Psalm 51:11 3/21/18 (Create in Me a Clean Heart #11) “Do Not Cast Me From Your Presence”
So, tonight we are 11 sermons into repentance with this Psalm. And let me ask you: are you tired of all this repenting? Is it getting old? Are you ready for a more positive, upbeat message? After all, those are the messages that seem to be more popular today. 50,000 people a week attend Joel Osteen’s Lakewood church in Houston. He teaches a positive thinking, “Word of Faith” message that says that God wants you to prosper and get big salaries and big houses. And it seems to be working - for him:
Slide: Joel Osteen’s house
And I could show you a dozen other Prosperity Gospel preachers with similar homes. People like that message. They like to think that God is going to make them healthy and wealthy, that they can name it and claim it and treat God like an ATM. And how typical of Americans to make religion about us, about “what’s in it for me?”
In contrast, let me show you Billy Graham’s temporary home.
Slide: Billy Graham’s house
I say temporary, because even though he lived there for many years, he always said he was just passing through, and now has and he’s in his true home in heaven. Folks, Billy Graham was nothing like the Prosperity preachers. In Joel Osteen’s book, “Your Best Life Now” there is not one mention of the cross or the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Again, in contrast, every sermon given by Billy Graham dripped with the blood of Christ. In his last sermon, presented in a video about 5 years ago, he said this about Jesus and about us:
Slide: Billy Graham video from “The Cross”
I know that’s an abrupt cut-off. It’s just hard to know where to cut in that video. We’d be much better off just watching the whole thing tonight, instead of listening to me. But I am going to show a couple other clips from that during the Holy Week services. It’s a powerful video, and again, Billy understood what David understood: that repentance is not “negative thinking”, it’s honest thinking. It’s recognizing that we have gone astray and only God can make us right, and He’s done that by sending Jesus to the cross in our place. C.S. Lewis compared repentance to math and said:
Slide: “A wrong sum can be put right, but only by going back till you find the error and working it afresh from that point, never by simply going on.” – C.S. Lewis
Folks, the true church and the true Christian will never get beyond repenting and recognizing our sinfulness and reaching out for God’s Grace. Repentance is literally the heartbeat of the church, that says: “Create in Me a Clean Heart, O God.” And trusting that he can.
David of course, had come to understand that. That’s why he didn’t stop his Psalm with the first verse, “Have mercy on me, O God.” He just kept going deeper and deeper into repentance until we have this almost desperate verse:
Slide: “Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.” (Psalms 51:11 NIV)
Now, remember that David wrote one half of all the psalms in the Bible. He was tuned into Scripture and used by God the Holy Spirit to write Scripture. The Jewish people at that time had the books of Moses, probably the book of Job, and Joshua, and the prophet Samuel was also writing on behalf of God. So, David knew all about Adam and Eve being cast out of Eden. He knew about Cain being cast away from Adam and Eve’s growing family tree and cursed to wander the earth. He knew about one of the most famous judges of Israel, Samson, losing his power when he lost the presence of the Holy Spirit. And most of all, he knew all about King Saul, Israel’s first king. The Bible says about Saul that he was “an impressive young man without equal among the Israelites—a head taller than any of the others.” (1 Samuel 9:2 NIV) In Saul’s glory days the Bible says several times that the Spirit of God came upon him in power. And he led God’s people to victory. But something happened to Saul. The kingship went to his head and he started doing his own thing instead of God’s thing, so God had little David anointed by the prophet Samuel to be the next king. And the Bible says:
Slide: “So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power.” (1 Samuel 16:12–13 NIV)
But then in the next verse we have the saddest thing that can ever be said about anyone:
Slide: “The Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul” (1 Samuel 16:14 ESV)
So again, David had seen what it was like to be cast from the presence of God and have the Holy Spirit taken away. He saw it first hand as he pleaded with Saul again and again to come to his senses – to no avail. Instead, Saul hardened his heart and lived in a constant paranoia from which he could not break free. David had seen how ugly it was and he wanted to part of it. In fact, now that his conscience had woken up, he saw how hard his own heart had been and how he had been taking that same sad journey as Saul. He knew he had no right to expect a different ending than Saul, but he wanted one.
In verse four of the Psalm he had basically said to God: You have every right O God, to judge me and condemn me to hell.
Slide: “Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.” (Psalms 51:4 NIV)
But in this verse, he is pleading: “Don’t do it, God. Nothing is worse than being cast from Your presence. I can lose my castle and my crown, my rule and my reputation, my health and my wealth; I can lose it all, but please God, don’t take Your Holy Spirit from me. Don’t let it happen to me like it happened to Saul. I don’t want to end that way. I want to end with you.”
David’s repentance was not just about regret and feeling sorry for his sins. He was deeply concerned about his relationship with God. Once again we are reminded that when all was said and done, he was in fact “a man after God’s own heart”.
Are you? Are you a man or woman after God’s own heart? Then live a life of repentance, confessing your sins before Him, resolving to walk away from them, and trusting that the life, death and resurrection of your Savior Jesus, has truly blotted out your transgressions, washed away all your iniquity and cleansed you from your sin. You have been washed and made whiter than snow. God has hidden his face from your sins, promised to create a clean heart in you, And He has “has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:5 NIV)
And yes, sadly, Saul and others kicked the Holy Spirit out of their lives, and God allowed that to happen because he will not force people to faith in Him. But neither will he ever reject those who turn to Him and repent. And that’s you. Jesus said:
Slide: “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand.” (John 10:27–28 NIV)
Believe it, my friends, and live it, trusting in your Good Shepherd.
God the Holy Spirit, I thank You for taking the Bible, the Word of God, and making it come alive in my heart and for creating and sustaining my faith in Jesus, My Savior. I thank you for bringing me here tonight and letting me appreciate a season of Lent and the opportunity You give me to be honest about my sins, to repent of them, to bring them to the cross and know that they are truly paid for and forgiven because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Now please, dwell in me as You have promised and help me to stay focused on Christ, and to reflect His love to my world. Amen.
