All
sin is against God.
Awareness of God’s
holiness leads to consciousness of
our own sinfulness.
And
like the prophet Isaiah, we exclaim,
"Woe
is me, for I am undone! Because
I am a man of unclean lips,
and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the
King, the Lord of hosts" (Isaiah
6:5).
By sinning we
hurt ourselves and those closest to us;
but first of
all, and worst of all,
sin is against God
(Ps. 51:4).
We
are to confess our sin directly
to God.
When
we confess our sin to
Him and turn
from it, then we experience
the joy of the Lord.
When we come to the cross and we
are born-again, we are washed all over. That is the bath of regeneration but
when we walk through this world, we are defiled and we get dirty. We become disobedient,
and sin gets into our lives. Our Lord
Jesus says that we cannot
have fellowship with
Him if we are dirty.
So the washing of our is the cleansing in order to restore us to
fellowship.
"If
we say that we have fellowship with Him, and
walk in darkness, we
lie, and do not
the truth: But if we walk in
the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the
blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us (keeps
on cleaning us) from all sin" (1
John 1:6–7).
Dear reader, in order to have our feet washed we
must first confess our
sin. To confess means to
agree with God. It means to say the same thing that God says
about our sin.
One of the hardest things in the world is to
get a saint to admit
he is a sinner.
Coldness, indifference,
lack of love are all
seen by God as sin.
If
we confess our sin,
He is faithful and just to forgive.
But that is not all. If we are going to have
our feet washed, we
must put them into
the
hands of our Savior.
That
is obedience.
We
cannot just
say,
"God forgive me, I did wrong,"
and then go out and do the
same thing all over again.
That is not
getting our feet into the
hands of the Savior.
Judas
planned to do evil.
Our
Lord Jesus Christ said of him.
" ... have not I
chosen you twelve, and
one of you is a devil? He
spake of Judas Iscariot the son of Simon: for
he it was that should betray
Him, being one of the twelve" (John
6:69–71).
This man, Judas Iscariot, is
really a great mystery. Here our Lord numbers him with
the twelve and He said that He
had chosen him. Yet he
was a demon, which probably means
demon-possessed, and this is the man who
was going to betray Him.
It is difficult to interpret evil
like this. It is one of the great mysteries in Scripture.
Evil is always
a mystery.
As this man Judas Iscariot walks
across the pages of Scripture, it’s difficult to interpret him. And here our
Lord says this amazing thing about him:
he is a demon!
Judas
was a slanderer, a clever gossip.
Our
Lord said of him
in Psalm
41:9,
"Even my
own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who
ate My bread, has
lifted up his heel against Me."
In the light of the cross,
Judas
stands as a dark silhouette on the horizon.
Notice several statements
concerning this man which may help us understand him just a little bit.
It was in Bethany in the home of
Lazarus, Mary, and Martha - a place where our Lord was loved - that they made
Him a dinner. It was
the last act of
love that was shown to Him. The apostles
were guests also, and
Mary entered into His suffering by doing a
lovely thing:
Then Mary took
a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed
the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair.
And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil" (John
12:3).
Notice
what happened.
"But one
of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, who would betray Him, said,
"Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to
the poor?" This he said, not that he cared for the poor, but
because he was a thief, and had the money box; and he used to take what was put
in it" (John 12:4-6).
Our
Lord Jesus said,
"Let
her alone; she has kept this for the day of My burial. For the poor you have
with you always, but Me you do not have always" (John
12:7–8).
Judas here
revealed his true
nature.
He could not
stand to be rebuked.
He was highly
incensed; he would not be reprimanded.
His attitude
was definitely bad, and
it is probably the thing that prompted him to betray
our Lord Jesus Christ for
thirty pieces
of silver.
The
thing that motivated him was money.
Now as the events progress we
find that Judas’ agreement with the chief priests and captains was that some
time after the feast he
would betray our Lord. So
he leisurely returned to the group, and
when they went into the Upper Room he
was reclining there with the others:
"And supper being ended, the
devil having already
put it into the heart
of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray
Him ...
(John 13:2).
It
was a choice that Judas made for time and eternity.
And it was a choice that he was free to make.
First
we find Judas being blinded by Satan, blinded by his anger, blinded by his
rebellion. This man had no notion of
yielding to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Having been blinded by Satan, he belonged to Satan; and from he did Satan’s
bidding.
