Open your Bibles again with me,
if you would, to Psalm 51. I titled the message this evening,
A Lesson from a Repentant Sinner. Thought just now that might be
kind of a redundant title, the right word, the only kind of
message worth listening to is one from a repentant sinner.
But you may recall, we looked at this first verses of this
Psalm a couple of weeks ago, David had repented of his great
sin where he sinned against the Lord and his adultery with Bathsheba
and his planned murder of her husband Uriah to cover up their
sin. Nathan had come to David with
a message from the Lord and said, David, you're the man. David repented of his sin. He
begged God for mercy. In verse 12, now he says this,
Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with
thy free spirit. David doesn't need to be saved
again, but he asked God to restore the joy of your salvation to
me. This time period, however long
it was, nine months, eight months, I don't know, however long it
was, David had gone through the motions of religion, but there
was no joy in it. There was no joy in worship of
the Lord. He asked God to restore the joy of thy salvation to me.
If Lord do that, David says, I've got something to say. Verse
13. Then, once you restore unto me the joy of thy salvation,
then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be
converted unto thee. Now, David says, I want to be
able to teach something about God's grace. I want to be able
to teach something about God's mercy. He began this psalm, begging
God, have mercy upon me, O God, according unto thy loving kindness.
Now David's experienced that mercy. He's experienced that
loving kindness. He's experienced God's grace,
and now he's going to be able to teach us about it. And the
rest of this Psalm, I see three points here that David and any
repentant sinner would teach so that other transgressors would
be converted. If other transgressors are going
to be converted, this is the message they'll have to hear.
And you'll notice here, David says, He'll teach transgressors
thy ways. Transgressors, guilty sinners. They're the only ones who can
be taught. Nobody else can be taught. The
self-righteous, they're not teachable. The proud, those who are not
guilty, they're not teachable. They already know everything
and they don't need anything from God. If you're innocent,
right? You don't need anything from God. But transgressors,
God's made them teachable. And they'll hear these three
points and they'll rejoice in them. And that's what I pray
for us tonight. God would make us teachable.
Always pray for a teachable spirit. The gospel that we preach is
for sinners. After the message, we're going
to observe the Lord's table. These elements, which picture
the broken body, the shed blood of our Savior, they're only for
sinners who need a sacrifice. So the first thing David, the
repentant sinner, will teach other transgressors is this.
Salvation is God's salvation. Verse 14, he says, deliver me
from blood guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation. God of my salvation. Now, salvation
is a big word. Salvation covers a lot of ground.
Let me give you a couple points about this salvation. Number
one, God's salvation is salvation where we're saved from God by
God. It's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of an angry God. And God's holy. He's not an old
grandfather that just thinks everything his grandchildren
does is cute. God's holy. He's angry with the
wicked. And it's a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of an angry God who will judge sin. and all of
our sins against God. David told us that. Remember
back in 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. Sin is against
God. And all sin against God is a
capital offense. It's an offense that draws the
death penalty. That's when David says here,
deliver me from blood guiltiness. That's what he means. Deliver
me from the punishment of this capital sin. I deserve to be
put to death. Even man's court says murderers
deserve to be put to death. Even man's court says that. Now,
all sin against God deserves eternal death. So we need to
be saved from God, don't we? We need to be saved from God's
holy, just wrath against our sin, from what our sin deserves.
Well, only God can forgive sin. He's the only one number one
who's able to do it. Sin is against him. So if it's going to be forgiven,
he's got to do it. All sin is against God's nature.
