Skip to content Find Your Way Back Sep 6 · 55 min ...more
Find Your Way Back
September 6, 2026 · 55 min
This message from the "No Mercy" series explores how to find your way back to God after falling into sin. Psalm 51 reveals King David's raw confession and brokenness after his moral failure. Through David's genuine repentance, we learn to appeal to God's unchanging character and ask for complete restoration.
Series No Mercy
Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub serves as president of Pastor Jeff Ministries, a national and global ministry designed to equip believers and challenge them to take
September 6, 2026 · 55 min · No Mercy
This message from the "No Mercy" series explores how to find your way back to God after falling into sin. Psalm 51 reveals King David's raw confession and brokenness after his moral failure. Through David's genuine repentance, we learn to appeal to God's unchanging character and ask for complete restoration. ...more Show the full description Show less This message from the "No Mercy" series explores how to find your way back to God after falling into sin. Psalm 51 reveals King David's raw confession and brokenness after his moral failure. Through David's genuine repentance, we learn to appeal to God's unchanging character and ask for complete restoration.
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In this video 0:00 Knowing Your Way Back to God17:00 Ask God to Wash Your Sin Completely34:00 Plead With God to Heal and Restore Your Relationship48:00 Share the Joy of Your Restored Relationship With Others51:18 The Father's Welcome When You Return
Knowing Your Way Back to God 0:51 Well, good morning. Would you help me welcome all of our campuses who are worshiping with us today? So good to have all of you. I wanna let you know that this past week, we launched our 8th1:03 8th prison campus to the glory of God here in Colorado. We were at the Max Penitentiary in Florence, was volunteered to come to the gym.1:15 547 inmates came, only 30 did not come. And, we presented the gospel. And as you know, we gave a response to the gospel. Because somebody stands doesn't make them a Christian. Because somebody sits doesn't mean1:27 they didn't come to Christ. But we extended the gospel. Over 0.5 those guys in that room stood up to receive Jesus. And it was awesome. I was told by the1:38 wardens nothing like that in all the federal penitentiaries they've ever seen in all of their years of being a warden. They are so fired up about what we're doing. Just so you know, we're in every federal prison in the1:48 state of Colorado right now. And doors are opening up because they're calling all their friends. So now, South Dakota, Illinois, Texas, Florida,2:00 they all want us to come and put brave campuses in their prisons too. So be praying for what the Lord may do. Amen? It's exciting to see what he's doing. Secondly, all the women, the women's conference is2:11 coming up. Please sign up if you need help financially. We'll help you with all of that. But I know we've had great experiences last few years when we've done this. Kim will be up here next week telling you a little bit
2:20 about it. Guys, make sure that your wives can come. You being at home on a Saturday morning is not called babysitting, that's called being a dad. Just so you know. So so be a dad, let your wives come,
2:32 and and be a part of what's going on so that they can, enjoy the word and grow in as well. Next week is our ministry launch for the year. So we have baptisms. If you've come to faith in Christ, but you've never been
2:44 baptized by water since, please sign up this week for baptism. We also are doing child dedications. If you have a young child, I hear several of them while I preach. You wanna dedicate them to the Lord. Bring them next
2:54 week. We will dedicate them to the Lord. It's gonna be an exciting time. We're gonna install elders. We're gonna be doing a lot of different things. As I told you, our hope is to be in the building next door, back in our
3:03 building next week. We're gonna wait 1 more week. Okay? Don't moan. You're sitting in comfortable seats. The the reason I'm saying that is you get 1 chance to make a 1st impression. There's some... Our team's done a
3:15 phenomenal job, but they're not gonna have the upper deck done. There's gonna be some things we'd say you can't go there. We wanna walk in and let it be your home. And so we're gonna take 1 more week here. We're gonna
3:23 celebrate with baptism. It's gonna be a great Sunday, then we'll move in next week. With that, men's warrior call won't be this Saturday. It'll be the following Saturday. We'll send out emails, texts, and different
3:32 things so that you're aware of all the times and dates for that. Okay. Tons of announcements. Too many. With that, let's go to the Lord. Let's get ready to hear His word. Would you pray with me? Our Father in heaven,
3:42 what a privilege it is today to gather in your home, in your house, with your saints, and call upon your name. Lord, to worship you. Lord, to seek your face in prayer. And Lord, to gather with your body. And Lord, to
3:54 hear your living and active word. And Lord, we are so encouraged to hear your word this morning because we as a people believe that every time your word is faithfully and accurately proclaimed that it is you who are
4:02 speaking. So our prayer this morning is, speak Lord, for we are ready to hear. And so now for everyone who is here, who desires to hear the Lord Jesus Christ speak directly to you, who will believe what he tells you, and
