Two Types of Forgiveness (Part 1)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures verse by verse with No Compromise.

David’s Sin with Bathsheba and Nathan’s Rebuke

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel. They ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabah, but David, he remained at Jerusalem.

It happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house, and he saw from the roof a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful. David sent and inquired about the woman, and one said, is not this Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?

Now David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him and he lay with her. Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness. Then she returned to her house, and the woman conceived. She sent and told David, I am pregnant.

So David sent word to Joab, send me Uriah the Hittite, and Joab sent Uriah to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going. Then David said to Uriah, go down to your house and wash your feet, and Uriah went out of the king's house, and there followed him a present from the king, but Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord and did not go to his house.

When they told David, Uriah did not go to his house, David said to Uriah, have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house? Uriah said to David, the ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord are camping in the open field.

Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing. Then David said to Uriah, remain here today also and tomorrow and I will send you back.

So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. And David invited him and he ate in his presence and drank so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie in his couch with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.

In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting and then draw back from him that he may be struck down and die.

And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab and some of the servants of David among the people fell.

Uriah the Hittite also died. Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting. And he instructed the messenger, when you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, then if the king's anger arises and if he says to you, why did you go near the city to fight?

Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? Who killed Abimelech, the son of Jashrubareth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died? Why did you go near the wall?

Then you shall say, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. The messenger said to David, the men gained an advantage over us and came out against us on the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate.

Then the archer shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king's servants are dead and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. David said to the messenger, this year you say to Joab, do not let this matter trouble you, for the sword devours now one and now another.

Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it and encourage him. When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. And when the morning was over, David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife and bore him a son.

But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord. The Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, there were two men in a certain city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought and he brought it up and it grew with him and with his children.

It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or her to prepare for the guests who had come to him.

But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. Then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan, as the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die and he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity.

Nathan said to David, you are the man. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul and I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah.

And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and has taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.

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 out of your own house and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this son.

For you did it secretly, but I do this thing before all Israel and before the son. David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, the Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die.

Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who was born to you shall die. Then David went to his house. Let's turn our Bibles to Psalm 51 and see the response of people who are caught in sin, who do sin, and who need forgiveness.

I have 1 Corinthians chapter 16 verses 13 and 14 prepared for this morning. I was ready to go and then with all the snow and the blizzard and I knew we would be sparsely attended today with a skeleton crew, I thought, you know what, let's wait for 1 Corinthians chapter 16 till next week so the entire church can hear it.

And today let's go to a very familiar Psalm, but one that I think is going to encourage you that the God of the universe can forgive sinners like David, like you, like me. We are sinful people. And even as Christians, we still sin.

So then what do we do? After we sin, how do we respond to God? What does God require from us? If you do something against your father, how do you approach your father so you can be reconciled? Isn't forgiveness a good thing?

Isn't reconciliation a good thing? Don't you like restoration? I like it, I can't say it. That's the problem. When Christians sin, we see in Psalm 51, probably one of your favorite Psalms, this Psalm, this song that has so many personal pronouns.

Yes, all Davids, but easy for you to just place yourself in the Psalm. You could read this Psalm with your name in it because we regularly and we often sin against the very God who has saved us. The best that God the Father had, he sent us the Lord Jesus Christ and he lived a perfect life and he died at Calvary, was raised from the dead.

We are redeemed, we're regenerated, we've been reconciled to God. We don't have to pay for our sins anymore. We have an advocate who assuaged the wrath of God in our place. Jesus never sinned, although he was the sin bearer.

Because of all this, we have been adopted into the family of God, yet still, and don't we hate it when we do it? We still sin. How could we sin against such a great God, such a great King? The good news this morning is we'll look at when God redeems a person, he doesn't just stop there.

He continually cleanses them from their sins and he has allowed us through Christ to approach the throne. Psalm 51 is one of these Psalms to remind us that Christians love forgiveness. Christians need forgiveness.

We still sin even though we're Christians, right? I don't know if anybody would like to give a personal testimony with one of these microphones. I no longer sin, but even by saying that we would realize you are still a sinful person.

I could even come up with an alphabetical list of sin, alienated from God, blind, corrupt, darkened, evil, foolish, going astray, hateful, impenitent, and the list goes on. That's what we used to be, but we still fall back into some of these things.

Last night when we were outside and I saw all the snow, I just thought, you've got to preach on forgiveness when we've got a foot of snow coming down. Can you imagine? What's that stuff that you, what's that called when you put a big pile of nasty stuff by the garden and you put leaves in there and you put old fruit in there, you put old coffee grinds in there, and it's just this big, huge thing and you just start dumping stuff in there.

Pretty soon you don't even have to know where it is by sight because you start smelling the compost pile, don't you? But you know what? How many people here have compost piles? Some admit it. Your compost pile this morning looks pretty.

