Turn back to Psalm 51. Look at verse 17, Psalm 51. Verse 17 says, The sacrifices
of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God,
that will not despise. It was a time of year when kings
go off to war. So the kings would send their
armies, and they would go with them off to do battle with their
enemies. And the kings always went. They were there to encourage
their men, to fight next to them, to inspire them when they were
in battle. But this story begins with King David not going. And
you can speculate why he did that. And perhaps he had grown
tired of battle. He was bored. Just didn't find
it interesting anymore. Conquest was no interest to him
anymore, and he stayed behind. Perhaps he thought, I fought
my battles. I slew Goliath. I met on many conquests for the
Lord's sake. Time for somebody else to do some fighting for
a while. Time for somebody else to lead these troops. I'll send
Joab out to do it. For whatever reason, this story
begins with David, the man after God's own heart, shirking his
responsibility and staying behind when his army goes off to battle.
While he's behind, he's on top of a rooftop. And he looks over
the way, and he sees a woman, and she's bathing. Her name is
Bathsheba. She is the wife of Uriah the Hittite, and she is
very pretty. And David says, bring her to me. And the servants
bring Bathsheba to him, and he commits adultery with this woman.
I say again, he is the man after God's own heart. He commits adultery
with this woman. A little while later, Bathsheba
sends a message to him. I'm great with child. I'm pregnant. The
baby's yours. And David does what comes natural
to us when we sin. He tries to cover it up. He has no godly sorrow. He's
not in a repentant state over his sin. He just doesn't want
to be exposed. And I've been there more times than I care
to tell you about. David devises a plan. He sends
a message to Joab at the front lines. His plan's pretty simple.
Send Uriah back to me. Here's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to give Uriah a couple days R&R. He's going to go back.
He'll be with his wife. He'll go into her. The timeline
for the pregnancy will work out. Uriah will think it's his child.
No one will be wiser. Problem solved. That's not how
things work out, though. Turns out, humanly speaking,
Uriah is a very honorable man. David says, come on back. Go
into your wife. Go back. Beat your house. Uriah says,
the orc's dwelling in a tent. Joab, all the men, they're out
there fighting. I can't enjoy the comforts of my home and my
wife. When they're all out there, that's not right. And he won't
go. So David digs deeper. He gets him drunk. Uriah's still
won't go be back to be with his wife. He won't do it. He spends
the night in the servants' quarters. Now, I know what David's thinking
at this time. I know exactly what he's thinking. I tried to
be nice. I tried to solve this problem quietly. But I'm not
going to be exposed. He hands Uriah a letter. He hands
it to Uriah. Now, I would note this. He was
so convinced of Uriah's character that he was an honorable man,
humanly speaking, that he knew Uriah wouldn't look at this letter.
Here's what the letter said. Set Uriah in the forefront of
the hottest battle and retire ye from him that he may be smitten
and die. David commits murder, the man
after God's own heart. If you think you and I are not
capable of this and we're not guilty of this, we know nothing
of ourselves because we are. We're just that close to doing
it in an action and not just in the heart. This, I think, is something we
gloss over sometimes, is what a terrible death this was for
Uriah. Uriah clearly loved those men that he served with. He had
a man on his left, he had a man on his right. He lived with them,
he camped with them, he ate with them, he fought next to them,
and no doubt they were a source of comfort to him. He goes out
on the battlefront, he's gonna fight. We may live, we may die,
that's in the hands of the Lord, but we're gonna do it together.
We rise, we fall, but we're gonna do this together. And in his
last moments, before he is violently cleaved and bludgeoned to death,
the last thing this man sees is his friends deserting him,
withdrawing from him when he needs them the most. That's a
terrible death. David stays in an unrepentant
state over this, his great sin, for close to a year, however
long it takes for the baby to be born. But the Lord's merciful
to David, same way he's been merciful to us. David is in a
cold-hearted, unrepentant state over his sin, and the Lord comes
to him through the prophet Nathan, and he breaks David's heart.
