Owning Your Own Sin

Introduction: The Importance of Dealing with Sin Scripturally

0:03 I tried to whet your appetite for a thorough study of this psalm by setting before you several reasons as to the importance of understanding the principles of true godly repentance and penitence.

0:19 I trust you remember at least some of the substance of what we considered last week when I sought to show that so much in the Christian life depends on being able as a Christian to scripturally deal with my sin.

0:35 For the way fellowship is maintained with God is by walking in the light as he is in the light, and one of the aspects of walking in the light is dealing with the intrusion of darkness and dealing with it God's way. And it's at this point that the enemy of our souls has thrown great clouds of confusion over the professing Christian church, first of all by leading some people into the error of what we termed perfectionism, where they feel you can get beyond neediness, needing to pray Psalm 51. And they would think it a terrible thing for a preacher to spend many weeks teaching people how to pray Psalm 51 from the heart. They'd say you ought to spend your time telling people how to get out of Psalm 51, where all they have is victory, victory all the time. And then the second error is the error of positionalism, which would say, why bother with it? Sure we sin, but we're in Christ, and in Christ we're perfect, so what we are down here doesn't make any difference. They fail to distinguish between the fact of our acceptance with God which is perfect and our walk here which is imperfect, but that as a child of God we are pressing toward perfection.

1:52 Every true Christian is going to attain perfection. Our gripe with the perfectionist is the timing of the issue. And every true Christian has perfection as his goal. If you have anything less than perfection as your goal, you have reason to question if you're a Christian.

2:07 How can you do that? How can you be satisfied with anything less than the absolute eradication of sin from every department of your life? Isn't that your longing? Isn't that your goal?

2:16 Is it? I hope it is. That's the mark of a Christian. Now the problem with a perfectionist is, he says you can get that this side of glory, whereas the Scripture says we'll never attain it fully till we are like him and see him as he is.

2:28 But knowing that that's the thing for which we're destined, we set our hearts forward as did the Apostle Paul, and we say this one thing I do, I press. Toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Then there is the other error of antinomianism, which says why the more you sin, the more God's grace is magnified. Don't pray Psalm 51, because it kind of looks there like this fellow's longing to get out of the muck.

2:54 Whereas they would say just go down deeper in it, and God's grace will be magnified. And then there's the problem of legalism, where we feel my sin is so great, and my guilt lies so heavy upon my conscience, I just can't come to God, and expect that by opening my heart to him in confession, that all of that mess is blotted out. Somehow I've got to flagellate myself, and beat myself, and make myself go through contortions of heart for X number of hours or days. And oh, how the child of God, who's held in the grip of legalism, needs Psalm 51.

The Setting of Psalm 51: Nathan's Confrontation with David

3:26 Then we looked at the setting of the psalm. David had sinned in the area of adultery, and murder by proxy, and scheming, and all of this business. And then God, in his grace, sent Nathan to him. And my heart has fed off and on during the week on that phrase.

3:45 The thing that David did displeased the Lord, it says in the last verse of 2 Samuel 10, and the first verse of 2 Samuel 11 is this, and the Lord sent Nathan unto David. The thing David did displeased the Lord, but the Lord sent Nathan unto David. For you see, God is determined to have a holy people, and though he may allow, his children to lie under the power, at times even of the grossest forms of sin, God is determined to have a holy people, and God will take the initiative to deal with his people. And so the setting of the psalm is Nathan's visit to David as a messenger sent by God in his grace to awaken the slumbering conscience of David and to bring him back into fellowship with his God. And we drew the principle from that that you and I will never pray psalms, psalm 51, unless we have our Nathans sent unto us. Don't fight your Nathans, whether they be affliction, whether those Nathans be circumstances, don't fight them, for the only way to come into a heart acquaintance with psalm 51 is to have a Nathan saying to us, thou, thou art the man. Now tonight we want to begin the study of the psalm itself, having looked at the setting of the psalm, the sequel to the psalm, David's restored fellowship, now the substance of the psalm itself.

Structure of Psalm 51: Confession, Plea, and Anticipation

5:13 If you're trying to outline it, you'd run into some trouble, because generally a man who's smarting and wincing under conviction of sin doesn't sit down and say, well, as I make my confession, I shall have point one, point two, point three, A under one, B under... No, usually when a man's heart is broken, you won't find the same kind of logical progression of thought that you'll find when a man is teaching, at least that you ought to find when he's teaching, let's say it that way.

