best and I reckon only reason
that we would come to God as we are, right now as we are,
without trying to fix ourselves up a bit, is we believe His promise. Isn't that right? If I believe
His promise, I'm coming. Alright, Psalm 51. All of you
here know very well the story of David committing adultery
with Bathsheba. how she became pregnant with
David's child, how David tried to cover up his sin by having
Bathsheba's husband Uriah killed. Uriah was a faithful and a valiant
warrior, valiant servant of David. David ordered his men to put
him in the heat of the battle and withdraw from him. He was
killed. And he married Bathsheba, trying
to cover up this sin with Bathsheba. If all we see in this story is
David's problems, we've missed it. What I want us to see is
our sin nature. In this very issue, our sin nature. How this is our sin nature, so
we are just fine with sin. Almost always, we're just fine
with sin. After all that that David did
for nine months, David's conscience didn't bother him a bit. Went
about his business, conscious, didn't bother him a bit until
God sent Nathan to David in 2 Samuel chapter 12 and told him, David, you're the
man. See, everything David thought was fine until he was reminded. God's servant came to him with
a message from the Lord and reminded him what a great sinner that
he was and how much he needed Christ. And the same thing will
apply to you and me, Warren. Now let me ask you a question.
Can a child of God really do that? You know, we say a child
of God would do anything if God doesn't stop him. Do we believe that really? Come
on, do we? Can a child of God stray from
the Lord that long, nine months, and his sin not ever bothering
a bit? Of course they can. Here's a
better question. You want a better question? Can
I do that? Can I stray from the Lord that
long? Of course I can. If God lifts His finger off of
me for a moment, I will do anything. Now, does that mean that if I
do these things, if my conscience doesn't bother me about sin,
I just go about never thinking of the Lord, never seeing my
need of Him? If I do that for a period of time, does that mean
that I'm not a child of God? No, it doesn't mean that at all.
But I can promise you this. The Lord will not allow his erring
child to stay in that state forever. How long are you going to let
your children live in rebellion? Not all that long, are you? And
the Lord will do for his children, all of them, what he does for
David here in our text. The Lord's going to pierce their
heart. He's going to convict them of who and what they are
and cause them to one more time run to Christ. And I can tell
you how he does it. It's not going to be a magical
thing or sit on your front porch and lightning's going to strike
a tree next to you and you're going to wake up. I can tell you how the Lord's
going to, how he pierces the hearts of his people. How he
causes them to run to Christ again is through the preaching
of the word. You know, when David's heart
was pierced, when the Lord sent Nathan with a message from God.
And that's how he's going to reach our hearts, too, through
the preaching of the Word. This is yet another example of
the importance, I wish I could stress enough, the importance
of public worship. Public worship is where the Word
of God is preached, and that's the place the Savior promised
to meet with His people. That's the place. This is how
the Lord saves His people, through the preaching of the Word. This
is how the Lord instructs His people, comforts them, encourages
them, how he corrects them. It's all done by the preaching
of the word. Well, how will the child of God
react when the Lord sends that message and reveals our sin to
us and reveals Christ to us again, reveals to us our need of Christ,
whether it's the first time or whether it's the thousandth time,
the 10,000th time, how will God's children react to that? Well,
they'll react in Repentance and Confession. That's the title
of the message tonight, Repentance and Confession. Now, repentance
is a turning. Repentance is turning away from
what we've been trusting in, turning away from what we've
been looking at, and turning to Christ, and trusting Christ. Repentance is a change of mind. When I repent, I change my mind
about everything. And we have to do that from time
to time. The Lord sends us a message and we change our mind about
everything. Because repentance isn't a one-time
act, is it? No, the believer is constantly
repenting of our sin. The believer is constantly turning
to Christ. That's why Peter said, to whom?
Coming. We don't just come to Christ once. We're constantly
coming to Him. Just like we're constantly repenting.