This is what Nathan says to David. He says, David, I'm going to
tell you a story. There's two men. There's a rich man with
many flocks and many herds and many of everything. And there's
a poor man. And the only thing this poor man has is one little
lamb. And he loves that lamb like his
own daughter. And this rich man had a visitor. And he didn't
want to kill one of his lambs to dress for the visitor. So
he took the poor man's lamb, this lamb he loved like his own
daughter, the only thing he had. He took that poor man's lamb.
He slew it. And he gave it to his visitor. He said, David,
how do you feel about that? David said, in complete hypocrisy,
he can see the sin in others, he can't see it in himself. As
long as the Lord lives, that man's going to die. Nathan says,
you're the man. And David enters into a repentant,
heartbroken state. This is great sin. And the very
next thing he does is he pens Psalm 51. This is what he writes
after Nathan comes to him and he comes in this repentant state. Here's what I see in this psalm. I see a petition, a petition. It's David's petition, but it's
every believer's petition. And what's a petition? You want
something, or in this case, you desperately need something, and
you're going to make your petition. You're going to petition for
something. You're gonna list all the compelling reasons that you
should have what you need. This is David's petition. This
is my petition. This is the petition of every
believer. Every petition pretty much goes the same way. It starts
with a general statement of what's being sought. Now, I want you
to look at verse 1. What does David need? Have mercy upon me, O God. David's petition is for mercy. Now, what's interesting here
is this word that is translated here, mercy, this is not the
normal word that is generally translated mercy. This is a different
word. This word is sometimes translated mercy, sometimes gracious,
sometimes favor, sometimes pity, sometimes supplication. Different
word, but it has about the same meaning. And no doubt, David
is petitioning for mercy in its truest form. Lord, please don't
give me what I rightfully deserve. No doubt. But this word means
a little bit more. To give you an understanding
of this, I'm gonna read you Strong's first definition for this word.
Strong said this, this word is here translated mercy, speaks
of the superior. the one on top, stooping down
in kindness to the inferior, the one on bottom. Now, that is a little word that
has a whole lot of meaning. And understanding what that word
means, we can pull out of that some things that David is confessing
here, some things he's saying. Here's the first thing David
is confessing. I'm in the hands of the superior. I am in the
hands of a sovereign God, and he can do with me as he sees
fit. In a worldly sense, he can kill
me. He can make me a slave and put me in a dungeon. He can keep
me as the king over all Israel. He can save me or he can damn
me. He has that power, and everything
he does and whatever he does, it is right, it is just, and
it's fair, simply because of who he is. He was in the hands
of a superior. David knew he needed kindness.
Kindness in that unmerited. Why? Because he was guilty. Not like Adam. The Lord went
to Adam and Adam said, the woman you gave me, she gave me that
fruit and I did eat. This is your fault. I rest this
on your sovereignty. This is your fault that I'm in
this state. Not David. Here's what David said. Look
at 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.
There are two types of men in this world. There are those who
judge God and those who justify God. Hey, judge God. You don't love everyone? That's
not fair. Christ didn't die for everyone? Absolutely not fair.
You say I'm a sinner? I'm not that bad. They sit in
judgment of God. Then there's those who justify
God. Whatever you say about me, that's right. Whatever charge
you have against me, guilty. Whatever you say is right. And
in that spirit and understanding that, David knew that kindness
could rightfully be withheld. You can be kind to everyone else
around here. You can show favor to everyone else on the faces
of the planet, but you can pass me by, and you know what? I've
got nothing to say. Just and holy is your name. I've
got no claims on your kindness. David knew that the Lord was
the superior, David knew that he was the inferior, and he knew
this, he knew he couldn't get to the Lord, and he knew that
he couldn't influence the Lord in any way. He needed the Lord
to stoop down, to come down and meet him where he was at, down
at the bottom. You know that. Do I know that? That's how David's petition begins.
