You'll turn back with me now
to Psalm 51. I want to talk to you for a little
bit about when God confronts the sinner. Psalm 51 is a penitent psalm. It's the song of a man whose
heart has been laid bare before the Lord. He's been arrested
by the grace of God and brought to stand naked before the holy
God. This is a psalm of David. David
was the king of Israel and this man had committed adultery. with
a faithful man, faithful man in the kingdom, committed adultery
with this man's wife, and then plotted and carried out his murders,
and then covered up his sins or tried to cover up his sins
by taking the dead man's wife to be his own. And God sent a messenger to David. He sent his prophet. And Nathan the prophet came to
David. David didn't know why he was
there. He didn't know God had sent him there to confront him
with his sins. He recognized him as the prophet
of God, invited him in, sat down and talked to him as he talked
to him on many occasions. And Nathan began to tell David
a story about a man. He said there was two men in
a city. One of these men was rich beyond
your wildest imagination. He had herds and flocks, many. Much cattle, much sheep. He had
anything a man could ever want. He was a rich man. He was a wealthy
man. He could be or do anything he
wanted to do. And there was another man in
that city, and he was dirt poor. The only thing that he had to
his name was this one little ewe lamb, this little female
lamb. I get the idea in here that this
lamb was not just a lamb, but it was a pent. It was something
dear to the man, something dear to him. A little lamb grew up
with him, ate from his hand, drank from his cup. This lamb
laid in his bosom and slept and played with his children. A dear
lamb. And one day a visitor came to
town, and rather than take a lamb from his own fold, this man had
an appetite for lamb chops. And rather than go out in his
own flock, of which he had many, and dressing a lamb from the
flock, he went down to the poor man's house, and unbeknownst
to the man, stole his lamb. Stole that little lamb that was
so dear to him, stole him, and dressed him, and set him before
that visitor. to satisfy his vile appetite. And as David listened to this
story, his face turned red, the veins began to pop out on his
neck, and the king of Israel, that man, he said, that man that
has done these things as God lives, he said, he's going to
die. He's going to die. He's done
this thing with no pity at all. And God's servant, Nathan the
prophet, looked David square in the eyes, and he said, thou
art the man. Thou art the man. Oh, my soul, you talk about a
king come down from his throne. You talk about a man coming down
from his highness, his greatness. Everybody around him bowing to
him. Everybody around him running
to serve him. Everybody around him, oh, he
come down. He come down. David's heart now laid bare before
the Lord, and his conscience fully awakened. He begins to
pour out his heart to the Lord. You didn't know that's what this
psalm was about, did you? If you read the heading above
the psalm, it'll tell you that. In consideration of David's crimes,
adultery, murder, conspiracy, only to mention a few, his crimes
were all punishable by death. No question about it. There's
no controversy here. There's no reason to call in
a gang of witnesses. Every last one of these things
was punishable by death. And to make matters worse, God's
prophet, God's prophet, if this man, in order to be a prophet,
if you told anything that didn't come to pass, you told anything
that was not of God, they would take you out and stone you. This
was God's prophet standing before David. And God's prophet took
his finger and put it right in his face. There was nowhere for David to
go. But this is the nature of the
mercy and grace of God. The wages of sin is death. Isn't
that what Scripture says? But the gift of God. is eternal
life. It's eternal life. So while the
occasion of this psalm is in particular to David, the nature
of this psalm is common to us all, isn't it? Isn't this your
story? It's my story. You know, back when I first read
about Israel coming out of Egypt. And I read about their deliverance. God came in and delivered them
from one of the greatest, most powerful kings in the whole of
the known world at that time, Pharaoh. His wealth was, they're
still talking about his wealth, got things on display. But I read about their deliverance
and I was angry when I read about them. I was angered. God delivered
them from this powerful king and did it without a single battle
or a single sword being drawn. He parted an impassable sea,
made a way through the sea which they alone could pass and all
their enemies that tried to follow them through the sea, he drowned
them, he destroyed them. They were consumed in the sea. He calls Pharaoh to hand over
and everybody in Egypt, all those rich men and women down in Egypt,
calls them to willingly hand over all their wealth, give it
to them. And he denied insomuch as the bark of a dog in contest
against them when they walked out of that city. He fed these
