WWUTT 1099 Atone for Our Sins for Your Name's Sake?

When you have sinned, and you come back to righteousness, God forgives you of your sin and restores you.

It is not to your glory or praise, but to God, for His namesake, when we understand the text.

You are listening to When We Understand The Text, an online Bible ministry committed to teaching sound doctrine and exposing the faulty.

Find videos and more at our website, www .utt .com. Now here's our host,

Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the Psalms, and today we're going to begin in Psalm 79.

If you want to open up your Bible and join with me there, these are still among the Psalms of Asaph.

I'll go ahead and read all 13 verses of Psalm 79. O God, the nations have come into your inheritance.

They have defiled your holy temple. They have laid Jerusalem in ruins. They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the heavens for food, the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth.

They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them.

We have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those around us.

How long, O Lord, will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?

Pour out your anger on the nations that do not know you and on the kingdoms that do not call upon your name, for they have devoured

Jacob and laid waste his habitation. Do not remember against us our former iniquities.

Let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low.

Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name. Deliver us and atone for our sins for your name's sake.

Why should the nations say, Where is their God? Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants be known among the nations before our eyes.

Let the groans of the prisoners come before you according to your great power preserve those doomed to die.

Return sevenfold into the lap of our neighbors the taunts with which they have taunted you

O Lord. But we, your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever.

From generation to generation, we will recount your praise. Now it's obvious that this song has to be something prophetic because in the time of David, in the times of the

Psalms of Asaph, there was not a disaster that had fallen Jerusalem to the size or the extreme that is being spoken about here in this particular

Psalm. So we're looking at something that's going to happen in the future. And when that disaster befalls

Jerusalem and God's holy temple, which would be the Babylonian exile, when the Babylons come upon Jerusalem, when that happens, the

Israelites were to remember this. They would think of a Psalm such as this and pray unto the

Lord, forgive us our iniquity. This is definitely a community lament.

This is not an individual lament like like where David would pray in Psalm 51, for example, atone for my sins, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.

This is more in a community aspect. You can tell that from the way the language is presented in Psalm 79, that an entire community of people is saying we have sinned.

So please forgive us our iniquities. Let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low.

Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name, deliver us and atone for our sins for your name's sake.

So this is a people that is calling upon the Lord. The nations have come into your inheritance.

That's the way that it starts at the very beginning of the Psalm. And keep in mind when we're reading here about an inheritance in context, the inheritance is

Israel. Of course, the Jews, Jerusalem, the temple of God in the book of Deuteronomy, God said to Israel that I have brought you out of Egypt as an inheritance.

But it is not far fetched for us to understand that we, you and I, my brother and sister in Christ, we are

Christ's inheritance. Remember what Jesus said about his elect in John 10.

My father who has given them to me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the father's hand.

I am the father are one. That's John 10, 29 in Titus 2, 14. We read that Christ gave himself as a sacrifice to redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people for his own possession.

We are the inheritance of Christ. We have the promise of his inheritance given to us who are in Christ Jesus in Ephesians chapter one.

In this prayer that Paul prays for the Ephesians, he says in Ephesians 1, 16,

I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers that the

God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you.

What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints?

We are Christ's inheritance given to him by the father, for he has purchased us by his blood.

So even though it's important for us to recognize the immediate context here in Psalm 79, when we read inheritance, we're talking about Israel.

It is not far fetched for us to understand that we are Christ's inheritance. We who are his followers who have repented of our sin and become followers of Jesus Christ.

Now this is a Psalm of punishment and lament. God has brought punishment upon his people and they are repenting and asking to be cleansed.

You and I as well, brothers and sisters, when we fall, when we stumble, we must also come before God seeking repentance.

Remember 1 John 1, 9, if we are faithful to ask forgiveness for our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

In Hebrews chapter 12, it says that God rebukes those whom he loves.

He disciplines those he loves. If you were not being disciplined, then you would not be legitimate sons and daughters of God.

Jesus said to the church at Laodicea in Revelation chapter 3 verse 19, those whom

I love, I reprove and discipline. So be zealous and repent.

It is because God loves us that he would discipline us and call us to repentance.

So this is a Psalm for us to keep in mind whenever we are feeling the consequences of our sin or we are being punished or disciplined because of something that we have done.

We need that discipline. We will face those consequences, but praise God that he does not utterly destroy us, that we do not perish in that sin, but because he loves us, he disciplines us so that we will repent and return to him in righteousness.

Psalm 79 verse 1 again, Oh God, the nations have come into your inheritance.

Think of it this way. If we're going to apply this in our context as a

New Testament people, the nations have come into your inheritance. There are people in this world who have invaded the spaces of God.

