He played for the Philadelphia Athletics for one year. And then he played with the Cleveland Naps, N-A-P-S. I like that for the name of a professional team. I think I could be a professional napper. They later changed their name from the Knapp's to the Cleveland Indians. Six years he was with them and then he finished his career with the Chicago White Sox in 1920. Do you know who I'm speaking of? Shoeless Joe from Hannibal Moe. Shoeless Joe Jackson. He finished his career and now has the third highest lifetime batting average in Major League Baseball history. He finished his career with an average of .356. Now if you play a shortstop in the Major Leagues and you bat .222, you'll make $10 million. But Shoeless Joe finished his career with a .356 average, and Babe Ruth said that he modeled his swing after Shoeless Joe. But in 1919, Shoeless Joe Jackson was accused, along with seven other teammates, of throwing the 1919 World Series for $5,000 each. And Judge Kennesaw Mountain Landis, Commissioner of Baseball in the day, issued a lifetime ban on Shoeless Joe from Hannibal Moe. Next, arguably he was one of the greatest professional boxers of all time. This is not Shoeless Joe. We're moving on. At age 20, He became the youngest heavyweight champion of the world in the history of that sport. And he held that title in a remarkably competitive field of contenders for four years. But what boxing fans will remember about Mike Tyson, Iron Mike, is biting off a piece of Evander Holyfield's ear in a prize fight. Now, what Shoeless Joe had in common with Iron Mike, and King David for that matter, is that they'll be remembered for their colossal blunders in an otherwise distinguished career. On the plus side for King David, there was the Goliath moment. But Bathsheba cast a shadow as obvious as any of his other accomplishments. After today, we're going to close the door on this episode of David's remarkable career. This is the third week we've talked about it. Sadly, this piece of the episode, Psalm 51, is not as widely known as David's colossal, felonious behavior surrounding his sinful indiscretion. And I use the word indiscretion not to dull the concept or the effect of his sin, but I use indiscretion for modesty's sake. As I said last week, many great preachers divide this passage, probably with good reason, with good cause. But today I want you to hear this prayer of David as the anguished soul of someone who crossed a line that, while culturally appropriate, was self-consciously wrong-headed. You remember that some years before, the people had asked for a king like the other nations, and that's what they got, a king like the other nations. The king's rule in the other nations was absolute. The kings could do whatever they wanted to do without asking. The kings had no accountability, and that's precisely what King David was doing. He was taking what he wanted with no accountability. But there was a heavy price to be paid by his heart. We'd expect that kind of response from someone with a regenerated heart. The prophet Ezekiel later would describe it as God taking a heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh, a tender heart. And we expect that from a person who is, in fact, a believer and one of whom God would say, he's a man after my own heart. And I spoke about this very thing to a person last week who was a person who was not a believer in Christ. And this is what he said. He said, what happens if I mess up? No one's perfect all the time. And my response was, That's why we need a Savior. And I want you to listen to the cry of David's anguished soul. And I want you to follow. It's in the bulletin. It's not going to be on your screens, but it is going to be in the bulletin. And I would like for you to follow me, because it's kind of a lengthy piece. And I'm going to read it in its entirety. And I want you to hear the, The struggle that David is having in his soul for this gross sin that he had done with Bathsheba and then with her husband Uriah. David records his reaction in Psalm 51 when Nathan, the prophet, called him out on it. And this is what he says in Psalm 51. 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. Cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgression. 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. My mother conceived 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'll be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins. Blot out my iniquity. Create in me a clean heart, O God. 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. Uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your way, as 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. broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good design 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 bulls will be offered on your altar." That was David. in pain. Now, quick to point out, self-imposed pain, but pain nonetheless. What we want to say is that sin has physical and spiritual consequences. There are certain sins that carry with them certain direct physical consequences that work in a cause and effect fashion. If you practice gluttony, for instance, you're going to put on weight. Even if you're repentant afterwards, you are still going to put on weight. Maybe we should try that, the repentant diet. I mean, it works as good as most of the other diets I've tried. If you practice gluttony, you put on weight. If you hold up a convenience store You're likely to spend time in jail, cause and effect. If you practice greed, you may have some trouble. I heard a