Judas was not washed.
Our
Lord Jesus Christ said to Peter
in the Upper
Room,
"If I
wash you not,
you have no
part with Me" (see John
13:8).
He had no part
with our Lord Jesus.
We do not
have fellowship with Him
unless we confess our
sins to
Him as we go along. Our
part is confession;
His
part is cleansing
(see 1 John 1:9).
Before the true child of God even
repents of that cruel or brutal thing we did or said, the very moment we had
that evil thought, and the moment we did that wrong act, our Lord Jesus Christ
was there at the throne
of God to represent us as
Satan was there accusing us.
Then,
to the true child of God, because of the faithful advocacy of Christ, the Holy
Spirit brings conviction to us,
and we confess our
sin to the
Father.
Our
heart is sad, filled with godly sorrow.
The true child of God desires to
please the Father, and so they walk along with that in mind. They walk worthy
of their high calling in Christ Jesus. The
psalmist expressed it this way:
"Search me, O God, and
know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way
in me, and lead me in the way everlasting" (Ps.
139:23–24).
The important thing for the child
of God is to walk in fellowship with our Lord and to obey
Him.
Then
we will be living
the Christian life.
"Know ye not,
that to whom ye yield
yourselves servants to obey,
his servants ye are to whom ye obey:
whether of sin unto death,
or of obedience
unto righteousness?" (Romans
6:16).
"I
am the true vine, and my
Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit He taketh
away: and every branch that beareth fruit, He purgeth it, that it may bring
forth more fruit. Now
ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you.
Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it
abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me. I am the vine, ye are
the branches: He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much
fruit: for without Me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me,
he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered;
and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye
abide in Me, and My
Words abide in you, ye shall
ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified,
that ye bear much fruit; so
shall ye be my disciples. As
the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye in My love. If
ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love;
even as I have kept My Father’s commandments, and abide in His love. These
things have I spoken unto you,
that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This
is My commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath
no man than this, that a man
lay down His life for His friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I
command you" (John
15:1-14).
Living
for Jesus a life that is true,
Striving to please Him in all that I do;
Yielding allegiance, glad-hearted and free,
This is the pathway of blessing for me.
Refrain:
O Jesus, Lord and
Saviour, I give myself to Thee;
For Thou, in Thine atonement, Didst give Thyself for me;
I own no other Master, My heart shall be Thy throne;
My life I give, henceforth to live,
O Christ, for Thee alone.
Living for Jesus who died in my place,
Bearing on Calv'ry my sin and disgrace;
Such love constrains me to answer His call,
Follow His leading and give Him my all.
Living for Jesus wherever I am,
Doing each duty in His holy name;
Willing to suffer affliction and loss,
Taking each trial as part of my cross.
Living for Jesus thro' earth's little while,
My dearest treasure, the light of His smile;
Seeking the lost ones
He died to redeem,
Bringing the weary to find rest in Him
Amen!
The
final judgment.
"The LORD
hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. He
who smote the people in wrath with a continual stroke, he
that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth" (Isaiah
14:5-6).
These verses speak of the final
judgment at the end of
the Great
Tribulation Period.
Judgment
will have to take place.
This
earth must be judged.
There is too much injustice here
upon this earth.
Someone is going to have to
handle the judgment.
I am thankful that we don’t
have to look to man in this matter.
Our
Lord Jesus Christ will do the judging. He will settle every account.
"The
whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. Yea,
the fir trees rejoice at thee, and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art
laid down, no feller is
come up against us" (Isaiah
14:7–8).
After the
war of Armageddon and the
coming of Christ, rest
and peace will come to the earth.
Instead
of sorrow there
will be singing.
Weeping
is only for the night.
The
morn of joy will come.
The
Final Ruler of the World will be Cast into Sheol.
"Hell
from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the
dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from
their thrones all the kings of the nations" (Isaiah
14:9).
"Hell,"
in this verse,
is Sheol. It
can mean
the
grave or the place of torment.
I believe the latter meaning is
in view here
"All they
shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become
like unto us? Thy pomp is brought down
to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the
worms cover thee (Isaiah
14:10–11).
All
the pomp and glory of man is removed.
