[0:00] Open up your copy of God's Word. The Sacred Scripture, the Holy Writ.! Open it up to 2 Samuel chapter 11.!
[0:30] This has been a seven-part series. But last week we looked at David the King and how he became king over a united Israel. And so far, David has come across like this great, invincible hero.
[0:47] But as we know, he is a fallen man, he is a sinful man, and he cannot be our Messiah. And it's painted very, very clearly for us in 2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12, which today we are looking at David and Bathsheba.
[1:07] And so it's found in these two chapters. But at this point, if you can remember, David is at the apex of his military, political, and economical power. He has been anointed king over a united Israel, of Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Asher, Gad, Issachar, Zebulun, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin.
[1:32] He's united all these 12 tribes into one single nation. He's made Jerusalem the capital of the nation, the center of the political and religious life of the nation.
[1:44] And he successfully brought the ark of God into the capital. And he has defeated all the pagan enemies that were around him. He has conquered all the pagan, demonic deities that were worshipped by these nations that had surrounded them for so long.
[2:04] He won victories and consolidated his kingdom. But most importantly, as we looked at last week, God made an unconditional covenant with David to establish his house, his dynasty, eternally, promising him an eternal throne.
[2:22] We looked at the Davidic covenant, how one day God would raise up one from David's line who would have an eternal kingdom and would build the Lord's house.
[2:33] And ultimately, we know, as we looked at last week, that that promise was fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ, the son of David, but also the son of God and the Lord of David.
[2:46] We looked at Psalm 110 a little bit last week. And he built God's true spiritual temple. Jesus did. First Peter 2.5. And Jesus will rule on the throne forever, and his rule will have no end.
[2:59] So, as we looked at all this, like truly, God has given David some amazing blessings. He's lavished so much love upon one man. And at this point, he is probably roughly around 50 years old.
[3:15] He's at the height of his power and prosperity. It's his time of jubilee. He's accomplished all these things. He has trusted God and obeyed God.
[3:27] And, but, even though he's at the pinnacle of his power as the king, however, it's times like this that Scripture teaches that we must be on guard, lest we be lulled to sleep.
[3:46] Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10.12, Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed, lest he fall. Alright?
[3:57] We must never grow comfortable as believers thinking that we're in such a place of maturity, such an advance in our walk with the Lord, that we transform from a place of humility and dependence, to a place of pride and independence from God.
[4:15] We do this often when we are doing well, when the life seems to be going well. David never ran from a fight while he was being chased by all his adversaries.
[4:27] As long as he was being hunted like a deer in the mountains, he was always close to God. Right? But, now, a stealthier foe kind of lurks in the darkness.
[4:43] And, while this happens, while he's in a place of security. Right? So, look at 2 Samuel chapter 11. Just look at the first verse.
[4:54] First verse. We read in 2 Samuel 11. In the spring of the year, the time when the kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him in all Israel.
[5:09] And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. So, pause.
[5:20] This one verse should make us tremble. David was the king. He was the commander-in-chief. Yet, he chooses not to be with his army or his men.
[5:32] And he delegates his power to Joab. And he seeks ease. Often, now this is true in my own life, and I'm sure it is in yours, often the first step towards temptation, and then eventually sin is not being where we are supposed to be.
[5:53] It happens. So, think on it. David is no longer a humble shepherd sleeping out in the rain in the fields with smelly sheep. He's no longer the chieftain of an outlaw clan like Judah.
[6:07] But, to the contrary, now he's had opulence. He's had every opportunity to indulge himself in the luxuries of life as the king. He has had all the fat of the land brought to him on a platter.
[6:21] All the delicacies were brought to him from all over the land that he had conquered. He lived a... Now he could have a pampered lifestyle if he choose. Clothes and fine scarlet and linen.
[6:34] The choices so fair to eat. And as one man said, his soul grew lean while his flesh was pampered.
[6:46] Riches of the earth are ours freely, and God gives them to us. Blessings of providence and his generosity. Yet, when we grow at such ease, we can often choose to refuse to do the Lord's work.
[7:01] And like David, not go out to battle, but fall into slothfulness. He pridefully begins to feel entitled and comfort. And not remaining humble before God.
[7:15] As we're warned in Proverbs 16, 18, pride goes before destruction. And a haughty spirit before the fall. So true.
