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Free Will Baptist Church
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What Sin Does

January 14, 2007

Pastor Bob Bradley

Psalm 51 is a Psalm that David wrote after Nathan has come to him and reveals unto him, "You've sinned.  You've messed up."  We know that David was a great fellow, but David was human.  He was man after God's own heart, but yet David messed up.  David was the king of the land of Israel.  There was probably no greater king that ever lived than King David.  Yet, he messed up.  He sinned.  David was a great individual.  He did a lot of great things and he won a lot of battles.  He killed a lot of Philistines.  He gained a lot of ground, enlarging the borders.  He did a lot of great things, but he was human.

 

We know the story about David.  When he committed this horrible sin against Bathsheba; he was not a young fellow.  David was a mature man and up in years when he did what he did.  We know that there came a time when he should have been fighting the battle, he should have been out in the battle fields fighting, but he stayed home and was in a place that he shouldn't have been.  He should have been about his business and doing God's work and fighting the battles that he should have been fighting.  He looks out across the alley or street and sees Bathsheba.  No doubt she was a beautiful lady.  When you read about her, she was very beautiful to look up on.  We know that if David had stopped there that would have been one thing, but David didn't stop there.  David had her brought in to where he is at and he commits adultery with her.  He has one of his most faithful men that he had in his whole army; killed.  That was Bathsheba's husband, Uriah.  When you read about Uriah, he was one of the greatest fellows that David had.  I know that he loved David.  I know that he wouldn't have done the thing that he did; had he not loved David.  Yet, David in trying to hide his sin; had him murdered. 

 

You might say surly, a guy that is after God's own heart don't do things like that, but it happened.  The great thing about God is that He put it in the Bible for us to look at and understand that sometimes we need to take heed to ourselves sometimes.  The Bible says, "When we think we stand lest we fall."  Sometimes we get lifted up in self and pride.  We think that we could never do anything wrong, but we are human and David was human. 

 

We know that David goes for a year after he commits adultery and after Nathan comes and tells him about a year later what he's done.  We know that when David hears the story of what Nathan is saying; David goes into a rage.  He says some things that David didn't really understand what he was saying.  After a few minutes, Nathan looks at him and says, "You're the guilty fellow.  You're the one who has done wrong."  Then things begin to come home to David.  He has went for a year or so and tried to hide his sin.  He has gone for a long time thinking that no one knows.  But there was some one that knew and there was someone that God could speak to that would go tell David about what he had done and that was Nathan. 

 

David could have done three things.  David could have denied what he had done.  Nathan said, "You're the guilty man.  You have committed adultery.  You have broken the sixth and seventh commandments of God.  You have committed murder.  David, you are guilty."  David could have said, "I didn't do that."  He could have denied it.  He didn't.   David just reached out the scepter that was in his hand and pointed it toward Nathan and the soldiers that were there, they would have come and got Nathan and he would have died.  David could have had him killed too.  He didn't do that.

 

David recognized and confessed that he had sinned.   Remember this.  There is a difference between admitting that I have sinned and confessing that I have sinned.  These are two different things.  I know sometimes that we put them together and that's fine, but there is a difference in a lot of people's lives--a lot of people will admit that they have sinned, but a lot of people never agree to God that they have sinned.  A lot of people will admit to me that they have sinned.  That's not confession, that's admission, but that's not confession.  Confession is agreeing with God that we have sinned.

 

I want to look at some things about the price that we pay when we sin.

 

We have previously talked about Jacob, Abraham and others that had built altars and prayed.  We have talked about Jacob coming to Bethel, when he is on the run, when he leaves home.  Esau plans to kills him.  They have deceived his dad and Jacob deceived his brother.  Esau is going to kill Jacob and his mother tells him to get out of there and he is on the run.  He goes to Bethel.  We know that God meets with him there and Jacob makes some vows to God.  He builds an altar there and makes some vows to God.  He vows, “Lord, if you will be with me, you will be my God.  I'll give you a tenth of everything that I have.  I'll live for you and serve you." 

 

We know that for the next twenty years or so that Jacob did not do that.  He went a long way away from God.  He went a long way down the road, never thinking about God.  He continued on with his deceiving and being deceived.  There came a time that he had to leave that country and as he was leaving, God spoke to him and said, "Go back to Bethel."  We need to talk.  You need to come back to the place where you made your vows one time to me.  Where you made all kinds of promises to me; you need to go back to there. 

 

As we talked, every one of us that is here, every one of us that is saved has said the same thing when we got saved.  "Lord, if you will saved me, I'll do whatever you want me to do.  I'll go wherever you want me to go.  I'll do whatever you want me to do if You will just save me.  I'll follow you all the days of my life, if you will just save me."  A lot of us have walked a long way from the vows that we made when we got saved. 