And where does God dwell but in the hearts of his people? You are a temple of the Holy Spirit of God if you are in Christ Jesus.

When Satan's tactics begin to work against our flesh and tempt us to not do righteousness, but instead do the sinful thing, to do the things that Satan wants us to do, to go after the passions of our flesh rather than the desires of God.

When that happens, the nations have come into your inheritance. Worldly things have invaded those spaces that are meant to be holy, that have been purified and cleansed by Christ, and they have defiled your holy temple.

They have laid Jerusalem in ruins. When we are tempted by our sin and we give into perversity or greed or selfishness or malice or any of these sinful desires that are apart from, say, for example, the fruit of the spirit that we read about in Galatians 5, you're doing the works of the flesh rather than the fruit of the spirit.

When that has happened, then Satan's minions, his schemes, have invaded the holy temple of God, has laid

Jerusalem in ruins. They have given the bodies of your servants to the birds of the heavens for food, the flesh of your faithful to the beasts of the earth.

They have poured out their blood -like water all around Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them.

We have become a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those around us. Think about what happens whenever a very famous Christian stumbles or falls, fails, falls into sin.

Think about what happens there. You have secularists, people who are in the world, or people who are of other religions or other faiths, they're looking at what happened to this

Christian and they mock us for it. Look at your guy. You guys say you're holy and you say you're righteous and you say you're trying to be godly and like Jesus, and look at what your dude did.

You're no better than we are. Okay, so we become a mockery to the nations.

Those who are not believers, who are not Christians, they're going to look at these things that happen even within our own circles, even within the church, and they're going to mock us for it.

I am a Southern Baptist minister, and of course the biggest thing that happened at the Southern Baptist Convention this year, or the

Southern Baptist denomination I should say, is the sex scandal that was broken by the

Houston Chronicle. And there was a series of articles that came out about sexual abuse that was taking place in Southern Baptist churches.

We became a mockery to the unbelieving world. In some cases, we became a mockery even to our own.

We were a taunt to our neighbors, mocked and derided by those around us. Now we need those reminders of our sin.

There are occasions in which even the world is going to remind us of the sinfulness that we have done.

And this is going to be part of the discipline that God brings upon us, that we should recognize what we've done is so immoral that even immoral people know it's immoral.

So that we would come to a knowledge of our sin and our need for a Savior, that we would turn from unrighteousness and back to the righteousness that Christ gives.

So we go on here in verse 5, How long, O Lord, will you be angry forever? Will your jealousy burn like fire?

Pour out your anger on the nations that do not know you and on the kingdoms that do not call upon your name, for they have devoured

Jacob and laid waste his habitation. Yes, we have fallen into sin, but there is a sinful enemy out there that is tempting us to fall into that sin.

And that enemy is attempting to come against the house of God. Satan is constantly doing battle against God and his church.

So in this warfare that we are in, which remember, according to Ephesians chapter 6, is not a war of flesh and blood, but we're fighting against spiritual forces.

The apostle Paul makes this point also in 2 Corinthians chapter 10. So as we're fighting this war, it is a war against Satan.

It is not a war against flesh and blood people, but people who have been manipulated by Satan. And how do we do battle in this way?

But with the word of God, even when we have sinned and fallen into sin, we must come back to the word of God to be reminded or to recognize what our sin is, our fallenness before God, that we might repent of it and return to our

Savior. Now, the forces of Satan that have been working against us that are in the world,

God is going to judge them also. Praise God that he does not judge us utterly, even though that's what we deserve, because he loves us, he disciplines us, but he does not judge us totally like the way the judgment is going to come upon the world at the final judgment.

We're saved from that. But those who are in league with Satan to try to do battle against the house of God, they are going to face that judgment.

And I know this is a little difficult for us to understand or swallow at the present, but we'll actually rejoice in that judgment when it is poured out.

In Revelation chapter 15, where God's wrath is about to be poured upon the nations, the people standing beside the sea of glass with the harps of God in their hands, they're going to sing the song of Moses and they will declare, great and amazing are your deeds.

Oh, Lord God, the almighty, just and true are your ways. Oh, king of nations who will not fear, oh,

Lord, and glorify your name for you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship you for your righteous acts have been revealed.

This is the people praising God and celebrating him for his judgment that he pours out on sinful man.

Now, that's difficult for us to understand now, because in some cases, that wrath and judgment, we might look around and see being poured out on those that we love, people who are not followers of Christ.