It's against God's commandment. It's against God's way. Sin is
not just breaking a few rules. Sin is rebellion against God. It's against God's nature. And
when God comes to you and me and tells us like he did David,
If you're the man, we'll do what David did. We'll repent of our
sin and we'll confess our sin. As old brother Scott Richardson
told us, confession of sin is taking sides with God against
myself and saying just what David said in verse four, God would
be just if he sent me to hell. God would be just if he showed
no mercy to me and sent me to hell. If he gave me that death
sentence, he'd be right to do it. but I'm begging for mercy. See, David never does, in this
Psalm, try to sugarcoat his sin, does he? He never does. He still
says, I deserve the death sentence. But he's asking God to deliver
him from God, deliver him from God's holy justice. If we're
gonna be saved, we must be saved from God, by God, because only
God can do it. The only way we'll be saved,
is if God does for us what we cannot do for ourselves. God
must satisfy himself in order to save sinners because no son
of Adam can satisfy him. So here's the second thing about
this salvation. Salvation is being saved from
death through Christ, the sinner substitute. See, we need the
Lord Jesus Christ to do what we cannot do. We need him to
satisfy God's holiness by obeying the law perfectly. We need Him
to make us righteous, because we can't do it. We need Him to
put our sin away, because we can't do it. Salvation, this
is one thing a repentant sinner will always harp on when he talks
about salvation. Salvation is done in mercy. David began begging for mercy. If Christ is going to come and
do for me what I can't do for myself, He's going to make me
righteous. He's going to take my place and
suffer and die bearing the punishment that I deserve. What could be
more merciful than that? Mercy. But don't forget this. Salvation is done in great mercy
and in justice. Our sins got to be put away in
justice. And that's the great difference
between the gospel and a lie. That's the difference between
God and idols. Idols, a false gospel, always
depends on man to help the idol save them. They got to do something. You know, you got to do your
part. You at least got to keep some laws. You got to have a
certain amount of morality, you know. That's what an idol says. But
the gospel says the truth. Men are completely dependent
upon God. He's got to do everything for
us in order to be saved. And then if the idol couldn't
get you saved, the idol has got to depend on you to keep yourself
saved. You've got to contribute some goodness. You've got to
do some things in order to keep this because you could lose it.
But the gospel says that men depend on God both to save us
and to keep us. That's what he says in verse
11. Cast me not away from thy presence. Take not thy Holy Spirit
from me. I bet If you take a poll of God's people
across all the ages, the overwhelming greatest fear
of every believer is verse 11. God cast me away. They take his
Holy Spirit from me. I know that's what I deserve,
but Lord, I need you, Lord, keep I can't keep myself. I need you
to keep me. I'm totally dependent upon you. Only Christ can accomplish all
of that. Salvation must be the salvation
that Christ accomplished for his people. Because first, Christ
had to come as a man and do something for the Father. He had to satisfy
the Father. He had to obey God's law. He
had to bring in righteousness and please his father. The father
must be satisfied with somebody. Christ, our representative. Christ
did that. The Lord Jesus came and obeyed
God's law perfectly. He pleased his father so well,
he spoke audibly from heaven and said how pleased he is with
his son. Then Christ did something for
his people. He gave them his obedience and
he took their disobedience. He gave them his righteousness.
He took their unrighteousness. He gave them his perfection and
he took their sin and made it his own. And he died in their
place to save them from death. See, this thing is done in mercy
and justice. God's justice will never demand
the death of any of God's elect. because the death of Christ already
satisfied justice for them. That's why we read earlier, when
I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And I'll do it in justice,
because you know what the blood says? There's already been death
in this house tonight. The substitute is dying. Justice
is satisfied. I'll pass over you. That brings
me to the third thing about God's salvation. We must be saved by
God from God. We must be saved from death. Salvation must be a complete
deliverance from sin. Not ignoring sin, not glossing
over sin. Salvation must be done in such
a way that sin is made to not exist anymore. That's the only
way a holy God can be satisfied. And that's just what the blood
of Christ has done for his people. His blood cleanseth us from all
sin. I think sometimes as in my study,
I think about this verse that I think about over and over and
over again. And you know, I don't feel bad
about one bit. How often should we be reminding ourselves the
blood of Jesus Christ, God's son cleanses us from all sin,
all sin, original sin in Adam, sins of commission, sins of willfully
committed, sins of omissions, sins of things I was supposed
to do I didn't, sins I didn't even know I did, I'm so sinful
I don't even know all the sins that I did. But the blood of
Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses us from all sin. How often should we quote that
verse to ourselves? Now, all death is the result
of sin. And there were no death on earth
until Adam sinned. Wasn't even when Eve sinned,
was it? Eve was in Adam. Adam was her representative.
