WEBVTT 00:00:01.360 --> 00:00:04.719 If you are visiting with us today, we want to welcome you. 00:00:04.959 --> 00:00:06.879 We are glad to have you with us. 00:00:07.120 --> 00:00:11.759 We encourage you to use the connect card in the pew and rack in front of you. 00:00:11.839 --> 00:00:21.120 If you would like to share any information with us, we'd love to send you a little note and uh express our thanks for visiting with us. 00:00:21.280 --> 00:00:28.320 If any of the rest of you feel like you have something to share with us or a prayer request that you need to communicate, you can use that as well. 00:00:28.559 --> 00:00:35.920 But we are glad to have all of us together this morning to celebrate what Christ did on the cross. 00:00:36.159 --> 00:00:40.159 We do that this morning by celebrating the Lord's table. 00:00:40.399 --> 00:00:53.840 Over the last few months, we have been preparing to participate together in communion by looking at a handful of psalms that communicate various aspects of God's grace. 00:00:54.079 --> 00:01:00.000 So we begin by learning about the grace of God's righteousness in Psalm 143. 00:01:00.399 --> 00:01:05.439 And then in Psalm 130, we learned about the grace of redemption. 00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:11.359 And then in Psalm 32, we read about the grace of forgiveness. 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:17.200 Today I would like us to consider the grace of repentance from Psalm 51. 00:01:17.599 --> 00:01:23.840 But there is another passage of Scripture that we need to hear before getting into Psalm 51. 00:01:24.000 --> 00:01:29.040 That passage is found in the Old Testament book of 2 Samuel. 00:01:29.280 --> 00:01:32.239 2 Samuel 11 and 12. 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:41.519 Now, 2 Samuel 11 begins with an unwise choice by Israel's king. 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:43.920 You probably have heard of him. 00:01:44.079 --> 00:01:45.519 His name is David. 00:01:45.840 --> 00:01:52.079 And Scripture says that he was a man after God's own heart. 00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:56.400 Something that each and every one of us should desire. 00:01:56.560 --> 00:02:04.959 To be a man or a woman, that God can say, that is a person who exhibits my heart, who displays my character. 00:02:05.200 --> 00:02:07.359 That should be in each one of us. 00:02:07.680 --> 00:02:09.520 That was King David. 00:02:11.280 --> 00:02:17.919 And then we read what happened in 2 Samuel chapter 11 and chapter 12. 00:02:18.159 --> 00:02:21.840 In chapter 11, it begins with these words. 00:02:37.120 --> 00:02:41.599 But David remained at Jerusalem. 00:02:42.719 --> 00:02:46.240 David was about 50 years old at this point in time. 00:02:46.800 --> 00:02:57.919 And some have suggested that David was experiencing what today we call a midlife crisis, wrestling with perhaps some inner demons. 00:02:58.319 --> 00:02:59.039 Who is he? 00:02:59.199 --> 00:03:01.039 What's going on in his life? 00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:05.840 We don't know that, of course, but what we do know is what is recorded here. 00:03:06.159 --> 00:03:18.400 The king, when he should have been out leading his armies into battle, remained at the comforts of home and walked right into sin. 00:03:19.919 --> 00:03:22.159 You may know the rest of the story. 00:03:22.719 --> 00:03:33.840 David was walking on the rooftop of his palace and saw a woman bathing, and that led him into committing adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah. 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:45.039 Bathsheba conceived, and David then ordered her husband back from battle lines to make it look like the child was Uriah's instead of David's. 00:03:46.080 --> 00:03:50.000 When that didn't work as planned, David did the next obvious thing. 00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:53.280 Send Uriah back to the battle lines to be killed. 00:03:56.240 --> 00:04:00.159 In fact, he sent him back with orders for his own death. 00:04:01.280 --> 00:04:09.280 David ordered Joab to send Uriah to the most dangerous location in the battle to ensure that he would be killed. 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:19.199 David sought to explain the murder away by telling his commanders, oh, you know what, things like that happen in battle sometimes. 00:04:20.079 --> 00:04:21.600 Don't worry about it. 00:04:21.839 --> 00:04:23.279 Those things take place. 00:04:23.600 --> 00:04:25.040 People die in war. 00:04:26.000 --> 00:04:37.920 Because the king apparently believed that he had covered his tracks sufficiently enough to soothe his own conscience, to negate any guilt he might have felt inside. 00:04:39.839 --> 00:04:48.480 Now, before we pass judgment on this man after God's own heart, isn't that what we all do? 00:04:49.439 --> 00:04:50.800 Be honest with yourself. 00:04:51.040 --> 00:04:53.040 Isn't that what we all do? 00:04:55.439 --> 00:04:57.839 We seek to explain away our own sins. 