If you will take your Bibles
and turn with me to Psalm 51. Psalm chapter 51. We're going to be going through this
Psalm, Lord willing, tonight, but I don't really think I'm
going to make it as usual. The Lord has really given me
something on this and it's blessed my heart and I hope and pray
that it blesses your heart tonight. And the title of the message
is, True Prayer for Mercy. True Prayer for Mercy. Psalm 51, let's read the title
together. It says, To the chief musician,
a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him after
he had gone in to Bathsheba. Now, if you remember that this
prayer of David was the time that he had committed the great
sin of adultery and murder. He committed the sin of adultery
with Bathsheba and he committed murder of her husband, Uriah
the Hittite. And we can see this in 1 Samuel. Flip over there, hold your place
here. 1 Samuel chapter 11 is the place of this. And the scripture says, and it
came to pass, 1 Samuel 11. That would probably be better.
1 Samuel chapter 11. I'm sorry,
it is 2 Samuel. I misread my notes. I was right. That's good. And then I was wrong. So that's bad. The Scripture says, And it came
to pass after the year was expired, at the time when kings went forth
to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and
all Israel. And they destroyed the children
of Ammon and besieged Reba. But David tarried still at Jerusalem. And it came to pass in an even
tide that David arose from off his bed. and walked upon the
roof of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman
washing herself. And the woman was very beautiful
to look upon, and David sent and inquired after the woman.
And one said, Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife
of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent messengers and
took her. And she came unto him, and he
lay with her, for she was purified. from her uncleanness, and she
returned unto her house." Now, after this sin, David did not seek mercy, but rather
continued on in this sin until the word of God came to him by
Nathan the prophet, and he had told him that God was displeased
with his sin. And David began to cry. He began
to weep for his sin. And this is the result of it,
as we have in Psalm 51. Now, in this prayer of David,
we can truly see this man entering into great sorrow over sin. We can see David's great sorrow.
Have mercy. upon me, O God, according to
thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of thy tender
mercies, blot out my transgression." David is really seeking forgiveness. He's seeking mercy from God,
and we can't help but when you see this, when you read it. Now,
we can all relate to this prayer. I know every believer in this
place can relate. to this cry of David for mercy. We all confess that in our flesh
dwelleth no good thing. We confess that we are saved
only by the grace of God and nothing, nothing in us is worthy
of His mercy. Otherwise, it wouldn't be mercy.
You see, mercy is for those who do not merit mercy, but those
who are in desperate need with nothing, no value, no righteousness
in us to please God. Daily, we constantly struggle
against sin. Daily, constantly, we are in
a warfare with our own selves. Jesus Himself said that the enemies
of the believers would be in His own household, And the biggest
enemy is our own self. Our own self. The thoughts and
evil motives and evil plans, we cannot control them from coming
into our minds. Cannot. We can't stop it. You ever thought about sin and
then next thing you know, you can't help. Even though you're
trying not to, there it goes again. Sin, sin constantly. Well, David was no different.
I just read to you in 2 Samuel that David, he was unfaithful. David should have been at war.
