Now, let's turn back to Psalm
51. Psalm 51. Now, as you know, we've
been studying through the life of David and we come to that
dark episode in David's life where he fell into the most public
and scandalous sin of adultery, even murder, deception, all of
those things as recorded back in In 2 Samuel chapter 11, we
studied about the fall of a king. It's sad to say, as I told you
last week, I said normally when people think of King David, they
usually think of two events. One of great victory and triumph
in the Lord. That's David and Goliath. But
the second one they usually think of is David and Bathsheba. And
that great fall that he went through of his own flesh and
of his own way. And you know, many people, many
people will seek to take that episode and use it as an excuse.
You know, I read a story about a, about a fella who was trying
to justify his sin, his own open sin. And he told a person who
claimed to be a believer and he claimed to be a believer.
He said, well, look at what David did. And the fella told him,
he said, well, I'll tell you what David did. He wrote Psalm
51. He wrote Psalm 32. He said, I'll
tell you another thing that David did. He said he gave the enemies
of Christ like you occasion to blaspheme. And that's exactly
what that is. Anyone who would use David as
an excuse to sin. First of all, we don't need an
excuse to sin. What are we? We're sinners saved
by the grace of God. We sin daily. Our sins may not
be as public and scandalous before men as David's was. But that's
all we are in this life, sinners saved by the grace of God. I
heard a man in a message one time, he said, you know, it's
unbelief for a believer to pray for forgiveness. And he said,
because in Christ we're already forgiven and always forgiven
and forever forgiven. Well, let me tell you something
about that now. Here's the way I think we should look at this,
or I know we should, as believers. Yes, we are forgiven by the blood
of Christ. That's a one-time thing. I mean,
that's, you know, it's not like we're forgiven one day, not forgiven
the next, and then forgiven again. And that forgiveness of sin,
we see this in Psalm 51 as we went through the first few verses
there. David, his prayer of repentance, his plea of God for God's abundant
covenant mercy was based upon what ground? It's on the covenant
love and mercy of God in Christ. And he has language throughout
the first half of this psalm of repentance that shows that.
Especially verse 7. Look at that. He says, Purge
me with hyssop. And he said, and I shall be clean. Wash me
and I shall be whiter than snow. What are sinners washed in in
order to be forgiven? The blood of Christ. Are you
washed in the blood of the Lamb? That's what we say. My hope is
built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. You
see, it's not our tears of repentance. We should cry great tears of
repentance. But it's not our tears of repentance
that wash us from our sins. We who believe the gospel, if
we haven't been baptized in water baptism, immersed in the water,
if we haven't confessed Christ in that way, we need to be. Not
to be saved. But because we already are, it's
a confession. But it's not the waters of baptism
that washes away our sins. It's the blood of Christ alone,
fully and completely. So we are completely forgiven,
forever forgiven, and always forgiven by the blood of Christ.
But now let me tell you something about our lives as we go. We
need to be ever aware daily aware of our sinfulness and our need
of continual forgiveness. And therefore, it's not unbelief
for a believer to say, Lord, forgive me. Forgive me for Christ's
sake. Forgive me through his blood.
I know I'm forgiven always, forever. But I need to be ever aware,
constantly aware of my sinfulness and his glory and his redemptive
work in the blood of Christ. So always plead the blood. That's
what David's doing here. David, when he's praying for
forgiveness, he's praying for mercy. He says in verse 1, have
mercy upon me, O God. I'm not going over the first
verses here because we did that last week or last Sunday. But
I just want you to see it. David is begging for mercy. He's
a mercy beggar. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. He's not praying for what he
deserves. Because he knows if he got what he deserved, he would
be dead. He would be condemned. That's
what he says in verse 3. I acknowledge my transgressions.
My sin is ever before me. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned, done this evil in thy sight, O God, that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
And remember this now. When God judges sinners without
Christ unto damnation, he is clear to do so. That means he
is right. God never does anything wrong.
