Good morning. Open up your Bibles to Psalm 51.
So in case you thought you got rid of me last week, I'm back.
! Nathan called and just wasn't feeling well.
And at the time I was feeling good and I actually kind of had a rough night.
I've got a wheeze in my chest.
Y'all know what that's about, but if you hear a little bagpiper in here,
you know, throughout the sermon, that's what's going on.
Struggling physically just a little bit, but spirit's good.
I've been really encouraged this morning with our singing and our gathering.
And so after you've been doing this for quite a while,
you develop several sermons that are kind of like your go-tos if something happens like this.
But the problem is the longer you've been here, like you actually have used them before.
So I looked on our website, and apparently the last time I did this was in 2014.
So there's a lot of new faces here since then.
So I thought it'd be good to go back to it.
And I think some of the college students may have heard it a couple years ago.
But I'm looking at it with fresh eyes today and to visit a topic that every believer should be aware of
and be practicing weekly, if not daily.
And that is the subject of repentance.
And a word that a lot of people try to omit from their vocabulary.
And I know no other place, really, that I think exhibits what true repentance is than Psalm 51.
So before we walk through it, I just want to talk about repentance just for a second, just define it for you,
as well as maybe give us some context of what's going on in Psalm 51.
But in short, just the word repent in the New Testament, it means to change one's mind for the better.
So it's not just a change of behavior.
It's a change in the way you think about things.
It's like looking at sin, hating it, and by God's grace, resolving to forsake it and turn to Christ in faith.
And it is a God-produced inward change of the heart that plays out outwardly in a change of action.
And so there's just a few things to consider before we kind of get into this.
But some of you are familiar with Psalm 51.
And I was just thinking, again, like we can't outgrow this sermon.
Like the minute you think that you have no more need to understand repentance or practice repentance,
we're kind of in a dangerous spot.
And so this was written in the context of 2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12.
That's like the background.
But instead of reading all that to you the whole time, you can go back and check it out later.
But 2 Samuel 11 through 12, and this is about King David.
And this is when he is at the height of his power, height of his blessing, at the tip top,
which typically means, based on this story, that is a time when we need to be wary.
We need to be aware like we're feeling very safe and secure,
that we're doing very well spiritually.
We're at the height because then temptation comes.
And so in these chapters in 2 Samuel, what happens is King David,
who we tend to think of only as the man after God's own heart, which is true.
He was an astonishing man, a shepherd, a king, a warrior,
one of my favorite Bible characters for sure.
But I think apart from stories like this,
we would be tempted to kind of idolize David as some sort of perfect man.
And this shows you that he was definitely broken and in need of a Savior.
So in these chapters, he commits the terrible act of adultery, murder, lying, and scandal.
I mean, you just would never think.
But again, he's at the height of his power and blessing from God.
And so it starts the chapter by saying when the kings were out to war.
So this was the time when they went out to wage war against their enemies.
And David is not out there.
He's staying in Jerusalem.
So point number one really would be able just to think about is be where you should be.
Don't be where you should not be.
And so he should be out there with his men, with his army, waging war.
But he's hanging out in Jerusalem.
And so he steps out on his balcony and he sees a beautiful woman sunbathing, which is Bathsheba.
And she is the wife of a noble warrior named Uriah, Uriah the Hittite.
And so not a Jew by birth.
He was a Gentile, but he must have at some point come to faith in the true God or he was a mercenary or something.
But Hittites were known for their reputation for fighting.
So this was his wife.
And no one knows, but if she did this intentionally to catch David's eye, we don't know that.
But she is on display.
And so he walks out and he sees her and he lusts after her.
And he calls her to his chamber.
And he's the king.
He can kind of do whatever he wants to do a lot of the time.
And so eventually he sleeps with her and she goes away.
And eventually comes back and says, hey, I'm pregnant with your child.
And no kidding, he panics.
He freaks out.
Like a lot of us would in such a situation.
And instead of going straight to God, he begins this scandal of lying and covering up.
He intends to cover it up first by calling Uriah back from the battlefield and saying, hey, Uriah, like you've been doing a great job out there.
Like come and sleep with your wife as a reward.
And but he is such a honorable soldier.
He refuses to do that.
