Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to Psalm 51. Reading for our text, verse 6. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Psalm 51 and verse 6. As part of the inspired Word of God, we are told in the beginning of this psalm that it is a Psalm of David, that it was when Nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone into Bathsheba. He had committed adultery with Bathsheba, who was not his wife, who was Uriah's wife. She had had a child, and he'd had Uriah slain. And the thing that he did displeased the Lord. This account is the only account of which when the word says that David was a man after God's own heart and was perfect, upright in all his days. This is the only one that it lists as, except in the matter of Uriah. And here we have the great mercy of God. How David, an adulterer and murderer, was shown mercy, forgiveness, and pardon. In the word of God, we have these cases, the cases like David, the cases like Saul of Tarsus, who hailed the Lord's people, men, women, children, and put them to death for their faith. He gave us in when they were killed, and yet we have them converted, pardoned, forgiven, and it is a reminder that the salvation of the Lord is for sinners. It is for sinners to be saved from their sins. Not that they continue in sin, but as the Lord said to the woman that was brought before him, taken in adultery, hath no man condemned thee? She said, no man. And he said, neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. And yet we God's people, we feel and know our sinnership day by day. And we need such passages as this to show us more clearly God's salvation. More clearly show us we're in. The blessedness is here below. Because the Lord knows that here below we are not without sin. We will be sinners to our dying day. There is no man that doeth good and sinneth not. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Unless we think that there are degrees of sin, in one sense there is, but the penalty is the same. In our land, where there's many different things brought before our courts, the penalty is different depending on the severity of the transgression. But with sin, who so offendeth in one point is guilty of all. Every sin merits eternal death. One sin, or a thousand sins, the sentence is the same. And we are to remember that. And yes, though there are likely David's here, those greater sins listed, yet we are to remember, even if we were to keep the whole law, and just offend in one point, we'd still be under the sentence of eternal wrath, eternal condemnation. So this, like many of the Psalms, exposes what is going on in the heart of the person, that we can read in another part of the word what is going on outwardly. What others are seeing, what actually was happening, and then we have what is going on in their heart. their feelings, their exercises, what is in the heart. And here the psalmist David, he says, Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in the hidden parts Thou shalt make me to know wisdom. Truth is reality as seen by God. We read the position or the case of our Lord with the Pharisees in Luke chapter 11. The Pharisees, they found fault because the Lord had been invited to eat meat but they saw that he had not first washed before dinner. In 11 verse 39 we read the Lord saying, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness." And the Lord makes this distinction. They were listed as hypocrites because outwardly what could be seen of men they were very careful to do. Standing at the corners of the streets, praying, doing things to obtain the favour of men. But inwardly, it was what the Lord actually saw. And the Lord tells them what actually was inside. The illustration that the Lord used about the outside, what would we do if we had got a cup and saucer, and we cleaned all of the outside, but we didn't clean inside? And the very part we were gonna pour the water in to drink out of, That was dirty. The outside was nice and clean. But the inside, we say, well, that is the important part. Not the outside, it's inside. And so the Lord is saying this, and making this distinction between outside and inside. And may we realize this. Men, they see outside. Yes, God sees it too. But God sees the inside. He sees the heart. Now out of David's sin comes this beautiful psalm, or rather we should say out of his repentance, out of his recovery, when he sees sin as it really is, comes this psalm that's been a blessing to so many ever since it was written. Well, I want to note this evening, firstly, the inward parts or hidden part of man. And then secondly, the truth that God desires there. And then thirdly, the gospel provision of truth in the inward parts. But firstly, inward parts or hidden part of man. The scriptures often speak of the heart. In fact it is used many many times through the Word of God. The description of the heart. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know him. Of course that's not speaking of the heart as a pump that pumps the blood around the body. But it is a very good parallel and illustration because the heart is central to the well-being of a person. That is what is bringing the oxygen, that is what is bringing all the nutrients from the food to every single part of the body. Every part that is living is receiving through the blood everything that it needs. Also it's taking away the impurities and getting rid of that which is not good. And it is vital then for a healthy heart, a heart that's operating rightly. So when you then put that in a spiritual way, if a spiritual heart is right, then spiritually, our spiritual life, that will be right. If it is not right, that will affect the whole body. And so, really, scripturally, what we understand with the heart, it's really the core of a person's being, our inner self, what we really are. The seed of our emotions, our intentions, our will. It is the very part of us that is us. Out of it flows our words and actions, although