Turn back to Psalm 38. This is
exactly what David is doing. He's turning his eyes upon the
Lord, seeking for forgiveness, seeking for mercy, remembering. It's a painful remembrance, but
I tell you this, It's much better to remember them now than in
hell. I'd much rather remember my sins
now before God and ask for forgiveness than to be like that rich man
in hell where Abraham said, son, remember. That's too late then. That's too late. Remembering and repenting. or a child of God repenting of
his sin. This is the third of the Psalms
known as a Psalm of Repentance, the Penitential Psalms. David
is remembering and he's repenting of his sin in this Psalm. We
do not ignore sin, nor does God ignore sin in His children. Christ has paid for our sins.
God chastens us for them. He corrects us. Scripture says
that we be not judged with the world. And sometimes that correction
is extremely painful. But it's still not as painful
as hell. But sometimes it's very, very painful. You know, whenever
David had committed the sin with Bathsheba, I mean, that awful,
awful thing that he had done, had her husband murdered, committed
fornication, adultery with her, and then tried to hide it, tried
not to even confess it. God said, you will not die, He
said through the prophet Nathan, you shall not die, God's put
away your sin, but the sword will never leave your house.
And for the rest of David's life, though he followed the Lord,
the Scripture says he followed the Lord with his whole heart,
except in the case of Uriah the Hittite. But David was a man
after God's own heart. But the sword never left his
house. Absalom turned on him. One of his sons raped his sister.
It was a mess. It was a mess. And now here,
here, David is an emotional mess, a spiritual mess, and a physical
mess over sin. Sin is so destructive. Look what
it did to our Lord when it was laid upon Him. Look what He had
to go through when He was made to be sin for us. God will always deal with His
children in love. His rod of chastening is used
in love. But many times it doesn't feel
like it. You know, my parents whipped me. They whipped me.
You know, I don't think you can hardly use that word today, can
you? But when I was a kid, you got a whipping. And when I got
a whipping, I got a whipping. And it did not feel like love. At that time, that's not what
love felt like. It's not until years has gone
by that I can now look back and I understand the love that was
in that discipline. When God takes away from us,
when He hides His face from us, and when He makes us feel the
rod, it doesn't feel like love, yet it is love. It's love. It's love that passes all understanding. The Scripture says He chastens
those whom He loves. Over in Psalm 103 verse 10, it
says, He has not dealt with us after our sins, nor rewarded
us according to our iniquities. Here we are, sitting comfortably
in this room, listening to the gospel. It's evident God hasn't
dealt with me after my sins, nor rewarded me according to
my iniquities. But I tell you this, If God does
not deal with me after my sins and reward me according to my
iniquities, it's because He dealt with His Son in my place. That's the only reason why. Now we have before us here this
psalm where David remembers his sins, his depravity. We still have a depraved nature,
don't we? We still have a nature within us that is so depraved
and so despicable that it's disgusting. It's absolutely disgusting. Job
said, By the hearing of the ear, I have heard of thee, but now
mine eyes seeth thee, and I abhor myself. There is a time when a child
of God comes to the place where they really abhor themselves. You abhor your sinful self. That
part of you that you were born with, that you got from Adam,
and you got from your parents, and they got from their parents,
all the way back to Adam, and that nature is with us, and it
is never improved. I don't care how much education
you give a person, it doesn't matter how much enlightenment
you give them, that nature is never improved upon. It is evil
to the core. After God saves a sinner, they're still in that center,
a dark, depraved nature. And too often, it raises its
ugly head. I remember the first time I made
a profession when I was 20 years old. And my brother James said,
I can remember this. He said, you're a sinner saved
by grace. I said, no, I used to be a sinner. I'm not anymore. Oh, yes, you are. Yes, you are. The psalm of David, verse 1,
to bring to remembrance, O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy wrath, neither
chasten me in Thy hot displeasure. We deserve rebuke. Every person
in here, every believer in here deserves rebuke at one time or
another. That's why Paul said to Timothy with the Word of God,
rebuke and exhort. You know, I can't tell you how
many times I have sat and I have listened to Henry preach the
Word and it rebuked me. If it never rebukes you, you're
dead. You're dead. We deserve rebuke because we
do sin. We need chastening because we
do sin. But who can stand before God's
wrath and displeasure? What David is saying, he's not
saying, don't chase me, but temper it. I can just hear what he's
saying, what he's thinking. He knows he deserves God's wrath,
he knows that. He knows he deserves God's hot
displeasure, he knows that. But he's asking God to be merciful.