We're constantly turning to Him. And confession, the word means
to acknowledge and to agree. Confession is just to say what
God says. That's all it is. It's to acknowledge
who God is and it's to agree with everything God says about
me. Everything God says about him
and to agree with everything God does with me. That's confession. And from our text this evening,
I want to give you six things that the repentant sinner will
confess. Number one, The repentant sinner will confess a need for
mercy. And this is not just saying,
I need mercy. The repentant sinner will beg for mercy. Verse one,
Psalm 51. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to thy loving kindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender
mercies, blot out my transgressions. You know, mercy is God not giving
me what I do deserve. Well, what do I deserve? I deserve
punishment in hell for my sin. I deserve for God to refuse to
look at me. I refused. I deserve for God
to refuse to accept me. He shouldn't accept me as I am
in his holiness and my sin. He shouldn't accept me. He should
cast me in hell. That's what I deserve. But I'm
begging for mercy that God would not give me what I deserve. I
freely confess that my sin It's so great. There's nothing I can
do to make up for it. So I need mercy. That's my only
hope. My sin is so great. It can't
be overlooked. It can't be ignored or swept
under the rug. So I need mercy. I don't have
any other hope. My sin is so great. It's a multitude
of sin, a mountain of sin. I need a multitude of mercy. My sin is done in such open rebellion,
open hatred of God. I need tender mercy. Tender mercy
that comes from God's loving kindness. That's what I need. That's what David said he needed.
You notice that David didn't get caught in this and suddenly
start pleading merit, did he? Like he had something he could
make up for. No, he pleads for mercy. Not one time does David
remind the Lord of his giant kingdom. how the whole army fled,
but David didn't. He didn't remind the Lord of
that. He doesn't remind the Lord of all the songs he's written.
He doesn't remind the Lord of all of his faithful service,
bringing the ark back, all his faithful service. He doesn't
remind the Lord. He doesn't say, Lord, I've done
all this. Could you just overlook this one thing? He doesn't do
that. He begs for mercy. God be merciful to me. And everybody
who ever truly repents does the same thing. begs for mercy. I got no other plea. I got no
other hope. There's no excuse for who or what I am. So I'm
begging for mercy. Number two, the repentant sinner
will confess his sin against God. Verse three, 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." David says, all I see about myself is sin. Again,
I want this to be driven home to our heart. I don't want us
to say, yeah, all I see about David is sin too. I want this
to be applied to us. Let's take a good look at ourselves. Do you see anything but sin? David says, I can't see one good
thing in me. I can't see one good thing that
I've done. And that's accurate. That's exactly
right. Because everything we do is sin.
And what makes our sin so evil, so wicked, is our sin is against
God. Now, our sin hurts men. People
do things that hurt you. David's sin hurt Uriah, didn't
it? I mean, so in that way, our sin's
against men. But our sin The target of it
is not me. The target of our sin is rebellion
against God Almighty. Sin is against God. It's against
God's nature. Sin is against God's commandment.
Sin is against God's righteousness. Sin is against God's way. Sin
is against God's goodness. David says my sin is high treason. And listen, I didn't do it off
in secret somewhere. I did it right in front of your
eyes. That's what makes my sin so great. So when I confess my sin, I confess
everything that I do a sin and brother, it's my fault. It's
my fault. Nobody made me do it. I didn't
fall in with the wrong crowd. You know, I couldn't say, well,
I would have done that if I'd been with different people. No, I
would have done it anyway. I can't say, My sins is the result
of bad circumstances. You know, if I wouldn't have
sinned, if I would have been just in better circumstances,
yes, I would have. I would have. I would. You want
me to make good on that? Adam. Our father, Adam. We've got Adam's nature, don't
we? Adam was in a perfect environment with a perfect crowd. And what
did he do? Rebelled against God. You and
me are the same way. So confessing sin is taking sides
with God against myself and saying, God, you'd be right in sending
me to hell. You'd be absolutely right. If
God sent me to hell, all of creation would shout hallelujah because
God's justice would have been served. God, you'd be just if
you send me to hell. That's what day, whatever sentence
you pronounce against me is just. That's what David means here
when he said you'd be justified when you speak. When you speak
and pronounce sentence on me, whatever you pronounce, it's
right and it's just. That's what I deserve. Confessing
sin. You know, we will never confess
our sin as long as we're trying to justify ourselves. We can justify pretty much anything
we do, can't we? Huh? Now, we're good at that. Confessing sin is quit trying
to justify ourselves and to justify God. To say, God, you're right,
whatever you do with me. If you damn me, if you save me,
you're right. You'd be just to pass me by and
show mercy to somebody else. You'd be right. That's justifying
God. But I'm begging for mercy. Because
I am a guilty wretch and it's all my fault. Now, I think this
is very important, too. David, you remember when Nathan
told him you're the man and told him everything's going to happen,
the sword's not going to depart from your house, David. And David
cried out. He didn't cry out about his punishment,
did he? He cried out, oh, I've sinned against God. You remember,
John Chapman's told this story often. He talked about him being
a little guy. He did something wrong, get caught,
and his dad grabbed him by the arm. And John, he said, I had
to start running around. And his dad, you know, had him in
a circle going around. And John said, I won't do it no more.
