God's saints are sinners still. Our Lord Jesus Christ perfected
forever those that God the Father sanctified in Him by divine election. By His blood, He perfected His
people. He justified us and purged our
sin. And by God the Holy Spirit, There
is a new man which after God is created in righteousness and
true holiness. This is a new spirit, a new man
that he creates within his people after the image of Christ, in
the righteousness and holiness of Christ. But Paul was a regenerated,
sanctified believer when he said I know that in me, that is in
my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. In our flesh, that nature born
of Adam, from his corrupt seed, that nature is only sin. Nothing
but sin and it can do nothing but sin. And therefore, everything
a believer does, sin is mixed with it. Sin is mixed with it. We are sinners still. But sometimes
a believer falls into a terrible sin, terrible acts of sin. David, King David, was a regenerated,
sanctified child of God. God said, He is a man after my
own heart. David had been saved a long time. He had endured a lot of trials. He had written many Psalms. But David sinned terribly. He committed adultery and then
he murdered her husband who was a loyal friend to David. He suffered for that the rest
of his days. Because God chastened him and
made him to suffer because of it. He said the sword will never
leave your house. And it never did. But God may
suffer His child to fall into sin and He may let him go a long
while in sin. David went almost a whole year
thinking he had gotten away with this. But then God sent Nathan
the prophet to David and revealed his sin to him. He said, David,
thou art the man. And this Psalm, Psalm 51 is David's
prayer after God had granted him repentance. We read there
in the heading, to the chief musician, a psalm of David, when
Nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Our subject is the prayer of
repentance. And what we see here in Psalm
51 is the prayer of a repentant sinner how a repentant sinner
comes to God, the spirit with which he comes, the words with
which he comes to God. First of all, the repentant sinner
comes to God begging mercy. David says in verse 1, have mercy
upon me, O God. True sinners, true repentant
sinners come to God begging for mercy. begging for mercy. This is when a sinner has gone
beyond depravity as a doctrine. This is when the sinner sees
himself as the depravity. We're talking about when God
has brought you to truly behold what you are, nothing but sin. This is what God brings us to
experience by His grace. The publican standing afar off
would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote
upon his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. When someone sins against us,
we're terribly prone to cry for justice. It's so easy to watch the news
and see some terrible act of sin and say, they ought to lock
him up and throw away the key. But when God makes us see that
our sin, personally, my sin is against God, that's when we start
begging for mercy. Do we ask God mercy because we
think we merit God's mercy? Do we ask God mercy because we
think there is something in us that obligates God to give us
mercy? Verse 1, David said, according
to thy loving kindness. Have mercy on me, O God, according
to thy loving kindness. God's loving kindness is sovereign,
free, electing, distinguishing, unchanging, unchangeable, everlasting
love. God's loving kindness is in the
Lord Jesus Christ alone. Therefore, it never changes because
Christ never changes. It's God's loving kindness that
actually draws us to Christ in the first hour. And when we fall
into sin like David did, it's his loving kindness that continues
to draw us to Christ. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. Jeremiah said, The Lord hath
appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an
everlasting love. Therefore, with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. Look up lovingkindness sometime
in your Strong's Concordance and see the things that God does
by His lovingkindness. Everything He does for His elect
is according to His loving kindness. If He has mercy on us, it will
be according to His loving kindness. So the first thing we see here
is the repentant sinner. He doesn't come proud. He doesn't
come standing like that Pharisee that stood and prayed with himself
saying, Lord, I thank you, I'm not like other men. No, no. The sinner comes begging mercy. We're mercy beggars is what we
are. And then secondly, the repentant
sinner comes to God confessing our sin and begging God to put
it away. He says there in verse 1, according
to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. Verse 9, he says, hide thy face
from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities. Someone said,
this was a believer that said this, and he's just being honest, but
he said, the most difficult words for me to say is, I am wrong. I am wrong and you are right. The self-righteous man can't
do it. The proud, self-righteous man cannot say, I'm wrong, I've
sinned. He's going to vindicate himself
and he's going to blame somebody else. What happened? This is
due to our sin. What happened as soon as Adam
sinned and died spiritually? When God came to him, he said,
the woman you gave me. And what did the woman say? The
serpent begal me. blame somebody else to vindicate
self. When God makes us behold His
holiness in the face of Christ Jesus, when He makes us see that
He's holy, perfectly holy, and we see this in Christ crucified,
that's when we'll stop justifying ourselves, and we'll confess
