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Bible preaching from the pulpit of Choice Hills Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina
Psalm 51, Psalm 51.
So in Psalm 51, this is the third week that we've been in this Psalm,
and if you remember the first week we took the time to go through
the background of Psalm 51 that led to the point where David is in
Psalm 51, that is his sin with David and Bathsheba,
his sin with Bathsheba as well as Uriah and the fallout that came with
prophet Nathan and all of those things. And so we spent one
of our Wednesday nights just looking at the background and
taking some lessons from the sin of David and what brought us to the Psalm.
And then
last time we were in this Psalm we looked at the first
12 verses and we stopped at verse number 12
and we examined a number of
important, of course, important truths about confession
and what true repentance looks like. And so what we're gonna do now is
we're going to finish up the Psalm starting at verse number 13. We're gonna read the
entire Psalm though because I wanna...
Verse 13 starts in such a way that you have to have a running start
in order to get the full effect of what 13 says.
And so we'll start in verse number 1. The Bible says this,
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness,
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
Wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is
ever before me. Against thee, the only, have I sinned
and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou
speakest and be clear
when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen
in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts
and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me
and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy
and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew
a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence
and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation
and uphold me with thy free spirit.
Now up to this point that we've covered
David has been confessing and pouring his heart out to God. He has been telling God
he's been naming his sin. He has been describing how
debased he is as a result of it. In other words he's been showing
he's been showing in words what is
in his heart which is a heart of true repentance.
Okay and then you get to verse 13 and it starts with the word
then. Alright so after all of the
after the repentance, after the pouring out of his heart, after the confession,
after the naming it, after the justifying God
that he's been doing, he gets to verse 13 and says
then will I teach transgressors thy ways
and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God,
thou God of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
O Lord, open thou my lips and my mouth
shall show forth thy praise. For thou desirest not sacrifice
else would I give it. Thou desirest, thou delightest not in burnt offering.
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God,
thou wilt not despise. Do good in thy good pleasure and design.
Build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou be pleased
with the sacrifices of righteousness, with
burnt offering and whole burnt offering. Then shall they offer bullocks
upon thine altar. Let's pray together.
Our Lord, thank you again for Psalm 51 and Lord I pray that as we look at this
Psalm tonight
you would bless it to our hearts and lives. You would help us to
know the wonderful experience of true repentance and then
restoration from the Lord God. Lord, thank you for your great mercy
and your goodness to us. Help us to see that
very mercy as we look at this Psalm and be encouraged
by it. In Jesus' name, amen. So by the time you get to verse number 13, here's
here's the key thing you have to understand in order to
fully appreciate what's being stated here. You have to
have an appreciation first of all that has happened to David and has brought him
to this point.
We know that David has blown it royally.
We've already studied that and David is
as a result of Nathan's confession, as a result of the work of the Spirit of God
in him, David is now broken. David is now contrite.
David is now repentant. He is acknowledging his sin.
He is confessing his sin. He is doing everything that a
sinner, and I remember David is a believer. This is all in the
context of believer. Nothing I'm saying tonight is relevant to an unbeliever.
David is a believer. And so David has confessed. He's dealt with the issue.
He's dealt with the sin. And now he's turning the page.
And I want to show what I want to show you from these verses is there are
indications of the post-sin life of David.
Okay, so David is sinned. He's messed up. He's royally blown it in the side of God.
He's confessed it. Now here's the question. What is his life?
What is his relationship to God? And what is his
service to God to be like in the days to come
after he has blown it and after he has confessed?
That is the key question. And this is a real serious matter with a lot of people.
All of us deal with sin on a regular basis, sadly, but you got to remember
that in this particular case, David is dealing with the same thing.
I mean a royal blowout. This is not an average kind of run-of-the-mill sin.
This is David has wrecked himself spiritually, morally, ethically.
He has wrecked himself in every way possible. He has destroyed his credibility.
He has destroyed his morality. What is it going to look like for David after he sinned?
After he has repented? After he has confessed?
Notice verse number two. Just go through these a few verses with me.
He says, wash me throughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
So he's asking God to do this and God is going to do it.
Okay, so after David sins, after he sins and confesses, you know what we see here is David is
washed throughly. Right? Look at verse number six. Verse number six says this,
Behold thou desire'st truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to
know wisdom. He says to the Lord, Lord, you will make me future to know wisdom. After he has sinned,
after David has sinned, he is going to know wisdom. God is going to give him wisdom. Verse seven,
look at verse seven, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be
whiter than snow. After David has sinned, he will be clean and he will be whiter than snow.
