Turn with me again here to this
psalm, and I don't know what to title it. Cleanse me and I
shall be clean. Don't cast me away. There are
so many things that you could say about it. But David wanted more than anything
for his sins, his transgressions to be blotted out, for his iniquities,
to be blotted out and his sins to be blotted out. And what David
is confessing here is he's confessing his sin that he had with Bathsheba
and with committing murder also with Bathsheba's husband, Uriah.
And this is what the Holy Spirit does. He convinces us of sin.
He's going to come and sooner or later God's going to discover
your sin. Be sure your sin will find you
out. That's what the Scriptures tell us. And the Holy Spirit
convinced David of his sin and he done it. Through a preacher. And a preacher into it. Now look
with me over here in 2 Samuel. Let me set this up if I can.
2 Samuel chapter 12. And this is what happened. David,
his soul was in agony over his sin. His soul was very troubled
over his sin. 2 Samuel chapter 12. Very, very
troubled upon his sin. That's why he said, Oh Lord,
have mercy upon me. Have mercy upon me. That's the
first thing he says, have mercy on me. Don't judge me by my merit. Don't judge me by anything other
than your mercy and your loving kindness. And look what he said
here, down in verse 26 of chapter 11, look what it says here. And
when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead,
she mourned for her husband. And when the morning was past,
David sent and fetched her to his house. She became his wife
and bore him a son. But the thing that David had
done displeased the Lord. Now listen to this, God is going
to always send a preacher. Now a preacher is what God uses. to speak to us and he uses what
God said not his own feelings or opinions and the Lord sent
Nathan unto David and he came unto him and said unto him there
were two men in the city one was rich the other was poor the
rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds but the poor man had
nothing save one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished
up and it grew up together with him and with his children It
did eat of his meat, and drink of his own cup, and lay in his
bosom, and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveler unto
the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock, and of
his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto
him, but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the
man that was come unto him." Now watch David's reaction. David's
anger was greatly kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan,
as the Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely
die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold. Because he did
this thing, because he had no pity. And Nathan said to David,
God the man, you are the rich man, you took the poor man's
everything he had from him. And thus saith the Lord God of
Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered
thee out of hand to Saul. I gave thee thy master's house
and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house
of Israel and of Judah. And if that had been too little,
I moreover would have given unto thee such and such a things.
Wherefore, that hath despised the command of the Lord to do
evil in his sight, that hath killed Uriah the Hittite with
the sword, and hath taken his wife to be thy wife, and hath
slain him with the sword of the children of Anna." Now I tell
you what, just as sure as God is living, he is going to find
out our sin. And David was angry. And then here he comes, back
over here in our text. And oh, listen, he says there
in verse 3, My sin is ever before me. And
so David here, his soul is in agony over his sin. And the first
word out of his mouth, Have mercy upon me, O God. How many times
do we find people asking God for mercy? Especially in the
New Testament. If they're not asking mercy for
themselves, they're asking mercy for somebody that they love.
The woman brought her daughter and said, have mercy upon my
daughter. The centurion said, I've got
a servant, a sick, come and have mercy on him. The publican said,
have mercy upon me. And mercy, mercy, mercy is what
people need. And he says, why should I show
mercy to you? And how should I show mercy to
you? And look, David goes on and he says, according to your
loving kindness. And that according to your loving
kindness has to do with the covenant of God. The covenant of love
that God made with his people. The covenant that God entered
into you. According to the covenant, according to the loving kindness
you show to your people. Now listen to this, not only
according to your loving kindness have mercy upon me, according
unto the multitude of God's tender mercies. You've got a multitude
of tender mercies. Mercies is wonderful. Mercies
is great. Mercies is what we need. But
he said, according to the multitude of your tender mercies, brought
out my transgressions. What else are we going to plead?
What else are we going to say? Well, let's deal with David's
confession. Let's deal with David's confession. Here he's confessing.
That's why he's asking for his sins to be blotted out. And look
what he says here. He says, the first thing he says
is verse 3. He says, here's his confession.
