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Good evening, everyone. Glad to have you this evening.
Are you all glad to be had? That's what people usually say.
Good to see you this evening. Well, it's good to be seen. All
right. This evening, we're going to
continue on in the book of Psalms. Last time we got together, we
began Psalm 50, but our really have just felt pressed to go
ahead and get into Psalm 51 tonight, and then we will go back and
redo Psalm 50 and try to include the whole thing at another time.
But this evening, we're going to look at Psalm number 51. And
I want to ask you to open your Bible there, if you have a Bible.
And if you didn't bring one, there's one in the pew there.
And also, they'll be putting some of the verses up here. But
we may be going so fast, they won't be able to keep up with
us. And we'll be going back and forth. So anyway, I know I see
Derek up there. He's pretty fast on the draw
on those verses. Let's go to Psalm number 51.
Psalm number 51. And let's ask the Lord's presence and instruction, speaking
to our hearts as we look at this Psalm tonight. Psalm number 51.
Dear Father, we come before you tonight and thank you for the
scriptures, Father. We thank you for this psalm that
we're going to look at this evening, and we pray, Father, that your
Holy Spirit would come and teach each one of us and help us to
make a personal application to it. This is really, Lord, a psalm
of a man whose heart is being revived and who is experiencing
a spiritual renewal. And Father, I pray that through
our examination of this psalm tonight and by the application
to our hearts by your Holy Spirit, that you would do a great work
in each one of us that are here this evening. We thank you now
for the time and we ask your blessing on it. And we pray in
Jesus' name, amen. This psalm is Well, it's a little
bit difficult to break down into its component parts. It seems
to go back and forth and all of that. As we're looking at
something like this, we're not looking at the logical, sequential,
rational arguments of the Apostle Paul. What we're looking at here
is the fragmented, broken cries. of a man who has a broken heart
before God. So we may be doing some back
and forth in it, but may the Lord bless us in understanding
it. First of all, we have sort of an introduction, and we do
see this as a pattern in David's Psalms. The first The first verse
or two, he'll introduce us to the issue that's on his heart,
and then he'll delve into that issue. And that's what we have
here in Psalm number 51. Before we get into verse one,
though, I'd like for us to go ahead and read the title that's
in here. And these titles are actually
in the Hebrew Bible. This says, to the chief musician,
a Psalm of David. when Nathan the prophet came
unto him after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Notice that it's
to the chief musician, which means that this psalm, although
this is a very personal psalm, and this is a psalm of David's
crying out between him and the Lord, David wanted this psalm
to be a part of the music of the temple. He wanted it to be
put out there in public. And of course, the reason is,
that he sets an example for us of a man whose heart is being
renewed and a man whose heart is being right with God. So although
it's very personal and very, in some respects, embarrassing,
humiliating, he wanted it to be put out there. This is a psalm
of David when Nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone
in to Bathsheba. And we're going to read about
that in just a few minutes. But are you familiar with that
account? Are you familiar with what happened
there? It was the time of the year that that kings go forth
to war and David sent his army out to go to war. He sent Joab
and his troops and they went out to go fight against the,
well today we would call them the Jordanians, and they went
and David David remained in Jerusalem. A lot of people make a big issue
of that. I don't know if David was really
tremendously guilty because he was there at that moment, but
he was there. And he went out on the rooftop to enjoy the night
air, and as he was out there, one of the Nearby there was this
woman that was taking a bath there and the Bible says she
was very beautiful To look at and and David was overcome with
his own lust For her and he committed adultery with her and then there's
there are many things that happened as a result of that and Nathan
the prophet came to David and rebuked David and gave David
God's message of rebuke and the consequences of David's sin. And David's heart was broken. And with that heart that was
broken because of his sin, David wrote down this prayer to the
Lord. And so this is a prayer of a
man who has been guilty of extreme sin. whom God has revealed to him
how horrible his sin was, and his heart is broken over his
sin. Verses 1 and 2, the introduction.