Verse eight, look at this, make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou has broken
may rejoice. Look at verse 10, creating me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Verse number, I'm sorry, verse number 12, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me
with thy free spirit. After David has sinned, David will again experience joy and gladness
in the Lord. Look at verse number, verse number 10 again, creating me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me. After David has sinned, again, he will have a clean heart
and a right spirit. Verse number 13,
then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
After David has sinned, he will again teach transgressors and men will be converted to God.
Verse 14, the second part says, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.
After David has sinned, he will sing of God's righteousness. Verse 14,
I'm sorry, verse number 15, he says, O Lord, open thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy
praise. Again, after David has sinned, verse number 19, he says, then shall thou be pleased with the
sacrifices of righteousness. Again, after David has sinned, he will again give sacrifice
of righteousness to God. Now here's what I want you to see. Though David has royally blown it,
though David has sinned grievously, though David has done things that cannot be repaired,
because David came to God and because he confessed that thing and because he repented of that thing,
I want you to see the never-ending mercy of God. Because here's what you think of society,
think of this world, all right, think of the tabloids, right? When someone runs afoul,
it's funny, the double standard that this world has, is it not? So all the people that they like,
all the Bill Clintons of this world get passes for everything, right? They get passes, they do the
most grievous and wicked acts, and they get total passes. Those of you that lived in the 90s know
exactly what I'm talking about. They get total passes, and yet somebody who they don't like
does one thing which is wrong, it gets out in the open, and that person from that day forward is
totally and forevermore blackballed. They can never express sorrow enough, they can never repent
enough, they can never show enough contrition to satisfy. In other words, there's a tendency in
humanity to look at someone who falls and never, never allow them restoration. And yet,
never allow them restoration, to never allow that person to be restored, even if they are
sincerely contrite, even if they are sincerely repentant over what they've done, and they own
the thing, they own it. Not the way that we do and we say, well, if I didn't know, they own the thing,
and they say, it was wrong and I should not have done it, please forgive me, and they show contrition
in the biblical way. This world makes no place for restoration, but God does.
God restores after sin. He restores David to be completely clean. He brings David to the place,
this, all the verses I read are descriptions of David after his confession, not prior to,
but after he has sinned and defiled himself. He is whiter than snow. That is, listen, although that
is true of someone who comes to Christ and believes and is born again, is saved, that is not how it's,
that's not the context in which it's spoken. It's spoken of a sinning saint who repents. God says,
you will be whiter than snow. I will make you clean like it never happened. God gives them joy
that they have lost and he restores it. God gives a clean heart though the heart was dirty.
And here's the thing, you go down to verse number 13, which is where our text begins,
then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
God gives him new service. Think about what's being said in verse 13. David is, David has sinned
grievously. He himself has been a transgressor and yet because of God's mercy, God has not only
forgiven him. See, here's the way we do it. Here's the way we do it. We say, I will forgive you.
I won't bring it up again, but I will never look at you the same.
You will never get close to me again. You will never be restored to the prior, to the prior
relationship. You'll never, in other words, you cut the person off. Now we say we forgive people
and then we cut the person off and we set them aside and we say they'll never be restored. That's
not what the Lord does. Assuming the person comes to God in true repentance, the Lord restores
all that, all those things that they forfeited. He restores joy. He restores a clean heart. He
restores wisdom. He washes them. And then not only that, in verse 13, he also restores a place of
service. Here the man who transgressed is now teaching transgressors. Not only that, you can
say, well that's good, that's fine and good, but the end of verse 13 says this,
and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Not only does God restore him his service,
but then the Lord also finds him fit to be used again. The Lord approves of his service and uses
him again, though he blew it. And he gives God praise and he sings God's righteousness,
all of the things he had lost. Now some of you might be thinking, well what about,
does God always, when we repent, does God always give us everything that we lose? No, naturally
there's things, there's sins we can commit and we lose things that we never get back.
You lose your family, it's gone. It's not something that's easily fixed. I mean on occasion,
you have couples that are reconciled, but a lot of times when there's infidelity or something like
that and that divorce happens, it's done. The man sins against his wife, he loses his family,
and that's gone. Right? And you can't, it's not like, well he can repent, but that doesn't mean
he's getting his family back. This is primarily talking about one's relationship to God. Can a
man who commits adultery and loses his family as a result of that and then repents, can that man be
brought back into a fellowship with God and a place of joy and a place of gladness and a place
of service and be useful to God? The answer is without question, yes, he can. He can. That's what
the psalm is teaching. I've been around, as you can imagine, I've been around preachers a lot of times
and I've heard preachers describe, they make it sound spiritual, but describe the way that they
tend to blackball people and when someone runs afoul, and I'm not referring to qualifications
for bishops or deacons, that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about the way that we tend to
refuse to restore people, but the Lord doesn't do that. Here's the thing I want you to see.
