Restoration

Thank you very much again for staying for the meeting today. I know there's a number that have long drives ahead. Some have had to leave but there's some of you here that still have drives ahead of you and you've stayed for the meeting.

I know there's others who have hurried to be here in time for the meeting to start and we appreciate you coming and it's a privilege to be able to open the Word of God together. I'd like to read please first of all in Luke chapter 15. Luke chapter 15 and I'll tell you before I read I have three passages to read together and my exercise this afternoon is to speak on the restoration of a soul away from God.

The restoration of a soul away from God and therefore that's the way I want to apply this passage in Luke chapter 15. I realize it's an application but I want to read together in Luke chapter 15 and verse 11. A certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father, father give me the portion of goods that falleth to me and he divided unto them his living and not many days after the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country and there wasted his substance with riotous living and when he had spent all there arose a mighty famine in that land and he began to be in want and he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country and he sent him into his fields to feed swine and he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat and no man gave unto him and when he came to himself he said how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger I will arise and go to my father and will say unto him father I have sinned against heaven and before thee and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hired servants and he arose and came to his father but when he was yet a great way off his father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him and the son said unto him father I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son but the father said to his servants bring forth the best robe and put it on him and put a ring in his hand and shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and be merry for this my son was dead and is alive again he was lost and is found and they began to be merry over pleased to the Old Testament to 2nd Samuel 2nd Samuel chapter 11 2nd Samuel chapter 11 and we're just going to read the last part of the last verse of this chapter and then into chapter 12 2nd Samuel chapter 11 is perhaps the darkest chapter in the history of David that great man of God we're not going to take time today to read the terrible moral fall and the cover-up and the murder that David committed in 2nd Samuel chapter 11 but we'll suffice to read the last sentence of the chapter the end of verse 27 but the thing that David had done displeased the Lord and the Lord sent Nathan unto David and he came with unto him and said unto him there were two men in one city the one rich and the other poor the rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds but the poor man had nothing saved one little you lamb which he had brought and nourished up and it grew up together with them and with his children it did eat of his own meat and drank of his own cup and lay in his bosom and was unto him as a daughter and there came a traveler under the rich man and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto him but took the poor man's lamb and dressed it for the man that was come to him and David's anger was greatly kindled against this man and he said to Nathan as the Lord liveth the man that hath done this thing shall surely die and he shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity I've sometimes marveled at verse 7 Nathan had one of the toughest assignments that I can think of for a prophet I thought speaking at Stark Road was a pretty tough assignment Nathan here has this message from God to David the king is furious and I don't know how exactly it happened but I wonder if Nathan squared his shoulders and looked King David in the eye and he said thou art the man thus saith the Lord God of Israel I anointed thee king over Israel and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul and I gave thee thy master's house on thy master's wives into thy bosom and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah and if that had been too little I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight thou has killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword and has taken his wife to be thy wife and has slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house because thou hast despised me and has taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife thus saith the Lord behold I will raise up evil against the other thine own house and I will take thy wives before thine eyes and give them unto thy neighbor and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this son for thou didst it secretly but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the Son and David said unto Nathan I have sinned against the Lord and Nathan said unto David the Lord also hath put away thy sin thou shalt not die and finally please in the book of Psalms and Psalm 51 Psalm 51 we'll read the title at the beginning of the Psalm just preceding verse 1 Psalm 51 to the chief musician a Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone in to Bathsheba so these were David's words this is the experience of David's heart right after the incident we've read about in 2nd Samuel chapter 12 have mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindness according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me against thee thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest behold I was shaping an iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me behold thou desire is truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter than snow make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice hide thy face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee deliver me from blood guiltiness O God thou God of my salvation and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness O Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise for thou desire is not sacrifice else would I give it thou delight is not in burnt offering the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise that's all we'll read together but I'll ask you to keep your Bibles open because I want to point out some things from Psalm 51 a little bit later that have been a voice to me in terms of what God can do in the restoration of a soul away from him I don't know very many of you here I don't know the circumstances of your life but I do know this all of us to some extent need to constantly be reminded about the need for restoration in our lives but there may be someone here today and there may be someone who is listening to who will be listening to this message as it's recorded and you know that in your experience you have wandered far away from God and one of the most cruel things that the devil does is when he is successful in drawing a believer away from the place of communion with God he keeps them trapped there and I have spoken in just recent weeks to some who once were in assembly fellowship once for serving the Lord once were happy in their personal Christian lives and today they're far away and I was saddened and amazed at the the commonality in the refrain that they all saying they would love to be back where they were in their Christian experience but it just seems that there is an insurmountable mountain to get back there I sat just last week with someone with tears running down his face and he said I just don't know that there's any way back and my burden this afternoon is to remind all of us that if you were a child of God and there is still breath in your lungs and a pulse in your veins there is a way back and there is a God who not only loves to save souls from sin and hell but as we were hearing from Brother John this morning there is a God who loves the richness of communion and relationship and fellowship with his children and there is always a way back for a child of God to be restored so that is my burden this afternoon is to speak a little from the experience of this young man in Luke 15 and from the experience of King David in the Old Testament on the truth of restoration now of course first of all lying in the background to every story of restoration the starting point is a soul away from God I just want to say a few things in terms of background about a soul away from God you know how a soul gets away from God first of all it always starts with self-interest and self-gratification you see that in Luke 15 a young man who had everything in his father's house and yet this man this young man wanted something more and he goes and demands his share of the inheritance and not many days after he heads out away from the father's presence to a far country and he begins to waste his substance you see it in 2nd Samuel chapter 11 in the life of King David as Nathan reminded him he had everything from the hand of God and yet while his armies are out fighting David is up on the the rooftop and he sees a woman and he sets his affection on that woman and to gratify his selfish desires David starts down a path that takes his soul away from God secondly a soul away from God always involves a distance from God it's no mistake that the description of where this young man in Luke 15 ends up is the far country now far is a relative term that wasn't the name of the nation far means it was far from something what was it far from it was far from the father's house it was far from where this young man belonged it was far from where this young man had left and departure in my soul from God always involves the establishing of a distance between myself and the God with whom I belong but thirdly and perhaps most tragically a soul away from God can become involved in the most horrific sins there is no telling the depths to which a soul can sink in life when it begins to slip away from God you or I could have gone into this far country and visited this prodigal as he was wasting his money in riotous living or as the money had run out of his friends and forsaken him and he's sitting among the pigs we preach this in the gospel we could equally apply it to the life of a believer away from God if we could have witnessed that young man in that environment engaging in those activities we could ask ourselves is it possible that this is a boy who once was in the father's house is it possible that this is a young man who once sat and ate at the father's table and now he is so far away in a place he never belonged yes it's possible it's possible for someone who once was in the house of God local assembly fellowship possible for someone who once sat around the Lord's table with other believers and enjoyed sweet communion with heaven to be out there in a waste barren world living an empty life far away from God yes it's possible and I would like to warn every one of us today that but for the grace of God any one of us could end up a soul away from God look at the life of King David and to me this is if it wasn't that the Bible taught us this is true and in some little way I grasp the sinfulness of my own heart you would read 2nd Samuel 11 and say is it possible is it possible that what you are reading about in 2nd Samuel 11 a man willingly blatantly