"From guilt to joy"

Today's reading is found on page 573, Psalm 51. For the director of music, a sum of David when a prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Fashiba. Have mercy on me or god according to your unfailing love? According to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

For I'm no on my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. So you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. Surely, I was sinful at that. Sinful from the time my mother conceived me, yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb.

You taught me wisdom in that secret place. Cleends 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 you have crushed rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. Creating me a pure heart, oh god, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and plant me your willing spirit to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors your ways so that sinners will turn back to you.

Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed or god you who are god of my salvation. And my tongue will sing of your righteousness. Open my lips lord and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, so I would bring it. You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.

My sacrifice or god is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart you god will not despise. May it please you to prosper, Iron, to build up the walls of Jerusalem? Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous in burnt offerings offered whole, then balls will be offered on your altar. Let's pray together as we come to god's word. Father, we thank you again that you are a speaking god that you have, spoken to us to reveal yourself to us what you are like, and father, you have also spoken to reveal what we're like.

And so father, as we come to your word and as we think about guilt and how we can deal with guilt, father, please help us to listen to your word and to respond to you the way that we should. Ah, man. Well, we're doing a a series at the moment in the book of Psalms where we're looking at, how to relate to god with different emotions and in different different times of life. So, a couple of Sundays ago, we were in Psalm 88, and we were thinking about how to relate to god in the darkness. It's a Psalm which begins and ends.

With the Psalmists in feeling like they're in the dark. How do you cope when life feels like that? Well, Psalm 88 helps us. Then last week, we looked at Sarma hundred and 16, and we were thinking about joy when god delivers us, and we thought about 2 levels of application deliverance from sin and the joy that that brings, but also other deliverances in life when god brings us through difficult situations and brings them us out of them. Darkness, joy of deliverance, and today we are thinking about guilt.

How do we deal with guilt? Well, there are various ways people might try to deal with guilt. And maybe you've tried these in the past as well. 1 common thing that people do is to minimize it. So we might say, for instance, oh, it's not my fault.

Whatever it was I did, I I it's not my fault. I could blame others. It's someone else's fault. It's it's my family's fault. It's my spouse's fault.

It's it it's my upbringing. It's where I live. If you had neighbors like I've got, you'd have responded like I did. It could be stress. If you've had the week I've had, you'd have done the same thing.

We can blame other things, say it's not my fault. Or we can say, minimize it by saying, it's not that bad. The thing I did was was not really that bad, compare it to what other people do, and and and it's not that bad. Or we can minimize it by saying I'm not that bad. That thing I did, it was just a 1 off.

That's not the real me. The real me is something else, but that that was that was an oddity. That was strange. I'd I'd, you know, that's not the real me. We can minimize it.

Or some people go the other way, and conclude that they are totally worthless because of the bad thing that they've done. Now, e neither of those ways actually deal with sin, with our badness, with our guilt, And none of them lead to the incredible joy that David had towards the end of the sum. Just cast your eye down towards the end of the sum verse 15, page 5 7 4. Where he says, open my lips, lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. This is someone who, at the end of the song, King David, at the end of the song, he is just overflowing with praise for god with joy.

Well, how do you do that? How do you go from guilt to overflowing jaw? Well, Psalm 2 51 is gonna tell us how? Because this tells us how god wants you and me to deal with our guilt. Now, what's the situation that we come to?

I was very, I was very thankful that, Yasmin, I didn't ask her too, but but she did. She read the bit right at the start of the Psalm, under where it says Psalm 51, the bit in italics, you should always read those bits. They're part of the Psalm, and they give you the context of what's going on. What's the situation? It says for the director of music, a Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Vashiva.

So what's the situation? You can read it, in, 2 Samuel 11. The situation is King David had decided not to go to war. He decided to stay at home while the army went out fighting. And while he was there, he committed adultery with the wife of 1 of the military leaders, the wife of Eurya.

He committed adultery with her. Her name was Beth Sheba, and she became pregnant. And so David King David felt he needed to cover this up. And so he called Eurya back from the front line, and after he'd met with Eurya, encouraged him to go home and enjoy being at home. And enjoy married life, sleep with his wife.