Is it possible when you have sinned against God grievously to get back the joy that you lost
like it was before? Is it possible to be right with God again? Is it possible to be clean
and to have a clear conscience as before? The answer is yes. The answer is yes.
The answer is yes. Here's the thing.
If you've never done that grievous, shameful sin, if you've never fallen in that way,
it is easy to look at someone who does and to say, and to kind of look narrowly upon them and say,
nah. But if you've done that and you've been humbled and humiliated by sin and you have lost
all the things that David lost in this passage and then you've gotten it back, it kind of gives you
a new perspective on God's mercy that God will restore a repentant saint. He will restore him
as before. People might not, but he will. And so there is a warning there. The warning is that we
should take heed, that we should be meek, right? Restore such in one in the spirit of meekness.
There's a real warning there because it could be, except for God's grace, it could be
it could be us. It could be we that have fallen. And so we need to keep that in mind.
One of the reasons I bring these, and I'm trying to describe the restoration, what it looks like
post-sin, post-repentance and confession, is because one of the great kicks of Satan
that we suffer while we're down is the lie that we can never be restored to our former joy and
usefulness to God. And see, again, this is a case where if you've never been the guy who's fallen,
it's easy to look lightly upon what I'm saying.
But if you have fallen, you know what it's like to feel the sense that
it's no use in trying because I'll never get back to where I was. And God's saying, you will.
You will. You will. Because God will restore you the joy, the cleanness, the clear conscience,
the service, the usefulness. He'll make you whiter than snow as before.
It is not hopeless to try to repent. See, this is a trick of Satan to keep a saint down
and to keep him down and unrepentant. Because feeling sorry for your sin is different than
repentance because repentance requires a little bit of faith. Repentance requires a little bit of
faith because repentance says this, I'm fed up with my sin and if I turn back to God,
He will forgive me. There's a little bit of faith in there. But when a person starts to believe that
there's no use, when a person says it's hopeless, I'll never get back to that point, God will not
forgive me or God will not restore me, that person will stay at that point. You know what that point
is? That point is sorrowing over sin but never repenting. Godly sorrow worketh repentance.
The Bible says this, Proverbs 24 16,
For a just man falleth seven times and what? Riseeth up again.
Proverbs 37 23 and 4, listen to these verses, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord
and he delighteth in his way. Though he fall, he shall not be utterly cast down, for the Lord
upholdeth him with his hand. Micah 7 8 and 9 says this, rejoice not against me, O mine enemy,
when I fall I shall arise, when I sit in darkness the Lord shall be a light unto me.
I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him until he plead my cause
and execute judgment for me. He will bring me forth to the light and I shall behold
his righteousness. You know what that is? That is the hope of a repentant sinning saint. That's
what that is. Who looks up to the Lord and says, Lord I've blown it but you can restore me.
So there is hope and I say that, you know I say these things hoping that we all remember them
when that time comes. Hoping that it will never have to be used, right? But the truth is for most
of us it probably will. These reminders will have to be used at some point.
These reminders will have to be used at some point. It should cause us to fear and tremble.
Look back at verse number 13, then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be
converted unto thee. Think about, remember, consider the context. There is an order. Then
will I teach transgressors thy ways. When? Once I've repented, once I've confessed,
once I've owned it, once I've acknowledged it. See it's not right and it's not proper for a person
to teach others while he himself is engaged in the very transgressions that he is teaching people
not to commit. The repentance, the confession needs to be first, needs to be first then.
But on the other hand the flip side to this coin in verse number 13 is that it is not a requirement
to never have sinned in order to teach transgressors God's ways. That's not God's
requirement. Who would meet the requirement? Who would be qualified to teach transgressors
God's ways if the requirement was that you had never been a transgressor in God's sight?
There's not one of us. I want to tell you I am a man who have fallen and who have royally blown
it. I have lived some of these things right here and it is not fun. It is not fun. The requirement
is never to have transgressed, never to have fallen. That's not the requirement. The requirement is
that we repent of that and own it and confess it and acknowledge it and then the Lord restores us
and then we teach transgressors God's ways. You know sometimes people say well, you know they quote
misquote Jesus, he that hath no sin let him cast the first stone. That is totally ripped out of
context and ignored but it's useful. It's useful. It's a convenient way to avoid scrutiny.
