King David's life demonstrates the profound consequences of sin and the path to repentance, as illustrated by his affair with Bathsheba and the subsequent judgment announced by the prophet Nathan. The sermon highlights David's initial resistance to conviction, as described in Psalm 32, where he recounts his inner turmoil and suffering before confessing his sin. It emphasizes that true confession is not merely a statement to others but a deep acknowledgment before God, as detailed in Psalm 51, where David articulates the nature of his transgression, iniquity, and sin. The core lesson is that God's forgiveness is complete and transformative, offering cleansing and restoration, and that acknowledging God's righteousness in judgment is crucial for genuine repentance.
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A warm good morning to you all. Glad to see you coming together again. We praise our God, challenge our hearts in song, study the Word of God together. This morning again I'm going to invite you to turn to the Old Testament. We're going to look today beginning in Second Samuel chapter twelve. Second Samuel chapter twelve. And turning there again I remind you that in our morning studies we're really doing an inventory. We're looking at events in the Scripture in which God called people to take a spiritual inventory to see what lessons we can learn for ourselves, because I believe that it's important for all of the people of God at regular intervals to do a spiritual inventory and to find that in the events that we read of in the Scriptures where people were called to do a spiritual inventory, different kinds of issues surface.
And today we're looking at a situation in which the inventory involved an auditor. I guess I've told you that when we do an audit at the college each year, a part of that means that right at the end of December, the last couple of days of December, our auditor himself comes from Chicago. rolls up his sleeves and goes down in the storage and actually helps us physically count through the hundreds and thousands of correspondence courses that are there. Now, we could count boxes and books. We could do that. We have people that can count very well. But the auditor comes in to help us to provide an objectivity in that count.
Sometimes auditors do get involved in the inventory, don't they? And certainly spiritually speaking, that's true. And today we're going to read an account of a spiritual inventory that specifically involved the Lord commissioning an auditor to come in to assist with that inventory. All right, we're in Second Samuel chapter twelve. Let's read the opening fourteen verses. Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. Now you see who's the auditor? Nathan. Who's doing the inventory? David. Then the Lord sent Nathan to David, and he came to him and said, There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had great many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb which he bought and nourished.
And it grew up together with him and his children. It would eat of his bread and drink of his cup and lie in his bosom like a daughter to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take from his own flock or from his own herd. To prepare for the wayfarer who had come to him. Rather he took the poor man's you lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. Then David's anger burned greatly against the man. And he said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die. And he must make restitution for the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and had no compassion. Nathan then said to David, You are that man.
Thus says the Lord God of Israel. It is I who anointed you king over Israel. It is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul. I also gave you your master's house, your master's wives, and your care. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I would have added to you many, many more things like these. Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword. You have taken his wife to be your wife. You have killed him with the sword of the sons of Adam. Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.
Thus, says the Lord, behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household. I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion. He shall lie with your wives in a broad daylight. Indeed, you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel under the sun. Then David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. Nathan said to David, The Lord also has taken away your sin. You shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die.
Now we'll pause there. Again, ask God's blessing. Father, today we Look at this very solemn event, and we look at it with mixed emotion. And pray that as we ponder the scriptures and as we observe the inventory that David was called to take so long ago, that our hearts will be instructed. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Another great paradox in the life of King David, isn't there? The Bible describes him as a man after God's own heart. I wish the record of God could say that about me.
The Bible says he served God well in his own generation. I wish the record of God could say that about me. But the Bible also presents this period of David's life some incredibly a great sin. And not only were there these deep, deep sins of David's life, but sins that had a very public implication, sins that hurt other lives, sins that hurt the nation, sins that brought the name of the Lord into reproach.
Now, mercifully, many of the sins of God's people are private, sins of attitude, sins of thought, sins of omission, things we failed to do that we should have done, as well as sins of commission, things that we do, and mercifully people never see it or know it. That's a mercy. But unfortunately, in David's case, God is very frank about the fact that these great sins of David became very public issues. And as we see here in verse fourteen, brought the name of the Lord into great reproach. And so we have this paradox. A man of whom the Scripture says many, many, many high things.
