"From Penitent to Powerful" | Psa. 6 (10/16/2022) | NOTE: Audio drops from minute 40:47 to 45:34

Okay, so welcome. We're going to be in Psalm chapter 6.

I have a lot of ground to cover. I don't know that we'll get through it all. I hope we do, because I'm going to be gone the next two weekends.

We're going to go visit my sister in Virginia, and we leave next Sunday. We'll have to leave in the morning, because we've got a lot of driving ahead of us.

So in order to cover all the ground I want to cover here, we've got to do it all in one day. So please forgive me if I talk a little too fast today.

We'll see. If at any point in time, I want to encourage you, if you have questions or if you want to make comments,

I don't want to take away from that, so please just kind of interrupt or raise your hand or something, and we'll get y 'all's comments in as well.

I just don't know if I'll have time at the end to say any questions or comments, so let's just kind of go through it, and if the

Lord doesn't let us get through all of it, that's okay. All right, so this is Psalm 6. It is considered the first of the penitential psalms.

It's a cry for mercy. Now, anytime I ever hear the word penitential, my brain goes immediately to a movie, and I almost always have a movie quote or some kind of movie reference.

The movie that my brain always goes to is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Indiana Jones is going through the temple and getting ready to try and find the

Holy Grail, and his dad has been shot, and his dad is injured, right?

He's hoping to find the Holy Grail in time to save his dad because apparently the

Holy Grail has magical powers, right? So he has to get through a bunch of booby traps, and a bunch of the people in the movie have lost their heads, literally, from one of these booby traps, and he's got his little diary, and he's reading the clues, and one of the clues that he has to get past this particular booby trap is only the penitential man will pass.

Remember that? And he's thinking through that, and then all of a sudden the wind picks up, and the booby trap activates, and he's trying to figure it out, and he's about to lose his head, and he goes, the penitent man will pass.

The penitent man will pass. And he goes, kneel! And he drops to his knees, and the blade goes right over his head, and he rolls, and he's able to use his whip to stop the booby trap.

It's a really exciting movie. I've loved the Indiana Jones movies. There's a new one coming out.

Did you know that? It's crazy. And it's starring Harrison Ford. I think the booby traps are like in a nursing home or something.

But the only way he could pass the trap is to kneel.

And I think that's a very appropriate movie reference for this particular psalm, because that's what we're going to see

David do here. Please bear with me.

My voice is being weird again, but it says,

To the chief musician on Neganoth upon Sheminoth, a psalm of David. And the first thing

I want to point out is that that's before we even know who wrote the psalm, who's responsible for it, we find out who's responsible for the presentation of it, and how it's supposed to be presented.

So the chief musician on Neganoth upon Sheminoth. So God, or in this case, the

Holy Spirit, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, David, who wrote the psalm, has instructed the chief musician to be in charge of presenting this psalm.

But not just the chief musician, because there are several, apparently. This is the one on Neganoth. He's the one on the strings.

The contents of this psalm must be of great importance, because he wants the highest of the musicians upon the strings to present it.

And we have heard these strings before. They were like the hero music that begins to play as David stands back up in battle.

If you'll remember from chapter four, we discussed the strings picking up as he began to dust himself off from being in defeat and transitioning from defeat to victory.

In chapter three, we see David, his confidence change from a low to a high.

And in chapter four, we saw the turning point from David being in defeat to being reminded that the

Lord had heard his prayer. We see him begin to lift up and face his enemies once more.

He delivers a speech of victory as he begins to rise up in the battle. So we see how he converses with his enemy when

God has enlarged him. In chapter five, we got a glimpse into how he appeals to the

Lord for help in the battle. He makes the battle very personal to God and brings the fight to him instead of trying to fight the battle himself.

In this chapter, it feels almost like we get another prequel. It's as if these psalms could have been written in reverse order.

Because, you know, we see David going from defeat to victory, but then we kind of get a prequel and we see how the

Lord changes David's mind so that he can go from defeat to victory. But this is yet a prequel to that in that we're dropped into just before all that happens.

We're dropped into the point at which David is crying out for mercy and he's repenting.

This is what happens just before God enlarges him. All right, so.

This is what's going to happen just before that transition. OK, so he instructs this to be played by the chief musician.

It's very important, but it's not just on the strings like what we've heard in the past.

