Looking again at Psalm 51, reading
in verse 6, it says, Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward
parts, and in the hidden part 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, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in
me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit
from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I
teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted
unto thee. Deliver me from blood guiltiness,
O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud
of thy righteousness. O Lord, open thou my lips, and
my mouth shall show forth thy praise. 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. Do good in thy good pleasure
undesigned, build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt thou
be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt
offerings and whole burnt offering. Then shall they offer bullocks
upon thine altar. The Lord desires truth in the
inward parts. And this is exactly what the
Lord told the lady, the woman. She wasn't a lady, I don't guess,
but she was a woman there at the well in Samaria. He said, the Father seeketh such
to worship him as worship him in spirit and truth. That is
not in outward forms. Now, because the question that
she asked him was, well, where should we worship you? Which
church is the right one? Is the Baptist right? Is the
Methodist right? Who's right? She said, Woman, you don't even
know what you're talking about. He said, Neither in this mountain
nor in the other is the Lord going to be worshipped. He said,
The Father seeketh such to worship Him as worship Him in spirit
and truth, which that is in the inward parts. So we're not interested
in the outward forms that men come up with. And there's a multitude.
You know, you would be hard-pressed to sit down and write out every
little sect and group and this and that and the other that people
have come up with over the years, and every one of them believes
they're right, don't they? I mean, everyone, and a lot of
them's willing to fight you over it. I mean, you know, or at least
consign you to hell if you don't follow along with their line
of thought. The Lord is not interested in
any of that. He desires truth in the inward
parts. David understood that. And it
was because of the quickening work of the Spirit of God upon
him that taught him that and gave him a desire to be cleansed. Now, as he goes on to say here, purge
me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be
whiter than snow. He wanted to be clean inside.
He wanted to be washed. He wanted to be made pure. Now
we often hear men say, well, you know, if you preach grace
to men and you don't give them a little bit of the law to go
in there and hold it over them and tell them, you know, God's
going to do this if you don't do this, then why, they'll just
go off and do all sorts of things. And that is true of the flesh.
Religious men need the law to keep them in line. They really
do. I mean, you've got to have somebody
standing up there constantly cracking the whip or they'll
go off into all sorts of stuff. But those in whom the Lord is
pleased to work and calls them to have this same desire that
David had, they don't need that work continually upon them because
they have a desire within their heart to have a clean heart.
To be pure before God. You see, you don't have to try
to get a man who has been awakened by the Spirit of God to desire
holiness in the inward parts. That's just part of the work
of the Spirit of God. He leads them into all truth.
And they can't do anything about it. I mean, that's just what
God is pleased to do in them. And He's pleased to work that
out. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. That is on
the inside. Clean me inside and wash me on
the outside and I will be whiter than snow if you wash me. You
see, the sow that's washed, what does it do? returns to its wallowing
in the mire. Why? Because it's just an external
washing. But when that purging is done
on the inside, as well as the outside, by the hand of the Lord,
then He said, I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy
and gladness, that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Now the Lord knows them that
are His. And, you know, the modern day
message of positive thinking and upbeat mind, you know, and
don't think any negative thoughts and all of these things, it can't
quite come to grips with this concept that the Lord breaks
the bones of His children. for a good reason. Now I've heard
it said, I don't know that this is true, I'm just repeating something
that I heard somebody say one time. Might not be a lick of
truth in it, but it makes a good illustration if it is true. And we'll make believe that it's
true even if it isn't. But I have read that a shepherd
sometimes, if he has a particularly wayward sheep, a lamb that won't
you know, stay with the flock and goes running off or whatever,
that he will take and break that lamb's leg and then he'll carry
that lamb around with him until that leg heals. And then once
that leg is healed, that lamb, he's not going to run off anymore
because he loves the shepherd. because he has an affection for
the shepherd. And the Lord often brings his
people by way, well the scripture says he brings us by way which
we knew not. And he will often break the bones
of his people and bring them down to where they just, he broke
Jonah's bones didn't he? I mean he broke Jonah's bones
and he was brought down to that place where he had no other hope. And so David said, Make me to
hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken
may rejoice. Now the breaking of the bones
is not a good thing. Jonah didn't enjoy being in the
fish's belly. And oftentimes the course that
the Lord would put us through to bring us to the place where
we see what we are by nature is a hard road to hoe. Sometimes
it almost seems that the Lord would let a man ruin himself. But He doesn't do it to destroy
the man, He does it to bring him unto Himself. It's a great
blessing to be chastened by the Lord, for the Lord to bring us. unto himself. David knew that.
