The NXR Podcast - December 04, 2022


SUNDAY SERMON - What Is Godly Sorrow？ ｜ Psalm 51 (Part 2)


Episode Stats


Length

59 minutes

Words per minute

169.37

Word count

10,112

Sentence count

520

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Toxicity

40

sentences flagged

Hate speech

39

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Continuing our sermon series through the book of Psalms, Pastor Ken continues to focus on the psalms in the Bible through the lens of David's confession in Psalm 51. This psalm is unique in the sense that its historical origin can be pinpointed in the context of the time in which David confesses his sin.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hey guys, real quick before we get started, I have a small request.
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00:00:18.020 Continuing with our sermon series through the Psalter,
00:00:20.980 that is through the book of Psalms in the Bible.
00:00:23.520 Last Lord's Day, we began preaching through Psalm 51.
00:00:28.100 This is David's confession.
00:00:30.660 It models a descriptive text of David's repentance.
00:00:34.960 And this particular psalm is unique in the sense that its historical origin is pinpointed.
00:00:41.160 We know the context.
00:00:42.760 We know the reasoning behind the writing of this particular psalm.
00:00:46.880 This is right after David committed the egregious sin of murdering Uriah and adultery with Uriah's wife Bathsheba.
00:00:58.100 And David confesses his sin to the Lord in very profoundly deep, agonizing terms in Psalm 51.
00:01:09.280 Again, last Lord's Day, we began Psalm 51.
00:01:12.460 We focused on the first five verses.
00:01:14.760 Today, Lord willing, we're going to focus on verses 8 through 17.
00:01:20.780 So we're doing this in two parts.
00:01:22.300 We'll finish Psalm 51 today, focusing our attention on verses 8 through 17.
00:01:28.100 By way of introduction I've written this. Psalm 51 is another psalm that is pinpointed as to its
00:01:33.820 historical origin. The heading of the psalm states this to the choir master a psalm of David when
00:01:39.920 Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. Uriah was murdered his wife Bathsheba
00:01:46.680 was defiled and her baby because David and Bathsheba conceived the baby was sentenced by God
00:01:53.300 to die. The baby only lived for seven days. It was one of the consequences, the earthly consequences
00:01:59.140 for David's sin. The Lord determined that the child should die. All that is outlined in 2 Samuel 0.72
00:02:05.260 chapter 11. And yet what is so peculiar that the mystery of God's grace and mercy is that the
00:02:13.600 prophet Nathan, when he goes in to confront David, the prophet Nathan says to him, the Lord also has
00:02:19.740 put away your sin you shall not die David is the king and yet he is not the king of kings he is
00:02:26.500 not above the law of the Lord it was the penalty of God's law that a murderer like David and an
00:02:33.280 adulterer like David should be punished by death the death penalty is what he was due and yet the
00:02:41.520 prophet Nathan speaking for the Lord he goes and he confronts David's sin without apology in bold 0.91
00:02:48.480 terms and yet in the middle of this confrontation for king david's sin he assures the king that the
00:02:56.040 lord has put away his sin and that david will not die the wages of sin is death but that death had
00:03:04.160 already been paid because christ was crucified before the foundations of the world and david
00:03:11.140 by grace through faith looking forward you and i as new testament christians in faith we look back
00:03:17.840 We look back to the cross, back to Calvary, back to the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
00:03:25.460 And we look back through the eyes of faith and through the lenses of Holy Spirit inspired scripture.
00:03:30.600 We look back, we see the work of Christ, the personal work of Jesus through the apostolic writings, through the four gospels.
00:03:39.660 We're the one gospel according to four authors.
00:03:41.860 We see it through the apostolic letters, the epistles written by Paul and Peter and James.
00:03:48.220 We look back to see Christ.
00:03:50.440 But Old Testament saints, they were not saved in some other alternative means.
00:03:55.760 God has only saved for himself throughout all of human history a people by one means.
00:04:02.360 That is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.
00:04:05.700 Old Testament saints were not saved by their obedience unto the law.
00:04:09.440 They were not saved by morality.
00:04:11.440 They were not saved by the will of man or the work of man.
00:04:14.840 They were saved in the same way that you and I are, by grace through faith in Christ.
00:04:20.520 The only difference is that Old Testament saints looked forward to Christ, the promised
00:04:26.060 Redeemer, the Messiah, and you and I look back.
00:04:29.820 For those of us who look back, we look back with more clarity.
00:04:34.780 And this is a gracious gift from God.
00:04:36.620 We look back with the apostolic testimonies.
00:04:39.280 We look back, having known that Jesus has already, in real history, come, lived, died, resurrected, and ascended to the right hand of the Father.
00:04:50.840 But Old Testament saints, such as David, they were saved the very same way, looking forward.
00:04:56.540 And for them, redemption was much more of a mystery than it is for us.
00:05:01.400 Much of this mystery has been revealed to us.
00:05:04.400 but for old testament saints who predated the earthly ministry of jesus christ they looked
00:05:10.220 forward to the mystery of redemption but ultimately they were hoping in the gospel just as we are
00:05:15.880 adam and eve what saved them well it certainly wasn't their good works adam failed to keep the
00:05:22.620 covenant of works what saved adam and eve grace through faith in christ they trusted in the serpent
00:05:30.240 crusher. It was promised in Genesis chapter 3 that the seed of the woman, her offspring, that
00:05:36.900 eventually there would come a man, and that he would have his heel wounded by this snake, but
00:05:45.480 that ultimately he would crush its head. How were Adam and Eve saved? Through faith. Not works so
00:05:51.800 that no man may boast, but through faith. They trusted in the serpent crusher. We know him as
00:05:56.620 jesus christ they trusted in the same their object of faith right it's not the size of your faith
00:06:02.340 that saves you but the object they have the very same object of faith jesus we just know a lot more
00:06:07.440 about him we know a lot more about him this side of the cross so the point is this david was an
00:06:14.060 adulterer and a murderer david was worthy of death not just physical death under the law of the land 0.78
00:06:20.960 the law of god in the earthly consequences for transgressions and sin but david was deserving 0.99
00:06:27.880 of an eternal death because again roman says the wages of sin is death so how in the world this is
00:06:34.280 the question that we focused on last week how in the world could nathan a prophet of god who speaks
00:06:39.900 god's word he's not making it up he's speaking the very words of god how could nathan say
00:06:45.600 essentially as a prophet of god meaning how could god himself say david your sin has been put away
00:06:52.860 david you will not die the way that god could say to david without any compromise of his own
00:07:00.300 holiness his own righteousness his own justice the way that god could say to david you shall not die 1.00
00:07:05.940 although you're a murderer and deserve death although you're an adulterer and deserve death 0.98
00:07:10.060 and the wages of sin is death you shall not die not because i've gotten soft not because i'm now 1.00
00:07:16.320 compromising my holiness not because i'm handing over my deity and ceasing to be god and relinquishing
00:07:21.940 my justice no you shall not die because the wages of sin is death and someone is going to die in
00:07:29.960 your place i'm not lifting the penalty no the penalty must be paid because i am a just god
