The counsel given to God’s people in Hosea 14:2, "Take words with you and return to the Lord,” is one that we want to take very seriously. If we have offended our own God and King, how will we speak to Him when we have an audience with Him in the highest court? What words will we bring with us to honestly express our shame? What arguments will we lay before Him as we plead for restoration? What things matter most to Him and us in a time of true repentance? God has given us the opportunity to follow David before the throne of grace and to listen to him plead with God. Using David’s words in Psalm 51 we may understand what words we must take with us as we daily repent.

Well, it's good to be with you. I want us to think together about David's words. I wonder if we've ever thought about what we would say if we had an audience with the king. When my wife and I and our children were in the UK doing the studies that were mentioned, we were befriended by many very generous, gracious Christians at the church that we attended. And they always took every opportunity they could to take the Americans and our young children and to go see some sight And so they would take us to revival sites or gravestones.

Those were my favorite not my wife's favorite, but my favorite and they would often take us to some of the more classic sites, so castles. When you go to a castle in the UK that the monarchy owns, which there'd be many, they'll always have the Union Jack, the national flag there for Great Britain, But they might also have the stand the Royal the monarchy standards of the Queen's standard so if you look at the flagpole as you walk into the castle or the palace and There there are two flags there There's the national flag and the Queen's standard then you know that the Queen is actually in residence This is her home for that day And I always wondered what would I do if I ever like met the Queen like would she walk out? Would she say hello to us would she do her wave? One of my British friends is a pastor and The nation had this kind of Competition people that had done great things for their community so admirable servants in the community and His name was actually put forward by people in his community and he was one of the winners.

And so he and his wife were invited to go to Buckingham Palace and in the gardens, they had a big tea and the queen went around and actually met all the guests. And so there's a picture of my friend shaking the queen's hand and she's saying some things to him and he's saying some things to her. I've never asked him what he said. But I wonder if when he prepared to go, if he thought to himself, So if the queen comes and if she comes up to my wife and I, what will we say? What if you were to speak to a God?

What if you were to speak to a God, the only God, and You had offended him and you had lived in a way that had brought great dishonor to his name and all your future was in his hands and You were expected to present some statement to him in his courts. In the book of Hosea at a very sad time in Israel's history, we read a strange verse toward the end of the book in chapter 14, verses one and two. This is what the prophet says to Israel. "'Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, or repent, "'for you have stumbled because of your iniquity take words with you and Return to the Lord Let's pray Our everlasting King we are here this evening not because we are so particularly spiritual and strong, not because we're so good, but Because we are a needy people and you have in your great kindness opened our eyes to show us our need and you have turned our face to the cross and just when we thought that you would destroy us, we see that you laid our shame upon our savior and crushing him, we are reconciled to you and you to us.

And so many here this evening can say by experience that they've tasted and seen that you are good. So we come God. Others are here because they are related to those that know you and they hold you at arms length. We pray that you would be kind to them as well. Help us this evening, Father.

Stoop down, teach us, roll up your sleeve, God. Do not leave us the same way we came for the honor of Jesus Christ. We pray Amen Well, I mentioned Jose's verse it is quite a shocking verse, Isn't it? I wonder if you've ever considered that command. It's not just a suggestion Israel you've stumbled Because of your iniquity you've gone far from the Lord and you're going to need to return to him but when you go back to God when you so to speak by faith enter into the highest courts of heaven, and there's the king that you've lived against, then you need to take appropriate words.

Amazing that the God whose voice called everything into existence and will one day Summon every spiritual being before his throne and though heaven and earth though the galaxies flee the face of Christ We will come to him It's amazing that he turns to people like us every one of us and says return and when you come Bring words with you Some say that forgiveness is based on getting every sin confessed. When I was in the youth group, I remember as a young person having plenty of things to confess, but I wasn't interested in confessing them really. I wasn't a believer until I was age 20, even though I was in a very godly home. But the youth minister would say something like this, now you know you've sinned and sin is a terrible thing. And he would go through the kind of the normal things you would expect and so I zoned out and then I would kind of come to at the end of the talk maybe you do that and he said now what you need to do is this if you want to really be right with God you go home and you get a legal pad and you begin to write and you just lock your door and you kneel by your bed and you write down every sin you've ever done and then you confess them all to Christ then you you know you just throw away the paper and I'm not saying that that's a bad idea but here's what my little mind thought if I could just get every sin listed then I'd be clean Martin Luther we thought a lot about him this year.

