BY JOHN ROSS
Well, I’m tired. So if I fall asleep, just throw a book or something [laughter]! It was a long night putting this together as they all are.
Well, it’s been a good Feast this year. We just came out of the Last Day of Unleavened Bread, celebrating the Seven Days of Unleavened Bread and the Passover in this time of year. And I normally speak during the Feast so this is kind of new. I didn’t speak during the Feast this year. So I didn’t get to give my traditional sermon. So I was feeling a little lonesome because I didn’t get to give an Unleavened Bread sermon. But then I started thinking but I’m speaking only a couple of days after. So we can review!
We are going to review a little bit, but not very much at all because what I want to talk about today is lessons of what we were supposed to learn from Unleavened Bread and focus particularly on a set of Scriptures and a person in the Bible who had to learn those lessons and they were recorded for us that we might learn them. And they relate to this time of year and to what we were supposed to learn going through the Days of Unleavened Bread, putting out leavening, putting out sin from our lives, understanding the meaning and the symbolism of those Days.
I’d like to turn quickly to Exodus 14. We’re not going to go through all of
Exodus. I just want to read two verses
there in Exodus 14 as a way of summary of what those Days pictured. They pictured several things at many levels,
these Days. The primary story of Exodus
pictures God’s symbolic deliverance of
In Exodus 14 in verse 13, they had just left
Exodus 14:13. And Moses said
to the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand
still,
He told them to stand still. And, as I’ve spoken in the past, that was
because there was nothing that they could do to deliver themselves. They had gone through the six Days of
Unleavened Bread. They had walked the
entire way out of
Exodus 14:13b. Stand still,
and see the salvation of the Lord,
In other words, just as we live through these Days now and we see everything going around us and it’s easy for us to get filled with ourselves and to think we’re doing it. We’re doing this part of it and everything else. When you get to the end and you look back, we’re going to realize that it was not us that delivered ourselves. That God did it! And that He was the One that gave salvation and gave us the escape from this world.
Continue on in verse 13,
Exodus
In other words, God will finish it. He will be the One that does the salvation.
Exodus
Or this world with the sin around us that we live in and we see every day,
Exodus
Powerful, powerful symbolism of the message of the Days we just went through! But we went through this to be delivered from sin. We go through these symbols every year understanding that the putting away of leavened bread and eating unleavened bread, of wine representing the blood, and the unleavened bread the body of Christ. But what are we supposed to learn? What is our role in going through the Days of Unleavened Bread? I mean to physically put these symbols in front of us, the blood and the wine. But what is it we’re supposed to put into ourselves? What are we supposed to take away from this? What is it, if there is a part, if there is a part for us being God’s firstfruits, if there is a part, what is that part that we’re supposed to do?
Turn to 1 Peter 5, 1 Peter 5. In 1 Peter 5 verse 1, we read a little bit about what it is God is looking for in us, what we’re supposed to learn, what would allow us to stand still on that Day at that time. What will we need to be able to do that? It says in 1 Peter 5; we’ll start in verse 1. It says,
1 Peter 5:1. The elders who
are among you I exhort, I who am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings
of Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that will be revealed: 2) Shepherd the flock of God which is among
you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest
gain but eagerly; 3) Nor as being lords
over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock; 4) And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you
will receive the crown of glory that does not fade away.
So this instruction’s to the elders and what they’re supposed to do. And then in verse 5, it continues on. He says,
1 Peter 5:5. Likewise you
younger people, submit yourselves to your
elders. Yes,
And then he goes on and says something else. He says,
1 Peter 5:5b. all of you be submissive to one another,
We’re to serve one another. The elders, the young, everyone is to be submissive to the other.
1 Peter 5:5 cont. and be
clothed with humility, for “God resists the proud, but give grace to the
humble.”
There’s only two types of conditions you can find yourself in in this world. You can be proud or you can be humble. And the unfortunate thing is it’s like being pregnant. Either you are or you aren’t. You can’t be just a little bit proud, because if you’re a little bit just like a little bit of leaven, it’s there. You have to be humble. You have to have humility.
And he continues on in verse 6. He says,
1 Peter 5:6. Therefore
humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due
time,
What’s the “due time” that He’s going to exalt us? When the firstfruits rise up to meet Christ at the end of the seven days when He delivers us and gives us salvation. “Humble yourselves that He may exalt you in due time.” We need to humble ourselves. That’s the lesson that we need to learn that we need to come out of the Days of Unleavened Bread. Not just the putting away the physical sin or trying to get sin out of our lives, but the attitude we’re supposed to inculcate in, and to take upon ourselves, and then put into our character, and make it a part of us.