people with the bread from heaven. When they thirsted and cried
to God, He gushed forth water out of a smitten rock, and that
rock followed them everywhere they went. And in spite of all that, they
complained and complained and complained constantly. And finally, when Moses went
up to receive the law, he came back and he found them practicing
open idolatry before a golden calf. dancing naked in the firelight. I remember reading these things
and thinking to myself, God ought to take that whole outfit and
send them to hell. He ought to do with them what
He did with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. He ought to just split
the earth open and swallow them up and take them to hell with
their shoes on. And then in God's time, in God's
time and by God's grace, The Spirit of God came to me and
He said, you're one of them. Thou art the man. Huh? You and I are not one whit different
from David. Our whole life long, we've taken
advantage of this or that and manipulated this or that, and
we lusted for this and that, and we do whatever we think necessary
to get it. We're exactly like him. The only
reason that we haven't killed somebody or committed open adultery
with somebody is because of the restraining hand of God, not
because of anything in us. Then God the Holy Spirit comes
to us by way of His messenger and He looks us square in the
eyes and He said, Thou art a man. Thou art a man. And I tell you,
when He does, the testimony of Holy Scripture will sound like
it was a person who was standing right beside you watching everything
you ever did. It's like he personally stood
there and watched you commit your sin. He describes them in
such detail. When he does the testimony of
Holy Scripture, we'll sound like it were a witness who viewed
our crimes. And then you'll know that all
things are naked and open under the eyes of him with whom we
have to do. I brought a Sunday school lesson
not too long ago. God's looking. God's looking. That's what Peter said. God's
looking. His back's not turned. He's not
ignorant of what you do. He's not ignorant of how you
live. He's not ignorant of your heart when you come in here before
him to worship him. He's looking. All things are open and naked
under the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. And to top it
all off, we're vile. We're vile sinners, every one
of us. God tells us that every imagination
of the thoughts of man's heart is only evil continually, all
the time. It never has a break. He said, man is altogether as
an unclean thing, and all his righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. He tells us that man's a hypocrite
by nature. He makes long prayers for a pretense. He accepts great titles for his
own recognition. He prays in public to be seen
of men. He makes sure that all that he
does is seen by everybody around him. God says destruction and
misery are in his ways. That's how he is. That's how
he lives. It's in his way. He says there's no fear of God
before his eyes. It's as though God put you in
the jury and the judge steps in and he said, now I'm going
to, I'm not going to bring the offender in here yet. I want
to tell you some things about him. And God puts you in the
jury box, and then the judge walks back and forth with his
books, and he opens them up, and he begins to tell you something
about this man, what he is. The poison of ash is under his
lips. The way of truth is not known.
There's none righteous. There's none good. There's none
that understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. It's all talk. It's all show. He begins to tell us something
about this vile sinner. Tell you something about what's
in his heart. Until finally everybody in the
jury box ready to convict him for life. Ready to send him to
hell. And the judge says, now I'm going
to set him before you. Thou art the man. Thou art the man. Do you know
anything about that? That's what it means to be convicted
by sin. Until a man is convinced of sin,
he cannot and he will not come to Christ that he might have
life. But I tell you when he does,
He'll bow his head and he'll plead for mercy. He'll plead
for mercy because he has nothing else to plead. What else would
he plead? What else could David possibly plead before God who
knew him better than he knew himself? He had nowhere else
to go. That's what a Holy Spirit conviction
is. It shuts us up to the law and
the law shuts our mouths and leaves us guilty before God. And I tell you, a guilty sinner,
one who knows he's guilty, a guilty sinner, one convinced by God
of his guilt, one whose conscience condemns him, he'll plead for
mercy. He'll plead for mercy. He don't
want to talk any more religion. He don't want to talk about walking
aisles and making professions and signing books. He don't want
any more to do with that. He just wants to hear, tell me
something about the mercy of God. Hear David cry in his guilt
with his conscience awakened and his heart laid bare before
God. Hear him cry, oh God, have mercy on me. The man convicted of sin is as
water spilled out upon the ground which cannot be gathered up again.
