THE SINNER'S PREDICAMENT

#057                                                         THE SINNER’S PREDICAMENT                                                                                

Scripture  Psalm 51 NIV                                                                                                                        Orig. 10-7-61 (3-77)

                                                                                                                                                                                  Rewr. 2-10-88 

Passage:

 
¹ Have mercy on me, O God,
    according to your unfailing love;
according to your great compassion
    blot out my transgressions.
² Wash away all my iniquity
    and cleanse me from my sin.

³ For I know my transgressions,
    and my sin is always before me.
⁴ Against you, you only, have I sinned
    and done what is evil in your sight;
so you are right in your verdict
    and justified when you judge.
⁵ Surely I was sinful at birth,
    sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
⁶ Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb;
    you taught me wisdom in that secret place.

⁷ Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean;
    wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
⁸ Let me hear joy and gladness;
    let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
⁹ Hide your face from my sins
    and blot out all my iniquity.

¹⁰ Create in me a pure heart, O God,
    and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
¹¹ Do not cast me from your presence
    or take your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation
    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

¹³ Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
    so that sinners will turn back to you.
¹⁴ Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,
    you who are God my Savior,
    and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.
¹⁵ Open my lips, Lord,
    and my mouth will declare your praise.
¹⁶ You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
    you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
¹⁷ My sacrifice, O God, is^[b] a broken spirit;
    a broken and contrite heart
    you, God, will not despise.

¹⁸ May it please you to prosper Zion,
    to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
¹⁹ Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous,
    in burnt offerings offered whole;
    then bulls will be offered on your altar.

Purpose: To share with my people in an effort for all of us to deal with the gulf that exists between our sin and the holiness of God.

Keywords:          Confession         Greater Text      Revival                  Conversion         God’s Holiness                  Sin

Introduction

                We do not lack illustrations of sin run amuck in human lives.  The papers testify regularly in actual example what we know in foreboding moments of ourselves and people about us.  What might our lives really be like if the Spirit of Christ were not a modifying influence?

                Lately, we have read of the man in Arkansas who killed his wife, children, and grandchildren, apparently because the wife was threatening to leave him.  A man in another state with a history of mental problems, killed his sister and her children during a visit because the grandparents were showing affection for them.  In Utah recently, a woman and her family barricaded themselves in their homestead for several days to deny legal access; a law officer was killed when the confrontation finally came.  The newspapers daily carry articles about child abuse, and many other scenes of social conflict.

                Shades of Henry Lee Lucas!  Do you remember him? The papers daily carried his story.  The number of women dead by his hand (he claimed) reached an unbelievable 150. While some of these were later determined to be some sadistic exaggeration, he was linked to many of these cases.  The first murder was his own mother, in 1960.  He was imprisoned for that killing. 

                His judgment is not yet settled, a least as far as man is concerned.  God’s justice, however, will not fail.  His condemnation is not of a murderer of defenseless women.  That for which Lucas stands guilty before God is that he refused to live under a standard of law outside of himself.

                Davis describes for us in Psalm 51 the great discovery that he has made.  That God is just.  That His justice cannot be manipulated, intimidated, or confused. Whatever the sin, if it is unrequited, it faces the bar of God’s judgment.

1. Sin’s Burden Is the Cause of the Sinner’s Predicament.  V2 “Wash me from my iniquity. . . Cleanse me from my sin.”  V3 “I acknowledge my guilt, and my sins confront me all the day long.”  Any honest person will admit the problem with sin.  The old spiritual “Not my brother, not my sister, but it’s me O Lord, standing in the need of prayer.”  David, being an honest man, had to come to terms with himself.  V3 “I acknowledge my guilt.” 

It is the good favor of God that we can see this from the New Testament perspective.  Galatians 1:10f “Those who depend on obeying the law live under a curse.  For the Scripture says ‘Whoever does not always obey everything that is written in the law is under God’s curse.’ Now, it is clear that no man is put right with God by means of the law, because the Scripture says “He who is put right with God by faith shall live.’”

                A few years ago, Patti Hearst went from the millionaire’s mansion to a cell block.  She has been forgiven by society, by the system, and seems to be living a productive life.  During her trial, however, her court-appointed psychiatrist laid out in sequence the sordid exposé of her life.  Whether or not her sins came under the jurisdiction of God’s forgiveness remains to be seen.  And He knows some things about Patti Hearst that were not made public at her trial.  He likewise knows all about us.

