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00:00 Good morning, brothers and sisters. Um, today's uh scripture is taken from the
00:05 book of Psalms, chapter 51. Would you please stand with me for the reading of the word?
00:13 Psalm 51. For the director of music, a psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan
00:20 came to him after David had committed adultery with Basheba.
00:26 Verse one, have mercy on me, oh God, according to your unfailing love,
00:31 according to your great compassion. Blot out my transgressions.
00:36 Wash away all my iniquities and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my
00:42 transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only have I
00:50 sinned and done what is evil in your sight. So you're right in your verdict
00:56 and justified when you judge. Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful
01:03 from the time my mother conceived me. Yet you desired faithfulness even in the
01:09 womb. You taught me wisdom in that secret place.
01:14 Cleanse me. Cleanse me with hazel and I will be clean. Wash me and I will be
01:20 whiter than snow. Let me heal joy and gladness. Let the bones you have crushed
01:27 rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
01:33 Create in me a pure heart, oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do
01:40 not cast me from your presence or take a holy spirit from me. Restore to me the
01:46 joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.
01:53 Then I will teach transgressions your ways so that sinners will turn back to
01:59 you. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed. Oh God, you who are God my
02:05 savior and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth would
02:13 declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice or I would bring it. You do
02:19 not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, oh God, is a broken
02:25 spirit. A broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.
02:33 May it please you to prosper Zion, to build up the walls of Jerusalem.
02:39 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous, in burnt offerings of
02:44 hold. Then bowls will be offered on your altar. This is the word of the Lord. You
02:50 may be seated. Thank you, Clementine.
02:58 Welcome back to church. For all of you here this morning, you must have strong
03:03 bladders. All right. We should have prepared some diapers along the side, but uh next time
03:11 uh very rare that our toilets get clogged up like this. It's only happened once in decades, you know. So, uh if you
03:18 have to rush off in the middle of the sermon, I will not be insulted. There's a BP station down the road. Uh okay. So,
03:26 next week we're going to be having continuing our journey through uh prayer, praying the Psalms. Uh Joash
03:33 will be leading us on praying our worship. After which Brandon Wong will come back and pray our depression and
03:40 after that Arnold will take us on praying our lament. So today we're going
03:45 to be looking at praying our repentance. Let's start with a word of prayer. Father Lord we ask oh Lord that you fill
03:52 our hearts with your word. Teach us to
03:57 know your will. Grant us your holiness by the blood of your son.
04:04 Help us to realize that so often we have been wrong. We sin, but we don't want to
04:10 repent. We struggle with repentance. So we ask that through this psalm, you teach us through the life of David. how
04:18 we too are to come before you with the only sacrifice that matters, the only sacrifice that you will look upon which
04:26 is a broken and contrite heart. We ask for Jesus sake. Amen. Amen.
04:31 So last week we were looking at uh two concepts, one uh confession which is
04:39 driving on a one-way road and then you suddenly decide find out actually you're
04:44 driving the wrong way. So that's and you you acknowledge you're driving the wrong way. So that's called confession. Today
04:51 we look at repentance, which is realizing you're driving the wrong way and you've actually got to turn around.
04:57 All right, that's the difference. And the two Psalms, last week's 32 and today 51, is based on one episode of David's
05:07 sin where David one morning, one spring morning, standing up on his balcony, uh
05:12 happened to have looked around. I don't know whether he usually does this but uh he looked around and this morning he
05:19 spied a beautiful young woman who was basically bathing uh on the top of her roof or something.
05:26 So, and he immediately fell in love and he ordered her to come to his palace and
05:32 he conducted an illicit affair with her and unfortunately for him she got
05:39 pregnant this first time and in order to cover it up he tried to get her husband
05:46 Uriah. Now Uriah is not an ordinary person. Uriah, one of the 30 over
05:53 staunch warriors who had always been with David through thick and thin. All
05:58 right. Uh and this is the warrior whose wife he was
06:04 having an affair with in order to cover up the affair because soon within nine
06:09 months you will see the evidence of the affair. So therefore he got the husband back and tried to persuade him to spend
06:16 time with the wife but he refused. The guy was such a loyal
06:21 upstanding guy that if his platoon was out there fighting the war and living in
06:27 tents he would not go back to his wife. Try as he may, David could not persuade
06:33 him and Roy Roua went back. So went to David went to plan B and plan B was
06:40 telling the army chief Joab that you should send this platoon with Uriah at
06:47 the head to attack the strongest point in the enemy's fortress. So he did it
06:54 was like a suicide mission. So he went forward and he was killed.