This we get an added instruction on and it says upon the Shemineth. This is an interesting piece because we haven't seen this in the

Psalms yet. And truly Shemineth is is a word that no one really truly understands.

It's another one because it hasn't been fully defined because it it's obviously some kind of instrument because it's being told that the chief musician should play this upon the

Shemineth. Or at least it's thought to be an instrument. Now, because there is not a definitive definition to it.

The best we can do is just try to figure out what it might would mean to the people of that culture.

Like, how would they best understand it? So I went digging all over the Internet looking for how a

Jew would view this word Shemineth. And I want you to understand that what

I'm about to share is not from the inspired scripture. Right. We don't really truly know what this is.

And in fact, Spurgeon says the fact that we don't know what this is just kind of adds to adds credence to the fact that this is a this is a divinely inspired book that draws from culture so old that the whole world doesn't even fully understand it.

And I think that's pretty cool. But if we were to look at it through the eyes of a Jew, which, of course, David was a

Jew. We gain an interesting insight. Now.

I went and found a whole bunch of of writings by rabbis and what they view

Shemineth to be. So apparently in the temple. The harp has seven strings.

And it is commonly believed that eight strings and eight string harp would be something that would be played during the

Messianic days. So while the temple had seven strings when the Lord returns, they would be playing an eight string harp.

Now one thing that most scholars all agree on is that Shemineth means an eight.

All right. And the word upon here can mean according to.

So way you might read this is to the chief musician on Negan off. According to the eighth.

Now if it's a eight string harp. A way that you could say this would be according to the way you would play.

In the times of the Messiah. So one when David writes this to the

Jew, at least according to. Jewish tradition.

They would hear this and go. Okay. He's saying that we should play this on strings as if we're playing it in the days of the

Messiah. Now, like I said, we don't know for certain.

That's what it means. According to Bible study tools .com Shemineth is defined as eight.

An octave a musical term. Supposed to denote the lowest note sung by men's voices now octave is the transition from the lowest point of a of a musical

Scale, I guess, to the highest point where you get to the same note, but it's higher.

This is coming from very limited musical knowledge. For those of y 'all who who actually know how music works, you can you can correct me if I'm wrong there, but It is commonly accepted that when you see

Shemineth it denotes a lower tone, which would give it a more somber feeling.

I think that's very appropriate if this is a penitential song. Right. But I also think it's very important to note that it is commonly accepted that this note would be sung by the men.

If we want to change our society. If we want to go from a place of defeat to a place of victory.

I think that could give us a clue men need to get penitent Because only the penitent man would pass like Indiana Jones would say, right, so we've got to we've got to drop to our knees and ask the

Lord for forgiveness. So this would definitely provide a more somber feeling to this tune.

Because A Shemineth means an eighth and it can mean the full scale. You know, from one note to the same note on a higher tone.

I don't know. Then there's no doubt this is applicable to more than just men, but I think that starts with men.

Men need to repent first and foremost because we're supposed to be the spiritual leaders.

And I think that Our female counterparts would follow our lead if they are in a place where they need to repent as well.

Okay, so let's get into what's actually being said in the song.

Oh Lord rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

This is not a plea to avoid rebuking nor chastening kind of sounds that way.

Sounds like it's saying, don't rebuke me, don't chasten me. But that's not what this is.

He's rather appealing to the way it should be done. How do we know this?

Well, it's like he's saying this rebuke me, but please don't be angry at me. Chasten me, but be pleased.

When David numbers his army, this happens in I can't remember.

I've got the verse, but I forgot the book and chapter here.

Let's see here. Oh, there it is. First Chronicles 21.

David numbers his army. Army is something he wasn't supposed to do. It displeases the Lord. Okay.

And I want you to see what happens here. First Chronicles 21 verse 12

God begins to smite Israel and David recognizes this. He understands he's in trouble and he repents and God gives him a choice.

All right. So that's kind of a summary leading into verse 12 here. So David has done something that that even

Joab was like, hey, we don't really need to do this. We don't need to number our army. You're going to bring something bad upon us if you do this.

So he's warned not to do it. Does it anyway? God gets displeased and begins to smite

Israel. As a result, David goes, yeah, I probably shouldn't have done this. And he repents and God gives him a choice in his punishment.

Is that interesting? Gives him a choice. Here are his choices. Either three years of famine.

