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Coming Back to God

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COMING BACK TO GOD

JAMES 1:13-16
DAVID ON PSALM 51


Coming Back to GodWhere have all the songs gone? The ornate halls of Jerusalem’s royal palace were strangely silent these days. It seemed as if David had lost his voice. In days past sweet songs of God’s power were often heard coming from the throne room of this victorious warrior. The shepherd boy become king had carried his stringed instrument, a harp or lyre, into the daily life of leading God’s people. This man who was a living and talking expression of God’s heart was always refreshing those he touched with his praises to the Lord.


It became refreshingly a daily treat for the myriads of aides and clerks and military attaches to hear their king rapturously sing great hymns of worship. Down the halls flowed rivers of praise to the Lord passing the conquered treasures taken from fallen kingdoms, past the storehouses overflowing with the consecrated gold and silver heaped for the future temple to God. These songs poured out of David’s mouth from a heart filled with the goodness of God. Each song or Psalm sent from God to David was such a treasure from heaven.


They have been preserved for three thousand years. Pillaging armies have swept across the Middle East like hordes of locust, fires have burned for weeks behind them, blood has flowed like rivers, earthquakes have leveled cities and towns, floods and storms without number have raced down the hillsides. But God kept His songs. Not one has been lost. Most of us hold a copy of these songs in our Bibles they are called Psalms.


But no more. David fell silent. He had lost his song. No more did the daily business of the Kingdom of Israel flow to the songs of heaven. No more did the good shepherd’s peace and joy touch each worker, aide and courier. It was slowly becoming a wasteland. David was quiet,
pensive and moody. His face was dark, no longer aglow with joy. His words that used to seem like honey were now more like his sword at his belt – sharp, cutting and bringing death.
Gone was God from daily work. Extinct were the life giving expressions of joyful delight that nourished the government of God’s people. What a blessing those songs had been. Songs like:

  • Psalm 8: “O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who hast set thy glory above the heavens.”
  • Psalm 9: “ I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will shew forth all thy marvellous works.”
  • Psalm 18: “I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.”
  • Psalm 21: “The king shall joy in thy strength, O LORD; and in thy salvation how greatly shall he rejoice!”
  • Psalm 25: “Unto Thee oh Lord do I lift up my soul; O my God I trust in Thee.”
  • Psalm 27: “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear”
  • Psalm 48: “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.”


But what went wrong? How can it be? Does God just shut off the rivers of blessing? Yes when we turn away from Him and go our own way. Remember the sequence? Wonderfully by God’s power humble teen aged David slew God’s enemy Goliath. But later in life a proud David:

  • ignored God’s word and
  • allowed another giant to come right into God’s city Jerusalem, and
  • welcomed God’s enemy into the presence of this man after God’s own heart, and
  • David was slain by the giant of LUST!


David the giant killer, killed by the giant of lust. We noted six dreadful steps down in II Samuel. Join me in II Samuel 5:

  • David Desensitized his conscience by incomplete obedience II Sam 5:13
  • David Relaxed his grip on personal purity II Sam 11:1
  • David Fixated his heart on physical desires v. 2
  • David Rationalized his mind about wrong decisions v. 3
  • David Decended his life into lustful sin v. 4
  • David Destroyed his testimony by the sin of a moment of stolen pleasure. Death, deceit, murder, immorality and spiritual oppression, poverty and famine of the soul are only a few offspring of this act of momentary pleasure.

What a horrible thing sin is. It deceives with all those glittering promises. It destroys with the precision of a surgeon. How do we get back on the track? I think the key is of course in the Word. Let’s close in Psalm 51. When you have been defeated by the giant of lust David is inspired of God to tell us four steps we can take to come back to God.