It's beautiful, wide as snow. And see, that's a good picture of the Christian. Even though we have sin dwelling in us, this residual sin hangover, because of Christ's perfect life cloaked over us, when God looks at you if you're a Christian, He doesn't see compost spiritually.

He sees Christ's perfect righteousness. He sees you in Christ. That's why the Bible says that God the Father loves you as much as He loves the Son. And so it's a good day to talk about forgiveness, don't you think?

And so Christians need forgiveness. So here's what we're going to do this morning. We're going to go through Psalm 51, about half of it, then I'll read the second half, and then we'll look at some practical implications about forgiveness.

And since you've been forgiven, if you're a Christian, you should be forgiving other people much. So let's take a look at Psalm 51. If you notice in your Bibles, if you've got any kind of study Bible at all, it'll say right there in the heading, maybe it's tucked in verse one.

It says, to the choir master, a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. And so this is the response, that David writes a song about what happened. I know you know the psalm, but it's just good to be reminded that we are forgiven people who still need forgiveness.

Judicial Forgiveness and Parental Forgiveness

There's two kinds of forgiveness in this world. Judicial forgiveness, when God declares you based on Christ's work, not guilty. Forever you stand before God justified, acquitted, not condemned. And then there's parental forgiveness.

Judicial forgiveness, you stand before the bar of God and you've broken his laws, and yet based on the law keeping of Jesus and the merit of Jesus and the substitutionary death of Jesus, confirmed by the resurrection, we stand not guilty before God.

We're cloaked with the righteousness of Christ. Then there's parental forgiveness, that we don't lose our salvation, we don't lose our relationship with God the Father, but there's strain and there's stress.

David was a redeemed man, he was a regenerated man, yet he still sinned. And so Psalm 51 today will help us not with judicial forgiveness, but with parental forgiveness. And it's good to be restored to your father after there's a break, isn't it?

It's good to be restored. In 1976, I believe, I borrowed my father's car and we lived in a small house, therefore it was a small garage, therefore it was a small opening. And in those days we didn't drive smart cars, we drove big, huge, I don't know, it wasn't a town car, but it could have been.

It was this huge, extra-wide car. And so I asked my father if I could borrow his car. I had a car, so I don't know why I borrowed his. He said yes, and I drove it into the driveway and I thought I was measuring things properly, and I scraped the side of it along the garage door.

Panic! Well, just forget about it, maybe it'll go away. So I went inside, hey, how's your day go? Fine, here's your keys, thanks for letting me borrow your car. But the next day, son, I need to talk to you.

We had a little problem, and the problem really wasn't was I had an accident, but the problem was I covered it up, and that he was the one who had to come to me. And there was a problem with not our judicial relationship, because I still had his last name and he couldn't take that away by law, but with our parental relationship.

And now David, he's a redeemed man, he's regenerated. We don't call him a Christian man because this is pre-Christ, but he was a believer, and as a believer sins. Can you imagine David, a man after God's own heart, adultery, murder, coveting?

No sin is past the Christian, and if you think it is, don't forget the mind matters. Look upon a person with lust, adultery. Look at someone with hatred in your heart, murder. So for the Christian that sins and who probably feels estranged from God, this is good balm for you today.

The more you deal with sin, the closer you are with the Lord. Since God is your Father, if you feel distant from God, it's not because He's moved, it's because you've sinned and then haven't been reconciled biblically.

So good psalm for us today. So good that, did you know, Lady Jane Grey recited this psalm on the way up to the scaffold before she was hung for her faith. Henry V wanted this psalm read to him on his deathbed.

And William Carey, the missionary to India, asked that Psalm 51 be preached at his funeral. I love all the psalms and so do you, I know that, but this one has particular influence on many Christians. Now this is a private lament, an individual lament, but it's good for public preaching.

Athanasius said if he stayed up at night and couldn't sleep, he didn't count sheep. He repeated Psalm 51. What do you do when you sin? Let me give you three responses in light of the cross. When you sin, you can deal with it biblically.

Call Out to the Merciful Lord for Forgiveness

Number one, call out to the merciful Lord for forgiveness. That's found in verses one and two. If you're new to the church here, we just let the text come up with the outline. We just go verse by verse just to let the text lead.

And so what do you do when you sin? You go to a gracious God for forgiveness. Look at verses one and two. Have mercy on me, O God, or as the NAS says, be gracious to me. According to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. He just knows how generous God is. He knows how gracious God is. So instead of hiding, instead of trying to run, he goes straight to the Lord.

Can you find some different words for sin in those first two verses? How about transgressions? Here's the line, I deliberately cross over it. That's one word in here. Iniquity, do you see the word iniquity?

That means God's got life, a straight path laid out in the Bible and you just twist it, you torque it. It's like when my brother was little and we'd swing him around by the arms and if you did it too fast, centripetal force would cause one of his arms to just do what?

