Psalm 32: Answer to Psalm 51

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Image [https://borivaliassembly.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Psalm-51_6.png] AUDIO SERMON Download [/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/AKM_Psalm51_6.mp3] Listen to complete sermon series: Psalm 51 [https://borivaliassembly.net/sermon-library/psalm-51-series/] If you are facing any issues playing or downloading a sermon, please Contact Us [http://borivaliassembly.net/contact/] ---------------------------------------- SERMON TRANSCRIPT Romans chapter 4 and verse 6. Even as David also described the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputes righteousness apart from works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Looking at David this morning, there was something incomplete about Psalm 51 that we would like to complete today. The Psalm in itself is incomplete, if you were to look at it. It's a Psalm that has been poured out of a very broken heart. But yet we don't see an answer to that sum. What could be the answer to a prayer like that? Where did David find an answer to his deepest woes? Well, sum of David's sum actually has a prayer and it also has an answer. Probably he started writing that song when he was in trouble. He ended it up when he found deliverance. So the song has a section of uh supplication as well as deliverance. But that's not Psalm 51. It is through and through just a prayer and it stops with a prayer. And that's why we ought to ask, how did David come out of it? After committing adultery, murder and hypocrisy and all kinds of sin, how did David find his footing back again? And importantly, all the things that he actually prayed for, how did he get an answer to it? You see, this is where Paul understands David's plea of Psalm 51 being answered in Psalm 32. Because Paul is in the middle of an argument that says nothing can be given and that's David's exactly in Psalm 51. I cannot give anything. I can't give you sacrifices. I can't give you great words of praise. I can't give you evangelistic efforts as a recompense to my sin. What I just have is brokenness that is of no value. And so there is then therefore no greater example to show if God can redeem a person like David in such a state and consequences, then that is what true forgiveness looks like. That without works, not the labour of my hands, not my greater zeal, not my penitent tears, not my even prayer, is going to bring about repentance, is going to bring about deliverance. So if that's how the scriptures have led to help us believe that Psalm 32 is in fact the deliverance, the missing part of Psalm 51. This morning we will consider a few verses from Psalm 32. You read Psalm 32 and verses 1 through 5. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord does not charge his account with iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old, through my roaring all the day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me, and my vitality was torn under the draught of summer. I acknowledged my sin unto you, and my iniquity have I not hid. I said I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Psalm 51 is basically encapsulated in verse 5. Psalm 51 is all about David saying, I acknowledge my sin and my iniquity, I'm not going to hide it anymore and in response to that, God forgave the iniquity of David. But here is something we want to consider this morning. One is not just the repentance of David, but what was his state when he was in sin? and what was the deliverance that God gave this man? Everything in between was sound 51 but what was it before he started to repent? And once he had done repenting, once he had prayed that prayer, how did the Lord respond to him? You see, it's in the backdrop of a very horrible past that the deliverance of God becomes beautiful. Simon the Pharisee could not appreciate God's forgiveness, not as much as that harlot who was weeping at the feet of Christ. unto whom more has sinned, more is given, more forgiveness is given and such will love more. And here is David expounding not just the deliverance that he has gained from the Lord. But he is also reminiscing what was it before it all began. There are four things about sin that we will consider here. One, that sin is hard. Second, that sin is ugly. Third, that sin is heavy. and fourth that's sin is condemnation and you see all of this coming and boiling down to these few verses that we read. First let's consider the past of David. In verse 3 he says, I kept silence. That was a period of silence for David. It was a period when probably he didn't write as many songs as he always did. He was not as much as a leader of a spiritual leader to Israel as he always was. He was silent, in fact he was silent to the point where he was not doing what he was supposed to be doing which was to fight a war. Well that was the time of his hypocrisy. uh A span where he knew he had sinned. And probably he thought the best response to sin is to just be silent. Let me not just get engaged, let me not just be too active, let me just be low key. I'm not going to be any more involved, I'm just going to be silent. I think that is the best I can do with my sin. and he split his hair trying to cover up his sin and once he thought that is done it was approximately nine months or more where David lived a life of hypocrisy and double standards. But here's the first thing you want to see, sin is hard that silencing ourselves or living an isolated life or covering up our sin does not take away the scourge of sin. Those nine months would have been the darkest and the most... tiresome was laborious period of David's life. He thought it would be easy with silence but he says, my bones grew old and it was through my roaring day and night. Like David is in strays, he knows he is sinned and day in and out he is roaring, he is not knowing what to do with his sin. The very fear of others knowing about that sin has brought him into that space where he wants to be silent but it is not helping him. And those nine months, He knows He has lost fellowship with the Lord. It is not as it was before. He says, day and night, your hand, He knows the Lord's heavy hand is upon Him. And my life or it says my moisture or my life, my vitality is being turned into drought. You can just imagine how water being turned into drought, being sucked up. That's how David saw his life going out during that period. He couldn't sleep. His sin bogged him down. His sin made his life extremely hard. His sin made his life extremely heavy. You see how he writes, my bones... He has written about his bones many times. He says, my bones are become old or its bones essentially stand for strength. He's a man who's losing his strength. In Psalm 51, he says, the broken bones might rejoice, which means that is what his bones really ended up. It became broken. Let's consider one more Psalm, Psalm 38. 