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:31.839 Now it may not be with sins in the category of murder and adultery, but don't we do things, whether purposely or unintentionally, to explain away our little white lies, our gossip, our attempts at deception, our anger, our worry, or any number of little sins, as though any sin is little. 00:05:33.040 --> 00:05:35.519 We don't like to feel guilt. 00:05:36.560 --> 00:05:43.279 We don't relish in shame, and we run from taking responsibility for our own sin. 00:05:43.839 --> 00:05:46.399 That's who we are by nature. 00:05:47.199 --> 00:05:56.000 We want to soothe our own consciences, and so we work to convince ourselves that what we have done really isn't that bad. 00:05:59.120 --> 00:06:09.199 Like all of us, when we try to explain away our sin, David hadn't planned on one little detail. 00:06:10.399 --> 00:06:13.519 He hadn't planned on God intervening. 00:06:14.720 --> 00:06:25.600 2 Samuel chapter 12 records a visit the king received from the prophet Nathan, sent by God specifically to confront David about his sin. 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:27.040 Here's the record. 00:06:27.439 --> 00:06:30.160 And Yahweh sent Nathan to David. 00:06:30.639 --> 00:06:37.600 He came to him and said to him, There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. 00:06:37.920 --> 00:06:46.959 The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. 00:06:47.199 --> 00:06:51.360 And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. 00:06:51.920 --> 00:06:58.560 It used to eat of his food and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. 00:06:59.680 --> 00:07:06.959 Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him. 00:07:07.279 --> 00:07:11.920 But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. 00:07:14.160 --> 00:07:24.319 Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to the prophet Nathan, As Yahweh lives, the man who has done this deserves to die. 00:07:25.279 --> 00:07:31.519 And he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. 00:07:33.680 --> 00:07:38.240 Nathan said to David, You are the man. 00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:54.879 Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul, and I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. 00:07:55.040 --> 00:07:58.399 And if this were too little, I would have given you much more. 00:07:59.519 --> 00:08:04.000 Why have you despised the word of Yahweh to do what is evil in his sight? 00:08:04.639 --> 00:08:11.920 You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 00:08:12.160 --> 00:08:21.439 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. 00:08:22.000 --> 00:08:26.319 Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house. 00:08:26.480 --> 00:08:29.600 I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor. 00:08:29.759 --> 00:08:37.360 He shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun, for you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun. 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:45.679 David said to Nathan, I have sinned against Yahweh. 00:08:46.559 --> 00:08:50.639 And Nathan said to David, Yahweh has also put away your sin. 00:08:51.200 --> 00:08:52.639 You shall not die. 00:08:53.600 --> 00:09:01.519 Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned Yahweh, the child who is born to you shall die. 00:09:03.519 --> 00:09:06.399 Then Nathan went to his house. 00:09:08.320 --> 00:09:21.120 And we are left with this image of the king in all of his glory and all of his might, as we might imagine, sort of slinking down into his chair and hanging his head in shame. 00:09:23.519 --> 00:09:30.320 Have you ever been in a position where someone said to you, I know what you did? 00:09:33.039 --> 00:09:37.759 I remember times when when I tried to hide things from my parents. 00:09:38.879 --> 00:09:40.879 Yeah, it rarely ended well. 00:09:42.559 --> 00:09:50.879 The confrontation with my parents usually began with one of them asking me, Did you do such and such? 00:09:52.399 --> 00:09:54.080 How do you answer that? 00:09:55.519 --> 00:10:00.159 Well, immediately your gut fills with fear, doesn't it? 00:10:01.600 --> 00:10:08.000 There's instantaneous regret, there's uncertainty, there's shame. 00:10:08.639 --> 00:10:11.759 Trying to figure out, okay, if I say this, what will happen over here? 00:10:11.919 --> 00:10:13.840 If I say this, what will happen? 00:10:14.240 --> 00:10:16.000 Trying to find a workaround. 00:10:16.559 --> 00:10:28.000 Now imagine being the king of God's chosen people, being confronted by God's messenger about egregious sins you sought to hide. 00:10:29.519 --> 00:10:35.759 These are not the sins of children still maturing in their understanding of right and wrong. 00:10:36.159 --> 00:10:47.519 These are sins committed by someone installed specifically by God with the use of authority and power, intentionally choosing to sin. 00:10:49.759 --> 00:10:55.279 Under the Mosaic law of the time, there was no sacrifice to atone for these sins. 00:10:56.559 --> 00:10:58.559 The penalty was death. 