He continues on. He's going to tell the truth
of the matter, the truth of the matter. Now, let me ask this
question. In a very real sense, every man is going to submit
a petition to God at one point or another. Every man is going
to. The average religious person, when they submit their petition
for the kindness and the favor of God, how is it going to read?
It's very simple. Show me kindness, show me favor
because I did all these great things. Because I did all those
great things. And because I abstained from
doing all these things. And if nothing else, I'm way
better than that guy over there. I am way better by comparison
with that guy. Show me favor, show me kindness,
because I, and you fill in the blank with whatever word you
want, because I made the appropriate decision, because I had a good
emotion, because I volunteered soup kitchen, whatever you want
to put in there. That's salvation by works. Salvation by works. How does the Lord look upon a
petition that reads that way? Look down at verse six. David says, behold, thou desirest
truth in the inward parts. Now, that is first understood
as the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father except
by me. This is Christ in you, the hope of glory. That's the
first application here. But we can take this right on
the surface. The Lord desires, doesn't just
desire, he demands truth. The truth. And that means he
hates hypocrisy. He hates acting. He hates lies. And I tell you what, any man
who would come to the Lord on the ground seeking acceptance,
on the grounds of his own personal beings, that man's not telling
the truth. There's no truth in him. That's a lie. Now let me
show you something here. Turn to 1 John 1. Look at verse
8. The word I want you to key in
on here is truth. 1 John 1, look at verse 8. If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Now, what
does he mean there, if we say we have no sin? Is this speaking
of a man who says, listen, I am completely pure in heart. I've
never had a sinful thought, never committed a sinful action, never
done anything like that. I've been pure from the ground
up. Is that what he's talking about? No, if we say we're anything
but sin. If we say we have ever done anything
but sin. And we deceive ourselves. The
truth is not in us. But look at verse 9. If we confess
our sins, folks, this is the scripture speaking right now.
I want you to pay attention. Just take this on the surface.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful. He will always do this.
And just, it's right for Him to do this, to forgive us our
sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. David knew that,
didn't he? He knew the Lord demanded the
truth. And David is gonna tell the truth about his depraved
state, about who and what he is by nature. And I'll tell you
what, I line up just perfectly with what he said. Look here,
he uses three words to do it. Go back to your text. I want
you to look at verse one and look at the last four words in
verse one. David's going to use three words to describe his sinful
state. The last four words of verse
one, blot out my transgressions. It's the first word he uses.
Verse two, wash me throughly from mine iniquity. It's the
second word. And cleanse me from my sin. Now this is not redundancy. This
is not David just thinking of some different words to describe
sin. Each one of these words means a separate thing, and we're
gonna walk through it. First, transgressions. Transgressions,
that word means rebellion. And this is what David meant
when he said in verse four, against thee and thee only have I sinned
and done this evil in thy sight, in thy sight. Yes, how David
had dealt with Bathsheba and with Uriah, it was wicked, it
was evil. But this is the greater issue. When you and I sin, what
we are doing is shaking our fist in the face of God and saying,
I'm going to do what I want to do. I know your holy law. It's written on my heart. It's
been there my entire life, but I'm going to do what I want to
do. And we stand in open rebellion and it's against God, we're rebels
by nature. It says iniquity. There's three
words used to describe that. It's perversity, crookedness,
and the last one which spoke to me, which was twisted. Twisted. This word iniquity, when it's
used in the scripture, what it's normally referring to is self-righteousness.
This is the things that we feel good about. We step back in pride
and say, I'm on the straight and narrow. I gave a lecture
this month. I'm getting there. I read my
Bible every day this week. I'm on the right path. I visited
a friend of mine in the hospital. Lord sure is happy with me, no
doubt. Twisted. Twisted. We take something that
is evil, that is wicked, that is unclean, that only adds to
our condemnation, and we twist it. We put a good spin on it.
And we try to present it as something the Lord could accept. That's
twisted. Twisted. The last word is sin. And that
word sin means missing the mark, missing the mark. What's the
mark? Holiness, the very nature of God himself, unfathomable
perfection, that is the mark. And here's what he's saying.
