Psalm 51-The Nature of Sin

Dancing with Broken Bones-A Series on Psalm 51-The Nature of Sin
January 30, 1994	Sermon by DRW	Passage Psalm 51.1-2

OUTLINE:

Introduction:

There exists today an interesting tension. It isn’t really a new phenomena but is felt as though it was. It is the tension for immediate quality at minimal cost. This transcends the spiritual but we shall merely peer into the spiritual. We desire immediate godliness, revival, fulness, holiness and we want it at a minimal cost. We exist in this extreme tension. It is a tension for we know there must be more to the Christian life than we are now experiencing. It is an extreme tension for we know that the more, which we seek, will cost us our very lives, and we aren’t willing to give that. Allow me to read Hebrews 12.1 and explain a little bit here.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

I would like to point out two things from this:

1) We need to work at throwing off sin, transgression and iniquity (that which entangles and hinders us).

2) There is hope in doing this. The verse begins with: “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses . . .” This cloud of witnesses is the list from Hebrews 11. Those great saints are testimony for us that we too can live through rough times. These saints are not standing over watching us to see if we will make it, fall or fail; to applaud or hiss. I have a tough time preaching in front of other preachers because I feel they will judge, criticize, and tell me where I blew it with no encouragement. This is not what the witnesses of Hebrews do. I find it a great relief to preach to a group of pastors when they tell me beforehand that they are rooting for me and they too have gone through some tough times. That is what the witnesses are saying to us. We know we can throw off sin, transgression and iniquity because we have these witnesses who testify to its truth.

And so, relentlessly drawn to the riches in Christ but fearing the light of discovery on our soul, we grope for shortcuts and techniques. Examining the externals rather than our own heart is indeed less painful, but also less illuminating. In the end, too many of us stack our hopes on Band-Aid solutions to problems of the magnitude of spiritual cancer. To keep what we should throw away, although it is comfortably killing us, and to do so at the expense of all Christ wants us to be, is a blind man’s bargain. (p. 11) and the tool of Satan.

There are many Christians today who believe that as long as we are visible we are doing okay. If this is true, then why is it that with so many Christian radio stations, TV stations, album labels, musicians, writers, books, publishing houses we do not have a greater impact on the world? Could it be we are only talking to ourselves? Could it be that we have grown so comfortable with our Christianity, and haven’t dealt with the tension we exist in, that the world has decided that what we say is no longer of importance or valid because it doesn’t seem true for the Christian? Could it be that in becoming experts in techniques and methods we have become amateurs in practice? Could it be that we only speak the language and have forgotten the walk? Could it be that we have forgotten what God desires more than anything else? Have we forgotten holiness? Have we become like Adam and Eve who tried to hide their spiritual nakedness with fig leaves, only our fig leaves come as the “ten” or “twelve” steps to maturity or holiness or whatever, which can only hide our barren and superficial lives? To some extent I say yes.

Yes, we have not come as far as we should be. Yes, we have forgotten some of the basics in search of the greater (forgetting that God only blesses with the greater when faithfulness to the lesser is practiced). Over the next several weeks we will be discussing a lot of what the church has forgotten or neglected. Our text for these few weeks (six or seven) will be Psalm 51. I ran across an interesting title and decided this was to be the series title: Dancing with Broken Bones. We will cover many things from today’s message on sin to the final message on revival. We will touch bases with things like the nature of the heart, the confronting of sin before it steals our joy, evangelism and salvation, and life as worshiping God. I am excited about this series–please join in my excitement as we pray.

Father, direct our heart, soul, mind and strength to Your desires. Teach us today about You. Teach us today about how lost we are without You. Teach us today more of Your love. Show us today where we are in relationship to You. Open our eyes that we may see the great Truths Your Word has for us today. Amen

The background for Psalm 51 is David’s sin with Bathsheba, murdering of Uriah, confrontation by Nathan, and repentance by David. We all now the story, maybe it has become too familiar and we have forgotten the gist. Just in case this is so, allow me the time to explain what happened with David. He was king of Israel. A man who could have whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted. As God’s king, he knew he had to be obedient to his God first and foremost. The Scriptures call David a man after God’s own heart. He was no spiritual sissy. It came about one day that he was not doing what he was supposed to do–he was supposed to be in battle but he was at home. One thing led to another, and he should’ve known better (and did), but he glanced at Bathsheba in a bath and committed adultery with her. That is as tantamount to when we look squarely at the Cross and say, “I know all that You did for me, but I want to indulge my desires at this moment, just this once; no one else will know; I want to.” We do, he did. He got Bathsheba pregnant and then killed his most trusted general, her husband, to hide his shame.