I acknowledge my transgressions. I'm not talking about anybody
else here. I'm talking about mine. He said, I acknowledge my transgressions. And the first thing David did
when he transgressed, the first thing he did was he tried to
cover it up. When he took back Sheba, he said,
I know how to do it. Sheba became pregnant, he said,
I know what I can do. He said, I'll send Uriah into
the heat of the battle, he'll get killed and nobody will ever
know. He'll never know, nobody will ever know. But you see God's
eyes run to and fro upon the face of the earth, beholding
the good and the evil. Hell and destruction are open before his
eyes. And so he tried to hide it, but
now he comes and confesses. I acknowledge my transgressions.
Not just all of my transgressions. My sin is ever before me because
it's ever before you. You see the Lord revealed to
him he knew his sin, knew his secrecy, knew the intent of his
heart, knew what he was going to do before he done it and wait
till he done it and then he comes and says now David you did this.
What didn't I give you that you needed? What didn't I give you
that you desired? I gave you a kingdom. I gave
you your enemies wives. I gave you anything that you
wanted and here you go and what you don't supposed to have that's
what you go get. And he said, I acknowledge my
transgressions. And that's why he says, it's
against me only that I sin. You see, all sin, all sin is
against the name and the character of God himself. I mean, if I
sin against you, I'm sinning against the image of God. If
I sin against my wife, I'm sinning against God. Because if I sin
against her, I'm supposed to love her even as Christ loved
the church and gave himself. There's not a sin that we commit
that's not against the name and character of God. And oh, listen, and that David
said down in verse 6, he says, you desire truth in the inward
parts. He said, you know where you want
truth at? Not just out of my limbs. Not just me talking about
it. But you desire truth in the heart.
You desire truth in the soul. You desire truth down inside
me. Now he feels and knows more than
ever now that God looks on the heart. And he said, oh, I said,
you desire truth in the inward part. And he said, oh, that's
why he says, you know, he says, you don't desire sacrifice, you
desire truth. If all I had to do was give a
sacrifice, I'd give that. But he said, that's not what
you desire. He said, you desire truth in here. And I tell you
what, if that truth's in us, and God bless us with the truth
in our hearts, I believe that we'll feel that, and we'll know
it, and we'll understand it when we feel it. And that's why he
says, that's why I disacknowledge, because you desire truth in the
inward parts. And oh, it's in the hidden part.
If I know anything, you've got to teach me. And everything,
everything, you keep this and look with me in Luke 11, just
a minute. Now all things come from the heart. God taught us
that, you know, that everything comes out of the heart, proceeds
out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. My son, give
me your heart. And everything comes from the
heart. If faith we got it, it comes from the heart. If truth
we got it, it comes from the heart. If hypocrisy is in us,
it comes out of the heart. That's why he said, if we confess
our sins, God is just and faithful to forgive us our sins and cleanse
us from our sins. But look what our Lord told to
the Pharisees. When in verse 37, As there spake
a certain Pharisee, besought him to dine with him, and he
went in and sat down to eat. And when the Pharisee saw it,
he marveled that he had not first washed before dinner. Oh my,
I didn't wash his hands. Didn't go do all this ritual
that they all do. That's what it was, just ritual.
And now the Lord said unto him, now do you Pharisees make clean
the outside of the cup and the plate. You make it real clean. But you know what's inside you?
Oh, you're worried about your cup, you're worried about your
plate, you're worried about your hands, you're worried about everything
that's outwardly. He said, but don't you know what's
inside you is what I'm looking at? Don't you know that what
goes on in your heart, what goes on in your mind, what goes on
in your motives is what I pay attention to? Your inward part
is full of ravening and wickedness. You fools! Did he not that made
that which is without, the hands, the eyes, and the work and all
that? Did he not also make that which is within? If he made all
this and that's all it is, it's just what you can touch, taste,
and handle, it's going to perish. He said, ah, right in here, that's
where it all comes from. And also David makes a confession. I acknowledge my transgressions. And then after he acknowledges,
he does some pleading. You know, a man that acknowledges
sin, he starts pleading. He starts asking for God to do
something, ask for God to do something to save him, to help
him in this agony that's going on in his heart and his soul.
And he has pleading, and his first pleading was for mercy,
back up in verse 1. Have mercy upon me. What else,
what else could meet his case? What else could meet his case?
