The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 12: Create in Me a Clean Heart

Episode Date: July 10, 2022

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. – Psalm 51:10 No one is too far gone for the far reaching arms of our gracious God.

Amen and amen. How we do it at church? You kind of pre-clap there, so I don't know what to do now. Hey, go ahead of here. If you've got your Bible and I hope you do, grab it. We're going to be in Psalm chapter 51, even if you normally just sit there and stare at me and trust me to read all the scriptures. I need you to get it out and look at it.

There's a heart. There's a real one in front of you or behind you if you're on the front row or get out a digital copy because I want you to see what the word actually says because we're going to dive into it. As you're looking up Psalm 51, I hope you had a great Fourth of July week. And I just never want to miss the opportunity to thank all of the men. and women who have ever put on a uniform, whether that was in the services or as a first responder, and they do what they do so that we can walk in freedom. Amen, amen. Thank you. Thank you, thank you.

We're going to be talking about sin and in particularly sexual sin, and it's just different. Paul's going to say in 1st Corinthians 6 this, that all sins a man commits are outside of his body, but he who sin sexually sins against his own body. That means it's just different. Doesn't mean it's unforgivable. It just means it dings the soul at a different level. And this past week, I was in, where was a Houston, Texas doing a youth camp all week. It's the hottest place I've ever been. I don't know why people live there, but whatever. They're real proud of it.

And so I had extra time to pray. I've been praying for you all week. And I've been praying four people. And anointing with oil, by the way, if you're new to 1122, if you ever show up and the anointing oil is on the table out here, then buckle up buttercup. It's a doozy. Okay? And so in about an hour, we're going to flood the front down. here and we're going to pray for healing and pray for forgiveness and the only people that

applies to is sinners so if you're not one of those then you can just stay right in your seat but if you struggle if you sin you notice in today's society Christians don't sin anymore but I just struggle like it's called a sin all right but I've been praying like crazy that today chains would fall off that marriages would be saved that forgiveness would be poured out that shame would be gone that freedom and healing would rain that God would create in us a clean new heart because if the tomb is empty, anything is possible. And oftentimes we believe that for somebody else, but we got to believe it for us. The subscript of Psalm 51 says this. It says to the choir master, a Psalm of David,

when Nathan the prophet went to him. So that we know exactly what was going on when David wrote this. And just to be clear, it says, after he had gone into Bathsheba. A little graphic, isn't it? It's not even lunchtime yet. In fact, the King James doesn't even do the subscripts because of that, I think, all right? He wants us to know, this is for real, man. This wasn't like an emotional affair.

This wasn't like they were texting each other. It wasn't a little bit of flirting. This is what was going on. Well, in the scriptures, we know exactly what was happening because it tells us what's happening. So if you back up to 2nd Samuel, Chapter 11, what I want you to see here are the multiple steps in the life of David

that lead to this infidelity. It's not just a one-time thing. There was a decision that led to a decision, that led to a decision, that led to destruction, and that's the way sexual sin goes. You see, it is our direction, not our intention, that determine our destination. And your marriage is on a path and it's going somewhere.

And it never ends up anywhere awesome by accident. And so pay attention to the 2nd Samuel chapter 11. The Bible says this in the spring of the year. The time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab. If you take notes in your Bible, write the Greek word, uh-oh, this ain't good. David's the king. Joab ain't the king. The kings, this is the time when the kings did what kings do, and kings are supposed to go to war,

and David abdicates his responsibility, and he sends somebody else instead. You see, it's a scary thing when men began to advocate responsibility. Listen, men are like flatbed trucks. They just drive better when they're carrying a load. I hope you know that's true. If they got a little extra time, a little extra effort, a little extra energy, a little extra fold and change, then it ain't good, man. It ain't good. And so he sends Joab and his servants with him and all of Israel.

And they ravaged the Ammonites and besiezezez Rabah. but David remained in Jerusalem. Here's the first step towards his downfall is that he was where he was not supposed to be. Coach Lee, the guy that led me to Christ used to say this, if you don't want to fall down, don't walk in slippery places. And the first thing that he began to do

is to put himself in a position where it was a slippery place. Then it gets worse. Verse two. And it happened late one afternoon when David arose from his, couch. The most dangerous thing on the planet is a lazy man. When you got pin up energy and you aim it at the wrong thing. I'm telling you, it's what gangs are full of, it's what prisons are

full of, it's what strip clubs are full of. Men who are not providing and protecting and being the private priest and king, and when he's supposed to be at work, he's laying around on his couch. And it happened one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house. The king had been on his roof before. The king knew what he would see from his roof. And the way it weren't, he didn't live in the neighborhood like we do. The palace was at the highest place in Jerusalem, and when he stood on top of his palace, he could look down on all of his subjects, on all of the other homes. And I think he knows what he's going to see. And so he was on the roof of the king's house that he saw from the roof a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful.

So we went from lazy, and now he's looking. This is the second step that he takes. Now listen, there is a difference between a look and lust. You as a human being can appreciate that another human being is pretty, you're handsome, or whatever the word is. But when that goes to intent to objectify somebody else for your own benefit, now you have moved into sinful lust. And this objectification is what he is doing. He's watching Bathsheba take a bath. verse three and David sent and inquired about the woman.

Here's his third step. Now he's going to set up an encounter. He said, no look anymore. Now he wants to meet her. Let's make this very practical. Darling, this is when you're getting ready in the morning, putting on your makeup and you ain't thinking about your husband. You're thinking about your boss.

