The Nature of True Repentance

——Please open up to Psalm 51——

What does Scripture record as the first command of John the Baptist? “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”

What was the first word the Lord Jesus spoke after beginning his public ministry? “Repent”

The disciples went out, and proclaimed that men should “repent of their evil deeds.”

Scripture speaks regularly of repentance.

Such commands are not frivolous, meaningless statements—they are essentialfor those that are a part of the Kingdom of God.

Repentance—a fundamental turning away from sin—was perhaps the most addressed element of Jesus’ ministry.

And yet – it has become a rather unpopular component of Christianity.

I suppose this may be because it requires that we recognize our own vileness—an arrogant man cannot genuinely repent.

Many declare “I believe in Jesus!”

And yet, how many people in our world are repentant of their sin?

How many have turned away; rejected their former lives and passions?

Unfortunately, repentance has been taught as exclusively an inaugural element of Christianity.

By this I mean – people often see it only as an initial elementof faith for the sake of justification.

Woefully inadequate….church – continual repentance marks a true Christian’s life.

We mustn’t have a “one-and-done” view of repentance.

(You don’t STOP believing once you become a Christian, and neither do you cease repenting.)

Our response to sin as believers is no minor thing.

Brothers and sisters – if we continue to commit sins, then we continue to have need to repent daily.

My aim this morning is to convince you that we must develop the habit of regular repentance…

…and to encourage you to do so—for the sake of your growth in holiness and unhindered communionwith God.

To do so, I wish to examine the sin and repentance of King David in Psalm 51

Let’s read our text, and then pray

[Read Psalm 51:1-17]

Notice the subheading of this chapter, which reads, “to the choirmaster. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba”

In many ways, David was the standard of righteousness for the kings.

He was a mighty king, a faithful saint, a prophet, and a warrior.

Recall his defeat of Goliath, the giant!

So great a warrior was he, that people praised him as killing “ten thousands” of enemies.

Remember his suffering under King Saul, who sought to kill him…His time of living with his enemy—the Philistines!

You may recall the great honor and reverence he held for King Saul as “the Lord’s Anointed,”

Even though David could have struck down his enemy before him, David feared the Lord.

He knew Saul was the anointed king, and REFUSED to kill Saul.

Surely the Lord was close to David, and His kindness was evident in his life.

God even mades a covenant with David, promising that His Offspring would sit on the throne of Israel for all eternity.

Yet…there was the one failure.

The one sin so grievous that it eventually resulted in the fracturing of Israel.

David’s major moral lapse was with his dealings with Bathsheba and her husband Uriah.

2 Samuel 11 recounts “the fall” – David was on his roof when he saw a beautiful women bathing.

He called for her, slept with her, and she became pregnant.

David, knowing that his sin would be exposed, was more concerned about covering it up than with dealing with what he did before God.

To hide the pregnancy and his sin—David recalled Uriah back from the battlelines, and encouraged him to go be with his wife.

However, Uriah was far too honorable for that, and so slept on a couch, and didn’t visit his wife or sleep with her.

(All his comrades were still at war, it would be dishonoring for him to lay with his wife while they were still out.)

Uriah returned, and David instructed his commander, Joab, to kill him.

Not directly of course, but via more subtle means—again, to HIDEit so that David wouldn’t be found out.

So - Joab put Uriah at the front line while attacking a city….The army pulled back without him, and he was killed by an archer.

The plan had succeeded! David escaped scot-free!

Let us take note of the tendencies in our own hearts…

I am sure that many here (including myself) have been more concerned with others DISCOVERING our sin…

…Than with how our sin has dishonored God.

David thought he succeeded at this—he could take Bathsheba as a wife…No one had to know.

Yet how foolish the heart of man, how quick we are to forget that the eyes of the Almighty see all!

David thought he was free from consequence, he thought no man knew his deed…

But God knew.

And God sent His prophet, Nathan, to speak to David, to give the conseqences of his sin.

Oh yes – his sin had consequences. NO ONE BUT GOD knew, and there were still consequences.