00:07:39.000 And I will by no means, as the scripture says, pardon the guilty.
00:07:43.860 So then how are we pardoned?
00:07:45.240 We just did that in our liturgy.
00:07:47.240 An assurance of pardon.
00:07:48.180 The Bible literally says God by no means will pardon the wicked.
00:07:51.920 So how do we get pardoned?
00:07:54.220 Because someone else took the penalty in our place.
00:07:59.160 Substitutionary atonement.
00:08:01.360 Jesus in his death on the cross, he did not merely set for us an example of sacrificial love.
00:08:07.400 No, Jesus in his death on the cross, he actually made atonement.
00:08:12.500 He actually paid for sin.
00:08:14.780 He didn't just die as an example that we should follow.
00:08:18.700 No, Jesus died as a substitute.
00:08:22.000 Behold, the Lamb of God who comes to take away the sin of the world.
00:08:27.800 God doesn't pardon us by compromising his holiness.
00:08:32.080 God pardons us, right?
00:08:33.460 It's the free gift of salvation for you, but it wasn't free for him.
00:08:38.440 It's only the free gift of salvation for you because it was incredibly costly to God.
00:08:44.720 It came at the cost of his only begotten son.
00:08:48.820 So David's sin was put away.
00:08:51.900 David shall not die, even though the penalty is death, because Jesus would die in his place.
00:08:58.720 That is the doctrine of justification.
00:09:01.600 That's the objective theological answer to how David was pardoned from his egregious sin of murder and adultery,
00:09:11.780 as well as all the other sins he committed over the course of his life.
00:09:15.340 So that's the objective reality of how God was able to forgive David and how God has forgiven you without any compromise to his own justice.
00:09:25.000 I've often said that Calvary is the place where both the mercy of God and the justice of God kiss.
00:09:32.460 God upholding his mercy and his justice in such a way that neither compromises the other.
00:09:42.080 God perfectly just, God perfectly merciful, giving his son to pay the penalty for the sin that we've committed.
00:09:50.640 So the objective reality, Romans chapter 3, outlines it very, very clearly.
00:09:56.620 Romans chapter 3 speaks of David being pardoned, or not David, but in general, the people of God being pardoned.
00:10:05.400 Romans chapter 3, verses 23 through 26, describes this objective reality of how God put away David's sin
00:10:11.380 and declared him righteous as an act of divine grace, which David received through faith in the coming Messiah.
00:10:17.700 but what we see here's here's our focus for today in psalm 51 is the subject of reality
00:10:24.600 so not the objective theological reality of justification by grace alone through faith
00:10:29.880 alone and christ alone that's how david's sin was put away in objective terms that's how david was
00:10:35.520 forgiven and the penalty was waived in objective terms but what psalm 51 focuses on is not the
00:10:42.660 subjective reality of how David was forgiven through the work of Christ, but rather what
00:10:48.860 Psalm 51 focuses on is the subjective reality by which David came to lay hold of an assurance
00:10:57.320 of his forgiveness. See, the Gospel of John says this. The author actually tells us why he wrote
00:11:03.940 the Gospel. He says, I write these things so that you might believe in him who was sent.
00:11:09.780 so john a disciple of jesus underneath the inspiration of the holy spirit tells us in his
00:11:16.820 gospel i'm writing this all the accounts of everything that jesus did everything he said
00:11:22.420 and john even says towards the end of of his gospel he says if everything that jesus did was
00:11:27.360 written down all the books in the world could not contain it but these have been written
00:11:31.360 these have been recorded so that you might believe so john's purpose in writing this gospel so that
00:11:38.180 you might believe but this is what i find um so comforting in john's first epistle so that's the
00:11:45.740 gospel of john i wrote this so that you might believe but in john's first epistle his first
00:11:51.020 letter he says i write these things so that you might know that you believe brothers and sisters
00:11:57.420 there is a distinction between believing and knowing that you believe and see that's that's
00:12:06.880 what david is fighting for with everything he has in psalm 51 he's not fighting for working for
00:12:14.640 clawing for the forgiveness of god that's already been accomplished i mean when we confess our sins
00:12:21.080 every lord's day what are we doing because if we're just thinking in objective theological
00:12:26.000 terms we've already been forgiven and the moment of conversion the moment that someone first
00:12:31.240 believes and trusts in the lord jesus christ you're forgiven of all your past sins your present
00:12:35.540 sins and your future sins so you've already been forgiven so what are we doing confessing
00:12:41.360 and and what are we doing asking and pleading for forgiveness why ask for that which the
00:12:47.240 scripture plainly tells us in objective terms we already have why do we ask for something we
00:12:52.580 already have because there's a difference in believing and knowing that you believe meaning
00:12:57.500 there's a difference in the objective theological reality of forgiveness in the doctrine of
00:13:03.340 justification and the assurance of forgiveness the assurance of pardon being reminded and convinced
00:13:10.860 and confident in that forgiveness there are plenty of people right now on the lord's day
00:13:17.780 in churches all over our nation and all over the world there are plenty of people
00:13:21.980 on both sides here's the scary side i'll do that first there are plenty of people
00:13:27.220 who have an assurance of forgiveness who are not forgiven and that's the most terrifying thing in
00:13:32.720 the world. To think that you have right standing with God when you don't. We call that a false
00:13:37.740 convert. Someone who has a false assurance. The person who thinks that they've been born again
00:13:42.520 by grace through faith in Christ, but they don't actually trust in Jesus. They're actually a dead
00:13:47.560 man walking. They're on death row. They're still underneath the just condemnation of God, and they
00:13:52.940 don't even know it. Right? That's why we read the law each week. It's to see God's holiness. It's
00:13:58.260 also to scare the hell out of you. And I use that in biblical terms. Literally, there's hell. It
00:14:03.880 needs to get scared out of us by the law of God. That's a proper word. That's not cursing. I
00:14:08.600 wouldn't say that lightly. God is scaring the Hades, the hell, the sin out of us by his law.
00:14:15.840 He's causing us to have fear and trembling. But then he's also reminding us of the grace that
00:14:21.220 he's purchased by the blood of his son and giving us consolation and comfort and encouragement and
00:14:27.020 reassurance of his great love for us and the forgiveness of sins so the objective theological
00:14:34.520 reality of justification is that at the moment of conversion the moment you first believe in jesus
00:14:41.520 trust in jesus all your sin has been pardoned all your iniquity forgiven all of it past present and
00:14:48.860 future. But what we see David doing in Psalm 51 is this subjective process of laying hold with
00:14:57.380 everything he has, clawing for a sense of comfort, clawing to the ledge of God's mercy and grace
00:15:06.200 to receive forgiveness in real terms. No, no. But to be reminded and to be encouraged and to become
00:15:16.060 confident that he is forgiven. Right? I write to you, Gospel of John, I write to you so that you
00:15:22.160 might believe. The first epistle of John, I write to you so that you might know. So there are two
00:15:27.900 types of people in the church today. Some who think that they've been forgiven, but they haven't.
00:15:33.960 But then there's another group of people that we should have a great sense of Christian
00:15:39.180 compassion and sympathy not empathy but sympathy compassion and concern for and those are the
00:15:47.120 people who actually have been forgiven but don't feel like they have so there are those who are
