Introduction

The Profound Significance of Psalm 51

0:03 There is no psalm which is oftener sung or prayed in the church than this psalm. And then the saintly Thomas Chalmers, one of the greatest Scottish preachers that the Spirit of God has ever given as a blessing to his church, said the following about this psalm. This is the most deeply affecting of all the psalms, and I'm sure the one most applicable to me. It seems to have been the effusion of a smarting under the sense of a recent and great transgression, my God, and then he launches into a prayer to the Lord in the midst of this, my God, whether recent or not, give me to feel the enormity of my manifold offenses, and remember not against me the sins of my youth.

0:48 What a mine of rich matter and expression for prayer. Wash me, cleanse me, O Lord, and let my sin and my sinfulness be ever before me. Who teaches us to pray that way in our day? Let me feel it chiefly as sin against thee, that my sorrow may be of the godly sort.

1:06 Give me to feel the virulence of my native corruption. Purge me from it thoroughly and put truth into my inward parts, that mine may be a real turning from sin unto the Savior. Create me anew, O God. Withdraw not thy spirit.

1:23 Cause me to rejoice in a present salvation. Deliver me, O God, from the blood guiltiness of having offended any of thy little ones. And then he goes on, and then climaxes that prayer that God may grant him to pray acceptably. Does that whet your appetite to come to that kind of an appreciation?

1:42 If I were to ask you what psalm is the greatest blessing to you, probably most of you would have said the 23rd, simply because that's sort of traditional to say, and there's an awful lot that sort of has a sentimental climate and ethos about the 23rd psalm. But this psalm, that in Luther's estimation was most sung in the church, and he says that as a compliment, which in the eyes of the great Presbyter Athanasius was the psalm that he encouraged saints to sing in the middle of the night, this psalm that Chalmers said was perhaps the greatest psalm for his own personal need. This is the psalm that we're going to be looking at for some weeks during the summer months, the Lord willing, hoping to conclude in time to begin in the fall a series of studies in Genesis 1, 2, and 3. Now, you have a right to ask this question, why should we study this psalm? It's all right that Luther said this, and Athanasius said that, and Chalmers said the other, but they're mere men. Why should I study this psalm?

Why Study Psalm 51: Scriptural Dealing with Sin

2:42 Well, let me suggest at least two reasons that are very basic as to why we should study this penitential psalm. This psalm, that in the very real way, if we were putting it in contemporary jargon, we would call the bugging of a broken heart. It's as though God placed an electronic device by the heart of David, when in this context of brokenness he poured out his soul to God, and now God the Holy Spirit has given us the record of that which spilled out of the heart of David in this context of confession. Well, why should we draw near, and as it were, intrude into the sanctuary of a broken heart and seek to analyze what it says to us?

3:24 Well, the first reason is this, that a great part of the Christian life hinges on our ability to scripturally deal with sin. You find a mature Christian, and you will find, among other things, a person who has learned how to scripturally deal with sin. And you find an immature Christian, regardless of how much knowledge he or she may have, and no matter how much activity they are involved in, and you will find one of the marks, generally, of their immaturity is they've not learned how to scripturally deal with their own sin.

4:00 And you say, why is that so? Well, for the simple reason that the maintaining of fellowship with our God, which is the Holy Spirit, the root spring of all spiritual development, has to do with this matter of keeping, as we've said so often, short accounts with Him and right accounts with Him. In 1 John 1, in verse 7, we read those familiar words, But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Verse 9, if we confess our sins.

4:31 Now, what's that mean? You've got no right to put your meaning on that. You must discover, what God means by confession. You see, the assumption that to use biblical words automatically means that men will put biblical meanings on them is a false assumption.

4:44 You say, believe, and the average person puts his own thoughts on what that word means, and when he says he has faith, it may be miles away from the Bible product. When we say repent, when we say trust, so when we use the word confess, here we read, if we confess our sins, indicating that in verse 7, where it says, walking in the light, and the blood cleanses from sin, is not an automatic thing. There's involvement of our own dealing with sin. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

5:17 The cleansing of verse 7 is not automatic. Involved in walking in the light is biblical confession of sin. Well, follow now the train of thought. If to maintain fellowship, there must be a walking in the light, and if a walking in the light means in great measure a scriptural dealing with sin, then it's absolutely imperative that if we desire to walk in the light, we know how to scripturally deal with our own sin.