our sins, and we will even vindicate God what He says against us. Verse
4, David said, Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done
this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when
thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. And he not only
confesses there that he had sinned in act, in deed, against God,
he confesses that sin is all that he is in his flesh. He says, behold, I was shapen
in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. If you look
in your margin, my margin says, in sin did my mother warm me. In other words, when I was in
the womb, I was incubated in sin. It's beholding God's holiness
in Christ crucified. Beholding how just and holy God
is that He did not even spare His Son when sin was found on
Him. It's beholding Him crucified
that we behold God's holiness. That's when we'll start confessing
our sin. The Lord said in Zechariah 12.10,
I'll pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem
the spirit of grace and of supplications. God has to pour out His spirit
on us. That spirit of grace and supplication. And then He makes
us see this. They shall look upon Me whom
they have pierced and they shall mourn for Him. as one mourneth
for his only son. They shall be in bitterness for
him as one that's in bitterness for his firstborn. As soon as
Isaiah saw the Lord, and he heard, holy, holy, holy is the Lord
of hosts. As soon as he saw the Lord and
heard that word, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. His
very next word was, woe is me, I am undone. Woe is me, I am
undone. Now David speaks here of three
different kinds of sin. He speaks of transgressions.
That's the perverseness of our evil works. The wicked things
we do. Breaking God's law willfully. That's what transgression is. And we break God's law in thought,
word and deed continually in our flesh. The word iniquity
is the perverseness of my good works. It's another word, another way
to think of that word is inequity. It's inequitable. It doesn't
equal God's glory, God's righteousness. We fall short of the glory of
God even in our very best righteousnesses. Scripture says they're filthy
rags. And then sin, that's the perverseness
of my being. Usually when you read the word
sin in connection with a sinner, it's a noun. It's a noun. That's what we are. That's what
our being is. It's sin. Sin is not only what
I think and what I do. Sin is what I am. Paul said,
O wretched man that I am. He was a believer when he said
that. He was a sanctified, born again, saint. And he said, oh wretched man,
that I am, right now. He said, I am the chief of sinners. Can you imagine the multitude
of our sins, iniquity, and transgression from conception until the day
we die? Whatever multitude you imagine,
it's far more than that. And however wicked you imagine
it to be, it's far worse than that. If God made us see just how wicked
we are, I don't think we could stand it. I don't think we could
bear up under it. It would frighten us. It would
terrify us. Especially if He did it in light
of how holy He is. But here's the good news, brethren.
We have a multitude of sin. No doubt about that. But for
everybody that comes and confesses their sin to God, He has a multitude
of tender mercies. A multitude of tender mercies.
Can you confess your sin to God? I'm not talking about confessing
that you have some knowledge of the doctrine of depravity,
the teaching of depravity. Can you confess, I am sin? Lord, I have sinned. I vindicate you, God, that you
might be just when you speak. I have sinned against you. Can
you confess this? If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess
our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. How is God faithful and just
to cleanse us of our sin? How is He faithful and just to
do that? God reserves mercy for thousands. And God will by no means clear
the guilty. How can He do both? How can He
give me a guilty sinner mercy and not clear me of my guilt? How can He do that? God sent
forth His only begotten Son, perfect, holy, without sin, without
spot. He sent forth His only begotten
Son to represent as the head, as the substitute of those thousands
that He reserves mercy for. God sent His Son for them. And
the Lord Jesus Christ willingly presented His spotless humanity
to bear the sin, all the sin, all the transgressions, all the
iniquities of those thousands upon thousands that God chose
to show mercy. And God will by no means clear
the guilty. He sold us that with our sin
on Christ, He spared not His own Son, but delivered Him into
the teeth of justice for all those thousands that He would
show mercy. Because He did that. Because He did that. Now God is just to show mercy
to those thousands. You notice David asks here, he's
asking that the record of his sin be blotted out. He's asking
here when he says, blot out my transgression and wash me and
cleanse me of iniquity and sin, he's talking about, he wants
the record gone. He doesn't want to just be pardoned
for his sin. He wants the record gone so that
God does not remember any record of sin whatsoever. That's why
Christ had to take our place in the flesh. That's why He had
to bear our sin so the record of it could be gone. So the record
could be gone. He didn't just bear our punishment,
He bore the sin itself. He became the only one responsible
for the sin of his people. So that when he bore the punishment,
the record was gone. The souls he represented, the
soul that sinneth, it must die. And that's how real he took our
place. He became the one who died so that the wages were paid
in full. And the records blotted out.