Now we know that the judgment of God will come upon them if they do not repent. So it's difficult for us in our present context to want to celebrate and praise

God for his judgment, knowing that people that we love are going to fall under that judgment. But ultimately, when the entire picture is seen before us and we will recognize

God's perfect will done in heaven as well as on earth, when we get to that place in glory, we will glorify

God for we will know that his acts are just and pure and right, just as the people are singing here in Revelation 15.

And then in Revelation 16, the angel that is pouring out wrath says, just are you a holy one who is and who was for you have brought these judgments.

They have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink.

It is what they deserve. And then the people of God saying, yes, Lord God, the almighty, true and just are your judgments.

God's judgment is coming upon the wicked. We must turn from our wickedness and turn to Christ lest we fall with them.

But we know that though the Lord may punish us because of our sin, there will be consequences.

There will be grief. There is forgiveness for those whom he loves.

So be zealous and repent. We go on here into verse eight. Do not remember against us our former iniquities.

Let your compassion come speedily to meet us, for we are brought very low.

Help us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name, deliver us and atone for our sins for your name's sake.

And my friends, he has done this. He has atoned for our sins. God gave his son

Jesus as an atoning sacrifice who died on the cross for us so that all who believe in him will be forgiven.

Brothers and sisters, I'm pleased to report to you that I get emails all the time from people who say

I was walking in this sin and God convicted me of this. I saw the wickedness that I was in and I have repented and I have come to the

Lord Jesus Christ and he has forgiven me of my sins. And I cannot even tell you and express to you the joy that I walk in this day because of the forgiveness of God that is upon me.

I get emails like that all the time. And so how beautiful it is when we see someone repent of their sin and come to the righteousness of Christ, whether they're doing that for the first time, they're coming to see their sin for the first time and now knowing

Christ and his love and his compassion and the righteousness he gives us. Or maybe they had stumbled in their

Christian walk and had wandered their own way for a time, but the Lord disciplined them and brought them back.

It's beautiful no matter what. When somebody comes back to the path of righteousness and who is who is celebrated as a result of that, as a result of that repentance and that reconciliation, it is

God. God is glorified. God is the one who gets all the glory for this, for he was good and he was merciful and he is gracious.

He does this for his namesake. You know, Psalm 23, where it says, lead me in paths of righteousness for your namesake.

It's one of the most common ways I think I close a prayer in church. I'll say, lead us in paths of righteousness for your namesake, for it's all to the glory of your name.

Not that we get any glory for being good, but God gets all the glory for being merciful. Amen. 1

John 2, 12, the apostle John says, I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his namesake.

All glory be to Christ, our King. Verse 10, why should the nation say, where is their

God? Let the avenging of the outpoured blood of your servants be known among the nations before our eyes.

And my brothers and sisters, it will. As I just read to you from the book of Revelation, there is a day when the judgment of God is going to come upon those who are wicked.

They will not get away with their wickedness, though it might seem for a time, as Job says that the wicked dwell in tents of safety.

That will not always be the case, for the Lord is not slow to deliver on his promises, as Peter talks about in 2

Peter 3, but he is patient, not wanting any to perish, but all those who are his will come to repentance.

Verses 11, 12, and 13 now, let the groans of the prisoners come before you according to your great power, preserve those who are doomed to die, return sevenfold into the lap of our neighbors, the taunts with which they have taunted you,

O Lord. But we, your people, the sheep of your pasture, will give thanks to you forever.

From generation to generation, we will recount your praise.

My brother or sister, if there is a sin that you are in today, if there is something that you have been ignoring and you have been suppressing and you've been putting off to the side, whether it's some sort of passion in your flesh, a grudge that you're holding in your mind, some anger you have toward another person, maybe it's just a general attitude of thanklessness and complaining that you have all the time.

If there is something that you have been holding on to that you have not brought before the

Lord, do that today. Fall down before him, before his throne, and beg for his forgiveness and you will have it.

You will know the compassion and the mercy and the grace and love of God through Christ Jesus, our

Lord. But do not continue to wallow in that sin, for it may very well be your undoing and your judgment if you do not turn from it.

Let us pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the promises that we've been given in Christ. There is a promise of judgment to come, but there is a promise of deliverance from that judgment for those who have turned to Christ Jesus, who have had their sins forgiven, who have been cleansed and made new and have been brought to righteousness, clothed in the righteousness of our

Lord Jesus Christ. I pray that you keep us steadfast in this, that we walk in righteousness day by day.

But for those of us who have stumbled and fallen, we turn back to Christ. We ask for repentance, forgiveness for our sins.

And we know that you have compassion and mercy on us. Let us not perish in these things, but let us have the conviction of the

Holy Spirit in our hearts and renew that sanctuary once again, the holy place where the

Spirit of God dwells within us. Purge us from all unrighteousness and make us new for your name's sake.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the

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