Lesson this morning, My Cleanness
in His Sight. I began reading this this week
and reading the different commentaries I normally read, and I was surprised
how much debate there was amongst those readers that I do normally
read about the meaning of this passage, about who's speaking.
Is this David personally speaking of his conduct as a man, or is
this Christ speaking? And all of them pretty much felt
like it was one or the other, there was no in-between. I personally
think that this passage of Scripture clearly is bifocal, that it means
both. This is both David speaking of
his conduct and chiefly, primarily, this is Christ speaking and believers
in Christ speaking. And as David talks about his
conduct in this world, a believer, should have a stellar reputation
in this world. If our enemies are going to accuse
us, don't give them any ammunition. If they're going to accuse you,
make them accuse you falsely so that the gospel is not evil
spoken of, our Savior is not evil spoken of, and your conscience
will be clear if it's a false accusation. And it's a blessing
to, in this life, have a clear conscience about your conduct
in this But it's not the chief blessing. It's not the thing
that we're chiefly seeking and looking for. The blessing in
this passage of Scripture is this, that everything that is
said here, a believer can say these things honestly about themselves
in Christ. That's the blessing of the passage.
So let's look at the beginning of verse 21. The Lord rewarded
me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of
my hands, hath he recompensed me." Now, clearly, this cannot
apply to David and his personal righteousness, his personal works
of righteousness. But David could say this before
his enemies. Before David's enemies, he was
righteous. Of all the things David's enemies
accused him of, he was innocent of all those things. And it is
okay to proclaim your innocence before men. If you're innocent
now, if you're innocent, it's okay to proclaim your innocence.
A child of God shouldn't be able to do that, should we? We shouldn't
be guilty of being dishonest people or, you know, mean-hearted
people or unkind or ungracious or unforgiving. We shouldn't
be those things. And knowing that you're not those
things, knowing that you're not dishonest, knowing that you're
not, you know, mean-hearted and things, that's not self-righteousness,
knowing that you're honest before men. A godly person should know
they're upright before men. We should know that we're upright
legally before the laws of the land. We should know that we're
upright. We should know that we're morally
upright and our conduct is concerning right and wrong before men. And
there's nothing wrong with valuing your name and your reputation.
I think you ought to. You know, wanting a good name
for yourself and wanting your reputation to be a good one is
not self-righteousness. Believers should have a clear
conscience before men. And if you read that verse, you
ought not be surprised if the Lord blesses that honesty and
that integrity. Now, what this is primarily referring
to is this, and this is an illustration of what David means here. David
did not kill Saul when he had the chance. Remember, David was
hiding in the cave from Saul, and Saul came in that very cave
and took a nap in the heat of the day. David had the opportunity
to kill Saul, didn't he? Some of the men that were with
him tried to talk David into doing it, telling him, this is
your opportunity to kill Saul and take the throne. And David
wouldn't do it, because he wouldn't touch the Lord's anointing. And
the Lord blessed David for that. He put David on the throne. So
don't be surprised. if the Lord blesses honesty and
integrity in some earthly way. Now, he may or he may not. There are plenty of honest and
upright people who are not rich by any stretch of the imagination
in this world. But the Lord's not going to bless
dishonesty. Now, not for long he's not. And a believer would
not want to get gain dishonestly, even if he could have it dishonestly.
A believer ought not want that and shouldn't want that. But
now, don't take this too far. I mean, you read this verse,
you can say the Lord, you know, might bless someone for their
honesty and integrity. But now, don't take it too far.
He may or he may not. Now, I mean, I don't know. A
believer does not desire to live honestly in this world, so we'll
get stuff from God. Now, that's not a believer's
motivation. That's the attitude of a mercenary.
Believers are called what? God's children. And sons and
daughters, they desire to please their father and be like their
father in heaven just because they love him. Not because they're
trying to get something from him, but because they love him.