He never does anything unfair. I know people read certain parts
of the Bible, and they say, well, that sounds unfair to me. Well,
the key word is to me. Yeah, it sounds unfair to you,
but it's not to God. God's always fair. God's always
right. His judgments are always according
to truth, Romans chapter 2. He always judges according to
strict justice and righteousness and truth. But at the same time,
and this is where our hope is, when God saves a sinner, Justifies
a sinner. He's clear there too. And so
his mercy that David prays for is based upon the righteousness,
the blood of another, the Lord Jesus Christ. Sin demands death. Christ took my death upon the
cross, the death I deserved, the death that I earned, and
he took it and he drank damnation dry so that God could be clear
when he judges this old sinner up here justified, righteous
in his sight. I'm not righteous in my own sight,
and I'm not righteous in your sight, neither are you to me. But in God's sight, if we're
in Christ, if we're washed in his blood and clothed in his
righteousness, we're righteous in God's sight. That's what the
scriptures teach. So this mercy, this plea for
mercy, this repentance of a king, this is what this is about. This
is the second message on the repentance of a king. It's based
on God's covenant mercy in Christ according to his justice. God
must be both a righteous judge as well as a loving father. You
see, the problem with today's religion that comes in the name
of Christianity is they want to talk about God's mercy and
they want to talk about God's love and God's forgiveness and
God's grace. But they want to do it at the
expense of God's justice, God's holiness, God's truth, you see. Well, God's a just God and a
Savior. That's what he told the people of Judah through Isaiah.
Look unto me and be ye saved. Who? A just God and a Savior.
David acknowledges that he's a sinner. He deserves death in
this psalm of repentance. His prayer of repentance and
His request for restored fellowship. Now, that's what we're going
to deal with mainly tonight. Here's a prayer for restored
fellowship. It's a plea for forgiveness based
on the blood of the promised Messiah to come. It's a plea
for the renewal of joy in the message of grace. Look at verse
8. He says, Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones
which thou hast broken may rejoice. The breaking of the bones there
is a way of describing soul conviction, a broken spirit and a contrite
heart. Lord, I acknowledge my transgression. I acknowledge my sin. I'm broken. I know if thou shouldest mark
iniquities, I would not stand. You see? So make me to hear joy
and gladness. Well, how's that going to come
about? Through the gospel. The gospel of joy and peace in
Christ. That's the only joy and gladness
that a sinner wants to hear. Preach Christ to me. Don't give
me a moral pep talk. Now, there may be times I need
a moral pep talk. Don't get me wrong. But that's
not what this pulpit's for. Don't give me psychology and
the power of positive thinking. Preach Christ, my Redeemer and
my Lord. Preach the finished work of Christ
for my sins. Preach his death, burial, and
resurrection, my justification. Preach him as my advocate, Jesus
Christ the righteous, so that I know that in all my weaknesses
and all my failings, which there's no excuse for them, and in this
warfare of the flesh and the spirit that I'm to be engaged
in continually, that I have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous, and he's all my salvation. He's all my
comfort. He's all my hope. Here we have
a plea for the cleansing of his heart and the renewing of his
spirit. Let's start there. Look, here's a clean heart and
a constant spirit is what that literally means. Look at verse
10. He says, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right
spirit or a constant spirit within me. That word create is the same
word or derivative of a word that's used in describing the
creation of the earth. where God spoke something out
of nothing. He created something out of nothing.
That's what this is. It's to cause something to exist
where there was nothing before. When I hold on, though, this
is not the first psalm that David wrote. Psalm 51 is not the first
one. He'd written psalms before. He'd
been chosen by God before. He was a man after God's heart.
He was the sweet psalmist of Israel. He was anointed to be
king of Israel. He was used of God greatly. David
was a believer before this psalm was written. What does that mean?
That means David was already born again by the Spirit long
before this psalm was written. He was in his fifties when he
committed that sin with Bathsheba. And so he says, created me a
clean heart. Give me something that I don't have. But what does
he mean by that? He'd already been given a new
heart because that's what the Holy Spirit does in the new birth.
The Bible says he gives us a new heart. The Bible says he transforms
the heart. He renews us. But even that new
heart, now listen to what I'm saying here. This is David, you
see, you've got to come at this psalm to understand it from the
viewpoint of a sinner seeking mercy and repentance. And this is how David's viewing
things, you see. He's expressing to God. He's
pouring out his heart to God. And what he's doing here, even
that new heart given to us by the Holy Spirit in the new birth
can be defiled by sin. And don't ever let anybody tell
you it can't. And it has to be continually
cleansed by faith. Continually. It's not just a
one-time thing. How is the heart cleansed? By faith, what does that mean?