According to your loving kindness and tender mercy, blot out my
transgressions. That's what it says in Psalm
51. Let us never forget who our God is. Yes, God is love, but
God is also holy. And He said, Be ye holy, for
I am holy. Now if that doesn't make you
want to flee to Christ, nothing will. Because God is holy and
He demands holiness. And the only place you and I
can find holiness and righteousness and safety is in Jesus Christ. Now he's speaking here in verse
2 of the conviction of sin. And it's like arrows shooting
into his heart. For thine arrows... And Job speaks
of this in Job 6, verse 4. He speaks of God's arrows being
shot into him. And he's saying here, "...thy
arrows stick fast in me, or they have sunken deep into me." In
other words, your judgments. your judgments against my sin,"
and he's talking about a specific sin, "...have sunk deep into
my heart, I feel the pain of it." I feel the pain of your
displeasure. I feel it. "...and thy hand presses
me sore." You know, the hand of my earthly
father, when he would be upset with me, when he whipped me,
it would be like his hand pressing sore upon me. How much more the
hand of God, in whose breath, he holds our breath in his hand.
And David is saying, your arrow is a judgment. They have sunk
into my heart. Conviction of sin, it's of God,
and it's painful. You've seen these Billy Graham crusades that they've had, and
at the end he gives these altar calls, and these people going
down there, just laughing, talking, looking at each other, just giggling
and carrying on, going on down to the altar. There ain't no
conviction there. I'm telling you, conviction of
sin is painful. If God gives it to you, if God
gives it to you, if it's just a natural conscience, you'll
get over it and you'll do it again. But if God gives it to
you, it's painful. It's God operating in the heart. Real conviction of sin are like
arrows shot into the heart. And Almighty God never misses
the mark. He never misses the mark. And
I want you to see something here, these next several verses here,
how destructive sin is to our health. And this sickness, and
I've read this several times, this sickness, this physical
sickness that David has, has been brought on by his sin. And sometimes that's so. Sometimes
that's so. Sometimes that's how God chastens
us for our sins, for our misconduct. Like David here, He made him
sick. He says here in verse 3, There is no soundness in my flesh
because of thy anger. My flesh, He says, is like a
house that has been brought down. And it's been brought down by
God's anger. He hurt all over, that's what He's talking about.
He's talking about His body hurting all over. Neither is there any
rest in my bones because of my sin. I can't find any rest at
night. I toss and turn, and no matter
which way I turn or which way I lay, it hurts. And the reason it hurts is God's
brought this on Him for His sin as part of the chastening of
God. can take away our health, God's
chasing may take away our health, and it can take away our peace.
Our peace. Is there anything sweeter than
to lay down at night in peace and to be able to actually go
to sleep? Just to be able to go to sleep. Than to toss and
turn and hurt all night long. All night long. And there's nothing heavier than
sin on the conscience. In verse 4, "...for mine iniquities..."
And I think what's going on here is this sin has led him to think
of his iniquities, of many sins. It's a remembering. And he says,
"...my iniquities..." Oh, my iniquities, they're going over
my head. I'm sinking. This is why I said, listen, I'm
drowning in sin. I'm drowning in sin. In my sin. Not just sin. I'm drowning in
my sin. And as a heavy burden of too
heavy for me, I can't carry this load no more. Look over in Psalm
32. He says in verse 3 of Psalm 32,
When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring
all the day long. For day and night thy hand was
heavy upon me, my moistures turned to the drought of summer." Then
what he says in verse 5, I acknowledge my sin, not my sins, my sin. And that's why I believe that
this psalm right here is just more light shed on what God has
done to David, what God did to David over this sin with Bathsheba. Listen, all sin can be forgiven,
but sometimes the consequence of it lasts a lifetime. Sometimes
it does. My iniquities, I'm drowning in
sin. And there's nothing heavier than
sin on the conscience when God makes you know it. And thank
God if He makes you know it. This is God's mercy on him. Yes,
God's dealing with him in a rough manner. He's taken away his health. He's
taken away his peace, his comfort. You'll see here in a minute that
his flesh has become like a loathsome disease. It's become like leprosy. He says he stinks. He says, I
stink. My family won't come around me. I stink so bad. This, whatever
it was, because he talks about his thighs, I'll get to it in
a minute, but he talks about his thighs burning. He got this
loathsome disease. And he stinks. He's smelling
up the place. He walks in and nobody's there
like, whoo! This is God dealing with His
child over sin. That's what He's doing. He says in verse 5, "...My wounds
stink." They stink and are corrupt. Here's the reason why. Because
of my foolishness. Because I was so foolish, I should
have not stood on that balcony. And when I did and I saw her,
I should have just went back into the house. But I didn't. I looked and I looked and I looked. Henry said one time, he said,
that first look is no problem. It's that second look and that
third look that's what gets you in trouble. He said, I was so
foolish for what I did. I knew better. Every child of
God in here, every one of you in here, you have sinned and
you know you've sinned. There are times when you know
you've done things you shouldn't have done or said something you
shouldn't have said. And it was just foolish. You
said, that was so foolish. He's not blaming anybody else.