Luther, before he was a believer, but while he was extremely religious, thought that this was the way to be clean. The Catholic Church provided a number of ceremonies or methods to try to get yourself off the hook with God and one of them was the mass what we would call the Lord's Supper but it's very different for the Roman Catholic the Roman Catholic sees it as a re-sacrificing of Christ and because there's a re-sacrificing of Christ then sin you have confessed to your priest would be cleansed again So I I sinned I came to Christ those are washed away But I've sinned since I came to Christ and then I confess it to my priest and I go to the mass and they're washed away again Luther drove his confessor mad. He said he would confess for hours the smallest sins, the thoughts, the bad attitudes of his heart. He would go on and on for hours and then he would finally leave the confessor and go back to his room and then he would rush back and say, I forgot something. Luther was plagued by the fear that if he had a sin that he had not confessed, then it wouldn't be forgiven at the mass and his soul would still be under God's judgment.

Now unlike Luther, I suppose that most of us have grown up in a day where those that believe the same doctrines that Luther or Calvin or others believed in the Reformation, While they wouldn't preach it this way, there is the general impression given that real dealing with God about sin post-conversion. So honest confession, a real exposing of the soul to the Lord, dragging it all out into the light where he is And agreeing with him about all that I am and all that I've done It's not essential if you want to do that, that's okay, but we're saved by grace Past present and future sins are forgiven. So why would you do that? You just kind of get up and brush yourself off and go on enjoying his grace. That isn't really the pattern of the early reformers.

One of my favorite early reformers is a man named John Bradford. He was an English reformer and a martyr. Bradford, there's two volumes available of his works by the banner of truth, but Bradford was particularly known in his day for his writings on repentance, so you can get those and read them. But this is what an eyewitness said of John Bradford. They said in the morning John Bradford would take his Bible and go into his room and shut his door.

And he would begin to cry out to the Lord and he would soon weep so violently that you thought to yourself in that room is a man that will never be happy again. You ever heard that kind of weeping? Maybe at a funeral and you think they'll never be happy. But after laying his soul before the Lord again that morning and looking to the fullness of Christ for a man like himself Bradford comes out of his Prayer closet and they said he was so happy You would have thought that this is a man that had never been touched by sorrow Who's right And if you must take words to the Lord in the new covenant, what would be the appropriate words to take? Well, obviously the safest guide is scripture.

And so we are going to be looking at David's words in Psalm 51. And it is an extraordinary kindness that God allows us to enter heaven's courtroom in a sense at the same moment that the broken hearted, the heart ground to powder David enters in and lays before the King of heaven and earth, his confession, his repentance. We know what's behind Psalm 51, second Samuel chapters 11 and 12 explain That David had become careless after all the privileges that God had given him the great covenant is made David. There will be a person from your lineage on the throne forever. Forever, David, the Messiah.

After these great privileges and so many years of faithfulness, David is careless. He's up on top of the roof of his palace where he can see down on the houses around him and as was the custom, people would bathe at night on the roof and on the roof, David sees Bathsheba and he thinks she's beautiful So he wants to take her for himself, but she's married. So is he? He sends his messengers and takes her and he commits adultery Bathsheba later lets him know that she's pregnant So David begins a series of choices to cover up his sin He calls her husband who's a soldier in his army a Hittite back into Jerusalem and he says basically to him, you've done a great job, Uriah, why don't you just go home and take a break. So he goes to send Uriah home and he sends presents, gifts to meet Uriah at his house, but Uriah he finds out the next day doesn't go home He actually gets about as far as the gate of the palace and sees the servants quarters and sleeps with the king's servants there instead of Going back to his wife David hopes of course that being with his wife that that would cover up what he had done.

So he finds out the next day that Uriah doesn't go home and he calls him to him and says, why didn't you go home? Well, he says, well, the men that I battle with on the field, they can't go home to their wife. They don't get to kiss their wife good night. They don't get to eat supper in their house and sleep in their soft bed. So I'm not going to do that.

So David continues his attempt. He has Uriah come to supper that night and he Gets him drunk and he sends him home. But as your aya staggers out he sees the servants quarters and he sleeps there again David realizes this this won't cover up his sin. So he writes a letter to take to the general Joab And in the letter he says of course that Uriah is to be put at the front lines and Joab is to do what he would never have done normally is to put his army part of his army very close to the city walls that they're attacking close enough for the archers to shoot and he does this. And when Uriah is in danger, he pulls the army back and Uriah and a number of other men are killed.

So David feels that he's off the hook, his sin is covered. He marries Bathsheba after the time of mourning. A number of months, at least nine past the child is born and God sends Nathan the Prophet to David and of course David is exposed The fullest description of how David feels about his sin now is found in the penitential Psalms, 32, 38, 51. David describes what it's like to live at a distance from God, holding sin, giving it sanctuary, protecting it against his own God. So he says things like this, "'My strength of my life is dried up My bones are broken arrows are stuck in me.

I'm crushed Pressed down by God's own hand. I am bowed over with sadness all day long I sigh my strength fails the light of my eyes has departed. I have become numb I'm deaf and mute You ever been that way? Been far from the Lord for so long that it's as if you never hear a sermon. You sit and you just go through the motions.

