The NXR Podcast - November 27, 2022


SUNDAY SERMON - What Is Godly Sorrow？ ｜ Psalm 51 (Part 1)


Episode Stats


Length

1 hour and 16 minutes

Words per minute

157.03433

Word count

12,065

Sentence count

613


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Hey guys, real quick before we get started, I have a small request.
00:00:03.360 If you've been blessed by our content and you like this show,
00:00:06.440 would you take just a brief moment and leave us a five-star review?
00:00:09.760 This is quite possibly the most effective thing that you can do
00:00:12.880 to ensure that this content gets out to as many people as possible.
00:00:17.520 Thanks.
00:00:18.200 I'll read our text for us in its entirety.
00:00:20.580 When I finish reading the text, I'll say,
00:00:22.320 this is the word of the Lord, at which point I would appreciate
00:00:25.040 if you would respond by saying thanks be to God.
00:00:27.700 One final time, our text for today is Psalm chapter 51, verses 1 through 5.
00:00:33.400 The Bible says this,
00:00:35.080 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love.
00:00:38.880 According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.
00:00:43.000 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
00:00:47.280 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
00:00:51.080 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight,
00:00:55.700 so that you may be justified in your words
00:00:58.520 and blameless in your judgment.
00:01:01.040 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity
00:01:03.380 and in sin did my mother conceive me.
00:01:06.280 This is the word of the Lord.
00:01:09.100 All right, please be seated and join me
00:01:11.320 as I briefly pray once more.
00:01:13.580 Father, we do pray that indeed
00:01:15.100 through the preaching of your word today
00:01:16.740 that your people would arrive
00:01:19.080 at a greater, more accurate, more biblical,
00:01:21.960 more faithful knowledge of who you are,
00:01:24.880 of what you've done
00:01:26.240 and of what it is that you now require from us
00:01:29.640 as a proper, that is a right, response.
00:01:33.800 And Father, we pray that this knowledge of who you are,
00:01:36.260 what you've done and what you require,
00:01:38.320 that it would not serve as an end in itself,
00:01:40.540 but rather the necessary means
00:01:42.400 propelling your people into a right response of love.
00:01:47.740 That our minds would be filled with the right knowledge of your truth
00:01:51.200 so that our hearts would be fueled with a proper and full affection.
00:01:57.900 That our hearts would love the God that our minds have come to know.
00:02:03.540 Father, as we love you from the platform of a right knowledge of who you are,
00:02:08.900 Father, we pray that our love for you would not just be in worship and in adoration.
00:02:13.900 It would not just be in words or in theory,
00:02:16.940 but that it would be in deed, in action.
00:02:19.780 and our overall manner of life that as we love you, we would seek to do that which accords
00:02:25.960 with real genuine love for you. That is, we would seek to obey your commandments. We pray these
00:02:32.580 things ultimately that you might be glorified in all the earth, but we also pray these things for
00:02:37.660 the good of those people that you're saving across the globe in our city. And perhaps if you would
00:02:43.280 be so kind, even in this very room, especially among our children, we pray these things in Jesus
00:02:49.000 name. Amen. I want to provide some context for Psalm 51 at the outset of the sermon today. In
00:02:56.680 your notes I've written the following. Psalm 51 is another psalm that is pinpointed as to its exact
00:03:02.720 historical origin. The heading of the psalm states this, to the choir master, a psalm of David when
00:03:09.260 Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. Uriah was murdered, his wife Bathsheba
00:03:16.260 was defiled and her baby was sentenced by God to die. All this is clearly seen in 2 Samuel chapter
00:03:23.240 11. And yet when the prophet Nathan confronts David, he says this, the Lord also has put away
00:03:30.960 your sin. You shall not die. That's 2 Samuel chapter 12 verse 13. It is true therefore that
00:03:40.180 god put away david's sin but we must recognize that god did this at great cost to himself see
00:03:49.040 god sees from the time of david down the centuries to the death of his son christ jesus who would die
00:03:55.860 in david's place romans chapter 3 verse 23 through 26 says this for all have sinned and fallen short
00:04:03.100 of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift. No one is justified as the wage
00:04:12.380 for their work. The work that you and I have done is sin and the wages of sin is death. So the only
00:04:20.900 wage that you and I deserve is the wage that we have merited by means of our work. And the work
00:04:27.620 that you and I have faithfully and sufficiently performed is the work of sin. It is the work of
00:04:34.300 offending God. It's the work of rebellion. So any man who wants to reap the wage for his work is
00:04:41.540 ultimately asking God for help. However, there is an alternative. You can receive wages for your
00:04:48.600 work, which is death for your sin, or you can receive the gift that is the wage of grace. That's
00:04:57.140 what romans chapter 3 verse 23 through 26 says we're justified that is we are pardoned we are
00:05:03.940 declared by god in his divine courtroom as righteous and and guiltless of all charges
00:05:11.900 levied against us we are declared righteous justified by what merit on what basis on the
00:05:19.780 basis of human work no but what about the basis of human will justified by grace but you have to
00:05:26.600 choose to receive that grace no the scripture is clear it is neither by the work of man nor the
00:05:32.600 will of man but by the grace of God alone so we are justified by his grace as a gift so that no
00:05:42.580 man can boast as Ephesians says through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus so we're
00:05:48.880 saved by grace but what is the source of that grace how can God administer grace to rebels
00:05:56.260 like you and I without compromising his perfect justice. God can minister to you and I the grace
00:06:04.240 which we do not deserve without compromising his own righteousness and justice on the basis by
00:06:12.000 means of the finished work of Jesus Christ. The wages of sin is death, but Jesus died. He fulfilled
00:06:21.060 those wages Jesus took upon himself your sin and he took from God what your sin deserved
00:06:29.380 namely your death he took your sin and he took your death and through faith by grace we take
00:06:37.240 his righteousness and the wages of righteousness which is eternal life you and I receive salvation
00:06:46.300 eternal life eternal fellowship and communion with the father the son and the spirit that reward
00:06:52.980 that wage is ours because it is the wage for righteousness and you are righteous because you
00:07:01.320 have received not by your own work but by grace through faith you have received the righteousness
00:07:06.840 of Christ and so through faith we receive Christ's righteousness and therefore the wages of
00:07:13.800 righteousness which is life and christ by grace received our sin and therefore the wages of our
00:07:22.060 sin which is death this is the great exchange this is double imputation this is the gospel
00:07:29.080 of jesus christ and it is by this means by the life death and resurrection of jesus that the
00:07:37.340 prophet Nathan was able to say with all fidelity, with all truthfulness, and all confidence that he
00:07:44.640 was able to approach to confront King David at that time, who had radically sinned and offended
00:07:51.160 the holiness of God, and yet he could say without blinking an eye, without any ounce of guile or
00:07:57.740 deception, he could say to David, your sin has been put away, and you shall not die. Such a profound
00:08:06.960 thing that the prophet Nathan says to David he says you shall not die and now I think the
00:08:13.700 profundity of that statement is lost on us because we forget the context and we're not familiar with
00:08:20.420 the culture but the reality is that David was the king of Israel so the prophet Nathan he's
00:08:26.400 confronting a king who is seated on his throne with all of his guards surrounding him and yet
00:08:33.680 here's the reality of all kings. All kings are ultimately underneath a higher authority,
00:08:41.660 namely the law of God. And so although David was king in Israel, the anointed king, anointed by
00:08:49.560 the prophet Samuel himself, although David was God's chosen king in Israel, David is not superior
00:08:56.940 to God himself there is a king greater than David the king of all kings and the lord of all lords
00:09:05.960 and even if a king as mighty as David is to transgress the king of king's law the penalty
00:09:14.260 is death so when the prophet Nathan says to David the lord has put away your sin you shall not die
00:09:21.140 this is an immense relief to David David doesn't laugh at this statement there are many kings in
00:09:28.360 our day that if a prophet were to go to them and say the Lord has put away your sin you shall not
00:09:33.700 die they would mock that prophet I shall not die I was never threatened to begin with of course I
00:09:40.580 shall not die you can't kill me no one can harm me right that's the way that Herod thought and then
00:09:47.780 God struck him dead and he was eaten by worms that's the way Nebuchadnezzar thought look at
00:09:52.420 this great kingdom that I have established by my power by my strength and the Lord caused him to
00:09:58.220 have a depraved mind and to get on all fours and to drink the dew of the grass and to eat locusts
00:10:04.580 and insects and to behave as a wild beast for seven years until he is humbled to the point
00:10:09.340 where Nebuchadnezzar himself when he's restored to his right mind and restored to the kingship
00:10:14.620 he says surely God is sovereign he exalts who he wills and he humbles who he wills there is a king
00:10:22.200 greater than I Nebuchadnezzar was the greatest king in that day Babylon was a superpower in the
00:10:29.460 same way that the United States of America has been at least a superpower back when we had courage
00:10:35.660 and things like that you know but but in the same way whether it be Babylon or whether it be Rome
00:10:40.920 whether it be king herod with rome or whether whether it be america and the president of the
00:10:45.720 united states the reality is this that there is a king above them all and he has a law and he will
00:10:53.820 exact justice and there is no escaping his justice and the wages of sin is death and more particularly
00:11:02.620 the wage for the specific sin of adultery was death and is death it is still the law of God
00:11:11.200 and it is still relevant today David deserved to die and that's precisely what Nathan says to him
00:11:19.840 Nathan says it doesn't matter that you're king of Israel it doesn't matter your status it doesn't
00:11:26.040 matter your authority there is an authority greater than yours you have transgressed that
00:11:31.080 authority and that authority has a law and his law says that you deserve to die you have murdered
00:11:38.700 Uriah you have defiled his wife and committed adultery you are a transgressor of the law of
00:11:46.060 God and the wages of sin is death and so Nathan would have been well within his rights as a prophet
00:11:53.400 of god to confront even the king of that day and say this is who you are this is what you've done
00:12:01.960 off with his head now whether david's generals and soldiers would have responded to nathan
00:12:08.840 and actually carried it out is another thing but nathan would have been righteous in saying so
00:12:13.940 you have transgressed god's law the penalty is death and the king is not immune to justice
00:12:22.380 The king is not above the law.
