TITLE: A CLEAN HEART IN A DIRTY WORLD
SCRIPTURE: PSALM 51:1-12
Out of all the 150 Psalms, I believe this is one of the most heart wrenching of them all. It is a heart filled and genuine account of David’s guilty heart. There is no real need to enlarge the circumstances, the heading tells the tragic story. This Psalm of David, happened when Nathan the Prophet went to him, after his affair with Bathsheba.
• It was an abuse of his Kingly Power
• Passions were given into
• Darker guilt can scarcely be found in scripture
This sorrowful Psalm is a mirror of our own heart, for it reveals that in each of us --
• There is something near Hell and something near Heaven
• There is something Diabolical and something Divine
Written well over three thousand years ago, it might have been written yesterday, for its title proves that it is timeless. David had committed a great sin in the eyes of the Lord. Yes, in his desires to fulfill the "lust of his flesh," he had broken at least five of God’s Ten Commandments. Look at this man David - a man the Bible very clearly identifies as a "MAN AFTER GOD’S OWN HEART.”
• Look at David as he - Covets another man’s wife
• Look at David Lying and deceiving one of his very own loyal soldiers to cover-up his own adulterous wrong doing after he had impregnated the man’s wife
• Look at David Killing an innocent man after Stealing his wife just to justify his own dirty deeds
• But, the Bible says this - LOW-DOWN -- LYING - DIRTY - WIFE STEALING - ADULTEROUS - MAN-SLAUGHTERING - MURDERER - was a "MAN AFTER GOD’S OWN HEART"
• Taken at face value, this is difficult for me to understand
• If you are honest with me this morning, I am sure you too would agree
In spite of that, I love the 51st Psalm. It’s a very personal prayer of Confession - Self-Examination - A Cry For Forgiveness. I can really identify with the author of this Psalm. Not with what he did, but with his own sense and need for forgiveness. Because I too try my very best to also be “A MAN AFTER GOD’S OWN HEART" - but sometimes I find myself falling short of GOD’S GOODNESS AND MERCY. I think Paul said it best – ROMANS 7:21 “I FIND THEN A LAW, THAT, WHEN I WOULD DO GOOD, EVIL IS PRESENT WITH ME.”
• Can I tell you know matter how saved you think you are - evil is always lurking around the corner
• Can I tell you know matter how long you have been saved - evil never leaves your side
• Can I tell you even when you are doing the Lord’s work - evil is always there trying to trip you up
The Bible says, "WE ALL LIKE SHEEP HAVE GONE ASTRAY -- WE ALL HAVE SINNED AND FALLEN SHORT OF THE GLORY OF GOD."
• Yes, we are "Men and Women After God’s Own Heart" -- but we find ourselves Lying Sometime
• Yes, we are "Men and Women After God’s Own Heart" -- but we find ourselves Hating One Another
• Yes, we are "Men and Women After God’s Own Heart" - but we find ourselves Stealing from Others
• Yes, we are "Men and Women After God’s Own Heart" -- but we find ourselves Backbiting and Cheating One Another
• Yes, we are "Men and Women After God’s Own Heart" -- but we find ourselves Committing Adultery and Fornication
• Yes, we are "Men and Women After God’s Own Heart" -- but we find ourselves Gossiping and Killing One Another with our Tongues
• Yes, we are "Men and Women After God’s Own Heart" -- but we find ourselves Robbing God in giving our Tithes and Offerings
• Yes, we are "Men and Women After God’s Own Heart" -- but we find ourselves Robbing God of Faithful Service, Worship, and Praise
Look with me at this text. It is obvious to me David has been convicted by his sin and his guilt. It is a dangerous place to be in when we are called Christians and feel no conviction of our sins. There are two main reasons for not feeling the conviction of the Holy Spirit when a person sins.
1. One is the person is not born-again, and the Holy Spirit is not indwelling him - Therefore, he would not feel the conviction that the Spirit of God brings
2. The other reason a person may not feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit is because he has committed so much sin, that his heart is hardened
• David had not fooled anyone, not even himself
• He knew what he did was wrong in God’s eyes and in his own eyes – that’s why he tried to cover it up
• He knew his disobedience and sin had broken God’s heart, and broken his relationship with God
As a result, his spirit and his heart were broken; broken to the point of contrition. In the spirit of repentance he asked God to "CREATE IN HIM A CLEAN HEART AND TO RENEW A RIGHT SPIRIT WITHIN HIS SOUL."
