Aren't those piercing words? You are the man, or you are the woman. We're going to look into this today, but first I'd like to start with prayer. Most gloriously powerful Father, we sinners seek your mercy and your instruction. Let our hearts be open to your teaching and may the words you speak to us today lead us to participate in your victory over our sin. May we once again see our need for a Savior and trust that Savior is He who you sent to us, Jesus Christ. in whose most holy and wonderful name we pray. Amen. Well, as I consider sin, I consider the training I received in the military. I started to serve during Vietnam and finished my duty after the end of the Cold War. During that time, there was a real possibility of those in the military of becoming a prisoner. I believe that exists still today. Several of my friends and people I knew were prisoners of war in North Vietnam and in Iraq. We were trained to resist the interrogation and torture that would be expected if you were a prisoner. What would happen is well-trained interrogators, well-trained in torturing you, would inflict pain on you. put you through torturous positions, which for long periods of time it was very difficult to grasp a breath. And what they were seeking was not some little bit of information that you might have. They were looking to break your soul and bend you to their will. That was the ultimate goal. And they hold out something to you that you want, end of pain, a breath of air, something that you desperately need, and at some point they're hoping that you're willing to break a bit of your soul and submit to them. Now Satan does the same thing. Satan has things that he puts in front of you that he holds out to you. Maybe it's wealth, fame, whatever it is, a new car. He holds it out and, gosh, if you only just sin, you can have this. And what he's not looking for is just this little sin. He's looking for your soul. When He breaks you, When you sin, he's looking for the shame that you feel, just like the interrogator. He wants you to feel shame for having broken. And now you feel a distance from those you hold dear. You think, if my country, my family, my friends knew what I've done, that I broke or that I sinned, They wouldn't love me anymore. And it creates a separation. And that's what they're looking for. And Satan looks for this. He wants to separate you from the church, from your brothers and sisters in Christ. He wants to separate you from God. And then He wants you to look at Him. Since they don't love you anymore, He will. And now you work to please Him. That's the ultimate goal. That's what Satan looks for. That is also what your captor might look for. And you'll also point out to you that when you do sin, is the most dangerous time. And that is because of this shame that you feel. You feel broken. You're more vulnerable. That's now when Satan can grab hold of you. Now for the prisoners, what happened, we learned fairly quickly that just name, rank, serial number really wouldn't work. They're capable of inflicting pain to the point that you will break. And you will feel shame. And then many were sent back to solitary cells where they only had their own company to sit and stew in the shame that they felt. Satan does similar things. But what happened in North Vietnam and other places, that though there might not be anyone in a room, there might be a little tap on the wall. Or maybe it's somebody walking by that's forced to sweep the sidewalk in front. And he sweeps in a pattern that you've been taught. And you know the code. And you hear, we heard your cry of pain. We've been there. We know what you went through. We know the shame that you feel now. We've been there too. And we're here with you. Next time, you'll do better and we're behind you. You'll hold out a little longer. You won't break as quickly. And hopefully we as a church, as people amongst us, sin. We don't cast them out. We look at them and explain God's mercy and grant our own mercy. How can we not? Though sometimes we do. And tell them, fight Satan. You are a sinner, but there's a process. You'll go through it. Next time, Satan's going to have to work harder. And gradually, step by step, you will reach the goal that God has set for you, and that is separation from sin, not from Him. And He promises us that we will eventually be free from sin because of what He will do conquering our sin and what Jesus Christ has done by taking the sin that we have. So, we need to support others. And we need as sinners to look for that support. and embrace it. Accept the mercy of God, His forgiveness. You cannot sin to the degree that God cannot forgive you. You cannot set such a limit on God. You're incapable of a sin that He can't forgive. The greater sin is not to accept the mercy that He gives to you, that He grants to you. Every one of us is a sinner, Ecclesiastes 7.20. Surely there is not a righteous man on earth who does good and never sins. So despite God's mercy, His forgiveness, we pollute our relationship with God Put a little separation between ourself and Him. And we sin not just by what we do, but what we think. Remember Christ told us that. We have an indwelling Holy Spirit that knows everything that we think. So the sin starts with just the thought. So work to not grieve the Holy Spirit who's with you. sinless, eventually sin no more. And Satan is using your sin. It's not just the sin itself he wants, he wants you. He can't steal your salvation. You know you're a sinner, that's why you're here. You are looking to grow closer