Acknowledgment of Presence and Nature of Sin

Introduction: The Necessity of Scriptural Dealing with Sin

0:02 Tonight we shall conduct our fourth in a series of studies in this, the greatest of all the penitential psalms, Psalm 51.

0:22 As I have been reminding you each Lord's Day evening, it's vital for the Christian to know how to scripturally deal with his sin, for the problem of sin is one that the Christian will have until the Lord is pleased to translate him into his presence, and then we shall be like him when we see him as he is. But until that time, one of the greatest burdens, one of the greatest sources of perplexity, one of the greatest areas of conflict with the true Christian is in this matter of his involvement in sin. Even though there's been a work of grace and he has turned his back upon his sin, he has declared no peaceful quarter with sin,

1:04 though by the grace of God and the regenerating work of the Spirit, he has set his spirit free. He has faced to a life of holiness and obedience, yet he finds that he never outgrows the Lord's prayer in which he must daily say, O God, forgive my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me. And if a Christian does not learn how to scripturally deal with his sin, he will be in great measure crippled in the outworking of the purpose of God in sanctification in his life. And perhaps there is no one who can teach, who can teach us better how to scripturally deal with sin than David, who entered into some of the most vile kinds of sins,

1:47 and yet by the grace of God found forgiveness and restoration and has left us this marvelous pattern of biblical confession and repentance. You remember the setting of the psalm? Is David's sin with Bathsheba and his subsequent murder by proxy of Uriah and his almost a year-long period of spiritual life, spiritual barrenness? Nathan comes as an instrument of grace toward David, and after giving his parable and then saying to him, Thou art the man, David's heart is smitten, and in his confession he goes as a wounded stag alone to bleed.

David's General Attitude Toward Sin and Plea for Mercy

2:26 And out of that crucible of heart-rending conviction and brokenness before God comes this beautiful psalm, Psalm 51. We've already looked at David's generalization, his general attitude toward sin. He owns it as his own. He owns it to be nothing less than sin and uses all the nasty, ugly words, doesn't use any fancy psychological terms.

2:51 He calls it sin, transgression, evil, iniquity. He owns it to be sin. He owns it to be his own sin. And he's desperate that God should deliver him.

3:02 And then in our last study we looked in some detail at verses 1 and 2 under the general theme of the convicted sinner's only right, the only right, and the only right. And as David comes smitten in heart, his only plea is mercy, loving kindness, tender mercies. And so blessed is the man who, having been wounded of God, recognizes that his only refuge is the mercy of God, the loving kindness of God, the tender mercy of the living God. And so as David comes conscious of that twofold need, legal guilt that needs forgiveness, crying out, blot out my transgressions, moral defilement that needs purging and says, wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin,

3:47 he recognizes at the very outset that the only place where he will find that release from legal guilt and that deliverance from moral and personal pollution is to be found in the fountainhead of God's mercy and God's loving kindness. Now tonight we want to go into some detail in studying verses 3, 4, and 5 I want to be realistic. I doubt we shall get to verse 5. In fact, I have no intention of getting that far, but it's part of the unit, and so I want to at least include it tonight and the Lord willing expand upon it next Lord's Day evening.

Three Indispensable Ingredients of True Confession

4:22 Having confessed that his only recourse for this twofold need is the mercy and loving kindness of God, he then declares in verse 3, for I acknowledge my transgressions. Now notice the connection. His plea is have mercy. According to thy love, in kindness, according to thy tender mercies, blot out, wash me, cleanse me, for.

4:47 In other words, there's an inseparable relationship between verses 1 and 2 and verses 3 and that which follows. Oh God, have mercy upon me, blot out, and cleanse me, for. And now he tells us what that connection is. For I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is ever before me.

5:09 Against thee, and thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. In order to give us some mental pegs upon which to hang the various truths that are found in these verses, I would like us to consider them under the general theme of three indispensable ingredients of true conscience, confession. Three indispensable ingredients of true confession.