4:14 who will by faith put into practice what he shows you, Will you agree with me very loudly by saying the word, amen. Amen. The the greatest news on the planet is the gospel. That God the father sent his son to be the
4:25 savior of the world. That Jesus Christ, the God man, who had always existed, put on flesh 2000 years ago, came and did for you what you couldn't do for yourself. He fulfilled the law. He was perfectly obedient. He was
4:37 without sin in every way. And before he left this planet, he died on a cross for all the sins of the world. He took the full measure of the wrath of God. He was buried in the grave. 3 days later, he rose. And anybody in
4:47 the future who has repented and placed their faith and trust in Jesus has eternal life. It is a guarantee there's nothing better in the world that Jesus Christ paid for our sins. Amen? What this series has been about
4:59 called no mercy is what happens in the life of a believer after you become a Christian. And we talked about we have 3 enemies, the devil, the world, and our sinful self. But we spend a lot of time talking about the sin
5:08 inside of us as a believer because we really don't wanna deal with it. For many of us, we go to the easy button of, well all Christians sin and God forgives and I'll just deal with it. Others live under guilt, shame and
5:20 condemnation all the time feeling like I can never be the kind of Christian God wants me to be. And we've been talking about here has been what your sin is and how to be merciless with your sin. How to know a way out
5:30 from temptation. How to use forgiveness. How to use other people in your life. We've been talking about specific things that you can put into place, so that you don't sin. Because the truth is, Christians,
5:42 you don't have to sin. You can choose to sin, but you don't have to sin. The challenge that we have, especially when we gather in the church, is we know theologically that all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
5:54 We we know that even after coming to Christ, we all continue to sin, and yet in church, sometimes is the least vulnerable place to admit it. Like, what's really going on in your life? We hide our sin. I wouldn't want
6:05 another Christian to know I'm dealing with that. I wouldn't want another Christian to know that I sinned that way. I I mean, look in front of you. Look side by side. Look at the person behind you. They are thorough
6:14 sinners. They're very good at it. They've been practicing it their whole life. And yet what happens when we come to church? How is it that we can get out of sin? Because even if we put all the things that we
6:26 want to put into practice and we follow the word of God and we're doing what he wants, what happens when we're in sin? Today, I want to talk to you about how to know your way back. How is it you can restore fellowship
6:37 with God when you do sin? How is it that you can keep short accounts with him? How is it if you're dealing with the sin in your life you can't seem to shake that you can get rid of it and come back and be in fellowship
6:48 with the Lord? And to do that today, to know your way back, we're gonna be in Psalm chapter 51. Psalm chapter 51. So I invite you to open your copy of God's word this morning to Psalm chapter 51. And while you're turning
6:59 there, I'm gonna share with you the story where this comes out of. Because this is David's true confession and repentance from what took place in 2nd Samuel, chapter 11... Chapters 11 and 12. And you'll remember that
7:11 story, and I'll set it up for you. That David was the man after God's own heart. David was the king that would had the whole heart, that was setting up the kingdom the way God wanted. And yet, the Bible tells us at the
7:22 time that kings went out to war, David stayed in Jerusalem. So he sends Joab and all the army officers out and they go out to war, but David is still in Jerusalem. That's not where he should have been. And when you're
7:32 not where you're supposed to be, bad things can happen. And David was up 1 night, he was looking out on the roof and he noticed an attractive woman. And I tell you she was attractive because the Bible makes clear that
7:41 she was attractive. And she was bathing. And David coveted that woman. And David wanted that woman. And he summoned her as the king and brought her into his chambers, and they had relations together. And because this
7:53 all happened, she waited, she went home. Her husband didn't know about any of this. His name was Uriah, and Uriah was a loyal guy. So when Uriah gets back, David sends him home. Because David had gotten the word
8:05 that this woman Bathsheba was pregnant. So when Uriah got home, he sent him home to his wife in hopes that they would come together, and then he would think the baby is his. But Uriah
8:17 was so loyal, he never went home. So the soldier said, hey, he didn't go home last night, and he was so loyal to David, David came up with another plan. David put him on the front lines where he knew that he would be in
8:27 serious trouble. And during their next battle, Uriah the Hittite, the loyal servant to David was killed. And after Bathsheba had grieved him, David brought her in to be 1 of his wives. And this is where the story
8:38 picks up, because David's like, it's over. I escaped that 1. Right? Now nobody has to know. But do you know what? God always knows.
