Psalm 51 - Repentance
Transcript
All right, grab a Bible, go to Psalm 51. You'll be on page 271 if your Bible looks like this. If you don't own a Bible, take one of these home with you. It's our gift to you. We want you to have a Bible. We want you to read it.
My name is Chet. It's good to see you all this morning. Today we are in the fifth week of our Psalm series where we're trying to walk through the Psalms and spend some time allowing the Psalms to kind of train us in what it looks like to live a life of worship. The psalmists were writing as they related to God and that they begin to equip us and train us for what that looks like. How to love God, worship God, pray to God in the good times of life and the bad times, both emotionally when we're doing well and emotionally when our tank is empty. That's kind of what they're training us in.
And so we're going to be in Psalm 51 today and we're going to be talking about repentance. I want you to read. Your Bible should have some sort of heading before verse 1. It should say 51 and then there should be some sort of a heading that kind of tells us, and we find these often in the Psalms, that tell us what the circumstance is, who wrote it, what's going on, what it was used for, and then you'll see, you know, the little one and there'll be verse 1 and we'll go on down in the Psalm. So it says, To the choir master, so this Psalm was written as a song to be sung with a choir, to the choir master, a Psalm of David.
That's David the king, and we're going to talk more about him in just a second. When Nathan the prophet went to him after he, that's David, had gone into Bathsheba. To the choir master, a Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. And so we are told at the very beginning of this Psalm what the circumstance is that we're under, what is being addressed, when this was written. It's referring to some events that we have recorded for us in 2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12, and I'm just going to walk us through that story. I'd encourage you to write it down to go read it later, but I'm just going to kind of tell it to us.
So David is king, and David wasn't always a king. He used to be a shepherd, and he was like a little kind of shrimpy shepherd, although the Bible says he was good-looking, which has to make you feel really nice. If the Bible, the God of the universe, was like, no, you're handsome, put it in there, it's true. So it says that he was, but when Saul was king, God sends Samuel to go anoint the new king. He goes, and he goes to this family, the house of Jesse, and Jesse begins to put his sons in front of him, and Samuel sees him, and he's like, man, that's like a big, good-looking king, and God's like, no, not him, and he goes on down the line.
They eventually go all the way down, and you can tell, like, there's this moment in the text where it was just, like, awkward. They're just waiting, and none of the sons were king, and they forgot that David existed. Like, he has to ask, like, don't you have any other sons? And Jesse's like, no. Oh, yeah, there's the other one with the sheep, but, like, he's really far away, and obviously not. And Samuel's like, go get him.
So they go get him, and it turns out he's supposed to be king, and that's David. And David becomes king. He faces Goliath. Eventually, he becomes king. He's a great warrior. He's a great leader.
He's a man after God's own heart. He's a poet and a prophet. Like, this is, if you had, if you were a Jewish boy, in Old Testament times, you had the King David action figure. Like, he is, he's it. And then in 2 Samuel chapter 11, we're told this story. And it begins like this in 2 Samuel 11.
It says, in the spring, when the kings go to war, which just means it's not cold anymore. They got to go do something. In the spring, when the kings go to war, David sent Joab, but King David stayed home. And so they're giving us a hint in the text right away that David is not, he's veered from what he's supposed to be doing, and he's doing something different. And it says that one evening, David is walking around on the rooftop of the palace, and he sees Bathsheba. He doesn't know who she is.
He sees a beautiful woman bathing. And he calls his servants and says, I want y'all to go get that woman for me. So he's king. He has power. He should be out fighting war. He should be out leading his army.
But no, he sends someone else. And then he walks around the palace, and he sees this lady, and he says, I want y'all to, I want y'all to, I want y'all to go get her for me. And we're told that his servant responds in a way that I really, I'm so proud of the servant. We don't know his name, but I'm so proud. He responds like this. He says, you mean Bathsheba, Uriah's wife?
Like, he's trying to help him out. Like, I can't say that you should not do this, but I'm going to say all the words that I can possibly find right now to help you know that you should not do this. David misses it. Yes. If that's Bathsheba, Uriah's wife, then yes, that is what I'm saying. So they go get Bathsheba.