07:00 That's how he covered it up. And God waited a year for David to stew
07:09 in his guilt. At the end of the year, he told
07:14 maiden came up to tell David a parable. There was a man who was rich with many
07:19 many sheep and cattle and he had a visitor and in order to entertain the visitor, he had to kill one lamb. And
07:27 next to the rich farmer was a poor farmer who only had one lamb who ate
07:33 with him, who slept with him, was like his child. And he grabbed that lamb and
07:39 killed it. And immediately David was incensed. And he says that man, that man,
07:48 he should die. You don't actually have capital punishment for stealing a lamb.
07:53 But that was his outrage. And Nathan stepped back and said, "You are that
07:59 man." And then David was convicted and hence came forth this two psalms. Psalm
08:05 52 uh 32 and 51. So we need to learn
08:10 from David's repentance. There are four steps. First of all, there needs to come
08:16 a change of heart otherwise sin cannot change. There needs to be an exchange of
08:21 idols. And thirdly, we need to actually ask for forgiveness. And not only that, we ask for transformation.
08:29 And lastly, a commitment to worship and service. Right? Let's start with a
08:34 change of heart. Here is him admitting, "Blot out my transgressions. Wash me
08:42 thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. I know my transgression and
08:48 my sin is ever before me." It takes a year for David to finally
08:54 realize he was the guy who killed somebody else's only lamb, right? Why
09:01 why did he take him so long, right? And and what what may Nathan had to do was
09:08 you know what he did? He took David out of himself.
09:13 If Nathan had gone to David and say you did this, you did this, you this, this,
09:19 immediately there will be a defense mechanism because David's sin is part of who David is.
09:26 So what Daviden did was very clever. He waited one year and then he put forward
09:33 to David a story for David to be less biased because he's
09:41 judging somebody else. If you've got vested interests and it's your own sin, you can't make a proper assessment.
09:48 That's what David did and uh Nathan did. And you know why that works? It's because
09:55 we what we do is who we are. If we if we identify with our sin, our sin is tied
10:03 to our self-esteem. Our sin is tied to our identity. And because of that, we we
10:09 are so invested. We can't repent because it diminishes
10:16 self. We won't change because we need to defend what we did. That's the problem.
10:22 In fact, uh, Sigman Freud, that professor of psychiatry years ago,
10:28 psychoanalyst had a daughter called Anna Freud and she actually put forward this
10:34 idea that denial is a defense mechanism. Right? So talk to an alcoholic
10:41 and and tell him, "Oh, you're eating, you're drinking too much alcohol." He will deny it. You cannot see it. It's a
10:47 defense mechanism. Remember this song by David Houston and Barbara Mandrel. How
10:53 can this be wrong when it feels right? This is the kind of song that we sing in our modern society. Even though I love
11:01 you, I can't call you mine. So, we'll love each other a little at a time. So kiss me once more and I'll say good
11:07 night. How can this be wrong when it feels so right? A lot of us are influenced by this. In fact, there was a
11:15 professor in California State who actually rejected objective moral values. He said external moral values
11:22 reduces the intimacy we have with ourselves. So as the saying goes, sometimes it might be better to be happy
11:29 than to be right. Don't laugh because this is the kind of society that we live in today. You see all the movies you see
11:37 on Netflix and they'll tell you follow your heart. Your heart is your moral
11:43 guide. Right? So there's selfdeception. How can it be wrong when it feels so right? Or to protect ourselves, we
11:50 deflect blame to someone else or we rationalize.
11:56 I mean who behaved in public. You tell me which one of you behave in
12:01 public. So you deserve what you get, right? Uh you could do that or you could rationalize but if you look in the life
12:09 of Bath Sheba when her husband died she fell to the floor and she lamented over
12:18 her husband. I mean you don't cry over some guy uh you know and you're having affair with David because you love him
12:26 and then this husband dies and you cry over him. In fact you'll be rejoicing. It's called Ma.