And it is their desire to please him and live a life that honors
him. And a believer should have a
good reputation in this world. But now be careful. about how
much you want to boast about that now. Now, you can defend
yourself, but now be mighty careful how much you want to boast about
that. If we want to boast about how well we've lived, we can
get humbled real quick. I mean, you just take a second
look, and more than likely you'll be humbled. You don't have to
look very far to be humbled. David may have been innocent
before the charges his enemies brought against him, and he was.
He may have done right before his enemies, and he did. Did
David always do right before his friends? No, he did not. He committed adultery with Bathsheba
and he had his friend Uriah killed. So David couldn't boast too much
about how he lived before men, could he? And that's why I say
this is primarily, this is Christ speaking. Our Lord Jesus Christ
was the only perfectly righteous man who ever lived. He was perfectly
righteous, perfectly clean. And the Father recompensed him
for it. Now this word recompensed doesn't
just mean rewarded. The definition of the word is
brought back. The Father brought Christ, the
Lord Jesus, back to glory. He recompensed him because he
was perfectly righteous and perfectly clean. He never would have brought
him back to glory. Never would have recompensed
him if he was not perfectly clean and perfectly righteous. And
every believer can say this, the Lord has rewarded me according
to my righteousness. Now that sounds like a big statement,
but what's the believer's righteousness? Who is the believer's righteousness?
Well, it's the Lord Jesus Christ. He imputed his righteousness
to me. He gave it to me. So it's mine. And the Lord rewarded
me according to the righteousness of Christ that he gave me. Our
Lord called my sins his sins. He said, my iniquities have taken
hold upon me. He didn't say your iniquities.
He didn't say the sins of my people. He said, my iniquities
have taken hold upon me. He called my sins his sins so
that I could call his righteousness my righteousness. That's why
it's my righteousness. And the Lord will bring his people
into glory. He will recompense them, bring
them back into his presence. Because they're clean. And not
just their hands. They're clean through and through.
Because we've been washed in the blood of Christ. The Lord
told his disciples, he that's washed is clean everywhere. We're clean through and through.
And the Father will recompense his people, bring them back into
his presence. Now, verse 22, David goes on.
He says, For I've kept the ways of the Lord and have not wickedly
departed from my God. Now, we've read through almost
all the life of David here in our study in Samuel. David did
make the word of God his rule, and he followed it the best he
could, didn't he? And David, like all believers,
he tried to avoid sinning. I mean, don't you do that every
day when you wake up? You don't think, how am I going
to sin today? You think of ways. I try not to. I don't want. That's
not my desire. My desire is to not sin today. That's a believer's desire. And
our desire is to follow the ways of the Lord. And it grieves us
when we don't. It grieved David when he sinned. And David did depart from his
duty. Now from time to time, because
of weakness, David departed from his duty. But he never wickedly
departed from God. Israel suffered because David
in his weakness departed from his duty as a father to Amnon
and Absalom. And David suffered for that.
And Israel suffered for that. But he didn't wickedly depart
from the Lord. Here in a couple of chapters,
we're going to see this, that Israel will suffer when David
numbers God's people in a moment of weakness. Now, that was weakness. But David never wickedly departed
from the Lord. It grieved him after he did those
things. And after he did those things,
what did he do? He threw himself on the mercy of God. He'd been
completely dependent on God's mercy. He didn't wickedly depart
from God. He misstepped like all of us
do. He misstepped, but he didn't
depart from the Lord. And thank God when I would depart
from the Lord. He doesn't depart from me and
he doesn't let me depart from him. My feet will slip. I'll
misstep from time to time, but he will keep me by his power
and by his grace. And in Christ, I'll never depart
from the ways of the Lord. And I won't depart from God because
He never departs from His people because they're in His Son. God
doesn't depart from His people because of our substitute, the
Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus was never guilty
of any sin. In thought, word, or deed, He
was never guilty. For a moment, He never departed
from His Father. But the Father departed from
Him, didn't He? When Christ was made to be sin, the sin of God's
elect was charged to Him, the Father turned His back and departed
from His Son. And that's why the Father will
never depart from His people. Because He's already punished
our sins in our substitute. He departed from our substitute
so that He will never depart from His people. And if He doesn't
depart from us, you can rest assured, we'll not depart from
Him. Now verse 23, David says, for
all his judgments were before me. As for his statutes, I did
not depart from them. Now a child of God has been born
again. And a child of God delights in
the law of God, after the inward name. God's word and God's way
are our guide. In our walk through this world
below, his word and his way is our guide. I was going to say we depart
all the time, but a better way to say this is we detour all
the time, don't we? Just like that sheep wanders
and the shepherd keeps bringing it back. We detour all the time,
but our shepherd, our Savior, never lets us depart. All of
our hope of salvation and our hope of acceptance with the Father
is that Christ was made our substitute. He was made under the law, just
like we are. He was made flesh, just like
we are. And as our representative, the
representative of his people, he fulfilled every jot and every
tittle of God's law. I mean, there was no minute part
of God's law that was left out. He kept it all. And his obedience
is the obedience of all of his people. That's why we don't depart
from God, is that he never departed. And he's our representative.