Turn to 1 John chapter 1, 1 John chapter 1. We read a little more about Christ in this process. It says; 1 John chapter 1, it says,
1 John 1:1. That which was
from this beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word
And the “Word” here is capitalized referring to Christ.
1 John 1:1b. of life— 2) The life was manifested, and we have seen,
and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the
Father and was manifested to us—
And that’s an important phrase, because I know I’ve heard some things in the Church about “Well, is Christ eternal? Is He a man?” This says clearly that He was the “eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us.” Christ was God and is God!
Verse 3,
1 John 1:3. That which we
have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with
us; and truly our fellowship is with
the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.
4) And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.
I’d like you to remember that: “your joy may be full.” Because if you accept that Christ died for us, these words that they have preached to us and they’ve witnessed to us and that they witnessed to all mankind, they did this so that our joy may be full. And why is that? Because Christ offered the way to salvation and eternal life for us as His brothers, as His Family, God’s Family. And this was done so that we may have full joy. That we’re not going to be unhappy in this process when it’s over. But remember “that your joy may be full,” because we’re going to read about somebody who realizes that joy can be taken away from you. I don’t know if we understand how important it is to have this joy.
In verse 5,
1 John 1:5. This is the
message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and
in Him is no darkness at all. 6) If we
say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not
practice the truth.
And we can lie to ourselves. We can lie to ourselves very easily. Instead of being humbled, we can have a little bit of pride. “It’s alright to have a little bit of pride,” we tell ourselves. We can lie to ourselves. And then we can end up walking in darkness and “we do not practice to truth.” And we’re going to read about someone who lied to himself, who lied desperately to himself. And he had no joy and he was in darkness.
1 John 1:7. But if we walk
in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and
the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
And we need to understand and realize how important that is. That that sacrifice does cleanse us from sin. It allows us to be reconciled and atoned to God.
Verse 8,
1 John 1:8. If we say that
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
And we have to recognize that. We have to understand that we are human and that we do sin. And that we have sinned and that we continue to sin even with God’s Spirit in us. And it’s only through God’s grace that we’re able to avail ourselves of the power of God to be forgiven and to become children in His Kingdom.
Verse 9,
1 John 1:9. If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
If we recognize who and what we are and what we do and how deceitful that we are, He’s faithful and He is just and He will forgive our sins. Now He doesn’t forgive our sins so that we go forward and don’t sin anymore. It’s plural here. And He’s talking to people who are converted. They’re going to have sins. They’re going to continue to have sins, but they need to recognize their sins. Because if you don’t recognize that you have sin and don’t recognize it for what it is, God cannot forgive you. You have to recognize it. You have to acknowledge it. That’s a requirement.
And humility is the ingredient that allows you to acknowledge it. Pride does not allow you to acknowledge sin. It doesn’t. Pride pulls a cloak over sin. Only in a humble spirit can you acknowledge that you sin totally, that you can have no reservations. You can’t keep something back. Pride always wants to hide it. It wants to exalt you. It wants you to exalt it. Just like Satan is full of pride. He cannot see his sin. He does not know why he is being punished. He can’t see it.
In verse 10,
1 John 1:10. If we say that
we have not sinned,
This is how important it is. If pride is in you and you say you have not sinned,
1 John 1:10b. we make Him a
liar, and His word is not in us.
This is important. This isn’t something that’s optional. This isn’t something you get to do once a week when you go to Sabbath services or you go to fellowship or whatever you do. If you say you have not sinned, you make Him a liar. Who wants to call Christ a liar and tell God that He’s a liar? Because He isn’t! Not at all!
We’re going to turn now to Psalms, Psalms 51. And if you want to put a bookmark there, we’re going to be bouncing in and out of Psalms 51.
As you know, there was king named David. He was a man after God’s own heart, but he did some terrible things. And we all know the stories and we’re going to go through one of them in detail of what he did. But after he did these things that we’re going to go through, he wrote Psalm 51. A Psalm in which he acknowledged all the things that we have just read that told us that we need to be careful of; he acknowledged them not from an intellectual perspective. But from a perspective of he had just done this. He was going through these things. He had called Christ a liar in his actions and God a liar. He had quenched the Spirit. He had risen with pride and had no humility.