12:32 No, she cried because she was a victim in this whole thing is an innocent
12:37 victim. But when the news of Uriah's death on the battlefield reached the
12:43 ears of David, look at his response. David said to the messenger, "Thus shall
12:48 you say to Joab, "Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now
12:54 one, and now another." Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it. People die in
13:01 war every day. So what's the big deal? One more. And imagine this is one of the
13:06 37 people who really stood by David through thick and thin, who would give
13:12 their lives to him. And he says, "It's okay. Don't worry about it. Do not let
13:17 this matter displease you." Which means his heart has been hardened. Isn't it?
13:23 It is so hard that he feels little to no compassion. Why? because it's
13:29 rationalization and many of us have sins they're so driven deep into our psyche
13:36 that we cannot see it because we rationalize it and through the power of Holy Spirit we
13:42 it needs to slowly like Nathan tease it open that's why it's important to belong to a group where you are accountable to
13:49 other Christians who will be able to see the sin which you cannot see and who will be able to stand with you gently to
13:57 tease open all the finer aspects of this sin that that actually entangle our lives.
14:03 Maybe he's thinking Bath Sheba is better off with me. I'm the king. Who is he?
14:09 Leadership is tough. I deserve a break. So therefore, I get this woman. Look at Eve when she was tempted. You see
14:16 rationalization kick in. She says when the woman saw that the tree was good for
14:22 food. Ah see God says don't touch this fruit. But she saw it's good for fruit.
14:28 Actually, it's not bad. You know, he's not asking me not to take poison. It's
14:33 actually a good thing. It looks good for food and I'm hungry. It was a delight to the eyes.
14:40 Looks beautiful and and it make me wise. If I take this,
14:46 I will be super clever like Einstein. And then the end, what would she be
14:51 thinking? She's thinking, what was God thinking? He cannot see. It's good for
14:57 my stomach. It looks great. It'll make me wise. What was God thinking?
15:02 And if God was thinking, that's even worse. How could he do this to me? Deprive me of this wonderful
15:10 Musang King. I mean, what was God thinking? That means you actually doubt his motives. This is this is the the the
15:17 road you go on. And then the third thing is I think I will obey
15:23 if it makes sense to me. That's what she thought it does. See, God said, "Don't touch this fruit. It looks good. It
15:30 smells great, right? It's going to make me wise." So, what she's thinking that, "Hey, I don't agree with God because in
15:37 my own independent assessment, it doesn't make sense." Now, don't we do
15:43 this when we sin? We independently say, "God's laws are too restrictive.
15:50 It was Bible written thousands of years ago." and I will only obey if it makes
15:56 sense to me. Which is what's happening to our society nowadays. You have the LGBTQ issue. It doesn't make sense when
16:04 two individuals are so in love. Do not embark on relationship whether well a
16:10 minor detail whether are different sex. That's a minor detail. Important things we love. You see the rationalization
16:16 comes in and then his rules don't apply in this situation. It's too outdated.
16:22 That's how we rationalize sin. This is Chris Valotin, chief prophet in the battle church. Uh he made some really
16:30 false predictions about who will win the election in the United States and he admitted I was wrong but I'm not a false
16:38 prophet. Now how does that work? If you're wrong but you're not a false prophet. Uh this is called
16:46 rationalization. And then David comes to a part of life
16:51 where he actually has a change of heart. And this is a pivotal moment. Against you and you alone have I sinned and done
16:60 what is evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. So with this
17:07 nan coming out with that word the focus is now shifted not from the
17:13 consequences but on the person. Like I've mentioned to you before, if you get
17:18 pulled by the cop at the side of the road, you would not go to the cop and say, "Against you and you alone have I
17:25 sinned, I'm puntangu." If you do that, it's because you're
17:30 worried about the consequences. You're not worried about a cop. You don't care which cop it is, black, white, or
17:36 whatever. I'm only worried about 300 ringgit I'm going to pay. And because of that, I will say whatever I've got to
17:41 say. So sometimes many times we repent or allegedly repent because we are
17:47 worried about the consequences. We're not worried about hurting somebody else.
17:52 See when David repents as it was he says I've sinned if
17:59 I sin against the law which means if he says that means he's worried about the consequences of judgment. If I sins
18:05 again a people well worried about losing his kingdom. I have sinned against Uriah
18:10 means you committed murder, you're worried about prison time. So you're only worried about consequences. If
18:15 you're only worried about consequences, that is not repentance because there will have no lasting change.
18:22 Then Nathan says, "What? Why have you despised the word of the Lord to do what
18:28 is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah with a sword, taken his wife
18:33 to be with your wife and killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.
