Fruit of Restoration

The Pattern of David's Repentance and Restoration

0:02 We invite you to turn with me to the 53rd Psalm as we continue our studies in this penitential psalm that is perhaps the most helpful of all of those psalms that we call the penitential psalms.

0:20 We are approaching the study of this psalm not merely to know how David repented when he had grievously sinned against his God in order to know something of David's repentance and restoration, but we're viewing his repentance and restoration basically as a pattern for our own repentance and restoration. For until the day that our Lord brings us into his presence, we shall be plagued with the problem of sin. And the more we draw nigh to him in realized communion, the greater will be our awareness of sin. And therefore we must grow in our understanding of what it means to be a true penitent.

0:59 The idea that is prevalent in... In so many evangelical circles today, the growth in grace means growth away from a sense of sinfulness.

1:11 Growth away from deep brokenness is certainly not a scriptural concept. And if we would follow on to know the Lord as we ought, then we must grow in our understanding and experience of true penitence. For our Lord has said, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are they who mourn.

1:32 Blessed are they who mourn. For they shall be comforted. And so the attitude of true holy mourning is to be a continuous and increasing characteristic of the true child of God. Last week we considered together verses 11 and 12 in our continuous study through the psalm, in which David prayed in a negative way, verse 11, Cast me not away from thy presence.

1:55 Don't take away realized communion. Then he prays, Don't take away conscious support. Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Then in verse 12, his positive petition, Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.

2:11 He asked for a restoration of joy, and then for a restoration of stability of spirit, and uphold me with thy free spirit, or better translated, uphold me with a noble, princely spirit. Let me not anymore be possessed of this groveling, base, ignoble spirit that would lead me to adultery, and murder, but give me a princely spirit that will lead me in the ways of subjection to the holy law of God. Now, having made the petition that God would not remove his realized communion and conscious support, that God would grant him a restoration of joy and a restoration to stability of spirit, he then says in verse 12, verse 13,

Psalm 51:13 - The Fruit of Restoration

2:55 that this would be the blessed issue of this restoration of God. Then will I teach, which transgresses thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. So we might, in a very real sense, call verse 13, David's prayer for the fruit of this restoration to be realized in his life. Lord, cast me not away from thy presence.

3:21 Take not thy spirit from me. Restore the joy of thy salvation. Uphold me with a noble spirit to this end, that sinners might be converted, unto thee. And so we shall study verse 13 under that general theme of the fruit of the restoration of sinning or erring saint.

3:41 What should be the fruit of God's restoring work in your life? When you've been brought under the bondage and power of sin, and your conscience perhaps in that area has grown calloused, and God has used an aphid, perhaps a message, a circumstance, a portion of his word that has awakened your slumbering conscience, and in brokenness, you've come before the Lord, you've sought him for his cleansing, you've sought him for his restoration. As you do, what do you have out there as the fruit of that restoration? Do you think of it solely in terms of what it will mean to you?

4:16 That once again you'll know the light of his countenance? Now David did have that in mind. Cast me not away from thy presence. But he didn't stop there.

4:24 Do you think merely in terms of the restoration of your own joy, that once again the joy bells will be set to ringing within your own breast? David thought, he thought of that, but he didn't stop there. Having made the prayer for restoration, he then carries on the thought, then this will be the fruit of it, I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. And I would venture to say that no prayer for cleansing and restoration is a true prayer, or has attained to its God-intended end, unless we move out of ourselves and think of the fruit of our restoration, in terms of ministry to needy men all about us.

Meaning of the Words: 'Teach Transgressors Thy Ways' and 'Sinners Shall Be Converted'

5:07 Now first of all, let's consider the meaning of the words in this petition. What did David mean when he prayed these words? And then we shall look at the message of these words to us as we sit here tonight. First of all then, his prayer was, I will teach transgressors thy ways.

5:26 There's a time element here. Lord, if you'll do this, then something will follow. So, this is a conditional request. Lord, if you'll do what I've asked, then this will be the blessed result and the fruit of it.