And in Psalm 51 he laid out and God recorded for us what he went through recognizing that. And as we go through it, I hope that we will take away from that some part of how it might apply to our own lives, our own sins, our own dark corners. Ours certainly aren’t as public as his are because his are recorded and we’re going to go through them. But if any of us say we have not sinned or that we’re better than David was, we should be careful because “All have sinned.”
I’d like to turn to 2 Samuel. Still hold your place in Psalm 51. We’ll be back and forth there several times. We’re going to go to 2 Samuel and we’re going to review part of what David did before this Psalm was written. Now before 2 Samuel 11, where we’re going to go, we also know that Samuel became enamored with a beautiful woman. So 2 Samuel 11 verse 1,
2 Samuel 11:1. It happened
in the spring
I thought it was interesting it happened in the spring. What happens in the spring? The Holy Days, Unleavened Bread. I’m not sure which side of Unleavened Bread this was, but I can tell you this, David had just gone through Unleavened Bread or was going to go through Unleavened Bread not too long while this was going on. The symbolism of what he was supposed to be learning from the Exodus, what God had done with Moses, and here we are in the spring,
2 Samuel 11:1b. at the time
when kings go out to battle,
So we know it’s the spring and it’s probably the spring
after the planting. So it’s probably after
the Holy Days. You didn’t go to battle
before planting, because the army was planting.
They didn’t have time to go fight.
And back in the times of these kings it was very common, particularly
the Greeks loved to do this. They would
get their crops planted, ready to go, and then pick up their armor and they’d
go off and they’d start fighting. Come
the fall, they’d all stop fighting.
They’d go back and harvest their crops.
So this was a rather normal ritual in the kings back then. Not only in
2 Samuel 11:1b. [But] at the
time when kings go out to battle,
David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all
So he stayed behind. Just like the sport of kings, “Well, let’s send the army, but let’s not entitle me to do that. Let’s just let them go do it.”
In verse 2,
2 Samuel 11:2. Then it
happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of
the king’s house. And from the roof he
saw a woman bathing, and the woman was
very beautiful to behold. 3) So David
sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, “Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the
Hittite?” 4) Then David sent messengers
and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed
from her impurity; and she returned to her house. 5) And the woman conceived; so she sent and
told David, and said, “I am with
child.”
He is absolutely, absolutely totally to blame. He knew exactly who she was. He knew he had sent the army out and he knew Uriah the Hittite was out with the army. He had sent the man out to do his bidding. And now he was doing this behind his back.
So verse 6, knowing that he’s done something wrong rather than admitting it, living and committing to a sin and confessing his sin and trying to move forward from there, he decides to compound it.
2 Samuel 11:6. Then David
sent to Joab, saying, “Send me Uriah
the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to
David. 7) When Uriah had come to him,
David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people were doing, and how the war
prospered. 8) And David said to Uriah,
“Go down to your house and wash your feet.”
So Uriah departed from the king’s house, and a gift of food from the king followed him.
He was going to make sure that Uriah was going to have a good time and this would cover up, because he certainly didn’t want to admit what he had done.
2 Samuel 11:9. But Uriah
slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and
did not go down to his house.
You see Uriah felt some kinship to the rest of the army
being out in the field. He didn’t feel
it was right that he should be back enjoying that, although David seemed to
think it was okay for him as the king to be back enjoying the good life in
Verse 10,
2 Samuel 11:10. So when they
told David, saying, “Uriah did not go down to his house,” David said to Uriah,
“Did you not come from a journey? Why
did you not go down to your house?” 11)
And Uriah said to David, “The ark and
He had a commitment to his king, to David, to his God, to his fellow Israelites.
2 Samuel 11:12. Then David
said to Uriah, “Wait here today also, and tomorrow I will let you depart.”
So, “Let’s give it another shot. We got to try to cover this up.”
2 Samuel 11:12b. So Uriah
remained in
In verse 13,
2 Samuel 11:13. Now when
David called him, he ate and drank before him;
Okay, he sends the food and Uriah wouldn’t partake of it himself. He said, “Well, I’m bring him in here and he can’t tell me, ‘No’. I’m going to get him drunk myself. And then I’ll probably make sure that he wakes up at home and think he’s done this thing.”
2 Samuel 11:13. Now when
David called him, he ate and drank before him; and he made him drunk. And at evening he went out to lie on his bed
with the servants of his lord, but he did not go down to his house.
So even in quote-unquote being made “drunk,” he still had this sense of duty and the sense that it’s not right for him to go. But the king asked him to eat and drink with him. He was not going to tell the king, “No.”