Dislocate, that's that word right here. Iniquity, spiritual perversity, dislocation, and you see the other one in there, sin, missing the mark. David knew he sinned, and do you see what the text says?

Have mercy on me, O God, only found in him. Forgiveness and restoration and communion. God is the one who's going to have to grant it. One of my favorite quotes of all time goes like this, when David is rebuked for the crime, he yields the point without argument.

He is told that he has done wrong and he receives the profit. When has this been done before or since? Mary, Queen of Scots, would declare that she was above the law. Charles I would have thrown over Bathsheba.

James II would have hired witnesses to swear away her character. Muhammad would have produced a revelation authorizing both crimes. Charles II would have publicly abrogated the seventh commandment. Queen Elizabeth would have suspended Nathan.

Who has ever acknowledged an error of any magnitude if it has been in his power to maintain that he is right? Kane's plan, silence the accuser. Adam's plan, shift the responsibility. These seem to exhaust the range of human expedience when an error is brought home.

No wonder David was a man after God's own heart. And even in our society, I did not have relations with that woman. We hear from the very highest offices. Do you see the text again? Be merciful, be gracious.

It means, God, I'd like to be favored by you. Show me favor. You're a God who has utter generosity. Would you please give me some grace? I don't deserve it, I don't merit it. I've earned judgment, I've earned chastisement, but would you give me grace?

See, what he does, he appeals to God's tender, compassionate mercy. If I ask you, describe to me the Old Testament God. Give me eight descriptions. Well, if you're not careful, you'd come up with things like wrath, terror, judgment, justice, righteousness, wouldn't you?

And yet, Exodus chapter 34, in the Old Testament, God reveals himself to Moses as in order, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity.

That's the God who created us, that's the God we sinned against, and that's the God we're to go to when we sin. When Christian sin, go straight to God, desperately needing God's forgiveness. You throw yourself on the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Psalm 103 says, the Lord is compassionate and gracious. Didn't even Jonah know this? Jonah wasn't afraid of the Ninevites, mainly, he probably was because they were ruthless people. But he knew if he was sent to the Ninevites, that what would God do?

God, you'd save rascals like that. God, you're a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger. God is by nature a savior who delights in mercy, and so, Micah 7 says, who is a God like you who pardons iniquity?

What God pardons iniquity? And you know, the mercy is commensurate with all the sin. Remember three kinds of sins? Take a look at the text, blot out my transgressions. David crossed the line, we cross the line when we sin.

And now David said, God, would you just out of your mercy, obliterate from your memory. One of the ways you could translate this Hebrew word is exterminate. If you have a chalkboard, some kids don't know what those are, a whiteboard.

And you just take an eraser and just erase it. Just erase this, God, would you? According to your mercy, blot it out. What else does the text say right there in verses one and two? Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.

I'm dirty on the inside, I'm gross on the inside, and so, you're going to have to wash me. Literally, the text says, multiply your washings to me. Now, I'm old enough to remember my grandmother, my German grandmother, not owning a dishwasher, nor a clothes washer.

She was the lady who had darned socks. Does anybody here even own a pair of darned socks anymore? I choose, I said things very particular, darned socks. And I can remember her scrubbing, just think, jeans, 12-year-old boy's jeans.

You didn't have a lot of jeans back then. You had that one pair and then if you burned the hole in your knees from the tough skins, they had these other things that you could iron on that go back over them.

Just scrubbing and rubbing to try to get that grass stain out. And David is basically saying this in this poem. My sins go down so deep, God, you're just going to have to scrub them out. I can't do that, I can't wash myself.

I can't take care of this myself, Lord, you're going to have to do this. And the word is used often of laundering clothes. And God, multiply it, do it over and over and over till it's gone. What else does he say?

Cleanse me from my sin. That word's used if you've got a corpse in the land and the land is defiled. Let's take care of the corpse the right way so we're no longer defiled. And David's like, I'm a gross, rotting, stinking corpse because of my sin against you.

God, clean me. For us, we have things that David never had, like the ministry of the incarnate Christ Jesus and the apostles who would tell us in Ephesians 4, God is rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us.

Even when we were dead in our transgressions, he made us alive together with Christ. And if God forgave us all our sins judicially, won't he forgive us parentally? Yes. Micah 7 says he will tread our iniquities underfoot.

Thou will cast all the sins into the depths of the sea. Jeremiah 31, I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will remember no more. Psalm 103, as far as the east is from the west, so far has God removed our transgressions from us.

No wonder David also wrote in light of this adultery and murder, Psalm 32. How blessed is the man whose transgression is what? Forgiven. That's a blessed man. For us, we know that's all based on the work of Christ Jesus, who purged our sins and put away our sins.

So what do you do when you sin? You go straight to the Lord.

Feel like you want to run? Go straight to the Lord. He's generous and gracious. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text. Please come and join us.

Our service times are Sunday morning at 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m. We're located on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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