A Blueprint For Genuine Repentance

Transcription

1 Message for THE LORD'S DAY EVENING, March 25, 2018 Christian Hope Church of Christ, Plymouth, North Carolina by Reggie A. Braziel, Minister Message 8 in Greatest Chapters of The Bible Sermon Series A Blueprint For Genuine Repentance PSALM 51 As we continue with our series of messages on The Greatest Chapters of The Bible I would like for you to please open your Bibles to PSALM 51. And just hold your place there, we'll get to our text in a few minutes. If you will notice underneath the PSALM 51 heading there is an explanatory note that tells us the precise circumstances under which this Psalm was written. In my Bible it says: To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone in to Bathsheba. By way of background, let me just spend a few minutes here refreshing your memory regarding the events that led up to the writing of this 51 st Psalm. BACKGROUND TO PSALM 51 Following the death of King Saul, David ascended to the throne and became Israel's second king. David was a very wise king, and a powerful king, and a very godly king. The scriptures even refer to David as a a man after God's own heart. (I Samuel 13:14; Acts 13:22) Normally in the springtime of the year King David would accompany his troops into battle against enemy nations. But on one particular occasion, David stayed behind at his palace. This proved to be a very bad mistake. David had too much free time on his hands, and one sleepless night he went up on the rooftop of his palace, the tallest building in Jerusalem; and there he spotted Bathsheba, his neighbor's wife taking a late night bath.

2 Well we know what followed. David had his servants send for her and bring her to the palace; and David committed adultery with her. David was confident that he had gotten by with his one night stand until some time went by and Bathsheba sent word to David saying, I'm pregnant. Now David really had a problem on his hands. He knew he couldn't attribute the pregnancy to Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, because he wasn't home. In fact he hadn't been at home in quite some time because he was deployed with the Israelite army. David knew he had to do something quick to cover his tracks so he had Uriah sent home from war, hoping that he and his wife would spend a romantic night together and all his problems would go away; or so he thought. When Uriah came back from war, he wouldn't go home to spend the night with his wife as David had hoped. Uriah was a loyal soldier and he couldn't bear the thought of being home and sleeping in his nice comfortable bed while his fellow soldiers were back on the battle-field sleeping on the ground inside their tents. And so Uriah chose to sleep in the servant's quarters at King David's palace instead. The next day David tried something else. He invited Uriah over to the palace for a big feast. And David made sure his servants kept Uriah's wine glass filled. And just as David had hoped, Uriah got stone drunk. David had calculated how this whole thing was going to play out: Uriah will staggar home drunk...tomorrow morning he will never even remember what happened the night before...and when he finds out his wife is pregnant, he'll believe it must have happened that night he came home drunk. PROBLEM SOLVED...or so David thought! You see, even though Uriah was drunk as a sailor he still refused to go home. Once again he spent the night on the steps of David's palace with the servants.

3 After having his plan foiled two times, David came up with a more sinister plan to cover up his sin. (This is the ugly nature of sin. One sin leads to another, and then another, and then another) David sent Uriah back to war carrying a sealed letter addressed to Commander Joab. When Joab opened the sealed letter, he read King David's order to place Uriah right on the front-lines of battle, and when the enemy attacks, have all your men fall back except for Uriah. It wasn't long before a messenger came to King David with news from Commander Joab that he had carried out his order, and Uriah the Hittite had been killed in battle. Now David is confident that with Uriah out of the picture he has gotten away with his sin. For one thing, Uriah died without ever finding out about his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba; and two, David could now take Bathsheba to be his wife and raise their child together. And they all lived happily ever after, right? WRONG! Many months went by, and one day GOD sent a prophet named Nathan to confront King David about his sin. Only Nathan didn't just come right out and accuse David, at least at first. Remember Nathan told King David a parable about a rich man who had everything he could possibly want, and a poor man who had nothing in this world except one little ewe lamb. And that poor man loved his little lamb, and he cared for it, and fed it from his own food. And one day the rich man met a stranger who was passing through. And that stranger wanted a lamb. Although the rich man had more lambs than he knew what to do with, he wouldn't give him one of his lambs. Instead, he took the only little lamb the poor man had. When David heard what that rich man had done to that poor man he was so angry that he demanded that Nathan reveal the identity of this rich man, so he could have him put to death, and he would make restitution to the poor man for his great loss. I doubt that King David ever forgot the next words that came out of the Prophet Nathan's mouth... YOU YOU......ARE ARE......THE THE......MAN MAN! Meaning, David, you are the rich man who did this awful thing to poor Uriah. Bathsheba was all he had and you took her away from him.

