So Lord, may you graciously help
me, let us turn to God's word, Psalm 51 and verse 11, the latter
part. Psalm 51 and verse 11, the latter
part. And take not thy Holy Spirit
from me. Psalm 51, the second half of
verse 11. We have before us this account
of David. David, the sweet psalmist of
Israel, one who was described as a man after God's own heart.
one that had communion and union with his God, the one that wrote,
the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He leadeth me into
green pastures. David was one who knew what it
was to have a living, lively relationship with his God. David was one that knew God. David was one that loved God. So many of the Psalms are giving
praise to God and exhorting Him. And there is such a love, as
it were, in the heart of David to his God. But here we have David in the very sad chapter of his
life. David fell in the matter of Bathsheba
and as a result of that, you see,
instead of immediately going to God and confessing his sins
and repenting of his sins, he started travelling away from
God. What happens to us when we sin?
There's two really things that you can do when you sin. Do you
try and hide from God? Do you try and hide what you've
done from God so that God, you think, will not see what you've
done? So that you do not have to confess
it because you've hidden it, so you think. Or do you go to
God and confess? your sin. Well, David, this sweet
psalmist of Israel, was left in this time in his life, this
time of backsliding, he was left to try and hide his sin. And of course, sin is like a
contagious disease. It's like if you're diagnosed
with cancer, and you hide the fact that you have it, you hide
the symptoms, you hide the fact that this and that is misbehaving
in your body. Well generally, that will only lead
to cancer just going rampant throughout your
body. It will not be a benefit to hide
that cancerous state. And it's like that with sin,
you see. David tried to hide his sin,
so he sinned further. Ended up killing Uriah the Hittite. The one who had acted very honourably. The one whose wife he had committed
adultery with Then there was this baby that came as a result
of that relationship and the baby was born. Uriah was killed
and David took then Bathsheba to be his wife and it seemed
as if he'd wrapped up the situation very smartly. Who would know
what happened? It was the sword of Ammon that
had killed Uriah, it wasn't him. Who would know? Well, when we started reading in 2
Samuel 12, just before that it said, but the thing that David
had done displeased the Lord. This one David who had communion
with his God, I don't believe in that period of his life he
had much if any communion with his God. How could you have communion
with God with unconfessed sin It put a barrier between him
and his God. This one who had enjoyed that
union and communion with the church's living head had this
sin, unconfessed sin. He thought he got away with it.
He thought he'd managed to hide it and therefore he could go
on in his sin and he could cover it up and so he thought. all would be well. Well, we read
how God, in his mercy, and it is in his mercy, came to David,
you see. God will not leave his people
away from him. I have loved thee with an everlasting
love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee. And perhaps
to start with it doesn't seem the loving kindness of God to
send Nathan the prophet. Perhaps it would seem to you
more loving to leave the situation. But God, you see, wants union
with his church. He wants his people to have communion
with him. He wants that lively living relationship
to be restored and to be maintained. And so the Lord who saw everything. David had hidden nothing from
God. You see, we're all like this, but it's foolishness, isn't
it? To think that you can hide from God. To think that you can
hide what's happened in your life and pretend that it hasn't
happened And it doesn't have to be some gross, outward sin
as it was with David. It can be very, as it were, hidden,
and very between you and God, and something that perhaps some
would think was nothing wrong. But you see, when we have unconfessed
sin, it always produces a barrier between us and God. Sin produces
a barrier. As soon as Adam and Eve sinned,
they had to hide. They could not have communion
with God in the cool of the day. there was sin, there was unconfessed
sin and there was a barrier. Well, David then knew this barrier. He knew that we do not read of,
as it were, his sweet times with God in this period of these nine
months when all this was going on. but God comes to Nathan the prophet. And you see, when we are in a
hardened state, then you see we're more judgmental of others
because we're more hypocritical ourselves. And you see, David
was very judgmental of this man who had stolen his neighbor's
sheep. Oh, he thought that was most
unjust. And I'm not saying it wasn't.