00:12:24.760 And yet, Nathan says to the king, the Lord has put away your sin.
00:12:29.980 He confronts the king, as we'll see later in the sermon.
00:12:33.320 He confronts the king and says, your sin is not minuscule.
00:12:36.600 Your sin is not small.
00:12:38.360 It is a very, very great sin.
00:12:40.600 So this is not David, or Nathan rather, backpedaling.
00:12:43.880 I want you to sense this.
00:12:45.980 Nathan is not saying, oh snap, maybe I came on too strong.
00:12:50.360 I just confronted the king of Israel.
00:12:52.500 He's pretty high and mighty.
00:12:54.060 He could have my head.
00:12:55.420 So let me go ahead and backpedal here after the confrontation,
00:12:58.360 after calling him out for a sin.
00:13:00.080 Oh, but by the way, the Lord forgives you.
00:13:02.360 And, oh, king, you're above the law, and it's not going to cost you your life.
00:13:06.800 That's not what Nathan's doing.
00:13:08.840 This statement does not reveal Nathan's cowardice.
00:13:13.320 This statement reveals Nathan's understanding of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
00:13:20.360 The Lord has put away your sin, and you shall not die.
00:13:25.300 Why?
00:13:26.180 Because Nathan's afraid?
00:13:28.840 Because Nathan is afraid to carry out the justice that God's law demands,
00:13:33.440 even on the kings of this earth?
00:13:35.740 No.
00:13:36.920 No, because Nathan understands the gospel of Jesus Christ,
00:13:39.940 that someone already died for David's sin.
00:13:43.920 Nathan's not saying, hey, the wages of sin actually aren't death.
00:13:47.080 God's decided that that's a little bit too severe.
00:13:49.360 And he's also not saying, hey, the wages of sin are death for your average Joe, but you're the king.
00:13:54.360 You're above the law.
00:13:55.080 No, Nathan is saying the wages of sin are death for anyone and everyone.
00:13:59.300 You, O king, are not excluded.
00:14:01.060 And yet that death has already been paid.
00:14:03.940 Someone has already, in fact, died.
00:14:06.880 It's Jesus Christ who was crucified, the scripture says, before the foundations of the earth.
00:14:12.460 And God, in his mercy, is looking forward from you, David, to the time of his son and the death that he will die in your place.
00:14:23.160 The Lord has put away your sin, but he has not put away your sin lightly.
00:14:27.300 That's what I want you to get.
00:14:29.040 The Lord has put away your sin, but it was not an easy thing for him to do.
00:14:35.300 Well, he's God. He can do whatever he wants.
00:14:37.980 No, he can't.
00:14:39.820 Did you know God can't do whatever he wants?
00:14:42.240 The scripture says God cannot lie.
00:14:44.760 There are things that God cannot do.
00:14:46.960 Because, not because he's not God,
00:14:49.920 but there are things that God cannot do precisely because he is God.
00:14:53.360 Because he is holy and righteous and just.
00:14:55.940 And one of the things that God cannot do,
00:14:57.600 in addition to the fact that God cannot lie,
00:15:00.220 well, God cannot do that which is evil.
00:15:03.240 But you know one of the things that is evil?
00:15:06.260 One thing that is evil is overlooking evil.
00:15:11.500 Turning a blind eye to wickedness is a wicked thing to do.
00:15:16.520 Not carrying out justice is actually evil.
00:15:21.280 So if we think of good and evil as two opposites,
00:15:24.440 and we pit them against one another.
00:15:26.140 Paul Washer once said long ago, and I like the quote,
00:15:29.020 he said, one of the most terrifying truths in the universe is this,
00:15:32.440 God is good.
00:15:35.140 So that's not terrifying.
00:15:36.760 That's what I want to hear from my pastor every single week.
00:15:39.380 I don't want to hear about the justice of God.
00:15:40.680 I don't want to hear about his goodness.
00:15:42.180 But when we begin to flesh out the scriptural and logical implications of the goodness of God,
00:15:47.960 this is what we find.
00:15:49.580 This is what we very quickly discover.
00:15:52.540 In light of God's goodness, part of being good is punishing all that which is a threat and contradiction to goodness.
00:16:03.160 See, you cannot be good and tolerate evil.
00:16:07.240 You cannot be good and allow wickedness to have free reign.
00:16:11.640 That's not goodness.
00:16:13.200 Part of the goodness of a father is protecting his children.
00:16:16.940 From what?
00:16:18.060 From evil.
00:16:19.120 And part of protection at times is to vanquish evil.
00:16:26.100 Not just to some, we always, you know, we think in these superhero idealistic terms, right?
00:16:31.280 So there's a criminal, right?
00:16:33.880 Well, why didn't the police officer just shoot the gun out of his hand?
00:16:36.860 Like, why it hurt?
00:16:37.600 Well, because it's not Halloween, because we don't live in a make-believe,
00:16:41.020 because this is real life, right?
00:16:43.280 Like, that's why.
00:16:44.520 You shoot for the kill because we're human beings.
00:16:49.120 And the chief way to subdue evil is to actually vanquish evil.
00:16:54.140 You know why in Gotham City everything's under distress all the time?
00:16:58.300 Because Batman never finishes the job.
00:17:00.720 That's why.
00:17:02.100 He subdues Joker.
00:17:03.880 but then he never gives the death blow.
00:17:06.900 He's supposed to be the dark knight.
00:17:08.500 He's supposed to be the guy who's okay
00:17:09.880 with getting his hands dirty.
00:17:11.480 Then kill Joker.
00:17:13.320 You put him in prison, he keeps getting out.
00:17:15.700 Finish the job.
00:17:16.960 You want to actually be good, right?
00:17:19.080 So goodness is a guardian of the city.
00:17:21.300 Goodness is to protect the city.
00:17:22.800 Well, to ultimately protect the city from evil,
00:17:26.500 you can't just subdue evil.
00:17:28.660 You can't just block evil.
00:17:31.000 You need to vanquish and utterly defeat.
00:17:33.880 evil and this is the very thing that God has promised to do in his goodness in God's goodness
00:17:40.840 he has promised that he will vanquish all that which is a contradiction to goodness and the
00:17:48.340 standard and definition of goodness is God himself right so there's not some kind of
00:17:54.500 universal standard of goodness that stands outside of God himself that God is God because God is
00:18:01.180 living up to this standard of goodness. No, God himself is goodness. He is all that is good and
00:18:07.740 he only does that which is good. So God upholds goodness by upholding his own essence, his own
00:18:15.240 character. God is the standard of all that is good and God only does that which is in line with his
00:18:22.060 own nature. And part of what is in line with God's nature of goodness in doing acts of goodness is
00:18:29.320 vanquishing and destroying anything that is outside of goodness. Punishing the wicked,
00:18:36.680 therefore, is a good thing to do. That's the point. To punish the wicked is not something
00:18:44.120 other than goodness, but it is precisely one of the attributes of goodness. Punishing the wicked,
00:18:51.820 aka executing justice preserving justice upholding justice is what a good person does
00:19:03.080 so the goodness of god is in fact one of the most terrifying attributes and so god's pardon of david
00:19:12.600 is is not simply the lord has put away your sin aka because he's god he gets to do whatever he
00:19:18.780 once, and he's decided to forget about your sin. Now, if God ever did that, he would cease to be God.
