Reading in Psalm 51, this is a psalm of David
when Nathan the prophet went to him after he'd gone into Bathsheba
and this is his response.
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love.
According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions
and my sin is ever before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity
and in sin did my mother's conceive me.
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.
Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness.
Let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways
and sinners will return to you.
Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips
and my mouth will declare your praise
for you will not delight in sacrifice
or I would give it
and you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
a broken and contrite heart, O God,
you will not despise.
Do good to Zion in your good pleasure.
Build up the walls of Jerusalem.
Then you will delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings.
Then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Thanks, Catherine.
So this is the time now for kids of creche age
up to year two.
This is the awesome display.
Crouch age to year two.
We'll go out to our Sunday school program
and we're going to stand and sing our next song,
Judge of the Secrets,
and then David will come and bring the message to us.
Thank you.
Good morning, everyone.
If you're a visitor here this morning,
my name's David.
I'm one of the pastors.
It would be hard to imagine a more attention-grabbing,
a more confronting heading than we get in Psalm 51.
Just look at the heading.
In the English Bible, it says,
when Nathan the prophet went to King David
after he had gone into Bathsheba.
Literally, in the Hebrew, it says,
after David had entered into Bathsheba.
This is a poem about guilt and redemption.
So, immediately, it's a song our society is likely to reject
because, on the whole,
our society now rejects the concept of guilt.
Guilt is construed these days to be an evil in itself.
Oftentimes, it's said to be the construct of religions,
something that's used to control people.
Historically, it's not been like that.
Historically, guilt has been accepted
as the proper working of conscience,
which confronts us internally
with our wrongdoings.
But modern wisdom
is moving to demand
that people should be guilt-free
in any absolute moral sense.
And the cry of society now is so commonly,
don't judge me.
And behind that statement
is another statement that says,
well, look, my mental health,
my happiness,
do not allow for any challenge
to my attitudes
or my actions,
especially when they make me uncomfortable.
Don't judge me.
But for all this,
guilt in our society is alive and well.
It's the feeling that keeps on giving.
I think every one of us here know
something of guilt.
And it really is the feeling
that keeps on giving day and night.
in fact, some are so burned
with a deep sense of guilt
eating away at them
that they actually develop
serious mental or physiological illnesses.
It's a powerful, powerful thing
that won't be written out of life
simply because our society don't like it.
Now, unfortunately,
many Christians are moving also
to reject the ideal of guilt
because increasingly Christians
seem to be of the opinion
that God's ideal for them
is to be happy.
So, again,
any challenge to thinking
or behavior
which makes a Christian uncomfortable
is very unwelcome
and generally met with a response,
again,
don't judge me.
Or, in churches,
it's more,
don't guilt me.
Essentially,
what that means
and what that does is
when you respond to that,
essentially,
you're blaming
the person who issues the challenge
for how you're feeling.
It's their tone of voice,
their words,
their motivation
in challenging you.
That's the problem.
Don't think for a moment
that I need to look inside
and see if there's any substantial basis
to the challenge.
But, again,
at the other extreme,
some Christians are so bowed down,
and so burdened,
so trapped in their sense of guilt
that, quite literally,
it drives their every waking moment
and, indeed,
their sleeping moments
or their nighttime moments.
And it robs them,
totally robs them
of any sense
of enjoyment
of their relationship with Christ.
Psalm 51
speaks into all of those things
and gives us a real-life model
of God's pathway
for dealing with guilt,
God's pathway
for turning back to him
in guilt,
and encourages us
to see
that the person
God esteems
is the person
who's described,
chapter,
verse 17,
the person who's described
as one with a broken
and contrite heart
or spirit.
First step way,
first step in the pathway
is to say,
if you're a visitor,
the outline is on the back
of this sheet you handed
this morning
will help you track through
with me a little bit,
at least in terms of
the major headings.
So,
set up my year,
my year.
first step in
the pathway
of turning back
to God
is to say,
my rebellion,
autonomy,
and failure
is damning.
But I own
all of it
in detail.
Verse 6 verses.
We've already heard
the background
to the story.
it's the awful fall
and fall
of King David.
And verses 1 and 2 then
is an expression
of helplessness
before God's justice.
Have mercy on me, O God.
According to your steadfast love,
according to your
abundant mercy,
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly
from my iniquity
and cleanse me
from my sin.
David actually knows
that in God's law
there is no specific
sacrifice to atone
for adultery
and murder.
There's sacrifices
for heaps and heaps
of other situations,
but there's no specific
sacrifice
offered to atone
for adultery
and murder.
His only hope
is to throw himself
on God's mercy.