• We all need to work on having the "Right Spirit" within our hearts
• There is something more powerful than mere Psychological Counseling
• We need to come to God in genuine repentance and open ourselves up to Him at the deepest dimension of our lives because this is the key to our "Spiritual Healing"
Our "psychological and spiritual make-up" is similar to a house with many rooms.
• Sometimes we allow God into the living room of our hearts
• But we don’t allow Him into the basement where all the junk is stored
• Or in the bedroom where we reveal our private selves
• We don’t allow Him to look at our Text Messages or Search History of our Hearts
David wrote, BEHOLD, YOU DESIRE TRUTH IN THE INWARD PARTS, AND IN THE HIDDEN PART YOU WILL MAKE ME TO KNOW WISDOM.
• Modern psychologists call this the "SUBCONSCIOUS MIND"
• There are layers to our human personalities
• God wants to cleanse us in the inner depths of our being
God wants to dismantle the strongholds of darkness in our inner beings and make us completely His, so we can be set free.
• Sometimes we think we are serving God - but in the depths of our being there is anger -- self-centeredness -- resentment -- bitterness -- confusion - and bondage
• God wants to go down into the basement of our personality and clean it up
When we allow the truth to go into our inward parts, that is when we open ourselves to God’s process of "Sanctification" - then we experience lasting inner freedom and peace. When we allow the truth to come in, we will discover the kind of joy that David talked about when he said, "PURGE ME WITH HYSSOP, AND I SHALL BE CLEAN; WASH ME, AND I SHALL BE WHITER THAN SNOW. MAKE ME HEAR JOY AND GLADNESS.”
As we move through the text, I have to say it again at this point, when we consider this Psalm it can, at first glance, appear to be a very confusing prayer because when we look at David - do we not see that he had received this divine anointing from God? David was a man after Gods own heart. yet here he is crying out for a clean heart - did he not already have the heart of God?
• A REGENERATED HEART is the possession of all believers
• It implies the removal of all past penalty and guilt of sin
• A CLEAN HEART is one we all need to pray for
• Paul describes this in I THESSALONIANS 5:23 “AND THE VERY GOD OF PEACE SANCTIFY YOU WHOLLY; AND I PRAY GOD YOUR WHOLE SPIRIT AND SOUL AND BODY BE PRESERVED BLAMELESS UNTO THE COMING OF OUR LORD JESUS CHIRST”
Looking at this whole situation we are saddened - David had been a child of God for 50 years, is it not tragic that his life and royalty were marred by one sin? We are quick to put one another down when we fall into sin. We are quick to question someone else Christianity or Salvation when they royally mess up.
• We must remember, everyone has a story
• It may be something they have gone through in the past or something they are still dealing with
• But remember that behavior doesn't happen in a vacuum
• Everyone has inner battles and issues
• Withhold judgment and instead offer the consideration you would like to receive
• ST. MATTHEW 7:1 “JUDGE NOT, THAT YE BE NOT JUDGED”
Our prayer needs to be -- MAY GOD DELIVER US FROM THE PERIL OF INDULGENCE IN THE SIN THAT SO EASILY TROUBLES US. MANY OUTSTANDING BIBLE SAINTS STAINED THEIR CHARACTER BY A PARTICULAR SIN.
• NOAH - self indulged - got Drunk
• ABRAHAM - deceived Abimelech
• MOSES - lost his Temper
• ACHAN - died for his greed and coveting of possessions
• THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL - kept from the promise land because of disobedience
• DAVID - gave into Lust
• PETER – Cussed, Lied and Denied
Clean hands are the result of a clean heart.
• The clean heart is a Holy creation
• The issues of life spring from the heart
• It is essential for our hearts to be purified and then kept pure
• Unless the fountain is clean, the water will not be wholesome
What exactly do we mean by a pure or clean heart? It is not that we are absolutely perfect but the liability to sin is always present even in the best of us. However, that tendency to sin can be counteracted by the Holy Spirit, whose mission is to produce Divine Holiness in our lives.