I won't do it no more. Well, he was just doing that
because he was getting a whipping, wasn't he? That's not what David's doing here.
He cries out about his sin. Sin is what's so gross and what's
so disgusting about It's my sin that's broken me, that's broken
my heart. But here's the greatness of God's
mercy. The very one that we've sinned
against is the one who forgives sin. And we ask God to be merciful
to us. We're not asking a small thing.
We're asking for a big thing. Because our sin is so often Our
sin is against the eternal God. That's why people spend eternity
in hell, because it's eternal sin. It can never be paid for
by the likes of us. We beg for mercy. We're begging
for mercy because our only hope of mercy is in the one we've
sinned against. Our every action is sin against
him. But the one we've sinned against
is the one who can forgive sin. The one we've sinned against
is the one that can be merciful. So we beg for mercy. We confess
our sin is against God because only He can forgive us. But it's
worse than that, really. Thirdly, the repentant sinner
will confess that he is sin. It's not just what I've done
is sinful. What I am is sin. My nature is sin. Verse 5. Behold,
I was shapen in iniquity and in sin. Did my mother conceive
me? Dave is not saying his sin is
his parents fault. What he's doing here is he's
confessing original sin. He's saying I became a sinner
in Adam. My nature is sin. That's why
I drink iniquity like water. I am the opposite of everything
God requires me to be. My nature is the opposite of
God's nature. Now, if we would be saved, we
must confess who and what we are. Who and what we are. Not
just what we've done, but who we are. My actions are sinful
because they come from a sinful nature. The fountain is polluted,
so all the streams are polluted. The fountain is polluted, so
everything I say, everything I do, everything I look at, it's
all sinful. The streams are polluted because
the fountain is polluted. I do what I do because of what
I am. I am sin. That's my nature. And again, it's my fault. It's
not Adam's fault for giving me this nature. It's not my parents'
fault for passing this nature on to me. It's not God's fault.
It's my fault. Everybody who confesses sin will
say amen when Nathan says you're the man. Will say, I am the man. God be merciful to me. It's like
I'm the only one. The problem is all with my wicked
heart. The problem is mine. Why, fourthly,
the repentant sinner confesses, I need a sacrifice. I need a
blood atonement. At the end of verse one, David
says, blot out my transgressions. David's pleading for genuine
mercy. He's not asking God for pity. He's asking God for mercy. through
God's justice, through the atonement. There's got to be blood shed
in order to blot out my transgressions. David's pleading for a blood
atonement. See, I need mercy, and I need mercy in Christ. God's mercy is never God just
ignoring sin. God's mercy, true mercy, is God
blotting out the sin of His people with the blood of His Son. So
we cry, Lord, we're begging for mercy. We're asking God, blot
out my sin by the sacrifice of your son. Give me mercy because
you gave Christ, my substitute, the justice that I deserve. Now that's loving kindness, mercy
and loving kindness. That God would be merciful to
me because he killed his son in my place. See, this mercy
is a big thing, isn't it? Have mercy on me. Wash me in
the blood of the Lamb. That's what he says in verse
two. Wash me throughly for my iniquity and cleanse me from
my sin. Now, sin is not just breaking
the rules. Sin is filthy and we are defiled with sin. We are
so dirty, just filthy with sin. And a shower ain't going to clean
us up. The baptismal pool is not going to clean us up. Coming
to Sunday service four Sundays in a row is not going to clean
us up. The only way we can be cleansed is in the blood of the
Lamb, the blood of Christ. We can't be cleaned any other
way. And we need to be washed throughly, throughly, not just
on the outside, but on the inside. If God just takes me and washes
me on the outside, what will I be? I'll be a whited sepulcher. Look clean on the outside, but
