Sermon Tone Analysis

You set up an appointment with your successful boss to get career advice.

If you are not a good employee and have been recklessly embezzling money from the company—and the owner knows it—would you expect him to share career advice with you?

The only thing you should expect from him is, "Stop stealing money!"

So it is with God.

If we are to receive guidance from God, we must repent for any disobedience currently in our lives, because habitual, unrepentant sin will render God silent except for one word: repent.

Ahhh.

Repentance.

What a glorious word for those who live and move and have their being in Christ.

The one thing that is steady, immediate, willing, and hopefully, sincere in the life of a Christian.

It is the life of a Christian.

The late Billy Graham said of repentance… “The wonderful news is that our Lord is a God of mercy, and He responds to repentance.”

However, sometimes this does not bode well for us.

For some we do not like to talk repentence because it brings us so much shame to think that we did something wrong.

It is admitting that we did something wrong.

For many, even Christians, we are not quick to repent.

Why? Well we definitely do not like shame.

That was apparent in the garden of Eden.

We do not like the reality that we have failed in some way shape or form.

We do not like the idea that we may not be as good a person as we think we are.

It is not good for our self-esteem and so it is detrimental to our self-worth.

We do not like admitting that it is not someone else’s fault it is all on us…true repentance is absent of blame.

Do we struggle with repentance today?

I believe that we do and I don’t think we will ever spend a season in awakening, until we really spend a season in repentance.

What and Why repentance.

This is what we will explore in our passage today.

David was just rebuked by the Lord by the prophet Nathan; calling him out on his adultery with Bathsheba and his murder of Uriah.

David was shown the gravity of his sin with a parable bringing real conviction in his heart.

He was brought to silence in shame and his words were few… “I have sinned against the Lord.”

The Lord gave him a kind and merciful gift in His Judgement, His Kindness, and the Grace of Repentance.

David with sorrow and peace in his heart, sits down with his lyre and begins to write…

Psalm 51:1-

The grass withers, the flower fades but the word of our God stands forever.

- As you can see, the grace of God extends even further from just David.

The superscription of this Psalm shows us that this is what David wrote after Nathan rebuked him about his sin with Bathsheba.

This psalm now would now be a beautiful picture of true repentance in the heart of one who belongs to the Lord.

This is how we should respond when we are face to face with our own sins our own need to repent.

- Yet, I wonder if we really understand the importance of repentance.

Some will treat this doctrine as if it were Cinderella in the family of Christian doctrine.

Unloved, unwanted, unappreciated.

Grace, mercy, love, compassion, kindness; no problem, but it is our temptation to avoid this topic.

We don’t see or hear about it much in general, well unless you are a member of Central Baptist, then you hear it every week.

- But why?

Is it because I like to make you all feel bad?

Or is it because repentance is a necessity for a Christian and vital to our proclamation of the Gospel.

Did you know that when Jesus officially began his preaching ministry this is what he proclaimed?

We can’t ignore repentance.

We want to preach the same message that Jesus and the Apostles preached.

- Our beloved 1689 LBC states, As repentance is to be continued through the whole course of our lives, upon the account of the body of death, and the motions thereof, so it is every man's duty to repent of his particular known sins particularly.

- Such is the provision which God hath made through Christ in the covenant of grace for the preservation of believers unto salvation; that although there is no sin so small but it deserves damnation; yet there is no sin so great that it shall bring damnation on them that repent; which makes the constant preaching of repentance necessary.

So we continue… we preach repent for the Kingdom of God is at Hand.

- What is repentance?

Simply.

A change of mind.

Simple, yet so difficult.

This Psalm teaches us 4 things about repentance.

Confession of Sin.

Reliance on God’s mercy.

Cleansing comes through blood.

New Obedience.

Confession of Sin

Reliance on God’s Mercy

The Kindness of the Cross

The first thing we will look at concerning repentance is the all important first step…actually confession our sins.

In other words, actually admitting that we did something wrong.

The second thing we will explore concerning repentance is the all-important reliance on the mercy and compassion of God.

It is a great comfort to know that when we turn to Him we see that His loving kindness is better than life.

Finally, we will look at how the kindness of the Lord leads us to repentance and we see it no better described by the cross of Christ… no better picture of love than that.

Thesis: Though our sin nature and the deceptions of this world continue to lead us to reject repentance, it is the continued compassion and kindness of our Lord that will lead us to repentance; the confession of sin, the reliance on God’s mercy, the blood of Christ, and the filling of the Spirit.

To God be the Glory.

I. Confession of Sin

- Recognized his sin and who it really was that he offended.

A. vs. 1-2 discuss David’s real need for forgiveness and need for being made clean.

Vs. 3-4 tell us why he needs it.

So, we see that David needs forgiveness and cleansing because he recognized his sin.

And recognized who it really was that he offended.

Very important.

Again...Recognized his sin and who it really was that he offended.

B. Sure we need to be sorry for what we have done.

And we really have to be sorry for what we have done.

Let me break it down simply: We know we are sorry because, if we could do it again, differently, we would.

Being sorry means, we wished it hadn’t happened.

If we don’t care that it happened, we aren’t sorry.

The implication is that if the situation arose again, we would make a different choice.

The question is, how many times have we said we were sorry only to repeat the behavior?

This is more like we wish we were sorry, but we’re not.

We want what we want, when we want, how we want, without consequences.

We want what we want, when we want, how we want, without getting caught.

C. David recognized that he was rightly liable for what he had done and knows that he truly deserves any punishment and condemnation that is coming to him.

There is no way of justifying it.

He would not dare justify it.

No way is he going to believe that he does not deserve what was coming.

He knew it was right.

He did not deserve any pardon.

He believed it.

D. We have trouble with this in the church today.

Interestingly, it is because we maybe do not really understand what it is to sin and… here it is… and if it really is a sin.

Check this out.

E. First of all, sin is understood as pesha a transgression or rebellion in verses 1 and 3.

This is understood as crossing a boundary or breaking a rule.

Here is a line that you cannot cross, don’t cross it.