together father we thank you that you are God of mercy you Lord beyond what we can see and feel and know what you’re good you’re good to us you’re good to us because you’re good we want a real sense of that real sense of what it means to sit before you and feel no angst for our shortcomings feel no shame for our sins feel no lack but to know in Christ Jesus we are holy we are accepted we are loved and we are promised a future would I just pray that over each each person each heart here Lord that your word would do its sanctifying work in us this evening pray you bless our tithe and offering Lord that we would give all to you knowing that all good things come from you and we pray in Jesus name amen
well good evening I guess I guess this counts is well it’s kind of fourth of July is in the middle ish of the week so this week next weekend independent celebration happy and independence to do us oh I meant to pray a prayer thanks to the Lord for our country i didn’t do that so thank you Lord for the United States of America the freedoms we have psalm chapter 51 verses 16 nope 14 through 19 we we’ve done our kind of accidental three-part series here and I hope I hope you have really really got a sense from this text of God’s grace God’s mercy God’s love for sinners we we started in the first part looking at the mercy of God there we talked about God’s mercy is so much wider there’s a wideness in that mercy anything we’ve done anywhere we’ve been the Lord Jesus the Lord Jesus mercy and blood covers it so when I see the worst in me I have to ask myself the question is Jesus the opposite of that if I’m this bad is Jesus that good yes but what if I became this bad and I committed this kind of sin can can Jesus be the opposite the the the the holy opposite of all my sins and my crimes can his blood cover the depths of my sin there’s a wideness in God’s mercy there’s a wideness in God’s mercy and we talked about the goodness of God to us last week and you’ve got very popular passage and verses 10 through 12 that God is good to create the clean heart it’s him who brings the new life he makes us right he restores us and we ended there on 12 saying he upholds the whole thing and he does it with a willing spirit so God is gladly being good to us he doesn’t do it resenting he doesn’t do it mad he’s not throwing it out of his pocket like a you know a child that keeps wasting money he’s gotta keep giving more money he’s tired of it he’s glad to come to the aid of his children when they asked the right things and we ended with it turns us all into missionaries turns us all into missionaries wanting to tell folks about this great God who turns transgressors from their sin to him and then lastly this week I want to consider the deliverance of God the deliverance of God perhaps you’ve heard of this story before but there was a very famous story in the 80s in Midland Texas 1987 an 18 month old little girl Jessica McClure she was in her aunt’s backyard and she fell into an eight inch wide hole was 22 feet deep and abandoned well and she was in that 8 inch wide well 22 feet deep for 58 hours 58 hours and she was eventually rescued and she lost one of her toes to gangrene shes in her late 30s now and she she she doesn’t talk about it too much but she is She did say in one interview that she doesn’t remember the event, but she wears her scars from it with pride. And I think that that is a picture that is, obviously, it’s a searing picture to imagine a child trapped in a well, but the thing about an 8-inch wide hole and an 18-month-year-old is, is, man, there’s no salvation possible from that child. That child can’t save themselves. That is the very essence of helpless right there. Being like a sardine in a can and you can’t do anything about it. That’s exactly, I think, our state before God. We are. We are. We are stuck bad. We are without hope. We cannot move to the right or to the left in any positive way. We are completely at the mercy of someone else to do to us what we cannot do, to help us, to love us, to deliver us.
In verse 14,
David cries out, Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God. O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. Deliver me from blood guiltiness. It’s really, it’s really, I can’t believe he had the nerve to say that. How can you say that, David? He has in this verse more confidence in asking God for salvation for his blood guiltiness than you and I have right now believing that the ground is beneath our feet. That’s how sure he is of God. Genesis chapter 9, before the law of Moses was given, the Lord says, whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image. And then it is eventually codified in Deuteronomy chapter 22. Excuse me, Leviticus 24, whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death. And then Deuteronomy 22, 22, if a man is found lying with the wife of another man, both of them shall die. So, he, he, he is guilty in a sense that even is before the law of Moses. I mean, this is one of the things that is left with Noah when the world is rebuilt. Anybody that kills anybody, they’re going to die for it. And then you see the law of Moses reemphasizing that. And then you’ve got the adultery. And then you’ve got the adultery. And then in Numbers chapter 15, the Lord says this to the people. The person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is a native or a sojourner, reviles the Lord and that person shall be cut off from among his people because he has despised the word of the Lord, has broken his commandment. That person shall surely be cut off, utterly cut off. His iniquity shall be on him. David has done it. He has done it all. He has done it all.
What could he possibly hope for at this point? And I think it’s a serious question. Why did David not die? Why didn’t David die? The law said he should die. I’ve heard people say, well, he’s the king. I mean, who’s going to kill the king? You don’t think God could kill the king? You want to kill the king?