Like, how can I do that when my men are out there in the battlefield?
And so that didn't work.
And David is growing frustrated.
So he says, well, I'll just into himself.
I'll try to get him drunk.
And then he can sleep with his wife.
And then everything will be OK.
But he that doesn't work either.
And so this growing frustration and fear, David results to the great evil of having Uriah killed on the battlefield.
It says, like, when he's up in the front of the line, draw back and let him die.
So in essence, he's murdered by David.
It was just through the means of the battlefield.
Put him in a situation where he wouldn't survive it.
And he did not survive it.
So then David comes out and he he tries to put on this noble facade of like the husband, the noble Uriah is dead.
And I can now marry his wife as a sign of of honor, kind of picking her up.
And so that really wasn't what was happening, obviously.
So he marries her and he he thinks everything is OK.
Right.
He he's he's survived.
He's gotten away with the lie.
His reputation is saved.
Or so he thinks.
Right.
But often is the case.
We are unaware of that.
We very quickly forget.
Proverbs 15, three.
The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.
So eventually, God sends a prophet to Nathan or a prophet to David named Nathan.
And he confronts him and he says he tells him this story.
And he goes, hey, there was two men.
One was a very wealthy man and he had many livestock, many herds.
And this other man was his servant.
And he had just one lamb that he loved and he cared for.
And so the rich man had a visitor and to throw a party and to welcome that visitor.
Instead of taking one of the many livestock he had, he took the servant's only favorite animal, the lamb that he had.
And he killed it when he had all this other stuff.
And David is outraged.
He goes, surely that man deserves to die.
And then Nathan, chillingly, just says to him, you're that man.
You took, you had all this stuff and you took the only thing from this man, Uriah, and you committed a great evil.
So little did he know, he's pronouncing judgment on himself.
And so, out of David's mouth, according to Scripture, comes genuine repentance.
Not just, oh no, I'm caught.
I'm found out.
I'm in trouble.
I've got to figure out another way to hide.
He just, he owns up to it.
And what he says in 2 Samuel 12, verse 13, is I have sinned against the Lord.
And Nathan said to David, the Lord, the Lord has put away your sins.
And you shall not die.
So mind-blowing, he confesses his sin genuinely.
And out of Nathan's mouth comes the forgiveness from the Lord.
So, I like to think of this, we don't exactly know how this came about.
But if you look at like the little subtitle in your Bible over Psalm 51,
it says, to the choir master, a psalm of David,
when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba.
So, I like to think that after this encounter with Nathan happened,
he got away by himself somewhere.
Nathan, or excuse me, David went out into the wilderness.
He went somewhere and got quiet, or just a quiet place.
And he penned this psalm.
And poured out his heart and soul to God in repentance and in prayer.
And so, we're going to just walk through it.
Just to save time, I'm just going to walk through it with you
instead of reading it all and then going back over it again.
And so, I'm going to just do this in the form of questions.
But if I had to look at this psalm,
one brother I heard that preached on this a long time ago,
if he had to explain what this psalm was,
he says that David's sin made him feel dirty,
and he desires to be clean.
David feels guilt.
The guilt has made him sick,
and he desires to be well.
The disobedience made him lonely,
and he desires relational reconciliation.
And his rebellion made him fearful of God,
but now he wants to be pardoned.
That's kind of like what we see a lot in this particular psalm.
So, the first question,
we're going to just walk through it with questions,
and eat it piece by piece.
So, question number one is,
how do we approach God for mercy and forgiveness?
Okay?
That's going to be seen in verses 1 and 2.
And in this, we have something for our hearts and our minds to follow
when we are seeking to repent of our sin
and work through things with God.
He says in verse 1,
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.
And so, I want you to notice this.
He pleads with God to show him mercy and pardon and forgiveness,
not because of what he's done.
Right?
Mercy is this undeserved thing only given to us by God.
You can't earn mercy.
You can't earn grace.
By nature, it's undeserving.
And so, why is this the case?
Like, why is he approaching God this way?
Because, one, David has no hope of God forgiving him
according to his own righteousness,
because clearly he doesn't have any.
Look what he just did.
So, he's not saying,
Forgive me because I'm a great guy,
and I've done so much for you.