there are sometimes, with our heart being deceitful, and there's many times in the scripture it's shown that men will say one thing, but really their heart is not in it. One real example is when the children of Israel came to those left in Israel when Nebuchadnezzar had come and they asked Jeremiah, should we go down to Egypt or not? And they professed in very gracious words that they would do whatever God told them to do. But after 10 days of silence, God sent a message through Jeremiah and said that they dissembled in their hearts. And it was true because when Jeremiah said that they weren't to go down into Egypt, they then charged him that he wasn't speaking on God's behalf, but on behalf of another king raised up against them. And so they intended to go down to Egypt all along. And so God could see what words came from their mouth That wasn't what was in their heart. But in most cases, what happens, unless we're deliberately trying to deceive, as though we're trying to deceive God, or trying to deceive His servant, the heart will dictate. We will act as to what really is within us. That will govern everything. It is the seed. of our conscience, our affections, the mind. All of these things constitute what is set forth as the heart. In Proverbs 14, we read that the heart knoweth his own bitterness and a stranger intermeddleth not with his joys. And so it's that inner soul. How many times we might be asked or ask someone, how are you? And they say, oh, we're well, I'm well. And you know that they're not. So you say, are you really well? How really are you? And then you might get a truthful answer. And there's a difference between what might be just said outwardly and what really is being felt within. Many have those secret thoughts desires, feelings, that even those that live most close to them have no idea what is actually going on there. But God does know. And so when he speaks about here, the inward parts or hidden part of man, David saying, praying in this, behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts And in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. It is right deep within. It's not something that is just learnt and remembered. There's many things that we may have learnt at school and we study for a year for an exam and we take that exam and we might get very good marks for that exam. But if in a year's time someone were to ask you some of those same questions that were on that exam, and you might forget, you wouldn't know the answers to it. But if there were things that you'd learned that were really burnt into you, that you'd learned it by experience, you'd known it, then that is not just forgotten. It is really burnt there. You think of the man that was born blind. One thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see. Sometimes even in a natural way, things can be used to enforce things. I always remember in engineering training, because we used to have to do a lot of calculations as to bending of steel beams, and we had to rely on those calculations. without actually seeing it happen in practice you had to know that you designed a beam of certain size of a shaft and it would be strong enough and so in our training we did examples we had beams of a certain length put on blocks and a weight put in the middle and a dial gauge on it. And so we had the distance, we had the weight, we had the size of the beam, and we calculated all that in theory. Then we saw whether it was the same in practice. And it was. And when you could see that, it gave a lot of confidence as a design engineer to trust in your calculations. They weren't just theory. People's lives were depending on that. That was Very important thing. And so even now, I can picture, I can picture that room and the example, and really every design I did, you're thinking, I can rely on these sums, this maths. I can build machines from it. And the Lord uses things like that to teach us things in the heart that's remembered our whole life long. Lessons and instructions, And it is in the inward part, not just resting solely in memory or just superficial. It is in memory, but deeply embedded there. It really is us. It really is ourselves. So what is it that the Lord then desires there? Our text says that it is the truth that God desires there. We said before in the scripture from Jeremiah 17, 9, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. What we're talking about is fallen man, man that has fallen from the image of God, man who has then so alienated from God that instead of truth there is deceit, there is error, there's falsehood, there's everything opposite to what actually is the truth. Our Lord, he gives in Matthew a list of those things that proceed out of the heart of man. In Matthew 15 and verse 8 he says, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. In vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. And so instead of the truth of the doctrines of God, the word of God, they made up their own commandments and put them in the place of the commandments of God. And then he says in verse 18 and 19 that those things that proceed out of the mouth They come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defile a man, but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man." The Lord is dealing with the same as what we had read in Luke. And so he gives the list of these things that are within. And it is because of the fall, because of our sinful nature, that is what is there. But the Lord desires that there be truth there. Instead of error and lies, he desires truth in these inner parts and in the hidden parts. The Sama says, thou shalt make me to know wisdom. But what is it then that God is desiring? Because God knows that this side of the grave, fallen man, will never be perfect. He will not be spotless and without sin. He has no righteousness of his own. One of our hymns says that sinless perfection we deny, the chief of Satan's wiles. And so that which the Lord desires, though