David’s Confession
Sermon by CH(CPT) Keith J. Andrews
All Scripture marked The Holy Bible : English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.
Earlier this month, as I listened to the news—where most people receive their news—in the DFAC, there was a story about the confession of John Edwards and his affair with Rielle Hunter two years ago.
Confessions, while admirable—don’t occur very often, especially in the high profile people in America. It seems in this lawyer saturated environment, it is always best not to confess. Now, I understand the legal benefits of remaining silent and, in fact, the public relations benefits of remaining silent.
But this morning, we are going to look at the Israelite king, David, after he sins against God and man. We are specifically going to look at how he confesses his sin to God.
This story of David is found in 2 Samuel chapter 11and 12.
Verse two of chapter 11 sets the stage
2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. 3 And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. (2 Sa 11:2-4, ESV).
Now, as the story continues Bathsheba becomes pregnant, while Uriah, her husband was out with the Army and he brought him back to sleep with his Bathsheba, so that know one would know the difference.
Verse 9;
9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house. (2 Sa 11:9, ESV).
Uriah’s response to the king was that he would not go back to his house, while his Soldiers were still in the field. David’s response then was to send Uriah to the front line and abandon him there so he would be killed.
It is indeed a devastating sin by the man who was described as “After God’s Own Heart” to commit. But, it was also just one of many examples of God’s loving forgiveness for a sinner who confesses his sin before God.
This morning, we are going to examine David’s confession as an example to us—so that when we sin, we can bring our transgression before God, properly and humbly.
So look with me at Psalm 51, and we will see the Psalm of the Confession of David.
We see first that David sets the example to us by showing
1. Ownership of Sin
Psalm 51:1
1 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. (Ps 51:1-6, ESV)
In these six verse, David sets out his acknowledgement of his own sin. It is very important for us to understand that we are sinners by our nature and by our choice—here we see that David acknowledges the same attributes.
In verse 4, David acknowledges that
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight, (Psalm 51:4a, ESV)
That is the sin, he is aware of committed through the free will and control of his mind and body. He acknowledges that he is responsible for the sin that has been committed.
Then in verse 5, he also acknowledges that he is a sinner, by his very nature and by his birth.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me. (Psalm 51:5, ESV)
Many times, we want to say that we have sinned because it is our nature—and move on. We talk about having condoms in our schools, because kids will just have sex—that is what they do. The proponents will argue that, there just isn’t any way to stop it—because, after all it is their nature.
But, we are still responsible for the sins that we commit. It is not enough for us, just to confess that we are prone to sin. We must acknowledge that we choose to sin as well.
No matter what sin we are committing, we can try to justify it being in our nature. I am always amazed when some doctors try to legitimize sin because the person has the homosexual gene, the theft gene, the domestic abuse gene, or many other genes out there—when the truth is that we all have a nature that leads to sin.
We are all sinners by our nature and by our choice.
We must confess that sin and acknowledge it. We don’t need to be hiding it as Adam and Eve hid their sin from God. We need to boldly come before a Holy God and confess this sin—only then will we be in a position to come clean.
So, David also sets the example to us by showing his
2. Request to Cleanse
In Psalm 51:7-12, David says;
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Ps 51:7-12, ESV)
David says in verse 10:
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me. (Ps 51:10, ESV)
How many times have we all had those same thoughts—pleading with God to makes us better than we are—pleading with God to makes us not so angry—pleading with God to make us not so foolish in our ambitions—pleading with God to make us be a better Christian.
Then David says in verse 12;
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit. (Ps 51:12, ESV)
Isn’t that hat we look for in many ways? To be restored to the moment that we first found Christ—when we knew without a shadow of a doubt that we were in God’s hands no matter what happened. When we had that security of knowing that he really meant
“I will never leave you nor forsake you.” (Hb. 13:5b)
The path to this point begins with confession, acknowledging before God that we have sinned against him and then requesting for him to wash away our sin.
Several times we have sung the hymn Nothing but the blood of Jesus—the first verse reads;
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus;
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
(Logos Hymnal. 1995 (1st edition.). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.)
When Jesus died on a cross, he paid the penalty of death for each of us. That blood that flowed—that was shed for us—was shed to pay the penalty of our sin. He washes our sin away, he cleanses our hearts, and he restores the joy of our salvation through the washing of his blood.
David asks God to cleanse the sin from him. His response is to praise Him.
Finally, David sets the example to us by showing
3. Praise of Forgiveness
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
19 then will you delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar. (Ps 51:13-19, ESV)
David is responding to the forgiveness of his sin.
In verse 15 he says;
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise. (Ps 51:15, ESV)
He praises God—the source of his fogegivness
As I thought about forgiveness, I thought about the how forgiveness is much like being set free. In my lifetime, thanks to 24 hour news networks, I have been able to see the freeing of people and nations from the dictatorships that persist in our world.
I remember vividly the fall of the Berlin wall and the freeing of East Germany, and slowly the other Soviet states.
I remember the fall of Sad am Hussein several years ago, and the celebrations in the streets—slowly this country is beginning to overcome the obstacles of tyranny.
But the freedom from our sin is forgiveness—we know how this feels to us—to have a dispute between somebody we admire that is broken because of something we’ve done, and when the friend forgives us—to feel the weight lifted off our shoulders is freedom.
David understands that, so he praises God who gives him the ultimate freedom—the forgiveness of his sin against a Holy God.
He sets the example for us to praise God, because of the forgiveness of our sin.
It redirects us to understand that forgiveness is not something that we earn—we don’t earn credit toward our forgiveness--we can’t—forgiveness is a free gift, by grace—
9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Eph 2:9, ESV)
That makes us, all the more grateful because it is from God’s unconditional love for us, that he would bless us with the unmerited favor of grace in forgiveness.
And you can receive forgiveness as well.
We see through David’s confession that we should have ownership of our sin, a request to cleanse, and return with praise for our forgiveness.
Many times, we hear something like this and we tune it out because we feel like we are already forgiven and everything is good with our relationship with God.
But, we continue to sin. David, as strong as his relationship was with God, remained in need of this forgiveness. We need to understand that we are to confess our sin before God, to cleanse us from that sin, and to recognize that we don’t want t allow sin to creep up on us. We are to confess our sin.
There are some of you this morning that may not feel like you relationship with God is going well. You haven’t been doing the things that you know you ought, or you may have never committed your life to him to follow him and to receive his forgiveness.
We all need forgiveness because of our sin. We are sinners by our nature and by the choices we make—all of us are sinners. And the Bible says that the payment of this sin is death. This death, however, was paid for through the death of Christ on the cross. To receive this payment is simply accepting it and repenting of your sin and following Christ.
You have the opportunity to do that this morning. You can receive forgiveness through the confession of your sin today and by you acceptance of Jesus Christ and his payment for you.
Let us pray.
