Cleansing by the Appointed Means

The Purpose of Studying Psalm 51: Learning True Repentance

0:03 As we come tonight to the 8th in a series of studies in the 51st psalm, I would remind you that the very purpose for which we are studying this psalm is that we might be better penitents ourselves. It is no good for us to come to this psalm and to understand what was involved in David's repentance and to admire that repentance, to analyze it, to even sing songs about it, but we are studying David's model of repentance that we, by the grace of God, may know the same kind of repentance when we, like David, have sinned. One of the greatest factors involved in a life of increasing Christian maturity is the ability to scripturally deal with sin. And we must be taught by the Word how to confess our sin as well as being instructed by the Word concerning what is sin. And in every duty of the Christian life, we need the direction of the Word of God. We do not confess sin as we ought automatically.

1:06 We must have even our confession directed by the Scriptures. Our Lord made this clear and He gave what's commonly called the Lord's Prayer. He said, when you pray, pray after this man. And then He gave us some instructions as to how to pray.

1:19 It involved Jesus. That is the matter of confession. And it's interesting that the only element in that prayer that He enlarges upon is the element of confession of sin and the right attitude with regard to confess sin. When He repeats this matter of forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, for if ye forgive not, neither will your heavenly Father forgive you.

1:39 And so I lay this before you, not meaning to be repetitious to the point of being boring, but to continually keep before us that unless, as the weeks pass, we are entering in more and more in the closet life of our own individual experience, Monday through Saturday, to the spirit of Psalm 51. Unless we are able to pray with greater understanding and greater heart involvement, the 51st Psalm, then we're missing the whole point of our studies together. I trust you're able to pray this psalm with greater understanding and greater heart involvement today than you were able to pray this psalm. That's what we were able to do 10 or 12 weeks ago when we began this series of studies. Very well then, by way of reminder concerning what we're out to do in our study, we come tonight to study together verse 7, and possibly if time permits, we shall get into verse 8. David, having looked to the only attribute of God which gives comfort to the convicted sinner, namely His mercy, His loving kindness, His tender mercy, acknowledges, and brings into focus the three elements of true confession. He says that for sin is ever before him.

Repetition in Prayer: Not Always Vain

2:58 He owns up to the fact of his sin, owns up to the nature of his sin against thee and thee only have I sinned, owns up to the root of sin. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. And then we saw last week that verse 6 was pivotal, sort of a transition between the initial general confession and general plea for mercy, and that which begins with verse 7, which in a real sense is a recapitulation. David goes back over ground that he covered in his initial prayer.

3:31 For you'll notice he prayed in verse 2, Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Now he prays again in verse 7, Purge me, or better translated, purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. And here you have, almost a word for word repetition of the petition uttered in verse 2, which immediately tells us that all repetition is not vain repetition.

4:03 Our Lord said in Matthew chapter 6, Use not vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking. You see, they repeat their prayers like the Roman Catholics do, with the thought that so many prayers, well that piles up so much weight, in the balances of obtaining the blessing of God. The more prayers, the more blessing. They think they shall be heard for their much speaking.

4:30 Not heard in their much speaking, but on account of the whole concept. If I say 30 Hail Marys, that's more virtue than if I say 10 Hail Marys. But where there is repetition born, not out of a desire to build up some kind of merit by the multiplying of words, but where that repetition is triggered by the mind being so occupied with a central thought, then those repetitions in prayer or in praise are not vain repetitions, for the Holy Ghost himself has given to us the scripture filled with repetitious statements. You read the 136th Psalm.

5:10 The loving kindness of the Lord endureth forever. Let Israel now save. Then he gives the sentence, The loving kindness of the Lord endureth forever. Then he gives the statement, The loving kindness of the Lord endureth forever.

5:20 The whole Psalm. I bet you to say some of you when you read that actually thought, Well, isn't that vain repetition? No, it's not vain repetition. When your heart's so full of the understanding and appreciation of the mercy of God that you can only get out one sentence without stopping to say, The loving kindness of the Lord endureth forever.

