A Clean Heart and a Right Spirit

Introduction: David's Penitential Example

0:03 Let us turn again to the 51st Psalm, Psalm 51, and we shall be looking in some detail at verse number 10, for the benefit of those who are visiting with us and have not been in on the entire series of studies, this is the 11th in a series, and I have sought in the preparation of the messages to make each one a message complete in itself, but as this is one entire psalm, there is a direct relationship between what we consider in any given night and that which precedes and that which follows it.

0:48 This is David Sprapp's greatest penitential psalm, and we must recognize that as David was a tragic example of how a most privileged child of God can become a most shameful sinner, so David is also a beautiful example of how a shameful sinner can become a most shameful sinner. A shameful sinner becomes a model of penitence and confession.

1:16 Let us, by the grace of God, seek to avoid his example of sin, but emulate his example of repentance. As I was listening in my tape recorder the other day, traveling to another ministry, there is this character that appears in Book 2 of Pilgrim's Progress who reasons that he may, if he emulates the virtues of the saints, he may with equal ease and vehemence emulate their sins. He says, if I have the virtues of David, why may I not emulate the sins of David? If I have the virtues of Abraham, why may I not lie as did Abraham?

1:56 And of course the answer given to this man's presumptive attitude is this, Abraham and David and the other saints of God whose sins are not by any means covered up or glossed over in the scripture but laid out clearly, the scripture makes clear that they sinned and sinned against the basic bent and direction of their own renewed desires. They sinned in their weakness, but to sin with a high hand and with impunity is to mark oneself as an unregenerate man. And so we must never allow the example of David's sin to become that which we emulate. We must flee from the example of his sin, but by the grace of God seek to emulate his penitence and his confession.

The Meaning of David's Prayer: 'Create a Clean Heart, Renew a Right Spirit'

2:39 In our study we have noticed, thus far, that David's primary concern in his confession is not what we would call the selfish aspects of praying. He's not asking God primarily to be happy, though he mentions joy, and we'll see that in further studies, but the main bent of his prayer is that he might have his ruptured relationship with God once again restored. He's praying not so much for happiness as for holiness. Not so much for...

3:11 For his reputation before men, but for his standing and his experience before God. We come tonight to verse number 10, in which David prays, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right or steadfast spirit within me. As we've done in other nights, we're first of all going to spend a few minutes on just the meaning of the words. What did David mean when he prayed?

3:43 Create a clean heart, renew a right or steadfast spirit. Then we will spend the remainder of our time considering the great lessons to us contained in those particular words. When David prayed, Create in me a clean heart, O God, what was he doing? Well he was saying in essence, O God, as in the beginning you brought the world and the heavens out of nothing by your sovereign creative power, as you began with nothing and brought something into existence, for the same word for create is used there in

4:25 the first few chapters of Genesis, as we find here. He says, O mighty God who put forth your strength and might in creating the original heaven and earth, may there be no less an exertion of sovereign omnipotent power to do something in me. The word create immediately shuts us up to the sovereign omnipotence of Almighty God. God alone creates, and so David directs his prayer to God, and that which he's asking God to create in him is a clean heart.

5:01 Now, David, when he used the word heart, was not, of course, speaking of the physical organ by which the blood is pumped through our bodies, but he was speaking of the heart as the seat of the affections, the very citadel of the human existence, the sense in which we read in Proverbs 4.23, Guard thy heart above all that thou guardest, for out of it are the issues of life. It's the same thought as he used in verse 6 when he said, Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. When you dig down through the life,

5:43 the life of a man, and get beneath his actions and beneath his words, you finally come to the seat out of which all of this flows, the bedrock soil out of which all the issues of life grow, and this is what David means in using the word heart. Create in me a clean heart. O God, put forth your sovereign power to do something that stops nothing short of the bedrock substrata, of my very existence. Lord, do something in the area where I cannot do anything for myself, and where men cannot help me.

6:22 And then he parallels that prayer by saying, Renew a right spirit within me. To renew something is to bring it back to its original state. And David is asking that God would renew within him a right, or better translated, a steadfast spirit. He's confessing, O Lord, when I have sinned, as I have sinned, I did so because my spirit was fickle.