5:48 Blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly, cleanse me, for. And then follows these three ingredients. Number one, I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. This is what we might call a painful awareness and acknowledgement of the presence of sin.

6:10 Verse 4. Against thee, and thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight. A painful awareness and acknowledgement of the nature of sin. In verse 3, that painful awareness and acknowledgement of the presence of sin.

6:27 It's ever before me. I lay it out before thee. Verse 4. Against thee, and thee only, have I sinned.

6:34 A painful awareness and acknowledgement of the nature of sin. Rebellion against God. Verse 5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.

6:46 A painful awareness and acknowledgement of the root source of sin, depraved human nature. And so David's confession of depravity, rather than becoming a scapegoat by which he excuses his sin, becomes a very part of the very confession of his sin, where he acknowledges even original sin as part of his depilement in the presence of God. Now, will you notice several things? By way of introduction, that there's nothing said in these verses about the punishment or the chastisement for the sin that was going to come upon David.

True Confession vs. Whimpering Over Consequences

7:22 He had already heard from the prophet that the little child, whom he dearly loved, who was the product of his illicit union with Bathsheba, was going to die. God had told him, that child shall die. Moreover, God told him through the prophet in 2 Samuel 12, that whereas he did his sin secretly, the sins of his sons would be done openly, that his own sons would defile, his own wives in the sight of all of Israel. And David's sin, which had been done in secret, would through his sons be projected out into the sight of the whole nation of Israel.

7:54 Terrible judgment. Terrible judgment. Terrible chastisement and punishment for his sin, though God was merciful to forgive him. And yet there's not one word in all of Psalm 51, and particularly in these verses, asking God to somehow pair off the rough edges of the discipline.

8:10 No indication that he's asking God to somehow be a little less, harsh in the administration of the strokes of his discipline. Not at all. So we learn by way of introduction that one of the essential ingredients of true confession is not whimpering because of the results of our sin.

8:29 Many an unregenerate, professing Christian, and there are many such people, are deceived into thinking that whimpering over the consequences of sin is the essence of true repentance. It has nothing to do with it. Esau whimpered over the consequences of his sin, sold his birthright for the gratification of his belly. What is this birthright to me?

8:52 I want pottage. I'm a hungry man. And yet the Scripture says later on he wept with an exceeding great and bitter cry. Why?

9:00 Not because he'd acted like a beast and thrown off spiritual blessing for the sake of his belly, but simply because he was denied that which he wanted. He didn't like the consequences of his sin. His tears had nothing to do with seeing the true nature of sin. Judas came and made a great confession.

9:17 I've sinned. I've betrayed innocent blood. And I've hanged himself. You see, there's nothing here in David's confession that has the remotest connection with the chastisement of God that fell upon him because of his sin, the punishment that was inherent in the sin itself.

9:35 But as he comes to confess his sin to God, he pleads for mercy in the light of the fact that his confession is genuine, biblical confession. Have mercy upon me, for Lord, I am not coming asking that you spare me. I am not coming asking that somehow you relieve the pressure of your disciplining hand, O God. Have mercy, for I come to honestly confess my sin and to lay it before you in all of its naked ugliness.

10:04 You see, God does not have mercy upon his children because they scripturally confess their sins. He has mercy upon them because he's a God of mercy. But he does not show mercy until they scripturally confess their sins. He does not have mercy because they confess, but he has mercy when they confess.

10:27 For he must be true to his own character and to his own nature and to his own purposes even when he's administering forgiveness to his children. That's why the scripture says in Proverbs 28, 13, He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Well, you see, my forsaking of sin does not earn the mercy of God. But the only way that God can confer his mercy consistent with his moral government is to bring the sinner, whether he be a sinner outside the arc of saving relationship to Christ or whether he be a David who has fallen into grievous transgression as a child of God, if God is to be consistent with himself

11:12 and his moral government, he must confer forgiveness in a way that will magnify his government and will lead his children on to a place of greater sanctification. So, if God were to confer mercy and extend mercy and forgiveness and restoration where there was insincere confession, God would be encouraging men to go on in the path of their sinfulness and this God will not do. For in the magnifying of his mercy he also magnifies his government and his holy law and his throne rights over his creatures. Well, so much for those introductory remarks.