This is when you adjust your gym time because you know that girl's there and when she laughs at your dumb jokes, it makes you feel better about you. This is when, that girl that you dated way back in high school 25 years ago when you were all slim like Tarzan she like sends you a little private message in your social media and instead of blocking her immediately like the devil of hell she is then you just shoot it back and be like hey girl what's up ain't no big deal read through the whole Bible they say nothing about text okay

that's it this is it and David sent and inquired about the woman and then amen The Bible doesn't know who it is, but somebody says, and one said, is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Elium, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? This is David's chance. This is the opportunity that God would love David so much. He would put somebody in his life and would be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, hold on, hold on. You know who she is?

She's married to another dude, David. You know this? This is the Spirit of God coming in going, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. This is the Holy Ghost saying, back up, Terry, put it in reverse. That's what this is. See, 1 Corinthians 6 says this, flee sexual immorality. Any time any of us have ever failed sexually, it's because at some point we didn't flee, we flirted. Every single time, that's what happens.

And when the Bible says flee sexual immorality, that word in Greek for sexual immorality is porn. Sound familiar, and it is a junk drawer for all sexual sin. Sexual sin, according to the Bible, is any sex outside of marriage. And marriage, according to the Bible, is one man and one woman for one lifetime. And anything outside of that, according to Scripture, is sexual sin. And so, this guy is like, you see the steps David's taken? He's laying on his couch. doesn't go to war, walking around a roof.

Who's that? Go get her for me. And then somebody would be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, are you sure? What it reminds me of is in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs is a wisdom book. And there are three chapters back to back to back, where an older guy is trying to warn a younger guy about these decisions that lead to death and destruction in your own life.

I can't think, maybe it's somewhere in the Bible, but I can't think of any place in the Bible that dedicates three full chapters. in a row to warn us about a particular sin, but when it comes to sexual sin, we get this warning for three chapters. In Proverbs chapter 5, this older guy is warning the younger guy, and he says this, for the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey. It's like, hey, bro, I know it's sweet at first. I know it makes you feel good when she give you compliments, and you're like, nobody at home gives me compliments, but she, it's like, it's sweet as honey when she laughs at your dumb jokes.

tells you how awesome you are. You're like, she really gets me. Yeah, she's going to get you, but it don't mean what you think it means. Her speech is smoother than oil. My wife's speech ain't smooth as oil. I mean, it drips a lot, but it ain't smooth like oil. Drive somebody crazy.

But in the end, she is bitter as wormwood. It's a trick. Sharp as a two-edged sword. Listen to this. Her feet go down to, Do you see the path language here? Her steps follow the path to Sheel. Bro, she ain't flirting with you.

She's trying to kill you. And she don't even know it. She does not ponder the path of life. Her ways wander, and she does not know it. It's one step at a time, one step at a time, one step at a time. But you want to experience, Sheal was the Hebrew word for hell. You want to experience hell? Then you follow her where she's leading.

You follow him where he's leading. I mean, you've got to ask, whole bunch of people at our church, and it has destroyed their lives. And I'm not here to beat you up. I'm not here to make you feel bad about you. I'm here to love you enough to just share the warning from the scripture. Watch out, man, watch out, watch out. Then when you get to chapter 6, verse 27, the old guy asked the young guy this, can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? Here's what the full thinks. Uh-huh. No, man, I can do this. I can do this. This is We're in love. It's just different. Well, I mean, I know, like we're married in our hearts.

That's not a thing. You realize that? You're just making that up. And if you, I'm just telling you, man, if you're sleeping with somebody that's not your spouse, if you're dating and you're sleeping together and you ain't married, you ain't married in your heart. You can get married. Real married. And listen, bro, if you're taking something that's not yours, you're not ready to be a husband. And listen, darling, if you're the daughter of the king, the only person that should get to touch you is somebody that commits. their whole life to you, that's how valuable you are. And you think you can carry fire close to your chest and not get burned. There's like six Mary people clapping. That's it. Everybody's like, how does he know? Let me just say, I know. Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? The answer is no. You cannot. I know you think you can. That's why this man's the fool. See, I've told you, man, my friend, Jeff Kopp, told me one time the three most dangerous words, ever say is this, I got this. And when it comes to sexual sin, one of them says that David,

whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, David, she's married to the, to Uriah, the Hittite. And ultimately, David's saying, I got this. I had a guy after 722 come up to me and say, hey, man, for years, I said, I got this. And then one day this got me. And it blew it my whole life. This is what's happening here. By the time you get to chapter 7 of Proverbs, the older guy says to the younger guy this in verse 7, I have perceived among the youths a young man lacking sense. When you flirt with sexual immorality and don't flee from it, you lack sense. That's Hebrew for you're dumb. You're dumb, man. Then it says this in verse 8. Passing, I think this is the key verse to understand these three chapters. Passing along the street near her corner.

taking the road to her house. That you talk to anybody that's ever blown their life up sexually, and what they will tell you is they would give anything to back up to this decision. At some point, they're walking down the road, and they haven't actually sinned yet, but they notice, they give that look. And there she is, saying, come on, why don't you come down here?

And you begin to think, I could take a couple steps down this corner. I mean, I've looked through the whole Bible, and nowhere in the Bible does it say, thou shalt not turneth a corner. I mean, it's just a lunch. What's the big deal with a lunch? It's just a lunch.