to God, realizing you're not where you want to be yet. He can't steal salvation, but he can make sanctification more difficult. And Satan is only successful if you do not accept God's mercy and embrace it and give thanks for it. Our sin must be conquered. You and I are not capable of doing that. But if we ask God, He will and He can conquer any sin that we have. Now it's a difficult issue and sometimes when he presents such issues to us, he'll give us a parable that may be a little difficult to understand. Though sometimes like this, he wants everybody to get it, so he gives us a clear example. In this case, his chosen one, David, king of Israel. He takes another man's wife, and then he causes the death of that man. Initially, it seems he feels no regret. Perhaps it's a right of privilege, he's the king, I don't know. But as we heard, Nathan is sent by God to confront David, and he has told, you are the man. He can't escape it. And now, we see how David responds. And David writes a psalm, and his psalm is a recording of his conversation with God after having been told, you are the man. And he works through that, setting an example for us to follow. When we're told, we're the one, we need to respond like David did. I'm going to read Psalm 51, which is where David has recorded this. It's a psalm of David. It's written by David. And it occurs when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone in to Bathsheba. And what he says, have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors, your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation. And my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, for I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt offering, the sacrifices of God for a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure, build up the walls of Jerusalem then will you delight in right sacrifices and burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings, then bolts will be offered on your altar." So that's David's response. Go into it, verse by verse. And as we do that, you'll see there's three stages to his response, and he continually repeats as he goes through. And the very first thing, you know, as I read this, I hear his voice. I wish I could faithfully replicate it. But the pain I hear. Have mercy on me, O God. The anguish. Step one. Grieve over your sin. Regret your sin. Recant. Repent. Now, why does David do this? Well, Paul gives us a glimpse looking back as he refers to Moses. Romans 9, verse 15, where God says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who has mercy." David knows that, and he cries out to God in pain with his own sin. He acknowledges God's nature so unlike ours. His steadfast love, his abundant mercy, And what exactly is it that David wants him to do? Well, he gets right to it, and this is step two. I repent of my sin, and God blot out my transgressions. Isaiah says it in a similar way, as he's anticipating the birth of Christ. Isaiah 43, 25. I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins." Remember, Christ will come. He will stand between us and God so that our sins are blotted out, not to be remembered. This is what David asked for well before. A plea for God's mercy. the second step. And he continues this, David does, by saying, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin. Now, if David could, he'd take a bath, wash off the dirt, wash off the sin. But that won't reach the sin. The soap and the scrub brush will not reach inside his body, to his heart, to his very soul. which is where the sin has taken hold. Only God can do that. So David cries out for God to worship him. The victory can only belong to God. We know that. It's like Gideon. God sets up situations where you can't mistake. He's in charge. He's going to do it. He reduces Gideon's army so that what defeats the Midianites could only do it with the help of God. It's the same way with our sin. It is so embedded in us, we need God to reach inside and heal us, and we pray that He will. David, back to the beginning, the regret over what he's done says, for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before before me. Acknowledges his sin. This is a conversation with God. God knows what David It's not a surprise to him, but God asked us to say it to him, and David does. He tells God he knows what his sins are, even though God does, because God asked him to. He wants God to know that David knows, and his sin is ever before him. sins of my youth are before me today. I don't escape them. But I do know that out of the mercy of God, I'm forgiven for what I've done. And because of this, David now says, putting this in a proper context, against you, you only have I sinned and done what was evil in your sight. Of course he did wrong to Bathsheba and to Uriah. There's no question about that. But in the bigger picture, everything, everything that happens, everything we do is about God. And he understands the real impact of what he has done is an affront to God and for that, He regrets and grieves what he's done and he is asking for God to intervene and help restore the relationship that has been damaged by David's actions. And now he recognizes, David recognizes, he's accountable for what he He really did hurt other people. And so he continues saying, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. In other words, he recognizes there's a price to be paid for what he's done. He is accountable. He's asking for God's mercy. He, I believe, expects he will receive it, even though he knows he doesn't deserve it. But