David and Bathsheba sleep together. We do not know, the text does not tell us, whether or not Bathsheba was excited about this, a willing participant, or if she just was caught up in something where David was in power, and this basically is rape. That when she was brought over there, she just had to go along with it for fear, for the position that he was in. They sleep together. Uriah, at this point, is in David's army. He is one of David's top 30 men.
David would have known who he was. I don't know if they hung out on weekends, but he would have known him. He is off fighting in a battle that David should be leading. David sleeps with his wife, sends her home. She contacts David later to say, you need to tell the king I'm pregnant. So David hatches a plan to cover up his own sin.
2 Samuel chapter 11, he sends messengers to the army and says, send Uriah back so that I can talk to him about how the battles are going. So Uriah is sent back. David is going to talk to Uriah, and then they talk. He says, how's the battle going? That's great. Good report.
Hey, man, you go home. Hang out a little bit. Uriah leaves the palace, walks out the doors, and sleeps on the steps. And it's reported to David, hey, Uriah didn't go home. He slept on the steps of the palace. David talks to him the next day and says, hey, you've been at battle for so long.
Why don't you go home? David's goal, his plan, what he's come up with, to cover and hide his sin, is for Uriah to go home, to sleep with his wife, and then Uriah will come back. His wife will be pregnant. He won't do the math that well. Maybe we can say it's a really big, healthy, premature child. And problem solved.
Uriah looks at David and says, how could I go home and spend time at home when my men are in the battle? I would not do such a thing. And he's being honorable, but this has to bring great shame on David. I don't think that was his goal, but it just shows, highlights in this moment, how honorable Uriah is being and how shameful David is. And David says, oh yeah, good point. We'll stay another night.
And David has him stay and has him drink until he gets drunk. His goal now is, okay, if Uriah won't do this in his right mind, I'll get him drunk and then maybe this will seem like a better idea. Some of you understand David's thought process here. He gets Uriah drunk. Uriah goes out of the palace, sleeps on the floor. So David has to come up with a new plan because his first plan is not working.
So David's new plan is, he has a message, he writes it, folds it up, seals it, hands it to Uriah and says, I need you to take this to Joab. Uriah delivers a message to Joab that says, I need you to put Uriah in the hottest fighting and leave him so that he will die. So Uriah delivers his own death sentence to Joab. So Joab does. From the order of David, Joab leads an entire unit further in than they should have been up against the castle wall where people can throw and shoot down upon them and they lose a lot of people. So it wasn't just Uriah that dies, but that was the intention.
Others die as well. He draws back once Uriah is dead and Joab says to a messenger, you need to go tell David what happened. And when he says, how foolish was it for you to get that close to the wall? Don't you know that they would have killed you, that they would have shot down on you, that that's a bad tactic? When he says that, you need to respond, yes, we do know and Uriah is also dead. So the messenger goes to David, tells him this.
David says, go back and tell Joab that a lot of people die in war. To not be stressed out by this, it's okay. After Bathsheba mourns, David takes her as his wife, brings her to the palace and we're told at the end of chapter 11 that the thing David did displeased the Lord. That David, who God had taken from shepherding sheep and made a king and placed him in the palace and given him honor and wealth and power and David uses it and abuses it for adultery, rape, murder and then thinks he's gotten away, Scott free. We don't even understand at this point if David even feels bad or if he's just like, good, my plans worked.
That's that. So then we're told in chapter 12 that God sends Nathan the prophet and Nathan the prophet goes to the king and the prophets spoke on behalf of God and they had a lot of authority and so Nathan shows up and says, king, I need your wisdom on something. I need you to sort a case out for me. I need you to judge between two men and your kingdom. This is a normal thing so David says, what is it? So Nathan tells him this story.
Nathan says, king, in your kingdom there's a man who's very wealthy. He has lots of herds, lots of flocks, lots of sheep. He's just a wealthy guy. He's got a nice house and he lives next to a man who is not wealthy. This man who lives near him kind of in the shadow of his great mansion, his great fields and kind of lives in the shadow there. There's a man who lives and he has one sheep and he loves the sheep like it stays in his house, it plays with his kids, it's like a child to him, like he feeds it from his own hand.