5:44 And then the scripture declares that the only way to continue in spiritual prosperity is to scripturally deal with sin. Proverbs 28 and verse 13, we read, He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Now, what does God mean by confess and forsake? Oh, you mean, that just says, well, I'm sorry, well, wait a minute.

6:07 Do you know that it means that?

6:10 You see, Psalm 51 will go a long way to teach us what God means when He says, He that confesseth and forsaketh shall have mercy. So if we desire to maintain that living, warm fellowship with our God, which is the main spring out of which spiritual maturity comes, if we desire to know the continual prosperity of the ungrieved spirit being operative within our lives, then we must know how to scripturally deal with sin. Our Lord assumed this when He said, When ye pray, say, that's Luke 11, and then in Matthew 9, He said, After this manner, pray, and involved in those great principles of prayer you have right at the center, pivotal, this matter, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. We have the imperative laid upon us by our Lord that a basic part of all of our praying should be continually now, not by fits and starts, but as a definite part of all of our approach unto God in prayer should be this matter of scripturally facing and dealing with our sin. Now, it's just at this point that the devil clouds the issues and causes weakness. False doctrines of sin and confession lead to false living and to sham experience.

The Devil's Clouding of Confession: Perfectionism

7:29 And Psalm 51, understood in some measure by the illumination of the Spirit and applied and worked in us and through us by the same Spirit will go a long way to keep us from some of these clouding ministries of the devil by which he would seek to fog the issues of scriptural confession of sin. Let me mention briefly four ways in which the devil clouds these issues. You say, you haven't gotten into Psalm 51 yet. No, I'm trying to whet your appetite to see that you'd better get into it, you see, because I could preach till blue in the face, but unless you have what we would call some intrinsic motivation, unless you come to that psalm saying, Lord, I've got to understand what's in here, why, then you may sit back there and say, well, that's very well and nice, he's all excited and worked up about it, fine, that's good, but I don't need it. My purpose is that tonight when you leave, you'll say, God, I need that psalm and I long for you to teach me its meaning. All right, but the first way the devil clouds this issue is with the error of perfectionism. That's the heretical teaching that we can get beyond any need of psalm.

8:37 Psalm 51. There are some people who would sit here tonight and would say to me, shame on you, spending many Sunday nights to expound a sub-Christian experience of confession and contrition and crying to God. Don't you know that there is provision in the gospel that we may be so cleansed from inbred sin that we need no longer pray the 51st psalm?

9:03 There would be some who would answer and object in that form. You see, perfectionism says we're beyond the 51st psalm. Now, overt perfectionism is that kind of teaching that says you can actually be cleansed this side of glory of inbred sin and come not to absolute perfection of the angels or the perfection you'll know up in heaven, but a relative perfection. You see, they lower the standard of sin and say all known conscious disobedience, you can be delivered from that.

9:31 Well, if that's so, why then let's remain ignorant for the less I know, the less I'll sin. Right?

9:38 You say, come again? All right, I will. Listen. They say you can be sinlessly perfect, not in the sense that you become as holy as the angels or as holy as the Son of God, but you can be delivered from all known sin.

9:50 Well, if that's so, the less I'll know, the less possibility of sin there will be. So you better not come here to church because you're going to find out each week a little bit more of what sin is. And that's just going to drive you further and further away from that standard of perfection. You see, lying at the core of this air of perfectionism is a flexible standard.

10:10 You can stretch it out and squeeze it down and work on it like an accordion. But my Bible says that the word and the law of God is absolute and settled and perfect and exceeding broad and nobody can squeeze it. Good Mr. Wesley notwithstanding and all of his followers.