we might say is a holy God, a pure God, an upright God, surely He desires the highest form of perfection. Surely He would desire that. Why would He desire anything less? But the Lord has not made it that sinful man this side of the grave becomes spotless and pure and is the angels of heaven and are those who have departed this life and are with the Lord. So it relates to us as sinners. What is it the Lord desires there? What is he looking for? Well, one thing is a true sense of sinnership. This is why we sung our middle hymn. Nor are men willing to have the truth told, the sight is too killing for pride to behold. Men do not like to be told. We do not like to be told that we are sinners. We like to be told we're good people and you've only got to go to. many funerals, and we'll be told how good that person was. Those things are set before us as virtues, as in recommending us to God. But to actually realize the truth of the Word of God that says that there is no man that doeth good, no, not one, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, and all their righteousnesses as filthy rags, to realize that truth, a true sense of sin. The hymn writer says, again, sinners can say, and none but they, how precious is the Saviour. And sins, filth and guilt, perceived and felt, make known God's great salvation. If we are to know a remedy, we must know the malady. Nebuchadnezzar said a true thing when he had the dream that he remembered he'd had a dream, but he couldn't remember what the dream was. And all his wise men, they couldn't tell him what that dream was. And they said that no one had ever acquired that of any wise man or magician. Tell us a dream, we'll tell you the interpretation. He accused them of just preparing lying words. They would make up an interpretation that was so far in the future that by the time it came, he'd forgotten it, and they'd get away with it. But he accused them of preparing those lying words, and he said, you tell me the dream, and I will know that you can tell me the interpretation thereof, and put in the way here, You show me a God that can show a person the true state of their heart as a sinner and show you the same God that can save that soul from their sins. It is just as much a miracle and a work of God to save a sinner as to show him that he is a sinner. To show the malady is vital first. No one will ever seek after the Lord genuinely, really, as a hell-deserving sinner until they really are convinced of it, until they really see it. And what they are seeing is the truth. The psalmist says here, thou desirest truth in the inward parts. Well, it's not truth to say, well, I'm not such a bad sinner. I'm not really that bad. I have some good thoughts. I have good intentions anyway. The truth, actually, is that we are desperately wicked, evil sinners. And the Lord desires that instead of hiding that truth, that we acknowledge it. We have in John 1, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Our deceitful heart will say, look, don't make the case too bad. It's like going into a courtroom and you're supposed to have a representation to make it that you haven't done really so badly to let yourself off. And instead, your counsel, he makes your case terrible. But all he's doing is saying it as it actually is. But other clever lawyers will try and make their clients' crimes lesser and lesser to try and get them off. We can't do that with God. We can't just make out to God that we're not really so bad as sinners. The truth God decides in the heart is that we are sinners, we have sinned, we are under the wrath of God, we deserve it. You think of what the dying thief said, we indeed justly, we receive the due reward of our deeds. There is a man with the truth, the truth of what is done and in his heart. That's a painful thing. If the Lord shows us and reveals us that, to us, we look like we're getting further and further away from hope of being saved. The more and more we feel guilty and sinful and defiled, the less thoughts we think that we'd ever be saved. But in fact, the Lord would say no. Certainly not one that is not meaning going in outward lengths of sin, loving it, rejoicing in it, deliberately going against the word of God. The Apostle Paul says, when I would do good, evil is present within me. The good I would, I do not. The evil that I would not, that I do. He said, if I do that which I would not, is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. But he owns it as David does here, that it is his sin. Verse three, I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. How does that find us? With the truth in our hearts. Is our sin ever before us? Do we acknowledge before God our transgressions? Do we really feel our sinnership? Could we come in with the hem writer, if my soul was sent to hell, thy righteous law approves it well? That is truth in the heart, in the inward parts. Another aspect of that truth is a right view of Christ. How light are the views that men have of Christ today, or the natural man. They take his name in vain, they have no Right apprehension of His Majesty, of His Godhead. They do not fear Him. They do not love Him. A right view of Christ. Whose Son is He? To view the Lord as the Eternal God, the only name given among men whereby we must be saved. No, a heart that has that truth. You think of our Lord before Pilate. Pilate, what is truth? And the Lord's saying that he's come into this world to bear witness to the truth. So what is to be in the heart, and this is what Christ desires, in the heart, is that there be there a true knowledge, a true confession of who He is, acknowledging Him to be the Messiah, Emmanuel, the One-Sent, the only Redeemer, the only Saviour, the only hope for that poor sinner. So those two points that I've just mentioned, on one side it's all our blackness and sinfulness, on the other side, still in truth, is all the Lord's ability to save his grace, his love, his compassion, his mercy, and what