We must not foolishly think that our sins will go unanswered either.

It’s unclear exactly when David wrote Psalm 51, but it was sometime right around that confrontation.

Today, permit me to examine 5 elements of David’s repentance; with the goal of examining how each of these elements is critical to our repentance.

1) Grounds for repentance

2) Necessity of Repentance

3) Our Hope in repentance

4) Response after repentance

5) Disposition of repentance

First, let’s consider the grounds of repentance.

[Read v1-2]

Notice first, David addresses God. He speaks not to the reader, but to the Lord.

Your sin offends God, and so your repentance must be directed towards God.

You cannot REPENT of sin without appealing to God; as you have sinned chiefly against GOD

David spends no time beating around the bush. He doesn’t even identify the specificsof his sin.

He simply cries out, “have mercy on me O God”

I imagine David here as a broken man shaken during the night, tormented by the awareness of his sin.

I do not mean that he was tormented by the consequences of his sin, but by his sin itself!

The Man of God LOVES His God and HATES everything that opposesHis God.

He hateshis own actions, he does not understand them, he is a conflicted man—burdenedby this enigma.

Unable to sleep, he rolls out of bed, face wet with tears, falling to his knees he trembles, racked with deep sorrow.

He exclaims with anguish:

“O God……have MERCY on me….BLOT OUT my transgressions…WASH me. Cleanse me.”

A plea; a cry…

This is what a man says when he knows he has absolutely nothingto bring to the table.

I suppose that many here have experienced a degree of this—when you are confronted with the weight of your sin.

It’s like the prodigal son…when the text says “he came to himself”

It’s like sin sucks your life away—it’s like you can’t breathe, like your heart is wrung out.

You can hardly look up because you’re afraid to catch the gaze of God burning into your face…

You can barely stand because your knees knock together—that’s the disposition of repentance.

David wrote in Psalm 32, “For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer”

But look here Christian:

Look closely at David’s appeal…look to where he finds his strength.

David appeals not to his kingly office. He speaks nothingof his prior faithfulness.

David points to nothing in himself…instead he says,

“Have mercy on me…according to your steadfast love. Accordingto your abundant mercy.”

When sin becomes acutely present to us…when our souls are weighed downby iniquity—who have we to look to but the Lord.

Oh, He is the source of terrible judgment. In Him is the standardof all righteousness—you should FEAR His holiness!

The unceasing gaze of the Judge knows your every thought.

But oh – if there is any mercy to be found, ifthere is any forgiveness, if there is ANYRELIEF from SIN—

you will not find it anywhere else but before the throne of God the Almighty.

“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love” – to what else can we appeal?

“Steadfast love” here means not an expression of fickle emotions, but a firm covenanted disposition of love.

David appeals to the nature of God — Have mercy on me, because of who you are.

For you are…

“the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty” Exodus 34:6-7

The only proper grounds of repentance, the only foundation we have to stand on is the nature of God.

And the man well aware of the significance of his sin knows that ONLYan act of God could cleanse him.

David looks not to himself, he runs past all his deeds and his might.

The mighty King of Israel says “God, what else can I turn to?

Where else is there forgiveness?

You’re all I’ve got.

Be merciful Lord, Please, forgive me.”

Repentance would be impossible—there would be no forgiveness, there would be no absolution—if not for the character of God.

Christian—when you find yourself entrapped by sin, cry out to the Lord…let youract of repentance be based on His grace.

In your prayers, appeal to His character!

Let the weight of your sin be eclipsed by an awareness of the GOODNESSof God towards His people—of the FREEDOM in Christ.

What else will you turn to? What else will quiet your trembling soul?

“How precious is that flow, that makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus”

Approach His throne on your face, and plead guilty: “Oh Lord, YOU are a merciful God. I have nothing. I have nothing.”

And the Lord hears His children. And He acts in accordance with His steadfast love.

And then experience the sweet sorrow that accompanies true repentance.