It's cleansed by the blood of Christ. That's what it says. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
10. We read this last week in the opening. Hebrews 4 and Hebrews
10 there that we read are both sinners saved by the grace of
God, seeking to come before God in prayer, in communion, seeking
communion with God, seeking His presence, seeking His favor,
His blessedness. And listen to what it says in
verse 19. Now, this whole chapter is about
the death of Christ on the cross as the complete fulfillment of
all the requirements, conditions, and qualifications of the salvation
of His people. It goes back up there, it says
that in verse 10, by the witch will were sanctified, meaning
set apart through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once
for all. In other words, his sacrifice
was one time for all his sheep. Unlike the old covenant priesthood,
they had to do it every year and they had to do it every week
and every day. And so his sacrifice was one time. He didn't have
to die again. That's why we have worship service. We don't have
mass. You've heard of mass? We see
Mass is actually, literally, crucifying Christ again, and
again, and again. We don't crucify him again, and
again, and again. He's one time. Look at verse
14. For by one offering, he hath
perfected, completed, forever, Not just temporary, but forever,
them that are sanctified, them whom God set apart for him. And
then he says in verse 18, now where remission of these is,
talking about our iniquities and sins, they're remitted, they're
forgiven, they're pardoned, they're blotted out, there's no more
offering for sin. In other words, Christ's offering
is good enough. It's more than enough. We don't
need any other offering for sin. The blood of Christ, that one
sacrifice is enough. So there's no more offering for
sin. And let me tell you something, look at that verse 18 this way,
if Christ's offering of himself on the cross was not good enough,
then there's no more offering for sin. What does that mean?
That means we all would be doomed. If his offering wasn't good enough,
there is no more. And let me tell you something,
his offering was good enough, more than enough. And therefore,
we don't need anything else. So he says in verse 19, "...having
therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest." That's
the very presence of God. How? Because you've turned over
a new leaf, or you've walked an aisle, or you've been baptized,
or you've got a Sunday school pin, or you've given your tithe? No. By the blood of Jesus. You see that? By the blood of
God, our Savior. That's what that is. Jehovah,
our Savior. And he says it's a new and living
way which he hath consecrated. Christ did it. This way into
God's presence in prayer, in blessedness, in favor, in salvation
is a way that Christ hath consecrated, set apart, newly made for us. Through the veil, that is to
say, his flesh, you see, he gave up his humanity to be sacrificed. One of the old writers said it
this way, on the altar of his deity, he's God and man in one
person. And having a high priest over
the house of God, now look at verse 22. He says, let us draw
near with a true heart, that's a sincere heart, an honest heart.
Like David's expressing in Psalm 51, I acknowledge my transgressions,
I know what I am. I know I don't deserve the least
of God's blessings. I know I haven't earned the least
of God's favor. If God gave me what I've earned
or deserved, it would be death and condemnation. Come to God
with a true heart in full assurance of what? Of faith. That means
believing God's way of salvation in Christ. Having our hearts
sprinkled from an evil conscience. That's a guilty conscience. That's
a legal conscience. You see, feeling condemned and
feeling like I can do something to remedy it. That's what that
evil conscience is. And our bodies washed with pure
water. We'll go back to Psalm 51. You see, this is what David's
praying for. He's speaking out of his sorrow.
He's speaking out of his own feeling and present judgment
of himself. He knows he's a sinner. He always
knew that. He expressed that in other Psalms before this incident
with Bathsheba, with Uriah the Hittite. He'd expressed his sinfulness. He knew that. But he's being
made ever aware of this because of the damage that he's done
for himself, for his family, for his kingdom. And he's presently
judging himself. He'd lost sight of God's grace. He'd lost sight of God's mercy.
And he knew that only God could create in him a clean heart.
So he prays for it. And he says, take not thy Holy
Spirit from me, or verse 10, he says, and renew a right spirit
within me. Our minds and our hearts and
our spirits have to be renewed daily. That's why we're here
tonight, hearing the Word of God. But especially in times
of great conviction. We're renewed initially in the
new birth. In the book of Titus, chapter 3 and verse 5 talks about
the work of salvation, which is not by works of righteousness,
which we've done, but according to God's mercy, he saved us by
the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. But
we're renewed daily in our growth. That's why Paul wrote in Romans
12 and verse 2, be not conformed to the world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that
good and acceptable and perfect will of God. And then he says,
a right spirit, a constant spirit, literally means it's an upright
or one that's made to stand up. In other words, it's a firm,
constant, sincere spirit that's fixed and immovable because it's
fixed on Christ and His Word. But now look at verse 11. Now,
here's the presence of God and the abiding of the Holy Spirit.