Ingredient 1: Painful Awareness and Acknowledgment of Sin's Presence

11:48 Now let us look at the text itself. The first indispensable ingredient of true confession is what I am calling a painful awareness and acknowledgement of the presence of sin. Notice David's words. For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.

12:11 The awareness of his sin is found in the phrase my sin is ever before me. That's just another way of describing sin. That's describing the work of conviction and then the acknowledgement of his sin in those very terms. I acknowledge my transgression.

12:25 Another way of describing confession. And so you have these two thoughts here. Conviction and confession. Awareness and acknowledgement.

12:35 And this is an indispensable ingredient of biblical confession of sin. There must first of all be that awareness which David describes in these very vivid terms my sin is ever before me. When I would look out and see the beauty of the world about me I cannot fully enjoy that beauty because there is this worm of a nagging conscience and a wounded spirit that acts like the worm in Jonah's gourd and makes the greatest privileges of life to shrivel and to lose all of their blessedness to me. When I'm in the association of lovers and friends

13:18 and should know all the pure delights that come from these God-given social relationships David says there's a hollowness. There's an emptiness. There's a barrenness. There's a mockery.

13:29 Why? Because standing between me and my associates is my sin. My sin is ever before me.

13:40 Here was that confession of a man who'd been wounded with God and cannot rest until restoration into realized fellowship with God is his portion. May I repeat the phrase? He cannot rest until there is restoration to realized fellowship with his God. When sin is before us in conviction but not behind us in true confession and forgiveness what will happen to us as the true children of God?

14:11 When sin is before us in conviction but not behind us in confession. Well, listen to the words of David in another place. Psalm 32 where he gives the description of this. He says in Psalm 32 and verses 3 and 4 having introduced the psalm by pronouncing the blessedness that is the portion of a forgiven man he then shifts and gives a contrast of the misery that is the portion of the unforgiven man.

14:39 Just as surely as he whose transgression is forgiven is blessed he whose transgression is not forgiven is cursed. Listen to his words. When I kept silence my bones waxed old through my roar all the day long.

14:58 Suppose you were to go to a modern psychiatrist and say look doc I've got some problems. He'd say well what's your problem? Well you say I just feel like everything's roaring on the inside. I'm about to explode.

15:09 I just feel under constant tension and he'd say you've got real problems. And he'd give you a battery of tests and let you talk and you see David was a real case for a couch. He said my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. Notice verse 4.

15:25 Day and night. Night and night thy hand was heavy upon me and my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. He said I wept myself dry. Have you ever wept so much you had no more tears but just convulsive sobs?

15:40 Not a very pleasant experience. That's what David said. He said I've wept myself dry. My moisture it's turned into the drought of summer.

15:49 Why? Well because he hadn't yet done what he says in verse 5. I acknowledged my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said I will confess my transgression to the Lord and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.

16:04 You see verse 5 is that which stands between the experience of verses 1 and 2 and 3 and 4. He says in verses 1 and 2 of Psalm 32 blessed is that man. Perfectly happy. No matter what the circumstances about him.

16:19 Gray skies. Troubles without and on every side and yet blessed. Why? Because he has realized fellowship with God.

16:26 Because sin has been dealt with. Conversely the misery of the child of God who has a controversy with God that's not been settled described in verses 3 and 4 and verse 5 tells us how a man gets from verses 3 to 4 into 1 and 2. And that's precisely where David was when the prophet Nathan came. It wasn't as though David had completely seared his conscience and had no memory of that sin.

16:53 It was that he hadn't been brought to the place where he was sick enough to deal with it God's way.

17:02 Now let's be honest. Aren't you and I in that position many times?

