Okay, our study this evening
then is taken from Psalm 51. And I trust that you have that
open in your lap there and you can follow along with me as we
consider Psalm 51 this evening. Now, as I look at this psalm,
I think of this. This truly is a sinner's prayer.
This is a sinner's prayer. It's a prayer of a sincere believer
who confesses his sin before God and asks for mercy based
upon one thing, based upon the blood and righteousness of Jesus
Christ alone. That's the only ground of mercy,
is Christ and Him crucified. In Christ we have redemption,
the forgiveness of sin, according to the riches of His grace. David
does not seek to justify himself or defend himself before God
But rather he comes boldly to the throne of grace as a mercy
beggar to receive mercy and grace to help in time of need Now I
want us this evening and I want you personally as we consider
these words in Psalm 51 to make this your prayer Make this your
prayer before God. I want to make it my prayer before
God. We see here, I want to point
out at least nine things, nine requests, or nine pleas unto
God that David, as a mercy beggar, please before God. The Apostle
Paul says in Philippians 4, verse 6, that we are to make our requests
known unto God. Now, I want to, don't you? Make
all of our requests, make them known unto God. Now, here's the
first thing. Here's the first request, and
let's make this our request. Have mercy upon me. Have mercy
upon me, O God. Have mercy upon me. Jeremiah lamented there in the
book of Lamentations, and he said, it is of the Lord's mercies
that we are not consumed. Oh God, have mercy upon me. Now here's what every sinner
is in need of. Here's whether you realize it
or not, here's what you are in need of. Mercy. Mercy. Every sinner is in need of mercy. Every sinner is in need of mercy.
And you know what? None of us deserve mercy. We're
in need of mercy, but we're not deserving of it, are we? For
the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Grace, what's the difference
between grace and mercy? You ever thought about that?
Grace is God giving us what we do not deserve, giving us the
unmerited free and sovereign favor of God. We're justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in the Lord
Jesus Christ. But mercy is God not giving us
what we do deserve. not giving us what we do deserve.
Mercy is born here of His, what it says there, He says, have
mercy upon me according to the fact that I am the King. Oh no. Have mercy upon me according
to my works or according to my righteousness. Oh no. Not by
works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
His mercy He saved us. According to your loving kindness. according to the multitude of
thy tender mercies." Mercy is born of God's loving kindness. God is merciful. It says in the
Scripture that God delights to show mercy, His loving kindness. here in his love, not that we
love God, but that he loved us. And he sent his son to be the
sacrifice for our sin. That's loving kindness, is it
not? And because of that glorious sacrifice, God can justly show
mercy unto such as we are, sinners in God's sight. Mercy also springs
from the covenant of his grace. Not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth, but it's God that showeth mercy. He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy, and I will harden whom I will. God's greatest
glory, His mercy, sovereign mercy, is my greatest need. Think about
that. Moses asked the Lord, show me
your glory. Remember what he said? I'll cause
all my goodness to pass before you, and I will be merciful to
whom I will be merciful. Lord, show me your glory." He
said, I will be merciful. God's greatest glory, showing
mercy to sinners is my greatest need. I need his mercy according
to his covenant of grace and according to his loving kindness
in Christ Jesus. Now, make that your cry. Make
that your constant plea before God. Have mercy upon me, O God. Isn't that what the publican
prayed in the temple? And God said of that man, the
publican, he went down to his house justified rather than the
other. The Pharisee bragged on himself
and was condemned. The publican condemned himself
and was justified. Have mercy upon me, O God. Be merciful unto me, the sinner."
He condemned himself, and God said he went down to his house
justified. Well, I'm going to condemn myself. I don't deserve
God's mercy. None of us do. But make this
your constant plea before God. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to your love and kindness. Now, notice what else he prays
here. The second plea is this. according
to your mercy and according to your loving kindness blot out
all my sin. Just blot them out. Blot them
out. Look down at verse 9. He says
this twice. Hide thy face from my sin and
blot out, not some of them, all of them. All my iniquities. All my iniquities. Now it is
true We have a multitude of transgressions, and we have a multitude of iniquities. Don't we? I've heard people say, well,
I used to be a sinner. Well, I'm still a sinner. A sinner saved by God's grace,
but I'm still a sinner. It is true we have a multitude
of transgressions and a multitude of iniquities, for the word of
God says, and we've studied this through the Psalms, that there
is none righteous, no, not one. But never fear, as a believer,
as a mercy beggar, he has a multitude of mercy to pardon our iniquities
and our transgressions. I like to prayer in the book
of Nehemiah, Nehemiah 9, 17, where it said, Thou art a God
ready to pardon. Thou art a God that is merciful,
full of loving kindness, and ready to pardon. He's abundant
in mercy. He's plenteous in redemption.