What a delight and odd joy to bring our sins before the Lord – to find that He has forgiven us.

Oh the sweet sorrowful joy of repenting of already pardoned sins.

Having established repentance’s foundation—let us now move on to consider its necessity.

[Read v.3-6]

First, v3 - David doesn’t work to suppress the awareness of his sin—after he acknowledges it, he’s mindful of it.

He says clearly, “I know my transgressions. My sin is alwaysbefore me”

His sin doesn’t take up residence in the back room—forgotten about.

I suppose that many of us have certain sins that so grieve us that we can look back them and declare “my sin is ever before me.”

Some sins scar you—you may move past them, they may be forgiven, but you remember them, there are still consequences.

There can be no repentance without acknowledgingyour sin—that means regular confession to God.

You cannot force ignorance of your sin if you seek to be repentant—you cannot pretend that your sin does not exist.

If you’ve sinned, you must acknowledge that, confess it, dealwith it. You cannot ignore it.

Confession is an act of faith — it places yourself squarely and intentionally into God’s hands…

…admitting that you deserve the fulness of His wrath for your particular sins.

Look at verse 4 – “against you and you only have I sinned”

How is this true?

David certainly sinned against Bathsheba by inciting her to commit adultery.

He sinned against Uriah by commanding his death.

He sinned against Joab by using him as an instrument of evil.

Yet he says here, in no uncertain terms, “against you, you only, have I sinned.”

He rightly identifies the one chiefly wounded by this transgression.

The Lord granted to David everything that David had.

The very breath in his lungs was supplied by the Lord.

His victories and triumphs granted to him as a gift! His very life was sustained by God!

His kingship, his kingdom. The promises of God towards him…

When did God NOT deal kindly with David—and yet David presumed, on that kindness, to lash out with lust and hate.

He took his breath, his faculties, his kingship, his military success, and twisted these gifts into sin.

And oh, how the Lord’s heart must have burned against that sin.

The arrows of an enemy wound, but the arrows of a friend pierce deeper still—and did the Lord not count David as a friend?

Repentance was a necessityfor the king, because his sins offended God!

The most abominable sins in our world are considered so because of harm done to innocent blood.

The greater one’s innocence, the greater the violationcommitted against them.

And we sin not against someone who perfectly adheres to righteousness….but we sin against the One who IS righteousness.

The necessity of our repentance stems from the utter holiness of God—without repentance generally, there is no forgiveness!

Without repentance as a believer, we hinder our communion with God!

The aim and goal of Christian life is nearness to our God—to restin His arms and to be to “the praise of His glory”!

We were saved that we may be conformed to the image of the Son, that Christ might be preeminent amongst many brothers.

In other words, we’re saved to live righteous lives, that Christ(the source of our righteousness) would be exalted.

Continued sin does violence to this task—draws our eyes downwards, hardens our hearts, grieves the Holy Spirit, offendsour God.

We wronglyperceive that our sin, as Christians, has no consequence, because we’ve been forgiven.

This is not true.

What Christian can say, with complete honesty, that his sin has nothurt his love for God? His nearness to the Lord? His heart’s delight in the goodness of God?

The child who sins against a father does not cease to be a child—and yet there is a relational cost.

Do not think that because we have been forgiven that sin has no consequencesfor you.

Furthermore – as Christians, when we sin, do we not sin against a greatermeasure of grace given to us?

God has been gracious to us; He has forgiven us in Christ. He has sealed us with His Holy Spirit, He has destinedus for glory.

Oh the graces given to Christians are immense—and oh what painwe do to our Savior by our sin.

Instead of fashioning our own ammunition to fire at God, we’ve taken the suppliesand munitions HE’S given us as a friend, and fire them back at him.

In that sense, perhaps it is true that the sins of Christians are more relationally hurtful to God than the sins of the pagan!

And if the offense is so great, should not our repentance be full of fervor and genuineness?

Oh, may the Spirit cause your conscience to feel the seriousness of our sin—that sweet repentance would always be on your lips.