He didn't blame Bathsheba for being down there, you know, at
the place taking a bath. He said she shouldn't have been
there. I mean, just not making excuses. He said, I was so foolish,
and my wounds Remember what Isaiah said in
Isaiah 1.6? He said, My wounds are like putrefying
sores, running sores. It's not been mollified, nor
healed. They're not been taken care of.
And my wounds... You see, we may do a sin, and
that one sin brings a lot of wounds. It can bring a lot of
trouble. Trouble, trouble, trouble. Sin
has a foul odor to it. Job said, I abhor myself. I can identify with David. I think every child of God in
here, at one point, at one time or another, if God has really
convicted you over sin, you can identify with David here. I know
you can, just like Psalm 51. It's like a kindred spirit when
you read that. You know it. You stink and you're
corrupt. I stink and I'm corrupt. And he says in verse 6, I'm troubled.
Does sin trouble you? Does sin trouble you? Your sin,
not somebody out here carrying on. I'm not talking about somebody
else. I'm talking about you. I'm talking
about me. Does sin really trouble me? Does it really trouble me? I'm troubled. He said, I'm so
troubled. It's like I'm the king. God put me here. God has saved
me. He says, God is my salvation.
And look what I've done. I have brought reproach on His
name, because that's what Nathan said to Him. You have given the
enemy occasion to blaspheme. You know how hard that is for
a child of God to hear? It's like you might as well take
a knife and stab him in the heart. You just gave the enemy a reason
to blaspheme. I'm troubled, I'm bowed down
greatly. I go mourning all day long. Sin is so troubling to the conscience. And until Christ speaks peace
to the heart, it's unrelenting. David said in Psalm 51, Restore
unto me the joy of thy salvation. I can't lose salvation. No child
of God can lose salvation. But you can sure lose the joy
of it. You can sure lose the joy of
it. Coming here, you wouldn't find any joy at all. You don't
find it out there. You don't find it when you read
the Word of God. You don't find it when you pray. You can lose the
joy of it. And he says here, listen, when
God brings conviction on the heart, it's just not sporadic
all day long. He doesn't let up. God doesn't
let up until he brings you to the place, me to the place, where
we forsake it and acknowledge it. I acknowledge my sin. It's easy to say, forgive me
of sins. That just covers everything.
Just forgive me of sins. And we do say that, but here
is specific sin. It is a specific sin. Forgive
me of that sin. Forgive me of fornication. Forgive
me of adultery. Forgive me of murder. It's hard for us to just name
it, isn't it? It's easier to just say, forgive me of sins
and get on with it. But boy, when you ask God, like David
said, forgive me of murder, you just admitted and acknowledged
you're a murderer. Forgive me of adultery." You're
an adulterer. God convicts of sin, and when
He does, it's until the result is evident. And listen in verse 7, are filled with a loathsome disease. And here it is, my loins are
filled with a burning ulcer. Whatever it was that God afflicted
him with, it broke out in his skin. Remember Job, who sat on
the ground and he scraped his boils with a pot shirt, a broken
pot shirt, he scraped those boils. He said, my breath is strange
to my wife. She didn't even want to be around him. And here David
said, my loins are filled with a loathsome disease, and there
is no soundness in my flesh. You know, right now, most of
you, I mean, I don't know all your illnesses and woes, but
compared to David here, we're healthy. But David said, there's not an
ounce of health in me. There's not one ounce of health
left in me. He has been over. He's broken over, not only in
spirit, but in body. And I tell you what, it's tough
to be broken over in both of them at the same time. It's tough
when both of them are broken at the same time. Whatever David did here, and
I believe it's the same with Bathsheba, it caused him to be
physically sick. God sent a sickness upon him,
a disease upon him. And he said, I'm feeble. I'm
feeble and soul broken. I'm feeble. I have roared like
a beast by reason of the disquietness of my heart. I am feeble physically,
and my heart is broken, and I have roared like a beast. I cannot
put intelligent words to it." That's what he's saying. I can't
put intelligent words to what I'm feeling, but I'm roaring
like a lion that's been wounded. Heart trouble is the most painful
trouble there is. Heart trouble is the most debilitating
trouble there is. Soul trouble. There's nothing
louder than an accusing conscience. Remember what Nathan said? Thou art a man. Thou art a man. That echoed for a long time in
David's ears. But then he says here, now notice,
Here's a prayer of faith. Listen, sin never drives us away
from God. Now, for a little while, sin
was doing its work. David was trying not to confess. He was saying, I try to just
keep my mouth shut. But listen, he says, Lord, all my desire is before Thee,
and my groaning is not hid from Thee. David is taking courage
here. And here, I think, is what he's
saying. I can't put this into words,
and I cannot find the words to ask for forgiveness, and I can't
find the words to say how sorry I am. But Lord God, You know
my heart, my desire, which cannot be put into words, is before
you." It's before you. Peter said, Lord, you know all
things. You know I love you. I can't put it into words, but
you know my heart. And David takes courage here. This is faith. This is faith.
