The 51st Psalm, Psalm 51. And while you're turning, let
me mention Jim Fawcett. They had to go in today and open
him up and take a blood clot out of his lung. They said it
was the largest blood clot they'd ever seen that a man survived
from. They tried to get it out through his femoral artery and
couldn't. He's down at Vanderbilt. And Debbie was going to get to
go in and see him. I may know now. I haven't looked. But he's had
an awful big blood clot in his lung. And they tried to get rid
of it, and then they couldn't. So they had to go in and open
him up and take it. So he's in bad shape, bad shape,
terrible shape. He just went from brain bleeding
now to clotting. So you all please remember that,
folks, I tell you that. I honestly didn't think he would
make it, but the Lord had mercy on him, had mercy on him. All right, let's read the first
10 verses of Psalm 51. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender
mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me throughly from mine iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions
and my sin ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have
I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when you speak and be clear when you judge us. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth
in the inward parts, and in the hidden thou shalt make me to
know wisdom. 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 may rejoice. Hide thy
face from my sins, blot out all mine iniquities, create in me
a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Our Father, in the blessed, glorious
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior. Lord Jesus, we come,
looking to you, needing you, wanting you, asking for your
power and presence in this service today, in both the speaker and
the hearer. But Lord, our hearts are heavy
for Jim and Debbie. Lord, they're going through a
great fight of afflictions here, great trial. And Lord, I ask
that you give him abundance of grace, give her grace and strength. And Lord, if you'd be pleased
to raise Jim back up and restore his health to him, Lord, we'd
be ever so grateful to you. And we'd bless and praise your
name. But Lord, we know we're all in your hand and we know
you'll always do exactly right by every one of us. It's impossible
for you to do wrong. And everything that happens happens
for our good. in your glory. I know that. I
believe that with all my heart. And so I rest myself in you and
I bring them to you. And know that Lord Jesus, you'll
care for them, you'll provide their needs and meet the needs
of their hearts, their souls, and their bodies as it seemeth
good in your sight and according to your holy will. And Father,
we pray again for our children, lost children, Dougie, Lenny,
Our grandchildren, those they're with, oh, Lord, they're sinners.
Sinners, sinners, sinners. And, Lord, they're nothing more,
nothing less. And, Lord, you come to save sinners.
And I pray that you would send the Holy Spirit and deal with
them, convince them, trouble them over their sin. And we ask
you to do this for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Look back with me now into this
51st Psalm. I'm going to deal with the first
ten verses, if the Lord would enable me. And he starts out
by saying, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness,
according unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies. Blot out
my transgressions, He said in verse 3, For I acknowledge my
transgression, my sin is ever before thee. Against thee, thee
only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that
when you judge me you might be justified and speak, you be clear
when you judge me. Now David here is heartbroken
over his sin. He's heartbroken over his sin.
He's repenting. He's confessing. But this is
the same man who wrote, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall not walk. He leads me beside the still
waters. He maketh me to lie down in green
pastures. He prepares a table for me in
the presence of my enemies. And all this, and I tell you,
this is the same man who said, the Lord is my shepherd. This
is the same man who said in Psalm 103, Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord
who healeth all thy diseases. He will not chide nor he will
not be angry forever. For he knoweth that we are but
dust. He knows our frame, that we are but dust. And he pities
us for that. But this saw him here that he's
writing, saw him here that he's singing, is after Nathan came
to him and told him, says, David, you're the man. You're the man
that took somebody else's lamb. You're the man who took it away. You're the
man who took another man's wife. You're the man who killed that
woman's husband. You're that man. Premeditatedly
murdered him. And so this is where David's
at. This is where David's at. How many times have we said the
Lord is my shepherd and then all of a sudden have a day where
we feel the weight and the guilt of our sins. How many times have
we said bless the Lord O my soul all that's within me bless his
holy name and then some days you get up and you can't hardly
go your sins and your transgressions and the weight of your loathsomeness
just weighs you down. Well, I've got five, the way
I broke this down into five parts. And the first two verses, verses
one and two, is David's desire for mercy. He desires mercy. The second, verses three and
four, is his confession of his sin. Confession of sin. Verse
five and six is the cause, the root, the problem of his sin.