Justice couldn't meet his case. Righteousness couldn't meet his
case. Cause he had already transgressed. He had already cast aside the
justice and righteousness of God. That's not what he asked
for. He didn't come with presumption into the presence of God. He
says mercy is what I want. Mercy is what I need. And mercy
is what you've got and will you give it to me. And then look
what else he asks for. Oh, he bleeds here. Look down
in verse 2. He says in verse 2, wash me throughly
from mine iniquity and cleanse me, listen to this, from my sin. He wants to be cleansed. And he knows that he can't wash
it. You know, I sat over in Ezekiel. I think it's Ezekiel. He says,
if you take night, And that's what they make soap and stuff
with, make it just real, real white. He said, you can take
niter, you can take all this stuff, and you can wash and wash
and wash, and it will not make you clean before God. He said,
it won't do it. And he says, so ever you cleanse
your hands, it won't make you clean before God. And David says,
wash me thoroughly. A lot of commentators say, wash
me thoroughly. Well, thoroughly, throughly,
that means inside, inside. Everything he's talking about
has to be done on the inside. He's not talking about washing
his body. Wash my heart. Wash my soul. Wash my mind. Wash my soul. Wash my spirit. Wash me and I shall be clean. And I cleanse me. Wipe my record
clear of this sin. Oh, the remedy's got to be as
thorough as the disease. If the disease is all through
us, then the remedy's got to be all through us. If we're filthy
inside, we've got to be cleansed inside. No wonder Paul said,
we're sin abounding. We're sin abounding. Grace, it
must pour down. There's only one cure for sin. one cure for it's guilt, one
cure for it's guilt and that's the blood of Christ I tell you
without the shedding of blood there's no remission of sin he said it's the blood of Christ
that cleanses us from all our sin that's the only thing that
cleanses and then look what else he said down in verse 7 purge me with hyssop, and I shall
be clean. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall
be clean. I shall be free from guilt. Now
you know what hyssop was used for? Every time you mention,
find in the scriptures, it's used. It's dipped in blood, used
to sprinkle blood. And he said, you purge me with
hyssop. You know the first time that
you find hyssop used? At the Passover. They take that
blood in that bowl, dip it in hyssop, and run it up and down
that post and over that level and down the side. Next time
you see a mission, Moses has got it and he's sprinkling the
Lord's people with the blood with that hyssop and he's sprinkling
the book and he's sprinkling everything in the tabernacle
and that's why David said take that hyssop that's used to purge
and put away sin and put back blood between me and God and
you use that blood and purge me from my from my sin, and I
shall be clean. The blood, when you see the blood,
He said, you pass over me. And I tell you, beloved, God
only meets us on the ground of a sacrifice offered. Like He
told them, when I see the blood. Look what David said here, down
in verse 16. He said, O Lord, if Thou didst
our sacrifice, I'd give it. I would. But, O God, meet me
on the ground of that hyssop purging me. The Lord Jesus Christ
entered once into the holy place with his own blood and he came
and then as he went in with that blood he came back and our conscience
must be purged from first of all dead works. What's dead works? Anything we
ever done before we come to Christ. Anything we ever thought we did
before we come to Christ. And that's why he says purge
me. His blood purges us from dead works. That's why Paul said,
if I have something to glory in, he said, I don't do it anymore.
I count everything but done. That's what it means to count
everything dead works. And then not only purge your
conscience from dead works, but to purge it from guilt. Let thy
blood be a sin to double cure, save from wrath, and sin's power,
the guilt of it. And oh, beloved, that's why a
person did dead sinful works. And didn't look what else he
asked for God to do. And he's asking, the Lord has
to do all of this. The Lord has to do all this.
And that's what I love about the gospel. That's what I cherish
about the gospel. We ain't got, you know the only
thing we brought to our salvation? Was our sin. You know all we
still bring to it? It's our sin and our inability.
That's all we bring. And if God don't give it all,
we ain't getting nothing. And that's what He said. Look
what He said here in verse 10. Creating me a clean heart, O
God. You don't think He had a heart?
He said, My heart is so dirty. My heart I feel is so filthy.
I feel is so dead. Lord, you come and create a new
one in me. If any of you all ever prayed that way, Lord, come
and do for, please, please take my heart and break it and start
all over with it. Break me down and start from
scratch because I feel like I'm such a failure in your sight. And he said, create in me a clean
heart. You see, he says, my heart is
the problem. And when He says this clean heart, He says, create
it in me. A clean heart is a creation of
God. A new heart is a creation of
God. God makes the heart new. And when He makes that heart
new, it's free from sin. It's free from the power of sin
in some sense. And it don't love sin anymore.