[7:28] Spurgeon wrote of this case, There is a devil. He will take care to sing your lullaby and rock your cradle if you want to sleep.
[7:40] For he loves not to see God's warriors alert. While they are asleep, he knows the war will not go on very briskly. An army that is dosed with chloroform would be quite as useless as if they had chained themselves to the wall.
[7:58] While swords sleep in their scabbards, no foe needs dreaded them. But, O fellow soldiers, this is a great artifice of Satan.
[8:10] And one of his craftiest devices is to lull us into a deep sleep. The dog of hell is barking in our hearts to keep us awake.
[8:21] But, when he ceases his howling, our eyelids grow heavy unless divine grace prevents it. So we see very carefully that David has already put himself in a very vulnerable position.
[8:35] He's being lulled to sleep spiritually while his flesh is being pampered. And so here we see a story of temptation, adultery, cover-up, and murder.
[8:49] Yeah, David. This great guy we've been reading about. He is not the Messiah. So, just very quickly, if we look at these few verses, and like temptation, at its core, is an enticement to sin.
[9:06] Whether arising from desires within or circumstances without. It's important to know that just being tempted is not sin. But it is the enticement to sin.
[9:17] If you're a fish, it's the bait that's coming in front of you, the lure that's saying, you know, bite this. Then before you know it, you're being hooked in, reeled in, and gutted on a plate.
[9:28] So, it is an enticement to sin. It's to take the things that God has given us as His gifts beyond their God-given limits.
[9:40] Sin is the product, and temptation is the selling of it to you. David was not out to war as he should be. Is it the palace? I'm just going to summarize a lot of this chapter, and then we're going to spend a lot of the time today in Psalm 51, which is David's response to his sin.
[9:56] But he doesn't go out to war. Instead, he's at the palace. It says he gets off his couch. So, he's already chilling on the couch. He goes out into his roof or his balcony, right?
[10:07] And he sees a beautiful woman bathing, probably on a lower rooftop. And he lusts after her in his heart. And he longs to lay with her.
[10:21] David inquires as to who she is. So, who is this woman? He's informed that it was Bathsheba, the daughter of Elam, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite.
[10:36] So, at this point, he could have pulled back. The Lord always says that He gives us a way of escape. But He kept pushing forward. He could have fled in the face of this temptation.
[10:47] Remember Joseph in Genesis when he was confronted with Potiphar's wife? He fled. And he actually said in Genesis 39, 9, How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?
[10:59] That's what Joseph said. But he doesn't do that. What's interesting is Joseph didn't have the Mosaic Law.
[11:10] He didn't have it. It was written on his heart, though. David did. David knew the commandment, the seventh commandment, to not commit adultery. And the tenth commandment, that you shall not cover your neighbor's wife.
[11:23] But still, he drew closer like a lamb to the slaughter. One Puritan wrote, If you don't want to enter the house of sin, don't sit at the doorway of temptation.
[11:39] Very interesting. Bathsheba, the name means daughter of an oath. So, something that's kind of honorable, pure. And shockingly, listen to this, Uriah.
[11:50] So, Uriah was a Hittite. If you don't know that, that's a Gentile people. They were very strong warriors in the Iron and Bronze Age. And, Uriah means Yahweh is my light.
[12:04] Isn't that interesting? Anybody ever looked up his name before? So, obviously, he was a convert. He was a Gentile who had become a convert of the true God. Uriah.
[12:15] So, very clearly, this guy says, look, yeah, she's got a father, this is his name, and she's married to a noble warrior, Uriah the Hittite. But that would have been like enough, you'd think, to kind of like, okay, never mind.
[12:30] But he doesn't. He moves forward. In verse 4 of this chapter, chapter 11, that information didn't stop him, so he knew this was evil and he did it anyway.
[12:43] He abused his position of authority and took advantage of this young woman. He had her brought to his chamber. He slept with her, took his pleasure, and then sent her home.
[12:56] But then, in verse 5 through 13, we see that his sin is revealed. She later came back to him, and it says, and the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, I am pregnant, or I am with child.
[13:16] So, obviously, he panics. He's found out. This act of adultery with Bathsheba, she becomes pregnant, and this threatens David's reputation as the king of Israel and all that God had done.
