Heart Cries: Forgiveness -- Can I Begin Again?
Psalm 51
We’ll be talking today about a heart cry that I’m sure all of us have had over and over throughout our lives, i.e., the need to experience forgiveness. When you acknowledge that you have failed and, especially, when that failure has become known to others, you often feel like your life is ruined – that you are forever tainted.
The most dramatic biblical narrative involving person who loves God having a heart cry for forgiveness is almost surely the very familiar story of King David after his affair with Bathsheba. It was the Spring of the year when David should have been at war but had decided to stay at home. "He needs this vacation," some would surely have said. But Spring, according to legend, is the time when a man's emotions turn and turn and... And he was middle‑aged; supposedly also a very vulnerable time for a man. In other words, this was a dangerous and vulnerable period of David's life. And, of course, he gave in to that moral danger.
He saw the beautiful Bathsheba from his palace. In this time of weakness, he sinned. But the worst thing was how David pathetically tried to cover up the scandal after Bathsheba’s pregnancy became known. But, his cover-up plan didn’t work. Then, feeling enormous personal pressure because of the certain loss of reputation, David plotted to have Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, put to death under the guise of normal warfare.
The bottom line is that lust turned to adultery turned to deceit turned to murder. It's a frightening example of something we all know to be true, i.e., how one evil begets other evils in our lives. So, the time eventually came when David was married to Bathsheba. He thought the whole affair was behind him. For at least nine months he covered it up. I’ve been wondering out how many of us go to church with junk inside our lives that we’re trying to cover up. Affairs. Pornography. Uncontrolled anger. Lies and deception. But, we’ve found ways to go on with our lives and act as if it isn’t there at all. David is surely not the only one who has hidden things in his heart. And he thought he’d gotten by with it.
But that changed one day -- because God knew! David's good friend, the prophet Nathan, came and pointed out to him the seriousness of David's sins in a discussion that ended, “David, you are the man! You are guilty one.” At that time, David was flooded with the same emotions that every man or woman of conscience feels when convicted by the truth. Let’s face it: You and I can't be too hard on David about being a sinner. We sin ourselves. Where people part company in the sight of God is not on the issue of whether we’ve sinned, but on the issue of whether we’ve experienced forgiveness.
For me, one of the wonderful things about being a Christian is that we become people who have owned up to the fact that we have sinned only to discover that we can be declared forgiven (even of sins as great as David's) by God Himself ‑‑ on the basis of Jesus' death on the cross. In David's case, he composed Psalm 51 -- which is a poem telling of his pursuit of that forgiveness. Make note of this: David may be the man, other than Jesus, closer to God than any other in the Bible. Yet, here we find him on his knees begging for mercy.
Psalm 51 was not put into Scripture so that we could gloat over David's sin; still less that we might be able to excuse our own sins saying, "Well, he was worse than I." It's there because we, like David, sin – and we, like David, need forgiveness. And the Bible proclaims to all people that forgiveness is available. The pervasive message of the Bible is that God's love and grace are greater than your sins. Everyone needs forgiveness. And the Bible says that it is available to you through Jesus.
Today, we will look at the poem David composed about his heart cry for God's forgiveness (Psalm 51). In it, the steps to forgiveness are spelled out. They are so simple. You look inside and then confess your sin (51:1‑6). You look up to God and ask him to forgive you (51:7‑12). Then, you look out to the world with a heart of praise and tell them God can forgive them too. (51:13‑19).
Phase 1: An Inward Look (51:1‑6) I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me (v.3).
According to the whole of the Bible, an experience of forgiveness begins with confession that leads to repentance. What confession demands, of course, is ruthless self‑examination and honesty. Oliver Cromwell once rejected a painting of himself that left out his warts and flaws. He wanted the thing to be done just as he was, "Warts and all." Most of us though, in the spirit of our age, want the cosmetic flaws to be brushed out, to be hidden from view as if they were not there.
And the same is often true of our inner lives. You know how it is: When your conscience starts to bother you, you try all sorts of moral cosmetics to cover up what you’ve done ‑‑ you make excuses, you deny things, you rationalize your sins. It doesn't work, of course. You’ll find you may deceive yourself for a while. But I'll tell you — you rarely deceive others for long. And you never deceive God.