He says, cast me not away from thy presence. Now, you remember,
David is expressing his feelings out of conviction over his sin.
Now, you know, God will never leave or forsake his people.
That's right now in our minds, we may leave him for a while,
but he never lets us go. And that's our salvation. That's
why I can't remember which of the old preachers said this,
probably several of them, but it's so. My salvation is sure
and certain and firmly fixed and established forever, not
because of my hold upon him, but because of his hold upon
me. He won't let me go. Because if he ever lets us go,
we'll leave. Now, you mark it down. If you don't know that,
you don't know how much of a sinner you are. If I don't know that,
I don't know how much of a sinner I am. Somebody says, well, you
can be saved and then lost again. Let me tell you something. If
you can be saved and then lost, you are lost. Because there's
no other way. That's what we are by nature.
Grace saves us, grace keeps us, and grace will bring us to glory.
Deuteronomy chapter 4 and verse 31, For the Lord thy God is a
merciful God. He will not forsake thee, neither
destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers, which
he sware unto them. Sometimes we may feel forsaken,
but we don't go by feeling. We go by God's word of promise.
The abiding presence of God in Israel back in the wilderness
was manifested in the tabernacle over and above the mercy seat,
you remember. What is that? That's a picture of God's gracious,
abiding presence for His people in Christ. And He said, I'll
never leave you nor forsake you. You want to be assured that God
is with you always? Just keep your eyes, your spiritual
eyes, keep your hearts focused on Jesus Christ and him crucified
and risen again. That's right. He said, this is
my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased to hear you him. Just
keep hearing him. That's that. You know what that
means? I mean, God's with you always. He'll never let you go.
And so he says, take not thy Holy Spirit from me. I believe
he's talking about the third person of the Trinity here, the
Holy Spirit. Now, the Spirit never totally
leaves God's people. He abides in God's people always. But David, I believe here he's
speaking of that special anointing of the Spirit that was given
him to perform the duties in the office of King of Judah.
Even Saul had that, had those special gifts of rulership, but
it was taken away from him. He pursued the Lord. Saul was
never a believer. He was never a safe center. But
God endowed him with gifts for a period of time in order to
be a ruler over Israel. And Saul, he dropped the ball. And he lost that gift of the
Spirit. And David's praying here that the Lord not take that away
from him. Because look at verse 12. Here's the joy of salvation
and a willing spirit. He says, Restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit. David
didn't lose his salvation because of his great sin, but he'd lost
the joy of it. He lost the comfort and the peace
of fellowship with God, communion with God. Salvation is a sure
thing in Christ. It can never fail. It can never
diminish. And you know why? Because it's
founded upon God's purpose and counsel. It's secured in the
everlasting covenant of grace. And it's all based on our surety,
Jesus Christ, His blood, His righteousness alone. It's what
the scripture says, that the kingdom of God is not meat and
drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Paul prayed, now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace
in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of
the Holy Spirit. David prayed that God restore
unto him the joy and the peace of it. You see, if you're saved
by the grace of God in Christ, you can't lose it, but you can
do things to lose the joy of it, to lose the peace of it,
even the assurance of it. But David also prays here for
God's sustaining power. He says, "...uphold me with thy
free spirit, either by the Holy Spirit, who is given freely and
willingly to all who come to Christ, or in his own spirit,
by making him willing to serve in grace." You know, the Bible
says in this thing of joy, that it comes from God Himself through
Christ, who is our joy, And you notice there in verse 12 he says,
restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. What he's recognizing
there is that salvation is of the Lord. And it's a gift from
God. It's thy salvation. It belongs
to God. It's not that God himself had
to be saved. He's God. But it belongs to him and he
gives it freely to anybody who wants it through Christ. He gives
it freely. And he upholds them. He upholds
them. And so that we are made willing. That's what that free spirit
actually means. A willing spirit. We're made willing. Willing,
loving bond slaves. So that we can make a joyful
noise unto the Lord, O ye lands, and serve him with gladness,
and come before his presence with singing. That's what David
wants. Look at verse 13. Here's the
preparation for service. Now listen to this. He says,
Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be
converted unto thee." What he's talking about is the preparation
of his servants for ministry in the gospel by conviction of
sin and a willingness to serve him. David desires to be a means
of bringing sinners to Christ. You see, the problem, you remember
back over here, look back over in 2 Samuel chapter 12. You remember when Nathan the
prophet came to David and spoke that parable of the man who had
the one new lamb. And the man who had many sheep
stole him and killed him and ate him. And David said, well,
that man's unjust. He's unfair. He's a sinner. He
deserves to die. And he needs to restore that
poor man, poor foe. And the prophet Nathan said,
you're the man, David. You're the man. Thou art the
man. Well, look here in 2 Samuel 12
Nathan is speaking to David and tells him of all the consequences
of his sin. In other words, because you've
done this, there's trouble coming. Trouble in your house. Trouble
in your kingdom. Trouble in every way. But he says, the Lord has
put away thy sin. Verse 13, David said unto Nathan,
I've sinned against the Lord. And David said, and Nathan said,
and the Lord also has put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die.
