The Sinner’s Heart God Will Forgive

Transcript

GRM 875
11/09/2003
The Sinner’s Heart God Will Forgive
Psalms 51 and 32
Gil Rugh

I want to have you turn first this evening to begin in our study in the book of
2 Samuel and the 11th chapter. One of the greatest figures in Old Testament history and in the history of Israel is the man, David. It’s sad that one of the things we most note about David’s life is the great sin he got involved in with Bathsheba which ended with the murder of her husband. I’m always interested from time to time on TV these programs that examine crimes and so on, and there’s been a murder and it turns out the person who is involved in the murder was involved in immorality with someone other than their spouse. The issue comes up, oh well, I could commit immorality, but I could never be guilty of murder, I couldn’t do that. People were discussing could this person be guilty of murder. But the connection between something like immorality and murder goes back a long way, and David is an outstanding example of that. Who would have ever thought that the man the Bible says is the man after God’s own heart, a man of whom God speaks so highly, could be guilty of gross immorality. But not stop there in his sin but try to cover it by an act of murder; and yet that’s what II Samuel chapter 11 relates.

I just want to take note of a few things about David’s sin, here, because I really want to look at the aftermath of that, and David’s writing on his dealing with that sin. But just to refresh in your mind, in chapter 11 David had remained behind when the forces of Israel out to battle, and observing Bathsheba he was filled with lust. Ended up inviting her to his residence and here this young woman has illicit relations with David. David is held fully accountable for what he does, but David is not quick to admit it. So, we have an illicit relationship with Bathsheba. He tries to cover it up by calling her husband, who is a soldier, back from battle, having him sent home and hoping he’ll go down, have relations with his wife. Then when the baby is born Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, will assume it’s my child, conceived when I came home for that brief time from the battle. But he is a faithful man, her husband, faithful to David, faithful to the armies of Israel and he does not see he should be home relaxing, enjoying himself with his wife when the armies of Israel are out on the battlefield. So, he refuses to go home. David is not impressed by this kind of loyalty, so the next day he tries to get him drunk. Has him spend the day with him, and when the king invites you to spend the day, you spend the day. He wants you to eat and drink, you eat and drink. David’s anticipation under the influence of the alcohol, he won’t think clearly, he’ll do what comes naturally as a husband and he’ll go home to his wife. That doesn’t work, either. David’s solution, send him back to the battle, and he sends a message to the commander. Joab is the commander of Israel’s army under David. In verse 15, the letter that Uriah is carrying, here’s a letter for Joab, Uriah. When you get back to the battlefield give it to him. Uriah didn’t know what was in the letter, but what it was, was his death sentence. Verse 15 of II Samuel 11, “place Uriah in the front line of the fiercest battle, withdraw from him so that he may be struck down and die.” David is not going to kill him. There will be a number of soldiers that will die in this battle, Uriah is just one of them. So, it’s a simple way to clean things up. A soldier dies in battle and along with him there will be other soldiers that die. When the word comes back, the messenger comes from Joab to tell David what has happened and to let him know Uriah is dead, David’s response that he sends back to Joab in verse 25, “do not let this thing displease you for the sword devours one as well as the other. Make your battle stronger and overthrow it.”

David has told Joab to do something with Uriah that will assure his death. It wasn’t a good battle plan. That doesn’t matter. David says don’t be worried about this, Joab. You’ve lost some soldiers, that’s all right. Finish out the battle now, don’t worry about it. One soldier dies, another soldier dies. No indication Joab knows why David wanted Uriah dead, but he follows the command. Seems like a pretty clean crime. Nobody knows. I mean, who’s going to suspect that Uriah died in the battle that day because David planned it. But the end of verse 27 is a telling statement, “but the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord.” The Bible tells us “The eyes of the Lord roam to and fro on the face of the earth, beholding the evil and the good.” David thought no one knew, but the only one who mattered knew. It was evil in the sight of the Lord.

