Second-Class Children

 

Frenchie, our Bichon Friese, loves to curl up next to me while I’m watching television or typing on my laptop. On the other hand, Happy Bear, our Pomeranian, usually stays across the room on the carpet as Frenchie cuddles next to me. I can’t help buy melt when I see him looking at me, his front legs tucked under his muzzle and his coal-black eyes staring mournfully at me as if to say, “Don’t you want me to be next to you, also?”

Of course I do. So, I get up, gently carry him to the couch and lay him on my chest. Invariably, Happy takes a deep sigh, rests his muzzle on my thigh, and falls asleep as I continue watching television. Those who own dogs or cats know it just doesn’t get any better than that.

I suppose I could be accused of anthropomorphizing our dogs, associating human characteristics to them. But it happens nearly 100% of the time when Frenchie is curled up next to me and I have to gather Happy Bear to be with us on the couch.

 

I use that image to try to illustrate an important point about God and His children who have come to Him by faith in His Son, Jesus Christ.

One day recently, when Happy was looking desolately at Frenchie and me, a thought dropped into my head. How many Christians feel like they’re less loved than others in God’s family?

 

In the past half-century that I’ve walked with the Lord, I’ve met many Christians who, like Happy Bear, think of themselves as second-class children of God, as if the Father prefers to snuggle up with others of His children but remains distant to them.

 

What a tragedy it is to believe God plays favorites among His own children. We’ll find NOTHING of that in the whole of Scripture. Indeed, we find quite the opposite. For example, listen to James speak to that false idea: (James 2:9) "But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors." Or this text in Proverbs 28:21 – “To show partiality is not good, because for a piece of bread a man will transgress.” And since God warns us against showing partiality to others, do we think He violates His own commandment? Of course not!

 

Now hear our Lord Jesus speak: John 16:27 “For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from the Father.”  Listen to the apostle John: (1 John 3:1) “See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.”

 

These texts, and every one like them, are not directed at the few of God’s children, or even to the many. They are directed to 100% of them. Why do you think Jesus spoke of the Good Shepherd who left the 99 to look for the one? It’s because He loves the one as much as the 99.

 

Some of you might remember the Smothers’ Brothers Comedy Hour. The audience roared with laughter when Tommy complained to his brother Dick, “Mom always liked you best.”

 

But it’s never funny when such things are true in a family, as happens far too often even in Christian families, when a child feels his parent cares more for a sibling than for him or her. And such poisonous relationships hold within themselves the seeds of family discord and destruction.

 

Think for a moment about how it turned out for Isaac and Rebecca’s sons – Jacob and Esau. Jacob knew their father cared more for Esau than for him, and Esau could easily sense their mother cared more for Jacob than him.

 

AND how did that all turn out? If you know the story, Esau’s progeny remained at war with Jacob’s progeny for generations. It’s all recorded in Genesis and throughout the Old Testament when the writers talk about Edom – another name for Esau. In fact, Herod Antipas – ruler over Israel in the days of John the Baptist and Jesus the Christ – was of Edomite (Idumean) descent.

 

The sin of favoritism carried over to Jacob’s children. Jacob made it no secret that he cared more for his son Joseph than he did for his other eleven sons. They, in turn, were so jealous of Joseph that they sold him into Egyptian slavery and let their father, Jacob, believe a wild beast had killed him.

 

So, what does all this have to do with us in 2026? I know that kind of destructive favoritism happens in a lot of families. And it should not be surprising when a Christian who comes from such a family carries that hurt into their relationship with God, thinking God doesn’t love them like He loves others. It’s not surprising that they think of themselves as second-class children in the family of God.

 

Some of you may come from families like that, which is why you’re not absolutely convinced that your Father in heaven loves you equally as he loves the person sitting next to you.

 

Oh! But He does. God is Love itself (1 John 4:8,16). He’s the very essence of love. There is no part of Him that is not 100% love. Therefore, it’s impossible that He would be partial to any of His children. In fact, Jesus Himself tells us that the Father loves EVERY child in His family as much as He loves His Son, Jesus. I won’t read it now but look at John 17:23 later for homework and you’ll find that inviolable assurance.