Have mercy upon me, O God. According to thy lovingkindness,
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. That's what David wants. That's
why he's coming to the Lord. He's coming, he's coming to the
Lord wanting to be forgiven. He doesn't say that word here,
but, but he's asking the Lord to blot out his transgressions
and to wash him throughly or wash him completely from his
sin. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to thy loving kindness. I want you to notice that David
here does not say, have mercy upon me, O God, because I didn't
really mean to do it. That's not his appeal, is it?
Have mercy upon me, O God, because I'm generally a pretty good guy,
and I just slipped up this once. So please have mercy on me because
of this one mistake that I made. Do you see, David is not coming
to the Lord, calling on him, for forgiveness based on the
fact that David deserves forgiveness. But he's coming to the Lord and
he's asking for forgiveness based on God's merciful heart, based
on God's loving kindness. David's asking for forgiveness
and restoration because of who God is and because of the loving,
merciful, forgiving qualities of God, not because of any worthiness
on David's part. That's so significant for us,
isn't it? Isn't it, I mean, we as human
beings will commit some sort of an offense against the Lord
and maybe continue in some sort of an offense against the Lord,
but we won't go to the Lord asking forgiveness because we don't
feel like it's that bad of a deal. And that we somehow are earning
fellowship with God because, well, yeah, we've got this sin,
but you know, no biggie. You know, God doesn't really
care about it. Or we might think that God won't
forgive us. of our sin because we haven't
earned it. You know, we've had too many mistakes and God won't
forgive us for our sins. So we just sort of spiritually
limp along here doing the best we can with this impression that
God won't forgive me because of what I did. But David here,
as he goes to the Lord, David's mind and heart is set on the
Lord blotting out his sin and the Lord renewing his heart because
of the mercy and the love of the Lord. So we need to get our
hearts set on the Lord and on God's love for us and God's mercy
toward us. And of course we know, we know
and David knew that that mercy has been purchased Purchased
through the blood of Christ. Purchased by the sacrifice of
Jesus on the cross in our place. I taught right here at that podium
just a few hours ago. We had chapel today with the
first through third graders. And I was teaching them about
the fact that God must punish sin. And we looked at several
verses about God's punishment of sin. And then I explained
to them that Jesus went to the cross in our place to pay for
our sins. And a little boy came up to me
afterward. He said, Brother Kenny, I don't understand. I don't understand
how Jesus paid for my sins. when he was on the cross. How
did that work? Boy, you can get some pretty
deep questions if you'll just let children talk to you. So
I just asked him, had he ever gone out to eat at a restaurant? Oh yes, yes. Did he pay for it? No. His dad paid for it. And I said, well, how did your
dad pay for it? And he said, he got money from the bank and
then he took that money and paid for it. I said, oh, so he just
walked into the bank and said, give me money, I'm gonna go out
to eat and they just gave him money. He said, well, not really. I said, did he have to work for
it? And he said, oh yeah, dad works and he puts his money in
the bank. And then he got some out and we went out to eat and
then dad took that money and paid for it. I said, that's kind
of how it was with Jesus. and how it was with Jesus. He
earned the right to die on the cross for our sins. And then
he took the responsibility to pay for us. And we simply accept
the forgiveness that he's offering to us. Have mercy upon me, O
God, according to thy lovingkindness. Verse three. Beginning in verse
three, he actually begins his confession. Let's look at verses
three through six. Wash me from my iniquity, 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 shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me. Behold, thou desirest truth in
the inward parts, and in the hidden part. Thou shalt make
me to know wisdom." So as he's confessing his sin here, he's
covering a lot of territory, but I want you to notice in verse
three he says, For I acknowledge my transgression and my sin is
ever before me. First John chapter one, verse
nine tells us that if we confess our sins, he is faithful and
just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we confess our sins, the word confession there of course means
to, it means to admit, to own up to the fact that we have sinned
rather than hiding it Instead to just lay it out before God,
but not just to say, well, Lord, you know, I did this. I know
it wasn't too bad, but I felt like I needed to come tell you.