38 verse 2, it says, arrows pierce me and your hand presses me sore. Imagine if you have made God your enemy and God is piercing you with his arrows and He's continuously piercing your conscience. He's calling out to you. How uncomfortable would that be? David wanted silence. He wanted peace. He wanted rest and that's last thing he got in those nine months. Well apart from the fact, even sin affects our physical body. You see in verse 3, He says, there is no soundness in my flesh. Yes, there is no health in my body. Again He says in verse 7, the last part, there is no soundness in my flesh. He repeats it to show how sin took a toll on His health. And then again physically speaking of His bones, He says, there is no peace, there is no rest in my bones. He says in verse 4, My iniquities are gone over my head as a heavy burden, they too heavy for me. You see how much Sim took a toll on his mental health, where he's talking of great floods of guilt, of burden overflowing his head. In verse 5 he says, my wounds, obviously he got no physical wounds, but he still says my wounds stink. Exactly, they stink and they're corrupt. When do wounds stink? A quick question... How come wounds stink or when do they stink? Infection? Anything else that suggests it's stinking? Septic? Yes. Exactly, it takes time. It doesn't stink from day two. You don't treat it, it will stink, it will get septic, it becomes corrupt. And imagine that's what happens to our sin, they become more deep, the wounds become more deep, the more we delay and the more we do not treat it or the more we do not seek forgiveness. David thought silence is his option, silence is the way out but the more he was silent, the more he chose not to ask forgiveness, the more his wounds were stinking and it became more corrupt. The more he tried to cover up, the more into a ditch he became, he got himself into. Finally he says in verse 8, um of my heart. This is when Nathan came to David. You see in the record of history we don't read much of what happened in those nine months. We just see him getting married to Bathsheba but this was his state physically, mentally, spiritually. Day and night he was groaning. Day by day his bones were becoming broken and weaker. He was losing health, was losing mental peace, he had nothing, no soundness at all. And so when Nathan told David, you are that man, it didn't take him a split second to realize, yes, that's me. You see, that nine months literally broke down David because he was a man after God's own heart. Whatever hypocrisy he was trying to live up to, it was just making it more hard for him. And so from that horrible past, he writes this beautiful Psalm 32, where he says, blessed the joyfulness, the happiness of forgiveness. If you see it carefully in your Bible, it is not blessed as He whose transgression is forgiven. It's actually blessed transgression forgiven. Like a point blank statement without any pronouns. Blessedness of transgressions being forgiven, whoever is the person. Blessedness of sin being covered. Blessedness of the man to whom the Lord will not hold him accountable. And blessedness of a spirit in which there is no deceit, no guile. You see, there are four things I mentioned of sin. And those four things are being addressed here. First and foremost, sin is extremely heavy to bear. You see all of these four things in the first four chapters of Genesis. When Cain was punished, he actually said, this is too unbearable. I cannot bear this punishment. That was the experience of David in those nine months, unbearable pain. But when God deals with it, the first thing He does, bless her is the transgressions that are forgiven. The word forgiven actually means bearable or borne away. We associate the word forgiveness with offense, but in its original sense, forgiveness simply means borne away, taken away. Someone has carried the unbearable. And that is the burdens that were lifted at Calvary for David. The burdens have been gone away. Shackled by a heavy burden, Neath a load of guilt and pain, That's how the hymn writer puts it. My sin and my sorrows, He has borne it to Calvary. All like we as sheep have gone astray, But the Lord has laid upon Him the scourge, The sins of us all. What is unbearable is being borne away. Here is Christ in His body bearing upon Himself The sins of us all, Of all times, of all people, Once and for all. So there is great blessedness that God gives to a sinner that is repentant of all his bodes, all his burdens just being taken away. The second thing, the blessedness of sin being covered. You see, sin is not just heavy, it's also ugly. Again, in Genesis we see this profoundly where the first instance, the first effort man made to bring about any restitution was covering up. He couldn't stand his own nakedness. Nakedness is a symbol of what's shameful. Nakedness in itself is not wrong because that was there before sin but with sin the glory has gone away and nakedness is now shameful. Nakedness shows how ugly, how despicable sin is to behold. That if we were to see sin in its truest color we would really reach out to anything even it be fig leaves to cover it up. That if there is any evidence that points to our sinfulness we will do anything. Even if it was to cause murder like David, we would do anything to just cover it up. And compared to what David did, now David is enjoying the fact that God has covered all of what David has done. That my sin is covered. Brethren, in the New Testament, we actually have a greater joy. It is not just our sins have been covered. For us, our sins have been taken away. In the Old Testament, were sacrifices of offerings and blood that was offered was just for the sake of covering. It could never take away sin, but the blood of Jesus Christ takes away sin. You see, there's something fundamentally wrong if we are living in a world that is going to glory on something that is shameful. Then nakedness, which is supposed to be a matter of shame, is now becoming a matter of glory and pride. and where something is supposed to give a constant reminder of how ugly is our sin, it is no more being seen as something shameful. The world and the ruler of this world will make all efforts to make sin look unheavy, light as well as beautiful. But it is a sinner in Christ who understands the joy, the happiness of seeing sins being taken away, of sins being carried away. You see, sin is heavy, sin is ugly. We also see Sin is condemnation where Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not condemn, the Lord does not account iniquity. You see this again in Genesis when Cain murdered Abel, the blood of Abel was crying out for vengeance, is crying out for accountability and that's the word here where David is saying blessed is the person to whom the Lord is not going to hold him accountable for what he did. How great is that blessedness that we could walk into the presence of God after having committed the wildest of all sins and still find God not holding us accountable! And surprise, surprise, this is also the same word of which it is written that God accounted righteousness to Abraham for his faith, that when we are supposed to be held accountable, condemned, judged for our sins, God is accounting us the righteousness of Christ. Lastly, sin is hard. We just saw that. That was how his 9 months of life was. It was hard. Solomon says in Proverbs 13 that the way of transgression is hard. when he was living that rebellious persecution, uh living as a persecutor, the Lord caught hold of Saul and said, it is hard for you to kick against the pricks like you are trying to gawd a wayward cow and the Lord is pricking Paul, the Lord is pricking David. and those nine months was extremely hard for him every time he said no. He wanted rest, he wanted peace and everything was just illusive. We forget the fact that the Lord is also the Lord who was in His anger. He promised that these people will not enter into His rest. That there is no rest for the wicked, there is no peace for the wicked. And in that horrible mental state, now David enjoys the blessedness, the joyfulness. of a spirit in which there is no deceit, is no guilt, there is no spot in his heart. There is no burdens that his mind bears anymore. The worst of all what he has done is behind him. This is what the Lord gave to David in the Old Testament. This is what the Lord gives to every sinner who comes to him in faith. Sin that is heavy is taken away. Sin that is ugly is carried away. Sin that beckons judgment is not accounted for. sin that makes life hard is released of all burdens. God's name be glorified. The post Psalm 32: Answer to Psalm 51 [https://borivaliassembly.net/sermon-ministry-corner/psalm-32-answer-to-psalm-51/] appeared first on Borivali Assembly [https://borivaliassembly.net].