5:39 That's wonderful repetition. In fact, that's repetition that's pleasing to God. That's akin to the repetitious praise of the seraphim who cry one to another day and night. What do they cry?

5:51 Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts, over and over and over again, day and night. And they've been doing it for centuries. And God's pleased. Why?

6:02 Because it's not vain repetition. It's the repetition that flows out of a constant, conscious, present involvement, engagement of the mind upon some aspect of the glory of God. So, when we come to confess, let us never feel, that if we find ourselves confessing to God certain things that we've already confessed, or pleading with God for certain things we've already pled for, let's not be condemned with a wrong sense of condemnation that this is vain repetition. I've actually heard preachers say, If you ask God for something once, and you pray for it again, that's unbelief.

6:38 That's foolishness. That statement, I mean. That's foolishness. But the Scripture's full of it.

6:43 Where you find David in the Psalms doing precisely what he does here, where having already prayed, Wash me truly from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin, he now goes back over that same ground with an amplification in that he says, Purge me now with hyssop. It's not just a general plea for purging and cleansing, but a plea for purging and cleansing in a specific way. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

7:17 Now I hope I've cleared the ground for a digging into the text itself. It is basically a repetition of verse 2, but it is not a sinful repetition. The conclusion we draw is that to repeat certain petitions in prayer need not be vain repetition. Now how will we think our way through this text tonight?

David's Plea: Purge Me with Hyssop (The First Couplet)

7:36 David's plea to be purged and to be washed. Well, the best way I know to think through the text is to consider it, as a pair of couplets. The first part of the couplet is an earnest petition, and then it's followed with a triumphant affirmation. Notice the petition, Purge me with hyssop.

8:00 Here's the affirmation, I shall be clean. Another petition, Wash me. Another affirmation, I shall be whiter than snow. So think of the text in terms of two couplets comprised of earnest petition and then join to a ringing affirmation or a triumphant affirmation.

8:23 Alright, what is the first couplet in David's prayer here? Purge me with hyssop. That's the earnest petition, that he should be purged with hyssop. Well, the first question I ask myself is, what is hyssop?

8:39 If I pray, Oh God, purge me with hyssop, if most of us prayed that, it would be indeed, if not vain repetition, it would be meaningless utterance. Purge me with hyssop. Well, how does hyssop get into here? What was hyssop?

8:53 Well, hyssop was a member of the mint family, a plant, and it was a hairy stemmed kind of plant, a many branched plant, and it lended itself very well to being an instrument of sprinkling. Now, how was it used as an instrument of sprinkling? Well, turn to the Old Testament for just a few moments as we see several verses and several references to the use of hyssop which no doubt were present in the mind of David. The first reference is in Exodus chapter 12, Exodus chapter 12, verses 21 and 22.

9:29 Exodus 21, I'm sorry, Exodus 12, verses 21 and 22. Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and said unto them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families, and kill the Passover, and ye shall take a bunch of hyssop and dip it in the blood that is in the basin, and strike the lintel and the two side posts with the blood that is in the basin, and none of you shall go out at the door of this house until the morning. Hyssop here, in its first usage, was the instrument by which the atoning blood was sprinkled upon the doorposts so that when the death angel came, you remember the historical account, he passed over any hole where upon the doorposts blood had been sprinkled with the bunch of hyssop. Now Exodus chapter 24, Moses is given the law of God to the people of God and they're about to enter into covenant with God as their God, their Redeemer, their Sovereign. In Exodus chapter 24 and verses 7 and 8 we read, And he, Moses, took the blood of the covenant and read in the audience of the people, and they said,

10:58 All that the Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient. And Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people and said, Behold the blood of the covenant which the Lord hath made with you concerning all these words. You say, I don't see hyssop mentioned, but I know hyssop was there. I am absolutely positive that Moses sprinkled them with hyssop.

11:20 You know why I'm positive? Because, because the Holy Spirit tells us in Hebrews, in chapter 9 and verse 19, something that Moses didn't tell us back then. For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying, This is the blood of the covenant which God hath enjoined upon you. And Moses came to sprinkle blood upon the people and upon the book of the covenant, indicating that God enters into covenant with His people only on the basis of the blood of sacrifice.