4 Now we have taken the long way around, but this brings us back to this 51 Psalm. As we read this Psalm you will plainly see that King David is a broken, repentant man as he writes these words{ PSALM 51:1-19 (NKJV) 1 Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. 4 Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight That You may be found just when You speak,[a] And blameless when You judge. 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. 6 Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. 9 Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You. 14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, The God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. 15 O Lord, open my lips, And my mouth shall show forth Your praise. 16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart These, O God, You will not despise. 51 st

5 18 Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, With burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then they shall offer bulls on Your altar. ******************************************************************** In this 51 st Psalm David provides us with A Blueprint For Genuine Repentance. By his own example, David teaches you and me what to do when we ourselves have sinned against GOD. There are FOUR KEY WORDS I want to draw your attention to as we consider this matter of genuine repentance. Those four words are: CONTRITION... CONSEQUENCES...CONFESSION...and CLEANSING. Let's consider that first word... I. CONTRITION (v.17) 1. Genuine repentance requires us to come to GOD with a contrite spirit. v. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart These, O God, You will not despise. 2. That word contrite literally means to bow down with a keen awareness of our spiritual bankruptcy. 3. David comes before His God as a man who's inner spirit is completely crushed...his his heart is broken...he.he is bowed down before God as one who is spiritually bankrupt...one who has absolutely nothing to offer to GOD to atone for his sins.

6 4. If you don't believe David's contrition is genuine, look at what he says in verses 1, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving-kindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. 5. David doesn't try to fool God or fool himself. He doesn't try to rationalize his sin, explain his sin, excuse his sin, defend his sin, or justify his sin. 6. Also notice David doesn't try to blame anyone else for his sins. Remember in the Garden of Eden, Eve blamed the serpent. And Adam blamed Eve, and he even blamed God for creating Eve. King David didn't play the blame game! He didn't blame GOD! He didn't blame BATHSHEBA! Rather in a broken and contrite spirit David said to God, I did this! I am guilty! I am the one who is responsible! 7. When you and I have sinned against GOD...when we fail miserably and fall far short of the glory of GOD...we must come before our heavenly Father in a spirit of genuine contrition! God isn't interested in our empty apologies...he isn't fooled by our crocodile tears...he doesn't want to hear our promises of how we are going to try harder and to do better. He isn't impressed with our good deeds that we do to try to make up for our sins. 8. GOD is looking for a spirit of brokenness and contrition. We must come before GOD as spiritually bankrupt sinners who have absolutely nothing to offer GOD to atone for our sins.

7 Our second word we want to consider is the word... II. CONSEQUENCES 1. In order for David's repentance to be genuine he had to weigh the gravity of his sins. He had to consider the consequences! He had to count the cost of his sins. 2. As we take a closer look at these verses David lists some of the consequences he experienced as a result of his sins. And yes, these are the same consequences we will experience when we sin against God. (A) Sin SOILS the saint. (v.2) 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. David felt dirty because of his sins. Don't you feel dirty when you have sinned against God? I know I sure do! (B) Sin SATURATES the mind. (v.3) 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. David can't stop thinking about his sin! His mind is literally saturated with his sin! He is consumed with guilt and shame. An unbeliever can sin and forget about it, but a true believer can't do that. When we as believers sin against God we will think about all through the day and all through the night. Think of your sin as one of those little yap, yap dogs that doesn't ever stop barking! That's one of the consequences of sin! It will never leave our mind until we bring the matter before GOD.

8 (C) Sin STINGS the conscience. (v. 4) 4 Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. David hurt a lot of people with his sins, but the thing that stung David the most was that he had sinned against almighty GOD! This is how you can tell that repentance is genuine and real; when you realize it is GOD you have sinned aganst. II Corinthians 7:10 (NKJV) For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. What David did to Bathsheba was awful, and he regretted it! And what David did to her husband Uriah was horrible, and he regretted it. But what hurt David more deeply than anything else is that he had sinned against his loving heavenly Father. Sadly the sting many of us feel when we have sinned is for ourselves, rather than for God. Our conscience stings because we got caught in our sin or because someone found out about our sin. Repentance isn't genuine until we experience that sting in our conscience for having sinned against GOD. (D) Sin SADDENS the heart (vs. 8a, 12a) 8a Make me hear joy and gladness, 12a Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, Sin had taken away David's joy and he desperately wanted it back. Whatever pleasure and happiness those few intimate moments he had with Bathsheba was long gone! If you are a true believer SIN will not bring you happiness, it will make you the most miserable person on earth!

