A humble groan, a broken heart
is our best sacrifice. Amen. Well, we are going to our main
sermon now, so if you'll turn with me please to Psalm 51. We're going to Psalm 51. Psalm 51. And our verses are 14 to 19. So we're in Psalm 51, verses
14 to 19. But since we're going to conclude
it today, we'll read the whole Psalm together. Psalm 51 reading from verse 1. To the chief musician a psalm
of David when Nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone
into Bethsheba. 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 is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
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. 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 bloodguiltiness,
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
unto Zion. Build thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shall thou be pleased with
the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole
burnt offering. Then shall they offer bullocks
upon thine altar. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. I wonder if you noticed how today's
verses focus on David's speech. He mentions his tongue, his lips,
and his mouth. All, it seems, in the context
of singing praises, worshipping, and witnessing to others. Or rather, he mentions these
things in the context of their silence. and the lack of praises
and worshiping and witnessing. He speaks of them in the context
of his inability to worship. And David, I think, is expressing
something that many of us have met with in our Christian lives. Sin locks us in a cell of silence. It shuts us out from communion
with God. It prevents us from exercising
our tongue in prayer, our lips in worship, our mouth in witnessing. A guilty conscience does that. A guilty conscience makes us
feel like a hypocrite when we pray, like a hypocrite when we
sing, like a hypocrite when we witness. When we harbour sin
in our lives, it drives us to a place of silence before God. I wonder if you remember Paul
and Silas when they were in the inner prison in Philippi in the
New Testament, spoken about in Acts chapter 16. Their feet were
chained in stalks. And Luke says, at midnight, Paul
and Silas prayed and sang praises unto God and the prisoners heard
them. Do you know who else heard them?
God heard them. These men were worshipping, witnessing
and evangelising all at the same time in a pitch black prison
cell with their backs lacerated and bleeding. Their worship was heartfelt and
sincere because their consciences were clear before God. David's worship was non-existent. David was king over all he surveyed. He was the ruler of an empire. He was not locked in a dark cell
somewhere. No doubt he routinely visited
the Lord's altar and likely it is that he said his prayers every
night. But as far as earnest worship
is concerned, his mouth was bereft of praise and his lips were as
silent as Uriah's grave. David's heart was filled with
blood guiltiness. and it smothered his witness
and it deadened his worship. Guilt is a barrier to worship. It's a prison that seals the
heart against praise and shuts our mouth to prayer. David had
lost credibility in his own eyes and he felt like the hypocrite
he was. If he was ever again to praise
God and worship in spirit and in truth, he needed a deliverer
to loosen his bound tongue. He needed a deliverer to free
his heart. Have you ever felt like that?
Now I'm speaking to believers here because unbelievers don't
worship anyway. But have you ever felt that numbness? that deadness in your soul. William Cooper, the poet and
hymn writer, he wrote these words. He said, where is the blessedness
I knew when first I saw the Lord? Where is the soul-refreshing
view of Jesus and his word? Return, O holy dove, return,
sweet messenger of rest. I hate the sins that made thee
mourn and drove thee from my breast. So David called on the Lord,
the God of his salvation. Who else could he turn to? Who
else could provide justifying righteousness? Who else could
pardon his sin and remove his guilt and free him from the shame
that now silenced his soul? And it is to Christ that you
and I must go to. It is to Christ that we must
go. Has it been so long that you
have forgotten how to pray? Has it been so long that you've
forgotten how to praise the Lord? then do as David did and tell
him, confess your sin, clear your conscience, ask him to give
you your lips and your tongue back. But there's another aspect to
this as well. Because David spoke not as a
private believer, but as a public prophet. In his own day, David's
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs already sweetened the church's
worship. The church was already using
the psalms that David wrote in their worship in David's day. Have you ever considered the
propriety of using compositions of a convicted adulterer and
murderer in our worship? Would we use hymns from such
a man today? Would we listen to a preacher
who we knew had fathered a child outside of marriage and killed
his lover's husband? we'd have reservations, to say
the least. Might we not say that he had
lost his right to be heard? And yet here we are reading David's
words 3,000 years later. Let me tell you why. Because
David was delivered from his blood guiltiness. His sin was
carried by his deliverer. His guilt was imputed to another. A worthy substitute was found
and the Lord answered this poor sinful man's prayer. And what did David do? Well,
he did as he said he'd do. My tongue shall sing aloud of
thy righteousness. My mouth shall show forth thy
praise. David found forgiveness. And
these compositions that we hold and cherish today are the praises
of a justified soul that sings forth the praises of its God. Paul confirmed this in his epistle
to the Romans. But you know, it's best if we
hear it from the lips and the mouth and the tongue of the man
himself. And here's his own testimony.