deliberately plunging into adultery and when he finds out that a woman is bearing his child trying to connive to arrange things so it would appear that he could legitimize the whole thing and gloss it over and when that didn't work then plotting to destroy one of his own loyal servants and then when that was accomplished bringing the man's widow into the palace and enjoying his new wife and strutting around Jerusalem like a king as if nothing was wrong is it possible that that is the behavior of a young man who once slew giants for God yes it's possible there is no telling the depths of sin into which a soul can sink a redeemed soul bound for heaven there is no telling the depths into which that soul can sink when a soul gets away from God let me just pause to issue a warning I was going to say a warning to young ones I think I have to say it's a warning to every one of us there are men mature men older than me in religious evangelical circles who stood and proclaimed loudly condemnation against sin and secretly in their own life they're harboring them so this is a warning to all of every age all of us do not dabble in sin do not allow your soul to stray away from God do not allow a distance to begin to come in into that communion with heaven that is so vital to retain meaning and preservation in life you may think you're in control you may think you can gratify your desires somewhat and not affect your Christian testimony you may think that you have the ability to just dabble in the world and play in the shallow waters and still retain fellowship with God could I warn you sincerely in God's name today you are no match for sin and neither am I and the forces you are playing with can destroy your Christian life and plunge you into a place that God never intended you to be I pray that I will never end up a soul away from God in my life but you know another couple of things about a soul away from God very very often and this is so true if you've ever tried to deal with some and win them back so often a soul away from God is blind to their condition in fact not only are they blind to their condition but they're filled with self-righteous indignation if anyone dare suggest that they're away from God just last week and I was speaking to a young man and he was furious he was angry I said to him calling my name I said Victor I pray for you often and I would love to see you get back to the Lord and back to the assembly Victor's been out of the assembly for a number of years and living the way you shouldn't live and he sat there at the table and his face flushed and he was furious and he said who gives you the right to say that I'm away from God that was David in 2nd Samuel 12 wasn't it was David away from God and 2nd Samuel 12 far away look at chapter 11 and yet when David hears this little parable that Nathan presents him about the man with the one little you lamb and the other wealthy man and how the wealthy man stole the poor man's lamb and David welled up with righteous indignation this was wrong the man that did this should be judged and a person who is away from God is very very quick to see faults and everyone else and very very blind to see sin in their own heart and if that attitude marks me then God helped me in his presence to catch myself I am responsible before God for my own soul and it's safekeeping by him a person who's away from God generally goes through a period where they are blind to their sin and very indignant if anyone should suggest that they have something to deal with but finally in terms of understanding the starting point of restoration a soul away from God has no joy there's no joy in the far country there's no joy for a child of God that is far away from God they can try they can engage in the world's activities they can pretend to be busy they can paint a good facade for people to see they can continue to try to function publicly but it is an empty hollow barren fruitless experience if a soul is away from God and David writes in Psalm 51 restore unto me the joy of thy salvation if there's anyone here today listening to what the Word of God is saying I ask you today to be honest and if in your life there is something that you know to be wrong and even though no one might know about it and you think it is private and you think you can deal with it you know in the depths of the quietness of your soul the joy is gone and the meaning is gone and the fruitfulness is gone and it's all a sham and you're trying to keep it up stop today and face it do not remain a soul away from God but the second thing I see in terms of restoration is this the starting point for every true example of restoration involves a soul that is away from God but secondly it involves a God who longs for restoration don't you see that in Luke chapter 15 I don't believe it's a coincidence that the father in Luke chapter 15 while the prodigal was a great way off it says the father song I don't think that's coincidental I don't think the father just happened to be walking around the parapets of his house one day and out of the corner of his eye he happened to see a little figure on the road and said oh my goodness that's my son I believe there was a father in that home when I don't know how many weeks or months or years had elapsed but I believe there was a father in that home who every waking day he longed for his son he couldn't follow him into the far country he couldn't condone the way he was living he couldn't support it he despised the way the boy was wasting his life and he couldn't mingle with it but he loved his son he loved that boy and I believe every day there was a father with a breaking heart and he gazed down the road he wondered in fact