5:41 And so there isn't a real hard, fast outline of this psalm, as you find in some of the other psalms, for the simple reason that this is, as we said last week, this is God allowing us to put our ear up to the heart of a man who's broken before God. And when a man is broken, he's not thinking about outlines and alliterations. He's thinking about the God before whom he's broken and the sin. Over which he is broken.

6:09 But there is at least some kind of a transition with verse 12. Verses 1 to 12 would be David's confession of sin and his plea for restoration. And then in verse 12 to the end of the psalm, to verse 19, you have more or less, though there's some mixture of the first section, you have David's anticipation of that pardon and restoration and some of the results that will follow. He talks here about sinners being converted, he talks about showing forth the praises of God, and then we have his prayer for prosperity upon the people of God.

6:45 So you have at least a general division coming in at verse 13, where you have David's anticipation of what will happen as a result of his plea in verses 1 through 12. Now, will you note with me in the first place tonight, David's general attitude to his sin. Notice as I emphasize a particular word or two, reading through the first few verses. Notice.

David's General Attitude to His Sin: Owning It as Sin

7:12 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee and Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in Thy sight.

7:49 Now, I think the first point that I want us to look at is obvious. Under this matter of David's general attitude to his sin, the first thing is very obvious. He owns it to be just that. He owns it to be sin.

8:05 No less than seven times in the first four verses, he uses these words, transgression, iniquity, sin, and evil. It's as though David ransacks his vocabulary to get every word for that which is a breach of the law of God and he brings it out and says, God, I've been guilty of the whole business. Notice. Blot out my transgressions.

8:32 Wash me from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. Verse four. I have done this evil in Thy sight.

8:40 Four different words. There's transgression, iniquity, sin, and evil. And we'll look at their shades of meaning on a subsequent study. But the point that I want us to get tonight is this.

8:49 He owns this to be sin. And seven times in four verses, he calls it by the ugly black name of transgression, iniquity, sin, or evil. Now, you see, that's the first step to true confession and restoration. When you and I are willing to call that, that thing what God calls it.

9:16 God called it sin. And now David comes saying, Oh God, I call it exactly what you call it. The Greek word in the New Testament for confession means precisely that. In 1 John 1-9, where we read, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just.

9:34 The word confess means to say together with, to say the same thing about something. So confession is not the mere mouthing of some words. But it's saying, and saying from the heart, the same thing about this problem as God does. When Nathan came and said, David, thou art the man, the first words that David uttered in 2 Samuel 12-13 were these, I have sinned against the Lord.

10:04 Not a word about mistake. Not a word about failure. Not a word about shortcoming. Not a word about weakness.

10:12 Not a word about temperament. Not a word about personality. Not a word about poverty, conflicts. He said sin, iniquity, transgression.

10:25 That's the first step to true restoration and forgiveness. When we, like David, own this thing to be the sin that God declares it is. In Proverbs 28-13 we read, He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Now, there are some very obvious ways to do this.

10:50 One is to fail to acknowledge it. That's very obvious. But there's a more subtle way. You know what that way is?

10:56 To admit we've done something we shouldn't, but by the time we're finished qualifying and describing what we've done, what we've really done is said, well, even though God says the thing is sin, in the light of this factor and this one and this one, it really can't be quite that. And so we cover the sin by rationalizing and calling it something other than what God does. Let me mention, some things to be specific. How often do professing Christians, and probably some true Christians, they call things like impatience, irritability, jealousy, touchiness, hypersensitivity, these kind of things, they call them something other than what God calls them.

11:41 God's already labeled them. In Galatians 5, 19-21, He says, The works of the flesh are manifest. Which are these? God's already labeled anger and wrath and bitterness and clamor.

11:51 God's already labeled these things. God's already labeled sin as sin. And until we have come to the place where we own it and call it what God calls it from the heart, Nathan hasn't done his work yet. You see, if Nathan had made the application of his message to David, and David said, well, you know, Nathan, I think you've got a point there.