5:40 And what will that fruit be? I will teach. I will intelligently, plainly communicate something to others. And that which he says he will communicate is this.

5:50 I will teach transgressors thy ways. The ways of God simply means the general modes of God's actions and the general patterns of His working. You will find, throughout the Scripture, references to the way of God, to the ways of the Lord. Let the sinner forsake his ways, his patterns of action and thought and habits and dispositions of mind and of life.

6:15 David says, if God will restore me, then I will intelligently, painstakingly, instruct people in the patterns of thy dealings with the sons of men. Now, who is it that he says he will teach? Well, he calls them, in the first part of the text, transgressors, and then in the latter part of the text, sinners. And he uses two different words here.

6:38 The transgressor word is a strong word. It means a rebel, one who's throwing off the restraint of God's holy law. And it's used as a descriptive word of unregenerate men. In Psalm 37 and verse 38, you have the same word used by the psalmist.

6:55 And it's used in contrast with the child of God. Verse 37 of Psalm 37, Mark the perfect man, and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace. But the transgressors shall be destroyed together. The end of the wicked shall be cut off.

7:13 Here the transgressor is called the wicked man who shall be cut off. So David obviously has in mind a ministry that as a restored sinner, he will have to transgressors, rebels, people of the now generation who say that there is no moral standard, there is no law, who are saying as we saw this morning, let us cast his bands asunder. Let's break his cords. Let's throw off the chains that our forefathers have forged for us in terms of absolute moral concepts and of a God who has a right to rule us.

7:47 Let's break all of this. Well, that's the kind of person that David's concerned about here. He says, Lord, if you do something for me, then I'm going to set out to teach transgressors, rebel sinners. And then he says, sinners shall be converted unto thee.

8:00 And the word he uses here for sinners, is the word for a criminal who's already condemned and under sentence. It's the same word used in Psalm 1-1. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners. Those who strayed from the law of God and stand under the condemnation of His holy law.

8:23 So it's obvious that David is not thinking primarily of other saints who like himself have transgressed the law of God and have grievously sinned, but he's thinking particularly of those that would be outside the circle of the people of God. He's thinking of the unregenerate, of the unconverted, those who are under the canopy of the wrath of God, even as David prays. And what does he say will happen? If, God, you will restore me, then I will teach, I will communicate intelligently, plainly, simply, these transgressors, these rebels, these sinners, I'll instruct them in the patterns of thy dealings, and then he makes this tremendous affirmation, and these sinners

9:07 shall be converted unto thee. Now the word converted here is an interesting word. It's the word used again and again in the Old Testament for simply to return. If you're reading through the Old Testament narratives and wherever it says that so and so returned to a certain place, this is the word that's used again and again.

9:26 It means to go back to a place or to a circumstance or to a situation that was previously occupied. It's the word used in Genesis when the Lord said after the fall of man, dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return. You'll go back to that state from whence you came, Genesis 3 and verse 19. And it's the word that later on then had the meaning of conversion, to return, to turn again to the Lord.

9:54 It's used 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, here's the same word, return unto the Lord.

10:07 The God from whom we've grievously strayed, all we like sheep have gone astray from this God is the end of our being, is the goal of our existence. And now David describes conversion in terms of a turning back to the God-centered, God-focused, God-ruled, God-absorbed life. And that's his prayer and really his affirmation. Lord, if you'll do this for me, and then once again I'm able with a full heart and with the fragrance of the kiss of forgiveness upon my cheek, I instruct sinners, there will be the confirmation of that word with power.

10:44 Sinners shall be converted, not unto me, the instrument, not even unto the people of God, but unto thee. And he brings into focus that true conversion is basically a return of the erring, straying sinner to the living and the true God. Now, so much then for the meaning of the words themselves. Now, what is the message conveyed by these words?

