Fellowship With the Holy Spirit – Repentance
James 4:4-10
- Last week we talked about drawing near to God, intentionally and deliberately drawing near to God to receive His blessing and grace.
- If we are not drawing near then we are by default drifting away from Him.
- We could accurately call that drifting away sin.
- So, if we find ourselves drifting away what do we do? What does James call us to do?
- “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” James 4:8 ES
- That’s repentance.
- They were guilty of spiritual adultery. They were guilty of spiritual unfaithfulness and this passage was meant to be convicting.
- However, while James was most definitely confronting them with the seriousness of their sin, his primary purpose was to convince them that there was more mercy in Christ, then sin in them.
- Puritan Richard Sibbes penned this well known, beautiful sentence, “There is more mercy in Christ than sin in us.”
Psalm 51
- Read 2 Samuel 11 and 12.
- Have you ever thought of the humility and vulnerability of David to put his sin on paper and give it to the choir master to make a song out of it for the whole nation to sing?
“Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.” Psalm 51:11 ESV
- What does David mean?
- David is not saying I’m terrified of losing my salvation. I don’t think that has anything to do with what he’s praying to God for.
- In the Old Testament, there are individuals who received from God what would have to be called a temporary empowerment of the spirit, a circumstantial anointing if you will, to help them accomplish some task God has given them.
- This great fear of David’s may very well have been motivated by what he personally witnessed with king Saul.
- We know from 1 Samuel 16:14, “Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul…” The sense is that God’s favor, as confirmed by his Spirit’s presence, had left Saul because of his rebellion against God.
- Unrepentant sin throws a wet blanket on our fellowship with God.
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.” Psalm 51:1 ESV
- David appeals to God on the basis of God’s loyal love and infinite compassion.
- David makes no claim to deserve forgiveness based on performance or position (as king).
- He does not expect to be forgiven based on his sincerity or intensity or deep pain for having sinned or fervor of heart or promise not to sin again or his depth of determination to somehow “make it up” to God.
- His appeal is based on what he knows of God’s mercy and compassion, and lovingkindness.
- Exodus 34:4-9
“Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.” Psalm 51:4 ESV
- “You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” James 4:4 ESV
- Tim Keller says, “What makes [sin] wrong is not just that I broke a rule, but I broke his heart; not that I trampled on his law, but I trampled on him; not that I need to repent in order to get what I want, but I need to repent because otherwise I’m trampling on the very loveliness of God. You, personally. I have trampled on a good friend, someone whose love is unfailing, someone whose compassion is infinite.”
“Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.”
Psalm 51:8, 12 ESV
- I think we can forget or miss the power of joy in our life.
- Why isn’t David crying out for sexual restraint? Why isn’t he praying for men to hold him accountable? Why isn’t he praying for protected eyes and sex-free thoughts?
- In this psalm of confession and repentance you would expect David to ask for something like that.
- The reason is that he knows that sexual sin is a symptom, not the disease.
- People give way to sin because they don’t have fullness of joy and gladness in Christ.
- Their spirits are not steadfast and firm and established. They waver. They are enticed, and they give way because God does not have the supreme place in their feelings and thoughts that he should.
- David knew this about himself. It’s true about us too.
- David is showing us, by the way he prays, what the real need is for those who sin: God! Joy in God.
“Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.” Psalm 51:13-15 ESV
- Guilt functions like glue on the lips. When you’re feeling the weight of guilt and shame you just feel like a hypocrite ever to open your mouth and say or sing anything.
- David says, Lord, my conscience has shamed me in the silence. Now that you have cleansed it, would you open my lips and give me the opportunity to praise you and to teach others and to point them to your glorious grace?
“Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.” Proverbs 28:13 ESV
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