12:11 It's just the possibility that maybe I did have a little bit of a weakness. He never would have heard those next words, The Lord hath put away thy sin. You call it weakness, and all you'll get is maybe a little sympathy for your weakness, but you won't get forgiveness for your sin. You get what you ask for.

12:30 You ask God to have pity upon you for your weakness. You may get pity for your weakness, but you haven't confessed your sin. This, perhaps, is one of the most basic principles in the whole area, and yet we're so slow to learn it. Because that process of rationalization is going on constantly.

David's General Attitude to His Sin: Owning It as His Own Sin

12:52 And the first principle regarding David's attitude to his sin is that he owns it as sin. Now, the second principle is that he owns it as his own sin. Notice, and I emphasize those words of the first reading, blot out my transgression. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity.

13:10 Cleanse me from my sin. I acknowledge my transgression, my sin, I have sinned, no less than six times in four verses he uses the words, I, me, mine. He says as he thinks of all that has transpired in that past year, as his mind is made, made alive, and conscience once again thunders, and there comes before his thinking very vividly all of the events that led to this slaying of Uriah and that involvement with Bathsheba and the deception and the intrigue and all of the rest. He says, Oh God, that whole thing is the child of my own wicked heart.

13:53 He said when the seed of temptation came, it was joined to the seed of my own corruption. And that child brought forth, oh God, it's mine. Nobody else's. I own it as my own.

14:11 My sin, my iniquity, my transgression. I believe David understood experimentally what James talks about in very clear terms where he says in his first chapter, James 1 and verse 13, Let no man say when he's tempted, I'm tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil. Neither tempted he any man.

14:37 But every man is tempted when he's drawn away of his own lust and entice. And when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it's finished, bringeth forth death. This is a very vivid picture.

14:56 How does a man come to the state that David came to? How does even the child of God who's known something of the delights that David knew of worship fellowship with God and the mighty deliverances of God? For remember, this is the David whose early years are unmarked by anything that is reproachful to the Lord. I've been reading through 1 and 2 Samuel, my old Old Testament reading, and those early years of David are beautiful.

15:24 One of the most beautiful stories. The nobility of that saint of God. Saul avenging him and trying to track him down and kill him. And David had him at his very fingertips several times and refused to lift his hands.

15:37 He refused to lift his hands against the Lord's anointed. This man who's known such warm, vital, genuine experience with God having gone down into this kind of a situation. How did he get that way? James tells us.

15:50 But every man is tempted when he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed. And lust, when lust hath conceived, you see, lust, evil desire, receives the seed of temptation. And there's a conception. And after that conception, there comes the period of gestation.

16:10 And when lust and temptation have had this union, and there is conception, then the full-grown baby comes forth as sin. And sin, when it grows up and does its work, it kills, becomes a murderer. It's the picture. Someone having a baby, and the baby turning out to be a murderer.

16:28 That's the vivid word imagery that James uses. And he says, it all begins because of what lies within man. He's drawn away of his own lust and enticed. And David acknowledges that when he bows before God.

16:47 He didn't blame his circumstances. There's not a word in here, Oh God, forgive Bathsheba for strolling around on a rooftop with no clothes on. Not a word about that. Oh God, have mercy upon me, because you know, God, that in the circumstances of a king, there are peculiar temptations this way.

17:06 Every time I'd come back from the battle, those young women would come out to meet me and sing their songs about Saul that slain his thousands. But David is ten thousands, and God, you put me in circumstances where I was around these admiring women so often that it weakened my...

17:21 None of that. None of that. None of that. Not a word about the circumstances.

17:27 He doesn't say anything about his heredity and say, Oh God, you know that there's a history of this problem in my family and in my background and all the rest. He doesn't say a thing about the situation, the people. He says, Oh God, it's my transgression. It's my sin.

17:46 It's my iniquity. It's nobody else's but mine. And that's the second great principle involved in a proper attitude to sin that leads to true forgiveness and restoration, not only owning the thing to be sin when God's declared it to be sin, but owning it to be our sin as the product of our own hearts. The tendency to transfer the responsibility to others is as old as the first sin.

The Ancient Tendency to Transfer Blame: Adam's Example

18:17 That's why we're so smart. Notice with you for a moment in Genesis chapter 3. We read in chapter 2 the clear command of God. The clear command of God in Genesis chapter 2, verse 17, But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it, for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

18:43 Now this command was very clear. There were no hidden clauses. There were no legal loopholes. There was no fine print at the bottom.

