Psalms 51 pt III

Psalm 1 - how to have a blessed, happy life

Psalm 8 - Having the right view of God

Psalm 15 - How to have fellowship with God both now and
in eternity.

Psalm 27 - Responding to enemies with confidence instead
of fear.

Psalm 51 - What to do when we've sinned.

- this morning we're going to continue our study of Psalm 51

- remember we've said that this Psalm has three natural
divisions:
- verse 1-6 - David's repentance - the admission of his
sin.
- verses 7-12 - David's prayer requests - we'll talk more
about that this morning.
- verses 13-19 - David's "resolutions" - Lord willing,
we'll study them next week.

- we've studied:
- the background of this Psalm
- verse 1-6
- we've been working on his prayer requests
- our goal today is to finish the prayer requests and be
ready for the resolutions next week.

II. A Prayer Of Renewal

A. I ask for your cleansing - v. 7, v. 10

- we've been saying that Psalm 51 tells us what to do after
we've sinned
- this is a big part of the answer right here--to genuinely
pray and ask God to do whatever is necessary for me to be
cleansed of that sin.

- that’s the argument of Prov. 28:13 - (emphasize forsake)

- if you or I can't sincerely pray this--then we aren't
ready to deal with sin God's way
- we're not ready for Psalm 51
- therefore, we would be doomed to repeat the sin again
and further distance ourselves from the Lord.

- We have several headline stories in the news that
illustrate exactly the opposite of what this passage is
talking about.

- Now my purpose is not to publicly criticize them or
demean them
- but these people have made their statements
publicly in at attempt to persuade public opinion so
we'd like to mention how we differ with those
perspectives:

1) gentlemen whose siamese twins were separated in
Philadelphia
- there was a public outcry for financial support (and
perhaps rightly so)
- but you've probably heard by now that the story
has come out that approximately 8000 of the money
given to help his children has been
inappropriately spent.

- I bring this one up because of the way he is trying
to justify it now.

- early in the week he said - "I took some friends
drinking -- and you know how expensive it is to go
drinking these days."
- now it comes out that they went on a three day
cocaine binge the three days before the surgery

- his statement now is - "I'm not a bad person" -
I've just made some mistakes.

- their attorney (who actually blew the whistle) says
- this couple isn't equipped to handle all the
media attention they've been getting (which is
undoubtedly true--but that doesn't excuse
what's been done-i.e. it's society's fault)

2) teens in Carroll county that murdered the patrolmen out
west.
- driving down the highway at high rate of speed
shooting a semi-automatic rifle at the ploice cars
chasing them
- family member's reaction:
- they're not bad boys
- they haven't had the chance to tell their side of the
story

(if murdering someone in cold blood isn't the answer,
then just what does it take to qualify for the title
"bad boy" -- as I recall, I earned that title for
recklessly spilling my milk at the supper table)

3) MTV - The seven deadly sins - special news report

- the press release from MTV said - this program digs
down deep into the soul of the MTV generation.
- John Leo - (US News and World Report) - said of this
show - "If this show can be described as reflecting
the soul of a generation, the whole generation can
sue for libel)

- here's what some of the people on the video said about sin:
- "sloth - it's good to be like that sometimes"

- "pride is mainly a problem of the inner cities - the
kids don't have enough pride"

- "greed is figuring out what we can get for ourselves"

- (from Leo's article) "Laura Lazin, the producer of the
program, said she liked the program because it deals with
human impulses, not a set of rules like the Ten
Commandments. `It seemed that a lot of young people were
anxious to talk about moral matters,' she said. `What
better context than sin?'
But what did the project in was the absence of a moral
vocabulary. The people of MTV basically collected a random
set of attitudes and feelings and stuffed them into a
music video format. Lacking any vocabulary to talk about
impulse control, selfishness, ethical values and moral
conflicts, the show went nowhere. *** Is this a problem
of the MTV generation or just MTV?

- the point is that we are mired in a culture that has no
place for the authority of God
- for the holiness of God
- for the understanding that the only way to overcome
sin is to humbly ask for his cleansing (instead
of - it dealt with human impulses---not a set of
rules like the ten commandments)

- as a result, even when heinous crimes are
committed, statements like "he's not a bad boy" and
"I'm not a bad person" hinder the individual from
making any meaningful change.

- now, the "upshot" of all of this is that we want to be
folks who are serious about being cleansed from our sin.
- that means getting a more complete picture of what our
sin was.

- last week I recommended a book titled "forgotten factors"
- I'd like to pick up with the list of some of the
forgotten factors in sexual sin.
- my purpose is to try to demonstrate the kind of thinking
that is necessary if we are really serious about being
cleansed of sin

- we've already talked about how sexual sin is (1. stealing)

2) multiplied duplicities

- almost always when sexual sin is present, lying and
duplicity is involved as well.

- You know that the story of David and Bathsheba are
known are known, at least in skeletal fashion, by many
in our world.
- Hollywood has even tried to reenact these events.

- but the "spin" that is usually put to this story by
those who haven't carefully studied the verses is
that David had a great love for Bathsheba, and that
that love motivated him to do what he did.

- the fact is--David had a great love for himself. That
self-love motivated him to an unbelievable web of lies
and deceptive acts in order to try to cover and
protect...himself.
- the point is - yes, he needed to be cleansed of the lust,
and the sexual sin--but he also needed to be cleansed of
his deceptive lifestyle.

- read selected parts of pages 36-37

(if time -- could develop the issue of many in our world
seeing nothing wrong with lying--cf pool business)

3) sin against own body

- I Cor. 3:17 - READ
- the NT speaks strongly about our bodies being united
with Christ--and the importance of using these
bodies to bring honor to Christ.

- page 51

- the point that we're making in all of this is that a person
in sexual sin is not "automatically" going to think of
some of these facets of his/her sinfulness.
- but they're definitely there

- and if you and I are serious about praying and asking
God to cleanse us--then we need to be ready to think
about sin thoroughly and completely

- one other "facet" of sexual sin I'd like to mention is:

4) Wrong against God

- let's go back to II Sam. 11 and see how God tried to
help David see what this sin revealed about his
relationship with Him.

- read II Sam. 12:7-9

- what is the Lord "putting his finger on" in these
verses? (the matter of unthankfulness")

- cf. satan's method with Adam/Eve

- Page 59, 61

B. I ask for your forgiveness

- v. 9, 11

- INPUT - what phrases from these verses speak about
forgiveness?

- another passage you could add to this is:
- Psalm 103:12 - "As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath he removed our transgressions
from us."

- we're saying that another key answer to the question - What
should I do when I've blown it? - is to clearly and
definitely ask God's forgiveness.

- these verses show that David highly valued fellowship
with God
- this is evidence of the fact that he was serious about
"letter A"
- none of this - "I'll make it right--but now I
don't want any part of you" (have your kids ever
pulled that one?)

- David valued fellowship with God and part of his
repenting process was to very clearly request that
his sin be forgiven.

C. I ask for restored joy in you

- v. 8, v. 12

- INPUT - what phrases from these verses speak about
David's anticipated joy?

- that’s what's wrong with the "current events"
stories we mentioned before.
- because our world doesn't deal with the state
of guilt -- people are headed for depression
and despair
- the great thing about the method we're
advocating today is--it brings lasting joy
because the sin is dealt with and handled.