I'd like to now turn back to that passage of scripture which we read together in Psalm 51. And I'd like to share a few thoughts with you this morning on the whole subject of repentance, which is an absolutely essential part of a person's salvation. And I'd like to look at the opening verses of Psalm 51, which was penned by David after he had fallen into sin in committing adultery with Bathsheba, Uriah's wife, and also after he arranged for Uriah to be indirectly put to death in order to cover his tracks. though he'd let the Lord down, though he'd let himself down. The Bible teaches us that David was a man after God's own heart and a sweet psalmist of Israel. One of the things which David didn't do, which was common to many kings, was that he never went after idolatry. He always had a great love for God within his heart, but his weakness was very much to do with the flesh. Like so many other kings and so many other godly men of the past, they were snared by the boy-girlfriend relationship. Well, Psalm 51 is the psalm which he pens after his repentance. And it's been a great blessing and a great source of comfort for many Christians down through the ages of time, particularly those who feel the guilt of some sin that they've indulged in. And it shows that if David is able to have a fall and to commit adultery, that the best of men are men at best. And each one of us needs the grace and the power of God in order to stand, particularly in our generation where there's such easy access to sin and temptation. We need to trust in God to overcome. It also shows, as we learned with Peter last time, that David was still greatly used by God after his fall. Here he was penning Psalm 51, which has been a great source of comfort to Christians down through the years. In fact, many Christians say that Psalm 51 is their favourite psalm, because they can relate to it so much. They feel the weight and the burden and the guilt of their own sin, and they find a tremendous amount of peace and comfort can be extracted from the sentiments expressed in this psalm. Well, the Bible has a lot to say about the subject of repentance. It's important, nobody can be saved without it. In the New Testament, we read about John the Baptist coming onto the scene. In the opening books of the New Testament, preaching that men should repent, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. When the Lord Jesus Christ commenced his public ministry, we read, then began Jesus to preach, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. When Jesus sent out his disciples into all the towns and villages where he himself would enter, he told them to go out saying that men should repent. On the day of Pentecost, when the disciples were preaching to the people, they said, repent and be baptised every one of you for the remission of sins, repent and be converted that your sins might be blotted out. Repentance towards God and faith towards the Lord Jesus Christ was very much at the heart of the Gospel message which is proclaimed throughout the Scriptures. You see, a person cannot be saved today if they've not repented of their sins. A person cannot get access to heaven unless they're truly sorry and broken about the sins which they've done. The Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to save his people from their sins, not to save his people in their sins. As soon as a person becomes a real believer, they leave behind their old life, where they were living for sin, living for the world, living for the flesh, and they start living their lives for the Lord Jesus Christ from now on. You see, repentance doesn't just mean confessing your sins to God, neither does it mean going to a confession box like many do in the high church and confessing a few sins and then saying a few prayers in a type of penance. Biblical repentance is all to do with a radical change of direction in a person's life. They forsake their old life of living for sin and living for the flesh, and they start living their lives for the Lord Jesus Christ from that point onwards. It's a complete about-turn in a person's life. They now hate the sins which they once loved and they want to please and to praise and to glorify their dear Lord and Saviour who has loved them and died in their place on Calvary's cross. Now repentance doesn't mean that a person will never ever again sin. The Bible doesn't teach sinless perfection, this side of eternity. You know, all of us yield to temptation from time to time and give in to the flesh. But what's different is our attitude towards the sin. You see, real Christians don't sin easily and lightly without any conviction or any pangs of conscience. You know, we feel bad when we let the Lord down, we feel sorrow in our hearts and guilt when we yield to some temptation of the flesh which we know is forbidden in the Word of God. Whereas the unbeliever can sin easily and lightly, and it just doesn't bother them at all. Oh, they might feel a certain amount of remorse if they've hurt somebody, but they don't feel any repentance Godwards. They're not bothered about what God thinks about their sin at all. But the real Christian, they hate the sins which they once loved. And they say with the hymn writer, my sinful self, my only shame, my glory, all the cross. Well, Jesus came to save his people from their sins. The name Jesus means saviour. That's what his name means. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't just come to this world to be our friend, as many people suggest. He came to be our saviour and sin-bearer. He didn't just come to deliver us from our troubles. He didn't just come to deliver us from our loneliness and emptiness. He came to bear the penalty which our sins deserved when he died in our place upon the tree. He came to deliver his people from the penalty and from the power of sin. So when you hear somebody today giving their testimony, you hope to hear them speaking about the time when they repented of their sin. You know, some people, they give in their testimony, they say, but I realised that Jesus could help me with my troubles, or I realised that Jesus could be a friend to me, or he could fill this emptiness in my life. And they make no mention about repentance, no mention about the cross, no mention about the precious blood of Jesus. But we have to wonder whether such characters are converted at all. Repentance is an absolutely essential part of a person's salvation experience. Without repentance, there's no salvation at all. When a person is converted, they become a new creature in Christ Jesus. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. There's been a real radical change of heart and life. The new believer doesn't want to serve sin anymore, doesn't want to live for sin anymore, wants to live a righteous and a godly life for the glory of God. Now David was a very godly man and he's often put forward as an example to the other kings. How often we read about the other kings that they never served the Lord like their father David did. But you know, he had his weaknesses and faults, and the Holy Spirit has not glossed over these things, but has recorded them in the scripture as a warning to us all. There was a time when the kings went out to war, and they did stay behind in Jerusalem. While he was there, he saw a beautiful woman washing herself. And even though he was specifically told that this woman was somebody else's wife, we're told he took her and fetched her and lay with her. And to his horror, she became pregnant with his child. So he decided to cover up his sin in order to safeguard his pride and reputation. Now in order to do that, he had to bring Uriah back from the front of the battle where he was serving as a loyal and faithful soldier for David. And he would have to get Uriah to sleep with his wife and therefore pass off the child as being Uriah's baby. But Uriah was a man of God. When he came back at David's invitation, he refused to sleep with his wife. He said, well many of the people of God are sacrificing their lives on the battlefield, why should I be enjoying a nice relaxing time with my wife? And he refused to go down to sleep with her. David even resorted to making him drunk and yet his plan still didn't work. But there's a verse in Deuteronomy that says, be sure your sin will find you out. So David resorted to desperate measures to cover up his sin. He arranged for Uriah to be put in the forefront of the hottest battle so that he would be slain. Now it would appear that David's plan worked. Uriah was indeed slain by the enemies of Israel. News came back to him that Uriah was dead. David's din had been very much brushed under the carpet, and his reputation was still intact. But you know, God's looked upon what David had done, and we read in the end of 2 Samuel chapter 11, that the thing which David had done displeased the Lord. God would not allow his servant to get away with such a heinous crime, and he sent Nathan to David to reprove him about his sin. David realised what he had done was wrong. He said, I have sinned against the Lord, and he penned this lovely psalm afterwards, which was a psalm of repentance, an expression of the grief and the shame which he felt as a result of his sin. He starts off in verse 1 with the words, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. One of the characteristics of true repentance is that it's an expression of the grief which we feel towards God for what we have done. You know, some people today may feel a certain amount of remorse. They feel sorry for the way that they've hurt somebody. They feel sorrow for the way that they've upset people. And maybe people of the world feel remorse, but they don't feel repentance. They're not sorry towards God for what they've done. And sometimes people feel sorry for themselves, but they're not mourning their sin, they're mourning the consequences of their sin. You know, sometimes you hear about a criminal who's been sentenced for a crime which they've committed, and we read about them being led off to these cells in tears. Oh, they're really humble and broken and tearful about what's happened. But are these tears sorrow for their sin, or are their tears mainly born out of self-pity? They're not sorry about what they've done, they're not crying about the grief they've caused their victims. Many of these people are weeping for