6:53 My spirit was not fixed in a purpose of holiness and righteousness and purity. My spirit was not a virgin spirit with you, Lord. It went a-whoring after my lusts. When temptation came, instead of being like Daniel, who purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself, David, David acknowledges that his spirit was not steadfast, it was fickle.

7:19 The same accusation is brought in Psalm 78, 37 about the children of Israel. And it says that the root of all of their problems in the wilderness wanderings, where they disobeyed God and grumbled and complained and would not believe Him, is summed up in this little phrase, and their spirit was not right. Same word in the Hebrew. Their spirit was not steadfast with God.

7:44 Remember the first thing they did when they faced a difficulty was said, Would to God we died in Egypt. A little bit later, oh, that we could be back in Egypt. You see, their spirit was not steadfast in going out to that land to which God promised to bring them. They had half a heart for that and half a heart to be back in Egypt.

8:03 This is David's confession here. He says, O God, the root of my problem was this. Not only was my heart polluted and now stands in need of cleansing, but, O God, my spirit was not steadfast. It was unstable as water.

8:19 Lord, put steel in my spirit. Make it a steadfast spirit, one that will not be drawn aside by the inducements of temptation and sin. So David's prayer then is basically this. Create, O God, what is not there, heart purity.

8:39 Renew what is there, what is languishing. Renew. Renew the right spirit or the steadfast spirit within me. Now, in praying these words, what does David reveal to us about himself, about his prayer?

Lesson 1: The Completeness of David's Prayer (Legal Guilt and Moral Pollution)

8:54 What lessons are there for us as we take this prayer of David and set it before our own minds and hearts? Well, first of all, there is a lesson as we look at the completeness of David's prayer. You will notice in verse 9, David prayed that God would hide his face from his sins and blot out all his iniquities. And those who were with us, I trust you will remember the main thrust of that prayer or that petition was this.

9:27 David recognized that all sin that was not blotted out by the mercy of God and the provision of sacrifice, every unblotted sin was a loud voice crying out to God to bring judgment upon the sinner who was guilty of it. The worst thing that can happen to any man or woman is for God to refuse to blot out his sin. For the wages of sin is death. And so when David prayed, blot out my sin, he is thinking of sin in its legal aspects.

10:02 Sin is there in the record book of God as an indictment against David. It cries out for the judgment of God, for the stroke of his judgment upon David. And so David's prayer is, Lord, blot out the sin. For if the sin be blotted out, then I will no longer be exposed to your judgment.

10:21 David's prayer in verse 9 was primarily concerned with the legal guilt of sin. What I have termed in times past, the bad record in heaven. But now notice he does not stop with the legal guilt of sin, but he immediately moves on in the text that is before us tonight, verse 10, to pray about the personal defilement. Or the moral pollution of sin.

10:48 Not only, Lord, do I pray that you blot out the sin, settle the legal problem, but, O Lord, create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me. You see, David's prayer was a complete prayer. For in his confession and in his seeking the face of God for mercy, he did not stop short of pleading for those two basic needs, that sin always creates in the life of a believer or an unbeliever. A legal problem and a personal moral problem.

11:25 A problem in the record of heaven, a problem in my own heart here on earth. And it's precisely these two things that God has undertaken to meet these two needs in the death and in the work of his own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Will you turn, please, to Hebrews? Chapter 10, for a few minutes.

11:49 As this portion of the word of God becomes a tremendous commentary on Psalm 51, verses 9 and 10.

11:59 Hebrews, chapter 10.

12:09 In this section, the writer to the Hebrews is explaining how the death of Jesus Christ has brought into being all of the blessings that God had promised under the description of a new covenant, that he would make with his people. And we read in verse 14 of Hebrews 10, For by one offering he hath perfected forever those that are sanctified. Wherefore the Holy Ghost is a witness to us, for after that he had said before, and now this is a quotation from the Old Testament from Jeremiah, This is the covenant that I'll make with them after those days, saith the Lord.