18:51 Very clear. God said, Adam, I've given you all the trees. Out of my loving concern for you I've given you a great variety. I've given you taste buds that can appreciate the different taste of the different fruits.

19:02 I've given you eyes to appreciate the beauty of the different blossoms. Adam, I've shown you in ways innumerable. My heart is full of grace and love to you. I have no motive, Adam, but you're good.

19:14 And so I've given you all these trees. But, Adam, there's one tree there. There's no physical necessity for you to take it. It's not as though you're being robbed of full expression of life by not having it, because I've given you all of this.

19:27 But, Adam, in the day that you eat of that tree you're going to die. Now you know the account in Genesis chapter 3 that fully cognizant of what he was doing, Adam took the fruit from Eve. And we read in the latter part of Genesis 3, 6, she gave unto her husband, and he did eat. Now, God comes to them after this sin.

19:52 Verse 8, And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God. And God takes the initiative. Verse 9, And the Lord God called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou?

20:11 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee thou wast naked? Now notice the question God asked Adam. Get it now.

20:21 Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee thou shouldst not eat? Adam, I want to know one thing. Have you deliberately disobeyed the clear command that I gave you? Hast thou taken of the tree that I commanded thee not to eat?

20:37 Now, Adam's answer should have been a flat categorical, Yes, I have. No, I haven't. But notice how he answers. And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.

20:57 The woman, thou, and I. Three people involved. The woman, God, and man. Now notice what Adam does.

21:09 God says, Adam, I'm coming to you. You've run from me. I know the reason. I want you to acknowledge the reason.

21:15 Have you disobeyed me? Have you sinned, Adam? If I may say it reverently, God wanted Adam to stand fore and center and say, Oh, God, I have sinned. Period.

21:30 Do you know what he does? Instead of standing there in a naked, open confession of his involvement in blatant disobedience, he takes the woman and sets her between himself and his guilt. He says, The woman! And then, and this is the worst thing about it, he brings God and puts God as a smoke screen between himself and his guilt.

21:54 The woman, thou, gave this to me. A subtle accusation that God was involved in the sin. And then he says, And I did eat. But the whole implication being, if it hadn't been for the woman, and it hadn't been for you, God, giving her to me, I never really would have done this.

22:12 So though I did eat, it really wasn't that blatant, open, clenched fist of disobedience. I was just sort of pressured by the circumstances created by the woman and by you, God. It's obvious that God didn't accept this explanation, for he brought judgment upon him. What Adam should have said is, I sinned.

22:38 And then if he wanted to mention the contributing factors secondarily, that perhaps would have been all right. But his whole motivation, it would seem, was to place the woman and the God who gave the woman as God. As some kind of an excuse for his involvement in the sin. And you and I do this all the time.

23:00 All the time. Don't you? Our consciences wound us as the Spirit of God applies the Word of God. Let me be very specific.

23:12 Some of you aren't giving to the Lord his portion. You say, wait a minute, Pastor. We give more than any other church per capita around here that I know of. Well, I think that's true.

23:22 But there are some of you who may be cheating. And giving the Lord his portion. I've never preached a message on the fact that at least the tenth belongs to him. But I believe there's strong biblical evidence that it does.

23:35 But you know what you're saying? God comes to you and says, are you robbing me? You say, well, God, the circumstances in which you've placed me, and the problems which you've allowed to come into my life, and then this thing and that thing, and so, Lord, I'm not tithing. What are you doing?

23:55 You're doing just what Adam did. That's all you're doing. That's exactly...

24:01 Oh, but you don't understand my... Yes, I know all about that.

24:03 So does God. Yes, but my...

24:07 Yes. Adam tried the same business. Yeah, but you see my...

24:11 Yes. You think that'll hold up when you stand before him and are asked to give an account of the stewardship of what he entrusted to you? We do this regard to the matter of impatience so often. God would come to us and say, as he did to Adam, where art thou?

24:29 My child, what hast thou done? Allowed thy spirit to become stained with this curse of impatience that may or may not have broken out into churlish, angry, unkind words, and we say, but God, the pressures under which you've placed me, and the people with which you have surrounded me, and then we begin to excuse the way. The pressures of work, Lord, you know all about it, and having these little children running around. God, you know all...

