7th Sunday after Trinity

SERMON - Sin Is a Real Problem for Which the Lord God Alone can Provide a Real Solution!

INI

Text: Psalm 51:1-9

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; 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. 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. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

In Christ Jesus, our Savior from sin, dear fellow redeemed:

Sin—you do not hear that word mentioned much any more! It has become unfashionable—one might say politically incorrect. Still, it is a topic of regular conversation. The subject of most gossip, after all, is sin, even though most people no longer identify it as such. The young man’s boasting of his many sexual conquests; the woman’s defense of her decision to abort her child; the psychologist’s explanation of anti-social behavior—all deal with the topic of sin, but do not mention the word. Why is that the case? It is because Satan, our world, and our sinful flesh have combined to influence our collective minds. They do not want us to believe in sin any more, or at least to view sin, as the hymnist suggests, “but lightly” (“Stricken, Smitten, and Afflicted” by Thomas Kelly, TLH #153 stanza 3). My dear friends, we cannot afford to be so misled, for the consequences of such a misperception are devastating! God’s Word reminds us that “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23a).

King David, who penned the words of our text, is identified in the Bible as a man “after (God’s) own heart” (1 Sam. 13:14b). We should all strive to be such men and such women. That does not mean that David did not sin. In fact, David committed some very gross sins—adultery with Bathsheba and the murder of her husband Uriah—the very sins which led to the writing of the Psalm we are considering today. David was a man “after (God’s) own heart,” because he recognized the seriousness of those sins, repented of them, and found forgiveness at the hands of his God. In this text the Spirit of God would lead us to do the same, for SIN IS A REAL PROBLEM FOR WHICH THE LORD GOD ALONE CAN PROVIDE A REAL SOLUTION!

I.

Let us, therefore, consider, first of all, the need of a sinner’s plea! David writes, “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.”

David uses three different words to describe our offenses against God: transgressions, iniquity, and sin. To transgress means to cross the line between right and wrong. For instance, during our recent vacation we saw any number of road signs which stated: “Speed kills!” To choose to exceed the posted speed limits set by any given state is to transgress their laws, to put their citizens at risk, to place yourself in danger of being fined, and to displease God. Iniquity is a word which emphasizes immorality. The idea is that to commit an iniquity is to become impure. When David saw Bathsheba bathing and his heart began to lust after her, he was guilty before God of committing an iniquity. He had impure thoughts, which led to impure actions. Jesus applied this very example in His Sermon on the Mount, when He said, “Whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Mt. 5:28). The word sin means literally “to miss the mark.” Think of an archery target. God’s demand for perfection means that our every thought, word, and action must be a perfect bull’s eye. To hit any other part of the target or to miss the target entirely is sin. My dear friends, we need to join David in a sinner’s plea, because we are guilty of transgressions, iniquity, and sin before our God!

Notice, that in this sinner’s plea David, in view of his many failures, relies completely upon God’s grace and mercy. He does not say, “Have mercy upon me, O God”…because my character is so sterling, or because overall I am not so bad and deserve a break! No, he relies completely upon the undeserved love of God to wash away and cleanse him of his sins. We, too, need to make such a sinner’s plea, and rely simply upon the “amazing grace” of God, which as we have sung has “saved a wretch like (you and) me!” (Amazing Grace by John Newton, WS #777, stanza 1)

II.

Consider, secondly, the nature of the sinner’s confession! David writes, “For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 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.”

Earlier in the service we confessed: “O almighty God, merciful Father, I, a poor miserable sinner, confess unto You all my sins and iniquities with which I have offended You. I justly deserve Your temporal and eternal punishment.” There are two elements found both in David’s words and our liturgical confession, which we must note and keep in mind if we are to understand the problem we have with sin and appreciate the solution God provides us for sin. The first element is that we are not small or merely occasional sinners, who have a slight spiritual cough and who with a little rest will be just fine! No, even as believing children of God we sin often and those sins are significant. Our moral situation is life-threatening…in fact, it is fatal every time! That is how serious our sin situation is, and so our “sin is always before (us)” and we are truly “poor miserable” sinners.

The second element to note in both David’s words and our confession is that our offenses in reality are directed against God. As we deal with our sins He must be our prime concern. It is rather amazing, is it not, that after murdering Uriah David would say, “Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight!” How could David say that? It is obvious that he sinned against Uriah. Yet David’s words remind us of a spiritual truth that is so easily lost as we live in this sin-filled world. Satan wants to blind our eyes to the seriousness of sin and to distort our thinking when it comes to our responsibility over against God. He wants us to see only the visible, physical consequences of sin and lead us to believe that our sins can be dealt with then in a visible, physical way. I get caught speeding, so I make up for that by paying a fine—no big deal…God really is not involved. I am caught shoplifting something at the Kwik Mart, so I make restitution—everything is fine…God is not really involved. Wrong! What David is revealing and what our confession invites us to understand is that every sin, whether small or great in our minds, is an offense against God. What does the apostle James say? “Whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all” (2:10). One bad word…one immoral joke…one lustful thought…one act of theft…one abuse of alcohol…any one sin places us under the just judgment of a holy and righteous God! That is the nature of the sinner’s confession!

III.

Consider, thirdly, the extent of the sinner’s problem! David writes, “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom.”

Our problem with sin is not a surface issue, nor is it an occasional or short-term issue. David reveals that we inherit the problem of sin. He says that we are sinful from the moment we are conceived. We are not born, therefore, as some suggest with a positive nature, or even a morally neutral nature. No, we are born with a sinful nature. We do not sin and thereby become sinners, but rather we sin because we are by nature sinners! Adam and Eve, our original parents, were created in the perfect image of God, but after the fall into sin their children were conceived and born in their fallen image. After the flood, when the entire population of the world consisted of just eight believers, God made this observation: “The imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth” (Gen. 8:21b). Jesus, when describing the natural human heart, observes: “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witnesses, blasphemies” (Mt. 15:19). We have a problem with sin and it is a deep and devastating problem!

God desires truth within us, but by nature in our fallen condition we cannot know truth. The apostle Paul clearly states, “The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). Consequently, we are totally dependent upon the Spirit of God to enter our hearts and lead us to an understanding of His wisdom—a wisdom absolutely necessary for our temporal good and eternal salvation! That is the extent of the sinner’s problem!

IV.

Let us, finally, consider the wonder of the LORD God’s solution! David writes, “Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.”

During our recent vacation my wife and I visited Greenfield Village Museum in Detroit. One of the exhibits there was Thomas Edison’s laboratory. Thomas Edison spent eighteen months seeking just the right filament to make an electric light-bulb work. He failed several thousand times, before finding just the right materials to be successful. We can be so thankful that he did not give up, but was persistent in his efforts. On a much larger scale we can be so thankful that our LORD God did not give up on us, but was persistent in His plan to rescue us from sin and save our souls. Notice how David reveals that in this effort it is God who cleanses us, not we who cleanse ourselves. He “purges” us; He “washes” us; He “makes (us) hear joy and gladness”; He heals our brokenness and enables us to “rejoice”; He chooses to “hide” His face from our sins and “blot out” our iniquities. The LORD God is the active one with regard to solving our problem with sin, while we are the passive recipients of His gracious activity.

How can this be? What form does this cleansing take? Jesus said, “God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn. 3:16). God’s wonderful solution for our problem was to send us a Savior—Jesus Christ! Jesus came and lived a life of perfect obedience for us. He did not transgress any of God’s laws. In Him no iniquity was to be found. He never missed the mark, but always hit the bull’s eye for us! He bestows upon us by faith His own righteousness, so that we can stand before God without fear. He became the perfect sacrifice—“the Lamb of God” who took away the sins of the world (Jn. 1:29).

Friday was July 4—America’s Independence Day. On that day we remembered once again the sacrifice made by our nation’s founding fathers. They put at risk their lives and property in order to secure for us the freedoms we enjoy. It is right and proper that we remember them and recognize with gratitude their sacrifices. How much more so, ought we recognize and rejoice in the sacrifices Jesus made to save our souls from sin, death, and hell. How wonderful it is to know that we can live our lives without fear, because God “has cleansed us from all unrighteousness” through the blood of Jesus Christ (cf. 1 Jn. 1:9).

My dear friends, SIN IS A REAL PROBLEM FOR WHICH THE LORD GOD ALONE CAN PROVIDE A REAL SOLUTION! May we by faith recognize, receive, and rejoice in that solution, holding firmly to our Savior’s hand while walking faithfully in accordance with His Word, as we look forward to our futures in heaven! Amen.

—Pastor Paul D. Nolting
To God alone be the glory!