what's going on inside? Full of dead men's bones and
excess and filth. So I need mercy. I need God to
wash me throughly in the blood and the water. I need to be washed
in the blood of Christ to justify me. And I need to be in that
water, the water of the Spirit, the water that flowed from His
side to cleanse me and to make me holy. God wash me throughly. See, we ask for mercy. We're
asking God to sacrifice his son as an atonement, a sacrifice,
a covering for our sin. We're asking God, don't just
cover up my sin so that it's still there. You just can't see
it because it's hidden under something, but wash it away so
it doesn't exist anymore. Well, the only way that's possible
is in the blood of Christ, isn't it? Verse seven, he says, purge
me with hyssop. Purge me. Get rid of my sin,
purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall
be whiter than snow. Now, hyssop was a little leafy
plant that grew in that area of the world, and they used that
to apply the blood of the Passover lamb to the doorpost. Hyssop
is used to apply the blood, to sprinkle the blood. Hebrews calls
it the blood of sprinkling, sprinkling from the hyssop. What David's
saying here is what every repentant sinner says. Lord, apply the
blood of Christ to my heart. Apply it to me. That way I'll
be clean. Verse nine, he says, hide thy
face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities. Blot them
out so you can't see them. Now, the only way that the all
seeing eye of God is not going to see my sin is if they're not
there anymore. They've been washed away by the
blood of Christ. I keep saying this, asking for
mercy is a big thing. I mean, I'm afraid we use the
word so often and all the time in prayer. I'm afraid, maybe
you're smarter than me, but I'm afraid I do anyway. Forget what
a big deal this is. God's mercy. We're asking God
to sacrifice His Son, to take the blood of His Son as He sacrificed
under the wrath of Almighty God and take that blood and apply
it to me, that I would be made whole. We don't deserve that,
do we? That's why we beg for mercy.
We beg God for mercy. You mark this down. God's going
to be merciful. We know God's going to be merciful.
God's going to save people. He's going to save his people.
But let's mark this down. God doesn't owe it to anybody.
No, he doesn't. God does not owe it to me. to
kill His only begotten Son to put my sin away. God doesn't
know that to me. So I'm going to beg Him for it.
I'm going to beg Him for it. And I'll tell you when we truly
confess our sin, it's when I confess that I am such a great sinner. The only way my sin can be paid
for is if God kills His Son in my place. My sin is so great
The only thing that can take it away is the blood of God. That's what a great sinner I
am. That's when we confess sin. Look back to 2 Samuel chapter
12. And the moment we do that, the moment we confess sin, we're
going to hear the same message from God's servant, from God's
word that David heard. We're going to hear, as we beg
for mercy, we're going to hear God's already done it. Second
Samuel 12 verse 13. And David said unto Nathan, you're
right, I'm the man. I have sinned against the Lord.
And Nathan said unto David, the Lord also hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die. David, you're
not going to die because God's already taken your sin away.
He's taken away and the lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. You're not going to die because your substitute has
died in your place. So when we beg for mercy, you
know what we're doing? We're begging God to do what
he already promised he'd do for his people and his son. That's
a pretty good way to plead with God. Just plead what he already
promised he'd do for his people and his son. Right, here's the
fifth thing. The repentant sinner will confess
his need to be born again. Verse 6. Behold, thou desirest
truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt
make me to know wisdom. Now my inward parts, that's my
heart. That's my affections, my desires. That's who I really am. That man of sin is born in me.