8:51 No matter what you sin, nobody else may know, but God always knows. And God knew, so God sent a prophet to him by the name of Nathan. And I'm just gonna read you the rebuke. I won't read you the whole story. It's in 2nd
9:00 Samuel chapter 12, but this will set up our text for the day. Then the Lord sent Nathan to David and he came to him and said... He tells him this parable. There were 2 men in 1 city, the 1 rich and the other poor.
9:12 The rich man had gathered many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except 1 little ewe lamb, which he bought and nourished. And it and it grew up together with him and his children. It
9:24 would eat of his bread and drink of his cup and lie in his bosom, and was like a daughter to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take from his own flock or
9:36 his own herd, to prepare for the wayfarer who would come to him. Rather, he took the poor man's ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. So Nathan is called by God to go tell David about his sin. And
9:47 what he does is he comes up with a parable and he says, there was a rich man who had everything and there were a poor man. And the poor man had this 1 little ewe lamb. It's all he really had. He nourished it. He fed it.
9:56 He kept it. It was like a daughter to him. And the rich man had everything. And once upon a time, the guy came into town and needed some food. And the rich man said, I don't wanna take anything from me. So he went and
10:06 took that little ewe lamb from that guy, the only thing he owned, slaughtered it, and served the meal that way. So David's hearing this story. And David, who hears it and has a moral conscience
10:18 says this, verse 5. Then David's anger burned greatly against the man. And he said to Nathan, as the Lord lives, surely the man who has done this deserves to die.
10:30 How could you rob somebody from what's theirs when you have all this stuff? That guy deserves death. And Nathan said this among other things, but this is how he started his talk. You are the man. That's
10:42 you. That... That's who you are. That's exactly what you've done. That's what you did to Uriah. You're that guy. And what we're gonna read about in Psalm 51 is how David responded to that.
10:54 Because there's a lot of people when they get called out in their sin, don't respond positively. They make excuses for it or they brush it off. What What you're gonna find in David is he's a man after God's own heart. He
11:06 has the heart of God and he's gonna respond the right way. And I wanna tell you this, when you find yourself in a sin, these are the principles that you can use to confess and release the sin to God so that you can live
11:17 free with him. Right? So I'm gonna give you 4 from the text this morning from Psalm 51. And the 1st is this, when you're convicted of sin, whether it's God that shows you or another believer or however it comes through
11:29 his word, here's what you wanna do. You wanna come to God honest and broken about your sin. Be honest about it. Be broken about it. Honesty means you call sin sin. You don't call it I struggle
11:40 with, I'm having a hard time with, you know, I was raised in this kind of family, that's why I am. I mean, none of that. You call the sin a sin. Right? I mean, it's like it's like when you
11:52 get pulled over by a police officer. You can make all the excuses. You can say all you want or you can just say, yeah. I did it. I was speeding. Right? I mean, this is what it means to be honest with God. God knows it
12:03 all. You don't need to make editorial remarks. You don't need to say all those things. Just be honest and broken. And it's exactly what David does. He says, be gracious to me, oh God, according to your loving kindness,
12:14 according to the greatness of your compassion, blot out my transgressions. So what does he appeal to 1st? He appeals to God's character. He's totally honest about God's character. He asked for God... Asked for God's
12:24 grace. He wants to be gracious. And he says, be gracious to me according to your loving kindness. That's God's hesed love. That's his covenantal love. That's his unfailing love. That's his steadfast love. That's the love
12:34 of God that never changes. Can I tell you something about the love of God believer? His love for you never changes. He doesn't love you more on a good day and less on a bad day. He loves you unconditional all the time
12:45 because that's his nature. Even when you sin, he loves you. And so he's begging him. He's saying, God be gracious to me according to your loving kindness, according to the greatness of your compassion. The Bible says God
12:57 is compassionate and slow to anger. Lord, you're a compassionate God. You see that I'm a problem, but be gracious to me. Be compassionate to me. And then he says this, blot out my transgressions. He's not just saying,
13:09 forgive what I did wrong. He's saying, take them out of me. I don't want it here anymore. And the reality is as you grow in Christ, there will be things that pop into your life where you realize that sin and you will
13:19 say, I hate that about... I don't want that. And God, get this out of me. And you need the Lord to be the 1 that's able to do that work in your life. Here's the deal. If you could get rid of sin on your own, you don't
13:30 need Jesus. And if you don't live... Need Jesus, then you're living independently of Jesus. We all still need Jesus and his grace today the same way we did when we 1st got saved. Right? And so David's pleading with God.