12:50 I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write, and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin. Notice the two great blessings of the new covenant. God says, I'll do something in their hearts, and I will do something with the record of their sins, concerning their sins and iniquities.

13:23 I'll remember them no more. I will blot them out. Concerning their hearts, I will write my laws upon their hearts, and in their minds will I write them. When the Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood for sinners, he shed his blood to procure these two blessings.

13:42 The blessing that would result in the blotting out of sin in the record book of heaven, and the blessings that would result in the subduing of the rebel sinner's heart here on earth.

13:55 And as a result of this, the Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood for sinners, and as a sinner is brought by the work of the Holy Spirit to the place of seeing his need of the Savior, and by that same Spirit is enabled to repent and to believe, these two blessings become his portion on the very threshold of Christian experience. His sins are blotted out, and the law of God is written upon his heart, so that from within there is this desire to obey him. But not only is this principle true at the threshold, the Christian experience, but as the children of God walk in the Christian life, they continually have this two-fold need, the need of forgiveness and the need of cleansing.

14:37 For sin not only exposes us as the children of God to the chastising rod of God, but sin also defiles us. So we read in 1 John 1.9, If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to do two things. What are they?

14:56 To forgive us, that's the legal problem, and to what? Cleanse us, that's the moral, personal defilement.

15:08 For my sin brings both needs before me. I need forgiveness, I've sinned against God, and in sinning I've defiled myself, I need cleansing. And here is the gracious promise of God, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, blot out, and to cleanse us, create in me a clean heart, O God. And so we see the completeness of David's prayer, for he recognized that he could not stand before God with unblotted sin, and so his cry is blot out, but he also recognized he could not walk with God with an uncouraged heart.

15:52 For this same David is the one who said, Who shall ascend into the hill of God? Who shall stand? Who shall stand in his holy place? He that hath clean hands and a pure.

16:06 And David was not content to simply know that the legal problem was solved. He longed for a restoration of conscious communion with God, and he knew he could not have this with a defiled heart and with an unstable spirit. So having taken care of the legal problem, he now zeroes in upon the problem of his own heart, and he cries, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Application: Justification and Sanctification are Inseparable

16:39 Wouldn't it God would be pleased to so inscribe upon the hearts of us his people that the great blessings of justification and sanctification, forgiveness and cleansing are always inseparable in the working of God in the hearts of sinners. There is no sanctification. I cannot expect that the problem of my corrupt nature will be dealt with until I can stand before God as a forgiven sinner. And so for those of you here tonight who are outside of Jesus Christ and have never fled

17:20 to him for mercy, how are you going to grapple with the problem of impurity of thought and unholy desires and unholy attitudes and dispositions? You cannot begin to cope with those problems. You cannot begin to cope with those problems until first of all you are restored to God on the basis of the blood of Jesus Christ and are brought into a justified state, brought into that state where your sins are blotted out for the sake of Jesus Christ. And then having the sin blotted out, there can begin to be that process of inward purification.

17:56 The same is true of us as the children of God. When we have sinned, we must come first of all crying as David did. Blot out! Blot out!

18:04 And then create in me. But now reverse it. We have so many in the church today, and I am quite sure we are not the one exception at the church, who talk much and speak much of justification being accepted in the beloved, who talk much of the fact that, well, I keep short accounts with God and I confess my sin, but who seem to have precious little desire for this moral and personal purification. They seem to be content to simply know that the record is set.

18:32 They seem to be content to simply know that the record is set. The record books in heaven have been juggled and altered whether or not the disposition of their own hearts has been altered. But the man or woman who is a true child of God, is not content with simply legal acceptance. He longs for personal experience of the presence of God, and he knows that this cannot be experienced unless he has a clean heart.

