Finding Forgiveness

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Welcome to the Truth Podcast. Welcome to the Truth Podcast with Dr. Dennis David had sinned against the nation when he committed this sin. David had sinned against Bathsheba when he committed this sin. David had sinned against Uriah the Hittite, the husband of Bathsheba when he committed this sin. David sinned against David sinned against himself because there were terrible consequences of his sin.

He sinned against the nation, he sinned against himself, he sinned against his own family, but ultimately sin is against God. You are listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message, Finding Forgiveness. Our world desperately needs men of God, strong men who model gentleness, lead with humility, and speak the truth in love. We want to help you identify the traits of a real man of God by sending you Dr. Jack Graham's insightful book, Man of God. Our thanks for your gift today.

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Our website again is Jack Graham.org. Now let's get back to today's message, Finding Forgiveness. It was a transgression against a holy God, but then notice he also describes sin in verse 2 as with the word iniquity which literally means crookedness. So sin is not only defiance, it is also a distortion or a deviation.

It deceives and distorts the character. The thing that you could say about David that he was a man of character, the integrity of his heart, and yet sin now has taken a straight man, a good man, and made him a crooked man. But then he uses the word sin. He says, cleanse me from my sin down in verse 2. The word sin there means to miss the mark, to fall short. Romans 3 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So sin is a distance.

It is a failure. It separates us from God. It keeps us from achieving God's best and God's standard for your life. We can rationalize sin, we can redefine it, you can excuse sin, but it is still sin and David fell short of the standard of God and he missed the mark.

He failed and he went down in flames because of sin. Sin is also a debt. See that word in verse 1, blot out my transgression?

Blot out is the picture of blotting out a debt. The cost of sin, you pay the price. David was a man who was enjoying the riches of the kingdom just as we are enjoying the riches of the kingdom of God. You are a child of the king and yet David threw away all of this, all of the riches of the king and the kingdom and he became a debtor. He was spiritually bankrupt because of his sin. Sin is a debt and then sin is a defilement. For he said wash me, look down to verse 2, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. David was a man who was clean but now he's filthy, he's dirty with his sin. His heart was full of filth and then sin is a disease. Cleanse me from my sin and that's a word which literally means to to cleanse me from my my disease of sin.

So get this picture, the picture of sin. It is a debt, it is a defilement, it is a disease, it is a distance between man and God, it is a disturbance, a distortion in the spiritual life and it is a terrible price to pay for a Christian. So a simple question, David was it worth it? You know there is pleasure in sin for a season and you could say well David you know it was a sin of passion. You know David was having a bad day and it was a sin of passion and his testosterone was rocking and rolling and you know you just you know he was a man and he failed. Yes it was a sin of passion but it became more than that didn't it? It was it was not just a passionate sin, it was a premeditated sin especially the premeditation of the murder of Uriah the Hittite. And so I mean you can't really cut David as much as you we might want to you can't cut David any slack in this and and you really can't cut yourself any slack in this because it is a a terrible thing to sin against a holy God.

And this is a deterrent for us. There's several things that keep us from sin and and one is the holy fear of God but another should be the holy fear of sin because notice what what happened to David. He was a friend of God now he's a fugitive running from God. He was he was walking the straight path and now he's crooked. He he was meeting his goals and and God had set the standard of the kingdom but now he's a failure and and he's fallen short of God's standards much less his own standards. He was he was wealthy spiritually and now he's impoverished.

He was clean and now he was dirty. He was spiritually healthy and and now he is diseased. So he covers his sin and and the pain that resulted is what is so remarkable here. Look at Psalm 51 again down about verse 8. Make me hear joy and gladness that the bones you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Created 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 uphold me by your generous spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will be converted to you. He said my sin was ever before me.

Psalm 51 8 hide your face from my sins and make me hear joy and gladness again. It affected his eyes. It affected his mind. It affected his ears.

Make me hear joy and gladness again. It affected his bones. Psalm 51 8. I mean physically he was a wreck. It affected his heart. Created me a clean heart O God.

I mean so his mind is impacted. His ears make me hear joy and gladness again. His hands look down in verse 14 deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed O God and then my tongue shall sing aloud of your righteousness. Oh Lord open my lips and my mouth shall praise set forth your praise.

Deliver me from the blood guiltiness of my hands. His hands were affected. His eyes were affected. His ears were affected. His bones were affected.

This man is falling apart wouldn't you say? And it was all because he was covering up his sin. The Proverb says whoever covers his sin will not prosper. No way can you sin and win. Spiritually, emotionally, mentally, physically he suffered. Now you can suffer without sinning but you cannot sin without suffering.

And David is suffering in ways that he could have never imagined. You know sin makes no sense does it? Particularly this sin. You talk to guys in particular about sexual sin and there's something about this sin that just short circuits the brain.