 

I repeat that last statement for emphasis: God’s love for you is the same length and depth and height and breadth as is His love for Jesus. My brothers and sisters in Christ, I hope the Scripture once and for all puts to rest the lie about God’s alleged favoritism.

 

And that brings us to another, yet related, question: Can we do anything that will make God love any of us less? To answer that question, let’s look again at God’s infallible words to us and first ask: What did you do to make Him love you in the first place?

 

The answer is – nothing. As God tells us through Paul’s pen: (Ephesians 2:1-2) “You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.”

 

Please hear this: Before God called you to Himself, you were dead. D-E-D dead. And dead people can’t do anything to make someone else love them. Therefore, that means God loved you before He even drew you to Himself. God loved you as much as He does now, even when you were dead in your sins.  As the apostle wrote to the Christians at Rome: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

 

So, then, And again, (Galatians 3:3) “Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?”

 

So to answer that question, “Can we DO anything that will make God love any of us less – or more?” The answer is, of course, a resounding no. God loves you today as much as He has ever loved you. And the height and depth and breadth and length of His love for any and every one of His children through Christ will always be equal to His love for Jesus.

 

Period. End of story.

 

But despite that Biblical truth, some still argue, “Then why do such bad things happen to me while other Christians live such easy lives?”

 

Okay, fair question. My answer?  I don’t really know. I’ve asked the same question myself at times. But let’s turn again to God’s infallible words to us and see if we can’t draw some conclusions.

 

For example, listen to Romans 5:1-5 “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and  perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

 

I do not know why some Christians seem to float along gently flowing streams of life while others often struggle with loss and pain and heartache. But I do know this, based on the whole testimony of Scripture – God does not love any less the one who struggles than the one who floats nearly effortlessly. AND – and this is important – God uses all of our trials and failures and broken hearts and shattered dreams – He uses them all for our GOOD who have been called to His divine purposes.

 

Furthermore, and intricately coupled to that truth, we also need to be reminded of this divine and binding promise: Nothing will separate us from His love. Nothing – except, of course, ongoing willful sin.

 

Listen again to the Scriptures: Romans 8:35-39 “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 

And I say it again for emphasis – this promise is not for only some, or even for most, of God’s children. This promise applies to 100% of those who have entered God’s family through repentance and obedient faith in Christ Jesus.

 

I hope that now we are all on the same proverbial sheet of music, that being, God does not play favorites with any of His children, and that He equally loves each of us as much as He loves His Son, Jesus.

 

I also hope that we all believe that there is NOTHING we can do to make God love us less than He does, or more than He does right now. And finally, although we will never fully understand why some Christians seem to float through life on gentle streams while others move from one tumultuous series of rapids to another – the truth is that God uses every circumstance in our lives for our ultimate good.

 

The 23^rd psalm is not a promise only for a few of God’s children. The promise of the psalm applies equally to 100% of His children: “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for Thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

 

Now then, as I begin to bring this message to a close, let’s change our focus 180° and ask a pointed question most Christians rarely ask themselves. Instead of wondering how much God loves me and you, let’s turn it around and ask ourselves how much do we love God? Instead of asking, ‘Does God love me less He loves others, let’s ask ourselves, “Do I love God less than I love myself?” Do I love God less than I love my comfort, or my family, or my friends, or my finances, or my entertainment, or living life ‘your way,’  . . . or whatever.

 

Said another way, “Do I love anyone or anything more than I love God?

 

That’s a question worthy of long and careful consideration. And that question raises another yet question: What is the test of my degree of love for God?

 

The answer to that question is easy when we look into the Scriptures, all of which serve as a mirror of our hearts. As the Holy Spirit tells us: (Hebrews 4:12-13) “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”

 

What is the test of my degree of love for God? Listen to Jesus: “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” (John 14:15) And again, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” – or anything else, for that matter. (Matthew 6:24)

 

In other words, to the degree that I obey God is the degree to which I love Him. Now, let me pause to make an important point: No one has ever served God with 100% obedience 100% of the time. That’s why Scripture repeatedly tells us, for example, (Romans 3:23) “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God;” And (1 John 1:8) “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us.” 

