The one thing that interests
me most anymore in this life is the forgiveness of my sin.
How is my sin gonna be put away? How is my sin gonna be forgiven?
That hasn't always been the case. Knowing that the wages of sin
is death, we say that often. We know that the scriptures are
clear that sin's wages is death. We know that the soul that sins,
it shall die. Definite thing. Wages of sin
is death. The soul that sinned shall die.
God's forgiveness of my sin is my biggest concern. The forgiveness
of sin. David said, blessed is he whose
transgression is forgiven and whose sin is covered. I would
say amen to that. David said, blessed is the man
unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Blessed is the man
whom the Lord doesn't charge, who the Lord doesn't regard their
iniquity. I'd say amen to that. In whose
spirit there is no guile, no deceitfulness. And if God ever
truly shows you that your heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately wicked. You too will desire the forgiveness
of sin. Now I want you to turn with me
to the Old Testament book of 2 Samuel. 2 Samuel chapter 12. Most all of us know the story
of David. David was a man after God's own
heart. That's what the scripture says
concerning him. God loved David very much. He was the apple of
God's eye. But David, like you and I, was
a wretched sinner. David had taken another man's
wife. David had taken that man's life. And God sent Nathan the prophet
to David and Nathan told David a story. That's what we have
here in 2 Samuel chapter 12. Look at verse one with me. And
the Lord sent Nathan unto David and he came unto him and he said
unto him, there were two men in one city, the one rich and
the other poor. And the rich man had exceeding
many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing save or
except one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up,
and it grew up together with him and with his children, and
it did eat of his own meat and drank of his own cup and lay
in his bosom and was like a daughter unto him. And there came a traveler,
verse four, unto the rich man, and he spared to take of his
own flock and of his own herd to dress for the wayfaring man
that was coming to him. But he took the poor man's lamb,
that little ewe lamb, and he dressed it for the man that was
come to him. And David's anger was greatly
kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan, as the
Lord liveth, the man that had done this shall surely die. Now
remember, David was king. If he could have got his hands
on this man, he would have surely died because what the king said
was law. And he went on to say in verse
six, and he shall restore the land fourfold because he did
this thing and because he had no pity. And Nathan said to David,
thou art the man. When I used to hear a preacher
talk about sinners and their sin, I always thought that he
was talking about someone else. Then one day, God's servant spoke
to me, and I heard God say, thou, like the man. I remember very well that day
God sent me a man, a man who told me the truth about myself.
A man that told me all the things that God had done for me. And
isn't that what Nathan did? He told David all that God had
done for him. Look at the remainder of verse
seven. And Nathan said unto David, thou art the man, thus saith
the Lord God of Israel. This is God speaking. He said,
I anointed thee king over Israel. Who made David king over Israel?
God did. He said, and I delivered thee
out of the hand of Saul. Who delivered David from the
hand of Saul? God did. He said, and I gave
thee thy master's house and thy master's wives into thy bosom
and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah. And if that had
been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and
such thing. When telling me all the things
that God did for me, the preacher that God sent me, it was one
and after another. Just like Nathan's word to David
here, and, and, and. And after reminding David of
all the things that God had done for him, when God through Nathan
reminded David of all those things, we read in verse 9, Wherefore
hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his
sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite
with the sword, and thou hast taken his wife to be thy wife,
and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now
look down at verse 13. And David said unto Nathan, I
have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, the
Lord also hath put away thy sin, thou shalt not die. Now I'm telling you, what a word
of love, mercy, and grace to a wretched sinner. The Lord hath
put away thy sin. My, isn't that an amazing thought? It is if you've seen your sin
and you know what you are before God. It means something to you. Thou shalt not die. I still love
to hear that. I love when men tell me that
in their preaching. It's all I want to hear. It's
the one thing that interests me the most. The Lord hath put
away my sin, and I shall not die. Turn with me to Psalm 51,
if you would. Psalm chapter 51. I don't know if your Bible has
the little header under the chapter like mine does, but the heading
of this chapter in my Bible reads, to the chief musician, a Psalm
of David, when Nathan, the prophet, came unto him, after he had gone
into Bethsheba. This is the Psalm that David
penned after that happened. What did David now desire more
than anything else in life? Verse 1. Have mercy upon me,
O God. What did David desire more than
anything else in life? Mercy. Lord, have mercy on me. And I'd have you notice that
David didn't want this mercy to be based on what he deserved. He knew that he deserved death.
He had confessed that himself. We just read it a moment ago.
As the Lord liveth, David said, the man that hath done this thing
shalt surely die. He pronounced judgment upon himself.