That's a pretty bad one. He gets three different choices, though. That's the first choice.

Either three years of famine or three months to be destroyed before his foes.

So in other words, his enemies get to destroy him for three whole months. So that's a verse, verse 12.

It says either three years of famine or three months to be destroyed before thy foes, while that the sword of thine enemies overtake it thee.

Or here's the third choice. Maddie's sitting here going, don't choose that one. She's like shaking her head. No, don't use that one.

Or three days where God destroys him. Get this.

Or else three days, the sword of the Lord, even the pestilence in the land and the angel of the

Lord destroying throughout all the coasts of Israel. Now, therefore, advise thyself, what would

I, what word I shall bring again to him that sent me. All right, so here's, here's what

David's supposed to choose. You either get three years of famine, three years of your enemies destroying you, or three,

I mean, sorry, three months of your enemies destroying you or three days of God himself absolutely destroying you through the work of his angels.

Which one sounds the most terrifying? The last one, right?

It sounds the most terrifying. Which would you choose? You have to choose one of the three.

Which one would you choose? Maybe two, right? Maybe go for, okay, at least

I can try to fight back my enemies for three months. Maddie says, maybe one. I'll, I'll, I'll just eat grasshoppers and honey, like, like John the

Baptist. All three sound terrible.

All right, so Pop's choosing the third. So here's what

David says. Here's what David says unto Gad in response.

I am in a, in a great straight. Really? You think?

And he says, let me fall now into the hand of the

Lord. He chooses number three. For very great are his mercies, but let me not fall into the hand of man.

So he knows all of these are bad, but at least God loves me. At least he has mercy.

So he's going to choose the most terrifying, like the most terrifying punishment.

He's choosing that because he knows it will be tempered by God's mercy. That's pretty crazy.

So think about that when David says, rebuke me not in thine anger, nor chasten me in thy hot displeasure.

He knows he's going to get rebuked. He knows he's going to get chastened. He just doesn't want God to be angry with him or displeased with him.

Too many times when we pray, we ask God, please don't let me suffer the consequences of my sin.

Please don't let me be chastened. Please don't rebuke me. That's not what

David's praying here. He's like, okay, bring it. Just be happy with me.

Well, yeah, and neither do we. Right? I like that. Pop says

David didn't have a choice D none of the above. Oh man. Jeremiah, by the way, takes a similar approach to David.

If you look at Jeremiah chapter 10, verse 23 through 24. It says,

Oh Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh in to direct his steps.

Oh Lord, correct me. But with judgment, not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.

You see it? It's the same plea. Correct me. Just don't be angry with me. That would destroy me.

I would be destroyed if I didn't have the love side of you. If all

I had was the just side, then I'm undone. But Jeremiah appeals to the

Lord the same way David does here. We have to remember that God's rebuke and chastisement are rooted in his love for us.

If you go to Hebrews chapter 12, verses 5 through 11. It says,

And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children.

My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him.

For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. You see?

He chastens because he loves us. And scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.

He scourges us because we are his kids. If ye endure chastening,

God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom the

Father chasteneth not? So when we get chastened by the

Lord, it's God actually showing us he loves us.

Men, maybe we don't repent because we fear coming to terms with chastisement.

I know that's been me in the past. I'm like, I don't really want to talk to Jesus about this because I'm not ready to suffer the consequence.

But we need to get to the place where we want to be rebuked and chastened by the

Lord. Because it means he loves us. It means we belong to him. When I discipline my kids, there's a certain way we do it in our household.

Where we start about talking about what you do wrong.

We have the child state what they've done that was in disobedience.

We remind them what happens when there's disobedience. There's some consequences.

And before we ever get into those consequences, we also remind them we do this because we love you.

Then we get into the disciplining part. And that's never fun. But what's interesting is that as soon as the discipline part is over, there is something my kids always want immediately.

And if y 'all have had kids and have disciplined them according to the way the Bible says discipline, you've probably experienced this yourself.

They immediately want a hug. And it's always been that way.

And I know when I was growing up, it was the same way for me because my parents disciplined me in a very similar fashion.

If I got spanked, it was like, this is terrible.

I'm not liking it. It's not fun. And as soon as the spankings were over, I had an overwhelming urge to hug my dad.

And I never understood that that was going on in me or why it was going on in me until I had kids of my own.