18:38 Nathan doesn't mince words. You may have sent his platoon to the strong point of
18:44 the en enemy, but you actually struck him down with like with your own sword.
18:49 And and the sin is what you despise the word of the Lord. That is the sin
18:55 underlying all the sin. See sin is difficult to work out because
19:01 we have constru sin in two ways. It's either performance failure or a failure
19:08 of intimacy. You see, if you have a performance problem, then he says, why have you
19:14 messed up as a king? Right? You're supposed to be a king, right? But you messed up. If it is a failure of
19:20 intimacy, why have you despised the word of the Lord? And that's the whole
19:25 problem. Whenever we sin, we think it's about that particular sin that we messed
19:32 up. All right? We don't think of our sin as a sin against a person who is God.
19:40 Take for example in Genesis 39 where the beautiful Portifa's wife
19:47 wanted to have an illicit affair with Joseph
19:52 and Joseph I'm sure was tempted because she did this day in and day out you know
19:59 and then look at the words of Joseph. He is not greater in this house than I am.
20:04 Nor has he kept back anything from me except you which is reference to Porchafar himself the master of the
20:10 household because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and
20:17 sin against God? He's talking about the wife of
20:22 Portafa. If you have an affair with her and the husband has done so so well has
20:30 treated me so well he's not greater in this house than I am he's not kept back anything which is everything he has
20:36 given to Joseph but the sin is not against your father
20:42 the sin is against God it sin is personal whatever we do in sin I'm not
20:49 negating the fact that it is against people but the underlying iss issue is the sin against God. So if you're upset,
20:57 if David is upset, verse 10 of 2 Corinthians chapter 7, godly grief produces repentance that leads to
21:03 salvation without regret. Worldly grief produces death. And the problem with us
21:10 is that we all if we always construe sin as a failure or performance
21:16 then we are worried about consequences and then we are down on ourselves
21:22 right we're down on ourselves and the only way and a lot of time we cannot forgive ourselves and if we cannot
21:28 forgive ourselves we'll hang ourselves we'll drink until we are blind
21:34 maybe we'll jump off the cliff a lot of people do that when they make mistakes Why? Because we cannot forgive ourselves
21:41 because sin is a failure of performance. And I tell you that's most problematic
21:48 for actually strong Christians. Strong Christians. Maybe you've been a Christian for 20 years or 30 years.
21:55 Maybe you hold a position church and you had a rookie mistake. You made that particular sin. And with that particular
22:02 sin, life goes downhill downwards. Why? Because you cannot recover. Because you
22:08 can't believe as a mature Christian after all these years you had that affair.
22:14 You cannot come back from that. Why? Because we think of sin as a failure of
22:20 performance. It is your self-esteem. Sin is personal and a betrayal of a
22:26 loving God. Look at the words against you and you alone. When that in Hebrew,
22:32 what they do is they they repeat words. When you have words that are repeated, it means an emphasis. Just like Jesus
22:38 says, truly, truly. Why say truly twice? You didn't hear. It's because of the emphasis. I've sinned and done what is
22:45 evil in your sight that you may be justified in your words. So, the focus is on a person. Tim Keller actually
22:52 writes, "When the thing that most assures you of your value, which is God's love, right?
22:58 that that that most convicts you of your sin
23:04 then you will hate the sin for what it costs God and not for yourself. So what he's trying to do is to say that what is
23:11 the most what is your greatest value? If your greatest value on earth is not your
23:19 family and your car or your house, your greatest value is the fact that Jesus loved you and died for you and love and
23:28 that is your greatest value. If and and if you sin against that very person who loves you, that is the thing that should
23:35 most convict you. So what he's doing here is that instead of identifying and
23:40 putting your self-esteem in his sin, you focus on God's steadfast love and
23:46 Christ's love and work for us on the cross. And that's where you tie your self-esteem and selfidentity. And if you
23:53 switch positions, then you're able to hate your sin.
23:59 That is what David did. He removed himself from defending himself from denial and
24:07 self-defense mechanisms and he moved towards his love to God and he had betrayed God. He hated his sin and then
24:14 he was able to have this change of heart and that comes with brokenness. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let your bones
24:22 that you have broken, God broke his bones. hide your face from my sin and
24:29 blot out my iniquities. You see, he's able to separate himself from his sin.