It's just a few pictures. It's not porn. It's just Instagram. It's just one DM. All I'm going to do is just check on her. See how she's doing. And it's just, there's some decision that made a decision that made a decision way back there that leads to destruction.

Yeah. And then by the time you get to verse 21, it says this. With much seductive speech, she persuades him with her smooth talk. She compels him. And then first 22, he's being facetious here. And all at once, he follows her. Everybody here knows it's not all at once. It seems like it happened all at once.

You ever know somebody that blow up their marriage? Let's not talk about us. We ain't got a time for that. Let's talk about some other people, okay? You ever know some people, you'd be like, did you hear about Jim and Tammy? Tell me, well, all of a sudden, he packed everything up and left.

That's not how it ever goes. It's one step after another step. after another step, and then when it goes public, then it's all of a sudden. And all at once, he follows her, and I love this. This is the description. As an ox goes to the slaughter. I don't know if you ever slaughtered something before,

but I'm here to help. You see, the ox gets in his shoot, and the ox thinks, I'm big, I'm bad, I'm hairy, I'm tough, I got this. He seconds away of taking a bullet in the brain and being dead. He's like, that's what it's like. That's what it's like when you walk down. this lane. He gives another illustration that I like even more, or as a stag is caught fast

till an arrow pierces its liver. You ever liver shot a stag? Well, I have. I shoot a Matthews because I'm a Christian, okay? And I hunt a lot. And the bows are so good these days. The arrows go so fast and the broadheads are so sharp. They travel at over 330 feet per second. The broad heads are so sharp. What you're supposed to do is when they get broadside, right behind the arm, I don't see anybody writing this down, man. Right behind the arm, you either go double lung or right in the heart, you release that arrow, it'll make a smack, they'll mule kick,

they'll be dead in 60 seconds, they'll go see Jesus, and you can take them to the house with you. That's how I was supposed to go. Glory. But sometimes, for whatever reason, they move, or you're a bad shot, or whatever happens, okay? And you pull it a little bit, and you shoot them behind the ribs, and it'll hit the liver.

And here's the thing, though, the arrows are so fast and the broadheads are so sharp. They don't even know they've been hit. That's how fast it zips right through them. I have killed deer before. The deer's standing there, and I shoot it back right in the liver, and it goes soot. And the deer is surprised that the arrow, with his liver juice, sticks in the ground over there. And they're like, hey, what was that? No, just stand there and go, I feel like I have a bad horn.

I'm going to go lay down. And it's a dead deer walking, man. Now it takes a long time, it takes about six or eight hours, and they just get all gross and they go and die. And here's what the Bible is saying. Every single person that flirts with sexual immorality, every single person, I think, you know, you got that little hidden porn stash,

but nobody knows about this, I got this, don't worry about me. Or you're talking to somebody that you're not married to, you're taking something that's not yours. Yeah, you're a dead man walking. Even if you don't feel the pierce of the arrow, And you go, no, no, no, no, this is different. It ain't different, man. It ain't different.

You see, what a bunch of you, the more religious you are, the more likely you are to say this. Pastor, why don't you just show us the line? Just show us the line. Like, how far is too far? What's okay and what's not okay? Because if you could just show us the line, then we would know what to do and whatnot to do. Here's the problem, man. That'll never sustain you.

Because the moment you say, all right, that's the line. If you cross over that, that sin. On this side's not sin. There it is. There is the sin line. Then by human nature, what we will do is see how close we can get to the line without going over the line. And the moment you begin down that road, you begin to go, well, how far can I go over the line and still manage the consequences? And the moment you do that, then you're like, how in the world that I end up here?

This is how you got your last speeding ticket. It's just true, man. You get on 95 north, speed limit? 70. And you're like, come on, they're not being serious. I mean, it's not like 70. in it it it's like 70-ish nobody's ever been pulled for 71

I still need a I wish some policeman will help me out here and just give me the number so what do you do all right well how far how you know I'm not going who's going 70 other than the guy in front of me in the slow lane but he's from somewhere else all right so so then how far over

can I go and still manage the consequences right 80 81 I don't know what it is and then you pass a fuck cop and you're not looking for me so you crank it up couple more, and then what happens? They got you. This is what happens, man. This is what happens.

And you're like a stag that's been liver shot. You see, any time you hear about some Christian failing or falling, especially when it's some famous pastor, man, I always have some, we have some young staff and they'll say, Pastor, what happened? How could that happen? What happened? I'll go, let me tell you exactly what happened. This man began to take his eyes off Jesus and the way God has called him.

us to live and begins to go down a path and the spirit of God came to him and said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. And he said, I got this. And he ain't got this. And all of the rest of it is just details. If you've been sinned against sexually, that's what happened. If somebody cheated on you, that's what happened. If you were the adulterer, that's what happened.

Every single one of us are just a few steps away from destruction. And you talk to anybody, anybody that regrets the things they've done. And every single one of us would say, I wish I could go back to that corner and make a different decision. This is the warning that the old guy gives. And so David gets this warning. David, isn't she married to somebody else? But he says, I got this.

Verse four, so David sent messengers and took her. And now it's over, man. And she came to him and he lay with her. now she had been purifying herself from uncleanness, and she returned to her house, and the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, I am pregnant. Now here's what's crazy, man.