00:15:53.600 false converts they have not been forgiven they are not christians but they think they are they
00:15:58.440 have a confidence that they should not have but there are others who have been forgiven god has
00:16:04.100 save them. And they do. And their inner being delight in the law of God, Romans 7. They love
00:16:09.660 God. And yet they're constantly struggling to have a sense of comfort and confidence that they
00:16:15.960 truly belong to God. They're lacking, not salvation, they're lacking the assurance of
00:16:21.620 salvation. This is what David is calling for in Psalm 51. So I want to make that abundantly clear.
00:16:28.140 David in Psalm 51 is not working for his salvation.
00:16:32.140 That's a heresy.
00:16:33.600 That's legalism.
00:16:34.960 That's not what we see.
00:16:36.480 We don't see David because he's an Old Testament saint.
00:16:39.200 He doesn't get the gospel right.
00:16:40.680 He doesn't understand justification.
00:16:42.820 He never read Charles Hodge.
00:16:44.360 He doesn't get this.
00:16:46.040 No, that's not Psalm 51.
00:16:47.820 We're not seeing David with his poor theology trying to work to somehow merit the favor of God.
00:16:54.000 No, what we see is David, with good theology, one of the best of the Old Testament saints,
00:16:59.600 someone who is well acquainted, well versed in the mercy and forgiveness of God that comes freely,
00:17:04.840 on the basis of God's grace, not human merit,
00:17:08.460 and yet David's still working with everything he has, not to earn God's forgiveness,
00:17:13.300 but to come to a place in terms of his thinking, in terms of his feeling, like I spoke of earlier,
00:17:20.120 and his emotions and his thoughts
00:17:22.400 and his words and his deeds
00:17:24.060 and his overall manner of being,
00:17:25.820 he wants to arrive at a place of confidence
00:17:28.840 and assurance that he's been forgiven.
00:17:31.220 He's not working to be forgiven.
00:17:33.120 He's working to believe that he's been forgiven.
00:17:37.680 I write to you so that you might know
00:17:39.780 that you've been forgiven,
00:17:41.380 that you might know that you believe.
00:17:43.540 There is salvation in the objective terms
00:17:46.220 by which it comes,
00:17:47.060 by grace alone, through faith alone, and Christ alone.
00:17:49.320 but then there is the assurance of salvation and with that we might say the assurance of forgiveness
00:17:54.840 of sins the assurance of pardon and this does not come by grace alone through faith alone in christ
00:18:00.000 alone this comes as we work now we know according to philippians that it is god who works in us
00:18:09.520 that which is good and pleasing in his sight so all the work is still ultimately god's but there
00:18:14.060 is god's work for us justification jesus christ but then there's god's work through us sanctification
00:18:21.820 pursuing the assurance of salvation so god's work for us jesus work his life his death his
00:18:30.540 resurrection and that's where forgiveness comes from objectively but there's god's work through
00:18:35.600 us not in justification but in sanctification as we work out our salvation with fear and trembling
00:18:42.340 knowing, right? We always cut the verse short. It's Philippians. Work out your salvation with
00:18:47.060 fear and trembling. See, you can lose your salvation. No. Work out your salvation with
00:18:50.860 fear and trembling, knowing it is him who works in and through us that which is good and pleasing
00:18:54.980 in his sight. So it's still God doing the work, and therefore it is still God who gets the glory,
00:18:59.320 but it is God working through us. And we are partnering with the Lord in this work of
00:19:05.580 sanctification in a way that we do not partner with the Lord in justification. He does that alone,
00:19:11.340 right you partnered with god in your justification the same way a dead person the same way lazarus
00:19:16.840 partnered with jesus in his resurrection right lazarus come forth that was not a team effort
00:19:22.700 it's not like lazarus came out of the tomb and gave jesus a high five and said teamwork made
00:19:26.800 the dream work right jesus you just you perfect alley-oop and then did you see me slam dunk
00:19:31.320 as i raised myself from the dead no he did nothing dead men can't contribute anything
00:19:37.640 so justification is likened to spiritual resurrection which is a whole work of god
00:19:45.040 completely a work of god but sanctification working out our salvation with fear and trembling
00:19:51.420 still a work of god in and through us but it is something that we partner with and that's what we
00:19:56.940 see with david this is not david's journey to justification this is david's journey in
00:20:02.440 sanctification after having sinned egregiously not trying to somehow merit the forgiveness of
00:20:09.120 god but rather trying to come to a place of being once again confidence of the salvation he's freely
00:20:15.740 received by grace to faith in christ and we need to listen up we need to learn this lesson because
00:20:22.980 although all of you here today who have faith in the lord jesus you objectively have every ounce
00:20:29.700 of forgiveness you'll ever need. For every sin you've already committed, and every sin you will,
00:20:34.580 although you've already been forgiven, that does not mean that you always feel forgiven.
00:20:40.460 Now, one of the reasons that we don't always feel forgiven, there's the finitude aspect, right? Part
00:20:45.980 of it is our fallenness, our sinfulness, but part of it is our finitude. The fact that we are
00:20:50.120 creatures, not just sinful, but simply creatures. That even if sin never entered the world,
00:20:56.940 we would still not be creators
00:20:59.020 but rather we would be creatures
00:21:01.020 we are finite
00:21:01.980 and one of the aspects of our finitude
00:21:04.120 is in our knowing
00:21:05.420 God is omniscient
00:21:07.380 he knows all things
00:21:08.400 you and I are not
00:21:09.380 we do not know the future
00:21:11.380 with perfect certainty
00:21:13.200 the only aspects of the future
00:21:16.000 I guess that we do know
00:21:16.900 with perfect certainty
00:21:17.740 are those things that God has promised
00:21:19.160 in his word
00:21:20.020 apart from that
00:21:22.200 we do not know the future
00:21:23.240 with perfect certainty
00:21:24.560 so the point is
00:21:26.260 when you sin it's news to you you are surprised by your sin this is new information and so part
00:21:38.060 of the reason why we struggle with the assurance of salvation the assurance of pardon the assurance
00:21:42.480 of God's love for us and his forgiveness of our sin is because the sin that we've just committed
00:21:47.780 is news to us it may have caught us by surprise now even that is an indictment of sorts
00:21:55.160 because what it ultimately conveys is that we that we humored ourselves to be a bit more righteous
00:22:02.120 than we actually were but the point is your sin is new information to you and so you're recalibrating
00:22:10.160 you're rethinking you're does god really love me i mean how could he after blank whereas from god's
00:22:17.340 perspective before the foundations of the world were laid knowing everything you would ever do
00:22:22.300 both good and bad, he chose you in Christ Jesus, in the beloved, to the praise of his glorious
00:22:29.040 grace, Ephesians 1. So this isn't news to God, but because you're finite, not just because you're
00:22:36.240 fallen, but because you're finite creatures, it is news to you. You're not omniscient. And so you're
00:22:41.920 rethinking, you're not trying to get re-forgiven, you're already forgiven. But what you're trying
00:22:48.000 to do is you're trying to come back to a place of confidence in god's forgiveness that's what's
00:22:52.800 going on with david when david gets confronted by the prophet nathan and david gives his own death
00:22:58.320 sentence by the way right nathan he gives this parable this illustration he says there's two men
00:23:02.880 one was very rich he had all of these all these sheep herds and herds flocks of sheep and then