David was a child of God. And I know people don't like
to hear that because they say, preacher, you better not say
that. You're going to give everybody just they'll think you say, well,
you can be saved and just sin as much as you want to. Let me
tell you something. Where there's grace, Where there's
grace on this earth now, in a man or a woman, there's going to
be repentance. And you know what repentance
is over? It's over sin. So you want to look at David,
look at his repentance, because that's what the Spirit of God
brings his people to. He won't let us go. Now, he'll
let us go so far, but he won't let us go. So he says, your sins
have been put away. But now look at verse 14. He
says, how be it because by this deed thou hast given great occasion
to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. Because of what you've
done publicly, scandalously, David. You're the king of Judah,
the king of Israel. You were to be a leader. You're
a type of Christ. You know, David was to be ever
aware of that. Anybody who was king was to be ever aware of
their office, that they were typifying, picturing, foreshadowing
the coming king of kings and lord of lords. And they were
to conduct themselves in that way. David should have been a
leader in worship, a leader in service, a leader in praise.
We're going to see at the end of chapter 12 how he got back
to that later on, how he was brought back by the power of
God to be a leader. You remember the first step that
he took in his descent into that sin with Bathsheba is he sent
his army out to fight the battle, and he stayed home. What was
wrong with that? Didn't David need a rest? Well,
not in the battle. You see, it was spring. It was
the time when kings go forth to battle. And David was to picture
Christ. He was to lead his people into
battle against the enemies of Israel. And in that, he was to
picture Christ, who is the victor, the leader, the banner of all
his people against all our enemies, Satan, sin, the flesh, and the
world. But David stayed home. And he
descended. And in that, he's going to be
brought back to lead his people into battle later on. But this
step that he takes by the power of God is repentance. It's repentance
of his sin. And so he prays here back in
Psalm 51. He says, when this happens, then
will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted
unto thee. You see, before he given the
occasion, given the enemies of God occasion to blaspheme. Now,
now think about this of ourselves. How do you want to be viewed?
by the world. Do you want to be a walking joke?
I know a man who claims to be a believer, who claims to be
a preacher, and if you mention his name in the town that he
supposedly ministers in, they laugh. He's a walking joke. He
gives the enemies of Christ occasion to blaspheme by his behavior
and his attitude. Is that what you want to be?
Is that what I want to be? No. Lord, keep me from it. That's
what David's saying. Bring me to repentance. Have
mercy upon me. Restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation. Uphold me with thy willing spirit. Give me a willing spirit. Then
I'll teach transgressors thy ways." What ways? God's way of
salvation by grace through Christ. Then I'll be a witness for Christ. Look at verse 14 and 15. He says,
"...deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation.
And my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness." Not my
own. David does talk about his own
righteousness in the Psalms, but you know what his own righteousness
is? It's the righteousness of Christ given to him, imputed
to him. And he says in verse 15, O Lord,
open now my lips and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.