Death came when Adam sinned. In Adam, all died. Well, in Christ, the second Adam,
all are made alive because Christ's sacrifice removed Adam's sin.
His sacrifice removed the reason for death. Adam's sin brought
death to everyone he represented. But Christ's obedience brought
in righteousness to everyone he represented. And his sacrifice
removed the sin of his elect. Now we read in scripture that
sin, when it's finished, bringeth forth death. But when sin is
removed, there can't be any more death. There just can't be any
death if there is no sin. That's why God's people shall
never die. because he took their sin away.
Christ came so that his people would have life and that they
have it more abundantly. Brother, he got the job done. Look back at 2 Samuel chapter
12. You might want to mark that.
We're going to come back to this again a little later. 2 Samuel
chapter 12. David did not die because God
took away his sin. Second Samuel 12 verse 13. And
David said unto Nathan, I've sinned against the Lord. And
Nathan said unto David, the Lord also hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die. But now let's
remember this. You're just going to go out and
sin all you want to because the blood of Christ has cleansed
you from all sin. Just know the believer hates sin, strives against
it, hates sin. And there still will be consequences
for sin in this life. But we won't die eternally if
Christ died in our place, but there'll be consequences for
it. Look at verse 14. How be it? Because by this deed,
thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to
blaspheme the child also that is born unto thee. shall surely
die. Now there's consequences for
it. But David, you will die eternally. God will not forsake you because
of God's salvation. Because God's salvation, this
salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, it satisfies and honors and glorifies
our Lord. And the Lord will not cast away
any of his people saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. It's God's
salvation. It can't fail. It can't be changed. It has no end. It's God's salvation. All right, second, this is what
a repentant sinner will proclaim. This is a lesson he's going to
teach us. That righteousness is God's righteousness. Verse
14 in our text, David says, deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God,
thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of
thy righteousness. Now the repentant sinner, anyone
who's met the Lord Jesus Christ, looks to him in faith and only
talk about God's righteousness. Look over at Psalm 71. Sinner saved by grace can only
talk about Christ's righteousness because that's the only righteousness
that I have. That's the only righteousness
that there is. Psalm 71 verse 15, my mouth shall show forth thy righteousness
and thy salvation all the day. For I know not the numbers thereof.
I will go in the strength of the Lord God. I will make mention
of thy righteousness, even of thine only. And every repentant
sinner, amen's day be given. The repentant sinner, when we
confess our sin, you know what we're admitting? We're admitting
I don't have any righteousness. and I never will be able to produce
any. So the only righteousness that I can have is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Jehovah Sikindu, the Lord, my
righteousness. He is either my righteousness
or I don't have any. That's the only two options.
And as a man, the Lord Jesus Christ brought in everlasting
righteousness. As a man, he obeyed God's law
perfectly. He didn't do that for himself,
did he? He's already holy. He's already righteous. Then
who did he do that for? Who did he bring in this everlasting
righteousness for? He brought it in for his people. And he gives that righteousness
to his people freely. And they are righteous. I want to be crystal clear about
this. God's people are righteous. It's not that they're going to
be righteous someday. they're righteous right now. It's not
just a legal status on a piece of paper. That's their nature. They're righteous. Christ is
our righteousness right now. His righteousness is our righteousness. His righteousness, his obedience
is my personal obedience before God right now. So that I am righteous
just as surely is if I was the one who always obeyed God's law
perfectly, that here's why this righteousness is real. If I believe
Christ, I did obey God's law perfectly. I did in the person
of my representative, in the person of my substitute. How
is it that I became a sinner? Inactive. I was in Adam. I did what Adam did. Can anybody
deny that I did not do what Adam did? No. That was real. That's why I'm
in the mess that I'm in to this day. I'm a sinner. I really was
made a sinner, made guilty in Adam. Well, if I believe Christ,
I did everything that Christ did. Just as surely as I did
