"The Rugged Road to Repentance"

The Third sermon in our series: "Summer of Psalms

Scripture: Psalm 51 

Dr. Ronnie Floyd

Pastor Emeritus

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:01

Thank you for joining us today. At Crosschurch, we believe people need Jesus. People need each other. People change the world. And people leave legacies. Our desire is for you to understand, accept, and grow in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Thank you for listening. If you would like to know more about Crosschurch, please visit CrossChurch.com.

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In the last two days of the year 2025, I felt the Lord instructed me to read the Bible in a different way in the coming year. I'd read it for 36 years in a row annually, but the Lord instructed me to read through the scripture from Genesis 1.1 to Revelation 22, 21 in the first 90 days of the year. It was a very challenging experience, but extremely rewarding and deeply transforming. And I say that to you because we are a Bible church, and the greatest book that has ever been written is the Bible, the Word of the Living God. And I say it also because when I was asked to preach at our Fayetteville campus last week on Psalm chapter 32, and asked them to preach this week on Psalm 52, 51, excuse me, I was not taken back by the request. Because you see, both of those chapters deal with the same story, but it's almost like you're listening to it and looking at it and reading from it in an entirely different way. For example, in Psalm chapter 32, last week I called it life's greatest joy, because I believe Psalm 32 images that and leads us to understand life's greatest joy. But then also Psalm 51 declares something completely different. The rugged road of repentance. You see, I believe that the greatest joy in Psalm 32 is knowing your sin is forgiven, your sin is covered, and you are set free. And with all of that, you are free from the condemnation of your sin. Thank God. And you are free to become all God wants you to be in your life. Psalm 32 should be life's destination. We should want to be where David was on that side of the story, life's greatest joy. But you can never really get there until you understand that the journey is always going to be through Psalm chapter fifty-one. That's the road to get there. It's called the rugged road of repentance. It is very difficult for us to imagine King David and this story. It is hard for us to grasp that here is a man, the most powerful man of his day. And he finds himself in an adulterous relationship with a woman named Bathsheba, of which she then conceived with his child. And then all of a sudden, when he was informed about that, King David kicked into his power growth. And when he did kick into that power moment, look at what he did. He covered up the sin. He lied about it again and again. He even created schemes about how to keep the people from ever knowing it. And even ended up committing murder by having her husband put on the front lines of the battlefield. And then the child that was conceived died. What is really astounding is to know that all of that happened. And yet, in the Bible, the Bible, it talks about this incredible, loving, faithful, merciful God that turned that man into this man in Acts chapter 13, verse 22, when it says, I have found David to be a man after my own heart who will carry out all my will. Wow. You talk about grace. You talk about mercy. You talk about love. Some of you think you have outsinned God's grace. You have not. Some of you think you have outsinned God's mercy. You have not. Some of you think you have outsinned God's love, and you have not. Our God can forgive anyone of anything at any time in your life. But you must go through. Not just once, not just twice, not just three times, but continually. We walk on that same road of Psalm 51 called the rugged road of repentance. I want to read the first five verses this morning of this great extraordinary passage. I want you to stand to your feet in honor of God's word, please. And the Bible says these words be gracious to me, God, according to your faithful love, according to your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion. Completely wash away my guilt and cleanse me from my sin. For I am conscious of my rebellion, and my sin is always before me. Against you, you alone, I have sinned and done this evil in your sight. So you are right when you pass sentence, when you are blameless when you judge. Indeed, I was guilty when I was born. I was sinful when my mother conceived me. Father, I pray in the name above every name that you will anoint these words with the power of the Holy Spirit. And I pray for the people at Pinnacle Hills today as they listen and join us. And I pray for the people here at Springdale Campus and all the people who will be joining us online. I pray for the Spirit of the Lord to fall upon us in these moments. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. Through deep and extensive study of Psalm 51, not only over the course of my life, but especially over the last two weeks, the Lord has really given me insight that I have never seen in this passage before. I believe there is a progression that is given to us in Psalm 51 that cannot be ignored as we are walking with God and learning how to not manage our sin, but to overcome our sin. To repent of our sin. And the very word repentance is doing a 180. It is you going in one direction, and all of a sudden you change in your direction. And part of the progression begins with what I'm calling this morning the reality of the high, high price of sin. Oh, I want you to know there is a high price of sin. In fact, we know that from the scripture that in verse 1, look what David pleaded for grace, faithful love according to God's compassion, because he knew God loved him greatly, and you need to know that today as well. And then he makes three requests. Look at them, they're right in the scripture: blot out all my rebellion. That word blot out is the Hebrew word maka, which means utterly wipe away. It means to erase. It even means to obliterate the sin from my memory. Wouldn't it be wonderful for all of us to have our sins obliterated from our memory? That's what he asked God for. And then he asked God to wash me, to wash away my guilt, the complete removal of the stain of my sin. And then he asked God to cleanse me from my sin, which means to totally forgive me, God. And only God can cleanse the stain of our sins and set us free. Now David's sin became public. And he confesses in Psalm 51, my sin is obvious before me. And he said, I acknowledge that sin, and I cannot run away from that sin. But I think one of the most dynamic verses, quite honestly, in the Bible relating to the nature of sin is found in verse number four, when David owned his sin. He said, Against you, you alone, God, I have sinned. And I've done what is evil in your sight, not everybody else's sight, your sight. We'll come back to that. And then he declares, Lord, I admit my guilt. I know that even when my mother conceived me, I was in sin. That is a note about what we would call a theological term, the original sin. A nature of original sin, that we are born sinners. Our nature is sinful. No one has to teach any of our children how to sin. Amen. And nobody taught us how to sin. But we are sinners by our nature, and we are also sinners by our choices. But that nature thing separates us from God, which places us in a very difficult experience. I want to show you something today that God showed me this week. Real repentance begins when you realize every sin offends a holy God. That is where we need to turn our eyes toward. We don't need to be thinking I did something bad. I followed a habit I shouldn't have followed. What we need to start thinking about our sin if we're going to repent is that my sin is offending a holy and a righteous God. And there's a high price for that sin. And I want you to remember this about your sin. Our sins can be blotted out. Amen. And they can be washed away. Praise God. And they can be cleansed. Amen. However, there are still consequences to your sins. Even after David was forgiven, his child died. Things can happen in your life, and the consequences of sin can sometimes be short, and sometimes they can be long. I think it's very important we understand the power of the high cost of sin. What we might think to be so small becomes so big. I will never forget the words of the great Adrian Rogers who would say it this way: Sin will take you farther than you want to go, keep you longer than you want to stay, and cost you more than you want to pay. This is the reality of the high cost of sin. But the progression continues. When you understand the high cost of sin, I want you to see what David did. He saw he had a relentless passion to be clean before God. You know, when you're dirty, you know you need to be cleaned. When you've worked outside, you're hot, you're sweaty, you come in, you know you need to be clean. And your wife looks at you and says, Oh, help me, Lord. You know that, and I know that. You see, in verse 6 through 10, God teaches us wisdom within our hearts. And David even mentions in verse 7 the term hyssop, which is a little plant or a shrub they used at the Passover in Egypt. And they would take the hyssop and they would place blood over the door, and the death angel would pass over. That's the power of the blood. And David was crying out to God to clean him by washing him and making him as white as snow. In verse 80, he mentions the same emphasis and even in chapter 32 of Psalm, talking about how sin can negatively affect our lives. I talked about this in detail last week when I preached on Psalm 32, because there are two or three verses specifically in that Psalm about that part of sin. But I want you to notice in verse 9, he says, only the blood will wash away our sins and blot out our guilt. And there is nothing you can do, there's nothing I can do to blot out my sins. Are y'all with me now? There's