This is like his best friend sheep and the rich man had a friend come in from out of town and he wanted to honor that friend and fix him a meal but he chose not to slay any of his own sheep but rather went because he was wealthy and powerful to the man who was his neighbor, took his one sheep and killed it to feed his friend. And I need you to help me understand what we need to do. And the text tells us in 2 Samuel chapter 12 that David is furious. That as a shepherd he understands what it's like and he just, he loses it. He stands up and says, this thing shall not be done. He will pay back fourfold and he just starts going off and in the middle of this Nathan looks at him and says, you're the man and you did exactly this when you took Bathsheba. it says David stops cold and he says, I've sinned against the Lord.
That he sees it clearly. It had to be moved over here in order for him to see it but he says, I've sinned against the Lord and we're told that Nathan looks at him and says, God will not kill you. He has hidden away your sin. There's going to be consequences and those are laid out in 2 Samuel chapter 12 but he says, you're not going to be destroyed in your sin. That God's hidden it away. And for us, as we follow Jesus and as we look at Psalm 51 today, what we're trying to see is that as you walk in your life following Christ, if you are a Christian and you are trying to live a life honoring and following him, you will sin. you will fall short.
You will make decisions that at other times you would have sworn that you would never have done. I know this is true in my life. There have been some things that I have done that if you had asked me, I don't know, a month before, will you ever do this and describe the situation, I would have looked at you with absolute certainty and said, no, I would not do that. That's not who I am. I wouldn't say that. I wouldn't act like that.
I wouldn't, no. Two months later, you could ask me about that event and say, did you, did you, did that bring joy? Was that a good idea? Did you, do you love that you chose this? And it's like, no, but I've sinned. I've tricked myself.
I've lied to myself. I've made terrible decisions. This is going to happen as we follow Jesus. If you are not a Christian and you are in the room, if you're here checking this out, trying to understand what the Bible says, or you, you may be life's rough right now and you're thinking, I need to, I need to grow. I need to see what the Bible talks about. I need to maybe get back in church.
You have to understand that much of your life and much of your pain is caused by sin. That, that you have sin, that you've made bad decisions. You've harmed others. You've lied. You've made bad choices and then you're, when it came to, when people were finding out your best next option, you thought was just to lie. Just to, just to hide it.
Just to cover it. We've all lived as David has, making a bad decision and then tacking on top of that bad decision after bad decision after bad decision. We need a way to respond in our sin. We need a way to move forward in our sin. And so we're going to look at Psalm 51 as we get the song that David wrote in his sin. we're going to look and see what it looks like. How, how can we move forward?
I'm going to pray and then we're going to begin walking through this text. God, we ask that by your grace your hand would be heavy on us this morning. That your presence would be felt. that by your grace and through the power of your Holy Spirit we would see your character more clearly and that our sin would be drawn into sharp focus. That the hiding and the lying would stop. And that by your grace you would pierce our hearts and wound us that you might lead us to the joy and the freedom that is found in repentance. I pray, Lord, that you would equip us for future days that what we talk about today that what we read in Psalm 51 would stick in our minds crawl into our hearts that we might have a way to respond in the future when we've been led astray when we've wandered when we've sinned.
And we ask for your grace and we ask all this in Jesus' name. Amen. The concept we're going to be talking about today is repentance. The word is not used in this text. We are actually viewing from the side repentance. We're getting to look down at David repenting.
He doesn't use the term but that's what he's doing. And repentance is not only a confession of our sin but it is us turning away from it. That repentance that is confession only is not repentance. And when you say, oh yeah, I did wrong but then you go right back into like that's not repentance. That maybe you were caught maybe you had gotten to the point where you had to be honest about what was going on but repentance involves life change. And that's what we're looking at today that we turn from sin and we don't just acknowledge it.