The
Origin of Satan and Evil.
"How art
thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!
how art thou cut down to the ground,
which didst weaken the nations!"
(Isaiah 14:12).
"Lucifer"
is none other than Satan.
Lucifer, according to Ezekiel
28, is the highest creature that
God ever created.
But
he was a Judas Iscariot - he turned on God.
He
set his will over God’s
will.
In
Luke 10:18
our Lord Jesus Christ says,
"…
I beheld Satan
as lightning fall from heaven."
In
1 John 3:8
we are told,
"He
that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning.
For this purpose the
Son of God was manifested, that
He might destroy the works of the devil."
Then
in Revelation 12:7–9
we are told,
"And
there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon;
and the dragon fought and his angels,
And prevailed not;
neither
was their place found any more in heaven.
And the great dragon
was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the
whole world: he was cast out
into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him."
This is a picture of
this creature Lucifer at the
very beginning.
What was the
sin of this creature created higher than any other?
What is sin in
its final analysis?
"For thou
hast said in thine heart, I
will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the
stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides
of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I
will be like the most
High" (Isa. 14:13–14).
These
are the 5
"I wills" of Lucifer.
He
set his will over against
the
will of God.
This
is sin in embryo.
This
is the evolution of evil.
There
is no evolution of man, but there is an evolution of sin.
It
began by a creature setting
his will against
the
will of God.
As a free moral agent, the
creature must be allowed to do this.
It is nonsense to talk about a
creature who has a free moral will, who can do anything he wants to, but is
restricted in his movements in a certain area.
Lucifer
had a free will.
This
is man’s original sin:
"All
we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every
one to his own way; and the
Lord hath laid on Him the
iniquity of us all"
(Isaiah 53:6).
Murder is sin,
not
just because
God says it is, but because
it is contrary to the
will and character
of God.
Child
molestation is sin because it is contrary
to the
will of God.
God
says, bring the children to Me, "train
them up in the way they should go"
Child
molestation uses sexual perversion, the devils tool, and hands the child over to
Satan.
Anything
that is contrary to the
character and will of God is
sin, regardless
of what it is.
"There is a way
that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death" (Prov.
14:12).
Man sets
his will, against
the
will of God.
But
the will of God is
coming down through this world, through His universe like a huge steamroller.
And
any creature that gets
in the way of the will
of God will be crushed,
because God’s will must prevail.
And
anything contrary to that is sin.
Satan lost this earth, but he
gained it back when man fell. And he is called, "the
god of this world."
He is the
prince of this world.
The fall of
man was Satan’s gain.
He gained the
dominion man lost, so
that he is the prince of this world in which we live.
The world we are talking about is
our system, a cosmos, and that is the word used in Scripture.
The
cosmos is that which Satan
controls today.
Our
Lord Jesus said:
"Now is
the judgment of this world; now the ruler ([the prince) of this
world will be cast out"
(John 12:31).
Our Lord was looking to the
future, but regarding the
prince of this world, this cosmos,
He
said:
"I will
no longer talk much with you, for the ruler (the prince) of
this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me" (John
14:30).
The
prince of this world is Satan.
And
John 16:11 says
the Holy Spirit will
convict the world
"of
judgment, because the ruler (prince) of this world is
judged"
Satan
is the prince of the power of the air. He is the god of this world.
To the church in Pergamos
our Lord Jesus said,
"I
know your works, and where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is" (Revelation
2:13).
Satan
reigns on this earth today.
He
controls the system that is known as the world system.
But
to the true child of God our Lord
Jesus says:
"You are
of God, little children, and
have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater
than he who is in the world"
(1 John 4:4).
And
1 John 5:19 says:
"We
know that we are of God, and
the whole world (the
cosmos) lies
under the sway of the wicked one."
In
other words, the whole world lies asleep in the lap of the wicked one.
And today,
this world system is under the control of Satan. That’s the reason countries
can’t have peace.
Notice
the admonition of James
4:4,
"Adulterers
and adulteresses! Do you not know that
friendship with the world is enmity
with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes
himself an enemy of
God."
So many Christians think, If I
just don’t do this and I don’t do a few other little things, that makes me a
nice, spiritual Christian, when in reality we may be as
worldly as you we be, and Satan
is leading us around by the nose. Why?