Spurgeon, Spurgeon has this to say. He had not ventured to come so near before. It had been in this psalm, O God, up till now, but here he cries, thou God of my salvation.
David, David really has no hope except this. It’s God, God himself. He has nothing to hope for except God himself. David should die and he should die in his sins except this one thing. And he’s not getting it because he was king. God is David’s. And David is God’s. David is dearly beloved of the Lord.
Plenty of people are Jewish and they hate God. You can read that a hundred times in the Old Testament. That’s not helping him out. You can read through all the kings and we read often in the kings, such and such became king in the year of blah, blah, blah. And he did evil in the sight of the Lord. There were a ton of kings of Israel that did evil in the sight of the Lord. So there’s no inherited or earned merit here for why David wouldn’t die a murderer’s and an adulterer’s death except this. David finds a deliverer in the Lord because he seeks the Lord. He seeks the Lord. And the Lord will not disown those who seek him. David cried out with great possession, My God. And the Lord replied in kind, My child.
Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 13. The Lord said to the people who are in exile for being terrible, nasty, dirty sinners. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord. And I will restore your fortune and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I’ve driven you, declares the Lord. And I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile. So you see the heart of God for his people. When they seek him. And you still go, but what’s the basis of that? What’s the basis of it?
It’s on David’s side of it, nothing more than single-mindedness. And I think this is important. And I contrast David with Saul so much because I think we’re supposed to. David, as the prophet said, scorned the Lord in his word. Yet David is what? Turns to the Lord. Saul does the same thing. Can’t get an answer from the Lord. What’s he do? He goes to a necromancer. He goes to someone who talks to the dead. And he looks for salvation from a necromancer. Something the law of God very specifically says is forbidden. So you see the stark contrast between those two men. And Saul looks for salvation somewhere else. David burns all the bridges and says, there’s no deliverance except for in my God.
You say, well, didn’t Saul try to turn when he looked for answers? Well, he never turned anything but superficially. And the proof of it is he didn’t lower himself the way David lowered himself. David brought himself before the Lord and he didn’t lower himself. He emptied himself and cried out to the Lord alone.
David seeking God is not about being spared from death alone. It’s about being made clean. David seeks the salvation from sinfulness. David seeks to be made like God again. David seeks to be made like God again. David seeks to be made like God again. David seeks a savior from his sin. And I want to really, really emphasize that. David seeks a savior from his sin. David doesn’t need a fresh start. David doesn’t need a new outlook in life. David doesn’t need to be bailed out. David needs a deliverer. A deliverer. David needs Jesus. You know, that’s what you need. That’s what I need. That’s what America needs. America doesn’t need another president. It needs Jesus to save us from our sins. Do away with a Jesus who shows us good morals, gives us good principles to live by, sets a good example for our children. No. Don’t fall for that one. Don’t let that devolve to that. Jesus is this. He’s a savior of sinners.
So what is the basis of this kind of deliverance?
It’s for those who seek the Lord alone and find in Him the deliverance of their sins. A salvation. A salvation that can only be given by the Lord alone and at that by the very blood of His Son Jesus.
The Lord’s been showing me lately things. The Lord’s been showing me lately how much pride I have. How many layers are there? How many layers are there? You know, it’s shocking. When God shows you things about yourself and you’re like, oh my gosh, I wasn’t even looking for that. You’re showing me this. You have pride in how far I think I’ve come in the faith. Pride in how little I think I’ve come in the faith. Beat myself up like, oh, I could have done better for you, Jesus. I’m upset with myself for not being more spiritual and holy. Pride in that I don’t cling to Christ alone for salvation. Pride in self-righteous effort. Pride of worry and anxiety. You know? Worry and anxiety is just disbelieving God’s good. It’s disbelieving He’s in control.
David… So this is what David is. And this is what I want you to see. David is a man in his most raw, brutally honest, naked, exposed form. He feels the weight of his pride. He feels the weight of how his pride did this. He didn’t err. He just lived out who he was apart from God. And now, oh, he feels it. He sees how dirty sin has made him. And I want to say, I want to say this. This is the only state you and I can be in if we expect to find deliverance. You want to hold something behind your back like, yes, Jesus, I need you. But let’s not forget about that time I did that. Yes, Jesus, I need you. But, but, but, you know, such and such needs you a lot more. Oh, man. We got layers, don’t we? We got layers for why we shouldn’t come humiliated before the Lord for our sinfulness.
Are you willing to get raw and honest before the God of heaven, the Holy One of Israel about your depravity? Are you really willing to abandon completely yourself?
Most of the church, most of the church, most of the church needs you today. What does the church need today?
Not a better strategy. Not a better plan. Not a better organization. Not to be more well-read. Not to be able to discern the culture.
Church needs to be on its knees confessing. That’s what the church needs. That’s what the church needs.