And verses seven and eight is the remedy. what God does in
verses 9 and 10 the blessed blessed and glorious results of David's
seeking mercy and then so he starts out here let's look at
this first first part have mercy upon me oh God now he's saying
have mercy to me oh God according to your loving kindness according
to the multitude of thy tender mercies." It's one thing for
God to have tender mercies. He said, according to the multitude
of thy tender mercies. And what David is saying, he
said, Lord, don't treat me like I deserve. Don't treat me the
way that I am. Treat me according to your nature,
according to your tender mercies. according to your loving kindness.
You have mercy on me not because of my nature, but I'm looking
to your nature, your goodness, your loving kindness, your mercies. That's what I'm looking to. According
to your multitude of your tender mercies. And how many people
do you reckon in the scriptures sought mercy? How many people? You go through the Gospels. You
got that sinner after the Pharisee bragged with himself, and there's
that publican. He couldn't even lift up his
eyes to heaven, smote upon his breast, and he says, God, be
merciful to me, the sinner. That Syrophoenician woman, her
daughter had a devil. She's sick, bad, bad shape. And our Lord, she came to the
Lord Jesus, and the first words out of her mouth was this, Lord,
will thou have mercy upon my daughter. Have mercy upon my
daughter. Bartimaeus, when the Lord Jesus
passed by, he said, Oh, Jesus, the son of David, wilt thou have
mercy on me? And beloved, God treat us according
to his nature. And if he treated us according
to our nature, we wouldn't have mercy. But I tell you what, according
to our nature and according to the condition we're in, that's
what we ask for. I forget which preacher says
all the time, we're beggars, mercy beggars, mercy beggars.
And that's what he's talking about here. Oh Lord, please,
please give me your tender mercies. Don't treat me like I am. Treat me according to your nature. Now I know this about God. God
is love. And I know this, that God could
have saved as many people as He chose to save. He could have
saved the whole human race had He pleased to. But one thing
I know He couldn't have done, because He is love, and He has
loving kindness, and He has a multitude of tender mercies, one thing
He could not have done on account of His nature, He could not have
damned the whole race. He couldn't do it. It's against
His very nature. His nature is full of mercy. His heart is full of mercy. Our
Lord says, what will you that I should do to you? Lord, be
merciful to me. Lord, look at me. What have I
got to offer? What can I do? What can I bring
in my hands? David said, only thing I can
bring is my sin. and my iniquity. So, Lord, don't
treat me like I am. Treat me the way you are." And
that's what he says. Oh, Lord, according to your tender
mercies. And look what he says, blot out,
blot them out, my transgressions. And then he says, wash me You're
so full of tender mercies. You have such a loving kindness
that wash me throughly from mine iniquity. Cleanse me from my
sin. Do it according to your mercy.
Do it according to your loving kindness. Do it according to
the multitude of your tender mercies. So he sought mercy. And I tell you one, I know this
much. If you ever start seeking the Lord for mercy, you'll never
stop seeking him for mercy. You'll just never, ever do that,
will you? How many times a day do you reckon
you, you, in your personal life, ask the Lord, oh Lord, have mercy
on me. Have mercy on my children. Mercy
on my home. Mercy on my wife who's sick. Mercy on my people in the church. Oh Lord,
please be merciful. Be merciful. And then look what
he says in verses 3 and 4. So he starts out seeking for
mercy. Then look what he does. Why he needs mercy. He said,
for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Oh, he starts confessing his
sin. And look, I want you to notice he said, I acknowledge
my transgressions. He wasn't acknowledging somebody
else's transgressions. He wasn't pointing out what somebody
else did. He's talking about himself. And
he says, my sin is ever before me, my sin, not somebody else's
sin, not somebody else's transgression. And we cannot confess somebody
else's sin. The only sin we can confess is
our own. And I tell you something else,
and I know this much about us, that we commit sins that we don't
even know we're committing, so we just have to confess of what
we are. Oh, listen, a Pharisee, a Pharisee,
he worries over everybody else's sin. Points out other people's
sins. But a believer, he's only concerned
for his sin. For his sin, his sin. And I tell
you, I know this, and that's what David said here. He said,
I acknowledge my transgressions. Can't acknowledge somebody else's
transgressions. And my sins ever before me. And
look what he says now, you know who I sinned against? Against
thee the only have I sinned. What David is saying that though
I committed adultery with Bathsheba, though I had her husband murdered,
I put him in a position where he would be slain. He said, though
I done these sins, I sinned against my own body, I sinned against
her, I sinned against them, I sinned against Israel, but when it's
all said and done, Because I did not walk upright before you. I did not keep my eyes from beholding
vanity. I went against everything in
my heart. I went against everything in
your word. I went against everything that
you taught me. I went against everything there
is. And I went ahead and done it
anyway. And I done it in your sight. I done this evil in your
sight. And, oh my, you, I have something
to think about. What we do, we do in God's sight.