And I was going to read the whole of this Psalm, but I'm not going
to for the sake of time. Just the first few verses. Here's
Psalm 32. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. When I kept silence, my bones
waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and
night thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into
the drought of summer. Selah. I acknowledged my sin
unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said I will
confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest
the iniquity of my sin. Selah. Read the rest of it at
your leisure. It is a beautiful testimony of
a man who discovered freedom from guilt and freedom from sin
and freedom from blood guiltiness because the Lord took his sin
and his guilt away and gave him lips to praise his name. There's something else here that
we learn from this passage. concerning David's understanding
of true worship. David knew the limitations of
sacrifices. Now, David was a powerful and
a wealthy king. In fact, David had an empire
David's kingdom reached through a whole load of different nations. Had God wanted sacrifices to
placate his anger and propitiate his wrath, he could have named
his number. A thousand bulls, no problem. 10,000 lambs, done. I heard of elephants. Possible. With a bit of time. I'm serious. I'm being serious. No number of burnt offerings
was beyond David's power to offer to appease God. Anything that
would have cleansed his soul was possible. But David was a man of faith
and he knew that the power wasn't in the quantity of blood, but
in the quality. He knew that grace was dispensed
and forgiveness was granted on the merits of a perfect sacrifice
and received by faith. Robert Hawker says, David had
seen and felt the efficacy of Christ's blood. A thousand years
before Christ came, David had seen and felt the efficacy of
Christ's blood. Or he never could have learned
to think so lightly of the sacrifices under the law. And that's true. That's true. David appreciated,
he thought lightly of the sacrifices under the law. That's what he's
saying here. And the only way he could have learned to think
so lightly of the sacrifices, the burnt offerings, the bulls
and the goats and the lambs, the only way he could have learned
to think so lightly of these sacrifices was if he had seen
and felt the efficacy of Christ's blood on his own soul. Animal sacrifice, burnt offerings,
were used at this time in the divine worship as a type of the
Messiah who was yet to come. And David understood that sacrifices
in themselves gave God no pleasure and earned no peace or reconciliation. Only that sacrifice that was
offered with an eye to Christ, issuing from a cleansed heart
in sincere faith, was acceptable worship. It was then, and it
is still the case. Only sacrifice, only worship,
offered with an eye to Christ, issuing from a cleansed heart
and sincere faith, is an acceptable form of approaching God in our
worship. Now this cleansing that David
so desired, that had been his first prayer. We read the whole
psalm together. That had been his first prayer.
It had been his central desire for repentance. But David also
needed a broken spirit and a broken and contrite heart. He wanted
the cleansing, he wanted the knowledge that indeed Nathan
had given him on the day that he spoke to David concerning
his adultery and the murder of Uriah. Nathan had told him that
God had forgiven his sins, but he needed a broken spirit as
well. And he needed this contrition
of heart. A spirit humbled under conviction
of sin. A broken and contrite heart perceives
sin as having been committed primarily against God. Yes, David
had wronged Bathsheba. Yes, he had wronged Uriah. He had even wronged Nathan, the
prophet, and the body of true believers in Israel, who looked
to him under God as a figurehead in the nation. But David knew primarily that
he had sinned against God. And he said so in verse four.
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in
thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest
and be clear when thou judgest. I mentioned yesterday in the
little note What David is expressing here, this sense of guilt, this
sense of guilt that comes from a broken heart and a broken and
contrite spirit. What David is speaking about
here has been called, the sense of guilt has been called evangelical
repentance. It is Holy Spirit inspired repentance. And it is used to distinguish
from the head knowledge of having broken God's law. Now, you recite the 10 commandments
to anybody who is at all thoughtful, Let's personalize it. Let's apply
it to ourselves. We all know that we have sinned
against God's law. But in truth, few of us care. But evangelical repentance is
the wounded conscience of a quickened soul, one who has been made alive. Ye hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. Yes, the dead in trespasses and
sins acknowledge casually, blithely, that they have broken God's law.