Lesson 2: The Inwardness of the Christian Life

18:56 Pure hands, a pure heart, and clean hands. So this is one of the great lessons of the text. lesson of the completeness that is found in David's prayer. And then, secondly, one of the great lessons, and it flows out of this, is what I'm calling a lesson on the inwardness of the Christian life. You'll notice in this prayer, David had already mentioned in verse

19:25 six, these two phrases, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. And now he prays, create in me a clean heart, and renew a right or steadfast spirit within me. Later on in the passage, he says in verse seventeen, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart. Inward parts, hidden part, heart, spirit. Six times these

20:07 words come before us in David's prayer. What do they tell us? Well, they tell us that there is an essential inwardness in the Christian life that makes a man or woman not sinfully introspective, but makes him occupied with a wholesome occupation. A wholesome occupation with the state of his own heart, because he recognized as the heart is, so is the life. Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues

20:41 of life. And David recognized that his actions were rooted in his attitudes, and that the attitudes had their spring in the heart, and so he's careful to trace his confession back to the whole area of his heart disposition, of his heart's disposition. The heart's attitudes. He said in Psalm 101 in verse two, I will walk within my house with a perfect heart. He says in another Psalm, with my whole heart have I sought thee. Oh,

21:14 let me not wander from thy commandments. He says in another Psalm, I will praise thee with my whole heart. You find David again and again occupied with the inwardness of Christian expression. experience, David had come to the terrible realization that in failing to guard his heart long before he ever took that walk upon the rooftop of the palace and looked out and saw that Sheba and then all the sordid story that follows, David realizes that that course of action beginning with that walk upon the rooftop could never have begun unless his heart had

21:57 first of all been prepared by being chilled to the reality of the presence and fellowship of God. And so now he prays, O God, create in me a clean heart and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Had my spirit been steadfast in holiness when temptation came at that moment, I would have turned as I turned many other times when temptation came before me. When my spirit was steadfast, in its purpose to be holy and to walk with you, Lord, temptation was no problem. But the

David's Disobedience to Deuteronomy 17:17 as a Precursor to Sin

22:35 reason temptation ensnared me and I was brought into the grip of sin was that first of all my spirit had been rendered fickle, perhaps through carelessness, failure to watch, failure to pray. Whatever the causes were, I have some theory of my own, and I think it's substantiated in Scripture. God had said in Deuteronomy 17, 17, the king shall not multiply unto himself wives. David in direct disobedience to that command when God had been saying that when he would give them a king and they be brought into the land, that their king should not copy the kings

23:19 of the heathen nations and multiply to themselves wives. But David in direct disobedience to a clear command had six wives at the time that he sinned with Bathsheba. You see, God knows that disobedience to his commands will lead to other sins. And David had not learned that contentment with one vessel. He had not learned what it was to

23:48 find full and complete satisfaction of his God-given desires and appetites with one woman. So what was one more when you've had six? And the breakdown began years before when there was an instability in David's spirit. David had not learned that contentment with one vessel. He had not learned what it was

24:05 to find full and complete satisfaction of his God-given desires and appetites with one woman. So that's why we say God is the spirit to the clear command of God. In fact, he is not Pokah, he is a menorah called the devil. God is the spirit to the pure command of God. Now, take the application. In your case,

24:13 it's not adultery, but it may be many other things. God is said and given you some clear word about some area of your life, but you're not steadfast in obeying him. Maybe it's some area of your finances. God's made it abundantly clear in His Word that the tithe belongs to him. But you've dodged, you've hedged, and your spirit is locked in steadfast in obedience

24:40 to the Lord. What will happen? There is a breakdown that will issue in other sin. Perhaps it's in the area of dealing with some personal hidden sin or lust.

24:52 Perhaps it's in the area of an attitude. Perhaps it's in the area of your relationship to some brother or sister in Christ. Whatever it is, David recognized that the breakdown came inwardly, and so his prayer goes back to the source of his failure, and he cries to God for a renewal of a steadfast spirit within him. I always get a bit disturbed when I hear people say, Well, you know, you must be careful. We can become introspective.

25:29 That's not the practical danger of this shallow, giddy, jet-set age. Our problem is we don't stop long enough. We don't have to take anything seriously, even the state of our own hearts.

25:44 We rush into the closet of prayer if we go there at all. Then we rush out. God doesn't have time to show us our hearts. God doesn't have time to kick through the rubble of our external veneer until we see ourselves and see the danger signals in the state of our own hearts.