We must understand at this point - there is a distinction between blameless and faultless
• Often, we are BLAMELESS but never are we FAULTLESS
• We make many mistakes, but are BLAMELESS in them because of partial light - we did not know them to be mistakes - but are blameless in them
• FAULTLESS would mean we are incapable of making mistakes
• In the Old Testament there was a sacrifice for the Sins of Ignorance
• Our old nature is the seat of sin and subject to the attractions of the flesh
• Only our Lord Jesus lived on earth and was Faultless or Sinless
Our obligation is to live in harmony with the Holy Spirit who is able to make us sensitive to what is alien. We have an obligation as Children of God to keep our hearts clean. We like to wrap this in the idea of COMMISSION and OMISSION.
• SINS OF COMMISSION are sins that we commit by doing something we shouldn’t do. It’s the type of sin in which we are most familiar. The things that are easily recognizable are sins of commission. It’s something someone did that they shouldn’t have done they know it and those viewing or hurt by it know – this is where we find David in this text and his actions
• SINS OF OMISSION are sins we commit by not doing something we should do. This is a sin that is easy to hide from others. It’s difficult to commit a sin of commission and get away with it, but it is quite easy to commit a sin of omission without others knowing. Therefore, I think this type of sin is perhaps the most dangerous for us in our Christian walk
When we have a clean heart then we are conscious there is nothing between the Lord and ourselves to hinder communion. This inner condition is maintained as the Holy Spirit brings to mind the hidden and we confess and repent of our sins. Such a cleansing requires faith on our part.
A clean heart and a right spirit are twin necessities.
• It is possible to seek a clean heart and maintain a wrong spirit in life
• David’s heart was created by God
• But he had to cultivate it by keeping it Holy before God, in reverence for God
• God gives the seed, but the gardener cultivates it
• This is why - Worship is important
• This is why - Gathering with the Saints is important
• This is why -Prayer and the Study of the Word is important
• It cultivates what the Holy Spirit has placed in us
Being right with God means being right with those around us. The right spirit adjusted David’s relationship with Bathsheba and the others he had wronged. The CLEAN HEART is the Root - Principle - Fountain - of our life that is pleasing in the sight of God. If you want to know the type relationship a person has with God, consider the relationship they have with those around them.
A clean heart is powerless if it lacks the right spirit. We often have a wrong spirit toward God and how He provides. We are also guilty of a Jealous – Unforgiving - Critical - Thoughtless - Hard Spirit toward those around us. Let me just clarify this word right is not in contrast to the word wrong. It implies Upright - Honest - Transparent in every detail of our Christian lives.
• David in committing adultery with Bathsheba had been guilty of deception
• As soldiers of Christ there are no easy parade days for us
• We need to be on the ready, firm upright and ready and alert waiting for the next command of obedience from the Lord
When Christians have to be begged to serve God or give of their substance, there is a wrong spirit, it lacks the liberty of the children of God.
• David’s spirit had to be broken before God could renew it
• His treatment of URIAH and his family was evil
• Have we humbled ourselves before God to seek out those hidden areas that need some light shed on them?
So, my Brothers and Sisters, this Psalm is about forgiveness.
• This Psalm is not so much about "Human Nature" but it is about "God’s Nature"
• It is Human Nature to Sin - but it is God’s Nature to Forgive
Sin is a powerful reality in life and in our individual lives. But the truth of this passage and the Biblical witness is that the Grace of God is even more powerful.
--By the Grace of God, Disobedient Disciples turned around and become Obedient Disciples
--When our Heart is Clean - Those who are Burdened and Heavy Laden are set free from their Burdens
--When our Heart is Clean - The Wayward Wonderers are brought Home
--When our Heart is Clean - The Lost are Found
--When our Heart is Clean - The Hopeless are filled with Hope
--When our Heart is Clean – We are able to focus upon the things of God and not the things of man
--When our Heart is Clean – We are able to Walk by Faith and not by Sight
--When our Heart is Clean – We are able to be in the World but not of the World
--When our Heart is Clean – We are then Men and Women after God’s Own Heart