Hoping that that would then mean that the the pregnancy would look like it was because he'd come back from battle and slept with his wife. But Eria refuses to do this. And he says, how can I go home and enjoy the comforts of home when my men are out fighting? Which is quite a pointed thing to say to David, who has done exactly that. So stayed at home while the men have gone off fighting, he stayed home and not just enjoyed his own family comforts, but Euryuz as well.

So he Eury refuses to go and sleep with his wife. And so David has to come up with another plan. And he he sends your eye back to the front line and gives, issues commands to the commanding officer to say put your eye in the worst place in the battle, the most vulnerable place. And have everyone else withdraw so that leaves Eurya vulnerable. And that is what happened, and Eurya was killed.

David then marries Eurya's wife, and she has the baby. And maybe David thought I've got away with this, adultery, and murder. But it says at the end of 2, Samuel, 11, very poignantly, that the thing David had done displeased the lord. And so Nathan the prophet confronts David and tells him the story of a rich man and a poor man, a rich man who has lots of animals, and then a poor man who has 1 lamb. And in the story, it's really laid on thick how much this man loves his lamb.

He treats it like 1 of his family, like 1 of his children, even sleeps with it in his arms. And Nathan says, but then a visitor came to the rich man. But the rich man, rather than taking 1 of his own lambs and killing it, takes the lamb from the poor man, kills it. And serves it to his guests. And David is furious, says this man should die, and Nathan says, you are the man.

And David is cut to the heart, and this Psalm is what he then writes. And this helps us to know how to deal with our guilt. And the first thing, we've got more than 3 points today. We've got 5. Don't be frightened.

Think it's fine. Anyway, we'll see when we get there. First thing is, turn to the lord. Now this may be obvious, but it is so important. It's so significant that what David does is turn to the lord.

Verse 1, have mercy on me, oh god, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions, wash away all my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin. You see, when we sin, our temptation is to hide from god, to run from god. Particularly if we think our sin is especially bad or if it's something that we've done, come back to god, and then done it again. And we think I can't come back to god again. I just want to shield myself from god.

I wanna get away from him. I wanna avert my husband. I just don't wanna go near him. A bit like, you know, a celebrity trying to get away from the the the photographers and they go out the back of the building or cover themselves with a coat and hat and sunglasses, and they just wanna get away. And we want to do that with god at times just to go I just don't wanna go near you god because this is so shameful.

This is so embarrassing. And yet, David, does exactly the right thing. He turns to god on the basis of who god is. He says, have mercy on me, oh god, according to your unfailing love, according to your great compassion. See, he keeps in mind who god is as he turns to god.

He says, look, god, I know you've promised that you are a god of steadfast love and fashion, and therefore, I'm going to turn to you on the basis of who you are. Now if we attempted to say, I'm not gonna bring my sin to god, I can't come to god. We must be saying something about god's character. Mustn't we. We must be saying I couldn't come before, but he he's mean.

He's nasty. Now we have gotta keep in mind. God is holy. God is pure. God is angry with sin.

That is true. That is right. But don't then lose Other parts of god's character don't then forget that he is a god of compassion and steadfast love. And on the basis of those things, you can turn to god. That's the first thing.

Turn to the lord. Second, at this point, we're gonna need to just pause on a little bit longer. Face up to your sin. Face up to your sin. David is completely upfront with God.

He is honest with the lord. He doesn't sugar coat it. He just says it as it is. First 3. For I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me.

Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. So you're right when you're in your verdict and justified when you judge. Do you see? He just says, look, this is what I've done evil. It was evil what I did.

And notice he says, you know, my sin is always before me, and maybe for David that, you know, for David, that literally was the case. Having married bathsheba, day by day, he sees the result of his sin right before his eyes, every day, his wife, his baby. It's there every day. It's a reminder. And maybe for you too, your sin comes up in front of you every day.