But it's important
as we move into this psalm,
this is a really important
thing to hang on to,
I think.
Even as he knows
his guilt
and owns it,
even as he throws himself
in God's mercy,
David,
in his first two verses,
still knows
he belongs
to God.
God's mercy.
Why?
Because of God's
covenant love.
So his guilt is real,
but his position of guilt
is not despair.
Verses 3 through 6,
we get a sense
of just how powerful
this is in David's life.
He's lived with it
for almost a year
before he's confronted
by Nathan,
the prophet.
He's lived with,
verse 3,
day and night.
He's not been able
to hide from himself,
even though he's been able
to cover his tracks
publicly.
And now,
he takes ownership.
He takes ownership
in detail.
Now,
if you look at the,
you don't look at it now,
but on the front cover,
I've put in
a little bit of stuff there.
Very sorry
for the small size
of the print,
but get a magnifying glass
and read it at home.
But it picks up
a very important thing.
Our English Bible
used three words
to describe
his crime.
Transgression,
iniquity,
and sins.
Now,
for most of us,
they're just some sort
of vague religious words.
But in the original Hebrew,
they're very nuanced
and very confronting words.
Transgressions
is much more
than doing something wrong.
It describes rebellion
against God's authority,
defiance of God's authority.
Iniquity,
then,
is the opposite
of what flows.
It's the self-assertion,
the autonomy
of making himself
his own authority,
making himself
his own wisdom
instead of God.
And sins
is the most frequently
used word
and describes
the abject failure,
which has to be
the inevitable consequence
of setting
our own course
in life.
And it's in those,
that sense,
David owns
his sin.
And that
moves David
from a focus
on himself
to focus
on God.
And that's how
we see the movement
from 2 Samuel 11,
the proud,
self-absorbed,
ruthless,
scheming,
pleasure-seeker.
to the broken man
who's absolutely
gutted
now that he understands
how he has treated
God in all of this.
He understands
he has failed
many,
many people
in lots of
different ways,
but ultimately
he comes to see
that it's
God he has failed.
And so
his confession
is both
detailed
and nuanced
but ultimately
it's not
a therapeutic
exercise
to get things
off his chest.
the next verse.
It's recognition
that his exposure
by Nathan the prophet
and God's
verdict of
guilty,
guilty
is entirely
appropriate.
So his confession
is actually
bringing him
to see
the enormity
of his crimes
before God
in a very
detailed
break it down
into its
component parts
type understanding.
No vague
God,
I'm sorry
for my sin.
Now,
send me blessings.
Isn't that how
we often pray?
Verse 5 and 6,
David makes
no attempt
to explain
away his actions.
There's no
plea bargaining
going on here.
David understands
that he can't
say to God,
well actually God,
you realize
this is a
once-off
stupidity
on my part
and I want
you to see
it in that
term.
No.
David knows
it's not
a once-off
stupidity.
He knows
it's not
a product
of his
family,
social,
cultural
or environmental
backgrounds.
He knows
that what
he's done
is a
fundamental
part of
him
rising up.
And it
explains,
David knows,
why in spite
of being
described by
God as a
man after
God's own
heart,
he so
easily and
so radically
turned his
back on
that and
set his own
course in
life and
brought himself
to disaster.
God's own
heart.
And he
accepts,
verse 6,
that all
of this,
and he's
now got a
great long
list of
very specific
and detailed
sins in his
mind, he
accepts that
all of this
list is so
offensive to
God who
longs for
truth and
integrity from
the inside
out.
Not just an
external veneer,
God who
actually pushes
his people to
confront the
inconvenient truth
of their sin.
So owning
David's sin for
David has
taken all of
that.
Now friends,
just let me
pause there and
just sweep us
up into some
application.
This broken
spirit that
David speaks
of in verse
17 is a
gift from
God.
Can I beg
you not to
fear it?
Because I
think that's
what we do.
Brokenness is
God's pathway to
renewal and
redemption and
restoration.
Restoration of a
sense of joy,
of fellowship.
Why would we
fear that?
Yes,
brokenness is
inconvenient.
Brokenness is
darn uncomfortable.
Brokenness is a
terrible thing to
experience.
The process of
being broken.
But look what it
leads to.
See, we all
long to succeed,
don't we?
That's a
basic part of
being human.
We want to
do well.
And not only do
we want to do
well, but we
then want to
find personal
recognition and
validation in
doing well, in
being a
trustworthy,
dependable
person.
Therefore, I
think deep
down, we
fear failure
most of
all.
And perhaps
for many
of us, we
fear failing
our own
standards.
And how
many times
a day do
we do
that?