What he did, we did. In verse 24, David says, I was
also upright before him, and I've kept myself from mine iniquity.
Now, David could honestly say he was upright before his enemies.
David was always upright before Saul. Despite how Saul treated
him and how Saul sought his life, David was upright before him.
The tenor of David's life was to be upright before all men.
Now, we've studied through David's life. David was far from perfect. But the tenor of his life was
upright, wasn't it? And every believer ought to be
able to say that. That the tenor of our life is
upright. But now everybody's got a pet
sin, don't they? I mean, everybody has got a pet sin. One that just
has got a hold of you. Like John used to say, he said,
when it whistles, you come running. I mean, everybody's got a pet
sin. David did too. And he said, I
fought against it. Now, he sinned, but what he's
saying is, I didn't give in to it. I fought against it. Now,
remember when David first wrote this psalm, he sang this psalm
many different times over the course of his life, but he first
wrote it right after God put him on the throne. And when David
wrote this psalm, he just recently, probably just days ago, been
delivered from Saul. who sought David's life for years. I mean, Saul diligently sought
David to kill him, didn't he? And all during that time, David
had a daydream about the time that he'd be rid of Saul. That
he'd be done hiding in caves and running off to hide with
the Philistines and all these things. He had a daydream about
the day he's not going to be running from Saul and afraid
of Saul 24 hours a day. And he had to dream, I mean,
just daydream, he had to, of doing it with his own bare hands.
I mean, there had to be times David thought, boy, I'll take
some satisfaction in just wringing his neck myself. But he never
acted on it. Now, I don't know, maybe David's
way different from me, but I'm telling you, I would daydream
about that. But he never acted on it. Even
when he had the chance, he didn't do it. There are several times
David could have killed Saul. And he never did it. But now,
clearly, this has to be the Lord Jesus Christ speaking. What did
Christ say? Lo, I come to do thy will, O
God. I didn't just come to have this
be the tenor of my life. It's not just my general tendency.
I came to do all of thy will perfectly. And he did it. The Lord Jesus was perfectly
upright in heart and in deed. And he kept himself from all
iniquity. Now he's a man. He lived in this
earth surrounded by iniquity. I mean surrounded by, can you
imagine how, we don't recognize it because we're full of iniquity. He's pure and holy and he lives
surrounded by iniquity. like the sin of one of our children
to live in the sewer. This is how he was surrounded
by iniquity. But he kept himself from it.
He always kept himself from that iniquity. And everyone who believes
Christ can say the exact same thing. In Christ, as a believer
in Christ, I can tell you without fear of contradiction, I'm upright. Before God, I'm upright. I've kept myself from all iniquity. Now, a lot of you have known
me a long time and you say, Frank, I know that's not so. You're
a sinner. How can you? I mean, you can't
deny that. How can you say this? Look over in Psalm 40. I touched
on this a minute ago. Psalm 40. This is another one of those
scriptures. David wrote this, but this is the Lord Jesus Christ
speaking. Psalm 40, verse 12. For innumerable
evils have compassed me about. Mine iniquities have taken hold
upon me, so that I am not able to look up. They are more than
the hairs of mine head, therefore my heart faileth me. Mine iniquities,
our Lord said. I'm clean and I'm upright before
God for this reason. Christ took all my sin. He took
it all. He made it His. And he bore it
away and put it away through the blood of his sacrifice. And
I've kept myself from all iniquity in Christ because his blood has
washed me free from all iniquity. God's own son was made to be
sin, even though he never knew sin, even though he was never
acquainted with any sin. And he bore the sins of his people
away. He bore them eternally away.