No, no, it's confessing to the Lord that it is a sin, that it
is a violation and a transgression against the person of God. that
this is a horrible and a wicked thing. And Lord, I agree with
you that it is horrible and wicked and there's no excuse for it.
And I'm acknowledging that to you. That's what the idea, if
we confess our sins, if we own up to what they really are and
truly acknowledge and agree with God, what it is. I acknowledge
my transgression and my sin as ever before me. In 1 John 1,
9, we have a promise from the Lord. We have a promise from
the Lord. You know, that's such an important
idea because every one of us has a problem with sin. Even
though we've, if we've come to know Jesus as our personal savior
and Lord, we've been born again. And our soul has been regenerated
and is in the likeness of Christ and cannot sin because it has
been born of God. But in this flesh, we still have
a problem with sin. It's still a part of our sin
makeup. That's why at the day of the resurrection, we're going
to receive a body like Christ's body. We're going to have a body
that's not capable of sin anymore. But presently, we still have
that. every one of us. What do we do about that? You
know, do we just sit on it and just, you know, just keep going
on in our attitudes and whatever it is, you know, we could go
through the Ten Commandments and some other list of things
that each one of us might struggle with, but you know what the issues
are in your heart that you struggle with. What do we do with those
things? What do we do with those things? Do we just tolerate them?
Have you ever thought about whenever God looks down upon you and looks
down on your heart, what does he see? What does the Lord see? And He is seeing, isn't He? He does know what's going on
in our mind. He knows what's going on in our
heart. And so we just need to acknowledge
it with Him. How we should deal with the sinfulness
of our flesh and our human sinfulness that we still carry, even as
a saved person is, to deal with it honestly between us and the
Lord, to own up to it and to set it aside. The apostle Paul
says in Hebrews chapter 12, he tells us to lay aside every weight
and the sin which doth, what does the rest of that verse say?
Lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset
us. We've got to deal with it. We
can't just leave it and just have an attitude of, well, that's
just how I feel. We can't do that. And we can't
say, well, that's just who I am. Because what we're doing is we're
not setting aside our sin. when we do that. What we're doing
is we're allowing that sin to become the dominant force in
our life. And that sin becomes what defines
us as a person. And that's why it's so important
to come to verse three here and say, I acknowledge my transgressions. My sin is ever before me. So
David acknowledged that. Then we have one of the most
remarkable statements in the Bible. Psalm 51 verse four, against
thee, The 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. See David here, he had gone in
unto Bathsheba. And I want you to know that in
the process of everything that David did, he violated a lot
of people. He violated the consciences of
many people and he implicated and drew into his sin several
people. Think with me. Whenever he was
there on the rooftop and he saw Bathsheba, he sent one of his
servants to go get her. Now that servant was a servant
of the king. That servant knew the kind of
reputation that David had had as a man after God's own heart.
And yet now he's being sent to go get a woman for David. And what about those servants
in Bathsheba's house? Her husband, Uriah the Hittite,
was one of David's mighty men. This is no low-class person here. This is a person of significance
in the community, is one of David's main military leaders. And yet
her servants got her and brought her over. So these servants are
implicated in all of this. And they know what's going on.
And they've got to be experiencing confusion and disappointment
overseeing what's happening here. And then of course there's the
violation of Bathsheba. And of course, you know, she
could have taken the position of Joseph. Remember whenever
Joseph was tempted by Potiphar's wife, Joseph's response was,
how can I commit this sin against God? But she wasn't a Joseph. And she yielded to the desire
and the influence and the command of the king. And so they committed
adultery there. But then David's plan was to
cover up what was done by having her husband come and spend time
with her. And he refused to do that because
he said his fellow soldiers were out on the battlefield, so he
couldn't come home and enjoy the comforts of home and comforts
of his wife. So he didn't go in to be with
her after it was found out that she was pregnant. And so David
calls Joab, his cousin, the main leader of his military, Joab.