he did at Calvary, and to be absolutely persuaded that if our souls are saved, it must be through Christ. Is that truth in our heart? How do we view Christ? One hymn writer says, what think ye of Christ is the test to try both your state and your scheme. It's not just listing out all doctrines and truths, it's what we actually feel deeply in our hearts. Another aspect of that which the Lord desires is honesty. is genuineness, is that which is unfeigned. When Philip went to Nathanael, and he finds him, and he says, we have found him, of whom Moses and the prophets did write Jesus of Nazareth. And he said, can any good thing come out of Nazareth? And Philip said, come and see. And so Nathanael was coming, and the Lord saw him, and the Lord said, and Israel lied indeed, in whom is no guile. No deceit. He is what he is. He's not disguising anything. He's not making out he's something different. He is honest in that way. He's a true seeker, a true one that is desiring after the things of God. And you see how quick, when Nathaniel says, when thou knowest thou me, he said, before that Philip called thee, when thou art under the fig tree, I saw thee. Immediately, he responded, thou art the Christ. He knew that under that fig tree, he could not be seen by man. God had seen him. He would have been hidden under it. And that convinced him who it was. At the point that the Lord made, he could see that man's heart. He could see he was not a very subtle man. He was not a man that was deceitful or just wanting to be outside. He was driven through just genuine. Another thing the Lord desires is that sincere love not Judas's kiss, not just an outward loving word, but that which is really in the heart. And of course the word says we love him because he first loved us. But under this point we're looking at what the Lord desires, what he is looking at here on earth sinful men and women, what he desires that should be in that heart, what he would see. He desires it there to be hope. Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him. We are saved by hope, says the apostle, that hope that is seen is not hope for what a man seeth. Why doth he yet hope for? So, hope in a poor sinner's heart. The Word would not set forth things that the Lord did not desire to be there. We think of prayer, the life of prayer in the heart, a breathing of prayer, that man might always to pray and not to faint. And the Lord condemned the outward prayer of the Pharisee, that the God be merciful to me, a sinner, the republican. He said that man went down to his house justified. The life of prayer, the fear of God, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. By the fear of God, men depart from evil. The Lord desires that, that in the heart there is a childlike, filial fear of God. Another thing is the Word of God. Let the Word of God dwell in you richly, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, making melody in your heart to the Lord. The Lord desires that be in the heart. And there are many other things that the Lord desires that be in the heart without desiring here below this side of the grave that that soul be a sinless person. Well, when the Lord desires that. And David says, Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts. But he goes on, And in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. And there's that teaching here. That which the Lord desires, he's not saying to a sinner, You work that up. You bring that into your heart. You change your heart. You do these things. No. Where the Lord sets forth what is needed, He will give that. He will give that grace. I will for this being quiet of by the house of Israel to do it. for them. And this then is the gospel. The Lord has already for a soul that is brought into concern, the Lord has already done that. You think of David here, how long he went after the adultery and murder and he seemed to have been so insensitive to it that Even when Nathan brings the parable, he never thinks, is this a message from the Lord? I'm half expecting this. I think God was angry with me and this might be the message. He seems to be just oblivious to it. And yet he's brought to pronounce in the parable that was brought him by Nathan his own sentence. The man that doeth this should die. The parable of the poor man's lamb, the rich man that wouldn't take all his flocks for the visitor, for the traveller, but took the poor man's lamb and slew that. And it was through that that Nathan said, Thou art the man. And immediately David fell under it. I have sinned. Immediately Nathan said, The Lord hath also put away thy sin. a clear indication that where the Lord convicts of sin, then He'll also pardon that sin. He'll chasten for it, correct for it, but the first step that the Lord will do for all of His people, in lesser measure, greater measure, they'll all know themselves as guilty sinners. And so, the Gospel has a provision. one effect of the conviction of sin by the Lord, it doesn't lead to despair, it leads to hope, and it leads to prayer, leads to crying to the Lord, God be merciful to me a sinner as the publican, or to look at this psalm. What is David asking the Lord? In verse two, wash me throughly from mine iniquity, cleanse me from my sin." He cannot cleanse himself. He cannot wash himself. He's going to the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ is exalted for these things. As much as you and I feel our sinnership, may it cause us to haste to Christ. Not to set ourselves to doing this and that, and to lists and resolutions, but to look to Christ alone. The truth in their heart will be also fixed there as much as the conviction of sin, that Christ is our only hope. Our only hope. He says, against thee, the only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. The Lord has put this conviction there. But then he goes on and asks, he says in verse seven after our text, Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which Thou hast broken." There he