And he said, Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones
which you have broken. Don't let me just go on lamenting
the fact that my bones have been broken and I've had a hard time,
but make me to hear joy. Lord, give me an ear that I might
rejoice in the things of God. Hide thy face from my sins and
blot out all mine iniquities, because my sin is ever before
me. He said, I see it. Every time
I look in the mirror, I see it. And we're not trying to get people
to lament their sins, because you see, when the Spirit of God
works in a man, He's going to do that. We're not sent to tell
men, lament your sins. We're called on to lift up Christ,
that we might have seasons of joy. that we might reckon ourselves
dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto Jesus Christ. You see, that
is the blessing of the glory of salvation is when the Lord
is pleased to open our eyes to see Christ high and lifted up
and His train filling the temple. And we have reason to rejoice
And David said, Lord, don't let me dwell on the fact that my
iniquities, before we cast them away, purge me, clean, create
in me, hide thy face from my iniquities. My sins blot out
my iniquities, because only He can. See, you can't do it. You will dwell on your sin, and
you will be overcome by it. There is no joy. in contemplating
your sin. And only the Lord can blot them
out. But He has blotted out the handwriting of the ordinances
that were against us. And you see, that is why the
Lord said that I am anointed to preach good tidings of great
joy. Good tidings to the poor and
those who are in places of need. You see, that is the preaching
of the gospel. The gospel is a good message.
It is good news. It is a message of the mercy
of God to sinners. Now everybody is not a sinner.
I know everybody sins. Everybody is not a sinner. Now
the Lord is going to save sinners. The Scripture says that he seeks
and saves sinners. He came to save sinners. But
see, everybody is not a sinner. Now if you ask a person, have
they sinned? They will say, oh well, sure
I have. Everybody knows they have sinned. But you see, it
takes a work of the Spirit of God. Like Cowper said in his
hymn, a sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made him so.
Because you see, only the Lord can show a man that he's a sinner. Not just that he did some things
wrong. You see, that's where David was brought. And he said,
Lord, hide thy face from my sin. I don't like it. I don't want
it. Create in me a clean heart, O
God. Cleanse me, Lord. Create in me
a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. What's a right
spirit? A right spirit is that which
rejoices in the Lord. Some say, well, that's presumption.
No, dear brethren, that's the grace of God that causes a man
to rejoice. in Him who has taken away our
sin as far as the east is from the west. Now, we don't always
see that as clearly as we need to. And only the Lord can give
us eyes to see it, and that's what David's praying here. Create
in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. What is a right spirit for the
children of God? To know and understand that there
is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free
from the law of sin and death." Now the law of sin and death,
it just holds an anvil over your head every day held up by a thread
that says you are a sinner. And there's no doubt you're convinced
of that, aren't you? I don't have to convince you
of that. You know it if the grace of God has visited you. But dear
brethren, the glory and the wonder of the mercy of God revealed
to His people is when we come to the place that we see in spite
of the fact that we are indeed sinners. He's the Savior of sinners. And He said that He would Give
us a glad spirit and a glad heart. Renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit
from me. Because you see, now the Lord
never forsakes His own. You see, the Lord never forsook
David. Even in the midst of his murderous
intent, his adulterous behavior, and all of that, the Lord never
forsook David. But David forsook the Lord. And what David's praying about
here, he says, Oh Lord, bring me back in my understanding and
my mind and my heart to rejoice in Thee. If we confess our sins,
He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. Now, does that
mean that the Lord's waiting up there and He said, well, I'm
holding this sin over Him until He confesses it. Now, if He'll
confess it, I'll forgive it. Is that what John's talking about?
No. He said, if we walk in the light
as He is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us
from our sin. Now, does that mean that we're
not cleansed of our sin when we're walking Contrary to His
way? No. If we be in Christ, we're
in Christ. But what it does mean is that
we can't clearly see it. And that's what David's praying
for here. Lord, renew a right spirit within me. Take not Thy
Holy Spirit from me. Let me see those things that
Thou hast done in my behalf. I'm tired of seeing what I am
because I know what I am. See, when the Lord works in a
man's heart, He teaches him pretty quick what He is. I don't want
to see what I am. I want to see who Christ is.