But a man whose feet of clay we see very vividly. And as we look at the life of David, this seems to stand out. Hollywood still loves to scandalize David for these great sins. And yet, as you look at the page of Scripture, it's interesting how much God has to say about this period of David's life and the deep spiritual need into which he came. and out of which mercifully the Lord brought him. And that's the good part of the narrative. Now notice several things. We will notice if you look through all of the scriptures that talk about these events, and we can't look at them all because they're not only throughout this historic section of the scripture, but as we shall see, we find a lot of evidence in the Psalms of this difficult period of David's life, and even on into the message of the prophets.
we find the prophets speaking of things that reflect back upon this difficult time in David's life. And so to get the whole story, even in the New Testament, even into, for example, Romans chapter three, which quotes from Psalm fifty-one, there are reflections of this difficult time in David's life. And one of the things that characterized this was that David uncommonly resisted the conviction of God. How long we don't know. But there seems to have some gap of time between Second Samuel eleven and Second Samuel twelve, because it's in chapter eleven that you see the horrible account of these tragic sins in their immediate aftermath.
And then in chapter twelve, Nathan comes to David as God's instrument to point the finger to him and to bring him to repentance. There seems to have been some time. Notice two things. First of all, thumb back to Psalm thirty-two. We're going to go back there again. So after you find Psalm thirty-two, you may want to keep your finger in that passage because Psalm thirty-two is a sequel Psalm. It was written by David as the Spirit of God moved him after all of this problem of sin and confession had been dealt with. And later on, as David looks back upon this period of his life, Psalm thirty-two is a Psalm of sequel. And part of that, verse three, David remembers what he went through After having committed these dreadful sins of adultery and murder, there was a period of time when he fought the conviction of God.
Notice how he recounts it in Psalm thirty-two, three. When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Well, David's confession now that there was a period of time when he really had two tough times. Now, how long as we say David resisted the conviction of God about these great sins? We don't know. But he talks about this experience here, and it went through day and night. So there was some period of time. Now, we need to pause here and remember this was not typical of David.
In fact, I've often thought that one of the reasons, perhaps, why the Bible says David was a man after God's own heart is because in the total picture of David's life, he was quick to turn to God when he was in trouble. It's one of the things that I find refreshing in David's life. You remember when David was in his exile in Philistia. And while he and his men were away, enemies came through and raided the town in which they lived, Ziklag, and burned it and took away all their wives and children as prisoners of war. And when David and his men came back, it was a terrible moment. And they realized that their city and their families had been wiped out. And the scriptures say that even David's faithful men who had left Israel and who had identified with David in his exile, the scriptures say even his men were about to kill him.
they were so distraught. His own loyal men. And what's the first thing the Scriptures say on that occasion? It says, but David encouraged himself in the Lord. And this is typical of many, many scenes in David's life. One of the things that characterized his life, he was quick to turn to God in trouble. But on this event, for some reason or another, unlike his usual pattern, He seemed to have resisted the conviction of God, and the burning, the struggles within, He testified. You find the same thing in Psalm fifty-one, and you want to turn there.
Keep your finger in Psalm thirty-two. Coming back, then find Psalm fifty-one. We're coming back to that. So keep another finger there. You got more than two. Have you? Okay, Psalm fifty-one. You see in Psalm fifty-one and verse eight, in his Psalm of Confession, he says, Make me to hear joy and gladness, and let the bones which you have broken, rejoice. Who? Let the bones which you, who seeks speaking to God? And he pictures himself as one with whom God dealt in such a way in conviction that it was like getting his bones broken. So we know that there was a period of time in which David resisted conviction, in which for some reason uncommonly, He just brooded on and suffered with the convicting hammering of God in his spirit.
And that's not fun, is it, folks? Now, none of you would ever do something stupid like that, but maybe there are a few of us that have to admit that there have been times of conviction when the Lord had to plow pretty deeply in our hearts. It's not the kind of thing you recommend. It's not the kind of thing that is enjoyable, but God is faithful. God is faithful. And His purpose is to deal with us, the root sin out of our lives, to clean us up, to pick us up, and to lead us on. The work of progressive sanctification is a reality, and God will not leave us where He found us.
