Sweet Emotion

Introduction

Whenever we witness a new believer come to faith in Jesus Christ, we rejoice. We correctly tell them no matter what sin exists in their life, by the blood of Jesus Christ it has been covered, and we praise God that He is willing and able to redeem if only we will come to Him.

But what about Christians? What about that sin in your life that you can’t seem to break free of? What about that sin in your life that you continue to step into over and over again? What happens when a son or daughter of God continues to sin against the One who has redeemed them by His blood? Because the truth of the matter is no matter where you are in your faith with Christ, you will never be perfected in this life. You are declared righteous by His shed blood, but each of us will continue to sin. If you would open up your Bible’s to Psalm 51 this morning, God has a word for you about the sweet emotion we experience in the midst of sin our and in His powerful restoration.

Psalm 51 is a Psalm of David, and to give you a little bit of background on this Psalm, it’s in the Old Testament that we are introduced to a man by the name of David. When we went through the Book of Ruth, we met Boaz who had a son named Obed, Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David. David was the youngest of his brothers. He was the runt of the family, but Scripture describes him as a man after God’s own heart. Before David even realized God’s calling on his life, God showed incredible favor toward him.

David is the one who slays Goliath. David is the one who will become king over Israel. After he is anointed king, Saul takes every opportunity to try to kill him, but David evades him every time. David even had several opportunities to take the throne for himself, even an opportunity to kill King Saul, but he waits for God to do it his way. And as you’re following the life of David, you will become impressed with his Godly integrity. But before we become too impressed with David, Scripture makes it clear that even he, as a man after God’s own heart, is sinful. You’ll notice that the Bible is careful to tar the reputation of every single individual in Scripture except for one, Jesus Christ.

By the time we arrive at 2 Samuel 11, we are introduced to a different side of David. At a time when his army is off at war, David is lounging at his palace. One night, as he is looking out over the city, he sees a woman named Bathsheba take off her clothes to take a bath. David takes notice of this beautiful naked woman, so he summons her to his palace and has sexual relations with her. Worse yet, he gets her pregnant. Worse yet, he attempts to cover up his sin by having husband Uriah come home from the military campaign to sleep with his wife. And when Uriah refuses to, he sends Uriah back to battle and places him on the frontlines to ensure he dies so that no one will find out what he had done.

Here’s what David did: he was a adulterer, he was a murderer, and he attempted to cover his sin up. Every one of us should resonate with this account because it tells us that someone who sincerely loves the Lord can sin in a grievous way and try to lie to cover it up. Not only that, but when we sin in these ways, we will often attempt to ignore our sin until God painfully confronts us.

Because do you know that when you sin it is so easy to become blind to your sin? It is so much easier for us to see the sin in other people’s lives, but when it comes to examining our own lives, we tend to justify our actions, we make excuses. So because David doesn’t get this through his head, God sends a prophet named Nathan to confront him. And in 2 Samuel 12, this is what Nathan tells David:

2 Samuel 12:1–7 (NASB95)

1 Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him and said, “There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. 2 “The rich man had a great many flocks and herds. 3 “But the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb Which he bought and nourished; And it grew up together with him and his children. It would eat of his bread and drink of his cup and lie in his bosom, And was like a daughter to him. 4 “Now a traveler came to the rich man, And he was unwilling to take from his own flock or his own herd, To prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him; Rather he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” 5 Then David’s anger burned greatly against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die. 6 “He must make restitution for the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and had no compassion.” 7 Nathan then said to David, “You are the man!

Through the prophet Nathan, God confronts David in his sin and David is cut to the heart. God shows us our sins because He loves us. God loved us enough to send us His Son to die for our sins, and He loves us enough to show us our sin. And when we are faced with our sin, we have a choice: will we try to justify our sin, or will we honestly approach God with our sin laid before Him.

David pens this psalm just after this account in 2 Samuel 12, and we are going to look at four sweet emotions we experience and what to do when we experience them.

Psalm 51:1–4 NASB95

1 Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. 4 Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.

Psalm 51:5–9 NASB95

5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. 6 Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. 7 Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 8 Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which You have broken rejoice. 9 Hide Your face from my sins And blot out all my iniquities.

Psalm 51:10–14 NASB95

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 sustain me with a willing spirit. 13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners will be converted to You. 14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness.