2 Samuel 11:14. In the
morning it happened that David wrote a letter to Joab
He’s been thwarted now twice.
2 Samuel 11:14b. and sent it
by the hand of Uriah.
Imagine! Imagine sending this letter by the hand of the man that you’re about to do this to!
2 Samuel 11:15. And he wrote
in the letter, saying, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle, and
retreat from him, that he may be struck down and die.”
Was David in a humble frame of mind doing all of this? Absolutely not!
2 Samuel 11:16. So it was,
while Joab besieged the city, that he assigned Uriah to a place where he knew
there were valiant men. 17) Then the men of the city came out and
fought with Joab. And some of the people of the servants of
David fell;
Now we don’t normally notice that sentence. But notice that:
2 Samuel 11:17b. And some of the people of the servants of
David fell; and Uriah the Hittite died also.
You see more than Uriah got killed here because of David’s sin! Let’s read on.
2 Samuel 11:18. Then Joab sent and told David all the things concerning the war, 19) And charged the messenger, saying,
Listen to this!
2 Samuel 11:19b. “When you
have finished telling the matters of the war to the king, 20) If it happens that the king’s wrath
rises, and he says to you: ‘Why did you
approach so near to the city when you fought:
Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?
If you were a general back then besieging a city, you would not take your men up to the wall because you would be slaughtered. You’re within the range of their arrows. They can drop stones on you. They can pour oil over the sides. You just don’t do that. You’re going to lose a lot of men and for what? You can’t get over the walls. You just didn’t do that. A good general wouldn’t do that.
But Joab did. But Joab did. And now he’s telling this messenger, “I did something stupid. I just thought it’d get Uriah killed, but I did it in such a way that other people got killed too. So David you’re going to have to live with that, because I was doing your dirty work. You’re going to have to live with it. Other people besides Uriah got killed here.” See these men got killed in the process of trying to kill Uriah. So he didn’t kill just one person. Many people died.
Skip ahead, anyway verse 21. The end of verse 21 says,
2 Samuel 11:21b. Why did you
go near the wall?
If the king says that, “Why did Joab do that? He knows better than to send them up there against that wall.”
2 Samuel
In other words, “I carried out your order.” But you know more than one person got killed here. Why? Because of what David did with Bathsheba.
So he went back and the servant told him. Verse 25, David’s reaction when he heard this was,
2 Samuel 11:25. Then David
said to the messenger, “Thus you shall say to Joab: ‘Do not let this thing displease you,
David knew better. He should have been displeased. Joab did something a general shouldn’t do. He got people killed needlessly. And these are people of the God. These are Israelites.
2 Samuel 11:25b. for the sword devours one as well as another. Strengthen your attack against the city, and overthrow it.’ So encourage him.”
David is completely taken up into this sin that he’s in. Other people are dying because of it and it doesn’t faze him. It doesn’t faze him.
“But” in verse 27, at the end it says,
2 Samuel 11:27b. But the
thing that David had done displeased the [Eternal].
Do we realize just exactly David’s frame of mind, his frame of mind? He’s probably just gone through Unleavened Bread, the seven days, the Passover. This is all happening in that time frame. And he’s done this thing. He’s done this thing.
Well, he does wake up to it. Turn to Psalm 51. It does come to him and he realizes what he did, what a sin he committed, what level he did, and how serious he thought it was. Psalm 51 verse 1, it says,
Psalm 51:1. Have mercy upon
me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness, according to the multitude of Your
tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.
He knew what he had done. And now he’s coming to God. He appeals to God to treat him with lovingkindness, because he knows God is that type of God. Hold your place there. Turn to Jonah, Jonah 4. David knew the story of Jonah. He knew God was a loving God. And now he’s appealing to Him to have mercy upon him.
In Jonah 4 verse 1, now we know that Jonah went to the city
of
Jonah 4:1. But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.
Notice the contrast here with David’s attitude, Jonah’s attitude when they were sinning; full of pride.
In verse 2,
Jonah 4:2. So he prayed to
the [Eternal], and said, “Ah, Lord
was not this what I said when I was still in my country?
Had he not told Him that this was going to be frivolous to do this thing? He shouldn’t do this. This would be a waste of his time. That God wasn’t going to destroy them. But he told Him anyway. He said,
Jonah 4:2b. Therefore I fled
previously to Tarshish;
And we know about the story of the fish bringing him back.