I want to rejoice in Him. And David said, Take not thy
Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me, what? The joy
of my salvation. Is that what he says? You know,
you hear a lot of people talking about my salvation. They got
their salvation. They got their personal Savior.
They got this and they got that. Well, David said, ìRestore unto
me the joy of thy salvation.î You see, ìLord, teach me what
you have done for me.î Now, I remember reading an old Well, I was getting
two stories bobbled up in my mind there, and I don't remember
who told this, but they were telling about a lady who, she
had had an experience with the Lord, and she wrote it down on
a piece of paper, and she put it up in the cabinet. And every
time when she'd get to feeling a little bit low, she'd go open
that cabinet up and she'd read on that piece of paper. what,
you know, all about the things the Lord had done for her. Well,
one day she was feeling low and she went in there and went to
pull the piece of paper out and a rat had got in there and ate
the paper up. I mean, she was in a mess, wasn't
she? And the reason was because her comfort was coming from what
she thought she had done in seeking the Lord. But dear brethren,
the comfort and joy of the children of God comes as they recognize
what it is that the Lord has done for them. See, that's the
joy of thy salvation. See, that's what we want is the
joy of thy salvation. I'm not interested in what somebody's
telling me. I remember when I was a kid growing up, and I don't
know how many times when I would get stirred up and troubled about
it. And of course, I had joined the church when I don't know,
I was probably about ten years old or something. And, you know,
they kept telling me, Hope, you're alright. You're saved. You know, you were baptized. I mean, all this stuff, they
told me that this was the way it was. But you know, the Lord,
He kept working on me. And I'm not trying to tell you
that He just worked on me from that point forward, but at a
point in time, at a later time, the Lord brought me to a place
where I didn't care what somebody told me. I didn't want somebody
to tell me, Oh, we know you're saved. Don't doubt your salvation
and all that kind of stuff. I just wanted to know the Lord. I didn't want to know if I had
an experience. I didn't want somebody to tell
me what the experience was. I wanted to know the Lord. Now brethren, I don't know how
a man comes to such a place as that. I know that I didn't figure
out to come to such a place as that, but I know the Lord brought
me to a place like that. And that's what David's praying
here. Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me
with thy free spirit. Lord, I need you. I don't need
to know what I can do or what I have done. You know, I don't
need to rededicate my life or whatever it is they're telling
them nowadays. You know, I don't need that.
I need to know the Lord. And there's nobody can help a
man with that. You can't go to enough classes.
You can't read enough books. Only the Lord can give you that
joy of His salvation. Only him. Restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit. Because
he said, I have walked away from that. He said, I turned my back
on that which I knew to be right. And oh Lord, restore unto me
an understanding of what it is that you have done for me. Then
he said, well I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be
converted unto thee. You know, whenever, back years
ago, and I remember when they'd have a revival meeting or whatever,
they'd sometimes, especially depending on who the evangelist
was or whatever, they'd come through and they'd teach you
how to do soul winning classes, and they'd teach you how you
could do it. You know, this is what you need to say, and if
somebody says this, you say that, and this, that, or the other. But David understands this, that
only as the Lord works in a man, His truth, and can He teach transgressors
thy ways? Why? Because how is He going
to teach them? Is He going to talk them into something? Is
He going to answer their questions right? No, because it's going
to be the work of the Lord is going
to be seen in those whom the Lord works. And then, you know,
as the Lord works in His people, He calls His people. I mean,
you see it in the day of Pentecost. I mean, they say, what in the
world is going on here? And they say, we need to hear
about this. And the Lord called those who belong to Him. And
as many as heard the word, believed. Because that's the way the Lord
works. Then shall I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be
converted unto thee. Not because of me, but because
of what you do. Deliver me from blood guiltiness,
O God. Thou God of my salvation, and
my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. Now David
was guilty. of blood guiltiness, because
the blood of Uriah was upon his hands. He couldn't look to the
right and say, well, the Philistines did it, or whoever they were
fighting. Again, I think it was the Philistines. He couldn't
say the Philistines did it. He knew that he was the one,
just as surely as if he'd have took the knife and plunged it
into Uriah's heart, he knew that he was guilty. of your eyes sin,
and there's nothing that could change that. But he said, Oh
God, deliver me from it. Not so I can say, well I didn't
do it, but so that I might not be crushed by it. Now, you often
hear men say, well, you've got to learn to forgive yourself.