There are things that you just can't get rid of. It's before your eyes. And then he says, in verse 4 against you, you only have I sinned. What does he mean by that? He's not saying he's not actually saying, I don't think I did anything wrong against bathsheba or you're right.

He knows he did. But what he's saying is that underneath it all, underneath the sin, underneath what I've done, the real the the worst thing is I have offended you god. And we need to see that under every sin that we do, there is that deeper sin. Of rejecting god. I thought, well, how many of the 10 commandments has David, broken here?

Well, you may not know the 10 commandments. Don't worry. You don't have to bring them to mind. It's not a test. But he has broken at least 3 He's committed murder, adultery.

He's coveted his neighbor's wife. But, of course, it's impossible to break those without breaking the first commandment. You can't break any command of god's without breaking the first commandment. Which is you shall have no other gods before me. In other words, I've gotta be first in your life.

I've gotta be number 1. And every time we break any of god's commands, we've gotta break that 1 We've gotta reject god and his words. You have to be saying, I'm rejecting you god. I'm rebelling against you. Every time we sin, We break that command, the first command, as well as whatever other commands we break.

Every time we hurt someone, we're rejecting the god who tells us to love our neighbors ourselves. Every time we gossip about someone, write someone off in our minds, we're rejecting god. And this is a really important step to take, that our sin is not just hurting other people. It's hurting god, and that should cut us to the heart as it did to David to see that's the big problem that I've got. This is the big offense that I've offended god.

And we've got to own up to that face it full on. Say lord, I've sinned against you, but he does more than that. Even more than that, this is what he recognized. Verse, I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. Do you see David is saying?

What I did was entirely consistent with who I am. Do you see that's what he's saying? I was sinful from birth, he says, even from before birth. You see, we might be tempted to say to David, oh, David. What happened?

It was all going so well. You were doing so well. You were doing brilliantly. And then why did it all go wrong? And David here is saying, it's not like that.

I was sinful all along. It's just that now there was an opportunity to let it out. The sin was in my heart all along, just now there was more of an opportunity. And this is where we need to confront our own hearts. Because the Bible says that we're all sinful at heart.

We are all sinners. We are all in that sense like David. Now I've been wrestling with this a little bit more even this morning before before the sermon. To say, what what is the Bible saying? Is the Bible saying that you and I are all as bad as David, that we are all murderers and adulterers at heart?

There was a TV program recently, the BBC drama inside man. I don't know if you saw it. It's it's quite a disturbing, series, re really well done, but quite disturbing. And part of it is about, you know, how How bad could you really be if the circumstances were right? There's a guy in it on on death row played by Stanley Tucci.

And the line that he says is Everyone is a murderer. You just have to meet the right person. Now is that right? Is that what the Bible say? Is it saying, you know, actually, we're all murderers at heart?

Is it saying that you've got to see in your heart that you really aren't that bad? You're you're basically a murderer at heart. I think, actually, it's not quite doing that. You see, when Jesus talked to the crowd on the sermon on the mat, what he said to them is, you've heard it said do not murder But I tell you, anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Now there is a lot to be said about what's going on in our hearts.

And, yeah, I think there probably is something right to say. Yeah. There's more going on. We're more capable of bad things than we like to think. But I think what Jesus is actually doing there, when he says that in the sermon on the mount, he's saying you've heard it said, don't murder.

But I say to you, If anyone's angry with a brother or sister, you'll be subject to judgment. In other words, he's not saying I've gotta convince you you're that bad, and judgment is at that level. He's saying no judgment is at that level. Judgment is at the level of anger. Have you been angry?

You're subject to judgment. The Bible isn't challenging you to say, could you murder in the in if the circumstances were right? It's not saying, could you? Would you? You've gotta think you're that bad.

No. It's saying, no. The judgment level is far lower. It's anger. Have you done that?

Will you be subject to judgment? The the level isn't could you commit adultery? Jesus says in the sermon on the mount, if you've lasted after someone, you've already committed adultery in your heart. The level is not oh, I've gotta convince you you're that bad, really. You know that you've done those things, that you've been angry, that you've lusted after people.