If God delights to show mercy, and you're in need of mercy,
why don't you ask Him for mercy? Why don't you ask Him according
to His love and kindness? Lord, blot out my sin! Blot out
my iniquity! We never need fear. He has a
multitude of mercy to pardon us. God can justly forgive all
our sin. Only one way that He can justly
forgive all our sin is only through the effectual sacrifice of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The only way God can be a just
God and Savior, the only way He can be the just and the justifier
of the ungodly, is that the Lord Jesus Christ made complete satisfaction
for all of the sins of God's covenant people and those who
call upon God for mercy. Based upon the Lord Jesus Christ,
His sacrifice and His righteousness, God can justly forgive our sin
and still remain holy and just God that is the miracle and mystery
of the gospel how God can remain holy and just and yet show mercy
unto sinners not at the expense of his holiness now here's the
third plea verse 2 and verse 7 verse 2 and verse 7 wash me wash me throughly from my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. Down in verse 7 it says purge
me, purge me with the blood, the hyssop there refers to the
blood, purge me with the blood and I shall be clean. Lord you
wash me You wash me and I shall be whiter, whiter than the snow. Oh, wash me, wash me, cleanse
me, make me justified in your sight. Sin makes us defiled in
God's sight, does it not? Sure it does. Isaiah 64 says,
all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in God's sight.
Sin defiles us before God. It says in Isaiah 59-2 that sin
has separated us from God. We are helpless to wash ourselves
from our sin. Try it one time. Try to cleanse
yourself from your sin. Try to put away your own sin.
We are helpless to wash ourselves from our sin. All of our works,
all of our doing will not put away sin. We will not make atonement
for sin. All the sacrifices given under
the law, all those animal sacrifices, how much sin was put away with
the blood of bulls and goats? Huh? Come on. None. None. The blood of bulls and
goats cannot take away sin. So sin defiles us, sin separates
us from God. We are helpless to wash ourselves
from our sin. Our works, law, ceremony can't
take away sin. But I tell you what does. He
appeared once in the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. We are redeemed. God's people
are redeemed with the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's why we need cleansing.
Here's why we need cleansing. The cleansing that God provides.
The cleansing that God does. He says in verse 3, here's our
problem. For I acknowledge my transgression
and my sin is before me. You know, sin is a fruit of what
we are. We are. S-I-N. If we say we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth's not in us. The
fruit of our sin nature is our sins. And our sins are ever before,
David said, my sin is ever before me. My sin is ever before God. And then he tells us the reason
why, in verse 5, the reason why we're so sinful. Look at verse
5. Verse 5. Verse 4 says, My sin is before
God. He acknowledges against thee,
and thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in God's sight,
that thou mightest be justified when you speak, and clear when
you judge. Do you know what he's saying there? If you justly condemn
me, that's what I deserve. Now, I don't want what I deserve,
because that's eternal condemnation. David said, oh, if you Against thee I've sinned and
if you give me what I've got coming to me, I'll be forever
condemned. That thou mightest be justified
when you speak and clear when you judge. Now here's the problem,
verse 5, I was shaping in sin. I was shapen in iniquity, and
in sin did my mother conceive me. Now, you notice there's three
repeated, throughout the Word of God in the Psalms, there's
three things that are mentioned here that describe who we are. S-I-N, what I am, transgressions,
what I do, and iniquities. Iniquities. You know the Lord
Jesus Christ put away our sin? He bare our transgression, our
sin, and His own body on the tree. He took our iniquities
to Himself. He was wounded for our transgression,
bruised for our iniquities. Everything that I am and all
that I do, all the sin of God's elect was charged and imputed
and reckoned to the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree. God
made Him sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. The only way God can justly show
mercy and save us is because the Lord Jesus Christ satisfied
law and justice on our behalf. Wash me, and cleanse me, and
make me whiter, whiter than the snow. That's a good plea. That's
the only plea a sinner has before God. Now here's number four. In verse six he said, make me
to know wisdom. Make me to know wisdom. Behold,
thou desirest truth inwardly." Truth inwardly, in the inward
parts. And in the hidden part, thou
shalt make me to know wisdom. By nature, by nature, all of
our thoughts about God and sin and salvation are wrong. All
of our thoughts about God just left ourselves He says over here,
remember in Psalm 50 verse 21, These things hast thou done,
and I kept silent. Thou thoughtest I was altogether
such as one as thyself, but I'll reprove thee, I'll set them in
order before thee. You see, left to ourselves, we
think too highly of ourselves and we think too low of God. We think too high of ourselves
and we think wrong thoughts about God until He's pleased to reveal
unto us who we are, S-I-N, and who He is, holy and righteous
and just and eternal and sovereign. All of our thoughts about God
are wrong. We esteem ourselves too much.