And let's go there, let's go to second, First Samuel. Let's see, I did
write this down. First Samuel chapter 11, verse
15. First Samuel 11, 15. This is
unmistakable what's happening here. First Samuel chapter 11. I'm sorry, it is 2 Samuel. I
wrote first, but it should have been second. 2 Samuel chapter
11. So there's Uriah. He would not
cooperate with David's plan, and he was headed back out to
the battlefield. And in verse 14, it says, it
came to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab
and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And he wrote the letter saying,
set ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle and retire
ye from him that he may be smitten and die. So now David has conspired
with Joab. So now Joab is brought in. to
this conspiracy. Joab is brought in and a part
of this sin. Now here's a group of soldiers,
right? And I know that one of the mottos
of the United States military is that we don't leave anybody,
you know? And so they went out to battle
and the men went up to charge against the city of Rabah and
they went up to charge against it. And then the word is passed
along to everybody retreat, retreat, draw back. And there's Uriah
over there. We need to tell Uriah, no, don't
tell Uriah, leave him there, everybody else retreat. What
was in the heart of those soldiers? What confusion, what a sense
of betrayal that they experienced. And years later, Years later,
when Absalom rose up in rebellion against David as the king, the
scripture tells us specifically that Ahithophel, one of the people
that lined up with Joab, lined up with Joab because of his hatred
of David because of what David did to Bathsheba. So, it's all tremendous consequences
in the lives of many people. over this. Many people were violated. Then how could David say in verse
4, 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. See God had spoken to David about
this. And I'd like for us to go and
see what the Lord told David. But isn't that remarkable that
here David is, and when he's confessing his sin, his confession
is, Lord, I have sinned against you. All these other folks who
experienced the result or the consequences of David's sin,
David did not sin against them. That was not in the final analysis,
the problem, the final analysis in the problem, the focus of
the problem here was what went on between David and God that
night on the rooftop. Let's go here to 2 Samuel again. And we're going to 2 Samuel chapter
12. In 2 Samuel 12, after these things had happened and Bathsheba was big pregnant with
the baby. The Lord sent Nathan the prophet
to confront David. And I want us to work. We're
going to read a few verse where we're going to read about 10
verses here to see what was on David's mind, what was on his
heart when he was getting right with God about this issue. Chapter
12, 2 Samuel, chapter 12, verse one. And the Lord sent Nathan
unto David. And he came 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 save one little
ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up. And it grew
up together with him and with his children. And 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 unto
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 coming
to 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 the 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."
Wow, what is David so angry about, about a man stealing somebody's
lamb? David is disproportionately angry
about this situation. David is disproportionately focused
on giving out punishment in this situation. Why is David disproportionately
angry about something that is, it's not insignificant, but stealing
a lamb is not a death penalty offense in the law. You're supposed
to restore the lamb and then you're done with it. You're not
gonna be stoned to death for it. Why is David so angry? It's because of his own guilt,
isn't it? David's sense of his own guilt and that can happen
with us, can't it? We can be disproportionately
angry with situations because we have unresolved guilt and
unresolved sin in our own heart that causes us to be unnecessarily
harsh and angry with other people. And Nathan said to David, 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. I gave thee thy master's house
and thy master's wives into thy bosom and gave thee the house
of Israel and of Jacob, Judah. And if that had been too little,
I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things, or
I would have given you even more things. Verse nine, wherefore
hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his
sight? Thou hast 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. So this is
one in the same as if David himself had taken the sword and slain
Uriah because he just used the sword of the children of Ammon
to kill him. But do you notice the first thing
that Nathan points out? You have despised the commandment
of the Lord. You have taken God's instruction
in your life, God's command, God's righteous standard, and
you have despised it. And despised it simply means
you just set it aside and counted it as an insignificant thing.
What was important to David? God's commandment was insignificant.
Well, what was it that was important to him that night on the rooftop? Yeah, his lust, his desire, his
passion. I hear, you know, as a person
that's involved in education and seeking to influence kids,
you know, I'm interested in what other people are saying to children.
