Psalm 51:7 3/7/18 (Create in Me a Clean Heart #7) CLEANSE ME
So last week in preparation for this message, I stopped at Platengas Cleaners to interview Barb and Faith and find out a little about stains. And I learned a lot. For instance, I learned, in laymen’s terms, that when you get a stain sometimes the stain likes the fabric and sometimes the fabric likes the stain, depending on the type of fabric and how it was treated, so when you try to cleanse the stain, you typically use some sort of detergent. Detergents are actually called “surfactants” from “surface active agents”. One end of the surfactant is attracted to water and one end is attracted to the stain and works in your washing machine to pull the stain away from the fabric. And of course, some chemicals and methods work better than others…
Slide: Gronkowski Tide commercial
That’s one way to get the stain out… Now, I don’t know if Tide is actually better than other detergents or not, but they certainly had a better Super bowl commercial and teasers leading up to it. Their sales went up 22% after the Super bowl. But whether you use Tide or Gain or the Spartan brand, the fact is that Platengas do have better surfactants available to them, because they are allowed to use special solvents and enzymes that we can’t get in the stores. Nevertheless, I have very occasionally given them a stained shirt that even they cannot get out. Barb described it this way: “Sometimes you have a fabric and a stain that like each other so much that there is absolutely nothing you can do to get them apart.” And on the rare occasions when that happens, you get a tag on the garment that looks like this:
Slide: Special Attention tag pic
It says: “Special attention has been given to this garment but the SPOTS or STAINS remaining cannot be removed without causing damage to the color or material.” In other words, you had a stain and a shirt that just like each other too much. Folks, let me just ask you, when it comes to the sins and the stains in our lives, does that not preach?
As King David goes deeper into this great Psalm of repentance, he is asking for special attention because he knows he needs it. He has stains in his life that he knows he can do nothing about, nor can anyone else. If he is ever to become clean again, it has to be a supernatural cleansing. It has to come from God. That’s what this cleansing with hyssop is all about.
Slide: “Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.”
(Psalms 51:7 NIV)
Hyssop is not a detergent, it’s not a surfactant. It’s just a plant that is common in the Middle East.
Slide: Hyssop Plant
It’s certainly not something you would scrub on yourself to make you clean. But it was something that the Israelites had associated with cleansing for hundreds of years – starting with one of the biggest moments in their history. Do you remember? For 400 years they seemed to be forgotten by God and left in slavery to the Egyptians. And when God sent Moses to tell Pharaoh to let them go, he wouldn’t. So God sent 10 devastating plagues on Egypt one after the other to convince Pharaoh to let them go. But Pharaoh’s heart was hard – until God sent the last plague, death to the firstborn, both men and animals – of the Egyptians – and of the Israelites – unless they did what? Sacrificed a lamb, took a bunch of hyssop, dipped it into the blood and put some of the blood on the top and both sides of the doorframes of their houses (Ex. 12:21-23). Moses told the people:
Slide: “When the LORD goes through the land to strike down the Egyptians, he will see the blood on the top and sides of the doorframe and will pass over that doorway, and he will not permit the destroyer to enter your houses and strike you down.” (Exodus 12:21–23 NIV)
And that’s exactly what happened. The bible says: “At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.” (Exodus 12:28–30 NIV) And Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, “Get out. Take your stuff and whatever you want of our stuff and go.” And they did. They were finally free.
Can you see why David might have asked to be cleansed with Hyssop? The penalty for both adultery and murder was death, without mercy, without forgiveness. David certainly should have been put to death. Yet somehow in faith he believed that God could provide a sacrifice and blood could be sprinkled over him to provide cleansing. The Old Testament people obviously didn’t have the Gospel as clearly as we have it, but they had the promises that one day God would send somebody to crush Satan’s head, even as Satan bruised his heal, somebody to be a blessing to the nations. And David was clinging to those promises, which is exactly where God wants us all to be in the midst of our stains, and what He has always wanted for mankind ever since Adam and Eve first bought the lie of Satan that they could decide on their own what was best for them instead of God, and they ate the forbidden fruit and brought sin, suffering and death into our world. He would say later through the prophet Isaiah:
Slide: “'Come now, let us reason together,’ says the LORD. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.’” (Isaiah 1:17–18 NIV)
Johnny Hart was a sincere Christian and often built Christian themes into his cartoons over the years, especially on Christmas and Easter. This was one where he attempted to describe what David was searching for in Psalm 51.
Slide: B.C. cartoon with cleansing blood flowing from the cross.
“Drat” says B.C. “I got fruit juice all over my suit!” “Take it off and I’ll rinse it out,” says cute chick (sorry, that’s her name in the comic strip). “What, and be naked?” he says. “Just go behind that rock silly.” And as she washes, something very strange begins to happen. A scarlet substance seeps into the water and washes his garment and hers white as snow. And they see – into the future – it is the blood of Christ, coming from the cross. Where Jesus paid the price for all sins. God says it to you this way through the apostle Peter:
Slide: “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.”
(1 Peter 1:18–21 NIV)
And that kind of says it all. But I would add this, and it’s kind of important folks. The fact is that all of our sins and stains need special attention. And they got it. The Blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse you from every stain. The only stain that will refuse to leave you is the stain that you refuse to leave. Let me repeat that. The only stain that will refuse to leave you is the stain that you refuse to leave. Please, don’t love your sins and stains so much that you refuse to let them go into the hands of your loving God. Get on your knees in this Lenten season with King David and plead for mercy - and find it at the cross. Amen.