24:57 Yes, I know all about that, God. But he said, what I want to know is, have you sinned? I know all about the circumstances. I'm God, he said.

25:07 I know all about that. But what I want to know is I want to get from you a flat, simple, honest admission of the nature of this thing as sin. Your sin. Nobody else's.

25:20 God knew all about the tree and who took the fruit. I wanted Adam to own up to it. And that's how God comes to us and he says, where art thou? Have you done this?

25:35 Have you done this? And so in these areas, parental neglect, the use of our money, the discipline of our spirits. Where is it that you're doing this? I couldn't go into the things and name them all.

Summary of David's Attitude to Sin

25:50 But as you sit here, is there any Nathan speaking to you? Is the Nathan of conscience speaking right now about that area of your life where you're dodging some issue with God? Hmm? Is Nathan saying anything?

26:04 Is conscience nicknamed, or Nathan nicknamed conscience, is he saying anything to you right now? Is he? What's he saying? All right, you can own up to it or you're going to be like Adam.

26:19 The principle that stands on the very surface of Psalm 51 concerning David's general attitude to the sin is number one, he owns it to be sin. He doesn't call it anything else. He owns it to be his own sin. The product of his own corruption and that he stands accountable for it.

26:38 A lot of factors contributed to that sin. Granted, but when David stands before God, these things fade into insignificance and he cries out, my sin, my iniquity, my evil. Well, let's hurry on to consider briefly his general attitude to forgiveness and restoration. For these are the two key factors that will move us to pray the 51st Psalm with some measure of understanding and some measure of heart.

David's General Attitude to Forgiveness and Restoration: Desperation

27:07 We must share David's attitude to sin or we'll never pray this prayer. And we must also share his general attitude to this matter of forgiveness and restoration. And I use the two words purposely for David is not only praying for forgiveness. That's the particular focus of the first few verses.

27:28 Forgiveness. But then from verse 6 on, verse 6, 7, 8, notice what he prays for. Thou desirest truth in the inward part. Verse 7, wash me and I shall be clean.

27:42 Make me to hear joy and gladness. Verse 10, create in me a clean heart. Verse 11, cast me not away from thy presence. Verse 12, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.

27:53 You see, he was not content to simply know that the sin was blotted out. He wanted not only forgiveness, but he wanted restoration. You see, sin cannot rob a true Christian of the possession of saving religion, but it sure will rob him of the enjoyment of it. That's what David's praying about.

28:14 The Spirit, in all of his gracious influences, had been quenched and grieved, and David was as a man, left to himself. Joy was gone. All of this. So this is not only a prayer for forgiveness, but it's a prayer for restoration as well.

28:32 Now, what is his general attitude toward those two factors of forgiveness and restoration? Well, the first thing we notice right on the surface of the psalm is he was desperate to have them both. He was desperate to have them both. You cannot read this psalm without feeling that here's a man who's desperate for cleansing, forgiveness, and restoration, and renewal.

29:01 And all you need to do is circle all of the things for which he pleads from God. I hope you'll do that in the course of our study. All of those words, purge me, wash me, make me to hear, hide thy face, create in me, cast me not away, restore unto me, all of those things. And as you read through the psalm, you sense that though this man is broken in heart, he's also desperate in heart.

29:26 He longs to know again the sweet kiss of God's forgiveness upon his cheek. He longs to know again the ringing of the bells of holy joy within his breast. He longs to feel, and I use the word feel in its proper sense, he longs to feel again the quickening, enlivening influences of the Holy Spirit upon his life and upon his ministry as the King of Israel. He had come to the place where his relationship to God, his relationship to himself, and his relationship to others had to be changed.

30:00 Have mercy upon me, O God. I want to see your face again. He wants his relationship to himself to be changed. He's lost his joy.

30:09 He's lost his witness. He's lost the sense of God's enablement and his relation to others. For notice he says, Then will sinners be converted unto thee. Then he prays for the blessing of God upon the nation of Israel, upon the church in general.

30:25 And so when a man is brought to the place where his relationship to God, to himself, and others has been so marred by his sin and he knows they must be changed, he's ready to pray Psalm 51. As long as you're content to go on as a child of God without the realized presence of Christ, you will. If you're content to live without the realized presence of Christ, you will. Until God sends a nation to plow your heart up and get you desperate.