And one of the most dangerous things that you can tell any
person is just pursue your own passion. Our passions can lead
us down the wrong road. So many times, we should not
pursue our passion. We should pursue the Lord. And
we should pursue the will of the Lord. Our passions can be
nothing more than selfishness and pride. Watch out. David was a passionate man. David
was a passionate man. David was a man that had passion
to do the right thing, but David also had a passion to do the
wrong thing. He was a man who had strong emotions and strong
feelings, and those are great if they're under the direction
of the Holy Spirit. But if they're not, they're extremely
dangerous. David despised the command of
the Lord. Let's continue on here. Result. Now, therefore, the sword shall
never depart from thine house. And then it gets even worse.
Look at verse 10 in the middle of the verse there. 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." In the final analysis, why did
David go after Bathsheba and involve all of those people in
his sin? And why did he desire to cover it up by killing Uriah
and all of those things? Why? Because he was at a point
in his life that he despised the Lord. At that point, At that
point, his personal lust and desire meant more to him than
yielding to the Spirit of God in his life. And what we see,
everything else, as they would say in the military, the rest
of it is collateral damage. It's collateral damage. Let's
continue. And he says, against thee, thee
only have I sinned, verse four, and done this evil in thy sight
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest. David is
confessing that he sinned against God. He is confessing that he
despised the Lord. He's confessing that he despised
the commandment of the Lord because that's what God said he had done.
And what David is telling us here in verse four is, Lord,
you are justified in saying that. You are clear when you judge
me. You are clear in the sense that
you are clear of any guilt. Whenever you say that, you are
telling the truth. You are absolutely right. Behold,
I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me. Do you see, David here is telling
us that his problem was not just a momentary lapse. David is recognizing
he has a predisposition that is a part of him personally that
has been a part of him since his birth. And we need to come
to the recognition of that too. We are not in ourselves righteous
people that always walk around having righteous thoughts and
once in a while we might slip. We were born in sin, shapen in
iniquity. It has been a part of our makeup
from the time that we were born, and it still has pressure on
us because we're in this body of flesh. And we will continue
to have that until the resurrection, whenever the Lord gives us a
new body. Behold, thou desirest truth in
the inward parts. The Lord's not just interested
in external conformance to ceremonies and commandments. He wants it
to be the real deal. in our heart, in the hidden part
thou shalt make me in no wisdom. So that's David's confession,
but now look at his requests. David makes several requests
and I'd like for us to just take a quick look at each one of these
here in verses 7 through 12. Let's just read this first. 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. This is the request of David.
David wants things to be set back right. with the Lord. So he says, purge me with hyssop
and I shall be clean. You know, there's a couple of
places where there's purging with hyssop going on. One of
those is in the book of Exodus, chapter 12, verses 12 and 13. For the sake of time, we won't
actually turn there, but I would like to ask you to make note
of that. Because in Exodus chapter 12, I'm sorry, yeah, Exodus chapter,
chapter 22 verses 12 and 13 tell us that when the Lord went through
Egypt that night killing the firstborn that he was judging
the Egyptians. He was judging the Egyptians
and in chapter 12 verses 21 through 23 he prescribed for the people
of Israel what they needed to do so they could escape the judgment
of God when the judgment of God came through Egypt. Do you remember
what it was that he told them to do? kill a lamb and take its
blood. And with hyssop, which is just
a common weed, with hyssop, dip that hyssop in the bowl of blood
there and splash the blood on the lentil and on the side posts
of the door. And then he tells us there in
verses 21 through 23, when I pass through the land of Egypt, when
I see the blood, I will pass over you. So using hyssop to apply the
blood made the people of Israel that
