Plea for a Clean Heart

Minister:
Date: AM
Text: Psalm 51:10-12
Psalters: 10, 142, 300, 251
Sacrament of the Lord's Supper
  1. The need.
    1. David asks God to give him a clean “heart” and a right “spirit.”
      1. The word “heart” refers, not to his regenerated heart, but to his inner man, mind, will, heart, understanding, his thinking.
      2. Man’s “spirit” is man’s spiritual being, the inner seat or organ of mental acts.
    2. David is a saint who is in communion with Jesus and is regenerated by the Holy Spirit with life everlasting. But the child of God still has an old man, a sinfulness which cleaves to us and against which we constantly struggle till death.
    3. The sinner who has been made to be sorry for his sin is troubled by the power and corruption of sin within.
  2. David pleads with God to “create in me,” to “renew,” to “restore,” and to “uphold.”
    1. After deceiving ourselves for so long denying our sin, we easily despair of the possibility of sin’s power being broken.
      1. We are desperate to know that God is able to deliver us from the pollution and power of sin.
      2. But we learn that God is able, and thus turn to Him, persisting to use the means He has appointed for giving grace.
    2. David prays to God to do what he cannot. We cannot cleanse ourselves within, to renew our spirits.
      1. Sanctification is God’s work on the regenerated and justified sinner; God’s continuing work of saving.
      2. The word “create” indicates that sanctification is a work of God.
    3. When God cleanses His child within, then that person’s “spirit” will become “right.”
  3. The fruit of God’s sanctifying work is the restoring of the joy of sweet fellowship with God.
    1. David’s great concern is that He lost the experience of God’s presence (11a).
    2. It is the Spirit Who gives us what we need to enjoy consciously this shining face of our Father and know the joy of salvation (12a).at the Lord’s Table.