The Message Conveyed: David's Understanding of Witnessing

11:12 It's not enough for us to know, well, that's what David meant when he prayed, that's fine. But now, what does this say to us? When you and I are in David's situation, when we are pleading with God as we followed through the prayer of David, acknowledging first of all that our only hope is the mercy of God, dealing with the problem of sin before we deal with the fruits of it, no mention of joy or peace till we come to verse 8. He's concerned in those first seven verses with dealing with the problem itself, sin, its defilement, its guilt.

11:41 Well, when we follow David through the first eight verses, seven verses, and then we begin to pray that God would restore some of that which sin has robbed us of, and then we come to verse 13 and say, Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. We must enter into David's understanding, for it was certain things he understood that caused him to pray this way. And what did David understand? Well, he understood, first of all, some things about witnessing, and then some things about the grace of God, and then some things about conversion.

12:14 And what he understood about witnessing, I'm putting it in our terminology, of teaching transgressors, caused him to pray the way he prayed. What he understood about the grace of God caused him to pray this prayer. What he understood about the nature of conversion caused him to pray this prayer. Well, then let's look at what he understood about those three things, as time permits.

Inseparable Relationship Between Soul-State and Witness Effectiveness

12:35 What did David understand about witnessing that made him pray this petition at this particular place in his prayer? Well, the first thing he understood was this, that there is an inseparable relationship between the state of our souls and the effectiveness of our witness. There is an inseparable relationship between the state of our souls and the effectiveness of our witness. Now, you didn't need to tell David that he had a duty to bear witness to the ungodly.

13:06 He knew this. He knew that the second table of the law touched this area of his life, to love thy neighbor as thyself. You read the 119th Psalm, and again and again, he breaks out in expressions of his concern for the wicked. He said, Rivers of water run down mine eyes, for they keep not thy law.

13:23 And he speaks of this concept of his concern for the wicked, that they hear the message of God. David also knew that in this period of close to a year when he was lying under the bondage of this particular sin, when his conscience, as it were, had been cauterized by his spiritual state, then when Nathan came, he was smitten in his heart, he knew that one of the things that had been the fruit of his sin was that there had been a checking of the vibrance and the reality of his witness to others. He knew his duty all along. But he also knew that he would never perform his duty of teaching transgressors the ways of God until his soul was brought back

14:06 into a healthy state. In other words, David recognized that failure to witness was a symptom and not a cause. It was symptomatic, not causal. It was a fruit, not a root.

14:23 That's why you don't hear anything about witnessing, teaching sinners, in the first 12 verses. Why? Because he's dealing with the root of his problem. Why has he not been teaching transgressors?

14:35 Because he's had no joy. And he knew that to teach transgressors when there was no vital experience of the grace of God was gross hypocrisy. Well, why was there no joy? Well, then we take him back to the first seven or eight verses, because there was sin, unconfessed, unrepented of, undealt with.

14:53 And so having dealt with the root, he now moves from the heart of the issue outward, so that he's now praying that God will deal with all the fruits of his sin as well as the root. Starting with the root, he doesn't stop there. But he moves right out to the circle where he deals with all of its fruits. And he knew that in the state of soul in which he was found when Nathan came, that there would be no vibrant witness, no concern, let alone any effective communication to the sinner, to the transgressor, because of the state of his soul.

15:26 And if the Scripture makes anything plain, and if church history affirms anything clearly, it's this very principle that witnessing is a fruit, an effect, not a cause. Acts chapter 2, the disciples waiting there in the upper room, and the Holy Ghost came upon them immediately, without anyone to give them thirteen lessons on why and how to go out and do it. They were out speaking abroad the mighty works of God. Acts chapter 4, gathered together, the Holy Ghost comes upon them, the place is shaken, they're filled with the Spirit, and then it says immediately, and they speak the word of God.

15:59 The word of God with boldness. You see, the speaking was a fruit. Their vital relationship with the living God and with His Son was the root. And then the history of the church affirms and confirms this principle, so that whenever God has visited His church in true revival, not primarily thinking of revival in terms of making people feel good, but in terms of making them good, when God is visited by His Spirit, and comes as the Spirit of justice, judgment in the burning, and sin has been dealt with, and God's people have entered into a fresh sensitivity of relationship to Him and to each other, one of the blessed fruits has always been a new upsurge of vibrant,

16:43 contagious witnessing. Always, always. In fact, it's one of the ways you can judge whether it's been a spurious or a genuine work of the Spirit. If it ends with people sitting around giving the details of how they feel, and if it were analyzing the twitchings of their heart, then it hasn't been true revival.