Introduction to James

- Br. Rexlin Thomas (Borivali Assembly) Image [https://borivaliassembly.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/James-1.1.png] AUDIO SERMON Download [wp-content/uploads/2026/05/RT_James1.mp3] ---------------------------------------- If you are facing any issues playing or downloading a sermon, please Contact Us [http://borivaliassembly.net/contact/] ---------------------------------------- SERMON TRANSCRIPT Many of us are very familiar with the Epistle of James. It is well known for its very strong practical helps that we get in terms of ordering our Christian life, especially our Christian witness in a world that is hostile to uh the faith, hostile to or against or unbelieving to the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ. Today, what we intend to do is to look into more detail of why we should study the epistle of James and what are the primary things that we want to focus on, concentrate on in studying this particular epistle. And we want to look at it in verse by verse format and want to look at all the topics that can be gleaned in that way. In order to do so, we firstly will look at who is the writer, who is the author, to get some background of who is the one who is writing to us. who are the intended recipients to whom was it particularly written? What is the context of it? And why did James choose to write this epistle to these intended audiences? Historically, this epistle also has been much controversial in terms of the opinions of many theologians. Even if you look at it from the time of the Protestant movement, many were not very favorable on looking much into in detail in James because of the apparent or the on the face contradiction that it seemed to provide in terms of salvation, whether it was about works or whether it was purely by grace. We know very clearly salvation is not the topic here. It is in no way contradicting with what Paul writes in other epistles or what the scripture itself testifies to concerning salvation. But here there is indeed a lot of focus on works. So beginning from first chapter, we read about patience having its perfect work. So there's a work that patience itself is doing on each individual's character. We read about in chapter two that our faith has to be seen in works. Works help our faith to be seen. In chapter three, we will read about our wisdom can be seen. So if somebody says they're wise, if somebody claims to have wisdom, then that wisdom can also be seen by others through the different works. going on, will see also about patiently working until the coming of the Lord. So this whole epistle, there is this word you will continually see coming up again, again, work, work, work, different in different contexts in different ways. But as we can see here very clearly, James intention was to make our faith visible. James intention was to show how we believers could be uh effective witnesses in the world that we are living in. We will now look at who is the author, who was the author of this particular epistle. We have one name here given as James and in the scripture in the New Testament as we look into the person James there are several James that are given in the scriptures especially associated with the Lord. So we have one of the brothers or the brother of John the son of Zebedee. He's James. We also have another apostle James son of Alpheus or James son of Cleopas. We read about James the Lord's brother himself. In this way, there are multiple James that we see about in the New Testament. And historically, it has been very clearly seen that the author of this particular epistle is indeed the Lord's brother James. It is James the Lord's brother who has written this particular There are many, many reasons we will see as we study this particular episode. And one of the things that we can clearly get from the heading itself or from the first was is how he introduces himself. He does not need an introduction. That is one way of saying it, that he does not qualify himself with anything else about James. So and so, James, so and so, but simply the fact that James is the one writing to the audience. The audience very clearly could recognize that this was the, at that time, a very important uh central figure in the Jerusalem Church, that James. So that James did not need uh more introduction, but is sufficient for the recipients to know that if James is the one written, then this is coming from the James of the Jerusalem Church. We want to look at scripture and see his progression, how from the Gospels how he would become into this leader position that we see him in the Jerusalem church. So firstly, we look at how others have seen James and then we will come to also how James himself saw himself. How did James see himself? But firstly, you want to look at how others saw James. So we look at the gospels first of all. One of the first references about him is in Matthew chapter 12, verse 46. We read, he yet talked to the people, behold, his mother and his brethren stood without desiring to speak with him. So here his mother and his brethren are including brothers like James and Joseph and Jude also later on as we know about him as well. So they were at that time seeing this increasing popularity of their uh relative in that way that they're seeing Jesus our Lord gaining in popularity, gaining in acceptance and they see themselves to be now on the outside. That was not all. We see in other gospels also how they misunderstood how or what the Lord was intending to do or what He was doing there. At one point they try to forcefully take Him away from the crowd thinking that He has totally lost it and that He has totally lost uh sense or the... or the understanding of how to conduct things. They wanted to forcibly take him away from the crowd in the way that he was healing them in the way that he was ministering to them. They clearly are found as or at least the brethren are clearly found as doubters or unbelievers. One of the most clear evidences or scriptures is John chapter seven. Let's take that also. John chapter seven. We reading verse 3. His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest. For there is no man that doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, shew thyself to the world. For neither, that's important, verse 5, for neither did his brethren believe in him. And his brethren definitely at that time include all of them, James, Joseph and Jude at least. And here we find them again misunderstanding the purpose for which the Lord was doing these miracles. They're thinking that he's doing this for some kind of popularity. It's very similar to how David's brethren, for example, would look at David when he wanted to fight for the Lord. This boy is just trying to gain some kind of attention towards himself. And that's how they are all seeing here the Lord. that if you really want attention, then you are not to be here. But the place for you then is to go to Judea and show yourself, manifest yourself. It is clearly a sign of unbelief or seeing him in the wrong way, misunderstanding him. One more important point we see there is that the Lord condemning their understanding, their understanding with God, their relationship even with the world. He says in verse seven, the world cannot hate you, but me it hated because I testify of it that the works that offer evil he's putting himself in stark contrast with his brother and at that time that the world cannot hate you. But it hates me because I say clearly what the world is. I reprove the world. I rebuke the world for the practices that it does. It cannot hate you at least at that particular moment. Now we see a big transition happening. Suddenly something is going to happen. From this point we are seeing Acts chapter one. Let's go to Acts chapter one verse 14. I'm sorry that is not the word. Sorry, yes, we accept one was 14. These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with the woman and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brethren. Now we see that along with the disciples, along with the apostles, we now have Mary the mother of Jesus, along with the brethren, including certainly James also is coming into the picture now as a believer. And we wonder what happened here. How did they suddenly come into the midst of this upper room? This upper room, is again very important place where how are they now found here in the midst of these disciples? Remember the context that just now their savior has been crucified. It is dangerous to be called a believer of Jesus Christ. It's not a safe thing at that moment. They are indeed hiding or they're indeed in closed rooms praying to the Lord. But we find James there. What has happened? We may see in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verse 7, whereby name James is taken and we see that the Lord appeared to him. If could turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 15 verse 7 So, here gives us the order in which the Lord appeared after His resurrection. He mentions Peter, He mentions uh the Twelve, He mentions also James in verse 7. After that, He was seen of James, then of all the Apostles. So, at some point, after the Lord has seen the Twelve, we see that the Lord also appeared to James personally at some point in time. And this event, this resurrection, this