A Sinner's Prayer

Intro

What would you do if you could have the object of your desire handed to you? Would you finally be satisfied?

Transport yourself to a cool evening in city in a distant land. You’re the ruler of an ancient kingdom. No one can tell you no. As you’re strolling about upon the roof of your palace, you spot someone who become’s the apple of your eye. You’ve always lived in the realm of “what if” when it comes to them. But, they’re married. Inaccessible. But the infatuation hasn’t ever gone away. Yet you now have the power to finally get what you want. No one else is around, and anyone who is submits to you without reservation. You demand for them to come to you. They answer. Then, satisfaction. But everything doesn’t go as expected. There are...consequences. There’s something “unplanned.” You want to cover this all up as best as you can, so you try to wine and dine with the other person’s spouse to somehow make it all go away. This only makes it worse, because you’ve unfortunately fallen upon someone whose integrity can’t be bought. So, you resort to the only solution which brings finality: taking the third party out of the picture entirely.

This is not the description for an episode of Game of Thrones; it’s from the Bible. And it’s not a hit piece on some depraved Pharoah; it’s a heinous act committed by the man who is expected to be faithful to God and his commands above all else: David. A king whom God had just covenanted with to extend his royal line forever has become a consummate example of human sinfulness.

It’s not just kings who are in need of divine mercy; all of us have shipwrecked ourselves with following after our own desires apart from the will of God. Not one of us is without this inner crookedness we just can’t straighten out through our own volition alone.

Out of his cries of agony, the Holy Spirit moved within David to write this psalm we are to consider today. Its message for us is that sin isn’t a stopping point; it’s a starting point in our relationship with God. Rather than retreating into ourselves, repentance is the only way towards true and lasting reconciliation with our Creator. God forgives us not out of any obligation but according to his very character, whose heart is abundantly poured out for the salvation of sinners he happily seeks to make into saints. In this sinner’s prayer, we find what we all cry out for: mercy from an abudantly merciful God.

God’s mercy is all that saves (vv. 1-6)

David is appealing for himself (v. 1)

Forgiveness must be individually applied in our appeal to God

There is no hope for redemption without knowing who God already is as he has revealed himself to be

We worship someone who acts within history on our own behalf

Love and mercy: attributes that are two sides of the same Lord

“Covenant-faithfulness” (the richness of Hebrew)

Theology gives us the categories to grapple rightly with where God is to be found in the midst of distress and anguish

Purification, not just absolution, is the plea of David’s cry (v. 2)

Most of us have a very transactional (dare I say Catholic?) view of confession and repentance

“One and done”

Repentance is meant to cause a 180 within us, not lead to another 360.

To be purified is to be cleansed for the sake of beginning again anew

We must strive to ensure we have the right motivation in our guilt before God

Can’t be driven by other people’s opinions

Can’t be caused by a suffocating legalism

Can’t be led by a desire just to make God happy

A personal responsibility for our sin must be felt (v. 3)

Many competing counseling methodologies would have us believe we are helpless victims of our circumstances

Our situations can influence us, but they can’t ultimately control us

Example: pastor with arthritis (“I am always responsible for my mood”)

David was exactly in the place he should’ve never been in in the first place (2 Sam. 11:1)

Example: Randy Alcorn and pushing the book off of the table

When we purposefully put ourselves in places where we know we will be tempted, we are without excuse when we fall back into sin.

Proverbs 26:11: “Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.”

At the end of the day, no one forces us to forsake righteousness and cozy ourselves within the husk of our old flesh.

An objective condemnation must be recognized (v. 4)

When Nathan confronts David concerning his sin, he doesn’t flag him for violating the Ten Commandments; he tells a story (2 Sam. 12:1-6)

What David did was objectively wrong to anyone who might know of it, even those who were not in covenant with God

A mere knowledge of what is sinful does not save you from sin (Rom. 2:1)

God’s own holiness is at stake when we refuse to recognize his rightful Lordship over our lives

Divine justice is good, even when it hurts

It is only through understanding the punishment before us that we can drink deeply of grace as it actually is

We’re born this way (vv. 5-6)

Upon birth, we enter into a broken nature which seeks to destroy us from within.

Sin will not be hated if it is not seen as something which is already within us.

Example: the failure of the social gospel

Our sinful actions are manifestations of our own disordered affections

SHIFT: God works within us to render us worthy in his sight (v. 6)

David knows that the consequences of his sin is not what God despises in and of itself; its ultimately because of his willful rejection of what he has declared to be good

Sin separates us from God and each other

Human beings have one purpose alone: to glorify God by modeling his image in their living. Sin keeps us from fulfilling that very commission.