And god's saying, yeah, judgment is at that level. It's at the level of the heart. You don't have to have committed murder to see that you're a sinner. David knew, committing adultery and murder didn't make him a sinner. He was a sinner all along, and the Bible saying that's true of you and me.

We're all sinners because judgment is at that level of the heart. And we need to own that and to say, yeah, that's me. God, I've sinned against you. I may not have murdered. I may not have committed adultery, but I've been angry.

I've been lustful. I've I've done other things, and that shows where my heart is. I'm a sinner, and we need to end up to that. So face up to your sin. Third, plead for forgiveness.

We have to come to the only place where forgiveness can be given. We have to come come to god himself and ask him to make us clean verse 7. David does this. Cleends me with Hisib, and I shall be clean, wash me, and I shall be whiter than so let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones you've crushed or joyce, hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.

Do you see David is just throwing himself on god? He's saying, I need you to make me clean. And he uses different images. He says cleanse me with hislip. Hislip was used, in some of the cleansing rituals in the old testament.

He's saying, god, I need you to do that to me. He says wash me. My sin is like a stain. I need you to wash me, hide your face from my sin, blot out my iniquity. And notice how certainly is that god can do it.

Says cleanse me with hyssop and the ice shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Lord, you're the only 1 who can deal with this properly. You're the only 1 who can get right down into my heart and deal with the badness, with the the sin, the guilt that there is right deep down. You're the only 1 who can do it.

And all of this anticipates the cross of the lord Jesus, when Jesus died on the cross, to take us in. It all anticipates that. Because you see, in the Old Testament's sacrificial system, There was no provision for adultery and murder. There wasn't a bit in there that said, if you've committed adultery, here's the sacrifice you can make. There just wasn't that provision then.

And so David, all he can do is just come to god and go, that god, you can do it. But notice he's saying, you can do this. You can make me clean. There must be a sacrifice out there. There must be a way for me to get clean.

And then once Samuel 12, after he has, you know, said that after Nathan has confronted him and David has said, sorry. God says to him, your sin is dealt with. Your sin is taken away. And that's all it says. Now that's not god saying, oh, it's alright.

Don't worry about it. It's all fine. I mean, let's just brush that under the carpet. Let's just move on. No.

He's not saying that. But it is rather that David's sin is kept on hold as it were until Jesus dies on the cross because that is the only place that his sin could be dealt with. And that's the only place that you and I, our sin could be dealt with. Is at the cross of Jesus. And there is this promise in the New Testament, 1 John chapter 1, which says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteous business.

If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar, and his word is not in us. See, there is a way to be whiter than snow. There is a way to be made pure. And the only way is to come to Jesus, bring your sin to him, lay it out before him, ask him for forgiveness. Now there are a couple of mistakes we could make.

We could think that we don't really need the cross, but we're not really that bad. But do you notice how that this first tackles that? It says, if we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar. So the only way you and I can can sort of say, oh, I don't really need the cross. I I don't really need forgiveness.

Is to say to god, god, you are a liar because you say I am a sinner. So for me to say I'm not, I've gotta actually confront god and say, god, I think you're you're wrong. You're a liar. That's what I said. No.

1 mistake is to say we don't need it. The other mistake is to say that the cross doesn't really get us clean, that the cross doesn't actually wash me whiter than snow. I come to Jesus with my sin and ask for forgiveness, but I still come away feeling it on me, that the stain is still there. And this is where we need to hear that verse again. If we confess our sins He is faithful and just, and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

If we bring our sin to god, the sin of our hearts, lay it before him. The cross deals with it in such a way that we are purified from it completely all gone. And there will be those here who are struggling with that to take that on board because your guilt still feels like it's on you. And can I encourage you if that's you this week to take versus like 1, John, 1, 9, to 10, Psalm 51, and think on them, meditate on them, go over them until they become more and more in your heart? That through Jesus, we can be completely clean.

And if you've never done it before, if you've never brought your sin to god, you can do it today to bring it to him and you will be washed clean too. That is the promise of the Bible. 4. Plead for a changed heart. First 10 and 11.

