OPEN: Max Lucado tells the story of a young boy who had just rec’d a slingshot for his birthday
He’d spend hours shooting rocks at various target/but he never seemed to be able to hit his target.
One day he was in his Grandmother’s house and he watched as her pet duck waddled by. On impulse he took aim with his slingshot and let fly. And he hit it… and the duck died.
“The boy panicked and hid the bird in the woodpile, only to look up and see his sister Sally watching.
After lunch that day, the Grandmother told Sally to help with the dishes. Sally responded, “Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today. Didn’t you Johnny?” And then she whispered to him, “Remember the duck!” So, Johnny did the dishes. For the next several weeks he was often at the kitchen sink. Sometimes for his duty, sometimes for his sin. And whenever he was tempted to object, his sister reminded him “Remember the duck.”
APPLY: (pause…) What else could he do? His grandmother had loved him. But now he’d done a terrible thing and if grandma ever found out… she’d never forgive him. He DIDN’T DESERVE her love. And so… he did the only thing he could think to do… (pause…) He hid his sin. He buried the duck in the wood pile hoping that no one would ever find out
I. That’s been the way of people ever since Adam and Eve
Adam and Eve ate of the fruit God had forbidden and when God came for visit - what did they do? They hid. They tried to cover the nakedness of their sin by covering themselves with fig leaves and then (at the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden) they HID themselves among the trees of the garden. Their guilt and their shame caused them to attempt to hide their sins. They knew they didn’t deserve God’s love but they thought, if only they could hide their sin from Him they would never have to face the consequence of their inability to deserve what He wanted them to have.
Now - here in David’s life - we find King David did pretty much the same thing. David tried to hide his sin too.
Look at the opening verse of this Psalm “For the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.” (Psalms 51:1)
David had committed adultery with the wife of one of his best friends (Bathsheba) and when it became obvious that she was pregnant David struggled and schemed to find some way to hide his sin. When David found out that Bathsheba was pregnant he tried to hide his sin by making Uriah think the child would be his. He sent a message to the commander of the army to send him Uriah. David pretended to be interested in news from the battle and then sent Uriah home to his wife… but Uriah refused to sleep in his own house.
2 Samuel 11:11 tells us that Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my master Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!"
Then David got Uriah drunk and sent him home… but still Uriah refused to sleep in his home while the armies of Israel were in the field. Finally, David sent Uriah back to the battle front with a message for Joab which read:
“Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.” 2 Samuel 11:15
His plan worked perfectly, Uriah died on the field of battle. David was free to take Bathsheba as his wife and his sin was hidden. Or so he thought.
Isaiah 29:15 declares: Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their work in darkness and think, "Who sees us? Who will know?"
Hebrews 4:13 tells us “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
You can’t hide anything from God… and neither could David.
David thought he’d hidden his sin. He thought he had it covered. He thought no one would know…. But God knew.
God sent His prophet Nathan to David and declared
“Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.” 2 Samuel 12:9-10
What was David to do now? He didn’t DESERVE God’s forgiveness. He’d committed adultery. He’d committed murder. And God KNEW he’d done it. David would NEVER DESERVE God’s forgiveness… what was David to do?
Well… David did a very unusual thing. He repented.
2 Samuel 12:13 tells us “Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the LORD.’”
David repented.
And then Nathan replied, "The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.”
David repented. And God forgave him.
Granted… there were still terrible consequences for his sin - but God forgave him. God gave David something he did NOT DESERVE.
Why would God do that? Why would God forgive David? David had done a terrible thing!
How could God forgive him????
II. Well, actually, we should be extremely thankful that God did this for David, because if God would do this for David and the terrible sin he committed that means God might do the same for us.
Each of us has committed sins in our own lives that – if they were revealed – would cause us to bow our heads in shame and want to hide ourselves in some obscure and dark corner. We don’t deserve God’s mercy and grace. Our sin has deprived us of any such privilege.
Sin has a terrible impact on our lives
LOOK with me to Ps 51:3. David tells us: “I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.”
In Psalms 40:12 David wrote: “…my sins have overtaken me, and I cannot see. They are more than the hairs of my head, and my heart fails within me.”
And in Psalms 32:2-4 David declared “Blessed is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer.”
There are times when we ALL can relate to David’s comments. Times when we’ll be driving down the road, walking down the street, standing in the shower. AND our minds will drift back to something in our past. Something we’d just as soon forget. And a wave of shame will wash over us and we’ll find ourselves pleading for God to forgive us.
I have sat with men and women who have broke down weeping because they realize how much they have sinned. They realize they don’t deserve God’s forgiveness.
You don’t deserve God’s forgiveness
I don’t deserve God’s forgiveness.
There ain’t NOBODY on the face of the earth that deserves God’s forgiveness.
III. And the Bible repeatedly drives that reality home.
Paul write: “…you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.” Ephesians 2:1-3
Paul tells us WE DID NOT DESERVE FORGIVENESS
But that’s not the whole story… Paul continues with the rest of the story:
“But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions— it is by grace you have been saved.