God is the only one able to save (vv. 7-12)

David has acknowledged what he has done; now he has appealing to what he knows God is able to do

Sanctification is a continuum

A covenantally-saturated redemption (vv. 7-9)

Hyssop was a kind of branch used in sacrificial worship amongst the Israelites, first showing up when the Jews had to put lamb’s blood on their doors during the Passover (Ex. 12:22)

Only atonement can save us from our sins

Salvation only comes to us one way: by God’s forgiveness alone…in both of the Testaments

Exodus 34:6-7: God has always been merciful

We are made clean only when we are washed by one who is spotless himself

The hope of a sinner is that they might savor communion with God once more

There is happiness to be found in forgiveness

Reconciliation = restoration to what once was

If you don’t find any joy in God himself, then you’re not worshiping the God of the Bible.

David acknowledges that God is sovereign over his misery

God’s holiness unifies his attributes, holding both his mercy and his wrath in perfect balance with each other

The presence of God before us should be one of harmonious union with him and his ways (v. 9)

Discord shouldn’t be the norm in our relationship with God

The working of God is the true comfort given to sinners (vv. 10-12)

The Spirit has to move within us before we can be moved towards repentance in the first place

Being in God’s presence is a habit of the heart

God himself enables us to live righteously

We have to actually want to be restored to God when confessing our sins to him

Guilt isn’t an end in itself

Francis Schaeffer: “The real need is salvation from true moral guilt, not just relief from guilt feelings. And I am certain many men who make a profession go away still unsaved, having not heard one word of the real gospel because they have filtered the message through their own thought forms and their own intellectual framework in which the word ‘guilt’ equals ‘guilt feelings.’”

Our burdens are meant to be relieved so that we can return to experiencing God without the debris of our own sin damming the way to his love.

God reveals to us how good the gospel is, making us to desire never to be parted from its promises

God’s salvation compels us to share it with others (vv. 13-17)

The riches of grace are too good not to proclaim their wonders (vv. 13-15)

David’s doxological spirit finds its loudest voice in the Psalms

What is true about God’s heart for sinners should cause us to continually find excuses gush with thanksgiving

Example: Josh and Robert lead us because they can’t help it

We must have reasons behind our worship that has more to do with God than with our emotions

God’s people sing because of what He has done

Shock and awe have no place in true worship (vv. 16-17)

God is only ever satisfied with those who seek to love him above all else despite how we might currently see ourselves

You can’t impress the Creator of the universe. It’s okay to be a mess sometimes. Going to the Potter himself is how you will be made whole again.

What is truly sacrificial is giving all that we are over to the will of God (Rom. 12:1)

God will always embrace us when we return to him

John Bunyan on John 6:37:

But I am a great sinner, sayest thou. "I will in no wise cast out," says Christ. But I am an old sinner, sayest thou. "I will in no wise cast out," says Christ. But I am a hard-hearted sinner, sayest thou. "I will in no wise cast out," says Christ. But I am a backsliding sinner, sayest thou. "I will in no wise cast out," says Christ. But I have served Satan all my days, sayest thou. "I will in no wise cast out," says Christ. But I have sinned against light, sayest thou. "I will in no wise cast out," says Christ. But I have sinned against mercy, sayest thou. "I will in no wise cast out," says Christ. But I have no good thing to bring with me, sayest thou. "I will in no wise cast out," says Christ.

Never forget we worship a Prodigal God

God will establish the righteous forever (vv. 18-19)

David has an eschatology based on what God has already told him he will do (2 Sam. 7:12-16)

The entire Bible is based upon looking forward to what God has yet to accomplish for the sake of his people

God will dwell with his people in perfect glory

The ultimate goal of history is for all to see the Sovereign King of creation as their Lord and Savior (Is. 2:1-3)

Conclusion

The story of King David shows that not even the king of Israel is safe from hitting rock bottom

The storyline of salvation is comprised of sinners hoping to one day be saints

Don’t let your sin go unscrutinized

John Owen: “Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? Be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.”

Strive to understand the inheritance you have in the gospel

We can go boldly to the throne of grace because God has revealed and embodied his love for us in his Son

Christ himself is the final answer to David’s cry

In his work on the cross, we have an everlasting security in pleading our cause before God

In his role as our intercessor, we always have a voice who sympathizes with us in our sinfulness and offers forth his own righteousness on our behalf

In his love towards us, we don’t have to fear for when we fail to be faithful

“There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.” - Richard Sibbes

In the folds of Scripture, we are meant to find consolation for our souls not only in the truths it contains but the human brokenness it often depicts. The same God David looked to for salvation is the same one we pray to today. He has always been abounding in grace to any sinner who is aware of how deep their need of him is. Don’t make bearing your heart to the Father your last resort when you now you are guilty; see him as he truly is towards all of his children. You’ve been adopted; you’ll be okay.