And He will not leave us alone when we need to deal with sin in our lives. And so we see this occasion in David's life when God sent a spiritual auditor to him to help him take an inventory. The issue? Dealing with personal sin. Now let's go back to Psalm fifty-one. This is David's great psalm of confession. Now in the historic narrative in Second Samuel twelve, we simply see the response of David in which he said to Nathan, have sinned but in Psalm fifty one we find the full text of his confession because David's confession to Nathan the simple statement I have sinned was really only the tip of the iceberg because the thing that really changed things for David was not that simple statement to Nathan I have sinned but the fact that David had confessed to God That's what really counted.
And Psalm fifty-one gives us the text of his confession that we don't see back in the historic section. We only see the tip of the eye. As I say, we only see his simple statement to Nathan. I sin. And there's a place for that. In fact, James tells us in the New Testament, there are times when we need to confess your false one to the other. There is a time when, if people are ministering to you, how many times in a shepherding, counseling kind of situation, I've seen God deal with people's lives and twist their arms and work on them in conviction. And it's been a very gratifying thing sometimes to hear fellow believers admit to me. Ah, yes, Dan, I've dealt with that sin.
The Lord's really worked. And it wasn't me. It wasn't my doing, of course. I'm not God. But it was a gratifying thing to hear fellow believers say, yes, I've sinned. I've dealt with that thing in the presence of God. And Nathan had that opportunity to hear David say that. but the full context of David's confession is in Psalm fifty one now we can't take the time I'd like to take in this Psalm today but I hope I can what your appetite to spend a little bit of time in Psalm fifty one if we were in a classroom today and sitting around in an informal setting I'd like to give all of you a worksheet on Psalm fifty one and that worksheet would have several main headings now first of all the question and the issue in Psalm fifty one David knew what his problem was it was sin a lot of times in the counseling situation I've had people come to talk to me young people I spend most of my time with young people and they know they're struggling they know they're hurting they know life has gotten very confused and difficult but they're really not sure what their problem is and sometimes it takes a while to think and pray together to even get a clear perspective of what the problem is so he
can deal with it. But David knew his problem. Notice, for example, and you might want to just think through this Psalm. Notice the problem. The fact, first of all, that he had committed a transgression. Verse one, do you see that? Be gracious to me, O God, according to all I love you, guys, according to thy grace and so they blot out my transgression. David knew that this was part of his problem. Transgression. Verse two. You see the word iniquity. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Verse three, cleanse me from my sin. Verse four, I have done what is evil in thy sight. Four words.
The Hebrew words are very interesting. The Hebrew word of verse one, translated transgression, literally means to get off the path. To wander off the path. No trespassing. sign says, but I go in anyway. Stay on the path. The sign in the park says, but I go off and walk in the lawn. Whatever, however you want to picture it, this Hebrew word means to get off the path, to get away from the straight and narrow. David said, that happened to me. That's what I did. The second word you see in verse two, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, the root word here is to twist.
In fact, I remembered the Hebrew class in seminary, coming to this word and it looked like the word for rope. And when you translate a passage that you have memorized or studied before, you always try to trust your memory rather than your knowledge of the language. And I couldn't figure out what's the word rope doing here? And then I realized that the Hebrew word rope and the Hebrew word for iniquity have the same root, which means to twist. And this word means that which is twisted. And David not only says, I got off the path and off the straight and narrow, but Lord, I'm twisted. What I did was perverted. And then in verse three, the word sin, the most common word in the Old Testament.
And it has the same meaning as the New Testament word sin, which means to miss the mark. Third way, David describes what his problem was. He had gotten off the path. What he did was perverted and twisted. And he had missed the mark. And the fourth word in verse four, translated here, evil is a very interesting word. In Hebrew, it's onomatopoeia. It sounds like it means, it's a word which means to make a loud and embarrassing noise to create a scene and embarrass somebody. Like a kid who throws a temper tantrum in the grocery store and mother is so embarrassed. And so David describes his sin this way. He says, what I did, oh God, was getting off the path.
What I did was perverted and twisted. What I did was missing the mark. What I did created an embarrassment. David knew what his problem was. By the way, folks, this is the essence of confession. To name our sin before God. To be perfectly frank with God. Not to play games, Lord, if I have committed any... No, no. What do you mean, if? No, no. David is not saying, Lord, if I did something wrong, no, no. He's not saying that. He's saying, Lord, I really blew it. I got off the straight and narrow. What I did was perverted. What I did missed the mark.
