Heart Cleansing

If you have your Bibles with you, turn with me if you would to. Psalm 51, we'll be looking at two verses today, verses 10 and 11.

Bow with me as we go to our Lord in prayer. Heavenly Father, for several weeks we have been studying the fall of a great man of God. We have watched the giant of the faith give in to temptation and bring great destruction and heartache to his family, to his nation, and to himself.

His sin also brought hurt to your heart. But Lord, you were sovereign over all this and today's message teaches us that you take our messes and use them to whittle away the junk in our lives that don't look like Jesus. In this psalm we see David move from total despair to glorious hope and unbelievable joy. We see how you use this psalm to lead David to pray some amazing words in another psalm, Psalm 119. David said, Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I keep your word.

And it was good for me that I had been afflicted that I might learn your statutes. Wow, that spiritual maturity. David is growing up as a child of God. Father, do that kind of work in us today. Mature us in the faith. May we pray for a transformed heart today. And may we rejoice in your discipline that brings it about. And we ask this prayer in your holy and precious name. Amen. You may be seated. I wish that I could start over.

I just wish that I could start over. Those words were spoken to me 40 years ago by a 45-year-old man who was sitting directly across me in my desk. And his wife was with him. His wife and him had been married for 25 years. They'd had a very happy marriage, but now there was a problem.

Where this man worked, there was a young lady. And they became friends. And then they got involved with each other intimately. It was a sad, sad situation.

It happened one time. And this man, when it happened, was just broken down with grief. I mean physically, emotionally, and spiritually, absolutely broken down. It caused him such great depression that his wife started asking questions. And finally he confessed to her what he had done and begged her for forgiveness. And she did forgive him. But the grief was just too much for this man to bear.

Absolutely horrible, terrible grief. And I talked to him about it and he said, You know, my wife's forgiven me, but I've hurt her so badly when I look into her face, it just destroys me. He said, I wish that I could just take that memory and pull it from her mind. I wish that I could just walk away from this and never have to think about it again. I wish the past would just go away. I wish I could start over.

I just wish I could start over. Two thousand years ago, the night before the crucifixion, Jesus stood before his disciples and he said to his disciples, You will all fall away from me this night. Peter poked at his chest, said, Lord, I don't know about the rest of these guys, but not me. I will not do that. I would go to prison for you.

I would die for you, but I would never deny you. Jesus said, Peter, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times. They were taking Jesus out to Caiaphas' house and Peter followed him. They got to Caiaphas' house. Jesus went on into the house. Peter stayed outside and they began to talk. And then three times people came up to Peter and three times they asked him a question.

What is your relationship with this Jesus? Three times Peter denied that he even knew Jesus. The last time he cursed and swore, he didn't know who Jesus was.

The cock crowed the second time. And then Jesus walked out from the house and as he was turning the corner, Peter walked over to him. Their eyes met. And when their eyes met, Peter absolutely melted.

Never had he felt such shame, such cowardice, and such embarrassment. The Scripture says that Peter went out and that he wept bitterly. Jesus went to the cross. Three days later, he was resurrected from the dead.

Early that morning, Mary Magdalene and several women got to the tomb. And when they got to the tomb, they saw that the stone had been rolled away and the tomb was empty. And then they looked over and there was an angel. And the angel began to give them instructions. And the angel said, Listen, you are to leave here and you are to go to Galilee. All the disciples and Peter. Now why did they say it that way? They said all the disciples and Peter because Peter felt so unworthy that he didn't even consider himself to be a disciple any longer.

And all through the next few days, there's only one thing going on in Peter's mind. And that is this, I wish I could start over. I wish that the past could just be wiped away. I wish that this had never happened. Folks, here were two different men that lived 2,000 years apart. And yet the same cry came from their lips as David cried out 3,000 years ago.