24:34 You see, and you have judged me correctly. I'm not defending my sin anymore. My sin is there. I'm here. I
24:41 love you. The sacrifices of God are broken spirit,
24:46 a broken and contrite heart. Oh God, you will not despise. That's what God wanted
24:52 from him. Godly grief produces repentance. You know, toward the end of his life,
24:59 there was another episode in David's life when Satan stood against Israel and
25:05 incited David to number Israel. Numbering Israel is not setting a census to your house. You know, numbering
25:12 Israel is registering people for a standing army. In those days, no country
25:19 has standing armies. The only time you have a standing army is because you want to attack somebody else. So what he was
25:25 doing that there is that Satan incited uh stood against Israel and incited
25:30 David to number Israel which means get them ready for war to invade their
25:36 neighbors. And Joab says why then should my lord require this? Why should it be a
25:42 cause of guilt? His his own army commander realized this is not right. If
25:48 his sin is so subtle, people say, "How are you? What's wrong with taking a census?" It is so obvious that the
25:53 commander of the army said, "You shouldn't do this, you know, because it's sinful to start an army without
25:59 someone attacking you." And David's heart struck him after it
26:06 numbered the people. And David said to the Lord, "I have sinned greatly in what I have done, but now, oh Lord, please
26:13 take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done foolishly." Notice the difference. What is the
26:20 difference? Did he wait one year? Straight away when the sin was pointed
26:26 out, he repented. Israel paid the price for that sin.
26:31 There's a price to be paid anyway. People died of the plague. But you can see David's heart softened already. You
26:37 see, when he was chosen, David was always called by Samuel who had a man
26:43 who has is a heart after God. He's got a tender heart. He will respond
26:49 to you when you actually convict him of God's love and and and can see this change. You see, brothers and sisters,
26:55 we're not asking you to be perfect. You will only be perfect when you see our
27:00 Lord Jesus Christ in heaven. And all our lives we need to be tender like David.
27:08 When sin is pointed out we repent and we change straight away.
27:14 Just Joe Toron wrote a book called disciple discipline of preaching to yourself and experiencing the trinity.
27:19 He says the deepest the deepness and consistency of repenting will have a
27:24 direct impact on the liveless of your faith and the brightness of your confidence. This is not because you
27:30 repent so well, but because in repenting you know the darkness and trouble of your own sin and the great work of grace
27:37 in Jesus that overcomes it all. So far from repenting being something that you
27:43 need to be ashamed of, it's something that actually promotes the liveless of your faith and your joy. So we need to
27:51 have the next step after a change of heart is to exchange our idols. Now here
27:56 you actually have repentance and remorse. One leads to death, one leads
28:01 to life. Repentance is change of worship, hating our former idols.
28:09 Remorse is keeping of idols, feeling guilty, but you still love the sin. You
28:15 see, I have to give up the mistress. Oh, I still miss her. You see what I mean? That's the difference of remorse. So
28:23 circumstances like the woman bathing in public, God knows why, are the triggers
28:29 for sin. It is not the cause of sin. This is the circumstance. God may place
28:38 you in difficult circumstances. You work in a nightclub or somewhere, but the
28:43 cause of sin is what? Your heart. He stared at her when she was taking a
28:49 bath, right? and he imagined things and he stood there for a long I'm sure he
28:56 stood there for a long long time. Right? That's the cause. Don't blame the woman
29:02 bathing up there. So if you if you know I used to to have this place twice I got
29:08 caught uh turning the wrong uh direction and and whenever I saw the same cop come
29:14 up I'm I'm ah he's there to trap me. It's his fault, isn't it? I don't think
29:19 he's even on duty. Isn't it? I actually thought that always
29:24 there. Why the f same feller again? You know, you know. Uh uh. So, but but I didn't realize the real cause of the sin
29:31 is not him. Whether he was on duty or not on duty is I love speed. I love
29:37 convenience. I don't like to follow the law. That is the problem with me. That is my
29:42 idol. This is a grand bouti of Australia, Taj Alin Al-Hilali.
29:48 And he's commenting on the dress code of Australian women. They're not like
29:53 Malaysian women. All right? And he said that if you take out uncovered meat and
29:59 place it outside without cover, the cats will come and eat it. Whose fault is it? The cat or the uncovered meat?