When we lash out at our spouse or children…our arrows launch out against our Lord.

When we are filled with pride…we defy His rule.

When we lie…we invade his palace and seek to take His throne for ourselves.

When we lust…our faculties launch an assault on the dearest of friends—on our Father.

Oh what fools we are—if we had a right sense of the Lord’s kindness towards us…then we would tremble at the thought of such an assault.

As we better grasp God’s nearness, and Fatherliness and kindnessand love for us, then our sin stands out as more and more obtuse.

So Repentance is necessary 1) because we have sinned against a Holy God who deserves obedience

And 2) because our sins hurtour communion with God!

What man, after offending a dear friend, would not seek forgiveness and yearn to repair the relationship?

Then how much more ought we seek forgiveness from our God?

As he says in verse 5 – we are all sinful from the womb…

And so, our lives should be riddled with regular repentance.

Let us move forward now and consider the hope we have in repentance.

[Read v7-12]

David repeats his plea: “purge me, wash me,” but here offers the hope and certain end of genuine repentance: “I shall be clean, I shall be whiter than snow”

When David sinned, there were consequences. As though God brokeHis bones as consequences for the sin.

He asks that God turn the groaning of these consequences, the “bones that you have broken” in verse 8, into rejoicing.

He asks to hear joy and gladness—gifts of God, indicative of forgiveness!

His requests pour out before the Lord—verse 9 - may God HIDE his face from seeingand beholding David’s sin…

…may He totally wipe out the record of these sins.

Verse 11-12 - Do not take me from your presence, do nottake the anointing of the Spirit to serve you as King and Prophetaway…Restore me, uphold me!

But David—not content to simply have the consequences of sin removed—

asks the impossible of God in v10—create in him a CLEAN heart, and renew a RIGHT spirit.

Herein shows the genuinenessof David’s repentance.

He cares not only about the consequences and judgments of sin...

he desires to rid himself of the problem—a shattered heart, a defectivespirit.

Carnal repentance cares ONLY about consequences……But the man of God abhorsthe thought of dishonoring His God!

It causes his heart to recoil and his lips to quiver—Oh that I might not sin against you again, Oh my Lord!!! FIX ME! [pause]

May we realize that all these requests, inspired by the Holy Spirit, were not statements of baseless HOPE, but of sure expectation.

The man who repents of his sin shall be clean.

The one who cries out for mercy shallreceive it.

Look at what Psalm 32 v1, 5, also written by David, says, “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit…I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,” and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”

Consider what Paul writes in Romans 4:4-8

Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift but as his due. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”

Paul USES David as a CHIEF example of an ungodly man justified by faith.

David—an adulterous murderer—stands as an example for our sake—if HE was forgiven, so shall the Lord be gracious also to you.

Oh church – See here the Gospel! Behold your salvation!

You sinners, you filled with hatred, you brimming with anger, you greedy & lustful hearts, you faithless lips, you selfish and arrogant spirits, you anxious hearts…cry out!

Beat your breast and weep with remorse and hatred for you sin, “Lord, be merciful to me—a sinner.”

And as certain as I now stand before you – you can KNOW that the Lord’s response will be “you……are………forgiven” [long pause]

Let me speak for a moment to those of you who are not Christians.

Do you not realize that the fires of hell lick at your back THIS VERY MOMENT?

Your heart beats because the Lord has granted you life. Your lungs suck air because He PUT that air in your lungs.

At any moment, he can revoke his gift.

Make no mistake—You WILL die. Maybe today. Maybe tomorrow.

We know not when, but we shall all die.

And the Lord is blameless in His judgments—He will not spare you in your sins if you die unrepentant.

In this chapter, David cried out knowing the disposition of the Lord and the richness of His mercy, and the love He has for Israel.

We can cry out in accordance with the mystery once hidden now revealed—Christ crucified.

The eternal Son of God crushed on the cross, the subject of divine wrath.

Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts—CAST yourself on the mercies of Christ!

