This sermon delves into Psalm 51, exploring the concept of sin and the various aspects of falling short of God's standards. It emphasizes the need for repentance, cleansing, and restoration in the face of our transgressions, highlighting the importance of acknowledging our sins before God and seeking His forgiveness and renewal.

We are reading the Word of God from the Book of Psalms, Chapter 51. One of the unfortunate things is that if indeed you're described as one of the last of the line, that says something about your age. And you will find that indeed I am an old man, but by the grace of God I still have a clear mind and a focused heart. But I have a problem with my eye, and I may stumble, and I may have to have someone help me to get a given word as I read the scripture. So you may need to exercise a wee bit of patience with my reading, but I don't think you'll have to be patient in any other realm except with the length of the sermon. You see, it's silly to talk about the past and the end of the line without realizing that in former days, the Word of God was considered so precious that people would sit for as long as they possibly could to hear it. Let us read this psalm. Be gracious to me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according to the greatness of thy compassion. Blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me 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. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, thou dost desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part thou wilt make me to know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness. Let the bones which thou hast broken rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from thy presence, and do not take thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners will be converted to thee. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God. Thou God of my salvation, then my tongue will joyfully sing of thy righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, that my mouth may declare thy praise, for thou dost not delight in sacrifice. Otherwise, I would give it. Thou art not pleased with burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God. Thou wilt not despise by thy favor. Do good to Zion. Build the walls of Jerusalem. Then thou wilt delight in righteous sacrifices, in burnt offerings, and whole burnt offerings. Then young bulls will be offered on thine altar. Many years ago, an archbishop of the Church of England wrote a book entitled Synonyms of the New Testament, and he gave the eight synonyms for sin that appear in the New Testament. Let me give you these eight synonyms. Sin is missing the mark or the aim. Often you have heard this sort of thing depicted. It's as if a large straw target were way over there, and you're here with a bow and an arrow, and you are to hit the bullseye. But indeed, your arrow falls short. It doesn't even reach the target, let alone penetrate the bullseye. Sin is to fall short of the target that God himself set for your life. There isn't a single person here but what has grievously missed God's target. Some of you have already wasted years of life, and some of you who are young have not yet wasted years, but your life is set in such a pattern that you never will hit the target unless true change occurs. Sin is missing the mark, falling short of the target that God has set. Sin is also, and this is Mr. Trench's second synonym, sin is also overshooting or overpassing or transgressing the line. God certainly draws the line. You probably can't see it, but there's a carpet up here, and I'm looking at this carpet, and there's a line, and it's as if God said, stay on the carpet. You can go all the way over this far, but don't step off the carpet. That's the line. To go beyond that line, that's transgression, and that's where many of us are living, beyond the line. It's as if somehow we felt that maybe God's lines are drawn for others, but they don't really apply to us. But indeed, we have only deceived ourselves in such thinking. Number three, sin is disobedience to a voice. God speaks. He speaks through this word. We are required to heed every word of God. It is sin when we fail to listen to what God says, just as it is sin when we refuse to heed his commandments. Sin is disobedience to the voice of God, and sometimes it's the still small voice of God speaking within and warning us, don't, and yet we do. So, missing the mark, overshooting the lie, failure to heed or even to hear the voice. Number four, sin is falling when we should have stood upright, and we live in a day when this is so grievously apparent. Those of us who profess the name of Christ and know what is acceptable conduct and what is unacceptable can often be in the company of those whose conduct is deplorably wicked. We have opportunity to take a stand for righteousness, but instead we fall. We often let others think that we are like them because we fail to correct them when they do evil. And not only is this true in terms of our relationship to our society, this is often true in the churches. The churches simply do not stand when God commands them to do so. Our world would not be in the condition it is in if the church were not in the condition it's in. There is nothing wrong in the world but what was first wrong in the church. Everything wrong in society is wrong right in the Christian heart and the Christian church. I hear some of these silly Christians talking like this, well now if it weren't for all those terrible politicians things would be better. If we had an educational system that was more disciplined and cautious and wise we wouldn't be in this rotten mess. If the media somehow ceased promoting evil things would be better. Nonsense. The world has turned rotten because the church is rotten. Because the church commanded by God Almighty to stand for righteousness does not do so. Number five, sin is also ignorance of what one should have known. And very often you hear professed Christians say, oh I didn't know that was wrong. Well most of us have been taught since childhood ignorance is no excuse of the law. My good wife was stopped by a police officer some while ago for speeding. And she said, why officer I wasn't speeding. He said, madam I was right behind you, you were speeding. He said, you were going 40 miles an hour in this 30 mile an hour zone. Oh she said, I didn't know this was a 30 mile an hour zone. Do you suppose that the officer put his ticket book back in his pocket and said, I'm sorry I shouldn't have troubled you. Ignorance is always an excuse of the law. No he said, that doesn't matter. You should have known. The only thing that saved her was when she was in court. She suddenly realized where she was and she burst into tears. And the judge got all riled and he said, quick someone come and help her. And he excused the case. But the Lord isn't going to excuse the case. No matter how many tears you shed, no matter how sorry you are, ignorance is not going to render you innocent. Number six, sin is rendering in part what should be rendered in full. Just take the issue of love. How much love does God command you to render to him? Is not the command thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. And you render a little when God demands all. Sin rendering in part what is required to be rendered in full. I'll not say a word about tithing. That might become offensive. It might get too close to home for some of you. Rendering in part what God demands in full. Sin is also number seven, non-observance of the law or iniquity or lawlessness. It astonishes me how many I meet in the church who live as if they were free spirits, capable of writing their own laws and practicing what they please in complete disregard for the laws either of God or man. Number eight, sin is creating discord in the harmonies of God's universe. We have what we call the divine economy. Most of you are aware of the fact that God is at the top. And like it or not, man. And like it or not, under man, woman. And like it or not, under woman, children. Now, you have sin whenever you have anyone in that lineup arranged by God getting out of order. No wonder that children are out of order when their parents are out of order. If a man is not under God, how can he expect his wife to be under him? And if neither husband or wife are where they belong, how do they expect children are going to line up with God's plan? Well, now I wouldn't want to say anything offensive about women's liberation and the role of women in the church and society. I just mentioned to you that sin occurs when you violate God's arrangement. One could actually even apply that in the realm of environmental matter and say that those who litter the earth are in violation of this eighth synonym. But I leave the matter of Archbishop Trench there and ask you now to address your heart to the passage of Scripture that we have read. When David, in verse 5 of Psalm 51, said, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me, was he pinning the blame for his sin on his mother? And whatever did he mean by