David should have been out in the battlefield. But instead,
he became lethargic. He became lazy. He stayed at
home when he should have been engaged in the battle. Believers
in Christ, let us not sleep, as do others. Let us not rest
from this struggle. This battle rages daily, and
we must stand fast and cut off sin at every opportunity. Believers, we are given life
and light of the gospel, and we are not like those that are
blind. Why should we act like those that are blind? We should know our own sinful
condition and our constant need of mercy. You see, I didn't just
need mercy yesterday. I need mercy today. Matter of
fact, I need mercy now. We are in constant need of mercy
from the Lord because we are in a constant state of this old
nature dragging us down. Therefore, we must walk in the
light of the gospel. Not only do we know the gospel,
but we must walk in the gospel. We must walk in the light that
we've been given. Be sober concerning the weakness
of our flesh. Always be aware of the weakness
of our flesh. Many times, believers hear the
gospel, and we often become weary of hearing it. I know that so. I've not always
been here, I've been there, and I understand. I understand what
it is to be weary of the gospel. Sometimes our hearing, we hear
the gospel and it really wearies us. We become worn down and wave
after wave of trouble happens to us, but instead of right and
sober thinking, we become stupid, drowsy. and our frame of spirit
slumbers. Instead of seeing the gospel,
worshiping God and praying to God as refreshing, we see it
as a burden. Instead of walking in faith,
love and hope in Christ, we've set our eyes too much on the
world. If this has happened, we've set
our eyes too much on this world, just like David. David set his
eyes on too much in this world. And David is set before us for
our learning. For example, you notice that
this book, God does not hide the sins of His men. But for
our sakes, He exposes them so that we can learn from them. Not follow them, but learn from
them so we don't follow them in these things. Instead of being vigil, David
wasn't in the battle. Instead of being vigil and standing
fast with the servants of God, David tarried in Jerusalem. How
many times have we fallen into this slippery slope of self-confidence? Everything's going well. Everything
is prosperous. Everything is roses. And then
we just start becoming drowsy. We start setting our affections
on things on the earth, and we give an occasion to the flesh,
and we excuse it by grace. Well, God will forgive me. This is just one entertainment
for myself, surely. This is okay. We're saved by
grace, not by works. That's the flesh talking. That's
the flesh talking. I tell you this, according to
Scripture, sin is never just one time and one thing. Because
always, sin leads to more sin. It never stops. And if we become unfaithful in
the battle, we are all capable of slipping down this slope and
becoming like David, unfaithful and lazy. Sin always begets sin. And to
hide one sin is to commit another sin, isn't it? David tried to
hide his sin, but that didn't work. It never works. It's always
going to come out in the wash. It's always going to be exposed. And notice the innocence of David's
sin. Look back at that text in 2 Samuel. This has always caught my eye
when I see this passage of Scripture. Notice this in verse two, and
it came to pass that he even tied David Rose from off his
bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house. And from
the roof, he saw a woman washing herself. I'll tell you what,
he's walking on his roof and he looks out and he sees a woman
washing himself. Now, that in and of itself was
nothing. He could not help that. That
was something that he just saw. But see, David did not turn from
this. Look what he did. And the woman
was very beautiful to look upon. Wait a second. If he saw her
in turn, how would he know how beautiful she was? You see, David
not only saw, he looked, he stared, he engaged himself in this. He gave in to the lust of his
eyes. He saw the woman. And I'll tell
you this, if he hadn't been unfaithful in battle, would he have ever
saw her? No, he would have been in the battle. He wouldn't have
had done this if he'd have been faithful. But he wasn't faithful. That's one thing. Unfaithfulness
always leads into sin. It always leads into this. And
he saw her. He looked on her. He fixed his
eyes on her. Now, Luther said this. I can't stop the birds from flocking
together, but I can stop them from nesting. We can't stop sin
from entering our mind, but we can turn from it. We can go away
from it. We don't have to engage ourselves
in it. We are not to be unfaithful to
Christ our King. Believer, we are to be vigil,
constant, sober, praying always with all prayer. and supplication. We're to be sober-minded so we'll
not be led into temptation. And I'll tell you, the more we
linger, the more we convince ourselves that it's okay. The more you linger in it, the
longer you stay looking, the longer you stay in the sin, the
more you will convince yourself that it's all right. David said, well, this woman
is pretty. What harm could it be if I just
ask about her? That's what he did. He not only
saw, he looked, he asked. He said, hey, who's that woman
over there? And the servant answered, well, that's the wife of Uriah
the Hittite. Well, that should have ended
the conversation, but it didn't. He said, well, Uriah's in the
battle. Uriah's a soldier. He's in the
field. What harm could it be if I just
invite her over the house for some dinner? That won't be no
harm. Yeah, it was. He fell into sin
and adultery. We're not to give in to the natural
reasoning of the flesh. but rather we are to mortify
the deeds of this body. This sin began with unfaithfulness,
a look, a question, and then it ended in a loss too great to bear for
any one of us. Prince David lost three of his
sons because of this. He lost his kingdom. And his
kingdom has not stopped seeing war since that time. The sword did not depart from
them. Believer, let us seek to escape
the weariness of the flesh and let us be sober and faithful
in the service of God. Let us be faithful and vigil
in our spiritual warfare. How? How do we be faithful? How are we to be visual, visual
in these things? It's not by our own strength. We can't do it. If we in our own strength confide,
our striving would be losing. Is that not your confession?