17:08 Where we've uttered words entertained thoughts indulged appetites taken given courses of action or reaction which we know are sin and which when we're not having our minds crowded with a thousand and one thoughts when we would come into a place like this and begin to think about the matter of sin conscience smites us. When we go to the secret place to pray to God we're not in a place where we're not going to pray and in between breaths or in between pauses conscience does his work in probes and pricks and there's that awareness that our sin is before us but we're not sick enough yet to deal with the thing God's way. That was David before Nathan came but after Nathan

17:52 had paid his visit David had come to the place where he was ready to do what we read in Psalm 32 5 to acknowledge his sin no longer to hide it no longer to cover it but to make a full and honest acknowledgement before his God. You read on further in Psalm 51 and you see what happens to a man who is not making this honest acknowledgement of his sin he's lost his joy restore to me the joy of thy salvation he's lost his comforts uphold me with thy free spirit all of the terrible results that David experienced. If you and I would scripturally deal with our sin the first ingredient is that painful awareness of the presence of sin

18:36 it must be before us in conviction before it will be spread before God in confession and so don't think that it's a mark of spiritual maturity to have an absence of sin consciousness I've heard this little ditty and I don't like it because it's not scriptural we shouldn't be sin conscious we should be Christ conscious the most Christ conscious people who've ever lived were the people who were most sin conscious and the people who were most sin conscious were the most Christ conscious for Christ in all the glory of his person and the perfection of his work is just that a savior

19:20 perfectly suited for sinners in all the ramifications of sin not only its legal guilt justification but all the process of sanctification he has made unto us wisdom, righteousness sanctification and redemption and so the person who is most sensitive of his sin is the one who is most often driven again and again to Christ and he who is most driven to Christ is most occupied with Christ and most enamored with Christ and most fragrant with the love and the gentleness of Christ this used to trouble me because when I'd be taught and read of and be instructed in the usefulness of men like Robert Murray McChain Henry Martin

20:05 David Brainerd Jonathan Edwards and was taught to respect these men as mighty giants who radiated the love and the grace of Christ when you begin to read their letters their diaries their journals you find them going deep into the abyss of their own sinful hearts and of their corruption and then all the little saintlets stand on the sidelines in our generation and say oh those men they were too introspective they were too sin conscious and here we stand throwing stones at these mighty giants and I don't see the spirit of God putting his seal of approval upon the life and ministry of those who make such criticisms the way he was pleased to pour his grace and power upon

20:49 and through these men we need not go outside the scriptures we just need to turn to the lives of men like David and Isaiah and Jeremiah and we see that these were men who experienced deep discoveries and self-awareness in this matter of sin and we see and so it may be a gross evidence of the absence of grace if you can go days and weeks and never have to say with David my sin is ever before me oh to cultivate a sensitive conscience that when we have a controversy with God it's there before us at every turn no rest no peace until that issue is faced you say

Cultivating a Sensitive Conscience

21:34 well how can I maintain that expose yourself to the standard of God read through the Ten Commandments periodically hold yourself up to the standard of God to that objective standard read through the latter part of the epistles of Paul where he gives direction to believers and speaks to servants masters husbands wives children and ask God Lord where do I fit in here am I walking in the light of your precepts do I have controversy with you Lord and ask God to impart that awareness of sin that painful awareness but notice carefully that was followed by an acknowledgement not only did he say my sin is ever before me but he said I am I am I acknowledge my transgression it's before me oh Lord in conviction

22:18 and now I spread it before thee in confession and that's always the order there is no genuine confession unless it be attended with and rooted in true conviction and so this is what he does he acknowledges that sin and spreads it before his God there's a passage in Jeremiah that is a beautiful commentary upon this phrase I acknowledge my transgressions Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse 12 and following go and proclaim these words to the north and say return thou backsliding Israel saith the Lord and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you