clarity or this certainty that his brother is no longer just a human. This is indeed the one who he was claiming to be all this while. Nothing proves that to James more than having this personal revelation, personal witness of his resurrection that he got from the Lord himself. That changes everything about his conviction regarding the Lord Jesus Christ. We will see soon how strongly that uh understanding was impressed in his heart. there shortly thereafter, we see James uh gaining in prominence in the Jerusalem church. He was not initially in the picture, for example, when we think about the deacons that were selected, we don't see his name. They were to choose from amongst themselves who could be the men that they could appoint. We don't see him or his name there. But soon after, we come to Acts chapter 12. X12 OOS 17 So this is after the persecution that followed the scattering of after the death of Stephen. We know about Paul having already threatening and persecuting the church. We see also Paul himself turning to the Lord. And in between, we will also see that Paul himself once visits Jerusalem to see and he sees James there. But here in Acts chapter 12 verse 17, suddenly a prominence is being given to James if somebody could read that was 12 verse 17 The Fatimid continent was an ant-deported piece with Arab caravans reporting out of basics. So James suddenly is now pointed out. So not just the brethren, but James, remember James and to the brethren, he singled out as that name to be chosen. We know the context when we would choose to name somebody, particularly that this person should be informed. Around the same time, we read also in Galatians chapter one, verse 19, not taking that reference, but Paul mentioning how after he was come to the faith, how he would also visit Jerusalem and there particularly he would say, He did not see everybody, but certainly James was one of the few whom he had visited. Suddenly James is gaining a prominence in uh the church. His most important activity that we see comes in Acts chapter 15, and we will look into that a bit detail from Acts chapter 15. We are aware of the context that there were certain Judaizers who had come into the churches of Antioch region trying to subvert the faith of the newly converted Gentiles that they should also be circumcised if their salvation is to be complete. Paul and Barnabas could not let that matter be as it is. They stood against it. And so they decided it is something to be considered with the church at Jerusalem. We see a list of accounts being made. Paul and Barnabas testify regarding how God has worked wonders among the Gentiles. Peter himself stands up and says how the Lord chose him to first take the gospel to the Gentiles, particularly the incident with Cornelius. Now look at verse 12 and verse 13. Then all the multitude kept silence and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had brought among the Gentiles by them. Now note verse 13. And after they had held their peace, James answered. saying so on. Very importantly, James answered and that's an important verb in the Greek. You can always particularly say James said, but it said James answered. You answered when you are obliged to answer or if a question is put forth before you. It's clearly a position of responsibility or how the church saw James as a figure that they expected him and along with the other elders, but particularly James. that there would be a verdict coming out or his opinion coming out from him, James answered. And we see a very nice display of everything or largely a great part of what James writes in his epistle being practiced in that particular letter. So we know the issue is that Gentiles cannot, we know Gentiles cannot be brought under the law. But then what about the stage that the church is at this moment? We have to go back really to the early days of the church. It's not as straightforward, as clear as we right now have with the word that we know this is black and white. This is this way. This is a very nascent, very early stage of the church, but the church is largely Jewish. Most of the people, most of the believers in the church are Jewish. And then this new development is coming that there are Gentiles also going to be saved. Now, how do you tackle this situation? What do you say? How do you cause not offense to your new believers? while also ensuring that the Jewish Christians, Jewish believers are not being judged or not being despised. This is something very sensitive which can either break the whole unity or if done well, if tactfully or if exercise practiced with the wisdom from God, it could really strengthen the church. And after hearing all these things, it is James who comes, looks into scriptures and says, this is according to the pattern that the Lord has already revealed in the Old Testament, it's not a strange thing that Gentiles should come to the faith. God has already prepared a portion for the Gentiles through the Anointed One through the Christ. And then he suggests this particular advice, this particular course of action, very clearly not bringing the Gentiles under the bondage of the law. But notice what he does. He inserts those few criteria's so that the Jewish Christians are also not taking offense. So things like if you look at the verse 20, but that we write unto them that they abstain from pollution of idols and from fornication and from things strangled and from blood. For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him being read in the synagogue every Sabbath day. James is looking at the multitude of Jewish people who live in every city, even at that time, the dispersion, the scattered people of the Jews. where everywhere in the Greek or Roman world and they were there in every city so as to even have synagogues in almost every city, the gospel should still be reachable to them. They should not be offended for the sake of the gospel. The gospel should still be accessible to them. The very clear reason why Paul would also circumcise Timothy but refrain from circumcising someone like Titus so that the gospel is not obstructed or that the gospel can still be reached to those who are Jews as well. And that's exactly what James also doing here, that he ensures, he uses wisdom in a way that both sides are together taken in their progress in the Christian journey, in the Christian faith. And there we see a very clear uh authority that he is exercising. And even in the letter that we may see uh sent to them, the words used inspired by the Holy Spirit, bringing both into the same standing. So he calls the believers in Jerusalem, brethren, the same word he would use to address those believers to whom he is writing. Again, brethren, you are both now in equal standing in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the structure, if we see it, it's very similar to the greeting, for example, the word greeting there clearly indicates that if not, James has not written it, but James has had a very important part. in playing or in writing that particular letter that was sent to the believers along with Paul and Barnabas and Silas. So we see here suddenly James has come up to a very important position. It is God given. was just like as he would say in his epistle that we are to humble ourselves before the sight of the Lord and it is God who will honor God who will do the lifting up. And James humbly continued in those very disciplines which he wants every believer to make part of their Christian life. He wants everyone to also be disciplined, go through this journey so as to be effective witnesses, so as to be effective vessels in the hand of God. The wisdom that he is teaching in his epistle, it's actually already practiced by him, a very important qualification before we are trying to impart wisdom. He has tried it out. He has seen that this is how it should be done and that is exactly what he is then. are trying to teach the people to whom he is addressing this particular epistle. Going in Paul's letter to Galatians, Galatians chapter 2 verse 9, read also about, I'm not taking that verse again, but Galatians 2 verse 9, we read about James along with Peter and John mentioned to be pillars, pillars of the, they were esteemed to be pillars of the church at Jerusalem. What is a pillar for? We know a pillar is for now this pillar supporting, right? It's a pillar for supporting. It holds together uh the body. And that's precisely what they were doing. Peter and John and James were doing at that time. And in those ancient times, the pillar was not only for supporting, it's also for display. If you look at the old and historic buildings, it is not just a matter of supporting. is there for display. It was there for witnessing. And that's also what they were doing. And James and John and Peter They were representing, they were really showing out who the Lord is through their lives, what this faith does to people's life through their witness. And while they were supporting all that the Lord had said unto them. Now, this is how others very clearly saw James in a position of high honor. And like I say, coming back to the epistle, when James writes, James, a servant of God without any other qualification, The audience at that time understood who it was referring to. They did not have confusion whether it