Okay, how about now? I thought I'd turn, yes. If I would be a little, Brother J.T., look for the light. Any good? Okay, it should be green again. I'm gonna leave it here where I can watch the light. Maybe that'll help. But I'll start preaching, I'll forget all about the light. So David knew the joy. He knew what it was to be without the joy. And he knew what it was to desire for that joy to be restored. Okay. So I know we've said that, but I'm just, I'm repeating some things as we're going through these verses that we've already, that we've already ground, we've already covered. You know, I don't want us to forget those things. We need to be put in remembrance. And by the time we get through Psalm 51, We ought to have such a warning against what the consequences for us even as believers are of sin. We ought to watch and pray against that we not enter into temptation. We don't want to be found here. David's miserable. You like being miserable? I don't like being miserable. I don't know any people really that like to be miserable, He's grieved the spirit and he's languishing. He's languishing under conviction. He's being chastened for his sin. And some other verses, we didn't read these out of Hebrews 12 last week. Let me just read further on from Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12, 11 says, now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous. David's in grief, right? But grievous, nevertheless, afterward, it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby. That's where we ended when we read from Hebrews 12 last week. Here's verse number 12. Wherefore, lift up the hands which hang down. And David, you remember the picture of David on the bulletin last week and how miserable he looked? You know, lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees. Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way, but let it rather be healed. That's what David's asking for, right? He's asking for a healing of sorts. He's asking for that joy and gladness to be restored. There's a distance. It's not that, you know, Brother JT was talking about this morning, about some people saying that it's not just us. that need to be reconciled to God, but God needs to be reconciled to us. Well, no, the problem's on our end, not on God's end. But here, it's the lame, it's our problem, the lame, it's turned out of the way, let it be healed. Waiting upon the Lord, turning to the Lord, David's saying here, create in me a clean heart. David's saying here, hide your face from my sin. Blot out my transgressions. Do you know what it's like? Do you understand David's predicament? Is this something totally foreign to you? Have you not felt these things? If you're a child of God, this is normal. This is the way you should feel. My youngest daughter is taking a psychology course right now, and there's all sorts of things about feelings, and just go on and on, but this is the normal way. that you should feel as a believer when you sin against God. This is where David is. He feels guilty and condemned. You know, what David has done can't be undone. I mean, you wish you could. Wish I could take that back. I wish I could not have done that. I mean, almost immediately after we've sinned, you know, there's that feeling of, why? Oh, why? You know, did I say that? Why, why did I do that? You know, I knew that this was going to be the way that I would feel afterwards, and yet, you know, I yielded unto that temptation, you know, once again. So what David had done couldn't be undone, but there is mercy with the Lord. God is gracious unto those who are his children, right? I mean, you think again about where we are and the superscription that's written above Psalm 51, a Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had gone in to Bathsheba, right? So Nathan has come to him. This is a result of after Nathan has come, 2 Samuel 12, 13. You think David hung onto these words? David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, the Lord has also put away thy sin. Hey, don't you hang onto that whenever you've sinned against the Lord? How has our sin put away? It's put away in Christ, right? So don't we hang onto that? Yes, I've sinned, I've confessed my sin unto the Lord, and hang on to this, the Lord has also put away thy sin. How David must have clung unto those words in all of his sorrow over sin, crying out as we see him here in Psalm 51.9, hide thy face. Hide thy face, now I'm not gonna go, I listened to a message this week and the pastor was going into, I'm not saying that it's not something that could be brought out in a sermon, but he was going into the fact that God doesn't have a face. And that's true, God's spirit. But we have these things, God's eyes don't run to and fro throughout the earth. in the sense that there's eyeballs running around. But we understand that because we have eyes, and there's nothing hidden from him. All things are naked and open before him with whom we have to do. And so David is saying, hide your face. Hide your face from my sin. Blot out mine iniquities. And that's what Nathan tells David, the Lord's put away your sin. Can't you see that that equates to what David's saying here? And that's what I want to feel. This is what Nathan's told me. I read in God's word that Christ has died for my sins, but I want to feel that blood applied. Right? And so here, David is saying that thing that Nathan said, let that be true. Hide thy face. The Lord has put away your sin. So hide thy face from my sin. Put away, blot out my iniquity. Those must have been precious words, you know, unto David. Aren't they precious words unto you when you sin? Has the Lord put away your sins? Do you know something about this? Has the Lord put away your sins? You know, there's a world of people out there who commit worse things than David did. This is pretty bad, you know, adultery and murder, but there are men out there that have done worse things than David has done here, and they're not troubled over their sins at all. They don't feel the