everything that Adam did. So that if I believe Christ,
He has made me perfectly righteous. Just as surely as Adam made me
sinful. Now that's God's salvation. It's perfect because it's done
in righteousness. And that's why David's praising
it. You know, salvation, so-called salvation, that idols try to
get you to follow, it's never real. Because the best that they
can do is ignore sin. The best that they can do is
accept a sacrifice that doesn't put away sin. At best, it's a
partial payment, you know. That's why so many ancient cultures
sacrificed virgins. They sacrificed their children
because that was the best they had to offer. That was the most
precious thing that they had to offer, and God was never pleased
with those sacrifices. There's a sacrifice to an idol. Thank God he's pleased with one
sacrifice, the sacrifice of his son, his precious, perfect son. His sacrifice is enough to pay
the sin debt. So the salvation in Christ is
right. It's just, it's right. He's made
his people righteous. It's right that God accepted
him. He's put their sin away. It's done injustice. It's right
for God to save them. in the righteousness, in the
obedience, in the sacrifice of his son. Now, submit yourself
to Christ's righteousness. That's what salvation is. It's
submitting yourself to Christ's righteousness. There is no salvation
without submitting, surrendering to Christ. Isn't that what Paul
said about the Jews, his brethren, according to the flesh who did
not know God, I said, I bear them record now. They got a zeal
of God. It's not according to knowledge. They will not submit
themselves to the righteousness of Christ. They're going about
to establish their own righteousness. Well, how is it that I surrender
to God? How is it that I submit to his righteousness? It's to
quit trying to make God happy with you by what you do and rest
in Christ. That's what it is. We don't have
to add anything to it. It's submitting. to the righteousness
of Christ. It's surrendering and submitting
to God's terms of surrender. Salvation is all in His Son.
We don't add one thing to it. It's surrendering, submitting.
Now look back at 2 Samuel chapter 12. Our submission, the believer's
submission, does not stop there. The believer's submission extends
to everything that God does. That is what a wise and good
child does. A wise child, a good child submits
to the authority of mama and daddy. That's what God's children
do. They're going to submit. David
submitted to Christ's righteousness. He submitted. Happily, he submitted. Salvation is by God's mercy.
And he submitted everything about him in this life to God too. He submitted to how God would
deal with him and his, too. 2 Samuel 12, verse 15. Nathan departed unto his house,
and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife barren of David,
and it was very sick. David therefore besought God
for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night
upon the earth. And the elders of his house arose
and went to him to raise him up from the earth, but he would
not, neither did he eat bread with them. And it came to pass
on the seventh day that the child died. And the servants of David
feared to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, behold,
while the child was yet alive, we spake unto him, and he would
not hearken unto our voice. How will he then vex himself
if we tell him that the child is dead? But when David saw that
his servants whispered, David perceived that the child was
dead. Therefore David said unto his servants, is the child dead?
And they said, he's dead. David arose from the earth and
washed and anointed himself and changed his apparel and came
into the house of the Lord and worshiped. I cannot imagine, I can't imagine
getting the news that David got. He got up, he took a shower,
he shaved, he washed his hair, he put on some cologne, he put
on his Sunday clothes, and he went to the house of the Lord
and worshipped. Brethren, that's submission.
He worshipped. God's to be worshipped no matter
what he does with me. He's to be worshipped. Then he
came to his own house and when he required, they set bread before
him and he did eat. Then said his servants unto him,
what thing is this that thou hast done? Thou didst fast and
weep for the child while it was alive. But when the child was
dead, thou didst rise and eat bread. He said, while the child
was yet alive, I fasted and wept. For I said, who can tell whether
the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live? But
now he's dead. Wherefore should I fast? Can
I bring him back again? I should go to him, but he shall
not return unto me. That's the attitude of submission. Attitude of submission. Whatever
the Lord does is right. It's right. I bow. That's true
in salvation. That's true how God deals with
me and mine in this life. All right, here's the third thing.