But David was very quick to judge. This man should surely die. But
then you see in love and mercy, Nathan, as it were, laid the
axe to the root of the tree. Thou art the man. David was cornered. And David had to suddenly realise
that God knew everything that had happened to him regarding
Bathsheba and Uriah. and all the events that surrounded
it. And you see, in our lives, we
need to come to that realisation, thou, God sees me. God sees everything and we read
if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive
us our sin and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And
if we read, as we read in that account in Samuel, we read that
David confesses his sins. And very quickly we read that
God has forgiven them. And David said unto Nathan, I
have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, the
Lord also hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die. Howbeit because
of this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies
of the Lord to blaspheme. and then there was this verdict
given that the child would die. But you see, God has left on
record what went on between David and his God. And we are very
thankful for the 51st Psalm. Very thankful that this is left
on record because The gospel is for sinners. The gospel is
for those who feelingly come short of the glory of God, who
realize that they have only one plea with God. And if you read Psalm 51, there
is nothing in this psalm that David is pleading, that he is
the sweet psalmist of Israel. He was the one that had done
this and that on behalf of God. His plea was simple. It was mercy. Mercy is undeserved. And if we deserve it, it would
not be mercy. Well, David, you see, he prayed
for mercy. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender
mercies. Blot out my transgressions. He wanted his sin to be blotted
out. And how can sin be blotted out?
He knew he had to come to the Lord for mercy. And of course,
David, who is also referred to as a prophet in the New Testament,
we read that David was a prophet. And when we read Psalm 22 that
David wrote, how he prophesied, as it were, the words of Christ
on the cross, what Christ went through, how David saw, I'm sure,
much of the Saviour. He knew much of his need of Christ. And yet, the point I'm making
is there was a time in his life, a backsliding time, where he
lost it. And no doubt, I think, we don't
read that David seemed particularly aware that he'd lost it. But When God brought him to his
senses by sending Nathan the prophet, it seemed that the whole
backsliding and the whole issue that he'd been sitting on for
these nine months and trying to deceive others about, suddenly
it all breaks loose and he becomes, as it were, he pleads with his
God. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin, for I acknowledge my transgression
and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only have
I sinned." He goes back to the first cause. Yes, he'd sinned
against Bathsheba, he'd sinned against Uriah, he'd sinned against,
he'd misused his position as that king of Israel to try and
cover up. But ultimately, he comes back
to this. that he sinned against his God. He sinned against the one he
loved. And that will be the deepest
wound to us when we realise that we've sinned against a kind and
a gracious God, sinned against one who is our best friend, one
who is has done so much for us and no doubt David would realise
that his sin could only be paid for by that punishment being
transferred to his friend, to his heavenly friend, to his saviour,
to his God. So David is so keen that the
Lord would blot his sin out. And we have this in verse 9,
hide thy face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities. You see, if David just wanted
to have the slate white clean and that was all that he thought
true religion was about, was about appearing in God's sight
as just, then he could have stopped his Psalm 51 at the end of verse
9. He didn't say any more, but David
did know that true religion was not only to be right with God,
as it were, to be justified, but he also wanted communion
with his God. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a right spirit within me. You see, he didn't
just want the results of sin to be dealt with, he did want
that, but he didn't just want that, he also wanted the power
of sin to be put down in his life, so that he would have a
right spirit, he would have a spirit which he formally enjoyed of
communion with his God. creating me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from
thy presence. And then we come to the words
of our text, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. David, this seems to be so much
the request of David, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Where would David be if God withdrew
his Holy Spirit from him, where would he be? Well, David had
lived through the life of Saul. David had seen what a man that
had the Spirit of God removed from him looked like, acted like,
ended up like, It was disaster. King Saul's life was so very
sad. The Spirit of God was withdrawn
from him and he knew what an awful, a terrible life that man
ended up living. And of course he was on the receiving
end of a lot of the trouble. He was the main aim that Saul
had. to exterminate David. Saul, you
see, because of his sin, it was said that the kingdom would be
given to David and instead of repenting and, as it were, making
the most important thing to be his relationship with his God
rather than the ownership of the kingdom. Saul spent the rest of his time
trying to kill the one who God had said would take over from
him as the next king in due time. You see David, there's nothing
really in this psalm of David about wanting the Lord so much
to make him and keep him the king of Israel. David's religion
was truly a heart religion. and really the kingdom and all
those external things were important. But when he came to himself,
after he had come back from that backsliding state, and remember,
when we talk about this man having a backsliding state, he was coming
from a high state of communion with his God. David was the sweet
psalmist of Israel. As it were, he would tower head
and shoulders above us in so many ways. And yet this man,
this great giant, this one who was so faithful for his God,
who would fight Goliath with that strong, firm faith that
God would do for him what God had done with the lion and the
bear earlier when he was a shepherd. David had strong faith. He was
valiant. He was interested and he had
desires for the good of Israel. He was a great man of God. And
yet he fell. And this surely must make us
each concerned that the Lord would keep us. that the Lord
would not take His Holy Spirit from us. We read in the New Testament,
grieve not the Spirit of God. We are not to grieve, you see.