 

That’s why God’s gift of forgiveness to the penitent is so incredibly wondrous. But his willingness to forgive our sins does not nullify our responsibility to demonstrate our love for God by making the correct choice between two masters – ourselves or God. It does not abrogate our responsibility to demonstrate our love for God by doing His will instead of our own.

So, please, my brothers and sisters, for the sake of your spiritual health and maturity in Christ, let’s stop entertaining the question of whether God loves you as much as He loves someone else. Let’s stop acting like my Pomeranian who seems to think I love our Bichon more than I love him. From Genesis through Revelation, God has answered the question of His equally measureless love for all His children, regardless of and despite their individual life circumstances. God has revealed to us through His infallible words that He loves equally all who name the name of Jesus as their Lord.

 

Let’s leave off with such questions which all have their yes and amen in Christ. Instead, let’s ask ourselves – often ask ourselves – the more relevant question: Do I love God less than I love something or someone else? And if the answer is not what it should be – then ask what must be done about that.

 

Repent, of course. And ask God to change our hearts toward more confidence in His promises and to be more consistently obedient to His will.

 

 

If Not, Why Not?

 

My text today is from the first verse of the first chapter of Paul’s letter to the Christians at Rome. But because context is always important when we study any subject – and especially so when we study God’s word – I will read the first several verses of the chapter:

 

Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name’s sake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ; to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Obviously, the apostle Paul did not take a composition class in high school. I don’t know how many words there are in this run-on sentence in the Greek language, but in this English translation, there are 132 words. Yes, he used a lot of commas – but no periods to let the reader catch his breath.

 

Well, I am not here today to critique the apostle’s writing. What I AM here to do today is to focus our attention on some important points Paul makes – points directly related to our walk with Christ – and to our work for Christ.

 

Before we get there, I need to first say that I believe what I am about to say is nothing that most of you have known and believed for many years. But as the apostle Peter communicated to his readers, so I now do the same thing: “Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth which is present with you.  I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder, knowing that the laying aside of my earthly dwelling is imminent, as also our Lord Jesus Christ has made clear to me. And I will also be diligent that at any time after my departure you will be able to call these things to mind.” (2 Peter 1:12-15)

And as an aside, no, I do not have any premonition that the Lord will soon be taking me to Himself, but – who knows what a day or a week may bring?

So, back to the first verse in Romans chapter one. I want to draw attention to three foundational points in this first verse:

 

First, we ought to remind ourselves who Paul was before his Damascus Road encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. The man – known at the time as Saul – was a religious terrorist. This is not a point to gloss over. Here is his own testimony as he spoke before King Agrippa and the Governor Festus: (Acts 26) “I thought to myself that I had to do many things hostile to the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this is just what I did in Jerusalem; not only did I lock up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, but also when they were being put to death I cast my vote against them. And as I punished them often in all the synagogues, I tried to force them to blaspheme; and being furiously enraged at them, I kept pursuing them even to foreign cities. (Acts 26:9-11)

 

Why is Paul’s history important? Because God demonstrates through this man – as He has repeatedly shown us throughout Biblical history – no one is beyond the reach of God’s mercy.  No one. Not you. Not me. No one.

 

Therefore, for us to say about someone – or about ourselves! – “There is no sense in praying for him, or inviting him to Bible study, or to talk with him or her about Jesus. To say and believe such things is to deny God’s power.

 

Here is what Paul said of himself in this regard (1 Timothy 1) - It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life. (1 Timothy 1:15-15)

 

I hope you caught that last part of this section. Paul, the former violent blasphemer and persecutor of every Christian man and woman he could find, wrote: “For this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.”

 

That is precisely why Paul could also write to Timothy: “I thank God, whom I serve with a clear conscience . . . .” (2 Timothy 1:3)

 

A clear conscience. Why do you think Paul had a clear conscience, considering all he had done to Christians? Because he knew God’s mercy took all his sins and placed them under the blood of Jesus. He knew his dark slate of sin was wiped clean, on one side and then the other, through and through. Not a stain remained.