It's not that if the mark is that way, the target, the bullseye
is that way, and I'm shooting at the target, and I'm just to
the right of the target. Well, if I tune everything up
and improve my shooting, I might actually hit the target. No,
if the target is holiness, the mark, and it's that way, I'm
shooting that direction. Because I'm the opposite. I'm
unholy, and I'm ungodly. And that's what David means here.
I'm a rebel. I'm full of iniquity and self-righteousness. And I'm ungodly, I'm unholy.
And he gets to the root cause here, look at verse five. David
says, behold, I was shaped in iniquity, and in sin did my mother
conceive me. He's saying, this is not a behavioral
problem. It's not a behavioral problem,
it's a heart problem. It's a nature problem. Yes, the stream is black.
Everything that comes from me is black. It's stained with sin.
Why? Because the fountain's black. Nature's black. The heart is
black. Now, David's going to give a compelling
reason as to why he should be shown such mercy. There's a better
way of saying it than that, but I couldn't come up with a better
one. But this is what it is. He says, according to thy loving
kindness, According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies,
not anything in me. If you look in me, you won't
find a reason. He appeals to the very person
and nature of God that he delights to show mercy. He enjoys it,
and he's rich in it. Now, here's my question, my great
question. David is very descriptive here
about his sin, very descriptive. And I appreciate the fact he
is because I fit into that category just perfectly. Everything he
describes himself as, that's me. But I need to know, is the
Lord willing to show mercy to a man like this? A man like me,
a man like David. And I need something very descriptive.
I need to know that there is mercy for somebody like me, if
there is or if there is not. Turn over to Exodus 34. Remind you of the three words
David used to describe his depraved state, iniquity, transgression,
and sin. Exodus 34, and look at verse
six. And the Lord passed by before
him, that's speaking of Moses, and proclaimed, the Lord, the
Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant
in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving,
pay very special attention to these next three words, iniquity,
and transgression, and sin, and that will by no means clear the
guilty. The exact same three words David uses to describe
his depraved state, the Lord says, that's who and what I forgive.
The man who describes himself that way, nothing but transgression,
iniquity, and sin, that's who's gonna be shown mercy. And if
that does not fit you, if that's not who you are, you need not
apply, because this is the only man who gets mercy, a man just
like David. Now, David's petition is gonna
continue. What must be done for David? Verse one, and this is gonna
be a little out of order, so I'll tell you these. You don't
necessarily have to look at them. David says, blot out my transgressions. Now that blotting out, speaking
of a debt book, a debt book, and I'll give you the 21st century
example of this. Anybody ever got themselves in credit card
debt? It's a terrible thing. You're spending money you don't
have in the first place. It's all credit, right? But it also
accrues a bunch of interest. So you're charging, you're charging,
you're charging, and you don't have money to make the purchase in
the first place. And it accrues interest and interest. And every
month, you look at the statement, and it's just more and more,
and your debt keeps on growing. You can't pay it off. It's impossible. You didn't have the money in
the first place. That's why you were borrowing it. And it just
accrues this interest, and it gets bigger and bigger. David
said, my sin debt's just like that. It's just getting bigger
and bigger, and I could never pay it off. I need it blotted
out. I need it not to be my debt.
anymore, I need my debt paid. Verse two, David says, wash me
thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. Now this
is not redundancy. Two words mean two separate things.
Cleanse. You know what David's saying.
I need to be cleansed. I need to be cleansed from the
top of my head to the sole of my foot and everywhere in between
the outside and the inside of the cup. Every whit, clean, cleansed. But this word cleanse speaks
of something that is past tense. something that is already done,
done once by one great work. David said, that's what I need.
I need to be cleansed. I need to be done once by one
great work, and that work not my own. But he says, also, I
need to be washed, washed. And that speaks of something
that is continually done, done continually. I know exactly what
he means. When I lay my head on my pillow
at night and I think of just a few transgressions and iniquity
and sin that I've committed throughout that day, I have to know that
I've been washed. My conscience has to be washed.
