Turn with me in your Bibles if you have them to Psalm chapter 51. Psalm 51 is where we're going to spend some time this morning. As you're turning there, I just want to ask you a question. How many of you know the name Adolf Eichmann? How many of you have heard of that name before? A few history buffs put their hands up? Okay. Adolf Eichmann was a Nazi SS colonel during World War II. He was one of Adolf Hitler's key men, one of the chief organizers of Hitler's Final Solution, that project that Hitler established to exterminate the Jewish people. Eichmann was in charge of identifying and rounding up the Jewish people. He was also in charge of putting them on trains and transporting them all across Europe to one of the many death camps that Nazi Germany had established. Eichmann survived the war. He didn't die in combat and he wasn't found right after the war by any of the allies and it appeared as if he was going to escape justice. He lived under false identities for many years, living in Germany and then Austria and finally settling in Argentina where he was captured in 1960. His trial took place in 1961 and he was found guilty of war crimes against humanity for his involvement in the extermination, the genocide of the Jewish people. He was executed in 1962, but not before a last-ditch appeal for clemency. In a final attempt to escape death, Eichmann claimed, this is his final attempt to get out of death, he said, it's not my fault. I can't be held responsible for the things that I've done. He said, I was just following orders. that he was, quote, forced to serve as a mere instrument for Hitler. His final defense, his final attempt to get out of being responsible for the things that he had done was to shift the blame, to claim that he should not be held responsible for the sin that he had committed. We may scoff at Eichmann's plea, at his attempt, but isn't this exactly what we so often do when we're confronted with sin? Isn't this what you and I do when either our spouse or our children or a co-worker or anybody in the church comes to us and confronts us with sin, we try to shift the blame. We try to make it sound like it's not really our fault or it wasn't really that bad. We try to argue that we're really not that guilty or that we shouldn't be held responsible for what we've done. But the Bible says we are responsible. We read earlier Romans 3. Romans 3.23. How many of you memorize that in Sunday school or a WANA or kids program or something? How many of you just have that kind of ingrained into your mind? For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The scriptures tell us that every human being falls short, fails to uphold God's holy standard. We have all sinned. The question is not if we're guilty. We stand like Adolf Eichmann. We have been condemned. The court has come together and found us guilty. The question is, will we respond like Adolf Eichmann? Will we try to shift the blame? Will we try to excuse ourselves? Or will we respond Will we respond the way God wants us to, biblically? And that is what we will look at today, the right response to sin. What is the right response when we are confronted with our sin? Well, Psalm 51 provides an answer for us. So let us read Psalm 51. I'm going to begin at the beginning and read down to the end. This is what Holy Scripture says to us today. to the choir master, a Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love. According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God. O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise, for you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure. Build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings, in whole burnt offerings. Then bowls will be offered on your altar. This is the word of the Lord and we give him thanks for giving it to us today. Would you just bow your heads with me one more time as we go before the Lord and ask for his help this morning? Father, we come before you this morning as a needy people. We recognize our great need of you, not just in salvation, but for our daily bread. And so we ask this morning that you would open up our eyes to see, our ears to hear. Give us hearts that would understand and respond with obedience to your word. We thank you that you have not left us on our own, that when your son ascended to glory, he left us with your spirit and with your word. And so we pray that as we open it this morning, that you would help us to understand. We pray that you would work in our hearts so that today would be a day that we become more like Jesus. And it's in his name that we pray, amen. Well, this psalm, Psalm 51, is no doubt familiar to many of you. And if you read the superscription, that little section right at the beginning of the psalm, it's not given a verse number, but it's a part of the text. It tells us that what's going on here is David's response to the events that take place back in 2 Samuel 11-12. Some of you are probably familiar with that story, the story of David and Bathsheba. David is in Jerusalem, and he's not doing what he's supposed to do. Before we even get to the adultery part, David has neglected his responsibilities as king. The text says that at the time where kings go out to war, at the time where kings lead their armies into battle, David stays