night exempt from God's judgment in the land of Egypt. Cleanse
me with hyssop and I shall be clean judicially. But then in
the book of Numbers chapter 19 verse 18, there's the use of
hyssop to take people that are ceremonially unclean. If a man
has touched a dead body, he can't go into the temple. He is ceremonially
unclean. And Numbers chapter 19 is the
chapter that talks to us about the red heifer. Brother Ron knows
what we're talking about back there, the red heifer and how
they had to get a heifer that was completely red. And boy,
that's amazing that a little flock or a little herd of red
heifers has been transferred from Texas to Israel today. And they've got a red heifer
there today so that they can go through the process of taking
people that are ceremonially unclean and making them ceremonially
clean for the reconstruction of the temple. But they're to
take the ashes of the red heifer and put it in water and then
take hyssop and cleanse the unclean person with the application using
hyssop. So that's why David calls on
the Lord, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me,
I shall be whiter than snow. Lord, I will be acceptable. in
your sight. But you notice he's saying, purge
me. He knows that his purging and
his cleansing, whether it's judicial or whether it's ceremonial or
in his person, the purging and the cleansing comes from the
Lord. Make me to hear joy and gladness
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Psalm 38, again, for the sake
of time, we'll have to pass over, but Psalm 38 verses three through
six gives us a detailed description of the misery of a person that
is under conviction for their sin. And so David is asking,
he's saying, Lord, Make me hear joy. Hide thy face from my sin. Blot out all my iniquities. You
know, 1 John 1, verse 7 says, if we walk in the light as he
is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses
us from all sin. And then verse 10, create in
me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. You know, David wrote earlier
about the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want, he makes me
to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters
and he, what's the next part, everybody? He restoreth my soul. David's asking for a renewed
spirit within him. David wants things to be refreshed
and renewed. If the Lord is your shepherd,
he will do that. But what's the basis of being
spiritually renewed? Is it just saying, well, You
know, if I could just hear the kind of music I like, that would
just really whip me up spiritually and I'd be all right with God.
Or could it be, yeah, if I could just hear sermons that were just
better organized and were only 20 minutes instead of 40 minutes,
man, I could get so spiritually renewed, that would just be fabulous.
And sometimes we come up with some of the most carnal ideas
as to what we need to do to be renewed spiritually. But do you
see what David did to be renewed spiritually? face to face with
his sin and confessing it and asking the Lord to cleanse him
and renew the right spirit. That's where spiritual renewal
comes in. The thing that keeps us from
being spiritually renewed is our own carnality and our own
sin. When we get rid of that, when
we take it to the Lord and the Lord cleanses us, then renewal
is going to come and not until. Cast me not away from thy presence.
And so he doesn't want to be rejected. And take not thy Holy
Spirit from me. Of course, we know that God's
salvation has never changed. It's always been the same. And
the Lord did not take his Holy Spirit from people then any more
than he does now, except David had been anointed by the Holy
Spirit to fulfill the function of the king. First Samuel chapter
16 verses 13 and 14 tell us that when Samuel went to the house
of Jesse that day, and he looked through the sons of Jesse trying
to find out, okay, which one of these is the Lord's anointed,
and he finally found young David, and the Lord told him, this is
the one. Then the scripture tells us that that Samuel took his
horn of oil and he poured the oil on David's head. He anointed
him and the scripture says, and the Holy Spirit came upon him
from that day forward. And the next verse says that
the Lord removed the Holy Spirit from Saul. What's that about? That's about
losing the enabling of the Lord to fulfill the ministry that
God has given him to do. David knew that he needed the
Spirit of God to enable him to be the king, and he knew that
he could lose that enabling. Not that he would lose his salvation,
but that he would lose that aspect of the Lord's work in his life.