I have to know that I've been washed. The sins of yesterday
have been washed away and the inevitable sins of tomorrow,
they have to be washed away too. I have to have some assurance
of that. I have to know that the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the lamb slain before the foundation of the world, it's always new.
He's always freshly slaughtered to his father and his sin washes
away. I'm sorry, his blood washes away
all my sin. Cleansed and washed. Verse 14,
he says, deliver me from blood guiltiness. And that is speaking
of the guilt that accompanies murder. And in a very real sense,
I have no doubt that David couldn't look at his hands from that day
forward without seeing them stained with blood, the blood of Uriah.
He had committed murder. Make no mistake, folks, our hands
are stained with blood too. They're stained with the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's our nature. That's who we are. That is our great sin. That when
holiness walked on this world, when the Lord was actually here,
when God was made man, here's what we did, we killed him. We
murdered him, and his blood is on our hands. David says, I have
to be delivered from the debt of my sin, from the shame and
the filth of my sin. I have to be washed and cleansed.
I have to be delivered from the guilt of my sin. How can all
this be possible? How can it be possible? Look
at verse 7. David tells us, Purge me with hyssop, and I shall
be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow. Purge me with hyssop, all of
you. You're a well-taught group. You know what this means. Hyssop.
Go back all the way to the night of the Passover. Lord said, I'm
gonna pass through Egypt. I'm gonna kill all the firstborn
except you, my chosen people. Here's what you do. You take
a lamb without spot and without blemish. You kill it, catch its
blood in a basin. You take a bunch of hyssop, and
you dip it in that blood, and you put it over the door and
on the side posts, and you get inside that house, and when I
see the blood, I'll pass over you. Not when I see your faith,
not when I see your sincerity. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. And that's the only reason. I'm
looking for one thing, and that's blood. David was saying, I have
to be washed in the blood of Christ. His blood had to take
away my sin. And he's very descriptive about
how this must happen. He says, purge me with hyssop. Purge. Let me read you a passage of
scripture where that word is used and it's translated a different
way, and I think it'll put everything in context. It's very familiar
to us, Genesis 43 verse 8. And Judah said unto Israel, his
father, send the lad with me, and we will rise and go that
we may live and not die, both we and thou, and also our little
ones. I will be surety for him. If my hand shalt thou require
of him, if I bring him not unto thee, and set him before thee,
then let me bear, that is the same word as purge, bear the
blame forever. Purge me with hyssop. There's
only one way I can be not guilty. The Lord Jesus Christ is going
to have to bear my sins in his body, and he's going to have
to bleed and die as my sin-bearing substitute, and that's the only
way I can be not guilty. Purge me with hyssop. The petition continues. David
talks about what must be done in him. Look at verse 10. Creating me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a right spirit within me. Notice he says create. He does not say refurbish the
old. He does not say take this broken heart and fix it up and
make it acceptable. He says you have to create something
new, something that was not there before. Create in me a clean
heart. Oh God. He's petitioning for a new nature,
for a new man. He is actually petitioning here
for spiritual life. That is what David is petitioning
for. Why? Why is this so important? Look at verse eight. David says,
make me to hear joy and gladness. Why do I need this new nature?
Why do I need this new heart? Because without it, I can't hear.
I can't hear the gospel and power. Salvation for sinners, sovereign
free grace for sinners will be no good to me. It'll have no
sweet savor to me unless you give me ears to hear it. I need
a new nature to do that. Look down here, look at verse
12. It says, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and
uphold me with thy free spirit. The free spirit, Todd has told
us so many times, that's referring to the will. I need a new heart. I need a new man, and I need
it to be a willing man. I need a new will. You have to
make me willing. If you don't, I'll reject you.
That's the way we are by nature. We will reject God. We reject
him getting all the glory and our salvation. I'll reject you.