00:11:00.320 --> 00:11:03.919 The king ought to die. 00:11:05.600 --> 00:11:08.639 But God was merciful to David and put away his sin. 00:11:09.120 --> 00:11:10.320 He would not die. 00:11:10.559 --> 00:11:15.200 There were still consequences to his sin, as there always are, and they were severe. 00:11:15.919 --> 00:11:20.159 But because of God's grace, David would not face the penalty of his sin. 00:11:21.600 --> 00:11:22.799 But what then? 00:11:23.759 --> 00:11:30.080 What does a man or woman or child do when confronted by God with the horror of their own sin? 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:33.440 Well, Psalm 51 tells us. 00:11:34.080 --> 00:11:36.320 I'd like you to turn there with me. 00:11:39.679 --> 00:11:46.159 Don't overlook the small print descriptions at the beginning of some psalms. 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:50.639 If you need a magnifying glass to see that, get a magnifying glass because they're important. 00:11:51.600 --> 00:11:59.279 They provide insight into the circumstances of the psalms, and this particular song really gives us some insight. 00:11:59.360 --> 00:12:15.919 It says in that small print at the top of Psalm 51, to the choirmaster, a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone in to Bathsheba. 00:12:23.039 --> 00:12:31.120 According to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. 00:12:31.600 --> 00:12:35.840 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:41.679 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 00:12:42.799 --> 00:12:53.200 Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. 00:12:54.879 --> 00:13:00.639 Behold, I I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:07.679 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. 00:13:09.679 --> 00:13:12.480 Purge me with hyssop, and I will be clean. 00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:16.480 Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 00:13:17.919 --> 00:13:20.720 Let me hear joy and gladness. 00:13:20.879 --> 00:13:23.919 Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 00:13:24.639 --> 00:13:29.519 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. 00:13:29.759 --> 00:13:36.240 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 00:13:37.440 --> 00:13:40.559 Cast me not away from your presence. 00:13:41.200 --> 00:13:44.080 Take not your Holy Spirit from me. 00:13:44.879 --> 00:13:49.120 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with the willing spirit. 00:13:49.360 --> 00:13:54.639 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. 00:13:55.600 --> 00:14:04.799 Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. 00:14:05.919 --> 00:14:12.639 O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. 00:14:13.440 --> 00:14:18.000 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:20.559 You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. 00:14:20.720 --> 00:14:27.840 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. 00:14:29.039 --> 00:14:31.519 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure. 00:14:31.759 --> 00:14:34.000 Build up the walls of Jerusalem. 00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:39.519 Then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. 00:14:39.840 --> 00:14:43.360 Then bulls will be offered on your altar. 00:14:46.080 --> 00:14:49.679 I don't know if a more personal psalm exists. 00:14:51.279 --> 00:14:59.919 This was produced from the darkest, most personal experience in the life of King David. 00:15:02.000 --> 00:15:04.879 And yet it was written for the choir to sing. 00:15:08.320 --> 00:15:17.360 It was given to the director of the temple choir for the choir to be sung in the presence of other worshipers. 00:15:18.639 --> 00:15:21.039 Talk about your sin being exposed. 00:15:23.279 --> 00:15:35.919 Here is the king opening his heart to all of his people and commanding that they be reminded of his sin and of his response to his sin. 00:15:38.639 --> 00:15:41.759 But there's an important nugget of truth there. 00:15:42.080 --> 00:16:03.039 While this concerns David's sin and repentance, because it's directed to the choir director, we can then make the application that this is intended by David to be for all of God's people, instructing us about our sin and our repentance. 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:14.480 It's directed to all of God's people because our lives are so filled with sin that we need instruction in repentance and the grace that comes with it. 00:16:15.200 --> 00:16:28.720 In the very first of his 95 Theses, Martin Luther wrote, When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, repent, he willed that the entire life of believers be one of repentance. 00:16:30.080 --> 00:16:36.559 Repentance, first and foremost, is a desire to submit to the Lordship of Christ. 00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:54.799 In that desire to submit to the Lordship of Christ is an acknowledgement that what God thinks, what God says, and what God feels about my sin is right and true. 00:16:55.840 --> 00:16:58.960 Now that's contrary to the way our culture thinks. 