God's Law of Dispensing Mercy

Driving home: The deepest aspect of David's crime was that it was a despising of God. And that lies at the root of the nature of sin. A despising of the authority and the rights of God over his creatures.

The story of Nathan telling David, 'You've despised me and you've despised my law,' illustrates that the deepest aspect of sin is despising God's authority.

And I trust that we shall not forget the principle of this truth as found in 2 Samuel when Nathan came and said in the name of Jehovah, David, you've despised me and you've despised my law. The deepest aspect of David's crime was that it was a despising of God. And that lies at the root of the nature of sin. A despising of the authority and the rights of God over his creatures.

1:46 - 2:14 Read in full sermon

Driving home: One covering is the covering of which God is the author, but God never covers until we uncover.

Adam and Eve sewing fig leaves together to hide from God illustrates man's attempt to cover sin through self-justification.

You see, that's the covering that God grants by the blood of sacrifice, whereby, as it were, the blood of sacrifice comes between the sin and God, so that God is expiated, so that sin is expiated, that God is satisfied, propitiation is made, and David says, Blessed is the man whose sin is covered by God. But now there's another kind of covering. That's the covering with which men seek to hide their sin from God and other times from their fellow men. That's the covering that Adam and Eve made when they sowed together, when they sowed together, when they sowed together, the fig leaves of self-ju...

21:18 - 22:24 Read in full sermon

The point: If you can go to your place of prayer day in and day out, and not specifically, honestly acknowledge your individual sins before God, you're covering your sins.

David's year of spiritual barrenness and inner turmoil, described in Psalm 32, illustrates the consequences of covering sin with silence before God.

Notice, When I kept silence,

23:26 - 23:34 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Rationalization is presented as another subtle covering, where individuals convince themselves that wrong is right to justify their sinful deeds. King Saul's disobedience in 1…

King Saul's disobedience in 1 Samuel 15, where he spared Amalekite livestock and Agag under the pretense of sacrificing to God, illustrates rationalization as a way of covering sin.

but I know I find my own heart very adept at reading the fabric of this quote. It's what I'm going to call rationalization. The illustration of it is so clear, tragically clear, as found in 1 Samuel 15 in the life of King Saul. Rationalization is that subtle process by which we attempt to convince ourselves that black is white, that sin is virtue, and that wrong is right, and that evil is good.

28:18 - 28:48 Read in full sermon

The point: There is no place for filthiness of the flesh in the life of a Christian. And the minute you begin to rationalize, the minute you begin to open the door to excuse any flesh and indulgence, the minute you begin to rationa…

Martin shares his personal experience of living on $4,000 a year with a family, yet still giving God his portion, to counter rationalizations about not tithing.

You get your house paid for. You get your utilities paid for. Nobody here lived on four thousand dollars a year. Married and a child paying his own rent and buying his own car.

33:53 - 34:05 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You see, when you've got sin that you're covering the voice of God scares you. That's why you don't come to the Bible.

The account of Adam blaming Eve and Eve blaming the serpent in Genesis 3 illustrates the covering of sin by shifting responsibility.

The third covering with which the human heart will seek to cover its sin is as old as Adam and Eve. Literally. It's the close of what I would call shifting the responsibility. Notice it in Genesis 3.

35:26 - 35:44 Read in full sermon

Driving home: You see, when you've got sin that you're covering the voice of God scares you. That's why you don't come to the Bible.

D.L. Moody's saying, 'This book will keep you from sin. Or sin will keep you from this book,' illustrates how covering sin makes one afraid of God's Word.

Verse 10. And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid. You see, when you've got sin that you're covering the voice of God scares you. That's why you don't come to the Bible.

36:34 - 36:45 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Well time may heal things but it never cleanses anything. There's only one thing that cleanses sin. It's the blood of Jesus Christ.

The nation of Israel in Isaiah 58, engaging in much religious activity while still in sin, illustrates covering sin with outward piety and hypocrisy.

Just pull it. Thank you. In Isaiah 58, the whole setting is the picture of the nation of Israel going up and you'd say, my, the nation's in the pink of spiritual hell. The temple is crowded.

39:53 - 40:09 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Well time may heal things but it never cleanses anything. There's only one thing that cleanses sin. It's the blood of Jesus Christ.

The tears of Judas and Esau, and the nation of Malachi covering the altar with tears, illustrate that tears alone do not constitute true repentance or cover sin.

The only way the ugly word is blotted out is when we confess it then and only then is it put away by the blood of Christ and by the forgiving grace of God. It may cover our sin with tears. Judas did it. Esau did it.

40:57 - 41:15 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Well time may heal things but it never cleanses anything. There's only one thing that cleanses sin. It's the blood of Jesus Christ.

Martin shares his own experience with the deceitfulness of his heart to explain how a child of God can live with cancerous sin, thinking silence means it's dealt with.

A tender, gentle, gentle, and compassionate person. I understand how a child of God can live for days and weeks with the cancerous sin. Known sin eating his sin. But then again I do understand because I know something of the deceitfulness of my own heart.

43:12 - 43:46 Read in full sermon