00:23:09.540 there was another man a poor man that had one little sheep and they loved the sheep as though
00:23:14.180 it was like a child in the family or at least a beloved pet it would even come to the dinner table
00:23:18.700 with them and and the kids loved it and and there was a traveler who came to the rich man and wanted
00:23:24.700 to receive hospitality and the rich man in his greed he snuck into the poor man's stable and he
00:23:32.380 took the one little sheep that they loved rather than sacrificing one of his many he took the one
00:23:37.640 little sheep that this poor man loved and killed it and served it to the traveler. And David gets
00:23:45.040 enraged when Nathan says this. David says, that man should surely die, right? This is the emotions 0.98
00:23:53.560 of David. David, he's an emotional guy. He's a man after God's own heart. Lots of zeal, lots of
00:23:58.060 passion. Sometimes it goes askew, right? There are problems with being emotional. Charles Spurgeon,
00:24:03.040 he was emotional. What did that account to? Charles Spurgeon being incredibly emotional. A lot of
00:24:08.320 biblical scholars said that if he was alive today, he would probably be diagnosed as bipolar.
00:24:13.520 What did that amount to? Well, it amounted to two things. Chronic depression to where he wanted to
00:24:19.940 die most of his life and Prince of Preachers. That's what you get with emotional guys.
00:24:26.980 you know that that guy can preach and let's pray for his wife because he's probably hard to live
00:24:34.600 with sometimes all right so david's like that charles spurgeon's like that right so david is
00:24:39.160 like he should surely die which in objective terms think about this for a second logically 0.82
00:24:42.540 what david's saying is the death penalty should be invoked for killing a sheep that's not god's 0.96
00:24:48.160 law that's not biblical law that's david just getting man i really got wrapped up in the story
00:24:52.940 Nathan and I, I kind of lost myself for a second. You know, I just, I blacked out for a second
00:24:57.040 there. Death penalty for a sheep. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, human life for a sheep life, 0.99
00:25:02.140 right? David all of a sudden he became a Democrat there. You know, human lives less significant than
00:25:06.080 the lives of animals, right? So anyways, I got to throw that punch in there. Got to throw it in 0.59
00:25:12.900 there. All right. So anyways, the point is David lost himself. David says he should surely die.
00:25:18.220 What David doesn't realize is this. David is actually proclaiming his own death sentence 0.91
00:25:21.960 because what Nathan then responds with is saying this,
00:25:25.040 you are the man.
00:25:27.520 David, I'm talking about you.
00:25:28.960 This story's about you. 1.00
00:25:30.720 You're the greedy man. 0.92
00:25:32.620 Uriah had one wife. 0.96
00:25:33.840 Here you are, the king of Israel. 0.97
00:25:35.500 You've got concubines on top of wives. 0.99
00:25:39.600 Multiple wives, multiple concubines, 1.00
00:25:41.740 a palace, all of this wealth,
00:25:44.260 vast armies, power, influence, affluence.
00:25:47.500 You've got it all.
00:25:49.140 Uriah had one wife that he loved.
00:25:51.220 and you stole her.
00:25:53.960 And when you realize that you might get caught
00:25:56.300 because she was with child, your child, 0.58
00:25:59.220 you sent him to the front lines
00:26:00.940 and you told, you instructed Joab,
00:26:03.580 the commander of the armies of Israel,
00:26:05.420 to have all of the troops in that portion
00:26:07.640 to go into where the battle was fiercest
00:26:09.960 and then at the last minute withdraw
00:26:12.460 so that Uriah would be left alone
00:26:14.740 so that he would surely die.
00:26:16.700 That is murder.
00:26:18.680 That's murder.
00:26:19.220 you did all of this you are the man and david proclaims his own death sentence that man should
00:26:29.020 surely die nathan says okay but then the next thing that nathan says is but you're not going 0.84
00:26:35.860 to die you should die you just said you should die that's not it's not even my words or god's 0.86
00:26:42.100 words that's your own words your own pronouncement your own death sentence and yet you won't die 1.00
00:26:49.480 because the lord has put away your sin
00:26:52.040 you shall not die someone else will die the lord can't just turn a blind eye to this sin without
00:27:01.180 compromising his justice his holiness his righteousness so someone's got to die but it
00:27:06.580 won't be you king david it'll be the king of all kings king jesus he died in your place
00:27:13.160 david is confronted by nathan he has this whole incredible experience and then we get psalm 51
00:27:21.120 it's like nathan the prophet just speaking the very words of god he just preached the gospel to
00:27:27.400 you right so so what are you doing here david nathan speaking for god so god's own very words
00:27:34.100 just gave you an assurance of pardon that your sin has been put away and that you shall not die
00:27:40.840 implicitly the gospel because someone else is dying for you in your place namely the god man
00:27:47.240 christ jesus so what are you doing in this emotional mental even almost physiological
00:27:54.760 agony in psalm 51 he is working for not salvation but rather he is working for the assurance of his
00:28:04.600 salvation he is working not to believe he is working to know that he believes that's what
00:28:11.620 he's doing and there are four key elements that david possesses or that david enacts in his
00:28:19.120 repentance, in this painful emotional process of trying to somehow cling to an assurance of God's
00:28:28.560 forgiveness. Four key elements. Number one, he asks for forgiveness. He pleads for forgiveness.
00:28:35.080 He doesn't just fall back on the doctrine of justification. He doesn't just say, well,
00:28:39.560 I've already been forgiven. No, he said, I've been forgiven, but I'm still going to ask.
00:28:44.820 I'm still going to plead before God
00:28:47.980 who sits on a throne of grace
00:28:50.140 come boldly before the throne of grace
00:28:52.440 I'm going to confess my sins
00:28:54.280 and ask that the Lord would cleanse me
00:28:56.480 that he would forgive me
00:28:57.820 so the first thing that he does
00:28:59.000 first key element is he pleads for forgiveness
00:29:01.140 the second is he confesses his sin
00:29:04.140 but notice in confession of sin
00:29:06.280 David is not informing God of his sin
00:29:09.540 again God is omniscient
00:29:11.080 he knows everything
00:29:12.120 so when we confess our sin to the Lord
00:29:15.180 We should confess our sins one to another, the scripture says.
00:29:17.960 So we should confess our sins horizontally to our fellow man, to brothers and sisters in Christ.
00:29:22.900 Confess your sins one to another that you might pray for one another, that you might be healed, the scripture says.
00:29:27.480 But there's first and foremost, before we confess our sin to any man, first and foremost, the scripture says that we should confess our sin to the Lord.
00:29:35.520 In a confession of sin to the Lord, we are not informing the Lord of our sin.
00:29:40.720 He's omniscient and he knows all things.
00:29:43.300 We're not saying, hey God, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I really messed up.
00:29:48.960 I know you're not aware, but I need to bring it to your attention.
00:29:51.380 That's not what we're doing in confession of sin.
00:29:54.060 He already knows.
00:29:55.020 So then what are we doing in confession?
00:29:57.500 What we're doing in confession is not informing the Lord, we're agreeing with the Lord.
00:30:01.460 And what he says, particularly, about the severity of our sin.
00:30:05.260 and and the the tragic irony is that in christian confession so often we do precisely the opposite
00:30:13.080 when we confess our sins to the lord and when we confess our sins to fellow brothers and sisters
00:30:17.580 in christ we often minimize our sin so yeah i send but you know right the buck stops here after
00:30:24.960 you blame like 70 other people right you might be familiar with a speech like that recently 0.98