God's watching us. And then David says it like this,
that you might be justified. Whenever you, whenever I'm confessing
what I did against you, I'm confessing what I've done, my sin, my transgressions,
my iniquities, The evil that I've done in your sight, I confess
in them so that when you judge me and when you speak about my
sin, when you deal with me like you did through Nathan the prophet,
said you are the man, you're justified to talk to me that
way. You're perfectly justified to judge me because I've not
got an eye or of a leg to stand on. I'm confessing my sin. I'm confessing my sin. Now it's
awful for us to sin against one another. But when it's all said
and done, it's against the Lord that we sin. And you know what
makes it so awful is that we sin against light. And we sin
against love. We sin against, I shouldn't say
we, I say I. I shouldn't always say we, I
say you know what, me. Let's talk about me. When we
sin, when I sin, I sin against light. I sin against the scriptures. I sin against my own conscience. Do y'all ever, no, y'all don't
do that, no. No, but so when God judges us,
we can't say that. Lord, it was, we can't do like
Adam did, said, it's the woman you gave me. Can't do that. We can't say, well, if you had
to put me in this circumstances, I wouldn't have done that. If
so and so hadn't treated me this way, I wouldn't have acted that
way. I heard a fellow say one time,
he says that when you have the desire and you have a lust or
a desire to do something, you better pray that God in his providence
don't let your desire and the temptation come together at the
same time. God not let your providence get it and then when... Don't let your... Somebody said,
I wouldn't have done what David did. Well, you ain't never met
your Bathsheba. That's the thing. You know, you just never met
Bathsheba yet. And I hope you never do. Hope
you never do. And I certainly hope I don't. Let's go to the third one. Oh,
it's confession of sin and seeking mercy. Look at verse five and
six. Look at the cause, the root of
his sin, the root of him confessing, the root of what he did. Behold,
I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive
me. Behold, thou desirest truth in
the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me
to know wisdom. And that's the cause. That's
why David was the way he was. That's why he confessed his sin.
You know why he was a sinner? Because he has conceived him
a sinner. When his mother and daddy conceived, they conceived
a child just exactly like they are, with a sinful nature. with the nature against God,
with the nature that don't love God, with the nature that's,
you know, I was shaping in iniquity. When I was in my mother's womb,
I was shaping. I was shaping, I was a child.
I was just a little tiny thing in there. But I was conceived
as born in sin. I was born a sinner. People don't
sin, you know, don't become sinners when they commit sin. They're
born sinners and they commit sins because they're sinners.
Why we do what we do is because of who we are, what we are. And
that's what David said here. He said, Lord, I don't have a
leg to stand on. This is the way I was born. This
is the way I was conceived. And everything about me is absolutely
wrong. I was born wrong. I need you
to do something for me. And oh, listen, I was born in
sin, conceived in sin, and Lord, I ask for your mercies. I ask
for your tender mercies. I ask for your love and kindness.
I ask you to blot out my transgression. I ask you to wash me thoroughly.
Because of the way I was born, I can't change my nature, but
you can. And look what he says there in
verse seven, or verse six. Behold, you desire truth in the
inward parts. What David's saying, you desire
something that I cannot produce. You desire something that just
is not in me. He just got through sin I was
shaping, and iniquity I was conceived in sin. And yet, you desire truth
in here. In the heart, in the soul, in
the mind, in the affections, and everything there is about
you. You desire something that I can't produce. Truth in the
inward parts. Truth in the heart, truth in
that soul. And I know this about God. I
know this, that He looks at the heart. He looks at the desires. He looks at the motives. And,
oh, He said, listen. He said, you desire truth in
the inward parts. And that's where I failed at.