00:16:59.279 --> 00:17:03.039 Our culture argues that whatever you feel is right. 00:17:03.600 --> 00:17:07.359 Whatever the individual thinks is true. 00:17:08.000 --> 00:17:14.640 Therefore, if I don't feel that my actions are sinful, then I'm okay. 00:17:16.480 --> 00:17:21.599 If my opinion is that an action is okay, then it's okay. 00:17:21.759 --> 00:17:25.599 It doesn't matter what you think, it doesn't matter what God thinks, what I think is what is right. 00:17:25.759 --> 00:17:29.599 Because our culture places the authority within the individual. 00:17:30.400 --> 00:17:33.759 And that has the result of eliminating an absolute. 00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:39.359 What God says no longer matters, unless, of course, I agree with him. 00:17:39.920 --> 00:17:41.440 Then it matters. 00:17:42.960 --> 00:17:45.759 Well, God disagrees with that. 00:17:46.400 --> 00:17:51.759 I don't know that there's a clearer statement of that truth than Romans chapter 9. 00:17:54.000 --> 00:17:58.400 You will say to me then, Paul says, Why does God still find fault? 00:17:58.559 --> 00:18:00.400 For who can resist his will? 00:18:02.079 --> 00:18:06.319 Then the apostle says, But who are you to answer back to God? 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:12.960 Will what is molded say to its molder, Why have you made me like this? 00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:21.039 Has the potter no right over the clay to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 00:18:21.279 --> 00:18:34.240 It's Romans 9, 19 through 21, where the Apostle Paul just throws it back in our face and says, You have no right to question the absolute sovereignty of the living God. 00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:38.000 What he says goes. 00:18:38.960 --> 00:18:55.440 Therefore, what God thinks, what God says, and what God feels about my sin must become what I think, what I say, and what I feel about my sin. 00:18:56.799 --> 00:18:59.039 That's the essence of repentance. 00:18:59.759 --> 00:19:08.480 That transformative way of thinking then moves me to turn and go in a different direction than I was traveling in. 00:19:10.000 --> 00:19:19.440 So that I'm thinking differently, I'm living differently, I'm feeling differently, and that ought to be the constant attitude of the believer in Christ, as Luther said. 00:19:21.039 --> 00:19:26.640 Whenever our sin is made clear to us, we submit to the Lordship of Christ. 00:19:27.039 --> 00:19:31.759 We mold our thinking about our sin to Him. 00:19:32.960 --> 00:19:38.559 And we allow that new way of thinking to impact how we live going forward. 00:19:38.720 --> 00:19:40.319 And then we repeat that. 00:19:41.359 --> 00:19:48.720 Again and again and again and again every time we sin. 00:19:49.759 --> 00:19:55.759 And slowly but surely, the work of God makes us more and more like Christ. 00:19:57.759 --> 00:20:01.680 That is what this psalm is intended to generate in us. 00:20:02.400 --> 00:20:08.559 That movement towards repentance, towards submitting to the Lordship of Christ again and again and again. 00:20:08.720 --> 00:20:19.519 And God speaks to us from the ancient but very real and painful experience of a man after God's own heart, so that we too might be drawn to repentance. 00:20:20.559 --> 00:20:22.160 So, what do we see? 00:20:22.640 --> 00:20:29.920 What do we see coming from the pen of one whose sin has been made painfully clear to him? 00:20:30.960 --> 00:20:37.599 What should be our first, our initial response to knowledge of our sin? 00:20:38.400 --> 00:20:47.839 Well, what we see from David, from this convicted king, is a plea for mercy from a guilty heart. 00:20:49.119 --> 00:20:52.880 Have mercy on me, O God. 00:20:53.119 --> 00:21:00.799 And I don't know if you noticed, but David doesn't even have the heart to call God by name. 00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:08.079 The Psalm does not have the personal name of God Yahweh in all capital letters. 00:21:08.319 --> 00:21:12.559 He refers to him as Elohim, as God and Lord. 00:21:13.759 --> 00:21:20.079 He can't bring himself to say, Yes, my personal relationship with you applies right here. 00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:24.720 He says, No, there's a massive wall here that needs to be broken down. 00:21:25.200 --> 00:21:27.119 He says, I need your mercy. 00:21:27.279 --> 00:21:34.319 According to your steadfast love and your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly, cleanse me. 00:21:34.559 --> 00:21:38.960 David knew he deserved nothing but death for his sin. 00:21:40.319 --> 00:21:46.079 That was the judgment decreed by God centuries before when the law was given through Moses. 00:21:47.119 --> 00:21:49.839 He had earned judgment from his sin. 00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:55.599 That's why he cried out for mercy, an action he did not deserve. 