00:30:30.040 right the buck stops here i mean it's it's the afghani's fault and it's their fault and it's 0.99
00:30:33.720 But ultimately, I sin. 0.99
00:30:35.940 That's minimizing the severity of our sin.
00:30:38.280 That's not confession.
00:30:39.780 Because again, confession is not informing God.
00:30:42.540 He knows everything already.
00:30:44.000 So confession is not informing God.
00:30:45.840 It is agreeing with God.
00:30:47.080 Agreeing with God about what?
00:30:48.700 Agreeing with God about what he says about our sin.
00:30:51.980 And guess what?
00:30:52.540 In God's perspective of sin, this thrice holy God, who is holy, holy, holy.
00:30:57.100 One of the things, one of the first things he says about our sin is that it's a big deal.
00:31:01.200 and so anytime we find ourselves in confession minimizing our sin we are actually not confessing
00:31:08.680 we are actually doing the opposite we are disagreeing with god to confess your sin is to
00:31:13.720 agree with god about what about what he says about your sin and one of the first things that god says
00:31:19.000 about your sin is that it's big it's severe how serious is your sin it's so serious that the only
00:31:27.000 way you could be pardoned is jesus hanging out on a cross to die so anytime you don't think your
00:31:32.380 sin's a big deal anytime you think your sin that all it really merits all it really deserves is a
00:31:36.960 light slap on the wrist look to calvary look to the cross see christ bloodied and bruised hanging
00:31:43.340 out bleeding for your forgiveness that's how serious your sin is in the very same breath also
00:31:49.620 see if you ever doubt the love of god look to the cross see what god was willing to do in order to
00:31:55.820 forgive you the cross shows us both the severity of our sin it also shows us the severity of god's
00:32:01.580 love it shows us what our sin deserves and it also shows us what links god was willing to go to
00:32:07.880 in order to forgive our sin we see both the holiness and wrath of god for sin in the cross
00:32:14.400 and we see the mercy and grace and forgiveness and love of god in the cross but in confession
00:32:20.120 all that being said, it is not informing God. It is agreeing with God. And the first thing that we
00:32:26.200 agree with God in regards to is the severity of our sin. Our sin is a big deal. It's not small.
00:32:34.040 It's not someone else's fault. We don't blame. We don't distract. We don't minimize. We don't make
00:32:41.520 excuses. We agree with God and what he says about the seriousness of sin. So David, he asked for
00:32:49.980 forgiveness. He pleads. Even though he knows objectively he's already been forgiven, he
00:32:54.100 asks for that forgiveness. Secondly, he confesses his sin. That is, he agrees with God over
00:32:59.580 how serious his sin actually is. The third thing that he does is, notice this, he doesn't
00:33:05.080 just ask to be forgiven, but he asks to be restored. Now that's a whole other level.
00:33:11.820 See, you and I, a lot of times what we do in our Christian life and our Christian walk
00:33:15.160 is we sin, right? We're not omniscient, we're finite, so the sin is news to us.
00:33:19.980 It happens, it occurs, we commit sin, we commit treason against God by breaking his law,
00:33:26.660 and then we ask God, forgive me.
00:33:29.140 What we should do is ask God to forgive us, but then also ask God to restore us.
00:33:35.040 And David not only asked to be restored, but to be preserved.
00:33:38.440 Now what this signifies, David asking to be restored and preserved is this.
00:33:45.800 It signifies that David has a biblical understanding
00:33:50.320 of not only sin as an action that one commits,
00:33:55.060 but sin as a condition, the human condition.
00:33:59.840 What David ultimately is doing is this.
00:34:01.720 He's saying, God, I'm asking you to forgive me
00:34:05.040 of this particular sin, but I can't stop there
00:34:08.800 because the situation is actually far worse.
00:34:12.320 So this gets into the second element,
00:34:14.000 confessing being agreeing with God about the severity of sin so he's saying first I'm asking
00:34:18.700 for your forgiveness for this particular action this sinful action I've just committed but then
00:34:23.620 secondly I'm I'm agreeing with how serious my sin is and therefore I need to ask not just for
00:34:29.920 forgiveness for this one isolated incident but I need to ask for restoration I need you to change
00:34:35.460 me not just forgive my past action a sin I committed but I need you to change my condition
00:34:43.220 Let me say it like this.
00:34:45.040 You are not a sinner because you sinned.
00:34:47.860 You sin because you're a sinner.
00:34:50.600 I'll say it again.
00:34:51.960 You are not a sinner because you sinned.
00:34:55.460 You sin because you are a sinner.
00:34:59.000 This is what David gets into.
00:35:01.080 He gets into this in verse 4 and verse 5.
00:35:04.180 In sin did my mother conceive me.
00:35:06.520 In iniquity I was brought forth.
00:35:08.720 He's saying I have a sin habit?
00:35:11.540 Sure.
00:35:12.220 I commit sinful actions, sure.
00:35:14.720 But all that stems from the root problem,
00:35:16.760 which is I have a sin nature.
00:35:19.680 I have a sinful condition.
00:35:22.680 So yes, I'm asking you to forgive me.
00:35:25.280 But beyond that, I need to ask you
00:35:27.100 not just to forgive that past sinful action,
00:35:30.220 I need to ask you to change me, the sinful man.
00:35:33.520 Remember what Nathan says to David
00:35:35.640 when he confronts him.
00:35:36.560 He tells him the parable.
00:35:37.720 David pronounces his own judgment. 1.00
00:35:39.920 This man should surely die. 0.98
00:35:42.220 And then what does Nathan say in response? 0.99
00:35:44.420 He doesn't say, you're the man who did that thing.
00:35:48.220 No, he doesn't say, but you did the thing.
00:35:50.400 No, he says, you are the man.
00:35:53.200 That's Nathan's response.
00:35:54.880 He cuts right to the heart of the issue,
00:35:57.220 to the foundational problem.
00:35:58.760 He doesn't just say, you did the thing, David.
00:36:01.820 No, he says, you are the man, David.
00:36:05.280 Not just, you committed the sin, David.
00:36:07.860 No, you are the sinner, David.
00:36:11.220 And David takes that to heart.
00:36:12.720 And that's what we see in Psalm 51.
00:36:14.220 He doesn't just say, God, forgive me because I did the thing.
00:36:17.320 No, he says, God, restore me because I am the man.
00:36:21.960 Listen, your sinful actions are not mulligans.
00:36:26.280 Your sinful actions are not one-offs. 0.57
00:36:29.120 I had a bad day.
00:36:30.940 You know, I mean, I'm usually not like this.
00:36:32.580 Yes, you are.
00:36:33.800 Yes, you are.
00:36:35.040 That's who you are.
00:36:37.440 A tree produces fruit.
00:36:40.320 And the fruit is the revelation, the manifestation, the evidence, the proof of the roots of that tree.
00:36:48.360 So if you're producing apples all day long, you're like, man, I'm usually not like this.
00:36:51.760 I swear I'm an orange tree and I make the best oranges, you know, but just, you know, for ever since I've been born in my entire existence, I've just been producing a lot of apples.
00:37:02.180 You know, you could hold to that narrative and say, I am a fantastic orange tree that just happens to continually make apples.
00:37:07.540 or you could say maybe i'm an apple tree i felt like an orange tree i wanted to be an orange tree
00:37:16.280 i really like oranges i prefer oranges to apples but all i've made is apples so i guess i might be
00:37:22.380 an apple tree your actions reflect your heart all right people we always say you know you can't see
00:37:29.060 my heart don't judge my heart well the bible says that god sees the heart right so man looks at the
00:37:34.420 outward appearance, but God sees the heart. So there's a sense in which we as finite creatures,
00:37:38.760 not being omniscient, we cannot judge our neighbors or our fellow brothers and sisters
00:37:43.440 in Christ in terms of their intent, motives, heart. However, however, we cannot do that with
00:37:50.000 100% certainty, but there is a sense in which we can and even should judge not only the actions