23:02 for I am merciful saith the Lord and I will not keep mine anger forever but thou notice though God is merciful though God will not keep his anger forever he will not show his mercy except in a way of an honest acknowledgement of sin on the part of his people verse 13 only acknowledge thine iniquity that thou hast transgressed against the Lord thy God and has scattered thy ways it's as though and I trust I speak reverently God's heart is bursting with the mercy and grace and forgiveness he would shower upon his people in this situation but he says I will not do it I am bound by my very nature

23:47 and character to withhold the conferring of mercy until you acknowledge that sin and are willing to spread it before me and own it to be what it is revolt against my government and affront to my person and to my holy law and so David recognized this when he comes into the presence of his God he has this first ingredient of true confession that of a painful awareness and acknowledgement of the grace of God the presence of his sin now secondly in verse 4 we find the second ingredient a painful awareness and acknowledgement of the nature of sin Lord my sin is before me I acknowledge it but oh God

Ingredient 2: Painful Awareness and Acknowledgment of Sin's Nature (Against God)

24:32 that which makes it so vile and wicked is that it's against thee against thee and then he repeats it thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight now I'd like to ask you a question in what sense was David's sin and transgression against God only if David's sin had been the sin of covetousness I could understand him saying against thee and thee only if I covet another man's automobile I haven't dented it I haven't scratched the paint I haven't stolen the upholstery this has been a sin between me and my God if I should have anger in my heart toward another man

25:17 that never expressed itself and actually picking up a cudgel or closing my fist and striking him and yet in the eyes of God that anger is the very disposition that produces murder and so God says that he that hates his brother is a murderer I could understand David saying against thee and thee only have I sinned if it had been covetousness if it had been anger pride or lust but do you remember what sins he's confessing he's confessing the twin sins of adultery and of murder and if we're to grade sins there is no greater sin against one's fellow man than murder for when you murder a man you take his most precious possession his life if you steal you take his possessions but you don't take his life he can always get his possessions back if you take his wife you take the bosom

26:01 companion of his heart but he can always get another at least he can make an honest attempt to if you take his reputation by bearing false witness he can always live down the scandalous lies that you have perpetrated but when you take a man's life you've taken his most precious possession that's what David did he took Uriah's life when he sent him up to the front of the battle and now he says against thee and thee only have I sinned perhaps if we're categorizing sin the next thing down would be taking someone's virtue you can get back a car if someone steals it but you can't get back your virtue if someone steals it when it's gone it's gone you may weep to the day of your death but you never gain it back again

26:45 when virtue's gone it's gone God may forgive but virtue's never restored and so David in the very real sense had committed the two cardinal sins if we may classify them in terms of their heinousness against fellow man murder and adultery and yet when he comes into the presence of God he says against thee and thee only have I sinned now why did he pray this way I believe the answer is given to us very clearly in 2 Samuel 12 in the message of the prophet Nathan that was delivered to David that lay at the foundation of the writing of this psalm 2 Samuel chapter 12

27:29 when Nathan has made his general accusation in verse 7 thou art the man he then delivers an expanded indictment from the God of heaven and he says we won't read the entire section verse 9 is the part that's pivotal in what we're trying to dig out at this point wherefore God asking David through Nathan wherefore wherefore hast thou command despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight thou hast killed

28:13 Uriah the Hittite with the sword and has taken his wife to be thy wife has slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house because now notice thou hast despised me and taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife two things that Nathan says David has been guilty of verse 9 the first sentence thou hast despised the commandment of the Lord the latter part of verse 10 thou hast despised the Lord of the commandment now the word despise is a word to which we put a 20th century English meaning and it's not the meaning here we think of despise as being an active

28:58 attitude of hatred and deep abhorrence you say I despise that kind of food or I despise that person but the word despise here means not so much active hatred as a smug disregard it's the same word used of Esau in Genesis that he despised his birthright now when he came in from the field and Jacob began to scheme with him he didn't turn around and clench his fist and bear his fangs and say I hate that old birthright no he just said birthright smurf right who cares I'm hungry I need something to eat so who cares about the birthright you see he regarded it as an unworthy object of concern or an object unworthy

