Evangelist Cry Ministry
Dr. Levi Howard Wright, Ph.D.
"Create In Me A Clean Heart"
Psalm 51:1-12
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba.
[1] Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions. [2] Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. [3] For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin is ever before me. [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. [5] Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. [6] Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. [7] Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. [8] Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. [9] Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. [10] Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me. [11] Cast me not away from thy presence; and take not thy holy spirit from me. [12] Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation; and uphold me with thy free spirit.
This is the Word of the Lord for His people this day.........
Background Information
My Brothers and Sisters our message today is one of self-examination. And today I hope to speak to the heart and conscience of every man, woman, boy and girl. This Psalm was written by King David after the prophet Nathan had gone to him, after his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba. 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 that the Bible say was a "Man After God’s Our Heart.
.... Look at David as he "Covet another man wife.
.... Look at David Lying and deceiving one of his very own loyal soldier 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 say that this low-down lying... dirty.... wife stealing.... adulterous.... man-slaughtering murder.... was a "Man After God’s Own Heart."
Listen, to David’s out-cry for mercy and forgiveness:
[1] Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
[2] Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
[3] For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
[4] Against you, you alone, have I sinned, and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are justified in your sentence and blameless when you pass judgment.
[5] Indeed, I was born guilty, a sinner when my mother conceived me.
[6] You desire truth in the inward being; therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
[7] Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
[8] Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have crushed rejoice.
[9] Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.
[10] Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
[11] Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your holy spirit from me.
[12] Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit. (NRSV)
INTRODUCTION
I love the 51st Psalm. It’s a very personal prayer of confession, self-examination and 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 am a "Man After God’s Own Heart", but sometime I find myself falling short of God’s goodness and mercy.
The Bible says, "We All Like Sheep Have Gone Astray....... We All Have Sinned And Fallen Short Of His Goodness."
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 Back-biting 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 Committing Homosexul and Lesbian activities.
Yes, we are "Men and Women After God’s Own Heart"..... but we find ourselves Killing our Unborn Baby.
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 paying 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’s obvious to me that David has been convicted by his sin and his guilt. The introduction before this Psalm says this is David’s Psalm of repentance concerning his adulterous affair with Bathsheba.
David had not fooled anyone, not even himself. He knew that what he did was wrong in God’s eyes and in his own eyes. He knew that his disobedience and sin had broken God’s heart, and broken his relationship with God.
And 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 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.
David wrote, Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. (Vs 6)
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.
2 Thessalonians 2:13 talked about a possess of cleansing, that is known as "Sanctification."
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.... 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. (vs 7,8)
David prayer of repentance remains on record as a "Tear-stained Testimony" of his brokeness before God and as instructions for all others who sin.
David’s repentance did not stem from fear of punishment or concern with future successful.
He repented for having offended God and at the rebuke of the prophet Nathan, David realized he had foolishly destroyed something precious and he cried out for a restored fellowship with God.
Although his heart was crushed by his shame and sorrow over sin, he knew the great magnitude of God’s mercy.
Once his sins are confessed, forgiven, and purged, David begged God for His "Choicest Gifts": restoration of joy.... God’s presence and .... His Holy Spirit.
Then he humbly offers himself to be used as an instrument to show forth God’s praises and to teach other transgressors.
In John 4:34 " Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work."
1. We Need A Spirit Of..... CONFESSION
A. First of all we need to come to God with a Spirit of Confession.
That’s what David did. Confession is an honest look at our lives and our relationship with God. It recognizes both "Strengths and Weaknesses". And it has at the heart of it a desire to change our relationship with God.
You see, sin separates us from God and our spirits feel that. We may not know what it is at first but our spirits do.
There is a longing within us to be in relationship with God, to be close and to see God.
With each sin we commit.... we get further and further from God. And another brick goes up in the wall that separates us from God.
We can sin so much that the wall get so high that we can no longer see God.
Or we can sin so much and get so far away from God that we feel totally cut off and alone.
It’s then, that our spirits cry out and lead us, like David, to seek a "clean heart and a new and right spirit."
"Confession" allows the process to begin.
A. Confession is letting God know.... that we know.... what we did wrong.
And when we don’t take time to confess our sins, they builds up like a great "Insurmountable Wall of Garbage" in our life.
B. Sin is like garbage in our spiritual lives.
And in a sense, we all are equipped with a garbage bag.
When we’re born the bag is empty. But as we go through life we slowly fill it up.