You have to give me this new man with this willing heart. Verse 15, oh Lord, open now my
lips and my mouth to show forth thy praise. David's saying you're
worthy of praise. You're worthy of worship. But
I can't do it. This old man can't do it. This
old heart can't do it. You have to give me a new mouth,
new lips that connect to a new heart. And that's the only way
I can sing your praises. The only way I could ever worship
you. You gotta give me something new. Verse 11, cast me not away from
thy presence. Now on the surface here, I completely
understand what David is saying. I so much covet the experience
of knowing that the Lord, that I have his presence, that his
hand is upon me, that he is leading me, that he's guiding me, that
he's looking over me, that even in my darkest hour, he's right
there and everything he's bringing is for his glory and my good.
I covet that, but there's more to it than that. I want to read
you this scripture. Jude 124, now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before
the presence of his glory with exceeding joy." Who is the only
man who can stand in the presence of God and find acceptance? Who
is it? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the only man who can stand in the presence and find favor with
God, truly. It's Christ. And David here is
petitioning for spiritual life to be in Christ, for union with
Christ. He's saying, I must be in Him.
It is not enough that I would simply be carried by Him, or
that I would follow behind Him, or I would be next to Him. I
actually have to be in Him. Why? Why is it so important?
Because He's holy, and I must be holy. And if the head is holy,
that means the body's holy, and I gotta be part of the body.
Whatever insignificant part I am, that's fine, whatever it is,
but I gotta be part of that body. Because if the head is holy,
the whole body's holy. I have to be in Him because when He
walked the paths of righteousness, and He established that perfect
righteousness, I need that to be my righteousness, which means
I need to have been in Him, and I had to walk those paths of
righteousness with Him because I was in Him. He has to dwell
in me, and I have to dwell in Him, so much so that when He
comes before His Father, and He finds acceptance, and He finds
favor, and He finds love, I'm there, too, because I'm in Him.
Cast me not away from Thy presence. Keep me encrusted. Look at verse six. Behold, thou desirest truth in
the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me
to know wisdom. What is wisdom? Better question
is, who is wisdom? First Corinthians 124, but unto
them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power
of God, and the wisdom of God. Jesus Christ is the wisdom of
God. But I can't leave you there. We've got to explain that statement.
What does that mean, that he is the wisdom of God? Jesus Christ
is the Father's answer to this great question. How can God be
just and justify somebody like David or somebody like me? There's
nothing but transgression, iniquity, and sin. The answer is Jesus
Christ. He is the wisdom of God. What's the answer? His perfect
life, his established righteousness, his suffering death, his substitutionary
death for his people. His rising again, showing that
full satisfaction had been made with the Father. He is the answer
to that question. How can God be just and justify
somebody like me? It's Jesus Christ. Now, turn
over to James 3 and look at verse 17. James actually gives a description
of wisdom, and when he does that, he's actually describing the
Lord Jesus Christ, and it's beautiful. I want you to see this. James 3 and look at verse 17. But the wisdom that is from above,
what is the wisdom that is from above that came down to earth?
That's Jesus Christ. But the wisdom that is from above
is first pure, then peaceable, gentle and easy to be entreated,
full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without
hypocrisy. What a description of wisdom.
What a description of he who is wisdom. First, he's pure.
He's pure. He's absolutely sinless. He's
altogether holy and absolutely righteous. And yet he bore the
sins of his people in his body on the tree. That is amazing.
But he's pure. He's first pure. Then he's peaceable. He's peaceable. He's not stressed
out. He's not worried. He's not worried
about anything. He's not worried that his will
is not going to be done. He's not wringing his hands and pacing the halls
of heaven. He's not worried at all because he's sovereign. He's
in absolute sovereign control, and he's always easy. He's never
worried. And he's at peace. He's at peace with his people.