I wish that I could just start over. I got two points I want to share with you today. Point one is heart cleansing. Look with me at verse 10. Create me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. This is a cry from David to God to forgive his past and let him start over. You see, David has learned some invaluable lessons during this very, very difficult time in his life. He learned that he cannot trust his own heart, that his heart is desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. He has learned that this is not about turning over a new leaf and trying harder and trying to do better. He knows that's not working. David doesn't need reformation. He needs transformation.

He doesn't need a patch-up job. He needs a cleansed heart. He prays, Lord, create me a clean heart. The word creates a very interesting word in the Hebrew.

It's the Hebrew word bara. And if you look in the Old Testament, that word is never used to describe human ability. It is only used to describe God's ability. And how does God create? God creates ex nihilo. He creates out of nothing. When God created the world, how did he do it? He didn't take a blob of substance and then form it into the earth that we know. He just spoke it into existence. Folks, he spoke it into existence.

Now, one second there was an absolute vacuum, and then the next second there was the earth that God just brought in, just in a matter of seconds, the earth that we walk on today. David is praying for that kind of God-sent, miraculous intervention so that his heart would be transformed so that he could become a new creation. Oftentimes I've warned you from this pulpit not to fall into the quagmire of hero worship. And the reason I've warned you about that is because when we make heroes of Christians and then they stumble and they mess up, then we get thrown for a loop. So you don't need but one hero, and that hero is Jesus Christ, because he's absolutely sinless. There was no fault within him. He was perfectly without sin. He's not going to mess up. So he is our hero.

I don't think it's good for us to have heroes, but I think it's great for us to have role models. And that is people that we see who are really walking with Jesus, and we can follow their example. Paul even said to do that with him. In 1 Corinthians 11, verse 1, he says, Imitate me as I imitate Christ.

So it's okay to look at Paul and where he's being obedient to the Lord, follow him in that obedience. Forty-eight years ago, God gave me a role model to follow. His name was Charles Long. Charles Long is with the Lord today, but he was one of the godliest men that I've ever met in my life.

I met him in 1973, first time. He was preaching in the pulpit at Calvary Baptist Church. I was in the pew listening to him. He'd been a missionary to Vietnam for 17 years, and they had just closed down Vietnam for the Americans, and the Americans all were forced to get out, and he had to leave. When he got out of Vietnam, he was called to pastor a Christian missionary alliance church in Raleigh, North Carolina. And when I went to seminary, it was in Wake Forest at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and it's very close to Raleigh. And so if I wasn't preaching on a Sunday, I would go to Charles' church.

And we became very close friends. While he was in Vietnam, he translated the New Testament and a hymnal into the Jirai language, the mountain people of Vietnam. And he got it printed and distributed four days before Vietnam fell, and he was forced to get out.

But he told a story that morning back in 1973 that touched my heart. He said, Vietnam is a very clannish land. And he said, there are tribes of people, and these different tribes of people always have a particular leader, and they look up to their leader, and they have great, great respect for that leader.

He said this one particular tribe that he went to was 100% professing Buddhist, 100%. They had a leader. He was an elderly man. His name was Nchau. And Charles would go there about once a week, and he made a friend with this man, and he'd sit down and he'd talk with him, and he'd share the gospel with him that this man would never submit to Christ. Charles made a determination that he was going to pray for him, and he was going to pray for him every single day, and he did just that. About a decade of that had gone on, and all of a sudden one day Charles was at his home, and he heard a banging on the door, and he went to the door, and it was a teenage boy, and he said, Mr. Charles, Mr. Charles, you've got to come. He said, Nchau is calling for you, and we think he's dying.

Charles jumped in his jeep, took the young man with him, and they went into the village, and there was Nchau at the very front of the village where he had fallen into a sewage ditch, and he was down there, and Charles got down in the ox manure with him. He looked at Charles. He said, I'm quickly losing breath. He said, I'm dying, and I'm not prepared to die. He said, I've been following a false god for 95 years, and he said, now I realize that god doesn't even exist. He said, my heart hungers for your Jesus.