And sin anymore is filled. He fills the heart with the love
of God. He sheds abroad in our hearts
the love of God. And so recreated me a clean heart.
Oh, I tell you, God take up, take my heart. Oh my, take my
heart, just start all over with it. Oh, and then look what else
he said in verse 10. Renew a right spirit within me. If I get a new heart, I need
a new spirit to go with it. If I got a new heart, need a
new spirit. If I get a new spirit, gotta
have a new heart. You keep Psalm 51, look with
me in Ezekiel, I think it's 36. Look with me in Ezekiel 36. Look
what the Lord said He's going to do here. Oh God, create in
me, regenerate my heart. Oh, stir it up in me. Make it
like it's new. Create it new. Renew my spirit. Oh, take my spirit that I've
been so far away from you, I've sinned so grievously that oh
God, create me a new heart. Give me a new spirit. Look what
he said here in Ezekiel 36, 25. Then will I sprinkle clean water
upon you and you shall be clean. From your filthiness and from
all your idols will I cleanse you. Listen to it. A new heart
also will I give you. And a new spirit will I put within
you. That's what David said. Lord,
do that for me. And listen to this. And I'll
take away that stony heart out of you flesh. And I'll give you
a heart of flesh. It can be touched. It can be
touched. It can be felt. It can be moved. It can be moved. And that's why
he says, created me a clean heart. Give me a new heart. Give me
the right kind of a spirit. And look what he said down here
in verse 12. Oh, look at these pleadings, look at these pleadings
that he had with the Lord. And I suppose all of us at some
time or another, he says, Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.
Restore unto me, and that's what he did in this last meeting for
me. Oh, he restored the joy. Oh, the joy. Restore unto me
the joy, listen to this, of thy salvation. The joy of the Lord
is your strength. The joy that God gives us, the
joy of His salvation. The joy that we know that our
sins are forgiven. The joy that we know that we
have an acceptance with God. The joy that we know that everything
before God is right and pure and clean. That Christ put our
sin away. That Christ sets us at the right
hand of God for us. Oh, restore unto me the joy of
thy salvation. Let's go to Psalm 30 just a minute.
Psalm 30. You know this is one of those Psalms, this 51st Psalm,
is the Psalm of somebody that's been in pretty bad shape, and
he knows in the condition he's in, and only one person can make
him right. Only one person, and that's the
Lord Himself. But look what he said here in
Psalm 30 and verse 5. for his anger endureth but a
moment that's what David said to David the Lord is displeased
with you David and he said his anger may endure but a moment
in his favor is life in his grace is life weeping may endure for
a night when you get up in the morning joy is going to come
right back Joy, joy is coming back, it's
going to wake up, oh we're going to wake up in the morning, we're
going to be joyful, we're going to rejoice in the morning, and
oh there's nothing like the joy, peace and joy in believing. Oh the peace of heart and the
joy there is in believing. Come what may, that joy and that
peace, in believing God. Trust in God. Nothing in this
world compares with it. He says, the peace of God passes
all understanding. And whenever you cannot understand
how God can establish peace and give you a peace that passes
your understanding, and you know Him, then that joy that comes
from that peace, When old Bruce was preaching
the other night, he started talking about, I'm going to have a conversation
with this old man. I'm going to have a talk with
him before I go. Oh my, that filled me with such
joy. Yeah, I'm going to have a talk with him. He said, you
don't mean you have to part ways here? I'm going to leave you behind. Joy, joy, joy. Joy, joy. I'm going to leave you behind,
but oh listen, we'll meet again, but I won't be the same as you.
That's joy, isn't it? Oh, that's joy. Oh, what joy
that brings to your heart. Oh, what joy! And then look what
he said in verse 12 also, not only restoring to me the joy
of thy salvation, but we can certainly lose the joy of it.
And then look what he says, uphold me, uphold me. Listen to me, with thy free spirit.
Your spirit is free, you can go anywhere. I have to stay in
one place. I can't go home, but he said,
your spirit's free. It can go here, it can go yonder,
it can do this, it can do that. So Lord, you come with your free
spirit and hold me up! You know what happens to me when
I'm on my own? So hold me up! Hold me up with
your free spirit. The Lord, now He's free from
the law of sin, He's free from the law of death. And he says,
Lord, keep me in this condition, in this spiritual freedom. Uphold
me with your free spirit. Your spirit's free. You don't
have to come to me, but oh, uphold me with it. He'd know what it was to fall.