00:19:25.520 He would not be good. His justice would be compromised, and therefore his goodness
00:19:31.440 would be compromised. God doesn't put away people's sin lightly. In fact, that's one of the
00:19:38.860 indictments, one of the corrections and rebukes that's offered to the false prophets in the days
00:19:46.160 of jeremiah you have healed the wounds of my people lightly meaning what you haven't actually
00:19:55.240 dealt with their sin you haven't dealt with sin in in in the manner of how severe how serious
00:20:04.740 it actually is you have healed the wounds of my people lightly you're putting band-aids
00:20:11.600 on a gaping wound, right?
00:20:15.200 You're doing the Monty Python.
00:20:16.500 It's just a flesh wound.
00:20:17.440 No, you're missing an arm.
00:20:19.240 It's a big deal.
00:20:21.040 You've healed the wounds of my people lightly,
00:20:24.620 saying peace, peace, when there is no peace.
00:20:29.120 Ultimately, when it comes to peace,
00:20:30.660 the greatest peace, aspect of peace,
00:20:33.540 kind of peace that we need is peace with God.
00:20:37.760 Not peace between nations, although that's important.
00:20:40.420 not even peace within our family or with our friends or peace in our marriage or peace in
00:20:45.400 our homes with our children. But the greatest enmity, absence of peace that you and I possess
00:20:51.180 apart from Jesus Christ and his finished work on our behalf is a lack of peace with God.
00:20:56.800 That's your greatest problem. The greatest problem of humanity is that God is their enemy.
00:21:03.660 And guess what? In a war between man and God, man never wins. He does not stand even
00:21:10.400 an ounce of hope we don't have peace with God we need reconciliation with God we need forgiveness
00:21:18.080 from God we need to be restored in right fellowship and relationship with God and God
00:21:24.000 here's the problem we have sinned and God is good which means in his goodness and therefore justice
00:21:32.960 he cannot lightly heal the sin of his people he cannot merely put away our sin so when Nathan says
00:21:41.520 to King David the Lord has put away your sin you shall not die this is not an exception made for
00:21:48.740 David because of his kingship and this is not representing a light healing from the Lord that
00:21:54.980 the Lord is is sovereign and he gets to do whatever he wants even if it contradicts his
00:22:00.420 attributes of justice and goodness no what it represents is a declaration of the gospel
00:22:06.760 the lord has put away your sin and you shall not die is nathan in essence saying jesus died in
00:22:15.620 your place nathan is preaching law to david in his confrontation and then he heals the wounds
00:22:24.960 inflicted by the law of god not lightly but sufficiently with the gospel you are the man
00:22:33.000 you have committed this heinous sin this radical cosmic treason against the god of heaven a king
00:22:41.100 far above yourself that's law but then he begins to apply the soul the healing balm of the gospel
00:22:50.340 the law inflicts the wound ultimately sin causes the wound the law reveals the wound that's already
00:22:57.440 there from sin and then the gospel begins to heal it you are the man you deserve to die law
00:23:06.960 and yet the lord has put away your sin you shall not you shall not die gospel this is the gospel
00:23:16.040 of Jesus Christ. And so what we see in Nathan's confrontation in 2 Samuel 12, verse 13, we see
00:23:24.140 Nathan's confrontation of King David. And when he says, the Lord has put away your sin, you shall not
00:23:28.560 die. Ultimately, what we're seeing is two things. I want you to think of it like this. There's the
00:23:33.040 objective theological truth, and then the subjective personal reality. So the objective
00:23:41.000 theological principle that we see, when Nathan says, the Lord has put away your sin, you shall
00:23:45.460 not die it is the objective theological principle of justification by grace alone through faith
00:23:51.200 alone and christ alone nathan's statement the lord has put away your sin you shall not die
00:23:55.800 it is the objective reality the reason he can make this statement with confidence and with no guile
00:24:01.040 is because he is making it on the basis of the objective theological reality of romans chapter
00:24:07.040 3, verses 23 through 26, that Christ died for David. However, what we see in Psalm 51,
00:24:15.740 our primary text, is not the objective theological reality of how God, in fact, was able to put
00:24:23.880 away David's sin and allow him to live without compromising his own justice. That's the doctrine
00:24:29.560 of justification. That's Romans 3. But what we see in Psalm 51 is a subjective reality of what
00:24:37.640 David felt and what David did in order to lay hold of that grace that is found by justification.
00:24:48.420 So the Lord has put away your sin, you shall not die. In an objective theological sense,
00:24:54.480 That's Romans 3. Justification.
00:24:58.620 But Psalm 51 is the process, the interpersonal process,
00:25:04.800 the gut-wrenching emotions and feelings and the prayers and the confessions,
00:25:12.340 the climb to the table of mercy that we see David experience.
00:25:18.560 It's the subjective reality of how David comes to feel forgiven.
00:25:25.280 How is David forgiven?
00:25:26.660 How is he forgiven?
00:25:28.240 Romans 3.
00:25:29.360 The Lord has put away your sin.
00:25:30.620 You shall not die because of Christ dying in your place.
00:25:33.580 That's how David is forgiven.
00:25:36.100 But Psalm 51 shows us how David comes to feel forgiven.
00:25:41.000 And both are important.
00:25:42.880 Now, one, I would argue, is more important than the other.
00:25:45.360 The reality of forgiveness.
00:25:46.880 How is David, in fact, forgiven?
00:25:49.440 By grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone.
00:25:52.320 The doctrine of justification.
00:25:54.420 Romans chapter 3.
00:25:56.800 But how does David come to a sense of interpersonal confidence
00:26:00.260 and a sense of feeling forgiven?
00:26:03.720 Assurance of forgiveness.
00:26:06.360 That's Psalm 51.
00:26:08.040 So Psalm 51 is not outlining for us the doctrine of justification.
00:26:12.440 We have other texts for that.
00:26:14.460 Psalm 51 is outlining for us the process of how a man comes
00:26:19.280 to lay hold of the subjective reality of justification.
00:26:26.080 You're justified by the work of Christ alone.
00:26:29.480 But there are many people in the church today
00:26:31.080 who are justified in an objective sense
00:26:33.760 because of Christ's work,
00:26:35.180 but they don't have any confidence,
00:26:38.020 any sense of assurance that they're justified
00:26:40.240 in their own subjective emotions.
00:26:43.300 There are people, in other words,
00:26:44.640 who are forgiven, but don't feel forgiven.
00:26:47.060 because although christ does the work for our forgiveness there is a work that you and i must
00:26:53.900 do in order to come to that sense of confidence the feeling of forgiveness christ does the work
00:27:00.360 to accomplish our actual forgiveness in objective terms but we have a work to do to arrive at the
00:27:08.000 confidence of feeling forgiven and there are many christians who do not do that work and so although
00:27:14.280 they are forgiven in an objective sense they do not feel forgiven in the subjective sense so there
00:27:20.020 is nothing that man does to accomplish the forgiveness of God objectively but there is
00:27:25.540 something that man does in order to come to that place of assurance and the feelings of forgiveness
00:27:31.900 and if you while knowing in your head theologically that you're forgiven by grace through faith in
00:27:38.080 Christ alone, if you know this theological truth, but you do not feel loved by God, you do not feel
00:27:46.180 forgiven, you do not, your conscience is still overburdened with a sense of guilt that you can't
00:27:52.620 quite get rid of, that you can't quite absolve. It's probably because you have not done the work
00:28:00.780 of Psalm 51 to arrive at the subjective feelings and confidence of forgiveness. So what is that
00:28:09.060 work? I believe that in Psalm 51, we see four clear steps. And I'm sure that we could look at
00:28:16.040 the text and come up with five or perhaps six, but I think that at least very, very explicitly,
00:28:22.020 very clearly, there are at least four steps that David takes in coming to the place of the subjective
00:28:30.260 confidence and assurance of forgiveness. Again, I'm laboring the point because I don't want anybody
00:28:36.600 to walk away believing a heresy. These are not four steps in Psalm 51 that David takes in order
00:28:43.280 to actually, in objective terms, earn God's forgiveness. David gets God's forgiveness. He
00:28:50.420 receives it objectively, not by any steps that he took, but by the steps that Jesus took to the
00:28:56.800 cross. The steps that Jesus took to Calvary is what earns and merits David's forgiveness in
00:29:03.640 objective theological terms. But there are steps that David takes in Psalm 51 that you and I should
00:29:10.040 follow the model that he sets that we also must take not to earn forgiveness in objective
00:29:16.700 categories, but to feel the assurance and confidence of that forgiveness and in subjective
00:29:23.680 categories. Here are the four steps. Number one, we must ask for forgiveness. Well, I'm already
00:29:30.720 forgiven. That's what you've been laboring, Joel. You've been laboring the point that we're saved
00:29:36.140 and therefore forgiven by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone. That's right.