if he disrespected and dishonored the Lord. And he's asking the
Lord, Lord, don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Lord, I need
your Holy Spirit to do the work that you've given me to do as
the King. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold
me with thy free spirit. This is when the joy begins to
come. And it says, uphold me with thy
free spirit. Lord, I don't want to just say,
oh good, the joy of the Lord is here. And then go right back
into it. Lord, restore the joy and uphold
me, maintain me, keep me right with you, Lord, and keep me in
a place of joy. Then we see the result. Now,
I'm sorry, I'm going to go just over just a couple of minutes
here. But notice what he says, then will I teach transgressors
thy way. See, teaching others is The way
it's supposed to be teaching others is the overflow of the
right heart that we have with God. And it's the overflow of
the joy that we have with the Lord. It's not our witness and
our testimony and our influencing others is not to be something
that we do out of a dead, dreaded sense of duty, but it's from
the joy of what we have and wanting to share that. Sinners shall be converted. unto
thee. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness,
O God, thou God of my salvation. O God, thou God of my salvation. See David's focus on the Lord
himself. And my tongue shall sing aloud
of thy righteousness. Maybe that's why sometimes the
singing is so quiet. I wonder if King David had walked
into the typical Baptist congregation, he may have been the only guy
you could have heard singing. You know, I've been to different
churches and it's like people are just sort of whispering,
you know, the song. Boy, whenever David was worshiping
the Lord, he was singing out loud because he realized that
the Lord had forgiven him and renewed him. And his singing
was for the Lord. And maybe it was a joyful noise,
but the Lord was pleased with that. O Lord, open thou my lips
and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. For thou desirest
not sacrifice, else I would give it thou delightest not in burnt
offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken
and a contrite heart, O God, thou will not despise. See, what
the Lord wants from us is that broken heart. That's what the
Lord's looking for when we come before him is that right heart,
that tender heart, that honest heart that realizes our fault
and our failure and trusting him for his forgiveness and for
him to renew us. And based on that, worshipping
Him and based on that heart, teaching others to come to Him,
that's what the Lord wants in our life. And this sort of echoes
what we read there in Psalm 50 last time in verses 8 through
15. But then in verses 18 and 19
here, in closing, David says something here, and I've read
this, and I've thought, boy, this really seems out of place, sort
of. He's personally confessing his
sin, and then suddenly he's talking about God building the walls
of Jerusalem. What's that all about? Well,
what that is all about is this. After we reach a place that we
do have a broken and contrite heart, Then we begin to have
a heart like God has. David was a man after God's own
heart. David was a man that wanted to see the blessings of God,
not only on himself personally, but on his people, on the city
of Jerusalem. He wanted the Lord to bless Jerusalem
and build the walls of Jerusalem and make Jerusalem to be a great
place because it's the city of the great King. But the Lord
can't do that. The Lord can't do that if the
Lord's people are walking around with sinfulness guiding their
life. Sinfulness, the main quality
of their life. We've got to come before God
with that broken and contrite heart, and then the Lord can
build up the walls of Jerusalem. And then the Lord will be pleased
with the sacrifices of righteousness that are off. Then the Lord will
be pleased with the ceremonies. And boy, what a clear parallel
there is there, right? As we come into the house of
the Lord and we come and we do, we have ceremonies, you know,
you can count Sunday morning, we're gonna have three songs,
you know, we're gonna have the choir might sing too. And there's
nothing wrong with having a definite number of songs that you're gonna
sing and things, that's perfectly fine. What matters is what's
the heart. What is the heart in those things? Well, if the
heart is right, then the Lord is pleased with those sacrifices. But if the heart isn't right,
it doesn't matter whether we're singing the most up-to-date song,
you know, with the most up-to-date instruments and music, you know,
and all that. It doesn't matter. What God's looking at is what
is the heart of those that are offering the sacrifice? I want
to ask you to sing a song with me. Some of you all know it.
It's a short song, don't worry, it's only got one verse. But
would you stand with me? I want to sing a song that's
called Creating Me a Clean Heart, Oh God. Renew a right spirit
within me. And it goes like this. Create
in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from
thy presence, O Lord. Thank you so much, Brother Brian. We're glad you joined us for
our services here at Mission Boulevard Baptist Church. We
look forward to having you join us again online, but you are
always welcome to personally attend any of our services at
the Mission Boulevard Baptist Church here in Fayetteville,
Arkansas.
Psalm 51
Series Psalms, the Book of
| Sermon ID | 101322222143303 |
| Duration | 46:45 |
| Date | |
| Category | Teaching |
| Bible Text | 1 John 1:9; 2 Samuel 11:14-15 |
| Language | English |
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