Why Repent?
Notes
Transcript
Let’s take a few minutes this morning and talk to you about a very important doctrine.
No doctrine in the Bible is more important than the doctrine of repentance, for it is the gatekeeper of heaven.
We need to be ready.
We don’t want to miss out on all that Heaven entails!
People need God and reconciliation is the way to experience all He has to offer. Before that can happen they must experience repentance.
Let’s take a look at the experience David recorded in Psalm 51 which is a classic message of repentance.
When you read this text, one can’t help but feel like we are intruding on a very private personal scene, for David is writing in the agony of remorse and sorrow.
David is facing the sin that is in his life and he is seeing it raw and real.
His soul is wide open before God, and he sees himself stained and disorted before His creator.
He is very vulernable her. We watch and wonder as this helpless man deals with a problem that has no clear solution. He is guilty of the sins that put him beyond the remedy provided by the law of his day.
It is with stunned amazement that we watch David work through an experience that ends with the cleansing of his soul and restores peace and joy in his life.
As we look at this we are studying David’s journey to repentance.
Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me.
Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
and justified when you judge.
Surely I was sinful at birth,
sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins
and blot out all my iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence
or take your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation
and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
so that sinners will turn back to you.
Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
you who are God my Savior,
and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
Open my lips, Lord,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart
you, God, will not despise.
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord,
Pray Word of God Speak - let the word of God speak to our hearts and we would walk to the journey of repentance and no longer reject this important doctrine that brings us closer to Him.
The Realization of Sin
The Realization of Sin
David had a breakthrough in his life at the very moment he realised he has sinned.
The hard part moving forward is understanding that we have to recongnize there is a problem. We have done wrong. In order to get breakthrough we need to realize sin is present and to work on doing something about it.
Here is one of Israel’s greatest kings sitting on the throne. David had been divinely chosen and anointed for the task of being God’s king not just king but God’s chosen one to rule over His people.
He had become the nation’s spiritual leader. God had promised him that his house would be established forever. God had blessed him; his kingdom had flourished and his armies had defeated Israel’s armies.
In the midst of all this luxury and victory, David saw, wanted and took for himself the beautiful woman - Uriah’s wife.
Any other king in the world could have done this without a whisper of blame. But David was different. David was God’s anointed! David had been called to be an example and therefore was held to a higher standard.
Before the story was over, murder was in the picture as David had Uriah placed on the front line of battle so that he would be killed.
So now adultery and murder were things that now clung to David’s character.
For almost a year, David endured the struggle with his conscience.
But one day the fearless prophet Nathan came with a story that was too powerful to avoid. This story was one of a neighbor who had one sheep, which was stolen by the man with many. These words hit David’s soul when Nathan said “Thou art the man!”
There would be no story to tell if something marvelous had not happened.
Instead of rejecting Nathan’s acusation and ordering the prophet’s execution for this presumption, something else happened.
Someone had suggested that David’s sin must have called for great celebration in the enemy’s domain, Satan longed to have David (God’s chosen) in his clutches. I am sure the enemy was so eager to flaunt the fact that a mighty man of God had done this kind of sin.
And now here is the chance, opportunity came knocking and here he was spiritually trapped, bound and ruined!
David, the spiritual leader of God’s chosen people, was out of the fight!
Or is he?
The Agony of Turning
The Agony of Turning
No one likes to have their sins exposed.
I am sure none of you here today would like to have anything you have done wrong put “out there” in public for all to view and judge would we?
This is what happened to David.
And we know the higher the leader the harder the fall.
David’s first reaction, following the shock of Nathan’s accusation, was a CRY FOR FORGIVENESS!!!
It was not denial of sin it was a Cry for forgiveness!
Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to Your lovingkindness;
According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,
Blot out my transgressions.
I love how we see his desperation for forgiveness and also the fact that God is monitoring the channel on which people cry for mercy and he sends INSTANT relief when people call!
Take note of David’s pattern of thought that is shown in our text.
His first move was to speak out before God his particular and specific acts of sin.