16:59 But whenever God has visited His church, it has always resulted in a new surge of witness and testimony. Why? Because witnessing, teaching transgressors is the fruit of a right relationship to God. So, David, recognizing that, understanding that, says, O Lord, have mercy upon me, wash me, cleanse me, restore me, purge me, make me to hear.

17:28 For unless you do this, my just going out, as it were, in cold blood and grinding out an attempt to reach the lost will be but mockery and sham. But at the same time, he doesn't stop with verse 12, simply praying that he'll be restored, for this, in a very real sense, would be the utmost form of spiritual selfishness, to simply pray that he might be restored without saying, Lord, now that the root is established, give me the fruit. So, you see, looking at this passage in its order will keep us from both errors. The error of simply viewing witnessing as an external activity that can be imposed upon the church.

18:09 And there are many in our day that are attempting to do this. They say the problem with the church is it's not witnessing, let's organize, let's plan, let's program, and let's get out and witness. Witnessing never brought revival. It may bring increase, but you just multiply after your time.

18:25 That's all. And many a church can testify a tremendous increase that's come through witnessing. But the increase has not been the increase of God. There's simply a natural principle involved here.

18:36 The salesman who knocks on more doors is going to have more sales, right? This is a natural principle. And it'll work even in the realm of the church. But you see, if that's not the fruit of the quickening of the Spirit and is not attended with his quickening, then the increase proves nothing.

18:53 So it would keep us then from that wrong idea that if we can just get people busy witnessing, then somehow, our relationship to God will take care of itself. No, it won't. In fact, many times, the semblance of success that comes on an imposition of a plan of witnessing on an unrevived church, then is deceptive because people say, oh, we're going, God must be with us. There's no proof that God's with you.

19:16 Taking Psalm 51 as it is will keep us from that, but it'll also keep us from the other error of people sitting around all the time saying, oh, it's just glorious, it's just wonderful the Lord met us, He did a wonderful thing for me, I've got the joy of the Lord back and all the rest. And they never actually understand that. And they're never out teaching sinners the ways of God. Something's wrong there.

19:36 Something's wrong. Restoration is the root, but witness is the fruit. And the two are always joined together and in that order. And David understood this.

Application: Examining Our Zeal for Witnessing

19:42 That's why he prayed the way he prayed. Now, what does this say to us as individuals and as a church? Well, it tells us that if our zeal to teach transgressors the ways of God is abating, this is a symptom that something's wrong. Something's wrong.

19:55 Now, what does this say to us as individuals and as a church? Well, it tells us that if our zeal to teach transgressors the ways of God is abating, this is a symptom that something's wrong. Something's defective in our relationship to God. Now, it's a lot easier to bypass the issue and get organized to the hill to do something.

20:15 Your flesh can feed on programs. But nobody's flesh ever got fed much praying through verses 1 to 12 of Psalm 51. That'll burn your flesh up. That'll hang it up where it belongs.

20:28 You see? So we've got to start there. So if there's no zeal, no concern to see sinners reached, this is symptomatic and we need to go to the root. We need to deal with the cause.

Inseparable Relationship Between Propagation of Truth and Conversion

20:39 But if we profess that we've dealt with the cause and it isn't producing this zeal to teach sinners, then something's wrong with us and we need to ask God to search out our hearts and show us wherein the problem lies. Now, there's a second thing David understood about witnessing. Not only that there was an inseparable relationship between the state of our souls and the effectiveness of our witness, but in David's prayer we see that he understood that there was an inseparable relationship between the propagation of truth and the conversion of sinners. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

21:21 David understood that there was this inseparable relationship between the propagation of truth and the conversion, the turning of sinners to the living God. Now David knew that only God can turn sinners to himself. He knew this. David understood this.

