Nazarene 101 – Repentance April 2, 2017 Psalms 51:1-17

“In a Peanuts comic strip, Lucy and Charlie Brown were practicing football. Lucy would hold the ball to allow Charlie Brown to kick it and at the last second she would pull it out and Charlie Brown would end up falling flat on his back. Well, one day, Lucy was holding the ball, but Charlie Brown would not kick it. Lucy said “Please?” But Charlie Brown said, "No! Every time I try to kick it, you pull it away and I fall on my back." They argued back and forth for the longest time. Finally, Lucy says “Charlie Brown, I have treated you so badly over the years. But I’ve seen the error of my ways! I was wrong. Won’t you please give me another chance?" Charlie Brown felt bad for her. He said "Of course, I’ll give you another chance." He steps back. He runs toward the ball. At the last second, Lucy picks up the ball and Charlie Brown falls flat on his back. Lucy walks over to him and says "Recognizing your faults and actually changing your ways are two different things, Charlie Brown!" (Lucy had not really repented for her actions)

The Nazarene Church gives a good definition of repentance in this eighth article. VIII. Repentance We believe that repentance, which is a sincere and thorough change of the mind in regard to sin, involving a sense of personal guilt and a voluntary turning away from sin, is demanded of all who have by act or purpose become sinners against God. The Spirit of God gives to all who will repent the gracious help of penitence of heart and hope of mercy, that they may believe unto pardon and spiritual life. (2 Chronicles 7:14; Psalms 32:5-6; 51:1-17; Isaiah 55:6-7; Jeremiah 3:12-14; Ezekiel 18:30-32; 33:14-16; Mark 1:14-15; Luke 3:1-14; 13:1-5; 18:9-14; Acts 2:38; 3:19; 5:31; 17:30-31; 26:16- 18; Romans 2:4; 2 Corinthians 7:8-11; 1 Thessalonians 1:9; 2 Peter 3:9)

King wrote most of the psalms, and this one comes out of a very real and personal tragedy that David committed. You can read the story in 2 Samuel chap. 11. David, one evening is on the roof of the palace and sees a woman bathing in her home. He lusts for her and sends for her and ends up sleeping with her. Her name is and she is married to one of David’s soldiers, Uriah the Hittite. Well, Bathsheba becomes pregnant and lets David know. So, David sends for Uriah hoping he will sleep with his wife and make the problem go away. But Uriah is an honorable man and thinks about his friends on the battlefield and doesn’t feel right celebrating while his fellow soldiers are fighting for their lives. So, David’s plan is a bust, and instead he does something even darker, he has Uriah killed on the battlefield by leaving him stranded and the enemy swarm him. He dies and David makes Bathsheba one of his wives.

But of course, God saw all this and sends the Prophet to confront David with his sin. And on top of this David is told his newborn son will die for his sinful actions. So, after this confrontation, David writes this Psalm to repent of his sinful actions and be renewed in his relationship to the Father.

What can we further learn about the gift of repentance through this Psalm? David begins with a call for mercy. He begs God to clean him, to wash him, to blot out his transgressions. He doesn’t ignore the sin. We would say that he has heard the Holy Spirit’s promptings through what Nathan shared. He says in verse 3, “my sin is always before me.”

In verse 4, he makes this statement that he has sinned against God only. I was wondering if he was ignoring the others like Bathsheba, Uriah, and . But I think he is just starting at the top. He was given this kingship by God and it is God’s name he has truly harmed

Page | 1 in the process. He even recognizes that his sin has been with him before birth, a reminder of Adam’s sin that brought it to all humanity.

Notice again, David makes his appeal, but this time he associates it with faith: “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean… wash me, and I will be whiter than snow… let me hear joy and gladness” (Psalm 51:7-8). The purging is with hyssop, an aromatic herb used in the sprinkling of blood at the first Passover (see Exodus 12 :22). Interesting to note, it was also used for the cleansing of lepers (see Leviticus 14:6-8). David was faced with the leprosy of sin in his own life. The penalty for both adultery and murder was death, with no provision for their forgiveness in the Jewish faith. Yet somehow, he believed that God could provide a sacrifice and blood could be sprinkled even for his sins!

Repentance is a prominent theme throughout scripture. It was the heart of John the Baptist’s message when he began his preaching. Both John and Jesus called for repentance. “repent for the Kingdom of heaven has come near” (Matthew 3:2, 4:17).

Both John and Jesus associated repentance with the Kingdom of God. As humans, we have been called to turn around, to reconfigure our hearts and lives. We have been called to live a radically new way of life in light of the kingdom that Jesus taught throughout his ministry.