10:27 But there is a rather subtle kind of perfectionism that says, well, we can't attain a perfection, this side of glory, an absolute perfection, but it's the subtle kind of perfectionism that's found in some kinds of teaching on the deeper life that uses the term. We can be delivered from conscious sin, from known sin. We can so enter into our position identified with Christ in death, burial, and resurrection that, well, you might need once in a great while to praise Psalm 51. But if you do, it's because you're out of victory.

10:58 Let me state categorically you're out of victory if you don't pray Psalm 51 regularly.

11:06 You're out of scriptural victory if you can't find it in your heart almost any time of the day to pray Psalm 51. So whether it's overt or covert perfectionism, this is one of the ways the devil clouds the issue. They say we've gotten beyond Psalm 51. An understanding of Psalm 51 will go far to keep us from this.

The Devil's Clouding of Confession: Positionalism

11:27 Second error is that of positionalism where perfectionism says we get beyond the need of scriptural confession. Positionalism says forget confession.

11:39 Aren't we in Christ justified? All our sins blotted out? Accepted in the Beloved? And what would you answer to that?

11:45 Are we, if you're a believer? Are you in Christ? Are you accepted in the Beloved? Has the wrath of God passed off from your head onto the head of the Son of God?

11:53 Is that true? Well, I wonder if some of you really believe it. You can't even nod your head. Sure it's true.

12:02 Sure it's true. Blessed truth. Accepted in the Beloved. No condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

12:10 So they reason if that's so, if we're in Christ, accepted in the Beloved, no condemnation. Why confess sin? The sin's been punished. The sin's been forgiven.

12:19 Past, present, and future. It's all under the blood. We're in Christ. Forget it.

12:25 I've actually had people tell me that. I told you the instance one night I was preaching on Hebrews. Follow after the holiness without which no man will see the Lord. And that man came into our service up on the hill there and said he'd been a Christian forty years and came to straighten me out.

12:38 He said, young man, you've got it all backwards. The only holiness I'm concerned about I already have. I'm in Christ Jesus and in the person of His Son I am as holy as He. That's all that concerns me.

12:49 And the pride was oozing out of every pore of the poor man. He should have been on his face mourning the pride of his heart. But you see, perhaps as an early Christian, a young Christian, he had been sucked into this terrible heresy of positionalism that says, because this is what I am before God in Christ, what I actually am here in my experience makes no difference. Oh, Psalm 51 will keep us from this.

13:14 David knew what it was to be justified. Justification is not a New Testament truth. In fact, when Paul goes to prove it, in Romans chapter 4, he takes David's prayer in Psalm 32 as the basis of proving it. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputed not iniquity.

13:30 That's a statement, clear as you'll find it, of justification that God no longer imputes the sins of believers to them. Would we be kept from this terrible sin of positionalism? Then we need to study Psalm 51. Then there's a third way the devil clouds the issue.

The Devil's Clouding of Confession: Antinomianism

13:47 And in so doing, see, this is not just theoretical, it brings tremendous error into the Christian life and tremendous tragedy can follow. It's what we call antinomianism.

13:58 The word simply means against the law, but it has many kinds of sort of like a many-headed, many-tentacled octopus. They would say, not with the perfectionists, we're beyond praying this prayer. Or with the positionists, just forget it. Sure, we sin, but we're in Christ.

14:16 They would actually glory in the sin. They would say, doesn't the Bible say where sin abounds, grace does much more abound? Well, it does say that, doesn't it? So they reason, if the grace of God is all the more manifested against the inky black backdrop of sin, the more we sin, the greater will be the display of God's grace.

14:34 So they say, look at David, look at Abraham. Abraham lied. David committed adultery. David committed murder.

14:41 And they glory in those accounts. They never turn to the repentance of these men. They never seem to come to grips with the fact that David's repentance and confession was just as pronounced as his sin. It seems that they've never read Paul's word in Romans 6.1.

14:58 Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound in his answer? God forbid. But there are all kinds of antinomianism. One of the most subtle forms of antinomianism is shot right through the warp and woof of our evangelical life today where people say, well, you know, I've got the new man, got the old man, and can't do much about it, so you just sort of learn to, to live with it.