themselves, they're weeping for the consequences of their sins. Judas Iscariot probably felt a certain amount of remorse after he had betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ and committed one of the worst crimes in history, before he went out to hang himself. But you know, his remorse wasn't repentance. Esau felt a certain amount of remorse for selling his birthright to his brother Jacob. In fact, we read of him that he found no place for repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. He wasn't sorry towards God for what he had done. He was sorry that he had lost out himself as a result of his folly. Well, David here pleads God's mercy and God's pardon. He doesn't say, well, Lord, I've tried to live a good life. Lord, I've tried to be a good king. I deserve your grace. No, he says, Lord, you're a merciful God with loving kindness and multitude of tender mercies, and I plead your glorious attributes that you will be gracious and merciful to a sinner like myself. You see, nobody deserves the mercy of God. That's a free pardon which is given by God's sovereign grace. He says, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. David wanted to be separated from this terrible, terrible crime which he had committed. He doesn't say wash me thoroughly, as many people quote, but wash me thoroughly. Wash me within as well as without. So this sin started in David's heart before it ended on David's bed. You see, he committed adultery with this woman Bathsheba in his heart. That was where the sin commenced. It was his lust which was the problem. And many people, before they commit adultery, before they commit fornication today, will often entertain this sin within their heart beforehand. That's why he prays in verse 10, creating me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Now there are many people today who are not particularly bothered about whether their hearts are clean and whether their hearts are pure. Nobody can see their thought life, so what does it really matter what's going on on the inside? Many people, before they commit a sexual act, such as adultery or fornication, they're probably feeding their hearts with unholy and impure images. They're committing the sin within their hearts before they commit the sin within the acts. So when the temptation actually comes along, they have no power to resist. Now David was the king, he was in a top position, and therefore he had the power to fetch this beautiful woman and take her unto himself. I'm sure that there's probably many other men in that generation who would have loved to have committed adultery with Bathsheba, but they didn't have the opportunity to do so. They didn't have the same power that King David had. And in the same way today, we can be thankful to God for the many times that he has kept us from sin through want of opportunity. And that's why Christians should always abstain from the appearance of evil. You know, we mustn't start thinking that we've got the spiritual strength to withstand when we put ourselves in a vulnerable position. Many people say that David should have been out fighting the battles like many of the other kings were. If he wasn't just lounging around on his bed in an even tide, then he wouldn't have been bored, then the devil wouldn't be finding work for idle hands to do. But now that David is broken and sorry, he doesn't make any excuses about what he has done. He didn't say, well, it wasn't my fault, Lord, I was bored. Or Blasheva, it was her fault. She shouldn't have been washing herself in a place where I could see her. She was just inviting temptation. Neither did he say, well, it was Uriah's fault. If only Uriah had slept with his wife when I gave him opportunity to do so, this situation wouldn't have come about. David, I'm sure, didn't want to have Uriah bumped off, but he thought it's better to destroy the life of Uriah and to keep my pride and reputation intact. You see, David didn't want to be exposed as an adulterer. He didn't want people pointing an accusing finger at him, saying that he's the king of Israel. And look what he's done, he's just taken somebody else's wife. What a terrible, terrible act he's committed. But the truly repentant person today acknowledges their sin like David does here. The truly penitent person acknowledges that they're the guilty one and they don't make any excuses and they don't blame any other people. The penitent person will put their hands up and they will say, Lord, I am guilty for what I have done. There's no mitigating circumstances. You know, at school, many young people, as soon as a child is told to behave, the first thing they say is, it's not me, it's that person's fault, they started it, they're the ones who should get punished. People jump on the defensive straight away. It's natural for us to do that, to put the blame onto somebody else. But you know, the penitent person doesn't do that. They say, I am guilty for my part in what has taken place. Even though we may have been provoked by others, even though we may have been tempted by others, we only have ourselves to blame for our lack of self-control. So if we've committed a terrible sin against God, we