I'm going to take a break from
the book of Hebrews today and preach a sermon from Psalm chapter
51. If you want to turn in your Bibles
to 1st Psalm chapter 51. And as we are looking at Psalm 51,
in order to get the context, I want to look at 2nd Samuel
chapter 11. I've entitled this message, He
Bore Our Sins. He Bore Our Sins. So this is a very dark chapter
in the life of David. And when we look at it, we'll
see why. Let's pray. Father, we pray that as we consider
the scripture about David, the King of Israel, who committed
this great sin, and all that followed, that we would be pointed
to our great Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we pray, Lord,
that because of Your grace towards us today, we would be enabled
to worship Him. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen. David was the youngest of Jesse's
sons. I think he had eight sons. I
may be mistaken. It may have been seven, but I
thought it was eight. Perhaps I'm wrong. In any case,
God told the prophet Samuel to go to David's father's house,
Jesse's house, because God had one of his sons that he had chosen
to be the next king in Israel. and David was the one, but Samuel
didn't know that, nor did Jesse, his father, David's father. And
so, as the scripture records the account, when Samuel arrived
at Jesse's house, he asked him to bring his sons, and all of
his sons, from the eldest down to the youngest, were brought
out except David. And each one passed before Samuel,
and Samuel looked at him, and the Lord said, no, that's not
him. That's not the one. And finally, Samuel, a little
perplexed, asked Jesse, don't you have any more sons? And he
said, there's one. There's one. He's keeping the
sheep. And so Samuel said, go get him. And so Jesse did. He fetched
his son David. And as soon as Samuel set his
eyes upon David, he said, this is him. And when you read the
scriptures about David's life, nothing but admiration for this
man flows over you. Everything he did was so wise.
He was faced with the greatest perplexity, and God gave him
insight you wouldn't believe unless you read the account.
And we're not gonna go through and do a catalog of that, but
I want you to encourage you to read about David's life from
before God called him. his experiences with God's grace
towards him in defending the sheep and then killing Goliath,
and then he's so humble and so wise, always giving God the credit. But here we see he was a man
like each one of us, a sinner. And God does that in order to
show us not only that we ourselves are no better, but to encourage
us. Because understand the sin that we're about to read about
that David committed was a horrible, horrible sin against God. And
yet it was within the scope of God's forgiveness. And that should
always cause us to take great comfort in the admiration we
have for the forgiveness of sin. that God our Father provides
for us in Christ. So let's read this in 2 Samuel
chapter 11 so that we can see how dark this is. It came to
pass after the year was expired, verse one, at the time when kings
go forth to battle that David sent Joab, that was the captain
of his army, and his servants with him in all Israel, and they
destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabah, 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, one of his servants,
is not this Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the
Hittite? So the messenger gave a true
report, And verse four, David sent messengers and took her.
Now David was the king, he could do whatever he wanted to. He
was accountable to no one but God. And so people just did what
he said. So he sent messengers. It was
an abuse of power, wasn't it? And he took her and she came
into him and he lay with her and she was purified from her
uncleanness and she returned to her house. And the woman conceived
and she sent and told David and said, I am with child. And David
sent to Joab the captain saying, send me Uriah the Hittite. And
Joab sent Uriah to David. Now David sent for Uriah in order
to cover up his sin, his adultery. The man married to this woman,
he's deceiving him. He was a faithful servant. David
just committed adultery with his wife. And now he calls for
him in order to cover up his crime. Verse seven, when Uriah
was come unto him, to David, David demanded of him how Joab
did, and how the people did, and how the war prospered. And
David said to Uriah, go down to thy house and wash thy feet.