He says, is it too late for me? Charles took his Bible out, his little New Testament, and he began to share the gospel with Nchau. Down in that ditch, Nchau began to cry. He right there prayed with Charles, repented of his sins, and trusted Christ as his lord and savior. Charles said that he reached in, and he picked up Nchau after that, and he was carrying this man back to his home, and Nchau said, don't go to my home.

Go to the assembly house. He started going to the assembly house, and they got there, and Nchau looked over at one of the little children. He said, ring the bell, and they started ringing the bell, and when they rang the bell, everybody in the village came running up to see what was going on, and when everybody was there, Nchau looked out over that huge group of people, and he said, I want you to know that for 95 years, I had been searching for peace, and I have found no peace at all. He said, today I have finally found my peace, and his name is Jesus. He said, turn around and look at this man, and he said, I want you to know that this man's God is God. And he said, Charles, would you share with them?

And Charles alone got up. He said his pants were covered with ox manure, and said the sweat was just rolling down off of his brow in that hot jungle, and he began to share the gospel as he opened his little New Testament up. Share the gospel with all these people, and Charles said something happened that day that he had never seen before or since. He said as he was preaching, all of a sudden, he said there was just a moving of the Holy Spirit. He said it was like a gentle wave that went over the people, and he said they began to sob, and they began to weep, and then they got up, and they began to leave.

Charles didn't know what was going on, and he looked over at Nchau, and Nchau said, you sit down and just wait. After just a few minutes, the people started coming back, and they came back with little idols in their hands, and they came back with little stone idols and little wooden idols, and they came back with books of Buddhism and holy books, their holy books, and there was a huge wooden statue of Buddha, and they took all their idols and books and laid them at the feet of Buddha, and then they took a torch, and they set it all on flame, and it completely burned up. 750 people fell on their face before God, crying out, crying out to the Lord Jesus to forgive them of their sins and to save them for all of eternity.

I didn't tell that story quite like Charles did because Charles made sure that we didn't think he was the hero of that story. He wanted Jesus to get all the glory. As I was sitting in that pew that particular Sunday, I looked up at him, and I knew that I was looking into the face of a man of God, a man who had been given a clean heart. And I remember walking out of that church building that day begging the Lord that I might have a cleansed heart, too, a heart that wasn't phony, a heart that was just deeply in love with Jesus.

Folks, I have failed many, many times since then. I have come short of the glory of God more times than I want to even think about, but I want you to know I have never been the same since that service. I was just turned around as I looked at the example of God taking a man just like me and creating in him a clean heart. You know, as a pastor, I counsel a lot of people who are struggling with problems, and when I realize that the problems that they are having is problems in spiritual warfare, one of the things I want to share with them is the necessity of a transformed heart. And I will share with them, look, if you have a desire in your heart to please Jesus more than anything else, then there's not a whole lot Satan can do to you. There's not a whole lot Satan can defeat you with if that's where your heart is. And I will share with them a great passage in 2 Corinthians 10, verses 3 through 7. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are mighty through God, to the pulling down of the strongholds, casting down imaginations at every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, and having a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. Folks, that last verse describes the transformed heart. The person that has a transformed heart, does he still sin? Oh yeah, he still sins. Does he still have wrong thoughts that come into his mind? Absolutely he does.

But here's the difference. When those things happen, he is quick to respond. He is quick to repent.

He is quick to take those things and to turn from them. He has a readiness to revenge all disobedience. Folks, that's what God desires of us. Christianity has never been meant for just 11 o'clock on Sunday morning. Christianity ought to work at 7 o'clock on Monday morning.

It ought to work at 10 o'clock on Friday night. And it will, if we are seeking, that God might create in us a clean heart. David not only asks God to create within him a clean heart, but he also says this, Lord, Lord, renew a right spirit within me. Verse 10. A right spirit is a spirit that hates sin. This ought to be our prayer, folks. This ought to be our prayer. Lord, if I get lazy in my thought life, then break me.

