[0:00] What we hope to be able to do tonight is just look at what the psalm teaches us, stepping! and seeking God's guidance as we go through it to learn what the psalmist says to us and what it means for each and every one of us. I was to ask you the question, can you think of a time that you did something wrong, you thought you'd got away with it, nobody had said anything, and then all of a sudden somebody comes to you and says, I know exactly what you did. What's your immediate reaction? To blame somebody else? To deny what happened?
[0:59] That's not what we see here with David. We did see it, and we read of it, of Adam and Eve when they first fell in the garden. Adam blamed Eve. Eve blamed the serpent. But we read that Nathan came to speak to David. God had sent him there. And through a parable, he speaks to David. David immediately gets angry at what he heard. This rich man's taken this lamb. Didn't belong to him. He had plenty more that he could have used. And David wants to deal with the man.
[1:52] And then Nathan says to him, you're the man. You could almost feel the tension in the room. The prophet of God has come to the king and challenged him on the sin that he thought he had gone away with.
[2:15] How does David respond? David immediately acknowledges that he has sinned against God.
[2:31] He doesn't blame Bathsheba. He doesn't blame Uriah for being a poor soldier. He immediately recognizes that he has sinned against God. He doesn't think of the damage that he has done maybe to other people's reputations. He doesn't think of the fact that he's actually killed or had Uriah killed indirectly.
[2:59] He recognizes right away that what he has done is he has sinned against God. How many of us, when we're caught doing something wrong, or we recognize that we have done something wrong, our immediate thought is not to the... normally we would think about the person that we have maybe offended, that we have maybe upset. Do we actually think of the fact that it's actually God that we have sinned against?
[3:41] And that kind of sets the scene for what David writes that we have before us here. The text that I would use for tonight is verse 4 of the psalm that we have.
[4:04] Against you, you only, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words, and blameless in your judgment.
[4:19] We read in 2 Samuel 12, how the judgment that was passed on David.
[4:35] We read there how it says that what you did in secret, he thought he had got away with it.
[4:47] What had been done in the bedchamber, what had been done in his own mind as he thought about how he could deal with Uriah. God knew exactly what had been done.
[5:01] God knew exactly what had been done. And we see that in that verse that's before us there. That he has done what is evil in the sight of God. It might have been out of sight of everybody else, but it was done within the sight of God.
[5:20] Again, we can pause. What thoughts do we have? Do we recognize that our thoughts can often transgress God's law?
[5:35] We can be sinning against God even in our thoughts. We think we get away with it. We get up and we move on to the next thing. Against God. And recognize that we have sinned against God.
[5:51] And David teaches us here that while he thought he had got away with his sin, as soon as his sin was presented to him, he had to recognize that it was against God.
[6:07] And he says there, so you may be justified in your words. The words that Nathan, the prophet, brought to him. And that you may be blameless in your judgment.
[6:19] He recognized that the judgment of God was right. And he also recognized that in saying to God that he had sinned against him, he acknowledged that everything that God did thereafter was the right thing for God to have done because of his sin.
[6:41] Again, do we ever stop and think about what happens to us because of a sin? Do we see it as a judgment from God?
[6:57] Do we see God's word? When we read God's word, do we recognize that God's word can very often correct us from that sin?
[7:08] Do we see God's word? Let us think further about what the psalm has to teach us as we think of that verse and the rest of the psalm.
[7:21] If you were looking for a title for the sermon this evening, it will appear there before you. Ownership and confession brings renewal.
[7:33] We see David owning his sin. We see him coming before God and confessing his sin.
[7:46] But not only does he confess his sin, he cries out to God, as we'll see as we go through the psalm, for a renewal, a recreation of his heart, a restoring of the joy of the salvation that God had given to him.
[8:08] And also we'll see other aspects of a renewal and a recreation. In terms of points for this evening, there's two points that we have.
[8:23] A cry for mercy and forgiveness is our first point. And then a cry for renewal. David comes before God in verse 1.
[8:36] And he immediately cries out, Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy. He cries out to God because God is a God of mercy.
[8:52] He acknowledges in verse 4 that God is just in his words. He recognizes that God is also blameless in his judgment.
[9:05] But most of all, he comes and he recognizes right at the beginning of this psalm that God is a God of mercy. We can read in Exodus 33 where it says where God was speaking to Moses and he says, I will make, at verse 19, I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name, the Lord.
[9:36] And I will show mercy. David recognized that God was a God of mercy and he had to come before him. But he also recognized, and we've looked at this before, that God was a God of steadfast love.
[9:54] Lamentation 3, 22, the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning and great is his faithfulness towards each and every one of us.
[10:14] Recognizing that as we come before God each and every day, his mercies to us are new every morning. His steadfast love it never ceases.
[10:30] And the psalmist knew that as he recorded his words here. We sang after thy loving kindness, Lord, have mercy upon me thy great compassion.