Psalm 51:15–19 NASB95

15 O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Your praise. 16 For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. 18 By Your favor do good to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices, In burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then young bulls will be offered on Your altar.

When you experience the sweet emotion of guilt …

I. Authentically Approach God According to His Character (vv. 1-6)

A. Is guilt good?

We don’t like feeling shameful or guilty. In fact, the world will tell us these are bad emotions that no one should experience. You live your life by your truth, so “you do you.” And if there is no ultimate Truth, no ultimate standard, why should you feel guilty?

Guilt shows us there is a standard that we have failed to meet. Every person feels guilt because Scripture tells us God has written His law on the hearts of all people. But there are two types of guilt:

2 Corinthians 7:10 NASB95

10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.

Worldly guilt — satan uses guilt to bring about death by trying to get you to solve your own sin. Without Christ, guilt is a hopeless emotion. satan uses it to impugn the character of God, to tell us we must try to earn His favor, and when we try our situation becomes even more hopeless because there is nothing you can do to earn His favor!

Godly guilt — the Holy Spirit uses feelings of guilt to drive us to repentance, to drive us to the feet of God. As Christians, we need to view guilt for our sin as a sweet emotion, not a dirty emotion. As Christians, our feelings of guilt come from a conscience that is not clear before the Lord, and the Holy Spirit uses that as an opportunity to draw you to Christ because He loves you. And when we come to Christ it produces a repentance without regret.

Godly guilt produces a repentance without regret not because of anything we do, but because we lean into the character of God.

Notice what David says:

Be gracious to me, according to Your lovingkindness

Blot out my transgressions, according to Your compassion

When we sin, why would we try to lean into our character?

It’s our broken character that led to sin in the first place! So we approach God on the foundation that His character never fails.

No matter how many times you sin in a particular area, you will never approach God and have Him say, “Really? Again?”

B. We must approach God authentically

David uses three words to describe his sin:

Transgression

Transgression is the idea of trespassing, of knowingly stepping over a barrier that has been set in place.

Iniquity

Iniquity is a premeditated choice. It’s when we start playing around with our sin and thinking it’s not that serious. And when we get into that mindset, we aren’t drawn to repent because “it’s not really that big of a deal.”

Sin

Sin is the basic idea of missing the mark. It’s not hitting the target or standard that has been set, and God’s standard is perfect and holy.

David uses each of these words to describe his sin.

In the first three verses, David says my five times. He recognizes he is the responsible party. He takes ownership for his actions.

When you sin, don’t blame others for your actions.

David could have said, “Well, God, why did You put that bathtub over there? If it wasn’t there I wouldn’t have seen Bathsheba and slept with her!”

Remember Adam? What did he do? “Well, God, if You hadn’t given me this woman, I wouldn’t have eaten the fruit!”

Our natural inclination is to give an excuse for our actions, but God isn’t looking for excuses.

What’s God looking for?

He is looking for someone who honestly confesses their failure.

1 John 1:9 NASB95

9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

What does forgiveness require?

Forgiveness requires authenticity. It requires us to acknowledge what our sin makes us.

C. Getting real with God

In our sin, we often approach God inauthentically.

What does that look like?

Inauthenticity with God looks like Christian men or women who view pornography and tell God, or fellow Christians, “Yeah, this week I struggled with lust.”

But if we were authentic we would call it what Scripture calls it: adultery. You’re an adulterer.

Inauthenticity with God looks like Christians who degrade other people with their words and say, “Yeah, I struggle to control my tongue.”

But if we were authentic, we would call it what Scripture calls it: murder and gossip. You’re a murderer and a gossiper.

Inauthenticity with God looks like Christians who don’t train up their children properly, or who fail to use the sphere of influence God has given them, or who refuse to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ and say, “Yeah, I struggle to be the man or woman God has called me to be.”

But if we were authentic, we would call it what Scripture calls it: being a coward. You’re a coward.

When we someone else in sin, we are quick to call it out for what it is. They’re a liar, they’re a cheater, they’re an adulterer, etc. But when it’s us, “God, I’m struggling. Forgive me.”

God wants us to acknowledge our sin at face value, because until you can do that there is no healing. In order to accept your need for a Savior, you have to acknowledge what you need saved from.