was this James or that James. Because at that time, the very clear prominent person named James is this James of the Jerusalem Church. But how does he see himself? You look at the word in chapter one, verse one, we read there a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ does not even say uh he could have used many things, right? Like we have said, we have looked at the gospels. He's the brother of the Lord. He could say James, the brother of the Lord. He could say James, the son of Mary, who gave birth to the Lord Jesus Christ. You could say James, the one who presided over the Jerusalem council. He could add many, many qualifiers to his title as he addressed in order to gain importance or even justifying to say that in order to give importance to the message that he's about to write. But we see what a splendid example of humility and exactly what he was preaching. James, a servant. It's not only a servant that is the key there. In the most number of occasions where we see this word servant, The Greek is doulos, which is simply slave. In the Greek, there are different words that are very clearly used to indicate the different kind of service. A servant is a diaconos. So the word for the deacon and other household servants is diaconos. It's not doulos. Similarly, we read about how a child for while is like a slave. He's not fully mature to be. given the rights of a son, he is being brought up as a slave. There's another word for that, not Diaconos, not Dulos, another word for that. Similarly, a head of a house servant, he would be given another word. So the Greek vocabulary was not limited in using or describing if they wanted or James wanted to call himself a servant. He purposefully, like many of the other apostles, like many of those who were laboring for the Lord, serving the Lord, they call themselves Dulos. They call themselves slaves. Now this is a very important word. They're calling themselves slaves. We know a big difference between a slave and a servant. Today, many of us are servants in different ways. We are working, are servants to this or that. In one way or another, every one of us is a servant to some higher authority. But we all have rights, isn't it? There's no place that we are wholly bound to without any right, without any will of our own, without any privileges of our own. It's not all the case. We live in a far better situation. But the slave in that context really had no rights, really had no privileges, no permissions, nothing. A slave is just as the word may impress in our brains, in our hearts. Slave is really at the disposal of the one who owns him. It's really treated as a property, fully available for the use of the master. It is not as negative as the modern history from from the modern history that we know. But in those times, it would not have been that or the cruel image that we get from our modern history. That is not the connotation here. But certainly the fact that there is no rights to this person. He cannot own property. He cannot practically do anything of his own will. He has to fully set that thing called his will aside and fully be submissive to the one who owns him. And James does just that. James accepts that position, not that of a Diagnose, but that of a Dulose of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. We also are in that very same position. It is a very uh difficult thing to fully understand, fully practice in our life, especially the aspect of letting go of our will. But this was the consistent steady pattern of teaching that the Lord Himself taught and also the Apostles taught. and also the early church practiced a setting aside of their own wills, a setting aside of their own aspirations, their own whatever, but wholly committing oneself for the service of their master to acknowledge this one as worthy to lay aside everything, everything that we may consider to be important, everything that we may consider to be so precious to our lives. That is the way in which uh James saw believers are also exhorted to be in the same very way or rather identified with that same position. We read about that in 1st Corinthians chapter 7 verse 21. We read about that in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 6. We are now slaves of Christ. Particularly we look at John chapter 15 verse 15. If we could turn John chapter 15 verse 15 coming from the words of the Lord Jesus himself. John 15 verse 15. We read as servants, but the word is slaves. call you not slaves for the slave not not what is Lord do it, but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my father. I have made known unto you. This was the identity of everyone was following him that day. They knew who they were. They were slaves. He had called them slaves. They have identified and accepted themselves as slaves. It does not change. He instead also gives them a higher privilege of being his friends. That is knowing what is in the heart of the master, knowing what is in the heart and the mind of the Lord, but it's not changing their uh position of a slave. We have different metaphors to describe the relationship of the Christian, the believer to the Lord. And we cannot let go of this particular relationship that the Bible very clearly explains that a Christian has with the Lord, that he is a slave, he's also a son, he's also the bride of the church, he's also many other things that we see. But this particular relationship emphasizes how we are to let go of our will, how we are to be at the disposal of the Master. The Lord Himself in his sermon, the Sermon on the Mount, He would say, you cannot serve two masters. He puts the thing about Mamon, money, wealth, which could easily become a God to everyone even today. And He puts places God on the other side and He says, you cannot serve. And the word serve there again, it's not just the service serve, but the verb of that word, duolos. You cannot be wholly devoted, wholly surrendered to two things. You cannot be, you have to be at least either of these two things. If you're going to serve money, you're going to be at the service of serving money. If you're going to be a servant, a slave of God, then you're going to be at the full disposal of God. You cannot do these two things together because only one should have all right over him. And that brings us to also how James understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ is changing. We saw him in the gospels uh despising almost the Lord. or his name is not mentioned, but at least as the brethren, we see him like that. But in this one statement, James affirms such important truths concerning our Lord Jesus Christ. He uses the word three words together. He says servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. First, let's look at that God and the Lord Jesus Christ. As we have been looking, James is a Jew. He's a Jew of a Jew, right? He's one of the strictest one of the ones who knows the scriptures very well well versed in scripture he knows what it is to Even the same epistle he confirms the fact that everyone understands there is only one God He just now also as we have seen the Sermon on the Mount that no man can serve two masters But here he is placing these two together of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ for a Jew This is blasphemy and we read that's exactly how the Jews would treat such a statement when we look at John chapter 5, the Lord says, my father worketh hitherto and I am also working. Just that statement was enough for the Jews to understand. He's claiming to be God. He's putting himself and God in one sentence, one line. This is already blasphemy. James certainly knows these contexts. James certainly has that very same mind, very same upbringing, very same understanding. And with all understanding, with all uh boldness and with all clarity, he's putting them together. He's saying of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that word the Lord is the very same word used to name our Lord Jehovah in the New Testament in the Greek. So James understanding of the Lord we see it has uh come to a very clear, uh perfect understanding of who Jesus is. Three words he uses to describe our savior. He uses the firstly the human name Jesus and we know when was that given to him. It is not known from the very beginning, but rather in the gospel of Matthew, in the gospel of Luke we read why was he given that name Jesus. We see that he will deliver his people from their sins. That is the reason he was to be named Jesus, which simply translates to Joshua or Yehoshua that Yehovah is the one who will save. That is the meaning of the word Jesus given to him as the human. He's also the Christ which from the scriptures of Old Testament we read is the anointed one is the Messiah. It is a Greek of the Messiah Christ the one who was promised from before from the beginning. This is he Jesus Christ. Not just that he sums it up. He adds it all together and gives it the highest statement he could give the Lord the Lord Jesus Christ that Lord which is always associated with identifying God, with talking to God, with naming God Jehovah is the title given to Jesus Christ. And this is how uh James wants us also to look at. When James surrenders himself as a duelo, as a slave, it's not to another man. It's not to just another qualified worthy