That's my confession. The more I strive against sin
in my flesh, the more I fall into sin. How then can we be
faithful? Friends, we have to realize that
the weapons of this warfare are not carnal, but spiritual. The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal, but spiritual. False religion uses the carnal
weapons of the law. It uses the carnal weapons of
tradition. It uses the carnal weapons of
works religion to try to corral their people from sin. That's
not the weapon of our warfare. It's not the law. What is it? Grace. It's grace. It's the gospel of God's grace.
Go to 2nd Corinthians, chapter 10. Look at this. 2nd Corinthians, chapter 10. Let's begin in verse three, it
says, for though we walk in the flesh, though we walk in the
flesh, We do not war after the flesh, for the weapons of our
warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down
of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing
that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. You see, it is the obedience
of Christ that constrains us. It is His righteousness. It is
His glory. It is His person that constrains
us from sin. It's by looking to Him in faith,
recognizing that He is our righteousness. And that constrains us from sin. I don't want to sin because I
love Him. Matter of fact, I don't want
to sin because he loves me. He loves me and gave himself
for me. For us to be able to conquer
sin in our nature, we must have a new nature, and that new nature
is given to us by God, and we are constantly looking toward
the obedience of Christ, never dreaming of our own obedience,
never dreaming of pleasing God by our flesh. By faith, we observe
the obedience of Christ and His imputed righteousness to us, and how He bore our sins in His
own body on the tree. It's keeping our eyes to this
that keeps us faithful, keeps the Word of God fresh to our
minds and our hearts. Consider who we are. Sinners,
consider how we are saved by the grace of God. Consider what
he has given for us and what he sacrificed for our sins. That
constrains us from seeing that keeps us with our eyes to Christ. And yet we know this. We're bound
to fall. Oh, my soul, we are so prone
to sin, prone to wonder. Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave
the God I love. What then can we do when God
reveals to us our sin? I'll tell you, it's easy to see
David's sin, and it's easy to look down at David. But we shouldn't
do that. We should look across at David,
because David is just like we are. And we are just like David. What does a child of God do when
his sin is exposed? Go back to 2 Samuel chapter 12
this time. I want you to see David's response
when his sin is exposed. Now, this is after he had already
committed the sin. He had been in this some time.
The child had already been born. The child that he had had with
Bathsheba had already been born, some say, about two, maybe three
years since his sin. when Nathan came to him, it says
in verse one, and the Lord sent Nathan under David and he came
unto him and said unto him, there were two men in one city, one
rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceeding many
flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing save one little
ewe lamb, which he had brought and nourished, bought and nourished
up. And it grew up together with
him and was with his children, it did eat of his own meat, and
drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and was unto him
as a daughter. And there came a traveler unto
the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock, and of
his own herd, to dress it for the wayfaring man that was coming
to him. And he took the poor man's lamb
and dressed it for the man that was come unto him. And David's
anger was greatly kindled against this man. And he said unto Nathan,
As the Lord liveth, that man that hath done this thing shall
surely die. And he shall restore the lamb
fourfold, because he had did this thing, and because he had
no pity. And Nathan said unto David, Thou art the man." See,
David knew what it was to be a shepherd. He knew what it was
to love a land. He knew what it was. You see what happened to David,
he became self-righteous. Now, is that not the biggest
confliction there is? When we fall into sin, we become
self-righteous? Yes, that's exactly what happens.