31:01 You see, David apparently had gone on at least nine months. The baby had been born probably closer to a year. And apparently, he had become in some measure content to live without the joy of the Lord. Content to live without the mighty operations of the Spirit.

31:20 Content to live without a vibrant witness to others. Content to live with the sense of guilt lying upon the conscience. When God sent the Nathan, he finally got to the place where that threefold relationship to God, himself, and others was such that he said, they must be changed. And oh, if you and I value our souls, how we should cry to God, that these things will never be a matter of indifference to us.

31:47 That the moment we sense that our relationship to our God has been clouded, that we'll count this the most terrible tragedy under heaven, we should not know the delight of his fellowship. When we sense that his joy has been taken from us, and that our hearts have become defiled, we shall not be able to live in that condition without being desperate to cry to our God. And when we see a total absence of any blessing upon others through us, that we can mingle with and move about sinners day after day, and no indication that God ever uses us to touch a hungry heart, never uses us to rebuke a giddy worldling, should drive us to our knees, desperate to have his forgiveness and his restoration. Second thing, under this general attitude to forgiveness and restoration, he recognized that they had to come from God, both the forgiveness and the restoration. For notice, in the first sentence of his prayer, Have mercy upon me, O God. Verse 14, Deliver me from thy blood guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation.

David's General Attitude to Forgiveness and Restoration: From God Alone

33:07 Verse 15, O Lord, open thou my lips. He came to that place where he was not only desperate to have forgiveness and restoration, but where he was convinced that they had to come from God and God alone. Now, you know, this looks like a simple principle, but it's not a simple thing if you've really been wounded by Nathan. For you see, when the heart of a true Christian is plowed up, one of the most difficult things is to believe that he can come directly to God, and on the basis of his mercy and the infinite merit of the blood of Jesus Christ, he can have instant and complete forgiveness.

33:48 And by the quickening influences of the Holy Spirit, he can know restoration to favor and to fellowship. Sometimes we feel, well, I've got to mourn a while, got to let a little time pass. We wouldn't have come to the Lord with money. We wouldn't go out and do penance as such.

34:07 But do we not, you be honest, do we not at times feel when our conscience is smart under some conviction of sin, we feel that, well, I've just got to let this wound lie open for a few days until I can deserve to know the presence and fellowship of God once more. Do you find that in your heart? I find it in this one right here. I just can't believe.

34:29 You mean by simply coming and owning my sin and making a full and honest, open-hearted confession to God and crying to Him for restoration? Yes, that's the wonderful lesson of David. David knew enough of the ways of God that though he had been guilty of some of the grossest forms of iniquity, and though he had been held in the grip of that iniquity for a period of almost a year, when he comes, he knows that there is one avenue of hope. It's God.

35:00 Have mercy upon me, O God. He recognized that both the forgiveness and the restoration had to come from the living God. That's a blessed word to declare to some of you who this night may be lying under the painful smart of a wounded conscience. You can come directly to that God of whom it is said in Psalm 86 and verse 5, Thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all that call upon thee.

35:26 Now, I know some people abuse it. I know that a lot of people just wave these verses as an excuse to go on. I know that. But let us not allow that.

35:36 I know that some people abuse it. I know that a lot of people just wave these verses as an excuse but let us not allow the abuse of the mercy of God and free access to God through Jesus Christ. Let us not allow the abuse of it to keep us from the proper use of it. And then the third principle that I see in his general attitude to forgiveness and restoration is that he seems to be determined to seek God until God grants both of these things.

David's General Attitude to Forgiveness and Restoration: Determined to Seek Until Granted

36:08 You notice he isn't coming and claiming forgiveness. I get a little disturbed with this. I've actually heard preachers say it and I've had all I can do to keep in my seat. They said, I've wonderful news for you.

36:23 In this dispensation you don't even need to plead with God to forgive you. All you need to do is confess your sins and the Bible says He's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us. Ever hear that? How many have ever heard that?

36:36 A few of you. I'm glad more of you haven't heard it. That's wonderful because I'd have to unlearn that tonight. No, it's true the Bible says that one of the aspects of true confession is pleading for God's mercy.