The reason for this is that guilt often is real. That's an important thing to understand. There is such a thing as “false guilt” -- guilt we feel for something long since forgiven or for something not at all “guilt-worthy.” But, there is real guilt too, i.e., the guilt we feel for engaging in what is truly wrong. Real guilt happens when you have genuinely acted in ways that your Maker has said are not right. I don’t have to say much about this. We all know the things we’ve done that are wrong in the eyes of God. For a believer, it affects our conscience.
The conscience that you all feel when you sin comes about because you are made in God's image. You have been created to live in ways consistent with God’s own morality. And, when we don’t live as God has made us to live, God has placed within each of us a conscience, an ability to know the right from the wrong. Real guilt occurs when you have not lived as God has commended. That's why any of us who do counseling must know that it's never enough just to help people cope with guilt feelings. No, if the guilt is real, the guilt must be confessed to – and then forgiven. And God is the only One who can cleanse the sin away.
When you understand that, then v.4 will make sense to you. When David says, “Against you only have I sinned,” what he meant was that he had sinned “ultimately” against God. Yes, he had sinned against Bathsheba and Uriah – but underneath that sin was his rejection of God’s ways. I want you to come to grips with this point. You sometimes are told in our society that guilt is simply "letting yourself down." And, of course, we do let ourselves down. At other times we say we feel guilt when we have let others down. And, of course, we do let others down and sometimes hurt other people. But, letting yourself down and letting others down is often more about feeling shame than it is about actually being guilty in the eyes of God. David knew he had sinned – genuinely sinned – by disobeying God. He was guilty before God and needed that guilt to be removed.
When you realize, as David did, that sin is ultimately a sin against God, then you know where to start with you need forgiveness. You must turn to God.
Don’t’ misunderstand me: When you do fail to live as God wants you to live, it will hurt you personally. Believe me – someday you will see that it will. And, be sure of this: Your sin will have a negative impact on others as David’s did. But, if you have come this evening with a heart’s cry for forgiveness, then the starting point to finding real forgiveness for real guilt is to realize that you have sinned against God. Until you own that and then turn back to Him and re‑commit to His way, there will be no victory over the sin. When you become right with him, then and only then will you find he sends you out to make things right with others.
But – hallelujah -- God offers that forgiveness to all who turn to him in repentance and faith. That word "repentance" means that you turn away from the sin that you’ve been hiding and turn to God. Repentance means a turning from a self-directed way of life to embracing God’s way. That's what King David was saying in this poem. He knew his sin had wrecked his life and his family's and Uriah's and Bathsheba's. But it had all happened because, fundamentally, he had turned from the God who loved Him. To find forgiveness, David knew that first He had to look inside and acknowledge what his sin to God.
Think of it this way: Bathsheba might have said, "Oh, what you did doesn't matter all that much, David. I’m glad he’s gone." Uriah's relatives might have come and said, "Oh, you're usually a good person David. So forget it. We didn't like him that much anyway." A counselor might try to convince David that it was really a problem with his upbringing and he shouldn't dwell on it. But those things would not give him what he needed ‑‑ real forgiveness for real guilt. Why? Because in the end it was against God that he had sinned.
And David knew it. V.4b: "You are right when you speak about me. You are justified when you judge." This is where you begin when your heart cries for forgiveness: with an inward look at how you've departed from God's way. Have you come to that point? Can you acknowledge before God that indeed you have sinned against Him? If so, then you're ready for the next step. From the inward look, you must turn your eyes upward.
Phase 2: An Upward Look (51:7‑12) Wash me, and I will be whiter than snow (v. 7).
You must confess your sin but you dare not wallow in it. That’s what some do. It’s possible to find some kind of satisfaction in telling people all the time how bad you are. According to the Bible, you look inside yourself to discover and then uncover what’s hidden there -- but it's not inside that you will find the cure. If you just keep looking inside, you'll simply become more and more absorbed with self‑pity. The way out of guilt is to look upwards straight into the eyes of the very one you have sinned against and confess your sins to him. You must ask God to forgive you.
Notice that in v.7, there is a change from words of admission to words of petition. “Cleanse me” –“wash me” –“let me” – “create in me a pure heart”. Look at two essential things David does:
1. The big thing David asks for. Two words express it: cleansing and renewal. That's in v.7. Hyssop was used in rituals of declaring a person free from leprosy. David felt eaten away inside by his sin. He saw the problem getting worse and worse ‑‑ affecting more and more of him. He knew he needed spiritual healing and knew he couldn't do it himself. He said he waned to "dance with joy" again (v.12). Can you relate to this desire? I'm sure most of you can.