15:22 And there's never any real grief. They can talk about sinning against God without a sob in the heart if not in the voice. Would we be kept from the terrible sin of antinomianism that has plagued the church down through the ages? Then we'd better study Psalm 51 and pray that God the Holy Ghost will teach its truth to us.

The Devil's Clouding of Confession: Legalism

15:41 And then the last form of satanic clouding, and this perhaps is one of the most subtle, it's that of legalism where the devil says, well, no, you're not beyond Psalm 51. He says, well, no, you don't want to forget it. You don't want to glory in your sin, but you see, it's what I would call fix-yourself-up-ism.

16:03 Where a person says, I know I've sinned. He's not excusing. He says, I know I ought to be holy. I know I must be holy.

16:10 But I really can't believe that simply by coming to God and owning my sin and pouring out my grief to Him and looking to the objective provisions for cleansing and pardon that He has made, I just can't believe that it's subtle as easy as that. And so they flagellate themselves. Now, the most gross form of this, of course, is what you see in some of the more unrefined manifestations of Romanism. I've actually seen the movies, not professional movies, just some friends of mine who are missionaries down in Guatemala.

16:41 And the pictures there of some of these flagellantes who go on some of the religious feasts and high days and take the stick with the leather fingers on it and the bits of glass and run it over their backs as they go on their knees up to some shrine of the Virgin Mary and their backs just run well to the blood. And they feel that somehow this is going to make them acceptable to God. And we look at that and we throw our hands up in horror and say, terrible. Ah, but you know, this is in every one of our hearts.

17:09 Far more subtle than that. You see, we wouldn't take a stick and some leather tails on it and some pieces of glass and flagellate ourselves.

17:19 But let me be honest. Don't we feel if when we've confessed our sin, we've shed our tears, we've shed a few more tears that maybe that somehow adds a little bit more chance that God's really forgiven?

17:31 And if we can somehow punish ourselves inwardly with a sense of a constricted spirit and a joyless, mournful kind of an attitude for a period of time, we feel that somehow, maybe, this will make us a little bit more acceptable to God. Oh, and I say it tenderly because it's only the earnest soul who falls into this kind of bondage. Some of you wouldn't be in any danger of this. You're so enmeshed, perhaps, in a subtle form of positionalism, you don't really face your sin, honestly.

18:01 It's only the soul that's sensitive to his sin. It's only the one who longs to walk in experimental holiness and realize communion with God that falls prey to this.

18:15 Well, would you be kept from this terrible thing? Well, then Psalm 51 could be a great instrument in God's hands to keep you from it. For these are the enemies of the soul in the spirit of God. In this area of dealing with sin.

18:29 So that's the first and perhaps most basic reason why we're studying the psalm. Much of the Christian life hinges on our ability to scripturally deal with sin, to maintain fellowship, to walk in the prosperity of the spirit, and the enemy will cloud the issue here by perfectionism saying we're beyond it, positionalism saying forget it, antinomianism saying glory in it, legalism saying fix yourself up in the world. Quite a bit. Now, the second great reason for studying this psalm is this.

Why Study Psalm 51: Repentance for Unbelievers

19:01 Since repentance is qualitatively the same in the beginning and in its continuance, I'm trusting that this will be a word of God to some of you who are yet outside of Christ. I never want to become so engrossed in the matter of teaching truth to the saints of God which is the primary task of the under shepherd. He's to feed the sheep in the land. That I subtly forget that there is no God.

19:28 That there are among us in every service I'm sure, quite sure, those who are not savingly joined to Christ. And you need to know the pathway by which God beckons you to himself. For he says in Isaiah 55, seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord. He says in Hosea, take with you words and return unto the Lord.

19:56 Well, how do I, a guilty condemned sinner, how do I approach a holy God seeking mercy? Ah, Psalm 51 may be God's instrument to cause you to seek him in a way that is acceptable through his Son. And so because there is no qualitative difference, we're looking at the prayer of a saint. This is not the prayer of a man who has never known saving relationship with God.

