Rebound Revisited, part 19. 1Jo 2:1-2; Psa 51; Isa 57:15; 53:10; 66:1-2; Jer 31:31-34; Heb 10:9-18.

Title: Rebound Revisited, part 19. 1JO 2:1-2; Psa 51; ISA 57:15; 53:10; 66:1-2; JER 31:31-34; HEB 10:9-18.

 

Announcements/opening prayer:

 

“propitiation” - i`lasmo,j [hilasmos] = atoning sacrifice, propitiation, expiation, or sin offering. It is the satisfaction of the Father’s justice concerning sin.

 

All false doctrines are not originated, but they are perversions of truths communicated by God to His people in all dispensations.

 

Any tendency in Israel to secure the grace of God by means of the sacrificial system alone was completely rejected. The sacrifices themselves meant nothing if the reality behind them was unknown or not believed.

 

Stop the ritual sacrifices that have no reality, reason with Me about my doing all the work to cleanse you, let that change your perception of reality, then obey Me [resume the sacrifices in the proper reality] and you will eat the best of the land, ISA 1:11-20.

 

This principle is as true today.

 

Psa 51 For the choir director. A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.

 

PSA 51:1 Be gracious to me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness; According to the greatness of Thy compassion blot out my transgressions.

 

David was already told that his sin was taken away:

2SA 12:13

Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." And Nathan said to David, "The Lord also has taken away your sin; you shall not die.

 

We see David here applying God’s forgiveness to himself and reasoning through the truth with God so that his happiness is restored.

 

If we fail to apply the doctrines of the cross (soteriology) then we fall into guilt and condemnation which will invariably lead to licentiousness (throwing in the towel) or asceticism (our own atonement for our own guilt). Psalms 6 and 38 reveal David’s struggle with guilt and anguish over his bad decisions.

 

PSA 51:2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin [only the cross can do that and David must place his faith in its future fulfillment].

 

PSA 51:3 For I know my transgressions [self judgment and acknowledgment], And my sin is ever before me [personal sins].

 

PSA 51:4 Against Thee, Thee only, I have sinned, And done what is evil in Thy sight, So that Thou art justified when Thou dost speak, And blameless when Thou dost judge [since all sin is against Him].

 

PSA 51:5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, And in sin my mother conceived me [inherent sin].

 

PSA 51:6 Behold, Thou dost desire truth in the innermost being, And in the hidden part Thou wilt make me know wisdom.

 

PSA 51:7 Purify me with hyssop [used to apply the sprinkling of blood], and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

 

PSA 51:8 Make me to hear joy and gladness, Let the bones which Thou hast broken [divine discipline] rejoice [David recovered so the curse of discipline is turned into a blessing].

 

PSA 51:9 Hide Thy face from my sins, And blot out all my iniquities.

 

PSA 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

 

PSA 51:11 Do not cast me away from Thy presence, And do not take Thy Holy Spirit from me.

 

PSA 51:12 Restore to me the joy of Thy salvation [and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin], And sustain me with a willing spirit.

 

PSA 51:13 Then I will teach transgressors Thy ways, And sinners will be converted to Thee.

 

PSA 51:14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, Thou God of my salvation; Then my tongue will joyfully sing of Thy righteousness.

 

PSA 51:15 O Lord, open my lips, That my mouth may declare Thy praise.

 

PSA 51:16 For Thou dost not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; Thou art not pleased with burnt offering.

 

PSA 51:17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise.

 

We think of a broken heart in a different way than what David means here. Contrite - dakah - means to crush and it refers to the rebellious heart, which David certainly had when he took Bathsheba, forced himself sexually on her, and had her husband murdered. His hard, rebellious heart was crushed by God and it opened David’s eyes, not only to his error, but to repentance, or a change of mind back to humility and obedience to God. Therefore God doesn’t despise the positive results of discipline.

 

The inward part of a man is said to be broken and crushed when his sinful nature is broken, his ungodly self slain, his impenetrable hardness softened, his haughty vainglorying brought low-in fine, when he is in himself become as nothing, and when God is everything to him. [Keil and Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament]

 

The hardness of heart is manifested in the desire to do things “my way” instead of God’s way.