When you come to chapter 12 God sends Nathan, the prophet, to David. In a very familiar story Nathan tells the harsh cruelty of a man who is wealthy and had vast herds, but when he had a guest come, he took the only precious lamb of a poor man and sacrificed it to feed his guest. David is indignant. Verse 5 of chapter 12, “as the Lord lives surely the man who has done this deserves to die.” David’s anger is righteous, such a deed deserved death. The famous statement of Nathan in verse 7, “you are the man,” and then he tells him what God had done and how God had blessed him. But that wasn’t enough for David, He had to have Uriah’s wife. Note what David has done. Verse 9, “why have you despised the Word of the Lord by doing evil in His sight?” You see what our sinful acts are? It’s an act of despising the Word of the Lord.

If you don’t understand what that means, look at verse 10. “Therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house,” God says, “because you have despised me.” See the seriousness of sin? David’s act was demonstrating he despised God. You despise the Word of God, you despise God. This goes far beyond just the unfair death of Uriah, the faithful man, the immorality with Bathsheba. This sin is of the greatest magnitude, it’s an act of despising the living God. To David’s credit, he was a godly man who has seriously sinned. He said to Nathan in verse 13, “I have sinned against the Lord.” There is no excuse, no it’s not my fault—she bathed in a place where I could see her and there were all these circumstances and the pressures and …… There are no excuses here. He’s been confronted with what his sin really was. He despised the Lord and David acknowledges it. “I have sinned.” Note he doesn’t say I have sinned against Bathsheba, I’ve sinned against Uriah. You know where the greatest dimension of this sin is, “I have sinned against the Lord.” You know what this does? Verse 14, “by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme.” There’s one more death going to occur in the death of the child that has been conceived.

Sad chapter in David’s life. Seems so out of character. The sweet psalmist of Israel, the man of unique, godly character could be guilty of immorality and murder? He was. The aftermath of this sin that I want to look at with you. Turn to Psalm 51, Psalm 51. The Spirit of God moved David to record two psalms that revealed something of his heart, that experience resulting in this sin. We learn something of the inner struggle of David’s life as a result of this sin. Some time has gone by, many months have transpired. David’s sin has Uriah murdered, and then Nathan comes to him. During those months, what was going on in David’s life? Then he is confronted by Nathan. That wasn’t a pleasant time in David’s life and these psalms give insight into David’s struggles and experience and the forgiveness that he received.

I think Psalm 51 was written immediately following those events. You’ll note the title in the psalm gives the setting. It’s for the choir director, it’s a psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came to him after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Now that title for the psalm is not part of the inspired text of scripture. But these titles in the psalms, if they were not part of the original psalm, they were written very early. There’s no reason to doubt that this title accurately reflects the context of this psalm. It would be shortly after David came into confrontation with Nathan, acknowledges the guilt of his sin. He’ll write another psalm that we’ll look at in a moment, Psalm 32, regarding this same incident. But it seems to be written a little later, after some time has passed.

Note how the psalm begins. Begins by David casting himself on the mercy of God. “Be gracious to me, O God, according to your lovingkindness, according to the greatness of your compassion. Blot out my transgression, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin.” Note those words in verse 1, be gracious, your lovingkindness, your compassion. Gracious, lovingkindness, compassion. These are what David seeks. He has no defense, he is guilty. He has quit making excuses for his sin, he’s not trying to defend himself or give a reason why, even though it was sin, it’s not as bad as it seems. David is at the point of admitting it is every bit as bad as it seems, it is worse than he could have imagined. All he seeks is God’s mercy, lovingkindness, compassion.