Who would deny such a thing? Who would say, no, I'm perfect,
I've never sinned in my life. But evangelical repentance is
this wounded conscience and it's felt only by those convicted
of sin by the Holy Spirit and by this conviction the real
offensiveness of sin is discovered and the true nature of Christ's
suffering as a sacrifice for sin is understood, or at least
begins to be understood. What we do and do what we will
to appease God, we will never be rid of our sin. Do what we
will to prepare for judgment and the great white throne. Do
what we will to mitigate and reduce the risk of hearing those
words, depart from me, I never knew you. Do what we will. The only thing that works is
repentance and faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Brothers and sisters, if we will
know peace for a troubled heart, if we will know joy for a broken
and contrite heart, then let us draw near with a true heart
full of assurance, of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. My final point today is to note
David's concern for the church. I think this is a mark of David's
true faith and his renewed spirit, of an evidence, if you like,
of God's grace in his life, despite the sins that he had committed. David was anxious because he
had hurt not only his own soul, but he damaged the spiritual
life of the church, the body of Christ. So he prays in verse
18, do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion. Build thou the walls
of Jerusalem. The walls of Jerusalem are not
stone defences of an earthly city, despite the thumbnail that
I've used for today's broadcast. The walls of Jerusalem is God's
saving grace and the gospel truth by which the church is gathered
and guarded in this world. Isaiah tells us, we have a strong
city. Salvation will God appoint for
walls and bulwarks. Many of you may know that our
brother, Alan Jellett, has been preaching through Zechariah recently. And he has an excellent sermon
from last week called Grand Designs. grand design, and that speaks
about these city walls. And it's well worth a listen.
I'll put a link to it below the notes to this sermon today. It'll
be the first link that you see underneath the description of
today's service. You can listen to it at your
leisure. But brokenness of heart and contrition of spirit are
infused in the heart of God's elect by the Holy Ghost. And
this is the walls of Jerusalem. This is the salvation entering
into an individual's life's experience and bringing them into the city
of Zion, bringing them into the body of Christ. And it's David's
prayer that God would do good to his church despite the terrible
example that he had given to it. This brokenness of heart
then is something that God gives. And David says God will not despise
the repentance that he implants. He will not turn aside from those
who come to him for grace. Now take that on board. You who
are listening today, hear what I'm saying here. You who desire
peace with God. You who desire a felt sense of
salvation. God will give you forgiveness.
He will give you faith in Jesus, cleansing blood and a solid hope
to all who ask and seek and knock with a desire for mercy. How
and when that happens is up to the Lord, but he will not despise
such a heart and he will not turn away those who are heavy
burdened with sin. This is how Christ builds his
church and this is how God gathers his people. David is leaning
on the promises of God, those previously given to him concerning
the coming Messiah, but also for the implications of those
promises for the whole church. David understood that ultimately
the glory of Jesus Christ was at stake. And so he calls on
God, despite his own personal unworthiness, to be faithful
to himself and to do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion. What was God's good pleasure?
The salvation of his people. What is God's will? The salvation, the deliverance,
the redemption of his people. Do them good, says David. You've
promised to do it. Now, Lord, be faithful to your
good pleasure. Do the good that you've spoken
of. Give the grace that you've promised. Zion is a name and
a picture of the true church. And despite David's personal
brokenness, he still loves God's flock. He's still the shepherd
king, protective as a shepherd, caring as a king. He asks that
neither Christ's glory nor Christ's people be harmed by what David
has done. And he wishes the faithfulness
of God to prevail and the church of God, the church of Jesus Christ,
to prosper. And God builds Zion when he adds
to the church such as should be saved. He builds up the walls
of Jerusalem when his ministers go out into the world preaching
the gospel of Jesus Christ for the salvation of sinners. He
builds up the walls of Jerusalem when sovereign grace is preached. Those who are gathered, they,
with David, will serve God with true, acceptable worship. with service and sacrifices founded
upon faith and offered through the merits of the crucified Christ. The walls and the bulwarks of
saving grace and gospel truth, they defend the church by keeping
truth in and keeping error out. And by keeping us ever focused
on the Lord Jesus Christ and ever trusting in His blood, and
his righteousness for acceptance with God. We need to thank David and we
need to thank his master for allowing us these insights into
this man's broken heart and his soul wrestlings. Who among us would care to have
our shameful past lives raked over by a hundred generations
of Christians? This psalm is a beautiful testimony
to God's grace and mercy in Jesus Christ. David had sinned grievously. He had displeased God. He had
spoiled his testimony. He had hurt the Lord's people.
and at the Holy Spirit's prompting, David sought forgiveness and
cleansing and restoration by resting in the covenant promises
of God. Let his struggle be our pattern. Have we not acted the part of
the adulterer in our own unfaithfulness to Christ? Have we not gone a
long way towards self-murder? We have played the harlot and
we have assailed our own souls. We'd have damned ourselves to
eternal destruction years ago had not the Lord intervened. We are as guilty as David. David
confessed his sin and he trusted in Christ's blood as the means
of his deliverance. He found all the grace he needed
in the finished work of Christ crucified. His testimony is a
lesson to us all. May God give us grace to learn
from his example. Amen.