20:23 This is the penitent cry of a man who's known some of the sweetest, ecstatic moments of spiritual reality. And yet we find him coming as a true penitent. And because repentance is qualitatively the same in its beginning and in its continuance, this is not only a word for the saint to keep him from these four errors that we've mentioned, the errors of positionalism and antinomianism and perfectionism and legalism, but I trust it'll be a clarion call to some of you who are not yet joined to Christ, showing you the substance, the essence of that, that repentance which is unto life, that repentance which is the fruit of God's gracious work in the hearts of men. For the Scripture says in Psalm 34 and verse 18 the following words, Psalm 34 and verse 18, The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart, and saveth such as are of a contrite spirit. Would you be saved by the Lord? Then you better pray that he give you a contrite spirit. God never saves a man without breaking a man.

21:33 And if you want to get saved some other way, you better get another Savior, because the Lord only saves such as are of a contrite spirit. Isaiah 57, 15, Thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high and the holy place with him also, that is, of a humble and a contrite spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and revive the heart of the contrite. Would you be saved by the Lord? Would you dwell with God?

22:02 He only dwells with the broken. What's it mean to be broken? Psalm 51 tells us. You see, God could give these things to us in an abstract principle, or he could give it to us in a living example, and in this case he's chosen to do the latter.

22:19 God could lay out before us and say through one of the prophets or the apostles, These are the factors involved in true brokenness, and spell them out. But what he's done is, he's allowed a man to come into a situation where he's not alone. Whereby the sending of a prophet and the breaking of his heart, God, by his grace, is working into that man all of the characteristics, and then he just takes down the record, and he says, Now, do you know what it means to be of a broken spirit and a contrite heart? Here, put your ear up to David's heart and listen.

22:51 That's what he's done. Psalm 51 is God's invitation for men to put their ear up to the heart of David and listen, and learn, and be instructed. So much then for the reason why we're going to study the psalm. Now may we briefly touch on two things that I hope will prepare us to dig into the psalm itself next week.

The Setting of Psalm 51: David's Sin and Nathan's Confrontation

23:13 What is the setting of this psalm? Not always are we able to trace the setting of an individual's psalm, and we wonder just what circumstances provoke the psalmist to sit down with his heart and begin to pour out his soul unto God in a psalm. For remember, these are musical compositions. He wasn't just jotting down some thoughts in his diary.

23:37 He was giving vent to these things in musical forms. Well, this setting is almost, we can say, without any doubt, the setting of David's sin with Bathsheba, involvement with Uriah, and then the subsequent visit of Nathan the prophet. And I want to refresh before your minds just the basic outline of that setting so that the psalm will begin to be couched in its proper background. Will you turn for a moment to 2 Samuel chapter 11.

24:12 I used to assume that people knew the facts of the Bible, but the more I read the scriptures, the more I realize we've believed a lot of myths. I believe the myth of only a boy named David, you know, only a little lad. It just isn't true. Scripture says he's a mighty man of valor.

24:29 That's what they said about him. He's probably a young man, but his contemporaries said he's a mighty man of valor. And oh, the picture of the little 12-year-old lad, it's just myth. It's not biblical.

24:40 You say, where did you find that? Well, you read 1 Samuel. I'm not going to tell you where. It gets you digging in.

24:47 But it's there, very clear. And I've just been having my Old Testament devotional reading in Samuel and was struck with this again. So that we get the facts, let's look at them and catch the high points. Chapter 11 of 2 Samuel.

24:59 It came to pass at the return of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joash, his servants, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried at Jerusalem. David tarried at Jerusalem.

25:21 Now, to make an interesting study, and I think helpful, if you have time this week, or if you will make time, just circle all the verbs where it says David did this, or David said this, or he did, where the he refers back to David. And it says, if you'll just keep those verbs in your mind, you'll have a succinct picture of the steps that led to David's sin and subsequently to David's confession, which is recorded in this 51st Psalm. There's the first step. David tarried.