Been far from God for so long that when someone asks you a question about Christ, when at one time you would have had so much to say about your Lord, but now you just have nothing. You just say a few parroted religious phrases. David goes on and says, it's not getting better as time goes on. My life is like a wound that is festering and infected. My closest friends distance themselves from me.

It's a terrible picture of sin's ruin. But I wonder if you've noticed that it's also an extraordinary picture of God's kindness, because this is not the normal working of sin. What is the normal working of sin? With most things, we think of it this way. The more experience you have of a thing, the more you understand it.

So whatever it is. Basketball, whatever kind of work you do, hunting. So you could read a book about hunting, or you could go hunting. I've only been hunting a few times. I grew up in a family that didn't hunt.

So when I got older, and old enough got married and bought my own stuff, so I bought myself a black powder rifle. And I thought, well, I'm going to go deer hunting. I've never been deer hunting in my life. I had a friend that had a stand. I said, can I use your stand?

Sure, he said. I knew it was deer season. So I go out about 10 in the morning. I get out there. I'm eating Doritos.

I'm just sitting up there. I'm bored to death. I think this is the this is the worst life there is I mean I can't see a deer anywhere I'm up there fidgety. I Go home. I leave my black powder rifle loaded for months.

All right, so there's powder in it still finally I think John you're supposed to have cleaned that thing. So I take it outside, and I was a pastor at the time in the country, everybody around me very close to me, and there was a particularly, there was an older couple that went to my church right here. He had just bought a gas grill. This is absolutely has nothing to do with what I'm about to tell you, all right? But I got to tell you now.

He just bought a gas grill. He's about 70 years old. And his wife, I could hear his wife saying, you're going to kill yourself with that gas grill. Let somebody else put it together. And he was saying, I can do it.

So I go outside and there's a big hill behind my house and I got the gun and the rifle and so I I put some extra powder and I pulled the trigger boom the thing blows up there's smoke everywhere the wife runs out of the house she thinks he's died she finds out it's not him So they look up the hill where I am and as a respected pastor of the community, I stumbled around and fell flat and waited for them to run up the hill and to see if I still... And then I felt terrible because they ran up the hill. So that's just one reason I only stayed three years in that church. Now, well back to the text and now that you've kind of woken up, Have you ever been here where David is? Have you ever felt that you could never really explain how deeply, deeply sorrowful and miserable you are?

If you have never done that, then I suppose that Psalm 51 would just kind of seem like you know a college class where you're studying old poetry and it's curious and it's quite famous but it's not life and death for you. What words did David bring to a God that he's offended in a condition like this? Well, we have it. There's a lot of things in this Psalm, so we're going to just kind of gather his words into some categories so that we can get through it in one session. David brings words to God about what he must have.

When you think about repentance, by faith entering into the courts of God, to plead with God, to plead the finished work of Jesus Christ, to expose your heart to God, I often find it good to ask myself some questions. So in my mind, I just imagine this. If I were about to enter the courtroom of heaven and one of the courtiers grabbed my arm and said to me, what is it you really want from the king? I mean, before you get in there, What is it you can't do without? When people come to a pastor and they tell them, him their sin, they generally are looking for relief.

I'm miserable, Can you help me? And so one of my questions is always this. What is it you want from me? Do you want help to find relief or do you really want a cure? Notice where David begins in Psalm 51.

Listen to me, you who pursue... Sorry, I'm in Isaiah 51. Sorry. Psalm 51, be gracious to me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the greatness of your compassion, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. David is a man that's desperate and he doesn't have the option of entering into God's courtroom with theological niceties.

He knows his sin and it follows him into every context. Every friendship is polluted by this sin. Every happy event is poisoned by the memory of it. Edward Payson, an early American preacher in the early 19th century in Portland, Maine Was known to be an extraordinarily godly young man now Payson pastored during the time of the 1812 war and so amazingly he records in his journals that there were times when the port was blockaded by the British and people actually starved. And this is what Payson noticed.

He said there was a man in his town who was a wealthy man who joined an acting troupe and in the acting troupe he played the part of a beggar. And Payson said he did a great job. He got on his knees and he pleaded with someone as a beggar would plead. But then Payson said this, it doesn't matter how good Mr. So-and-so does, he's a wealthy man.

He'll never beg like a starving man begs. What kind of a prayer are you? What kind of a repenter are you? When you bring words to God, you don't have to think in general terms. Just this week leading up to the conference.

Are you a man that is wealthy? Are you a woman that spiritually got it together and you are acting like a beggar? Or are you a starving, dying person that comes to the king and you must be heard. David doesn't start by explaining to God how great God is and how worthy he is of prayer. He immediately cries out, God be gracious to me.

God, my sin is always in front of me. And then he goes on to give requests Blot out or obliterate the record of my shameful selfishness Don't just erase it like on a piece of paper and then you could still read it Don't just scribble through it, but maybe it's still legible Take a sponge and like a blackboard with the chalk on it. Just Expunge it God wash me thoroughly The word he uses when he says that In verse 2 is a Hebrew word. That's not the kind of a word that you would use for rinse So we have our clothes and in our modern day we throw them in the in the washer so last night is throwing all my clothes in the washer and I trust it. They're not so dirty that the washer can't get them clean.