The Spirit of God can be grieved. You see, if you truly love somebody
and every time you go to see them, you get the cold shoulder,
You get the vibes that they're not interested in seeing you
or talking to you or being with you. You're grieved, aren't you? You're saddened. And most likely
thing is in the end you will stop contacting that person or
stop trying to contact that person. You will leave them as it were
alone. But do we want to do that to the Holy Spirit? Do we want
to grieve Him? Do we want to despise his presence? Do we want to reject him and
seek none of his ways? Well then there will be a withdrawing
of the spirit. Then there will be a growing
cold. Grieve not the spirit. We read
also in the New Testament, quench not the spirit. We're not to
quench it. We're not to pour cold water on it as it were. We're to seek to, as it were,
entertain the spirit. We are to truly make our lives
and our homes and all that we do a place where the spirit would
love to dwell. A place where the spirit is respected
and loved and desired and its presence is sought after rather
than whose presence is grieved by our actions, grieved by the
choices that we are making in our lives, grieved by the fact
that we are not having that union and communion with the Church's
living head that perhaps we once enjoyed. Cast me not away from thy presence,
and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. It seemed whatever else was going
to go wrong in David's life, whatever else, whatever the price,
take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Can you say that tonight? Is the presence of God everything
to you? One said, in thy presence I am
happy, in thy presence I am secure, in thy presence all afflictions
I can easily endure. You see, David coveted earnestly the presence
of God and though he had this time of backsliding, God graciously
restored him. But he prayed, you see, take
not thy Holy Spirit from me. And I've been thinking of this,
if we have grieved the Holy Spirit in our lives, if we've grieved
the Spirit, and no doubt we so often do, in the way we walk,
the things that we say, and how we carry on, what are we to do? Surely are we not to plead with
the Lord. that he would take not his Holy
Spirit from us, that he would restore unto us, as David says
in verse 12, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. You see, there's a joy in true
salvation. It's not just a fact that we
know, as it were, that we will not go to punishment, but there's
a joy in it. The joy of the Lord is your strength,
we read in the Bible. Do you know that? Think of you
young people. It's lovely to see you here today. Do you know there's a true joy
in the things of God that make the joys of this world grow strangely
dim? Do you know that? Perhaps you
sit and you think, well I can't understand that. How can that
be? David knew it. You see, what happened with David,
with Bathsheba, that's something that the world would say, well
that was something interesting for David, wasn't it? That was
one of the spicy times in his life, they might think. But what
does David want more? He wants the joy of thy salvation. Restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation." The joy that David had in communion with his God
was nothing that made the joys, as it were, of what this world
calls good or great, grow strangely dim. So David says, restore unto
me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit.
But David's great concern as he comes towards the end of this
psalm is this, David was the sweet psalmist of Israel. David
was one that had a heart for the glory of God. David was one
who glorified God in his life. He'd written so much for the
glory of God. And here was this great man of
God who'd done so much for God, as it were, in his life. And yet now he'd grievously fallen.
Now his name, as it were, when this got out, would naturally
be downtrodden and thought badly against. And I think, in his right mind,
as we see it in this psalm, his greatest concern was this. What will happen to my testimony?