It was my inward parts. That's where I failed. It was
in my heart. It was in my eyes. It was in my emotions. It was
in my affections. And that's what happened to me.
And then look what He said here. Behold, thou desirest truth in
the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me
to know wisdom. You desire truth in the inward
parts and then there's a hidden part. A part that only God knows
about. A part that only God himself
knows about. That God himself has a part in
us that he hides things in us. He puts things in us. And he
says, you make me to know wisdom. And what does David mean by that?
He says, you make me to know exactly what you require. You
make me to know that you require truth, a broken and contrite
heart, a broken spirit, contrite spirit,
That you require truth, not only what we say. You desire truth
in what we think. You desire truth in what we say.
You desire truth in what we do. And anything short of that, Lord,
you won't accept. And you come and you put that
hidden wisdom in my heart and you made me understand what you
require. And Lord, and that's why I'm
acknowledging my transgressions. I don't have that. Don't have
it? And Lord, if you don't give it
to me." And look what he says here then in verse 6 and 8, or
7 and 8. Then he says, oh, here's the
remedy. Here's the remedy. Oh, Lord,
is there anything that can be done? He said, purge me with
hyssop. You know what hyssop is? It's
a little old plant that grows And that, over in the eastern
countries, just a little old slip of a bush, a slip of a plant,
and the first time you find it used, you know what first time
they use it at? At the Passover. They dip that hyssop in the blood
and see it wouldn't hold very much. So Wooden Drip, and he
says, you put that blood on the post of the door and across the
lintel down the side. It's the first time hyssop was
used there. And hyssop was what they used
to cleanse the leper with. And that's what David says, you
purge me, you cleanse me, you purify me with hyssop. Like you
took that hyssop and dipped it in the blood and you put it on
those boards. Take me and apply that hyssop
to me. Dip it in the blood and apply
it to me. Tap that hyssop and make it to be purified. something
that you apply to me. And that's what he says here.
If you purge me with hyssop, and that word purge means to
be made purified, to be made clean, to be made whole, to be
made perfectly clean. And that's what David said, if
you purge me with hyssop, if you do that, I'll be clean. I'll
be clean. Oh my, not only that, but he
says, wash me. Wash me. And when God washes
a man, what happens to a man or a soul when God washes that
man? When God washes him now, what happens to him? What does
it say? Wash me, and I shall be white
as snow. You know, for God to wash you.
Simon Peter told the Lord, you know, when he said, ask the Lord,
you gonna wash my feet? If I don't, I don't have no part
with you. Simon said, Lord, start my head, get my head, and go
all over. That's what David said. Said,
just clean me all over. Wash me all over. And that's
what they said. If you purge me, and you take
this hyssop that you put in that blood, if
you put that blood on me, and you purify me with that blood,
and you purge my sins with that blood, I will be clean. And I tell you what, if you wash
me, There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that
flood lose all their guilty stains. Red blood takes black sinners
and makes them white as snow. You know, to me, now I don't
know about you all, you may not feel this way, but when we get
a big snow where I live, nobody don't move, nobody don't travel.
And you look out over that and it's on the trees, it's on the
yard, it's down the road, and it's just snow white. You have
to wear sunglasses to get out in it much if the sun's shining
on it. And it's just white. And you just hate to even walk
in it because you know it looks so good. David said, listen,
he said, you make me whiter than snow itself if you wash me. Oh Lord, wash me, wash me, wash
me. I'm like Simon Peter, wash me
Lord, wash me. And then look what else happens
if he does it. No person with hyssop I should be clean, wash
me and I should be white as the snow. And then make me to hear
joy and gladness. Oh, I've been, I start out asking
for mercy and he confessed his sin, confessed his transgression.
And then he comes down here and he says, why is this the way
he is? Cause he's shaping an iniquity.
And then all of a sudden said, Lord, make me to hear joy and
gladness. Make me to hear it. Where are you going to hear joy
and gladness from? Now, ain't but one person can
make you joyful and happy, and that's the Lord. When He washes
you and cleanses you, David says, make me to hear joy and gladness.
You make me to hear it. I can't hear it if you don't
make me. And all blessed are they that hear that joyful sound
and know that joyful sound. He said, make me to hear joy.