                Honest people should also admit that the real burden of our sin is against God.  V4 “Against thee, thee only have I sinned.”  Back up a moment, and look at the record.  David caused a faithful woman to betray her husband on a kingly whim.  To cover that indiscretion, he ordered this soldier husband to be put in mortal danger.  The child conceived by this illicit union would die.  David’s sons begin at this moment to learn the lesson of their father’s moral compromise.  The nation Israel begins a date with destiny that will find the nation torn with division.

                Get a good look at the deception.  Uriah, the husband, was ordered home.  He would not go in to his wife while troops of the king were in danger.  He, himself, carried the order for his death. His own captain is used as an unwilling henchman.

                David’s sin was also a betrayal of trust.  There is no higher ethic than Hebrew law.  Someone once said, “We have 35 million laws and no improvement on the Ten Commandments.”  The basest malediction of the law is the failure to respect it as God’s law.

1. We Must Also View Sin from the Perspective of God’s Nature.  V3 “My sin confronts me all the day long.”  It is the universal malady of the human race.  Psalm 6:6 “All the night make I my bed to swim.  I water my couch with tears.”  Thus is the human dilemma, to be drawn down by the constancy of this struggle with sin. I Kings 15:5: “David did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and had not turned aside from any thing that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.”  Ezra 9:6 “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.” 

Or we treat it lightly, inconsequentially: Proverbs 14:9 “Fools make a mock at sin.” Micah 7:3 “. . . they may do evil with both hands earnestly.”

It is, first of all, the nature of God to perceive sin as it is.  It is the energy toward which all of God’s energy is cast.  It is the enigma compelling mortals to their doom.  James 1:15 “Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”

It is the nature of God to will all men delivered from this treachery.  Forgiveness through Christ is the means.  Desire for forgiveness is as strong as the will to sin.  Psalm 126:6 “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”  Luke 6:21 “Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh.”  It is remembrance of sin that brings the sweet rapture of divine forgiveness.  It is this remembrance of sin that brings the sweet rapture of divine forgiveness. It is this remembrance of sin that here keeps David watchful and prayerful.  Matthew 26:41 “Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation.”

III.           There Is, Finally, the Need to Share What He has Learned.  V13 “Then I will teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee. . . . My tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.  O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.”

                What he has learned about himself:

• That sin is a problem of constancy.
• That there is a relief.  I saw a church sign recently asking the question, “How do you spell relief?” The answer given was “P-R-A-Y-E-R.”
• That the best thing he can do for others is to live his faith openly.  We are not responsible for “converting” people to God, to faith.  We are duty bound, having walked through the jagged defile of sin’s anguish, to share winsomely what we have learned, experienced.

What he has learned about God:

• We must first note that it is a worshipful experience.  “My mouth shall show forth thy praise.”
• It is a worship experience that is of the heart.  We are told what it is not: V16 It is not sacrifice, burnt offering.  We are told what it is: It is a restorative experience; “salvation”—deliverance from sin—deliverance from its consequences, as far as that is possible, and “joy”—it is to possess a special gift, and to possess it with understanding.
• What we can best communicate to others about God is His “salvation,” and to show it by the “joy” that issues forth in the believer’s life.

Conclusion

                The name of David Livingston is known and associated with the cause of Christian missions.  He served God faithfully in the continent of Africa.  He was asked about how he stood up so well under the strictures brought on by the treachery and villainy he experienced at the hands of others.  His response, “I have faults myself.”

                We will do a better job relating to the sin of others, remembering that we have sins ourselves, and only the intercession of God can bring “salvation” and “joy” that issues forth from it.

Summary

                David’s plea is a plea for cleansing.  He found out long before that ritual doesn’t change anything, only relationship will set him free.  The essence of true religion, then, is not ritual, but relationship. For cleansing to afford him the peace that he seeks, he must take the source of his separation from God before the bar of God’s justice.  I Kings 15:5: “David did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and had not turned aside from any thing that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.”

                James Carter wrote the hundred year history of the Louisiana Baptist Children’s Home.  He included a note about the move to Louisiana College in 1903.  Kate Hawkins was matron.  An outbuilding was used as a tool shed during construction, and an offer came to install bath fixtures in the outbuilding.  We are told that Mrs. Hawkins refused this offer commenting that the children were not used to taking baths.  Fortunately, for us, and for David, he was a man of unusual cleanness of spirit, and it is in that spirit that he addresses his God for forgiveness, and for renewed relationship.