wealth planning attorney say one time, pigs get fat, but hogs get slaughtered. And that was their telling us to guard against greed. But there are other physical and emotional consequences that arise out of sin. For instance, sin creates a sense of a dirty or soiled soul. A troubled soul. Remember we said last week that Martin Luther had this noisy conscience. Sin creates a sense of a dirty or soiled soul, a conscience that is noisy. It's hard for me to describe what that's like, but if you've ever experienced it, and I have been in places where I have had a dirty or soiled soul, you would know. And this is what David said in Psalm 51 and verse 7. He says, purge me with hyssop and I'll be clean. wash me and I'll be whiter than snow. He was reflecting this sense that he had that his soul was just dirty and he needed to have it cleansed. So that's the first thing that comes, the physical and emotional consequences of sin. There's another one that he points out, joy and gladness wane, he says. In Psalm 51 verse 8 he says, let me hear joy and gladness. When we sin self-consciously, like we hold a grudge, against somebody. We know we shouldn't, but we end up holding a grudge. Or we speak a lie that has a lie of consequence. Or we knowingly compromise God's standard when we do those kind of things. Because we think that the result of whatever guilty pleasure it may be, from holding a grudge to being unjustly angry or bigoted or whatever that might be, we think the result will be satisfying. And maybe you've done this before. Maybe you're even in the midst of it right now. You hold a grudge against somebody, refusing to forgive even a repentant person because you're sure that by doing that, you will not only punish the other person, But by holding that grudge, you'll feel better, too. And so you nurse that grudge. But you don't feel better. Then, not only do we not feel better, but we realize that we've compromised a standard and sinned, and the promised and expected wave of forbidden pleasure was a dud. I don't know if you remember years ago, maybe 20 years ago, after one of the latest tsunamis to hit in Bangladesh. There was a wave of discussion on some of the talking head shows on TV about what happens with a tsunami and how fast that can race across an ocean. And there was an earthquake, a big earthquake, under the water somewhere in Indonesia. And then they were predicting that that tsunami would be at Hawaii in a matter of hours. as it raced across the ocean floor. And so they set up the cameras in Hawaii waiting for this big tsunami to come. And then here it came. Almost nothing. I was thinking about it yesterday and mentally I was comparing it to, remember when Geraldo Rivera made such a big deal about Al Capone safe? What's an Al Capone safe? We'll have to wait and see. And then they built it up. And then they had a big TV show about it. And they opened it up. It was absolutely empty. You know, when we self-consciously sin, we know we should forgive that person. We know we shouldn't be angry with that person. We know that we shouldn't say those things when we get cut off while driving our car. But we expect, oh, if I just do this, then I'll have a wave, a tsunami of forbidden pleasure will come over me. And it doesn't happen. And then we say, oh, I compromised my soul to get that forbidden pleasure, and it never comes. Joy and gladness wane, David says. He also compares such conditions to broken bones. David's sin was of such consequence that his reputation was lost, his best friend was now dead, and his position with God was compromised. Everything was irretrievably lost, and he describes it as broken bones. Psalm 51 8, let the bones you have broken rejoice. And then there comes with that a sense of alienation from God as well. And in verse 11 of our passage, David said, cast me not from your presence. He sensed that God was far away from him, and he didn't want that experience. He had been close with God, and he didn't want the experience of being alienated from God. You may have sensed that same sort of thing before, where God seems distant or unresponsive, maybe overly quiet. And your sense is that God is far from you. And while it's possible that you're depending too much on your feelings with reference to your relationship with God, it may also be true that your sin has created a spiritual fog bank. and you feel distant. You know, this morning, I don't know if you had this experience this morning, but when you came in, and you looked at the windows on the door, and the windows over here, and the windows over here, maybe when you woke up in the morning, and you looked outside, you said, well, how come it's so hazy? And your windows just had this film of humidity on it. You got in your car, you drove over here, you stepped out of your car, and immediately your glasses went. You know, that happens with God. We say, where did you go? We have this vague sense of alienation from God, and we feel distant because our sin has put distance between us and God, and maybe even feeling abandoned by God. He says, cast me not from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Don't abandon me, God, in my anguish. And the third thing we want to say about this passage is that repentance is the necessary consequent of sin. There is a great Puritan pastor by the name of Thomas Watson. He was a pastor, and he was an author And he wrote a treatise on repentance. And I put his six ingredients of repentance on your outline for you just to muse on. His six ingredients of repentance involves the