Let us turn together to the psalm we've been reading. Psalm 51. I want you to fix your attention on the words of verse 12. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. This is a psalm to be remembered in our reading of the Scriptures. The psalm is all about the way back to God and the way back to fellowship with his people. The words are written especially for the backslider. That is to say, for the man who has been backslidden for years. as well as the Christian who has sinned in one notable and unhappy way. For David has sinned. The title shows this, that the psalm applies to that moment in his life when he sinned so wretchedly, so foolishly, so grievously, so wickedly in the sight of God. And because we ourselves have erred, We have offended against the Lord in more ways than one. We need to read this psalm. We need to read it again and again. We should pray over every line of it, and we should think about every word of it we really should. The purpose we should have in mind in praying over every line of the psalm is clear. The idea is that we might have our fellowship restored, that our walk with God might be renewed, and our soul refreshed in the sight of the Lord. So the psalm points the way back to God, the way back to fellowship with himself. The psalm also explains for us the way of revival, the brokenness of heart, Mentioned in verse 17, if you would look at the verse there, the brokenness of heart felt by the psalmist is always one of the chief acts of devotion. on the part of the child of God on his way to revival. I do not believe that the church can enter into a period of revival without experiencing something of what is written in verse 17. I do not believe that you as an individual can know revival without being brought along the pathway of brokenness. the brokenness of contrition, the experience of that emptiness of soul where you realize you have nothing, absolutely nothing in yourself. And unless the Lord comes into your life and changes your outlook completely and blesses you by his power, every day you have really nothing to go on in the Christian life. So the psalmist here points the way to revival. It's true that the backslider coming back to the Lord has to truly repent, and so verse 17, in reference to David, has to do with his contrition over the folly of his shameful sin. But nevertheless, the ordinary Christian too, if I can use that expression, the Christian on the pathway to revival, to personal power with God, must come, I believe, by way of Verse 17, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. There are thousands of Christians today who have never, who have never known what it is to have a brokenness of spirit before God. There are Christians today who have never dwelt for an instant on the value of the words, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. We little esteem these words. I feel that they do not get home to us. We may pray, yes. We may read the Bible, no doubt. We seek to turn to God. But if we do not realize there is a prayer which God cannot despise, that prayer which develops in a broken and a contrite heart, here is a prayer that God cannot overlook. Here is a prayer that God cannot, just cannot pass by. It's the prayer that comes from a broken heart. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thy wilt not, thy wilt not despise." This is what the scripture says. Often in revival, the Christian has thought about those words in 2 Chronicles 7 and 14. If you like, you can turn to them for a moment. 2 Chronicles 7 and 14, they have been quoted. Many a time in prayer we have friends here this morning in the congregation, and there have been seasons when you personally have repeated these words, or almost the entire verse, in the presence of the Lord. The verse goes like this, 2 Chronicles 7, verse 14. It is, I suppose, more than any other, the text for revival. If God's servants in the pulpit have chosen a text, more than likely they have gone to 2 Chronicles 7 and 14. And the words are these, if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Imagine putting down the sin of God's people in that way, that they not only have sinful ways, but wicked ways. We have to see the sinfulness of sin. If I told you you had wicked ways, if I was talking to you personally, Let us be frank about it. If I was talking to you personally, and if I looked right into your eye and said, do you know you have wicked ways, you would feel resentment, I'm sure. You might even be offended. You might say, fancy the minister saying the like of that to me. And why pick on me? Why single me out? But you'll observe, when the Lord talks, it's different. Of course, I recognize the Lord can say things to you that nobody else can. The Lord can say things to you that I can't say to you. I've known that long since. But nevertheless, isn't it an astonishing thing that when the Lord speaks about His own people, He says they have wicked ways? And that's disturbing. We would have conceded sin. Oh, we would all have said, yes, we've got sinful ways, we know all about that, but wicked ways, no. Oh no, but God says, if they will pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. So then, the meaning is, and we must, we cannot argue with God. We can't debate with scripture. We have to say then, there are wicked ways. There are wicked ways there. Given the principles of sin, there are wicked ways about us from which we need to be delivered. So if there is any wicked way, remember the psalmist prayed that prayer. Search me, O God, and try my heart and