Psalm 51:10 3/18/18. (Create in Me a Clean Heart #10) Create in me a Clean Heart
So, let’s just acknowledge the elephant in the room at least for some and say that it’s truly March madness. For those of you who stayed up late last night you were rewarded with what is called a “buzzer beater” as Michigan’s young Jordan Poole threw up a three pointer at the last second to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and put Michigan into the sweet 16. But speaking of 16, that’s not the biggest story of March madness. It had to happen eventually. A number 16 seed defeated a number 1 seed in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
Slide: pic
First time ever. That’s why they call it March Madness. And now officially there are no more perfect brackets out there. That game even messed up Joni’s attempt to guess the winners by their mascots. I mean how can a golden retriever beat a Cavalier?! He has swords! A golden retriever is just a gentle pet! He must have gotten the Cavalier to trip over him or something. One writer even said, it was one of the greatest upsets since David beat Goliath.
Which brings us right back to Psalm 51 and King David’s prayer of repentance. Because he wasn’t always “King” David, was he? Long before he became king, he was only a lowly shepherd boy, the last of 8 sons of Jesse, and the last to be considered by the Prophet Samuel when it came time to anoint one of those sons to be king, ‘cause at the time he didn’t look like much. His brother Eliab was much more impressive. But God told Samuel something very important:
Slide: “The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7 NIV)
And at the time, David had “a pure heart.” He had a simple, pure faith in God that allowed him to face one of the largest human beings who ever lived without fear. The Bible lays it out like this:
Slide: “Meanwhile, the Philistine, with his shield bearer in front of him, kept coming closer to David. He looked David over and saw that he was only a boy, ruddy and handsome, and he despised him. He said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come at me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods. “Come here,” he said, “and I’ll give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field!” (1 Samuel 17:41–44 NIV)
Thus saith the #1 seed to the #16 seed. Except it’s one thing to be threatened with losing a basketball game, and it’s quite another to have your “flesh be given to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field.” And yet somehow David had the purity of heart and the steadfastness of spirit to stand his ground and give one of the most inspiring speech’s the world has ever heard.
Slide: “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the LORD will hand you over to me, and I’ll strike you down and cut off your head. Today I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth,
Slide: and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the LORD saves; for the battle is the LORD’S, and he will give all of you into our hands.” (1 Samuel 17:45–47 NIV)
O.k., it’s a little graphic, but pure. Pure courage, pure confidence, pure faith and trust in God. A pure heart. He had it at one point. And he lost it. And when he was losing it, he didn’t even realize how or when it happened. If you recall, the same thing happened to Samson in the Bible. In his day, he was Israel’s Goliath, the strongest man in the world. And yet he too let his lust and coveting give him an unclean heart and spirit. So after years of walking away from God and His commands the Bible says that: “he did not know that the LORD had left him.” (Judges 16:20 NIV). God had finally let him go his own way. Fortunately, at the end of his life he too prayed a prayer of repentance to God and was heard by God.
Last Wednesday we sang the great song “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing”, written by Robert Robinson that has the beautiful words and sentiment:
Slide: “Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Thy grace”.
But coming from a wayward background, Robinson also included these words:
Slide: “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, oh, take and seal it. Seal it for Thy courts above.
Folks, we need to learn that lesson. That it’s possible to lose a clean heart. The Bible says that:
Slide: “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9 NIV)
The minute you think you’ve arrived, Satan starts trying to turn you into a Pharisee and you start thinking with Little Jack Horner, “What a good boy am I.” “What a good girl am I.” “Look at what a good heart I have.” And before you know it your heart is stained with pride, and you know what comes after pride, right? A fall. It happened to David and to Samson, two of the greatest leaders of God’s people, and it can happen to you.
So understand: you can lose a clean heart, and you cannot create for yourself a clean heart. That’s God’s job. So, David, now deep into this Psalm prays – with all his heart: “Create in me a clean heart O God”. When you create something, you are making something brand new. You’re not just taking something that already exists and making a few modifications on it. You’re starting from scratch. Folks, if you haven’t gotten this yet, please understand that this is one of the main themes and truths of God’s Word. If you are going to be clean, it isn’t about you. God has to make you clean. All you can do is humble yourself like David and offer to God a repentant heart. And…
Slide: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9 ESV)
God is in the business of cleansing and healing tainted and broken hearts. If it was about you, you would always wonder and you could never be certain that you’d done enough, but the Bible says
Slide: “It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.” (Romans 9:16 NIV)
Thank God. Thank God for His mercy and grace, that He so loved us that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Thank God that He so loves us and understands us that He gives to us what He offered on the cross, His Body and Blood in the bread and wine of communion so that we can know and believe and receive personally the forgiveness of all our sins: our greatest need in life and for eternity. Thank God He gives it all to us freely as a gift, because there’s no way we could ever earn it or deserve it.