maybe he more than wondered maybe he had faith maybe he said I know he's gonna come back I know he's gonna come home and even though he has left me I can't wait to take him back I believe it was the same in David's case second chapter 2nd Samuel chapter 11 ends with the divine commentary saying the thing that David did displeased God God abhorred David's sin God couldn't condone it he couldn't gloss it over he had to deal with it but God still loved David you know would it not have been just would it not have been right would it not have been dealing with a thing the way it deserved to be dealt with if after the horrific events of chapter 11 of 2nd Samuel God just wiped David off the throne and brought in a new king but that's not what God did the message of the divine character of God and his gracious dealings with the sons of men is a message of unbreaking desire on the heart of God to reach out and communicate Adam sinned God came down to commune with man David sinned and chapter 12 begins with God sending a prophet to David why did God send a messenger to David because God wanted David's heart back there was a God in heaven whose own appreciation went back to days in David's youth when unseen by anyone even in his own family a young shepherd boy out on the hillside with his father's sheep enjoyed rich communion with his God in heaven those days meant a lot to David it touches me to think that those days meant a lot to God and as God looks at this proud self-righteous ice-cold King so far away from him in spirit there was a great big yearning loving heart in the God of heaven that wanted David back and could I speak to every heart here today he wants the same for you and I we wander out there and live such unfruitful barren cold lies so often and we forget there's a father in heaven who longs to have communion with us we turn away from him in our sin and we willingly plunge away for her and yet all the time there's one who as much as he hates our sin he loves us and I want to tell you today friend wherever you are in your Christian experience if you belong to him he wants you back he wants to enjoy sweet rich communion with you he wants to be involved in your life again he wants to use you for his glory he has your very best interests at heart and every case of restoration begins with a soul away from God but with the God who longs and loves and yearns to restore his children but with that background how does restoration happen and this is where I really want to try to communicate to all of our hearts today restoration is possible do not stay trapped do not listen to the lies of Satan that tell you you've blown it you'll never be back it's too late it's all over there is a way back to God where does restoration begin well I'd like to suggest to you three things first of all restoration begins with a fresh appreciation of God isn't that what happened in the case of the prodigal in Luke 15 I don't know how much time it elapsed I have no idea how much of his life he wasted in empty riotous living but I do know this there came a point in this young man's life where his mind began to go back to his father and he looked at his circumstances and he thought back to his father's house and he remembered his father and what he stood for and the type of home he lived in and the way he treated the people who dwelt in his presence and as this young man began to allow thoughts of his father to grip his soul it was the beginning of his restoration back to his father I believe it was the same in the life of David Psalm 51 begins in verse 1 with David being occupied with the loving kindness and the tender mercies of God and I would like to encourage all of us today and if there's someone and you know that this message is hitting you right where you are in your soul and you are so occupied with your own situation and your past and maybe who wronged you and your background and who contributed to it and how insurmountable the issues and problems are you think there's no road back could I encourage you today in God's name look at him look at your God look at your Lord focus on him get into his presence and just ask him just say Lord war my heart and fill my vision again with a sight just a sight of God true restoration doesn't begin with me figuring out my problems it doesn't begin with me trying to chart a course back it doesn't begin with me trying to somehow turn over a new leaf and rectify all I've done wrong true restoration begins in the heart with a fresh appreciation of a God who saved me in the first place and loves me still and is able to draw me back to himself but the second thing that every true case of restoration involves is honest confession of sin it's a tough one it's a very tough one it's a tough one for any one of us personally it's a tough one when you're trying to deal with someone and win them back Galatians chapter 6 says that if a man be overtaken in a fault you which are spiritual restore such in one in the spirit of meekness considering myself lest they'll also be tempted it's a hard hard job trying to see souls restored you know one of the toughest things for people is simply acknowledging their sin but where did the product will get to in Luke chapter 15 so they're going to go back and explain to my father that I never really meant it to turn out this way and I can't I mean if you only understood that I didn't think these friends would lead me astray and it's not as bad as my big brothers trying to make it out to be and give me a chance to explain myself and I'll be able to justify it is that what he said no what did this young man get to in his experience what was he willing to say I'm gonna go back to my father and I'm