He said that before, Nathan said thou art the man. David didn't want mercy according
to what he deserved because mercy is not giving us what we deserve. That's what mercy is. Mercy is
not God giving us what we deserve. David said, have mercy upon me,
O God, and notice this, according to thy loving kindness, according
to the multitude of thy tender mercies. That's the mercy I want. Mercy according to God's loving
kindness and the multitude of His mercies. He said, Lord, blot
out my transgressions. I want the mercy that God gives. I want the mercy of God, the
mercy that's according to His loving kindness, the mercy that
is according to His tender mercies. I want God to blot out. That
word means abolish. I want my transgressions to be
abolished. Verse two, like David, I want
this also. He said, wash me throughly from
mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. I want that so badly. Now that word throughly here
means in abundance. That's good because my sin is
abundant. I need to be washed in abundance. I need to be washed throughly.
I need to be washed thoroughly. I need to be washed from mine
iniquity. I need to be cleansed from my
sin. Has God shown you that that's
what you need? Do you acknowledge that that's
what you need most? David did. He said in verse 3,
For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. I have to acknowledge my sin
and so do you. Why? Because it's ever before
me. It's always staring me in the face. It's always bringing
remorse and distress. My sin. Always. making life a burden to me. Why? Because all my sin is against
God and God alone. Verse 4, 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. All sin is transgression against
God's law, against Him. But more so, all sin is against
the law giver. You think about that? It's neglect
and it's contempt of His commandments. It's disobedience to the things
that He commands us to do. And sin against God is evil.
Did you notice that? David said, Have I sinned and
done this evil in thy sight? You tell a man today that he's
evil and I'm telling you to make him mad. You tell a believing
child of God that he's evil and he'll shake his head yes and
agree with you. God revealed that to his people. Sin against God is evil, and
all have sinned to come short of the glory of God. So all men
by nature are evil. David said, I have done this
evil in thy sight. Don't read over these words. They mean something. He said,
I've done evil in thy sight. With respect to man, our sin
is done secretly. David lay with Bathsheba secretly. David secretly ordered the execution
of Uriah. But all of it was done in the
sight of God. God saw it all. God sees all our sin. Oh, we
do our best to hide it from men, but all things are naked and
open to Him with whom we have to do. God sees all our sin and
all our sin is against Him. And that's why David said in
verse 4 that God is justified. That means that God is right
when He speaks against me. That's why God is clear when
He judges me in my sin. This religious world believes
that men are basically born good, and then at some point in their
life, at the age of accountability, they take a wrong turn. They
go down the wrong path. They make a mistake or two, and
then they become sinners. I hope we know better than that.
David did. In verse five, we see that David
knew the truth about his sin. He said, behold, I was shapen
in iniquity. Shapen where? In his mother's
womb. And in sin did my mother conceive
me. I am in my very nature a sinner. I'm not a sinner because I sin,
I sin because I'm a sinner. A sinner's what I am. I naturally lean to forbidden
things. Don't you? In our shaping, we're all out
of shape. I'm not only out of shape physically,
but I'm out of shape spiritually. Bad out of shape. And even infants, I'm telling
you, this proves it, infants are no innocents. Oh, we look at a newborn baby.
My oldest son just adopted a beautiful little girl. Oh, she's beautiful.
Just beautiful. She's a wretched sinner. The first blanket an infant is
wrapped up in is sin. David said, in sin did my mother
conceive me. David goes back to the earliest
moment of his being, in his very conception, and sin was found
in him. In Psalm 58 verse 3, you don't
have to turn over there, David reiterated this truth on being
shaped and conceived in sin by saying, the wicked are estranged,
and that word means alienated. Alienated from God. The wicked
are estranged. When? From the womb, from the
womb, they go astray as soon as they are born speaking lies. Look at verse six here in Psalm
51. Behold, thou desires truth in
the inward parts. And in the hidden part, thou
shalt make me to know wisdom. Now listen, God loves truth.
God desires truth, even in the inward parts of a man or a woman,
to fully see in the heart that my heart's corruption is the
cause of my sin. That's wisdom. That's wisdom
that God gives. That's the beginning of wisdom.
The wise Solomon said, the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom, and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.
Understanding what? Understanding that my sin is
against God, and only against God. Understanding that God is
justified when He speaks against me. and condemns me of my sin. And understanding that God is
clear of any wrongdoing when He judged me of my sin. That's the beginning of wisdom.
Understanding that God desires my confession of truth from my
inward part. And there in my heart, He's made
me to know these things. Has God made you to know these
things in your heart? in the inward parts. And He's
made me to fear Him. That word means reverence. I reverence God. I respect God.
