If you don't have your soldiers out and you'd like to join me, you don't have to, but I think it's on page 77. We're looking at Belgic Confession, Article 15, which deals with original sin. 76 actually. Article 15 of the Belgic, we believe that through the disobedience of Adam, original sin is extended to all mankind, which is a corruption of the whole nature and a hereditary disease, wherewith even infants in their mother's womb are infected, and which produces in man all sorts of sin, being in him as a root thereof, and therefore is so vile and abominable in the sight of God that it is sufficient to condemn all mankind. Nor is it altogether abolished or wholly eradicated, even by baptism, since sin always issues forth from this woeful source as water from a fountain. Notwithstanding, it is not imputed to the children of God unto condemnation, but by His grace and mercy is forgiven them. Not that they should rest securely in sin, but that a sense of this corruption should make believers often to sigh, desiring to be delivered from this body of death. Wherefore we reject the error of the Pelagians, assert that sin proceeds only from imitation and then if you would turn with me to Psalm 51 and read the first 13 verses of Psalm 51 and of course this is the very well-known Psalm that David wrote after a while in response to the discovery of his adultery and his murder of the husband of Bathsheba, Uriah. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done this evil in your sight, that you may be found just when you speak, and blameless when you judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. created me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me by your generous spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners shall be converted to you. Thus ends our reading. Let's ask God's blessing on his word. Father, again, having read your holy and infallible word, and also the words of the Belgian Confession, Speaking of original sin and this doctrine, this teaching that is clearly given to us from your word, but yet it's so hard for us to understand. And Lord, we pray that you'd write into our hearts in such a way that we realize the truth of it, but we also realize the reason for it, that why you have chosen to do it this way, but that in all things that we might trust you. Father, be with me. You know my lack and my needs, and Lord, we pray in the name of Jesus Christ that you'd be with my mouth and bring forth the meditation of my heart and mind in a way that's pleasing to you. And Father, that you would be with all here present, all that are listening, that they would be strengthened, that they'd be lifted up, that they'd be given exactly the portion it is that they need to walk in this world in the light of our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, all these things we ask in Jesus' name alone, amen. So this evening in our study of the Belgian Confession, we're looking at this biblical teaching of original sin. And simply stated, the doctrine or the teaching of original sin is that every human being, regardless of their parents, regardless of their human attributes, regardless of being born the children of believers or unbelievers, regardless of anything, Every human being, with only one exception, is born in a sinful and guilty state because of the sin of our father Adam and Eve. Sin gives birth to sin. In the case of Adam and his descendants, a sinful state followed a sinful deed. So they do one sin, and now sin becomes a state of life. This is how they live. They now live in sin. Herman Bavink, the great Dutch theologian, begins his discussion of original sin this way. The first sin, the sin for which our original human ancestors are responsible, has had calamitous consequences for them, as well as their descendants, and unleashed a flood of misery on the human race. In consequence, humanity as a whole, and every person in particular, is burdened with guilt, defiled, and subject to ruin and death." So bottom line, really, is humans come into this world in a state of sin and under the condemnation of inherited guilt. Even when they have not yet willed one evil act, they come into the world already under the condemnation of guilt and as sinners when they have not yet willed themselves one sin. They're already burdened with guilt and the guilt and corruption of sin that they did not commit. Babing says the doctrine of original sin is one of the weightiest and most difficult subjects in Christian theology. Without it, we cannot comprehend ourselves, and yet it remains an incomprehensible mystery to us. I spent about a day just reading a bunch of stuff and material on original sin, and I can't tell you that I learned a whole lot. There's so much there. A lot of theologians like to go down this road trying to figure out why and where, etc. Because even as this theologian says, original sin explains everything, and without it, one cannot explain anything, and yet the doctrine itself needs explanation more than anything. Original sin explains everything. What is meant by that? It means that original sin, the fact that since the fall of Adam and Eve, all humans are born sinners, is the only explanation that makes sense of the brokenness of human nature. And that's what he's saying. It explains everything, right? The fact that we're born sinners and guilty and sinful into this world is the only explanation for how broken, how corrupt, how twisted the human psyche is. There are and have been those who say that humans are born without sin. and that they only learn by sin, or learn to sin by the examples of others around them. This was Pelagius, you know, it mentions that Pelagian error at the very end, that humans are born tabula rasa, that is a clean slate, they're coming to this world just like Jesus, or Adam, who was not born into this world, but he was created into this world, and he came in clean slate. He had no sin, no guilt, no condemnation against him. And of course Pelagius wants to teach that that's how all