Well, you can forgive yourself all day long. That won't do you
a lick's worth of good. But when God is pleased to forgive
you and to bring that forgiveness to your mind and heart, you see, Christ came not just
simply to pay for the price of our sin, but to give the guilty
conscience rest. as we look to Him. See, the high
priest, when he went in to the Holy of Holies with these offerings,
what did he do? He reminded everybody of the
sin. Here's the sin. We're putting it on the altar.
But you see in Christ, the sin is taken away. What a glorious
thing. Deliver me from blood guiltiness,
O God, Thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud
of Thy righteousness. Dear brethren, that's the subject
of our song. It's not how sorry we are. We
already knew it. If you'd asked me, I'd have told
you exactly how sorry you are. And I can sure tell you how sorry
I am. But that's not our song, is it?
We don't want to sing about that. We want to sing about the One
who is the Savior, the One who takes away our sin. My tongue
shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. He is made unto us wisdom, sanctification,
justification. He is our righteousness. O Lord,
open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise."
How can a man praise God? Now, today they got these outfits
and these people that learn how to do this, and they call them
worship leaders. And they are going to get everybody
to worship. Come on now, we are going to worship. We are going
to praise God. And I know they mean well, and
I'm not discounting that 100%, but the thing about it is, dear
brethren, unless God moves a man to praise Him, somebody prancing
around with a microphone and a guitar and doing all kinds
of things is not going to cause men to worship the Lord. But when the Lord puts praise
within a man's heart, he'll praise Him. Even if somebody's prancing
around with a microphone or whatever. It just doesn't make any difference.
It's not here or there. It's not a thing that men need.
What they do need, however, is the Spirit of God. My tongue
shall sing aloud, O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall
show forth praise. That's the only way it's going
to happen. Lord, if you open my lips, open my lips and let
me praise Thee. Don't entertain the notion that
you can just praise God whenever you get ready. I like to hear
people praise God, but one of the expressions that I almost
despise is when people say, praise God. I don't know what they mean by
that all the time. Praise the Lord. Well, what does
that mean? I mean, I don't know. I'm not
sitting here to judge people, but I'm just saying, dear brethren,
that's not necessarily praise to the Lord. It might be just
something somebody learned. You know, somebody just saying
out of habit, have a nice day. Have a blessed day. And all of
those things. I'm not Scrooge and I'm not against
that. I'm not going to fight somebody
because they say such things as that. But I understand, dear
brethren, those things cannot occur without the grace of God
working in men. And that's what David's desiring.
Lord, cause these things to come to me. For Thou desirest not
sacrifice, else I would give it. Thou delightest not in burnt
offering. Now this is an amazing thing. for the King of Israel to say.
Because the law said, offer these offerings. But you see, the Spirit of God
taught David that these things weren't anything really, because
he looked beyond that sacrifice. He said, there's something else
that you desire, O Lord, beside these things. And I thought Brother
Al, as he brought that out this morning, about this offering,
was an offering, the offering that the Lord was
pleased with, the one that said it was a sweet savor, was the
offering of sin. Is that not what He's speaking
about here? He said, for thou desirest not sacrifice, else
would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt
offering. You're not, The Lord's not looking
to see what religious things people can come up with. The
sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite
heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. You see, that's the offering
of sin, is it not? A broken and a contrite heart.
The Lord pleased with such. The Scripture says there's joy
in heaven over one sinner that what? Repented. Now I was taught
that you need to repent. And when you repent, then that's
it. You did it. You repented. Well,
he's repented. But brethren, that's not what
repentance is. You see, a man who knows himself to be a sinner
is going to be in a constant state of repentance if the Spirit
of God works in him, and that's what's happening with David here. Did David repent? Yes, he repented,
but he is repenting. It is the work of the Spirit of
God in God's people that calls him to repent. And the sacrifices
of God are a broken spirit, broken in a contrite heart. The Lord
said the first one of the Beatitudes, as people call them, was what?
Blessed are the poor. Blessed are the poor. He wasn't
talking about people who didn't have any money. He was talking
about those who are poor in spirit. Those who have a broken heart.