12:02 This was a holy God entering into covenant with a sinful people, just as it was a holy God passing over sinful people and God is propitious, God is merciful toward His people on the basis of blood, but blood in both cases that was applied with hyssop. It was the instrument of the sprinkling of the blood of atonement. And then you have the passage in Leviticus 14 concerning the cleansing of the leper where hyssop is mentioned again. There were the two birds, the one bird was slain over running water and then the other bird that was taken and dipped into the combination of blood and water and sent to fly off and then that mixture of blood and water was sprinkled with hyssop upon the leper who was declared clean. Ceremonially clean. And then the other reference is in Numbers 19 and it's also in the same setting where in the application of the blood of cleansing, hyssop was used. Now I think this has sufficed to, at least in some small measure, give us a little insight into what David had in mind when he prayed this prayer.

13:12 Having acknowledged the presence of his sin, having pled in verse 2 that God would wash him in a general sense, having acknowledged the root of his sin in his inherent depravity and saying in verse 6 thou desirest truth in the inward parts, now he cries out purge me with hyssop. What is the essence of his prayer? Now that we understand what hyssop was and how it was used, I believe this is the essence of David's prayer. O Lord, sin has done to me what leprosy does to an Israelite.

13:47 It has cut me off from fellowship with Yourself. It has cut me off from the realized enjoyment of all of my privileges as a child of God. Just as leprosy shut the leper out from the worship of the temple or the tabernacle and from association with the people of God. O Lord, my sin has defiled me and I stand before Thee as a leper.

14:09 O Lord, take the blood of cleansing and with that blood of cleansing sprinkle me afresh that I might be cleaned and I might be restored to fellowship, that I might be restored to my privileges as a child of God. Purify me by the appointed means. This is the core of David's prayer. Now God knew He was praying to the living God, not to a priest.

14:36 He wasn't asking a priest to do this. So David was not praying simply for the performance of an external ceremony. But could it be that David actually saw with the eye of faith that the blood of Messiah was to be shed even for David's sin? Could it be?

14:55 I don't find it a difficult thing to believe that, for my Bible says that Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Christ. Jesus said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day. If Abraham, with the limited light prior to the giving of the law, could clearly see the day of Christ, how much more David, with all the types and symbols of the whole sacrificial system, if it could be said of Moses, he would esteem the reproach of Christ. Greater treasures than the treasures of Egypt is my own conviction, though I cannot be dogmatic for I do not see what the Scripture is, but I throw it out as a possibility that David saw with the eye of faith that that which was typified by the ceremonial cleansing when the priest took the hyssop and sprinkled blood upon the leper could be his and vital experience if God would sprinkle afresh his condemned and defiled conscience and heart with the blood of Messiah. But whether David could see this or not, about that we cannot be dogmatic, but we can be dogmatic in affirming that every true child of God this side of the fulfillment wrought by the Lord Jesus, who, as it were, swallowed up into himself all the types and symbols of heifers and bulls and goats, and water and blood, and hyssop and priests and washings, all of these gloriously fulfilled in him, you and I, when we pray the 51st Psalm and we say, Purge me with hyssop, our prayer is,

The New Testament Fulfillment: Sprinkling of Christ's Blood

16:24 O Lord, purge me by the appointed means, even the sprinkling of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. For you will notice that in the New Testament the blood of Christ is called, in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1, the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Christ is called in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 1, the blood of Christ is called in Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 24, the very blood of sprinkling. And the writer to the Hebrews says that we, who are God's people, now come unto Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.

16:54 Moses was the mediator of the old covenant. He sprinkled blood upon those with whom God entered into covenant. Now the Lord Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, is the one who will be sprinkled upon those with whom God entered into covenant. Now the Lord Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, is the one who sprinkles blood upon those who are in covenant relationship with him.

