Sovereign Grace Chapel, located at 135 Annabel Lane in Beaver, West Virginia, invites you to listen to a gospel message concerning Jesus Christ our Lord. I'm gonna go ahead and get started, so be turning with me to Psalm 51. And me, Walter, and Joe often preach the same message, like always, if we're preaching Christ. But this is gonna sound familiar, and it may even have, based on what he and Walker selected, I'll probably hit some points that he's gonna hit, so. Psalm 51, and I'm like, Joe, I think I've preached on this before, but I'm just gonna read the first verse of Psalm 51 for right now. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness. according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. We have here in verse one two associated things as I see it. Although one does not require the other. Mercy and transgression. Just because there is transgression does not mean mercy will be there or mercy will follow. But if there is mercy, there has to be some transgression, or as it names it here, transgressions. Otherwise, there is no need for mercy. Now we have here one man crying out because of his transgressions. Certainly David was thinking about what he had did with Bathsheba and the killing of her husband Uriah. But David knows it goes much deeper than that. Read verse five. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. He says he was woven or wound up in iniquity, and in sin did his mother conceive him. Was it David's sin or his mother's sin? Yes. Sin is there. All God has to do is remove his constraint and the transgressions will pour forth. As Earl used to say, you give this flesh just a little bit off the plate and it will consume the whole thing. God Almighty in his purpose put David where he was and Bathsheba where he was. My times are in thy hands. But then he lifts his restraint just a little. God also had this war going on so that Uriah would not be at home. We all do as David did. When we sin, we try to cover it up. When the first try doesn't work, we sin more to try to cover it up more still. Now we might not do this outwardly by having another person, another one of God's people murdered. But in the things we say or think, we try to lay blame on someone else to try and appease our conscience. In so doing, we murder our brethren. But rest assured, no matter how much of the wool we pull over the eyes of men, over the eyes of our brethren, we will not pull the wool over God's eyes. I want to talk about Jesus Christ today. And I want to do it with these two points, transgressions and mercy. Transgressions. We read through this Psalm and we see three words used. And Walker has said this before, so it's nothing new. And my intention is not to get technical this morning, but I do want to be real and honest from God's word. We see in this Psalm the following, transgression, iniquity, and sin. and let me give you their meanings. Transgression, rebellion, trespass, sin. Iniquity, perversity, depravity, guilt, sin. And sin, habitual sinfulness. Here's how maybe we can look at these. First of all, they all mean sin. So when you read these words in any context, they mean sin is involved. but I will say it like this. Transgression is a sin in action, if you will. It is those many things that we do which offend the holy God. Iniquity is the attitude, the thought which we have when performing those transgressions, and that is our will, our desires about doing them. Sin is what we are. As Walter said, sin is the fountain, and from that flows both iniquity and transgressions. In being what we are, we commit transgressions, plural, in iniquity. And I think you all are familiar with this verse, but Matthew 7, 17 through 19 reads, even so, every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. We by nature are the corrupt tree. We cannot bring forth good fruit, only evil fruit. God will allow us to see this from time to time. We will start out our day happy and without any intentions of doing something evil. But then one little thing is said, or one little thing happens, and we fly off the handle and manifest our evil ways. I want to be clear here on this passage from Matthew. We are never the good tree. He is the good tree if we be in him, and he causes us to bring forth good fruit. We know what John 15 5, I am the vine, ye are the branches, He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing. God will in his good time send someone to us with a word from him. This he does from time to time, just as he did with David to let us know we are the man. It may not be someone who directly tells you of a wrong that you have committed. It may just be someone preaching a message, not even thinking or knowing anything about what you've done. It might be a written message, his word, his truth, that comes to us and says, you are the man. When he does, you and I will be just like David in our heart and mind. In verse one, have mercy upon me, oh God, according to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies. blot out my transgressions. Because he will show us that you have actually committed transgressions against him, verse four. Against thee, 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. You cannot commit sin against another person without committing that sin against God. It is He who has made us. It is He that owns us. It is He that we have to do with. He will cause us to confess or that is acknowledge our transgressions and our sin. He will force us to admit that the blame lies right at our door. We will begin to see what we are. I could