God uses holy people. He doesn’t use smart people. He doesn’t use put-together people. He doesn’t use bright folks. He doesn’t use apparently righteous folks. God uses, God uses humble folks who confess their sins fully and throw themselves entirely on the grace of God. That’s what we need. People say, we need revival in the church. The church needs to be revived in America. People talk about going to revival. I’m going to go to revival. People talk about experiencing God. I’m going to go to this worship experience. I’m going to go to this camp. I’m going to go to this service. I’m going to go to this venue. And they’re advertising it as a worship experience. Worship experience. And what you and I need to experience is our desperation for Jesus to pull us up out of the miry clay of our sin and put us on the rock that is Christ. You experience that, then you have a revival you can’t hold back. That’s the kind of deliverance you need. That’s the kind of deliverance I need. What does Paul say so simply? He says the saying is trustworthy and it’s deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That’s his business here. Save sinners. Let’s get back to a Jesus that saves sinners. Let’s get back to a Jesus that saves sinners. When you come to your deliverance, you’re a deliverer and honesty about your spiritual destitution because that’s who he’s going to save. But it gets more explicit than that because if you look in verse 16, David says, you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart. Oh God, you will not despise.
This word broken here, when he talks about being broken before the Lord, he talks about a contrite heart. This is translated just as much crushed. Remember when you were a kid and you had like the tin can and you drank the thing, and you step on it, and it shoots out the side, but you try to get it just right where it compacts, and it’s just, it’s as flat as it can be in a little circle, and it’s absolutely crushed. Nothing left. David’s saying to God, he’s not being melodramatic, like poetic language is so pretty because he knows it’s going to be written down. Everybody’s going to read it for a couple of centuries, for millennia. He’s being honest about the place. He is, and this is the place we have to be just as much. He says he is before God crushed. He’s nothing. He’s in pieces completely. He knows all the animal sacrifices in the world couldn’t amount to what God would require. But he says this is what God looks upon, friends. He looks upon brokenness for sin. Brokenness for sin. It says he will not despise that. He will not despise that. You say, well, why? Why would God not despise that? Why wouldn’t God despise someone if they’re broken over their sins? What is this? The prophet Micah says this in chapter 7. Who is a God like you? Pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of his inheritance. He does not retain his anger forever. He does not retain his anger forever. Because he delights in his steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will show your faithfulness to Jacob and steadfast love to Abraham as you swore unto our fathers from the days of old. God does it because he loves to love sinners. He loves to deliver those who ask for deliverance from their sins. He can’t deliver them from their sins. He can’t deliver what doesn’t want deliverance.
He says be broken for what’s wrong. Be hungry and thirsty for what’s right. And I’ll give it to you.
David’s cry, David’s confidence was on the basis of God’s covenantal love. God’s covenantal love. And it’s a covenant he made with himself. He didn’t make it with you and me. He made it with himself. Abraham was asleep. God made that covenant. Where is that so plain and clear for you and me? Is it not on Calvary? Is it not there? God was broken and his blood poured out according to his steadfast love for sin. Sinners?
Sinners? So sinner, come. Come to Jesus.
Come as you are. Come in your emptiness. Come in your foulness. Come in your condemned guilty state. Come to Christ just as pitiful as you are. And you are. And you’ll find salvation. You’ll find deliverance. You’ll find newness of life. And you’ll find a clean record. And you’ll find eternal approval. And you’ll find a love of the Father. That’s what you’ll find. So two responses. One, you won’t come because you don’t care enough to come. It’s not that big of a deal. It’s Christianity. You’ve heard about it my whole life. Jesus died. We’re all sinners. It doesn’t reach your core. It doesn’t break you. Okay? It doesn’t break you. You don’t hate sin the way God hates sin.
But then secondly, and just as dangerous, just as dangerous as that person is the one that comes and says, is it really true? I see all that, and I hear it, but my sins, too. My sins, too. I’m struggling to believe that God did all that for me, too. Surely, surely, I’ve somehow disqualified myself. It’s like the cross is in the middle. There’s this big circle. I’m right outside that circle.
And I was talking to Chase about this yesterday. It’s very arrogant. It’s just as arrogant as the guy that says no thanks. It’s very arrogant to say, Chad Cronin, born on the 4th of July, 1989, Louisville, Kentucky.
All the human beings that ever lived for which God had a plan before the ages began to save sinners, he and only he has sinned outside of God’s grace. The Lord wasn’t thinking about this one. When he thought that his son would bleed and die, I am a greater sinner than God is a Savior. That’s arrogant. That’s really arrogant. So when you and I are like, oh, I don’t know, Lord. I don’t know if you could forgive me. Can that really be true? And you’re probably still holding on to things I did. You just disbelieve in God. It’s pride. That’s pride.