If God doesn't convict us of our sin right away, that's exactly
what we become, self-righteous. He said, oh, that man that took
that little lamb, he should die. And I'll tell you, David was
a despot. He could do what he want to. And if he wanted to
kill that man, kill any man, he could just say so and it'd
be done. Oh, how that must have struck
his heart when he said, thou art the man, you took something
precious. That belonged to someone else.
Thou art the man. And David said in verse 13, Nathan,
I have sinned against the Lord. I have sinned against the Lord. When sin goes unnoticed by others,
or we think we've hid ourselves from it, we become more self-righteous.
David understood this story of the Lamb because he was a shepherd,
and though he was furious, he knew the guilt of his own sin
was tenfold greater. The sorrow of our hearts when
the truth of sin is exposed, when our deepest thoughts are
revealed. Who here would want their thoughts
revealed? Exposed for all to see. But I'll tell you what, this
is what God does for His people in mercy. He did not let David
go on in his sin, and He doesn't let us go on in our sins. He will expose our sins. What shall we do? Cry for mercy. That's what I do. That's what
I want to do. When my sin is exposed, I need
mercy. I need mercy. Have mercy on me. Now, I'll tell you this, I don't
know if you need mercy, but I do. You know, you hear that all the
time in the movies, may God have mercy on your soul. No, God have
mercy on my soul. On my soul. We confess, God's people, when
sin is exposed, we must confess our sins. Confess them. Own your sin. Now, that goes against every
natural tendency of the flesh. The natural tendency is to pawn
off our sin to someone else. The natural tendency of our flesh
is to blame someone else for our sin. Well, I had bad parents. That's why I am like I am. Or
I had this problem when I was a kid. No, your sin is yours
and my sin is mine. Confess your sins. That's what
God's people do. In John chapter 1 in verse 8
and 9, it says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to what? Forgive us our sins. I'll tell
you what, a man who needs mercy, that scripture is very important,
isn't it? It's very important. If you need
forgiveness, that scripture is greatly important. Confess your
sins. That's what David did. He said,
I have sinned against the Lord, have mercy on me, and David begins
to pour out his heart in sincerity to God, in prayer to God. Believer, when you have sinned. Pray. Pray. Especially when you don't feel
like praying. We ought always to pray and not
think. Isn't that what the Lord taught?
The Lord Jesus Christ taught those people in Jerusalem at
that time. He said, he taught concerning
this, that men ought always to pray. I hope right now you're
praying. I hope right now you're praying. What do we pray for? Mercy. Constant, steady mercy from God. And David here, I'm probably
not going to get through these, but I want to get a couple of
them in before I close. I want you to see this prayer
of David. and see it as a pattern for us.
See it as something not that we pray in some kind of methodical
way, but rather this is a model of a prayer that it should come
from our hearts. Well, the first thing I want
us to know is that David was sincere when he prayed. He was sincere. David wasn't
playing when it came to this matter of prayer. And neither
should we. Friends, we are approaching to
a holy God. If God, by mercy, would actually
give us a small understanding of what that is, I'll tell you
this, every time we would be sincere. What is it to be sincere? It's not sentimental. That's
not what I'm saying. To be sincere is to be honest.
Do you pray honestly? Sometimes I have to catch myself
when I'm praying. Sure enough, I'm saying the words
and what's coming out is nothing, nothing, nothing, just vain and
empty words. I'm not telling God what is real. Friend, God already knows what's
real. Stop pretending. Stop pretending. Trying to hide things from God,
is that not the most foolish thing that we do? Is try to hide
our sin from God? How wicked is that? How deceived
is that? We should be sincere in our prayer. We should cry out from a broken
heart. A broken and a contrite heart. David said, thou wilt not despise. But I'll tell you this, he will
not answer a heart that's not sincere. He will not hear our cries when
they're just vain babblings. David was honest about his guilt.