[13:32] So, he attempts to cover it up. Instead of coming clean and repenting, he attempts a cover-up. You ever seen your kids do something they shouldn't be doing and they, you know, they know that you're watching them, but they try to kind of cover it up anyway.
[13:46] You're like, I see you. I see you. I know what you're doing. It's as if David just cuts that off and in panic, he focuses here and not here.
[13:57] And so, at first, he calls Uriah back from the battlefield. Uriah, come back. And so, Uriah comes back and he attempts to, he says, look, man, you've been working hard out there.
[14:08] You've been doing the job. You've been fighting. So, why don't you just have a night off? Go and lay with your wife tonight. But it doesn't work because Uriah is such a noble warrior.
[14:19] He has this honor where he's like, I can't do that. Like, how can I do that when all the other soldiers are still out there fighting? It's just, I can't, my conscience won't allow me. So then David goes to plan B and he says, all right, well, maybe if I get him hammered, he'll sleep with his wife.
[14:35] Like, and maybe, and then after that, they'll be able to say, look, you know, congratulations, you had a baby. But Uriah also refuses to go back even as he's drunk.
[14:46] So that fails. So then, in verses 14 through 27, in growing frustration and fear of being found out, David results to the great evil of having Uriah sent back to war with orders to Joab to have him kind of put out in the front line and then to have the other men pull back where he's almost just to face certain death.
[15:10] And, and he does. He's killed, but really, murdered. So now, with Uriah out of the way, David then takes Bathsheba as his wife, his temptation, excuse me, his reputation he thinks is saved and the ordeal is survived or so he thinks.
[15:29] Proverbs 15, 3, like, remember this one. The eyes of the Lord are in every place watching over the evil and the good.
[15:41] So, the chapter ends, the very last two verses of this chapter, listen to this. Verse 26, when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband, was dead, listen to this, she lamented over her husband or she mourned greatly over her husband.
[16:00] So, clearly, she loved Uriah. Then, when her mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife and bore him a son.
[16:12] But, the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. Scary. So, David's finally going, God, okay, it worked out.
[16:27] Like, I'm good. But, God is not pleased and he sees it. So then, in verse, chapter 12, 1 through 12, I'm trying to summarize the best I can.
[16:41] David is clearly living an ongoing, unrepentant sin and God starts to deal with him. David would have read from the scripture, Numbers 32, 23, Behold, you have sinned against the Lord and be sure your sin will find you out.
[17:04] So, it's important here that those who carry out evil and sin, they cannot evade God forever. Like, they will be brought into the light. So, God sends later Nathan, the prophet, to confront David and he tells him a parable of a man who had little and a man who had much.
[17:24] And the man who had much abused his power over the one who had little and took what he had and killed it. And then, so he's telling this parable but David doesn't know it's a parable.
[17:35] He thinks it's a real thing. And then David reacts to this and declares the man who acted unjustly, he deserves to die. Surely, he must die. Little did he know that he is pronouncing judgment on himself.
[17:50] And Nathan says, you are that man. So, he melts. Right? So, he's caught. If you can remember like Saul, when Samuel confronted Saul, what does Saul do?
[18:07] I meant well. It's, you know, pray for me. Just to, just has to be between us. Don't let anybody else know.
[18:18] Walk with me so that people will know that we're good. That was Saul's response to being called out on his sin. To make excuses and to cover it up.
[18:30] But, chapter 12, verse 13, check this out. From David's mouth comes true repentance. sins. David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.
[18:44] And Nathan said to David, the Lord also has put away your sin and you shall not die. Wow. Later on, at some point after this, David grabs a pen and papyrus.
[19:02] I'd like to imagine he just got alone somewhere and just poured out his heart to God. And he wrote Psalm 51. And, just briefly, he repents.
[19:17] The word repent means to change, in the most simple way to say it, it means to change one's mind for the better. Sin is a turning away from, or excuse me, repentance is a turning away from sin, hating it, and resolving by God's grace to never go back to it as we turn to Him in faith.
[19:41] It's a change of mind that leads to a change in direction. So it's not just behavior modification on the outside, it's thinking differently and seeing your sin differently where you hate it and you want to honor God instead as you turn to faith in Christ.
[19:58] So, we get to Psalm 51. This is David's response to the evil that has been committed, that he has committed. Genuine repentance.
