“Create in me a clean heart, Oh God”
Psalm 51
2 Samuel 11-12
As you know our Old Time Tent revival is just 2 weeks away
And like I said last week I am excited
Revival brings newness to a church and a community
Revival bring life back into Old Dry bones
And Revival changes hearts and lives
I am excited about the changes in the hearts that are about to happen
I am excited about what God has planned for the weeks to come
For the years to come
In my life
In your lives
The life of this church and the community
If you are not excited
Check your pulse
Or check your salvation
One or the other is missing
And either way your dry bones need reconciliation or revival
At the end of last weeks service
I challenged each of you to pick 5 unsaved people in your lives
And commit to pray daily for them
For as long as it takes
That someone would be able to reach them for Jesus
Either you or someone
I issue this challenge again
Will you do it?
Will you invite your friends and family?
Those at the bank or feedstore
Those at work
To come in 2 weeks and hear the preaching of God’s word
And be revived?
Last week we looked at Ezekiel’s vision about the restoration of Israel
And we saw that Preaching
Personal bible study
A productive prayer life
The power of God almighty
And repentance
Are all requirements of revival
And how revival start first in our minds
Moves to our hearts
Into our hands and feet
Into our voices
As we proclaim Jesus Christ to all who will hear
It starts in us
Moves into the church and then and only then
Into the community and the world
I spent a lot of time on repentance last week
And this week I will continue with that teaching
Once again
Not a popular topic in the world today
Unfortunately, not a popular topic in the church today
But a must for Revival
A must for Spiritual Growth
Listen
If you want to grow spiritually
If you want all that God has for you
And to become all he wants you to be
Repentance is a must
We need more repentance in our hearts
We need more repentance in our churches
We need more repentance in the world
And without it there will be no revival
Today I want to look at just a small part of one man’s life
His name is David
A shepherd
Giant Killer
King
A man’s after God’s own heart
And a sinner
Like all men
David was used mightily by God
And God blessed him, his family and the nation of Israel through him
I we leave out the less desirable parts of his story
We could easily see him as perfect
As just a story
Something or someone we could never become
But todays lesson shows a deeper side of David
A darker side of David
The story comes from 2 Samuel 11 and 12
I will just tell it to you in my words today, as I want to get to a latter part of the story
But I encourage you to read this for yourself
David has been blessed by God
And David has gotten complacent
God’s word said it was in the time when Kings went to war
And David’s army was fighting
But David was laying up in the shade
On the roof of his palace one day
He looked down upon another roof and saw Bathsheba wife of Uriah the Hittite
Bathing
He liked what he saw- Sin One
Sent for her
Slept with her- sin two
And she became pregnant
Now her husband was off fighting for King David
So, David called him home
Got him drunk- Sin Three
Tried to send him home to sleep with his wife
Which he refused to do, at this point Uriah had much more integrity than David
So, he sent Uriah back to war
Ordered one of his generals to send Uriah into the hottest part of the battle- Sin four
And then pull back so he would be killed- Sin 5
David. a man after God’s own heart
Made a big mess of things because he could not control his lust
And one sin led to another
And one man lost his life
David took his wife Sin 6
And tried to hide his sins- Sin 7
After a period of time
A Prophet named Nathan called him on his sin
He told a story about a man who had only one sheep a little lamb that was his pet
And how a wealthy man who owned many sheep stole this man’s lamb to host a barbeque
Nathan asked David
What should happen to this man
David was outraged
He said he should die
And Nathan Quickly replied You are that Man
I love Nathan for his brutal honesty
David could have easily had him killed
Nobody talked to the King like that
But he listened
Nathans words pierce his heart
He had Lied and cheated
He had committed adultery, murder, deceit
It would have been easy to continue with the cover up
It would have been easy to make excuses
It would have been easy to shift the blame
But David’s integrity came back, and he admitted his sin, repented and cried out to God for forgiveness
And in his repentance, he wrote the 51st Psalm
One of the best of a truly repentant heart in all of God’s word
Let me read his words for you
Then we will come back break them down and apply them to our own lives
Psalm 51
Have mercy on me, O God,
because of your unfailing love.
Because of your great compassion,
blot out the stain of my sins.
2 Wash me clean from my guilt.
Purify me from my sin.
3 For I recognize my rebellion;
it haunts me day and night.
4 Against you, and you alone, have I sinned;
I have done what is evil in your sight.
You will be proved right in what you say,
and your judgment against me is just.[a]
5 For I was born a sinner—
yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.
6 But you desire honesty from the womb,[b]
teaching me wisdom even there.
7 Purify me from my sins,[c] and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Oh, give me back my joy again;
you have broken me—
now let me rejoice.
9 Don’t keep looking at my sins.
Remove the stain of my guilt.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a loyal spirit within me.
11 Do not banish me from your presence,
and don’t take your Holy Spirit[d] from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and make me willing to obey you.
13 Then I will teach your ways to rebels,
and they will return to you.
14 Forgive me for shedding blood, O God who saves;
then I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness.
15 Unseal my lips, O Lord,
that my mouth may praise you.
16 You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.
You do not want a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.
You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.
18 Look with favor on Zion and help her;
rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.
19 Then you will be pleased with sacrifices offered in the right spirit—
with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings.
Then bulls will again be sacrificed on your altar.