humans come in. And then they just learn to sin by watching other people, by imitation. And while there's no doubt that a lot of sin is from imitation, right? If you see somebody in the culture If there's some hero of yours that you think is so cool, and they happen to do sinful things, it's easy to follow them down that road. If you grow up with your father and mother, and they have particularly sinful traits. You don't know that when you're a child. You just think your mom and dad are the coolest people around, at least when you're young. You grow out of that. But when you're young, you think your parents are like, they're the best. They know what they're doing. And if they're sinners, if they scream and shout and get in fights with each other, if they drink or whatever, there's a lot of things that a child watches and they say, well, that's where they're learning it. But this does not explain why every child is already lying by the time that they're about two years old. In other words, essentially they learn to lie as fast as they learn to speak. And that it's a proven fact that by the time they're four years old that they are so adept at lying they can usually convince their parents that they're telling the truth even when they are not. Imitation does not explain that and there are too many other things about human sin that we see already in the youngest children and the disposition of children. So the desire to sin and the propensity to sin are literally a part of our disposition or makeup when we are first brought into this world. And there is no doubt that this desire to sin, which is a part of every one of us, is stronger in some than in others. There's no doubt, right? Some people are just a lot more disagreeable than other people. Some people are born, and they just have a certain genetic setup. They just like, you know, people give them instructions, and they do it. And then there's other people that just almost automatically, people give them the instructions, and there's just something in them that they do the opposite. That's a fact. That's a reality. We see those kind of differences. But it doesn't mean that the one that is able to hear instruction and do it is not a sinner. It just means that they've learned to sin in different ways. There is a certain level of lawlessness in our members already there when we're born. I believe that this is what the Lord is saying to Hagar in Genesis 16. And, you know, when he told her that Abram's child, who she would bear, that he would be a wild donkey of a man, his hand would be against every man and every man's hand against him, and he shall dwell against the face of his brothers. That's not because Ishmael is such a bad guy in himself. But he represents something. He represents the will of man, the desire of man, the ambition of man, right? Because Abram wanted a son, and he wasn't really waiting for God to do it. And Sarah has the same thing. I can't bear a child, so I'm telling you what, I'll give you my handmaid, and she can bear a child in my name. Maybe I can bear it that way. This was not God's will or desire. This was not God's revealed will to them. So here you have two human beings that are both sinful, trying to bring forth something that's not of God, and what do they end up with? They end up with a child that represents the worst of us. Something that's in every one of us. Because every one of us, if you have any knowledge of yourself at all, knows that there is something inside of us that is like Ishmael. Maybe we don't look to that extreme. But in our flesh, there's something that's lawless and wild, and what the angel of the Lord tells her about her son captures something that's a part of every one of us, just by birth. So, in fact, our text, In our text, as we look at Psalm 51, and we're not doing a real deep dive on this at all, I'm just going to kind of refer to it here and there, but I believe that this is exactly what David discovers about himself that he did not understand before his fall. I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me." These are some words that are coming out of David that it's almost like he's learning something and discovering something about himself he did not know. Remember this, David from his birth was like John the Baptist or Jeremiah. If you look in Psalm 139 you can see that. In Psalm 139 he talks about his own birth. and how God formed him and set him up and ordered his days. In Psalm 22 it talks about how he was cast upon the Lord from his birth. And so David from his birth was like John the Baptist or Jeremiah. He had been marked out by the Holy Spirit in the womb in such a way that from birth he grew up loving, and trusting God and his word. He just basically came out like that, that he was already, the Holy Spirit was strong upon him, like we see with John the Baptist, like we see, obviously, with Jesus, the fullness of the Holy Spirit was poured upon him. But as a child, while he shepherded his father's sheep, the Spirit of God was working in him day and night, so much so that when he was only 17 or 18 years old, he was the only Israelite in the entire land that when he went to the Valley of Elah and saw that monster Goliath, and they had very many men, brave men and courageous men, Jonathan probably being one of the top, But when they looked at that man, they could not comprehend going into battle and winning against him. There was just no possible way. But David, as a fresh-faced boy, he didn't even have a beard yet. He didn't even have hair on his face yet. He comes onto that field, and he's like, who is this man? Who is this person that speaks like this? And he's just like infuriated. There's this holy fury inside of him. And this knowledge and understanding that God is with him to destroy this man. Without a doubt in his mind, he knew that the Lord would give him a victory. And then as a young captain in the army of Saul, the Bible tells us that he went in and out before the people and the people approved. In other words, what