A SINNER’S BROKEN HEART
Someone once said that when we see a brother or sister in sin, there are two things we do not know:
• First, we don’t know how hard they tried not to sin.
• Second, we don’t know about the demonic forces that may have attacked them.
• Oh, but wait – there is one other thing we do not know…and that is what would we have done if were in those same circumstances?
There is a story of a pastor who finished preaching his message on sin one Sunday, and he wanted to make sure his congregation understood. So he asked,
"Can anyone tell me what you must do before you can be forgiven of your sin?"
Suddenly from the back of the room, a small boy said, "You have to sin."
Obviously, the boy only understood the easy part.
In Union, NJ, there is a company called the Red Devil Tool Company. The Red Devil Tool Company was advertising that their tools can make your most difficult jobs very easy. (Oddly enough) this is their slogan,
“It’s easy with the devil.”
And that is very true with Satan. Satan wants to make sure that it is very easy for you to commit a sin, and his desire and his ambition is to destroy people like you and me. Satan often makes sin look easy, to appear attractive and something very pleasant to do.
Kay Arthur, a well known Christian speaker and book writer, put it this way:
If you tolerate sin in your life, that sin will not only take you farther than you wanted to go, it will keep you longer than you wanted to stay and it will cost you more than you thought you’d have to pay...
The Bible tells a lot of stories about how God’s people committed sin, but perhaps one of the best known sins recorded was the adulterous affair between King David and Bathsheba (found in II Samuel 11 & 12). The Prophet Nathaniel rebuked King David and he repented of his sin. What King David had to say about his sin in this morning’s text can be our way of looking deeply in the BROKEN HEART OF A SINNER.
Text: Psalm 51:1 – 9
Prayer:
This scripture is ideal for us to see two things:
The tragedy of sin, along with the forgiveness of God. Nothing can explain sin for us like God’s Word.
Notice that (unlike many people of our day) King David does not argue with himself about what he had done wrong. David knew that he was wrong, but he also knew that this was not just about one isolated sin with Bathsheba. His sin of adultery and murder was only the symptom of
A SINNER’S BROKEN HEART.
This chapter in Psalms records for us the lack of virtue in David’s heart. Virtue is best defined as having an obedience toward God. What David did was not a slip or a flaw in his character, but this was evidence of something far worse. David could now see the iniquity (i.e., “guilt” in other translations) in his heart. This was not something new in David’s life, he said that this guilt actually began when he was conceived (verse 5).
The Hebrew translation of “iniquity/guilt” defines it as a lifestyle that is evil, that is, an evil nature with us that will cause anyone to sin. Yes, I said “anyone”. Even a great man of God like King David can fall to sin.
There are many Christians that have tried to redefine sin and iniquity as being just a flaw in their character…you know something that just suddenly happened. It seems almost that if someone commits a sin, it is considered just a fluke…something unfortunate.
“Oh – I didn’t mean to do that…”
“Oops – what was I thinking?”
If that were the case then all we would have to do would be to apologize to whom ever, and go on with our routine lives. Perhaps comedian Richard Pryor said it well for all Americans back in the 1970’s,
“The devil made me do it!”
Many people would agree that when it comes to sin.
“I just can’t help it.” or “It’s really not a big deal!”
According to Psalm 51, sin is a big deal in God’s eyes. Here we see sin becoming something very horrifying in our hearts and our minds.
Sin Torments the Mind
Sin is not something simple we might suddenly become aware of in our daily lives, but it is the vexing of our soul. Sin is a controlling plague that grips the heart and pulls us down to the level of Satan and his demons.
Does this sound overly dramatic to you?
No - Not really. The man/woman/boy/girl cannot escape the grip of sin and iniquity unless they experience a reconciliation with God.
That is why David said,
“I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me.”
If we choose to ignore sin and just learn to live with it, sin will torment the mind in all kinds of ways.
Not only that but…
Sin Is Against God Himself
Living as a king in David’s time meant that you could do whatever you wanted to do to anyone, and (because you were the king) you were exonerated from ever being punished. David must have known this, but he could not live with himself and so he reckoned himself with God on this matter of evil.
Even though David knew he was wrong during the sin, and even though he had hidden this sin from everyone, he now knew that God saw the very act of his sin. David’s crime against Bathsheba and her husband was bad enough, but his greatest misery was in knowing that the actual sin of murder and adultery was against God, Himself.
What does this mean to us? Listen to (NLT) Hebrews 6:6-
by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.
Allow me to translate that for us – when we sin, we sin against God, and God is the One Who takes it very, very personal…we must realize that…
Sin Is Against the Righteous Judge
Many times the book of Psalms is difficult for us to understand with all of the poetry, and that is why we may need to read the other translations. Let’s look at what the Message Bible has to say and see if it will help us to appreciate the intensity of this passage.