Every repentant sinner will tell you this. That praise all belongs
to God. Verse 15. Psalm 51, Oh Lord, open down
my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. This prayer
almost always is my personal prayer before I preach that the
Lord would apply his message to my heart. And then that he'd
open my mouth and let me preach it and glorify his son. And I
know this, if the Lord's the one who opens our mouth, grace
mercy and truth are going to come out of it. That's how the
Lord is glorified in our preaching. And isn't that the way it should
be? Shouldn't God get all the credit, all the glory for salvation?
I mean, he did it all. He's the one who purposed it
in divine election. He's the one who planned it,
putting his elect into his son, Christ the lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. God's the one who executed it.
He's the one who purchased it when he sent his son. to purchase
it with his own precious blood. God's the one who applies it.
God, the Holy Spirit comes and he gives life, he gives repentance,
he gives faith in the new birth. The Holy Spirit comes and points
us to Christ. God does that. God's the one
who preserves his people by preserving them by the power of his grace.
And one day God's going to be the one to perfect it all. He
brings them all to glory. They're all together. They're
all made just like Christ and they'll be with Him forever where
He is beholding His glory. If we took any time at all to
think about that, there's more glory there that we got time
to talk about tonight. And really, there's more glory
there that we can spend eternity thanking God for and glorifying
Him. We can't tell it all, but we'd like to tell it. We can't
tell it all, but we love to sing it, don't we? We love to sing
these hymns, these praises unto our God. And David uses singing
here. Instead of just talking, he uses
singing. Because singing is a good way
to express the joy and the praise to the Lord that we feel in our
heart. And this thing of giving God the praise, giving God the
glory, it's not just lip service. It's not just what I say. I show
it by how I live. Look at verse 16. For thou desirest
not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt
offering. Here's the evidence I really
know God. The evidence I really trust Christ is this. I live
not trying to offer something in addition to Christ. Don't
feel like I've got to do something in addition to Christ to make
me more saved or more accepted or more loved. I don't live like
I have to do something or I can do something to put me on a higher
spiritual plane than other believers. If I really trust Christ, this
is what I know, I can't be more saved than I am in Him. I can't
be more loved. I can't be more accepted than
I am in Christ. And if I really know myself,
I know this, I got nothing to offer but sin anyway. So I'm
very content to have Christ be my all. Are you? If I really
believe that salvation is by God's grace in Christ Jesus,
that I'm not going to feel any need to produce any works of
righteousness in order to please God, I'm just going to rest in
Him. Instead of being focused on all
my outward actions, I'm going to be a whole lot more concerned
with the attitude of my heart. Because if the attitude of my
heart is right, my actions are right. Is that right? You know, I can go around. You
know, I kind of got the pulpit. Everybody's supposed to be quiet.
Well, I can talk. I can get up here. I can tell you all how
much I love Jane. I can tell you that. Somebody could write me a book
and tell me all the things I'm supposed to do for her. But you
know what? They won't have to if I love
her from the heart. If that's in here, my actions
will be right. They're right, that's true with
the believer. Look here at verse 17. The sacrifices
of God are broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart. Oh God,
thou wilt not despise. A broken spirit, a contrite heart
is a humble spirit. It's a humble spirit before both
God and men. If I've got a broken spirit,
a contrite heart, God's humbled me. I won't want my works entering
into this equation. I won't want everybody seeing
my works and getting taken up with what I'm doing because I
don't want anything to overshadow the work of God in salvation. I don't want anything I'm doing,
somebody gets so impressed with it that they get taken up with
that and somehow in their mind that overshadows God's grace.
No, I don't want that at all. Now, the believer will still
work. labors of love, acts of faith,
or just, you just say something needs done around here, just
watch the people come. Acts of love, labors of love.