I try to hide from you. That's the heart he's talking
about. And my inward parts, my heart, my affections is already
ruined with sin. That's the sin nature we talked
about a minute ago. That heart, our heart is deceitful. It's so deceit, it's desperately
wicked. Who could know it? So I need
to be cleansed. I need something new. God, God
requires truth. He requires inward worship, inward
holiness, inward righteousness. He doesn't just require an outward
show of religion. The Lord requires truth. He requires
worship in truth. The way God said he's to be worshiped
in his son. God requires truth in the heart. God requires righteousness in
the heart, not righteousness that we can do things to impress
each other. He requires true righteousness in the heart. Well,
my nature's already ruined in sin. We've already established
that. My nature's ruined in sin. Yours is too. So what do we need? We need God to give us a new
nature, don't we? That's why David says in verse 10, create
in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
I need to be born again. I need God to create a new man. I've already got Adam's sinful
nature. I need God to create a new nature. I need him to create
in me the nature of Christ, the second Adam in the new birth.
I'm already ruined in Adam. I need God to make me righteous
and make me whole in Christ. You see, I need a nature that's
holy, a nature that's washed whiter than snow. Like David
said in verse seven, Look at Isaiah chapter one. You know, again, this is just
begging God for what he already promised to do for his people. Isaiah one verse 18. You think how condescending Lord
is to make this statement. He says, come now. Let us reason
together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. See, that being washed white
as snow is being washed in the blood of Christ. That's being
made the righteousness of God in Christ, our substitute. It's
being given a new nature. See, my sinful nature can't produce
what God requires. So what I need is God to give
me what he requires, to give me this inward holiness, this
inward righteousness, this inward faith. My sinful nature can't
be changed, can it? It can't be fixed up. It can't
be educated. So I need God to give me a new
one in the new birth, create this in me. Now the new birth is a mysterious
thing. I reckon you don't know what
it is till you've been born again, and we never can exactly say
what it was or when it happened. But I do know this about the
new birth. It happens. God, the Holy Spirit, applies
the blood of Christ to our hearts. Back at verse seven, purge me
with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than the snow. What he's referring to there
is the Passover, the blood must be applied. And when the Holy
Spirit applies that blood to my heart, that's when I'm born
again. Now, I can't look back and tell
you when that was, but I know it happened. I know it happened.
You remember the Passover. The father could listen to the
instructions. He could go select a lamb and
pin it up and watch it those number of days. At the exact
point in time that father could take that lamb, he could kill
it. He could roast his body with fire. He could even catch the
blood in the basin. He'd take that lamb, go inside
and shut the door and eat that lamb with bitter herbs. Staff
in his hand, shoes on his feet. And his firstborn's going to
die. The blood must be applied. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. And that's what God the Holy
Spirit does for all of his elect. He applies the blood. That's
the new birth. Verse 8, David says, we've got
to be born again. Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Lord, make
me to hear, because I can't hear. By nature, I can't hear God.
I can't hear God's word. Now, I can hear with these ears. I can read, I can even memorize
some of it, spit it back out to you if you want. But by nature,
you can't make me love God's word. You can't make me need
it. You can't make me love to hear
from God. And as God gives me, he got to
create in me new ears and a new heart. Ears that hear and a heart
that loves spiritual truths, loves the things of Christ. My
sin has broken Something that's broken can't be fixed, can't
be repaired. It's got to be thrown away. It's
ruined. My sin has broken me. And you know, it's painful. Painful. It's more painful than a broken
bone. It's more painful than a torn meniscus. David here talks
about broken bones. Oh, it's so painful. But what
can comfort me? Is there anything that can comfort
my poor broken heart? The blood of Christ being applied. being washed in His blood, being
made like Him. What more do you want? And I need to be washed throughly.
This new birth, I must be born again. God can't just wash me
on the outside and then set me down the way I am. He can't leave
me the way I am. Or else I'll defile myself with
sin again, just to assure shit, and that's what I'll do. I need
to be washed and I need to be given a clean, holy, righteous
nature that's not going to sin again. And that's the nature
that God gives in the New Birth. It's the nature of His Son that's
righteous, that's holy. It's a nature that does love
God. It's a nature that does believe
God. And that nature will never sin.
And it will never quit believing Christ. Will we stray? Will we go off
and not feel the filthiness of our sin like we ought to? Yes.