 

There is a terrible price pay for committing sin.  There is a terrible price that you and I pay when we commit sin against God.  When you read the Bible back over in chapter thirty-two of the book of Psalm in verse three; you will find out, "When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long."  When David tried to hide his sin, he aged.  Sin has an effect upon this physical body.  Sin does that when you and I rebel against God, sin has an effect upon physically. 

 

I'm not saying that every problem we have today is because of sin, but I am saying some of the problems that we have today is because of sin.  I thought about David; if we would have seen David a year before he sinned and a year later when his sin was made known.  David's physical appearance had changed.  When you and I rebel against God, we pay a horrible price; not only spiritually, but physically we pay a horrible price when we sin against Almighty God.

 

Look what he says here in verse four, "For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me: my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. Selah."  David just dried up.  He is saying, "God, your hand is upon me and I just simply dried up."  When we sin against God, we suffer physically.  It takes a tremendous toll upon men when we rebel against God. 

 

I've got folks in my own family that I could name to you that look like they are a hundred years old, but they are not much older than I am.  Why?  Because they have rebelled against God.  Sin took a toll upon them.  It will make your hair fall out.  It will make your teeth fall out.  Sin is a horrible thing, and it has an adverse effect upon this human body.  It's serious stuff! 

 

David paid a horrible price when he kept silent he just waxed old.  His bones got old.  It's a sad thing to see in people's lives; people that are rebelling against God, people that are aging pre-maturely, people leaving this life pre-maturely.  There are a lot of folks leaving today simply because they have sinned against God.  If they had lived for the Lord and lived a righteous life, a lot of them would still be alive today.  A lot of folks that we know are in the grave because they rebelled against God.  They lived in sin.  God has called them and asked them to come and follow Him, but yet they continued in their sin.  It takes a toll on you and you die.  We leave pre-maturely because we sin against God.

 

That's not the sad part.  It's sad that we sin.  It's sad that we pay a horrible price for it physically.  It's sad that our bodies deteriorate because of sin and the sin that we commit is sad.  It's sad when we are fifty years old that we look like we are a hundred and fifty years old, that's sad.  It's sad when we die prematurely.  The worst price that we have to pay is the spiritual price that we pay when we sin.  David is going to tell us some things that he lost.

 

Let's go back to chapter fifty-one and verses one and two, and read that.

 

1 Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions.

2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

 

Not only did David suffer physically, but David was suffering spiritually.  The Bible is going to tell us that David lost the purity of heart.  David no longer had a right relationship with God.  That takes a toll on us spiritually.  When we are not right with God, that's a terrible price that we have to pay.  David is saying here, "Lord, I need to be cleansed.  Lord, I am dirty on the inside and I need you to wash me and cleanse me."  Do you know what that is telling me then?  That is telling me that if David needed to be washed, then David was dirty.  That's a horrible price to pay. 

 

You and I pay sometimes.  The dirt and the filth that we get involved in this world and our spiritual life becomes so contaminated.  It's a horrible price that we pay, not only physically, but also spiritually.  Our hearts are not pure no longer.  They are filthy in the inside and need to be cleansed. 

 

In verse one he calls sin, transgression.  Transgression is an act of rebellion, defilement, an act of saying, "Lord, You have drawn the line here, but I have crossed the line."  David understands that he has transgressed and defied the Law of God.  That takes a toll on you spiritually.  When we know that we have sinned and that we have went across the line and we know that we have done things that God has said that we can't do; that takes a toll on us spiritually.  We pay a terrible price.

 

In verse two David says in looking at his sin; David calls his sin iniquity.  Iniquity is crookedness.  It is just absolutely doing things that are wrong.  David, in using the word iniquity; its crookedness, its perverseness, but in reality it is just simply doing things that are wrong.  When people that are saved do things that are wrong, it takes a toll on you spiritually.

 

You have got family and I have got family that use to be great spiritual people and they did some things that they shouldn't have done.  Sin is sin.  When I transgress the Law of God; that is sin.  Sin in my life and in your life will take a horrible toll on you spiritually.  It will make a different person out of you.  Sin in your life will make you do things, say things, and go places that you never thought that you would do.  It eats at you.

 

In verse three, David uses the word sin.  That's just simply missing the mark that God has set for us to aim at and shoot at and work toward.  David says that he missed that.  Do you think when David uses the words transgressions and iniquity and sins; could you imagine how David felt on the inside?  Could you imagine how awful he felt spiritually?  Most of us have been there.  There have been times in our life that we have been into something that we shouldn't have been.  We have said that we shouldn't have said.  We've went places that we shouldn't have went.  We participated in something that we shouldn't have done.  If you say you haven't done that then you are lying because you have.  We are not perfect people.  There are a lot people getting murdered today.  There are a lot of murderers today.  They are not shooting people.  They are not stabbing people.  They are using their tongue to murder people.  You are just as guilty of murder.  There ain't no murderers going to be in heaven.

