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thing soever the law saith, it
saith it to them who are under the law, that every mouth may
be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin. Dear congregation, Young people, boys and girls,
David sits upon his throne and the prophet Nathan stands before
him. Once there were two men in the
city, one very rich and one very poor. Nathan begins his story. The rich man had many flocks
and herds, but the poor man had only one cute little hew lamb. and how he loved his little lamb,
how he cared for it as his own daughter. It ate from its plate, it drank
from its cup, and it slept in his bed with him. But then, Nathan
continues, a traveler happened to visit that rich man. But instead
of making a nice dinner for the traveler, the rich man decides
that he will take the lamb from the poor man and kill it and
eat it. Nathan tells the story in such
a way that David thinks he needs to render a judgment as a king. David clearly sees the sin of
this man and harshly condemns it. He says, as the Lord lives,
the man who has done this deserves to die. He must give at least
four lamps back to this poor man. And Nathan points his finger
to David and says, you are that man. I anointed, God says, I anointed
you as king, I saved you from Saul's hand, I gave you a kingdom,
I gave you many wives, and what did you do? You took Uriah's
wife and killed him with a sword, and killed Uriah himself with
the sword of the Amorites, and you have taken his wife to be
your wife. I will certainly punish you for
this. Beloved, the Lord had blessed
David in so many ways, and yet David fell in such grievous error
and sin. David, a man after God's own
heart, committed adultery. David, that man who was so honest
when he met with King Saul, remember, he had an opportunity to kill
him, now kills one of his most faithful soldiers, one of his
mighty men, Uriah. Don't we wonder? How could it
come to this point, to this low point in David's life? Well,
let's look at that briefly in our first point, in light as
we prepare our hearts for this communion season, that it might
uncover those sins in our hearts, because sin still works the same
in our hearts. And so we consider that in our
first thought, entrapped without true repentance. But that's not
where we want to stay. We also want to hear His song
of true repentance. And that's our theme for this
evening and for tomorrow night's message as well. And then we
consider the experience of true repentance, so that we can lay
our hearts alongside this evening and examine our hearts in light
of the upcoming of the Lord's Supper. We look at verses one
through six. And tomorrow night, we look at
evidences of true repentance as we look at verses 7 through
19, Lord willing, and consider the question, how do I know if
I have truly repentance? Maybe that's a question that
you have. And so we will give some evidences
of true repentance in our lives so that we can continue to examine
our hearts in light of that. So first of all, entrapped without
true repentance. Boys and girls, let's turn back
to that question that we heard. How could David, David fall so
deeply in such a wicked sin? What happened? What changed this such a godly
man? I believe there's an answer for
us in the scriptures and it's found in James chapter 1 verse
15. There it gives us, as it were,
the anatomy, the way sin works in our lives. What do we read
there? When lust hath conceived, it
bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it is finished,
bringeth forth death. James takes for us here a picture. A picture of a baby being born. It's first conceived and then
it's born. And what does it bear, David
says? A healthy child? No. It brings forth death. And so let's look at these stages
that David, or James rather, outlines for us in this verse. First of all, let's look at the
conception of sin. What made David fall? What conceived sin in his heart? What lust was there in his heart? Well, I think we all know it.
It was the love of ease. It started there in his heart,
his love of peace. He stayed home, 2 Samuel 11 verse
1 tells us, on the palace roof where the battle was fought,
miles away from where he was. He didn't go with his troops.
It was springtime, time when every king would go for battle,
but David stays home. comfortable in his palace. And there we find him leisurely
strolling on the rooftop of his palace. And perhaps he couldn't
sleep. We don't know exactly. He is
there high in this palace and his soldiers miles away in the
battlefield fighting for him. And David is not doing his duty
as a king. Beloved, that's where sin often
starts in our lives too. Doesn't it? We don't have any obligations. You want to kick back and relax.
And perhaps you have some things to do, but you don't want to
do them. And you say, put them off. And there's maybe ways in which
you can be useful and serve, but you love ease, pleasure. No, legitimate relaxation is
not wrong. That's not what I'm saying. But
we need to be careful because it can be used by Satan as a
fertile ground that sin springs up in our hearts. When we love
ease rather than serving and obeying the Lord, then sin is
conceived in our hearts. What happens next? There's this
love for ease in David's heart. As he strolls over the palace
top and he catches a glimpse of a woman, she's washing herself
and David immediately sees that she's beautiful. And he looked
long enough to know that she was pretty. And Jesus had said
later, our Lord and Savior said it like this, that whosoever
looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery already
in his heart. And there was the sin that was
conceived by a desire for ease was now born. David already sinned in his heart,
a lustful look. And there's no alarm bells. Maybe
there's some in our congregation tonight here who have done the same thing,
or different sins. Doesn't need to be sexual sin. But you have looked, desired. You've loved ease and pleasure
more than God. And there were no alarm bells
to ring. And you didn't repent. And you
run into sin. What happened next? So from the
conception of sin, we have this birth of sin in David's heart. We want to act upon that sin.