There's a lot of commentaries that talk about this now, like, was this even consensual? I mean, he's the king, and she ain't the king, so the power dynamics are for sure. The Bible does not specifically call it statutory rape. It could be. It's at least adultery. Later, she is going to marry him,

but what David does is David thinks, I can handle the circumstances. I mean, this is a mess, but I can handle the mess. And so here's what he does. He comes up with his plan to kind of cover it over, so nobody will know. So he calls for Uriah, the husband. Go get Uriah, bring him home.

They bring him home. He's upro you to man. Appreciate you fighting for the country. And because I appreciate you so much, we're going to throw a party at your house, banqueting table, and then you get to sleep in your bed with your wife tonight.

But Yariah is such a leader that he eats the food, but he's like, I'm not going to sleep inside. all of my men are fighting out in the field. I can't be sleeping in my own bed so he won't go through with it. Then David tried to liquor him up to get him to do it. He still won't do it. So then David comes up with this plan.

Calls in the bosses, the generals, and said, here's what we're gonna do. I want you to put Uriah on the front lines. I want you to attack the Amarites. I want you to get as close to their castle as you can. And then when Uriah is out there, everybody just kind of back on up, see what happens. Uriah dies on the battlefield.

In verse 26, and when the wife If Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. And when the morning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. You see, David thinks he's gotten away with it. But 30 years of ministry, let me just tell you what is true. Nobody ever gets away with it. Because God knows all, God sees all, God judges all.

And what's crazy, it's the kindness of God that leads to. us to repentance, and God's kindness is to convict you of this sin, not ignore it. Man, I see this very popular tattoo that people are getting, and it's stupid, please don't give this. And if you have it, let me help you fix it somehow. And it says this, only God can judge me. Oh, help you. You don't want only God to judge you.

You don't want to wait until you're before the great white throne judgment of God. You want some brothers and sisters that love you enough to judge you right now and be like, whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa don't go down this road you're gonna die and he doesn't listen and you listen to this and you look at david and you go how could this be how could the man that's writing the psalms it's a man after god's own heart how could he train wreck his life like this i can tell you just like me and you could did every single one of us have the ability to absolutely train wreck our lives and our families and our work and our witness and especially when it comes to sexual immorality. And it matters so much. All other sins, the man commits are outside his body,

but he who sends sexually sins against his own body. Listen, man, I've been married to aggressive for 22 plus years. I love that girl more than I ever have. I love my babies. I love this church. I am a Pharisee when it comes to these things. Because I ain't going to flirt with it. I'm going to flee. I'm going to run away. And in fact, the way I live my life has come under reproach lately because people say, well, this Billy Graham rule is toxic. You can call it whatever you want to. I don't care if I'm popular. I'm going to be married.

You understand? And I ain't trying to be normal. You know what normal is in this world? Normal is broke and divorced and depressed. You can have normal. I'm going to go abundant lives the way Christ has called us to. But the moment you think, not me, I would never. Then you're the one that scares me.

Because in a couple of decisions, every single one of us have the potential to train wreck our life. Pride comes before the fall. Then you get to chapter 12 of 2nd Samuel. It's been about a year. David thinks, ooh, we got this. And the Lord sent Nathan. Let me ask you, Nathan's going to call David out.

Do you have some Nathan's in your life? I sure do hope you got some people in your life and they love you more than they love what you think about them. But they are willing to have the hard conversation with you. Do you have some Nathan's? I know some of you're like, yep, you right now. Okay, thanks. But that's not enough.

You need some people in your life. And Nathan comes to David, and he says this. Now think about this. Nathan's the prophet. He's got to confront the king on his sin, and he doesn't know how to bring it up. So he's brilliant. He's like, hey boss, I need some help.

Tells him this story. He makes up a story. He goes, there's these two people that live in your kingdom. One guy's rich, one guy's poor. The rich guy has sheep and herds, and lambs of plenty, but then there's this poor guy, he's got one little baby you lamb, and he doesn't even treat it like a lamb.

He treats it like his daughter, like named it and sings it songs, unless it live in the house, and gets his birthday presents. And then one day the rich guy had a friend coming over for dinner, and instead of taking one of the many lambs or sheep that he's got all over the place,

he goes and he takes the one little baby lamb from this guy that loved it, and he slaughtered it, and he ate it. What shall we do? And then David is ticked, man. Verse five, then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, as the Lord lives, this man who has done this deserves to die,

and he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity. Then Nathan said to David, it was you. Yeah, man, you're the man I'm talking about. You're the guy. You ever notice how easy it is to take this Bible, and use it like binoculars to just see all the evil things that everybody else has done

instead of holding it up as a mirror and going, uh-oh, there's a problem, and the problem is me. And then Nathan, on behalf of the Lord, when you get to verse 9, says, why have you despised the word of the Lord to do what is evil in his sight? David, he was blessing you.

He'd give you whatever you want. I told you a few weeks ago, I'm at my house in my kitchen, having a robust dialogue of one of my children who has not made wise decisions. Don't try to figure out who it is. Okay, there's only two to choose from.

But I'm talking, it can apply to either. There's no doubt about it. And I raise my voice and I'm like, what are you doing? What are you doing? If you would just listen to me, your whole life would be awesome. You are so blessed. If you would just do what I say, everything would be awesome. And the spirit of God was like, tell him again, Dad.

I was like, listen to me. If you would just do what your father who loves you says, You would avoid so much pain. And God said, tell him again. And I was like, oh, what a minute. I don't think we're talking about him anymore, are we? So true, is it not? Why have you despised the word of the Lord?

