PLEASE NOTE: We thank God that we are returning to in person church services at Springford Baptist Church today Sunday, February 13th at 10:30 am. We will be wearing masks and maintaining safe distancing practices. The weekly online service will continue to be made available.
Next Sunday, February 20th the preacher at Springford Baptist Church will be Rev. Andy Brndjar.
If you are viewing the service online, there will be opportunity to share Communion together at the conclusion of the service. Communion always highlights for us the miraculous way that God has secured our forgiveness through His Son and our Saviour, Jesus Christ.
Psalm 51
1 Have mercy on me, O God,according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion, blot out my transgressions.2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.15 Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise.16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.
18 May it please you to prosper Zion, to build up the walls of Jerusalem.19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous, in burnt offerings offered whole; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
PSALM 51 GOD SHOWS HIS UNFAILING LOVE THROUGH FORGIVENESS
Springford Baptist Church: February 13,2022.
Can you think of a time as a child, that you did something wrong, the very thing that you were told not to do?
We learned as young children that even when we did things that were wrong, our parents still loved us.
Our loving God has an even greater capacity for love than we as human beings do. David who wrote Psalm 51 knew God as One who offered him unfailing love. There is nothing that we can ever do or not do that can separate us from the love of God. Take time to let that truth sink in. God’s love for us is profoundly expressed in His mercy that He extends towards us and in the forgiveness that He offers.
If God kept returning to our failures and regrets and holding those over us, that would not be a demonstration of unfailing love.
Sometimes we refuse to let go of something that someone else has done. Sometimes we are really hard on ourselves and even though God in His unfailing love has forgiven us and given us the possibility of a new beginning, we will not forgive ourselves.
David can help us to discover this confidence in knowing God’s unfailing love through the power of God’s forgiveness.
When the Prophet Nathan came to David and confronted him about his sin in committing adultery with Bathsheba, we can recognize that David had at first tried to deny his wrongdoing. (2 Samuel 11). When Bathsheba sent word to David that she was pregnant, David the King tried to cover up his sin. He had Bathsheba’s husband Uriah return from battle. But Uriah refused to go home to his wife while his comrades were camped in the open fields. Then David arranged for Uriah to be placed in the front line where the fighting was the fiercest and for the other troops to withdraw so that Uriah would be struck down and killed.
The ugly truth of David’s sin is that he first committed adultery and then murder.
Sin that is not dealt with reaches out its tentacles to ensnare and grow more complicated in its consequences.
God’s unfailing love and offer of forgiveness is where David turned and where we can turn instead of trying to hide or cover up our sins and failures.
1 Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.
David has to admit that what he has done was wrong and he has to take responsibility for it. This is not a time to make excuses or to try to blame someone else.
Asking for forgiveness and looking to God’s unfailing love is not trying to pretend that what we did was okay. It is not comparing our sin to someone’s else’s and concluding that, “we’re not so bad after all.”
David prays to God,
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place.
David has acknowledged his sin and now he longs for the gift of God’s mercy in forgiving him because of God’s unfailing love. David wants to be restored to right relationship with God because that is what forgiveness makes possible:
7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.
David knows that he will need God to create a pure heart in him and to renew a steadfast spirit that will want to walk faithfully in God’s way.
Think about our choice to sin being like stepping off of the path that God has for us. The longer we wander on that destructive route, the further we move away from God. Until sin is confronted and brought to our God of unfailing love, hearts cannot be made pure and clean. When God forgives us, then we step back on to the path of obedience and our faith is renewed.
The renewing of our faith through God’s forgiveness is not for us alone.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you.14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.15 Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise.16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise.
David commits himself to teach others of God’s unfailing love. He is willing for his relationship with God to be an example to others of the possibility for them to be forgiven too. This will not come about by David denying his sin or pretending that it did not matter.
In order to receive the depth of God’s unfailing love, David has to admit his sin and reach out to receive God’s forgiveness.
Only God can create a new heart, a clean heart, a pure heart.
And what is God’s motivation in being willing to do this for David and for us?
It is His unfailing love seen in His willingness to forgive and restore.
We see the greatest display of God’s unfailing love through His willingness to forgive in the sending of His only Son Jesus, Who gave His life to secure our forgiveness and salvation from sin.
As we gather today for Communion, we can come with the assurance of God’s unfailing love. Through the everlasting forgiveness that Jesus arranged for us at the cross, we can know God and his unfailing love available to us now and forever.