[10:43] And here it's recorded as abundant mercy. But we know that God is a compassionate God. We know that he will give us compassion when we come before him.
[10:59] Micah 7, 18, who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgressions for the remnant of his inheritance. He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in steadfast love.
[11:14] He will again have compassion on us. He will tread out our iniquities under his foot. Do we come before God not just recognizing that he is a holy God but recognizing that he is a God of mercy, recognizing that he is a God of steadfast love, passion for each and every one.
[11:36] He is a God that has abundant mercy and compassion for each and every one that comes and calls upon his name. David doesn't lay out a particular sin before God.
[11:54] He comes immediately and recognizes God's mercy, God's steadfast love, God's compassion. But he asks God to deal with his sin.
[12:07] We see three different words that he uses for his sin. We see him use the word transgression. We see him use the word iniquity.
[12:21] We see him use the word sin. The end of verse 1 and into verse 2, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
[12:35] What do these three different words mean? Do you not say sin is sin? Well, transgression is the breaking of the law and here it's the breaking of the law of God.
[12:51] The sins that David has committed are a rebellion against the law of God. We read of what David had done, the sins that he had committed.
[13:04] We could have gone back into chapter 11 and read in more detail of how he saw Bathsheba and how he took her while her husband was away.
[13:18] How he lay with her and then the child was conceived. How he then plotted for Uriah to be killed in the line of battle.
[13:31] all these things rebellion against God. Iniquity, a moral failure on David's part.
[13:46] Not only did he transgress God's law but the sin that he committed. We hear it said nowadays about people living in iniquity, living outside again of God's law.
[14:04] And sin, what does sin mean for each and every one of us? Sin means that we're separated from God. David asks for God to take action in dealing with his sin.
[14:25] First of all, he wants God to blot out his sin. He wants God to wash him and he wants God to cleanse him. Blot out his transgressions.
[14:41] First time the words blot out are used in the Bible. Probably well known to many of you here. Genesis 6 and verse 7. When God had seen the sin of the people on the earth his desire was to blot them out regretting that he had ever created them.
[15:07] To wipe them out completely. And David recognizes that for his sin, for his transgressions to be dealt with, they had to be blotted out of God's mind.
[15:21] And we know that if we come and we confess our sin before God that he will indeed cast them out and blot them out in the sea of his forgetfulness.
[15:35] Then he asks God to wash me. Wash me of my iniquity. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.
[15:49] In the past, let me go back into the book of Leviticus. Those that had sinned or had a skin condition had to go and wash themselves and then go back and wash themselves again seven days later to make sure that their skin was clean.
[16:13] What could be seen could be washed off. We regularly go and wash our hands. the dirt that we can see is washed off. And the psalmist here recognizes the importance of being washed.
[16:31] But then he asks to be cleansed. Cleanse me from my sin. What do we think about cleansing from his sin? Many of us in our bathrooms have cleansing fluids.
[16:48] What do we've washed our face? It looks clean. But then we get caught in wool and we dip it in the cleansing and we wipe it across our face and then are surprised to see the dirt that comes off that's not there apparent to the human eye.
[17:06] But all of a sudden we see the dirt that's ingrained in the skin that we can't always see. It requires a deep cleansing.
[17:18] And here the psalmist asks that God cleanses them from his sin. We read of Jesus washing the disciples' feet. And Peter says, you shall never wash my feet at verse 8.
[17:33] And Jesus answered him, if I do not wash you, you have no share with me. Simon Peter said to him, Lord, do not not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.
[17:47] And Jesus goes on and says, the one who has bathed does not need to wash except for his feet, but is completely clean. And you are clean, but not every one of you.
[17:59] As he refers to Judas Iscariot. Do you need your sins to be blotted out? Do you need your sins to be cleansed?
[18:16] Yes, we can come and we can ask forgiveness. But are we asking forgiveness for every sin? Are we harboring sins in our heart that we need to come and ask for God to cleanse?
[18:34] Cleanse people maybe can't see them. or sins that we think we might get away with because people can't actually see them. They're not public. Do we need to ask God to have mercy upon us and come and cleanse us against you?
[18:53] You only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. Do we recognize? We maybe talk about it. We maybe sometimes think about it. We read it.
[19:06] We sing it in the psalm. But do we actually think when we come and we ask forgiveness of our sins that God knows everything, God sees everything, and we need to come and confess each and every sin before God this night.
[19:26] Why? Because he's a God of mercy. He's a God of steadfast love, and he's a God of compassion. and he desires that if we hear his voice calling us, that we come to him, and we come and we ask forgiveness.
[19:48] David recognizes in the psalm here before us in verse 5, not that his mother was a sinner, not that it was his mother's fault that he committed this sin, but he recognizes, as we've read so often before, that by the sin of one man, as Thomas has gone through the serious about taking sin seriously, by the sin of one man, we all fell.