00:37:57.240 and words of our fellow man, but even their heart, because when a pattern is set up in terms of
00:38:04.640 someone's actions or a pattern is set up in terms of their words, Jesus said that out of the abundance
00:38:10.820 of the heart, the mouth speaks. So if someone is always speaking in a certain way, according to
00:38:17.240 Jesus, that reveals their heart. So to make that kind of judgment, and there's a difference, brothers
00:38:22.720 and sisters and being judgmental in a self-righteous, arrogant fashion versus making wise spiritual
00:38:28.540 judgments. Paul says in 2 Corinthians, spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he
00:38:33.880 himself is subject to no man's judgment. So Christians are called to make judgments because 0.98
00:38:38.260 you know what a judgment is? A judgment is simply discernment. How many times does the New Testament 0.98
00:38:43.640 say again and again and again that Christians should be discerning? And not just discerning
00:38:47.900 about ideology, not just discerning about substance and content, but discerning about
00:38:52.200 people we need to discern not only false teaching but false teachers not just bad doctrine but those
00:38:58.800 who peddle such doctrines this isn't there's a way of making judgments without being self-righteous
00:39:04.860 and judgmental to say as the puritans do the puritans they said there go i but for the grace
00:39:11.020 of god so i can judge a not just a false teaching but a false teacher and i can even address them
00:39:16.940 and call them out by name, as Paul does with Hymenaeus and Alexander in 1 Timothy chapter 1.
00:39:22.420 I can do all of that without being judgmental.
00:39:25.220 I can make a judgment, a right judgment, according to God's word,
00:39:29.640 in order to protect the sheep from error, from heresy, from poison.
00:39:35.960 So we're called to make judgments, a.k.a. be discerning.
00:39:39.720 And there's a way of being discerning, making judgments, without being judgmental.
00:39:43.300 right? The favorite verse of every mediocre, half-hearted Christian, you know, like, don't 0.99
00:39:49.140 judge, which is just insane. Have you read Matthew chapter seven? Right? Do not judge for with the 1.00
00:39:56.280 same judgment that you judge others, it will be done unto you. The very next verse, I believe it's
00:40:01.440 the first five verses that say, don't judge. The very next verse, verse six, I believe it is Matthew
00:40:06.320 7, 6 says, do not give to swine or to dogs what is holy and do not cast your pearls before
00:40:14.500 swine. Well, how do you know who a dog is? How do you know who swine are? You make a
00:40:24.460 judgment. So literally the first five verses, Jesus says, don't judge, but also the very
00:40:30.660 next breath without skipping a beat, the very next verse, but also make a judgment
00:40:33.840 and don't waste your time and precious resources,
00:40:38.600 namely doctrine, on a swine that's simply going to ignore it 1.00
00:40:43.200 and treat it as garbage. 0.99
00:40:45.420 So Jesus says, don't be judgmental, but make righteous judgments. 0.92
00:40:51.300 And the judgment that Jesus uses as an example 0.98
00:40:53.400 is calling certain people swine.
00:40:56.540 Jesus didn't obey the 11th commandment.
00:40:58.360 Thou shalt be nice, not on Jesus' radar.
00:41:01.420 Not on his radar.
00:41:03.840 Jesus, author of sugar and spice and everything nice,
00:41:06.100 that's not the Jesus of the Bible.
00:41:08.780 He's cute, hippie, tree-hugging Jesus,
00:41:11.000 sweet Jesus, nice Jesus, right? 1.00
00:41:12.740 The Jewish version of Mr. Rogers, 0.94
00:41:15.580 but that's not the Jesus of the Bible. 0.94
00:41:18.260 So we are called to make judgments.
00:41:19.840 There is a way to make judgments
00:41:20.960 without actually being judgmental.
00:41:23.060 Now, everybody's gonna call you judgmental,
00:41:25.200 but ultimately, you stand before God.
00:41:29.220 And it doesn't matter if people
00:41:30.940 who've never actually read the Bible
00:41:32.160 but claim to be Christians call you judgmental. 1.00
00:41:34.460 Because that's usually who it is. 0.99
00:41:36.100 People who don't know God's word.
00:41:38.000 They don't understand the fruit of the spirit.
00:41:40.020 They don't know how Jesus would define gentleness.
00:41:42.660 They don't know what it means
00:41:43.640 to actually love your neighbor as yourself.
00:41:46.020 And yet these are the people giving moral lessons
00:41:48.040 to courageous Christians in our day and age. 0.99
00:41:52.320 Don't listen to them. 1.00
00:41:54.460 Don't take your cues from the peanut gallery 1.00
00:41:56.220 because that's what they are. 1.00
00:41:57.040 They're the peanut gallery.
00:41:58.240 Take your cues from the word of God.
00:41:59.480 not people who have never actually even read the word of god take your cues from the word
00:42:06.000 of god so you can make a judgment without being judgmental aka discernment that's all it is
00:42:11.920 now david the point that i'm getting to is that david he's he's asking for forgiveness he's he's
00:42:19.380 then confessing his sin which is agreeing with god about the severity of his sin but then he's
00:42:23.100 making a judgment about himself. David is saying, whoa, I recognize that the problem is way, way
00:42:30.840 worse than I'd like to think it is. The problem isn't just that I had a one-off, a bad day,
00:42:37.660 right? I just, you know, I just had a bad day and I ended up sleeping with someone else's wife.
00:42:42.400 You know, it was just a bad day. I was under a lot of stress, you know, and then that bad day
00:42:46.420 turned into like a bad three months because I ended up sending that guy into battle and had a
00:42:50.960 couped so everyone would abandon him and he would die and commit a murder. It was just, you know,
00:42:54.700 it was a bad three months. It was a one-off. It's not really who I am. I'm not normally like this.
00:43:00.620 No, you are. And David gets that. Nathan says, not just you did the thing, or you did the two
00:43:07.380 things. No, he says, you are the man. And David doesn't get defensive. Listen to that, Christians.
00:43:13.780 David is confronted by a prophet 0.99
00:43:16.760 we might say the preacher
00:43:19.100 the preacher comes and preaches to David
00:43:21.620 the word of God in such a way it convicts him of sin
00:43:24.420 and David doesn't get mad at the preacher
00:43:27.500 and this is King David
00:43:30.060 he could have had Nathan's head
00:43:31.380 but that's how a lot of Christians respond to the church today
00:43:34.960 right when the preacher preaches the word of God
00:43:38.300 that indicts them for sin
00:43:40.180 their response rather than saying
00:43:42.520 I am the man. He said I'm the man. I am the man. God restore me. Don't just forgive me for this
00:43:48.120 one sin I committed, but change me. Restore me from my sinful condition. Now, a lot of people
00:43:54.140 today, the way they respond is they say, all right, so this guy said not only that I've committed sin,
00:43:59.760 but that I am a sinner by nature and by choice, and that that's actually my condition, and that
00:44:04.780 my worst days aren't mulligans or one-offs, but it's actually a reflection of who I am, and that
00:44:09.660 I'm actually a hopeless situation to the point where God has to actually supernaturally change
00:44:14.620 my disposition to restore me. And then, and then I can't even walk with God on my own,
00:44:19.360 but he has to hold fast to me and preserve me all the way to the end or I'm going to go to hell.
00:44:25.220 Okay. Now I hear you. I have two options. I could listen and repent or I can get on Twitter and say
00:44:32.960 my pastor's really harsh and leave the church. Yeah. Most go with that one. Most go with that
00:44:39.280 one at least in 2021 don't go with that one you know why because i'm a pastor and i don't want
00:44:46.380 you to say that and it's self-serving yeah that's probably part of it because i'm a sinner
00:44:49.060 but there's another part of it because it'll damn you that that self-defensive option that that