He's saying, all my desire is before you. What do you desire? Really, what do you desire? Do you really desire forgiveness?
Do you really desire pardon? Do you really desire to be made
one with God? That desire is before Him. Even
though you can't put it in language, you know, you can't find the
language and the words to put it into, that desire is before
Him. That desire is there. And He
sees it. And my groanings not hid from
you. I tell you what, our groanings have greater words and power
with God than any words that we can speak. I desire you, Lord, you know
my heart. And I think David's saying this, you know I don't
love sin. Yes, I sin. Yes, I fail. But I don't love sin. I would
to God I would never sin again. I wish I'd never done that. But
I did. True repentance is always toward
God with faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says in verse
10, It's palpitating, it's beating
hard. He's praying, and he's under
this terrible conviction, and his heart is just running away
with it. It's racing. His heart won't settle down.
It's just beating out of his chest. And he says, my strength
fails me. And I don't know if you've ever
had a palpitating heart, but it takes away your strength.
If it keeps palpitating like that, it'll make you weak. It'll
make you weak. He says, I'm weak. My strength
fails me. And for the light of my eyes,
it's gone from me. I can't even hardly see. His
eyesight was even gone. He was losing his eyesight. It's
almost like watching a meltdown. It's literally like watching
a meltdown of the body just because of sin. What a mess sin leaves
us in. There may be pleasure in sin
for a season, but oh, the end result is painful, if not death. And then look, sin separates
us. Sin separates us not only from the fellowship of God, but
from the fellowship of our lovers and friends. We love one another,
don't we? We're friends. He says here,
they stand aloof. from my sore. That word means
plague, which has a reference to leprosy. They stand away from
me like I've got leprosy. And my kinsmen stand afar off.
It's sad when the family becomes ashamed of us, and when they
don't want to be around us, when they think God is against us.
I'll tell you something else about sin. Sin destroys our witness
to the family and friends. It does. And not only does it
do that, but the enemy takes advantage of our weakness. It's
like the wolf takes advantage of the weakest in the flock.
They see David, here is the king of Israel, and he's now weak
and feeble and sick and full of sores, and he's broken down,
and now the enemy is saying, let's get him. Now's the time
to take him. Now's the time to take him. Those who were plotting against
him encouraged themselves through his sin and his weakness and
his failures. But David says here, and he says
it to God, They also that seek after my life lay snares for
me, and they that seek my hurt speak mischievous things and
imagine deceits all the day long." Charles Spurgeon said, it's good
to remember your enemies before God. Not only your sin, but your
enemies too. But look here at believer's conduct.
When God brings us to a knowledge of our sin, and we know we're
guilty, The believer's conduct is this, he opened not his mouth.
Boy, does that not remind you of the Lord Jesus Christ? Look
at this, but I was as a deaf man, heard not, and I was as
a dumb man that opened not his mouth. He was led as a sheep
to the slaughter, and he opened not his mouth. Our Lord, our
Lord is our surety, experienced what David's talking about here,
when he was made to be sin. And we just saw this a couple
weeks ago, how he opened not his mouth. But here's, listen to this. It's
wise not to give ear and tongue to slander. Here's David saying, he just
turned a deaf ear to what people were saying about him. First
of all, he knew in his heart the truth. He knew in his heart
he sinned. He knew in his heart his desires
before God. He knew in his heart he would
to God he'd never done that. And no matter what people are
saying out here, he's not going to defend himself. He said, basically,
I'm not going to turn and start rebuking them and say, you don't
know what you're talking about. It's wise not to give ear and
tongue to slander. When we try to justify ourselves,
we just make it worse. Don't we? He says in verse 14, "...Thus
I was as a man that hears not, and in whose mouth are no reproofs."