WE MUST – F
OCUS ON GODS CHARACTER: HE IS EXALTED EVEN IN OUR SIN (51:1-4)

  • The Lord can RENEW OUR RELATIONSHIP v. 1
  • The Lord can WASH US CLEAN v. 2
    • William Cowper once wrote:
      There is a fountain filled with blood
      Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
      And sinners plunged beneath that flood
      Lose all their guilty stains;
      Lose all their guilty stains;
      Lose all their guilty stains;
      And sinners plunged beneath that flood
      Lose all their guilty stains.
  • The Lord can REMOVE THE ROADBLOCK v. 3
  • The Lord can UTTERLY FORGIVE v. 4
    • Horatio G. Spafford once penned these blessed words:
      My sin, not in part, but the whole,
      Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more,
      Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!


WE MUST – F
OCUS ON OUR CHARACTER: WE ARE SINFUL (51:5-9)

  • As Sinners we show our nature, our choice and confirm God’s declaration. v. 5
  • As Sinners we destroy inner truthfulness v. 6
  • As sinners we are defiled internally v. 7
  • As sinners we lose our joy v. 8
  • As sinners we lose fellowship with our God v. 9


WE MUST – F
OCUS ON GODS WORK: HE IS RENEWING (51:10-13)

  • God is washing our hearts v. 10 [Heb 9.14; 10.22]
  • God is restoring our walk in the Spirit v. 11
  • God is renewing the fruit of the Spirit v. 12
  • God is preparing us for further ministry v. 13


WE MUST – F
OCUS ON OUR WORK: WE MUST REPENT (51:14-19)

  • Call sin what it is v. 14 (David murdered Uriah)
  • Talk to God v. 15 (Psalm 32 David had dried up spiritually)
  • Experience true contrition not mere externalism v. 16-17
  • Begin zealous worship anew and afresh v. 18-19


If we neglect fleeing lust and rooting out What can we do right now to get us started back to God’s path or keep us on that path? Let me give you three choice we need to make:


1. MAKE YOURSELF LOOK AT THE FINAL RESULT or ultimate form (mature plant) of the momentary choices of (or seeds you are planting) today.

  • If your parents knew what you have been hiding from them, would it crush them and grieve their hearts?
  • If your husband or wife knew about the area you have surrendered to lust, would it rob your relationship of joy and trust?
  • If you keep on in this path what will it do to your body, your family, your reputation and your heavenly reward?
  • Is it really worth as much as it will eventually cost you?
    • FLEE YOUTHFUL LUSTS. Because soon they will –
      1. HABITUATE your lusts
      2. CRIPPLE your conscience
      3. SOIL your mind
      4. DESENSITIZE your warning system
      5. MISUSE your body, mind and eyes
      6. SPOIL your ability to give
      7. LESSEN your desires for a godly husband or wife


2. CHOOSE TO CULTIVATE NEW AND GODLY CHOICES that will become habits of holiness for old and ungodly patterns. Cut cable or online service for a few months and join an accountability group or Bible study; take a fast from TV watching (even sports) and start a Scripture memory plan like our “108 verses”.


3. REMEMBER IT WILL ONLY BE HARDER TO STOP TOMORROW. Every wrong choice we make sets in motion a wave of consequence and
growing bondage throughout our mind and body. Every obedient choice we make set in motion a wave of liberating blessing and spiritual strength.


Numbers 33:50-56 Now the Lord spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan, across from Jericho, saying,51 “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘When you have crossed the Jordan into the land of Canaan,52 ‘then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their engraved stones, destroy all
their molded images, and demolish all their high places;53 ‘you shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land and dwell in it, for I have given you the land to possess.54 ‘And you shall divide the land by lot as an inheritance among your families; to the larger you shall give a larger
inheritance, and to the smaller you shall give a smaller inheritance; there everyone’s inheritance shall be whatever falls to him by lot. You shall inherit according to the tribes of your fathers.55 ‘But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall be that those whom you let remain shall be irritants in your eyes and thorns in your sides, and they shall harass you in the land where you dwell.56 ‘Moreover it shall be that I will do to you as I thought to do to them.’ ”

Slides


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