21:39 Any man who's had a little peek into something of the bottomless pit of his own depravity knows that if God didn't initiate the work and carry it on and keep it moving, never would be done. David understood this. It was David who said, Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee. And yet David realized that God does not do his work of converting sinners in a vacuum, but he does it by means and the instrumentality of the truth.

22:09 But notice how he considers it. Then will I not cajole people, pressure people, steamroller people, no, he said, then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted. He viewed evangelism, to use our contemporary term, as primarily a work of instruction. I will teach transgressors thy ways.

22:37 Now, in this context, what do you think David had in mind? Well, if we read back through the first 12 verses, I think this is what he had in mind. The ways of God are the patterns of God's operation. The ways of God are setting forth of the dispositions of God, how he works, what he's like.

22:56 And David said, I'll teach transgressors thy ways. The way of God is a holy God who hates sin even in his child. David's been made painfully aware of this. Painfully aware.

23:10 So that as he prays, he cries out, wash me throughly from mine iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. Lord, you're right.

23:22 When you declare this thing to be sin, you're absolutely right. There is no excuse for it. You're clear when you speak and when you judge. Lord, when you tell me that I'm corrupt to the very core of my being, it's true, I'm in shape and in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.

23:39 What is one of the ways of God that David will now declare to sinners, not in a cold, distant, objective, academic way, not one of the ways he'll declare is the way of God is a holy God who hates sin with a holy hatred. The way of man being a rebel against this God who is depraved to the core of his being. The way of God in forgiving sinners purges me and cleanses me in the appointed way with the sprinkling of blood. Lord, I'll declare to sinners what you're like and how desperately we sinners need thee and how in mercy and in loving kindness you've appointed a way of forgiveness through the blood of an innocent sacrifice.

24:21 I'll tell them the ways of God in the renewing work of the Spirit. Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. I'll teach them the ways of God in restoring, erring wayward sinners into conscious fellowship with God.

24:38 David understood that if sinners were to be converted there had to be a propagation of the truth in the form of teaching, instruction about God, His way, His way of forgiveness, the way that He receives men to Himself. And you see how beautifully this morning's message and tonight's message dovetail? Oh yes, there must be a sounding forth of the Word by our transformed lives. That was the emphasis of 1 Thessalonians 1, 8 to 10.

25:06 From you sounded out the Word. Your changed lives have gone out like a trumpet call. But men can look upon a changed life for days and weeks and years and perish. The changed life should be like an arrow to pierce the heart convincing men of the reality of the Gospel.

25:23 But then the shaft of divine truth must follow that arrowhead, you see, and bring into that heart the knowledge of the living God and of His Son and His salvation. And so, you see, it's not a contradiction. It's not the witness of a life or the witness of a lift, but it's the witness of the life preparing the way for the teaching of transgressors of the way of God. And if the piercing arrowhead of a holy life and a transformed life does not prepare the way for your verbal witness, it's like trying to shoot the blunt shaft of an arrow without an arrowhead into the side of an animal.

25:57 It won't go. It bounces off. But the only way that you can effectively bring down that animal is that there must be the arrowhead and the shaft together doing the work. And this is the way God works.

The Forgiven Sinner as the Most Fit Witness

26:10 By the piercing, penetrating power of a transformed life and then the instruction of sinners in the ways of God. David understood this and so he prayed, Then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Then the third thing David understood about witnessing when he prayed this prayer was that none was speaking as fit to witness to sinners but a forgiven sinner reveling in the joy of forgiveness. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, thy mighty work of deliverance of forgiveness.