00:29:41.660 In an objective sense, any Christian, if you're truly in Christ and born again, any Christian who
00:29:49.560 ask God for forgiveness is asking for that which they already have. That's true. And you still need
00:29:56.340 to ask. But I already have it. Well, why ask for that which I already have received? You're not
00:30:04.580 asking to receive it in an objective sense. You're asking so that God might remind you in a subjective
00:30:12.500 sense that that forgiveness is yours. You're not asking to be forgiven because God withholds
00:30:18.220 forgiveness from his children until they pray a prayer, a petition asking for forgiveness, right?
00:30:25.360 So we do a prayer of confession. I'll use this as an example. Every Lord's Day in our liturgy,
00:30:30.840 we do a prayer of confession. That is not meant to convey that when you walk in here on the Lord's
00:30:37.260 Day, that until we get to that prayer of confession, that you haven't actually been forgiven,
00:30:42.260 right? Because I always give the assurance of pardon from 1 John chapter 1 verse 9. He, if we
00:30:47.080 confess our sins, if being a conditional prepositional phrase, if we confess our sins,
00:30:52.980 then that's the implication. Then he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us
00:30:58.140 of all unrighteousness. And so if we're not careful, we can, we can exegete that text in
00:31:03.140 first John chapter one, verse nine, and say, there's a condition for being forgiven and being
00:31:09.000 cleansed from all unrighteousness. Meaning until I meet the condition, I am not forgiven and I am
00:31:15.620 not cleansed of all righteousness. So until I confess my sins, I haven't been forgiven. That is
00:31:20.880 not what first John is saying. It's not. No, what first John chapter one, verse nine is saying
00:31:28.300 is that there is a subjective sense of feeling forgiven. I don't have time to go into all this
00:31:34.140 today, but I've, I've written a book on first John and I go into great links on first John
00:31:38.140 chapter one, verse nine, talking about the reality of if we confess our sins, he is faithful and
00:31:43.220 us to forgive us our sins and cleanse that that's actually a past progressive verb of cleansing
00:31:49.960 meaning you've already been cleansed and you're being cleansed but what's actually taking place
00:31:56.160 is you in the confession of your sin coming to a new and restored assurance and confidence
00:32:03.180 of that forgiveness and cleansing so what i don't want you to take away from this is that we must
00:32:09.280 confess our sins, and until we do, we're not forgiven. No, the Christian, upon the moment of
00:32:16.960 conversion, is forgiven of all their past, present, and future sins. So the moment that Christ saved
00:32:23.900 you, all the sins, not just that you have already committed, and that you are committing, but all
00:32:29.740 the sins, future tense, that you haven't even yet committed, all those sins you've already been
00:32:35.260 forgiven for at the moment of conversion so the moment that any man comes to christ and is born
00:32:41.160 again receives a new heart by the power of the holy spirit and the process of regeneration
00:32:48.420 at that very moment of conversion all your sin past present and future is forgiven it's all
00:32:56.700 forgiven so when we ask for forgiveness in an objective sense an objective theological sense
00:33:03.300 we are, as Christians, asking for forgiveness,
00:33:06.540 we are asking for that which we have already received.
00:33:10.520 And yet, it is vital, as David demonstrates in Psalm 51,
00:33:15.320 that we still ask.
00:33:17.000 Although we have already received the forgiveness of God
00:33:20.060 by grace of faith in Christ alone at the moment of conversion,
00:33:24.340 yet moving forward in the Christian life,
00:33:26.380 when we falter, when we fail, when we sin,
00:33:29.040 it is imperative that we ask for that which we've already received.
00:33:32.640 that we ask God for the forgiveness that he's already granted.
00:33:37.620 Because there's something in the relationship.
00:33:40.160 There's something in the prayer itself.
00:33:43.240 There's something in the pleading, something in the petition,
00:33:45.880 something in the confession, something in the dialogue between man and God
00:33:50.380 that does not accomplish something objectively,
00:33:53.440 but it does radically change something in our hearts subjectively.
00:33:57.500 And it matters. It matters.
00:34:00.540 So, Romans 3, that's the objective reality of how the Lord puts away our sin.
00:34:06.180 And the objective reality of why God, without compromising his justice, does not have to put us to death,
00:34:12.700 even though we are sinners and the wages of sin is, in fact, death.
00:34:16.960 That's the objective reality.
00:34:18.440 But Psalm 51 is the subjective reality, a descriptive text, where we see David, as it were, wrestling with God for assurance.
00:34:30.580 Wrestling with God for pardon.
00:34:33.560 Wrestling with God to be reassured once more
00:34:37.520 that he's a man after God's own heart
00:34:39.960 and that God loves him and forgives him
00:34:42.580 and will never leave him or forsake him.
00:34:45.940 What does David do in order to come to this sense of confidence and assurance?
00:34:51.580 Number one, he asks for forgiveness.
00:34:54.640 Number two, he confesses, not merely confesses his sin,
00:34:59.920 But what we see in Psalm 51 is he confesses without any minimization, without any disclaimers, without any excuses.
00:35:10.300 He confesses the severity of his sin.
00:35:13.840 So number one, he asks for forgiveness.
00:35:16.060 Number two, he confesses the severity of his sin.
00:35:19.320 Number three, he doesn't just ask to be forgiven and confess the severity of his sin, but he also asks to be restored and preserved.
00:35:29.920 It's one thing to ask, would you forgive me?
00:35:32.660 And would you cleanse me?
00:35:34.140 But it is another to say, and would you also restore me?
00:35:37.820 And moving forward, preserve me.
00:35:41.220 And we'll get into that next week.
00:35:43.080 And number four, he possesses what the Bible calls,
00:35:48.620 and what we see in Psalm 51 explicitly, a broken and contrite heart.
00:35:54.460 He possesses contrition.
00:35:56.680 contrition which i think is one of the most absent virtues in our culture and in our churches today
00:36:05.860 contrition that is a profound humility and brokenness over our sin a profound realization
00:36:17.780 of our sin and the severity that it actually is
00:36:23.180 and the great offense that it was
00:36:25.860 against the God who we love.
00:36:29.820 So David, number one, asks for forgiveness.
00:36:32.460 Number two, confesses the severity,
00:36:34.860 the full severity without excuses of his sin.
00:36:37.520 Number three, he doesn't just ask to be forgiven,
00:36:40.440 but he asks to be restored and preserved.
00:36:42.980 And number four, as he does all of this,
00:36:45.020 he possesses a broken and contrite heart.
00:36:49.420 Now, we'll look at number three and number four,
00:36:51.980 the plead, the petition for restoration and perseverance,
00:36:56.140 and the possession of a broken and contrite heart.
00:36:59.160 We'll look at those two, number three and number four,
00:37:01.720 in the second half of Psalm 51, next Lord's Day.
00:37:06.400 But for today, we're going to look at the first two steps that David takes,
00:37:10.240 which again is the petition for forgiveness
00:37:12.440 and the confession of the full severity of his sin.
00:37:16.380 We'll look at that in the first half of Psalm 51.
00:37:19.360 Again, namely, verses 1 through 5.
00:37:21.680 So let's look at verse 1.
00:37:23.040 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love,
00:37:26.260 according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.
00:37:30.720 David is pleading for forgiveness.
00:37:33.820 He's asking God to have mercy.
00:37:38.020 He's asking God to do this not according to anything inherent in David
00:37:42.280 and what he might deserve,
00:37:43.980 but according to the character of God,
00:37:46.100 namely his steadfast love,
00:37:48.080 in accordance with his mercy,
00:37:50.360 to forgive him, to grant mercy,
00:37:53.020 to deal with him mercifully and not justly,
00:37:55.940 not with what he deserves, but mercifully,
00:37:58.600 and to blot out, to erase, to cleanse
00:38:02.580 his transgression, his sin.
00:38:06.020 This is what God has promised to do
00:38:07.840 for all of his people.
00:38:09.500 And we see this promise multiple times
00:38:11.340 in the New Testament.
00:38:12.280 But we see it in Exodus chapter 34 very, very clearly.
00:38:17.840 Exodus 34, verses 6 through 7, God said to Moses this,
00:38:21.140 The Lord, the Lord, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious,
00:38:26.800 slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love.
00:38:30.540 See, that's the very language that David is using in his prayer,
00:38:33.900 in his petition to God in Psalm 51.
00:38:36.240 We see this language first in Exodus 34.
00:38:39.340 The Lord, who is the Lord?
00:38:40.600 The Lord, the Lord, he is a God who is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
00:38:49.100 Keeping steadfast love for thousands.
00:38:52.560 Some translations that I prefer to the thousandth generation.
00:38:56.780 Forgiving iniquity and transgression.
00:39:00.000 Again, that's the second part of what David's asking for in Psalm 51, verse 1.
00:39:04.700 Blot out my transgression.