Verse 2, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgression, my sin is ever before me.” David uses a series of words here for sin, three different words. He talks about my iniquity, verse 2; my sin, the end of verse 2; the beginning of verse 3, my transgressions, then my sin again. Transgression is sin viewed as rebellion against God. His sin was an act of despising God, an act of rebellion against God. His iniquity, “wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.” Iniquity is a word for sin that would denote depravity in your conduct, perversion of the moral standard required of God. Sin means to miss the mark appointed by God, to wander from the right way. He’s using these different words for sin; they’re always talking about his sin, but they bring a different dimension to what sin is—failing to walk the path that God has set out for me. It’s a perversion of God’s standard of morality. It is transgression against God. You know David is overwhelmed with the reality of his sin and a recognition of how serious it is. You can’t deal with your sin until you come to grips with it as sin. You know all of our maneuvering to try to excuse our sin or tone it down. There are people involved with immorality, but they have excuses, they have reasons. I’m not just talking about the world; I’m talking about professing believers. But you have to understand the situation, let me explain to you the circumstances. It’s all irrelevant. We know what it is, its sin, it’s iniquity, it’s transgression, it’s an act of despising God. David acknowledges that. What David seeks, and he uses three different terms to express what he desires God to do with the ugliness of his sin. “Wash me, cleanse me, blot out my transgression.” Blot out my transgression at the end of verse 1, then wash me at the beginning of verse 2, and then cleanse me. David seeks from God complete forgiveness. It’s inexcusable, it’s indefensible. God, I need your lovingkindness, your graciousness, your compassion to cleanse me and wash me and blot it out. David realizes his sin is great and it’s against a holy God. But he realizes this is a great savior. We need to come to God after sinning so greatly against Him and ask God to blot it out, to wash you clean, to cleanse you. What an encouragement to know there is that kind of forgiveness in the God that we serve.

David says, “against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.” Against you and you only. The sin against Bathsheba was serious, the sin against Uriah was serious. It’s all nothing. The real issue in sin is you’ve sinned against God. Some people say what’s wrong with this sin, it’s not hurting anyone. What is wrong with sin is it’s an offense against the living God. To despise God, I can put it as ugly as it is, to spit in the face of God is reprehensible. To treat God as nothing, to despise Him, when I get to the bottom of all this, there is one person I have sinned against. That is the living God; and no one else matters. Doesn’t matter if the person I have sinned against and with, doesn’t matter if Bathsheba comes forward and says look it’s all right, it’s not so bad. I don’t view it as a sin; it was something we both couldn’t help. That’s irrelevant. Because you’re not the major player in this, Bathsheba, and the offense against you is not the major issue. It’s Almighty God who is offended. David acknowledges that. “I have sinned against you,” and you’re the only one that matters. If it weren’t for God, sin would be an irrelevant issue, basically. But I have sinned against you and you only.

In II Samuel 12:13, remember, when David was confronted by Nathan, said, “I have sinned against the Lord.” David acknowledges the justice of God in judgment. “Against you and you only I have sinned, and done what is evil in your sight.” That’s the standard. It’s not opinion polls, it’s not what society is doing, it’s not what everyone else does. It’s what is sin in the sight of God.

So that you are justified when you speak, blameless when you judge. God’s judgments are just and right, because He judges sinners. David acknowledges that his sinfulness goes beyond just specific acts he has done. It’s a reflection of his fallen character, it’s what he is by birth. “Behold I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin my mother conceived me.” This is not an excuse for his sin, doesn’t mean he was illicitly conceived, conceived out of wedlock, so to speak. Rather, I was a sinner from birth, and I just manifested my fallen character.

Turn over a few pages to Psalm 58 verse 3, “the wicked are estranged from the womb. Those who speak lies go astray from birth,” from the womb. We are sinners by birth and by action. We are sinners by nature. Ephesians chapter 2 tells us we were by nature children of wrath. Our very being is fallen descendents from Adam. In Genesis chapter 8 verse 21 in the context of the judgment of the flood on the sinfulness of man, God says that “the thoughts of his heart are evil from his youth,” he goes astray from his youth. David recognizes that the vileness of his sin infects the heart of his being. This is important because David doesn’t try to argue, God, I’m the sweet psalmist of Israel, God, I’m the man after your own heart. Lord, you know this is out of character. I’m sure you won’t view that so severely it is a momentary lapse, if you will. A few days out of a lifetime of faithfulness. David realizes how ugly his fallen being his fallen nature is. The tragedy of it is, Lord, this reflects what I am apart from your grace. There’s no bottom to the depths of our sin. David acknowledges, this is what I am as a descendent of Adam. The sin nature was passed on, it doesn’t excuse him, but it nonetheless reveals what he is.