 

The relevance to 2026? Do you have a clear conscience? Are you as certain of that YOUR sins are completely erased as the former terrorist Paul was certain that His were gone, washed by the blood of Jesus?

 

I know you’ve heard this point from me a hundred times over the years you’ve sat in those seats – and you will hear it another hundred times if the Lord continues to give me this podium. So hear it is again: You can have a clear conscience, if only you repent of whatever sin is holding you back from a close and intimate relationship with God.

 

The promise God made and fulfilled for the former blasphemer and persecutor of the Church is also offered to you and me – and to everyone at your table in the dining room, and to all the other tables in the dining room, and to everyone who works in this building. And to everyone beyond the perimeter of this building.

 

I love what Fanny Crosby wrote about this message of evangelism:

 

“Rescue the perishing, care for the dying/Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave/Weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen/Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.

 

Though they are slighting Him, still He is waiting/Waiting the penitent child to receive/Plead with them earnestly, plead with them gently/He will forgive if they only believe.”

 

Time is too short to miss this urgent call of God who said, “Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel.” How many residents here died in the last 12 months? How many of them were not Christians? Do you realize where those who died without Christ are at this moment?  I didn’t ask where they ‘might be’ – but do you understand where they ARE right now if they died without Christ Jesus.

And how many in Ashwood Meadows will die in the next 12 months? Maybe someone at your table, or at the tables around your table. Listen again, God saved Paul. Don’t ever think God is not able to save anyone.

 

And let me be quick to say, sharing your faith with others does not require you or me to do anything extraordinary. For example, and we’ve talked about this before – do you bow your head before you eat your meal in the dining room?  If not, why not? Are you praying for people here? Do you have a prayer partner?  If not, why not?

 

Do you invite people at your table to the Thursday Prayer meeting, or the Friday Bible study, or Sunday church service? If not, why not? If some have told you they won’t come because I’m not of their particular church – well, they have you to vouch for what I have to say about God that transcends denominational labels. Invite them to ‘come and hear’ for themselves.

 

Brothers and sisters, I’m trying to encourage each of us to help others learn again of God’s love for them while they still have time to learn – and respond favorably – to His love.

 

Let’s now look at what else Paul tells us in that first verse

 

Paul calls himself a bond-servant of Christ Jesus. A slave. Paul’s readers knew exactly what a bond-servant was. Much of their population were slaves. Paul understood he was no longer his own. He had been bought with a precious price.

 

What does it mean to be a slave of Jesus Christ?  That’s a good question, isn’t it? A reasonable question. We’ve looked at this question before. And let me add, if we know our heart is soft toward God, then we also know what it means to live under the ownership of Christ.

 

Paul often wrote about what such slavery to Christ looks like. For example, here in his what he wrote to the Christians at Galatia: (Galatians 5:19-24,26 NLT) “ When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. . . .Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there . . . Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another.”

 

Is this easy to do, to be a slave of Jesus Christ? Of course not. Our flesh recoils at the idea of fully and unquestionably submitting ourselves to someone else – even to God. But such submission is God’s absolute requirement for spiritual growth and learning to walk by faith with the Master. Will I – will you – fully submit to God’s will in our day-by-day interactions? We have a choice, don’t we?

 

You may remember what Joshua said to the people after they’d crossed into the Promised Land – a land full of flagrant immorality and idolatry and a culture of death not too dissimilar to our culture in America today. Listen to what he said to the people then – and what God says to us here today:

 

(Joshua 24:14-15) “Now, therefore, fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the Lord. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve . . . but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

 

As I prepared this message I was reminded of the hymn by Isaac Watts:

 

When I survey the wondrous cross/On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss/And pour contempt on all my pride.

 

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast/Save in the death of Christ my God!
All the vain things that charm me most/I sacrifice them to His blood.

See from His head, His hands, His feet/Sorrow and love flow mingled down!/Did e’er such love and sorrow meet/Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

 

Were the whole realm of nature mine/That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine/Demands my soul, my life, my all.