Because of
our attitude and relationship
to this world system that we are in today.
Apostle
Paul says we should live like this:
…
those who weep as though they did not weep, those who rejoice as though they did
not rejoice, those who buy as though they did not possess"
(1 Corinthians 7:30).
"Those
who weep, as though they did not weep."
Are you going
to let some sorrow, some tragedy in your life keep you from serving God?
"Those
who rejoice as though they did not rejoice."
Are you going
to let pleasure take the place of your relationship to God, as many do?
"Those
who buy as though they did not possess."
Will you let
your business take the place of God?
Apostle
Paul continues:
"… and
those who use this world as not misusing it. For the form of this world is
passing away" (1
Corinthians 7:31).
This business today of thinking, Well,
if I just don’t do this or that, I am a spiritual person. Oh, that makes
us nothing in the world but spiritual snobs - not even knowing what this world
system is.
Are we wrapped
up in this world system?
If that which
we have were taken out from under us as a Christian today, would our heart be
broken?
God have
mercy on us
because it is all going to be taken away from us someday.
It
is all going to disappear.
Apostle
Paul says these things are passing away, and
God
is going to judge them.
When
God judges Satan,
it includes all of this
world system also.
In Jude’s
day the apostasy was Gnosticism.
Gnosticism
taught that the body was essentially evil, that all matter was evil, and that
the spirit alone was good. The conclusion drawn from this was that
it didn’t matter what a man did with his body. He
was free to satisfy the lusts of the body.
He was free to practice blatant
immorality, shameless sin, and arrogantly flout it
-
"It
does not matter I am forgiven."
That was a
perversion of grace.
The same ideas have sprung up
again today. The new morality is no
newer than the old Gnosticism,
the first
heresy. The other facet of Gnosticism was
a denial of
the
true God and true Man, our Lord Jesus Christ.
That is the
mark of an antichrist.
Apostle
John calls such people
antichrists.
It is
always the spirit of antichrist
which denies
our
Lord Jesus Christ.
Which
blatantly goes against
God's
will and God's character
And
does Satan's bidding.
We
must always remember that just as our Lord Jesus Christ is building His kingdom so
is Satan building his.
We
are either on our Lords side or
we
are on Satan's side.
It is most important for these
matters to be set straight before us.
Parents
who abuse their children sexually, physically or mentally are doing to the will
of Satan.
Today
many parents feel sad because their
children serve Satan.
Every parent needs to
examine their own lives today, the way they brought their children up, and they
need to look back and see what they did to drive their children away from God
and into the hands of Satan. We all need to come to Him for our own children and
the children of others and cry out to Him for mercy before it is forever too
late. So many today like to say "O
I am trusting the Lord." That
is nonsense!
God wants us to get up off our rocking chairs
and start praying, earnestly, agonizing in prayer, with true confession,
wrought by godly sorrow produced by the Holy Spirit and we need to cry out for
His Great Mercy. We ought to stop all this pious
nonsense and start
facing reality and if we cannot
see because of our own blindness
what we did wrong we need
to cry out to God that in His great
mercy He will show us why we are reaping what we are reaping.
O today so many are like ostreges bearing
their heads in the sand while their children are living in
rebellion against God.
Imagine little bitty puffed-up
creature man, who says to
God,
"I
won’t do what You want me to do. I am going to do what I want to do."
That is
exactly what man is saying.
But
God’s will is going to prevail in the final analysis.
Therefore,
the prayer of all God’s people should be,
"…
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven"
(Matthew 6:10).
Anything
contrary to God's will is
sin, regardless of what it is.
The
sin of Satan was overweening
pride.
He went against God’s will. He
was created as an angel of light; he was the "son
of the morning," a perfect being. He was given a free moral
will - he could choose what he wanted. But he was lifted up - so
lifted up by pride that he set his will against the
will of God.
It wasn’t the purpose of Satan
to be different from God; he
wanted to be like God.
In other words,
he wanted to be God.
He put his will above the will of
God, and any creature who does that puts himself in the place of God. There are
many men like Lucifer today. They
put their wills, what they want, above
the will of
God.
That
is what sin
is all about in the human family.
There are only
two ways in this world:
God’s way and
man’s way.
That
is what our Lord meant when He said,
"…
I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by
Me."