What I have found in verse 4 (of our text) may surprise/shock you as to David and A SINNER’S BROKEN HEART…David says this (in the NCV)
You’re the One I’ve violated, and you’ve seen it all, the full extent of my evil. You have all the facts before you; whatever you decide about me is fair.
Maybe you have never prayed a prayer like that. You may have never felt that the sin you had in your heart would make you want to pray a prayer like this one.
My friend, here is the point of what David is saying about his heart…
No matter what excuses we may think we can conjure up for our sins, it won’t change the fact that we were born with A SINNER’S BROKEN HEART and it is only God Who can save us. And we need to be saved from our sin!
The fact is this – God is a righteous Judge.
God’s judgments are just on mankind, and we must be saved from our sinful hearts.
How did all of this happen to mankind?
Sin Infests Man’s Heart
Sin is much more than -
• An occasional temptation to do something wrong.
• A distraction from our relationship with God.
David is no different than anyone else here in need of forgiveness. That is to say, David is not just merely covered in his sins, but he lets us see inside his heart and it is saturated with the evil of his sins.
And that is why David says this –
Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts,
In other words,
“God You want me to stop kidding myself!”
In essence – sin can get way down on the inside…
From there it can destroy you from the inside – out.
Now while God has always been and always will be holy, we are not. The more we understand God’s great desire for holiness, the more we will be aware of
A SINNER’S BROKEN HEART.
Our appearance of being a Christian will not be enough when we see God’s holiness (as He is).
Our surface can look holy, but God knows all about what our heart looks like way down on the inside.
We’ll become desperate with the condition of our soul.
We will need God to do something to save us.
We will do as David did…we must find God and…
The Wonders of His Grace
You may be at the point that you are discouraged with yourself and your spirituality…just as David was. Dealing with the sin issue in our lives is never a pleasant subject, but reckoning yourself with God’s hand of redemption is a must.
God’s wondrous Grace is your only answer.
There is some Good News found in Psalm 51…
In verse one, David cries out to the Lord to “blot out” his transgressions. In verse two, he wants God to “wash him thoroughly”. The Hebrew word is the same word used to beat (or, knead/roll) his garments on the rocks at the riverside. There must be a wringing out by hand to get rid of the dirt caught in the fabric of his soul. This would be the old fashioned way of washing clothes. There was no convenience of using detergent powder or caustic bleach.
This was not going to be easy on David and he knew it, but all he wants is for his sins to be removed from his record. What David wanted was to once again be cleansed and have a renewed fellowship, a renewed communion with the Lord.
As an example in our day and time,
the New Testament believer should understand how important his communion with the Lord is.
In taking the sacraments/elements of the Lord’s Supper, before he/she takes and places them on their lips there must be a true repentance that must take place.
We must see inside
A SINNER’S BROKEN HEART.
We must confess our sin to the Holy One and ask him to do as David asked in verse 7,
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
You may not have noticed this but King David had asked for forgiveness in verses 1 and 2, only to find that he asked for forgiveness again in verse 7 and 9.
Why is that? Did he not have enough faith to believe in the Lord’s forgiveness?
Why repeat himself in asking God to forgive him?
It isn’t so when we read Psalm 51 it may sound poetic, or dramatic. King David says what he does because recognizes that he has a broken heart because of sin.
This is proof of the gravity and heavy weight of sin on David’s soul. Here (for sure) we can easily see
A SINNER’S BROKEN HEART.
A soul in this kind of agony does not make vain repetitions or monotonous chants. In this kind of agony over sin, a sinner will not make promises to God just to break them again. A SINNER’S with a BROKEN HEART would not dare risk that with the One who is there to save them from their sins.
This is not just a soul who needs forgiveness, but a soul who knows there must be a change in how he is living his life. Sin has all but destroyed David when he didn’t even suspect it, but no more would he take a chance with his sins.
Close:
If you go to God only to be saved and not be changed, you have not known what it means to have
A SINNER’S BROKEN HEART. Someone with a genuine salvation knows exactly what God is saying in Psalm 51.
Genuine salvation means a man/woman is not just reclaimed, but is remade. Otherwise there is only a glossing over of a single fault, and that is only a temporary fix for your conscience.
I John 3:6 (NCV)
So anyone who lives in Christ does not go on sinning. Anyone who goes on sinning has never really understood Christ and has never known him.
My friend your experience is not with an altar in a church building…it is with the Lord God Jehovah Who sent His only begotten Son to save you from
A SINNER’S BROKEN HEART.
This Psalm is not just for someone wanting to become a Christian. Psalm 51 is for every one of us.