Jonah 4:2 cont. for I know
that You are a gracious and merciful
God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents from doing
harm.
These were people of
And David now in Psalm 51 is asking for God according to His lovingkindness not according to David’s lovingkindness because we know what David’s lovingkindness was all about. He was slow to anger, wasn’t he? He was gracious and merciful toward Uriah. He was concerned about all of the other people that got killed because of what he did and what he told Joab to do. And Joab basically implemented it differently than he wanted or had told him to. But it didn’t matter. All he wanted was to make sure Uriah was dead. He didn’t care how many got killed in the process. And now David in Psalm 51 is reminding God of His lovingkindness. Verse 2 of Psalm 51, it says,
Psalm 51:2. Wash me
thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
He knew that he had to be cleaned of the sin. That he needed to be washed. As we read through this, we’re going to see that he understood the New Testament. He knew the kind of god God really was. And he’s asked Him to wash him.
Hold your place there. Turn to John 13. In Psalm 51 verse 2, he says
Psalm 51:2. Wash me
thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
In John 13 verse 2, we’ve just come through the Passover. We know these Scriptures. It says,
John 13:2. And supper being
ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot,
Simon’s son, to betray Him, 3) Jesus, knowing that the Father had given
all things into His hands, and that He had come from God and was going to
God, 4) Rose from supper and laid aside
His garments, took a towel and girded Himself.
5) After that, He poured water into a basin and began to wash the
disciples’ feet, and to wipe them
with the towel with which He was girded.
6) Then He came to Simon Peter.
And Peter said to Him, “Lord,
are You washing my feet?” 7) Jesus
answered and said to him, “What I am doing you do not understand now, but you
will know after this.”
By way of understanding, how was he going to know after that? Was it because of the Holy Spirit that he was going to understand what that was about? David had God’s Holy Spirit. Do you think David understood the significance of being washed when he says, “Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity.” He didn’t say just “Wash me,” but “Wash me thoroughly.”
John 13:8. Peter said to
Him, “You shall never wash my feet!”
Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”
Did David know that? If God did not wash him, that he would have no part with God?
John 13:9. Simon Peter said
to Him, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my
hands and my head!” 10) Jesus said to him, “He who is bathed
needs only to wash his feet,
You see it’s not physically about washing. It’s about the humble attitude that it takes to wash someone’s feet that Christ demonstrated when He washed their feet being the Master.
Verse 10,
John 13:10. Jesus said to
him, “He who is bathed needs only to wash his
feet, but is completely clean; and you are clean, but not all of you.” 11) For He knew who would betray Him;
therefore He said, “You are not all clean.”
12) So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down
again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you?
Did David know how important it was to ask God to wash him thoroughly?
John 13:13. “You call Me
Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. 14) “If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to
wash one another’s feet.
And we understand the lesson of humility that we’re supposed to learn from this.
John 13:15. “For I have
given you an example,
This is Christ!
John 13:15b. that you should
do as I have done to you. 16) “Most
assuredly, I say to you,
This is the lesson.
John 13:16b. a servant is
not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent
him. 17) “If you know these things,
blessed are you, if you do them.
The foot washing ceremony!
David says in verse 2 of Psalm 51,
Psalm 51:2. Wash me
thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
Psalm 51 verse 3, it says,
Psalm 51:3. For I acknowledge
my transgressions, and my sin is always
before me.
He’s confessing his sins. Wherever he looks, he sees a sin. And it’s always going to be there in front of him. And he now knows it. He’s becoming humble in this process. He’s understanding that. The pride is leaving him. He’s understanding through humility what it is that he has done and what he needs to do now to be right with God.
Verse 4,
Psalm 51:4. Against You, You
only, have I sinned, and done this
evil in Your sight that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge.
Now think about this. This is kind of an interesting statement. He says he only sinned against God. Now he had, obviously when you think about it, must have done some wrong to Uriah the Hittite and those other men that got killed and something to Bathsheba when he committed adultery with her. But he says,
Psalm 51:4. Against You, You
only, have I sinned,
I think I’m going to speculate a little bit here because
this ties in into the next verse. David
was king. All the people of
Now I think what this means here is David realized he was
king and technically there was nothing anybody could do to him because of Uriah
the Hittite. Technically he hadn’t
really broken any laws of
Now let’s move on to verse 5. It says verse 5,
Psalm 51:5. Behold, I was
brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.