00:44:57.980 that disposition that whenever someone when the lord mercifully sends someone into your life to
00:45:04.040 convict you of sin, that automatic fleshly response, reaction that wants to immediately
00:45:11.680 be defensive and turn it on them. Right? Well, okay. Well, you know, even what he said, I mean,
00:45:16.540 his theology was good. Yeah. But I didn't like his tone. If I had a dollar every time,
00:45:20.800 forget pastoral salaries. Just give me a dollar. Every time someone says, I don't like your tone.
00:45:27.300 I mean, I would, I would be, I would rival Benny Hinn. I'm talking jet planes. I'm talking like
00:45:31.540 whole nine yards. I mean, how often do we hear that in the church? Tone, tone, tone, tone.
00:45:39.600 I don't like his Twitter account. I want someone who sounds humble. Well, you know what I want?
00:45:45.740 I want someone who is humble. I don't care what you sound like because you can sound empathetic
00:45:52.280 and you can sound humble and you can sound gracious. And yet your life and your arrogance
00:45:58.900 and your decisions and your policy
00:46:01.080 lead to 13 military members dead.
00:46:06.920 So at the end of the day,
00:46:08.120 it's not just about tone.
00:46:10.720 But you know what?
00:46:11.460 It's not just Americans.
00:46:13.540 Hear me.
00:46:14.080 It's evangelicals.
00:46:15.960 Evangelicals have bought into this squishy,
00:46:19.400 half-hearted, 1.00
00:46:21.940 sensitive,
00:46:23.620 effeminate disposition.
00:46:27.740 Tone.
00:46:28.900 You know what? Tone matters. The Bible talks about gentleness and tone. Correct your opponents
00:46:32.700 with gentleness, not knowing that God might grant to them also repentance. Tone matters,
00:46:38.080 but nowhere in the Bible does it say how you say something trumps what you say. Does tone matter
00:46:44.740 biblically? Does it matter to God? Yes. I'll tell you what it doesn't matter more than substance.
00:46:51.280 The first thing that we need to look at is content, not how you say something, what you say.
00:46:58.740 So what does David do?
00:47:00.160 He doesn't get away from Nathan.
00:47:01.400 He doesn't say, right, because, I mean, he could have done that.
00:47:03.900 You tricked me.
00:47:05.100 You know what?
00:47:06.040 This prophet, I mean, technically, yeah, I did murder Uriah,
00:47:08.760 and I did commit adultery with Bathsheba.
00:47:10.280 But, you know, he was really deceptive in the way he confronted me of my sin.
00:47:13.280 He told his story, and he got my emotions going to where I pronounced this judgment.
00:47:18.140 Like, Nathan really, he kind of set me up.
00:47:21.260 That was manipulation.
00:47:22.660 That's spiritual abuse.
00:47:23.780 Spiritual abuse, right?
00:47:25.560 Spiritual abuse.
00:47:26.880 Emotional manipulation.
00:47:28.680 No, that's not what David does.
00:47:30.700 He owns it.
00:47:32.340 He doesn't defend.
00:47:33.600 He doesn't reflect.
00:47:34.620 He doesn't minimize.
00:47:35.560 He doesn't blame.
00:47:36.360 He owns it.
00:47:38.360 I did it, and it's not just what I did.
00:47:40.880 What I did reveals who I am.
00:47:43.480 Nathan said, I am the man, and Nathan's right.
00:47:47.620 I'm not going to get distracted with a beef with Nathan.
00:47:51.340 I'm going to go to the Lord.
00:47:52.700 I am that man.
00:47:54.240 And so he doesn't just ask for forgiveness.
00:47:55.820 He asks for restoration.
00:47:57.220 This is what it means.
00:47:57.960 to ask to be restored and preserved.
00:47:59.900 It means going to God and saying,
00:48:01.500 God, I just did blank,
00:48:04.720 but the problem is way bigger.
00:48:06.580 And if all you do is forgive me
00:48:08.020 for this past action of sin,
00:48:11.480 the problem won't be solved
00:48:13.160 because ultimately what will happen
00:48:14.520 is I'll do the same thing again
00:48:16.020 and likely even worse.
00:48:19.300 My only hope, God,
00:48:21.240 is not just that you forgive me
00:48:22.660 for sinful actions,
00:48:24.000 but that you supernaturally change me
00:48:27.100 in regards to my sinful condition.
00:48:29.840 Because this isn't the thing I did.
00:48:32.260 This is the man I am.
00:48:35.020 One more just real clear illustration, example.
00:48:40.180 If you're a man in the room and you struggle with lust,
00:48:43.240 you are not a man who occasionally looks at pornography. 1.00
00:48:46.140 According to the word of God, you are a pervert. 0.99
00:48:49.620 And that's precisely why you look at pornography. 0.98
00:48:52.880 So it's not just, I'm a man who slips up in this area. 0.99
00:48:56.840 No, no, you're a perverted man 0.95
00:48:59.660 who is entirely comfortable 1.00
00:49:01.540 with objectifying women
00:49:03.440 and using them for your own selfish pursuits of pleasure
00:49:06.100 and that's why you look at pornography.
00:49:08.540 So it's not, I'm a good man who occasionally slips up.
00:49:11.360 No, this slip up is defining.
00:49:14.320 This slip up is revealing.
00:49:16.520 This is who you are.
00:49:17.860 Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks
00:49:20.160 and our actions also reveal who we are.
00:49:23.860 It's the fruit.
00:49:24.640 the fruit shows the root you can't produce apples all day long and say orange tree roots no apples
00:49:32.940 apple tree that simple now that doesn't mean you don't have any good fruit also but it means that
00:49:40.120 you are at least a partially rotten tree so what do you need you don't need god to just come and
00:49:47.860 remove the bad fruit and tape on to your branches good fruit, that might look like a solution,
00:49:54.900 but it's not. What do you need God to do? You need God to go down into the soil all the way to the
00:50:00.740 root. You need a transplant. You need supernatural transformation. You need to be restored.
00:50:09.760 And from that point, you need to be preserved. The last thing that David does, which by the way,
00:50:15.000 I hope at this point you've realized I'm going off notes,
00:50:17.300 but I'm still hitting all the points in the text.
00:50:18.860 So the last thing that David does
00:50:20.400 is he possesses a broken and contrite heart.
00:50:23.600 Now for this, I want to use some notes
00:50:25.000 because of fantastic quotes from Jonathan Edwards
00:50:28.380 and also Matthew Henry.
00:50:29.800 Jonathan Edwards, he says this on the back of your notes,
00:50:32.100 all gracious affections, that is feelings, emotions
00:50:34.380 that are a sweet aroma to Christ
00:50:36.580 are brokenhearted affections. 1.00
00:50:38.640 A truly Christian love, either to God or men, 0.99
00:50:41.940 is a humble, brokenhearted love. 0.98
00:50:43.780 The desires of the saints, however earnest, are humble desires.
00:50:48.080 Their hope is a humble hope.
00:50:49.640 And their joy, even when it is unspeakable and full of glory, is a humble, brokenhearted joy.
00:50:56.840 Contrition.
00:50:57.920 Ecclesiastes chapter 7, verse 2 through 4 says this.
00:51:01.060 Better to go to the house of mourning than the house of feasting.
00:51:04.380 For this is the end of all mankind, and the living lay it to heart.
00:51:08.620 Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.
00:51:13.780 The heart of the wise is in the house of the morning, but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. 0.84
00:51:19.980 Matthew Henry, he says this,
00:51:22.060 When the wise man is in the house of feasting, his heart remains in the house of mourning. 0.98
00:51:27.120 By way of sympathy to those who are in sorrow, it is the character of a fool that his heart is in the house of mirth. 0.95
00:51:34.420 His heart is all upon it to be merry and jovial. 0.98
00:51:39.020 His whole delight is in sport and gaiety.
00:51:42.340 in merry stories merry songs in merry company merry days and merry nights if he be at any time
00:51:48.840 in the house of mourning he is under a restraint his heart at the same time is in the house of 0.99
00:51:54.460 merriment this is his falling that's his foolishness and helps to make him more and more foolish the 0.98
00:52:01.520 common proverb says an ounce of merriment is worth a pound of sorrow but the preacher and this is him 0.95
