Sermon Tone Analysis

Think of an animal you'd really be afraid of, whether it's a snake or a large spider.

If you came round a corner and found yourself facing it, what would you want to do? Run away, of course.

Well, [as a follower of Jesus] that's how you should feel about a [lifestyle of greed, lust, jealousy, injustice, or another sinful pattern].

Then think how you'd feel if you saw the person you loved best in the entire world, who you hadn't seen for years, walking down the street.

What would you do?

Why, chase after [him or her], of course.

That's how you should behave when you think of Jesus and the new life that he is offering you and the whole world.

The final piece of true repentance is obedience.

If there really is true repentance, there will be a heartfelt and passion to run away from sin and then run after the opportunity to be obedient to the Lord.

Repentance is a change of mind and the fruit of it will be a desire for obedience.

A desire in our hearts for the law of God.

As a Christian the Lord did write the law on our hearts.

This is our desire.

But have we lost the doctrine of repentance today?

Are we urged to run away from our sins and to run into the forgiving and merciful arms of the Lord?

Look at the books in the Christian book stores these days… We do not turn away from sins today, not out of defiance, but asserting that certain sins are not really sins and so we do not have to turn from them.

We just say some sins are no longer sins.

If we can’t beat them, we don’t join them we get the government to eliminate them.

Also, we do run to Christ today, but not for forgiveness and mercy.

We now run to Christ for advice, for relief, and for therapy.

What do we need mercy and forgiveness for, all we did was make mistakes?

We’re not perfect.

And as we will see today.

No true repentance, then there is no true obedience.

Even if there is obedience, it’s not obedience if there is no true repentance.

What does this mean… Good works do not confirm salvation, it confirms faith.

True faith confirms salvation.

Repentance involves confession of Sin, Reliance on God’s mercy, Cleansing coming through blood, and finally today, New Obedience in faith.

David was just rebuked by the Lord through 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,” he said.

The Lord gave him a 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 writes…

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

1.

New Obedience

2. Repentance Before Sacrifice

3. Kindness of the Cross

The first thing we will look at today is how true obedience will always follow true repentance.

Which means true obedience follows the gospel.

The second point today concerns the idea of repentance before sacrifice.

When we sin, there is nothing that you could do to make up for it.

Finally we will look at the kindness of the cross of Christ for it is His kindness that leads us to repentance.

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 experience even more change in our lives through faith.

I. New Obedience

- True obedience must follow the Gospel.

A. True repentance will result in Gospel joy… restore unto me the joy of your salvation v. 12.

There will be the joy of the Gospel in our hearts and then… David shows that renewed obedience will follow.

The pattern here is clear.

True obedience must follow the Gospel.

David shows that it is not good works that will bring salvation, but salvation that will bring us the desire to do the works of God.

B. As a fruit of the Lord restoring to David the joy of His salvation, David desires to teach others who are in the same predicament to go to the Lord for mercy.

David did a horrible thing with Uriah and Bathsheba and he received the grace and mercy of the Lord and for those who have done the same I will teach them to repent, turn to the Lord.

C. Spurgeon writes, my fall shall be the restoration of others.

Thou wilt bless my pathetic testimony to the recovery of many who, like myself, have turned aside unto crooked ways.

Doubtless this Psalm and the whole story of David, have produced for many ages the most salutary results in the conversion of transgressors, and so evil has been overruled for good.

D. David has taught us all has he not?

He taught us all in this Psalm how to find forgiveness and mercy in the Lord.

That we can truly find grace and salvation.

He taught us the Gospel in that the Blood of Christ will make us whiter than snow.

He taught us how to repent today.

He taught us that real repentance carries a desire to reach out to others to teach others so that they turn to Christ.

Is this not what the Lord has commanded of us today?

E. Clearly, we see this in the Great Commission of our Lord.

F. Well, Christian.

Do we desire to teach other sinners to turn from their ways and turn to the Lord for salvation?

This is what we call evangelism.

This is called preaching the Gospel.

It is proclaiming the law of God to convict one of sin and then the presentation of the good news that the is forgiveness and mercy waiting for them and an abundant supply of grace upon grace.

G. How are we doing this today?

Does the joy of our salvation today give us a desire to teach rebels or transgressors to turn from their ways?

To repent like we did… that is if we really did repent.

Hmmm.

H. David showed how reaching out to sinners with the good news is a natural fruit of repentance.

How great is this passion?

Do you remember when you first became a Christian, were you not so excited that the first thing you wanted to do is tell someone so that they can experience the same thing.

Its natural and it is powerful.

We reach and teach to reach and teach.

It is the desire of the repentant.

I.

It is so powerful a desire that when Jesus healed the man who could not hear and speak he told them not to tell anyone…what happened?

J.

But today we have a problem.

Here we have an example of those who Jesus told not to tell and they did and today Jesus is telling us to tell and we don’t?

What’s wrong with us today?

Have we truly repented?

It’s not just evangelism, it is obedience to the Word of the Lord.

Even when we tell, are we telling what we are supposed to tell?

Here we witness that Jesus healed the blind and brought the good news of the kingdom of salvation and the forgiveness of sins.

And today we tell others, hey Jesus gave us some good pointers on how to live a successful life.

Are we being disobedient today?

Are we repentant?

If we are not repentant then we cannot be truly obedient even if you are doing the things the Lord told us to do.

II.

Repentance before Sacrifice

- When we sin, there is nothing that you could do to make up for it.

A. Sometimes when we do wrong, our tendency is to do good things.

When we feel guilty for things we do, we think… I’ll do some good things.

I’ll volunteer to feed the less fortunate, to give more money to the church.

I’ll spend more time in prayer and going to church.

I’ll help some people and I’ll do better at not sinning anymore.