at home. He neglects his royal responsibilities, And because he sinned in one capacity, and as so often happens to us, one sin leads to another, he ends up breaking the 10th commandment. He covets another man's wife. And then once he breaks that commandment, he breaks the 7th and 8th commandments. He steals another man's wife, and then he commits adultery with her. When he finds out that Bathsheba is pregnant as a result of his sin, he tries to break another commandment by lying, by covering it up. He calls Uriah home from the front. He is where David ought to have been. Uriah was fighting where David ought to have been. And he calls Uriah back thinking that Uriah would sleep with his wife, but Uriah was too righteous. He was too noble. He would not give himself the pleasure of being with his wife when all of his brothers in arms were still fighting at the front line. So David has to change plans. has Uriah sent to the front lines, the very front of the lines, where the fighting is the fiercest, because he knows that if Uriah is there, he will be killed. And as a result of these orders, Uriah is killed in battle. David is now free to take Bathsheba as his wife, to marry her, and thus the pregnancy, taken out of wedlock, is covered up, or so David thinks. He thinks he's gotten away with it. And then one day, the prophet Nathan comes to him. And Nathan tells a story that exposes David's sin. Do you remember this story where he tells a story about this one man who has one sheep and this one man who has many sheep? And the one man who has many sheep steals the sheep from the one man who has only one. He steals that sheep and he takes it for himself. And David is infuriated. David is angry. He's indignant over the sin that takes place. Who is this man? How could this man do such this wicked thing? And Nathan then points the finger at David and says, you are the man. You are the one who has committed this horrible sin. Nathan confronts David with his horrible failures as a king, as a husband, as a father, and as a friend. And what is David's response when he is confronted with his sin? What does he do? His response, as we read in Psalm 51, being inspired scripture for us today, teaches us how we ought to respond. David's response is the right response. So let me offer you three things from Psalm 51, three responses that build upon one another, almost stack upon one another as building blocks. The first response that we see is in verses 1 through 4. When we are confronted with our sin, we need to, number one, plead for mercy. We need to cry out to God for forgiveness. We need to earnestly implore or appeal to or beseech, to use that term that the King James uses. We need to ask God for his grace. We need to plead with God for mercy. David doesn't make an excuse for his sin. He doesn't try to blame others for his stained heart, for why he has committed these iniquities. He simply pleads for mercy. Look at verse one. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love. According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgression. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. David pleads for mercy because he knows he's a sinner. He doesn't just acknowledge that he's been caught. We all have to acknowledge that at some point. He's not just acknowledging that, yes, you caught me red-handed. He's acknowledging that his hands are actually red, that they are stained with blood, that he is a sinner, that he is wrong. Notice all the different words that he uses to describe his sin in these verses. Transgression, iniquity, evil. He's acknowledging his sin for what it really is. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. He's not merely remorseful. He doesn't just feel bad because he's been caught. He doesn't just have that guilty feeling because he can't get away with it anymore. David is truly confessing. He's expressing an understanding of his true nature, of the true nature of his sin. David pleads for mercy because he knows he's committed an offense, because he knows he's committed a crime. But a crime against who? David pleads for mercy because he's transgressed God's law, not just because he's a sinner in some way, he's a sinner against God. Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. Now obviously David has sinned against many other people. Even in the story of 2 Samuel 11 and 12, David commits sin against Uriah by having him killed and by stealing his wife. He commits a sin against Bathsheba by taking her for himself and committing adultery with her. He's committed a sin against the whole nation of Israel by not being the king that he was called to be. But it is not the laws of Uriah or Bathsheba or even the laws of Israel that David has broken. He's not broken the laws of nature or of nation. He's broken God's law. He's transgressed what God has commanded. And God is right. God is acting with justice when he holds men, when he holds men and women, boys and girls, when he holds humanity accountable for transgressing his law. Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. David admits, God, you are right to hold people accountable to your law, to your word. He admits he's a sinner, and then he submits himself to the righteous judgment of God. He acknowledges that God is going to punish sin, and yet he still pleads for mercy. But how? On what basis does David plead for mercy with God? I am a sinner. God is righteous and righteously judging me. So on what basis can David plead for mercy? Well, he pleads for mercy because of God's character. Notice in verse 1 the grounds for David's plea, the foundation, the building block, what he starts with for his plea for mercy. He doesn't point to himself. He doesn't say, God, can't you see how hard I'm trying? Can't you see how sorry or how mournful I am? He doesn't point to himself or anything in himself because the foundation for mercy is not found in the one who needs mercy. The foundation for mercy is found only in God. David pleads for grace and kindness only on the basis of who God is, God's character. Look back in verse one, have mercy on me, oh God, according to your steadfast love. According to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions." David knows what he deserves. David knows God is just in condemning him, and yet he clings to God. He clings to the character of God. And this is what God wants us to do when we are confronted with our sin. He wants us to take hold of God's character, to plead with him on the basis of who he is. In Exodus 34, God describes himself this way to the people of Israel. The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. This is who our God is. This is the God who created the universe back in Genesis 1. This is the God who will bring all things to an end when he returns. And he wants us to respond in light of who he is. He wants us to cry out for mercy and grace because his love and faithfulness abounds, overflows towards sinners, because it is in his character to forgive iniquity and transgression and sin. This, this is why we're here today. Because this is the gospel message. That in Christ, in God, we might find forgiveness. You're not here because you all cheer for the same hockey team, or shop at the same stores, or eat the same food, or even live in the same neighborhood. What draws us all together is the fact that God has provided pardon for sinners in Jesus Christ. His forgiveness is real. His mercy is genuine. He doesn't forgive just by pretending that we're innocent, you know, sweeping our sins under the rug. That would make him unholy, unjust. So how is it possible for God to forgive without contradicting his holy character and his just attributes? The answer is found in the gospel of Jesus Christ. How can God remain holy and justly condemn, but also pardon ruined sinners? It is found in the fact that God became a man and willingly went to the cross to die, to bear the sins of his people upon himself. In the gospel, we see Jesus enduring the wrath of God, taking the punishment of sin upon himself, dying in the place of sinners so that they might go free. It is in the gospel where God's justice is satisfied. It is in the gospel of Jesus where our sins are atoned for. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. We read that earlier. How many of you, when you memorize those passages, Romans 3.23, memorize the verses that come afterwards? When you think of Romans 3, you think of the passage that declares that everyone is a sinner. But if we keep reading, we find out that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified, all are sinners and are justified by His grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 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. It is through faith in Christ, in His death and resurrection, that we receive the mercy, the forgiveness, of God. Verses 1 through 4 show us David pleading with God for mercy. He then turns in verses 5 through 12 to ask God for something else. He asks for mercy, he pleads for mercy, and then he makes a petition with God. This is our second response. We need to, number two, petition for change. We need to plead with God for mercy, for forgiveness, for grace, and then we need to petition, ask God to change us. to change our desires, to change our appetites, to change our motivations, our preferences, our goals, to change everything about us that is in our hearts. We want to be different now that we have been forgiven. We need to petition God for change, particularly in our hearts. David petitions for change because he knows he's not what he ought to be. He's not what God wants him to be. Look in verse five. in the inward being. You teach me wisdom in the secret heart. David's life, though forgiven by the grace of God, does not line up with what God wants. God desires truth and wisdom to be in our hearts. That's what God wants. But instead, we're filled with iniquity and sin. We do not live according to the standards that God has set in place. And God does not change his standards simply because we cannot live up to it. God does not bring the bar down. He does not make the challenge of His holiness any less challenging simply because we fail. And it would actually be incredibly devastating for us if God were to change His level of holiness, to change His standards. And I say that because then we would be left living in the destructiveness of sin. It just wouldn't be called sin anymore. Do we not see this when we look around the world today? We see evil called good and wickedness called righteousness. We see God's standard of perfection and holiness changed and turned on its head. And what we see is humanity, a world, society, barreling into chaos, barreling into destruction, because it has taken God's standard and sought to change it. But God's standard does not change. Therefore we must be the ones to change. We must be the ones who come in line with his word. But we can't change ourselves, which is why David prays for God to change him, to transform him into someone who loves and pursues holiness. Look at verse 7. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Wash me, change me, Lord. Make me into something new. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Where is true joy and gladness found? The world will say that gladness, happiness, joy is found wherever you want. Whatever you want it to be, it will be your happiness. The enemy lies and deceives and tries to convince you that happiness can actually be found in the destructiveness of sin. But David reminds us that true joy and gladness is found in forgiveness. And it's found in the pursuit of holiness that's rooted, that's built on the forgiveness that we've received by God. I must be forgiven, washed clean, if I would stand in the presence of God, which is why David says in verse nine, hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. And verse 11, cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit for me. What is David asking God to do? Saying, God, if the sin remains in me, if my heart does not change, if you do not change me, then you will have to cast me out. just like the Lord did with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. But Lord, if you change me, if you remove the uncleanliness, the iniquity, the sin from my life, if you take that out of me, then I can stay in your presence. Don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Make your Holy Spirit change me. David knows that he's not what he ought to be, so he asks God to change him. But there's another reason why David petitions for change. Because David knows that only God can work this kind of miracle. The miracle of a changed heart cannot be done by himself. Only God is able to do that. Look in verse 10. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. That word create in verse 10 is the same word that's used in Genesis chapter one. It's the same word that describes God's work of creation. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He spoke and everything came into existence. And as you read through the Bible, When you come across that word created, and we've got the one word created in our English language, in the Hebrew language, this particular word that is used in Psalm 51 verse 10, that is used in Genesis chapter one, this particular word for creation is only ever attributed to God. God is the only one who creates like this, speaking the world into existence. Quite an incredible miracle. And God is the only one who creates a new heart. removing that heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh. Only God can do that kind of work. Oh Lord, give me a heart that loves and pursues your will and your way. Work a miracle in my life and give me a heart that beats for you. God is the only one who can do this miracle. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. God, if you don't uphold me, if you don't sustain me, then I will fall back into my sin. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love." That's David's prayer right here. God, you must do this miracle. You must uphold me. So David pleads for mercy in verses 1 through 4, and then he petitions for change in verses 5 through 12. And then finally, in verses 13 through 19, he shows us our third response, the final stage that builds on a forgiven and changed heart. David shows us that, number three, we need to proclaim the works of God. Plead for mercy on the basis of who God is. Receive that mercy and grace. Petition God to change your heart so that you would walk in faithfulness with Him each and every day. and then proclaim the works of God when he has done that miracle in your life. We must declare, we must sing, we must talk about what God has done for us. He's worked a miracle. We must let everyone know. I cannot be silent. Can you imagine if one day going to the doctor and you were filled with cancer and the doctor says, there's nothing we can do for you. And you go home and you go in the next week for the appointment. The doctor says, well, the cancer is gone. I don't know what happened. It's truly a miracle. Don't you think you would tell somebody about that? You wouldn't keep that to yourself. The joy that would be overflowing in your heart because of the miracle that took place on the inside of you that nobody else could do, you would tell everybody. And David proclaims the works of God because he wants other sinners to experience what he's experienced, to be forgiven as well. He wants to be an instrument of God's grace by telling others how they too might receive mercy. Look at verse 13. then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you." I believe it was C.H. Spurgeon who said, we are just poor beggars telling other poor beggars where to find the food. We found some food and now we need to tell others. And this is the mark of a forgiven heart, a new heart, a changed heart, to have the