This is an interesting verse because this is a verse that the world uses to claim that we have original sin, a concept that we start out with born immediate into sin which is not true. I think what he’s referring to especially in context of verse 5. when he said he’d only sinned against God, he realized—and remember the God that he knew was Christ. Christ was the God of the Old Testament. He knew that he couldn’t deliver himself and that only God could do that. And that Christ was going to be born of a woman. He was not going to let himself be compared at all in his own mind that somehow he being king and he being whatever important that he could somehow save and deliver himself. So he was distinguishing himself from Christ who was going to come later. That he was a man. That he was conceived and brought forth in iniquity. His parents were human and they were sin. He was brought forth in an environment of sin, unlike Christ, unlike Christ, who would be born. He recognized the need for delivering. He’s telling God, “I recognize that I sinned only against You.” Being king, that’s true, but I also recognize that I am part of the sin. The sin is part of me, unlike Christ who’s coming, unlike Christ who he knows he’s talking to.
In verse 6, it says,
Psalm 51:6. Behold, You
desire truth in the inward parts,
In other words, we have to be honest with ourselves and we have to have the truth in our inward parts.
Psalm 51:6b. and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom.
Hold your place there. Turn to 1 Corinthians 5, 1 Corinthians 5.
In verse 6 (Psalm 51), he said,
Psalm 51:6. Behold, you
desire truth in the inward parts,
Not the outward truths of what we appear to be, but in the inward parts.
In 1 Corinthians 5 verse 6, it says,
1 Corinthians 5:6. Your
glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens
the whole lump?
That little bit of pride; it takes just a little bit! So either you’re proud or you’re humble. Can’t be both. Can’t be both. One or the other.
It says verse 7,
1 Corinthians 5:7. Therefore
purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new lump, since you truly are
unleavened. For indeed Christ, our
Passover, was sacrificed for us.
And that is a truth.
In verse 8,
1 Corinthians 5:8. Therefore
let us keep the feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice,
and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread
of sincerity and truth.
Do we understand the truth of Unleavened Bread? The truth of really putting sin out? That’s the inward part. That’s the cleaning out of sin that we’re supposed to learn.
He had just gone through the Days of Unleavened Bread and the Passover. And he understood the symbolism. He understood the symbolism what it pictured and he had not remembered that. He was supposed to be dealing with those inward secret parts, those things that he was doing with Bathsheba and the things that made him do what he did to Uriah and those other soldiers. The inward parts!
Instead, what did he do? He dealt with the outward, the truth of the outward. “Oh, Joab just make sure you take that city. It’s important.” And I’m sure that the counselors and everybody who didn’t know what was going on thought, “That’s the truth. Look at David! He’s a forgiving man. Joab made a mistake. He shouldn’t have done that and David forgives him. How great David is!” Was that what was going on in the court? Was that what David was doing when he said that? Putting on a show for everyone around on the outward part instead of dealing with the truth of the inward? In verse 6, he started to recognize that God wants us to deal with the inward. Put that truth inside of us, not on the outside where everybody can see it. It’s got to be inside.
Turn to Ephesians 5, Ephesians 5 verse 8. It says,
Ephesians 5:8. For you were
once darkness, but now you are light
in the Lord. Walk as children of
light 9) (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and
truth),
It is the Spirit of God in us. The Spirit of God that is the truth that is in us in that inward part. If you don’t have the Spirit of God inside of you, you don’t have the truth in you. You can say that with a certainty. And we know that we need the Spirit to overcome. And to reflect Christ, we must have His Spirit.
David had God’s Spirit. He had it before he did these things. And now he’s praying to God in this Psalm acknowledging what he was supposed to have acknowledged before he did them. And now he’s acknowledging them after the fact.
Psalm 51 verse 7, it says,
Psalm 51:7. Purge me with
hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
You don’t have to turn there, but in Leviticus 14 there was
a sacrifice when you had leprosy and you were healed and cured of leprosy. Which if you think about it, only God could
heal and cure you of leprosy. He’s the
only One that can. Even then He was the
only One who could do it. And when you
had leprosy, it was on the outside. You
looked unclean. People didn’t want to be
around you. They weren’t supposed to be
around you because obviously it could be transmitted. And they were told to put them away. But when you were cured of leprosy by God,
you were to come to the priest. And he
was to make sacrifice for you and he was to use hyssop and birds and
water. And he was supposed to examine
you. And if you were clean, he was to
take two birds and kill one of them and take his blood and mix it with the
water and take that blood and water and sprinkle it over you with hyssop to
signify to the rest of
And in verse 7 here, he says,
Psalm 51:7. Purge me with
hyssop,
You see he understood that what he had could only be cleaned by God. He didn’t have a sin that could be cleaned any other way. Only God could take this sin away just like with leprosy and with hyssop. He recognized that God was the only One that could purify and clean someone who had that disease. And he knew that he needed that. That he was a leper, that he was covered in sin and that this was the only way, acknowledging this.