individual. No, he's surrendering himself, identifying the worth Jesus Christ our Lord. He has identified that this one is worthy He is God who has created me is also the God who has redeemed me His brother Jude would go one step further and we read about that in verse 4 of the epistle of Jude We read there for there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of all ordained to this condemnation. The last part of it and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. The word there only Lord God that is talking about the sovereign Lord that talks about not only Kurios, which is the one Lord Jesus Christ, but also one who is master in the sense of having absolute dominion. Jude looks at his brother now. such a one not only as curious who is above all but having absolute full sway full dominion over all things This is talking about God. This is things that can only be said about God. So we may See very good theology in the letter of James But more importantly we're seeing here how James has changed or come to a very clear understanding of who the Lord is Now we come to the last part, which we want to see here today is to whom is he writing this letter? It is written to, we already saw who is writing it. It is James, the brother of the Lord. We see how he is identified throughout the scriptures and how he himself, how he saw himself and how he saw the Lord. Now we're looking at who is he writing to? We read here to the 12 tribes which are scattered abroad and he gives a greeting. We read in Acts 11 verse 19 about these who were scattered. It started from the time when Stephen was martyred and following that there was a persecution, there was a scattering. It also refers to the dispersion of old. So always that kind of phrase, even in the Gospel of John, there is that same word used diaspora, which simply refers to the scattered Jews that were everywhere. Even in that time, the scattered Jews were everywhere. But James is particularly not just writing to Jews. He's writing to Jewish Christians. There are some who have thought that it is only to Jews, but that would not be the right understanding. If we look at the rest of the epistle, James is assuming very clearly that the ones who are reading his epistle, they are believers. They have put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's teaching them how to practice that faith. He's not preaching to them the gospel, but rather he's preaching to those who have received the gospel. And he is now acting like the elder. He is acting like the elder who knows that there are so many people who have left from here. They were part of the assembly that he was in, but now they are scattered. So what should I do then? James does not uh stop there in not knowing what is going to happen with them, but he picks up his pen and he's inspired of God to write down, jot down these very words. We read about these three, Peter, James and John, each of them have functioned in that elder. role. We may see John in second epistle of John, he would say the elder he's identifying himself as the elder writing to the elect lady. Peter in instructing the other elders, he would say as a fellow elder, I'm writing this to you. James here does not name himself anything. Like we have said, he's not named an apostle, he's not named an elder, he's not named anything. Only name he takes for himself, dual or slave, but he functions as a very apt elder. We know how in the pastoral epistles, there is much instruction concerning the qualification of elders, what they should be, how their family life should be, how their witness outside should be. I think if Paul had James in that so and so context, it could easily be said, follow James and you would see what a elder should be like. And that's the life of James that we see having exercised those very responsibilities. in that nascent church in that very, very difficult time to be a leader in a church which was boiling with problems with new situations with persecution from all sides. This man chose to be there while others had other callings from God to go to other places and to take the gospel there. James calling clearly was to remain in Jerusalem where history says that he was also martyred by stoning. James chose to stay there with his sheep. with those over whom he had a genuine burden for and not only for those who were there, but for everyone, every soul that he had come into association with, he really took it into great consideration that he has to give an account for all these souls that the Lord had committed unto his trust. And here we see him writing to them, writing to these people, these believers who are now scattered abroad. And we think, why? Why does he have to write? because the situation was such they were in a very difficult situation now they were being tried they were going through persecution there are much trials they needed guidance how do we come out of this particular trial how do I face this trial and the sheep need that guidance the sheep need to know need to be instructed from the word how do we handle so and so situation trials how do we handle trials James answers that for them they were in the world poor They were not many of them, some were rich, but many of them were poor. They did not have the earthly means to prosper in this earth. James had to give them also clarity how they are to conduct, how they are to go on. They were on their own, particularly. They were on their own now. They were not with James anymore. They were not with Peter and John and with all the apostles here. But now they were on their own. They had to figure out things. had to themselves minister, themselves evangelize, themselves the Lord would form them into an assembly. They were really on their own and they were in the world. They were in the world, which means they were facing much temptations, not only persecutions, but there is also the terrible temptation or the very dangerous temptation of settling down to the world, of just being one with the world, of losing that separation, which so characterized the initial days of the church. They were now in the world and James had to very strongly tell them, what is your identity? What are you here for? We cannot become one with the world. cannot be friends with the world. It is being adulterous and adulterous as James would say. And they had to still wait for the coming of the Lord. The coming of the Lord was not tomorrow. They had to still wait for the coming of the Lord. And they needed to know how do we continue patiently? How do we continue waitingly in waiting? And so to sum it all up, James wrote this epistle because he saw the masses sheep. So it is not only a uh a of provokes or a group of wisdom literature that James is putting here together, but rather it is very well structured epistle, which tackles the different problems that these scattered believers were facing in that context. Many of those things are also with us in our century, in our world. And that's why it is a very important epistle for us to study. It makes us to understand how a person like James became a person like James. This is the discipline involved being before being a man of God, a woman of God. This is the kind of life that those people at that time practiced so that the church stood out in Jerusalem and grew in number, multiplied the word. This is the kind of life that James wants every one of us to uh have in our own practical personal life. And may God help us with these words as we look into this particular episode and all the topics that James was inspired by the Holy Spirit to address. May God's name be glorified. The post Introduction to James [https://borivaliassembly.net/sermon-ministry-corner/introduction-to-james/] appeared first on Borivali Assembly [https://borivaliassembly.net].

31. maj 202639 min

Psalm 51:7-12: Workshop of Repair

Image [https://borivaliassembly.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Psalm-51_3.png] AUDIO SERMON Download [/wp-content/uploads/2026/02/AKM_Psalm51_3.mp3] ---------------------------------------- Listen to complete sermon series: Psalm 51 [https://borivaliassembly.net/sermon-library/psalm-51-series/] If you are facing any issues playing or downloading a sermon, please Contact Us [http://borivaliassembly.net/contact/] ---------------------------------------- SERMON TRANSCRIPT Psalm 51 and verses 7 through 12: 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 you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my inequities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with your generous Spirit. We've been considering for a while Psalm 51 and we have seen verses 1 through 6 so far. The first three verses we could have titled it as the Highway of Mercy because after David had done those abominable sins, the only thing he could cling for is abundance and abundance of God's mercy. And so he explains for us what is those multitudes of mercy, what are those reasons for why God can still be merciful despite a sin like this. But that highway of mercy should lead to a point, to a logical conclusion. Mercy is God's responsibility, God's Oneness, God's part, but then that all of mercy should lead to a reasonable response from us. It would be practically useless if we just harp about God's mercy but forget our own responsibility towards it. So that highway of mercy we saw in the next three verses, verses 3 to 6, leads to a pit-stop of repentance. It would be useless if God is only merciful, but the sinner is never repentant. And so the extent to which David repents of his sin, the depths to which he repents, is what we considered in the last time. But then repentance in itself is not the complete story. So now we consider verses 7 through 12, where we will consider the workshop of repair, which is what a sinner truly desires. You see how useless mercy is without repentance and how useless repentance is if there is no repair and restoration. And so we pray that as we consider these six verses, it would be a cause for our own repair and restoration. I want to start by saying let's take a minute to read these six verses by ourselves and try to count the number of requests that David is making. Let's put a count, the number of requests that David is asking. How many things is the Lord been asked of? 12, yeah, I think the maximum we can get to is 12. And if you take that number, 12, you're talking of 12 requests in a matter of six verses. It's like David is going on full speed, full stern ahead, one after the other. One statement itself has two requests. One after the other, he's filling these few verses with so many requests. 