remorse and guilt that David does here. Listen to Psalm 73 and verse number 5. They are not in trouble as other men, neither are they plagued like other men. Therefore, pride compasseth them about as a chain, and violence covereth them as a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness. They have more than their heart could wish." And here David is in his sin, in the distress of the conviction of his sin, saying, create in me a clean heart. The world's not crying out for a clean heart when they've sinned and they've broken and transgressed God's law. They're not mourning. They're not in remorse or guilt. Their sin doesn't haunt them, as it were, like David's does here, as ours do if we belong to the Lord. They don't go about mourning over their sin. They don't seek unto God to wash and cleanse them. They don't ask the Lord to blot out their transgressions according to his tender mercies. And you see there's a connection between where we are in verse number nine and verse number one. So look at verse number nine of Psalm 51, hide thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities, and then go back to verse number one. You see that he talks about blotting out, you know, in the very beginning of the psalm, have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according unto thy multitude or the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. So he's returning, you know, to that same thought that he began with there in verse number one. But the world, the world doesn't know anything of that. They're not concerned with that. There's no confession that they were shapen, like David said, in iniquity and in sin that their mother conceived them. They're not thinking in those terms that God desires truth in the inward parts and in the hidden parts shall make us to know wisdom. They're not thinking about hyssop and the blood of sprinkling. They're not thinking about the atonement of the blood of Christ being applied afresh. in a condition like this anew, they're not thinking in those terms, but if you belong to the Lord, then these are realities, you know, in your life. So, you know, they don't feel guilty, but the child of God does. People struggle with assurance. Let me just ask you, are you troubled over your sin? Are you turning unto the Lord? There's hope for you. The world doesn't do that. The world's not concerned to do those things. Their consciences aren't bothered like that. I mean, I'm not saying they're not bothered. God's given all men a conscience, but they're not bothered like this, like we see with David. They don't think about their sins standing before the face of God. God looking upon their sin. They don't think in those terms. They don't think in terms of sin creating a distance, fellowship-wise, between us and the Lord. God being displeased. I mentioned to you last week about my kids when they were little and correcting them. I didn't correct other kids. That was other parents' responsibility. There were some people that we knew from a church in Louisiana that they would go around correcting, not necessarily like our kids, we weren't part of their fellowship, but they would go around, the kids in that fellowship, they would go around correcting those kids. That's not really my responsibility. Um, if they come to me asking me for help and they want me to go and talk with their child with them, that's one thing. But, you know, it's, it's, that's their, you know, responsibility. I think there'd be some people, I don't know, Sister Galena, if I'd come around, you know, and started correcting, you know, Cohen instead of you correcting him, you know, when he was little, I mean, you might've been a little bothered by that little, little child. Maybe not, I don't know. I guess it really depends on how well we, you know, knew each other, you know. But, um, there were some parents that were like, wait a second. You know, that's, that's my child. Yeah, it does and how they do it. That's my child, but you know we were talking about that as an illustration last week of correcting. Our children. And I can tell you even in their in their teenage years. They've known. When I was displeased with them. And. I just kind of left it alone. and just let that thing marinate, you know, for a while. And sure enough, it wouldn't take long, especially the girls. It wouldn't take long. They'd be coming and saying, Dad, you know, I'm sorry, you know, about this. And there may be something I have to apologize for too. I don't, you know, I don't know, but, but I'm, I'm sorry. You know, I don't, I don't want there to be this distance between us. I don't wanna feel this displeasure that you have towards me. I don't wanna know your frown. I wanna know your smile. I don't wanna know the lack of joy and gladness. I want that to be restored. And so David's in that position. I mean, God is our heavenly father. We are in that position, aren't we? When we find ourselves in sin before his face. Listen to Psalm 118 verse 18. It says, the Lord hath chastened me sore. but he's not given me over to death. That's the very thing that Nathan says to David, the Lord's put away your sin, you shall not die, right? How about Psalm 38 verse one? It's in the superscription there, it says a Psalm of David to bring to remembrance. And like I said, by the time we finished this 51st Psalm, We ought to be very familiar with this territory. Oh Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure. For thine arrows stick fast in me. We could apply that to David here. And thy hand presseth me sore. Yeah, this is already a Psalm we've covered, right? But Psalm 38, three says, there is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger, neither is there any rest in my bones. Doesn't that sound like where we are in Psalm 51? He was talking about his bones being broken. But he says, there's no rest in my bones because of what? My sin. Because of my sin, there's no rest in my bones. And if you're a child of God, you know what that's like. There's no rest. There's