Verse 8, it says,
Psalm 51:8. Make me hear joy
and gladness, that the bones You have
broken may rejoice.
Remember I told you 1 John? We read that earlier in verse 1, “That your joy may be full.” He had stopped hearing joy. He wasn’t repenting because he just decided it was something to do. He realized that his life had become miserable. That he had lost something and was losing something. And one of them was hearing joy and gladness. He was tormented. Sin will do that to do you. It will dement you. It will make your life miserable. And he recognized that. And he’s begging God to let him hear joy and gladness as in 1 John 1:4 we had said “That your joy may be full.” See he had had that. And he knew that he was missing it now. And he realized how important it was.
Verse 9 of Psalm 51, it says,
Psalm 51:9. Hide Your face
from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
He knew that God was a forgiving God and that He could forgive this. And he was asking for God to forgive this, to forget it just as God has promised to forget our sins, to separate us from our sins if we ask Him, if we are humble, if we humble ourselves.
Verse 10, it says,
Psalm 51:10. Create in me a
clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
He wanted a clean heart. And he wanted to renew the Spirit that was in him.
Turn to Jeremiah 31, Jeremiah 31. Now David knew this. Jeremiah came after David, but David knew this, knew this was going to be. In Jeremiah 31 verse 31 we read about the new covenant in which He says,
Jeremiah 31:31. “Behold, the
days are coming, says the [Eternal], when I will make a new covenant with the
house of Israel and with the house of Judah—
32) “Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the
day that I took them by the hand to
bring them out of the land of Egypt,
He led them out of sin. Remember?
Jeremiah 31:32b. My covenant
which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord.
“But” verse 33,
Jeremiah 31:33. “But this is the covenant that I will make with
the house of
“Hide Your face and blot out all my iniquities.” He was praying in this song for the new covenant. That’s what he wanted. That’s what he wanted God to do for him. That’s what we all want. None of us want to be under the old covenant. None of us want to have our sins remembered. We don’t want to live for eternity like that. And he was praying for that.
Psalm 51 verse 11, it says,
Psalm 51:11. Do not cast me
away from your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
Verse 12, it says,
Psalm 51:12. Restore to me
the joy of Your salvation,
Once again, knowing the joy of salvation, the hope!
Psalm 51:12b. and uphold me by Your generous Spirit.
See he knew that he had done something terrible. And he realized the price he was going to pay if he did not humble himself before God.
Ephesians 4, in Ephesians 4 starting in verse 25,
Ephesians 4:25. Therefore,
putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,”
for we are members of one another. 26)
“Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let
the sun go down on your wrath, 27) Nor
give place to the devil.
These are all things that David did.
Ephesians 4:28. Let him who
stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good, that he may have
something to give him who has need. 29)
Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary
edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.
That inward truth should come out of your mouth. It wasn’t coming out of David’s.
In verse 30, here is the important part.
Ephesians 4:30. And do not
grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of
redemption.
You see he had God’s Holy Spirit. And what he did had grieved the Holy Spirit and he knew it because he felt the joy was gone. He knew that he had grieved the Holy Spirit. And he knew that he was in danger of being cast away if he had continued. And he would not be able to be sealed to the day of redemption. He realized that. “Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me,” because it can be taken away. You can grieve the Holy Spirit. He did some terrible things, but what was he doing to stop this process? He was humbling himself before God. And that’s what we have to do. When we sin, we have to humble ourselves before God and confess our sins and recognize what we’ve done and avail ourselves of God’s grace.
Verse 13 of Psalm 51, it says,
Psalm 51:13. Then I will teach transgressors Your
ways,
You see he realized that he had a responsibility with God’s Spirit. And if God would just forgive him this time and not take His Spirit away from him and restore him that joy of knowing salvation that he could be saved, then he says,
Psalm 51:13. Then I will teach transgressors Your
ways, and sinners shall be converted to You.
In Matthew 5, Matthew 5 verse 14 we read,
Matthew 5:14. “You are the
light of the world. A city that is set
on a hill cannot be hidden. 15) “Nor do
they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives
light to all who are in the
house. 16) “Let your light so shine
before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in
heaven.
