This is why David was a man after God's own heart. He grieved over his own sin and acknowledged his sin. In other words, David hated that sin that caused him to do such evil. He did not write it off as, "I'm only human." He did not excuse himself. The moment that Nathan the prophet caused him to see himself the way God saw him, he repented. This is the only way to get rid of sin then and now. We have to see ourselves and search our own hearts and acknowledge that we have sinned. In order to be free from sin we have to realize that we are sinners in need of salvation. If we sin at any time, we must not allow that sin to continue but go to God for deliverance.

God's law says that sin causes death. This death being something that destroys the soul for eternity. The soul is lost and is doomed to be sent to hell if it has sin within it. God does not want to see us go to hell and spend eternity there. He made a way for us to be free from the sin that dooms us to hell.

Jesus Christ is that way.  Jesus Christ was the Son of God. He was sinless and perfect. He was with God in the eons of time before the creation of the world. God sent Jesus to be born in the flesh, born of a woman. Since man caused the fall and sin to enter the world, man had to be the cause of the salvation of the world. Every man born of woman is born with the nature to sin. No man before Jesus was able to be sinless. The sacrifice for sin had to be a sinless person. Jesus Christ came into the flesh and was born of a woman. He took on our nature but yet he did not sin. If he had of sinned once, He would have been defiled and could not be the sinless sacrifice on our behalf.

In the Old Testament we see that animals were sacrificed as sin offerings. The animals had to be perfect without one spot or blemish. This pointed to the perfect sacrifice that was to come to save all mankind who would repent of sin and accept this sacrifice on their behalf. The blood of animals could not save sin but only pointed the way to the perfect one to come.

This perfect sacrifice was made by Jesus Christ when He chose to give His own life to save every one of us who would believe in Him. We cannot save ourselves. We cannot deliver our own souls from sin even if we decided not to sin. We must accept God's way and believe in Jesus Christ to be saved. It is a gift of God and the only way to be saved from sin. To be saved, we must repent. Repent means be sorry for, turn from and not accept ourselves as sinners. We must desire to be free from sin. To say to ourselves, "I'm only human, so its okay," will stop the repentance process and hinder salvation. To be saved we must repent and be born again by the spirit of God.

This is what happens when we come to Jesus Christ repenting of sin. We are born again by the spirit. The first time we are born, it is a natural birth of the flesh. The second time we are born, it is a spiritual birth.

We must have this spiritual birth to save our souls and enter into eternal life where death will never come to us again.

David did not excuse himself but fully acknowledged that he had sinned and needed forgiveness.

David recognized the fact that sin dwelled within him from his birth.

David desired to be white as snow. Free from sin.

He knew he could not be happy dwelling in sin.

He knew God had the power to make him clean again. This was before Jesus Christ but God already provided salvation by repenting of sin because of the future provision that was coming. David believed God looking forward to the coming of the plan of salvation while we are saved looking back to that time when Jesus paid the price for the sins of all mankind past and present who would believe and receive Him.

This is what happens when we are born again. A new creature is created.

We are not still sinners but become a new creature who can still sin but with the help of the Holy Spirit, we choose not to sin. The old sin nature may still be available but we don't have to give into it because we now have the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome the sinful nature. If we find ourselves returning to sin then we need to repent and yield to the Holy Spirit again. Do not let sin return and dwell within you. It will steal, kill and destroy the soul just like before you accepted Jesus Christ.

The grace of God is not just a one time thing as some teach. Look at Timothy 2:11 and 12.

The grace of God brings salvation to all men. (This includes women). That same grace teaches us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts. That same grace teaches us to live soberly, righteously and godly.

We see from this passage that we are not saved once and then live any way we want to and still be saved. When one is "born again" by the spirit, the desire to sin is removed. The devil tries to bring it back but we must resist steadfastly and not forget that we have been saved and are now children of righteousness.

This should be our biggest concern in this life. If we truly love God, love His word, we should desire always to be filled with His Spirit. Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Cast me not away from they presence.

There is joy when a person first comes to Jesus Christ. If we allow sin to creep back in, we will lose this joy. We can be restored to the joy of salvation by renewing ourselves to God and rejoicing in Him. Repentance should always be in our hearts when we do wrong.

After we go through these things, we can teach others to yield to God and avoid sin.

God does not desire sacrifice now. He desires a repentant spirit. Jesus made the sacrifice for sins so animal sacrifices are not necessary. Now God desires for us to worship Him in spirit and in truth coming to Him with meekness and a repentant heart.

In the Old Testament offering sacrifices when the heart was not right with God, was a waste of animals and time. God sees when our hearts are not right with Him.

This can happen today also. We may attend church, mass or religious services and our hearts be on something else with no desire to really worship God. Do you not think God sees it? He knows when we are sincere or whether we are just going through the motions with no heart toward Him.

True repentance makes a difference in salvation. If you ever see a person who claims to be a Christian but there is no fruits in his or her life, you can pretty well tell that either they did not fully repent of sin or else they allowed sin to creep back in after they were once saved. If you see someone walking with God, you can be assured that they truly repented of sin and have accepted Jesus Christ as savior in truth.

Psalm 52

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