You see, boys and girls, when you desire ease and pleasure, you don't like it when your mom
says, now come and clean up your room. Right? You don't want to do it. And that desire for love of ease,
you want to have it easy, comes with actions. And what is the
action? You don't want to obey. Disobedience. You're ignoring their further
command, or you argue with your mom, I hope not. It leads to
some kind of sinful action. And so also here, a desire for
ease in David's life became a desire for pleasure and it translated
itself into sinful actions. And so he's asking, who's that
lady over there? And notice the answer. When you
turn to the book of Samuel, it will tell you, isn't this Bathsheba,
his servants say, isn't this Bathsheba? And notice this, the
daughter of Elam, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite. They're saying,
David, she's married already. It was very clear for David. But
he ignores the fact. what he hears. One sinful thought leads to a
sinful action and to another sinful action. He chooses to
follow his desires all the way, you see that it gives birth to
more sin. There were warnings. And so there
are warnings for all of us as we as we are in a situation like
that, like David's, maybe not exactly the same sin. There are
warnings on the way towards sin, and we choose not to listen to
it. So in our lives, On the way to
sin, there are, as it were, stop signs. But sin wrestles even
in this heart of this child of God, David. There's war against
our souls. Satan is right there to destroy
and to devour whom he can. We read that David sends servants,
plural, to get Bathsheba to himself. Another action. So what does that tell us? Many
people or several servants knew about what was happening here
in the palace. Bathsheba comes. We don't know
what her role was. The Bible is quiet about it.
They commit adultery. And she goes afterwards. Later,
David receives the message, King David, I'm pregnant. And again,
there is a choice. Again, there is a choice. And
the Lord puts these choices in the way, on the path of sin,
to warn us. What will you do now, King David?
Will you be honest or will you continue in sin? Maybe that's
the question that tonight someone needs to hear tonight. Will you
be honest or will you continue in sin? The Lord puts that choice
before us tonight. And David, although a child of
God, chooses ignoring and disobedience. Maybe to save his face. What
would other people say otherwise? Avoid the shame, to be humbled
and to confess. Maybe that's also someone here
tonight. Don't want to come to confession.
What will people say if? And so he covers his sin over,
that's easiest, and continues on the way to sin. So David sends messengers to
the battlefront. He calls Uriah home. We know
it. He hopes he will spend the night
with his wife and cover up what he has done. Uriah arrives, goes to the home,
not to the home, David sends him to the home, he doesn't go,
but then in 2 Samuel 11, where we read all about all this, verse
8, I've never noticed this before, but maybe you have, but it says
there, and there followed him a mess of meat from the king. You see that? Deliberately, David
sends him a gift. Here, you have a gift. It might be that Uriah already
had heard what happened. And so David deliberately sends
this gift either to have a good night together or deliberately
trying to cover up his sins. Maybe he was saying to Uriah,
Let's not talk about this anymore. But Uriah was an honest man. He didn't, he chooses to disregard
the gift and disobey the king, a brave act. A king who is powerful
like David. The next day he's called to the
palace again. Why don't you go home, says the king. And Uriah indirectly confronts
David where the problem began. It's like God speaking through
Uriah to David. Look, King, we are all in the
battlefield. You are not. I can't go back
home and be with my wife. You see, Uriah stubbornly speaks
the truth. But David doesn't want to let
go of his desires. And Uriah stays for one more
night and David makes him drunk, even another sin. And we would say, David, a man
after God's own heart. David, what are you doing? You see how deceptive sin is?
How blinding? How wicked? And sin never has enough. Sin
blinds us. Sin entraps us. Sin is like a
net that catches us. And we wrestle maybe to stay
out of its tentacles. and traps us. And so the birth
of sin leads to the birth of what? Death, James tells us. Death. So long story short, David
continues to harden his heart, writes a letter to Joab, and
Uriah kills his own death sentence. How wicked. Uriah is sadly killed in the
battle, and Joab comes with another letter and tells David, and David
is calloused, see that's what sin does, it makes us calloused
about sin, other sins. So yeah, sword devours one, sword
devours another. Scentless, hardened by the deceitfulness
of sin. And he sends a message back to
Joab to say, let this thing not displease you. Don't make a big deal out of
it, Joab. But in the meantime, his sin
has led to death. Just as James tells us. Not only
Uriah is dead, also several other soldiers, and soon the death
of a child that was conceived in this illiterate relationship. Death is the result of sin. Sin cannot bring forth anything
else but death. The wages of sin is death, sooner
or later. And if it's later and not repented
of, it brings, dear friends, eternal death. Eternal death. In hell. We would say, David, why don't
you wake up? David doesn't. He takes Bathsheba
as his wife and it looks like everything is past now. His son
is conceived and everything is forgotten. And he saved his face. But David had lost his integrity
and lost his relationship with the Lord and his closeness with
the Lord. He has covered up all his sins
so that everything would look good. But he has forgotten something.