it's saying is his behavior that, you know, because soldiers being soldiers, they see everything. And if you're hanging out with soldiers, going to battle, and what you're doing at night, and some people are drinking, some people are throwing dice and playing cards, and you know, people see each other and they report it. But David's standard, he was so upright in all his ways that during this time of his life, nobody saw anything untoward, anything that was wrong with him. His behavior was upright and his integrity was seen by all. After that, even when he was unjustly being hunted to death by Saul, when he had the opportunity to kill Saul, not just once, but twice, in fact, he had many of his men that were begging him to kill the man. And they were just saying, the Lord has put him in your hand. This is a sign from God that you are to kill this man. You have not come out against him. You have not done anything against him. He's come out against you. God has given him into your hand. Kill him, or he will kill you. David's knowledge of God's righteous character and his trust in the faithfulness of God would not allow him to touch God's anointed. David was, in the words of God himself, the man after God's own heart. Now understand, there's no way that if you would have talked to a young David at 17, 18, 19, 20 years old and said, you know, have you ever sinned, that he would have said no. That's a fact. He was born a sinner and he knew that. But he did not have a knowledge of the depth because God's spirit was so strong in him and his desire to do God's will and his love for God was so strong But according to Psalm 51, I believe that David did not know about the depth of lawlessness that was in his own heart. The idea that there was a wild donkey of a man whose hand was against every man and every man's hand was against him, that would not have struck a chord with David until his adultery with Bathsheba and then his conspiracy to kill Uriah, her husband, once she got pregnant. And so then he says, so behold, right? Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and sin my mother conceived me. But then he goes to the next thing. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. And in the hidden parts, you will make me to know wisdom. Truth in the inward parts, part of the curse of being born in sin is the fact that we simply don't. And we can't really know ourselves until the Spirit of God begins to work the Word of God into our hearts. In a sense, David is saying that even as a child of God, even as the man after God's own heart, he did not really know the depth of darkness, the depth of his own sin. And when David was made aware of that situation, that darkness, that blindness that was in him, because you think about it, what you're reading here, it's almost like somebody was cast under a spell, and he did all these evil things, and then when the prophet comes to him and tells him that parable of the poor man with the one lamb, and the rich man that comes and steals that lamb and sacrifices that one lamb, and then he says, and David's just infuriated against that man, just ready, that man shall die, even though that's not what the law says, but he's so emotional, so infuriated about the injustice there. And the prophet says, you are that man. And all of a sudden, it's like the lights go on. He's been in the closet, he doesn't even know what he was doing and all of a sudden his eyes are open and he sees it, he gets it. He understands the terrible, terrible thing that he has done. But for a time there, it was like he didn't even see it. It was like he didn't even know what he was doing. And so he's trying to figure this out, he's trying to understand. And what he says here, you know, one thing that he's inquiring of the Lord is why. Why, Lord? I know that I love you. I know that you love me and have known me from the beginning, this much I know. I have not fallen into this deep of sin, this depth of sin, unless it was to teach me something awesome about you, something that I have not seen or known fully before. You see brothers and sisters this is the great question about, one of the great questions about original sin. How can a just God righteously condemn us under the weight of a sin that we didn't even commit, right? I started at the beginning talking about original sin explains everything, and yet understanding what original sin is about, we know nothing. And that's the thing that hits us, right? That original sin describes perfectly what we see out in the world, what we see in humans, the brokenness, the corruption, and the corruptibility of every human. But we don't know, and the Bible does not clearly tell us how a just, upright, righteous God, a God who does not condemn people for what they do not do, how we are all born into a world under the condemnation and guilt of sin. That's the mystery of original sin. And one of the answers that the Bible gives, one of the very clear texts is found in Romans chapter 5, where it talks about the federal headship. Romans 5 verse 12, therefore just as one man, as through one man, sin entered into the world and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men because all sinned. And so it's essentially saying, and this is part of the reading that I was doing, there's all these different theories that somehow that Adam, because remember, Adam was the first created man completely out of the dust of the earth. Even the woman was taken from the man. But only Adam was created whole cloth out of the dust of the earth. And so in a sense, all humanity flows out of him. He's like the trunk of an ancient, ancient tree from which come forth all of humanity comes forth from him. And because the trunk, the root, the beginning of this thing was rotten, the whole thing is rotten. But there's obviously, if you go down that road, that explains some things, but there are other things that make it very problematic. In verse 15, Romans 5 now, much more the grace of God and the gift of grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abounded to many. So if by one man's offense, and so what Paul is saying is that God has created some kind of a symmetry that was meant and in place from the very beginning. One man will bring sin and death into all humanity, but out of another man will come the answer to that. will come the solution, will come the cure for that. Verses 18 and 19, again, of Romans 5. Therefore, as through one man's offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one man's righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, So also by one man's obedience, many will be made righteous." So what he's saying, he's speaking about federal headship and how Adam represents us all in some sense, and when he sinned, all of humanity falls into sin. But then comes Jesus Christ and His righteousness, by faith in Him, we can be made righteous and we can be cured of this original sin disease. So, anyways, that's kind of one of the big things that the scripture tells us about original sin. But even there, if you start going down this, you're going to find all kinds of different theories, even in the Reformed world. Some will say this, some will say the other thing. I'm not going to go into all that. This is what the Bible teaches about original sin, but what I like about Psalm 51 is that after his terrible sin against God and his neighbor, even as David discovers that his flesh was far more sinful, far more broken than he had ever imagined, he's trying to understand why. And I have to say this, that I believe in original sin, I don't understand, because I know that God is just and good and upright in all His ways, and there's no explanation that's given in Scripture that tells us that this is exactly how it works. But this is what I do know, that God is good. and gracious, and that if we trust in him, that he's gonna show us through to the place that we need to be. And I believe that's actually the road that David's going down. He's saying, I don't understand all this. I don't understand how I got to be this messed up. I don't understand how I had this kind of depth of sin in me. But there's a reason why you did this. There's a reason that's good for me. There's a reason that's good for every human child of God is that you're doing this for a very good reason. What is the usefulness of this great impurity that was actually born as a part of my flesh that so blinds and weakens me that I could fall headlong into sin at any time? And the answer of the Holy Spirit in and to David is that there are things about God's goodness, God's graciousness and love that we're not aware of. As created creatures, there's an ignorance, a lack of knowledge in me that God desires to be filled. When Adam and Eve were created, they were created without sin, they were created able to hear God and to obey God. but they did not have the depth of knowledge about His goodness, His graciousness, His compassion, His mercy. How could they? They could not know those things. You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part, you will make me to know wisdom. There's a depth of wisdom and truth that we gain about God and ourselves only through this journey into the darkness of our own weakness, frailty, and brokenness. For David, in Psalm 51, there seems to be certain things about God and Himself that He has come to appreciate in a far greater way, such as, one, that God alone is able to wash me and cleanse me in a way that I am clean. In fact, I am whiter than snow. He can recreate me. He can give me a new heart. He can renew His Spirit in me. He can fill me with joy. and happiness again in the knowledge of his love for me. And that knowledge comes in a way stronger than it was before. Only God can restore to me the joy of his salvation. And in redemption, in redemption, my joy and gladness in the Lord is multiplied far past what it was before I knew my need for God's grace and redemption. We also see this with Moses and the Israelites after the golden idol incident. Moses would come to God with arguments of why God should not cast away his people. One, why should the Egyptians say he brought them out, right? Because God has come to Moses and says, you know what? He says, let me rest. That's the actual literal translation. I'm not gonna go into that, but it's just a very neat text to me. That's why I'm saying it. Let me rest and let my wrath consume them. And I will take you, and I will make a new people. And of course, the name Noah means rest, and that's what Noah did. So Noah said, okay, that's your plan, God? I'm on it. Moses says, I'm not doing it. I'm not going to participate in that. And then he tries to talk God out of it. And he says, why should the Egyptians say he brought them out to harm them, to kill them in the mountains, to consume them from the face of the earth? Secondly, he says, remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants to whom you swore by your own self. I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and all this land I have spoken of I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever." And so he's saying two different things. He's like, don't shame yourself in front of the Egyptians. I mean, the Egyptians are going to be looking at him and saying, what kind of a god is this? He takes his people out of Egypt, he saves them, he redeems them just to kill them out here. And so that's ridiculous, that looks shameful for you. And then he turns around and says, and remember the promises, because a big thing, all through the Old Testament and the New Testament, is God makes promises. So if we hold the promises of God, God, you promised that if I come to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I'm praying for the right things, that you will answer me, right? So God makes promises, and we come to him in the name of those promises. Under the weight of these arguments, the Lord relented from the harm he said he would do to his people, but after this, for a bit of time, there's a strange relationship between Moses