And I realized that they were doing the same thing. See, that's what God does with us.

His discipline is rooted in love. And we want that relationship with God to be in communion.

We want to be at peace with God. And when we're being disciplined, sometimes we think we're not at peace.

I mean, look at David, you know, rebuke me not in thine anger. He's terrified.

What does he want? He wants a hug from God. And that's what we want. All right.

Verse number two, have mercy upon me, O Lord, for I am weak.

O Lord, heal me for my bones are vexed. Now, a man who asks for mercy recognizes his need for it.

You don't ask for mercy unless you know you need it. When do you need mercy? Answers?

Huh? Well, that's a good answer. When do we know we need mercy?

When we know we've been caught. Which is pretty much always, right?

But like, there's no getting out of it. You don't really appeal to mercy until you're trapped, right?

If a man is at war and he is captured, that's when he starts begging for mercy.

But it's not until he's captured. It's not until his weapons have been knocked out of his hands.

I'm starting to hear myself now for some reason. It's not until his weapons are knocked out of his hands and now he has no more ability to fight.

That's when he starts pleading for mercy. Maybe I'm just getting too loud.

I'm hearing myself. So we can't truly repent because repentance has to start in a begging for mercy.

You know, we can't truly repent until we realize just how weak we are in sin.

When we realized, oh, we're trapped. Oh, we messed up. We come to grip with the terms of the fact that we are found wanting.

That's when we will begin to repent. What's the old saying? I think it's like an

Alcoholics Anonymous thing where you can't fix it until you admit that you have a problem.

Like that's the first step to fixing a problem is you have to admit that you have a problem. That's what this is showing.

David is admitting that he has a problem. That's why he's appealing to mercy. And his problem is he's weak.

Now, I want you to see what the realization of this has done to David.

By the way, Spurgeon, I've got a quote here from Spurgeon. It says, deal gently with me, for I am weak.

A sense of sin had so spoiled the psalmist's pride, so taken away his vaunted strength that he found himself weak to obey the law.

Weak through the sorrow that was in him. Too weak, perhaps, to lay hold on the promise.

I am weak. The original may be read, I am one who droops or withered like a blighted plant.

Ah, beloved, we know what this means, for we too have seen our glory stained and our beauty like a faded flower.

I think it's a pretty cool Spurgeon quote. This is just, you just feel so weak, and he's drooping, and his bones are vexed.

Let's get to that part. Oh, Lord, heal me, for my bones are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed.

I need you to fix me, because I'm terrified of the bone. So you can have a flesh wound, and you can still stand strong in a fight.

But if you break a bone, you are in a serious disadvantage. Your strength is greatly hindered, and there is little chance of you winning a fight.

Still, some fights have been won with broken bones. So despite having a broken bone, some warriors press on, and they still somehow manage to overcome.

So David doesn't stop at, I am vexed to my bones. He says, my soul is vexed.

When one's spirit is broken, there is no fight left in him. He has lost.

There's no last minute comeback. No lucky sucker punch for a miracle knockout. He's done.

Now I've watched many fights in my time here on Earth. Wrote doing martial arts.

Learned to fight. Watched some fights. Analyzed some fights. And I can tell you this from all the fights

I've watched. All the fights I've been a part of. When a fighter loses his resolve, he loses the fight.

100 % of the time. No exceptions. He's done.

And David here is not just vexed to the bones. He's vexed to his very soul.

He has lost all resolve. He's defeated. He can't overcome under his own strength.

He can't press forward and try to make something work. He's done. That is how

David feels about his sin. A complete and utter loss. Repentance starts with a vexation of the soul.

When you feel as though there is nothing left to be done, you're hopeless.

You're just going to have to lean into Jesus. If sin does not make you feel that way, then you're still buying into the lie of sin, which is that it will somehow fulfill you.

Somehow, some way, this is going to make you feel better doing this sin.

David is sorely vexed by his own sin that he can't even finish his next sentence.

Think about how David's talking. My bones are vexed. My soul is vexed.

And then he says, but thou, O Lord, how long? How long till what?

It's like he can't even finish the, he's like, I'm like one who droops. My bones are vexed.

My soul is vexed. How long? Like, there is no fight left in this man.

How long till what? How long till the Lord comes to his rescue? Like Paul said, who will deliver me from this body of death?

That's how David's feeling here. So he says, return, O Lord. You say, how long till you return to me?