That’s why David in this song to God declares You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge [Psalm 51:4].

Only in authentically acknowledging our sin can we understand the consequences of sin. And when we understand the God’s justified judgment for our sin, only then can we truly appreciate His abundant grace.

God just wants the truth.

He already knows it, He just wants to see that you know it.

But satan can take Godly guilt and use it against us. That’s why we’re often inauthentic with God, because we have this lie in the back of our mind that says, “If God knew who you really were, or if that person knew who you really were, they would never forgive you.”

So we try to water down the seriousness of our sin. But God wants you to declare boldly the sin you find yourself trapped in.

Why?

In doing so, you fully appreciate the nature of God’s redeeming grace. And from His grace, by the blood of His Son, comes a restoration in your life in which God is totally glorified.

When we experience the sweet emotion of guilt, authentically approach God based on His unfailing character. Which leads us to the second sweet emotion we experience.

When you experience the sweet emotion of confrontation …

II. Seek God’s Total Transformation in Your Relationship with Him (vv. 7-12)

A. Confronted with our inability to save ourselves

The beauty of the guilt we feel for sinning against God leads us to a beautiful confrontation that we can’t do anything to save ourselves.

So, leaning into the character of God, we ask Him to restore and redeem our relationship.

Have you ever heard someone say, “I’m working on myself.” Maybe you’ve even said that yourself.

Here’s the problem: you can’t work on yourself. For those of you women who are going through the Monday night Bible study, the title of the book is You’re Not Enough (And That’s Okay).

You’re not enough! If you could fix yourself you would! But you can’t. You’re clay in the Potter’s hands, and only He can restore the cracked foundations that you have created.

B. Do you want relief or relationship?

When we experience this confrontation, if we only seek relief, it will always be a painful confrontation.

It’s like when you go to the dentist because you have a toothache that’s caused by a cavity. What are you looking for? Relief!

Drill it out, fill it in again so that I can experience relief.

But what causes the cavity. Poor hygiene, eating or drinking sugary foods, not flossing.

And if the root problem isn’t addressed, we’ll wind up right back in the dentist’s chair again looking for relief.

Often we are like that with God. How many of you have prayed something like this? “God I know I screwed up, but if You get me out of this situation I promise I’ll never do it again.”

Or maybe, you don’t pray to God at all, because you know there’s a problem, but you don’t want to address it.

In the movie Deepwater Horizon, Jimmy Harrell asks Mike Williams, “Did you brush your teeth this morning?”

“Why, yes sir.”

“Good boy. But did you floss?”

“Uh, no, no I didn’t.”

“That’ll save you a lot of time and money in the future.”

On this oil rig, the lead company partners had sent testing teams home before they could run their diagnostics. Jimmy Harrell tells them, “You’re just like my granddaddy. He never even went to the dentist because he didn’t want to know what was wrong.”

Sometimes the relief we seek is to simple pretend like the problem doesn’t exist. If there’s no problem, I don’t have to fix it.

When you pray that, what are you looking for?

Relief. I don’t want to address the root problem, I just want relief from this pain or discomfort. Here’s the problem though, when you seek relief, it will only be temporary.

But our desire should be like David’s. He acknowledges that God alone is enough and only He has the ability to change who we are. Notice what He says:

God, You purify me.

God, You wash me.

God, You make my broken bones rejoice.

God, You hide Your face from my sins.

God, You blot out my iniquities.

God, You create in me a clean heart.

God, You renew a steadfast spirit within me.

David recognizes the root problem is himself, it’s his relationship with God, and that the only solution is a complete transformation of that relationship.

David wants a transformed relationship.

That’s why he pleads for God’s presence not to leave. And here is the beauty for you Christian, that if you have trusted in Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit will remain with you forever to continually perform the daily transformation to restore your relationship with God.

John 14:16–17 NASB95

16 “I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; 17 that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.

Restore in me the joy of Your salvation.

In other words, the lasting relief I seek can only be found in a restored relationship with You.

All of these requests from David can be summed up by this: God, change my heart, a heart that has not lived for You, into a heart that desires to live for You.

Because God loves you, you will experience a guilty conscience when you sin. It’s called the Holy Spirit who is alerting you to the sin in your life and using that emotion to draw you back to Himself. Because God loves you, He is going to confront you with the reality that you can do nothing to save yourself apart from Him. Because God loves you, when you run to Him and confess your sins before Him, you then have assurance that you will experience the sweet emotion of forgiveness.