All our attempts are going to come up short. “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” That’s not to say that we shouldn’t try. Of course we should. We just need to recognize the sinful material we’re working with. And the dangerous world we live in. It’s so hard today to have a pure heart when we live in such a sin-saturated society where we are assaulted with image after image encouraging us to have an impure heart and a covetous heart. And our culture almost seems to exult in it. If you are going to stand against all that you are in for the fight of your life. And you are going to stand out like a bunny at a fox convention.
Have you see the new sitcom from CBS called “Living Biblically”? After losing his best friend and learning that his wife is pregnant, the main character Chip embarks on a spiritual journey to start living a better, moral life. Searching for answers, he turns to the Bible and decides that he needs to start taking it literally. So, he does. And he gets the help of a priest and a Rabbi in doing so. And you can just imagine the fun a show can have with something like that and it does.
Slide: Living Biblically clip
Now, I don’t know where the directors are ultimately going to take that show, but anything that gets us to put down our phones for a day can’t be all bad. And certainly it’s going to spark a lot of interesting water cooler discussions. But one thing’s for sure: any real attempt to make ourselves good will ultimately fail and should absolutely lead us to the brokenness experienced by David.
Folks, I’m going to make the assumption that all of you want to be good, that you want a clean heart. So, in pursuit of that, have you ever prayed to God:
Slide: “Lord help me to change”?
I certainly have – many times. But let me ask you, what is wrong with that prayer?
Slide: circle “me”
Once again, it’s not about you. You cannot stand against the Goliath of this world in your own strength. You don’t need God’s help, you need God. David had to relearn that lesson, that the battle is the Lord’s. He knew it once and forgot it. Now he prayed what is simply a better prayer:
Slide: “Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” (Psalms 51:10 NIV)
God, only You have the power to forgive and cleanse my heart. Please do it O Lord, for the sake of Your Son and the sacrifice He made for my sins. And then replace my faltering spirit and give me back that steadfast spirit that will allow me to face the giants I have to face in my life. Folks, that’s a prayer God will answer and a request He will grant.
By the way, back when David stood in that steadfast spirit against the giant, the Bible says David only used one stone. What happened to the other four?
If you’ll allow me to use a little allegory, I’d say about a 1,000 years or so later another champion of God faced off with a Goliath in the desert. Ever since Adam had been turned into jelly by that Goliath no one could or would stand up to him. And Satan used his greatest weapons against Jesus. But Jesus slung just three words at him, “It is written,” three stones of Scripture and Satan retreated to heal his wounds and wait for an opportune time to fight again.
Some three years later that time came when Satan used all his power to put Jesus on the cross, to defeat him once and for all and defy the living God. But from the cross Jesus the Son of God, our champion, hit him with the last stone, “It is finished”. And the Goliath was struck. And while the world was waiting for the tomb to open, Jesus had already marched into Satan's private chambers in hell, and declared his victory, and crushed that Goliath's head and all his power over us.
And folks, that's the lesson more than any other we need and must take into our life with God. Our greatest enemy in life – our biggest giant - has already been defeated. As long as we put our trust in Jesus Christ as our champion and our Redeemer we don’t have to be afraid of that Goliath anymore. There is no weapon he can bring against us, no deceit, no temptation, no reminder of our past or past sins that is greater than God’s victory in Jesus Christ on the cross hurled in the final stone: “It is finished.”
And then of all things, the Lord also calls us to be His champions. To stand up in this world for Him for people whom Satan continues to assault – to be their champions, literally in a fight for their souls. To stand up and use, not your power and might, but the weapon of God’s Word, the sword of the Spirit. Someone in this dark world has to be willing to stand up and shine the light of Jesus Christ. May God enable us all to be that kind of champion and with His power fulfill what we are unable to do. Amen.
Amazing grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost but now am found,
Was blind but now I see