He just, he doesn't do that.
He doesn't plead his case
according to his own goodness,
his own merit,
but God's.
You see that?
According to your steadfast love,
your abundant mercy,
the multitude of your tender mercies,
or your compassions.
So, he recognizes he has no entitlement for God's favor,
he deserves not life,
but death.
And he's,
if we are ever to approach God,
we have to be sensible that God
doesn't have to forgive us.
We're not owed forgiveness.
We're not owed mercy and grace.
And so, therefore,
David appeals to God in this manner,
because he knows it's in the nature of God
to be forgiving.
He knows it's in the nature of God
to show mercy,
to forgive,
pardon,
and heal.
So, he taps into that,
like, God,
I know that you are a forgiving,
merciful God.
And so,
that's how he approaches it,
not according to his own righteousness,
but God's,
right,
in God's love,
God's tender mercies.
Look at these verses,
and look at the terms that he uses
to explain the crime that he committed.
He says,
first,
transgression.
You see that?
That is a deliberate,
premeditated crossing of the line,
a willful act of disobedience.
He knew he shouldn't do it,
and he did it anyway.
Then he uses the word iniquity,
which is sort of a perverting
or a twisting of something
that is good and true.
Right?
He's corrupted goodness.
And then, of course,
he used the term sin,
the most familiar to us,
the missing of the mark
of what God intended.
And then he even calls it evil,
right?
This dark, terrible, awful thing.
So, he's fully recognizing
that he has committed
a great crime against God.
He's not making any excuses for it.
And so,
then look at
what he's asking God to do
corresponding to those particular crimes.
Right?
All words depicting spiritual restoration
that only God can do.
First, he says,
to blot out.
Right?
Blot out my transgressions.
That means to wipe out,
to obliterate.
And back in the ancient times,
they use papyrus
if you could afford it.
And it was valuable.
And what they would do
is they would reuse it
by wiping off previous writing
and then writing something else
on top of it.
So, he's saying,
blot out the record
of this awful sin I've committed.
Like this transgression.
Wipe it away
as if it never happened.
Blot it out.
Then he used the term wash.
To wash by treading out.
This refreshing feeling, right,
of your dirty and filthy sin
makes us feel that way.
So, he's saying,
cleanse me.
Wash me.
Cleanse me
of my sin.
Right?
Which means to purify
and make whole.
And he's saying,
all of this, Lord,
do all of this
only because of your love
and kindness towards me.
And because of your mercy.
Not because I deserve it.
And so,
those are the redemptive response.
Like, blot it out.
Wash me.
Cleanse me.
The stuff that we all desire.
That gives you question number two now.
Which is,
what is the true confession of sin?
Okay?
See this in verses 3-5.
David goes on.
He says,
For I know my transgressions
and my sin is ever before me
against you,
you only,
have I sinned against
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 conceive me.
Alright?
So, he recognizes right out of the gate
that sin is ever present with them.
He says,
I know my transgressions
and my sin is ever before me.
He's humbly acknowledging
what he's done.
What I did was wrong.
What I did was evil
and wicked.
And it's staring at me in the face.
Have you ever noticed that
when you commit sin
and you just kind of
try to brush it under the rug
and go about your day
and how it just has this tendency
to stand there
and just stare at you
like,
hey, I'm not gone.
I'm still here.
That's what his sin is doing to him
day and night.
And so,
he recognizes that
that his sin
is ever before him.
And then,
this is very critical.
Right?
He takes full responsibility
for his sin.
He doesn't blame Bathsheba.
He doesn't blame
any circumstances going on.
He owns up to it.
Alright?
And that's important
because we,
some of you who
confess sin to each other
and pray to each other,
we tend to want to
soften the blow
by saying,
well, I messed up.
Or,
I didn't do so good
this week.
And we use terms
to kind of like
make it sound better
than it is.
And according to God's Word,
according to this psalm,
it's like,
no,
call it what it is.
You committed
a heinous act
of adultery.
Call sin what it is
and own up to it.
And don't try to
soften the blow.
And I think
this next part
is very critical
if you see
in these verses,
especially verse 4,
this is very important.
David could have said,
I tragically
have sinned
against Bathsheba.
I've sinned
against Uriah.