17:19 And so he says, ye are come to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1 and verse 2 that all the people of God are those who have been brought into this relationship which has at its privilege the sprinkling of the blood of Christ. 1 Peter 1 and verse 2, he addresses himself to the elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. God has called us by his grace, set his love upon us, and has drawn us into a relationship that involves on our part a heart submissive to the will of God. But because that submission is imperfect and the obedience imperfect, he's called us to a relationship which involves on his part the continual sprinkling application of the blood of Jesus Christ. And then I'm sure the verses come to the minds of some of you in 1 John 1 where we read in verse 7, but if we walk in the light as he is in the light, that fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son and it's in the present tense

18:49 in the original goes on continually to cleanse us from all sin. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so the substance of David's petition in this first couplet is that God would purify him by the appointed means. Purify me with hyssop and then he gives this triumphant affirmation I shall be clean.

19:25 I've read that psalm many many times but it wasn't until preparation for the study today that this thing began to strike me what a tremendous affirmation of faith this was. Remember what David said in three hypocrisy a year of backsliding in barrenness spiritual poverty and he says Lord if you'll but sprinkle me I'll be as clean as the leopard who is allowed to go back into the temple back into the worship of the tabernacle back into the fellowship of God's people and I'll be as clean as the water is clean nine tenths clean but I shall be clean every bit clean and the New Testament counterpart we just read the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanse us from all unrighteousness in both purify me with hyssop and I shall be clean and being clean I shall have access again I'll have a conscience that no

David's Plea: Wash Me (The Second Couplet)

20:54 longer condemns me a conscience that no longer hounds me I'll be able to come into the presence of God with delight and with devotion followed with a triumphant affirmation now notice the second couplet and first of all you have another petition having prayed purify me with hyssop he now cries wash me and I shall be whiter than snow now what did David mean one word means to simply cleanse the surface of a thing or a person when they washed the pots and pans and basins that were used in the worship of the Lord that word is used when Naaman was told to go wash in the Jordan River seven times and it's a picture of how the oriental women would do and I'm sure some of you girls from India have seen this as well and I have seen

22:24 pictures of it where people will go down to a riverside in a country place and into clear flowing stream or even not so close to the water stream of the water stream of the water stream of the river and that is also a good way to cleanse the water stream of the water stream of the river and Water and soap through the fibers. You say, I never thought of that. Well, that's right, isn't it? There's no cleansing power in a rock, in a washboard.

23:16 The cleansing power is the agent, water, soap. Now, the word used for that kind of cleansing is a different one. Now, to give you the contrast of them, in Leviticus 14, 8 and 9, you have both words used in one verse. In Leviticus 14, and let me put in a plug for the American Standard Version at this point, the ASV, the 1901 edition published by Nelson and Son.

23:42 Because where there is a different Hebrew or Greek word used, it should be rendered in a different way. They're much more faithful to do it than the King James translators were. And there are the two different words used here in Leviticus 14, 8. Notice.

23:57 And he that is cleansed shall wash his clothes. That's the word that means to have the clothes pervaded and permeated with the agent. He that is cleansed shall shave off all his hair, and the ASV translates it this way, and shall bathe himself in water that he may be clean. And in verse 9, you have the same thing, that he shall wash his clothes, but shall bathe his flesh in water.

24:26 And there are two different Hebrew words used in each of these instances. One, cleansing the external surface, which is all you can do when you take a bath. Two, cleansing the entire...

24:38 substance that is being cleansed. Now, you would think, wouldn't you, that David being a Jew, being Hebrew in his thinking and knowing all of the ceremonial cleansing, he knew that the words were washed in a ceremonial sense. When the leper was washed, it was that word to cleanse the outside. But when he confesses his sin, he doesn't use that word.

25:00 His word is the second word. Lord, let the cleansing agent...

25:09 save my entire being. Wash me by pounding, Lord, until those agents of grace which purify the soul of a repentant sinner have been forced through every pore of my being, that I shall stand before Thee clean. Justice, surely, Lord, is sin, as it were, has invaded every particle and fiber of my being. So, Lord, let the influences of Your grace go through my entire being.

25:37 Wash me. Wash me. With that second word, wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. So then, do you see the essence of David's prayer?

25:47 O God, sin has not only cut me off and, like a leper, shut me out, and I need to be declared clean by the blood of sacrifice that I may come again, but, O Lord, sin has defiled me. As it were, it has entered into my pores and polluted me experimentally. Now, O Lord, wash me. Go through me by the influences of grace into Your Spirit, and carry out all pollution and defilement, all tendencies and desires and vestiges of sin.