And so God now says, I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy
transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. That's better than pardon, brethren.
That is God not remembering any record. That's justification.
That's justification. That's God not having any record
past, present or future throughout this whole state of time that
you and I ever sinned whatsoever. Now remember who this is for.
This is for those who come with true repentance like David, confessing
against thee and thee only have I sinned. that you might be just
when you speak. This is for those that take sides
with God against themselves. This is for those that vindicate
God and His judgment of us. God is faithful to forgive us. He'll show mercy. And He's just
to forgive us. Because He made mercy and justice
meet in Christ. He's a just God and a Savior. a just God and a Savior. Thirdly, look at this, the repentant
sinner begs God to make us know wisdom within. Not only does
the repentant sinner want to know the record of his sin is
gone before the bar of God, before the judgment seat of God, we
want to be clean within. Look at this, verse 6. Behold,
thou desires truth in the inward parts. That's what God desires. Truth in the inward parts. In
the heart. There's no such thing as just
an outward form of worship with God. God looks on the heart.
God desires truth in the inward part. That means it's got to
be real worship. Real worship. And he says, and
in the hidden part thou shalt make me know wisdom. God will
make me know wisdom. A true sinner is not going to
try to rob God of His glory in making us to know wisdom. Not
a true sinner. Now, somebody that just says,
well, I'm a sinner and we're all sinners, he'll rob God, he'll
try to rob God of that glory that belongs to God. It's God's
glory to make us know wisdom. That's God's glory. And a true
sinner is not going to try to rob God of that. One that's really
been made to know his sin, he's not going to rob God of that
glory. Nor will he call himself wise. God says, Don't glory in
our wisdom. The man that God has made wise,
truly wise, he's not going to glory in his wisdom. He's going
to glory in God. The wisdom of God in the inward
part, the wisdom of God in the new man is Christ in you. Christ formed within us, who's
made wisdom unto us by God. You don't have to turn there
because I quote it every time I stand here. Of him are ye in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom. Of God is he
made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. John 6, look there with me. We
will turn there. You're familiar with it, but
I want our young people to see it. John 6, 44. The Jews that were following
Christ, He had fed them, and they said, well, if He's going
to feed us, we'll follow Him, we'll be His disciples. But He
began to speak to them, telling them He's the true bread from
heaven, and they couldn't understand what He was saying. They didn't
have any spiritual discernment. They only had an outward form.
They had no inward wisdom. And look what Christ told them.
He said, verse 43, murmur not amongst yourselves, He said, no man can come to me
except the Father which has sent me draw him. And I will raise
him up at the last day. It's written in the prophets.
They shall be all taught of God. That means God's going to be
the one who gets the glory for teaching His people Christ. He's going to get the glory for
teaching us Christ. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father. We hear of the Father,
He's the one that makes us hear and He makes us to learn. He
teaches us and that's how we come to Christ. That's how we
come to Christ. This work is done by God creating
within us a clean heart, a new heart. And not only in regeneration
does He do this, but He continues to cleanse that new heart and
renew that inward man. He continues this work, purging
our conscience with the blood of Christ. Look here, read verse
7. Purge me with hyssop and I shall
be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow. Well, didn't he just ask for
that before he was talking about legally before the bar of God's
judgment? Here he's talking about within.
