Conquering the Invisible Giants in Our Lives
Psalm 51
Guilt is a giant with interesting powers.
1.This giant is the most invisible, but the heaviest one of all.
There are people all around us who are being slowly crushed, slowly suffocated by the giant of guilt.
2.It kills slowly but with excruciating pain. Think of Judas, hanging from a tree.
How does this apply to you and me?
1.Rare indeed is the man who has not cried out in the night of his own heart’s hunger for healing because of guilt.
2.David’s cry “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me,” has been echoed in multiplied millions of righteous souls who have cried unto God for a holiness unattainable apart from the touch of God’s hand on the strings of his soul.
King David of Israel battled two giants in his lifetime.
A.Goliath is the well-known giant he defeated in a matter of minutes.
B.Guilt is the lesser-known internal giant it took him many months to defeat.
David met that giant named Guilt when he saw a beautiful woman from the roof of his palace and had her brought to him. He committed adultery with her and then sent her home. What he thought was going to be a simple and brief encounter became complicated when the woman, Bathsheba, sent him word that she was pregnant by him.
David knew he had to cover his sin or risk losing his reputation as a godly king. He sent for Bathsheba’s husband, Uriah, who was away fighting in David’s army. He figured Uriah would come home and have relations with Bathsheba, and it would then appear her pregnancy was caused by her husband, not David. But David did not plan on Uriah’s loyalty and honor. Uriah refused to enjoy the comfort of his wife when his fellow soldiers were still in battle, so he spent the night outside David’s palace.
When David realized his plan hadn’t worked, he implemented a second plan—to have his army commander send Uriah into the heat of battle so he would be killed. And that is exactly what happened. David was then guilty of murder as well as adultery. Nine months later a child was born to Bathsheba. Through his own writings, we are introduced to David’s state of mind and his actions following the birth of his child.
C.Two psalms gives us a clear picture of the giant David was facing.
1.Psalms 32 give us insight into what it was like for David to live with the guilt of his sin
2.Psalm 51 the confession of his sin to God
Defeating the giant Guilt, became a far greater challenge than defeating Goliath, the giant of the Philistines.
WHAT CAN THE GUILTY SAY?
While a seminary student at Regent College (Jon Mutchler) had an assignment to attend and report on churches in various worship traditions outside my own. One evening I attended mass in a nearby and unfamiliar town.
After leaving St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, I pulled out of a side street onto what looked like a county road. I managed to reach 40 miles per hour before being pulled over and ticketed for going 15 miles per hour over the city limit.
Since I was new to the town and because of my chosen route, I had not seen the 25 miles per hour limit. Therefore I decided to plead my case before a judge.
The court date came and I had my arguments and justification all worked out. I had rehearsed my little speech over and over in my head.
Finally, the court clerk read out my name with the charges. The judge, dressed in a black robe—representing his designated authority and power—said, "Mr. Mutchler, do you have anything you wish to say?"
Here it was, my chance to speak! Surely the judge would understand and side with me. But to my surprise, it hit me at that moment that I was, in fact, guilty, and my excuses would do nothing to change that. All I could say to his question was "No, sir."
•That moment brought to life what Scriptures say to those who think they’re going to argue their case before God.
Application for defeating the invisible giant of guilt:
If we are to defeat the giant of guilt we must understand we can’t argue our defense, we must surrender to God.
Scripture: Read Ps 51:1-19 NIV
I.David’s Prayer admitted his guilt
a)Today we blame everybody or anything else for our problems.
b)We must be mature enough to admit we are the problem.
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 that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.
5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
II.David prayed to surrender in order that he might be made pure.
a)David needed more than an ceremonial experience, he desired cleansing from within
b)True repentance is not satisfied with the knowledge of forgiveness, but goes on to seek the renewal.
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.
c)A Plant used in the cleansing – now we use the blood of Jesus
III.David prayer for holiness
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
a)Holiness is not what we shun by our own strength.
b)Holiness is what God imparts within us, that replaces what we once longed for.
IV.David prayed for a pure a pure heart, that he would be able to see and experience God.
11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
a)Such a prayer on the lips of David could not mean all that it means now to a Christian. Christ has revealed the work and the necessity of the Divine Strengthener (the Holy Spirit) far more clearly than it was known to David.
b)As the Teacher of the truth and the Helper of our weakness.
V.David prayed for that sense of joy which is united with the spirit.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
Our spirits attain to their greatest freedom when under the influence of the Spirit of God - like water heated by fire.
VI.David prayed with an new attitude
16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
a)David concluded that God cares more about right attitudes than he does for sacrificial acts performed by persons whose hearts are not in tune with the Infinite.
b)David saw that a bad man cannot bribe God with sacrifices.
VII.David prayed with Godly Sorrow
a)What is the evidence of godly sorrow
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
•The inward part of a man is said to be broken and crushed when his sinful nature is broken, his ungodly self slain, his impenetrable hardness softened, his haughty vain glorying brought low-in fine, when he is in himself become as nothing, and when God is everything to him.
b)Mic 6:8 NIV 8
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God
When God empowers us to slay that invisible giant of guilt, we move from victim to victor
Rosalind Goforth’s List - What God Does with Our Sins
Rosalind Goforth was a well-known missionary to China who, along with her husband Jonathan, enjoyed an illustrious career and ministry. But for many years, even having labored for the Lord in China, Rosalind often felt oppressed by a burden of sin. She felt guilty and dirty, nursing an inward sense of spiritual failure. Finally one evening when all was quiet, she settled at her desk with Bible and concordance, determined to find out God’s attitude toward the failures, the faults, the sins of his children. She put these words at the top of the page: What God Does With Our Sins. Then as she searched through the Scriptures, she compiled this list of seventeen truths:
1.He lays them on his Son—Jesus Christ. Isaiah 53:6
2.Christ takes them away. John 1:29
3.They are removed an immeasurable distance—as far as East is from West. Psalm 123:12
4.When sought for, they are not found. Jeremiah 50:20
5.The Lord forgives them. Ephesians 1:7
6.He cleanses them ALL away by the blood of his son. 1 John 1:7
7.He cleanses them as white as snow or wool. Isaiah 1:18; Psalm 51:7
8.He abundantly pardons them. Isaiah 55:7
9.He tramples them under foot. Micah 7:19 (RV)
10.He remembers them no more. Hebrews 10:17
11.He casts them behind his back. Isaiah 38:17
12.He casts them into the depths of the sea. Micah 7:19
13.He will not impute us with sins. Romans 4:8
14.He covers them. Romans 4:7
15.He blots them out. Isaiah 43:25
16.He blots them out as a thick cloud. Isaiah 44:22
17.He blots out even the proof against us, nailing it to His Son’s Cross. Colossians 2:14
Do you need to slay that great deadly, invisible giant of guilt in your life?
•Lets learn from David, and become victors