 

Of such a spirit and heart, panting after grace or favor, consist the sacrifices that are truly worthy God's acceptance and well-pleasing to Him.

 

PSA 51:18 By Thy favor do good to Zion; Build the walls of Jerusalem.

 

David is building the walls around Jerusalem, which as of yet is without a solid temple. He says here that the real sacrifice is the broken and contrite heart but he does not disavow the ritual sacrifice.

 

PSA 51:19 Then Thou wilt delight in righteous sacrifices, In burnt offering and whole burnt offering; Then young bulls will be offered on Thine altar.

 

“righteous sacrifices” refers to those brought to God with a broken sinful nature. This is the ritual with the reality.

 

David offers his broken, defiled spirit as well as the sacrifice according to the Mosaic Law. His hope is that when Jerusalem’s walls are finished and then the temple construction can begin that the city will always offer sacrifices this way and not just the sacrificial ritual in an evil heart. God wants us to know the truth behind everything that we do and does not want us to fall into meaning rituals that are just going through the motions.

 

God mentions this quite often:

 

ISA 57:15 For thus says the high and exalted One

Who lives forever, whose name is Holy,

"I dwell on a high and holy place,

And also with the contrite [crushed] and lowly of spirit

In order to revive the spirit of the lowly

And to revive the heart of the contrite.

 

The meaning here is humility. A recognition that one is completely and utterly dependent on God and that any hardness towards God or His people is the manifestation of arrogance from a fallen, worthless, hopeless, and helpless creature.

 

The same word is used in:

ISA 53:10

But the Lord was pleased

To crush Him, putting Him to grief;

If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,

He will see His offspring,

He will prolong His days,

And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.

 

The crushing of the Lord for my sin should soften my heart and crush my hard, arrogant, self-willed spirit.

 

ISA 66:1 Thus says the Lord,

"Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool.

Where then is a house you could build for Me?

And where is a place that I may rest?

 

ISA 66:2 "For My hand made all these things,

Thus all these things came into being," declares the Lord.

"But to this one I will look,

To him who is humble and contrite [to strike or to beat] of spirit, and who trembles at My word.

 

If only more believers trembled at His word instead of devouring it or ignoring it or being completely apathetic towards it.

 

As the sacrificial system in the OT became more and more distorted, it no longer had the effect on Israel the way that it was designed to. It was at that time that God would proclaim and promise a New Covenant.

 

JER 31:31 "Behold, days are coming," declares the Lord, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah,

 

JER 31:32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt [Mosaic Law], My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, "declares the Lord.

 

JER 31:33 "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the Lord, "I will put My law within them, and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

 

JER 31:34 "And they shall not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the Lord, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."

 

Since this forgiveness was accomplished at the cross it also applies to the CA believer and that is why the writer of Hebrews quotes it.

 

HEB 10:8 After saying above, "Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hast not desired, nor hast Thou taken pleasure in them" (which are offered according to the Law),

 

ISA 53:10

But the Lord was pleased

To crush Him, putting Him to grief;

If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,

He will see His offspring [Israel and Church],

He will prolong His days [resurrection, ascension, session],

And the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in His hand.

 

HEB 10:9 then He said, "Behold, I have come to do Thy will." He takes away the first [ritual] in order to establish the second [reality].

 

HEB 10:10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

 

HEB 10:11 And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;

 

HEB 10:12 but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God,

 

HEB 10:13 waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet.

 

HEB 10:14 For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

 

HEB 10:15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,

 

JOH 15:26

"When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me,

 

HEB 10:16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them

After those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws upon their heart, And upon their mind I will write them,"

 

He then says,

 

HEB 10:17 "And their sins and their lawless deeds

I will remember no more."

 

HEB 10:18 Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

 

The NT presents no new doctrine of atonement; the true redemption-event in Christ is to be interpreted and understood in light of the sacrificial system of the old covenant.

 

1JO 1:5 And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.

 

1JO 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;

 

1JO 1:7 but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

 

1JO 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

 

1JO 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

 

1JO 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

 

1JO 2:1 My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;

 

1JO 1:2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.