26:16 Only then, Lord, can I serve You with a clean conscience and with an uncondemned heart. So that's the second petition. Wash me. Let the influences of grace permeate my entire being.

Whiter Than Snow: The Depth of God's Cleansing

26:32 And then, in that second couplet, notice this triumphant affirmation, and I shall be whiter than snow. Now, of course, David is using a figure of speech. Can anything be whiter than white? Well, of course, white is white.

26:48 And if it isn't white, it's something else. It's yellow or off-white. But what he's saying is, I'll be as white as even God can make us into white. I'll be as white as I can possibly be.

27:00 And in pulling out a figure of speech, he even rises beyond that glorious gospel word of Isaiah, who said, Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. David rises above even Isaiah.

27:20 And that's something, to rise above the poetic Isaiah, who spoke with such flaming eloquence of the truths of the gospel. And David rises to this pinnacle faith when he says, O Lord, if You will but wash me, I shall be whiter than the new-fallen snow. I shall be white through and through. So this is his prayer.

27:41 And it's interesting that he joins together the purifying with hyssop, which primarily refers to the blood of cleansing, and washing, which refers to the water of purification. For those of you who are even remotely familiar with the Old Testament types and symbols, you'll know that, remember how again and again those two things were always joined. When a priest came to be consecrated, he was washed with water, and the blood was placed upon the forehead, upon the finger, upon the toe, upon the ear. I believe those were the places it was put.

28:15 But there was water. There was blood. Coming into the tabernacle, there was the labor of cleansing water. There was the altar of sacrifice, blood.

28:24 And as you read through all of the types and symbols, God is declaring that His work of purification is by blood, and by water. And all that which is symbolized, or what is symbolized fully in the water, I confess, that I don't have all the light I wish I had. And this is one point where the commentators disappointed me. They were like that broken reed that you read about in the Proverbs.

28:47 That friend that you trust him in time of trouble, and he fails you like a broken reed. Well, my commentators proved to be broken reeds to me, as I tried to find out what is the basic symbolism of water. Now I know it would be easy to jump in the New Testament, and say, well, it speaks of the washing of water by the Word, and the water is the Word. That would be the easy way out.

29:07 But I'm not quite so sure that would be the right way out, or the right explanation. But whatever is symbolized by the water, it has to do, now, this side of the cross, not with physical water, not with a reference to baptism, but it has to do with those agents that God employs for our inner cleansing, whatever they be. And certainly those that would be included would be the work and ministry, of His Spirit. He's called the Spirit of Judgment and of Burning.

29:35 We read in Malachi, He shall purify the sons of Levi. Now how does the Holy Spirit purify and purge from us inner corruption? I don't understand how He does it. The ways of God in doing this are mysterious.

29:49 All the ways of God. The work of the Spirit, Jesus said, has an element of divine mystery, like the wind. And certainly it's part of the ministry of the Spirit, to do that work, to do that work of inner cleansing and purifying. And perhaps God will give some of you some more light on that, and I can get a few more sheets of paper, like I got on verse 6.

Principle 1: Sin Defiles Believers and Requires Confession

30:11 That will be a help. Alright then, what does this couplet of petitions and affirmations say to us, in the area of our confessing of sin to God? Well, in the first place, this text obviously teaches that sin is defiling and polluting, even in the child of God. There is a false notion drawn from the doctrine of justification, that if we are accepted in the Beloved, if we have that standing before God, and we've been studying the wonder of that in our catechetical instruction Sunday mornings, this standing or falling doctrine of the Church, justification by faith, we're accepted as righteous in His sight, only through the merits of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone. I've done my homework and memorized the definition, if you have. Now, there's a false inference drawn from that. Since our sins are blotted out, we are accepted in the Beloved, then, when we sin as Christians, somehow sin must not quite be so ugly to God, since He sees us as in Christ.