is saying, Thou didst break my back, Thou didst convict me of my sin, Thou didst wound me. This is not my work, this is Thy work. The Lord that cast down, the Lord also that brings up again. Create, he says, in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. David, he knows he can't create a clean heart. Do you know that? Do I know it? He knows he can't bring a right spirit, even though he had a right spirit before, he can't bring that back. So he asks the Lord to do it for him. He's lost the joy of the Lord's salvation. Does he busy himself trying to get it back? No, he says to the Lord, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. But what if I fall again? So he prays again, and uphold me with thy free spirit. And all the time he's asking. And this is the provision. This magnifies God. It glorifies the Saviour, that here is a sinner that needs every attribute, every blessing, that flows forth from the Lord Jesus Christ. It is Christ that is suffered, bled and died on Calvary's tree to put away his people's sin. He is the Lamb of God. That sacrifice, it was effectual, it was a wrath-ending sacrifice, the wrath of God falling upon the Lord instead of his people. When he rises from the dead, It is through that blood alone that the people of God live. Like on the Passover night, when I see the blood, I will pass over you. You think of those firstborn in that houses, is the blood there? Am I safe? Will my life be spared? You think of the children saying to their, or child saying to their parent, look, I'm the firstborn. It is me that's going to die, that's blood not there. Have you done it? Have we done it in the right way? How different than those perhaps that weren't a firstborn? Well, this is not going to affect me directly. Yes, I might be concerned about a brother or sister, but how it needs to be personally. If ever my poor soul be saved, it's Christ must be the way. It's not someone else, it is ourselves. And so the gospel puts this provision. And in Ezekiel chapter 36, again, we have a beautiful provision there, what the Lord said that he would do for his people. In Ezekiel 36 and 26, a new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my judgments and do them. You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God." Why does he do it? He's not looking at anything good in them, nor in you or me. Not for your sakes, he says in verse 32, do I this, saith the Lord God, be it known unto you, be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. And that applies to all of the people of God. It is of thy abounding grace he works salvation in our hearts and forms a people for his praise. Then he says in verse 37, I will yet for this being acquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them, and increase them with men like a flock." And so, what the Lord desires, He will give to have set before His people in the gospel, in the Lord Jesus Christ, and draws out their affections to Him, brings their prayers to Him, so that they'll ask life of Him, Ask of Him those things that are already pleasing in His sign, what He will delight to see in, because what He sees is not what comes from us, but what comes from His own hands. He will delight in that which is the fruit of from His own beloved Son, and that is what is being put in the hearts of His people by His grace. the wisdom also. David says here, Thou shalt make me to know wisdom, the gospel, taught of God, they shall all be taught of God, a gracious discernment between good and evil, right and wrong, what is of the Lord, what is not, what is a true faith, what is a false faith, what is someone that is just giving lip service to the Lord and one that really knows what is in their heart and groans under it. This is what knits the people of God together. We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. And when you discern here a soul, they may only match a few utterances, but you know they know what is in their heart. They know the teaching of the Lord. They know the preciousness of Christ, their need of Christ. And they desire those things, and the Lord has set a solemnity, knowing the false religion. And with that knot of the heart, there's a lightness, a superficial, a foolishness, a jesting, a worldliness. That which, when the Lord puts that which he desires in the heart, he will stamp a vanity, an emptiness. God is greatly to be feared. in the assembly of the saints to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. And he puts our fear in the hearts of his people. So did not I, says Nehemiah, because of the fear of the Lord. An unctuous light to all that is right, a bar to all that is wrong. I, however, desire a heart religion, and may we discern what is pleasing in the sight of the Lord. And though we are sinners, and this is where faith is so vital to view, that though our sin remains, yet we mourn over it, and it makes the sinner's friend, the Lord Jesus, more and more precious, and more and more haste unto him. We're exhorted by growing grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, Grace is the free unmerited favour of God. This is not growing in goodliness and more and more in our own esteem a better person is growing more and more to realise if it was not the grace of God we would never be saved. By grace you are saved through faith that not of yourselves it is the gift of God and it is the Lord that gives faith right from the beginning that is evidence in conviction of sin preciousness of Christ, and seeking for every blessing that might be made ours, that we are what we are, as the Apostle Paul said, by the grace of God. Well, may this be our experience. Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part. Thou shalt make me to know wisdom. May that be thee. Prayer of each, Lord, make me to know wisdom inwardly, and to have that persuasion of the psalmist, that the Lord would do so, as he had convicted him of sin, so he would make me to know wisdom. May the Lord grant it.