I just take them out and throw them into the dryer. But David's using a very special word. Scrub me, God. Pound me. Stomp.

Beat. Don't just toss my life into the washer. God, there are terrible stains here and it's not an option that they remain. Have you ever borrowed someone's clothes and it's maybe it's something very nice and so you say can I wear that and they okay but be careful and you you go and you get a stain on it, you come home and you put it into the washer and it comes out still, the stain's there? And so you start to get frantic.

You Google it and you scrub it and you do everything you can. It's just not optional. It has to come out. Then David comes to God with this same kind of word God my sin is ever before me You're going to have to wash me but God don't just rinse me off. I Want every aspect of this removed and he goes on verse 3 cleanse me It's the word that the Jews used for when the priest would declare a person Ceremonially clean and later in verse 7 look when he says purify me with hyssop and I shall be clean wash me And I will be whiter than snow It's the same idea Hyssop is a Egyptian plant so they would take it and they would dip this plant into a liquid.

It's used throughout the Old Testament. Let me give you just three examples to give you an idea of what David's meaning. The first mention of Hissip is in Exodus 12 When God gives them instructions about the Passover so God is going to destroy the firstborn of the Egyptians But not the firstborn of the Jews But the way they're not to be destroyed is the blood of the lamb is to be above their door. So he says this, you shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood which is in the basin and apply some of the blood that is in that basin to the lentil and the two doorposts. And none of you shall go outside the door of his house until morning for the Lord will pass through to smite the Egyptians and When he sees the blood on the lentil and on the two doorposts The Lord will pass over the door and will not allow the destroyer to come into your house to smite you So David says to God God, I'm the kind of man that death deserves death, but put the blood of the lamb above my doorpost.

In Leviticus 14, we see it again. One who had been healed by leprosy had to go to the priest and you would present yourself to the priest and he would inspect and make sure that you were free of leprosy and there were a whole set of ceremonial washings and head shavings Beard even eyebrows were to be shaved off. Then there were to be sacrifices that would be offered so that the priest at the end of this long process would be able to say to everyone in Israel, he really is clean or she really is clean. And They would take the hyssop and use it in those ceremonies in Numbers chapter 19 if you had touched a dead body you were ceremonially defiled and you couldn't go to worship So a person in your family dies you enter the tent there you are in near proximity to death, you leave the tent, you have to go to the priest, and there would again be a whole series of ceremonies the priest would go through involving the hyssop and the ceremonial cleansing, so that you could draw near to the Lord. So David comes to the Lord and in verse seven, purify me, he knows what he's saying.

God, I'm like the leper. Within there is a rottenness and I'm a contagious person. I'm a danger to people around me. God, purify me. God, I'm like a man that's embraced death not a dead body but worse sin and I brought it inside the soul and I've held it close God Purify me so that I can approach you again He asks him later in the psalm, hide your face, verse nine, hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.

Now here David is using an anthropomorphism. So he's using a human quality when describing God so that people like us can really get a grasp of him. It's like God letting us use baby language. So David says to the Lord, God, our sins, There they are, my sin, it's in front of you, it's offensive. Turn your face away from it, don't look at it again, God.

Don't remember it. David was a great Psalmist, but he didn't write every Psalm. One of the Psalms was written by Moses, Psalm 90. And in Psalm 90, Moses mentions this, and he says, God, as he's watching the people travel through the wilderness for 40 years Waiting for the older generation to die for their sin against God Moses says God all our sins are right in front of your face David's aware of that Psalm and David says, God, my sin is in front of your face. Hide your face.

If you've sinned against someone that you loved and you've hurt them terribly, Let's say that you're talking to a group of people and you don't know that they're coming to the room and you say something that's very hurtful about them and they hear it and they feel betrayed and you immediately go to them and you ask their forgiveness and they they're willing to forgive you. But is that all you want? You want to say to them, please don't ever remember what you heard again. It's the same idea, God, please turn your eyes away from the shameful sin. Are these the words that you bring to God when you repent?

Wash me Scrub me hide your face from my sin purify me great difference between a religious person and a Christian, isn't there, at this point? What's a religious person ask? A nice church member who gets themselves in trouble. They say to God, God, please, if you will just get me off the hook with these consequences then I will so there's a bargain How many times I've been talked to by a person who's Involved in some life destroying sin. I remember one lady who was wanting who was in the midst of adultery and she wanted to continue her adultery.