29:43 of his concern and serious attention that's what the word despise means to regard lightly the same word used when David said a broken and a contrite heart oh God thou wilt not despise you won't treat it as a light thing Lord if I come with a broken heart you'll regard it with serious concern now put that meaning on these two phrases will you? wherefore hast thou regarded as a thing unworthy of your attention the commandment of the Lord because thou hast regarded me as one unworthy of serious attention and regard and has taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife you see the reason David

30:27 acknowledged the nature of sin as being against God and God only was that the indictment of nature Nathan had gotten through to his heart David realized that all of these sins principally the sin of adultery and of murder by proxy could never have been committed unless he did precisely what he's accused of here you say I don't follow what you're driving at alright follow me David stands upon the rooftop his armies are out in the field and as he looks across he eyes Bathsheba and instead of immediately turning away as he'd been instructed to do in the holy law of God David looks and the lingering look becomes a little flame of lust

31:12 until that little flame becomes a raging torrent of passion within his breast but at that point David who knew the law of God David who wrote Psalm 119 oh how love I thy law it is my meditation all the day I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right David knew that standing between him and allowing this raging torrent of lust to spill out upon Bathsheba was the holy commandment of God thou shall not commit adultery and standing above that commandment the God who gave it upon Mount Sinai this God of glory and majesty this God whom David had known and experienced and at times had entered in to such rapturous experiences of worship

31:56 that he penned these marvelous hymns this David as he looks out upon Bathsheba he knows that standing between him and the object of his lust is the commandment of God and above the commandment of God the God of the commandment and if he's to have Bathsheba he's got to do something first of all with the commandment of God and with the God of the commandment there's only one of two things he can do either he must say oh God thy commandment is pure it is right I cherish it and I turn away from Bathsheba oh Lord thou art worthy of my obedience thou art my God you've made me you've redeemed me you've drawn me to yourself oh Lord though I've allowed the seeds of passion to take root oh Lord thou art worthy

32:41 of my obedience grant me grace in this circumstance that was one alternative to regard the law of God and the God of the law as things worthy of obedience and regard or the other alternative was to say the commandment says thou shalt not but I'll treat it like Esau treated his birthright I'm hungry birthright who cares my passion rages I want Bathsheba who cares about the eighth the seventh commandment God is worthy of obedience God is worthy of my homage God is worthy of my subjection but at this point I don't care about the worthiness of God

33:26 all I care about is having what I want and David could never have taken Bathsheba until he did precisely what Nathan accused him he had to despise the commandment of God and he had to despise the God who gave the commandment and now when David's heart is smitten and David cries out to God for mercy he makes a full and honest acknowledgement that he is now aware that the nature of sin is seen in all of its terribleness in the light of the fact that it's sin against God David could never have made Bathsheba the plaything of his lust and he could and he truly

34:11 treated God or unless he had treated God like a little unworthy toy to be cast aside for the moment sure he sinned against Bathsheba she was a creature he sure he sinned against Uriah he was a creature but he did something worse than this he sinned against the mighty creator and not only his creator but notice who's confessing this sin against thee and thee only have I sinned I David to whom you revealed yourself when I was but a lad I David who've known what it is to be out there in the field and see the lion and the bear come amongst my sheep and to be clothed with a power not my own and tear the lion's jaws apart

34:55 and leave him dead I David who went out a little stripling and met this Goliath before whom all the nation trembled and with a slingshot in the stone brought him tumbling to the ground I David who was brought by sovereign disposition into the court of Saul I David who was then driven out and Saul determined to kill me but preserved month in and month out by the providence of God I David to whom you've given mighty victories and subdued my enemies before me I David to whom you revealed yourself in the night watches I David to whom you've given the privilege of penning the words that would be the hymn book of the church for centuries I David with all of this privilege oh God