I'm not going to reprove them. First of all, I deserve what
I'm getting. Really, I deserve what I'm getting. Most of the time, they can call
me just about anything and it'll fit. Sooner or later, somewhere,
in my thoughts or somehow, it'll fit. You know Solomon said, don't
be offended when you hear something, I'm paraphrasing, when you hear
something said about you, don't be offended because you know
that you yourself have said the same thing about others. He said,
don't get so offended because you've said the same thing. And he's saying here, here's
what he's saying, I am before the bar of God, I'm before God
Almighty, I'm before the throne of grace. And I want Him to justify
me. I want Him to clear me. I'm not
going to do it. And then He turns to His hope.
And here is the sinner's only hope. For in Thee, O Lord, in Thee, O Lord Jesus Christ, do
I hope. We've been looking at Christ
crucified, hanging on that cross, That mutilated man is hanging
there for my sins. My sin. Nathan said to David,
you shall not die. God has put away your sin. And
that's when he did it. Right there hanging on that cross. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
hope of every child of God. Every sinner who's ever looked
to Him, trust Him, believed on Him, He's their only hope. He's
their only hope. In Thee, O Lord, do I hope Boy,
it sounded like up to this point he had no hope, didn't it? I
mean, it sounded like there was no hope whatsoever. Here he is,
a putrefied mess, and he's saying, I have hope. In all this, in
all this despair, in all this sickness, in all this that I've
done, I have hope. I have hope. And listen here,
"...thou wilt hear." That's faith. God will hear me. That's what
David's saying, God will hear me. Those Pharisees said to the
Lord, I believe it was the Lord they said this to, they said,
wait, God hears not sinners. That's the only people He hears,
is sinners. And sinners in need of mercy,
that's the only ones He hears. Thou wilt hear, O Lord my God."
Here's confidence in God, and this confidence in God is what
keeps him from going into despair. And that confidence that he has
in God is of God, is given to David, and that keeps him. And
that is exactly what keeps us from going into despair, is the
hope he has given us in Jesus Christ. And then he says here, For I
said, Hear me, or the Lord will hear me. And they said, Otherwise
they should rejoice over me when my foot slippeth. And it will.
It will. Oh, it will. I won't do that
again. I don't know how many times I
said that when I was getting a whipping. Growing up, I won't
do it no more, I won't do it no more. I did. And I got a whipping again. When a saint falls, the wicked
are ready to point it out. Someone's always watching. Someone
is always watching. When my foot slippeth, they magnify
themselves against me. I am ready to halt. I just can't go no further. That's
what our Lord said in the garden, basically. He said, I'm about
to die right here. I'm about to die right here if
I don't get help. And my sorrow is continually before me. I'm
ready to fall like a tottering fence." Someone wrote this. I thought
this was good. I'm always on the verge of sin. The source of my sorrow always
stares me in the face. I'm always on the verge of sin.
The very source of my sorrow is always staring me in the face. But here's a holy resolve and
a confession of sin. In verse 18, I will declare mine
iniquity, I will be sorry, that is full of grief. And he says,
I'll declare, I'll confess mine iniquity, I'll be sorry for my
sins. Those who will not confess their sins will never be forgiven.
You can mark that down. As much as David hates the slander
of his enemies, he admits his own sins. He doesn't try to make
light of them. And listen, he says this, I will
be sorry for my sin, not the result of it, but the fact that
I did it. The fact that I did it. And I
want to close here. My enemies are lively, they're
real, and they are strong. They that hate me wrongfully
or without a cause are multiplied. Our Lord felt this. He felt this. They also that render evil for
good are my adversaries, because I follow the thing that's good."
You know why Jesus Christ was so hated? Because He went about
doing good. Because everything He did was
right. He did the right thing. And David
is saying that He has executed justice, and they hate me for
it. Now they think they can get even
with me because I've done something wrong. Now let's just hang Him. Oh, forsake me not, O Lord, O
my God. Be not far from me. Be not far
from me. Forsake me not, Lord. I need
You more now than ever. Do you need God more now than
ever? Do you need Christ more now than ever? Lord, I do. I do. Make haste to help me. Oh Lord, my salvation. God, You
have every right to forsake me. You have every right to leave
me. But I need Your help and I need
it right early." Here is encouragement. While David is feeling the pain
of his sin against God, he also trusts the Lord to save him from
those sins. Yes, I've sinned, and I have
done wickedly, but Lord save me from those sins. Save me. All right.