25:55 When as a king he should have been leading out the host of his people, he was for some reason gripped or held in the grip of a spirit of indolence. And the next thing we find is this king, who would rise up at midnight to praise his God, laying around in his bed till the evening. And this love of sleep and ease becomes the next step leading to his sin, for it says, David arose from his bed, verse 2, at eventide, and walked upon the roof of the king's house. And from the roof he looked, and from the look there was the lust, and from the lust there was the possession.

26:32 And then you know the account of how then when the word came that Bathsheba had conceived as a result of this illicit union, that he then schemed to get Uriah her husband and brought him back and tried to get him to spend a little time at home so it would look like it was his child and noble Uriah refused to do so. And then he schemed yet more and turned this dastardly deed over in his mind until, as it were, this man whose whole being had been permeated with the praises of God, was permeated with a foul spirit of iniquity and scheming. And he sends Uriah up to the front of the battle and there Uriah is slain. And then you know the story how that David then takes Bathsheba to his house and a child is born of that union. That brings us to chapter 12 and verse 1. And the Lord sent Nathan unto David. Now you'll never understand Psalm 51 and how it applies to you unless you always remember Nathan.

27:34 Nathan. Keep him in your mind. And the Lord sent Nathan unto David and he came unto him and said unto him there were two men in one city the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds but the poor man had nothing save one little ewe lamb which he brought up and nourished and it grew up together with his children.

27:55 He builds up this picture of this man with his one little lamb and then this rich traveler who had many flocks came and took that one lamb and right in the middle of the story David was so engrossed in this parable it says in verse 5 that David's anger was greatly kindled against the man and he said to Nathan as the Lord liveth the man that has done this is worthy to die and he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity. And as David's anger is stirred at this obviously wicked thing in the parable of Nathan Nathan said to David thou art the man. Notice the Lord sent Nathan to David then his penetrating word thou art the man and then he tells him the meaning of that parable how God had invested so much upon him given him so much and invested so much in him and then he says in verse 9 wherefore hast thou despised the word of the Lord to do that which is evil in his sight thou hast smitten Uriah thou hast despised me he mentions his sins we'll look at this in some detail as we go through the psalm itself now verse 13 and David said unto Nathan I have sinned against the Lord and Nathan said unto David the Lord also hath put away thy sin thou shalt not die how be it because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord

29:23 to blaspheme the child that is born unto thee shall surely die and Nathan departed to his house and it's probably at this point that David penned the 51st verse. Now do you get the setting of the psalm? Here David had been guilty of so many sins you could just begin to catalogue them the sin of indolence and neglect of lust, of adultery, of scheming of murder, of intrigue and for a period of probably close to a year for the baby had already been born and a little time obviously had passed David had walked in and out before the people living a life of gross hypocrisy with this terrible sin that had not been acknowledged before God or man and then it says the Lord what an act of tender compassion the Lord sent Nathan to David Now why in the world did God do that? Didn't David know he had sinned? Sure he did Didn't Nathan know he had done wrong? Didn't David know he had done wrong?

30:26 Sure he did Didn't he have the law of God that said thou shalt not kill? Sure he did He said oh hallelujah thy law Didn't he have the commandment which said thou shalt not commit adultery? Sure he did Was God under any obligation to send a Nathan? To awake the slumbering conscience of a sinning saint?

30:43 Was he? No I may say, I trust I say it reverently the only obligation under which God was placed was the obligation of his own purposes of grace which will not allow his children to persist in evil and it was the immutable purposes of God's grace that sent an instrument to awaken in David the slumbering voice of conscience and bring him to a place of repentance and I say without any fear of contradicting the general drift of biblical revelation you and I will never pray Psalm 51 with any degree of real heart unless God in his grace is pleased to awake and reawake and continually keep awake a conscience that always has a tendency to slumber God sent Nathan to David that he might be the instrument to awaken that conscience and if David had known what Nathan was going to say he probably would have fought it but can you imagine what David's attitude was to Nathan after this? O blessed man blessed man O blessed man who obeyed the living God