 

Paul continues in this first verse to the third point. He tells his readers that God called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God.” God called him to tell others the good news of salvation.

 

And that raises an important principle related to our hearing, reading and reflecting on God’s word. You may remember this vignette in Matthew 21:

 

“When He entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him while He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?” Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?” And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the people; for they all regard John as a prophet.” And answering Jesus, they said, “We do not know.” He also said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. (Matthew 21:23-27)

 

My brothers and sisters here at Ashwood: If what the apostle Paul wrote to the Christians at Rome is NOT fully and inerrantly from God Himself through His word, then we are wasting our time trying to learn how to please and serve and follow our Lord because we have no sure word of faith and truth to guide us.

 

But, on the other hand, if what Paul and the other writers of Scripture wrote is from God Himself through His word we call the Bible, then we are responsible to obey its dictates and commandments – and that without wiggle-room. 

 

Let me now conclude my message today:

 

In those first few words of chapter one the Holy Spirit declares to us at least three points of reference which undergird the rest of the 16 chapters of this book:

 

1. Never think anyone is outside of God’s reach of mercy. If God’s mercy extended to the former terrorist Paul, God’s mercy will extend to anyone anywhere on this planet.

 

2. Being a slave of Christ means we have voluntarily chosen to go and to do and to say WHATEVER He commands. But if we choose to not be a full and complete slave of Jesus Christ, then we have also chosen to not belong to Him. That’s a very simple equation. If Jesus is not fully Lord of my life, then Jesus is not my Lord at all. And I remind us of what Jesus asked those around Him in Luke 6:46 - “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” 

 

Good question, isn’t it? A reasonable question, isn’t it? An eternally consequential question, isn’t it?

 

3. God called Paul to give the one-of-a-kind message of hope, exhortation, challenge, and warning to a world in need of hearing from God – not only those in first century Rome. The same God calls you and me to give to others the same one-of-a-kind message to our generation – including those here as Ashwood Meadows in 2026.

 

A one-of-a-kind message: God became human for one purpose – to seek and to save the lost. God became human to call sinners to repentance. God became human so that everyone who comes to Him by faith in Christ’s sacrificial atonement could live forever with Him in His eternal kingdom.

 

His command to “Go into all the world” was not consigned only to the first century. If we don’t go, if we don’t speak, if we don’t give so others can go – then why not?

He Knows our Frame

 

Last week we looked at a passage in Isaiah 46 which is representative of God’s mercy toward the penitent. I referred last week to Peter’s thrice denial of the Lord and his eventual reconciliation with Christ as one of countless examples of God’s mercy toward any penitent. Today, we look at King David’s sin with Bathsheba and the arrangement for her husband’s murder. I’ve spoken about this in the past, and I do it again because it illustrates how honest confession and repentance brings complete forgiveness and full reconciliation with God.

 

A full nine months after David’s sins with Bathsheba and his murder of her husband – nine months during which he could have gotten himself right again with God but did not, God finally sent Nathan the prophet to rebuke him.

 

Listen to Nathan: “Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon. Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’ Thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. Indeed you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and under the sun.’” 

 

“Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die.” (2 Samuel 12:9-14)

 

For nine months – as we will see shortly in Psalm 32 which David also wrote after the prophet’s rebuke – for nine months David resisted his guilty conscience. For nine months, David tried to avoid thinking about what he’d done.

 

Have you been there and done that? Perhaps not for nine months – maybe it was only a day or a week. Or perhaps it’s been years that you’ve been fighting that inconvenient nagging of the Holy Spirit in the back of your mind. David finally could no longer – David finally would no longer – fight the Spirit’s hand on him. Listen to his prayer recorded in Psalm 51:1-12

 

“Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge . . . Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit.”

 

Let’s take a few moments to examine this prayer more closely because it has deeply applicable relevance to each of us in this sanctuary.

 

First, David knew his sins of adultery and murder where first and foremost sins against God. Indeed, ALL sins – what we might call big sins, little sins, and in-between sins – all sins are ultimately sins against the Almighty and His laws. “Against you, you only have I sinned,” David confessed.