What is it? Who is it? It's the Lord. He
said to Joab, let this thing not displease you, Joab. But
what does it say in verse 27b of that same chapter? But the
thing that David had done displeased the Lord. You see, the Lord gives us much
time to repent. It's probably a year that David
lives in this sin. If you have not come to true
repentance tonight, how long has the Lord been patient with
you? Very patient. It took almost a year in David's
life, a miserable year. How long have you lived in your
misery if you don't know Christ in a saving way tonight? How long will it be before you
listen to that voice that comes and points the finger at you?
You are the man. You are the woman. You are the
child. Sin has consequences. And so
do our sins. David's sin has dire consequences. The sword came to his house.
His family members were killed, several of them. He committed
adultery and there was open adultery by his son on the rooftop again. But David came by God's grace,
marvelous grace. Amazing grace. He came to realize
how hateful his sin was in the eyes of the Lord. Have you come
to that point? David's heart was pierced. He was heartbroken. When the
finger was pointed, you are that man, David. And he says to Nathan, I have
sinned against the Lord. How necessary to come to that
humbling and difficult place in our lives where sin is bitter. Where we bow under the judgment
of God, I've sinned. How difficult, how bitter, but
how blessed. How blessed is he whose trespasses
have freely been forgiven, whose sin is wholly covered in the
sight of the Lord. When we come and confess our
sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. You see, the Lord came with Nathan
because God is gracious and he wanted to lead out his child
out of the darkness and misery so that he could rejoice in God
again. And so it is, when God gives
us gracious repentance, it's so that we would rejoice in God. And let's come then and consider
secondly Psalm 51 and the first six verses and what we read about
the experience of true repentance. We hear the broken notes of true
repentance in Psalm 51. Finally, David sees sin the way
God sees it. And that's what true repentance
is. We see sin the way God sees it. And God graciously gives us this
song in our Psalter, in the book of Psalms. so that we would know
what true repentance looks like and how it feels. David wrote
this song for us tonight. He puts words in our mouths.
May it not just be words, but may it be the experience of each
one of our hearts tonight. Because only God can give this
grace to us. to humble us, to break our hearts,
and how we need that as we prepare our hearts for the Lord's Supper
this Sunday, in this communion season. For the first time, perhaps,
someone, we're fresh. The blessing of true repentance,
what a blessing it is. What a blessing it is. What does
it mean to truly repent first? When we repent, we see our need
for cleansing. Let's listen to verses one and
two of Psalm 51. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender
mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. And cleanse me from my sin. No longer ignoring sin. That's
what David is doing. Have you been brought there?
You can't ignore sin anymore. You see your need, your desperate
need for God's grace and God's gracious cleansing of our heart.
And did you notice he uses personal pronouns here? He says my transgressions,
my iniquity, my sin. That's what we need. We own up
to our sins. My transgressions, what does
that mean? My willful rebellion. against God's good ways and commandments. Thou shalt not commit adultery,
and I did. Thou shalt not kill, and I did. What are your sins that you tonight,
in the presence of God's holiness, need to confess before the Lord?
My transgressions, the wickedness of my heart, I need cleansing,
Lord. My iniquity, that word means
the bent of our heart, the twistedness of our nature. God calls us to
live for His glory and His glory alone, and we are bent out of
shape. and our sinful nature leads us
into sin. My iniquity, David says, and
my sin, the fact that we miss the mark. God says we are to
live for him and him alone, and we don't. God wants us to be
pure and holy, and we have to confess before the Lord, I am
impure, Lord. Have we become honest about our
sins? Don't we want to sing along tonight
with David in this song of true repentance and say with him,
blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my sins, cleanse
me away my iniquity and my sin. What does that mean, blot out? Boys and girls, that means wipe
away. Maybe you have a whiteboard at home, or at school, or wherever,
and there's something written there. In this case, it's David's
sin against him that's written there. And you take the eraser,
or in this case, God needs to come and take the eraser and
wipe it all clean again. Everything that's written against
David. Blood out my iniquity. Wipe it,
my transgressions. Wipe it away, Lord. Wipe it out
of the book of remembrance. And he adds, wash me. Now maybe you have had a piece
of clothing and you had a stain on it. I had once a tie and you
try to clean up. And it's just getting worse as
you try to clean it away. And you try to wash this stain
out. The stain is too deep. That's
the picture here. David says the stain is too deep. It's in the fabric of my being. Lord, wash me thoroughly. Use the type of soap that I don't
have and wash it until the stain is invisible. Wash me, Lord. That's what it means to repent.