Like that's not repentance. That maybe you were caught maybe you had gotten to the point where you had to be honest about what was going on but repentance involves life change. And that's what we're looking at today that we turn from sin and we don't just acknowledge it. So verse now chapter 51 Psalm 51 verse 1 David begins this way. Have mercy on me oh 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. So David says have mercy on me oh God I think whenever we use that word when we use the word mercy mercy it's a borrowed word for us but it's not a borrowed word for David. What I mean by that is we don't use that term a lot. So maybe you use it when you're praying maybe you use it because you read the Bible
Maybe but maybe you know you say Lord have mercy when something bad happens or like maybe it's in some songs you sing but there's not a whole lot of times where we've actually used the word mercy you haven't looked at someone and said please I pray be merciful like that's never been a thing you've said to someone you've never you've never looked at someone
You've never been in an argument and looked at your wife and been like am I not merciful like this never happened unless you were quoting the gladiator it's never happened like but David it's not a borrowed word he knows what it is because he's a king who led battles and here's here's how David would be understanding this when he talks about it you see mercy is what people would beg for when they had
Lost the battle that they would look at the king who now had ridden in who the person in charge so the captain or the king or whoever was in charge or the people that were surrounding them with weapons and they would say I ask for mercy it's the moment in the battle when you've laid down your arms there is no outrunning this there is no continuing to fight
The only thing you have is please please please have mercy I'm completely in your power and only will this go well based off of what you choose to do so if we had fought a battle and our side lost and there's 10 of us 20 of us 200 of us but we're
Surrounded and we raise our hands and we ask for mercy it is now based on what the king decides to do and he could say kill him that'd be the end of that there were kings in the old testament that would cut people's thumbs off and have them stand around the table and when
They were done eating they had to pick up crumbs with their fingers there were people that would have their eyes gouged out like it just it's this moment where David is saying God I can't run I can't win I have nothing to offer I have no way
To fight he's raising his hands and saying I'm asking for mercy but that's the beginning of repentance you see in our sin when we see our sin because there are times where you do not see your sin by God's grace you will but there are times
Where we do not see our sin but when we see our sin we have some ways to respond there are normal ways that people respond when they see their sin one of the ways that you'll see you respond and others respond is you just you kind of deny it
Or you justify it so yeah yeah I said that but you should have heard what she said yeah I did that but you should have seen what they did oh sure I've acted like that at work but you hadn't met my boss it's this my sin
Yeah okay kind of it's there but not really but that's a way that we respond to our sin there's the justifying or trying to pay it off it's like you sin and you see your sin you feel the weight
Of your sin and the only thing you can think is well I've got to get to work I've got to pay it back I've got to restore it I've got to make it right some
Of us see our sin and the best plan we can come up with is just to run just to try to hide so we quit talking to people in our community groups we quit talking to the people that we've
Sinned against we know we shouldn't have done what we did but we have no way to fix that so we just don't answer their phone calls yeah I shouldn't have talked to you like that but heck if I know how to go any like I guess we just aren't friends anymore like I don't know how to we do that some of us have sin
And we feel it and we know it and the best plan we've come up with is just let it crush us just let it bear down on our souls just let it be a boulder that smashes us underneath it and all of life feels like that like I will never
Get out from under the weight of the sin that this guilt this shame will be carried by me forever but David gives us another option that in our sin when we see our sin we would turn and look at God and say have mercy
Don't do to me what you could don't crush me have mercy and David says this have mercy 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
Throws himself against the character of God against the nature of God he says have mercy on me according to your steadfast love according to your abundant mercy he says be the way you say you are I'm trusting that you're good I'm trusting
That what I've heard about you what you've told us about yourself see David's pointing to places in the Old Testament where that's what God says he's abounding in steadfast love and he has mercy and forgiveness for sinners and David's saying this is what you're like for us
We have a leg up on David because we get to look to the cross where God proves doesn't just promise promise but proves that he has steadfast love and abounding mercy we get to look at him and say deal with me according to the cross where I know that you love
Me and I know that you paid for sin wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin you see we can go to God in our sin that when we see our sin we can repent we can ask
For mercy because of who he is let's keep reading verse 3 for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me against you and 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 conceive me behold you delight in truth in the inward being
