Finding Restoration Through Jesus After We Sin -Part 4

4. Holy Spirit: Restoration Includes Transformation Through the Holy Spirit.

David asked for the Holy Spirit to transform his heart. To remain free of his sin, David asked for God’s Holy Spirit to transform his heart and to stay with him. “Create in me a clean heart, God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me” (Psalm 51:10-11). Under the old covenant, David enjoyed the anointing of the Spirit as Israel’s king. Saul had previously enjoyed the same, but when he sinned the Holy Spirit was taken away from him. When David was anointed the Holy Spirit came on David, Saul was rejected, and David was established as his replacement (1 Samuel 16:13-14). David then asks the Lord not to do to him what he did to Saul, -remove the Holy Spirit, and end his reign as king, and banish him from God’s presence. Under the new covenant, believers experience not only the new heart for which David prays, that believers are also the temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:16). David’s words easily translated into a new covenant for those who seek the renewal only God can provide and the presence that will be enjoyed only by those who have experienced the transforming power of God’s holiness.

• God promised a new covenant would include transformation through the Holy Spirit. God made a covenant through Abraham (Genesis 17:7), Abraham’s descendants through Moses (Exodus 19:24, Dt 28) and then a covenant with David (2 Samuel 7). But David recognized that he (along with God’s people could not keep their promises to God, and asked for God to “create in me a clean heart” (Psalm 51:10). God later promised that He would make a new and even greater covenant with His people (Jeremiah 31:32, Hebrews 8:8-9). This foreshadowed the “new covenant” through Jesus (Luke 22:20, 2 Corinthians 3:6). We are no longer judged by our failures (Hebrews 8:7). Under the new covenant, our salvation is tied to our faith in Jesus (Romans 7:6, Galatians 3:13-14). As part of this “new covenant,” God promised us a “new heart” and a “new spirit” to convict us and help us maintain our promise to Him. “And I will them one heart, and put a new spirit within them. And I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 11:19). “ over I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). “ I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am the Lord, and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me wholeheartedly” (Jeremiah 24:7). This foreshadowed the Holy Spirit. He will transform our hearts. “ being revealed that you are a letter of Christ, served by us, written, not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in tablets of stone, but tablets that are hearts of flesh” (2 Corinthians 3:3). Jesus answered, “truly truly, I say to you, unless someone is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:5).

• Repenting without the Spirits transformation will likely result in a backslidden walk. Like David Saul also repented when God‘s prophet confronted him (1 Samuel 15:24). Yet, moments later, saw revealed that he cared more about what the people thought of him than what God thought of him (1 Samuel 15:30). he also at times confessed his sins to David for trying to kill him (1 Samuel 24:17, 26:21). But he would then go back to pursuing David, even pharaoh once confessed his sins before God (Exodus 9:27). But then go back to persecuting. God’s people David’s repentance was real because it also brought a change in his behavior. He never took another wife or concubine after Bathsheba. The spirit gave him strength to do this, when we confess our sins and mean it, we will not backslide and let the spirit transform us.

• Let the Holy Spirit transform You and leave your old life behind. Through faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit transforms our hearts and makes us a “new creation” “As a new creation, you should not allow any provision for your old sinful self: “ but put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts” (Romans 13:14). “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). Out of gratitude for Jesus’s mercy and grace, our lives should become a “living sacrifice” for Him (Romans 12:1).

5. Service: Restoration includes serving Jesus and others in need.

• David promised that he would express his joy by teaching others how to find restoration. To show his appreciation, David promised to teach others how to find God‘s restoration. “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach wrongdoers Your ways, and sinners will be converted to You” (Psalm 51:12-13).
  • God’s promise of salvation brought David joy. David sought to have his joy restored through the reassurance that God accepted his confession and atonement. (Psalm 51:12). David’s joy came from the hope of his salvation: “So that I may tell of all Your praises, that in the gates of the daughter of Zion, I may rejoice in your salvation” (Psalm 9:12). “ but I have trusted in Your faithfulness, my heart shall rejoice in Your salvation” (Psalm 13:5). “ So my soul will rejoice in the Lord, it shall rejoice in His salvation” (Psalm 35:9).

 Through Jesus, we also have the hope in His promised salvation. (1 Corinthians 15:19).

• Jesus offers us joy through the Holy Spirit. As a down payment for our salvation, Jesus offers us an abundant life when we seek His fellowship. “The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, I came that they may have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). The abundant life that He offers includes the peace and joy that only the Holy Spirit can provide. “The kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Psalm 13:5). “In Your presence is fullness of joy” (Psalm 16:11, 21:6). Joy is also a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22, romans 14:17, 15:13). Living your faith and walking with Jesus, also involved sharing the joy of the Spirit. “Make my joy complete by being in the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose” (Philippians 2:2). When you suffer pain, seek out the joy that He offers through the Holy Spirit.
• Jesus saves us to serve His kingdom, not our own. David sought redemption so that he could serve God by helping to restore other people (Psalm 51:23). Jesus also died so that you could do good works for His kingdom. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