And now he wants to know what it is to be upheld again. And
then what happens after his confession? What happens after he's pleading?
He confessed his sin. And he knew why he was a sinner.
He knew why he transgressed. He knew why he sinned against
God. Because he knew that he was shapen in iniquity and in
sin conceived. He knew what his problem was.
He knew he needed a heart, needed the right spirit, needed God
to do something for him. To cleanse him, give him a heart
and make him pure within. And then when after that happens,
look what he says. In verse 13, look what happens
after his confession. He said, Lord, you know what
I'll do? After you do all this for me, and oh please don't cast
me away from your presence, don't take your Holy Spirit from me.
He says, you know, I'll teach transgressors their ways. I know
what it is to transgress. I know what it is to fall. And
I know how your ways are. I know you're a God of mercy.
I know you're a God of grace. I know you cleanse people. I
know you create. I know you renew your people.
I know you do these things. He says, I tell you what, I'm
going to start teaching transgressors your ways. Ways of mercy. Ways of forgiving. Ways of cleansing. Ways of creating a new heart. Ways of cleansing them thoroughly.
Teach them to acknowledge their transgression. Don't never try
to hide them. And he says, and these sinners
will be converted unto you. You know, James says this, and
this is one of the most pleasant verses of scripture. He said,
He that converteth a sinner from his ways, saveth the soul from
death. Now he's talking about The Lord's
people there, some way. And that's what David's talking
about here. He says, sinners will be, they'll turn to you
like I did. I was going on in my way until
Nathan came, and then I turned to you. And he said, I'll teach
you. I've had some experience in this
business, so I'll be able to teach some people. And I tell
you, all he would tell them is just what the Lord had done for
him. And I tell you, experience makes the best teachers, don't
it? It does. And then look what else
he says. In verse 15, now he wants to
say, deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, verse 14, of my salvation,
and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy salvation, of thy righteousness. Listen to this, O Lord, open
thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. Now he
wants to teach transgressions. He wants to teach people where
he's been, what he's experienced. He wants to see people acknowledge
their sins, their transgressions, and turn to the Lord. And then
he turns around and says, Lord, he says, if you'll open my lips,
if you'll take my lips, and you open them, you know what I'll
do? I'll sing and sing and sing and
sing and sing. I'll sing to the Lord! and my
mouth will show forth your praise and you know what it says he
said if you open if you open and oh my for the Lord to open
our lips open our mouths and show forth his praise and I tell
you what if we give a song to the Lord and sing a song to the
Lord he's got to open them hearts and give us that song to sing
anoint them lips and bless them to do it and then David goes
on to say you desired sacrifice and oh if that's all it took
I'd give it but he says Lord I said I know what you like and
God I tell you what the sacrifices of a broken spirit and if we
ever have a broken spirit he said I'll tell you what you bring
to me you bring me that broken spirit Not that like David said,
oh, he said that man that took that, he said he ought to die. He ought to die. And then give
that sheep back fourfold. Now David said, God said, now if you're going
to bring me a sacrifice, bring me a broken heart and a broken
spirit. Let your heart be broke. Don't let it be upset. Don't
let you be presumptuous. You bring me a broken heart.
You bring me a sacrifice of a heart and spirit that just broke. That
you absolutely know that you have got anything to bring to
me. And then he says, you do good
to Zion. You do good to the church. You build it up. You build it
up. It's the Lord's doing. Oh, bless
his name. Blot out our transgressions,
cleanse us and we'll be clean. Thoroughly, throughly, throughly. God do it for us. Oh, blessed, blessed Savior.
What a privilege, what a privilege to be here with the children
of God. To be able to go through Your Word and see the power and
the glory of God Himself and what He does and must do. for
His own children, much less those who have never been brought to
faith in Him. Lord, open hearts. Give that sacrifice of a broken
spirit and a broken contrite heart. Give us that sacrifice. You do it. You bring glory to
Yourself. And help us to praise You and
to bless You in the night and in the day. In our troubles and in our ups
and in our downs, in our ins and in our outs, whatever is
going on, may we sing praises unto you and show forth your
praises, your praises, for you are worthy to be praised. In
Christ's name we bless you. Amen. Amen.