Lord, if I come short of your commandments, then show me. Charles Spurgeon used this illustration, a true situation that happened in a couple in his church. There was a couple in his church that had been praying for a baby for a number of years, and finally they got their baby. And the baby was born, and they just loved that little kid. They would play with him all the time. They just enjoyed being around him. They wouldn't even bring in a babysitter because they wanted to spend all their time with him. They'd wake him up in the middle of the night just to play with him.

Loved the little kid. One night they put him to bed in this little bedroom, this crib, and they went on to sleep in their bedroom. And it was a very hot night, so they had the window raised up. And during the night, somehow, a poisonous snake climbed up the wall through the window, slithered across the floor, climbed into the crib where the baby was and coiled itself up. During the night, the baby made some quick, sharp little moves, and the snake struck three times, and within just moments, the baby was dead. The father came running in the next morning to get his little baby and pick him up and reached down to get that bubbly little child that was so filled with joy and always had a smile on his face. When he reached down, there was nothing but a little blue, lifeless form of a child. He took that baby and he held him to his chest, and he began to weep like crazy. What in the world happened, he said?

How could this happen? And then all of a sudden, he looked over in the corner of that crib and he saw the snake. What did he do with that snake? Do you think he might have gone and gotten a cage and taken that snake and gingerly placed him in the cage, brought it out the living room to display it before his friends?

Oh, no. Every fiber in that man's body moved out in hatred toward that snake, and he went and he got his ax and he hacked it into a million pieces. Folks, that snake is a picture of our sin, and would to God that we would see our sin in that light. When David prayed for a right spirit, he is praying that God would give him the ability to hate his sin. Listen to what David said in Psalm 119 and verse 67. Before I was afflicted, I went astray, but now I have kept your word. In verse 71, he said, It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I might keep your statutes. Verse 133, Keep steady my steps according to your promise, and let no iniquity get dominion over me. David said, I'm glad that I was afflicted. Wow! I'm glad that I was afflicted?

This is what he's saying. He said, I'm glad that Nathan confronted me. I'm glad that Nathan brought me to my knees with that story.

I'm glad that Nathan embarrassed me before my friends. I'm glad that God's hand was heavy upon me. I'm glad I went through this brokenness.

I'm glad I went through this trial. I'm glad that God did this on my heart because it drove me back to the Lord and it made me hungry for the Word of God again. That's repentance. David is not grieving over the consequences of his sin. He is grieving over his sin.

Alright, that takes us to point to assurance restoration. Look at verse 11. Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me. The Scriptures teach us that there is a two-fold presence of God and one of them is his omnipresence which no one can get away from. David spoke of that in Psalm 139. He said, it is absolute futility to try to run away from God and hide your sin.

It's not going to work. He said, here's a guy that says, I can't get away from God. If I were to go to heaven, he's there. If I go to hell, he's there. If I bury myself in the deepest sea, he is there. I cannot get away from him.

It's an absolute effort in futility to try to do that. It's what Francis Thompson was saying in his great poem that he wrote called The Hound from Heaven. He said this, there is no hole deep enough, there is no closet dark enough, there is no town far enough away to get away from the convicting presence of God.

That is his omnipresence. That's not what David's talking about here in this passage. When David talks about the presence of God here, he's talking about conscious communion and fellowship with the Holy Spirit of God. David remembered what it was like. He remembered how the Spirit of God would undergird him and strengthen him when he went out to do battle and give him the power and the confidence that he needed in God to get that battle won. He remembered what it was like when a loved one had died and he was grieving.

