Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Sin is a dirty, disruptive, chaotic, and destructive fact of life.

We cannot look anywhere without seeing the impacts and acts of sin.

Sin reveals itself in our daily decision making.

It reveals itself in the athletic realm, the political realm, the entertainment realm of music, movies, and TV.

Sin reveals itself through the treatment of others at home and in the workplace.

Sin is unavoidable.

Sin is deceptive and tricky.

Sin is living in opposition to God.

Sin is that which is not of faith.

You say wow, we live in a horrible world.

We do and the punishment for it is eternal separation from God.

It is this sin that causes us to drift from God.

We find our hearts becoming hard, apathetic, and complacent.

We find ourselves trying to cover it up or justifying it as not sin.

We try to get rid of it by blaming others or minimizing it to not being “that bad”.

We can praise the Lord though that in his awesome grace provided an avenue of rescue from our depravity and wickedness.

He through His son, Jesus Christ, provided deliverance.

Jesus Christ sacrificed himself on the cross so that men, women, children everywhere and throughout history can be saved from the condemnation necessary because of God’s wrath toward sin.

It requires faith in Christ death and resurrection along with a repentance of one’s sin, calling on God to save you.

It is then and only then as a justified and redeemed believer and adopted child of God can you say no to the heinousness of sin.

It is the Holy Spirit that now resides in you that gives you the power to not consent to the sinful temptations presented before you each and every day.

God’s grace is greater than our sin!

When we fall in sin before God, God’s grace is there to enable us and deliver us.

We need to call on God in prayer and confess our sins.

In our text this morning we are going to look at a Psalm that was written by a believer that had fallen into multiple sins.

He was brought to see his sin and from that he wrote this Psalm revealing his broken heart and desire to restore his relationship with God.

This man was King David.

As we come to our text in Psalm 51, it is important that we understand the background of the Psalm.

The background can be found in 2 Samuel 11-12.

Many here may remember the storyline in this section of 2 Samuel.

David chose not to go to war with the army and stayed home.

One morning he awoke and went to his rooftop.

Once on his rooftop he was looking around and spotted a women bathing.

Rather than turning and leaving he stayed and gazed upon her the text says.

He then proceeded to have a couple servant go and bring Bathsheba to him and he then sinned by sleeping with Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife.

A while after, David found out that Bathsheba was now pregnant.

David now had to do something.

He came up with a plan.

He sent for Uriah from the battlefield and expected him while he was home to spend time with Bathsheba and that would cover his sin of adultery.

What David did not expect was Uriah’s loyalty to him and his fellow soldiers.

He says that he could not sleep in the comfort of his home while his fellow soldiers were at battle.

David now rather than coming clean to Uriah and admitting his sin and confessing it to God, hatched another plan.

This plan involved Uriah himself carrying his own death order.

David gave Uriah orders to give to the captain of the army to place Uriah in a deadly place in the battle.

Uriah was killed in battle making it now possible to bring Bathsheba into the palace and cover the outward look of sin before the people.

In 2 Samuel 12:1-9 we see the prophet Nathan come to David and tell him a story.

The story was about a man who had one sheep.

It was healthy.

This man treated it like the family pet.

Another man, who was rich and had plenty of his own sheep, came and took this sheep and killed it and ate it.

As Nathan finished this story, David become outraged and called for the death penalty on this man who stole the man’s sheep.

At this point Nathan looks at David and says to him, “You are that man!” David’s response was not one of minimizing or hiding.

He made no more plans to escape it.

He simply fell before God admitting he had sinned— “I have sinned against the Lord.”

It is from this statement Psalm 51 stands up against.

David writes this lamenting Psalm crying out to God in sorrow and brokenness of heart over his sin.

Before we look into Psalm 51 I want to briefly look at the specifics of David’s sinful actions.

We will see a commonality of our sinful behavior.

2 Samuel 12:1–9 (NASB95)

1 Then the Lord sent Nathan to David.

And he came to him and said, “There were two men in one city, the one rich and the other poor. 2 “The rich man had a great many flocks and herds.

3 “But the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb Which he bought and nourished; And it grew up together with him and his children.

It would eat of his bread and drink of his cup and lie in his bosom, And was like a daughter to him.

4 “Now a traveler came to the rich man, And he was unwilling to take from his own flock or his own herd, To prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him; Rather he took the poor man’s ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” 5 Then David’s anger burned greatly against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die.

6 “He must make restitution for the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing and had no compassion.”

7 Nathan then said to David, “You are the man!

Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘It is I who anointed you king over Israel and it is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul.

8 ‘I also gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your care, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these! 9 ‘Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in His sight?

You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon.

David in this passage reveals how sin can manifest in one’s life and we need a broken heart.

(idea of layout from Will Galkin sermon on Psalm 51)

Selfish actions that show you need a broken heart taken from the life of David:

Ignore the commands of scripture - ‘Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in His sight?

Use people to get what we want and lust for - He sent messengers to find and bring Bathsheba to him

Hard on others and easy on our self - judging others.

He ranted about the man who took the poor man’s sheep

consumed with what we do not have versus what we do have - He lusted after another man’s wife and not his own.

God has given us what we need.

God is good.

callous to obvious warning to our own sin - one of the servants David sent questioned that this was Uriah’s wife

duplicity and hypocrisy - irate at the rich man when he had done the exact thing

sin is more important than the affects on others - he only thought about what he wanted not how his actions impacted other people

The question we need to ask ourselves this morning is what does God want from us when we sin?

Main Truth: Living righteously requires a heart of spiritual brokenness.

I. Spiritual brokenness manifests through confession before God (1-7).

In Psalm 51:1-7 “1 Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, And my sin is ever before me. 4 Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.

5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me.

6 Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.

7 Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”

David cries out to God for spiritual cleansing.

David uses colorful and strong words to cry out in confession to God for his sin.

The word choice rings loudly the broken heart of David over his wicked behavior.

David begins by calling out for God’s grace in his life based on God’s lovingkindess or his loving loyalty.

David knew God was a faithful and loyal God.

It was according to the greatness of God’s mercy that David was crying out for his sin to be forgiven.

He wanted his sin to be cleansed and annihilated.

In Psalm 51:2 “2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin.”

David expresses how he now saw his sin.