not one act you can take that will blot out your sins. Church, listen to me. There is not one song you sing that can blot out your sins. And there's not one sermon you hear or one sermon I preach that will blot out my sins. There is only one way my sin becomes blotted out, and that is by the power of the blood of Jesus Christ, my Lord. You see, it's only Jesus, through his atoning blood, the Bible teaches us, that has the power to wash away your sin and make us clean before God. Psalm 51, 10 is a powerful verse as David cries out to God, God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me. David knew that God would do that with his life. You see, Jesus suffered on the cross and he paid the debt that we could never pay ourselves. He became our sin and gave himself completely for us. We are a people that not only claim to be cross-church, we are cross-church by conviction that the cross of Jesus Christ is the hope of the entire world. And listen, what is even more amazing about being cleaned by the blood of Christ is that the moment we become, we become touched by the blood of Jesus, it's like Jesus takes us and he puts on us the righteousness of God. And that's what he does. That way, when he looks at us, he doesn't see our sin, he sees God's righteousness. Oh, the progression is real. The high price of sin. And then we step to another level. We have this relentless passion, God, clean me from my sin. Do you want to be clean today? In a few minutes, we're going to be taking the Lord's Supper, what we call communion. We had better clean up before we do that. But also notice the text, it continues to just go on and go on and progress. It talks about the renewing work of the Holy Spirit to restore the joy of your salvation, which is, in reality, revival. That's what it is. The renewing work of the Holy Spirit to restore something to you that sin takes away. And it is what? The joy of your salvation. Again, which is really the manifestation of the Holy Spirit, which is in reality revival. You see, David is seeking in verse 10 through 13, he is seeking a new and continuous spiritual transformation. And David appeals to God for the Holy Spirit to help him and to keep him together. I want you to notice with me in verse 12 and 13, let's read those passages together. Do you find them in your book? Look at the Bible, Psalm 51, 12. Restore the joy of your salvation to me. That's worth you, underlining that in your Bible, by the way, and sustain me by giving me a willing spirit. And then David said, Then I will teach the rebellious your ways, and sinners will return to you. What a powerful verse from God's word. You see, David pleads that the joy of the Lord of his salvation would come to him, and that God would place within him a willing spirit. And then David will teach God ways to others, and the sinners will be converted to God. Question for today. Do you need to ask the Holy Spirit to restore the joy of your salvation today? Tough question. I think I'll say it again. Do you need the Holy Spirit to restore the joy of your salvation today? Today. Right now. I was reminded even earlier this morning, over in Revelation 2, when the Apostle John says, the problem, here's this incredible church, this Ephesus church. I mean, these people were solidly committed to the right matters of doctrine and proper nature. But what did God say? I have this against you, that you have left your first love. That's what David's talking about here. You need to have your joy restored of your salvation. So please come today, sometime before you leave this place today, and plead with God. God, would you give me the joy of my salvation again? What does that mean, Ronnie? That means you remember when you first came to Christ, there was a joy. Is that same joy there? Is it now a greater joy? We need to be joyful people over what God has done in our lives. Oh, this rugged road of repentance. It starts with the high cost of sin. It leads us into this relentless passion we have that we want to be clean before God. And once you're clean, you want to try to remain clean. And then we come to the reality we need our salvation to be joyful again. And we ask God to restore to us the joy of our salvation. And when that happens, we experience the release to live and to worship broken and humble before God. The church is strong today in many places around the world. But not a lot of churches emphasize the importance of being broken and humble before God. In verse 17, I want you to notice this verse, and I want you to be sure you highlight this verse in your Bible. The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. Broken spirit. Listen to what he said, a broken and humbled heart. A broken and humbled heart. In verses 14 and 15, David wants to be saved from his guilt. And I want all of you who love music hear what he says. He says, I want to be able to sing about this righteousness of God like I've never sung before. I want to be able to open my lips and I want to be able to praise God. But I want to be