are the guilty ones and we can't blame other people. Well, it's always a good sign when people acknowledge their sin. And they admit that they're truly sorry. When God challenged Adam about his sin, he blamed Eve. When God challenged Eve about her sin, she blamed the serpent. And people are still doing the same thing today. People blame the referee or the other players on the football pitch for their bad language when they're playing. People blame the other motorists for their behaviour and their language behind the wheel of a car. Siblings will blame one another when they're quarrelling and fighting. Husbands may blame their wives for a row and the wives will blame the husband for a row. People are willing to blame anybody or anything other than themselves. But a penitent person makes no excuses at all. David was conscious of his sin. He says, my sin is ever before me. Yes, it's my sin. He doesn't blame Bathsheba. He doesn't say, well, it takes two to tango. She's as guilty as what I am. No, he's acknowledging his sin before Almighty God. He doesn't pretend that this unsavoury incident in his life didn't happen. And he would have to bear an element of shame and reproach as a result of what he had done. He had to live with the fact that he has taken somebody else's wife, he has destroyed that marriage, and that loyal, faithful soldier of his, Uriah, who was putting his life in jeopardy at the forefront of the hottest battle, he would have to take responsibility for the fact that Uriah had been slain. Although God pardons our sin, and buries them in the depths of the sea, I'm sure many of us do have some unpleasant memories about things that we've done and said in the past. Oh, we would love to get a spiritually razor out and to rub out some of the things that we have done. But he goes on to say, against thee, against thee, only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. He had sinned against Bathsheba, he had sinned against Uriah, he had sinned against his own family, he had sinned against his own wives, he had sinned against the nation in providing them with a bad example. But he doesn't mention that, he says, against thee, thee only have I sinned. You see, all sin is ultimately against Almighty God. Although we hurt others when we do wrong, we are primarily breaking God's law. And true repentance is something which is Godwards. It's not just apologising to others for the things that we've done wrong and the way in which we've hurt them. We're sorry to God for what we've done. Yes, we feel real sorrow towards heaven for the sins that we've committed. It's his law that we have broken. David says, I have done this evil in thy sight. All sin is committed in the sight of God. You see, David was hoping to brush his sin under the carpet, that nobody would know about it. But you know, God knows about it. All things are naked and open before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. We can deceive others, we can deceive ourselves, but who believes that they can honestly deceive Almighty God and get away with it? You see, many people may sin in secret and nobody really knows about it, but God knows. There's our thought life, there's our prayer life, there's the things which we watch on the TV when nobody else is around. There's magazines and books which we might read which may not be very wholesome. It's how we behave in our cars when we're on our own at times and so on. But God is always watching. He's looking at our thoughts, He's looking at our motives, He's looking at our hearts. He sees those things which go on in secret. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows you better than your partner knows you. He knows everything about us, and all of our sins are committed in the sight of the Holy God. Many people today say, well, I've lived a good life. I haven't done anybody any harm. But in the sight of others, a person may not be deemed to be a terrible criminal, or their life might be acceptable before others, but is it acceptable in the sight of God? When God's standard is 100% perfection, and in His sight we all come short of that standard, and that's why we need a saviour. We're all sinners. We can hide our sins away from others, but we can't hide our sins away from God. Now the penitent person will always justify God and will always take God's side against their own sin. You see, some people think the sins of others are bad. But they make excuses for their own sins, or maybe the sins of their own family. You know, family sins don't seem so bad. And sometimes you hear Christians say in discussion groups that they think such and such a sin is a really bad thing, but when they want to do it, or maybe one of their loved ones wants to do it, well the sin doesn't really seem very bad after all. And sometimes people change their view about a particular sin depends upon whether it suits them to do so. But you know, here David acknowledges that God is righteous and God is just. He takes God's view against his own sin. He says that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. People are quick to find faults with God's Word today when it reproves them. But it's not God's Word which is at