What I did created a terrible embarrassment. The second part of our analysis of this psalm is that David not only knew what his problem was, but he also knew what he needed. He knew what he wanted God to do for him. And I won't give you all because sometime you need to work through the Psalm on your own and pick out those statements in the Psalm that indicated that David really knew what he wanted God to do for him. Verse one, he needed the grace of God. He needed God's compassion. He needed God to blot out his transgressions.
Verse two, he needed for God to wash him. He needed for God to And go right down through the sound. For example, drop down to verse seven. What did he say he needed? Purify me. Wash me. By the way, this word for wash in verse seven is an interesting one. The root idea of the Hebrew word is to trample, to tread, to walk on. And apparently it reflects that which characterized wash day in ancient Israel. They didn't have automatic washing machines. You throw your clothes in and press the button and walk off and let the machine do all the work.
Apparently in ancient Israel, ladies would take their clothes down to the nearest stream and find a riffle where the water flowed through the rocks and they would all throw their clothes down there and then they would walk around on those clothes. Their feet were the agitators, you see, as the water flowed through and they walked on their clothes and they would just have a good time talking with one another while they walked the dirt. They trampled the dirt out of their clothes. And when David says, wash me, he says, Lord, if you need to, trample it out of me. But get me clean. Very beautiful picture here. And you can go right on down and pick out the other statements. He needed to have his new heart created with him. He needed to have the joy of his salvation restored.
So you can go right down through the psalm asking the question, what did David say he needed? First of all, He knew what his problem was, and he names it with several very expressive words. And now he knew what he needed God to do for him. And the third way you will go through this psalm, if you're going to analyze it, is what I think one of the beautiful parts of this psalm, and that is that in all of this anguish of dealing with his sin, David never lost sight of what God was like. And so your third time through this psalm, you need to list all of the things from the text of the psalm that indicate that David knew his God.
You see, sometimes when we're in trouble and spiritually struggling and dealing with sin, it's easy to really lose sight. It's easy to look at God through jaded lenses. I remember as a kid, when I did something to please my father, now my dad loved me, I never doubted that. Even when he was giving me a licking, I knew he loved me. And I knew I loved my dad. But boy, when I had done something that I knew was wrong, I avoided him. I tried to tiptoe around him. I tended to look at him through different lenses. Why? Because I was guilty. And sometimes it's that way with God. And sometimes we who rejoice in the presence of God and pray, they are Father who art in heaven.
And at some other times he's the hound of heaven. I'm running for my life. I'm looking at him through different lenses. But one of the great things about David, and maybe this is one of the reasons why he said to be a man after God's own heart. He always kept a very clear view of what his God was like. He seemed to have that spiritual virtue of even in the throes of all of the difficulties he experienced, even when his life was in peril and battle and all of this. He still kept a very clear view of what his God was like. And so you need to go through the psalm also and pick out the attributes of God. Just to give you an illustration, to wet your appetite, he knew that God was a God of grace, he knew that God was a God of compassion, he knew that God was an all-knowing God.
Verse four, notice that. He knew that his God was just in his judgment. That's important. One of our human propensities is that when somebody points out my sin, it tends to make me fight. Just like a little kid. Something breaks. Mom appears on the scene. And brother says, she did it. And what will sister say? Well, but you. See? Sister will tend not to say, oh, I did it. No. We tend not to do that. And when we're in trouble, we tend to blame our parents, but my parents, or we tend to blame the school, well, that school I went to was no good or whatever.
It's easy. No, no. David is saying in verse four, one of the reasons why I'm confessing like this is, oh God, you are just, you are right in pointing out my sin. This is why Paul quotes this verse in Romans chapter three, by the way. to demonstrate the great virtue of admitting that God is just in his judgment of sinners. And David is admitting that. He knew that his God was a God of justice and that God was of pure eyes and to look upon sin. That God must deal with sin. He knew that. He knew that. You see, it's good not to lose sight of those things.