 

David not only is suffering physically, but he is suffering spiritually.  Let's read verse seventeen. 

 

"The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise."

 

If David is saying that we need to have a broken spirit and a broken heart that God will accept that; that is telling me that David's heart got real hard when he sinned.  It is really something how hard people's hearts get sometimes when they sin against God.  When they sin against God, instead of saying, "Please forgive me," as David is going to do; we just simply say that I'm not going to do that.  We want to say, I'm not going to admit to people that I have sinned.  You might as well because everybody knows it anyway.  Why don't we admit, agree with God, confess our sin?   We are not fooling anybody that matters. 

 

You may fool your wife.  You may fool your husband.  You may fool your kids.  You may fool me.  But we are not any body.  We are going to be standing before the Son of Almighty God one day.  He's the One that counts and He's the One that knows.  David may have thought for a year that he had his sin covered, but God knew all along what David was doing.  The further it got the harder David's heart got. 

 

Isn't it sad to see people that use to have a great testimony for God to be suffering physically and suffering spiritually and emotionally; because of their rebellion, transgression, their iniquity, the sins that they have committed against God.  It's sad to see.  So many people ...their hearts get real hard; it's not that God's not speaking; it’s that sometimes our hearts get so hard that we just don't pay any attention any more.  We go about our business and we go on our way.  People use to preach, sing and have a great testimony for God.  We all know a lot of folks like that, but today their hearts are so hardened that it doesn't bother them anymore. 

 

I talked to someone here some time ago; as I was talking to this individual they said; what I'm doing don't bother me.  I don't feel condemned by it.  It don't bother me at all what I am doing, but yet they were living in open rebellion against God.  People's hearts get hard when they sin against God when God convicts them of their sin.  They do what David didn't do.  David could have said, "I didn't do it."  That’s what happens when we won't admit our sin and confess our sin.  When I take the stand--I didn't do it--our heart gets harder.  It's a sad place to be when our heart gets hard.

 

Now look at what it does to David.  Not only does it affect him spiritually, physically; but look at what it does to David.  In verse three, "For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me."  That's affecting the way that David is looking at things.  He is seeing his sin.  He is saying that the only thing that he can see is his sin.  It affects how you look.  It affects your eyes.  Sin does that.  Also, it will affect what we hear.

 

In verse eight, "Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice."  If David is saying, "Make me to hear joy and gladness."  Do you know what David is not hearing?  David is not hearing joy and gladness.  It affects what we hear.  It affects how that we hear.  When we sin, when we rebel, when we transgress against God; that not only affects how we see, but it affects what we hear.  David knew what it meant to hear joy.  David knew what it meant to hear gladness.  David knew what it meant to worship God.  David knew who the voice of God was, but yet he was living in a place now that he could no longer hear that.  Sin affects what you hear.  Sin will stop us hearing joy.  We don't hear joy anymore when our lives are filled with sin.  We don't hear gladness anymore.  That's all gone.  The Bethel, where we once had, the relationship that we once had with God, the great time that we once had; we don't hear that no more.  We don't hear God speaking anymore.  Because we have sinned.  It not only affects what we see and how we see, but it also affects how that we hear.  There's no joy no more.  There's no gladness no more.  Nothing sounds good to people that is living in sin.  Do you know what they look at and what they want to hear?  When people are living in sin and they know that they have rebelled against God, they sit around and think...does this one really know...how much does this one really know how much I'm doing?  Does the preacher really know everything that I've done?  Does my husband/wife know everything that I've done?  That makes us miserable because we don't know what they know.  There is an awful price to pay for sin.  It affects our eyes, it affects our ears, and it affects in ways that we would never think.

 

Verses thirteen through fifteen says:

 

13 Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee.

14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation: and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness.

15 O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise.

 

That's telling me that if David is asking God to do that for him, it's affected David's speech, it's affected David's lips because sin has stole his testimony.  Sin has stolen from him the ability to teach people the truth and to teach people the right way.  Sin separates us from Almighty God. 

 

If you are sinning tonight, you have no testimony for God.  You are drying up.  It's affecting what you are seeing.  It's affecting what you are hearing.  It's affecting what you are saying.  You may use to praise God; you don't do that anymore.  You may use to sing songs; you don't do that anymore.  You may use to do things that brought glory to God but you don't do that anymore because of sin.  Sin is a horrible thing.  Sin is not simple.  Sin is very complex.  Living for Jesus Christ is simple.  But sin is a very complex thing and it does things that we absolutely don't understand its going to do until its already done it.  It affects what we see, what we hear and what we say and it affects what we do.

 

It affected David's mind.  Sin will affect how you think. 

 In verse six it says:

 "Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom."