he knows that whatever God does, God is justified in what he does. And God does do something. And we're told in 2 Samuel 12, verse 15, the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah's wife bore to David, and he became sick. On the seventh day, the child died. The child is taken from David. Did the child sin? That's a way, particularly in the Old Testament, that question comes up. If somebody has an affliction, who sinned? Why did this happen? The child is taken away from David. The object here is David. God has not neglected the child. The child is embraced by God. But David is deprived of the child because of what he has done. Then David goes on, behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. He recognizes this isn't just a momentary backsliding. This is who he is. It's who we are. Since Adam and Eve took a bite out of the forbidden fruit, this is who we have been, and it is who I hope we do not wish to be. So we cry out in anguish and plead for God's mercy. Behold, you delight in truth and the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. God's delight is not necessarily in what we do, it's who we are, how we think, how we respond inside our soul. Are we taking steps? Are we becoming sanctified? Are we becoming more like God? Our secret heart, down in the very essence of ourself, as deep as you can get into your soul, And that's where God delights in truth, not in sinning. And there God teaches us the wisdom of following his laws, which will lead us from sin. Now he asked for more from God. He says, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Now hyssop, it's a bush, you break a branch off of it. It was used by the Israelites at that time to cleanse significant defilement. As an example, leprosy or contact with a corpse. So David is asking for what in his time was the ultimate cleanser. It's his dawn soap or whatever works best for you, but it's hyssop. for the Israelites. The cleaning is required for even the smallest of sins, but certainly in David's case. David continues, wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Now he's asking God to wash him and something different is going to happen. Think about snow, it's white on the inside. So he's asking God, clean me on the inside, not just the surface. Make me like snow, white on the inside. That's where sin really defiles us and where only God can reach. Jeremiah 33 verse 8, I will cleanse them from all the guilt of their sin against me and I will forgive all the guilt of their sin and rebellion. against me. So God has promised he will do this, and David pleads for him to do exactly that. He continues, David does, let me hear joy and gladness, let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Now this is really the third step. Now the first two are pretty logical. I'm sorry I sinned, please help me, please wash me, make me clean, and what's the response? Well, he remembers a relationship he's had with God, the joy and the gladness, and he wants to hear that again and participate. Worship God for who he is and what he does. It's not just that he gives you mercy for this sin, it is worshiping him because he forgives everyone's sins and every sin, and this is who he is and what he is willing to do. The bones are painfully broken by sin. Sin is a pain. And David recognizes if he embraces God's mercy, even the painfully broken bones will rejoice in that fact. Now, David goes on, hide your face from my sins, blot out my iniquities. He's asking God, who sees everything, knows everything, to not see. Well, we know that this is possible, particularly for us, because we know Christ, and we know what He does. David is anticipating that. And then he continues, create in me a clean heart. We're now talking about deep inside, making a change. Mark and Matthew address this. Mark chapter 7. Christ saying, coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness, all these evil things come from within and they defile a person. Matthew in chapter 5, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. So to be with God, David must undergo a radical change, which God can do. And this is a blessing he will bestow on us. And if David continues, renew a right spirit within me. Restore my soul to harmony with you. And now David says, cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. David recognizes that the ultimate pain would be separation. from God. His experience with God has been much like ours, spiritual, not like Moses where he's talking to God face to face. We and David experience God in prayer. It is obvious that David is experiencing the Holy Spirit and that is who is with us, indwelling in us as well as a Holy Spirit that counsels us to lead us away from sin, to guide our reaction to our so that we're, in this case, more like David. Earlier, David recognized the justice in God's condemnation. But now he pleads to escape the penalty justified by his action. He asks for that true mercy from God. It's my opinion that the fires of hell will not cause an agony that will compare with the separation from God. Your earthly body can be burned, but that agony is bearable if God is with you. I think some of our martyrs already know that. It's this separation that is the true hell. Jesus on the cross, taking on our sin. Jesus, He's God, He's part of the Trinity. But when He takes on our sin, there must have been some micro-instant, some point at which our sin gave Him a glimpse of separation from God. In which, according to Matthew, Jesus cries out from the cross, My God, why have you