He's speaking inwardly. Verse 10. Create in me a clean
heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not
away from Thy presence, take not Thy Holy Spirit from me,
Now he says here, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Purge me with hyssop and I shall
be clean. Tonight when you go home, you
can turn over there to Numbers 19 and you can read about this,
but let me just give it to you for now. Go to Hebrews 9 if you'd
like and I'll show you what it means. But you remember under
the law, God said a person could be defiled if they touched the
dead, if they were just in the room with the man that died,
or if they touched a bone from the dead, if they were out walking
through a field and unknowingly they walked across a grave, they
didn't even know it was there, they were defiled, if there was
an open container of water in a tent somewhere, well, there's
all kind of things that end up in our water that we can't even
see that are dead. That defiled a man. The point
of that was our dead flesh constantly defiles
us. Constantly defiles us. We come
in here to hear the gospel. It says by the blood of Christ
he purges us. He doesn't literally sprinkle
you with physical blood. It's hearing about the blood
of Christ, hearing Christ's blood that the Spirit enters in and
purges our conscience. And that's what they would take
hyssop and so here's what they would do. When somebody was defiled,
they took a red heifer and they killed this heifer in place of
the person that was defiled. A picture of Christ dying in
place of His people. Then they burned that heifer
picture of Christ bearing the burning justice of God, and then
they took the ashes and they made a water of purification. And they took hyssop, it was
just a plant that was, you know, on the end it was kind of like
a brush or something, and they would dip it in that water of
purification and they would sprinkle it on the people. And that's
what purified them ceremonially, just as a picture and type of
Christ, but ceremonially before God, that purged them, purged
their flesh, it cleansed their flesh. And in Hebrews 9 here,
you see what that meant, Hebrews 9.13. He says, if the blood of
bulls and of goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean
sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh. How much more shall
the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself
without spot to God, purge your conscience inwardly, renew a
right spirit within you, create in you a clean heart? How much
more shall His blood do this for you, purging you from dead
works to serve the living God? And God never stops cleansing
us within. He renews us within. David's
a believer here. And he's asking God to create
in me a clean heart. Well, I thought he'd already
been born of the Spirit of God. He had. He already had a new
nature. But he's asking God, renew me. And by that, create in me a new
heart, a clean heart. It's what Paul said over there
in Colossians 3 when he said we're
renewed, there's a new man which is renewed after the image of
Christ that created him. He renews us in our minds in
the image of Christ that created that new man. He's the one that
created that new man. And that's how God makes us hear
the gospel. That's how He makes us know wisdom. That's how Christ becomes the
power and wisdom of God to us. And that's when we start rejoicing
again. You sinned, you fell into sin.
God removes His... He doesn't let you know His communion
with you. And He removes His presence so
that you don't knowingly have His presence like you do most
of the time. And you can't rejoice when it's
like that. You have no joy. You ever been there where you
just can't read the scripture? You can't hear the gospel preached?
You're walking after dead works. Whatever the dead works are,
they don't have to necessarily be religious works. It could
be going after the world. It could be whatever it is. What's
it going to take to bring us back? What's it going to take
to bring us, renew that joy? God's going to have to renew
us in the heart. He's going to have to purge our conscience
from those dead works by the blood of Christ. Verse 8, when
He does this, we rejoice again. Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Restore unto
me. See, He had it before and He
said, Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold
me with thy free spirit. There's no joy while we're in
sin. There's no joy while we're in sin. When we're willfully rebelling
against God, while that's going on, God will remove His Spirit
from you. Not that He's going to take it from you forever.
