To God Be The Glory
Do you believe in the once saved always-saved plan? That once you
have asked Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sins and prayed the
sinners prayer… ‘Father, I know that I am a sinner and at this very
moment I ask for forgiveness of my sins and invite Jesus Christ into
my heart and soul. Come into my life Lord Jesus at this very moment
and may I live a Christ like life from this moment and forevermore’….
that you are automatically saved?
What if you did something so bad that society condemned you to be
banned from them forever and to death? So bad that your own family
disowns you.
His name is King David and as a young man he wasn’t ready for God
To change his character for he did not recognize that he had any
faults. King David prayed:
Psalm 26:9-11,
Sweep me not away with sinners, nor my life with
bloodthirsty men, men in whose hands are evil devices,
and whose right hands are full of bribes. But as for me,
I walk in my integrity; redeem me, and be gracious to me.
Do you know the difference between one on the street and one locked
up in jail? By the grace of God it was not I. But King David did not see
it that way, King David saw that he was above the others, the sinners
with their evil ways and full of temptations who were not like King
David, who approached God on King David’s own merit, “I walk in my
integrity.”
It was not until King David had done something awful that he and his
family must live with for the rest of their lives…. In fact, their lives
were never and shall never be the same forever. It was then that King
David saw the light of himself.
King David fell in love with a woman named Bathsheba and he
murdered Bathsheba’s husband. In his sorrow for his actions David
turned to God. Open your Bible to Psalm 51, A Psalm of David, and
let’s examine this Psalm together.
King David asked God to forgive him for what he had done and to
totally wash him clean of his sin, while admitting that he had sinned.
In his admission of guilt to God, King David asked God to pass
judgment on him…for God is a fair God who recognizes we are born
into this world with the desire of temptation do to our inheritance of
the original sin from Adam.
Psalm 51:1-3
Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast
love; according to thy abundant mercy blot out my
transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my
transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
King David then admits that he knows he has not only sinned against
the man he killed, the dead mans family, King David’s family, but also
he, King David…sinned against God.
Sinned against God and in his sin, asking to be cleansed and made
pure once again, irrelevant of what society may pass judgment on him
and what he, King David, will have to live with in his secret heart which
is that which one has within them that only they and God know what it
is, and King David will have to live with it until his death. In this
knowledge, King David asked to be cleansed of his sin and to live in
happiness in his life and within the eyes of God.
Psalm 51:4-9
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done that
which is evil in thy sight, so that thou art justified in thy
sentence and blameless in thy judgment. Behold I was
brought forth in my iniquity, and in sin did my mother
conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward
being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me
and I shall be whiter than snow. Fill me with joy and
gladness; let the bones which thou hast broken rejoice.
Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
In our lives, we are born sinners and our natural nature is to please
ourselves rather than God and King David was no exception and if we
are humble in our sins God recognizes that humbleness irrelevant of
how serious our sins may be.
Have you ever felt stagnant in your faith, as though you were just
going through the motions? Has a sin in your life ever driven a wedge
between you and God, making God seem distant? King David felt
this way.
I have asked people to give their testimony and received the standard
answer, WHO ME? NOT ME, NO WAY AM I GOING TO GET UP THERE
AND SPEAK. WHY ME GOD? WHY NOT THEM?
But when something happens, something life changing, they do not
think twice about giving their testimony for they want the world to
hear from their lips what has happened in their life.
Maybe it’s the forgiveness of God for a sin, God’s healing touch, a
heart mended, peace within ones self that has been missing…?
Something though, makes one who has been touched by God want
to share their testimony without any hesitant or fear. Maybe it is
being delivered from blood-guiltiness that is the sentence of death.
Psalm 51:10-15
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and
right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy
presence, and take not thy holy Spirit from me. Restore
to me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold thee with a
willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors thy ways,
and sinners will return to thee. Deliver me from blood-
guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my
tongue will sing aloud of thy deliverance. O Lord, open
thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.
For God the Father wants us to confess our sins to Him, God the
Father does not want us to hold onto our sins for when we hold onto
our sins we fall into a downward spiral of destruction.
In our lives we can never please God by our outward actions, no
matter how happy we may appear if our heart attitude, if we are not
broken, if our heart isn’t right our lives aren’t right.
God the Father says come to me my child, come to me with your
broken and contrite, repentant, heart. For then and only then is God
the Father pleased when we repent and while the world may not
always be open, God is always open to our repentance. And in our
repentance the walls around us may be rebuilt and healed, our moral
fibers, so that our bad behavior will not influence another.
Psalm 51:16-19
For thou hast no delight in sacrifice; were I to give a
burnt offering, thou wouldst not be pleased. The sacrifice
acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and
contrite heart, O God thou wilt not despise. The sacrifice
acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and
contrite heart, O God thou wilt not despise. Do good to
Zion in thy good pleasure; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem,
then wilt thou delight in right sacrifices, in burnt
offerings; then bulls will be offered on thy altar.
In our lives, God will heal the brokenness within us when we admit to
God our brokenness for Jesus taught that:
Matthew 5:4,
“Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be
comforted."
If there is something in your life that is bothering you, at this very
Moment…give it up to God. He’s big enough to take it on!
When we give it up to God then and only then may one have inner
peace and healing for great is the reward of God’s forgiveness.
Isaiah 55:6-11
Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while
he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the
unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord,
that he might have mercy on him and to our God, for he
will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your
thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my
ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your
thoughts. For as the rain and snow come down from
heaven, and return not thither, to heaven, but water the
earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to
the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be
that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me
empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
To God be the glory because in God our sins can be forgiven, our
broken hearts and spirits healed, our lives to have meaning and
purpose. All we need to do is ask God for forgiveness. irrelevant of
when or how big our sin is…and God will forgive us.
Let us pray,
Why should I feel discouraged? Why should the shadows come? Why
should my heart feel lonely and long for heaven and home? When
Jesus is my portion a constant friend is he. His eye is on the
sparrow and I know he watches over me. Father God from
your promise to us we give thanks, Isaiah 55:12-14, For
you shall go out in joy, and be led forth in peace; the
mountains and the hills before you shall break forth
into singing, and all the trees of the hills shall clap
their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up
the cypress; instead of the thorns shall come
up the cypress trees; and it shall be to the
Lord for a memorial, for an everlasting
sign which shall not be cut off. Thank
you Father for this assurance of
everlasting life that will not be
cut off when we admit our
sins and our given
everlasting life in
your name.
Amen

Forgiveness!
08/06/2006JWM
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