00:39:06.840 Well, who is the Lord according to Exodus 34?
00:39:08.960 he's the one who forgives iniquity and transgression and sin but it finishes by saying
00:39:16.200 who will by no means clear the guilty or some translations say by no means pardon the guilty
00:39:23.600 so what David is doing in the very first verse of our text psalm 51 verse 1 is he is doing the
00:39:29.840 first of these four steps in in trying to achieve lay hold of the subjective feelings of confidence
00:39:37.860 and assurance of having been forgiven and the first step is this asking for forgiveness asking
00:39:45.320 for mercy and David asks for this mercy and he pleads for this forgiveness not on the basis of
00:39:53.060 his own person not on the basis of his own words or his own deeds or what he might deserve but
00:39:58.860 rather what David appeals to in his petition the petition is asking for forgiveness asking for
00:40:05.020 mercy. And David makes this request on the basis of God's character, not his, not David's character,
00:40:13.100 but he makes his request with confidence on the basis of not who David is and not what David has
00:40:20.240 just done, but rather on the basis of who God is and what God promises to do. That is to be
00:40:26.940 steadfast in his love, steadfast in his faithfulness, and to have mercy to the thousandth
00:40:34.860 generation of those who fear him. That's what David is appealing to. He's appealing to the mercy
00:40:42.260 of God. This is what God had promised to do for all his people in Exodus chapter 34. Just as Moses
00:40:50.400 understood, David also knew that there were guilty sinners, because we see this at the end of Exodus
00:40:56.160 34, that there were guilty sinners who would not be forgiven. Their iniquity would not be blotted
00:41:02.800 out. Their transgressions would not be put away. And yet there were also guilty sinners who by some
00:41:10.100 mysterious work of redemption would not be counted as guilty, but would in fact be forgiven. So
00:41:16.900 David's prayer in Psalm 51 is his way of laying hold of that mystery of mercy. As New Testament
00:41:24.080 believers, we know immensely more of this mystery of redemption than David did. We know Christ.
00:41:31.360 However, we lay hold of this mercy in precisely the same manner which David did. See, Christ has
00:41:38.940 purchased our forgiveness. He has paid the price in full. But Christ's finished work on Calvary
00:41:44.160 does not replace our asking for forgiveness. Instead, Christ's work of redemption is the basis
00:41:50.420 for our asking for forgiveness.
00:41:52.900 It is the reason that we can ask with confidence,
00:41:56.340 knowing that the answer will be yes.
00:42:00.100 So in Psalm 51, verse one,
00:42:02.060 the first thing we see David do,
00:42:03.980 the first in these four steps
00:42:05.540 is that David asked for forgiveness.
00:42:07.720 And he asked with confidence
00:42:09.700 because he asked with an appeal to God's character,
00:42:14.940 God's mercy, God's steadfast love,
00:42:18.060 God's steadfast faithfulness.
00:42:20.420 David is echoing the very words of Moses when the Lord revealed to Moses his own character.
00:42:27.060 David is saying, I am asking for forgiveness with confidence because I'm asking on the basis of your own character.
00:42:33.360 And I know your character because you revealed yourself to Moses.
00:42:39.540 You revealed yourself to Moses as one who is steadfast in love, as one who is steadfast in faithfulness.
00:42:45.460 And yet in your revelation of your steadfast love to Moses, you still said that you will by no means pardon the guilty.
00:42:54.640 So David knows this.
00:42:56.340 He knows, I know there are guilty sinners who will not receive God's forgiveness.
00:43:01.620 And yet I also know that there are guilty sinners by some means of mysterious redemption
00:43:08.920 will, in fact, receive the forgiveness of God
00:43:13.280 on the basis of His mercy
00:43:15.700 and not on the basis of what we deserve.
00:43:18.920 That's what David knows.
00:43:20.300 And he knows, to be fair, a bit more than that.
00:43:23.240 He knows that there is a Messiah,
00:43:25.840 that someone is coming,
00:43:27.720 that there is a King even greater than Him
00:43:29.800 who will one day come,
00:43:31.400 and it is through this King
00:43:33.360 that the mercy of God will flow
00:43:35.480 to all those who trust in Him.
00:43:38.580 You and I, this mystery of redemption has been completely revealed to us.
00:43:43.960 We see it clearly, this side of the cross, in Christ.
00:43:48.380 We see it in his person.
00:43:50.140 We see it in his work, in his life, in his death, in his resurrection.
00:43:54.360 The mystery of redemption has been revealed to New Testament Christians
00:43:58.340 through the work of Jesus and the writing of the apostles.
00:44:02.040 But the point is this.
00:44:04.100 David was saved the very same way we were.
00:44:07.300 We have more knowledge of how we're saved,
00:44:10.020 but the way in which the source of salvation remains the same.
00:44:14.220 David was saved by grace through faith in Christ, looking forward to the cross.
00:44:19.300 You and I are saved by grace through faith in Christ, looking back to the cross.
00:44:24.260 And for those of us who are looking back, we look back with more clarity.
00:44:29.380 But it's not the clarity.
00:44:31.720 It's not the size of our faith, or even necessarily the clarity.
00:44:36.520 of the eyes of faith, but it is the object of our faith that saves. It's the object. And David was
00:44:44.240 looking forward to the very same object. He had faith in the same person, namely Christ. And
00:44:50.980 therefore, David was forgiven. But what we see once more in Psalm 51 is not just how David was
00:44:58.620 forgiven, but the process by which he lays hold subjectively of this reality of forgiveness.
00:45:06.180 And you and I, whether this side of the cross or before the cross, as David was, that has not changed.
00:45:12.840 The process by which we lay hold of the subjective feelings of forgiveness are still the same.
00:45:19.140 And the first step is to ask.
00:45:21.620 We ask on the basis of not our works, not our person, but God's character, that he is merciful.
00:45:28.180 And therefore we ask with confidence that the answer to our request for forgiveness will in fact be yes.
00:45:35.500 The second thing, and that's all we're going to look at for today, is the first two steps.
00:45:40.380 Asking for forgiveness, we've covered that, that's verse 1.
00:45:43.240 And confessing our sin, that's verses 3 through 5.
00:45:46.820 So the second thing now is confession.
00:45:50.200 David confesses the full severity of his sin.
00:45:53.600 In verse 3 of our text he says,
00:45:55.620 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
00:46:00.320 David's sin, according to David, is ever before him.
00:46:04.420 In other words, the tape of his failure keeps playing on an unstoppable loop.
00:46:11.440 David is haunted by his sin.
00:46:15.940 Meaning, David has not yet found a way, and I think we're meant to assume, I think what's implied in verse 3,
00:46:22.940 is that he has not even attempted to find a way to somehow forget his sin.
00:46:28.700 David has not forgotten his sin.
00:46:30.980 David has not found a way, nor do I believe he has even attempted to try to find a way
00:46:36.040 to somehow distract himself from his egregious rebellion and betrayal of the God that he loves.
00:46:45.420 David is haunted. He is profoundly and continually and incessantly aware of his sin.
00:46:52.480 My sin is ever before me. I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
00:46:59.160 So the first thing that I think we see a principle or I should say a characteristic of Christian confession is that the Christian is torn apart by their sin.
00:47:14.160 The Christian is grieved.
00:47:18.120 Paul writes, he talks about godly grief and worldly grief, godly sorrow and worldly sorrow.
00:47:25.600 The Christian has a godly sorrow,
00:47:29.160 a profound and deep godly grief over their sin.
00:47:34.300 The person who has never been plagued by their sin,
00:47:38.100 that they've never been broken,
00:47:39.520 and we'll get to this further next week
00:47:41.140 when we speak of the doctrine of contrition.
00:47:44.660 But the person who is not contrite,
00:47:47.380 that they've never been broken over their sin,
00:47:49.280 they've never been grieved by their sin,
00:47:51.600 they've never said and never really even could say,
00:47:54.060 as David said, I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. That is a person who has
00:48:00.240 never really been burdened by the reality of their sin. And a person who has never been burdened by
00:48:05.640 the reality of their sin, I sincerely question the reality of their love for God. Because that's
00:48:12.280 precisely what causes us such grief. That's the source of godly grief. The source of godly sorrow
00:48:19.140 is affection for God. It is the man who loves God truly that is so truly broken over his sin.
00:48:27.460 The person who is not broken by their sin, the person who doesn't really deeply grieve their sin,
00:48:34.220 the person whose sin is not ever before them, is likely the person who has never come to truly love
00:48:40.260 God. And as we already talked about in 1 John 4, 19, the person who has never come to love God
00:48:46.620 is a person who has likely never been loved by God.
00:48:49.920 We love because he first loved us.