see if there be not any sinful way, but if there be any wicked way in me. O let us bemoan our sinfulness. Let us acknowledge in the sight of God that if there is any wicked way about the child of God, that is the thing from which we need deliverance. We have to say, Lord, if there are wicked ways there in me, I need to be saved from them. And that verse that I have quoted is from Psalm 139. I don't want to give you too many texts at the one time. But the word was, search me, O God, and try my heart, and see if there be any wicked way in me. It is a fact that the Christian will admit to sinful ways. He knows that. We don't have any debate about it. What, wicked ways? No. Oh no, there's no wicked way found in the Christian. That verse then, if you would have it, is the last verse of Psalm 139, and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting." You will acknowledge then, if there are wicked ways from which we need to turn, if there are wicked ways noticeable in the Christian, this is something from which he must be saved. He must be delivered from it. He has to pray about it. My dear friend in Christ, I must address you personally, and I must say this, there are wicked ways there, and if you don't pray about them, if you don't get deliverance from them, if you don't have God deal with them, you're not going to go through with God. And you'll maybe become a victim to backsliding. You maybe will lose out with God if those wicked ways are not recognized. If you don't pray against them and ask God Almighty to deal with them. And thus in this great text of revival, as we go over the words, if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land, their land also. Oh, surely Ulster can benefit then from revival. I address you as a child of God. The Lord has brought you here today. You're not here by accident. And if ever the Lord is saying one thing to his people, he is saying here, look, the prayers of God's people can turn the tide. Praise the Lord. And God can hear from heaven. He can forgive our sins. He can heal our land. Only the Lord can. Tony Blair and Mo Mowlam will never heal it. In fact, they say what is obvious, they'll just do the opposite. They'll destroy it. We have to pray these days that God will save us from people in government who'll destroy the country and destroy everything of value that's in it. The Lord have mercy on us when we have rulers like this. But God says, I will hear from heaven. I will forgive their sin. Even the sin of the saints. God can forgive the sin of the saints. And he can help us turn from our wicked ways. And then he'll heal the land. Now, why did I turn to 2 Chronicles 7 and 14? We have heard it often enough. We have gone through the verse line by line, I do believe. But I say this to you. Since I have mentioned Psalm 51 as being the way to revival, since Psalm 51 explains the broken heart in the Christian, that Psalm 51 is really the extension of verse 14 of 2 Chronicles 7. If you want to go into that text, if my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves and pray, if ever you were to say, well, Lord, how can we humble ourselves? And how can we pray? And how can we seek thy face? And how can we turn from our wicked ways? The answer to that question, my dear friend, is Psalm 51. And so I want to emphasize this. The understanding of 2 Chronicles 7 and 14 is made known to us by the words of Psalm 51. If you go through Psalm 51 verse by verse, line by line, word by word, then you'll have the explanation of revival. 2 Chronicles 7 and 14, if it's given a form of prayer, that form of prayer, Psalm 51. Psalm 51, if you like, is the prayer book of 2 Chronicles 7 and 14. It gives us the form of prayer one could use going through such a tremendous verse as that. Psalm 51 also is a psalm of confession. David's sin had been committed in secret, but now that he comes to confess, His sin, his confession is as public, is as open as anything could be. You'll observe here, and I want you to be aware of this, that David is not hiding his sin, he's not making light of his sin, he's not excusing himself, he's not denying his sin, but openly and fully, He complains of himself, he cries out to God in the way of confession. Oh, let us be specific about this. The confession of David in Psalm 51 is personally made to God himself. David does not call for the priest. There is no priestcraft in the Bible. Nothing of the error of Roman Catholicism is in the book of God. You will not find here that David, seeking to express his contrition of soul, sends for the priest and has the priest lead him through personal confession where, line by line and word by word, he can acknowledge the sin to the priest. I tell you this, David confesses his sin to God. And you have to confess your sin to the Lord directly. You can't have another believer confess for you. And sometimes the Christian might be guilty of meddling. And you must be aware of that as well. When someone else has sinned, you need to take care that you're not meddling in some matter that really belongs to that soul and God. And that's what I have to say about the psalm here. God sent Nathan the prophet, but apart from that, apart from the one man who was sent by God, Well, the rest is between David and his God. And so when you look at the psalm here, David's crying out to the Lord. Look at verse 3. I acknowledge my transgressions, my sin is ever before me. Who is he speaking to? He's speaking to the Lord. When he says in verse 2, wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, he's just speaking to