How long till we have our communion back together? When we are in sin, we feel absent from God.

That's what vexes us. As Christians, that is what truly makes us feel like poop.

You know, we just, there's no better way to say it in my mind.

Like, there's nothing good about this. Waste. Yeah. That would have been a better word to use from up here, probably.

Thank you, Mimi. Need my Mimi synonym. My Mimi thesaurus up here.

The next part of verse four says, deliver my soul. Oh, save me for thy mercy's sake.

Remember that you are merciful and prove it by saving me. From myself. That's what

David's saying here. He's asking God to prove his mercy.

He's like, yeah, punish me, rebuke me, but save me for your mercy's sake.

Verse five, for in death, there is no remembrance of thee. In the grave, who shall give thee thanks?

This is a really interesting phrase by David. It's as if he's saying, if you let me die at the hand of my enemies, if I receive not your mercy and I'd be held,

I'd be laid in a grave. Who's the guy who's going to take my place in praising you? Remember, that's my job.

I know I forgot it too, just for a second there. And I messed up because I'm weak, but that's why you're merciful.

So that you can bring me back to praising you. You see, he's very repentant of his sin, but he also reminds

God why God wants to save him from this sin and wants to rebuke him, not in anger, but in mercy.

Because when you do that, it makes me come back to you, praising you.

And it's all for your glory anyway. It's really funny how we've seen David do this in some of these other songs where he appeals to the kingship of God.

If you'll remember that, like, he appeals to the fact, oh, I'm your people. You have an obligation to me as my king.

You've obligated yourself to me. You see? God, it's interesting.

Nobody else has a God who obligates himself to his people. Only we do.

It's a pretty amazing thing. And how does he obligate us?

Through his own word. He makes a promise. He keeps his own promise.

Verses 6 through 7. I am weary with my groaning. All the night make

I make my bed to swim. I water my couch with tears.

Dramatic much, David? Mine eye is consumed because of grief.

It waxeth old because of all mine enemies. See, David's sin, David's guilt of his sin, has brought him to the point of exhaustion.

That is how bad he feels. He doesn't just feel bad like, oh, man, I can't believe

I did that again. I can't believe I forgot my place. I can't believe I did what

I wasn't supposed to. He's like, why did

I do it? And then he keeps doing this until the point where he's like, I'm so tired.

I can't help it. I'm so weak. God help me. Like, that's just how terrible he feels.

Proverbs, we'll help first. Let's see here. Oh, yeah, it's brought him to the point of exhaustion.

He's tired of it. It's all consuming. It's all encompassing. It's drowning him. Or at least his couch, right?

Proverbs 8, verse 13. The fear of the

Lord is to hate evil. That is the fear of the

Lord. If you ever want to define what is the fear of the Lord, because we see it used in scripture a lot.

This is like an algebraic equation here. The word is means equal. And Proverbs 8, 13 tells us that the fear of the

Lord is or equals to hating evil. Now, we also know that the fear of the

Lord is or is equal to the beginning of wisdom. So logic would dictate to us that the beginning of wisdom is to start by hating evil.

And the knowledge of the holy is understanding. You see, the knowledge of the holy, the knowledge of that which is set apart.

You can't be holy and be evil. You got to hate evil to get to holy. David here is showing he really hates his sin.

He hates the evil he has done, which happens to be a lot like the character of God, who also hates evil.

And if you'll remember, he doesn't just hate evil. He hates the workers of iniquity. He hates those who continually do evil, right?

So David in his guilt and in his shame is appealing to God, but doing so from the character trait that is similar to God.

I hate evil too. I hate that I did it. Fix it.

Only you can because I'm too weak. My bones are vexed. My soul is vexed.

I'm toast. I need you. I believe that this is the beginning of David's turnaround.

We've seen in these other chapters, David go from a low point to a high point, but that low point and David recognizing he's at the low point, that is the beginning of David's turnaround.

That's when he goes, I messed up. I need help.

See, he's repentant. He's agreeing with God. And it's once he does that, that then you see

God begin to comfort him, bring him back to a place of understanding, enlarge his spirit, get to the point where he can stand back up and battle and face his enemies.

David has developed a hatred for his own sin. And of course he hates it because he hates feeling filthy.

And I wonder sometimes, how can God look at the whole of creation and call it good?