What will happen to the glory of God? What will happen to all
those psalms that I wrote in showing my love to God? Will
they now say, well all this is hypocrisy? Will they say that
all these psalms now are meaningless and this man was an apostate? It's lovely we have the 51st
Psalm because we see such repentance in David. but it does not make
all the other psalms hypocrisy. We come to this psalm and we
realise, really I think, the truth of the gospel, that the
gospel is for sinners. The gospel is for those who feelingly
come short of the glory of God. Now I don't mean to say that
we've got to have some grievous sin as it were, that the world
would call such, against our name to pray the 51st Psalm. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy
mind and thy neighbour as thyself. Do we fulfil that perfectly?
Do we honour God in all that we say? Well, we come short and
therefore as we come short, feelingly so, It's lovely to have this
psalm, this penitential psalm of David, to see what he longs
after. Cast me not away from thy presence. He wants union with his God,
not just the slate white clean as it were, so he can go on and
live his life in the world. No, he wants to have restored
union with his God. You see, if Christians, true
Christians are to be people who are travelling to no mean city,
if they are to truly have eternal fellowship and union with Christ
in glory, which is how we read that heaven will be, surely that must be their heart's
desire here below. They're going to be pretty upset
in heaven otherwise, aren't they? If they can't have their toys,
if they can't have the world, if they can't have all the things
that they call here below good and great, what makes you think
they're going to be a happy people in heaven? When the Lamb in the
midst of the throne is the subject of the song. If that is not true in our lives,
if in the depths of our hearts we do not see a beauty in Christ,
a beauty in his great work, what makes us think that we're ready
for eternity? What makes us think that we will
truly enjoy that song of the redeemed unto him that loved
us and washed us in his blood? Well, you see, David's experience.
And in many ways, I'm sure, David would love to cut that part out
of his life. And he suffered greatly for it
later on. The sword did not depart from
his house. He had many difficulties as a result of his sin. Sin always
has its consequences. He didn't sin lightly. And yet,
you see, these things are written for our learning, not that we
gloat over those that went before us. but that we take warning
and that we realise that this one who was a man after God's
own heart fell and yet in the fall and in the things that he
went through we have such a picture, a precious picture of his relationship
with his God, the one he loved take not thy Holy Spirit from
me. So David, you see here, restore
unto me the joy of thy salvation, uphold me with thy free spirit. In verse 13 he says, then, this
is the purpose, this is my main aim as it were in life, then
will I teach transgressors thy ways. How many transgressors
have found Psalm 51 to be sweet to them? David's prayer was answered. Then will I teach transgressors
thy ways, and sinners, the gospel is for sinners, sinners shall
be converted unto thee. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness,
O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud
of thy righteousness. He had no righteousness of his
own to speak of. He wasn't going to sing of how
great he was But he was the singer of the righteousness of another.
He was the boast in the righteousness of another. The righteousness
of one who had done everything for him, who had lifted him out
of that miry clay and set his feet upon a rock. Verse 15, it says, O Lord, open
thou my lips and my mouth. shall show forth thy praise."
You see, coming with confession of sin, and David had gross sins. You might think, but you don't
know what's happened in my life. You don't know the difficulties
that I've had. But David had some pretty bad
things against his name. He had adultery, he had murder
against his name. He was in a low place and yet
O LORD, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy
praise. He was restored. His relationship
with God was restored. He was able to have that communion
with his God again, and he was able to truly teach sinners the
ways of God. He was able to be a witness that
the Lord has mercy upon those who confess their sins, upon
those who, instead of fleeing from God, And David, you see,
he worked that out in his life so clearly. He started off along
the route that we often do. When we have sin, the first thing
is to try and cover it up, to try and, as it were, hide it,
and try and not acknowledge it, and try and pretend that God
hasn't seen it. But David, mercifully, was brought
by God to confess his sin. Saul was left. Saul carried on,
you see, and on and on, fighting against God's anointed, fighting
against God's purposes, never coming and asking for mercy.