She wasn't a member of the church, but she knew as a pastor she came and she said to me, she said, wait, wait, as I was talking to her about Christ, about the honor of Christ, she claimed to be a Christian, she was destroying her husband who was a Christian, she was believing the lie. And As I was talking about all these things she was very polite She listened to the hardest words I had to say and at the end of my words, she said this Are you saying I'm gonna go to hell if I keep committing adultery or Is that a sin? Is that the unforgivable sin? And I said what? I'm not saying that because you committed adultery you will go to hell and she stopped me I couldn't give her the rest of the story.

She stops me and said well, thank you. Thank you for talking with me and she left But that's the heart of the unregenerate the person who's never met the king really I just want the consequences removed, but the christian like david brings these words. I want every aspect eradicated But that's not enough for David and it's not enough for us either There are more words to bring David desires God to give him strength He expresses this in a number of ways Picking up again in verse 10 created me a clean heart Oh God and renew a steadfast spirit within me Do not cast me away from your presence Do not take your Holy Spirit from me restore to me the joy of your salvation and since and sustain me with a willing spirit Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will be converted to you deliver me from blood guiltness Oh God the God of my salvation Then my tongue would joyfully sing of your righteousness Oh Lord open my lips that my mouth May declare your praise for 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 Lord you will not despise so David goes on It's not enough just that the past be washed clean He wants to make sure that tomorrow morning is different Samuel Rutherford my favorite Scottish preacher when he was in prison in the 1600s wrote a series of letters to his church members, which he was not able to get to, and Andrew Bonar, in the next century in Scotland, took all those letters, gathered them, chose 365 and put them into a book.

You can get that today. And the letters really get good once he hits prison, they just soar. But in one of the letters he asks this, he says, I wonder which is greater, which is a greater gift, justification or sanctification? What would you say? I don't know how to answer that question, I don't think it's a question we could answer.

But David is not willing to have justification. God cleansed me, washed me, scrubbed me, hide your face from the sin without also the work of God affecting the way he lives. God, I long that this not be repeated. So he asked these other things, listen to these words, created me a clean heart. My heart has been the center, the theater of sin and betrayal, and it's left it's stain.

God changed that heart. What about the mind or the spirit? Renew a steadfast spirit in me, sustain me, he says later, with a willing spirit. I don't want my life to be the kind of thing where right after I'm caught in sin, I say to God, I'm terribly sorry, but tomorrow morning I get up and live the same way. And I don't want to give God tomorrow with this begrudging, greedy hand where when I hand him my life, I say, okay God, if you forgive me, you can just take this life and there's these fingernail marks in the life because I don't want to let go of it.

17th century pastor who was an enemy of Puritans, so not exactly in the camp that I normally read, Jeremy Taylor said this, it's a great quote. This was his prayer to God. Let my life be all love and Let my love be obedience So David looks to God and he says thank you for the cleansing but God that's not enough Tomorrow morning. I'm gonna be the same man work in the heart Give some steadfastness to the mind Make me willing Then there's this whole issue of the nearness of God don't cast me away from your presence He says and don't take your spirit from me. Do you remember David's predecessor saw?

Saw sinned and God removed his spirit We're not dealing with the issue of losing your salvation Saul was the tool in the hand of the Lord and there was an extraordinary privilege as God's chosen instrument and saw lost that Now David is a believer, but David says to God God do not push keep me at arm's length It's not enough that I don't go to hell. I want to walk near you again. Are these the words that you bring when you return to the Lord? Forgive me, cleanse me, wash me, scrub me, purify me, hide your face for my sins. That's great.

Now God, my heart, my mind, I need you. But there are other words that David brings in the psalm in the beginning He opens up with the basis of his pleading. What does he mention verse 1? Does he mention his privileged status God? Here I am Nathan's exposed me but God, you know me.

I'm a man after your own heart. I'm the man you've made a covenant with. I'm King David, the sweet psalmist of Israel. No mention of his privileged status, no mention of his past obedience, no mention of the situation and circumstances. God, I'm a king in the Middle East in an ancient country No other king would even bat an eye at taking a man's wife and killing them No mention of promises and resolutions What does David bring as an argument to God to forgive him?

He brings God's character in verse 1 it is the source and it is the measure of all David's hope Be gracious to me. Oh God according to your loving kindness According to the greatness of your compassion blot out my transgressions According to your loving kindness. Why should David hope that God would ever forgive him having done these things having murdered Having committed adultery having faked it and deceived Well, David says God my only hope is your loving kindness. God showed Israel this back in the book of Exodus. He brings them out of Egypt.

And if you read the book of Exodus, don't just read it as a history book, but here is God pulling back a veil for his own people. They have been four centuries surrounded by idolatry. Their ideas of God are warped and shriveled, and God lets them by all these events that they go through and how he brings them through. He's teaching them about himself. I'm not like any other God you've ever met.

One of the things he teaches them is found in Exodus 34, where God passes and causes his glory to go in front of Moses. And it says this, the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaim the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth. Who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin. Later the prophets tell of the same thing Micah writes this Who is a God like you who pardons iniquity and passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of his possession? He does not retain anger forever because he delights in unchanging love.