Verse 25 in our text, the Lord hath recompensed me according
to my righteousness, according to my cleanness in his eyesight. Now in Adam, how did all this
begin? In Adam, I was thrust out of
the presence of God. When Adam was thrust out of the
garden, I was in it. I was thrust out of the presence
of God because in Adam I was made guilty. I didn't become
guilty the first time I told a lie. I didn't even become guilty
when I was conceived in sin. I became guilty in Adam. All of us did. But now, the Lord
has recompensed his people. He's brought his people back
into the presence, into his very presence. For this reason, Christ
bore that sin away. That's the only reason that the
Father could recompense His people, bring them back into His presence,
because the sin that offended Him is gone. And the Lord has
recompensed me according to my righteousness. Now remember,
it is my righteousness because God gave it to me. It's a gift
of His free grace, and it belongs to me because He gave it to me.
And He's recompensed me, brought me back according to the righteousness
that he gives, the gift of his grace. And here's why I say that
primarily this is Christ speaking in this passage. He said, according
to my cleanness in his eyesight, God's eyesight, not my eyesight,
not the way I see myself or the way I see you, not in your eyesight,
the way you see me or the way you see yourself. This is in
God's eyesight. Now the only way a sinner can
ever be clean in the sight of God is to be in the Lord Jesus
Christ. The only way a filthy sinner,
that's what we are, all of us were born filthy and sin and
dead in trespasses and sins and the only way God can see a dead
sinner as clean is to be washed in the blood of the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. A sinner is made clean Because
the righteousness of Christ is imputed to everyone that Christ
died for. And God sees everyone in Christ
as pure and as clean and as righteous as Christ himself. Because we
have his righteousness. We have his cleanness. Now think
of this verse this way. God gives us holiness. He gives
his people holiness. Makes us holy. And then he rewards
us for having it. We are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus on two good works, which God has before ordained
that we should walk in them. See, all that's God's doing,
isn't it? Now, illustrate this verse this way. I think it'll
put the glory where it belongs and help us understand it. Suppose
this summer, Abby puts some ice sugar cookies in the county fair.
In short order, there's going to be a blue ribbon hanging on
those cookies. Now, isn't there, Andrew? There's going to be a
blue ribbon hanging on them. And there they sit, that blue ribbon
stuck right in that plate of cookies. And if I've walked by,
there's no cookies left, just a plate. But there they are,
that blue ribbon's hanging on them. Now, who gets the credit? Are you going to taste those
cookies and say, wow, those cookies, they're so wonderful, look what
they've done? No, you're not going to say that. The one who
made them is going to get the glory. Now, she might not be
wearing the ribbon that's stuck on the cookies, but who gets
the glory? That's what this is saying. God
gets the glory. How could someone born as filthy
and sinful and depraved and rebellious as I am ever receive any glory? It's impossible. If I'm clean
in His eyesight, Christ gets all the glory. That can only
be something the Lord Jesus Christ did for His people. It's impossible
otherwise. He gets all the glory. Now, verse
26. With the merciful, thou wilt
show thyself merciful. And with the upright man, thou
wilt show thyself upright. With the pure, thou wilt show
thyself pure. And with the froward, thou wilt
show thyself unsavory." Now look over in Luke chapter 6. Here's
a good commentary on this. Luke chapter 6. Spurgeon made
a comment on this verse. He said, every man will have
his meat weighed in his own scale. He said no other rule can be
more fair. Every man's got his meat weighed
in his own scales. Now look at Luke 6, verse 38.