• The Holy Spirit will empower us to teach fellow sinners the path to restoration. David’s desire to teach others how to be transformed (Psalm 52:13) would have required humility and courage. Many would have viewed him as a hypocrite based upon his past sins. But the Apostle Paul followed David’s example. With the power of the Holy Spirit, he confessed to others that the same Savior who he once persecuted was in fact the only path to salvation. Paul immediately began to proclaim Jesus in the synagogue saying, “He is the Son of God.” All those hearing him continued to be amazed, and we’re saying: “Is this not the one who in Jerusalem destroyed those who called on this name and had come here for the purpose of bringing them bound before the chief priests?” (Acts 9:21-21). Jesus wants us to share our testimony. Your testimony regarding your path to redemption will help others. Like David and Paul, the Holy Spirit will strengthen you when you need to do so (2 Timothy 1:17).

6. Gratitude: Restoration requires humble gratitude before Jesus.

• Out of gratitude, David promised to sing God’s praises. David promised to express his gratitude through songs of praise, worship, and humility before God: “Save me from the guilt of bloodshed, God, the God of my salvation, then my tongue will joyfully sing of Your righteousness. Lord, open my lips, so that my mouth may declare Your praise. For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it. You do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, God, Yoy will not despise” (Psalm 51: 14-17). David praised God’s forgiveness because he did nothing to deserve it. Instead, he knew he deserved death.
• Restoration requires humility. If you have a “contrite heart” Jesus will restore you: “But You, Lord, are a shield around me. My glory and the One who lifts my head (Psalm 3:3). “Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled, and whoever humbled himself shall be exalted” (Matthew 23:12, Lk 1:52, 14:11, 18:14, Jam 4:6, 4:10, 1 Pet 5:6, Prov 29:23). When we stay humble Jesus will restore us and lift us up.
• Sing Jesus’s praise for His forgiveness, mercy, and grace. David wrote Psalm 51 for generations to sing so that all could follow his example in seeking God’s restoration after sin. Like David, each of us has a story to tell about their deliverance. When Jesus healed the demon-possessed man, he ran, proclaiming praise for what Jesus did for him. “And he went away and began to proclaim in Decapolis what great things Jesus had done for him, and everyone was amazed” (Mark 5:20).
• Sing praises for your undeserved salvation. The Psalms encourage us to sing praises for our underserved salvation. “Come and hear, all who fear God, and I will tell of what He had done for my soul” (Psalm 66:16). “My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness and of Your salvation all day long, for I do not know the art of writing” (Psalm 72:15). It’s up to us to express our gratitude to Jesus for our salvation in any way we can.
• A life of obedience is a measure of your gratitude. David stated that God desired the sacrifices of “a broken contrite heart” (Psalm 51:16-17). This translates to a life of humility and spirit-filled obedience to God, Samuel said, “Does the Lord have much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifice as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than a sacrifice, and to pay attention is better than the fat of rams” ( 1 Samuel 15:22). “ You have not desired sacrifice and meal offering, You have opened my ears, You have not required burnt offerings and sin offering” (Psalm 40:6). Obedience also shows our love for Jesus, “and to love Him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the strength, gratitude to Jesus visible through a life of humble obedience and all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices” (Mark 12:33).

Gratitude to Jesus is visible through a life of humble obedience to His will for you.

7. Fellowship: Restoration requires a desire to live in Jesus’s fellowship.

• David desires a restored relationship with God. David delighted in the prospect that his forgiveness, restoration, and renewed leadership would also restore God’s fellowship with him. “By Your favor do good to Zion, build the walls of Jerusalem. Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices, in burnt offering and whole burnt offering, then bulls will be offered on Your alter” (Psalm 51:18-19).
• The walls of Jerusalem refers to the real defense of the nation and the guarantee of divine favor -the moral defense. David’s forgiveness and spiritual renewal to proper attitudes and decisions would be a true and moral defense of the city and the nation. God’s work of spiritual renewal would enable the people to worship correctly. We like David can and must have complete cleansing before we can fully and freely serve God in any capacity. Our eternal destiny may not be in doubt when we sin, and neither was David’s because he appealed to that covenant relationship, but our fellowship and service will be. God will not tolerate unconfessed sin, but will discipline for it. And if we harbor unconfessed sin in our lives, we cannot teach others about forgiveness, we cannot praise God, we cannot come to His table, and we will not have the joy that we knew when we were walking with the Lord. We may still need these things with finding forgiveness, but it will be hypocrisy, and therefore not accepted or blessed by God.
• Jesus offers His fellowship if we seek Him in faith. God promises His fellowship to anyone who earnestly seeks Him in faith. “And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13). “But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all of your heart and all of your soul” ( Deuteronomy 4:29).

Jesus made this same offer to believers at Laodicea. They were saved. But they were not walking in fellowship with Him.

“Behold I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into Him and will dine with him, and he with Me” -Revelation 3:20

I know this was a very long deep study on forgiveness. It took me a long time to get everything together. I only hope it will help you grow in the Lord, and realize what He has truly sacrificed for you.