13:41 And then he says this, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. That's what he's saying. He goes, I want it all gone. I want my iniquity gone, my sin gone, for I
13:53 know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. He goes, get it out of me. Right? I don't want it there anymore. And it's really interesting, because he goes on in verse 4 to talk about his
14:05 sin. And he says this, against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. It's a really interesting thing that he says. I mean, he's definitely sinned against Bathsheba. He's definitely sinned
14:17 against the armies for not being responsible for what he was doing. He coveted. He lusted. He committed adultery. He committed murder. So he clearly had sinned against Uriah. Clearly had sinned against Bathsheba. Clearly
14:28 had sinned against other people. And yet, what does he pray? Lord, against you and only you have I sinned and done what is wicked in your sight. Why does he pray that way? Because you need to realize that the bible
14:38 highlights 2 relationships. 1 is vertical.
14:40 To love the Lord your God with
14:41 all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Having a relationship with Christ is a relationship. It's not just, okay, he's up there and I'm down here and I don't know who he is. We're relating to him. He's a person. The
14:53 God... Our God is a person. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, the Godhead. 3 persons in 1. I mean, it's the Trinity. It's a mystery of the Trinity. It's a mystery of the Godhead. We have a relationship with God. And if that gets
15:05 messed up, all our horizontal relationships are gone. And here's what you need to know. When you sin, even when you sin against another, you're 1st and foremost sinning against the Lord. When you say something evil about
15:15 another person, you're transgressing God's commands and you're you're committing treason against God and you're being a rebel 1st before you ever do that. So David's coming to God and saying, God, you see it. You know
15:25 it. I'm confessing the fact that my sin 1st went to you. So he's not just saying, I know I sinned. I shouldn't have done that. Please forgive me. Help me get on with my life. He's saying, here's the problem. I can't just
15:37 get on with my life, because I've sinned against you. And until we restore our fellowship, there's no hope in me moving forward with all my other relationships. Amen? And so that's where he goes. And I pause here to tell
15:49 you because when we sin, we sometimes tend to think, well, if I can I can just fix it? I'll fix it. Sometimes I lose my temper, but I'll just fix it. I'll work on it. Or we hear a sermon and
16:01 we're like, you know, I'm gonna commit to that. I I probably gossip a little too much, but I'm gonna work on it. I'm gonna fix it. I'm gonna do that less. Or I have a hard time forgiving somebody that hurts me, but I'm
16:10 gonna work on them. Listen. If you can work on it and get better at it without Jesus and you don't need Jesus, I'm gonna give you a little help. You'll never get any better. Now truthfully,
16:23 you can change behavior without Jesus. Truthfully, I've met people who were former alcoholics who are not alcoholics anymore. They don't know Jesus. Or drug addicts who don't do drugs anymore. They don't know Jesus. Or
16:32 people that were immoral in their sexuality who are now living a little more moral. But here's what you can't do. You can't go from being dead to being made alive without Jesus. And you need Jesus
16:44 if you're gonna walk as though you're alive. And he wants you to depend upon him and so he wants you to understand the sin in your life that you're looking horizontally about. 1st, look to me and see how you've offended
16:54 me. Because if you get that right, then everything else tends to work out. If you want what God wants, everything else will work out. So be honest with God. He says this. I've done what is evil in your sight so that you
Ask God to Wash Your Sin Completely
17:05 are justified when you speak and blameless when you judge. In other words, God, when I see your word and I hear what you say, what you say is true, what you say is right. It's not how I feel, it's what right and wrong
17:14 is. Because you're God. So when God says, sexual relationships are only between a man and a woman and the covenant of marriage till death do you part, that's a container. Anything else that falls shy of that,
17:26 you know what they call that? We can come up with lots of words to describe the different kinds of things. It's called sin. And you need to call that sin, not a struggle. Lord, I've sinned and I'm sinning
17:38 against you because I'm lusting after somebody else that's your daughter or your son. And I I want that, and I'm coveting that, and I desire that, and I think that that would fill me more than I think you would fill me.