26:05 We rush into our services with very little preparation of heart. We rush home with very little sealing to our hearts of what we've heard. That's the story of our lives, rush, rush. But David, with all the pressures that were upon him as a king, found time to get concerned about the inward parts.

26:30 And in this I see a tremendous lesson on the inwardness of the Christian life. Oh, dear child of God, guard your heart. Fear a cold heart like you would fear a fall into open immorality. Fear a cold heart like you would fear a fall into open immorality.

26:53 Fear a cold heart like you would fear a fall into open immorality. Fear a cold heart to Christ like you would fear open denial of him as Peter was guilty. Fear a cold heart like you would fear apostasy. For the first step to apostasy, to open denial, to open breach of the law of God is a cold heart.

27:18 Failure to guard the heart. That's where it all begins. For when the heart burns with love to Christ and single minded devotion to Christ, And when the spirit is steadfast to do the will of God, to walk the path of holiness, there is no inducement to sin powerful enough to turn a child of God into evil.

27:41 But you let the heart grow cold and let the spirit become unsteadfast and fickle. And the slightest breeze of temptation carries us along like it was a mighty gale. Isn't this true?

28:00 David was concerned about the inward parts. May God grant that we shall follow his example.

Lesson 3: The Necessity of Divine Intervention for Personal Restoration

28:07 And then the third principle and lesson I see in the text before us is what I'm calling a lesson on the necessity of divine intervention in terms of personal restoration. Notice David's prayer. Create in me a clean heart, O God. He uses this word create, something that only God does.

28:35 Man has never said, It's God who creates. The principle we've seen in previous studies. David acknowledges, I have forfeited purity of heart. I have forfeited steadfastness of spirit.

28:52 But though I had power to forfeit these things, I have no power to restore them. And nothing short of the exercise of omnipotence can meet my need.

29:05 David again lies, as it were, helpless before his God, acknowledging with men this is impossible. But with God, all things are possible. The question is asked by Job, Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? And the answer is no one.

29:27 But blessed be God, He can create a pure heart where there is impurity. I do not believe we must look for theologically accurate terminology in this. But I do believe we must look for theologically accurate terminology in this psalm. What does David mean by a clean heart and come to some precise definition?

29:45 Again, I say, as I've said on other nights, this psalm is one that only the person smitten with a sense of his sin can truly understand. You've got to come at it heart first, with your head tagging along. If you come to it head first, you'll never understand it. If you're a stranger to what it is to be smitten and experience godly grief, you'll never understand the 51st Psalm.

30:09 But if you know what it's like as a child of God to have grievously sinned against your Lord, and you're aware that the sin began when the heart was turned aside from Him and when the Spirit was no longer steadfast with Him, you know what it's like to cry out, Oh God, create in me a clean heart. And oh God, I acknowledge only You can do it. No amount of attending meetings, no amount of hearing sermons, no amount of even prayers will do it. Oh God, Thou must bring.

30:39 Break through and do that which I cannot. Lord, in a moment's notice, I can turn aside, but only Thou can restore me. Left to myself, I can be unstable and impure, but oh Lord, it's only by the intervention of Your mighty power that I can be pure and steadfast. Does your heart answer an amen to what I'm saying?

The Pursuit of Perfection Despite Imperfection

31:04 Do you know experimentally what David is praying here? Someone might object and say, oh, but wait a minute. Don't we know that this side of heaven, our hearts will never be perfectly pure and clean? Yes, and David knew it.

31:22 But the acknowledgment and understanding that perfection is not attainable until we see Him face to face does not hinder the true child of God from making perfection His goal and His prayer. Let me illustrate on a human level. I'm thinking a lot these days of marriages and weddings. I married off the fourth.

31:44 A sister of my own sisters that I've been privileged to marry off just this past Saturday, yesterday. And in this area of marriage, I've been doing some thinking relating it to the Christian life. When Dan and Sally stood there in Paradise, Pennsylvania and exchanged vows, they set their hearts to be the perfect husband and the perfect wife. If they love each other, anything less than setting their hearts and their wills by the grace of God to be perfect embodiments of the Christian ideal of a husband and a wife is unthinkable.