saved from my guilt. In verse 16, David knew that God did not want his rituals. God did not want his religion. But God wanted one thing from him. Are y'all ready? He wanted repentance. That's what God wants from you. That's what God wants from me. He wants us to repent, to turn from the way we are doing things and change. Let me say it where maybe you can understand it even more clearly. God wants our godly repentance, not our religious performance. We love performance in the Church of America today. We love it. We adore it. We applaud it. We need to fall in love with repentance again. Repentance will change the name of the game. In verses 18 and 19, David wants Jerusalem to be strong and the people of God to worship the Lord. But the focus we must find is on that seventeenth verse. Because when we have walked the rugged road of repentance, look at this. We have a spirit that is broken, not prideful, and a heart that is humble, not arrogant. Oh, please don't miss this. When you've been on that rugged road of repentance in your life, something happens to you. You become broken before God. And all of a sudden, not prideful. And you become humble and not arrogant. Some of you have heard me say this for many years now, and I'm going to say it again today just because I need to hear it. And there's probably about several thousand other people that are going to listen to me today that need to hear it. When pride walks on this platform, God walks off. And that's true about your family. It's true about your job. It's true about every relationship you have in your life. When pride comes in, God says, I'm out of here. I'm out of here. Look what he look what is powerful. The broken heart, the humble spirit. Over in Isaiah 57, 15, the same appeal. God dwells with those who are lowly in heart. In simple, understandable terms. I want you to see this Psalm fifty-one progression and prayer for today. I've tried to reduce it for you. Here it is. Wash me. Cleanse me. Change me. Use me. Wash me. Blot out all my sins. Cleanse me. I want to be clean. Change me. Restore to me the joy of my salvation. Use me. So that all those are away from God. I can teach them God's ways more effectively when I have the joy of my salvation. Psalm 51 ultimately leads to one place: the cross of Jesus Christ our Lord. He was and he is the perfect once and for all sacrifice for our sins. And I want all of you to know today at Pinnacle Hills, and all of you to know here in Springdale campus, and all of you online today that we recognize this when we become saved by the grace of God. When we receive the powerful Lord Jesus in our lives, and we begin to follow Jesus every day. And we become so serious about it, we publicly declare it in baptism. And we identify with a local church. And for the rest of our days in this world, as long as we live with whether our limitations are great or our we are unlimited, our God is with us and sees us through. And he honors us as we honor Him. And you know what? We're going to take a few minutes today, and I'm going to call some of you who have never given your life to Jesus to come to the men and the women who assist us here at the front of our worship center here and at Pinnacle Hills. And to say to them, I want to be clean. I want to be forgiven once and for all. I want to be saved. I want to follow Jesus today. And then I appeal to many of you who are followers of Jesus. I want to urge you at Pinnacle Hills, and I want to urge you here at Springdale to come and pray that prayer. Lord, wash me. Lord, cleanse me. Lord, change me. Restore to me the joy of my salvation again. And use me. And ladies and gentlemen, this is where we have to be to be ready to partake this ordinance today. Because we want the blessing of God and the power of the Lord to be upon us. Father, I pray now in Jesus' name that as soon as we say amen in a moment, the powerful Spirit of God will begin to bring many to this altar today for various reasons. Some need to be prayed for by these leaders because they have issues in their life. Some need to come and follow Jesus for the first time ever. And some, many need to flood these aisles today with that Psalm 51 heart, The Rugged Road of Repentance, and pray those words that we talked about here this morning. And as our ministers now and the men and the women who are going to receive our people today as they come into place right now, we ask that you stand in a moment, all of you, and begin to come. And then in just about three or four minutes from now, we will move into the time of communion. But now it's about we need to be ready to do this to God's glory. Would you stand with me now? And you begin to come even now.

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If you have questions about what you have heard or would like more information about your relationship with Jesus, please email us at infocchurch.com or visit our website at crosschurch.com. At Crosschurch, our mission is to reach Northwest Arkansas, America, and the world for Jesus Christ.