the Lord. Has there ever been a time like that? Even if you say, I'm not a Christian. Even if you say, I'm not a Christian. Have you ever thought of taking a psalm like this? And in some sense, a Psalm 51 just stands out on its own in the Bible. There isn't a psalm like it. It's a penitential psalm. It's a psalm of repentance. I do believe, let me talk to you. Let me try and get your attention. And I'm thankful for the attention I have from you at all times. So this is not a complaint. It's just a recognition that the devil can cause the mind to float away, and this, that, and the other thing. Get your mind of the Word. Let me get a hold of this. If you're not a Christian, you could pray down through this psalm, and I believe the Lord would save you. If there's a man here today, unconverted, who'll go through the words of verse 2 and say, wash me throughly, wash me throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. If you say that sincerely to the Lord, I believe he will do it. If there's a woman here also who needs the Savior, why have you say, I'm not a Christian, or I'm not sure where I stand? If you got alone with God now, if you were to shut the door on yourself today, this very day, this first Lord's Day, in the month of July, if you were to shut yourself in with God, and if you were to say with red-hot earnestness, wash me freely from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin, I believe the Lord would hear that prayer. I believe you'd get up from your knees a child of God. For this psalm demonstrates that there is forgiveness with God, a forgiveness so freely and fully given, a forgiveness so assured and definite that the person concerned feels he has a new heart and a new spirit. Do you see that in verse 10? Create in me a clean heart. All in heart must be renewed to be saved. You need a new heart. The Lord has to make you over anew. It's not a matter of being baptized or becoming religious. The Lord gives you a new heart. You see, and this is the sense here of the passage, create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. The Christian can pray, pray for a clean heart, and why not? But in the sense of the unconverted man making a new start, beginning in the Christian life, he's looking to the Lord to give him a new heart. Create in me a clean heart. You get a new heart when you become a Christian. And then thereafter, along the roadway of life, you'll want the Lord to wash that heart and keep it clean because you're living in a foul place. I've used the illustration before, but if you were dressed in a spotlessly white a lustrously white garment, and you went about in the world, you sat down in some seat in the middle of the town, no doubt when you'd get home, you'd be dismayed to see stains or marks of some sort on that white garment. You just can't go about in a world like this, dressed in garments of purest white, without experiencing defilement. The world is a foul place, and God uses these very things. as a spiritual testimony to us so we can learn lessons from everyday things. And the Christians are dressed in purest white, always wearing that lustrously white robe, and he cannot go through the world here without being defiled. So when God gives him a new heart, he must pray every day because the world is a foul place. He must say, Lord, give me a clean heart today. Keep me clean. It's not God's will. It's not God's will for the Christian to have an impure heart. It's not God's will for the Christian to have an unclean heart. If your heart is not right, if your heart is not clean, you're not in the right place with God. That's a fact. You need the Lord to give you a clean heart. And so you have to pray over every line and every word of this psalm. And some of you are saying, well, I'm saved and I don't know how to pray. Listen, you couldn't learn better. You could not learn better how to pray than to go through a psalm like this. And if you could pray sincerely over every word, and if you feel you're not sincere enough, and who can say I am sincere enough? I think we all have to say, Lord, give me more sincerity. give me help to pray this prayer as a prayer of my own. But you see, when God gives David a clean heart, the burden of his guilt has gone and David has committed, this is something I have to say to God's people now, David has committed the sort of sin which is nearly unforgivable. David has a forgiveness from God which, if the same sin had been committed under our noses, we could hardly offer them. Because if this sin had been committed in our day, I don't think we would forgive David. If we were in any way associated with him, many, many in this house, I have to be straight with you, many in this congregation would leave the camp of David right away. And we would say, I will not have anything to do with a man like that. Isn't that right? We would quit on him. We would have no time for him. Forgiveness has to come from God. And we cannot forgive as fully and as freely as the Lord forgives. We hold things. We remember things. And we are aware of the differences. But the Lord, when he forgives, he forgets. And that's a marvelous thing. When the Lord puts away your sin, he has put it away. He's put it away completely. When the Lord gives you forgiveness, you can say, now I know my heart is free. I have a peace within my soul. The burden has gone. Many a Christian here, because of this thing, that thing, or the other thing, you had vexation in your own soul, you lost out in some way with God, you had to go alone with God, you had to say, Lord, deal with me, deal with my sin. Lord, deal with my heart. If I have these thoughts, I can't forgive that person. Lord, deal with my soul, deal with the unforgiving spirit. And the Lord has touched you and blessed you and you have risen from your knees like a new man altogether. And the joy of God has come flooding into the soul. Oh, that is the spirit then of verse 12 in the psalm. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. For the fact is the Christian cannot have joy when he's not living right with God. David lost the joy of his salvation. Notice the words there. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. He didn't lose his salvation, but he lost the joy of it. And there are thousands of Christians in these times and they have lost the joy of their salvation. They haven't lost the Savior, praise the Lord. They haven't lost God's pardon and God's forgiveness. But they do not relish, they do not rejoice in what God has done. They don't have the joy of God's salvation. And we all have to take care about that. You can be so harassed in life. You can be so under pressure with many, many things. You can be so distressed or grieved or vexed or troubled or disappointed that you have lost the joy of God. Oh, let me say to some in this house, because the Lord doesn't give me the text for nothing. I don't have a query over this. The Lord hasn't given me this text for nothing. To me, that means then there is a Christian here who has lost the joy. You've lost the joy of God. because something else has been used by the devil. And the Christian, if there's sin there, if there's unforgiven sin, for example, as is the case with David, unforgiven sin takes away the joy of believing God, takes away the joy of the believer. And I tell you this, you can lose out in every way. You can lose out in zeal. You can lose out in Bible reading and in prayer. You just go back and back and back. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Well, David prays for the joy to be restored. And there's one condition in which the joy of God can come back, besides prayer. You have to pray. If David had to pray, and this is a prayer, verse 12, restore unto me, that's a prayer. You have to pray, Lord, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. But there's something else. Look at verse 8. I want you to notice the peculiarity of the words, because if you and I were given the sense and told to write the substance of verse 8, we would be likely to have it read like this, make me to feel joy and gladness, or make me to have joy and gladness. I guarantee not a one here would ever write, make me to hear joy and gladness. No, you feel joy. And why does it say, make me to hear? How can you hear joy and gladness? Simply in this way, you hear a word from God which brings comfort to your soul. You hear a word from God which settles the matter. You hear a word from God which revives your spirit and brings the joy of God within. Make me to hear joy and gladness This has to do with obeying God, obeying God's Word. Listen, if there's a matter there which has vexed you, knocked you down, or put you back, and you haven't seen to it, you haven't put it right, you've been covering it over, you haven't acknowledged it, or you've made light of it, or you've made an excuse about it, or you've denied it, I tell you this, If you face up to it as David does in this psalm, if you say, my sin, that sin there is ever before me, I can't get rid of it. If you bring it to God today and you hear what he says, you hear his word of pardon and forgiveness, the joy of God comes flooding back. And you can say, this now is what the Lord has done for me. I don't want you to go on the way you are. without the joy of God, without a sense of victory. I don't want you to go on without praying this prayer. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. And look at that word, uphold. Isn't that a lovely word? Where the Lord is promising to hold you up. Uphold me with thy free spirit. Why is the Holy Spirit called a free spirit? because of his willingness. God gives him freely to the believer. The power of the Spirit of God is transmitted freely, freely to the Christian. And this is why the Spirit of God in this place, and it's the only place in the Bible, he's called thy free spirit. Elsewhere, he's called thy Holy Spirit. And we recognize that title, thy holy spirit. Elsewhere he's called thy good spirit, but here he's called thy free spirit. Because the Lord sets you free, he gives you victory. The very instant you cry to God and put all on the altar and the matter's settled, the chains are broken and the Lord gives you victory over bondage. The joy of God is there. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and hold me up every day above the storm, above the fury of the blast. Hold me up, Lord, and I shall be safe. Keep me today, and I shall be blessed indeed. Hold me, just hold me up. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation. Listen, whatever price you have to pay to get right with God, pay that price. It doesn't matter about pride. It may be a comedown for you to acknowledge this or that or confess this sin, and I'm not saying do it publicly, but if you're going to do it privately, it's not a matter where you lose out. When the Lord restores to you the joy of his salvation and upholds you, holds you up with that spirit freely given, bringing freedom into your life and breaking you loose from the power of the world, you'll be glad May the Lord bless His Word to our hearts today for His name's sake.