31:20 No, I would remind you that sin is always ugly to God. The difference is, we shall not be brought under the legal condemnation of our sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But nowhere does the Bible teach there is no defilement and pollution.

31:38 1 John 1.9 is addressed to Christians, and he says, if we confess, He's faithful and just to forgive, indicating we need forgiveness, and to cleanse. We've been defiled, and we need cleansing. Isn't that the obvious teaching of the Bible?

31:53 And so, we shall not be able to enter in and pray Psalm 51, if we have this erroneous concept, this false notion, that somehow sin does not defile me. When I, as a Christian, sin, I am not polluted and defiled by that sin. No, though we are accepted in the Beloved and justified, we need to come and pray as David did, purge me with this. O God, I plead for a fresh application of the blood of Christ.

32:24 O God, this sin is as ugly in Your sight now as it was in the days of my unregenerate sin. In itself, the sin deserves just as much Your wrath and Your crown. This is the first principle that I see in our text, and we need to remind ourselves of it, lest our confession of sin be perfunctory and heartless. Some of us, perhaps, are never bothered with the problem of whether or not our repetitions in confession are vain or not, for we don't ever feel any pressure to repeat the confession of any sin to God.

33:00 We can come with a glibness. O God, forgive my sin in Jesus' name. Amen. If you've never been plagued with the problem, well, Lord, do I need to confess it again?

33:10 I know the thing was sin. I know it was wrong. I know it's displeasing in Your sight. And, Lord, I feel polluted and defiled.

33:17 I've confessed it before God. I plead again. Wash me. You know what that is?

33:22 If you've never been troubled with the problem of whether or not you ought to reconfess something, I wonder if you've ever really confessed anything. I wonder if you have. I wonder if you have. If you've never been troubled with the problem of whether or not you should reconfess something, I doubt that you've ever truly confessed anything.

33:44 As an old man, David looks back and says, Remember not against me the sins of my youth. He lets his confession go all the way back to his young days. If you found that in your experience, I'll never forget the comfort that came to me when I was reading McIntyre's book on the hidden life of prayer, on the section on confession. And he was dealing with the fact that it's scriptural to go back over some ground that you've already covered.

34:11 And as the first writer I ever read that said that, because I found at times when I was in prayer and the thought of my past life would loom before me, I felt instinctively that I had to confess again to God the folly of my sin, the dishonor that I brought to His name. But I said, wait a minute. I've been told that this is unbelieving. You've confessed it.

34:29 Don't forget it. And then McIntyre pointed out that David prayed that way. Remember not against me the sins of my youth. And what a ray of light broke into my soul.

34:39 You see, that man understood what the heart alone can understand. Theologians and Bible students who came to Psalm 51 with their head alone missed the point. The saint of God who comes with his heart, he understands and deep answers unto deep in a passage like this. I don't want to lay to the point, but I do want to bring it into focus.

35:02 Sin is defiling and polluting even in the child of God. And the healthy soul will instinctively find himself crying out and purge me with his sin. O God, I confess my sin. Cleanse me by the blood of Christ.

35:16 Again, and I don't mean to be negative, but I feel it's necessary where error has been propagated to expose it. I've heard it said that no Christian in this age should ever pray that God will forgive him and cleanse him. All you need to do is confess and the forgiving and cleansing is automatic. Now what kind of foolishness is that?

Principle 2: Sin Bars Realized Fellowship with God

35:33 Of course we pray that He'll forgive us. If we confess, part of confession is beseeching God for His forgiveness and His cleansing, even as David does here. And the second principle, sin bars us from the realized fellowship of God. Now notice what I say.

35:56 As children of God, sin will bar us from the realized fellowship of God. We know from God's standpoint He will not cast off His people. Nothing shall separate us from the love of Christ. But you see, a Christian is not content alone with the fact of God's presence and God's possession of Him.

36:18 A Christian is content with nothing less than the realized experience of the presence of God. At least if I understand my Bible at all, that's a good description of a Christian, a man who's content with nothing less than the realized fellowship of Christ. God is faithful, Paul says, by whom you were called unto the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 9. The cry of a Christian is the Apostle Paul's cry that we read in Philippians this morning, that I may know Him.