[20:10] So if there's sin in your life and you're struggling to know what to do, like God has given you a road map here in Psalm 51 to face those things. Alright?
[20:22] So let's just take it apart a few verses at a time. Alright? So we have some questions here. Question number one, if you're note-taking, question number one, how does David approach God for mercy and forgiveness?
[20:38] So how does David actually come to God? What is the manner in which he does it? You see this in verses one and two. David prays, have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.
[20:55] Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me of my sin. So, so why? He's trying to plead a case before God, right?
[21:06] He pleads with God to show him mercy and forgiveness, pardon for the evil that he's done. So mercy is this undeserved thing. You don't merit God's mercy.
[21:17] If you merit it, it's not mercy. David has no hope that God will forgive him and pardon him according to his own goodness, according to his righteousness because he doesn't have any.
[21:31] Look what he just did. The sin itself proves that David has no character to argue here, not in his own worth or merit, but God's.
[21:42] You see that? According to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercies, it actually means the multitude of your tender mercies, compassion.
[21:55] So David recognizes he has no entitlement to God's favor. He doesn't deserve life. He doesn't deserve blessing and forgiveness. So also, we must be sensible that God does not owe us forgiveness.
[22:09] He doesn't owe us mercy. He doesn't. In fact, David then appeals, therefore, to God's character. He appears to the very nature of God because he knows it's within God's character, within God's nature to be merciful.
[22:27] So he just knows that about God. So he appeals to that. I've got no case to plea. I'm guilty. I'm terrible. But I know you are a gracious and forgiving member in your Bible reading, in your daily life.
[22:40] He gives you several different terms to describe the sin or the crime that he had committed versus transgression. transgression. See that? Transgression, as we know, is a deliberate premeditated crossing of the line.
[22:56] You know that you shouldn't do it and you do it anyway. No trespassing. I hate that when you're deer hunting. You're like, shoot, can't go on there. So it is a deliberate crossing of the line.
[23:09] You know it. Iniquity. He also mentions iniquity. That is a perverting or a twisting of what God has said. A corruption of goodness. And then sin, as we know, is missing the mark that God has purpose intended.
[23:25] Like, this is God's purpose. He has intention for you and you've fallen short of that. And then he uses the word unholy. Mark, terrible, worse than all, great wrong, unholy.
[23:39] So he's not holding back. He's calling it what it is. So whenever you sin, please don't do the, well, I just fell. It just got me.
[23:51] Like a victim mentality. David owns it completely. I committed transgression, iniquity, sin, and evil. He calls it what it is.
[24:02] But then, notice how he corresponds to those things. He uses the words blot, wash, and cleanse. Those are all words of deep spiritual restoration that only God can do.
[24:16] Blot means to wipe out, to obliterate, exterminate. And remember, I've said this before, but when they used to write on papyrus, papyri, if I pronounce it rightly, that they would often reuse it by wiping it, wiping old ink off of it, and then writing something else.
[24:37] so he's saying the crime that I committed, blot it out, erase it. Then he used the term wash, to be washed by treading out, not just being washed physically, but being washed inwardly.
[24:51] To cleanse means to purify and make whole. So all according to God's loving kindness, all according to his abundant mercy. Those are all words that our souls long to hear when we are confronted with sin.
[25:06] You want to hear that. These are words of justification, to be cleaned, to be made right. So make me right in your sight, is really what he's praying.
[25:18] So that's question number one, how does David approach God for mercy and forgiveness? This verse is one and two. Question number two, how does David offer true confession to God?
[25:32] How does David offer true confession to God? See this in verses three through five. David says, for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.
[25:43] Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and sinned and my mother conceived me.
[25:59] One man that I respect a lot said about Psalm 51, David's sin made him feel dirty and he desires to be clean.
[26:10] David's guilt made him feel sick and he desires to be well. His disobedience made him feel lonely and he desires relational reconciliation.
[26:25] His rebellion made him fearful of God, but now he desires to be pardoned. It's a summary of a lot of this. But we see that he truly confesses his sin.
[26:37] He says, I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. I humbly fully acknowledge what I've done. The evil that I've committed is present with me wherever I go.
[26:50] You ever notice that? Like if you've committed great sin and evil that you can't just sort of brush it away, that it just kind of is on your mind or your conscience constantly. He's like, it's always in my faith staring at me.