Not to lose sight of those things. And then as you look down through this psalm, you will also... want to do another sweep through the Psalm with yet a fourth observation. And notice all down through the text of Scripture what David anticipated as the result of God's forgiveness. First of all, the vivid description of his sin, he knew what his problem was. Secondly, the repeated statements of what he knew he needed God to do for him. Thirdly, his description of what God was like, the attributes of God. And now fourthly, the fourth time through the Psalm, you look for those statements that indicated that David really anticipated what all of this would lead to, the results of it.
And you see, for example, verse six, that God would make him to know wisdom, that he would be clean. In fact, he would become whiter than snow. That the bones which God had broken would eventually rejoice. that a clean heart would be created in him, and that eventually he would have a steadfast spirit, and that the joy of his salvation would be restored and so on. So you see, there's a forward-looking aspect to this song, as David anticipated the results in his life of dealing with his sin in confession, and God doing what he knew he needed to have done, and because of what God is like, here will be the result.
And so on your worksheet, this imaginary worksheet I've given you, the fourth time through the psalm, you need to go down verse by verse and pick out all of these statements that David makes about what the result will be. And again, go back to verse four. One of the results, David says, in all of this is that God would be justified. It's a switch, isn't it? I thought we're the ones that need to be justified. What do you mean? that thou be justified when you speak. Well, if you understand the simple meaning of the word justify, which means to declare to be righteous.
Yes, I need to be justified. And one of the great truths of the Scripture, particularly the book of Romans, justification by faith. When I come by faith in Jesus Christ and receive him as my Savior and receive his forgiveness and salvation, then God declares me to be righteous. You may not believe it, but folks, it's true. Dan Smith is righteous. As righteous as Christ. You may not believe it, but it's true. Why? Because I'm saved. Christ is mine. He's forgiven me. And God has declared Dan Smith to be righteous. I'm justified. But the scriptures also say that there are times when it's important for God to be justified.
For us to say, God is righteous. And what David is saying is, I want everybody to know, O God, that you are right, you are righteous in pointing your finger at my sin. You are righteous to deal with me as you are dealing with me. You're right, and I want everybody to know it. You're right. Very important that coming through all of the issues of life, and particularly in those issues, where we've blown it and we need to deal with sin in our lives that we make sure that God is honored because he is not a party to our sin.
He is of pure eyes and to look upon evil. And he doesn't sweep anything under the carpet and he doesn't play any games with reality. God is holy. God is righteous. And we need to know it and we need to declare that and our friends and our world need to know. that God is right and God is righteous in all his judgments. That needs to be very clear. And so we see in this Psalm, and there are many, many more details that we could go in either of these four categories. But again, I've given you an imaginary worksheet now and sometime on your own.
Perhaps you want to go through the Psalm four times over. Go through it once to see what David saw as his need. What was his problem? His problem was transgression. His problem was iniquity. His problem was sin. He really spells it out. Second time through, what David knew he needed. He needed to be cleansed. He needed to be forgiven. Third time through, how he saw God, his view of God in all of this. the attributes of God that are spelled out in this passage. And the fourth time through your study, what would be the results?
What did David anticipate would come out of all of this? A clean heart, a renewed spirit, opening his mouth to speak for God, sinners being converted. See, David anticipated that when this wretched mess was all cleaned up and the Lord had forgiven him, that there were going to be some very positive things. The very forward-looking Psalm. But now turn back to Psalm thirty-two. Because a part of this spiritual inventory, apparently, lasted longer than the day that Nathan came. Psalm thirty-two is a sequel Psalm in which later on, after all of that confession, after Nathan went and pointed the finger to David, told him the story, you know, about the two men with their sheep, and...
Got David's righteous anger boiling and said, David, really, you're the man. It's interesting. As someone has said, when you preach to a group of people and you say, you need you, you, you, it's always easy to duck. You know, it's easy to say, whoa, I hope Mary's here. She really needs this. Boy, I wish Bill had been here today. He really needed that message. You know, it's very easy for us to do this. Boy, I'll tell you, when you're sitting in the room with the prophet Nathan, just one to one, and he points the finger and says, you're the man. You don't duck that. You don't duck that. And that's what David needed. God knew it. And when Nathan came like that spiritual auditor, David, you're the man. What a great, gracious deal of God.
