Preached at Markham Baptist Church, January 5, 2003

"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment. Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me. You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right 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 sustain in me a willing£ spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodshed, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your deliverance. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased. The sacrifice acceptable to God£ is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, then you will delight in right sacrifices,in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on your altar." (Psalm 51) (NRSV)

Confession, repentance, and forgiveness. These are all part of the Christian life. And in these areas it is particularly important that we have a balanced outlook and expression. On one hand we need to realize that our God is a forgiving God. When we confess our sin and turn our back on it, God forgives. He cleanses and makes us new. We need to have faith that God not only forgives our sin but as we read in Isaiah 43 that He forgets our sin. So we have no right remembering what He has forgotten. We no longer need to mourn our sin or carry the guilt. He cleanses us from ALL unrighteousness when we confess our sin.

We must remember this, on the one hand, because if we don't we will always be digging up the past, always allowing forgiven sin to haunt us and we will be a miserable people. That is not what God intends for us. He is gracious and by the sacrifice of His Son Jesus He has made it possible for us to be cleansed completely, fully and forever.

But on the other hand we are called to repentance. We are a people who are called to bring to God our imperfections, our mistakes, our sins and ask Him to forgive us. God says that He esteems the one who is "humble and contrite in spirit" (Isaiah 66:2). And in our Psalm this morning we learn that "the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." (Psalm 51:17). And the prayer Jesus taught us to pray as a model includes the line, "Forgive us our trespasses". Confession is to be part of the Christian life.

It is this side of the balance that I want us to study today. For we live in a time when sin is treated as trivial and very few consider its effects and consequences. Walt Whitman, that great American writer, once said that he wished he could go and live among the cows of the field. Why? Because, he said, that it is was his observation that cows never stay awake at night weeping over their sins. As I look at our culture I sometimes think that many people have achieved Walt Whitman's goal. There are so few who weep over sin anymore.

Think about it - how many times have you heard of a criminal who is going through a trial - all the evidence points to his guilt, he is pronounced guilty and is sentenced by the judge. How many times have you read in the newspapers that the accused sat through the whole process with no emotion. Even when they are found guilty there is no remorse, no tears of regret, they are often described as "sitting expressionless."

But that's a fantastic example - let's think closer to home. And I have to ask myself how often do I lightly skip over sin, allowing my eyes to see what they should not see, allowing my tongue to speak what it should not speak, allowing my heart to feel what is ungodly and unholy? But not only allowing myself to sin - but afterward to think nothing of it? How often have I rationalized sin, denied sin, ignored sin? Anything but seeing sin for what it is and confessing it.

This was the place in which King David found himself before writing Psalm 51. You know the story. You know how he seduced the beautiful Bathsheba - how she subsequently became pregnant and how in a panic David ordered Uriah, Bathsheba's husband, to the front of the battle lines so that he was killed. You know how then the seemingly compassionate David took Bathsheba into his home and how for a time things went on as usual. David ruled the nation with impunity. He had sinned and he rationalized it, denied, suppressed it. He did everything but confess it.

But then the prophet Nathan comes to King David with all the power of his office behind him. He comes to David with a story about a poor man's lamb, stolen by a rich man to provide a feast for a passing guest. David reacts instantly to the injustice in the story. He swears to revenge the loss. "The rich man must pay" he proclaims, "and make the wrong, right by paying the poor man back four times the value of the stolen lamb!" Then he says to Nathan - "Tell me who is this man is so I can bring him to justice!" And Nathan replies, "You are the man!" And David's whole ugly sin now comes out in the open.

And what does David do? He could continue to suppress the truth, he could continue to deny his sin. He could have Nathan taken away and executed for what he has said. He is the king, after all. But David doesn't do any these things, instead he confesses his sin and we have it in writing in Psalm 51.

You know the intent of this Psalm, and indeed the intent of this sermon is not to wag the finger at us and say "You really should repent of your sin." I don't think this is a "you ought to" Psalm. It is rather a "you can" Psalm. You don't need to repress your sin, you don't need to deny your sin, you don't need to ignore your sin, you don't even to make excuses for your sin. Rather, you CAN confess your sin to God.

You can confess your sin because of who God is. This is foremost in David's mind as he confesses his sin - there is God's unfailing love and His great compassion. David knew God to be the one who loved him to the end despite what David had done, God's love was unfailing toward him. And how much more can we say that we know God's love to be unfailing, those of us who live on this side of the cross, how much more can we affirm the unfailing love of God?

And His compassion? Do we not know God to be one of compassion, one who saw us in our sad and sinful condition and sent His Son for us?

Think of who God is. Go to the cross where the perfect sacrifice was offered for you. Go to the cross and see what unfailing love God has for us, see what compassion He has for you. And know that from that time to this His love for you has not changed His compassion toward you has not faltered or grown weak with the passing of time. As He expressed His love and compassion for you there so it remains for you today.