But that heart won't quit. That new nature God's given won't
quit believing Christ. When you hear Him, God sends
you the message, your heart will be broken. You'll believe. It won't quit believing. It can't
quit believing. And that's the nature that God
gives His people, the nature that God loves. Not just He says,
Yeah, I'll accept it. Yeah, it'll pass. It's the nature
that he loves. That's the nature he gives his
people. And this is what we're pleading.
Lord, I've acted like myself in sin long enough. Would you
act like yourself and be merciful to me? Wash me. Create in me
a clean heart. Give me faith in Christ. Then
here's the last thing. Repentance and confession. will be continued. It's a lifelong
process. Verse 11. Cast me not away from
thy presence. Isn't that the believer's greatest
fear? That the Lord will eventually
get tired of me and cast me out. Oh, cast me not away from thy
presence. Do anything but don't take your presence away from
me. Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation. and uphold me with thy free spirit. Lord, don't leave me alone, but
constantly uphold me. Hold me in your arms and don't
ever let me go. How desperately do we need that? You know, we either believe in
total depravity or we don't. There's no middle ground. It's
one or the other. We believe in total depravity or we don't.
If I believe in total depravity, I believe all I am is sin. I tell you what I'm going to
believe. I need God. I need Him to elect me, because
I'll never choose Him. I need God to die for me, to
put my sin away, because it's so great it can't be put away
any other way. All I am is sin. That's my sin nature. It's dead
in sin. I can't hear, I can't see, I
can't come. I need God. call me to Christ
and cause me to come to Him. I need God to give me a new nature,
because my old one's ruined. I need God to save me against
my will with my full consent. And I need God to keep me all
the way to the end. Because as long as I'm in this
flesh, walking on this earth, there's never going to be anything
good in me. So I need Christ constantly. Constantly. You know, we all know we need
Christ. We need God. And the big things don't. Something
big comes up, something big, you know, that says, oh, oh,
we pray. I need God. I need his help.
I need... But then those little things
come along. I'm going to run down to the grocery store and get a gallon
of milk. I need God just as much there.
If I was going to drive to Texas, you know, I'd pray for traveling
mercies, would you? How often do you pray for trial
and mercy and run down to Kroger? We need him constantly. If he lets me go, I'm going to
go straight to hell. If he lets me go, I'm going to
create hell on earth. I'm going to go straight to hell.
I need him constantly. Thank God. His mercy is new every
morning. You're never going to out-sin
God's mercy. Just keep coming to Him. And
I'll tell you what, when God teaches me that, then I'm going
to have something to say that's worth listening to. Verse 13.
Lord, we'll pick up here next Wednesday, but look just briefly.
Then, after I've learned that, after you've given me this new
nature, after you've upheld me with your Spirit, then will I
teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted
unto me. The confession of a repentant
sinner it's worth listening to. Now, if we just had a time of
confession and people come up here and start giving their testimony,
it wouldn't be worth listening to. But if we're talking to one
another, someone's preaching, we hear the confession of a repentance
center, that confession is going to be worth listening to. You
know why? Because their confession is all
Christ. And he's worth listening to.
That confession is worth listening to. That confession will comfort
the hearts of God's people. Hearing that confession, sinners
will be converted because it's all Christ. It's all Him. All
mercy is in Him. All grace is in Him. All life
is in Him. All salvation is in Him. Come to Him, begging for
mercy, just like David did. Let's bow together and pray. Our God, how we thank you for
your mercy. How we thank you that you've
recorded these examples in Scripture, that we so clearly see ourselves
in David. We so clearly see our weaknesses
as his weakness. We so clearly see ourselves,
our wretchedness, our sin, our weakness, our failure. So clearly
we see ourselves in the mirror of your Word held up to us. Oh,
how we thank you that you delight to show mercy to sinners. We freely confess, Father, our
sin. Our sin is against thee and thee
only. It's been done in thy sight.
It's been done in open rebellion against thee. God, we beg you,
be merciful to me, the sinner. Cause us here tonight to make
this plea so we be like the public and of all as we leave in a few
moments to go home to our houses justified. because of your mercy
and grace in Christ Jesus. It's in his precious name, for
the glory of his name, we pray and give thanks.