I had him killed.
I've sinned
against the nation
that I'm supposed
to be leading.
And he would have been
true
in saying those things.
But he doesn't.
He confesses
to God
against you
and you only
have I sinned against
and done what is evil
in your sight.
So why does he say that?
Because all sin
is ultimately
against God.
All of it is.
It doesn't
just
we sin against people
and then we sin
against God
separately.
Like all of it
goes back to him.
It's all
rebellion
against him.
And as he said
to Nathan
in 2 Samuel
12,
13,
I have sinned
against the Lord.
That's like what
he proclaimed.
So sin does
great harm to us.
It does great harm
to others.
At the end of the day,
it dishonors
our Creator.
And so
when I sin,
I'm saying to God
in that moment,
I don't trust you.
I don't believe
that you're good.
I don't believe
that you're wise.
I'm going to take
another path.
That's like what
we do
every time
that we sin.
And we don't
believe in His goodness.
So,
this is very important.
Repentance is not
just feeling bad.
You hear me?
Like repentance
is not just
feeling bad
about what you did
and feeling guilty.
Why?
Because even unbelievers,
people who don't know Christ,
feel guilty
about things
that they've done.
So what's the difference?
What's the difference?
I only have
two places
for you to turn
outside of Psalm 51.
So,
thank me later.
But one of them
is 2 Corinthians.
Hold your hand
in Psalm 51.
Look at 2 Corinthians
chapter 7
verse 9.
And so Paul
talks about
repentance
this way
and he says
there's a godly sorrow
and a worldly sorrow.
And
kind of picking up
on this
theme of repentance.
So 2 Corinthians
chapter 7
verse 9
Paul says,
As it is,
I rejoice
not because
you were grieved
about sin,
but because
you were grieved
into repenting.
for you felt
a godly grief
so that
you suffered
no loss
through us.
For godly grief
produces repentance
that leads to salvation
without regret,
whereas worldly grief
produces death.
So he clearly says here
there are two kinds
of grief.
For the believer
there is a godly sorrow.
It's what we're seeing
here in Psalm 51.
Like,
I have sinned
against God,
I have hurt Him,
I have insulted Him,
and I hate
what I have done
to Him ultimately.
And worldly sorrow
is man-centered.
You just kind of feel
bad about what you did,
but you don't really
feel any remorse
for sinning
against God Himself.
You just hate
the consequences
of your sin.
You hate
what it does to you,
but then it just
sort of falls
short
right there
and doesn't carry on.
But Paul says
that godly grief
or godly sorrow
will lead to life
as where worldly sorrow
will lead to death.
So repentance
isn't just feeling bad
about what you did.
It's about,
remember,
about a change
of the mind
that leads to
a change of action.
Right?
So,
go back to Psalm 51.
And if you notice
in Psalm 51
he also says,
Behold,
I was brought forth
in iniquity
and in sin
did my mother
conceive me.
Now,
he is not at all
playing the victim.
We live in a victimized
culture.
Stuff's just happening
to me
and nothing's my fault.
He really is just
saying by this,
like God,
I am weak.
I am helpless.
I don't know anything else
but sin.
From day one,
that's all I've known
is sin.
This is one of those
original sin texts.
Like,
in sin
was I conceived.
Right?
We were born,
all of us,
in a state of sin
and spiritual death.
Our understanding
was darkened
and our hearts
were corrupted
by evil.
So David
implores
that sad reality
as an argument
for God
to show him mercy.
This is all
I've ever known.
I've only known
sin
from the beginning.
Have mercy on me.
Forgive me.
Let's get into
our third question.
Alright?
How do we plea
for forgiveness
and restoration?
Alright?
This is
starting in verse 6.
David says,
Behold,
you delight in truth
and the inward being
and you teach me
wisdom and the secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop
and I shall be clean.
Wash me.
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
my iniquities.
Create in me
a clean heart,
O God.
Renew me
with the 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.
And so,
in these verses
we really see
how to plea
for forgiveness
and restoration
to God.
God desires
to not just
save him
but to change him.
To change him
from the inside out.
The deepest places
of his heart.
He's pleading with God,
Change me here.
I don't just want
to do better.
I want to change.
I don't just want
to continue
down this same road.