fault, it's our own lives which are at fault. So instead of conforming our lives to the scrutiny of God's Word, many people find faults with the Christian faith and the Word of God because they do not want to repent of what they've done. But you know, there are some people who do take God's side against their own sin and sins of family members. We think of one king in the Old Testament called Asa who was a fine man of God. And we're told that he removed his mother from being the queen because she built an idol. Yes, he took God's view against his own mother's position because he wanted to put God first. There was other people in the Old Testament, like Eli, who perhaps was guilty of taking his son's side against God. We're told that his sons had made themselves vile and he restrained them not. Instead of taking God's side against their own sin, he brushed over the sins of his sons because he didn't want to cause any upset or offence to them. Now David found no fault in God's dealings with him and that's always the sign of a humble and a broken person. You know, sin was exposed before all of Israel. The son which was born to him by Bathsheba, he would die. He would have to bear a certain amount of shame and reproach about what he had done. But David believed he deserved all of these things. He doesn't find fault with God's dealings with him. You see, when Cain was told how he would lose out for slaying Abel, Cain, being the ungodly man that he was, He decided to make excuses for it, saying, my punishment is greater than I can bear. Oh, he wasn't a penitent person at all. The penitent person doesn't quibble with the consequences of what they've done. They say, well I deserve these consequences because I'm the one who's committed a sin in the first place. You know, many people don't seem to be too bothered about the sin, but they are bothered about how they lose out. But the truly broken and contrite person doesn't quibble with God for the way in which they lose out as a result of their sin. He says, Behold, I was shaping in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. I didn't go bad, Lord, because of my surroundings. I didn't go bad because of my environment. It was my nature which was at fault. I went astray from the womb, speaking lies. You see, people today are not sinners because they sin, they sin because they are sinners. It's our nature to be at enmity with Almighty God. We're born into this world with a fallen, sinful human nature which naturally desires to do that which is against the law of God. We are sinners from the womb to the tomb. We will always be sinners and that's why we need a saviour. We have a bias towards sin. That's why you have to teach children to behave. You don't have to teach a child to be selfish. Can you imagine on the curriculum at schools if they had a lesson to do with selfishness or pride or quarrelling with your siblings or always want in your own way? You know, people would get 100% pass marks on all of those subjects because we have a natural tendency towards these things. We don't have to be taught how to be good. How to be bad, we have to be taught how to be good. Well, the contrite person will always acknowledge that it's them that's to blame. I'm the person at fault, I'm unclean, I'm unholy, I'm undone, I'm a sinner, and I need the precious blood of Jesus to wash away my sin and to give me peace with God. He goes on to say, Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts. You see, God is not just looking on the outward appearance, God is looking upon the heart. People today are looking on the outs with appearance, but you know it's what we're like on the inside that God is interested in. The Lord doesn't want people to be nice and clean and presentable on the outside when there's so much filth and pollution and corruption on the inside. Jesus spoke about the Pharisees who were making clean the outside of the cup, but inside the cup it was full of iniquity and full of hypocrisy. I suppose it could be said that only real Christians are interested in what's there like on the inside within their hearts. Because they know that God searches the hearts and tries the reins. Yes, God requires truth in the inward parts. That's why he prays, creating me a clean heart, O God, renew a right spirit within me. If my heart is right, then my outward life will be right too. You see, David wanted a clean and a pure heart. He didn't want a heart which was lusted after another person's wife. He didn't want a heart which would devise this terrible plan to have a loyal, faithful soldier of his perish on the battlefield. He didn't want all this hatred and all this lust within his heart. He says, Lord, create in me a clean heart. It's something which I can't do myself. I need the grace and the power of God to cleanse me on the inside. You see, only God can give us a clean heart. We can't manufacture one ourselves. He says, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. The hyssop reminds us of the Passover, which was used to put the blood upon the doorpost and the lintel, and is always a reminder of the precious blood of Jesus and the power we need to overcome sin. He says, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Not as white as snow, but whiter than snow. Now we don't get snow very often in our own land today, but when it does come, before it's ruined by all the traffic and the footprints, it's very bright and very clean, particularly on a very crisp and clear day. You can hang out your white shirts on the washing line and they seem so dull in comparison to the virgin snow which has landed on the grass. But God is able to make us whiter than snow. What, even murderers and adulterers? Yes, even murderers and adulterers. There's even grace for those characters who hammer the nails into our Lord's dear hands and feet. Yes, God's grace is able to stretch down, to reach out to us regarding our sin. He says, In verse 8, make me to know joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Now David had not lost his salvation as a result of what he had done, but he had lost the joy of his salvation. And that's what backsliding does, it takes away our joy, it takes away our peace, and it takes away our fulfilment. You know, happiness doesn't come through backsliding. The prodigal son was thoroughly miserable when he was in amongst the pigs, desiring some of the husks. His joy only was restored when he went back to his father's house again. But the good news of the gospel is that Christians can be truly restored after they have had a fall. When a person is truly sorry about what they've done, they come to God with a humble, broken, contrite, penitent heart. God is able to restore them and to use them again in the future. You see, a Christian who's been restored doesn't have to go around with a long face anymore, doesn't have to go around being weighed down with the burden of guilt about past sin. No, the Lord deals with that, he buries it in the depths of the sea and he restores to the child of God the joy of their salvation which they forfeited when they yielded to temptation. Now sin today doesn't bring us any lasting joy. It might bring pleasure for sin for a season, but no lasting joy and happiness can be found in rebelling against God. If a person wants to be truly happy and truly contented, they must walk in happy and close fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Our happiness is found in Him. David was truly sorry about what he had done, and he hoped that the joy which he had forfeited would be restored. He would have to live with what he has done, but he could rejoice in the pardon which God was able to provide. He says he wanted God to hide his face from his sins and to blot out his iniquities. And God has promised to do that, to take away all the sins which we've done even after we were saved. And sometimes, we have to be honest, that we feel more conviction about sins which have been committed after we were converted than those sins which we committed prior to our conversion. You know, we may have committed sins before we were saved, which would almost be like imprisonable offences. You know, we committed some terrible crimes against people and others. And we don't perhaps feel so bad about those things because we did it ignorantly in unbelief. But you know, what the world would regard as being smaller sins, we feel a certain amount of conviction for, because since the time we've been saved, we've been reading and studying the Word of God we know better. And therefore our sins are more inexcusable. You see, David committed adultery and arranged for Uriah to be put to death. But he wasn't just an unbeliever coming from a heathen tribe. No, he was a man of God. He was a man after God's own heart. He was the sweet psalmist of Israel and therefore his sin must have weighed down very heavily upon him because he wasn't a nobody. He was one of the top people in the land of Israel at that particular time. Well it's wonderful to know that all of our sins have been atoned for past, present and future and one day we shall be presented faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. He goes on to say, then shall I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Just as Peter was restored and was greatly used by God, David said, Lord, if I'm restored and my sinners pardoned, then I'm going to teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. David would now be a vessel of meat for the master's use. Well, in this passage here this morning, David truly shows the mark of true repentance. John the Baptist once said, bring forth fruit, meat for repentance. Show that your repentance is real and genuine. It's not remorse, it's not confession, it's not penance, but a real deep sorrow about the sins which you've done. And come into God with a truly humble, broken, contrite and penitent spirit. Well have we been in the place of David? Do some of the sentiments expressed in Psalm 51 ring true within our own experience? Do we know something of the grief and the sorrow which David experienced in these verses? May God give us a humble and a penitent heart this morning and may we always praise almighty God for that fountain which has been opened for sin and uncleanness and for the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ which is able to make the foulest sinner clean.