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——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.
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