go through my transgressions and my iniquity and show you what I mean, but I'm not going to do that, and I don't recommend you doing that either. You can do this to God, but here's the thing. Our transgressions are too many for us to even remember or know about. With this old wicked heart, it deceives us into thinking we did something holy at times when it was in fact evil. Where can we start at? And where is it enough to see that we need mercy? It's just to start and end with what we are, and that's sin. When God begins to reveal to us somewhat of what we are, we will more and more see all those things that we do, knowing that they are sins against him. We will begin to see the corrupt nature that we have and we will be able to feel it deep down in our bones. Our bones will begin to break, so to speak. God will break us down. That is what David's saying here. You have revealed to me how wicked and evil I am. You will begin to see that he is in absolute sovereign control and that you can do nothing about it. He will begin to show you that with every thought that you have, there is evil present with you. And those thoughts at times start to come out on you. James 1, 13 through 15. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempt of any man. But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Lust means a longing, or you can say a desire. This is not just a sexual thing. We can lust after anything, and we often do. When we do lust, we've already been drawn away. And we are by that lust then deceived and that is enticed. When that happens, when lust is conceived, what do we get from that? Sin, transgressions, iniquity. So what comes from that? Death. So when God sends us a Nathan and tells us we are the man, what is the only thing we can do or think or say? I'm guilty. I have no remedy for my situation. If I try to do anything about it, I will only make it worse because lust is always there. I will dig the pit deeper and deeper. So what am I forced to do? Cry out for mercy. So mercy. Now we read here in Psalms 51 in the first verse, David says, have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, and it also says, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, that has a colon there. So we have two things here, lovingkindness and multitude of tender mercies. They are ascribed to God and God alone. But these are not two separate things. You will not have tender mercies without his lovingkindness, nor will you have his lovingkindness without his tender mercies. His tender mercies are poured out upon us because of his loving kindness. Jeremiah 31 three, very familiar to you all. The Lord hath appeared of old unto me saying, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I grown thee. It is loving kindness that brings a man or a woman to know they have sinned against God and God alone. It is a tender mercy that he would bring such a sinner to this place. Because when he does, they begin to see they need mercy and that it can only come from him. We know the uncleanness of our flesh and that he must cleanse us every wit. But we also need a loving kindness and mercy that will blot out all my transgression, my iniquities, and my sins. There's only one place we can see this being done. This loving kindness and tender mercies also allow us to see this, Mount Calvary, the cross, and the one who hung there bleeding for me, for his people. It is His blood which cleanses me from all this, 1 John 1, 7. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. Job says this about a man trying to clean himself up. If I wash myself with snow water and make my hands never so clean, yet shalt thou plunge me in the ditch and my own clothes shall abhor me. I need something more than white snow to cleanse what I am. What are we told here in Psalm 51 verse seven? Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. We are told in the scripture that it is blood that will cleanse us every wit. Because it is the blood that appeased the wrath of God. And this from the foundation of the world. Because he is the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That is the everlasting love that the scripture talks about. His love is manifested in what he did for his people on that tree. even though each and every one of us have sinned against him. And we still sin, each and every one of us, each and every day. But his everlasting love has cleansed us. Without this, that is without this shedding of blood, there is no salvation. But there's more. If he were to leave us like this, we would be miserable constantly. But he comes to us in power, life-giving power. And the one who has been broken is what? Verse eight. Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. We can rejoice in what God has done and does. Because he has many tender mercies and he must give them. if we are to have them. But he causes us to ask for them, even though he gives them before we even think or ask. He must show us these tender mercies before we even know that we need them. But David goes on to cry out to God, I don't want to continue in my sin. What does he say? Reverse 10. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. I can do nothing but sin with the old wicked heart that I have as I'm born in Adam. But he creates in us a clean heart and gives us a right spirit so that we can praise him and all that he does. This is something that we do continually. Read verses 11 and 12. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. Christ has already satisfied the justice of God on our behalf, but we sin daily. He must restore us daily. We are in need of His cleansing in this world daily because we are tainted by the sin of this flesh. God gives us those tender mercies so that we do not sin. But when we do sin because of this flesh, He is our advocate. We can cry out to Him for help. When this flesh takes hold and seems to have its way, God forces us to cry out to him just as David does in this psalm. Cast me not away from thy presence. Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. When, we know if he does, then we are, if he takes his spirit away from us and casts us out from away from him, we are forever doomed. But he has loving kindness to his people and a multitude of tender mercies. What do we read in Psalm 86 verse five? For thou, Lord, art good and ready to forgive and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. He from the foundation of the world purposed the work of salvation to secure a soul. He did this in love. He from before the foundation of the world purposed all that we go through. And that purpose for his people is to turn them to himself. God to his people is not standing in heaven with a baseball bat ready to pummel his people. He does correct them, but his correction is in love as a father to a child. His correction teaches us something. Mainly it teaches us that Christ is all. and I can do nothing without him who saved my soul. For the child of God, it is not an embarrassment to cry out and plead his tender mercies. The child of God knows they are guilty before him. When they see their sin, they see what it was that put him on the cross and nailed him there, having to die and be forsaken of God. We know that if God were to ever see our sin, we would be consumed in a moment. But thank the sovereign God above. He is rich in mercy, in his loving kindness to his people. Let us rejoice in him, just as David was brought to see, because he deserves it for covering my sins from before his eyes. God Almighty has already been appeased by Jesus Christ the Son. It is our daily sins which put him there. It is those sins that are ever so before us. We will cry out just as David did, blot out my transgressions. We often sin against our brethren, but if we cry out to him, he has promised to hear our cry. When he does answer our cries, then and only then will we be able to teach others his tender mercies. Psalm 51, 12, and 13. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. When God restores me, and I mean each time God restores me, I will be able to teach others his ways. What are his ways? Salvation is of the Lord. This salvation comes to those who are sinners. If we do not acknowledge our sins, then we know nothing of mercy. Because as I said to begin with, mercy can only come if there is an offense against him. Here's somewhat of what mercy looks like. Hosea 1 and 2, we read the first part of it. The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, go take unto thee a wife of whoredoms. Hosea being Christ and us being the whoredoms. His loving kindness, his tender mercies began when we were children of whoredoms. We loved everything else but God, but he will woo us in, and he will cause us to see him and to love him. I pray he causes us to call out to him, to cry out to him, because with him are a multitude of tender mercies. He is not hard with his children. He loves his children. He showed how much he loves them by his work of salvation. God be thanked for his tender mercies in completing my salvation and in giving us a new heart, wherewith we can then love him and see him. Restore us, God, to the joy of his salvation. How many times do I get down because of my sin against him? I mean, even when I get up to preach or before I get up to preach. My preaching did not save my soul. Jesus Christ saved my soul. He appeased the wrath of God in my stead, and God the Father is satisfied. I need to be restored, to be renewed, to be revived, if you will. And I thank God that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, because I have sinned against him. Now I wanna just read Psalm 51 all the way through, so we can get it as one whole, and then I'll end with this. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, 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 be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Do good in thy good pleasure and design. Build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering. Then shall they offer bollocks upon thine altar. Amen. Dear little God, bow us down to you, dear Lord. Cause us to come to you, pleading your tender mercies, dear Lord, in your loving kindness. caused us to see that love that came down to man and secured their salvation, dear Lord, caused us to see that. May it be our daily comfort, dear Lord, to see that. Be with all of us, dear Lord, as we have different ailments, dear Lord, and heal us in the way that you know is best for us, dear Lord, because you know all things. And be with Walter as he comes to speak, May he speak in spirit and truth, and may all of our hearts, minds, and ears be open that we may hear the word of your son, dear Lord. In all these things we ask in Christ's name, amen. Come and he will give you rest. Trust him for his word is plain. He will take the sin away. Christ, receive the sinful man. Sing it over and over again. Christ, receive the sinful man. Make the message clear and plain. Christ received us in full way. Thou, my heart, condemns me not. Pure before the law I stand. He who cleansed me from all spot, satisfied his last demand.