The Necessity of 'Nathans' for a Sensitive Conscience

32:11 and became the instrument to expose my sin You say, what are you driving at pastor? I hope you see what I'm driving at if you and I are going to maintain a scriptural attitude of dealing with sin we must welcome every Nathan whom God will send to us for you never pray Psalm 51 until a Nathan's come across your path now that Nathan may be just a phrase from the word of God that's why it's imperative to be in the scriptures consistently because the scriptures themselves become the bony finger of a Nathan that's why it's necessary to read the scriptures consistently not just picking up a passage that is so nice and soothes us and makes us feel good but reading through the word of God in some kind of a systematic cycle that over a period of two, three, four, five years we've gone through the entire word of God from Genesis to Revelation why? because we need that pricking and that wounding of the word conscience has a tendency to slumber you see the husband who says his conscience has begun to slumber about his responsibility to his children and he's reading through Ephesians and it'll strike him fathers! rear your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord fathers wait a minute I've been throwing all that off on the wife

33:38 yes you have haven't you it's about time you straightened up isn't it thou art the man and then you begin to see the sin of parental neglect but if you never read Ephesians you might slip along and never hear a preacher quoted for years that particular passage you might never read about it in a book and because there's been no Nathan conscience will slumber in that area you're a mother maybe you've begun to grow careless in your responsibilities to your husband you've allowed other things to take the edge off the keenness of that responsibility and that relationship and you're reading through Ephesians and it says wives and says something to you and says something to mothers Nathan speaks and says thou art the woman welcome to Nathan the greatest collection of Nathans are right here in the book it's full of Nathans there's a Nathan behind every bush welcome to Nathan when it's some circumstance you see as long as we're in the regular pattern of things and we can count on it Monday morning we're going to be here Tuesday or Thursday you see conscience has a tendency to slumber when we get in a rut and so God in his providence allows some circumstance to cut across the normal course of life and we're jarred and suddenly everything seems to be crumbling around us and we say oh God what's this God says well it's about time you looked up and began to ask me

35:05 I've been trying to get your attention now I've got it this is what I want to say to you isn't that what David meant when he said it is good for me that I have been afflicted why before I was afflicted I went astray like a lost sheep but now keep I thy law you see affliction can be a Nathan to reawaken a slumbering conscience to get that conscience sensitive again and that's what we're talking to about talking to us about those areas of sin our brethren can be our Nathans Hebrews 3 and verse 13 says exhort one another daily while it is called today lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin oh beloved do we feel our responsibility to be Nathans one to another in love listen this is scriptural the same God who says there in Hebrews 3 exhort one another says in Galatians 6 if a man be overtaken in the fall go home and pray for him tell the neighbors about him call a prayer meeting for him no it says restore such in one you be the Nathan to go in love and say how art the man oh but who am I are you a Christian are you born of the spirit do you love your brethren if so then love will impel you to go and if you go in love you'll know it and he'll know it we need to be Nathans one to another

36:31 and I don't say this in any way as a defense but it's the fact God wants your official teachers in the Sunday school classes from this pulpit to be your Nathans you see Nathans are your friends your friend is the one who tells you the most truth about you your best friend is the one who's the instrument to keep your conscience most sensitive to sin all that crowd that probably put their arms around David during those months living in that terrible state of unconfessed sin they weren't his friends most of them probably didn't know about the situation but if they had known and said well he's the king who am I then you see the greatest friend David had was the man who looked him right in the eye and said David thou art the man Nathan came to David and how did he come God sent him and as you pray for your pastor and your teachers you just better believe that they're going to be God's Nathans sent to await in your slumbering conscience for you can't pray Psalm 51 unless you know that God's Nathans are going to be sent to await in your slumbering conscience for you can't pray Psalm 51 unless you know that God's Nathans are going to be sent to await in your slumbering conscience for you can't pray Psalm 51 unless a Nathans come along maybe that's why some of you haven't prayed this Psalm for a long time you've been studiously avoiding the Nathans remember what they said in Israel's day prophesy unto us