30:07 So, you know what he's referring to? All the cats are Australian men. uh you know this a this and this is a
30:14 common misunderstanding of religious people isn't it right no different from our religious people
30:22 uh self-proclaimed PM Hardy Malaysian chronicle published 2018 insist nationwide October fest ban so one month
30:30 in the year people drink in their pub or somewhere else oh you cannot drink you know why people will sin and follow them
30:38 and drink whose fault is it is it the circumstance or is it the person's desire to drink. It doesn't solve
30:45 anything. But religious figures all over the world seem to think that's the way I
30:50 actually prevent sin, which is why I can dress myself from top to bottom. What
30:56 was David? In fact, as a Christian, what was David missing? He has to look deeper. What are his idols? Why did he
31:04 need why was his life so empty that he needs her love,
31:09 her beauty? Why was his life so empty that that that he had hadn't enough power? He had to
31:16 exert this power over this woman. Why was his life so empty? They only consisted of his reputation, his power,
31:24 his kingdom. All those things are more important than God's love, God's beauty, God's faithfulness, God's power, God's
31:30 kingdom, God's approval. Every time you sin, there is an idol behind the sin. You may
31:37 not see it, but God will tease it out in your life one by one by every single
31:44 trial that comes your way. And every single sin that you sin, that sin will
31:49 reveal your idol. And your idol is there simply because it's not replaced by
31:55 God's love, God's beauty, God's faithfulness, God's power, God's kingdom, God's approval. And you can't
32:01 feel that because you're not convicted. Maybe you come to church once a week or you hear
32:07 the God's word. The rest of the time you're more interested in watching your Netflix or your social media because
32:13 that's more beautiful, that's more enriching, that's more captivating,
32:18 that's more beneficial. And we need to ask ourselves if that's
32:24 the case, we have a poverty of our spirit. We're not really in love with Jesus Christ. But you not really in love
32:30 with Jesus Christ and what he did for you. Then you will be in love with something else and you will fall to sin.
32:36 If David could fall into sin, so could we. He was the best of the best and he
32:43 fell into adultery and murder. You see, what turns us around is the
32:51 exchange of idols. You've got Judas or you got Peter. Judas only betray
32:59 Jesus one time. Jesus was betrayed by Peter three times.
33:07 But the worst sinner actually made it out alive better than the one who only
33:14 betrayed Jesus one time. Why? Well, this is John 21. When they finished
33:21 breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more
33:27 than this?" And Peter was grieved because he said to
33:32 him the third time, "Do you love me?" You know why? Because Peter betrayed him three times. So I had to ask you three
33:39 times, "Do you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me?" And he said to him, "Lord, you know everything. You know
33:45 that I love you." And Jesus said, "Feed my sheep." So what is Jesus doing? He's trying to
33:53 tell Peter, you need to replace your idol. The only idol in your life, the
33:58 only focus of worship has to be Jesus. Nobody else. Look at the woman who was
34:06 an adulteress, lived an immoral life, and she came to the Pharisees house. I
34:14 think it was Simon. Luke 7:36-50. And as she came through, what happened
34:20 was she poured out her tears and an alabaster jar of perfume
34:29 and she cleansed Jesus' feet. And Jesus commented
34:36 she loved much. Why? Because she was forgiven for much. You see this is
34:42 alabaster jar of perfume is about nine months pay on an average
34:48 person and for a woman involved in sexual issues you know what's your secret
34:55 weapon perfume.
35:01 That is your secret weapon. You put the perfume and all the men will come like cats you know all attracted.
35:08 That is the way you earn a living, isn't it? And so actually that's her idol. And
35:15 when she take nine months pay out of her idol and she pour it on
35:20 Jesus' feet, she's saying this is my future. This is my security. This is my
35:25 reputation. This is my pride. This is yours. Only then
35:32 can she actually have repentance when you exchange idols. And every time we have sinned, the Lord reveals to us
35:40 another idol. And we need to be able to come to a place in our life and we place
35:45 that at his feet. Thirdly, we need to be asking for
35:50 forgiveness and transformation. Purge me with the hissup, I shall be clean. Wash
35:56 me and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear gladness and joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken
36:02 rejoice. hide your face from my sin and blot out my iniquities.
36:08 Right? The hip is that plant used to paint the doorpost, the lamb's blood
36:14 that saved Israelites lives. It's to cleanse a person in contact with dead
36:20 body. It's used to cleanse lepers. Why? To prepare them to go to the temple for
36:26 worship. So before you go to worship, this is the cleansing you need. So therefore perturbed with hissup let me
36:34 hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
36:39 So who broke your bones? Who made life difficult for you? God.