00:21:56.319 --> 00:21:59.200 He cried not just for any kind of mercy, but. 00:22:00.319 --> 00:22:03.920 But a mercy based in the unchanging character of God. 00:22:06.559 --> 00:22:17.519 You and I have no greater friend than the unchanged, unchanging nature of our God. 00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:19.279 We change all the time. 00:22:19.440 --> 00:22:21.119 We shift, we move. 00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:23.279 He remains unchanging. 00:22:23.759 --> 00:22:37.279 God had declared himself all throughout the Old Testament to be a God of grace, of mercy, of abundant loving kindness, a covenant-keeping God full of loyal, steadfast, and unchanging love. 00:22:37.440 --> 00:22:44.559 And David knew that God's loyal love overflowed with mercy, and that never changes. 00:22:45.359 --> 00:22:55.519 Like a bathtub filled with water overflowing the lip of the tub and running down the side, covering the floor of the room, God's mercy is abundant and overflowing. 00:22:55.759 --> 00:22:58.319 Remember that, child of God. 00:22:59.599 --> 00:23:09.200 When your guilt and your shame brings you into knowledge of the judgment you deserve for your sin, remember your God is overflowing with mercy. 00:23:11.119 --> 00:23:12.880 What is that mercy for? 00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:18.079 Well, David desperately wants it to be applied to his transgressions. 00:23:18.640 --> 00:23:25.200 To his transgressions, for his blatant rebellion against God. 00:23:27.440 --> 00:23:30.880 Blot it out, the king cried. 00:23:31.920 --> 00:23:34.720 Blot out my transgressions. 00:23:35.759 --> 00:23:53.039 Before the ease of paper or electronic pages, ancient scribes who did not have access to fresh leather upon which to write would take an old piece of leather that had been written on and scrub off the old writing so that they could reuse it. 00:23:54.640 --> 00:24:03.359 The guilty heart comes to God asking for his abundant mercy to scrub out the sin from our lives. 00:24:04.640 --> 00:24:14.880 In cultures and times where there was no soap, people would take clothes and submerge them in water and walk on them in order to clean them. 00:24:15.839 --> 00:24:22.880 It was David's picturesque way of asking God to make sure that he was completely cleansed from his sin. 00:24:23.599 --> 00:24:29.279 It would be like asking God to take our spirits and wash them in his divine washing machine. 00:24:30.400 --> 00:24:34.000 Make sure, God, that I am absolutely clean. 00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:40.400 He says, Cleanse me in verse 2 from my sin. 00:24:40.559 --> 00:24:45.599 Cleansing was a term taken from the Old Testament laws about uncleanness. 00:24:46.559 --> 00:24:57.759 A leper, for example, who was healed of leprosy, would go to the priest to be examined to make sure that the skin condition was completely cleared up. 00:24:58.000 --> 00:25:01.759 And if it was completely cleared up, he would offer a sacrifice. 00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:14.319 And the priest would take hyssop, a plant that was likely from the marjoram or thyme family, and sprinkle or symbolically cleanse the individual. 00:25:15.119 --> 00:25:23.359 That process symbolized that God had completely cleansed the person from their uncleanness. 00:25:25.359 --> 00:25:37.599 David pleads for God to scrub sin out of his being, to thoroughly wash him and declare him clean so that he would be holy before God. 00:25:37.759 --> 00:25:40.799 That is the plea from a guilty heart. 00:25:41.519 --> 00:25:48.960 And that plea comes from a full recognition of guilt before a holy God. 00:25:50.240 --> 00:25:52.799 The language changes in verse 3. 00:25:53.680 --> 00:26:01.759 The urgency found in verses 1 and 2 shifts to a pained recognition and a prayerful desire. 00:26:02.880 --> 00:26:09.920 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 00:26:10.319 --> 00:26:12.319 Do you see the shift in thinking? 00:26:13.359 --> 00:26:20.559 David did not see his actions as sin when he was trying to cover them and explain them away. 00:26:21.599 --> 00:26:23.440 He didn't fully acknowledge them. 00:26:23.599 --> 00:26:31.680 But now he sees his actions in light of God's holiness and he sees them as rebellion, as transgression, going beyond God's standards. 00:26:31.839 --> 00:26:36.240 No longer is the king seeking to hide in his guilt and his shame. 00:26:37.359 --> 00:26:41.200 He's agreeing with God that what he has done is sin. 00:26:42.319 --> 00:26:44.480 That's the essence of confession. 00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:54.559 Author Trevan Wax wrote, confession is the expression of repentance in which we name our sin for what it is. 00:26:55.359 --> 00:26:58.640 We turn away from sin and turn toward a merciful God. 00:26:58.880 --> 00:27:14.160 The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is that the non-Christian sins is not, I'm sorry, not that the non-Christian sins and the Christian does not, because we know that we all do, but that the Christian sins and repents. 