And Uriah departed out of the king's house, and there followed
him a mess of meat from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of
the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and went
not down to his house. And when they had told David,
saying, Uriah went not down to his house, David said to Uriah,
Camest thou not from thy journey? And why then didst thou not go
down to thine house? Uriah said to David, the ark,
the ark of the covenant, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents,
and my lord Joab, and the servants of my lord are encamped in the
open fields. Shall I then go in to my house
to eat and drink and to lie with my wife as thou livest and as
thy soul liveth? I will not do this thing. So
what a faithful servant. All these people in God's ark
are out in the field in tents. I'm not going to go to my home
now at this time. such a noble man. And David said
to Uriah, tarry here today also, and tomorrow I will let thee
depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day and the morrow. And
when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him,
and he made him, David, made Uriah drunk. And at even he went
out to lie in his bed with the servants of his Lord, but went
not down to his house. It came to pass in the morning
that David wrote a letter to Joab, and he sent it by the hand
of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter saying,
set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle and retire
ye from him, draw back, that he may be smitten and die. To
this faithful servant who had nothing but goodwill in his heart
for God, for Israel, for the king, and for his wife, David
said, I can't get him to cover it up this way. I'll put him
in the battle so that he dies in the battle. So what have we
got here? First we have adultery, then
we have deceit, and we have the use of his power to direct things
in order to cover up his crime. Hypocrisy, lying hypocrisy, and
adultery, and now murder? First degree. Verse 16, it came
to pass when Joab observed the city, that he assigned Uriah
to a place where he knew that valiant men were. And the men
of the city went out and fought with Joab, and there fell some
of the people of the servants of David. And Uriah the Hittite
died also. And Joab sent and told David
all the things concerning the war. and charged the messenger,
saying, When thou hast made an end of telling the matters of
the war to the king, and if so be that the king's wrath arise,
and he say to thee, Wherefore approached ye so nigh unto the
city when ye did fight? knew ye not that they would shoot
from the wall? who smote Abimelech, the son
of Jerobesheth, did not a woman cast a piece of millstone upon
him from the wall that he died in Thebes? Why wit ye nigh to
the wall? Then say thou, thy servant Uriah
the Hittite is dead also. So Joab understood David's intent
here. He was complicit in Uriah's death
at the direction of the king. So the messenger went and came
and showed David all that Joab had sent him for. And the messenger
said to David, surely the men prevailed against us and came
out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even unto the
entering of the gate. And the shooters shot from off
the wall upon thy servants, and some of the king's servants be
dead, and thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. And David
said to the messenger, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this
thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as
the other. Make thy battle more strong against the city, and
overthrow it, and encourage thou him. And when the wife of Uriah
heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her
husband. And when the morning was passed,
the sorrow, that is not the morning, but the sorrow, David sent and
fetched her to his house and she became his wife and bear
him a son. But the thing that David had
done displeased the Lord. Chapter 12, and the Lord sent
Nathan unto David and he came to him and he said to him, This
is Nathan, the prophet. He's gonna set before David an
account. It was not something that had,
well, you'll see how it applies here. The prophet understands
what happened. God revealed it to him. And he's
going to convince David of his sin this way. Notice, the Lord
sent Nathan unto David and he came to him and said to him,
King David, this is the prophet now, this is the king, he's talking
to the king, the king can take off his head. Nathan's a very
honorable prophet. He says to David, there were
two men in one city, the 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 bought and nourished
up, and it grew up together with him and 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." The little sheep,
this little female sheep, the ewe lamb, had grown up with this
man, this poor man, that's all he had. And there came a traveler
unto the rich man, and the rich man spared to take of his own
flock and of his own herd to dress for the wayfaring man that
was come to him." In other words, he wanted to prepare a meal for
the stranger who had come to him. But instead of taking from
his own flock, listen, he took the poor man's lamb and dressed
it for the man that was come to him. Now, David's the king. He issues judgments. He recognized. Something in David was so recognizing
the injustice of what was done, the cruelty, the heartless cruelty
of this rich man towards this poor man, it rose up within him
and he pronounced a judgment. And David's anger was greatly
kindled against the man and he said to Nathan, as the Lord liveth,
the man that hath done this thing shall surely die. Now this was
just a lamb. And there was no lying involved
here, he just went over there, you know, abusing his authority
as a rich man. He took that man's lamb and killed
it for his visitor. Verse seven, and Nathan said
to David, and I can see him pointing his finger in the king's face,
thou art the man. Just like John the Baptist told
Herod, it's unlawful for you to have your brother's wife. Thou art the man. Thus saith
the Lord God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, I delivered
thee out of the hand of Saul, I gave thee thy master's house,
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 things. Wherefore
hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his
sight? Thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite,
who with a sword has taken his wife to be thy wife, and has
slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. All right,
that's the sin. That's a dark chapter, isn't
it? Have you ever done something so wrong that you thought how
could anyone ever take away this sin? How could God ever forgive
me?" And you have nowhere to go. In your conscience, you are
terrified that this is it. You've proven yourself to be
an ungodly, wretched, corrupt, perverse sinner against God Almighty. And you have no hope, no plea
to make. You're convicted. And you wonder,
how could I be a Christian? Could a Christian do this? David
did. Sometimes we think that that's
not possible. But David did. And he was a man
after God's own heart. The sweet psalmist of Israel.