Are we honest about our guilt? The illustration of an insincere
prayer was Saul, the man before David, wasn't it? When he was
caught in disobedience, he said, and Samuel said to him, the kingdom
is departed from you. And he said, oh wait, wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait, wait. OK, I'm sorry. You see, he wouldn't
confess it at the beginning. He had to wait till the kingdom
was pulled from him. And then he confessed it, not
because he feared God, but because he wanted the kingdom. That's
insincere. We don't confess sins because
we want something else. We confess sin because God is
the love of our hearts. We're sincere in prayer. Secondly,
David's prayer was sensible. Sensible. Our prayers to God must be sensible. A man told me that he was attending
this church and I still don't think it's a good idea. They
they seem to nod their head to the gospel, but I'm just kind
of concerned some of the things that they do in the church. It's
you know, they constantly stand up and recite prayers. You see,
that's not sensible, you're not being sensible, you're not thinking
about it, you're not concentrating on you have no real motive for
it, you just do it because everybody else is doing. You do it because
you feel like you should act wholly in front of everybody
else. Oh, you should be sensible. And this is the sense. You need
mercy and only God through Christ can give you mercy. That's sensible. That's just reasonable, isn't
it? Just reasonable for a believer, it is. We need mercy. And we need mercy constantly.
David needed mercy. Have mercy on me. I acknowledge
my transgression against thee, and thee only have I sinned and
done this evil in thy sight. See, David was sensible of his
guilt. He was sensible of his need of mercy. And he was sensible
that only God can give him that mercy. David was sensible of God's holiness. Are you aware of God's holiness
when you pray? We should be sensible about that.
God is not our good time buddy, and we don't approach him that
way. David said this in verse 5. He
said, Behold, I was shaping iniquity and did my sin. My mother conceived
me. Behold, thou desires truth in the inward parts and in a
hidden part. Thou shalt make me to know wisdom. You see, David knew this, that
God desired truth, righteousness and holiness in the inner part,
not just on the outside. God doesn't desire righteousness
on the outside. There is none. He's holy. He desires righteousness. And for us to be sensible about
mercy and about our sin, we must also be sensible about Christ.
We must also recognize the hope of our mercy. Look at David's
hope in verse 7. Purge me with hyssop and I shall
be clean. What does that mean? Well, hyssop
is just a little branch. Purge me with hyssop. What does
that mean? Well, if you go to Exodus chapter
12, look at this. Exodus chapter 12. He's speaking
about the Passover lamb. Exodus chapter 12 and verse 22. Actually, read verse 21. And
then Moses called all the elders of Israel and said to them, draw
out and take you a lamb according to your families. and kill the
Passover. And you shall take a bunch of
hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin and strike
the lentil and the two side posts with the blood." You see the
picture there? David said, purge me with blood. Friends, if we do not come to
God by blood, we're not being sensible. Our prayers are not
sensible. You really aren't going to find
mercy apart from the Passover lamb. We always come by the blood of
Christ. The only way to purge our conscience
from dead works to serve the living God is by being purged
with the blood of Christ. When are you purged? Well, I
was purged 2,000 years ago when Christ died. The blood flowed
from His body and my sin was gone. What does it mean, purge
me now? What is He saying? He's saying,
purge my conscience. Oh, the conscience stings. The feeling of guilt stings. It hurts. It hurts one who is sensible
for his need of mercy. And the only thing that will
ever cleanse my conscience is the blood of Christ. And what
a sweet cleansing it is. Oh, to pour out your heart in
prayer, seeking mercy, and looking to Christ and finding it. There's mercy with our God. There's mercy. We should seek
it sensibly. Oh, what folly in trying to quit
sin by the sacrifice of the flesh rather than looking to the only
sacrifice that God himself has provided. Why would we look anywhere
else? Is there any place else to look?
David said, have mercy on me. He was a sinner in need of mercy.
Are you a sinner in need of mercy? I am. I am in constant need of
mercy. Well, then shouldn't I be a man
of prayer? Shouldn't I constantly be in
prayer, in sincere prayer and sensible prayer? We should. May God give us grace
to do that. We need it. I pray that God will bless this
to your hearts. Let's stand. We'll be dismissed in prayer.