36:45 He recognized that the discipline comes from God. It's a recognition of God's fatherly discipline. Then verse five,
36:53 behold I was brought forth in iniquity and my sin. In sin my did my mother
36:58 conceive me. He's not blaming his mother. No. What he's doing is to recognize that deep within him,
37:06 it is his nature to sin. And we need to acknowledge the fact that
37:14 deep down we are sinners. And a lot of us don't do that. You know why? When you point out somebody's sin,
37:20 the fellow react where I got to do that. No, no such thing. I never did that. Actually, you did it. It's as if you are
37:28 sinless. You cannot be blamed for anything. Default mode. I never did that.
37:34 But what David is saying is I am a sinner. I was born a sinner. And if you
37:42 accuse me of that, let me check. Most probably I did it. That's not the default mode of all of us, is it? And
37:50 then if you look forward, but behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom with a
37:56 secret heart. So God inputs into his life and then he asked these things, "Create in me a clean heart, oh Lord,
38:04 and renew a right spirit within me." This is the key. He didn't say to God,
38:11 "Uh, Lord, I'll do better next time. I won't go I I'll lock the balcony door.
38:19 I'll lock the balcony door. I won't go out there and look anymore." He didn't say that. Next time I will do better.
38:25 No, he said create in me a clean heart. Which means he knows that he cannot do it. There's no point gritting your teeth
38:32 and trying to be better. I cannot do it. Create is a word only used by God. Only
38:40 God can create. Only him open his mouth and thinks let there be light and there
38:46 will be light. And so therefore, what David is saying here is that I am totally hopelessly
38:52 helpless. I can't change. And isn't that like many of us when we are confronted
38:58 with the sin and we we're we're confessing it every single day. And each time we we we we confess that sin, we we
39:06 look back and say, "Okay, I think it's useless." This is the 15,000th time I'm actually confessing this particular sin.
39:13 Instead, we need to go to God and ask, "Create just the like when you said,
39:19 "Let there be light. Create in me a clean righteous heart and renew a right
39:24 spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence. Take not your holy spirit
39:30 from me. In those days the kings have holy spirit but for us we all have the holy spirit and restore to me the joy of
39:36 your salvation. So something must happen in his life. So we have to have a change
39:41 of heart, exchange of idols. ask for forgiveness and restoration with a transformation of our nature and we are
39:48 recommitted to worship and service. So repentance is the way back and the way
39:54 back is I will teach the transgressors your ways and sinners will return to
39:60 you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness oh God of my salvation. His recommitment to
40:07 true worship and service. My tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. Oh
40:12 Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. Right? Now the
40:18 result of true forgiveness is worship. And and what's the most important thing
40:23 in worship? For you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it to you. You will not be pleased with burnt offering
40:30 the sacrifices of God. There's a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. Oh
40:35 God, you will not despise. That's a breakthrough,
40:41 right? We despise brokenness. You know that? Yeah. We despise brokenness.
40:48 Our our modern worship is always upbeat
40:53 with all the bells and whistles and drums. We're always jumping up and down and all that. But sometimes that's hypocritical.
40:59 What God values and looks there is not how high you jump, you know, it's how low you go
41:08 in your spirit. But you realize that you have sinned. That's why we don't like repentance. We
41:14 don't like admitting your sins because we despise brokenness. But God's values are completely opposite from ours. He
41:21 loves brokenness because that means you're in touch with the truth. 2 Corinthians 4:7,
41:30 we have this treasure in jars of clay to show the surpassing power belongs to God
41:37 and not to us. What happens to jars of cray? Jars of cray always get broken,
41:43 isn't it? Many of us walk around as if we jars of stainless steel, bulletproof.
41:52 Nothing happens to him. I'm perfect Christian. The more brokenness we show,
41:59 the more the power of God is revealed in our hearts because we are people in
42:05 touch with reality. In the Old Testament, the actual
42:10 sacrifice was perfect and unblenmished. In the New Testament,
42:16 it's a broken and humble and comprised spirit. There's a lady from a Brisbane
42:21 church. I was uh looking at her testimony. She had visited a friend who was dying.
42:28 And as she visited the friend, the friend started to tell her all the terrible things about this nursing home
42:34 she was in. very upset, you know, just and then halfway through the speech,
42:41 the friend's demeanor changed. She calmed down. She apologized and a
42:48 different phrase took over. And she wrote, "The struggle to repent is not
42:54 about me. Is first and foremost a demonstration of grace by God in Christ.