See what our Lord says. Give, and it shall be given unto
you. Good measure, pressed down and shaken together and running
over, shall men give unto your bosom. For with the same measure
that ye meet, withal it shall be measured to you again. Now,
you'll know what that means. People will treat you how you
treat them. And God will treat you how you treat other people.
And to a point, that's true. Now, again, you can't take that
too far, but that's what that says. To a point, that's true.
But now God is never, ever merciful to us because we've been merciful
or kind to someone else or because we've done anything. Even the
merciful need mercy. What does he say here? With the
merciful thou will show thyself merciful. Even the merciful need
mercy. God's mercy had to come first.
It'd be more accurate to say that when we're merciful, it's
because God has shown his mercy to us. Our mercy to others is
in response to his mercy to us. It's more accurate to say that
we're upright because God's given us a new upright nature and new
birth. It's only accurate to say that
we're pure because we're pure in Christ, because he's washed
us in his blood. And all of this is only true
because the Lord Jesus Christ is merciful. He is merciful to
his people. Christ as a man was perfectly
upright, completely pure before the Father. And the Father is
merciful to everyone who is in his Son. He's merciful to everyone
in Christ because in Christ God sees us pure and upright. And if we believe Christ, do
you believe Christ? Just answer that question in
your own heart. Do you believe the Lord Jesus Christ? Well,
if you do, you've been made pure. You've been made holy and upright
through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's that simple. It's
no more complicated than that. But to the croward, he says,
thou will show thyself unsavory. Now this word, froward, it refers
to a wrestler. A wrestler who's constantly twisting
and turning, and a wrestler's trying to use tricks to get the
better of his opponent and be able to pin him. And this is
a wrestler, this froward wrestler, he's been twisting and turning
and trying to use tricks for so long, now he's just twisted
and perverse. And these religious wrestlers
are going to be trapped in their own craftiness. and their own
twisting and turning and their own tricks. God himself is going
to wrestle with them. And God's going to turn faster
and destroy them. That's what this word unsavory
means. It just doesn't mean something unpleasant, although it does,
but it means God's going to wrestle with them. And he's going to
turn faster. And he's going to pin them and
destroy them. The forward, those who are not
straightforward. Those who are not, won't believe
Christ, won't just simply submit to the righteousness of Christ,
which is by faith, but they're constantly using tricks and mirrors
and things to deceive and get the trick and gain the trickery. God won't have it. To them, he'll
be unsavory. But verse 28, And the afflicted
people thou wilt save, but thine eyes are upon the haughty, that
thou mayest bring them down. Now all of God's elect are afflicted. We're afflicted by sin. We're
afflicted by the corruption of our sin nature. Our nature is
just an affliction that we carry around with us. We're afflicted
by Satan. We're afflicted by the world.
We're afflicted by trials that our Heavenly Father sends our
way. God's children are an afflicted people. But God will save every
afflicted person. Are you afflicted by your sin?
I mean, afflicted by it. God will save every afflicted
sinner. Every sinner who knows they're
a sinner. Every sinner who says, I should be condemned because
of my sin. It's nobody's fault but my own.
I should be condemned. God will save that sinner, because
that sinner has no other plea other than the blood and the
righteousness, the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
God will save every sinner who shut up to mercy in the Lord
Jesus Christ. But the proud, the haughty, those
who think that their works should make them righteous, or they
think my works are so good enough, at least should contribute some.
to my righteousness. You know, my works of righteousness
are so good, it at least makes me better, easier to save than
that fellow. That's a haughty person. God will bring those
people down. Now everybody's going to be humbled
and brought to their knees before the throne of Christ. And it's
my prayer that the Lord will make us into humble, afflicted
people now, so he won't humble us and afflict us through all
of eternity. That God give us the grace to
look to Him in faith, knowing we have no hope except the Lord
Jesus Christ. And in Him, we're pure. In Him, we're righteous. And
who gets all the glory? He does, the one who did the
work. All right, well, God bless that too.