17:47 And so I'm going after something horizontal because I don't really believe that you can fulfill my deepest needs. So Lord, I've sinned against you and you alone. That's honest. Right? And so as we get honest with God,
17:58 that changes everything. I... Even as I'm sitting here preaching, I I I remember in college when I was 1st starting to work... Walk with the Lord and I would pray very religious prayers such like, Lord, I promise... I'm
18:10 really sorry about last night, but I promise I'll never do it again. Or Lord, if you can just get me through this test this time, I promise going forward I will study. Or whatever, you know?
18:22 Just get me through this. I know I shouldn't have done that. I know I... Just get me through it. And I remember 1 day when I was praying to the Lord about a night that I had before, and I was telling him what I was gonna
18:31 do and making all these commitments. It hit me. You're lying. Because even while you're praying, you're thinking about committing the same sins you sinned yesterday because you enjoyed them so much. And it was a switch
18:42 in my head at that moment. I'm like, Lord, I'm done lying to you. You you watched what I did last night. You saw what I did last night. I'm not gonna tell you I didn't enjoy it because I did, but I hate how I feel as a
18:50 result of that. And And I don't even know how to do what you want me to do. So would you teach me to love what you love and hate what you hate? Can you change me? Because I don't even know how to do this. That's when
19:00 things started to change for me. You know why? Because God can handle honesty. If you're not gonna be honest with the Lord, you can't grow. As a matter of fact, this week I was
19:11 down, at the prison in Florence, and I was talking to 1 of the inmates after I preached. And I'm like, hey, did you receive Christ's days? I said, no. I said, why not? He goes, because I like partying bro, and I like
19:21 girls. And I was thinking, well, you ain't gonna do that in here, but you know... But I said to him... I said, I said, well, I love that you're being honest. I said, so maybe the prayer that you need to
19:33 pray is that you wanna tell God that you love those things more than you love him. But if God is worthy of your love more than those things, that he'd change your heart. Would you pray that? He goes, yeah. I could be
19:41 honest like that. I said, gonna be honest. See, the problem that we have sometimes in church is we turn religious and we hear the messages and we wanna do what God's word wants to do because that's what the holy spirit
19:52 inside of us is telling us. But then we think the way that we're gonna get there is by committing our way to better behavior rather than full dependence and allegiance on the Lord Jesus Christ to change our heart. God
20:02 wants to change your heart. If he changes your heart, your behavior will catch up. Your behavior will get there. If all we do is change the symptoms, we can't be the fullness of what God wants us to be. Amen? And
20:14 so David's saying, God, your word is true. And then he goes on to talk about himself in verses 5 and 6. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, you desire truth in the inmost
20:26 being, and in the hidden part, you will make me know wisdom. What's he saying? He's like, lord, I confess. I was born in iniquity. My parents were sinners. They passed that down to
20:38 me. From the time I came out, I know I'm thoroughly sinful. I have a track record of sin in my life that you know even better than me. Lord, I'm I'm being honest about that fact. I'm not better than anybody else. I'm a
20:50 sinner. I know I am and you see it, but I know you desire me to have truth in the inmost parts. There's something in me that wants more of you, and I want that. That's what it is. And this is
21:01 coming after his sexual immorality with Bathsheba, after his murder of Uriah, after being called out by a prophet. He's the king and he's confessing all these things. This is
21:13 who I am. I know that's who I am. And when you meet somebody that is genuinely repentant, which means they desire what God wants. Here's some here's some markers that you'll see. Number 1, they'll be
21:25 very remorseful. They'll be remorseful. They will call sin, sin. Secondly, you'll notice that they're marked by humility.