And I mean, he loves all of it. Would y 'all agree with that? When God looks at creation, he loves creation as a whole.

We know that there are pieces of it that he hates, but somehow he still loves the whole of creation.

How do we know there are pieces that he hates? He hates the workers of iniquity. He very clearly tells us that, but as a whole, he loves his creation.

And I look at that and I go, okay, well, he also created Satan. So what aspect of this could possibly be good,

Satan? And then I had this thought, Satan will dangle the lie of sin in front of us and say, look here, this will do it.

This will fulfill you. Try it. Don't worry. Grace will cover you. That's how

Satan tempts a believer. And then just as soon as we do it, Satan says, look at how disgusting you are.

How dare you do something like that and call yourself a Christian? Are you even saved? Because a saved person wouldn't do that.

You see that trap? To the unsaved person who just hangs around the church, this may get them to break away from the church.

I don't belong here. This isn't for me. Yeah, I did stuff that makes me unlovable.

I can't be here. God wouldn't love me. I'm out of here. Might as well just go live my life and find someplace where I can be accepted for my sin.

Because that's what I do. I sin. Maybe it's not even called sin. You know what?

Maybe that's just judgmental Christians. You see how that trap can get someone to break away from the church?

Someone who's not saved. Let me be very clear about that. Because what else does it do?

It vexes the soul of God's people. See, God has opened our eyes that we can see.

So when Satan shows us the filth of our sin, we see the need for our

Savior. Now, that sounds cool, but there's something that you guys may be thinking, and I thought this too.

How many of you are saying, yeah, sounds good, but isn't it the Holy Spirit that convicts us of sin?

Do you agree with that? The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin. Let's look at that for a minute.

Let's look at Jesus telling us about the Holy Spirit. Go to John 16, verses 5 -8.

Jesus is saying, the Holy Spirit will convict of sin because they believe not on me.

Those are unbelievers, the lost. Right? But then the

Holy Spirit will convict of righteousness. Verse 10, of righteousness because I go to my

Father, and ye see me no more. Who's ye? The disciples.

That's who he's talking to. See, the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin.

They are found guilty of sin. The Holy Spirit convicts us of righteousness.

Is that cool? But there's a third one. The third one is, and of judgment, verse 11, because the

Prince of this world is judged. Satan, the deceiver, who we're about to look at in contrast to the

Holy Spirit, he's judged, and there's no getting out of it. Isn't that cool?

So the Holy Spirit convicts the world of sin. He convicts us of righteousness. And he convicts

Satan to judgment. He can't get out of it. David, you had something you wanted to share?

I like that. Yeah. It would have been fun to share that with him.

He probably would have gone, I know. He probably would have already figured it out.

So, I want to submit to you this morning, the Holy Spirit doesn't convict us of sin. It's Satan's role to accuse us of it.

And by the way, an accusation is not the same as a conviction. How do we know it's Satan's role? Go to Revelation chapter 12, verses 9 through 11.

Verse 9, And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.

He was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, notice the voice from heaven, saying comforting things.

Watch this. Now has come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our

God and the power of his Christ. Those are comforting things, not convicting of sin things.

For the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our

God day and night. That's Satan's role, to accuse the brethren. See, when we feel the filth of our sin, that is not the

Holy Spirit convicting us. That is Satan accusing us.

When we agree with God that we've messed up and we need to be right with him, that's because the

Holy Spirit is convicting us of the righteousness of God and showing us that there is good in him and we're supposed to be like it.

The Holy Spirit doesn't look at us and go shame on you, you're filthy. No, he says, no, remember you're supposed to be righteous, like God.

You see, he says, be like God, not like the world.

Be not conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Yes. That is correct.

It's reuniting us. See, Satan will use the filth of our sin to get us focused on guilt, which is not something that comes from the

Lord, so that we feel separated from the Lord and we won't feel as though we are good enough for the

Lord. But is that our job? To be good enough for the Lord? No. That's the

Lord's job. He's good enough for us. He's good enough to save us. Verse 11 in chapter 12 of Revelation says, and they overcame him, who?

Satan, by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony. And they loved not their lives unto the death.

See, it is Satan's job to accuse us of sin, but he cannot convict us of it because we have overcome him by the blood of the

Lamb. When we fall to temptation,

Satan accuses us and we make our beds to swim in tears because our bones and souls are vexed.