You see he realized he had not had some good works. He was not a light and knew that he had to get back to that state of humbleness to be a light that he could teach transgressors God’s ways by example. He had not done that. He had not done that at all. And he realized that that was one of the things that he had done. That he may have caused others to stumble. Do you think some other people stumbled in this process? Some other people probably committed sins along the way because of what he did? He wasn’t a light.
And in verse 14 of Psalm 51, it says,
Psalm 51:14. Deliver me from
the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation,
That’s what God is.
He is the “God of our salvation,” and He’s the God of David’s salvation.
Psalm 51:14. Deliver me from
the guilt of bloodshed,
He knew he was guilty. He knew that’s what this was all about that he had committed bloodshed in his sins.
Psalm 51:14b. and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your
righteousness.
In Titus 2, let me turn here and we’ll pick up the pace a little bit. In Titus 2 verse 11, it says,
Titus 2:11. For the grace of
God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12) Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and
worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present
age,
We need to do it now. David needed to do it then. You’re not going to do it later. You don’t get to sin all you want right now and then you’re going to make it all up later. You must do it now in this present age.
Titus 2:13. Looking for the
blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
Verse 14 of Titus 2,
Titus 2:14. Who gave Himself
for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good
works.
David is one of those special people who was not doing a very specially good job. And he knew this and he needed to be delivered and he was talking to the right Person. He was talking to himself and to God, confessing his sins to God.
Psalm 51 verse 15,
Psalm 51:15. O Lord, open my
lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise,
You see he needed God to fill his mouth with praise. He realized that he needed that Holy Spirit in him that came from God to help him properly worship God. He knew that and so now he says, “God, I need You to do this. Open my lips.” He wanted God to put the words in his mouth because he knew he wasn’t capable of generating them. After what he had done, he realized what he had done. He couldn’t be trusted. Only God could be trusted.
Then verse 16, it says,
Psalm 51:16. For You do not
desire sacrifice, or else I would give it;
You do not delight in burnt offering.
Jeremiah 7—you don’t have to turn there—verse 21, it says,
Jeremiah 7:21. Thus says the
Lord of hosts, the God of
Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to
your sacrifices and eat meat. 22) “For I
did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them
out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.
And He didn’t. If you go back and look, He didn’t tell them about burnt offerings and sacrifices on that day.
“But,” verse 23,
Jeremiah 7:23. “But this is
what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice,
“Obey My voice”! See God isn’t about sacrifices and offerings. That’s not what it’s about. It’s about obeying His voice, doing what He says. Sacrifices and offerings are one of the things He said to do, but they’re not more important than obeying what it is He says because He says to do a lot of things besides that. And that was the important thing was to listen to God, to open up your mind to God, and to listen to Him, and to let Him lead you through His Spirit.
Jeremiah 7:23b. ‘Obey My
voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have
commanded you, that it may be well with you.’
Because He was going to tell them what to do for salvation. He wanted it to turn out right for man. Of course, they didn’t listen.
And David knew that, and he says in verse 16,
Psalm 51:16. For You do not
desire sacrifice,
He recognized that.
Psalm 51:16b. [and] You do
not delight in burnt offering.
In verse 17 Psalm 51, he comes to the recognition of what it is all about.
Psalm 51:17. The sacrifices
of God
What are they really?
Psalm 51:17b. [They] are a broken spirit, a broken and a
contrite heart— these, O God, You will
not despise.
He realized that he needed to change his ways, that he needed to be humble, that pride had brought him to this point, the pride of thinking he was king and he was in charge and he could do whatever he wanted. Pride comes in many forms. It comes at all levels. It hits all men. Not just kings. It can hit us. If we’re not careful, pride can hit us. We need to have a broken and contrite heart.
That’s what we’ve needed to learn from the Days of Unleavened Bread. Putting out sin is important, but it’s part of that process of making room for humility. If you don’t put sin out, you can’t do it without being humble. You can’t put sin out if you’re proud, because pride covers sin. You can’t see it—only if you’re humble. So the only way you can keep the Days of Unleavened Bread is to become humble.
I’ve asked Mr. Otto to lead us in the song, one of the hymns in our book which is based on Psalm 51. So as you sing that, I’d like you to think about it as you sing these words. It’s entitled “In Thy Lovingkindness, Lord.” Think about it. Think about what we’ve just gone through and what it means to be humble and not proud.
Transcribed by kb