me by my right hand." My feet had almost slipped. Why didn't they slip?

Oh, says Asaph, God, you held me up. You held me by my right hand, verse 23. I came into the sanctuary. Why did I come into the sanctuary? God prompted him to come into his presence. If sustaining the Christian life depended on me, I would have given up long ago. Wouldn't you?

But thank God with Asaph, you can say as a Christian, and I can say as a Christian, "You hold me by my right hand." And Lord, that's why I'm here in your presence today. If you hadn't held me by my right hand, I have no idea where I'd be today or what I'd be doing. But I'm here. And it's all because of your grace. And it's all because of your mercy, which even now is reaching in the depth of my need.

Steve Hiller: What an important reminder from Pastor Colin here on Open the Bible. Confession is crucial for us to keep our hearts from becoming hardened. God knows the worst about us already, so we can't surprise him. So we ought to go to him frequently and honestly. Our message is called "Confess!", part of a larger series called "I Almost Gave Up". And if you ever miss a broadcast, you can always come and listen online at openthebible.org.

Open the Bible's a listener-supported ministry. We're able to do what we do, bringing you Pastor Colin's teaching each day, because of your generous financial support. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to send you three copies of our very first graphic novel. It's inspired by Pastor Colin's book *Heaven, How I Got Here: The Story of the Thief on the Cross*. Plus, we'll send you one copy of the original book. Colin, how does this graphic novel speak to young people today?

Colin Smith: Well, if you're a young person, and especially if you have grown up in church, you probably find yourself asking the question, "Am I living a good enough life? Am I living a life that's really going to be pleasing to God?" And you maybe have in your mind the idea that pleasing God's going to be a very, very hard thing to do.

And here's the marvelous good news: entrance into heaven and peace with God don't depend on you living a good enough Christian life. It's the gift of God's marvelous grace, and that is made wonderfully clear in the story of the thief on the cross. And this graphic novel tells that story in a way that's clear, simple, and compelling.

It communicates the greatest good news ever: that God's marvelous grace comes to us in Jesus Christ. He's the one who gives us peace with God. He's the one who opens the door of heaven. There is hope for every person in Jesus Christ, and especially for the person who's saying, "I haven't lived a good enough life, I feel very, very far from God." That's the message, and I hope that is going to be very encouraging to every young person, to everyone who's a visual learner, and to everyone who needs to understand God's marvelous grace.

Steve Hiller: Well, you can give your gift to support Open the Bible by calling 1-877-OPEN-365 or going online to openthebible.org. Again, our phone number's 1-877-673-6365, and our website is openthebible.org. For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll join us next time.

Guest (Male): *Fly Through the Bible* is a short, simple, and shareable book that you can use with a friend, a neighbor, or a loved one who needs to know Jesus. It's also freely available online. *Fly Through the Bible* will introduce you to five people in the Old Testament, five events in the life of Jesus, and five gifts God gives to every believer.

You could ask a friend to read *Fly Through the Bible* with you. The book has 15 chapters. You could read a chapter and meet together over coffee and discuss the questions. *Fly Through the Bible* is designed to help you open the Bible with others. It will give you a better grasp of the Bible's story, and most of all, it will help you to grow in your love for Jesus Christ. For more information, visit openthebible.org/fly. That's openthebible.org/fly.