We live in God’s universe. We
breathe His air and we enjoy His sunshine. We are His creature. We owe Him a
great deal. We are to
obey Him. We are to do His will.
In our natural state, we
are unable to obey God;
that is why we have to come to Him through our Precious Saviour, Lord
Jesus Christ, as
lost sinners. When we come to Him in
truth, just
as we are guilty, lost and helpless with nothing to offer
Him
for our salvation then He
saves us and we are born-from-above, the
Holy Spirit baptizes us and we receive a brand new heart, a new nature, a nature
like our Fathers nature that desires to obey Him. Christ Jesus imputes to us His
righteousness which enables us to live
right in this present world and He abides in us enabling us by His spirit within
to walk worthy of our high calling in Him and we are witnesses of His marvelous
grace.
We
are saved
by His grace and we live by His grace.
And
it is by his grace that He gives us the desire to study His Word and to grow in
our knowledge of Him.
Grace
tis the charming sound,
Harmonious to the
ear;
Heav'n with the echo shall resound,
And all the earth shall hear.
Chorus:
Saved by grace
alone! this is all my plea:
Jesus died for sinful men, and Jesus died for me.
Grace first
contrived a way
To save
rebellious man;
And all the steps
that grace display,
Which drew the wondrous plan.
Grace first
inscribed my name
In God's eternal book;
'Twas grace that gave me to the Lamb,
Who all my sorrows took.
Grace turned my wand'ring feet
To tread the heav'nly road;
And new supplies each hour I meet,
While pressing on to God.
Grace taught my soul to
pray,
And made my eyes o'erflow;
'Tis grace has kept me to this day,
And will not let me go.
O let Thy grace inspire
My soul with strength divine!
May all my pow'rs to Thee aspire,
And all my days be Thine.
Amen!
When David committed
his sin he didn’t know that would happen
to him. But he prayed,
"Do not
cast me away from Your presence. Do not remove me, oh God! Give me another
chance. I’ve done an awful thing and You have a right to remove me, but please
don’t remove me. Give me another chance!"
And
God did so.
A child
of God many times needs to cry out to God,
"Oh,
God, this thing I’ve done is terrible, but don’t remove me! Don’t let this
thing be the cause of my undoing!"
And God is gracious, as He was to
David, although He does discipline us, as He did David.
The
thing that the child of God does when
they sin is to
"If
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins" (1
John 1:9).
This is exactly what David
did.
David
went to God and said,
"For
I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me" (Psalm
51:3).
He
also said,
"Wash me
and cleanse me,"
and
God did that.
But
David had to learn that
God could not
let him get by with
sin.
And
God did not.
Turn to
2 Samuel 12 in which Nathan
God's prophet was speaking:
"‘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 adversity against you from your own house; and I will
take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall
lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. For you did it secretly, but I
will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.’" So
David said to Nathan, "I
have sinned against the
Lord." And Nathan said
to David, "The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However,
because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to
blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die"
(Verses 10-14).
God
told David,
"You caused My
enemies to blaspheme -
I cannot
allow that, so you will
have to be punished."
After
this, David went into the privacy of his chamber and there made his confession
to his Lord and God.
That is the background of Psalm
51, one of the greatest
confessions that has ever been written. By studying it we learn how we should
confess our sins before the Lord.
This psalm separates very nicely
into three divisions.
We have, first of all,
the cry of conscience and conviction of
sin:
"Have
mercy upon me, O God, according to Your loving kindness; according to the
multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly
from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For
I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me" (verses
1-3).
David first
called his sin
"transgression."
Transgression
means stepping over the boundaries that God
has established.
God
has put up certain boundaries in this life:
He has certain physical laws, He has certain moral laws, He has certain
spiritual laws.
Anytime man
attempts to step over them, he will have to suffer the consequences.
That kind of sin is always called
transgression.
Then sin is called "iniquity."
Iniquity means
that which is altogether wrong.
We
cannot excuse it;
We
cannot offer any sort of apology for it;
we
cannot in any way condone it.
And
then the word evil
used by David in verse
4 means
that
which is entirely wrong.
David
uses all of these words to say that he was wrong.
You and I cannot
even begin to enter into the horror of the
guilt of David.
To him it was repugnant!
David
hated the sin and he hated himself for doing it.