00:27:15.440 --> 00:27:22.880 While the unbeliever hardens their heart toward God, either by refusing to admit sin or by trying to deal with it in some other way. 00:27:25.920 --> 00:27:29.279 Notice the elements of confession in David's statement. 00:27:29.839 --> 00:27:33.279 Here we see how clearly he understands his guilt. 00:27:34.720 --> 00:27:42.559 Against you, and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. 00:27:43.119 --> 00:27:49.359 Now it's easy for us to understand that statement, and we might take Bathsheba's side and say, hey, wait a minute. 00:27:52.240 --> 00:27:56.720 But it's not saying that he didn't do anything wrong against Bathsheba or Uriah. 00:27:56.799 --> 00:27:58.880 That's not what David is claiming. 00:27:59.920 --> 00:28:12.720 He's saying that sin, any sin, whether it be against a specific person or completely in private, is ultimately against the sovereign God Himself. 00:28:13.599 --> 00:28:16.319 All sin is against God. 00:28:16.720 --> 00:28:20.640 Ultimately, He is the primary one we offend. 00:28:22.240 --> 00:28:24.480 Think about that for a minute. 00:28:27.680 --> 00:28:32.160 If you got angry with your parents this morning, you sinned against God. 00:28:37.599 --> 00:28:44.160 If you yell at your spouse in anger, it's as though you are sinfully yelling at the holy God. 00:28:45.440 --> 00:28:55.200 If you take it easy at work, instead of giving your all, or if you fudge on your taxes a bit, it's as though you were stealing from the king of the universe. 00:28:57.119 --> 00:29:03.279 A key element in repentance is acknowledging that any and all sin is against God. 00:29:04.960 --> 00:29:06.319 But David goes even further. 00:29:06.480 --> 00:29:12.240 He says, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. 00:29:13.200 --> 00:29:17.680 There was never a time in David's life when sin was not present. 00:29:18.880 --> 00:29:22.960 Sin existed in him from the moment of conception on. 00:29:23.279 --> 00:29:25.920 He was born into sin as we all are. 00:29:27.359 --> 00:29:29.599 We're not sinners because we sin. 00:29:30.400 --> 00:29:32.720 We sin because we're sinners. 00:29:33.759 --> 00:29:38.960 And we have not fully grasped repentance until we can acknowledge that truth. 00:29:41.119 --> 00:29:46.799 The starkness of sin is vividly clear in verses 7 and 8. 00:29:47.839 --> 00:29:51.759 Purge me with hyssop, and I will be clean. 00:29:53.200 --> 00:29:55.920 Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 00:29:57.599 --> 00:30:04.559 Let me hear joy and gladness, let the bones that you have broken rejoice. 00:30:06.640 --> 00:30:10.880 The sinner is not clean, but dirty. 00:30:12.160 --> 00:30:14.640 Around here we have snurt in the winter. 00:30:16.880 --> 00:30:20.640 Wind-driven snow that's been mixed with dirt. 00:30:23.279 --> 00:30:25.680 That dirt needs to be removed. 00:30:28.400 --> 00:30:36.400 In his guilt, the psalmist even feels as though his bones have been broken under the weight of the guilt he feels. 00:30:37.200 --> 00:30:41.680 But he longs desperately to be rid of that so that he can rejoice. 00:30:42.880 --> 00:30:47.119 The recognition of his guilt before a holy God has crushed him. 00:30:47.680 --> 00:30:49.599 But he longs for cleansing. 00:30:49.759 --> 00:30:53.279 He longs to be made white like snow. 00:30:53.519 --> 00:31:01.200 He desires the promise of God stated by the prophet Isaiah, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. 00:31:03.680 --> 00:31:07.200 Though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. 00:31:09.680 --> 00:31:13.039 The language changes again in verse 9. 00:31:14.880 --> 00:31:22.000 The broken man returns to how he began the psalm with pleas. 00:31:22.880 --> 00:31:25.839 And here we see the humble plea for grace. 00:31:28.000 --> 00:31:35.680 The moment our sin is exposed, we cry out for mercy because we know our sin demands judgment. 00:31:37.920 --> 00:31:44.640 We know that justice is due, but we know our Father is overflowing with mercy. 00:31:45.440 --> 00:31:55.119 And processing his mercy brings us to a point of full acknowledgement for our sin, laying it out before him, saying, Yes, Father, I'm now thinking about this the way you are. 00:31:55.279 --> 00:31:58.799 It is wrong, it is rebellion, it is transgression. 00:32:01.519 --> 00:32:07.920 And we can then confess or agree with God that He is right and we deserve nothing. 00:32:08.400 --> 00:32:12.640 But all of that brings us to an interesting place, doesn't it? 00:32:13.920 --> 00:32:21.440 If our repentance has followed David's pattern, then we will realize we can't fix it. 00:32:24.480 --> 00:32:40.000 If we are conceived in sin and born into sin, if sin is a result of who we are at the core, then we can't escape it without a certain kind of rebirth. 00:32:41.759 --> 00:32:50.000 And like Nicodemus would argue a thousand years later on a dark night in Jerusalem, we cannot re-enter our mother's womb to be born a second time. 00:32:52.240 --> 00:32:54.640 So David asks for grace. 00:32:56.000 --> 00:33:05.279 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. 