[27:04] When we sin against the Lord, our souls are troubled and in turmoil and it stays with us. So not just a mere acknowledgement of the offense you've committed, like, yeah, yeah, I know I've sinned.
[27:16] That's what Saul did, right? But he owns it. He takes full responsibility bearing the consequences of that sin. It's not anyone else's fault.
[27:26] He's recognizing that, God, it's not your fault. It's not Bathsheba's fault. I alone am guilty for this sin. So he doesn't play the victim mentality of culture.
[27:38] This just happened to me, right? It's because, not just because of my bad upbringing, right? It's, he's saying like, I'm guilty. I own it.
[27:49] I own all of it. And he also mentions here, this is very key, against you and you alone, have I sinned against, and don't want to have sinned against, God, I've sinned against Bathsheba.
[28:05] I've mistreated her. I dishonored her house. I dishonored her husband. He also could have said, I sinned against Uriah. I had a loyal soldier killed.
[28:17] He also could have said, I've sinned against the nation, as the king of Israel. all of that would have been true. But why does he say, you and you alone have I sinned against?
[28:27] It's because, supremely, all sin is an affront to God. It opposes God and all he stands for. He intrinsically! He intrinsically hates sin and has vowed to destroy it.
[28:39] So, though sin does do harm to ourselves, right, it does, and others, it's ultimately against our loving creator. That's what he said in verse 13 of 2 Samuel.
[28:52] I've sinned against the Lord. That was his first knee jerk. I've sinned against the Lord. So, sin involves a turning from God and unbelief and turning to idolatry, thinking that we're going to get something from an idol that we refuse to think that we can get from God, to get joy, get comfort, get security, when only God himself can offer it.
[29:16] So, when we sin against God, we're saying, I don't trust you in this moment, I do not believe that your way is the best, and I do not believe that your way is the wisest. When we sin, those moments are turning from God.
[29:31] This is important too. Repentance is not just feeling bad about what you've done. It's not just feeling shame and guilt. Unbelievers who don't know Christ feel shame and guilt.
[29:43] You know that? They feel bad about what they did. But typically, it's always tied to the consequences that they're facing. Not that they've sinned against God.
[29:54] They hate that they've been caught. They hate that it's causing their life misery. Paul writes about this in 2 Corinthians 7, 9 and 10. He talks about a godly sorrow and a worldly sorrow.
[30:08] Paul says, as it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly sorrow so that you suffered no loss through us.
[30:22] For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas a worldly grief produces death. And so you have to examine yourself.
[30:35] When I sin, when I do something and I'm caught, am I mainly upset because of the consequences? Is it a worldly grief or is it a godly sorrow, a godly grief that leads to salvation because you've sinned against God?
[30:51] Very important. Not just to acknowledge that we've done it. We've sinned against the Lord God Almighty Himself. Alright, so then we see next this spiritual condition of sin.
[31:02] David says in verse 5, I was brought forth in our iniquity and sin to my mother conceived me. The reality is that sin is this dire condition, not just an action. We have to teach our kids this, that sin is not just an action.
[31:17] It's a condition. It's a fallen spiritual problem. And so these are symptoms of the bigger problem.
[31:28] They come from within us. Man is born in a state of sin. We are born spiritually dead. Ephesians 2. Our understanding is darkened and our hearts are corrupted by evil.
[31:43] We are enslaved to sin without Christ. So, he's not making an excuse. He's not doing like, well, I was just born this way. He's saying this as a means to implore God's pity on him.
[31:58] Like, God, I am so weak. I'm so helpless. There's nothing I can do to save myself or change myself. Please, I beg you, forgive me, have mercy.
[32:11] I've always been this way, always sinful. This goes into question number three. What is the evidence of true repentance in David? What is the evidence of true repentance in David?
[32:25] And we see three things underneath this, but let's read it. Verses 6-12. David says, Behold, you delight in truth and the inward being, and you teach me wisdom and the secret heart.
[32:39] Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me, I shall be whiter than snow. Let my heart, let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
[32:51] Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence.
[33:03] Do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Withhold me with a willing spirit. So we see three things that give evidence that his repentance is real here.
[33:16] The first one is he has a longing to be right with God. He has a longing to be right with God. This inward renewal. Verse 7, the literal says, it is truth that gives you pleasure.