“Behold you desire truth in the innermost being, in the hidden part you would make me know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.” Isaiah, pick that emphasis up in Isaiah 1:18, “come now and let us reason together says the Lord.” Doesn’t matter, our sins are red like crimson, they’ll be as white as snow. David says wash me and I’ll be as white as snow. Tremendous faith on David’s part. You’ll note he’s overwhelmed with the reality of his sin, but he is not destroyed by that. There is mercy, there is forgiveness. He really believes, in spite of the seriousness of his sin, and what he has written so far reveals he knows how terrible sin is. He believes he can be washed clean, white as snow. Wash me and I will be whiter than snow. David’s been destroyed by this in one sense, in a sense his peace is gone. You know sin eats away at the inside. The terrible thing about sin is that it entices us with enjoyment and the pleasure, but it’s a pleasure that destroys. That which seems so satisfying and enjoyable ends up eating away at us, destroying us.

Verse 8, “Make me to hear joy and gladness, let the bones which you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sin, blot out all my iniquities.” He is a crushed man. Like I’m broken, my bones are broken. It’s just drained him, and this comes out throughout this. “Lord, blot out my iniquities, create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.” I want to note something about this statement because it’s important we take these things in their proper context. When David says, “do not cast me away from your presence and do not take you Holy Spirit from me,” I take it he’s talking about something he’s well familiar with. Because this is the very thing that happened to the king that preceded him, King Saul.

Turn back to I Samuel chapter 16. Saul has sinned and the Lord has rejected him from being king over Israel. Now it’s just a matter of time. Samuel has come to Bethlehem to anoint Saul’s successor, which will be David. Verse 13 of I Samuel 16, “Samuel took the horn of oil, anointed him, David, in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.” Verse 14,” now the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord terrorized him.” See what happened? The provision of God for Saul to function as king is removed, the Spirit of God leaves him. He is no longer the divinely empowered king. Now the Spirit is on David. What David is praying and asking is that God would not do with him what He did with Saul. David realizes he could deserve the same thing. David is asking that God not remove him from king, not cast him aside and remove His Spirit from him so that he no longer would be the king serving under the anointing of Almighty God.

I take it David is not talking about the loss of his salvation, here. He’s talking about the enabling power of God for him to serve as king. It’s a different situation than we have in the New Testament. Romans chapter 8 verse 9 says, “if any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.” I do not believe that a Christian would pray the prayer of David today, because the Spirit of God will not be removed from a child of God today. There was a special anointing for service there. Today we are permanently sealed with the Spirit, Ephesians chapter 1 verses 13-14. David is asking that God not reject him from king. That’s a very real possibility. He is aware that for his rebellion Saul was rejected. You know what Saul did? Doesn’t seem to us as humans as we read it, as serious as David. Saul offered a sacrifice instead of waiting for Samuel to come at the appointed meeting place where Samuel would offer the sacrifice as God’s appointed servant. Saul entered into the priesthood and himself offered the sacrifice. For that God says, Samuel tells Saul God has torn the kingdom from your midst. Well David committed immorality and then murdered the innocent husband. If Saul got cast aside as king for his sin, surely David is in danger of such action. David realizes the seriousness of his sin. He’s already heard from Nathan that there’s mercy, God’s put aside his sin and he won’t die in chapter 12 of II Samuel. But here he’s asking that God would be gracious and allow him to continue in his service as king.

Back to Psalm 51 verse 22 David says, “restore to me the joy of your salvation. Sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will be converted to you.” You know David has lost the joy of his salvation, and you know we have a problem with depression. One of the first things we ought to look at, is there anything in my life that doesn’t belong there. We cannot sin with impunity. You know what David lost, was lacking in his life following that relationship with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband? Joy, the happiness of his life. All of a sudden thing pressed in upon him and I’m discouraged and depressed. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. David says when I am back to great relationship with you, I’ll be able to teach others about the greatness of your forgiveness.