Look at Psalm 51 with me. Now when we read this psalm,
there's two ways to understand it. The first way, obviously,
is spoken from David under conviction of his sin. But realize a couple
of things about this psalm. First of all, who inspired the writing of this
psalm? It was God the Holy Spirit, wasn't
it? The Holy Spirit of God inspired this man, David, who had committed
adultery, murder, hypocrisy, cover-up. And what if Nathan
the prophet had not come to him? How long would it have gone on?
Unless God brings our sin before our face, we'll go on hiding
like Adam. But God in his mercy sent Nathan
the prophet. God always uses his word to chastise
his people. In Revelation 3, verse 19, it
says, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten every son. The Lord
chastens his people. How does he do it? With his word. Because when the sword of the
word enters into our bones because of our sin, it's like our bones
have been broken. And brings us into the greatest
sense of guilt and shame. And we have nowhere else to go. We don't know what to do. And
then God's word comes. Psalm 51 is the spirit of God
inspiring David to write under His inspiration to teach a sinner
where to go, who to call on, how to hope. Psalm 51 teaches us how God deals
with the sins of His people. That's why it's so significant.
If you're a sinner, Psalm 51 is probably your favorite psalm,
and it ought to be. because it teaches us that even
this sin the Lord had taken care of. Now, Psalm 51, verse 1, have
mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according
unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Notice David didn't plead his
sorrow, he didn't plead his election, he just said, have mercy upon
me, oh God. Do it according to your loving
kindness, not according to my repentance, or tears, or my potential,
my commitment. He comes just as he is, as a
sinner to God. asking God to consider his own
loving kindness as the motive and the multitude of his tender
mercies. And notice in this Psalm, he's
asking the Lord to do something about his sin. He can't do anything
about it. He's the one who sinned. He stands
before God as the judge and he comes to him also as the savior
to save him from his sins. And that in itself is huge. Because we can't do this, can
we? You cannot make your mind forget
or to overcome that reluctance you have as a sinner to come
to God. You can't do it. God has to bring
us to this point. And so that's what this is teaching
here. God did this, he brought David, he drew him. Notice what
he asked the Lord to do. He gives us the motive, do it
according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of
your tender mercies, and he asked him to do this, blot out my transgressions. And the next verse, wash me thoroughly
from mine iniquity. Iniquity means crooked, perverseness. and cleanse me from my sin."
Not just my sins, but my sin. And he goes on, I acknowledge
my transgression. Transgression means I've broken
your law. I've rebelled against you. And my sin is ever before
me against thee. Thee only have I sinned and done
this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when
thou speakest, and might be clear when thou judgest." David understood
all that he did in his life, all of his thoughts, the way
of his life, his actions, his words were all under the canopy,
the umbrella of God. God made him. He was accountable
to God. God is sovereign. God does what's
right. He must answer to God. Everything
was under God's... What is sin? It's the breaking
of God's law. It's not breaking man's law.
Men's laws change all over the place. They're unreliable. They're always making one law
to cancel the other law. and the laws are in competition
and in contradiction. God's law is holy and pure and
right. I've sinned against you. What
about Uriah? What about Bathsheba? What about
Joab and the other messengers that were made to be complicit
in this? It's all against God. I have
to deal with God. That's what the Lord teaches
us under the conviction of sin. I have to deal with God. It's
to God that I have to give an account. He's the only one who
can really truly divide between the right and the wrong, the
motives of the heart, the intents, and the actions and the words.
He knows what it did to His glory, to His law. So sin is against
God, and it's against God only. That's what he's saying here.