00:33:08.160 --> 00:33:15.279 In his omnipresence and omniscience, God knows all. 00:33:16.160 --> 00:33:17.759 And he sees all. 00:33:19.039 --> 00:33:21.279 My sin, your sin. 00:33:21.599 --> 00:33:33.839 He sees not only our sinful actions, whether they're done in private or in public, but he sees the attitudes and the thoughts at the sinful core of our being. 00:33:36.240 --> 00:33:40.079 The king then asks for something he does not deserve. 00:33:40.720 --> 00:33:52.079 He pleads with God to be blind to his sin and to take it upon himself to scrub out the sin from David's life. 00:33:53.279 --> 00:33:56.160 David can't do it. 00:33:57.839 --> 00:33:59.519 I can't do it. 00:34:00.880 --> 00:34:02.640 And you can't do it. 00:34:04.160 --> 00:34:12.800 We must have God Himself take us to the tub and scrub us until we are whiter than snow. 00:34:14.400 --> 00:34:20.079 Of course, sinfulness is not an outward thing that can be washed with soap and water and scrubbing, is it? 00:34:21.280 --> 00:34:22.880 Those are metaphors. 00:34:23.599 --> 00:34:29.519 God's scrubbing is something that God does on the inside that displays itself outwardly. 00:34:29.679 --> 00:34:37.039 That's why David asks, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in me. 00:34:38.559 --> 00:34:43.920 Heart, spirit, clean and right and renewed. 00:34:45.199 --> 00:34:48.159 And the Bible uses this term for create. 00:34:49.039 --> 00:34:52.800 It always refers to an action performed only by God. 00:34:54.639 --> 00:34:57.920 Man cannot create in the way that God creates. 00:34:59.599 --> 00:35:06.159 Every person conceived and brought forth in sin needs God to recreate them. 00:35:07.440 --> 00:35:14.960 Now that creating is not ridding ourselves of bad habits or trying harder to be a good person. 00:35:15.519 --> 00:35:17.599 That's something that we would do. 00:35:19.599 --> 00:35:21.039 We can't create. 00:35:21.280 --> 00:35:22.559 God must do that. 00:35:22.800 --> 00:35:24.880 This is an action that only God can do. 00:35:25.119 --> 00:35:30.159 Only God can create a clean heart and a right spirit within the sinful person. 00:35:30.800 --> 00:35:34.719 And nothing that we have done deserves that. 00:35:36.480 --> 00:35:41.840 We have not done enough good to earn a newly created heart. 00:35:42.400 --> 00:35:49.440 We need it desperately, but it only comes through grace and creation. 00:35:51.679 --> 00:36:07.519 The repentant person knows that God has every right to drive them out of his presence, to never have anything to do with them again, like he did with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, driving them out and blocking entrance into his presence. 00:36:08.079 --> 00:36:13.280 The repentant person knows that's what I have earned, that's what I deserve, that's the justice. 00:36:13.440 --> 00:36:22.320 The repentant person understands that God's justice should take away every grace and mercy and blessing of his presence in our lives. 00:36:22.880 --> 00:36:25.119 And so we cry for grace. 00:36:26.960 --> 00:36:31.920 Cast me not away from your presence. 00:36:32.960 --> 00:36:35.519 Don't take your Holy Spirit from me. 00:36:37.599 --> 00:36:53.920 See, this repentant man understands that his only hope, his only rescue is if God does his creative work through his spirit within a sinful person. 00:36:55.599 --> 00:36:58.159 That is grace. 00:37:00.719 --> 00:37:03.760 Repentance is a submission to the Lordship of Christ. 00:37:04.159 --> 00:37:11.039 It's an acknowledgement of who we are before him and a cry for him to do what only he can do. 00:37:11.440 --> 00:37:16.480 David knew that under the crushing realization of his sin. 00:37:16.880 --> 00:37:22.719 This is the exact same truth that the Apostle Paul would tell the church a thousand years later. 00:37:23.840 --> 00:37:30.719 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. 00:37:32.559 --> 00:37:36.719 The old is passed away, behold, the new is come. 00:37:37.280 --> 00:37:44.480 All this, Paul says, is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself. 00:37:45.440 --> 00:37:48.880 In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself. 00:37:49.199 --> 00:37:49.599 How? 00:37:49.840 --> 00:37:52.639 By not counting their trespasses against them. 00:37:52.800 --> 00:37:56.800 In David's words, hide your eyes from my sin. 00:37:59.840 --> 00:38:06.800 The guilty who have arrived at full recognition of their guilt should be moved to humbly plea for grace. 00:38:06.960 --> 00:38:07.360 Why? 00:38:07.519 --> 00:38:10.559 Because it's overflowing from the God of grace. 00:38:12.320 --> 00:38:24.239 The same God we have offended in our sin is the one to whom we must go for a new heart and a renewed spirit. 00:38:26.639 --> 00:38:33.280 That grace is found in the God who restores our souls. 00:38:35.920 --> 00:38:37.199 But what then? 00:38:38.960 --> 00:38:43.280 An often ignored aspect of repentance is the display of repentance. 