“Deliver me from blood guiltiness O God, the God of my salvation. Then my tongue will joyfully sing of your righteousness.” Declare His praise. Verse 16, “you do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it. You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” David realized the ultimate requirement of God, not to run out as king and try to overwhelm God with many sacrifices. But what God wants is a heart that has been humbled before Him, a broken and contrite heart you will not despise. This is what God truly wants, a contrite heart, that I humble myself before the Lord. There is no way to maintain my pride, my self-esteem, and deal with my sin before the Lord. Any time I am still trying to offer excuses, explanations, I’m showing I’m trying to what? Salvage my pride. I think well, I’m going to get involved in Bible study, I’m going to do this, I’m going to talk to people about the Lord, I’m going to … Wait a minute, God’s not looking for our sacrifices, He’s looking for your broken and contrite heart. We think we’ll cover it up by sacrifices, or it’ll be a balance, I don’t mind humbling myself partially. David realizes “the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” Bottom line. I can’t deal with it until I’m willing to be humbled before the Lord and say Lord you’re absolutely and totally right. You’re not 98% right, you are 100% right. I am not 94% guilty, I am 100% guilty. There are no excuses, there are no reasons. God, all I seek is mercy. That’s what God requires. That’s why in the beatitudes, “blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn over their sins.” That’s the kind of person God deals with. One other verse, Isaiah 66, and then I want to turn to another psalm with you. Isaiah 66. I read this for you at the beginning of our service this morning. Isaiah 66. “As the God who made everything, who is sovereign over all.” The last part of verse 2 of Isaiah 66, “But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit and who trembles at my Word.” David had come to that point in his life. He is casting himself on the mercy of God, asking God for compassion and grace, lovingkindness, that God would mercifully wash him clean, blot out his sin, restore to him the joy of his salvation. We have Psalm 51, as we learn from David something of his experiences.

Back up to Psalm 32, Psalm 32. There is no title given to this psalm, but it has been generally taken that David is writing about the same experience—his experience with Bathsheba. But this psalm would indicate more time has passed and this is a follow-up to Psalm 51. Note how David begins. “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit, there is no deceit.” Verse 1, “how blessed;” verse 2, “how blessed.” A word that denotes the true, inner happiness of the person who has experienced God’s forgiveness. Not just a feeling that comes and goes, but true genuine happiness, joy. Restore to me the joy of my salvation, how there is joy, happiness, blessedness for the one who has experienced God’s forgiveness.

The same three words for sin that were used in Psalm 51 are used here again—transgression, sin, iniquity in those first two verses. However, you want to look at sin, reinforcing different aspects of what are involved in sin. He also uses three verbs here to express the completeness of forgiveness. His transgression is forgiven, sin covered, iniquity not imputed, not charged to me. Emphasizes the vastness of sin with the three different words for sin, but also the completeness of the cleansing that takes place. It’s forgiven, it’s covered, it’s not imputed. Know what happens when you don’t deal with sin? Verse 3, “I kept silent about my sin my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.” You see a little bit of time has passed, David now sits down and writes what his experience was like. What it was like when he tried to cover his sin—the days and weeks and months after his sin with Bathsheba and the murder of Uriah and before Nathan comes to him. “When I kept silent about my sin,” when I didn’t deal with it, “my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. Night and day your hand was heavy upon me, my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.” You know our sin has physical consequences. It saps the life out of us, it drains our strength; and it’s worse for believers. Seems the world trips along and can sin and there seems to be a certain revelry in their sin. But you know I can’t be what I was. Sin brings even greater misery. I’m not implying in any way that unregenerate sinners will not reap the misery of their sin, but it seems they can go on. I remember a believer, now with the Lord, sharing that experience with me. As they had turned into a life of sin for a time with others who had professed to be believers, but the testimony of this person was, I don’t think they really were believers. You know why? The person said I was miserable every day, but they weren’t.

That’s what David says. It overwhelmed me. I think the impact of sin is seen in our world. We have people running to psychologists and psychiatrists and taking this pill and that pill. We’ve got all kinds of things to help with depression, people don’t want to confront the fact that the reality of it is sin. We just want to dull the consequences of sin. That invades among us as believers. We get into sin, we don’t want to deal with sin, we keep silent about our sin before the Lord, not wanting to face it and acknowledge it and humble ourselves and deal with it. Like David said, it saps my strength.” We wonder why people can’t get out of bed in the morning, I can’t face the day and I don’t have any desire to do anything. David says that’s what I was going through. Just like when you have the fever heat of summer, just saps your strength. Good pictures, aren’t they? We think this is something new and psychology has helped us. We want to be careful we don't try to dull those things which would be the consequences of our sin which would serve to get our attention. You know someone has a serious pain, we don’t want to just say take something and cover it up. We say we have to find out what the cause of it is. Because if you mask it, it may be destructive.