Nathan comes in and calls him on the spiritual carpet. David was confronted with his sin. He recognized it, repented of it and begged for mercy to the very One whom he betrayed. This is the result of that case. Our text for today is Psalm 51.1-2:

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my <transgressions>. Wash me thoroughly from my <iniquity>. And cleanse me from my <sin>.

1. Three Steps Backward

One note: these three descriptions for sin are not necessarily a catalogue of what David did, rather they are the acknowledgment of how deeply moved David was over his sin. To him, his sin was so heinous in order to show its completeness he used these three descriptions. It also shows, as we shall see, that David knew only God could renew such a one.

1. Transgressions

A deliberate step over the line challenging God’s right to be God. It is being a rebel and revolting against God. “Even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God.” (Romans 1.21)

1. A Wilful Sin (Psalm 19.13)

Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then will I be blameless, innocent of great <transgression>.

1. It was a wilful sin that Satan took as he tried to usurp God’s throne.

2. It was a wilful sin that Adam and Eve took as they tried to usurp God’s throne.

2. Spiritual Death (Ephesians 2.1-5)

As for you, you were dead in your <transgressions> and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in <transgressions>–it is by grace you have been saved.

1. When Adam and Eve transgressed the Word of God, the Bible tells us, sin entered the world and with sin came death

2. that’s why Paul tells us that Jesus came to break the power of death which was sin.

2. Iniquities

Being warped or twisted. “Iniquity is the warped, pulsating, driving hunger of desire that makes us go blind to what is right as we go grasping for what we want. [It is the exact opposite of what Jesus did and Paul calls us to imitate in Philippians 2.] Wrong seems not only right, but desirable. Real iniquity is when the rationalizations are delivered with a practiced agility. It’s when a man can gaze on the wife of another, lust for her, sleep with her, and then murder her husband in an attempt to conceal an out-of-wedlock pregnancy. Knowing what’s wrong doesn’t always stop us. In fact, sometimes it only makes our mouth water. That’s moral twistedness–iniquity. (18) This is not slipping into sin, but deliberately going in for a long slide.

1. Evil Conceit (Psalm 73.7)

From their callous hearts comes <iniquity>; the evil conceits of their minds know no limits.

2. Separation from God (Isaiah 59.2)

But your <iniquities> have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.

* as leprosy would do

3. Blinds us to our Sin (Hosea 12.8)

Ephraim boasts, “I am very rich; I have become wealthy. With all my wealth they will not find in me any <iniquity> or sin.”

* Revelation 3.15-18

3. Sins

To fall short of God’s standard. To stumble from and fall short of God’s standard

1. Tend to justify ourselves.

1. David, from the eyes of man, never fell. Compared to all the men of Israel he was head and shoulders above them. If he desired to justify himself he easily could.

2. Comparing ourselves with others is easy (especially when we don’t look at those who are better than us).

3. This tears at the biblical norm of uplifting for in comparing to justify ourself we will naturally tear down that person.

4. There is no justification of sins in the sight of God apart from Jesus.

1. at the retreat we had one play that showed this. A person forsook God for arcade games. When he died God asked him why he should be allowed in Heaven. The guy answered: “I scored really high on Mortal Combat II.” Needless to say, God was not impressed.

2. all our justifications outside of Jesus sound as ludicrous as the one from the retreat.

2. Takes glory away from God (Romans 3.23)

TRANSITION: We need to come to the reality that most mental patients come to. I have watched many movies on the subject, did some reading on it, and come to this conclusion: Many of the mental patients in places like Camarillo are some of the sanest people on earth. They have come to grips and said: “I can’t run anymore.” This is where David is in Psalm 51 and where we need to be. We need to realize that we can’t run anymore. We can’t run from the stain of sin.