Let me hear that joy from heaven. Let me hear the joy of knowing
that you've washed me. Let me hear the joy of knowing
that you cleansed me. Let me hear the joy that you
showed me mercy. Let me hear that joy. Let me
have that gladness in my heart. Let me be glad and full of joy. Let me be glad that you have
done what I asked you to do, that you've washed me, that you
cleansed me, that you purged me. Oh, make me to hear it, make
me to hear it. And oh, and listen here, look
what he says, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
Now, God didn't break his bones, but he made him suffer so bad
that he said it was like I had bones out of joint, that my bones
felt like they hurt. I suffered pain over my sin,
over my transgression, over what I did. That's what he said. So
you make the bones, that inward part of me, that part that makes
up my body and everything about it that you broken, may they
rejoice. May my whole body be taken up
in rejoicing, in rejoicing. And only God can make us do that. And look at the last thing here.
Look at the results. Look at these results right here.
Look at verses 9 and 10. Here's the results of him seeking
mercy. Here's the results of him confessing
his sin. Here's the results of the awful
condition that he was born in. And after God purged him and
cleansed him Gave him the remedy. Then he
said, oh Lord, look what he says. Hide thy face from my sins and
blot out all mine iniquity. Hide your face. He said, my sins are there. But
he said, Lord, hide your face from them, would you? Not look
at them. Don't look at them anymore. Please
don't look at them. Don't look at my sins, but oh, hide your
face from them. And blot out all mine iniquities.
He says he blots them out as a thick cloud. Cast them behind
his back as far as east is from the west. And oh, Lord, hide,
blot sins. Don't remember my sins. Blot
them out. Put them away from me. And then
don't look at them. Because if you look at me, you're
going to see nothing. And if we look at ourselves,
what do we see? And that's why David started
out asking for mercy. Started out asking for mercy.
And then look what he says last of all. Create in me a clean
heart, oh God. My heart got filthy. My heart
got dirty. Got dirty with sin, got dirty
with lust, got dirty with desire. He said, create in me a clean
heart. And you know he says create. He don't say take this old heart
and mend it up. He didn't say take this heart
and do the best you can with it. He didn't say, Lord, you
know my heart. He says, Lord, create in me a
clean one. You take away that dirty one,
that nasty one, that one's polluted, that one that I was shaping in,
iniquity in, conceived in. Take that away and create in
me a heart that's clean, a heart that's pure. Don't leave me with the one I
was born with. Don't leave me with the one that
I inherited. Don't leave me with that. And
May says, and I'm the one responsible for my sin, even though I was
shaped in iniquity and conceived in sin. I take the blame for
my sin because I sinned against you. And then look what he says,
and renew a right spirit within me. He said, not only I need
a new heart, my spirit's all wrong too. My spirit's wrong
in my attitude. My spirit's wrong, renew it.
Renew my spirit. Make my spirit right. Make my
spirit desire you. Make my spirit to go out after
you. Oh, and he says in the margin, he says, make my spirit constant.
Constant. Make it true. Make it loving. Make it love you. Make it love
truth. Make it always and ever ready
to acknowledge that I need mercy. And all I do in and of myself
is sin. And so, Lord, if you don't create
in me and keep me and wash me and blot out my transgressions. And, oh, Lord, you done it. You
do it. God's the one that's got to do it. We can't do it for
ourselves. Can't do it for ourselves. Our blessed Savior, O gracious,
eternal Father, in the name of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
we ask for an abundance of mercy. Oh, and you so abound in mercy,
you delight in mercy. And Lord, I need your mercy here
as much as anybody in this building, as much as anybody I know need
your mercy. And Lord, I know Jim and Nancy
need your mercy. They need a multitude of your
tender mercies right now. They need a multitude of your
loving kindness right now. They need you to be their strength.
They need you to be their stay. They need you to be their comfort.
They need you, Lord. Oh, they need you so. And help
us to remember them, pray for them, uphold them. And may we
pray for one another. and care for one another. Never,
ever, ever think that we are anything
or known anything or can do anything without you and your blessed
grace. Help us please to honor you by loving one another, being
patient and kind and generous to one another. Lord, keep your
dear people as they go home tonight. We ask you in our Lord Jesus'
name. Amen. Amen. Good night and God bless
you. See you Sunday, Lord willing.