00:38:43.920 --> 00:39:00.960 When our mindset about sin becomes like God's, when we begin to think about sin as God thinks, and then his spirit graciously transforms us to make us more like Christ through the washing of his word, the inevitable result of genuine repentance is a different life. 00:39:01.280 --> 00:39:03.199 Not a perfect life. 00:39:04.880 --> 00:39:07.679 But one that is molded more and more like Christ. 00:39:07.760 --> 00:39:10.159 And that's what we see here in Psalm 51. 00:39:10.400 --> 00:39:15.440 There is the full display of repentance before God and others. 00:39:15.599 --> 00:39:17.599 Notice what David says he will do. 00:39:17.840 --> 00:39:28.000 Instead of covering up his sin, instead of delighting in his sinful experience, in verse 13, he says, I will teach other transgressors your ways. 00:39:29.280 --> 00:39:34.880 Verse 14, I will sing aloud of your righteousness. 00:39:35.440 --> 00:39:38.400 Verse 15, I will declare your praise. 00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:45.440 Verses 15 through 17, he says, I'm going to worship appropriately. 00:39:45.840 --> 00:39:53.599 See, the sin-burdened king knows that simply going to the temple to offer a sacrifice isn't genuine worship. 00:39:54.159 --> 00:39:59.039 Verse 16, you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. 00:39:59.119 --> 00:40:01.840 Now wait a minute, isn't that what God commanded them to do? 00:40:02.079 --> 00:40:03.840 To go and to offer a sacrifice? 00:40:04.000 --> 00:40:06.239 Well, yes, he did. 00:40:06.639 --> 00:40:08.079 But David knows. 00:40:08.400 --> 00:40:20.000 He understands that simply physically going to a location and performing an action isn't true worship. 00:40:20.400 --> 00:40:22.960 That is not genuine repentance. 00:40:23.199 --> 00:40:29.519 The worship with which God is pleased is that which begins with his work of grace on the inside. 00:40:31.679 --> 00:40:36.239 And that begins with an acknowledgement of sin that leads to repentance. 00:40:38.239 --> 00:40:50.639 In Psalm in verses 18 and 19, ends with a prayer that God would do that same work that he did in the king in the entire city of Jerusalem. 00:40:51.519 --> 00:40:58.400 That God would do something so great that an entire city would respond with genuine worship. 00:40:58.559 --> 00:41:00.159 Wouldn't we love to see that? 00:41:01.119 --> 00:41:03.760 How can our prayer be any less? 00:41:05.760 --> 00:41:11.119 How can our personal response to sin be any less? 00:41:15.119 --> 00:41:20.559 You see, beloved, we know what David did not know. 00:41:22.800 --> 00:41:32.480 We know that our sin would lead God the Son to a cross, and that there he would die. 00:41:34.639 --> 00:41:40.880 So that I would not have to die in judgment for my sin. 00:41:44.880 --> 00:42:03.199 Jesus told his disciples, It is written that the Christ should suffer, and on the third day be raised from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name to all nations. 00:42:05.679 --> 00:42:13.519 Beloved, the grace of repentance is based on the cross of Jesus Christ. 00:42:23.360 --> 00:42:36.559 You may have entered these doors and come and sat down and hoped to be ignored because you are just broken and weighed down under the weight of sin. 00:42:39.119 --> 00:42:40.320 I've been there. 00:42:44.079 --> 00:42:48.400 Plea for mercy from the God who overflows with mercy. 00:42:50.559 --> 00:42:56.880 Acknowledge your sin and come for cleansing to the cross of Jesus Christ. 00:43:00.559 --> 00:43:09.519 Maybe you came this morning thinking that this is something I have to do. 00:43:13.920 --> 00:43:19.039 Well, if you're doing it because you have to do it, then you're doing it out of ritual, and that is not genuine worship. 00:43:22.159 --> 00:43:30.559 Open your heart in repentance to the God who desires to refresh you, to renew you. 00:43:32.079 --> 00:43:34.880 Come to him for the grace of repentance. 00:43:36.639 --> 00:43:45.360 Be relieved of that burden of requirements so that now you come to him with the joy of your salvation. 00:43:47.519 --> 00:43:52.880 Beloved, there is hope in Christ because of the grace of repentance. 00:43:53.039 --> 00:43:58.639 Follow David's course and find cleansing in the blood of Christ shed for you. 00:43:59.280 --> 00:44:10.239 Not repenting this very moment is like standing in front of a traveling bus driving directly towards you, but believing with all of your heart that it will not hit you. 00:44:11.199 --> 00:44:11.840 It will. 00:44:12.800 --> 00:44:13.760 And hard. 00:44:14.719 --> 00:44:16.719 That's what sin does. 00:44:18.480 --> 00:44:20.400 But God is gracious. 00:44:23.840 --> 00:44:27.039 The prophet Nathan told the king. 00:44:28.880 --> 00:44:30.400 God has heard you. 00:44:31.440 --> 00:44:32.719 You will not die. 00:44:36.639 --> 00:44:37.920 But God did. 00:44:48.880 --> 00:44:50.800 As though he were a slave. 00:44:52.719 --> 00:44:57.360 And being found in appearance as a man, he died. 00:45:00.320 --> 00:45:02.320 A death on a cross. 00:45:04.320 --> 00:45:07.039 So that you might have the grace of repentance. 00:45:07.679 --> 00:45:09.280 Would you pray with me? 00:45:10.559 --> 00:45:12.239 Our Lord Jesus. 00:45:15.280 --> 00:45:16.400