38:01 smooth things and frankly I'm getting greatly disturbed with some of the brand of so called expository preaching in our day that studiously avoids touching the issues of the conscience absolutely asleep in the realm of the conscience no and I say to you young men preparing for the ministry pray that God will make your Nathans you can do the most good to the most amount of people if you'll be a Nathans well I don't want to labor the point have you got the idea now the principle the setting of this Psalm is the presence of the Nathans in the providence of God to awaken the slumbering conscience of a sinning child of God and that's the principle that's got to go on again and again and again and again and again if we're to be kept sensitive to sin and now I must hurry to that last thing I want to touch what is the sequel to the Psalm listen to verse 15 I'm sorry verse 13 of chapter 12 second sentence David confesses his sin and the cry comes back from Nathan the Lord hath put away thy sin I have sinned David says the answer comes back the Lord hath put away thy sin I with wykon

The Sequel to Psalm 51: Forgiveness and Chastisement

39:31 it hath brought thy parts into the midst ofM répondre to our sin for ye which ye brought these are the😥 number two that all hath cried the Lord because thy blood rome hath dried murder, adultery, intrigue, scheming, hypocrisy, indolence, shirker, all of those sins, I have put away thy sin. How does a man get from there to there? That's Psalm 51. And the only way you and I get from here to there is Psalm 51.

40:10 And I think, I think the reason God even allowed, never, never, never ordered, but allowed His servant David to sink to such depths is that whenever we pick up Psalm 51, we'd say, Well, David's sins that were encompassed in this confession were about as wide as the circle can go. Surely my sin is included. You see, if David's sin had been what we wrongly categorize a little sin, and Psalm 51 had been provoked by a little sin, we'd say, Ah, yeah, that kind of dealing with sin is sufficient for that thing, but you don't know what I've done.

40:47 But you see, God allowed a circumstance to evolve and emerge in which the grossest forms of sin are all encompassed in that confession of David and the wonderful pronouncement of Nathan, the Lord hath put away thy sin, murder, adultery, and treason. Put away in an instant. So the wonderful sequel, God's forgiveness, then God's chastisement. He said, The child shall die, because thou hast given occasion for the enemies to reproach.

41:15 You say, Isn't that a terrible thing? On the one hand, it's as though God stretches out His hand in mercy and says, Your sin's put away, but now I'm going to be a little stingy and be an Indian giver. I'm going to take back a little bit. Nevertheless, the child shall die.

41:26 No, for the hand that reached out in forgiveness and expressed love in forgiveness is the hand that says, Whom, is the mouth behind that hand, says, Whom I love, I love. I chasten and I scourge every son whom I have received. David, I know your weakness, and just so you won't be quite as prone to go into that same thing again, I'm going to put a little sting in my dealings with you, because I love you.

41:52 Even as a father chastises the son whom he loved, why? So that he'll not destroy himself in the course of obedience, disobedience. You remind him of some of the consequences of disobedience. That's grace, isn't it?

42:09 That doesn't let us run headlong into a path that would destroy ourselves without a few signposts along the way. So that's the sequel in the setting of the psalm, and the Lord willing, we shall get into the heart of the psalm next week. But we may not be here next week. Is there any word that God would say to us?

42:28 Who perhaps yet stand outside his mercy? Yes. As you read that psalm, you'll see that David's approach to God was only one, have mercy upon him. He didn't ask God to look at anything in him, but he fixed the gaze of his soul upon God's free grace and mercy, and he pled that.

42:48 And that's your only hope tonight if you're out of Christ, that God would have mercy upon you for Christ's sake. If you're a child of God, some of you know that your conscience has been, pretty drowsy, that maybe you've been sort of cauterizing your conscience on purpose.

43:08 If you have any regard for your soul, you better pray that God will begin to send you some nathans.

43:14 And you get exposing yourself to those nathans in the book and in those other ways that God will speak. May God grant that we shall enter into the spirit of this psalm as we enter into that which produced the voice of God to a slumbering conscience, leading to brokenness and confession. Let us pray. Let us pray.