(Here use a large garbage sack and several boxes and cans of different sizes to symbolize sin. They can even be labeled.)
At first they don’t amount to much.
The little white lies don’t weigh much.
One little incident of gossip or jealousy doesn’t seem too bad.
But then the little white lies grows into a larger lie.
And jealousy grows into envy which grows into hate.
Then then are the unkind words turn into murder.
With each sin we turn away from God..... we keep tossing garbage into the sack until it fills up and weighs us down.
........The Good News is that all of this garbage is a burden that we don’t need..... a burden we don’t have to carry..... a burden that delays our journey of faith.
"Confession" is taking the Garbage Out.
2. We Need A Spirit Of.... REPENTANCE
A. We need Confession but Confession isn’t enough.
You see a lot of us don’t mind confessing at all.
We rummage through the garbage of our lives with relish.
We parade it before others without even thinking about it.
Some of us even love to pull it out and show it off like some badge of honor. So confession isn’t enough.
The other tool we need is "Repentance."
"Confession without Repentance" is like dumping all the garbage out of the sack.... rummaging through it..... naming it before God ..... and then picking it all up again.
"Confession without Repentance" don’t really do any good at all .
"Confession without Repentance" don’t have any effect on our lives or our faith.
"Confession without Repentance" didn’t mend the relationship.
All it do is name those things that separate us from God. We already know them and God already knows them.
"Confession without Repentance" is like trying to drive a car without an engine. It doesn’t really get you any where.
B. Besides, Jesus didn’t die on the cross just so we could wallow in the dirt and the filth of our sin without ever getting cleaned up.
Jesus gives us a way to be free of the burden of our sin.
Jesus offers us a way to tear down the wall that separates us from God and a way to bring us close to the heart God.
And that’s through both "Confession and Repentance"
"Confession" is realizing what we did and naming it before God.
"Repentance" is leaving it there and turning away from it.
You see, the is what the literal translation of the word "Repentance" means: "To turn about"....."to turn away"...... or "to turn around."
"Repentance" means to make a 180 degree turn.... to do a "U-ey"..... or to make a "U-turn" .... to hit reverse.... to head in a new direction.
"Repentance" means to head in God’s direction.... not your our own direction.
"Confession and Repentance" means taking out the garbage.... dumping it at the foot of the cross of Mount Calvary and leaving it there.
We are able to do that because of the Power of Cross.
..... And when we do that, when we bring our sins
..... And when we confess them to God.
.... And when we repent of them and leave them at the foot of the cross.
We can walk away with a "Clean heart and the new and right spirit put there and created by God.
3. We Need A Spirit Of PARDON
With the garbage gone..... and a new heart..... we experience God’s forgiveness.
And that’s what this Psalm is all about.
This Psalm is not about...... sin and confession.
This Psalm is not about...... how rotten David was or ....... how many of the ten commandments David broke.
This Psalm is about...... God and His love..... mercy ....... and grace.
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 the Garbage is taken out....... Those who are Burdened and Heavy Laden ...... are set free from their Burdens.
.... When the Garbage is taken out...... The Wayward Wonderers are brought Home.
..... When the Garbage is taken out. ..... The Lost are Found.
..... When the Garbage is taken out...... The Hopeless are filled with Hope.
CONCLUSION
As we prepare to be more like Jesus....... and "Men and Women After God’s Own Heart",
Please, take time to examine your lives and your garbage sacks.
Is it time to take out the garbage?
Ä Are your sacks full with garbage?
Ä Do you need to emptied the garbage?
Ä Even one or two little items of trash can weigh a ton.
What do you need to empty yourself of and leave at the foot of the cross today?
Whatever it is, please don’t leave until you’ve doing so.
Please don’t leave until today until you have with burdens in your heart.
Empty your "Garbage Sacks" into the Loving Care of God’s Cleansing Power..... through Confession and Repentance and leave your Burdens and Cares at the foot of the cross...... of Jesus Christ.
Then go from there with a "Clean heart and a new and right spirit".
Remember theses words of Assurance. "Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, died for us while we were yet sinners.
That proves God’s love for us. In the name of Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven."
Dump your garbage at the foot of the cross and know that you are forgiven.
These is the Words of the Lord for His people this day......... Amen, Amen, Amen
Evangelist Cry Ministries
Dr. Levi Howard Wright, Ph.D.
1060 Red Hill Road
Huger, South, Carolina 29450
(843) 336-3034
E-Mail: Levicry@infoave.net