David’s mouth is shut. This psalm is sung through clenched teeth and pursed lips. Some of us know well this kind of humble silence, while others need to make its acquaintance. Sin, iniquity, and transgression are not some other guy’s problem, nor are they something we left behind after we became Christians. Regardless of appearances, we eventually come to know the bitter, convicting, ego-shattering truth in our hearts. (20)

2. Two Steps Forward

1. Repentance

1. blot out his transgressions

1. a book whose words were only accusations, wrongs,

* like the blackboard in Heaven joke I told at the Winter retreat

1. Nehemiah 13.13

2. Daniel 7.10

2. he couldn’t change his past, what was done was done

1. he was stained

2. he was like the barn with the nail holes in it (illustration)

3. he asked God to blot it out

1. He would because of His covenant with Israel (hesed)

2. Psalm 32.1

Blessed is he whose <transgressions> are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

3. Psalm 103.12

as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our <transgressions> from us.

4. Isaiah 43.25

“I, even I, am he who blots out your <transgressions>, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.

5. Just in case we forgot Paul reminds us in Romans 4.7:

“Blessed are they whose <transgressions> are forgiven, whose sins are covered.

2. wash me from iniquity

1. an article of clothes that needed to be washed. So bad was its defiling that it needed to be “trampled under foot” to be thoroughly cleaned.

2. he knew that a mild detergent (human effort) couldn’t cleanse his iniquity

1. Jeremiah 2.22

2. Isaiah 59.12

For our offenses are many in your sight, and our sins testify against us. Our offenses are ever with us, and we acknowledge our <iniquities>:

3. he knew only God could cleanse him and make him spotless, we know it is something greater that takes care of iniquity–the death and life of Jesus!

1. Psalm 51.9

Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my <iniquity>.

2. Psalm 90.8

You have set our <iniquities> before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.

3. Isaiah 53.5-6

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our <iniquities>; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the <iniquity> of us all.

4. Micah 7.19

You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our <iniquities> into the depths of the sea.

3. cleanse me from my sin

1. like leprosy that defiled a man on the outside, his sin defiled him on the inside

2. he knew that his sin had separated him from God much as the leper is considered unclean to man

3. he knew that only God could heal him

2. Acceptance

1. erased

2. cleansed

3. healed

Conclusion:

Like the wicked queen in Snow White, we’ve grown to love the narcissistic mirrors in our hearts that tell us, “You’re the fairest of them all.” But truth is an iconoclast that delights in smashing those mirrors. [Just as the mirror eventually told the truth to the queen that there was another fairer, so go will send a Nathan to tell us that we fall short.] It is a persistent nag that refuses to go away just because its revealing message may be socially unpopular and morally inconvenient.

From David’s lips, the truth finds us defiantly rebellious, morally and spiritually twisted, falling short of both God’s standards and our own. That’s us–you and me. But there’s hope. The first step in the healing of a problem is admitting our need. A man or woman who confesses no curse certainly feels no need of a cure. A remedy, one older than time itself with its genesis in the mind of the Creator of the Universe, is ready at hand. But first we must sing a bitter song along with David. We must soberly admit that, left to ourselves, our souls are terminally ill.

We must not deceive ourselves. There aren’t a vast number of gods to choose from. Our options are narrowed down to one: a holy God who confronts our evasive patterns at every turn. We must face Him! There is nowhere to hide, nowhere to run away. For He pursues us, He finds us everywhere. But He chases us in order to save, not to judge; to help, not to destroy. The deep inner healing we all need can come from no other source. It must come form Him alone. (21-22)

Today we have seen that we are truly poor people without God. We are ravaged with sin. If it were not for the grace and mercy of God none of us would go to heaven. Take this time to ask God to show you where you are falling short of His glory. Repent of it and then come forward and stand with me as we show to the congregation that we accept the truth of His cleansing.

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Psalm 51-The Nature of Sin

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