 

The Catholic Prayer of Contrition recognizes the point about all sins being sins against God Himself: O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin.

 

Second, David took full responsibility for his sins. He did not try to soft-pedal them, make excuses for them, shift the blame for them. Confession is not honest confession unless we fully own up to our treachery against God’s laws.

 

Over the years I’ve heard people rationalize their sins with some ludicrous tripe prefaced with, “God understands” – as in, “God understands I did it because I’m lonely, or angry, or have bills to pay, or it’s my right, or it’s my body, or ‘all the other ‘Christians’ are doing it,’ or God wants me to be happy, or any of a dozen other self-blinding and self-hardening excuses.

 

Third, David appeals to God for His grace: “Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Your compassion blot out my transgressions. The word he uses for ‘grace’ can also be translated as ‘mercy.’ In other words, David asks God’s grace – that He will NOT give him what he so rightly deserves – meaning, wrath. Likewise, translated as mercy, David asks God to give him what he does not deserve, meaning full pardon.  

 

Notice, David asks for grace or mercy, not at all on his own merits – how faithful and obedient he’d been before the Bathsheba incident, or that God considered him a man after His own heart, as God had told Samuel the prophet – but David asked God for grace and mercy because of who God is: Compassionate, merciful, and gracious.

 

Do we sometimes approach God, asking for something – whether favor or forgiveness, or for anything else – thinking God will do it because of what WE’VE done? For example, how often we tithe, or attend Mass or church services, or our kindness to others, or our willingness to forgive others, or for any of dozen ‘good things’ we do and have done.

 

But listen to the Lord Jesus speak to that point: “Which of you, having a slave plowing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come immediately and sit down to eat’? But will he not say to him, ‘Prepare something for me to eat, and properly clothe yourself and serve me while I eat and drink; and afterward you may eat and drink’? He does not thank the slave because he did the things which were commanded, does he? So you too, when you do all the things which are commanded you, say, ‘We are unworthy slaves; we have done only that which we ought to have done.’” (Luke 17:7-10)

 

Wow.  That surely cuts at a person’s pride and inclination to boast in their good works as a basis for God’s favor, doesn’t it? And so David continued: According to YOUR lovingkindness and YOUR greatness, “Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.”

 

Then David moved from confession to supplication and then to a prayer for transformation. He knew what he’d done was wrong. It was wicked. It was evil. And not only did he beg to be forgiven and cleansed of his wickedness, but more than that – he wanted a heart-change. “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

 

Without a heart change, we’re just rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic of our lives. And we’ve all lived long enough and dealt with our sin natures often enough that we all should readily acknowledge how utterly desperate we all are for the Holy Spirit to change our hearts to the degree that we hate even our sinful thoughts and immediately repent of them before our holy God.

 

How often do you ask God to change your heart and change your attitude toward your sins – the so-called little sins and the middle-of-the-road sins? Many of you remember another of David’s psalms – this one probably written after the Bathsheba/Uriah incident. Here is how he closed Psalm 139: “Search me, O God, and know my heart; Try me and know my anxious thoughts; And see if there be any hurtful way in me and lead me in the everlasting way.” (Psalm 139:23-24)

 

I know it happens, but I’m unsure of a person’s rationalization to avoid praying this kind of prayer. Why would any Christian not ask God to show them their sins? Such revelation would not be to make them guilt-ridden, but only for lead them in a life of holiness, honesty, and integrity before Him.

 

Let’s never gloss over this eternal truth: True repentance will always lead to a transformed life; Phony repentance always leads to further ungodliness. No wonder the apostle Paul wrote: “Present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God . . . And do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Romans 12:1-2a)

 

In other words, Christian, place yourselves on the altar of God, a living sacrifice of ourselves to God that He may transform us through the supernatural working of the Holy Spirit as we study His holy Scriptures.

 

David continues his 51^st psalm with these next words “Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit.”

 

We ought to examine these two verses – indeed, the entire 51^st psalm, under the light of the 32^nd psalm, also written in the aftermath of the Bathsheba/Uriah incident. Psalm 51 is a psalm of repentance. Psalm 32, written after Psalm 51, is a psalm of reflection.