00:48:52.060 So God loves us, we love in response,
00:48:54.600 and if we love God, we seek to obey God,
00:48:57.800 and we might add further from Psalm 51, verse 3,
00:49:01.540 if we're seeking to obey God out of love of God
00:49:04.300 because God first loved us,
00:49:06.200 then when we fail to obey God,
00:49:08.780 when we miss the mark,
00:49:10.520 when we sin, when we transgress God's law
00:49:13.980 and therefore offend God,
00:49:16.220 we are grieved we're grieved in all the ways that we offend god precisely because we love him and we
00:49:24.200 love him because he first loved us so the first thing we see the first characteristic of christian
00:49:31.760 confession that is a confession of sin is that the christian does not seek to minimize the severity
00:49:40.840 of their sin. And the Christian is broken over their sin. And the Christian cannot easily wave
00:49:49.600 off, distract themselves from, or forget their sin. But rather, the Christian, because of their
00:49:56.380 profound affection for God and seeing their sin as an offense against the God they love,
00:50:02.760 the Christian is haunted by their sin. I say that to encourage and to comfort you.
00:50:09.320 if you are haunted by your sin, there is a sense in which that is good.
00:50:16.040 Now, for the Christian, David says, my sin is ever before me.
00:50:20.660 Now, really what David means by that is, thus far, my sin has been ever before me.
00:50:26.600 But for the Christian, there is a point at which the sin is no longer before us.
00:50:33.500 And it's no longer before us because it's no longer before God.
00:50:38.700 that the Lord has put away our sin as Nathan said to David that the Lord has forgiven our iniquity
00:50:47.300 and because we've been forgiven because the Lord has put away our sin we should no longer
00:50:52.840 torture ourselves over the memory of it that we can forget our sin but not in a way that makes
00:50:59.100 light of sin that we forget our sin only after grieving it and receiving the assurance of pardon
00:51:06.220 from it. See, there are many who profess Christ today who have never really grieved their sin.
00:51:12.040 They put away their sin, but not biblically. See, the biblical way to put away our sin
00:51:19.000 is to have it first to plague us, first to haunt us, first our sin is ever before us,
00:51:26.520 as David says in Psalm 51 verse 3. See, a lot of us, we want to skip that. We want to go right to
00:51:32.760 1 John 1 9 we want to go right to Romans chapter 3 we want to go right to the doctrine of
00:51:38.320 justification the objective theological reality that our sin has already been forgiven before
00:51:43.420 we even committed it right we received all the forgiveness we'll ever need at the point of
00:51:48.000 conversion so before I even committed this sin post-conversion as a Christian it was already
00:51:53.180 forgiven but but one of the marks of a Christian is that although this sin is not news for God
00:52:02.080 it is in fact news for me and so although God has already forgiven me of this sin I am still
00:52:10.400 haunted by it I am still broken over it and I want to go through the subjective process
00:52:17.260 of going before the Lord with a contrite and broken heart with godly grief godly sorrow
00:52:25.420 telling the Lord, I'm sorry.
00:52:29.240 I'm sorry for the ways that I betrayed you.
00:52:31.940 I'm sorry for the ways I've offended you.
00:52:33.720 And I'm sorry for the false accusation I've made about you.
00:52:38.160 Because see, all sin, I've said this several times,
00:52:40.620 but it bears saying once more,
00:52:42.300 all sin makes a statement about God.
00:52:44.680 When we sin, we are ultimately proclaiming something false
00:52:49.860 about who God is.
00:52:51.220 when we sin we're saying god's not sufficient he's not enough he's not good and great and glorious
00:52:59.240 and gracious we're we're telling a lie about god when we covet we're saying god has failed
00:53:07.700 to be a provider he has not given me what i need right like psalm 23 the lord is my shepherd i
00:53:15.260 shall not want well when i want that is when i long for that which god has not given me and i long
00:53:20.460 selfishly in a carnal fleshly way what i'm ultimately saying is that god is not a good
00:53:25.540 shepherd that god doesn't lead us besides still waters that he doesn't make us to lie down in
00:53:30.820 green pastures and so i recognize the christian recognizes their sin as a personal assault against
00:53:38.840 god a lying accusation against his character to sin is to lie about god and for the christian
00:53:46.980 To sin is to lie against the God you love.
00:53:50.880 It is to lie against the one we claim to love.
00:53:54.620 It is an offense.
00:53:56.160 It is a betrayal.
00:53:58.080 And so for the Christian, although we've already been forgiven,
00:54:01.560 when the Christian sins, although that sin is not news to God,
00:54:05.560 and although God has known about that sin and already forgiven you,
00:54:08.820 it is news to us as fallen and finite creatures.
00:54:12.920 And the Christian, therefore, should immediately begin to grieve over that sin,
00:54:17.360 to have contrition, to be broken.
00:54:19.640 And there is a sense in which the Christian should cry out, as David does in Psalm 51, verse 3,
00:54:26.360 my transgressions, my sin, it's ever before me.
00:54:30.900 I'm grieved by it. I'm plagued by it. I'm haunted by it.
00:54:35.000 God, please forgive me.
00:54:37.100 So that's the first characteristic of contrition or confession is this sense of being broken over our sin.
00:54:45.640 Verse 4 of our text, David says, against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.
00:54:52.640 This does not mean that Uriah and Bathsheba were not sinned against by David and profoundly affected by his sin.
00:54:59.440 David didn't only sin against God, right?
00:55:02.860 I mean, you could just kind of hear Uriah from heaven saying, really, David?
00:55:07.100 Against God and God only?
00:55:09.260 Because I kind of died because of your sin.
00:55:12.800 Seems like you kind of, at least in some way, sinned against me too.
00:55:18.140 I mean, Bathsheba is saying, you took my husband from me.
00:55:21.200 You defiled me.
00:55:23.140 You led me into adultery.
00:55:25.320 And my child died.
00:55:28.720 That's part of the story.
00:55:29.780 Part of the story is that the child that was conceived by David and Bathsheba died after seven days.
00:55:35.480 and God was very clear in the way that he spoke to David saying that the death of the child was
00:55:41.140 a direct consequence of David's sin so there's a sense in which David sinned against Uriah
00:55:47.140 Bathsheba and even this child Uriah died and so did the child and there's also an indirect sense
00:55:54.880 but still very real that David sinned against the whole kingdom because as the king of Israel
00:56:00.340 the king of God's nation it falls to him to uphold righteousness and he failed to do so
00:56:08.060 so David he says I sinned against you and you only and you could almost just hear everyone
00:56:14.460 if anyone was to to overhear David's private prayer of confession before the Lord in Psalm 51
00:56:19.900 you would assume that just about everyone would be offended against you and you only have I sinned
00:56:25.340 And the whole kingdom of Israel would say, nope.
00:56:29.160 Against God you sinned.
00:56:30.740 Yeah, that's true.
00:56:31.880 And against pretty much everyone alive.
00:56:35.040 I don't know if there's anybody that you didn't sin against, David.
00:56:38.380 You've affected all of us.
00:56:41.320 You've compromised the whole kingdom.
00:56:44.960 You have sinned against all of us.
00:56:48.180 And the consequences of your sin, although for some directly like Uriah
00:56:53.080 and for some indirectly like the kingdom,
00:56:54.980 but everyone, whether direct or indirect, has been affected by the consequences of your sin.
00:57:00.860 And therefore, David, you have not only sinned against God, you sinned against everyone.
00:57:06.380 So what does David mean?
00:57:08.680 It doesn't mean that he hasn't actually sinned against Uriah or Bathsheba or the child or the kingdom.
00:57:15.340 It simply means that David is so profoundly affected by his own sin against God,
00:57:21.520 that's all that he can think of.
00:57:24.060 It simply means that David understood that what makes sin so truly heinous is that it is an offense against God.
00:57:34.620 See, when it comes to sin, hurting our fellow man by our sin is significant.
00:57:39.800 But that is not the true horror of sin.
00:57:43.300 Ultimately, all sin is a direct assault against God himself.
00:57:47.780 David fully acknowledges this reality by saying,
00:57:51.260 Against you, you only, have I sinned.
00:57:54.180 There is no attempt at self-justification.
00:57:57.080 Verse 4 continues with David saying,
00:57:59.340 So that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
00:58:04.480 See, God is justified and God is blameless.
00:58:07.560 If God chooses to damn David to hell, God will be righteous in doing so.
00:58:13.540 David does not seek to vindicate himself.
00:58:15.620 he seeks to vindicate the character and righteousness of God.
00:58:20.660 This is God-centered repentance.
00:58:23.040 This is the way that Christians should think and feel about their sin.
00:58:27.340 Against you and you only have I sinned, this is verse 4,
00:58:31.800 and done what is evil in your sight, the second half of verse 4 says,
00:58:37.220 so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.
00:58:42.540 So there's two things I want to draw out.
00:58:45.060 One, David is not saying that his sin has not affected others.