And it's this picture
of this God
going from room
to room
in his heart
just cleaning him out
and renewing him.
So, sin is defilement.
You see that?
He says,
Purge me
and wash me
with hyssop.
Hyssop is a plant
of the mint family.
It's like a cluster
of yellow flowers
and it was used
to sprinkle the blood
on the doorposts
during the Passover.
The Israelites
were in Egypt
and it's symbolically
this idea of cleansing.
And he says,
Wash me
whiter than snow.
Clean,
pure,
unadulterated
and beautiful.
Wash me.
Cleanse me.
Whiter than snow.
And then,
keep in mind
that when we sin
it's like deafness.
We can't really hear
the voice of the Lord
and says,
Make me hear.
He wanted God
to allow him
to hear joy
and gladness again
even in the midst
of what he's going through.
Alright,
so,
sin also
is disgrace
and separation
from God.
Look at verse 9.
He says,
Hide your face
from my sin.
So,
notice sin.
Right?
And,
hide my sin,
Lord,
but not me.
And,
so,
to the Jews,
to the Hebrews
of old,
to see God's face
is counted
as the greatest blessing.
There's no greater blessing
than to see God's face
because it means
favor,
love,
fellowship,
and no greater curse
than for God
to hide his face
from you,
which means
judgment,
separation.
and so,
he pleads that.
Hide your face
from my sin,
but not me.
And,
you see again,
right,
that ultimately,
David desires
fellowship with God
himself.
He doesn't just want
to get off the hook
and not get in trouble.
He wants that
relationship
restored,
that fellowship
with God himself
where he says
in verse 11,
Cast me not away
from your presence
and take not
your Holy Spirit
from me.
A quick note on that.
The Holy Spirit
is how God manifested
his presence to us
and in the Old Testament
he empowered prophets,
kings,
and warriors
to accomplish
his mission
by empowering them
with the Holy Spirit.
But it could be
taken away from them
in the Old Testament,
in the Old Covenant.
Example of that
is Samson.
But closer to home
to David,
he saw it happen
to Saul,
did he not?
He saw Saul go mad.
Saul was living in,
God had empowered him
by the Spirit
to accomplish
certain goals
and Saul continued
to sin and rebel
and not do what
God told him to do
and so he withdrew
that presence
of the Spirit.
So he is like,
oh Lord,
please don't do that
to me.
Like,
please don't take away
your Holy Spirit
from me.
So,
so we see here though
that a lot of people
want to be
delivered by the
consequences of their sins.
Like,
I don't want to get
in trouble.
I don't want to be
found out.
That's the first thing
that comes to my mind.
How about you?
Like,
I don't want to be caught.
I don't want people
to know.
And,
but we see here
that he doesn't
just desire
to be delivered
from the consequences
of his sin.
He wants fellowship
with God himself.
Right?
And that's scary.
A question for us
to ask ourselves.
I'll spare you
this really long quote
that I have,
but Jonathan Edwards
just basically said,
you may love deliverance
but hate the deliverer.
The inclination
of your own will
goes no further
than self
and it never
reaches Christ.
You are willing
not to be miserable.
That is,
you love yourself.
And there,
your will
and your choice
terminate.
It is a vain
pretense
and delusion
to say or think
that you are willing
to accept Christ.
And in that quote,
he basically is saying
that a lot of us
just want to be
delivered from the consequences.
But we don't really
want God.
Right?
We don't really have
a desire for him.
But for those of us
who are truly saved,
truly born again,
we may have some things
we have to work through,
but ultimately
we land in this position
where we're like,
we just want God.
Like,
I just want,
I'm tired of feeling
at odds with him.
Right?
And sin is spiritually
depressing.
It causes misery.
And that's why
he says in verse 12,
restore to me
the joy
of your salvation.
And then don't let it
stop there.
Give me the grace,
empower me,
uphold me with a willing
or noble spirit.
But give me this
perseverance
to continue
to trust you,
to follow you,
and to have joy in you.
And
some of you may think
that
there's no way
that God
could change me.
Maybe you forgive me,
but like,
I just don't feel like
I can change.
It feels hopeless.
It's no use.
I've heard that
from some of your mouths
before.