“I acknowledged my sin to you, my iniquity I did not hide. I said I will confess my transgression to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt of my sin.” What a great God we have. You know we have a God that sits there and says David there is no excuse for your sin. You of all men have received my blessing, and He does tell him he received greater blessing than most men. David was an instrument used of God to write much of the psalms. There is no excuse for his sin. But God was a gracious God and a forgiving God and He has forgiven David’s sin. “You forgave the guilt of my sin.” What he had to do was come and acknowledge it, confess it, deal with it. I mean, it’s sin. I agree with you, God, it’s sin. We don’t have to do penance; we don’t have to work it off—we can’t. But there is no getting around I have to confront it until I come to grips with it, it’s sin. I can’t get on.

“Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to you at a time when you may be found.” You’re my hiding place,” in verse 7, “you surround me with psalms of deliverance.” The protection and safety from trial and trouble are found in the Lord. You know it’s His blessings that bring joy to our lives. He brings strength so that our strength is renewed as the eagles. We bring trouble, difficulty and pain to our lives.

“I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go,” God speaking here. “I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, otherwise they will not come to you.” The Lord speaks and warns us, don’t fight against me, don’t resist my instruction and my counsel, otherwise my hand will be heavy upon you. In other words, David had no choice, he was going to have to do what God required of him as His child. He could rebel, but he experienced the consequences—the hand of the Lord was heavy upon him. Verse 4, “Day and night your hand was heavy upon me.” God says don’t be like the foolish animals, the horse, the mule that don’t have understanding. You can’t fight against me, you can’t oppose me, you can’t resist me and win. David found that out. Could he sample the delights of immorality? Yes. Could he cover that immorality up for a time? Yes. Could he win a struggle against God? No. What did David have as a result of his sin with Bathsheba? Misery. “All day long my body wasted away.” I’m sure there were people that wondered what’s wrong with the king? Does he have a disease? Is there something wrong? He’s lost his interest in the kingdom, he doesn’t seem to have any interest, he doesn’t want to get out of bed. What’s the problem here? David knew. The hand of the Lord was upon him, he was ready when Nathan came. You’re right, I’ve sinned against the Lord. Don’t be like the horse or the mule. Why do I think that I will be an exception? Pay attention to me, submit to me.

“Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but he who trusts in the Lord, lovingkindness shall surround him.” Really repeating here what he said in verses 6-7. Be glad in the Lord and rejoice in you righteous ones. Shout for joy all you who are upright in heart. God intends for us as His children to experience His joy. Note in verse 11, “be glad, rejoice, shout for joy, gladness, joy, rejoicing.” This is what God wants for us. Sin holds out a counterfeit, oh here you’ll enjoy it. We see it in things, people are going to get into drugs. Why? It gives them a high, it gives them great pleasure. You say oh that’s a wretched trade. Anybody arguing that there are not moments of pleasure in taking those drugs? That’s what keeps people doing it. But we say oh what a price to pay for that moment of pleasure, a life of misery and ruin. We as believers, God wants to give us the fullness of His joy, His intention is for us to have a salvation that brings His joy, His happiness and His blessing. But we cannot have it unless we walk before him with humble and contrite hearts.

Let me just review a few things from these two chapters and we’re done:

1) We must see our sin as ugly and vile, an offense against the holy God. There is no negotiating here. Every one of us knows what I’m talking about. We have things in our lives we know are not Biblical, they are not what God would have us do. We know the Word of God says, but I think that I can negotiate in this area, I have reasons or excuses. We must see our sin for what it is—ugly, vile and despising of God’s Word and despising of God.