He will save you—all you need do is LOOK to Him, as Israel looked to the bronze serpent raised up in the wilderness—LOOK to Christ, and be saved.

Turn your eyes away from the dullness of this world. Look away from sin which so easily entangles.

Cry out “Have mercy on me! Forgive me! Look not on my sin! Give me a new heart!”and “you shall be clean, and “you shall be whiter than snow.”

The hope given here is certain.

No force in heaven, on earth, or under the earth can possibly denywhat is promised to the one who repents.

Turn this day, throw yourself before His throne, WEEP at your sins, feel deep sorrow for your treason, let your heart be GREIVEDfor your deeds.

Come to the Lord, ask of Him—and He will grant you cleansing and forgiveness, through the mighty work of Jesus on the cross.

Consider now the next few verses, and the right response to God’s forgiveness.

[Read v.13-15]

As a creature, you have a solemn duty to praise your creator. It is the end for which you were created.

Isaiah 43:7 – “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

For the glory of the God of Heaven – you were Created.

You are the jewels in His crown, you are the gold of his palace, you are the precious things in his house.

You were made for His sake!

Romans 1:21 – “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him...”

So we—trophies of God’s glory—rebelled against our maker.

And yet, He offers this hope if we repent—“we shall be clean, whiter than snow.”

Thus, the objects of God’s mercy are not only trophies of His omnipotenceand might, but trophies of His GRACE and his MERCY!

Isa 48:9-11 – For my name’s sake I defer my anger; for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you…For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.

Why does God forgive us? Why does he hear our pleas? For his own sake. For his own glory.

The mountains cry out at God’s power, the wind speaks of his presence, the heavens declare the glory of God….

…but the redeemed of the Lord can speak of what these can’t know—the MERCIES of God.

David speaks in this Psalm of the only fitting response to such an act of God—praise.

Oh may the forgiven of God be a vocal bunch.

TEACH sinners—The Lord turns “repenters” into preachers! Into teachers! Into evangelists!

This is what “witnessing” means: to bear witness of the grace of God!

May we recount the kindness of God to sinners, may we express to them “Because the sinless Savior died \\ my sinful soul is counted free \\ for God the Just is satisfied \\ to look on him and pardon me,”

Expressing our repentance, and God’s response is the essenceof evangelism.

Teach transgressors of sin’s vileness, and tell of the Lord’s mercy, of His forgiveness.

Tell about how the kindness of the Lord rescued you from the blameless judgmentsof God.

David continues – if God will deliver David, then “my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.”

And then another plea “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise”

First, we see that God must open our lips if we are to pour out praise.

But for those whom the Lord has forgiven, for those who have a new heart, for those whose lips have been opened—may we SING ALOUD of his righteousness!

Here is one reason we gather on the Lord’s Day to SING: We are recounting the forgiveness and the KINDNESS of God!

We respond to His forgiveness with PRAISE and THANKSGIVING.

“In the midst of the Congregation – I sing your praise”

Our hearts burst with sure expressions of thanksgiving and assurance.

Church, when we sing as a congregation, we are meant to SING!

To lift up our voices in praise! Loudly.

You’ve been forgiven saints, you’ve been cleansed, you’ve been made whiter than snow, and the best you can do is mouth the words?

Our ability to sing is really a secondary issue here.

Church – may our singing NOT be stifled or muffled…

…may we not mutter our way through these songs—may we DECLARE with JOYthe mercies of our Lord.

Let the angels in heaven WITNESS our joy!

Let the heavenly host see us all praise the Lord of our salvation! [pause]

We now turn our attention to the last observation from this text, the disposition of repentance.

[Read 16-17]

David identifies a common error of humanity—thinking that our rituals(even rituals ordained by God) are the means by which he accepts our repentance.

To the Mormon who thinks that their temple works is what will certainly secure a place in the Celestial Kingdom…

…to the Catholic who perceives that his participation in the Sacraments grants eternal life—David says this

“You will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering”

For the Jew of that day, such sacrifices were right and good—here was the problem: such rituals do not make repentance effective.

