This is the manuscript of the ninth sermon in the "Doctrines Of Our Faith Series".
The doctrines of our faith serve the same function for our spiritual lives that the skeletal systems do for our physical lives. So the doctrines of our faith support and protect our beliefs.
No doctrine in the Bible is more important than the doctrine of repentance. Before people can be reconciled to God, justified, acquitted, through his Son, Jesus Christ, they must experience repentance.
Acts 3:19 CEV So turn to God! Give up your sins, and you will be forgiven.
To hear an audio of the sermon click on the YouTube image at the end of the manuscript.
The doctrines of our faith serve the same function for our spiritual lives that the skeletal systems do for our physical lives. So the doctrines of our faith support and protect our beliefs.
No doctrine in the Bible is more important than the doctrine of repentance. Before people can be reconciled to God, justified, acquitted, through his Son, Jesus Christ, they must experience repentance.
Acts 3:19 CEV So turn to God! Give up your sins, and you will be forgiven.
To hear an audio of the sermon click on the YouTube image at the end of the manuscript.
Scripture
David's Prayer For Forgiveness
Psalms 51:1-17 NKJV Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight— That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, The God of my salvation, And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, And my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise.
Introduction
This is the ninth in our series “The Doctrines Of Our Faith”.
Remember what I said at the very beginning of why this series is so important.
Doctrine is defined as a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a Church, political party, or other group.
The doctrines of our faith serve the same function for our spiritual lives that the skeletal systems do for our physical lives. The skeletal system is the body system composed of bones and cartilage and performs the critical functions for the human body: the skeletal system supports the body, it facilitates movement, and protects internal organs.
The doctrines of our faith support and protect our beliefs.
The first doctrine we discussed is that the Bible is divine revelation, or the Living Word. The second is the doctrine that the One we believe in and worship does exist and He is Almighty God. The third doctrine is that God Almighty who we worship and who we know exists took on human form and came to earth and actually lived among his creation as one of us. Almighty God is also the Incomparable Christ. Our fourth doctrine is that the Holy Spirit is the third person in the Godhead, or Trinity and that He is equal with God The, Father, and God the Son. He was sent by the Father after the Son Jesus returned to heaven to complete the plan of redemption by seeing to it that every person feels a call toward God's saving grace.
The fifth is the doctrine of mankind from generation, to degeneration, ending with regeneration.
Man was created to live in perfect relationship with God, to be at peace with themselves, and to live in harmony with their environment.
But man forfeited this holy and blessed position through sin, which brought us to the sixth doctrine.
The sixth doctrine is that sin is the thing that spoiled everything in mankind’s relationship with God. Sin is the thing that caused our degeneration.
Sin resulted in a curse on mankind bringing decay, disease, disorder, and death.
Because Christ became that curse for us, when a person repents of his or her sins, asks forgiveness and asks Jesus to come into their lives as Lord and Savior God takes that cursed and broken vessel and reshapes it.
2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
As new creatures with new hearts God calls us us out from the world, which was our seventh doctrine that those new creatures who have been called out are the church or the body of Christ.
John 17:14-16 ESV I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
Last week was our eighth doctrine which is that we the "called out" have been justified or acquitted by God.
Romans 3:21-26 NKJV But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Today we are going to talk about how we get to that acquittal or justification and that is the doctrine of repentance. Remember when talking about sin in our sixth doctrine I said that because Christ became that curse for us, when a person repents of his or her sins, asks forgiveness and asks Jesus to come into their lives as Lord and Savior God then takes that cursed and broken vessel and reshapes it.
Now let's look at our text for today which is
Text:
Acts 3:19 CEV So turn to God! Give up your sins, and you will be forgiven.
No doctrine in the Bible is more important than the doctrine of repentance. Before people can be reconciled to God, justified, acquitted, through his Son, Jesus Christ, they must experience repentance.
The definition of repent is; to feel or express sincere regret about one’s wrongdoing or sin.
Repentance is the actual action of repenting; sincere regret or remorse.
The Baker Evangelical Dictionary has a very long description in its definition but the bottom line is that repentance is "to turn from evil, and to turn to the good."
The words "repent," "repentance," and "repented" appear over 100 times in the Bible.
The experience of David recorded in Psalm 51, which we read at the beginning, is a classic illustration of genuine repentance.