7: Purge me and then wash me. Make me to hear joy and my bones would rejoice. Hide your face and blot out my inequities. Create in me, renew a right spirit. Cast me not away and take not your Holy Spirit. Restore unto me and uphold me. So many requests in a matter of just six verses. But let's look into it a bit more closer that though there are so many requests, there is no doubt repetitions in these requests. In fact, it is in 12, it is just three things being repeated twice and each time he repeats it, he repeats it twice. So you see a couplet being formed between the first three verses and the next three verses. For example, verse 7 goes well with verse 10. Because in both of this, he is talking of himself, what needs to change in himself. Similarly, we could join verse 8 with verse 12, where He's now talking of the joy that He wants or the fellowship that He wants with God. Lastly, verse 9, it says, where He's talking now of the escape that He wants, of the impending judgment, joins with verse 11. And so here we have formed couplets. David is basically asking three things, twice he asks it, and each time he's asking there are two requests in it. And that's where we have just six verses filled with 12 requests. But if you look at this triangle of requests, three main things that David is requesting, you see how complete the restoration that he wants for himself. You see, we struggle to understand what is restoration of sin because at the very basic we find it challenging to understand how much we have sinned. If you have fallen just a few steps, it's easy to climb it up. But if you have fallen from the very glory of God, can we put a limit? Can we even understand how much will it take of us to restore ourselves back to God? If we have to even consider the depths to which we have fallen, we have to first consider the glory from which we have fallen. It is that high standards from which we have fallen. And if it is such great a fall, then imagine what will it take us to restore ourselves back. You see, that's how complicated and that's how difficult is full restoration. And it's not just mere restoration unto God, but also dealing with the fallout or the consequences of your own sins. After committing adultery, after committing deceit, after committing murder, can there be a normal that David can return to? Can he come back to where he left off? Can he untangle every single complicated knot he has got for himself? Can it be a straight rope again? If so, up to what extent? You see, it's far more difficult, far more challenging than just merely asking, Lord, forgive me. Where true restoration involves so many aspects, where the task is such a great task, it's an uphill task. And the last thing we would want of ourselves after having seen these six verses is to think that this is what we need to do, because it's impossible to do this. And that's not the lesson or the conclusion of this passage where we look at these twelve things and now think, okay, these are the 12 things we need to do. It is impossible to do even one. And these 12 things are listed down for us not because in a way to motivate us to restore ourselves, to repair ourselves, because it's impossible to do these things. Let's remind ourselves this is a prayer. The most we can do, the most we should be doing, is to pray a prayer like faith, like this, that we come to God as humbled as David is and pray it out. That it is impossible to do the things that are required of us to see full restoration. It's more than just being clean. It's more than just being made holy. It's more than just escaping the judgments of God. It's like how we just sang, plunge in today and be made complete, where restoration should be complete. And so it is so critical that the Lord does not stop at just mere sending His Son to the cross. There is so much more when it comes to our restoration. You see there are these three things that makes restoration complete. Let's read verse 7. The first thing that David wants to look in the matter of restoration is his own self. Purge me, wash me. Where self needs to be transformed. Where God, if He has to start working on restoration, He will first start on our own selves. Circumstances come later on. Judgments and escapes of it come later on. The first and foremost, what is required is for God to work on ourselves. And this follows the previous two verse where David has said, I am a sinner from conception. Right from my mother's womb, when I was day one conceived, I was a sinner. And not just merely I am a sinner, but I have failed to imbibe God's Word in me. Truth of God is not found in my inwards part. So I have made my desperate condition all the more desperate. So my heart has never steadfast before God. It's desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. It's the best explanation to give for all the kind of madness I have done. Whatever sins I have done, whatever be the extent of rebellion, it has started with my own self. Not the circumstances, not the favourable opportunities. I did it because I wanted it. It's my own heart's desire that needs to be fixed. So, David says, first and foremost, purge me with hyssop. The word hyssop should take us back to the Old Testament. There are particularly instances in the law of Moses where this thing is used. For example, when a leper comes before the priest in the ceremony of his cleansing, this hyssop is used. And then for example, a person who is unclean by touching a dead person, a person who has become unclean because of someone dead in his own home, he comes to a priest for cleansing and again hyssop is used. But hyssop is just an instrument. Question is, what is the cleansing agent? The underlying assumption is in all of those ceremonies when the hyssop is used, there is blood. Where the priest will sprinkle blood probably with this same hyssop. You see, that's a very significant thing for the priest to do. It isn't enough just for the leper to be healed of his leprosy on the outside. He may be completely germ-free. But the Lord told the lepers, go and show yourself to the priest. There is a ceremonial cleansing as much as important as the physical cleansing, where there is a necessity for a sacrifice for a bird to be killed and a bird to be drenched in the blood of the killed bird and then let go and freeze. There is a necessity for blood to make a leper clean. Similarly, a person who has touched the dead body, he can wash himself, he can quarantine himself, all of that is required of him, but still at the end of that process, he needs to come and be cleansed ceremonially. And probably David, when he's writing this Psalm, he's at the temple and he's looking at these things and he's asking Lord, just like you make that leper clean, cleanse me of my leprosy with hyssop and He has a correct view of Himself. He sees Himself like a leper. That you can probably be healed of leprosy, still before God it is required that God pronounces you clean. You can be clean of all kinds of pathogens and germs after touching a dead body, but still before God it is required that God declares you clean. And this is the first step in restoration where God needs to purge us, cleanse us of our unrighteousness in us, purge me and wash me. It talks of all the old things that needs to go away. It talks of all the deceptive, crooked heart of ours that needs to go away. It talks of the old man that needs to be mortified and crucified. It talks about that hard-hearted stone-like heart that needs to go away. When David sees himself, he sees a person like a leper in want of a fix and we are extremely dirty as far as sin is concerned. There are no depths to which our heart can truly fall. There are no limits to which we can fill our heart with the things that defile us. Sometimes if we were to just consider how much a cleansing God has to clean ourselves with. But you see, just the old going away isn't sufficient. So when we come to the second part of that couplet in verse 10, now David progresses and he says, now