That's how Scripture describes it. And yet our great and precious
God deviseth means that is banished, be not expelled from Him. Oh, listen to David pray. Have
mercy upon me, O God, according to the multitude of Thy tender
mercies, blot out my transgressions." There's only one way for a sinner
to find favor with God, and that is for God to put away his sins. If He don't put away his sins,
then they're still his sins. And he's going to stand before
a holy and just God in that day and give account for his sins. David doesn't pray for God to
be sympathetic to his sins. or for God to overlook his sins,
or for God to compromise his character and wipe his sins away. No, sir. He prays for God to
blot out his sins in an act of divine mercy. Now, there's no end. I looked
it up. There's just no end of the definitions of that word
blot. I want to see what it means.
I looked up that word, blot out my transgressions. And there's
no end. It just goes on and on and on
with the definitions. But this is one I like the best.
To blot out sin is to cover it in such a way as that it shall
never be seen again. Blot out. Blot out. Having blotted out our sins by
the blood of Christ, God sees their sins and their iniquities. Now listen, will I remember no
more? I'll see them no more. I'll not be reminded of them
no more. I will remember their sins no
more. You're going to remember them.
You'll remember them every day of your life, but God won't. And where remission of these
is, the Scripture says, there is no more offering for sin.
They've been blotted out. Now, when the term blotted out
is used, it does not indicate a hiding of our sins somewhere,
or a covering up of our sins. but that our sins have been blotted
out in a judicial way. They've been taken away. They've
been paid for. They've been paid for. We're
not redeemed with corruptible things, Peter said, as silver
and gold. Those were typical things used
back in the tabernacle. But with the precious blood of
Christ as of a lamb, a sacrificial lamb, a substitutionary lamb,
without spot or blemish, who barely was foreordained before
the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last
times for you who believe in God that raised him from the
dead. What does the resurrection of
Christ declare? What does that mean? God raised
him from the dead. What does that mean? What's the
significance of the resurrection of Christ? Well, it declares
that all for whom Christ died are fully justified by God. Christ was delivered for our
offenses and raised again for our justification. It declares
a full, free, and complete justification of all those who believe. Our sins are blotted out because
they were fully recompensed in Christ. An enlightened sinner
sues for mercy based on the accomplished redemption of Christ. David knew
something about God. He was a man after God's own
heart. He knew something about the Scripture. And David saw
these things and wrote about them. And Peter explains David's
words in light of the resurrection of Christ. David spoke of the
resurrection of Christ. He knew something about God.
He knew something about the Lord Jesus Christ. In Acts 2.31, it
says, he seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ.
What did he say? He said that his soul was not
left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. Talked about
this same Jesus that they crucified. He's been risen. He's seated
at the right hand of God, and David bore witness of it. This Jesus hath God raised up,
whereof we are all witnesses. So he blocked out our sin. We
pray for the mercy of God, not just I don't know, it's a passion. God's merciful. Yes, He's merciful,
but it's more than that. We understand that God's merciful
because He's already enacted provision to show that mercy. We understand who Christ is and
why He came and what He did. And so we pray for mercy. Alright,
here's the next thing. Here's the next thing this enlightened
sinner prays for. Look here in Psalm 51 verse 2. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin. Now wait a minute, preacher. You said our sins have been blotted
out. You said our sins have been put
away in Christ. Absolutely, they have. But you
and I still have a nature of sin. We're still sinners. Read Romans
chapter 7. That's what that whole chapter
is about. Believers are still sinners. They're still sinners. Now most
people, when they think about sin, they think about certain
deeds, you know, certain transgressions of the law. I stole the watermelon.
I lied. I committed adultery, whatever.
And indeed, these are sins. They are sins. But sin at the
headwaters, when you go up the stream until you get to the headwaters,
sin is a nature. It's a nature. Those Jews, they
took certain laws. They took certain dietary laws
and things that were forbidden to eat and how a man was to prepare
himself to eat. And they saw the disciples out
there picking corn on the Sabbath day with unwashed hands eating
corn. And they said, they're defiled.
They're defiled. The Lord said, it's not what
goes into the mouth. He said, when you eat a piece
of corn, it goes into the stomach and gets cast out into the draught.
It's not what goes into the mouth that defiles a man. It's what
comes out of his heart. What comes out of his heart comes
out of his mouth. Don't go in his mouth, comes
out. What comes out of the heart?
Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murderers, adulterers,
fornications, theft, false witnesses, blasphemy. And when I'm talking
about man's depravity, I'm talking to you about the nature of sin. Our house up in Kentucky, we
were in kind of lowlands like we are down in Taylor. And they're
very strict on your septic systems up there. And because our ground
wouldn't leach, they dig a hole out there and they fill it full
of water, and then they keep a time record of how fast that
water goes out. If it don't go out fast enough,
they tell you, well, your ground don't leach. So then you got
to come in. I think it cost us, way back
then, that was 20-some years ago, it cost us about $3,000
or $5,000 or something to put this septic system in. And you had a septic tank, and
then down inside that tank we had a pump. And it pumped that
waste when it got so full, it pumped that waste and forced
it out into a filter bed where it got rid of it. And that all
worked good for about 11 years. And the pump died. And I called
the man up and I said, do you have this pump? Yes, I have it. I said, have you got somebody
to put it in? He said, no. But he said it just plugs in.
He said you're not going to have a hard time doing it, but you
might have a hard time finding somebody to go down that tank. So I got on my overalls and my
bandana and mask and covered up everything I could cover up,
got my boots on, had to go down in that tank. I tell you, it was all I could
do to get that pump changed. I told my wife, go in the house,
I said, I don't want you to hear me, and in particular, I don't
want you to see me. And when I come up out of that
tank, I ran for that garden hose. I'll never forget it. Spraying
myself off that garden hose. I wanted it off of me. I didn't
want it on me. I didn't want to be seen with
it on me. I didn't want to smell it. I didn't want to see it.
And I didn't want anybody else to see it. Listen. Listen to this penitent
sinner. Cleanse me, O Lord. The man who's convicted of sin
has seen the exceeding sinfulness of sin. He's seeing his sin butchering
the Son of God on a cross. He's seeing his sin so awful
that nothing that he can do can redeem himself. It's pure wickedness. The stench of it in his nose
is more than he can stand. He wants it all. And he can't
get it all. Only God can get it all. Cleanse
me, David cried, O Lord, cleanse me. I don't want sin on me, and I
don't want sin in me. Well, preacher, ain't you afraid
when you preach the free and sovereign grace of God that a
man doesn't go out here and sin all he wants to? He will sin
all he wants to. But he don't have a want to anymore.
He wants to be cleansed from it. I never, ever wanted to go
back in that tank again. But see, we're born in the tank. We're born in the tank. David
said, behold! His heart's bare now before God
and he's examining himself in the light of Holy Scripture and
he said, behold! I was conceived in iniquity. And I came forth from the womb
speaking life. I'm a sinner by birth. I was
born in the tank. That's the only reason you're
not running around here right now crying out to God to be washed
because you don't know what you're covered with. Now that's so. That's just so. And until God the Holy Spirit
is pleased to reveal it to you and show it to you, you won't
pray for cleansing. You might pray that you won't
go to hell. You might pray that you'd be spared the wrath of
God, but you're not going to pray for cleansing until God
makes you to know what you are by nature. Now, I tell you after
that, that's all you want is cleansed, cleansed, daily cleansed. The enlightened sinner sees his
corruption. He sees by faith the leprosy
of his depravity. And he don't want to cover it
up. He wants it washed away. I didn't run out and find me
another thing to put on. I wanted this stuff off. Get it off of me. Get it out
of me. Wash me thoroughly from mine
iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Now watch this, Psalm
51.3. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me." Brethren, John said this. He
said, if we say we had no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the
truth is not in us. How does a man say that he has
no sin? I've never heard anybody run
around just saying, I have no sin. But all men say it. How do they say it? How do they
say it? How does a man say that he has
no sin? When he does not seek cleansing
from it. Huh? That's right. When he does not ask forgiveness
for it. When his sin does not disturb
his sleeping conscience. And when he can continue on the
same course of this world without any effort to change. If we say
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. And
then he tells us this, if we say we have not sinned, that
preacher said I'm a murderer, that preacher said I'm an adulterer,
that preacher said I'm a vile sinner, I'm no such thing. If
a man says he has not sinned, watch out now, he makes God a
liar. He makes God a liar because God
says he is. And his word's not in him. We
show an ignorance of the word of God and we give strong evidence
of our rebellion and lack of submission to his word. And in
our actions, we make God a liar. But then watch this, 1 John 1
verse 9. This is right in the middle of
those two verses I just quoted for you. He said, if we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And listen to this, and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness. Now here's the question. How
does God cleanse a sinner of the vile, putrid nature of his
sins? Well, He cleansed a sinner in
much the same way as He convinced him of his sin, in his heart. David, a little later on, he
said, create in me a clean heart. Huh? God cleanses a sinner in much
the same fashion as He made him to see his sins by faith. Christ
cleanses His bride by the washing of water by the Word. Isn't that
what He said? He cleanses us by the washing
of regeneration. That's what He tells us over
in Titus chapter 3. And the renewing of the Holy
Ghost. Through the faith of the operation of God, Paul says,
we are risen with Him from the dead to walk in newness of life.