21:38 They're always humble. Humble people, like, when you get called out in sin and God's healing you, you don't really care who knows. Now I'm not saying you air your dirty laundry to everybody. That's not it. But you should
21:49 have a couple people in your life or a few people in your life that you can share genuinely about what God's doing. I mean, I've seen it. I've watched people. I've seen it in my own life when I'm willing to accept what
21:59 God wants. When I'm truly accepting of it, I'm remorseful. I'm broken. My heart is softened. I don't care what other people think. I just want the grace of God in my life. And here's
22:11 what you're also gonna know... Notice. They won't care. They don't care about who knows. All they care about is wanting to have a relationship restored with Christ. But here's some unrepentance
22:23 tells. When I'm around people that get called out in their sin, either through the word or through another believer, through the preaching or whatever, they're very good at becoming historical revisionists.
22:36 I hear what you're saying, but that's not really the way that it went down. It's kinda like this, you don't understand. Right? I'm gonna change the story because it fits my narrative of my sin better. And I'm talking
22:48 about people out there, I've done the same thing, so have you. We we we modified the story so we're not calling sin sin. And then here's what you see, you see face savers and excuse makers. So when sin comes, I can't let
22:59 anybody know that that's a sin in my life. How could I get along with that? I'm gonna save face. So I'm gonna start talking to people with more Christianese language. I'm gonna start acting like I got it all together,
23:08 because I can't let anybody know. And if they really do know, I'm gonna make excuses for why it is. That's a telltale sign of unrepentance in somebody's life. Because I care too much about what everybody else might think
23:20 about me even though they're not thinking about me, but I care too much about what they might think about me than what God is actually saying to me. And if as an elder in a church, when we're dealing with this, when
23:31 we're walking people through a restoration process and we point out, hey, this is what needs to happen now. Like, this is how you need to live going forward. This is what goes on. I'm telling you, the person that's
23:42 repentant will be like, yeah, whatever you say. The person that's unrepentant will say, yeah, that's kinda harsh. I don't think we really need that. You know, you guys are just not seeing the whole story clear. And if
23:52 you hold the line, if you hold the line, parents this is true with your kids, they will blame and slander you for being too harsh with them because they won't deal with their sin. I mean, I've watched it. I've sat in
24:02 meetings with my wife, with couples that are in adultery and genuine repentance looks like this. Seen Seen it with a guy. Seen it with a gal. Seen it both. Here's genuine repentance. I sinned. I was wrong. I know I'm
24:13 wrong. I'll do whatever it is. I need to restore my relationship with God. I don't even know if God can fix this thing, but if he can, to God be the glory. But I gotta get right with God. I don't care. Who knows? I don't
24:22 care. Pastor, just tell me what I need to do. I've seen God heal a lot of marriages that way. I've seen the opposite. We're sitting down saying, hey, you know, you you confess adultery. Yeah.
24:35 But if you live with her, if you knew my husband, you know, it's just... You're not seeing it clearly. We've always had some struggles. We've always done this. Hey,
24:47 this is what you need to do bro.