00:58:49.140 We've already covered that.
00:58:50.760 But what we are seeing in the first half of verse 4
00:58:53.600 is that David is most profoundly grieving
00:58:57.000 over the way his sin has affected God.
00:59:00.340 That's a mark of Christian confession.
00:59:03.820 The Christian is most concerned about their sin
00:59:07.960 insofar as it ultimately represents a betrayal of the God they love.
00:59:13.220 an offense towards God, the creator of heaven and earth, and not merely the creator, because for the
00:59:19.840 Christian, you're not just sinning against your creator, you're sinning against your savior.
00:59:25.700 And if sinning against your creator was not a big enough deal already,
00:59:30.200 to sin against the one who gave his life to save you is much, much more significant. So first and
00:59:37.180 foremost one of the marks of christian confession is this brokenness over sin that's verse three
00:59:43.980 my sin is ever before me but then also verse four it's it's the profound sense that ultimately what
00:59:50.840 makes sin so horrible and heinous is that sin is an act of betrayal against not only our creator
00:59:58.340 but our savior so david is first he's saying when he says against you and you only he's not saying
01:00:04.120 my sin hasn't affected others, but he's saying, I am most profoundly grieved by how my sin is
01:00:10.520 directly against you. And that grieves me the most because I love you the most. David is saying,
01:00:17.000 as much as I loved Uriah, as much as I love Bathsheba, as much as I love my own child who
01:00:22.160 has died, I love God infinitely more. And because I love God infinitely more, all I can think about
01:00:29.260 right now, as I confess my sin before the Lord, is how my sin is against you and you only. That's
01:00:35.740 the first thing. That's the first half of verse four. But the second half is where he says, so
01:00:39.700 that you may be blameless in your judgments. So what David is doing is he's saying this, my sin
01:00:45.080 is against you. Therefore, you are blameless in whatever consequences you allow to take place.
01:00:52.300 see one of the marks of worldly sorrow as opposed to godly sorrow is worldly sorrow is merely
01:01:00.040 concerned with worldly effects of sin so worldly sorrow can say a husband could could commit
01:01:07.940 adultery and say i am so grieved by the way that i betrayed my wife and that's good and right but
01:01:15.560 But if that's the extent of his grief, it is only worldly sorrow.
01:01:20.900 And it will not lead, as the Apostle Paul says, to life, but rather to death.
01:01:26.420 Worldly sorrow is a concern for the worldly consequences of our sin.
01:01:32.660 I'm sorry, and most people aren't even that virtuous in our culture today.
01:01:37.680 They fall into an even more degrading form of worldly sorrow,
01:01:42.480 which is they're only concerned about how their sin affects them.
01:01:46.580 So the first stage is this selfish worldly sorrow
01:01:52.360 that says, I can't believe how I have to now experience these consequences.
01:01:58.300 Woe is me.
01:01:59.920 A self-pity, self-concern, self-focus.
01:02:04.780 And then beyond that, you might begin to be concerned
01:02:09.220 not just about your sin and how it affects you,
01:02:11.100 but how your sin affects others.
01:02:13.980 But even that still falls short of godly sorrow.
01:02:17.360 It will not lead to repentance
01:02:18.820 and therefore it will not lead to life.
01:02:21.940 So worldly sorrow is first and foremost
01:02:23.660 a selfish concern for how our sin affects us.
01:02:27.780 Secondarily, it becomes a worldly concern
01:02:30.740 but absence of any concern for God,
01:02:33.260 a worldly concern for how our sin affects us and others.
01:02:36.560 But still, it's only a concern
01:02:39.120 for the effects and consequences of sin
01:02:41.300 as it pertains to humanity,
01:02:43.160 but not as it pertains to God.
01:02:45.760 So what David is doing in verse four is he's saying,
01:02:48.800 first, because I love God infinitely more
01:02:50.960 than I love anyone else, including myself,
01:02:53.300 I am overwhelmed and all I can really think of right now,
01:02:56.640 all I can focus on is how my sin is ultimately
01:02:59.940 and first and foremost against you.
01:03:04.940 Secondly, when he says,
01:03:06.320 so that you're blameless in your judgments,
01:03:09.120 So that you're righteous in whatever you say.
01:03:11.200 David is saying this.
01:03:12.320 In his sin, what do we often try to do?
01:03:14.440 In our sin, we immediately try to think of ways to vindicate God.
01:03:19.180 No, us.
01:03:21.480 So when we sin, immediately what we try to think of is,
01:03:24.660 yeah, but I've just been going through a hard time lately.
01:03:27.820 Or, yeah, but you should have seen what they did to me.
01:03:31.380 Right?
01:03:31.660 So I'm simply responding to someone.
01:03:33.680 And one of the first things I want to say,
01:03:35.120 if someone confronts me on my attitude,
01:03:37.040 If somebody confronts me on the way I'm simply responding, the first thing I want to say is, yeah, but do you know what they did?
01:03:44.380 Which is what?
01:03:45.800 It's a vindication of me.
01:03:49.140 Notice what David does in verse 4.
01:03:51.700 David doesn't attempt to vindicate himself.
01:03:54.740 He is only concerned with vindicating, with exonerating, as it were, the character and justice of God.
01:04:03.440 Again, verse 4.
01:04:05.360 It says this.
01:04:05.960 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that, right?
01:04:12.800 So he makes the first half of verse 4, that statement, in order to make the second half.
01:04:17.300 He's saying, I really did sin against God, and my sin is only against God.
01:04:22.100 And what he's saying again is that my sin is first and foremost, in the greatest sense, the ultimate sense, against God alone.
01:04:29.320 I have done what is evil, objectively wrong and evil, in the sight of God.
01:04:34.200 And because of that, you are blameless in your judgment.
01:04:39.120 Part of what David's saying, now it depends on when he wrote Psalm 51.
01:04:43.240 We know he wrote it after he was confronted by the prophet Nathan.
01:04:46.340 I tend to think he probably wrote it after he was confronted by the prophet Nathan and after his son died.
01:04:53.260 Because that was one of the consequences for his sin.
01:04:56.020 Well, one of the things that was prophesied is that because of David's sin with Bathsheba and Uriah, murder and adultery,
01:05:02.100 is that his son, him and Bathsheba's son, would die.
01:05:06.120 And after seven days, the child did in fact die.
01:05:08.540 I think that it's very likely that Psalm 51 comes post the death of his son.
01:05:14.800 And what David is saying in the second half of verse 4 is essentially this.
01:05:18.920 God is justified and blameless in killing my son.
01:05:25.100 Because see, David could be so tempted in this moment.
01:05:27.620 Even though his sin was great, his sin was egregious, right?
01:05:31.020 Murder and adultery, they're not small sins.
01:05:33.620 It's an egregious sin, but his son died.
01:05:36.880 And it would be tempting for David to say, although my sin is egregious,
01:05:40.400 murder with Uriah and adultery with Bathsheba,
01:05:44.060 still, God, seems a bit harsh to kill the child.
01:05:49.080 The child didn't do anything.
01:05:51.140 The child was innocent.
01:05:53.140 See, that's what many of us would do.
01:05:55.440 But in that, in that line of logic, in that line of reasoning,
01:05:59.440 essentially what we would be doing is this.
01:06:02.220 Even though we're the ones who committed the evil,
01:06:04.880 we're somehow trying to indict God.
01:06:07.820 So I'm the one who sins, and here I am blaming God.
01:06:11.460 See, David does precisely the opposite.
01:06:14.400 David doesn't even attempt to point the finger at God
01:06:17.460 and say, you shouldn't have killed the child.
01:06:19.540 No, rather what David says is,
01:06:21.260 I sinned against you and you only, and my sin is very great.
01:06:25.780 And all the ripple effects, all the consequences,
01:06:28.920 is even the death of my own son,
01:06:31.020 ultimately the source of that falls on me.
01:06:34.580 I'm the cause, not God.
01:06:37.220 I'm the cause.
01:06:38.740 I mean, it goes all the way back to the garden, right?
01:06:41.100 You think of Adam and Eve and the problem of evil,
01:06:43.540 the problem of evil and suffering in the world.
01:06:45.140 And many people today would say,
01:06:46.640 well, if God's really good, why?
01:06:48.120 No, no, no.
01:06:49.700 Death, war, pestilence, disease, suffering,
01:06:53.760 all of it is because of man.
01:06:55.720 It's not God.
01:06:57.360 Is God sovereign over evil?
01:06:59.440 Yes.
01:07:00.040 Does God even ordain evil?
01:07:02.400 Yes.
01:07:03.020 But he is not the author of evil.
01:07:04.940 God does not do evil.
01:07:07.160 Man takes care of that.
01:07:09.880 Death entered the world because we sinned.