He felt dirty all over, his
conscience was outraged, and he had
a huge guilt complex.
When
we love God, we hate sin.
David
had great anguish of soul.
There
was the cry of conscience within, pointing an accusing finger and telling David
he was wrong.
There
was no
explanation he could offer at all.
Just
listen to him again:
"For I
acknowledge my transgressions, and my
sin is always before me."
David,
the king said he was
wrong.
The
second division is the cry of confession
of sin and the clemency and compassion of God.
"Against
You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight - that You may be
found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge" (Verse
4).
This was a
sin against Bathsheba.
It was also
a sin against his
family, for he had a family at that time.
It was also a sin
against the
society in Jerusalem at that time,
and it was a sin
against the
nation of which he was
king.
David broke
God’s commandment.
But in the
final analysis, sin is
always against God.
God
said to David,
"David,
you have hurt Me. You
have caused My enemies
to blaspheme Me."
Now because of what David did God
said that his beloved child would die, and that the sword would not
ever leave his house.
And
it never did.
To
his dying day, David paid for his sin. Not only that child died but Absalom, the
son whom he loved most and apparently wanted to be his successor to the throne,
also died. When David heard that Absalom
had been killed in battle, he wrapped his mantle about his head, walked to the
top of the wall, up those winding stairs, and as he went up he cried, "O
my son Absalom - my son, my son Absalom - if only I had died in your
place!" (2
Samuel 18:33).
May
I say to you, David paid for his sin.
Now notice that David makes it
very clear that this sin goes back to his
sin nature for he says,
"Behold,
I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me."
Apostle
Paul, recognizing that, said to believers,
"Brethren,
if a (Christian) man is overtaken in
any trespass, you who are
spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself
lest you also be tempted" (Galatians
6:1).
We all come
into the world with a sin nature.
The
Word of God confirms this.
The
writer of Ecclesiastes said,
"For
there is not a just man
on earth who does good and does not sin" (7:20).
Also
in the Book of
Proverbs, we
read:
"There is
a generation that is pure in its own eyes, yet is not washed from its
filthiness" (30:12).
There are many
folk today who think they are all right.
They are not
sensitive to their sin. They make light of it, make excuses for it, and they
blame others for their sin.
There are many
sitting in our churches who have grown so cold spiritually and become so
comfortable that they do not
realize that
in God’s
sight they are
sinners.
We
not
only need a Savior, but we also need daily cleansing.
Apostle
Paul said,
"For
I know that in me (that
is, in my flesh)
nothing good dwells"
(Romans 7:18).
David
went right down to the root of the matter.
He
confessed that he had
a sin nature.
His
confession continued:
"Behold,
You desire truth in the inward parts,
and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom" (Verse
6).
God
desires truth on the inside.
David
went on:
"Purge
me with hyssop, and I shall
be clean; wash me, and
I shall be whiter than snow"
(Verse 7).
Here is without doubt one of the
greatest passages in the Word of God. There are those who say that the reason
David was forgiven was because he confessed his sin. If we say that, we have
only told part of the story. We have not told the whole story. That is not
the reason.
Let’s
turn to the historical record:
"So David
said to Nathan, "I
have sinned against
the Lord." And Nathan
said to David, "The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not
die" (2
Samuel 12:13).
God
took the first
step:
He
sent Nathan.
O
what a huge blessing it is when God sends someone to tell us about our
sin.
This
is real love, the true agape love of God when someone cares that much about us.
Every
true child of God thanks Him for those He uses in their lives to convict them of
their sin.
I think David would have kept
this thing quiet if Nathan
had not
confronted him.
And there can
be no secrets
for God says that he
will reveal every hidden
sin, everything we do in the dark
will be revealed.
Hidden sin is
not a trivial matter to
God.
Neither
does He ignore the
secret sins of
believers.
"Know ye
not that ye are the
temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If
any man defile the temple of
God, him shall God destroy; for
the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are"
(1 Corinthians 3:16–17).
We
belong to God and we are the temple of the Holy Spirit. Our
very bodies belong to Him!
Apostle
Paul tells us.
"I
beseech you therefore, brethren, by
the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God, which is
your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye
transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good,
and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" (Romans
12:1-2).
David
did not take the first
step;
God
took the first
step.