no rest until we get that thing right with the Lord. I mean, you think about David, how long could there be no rest? There was no rest for likely the space of about a year. How miserable. for a year, for there not to be any rest in his bones, because of his sin against God. He doesn't confess it until Nathan comes, and he says, I've sinned against the Lord. So we do need a remembrance of these things, and God has been pleased to give us this. How'd you like something to happen in your life to be splashed across a page like this with David? But God's given us a remembrance here. What David had done could not be undone, but there is reconciliation. There is restoration by the grace and the mercy of God towards us in Christ. David knows that when God puts his sin out of his sight, when he turns his face, he blots out his iniquity. He knows that there'll be a rest. He knows that there'll be joy. He knows there'll be gladness. He wants to once again rejoice in the salvation of God. So one man said David's prayer here is for more than forgiveness, more than remission of punishment, more than abolition of sin. It is for restoration to what he was before. Restoration to what he had before. So in seeing the absolute misery of David in his sin, we can see the need of dealing with our sinful disobedience, seeing what an offense sin is unto God. We need to be reminded of that. It would be wrong for us to think that since Christ paid for all of our sins, and you can't tell me this thought hasn't ever crossed your mind, that maybe when you were in your youth, you may have thought in these terms, that since Christ has paid for all of our sins, we don't need repentance. They're all paid for. But that's not what the scripture bears out, is it? That's not what the Scripture bears out in Psalm 51. It's not what the Scripture bears out in other places. First John 1.9, someone quoted that, I think Brother Donnie or somebody quoted that in the middle of the message last week. But if we confess our sins, right? He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us Oh, David wants that. Oh, and when we have sin, we want that to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Also, we read in 1 John 1, 6, if we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. So, this would be, you know, some commentary, you know, on what I was saying before about Psalm 51, Where we are in Psalm 51 is the normal experience and response of a Christian who has sinned against God. Here, the opposite of that, a person who doesn't know the Lord, if we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth, right? But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, We have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Yes, the death of Christ paid for all of our sins, past, present, and future, right? I mean, if we are in Christ, if we belong to the Lord, if we are one of His children, right? Our sins are all paid for. That's what Brother JT was saying. You've been made perfect. You're seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. But that does not negate the need that we have to repent of our sin. We are to be penitent. That's what I'm saying. This is a penitential psalm. You will be. God will make you. David's been made miserable enough to be penitent here. Did your heart hurt? Yep, I'm re-saying that. That was just because he didn't show up at church on Sunday, wasn't it? Yeah. So, yes, the Lord's paid. Christ has paid for our sin, our debt. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, but we compare Scripture with Scripture, and we understand that does not mean that when we sin that we are not to repent of that sin, that we are not to confess our sins. We are to do those things, we are to confess, we are to repent. Our heart should hurt, as Brother J.T. is saying, as we walk in the light, as he is in the light. The blood of Christ cleanses us from all sin. If we're in sin, we'll feel God's hand heavy upon us. We'll know that we have a need, like Brother J.T. said just now. He said, God will make it so. God will cause it to be so. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. This is part of that. This is part of that here. We're justified in Christ, yes, but we're also sanctified in him, and that's what's happening in David's life here. Listen to Colossians 3, 3. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with him in glory. But between now and then, listen to verse number 5. Mortify therefore. your members which are on the earth, or upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry. So here's a mark, a mark of a believer, a mark of a Christian, a mark of a child of God, mortifying. He's gonna go about mortifying, seeking to put to death, in other words, Right? That's what the word has to do with. You know what a mortician is, right? It's a person who dresses up a dead body. So mortify, therefore, put to death, put to death these things. It's a mark of those who belong unto the Lord. They fight against, they fight against sin. They're at war with sin, indwelling sin. They're at war with sin in the flesh, right? They're at war with that. Isn't that what we're doing when we confess our sin? Are we fighting against it? Or this, your word says this is sin, and I agree, this is sin, and I want this to be removed. I want nothing to do with this. I don't want this around anymore. I long for the day that there'll be no more sin, and I'll dwell in that place where only righteousness dwells. But repenting of that sin, those things would equate with fighting against sin. Now, it's much better to fight on the front end, isn't it? Yield not to temptation, right? Walk in the spirit, you know, not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Much better to walk, you know, there, but certainly 1 John 1.8 is we're in that territory. If we say that we are without sin, we deceive ourselves. A person that says they have no sin, they're deceived. They're deceiving themselves and the truth is not in us. So confessing our sin. Be