00:52:07.560 commentating on ecclesiastes 7 the preacher teaches us a contrary lesson sorrow is better
00:52:13.340 than laughter more agreeable why to our present state where we are daily sinning and suffering
00:52:19.880 ourselves more or less and daily seeing the sins and sufferings of others while we are in a veil
00:52:26.680 of tears we should conform to the temper of the climate there is great joy to be had in christ
00:52:34.640 not only in the life to come, but in this life here and now, the abundant life.
00:52:39.920 But it's a serious joy. There's gladness, but it's a somber gladness. There's excitement,
00:52:48.020 but it's a brokenhearted excitement. Why? Because our disposition should match the climate,
00:52:55.860 says Matthew and Henry. My concern as a pastor is that there are many people who have a shallow
00:53:02.880 joy it's not the fruit of the spirit that is joy it's not a joy that actually comes from a profound
00:53:09.700 belief and understanding of the gospel and the free grace of christ jesus no it's a joy that
00:53:14.960 comes by being completely oblivious to the real sufferings and the real sins of this world there
00:53:23.140 are many people who are happy today not because they have joy in the midst of suffering but because
00:53:27.900 they have somehow distracted themselves from the mere existence of suffering they pretend as though
00:53:34.740 this world is not ravaged by sin which we know it is they have found a way to distract themselves
00:53:41.660 and to hide themselves from the news from the realities of suffering the realities of evil the
00:53:47.160 realities of war the realities of sin and they not only have distracted themselves from these
00:53:52.660 realities of sin and suffering in the world around them but they have even more fearfully
00:53:58.460 found a way to distract themselves or convince themselves otherwise in regards to the suffering
00:54:04.120 and sin of their own hearts most people that i find today with a light trivial joy it does not
00:54:11.900 come by the fruit of the spirit rather it comes by an ignorance to the doctrine of depravity
00:54:18.180 It is a person, it represents a person, nine times out of ten,
00:54:21.620 who is not well versed in the understanding of sin,
00:54:26.480 namely their own sin as a condition.
00:54:29.920 It is a person who has never really gotten in touch
00:54:33.380 with the depths of their own wickedness.
00:54:38.480 But the preacher in Ecclesiastes 7 says that sorrow is better than laughter.
00:54:45.140 Why?
00:54:46.260 Because it's fun to be sorrowful?
00:54:47.940 No, because it's appropriate.
00:54:51.280 You know why sorrow is better than laughter?
00:54:52.800 I'll say this, I'm gonna cut myself off.
00:54:55.780 The reason why sorrow is better than laughter
00:54:58.120 is because truth is better than deception.
00:55:01.120 And sorrow in this life is more fitting to the truth,
00:55:06.220 the reality of where we are and the world we live in
00:55:10.360 and our own sin within our own hearts.
00:55:13.380 sorrow is more truthful to the actual environment the actual situation than laughter so when the
00:55:21.100 preacher in ecclesiastes 7 says sorrow is better than merriment well well if you take that at a
00:55:27.220 literal level then you would have to say that that in heaven we're all going to be chronically
00:55:32.060 depressed for eternity that's not what he's saying he's saying sorrow in this life is better than
00:55:37.320 merriment, not because sorrow is objectively better than happiness or joy. No, sorrow is
00:55:43.540 better in this life because truth is better than delusion. And the only way you could have this
00:55:50.380 lighthearted, trivial merriment in this life is by delusion. So sorrow is better than merriment
00:55:56.980 in this life because an accurate understanding of the reality of things is better than delusion.
00:56:03.240 so when he says in ecclesiastes 7 the preacher sorrow is better than joy he doesn't mean in
00:56:09.380 objective terms he means sorrow is better than joy here because truth is better than delusion
00:56:14.900 and if you don't feel a sense of sorrow over first and foremost your own sin and then secondarily
00:56:24.620 a sense of sorrow over the sin that you see in those you love your family your friends
00:56:29.720 and then a sorrow and a grief
00:56:32.440 for the American evangelical church
00:56:35.540 and all of its shortcomings today
00:56:37.240 and all of its compromise
00:56:38.440 and then beyond that,
00:56:39.840 a sorrow, a godly sorrow
00:56:41.360 over our nation and America
00:56:42.880 in its state of apostasy 0.54
00:56:44.500 and the way that we've rejected
00:56:46.020 the principles and laws of God.
00:56:48.220 If you don't feel a sense of sorrow
00:56:50.360 over these things,
00:56:51.480 it's not because you're somehow
00:56:53.280 a superhero Christian
00:56:54.940 that has joy in such a capacity
00:56:57.120 that it overwhelms the sorrow. 0.91
00:56:58.340 No, it's because you're a deluded, self-deceiving Christian who doesn't want to look at the reality of life. 0.99
00:57:07.740 When someone comes into wisdom, they come into sorrow. 0.97
00:57:12.100 With much wisdom comes much sorrow.
00:57:14.920 And with much knowledge, much vexation. 1.00
00:57:18.060 The trivial, lighthearted Christian is usually the Christian without wisdom and knowledge. 0.99
00:57:24.000 So we want to embrace wisdom and knowledge. 0.96
00:57:26.060 the reality of what God says about sin
00:57:28.040 and the reality of our sinful world
00:57:29.880 and most importantly, our sinful selves
00:57:32.320 in such a way that it brings us to sorrow.
00:57:36.040 And there, on our knees, with contrition,
00:57:41.160 there find the joy that is only found in Christ Jesus.
00:57:45.240 The morning that overwhelms the night.
00:57:49.220 Sorrow lasts for the night,
00:57:50.420 but the joy comes in the morning.
00:57:52.520 And that morning is coming.
00:57:54.120 And that's what we ultimately look to.
00:57:55.760 We put our hope in that glorious morning with Christ himself, not distraction, but Christ as the one who promises to wipe away every tear.
00:58:06.600 Those are the four key elements of Christian repentance, asking for forgiveness, confessing the severity of our sin,
00:58:14.500 asking not only to be forgiven, but to be restored and preserved, and all of this with a broken and contrite heart.
00:58:22.680 This is not how we gain God's love.
00:58:25.380 That's done by Christ alone.
00:58:27.040 But this is the subjective reality
00:58:28.860 of how we gain an assurance of God's love
00:58:31.640 in the midst of our failure.
00:58:33.180 Let's pray.
00:58:34.000 Father God, thank you for your word.
00:58:36.120 Bless it to your people.
00:58:37.520 I pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
00:58:41.020 Oh, hi, I didn't see you there.
00:58:42.860 Thanks for sticking around.
00:58:43.900 I've got an important announcement to make.
00:58:45.560 That's the Theonomy and Post-Millennialism Conference.
00:58:48.460 It's 2023, May 5th, 6th, and 7th,
00:58:52.440 the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday,
00:58:54.780 theonomy and post-millennialism.
00:58:56.700 We've got the speakers that we've already had lined up.
00:58:58.840 That's Dr. James White, Dr. Joseph Boot,
00:59:01.340 Dr. Gary DeMar, non-doctor, Pastor Joel Webin,
00:59:03.860 but we also have a bonus speaker,
00:59:06.240 and that is Dale Partridge from Real Christianity.
00:59:09.400 Perhaps you've heard of him.
00:59:10.320 If not, you should start listening to his podcast.
00:59:12.660 It's fantastic.
00:59:14.160 Dale Partridge is going to be joining our team.
00:59:16.720 We're going to have live panels on Friday night and Saturday night where you'll be able to write
00:59:21.320 in questions and get them answered. We're also going to have a catered barbecue, Texas-style
00:59:25.960 barbecue meal on Friday that's a part of your registration fee. All that is covered. So you
00:59:31.360 need to get there. This is how you do it. Go and register right now at rightresponseconference.com.
00:59:37.860 Again, that's rightresponseconference.com. God bless.