There is a cleansing of the sinner. The Holy Ghost washes us by revealing
to us our union in Christ. In Christ, I have a perfect nature. In Christ, I have a perfect standing.
In Christ, I have a perfect righteousness. In Christ, I have perfect justification. In Christ, I have an inheritance.
In Christ, I'm a son. In Christ, I have life everlasting. In Christ, I have fellowship
with the Father. Huh? That's how He cleanses you,
by the washing of the water of the Word. And through the regenerating
power of the Holy Spirit, he makes us to see our standing
in Christ. The Holy Ghost washes us in the
water by the word, washing away old concepts and ideas about
God, washing away the abomination of false religion, washing away
our ignorance and darkness and deceit. He cleanses us from all
unrighteousness. And then listen to this, Psalm
51, verse 4. The enlightened sinner cries
out to God, against Thee, and Thee only have I sinned and done
this evil in Thy sight, that Thou mightest be justified when
Thou speakest, and clear when Thou judgest. The enlightened
sinner, the man whose heart is laid bare before the Lord, takes
sides with God in his own condemnation. He says, You're right. You're
right. That's exactly what I am. He takes sides with God. What
a strange thing. I don't care how guilty the murderer
is today, he ain't going to take sides with the judge who condemns
him. But the enlightened sinner will. He said, I see why sin must be
punished. I see the exceeding sinfulness
of sin. I see at last, at least in part,
how putrid I must be in God's sight. I'm his creation, and
I'm his by electing grace. And my sin, though it may affect
many, is not against many. It's against God. It's against His holy character
and against His holy commandments, and it's against the whole of
His creation, and it's against His unchangeable purpose, and
it's against thee and thee only, David said, if I sinned and done
this evil in thy sight. Behold, he said in verse 5, He
cries to the Lord, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my
mother conceive me. I'm a fallen corrupt son of a
fallen corrupt daughter of Adam. And I bear my father's nature
and his curse and his condemnation. Behold, he said again, thou desirest
truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou shalt
make me to know wisdom. What's he talking about there?
Well, in 1 Corinthians 1.30 it said, But of God are ye in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom. Make me to know wisdom. In the same place where sin was
revealed, the wisdom of God in Christ is revealed. And He reveals
to us how a just and righteous God can be just and justifier
of all that believe on Christ. Make me to know wisdom. Now listen,
verse 7, I'm going to read you several verses here. 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. This is the seminary to which
God sends His preachers. That's what He teaches them right
here. When a man knows this, he can teach others. He can teach
others. And that's what He says in verse
13, and I'll close with this. Then will I teach transgressors
Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted to Thee. I'm going
to tell you something. You may not believe it, but it's
so anyway. Until a man is convinced of sin,
there's not going to be any conversion. Not going to be any conversion.
And I tell you, you'll come a whole lot closer. If you're here this
morning and you're a believer, you'll be a whole lot closer
finding when God did that work in your heart. If you go back
to when God convinced you of sin, then you will to go back
when He convinced you of Christ. I'm telling you the truth. I've heard people say, I remember
the day and the hour and what was going on and all that kind
of stuff. I don't know, but I know this. I know when he showed me
I was a sinner. I know that. And if he hadn't
shown me I was a sinner, I never sought the Lord. I never would
have. But when he did, I discovered
in him a world, a world. David said there's just no way
to fathom. All the blessings of God in Christ. But this is where that began,
right here, in redemption.