in agreement with God. This is where David's at. Turn your face from beholding my sin. Blot it out. Blot out my iniquity. That's part of the salvation that's ours in Christ. It's children's bread, if you've ever heard me use that phrase before. This belongs unto God's children. What? Confession? Repentance? Forgiveness? Restoration? This belongs unto God's children. And we hear that from the heart of David, the cry that there is there, hide thy face from my sin. One man said the pleasingness of sin, that pleasure that David was craving in that sin, it's gone. It's gone. What had happened, what he can't undo now, it's gone. The torment following it struck, or stuck by him, and it was no easy matter to remove it. What did we say last week? You can amputate your hand, but you can't, or your arm or your leg, but you can't put it back on. I wouldn't be able to. I know they've made some advances in medicine, but all those nerve endings, all those blood vessels, everything that was there before, would the feeling be as complete it was before? You can't put that back on like it was before. It's no easy matter to remove it. Who's going to have to remove it? Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. It's the salvation of God. But the emptiness that sin leaves behind, oh, it lasts so much longer, doesn't it, than the pleasure that sin gave. Hebrews 4.13 says that there's not a creature that is not manifest in God's sight, and that all things, I've mentioned this before, are naked and open under the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Doesn't that fit with David saying, hide your face from my sins? It's all naked and open before God. Hide your face from my sins. It's an offense unto God. David's feeling the weight of his transgression, the disapproval, the disapproval of what he's done before God. David's feeling it, the spirit grieved, the absence of joy and gladness, a desire for it to be restored. To go on and unconfess sin is to expose yourself to the reality that David finds himself in here. Some preachers I've heard before say, keep short accounts. Keep short accounts. And my grandfather had a grocery store in Trinity before I was born. It wasn't long ago that we saw where they were remodeling one of the buildings and they uncovered the old sign. Dad and I went up there and took a picture under the sign there, Lee and Bowman Grocery. There were accounts. I've had people, much older people than me, come and tell me the reason why our family was able to eat was because your grandfather you know, open the tab, you know, as it were for us. But I want to keep a short account. I know there could be times that I need, you know, help, but we're talking about sin here. We're not talking about feeding someone who's hungry, but I bring it up because you know what it is to have, you know, an open account. Maybe you have a credit card and you have an open account and there's debt that is there, right? And David's wanting that blotted out. He's wanting that removed, not in the sense of justification. We stand perfect there in Christ, but in the sense of where he is right now in the sin that he's committed and the guilt and the shame that he finds himself suffering under because of what he's done. Because he sinned against God. Because that sin is naked and open before God. And there's that thing that's being judged. God's saying, this is evil, this is wrong. This that you have done. David said of the man that Nathan gave the example of, that man's worthy of death. That's why Nathan says, the Lord's put away your sin, you're not gonna die. You're right, you're right. The wages of sin, what are they? Death. You're right, the wages of sin are death. But the Lord put away your sin, right? Mercy, grace. But to go on and unconfess sin, wow. It's to expose yourself to this reality that David finds himself in and for no less it seems than a year. Judgment, right, will fall upon the sinner outside of Christ, what falls upon the believer? Chastisement, right? Correction, instruction in righteousness. So David cries for that, blot out. You think about Abel's blood, right? There was murder that had been committed. Cain had slain his brother. And what did God say about Abel's blood? It cried out from the ground. And so here we are, we sin against the Lord, that cries out. And David says, blot out my sin that cries out for this chastening hand, this judgment, not the judgment in the sense that the sinner is going to know, but this judgment against this sin that I've committed. Why else would they? He's the believer speaking here. He says, hide thy face from my sin. Blot out mine iniquities. It was alive before David. It was real. It was vivid. It was in full color, so to speak. There it was, what he had done. 1 Corinthians 11 and 30, this is before the Lord's table, you remember. For this cause, this sin, many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep or dead. For if we would judge ourselves, there's the context in which we find that passage. If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord. We're chastened of the Lord that we should not be condemned with the world. Aren't you glad? Chastened of the Lord that we're not condemned with the world. But unblotted out sin cries out for the chastening of God. Unconfessed sin cries out for the chastening hand of God. So David says blot out, he's confessed his sin. Cries out, blot out mine iniquities. Whether you wanna say it Augustine or Augustine, it's pronounced both ways by a lot of different people, but he said this, he said, switch your sin to a position before your face. In other words, confessing it, calling it for what it is. David said that his sin in this Psalm, don't you remember he said, my sin is what? Ever before me. He says, switch your sin to a position before your face. if you want God to turn His face away from it. If you want God to turn His face away from it, switch your sin to where it's before your face. in confession, in repentance. So God's hiding his