And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith— and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.” Ephesians 2:4-8
How could God do that? How could God forgive us???
Because He has a powerful and deep love for us. Because He is rich in mercy.
Not because we deserved it… but because of His love and mercy.
(PAUSE…) But – as much as He loves us – His forgiveness is NOT unconditional
1st - You must accept the fact that you are a sinner… stop trying to hide your sin from God
Throughout Psalm 51 David says it was…
”My iniquity”
“My sin”
“My transgressions”
He didn’t try to blame someone else for his sin…
He didn’t try to blame Bathsheba for bathing in the nude.
He didn’t try to blame Uriah for not sleeping with his wife.
He didn’t try to blame his wives for not meeting his needs
He didn’t try to blame Joab for allowing Uriah to die on the battle front
AND he didn’t try to blame God for allowing him to be tempted.
Instead, he said: “I (have) sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.” Psalm 51:4
You/I cannot be forgiven of sin if we don’t accept the fact that we’re sinners.
You DO NOT deserve salvation
I DO NOT deserve salvation
You and I – and everyone we know – has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
2ndly – we must acknowledge that only GOD can remove our sin.
Not once in this psalm does David tell God what he’s going to do to remove his own sin
Repeatedly, David notes that the forgiveness MUST come FROM God.
Again and again, David pleads with God to:
“Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.” Psalms 51:2
“Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.” Ps. 51:7
“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Psalms 51:10
ONLY God can wash us, cleanse us, renew us…
IV. But… that really doesn’t seem right
I’ve sinned
I’ve done things for which I’m ashamed…
How can God just accept me like that
How can He say… “oh… it’s ok… run along now and be a good boy/ girl”
Noooo…
Inside of each of us there is something that rebels at such “cheap grace”
There’s something within us that realizes that “…the wages of sin is death…” Romans 6:23
Something that understands “…a man reaps what he sows.” Galatians 6:7
ILLUS: In Hinduism there is a sense of paying for one’s own sins. The Grand Rapids Press once carried this story about a West German businessman who completed his conversion to the Hindu faith by piercing himself through the cheeks with A 1/4-inch thick, 4-foot-long steel rod, and pulling a chariot for 2 miles with ropes attached to his back and chest by steel hooks.
Others have been known to walk through 20-foot-long pits of fire, wear shoes with soles made of nails, or hang in the air spread-eagle from hooks embedded in their backs.”
Why would they do that? Because they sense that there’s a price that needs to be paid because of their sins.
(pause…) But wait… the price has been paid for our sins.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16
A price needed to be paid… and so God paid it.
CLOSE: John Newton1725-1807 was a wicked man. He did not deserve God’s forgiveness. But when he repented, Newton experienced a grace from God that went beyond anything he’d ever experienced before. He called it “Amazing Grace” and he wrote the song by that name to praise God for His undeserved love.
But Newton also wrote another lesser known hymn that I’d like to share with you this morning:
In evil long I took delight,
Unawed by shame or fear,
Till a new object struck my sight,
And stopp’d my wild career:
I saw One hanging on a Tree
In agonies and blood,
Who fix’d His languid eyes on me.
As near His Cross I stood.
Sure never till my latest breath,
Can I forget that look:
It seem’d to charge me with His death,
Though not a word He spoke:
My conscience felt and own’d the guilt,
And plunged me in despair:
I saw my sins His Blood had spilt,
And help’d to nail Him there.
Alas! I knew not what I did!
But now my tears are vain:
Where shall my trembling soul be hid?
For I the Lord have slain!
A second look He gave, which said,
“I freely all forgive;
This blood is for thy ransom paid;
I die that thou may’st live.”
Thus, while His death my sin displays
In all its blackest hue,
Such is the mystery of grace,
It seals my pardon too.
With pleasing grief, and mournful joy,
My spirit now if fill’d,
That I should such a life destroy,
Yet live by Him I kill’d!
SERMONS IN THIS SERIES (A Man After God’s Own Heart)
Measuring Up - 1 Samuel 16:1-16:13
Be Prepared/ Scout Sunday - 1 Samuel 17:1-17:53
A Friend After Your Own Heart - 1 Samuel 18:1-18:5
A Heart To Honor Authority - 1 Samuel 24:1-24:22
An Obedient Heart - 2 Samuel 6:1-6:15
A Heart To Worship - 2 Samuel 6:12-6:23
The Heart Of A Shepherd - Psalms 23:1-23:6
The Over-exposed Heart - 2 Samuel 11:1-11:5
The Undeserving Heart - Psalms 51:1-51:1
The Weakened Heart - 2 Samuel 3:17-3:39
The Heart Of A Father - 2 Samuel 13:1-13:39
A Heart to Build - 2 Samuel 7:1-7:17
The Dead Dog Syndrome - 2 Samuel 16:5-16:14