God sees the soul of man. God peers into our hearts…

…an unrepentant man who offers sacrifice finds NO forgiveness in those sacrifices.

And the repentant man is the one who breaks over his sin.

Here we find 2 crucial elements of repentance: hatred for sin and brokennessover transgression

Far too rare is it to find a man who genuinely hates his sin.

Not just what his sin DOES, but because of what it IS—because it is at ODDS with God’s nature.

Frequently have I heard testimonies of people who says “well, I knew there was more to life, so I went to church, and am now a Christian.”

I probe—"tell me of your state beforehand.”

And it’s a shocking thing – though they claim the name of Christ, many people speak nothing of a deep awareness of their sin, let alone hatred for it.

Some say “Hell was a frightful notion” or “my sin was ruining my family,”…but do not have hatred for the sins themselves!

Thomas Watson said “Christ is never loved till sin be loathed. Heaven is never longed for till sin be loathed.”

By hatred, I don’t mean emotional anger…I mean hatred.

Your anger at yourself will wane, but a disposition of hatred is not given to emotional whims.

True hatred has no respect for certain KINDS of sin.

You cannot hate your lust and yet feel complete indifference towards slothfulness.

If you do not hate your sin, then your heart hates God. You cannot loveGod AND love sin.

To come crawling before the Lord on His throne and to ask for grace is presumptuous enough—(though He has granted for us to do this)

Yet to come to the throne for forgiveness while harboring in our heart a love for sin…

To come to the throne without hating the thing that brought us there—what kind of repentance is that?

The Lord would look at the poor man before him and say, “depart from me, you evildoer, you Pharisee. You contort your face before others, and give the appearance of sorrow, but there is none in your heart.

Your sacrifices and offerings mean nothing—for your heart breaks not over your transgression.

You love your sin—and you cannot serve two masters. Depart from me, for I never knew you”

Brothers & sisters, only the man with a broken heart and a crushed spirit can approach the throne of grace for aid.

The genuine Christian is the one who comes face-to-face with the weight of their iniquity, and falls down in ANGUISH—

“OH how I have so harmed the Lord! OH how my sins have piled up—they are a stench to Him!

OH how poor a creature am I, rightfully bound for hellish eternity.

No man knows the depth of my iniquity—but the Lord does.

I cannot hide from Him, I cannot flee, I am a guilty man. There but for the grace of God go I—into hells flames.”

Have you such a broken heart over your sin?

Examine yourselves this morning—do you come to the Lord with loud sacrifices and offerings,

or do you come beating your breast saying “have mercy on me, a sinner?”

The disposition of repentance is the key to repentance.

Without such an attitude, your pleas for mercy are disingenuous—and God won’t regard them.

[pause]

And so - we have covered 5 areas of repentance covered by David in this Psalm:

1) Its grounds—the nature of God: His love and mercy

2) Its necessity—we are aware of our sin, and God’s holiness. The Lord is blamelessin his judgments, we need his mercy to rightly commune with a Most Holy God

3) Its sure hope – If we turn to Him, we shall be clean and whiter than snow. He willforgive us.

4) Its result – Praise flows downstream of forgiveness. If we repent, and are forgiven, then we must PRAISE our Savior!

5) Its disposition – broken and humble hearts that come to God HATING their previous state.

Church, Repentance is not optional.

I was reading in Revelation this week, and time and time again, God pours out severe judgments on the people, and John recounts

[Rev. 9:20-21] - “The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.”

There are two types of people in the world—the repentant, and the non-repentant.

Christians – repent. I don’t mean once, I mean daily.

Let your prayers rise up to God like David’s did.

When you day-after-day come before God in His Word and in prayer, peerinto your heart…examine yourself…acknowledge your sins…

AndBring them before the Lord, let sorrow rise up in your hearts over how you’ve grieved your Lord and master.

Ask for forgivness….and then go assured—knowing that you have been “cleansed” and that you are “whiter than snow”

Amen, the mercies of God are boundless. Let’s pray.