You almost feel that you’re intruding on a scene that is extremely private and personal, because David is in agony full of remorse and sorrow. All the human excuses for his sin has been stripped away. His soul is naked before God, and he sees himself stained and distorted before his Creator.
We watch as this helpless man deals with a problem that clearly has no human solution, because he is guilty of sins that, according to the law, call for his death.
We watch in amazement as David works through an experience that results in the cleansing of his soul and the restoration of peace and joy in his life.
As we study the psalm, we can plot David’s journey down the highway of repentance.
I. The realization of sin
Before we can see the “breakthrough” in David’s life, we see the moment when he was confronted with his sin.
We look in on a court scene in Jerusalem with Israel’s greatest king sitting on the throne. David had been divinely chosen and anointed for the task of being God’s king to rule over his people. He had also become the nation’s spiritual leader. God had promised him that his house would be established forever. God had blessed him; his kingdom had flourished; and his armies had soundly defeated Israel’s enemies.
2 Samuel 7:8-16 CEV David, this is what I, the Lord All-Powerful, say to you. I brought you in from the fields where you took care of sheep, and I made you the leader of my people. Wherever you went, I helped you and destroyed your enemies right in front of your eyes. I have made you one of the most famous people in the world. I have given my people Israel a land of their own where they can live in peace, and they won't have to tremble with fear any more. Evil nations won't bother them, as they did when I let judges rule my people. And I have kept your enemies from attacking you. Now I promise that you and your descendants will be kings. I'll choose one of your sons to be king when you reach the end of your life and are buried in the tomb of your ancestors. I'll make him a strong ruler, and no one will be able to take his kingdom away from him. He will be the one to build a temple for me. I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I'll see that he is corrected, just as children are corrected by their parents. But I will never put an end to my agreement with him, as I put an end to my agreement with Saul, who was king before you. I will make sure that one of your descendants will always be king.
But in the midst of all of this victory and luxury, David saw, wanted and took for himself the beautiful wife of Uriah.
We all know the story about David and Bathsheba, it’s in the 11th Chapter of 2 Samuel.
Any other king in the world could have done this without a whisper of blame on him. But David was Jehovah’s anointed! Before the sordid story was over, murder was added to the picture as David had Uriah conveniently placed on the front line of battle so that he would be killed. Adding murder to his adultery. For almost a year, David would have had this on his conscience. We know that it was that long because a child had been born as a result of the affair.
Then, one day God gave the fearless prophet Nathan a message to give David. He gave him that brief but powerful story of the neighbor who had one sheep, which was stolen by the man with many.
2 Samuel 12:1-9 CEV and he sent Nathan the prophet to tell this story to David: A rich man and a poor man lived in the same town. The rich man owned a lot of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had only one little lamb that he had bought and raised. The lamb became a pet for him and his children. He even let it eat from his plate and drink from his cup and sleep on his lap. The lamb was like one of his own children. One day someone came to visit the rich man, but the rich man didn't want to kill any of his own sheep or cattle and serve it to the visitor. So he stole the poor man's lamb and served it instead. David was furious with the rich man and said to Nathan, “I swear by the living Lord that the man who did this deserves to die! And because he didn't have pity on the poor man, he will have to pay four times what the lamb was worth.” Then Nathan told David: You are that rich man! Now listen to what the Lord God of Israel says to you: “I chose you to be the king of Israel. I kept you safe from Saul and even gave you his house and his wives. I let you rule Israel and Judah, and if that had not been enough, I would have given you much more. Why did you disobey me and do such a horrible thing? You murdered Uriah the Hittite by letting the Ammonites kill him, so you could take his wife.
It was like a knife was thrust into David’s soul when Nathan said, “You are that rich man”
Then something amazing happened.
Instead of rejecting Nathan’s hot words of accusation and ordering the prophet executed, the process was triggered that resulted in David’s restoration.
II. First was the realization of his sin and then there was the agony of turning and asking for forgiveness.
David’s first reaction, following the shock of Nathan’s accusation, was a cry for forgiveness.
Psalms 51:1 NKJV Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions.
God will always respond to His people when they cry for mercy.
Notice David’s pattern of thought: his first move was to acknowledge his particular and specific acts of sin.
Psalms 51:1-2 NKJV Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin.