43:00 People watch. They see even though I may not want them to God at work at with my
43:08 imperfections but repentance let them see God convicting upholding and transforming.
43:16 You know Christians have this wrong idea that we go out in the world we've got to
43:22 hide our flaws. Ah otherwise they say ah Christian also lie Christian also
43:28 covered money. Then we hide. The trouble is you cannot hide enough. If you work
43:36 day in and day out with your coworker, they will see you. You will live day in and day out with your husband or your
43:42 wife, they will see it. What? What is there to hide? The trouble is we try to portray to the
43:49 world that we are sinless. And that's a lie. That's the problem. And you know what
43:55 Jenny is saying? Jenny is saying is that if we show them repentance,
44:02 repentance lets them see God. It's not about the sin that we are
44:09 perfect. It's about the fact that we have a savior who forgives us, that we can freely repent and come back into his
44:15 bosom. That is what the world will see that will actually bring them to Jesus.
44:21 They need to see the love of Jesus. How are they going to see the love of Jesus? Unless they see the love of Jesus poured
44:28 out on a miserable sinner like us, worthless people,
44:34 imperfect. But the world needs to see imperfect people find perfect salvation and
44:41 forgiveness in the bosom of Jesus Christ. That's never been preached.
44:47 People only talk about how great we are and then we hide. And the number one
44:53 criticism towards Christians what the h word hypocrite
44:58 right because we have to be pretty hypocrites default mode ma sin is a
45:04 failure of performance that's what we do and we hide
45:10 there's a parallel passage 1 chronicles and 2 Samuel 24 David then
45:17 Satan stood against Israel incited David to number Israel. Whose fault is it?
45:26 Satan, right? But you look at 2 Samuel 24:1 and2 again. The anger of the Lord
45:32 was against Israel. So whatever it is, bad guy Israel. Okay? But on one hand, Satan incited
45:38 Israel. On the other hand, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel and he incited David. Who
45:45 incited David to sin? God. Who incited David to sin? It's like
45:52 multiple choice, but you can answer two. They're both the same because they're in parallel.
45:58 The immediate, we call it theologically the proximate cause of the sin is Satan.
46:05 But the asymmetric cause actually because of God's sovereignty is actually God. But why did God allow Satan to trip
46:14 up David? so that David can repent.
46:21 He can repent. That's what God is looking for, the repentance.
46:27 And and for us, you are a chosen race, a royal
46:33 priesthood, a holy nation, a people after for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who
46:39 called you out of darkness into his marvelous light is often misunderstood.
46:46 Because we are not sinless. And the thing that we can most show the
46:52 world is the fact that we are sinful but we are forgiven people. And the people
46:59 of God the pe the world needs to see repentance. If they don't see repentance
47:05 they will not see the grace of God. They will just see religious hypocrisy
47:13 in our lives. Can we have the worship team?
47:23 Let's pray. Father Lord, we come before you this morning in a very
47:30 difficult topic for every single one of us.
47:35 The default mode in our lives is that we see sin as a failure of performance.
47:44 Father, we ask that as we go out into the world today that we will really see sin for what it
47:50 is. It is a offense against you who did not
47:57 deserve this. You died for us on the cross. You loved us from eternity past
48:04 into eternity future. You stand with us every single moment of the day. And so
48:10 therefore, we as your people come before you right now and we want to express
48:16 sorrow, grief, and repentance. We ask in the words of the Psalms that
48:24 you will search us, oh God. Search our hearts every single day. Help us to be
48:34 honest. Help us to tear away those cobwebs of lies and deception and denial
48:42 in order to protect our self esteem. Help us to allow naens to come into our
48:49 lives. And when they come into our lives and when they hold us accountable and they speak into our sin, help us not to
48:56 react as if we are what we've done. We are what you have done for us. We are
49:04 transformed, redeemed, forgiven people. We pray as we interact with our spouses,
49:11 our family, and our community that they will see a broken and contrite heart,
49:18 which is what you are pleased with. We commit this to your hands for Jesus' sake. Amen.
49:24 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think
49:31 according to the power at work within us. To him be glory in the church and in
49:37 Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever. And God's people said
49:43 amen. All right. God bless and have a great week. Anybody who wants prayer, you can come up here. We'll be very
49:49 happy to pray for you.
