The Joy of Repentance
Download MP3If you have a bible open to Psalm 51. While you're turning there, let me tell you a story. While you're turning there, let me tell you a story, about, my time at Beeson Divinity School. Above all the others had the deepest impact on me. It was a class called spiritual formations, taught by a mom who had no degree, but she knew the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:She introduced this man as, he was a former student of hers. And she said, he was the best student I've ever had. I was like, we're right here. She goes, he he wrote the best papers of of any papers I have ever read a student write. He said they were just profound.
Jeffrey Heine:And then, when he graduated, he went on to plant a church that became one of the fastest growing churches here in Birmingham, grew to be one of the largest. And, and I just thought that you would like to hear what he had to say. And so, it was quite the introduction. And then this man, he came and he he taught. He taught about a little bit about pastoring, taught a little bit about preaching, told some about his story.
Jeffrey Heine:And it was indeed very impressive. And as he's telling all about this the soaring growth and impact of his church, he said, and all of this was happening while I was having sex with another man's wife. You could have heard a pin drop, kinda like here. We we couldn't believe what we just heard. He says, all of that was happening.
Jeffrey Heine:All that fruit was taking place. All my gifts were being used. All of that was happening while I was having sex with another man's wife. Now there's a lot of other things that he told in his story. Things that really profoundly affected me that I will forever remember.
Jeffrey Heine:But here's what stood out most to me, his joy. His joy. His face absolutely radiated joy as he was telling us this story. There were tears, but there were no longer tears of guilt. There was a thankfulness that the Lord in his severe mercy had pursued him, taken that hidden sin and brought it to light, and brought him to a place of repentance, and restored to him the joy of the Lord's salvation.
Jeffrey Heine:And he stood there knowing that my identity is not in what anyone else thinks about me. My identity is now in the Lord. And he just radiated with joy. That's what we're gonna look at this morning, the joy that comes through repentance. When you're when the Lord confronts you with sin and it feels like it's gonna be the death of you, if it's ever that hidden sin is ever made known, or if you ever have to give up that hidden sin, but it's not death.
Jeffrey Heine:There's always resurrection on the other side as believers. And so I want us to look at how repentance is the pathway of joy. So I want to read the first 13 verses of Psalm 51. This is a Psalm we've preached on numerous times. So we're not gonna go over every point of this.
Jeffrey Heine:We're just gonna highlight a few points from Psalm 51. This is a Psalm of David after he committed the sin with Bathsheba and killed Uriah. Have mercy on me, oh God. According to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my inequity and cleanse me from my sin.
Jeffrey Heine:For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against you, 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 a hyssop, and I shall be clean.
Jeffrey Heine:Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all of my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, oh god, and renew a right spirit within me.
Jeffrey Heine: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. This is the word of the lord. It is to your heart.
Jeffrey Heine:You would pray with me. Father, I pray that in this moment through your spirit, you will calm our hearts, calm our anxious hearts. I pray that we would place our hearts in this moment in your hands for you are a gentle and good god. May you use your word to change our hearts. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore.
Jeffrey Heine:But, Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen. So what do you think it means to be a man after God's own heart? Remember, that's how David was described.
Jeffrey Heine:He's a man after God's own heart. When Saul was rejected as king, God said, I'm gonna find someone to be king. I'm gonna find someone with a man after my own heart. Is that what God's looking for? That that type of bravery and courage.
Jeffrey Heine:Was it David's ability to lead thousands of men with unmatched strength and humility together? Was it the freedom that David had in worship and how he could dance before the Lord without shame? What made David a man after God's own heart? Well, I guess you could ask a question, what did David do that Saul never did? You see, both of them had times when they trusted in God, when they fought enemies that were far superior to them, and they won.
Jeffrey Heine:Both of them, at times, led Israel in worship. Both of them had been filled with the Spirit of God. Both of them even were prophets. And there were times that they were prophesying. Both of them had times that they obeyed God.
Jeffrey Heine:And both had done some pretty grievous sins. And if you not that you should be ranking sins, but if you were to rank sins, David's sins seem to be actually a whole lot worse than King Saul's ever were. So what exactly set them apart? How is it that David is described as a man after God's own heart? I believe it's this.
Jeffrey Heine:He repented. Whenever he sinned, he repented. Saul never repented of his sins. It's on me. I've sinned against you and repent.
Jeffrey Heine:I believe that is what made David a man after God's own heart. Now, I don't know about you, but I actually find great comfort in this because I have a hard time relating to David and all those other ways. I personally haven't fought many giants. I haven't, you know, had to act crazy before some king in order to preserve my life. I haven't, you know, stripped down and danced half naked before the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:If I did know Jesus is coming. I mean, he's probably already in the room, if that ever happens. I've never done those things. So I have a hard time relating to David in those things. But but sinning?
Jeffrey Heine:Yes. Needing to repent and be forgiven? Yes. I can relate to that. All of us can Because all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
Jeffrey Heine:All of us have had what I like to say is our genesis 3 moments. I don't know if you noticed that as we were last week, as Jeff was walking us through David's sin, how much that sin resembled the sin of Adam and Eve back in Genesis 3. Just as Eve saw that forbidden fruit, and she took it because it was desirable to her. David saw Bathsheba and took her because she was desirable to him. There's actually a number of parallels to Genesis chapter 3.
Jeffrey Heine:The story of Adam and Eve begin with God blessing them, and God giving them dominion over all the world. Well, right before, David sinned with Bathsheba, God blessed him and God gave him dominion over everything. And then, David sees that forbidden fruit and he took. But then just like God pursued Adam and Eve when they tried to cover it up, God pursued them in order to deal with their sin. God pursued David and wouldn't let him cover it up.
Jeffrey Heine:Pursue to sin. That's what God does. When we take the forbidden fruit, when we sin, and we go, and we hide, God comes after us. He's not coming after us in order to to punish us or to judge us. He's coming after us to restore a relationship with us.
Jeffrey Heine:He he's coming to us to put us back on the the pathway of joy in life, which is the pathway of repentance. All of us have that Genesis 3 pattern in our lives. I could walk you through scripture in which you see that pattern at least 20 times. At least 20 times. But really, we don't have to look to scripture to see that pattern.
Jeffrey Heine:We see it over and over in our lives because there has been times where we have 100% known that if we do this thing, it's wrong. No doubt about it. And we take and we eat. We do it anyway. It's it's like when you, you know, you see the sign that says wet paint.
Jeffrey Heine:I mean, you you know what's gonna happen. You know you're gonna get your hands all messy. But it's like you can't you you can't resist. You just do it. And then, you're shocked.
Jeffrey Heine:It's like, how did my hands get so unclean? We all have our Genesis 3 moments, but God in his goodness pursues us. Fully. In order for me to be fully blessed, I gotta have that. And we believe that lie.
Jeffrey Heine:When we believe it, and we sin against him, and we try to hide, God comes after us. God came after David through the prophet Nathan. Nathan, as we looked at last week, he he told a story that pointed out David's sin. And when David realized he had sinned, he openly said it. I have sinned.
Jeffrey Heine:I have sinned. And then he repents. That's what Psalm 51 is about. It's his repentance. It's about him getting back way back on the pathway of life.
Jeffrey Heine:It's about him having his joy restored as he seeks the Lord again. I've preached on Psalm 51 several times, and so once again, I'm I'm not gonna go through it line by line, but I do wanna just give you a few observations about this som. First is an obvious point, but I do think it needs to be said. David called sin, sin. He called sin, sin.
Jeffrey Heine:Verse 2, cleanse me from my sin. Verse 3, my sin is ever before me. Verse 4, against you, you only have I sinned. He doesn't say, God, mistakes were made. He doesn't say, you know, I need I know I did this but.
Jeffrey Heine:There's there's no but. He doesn't say, you know, I didn't do anything different than all the other kings. All the other kings are doing this. So really, I mean, what I did wasn't that bad. I had culture's approval to do this.
Jeffrey Heine:He doesn't do this. He calls sin sin. He does this because he knows God does not forgive excuses. God only forgives sins. He doesn't forgive the person you pretend to be.
Jeffrey Heine:He he forgives the person you are. So you might as well just tell him who you are. David says, I'm a sinner. And he pleads for God's forgiveness. He takes full responsibility for his sin.
Jeffrey Heine:And then look how David defines sin in verse 4. Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. Too often we define sin by saying things like, I've I have done what is evil in my parents' sight. I've done what is evil in my friend's site. I have done what is evil according to the latest op ed that I just read.
Jeffrey Heine:I have done evil in my culture's sight. But David defines sin as doing evil in God's sight. Against you and you alone have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. We need to always be asking whose voice are we listening to to define what is right and wrong for us? Whose voice are we listening to that shapes our lives, shapes our views on money, our views of of what we are to say, how we are to speak to one another, our views about sex or dating or marriage.
Jeffrey Heine:Whose voice are we listening to? We're to do what is pleasing in God's sight, not what's pleasing in the world's sight. Very positive, especially the second half of it. There's all of this talk about, you know, hearing joy and gladness, the joy of God salvation, David teaching once again, David being brought to a place where his tongue is loosed and he's singing loudly about God's righteousness. It's a very positive story.
Jeffrey Heine:You could actually see that it's a very positive som You could actually say that the theme of joy runs throughout it. And joy is mentioned about as many times as sin. But it's because we have the wrong notion of repentance. Repentance is not a a life spent in perpetual gloom. It's not as just walking around just thinking like, alright.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, I just gotta, you know, whack myself in the head, you know, or beat myself. Whether it's, you know, physically beating yourself or just emotionally beating yourself. It's not trying to have a pity party to make yourself feel bad at all the times. Like I'm just, you know, I'm just such a sinner. That's not the pathway of repentance.
Jeffrey Heine:Not at all. The more you repent, the more joyful you become. The more you die to sin, the more you experience resurrection. There's life on the other side of that death. Joy is the pathway of repentance, or repentance is a pathway of joy.
Jeffrey Heine:Look at verse 12. David here is pleading for god to restore to him the joy of his salvation. Restore unto me the joy of your salvation. In other words, David is thinking back. And he's thinking back to, you know, there there was a time there was a time when I intensely felt the joy of just being saved.
Jeffrey Heine:Like I I felt like my heart was gonna burst for no other reason than I was saved. My sins were forgiven. God had come to me. I had a relationship with him now, and I'm saved. And that joy caused him to do crazy things, like, you know, dance before the ark, and and lead the people in a procession into Jerusalem.
Jeffrey Heine:A heart filled with worship and with joy. But now all of that is gone. And instead of dancing, he's hiding. He's filled with shame. I mean, there was so much before.
Jeffrey Heine:Once again, if you go back to to Eden, being naked, naked and unashamed. That was David before the ark dancing without a care in the world. But now sin, Now he feels like hiding. That joy is gone. If you wanna have a new definition of sin, let me give you this.
Jeffrey Heine:Sin is that thing that robs you of joy. Sin is that thing that robs you of joy. Jesus said in John chapter 10, the thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy. What do you think the thief comes to steal? Your joy.
Jeffrey Heine:Satan wants to steal your joy. He is a joyless creature and he wants you to become like him. And I want you to notice, David is becoming like him. Who's doing the stealing and the killing and the destroying right now? He has stole Bathsheba.
Jeffrey Heine:He has killed Uriah. He is destroying all the lives around him. He is becoming like Satan. When you sin, you can either repent and become more like Jesus, or you can refuse to repent and you become more like Satan. So you have the path in front of you, one of joy or one of destruction.
Jeffrey Heine:What you're gonna choose? Can you remember can you remember back to when you first felt the joy of the lord's salvation in your life? I mean, can you can you think back to that time, that sweet time when you first came to know Jesus? Your sins were washed away and his Holy Spirit came to indwell in you. I was 9 years old at the time.
Jeffrey Heine:I felt like I was floating on air. Do you remember that time when he had such joy? What happened? And some of you are still experiencing that joy. You're still living in that joy.
Jeffrey Heine:But for some of you, you're having a really hard time remembering a time in your Christian walk where you ever experienced such joy. What happened? Sin. Sin is what happened. I don't know what sins or sin it was, but whatever it was, sin came and it promised something to you.
Jeffrey Heine:You believed it. You gave into it. And then it like whacked you over the head and it stole joy from you. And if you want the joy of God's salvation to return to you, then know that the pathway is repentance. And if you have a Christian life right now that's, mostly filled with duty and not filled with joy, I think you should listen to that.
Jeffrey Heine:I think you should give pause to that. And you should ask, Lord, is there a sin in my life that I'm not repenting of? Because this is the not the life that you have called me to live. I I love how David here, after asking God to restore to him the joy of his salvation, he immediately says in verse 13, then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you. Be honest.
Jeffrey Heine:Does this rub some of you the wrong way? I mean, isn't there a part of you that just kinda wants to lash out at David? Said, really? What are you gonna do? Teach a marriage class?
Jeffrey Heine:You wanna you wanna teach a class about doing unto others as you would have them do unto you? I mean, what what exactly are you going to teach on, David? How can you say that? That's what we wanna say. How can you say that after what you did to Bathsheba, after what you did to Uriah?
Jeffrey Heine:How can you say you're now gonna be a teacher and teach sinners their way? David's comments here can rub us the wrong way just a little bit. But the reason it it it rubs us the wrong way is because we don't fully understand God's forgiveness and just how thoroughly he cleanses us. We we kind of have this picture of God's forgiveness like, the image I have in my mind is is when I try to clean my windshield. You know, when I turn on the wiper and it it gets a lot off, but there's just a lot of streaks everywhere.
Jeffrey Heine:It's like I can see a little bit better. It's a little bit cleaner. But you know what? There's still a lot of whole lot of streaks and a whole lot of smudge all over. And some of us think that's how the Lord forgives.
Jeffrey Heine:You know, the the the forgiveness wipers, they kinda go and, yeah, I can see better, but it's not fully clean. The blood of Jesus does not provide partial forgiveness. It provides complete and full forgiveness. You're wider than snow. And that's what David here is rejoicing.
Jeffrey Heine:And that's why he wants to instruct sinners in their way. David's joy is back. His confidence is back. By the way, this is exact same thing we saw or you see later in the new testament with Peter. When before Jesus crucified, he went to Peter says, you know, Satan's demanded to have you, and you're gonna fall.
Jeffrey Heine:But when you return, when you are restored, strengthen your brothers. You're gonna fall. You're gonna sin. But when you repent, I'm gonna use you again. Strengthen your brothers.
Jeffrey Heine:It's the exact same thing we see here. But I want you to notice what David is going to teach to these sinners. He's gonna teach them how to repent. That's what David's gonna teach. This is what it means when he says, then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you.
Jeffrey Heine:Sinners returning to God is repentance. David here is going to teach people how to repent. He's gonna lead by example because repentance is contagious. We've all seen this at times when one person gets up freely confesses their sin. It's like it's contagious.
Jeffrey Heine:Also another person confesses their sin and confesses their sin. This is how David is gonna lead the people. He's gonna freely confess his sin and lead the people in repentance. Parents, if you want to teach your children what is right or wrong, repent before them. You wanna teach those little transgressors their ways?
Jeffrey Heine:If if you wanna do that, it's not just by pointing out everything they're doing wrong. The way you do that best is when you sin. You ask for forgiveness. You show them that where where they should go when they sin. You go to Christ for forgiveness.
Jeffrey Heine:That's something you need to teach your children that we all need the gospel, not that they need the gospel. Are you gonna follow David's example as he leads us into repentance? It's a difficult pathway. It feels like death, but it ends with joy. Jeremy, Jesus did not die on the cross and rise 3 days later in order for you to continue in your sin.
Jeffrey Heine:He didn't die on the cross and rise 3 days later in order for you to have a joyless life. He died on the cross in order to forgive you of all of your sins, and he walked out of that tomb in order that you might know a newness of life and a joy that will never ever ever be squelched. So are you enjoying the abundant life that Jesus promised? If not, I would encourage you to to freely confess your sins, repent, and know that you are assured of forgiveness because of the blood of Jesus. In this Psalm here, notice that the thing that David feared most above all else was to be cast away from God's presence.
Jeffrey Heine:Cast me not away from your presence. It's what he feared most. You realize that's what Jesus did on behalf of you? When He was on the cross and He cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Jesus was being cast out from the presence of God.
Jeffrey Heine:He was being denied the joy that came from his father's presence. He was denied that so that you would never be denied that. He has paid for that penalty paid your penalty of sin. So whenever you sin, and you will sin, be quick to repent. Be quick to come to Jesus with your sin.
Jeffrey Heine:Lay it at his feet. Receive his forgiveness, and let him restore unto you the joy of his salvation. Let's pray to him, church. Lord, where shall we go? You alone have words of eternal life.
Jeffrey Heine:Lord, we go so many other places because sometimes your words are hard. But, lord, you alone have words of eternal life. Lord, I pray right now through your spirit you would reveal to us the places where we have sinned, the places we are hiding, possibly even hiding from ourselves, not wanting to look too carefully at the sins we have so embedded in our lives, Lord, in your kindness to us, would you pursue us? Would you call our names? Would you call us to repentance that we might know the joy of your salvation?
Jeffrey Heine:Thank you for the new and abundant life you freely offer us. We pray this in the sweet name of Jesus. Amen.