24:48 You need to move out
24:48 of your house for a period of time. You need to grow a cry. You know, you're just kind of being too harsh. You're being like judgmental and legalistic. We're not doing that. We're fine. And if we hold the line and say,
24:59 no. This is what you need to do. You got, man, Brave Church and that pastor, they're like so legalistic. No. What it really is is you don't want to deal with your sin. You see it parents to kids when they're remorseful
25:10 versus when they're just faking it. They're being historical revisionist of whatever. I didn't break the window. That was my brother. Whatever, you know. And and here's the deal. God wants you to be genuine
25:22 in what happens. Right? I mean, a doctor can only help you to the extent that you can tell him what's actually really going on in your life. Like like, here's what's actually happening. Here's my
25:34 behaviors. Here's what I'm experiencing. Here's what's going on. Now take all that information and put it together with the other information you have and that'll help you work it out. But sometimes we don't wanna be
25:43 honest about what the problem actually is. Don't want people to know. Here's what I would tell you at break church. Who cares what other people think? Care what God thinks.
26:00 Amen? So come to him honest and broken. 2nd is this, ask God to wash your sin completely. Ask him to wash your sin completely. Notice what he says. He says, purify me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and
26:12 I shall be whiter than snow. Right? A hyssop branch was used to paint the blood on the doorpost in Exodus 12. It was used for ceremonial rituals with water. He he is describing what he needs to do. He
26:24 wants to be completely purified and completely washed clean by the Lord. So when he's talking like this, he's not saying... I mean, we we get like when you have clothes that need to be washed. We get them when you have a
26:33 car, it needs to be washed. We we get all that stuff. You have a home or an apartment, it needs to be cleaned. We get all that. Here's what he's saying. He goes, if we were using a car analogy, he wouldn't say it needs
26:42 to get washed. He would say, this... The whole thing needs to get detailed. I I want somebody to come through and do the outside. I want them to do the inside. I want them to go under every seat. I want them to pull out
26:51 every last piece of trash. I want them to vacuum every piece of... I want it to look as good or better than new when I get back in it. That's how David's praying for his sin. David's not just saying, Lord, I committed
27:01 adultery. Lord, I murdered Uriah. I'm really sorry. Can you please forgive me so I can get on with my life? He's saying, Lord, I want you and I wanna be pure and I want all this garbage gone in my life. I don't want
27:13 anything remaining. I want it all gone. Purify me, Lord. Heal me, Lord. Restore me, Lord. That's that's what he's praying and that's that's how he's praying. Amen? And then he said, make me hear
27:25 joy and gladness. Let the bones which you have broken rejoice. What's he wanting? Restore my joy. I wanna be joyful again. I wanna be glad again.
27:37 Like, the bones which you have broken is his metaphor to say it's just horrible feeling the guilt and the shame of sin. And guilt and shame are God's gifts to the believer who sin, not so you
27:48 remain in it, but so you come running back to him and he can remove it. Right? We've already read in Romans 8 1, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. He's not condemning you. He's
27:59 convicting you. And what you feel about your sin is know that you've committed treason against almighty God, and you wanna restore the relationship. And then he says this, hide your face from my sins, and there's that
28:10 word again, and blot out all my iniquities. Lord, I don't even want you to see any sin in my life. I want you to blot it all out. I wanna stand pure as a pure vessel before you. Now it's really interesting because in
28:21 Psalm chapter 32, we don't know if this is paired with Psalm 51, if this is exactly how David felt with the sin of Bathsheba. But David wrote this Psalm and it was certainly a time in his life when he had sinned and this
28:31 is how he felt. See if see if this is how you feel. He starts by saying, how blessed it is whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does impute iniquity, and in whose
28:42 spirit there is no deceit. Here's what he's saying. There is no price tag on a clean conscience. When you know that you know that you know you're completely forgiven. When you know you're standing before the Lord saying,
28:52 Lord, I don't think there's anything right now. And the reality is, because we're so thoroughly engulfed in sin, as we progressively grow in Christ, there's more. We just don't see it. And God loves us enough to not
29:02 highlight it all at 1 time or it would be overwhelming. So we're progressively growing in it. But isn't it good to be in a position with almighty God in your relationship with him when you're not trying to suppress sin,
29:14 or deal with sin, or have to get through sin? Because here's the problem. If you're not gonna deal with your sin, church is gonna be awful for you. You're gonna hate the people that go there. You're gonna say church just
29:25 really isn't for you. I'm not gonna go to church. I'm gonna be the church. All that kind of garbage, a lot of times comes from people who aren't willing to deal with their sin and don't wanna be in community where it
29:34 gets exposed. Because there's something about when your sin is truly forgiven and you know that you're free, that being with God's people, regardless of what the style of worship, regardless of what kind of preaching, if
29:45 the word's being preached and worship is happening and people are praying, I want to be with those people. But when I'm in sin, I don't like those people. They're kinda judgmental. They're kinda judgy. Those fun... You
29:57 know what I'm talking about? It's a sign of what's going on in your heart, not what's going on in other people. So here's what David said about a sin. See if you resonate with his sin. And and here's what I want you to
30:07 say. Some of you in here are in sin, and when you hear this, it's gonna feel like God is poking on your chest with everything he has. But this is not me calling you out. This is the word of the Lord, so just hear it.