It's the same Hebrew word. David goes to the Lord and says, be gracious to me, God. Nothing I'm about to ask you is anything that I could earn. Be gracious to me, God. Nothing that you give me will I ever be able to pay you back for.

But according to your own character, to this loving kindness, it's a wonderful word in Hebrew, chesed, we don't know how to translate into English. And so the translators took two words and kind of smashed them together Loving kindness. It's a sweet phrase There are perhaps better ways to translate it, but certainly no sweeter way one way is unchanging love or covenanted love Immutable Jehovah Here I am David I change so rapidly, but you don't change. And according to your covenant love, God, be merciful to me. Measure out this forgiveness according to your great compassion, greatness as in the bigness of them.

David is like a man who's composing this hymn while watching all the shame of his rebellion against God and all the coldness of his heart, the indifference to God's word and God's people, the indifference to God's honor. David watches his sins march in front of him. They're So big. How will God ever forgive them? There are so many.

They went on for so long. They were against such kindness. So David has to turn himself to God and say, it's going to have to be according to the greatness, to the immensity of your compassion, or else there's no hope for me. Are those the things that you hope in? You have so much more than David had.

If you have a heart ground to powder, and You fear that God would never again want to see your face in his courts never hear your voice Never restore you Look at the cross one 19th century writer Henry Law said that at the work of the cross at the mercy seat at the atonement of Christ all the attributes come forth from the throne room and meet the sinner and Every one of them comes in friendship Yes, there's mercy and grace there's pity and compassion But there's also justice and wrath Every one of them has become the friend of the sinner at the cross. David has more words than this. He measures his sin for God. How do you measure sin? If someone were to catch your arm as you're heading into the heavenly throne room to confess To lay your words before the lord and they said to you now wait I mean How bad off are you really?

I mean, why are you in such a hurry? How would you measure? The sin well David talks about its nature He says I know my sins There ever before me and then he lists them there's transgression. I have rebelled against God. I've rejected his rights.

There's sin. I've missed the mark God is clearly laid in his word a mark and we are to aim at that mark, but David has set a new mark David is now the goal of his life David does what David wants to do, when David wants to do, how David wants to do. He has a right to act that way. He feels he misses the mark. And then iniquity, twisting, the path of God is straight and David twists his path.

We know the specific sins of adultery and murder, deceit and hypocrisy. David goes on with the measurement in verse four, he says, against you and you only I have sinned. And our brother just mentioned this. I love when we come to places in scripture where liberals in their commentaries say Actually, this couldn't have been what you think. It's not what it seems to be It's not David writing this because it's got to be the nation Expressing its repentance toward God because David in light of what he did to Bathsheba and Uriah could never say against God and God only.

When you come across passages in scripture where it seems a bit confusing to you, don't despair. It is generally behind those doors that I find some of the sweetest paradoxes. How is it that David can say that? Yes, David has sinned against Bathsheba. Yes, David has sinned against Uriah.

He sinned against the general Joab, making him an accomplice in murder. He sinned against the men and the families of the men that died alongside Uriah in the battle. He sinned against the people of God as he drug God's name through the mud The unbeliever that is involved in religion can only see that But David has met God as a child he sits on the hill, and God draws near to him. He knows the Lord. He knows the immensity and the indescribable and the incomparable beauty of God, and David has sinned against God, and Suddenly, as David is exposed by Nathan, every other person in the scene fades.

All David can see is God. When Nathan came to David, he pointed out three things about David's sin being against God. He says, David, you have sinned against God's word. You've lived as if a king didn't have to follow it. David, you've sinned against God's kindnesses.

Think of it. God chose you from a nobody family. God delivered you from the hand of Saul when he tried to kill you God gave you the kingdom and he would have given you so much more if only you would Have asked him David you sinned against God's glory and given the enemies of God an opportunity to mock him because here's David the one that wrote those Psalms now he's murdered a man and stolen his wife. Have you ever considered the words that your sin carries to heaven? I don't care for your word.

I won't remember your kindnesses. What is it to me that you're dishonored? Like Pharaoh and Exodus 5 every one of our sins says this who is the Lord that I should obey his voice You ever say that I? Can't hardly see everybody because the lights Would you raise your hand if you've ever just stood up in church and said that? You ever done that in the prayer time?

Small group? I have said it to God in my heart so many times. I never would say it at church. I would never say it out loud. But I have said it within.

Who's God that John Snyder has to obey him today? You ever thought about the fact that your sins say the same things that the religious people in Christ's parable in Luke 19 say? We do not want this man to rule over us. Every sin. What are you doing?

John, what are you doing here? Sorry, God, but I don't want Christ to rule over me. How do you measure your sins? What words do you bring with you when you return? Do you still think that the biggest problem of sin is that it's like a ticket in your hand and it will put you on a train that will take you to a very terrible destination, hell, or at least it will take you a long way away from where you want to be?