And how was
God able to forgive him?
Because
He had revealed Himself.
His Name
is as ointment
poured forth,
Jesus,
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus.
His Name is as
ointment poured forth
His Name is as
ointment poured forth.
Amen!
Now
follow this closely.
God
revealed Himself to the
nation Israel:
"The
Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering,
and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means
clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and
the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation" (Exodus
34:6–7).
Doesn’t it
go any further than that?
Sadly it sure
does.
It will keep going, but that is
as far down as any man will be able to see - the third and fourth generations.
But notice that here we have two
things that are conflicting and
contradictory.
God
says He forgives iniquity and He shows mercy.
Then
He turns right around and says He will by no means
clear the guilty.
There is a paradox.
But
now listen to David again:
"Purge
me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than
snow."
Hyssop is a little plant that
grows on rocks in damp places. An interesting aside is a statement from a
scientific journal that penicillin was found growing on hyssop.
However, when referred to in the Bible, hyssop had to do with something
penicillin can’t
cure: sin.
Back in the Old
Testament hyssop was used for three
purposes.
First,
when God took the
children of Israel out
of Egypt,
He said, "There is
one thing you must do at Passover. You are to take a lamb, slay it, and take its
blood in a basin out to the front door. Then use bunches of hyssop
to apply the blood to the doorposts and to the lintel."
Second,
when God was giving
instructions for cleansing a leper, He told about taking a live bird brushed
with hyssop
dipped in the blood of a slain bird, and then letting it fly away.
This
portrays the death
and resurrection of
Christ.
Third,
when the children of Israel were on the wilderness march and one of them sinned,
they couldn’t stop and put up the tabernacle and offer a sacrifice.
So provision was made for purification of sin by killing a red heifer, burning
it along with hyssop,
gathering the ashes, and taking them along on the wilderness march.
When a man
sinned, the ashes were
put in water, then hyssop
was used to
sprinkle them on him.
What
a tremendous message this is!
There
was the application of a sacrifice that brought forgiveness.
We have to go to
Calvary to find the interpretation.
On
the cross our Saviour said,
"My God, My
God, why have You forsaken Me?"
Why did He say that?
Because
God cannot
by any means clear the
guilty.
God
cannot.
He never will.
And when the Lord Jesus
Christ, who knew no sin, was
made sin for us on the
cross - when He was
delivered for our
offenses that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him
-
God
had to treat Him as He must treat
sin.
Remember that God spared Abraham’s
son, but
God did not
spare His own Son when He had my
sin and your sin upon
Him.
God
slew His one and only true Son because He cannot
pardon the guilty.
Let’s
be clear on that fact.
God
hates sin
and He will punish sin.
By
no
means will He clear the
guilty.
On
the cross our Lord Jesus said,
"Father,
forgive them" (Luke
23:34).
How can He
forgive them? How can He extend mercy to thousands? How can He forgive
iniquity?
How can He
forgive David?
And how can He
forgive you and me?
The
Bible is clear on this:
"In Him
we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the
riches of His grace" (Ephesians
1:7).
And
every time we find forgiveness in the New Testament, the
precious blood of Christ is responsible.
God
never
forgives sin apart
from the death of
Christ.
Never, NEVER.
God is not
forgiving sin
because He is a big-hearted old man sitting on a cloud. He forgives sin
because His one and only truly begotten
Son our Lord Jesus
Christ paid the penalty.
And
so with open arms God says
"I can extend
mercy to you
because My Son died
in your place."
Oh
the love that drew salvations plan,
Oh the grace that
brought it down to man,
Oh the mighty gulf that God did span, AT CALVARY.
Mercy
there was great and grace was free,
Pardon there was multiplied there to me
There my burdened soul found liberty.
AT CALVARY.
HALLELUJAH!
AMEN.
David
knew the way into the heart of God.
David
said,
"Purge me
with hyssop," meaning the
application of the death of
Christ."
Notice now David’s cry for
cleansing and communion:
"Hide
Your face from my sins, and
blot out all my iniquities."
Blot
out.
David
needed a spot remover.
"Create
in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within
me."
The word for "create"
here is the same word used in
Genesis
1:1 "In
the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" - bara,
which means to create out of nothing. "I
need a new heart," David
said.