But we still would like for them to be silent and not really noticed
so that nothing takes away from God's glory. Now that's truly
living like I'm saved by grace and not by words. See this thing
of salvation, is a heart matter. The issues of life are out of
the heart. Where does God look? He looks
on the heart. The love of God is shed abroad
in our heart. Worship, praise, thanksgiving
all comes from the heart. A person with a contrite spirit,
a broken heart, they're going to live following the royal law
of love that we looked at in James in the Sunday school lesson
last Sunday. See, that's not just talking
about love. That's living in love for God,
in love for His people, because we're so amazed. God chose me. I'm so amazed that God loved
me. It ought to be easy for me to love you. God sent His Son,
His Son, to die for me. Well, it ought to be easy for
me to sacrifice something for you, for your good, shouldn't
it? Before any of that can happen, God's got to do a work in the
heart. It starts in the heart. In Acts
chapter 5, the Lord wouldn't accept the offering of Ananias
and Sapphira because Satan filled their heart. In Acts 8, Simon
wanted the gifts of the Holy Ghost that the apostles had.
They had gifts of healing and tongues and all these things,
you know, and oh, he wanted those gifts. He said, can I buy them?
What can I do? What can I give you? And Peter told him, Simon,
you repent. Your heart is not right with
God. See, the Lord didn't look on the religious act. He didn't
look on the things that men might be impressed with. The Lord looked
on the heart and he dealt with people. He deals with people
in the heart. God gives his people a broken heart, a contrite spirit. And I tell you, if I've got that,
if God's humbled me, I'm just not going to be talking about
myself all the time. I won't even be talking to men
about God all the time. So they're impressed with what
a great teacher I am. Before I ever talk to men about God,
let's first talk to God about me. That's what David does. Look here, verse 11. Do good
and thy good pleasure unto Zion. Build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
See, this is the attitude that pleases God. Or get glory to
yourself by saving your By continuing to save your people. Get glory
to yourself by adding to the church daily as many as should
be added. Or get glory to yourself by continuing. You save those
people. Now continue to build them up
in the faith. Continue to hold them up and
support them and cause them to grow in grace. Then God will
be pleased with our worship. Verse 19. Then shall thou be
pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness. With burnt offering
and whole burnt offering Then shall they offer bullocks upon
thine altar. Now we know that the Lord was
never pleased with those animal sacrifices in the Old Testament.
He only ever accepted those sacrifices when they are offered in faith,
picturing the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we don't
sacrifice animals today, but the same thing is true about
our worship today. The only worship that God's gonna
be pleased The worship God will accept is worshiping Him through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the Father is pleased
with Christ. He's pleased with His sacrifice.
He's pleased with His blood. He's pleased with His righteousness.
He's pleased with His person. And He's pleased with everybody
who's in Him, too. So even when we stumble and we
bumble, the Lord's still pleased with our worship. When it's done,
to faith in Christ. That's what every believer here
this evening is going to confess here in just a few moments. Confess
faith in Christ. We're getting ready to observe
the Lord's table. And this is very interesting to me. The Lord
has forbidden all forms of worship that involve any elements that
we can touch and see. He's forbidden all of them. We
don't have an altar. We don't have, you know, robes
a preacher wears to make him look, you know, more spiritual
or something. We don't have candles and incense burning to give a
spiritual, you know, atmosphere. That wouldn't be a spiritual
atmosphere, but to make everybody feel, you know, you know. The
Lord's forbidden all that. Two exceptions. Baptism and the
Lord's table. This dude in remembrance of me,
when you take that bread and you put it in your mouth and
you chew it, you hear that crying. You must be reminded of Christ's
sacrifice. His body was broken. Sacrifice
for your sin. You take that cup and you drink
that wine. You can't help but think of His precious blood that
He shed to cleanse you from all your sins. See, this thing of
faith is very personal. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanses us from all sin. But when I'm taking that cup,
this is what I'm saying. When Christ died, His blood cleansed
me of all my sin. The only way my sin, which is
so vile and wretched and black and awful, the only way it could
be put away is by the blood of God. That's how vile I am. That's what we remember when
we take these elements, just like baptism. We have the pool
of water and there's worldly elements there. We put the person
confessing Christ down in the water, there's physical elements
there. But God's pleased with that worship,
just like he's pleased with us meeting around his table, because
that is a confession of faith in Christ. His sacrifice is for
me. He's all. of my salvation. And
that's what we'll confess here as the men pass out the alms.
Wayne, you men, if you would, pass out the bread.