We set
standards for
ourselves, we
want to validate
ourselves by
those standards,
and then we
find we
failed our
own standards.
Or we
betray those
closest to
us, those
that we most
want recognition
of being
dependable
before.
So we
fear owning
our sin in
all its
gory detail.
We really
find it hard,
I think, to
take this
first step in
repentance and
restoration,
because we do
not like what
self-examination
reveals about
ourselves.
It's a
tautology.
And even
when we do
try and step
into this
self-examination,
we then try
and minimize
confrontation
with the
quagmire, which
is our
hearts.
And we
try and do
that, I
think, through
a non-specific,
shallow,
pain-free,
I'm sorry for
my sin, as
I've already
said.
And we
quickly get
through that
as a
transition to
seeking forgiveness
and God's
blessing.
restoration of
the good
things that
we want
from God.
My friends,
we will never
turn to God
properly
and resolutely
until we
confront
truly
and
comprehensively
and in
detail
our
rebellion,
autonomy,
and
failures.
In and
through the
good things
that God
has given
us,
things which
like David
became
idols,
and things
to us that
become idols
to us,
or things
that, in
other words,
become more
important to us
than God
himself.
the things
we choose
to fill
our lives
with instead
of filling
our lives
with God.
Until we
confront those
things,
we will
never turn
properly to
God.
So my
friends, I'd
say to you
this morning,
as I've said
to myself
over many
years now,
and again
lots this
week,
stop trying
to hide
from
yourself.
Stop
trying to
hide from
God.
Be glad
that God
pursues you
and forces
you to
confrontation
with his
word and
his offense
as the
first stage
in being
free from
guilt and
moving towards
restoration,
moving towards
a renewal of
a sense of
enjoyment of
God's
forgiveness and
love.
So the
second point
then is,
your forgiveness
and total
renewal from
the inside
out is what
I beg for.
Picking up
verses 7
through to
12.
Owning his
sin is a
start.
But David
knows that
without God's
direct
intervention,
all the
time he
owns his
sin,
his guilt
will still
stay.
And that's
because guilt
is not just
a psychological
issue,
like many
today would
want to
reduce it
to.
So a
psychological
issue then
is fixed
by David
giving himself
permission to
be free from
guilt.
That's what
we hear today.
Or giving
himself permission
to love
himself again.
Guilt's not
just a social
issue either.
It's not a
simple matter
as we try
and say in
our society.
Well let's
just lock a
person up for
30 years and
give him the
death penalty.
That's not
going to deal
with his
guilt.
Might be a
deterrent for
society.
David's guilt
isn't even a
religious issue.
Fixed by
offering endless
sacrifices and
prayers.
David picks
that up in
verse 16 and
17.
keeping
religious
festivals.
David knows
that there's
no point of
him even
trying that
pathway because
that's not
going to
address the
guilt.
Being more
religious doesn't
do it my
friends.
So that's
our pathway
isn't it?
We offset
sin here by
trying to be
more religious
here.
It won't
work.
It doesn't
work.
It can't
work.
So David
needs God's
forgiveness and
pleads for
God's
forgiveness.
Described
verse 7 as
God's heavy
duty cleaning
operation to
remove dirt on
the inside,
make them
clean again.
Look at
verse 7.
Purge me
with hyssop.
Hyssop was
always offered
with a sin
offering because
not only you
have to deal
with the legal
guilt, you
have to be
cleansed from
defilement.
Purge me with
hyssop and I
shall be clean.
wash me and I
shall be whiter
than snow.
Put me through
the special
operation that
only you can
do, Lord,
that heavy
duty cleaning
cycle that
will tumble
me around,
but in the
tumbling around
bring the dirt
out from the
inside.
In verses
8 and 9,
David's longing
for that
response we
long for.
Most of
any time I've
had to confess
anything to
Allison, I
confess nervously,
but my hope is
that I'm going to
hear a response
that says,
thank you for
that.
It's all right.
The relationship's
intact.
You're forgiven.
That's the thing I
crave for as much
as I need to
confess.
And that's what
David's craving
for in verses
8 and 9.
David wants
to hear God
saying, it's
all right.
Everything's
forgiven.
You're
restored.
The relationship
can move forward
as if this had
never, ever
happened.
But not
satisfied with
even that,
David wants to
push even
further.
Verses 10,
11, and
12.
David isn't
happy just to
have a
reassurance that
everything's
all right.
He actually
wants to be
completely
renewed.
Total renewal
from the inside
out through God's
spirit.
Attitudes,
desires, and
thinking.
He's not just
after a quadruple
bypass for this
damaged heart of
his.
He wants a
complete heart
transplant.
And he
asks for it
with some
degree of
hesitation.
