Psalm 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
What is repentance and what does it look like?
Repentance is a change of mind to the point where it changes your actions. It is a point of turning. You are going in one direction - you come to the knowledge of sin and you make a complete change and turn from it. You seek forgiveness from that sin with a determination to not repeat again. You are willing to make whatever changes are necessary in lifestyle and habit in order to be successful in your determination to not repeat the offense again.
I want to look at Psam 51 the prayer of David to get a glimpse of what real repentance looks like in the Bible. We know that David was a man after God's own heart. David had a good relationship with the Lord for many years before the sin with Bathsheba. So many of the Psalms are written by David.
We will consider the sorrow in David's heart after the sin, his prayer of repentance and the consequences that God still allowed to happen to him even though he was already repenting.
After playing cover up for some time, David is confronted about his sin by Nathan the Prophet. Lying only complicates a problem. We cannot hide from our sin indefinitely. The Bible says in Numbers 32: 23 - behold, ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out. God is going to bring those sinful things out into the open which we think we can hide from everyone around us. We see this happen time after time in the world around us and in our own circles of friendships. Repentance is the key to getting our sin taken care of.
What are some of the things we see from David that show sorrow over his sin?
1) David's confession is unabashed - He is not blaming anyone else, He does not deny it or try to find excuses. He is ashamed and sick of of his sin being in front of him continually. He admits he is rebellious and sinful.
Psalm 51 : 1-4 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
2) He seeks forgiveness and cleansing and longs to once again be able to rejoice in the Lord. What is repentance and what does it look like?
Repentance is a change of mind to the point where it changes your actions. It is a point of turning. You are going in one direction - you come to the knowledge of sin and you make a complete change and turn from it. You seek forgiveness from that sin with a determination to not repeat again. You are willing to make whatever changes are necessary in lifestyle and habit in order to be successful in your determination to not repeat the offense again.
I want to look at Psam 51 the prayer of David to get a glimpse of what real repentance looks like in the Bible. We know that David was a man after God's own heart. David had a good relationship with the Lord for many years before the sin with Bathsheba. So many of the Psalms are written by David.
We will consider the sorrow in David's heart after the sin, his prayer of repentance and the consequences that God still allowed to happen to him even though he was already repenting.
After playing cover up for some time, David is confronted about his sin by Nathan the Prophet. Lying only complicates a problem. We cannot hide from our sin indefinitely. The Bible says in Numbers 32: 23 - behold, ye have sinned against the Lord: and be sure your sin will find you out. God is going to bring those sinful things out into the open which we think we can hide from everyone around us. We see this happen time after time in the world around us and in our own circles of friendships. Repentance is the key to getting our sin taken care of.
What are some of the things we see from David that show sorrow over his sin?
1) David's confession is unabashed - He is not blaming anyone else, He does not deny it or try to find excuses. He is ashamed and sick of of his sin being in front of him continually. He admits he is rebellious and sinful.
Psalm 51 : 1-4 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
Psalm 51: 7-9 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
3) David seeks to come back to being in relationship with the Lord. He repeatedly asks for cleansing. Psalm 51: 10-12 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
4) David wants to be able to teach others to follow the Lord.- Psalm 51: 13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.
5) David makes a decision and determines to not repeat his sin. Psalm 51: 14-15 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.
God is a Holy God and He cannot tolerate sin in His presence. We see that sin grieves the heart of God. We also see that through repentance, David could find forgiveness and once again experience the joy of the Lord in his life.
Though David received forgiveness, the consequences of his sin still remained.
The sword would never depart from David's family
Evil would rise from his own family - David's wives would be raped in broad daylight.
The baby conceived in David's sinful act of adultery must die.
2 Sammuel 12: 10-12, 14 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.
Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun.
For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.
Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.
Practical Insights into Repentance:Repentance involves your mind, your emotions, and your will.
1) Mind - within your heart you must be convicted that God has the authority to tell you what is sin. You must believe the Bible when it tells you what God considers to be sin. The Ten commandments tell us the heart of God. I would encourage everyone to read my blog post on the Ten Commandments - link to post here http://sharingthefaith-northernsparrow.blogspot.ca/2012/07/ten-commandments-ours-today.html For anyone reading this who doesn't know what grieves the heart of God, please read Galatians 5: 19-21 as it tells you very clearly there.
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
2) Emotions - You become broken and ashamed of your sin. This definitely involves crying out to God for mercy and you grieve over your sin and for most people this would involve the shedding of some tears.
3) Will - You need to have a plan of action. You need to plan how you together with the help of God are going to make this change happen. This involves making things right with other people. This involves prayer, burying yourself in the Word of God, seeking Him with your whole heart. You hate the very sin that you used to love because now you see it as God sees it. You hate the sin and want no part in it at all.
You will know you have repented when you see these Fruits of Repentance in your life:
1) Absence of rationalization - you are no longer looking for a way to justify what you have done, or blame it on others or explain it to make it seem like no big deal. There is an absence of phrases like - "everyone is doing it" or " the devil made me do it", or "I just couldn't help it", or " it's just how I am and you will just have to accept it", etc
2) Genuine Sorrow, Heartbrokeness - You are genuinely sorry for what you have done. Even if you get the chance to do that sin thing again, you will not do it because now you hate it, the very thought that you did it other times sickens you. As I mentioned earlier you are grieving over your sin.
3) Open Confession of Sin - You are no longer trying to hide it. It is out in the open now. You have stepped away from that former lifestyle. You need to confess this to the people close to you and sometimes to your church. You are accountable to God.
4) Restitution - You want to make things right with those you hurt. You are willing to do whatever it takes to make things right.
David made restitution to Bathsheba by taking her under his care - David had got Bathsheba's husband Uriah killed so now he took it upon himself to care and provide for her.
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