36:52 You see, David had already had the pronouncement of God through the prophet in 2 Samuel. The Lord hath put away thy sin. If you look carefully, let's look at that for a moment because I think there's a principle here that's very important. In 2 Samuel chapter 12, Nathan is bringing his accusation to David in the name of Jehovah and he says in verse 12, For thou didst it secretly, that I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.

37:31 Now notice. And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And indicating this followed immediately, no time lapse. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die.

37:48 And then in verse 15, Nathan departed unto his house and it's probably at that point that David went down before his God and in bitterness of soul poured out his confession. Now, why would a man have to pray these words? Have mercy upon me, wash me, blot out, cleanse me, renew me, had not God already said, I have put away thy sin? Ah, yes.

38:16 But David was not content with the word of forgiveness alone. He longed to experience the communication of that forgiveness by the living God. It wasn't enough to have the word of forgiveness from Nathan. David went into the closet and got before his God until God bore witness to the experience of his forgiveness and also of restoration.

38:42 You see, our dealing with God is not merely a legal matter in which he juggles the books of heaven. A true Christian is dealing with God on a personal basis. And though it's infinitely above any human relationship, it is not basically different from human relationships. Let me illustrate.

39:06 Suppose I've been nasty with my wife and that happens occasionally. I say to my shame, perhaps I've been quick to churlish and angry words or impatient words have come from my lips. And I may say to her, dear, I want the word of her forgiveness. I want to go sit down for a little bit, talk and see that I not only have the word of her forgiveness but that I have the experience of a restored relationship.

39:41 See, now I believe her word and she's sincere when she says, honey, I forgive you. But I want not only the word of forgiveness, I want the experience of the warmth of forgiveness that now results in the experience of forgiveness. And I'm sure we have His word. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive.

40:04 But do you know what it is to simply say, oh God, forgive me, amen, and go our way with the word of forgiveness and not really sense that your heart's been touched with the experience of forgiveness? Do you know that? I know what that's like to you. I'm sure you do.

40:28 You're a child until there is the experience of restoration. You say, upon what do you base that? Well, notice the words very carefully. He cries out, have mercy upon me, oh God.

40:42 He doesn't say, oh God, I come claiming your mercy. He takes the place not of a claimer but of a pleader. Have mercy, oh God. I wait before your footstool for mercy.

40:56 Then He cries out, wash me thoroughly and He says, God, there's certain things that only you can do. I can't do them. Verse 7, Lord, you must purge me. You must wash me.

41:11 Lord, you must make me to hear joy and gladness. You see, David didn't go put his finger on a verse and try to get himself happy fine. He didn't do that. He didn't look at the plaque on his wall and say, God, just as sin has come as an intruder and robbed me of my joy, Lord, come again and fill me with joy.

41:39 Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Verse 10, he says, oh God, I can't do the work that needs to be done in my heart. Oh God, you create a clean heart. Lord, you must uphold me with thy free spirit.

42:02 He says, Lord, let me sense again once more the sustaining, quickening power of the Holy Ghost. Verse 15, oh Lord, open thou my lips. This looks not like a man who's claiming things from God, but a man who's beseeching God to grant things for his needy soul. I never heard a sermon along this line.

The Principle of Waiting on God for Restoration

42:30 I'll be biographical here as a young Christian. I hear people say, well, you've sinned, you just acknowledge it toward the Lord and forget it. But somehow, that just didn't seem to satisfy me. And yet I knew it wasn't right to think that I needed to beat myself, either physically or spiritually.

42:52 But I believe this was the principle that somehow, instinctively, the Holy Spirit was leading me to see, perhaps, to restore His sinning people to joy and to this place of spiritual virility again. I must come as a suppliant waiting upon my God until by His grace He's pleased to grant that which my heart longs for. And there are times He may grant it almost immediately. There are other times He may not grant it for hours, sometimes for days.

43:32 I don't believe it is. I mean, of an unsaved man getting saved. But I believe it's the testimony of a child of God. Notice what he says.