36:48 Wait a minute, Paul, don't you know Him? Yeah, I know Him, but I want to know Him. Well, that's foolishness, isn't it? Now every Christian says, I know what he's talking about.

36:57 What I discovered of him in his initial discovery of himself, to me, has set my heart a-panting for more. And if you're not panting, you've never had anything. And so, the principle that I see in this song, this verse, when David takes the analogy of the leper, and this is the point at which the commentator did help me, I kind of figured David was thinking of that leper cut off, and almost without exception, Matthew Poole, Matthew Henry, Adam Clarke, Dean Alpert, no, Dean Alpert didn't say anything on that, that's New Testament, but all the ones I checked on my shelf, said that David is likening his position to that of a leper, cut off, as the leper was, from the privilege of fellowship with the people of God, the privilege of worship in the temple or tabernacle of God. And so, we as God's children must recognize that sin is that which bars us from the realization of the fellowship of God. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Psalm 66 and verse 18, the Lord's hand is not shortened but it cannot save, neither is he heavy that he cannot hear, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God and have hid his face from you so that he will not hear.

38:14 Let me ask you something tonight, dear child of God. In this past week, have you known at least something of the realized presence of God? Has God been something more to you than a theological concept? You say, what do you mean by that?

38:31 Well, let me ask another question. Have you known what it is to have something of the realized fellowship, friendship and communication of your wife? I don't see any of you that look quite as beat out as you often look if you had a whole week in the office with each other. You all look pretty lovey-dovey, you husbands and wives.

38:54 You've had realized communion together. Maybe not totally unbroken communion. There may have been some instances where your countenances were not toward each other as they ought to have been every minute of the day, but you know what I mean when I say, have you experienced communion with your wife? Now, elevate that as far as the dignity and the sanctity of it, but qualitatively it's the same thing.

39:21 Realized communion with God. The interchange of minds, of arts, of affections, of thoughts. Have you known that this week? If not, when?

39:36 Well, David knew why he had not experienced it for almost a year. He knew he had been cut off from all those privileges and he knew he had to be put in the church and be exiled like a leopard and so he cried, purged me with hyssop and I shall be clean, washed me and I shall be whiter than snow. And then the last principle that I see in the text and this is the most wonderful principle of all, that the blood on the conscience is the only place of refuge for the sinning saint. When David thinks of the magnitude of his sin, his first prayer was wash me, it was a general prayer, but now that he confesses the nature of his sin against thee and thee only have I sinned, the root source of his sin, his inherent depravity, he now no longer prays a general prayer, oh God, forgive, but purge me with hyssop. And it's interesting how people will have such vague and general notions about forgiveness, oh yeah, I'll ask God for forgiveness, no reference to Christ, no reference to the blood, no reference to atonement, God's a good God, He'll forgive me, but you let them begin to get a good sight of what sin

Principle 3: The Blood on the Conscience is the Only Refuge

41:05 is, rebellion against God, root it in the depravity of their nature and they'll begin to look for a way of forgiveness that involves just a general prayer, wash me, but as he focused upon the magnitude of his sin, it's no longer just wash me and cleanse me in any way, but Lord, the only way with hyssop, the blood of sacrifice, the blood of atonement. We return in closing tonight to Hebrews chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10, as we have a beautiful New Testament counterpart of Psalm 51 and verse 7, Hebrews chapter 10, verses 19 through 22. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh, and having an high priest over the house of God, the Lord Jesus himself, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, and our hearts sprinkled from an evil

42:29 conscience. I'll leave off the last phrase because I'm not sure what it means, and our bodies washed with pure water. It could be tacked on to the next verse, some commentators feel it ought to be, and therefore it would have a reference to baptism. It could mean let's have what was symbolized by the cleansing of water, and I'm not exactly sure what that was, so I'll make no comment on the last verse, the last phrase, but notice this, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience.

43:03 What's an evil conscience? It's what David had before he prayed Psalm 51. He couldn't think of coming into the presence of God. He was defiled like a leopard to think of coming before a holy God.