He used three words in this Psalm to describe his sin: transgression (verse 1), which means rebellion, deliberately setting oneself against the will and law of God, a calculated sin of high treason against the Sovereign of the universe; then there's iniquity (verse 2), that which distorts one’s reason; and finally sin (also in verse 2), which means “missing the mark,” or failure.
Then David used three action verbs, indicating that he wanted God to do something for him that he could not do for himself.
He said, “blot out . . . wash me . . . cleanse me.” “Blot out” means to erase from the record; “wash me” indicates David’s realization that his whole being was defiled and needed a divine scrubbing; “cleanse me” reflects his desire to be absolutely clean inside and out.
Following this cry for mercy, David sincerely confessed his sin:
Psalms 51:3 NKJV For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me.
Nathan had said, “You are the man!” Now David was saying, “Lord, I admit that I am the man!”
He assumed all responsibility for his sin; he did not blame his ancestors or even Bathsheba as an accomplice in his sin. He declared that he, and he alone, was responsible for his sin.
In verses 7–9 David prayed not only that he might be received into God’s presence again, but that he might be fit for God’s presence.
Psalms 51:7-9 NKJV Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, That the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities.
Psalm 51:7-11 MSG Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean, scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life. 8 Tune me in to foot-tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing. 9 Don't look too close for blemishes, give me a clean bill of health. 10 God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life. 11 Don't throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me.
As David bared his soul before God, he saw what a vile, sinful person he had been. Now he wanted God to purify his whole sin-defiled being! He wanted God to sprinkle hyssop on him. Hyssop was an aromatic oil used to spray those who had leprosy or some other loathsome disease. Not only did the hyssop serve as a “deodorizer,” but sprinkling it was also a symbolic act whereby one was cleansed for God’s presence.
David reached the climax of his prayer—the end of his journey down the road of repentance—when he prayed for a new heart and a new life.
Psalms 51:10 NKJV Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
In verse 10 David is saying, in essence: “Lord, because of this terrible thing I have done, I ask that you make me a new person! I need a new heart! I have damaged the old one beyond repair. The scars are too hideous. Do your work all over again, and give me a new heart, O God!”
Here David is laying the foundation for the New Testament doctrine of the new birth. He recognizes the importance of being born again.
John 3:3 NKJV Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
David’s mental, moral, and spiritual self must be renewed by the creative touch of God. He needed a new heart.
That's what happens to us when we confess our sins, repent, and acknowledge that Jesus took the punishment for our sins and we receive salvation.
2 Corinthians 5:17-18 CEV Anyone who belongs to Christ is a new person. The past is forgotten, and everything is new. God has done it all! He sent Christ to make peace between himself and us, and he has given us the work of making peace between himself and others.
III. David has gone through the realization and acknowledgement of his sin the agony of confession and asking for forgiveness now he can experience the glory of restoration
Psalms 51:7 NKJV Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Notice the positive, ringing assurance that appears in David’s words: "Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.". He has no doubt that God will forgive and restore him.
David’s hope lay in the fact that God is a God who keeps his word and who is as good as his promises. We can all rejoice when we realize the truth that God loves us and that He doesn't want anyone to perish. That's why He sent his Son.
John 3:16 CEV God loved the people of this world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life and never really die.
When this hope dawns in a person’s heart, life begins, for this is a truth to live by and a truth to die by.
What was the natural result of David’s experience of repentance and forgiveness of sin?
It was the same first impulse that every saved individual has and that is to tell somebody.
Psalms 51:13 NKJV Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You.
David vowed that he would spend the rest of his life telling others about God’s grace and urging sinners to come to the only source of life and cleansing. David would be an evangelist, a seeker of lost people, and an announcer of good news to those who languished in darkness and sin.
Conclusion
In summary, we find that four ingredients constituted David’s repentance: humiliation, contrition, confession, and transformation. The Holy Spirit convicts people and brings them to a state of humiliation, to an expression of contrition, and to the point of confession. Then the greatest miracle of all transpires when, as a result of the experiences of humiliation, contrition, and confession a person is transformed by the power of God.
1 John 1:8-9 CEV If we say we have not sinned, we are fooling ourselves, and the truth isn't in our hearts. But if we confess our sins to God, he can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sins away.
Romans 10:9-10 CEV So you will be saved, if you honestly say, “Jesus is Lord,” and if you believe with all your heart that God raised him from death. God will accept you and save you, if you truly believe this and tell it to others.
2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
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