Verse 11 and
12, very hard
verses to
understand, but
here's my
take on them.
I don't think
they need to be
as complicated
as some
commentators make
them.
But that might
just tell you
about me,
not the
commentators.
I think he
asks for that
big heart
transplant with
some trepidation
because he
knows jolly
well that God
would have every
right to say,
no way,
Jose, go to
hell.
Your crimes
against me are
so awful that
my last words
to you are going
to be, go to
hell, because
that's what you
deserve.
But he
hangs on to
the reality
of existing
relationship.
He hangs on to
the reality of
God's covenant
promise of
eternal relationship
with David.
You have to go
back to 2
Samuel chapter 7
verses 12
through to 15
to see the
details of that.
But God's
already committed
himself going
forward to
David.
So he hangs
on to that
and he longs
for this renewal
even though in
his mind he's
battling.
Back?
Yeah, oh
good.
So again,
pause for some
application.
A broken
spirit
becomes a
willing spirit
through God's
spirit.
We can count
on it.
We can count
on it.
This is
immensely
practical for us
as Christians.
When we mess
up and we
do.
Our messing
up does not
break our
relationship with
God in
Christ.
But it will
rob us of any
sense of
enjoyment of
that relationship.
It will
rob us of a
confidence in
our salvation.
But our hope
is this.
God's spirit
that we
now have
within us
in Christ
is committed
to renewing
us from the
inside out
so that we
wholeheartedly
come to the
point and
grow into the
point and
overflow into
the point of
wanting to
display the
mind of
Christ in
all things.
don't fear a
broken spirit
because of
what it will
lead to.
Third point.
My longing,
says David,
is to be the
man after God's
own heart
who actually
brings you
glory.
Picking up the
last verses
13 onwards.
with the
renewing of
God's spirit
in his life,
the renewing
work of God's
spirit in his
life, King
David anticipates
becoming a
true model
of what it
is to be a
man after God's
own heart as
he overflows in
praise and
thanks.
Look at
verse 13.
Then, so
when I have
this renewing
work of the
spirit,
in my
life, then
I will teach
transgressors your
way and sinners
will return to
you.
The
transgressor
becomes the
teacher.
David goes on
to say it
will be a
life of
sacrifice.
It will be a
life of
sacrifice, but
not the
external,
religious,
outside-in
approach of
ritual sacrifices,
religious sacrifices,
sacrifices that
are offered on
the assumption
that God is
pleased with my
sacrifice and
that we are more
acceptable to him
because of those
sacrifices.
David's not
interested in that
at all.
It won't work for
me, says David.
There is a
sacrifice.
It's a sacrifice
of praise and
thanks from a
renewed heart,
renewed desires,
renewed attitudes,
overflowing into
a new life
where genuinely
and truly he
will be a
man after God's
own heart
because he now
has God's
spirit at
heart.
David has
regained the
joy of his
salvation.
Remembering now
that the Lord
looks for the
heart that
knows how
little it
deserves on
the one hand
and how much
it owes on
the other
hand.
And this is
the broken
David.
He is
absolutely
confident,
verse 17,
absolutely
confident that
God will
never
despise,
make it
positive,
will always
esteem the
truly broken,
humbled person
who returns
to him for
forgiveness and
a total rebuild
through his
spirit.
But still
David's not
finished,
verse 18 and
19.
Let me read
these verses
and preempt it
by saying that
commentators generally
think these two
verses are added
on at some
later point in
time.
They reckon
they don't
fit easily
with the theme
of the sound.
But I beg to
disagree.
I think they
fit perfectly.
And here's
again my take
on it.
But let me
read them to
you first.
David says,
Do good to
Zion in your
good pleasure.
Build up the
walls of
Jerusalem.
Then you will
delight in
right sacrifice
and burnt
offerings and
whole burnt
offerings.
Then bulls
will be offered
on your altar.
again the
thought is that
these verses
speak of
national Israel
and perhaps
were added
sometime later
in the exile
period perhaps.
But I think
they fit perfectly
here and I
think the
thought is
this.
That as
David himself
turns back to
the Lord in
repentance and
is now focused
on the Lord,
suddenly his
horizons are
extended way
beyond himself.
To the point
that his longing
then becomes
that God
would do for
the nation
and indeed
for the whole
world exactly
what he's just
done in David's
life.
Why?
Because the
nation is
equally guilty
of adultery
before God
as David was
precisely a
guilty of
physical adultery.
And that's
where I might
disagree with
one small
point of
Don's
sermon.
David was
speaking about
me.
King David
was speaking
about me.
And you.