Just think for a moment, friends. If the Lord would let us get by with all of the immaturity, all the nonsense, all of the sin that so easily comes into our life, just think of what what it would be like if God were one of these sacron permissive parents that didn't have enough backbone to do for us what we need. Think of what it would be like. The family of God would be very different. And I must admit that in my sober moments I praise God for a father like I had because my dad was determined to raise his boys for the Lord and he was not reluctant to lay it on us when we needed.
I didn't like it. And there was an elm tree out behind our house, and he kept those switches trimmed off pretty well down at the lower levels. And there were many times when I winced under the punishment of my father, but I want to tell you, I praise God for a father who loved me enough to not let me get by with the nonsense and foolishness of my sinful youth. I'm grateful for that. And I'm grateful for that kind of God, as we saw in Hebrews chapter twelve, who disciplines every child in his family. and if need be he'll even punish and if need be said the writer of the Hebrews he will even scourge that's what David was going through David really went through it God put him through the rear he needed it that was necessary to bring him to confession and contrition for David to come and finally say oh God in a final analysis this is what you're looking for a broken and a contrite heart.
And I thank you that you're the kind of God that won't despise that. We have a good God. It is the goodness of God that leads you to repentance, says the Scriptures. And we need from time to time this kind of spiritual inventory. But now in Psalm thirty-two, David, at some time later, by the Spirit of God, sits down to reflect Look back on all of this. Perhaps with embarrassment again to remember his sin. There's a woman in his house every morning he saw her. I'm sure reminded him of his sin. He looked back on all that.
In his confession, the cleansing of God and forgiveness. And now as he looks back, the Spirit moved him to write Psalm thirty-two. Let's look at the opening four verses and just lean a little bit here. And again, you could do the same kind of study. Notice the, well, just the two verses. How blessed, David says, is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered? How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. How blessed I am. Now notice again, in this looking back at all of this experience of the sin and the guilt and conviction and the confession and the spiritual cleaning up and recovery that God had put him through, notice again now, first of all, he uses the word transgression again.
Transgression. Then I got off the road, I got off the path. I trespassed in the area where I should not have gone, but I'm forgiven. And I sinned. I missed a mark. But that's been covered. And how blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity. Now this word imputation, both Old and New Testament, is a banking term. It means to put to the account of. Put to the account of.
And it may be that you're going out of town and you say to a friend on such and such a day, I'm expecting this check in the mail. Here's the deposit slip. When it comes, please deposit this for me. And so you go down to the bank and you assist them by putting to their account this check. Not yours. You render the service of putting that money into their account. That's the idea of imputation, to put to the account of. And what David says here in verse two is, how blessed is the man to whom the Lord no longer puts sin on his account. The Lord no longer deals with him on the basis of that sin.
It's important to know, folks. that once we have confessed our sins, when we have dealt with our sins in the presence of the living God, then he no longer deals with us on the basis of that sin. Now, sometimes we're not like that. Sometimes, and I know people that are good record keepers, boy, they've got a little black book. Maybe they physically have one with my name written, but anyway, boy, they know, and once you've done this and this, they'll remember that against you for the rest of your life. God is not like that. God is not a record keeper. And what David here is saying, how blessed it is to me. And the Lord no longer deals with him on the basis of that old sin.
He's not like that. Because when he forgives and cleanses, it's gone, folks. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all of sin. I hope you're grateful for that. I sure am. I sure am. And then in the final statement here in verse two, and in whose spirit, how blessed is the man, in whose spirit there is no deceit or guile. You know what that word means? The word guile or deceit? It means to wear a mask. To wear a mask. One of the things that characterizes us when we are not right, when we've sinned, we like to cover it up.
The first thing that happened in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned was what? They started sowing fig leaves to cover their nations. We have that human propensity. Instead of dealing with sin in God's presence, we tend to cover it. David tried that. We saw that. But now looking back on all of it, he is saying, Blessed is the one in whose spirit... there's no longer a need to wear a mask. I don't need to cover this thing anymore. It was out anyway. God knew it and the nation knew it.
And praise God is dealt with now. Now that reads us to these words. What did he knew God did in the face of his transgression? Verse one. It's forgiven. What does that mean? The Hebrew word means to lift off and carry it away. Lift off and carry away. David said, yes, I was guilty of transgression. Yes, the burden of that, the guilt of that was upon me. But God has lifted that off and has carried it away. What did he want God to do about his sin? Well, blessed is the man whose sin is covered.