And then he says, now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house. That's verse 10. In other words, I will forgive you of your sin, but God does not rescue him from his consequences. And the rest of his life, man, his family's jacked. Absalom comes up. and then in verse 13 here's what David does here's how David responds he has he has no defense he simply says I have sinned against the Lord how do you respond to conviction man can I just be

honest little therapy for me if y'all don't mind okay I get so defensive I have elders whose job are to help me follow Jesus better and they are super good they are supernaturally gifted at pointing out all my problems, okay? And whenever they do, I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on. Let me give you some reasons why it's not that big of deal, okay? Oh, you want to talk about the spec, and I'm, I'm funny you brought it up because you got a log in yours, and I know more verses than you, so let's go, okay? That's my, it's so bad, man. But not David. Maybe this is why he's a man after God's own heart. He immediately just repents. I have sinned against the Lord. And then look at Nathan's response. And Nathan said to David, the Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die.

Literally put away means pass over. What? How's it that easy? That's not fair. Is that fair? Doesn't he have to do something more than that? I have said against the Lord. I mean, is this it? What a scandal of grace. How in the world could David do such atrocious things? And then Nathan, the prophet of God, says to him, the Lord has passed over your sin. You shall not die. Well, I'm glad you asked. That was all just preamble to the sermon. Psalm 51, go there now.

You see, 2nd Samuel 11 and 12 is the objective reality of what happened before David writes Psalm 51, and Psalm 51 is the subjective appropriation of the objective reality of the grace of God in the life of David. Just in case you're a little slow on the uptake, Let me just be clear here.

We are all David at this point. Every single one of us have sinned against the Lord. So here's what David does. Here's how David responds. Psalm 51-1. Have mercy on me, oh God. No excuses. As a Jesus follower, this should be our posture.

Like, do you take your sin serious enough? Or do you think, well, I'm not that bad. Oh, good. Every single one of us are much, much worse than we thought. We're not a good guy, man. That we need the mercy of God, because what we deserve is death. He knows this. Mercy means not getting what we deserve.

And how in the world could God save a murdering, unfaithful rapist? The answer? Just like he saves me and you. Same way, because we're the same. And he says, have mercy on me, oh God. According to your steadfast love, that word in Hebrew is Hase. Dr. Brunson taught us a few weeks ago where that word comes from. Hesed, it's a word picture.

The picture here for Hesed, steadfast love, it's like the picture of a nursing mom. When the baby cries, the mom lactates, and it's the cry of the baby is met by exactly what the baby needs. And when we cry out to God, have mercy on me, God, our cries stir in God, this steadfast love that is produced in Him. to meet all of our needs. That's what he's talking about here. According to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Not from now on I'll try harder, God. That's not what he does.

He goes, I need you to do for me what I can't do for me. Wash me thoroughly for my iniquity and cleanse me for my sin. Notice that God is the active agent here. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. No excuses. Just confession. And then he says, again, against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. Okay, to which you think, well, wait a minute. I mean, Uriah thinks you sin against him because now he's dead.

I bet Bashiba's mama thinks you sin against her, so what is he talking about? Here's what he's saying, all sin is a sin against God. We can sin against one another, we can hurt one another, but every time we sin, it is always a sin against God. You remember in the New Testament, in the Gospels, where Jesus is teaching in a house, and it was like super full. And so this paralyzed guy's got four buddies, and they bring him to Jesus on a mat,

but they can't get in the house so they climb up on top of the roof and they dig a hole in the roof. And they lower the paralytic guy on a mat down through the roof. And Jesus looks at the guy, and the first thing he does, it says, your sins are forgiven. And the religious people are like, who does he think he is? Only God can forgive sins. Ding, ding, ding, ding, you have a winner. The reason that Jesus could say your sins are forgiven. forgiven is because everything that man had ever done was against Jesus. You don't get to forgive

people's sins that aren't against you. Like we got an elder couple right over here, okay? Joy and Glenn. Just imagine for a second, just imagine that they got into a verbal sparring sin match on the way to church, all right? Now, I know it never happened to you, but just pretend that you got into it. This is why Gretz and I have never ridden the church together ever, ever, ever, ever, okay? And I mean, on the way here, they're just cussing at each other and hollering at each other and just sinning all over the place and calling each other names and getting historical. You know, some people, when they fight, they get hysterical. Some people get historical.

Well, I remember back in 1980 times, and then somebody's, well, I guess we'll just live like a fat alcoholic mama and whatever, you know, like get all crazy. But then when they walked into church, they put on their elder, and they were like, how's everybody doing? Just blessed in highly favor. They were just faking it all the way. And the Spirit of God told me that they had sinned against one another. and then imagine as the service started, I walked up to him and I said, I forgive you.

You would say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. What do you mean you forgive me? We sin against each other. We didn't sit against you. You have no business forgiving us for our sin against one another. Makes sense. But Jesus says you are forgiven because every single sin is always against him. This is what David is saying.

Against you have I sin. And then he goes on to say, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. In other words, what David is saying is, if you damned me to hell, you would be doing the right thing. This is a humble posture. Verse five, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin. Did my mother conceive me? Now, I know some of you've grown up in a generation where your kindergarten teacher told you that you were a snowflake and you were a rainbow and your puppy's breath and you're a skittal. Well, look here, Skiddle.