[33:34] God desires not just that we change our actions on the outside, but from the inside. So he recognizes that, that God loves truth. He loves righteousness in the deepest places of our hearts.
[33:48] So he's asking God to go door-to-door in his heart, to clean it out, and to make it holy and pure. True repentance brings a desire to change.
[33:58] It isn't just God forgive me, but God change me in a way that honors you, starting in my heart. Truth gives you pleasure. I don't want to stay like this.
[34:09] I want to honor you. Then secondly, we see in verse 7, there's a condition here that sin defiles us. Sin defiles us.
[34:20] Ezekiel 20, verse 43, listen to this, and there you shall remember your ways and all your deeds in which you have defiled yourselves, and you shall loathe yourselves for all the evils that you have committed.
[34:36] So sin causes us to feel defiled, that we loathe ourselves for all the evil we have committed. So he says, purify me, wash me, me.
[34:47] He mentions hyssop, that's a plant that's in the mint family, a cluster of flowers, it was used to sprinkle the blood over the doors, the Israelites when they were in Egypt, the angel of death would pass over them.
[35:01] Then he says, so he's saying symbolically, cleanse me, symbolically, wash me, I'll be whiter than snow, clean, pure, unadulterated, beautiful, whiter than snow.
[35:15] Repentance is the desire to be clean from sin and made right. Look at verse 8, he says, let me hear. Alright? He wanted God to allow him to hear joy and gladness once again, instead of just hearing condemnation, instead of just hearing gloom over his sin.
[35:37] Sin only leads to voices, y'all know this, sin leads to voices of guilt, shame, and condemnation, anxiety. Repentance is a longing to hear God's voice again as your father, loving his word, loving the sound of his voice.
[35:57] And then we see in verse 9 that sin can separate us. He says, hide your face from my sin. It's important to see this. Notice that David doesn't want God to hide his face from him.
[36:10] He says, hide your faith from my sin. Again, to the Jews, the Hebrews, the greatest blessing was to see God's face, was an idea of favor, fellowship, and love, and blessing from God.
[36:26] On the other hand, the greatest curse was for God to hide his face from you, which meant curse, displeasure of God. So he's saying, hide your face from what I did, hide your face from my sin, and not me.
[36:41] We see clearly in this that it's God's fellowship that he wants. He says next in verse 11, cast me not away from your presence. Don't take your Holy Spirit from me.
[36:53] Remember, the Holy Spirit is how God manifests himself to us. And in the Old Testament, he empowered men by allowing the Holy Spirit to rest on them, but he ultimately could take it away.
[37:04] He did it with Samson, and even closer to home to David. He saw what happened when King Saul had the Spirit taken away. He's like, please don't let that happen to me. Please don't take your Holy Spirit from me.
[37:18] So, a lot of people want to be delivered from the consequences of their sin, but they don't really want fellowship with God. That's a problem. They want his gifts, but not him.
[37:30] Jonathan Edwards once said, you may love deliverance, but hate the deliverer. Then secondly, what other evidence does he give? He wants fellowship with God. That's the end goal here.
[37:42] Number two is a commitment to newness of life. We see this in verse 12. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. He asked God to infuse him with joy and gladness and thanksgiving in his soul again.
[37:58] Uphold me with a willing and noble spirit. So sustain that. Don't just let it be a flu. Give me enough joy where I can just be sustained, persevered in you and what you have done for me.
[38:11] And then I just want to kind of let you know this really quickly. He uses this term create in me a clean heart. So some of you may be thinking and I can testify I've definitely felt this way before like how can God change me?
[38:27] Like I feel like everything is against me. I feel hopeless. I feel like this sin just dominates me and my heart will just remain this way.
[38:39] So you can't change yourself. Good luck. That's what our culture does. Willpower resolve and it fails. But David uses an incredible word, Hebrew word here, the word create.
[38:55] Think about where that comes from. God created the heavens and the earth. So David is calling upon that same power that created the mountains, the oceans, the universe, everything visible and invisible.
[39:11] He's calling on that omnipotent hand to create and speak to give him a new heart. God can do this by his omnipotent hand. His hand is not so sure that he cannot save.
[39:24] And then thirdly and lastly, another evidence of true repentance is sharing God's mercy and right outward worship.