Does that mean you've never sinned? No I have sinned but I've repudiated it. I've repented.
I've turned from it. I've acknowledged it. You see the person that thinks that the person
who will only take correction from someone who has never sinned will not take correction from
someone who has never sinned who is the Lord himself. They just won't. Every person in scripture
who ever taught a transgressor was himself a transgressor with one exception which is the
transgressor with one exception which is the the Lord himself. Every person, Moses, David,
Samuel, Solomon, there does not exist a Bible character who is not guilty of transgression
at some point or another who then turned around and taught others. And so this verse reminds us
of the fact that because of God's mercy and because of God's forgiveness we can both
serve the Lord again after sin and also be useful to God. Our former sin does not forever disqualify
us from these things. Look if you would at verse number 16. The Lord says this,
You know it'd be really easy if God said listen you sin you pay 20 bucks you're good.
In this case you sin you get you know you you take a lamb to the temple you're good to go.
And you know what religion does not give you that. It gives you a good life.
It gives you a good life. It gives you a good life. It gives you a good life. It gives you a good life.
You go to the temple you're good to go. And you know what religion does that. Now they don't
say it in those terms right. They kind of they kind of veil it. They're called indulgences.
They're called penance. It's these these little cute religious rituals we can participate in
that by doing them clears us. It is the kind of Christendom equivalent of giving this out
to the world. And you know what the Bible says is that you have to sacrifice to clear yourself of
the sin. And that's is that not the way we view the Old Testament sacrifices sometimes. We view
them you sin against God. You bring the sacrifice. God forgives you. That is not what this the psalm
is telling us. It's telling us actually the opposite. It would be I mean it would be easy
for mankind. It would be great. You just before you sin you look in your bank account. Hey I got
enough money to cover it. Look I mean look at my flocks especially with people who are well off.
Cows and oxen. I got plenty of things to sacrifice so I'm good to go. You know what that is? That's
presumption. That person will never be forgiven by God if he sacrificed his whole flock and every
animal in his herd. God would never forgive him because the Lord does not require the sacrifice.
He requires a broken spirit and a contrite heart over one's sin. Men prefer something you can do
that doesn't require the repentance. And it allows them then as long as they have the means to
continue in the sin and to do so without a conscience because they gave the sacrifice and
so they figure everything's good. But this is a calculated sin.
But as we see in these verses the Lord God requires brokenness over sin as a prerequisite
for forgiveness. And there is no forgiveness no matter what rituals performed. No matter what
sacrifice is offered. There is no forgiveness to the sinner until there is brokenness in the sinner
regardless of the sacrifice. He must repent because God is examining the man's heart.
Even if that man brings the sacrifice but has not been broken over his evil, he remains out of
fellowship with God and and he remains yet unforgiven and God treats him so regardless
of the sacrifice. That's what the verses are telling us.
You know sometimes people in our time we don't do sacrifices now but they try to make up for their
sin instead of confessing and acknowledging it and and and having true heartfelt contrition
and brokenness over it they they give money to the church or they give gifts to people or they're
extra nice or they try to you know they try to do things kind of to make up instead of being broken.
What the Lord says is actually harder. God wants brokenness over the sin rather than the sacrifice.
In fact the sacrifice is useless.
Look at verse number 18.
Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion build all the walls of Jerusalem then notice that the
structure just like we saw in verse 13 is mentioned twice in this verse then shalt thou be pleased
with the sacrifices of righteousness with burnt offering and whole burnt offering then shall they
offer bullocks upon that altar when when when David when once you have confessed in brokenness
and contrition once you have confessed in the sin of the Lord you will be forgiven.
Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion build all the walls of Jerusalem then notice that the
sacrifice is useless.
Do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion build all the walls of Jerusalem then shall they offer bullocks
upon that altar when once you have confessed in brokenness and contrition once you have repented
there's no contrition there's no repentance.
God rejects it. He can do it all day long. God don't care. He's ignoring it.
I'll prove it to you in a minute but then you have another guy so that's with presumption right
then you have another guy who in brokenness before God before he ever goes out to give the sacrifice
is broken over what he's done for God and God has a prescribed sacrifice for forgiveness.
It's actually written in the in the Old Testament law you do these things and the Lord and the Bible
says the Lord will forgive you. Now the first guy presumed upon that. He didn't repent at all.
The second guy though brings the offering to God also the same offering even
but he he does so after he has he has been broken over his sin that brought him to that point.
You see this is where David is and he says now that I've confessed now that I've gotten right with God
now that I've I'm broken over the sin and I've I've owned it and acknowledged it then
I bring the sacrifice of righteousness. You see the order?