She lied to you. Yeah, your kindergarten teacher is a liar too. every single one of us, especially me, are a crooked, wretched, and depraved, blackhearted sinner, the most selfish thing on the planet, born that way. That's what David says. Amen. Amen is right. And then he says,

Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. This is crazy. He's saying, God, you're even going to use my own sin to teach me some things about your character and nature that otherwise I wouldn't learn. Then he says, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. What the priests would do with hyssop is at worship services, they would dip it in blood

and sling it on people. Think about that. Imagine that kind of service. On the day of atonement, they would dip the blood of a lamb and sling it on the people so they went home with blood on them. You imagine getting blood on you at church? This is intense. Yeah.

Because without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sin. Or if a house was deemed unclean, once it was consecrated and made clean, they would take hyssop in blood and they would mark it on the outside so everybody knew it was a crime. clean house. And so David is like, God, I need you to do that for me. Because I can't clean me up. Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. In other words, David is claiming, because of your mercy and steadfast love, even though I have sinned and deserved death, you ain't done with me. Look here, folks, he ain't done with you either. Even if you've done some stuff you never dreamed you had the ability to do,

he ain't done with you either. hide your face from my sins and blot out my iniquities. You see, here's what David knows. David knows Exodus 34. And in Exodus 34, God tells Moses these two truths about what happens when we sin, and they seem to counter against one another. In Exodus 34, the Lord passed before Moses, and he proclaimed the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness,

keeping steadfast love for thousands. That's just who God is. And then listen to these, look at this next verse. When sin happens, two things, there's two options. Forgiving iniquity and transgression in sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty. Well, how in the heck are those two things simultaneously true? And I think David is like,

I want to be on the forgiving iniquity. transgression side, not the by no means clear the guilty. How is that simultaneously true? How can you simultaneously forgive sin and the guilty pay? Short answer, it is reconciled at the cross of Jesus Christ. At the cross of Jesus Christ for anyone who would put their faith in Christ simultaneously, the payment for our sin is poured out on Jesus and he makes the payment we get credit for His righteousness, and we are forgiven of our sin. So the way that David is saved, the way that David's sins are passed over about almost a thousand years before Jesus walks the earth, it happens in Romans chapter 3 is where it's

described. And it says this, in Romans 323, for all have sin and fallen short of the glory of God. That's David, that's you, that's me. and are justified by his 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. So that's how we are forgiven by putting our faith in Jesus. And then they're like, what about David? David hadn't even heard of Jesus yet.

I'm glad you asked. Paul says this. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had 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 Jesus. Let me explain.

Because of God's justice, all sin must be paid for. Because of God's mercy, he delays the payment. This is how David makes it to heaven. Actually, this is how me and you make it to heaven today. Why? Anybody sin this week? And here you are. But the Bible says the wages of sin is death. Because if he did not delay payment,

you'd be a greasyy spot right there. in the chair, right? Nobody to be in here. Because of God's justice, all sin must be paid for. Because of God's mercy, he delayed the payment. And because of his grace, he made the payment on our behalf. He is the just and the justifier. So what David did back in the day, David puts his faith in the coming Messiah. David puts his faith in the one who would be pierced for our transgressions. See Psalm 22. David writes that down. David knows that there's going to be a Messiah, there's going to be a lamb that comes, and his bloodshed would count for me. And David is credited with righteousness because the faith that he has in the coming Messiah.

Another way to say it is this. What we know by name, Jesus, he knew by faith. And that's how he was forgiven. Now, let me be honest. Everybody loves a good forgiveness sermon, but it's not enough. And most like big, growing evangelical churches want to stop right there. But we can't stop because he keeps going. after he says, cleanse me and wash me, make me whiter than snow, he keeps going.

And then he prays this, creating me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. God, I need to be different. I need you to change my wants and change my desires and do something for me in here that I can't do for myself. You see, it's not enough for me to be sorry. I need to be different. It's not enough to be sorry, but I need to be. be different. And if you're not different, I don't know that you've ever experienced the grace of God. Now, this is not workspace righteousness. This is just evidence of the goodness of God

transforming your life. We talk about it around here a lot, man, getting run over by the grace train. If you've ever been run over by the grace train, it changes everything about everything and what I mean is this, like if Pastor Chris was late today, okay, we would have a talk about that. I promise. And if he comes stroll in here about, you know, the thing starts, I know y'all don't know this, but it starts at 1122. I know it's hard to keep up with. That's when it starts, all right?

So if he comes in about 1205 and sits down in the front row, I would notice that after the service, I go, hey man, where you been? And if he told me, sorry, I'm late, I got hit by a freight train. But he looked just like he looks now. I would think, I don't think you tell him the truth. Because if you got run over by a train, there's no way you would look like you look now. You'd be a bit disheveled, probably missing a limb,

maybe bleeding from the nose and walking with a limp. You would be different. So how in the world can you encounter the infinitely greater power of the good news of the gospel of Christ be run over by it and then nothing changed? It's impossible. So what we need is I don't need to just be forgiving, God. I need to be different.

Creating me a clean heart, oh God, and renewing me a steadfast spirit. Cast me not away from your presence. Take not your Holy Spirit from me. You can't lose your salvation, but you ought to. So he's just declaring it. Look, man, it's by grace you were saved, and it's by grace you stay saved.

And then he says, restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. God, can you just remind me of the joy I had for you when I first was forgiven? Because I've taken my eyes off of you and I got them fixed on this girl over here, and it messed me all up. Restore unto me the joy of my salvation. Now, listen, listen, I've read this Psalm a bunch in the last 30 years.