35:39 that I could have despised you that's the curse of my sin I think that's what he means when he says against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil will you notice the word in thy sight and that's part of the indictment that was brought upon him by Nathan the prophet notice wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight bad enough if a man steals but if he sees a cop standing on the corner and steals right in front of him that's the most high-handed kind of brazen effrontery to law

36:24 David's sin was done in the sight of God not in the sense that God is just omniscient but in the sense that David apparently was even aware that he was doing this in the sight of his God for this is the David who knew the truth that he wrote in Psalm 139 O Lord thou hast searched me and known me thou knowest my down sitting mine uprising thou understandest my thoughts afar off there is not a word in my tongue but lo O Lord thou knowest it altogether thou hast beset me behind and before and laid thine hand upon me if I ascend up into heaven thou art there if I make my bed in hell thou art there if I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost part of the sea even there shall thy hand

37:09 lead me and thy right hand shall hold me if I say surely the darkness shall cover me the darkness and the light are both alike to me that David who knew experimentally the presence of God this is what made his sins so terrible that he could carry out these deeds in the sight of his God and when he comes to confess his sin he acknowledges this honestly do you see the word of application to all of us here tonight if you and I would confess our sins are right we must in the first place meditate on the fact of the one against whom we've sinned young man young woman adult who's never been

Application: Meditating on the God Against Whom We Sin

37:53 savingly joined to Christ you who have broken God's holy law year in and year out you have not loved him nor even cared that you have not loved him with the whole heart, mind, soul and strength you have not loved your neighbor as yourself and you have not cared you've not kept his day holy you've not honored his law and yet there's no real wound of concern you can't enter in and pray these words with any of the spirit of David you might mouth his words but you do not enter into his spirit against thee and thee only have I sinned this is the cry of grief what you need to recognize that the God whose law you've broken is your governor your judge your creator the one who sustained you and sent rain

38:37 down upon your unworthy head who sent the overtures of his mercy and his grace to you year in and year out and oh that you could but discover the greatness of the God whose law you've broken this would do much to bring you down at his feet in true repentance but I'm thinking particularly because this is the psalm of a child of God I'm thinking of you Christians here tonight do you pause when you confess your sins to allow the enormity of them to rise up before you in the light of this principle that it's against God that you're sinning what God the God who's redeemed you by his grace the God who's born so patient with you the God who is so tenderly

39:22 cared for you and revealed himself to you even as he did to David if not to the same degree certain certainly you know that qualitative fellowship with God that David knew this is what makes our sin so terrible and this is what should cause us to be able to enter into the spirit of David's penitence when we acknowledge that we're sinning against this great and kind and infinite God who is our father our savior our sustainer our provider and above all our redeemer what would you say I haven't committed adultery I haven't murdered well you see when you consider the God against whom we've sinned then the degree of sin in the eyes of men becomes relatively

40:07 unimportant the same God who said thou shalt not commit adultery said be kind one to another tender hearted forgiving one another and when you allow a spirit of unkindness and unforgiveness to reside in your heart your sin is aggravated guilt because it's sin against the same God who said thou shalt not commit adultery you can't keep that spirit of unforgiveness in your heart unless you despise the commandment let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor be put away from you you can't maintain that spirit unless you despise the law of God and despise the God who gave that law if it's his command husbands love your wives

40:52 as Christ loved the church not to set that as your goal and work and pray and labor to the end that you may know and experience that selfless tender cherishing love of Christ wherewith he loved his church if you just disregard that and accept your churlish disposition and say your wife will just have to learn to live with it your sin is despising the law of God and despising the God of the law if you wives who refuse to take that place of subjection which God says you're to take before your husbands in the Lord wives be subject to your husbands in everything and if you've rejected and revolted and chafed your chafing is against God

41:34 I don't see God's people weeping over sins like this we ought to I confess to my shame that precious seldom do I why because I really don't believe I despise God when I've disregarded one of these his precepts you kids it's God who said children obey your parents for this is right and refusal to do so is a frontry to this great God it's despising him and so you can apply it to any of the precepts of God and if we would come to the place of learning to scripturally confess our sins we must then meditate on the fact of who it is