9 (E) Sin SICKENS the body (v.8) 8 Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. David is saying that sin had taken a toll on his physical health. And sin will do the same to you and me. Sin steals our joy and peace and replaces it with worry, and fear, and anxiety, and guilt, and shame. And those things place our minds and bodies under a tremendous amount of stress, which often leads to all kinds of serious health issues. 3. While we are on this matter of the consequences of sin I want to remind you of a very important truth and that is repentance doesn't erase the consequences of our sins. Although David genuinely repented of his sins and was forgiven by GOD, the lingering consequences of his sins were many. The prophet Nathan had told David, the sword would never leave his house, meaning, there would be great trouble in David's family from that day forward. -The child he fathered with Bathsheba died. -His son Absalom had sexual relations with his father's concubines in public to humiliate his father before all of Israel. -His son Amnon raped David's daughter Tamar -His son Absalom killed his brother Amnon. -Absalom then formed a rebellion and tried to take the throne away from David. -And Absalom was later killed. Here's the point I want to make. Many Christians believe that if they repent of their sins and seek God's forgiveness that God will spare them from the consequences of their sins, and that is simply not true. Though God does forgive us, the consequences of our sin may linger long after we have been forgiven to remind us of just how destructive and deadly sin truly is.

10 Our first word was CONTRITION. (When we genuinely repent we must do so in a spirit of brokenness and contrition.) Our second word was CONSEQUENCES. (If our repentance is to be genuine we need to carefully calculate the consequences of our sin. We need to take inventory of just how much we lost as a result of our sins.) Now here is our third word, and that is... III. CONFESSION (vs. 3,4) 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against You, You only, have I sinned,and done this evil in Your sight that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. 1. We have all seen those Crime-Dramas on TV where police interrogators have their suspect in a little room for hours with one goal in mind...to get a confession out of them. The want to get the truth out in the open. 2. In David's confession he gets the truth out in the open before GOD. -First, notice in his confession he has THE RIGHT ESTIMATE OF HIS SIN. He doesn't say, For I acknowledge my mistakes, and my mistakes are always before me. Against You and You only have I made some mistakes. He doesn't call them failures...or slip ups... or bad choices...or errors in judgment. He calls what he did by the same names God calls it, For I acknowledge my TRANSGRESSIONS,, and my SIN is always before me. Against You, and You only have I SINNED. -Secondly, notice in his confession David has THE RIGHT ATTITUDE TOWARDS HIS SIN. He tells God, I have done EVIL in Your sight. David is disgusted by his sins. He hates the sins he committed.

11 -And thirdly, notice in his confession David has THE RIGHT UNDERSTANDING OF THE GRAVITY OF HIS SINS. David knows that GOD has every right to judge him for his sins and to execute justice. He doesn't plead for leniency. He doesn't ask God to go easy on him. He knows he is guilty of adultery and murder, which both carried the death penalty under Old Testament Law. 3. When you and I sin we must CONFESS OUR SINS TO GOD. And in our confession we must be totally forth-coming and truthful about our sins; and not minimize or sugar coat our sins by referring to them as mistakes...or failures or slip ups. Our first word was CONTRITION Our second word was CONSEQUENCES Our third word was CONFESSION I John 1:9a (NKJV) If we CONFESS our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Our now our fourth word is... IV. CLEANSING (vs. 7,9,10) 7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 9 Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 1. David knew that the cleansing of his sin could only come from GOD. He could not cleanse himself of his sins by offering sacrifices to God...or by praying three times a day...or by being in the worship services every Sabbath day. 2. The cleansing of sin can only come from GOD! Remember that scripture I read from I John 1:9 (NKJV) while ago? If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins (listen) and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness.

12 3. We cannot make up or compensate for our sins by doing a bunch of good deeds or by getting more actively involved in the Church. All we can do is to throw ourselves upon the grace and mercy of GOD and trust in his promise to forgive us of all our sins. It is then that GOD will restore the joy and peace of our salvation. ********************************************************************************* CONCLUSION As we bring tonight's message to a close I want to ask you two soulsearching questions: Is everything alright between you and your Heavenly Father. And, if not, what do you plan to do about it? Are You Washed In The Blood? Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Lay aside the garments that are stained with sin, And be washed in the blood of the Lamb; There's a fountain flowing for the soul unclean, O be washed in the blood of the Lamb![Chorus] Are you washed in the blood, In the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?