26:47 Uphold me with a steadfast spirit then will I teach transgressors again not with a cold objected take it or leave it kind of teaching but with that kind of teaching that is born out of heart experience. When I tell sinners that no matter how deep in your rebellion against God there is mercy and grace to forgive as David would speak those very words the memory of his own adultery and murder by proxy and his year of hypocrisy and spiritual barrenness would well up in his consciousness and even as he would be teaching sinners the ways of God the consciousness that God had blotted out that sin

27:32 and God had restored him Lord if you restore me then I'll teach as a sinner restored by grace reveling in the joy of that restoration I'll speak with a conviction that this is so. I think I saw more clearly than ever I've often had it posed as a question when men had preached why didn't God commission angels to preach the gospel I believe here's the basic reason I'm more convinced it than ever now because no matter what an angel may say with accuracy they don't have to be plagued with the dullness of mind that you and I have to be plagued with and the slowness of tongue there's one thing an angel can't do he can't speak

28:17 with experimental awareness of the forgiving grace of God he's got to speak of that from a distance as an observer he can't speak of it experimentally but remember the man who said then will I teach transgressors here's a man guilty of murder guilty of adultery against the backdrop of all the privileges he had as a child of God as the king of Israel as the anointed king the man after God's own heart you mean God will restore a man like this yes he does for the moment he said as recorded in 2 Samuel 12 I have sinned against the Lord the prophet said in the name of the Lord the Lord hath put away thy sin and David realized that no one is able to communicate the message of mercy

29:01 to sinners so effectively as a sinner conscious of the mercy and restoring grace of God oh dear one don't let your past failure keep you from witnessing cry to God for the sense of his restoration deal with the sin that's put the blot upon your conscience and a lock upon your lips and ask God as we'll see in the next petition once again to open your lips that you might speak forth his praise and then go out with what is really a paradox the open confession I'm nothing but a sinner even at this state I'm the chief of sinners conscious of failure and aware and yet wonder of wonder accepted in the beloved the freshness of the kiss of forgiveness upon my cheek

29:46 so when I say to sinners God is merciful even to the vilest this is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners you may not say it eloquently you may not say it in a way that even begins to satisfy you but if you say it as one conscious of being a forgiven sinner it will come with a conviction that the greatest eloquence of an angel could not match for the angel has no experimental acquaintance with the mercy of God and the grace of God in forgiveness that's why God's commissioned us to do it that's why David waxes bold in his prayer Lord haven't I forever forfeited the privilege of opening my mouth

30:30 in your name to say anything to sinners why they'll know they know about me they know what I've done won't they throw into my teeth who are you who are you to talk to me David would say well just a forgiven sinner and all the sweetness of his restoring grace has entered in and penetrated the deepest recesses of my soul all that you might know and I know that'll sweep away a lot of objections pretty quick when a sinner consciously standing under the canopy of God's grace and forgiveness tells another sinner about the mercy of God in his own quaint way Charles Spurgeon says along this line the greatest need in the ministry and in the Christian church is that men

Witnessing in Faith and Confidence

31:15 have the SS degree if they're going to be effective witnesses not the BD or the BA or the BS or BA but the SS degree the saved sinner degree because the saved sinner degree is that which produces that homely at times crude but powerful eloquence that is convincing to sinners and the fourth thing David understood about witnessing and I don't know how much you understand about this but I want to understand something more about it is that one's witness must be in faith and in confidence that it will be owned of God and that the success of it is sure notice then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall

32:00 shall this is an affirmation of faith not sinners may be but sinners shall now he doesn't say all that I teach will be converted but he says some shall be converted unto thee David understood that to teach sinners in unbelief is a terrible thing what a terrible thing to proclaim the message that God has revealed is his power unto salvation that message which he uses to quicken the dead and yet to declare and communicate it with no confidence in that God has given it to us no David realized that having been restored it was not just for his sake but that God had some transgressors and sinners who he was going to reach through David

32:45 and that he could communicate the message of God teach the ways of God in absolute confidence that God would own his word do we have any of this as we bear witness do I have this as I preach once in a while I do but not as often as I know I should and the longer you're with the people the more you're tempted to be swallowed up in unbelief some of those loved ones you know their carnal unregenerate rebellious ways in and out and you say well I know God can save anyone but if you only knew that uncle of mine I know God can save anyone but if you only knew this one what is that saying well what you're saying is that maybe