Our thoughts about God are too low. He must teach us the way
of wisdom. He must teach us the gospel,
for the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. God must make us to know wisdom. God must make us
to know Christ. In him, it says in the book of
Colossians, let's turn over there, Colossians chapter 2, wisdom, make me to know wisdom.
It says in Colossians chapter 2, verse 3, Colossians chapter
2 verse 3, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He said the hearts might be comforted
being knit together in love unto all riches of the full assurance
of understanding to the acknowledgement of the mystery of God and of
the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of
wisdom and knowledge. As a matter of fact, he's made
to the believer, turn over here to 1 Corinthians 1st Corinthians
chapter 1 verse 30 he is made unto the believer but of him
verse 30 you see it there but of him are you in Christ Jesus
who of God is made unto us there's that word he's our wisdom he's
our wisdom he is our righteousness he is our sanctification he is
our redemption and if he's made all that to you Then you have
no problem with this. He that glorieth, let him glory
only in the Lord. We glory only in Him. Lord, make
me to know Christ. Make me to know the wisdom of
God revealed in the mystery of the gospel in the Lord Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. We need His wisdom. The wisdom
and revelation of God to understand His gospel. To understand His
truth. Christ being the truth. Now look
at verse 8. Here's the fifth plea. Make me
to hear joy and gladness. Purge me with hyssop and I shall
be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than the snow. Verse 7. Now make me to hear
joy. Make me to hear joy and gladness
that the bones The bones. David experienced deep conviction. He felt like his... Have you
ever had a broken bone? I mean that's... I've had several
broken bones. Most painful, isn't it? Make
me to hear joy and gladness. I tell you, when you break a
bone, all you want to do is mourn and sigh and cry and mourn and
moan. And David said here, my bones
are broken. I'm so deeply convicted over
my sin. Lord, make me to hear joy and
gladness again, that the bones that you've broken may rejoice. Turn my mourning into joy and
rejoicing in Christ Jesus. Make me to know wisdom in the
gospel and cause me to experience. Make me to know wisdom in Christ
Jesus and cause me to experience the joy of it in my heart. There is a joy in being a believer. There is a tremendous joy. Make
me to hear joy and gladness. Turn over here to Romans 5. Romans
chapter 5. Make me to hear joy and gladness. Make me to rejoice in the Lord
Jesus Christ who is my wisdom, who is my strength. I want us
to read Romans 5 verse 8. But God commended His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more than being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved
from wrath through Him. For when we were enemies, we
were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Much more being
reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Not only so, but
we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we
have now received the atonement reconciliation. Turn over here
to Philippians 3 for just a moment when the Apostle Paul describes
the true believer who is circumcised in the heart, had the operation
of God upon his heart, made a new creature in Christ Jesus. This
is a circumcision made without hands. We are the true Israel
of God. This is Philippians 3.3. And
worship God in the Spirit. Rejoice in Christ Jesus and we
have no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh. Lord,
make me to hear joy and gladness in the gospel that the bones
that you have broken may rejoice again and again in Christ Jesus. You see the bones that the Lord
breaks, He heals. He's nigh them of a broken heart,
save as such as be of a contrite spirit. The bones that he breaks,
he heals, that we may rejoice in him now and forever. Those whom he wounds, he also
heals. Those whom he convicts, those
also he converts in mercy and grace. Now here's the sixth plea,
verse 10. Create. Now who's the creator? You see verse 10? Create in me
a clean heart. Give me a new heart. God is the creator. God is the
only one that can create a clean heart. Create in me a clean heart,
oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. create a clean heart. Salvation, salvation is of the
Lord. Salvation is not us cleaning
up the old nature. Salvation is not reformation.