[20:21] Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me, but God delights in truth, in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
[20:37] God delights in truth. He seeks to teach us wisdom in the secret heart. Do we come before him and recognize his truth?
[20:52] Do we seek to be taught by him, through his word? Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I be whiter than the snow.
[21:07] Not only does he want the sin to be blotted out, to be washed, to be cleansed, he again cries out that it would indeed be purged and washed again.
[21:21] We see the mention of hyssop there, and again we've looked at how hyssop was used, the blood, it was dipped into the blood, and put on the lintel the night of the Passover, so that people would be recognized.
[21:39] When the angel came through, that he would recognize the homes of those that were of children of God. do you want to be purged with hyssop tonight?
[21:53] Do you see the need to become a child of God? The blood that's been shed on the cross at Calvary for each and every one of you, if you hear God's call upon your life, ask him to purge you with hyssop, that you shall indeed be clean, that you be whiter than the snow.
[22:25] A cry for mercy and a cry for compassion, sorry, a cry for forgiveness. The psalmist doesn't finish there.
[22:39] The psalmist desires and calls out and cries to be recreated. He comes before God and he says in verse 10, create in me a clean heart of God and renew a right spirit within me.
[22:59] Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.
[23:10] Then I will teach transgressors your way and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness so God God of my salvation and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
[23:25] O Lord open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. The psalmist recognizes that his heart was turned away from God.
[23:38] He had once been referred to as a man after God's own heart but his heart had turned away. Sin had entered in.
[23:50] He'd been confronted with his sin and now he comes before God and he asks him create within me a clean heart of God. Renew a right spirit within me.
[24:04] Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. God had said before in Genesis that his spirit would not always thrive with man.
[24:19] The psalmist recognized the danger of God taking his spirit away from him. Recognized the danger of God casting him away from his presence.
[24:32] He recognized that his sin deserved that very action by God. But he cried out to God cast me not away from your presence.
[24:46] Take not your Holy Spirit from me. Do we truly recognize the weight of our sin? Do we recognize the need to come before a holy God and ask him not to cast us out of his presence?
[25:06] Not to take his Holy Spirit away from us? You might be here tonight you're feeling the weight of your sin.
[25:17] come before God and ask him to have mercy upon you. You may have come to him before and you've wandered.
[25:32] Cry out to him as the psalmist did. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. the psalmist recognized that while he was separated from God he was dead in his trespasses And his sin!
[25:59] He recognized that God's just judgment upon him was indeed right! And he cried out let me hear joy and gladness let the bones that you have broken rejoice!
[26:21] Are you crushed by your sin? Is your sin forever before you? That you think about it that it's a stumbling block for you that you wait upon you it's running in your head all the time.
[26:40] the psalmist cried out let me hear joy and gladness for the good news for each and every one of us this night is that God sent his son to die for each and every one of us!
[26:56] and we should joy and rejoice and be glad and full of gladness because of that and it should let our bones that are broken rejoice when I read that let the bones that you have broken rejoice I often think of the chorus that we learnt in Sunday school when Peter and John went to pray and they met a lame man on the way and the man went leaping and praising he went away leaping and praising God I don't know the situation of every one of you here this evening I know most of you I've met most of you I've spoken with you but I don't know where you are in relation to what we've read this evening I'm not for one minute saying that you've committed any of the sins that
[28:01] David that we read of here but if you haven't come and asked God for forgiveness in the way that the psalmist has here this night you are cut off from God and you need to come and ask to be restored to him the psalmist recognized as we see in verse 16 for you for you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it you will not be pleased with a burnt offering because of David's sin God didn't want his sacrifice God didn't want his burnt offering what God wanted was to see a broken and a contrite heart is pride stopping you coming to
[29:08] God do you think you know better yourself that you can deal with your sin on your own David had been confronted with his sin he recognized that he had sinned against God and he had to come with a penitent heart a broken and a contrite heart and what does it tell us if we come before God with a broken and a contrite heart recognizing that only he can forgive us in his mercy he will not despise us David having come back to God in the prayer here he then prays do good to Zion and your good pleasure build up the walls of Jerusalem then you will delight in right sacrifices and burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings and bulls will be offered on your altar we don't offer bulls on altars anymore because there's one sacrifice been made for each and every one that hears
[30:36] God's call this night the psalmist asked as we read there let me hear joy and gladness I don't know if you're hearing God calling you tonight but if you are don't run away from him come to him come to him with joy come to him with gladness because he has made a sacrifice for you through his son and his blood will blot out your transgressions it will wash you thoroughly from your iniquities and it will cleanse you that you will be as white as snow in the blood of the Lamb if you need to come before
[31:43] God and cry out for mercy do it now don't wait until you go home do it now let us pray