You remember the time I told you this story? I was in the
mall one time and this little boy kept running out in front
of his daddy and he wouldn't wait on his father. He about
Joe's size, maybe younger than Joe's probably. He kept running. He wouldn't mind his dad. So
his dad just stood behind a column and hid himself from the little
boy. After a while, he ran on out there good ways. After a
while, he looked around and couldn't find his father. And he went
to crying. He went to crying loud, calling
out for his father. And when his father stepped out
from behind that column, he ran to his father and hugged up on
him and when they walked off, he was right by him holding his
hand. That's what God the Father does to us. He removes his presence
and he brings you down on your face and brings you crying out
for him like David was here, restore to me that joy. And it's just painful, like David
says here, that the bones that you've broken may rejoice. It's
painful, like a broken bone. Like a broken bone. And this is why this psalm right
here, these are the words that I found myself praying a lot. And so does every believer. We're
very familiar with this psalm. This is one of the favorite psalms
you'll find of believers because we're very familiar with this
right here. And then look at this. After
He's corrected us and converted us from our sin, remember what
He told Peter? He said, after you're converted,
He said, Peter, you're about to fall on your face. And after
you're converted, Strengthen your brethren. Teach your brethren
what you learned from this. And that's another reason. It's
not only to bring us to the feet of Christ, it's also for us to
teach our brethren what God taught us through that trial. And look
at what David says here. You do this for me, Father, verse
13, then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be
converted unto thee. You know how we learn things?
by experience. By experience. Joe Terrell in
his simplified wisdom said to me one time, you know how you
learn not to touch a hot stove? When you touch a hot stove. And
that's so. And God teaches us by experience
so we learn His grace is truly sufficient. We learn what a great
sinner we are and how quickly we will sin against Him. We know we sin all the time.
We know we are continually sinning because our flesh is sin. But
we find out how quickly we will sin against God and when we don't
even necessarily know it sometimes. Our greatest sin, our greatest
sin is when we are walking around thinking we don't have any. Thinking
we are doing so good. And why can't everybody be like
me? That's the worst time of all. We start picking out the sins
of our brethren and pointing out what they're doing wrong
and finding fault with them, even though we may not say it
to anybody. In our own heart, we feel that way. That's the
worst sin of all. The Lord said of the Pharisees
who were self-righteous, He said it would be more tolerable for
Solomon Gomorrah in the Day of Judgment than it will be for
you. God hates pride. So it's not just sin of adultery
and sin of murder. That's terrible. But I'm telling
you, the sin of self-righteousness, it's worse than that. What does
a saved sinner preach to others? When he is converted, he starts
teaching others what God's done for him. What does he declare?
Verse 14. We'll just read this. He says,
Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation. He's saying, Deliver me from
the guilt of the blood of this man that I murdered. And he says,
And my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. That's
what we declare. We declare God's righteousness,
Christ our righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips, and
my mouth shall show forth thy praise. We praise him. For thou desirest not sacrifice,
this is what we tell sinners, God's not interested in our sacrifices. Else would I give it. Thou delightest
not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken
spirit. A broken and a contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise. You know why God doesn't despise
a broken heart? David had a broken heart. A broken
heart draws near to Christ. Confessing our sin and looking
for Him to save us. And God draws near to that one
with a broken heart in Christ. He says that's who he's near
to. He doesn't despise, but it says he resists the proud. He
resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. These are the
things we learn through trials and through having our hearts
broken all over again by God so that we can teach our brethren.
And he says, now watch this whole thing, He's saying to you, Father,
you do the good. You do good in your good pleasure
unto your elect people, unto Zion. We preach God's will, God's
pleasure. Build thou the walls of Jerusalem. We declare God's house is built
up. We're made living stones by God's
hand. And when you do it, God, when
you do this, then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices
of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole offering,
then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar. He's saying
when God works His good pleasure, when He builds up His people
as living stones, when He's done the building, then His people
believe on Christ our righteousness. Then we worship God aright through
faith, constrained by His love, seeking to walk after Him and
honor Him and give Him all the glory. He's saying, Lord, when
you build your house, that's when your people worship you
aright in Christ alone. What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing this I see,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. For my pardon this my plea, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can my sin erase, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Not of works, tis all of grace,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. plunge into that fountain. Plunge
into that fountain. Come to God like David came to
God. And you'll find out God delights
to show mercy. Amen.