Right through
the Old
Testament God's
repeated
criticism of
his people is
you've
prostituted
yourselves,
you've
committed
adultery,
you've gone
looking for
the pleasure
of life that
you find and
should find
in me,
you've gone
looking for
them in other
places.
things.
And I
think David's
just saying
here,
Lord,
that very
thing I've
experienced,
please do for
the whole
nation,
for the whole
world,
in line with
your long
time salvation
promise.
And when the
heart of the
nation is
renewed,
then their
sacrifices will
be delightful
to you,
Lord.
And they
will properly
reflect appreciation
for God's
mercy and
salvation.
sacrifices
were never
meant
essentially
to take
away sin
in themselves.
They were
meant to be
a picture
of God's
provision
for forgiveness.
God would
deal with
our hearts.
And not
until the
nations
renewed
through your
salvation
purposes,
says David,
will we
actually see
that reality.
And then as
a nation,
we will be
a people
after God's
own heart.
friends,
again,
application
here,
this broken
spirit will
never be
despised by
God.
We have to
beg for it.
Beg for it
for ourselves,
individually.
Beg for it
for our
church.
Have we
been guilty
of spiritual
adultery,
collectively and
individually?
I think so.
starting with
me.
Beg for it
for our
nation.
Don't fear
what God
uses for
our good.
Our proud
sinful hearts
need to be
broken so
that we will
turn to
God.
But the
same God
who breaks
us also
delights then
to rebuild
us in
his image
in Christ.
Now,
even if
you're a
believer here
this morning
and you're
suffering
enormous guilt
because you've
chosen to
walk back
into sin,
thinking what
it offered
would be
more satisfying
than God.
In a sense,
I think that
will sweep
every one of
us up here
this morning
individually,
won't it?
Some to
more of a
degree than
others.
Some with
particular
specific sins
that others
don't have to
feel guilt
over.
But in
any situation,
if you're a
believer in
that situation,
turn back
to God.
Own your
sin.
Don't fear
being broken
for our
sin.
Don't fear
being broken
by the Lord.
Rather,
see it as an
opportunity to
grow.
an opportunity
to believe
the gospel
more and
more.
That the
Lord delights
to rebuild
broken,
humbled people
from the
inside out
as his
pathway
to being
like Jesus
and glory.
The pathway
to glory
for Jesus
will be the
pathway to
glory for
you and
me.
And again,
I say to
you this
morning,
if you're
not yet
a Christian,
if you've
not yet
addressed your
guilt before
God,
if you're
still in
the business
of trying
to ignore
your guilt,
pretend it's
not there,
or deal
with it in
some other
way,
then go
to Jesus.
Because
Jesus
ultimately
is where
King David
is pointing
you to
experience
God's
salvation,
forgiveness,
and renewal.
See,
let me put
it together
like this.
King David
needed some
serious,
heavy-duty
intervention.
He needed
the king
of all kings
to arrest
him and
expose him.
He needed
Nathan the
prophet to
speak God's
word into
King David's
heart,
illuminating
his stupidity
and his
ignorance.
rebellion.
He desperately
needed a
sacrifice
offered on
his behalf
to deal
with his
sin,
but he
knew there
was no
sacrifice to
offer for
his particular
sin.
And all
of this
points us
to Jesus.
What King
David
experienced
externally,
we experience
internally.
in the
New Testament,
Jesus
describes
himself as
God's
King.
Come to
subdue
our
unruly
hearts.
Jesus is
God's
word who
speaks into
our lives
and illuminates
our ignorance
and points us
to truth.
truth.
The Holy
Spirit within
us convicts
us of
sin and
truth and
righteousness.
John 16.
And Jesus
is the
priest
who is
able and
has offered
the sacrifice
perfectly
suitable and
capable for
dealing with
the awfulness
of our sin
before God.
Jesus is
the complete
salvation
package
offered to
you by the
Lord with
the promise
that the
person
humbled
enough
to put
out their
hand and
take what
they do
not deserve
will never
ever be
despised
by God.
My friend,
do not
ignore your
guilt a
moment longer.
Do not
pretend you
don't have a
deep-seated
sense of
guilt before
God.
Come to
Jesus because
I can tell you
now,
he knows
your guilt
better than
even you
know it.
and will
ever know
it.
And he
has removed
it totally
from you.
Something you
will never
ever be able
to do for
yourself.
Let me
pray.
Lord,
these are
heavy words
in one
sense and
yet music
to our
ears in
another
sense.
for Lord,
you never
desire to
expose your
people in
all our
awfulness
without an
equal commitment
to rebuilding
us in all
your glory.
Help us
not to fear
one for the
joy of
experiencing the
other.
Amen.