 

Do you know what David is asking for?  If David is asking for wisdom, that means that David didn't have any wisdom.  It was affecting how David was thinking.  It was affecting David was acting and reacting; what he was seeing, what he was hearing and what he was saying.  It's a very complex thing.  It destroys us.

 

If you read verses ten and eleven, they say this:

 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.

11 Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me.

 

Not only was it affecting David's eyes and ears, lips, mind; but it was also affecting his heart, his spirit, or his soul.  It affects every part about us.  David is saying, "Lord, I need you. Lord, I want you to create in me a right spirit.  Lord, I want you to not take the Holy Spirit away from me."  If he is praying that; then that tells us the shape that David was in spiritually.  It's a sad thing when you and I sin against Almighty God.  It affects us spiritually, it affects us physically, it takes us down roads on trips that we never dreamed that we would go down.

 

But I've got good news.  David was sorry that he had sinned against God.  David is confessing, not only admitting, but he is going further than that.  He's confessing.  The word confess means that I agree with God, or actually in the Greek it means to say the same thing.  That means when God says adultery and murder is sin; David says that I'm agreeing with God that adultery and murder is sin.  David was able to get on a right road with God.  Confession: there is a price that has to be paid for forgiveness.  There is a price that has to be paid for forgiveness.  We read about a broken spirit and a contrite heart.  David's spirit was broken and David's heart was absolutely broken because he had sinned against Almighty God.

 

When I see people come to the altar, their laughing and joking; they get up then say that God has forgiven them (I'm not saying that God don't) I have seen people with very shallow repentance that don't last very long.  What I am trying to say is; if you are not sorry for your sin, if you are not sorry that you have sinned against God; you're not going to get saved.  If you are not sorry that you have sinned against God then there is no forgiveness there for you. 

 

The word "contrite" means that I'm sorry, resentful, apologetic.  David is saying, "Lord, I'm sorry.  My heart is broken.  My spirit is broken because I have sinned against you.  I'm filled with remorse.  Lord, I agree with You that I have sinned.  Lord, forgive me.  Lord, cleanse me.  Lord, don't take your spirit away from me.  Lord, create in me a right spirit.  Lord, create in me a new heart."  David is saying, "Lord, I need you to make me all over.  Lord, I need to be cleaned up.  Lord, I need a change on the inside." 

 

Sin has got to do with the heart.  We can change the outside.  We can color our hair when it turns grey.  We can put makeup on.  We can do all that if we want to but that don't change our hearts.  If we have sinned against God, when get back to Bethel, we need to say, "Lord, I've sinned.  Lord, I confess my sin. Lord, I agree with You that I have sinned."  That's what Jacob did.  That's what David did.  That's what you and I need to do.  If we have sinned, we need to say Lord I have sinned. 

 

What Nathan did for David, the Holy Spirit of God does for us.  Nathan convinced David that he had sinned.  The Holy Spirit of God will convince a child of God that he has sinned.  David had the opportunity to do whatever David wanted to do.  He could agree with it, deny it; whatever he wanted to do.  We have the same thing.  When the Holy Spirit of God comes and convinces me that I have sinned that I have done wrong; I can do with it whatever I want to.  I can deny it.  I can say that I didn't do it.  I could say that I'm not going to confess it.  I'm not going to admit it and what happens is what happened to David physically, spiritually, emotionally we get in a horrible shape.

 

The churches in America today; if the people that just simply belonged to the churches that had their names on the books; if we would just simply confess our sins and agree with God that we have sinned and ask God to create in us a new and right spirit; there wouldn't be enough buildings that we could build quick enough to hold all the people that we could teach and bring to Christ.  We are too proud.  We won't ever admit that we are wrong.  We would never say that we had sinned.  We would never admit--we might admit to someone else but we don't want to confess it to God.  We don't want to agree with God.  You can admit it till your physic if you want to.  You can admit it to the guy that is sitting behind the cloth that has got his collar on backwards if you want to; that don't make it right with God.  You have got to confess it to him.  When you confess it to Him, He paid a terrible price to forgive you and that price was His blood that He shed at Calvary.

 

When you read Hebrews chapter ten, verses one through eighteen; if you read I John chapter one, verse seven through chapter two, verse two; you will find out that we are saved and forgiven by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.  That's what that tells you and me in those verses.

 

Friend listen, more than you need new clothes, more than you need anything; if you have got sin in your life, you need forgiveness.  You need to agree with God that you have sinned.  You need to confess it tonight and say, "Lord, I've sinned."  You don't have to confess it to me.  You don't have to tell me anything about it.  You just need to say, "God, I have sinned.  I agree with You Lord that I have sinned.  Please forgive me."  If you are honest and sincere, if your spirit is broken, if your heart is contrite and broken then God will forgive you,  You can leave with a clean slate and start; this being the first day of the rest of your life with a clean slate.

 

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