Those who are like the bruised reed and the smoking flax, which
he will not break nor quench. Blessed. are those who have a
tender heart before God. Because how did they get it?
He gave it to them. And He will not despise that
which He works in His people. O God, Thou wilt not despise
it. Because you see, the Lord, He's pleased with what He does
with His children, is He not? Just as He's pleased with what
His Son did, He's pleased with the work of the Spirit in His
people. That brings them to a place of repentance. Do good in thy
good pleasure, undesign, build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Oh, build up your kingdom, Lord.
Let the kingdom of Christ be magnified in the earth. Is that
not the desire of God's people? Do we not desire to see the kingdom
of Christ magnified and exalted? Because when it is, His name
is lifted up. And He said, He said, when you
build up Zion, when you bring God's people to that place where
you would have them to be, he said, then shalt thou be pleased
with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole
burnt offering, then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar.
Now he just got through saying the Lord didn't have anything
to do with it, so what's he mean? He said, because whenever that
occurs, he said, they'll be offering the right kind of bullocks. It
won't be one that's walking around out here in the field twitching
his tail and eating grass. It'll be the bullocks of a broken
heart. Because that's the sacrifice with which he's pleased. It's
the sacrifice with which he's always been pleased. The Lord
wasn't pleased, as He said there in one of the Psalms there we
just read, Psalm 50. The sacrifices of the temple
wasn't everything that He took delight in. He only took delight
in it insofar as it represented the sacrifice of Christ. That
was the thing with which He's pleased. He's not pleased, and
he's pleased, he's only pleased with our repentance, not because
we repent, but he's pleased because it's the work of his Spirit in
us. See, men think, well, you know, I'm going to repent, and
the Lord's going to be happy with me now. He wasn't happy
with me before, but he's happy now because I finally repented. No. No, the Lord worked in his
people a perfect work. He brings them where he wants
to. And he says, they belong to me. I was glad when they said unto
me, let us go into the house of the Lord. That's what David
said. The Lord brought David by an arduous path. When you
read the life of David, I don't know of anybody that would put
themselves in David's place. I wouldn't want to trade places
with David. And I mean, you know, sure he had some glorious moments,
but dear brethren, he had some heartache that went on in his
life. I mean, just, you know, crushing. He said, Lord, you
broke my bones, but oh, cause my bones to heal, that I might
praise thee. Job, he went through a lot. And he thought he was a lot further
along than he was. You know, if you'd ask old Job,
are you doing pretty good? He'd say, yep. He said, I sacrificed
Ragnar. I know about the Lord. He's high
and lifted up. He's a king. He talked about
the sovereignty of God, didn't he? I mean, Job, he was well-versed
in the sovereignty of God. He said to his wife, she said,
curse God and die. He said, shall we receive good
from the hand of the Lord and not evil? Oh, Job knew a lot. He was right up there. The Lord brought Job right where
He wanted him to be when He began the work. Because you see, He
designed all of that. Satan didn't come and say, I
want to do something to Job. The Lord said, hey, I've got
a servant down here. See what you can do with him.
Because you see, the Lord knew. The Lord knew that Job was His. And He knew before it ever began
where He was going to bring Job. And Job talked to his friends
about who God was, and then God showed up. Just like old Forrest
Gump said, you know. And God showed up. And he did. And Job said, I have
heard of thee by the hearing of the ear. He said, I thought
I knew something. But he said, now mine eye seeth
thee, and I abhor myself, and I repent in dust and ashes. Oh,
what a glorious work the Lord does in his children, just like
he did with David. didn't go out when it was time
for war because the Lord would break the bones of David and
bring him down to a place where he would perform a work in him
with which he was pleased and David would say, remove not thy Holy Spirit from
me. Give me the joy of thy salvation. May the Lord give us that joy
today, the joy of His salvation, that He works in His people by
His own power according to the good pleasure of His will. Oh,
that He might give that to us today, that we might rejoice
and praise Him. That'll be pure praise. See,
when a man just praises the Lord, for what the Lord did and he
forgot that he did anything he might have done. That's pure
praise. When men go around talking about
what they've done for the Lord, that's not pure praise. I don't
know what it is. There's no place for it in the
lives of God's people. May he be praised and exalted.