When we ask the Lord, how long, O Lord? That is when God puts his

Holy Spirit to work, reminding us of the finished work of Jesus. You know, the one who went to the

Father, the one who we can't see anymore, the one who sent the Comforter in the first place, that guy who took our sins and took our shame and bore it all on Calvary's cross so we cannot be convicted of sin, but by the blood of the

Lamb, we are guilty of his righteousness for his mercy's sake. He takes our penitential prayer and returns to us power and love and sound mind.

He's the glory and the lifter up of our heads so we can go from meekness to boldness, look our enemies in the eye and say like David does at the end of this psalm, depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.

For the Lord hath heard the voice of my weeping. The Lord hath heard my supplication.

The Lord will receive my prayer. Let all mine enemies be ashamed and sore vexed.

Let that vexation be on my enemies, not on me. Let them return and be ashamed suddenly.

Not me. I'm forgiven. I'm righteous.

Not because of anything I've done, obviously. I'm weak. But I appeal to the mercy of the

Lord who has finished his work, who has saved my soul, who has imputed to me righteousness, so to God I am clean.

That is the thought that takes David from the low to the high. That is the thought that lets him drive his knuckles into the ground and push himself back up and face his enemies again.

Because that's how the Holy Spirit works. The Holy Spirit is the comforter, not the accuser.

And I think we as Christians have been duped into thinking that the Holy Spirit is the accuser.

And we call it him convicting us of sin. But you can't be convicted of sin because you've got the blood of the

Lamb on you. It's impossible for you to be convicted of sin. Now, what about when we were first saved?

Well, you certainly were in the same state as the rest of the world, as such were some of you, right?

But what's Satan doing? He's accusing. He can't get around the fact that you belong to God.

The Holy Spirit comes in and says, yeah, you do look like the rest of the world. That's true.

But there's something different about you than the rest of the world. And that is God loves you. And he loved you enough to die on the cross for your sins.

He has covered you with his blood. So now what are you going to do?

It's that notification like Saul on the road to Damascus received. He's on the way to do what the rest of the world would do, kill

Christians. And God shines his light from heaven and says, but wait, you're not one of them.

You're one of mine. So now what are you going to do? And what does Saul say?

What would you have me do? The Holy Spirit does not convict us of sin because we cannot be convicted of sin.

He does convict of sin, though. Who does he convict? The world. Those who will not believe in him.

He convicts us of righteousness because Jesus has gone to the father and we can't see him.

And he convicts that accuser, the prince of this world of judgment because he's already lost.

He's done. I think if you want to go from penitential to power, that's the key.

It's understanding that the only reason why you see your sin is filled is because God has opened your eyes to it.

And yeah, you feel terrible. Yeah, you feel like you've messed up. Yeah, you don't feel worthy.

But it was nothing you did in the first place that made you that way. It was everything that God did. So all he's going to do is send his comforter to remind you of that.

Isn't that cool? It's pretty cool.

A little bit of a radical thought, but not really. Because we say we believe in the sovereignty of God, but then we say, we just get our terminology mixed up.

We get the roles of Satan and the Holy Spirit mixed up. Satan's job is to accuse the brethren.

We saw it very clearly. The Holy Spirit's job is to refute those accusations.

So that's Psalm chapter 6. I'm out of time. It's 11 o 'clock. Thanks for some of y 'all's remarks.

Anybody else have anything else you want to say before we close in prayer? All right, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for your comforter. Thank you that you loved us enough to die for us, to sacrifice, mind, body, and spirit for us.

You sacrificed it all. And it's only because of your sacrifice that we have the ability to be right with you.

There's nothing that we can do. There's nothing we can say or think or feel to make us one with you.

It's just your work. And thank you that the comforter's job is to remind us of that.

It's very humbling to be reminded of that. It requires us to kneel in your presence because we certainly can't stand.

Not in our sin. We get so focused on standing boldly before the throne and I think what happens is

Christians forget to start at a place of penitential prayer like David does here.

He certainly isn't standing. He's weak. His bones are vexed. His soul is vexed. Father, help us to be reminded that that is how we should see our sin.

And that the only antidote to that feeling is to hold your hand, connect with your spirit, and be reminded of the work you did for us.

Lord, we love you. We thank you for your word. And it's in your name we pray these things.