and God, and between God and the people of Israel. And so finally, they're kind of working through it, and then Moses comes in, communes with God, and he makes this request, show me your glory. And the Lord replies, I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. And so just a few verses later, we read this. This is the fulfillment. Genesis 34, verse 6. And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord The Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the children's children unto the third and fourth generations. Show me your goodness, or show me your glory. And the first thing he says is, let me show you my goodness. The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abounding in goodness and truth. Notice again how David began this psalm. He doesn't come to God with a request, God, remember your promises to me. You've made promises to me about my inheritance, about my heritage, and about my sons will sit on my throne, et cetera. He doesn't come to God with those promises. He doesn't appeal to him that way. but rather he appeals to his mercy. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your lovingkindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies. Now he understands, I have a good God, I have a gracious God, I have a loving God in a way that I did not understand before, and I have come to know what that means. Wash me thoroughly from my sin. Somehow through the path of sin and suffering, God brings us to a much greater a much deeper knowledge and appreciation of God's graciousness, love, and mercy. He brings us to a state of humility also through the suffering of sin. In the way that we're created, and even we see it with Adam and Eve, that all of a sudden, right, they can turn from God so easily. Why? Because there's a pride there. It has not been tempered with the character of God's humility. God himself is humble. This is why Jesus is able to come into this world and be so humble because he is actually living out the character of God. Our God is humble. And it's through sin and the suffering and the brokenness of sin that we come to realize how important humility is. He brings us to a state of humility through the suffering of sin, and that is far more in keeping with his own character. And finally, brothers and sisters, and I'm just gonna end right here, but one of the things that we see in David as he comes to know the depth of his own sin, that original corruption, that original guilt that he was born with, that God is teaching him something, and he's teaching and writing things deep into his being in a way that it wasn't before. And one of the responses is, restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me by your generous spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners shall be converted to you. One of the responses that God is calling for from a saved, from a redeemed people who have come to know the depth of his mercy, the depth of his love, the depth of his grace and his goodness, is to show that same thing to our own friends, to our own family, to our own brothers and sisters in this congregation, to the people outside, that to show mercy, And brothers and sisters, I think that I can't tell you how God does what he does, but I know that he maintains his justice and his righteousness, and he's upright in all his ways. And so somehow original sin fits into that without offending that character of God. Humanly speaking, I don't know how. But I will tell you that as a child of God in Christ, that's not important for me. I don't need to justify God. I need to be justified by Him, and I have been. And I pray that He would give me the grace and the mercy and the heart to respond in a way that shows this awesome character of God. a God who loves redemption, a God who loves restoring sinners and broken people. Amen. Father, once again, we come before you this evening hour. And again, this is one of the great mysteries of your word, that this idea of original sin, and it is certainly an explanation for what we see in ourselves and in all of humanity. It explains a lot. about the twisted brokenness and corruption of all human beings. But Father, we also don't know anything about how a just and righteous God can place children or infants that are born in this world and they come in already under the condemnation and the guilt of sin without having willed one sin of their own. But Lord, we know this and we believe it and trust it with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength that you are righteous, you are good, You are upright in all your ways. You are more upright and can be trusted more than any human being. So whatever objections we might have and so whatever questions we might have, that there are times that we say, I'm gonna put this question aside. Because in a sense, it doesn't really matter. Because I know this, that I have come by your grace and by the working of your Holy Spirit and word I have been saved. I have been redeemed. I have been washed. And so, Father, we praise you for the awesomeness and the excellence of your redemption. We praise you for writing into us, too, a knowledge of your own humility. And we pray, Father, too, that you'd continue to strengthen us In such a way that we would respond even like David says that then I will Teach transgressors your ways and sinners shall be converted to you. He knows Somehow by your Holy Spirit. He knows that this is the proper response that I need to go and show other people that are sinners, other transgressors that are broken and have fallen into deep sin, that we have a God that loves to redeem, a God who loves to forgive, a God who is love, a God who is forgiving and merciful and gracious and upright in all his ways. Father, thank you. And thank you most of all for our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we see you more clearly than we ever thought possible. Father, bless this congregation, bless all your people wherever they may be, all these things we ask in Jesus' name alone, amen.