You'll lose a family, you'll lose a job, you'll lose your reputation, you'll lose your health. Or have you come like David to see that the greatest evil of sin is that it is a direct defense against God. You ever been in court, been in trouble, been in court? When I was a teenager, speeding along, I got pulled over. It was actually in the state of Ohio.

There's no mercy in the state of Ohio, right? And so there I am at 16, visiting family back in Ohio, and I was going probably, I don't know, 78 in a 55. The reason I wasn't going faster is because the Toyota Corolla could not go faster in 78. So the policeman sees I'm out of state. He takes my license and says, Young man, it's Christmas break and visiting grandparents.

You're going to have to come to court to get your license back. You can't leave the state. And I thought this is worse than death. So I go to my grandparents house. I wake up my parents and say, next Tuesday dad you and I have to go to court together because I just lost my license.

I get to court and the judge deals with me. He's really very lenient. You know he told me what I did wrong. I had to pay the fine What if the judge would have stood up and started screaming at me and throwing things at me? I?

Mean I didn't know anything about court, but I knew enough to think you're supposed to be impartial. You're just applying the law A good judge just applies the law. He doesn't get emotionally involved. Except for this judge. When we sin against the judge, it is a personal offense.

He's not just applying a law. The law is an expression of his perfection and his rights. And every sin cries out, I don't want you personally ruling over me. So when you come to that judge, you ought to bring some appropriate words. As Jeff just mentioned in previous hour, the greatest measuring stick of every sin is the cross of Christ Here's the father's son Eternally pleasing but the father lays upon him the shameful sin of us all think about that The worst sin that if if it were played out on the screen behind me you would run out of this room if your worst Sin was here.

You would never talk to anyone in this room again, and it was all laid on Christ and the Father crushed him as if he delighted in the sin you delighted, as if he'd carefully planned the sin you've carefully planned, as if he did it behind closed doors, as if he cherished it, as if he protected it against God himself, as you've done. And Christ willingly embraces, John chapter 10, he says, "'I don't have to do this. "'The Father's not taking my life away from me. He's giving me the initiative here. And I gladly give my life for my bride and Christ is crushed.

And when we see that, it's like Peter when the Bible says when Christ after the third time he denied him, Christ fixed his gaze on Peter and Peter went out and wept bitterly. The first poem I memorized as a believer at age 20 was one by a man named John Monsell. It's about our sins in Christ. I'll just read one verse from it. My sins, my sins, my Savior, how sad on thee they fall, seen through thy gentle patience I tenfold feel them all.

I know they are forgiven, but still their pain to me is all the grief and anguish they laid my Lord on thee. So David measures his sin. It's against you. Is that how you measure it? Let me give you one more measurement.

In verse five, he talks about his nature. It's not just what I've done, God. I was born this way. In other words, I have a sinful nature. Now, David's not saying that his birth was wrong, that his mom and dad something was wrong with the marriage.

He's saying what we would say, I was born with a sinful nature. But beware, oftentimes when we mention our sinful nature, we're mentioning it as if it's an excuse. So God, I did this, I stole a man's wife, I killed the man, I faked it for nine months. But what can I say? You made me be born this way, I'm born sinful.

It's not that at all, it's not an excuse. What David is doing is he is giving a full account to God God it's worse than it looks. It's not just murder and adultery and hypocrisy. It's what I am. That's wrong Heading into heaven's courts if someone were to grab your arm And say to you what's your big problem?

Anyway, would you say well look it's my marriage. It's my job It's would you say this my big problem is not what I just did It's what I am real repentance isn't just turning from what I've done wrong. It's turning from what I am It's like Job who says when I saw God I abhorred myself and dust and ashes I repent Real repentance looks something like this I wake up in the morning and before I put my feet on the floor, I look up by faith and I see this perfect king who's my savior, my father. And I say to him, you are altogether lovely, but I am not. I am by nature proud, and I am a selfish man, and I am lustful, and I am cruel, and I am cold-hearted, and I am easily embittered and offended and I go through the whole list So I turn from the hopelessness of what John Snyder is to Christ again.

And I lean on the beloved coming up out of this wilderness today. When you repent, do you ever get past the surface things? I shouldn't have said it, I shouldn't have done it, I shouldn't have watched it. I shouldn't have listened to it Do you ever get to God? It's what I am.

That's so deeply wrong Well, David goes on with more words words of real hope for us He speaks of the power of grace to restore more than the power of sin to defile. David wants to be restored because he knows that it doesn't honor the Lord for us to come to him and say, I'm just such a shameful, terrible sinner. If you just won't send me to hell and just let me go Creep over into the corner of the kingdom and I'll stay in the shadows because I don't deserve to be up close to you Well, no, you don't deserve it and we do deserve hell But how much more glory God gets when people who know you and your imperfections, your family, your close friends, they know you've gone and you've met with the Lord and you've come out differently. And there is such an enduring happiness. And They know that your king is the kind of a king that makes people happy I don't see that the Lord gets much praise from a sulky Christian Notice how David puts this I?