It’s a song. It’s a song. It’s a song that I heard recently. And the line in it is, it may be too good to be understood, but it’s not too good to be true. The gospel, the person of Jesus, may be too good to understand, and I can’t. But it’s not too good to be true. It’s not too good to be true. Can you believe it? Will you keep believing it? If you fall into some deep chasm and you send wow to an impressive amount that you didn’t know you would, you still going to believe it? Don’t deny Jesus the kind of Savior he is. Don’t do that.
Verse 14. Verse 14. Verse 14. The second half of 14 says, and my tongue will sing a lot of your righteousness. In verse 15, oh Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. We said last week that David shows us clearly the only natural spiritual response to such a salvation is evangelism. You know, you have to, you have to tell folks, but then he gives us another natural, necessary response if we’ve really experienced the forgiveness of God. And he says, it’s singing. It’s singing. It’s singing. David is reminding us of that wonderful, part of God that is music and is vocalizing to tune the things we love and cherish most. And he’s talking about an almost involuntary impulse here. Having been sure that God is going to show him grace, David cannot help but sing. He cannot help but sing. He says in Psalm 118, glad songs of salvation are in the tents of the righteous. The right hand of the Lord does value. So can I say this to us? If you and I aren’t singing, it’s because we’ve not yet experienced this kind of deliverance that God gives to sinners.
And can I suggest, we’ve got sin in our hearts and lives we’re not repenting of. We’re not seeing the beauty of the cross. We’re not seeing the mercy and the goodness of God when we’re not singing. This kind of salvation, this kind of deliverance calls for so much. And the redeemed can’t stop singing. And, you know, Revelation, as much as we’ve been through it, it’s pretty plain and obvious. What are they doing up there? They’re singing. What are you doing in heaven? What are we going to do? People always ask, what are we going to do in heaven? We’re going to sing. That’s the first thing we’re going to do. We’ll probably keep doing it for a long time. It’s the sacredness of worshiping the Lord in song for His deliverance of sinners.
Singing and worship is a certain, you know, it’s a fever and pitch you reach when God shows grace.
So, friends, we need to gauge our hearts and how amazed we are that we have been forgiven for our sins. And I say we have not wondered enough at the cross. We have not sung enough. We have not worshipped enough. We’ve wasted too much time doubting, roaming. We need to feel it and believe it. Sing it. Come in on Sunday mornings ready to sing. Live with a posture in your heart. You’re singing. You may not be able to sing out loud on jury duty, but you’re sitting there singing in your heart because you’ve got a Savior. You’ve got a Savior. You’ve got a Deliverer. His name is Jesus. He’s the object of your prayer. He’s the object of your life’s devotion.
And so he says at the very end in 18 and 19, 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 bulls will be offered on your altar. So what he’s saying is, so why were the walls of Jerusalem broken down when they were overthrown? Why was it a big deal? And it was a big deal for Ezra and Nehemiah in their time when Persia allowed them to go back and rebuild the walls. It’s a big deal because the symbolism in that is in this time, the walls of Jerusalem being built up are a representation of the spiritual fortitude of the people. God let the walls of Jerusalem be beat down. Because the people of God allowed sin to beat them down. So David’s not asking randomly at the end, oh yeah, and keep us safe from our enemies. Build up the walls of Jerusalem. He has this very holistic prayer request in mind where he’s saying, God, let Jerusalem be this place in which all of us as your people, you’re taking good pleasure in us because we take pleasure in you and your commands and your love and your mercy. And certainly the walls then would be built up. Then the outward sign and devotion of religion, it would mean something because it’s an outward expression of the heart that’s been surrendered and given over to Christ.
Build up a wall. Build up a wall. Inside these walls are a place where all are clean and pure. Inside these walls are people who have confessed their sins fully. Inside these walls, mercy is found. Inside these walls, the Lord is cherished. Inside these walls, songs of salvation are sung. Inside these walls, the people are delivered. Inside these walls, God’s steadfast love is known.
Come to Jesus. Man, come to Jesus. In whom is your deliverance. And he’ll put a new song in your mouth.
Lord, what can we say that we can’t say anything? We can’t describe it. But Lord, we want to sing about it. And we want to, don’t cry about it don’t want to be dumbfounded by it don’t want to tell the people about it
Lord let us never stop wondering at what can’t be understood but what is true you love sinners you love sinners by the blood of your own son you love sinners
Lord there’s somebody in this room that’s convinced that’s not for them they’re convinced they don’t count that this message is for someone who’s not gone as far someone who just is more worthy Lord would you destroy that life by the power of your word with the saying that is trustworthy that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners let us not deny you your character let us not deny you your accomplishment on the cross Lord let us behold the beauty of Calvary flee there and never leave