And I confess
I've felt that way too.
Like,
I just don't want to just
stop committing the sin.
I want to change.
I don't want to do this again.
I want to,
I want God to change
my behavior
by changing my heart
first
and convincing me
that this is wrong
and evil
and that His way
is better.
So if you feel hopeless,
I may give you
something to hold on to here.
Notice in these verses,
He says,
create
in me
a clean heart
or a new heart.
Alright?
Think about that word
create
in the Bible.
Where else have you heard
that word
create?
about Genesis 1-1.
In the heavens
God,
or in the beginning,
God created
the heavens
and the earth.
Does that encourage you?
Like God is,
David is calling upon
that same power
that created the universe,
visible and invisible,
spiritual and physical,
to give him a new heart.
Like so,
the same God
that made all things
can speak new life
into you and me
and give us new hearts.
So that's a huge power
behind that ability
to change you.
So God's hand
is not so short
that He cannot save
and that He cannot change.
And thirdly,
third question,
what is the response?
In Christ,
what is our response?
Look at verse 13.
He says,
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
to declare your praise.
For you will not
delight in sacrifice
or otherwise
I would give it.
You will not be pleased
with 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
and burnt offerings
and whole burnt offerings.
Then bulls will be offered
on your altar.
So,
while this is important
is there's,
whenever we sin,
we kind of jump to,
by our nature sometimes,
jump to
the side of just
vain offerings.
Catholics.
And,
so back then,
right,
like,
people could just live
a very open,
sinful lifestyle,
they thought,
and then,
you know,
just center it up
and do a bunch of stuff
and then go to the temple,
make a sacrifice
and then like,
we're good.
And then go back
to the same lifestyle.
Today,
some of you may think,
well,
I sin against God
so I'll just go to church more.
I'll make sure
I take the Lord's Supper.
I read my Bible
a little longer.
I'll talk about Jesus
with somebody
and not really repentance.
That's not what repentance is.
It's spitting in the face
of Christ
is what it is.
And it's penance.
It's like trying to make amends,
right,
for in your own way
to make yourself right with God
for what you did.
And true repentance
doesn't involve that at all.
Right?
And David recognizes that.
He goes,
if all you wanted
was just a burnt offering,
I would go and do it.
But that's not what you want.
You want my heart.
You want my broken,
sincere,
and contrite heart.
You want me.
And so,
that's why he says,
for you will not
delight in sacrifice,
otherwise I would give it.
And you won't be pleased
with burnt offerings.
And so,
just think about how
insulting that is to God,
though,
like how we tend to do
those sort of things.
it's like treating
your wife horribly
and abusing her
and then like saying,
hey,
I'll wash the dishes
and it'll be okay.
Just,
no,
that's not what God
desires.
And he is insulted
by attempts
to make amends
through our own works.
He really wants
the heart of the worshiper.
He wants the motive
behind what we do.
And so,
what God truly desires,
verse 17,
the sacrifices of God
are a broken spirit,
a broken and contrite heart.
So,
that is humble,
broken-hearted joy
in God.
He wants us to be
shattered over our sin
and to come to Him
for mercy.
So,
if God truly rules
our hearts,
He,
repentance is this change
in our minds,
which leads to a change
of action outwardly.
Right?
It's a changing
from the inside out.
The danger is
a lot of us
focus on
mending our
hour behavior,
but the whole time
our hearts
are not close to God.
We just think,
if I just stop doing that
and stop doing that
and I start doing this,
it'll be good.
And God's like,
no,
like,
your heart first
and then your actions
will follow.
God doesn't just care
about what we do,
but why we do it.
Very important.
He desires our hearts
and our affections
to be fully His.
He wants
right actions
from right motives.
Look at the next verse,
verse 13.
He goes,
then I'll teach
transgressors your ways
and sinners
will return to you.
In other words,
like,
I will tell others
of the danger
that sin causes
and then I'll also
tell them
of how merciful
and forgiving
you are.
Right?
Then he,
verse 14 and 15,
he talks about
delivering him
from the guilt
that he has
of committing murder,
essentially.
Blood is on my hands,
is what he's saying.
You have the power
to do this,
O Lord,
and I will make known
your salvation
to other people
like me
that are lost
and that are broken
and sinning against you.