42:19 whose law we've broken we should in the second play meditate upon the greatness of our privileges that's what David did there's somehow the spirit in this whole thing against thee and thee only have I sinned I David with all this privilege and this caused him to feel more deeply the sting of true repentance and grief how often do we meditate upon our privileges sin against conscience is one thing sin against the light of the Bible is another sin against conscience the Bible and privilege is another and the more our privilege the more our guilt when we sin I make one other observation in closing tonight you see how impossible

The Necessity of God's Law and Biblical Preaching for Conviction

43:04 it is for there to be any true confession without true conviction and how impossible that there should be true conviction without a recognition of God as the governor of his creatures and his law as an inflexible standard of his will you see if David had been living in our day there'd have been some young theologians who'd have loved to get their hands on him and they'd have sat him down and said now look David I understand you're having tremendous psychological upheavals because of what you did but now all I want to ask you was your relationship with Bathsheba meaningful to you and to her well David that's all that matters if it was meaningful so David you see what your problem is

43:48 is you've not broken out of the terrible trappings and the iron clad tradition of Moses and the fathers but David you don't live back in the days of that thundering mountain like things and all that business David you're living in the enlightened period you must come of age David you must live learn to break off these shackles obey an inflexible moral standard now David if you'll just give us an hour a week over the next few weeks we'll fix you up be no problem whatsoever we've just got to get you to understand that you're viewing things all too narrowly you see David's conviction from the human standpoint if he weren't a child of God couldn't happen God wouldn't let his child go and believe that kind of hogwash but you see there can be no conviction

44:33 without these root principles of a God to whom you're a God to whom you're accountable and a God who's expressed his will in an inflexible moral standard that lies at the basis of David saying it's my sin I've fallen short of that standard it's against thee I'm accountable to thee and the whole climate of this confession is the recognition of the God of the Bible who is creator of men who is the governor and the judge of men and his holy law which is an inflexible indication of his glory and his will for men I say to you young men preparing for the ministry let Moses do his work

45:18 wouldn't you long to be in a congregation when I read about it in Whitfield's journals it makes me wish that somehow I could be transported back two hundred years when it said preaching to thousands ten twenty thousand out in the fields there in England that a gentle sob would spread through the whole world the whole congregation no bedtime stories you read his sermons packed full of theological statements charged with impassioned pleas scriptural pleas the gentle sobbing in men crying out literally for mercy well I know much of that can only be resolved

46:02 in terms of the sovereign dispositions of God but looking at the factors involved he was talking to men who though they did not have many of them a saving acquaintance with Christ they were brought up in a church whose liturgy was shot through with the ten commandments with absolute moral standards and though they may not have been obeying them they knew they were sinning when they weren't and the problem in our day is that men can with a high hand flaunt the commandments of God and feel that they're being virtuous in so doing and if we're to see any return to vital piety one of the great aspects of which is true penitence there must be a widespread return to biblical preaching of the holy law of God and to the holy law of God and to a recognition

46:47 of the sovereign throne rights of God to the inflexibility of that standard of righteousness we've looked at the two ingredients of genuine biblical confession of sin an acknowledgement of the fact and presence of sin my sin is ever before secondly the awareness and acknowledgement of the true nature of sin it's against God now if those are two indisputable elements of true confession I think many of us and I don't say it editorially I say it as the confession of my own heart we must confess that our confessing

47:31 has been woefully inadequate and unscriptural it's just been a quick way to put a little plaster of self-made salve upon a wounded conscience rather than going before God for him to cure them all may God make of us true confession of sin true confession of sin true confession of sin true confession of sin true confession of sin true confession of sin true penitence for you see the end result will be a new appreciation of the grace and glory and wonder of our Lord Jesus Christ those who have surface dealings with sin will only have surface dealings with the Savior but those who have deep dealings with sin will know deep dealings with the Savior which is it in your case