forsaken me? The pain of that ever brief separation. And we want to be with God. Then David says, restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit. He's repeating again the joy that he will feel, the joy that he will express in praise to God. in a willing spirit, his soul walking in a way away from sin, not toward it. David then says, then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. He will share what he has learned. He will share the glory, the wonderful joy that is felt by those who accept God's mercy. Deliver me from blood guiltness, O God, O God of my salvation. David took Uriah's life. This is a blood guilt. Any sin is an abomination to God. And David knows that, and he continues to ask for deliverance. And then he says what his response will be, what he will be compelled to do. And my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. And I think we're compelled as we come in here where we realize what God does for us, that we lift our voices with the worship team and worship and praise God. David says, Oh Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. He will tell others. He wrote it down. He's told us as well. or you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it, you will not be pleased with a burnt offering." Now wait a minute, he's living in a different day. This is how the Israelites dealt with their sin. It's a sacrifice. You sin, you offer a sacrifice. You suspect their sins that you don't know you sinned, you offer a sacrifice for that as well. That's how people, his people, in that day dealt with their sin. So what's David saying? He's saying kind of like, well, I'm not going to do the normal things. But there's an example that David's probably following here, and it comes in Genesis 4, verse 3. And it's talking about unacceptable sacrifice. In the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an offering of fruit of the ground. And Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel in his offering, but for Cain, his offering, he had no regard. Now, we struggle with the difference because God doesn't clearly tell us. Why Abel? Why not Cain? But I think it's fair to believe it was what was in Abel's heart and what was in Cain's heart. In other words, it's not just what you do, it's your motivation, it's who you are. And God did not see what he wanted to see in Cain. And so David now recognizes that, is saying, well, I would normally sacrifice, but if my heart's wrong, I'm wasting my time. That's not what you're looking for. Because the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Psalm 34. The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit. He does not want your sacrifice. That doesn't mean you don't provide it, and we'll see later that David's advocating that. What he really wants is your heart and soul. So David, and remember, David's the king. He's behaved badly. He has responsibility for the whole nation. It's not just him. And the sin that he commits affects everyone. If you're a leader in the church, your sin affects everyone. Everyone feels the pain of what you've done. So what David asks God now is, do good to Zion in your good pleasure. build up the walls of Jerusalem. David's praying for his people, for mercy for them, realizing the damage he's done. And then that allows them to return to their normal practices and worshiping God. And David says, then will you delight in right sacrifices and burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then bowls will be offered on your altar. We go back to what is normal for us, showing are repenting sin or asking for mercy and the sacrifices that they're used to. So, David's given us three steps, and I'll repeat them. Come to God with grief over your sin and repent. Plead with God for his mercy, the only mercy that can save us. then praise Him for His victory over sin." Well, some of you might be aware of other verses that point to an exception. I told you that you cannot commit a sin that God can't forgive. But if we look at Matthew, Mark, and Luke, we're told about an unforgivable sin. How do we reconcile that? Matthew, the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Mark, whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin. Luke, the one who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. So what I suggest to you, taking the words of others that appeal to me, Blasphemy against the Spirit is ongoing hardening of your heart against the Holy Spirit. who is trying to lead you to repent of sin and believe in Christ. In other words, what they're pointing to is not a sin that God can't forgive, but what happens when you do not accept his mercy, his forgiveness. And to remind you of one more thing, Ephesians 4, verse 30, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God. He's with you. If you would, please, before we go, rise and I'll offer a benediction. Brothers and sisters, go forth into the coming week the Lord has made for us, knowing the immeasurable power of God, knowing that if we truly regret our sin and ask for His help, He will conquer our sin and we can embrace this precious gift made whole by the sacrifice of His Son, our Savior. Then express and share our joy at being so wonderfully blessed and tell Satan, you may break me again, but it will be a lot harder. And there now comes closer the day that God's victory over sin is complete. Go in peace. Thank you for joining us. We appreciate everyone that's here or online. If any of you that are here would like to discuss anything, I'll linger here just to my right.