going to say father I have sinned I have sinned against heaven and before thee and I'm no more worthy to be called thy son where did David get in 2nd Samuel chapter 12 after Nathan explained everything he did to David David says in verse 13 I have sinned against the Lord in Psalm 51 David says in verse 3 I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me against thee thee only have I sinned and done this great wickedness true restoration to God is only ever possible if I am willing to acknowledge my sin and we preach this again in the gospel and if you are truly saved there was a time in your life when you were willing in the presence of God to surrender all claims and say Lord I'm nothing nothing but a guilty sinner and throw yourself on the mercy of God you know what happens to us as Christians over the years we build up layers of pride and self-respect and self-defense and self-explanation and self justification and before there ever is going to be true soul restoration to God there is going to have to be a stripping away of every argument and in the presence of a holy God simply say I sinned that's where it started that is where I veered off course I sinned you willing to do that or are you still trapped in the circumstances you find yourself in and maybe you're listening today you're saying yeah but you don't understand easy for you to stand up there and say that you don't understand my situation you don't know what happened people have misjudged me if anybody understood the temptation that I faced then they would understand why I fell to David do that I mean you put it in the context of 2nd Samuel 11 and it sounds ludicrous for David to say well she never should have been bathing in plain sight anyway was sort of her fault it was no room for that God wasn't interested in that God was dealing in 2nd Samuel 12 with the restoration of David's soul and when it came to the restoration of David's soul the issue was David sin and I would appeal to anyone here today if you are away from God and you would love to know the joy again of God's salvation in your life be willing in the presence of an all-knowing God to just tell him the truth he already knows it ever wondered if that God already knows it he already knows the truth he already knows what you did so why does he want you to acknowledge it because he wants you to get over it he wants you to be honest and he wants you in his presence to take the humble place and say father I have sinned but the third thing in every true case of restoration is you've got to take action you know there's some people they get to this point they think about God they think about their sin and then they just shrink back in fear I can't face it I can't face the people I can't hold my head up I've blown it it's too late there's no way back I love those words of the prodigal in Luke chapter 15 after he had this conversation with himself after he thought about the father's house after he acknowledged his sin and he said I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna say to the father I've sinned the next says this and he arose and he came to his father and maybe that's where the devil has you trapped could I just encourage you this afternoon in God's name take the first step back there's a father who longs to help you there's a God who's able to restore you there's a life of fruitfulness ahead of you do not stay trapped by Satan by the guilt of past failure or the bitterness of a life that's gone wrong there is restoration available I was encouraged by what John Dennison spoke on when he spoke about Peter from John 21 learn lessons from the past but don't stay trapped there learn them and move on finally as I time is done I just want to issue a note of encouragement is it possible to be fully restored is it possible is it possible for a soul so far away to once again no sweet communion with God yes look at the prodigal in Luke 15 far away from the father and yet when he came while he was a great way off as long as he was making a move back to the father the father embraces them there's no mention of his past and he is inseparably linked with a father who loves them look at David in Psalm 51 you know what God cherishes and I sometimes wonder in my own experience am I more like the elder son in Luke 15 or the younger one the elder son was self-righteous haughty indignant so quick to point out faults you know what the younger son was broken broken and contrite you know where David was in Psalm 51 no defense no explanation nothing to say just a broken contrite heart you know what Psalm 51 tells us that's what God cherishes you can enjoy rich sweet communion with God as one of his children God specializes in taking broken things and using them and as I finish just look with me at the post restoration usefulness for God that we see in Psalm 51 just gonna go through these verses and sit down verse 7 says purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean is it possible is it possible for someone who did what David did for it to be said of him I shall be clean the end of verse 7 I shall be whiter than snow verse 10 created me a clean heart verse 10 renew a right spirit within me verse 13 is it possible for a person so far away to ever be used in fruitfulness for God again verse 13 then will I teach transgressors by ways and sinners shall be converted to the verse 14 my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness verse 15 my mouth shall show forth thy praise as I finish could I encourage every heart if you are a soul away from God there is a way back come back home to your father and live the rest of your time to the glory of the one who loved you and died for you in the cross