43:19 His conscience was evil. It was defiled, it besmirched, it contended, it gave him no liberty to be a great man. And the Bible says, if you have no heart, then come to me with a true heart. Then come to me with a true heart with a heart that fully trusts in the efficacy of the sprinkling of the blood of Christ.

43:56 heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience. I must learn to come as David did, when faced with the terrible barrier of adultery, murder, intrigue, deception, backsliding, and yet he could give that triumphant affirmation, if thou wilt purge me with hyssop, if you will apply to me the cleansing blood in the way that you've ordered, just like that, I'll be pleased. I can come straight through murder, adultery, intrigue, deception, backsliding, in a moment, straight through into the presence of God. Full assurance of faith. Oh, dear child of God, may I purge you and exhort you to learn the lesson that I am so painfully slow at learning, that all my groaning and moaning won't purge away my evil conscience. Oh.

45:01 All my flagellating of myself and going around making myself feel guilty for a few hours, it won't purge away sin, nor will it give me boldness of accent. But when I've come like David to the place where I see that sin and am willing to acknowledge it, willing to see the nature of it as against God, willing to accept the fact that it's rooted in my inherent depravity and sin I was conceived, and I come longing for deliverance as only one place deliverance comes, only one hope of access, the sprinkling of the blood of Christ. I trust, and I've learned that it's a lot easier to vow that you won't do it again. It's a lot easier to put a few more tracts in your pocket and pass out a few more tracts and try to appease God. A lot easier to do anything but come and say nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

45:57 No thing. That's what nothing means, right? No thing. Tears, agony, anything.

46:03 Nothing. In my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling, bow I to the fountain, just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bidst me come to thee. God is saying, draw near. To whom?

46:20 Sinless men? No. Sinners. If they were sinless, they need no sprinkling of the blood.

46:27 But that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God.

Exhortation to Come to Christ for Cleansing

46:32 O dear child of God, we pray that God will teach you this truth. Now, some of you are in a state of sin. Some of you are not children of God. You'll abuse us.

46:39 And you'll turn the grace of God into license and sing with a high hand and then wave the blood of Christ before God. If you want to rest the scriptures to your own destruction, your blood will be upon your own head. But I'm not going to keep back the truth that is bread for God's children because somebody may go out and poison himself with it. Dear child of God, you must learn to come.

47:00 I've been fighting whether or not I should quote Luther because it sounds heretical and I don't know whether I should.

47:06 But I'll tell you what I thought I might say. Luther, you're not a child of God. You're not a child of God. You're not a child of God.

47:11 He used terms like symbolic. What did he mean by that? Oh, he didn't mean make a license for sin. If you read the rest of what he said, you know he didn't mean it.

47:21 But what he meant is that when the child of God recognizes sin in his life, nothing to do but to come with openness and acknowledge before God, this is the condition that the blood of Christ is able to come. Able to come. Now, don't go out and anyone quote me and put that in the wrong context and negate everything else I've tried to preach for five years in this place. But, oh dear ones, it's hard for us to learn.

47:46 The human heart is a work's heart. It's a heart that wants to build up its own merit. And it's the earnest child of God that'll get hung up. Who'll say, oh God, purge me with hyssop.

47:56 Plus, a few of my tears, a few of my groves, a few days of a sad countenance to let everybody know I'm really, really repentant.

48:07 Oh, purge me with hyssop. And I shall be clean. Wash me. And I shall be white as a fish.

48:15 May God be with you. Please teach us as His children how to be tempted. And give us day by day an ever-increasing appreciation of the blood of spring. Think of it, child of God.

48:29 We can go out here tonight cleaner than the new bones.

48:33 Cursed. Cleansed. Washed. And those of you who've never repented and fled to Christ, strangers to grace, there's only one way you'll ever come to know the forgiveness of your sins.

48:44 You've got to come to the appointed means, the blood of Christ. And that blood, whichever of us, is the blood of Christ. And that blood, whichever of us fails for the children of God, is a fountain open for sin and uncleanness for all who have come. And I plead with you tonight, come, acknowledging your sins, and plead to the only source of forgiveness, even Jesus Christ.

49:03 Hallelujah. Thank you.