33:29 there's someone who's gotten outside the circle of the power of the God that's a terrible thing to say and yet that's what unbelief says and I confess as I look out into the faces of some of you that's going on six years that I've seen a confession from you to me that you belong to the Lord and at times I confess I don't preach in the faith that sinners shall be but there are other times when I do and what a glorious thing to know that in spite of all the rebellion God's going to have his day and God can subdue your rebel proud heart and bring you broken to the foot of his beloved son pleading for mercy

34:14 in fact that's one of the greatest barbs in the conscience of an unsaved man when someone with confidence in the power of the gospel that he communicates can make them miserable with that misery that is the sweet pain of conviction that's the darkness before the dawn of the day of God's grace in the heart well so much for what David understood about witnessing may I in closing just briefly touch on one or two things he understood about the grace of God he was convinced that God's grace could overrule even the depths of his failure to bring blessings to others that's the only reason David could pray a prayer like this I think most of us

David's Understanding of God's Grace and Conversion's End

34:59 if we'd been where David's been and sinned as David had sinned we might be able to hope that God would forgive us and restore us but the best we could hope for is we'd sort of have to mark time till the Lord came and took us home either by death or His coming but David waxes bold Lord though I've sinned and I don't in any way minimize the depths of my sin you read those first six seven verses he calls the thing what it is rises to this tremendous pinnacle of faith where he says Lord I'm believing you to use me even me as an instrument of blessing to sinners now why could David ever rise to that place because he had an understanding of the grace of God and the breadth of that grace and the power of that grace the inexhaustible

35:43 supply of grace and so he believed that God could overrule even the depths of sin that blessing might come to sinners that speaking now is one who has this terrible blot upon his life he can still be an instrument of blessing to others do you have that kind of confidence in the grace of God do you feel well when you've messed up like I've messed up not much hope for you you've got to be a sort of second rate Christian the rest of your life God's grace is not that niggerly you've got low views of His grace low views of His grace He says in that wonderful passage in Joel for the people of God have sinned grievously and yet the Lord says if you'll turn to me and cut your garment I'll not only restore you but He says

36:27 I'll go back and make up some of the things that your sins have wrought I'll restore the years that the locusts have eaten and the years that the canker worm has eaten who but God can do that you can't go back and undo but God can and God says that's what He'll do now some of us look back at years of piddling around playing church and God in His mercy has restored us in past months or years and there's a reality and a freshness in our relationship to Him longing to teach transgressors but we really wonder when I've flubbed as I've had and goofed for so long and messed things up can it be that God could use even me oh dear Lord let me encourage you tonight to get a broader view of the grace of God if God could take a man in his fifties like David who brought such reproach

37:12 to the name of Christ and sinned so grievously and make him an instrument of mercy and salvation to sinners there's hope for anyone here and David understood something about the grace of God that we need to understand and he said and then David understood something about the nature of conversion there's perhaps more we could go into but in the interest of time I'll just mention this one thing David understood that the basic end of conversion was that men might be set right with God notice his prayer then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall get happy yeah they'll get happy but that's not the main thing and then sinners will begin to live well oriented in the grace of God to live well oriented

37:56 wholesome well integrated lives yeah that's true but that's not the goal of it he says sinners shall be literally turned unto thee as David thought of what God would do as he bore witness to his grace he spontaneously thought of the work of God in turning sinners in terms of returning the sinner to the God centered God ruled God focused God dominated life sinners shall be converted unto thee and of course those who were here this morning you see again how beautifully this dovetails with 1 Thessalonians 1 9 for they themselves report of us what manner of entering in we had unto you how that ye turned to God

38:40 from your idols to serve the living and the true God and to wait for his Son from heaven the doctrine of conversion is basically the same in the Old and the New Testament because God being who he is God's purposes of grace being what they are then you expect to find the same now there's more light revealed as to the basis upon which God deals with sinners and the way his spirit operates there's an unfolding of light in the New Testament but the work is basically the same God is the God who made us for himself the greatest crime of sin is that we've turned from him no matter what we've turned to even the most noble pursuit that man can conceive of is absolute wickedness at the expense of pursuing God that's why the kindest