In other words, there was nothing
in David’s heart that God could use. He was not
asking for a renovation
or a reformation.
David
was asking for something new.
Sometimes we hear the invitation,
"Give God your heart." May I ask you, what do you think God wants with
that dirty, filthy heart of yours? He doesn’t want it. God is not
asking anyone to give Him their heart.
He gives us a new heart when we trust Christ.
That
is what David asked for.
Oh, dear reader, have you
let God give you a new heart.
David had another request:
"Do not
cast me away from Your Presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me."
Remember
that we can grieve the
Holy Spirit.
In David’s
case, he had so grieved the Holy Spirit that He became inoperative in David’s
life.
Here
David was asking that the
Spirit of God would continue to work in his life.
Then
he said,
"Restore
to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit."
Remember, the sins of David did not
cause him to lose his salvation - he sure lost the joy of his salvation,
and he wanted to restore his communion
with God. He found out, as the prodigal
son found out, that he was not
happy in the far country for he longed for His
Father’s house.
And
David wanted all of this for a purpose:
"Then
I will teach transgressors Your ways, and
sinners shall be converted to You. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O
God, the God of my salvation, and
my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.
O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth shall show forth Your praise .
. . Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness" (Psalm
51:13–15, 19).
David
not only wanted
to Praise God, he wanted
with all his heart to please Him.
Long
ago I saw my Saviour
Bearing shame upon a tree;
Then my heart was touched with sorrow,
For I saw He bled for me.
Refrain:
"It is
finished," loud He cried;
O what love— for me He died.
In my stead He bled on Calvary;
Once for all Christ rescued me.
Lo, the sky was veiled in darkness;
Sudden trembling shook the ground
As the angry crowd was jeering,
Mocking Jesus all around.
Then my Saviour called to heaven
As I saw His love anew,
"O my Father, please forgive them,
For they know not what they do."
Free salvation now he
offers;
Take His gift, O hear His plea;
On the bloody cross behold Him,
Join His shout of victory.
Amen!
Our
Lord Jesus went to dinner in
the home of a Pharisee.
A woman who had been saved came
in from the street. But Simon the Pharisee knew only of her past, and he would
have passed by on the other side rather than meet her on the street. But
according to the custom of the day, when he had guests she had a right to come
into his house and even stand and observe. She got to the place where our Lord
was reclining, and she washed His feet with her tears, wiped them with the hair
of her head, kissed them, and anointed them with ointment. Simon became critical
and began to find fault, but our
Lord Jesus rebuked him saying,
"When I came here you didn’t
even furnish Me water to wash My feet. You didn’t even extend to Me the common
courtesies. But this woman has not ceased to wash My feet with her tears. She’s
been forgiven - you have not."
Look at
Luke 7:44–48 and
notice especially our
Lord Jesus Christ’s final
statement to the
self-righteous Pharisee:
"Therefore
I say to you, her sins,
which are many, are
forgiven, for she loved much. But
to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little:
(Luke 7:47).
We like to think we are all right
dear reader but God cannot
clear the guilty, and He says to you and
to me that we are
guilty before Him. The only way He could
save us was to give His Son to die for
our sin.
Now
here He says,
to
whom much is forgiven, that is the one who loves Him much!
What is the
measure of your love today dear reader?
Well, it is
your own estimate of your own sins.
When was the
last time you wept over your sins?
Or are you
still trying to conceal Your sin because of your pride?
When was the
last time you cried out in the night because of your failure as a daughter or a
mother or a sister?
Thank God, there is forgiveness
with Him.
But
we need to confess our
sin.
We
need to say that we are sorry.
"For
behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what
carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves,
yea, what indignation,
yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal,
yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this
matter" (2 Corinthians
7:11).
Not
all the blood of beasts
On Jewish altars
slain
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away the stain.
But Christ, the
heav'nly Lamb,
Takes all our sins away;
A sacrifice of nobler name
And richer blood than they.
My faith would lay her hand
On that dear head of Thine,
While like a penitent I stand,
And there confess my sin.
My soul looks back to see
The burden Thou didst bear,
When hanging on th'accursed tree,
And knows her guilt was there.
Believing, we rejoice
To see the curse removed;
We bless the Lamb with
cheerful voice,
And sing His bleeding love.
Hallelujah!
Amen!
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