desire to show others how they too might receive the mercy of God. Christians don't keep the good news to themselves. They tell anyone and everyone who will listen. David wants to be able to point to himself, not in an arrogant way or a proud way. Look at how great I am. Look at what I'm doing. Look at how much God's, you know, I'm so great because, you know, I'm clearly serving the Lord in so many different ways. David doesn't point to himself in an arrogant way. He wants to be able to point to himself as evidence of what God can do with horrible sinners. David proclaims the grace of God because he wants God to be glorified, God to receive all the honor for what has happened in his life. His desire for mercy and change is rooted in the glory of God's name, that God may be glorified through David's own forgiven and changed life. Lord, pardon me, forgive me. Show me mercy and grace so that I can tell of how great a Savior you are. Verse 14 says, Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God. O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. God is glorified in the just condemnation of sinners when he holds men and women accountable for transgressing his law, but he is also glorified in the just pardon of sinners. God, if you restore, if you forgive and make new, if you redeem, then I can sing of how great a redeemer you are. David's greatest concern in all of this salvation, mercy, forgiveness prayer is God How great will your name be if you forgive me? When the Israelites had rebelled in Numbers 14, Moses pled with the Lord, don't strike them down. Lord, if you strike them down now, after you brought them out of Egypt, then all of the surrounding nations, even Egypt themselves will hear that you've struck them down. And they will say, it's because you're not powerful enough. It's because you're not strong enough. It's because you were unable to bring them into the promised land. That's why you killed them in the wilderness. Now, does Moses care about his family, about his friends, about the nation of Israel? Does he care about whether they live or die? Of course. But his primary concern, his greatest concern is not necessarily the life or death of the people of Israel. It's God, what will the nations think of you? What will people think of you if you kill them now, justly, righteously kill them now for their grumbling, for their complaining, for their sin? If you do that now, people will think you're not powerful enough. But Lord, if you spare them, then we as a people will be able to sing about how great a savior you are. David understands his sin. He doesn't try to diminish his sin. He's not trying to make excuses because he understands that the magnitude of his sin tells of the magnitude of the Savior. If you think of how deep the hole, the pit of sin, how bad it actually is, it tells you how great, how wonderful, how magnificent God actually is to be able to stoop down into that hole to pull us out. But that doesn't mean that he rejoices or is happy with his sin. Verse 16, David speaks about his heart being broken over his sin. How often are you broken over the sin that you commit before God? How often are you actually destroyed because you committed an offense against an almighty and all-holy God? I think if we're being honest, we're rarely broken over our sin. We just don't like the feeling of guilt when we do something wrong. We're not broken. David is broken, David is shattered, David is destroyed because of his sin against God, and David wants to be holy. David wants forgiveness so that he can sing God's praise, and he wants to be holy. He wants to be righteous. Lord, I want a changed heart, changed desires, so that I will no longer dishonor you. That's why he proclaims the works of God, to bring glory to the great Savior that God is. But David also proclaims the works of God because he wants the people of God to be strengthened. Verses 18 and 19, we're at the end of the psalm now, may seem a little bit strange. They may seem a little bit peculiar. Man, that's a hard word to get out sometimes. Peculiar to end the psalm that way. What's this business about building up and strengthening and all these different things? 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. What is David getting at here? I think David understands that when the grace of God is extended to even one sinner, the people of God are strengthened. Our walls, not these four walls of this building, the walls of the people of God are fortified, are built up when God extends his grace and gathers in his lost sheep. And it's not just a matter of we are built up because our numbers are growing, although that is true in some sense. We're not simply strengthened because more people have been added to us. Although we look for that and we're happy for that. You mentioned you're looking for more workers. I'm glad to know that it's not just my church and the churches that I've been a part of that struggles to find workers for children's ministry. We're glad when God sends more people to work in the harvest field. But that's not the primary meaning. We are built up, we are strengthened through the encouragement of the testimony of the witness of God's grace towards sinners. I think this is part of the reason why God gave us baptism and why it's meant to be done publicly in front of the church, because it's a tool. It's an ordinary means of grace by which the Lord strengthens his people. We baptized a couple of two young men a few weeks ago in our church, and their obedience to Jesus wasn't just like, yay, we've got more members of our church, so let's sign them up to work in the nursery or whatever it is. That's good and right, but that's not where we were strengthened. We were reminded when they gave their testimonies, when they went through the waters of baptism, we were reminded of God's great love and care and grace towards sinners. We were reminded of his great power to overcome sin and death and hell. We were reminded that his word is still sharp and active. The sword of the spirit is not dull in the 21st century. It is still working. It is still moving. The spirit still uses his sword, opening up eyes to see and ears to hear. We were reminded when sinners give their testimonies of God's grace, that God is still in the business of saving sinners. And we need that encouragement. We need that strengthening. We as the people of God need to be built up because when we look outside of these four walls, we feel like everything's falling apart. We feel like the people of God are not growing, they're diminishing. I used to think that my testimony was boring. Growing up in a Christian home, son of a pastor, grandson of another pastor, Always hearing the gospel. Never really getting into anything too bad or too sinful. Yeah, I lied and I, you know, probably cheated on a test here or there, but I wasn't really too bad. There's no drugs. There was no, like, alcoholism. There was nothing like, no big sins that God saved me from. Nothing like this that David talks about. I didn't kill anybody. I used to think my testimony was just really not worth telling. But no Christian testimony is boring or insignificant because God's grace is never boring. Because the expression of God's grace to a sinner, great or small, all have sinned. Salvation is never lame. It's never boring. It's never inconsequential to talk about. Brothers and sisters, your testimony matters. Maybe you were like me and you feel like your testimony just isn't all that exciting. It matters. The expression of God's grace to you matters. You are a trophy of God's grace. You are a trophy that he will take and set up on his wall in glory. And he will say, don't you see what I did with them? Don't you see how much I can do with sinners? Look at this. Look at this person as an example of my grace. David understands that his testimony is a means of evangelism, a tool that we can use to show others that God is indeed mighty to save. People can argue theology, people can debate philosophy, but nobody can argue against your changed life. Nobody is able to take away the fact that once you were lost and now you're found. Once you were blind and now you can see. Once I walked in the way of sin and now I walk in the narrow way of Christ. But your testimony is also a means by which the church is built up. We are strengthened when we come together and worship. Your presence here matters. being here and singing and praying, gathering together. The church is built up because we are reminded, oh yes, God does save, not just me. He is still working in the lives of his people. So we sing loudly, we declare boldly, we proclaim with all the strength that we can muster. We tell the world of what the Lord has done for us. This is the right response. This is the necessary response. This is the needed response for you and me when we are confronted with our sin. We plead with God for mercy, we petition God for change, and we proclaim the works of God. Let me close with a question then. Have you responded this way? Have you responded in the way that the scriptures call us to respond? when you have been confronted with your sin, not just from other people, but when the scriptures themselves, when God himself comes and confronts you with his word and he says, you are a sinner, what will you do? What have you done? Have you responded the way that David did? Have you received forgiveness for your sins? Have you received a new heart from God? If you have not, you must do so today. You must do that, not when you get to the parking lot, not after the service, Do not put that off. Come to Christ today and find forgiveness in him. Because in Christ and in Christ alone, our hope is found. That is the only response to sin. Come to Christ. Let's pray. God in heaven, we thank you for the wonderful forgiveness, the gracious mercy, the loving, ever-loving kindness that you express to us poor, wretched sinners in Jesus Christ. We confess this morning that we are sinners. We are not just sinners in general, we are sinners specifically. We have sinned even today, Lord, and we would plead with you to forgive us for our iniquity. And we would ask that that this morning you would change our hearts so that we might walk in faithfulness to you. Cause us to love you more, to be more faithful, to have this joy overwhelming in our hearts so that we might tell others of the forgiveness found in Jesus. And Lord, may we cling to you. Teach us to cling to you each and every day, for it is in you that we have our hope. And it's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.