32:27 You think of your experience. If you truly love your wife or your husband, you purpose to be a perfect husband. You don't say, oh, well, I've come up three quarters of the way and it's pretty good, better than half, a lot better than a third. No.

32:41 If you really love someone, you set your heart to perfection. Now, if I ask you, do you believe you ever will be the perfect husband and perfect wife? You'll answer just as quickly, I hope, if you've got any sense, no. And if you don't, I'll ask her and she'll say a loud no, or I'll ask him and he'll say a loud no.

33:01 But the recognition that you'll never attain perfection does not keep you from an honest pursuit of perfection, does it? You follow me? Is that the way it is with you? No?

33:15 Yes? I don't want my illustration to break down. If it's true, I want to use it. But if it isn't, is that true?

33:19 Suppose you said to your wife, you're going to be a perfect husband and perfect wife. Is that the way it is with you? No. If you said to your wife, well, you know, dear, I know I'll never be a perfect husband, so I'll just sort of aim at being three-quarters the perfect husband.

33:30 How's that? Pretty good average? You bat 750 in the major leagues and you'd be a five-day wonder. Your wife would not appreciate that.

33:40 So maybe you put the stakes a little higher and say, well, I'll try to be nine-tenths the perfect husband. How's that? No. She'd be disappointed, and rightly so, because the only valid expression of the genuineness of your life is perfection.

33:55 The genuineness of your love is that you want to, by the grace of God, press toward the highest expression of that love, which is perfection. That's the attitude of the child of God. I know, in the light of what the Scripture says, that I shall never be perfect this side of heaven. I'm going to be perfect as a Christian.

34:16 But the recognition that I'll not be perfect this side of heaven does not keep me from having perfection as my honest goal and my honest pursuit. So when David is conscious of sin, he doesn't pray, creating me a half-clean heart, creating me a three-quarters clean heart, but, O God, creating me a heart that is nothing but cleanliness and purity. For if the heart is all pure, then the life will be all pure. For out of the heart are the issues of life.

34:45 And when you're on your knees before God as a Christian, that's your cry, O God, make me all pure within. You know that your spirit will never be perfectly perfect. You'll be perfectly steadfast this side of glory as long as the remains of corruption are yet within you, as long as the devil is there as a roaring lion with hundreds and thousands of years of experience in duping not only sinners but saints. And yet your prayer is, Lord, give me a steadfast spirit.

Conclusion and Summary of Lessons

35:19 And he acknowledges that only God can bring it to pass. I trust that these three lessons, extracted from the prayer of David, will help you to take the life of God. And that's what I've been praying for. I hope that the prayer of David will be helpful to each one of us tonight.

35:35 David's prayer was, Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. The first lesson we see is the lesson of the completeness of his prayer. Not only does he pray for a blotting out sin, but he prays for a purification of his heart. And if you're here tonight a stranger to the grace of God, you've never fled in repentance and faith to Christ.

36:01 If you've ever been a believer in Christ, you've never fled in repentance in faith to Christ, the record book of your sins, cries out for the judgment of God. And the word of God to you is repent, believe the gospel, flee to Christ. And as you flee to him, he will not only blot out the record that is against you, but he'll change your heart. He'll write his laws upon your heart and give you a desire to obey him from a motive of love.

36:27 And the lesson is there for us as the children of God. Let us not be content to know that the proud of God is turned away and when we've confessed our sin. But let us pray that there be a purging, a renewing of the inner man as well. The second great lesson is on the inwardness of the Christian life.

36:46 Dear child of God, take time to guard your heart. Trace your sins back to their first spring in the heart. And do not rest short of pleading with God for cleansing of the heart. And renewing of a steadfast spirit.

37:03 And then the third great lesson is the lesson on the necessity of the divine intervention for this. Only God can do this work of creating, this work of renewing. But blessed be his name, he can. And as he does, we are enabled to walk before him, as David describes in the 24th Psalm, with clean hands and a pure heart, in conscious, blessed awareness, of his presence and of his fellowship.

37:33 May the Lord bless to our hearts this portion of his holy word. Let us unite in prayer.