And you teach me wisdom in the secret heart so David starts off in this section he says for I know my transgression my sin is ever before me David is not
Downplaying this this whole section 3 verses 3 through 6 David is just kind of saying no no no it it's all around me
I know my sin I see it clearly one of the first things we have to do in order to repent is to own
Our sin to see it to know it to name it David is not downplaying this he's not saying well I'm kind of a
Good person I just did some I made a mistake David is not going to God and have mercy on me for this accident
David is saying no no no I know my sin it's ever present with me it's real to me and against you and you
Only have I sin if you haven't noticed your sin God has he is well aware of it it is not hidden from him
And ultimately all sin is against him that's kind of an outrageous statement for David to make no no no he hasn't just sinned
Against God he sinned against his servants he sinned against Israel he sinned against his captain Joab he sinned against Uriah he sinned against
Bathsheba the list goes on and David looks at God and says my sin is against you that I had to stray from you
And run from you and hate you and rebel against you before I would ever do any of those things I have dishonored you
And then he says what I've done is evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in
Your judgment what David is saying is that in my sin I see clearly how good you are and how right you are and
How true you are David is not downplaying this he is not hiding it he said I know my sin it's against you and
Then in verse five he says something that I think is helpful for us behold I was brought forth in in in in in
Sin did my mother conceive me David says this isn't just something I'm done this is part of who I am this is in
My this is in my DNA this is in the marrow of my bones I am sinful I was born sinful Paul is going to
Refer to this as us being in Adam that when Adam the first man sinned that all of us are born into sin sold
Into slavery that we're dead in our sin that this is how we begin that no one had to train us in sin it
Was born into us that there are certain things that are born into people like personality and some of those kind of things that
They have to come out and have to work on their whole life but for all of us sin is born into us you
Can't look at the globe and go yeah well you can tell Anglo Europeans they're sinful but it hadn't reached South America yet like
We can't do that it's like no there's corruption and brokenness everywhere and nobody had to teach it to you sure you had some people
Work on your technique but they didn't have to teach you how to sin you had someone tell you cuss words or whatever but
You didn't it was already in you I have a two year old we have to teach him things like how to share we
Did not have to teach him how to say mine he just picked that up on his own I actually learned now that he
Only uses the word share when I have a thing he understands the concepts of turns if you have something but when he has
It it it doesn't really apply to this sharing is kind of a foreign concept I have seen him places and watched him we
Go to hang out with other children and other families that have kids and he'll see a toy that he likes and he'll pick it
Up and he won't put it back down and do you know why he understands in his little brain this actually doesn't belong to
Me and if I put it down there's a good chance it won't get to belong to me but if I hold it forever
It'll make it to my house and then it will belong to me I didn't have to teach him that do you know how
Often we're at doors and we're like okay put that down put that down say thank you for like no like you hoping we
Didn't see it we didn't have to teach this to him I read I heard about an article recently where they did a study
Where they found out that your cat that you have at your house if it was big enough would eat you that was the
Study they did you can look it up that's what they discovered they discovered that your cat is a predator week it dawned on
Me that that is true for toddlers he would not eat me but I would have to fist fight him over everything currently the only
Thing that works in our house he's not reasonable the only thing that works in our house is I'm way bigger than he is but it's already
In him to want to defy and want to fight and want to argue he did something he was supposed to do I picked
Him up I popped him on his leg and he hit me in the side of the head and some of you were like
Well you taught him to strike first okay maybe a little bit but no not really because we have kid city last last week just
So y'all know we had 30 children here which is amazing and we're thankful to Jesus for it that we just got new volunteers
And new rooms and stuff because otherwise all of our kid city volunteers would just be quitting because we had 30 children here last week
You know what we have in our kid city handbook bite protocol what we have to do when your sweet little angel bites another
Child and you know what we've never done when your child has bitten another child we've never come to you and said we think
You should stop doing bite punishment at your house you did not train them they had teeth and were angry they put it together
Themselves I've never thrown a wooden train at my son when I was angry he picked that up on his own David is saying
I know my sin you know my sin and let's be real this is in me he's saying it's not that I'm a sinner
Because I've sinned I'm sinning because I'm a sinner this is who I am I was conceived this way I was born this way
This has been a part of me and David is going to God and as honestly and openly as he can be he's not