When you experience the sweet emotion of forgiveness …

III. Strive to Glorify God by Teaching Others His Ways (vv. 13-17)

A. Teaching by example

I don’t believe David is specifically talking about going and preaching to other sinners. Don’t get me wrong, the Word of God is the primary way by which hearts and minds are changed, but David says after His relationship with God has been transformed, then he will teach transgressors God’s ways and sinners will be restored to God.

In other words, I believe David is proclaiming to God, “When people see the work that You have done in my life, they will recognize that You examine the hearts of mankind with the end goal of drawing people to Yourself. When people see my life, they will know you are a God who forgives if only we authentically admit our sin.”

It’s not the example of David’s life that is used. It’s the Example of how God worked in David’s life that can be used.

When I was in college, I became friends with a young man who was socially awkward. He had a really rough upbringing, his family life was not great, and it became clear early on that he had never had a solid male-influence in his life.

He became possessed by this idea that I was this awesome guy, a jock as he described me (I mean look at me, was he wrong). All jokes aside, I was worried that he was idolizing my life. I could have conversations with everyone (especially women), I was well-respected on campus, I had beautiful girlfriend, and I had the lead role in the musical.

One day, I had the opportunity to share a portion of my story in chapel, and this young man was absolutely blown away. It turns out (shockingly) I wasn’t this “perfect” guy he thought I was. I had failed out of one college, I had done drugs, I had a very messy failed relationship, and I had been running from God’s clear call on my life.

From that moment on, our relationship changed, and a door was opened up for me to share how God had been working to change my life around. And that led to him very courageously declaring publically to many close friends a sin that he had been living. And shortly after that, I had the privilege of baptizing this young man.

God gave me and many others the opportunity to be authentic with this young man, to speak about my Father in heaven who restored my broken life, and the outcome was a boy who learned to lean into the greatest influence a young man can have, the person of Jesus Christ.

The greatest way that you can teach other’s God’s ways is by championing how God brought you from death back to life. For each of us, that process looks different, but the outcome is the same. I was dead, but now I am alive.

The problem is, we as Christians become possessed by this idea that we have to present ourselves as “good.”

When someone asks, “Hey, how are you doing?”, how do we typically respond?

How’s your family? - good

How’s your marriage? - good

How’s your finances? - good

How’s your relationship with God? - good

When you have these quick conversations with people, it turns out we’re all awesome!

We don’t want to be vulnerable because we are worried about how other’s might view us. We don’t want to tell someone we’re struggling in our marriage, or that our finances are out of control, or that our relationship with God has been fading because then they might view us as a broken person. We care more about our reputation than we do about proclaiming the Good News of Jesus.

And if there is one place where that shouldn’t be the case, it’s the church! Because it turns out we don’t gather together as the church to boast about how awesome we are, we gather together as the church to boast about how awesome our God is.

If there are areas of your life you are ashamed of, or sins in your life that have a hold on you, authentically go to God with Him and ask Him to transform you. Chances are, those are the areas God wants to pour grace into so that by sharing how He changed you, others can see better who He is.

God doesn’t care about the religious motions.

He doesn’t care about how many boxes you check off.

He doesn’t care about how your Sunday church attendance.

He doesn’t care about how your voice sounds on Sunday.

He doesn’t care about how many times you can force out the words, “God, I’m sorry. Forgive me.”

What does God care about?

What God wants is for your sin to break you, so that when you experience the sweet emotion of forgiveness, you will go out of your way to share that with anyone and everyone you can so that they can experience it to. When you are forgiven, you are restored, and so our final prayer should be this:

When you experience the sweet emotion of restoration …

IV. Ask God to Bless Every Area of Your Influence (vv. 18-19)

A. Use my life

Use my broken life, and my testimony of how you have restored it, to influence those around me for Your glory.

Use my life as a testimony of Your power to restore a hopeless situation and make it new.

Praise God that when we sin, that isn’t the end of the story. In many ways, it’s the beginning, as the transformative, forgiving, restorative work of the God we serve is on display for all to see so that more people may come to know Jesus Christ as the One and Only who can save them.

Conclusion