So,
I love that though
because,
again,
he's not trying
to just make amends
through his actions.
He's saying,
like,
these things will follow,
these actions will follow
once I am restored to you.
I'm not going to do
these things first.
Like,
I want you first.
And then,
verse 19,
then you will delight
in right sacrifices
and burnt offerings
and whole burnt offerings
and bulls will be offered
on the altar.
And then he ends
this prayer
with a blessing
for the nation,
a blessing
for the people
that he's supposed
to be the king over.
Do good to us,
Lord.
I'm realizing that
a lot of the stuff
that will happen
to the nation
is because of
what he does,
his actions.
So,
he prays for blessing
over the nation.
And so,
landing the plane here,
I just want you
to turn
to Romans chapter 3.
Yep,
back in Romans.
So,
a quick question.
Some of you,
maybe not all of you,
but some of you
are thinking a question
that bears answering.
And that is,
how could a holy
and just God
just pardon David
for such awful things?
Like,
can you imagine
a human judge
doing that?
Like,
being committed
of some kind
of awful crime
of murder
and adultery,
and the judge just says,
hey,
you're forgiven,
go home.
You would not put up
with that.
And,
so what's going on?
Like,
can you put yourself
in the position
of a family member
or a friend
of Bathsheba or Uriah,
and all they hear
from God is,
the Lord has taken
away your sin?
Like,
how angry you would feel?
You'd feel outraged?
Like,
just turn them back
into society
and slap them
on the hand
for such an awful,
wicked,
heinous sin
that was committed?
So,
how,
as a righteous
and holy God,
how can that God
pardon sin?
Right?
Because by nature,
His holiness
demands punishment
for sin.
And we get the answer.
Romans 3,
verse 22.
It talks about
the righteousness
of God
through faith
in Jesus Christ
for all who believe.
Alright?
So we can have
righteousness
through faith
in Christ
for there is
no distinction
for all have
sinned
and fall short
of the glory
of God
and are justified
by His grace
as a gift
through the redemption
that is in Christ
Jesus
whom God put forward
as a propitiation
by His blood
to be received
with faith.
Alright,
we know that.
That is the gospel.
We put our faith
in Christ.
We throw ourselves
completely at His mercy.
We are saved
because of His grace
and we are redeemed
in Jesus Christ.
So here's the connection
to David though.
Alright?
This was to show
God's righteousness
because in His
divine forbearance
He had passed
over former sins.
It was to show
His righteousness
at the present time
so that He might be
just
and the justifier
of the one
who has faith
in Jesus.
So,
how was God
able to pardon David?
Because He knew
that one day
He would slay
His own son
in David's place.
That His wrath
and judgment
that David deserved
was going to be
justly poured out
on His own son.
So,
David's sin
was punished
in Jesus Christ.
And Christ's righteousness
became David's righteousness.
The same thing
that happens to us
when we are saved.
That old question
that used to bother
so many people.
How are people
in the Old Testament
saved?
Like,
the same way.
Like,
they are saved
through faith.
in the coming Messiah.
They look forward
and we look back
to Christ.
So,
forgiveness of sin
in the Old Testament
anticipates
the sacrifice
of Christ
as the ultimate
sacrifice
for our sins.
So,
that wrath
that He justly deserved
was all poured out
on the perfect
Son of God.
So,
God could say,
hey,
I am a holy
and just God.
I did not
just let that sin go.
I punished it
in my Son.
And so,
it was to show
His righteousness
because He had
passed it over
before.
So,
wherever we are today,
Jesus Christ
is the only way
for us to be forgiven,
made right,
and be reconciled
in a fellowship
with God.
And what a blessing
we have
to know
that Jesus
has died
in our place
in the same way
that He did
for David.
and I pray
that wherever
you're at,
whatever sin
you have committed,
are committing,
or will commit,
you will turn
to faith
in Jesus
and repent
of that sin
and continue
to live life
as a believer,
following and trusting
in the perfect work
of Jesus.
So,
let's pray together
and we'll sing
some songs
in response.
Let's pray together
and we'll sing
a little bit
of that sin
and ending
of that sin.
Let's pray together
and ending
a little bit
and ending
of that sin.