Hiding he's not holding back he's not saying a little bit or kind of like this or he is as clear as he can
Saying God without you without your mercy I'm in trouble he says behold in verse six behold you delight in truth in the inward
Being and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart what he's saying is that God you at the deepest most real level you
Want to change me and for some of you for some of us who've been good you're really good at using the right phrases
And you're really good at saying the right words and you're really good at and I just want to be real clear with you
You can you can fool everyone in your community group but by God's grace and goodness towards you you cannot fool him he knows
Your inner being and your secret heart and David is owning up to that before God and he's saying you delight in truth and
You teach me wisdom you go to work on the deepest most real part of me we have to as Christians become students of
Our own sin he says I know my transgression my sin is ever before me we have to become students of our own sin
What I mean by that is you need to know yourself you need to know your proclivities you need to know what you are
Led into you need to be able to look at your community group and say hey guys I'm an accountant and we're coming into tax
Season and let me tell you what's going to happen when I get stressed usually I like to look at spreadsheets and crunch Numbers all day long and then
I go home in the evening and enjoy a nice glass of red wine and I'm going to quit answering phone calls and I'm
Going to quit hanging out with our group and then I'm going to show back up a couple months from now and try to
Recruit and I need you around me some of you need to be able to say hey guys October is coming up and it's
A hard month for me every year in October I get depressed because of some things that happened in my life and some situations
And family members and here's the good version of me loving Jesus and being depressed being sad and mournful but loving Jesus and here's
The sad depressed running from Jesus version like we need to be a student of our own sin that we can look at people
And say here's where I need you here's when I need you to because we believe verses 3 through 6 that we are sinners
That you do have sin I have never once met a couple that came through our doors and it's like oh look Michael and
Sarah and I've never thought well I hope they're the first people to join our church who haven't sinned yet they'll bring our average
Up never thought that I can tell you things about them I've never met them you want me tell you something about Michael and
Sarah they're messed up there's something wrong with them they do some petty stuff they got problems it's because we're sinners in need of grace and as
Christians we are going to sin and we need a way to respond and it's to run to God like David has and ask
For mercy and wash me and I shall be whiter than snow so he he's referring to when he says purge me with hyssop
He's referring to some of the ceremonial things that happened in the Old Testament law specifically we're going to refer to a section in
Leviticus 14 I'm just going to tell you how that works hyssop was a branch and so when you had leprosy this is laid out
In Leviticus 14 when someone had leprosy which was a skin disease that made you not be able to be around anyone else it
Was catching so that if you had it you could give it to others until you eventually had to go away and you would
Slowly rot away fall apart and die that leprosy worked the extremities would work its in your skin would die and your sensation would
Die and eventually because this was dead it would just fall off and you would have to announce that you were lepers and there
Were whole leper colonies but if your leprosy began to go away you could go present yourself to the priest and they would take
Two birds and a bowl of clean water and they would kill one of the birds and drain its blood into the bowl and
They would dip the second bird in some hyssop which is a branch in that and they would sprinkle you with the hyssop seven times
And then they would let that bird go free what David just said in verse seven prophetically as he pointed back to the Old Testament law
And as he pointed forward for us he said I need the gospel you see we have that in Christ we have the ability
To go to God and say I need to be sprinkled with the blood so that I can be clean and I can be
Welcomed back I need see Jesus died was laid in the grave and his blood covers our sin but he also rose and ascended
The bird can't do that that's why they need two of them Jesus can he can die and fly away he can die and
Rise and what happened was David is saying I need you to sprinkle me with the blood and wash me with the water and
For those of us who are in Christ we get to go to God in our repentance when we see our sin and we
Don't go to him saying I failed and I don't know what to do I I failed and once again I need your mercy
I need the blood from the cross and I need the covering from my baptism when I was buried in death with you and
Rose again to life I need the water and the blood to cover me and then I'll be clean and I'll be whiter than
Snow verse 8 let me hear joy and gladness let the bones you have broken rejoice let me hear joy and gladness let the
Bones you have broken rejoice there's a proverb in the book of Proverbs that said it's better better are the blows of a friend than
The kisses of an enemy and David is going to God and saying thank you for breaking some of my bones so that I
Could see my sin you broke me and let that be a joy to me let me limp with joy for my life as
I know that you did that because you love me and you were going to let me run away and be happy in my