The Old Testament word atonement, kaffar, covered. He dealt with it in terms of blood, atonement, covered. And what about this matter of dealing with me on the basis of my sin? No, no. Blessed is the man whom the Lord no longer deals with on the basis of his sin. And what about that need to wear a mask and to hide and to play games? not let anybody see what I'm like and what I did. No, blessed is the man in whose spirit, even in my inner recesses of life, I don't have to play games with God anymore.
It's all settled. It's all good. Now quickly look at Romans chapter three, because there the Apostle Paul makes an interesting statement. You see, David said, and if you see this in Psalm fifty one, You will know, he said, sacrifice and offering you have not desired. David knew that going to the tabernacle with a bull or a ram or a sheep for an offering would not solve his problem. David knew that. Why? There was no sacrifice for adultery. There was no sacrifice for murder. In the Levitical ordinance, what was God's solution to these problems? David knew there was no sacrifice in that old order for either adultery or for murder.
Sacrifice and offering. Psalm fifty one. You did not require. There was no hope in an animal sacrifice for David. His only hope was in the sheer mercy of God. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kind. And was David presumptuous in anticipating that? No, you see in Romans chapter three, an interesting statement is made. There the Apostle Paul, in talking about the redemption that is in Christ and the propitiation that we have through the blood of Christ, he says, this was to demonstrate, verse twenty five, his righteousness, because in the forbearance of God, he passed over the sins previously committed.
For the demonstration I say is it so, oh, what's happening here? Paul is saying, that the work of Christ in dealing with sin is the final answer. And that's how God could show mercy and forgiveness to a man like David, even though there was no Levitical sacrifice for his sin, even though there was no animal sacrifice that would do it, that God could mercifully forgive the man and restore him That's the idea of passing over, not playing game with, not sleeping under the carpet, but forbearing and holding off.
How could God do that? How could God forgive David for the terrible things he did? Look at Calvary. Paul is saying that's how God could do that. Look at Calvary. There you see propitiation. There you see redemption. There you see precious bloodshed. Not only is sufficient to cleanse you and me from our sin, but cleanse David from his sin. What a work. What a salvation. That not only solved the problem of sin that you and I have who lived two thousand years this side of Calvary, But it solved the problem of sin of people like David who lived a thousand years the other side of Calvary.
Jesus paid it all. All to Him, Mario. Jesus paid it all. You see, even if there have been animal sacrifices for some other type of sin, that was only atonement. Atonement, which means to cover, to cover, to cover, to cover. And God in his forbearance, Paul says, passed over. He refrained from judging those sins. Not because he was unrighteous. No, no, no, no, no. Because if you read on, all of this proclaimed his righteousness.
Why? That he might be just and at the same time the justifier of the believer. And whether before Calvary or after Calvary, The justification of God, the forgiveness of the sinner, the salvation of the one who comes by faith in Christ is all based upon the same glorious reality that Christ died for our sins. It all focuses on the cross. And that glorious man who hung there as our Savior bearing our sin in his body on the tree, bearing David's sin, What a God.
What a salvation. How foolish we are to fail to deal with the sin in our lives because God's gracious provision for cleansing and forgiveness is so real, so available. Sometimes we need that spiritual inventory, don't we? Like David, to deal with the sin in our lives, to confess it, open our lives quit playing games quit wearing the mask open our hearts and minds to god in the confession of sin and receive his bountiful and faithful forgiveness and cleansing all because of calvary what a savior father today we give you our thanks for our lord jesus we give you our thanks for this glorious record known out of the sin we went We find ourselves embarrassed even to read the account of David's sins.
And yet, Father, we're grateful that you did not leave him in that mess, that you brought him under deep conviction. You caused a burning in his soul. You kept him from sleep. You stirred his heart. You trampled on him. He thought he was going to have broken bones. And then eventually you sent your prophets. We thank you, oh God, that you're a faithful God, that you do not leave us in our defilements and sin. You're a God of salvation. You're a God who loves to pick up and clean up the sinner. You're a God who loves to forgive.
You're a God who loves your son, who loves what he did at Calvary. And we love you. because you