39:25 nicest most gentle philanthropist who gives his life to living for others sells all his goods burns the midnight oil to serve humanity if he's not the man who's living the God-centered God-controlled God-focused life he's living in gross wickedness but no matter what you've turned to you've turned away from the living God all we like to seek have gone astray from him from God from God from God from God so that's what makes sinners we've turned to our own way and the great work of God in conversion is to return sinners to himself this is why our lord died first Peter three eighteen he died the just the unjust that he might bring us

40:10 and so David as he prays is not asking God to use him to simply get some of his fellow-men to feel better but he's praying that God will use him to see some of his fellow-men brought back into face-to-face with the living God. Oh, beloved, that's what we exist for as a church, to be an instrument of God among other things, that in this community, as we teach transgressors the ways of God, they shall be returned unto Him.

The True Test of Evangelism and Call to Return to God

40:42 Not enough that they live better, quit their rousing, their overt sinning, and all the rest. We'd miss it. All we'd do is make them two-fold more the children of hell. That was the problem of the Pharisees.

40:52 If they got somebody to believe everything they believed and do everything they had on their list of do's and don'ts, they were absolutely content whether he lived to the honor of God never entered their minds. Just so long as he met the membership requirements and did all that a good Pharisee was supposed to do, God didn't enter into the picture. And I fear that the leaven of Phariseeism in great measure has defiled the professing church of Christ. How do we evaluate our growth in terms of this?

41:26 Are we being an instrument of God to see more and more men, women, fellows, and girls returning unto God? That's the test. Do we see them becoming hungriers and thirsty people after God? Seekers of His will, of His glory, of His honor, of His praise.

41:43 Is that what we think? That's how you judge the fruit of any evangelism. In your home, in your Sunday school, in the church, campaigns. I care not where it is.

41:52 And David understood that. And that's why he prayed that God would be pleased in His grace and mercy to restore him, to support him, that once again, teaching transgressors the ways of God, they might be returned, they might be brought into this face-to-face relationship with the living God. May God grant to us then the understanding that David had that when we have problems in our witnessing, we'll not call these things or regard them as causes, but these are effects. The cause lies somewhere in our relationship with God.

42:27 And we've got to start with verse 1 before we can pray with David's spirit and understanding verse 13. But if you start with verse 1, don't stop with verse 12. You go right on to verse 13. And do not rest content until once again the restored joy and the restored light of His countenance is having blessed fruit and fruition in a vibrant witness of the grace and forgiving mercy of our God.

42:55 And if you're here tonight, and I have no doubt that in the group beside there's some of you to whom this is true, you know nothing of what it is to be returned to that face-to-face relationship with God. You may not be openly profligate and immoral and rebellious, but you know and your conscience smites you as I say it, that your life is anything other than the God-centered life, the God-ruled life, the God-possessed life. That's wickedness. You were made for God.

43:24 You were made for Him.

43:27 My word to you is, seek ye the Lord, while He may be found. Call upon Him while He's near. Return unto the Lord. But how can you return?

43:36 You've been in wickedness and rebellion. He's appointed a way of returning. I would teach you the ways of God, and that way is His Son who said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father but by me, but blessed be God, any man may come by Him, for He promised Him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out.

43:55 And for you who tonight have no zeal to witness, because there's no joy of salvation, it's got some roots somewhere. You've got some issues, some controversies with the Lord, you've got to deal with them. You've got to face them head on, squarely, honestly. Judgment day, honesty.

44:13 And as you do, then, let your faith be focused upon the mercy of our God until you can pray with David. Then, Lord, will I teach, even I, with all my failure and all the smarting of my conscience, even of my failure as a restored sinner, I will teach transgressors by ways, and Lord, that you will own my witness with blessing and sinners shall be converted unto thee. May the Lord seal to our hearts these truths of His own holy word. Let us unite in prayer.