He's made me to understand what I deserve. And He's caused me
to take sides with Him against myself. And what I now want,
God has promised to give. I want repentance. And I want
faith in Christ, which all are the gifts of God. And the awakened
mind knows that it's so. To most, repentance is nothing
more than this. The common definition of repentance
among most people is this. You're sorry for what you do.
You promise to stop what you're doing. And when you do, then
you're forgiven. But that's not repentance. That's
works. Isn't that right? Sorry for what
I do. I promise to stop. And if I do,
then God will forgive me. That's works. That's not repentance. That is a repentance that needs
to be repented of. Let me show you that. Hold your
place here in Psalm. And turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter 7, I believe. Yes. 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Look at verse 8. I won't go into all the details
of what Paul's talking about here. It applies to us in this
subject. He said in verse 8, writing to
the church at Corinth, he said, For though I made you sorry with
a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent. For I perceive
that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but
for a season. But now I rejoice, not that ye
were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance. For ye were made sorry after
a godly manner, that you might receive damage by us in nothing. Now look at verse 10. For godly
sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented
of. There's a repentance that needs
to be repented of, but this is not it. For godly sorrow worketh
repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow
of the world worketh death. Now the church at Corinth was
made to be sorry after a godly sorrow, Paul calls it. Their
sorrow brought about a repentance, Paul said, unto salvation. David
was made to sorrow after a godly sorrow. That's what we read in
Psalm 51. His sorrow brought a repentance
unto salvation. His repentance was a repentance
that needed not to be repented of. And the sorrow and the repentance
of this world we read works death. Now look at verse 11. Pay close
attention to this verse. For behold, this selfsame thing,
that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought
in you. Yea, what clearing of yourself? Yea, what indignation? Yea, what fear? Yea, what vehement
desire? Yea, what zeal? Yea, what revenge? In all things, you have approved
yourself to be clear in this matter." Now, what is Paul saying
here? He's saying this, godly sorrow,
godly repentance, The repentance that God gives His people. That's
what godly repentance is. It's repentance that God gives.
It's not being sorry that you got caught. A lot of times my children, they'd
get in trouble, they'd do something, and they'd say, I'm sorry. And
I knew what they meant. They were sorry they got caught.
But a godly sorrow, godly repentance, does some things for the repentant
sinner. It brings about carefulness.
Did you notice that? That's the first thing. After
David's godly repentance, we never read where David ever did
such a thing again. Oh, he continued in sin. Yes, we all do. But he never
did anything like he did before. in the taking of another man's
wife or murder. David was careful to endeavor
to always be pleasing to God. I want to be pleasing to God,
don't you? I do. I want to be pleasing to God.
And I know I fail miserably, but I'm telling you, I am now
conscious and careful not to just flippantly offend my Lord. Godly sorrow, godly repentance. Secondly, godly sorrow brings
about the clearing of ourselves. We don't deny our sin. We don't
defend our sin. John said if we confess our sins
that he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I don't want to deny my sin. I want to confess it. I want
it to be forgiven. What was David's confession?
Remember what he told Nathan? He said, I've sinned against
the Lord. Against thee and thee only have I sinned. That's what
David was saying. And Nathan said unto David, the
Lord hath put away your sin, and thou shalt not die. David
confessed his sin, and God forgave him of his sin. You see, godly
sorrow, godly repentance clears the sinner. Godly sorrow, godly
repentance is unto salvation. That's what we read in that verse.
The next thing, godly sorrow, godly repentance brings about
indignation. Not against ourselves, not against
others who sin, but indignation against our sin. I hate my sin. Job said, I abhor
myself. He abhorred himself because of
the sin that was in him. I hate my sin. I abhor that sin
within me. Not as I should, but there is
indignation against my sin that was not there before. And I'm
telling you what a token of God's grace that is. Godly song. Godly repentance
brings about fear. See that? Not fear of hell, not
fear of damnation, but fear of God, reverence for God, respect
for God, love for God, thankfulness and gratitude to God, praise,
worship, and adoration to God. Godly sorrow, godly repentance
brings about vehement desire. Do you see that? Now vehement
desire here means a longing, a longing for full satisfaction
from the justice of God's holy law. I have a vehement desire
to be delivered from my sin. I told you in the beginning that
was my greatest desire. That God would forgive me of
all my sin. That God's holy justice might
be satisfied against me. That's a vehement, that's a passionate
desire of mine. That's an intense desire for
every child of God. God's put it there. Do you have
a vehement desire to be forgiven of God? If you do, then God has
given you life within. And also notice that godly sorrow
and godly repentance brings about zeal. Zeal for God and zeal for
His glory. Zeal for the gospel of Christ.