Lord, You create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit, a steadfast spirit within me. Just as much as the old should go away, God should bring in a new. Just as much as a deceitful heart should go away, God should establish in us a new heart, a renewed spirit. Just like an old man should be crucified, God should renew in us a new creation. We're reading this thousand years before Christ actually came down and we're actually seeing the whole gospel in work over here. David, being led by the Spirit, is praying the right things. You see how incomplete it is just if we take a bath? How incomplete it is if just our stains are washed away? The Lord talks of a person, a parable, a man who was possessed with a demon. And the demon, for a season, left that man and he was roaming around and he did not get a place to rest, so he comes back to his first host. But when he came back to his first host, he found that the heart is extremely well done, fully cleaned, well neat and disciplined. So what does he do? He goes and gets seven other demons and they all now come in to this one person. This one parable talks of the dangers of incomplete restoration. For when that person got that season, that season when the demon did not oppress him, He tried to get his life in order, he set his heart in order, he made it clean, he made it neat, he became the Lord of it. It was insufficient though for him to just take out things that are unclean out of his heart, but was necessary for him to make the Lord the Lord of his heart. The story would have been completely different when the demon having come back would have found the Holy Spirit abiding in him. And that's the mistake that we all do in this world. We try to be a better you, better my, better I self, better of our own version, forgetting that it isn't just about ourselves, we need to be made new, completely new. Where when we come to God, we don't promise God, Lord, I'll be better than last time, no. We are asking Lord, Lord, make us new, create in me a new heart. But you see, just the change of our own selves is not going to be sufficient. There is something more that David is now asking. So we come to the second thing in verse 8. He says, make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which you have broken may rejoice. He's asking to hear joy and gladness. He's asking that his broken bones should rejoice. What is David now asking? He's asked for a new heart, he's asked for a new person, but there is something more to restoration. What about the consequences of his sin that he has to deal with? What about his spiritual apathy? What about his fellowship with God? What about the despondency and sorrows and sadness that he is in? You see, you can look at this in so many different ways. But in nutshell, he is asking for joy. Make me to hear joy. My bones that are broken should rejoice. And then in the couplet verse 12, restore unto me the joy of salvation. It's all about being joyful in the Lord. It's all about being restored in fellowship with God. And how does that start? David says, make me to hear, make me to hear joy and gladness. And where else can such words of joy and gladness be found except it be the good news of God. He's asking for the gospel. He's asking for some good news. I want to hear something that makes me happy. He talks of his bones being broken, probably not literally but definitely his sin had some repercussions in his body or some repercussions in his life. He's lost his son, four times more the Lord is going to deal with him, and innumerable judgments are going to befall him, it's going to break his bones like anything, and He's not asking, Lord, You join those bones. In those broken bones, let me rejoice. I have fallen, I find myself in desperate conditions, I am facing unsurmountable consequences, but in the midst of all my undoing, let me just hear joy. How many desperate hearts today just want to hear the good news? Hearts that are saddened and depressed and valuing in their sin, just waiting for one word of joy and gladness. Like those two disciples going on the way of Emmaus, just weeping over a crucified Lord and the Lord comes along and gives them the word which burns their heart with joy. This one request or it signifies or emphasizes the importance of God's Word and Restoration. Sometimes we may not have Nathan to come along or the Lord Jesus to come along, we don't have a person to come along, but we have the scriptures in us and the very Spirit in us to make us hear joy and gladness. This Word of joy and gladness is not too far away from us. We don't live in those times of dearth and famine. We have so much of God's Word that it is only this word that can repair a bruised heart, that can heal a wounded heart. And so David is asking, Lord, just make me hear some good news. But it doesn't stop there. In the next couplet in verse 12, the joining verse, he says, restore unto me the joy of salvation. You see, there was a point in time when David took joy and pleasures in the sinfulness of this world. He took pleasures in the cheap things of this world. And sometimes we make ourselves a big fool when we sell off the great joys of salvation for the very cheap sins of this world. They're literally short-shouldered when we go for pig's food, when there is joy and pleasures evermore at the right hand of God. David finds himself in a depressing condition where he is now lacking joy and he associates that joy with salvation. He's not asking, Lord, You restore unto me salvation because it hasn't been lost, but there is a joy of salvation, the rejoicing of it, the pleasures of it that He no longer enjoys, that it is the natural outcome of an assured believer that He will rejoice. Like in Psalm 35:9, the Psalmist says, My soul shall be joyful in the Lord, it shall rejoice in His salvation. To just rejoice in the salvation that God has provided. These are true gospel words of joy and gladness that a sinner wants. So what does a sinner want? He wants himself to be transformed. He wants himself to be restored in full fellowship, in full joy and pleasure unto the Lord. But there's a third thing that completes restoration and that's a requirement of God Himself. In verse 9, David is now praying, hide your face from my sins and blot out all my inequities. Yeah, he's asking for his self to be transformed. He's asking himself to be restored in full fellowship unto God. He is careful in not asking his consequences to go away. He's asking that he should rejoice in whatever be the consequences. But then the question is at what cost? Who's going to pay for it? What about the question of judgment? Who's going to deal with the very act and the offence of sin which is always before the Lord? So David begins by saying, Lord, you hide your face and that's in reference to the word atonement. Because atonement is a mere covering, it's a blood that is poured just to cover the sin, the sin is still there, it is covering the sin. But then David soon realizes that this is insufficient, it isn't just sufficient that the Lord just hide his face, it would be far better if those sins are blotted away, that there should be no remembrance of it, no mention of it, no record of it, it should be just taken away. And if it isn't just merely the sins being taken away but the underlying request is the associated judgments that is supposed to befall Him. So in the couplet in verse 11, He says, cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. This is the best description to explain what is God's judgment against sin. What does judgment against sin entail? It's given in this. When the Lord tells the sinners in that final day of judgment, go away from me you workers of inequity, He will be sending them to the lake of fire, but signifying these two things, they are cast away from His presence and His Spirit no longer strives with them. Eternal separation is the only cost of every sin. You can pray for yourself to be better, you can pray for a new heart, you can pray for a restored joy and fellowship, but all of this is only possible when God makes a payment, a price, for that judgment to go away. You see, this is how God completely restores a sinner. So as to not just merely hide His face but even blot out our sins, He sent His Son. And so as to not for us to go away from God's presence or the Holy Spirit to be taken away from us, His Son on the Cross experience eternal damnation and separation that only God and sinners should experience. And so it's in the basis of that alone that now we can ask O Lord, purge ourselves, make us new, cleanse us, make me hear joy, restore unto me the joy of salvation. This is David's request. Let's not confuse it as David's effort because he can do nothing to get any of this. What the Lord expects of us is to humble ourselves like David and to pray and repent. May it be said of us like it is said of Manasseh who in his lowest ebbs when he was chained is written, He humbled himself greatly before the Lord. May God’s name be glorified. The post Psalm 51:7-12: Workshop of Repair [https://borivaliassembly.net/sermon-ministry-corner/psalm-517-12-workshop-of-repair/] appeared first on Borivali Assembly [https://borivaliassembly.net].

7. feb. 202624 min

Psalm 32: Answer to Psalm 51

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