sight of sin. You have to see sin as it is. You have to have a sorrow for sin in repentance. You have to own it. You have to say, I blew it. We're disinclined to do that. Maybe you've had this kind of discussion with your spouse, and you've had this. this argument that is going on, that's running, and you know that you're wrong, it's a little painful for you to admit it. And with every passing hour, it becomes harder to admit it. And so with God, there has to be an owning of our sin, a sorrow for sin, then a confession of sin, feeling shame for sin. It has to be a hatred of sin, and then finally, ultimately, a turning from sin. And that's what Thomas Watson, how he described the repentance process. And in the course of that treatise, he had some quotes that I just want to read to you because I think that they're very good. And the first, and my favorite, is this. is the color of virtue. Isn't that a good one? Blushing is the color of virtue. He says sorrow for sin is such a vehement passion that it must vent. It has to find a way out. It says it vents itself at the eyes by weeping and at the tongue by confession. And he says, confession should focus on oneself and one's own sin. It should not look to mitigate, excuse, rationalize, or blame. And you see this in David's prayer, his ownership for his heinous sin. An unrepentant heart is sick. It may even be an unconverted heart. So what do we take away from this? What do we learn from this brief consideration of David's psalm of repentance? Well, first of all, I want to make a distinction between the repentant faith that leads to justification with God and the repentant faith that is the normal Christian life. One is the gate that lets us into the pasture. The other is the pasture in which we live and move. The repentant faith that leads to justification with God is the gate. And Jesus said, enter through the narrow gate. And then the other is the pasture where we live our Christian lives. And there are two distinct motions in it. The Bible says in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 1, it says, you are dead in the trespasses and sins of your former selves. And our natural spiritual condition is that we are dead towards God. When we are born into this world, Everybody. This is not a class thing. This is not a nationality thing. It's not even a religious thing. Even Presbyterians are dead spiritually when they're born into this world. Some of you are saying especially Presbyterians. But they're dead in their natural condition. So what's the answer? Well, in Acts chapter 2, Peter smacks those who are spiritually dead pretty good. Because in Acts chapter 2 and verse 36, Luke tells us concerning Peter's sermon, let all the house of Israel. Now the fact that he's talking to Israel here is because he's speaking to Israelites. He's speaking to his audience. He knows his audience, so he's speaking to them. Others are going to get whacked later on. But for now, let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus, whom you crucified. Whom you crucified. He gave him a pretty good shot. It's not really the best way to win an audience, is to hit them between the eyes. And that's what Peter did. He didn't go soft. He didn't pull any punches. He whacked him right across the eyes. Whom you crucified. And verse 37, now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers then, what must we do to be saved? You see, they were dead in their sins and Peter told them that. But God was breathing life into him, as we said before in Ezekiel. He was taking from them that heart of stone, that one that didn't want to own their sin. And he was replacing it with a tender heart, a heart of flesh. And so Peter tells them. repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Peter tells them that repentant faith resolves the issue of spiritual death. Believe that Jesus is the Son of God and turn to him away from your self-sufficiency and to the Savior that God provided for us. Peter tells them that this repentant faith is the answer to spiritual death. And so he says in Ephesians 2, 4, but God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loves us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. By grace have you been saved. That is repentance that brings new life, spiritual life, that makes us alive to God. Now, what I want to tell you is that that is not what's principally in view in this passage. There's another principle. That had to do with the gate into which you enter. There is then the field in which the... Let's just stop and pray for just a minute. Heavenly Father, we thank you for Beverly and what a sweetheart she is. And we know that she's been struggling with some physical issues. We just pray for her, that you would strengthen her and draw near to her in this moment. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. So there's a gate we go through and then there is the meadow in which we live our lives. It's this meadow that's what's in view. You see, God's purpose for us in this life is not a comfortable life. God's purpose in this life is not wealth and it's not health and it's not prosperity. God's objective for us is conformity to his son. God wants us to be like Jesus, and in Paul's letter to the Romans, Romans 8, 28 and 29, it says, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. This is the field that we live in, the field of conformity to the image of his son. So I know that God wants me to be like Jesus, not necessarily with a beard and long hair and robes and that sort of thing, but in true righteousness, in holiness, and in knowledge. So that being the case, God's intent for me is to live a life of repentance. And his plan for David was to live a life of repentance. You know, if David hadn't blown it there, he would have blown it somewhere else. Nobody is perfect. Everybody, even and especially those who have entered through the narrow gate, have an issue with sin. God's intent for me is to live a life of repentance. And that's in fact what Martin Luther, remember last week we talked about Martin Luther and how he nailed a 95 thesis on the door of the castle church. And his very first, the first of the 95, said when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said repent, he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. It's not repentance unto justification. It is repentance unto restoration, restoring a relationship gone awry. And that is the normal Christian life. And this is what John speaks of in 1 John 1, 9. We read this a few weeks ago. It says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And that's David's repentance in Psalm 51. He wanted to restore a relationship that he had marred willfully. In fact, one author enumerated the number of sins that were wrapped up in David's condition. And five of the 10 commandments they found as being having been breached by David in his sin with Bathsheba. So I think that's the first thing, to differentiate between the repentant faith that gets you through the gate and then the repentant faith that we live in once inside the gate. The second thing I'd like to say is a quote from Cornelius Plantinga. with regard to this passage of scripture in Psalm 51. Plantinga said that one of the strange facts of the universe is that God will never tolerate sin, but he will forgive it. God will never tolerate sin, but he will forgive it. Next, I'd say this, if you are feeling alienated or abandoned by God, then what I would suggest is that you pray the prayer that David prayed in Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24. It says, search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any grievous way in me. and lead me in the way everlasting. If you're feeling as though you are alienated from God, that God is distant, maybe even has abandoned you, pray that prayer. Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there's any grievous way in me. I've done that a few times. Strap in. He'll do it. And last thing is, we talked about this last week, it was the high cost of crime. And David prays for God to blot out his transgressions, to have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. We said last week that to blot out means literally to rub out or erase. Sin creates a record. It creates a rap sheet. It's an offense against judgment and therefore calls for punishment. And David's sin required the death penalty. How is it that God could belay the death penalty? How is it that God could blot out David's sin without striking him dead? Only in the New Testament do we discover that someone stood in for David and absorbed the loss by absorbing the punishment for the sin. That's how David could have his record blotted out, erased. If I lent you $500 It probably wasn't me, because I don't carry that kind of money with me. But if I lent you, if some way somehow I had $500 and I lent you $500, and you said, please forgive my sin, please forgive my debt, I could do that. But if I did that, I would have to absorb the loss. I would be out $500. And I would walk away knowing that I had given up $500. I would absorb the loss. When we sin, we create a debt with God. To be forgiven that debt. has to be absorbed by someone. God absorbed the debt at a cost. And the cost was his dear son, Jesus. That was the cost of our sin. That's what it cost us to have that sin debt forgiven. This is how Paul described it to the Colossians. In Colossians 3, he says, and you were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside by nailing it to the cross. Jesus Christ took that loss himself. Jesus paid David's debt by standing in for him and dying for him. He absorbed David's death so that David's chains fell off. And so we said last week that ironically in illustrating the problem with Nathan, the prophet, was also illustrating the solution. Remember he talked about a man having a little lamb that he treated like his daughter, and even though he had big flocks and herds, he went and took that lamb. For Nathan, the problem for the rich man was the blood of the lamb, and for David, the solution was the blood of the lamb. And so we're going to conclude our service today. And I asked Gordon if we could sing that song that we quoted last week from And Can It Be. We're just going to sing that one stanza. It'll be on the screens. Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Would you pray with me? God, thank you. Thank you for Jesus who absorbed the loss so that we might be forgiven. Thank you for a conscience which steps on our toes when we have violated your will for us. God, give us that noisy conscience so that we can live in the field in repentant faith. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. Will you stand with me? We're gonna start with the chorus and then take the last verse. You're gonna find the words to this in your bulletin. It's in a sheet, an insert that you're gonna find in your bulletin. Amazing love, how can it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Now I dread Jesus, and all in Him is mine. Alive in Him, my living Head, and clothed in righteousness, As I approach the eternal throne