[39:37] So often when we sin we want to just make amends. We want to do penance which is what the Roman medieval church taught us. I'm sorry God, now I'm going to do a bunch of good things to make amends for what I did.
[39:50] He says this last. This is like after I'm right with you and I have fellowship with you and you and I are well then I will do these things. He says in verse 13, then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you out of your rud guiltiness O God O God of my salvation and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness O Lord open my lips and my mouth and I will declare your praise for you will not deliver me.
[40:23] You will not delight in sacrifice otherwise I would give it. You will not be pleased with the burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart O God you will not despise.
[40:37] Do go to Zion in your good pleasure. Build up the walls of Jerusalem then you will delight in right sacrifices and in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings then bulls will be offered on the altar.
[40:50] So again many times in ancient Israel the people would have a daily sinful lifestyle then they would just run to the temple make a sacrifice think they're good go right back out to sinning again.
[41:05] We do the same thing right and just in a different way a lot of people in the church today and he's saying no no no no no he doesn't delight in sacrifice he delights more in the heart of the worshipper right you can't just say well I'm sinning against God so I better go to church more I better share the gospel I'll read my Bible for an extra hour and then I'll fast and then God will be cool with me it's penance again that's penance and not repentance right he said you did not delight God doesn't care at all about that he cares about the heart behind the worshipper so what God truly desires a broken shattered heart over sin that's verse 17 it's what Jonathan Edwards called a humble broken hearted joy genuine repentance brings about a change in our attitude which brings about a change in our actions and how we live if
[42:10] God truly rules our hearts he will rule over our actions as well if God truly loves us and we will be transformed from the inside out so not just our morality or behavior modification again in here coming out God doesn't just care about what we do but he cares about our motives our desires behind that are they for him for his glory I have love for him so we cleanse me forgive me you have the power to do that and then
[43:14] I will sing songs about your salvation to others and then lastly verse 19 then you will delight in right sacrifices then I offer sacrifices with the right heart behind it and lastly he just offers a prayer for the nation in verse 18 so landing the plane here sorry last question question number four gotta see this must see this how is David's forgiveness and ours made possible so again it isn't that hard to do but how can God pardon David imagine yourself being a family member or a friend of Bathsheba or Uriah you would be outraged you would say no this man killed my son he raped my daughter in law this is not okay we're all outraged when we see judges pardoning criminals murderers child rapists with a slap on the hand we get so mad when we see that kind of stuff it's not so with
[44:23] God so how can Nathan say to him hey the Lord has taken away your sin this because David knew the scripture right Exodus 34 6 that God will by no means leave the guilty unpunished he's got to punish sin there's where we end look at Romans chapter 3 really quickly flip over to Romans chapter 3 and look at verse 22 Romans 3 verse 22 it says verse 22 the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe for there is no distinction for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God here we know this universal guiltiness of sin all of us past and present many says verse 24 and are justified by the grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith here's how it ties into
[45:27] David any person in the Old Testament this was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he passed over former sins it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Christ so God knew that one day he would punish David's sin in the true Messiah Jesus Christ David had fallen and sinned greatly but he had faith that God would one day provide through his line of descendants one who would redeem him and be his savior so God punished all that sin the murder!
[46:15] all of it he punished it in Christ so David looked forward to the Messiah as we look back to the Messiah forgiveness of sin the Old Testament anticipates the sacrifice of Christ as the final sacrifice for our sins so in God's mind David's sins are counted as Christ's sins and Christ's righteousness is counted as David's righteousness Jesus is the only way to be forgiven and made right and reconciled to God again so like God proves his righteousness like I'm not letting that go I'm proving that I take sin seriously and how am I going to do that by punishing that sin and my only son so David by far as we see today is not the perfect king he is not he is not the savior hero in the one who rules over all that we would worship and bow down to him and
[47:17] David did David knew he wouldn't be spared and listen as we look next week we'll see that though he is forgiven he's made right with God he's still going to deal with a lot of consequences in this world because of his sin his family is going to be torn apart he's going to suffer greatly but he's with the Lord today so our Christ the perfect sinless king that's who we worship so if you have unconfessed sin if you have something you're wrestling with go to God and use this as a way to pray use his word and then share with another believer to confess our sins to one another let's pray together