But David, he comes, you see, and says, take not thy Holy Spirit
from me. And when we read the end of Saul,
that time going to the witch of Endor and getting that counsel
from one that pretended to be Samuel. And that counsel was
no doubt satanic, as it had, as it were, some truth in it,
like Satan often does have some truth and the rest of it lies. You see, it's Samuel's message
to Saul was just, you've come short, you've come short, you've
come short, and there was never a mention but return to God. But come and confess your sin. That was never mentioned. See,
Satan's like that. He'll list all your sins, he'll
list all the things against you, all the reasons that you have
to despair, but never come and point out this beautiful attribute
of God. that he delights in the sinner's
cry. He delights to show mercy. It is one of his glorious attributes. It's one of the attributes that
he purchased at Calvary. He purchased the attribute to
be merciful because his son received all the guilt all the payment
for the guilt that should have come upon the church. And therefore
he could be just and the justifier of the ungodly. So for David
to receive the mercy of God, his saviour, all the full anger
of the curse of God against sin, because we read cursed, is every
one that hangeth on a tree. Christ was cursed of God in that
sense. He was hanging on a tree. He
was hanging in the place that David should have been in. Have
you come as far as realising that it was in the place that
you should have been in? That I should have been in? That
we should have stood guilty, condemned to receive the due
reward of our sins? This man has done nothing amiss.
This one who never sinned, this one who always obeyed his father,
this one received the full wrath of God against sin for his church
so that he could be a merciful God. And indeed we read in the
Word of God, he delighteth in mercy. It's not something he
grudgingly does. Something he delights in. You
read through the whole plan of salvation. The father gave the
son. He delighted to do it. His son delighted to come. And
the Holy Spirit, you see, the work, they rejoice in their work. They love their work. The Saviour
talking about his work, rejoiced in it. It was a joy to him. we
read, who for the joy set before him endured the cross. It's a
delight. And may we see a beauty and a
delight then, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Is that your
prayer? Do you know what it is to have
an internal relationship between you and God? Not what everybody
else sees, although it will affect the outside, I'm not trying to
say it won't, but ultimately to start with. The dealings are
between your soul and God. You need to be right with God
because you are heading for a judgment day and it won't matter whether
the whole world believes you're a wonderful person. If you come
to that judgment seat of Christ, and you are standing in your
own righteousness, in your own good works, so you think, then
the conclusion will be guilty. You will then be assigned to the
wrath of God forever. Well, we need then to come and
have our dealings, to know this relationship with God, to know
that He is our friend, and that friend that does not leave us
when we need him most. You see our loved ones, we are
very thankful for them. They care for us and they are
such helps to us here in this world. But when we pass from
time into eternity, they can only stand around our bedside. They can only stand there trying
to be as kind as they can to us. But ultimately, we go alone
to that judgment. But if the Lord Jesus is our
God, he will not say, I never knew you. See that parable of
the five wise and five foolish virgins, at the end of that parable,
the ones that did not have oil in their lamp and the ones that
came in late as it were to the marriage and said, open to us, Jesus said these simple words,
I never knew you. To understand it, true religion
is a relationship between Christ and His Church. He knows them,
they know Him. He is their shepherd, they are
His sheep. He speaks through his word. They
hear him. They follow him. They love him. And though there are these interludes
of sin in their life, yet when they're in their right mind,
like Asaph brought back from being jealous of the ungodly,
when they're brought into their right mind, they want to have
that communion again with their God. Take not Holy Spirit from
me. So for them, for a true child
of God, to have the Spirit of God taken from them is the worst
thing that can happen to them in their life. To lose the Spirit
of God is the greatest problem that they can ever have. Well,
may we know what it is to have God's presence, may we delight
in it, may we covet earnestly, And may we truly not grieve the
Spirit, not quench the Spirit, but that we may truly seek to
do everything to make Him, as it were, a happy visitor in our
hearts, that we may prepare our hearts to seek our God, that
we may live lives consistent with the Word of God, and that
we may know what it is to have the joy of Thy salvation in our
lives. May the Lord have His blessing.