So
look if you would at Genesis 4. We're almost finished. I just want to show you this one
one last truth.
And if you're taking notes right right beside that right Hebrews 11 4 and 1 John 3 12
Hebrews 11 4 and 1 John 3 12.
Genesis 4 verse 3. Notice this this is Cain and Abel and in process of time it came to pass verse
and in process of time it came to pass verse 3 Genesis 4 3 that Cain brought of the fruit of
the ground an offering unto the Lord and Abel he also brought of the firstlings of his flock
and of the fat thereof and the Lord had respect unto Abel and to his offering but unto Cain and
to his to his offering he had not respect and Cain was very wroth and his countenance fell
and the Lord said unto Cain why art thou wroth and why is thy countenance fallen if thou doest
well shalt thou not be accepted and if thou doest not well sin lieth at the door and he shall rule
over thee and unto thee sin life at the door and unto thee shall be his desire and thou shall rule
over him so we see the Lord rejects Cain offering Cain's offering and accepts Abel's offering now
the the standard wisdom says the Lord rejected and and this is what people assume the Lord
rejected Abel's offering and this is this is really preacher's fault more than anyone to be
honest with you the Lord accepted Abel's offering because it was a blood sacrifice and the Lord
rejected Cain's offering because Cain's offering was a vegetable offering there is nowhere in the
Bible that says that it does not say that at all it doesn't say it in this text or in or in Hebrews
or in first John it doesn't say that at all all that it says is that Abel Abel's offering was
accepted Cain's was rejected
furthermore sacrifices of food were permitted by God in the Old Testament they're called meat
offerings those of you that were here during the series we went through the law we went through all
the sacrifices and one of them we looked at we actually looked at Cain as well was the meat
offering which is grain something of the ground it was permitted by God so there was nothing wrong
with the offering God rejected Cain's offering because Cain brought it with a wicked heart
that's why he rejected it he says look at what it says um
four verse number
verse seven if thou doest well shalt thou not be accepted you see we read that we say if you
give the right offering but that's not what it says
what the Lord is looking at is he's looking at Cain he's not looking at his offering he's looking
at Cain now how do we know Cain's heart is wicked this is what first John in Hebrews tells us how
do we know that Cain brought the offering with a wicked heart and was therefore rejected because
of what he did to Abel you see when Cain when Cain murdered Abel that was then the evidence
the outward evidence of Cain's inward heart he hated his brother the whole time he just found
an outlet when he when he murdered him so therefore God rejected his offering so the reason why Cain's
offering was rejected is because contrary to Psalm 51 he was not broken over his sin his heart was
wicked and so God refused it and he and then he offered him a place of repentance you get right
if thou doest well I'll accept you he says in fact in verse seven he says if thou doest well
shalt thou not be accepted not your offering you Cain will be accepted that's what the verse says
think about this
if Cain had brought the right offering air quote right offering say Cain had brought a
blood offering would God have accepted that nope because he brought it with that same wicked heart
would not be accepted see the problem is not the right offering
or the wrong offering the problem is no contrition and no brokenness over sin
Proverbs 21 27 says this the sacrifice of the wicked is abomination how much more when he
bringeth it with a wicked mind now listen to me and I'm almost finished I promise the reason
God is so revolted at this kind of sacrifice is not because the sacrifice is the wrong sacrifice
the sacrifice is the wrong sacrifice not because the sacrifice is is against the Bible
or is anti-scriptural or not because it's not done in the right way the reason why the Lord
is revolted at this sacrifice is because of the wickedness and the heart of the offerer
many times the right kind of sacrifice is the very thing that deceives
the spiritually dressed wicked man into thinking that he is acceptable to the Lord
because he did that did it the right way did you guys hear that
and for for religious people like what we are what we find is we think if we do the right thing
that our hearts not really that's not really what's significant but the what you have what
you have what you have with Kane is you have an illustration of a guy who even if he did the right
thing the Lord still would not have received it that's that's that's that's how we deceive
ourselves we think well well I I do this and dress right and you know we do all these right
things but we're not paying attention to our heart and so the Lord's not receiving it
and so here's what we conclude from these from these verses a person who refuses to be broken
over and turned from his sin will not be accepted by the Lord in his sacrifice or his service
a person must be a person must be restored to the Lord prior to his sacrifice or service to God
to his sacrifice or service to God not in order to be restored
and lastly the only way to be restored and to receive forgiveness in God's sight
is to be truly broken and contrite over what we have done
amen good truths in Psalm 51 let's pray together