43:45 I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up out of an horrible pit and out of the miry clay and set my feet upon a rock and I fear and trust in the Lord. Generally speaking if we are going to compare Scripture with Scripture, this waiting patiently upon the Lord is the activity of a child of God, who is in a particular circumstance in which he senses his desperate need of the intervention of God. And he's laid his case before God and he's spread it out discouraged, if when the best of your knowledge you've honestly confessed sin before the Lord and yet there seems to be no restoration of joy, you continue to look to Him, continue to plead in the very words of the 51st Psalm and the Scripture tells us that we shall not seek Him in vain. He gives to those who ask, those that seek find, those that knock shall have it opened unto them. Now that's kind of hard for us in this computer age. When you want anything, you push a button and there it all is. It's kind of hard for us

45:04 to figure we've got to wait on God. We don't like that. We want to have God at the end of our button. Push the little button of six words and out comes fullness of joy and restoration.

45:14 Well, you're not dealing with a button. You're dealing with God. You're dealing with a person, the living God. God may have some things to teach you in that period of waiting. God may have some things to say. God may try your faith in His promises. I don't understand the workings of this. But I see it in Psalm 51 that the whole climate of that psalm, as David thinks of forgiveness and restoration, is not a climate of claiming and running out of the presence of God. It's a climate of pleading and waiting patiently in the presence of God for forgiveness and for restoration. I don't understand it, but I see it here. And I believe Christian biography will bear this out. The most holy men, the most useful men and women in the history of the church have not been these claimants.

46:01 They have not been these claiming activists who rush into the presence of God and spout out their little prayer and rush out to be little busy beavers for Jesus. They were the Brainerds and the Henry Martins and the McShanes who, when you read their biographies, you somehow feel you're reading an expanded commentary on the 51st Psalm and page after page after page. Men who learned the secret of waiting for His restoring influence. Now, that waiting need not just be on one side of the page. It's on the other side of the page. It's on the other side of the page. It's on the other side of the page. It's on the other side of Yime's knee, but it is impossible. I'm talking the housewives. I'm talking the men who put in there eight, ten to twelve hours a day. Granted, it need not be exclusively awaiting upon him in the closet. It can be awaiting upon him, that attitude of a soul that looks up to him and cries out to him, wherever we be. But let me say in terms that cannot be misunderstood, if there is nothing of this in the closet, there'll be nothing of it on your feet. We're not desperate enough to put aside the newspaper and 11 o'clock news and

47:04 some other things and clear some of this junk out of our lives, this junk in the light of eternal things and get down before God. We're not in that first place, you see, where David was desperate to have forgiveness and restoration. It's amazing, isn't it? When God hedges us up and pens us up, as it were, to the place where we really mean business and we're desperate, a lot of things that we think are important suddenly become unimportant.

47:31 Don't they? Now, let's just be honest. Don't they suddenly become unimportant? Things to which we'll give our energies and our time and our effort suddenly when we're desperate for reality and the sweet kiss of God's forgiveness and the quickening grace of the Spirit, suddenly those things don't seem too important.

Conclusion: Call to Prayer and Repentance

47:50 So we have in this introductory study of the psalm tonight, of the psalm itself, David's general attitude to his sin, one in which he owns the sin to be sin, one in which he owns it as his own sin, his general attitude to forgiveness and restoration. He was desperate to have them. He knew they had to come from God. He was determined to seek them until grant.

48:16 Say, what do you think might happen if a few of us went out of here tonight with that attitude?

48:28 The proof would be some open lips and some sinners being converted unto God. Isn't that what David said could be the result of it? And I say to you who are among us tonight who've never taken the place of a broken, needy sinner before God, David was a child of God, but the principle of repentance and looking to God for mercy by which sinners come into the possession of forgiveness initially, they're just the same. Until you've heard Nathan, until you've seen yourself lost and undone without Jesus Christ, and look to God alone in Jesus Christ for mercy, there's no hope.

49:07 Until you're willing to own your sinfulness, and so there is a word to you who are not savingly joined, to Christ in this psalm. It's a word pointing you to the pathway of repentance and faith in the Savior. And I trust as God's children, at least once during the coming week, alone with God, we'll pray through in the very words of the 51st Psalm, this prayer of confession to our God. If you haven't done that, will you do it sometime this week?

49:37 Get alone with your God and pray it through. Apply specifically those things that apply to you. And I'm sure as we gather together next week, the Lord willing, and study this psalm, perhaps it will mean more to you because you've prayed in some of its truth into your own heart. Let us unite in prayer.