Zeal for the Christ of the gospel. A zeal that's according to knowledge. Paul said, I have friends, they've
got a zeal, but it's not according to knowledge. But God gives His
people a zeal according to knowledge, a zeal against all that opposes
Christ and His Word. Do you have that zeal? Godly
sorrow and godly repentance brings it about. Notice also that godly
repentance brings about revenge, not revenge against those that
have sinned against us. The scripture is clear, vengeance
belongs to God. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves,
but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance
is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord.
This is talking about a revenge against all our disobedience
to God. Paul said, in all things, you
have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. Boy, there's
a lot in that. I'm telling you, I don't approve
of my sin. I abhor and I detest it. I don't approve of my negligence
to God's commandments. Don't approve of them at all.
I don't approve of my indulgence into things that are displeasing
to my God. But I see that I can approve
myself because God has acquitted and God has pardoned me of all
my sin. I stand approved because God
has approved me. And you know what? I can approve
myself in Christ. How is this acquittal, how is
this pardon approved of God? Did David accomplish this pardon
for himself? No, he certainly did not. Nathan
said, the Lord. The Lord also hath put away thy
sin. Thou shalt not die. Who put it
away? The Lord. The Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ has put
away my sin. And I'll say this, if my sin
is to be put away, in Christ is the only way it can be. Right? Do you agree? Be it known unto
you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man, the Lord
Jesus Christ, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
It's found in Acts chapter 13. Be it known unto you. I want
to know this. I want you to know this. Through
Jesus Christ, through this man, that one mediator between God
and men, the man, Christ Jesus. Sin is forgiven. When the Lord knocked Paul in
the dirt on the way to Damascus, he asked, Saul, Saul, why persecutest
thou me? And Paul said, who art thou,
Lord? There's a question mark after
that. Who art thou? And it's like he knew. Lord?
Lord, is that you whom I have persecuted? And Christ said,
I am Jesus whom you persecute. And then the Lord Jesus said
this. He said, but rise and stand upon
thy feet, for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to
make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou
hast seen and of those things in which I will appear unto thee,
the things that I'll yet show you, to open eyes and to turn
sinners from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto
God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among
them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. In the men's meeting earlier,
Paul read Ephesians chapter 1. There's a verse there that says,
in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins. According to the riches of His
grace. There's forgiveness of sin in the Lord Jesus Christ
because of the riches of His grace. Depth of mercy, can there
be mercy still reserved for me? Absolutely. There's plenty to
go around with Christ. In whom we have redemption through
His blood, even the forgiveness of sins, Colossians 1.14. Now
back in Psalm 51, and I'll close. Look at verse 8. David continues his petition
and he says, Lord, make me to hear joy and gladness. You know,
it ought to be our practice every time that we come to hear the
preaching of the gospel, to pray that the Lord make us to hear
joy and gladness. That's what the gospel is, isn't
it? Tidings of good joy, great joy. He said, make me to hear
joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Oh, God breaks you before he
heals you, doesn't he? God brings you down before he
lifts you up. God kills before he makes alive. That's just the
way God does things. Verse nine, he said, hide thy
face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities. And then
notice verse 10, he said, creating me a clean heart. He didn't say,
Lord, I offer you my heart. Well, it's deceitful and desperately
wicked and who can know it? He said, no, creating me a clean
heart. Oh God, renew a right spirit
within me. The spirit within me now is all
wrong. Cast me not away from thy presence. Been alienated from God because
of my sin. Brought back into fellowship
with God in Christ. He said, take not thy Holy Spirit
from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation, and uphold me with thy, what, free spirit? David begged these things of
God, because only God could do these things. Salvation is of
the Lord. You know, that's such a flippant
saying in our day. Salvation is of the Lord. Salvation
is of the Lord. And most people have no idea
that salvation is of the Lord. Salvation is Christ doing. Forgiveness
is with Christ. If thou, O Lord, should markest
iniquities, who shall stand? There is forgiveness with thee.
There's forgiveness with Him. After David asked all these things,
look at what he said in verse 13. I really thought this was
great. He said, Then will I teach transgressors
thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Now listen,
I alluded to this in Sunday school. We cannot preach a gospel that
we don't know. We just can't. We cannot teach a way that we
ourselves have not traveled. We cannot show sinners a way
that we have not ourselves found. My prayer for you and me this
morning is that God may teach us so that we may teach others. Forgive me, Lord. Forgive me. I need forgiveness. I need the
perfect righteousness of Christ in order to stand before my great
God in that day of judgment. It's found only in Him. May God
give me eyes to see Christ.