This story comes from Sermoncentral.com. “I was reading about a martial arts fighter. He came forward at a Billy Graham crusade and accepted Christ as his Savior when he was 12 years old. But he never really committed his life to serving Christ. He went on to become the karate middleweight champion of the world for eight straight years. He appeared in karate movies, and in one movie, he fights against Bruce Lee in a death match! Years later, he starred in the hit TV series Walker, Texas Ranger. He was successful in almost every area of his life. But he never had a relationship with God. One day, he came home from work, and he saw his wife Gina reading . He says “You’re not getting religious on me, are you?” She said “This is good stuff! You should read this.” So, he sits down on the couch and reads the Bible with her. And the Spirit of God starts working him over. He says “You need to come back to Christ. You need to finish what you started when you were 12 years old! You need to make Him the Lord of your life.” And so, Chuck Norris surrendered his life to Christ. Except this time, Norris’ life was transformed. If you watch the last two seasons of “Walker, Texas Ranger,” you’ll see a much stronger emphasis on faith in Christ. After the show ended, Norris and his wife got involved in all kinds of ministries. He helps out with the Trinity broadcasting network, the Billy Graham Association, the Make a Wish foundation. He also began the Kickstart Kids program, which ministers to at risk students in junior high schools across America. In other words, Norris doesn’t just mentally acknowledge Jesus Christ. His life has been turned around because of Jesus Christ!” (From a sermon by Marc Axelrod, Jesus Came to Preach Good News, 11/23/2009)

The OT involved the sacrificial system in regards to repentance, but the NT teaches that with Jesus coming into the world he brought about a new situation where all people are called to turn around, not just the Jews. Paul says in Acts 17:30 that God, “commands all people everywhere to repent.

David does help us to understand what repentance looks like. Look at verse 17, “My sacrifice, O God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.” We see that the admission of guilt due to a repentant and humble heart is exactly what God requires

Page | 2 for the forgiveness of sin. Paul reminds us in Romans 2:5 what an unrepentant heart does. “But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.”

The single most important aspect of repentance is a broken heart. In fact, as Paul says in that verse, a hardened heart will eventually doom every person (or nation) that is unwilling to be broken before God. It is what brought down Egypt when Pharaoh’s heart was hardened against the people of Israel and it continues to be the downfall of every nation that puts itself above the laws of God. Without true repentance, every single person will fall. That is why God urged His people to repentance. He wants us to live in peace, love, and harmony, but when we live outside of God’s will, we are doomed to fall.

The second thing that repentance requires is prayer. We need to go to God and ask for forgiveness and tell Him that you are in the wrong. He already knows it. David was confronted with his sin by Nathan. God needs to hear that you know it as well. We usually require the same thing from our kids. When they do wrong, we want them to ask us for forgiveness. It should be happening in our marriages as well. Far too often, we allow things to just blow over without any true closure because no one is willing to ask for forgiveness. All that does is cause resentment to build up because there has been nothing resolved. In our relationship with God, we must develop the humility to know that we are wrong and then we should ask for forgiveness for that wrong.

After praying and asking for forgiveness, we must seek God. How do we do that? In our case, that is much easier than it was in biblical times because we have His word to read. It is in His word that we learn what it is to live the Christian life. We must show God that we want to do what is right by seeking to understand what He says is right and the way that we do that is by reading His word.

The last thing that God requires is for us to turn from our wickedness. It’s not enough to just recognize it as sin, we must walk away from those actions as well. That is the true meaning of repentance. We must desire to change and do what is right. That doesn’t mean that we won’t fall. It means that we know that those actions are wrong and that we intend to cease doing them and to do what is right. Satan knows that his actions are wrong but he has no intention of ever doing what is right.

In repentance, we are then able to use the positive benefits in our reconciliation with God. The Holy Spirit fills us and empowers us. In verse 12, David asks for God’s spirit to sustain him. And in that empowerment, we are equipped to teach others about God and see them changed as they too repent of their actions.

“In 2001, Tim Goeglein started running the White House Office of Public Liaison, providing him almost daily access to then President George W. Bush for seven years. Then it all ended abruptly on February 29, 2008. A well-known blogger revealed the startling fact that 27 out of 39 of Goeglein's published articles had been plagiarized. By mid-afternoon the next day, Goeglein's career in the White House was over. Goeglein, who admitted his guilt, said that this began "a personal crisis unequaled in my life, bringing great humiliation on my wife and children, my family, and my closest friends, including the President of the United States." Goeglein was summoned to the White House to face the President. Once inside the Oval Office, Goeglein shut the door, turned to the President and said, "I owe you an..." President Bush simply said: "Tim, you are forgiven."

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Tim was speechless. He tried again: "But sir..." The President interrupted him again, with a firm "Stop." Then President Bush added, "I have known grace and mercy in my life, and you are forgiven." After a long talk, a healing process was launched for Goeglein, which included repentance, reflection, and spiritual growth. "Political power can lead to pride," Goeglein later reflected. "That was my sin. One hundred percent pride. But offering and receiving forgiveness is a different kind of strength. That's the kind of strength I want to develop now." (Warren Cole Smith, "Wins & Losses," World magazine, 10-23-10, p. 11. From a sermon by C. Philip Green, Love and Longing, 5/13/2011. Taken from Sermoncentral.com)

David shows us what repentance looks like and that was before Christ and the cross. And even in repentance as we decide to, we are given help to turn away from sin by the power of the Holy Spirit. God is for you. He desires to use us in our everyday lives to be teachers of what a repentant life in Christ looks like. The reality is we cannot be followers of God and still live a life of sin. He calls us to be different than the rest of the world. What might God be saying to you today in these moments. Do not ignore His voice. Even prodigals can come home and be embraced.

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