Now, as we go through this, we hear David. And as sinners, we
can empathize with him, can't we? We know something about what
it feels like to be guilty in our conscience. There's nothing
more damaging to a man's or woman's life than guilt. It causes us
to become depressed. It causes us to do all kinds
of things that are self-harmful, inflicting pain on ourselves
and others. It's that sense of guilt that
causes us to lash out against others because we can't handle
it. And so that's the way we live. We live our lives angry
because we've not made peace with God. God hasn't made peace
with us in our conscience. And when we think about it from
that perspective, we can empathize with David, can't we? But we
need to think about this from the perspective of the Spirit
of God, not only as a sinner, but as the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. And so what we see here is more
than just a man under the conviction of sin pleading with God to have
mercy upon him and to blot out his transgressions, but we see
the man, the surety of his people. And a surety is someone who takes
full responsibility for another. And who is that man? But the
Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we read this in that
light, it becomes a shocking confession. Shocking because
the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who did what? He took our
sins and he bore them as his own. Before God, he himself comes
with our sins as his sins. They were transferred from us
by the Father, God the Father, to him. And with those sins on
himself, he enters into the presence of God here in this psalm. I
don't know about you, but it makes me recoil to think that
that would happen. Because I understand something
about the severity of the crime committed here. But it's the
same thing. It doesn't matter whether it's
a little sin or a large sin. In fact, what we learn from scripture
is that Christ so took our sins and came into the presence of
God to appear in the presence of God for us, that he entered
that presence, not just with our sins, but with his own blood
shed for those sins. So he brought an answer for them
too. And I wanna take you to some scriptures to show this
to you, so that we can see that this psalm And it's the depth
of it, in the gospel of it, is that Christ himself. How can
God blot out transgression? That's what David is asking the
Lord to do here. But not David, the Spirit of
God, on behalf of his people, is asking the Lord to blot out
their transgressions. I can't, I would never have imagined
to do this. Not only that, but it would be
the greatest audacity to ask God to blot out my transgressions.
Why? What does it take to blot out
transgressions? That's what we're gonna learn from this psalm.
Look at Hebrews chapter nine. Hebrews chapter nine and verse
22. In Hebrews chapter 9 it's all
about what the Lord Jesus Christ did to make an atonement for
our sins. It's the fulfillment of all of
the Old Testament in the life and in the office and in the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ to put away the sins of his people
as their high priest but also as the sacrifice. And here he
says in Hebrews chapter 9 verse 22, moreover he sprinkled with
blood, this is Moses who sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle
and all the vessels of the ministry. And verse 22, almost all things
are by the law purged with blood and without shedding of blood
is what? There's no blotting out, there's
no remission. The account is there. You're
not gonna get rid of it. It's in heaven. It's a record,
an account of all of our thoughts and intents and motives and words
and actions throughout our life. All of our sins, they're in the
presence of God. It doesn't have to be a physical
book. The Lord knows all things at all times. What can take it
away? Nothing, except blood. That's what God is saying here.
Blood has to be shed. The blood of animals? No. Whose blood then? My blood? Well, if the Lord required our
blood, then we would have to suffer eternity. And therefore
we couldn't be delivered. There's only one way we can be,
our sins can be blotted out and ourselves received by God and
given life if someone else does. is actually, their blood is shed.
Look at 1 John, the epistle written by the Apostle John, 1 John,
in verse 7. He says in 1 John, if we walk in the light as he
is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And notice,
the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. What blood then cleanses us from
sin? The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
God's only begotten son. The only one who is in the very
image, the nature of God the Father. That's what only begotten
means. He's the only one who is God
himself. and stands in relation to the
Father as the Son of God. And so the Lord Jesus Christ,
but how can, why would his blood be shed? What is it that brings
death? Why do people die after all? Because the wages of sin is death. Remember in 1 Corinthians 15,
the sting of death is what? Sin. If there was no sin, there
would be no death. If the sting is removed, then
death is not a problem. But look at 1 Peter, 1 Peter
chapter two and verse 24, notice this. In 1 Peter chapter two,
verse 24, it says, there's several pronouns stacked up on top of
each other in order to underscore and to make an emphasis here.
Notice how the Apostle writes of our atonement here. How does he describe the atonement
to us? How does the Spirit of God through the Apostle Peter
describe the atonement to us in this verse? He doesn't say,
now you need to go back and look at the animal sacrifices. He
says, who his own self. You see the stacking up of that?