David knew God's love and compassion and in view of who God is the weight of David's sin grew heavy.

That's always the way. It is as we catch a glimpse of God, of His character and attributes that we come to realize how we have wronged Him, how far short we have fallen of His standards. So here is Isaiah, who has this massive vision of God and all his royal attendants singing, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty."

And Isaiah says, "Woe is me! I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips." (Isaiah 6:5).

Here is David coming before the God of unfailing love and great compassion and he asks for his transgressions, that is his rebellion, his iniquities, that is his breaking of the rules, and his sin, that is falling short of God's standards all be blotted out, washed away, and cleansed.

He is brought low. And you say, But Pastor you said that this is a "you can" Psalm. And that it is true and as we examine verses 3 through 6 we may wonder if we truly can come before God and confess our sin. For these verses make it plain that there is a great chasm between ourselves and God.

Sin has corrupted us. It has corrupted our relationships, it has corrupted our relationship with God. David says, in verse 4 "Against you, you only have I sinned." To be sure, Uriah had been wronged, Bathsheba had been wronged. The nation of Israel had been wronged. They had all been wronged by David's actions, but only God had been sinned against. His law had been broken, His creation, Uriah, had been destroyed. His good purpose had been distorted.

Sin has not only corrupted us but it envelops us. "Surely I was sinful at birth." (verse 5) says David. He is saying that his very nature is one of sin; he confesses that there was never a moment in his existence when he was not a sinner. It's not just a single fault that David recognizes but his whole nature is enveloped, or clothed with sin.

But this passage is a “you can” passage - you can confess your sin because of who God is - He is the God of unfailing love and great compassion. To be sure such a vision will give us a greater sensitivity to our sin condition. And this is not such a bad thing. I think it was Billy Graham who once said that what disturbed him most about watching television was how little disturbed he was. And what he was saying was that the flood of images and ideas that used to disturb him and his sensibilities no longer did - he had grown numb to it all.

We need this vision of God, not only to be able to confess our sin without fear but to have a deeper understanding of what sin is and the horror of it.

It is as our vision of God's holy character becomes ever clearer that our sensitivity toward sin becomes ever greater.

This is a "you can" passage, not a “you ought” passage not only because of who God is, but because of what God does. We can confess our sin because of what God does. Look at what David asks God to do in verses 7 through 12. These are the very things that God does for those who turn to Him and confess their sins.

He cleanses,

He washes,

He hides His face from our sins,

He creates in us a clean heart,

He renews our spirit,

He does not cast us from His presence, and

He restores our joy.

God does all of this. We need not fear; we need not doubt His ability, to restore us, to make us clean from sin. He is able because He has done it all for us on the cross. We would pray, “Lord because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ cleanse me.” David prays in verse 7 "Cleanse me with hyssop."

I believe that these two prayers are the same. Scholars tell us that hyssop was a small plant that was often found growing in the crevices of stone walls. And because of its shape and structure, it was used as a small brush. In the ceremonies o the temple it was used to sprinkle blood. The first time it is mentioned in the Bible is at the Passover when the Jews were leaving Egypt: "Take a bunch of hyssop" we read, "dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top and on both sides of the door frame.” (Exodus 12:22)

When the angel of the death saw the blood he passed over the Jewish households and the firstborn in those homes did not die. After that we are told in Leviticus 14:4,6 how hyssop was used to sprinkle blood on one who had been healed of some infectious disease in an act of ceremonial cleansing.

David knew this and understood this and so he prays to God to cleanse him with hyssop - in other words, cleanse me by the blood. He knew that there was no sacrifice, there as no burnt offering that he could offer, there was no ritual that could meet his need. Only the blood could cleanse him from the corruption of sin in his life.

And so with us, only the blood of Jesus Christ can wash away our sins. He was the perfect sacrifice for you and for me.

Do you see that this is a "you can" psalm. You can confess your sin to God without fear because of who He is, because of what He has done. If. If. There is a condition to all this. You can come to God and confess your sin and experience cleansing, joy, a pure heart, a new spirit if - if you are humble enough to go through with it.

I don't have time to go through verses 13 to 19 with you but I do want you to notice verses 16 and 17. "You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise."

Do you see the if? You can come to God and confess, if - if you are humble enough, if you do not let your pride get in the way. If you come with a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. None of this that we have talked about today - cleansing of sin, a vision of God's holiness, a new spirit, joy - none of this is possible without first a humble attitude. An attitude that says "Yes, I am a sinner, and because of God's unfailing love and great compassion I will say I am sorry to God and ask for His forgiveness and trust Him to create in me a clean heart.”