Here's the message of grace that comes from being forgiven. You
know, this blood guiltiness, you know what that is? That's
guilt that comes due to murder. That's what that means. David's
saying, I'm a murderer. And the message that comes from
a sinner forgiven of sins is this. I want to talk about his
righteousness, not mine. I'm not going to stand up before
you and brag about my great accomplishments, my track record as king, how
many psalms I've written. How much that I acted wisely
in times past, I'm not going to brag to you about that. That's
not my glory. That's not my boast. My boast
is Christ. God, listen, listen. God forbid
that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now you think about the Apostle
Paul. By the time he wrote the Galatians, when he said that,
he could have talked about his experience on the road to Damascus
and he could have held him spellbound in the pews. You know, the only
times that I find Paul talking about his experience on the road
to Damascus is when he couldn't get people to believe that he
was the same fella that before persecuted the church. He never related that to impress
people. He never wanted them to make
a movie of it. He never held that up before. And then Paul
went out and he stood firm. Paul stood firm for the gospel
of God's grace in Christ when Peter didn't. You know, they
say Peter was the lead apostle. He walked with the Lord. Paul,
he stood firm for the gospel even when Peter didn't and had
to withstand him to the face at Antioch. Paul could have bragged
about that. People would have been impressed.
How many churches did God start and build up through the Apostle
Paul? Paul could have talked about that, but he didn't talk
about any of that. I'll tell you what he talked about. He
said, God forbid that I should glory, except in one thing, the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's the finished work of Christ
for my salvation. He said, this is a faithful saint,
worthy of all acceptation. Everybody should accept this
and believe it without any problem, without any debate, without any
argument, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners
of whom I am chief. I'm a sinner saved by the grace
of God. By the grace of God, I am what I am. Think about John
the Baptist, what he could have said. I'm the last of the Old
Testament prophets. He never even mentioned it. He
could have said, the Messiah said, there's none greater born
among men than John the Baptist. He didn't say that. He said,
I'm not the light. Christ is the light. He said,
I can baptize you with water. That's a confession. But I cannot
save you. There's one coming who can baptize
with fire, with the Holy Ghost. That's salvation. That's the
new birth. He said, that's not me. He said, I'm not the Messiah. He said this, he said, I'm not
even worthy to stoop down and untie his shoes. That's what
John the Baptist said. He said, Christ must increase,
and I must decrease. And you know, one of the greatest
testimonies of John the Baptist's ministry is that little verse,
and I can't remember what chapter in John it's in, we'll have to
look it up. But it says, his disciples heard John preach,
and they followed Jesus. You know, that's what I want.
When you hear me preach, I want you to follow Christ. Don't follow
me. Follow Christ. That's a testimony,
isn't it? They heard him, and they followed
Jesus. Now, that's the witness. And
that's what David's praying. I want to teach transgressors
thy ways. Well, what is his ways? Christ. I am the way, the truth,
and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. And sinners shall be converted unto thee. This
is the message that God uses. to convert sinners. And what
is he going to say in that witness? He said, I'm going to sing aloud
of thy righteousness. That's Christ and Him crucified
and risen again. I'm going to show forth His praise.
Look at verse 16 and 17 now. He says, For thou desirest not
sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt
offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken
and a contrite heart. O God, thou wilt not despise. Now here's the basis of salvation.
Now listen to what I'm saying here very carefully. It wasn't
just that David was brought to God with a broken spirit. It's
not the brokenness of our spirit that is the ground of our salvation. That's not what I'm talking about.