01:07:13.260 And so the consequences of sin,
01:07:15.320 that's one of the marks of Christian confession,
01:07:18.220 is that in Christian confession,
01:07:19.940 what we do is take responsibility.
01:07:23.620 So when we see all the consequences of our sin,
01:07:26.420 And they're often multifaceted.
01:07:28.680 There are multiple rolling effects, rippling effects, and implications for one singular action of sin.
01:07:37.740 And the Christian takes responsibility.
01:07:40.820 The Christian looks at all those consequences and says, this isn't God's fault.
01:07:47.820 The Christian doesn't give in to the temptation to somehow blame God.
01:07:53.980 Rather, the Christian says, this happened, yes, God's sovereign over this, he could have made this not happen if he chose to, but ultimately, the source of all these consequences, these painful consequences, is not God, but me and my choice to rebel against him.
01:08:12.540 That's what David is doing.
01:08:14.060 So, number one, Psalm 51 verse 1, he asks for forgiveness, not on the basis of his own merit, but the basis of God's character, which is mercy.
01:08:24.660 The second thing that David does after asking for forgiveness is David confesses his sin.
01:08:30.260 He confesses the full severity of his sin.
01:08:33.100 He doesn't try to minimize it.
01:08:34.820 He doesn't try to excuse it.
01:08:36.060 and he recognizes that the ultimate, in the ultimate sense, what makes sin so heinous
01:08:40.720 is not that we sin against our fellow man, and certainly not that we sin against ourselves,
01:08:46.060 but first and foremost that we sin against God.
01:08:48.860 And for the Christian, that's not only a sin against our Creator, but a sin against our Maker.
01:08:53.800 And then furthermore, what David does is he says that anything that happens as the rippling effects of our sin,
01:09:00.820 the consequences, ultimately
01:09:02.660 the one responsible is not God
01:09:05.080 but the man who sinned.
01:09:07.520 God is blameless in his judgments
01:09:09.320 and justified in his words.
01:09:12.320 What words is God justified in?
01:09:14.300 I believe what David is speaking of
01:09:15.900 is the word spoken through the prophet
01:09:17.960 that the son would die.
01:09:20.220 David is ultimately saying this
01:09:21.440 after the death of his son
01:09:22.740 he's saying God is justified
01:09:25.320 in giving that prophetic word.
01:09:28.040 God is not the reason my son died.
01:09:30.540 I am.
01:09:31.500 I'm the reason.
01:09:32.700 My sin is the source of all these terrible consequences that have taken place.
01:09:39.000 Lastly, in verse 5 of our text, still on confession,
01:09:42.240 David says,
01:09:43.180 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
01:09:47.580 Even those of us who choose to acknowledge the biblical doctrine of total depravity,
01:09:51.380 we often use our inborn corruption as a way to diminish our personal guilt.
01:09:57.680 David does the opposite.
01:09:58.760 For David, the fact that he committed acts of adultery, murder, and deceit are expressions of something far worse.
01:10:07.000 He is by nature a sinner, meaning that if God does not rescue him from his condition of being a sinner,
01:10:16.000 he will ultimately eventually do even more evil than what he has already done.
01:10:21.180 So David does not merely possess remorse and resolve, but rather David realizes and repents.
01:10:29.700 Look at 2 Samuel 12, verse 1-7.
01:10:32.680 This is Nathan's confrontation, the exact words.
01:10:35.920 And the Lord sent Nathan to David.
01:10:38.520 He came to him and said to him,
01:10:40.560 There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor.
01:10:44.920 The rich man had very many flocks and herds,
01:10:47.960 But the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought, and he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children.
01:10:59.000 It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him.
01:11:06.160 Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him.
01:11:14.740 But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.
01:11:20.300 Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man.
01:11:24.060 And he said to Nathan, as the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die.
01:11:29.900 And he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity.
01:11:37.320 But look at what Nathan says.
01:11:39.080 Nathan said to David, you are the man.
01:11:44.740 The final point that I want to make is this.
01:11:47.400 When Nathan confronts David over his sin, he doesn't merely say, you did the deed.
01:11:54.280 Nathan says, you are the man.
01:11:57.720 And so I think one of the final characteristics of a Christian confession of sin is this.
01:12:02.340 We don't just have remorse and regret over the wrong deed that we did.
01:12:09.200 but rather we have a profound humble realization of the man that we are. See the Christian doesn't
01:12:17.580 just say I so regret this bad thing I did. No the Christian says I am horrified and profoundly
01:12:26.520 concerned over the person that I am. So to make it kind of a painfully clear illustration if it
01:12:34.860 comes to pornography. The Christian doesn't merely say, I can't believe I did that. No,
01:12:40.980 the Christian says, what I did says something about who I am. It's not just, I did this perverse
01:12:46.780 thing. The greater problem is that I am a perverse man. And so the Christian, and this is what we'll
01:12:53.500 see next week, is he doesn't just stop with petitioning and asking God for forgiveness of
01:12:59.020 sin, but he also asked God for restoration and transformation and preservation. The Christian
01:13:07.040 recognizes that their deepest problem is not just the wrong actions they've committed, but their
01:13:12.000 deepest problem is their condition of being a sinner. So the Christian recognizes that even if
01:13:16.940 God were to grant my request of pardon for this particular sin, that doesn't solve the ongoing
01:13:22.880 future problem that I'm still a sinner by nature and that therefore my problem is not just sinful
01:13:29.240 actions but a sinful condition that will lend towards even greater sin if gone unchecked again
01:13:36.400 sometime in the future and so Christian confession of sin doesn't just ask for forgiveness or pardon
01:13:43.340 for the sinful actions that were previously committed but sinful confession of sin recognizes
01:13:50.220 not just what we've done, but who we are apart from the grace of God, and therefore it doesn't
01:13:55.260 just ask for pardon for past sin, but it asks for present transformation and future preservation
01:14:02.980 to keep us from sinning again against the God that we love. So all that being said,
01:14:10.960 we see these four steps in Psalm 51. We'll look at step three and step four next week,
01:14:16.440 lord willing but what we saw today is that we must ask for forgiveness and ask for mercy on the basis
01:14:23.140 of god's character that's the first step and then secondly we must confess our sin and as we do we
01:14:29.820 must not minimize it we must confess the full severity of our sin we must recognize that
01:14:35.060 ultimately our sin is an offense against god regardless of its effects against our fellow man
01:14:40.960 And God is just and blameless.
01:14:43.780 We should, in our confession, have a desire to vindicate God, not putting any blame on him.
01:14:49.620 And then lastly, in confessing our sin, we must recognize that the ultimate problem is not merely our wrong actions, but our own sinful condition.
01:14:59.700 It's not merely what we've done, but who we are.
01:15:02.620 And that the ultimate solution is not just that God would forgive that one instance of sinful action, but God must actually change and transform us as sinners into saints.
01:15:16.780 And that all of this is accomplished by the work of his son, Jesus.
01:15:21.180 All right, let's pray.
01:15:22.100 Father, thank you for your word.
01:15:23.580 We pray that you would bless it to your people.
01:15:25.180 I pray that you would be glorified and that we too would follow in the example of David
01:15:30.440 as those who are broken and contrite, confessing our sin to you in a way that honors you and
01:15:37.940 ultimately a way that possesses godly sorrow, leading to repentance, ultimately leading
01:15:43.980 unto life.
01:15:44.960 We pray these things in Jesus' name.
01:15:47.120 Amen.
01:15:48.660 Oh, hi.
01:15:49.540 I didn't see you there.
01:15:50.560 Thanks for sticking around.
01:15:51.580 I've got an important announcement to make.
01:15:53.240 That's the Theonomy and Post-Millennialism Conference, 2023, May 5th, 6th, and 7th,
01:16:00.140 Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, Theonomy and Post-Millennialism.
01:16:04.380 We've got the speakers that we've already had lined up.
01:16:06.540 That's Dr. James White, Dr. Joseph Boot, Dr. Gary DeMar, non-doctor, Pastor Joel Webin.
01:16:11.700 But we also have a bonus speaker, and that is Dale Partridge from Real Christianity.
01:16:17.080 Perhaps you've heard of him.
01:16:18.000 If not, you should start listening to his podcast.
01:16:20.340 It's fantastic.
01:16:21.840 Dale Partridge is going to be joining our team.
01:16:24.500 We're going to have live panels on Friday night and Saturday night
01:16:28.000 where you'll be able to write in questions and get them answered.
01:16:30.700 We're also going to have a catered barbecue, Texas-style barbecue meal on Friday
01:16:35.420 that's a part of your registration fee.
01:16:37.580 All that is covered.
01:16:38.760 So you need to get that.
01:16:39.940 This is how you do it.
01:16:40.800 Go and register right now at rightresponseconference.com.
01:16:45.640 Again, that's rightresponseconference.com.
01:16:49.320 God bless.