who his own self. Four things there, or three at
least, stacked up together. These personal pronouns applying
to the Lord Jesus Christ, each one referring back on top of
each other in order to emphasize what's about to be, who, who,
his own self. Notice what happened. Bear our
sins in his own body on the tree. Okay, now let's go back to David
in Psalm 51. What does he ask the Lord to
do? Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. How? How can God do this? He's
writing under the inspiration of the Spirit of God. There's
no blotting out of sin, no remission of sins, but by blood. It has
to be the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ,
God's only begotten Son. David now is asking God to slay
his son, shed his blood. And more than that, that he would
bear our sins in his own body on the tree. David is asking
God to lay his sins on his son and bear those sins in himself. No, not David the man, but the
Spirit of God speaking according to the eternal will of God unfolded
to us here, speaking of what the Lord Jesus Christ would do
in burying our sins in his own body on the tree. So that under
the inspiration of the Spirit of God, David is prophesying
as a prophet And he's speaking here of what Christ would do
to bear our sins so that he would so take our sins on himself that
he would lift them off of us and he would lay them upon himself
and he would take ownership for them. And he would enter into
God's presence with his own blood, the holy, spotless, sinless,
Son of God, Jesus Christ the Lord, would take our sins and
he would enter into God's presence and he'd say, my iniquities. And he would confess our sins
before God as his own. They were no longer ours, but
they became his. And I don't know about you, but
that just puts me in complete silence. to think of what I did,
that the Lord Jesus Christ, in order to blot it out, would have
to take ownership for it before God and confess it as His wrong,
and then feel all of the guilt of it in Himself, and the shame,
and the filth, and the fear of it, and endure the punishment
of it, that God himself might blot it out so that he would
hide his face from my sins. Let's go on and read in Psalm
51. He says, to reread verse one,
have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according
unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Turn with me, before we go further,
in Psalm 69. Psalm 69. The same phrase is
actually used here in Psalm 69. I'm going to first point out
a few verses in here that show that these are the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ. In Psalm 69, he says in verse
9, For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up, Remember that? Remember when the Lord Jesus
Christ entered into the temple to cleanse it from the money
changers, and he turned over the tables, and he brought out
a whip, and it says there, the zeal of thine house hath eaten
me up. That was a quotation from this psalm. So we know that this
is speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then also, if you
look on down in verse 21, when he hung on the cross, remember,
when he said, I thirst, what did they do? In verse 21, they
gave me also gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me
vinegar to drink. And so we know that these words
here of this Psalm apply to the Lord Jesus Christ. The New Testament
reveals that to us in no uncertain terms. But look at the way it
says it here in Psalm 69 in verse 16. Notice in verse 16, the prayer
of the psalmist, a prophecy of Jesus Christ, the words that
he himself would pray, the events that would be unfolded in history,
according to the prophecy. Verse 16, hear me, O Lord. for thy lovingkindness is good. Turn unto me according to the
multitude of thy tender mercies. Does that sound like Psalm 51,
verse one? It's exactly the same words almost.
According to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of
your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. And the Lord
Jesus Christ is saying, Lord, hear me, for your loving kindness
is good. Turn unto me according to the
multitude of thy tender mercy. Look also at Psalm 40, the same
thing is said in verse 11. Psalm 40, verse 11, withhold
not thou thy tender mercies from me, O Lord. Let thy loving kindness
and thy truth continually preserve me. So here the psalmist is saying
the same kind of words. But look over in Psalm 40, verse
6, Psalm 40, verse 6, sacrifice an offering thou didst not desire.
Mine ear hast thou opened, burnt offering and sin offering thou
hast not required. Then said I, Lo, I come, in the
volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will,
O my God, yea thy law is within my heart. This is a quotation
that's taken, these words are taken in Hebrews chapter 10 and
applied to the Lord Jesus Christ. He did away with all the sacrifices
because God never took pleasure in them, they never brought satisfaction
to his justice, never fulfilled the law, but the Lord Jesus Christ
himself came to do that. And God's law was always the
delight of his heart, and so it speaks here of Christ in this
way. But look here in this Psalm,
Psalm 40, At verse 12, remember, the Lord Jesus Christ did what?
He himself, who himself, bear our sins in his own body on the
tree. Verse 12, in his prayer, right after he speaks of God's
loving kindness and tender mercies, he says, for innumerable evils
have compassed me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me so that I am not able to look up. They are more than
the hairs of my head, therefore my heart faileth me. This psalm
also is speaking of Jesus Christ as our sin-bearing, sin-atoning
substitute, the surety who bears the blame for his people. And
so in Psalm 69, it's the same thing. He uses the same words
about the tender mercies and the loving kindness of God. And
in Psalm 69, going back in verse 1, he says, save me, O God, for
the waters are coming unto my soul. I sink in deep mire, where
there is no standing. I am coming to deep waters, where
the floods overflow me. This is talking about that. outpouring
into his soul of the experience of the wrath of God against him
for our sins. This is exactly the same words
as used in Jonah, when Jonah was in the deep and he said,
the floods overflow me. And it's also used in Psalm 88,
the same things are said there. So this is the Lord Jesus Christ,
he's sinking under the weight of our sins. Remember what it
says in Matthew chapter 26? He was in the garden of Gethsemane
and he began to be sorrowful and very heavy. My soul is exceedingly
sorrowful, he told his disciples, even unto death. This is the
words of the Lord Jesus in Psalm 69. I'm continuing to read there.
