Take Not Your Anointing From Me!

TAKE NOT YOUR ANOINTING FROM ME!

Ps. 51:11

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. Larry Weathers is a math teacher in Benton, Kentucky. One of his math students got his hand caught in a go-cart chain and lost a third of his finger. He missed a few days of class.

2. When he returned, Larry asked if his injury hindered him in any way. The student was surprisingly upbeat. “No, it actually helps me,” he said.

3. Larry said, “How can that possibly help you?” And the student replied, “Well, for instance, now I can work fractions!”

B. TEXT

“Cast me not away from Your presence; and take not Your Holy Spirit from me” Ps. 51:11

C. THESIS

1. David had taken a man’s wife (Uriah the Hittite) and then had him killed. Then David quietly married Bathsheba. It looked like he had gotten away with it.

2. But the Bible ominously says, “But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord” 2 Sam. 11:27. Then God sent Nathan the prophet to confront David and prophesy God’s four judgments to him because of these grievous sins.

3. It’s believed it was at this time that David wrote and sang his beautiful song of repentance to God, which we know of as Psalm 51.

4. I want us to sing together a portion of that psalm which captures the broken heart of David:

Create in me a clean heart, O God;

And renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from thy presence;

Take not thy Holy Spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation;

Then will I teach transgressors thy ways.

(Ps. 51:10-13)

5. Psalm 51 captures David’s fear he might have lost God’s favor and David put into words his deep repentance, which is a model for all of us when we sin.

6. This message is entitled “Take Not Your Anointing From Me!”

I. WHAT CAUSED THIS DANGER?

1. Psalm 51 describes David’s great mental anguish at the reality that he had hurt his relationship with God and might have lost God’s favor.

2. Christians today are too quick to assume they have God in a box and He must do what they want. The Apostle Paul knew better: “Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness: otherwise you also shalt be cut off” Rom. 11:22.

3. So what were David’s concerns that drove his repentance?

A. HE WOULD BE REJECTED BY GOD

1. He worried that he might be shut out of God’s favor forever. David had seen God turn away from supporting people – like King Saul, and feared that he too might be thrown out on the garbage heap of eternity by God, like something rejected.

2. Paul also carefully watched himself “lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” 1 Cor. 9:27, KJV. The Greek word for “castaway” is adokimos, and means “rejected.”

B. GOD’S PROTECTION WOULD BE GONE

David also knew he would be outside God’s protection; the Power who gave him victory and kept him safe from all his enemies, would be gone. Many times God had delivered him; he knew he couldn’t live without God’s help.

C. GOD’S SOFT MERCY, TURN INTO HARD JUDGMENT

1. The Bible warns against "grieving the Spirit" (Eph. 4:30), "quenching the Spirit" (1 Thess. 5:19), “resisting the Spirit” (Acts 7:51), and ultimately "insulting" the Spirit of grace (Heb. 10:29) which may be equivalent to blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

2. God is not a Person to be trifled with, to mock, or to insult. We must always be respectful, humble, and repentant in the presence of the Creator. He graciously extends to us the olive branch of mercy, but He owes us nothing.

3. He’s longsuffering with our ignorance, but a wicked, prideful attitude, if maintained after enlightenment, will harden His will, like concrete, to be just as devoted to our destruction, as He was to our salvation!

4. God told His people Israel; “All these curses will come on you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God and observe the commands and decrees He gave you” Deut. 28:45; Exodus 34:7.

II. EXAMPLES DAVID MAY HAVE THOUGHT OF:

A. CAIN

1. David probably thought of Cain, separated from God’s presence. Cain didn’t listen to God’s warning and killed his brother Abel, the first murder.

2. God marked Cain so other men wouldn’t take revenge on him. Cain was banished from the presence of the Lord and became a restless wanderer and a vagabond.

3. David, who had killed Uriah, Bathsheba’s husband, feared he might become accursed, for murder, as Cain was.