Sin and there's a joy in repentance I want to show y'all this is from Psalm 32 David says blessed is the one whose transgression is
Forgiven whose sin is covered blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity that's sin and in all day long for day and
Night your hand was heavy upon me my strength was dried up as by heat of the summer keep that up for just a
Second we often convince ourselves that hiding our sin is the best route and it is exhausting and it dries our bones up and
We groan under the weight of our sin and what David is talking about is the joy that comes from repentance that comes from
Owning our sin and being honest about it and real about it and celebrating the truth of the gospel of God's grace towards us
That there is joy in repentance I've had conversations with people not in our church before that they'll say well if y'all believe in
Grace why y'all talk about repentance so much it's like yeah yeah because we believe in grace repentance is us celebrating grace it's us
Enjoying the grace that we're offered you see that we are sinful so we get to repent and that's where grace comes in that
God pays for our sin that we don't pay our own debt it's not about our morality or our goodness that the more we
See our sin the more we enjoy the grace of Jesus and his greatness and that's what iniquities hide your face from my sins
And blot out all my iniquities I remember being in elementary school I don't remember what grade it was I did have a pen
So they don't give those like you what third grade you graduate to pens like when you're in like kindergarten they give you that
Pencil that's like the size of a stick they don't give you pens for a while though so I had a pen I remember
That and I had zoned out and I remember this moment of absolute clarity where I was sitting and I looked down at my
Paper and I had written the name of a girl like three times and when I realized that had happened I was terrified because
If anyone saw that like that that will ruin you in third grade I don't like and so what I did was I took my
Pen and I rewrote other words over top bared down real hard rewrote other words over top because this is a great way to
Cover some of it you can find out what it said so I rewrote some other words over top of them real quick and then
I scribbled this way and this way now I probably look psychotic and if you came by my paper later you would be like
There is something wrong with this kid and this was before they gave children ADD medicine all the time but I'm sure my teacher was
Like I'm going to make notes of this because she saw he is not learning math I don't know what's going on with him talk to
His parents but then my paper was blotted out you see when David says this they didn't have erasers he's saying I need you
To go to the ledger I need you to go where you have David son of Jesse written and where next to it you
Have adulterer and where next to that you have murderer and thief and liar and the person who like when you write all this
Out prideful wicked I need you to blot it out I need it to be covered so that when someone pulls up David son
Of Jesse and looks at the sheet of paper they don't know what was written there and you see for us we get to
Ask the same thing in Christ I need you to take what was written where my sin is and I need the blood of
Jesus to you are free to go the file has been corrupted we have nothing to hold against you you are free to go
That is what we need next to our name where it would say liar thief addict abuser all of these things that they would
Be covered and blotted out create in me a clean heart oh God verse 10 and renew a right spirit within me cast me not away from your
Presence and me restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit you see when we go to God we need
To ask for the gospel to cover us that our repentance would be based off of his sacrifice that he would restore to us the joy of repentance and that he would go to work on the
Inside of us that he would blot out our sin and go to work on the inside of us that's where he says create in me a clean heart
And renew a right spirit within me David's not just saying I need my past taken care of he said I need you to
Take care of my future too I need you to go to work on my heart so that I'll be different make me new on
The inside and then keep me there that's where verse 12 restore to me the joy of your salvation make me new bring me back and then
Uphold me with a willing spirit keep me there verse 13 through 17 he kind of lays out what will happen when that happens
He says then when you've done that when you've wiped away my sin when you've restored me when you've made my heart new then
I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you I love that because that is true you want to tell other
People that this is how God responds this is how he Acts this is how he treats us in our sin often I find
When they say that you know this many people in the Christian church hadn't shared their faith with anybody over the past however many
You know nobody hadn't told anybody about Jesus this past year that kind of stuff it's like yeah because they I'll start telling everybody
Because that's how it works delivered me from blood guiltiness oh God oh God of my salvation and my tongue will sing aloud of
Your righteousness that's us every Sunday morning that we've been delivered from our guilt by Jesus and we sing to Jesus about his righteousness
Oh Lord open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise for you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it
You will not be pleased with a burnt offering the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart oh God
You will not despise maybe says you don't want to sacrifice for me you don't want work for me I can't pay you back