 

Here are the first verses of Psalm 32: “How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit! 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 away as with the fever heat of summer. Selah. I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”; and You forgave the guilt of my sin.” Psalm 32:1-5 

 

As I just said, Psalm 32 is a prayer of reflection as David marvels at God’s response to his repentance. And don’t think for a moment that God’s response to OUR confessions is not equally wondrous. Oh, how glorious it is to know – to be absolutely convinced  – that our confessed sins are forever forgiven, that they are carried from us as far as east is from west and buried in the deepest ocean (see Psalm 103:12 and Micah 7:19). How comforting and encouraging it is to know God covers over with His own eternal blood even our worst sins – AND that He does not, nor will He ever, count those sins against us.  

 

One might ask how could David, who lived long before Jesus died that sacrificial death for our sins – how could David be as convinced as he was that his sins related to Bathsheba and her husband were erased? Because he believed God’s promise through the prophet Nathan, “The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die. (2 Samuel 12:13)

 

And listen, please. That same message applies to you and me. When God says our confessed sins are eternally erased, it doesn’t matter who disagrees – whether a church or a pastor or a theologian or anyone else. God’s word is His uncompromisingly trustworthy bond. The penitent is cleansed of all sin. Yes, there may be consequences of sin in this life – sickness, broken relationships, financial loss, imprisonment, or whatever else God uses to chastise us – but there will be no consequences of those sins in the next life.

 

How do we know that? Well, let’s think this through: Jesus is God incarnate. He is Almighty God in the flesh of a man. So, what sin can ever run more deeply that the blood of God Himself cannot erase completely, spotlessly, eternally?

 

If we STILL must suffer for our sins after death in a place called purgatory where the so-called ‘stains’ of our sins must be cleansed, then we are saying that Almighty God’s blood is insufficient for full forgiveness. And that He has lied to us when He’s told us we’ve been forgiven.

 

Is THAT what we want to say?

 

Let’s return briefly to that 32^nd psalm. As David reflected on his sin, he wrote: “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 away as with the fever heat of summer. (Psalm 32:3-4)

 

We all know the emotional turmoil that ALWAYS plagues our conscience when we try to ignore our sin or rationalize it.  And every Christian also should know intuitively the spiritual DANGER we face when we’ve excused our sins for so long that we no longer experience a troubled conscience.

 

THAT is a very dangerous place to be. Many of you remember the warning Jesus gives to all of us in Matthew 7:21-23, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?  And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

 

The important point here is that those standing at the Judgement THOUGHT they were saved. They believed heaven was their destiny. But they were SHOCKED to discover they were wrong on both counts. They were terrified to hear Jesus reject them – eternally reject them.

 

Why is it, do we think, that Christians can live their lives so self-deceptively? The answer to that question should make us uncomfortable: It happens through step-by-step, compromise by compromise, rationalization by rationalization, slowly blinding our eyes and hardening our hearts.

 

And that answer should provide us all the more reason to be diligent in seeking God to show us our sins as only He can reveal them to us. As the apostle wrote in his letter to the Christians in Rome: “Do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.” (Romans 2:4-5)

 

Yes, we are all in danger of deceiving ourselves. But listen again to verse five of this 32^nd psalm and draw comfort from it: David wrote: “I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I did not hide; I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”; and You forgave the guilt of my sin.” (Psalm 32:5)

 

The message here is clear: Confess sin. Receive God’s forgiveness. And we will not be surprised at the Judgment.

 

Listen to Proverbs 28:13 – “He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.”

 

Not too long ago as I spoke with the Lord in prayer, I was greatly disheartened by a recurring sin. Frustrated, I said to the Lord, “I get so tired of having to apologize for the same sin again and again.”

 

I’ll never forget what He said to me. He answered, “But I never get tired of hearing you confess it.”

 

God never tires of hearing YOU confess your own sins – even again and again. Honest confession always brings full pardon. Why? As the Psalmist reminds us: For [God] Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust. (Psalm 103:14)

 

Be at peace. Trust Him to keep His promises.