Psalm 69, weary of my crying, my throat is dried, mine eyes
fail while I wait for my God. He feels the separation in his
soul from God himself. They that hate me without a cause,
again, this is in John 15, 25. It's applied to the Lord Jesus
Christ. They hated me without a cause.
They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine
head. They that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully,
are mighty. Then I restored that which I
took not away. O God, thou knowest my foolishness,
and my guiltiness, or my sins are not hid from thee. He's praying
here as what? Our sin bearing substitute, our
surety, you see? So back in Psalm 51 now, I point
these things out so that it would provide you scriptural clarity.
support for the claim that when David asks the Lord to blot out
his transgressions, the fulfillment of this in scripture is when
the Lord Jesus Christ, with our sins laid upon him, because that's
what Isaiah 53 says, it pleased the Lord to bruise him, he was
wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities,
the chastisement of our peace came upon him. by his stripes
we're healed, is applied to the Lord Jesus Christ, our substitute. Psalm 51, hear the confession
of our surety. He has taken our sins from us.
He has owned them before God, mine iniquities. He's confessing
them as his now. Will God hear him? Will the father
hear his son? as our substitute, insurity,
bearing our sins. Do you feel that sense in your
conscience when you sinned against God and you think, there's no
hope for me now? I've proven myself to be beyond
hope. I have no way to come to God. Listen to the confession
of the one who bore our sins, how he was heard. It doesn't
depend on the degree of your sorrow. It was Christ who was
heard. You see? Your sins are great. David's sins are great. And you
may think your sins are greater than David. But notice how he
says this in verse 1. Blot out my transgressions, wash
me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Transgression
and iniquity and sin, they're all encompassed together. And
I won't have you turn there, but in Exodus chapter 34 and
verse 7, notice what the Lord says there in Exodus 34, when
Moses prayed, Lord, show me your glory, and he said this in Exodus
34 and verse 7. This is God's glory. He says,
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving, here they are, iniquity,
transgression, and sin. The umbrella is enclosing the
whole thing here. the perversity of your rebellion
against God and Him only, your sin against God in your nature
and in your actions, in all of your thoughts and words and deeds.
For God's people was laid upon Christ and He bore them as His
and He confessed them as His own. They were taken from His
people and He actually paid for them. And God blotted them out
by the shedding of His blood. He Himself bore our sins in His
own body on the tree. He was crucified for them, and
it was according to the will of God. God required it. He was
delivered for our offenses, but He was raised again for our justification. God delivered His Son. He did
not spare His Son. Therefore, He's delivered us
from that punishment. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. What does this do to us? I don't
know about you, but it causes me just to stand still with my
mouth shut in holy awe that God himself would see the perversity
of my heart in my ways. And he, in advance, in eternity,
had already decreed to take full responsibility for my offenses
against him and require payment to his justice and magnify his
law. by honoring it himself and bearing
our sins in the person of his own son. That's what is intended
to do is to cause us to worship God, to worship him and call
on him and come to him looking only to Christ according to the
revelation of his spirit that he himself bore our sins. He
answered God's justice with his own blood in full obedience of
heart and life. And God accepted it and justified
him. And when he did it, he didn't
do it for himself, but he did it for his people. He owned it.
And I want to do all that pleases this God who is so good and gracious
and merciful, don't you? Like the children, we want to
please Him. Whatever pleases Him, that's
what I want to do. And I want none but Him. None but Him. He's the only one
who can see my perversity and reconcile me to Himself by the
death of His own Son. And He would do that. Where does
that come from? From God. It doesn't come from
me. The thought never entered into
the heart of man. It came from God and it came
from eternity. It also makes me very sympathetic
and non-judgmental towards others, doesn't it? If God did this for
me, how could I ever hold anybody else to the fire, to the judgment? I couldn't
do that. God has forgiven me an infinite
debt. In Ephesians 4.32 he says, be
kind, be kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one
another even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. There it is. All these things
come to this. It brings us into the vortex
and the funnel of the fear of the Lord, doesn't it? This holy
awe and respect for God that he would be so good that he would
obligate himself for the very things I did to separate myself
from him on the account of his own law that would demand it.