I have nothing to offer you says the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and contrite heart 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
So what David says is you don't want an offering you want humility but once you've changed me then you'll want sacrifice then you'll
Want work and for us that's we don't come to God and work beforehand to be saved to pay back our debt that we're
Saved based off of coming to God in repentance and humility and then God delights in your work God delights in your service because
He's the one empowering it because it's not you're not serving so that you'll be okay you're serving you're sacrificing because of how good he
Is not to pay him off but to delight in him and so he delights in your work as we close out this morning
We're going to have a chance to respond it's maybe a little bit different than some mornings but I think helpful for us look back at verse
16 And 17 for you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it you will not be pleased with a burnt offering
I hope that verse crushes some of us this morning for those of you in the room who think that the role of Christianity in
Your life and in the life of others is to sacrifice and to do good and to be moral to guard your soul and
To act right and then God will delight in you David just said no for those of you this morning who have seen your
Sin and said okay I gotta pay it back I gotta work really hard I gotta be a good person and then God will
Like me David says no that's not how it works that will not work he will not delight in it if you are here
To do some sort of penance and to deliver to God some form of good work some form of morality some form of church
Attendance let this be very clear he does not delight in that you have presented him nothing but verse 17 should bring great hope
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart oh God you will not despise those of you in
This room who have seen your sin and are broken over it hear the words of David God does not despise that God does
Respond to that he does delight in that for us to have a broken spirit and a broken heart some of you you see
Your sin and you know I can't pay this back I'm crushed by it I'll never get out from under this I'm destroyed by
It I have nothing to offer to God David says take your broken heart to him lay out before him just as I have
And say God I need mercy and my sin clings to me and it's ever before me and I was born like this and
I can't fix myself and I need you to blot it out and I need you to change me and David says when we
Do that God stoops and he welcomes and he wraps us up and he does not despise that that that's the sacrifice that you
Would humbly submit yourself before him in the midst of your sin in a minute we're going to take communion together but before that we're
Going to have a time where we get to sit and repent where we get to collectively as a church ask God for mercy in
Our sin some of you right now are untouched by this this has been maybe interesting to see what David went through and you're going to
Need to ask that God help you see your sin help you see where you've run from him where you've gotten so cold to
Him that you've grown so used to your sin that you don't even notice it anymore so we're going to pray three things here in a
Second we're going to ask that God would help us see his character that he'd help us see the cross we'd see his holiness and
His mercy and his love and then we're going to pray that he'd help us see our sin and hate it and then we're going to
Pray like David blot it out and make me new renew me keep me and if you are in this room and you have never placed
Your faith in Jesus you want to you want to you want to have him pay for your sin and make you new that
You can be forgiven and you can be welcomed and you can be loved and you can be renewed that you can come to
Him right now and fall on your knees like at the end of a battle when you have no other options you can say
Have mercy on me and he does that he has died for our sins and he does have love and he is merciful all
The and it doesn't matter what you've done in your past or what's happened to you or what marks you or what you think
On the paper underneath your name that his blood can blot it out and you can be forever free so if you've never fully
Mentally intentionally committed yourself to Jesus and said I need you to pay for my sin because I have no other options and I
Need you to forgive me and have mercy on me you can do that right now and then in a moment you can stand
Up and you can take communion as a Christian for the first time and truly celebrate that his body was broken for you and
That his blood was shed for you and that forever when God looks at you all of your sin will be blotted out by
The blood of Jesus and you will be covered and if you have done that I would encourage you to repent today from the
Sin that you have allowed to grow up that you have been hiding and go as a Christian take communion one more time and
Celebrate the fact that we have a great God and father who loved us so much that his son died for us that our
Sin could be forever and that he would cover us and renew us so right now for a moment we're just going to sit
And have a chance to pray and then we'll get to respond through communion and singing and celebrating but let's pray together God I
We come to you and we ask that our sin would not be hidden from us because it's not hidden from you we ask
That in your grace you would show us our sin where we've rebelled where we've run that you would hem us in and your
Hand would be heavy on us that we might bend and repent and ask for mercy and God we pray that people would run
As fast as they possibly could to you today and that people in this room who never placed their faith in you would and
Would be forever welcomed and covered by Jesus