2) We must see God as gracious, loving and compassionate. You know He is a God who is holy, righteous. He’s a God who is loving and compassionate. I recognize there is forgiveness in Him. I never come to the point of despair; Lord I’ve gone beyond what could be forgiven. His forgiveness is great enough for the greatest of sins. I can be washed as white as snow, whatever I have been. That’s good for all of us to remember, because some of us can’t forget not only our sins, but we can’t forget other people’s sins. Understand whatever it has been, whatever is in life; David was washed clean. Washed clean. Do I look at psalms that were written by
David and say you know I could never read these psalms written by David knowing what kind of man he was. I realize he was a man, he sinned, but he was washed clean. I realize I was born just like him, in sin. I am just as capable of the vilest sins that anyone does. Don’t ever delude ourselves, oh I could never do that. The scary thing about sin is I don’t know what I can do. If you had asked David a month before his sin with Bathsheba and his act of murder, do you think you could ever be immoral, sin against God in that way and then commit murder. I’m sure David would have said absolutely not. Why would you even raise such a question? I could never do that. I don’t know the depths of depravity that I’m capable of as a fallen being, but I know my God is gracious and great, loving and forgiving, and He forgives it all when I come to Him.

3) We must seek cleansing and forgiveness from God on the basis of His mercy. There is no negotiating here, either. I come as a sinner, unworthy and undeserving and ask God to be merciful to me. Even as His child I realize it’s only His grace that brings His continuing forgiveness and I am cleansed day after day and week after week. That allows me never to become callous or indifferent to my sin. Sin should never be anything less than ugly and repulsive, despicable in my sight, something I want to be quickly rid of. I seek forgiveness, cleansing on the basis of God’s mercy. Not because my sin wasn’t that bad, not because I’m really not that bad a person. I seek it because God, you’re a God of mercy. That’s my only claim. You’ve promised to be gracious and merciful to those who cast themselves on you.

4) Sin that is not dealt with drains our vitality and strength. Mark it down. Sin that is not dealt with drains our vitality and our strength. We become depressed, despondent, discouraged. We say what is wrong? You know we can become confused. I have to come back and Lord, are there things in my life, and we often know there are. I don’t think things come and we say oh I didn’t know I had sin in my life. We know. We don’t want to admit it. If you don’t deal with the sin, the future is bleak. I can overcome it. Don’t think you can fight, don’t be like the dumb animals, the horse and the mule. You can’t fight against God and win. First thing I want to know why I’m depressed, I don’t know what to do, I’m discouraged, I… You know I think I might need, you know, some medical help. Well maybe there is a medical problem. Get a physical. I think my problem is mental. Go to the Word. We want to be careful. I believe the Lord will bring His joy and the joy of His salvation to me as His child.

5) With forgiveness comes joy and happiness. There are blessings for those who are forgiven. I rejoice in that. God intends for me, not to have an easy life, not to have the superficial happiness, but He intends for my heart to be filled with joy. When I live in relationship with the living God, I walk with the God who has totally forgiven me, made me clean, white as snow. He has promised never to leave me nor forsake me. He has assured me of the glory of His presence. He has promised that all things will work together for my good and His glory. What do I have to be unhappy over? I serve a living God and He is my Savior.

Is that the testimony of our lives? There are none of us here who haven’t had to deal with sin in our lives, even as believers. Have we dealt with it as we should? Do we see it as David says it is? The Spirit of God directs through David. Are we experiencing the result of such a life? Joy, rejoicing, happiness, because our God has brought the fullness of His blessing.

Let’s pray together. Thank you, Lord, for the testimony of David. We are taken back to see the sin in his life, and yet Lord as we look at ourselves, we realize we have been conceived in sin. We are those who have gone astray from the womb, that there is not a righteous man upon the earth that does good and does not sin. We were by nature children of wrath. May we not delude ourselves into thinking we are above the sin; we are incapable of such offenses against you. May that cause us to walk carefully before you. Lord for those who are here, perhaps they are discouraged and depressed, perhaps they have sin in their lives, perhaps Lord they haven’t felt the impact of that sin yet, only the enjoyment. Lord, no one else knows, but you do. The evil is done in your sight. All things are open and naked before the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Lord, you know us as we are. Thank you that you are a God of compassion, lovingkindness, forgiveness. That is our only hope. Lord we would claim that forgiveness. May we not be stubborn, prideful people. May we humble ourselves, have contrite hearts, that we might experience the fullness of your blessing for us. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen.