When
it comes to God, the term ‘ignorance of law excuses no one’ is
especially true, and ‘ignorance is bliss’
is especially untrue. According to the Bible, everyone knows God’s law because
He has written it on humanity’s heart. Our consciences constantly remind us of
such. The Gentiles ‘show that the requirements of the law are written on their
hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes
accusing them and at other times even defending them.’ (Rom. 2:15). Therefore, no
one is ignorant of God’s law. It is part of our being created in His image and
likeness (Gen. 1:27; James 3:9). In short, God has written His Ten Commandments on our hearts, first as revelation of Himself and secondly as an expression of
His character which we are to emulate on earth.
God’s law has to do with love. Its summary is that each
of us is to love God and our neighbour as ourselves. It is in this love aspect
of God’s law that we all have gone awry. For, contrary to how God designed us,
no one loves God and neighbour perfectly. Indeed, here we may say that some
love ignorance more than God. ‘The fool has said in his heart, there is no God’
(Psa. 14:1). However, this feigned ignorance is no excuse. ‘For the wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can
be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For
His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine
nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in
the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they
knew God, they did not honour Him as God or give thanks to Him, but
they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were
darkened’ (Rom. 1:18-21). We see then the truthfulness of ‘ignorance of law excuses no one’, and, in this context, the
untruthfulness that ‘ignorance is bliss’.
Bliss, even eternal bliss, as opposed to wrath,
eternal wrath, only comes through having a loving relationship with God, which
relationship comes through a saving knowledge of God. At its most basic ‘saving
knowledge’ comes through a correct understanding of Jesus Christ, as in who He
is and what He came into the world to do. He is God, and He came into the world
to save sinners. It is precisely at this basic level that so much ignorance has
crept in like a stray black cat on a moonless night. The Bible is very clear
that Jesus is God (John 1:1), and that He is God the Son, the middle Person in
the Trinity (Matt. 28:19). However, like people with cat allergies, so humanity
is allergic to the living and true God – unless and until the Spirit of God
opens our eyes to Him. To do this, ordinarily, the Spirit works with the Word;
yes, through pulpit preaching and teaching, Bible reading and study, and word
of mouth via Christian contact.
Like darkness being darkest just before the dawn, so is our
ignorance of God just before we encounter Jesus, the Light of the world.
Only then do we realise that we have been set free from the dank and dark
dungeon of our own sin. The Father says of His Son, who became flesh and dwelt
among us, ‘I will keep You and will make You to be a covenant for the people and
a light for the Gentiles, to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from
prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness’ (Isa. 42:6b-7).
Don’t make ignorance your excuse. Show that you love
God by calling out to Jesus to set you free from you self-imposed ignorance.
For
the director of music. A psalm of David. When the prophet Nathan came to him
after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.
1 Have
mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great
compassion blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash
away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For
I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
4 Against
you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight;
so
you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.
5 Surely
I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
6 Yet
you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret
place.
7 Cleanse
me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let
me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.
9 Hide
your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create
in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
11 Do
not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore
to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then
I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.
14 Deliver
me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Saviour, and my
tongue will sing of your righteousness.
15 Open
my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 You
do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in
burnt offerings.
17 My
sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you,
God, will not despise.
18 May
it please you to prosper Zion, to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then
you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous, in burnt offerings offered
whole; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Introduction
Psalm 51 is David’s prayer for restoration with God. It
is fairly well-known among Christians. However, I wonder how many of you know
that it is a basic “Repent and believe in the Gospel” message? By basic, I mean
that David gets convicted by God’s Law and then he seeks the forgiveness
promised in the Gospel.
By God’s Law we mean His Ten Commandments and by God’s
Gospel we mean the righteousness that God grants to the sinner through faith.
Therefore, Psalm 51 is a Gospel presentation in which Nathan the Prophet
illustrates to us how to do it.
You’ll notice how Psalm 51 is introduced: “For
the director of music”? Obviously, this Psalm is meant to be
sung! But let’s look at the words: “A psalm of David. When the prophet
Nathan came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.”
So, there’s the context. The title of my message is Gospel
Guidance. There is so much we could look at in this psalm, but we’ll
restrict ourselves to three points: 1 The Commandments, 2 TheConfrontation,
and 3 The Conversion.
1.The Commandments
In
any basic Gospel presentation, you need to assume that the other person is a
sinner, that they have broken God’s Law. “Everyone who sins breaks the law; in
fact, sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4). So, we’re talking about God’s Law here,
the Ten Commandments, the Decalogue.
David
is feeling the weight of His sins as the Holy Spirit works with His Word in
David’s heart. David says in verse 8, “Let me hear joy and gladness; let the
bones you have crushed rejoice.”
When
I pastored a church in Central Queensland, I learned what a “cattle-crusher” is.
The “cattle crush” was a kind of metal squeeze box, a huge clamp, that held the
bull, cow, or steer, in place so that you could brand it or administer whatever
to it. Because of his sin and his awakened conscience, David has been caught in
the Holy Spirit’s “sinner-crusher” so hard that he feels as if his bones are
being crushed by God!
Image from Web
Like
someone the morning after the night before! We’ve got no sympathy for you
David! Ya brung it on yourself! It was self-inflicted David!
Now, as you know, the Gospel is about us being saved from
God’s punishment for breaking His Law. That’s what Jesus was doing. He lived a
perfect life by keeping God’s Law perfectly on behalf of all who trust in Him
alone for salvation. He paid the penalty that believers each owe God for
breaking His Commandments.
Christ receives our sins and we believers receive His
righteousness. This transaction happens when we, by the grace of God, do what
Jesus commands us to do when He says, “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark
1:15). This is essentially what’s going on in with David Psalm 51. He has
broken God’s Law. He has repented and he has believed in the good news.
So, we need to paint a bit of a background. Most
Christians have heard the story about David and Bathsheba. You can read all
about in 2 Samuel chapters 11 and 12.
In brief, Bathsheba is taking a bath on the rooftop of
her house, as you do! And King David, who was supposed to be out fighting the
enemies of Israel with his men, was at home instead with a pair of binoculars voyeuring!
OK, he didn’t have a telescope or binoculars, but you are getting the picture.
So, which Commandment, at this point, was he breaking?
He’s watching Bathsheba. “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house. You shall
not covet your neighbour’s wife…” etc. The 10th Commandment (Exod.
20:17).
So, Bathsheba is splish, splash, she is taking a bath,
and David likes what he is seeing. He is coveting, sexually desiring, he is
lusting after Bathsheba. She is what you call beautiful! Don’t go there in your
mind! It’s kryptonite! Jesus says, “But I tell you that
anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her
in his heart” (Matt. 5:28).
David is told that Bathsheba is “the daughter of Iliam
and the wife of Uriah the Hittite” (2 Sam. 11:3). Not to let a little thing
like marriage get in the way, he sends for her. The plot thickens.
Bathsheba has just finished her time of monthly uncleanness.
So, she comes to David, and they sleep together. And, unlike the Highland
Fling, “it takes two to Tango” as they say. Bathsheba didn’t play hard to get. And
David at this point already has three wives. Anyway, after this encounter, this
tryst, we are told that “The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, ‘I
am pregnant’” (2 Sam. 11:5).
They’ve both broken the 7th Commandment, ‘You
shall not commit adultery” (Exod. 20:14), which itself back then was worthy of
the death penalty. And now David is planning on breaking the 6th
Commandment, ‘You shall not murder” (Exod. 20:13). Which is another death
penalty Commandment! Oh, and David has also stolen Uriah’s wife. So, he
has also broken the 9th Commandment, ‘You shall not steal” (Exod.
20:15).
What a mess! As the old song says, “Just one look,
that’s all it took, just one look!” David should’ve done what Job did. “I
made a covenant with my eyes not to look lustfully at a young woman” (Job
31:11). And Jesus says, “For it is from within, out of a person’s heart, that
evil thoughts come – sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery,
greed” (Mark 7:21-22). Which Commandments has David broken? The Theft, Murder,
Adultery, and Greed Commandments. And from where do these evil thoughts come. “It
is from within, out of a person’s heart.”
So,
David has broken God’s Commandments, and his conscience has been bothering him.
The weight of his sin has been crushing him so painfully he feels as if his
bones have been broken, crushed.
The
Spirit working with the Word has done His job of convicting David. God’s Law
has made him ready for, nay, God’s Law has made him cry out with tears of
repentance for God’s mercy. And where do we find the mercy of God? – In His
Gospel.
Enter
Nathan, the Lord’s Prophet.
2
The Confrontation
Now,
some Christians think that giving a Gospel presentation means that you tell
people that the fires of Hell await them. That they must “turn or burn”. This
is what you might call a “sledgehammer” approach to evangelism! Others go for
the softer approach and tell people that God has a great plan for their life if
only they would invite Jesus into their heart!
I
remember before I was a Christian being evangelized by some Jehovah’s
Witnesses, who don’t believe in Hell. I said to them, “You mean that I can rape
and pillage, rob banks, live a debauched life, and nothing happens to me when I
die?” “But don’t you want to live forever on the new Earth?” So, the choice
they gave me was “lights out forever”, which just seems like something an
atheist would be happy with, or “soul sleep and wake up in Paradise.” Sin all
you like because there’s no Judgment Day or slavishly try to be good enough so
that God might perhaps possibly let you into Paradise? None of this has to do
with the Gospel!
Here's
what was happening with David. Verses 3 & 4, “For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and
done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified
when you judge.”
There’s
a verse from the Book of Numbers that applies here, “You may be sure that your
sin will find you out” (Num. 32:23b). Yeah, it applies to us too!
David
coveted a woman, stole his neighbour’s wife, committed adultery with her, and had
her husband killed. And now she is with child, his child. This is when the Word
of God comes to him via Nathan the Prophet.
Nathan
doesn’t tell David to “turn or burn”! Nor does he tell David to just to work
really hard at trying to be good and then God may take a shine to him. No! Nathan
tells David a wee story, a story that David can relate to. That’s how Nathan
presented the Gospel to David.
Nathan
engages David with something David knows a great deal about. That’s how we
should do it. Now, we acknowledge that there’re certain major differences
between God sending His prophet to His backslidden king and you and me
attempting to share the Gospel with someone. However, the general principle is
much the same.
We
should engage people where they’re at, with things they know about through
life’s experience. The butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker! Oh, you’re a
butcher? How hard would it have been for Abraham to cut those animals in half
when God cut a covenant with him? What covenant? And off you go with the
Gospel.
Oh,
you’re a baker? What is the difference in leavened and unleavened bread where
Jesus says, “Take, eat, this is My body broken for you”? And off you go with
the Gospel.
A
candlestick maker? Well, you might need to Google that one! But Jesus says that
we are not to hide our light under a bushel. And off you go with the Gospel
about Jesus coming into the world and being the light of the world. It’s not “rocket
surgery”. Just engage the person in conversation on what they know about,
because that’s what they’re interested in.
A
more confrontational approach might be: Mr Butcher. Have you ever dressed
mutton up as lamb? Mr Baker, what’s a baker’s dozen? In other words, have you
ever shortchanged anyone? Have you ever stolen? Have you ever told a lie? So,
it’s not hard to use God’s Commandments in evangelism.
Ray
Comfort says, “Knowing that God has seen your thought-life and every deed done
in darkness, will you be innocent or guilty on Judgment Day? You know you will
be guilty. So, will you end up in heaven or hell?
“The
Law brings individuals to a point of seeing that they have sinned against God –
that His wrath abides on them. It causes them to see that their own “goodness”
can’t save them. It stops their mouth of justification (Romans 3:19), and
prepares the heart for the good news of the gospel.”Ray Comfort, The
Evidence Bible, 50.
It’s
all to do with the Spirit working with His Word in the individual’s conscience.
God’s Commandments convict and God’s Gospel of forgiveness is the balm, the
ointment that soothes the convicted conscience and heals the feelings of crushed-ness
and broken bones.
Nathan
knew he was dealing with a sinner when he was confronting David. And we know
that we too are dealing with sinners anytime we try to Gospelise anyone. So,
whether they are backslidden Christians or just your basic unbelievers always
remember that Jesus is the Saviour of sinners. Therefore, people need to
know what they are being saved from – the death and Hell penalty for breaking
God’s Law.
Yes,
the Gospel is confrontational.
3
The Conversion
Nathan
tells David a story which leads David to repent of his sins and believe in the
Gospel. He tells David a parable about a poor family that owned a pet lamb. The
lamb would eat with them and sleep in the same bed with them. A rich neighbour
with large flocks sees the lamb, steals it, and has it slaughtered just to feed
some of his guests.
David,
what should happen to the man who did this? David gets all self-righteous. It
says in 2 Samuel, “David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan,
‘As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He
must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no
pity.’” (2 Sam. 12:5-6).
O
David! O David! “Then Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man!’” (2 Sam. 12:7f.).
Then Nathan lists all the things that that Lord had done for David. Among other
things Nathan says that the Lord says, “I gave your master’s house to you, and
your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all
this had been too little, I would have given you even more” (2 Sam. 12:8).
The
penny drops with David. The Spirit with the Word has convicted David in his
heart. He has shown David his hypocrisy. The self-righteous mask has been torn
from David’s face. He has been exposed. His sin has found him out. So, he
“fesses” up. Then “David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against the Lord.’
God’s
Law has done its job of conviction. So, here comes the Gospel. So, because of
David’s repentant attitude, Nathan replied, ‘The Lord has taken away
your sin. You are not going to die” (2 Sam. 12:13).
This
means, of course, that David will not receive the death penalty. However, this
is because God has forgiven him his sins, which also means that he won’t
receive the Hell penalty! He has been granted everlasting life!
So,
what we have here in Psalm 51 is David’s confession of his guilt and his plea
for mercy. He does what we all are supposed to do, as Jesus commands us
to do, where He says, “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15).
Therefore,
if and when your conscience bothers you, when the Word of God convicts
you, even if you are a Christian, do what David did, “Repent and believe in the
Gospel.”
God’s
Law is about justice and God’s Gospel is about mercy. David cries out to God
for mercy not justice! He says, in verses 1 and 2, 1 “Have
mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great
compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash away all
my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.”
Image from Web
Back
in 1990, when I had just newly arrived in Australia, a couple of guys from
church invited me to go for a walk through the bush. I thought it would be a
great way to see the flora and fauna of Australia. I walked into a huge
spider’s web strung between two gumtrees! I remember thinking, “What size are
your spiders?”
David
has entangled himself in his own web of sin woven by the spider that dwells in
David’s own heart. The heart spins a web of deceit. James says, “Each person is
tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and
enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin,
when it is full-grown, gives birth to death” (James 1:14-15). David wants the Lord
to remove the sticky web of sin from him.
My
wife laughs when I refer to the Internet as the Interweb! Whether it’s a net or
a web be very careful with it. Don’t let it entangle you in sin!
David
goes from being self-righteous, like the Pharisee in the Parable of the Tax
collector, to being like the humble tax collector.
“The
Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: “God, I thank you that I am not like
other people – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax
collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.” ‘But the tax
collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat
his breast and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” (Luke 18:11-13).
Speaking
of marriage, I once sent into Births, Deaths, and Marriages the marriage
details of a marriage I had conducted. I got told off for using whiteout to
cover a mistake I had made. Apparently, the whiteout flakes off after a few
years.
In
verses 1 and 9 David wants his transgressions and iniquities blotted out. Are
you like me? Do you think that you’d need more than whiteout to blot out your
sins? A few pails of whitewash paint? Well, like David, we need the blood of
Christ to cleanse us of all our iniquities. “What can wash away my sin? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus.”
This
is what David means in verses 2 and 7 where he says, “2 Wash
away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin” and “7 Cleanse
me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.”
In the Old Testament, like a long paintbrush, the hyssop was to be dipped in
the blood of the lamb and was used for ritual cleansing and purification.
At
the first Passover, Israel was to “slaughter the Passover lamb. Take a bunch of
hyssop, dip it into the blood in the basin and put some of the blood on the top
and on both sides of the door-frame” (Exod. 12:21-22). And no doubt Moses used
it in Exodus 24, “Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and
said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with
you in accordance with all these words” (Exod. 24:8).
This
blood-sprinkling is spoken of in the New Testament where it says, e.g., “Let us
draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith
brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and
having our bodies washed with pure water” (Heb. 10:22) and “Chosen according to
the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the
Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood” (1 Pet. 1:2).
So,
when David says to the Lord, “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash
me, and I shall be whiter than snow” he is not talking about having whiteout
applied to his sin, or buckets of whitewash covering his iniquities. He is
talking about the blood of Christ cleansing his heart by blotting out his sins
and giving him a clear conscience.
That’s
what happens whenever someone like David or you or me repents and believes in
the Gospel!
Conclusion
Remember,
David wrote this psalm, Psalm 51, so that we could all sing God’s praises about
the time he repented of his sins and believed in the Gospel. Therefore, if you
or I or anyone you know were to repent of our sins and believe in the gospel,
we too would have the blood that Christ shed on the cross sprinkled over all
your sins blotting them out forever.
Today is January 1. Dear Christian, as you are putting on
the whole armour of God (Eph. 6:11-17) to face the day and the year ahead, think
of Patrick donning his breastplate…