Creating, me, a pure harder god and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. Do you see David doesn't just say forgive me? He says change me.

I don't just want a reprieve. I want regeneration. I need a heart change because we all know what it's like to say sorry to someone, regret what we've done and look forward to doing it again. That is not what David is doing. He's saying, I'm sorry for what I've done, and I know the only way that I'm not gonna do this again is if you change my heart, change my desires, changed what I want.

Lord, change me. David is very self aware. He's not just saying, I'm I'm sorry I did it and wash me clean. No. He's saying change my heart.

It's not a superficial confession. Sometimes You see confessions sometimes in films, you know, action films where someone's killed a whole load of people goes to confession, says what he's done wrong, and the priest says, go and do this, that or the other goes and does it. And then goes out and kills a whole load more people. Yeah. Is that confession?

Is that Christianity? Is that real Christianity? No. In I mean, in lots of ways, it's not. Because the Christian is someone who's coming to god and saying, that thing I did wrong.

I'm sorry for it. I see that it has damaged my relationship with you. I see it's horrible because it it damages the relationship, and we need that fixed, and I need my heart changed. Lord changed my heart. And god does, by his spirit, come in us and changes.

We need to realize the forgiveness of sins, the washing of sins happens immediately when we come to god, but the changing of the heart is a process. As the spirit gets to work on us. And it is often an uncomfortable process. But bit by bit, he shows us our sin and it is hard to see and changes our desires gradually. And it's as we do this that we get to our last point, experience brokenhearted joy.

There is so much more in this sum that you could pick out, but we're going to finish on this bit. It's the experience of brokenhearted joy. As we throw ourselves entirely on god's mercy, we can know the joy David had. As we come to god on the basis of his mercy and admit our sin, how deep it is that we need god and god alone to forgive us and change us. Only then do we come to real joy.

Notice he says verse 12, restore to me the joy of your salvation. Not restore to me the joy of self righteousness of me thinking I'm I'm better than I was or that I that I'm good now, but the joy of salvation, and it is overflowing as we've seen. He says, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. And this is a unique joy because it's a brokenhearted joy. First 16.

You do not delight in sacrifice or or I would bring it. You do not take pleasure in burned offerings. My sacrifice, oh, god, is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. You god will not despise. There is no joy like this.

None of the other ways of dealing with sin will get you here. Minimizing your sin doesn't lead you here. Because minimizing your sin is saying I'm not that bad, or it's not that bad. But in order to do that, what we've really gotta be like is we've gotta be like someone out in the ocean, drowning, and the only way to stay above is to push other people down. To make yourself feel alright.

You gotta push others down and say, well, they're worse than me. They're worse than me. What they did is bad, what they did is bad, but I'm I think I'm doing alright. I think I'm okay. That doesn't lead to joy.

It leads to self righteousness. Looking down on others. Now if in if we're desperate to see ourselves as okay, as not that bad. Be warned Jesus didn't come for you. You know that?

Jesus said, I've not come for the righteous. That is people who think they're alright. Think they're not so bad. Think that what they did wasn't so bad. He didn't come for those people.

He said he came for sinners. For those who know their sin, lay it before the lord, plead for mercy in a changed heart. He came for you. And as we do that, as he washes us, that's where real joy is found. Strange, isn't it?

The pathway to joy is not do better. Try harder. It is rather, I'm a sinner, through and through. I can't clean myself. I can't make up for it.

I can't change my heart. Lord, I need you to do it. And at the cross, he did. And when we take communion in a few moments, that is what we're going to be rejoicing in and celebrating. Let me lead us in prayer.

I have any father. We pray you would help each 1 of us with our guilt to turn to you. To own our sin, face up to it, the depths of it, what our hearts are really like. And we plead with you for forgiveness and for changed hearts. And through that, we pray for your joy to fill us.

Father, we thank you for the cross that makes our forgiveness possible that means our sin can be dealt with. For the health, those who are struggling, those who maybe struggle to bring their sin to you, generally, to bring it and lay it before you. And to know that their sin can be washed completely clean through Christ and his death.