Sin and Redemption

Psalm 51:1–17 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, 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.

Prayer

Introduction

This story is found in 2 Samuel 11-12

Review this passage

David did not go to battle.

David sees Bathsheba bathing.

He inquires about her.

He is told she is the wife or Uriah the Hittite.

He sends for her, and long story short, they lay together.

She conceives.

David then devises a scheme to hide his sin.

He sends for Uriah from the battlefield.

He tells Uriah to go be with his wife, but Uriah refuses.

So David even tries to get Uriah drunk.

Still doesn’t work.

Then David devises a scheme for Uriah to be killed in battle, and sends the plans with Uriah.

Uriah then dies in battle according to David’s plans.

Bathsheba learns Uriah is dead, and after the time of mourning, David takes her as another wife.

God sends Nathan to David to confront him.

He tells David a parable about a rich man with many sheep and a poor man with just one.

David gets angry at the rich man in the parable.

Nathan tells David, “The rich man is YOU!”

2 Samuel 12:7–13 NKJV

7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more! 9 Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. 10 Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ 11 Thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 12 For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’ ” 13 So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.

Nathan tells David the child will die.

The child then becomes ill.

David prays for 7 days, but the child dies.

This is the occasion that we are dealing with in this Psalm.

Keep in mind that David has committed not one but two sins that were deserving of the death penalty in the OT.

The header of thee Psalm in most translations of the Bible reads, “To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David When Nathan the Prophet Went to Him, After He Had Gone in to Bathsheba.”

I. WE TEND TO MINIMIZE OUR OWN SIN.

Look at David.

Quick to point out the sin of the rich man in the parable.

He has done MUCH worse.

Aren’t we very much the same?

When we read the passage in 2 Samuel, aren’t we quick to jump to judgement on David?

He is an adulterer.

He is a murderer.

Look how much worse he is that I am.

I’m a good person.

I’ve never commited murder or adultery.

Really?!?

Reminder:

Romans 3:23 NKJV

23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Psalm 14:3 (NKJV)

3 … There is none who does good, No, not one.

Matthew 19:17 (NKJV)

17 So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. …

Remember what Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount:

Matthew 5:21–22 (NKJV)

21 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder, and whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’

22 But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment…

Matthew 5:27–28 NKJV

27 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

It is easy to see sin in others.

We must look inward at our own sinful ways.

II. WE MUST ACKNOWLEDGE AND CONFESS OUR SINS TO GOD!

Sometimes we are so deep in our sins that we don’t see it.

This is why it is important to have accountability partners in the Lord to keep us on the straight and narrow.

Cannot use society.

Society is a cesspool of all sorts of evil.

Social media will tell you anything is ok, anything is acceptable.

We as believers need to be willing not only to help our fellow believers but be open and willing to accept guidance from others.

And when we are confronted by our own sins, we need to be like David.

Look at what happens when Nathan confronts David:

2 Samuel 12:13 (NKJV)

13 So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” …

Notice that David had wronged both Uriah and Bathsheba but he realized that all sin is really sin against GOD.

Psalm 51:3–5 NKJV

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. 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.

David is confessing that he has been sinful since birth.

At his very CORE, in his BONES he is a sinner.

When we sin, we must OWN that sin.

We must acknowledge that we are the ones that have transgressed against God.

That we alone are responsible for our own actions.

Too many times we want to shift blame.

We want to act like we are forced into our sinful actions.

We want to blame others.

Like Flip Wilson used to say, “The devil made me do it.”

NO HE DIDN’T!!

As believers we must be willing to take a good long hard look in the mirror and acknowledge that no matter how hard we try, until the day of our final sanctification, we still sin.

And it is no one else’s fault.

The devil didn’t make me do it - I DID.

I committed that sin.

And I have NO EXCUSE.

And when we acknowledge that sin we must confess to God Almighty - Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight!

And the amazing thing about acknowledging and confessing your sin to a thrice Holy God is that it is FREEING!!

Holding on to your sin, and trying to hide it will only do two things.

One, you will live a life of fear.

Fear that your sins will be discovered.

Fear that you aren’t really saved.

Fear that your salvation may not really be secured through Christ’s sacrifice.

Fear that the consequences o of your sins here on earth will somehow be worse than the eternal consequences of living for all eternity apart from God’s presence.

I will assure you that those are all lies straight from the mouth of the Devil.

Two, you will only get deeper entrenched in the prison of sin you have made for yourself!

Let’s face it, sin begets more sin.

One sin leads to a lie to cover it up.

Then another.

Then another.

Pretty soon we are so deep in the lies we told to cover up our sin, we can’t even keep our own lies straight.

Instead, saints, when we sin, we need to do like David did and acknowledge that we have sinned against God and Confess our sins to Him!!!

III. THE LORD IS GRACIOUS AND FULL OF COMPASSION, SLOW TO ANGER AND GREAT IN MERCY!!

I want you to notice something here:

David didn’t think he could earn his way back into God’s good graces.

For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering.

Instead David simply appeals to God’s mercy.

Psalm 51:1–2 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.

Psalm 51:7–9 NKJV

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.

He shows that he knows it is God alone in His tender mercies that will cleans him from sin.

He cannot earn God’s good graces.

After all, the Bible teaches that our good deeds are like filthy rags to God.

Nothing we do can earn our way bock to God.

Rather, we must fall prostrate at the feet of the cross and beg for mercy.

David knew that the sacrifice God truly desires is a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart.

He knew that it was God’s mercy he needed most.

He knew that it was God alone that could cleans him from his sin and wash his heart as white as snow.

He knew it was God alone that could restore his joy.

He knew it was God alone that could blot out his sins just as if they had never even happened.

And praise God that on this side of the cross, the assurance of that washing is secure.

Praise God that the blood of Jesus is poured out for all for the forgiveness of sins.

Praise God for His tender mercy and His loving kindness that He would send his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Praise God for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that we as New Testament believers have so that unlike David, we never have to worry that God will take His Holy Spirit from us.

PRAISE GOD THAT HE IS GRACIOUS AND MERCIFUL, SLOW TO ANGERT AND ABOUNDING IN STEADFAST LOVE!!!

But there is one more thing that we must know, saints, and it is right here in the text of Psalm 51.

IV. GOD’S MERCY AND FORGIVENESS SHOULD BRING ABOUT A CHANGED LIFE.

See the Bible teaches time and again that when we confess our sins, “He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”

David here asks God to create in him a clean heart so that he can then “teach transgressors God’s ways” that “sinners will be converted to God.”

David desired to praise God with his lips after being cleansed from his bloodguilt.

You see the Bible teaches, in fact Christ taught, that if you love Him, then you will keep His commandments.

Paul teaches in Romans if you have died with Christ, you will not continue to walk in sin.

John teaches that the world knows that you love Christ if you keep His commandments, and that if you do not, then you are a liar.

James wrote that if you have faith, but do not show it by your works in service of God, then your faith is dead.

We must - MUST - honor God by our service to Him and our fellow man who are made in the image and likeness of God.

See I don’t know about your sins.

But I know mine.

And I know how many multitude of sins God has forgiven me of.

And when I think back on all that God has forgiven me of, two things come to mind.

One, how can I dare not forgive others when they trespass against me?

How dare I not follow the commands of Jesus when he told Peter to forgive someone seventy times seven.

The second it this: my heart’s desire is to honor God for His tender mercy and forgiveness by living a life dedicated to loving God and my fellow man with all of my heart, soul, strength, and mind.

Closing Prayer