Salvation is not reformation, it's regeneration. Salvation
is not education. Salvation is revelation. It takes
God. And you know what? I've learned
this some time ago. It takes God to reveal God. It
takes God to reveal God. God must do that work of grace
in our heart, the power of God the Holy Spirit to reveal the
way of salvation and to create in us a new heart. Salvation
is not us cleaning up the old man. It is God creating within
us a new heart and a new divine spiritual nature that was not
there before. It was not there before. We love
darkness, not light. There's a scripture I'm thinking
of over here, if we can find it. Let's see if you can help
me find it. Over here, I think it's Ephesians chapter 4. Let's
turn over there and see if that's it. I think that's the one. We need for God to create within
us a new divine nature. We still, we have that old Adam
fallen nature that is nothing but S-I-N. And that old nature
in regeneration and in the new birth from above, that old nature
is not eradicated. It's still an old wretched man.
But in regeneration, when God does a work of grace in the heart,
He implants within the believer a new nature. a spiritual nature
that was not there before. Peter said it this way in 2 Peter.
He said we are partakers of a divine nature. Now look what it says
here in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 24. And he said put you on the
new man which after God is created. Created. It's created in righteousness
and it's created in true holiness. We have that new nature given
of God that is holy and righteous and as perfect as God because
God can only give that which is holy, right and perfect. So
we have that old rotten sinful nature of Adam. We say with Paul,
old wretched man that I am, But in regeneration and in the new
birth, we have that new divine nature given of God. And therefore,
within the belief, there's a war, there's a battle, that the spirit
lusts and wars against the flesh, and the flesh against the spirit,
and they're contrary one to another. so that you cannot do the things
that you really would. That old nature would go just
as far as it could, but God restrains it. And that new nature would,
the desire of that new man and that new nature is to worship
God in every aspect and every way, but yet this old man drags
it down. And we say with Paul, wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? And
then he says, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. renew
within me and create within me a new nature. We must be born again from above. A new birth, the work of God.
If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, a new creation
is taking place. This is the work of God, it's
salvation, it's of the Lord. Create in me this new nature, and renew a
right spirit within me daily. You see the old man, it says
this in 2 Corinthians 4, the outward man perishes daily, the
inward man is renewed day by day. Day by day. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew, renew A right spirit, a constant spirit within
me. You do it, Lord. I cannot. Now
here's the seventh thing, verse 11. Cast me not away. Cast me
not away from my prison. David felt like he was a... After
having committed murder and adultery, David felt like, Lord... And
he did. If you justly cast me out, that's
what I deserve. But he said, don't do it! Don't
cast me out! Cast me not away from your presence,
and don't take thy spirit, thy Holy Spirit, from me. Take not
thy spirit from me." Now, we certainly don't deserve to be
in his presence. We certainly don't deserve to
be in his presence. But it is our desire that we
would be eternally accepted in the Beloved, in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It is certainly our desire to
be blessed with His presence, to enjoy sweet fellowship, to
enjoy sweet communion with our blessed Lord and Savior. Cast
me not away. Our desire is to be in His presence.
Our desire is to be with Him. Our desire is not to be apart
from Him, but, oh, to be with Him, to be one with Him. Lord,
cast me not away. Take me to Yourself. And take
not Thy Spirit from me. Now look, here's the eighth thing,
verse 12. Restore unto me and uphold me. Restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation." Notice, it's God's salvation. Restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit, thy
sovereign spirit. Now David didn't lose his salvation,
did he? God saves us with an everlasting
salvation. The Apostle John said, my little
children, these things I write unto you that you sin not, but
when you do, God's not going to throw you out. When you do,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the Righteous. David didn't lose his salvation
because of his sin, but the sweet communion that he had enjoyed
with the Lord was certainly disrupted because of his sin and it grieved
him so. Believers long for the joy that
salvation brings to the soul and it grieves our heart when
that sweet fellowship is interrupted due to our rottenness of our
nature. And someday we will be. Someday
we'll just lay down this old rotten flesh and be done with
it. and will go to be with the Lord,
and there will be redeemed totally from the presence of sin. And
it will be no more. It will be no more, and we'll
have a new body without sin. A glorified body, likened to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Think about it, to worship Him
without sin. Oh, I tell you, what a day that
will be. to worship Him without sin. Restore
unto me and uphold me with thy free spirit. Uphold me with thy
sovereign spirit. Don't let me go. Don't let me
loose from thy gracious restraints. Aren't you glad we're kept by
the power of God? He's able to keep us from falling
and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with
exceeding joy. Restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation. Now we've seen that statement
several times to the book of Psalms, thy salvation. Salvation
is of the Lord. It's of Him. The Gospel is of
Him. Righteousness is of Him. Salvation
is of the Lord. It's of the Lord in His planning.