Will be Wider than snow if you wash me I will hear joy and gladness again. Again in this chapter he says, I will sing joyfully of your righteousness. Now we know this chapter, so don't take it for granted. Here is a man who is foul. He's covered in the filth of his sin.

He doesn't know a tenth of it. He comes to God and pleads with God to scrub him and to purify him and he's made white as snow with God. Here's a man that's soulless, sick. Internally, his bones are broken. His strength is withered.

He's like a festering wound, he's leprous. He enters the kingdom, he enters the courts of God with these words and he comes out whole. Here's a man that's been groaning and roaring within. Now he comes out singing of righteousness. By the way, why does David say that he would sing regarding God's righteousness?

Not why, not about his mercy. I think one thing Is that it is the righteousness of God that forms the foundation of all these hopes of David and all our hopes. I Don't remember what ancient preacher said it it certainly wasn't me but it's the it's the best illustration I can think of the relationship between justice and right justice or righteousness and mercy when it comes to God dealing with us. At the cross of Christ, God unsheathes his sword of justice and he thrusts it through his son. Everything due to the people of Christ is laid upon him and he pays every bit of it.

There's no corner cutting at all. If there were, how would you hope? You would always be afraid that maybe God would cut corners with you. So he thrust the sword of justice through the Sun now when he pulls it out of his son, so to speak Do you think he takes justice and throws it away and then? Brings mercy close to himself and instead of dealing with you injustice.

He just does it with mercy not at all the ancient preacher said God after crushing his son on the cross takes the sword of justice and Hammers it at the cross and refashes refashions it into a shield for you First John 1 9 if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. How can you say just? How can you say righteous? Why don't you say He's faithful and merciful, He's faithful and patient, He's faithful and gracious? Because it is based on the finished work of Christ that David will be forgiven It's based on the finished work of Christ that we can go in and as we lay our words before our King there is hope that justice itself will plead our cause and we sing.

These are words of hope that go further than David. The last section in verses 14 to the end, he says, God, it's not just about me, but if you restore me, I want to then turn and point others, the transgressors, to your ways, and they'll be converted. God, I want to tell them joyfully of what you've done and tell them of your praiseworthiness. I will teach other sinners, I will declare your praise, I will offer a sacrifice that's acceptable It's not that God doesn't like outward worship service It's that God is offended when the outward worship service and the heart are so detached when there's such a willing gap So David says God work here and then what I offer you will be pleasing. Does your repentance have these words too?

Does it go on beyond you being clean, beyond you being able to sleep at night? Finally in verse 18 and 19, David looks beyond his intimate circle to the whole nation. And again, this is where some commentators say these were obviously added years later, but there's no manuscript evidence for this. It's just their opinion. Why would they say it?

Well, it doesn't seem to fit. That's one of those places. Why doesn't it seem to fit? Because the unconverted man, once he has hope in himself, God is okay with me now. He doesn't think about anybody else.

But those who have met the living God and God has poured out his mercy on them like David They turn from me in my inner circle my family my close friends and they look at the nation They look at the church and they cry out to God God what about the rest of your people? If David, after so many privileges can fall, God, put a wall around your people. If David can go nine months Going to the temple and going through the motions. Wow holding this sin and treasuring it in his heart God work in your people so that their sacrifices once again are pleasing to you Well, we're familiar with this psalm But have you ever thought about it in light of Hosea when you go to the Lord when you return? Take words with you.

Well, here are some. Very quick application. David's words, if the heart is brought in line with them, guard us against the two most common errors when we think about repentance. One is presumption and one is despair. Presumption is this, hey, I'm a Christian and the cross has changed all this stuff about God hating sin and judgment and discipline and holiness.

And so I just kind of saunter up into the courtroom and say to God. Hey God, it's me You remember I'm a Christian so we're okay, right? But there is another Sin David helps us not to do that But David also helps us not to look at our sin and to despair Have you ever noticed that the enemy has two sets of lies for you when temptation comes there's one set of lies It's not that big a deal. You can always repent after Sin is entered in and your soul is sick You go to run back to God and the enemy meets you and says I wouldn't go there if I were you That sin is so heinous. I don't think he wants to see you and you despair.

David's words guide us. Whether it is the very first time you go to the Lord or whether it's the thousandth time you've gone to the Lord in repentance, don't despair, don't presume. Follow this well beaten path to the mercy seat. But when you return, take words with you. Let's pray.

Our Father, we pray that you would help us not merely to admire David's repentance, the fact that he hands this to the chief musician for every believer to sing, but God that we would put our feet on the same path and in our own souls there would be that well-beaten path to the mercy seat and We would bring words appropriate words to you In Christ's name we pray amen