face, it's nothing short of passing by it. It's the imagery that we saw before with the hyssop and the blood, and it's striking upon the doorpost, and the death angel passed over. You know, this is the imagery that we have, God hiding his face, passing it by, not regarding it, blotting it out, In Psalm 55 verse 1, David says, give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not thyself from my supplication. So there's another aspect of this idea of God hiding his face. On the one hand, David wants God to hide his face from his transgression, from his sin. On the other hand, here he's saying, don't hide your face from my prayer. Don't hide your face from me crying out unto you in this matter. Hide not thyself from my supplication. Regard my prayer. Don't regard my repentant of and confess sin, but regard my prayer. Hide your face from that, but don't hide your face from my supplication, from my prayer. We also read in Ezekiel 39, 29, He says, the Lord says, neither will I hide my face from them any more. For I have poured out my spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God. So there's another idea of this aspect of David talking about God hiding his face. And there's a sense in which we want the Lord to hide his face from our sin. There's another sense that we don't want him to hide his face from us. We want to know the joy of that restored salvation. Though he cannot but see, God sees. He knows. He can't help but see these things, can't help but know these things. He's God, right? He knows our sins, because He knows all things. Yet in this sense, David's saying, take no notice of them. In a sense of holding them, you know, against me. Hide your face from them. Blot out my iniquity. Forgive, in other words. so that they are remembered no more. When I use the illustration of one of my daughters, maybe, and there's been this thing that's been between us, and then there's that restoration, what happens? I forget that thing. Why hang on to it? There's been reconciliation. Why hang on to it? There's been restoration. Why hang on to it? There's now joy and gladness. You remember the prodigal son's father? Put a ring on his finger, put the best robes upon him, put shoes on his feet, and slay the fatted calf. Blood out. My transgressions, here's probably, and I know this verse has probably been bouncing around in Brother J.T.' 's head because it's from the book that he loves so much. Isaiah, Isaiah 43, 25. Listen to what that says. I, even I, am he, God says, that blotteth out thy transgressions. I'm the one that does that, God says. For mine own sake, for his glory's sake, for his honor's sake, for the glory of Christ, and will not remember thy sins. So what does it mean to blot out sins? It says it right here, not to remember, not to remember, they're covered. There's an old hymn that we sing, praise God, my sins are gone, right? So maybe, may the Lord be pleased to hide his face from our sins, but not hide our sins from our own face. We need to know what David knows here. We need to see our sins for what they are, as David does here, but how gracious the Lord is. It makes me think back again to Brother Josue and the messages that he brought, how merciful, how long-suffering, how long the Lord has borne with us, bared with us. how much patience the Lord has shown unto us. If you're not in Christ this morning, if you have not come unto him that you might have life, I've spent some time thinking about that verse this week, then what? Then you're even now under condemnation. You're even now, there's a debt that is unpaid. Even now you are in danger of judgment. That's what John 3, 18 says. Yeah, John 3, 18, he that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already. It's like the man that's already gone through the court system, he's already stood before the judge, he's been condemned, he's just waiting execution. He's just waiting for the date that he's gonna be put to death, just awaiting execution. He's condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten. We heard about that this morning, son of God. And this is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that do with evil hated the light, neither cometh to the light unless his deeds should be reproved. But here's, here's the reality of the child of God. He that doeth truth, this is David here in Psalm 51, this is you if you're a child of God. He that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. So there's the reality, we come into the light. Search me, try me, see if there be any wicked way in me, lead me in the paths of righteousness for thy name's sake, the scripture says. So we lay hold on Christ. We plead his merits. Hide thy face from my sin. Blot out all mine iniquities. There's not one sin I can pay for. There's not one sin that I could stand in judgment for. Christ has paid them all. Well, lastly, I'll read to you Malachi 3 verse 3. Think about where David is, what he's going through, right? Malachi 3 verse 3 says this, and he shall sit, that is God, he shall sit as a refiner and as a purifier of silver. And he shall purify the sons of Levi and purge them as gold and silver that they may what? Offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. This is what the Lord's accomplishing here in David. When we find ourselves here in this position that David's in, this is what the Lord's accomplishing in us. This is needful for us. This is profitable for us. This brings about righteousness. This brings about glory and honor and praise unto God. Well, there's a part of me that wants to apologize that we're taking so long to go through, but I haven't been able to get past. And it seems like one verse at a time. I know there's other times we've gone through entire Psalms, you know, in one message, but, but this one, the Lord's just, just taking me through at a slower pace. And so, um, I hope, I hope that it's profitable unto you. I hope that it's not. Lord forbid that it be boring unto us, tedious unto us, tasteless unto us. So Lord, help us.