You want to know why? Because he made our peace with
God. When he said, it is finished, for every member of the elect,
our peace was made with the Father. He's pure. He's peaceful. He's
gentle. and easy to be entreated." That means he's not harsh, and
he's easy to be entreated. He doesn't hold sinners off at
arm's length, and that's the rebuttal you get from people
when you talk about election. What they say is, well, there's this
large group of people crying out, really crying out for mercy,
and the Lord just holds them off at arm's length and says,
no, I just didn't choose you. That's not the issue. That's
not the issue at all. He's gentle and easy to be entreated. This man receives sinners, and
he eats with them. He's full of mercy, he's rich
in it, and he delights to show it, and he is without partiality. I looked up that word. That word
means, first, non-ambiguous. He can be known if he makes himself
known. Second, it means he's certain.
That means he's reliable. You can cast all your cares on
him, anyone you have, and he is absolutely reliable. You can
trust him with the very salvation of your soul. And he can be trusted
because he is altogether reliable. And secondly, he is non-partial. And before I go into this, I
want to make these definitive statements. Number one, who will
be saved? The elect. Those chosen by God
in Christ Jesus before the foundations of the world. Who does God love?
The elect, those chosen in Christ Jesus before the foundations
of the world. Who did Christ die for? The elect. And I also
want you to know this. He is completely non-partial.
Romans 10, 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. Now folks, I don't have access
to the Lamb's Book of Life. I can't see my name written there, but
here's what I know. He's non-partial and I'm a whosoever.
I am calling upon his name. I'm calling upon him to save
me with absolutely no help from me to the tune of his own glory,
in his own honor, in his own praise. I'm a whosoever. He's non-partial. And lastly,
he is without hypocrisy. It means acting, lies. Pretending. Now he's incapable
of lies or acting or pretending, simply because anything he says
or does or wills is truth, simply because he did that thing. That's
his character. That's his nature. He's God.
I am that I am. But there is no hypocrisy in
him. You can take everything he says at face value, and it
is absolutely the truth. And it includes this statement.
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. There's no pretending there.
There's nothing secretive there. There's nothing shrouded that's
being held back. You take that right on its surface. For anyone
who is labored and heavy laden with the burden of your sin,
you are commanded to come to Christ right now to receive mercy,
receive grace, to receive help in time of need. That is your
command. There is no hypocrisy in that statement. Everything
is just the way it says it is. All right. David asks for a lot here, doesn't
he? He begs for mercy. Lord, I need
you to stoop down and meet me down where I'm at, at the bottom.
He acknowledges he's sinned. He's nothing but transgression
and iniquity and sin. He begs to be purged with hyssop. And he says, creating me a clean
heart. Here's what I think I found most
beautiful about this during my study. I want you to turn over
here. Turn to 2 Samuel 12. Look at verse 13. David sins. He is in a hard-hearted
and non-repentant state, and the Lord comes to David where
he's at, and he breaks his heart using Nathan the prophet. And
this is one of the last statements between David and Nathan after
Nathan told him that story. Second Samuel 12, 13, and David
said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan
said unto David, the Lord also hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt
not die. David is in a cold, hard-hearted,
and unrepentant state, and the Lord comes to him, and he breaks
his heart. And then he tells him in no uncertain
terms, the Lord also hath put away thy sin. He's already been
told that he's been shown mercy. That before he ever knew he needed
it or any had any desire for it. And then what is the next
thing he says in Psalm 51? Have mercy upon me, O God. I spent years begging for mercy
and wondering if the Lord was ever going to show it. And one
day, Lord turned the lights on. I found out the only reason I
was begging for that mercy in the first place, because he had already
shown it. and that unconditionally, and that unmerited. David begs
for a new man, a clean heart, for spiritual life. Yet he writes
this under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. How many times do
you beg for a clean heart, a new man? Lord, breathe spiritual
life into me. Can a dead man beg for life?
Can a broken heart even recognize that it's broken? Can the old man recognize his
sin? No. No, that's the statement
only of a new man, creating me a clean heart, a statement from
a man who's already been given spiritual life. And I'm gonna
end this by telling you this. If your petition reads the same
as David, you're begging for mercy, you already have it. Because everything is required
of you, the Father looks to Christ for. I'm gonna get down there. Thank you.