This week for the very first time, you know what I noticed? There's not one mention of sex. There's not one mention of murder. There's not one mention of lying or cover up in Psalm 51. Why? Because those are all just symptoms of the problem. and the deep problem was sin. Then he goes on to say,

and then I will teach transgressors, your ways and sinners will return to you. In other words, God, you are going to use this in my life for ministry. You're going to use my mess for ministry. You're going to use, you're going to use this misery that I went through to share the message of the good news of your steadfast love. He says, deliver me from blood guiltiness, oh God, oh God of my salvation and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.

Oh, Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. You know what this means? Forgiving people worship. Forgiving people worship. Remember this girl in the gospels, man? A woman of ill repute. She was a prostitute. She's forgiven by Jesus.

He's having a dinner with religious people. And she knows that she's been forgiven by him. So she walks into the room, uninvited. She anoints his head and his feet with oil. She begins to weep over it. She breaks open an alabaster jar. It changes the atmosphere in the place. And the religious people are like, who is this touching you?

Jesus is like, I tell you who it is. She's been forgiven much because she loves much. Let me tell you who worships. Those of you that worship like a mannequin, you better get into it. I'm telling you, see, you better get into it. Amen. Then he says, for you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. Oh, God, you will not despise. In other words, wrote religious activity does not move the heart of God. Just singing all the songs and doing the things that you always do because that's what you've always done. That ain't it, man. That it is a daily broken and contrite heart. that every single day that we come to God and we confess and we repent,

the life of the believers should be that of daily repentance. And so in about nine minutes or so, we're going to invite you to come to the altar, to come and be prayed for. Anybody that has this same kind of prayer that David has, and you need to say, because of the things that I have done, or maybe because of the things that have been done to me, and you need to say, have mercy on me, God, wash me,

creating me a clean heart. Let me tell you who will sit in their seat, the people that do not have a broken and contrite heart. The fake you's doing just fine, man. So you can just sit right there, and I promise you, nothing will ever change. But I'm hoping and praying that we would be a church like Jacob that wrestles with Jesus, and we walk away,

and we never walk the same. That's what moves the heart of God. And he says, do good to Zion in your good pleasure, build up the walls of Jerusalem, and then you will, you delight in right sacrifices and burn offerings and whole burn offerings of the bull will be offered on your altar. In other words, the church that pleases God is full of a whole bunch of people with a broken and contrite heart crying out.

Have mercy on me, oh God. So I'm going to ask you, man, do you need to cry out this kind of prayer? Because of something you've done? Some of you turned that corner a long way ago. And you say, I could have used this sermon 10 years ago. All right, God's not done with you. He offers forgiveness and hope for you. you right now. I pray to God, there's some of you, and you're still on the other side of the

corner, and Jesus is going to use this message right now to save your marriage and save your future. But do you need to cry out to him and say, Lord, I need help. Have mercy. Cleanse me, wash me, forgive me, change me, creating me a clean heart. Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Because if that's you, we're going to invite you to come and be prayed for it. And I'm telling you, the moment you begin to think, yep, that's what I need to do, the enemy is going to whisper some stuff. He's going to whisper, what will people think? And he's going to whisper, God's done with you, man. And I need you to proclaim this prayer. I need you to proclaim louder than the lies of the enemy that therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ

Jesus. Because here's what I want to tell you about David after he prays this. It worked. It worked. After Psalm 51, David walks in a a freedom that doesn't even make sense. So I'm doing this little read through the Bible and a year thing. So it just tells me what to read. So I read. A few weeks ago, I read 2nd Samuel 22.

Now, David slept with Bashiba in 2nd Samuel 11. In case you're new to Bible study, 22 comes after 11. In chapter 12, he confesses, I have sin against the Lord. But then by the time you get over here to Psalm 22, I mean, excuse me, 2nd Samuel 22, he's going to write down a song that's also recorded in Psalm 18, which means Psalm 51 has already happened.

And listen to some of the words that this adultering, lying murderer writes down. David says, the Lord dealt with me according to my righteousness. According to the cleanness of my hands, he rewarded me. Wait a minute. Does David have clean hands? No. For I have kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God. This brother needs clinical help. What's wrong with him? Who is he talking about? For all his rules were before me. Are you sure? How about the one about don't murder?

How about the one about don't sleep with people to an ancient wife? Those are two that come to mind, David. What are you talking about? And his statutes, I did not put away from me. I was blameless before him. I kept myself from guilt. So the Lord has rewarded me according to my right. Righteousness. Anybody here want God to reward you according to your righteousness? You go, what are, according to the cleanness of my hands. Here's the key. In his sight. With the merciful, you show yourself merciful. What is David doing here? David is walking in theologically what we call the imputed righteousness of Christ. Somehow, supernaturally, by the Spirit of God. David knows what Paul is going to write to the church in Corinth.

when Paul says, God made him who was without sin to be sin for us that we would be made the righteousness of Christ. And so what David knows is that when God sees David, because of his faith in the coming Christ, God does not see his past sin. He does not see his mistakes. He doesn't see his adultery, his affair, the murder. He sees the imputed righteousness of Christ. Therefore, he can say, I stand blameless before God. Can you imagine walking into that kind of freedom? The best picture I know of this in all the Bible is in Luke chapter 15. Jesus is explaining with three parables about the character and nature of the God that we serve.