30:19 When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was drained as if with
30:31 the fever heat of summer. Then I acknowledge my sin to you, and my iniquity I did not hide. I said, I will confess my transgression to the Lord, and you forgave the guilt
30:43 of my sin. What was he saying? When he tried to hide a sin, his vitality was gone. Like, he he couldn't function anymore. Like, as a believer, it's possible for you to send the same sins that you
30:55 send when you were an unbeliever, but you won't enjoy them. And you'll feel conviction about them, and you won't wanna stay in them. And if you don't repent and confess of them, it is gonna drain the very life out of you
31:07 that Jesus Christ wants you to have. And that's what David is saying. So that's why he's saying in this text, not only come to God honest and broken, but ask God to wash your sin completely. Ask him to
31:19 take it out. I mean, think about this. If you, you know, if you got a cut on your arm and you went to the ER, and it was, you know, something that was pretty opened up and they were gonna have to just sew it up, and it
31:30 had, you know, soil and gravel and everything in it from where you did it, they would not be doing their job if they just bandaged it up. I mean, if you've ever been in the ER,
31:42 people come in, scrub their hands, they put on gloves, and then they do very painful things to what's already very painful. And they scrub it out, and they make sure there's nothing left in it because it's gotta be
31:53 clean. And then they put things like alcohol and other things that burn on it so it can take all of the things that are bad out of it, then they bandage it up. Why? Because if you don't take out the garbage that's in
32:05 there, it's gonna get even more infected when it gets bandaged. Right? We do the same things in our sin. Hey, Lord. Forgive me. I'm not gonna deal with it, but just forgive me. I mean, bandage it up. Patch it up so I can
32:16 move on. God's not interested in bandaging it up. He's interested in going deep into your heart and to plunge into the areas that are sinful and free you from it. And I'm telling you, it's 1 of the most difficult things
32:27 that we ever do, but it's the most freeing thing you can ever do too. I'm using illustration here. I probably shouldn't use it on a Sunday morning, but if you've ever gotten sick before, it's 1 of the worst things that
32:39 ever happens. If you're kneeling around the toilet and projectile is coming out of your mouth, there is no more humbling position I can think of than that. Those are times you don't invite your friends and
32:51 family over, you're not taking pictures, you're not doing... It's just, but tell me if it's not true. You felt sick and you felt sick and you felt sick. As it's coming out, it's like, thank goodness. I hate this, but
33:02 it's gone. And when you're done, that's what it's like to confess your sins. Because if you don't, it's like you're suppressing it and you're keeping it down and you're still
33:14 feeling sick, and the fever heat of summer is on you, and God's hand is on you, like, I'm showing you it's you bro. Every Sunday you come to church, it's the same thing. I'm showing you but you're not dealing with it and
33:24 we don't want to deal with it. And God's like, hey, give it to me. And when you do, it will free you up. Amen? So come to God honest and broken and ask God to wash your sin completely. And then do this, plead with God
33:36 to heal and restore your relationship with him. And for David, this is not just about getting his sin forgiven so he can go on with his life. It's... He wants the relationship with his father restored. So he says in
33:47 verse 10, create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. That word creates the same word you see in Genesis chapter 1, where God creates the whole world out of nothing. He's saying, create
33:59 in me a heart like that. And why is he going after the heart? Because God doesn't go after your behaviors. He goes after your heart and your heart's the reason you sin all those behaviors. Jesus said, it's not what goesShow more
Pastor Jeff Schwarzentraub135K followers