The Holy Spirit of God would give to him that peace that passes all understanding. He remembered what it was like when the Holy Spirit would call him to write down the psalms that he wrote down and he would get revelation, he would get illumination from the Holy Spirit and he would write down those as God inspired him to write down those precious words. He remembered what it was like to go to the tabernacle of David and to worship the Lord and how exciting it was to experience that worship at the tabernacle. But now, for several months, that presence of God has been evading David. David's scared now to go out to battle because he doesn't know if God's going to undergird him or not.

He doesn't know what's going to happen. And he knows what it's like now to experience a death of a loved one and what it's like not to feel that peace that passes all understanding. He remembered what it was like to study the Word of God and as he studied before, the Word of God would just pop out at him and give him illumination and give him guidance and give him direction and give him joy. But now he reads the Word of God, it's like reading an obituary.

It's just dry and barren. He remembers what it was like to go to the temple but now he goes and he's just going through the motions and there's no joy and there's no touch from the Spirit of God. I believe that what David is talking about here is the first stage of chastisement. And the first stage of chastisement is God removing the joy and the conscious presence of his Spirit from the believer. But then look what else he says, verse 11. Take not the Holy Spirit from me.

Now does that ever happen? Can a person lose his salvation? Can a person who is regenerated, born again by the Spirit of God, can God take that away from him? And so that when he dies, he's going to spend forever in hell? The answer to that, thank God and praise God, is no.

No, absolutely not. Romans chapter 11 verse 29 says, For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. They are irrevocable.

It cannot happen. If you've been genuinely born again, then no one, no thing will ever pluck you out of the Father's hand. David had not lost his salvation, but he'd lost the assurance of salvation. He remembers back to his predecessor, King Saul. And you remember how King Saul was at first. King Saul looked like a child of God. He talked like a child of God, for the most part even acted like a child of God. He was going through all that and he looked real, but his heart was apostate. And he was rebellious against God, and he gave in to defiant, deliberate disobedience. Finally, God had to speak to him and said, Saul, I have rejected you and I've chosen for myself a man after God's own heart. Saul was like those who Paul spoke of in Romans chapter 1, who had been given over to a reprobate mind. Now, Paul understands what's going on here, and Paul understands that there is genuine, true assurance of salvation. And he talked about that in 2 Timothy 1, verse 12, when he said, For I know whom I have believed and persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. That's true assurance. That's glorious assurance. But is there false assurance?

Absolutely there is. In 1 Corinthians 9, verse 27, Paul said, For I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after I have preached to others I myself should become a castaway. The word castaway is the Greek word adakimos, and it means reprobate. It means one who's been cut off from God. Wow. Was Paul saying that he thought he could lose his salvation?

No. But Paul was saying that if he could get off into sin, if he could live with it, and if the Holy Spirit did not chasten him and bring him back to repentance, then that would not prove that he'd lost his salvation. But it would prove that he had been deceived by sin, and that he had not lost his salvation, but he had been deceived by sin, and that he had not lost his salvation.

I'm not saying this right. It would prove that he had been deceived by indwelling sin, having never been saved to begin with. That's what David is praying. Oh Lord, he said, I don't want to be another King Saul. I don't want to be given over to a reprobate mind. I don't want to run from you.

I want to run to you, even if it means discipline and trials and heartaches. Folks, that's a transformed heart, far from sinless, far from perfect, but loyal and faithful and hungry for Jesus. That is genuine repentance.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we saw today the importance of assurance. David's sin caused him to doubt. Your chastisement of his sin drove him to repentance, where you removed the doubt. What a glorious God you are. It is amazing to us that you love us too much to let us be happy in our sin.

Father, we need the transformed heart. We need to hate sin like you hate it. We need to look at our own sin and then look to the cross at the payment that Jesus made so that we could be forgiven. Sin is a deceiver, Lord. It makes us focus on self.

It takes our focus off Christ. Forgive us, transform us, and use us to bring you glory. May we go to our death with Paul's testimony. I have fought a good fight. I have finished my course. I have kept the faith. We ask this prayer in the precious and holy name of Jesus. Amen.