From the Pulpit
Sparks From The Gospel Anvil
Psalm 51:1-17
This psalm is David’s prayer of repentance after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and had Uriah, her husband, killed on the front lines of battle. And don’t forget that Uriah was one of
David’s mighty men.
But there is more, I know of no other passage of scripture that better reveals the losses sustained by the backslider than Psalm
51. It not only tells us how sin deals with us, but how we are to deal with our sin! It is a solemn reminder that God has no grandchildren. By this I mean, He is no respector of persons! Sometimes there is a tendency to think we can get by with things that others can’t, but Galatians 6:7 refutes such an idea.
Most of the scriptures that deal with the Law of Sowing and Reaping are addressed to God’s people, not the lost. The story is told of a well-known pastor who preached a scathing message against sin. A well-to-do woman in the congregation was greatly offended and told the pastor at the door, “Pastor, I want you to know that sin in the life of a believer is not the same thing as sin in the life of an unbeliever.” He replied, “You’re right – it’s worse!” Do you know why? Because 2 Timothy 2:19 states, “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His. And, let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.”
There are several things that happen when a believer sins, in which I can’t cover in this small article, but I am going to relay a few of them. First sin soils the soul, you see one of the first things David senses as a result of his sin was the loss of heart purity (see verses 2, 7, 10).
The sins of adultery had left him feeling unclean, therefore, he cried out for cleansing! Sin defiles, everything it touches! But I like what Zachariah 13:1 tells us, “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness.” The late Vance Havner once said, “There is only one detergent for sin and that is the shed blood of Jesus Christ!”
Sin also stings the conscience, look at the last phrase in verse 3, “For I acknowledge my sin and my sin is ever before me!” David had lost the answer of a good conscience toward God. For almost a year (according to most Bible scholars) David was haunted by his sin – we know this because the child that was conceived out of wedlock had already been born. Can you imagine the mental, emotional and spiritual torments he must have suffered?
Frankly, I believe we need more preaching on “conscience” – those old time preachers got the job done because by the time they finished “plowing with the gospel plow,” you had a conscience whether you came to church with one or not.
There are two kinds of people to pity – the person who lives with the accusing finger of conscience pointed at them and the person whose conscience is seared to the point that sin no longer bothers them.
Sin also shuts off fellowship, note verse 11. David was fearful of being separated from God’s presence! Unconfessed, unforsaken sin always results in broken fellowship (Isaiah 59:1,2).
We do not believe a person is lost every time he sins, the Bible does not teach “repeated regeneration”– a person is only born one time. However a person can come back to the Lord and renew their vows to the Lord as often as needed (1 John 1:5-7). Fellowship is man’s highest privilege! Man was created for fellowship with God. Spiritual loneliness is a terrible price to pay for a few moments of sinful pleasure!
(Lieutenant Charles Smith is commanding officer of the Salvation Army of El Dorado).
Miracle of Resurrection – Lovest Thou Me?
“Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, Lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep” — John 21:15-17 (KJV-BRG).
I like the words of England’s preacher, Charles Spurgeon, in 1856: How very much like to Christ before his crucifixion was Christ after His resurrection! Although He had lain in the grave, and descended into the regions of the dead, and had retraced His steps to the land of the living, yet how marvellously similar he was in his manners and how unchanged in his disposition. His passion, His death, and His resurrection, could not alter His character as a man any more than they could affect his attributes as God.
He is Jesus forever the same. And when He appeared again to His disciples, He had cast aside none of his kind manners; He had not lost a particle of interest in their welfare; He addressed them just as tenderly as before, and called them His children and His friends.
Concerning their temporal condition, He was mindful, for He said, “Children, have ye any meat?” And He was certainly quite as watchful over their spiritual state, for after He had supplied their bodies by a rich draught from the sea, with fish, (which possibly He had created for the occasion), He inquires after their souls’ health and prosperity, beginning with the one who might be supposed to have been in the most sickly condition, the one who had denied his Master thrice, and wept bitterly — even Simon Peter.
“Simon, son of Jonas,” said Jesus, “lovest thou me?” Note what this question was. It was a question concerning Peter’s love. He did not say, “Simon, son of Jonas, fearest thou me.” He did not say, “Dost thou admire me? Dost thou adore me?” Nor was it even a question concerning his faith. He did not say, “Simon, son of Jonas, believest thou in me?” but he asked him another question, “Lovest thou me?”… Love is the very best evidence of piety. Love is the brightest of all the graces; and hence it becomes the best evidence…. Love is a more sparkling one than any other. If I have a true fear of God in my heart, then I am God’s child; but since fear is a grace that is more dim and hath not that halo of glory over it that love has, love becomes one of the very best evidences and one of the easiest signs of discerning whether we are alive to the Saviour. He that lacketh love, must lack also every other grace in the proportion in which he lacketh love.
If love be little,…. faith is little; for he that believeth much loveth much. If love be little, fear will be little, and courage for God will be little; and whatsoever graces there be… they so sweetly hang on love, that if love be weak, all the rest of the graces most assuredly will be so.
Our Lord asked Peter, then, that question, “Lovest thou me?” (C. H. Spurgeon: Sermon 117, Sept. 7, 1856). Peter learns his lesson from a Resurrected Jesus on the shore of Galilee. Peter will now love the Lord with all of his heart, soul, mind and strength. He will preach, he will be beaten, he will be imprisoned, he will be crucified upside down on a cross in Rome — all for his love for his risen Savior. He writes in 1 Peter 3 to live in harmony with each other, be sympathetic, love as brothers being compassionate and humble, and to always set apart in our hearts, Christ as Lord, for salvation can only come through the miracle of resurrection!
(Scott Johnson is pastor at East Faulkner Church of Christ and author of the BRG Bible).