And he says, there was a kid that goes to his dad and says, Father, you're dead to me, give me my inheritance. And you know it's a Jesus story because the dad gives him his inheritance. Now, I don't know how you grew up, but where I'm from, If I went to my daddy and said, Daddy, you're dead to me, give me what's coming to me. He said, I'm about to show you what's coming. That's how, it'd have been a short parable. Okay.

And the dad gives the boy what's coming to him. And then the Bible says that he goes off and he squanders it on wild living, which included sexual immorality because his old brother's like he spent half of it on prostitutes. And then the boy finds himself in the pit, man, feeding pigs. I don't even have time to explain how terrible that would be for a Jewish boy. And then he comes to his senses. And he says, maybe I'll go back and try to work for my dad. And if I can work for him, maybe I can just be one of his, like, servants.

And he's working on his rehearsal of apology when he comes back, and he's going to try to, like, work his way back onto the farm. And then the Bible says that the father sees his son from a long way off, which means this, that every single day the dad's at the end of the driveway, just scanning the horizon for the day that his son comes home. And then the Bible says that he runs to his boy. First century, Jewish man didn't run, especially if you were a landowner

because you've got to hike up that robes show all that man died of nobody like, no got time for that man you know, that's gross. It would be humility. He humiliates himself in front of everybody and he goes and he grabs the boy. He embraces the boy.

Raps his arms around him. You know why? Because Deuteronomy says, if you've got a rebellious kid then the elders should just throw rocks at him until he dies. And maybe the dad's thinking if people will start throwing rocks,

I'm going to make sure they hit me and not my boy. And then the Bible says he kisses his face. Literally in Greek, he fills up his face with kisses. That's not one little. And then he just four things.

He gives him a ring to reclaim him, he gives him the shoes so that he'll know he's his son. He throws a party for him. But the picture of righteousness, he says, go get my robe. Go get my robe. Why? Because the boy's a mess.

Nowhere in the Bible does it imply that the boy went by Holiday Inn Express and cleaned up before he came to his dad. It's straight from the pig pin to Dad's house. And so when everybody sees the boy, they see a mess. And he says, go get my robe. It would have been perfect. It would have been spotless. And he wraps the perfect spotless robe of righteousness around the boy.

So when anybody sees him, they don't see the filth. They see the father. Can you imagine walking in that kind of freedom? David did. It worked for David. How about you? This weekend we prayed for thousands and thousands of people to walk into freedom that Christ has purchased for you.

in spite of you. So how do you do that? Here's what the Bible says. In James chapter 5, Jesus says, is anyone among you suffering? Man, some of you are suffering. A guilty conscience, shame, condemnation. For some of you, for some of us,

it's things that we have done. For some, it's what's been done against you. He says, let him pray. Anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. Is anyone among you sick? Now normally when we go to James 5, we talk about physical sickness and healing.

But the Bible says that hope deferred makes the heart sick. And some of you feel like because of your divorce, because of your affair, because of your abortion, because of whatever, fill in the blank, your sexual sin. Some of you feel like you're hopeless. But I'm telling you, man, if the tomb is empty, there's hope for you. Is anyone among you sick? Some of you have a sick heart.

and your prayer has created me a clean heart. And I'm telling you, based on the evidence of David, he can do it. So what do you do? He says, let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil. That's why we got oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up.

And then here's his last bit of instruction. And if anyone has committed sins, let's be honest, that's all of us. That's every single one of us. and if he has committed sins he will be forgiven, therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. You see, there's a bunch of you,

and you're kind of like David, you sin back in the day, and you think you're hiding it away, and you're going to get away with it. In fact, there's a bunch of you that are married right now, and when you were not married, you were dating, you were sleeping together, and you thought, you know what, but we made it and we got married, and you've never addressed that thing,

and you need to confess to the Lord. Husbands, I didn't do it right. Love is patient. It's the first definition, and I was impatient. Or the wife, I gave myself to somebody who had not committed themselves to me yet. Or maybe it's a sexual sin or an affair or an adultery or something that even happened against you. And the enemy tries to use it, even though it's not your fault. He uses some kind of abuse against you to tell you you're broken, you're dirty, you're condemned.

And when we come and we confess our sins and we pray for one another, the Bible says we'll be healed. Why? because therefore now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So we're just going to do what the book says. For any of us, any of us, that the whispers of condemnation of the enemy, particularly in this area, are getting loud,

then we're going to come, but we're going to confess our sins, we're going to pray for one another. For some of you, maybe you're like Nathan and you need to come on behalf of somebody else. But we're just going to do what it says. Would you please stand to your feet? As I begin to pray,

we've got a bunch of anointers, We've got a bunch of elders and deacons and care team people and pastors, y'all come on down. And if you know you need to be prayed for, we're going to sing plenty of songs, okay? But as soon as I start praying, you can just come right now. And again, man, the fake you is doing just fine. But if you need God to creating you a clean heart, then won't you come right now? Our good and gracious heavenly, Father God, we love you more than anything. And we thank you that you loved us.

And God, this is love. Not that we've got to get ourselves all fixed and straightened out to be presented. to you, but you loved us by sending your son, Jesus Christ, as the propitiation, the payment that satisfies for our sin. God, I pray against the whispers of the enemy right now of doubt, of condemnation, of pride, and I pray that we would be a people with a broken and contrite heart, and we would come before you saying, have mercy on me, God, created me a clean heart, and we would walk out of here, and the chains would be gone, addictions would be broken, marriage is,

would be saved and freedom would reign in the name of Jesus. We pray this in the good strong name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen. Won't you come?