A PRAYER OF DEEP CONFESSION


A. "BEHOLD I WAS SHAPEN IN INIQUITY, AND IN SIN DID MY MOTHER CONCEIVE ME" - PSALMS 51:5
  1. The Psalmist freely acknowledges:
    1. That he is a sinner - Rom. 3:23
    2. That he is a sinner by nature - he was born in sin - "my mother hath conceived in sin"
  2. In this, David speaks for all of us:
    1. We all have demonstrated that we are sinners - Rom. 3:9-18
    2. The scripture hath put all under sin - Gal. 3:22
B. LET US CONSIDER THE DEEPER IMPLICATIONS OF OUR OPENING TEXT
  1. It begins with the word "behold":
    1. This is a word of power - it takes hold
    2. It demands attention - John 1:29
    3. It marks the solemnity and seriousness of the things to be brought before us
    4. The veil is so far lifted. In the light of God, we get a glimpse into the awful secrets of the heart - Jer. 17:9
  2. The secrets of sin are found in the corrupt heart:
    1. Says the prophet Jeremiah, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it" - Jer. 17:9
    2. Says Jesus, "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies; these are the things which defile a man" - Matt. 15:19-20
    3. Writes Paul, "For I know that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing" Rom. 7:18
  3. That the evil of sin is seen in the contradiction of truth:
    1. God desireth "Truth in the inward parts" but instead it is the opposite - it is sin that dwells in the heart
    2. Instead of law - self-will; instead of order - chaos; instead of the spirit of unity enmity and strife
    3. The mind and the will are in contradiction to God - Rom. 7:14-25; 8:6-7
    4. It is that which makes sin so terrible and the cure so difficult - Gen. 17:9; we may whitewash the sepulcher, but cannot change the dead man.
C. THIS ALL MEANS THAT DELIVERANCE FROM SIN CAN ONLY BE EFFECTED BY THE RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF GOD'S AUTHORITY IN THE HEART
  1. What this implies:
    1. A new creation says the prophet Ezekiel, "A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statues, and ye shall keep My judgments and do them" - Ez. 36:26-27
    2. Writes Paul, "Therefore if any man be in Christ Jesus, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things have become new" - 2 Cor. 5:14-18
    3. In Ephesians 2:10 Paul continues this important discourse by stating, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them"
  2. Thus we see:
    1. That David points to hereditary sin that was responsible, at least in part, for his great and terrible sin
    2. We know from our own experience that the sin born with us when we come into this world, gives continuous trouble and many sorrows
    3. And there is none of us exempt from the original and inherited sin
  3. But God, who knows us all the way:
    1. Has found a ransom - the life of His only begotten Son - compare Job 33:22 with Matt. 20:28; Mark 10:45; I Tim. 2:6
    2. He has undertaken to change our sinful nature as we have shown before; He has set himself a goal - to make a new creature of the sinner
    3. This He did wonderfully with David, the great sinner; and this He does for all who accept Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour
  4. The Prayer of David - as indicated in our opening text is a great revelation:
    1. Of sin - its nature and its roots
    2. But it is, also, a revelation of God's infinite love - toward the sinner and that includes all of us
    3. That love is till at work seeking to save the lost - to change their sinful nature and make sons and daughters of God


Design © John Bryant 2011