A contrite heart. Do you know what that is? That's
a repentant heart. That's a heart broken over sin. That's a sorrowful
heart. And it wasn't the fact that David
had a sorrowful heart or a repentant heart that was the ground or
basis of his salvation. Here's what he's saying. He says,
you don't desire sacrifice else would I give it. Thou delightest
not in burnt offering. You know there was no provision
in the old covenant law in those sacrifices for willful murder. Now there was provision for what
we call accidental murder, that's the cities of refuge. They could
flee to the cities of refuge, you remember, in the pictures
of Christ. But you know, for willful murder, there was no
provision given to the nation for survival under that kind
of sin. The punishment was death. Capital punishment. And what David is saying here,
he says, Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest
not in burnt offerings. First of all, the blood of bulls
and goats cannot put away sin. That's quoted in Hebrews chapter
10. You see, the blood of animals won't do it. All the blood that
was shed during the Old Testament, even before the Old Covenant,
all the rivers of blood could not put away even one sin. But
now all that blood pointed to someone else, the blood of the
Lamb, the blood of Christ. Secondly, nothing in or from
a sinner could put a waste in. Thirdly, the only hope of forgiveness
was for a sinner to come before God with a broken and a contrite
heart. Now what is that? That's the
work of the Holy Spirit in conviction. And what does that do? What does
a broken and contrite heart do? Anybody who truly has a broken,
contrite heart, the work of the Spirit, what does he do? I'll
tell you exactly what he does. He runs just as fast as he can
to Christ. You see, the Holy Spirit doesn't
just break hearts and leave them broken. He doesn't just strip
sinners naked of their own righteousness and leave them naked. He doesn't
make sinners hungry and leave them hungry. He doesn't just
make sinners thirsty and leave them thirsty. He doesn't just
put them in need, showing them their guilt and their depravity
and just leave them there. You know what He does? And this
is how you can tell the difference between legal, natural conscience
conviction and true Holy Spirit conviction. What does He do?
Christ said in John 16, He shall take the things of mine and show
them unto you. He'll lead you to Christ every
time. And you won't find, listen, if
it's Holy Spirit conviction, you won't find any relief, any
peace, any comfort, any forgiveness, any salvation, any pardon anywhere
else. Now the devil, he'll tell you,
he'll say, well, go to church and get right. Do something right.
Clean up your act. Start giving your money. Get
on your knees and pray, and maybe you can pray through. He'll tell you all kinds of things
like that. Get baptized. But the Holy Spirit will tell
you one thing. You run to Christ. You wash in His blood. You beg
for His righteousness alone. That's what bears the ground
of salvation. It's Christ and Him crucified
and risen again. And that's what He's saying here.
And it's a sacrifice to God because it's the work of God. He said,
you won't despise that, because you know why? Because he doesn't
despise his son. He loves his only begotten son.
That's the basis of salvation. The Bible says, The Lord is nigh
unto them that are of a broken heart, and saith such as be of
a contrite spirit. Isaiah 66 and verse 1, Thus saith
the Lord, The heaven is my throne, the earth is my footstool. Where
is the house that you build unto me? And where is the place of
my rest? For all those things have mine hand made. And all
those things have been, saith the Lord, but to this man will
I look, even to him that is of a poor and of a contrite spirit,
and trembleth at my word. For thus saith the high and lofty
one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in
the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite
and humble spirit." To revive the spirit of the humble and
to revive the heart of the contrite ones, how's he going to revive
them? He's going to lead you to Christ, and he's going to
lead you right there. And you know what? That's where
we need to be. That's where David needed to be. And then lastly,
look at verses 18 and 19. He says, Do good in thy pleasure
unto Zion. Build thou the walls of Jerusalem.
Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,
with burnt offering and whole burnt offering. Then shall they
offer bollocks upon thine altar. Now, this is prosperity and blessings
for Christ's church. This is spoken by David first
because his sin had brought the whole nation into jeopardy. It
really had. He speaks here of the walls of
Jerusalem. That's a symbol of the security of the nation under
David. But he's also speaking prophetically
here. First of all, of Jerusalem after
the Babylonian captivity, which would come years later. But ultimately,
and you know how they came back from that captivity and under
Nehemiah, they rebuilt the city's walls. We studied them, you know,
the wall. the gates in the walls of Jerusalem
that they rebuilt, all picturing Christ and salvation by God's
grace in him. But ultimately, this is a prophecy
of Christ's church after his coming. Christ is the builder
of his church, and all who know him will worship him in spirit
and in truth. What he's talking about, these
sacrifices, what he's saying is that when they When Judah
comes out of that captivity, then they'll worship God aright.
They did for a while, but it didn't last. But let me tell
you something about Christ's church. It'll last forever and ever and
ever. He said the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
That's what Zion is. That's the heavenly Jerusalem.
And the sacrifices of righteousness and the whole burnt offering
and the bolecs and the altar, they all picture our coming to
God in worship through Christ. In the power of his blood. in
the glory of his righteousness. That's what all that picture.
That's the spiritual application. So David is projecting further
into the future of the coming Messiah and how all of this will
be settled in him who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. All right, well, let's quit there.