Strong, inspiring words
Words we can use as a prayer when we need to repent and don’t know what to say
But Better than that a model of repentance
I am going to break this Psalm down
Not verse by verse but concept by concept
Point by point
In an effort to use David’s words
As a guide, ty our own repentance
And ultimately to our own revival
In order to have true repentance
We must follow David’ pattern
First, we must take responsibility for our sin
David in 2 Samuel 12 when Nathan called him on his sin
Said” I have sinned against the Lord”
He admitted it
No cover up
No press conferences saying:” I did not have sex with that woman”
No lies
No conspiracy’s
No blame shifting
Justifying
Rationalizing
Legitimizing
He said yes
I have sinned
Against
God
Listen to me
All sin is against God
He holds us to his standard and his holiness
And even though we may sin with someone- Bathsheba
Or even have someone be the recipient of our sin- Uriah
The sin is against God
Verse 3 and 4
For I recognize my rebellion;
it haunts me day and night.
4 Against you, and you alone, have I sinned;
I have done what is evil in your sight.
You will be proved right in what you say,
So, the first step of repentance is Taking responsibility
Next David shows us that we must cry out for God’s mercy
Verse 1
Have mercy on me, O God,
because of your unfailing love.
Because of your great compassion,
blot out the stain of my sins.
Verse 11`
Do not banish me from your presence,
and don’t take your Holy Spirit[d] from me
Lord, I know I have sinned
And I know I have sinned against you
And I know that the wages of sin is death
And I know I deserve whatever you want to give me
But Lord I am seeking your mercy
And because of your unfailing love, I know that I can receive it
So, David admitted his sin
Came clean
Cried out for mercy
and asked God to change him
Verse 2
Wash me clean from my guilt.
Purify me from my sin.
Verses 7-8
Purify me from my sins,[c] and I will be clean;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
8 Oh, give me back my joy again;
Verses 9-10
Don’t keep looking at my sins.
Remove the stain of my guilt.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God.
Renew a loyal spirit within me.
And then and only then did he seek restoration
You see most people do it wrong
They sin
Make excuses
Cover it up
Shift the blame
Justify their sin
And then when that does not work they admit it
And skip right to the please forgive me
And please restore me part
They never cry out for mercy
They never seek cleansing
They want to just kind of wipe it off
And expect God to bless them
But you see David knew what God wanted
He wanted true repentance
He wanted David to cry out in his brokenness for spiritual healing
This is what God wants from us as well
Listen to me
God does not desire for us to be broken
When we are living accoriding to his will and his word
He wants us to be whole and happy
But apart from his will
He desires us to be broken
It is only in our brokenness that we see the need for change
That we see the need for deliverance
That we see them need for salvation
In order to understand salvation
We need to know what we are being saved from
What I mean by this is we are incomplete
When we are living outside of Gods will
It should hurt us in our hearts when we sin
And we should know as David knew
It is God we are sinning against
It is He we are disrespecting
Disobeying
Cheating on
Stealing from
Hiding from
Even running from
And in that state
We should be broken
Verses 16-17
You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.
You do not want a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit/(heart.)
You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.
You see many try to do penance
Make a sacrifice
God if you forgive me I’ll go to church more
Or give more of my time, my money, my talents
I’ll pray more
Read my bible more
I’ll, I’ll I’ll
Trying to buy God’s forgiveness
Trying to buy his love
Trying to make a sacrifice to receive his mercy
Instead of repenting to receive forgiveness
I love what comes next
We see a true key to repentance from David
A picture of the word repentance itself
One so many miss
A turning and going the other way
Not as a get me out of this deal
But as a result of God’s grace
Verse 13-15
Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and make me willing to obey you.
13 Then I will teach your ways to rebels,
and they will return to you.
14 Forgive me for shedding blood, O God who saves;
then I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness.
15 Unseal my lips, O Lord,
that my mouth may praise you.
Because I have repented
Not in order to repent
Lord give me back the joy of my salvation
Give me the desire to follow your word and not repeat the same sins
Let me praise your name
Verse 8
Oh, give me back my joy again;
you have broken me—
now let me rejoice.
Let me tell of your mercy and grace
Let me share the truth of your goodness
These things we do because of forgiveness
Not to get forgiveness
Works and good deeds are a result of our salvation not a path to salvation
Listen to me
David was forgiven
He was restored
He was renewed
Listen to me this part is hard
Lot’s of preachers don’t want to talk about this part
David was forgiven but he still suffered the worldly consequences of his sins
The son he had from the adultery with his now wife Bathsheba died
His family disintegrated around him
One of his sons raped one of his daughters
Another son killed that son
His kingdom was in turmoil
His life was a mess
You see receiving God’s mercy deals with our eternal life
And deal with our spiritual revival
We still have to pay the piper sometimes for our actions here on earth
Simply put
When we do stupid stuff
God will forgive us when we repent and seek his forgiveness
If you choose to sleep around
Don’t cry to God when you get aids or pregnant
He cares
And he may heal you or comfort you through the pain and hardships
But you are suffering the worldly consequences of your actions
One has nothing to do with the other
Repentance goes past being sorry for sin
Or sorry you got caught
It goes beyond asking for forgiveness
Or even receiving forgiveness
Repentance is taking head knowledge
Knowing right from wrong
And turning it into heart Knowledge
Doing right not wrong
Stopping whatever it is
And going the other way
True Repentance cleanses us
True Repentance reconciles us
True Repentance restores us
True repentance leads us to trust in God for everything at all times
True repentance removes our selfish pride
Our arrogance
Our disobedience our guilt
Our shame
And
True Repentance leads us to spiritual revival
Revival is more than repentance
Much more
But without Repentance
There can be no revival
Close from the heart
Pray