We might have tried all kinds of things, but we realize that
the stain of sin is deeply ingrained in our nature. And I can save
myself. I can do it. I can't cleanse
myself. Wash me, Lord. Cleanse me. The word means purify. It has
a has a ritual meaning to it in the sense that that if you
were not clean, if you were unclean and you came to the temple, you
were not allowed in into God's presence. And David says sin,
sin makes me that I cannot come in the presence of the Lord,
that there is a separation between me and God. God can't welcome
me this way. But when I'm purified, cleanse
me, purify me. When I am purified, we can once
again come into the presence of the Holy God. Have you experienced,
dear congregation, this in your own life, that God, for Christ's
sake, has wiped away the record that was written against you
and wiped it all clean? Sin needs to be washed away. It's like that blot on our consciences
and our hearts and on our natures. It's deeply ingrained in the
fabric of our being. And we need to be cleansed and
purified because sin hinders us to have this fellowship and
communion and joyful fellowship with the Lord. And so what do we hear? David
cry tonight. Maybe that's your cry. I hope
it is tonight. He cries out for mercy. Mercy. Have mercy on me. Oh God. Why should God have mercy upon
David, boys and girls? Why? I mean, he badly messed
up. God must look down upon David
in wrath because of his sin. He could have ignored David's
crying. He could have said, David, you clean up your act. You get
it all together. Improve yourself. But that would
not work, David says. It's too deeply ingrained. And
that's not what God does, bless the Lord. That's not what God
does. If you cry out tonight with David
for mercy, that's not what God does. Praise him. Yes, David would have consequences.
But no, God will not forget His mercy. When God made a covenant
with David, 2 Samuel chapter 7, then He said, I will not take
my mercy away from you. Yes, I will discipline you and
your sons when you go astray. And that's what He's doing here.
But I will give you everlasting mercy. I will not take away my
mercy from you. What glorious mercy. And what do we hear David cry
for? Mercy, because mercy is who God
says he is. I am the Lord, gracious and merciful,
full of loving kindness and tender mercies. David says tonight in
this psalm, have mercy according to thy loving kindness. According to the multitude of
thy tender mercy. These words are so beautiful,
aren't they? Thy loving kindness. Taste that
word tonight. God is full of loving kindness. and tender mercies, gentle, sweet,
gracious mercies. He's full of chesed. The Hebrew word means faithful,
committed love toward his own and toward his promises, overflowing
with compassion, tenderness, And here's the thing. We shouldn't
forget this. If you're here tonight and you're
repenting right along with David. Tenderness for David, even when
he has sinned. Even when he has sinned. God is still the one who has
tenderness and loving kindness and faithful covenant-keeping
love because he has kept the covenant in Jesus Christ and
all the promises of forgiveness are in him. Yes and amen through
Jesus Christ because he suffered on the cross. Therefore, God,
from one-sided grace, only from Him it comes, this loving kindness
that flows to us from the cross. Have you fallen into sin this
past week, or have you had sinful thoughts, even maybe in preparatory,
that you struggled? And then you come here tonight
and you say, Lord, in thy loving kindness, in thy mercy, in thy
tender mercy, blot out all my transgressions. David pleads
for mercy. That's the only reason why sinners
of any sort can come to the Lord. If you've never come to the Lord
yet, with your sin and in confession and true repentance, mercy is
the only reason why you can come. So undeserved. All from the goodness
and the loving kindness of God that overflows to unworthy sinners. Mercy that overflows because
of the cross of Jesus Christ. The only reason. No other reason. Your only hope. So when we repent, we see our
need for cleansing. Secondly, we see, we feel what
we, or have felt, depending on where we are in the process of
repentance, we feel or have felt the gnawing of our conscience.
Look at verse three. For I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me. David ignored his sin, but no
longer, I said. He's acknowledging his sin. He's
telling it to the Lord. He's not hiding anything. He
comes with all this. He knows his sin. He knows it
in his heart. He knows it. It's sin against
the Lord. And he feels the guilt and the
shame that comes. He says it even, they are ever
before me. It's like God puts it all in
front of him. to remember Him, remind Him in
this moment of repentance. You see, we can never find rest
for our souls until we truly repent. And when God comes, He
always puts first our sins before us. And then we have this knowing
conscience. We know our sins. We see our
sins. And we can't ignore it. And they
bother us. We can't get rid of them. We
can't get rid of the idea how sinful we really are. We sang from Psalm 32, remember?
A Song of True Repentance (Part 1)
Series Communion Season Fall 2024
| Sermon ID | 1042404596755 |
| Duration | 1:02:51 |
| Date | |
| Category | Special Meeting |
| Bible Text | Psalm 51:1-6 |
| Language | English |
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