He used three words to describe his sin:
1. Transgression - which means “rebellion, deliberately setting oneself against the will and law of God, a calculated sin of high treason against the Soverign of the universe”.
2. Iniquity - that which distorts one’s reason
3. Sin - “Which means missing the mark of failure”.
Then David went on to use three verbs of action which indicates that he wanted God to do something for him that he could not do for himself.
1. Blot Out! - Erase from the record
2. Cleanse Me - reflects his desire to be clean inside and out.
3. Wash Me - realization that his whole being was defiled and needed a divine scrubbing.
After his cry for mercy David sincerely confessed his sin.
For I acknowledge my transgressions,
And my sin is always before me.
Nathan said “Thou art the man” and now David is saying “Lord I am the man”.
He assumed responsibility, took on all responsibility for his sin. He did not blame his ancestors or even Bathsheba as an accomplice in his sin.
This shows a lot about David’s character. He was willing to take the consquences for his wrong doing and had to take on ownership for the wrong doing. This is the only way to do it. Own it, repent and receive God!
He stood before God and decleared that he and he alone was responsible for his sins.
In verses 7-9 David prayed not only that he might be received into God’s presence again, but that he might be fit for God’s presence. As David bore his soul before God, he saw what a vile, sinful person he had been.
Now he was desperate for God to purify his whole sin-defiled being!
He wanted God to spinkle hyssop on him.
Hyssop was an aromatic oil used to spray those who had leprosy or some other loasthsome disease.
Not only did the hyssop serve as a deodorizer but sprinkling it was a symbolic act whereby one was cleansed for God’s presence.
David reached a higher desperation in the prayer when he prayed for a new heart and a new life.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
In essence he is saying “Lord because of this terrible thing I have done you must assume your role of creator again for me! I must have a new heart! I have damaged the old one beyond repair. The scars are too ugly.
Do your work all over again and give me a new heart O God!”
David had no doubt in the work that God was able to do.
What we don’t even realize here is that David is laying the foundation for NT doctrine of new birth!
He recognizes the importance of being born again!
The heart must be a new one.
David’s mental, moral and spiritual self must be renewed by the creative touch of God.
The Glory of Restoration
The Glory of Restoration
Who here enjoys negative talk? I know that’s never been something I have enjoyed. I love how God shows us the process of restoration is something positive and a thing of beauty.
Well this morning we are going to look at the beautiful, positive power of God’s restoration.
It is a note of positivity, ringing with assurance in David’s words:
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
David’s hope was in the fact that God is a God who keeps his word and one who is as good as His promises.
When this hope dawns in a person’s heart LIFE BEGINS!
Do you need hope this morning?
What was the natural result of David’s experience of repentance and forgiveness of sin?
It was the same first impulse that every saved individual has - TO TELL OTHERS ABOUT HIS GLORIOUS NEWLY DISCOVERED REMEDY FOR SOUL SICKNESS.
Take a look again at our text and his reassurance.
Then I will teach transgressors Your ways,
And sinners shall be converted to You.
David vowed that he would spend the rest of his life telling others about God’s gracee and urging sinners to come to the only source of life and cleansing.
David would be an evangelist, a seeker of lost people and an announcer of good news to those who suffered in darkness and sin.
When God does something amazing in you or for you, you have to tell it. Because it is too good not to tell and you cannot help but shout it out and celebrate His awesomeness!
Conclusion:
As we finish up this message this morning I want us to remember that we find four ingredients that made up David’s repentance:
Humiliation
Contrition
Confession
Transformation
The Holy Spirit convicts people and brings them to a state of humiliation, where they need to express their sin and contrition - their state of remorse. Then the grandest miracle of all happens, when, as a result of these preparatory experiences they are TRANSFORMED by the POWER OF GOD!
Do you need God to do a work in your life?
Are you ready for the transformation?
Are you ready to celebrate all of His goodness?
Even in this kind of setting you are able to pray that prayer and ask the Lord to come into your heart.
When you do this please share it so we can celebrate it and get you connected into the family of God!
Reckless Love