It's of the Lord in His execution. It's of the Lord in His application.
It's of the Lord in His sustaining power. And it's of the Lord in
His ultimate perfection. And it's of the Lord in His ultimate
glory and grace. Salvation is of the Lord. Now, here's the last one. Number 9, verse 14. Number 9, verse 14. He said, deliver me. Deliver
me. You know that word there, deliver,
has a sense also of redeem me. That's what redemption is all
about. It's deliverance. Redeem me. from blood guiltiness,
O God, thou God, I like this statement here, thou God of my
salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud, my tongue shall sing
aloud of righteousness." You see, we're justified with His
righteousness. He is called the Lord, our righteousness. We're justified by His righteousness. We're no longer as believers
going about to establish a righteousness of our own. as Paul says of those
ignorant Jews in Romans 10, but rather we are resting in the
righteousness that is of the gospel and that is the provided
righteousness that we enjoy that's imputed to every believer and
it's Christ who is the Lord, our righteousness. Deliver me,
O God of my salvation, deliver me from my guilt, from my guilt. You know guilt is a terrible
thing. Guilt is a terrible thing. I mean, it just presses you down.
It weighs you down. Guilty, guilty, guilty. You imagine being charged with
a crime of murder and sentenced and you go before the jury. They hear the case and they come
back from the jury room guilty. What's the verdict? The judge
reads, guilty, guilty. What's the sentence? Death. Death. Oh, what a weight. What a weight.
But think about this. Guilty before God. Guilty before
God. Oh, the weight of that. The weight
of that. You know, the law says let every
mouth be stopped and all the world become guilty before God.
But think about this. Think about this. The sentence of God Almighty
to His covenant people, because the debt is paid by the substitute,
the Lord Jesus Christ. The sentence is now justified. Justified before God. Therefore, thou God of my salvation,
My tongue, you see, he took my guilt, he took my judgment, he
took the wrath of God in my stead. My tongue shall sing aloud now
of thy righteousness. Thy righteousness. You know,
God doesn't ask of us to produce a righteousness. I can't do it
anyway. But he does, by his grace, graciously
tells us to receive the righteousness that he's provided and that is
found in Christ. The righteousness which is of
God by faith. Faith looks to Christ alone who
is all of our righteousness before God. Believers on what we are And
we confess that Jesus Christ is all of our salvation. That's
our hope. I mean, we can sum it all up.
Jesus, blood, thy righteousness is all our plea before God. All our plea. Deliver me, O God,
from my guilt. O God, thou God of my salvation. And I'll sing aloud. I'm not
going to just... I'm not going to be quiet about
this. I'm going to sing aloud of thy
righteousness because His righteousness justifies the ungodly. Being
justified freely by His grace. I'm thinking of a scripture over
here in Hebrews 9 verse 14. Let's read
this and I'll close. I'll quit with this. Believers
sing aloud of that righteousness provided in the gospel. And you
know what? It calms our troubled soul. The
blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin.
Hebrews 9 verse 14 Hebrews 9 tells us about our great high priest
verse 11 But Christ being come a high priest of good things
to come by a greater more perfect Tabernacle not made with hand
that is to say not of this building Needed by the blood of goats
and calves by his own blood he entered in once into the holy
place having obtained eternal redemption for us For if the
blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer sprinkle
in the unclean, sanctify it to the purifying of the flesh, how
much more, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your
conscience from dead works, from dead works to serve the living
God? Your conscience been purged?
The blood of Christ? Okay, sing aloud of thy righteousness. Salvation is of the Lord.