It's a distortion of the mind and the way we begin to think. And the dumbest thing is a Christian trying to cover up his sin. You know why?

Because we're not any good at it. And I'll tell you something else there's nothing more miserable than a Christian out of fellowship with God. Because he's lost his fellowship. He's lost his joy. He said restore to me the joy of my salvation.

That's verse 12. He's lost his testimony. He's lost his ability to worship God.

It's all right here in this passage. I mean he is losing it. His spirit is affected. His fellowship is affected.

His joy, his testimony, his worship. His life is in a shambles because he has sinned and he is not repented to this point. So what happened to David? Say well he must have fallen out of grace. Well thank God he didn't fall out of grace. He fell into grace. Which is a good time to say that a Christian can lose fellowship with God but you can never lose your sonship with God. He wasn't suggesting there that he was losing his salvation but he didn't want to lose the anointing of the Spirit upon his life.

And he felt that that was happening. And so David you see was was just so beaten down by his own sin the consequences of sin that he falls into the grace of God. That's what I read in the Bible. People don't fall out of grace they fall into grace when they're in grace. For the same scripture that says whoever covers his sin will not prosper tells us that whoever confesses and forsakes his sin will prosper. So David said I have sinned against God and you can hear and read so you can see the repentance here. So that that brings us to the final chapter here which is the power of confessing sin. Confession.

1st John 1 9 is is a great scripture. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now what does it mean to confess our sins?

It means to be sincere. It's not the attitude which says well if I sin I'll just confess my sin and go on do what I you know go on and live my life. If you come with confession with that kind of attitude that what I did didn't matter and I'll just go and maybe do it again I don't know. That's not confession. Confession is coming to God and being honest with God and asking him to forgive us our sins.

That was David's attitude. It was he came with a repentant heart and repentance is not penance. It's not just you know paying a penance and and then going on and not being changed. Repentance literally means to change. He was broken but now he is restored. What does the scripture say? A broken and contrite spirit God will not despise. He is truly broken by his sin and that's why he says down there I mean he's just praying for forgiveness but look back in Psalm 51 verse 7. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

How are we made whiter than snow? How are we cleanse from our sin? The blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses us from all sin. You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and today's message finding forgiveness. Today's culture has so distorted the concept of masculinity that some even reject it as toxic but our world doesn't need less manly men. We need more men of God. Men who love Jesus make loving husbands and fathers and lead as servants. We'd like to help you uncover what God says about true masculinity by sending you Dr. Graham's book Man of God.

You'll gain biblical insight into how you or the men in your life can live with purpose and passion putting Christ first and living radically for him. Man of God is our thanks for your gift to help proclaim God's Word through PowerPoint. This is the last week of this offer so call today call 1-800-795-4627 that's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text PowerPoint to 59789. And don't forget to visit Jack Graham dot org where you can shop our e-store give a gift online or sign up for Dr. Graham's free daily email devotional.

Our website again is Jack Graham dot org. Pastor what is your PowerPoint for today? Scott you never know who's listening and that's what's so amazing really about Christian radio and the opportunity we have each week each day to bring the message of Christ and of hope and forgiveness to people who desperately need it. And I certainly don't know who's listening or what's going on inside your heart today but this I know whenever I address the subject of adultery and retell David's story people begin to let their secrets go. They get so tired of suppressing the deceit and the deceitfulness and they want nothing more than to know God's cleansing mercy and the fullness of his power and his grace to save. If I'm talking to you right now then let me urge you don't smother or try to suffocate that lie any longer.

Don't brush it off and pretend it's not there. There's no one more miserable than a disobedient and defiant Christian and that's exactly what your disobedience and your defiance brings. Misery. Is that you keeping a secret that you need to tell to God? If you want the release and the relief and yes the redemption that comes from forgiveness you need to start with repentance. So let me encourage you to take a page out of David's journal. Let me read a portion of Psalm 51 again just for you, creating me a clean heart O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with your generous spirit. Today when you get an opportunity I want you to take a long look at Psalm 51.

Do this on your own. Do this for your soul. You will get a sense of David's contrite and repentant attitude and of the grace and the goodness of God to forgive.

I challenge you. Make David's heart and prayer your own. Trust God's forgiveness when you turn from your sin and you will receive restoration from Christ.

Repentance is opening up your heart in your life to the forgiveness and the grace of God. And take this step today. Make it your prayer today.

This is what a champion does. Do it right now. He is ready to make your life brand-new, to take away your misery and to restore the joy of your salvation. And that is today's PowerPoint. Remember when you give a gift to PowerPoint we'll send you Dr. Graham's book, Man of God, as our thanks. Call 1-800-795-4627. That's 1-800-795-4627. You can also text the word PowerPoint to 59789. Join us again next time when Dr. Graham brings a message about how you can be a champion at life when you give your life away to God. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.