But this is no small request. In v.10, he had come to the point of knowing he could not clean up his life on his own. He said he needed a pure enough heart and a steadfast enough spirit not to go back into his sinful pattern again. David is asking for a miracle here. He felt completely inadequate ‑‑ everything was wrong and it had been so since birth (v.5). This sin with Bathsheba wasn't just one little slip but a part of a pattern that had lasted for years.
But God is both able and willing to take the guilt away. Yes, both are critical. Willing and able. God can forgive even lust and adultery and deception and murder. You must turn from them but God can forgive them and begin to re‑make you and restore your joy. You too must ask for that big thing.
2. The faith and confidence with which he asks. Notice the first word in v.13: "Then." That means that he is certain that God will not cast him away. How could he say this? It’s because David knows the character of God and, therefore, he knows what God will do. He is sure that God, even though He is holy and hates sin, is also merciful and will forgive the one who comes to him with a humble and repentant spirit.
How could David be so sure that God would welcome him back? The key is in v.12. "Restore..." Restore‑‑it's obvious that something is being sought that he's already experienced. You see, God is no stranger to David. David remembered how beautiful his relationship with God had been when he was not hiding sin in his heart. More than anything else, he longed for that intimate relationship again. But that relationship had also shown him what God was like.
So David knew his sin was serious. But triumphing over this was the certainty that God is merciful. God loves to restore his children. Because of that, Psalm 51 is a song of faith‑‑not a suicide note.
Did you notice that David starts his Psalm in vv.1‑2, saying that God's unfailing love and his great compassion? You and I cannot earn God’s forgiveness. We simply receive it. That truth about God makes this Psalm a possibility. God will forgive the one who turns to Him in this way. If you will find forgiveness, you must turn away from your sins and turn to God. Your sin is serious. But, you must believe that God is loving enough to forgive you. God loves to show mercy to his children.
So you must first look into your life and confess the serious sins that are there. You’ve got to quit hiding them. Then look up into the face of God and to ask him for forgiveness. His love is greater than your sin.
Phase 3: An Outward Look (51:13‑19) Open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise.
Read v.17. When you look into your heart and see your sin and then look up and see God's love, if you are not hard‑hearted, your heart breaks. Christianity is not about just showing up on Sunday and doing religious things like putting in offerings. It's about us sinners being able to meet a holy God and hear him say, "You're forgiven. You're my child in spite of your sin."
And when you find that welcome, you will be so grateful that two things will be true of you. First, your tongue will be full of praise to God (v.15). When you experience God's forgiveness, you've got to sing and speak about it with hearts of praise.
But secondly, you simply have to give testimony to others (v.13). Of course, a big part of this is being willing to forgive others. Anyone who has truly experienced forgiveness that they don't deserve will forgive others when they seek it. If you say, “I cannot forgive,” I doubt whether you have ever truly grasped God's forgiveness toward you and its magnitude. I’ve learned over the years that the one who has been forgiven is able to forgive. But, I’ll come back to that on another day and in another sermon.
For today: David was so thrilled that he had been forgiven that he had to go out and tell others. That’s the way it always is. When, at last, you are willing to own up to your sin and confess it -- and then you bring that sin in all its awfulness to God and hear him say, I will cleanse you and restore you – then you are so thrilled that you cannot keep it fully to yourself. You experience the joy of being forgiven; then you look at people all around you who need the same experience – and you find you have but one option, i.e., to tell them that if God can forgive you, then there’s hope for them too.
Look around you and see your colleague drinking or deceiving his way to ruin. He needs God's forgiveness. Look at that classmate ruining her life through immoral living. She needs God's forgiveness. Look at that couple whose marriage is about to snap because of anger or that friend who has foolishly gotten himself trapped in an addiction. They all need to hear God say, “Through faith in Christ, your sins I will remember no more!” We all need to hear that. Our hearts cry out for forgiveness. And you and I claim to have found forgiveness through faith in Christ. So, let’s tell people about it! Let those forgiven tell the world that God forgives.
The one who has cried out for forgiveness and then experienced the joy of forgiveness is the one who cares enough about others to look outward at them and tell them, “Through Jesus, you too can start again.”
Let’s take time to respond to the message this evening…