I'm gonna take you to just one verse here. We could go through
this whole time, but we don't have time. Verse seven of Psalm
51. He says, purge me with hyssop,
and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow. Now, that word purge, also happens
to be translated in Genesis 43 and verse 9 in a different way. It helps us understand what he's
asking here. Judah comes before his father Jacob. Joseph has
been taken away from Jacob by his evil sons who sold him to
Egypt, remember? They were gonna kill him, they
threw him into the pit. And now Jacob has for a long time been,
he assumed his son Joseph was dead and now Joseph on the throne
of Egypt demands Benjamin to be brought and Jacob is in no
way gonna let Benjamin go down to Egypt. And so finally Judah
knowing that if they don't go down to Egypt, they're all gonna
perish for hunger, he comes to Jacob Thinking about Joseph now
on the throne of Egypt as the judge over all the land, and
he speaks to his father, he says, Judah said to Israel, his father,
send the lad, Benjamin, with me. We will arise and go, that
we may live and not die, both we and thou, and also our little
ones. Verse nine, I, Judah said, will
be surety for him. I will make sure Benjamin comes
back. I'll take all all responsibility
for him. I will be surety for him. Of
my hand shalt thou require him, if I bring him not unto thee,
and set him before thee. Entrust him to me, I'll bring
him back. Whatever is required of him,
I'll pay it." Notice, if I don't bring him back, then here's the
word, in Psalm 51, verse 7, for purge. Let me bear the blame
forever. David is praying, but in prophecy,
it's the Lord Jesus Christ saying, let me bear the blame forever.
Purge me with his, how? By the sprinkled blood of Christ.
And the Lord Jesus Christ can pray this. God will hear him.
He accepted that prayer and he accepted payment from his hand.
And therefore he can purge our sins and we, this prayer, which
prophetically speaks of Christ, we can take it. It's borrowed
words. God has given us warrant to take
this into our heart and with our lips and come to God, knowing
He heard Christ for me, and I also by the Spirit of God find in
me a desire to find my all in Him and come to God only by Him. Lord, hear his prayer. Receive
his blood for me. Find me in him. Receive me for
Christ's sake alone. Forgive me for his sake. I have
no basis, no warrant to believe that you would do so except what
you've said in your word concerning him. You're always pleased with
him. You always heard him. Hear him
and receive me for his sake. That's it. We come just as we
are, like David did in this psalm. Guilty. And under the condemnation
of God. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
extinguished that wrath. He bore it in himself. The full
foolishness of our sins. My iniquity. Can you imagine?
Who his own self bear our sins in his own body on the tree.
What's the consequence of this? that we, being dead to sins,
should live unto righteousness. I didn't die to sin. Oh, yes.
By union with the Lord Jesus Christ, when he died, we died.
When he confessed, we were heard by his confession. When he prayed,
he was interceding for us. He stood as our mediator. Remember
Moses? Forgive them, and if not, then
take my life. That's our Lord. The Lord Jesus
Christ is our mediator. He was heard. All of our confidence
is in what God thinks of him, right? We can't produce the right
degree of sorrow for God to accept us. Besides, it would be unjust
for God to just say, yeah, I see you're sorry, I'm gonna overlook
it. No, God has to have a full payment, and somebody's gotta
pay, and it's gonna be the one God appointed for us, and if
he doesn't receive Christ for us, then we will stand before
him and answer in full payment for our sins, for all eternity.
Flee to Christ, flee to Christ, let's pray. Lord, we pray as
David did here when he felt the sorrow of his sin, the conviction
of it by your grace. Your grace taught him how to
fear, and then your grace his fears relieved by the revelation
of what the Lord Jesus Christ would do in his place, bearing
our sins in his own body on the tree. answering for them to justice,
magnifying your law by his obedience and his submission to that will
that required him to lay his life down in fulfillment of your
commandment to him to save your people from their sins. And we
know that it is only because that he did so that we can be
received by God Almighty. Into his very presence with exceeding
joy To the praise of the glory of his grace, we pray, Lord,
teach us what Christ has done. Cause us to worship him. Help
us, Lord, to receive your word with gladness of heart and joy
by this God-given faith in him. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.