Psalm

[0:00] Depending upon the help of God, I would direct you to the 51st Psalm and verses 10 to 12.

[0:20] Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

[0:33] Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit.

[0:54] Psalm 51, verses 10 to 12. This psalm and the text came into my mind through the opening hymn of the prayer meeting.

[1:18] There is a point that I feel is worth noticing. That the whole psalm is in the first person.

[1:38] There's no third person in it. So the David here is dealing with the Lord alone.

[1:53] And the matter which they're occupied with is sin and salvation.

[2:08] And therefore, he is praying for the gospel. And the gospel is said to be the power of God unto salvation.

[2:27] It's a wonderful declaration. Because the power of God unto salvation means that everything that the eternal Son of God condescended to do and to become, every office that he filled, and every character that he was pleased to receive, they are the power of God unto salvation.

[3:17] It's everything that derives from the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[3:31] And everything was in him. What I mean, you may visit a person and take a present with you.

[3:43] And that's yours, you give it to your friend. But that's not so with the Lord. Whatever he gives is a part of himself.

[4:02] And there is the eternity of it. The blessedness of it. And David here, he comes to the very core.

[4:18] Create in me a clean heart. Oh God. His sin, his terrible sin of adultery was ever before him.

[4:34] He couldn't forget it. The Lord forgot it. According to his word.

[4:47] Thy sins and thine iniquities will I remember no more. And David here, he had been shown what was in his heart.

[5:09] What shape he was when he was born. Terrible a shape. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me.

[5:24] And this knowledge must be known. Generalities in religion are fatal.

[5:37] And the Lord will bring us to points and that makes the observation that we opened with to be of no little importance.

[5:55] I say that this psalm is written in the first person. And your religion will be the same.

[6:08] There's a lot of second hand religion about. A lot of talking about it.

[6:21] A lot of social religion. But the Lord will bring his people to self-despair. Every one of them will come to self-despair.

[6:38] And that's a great blessing. It's the next greatest blessing to conversion. Indeed, it is a part of the method that the Lord uses.

[7:01] that create in me a clean heart. He wanted a new creation. The old heart, the old man, their fallen nature could never be renewed.

[7:27] And it's a mercy to realize that because some people think he can. They try to make it better.

[7:44] Try to live and to produce some works which will be acceptable to God on their behalf.

[7:56] but as sure as such a person is left to that and is the Lord he are bringing through the seventh chapter to the Romans when I would do good evil is present with me so that I could not do the things that I would.

[8:22] and he brought him from a good young man with respect to the law he said he was blameless he was a blameless man a good young man and that was one of his greatest sins he was as great a sin as David's adultery only of a different character but sin is sin so that the Lord reduced him to a wretched man with respect to the law blameless oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death what a different language and this is what we must be taught oh it's a mercy to be made a sinner by the Holy Ghost that is to know you are not only because the word of God says so but the inward conviction of the Holy Ghost the light of the law it shines upon everything in our nature and discovers to us that we have nothing in ourselves better than sin and death and hell do you believe it?

[10:22] it is not a pleasant or a popular doctrine pleasant Sunday afternoons and plenty of things of the flesh but the Lord will kill his people before he makes them alive you wound them before he heals them so that you see through here the sympathy of the Lord and David and while it is good to meet together in public yet a secret religion must be known and felt and if you want to know what kind of religion you have just put your finger upon the pulse of your secret religion secret prayers like Nathaniel the Lord saw him under the tree he was alone with God when there was under the fig tree

[11:58] I saw thee he saw Ephraim bemoaning himself he wasn't bemoaning anybody else he was bemoaning himself and if the Lord is dealing with us to make us fit for heaven he'll give us to know what we are in ourselves if any man being Christ is a new creature altogether different from whatever he was create in me a clean heart oh God oh God you know I've mentioned that many times oh that oh he seemed to open his very heart to the eternal trinity the electing love of the father the redeeming love of the son of God and the quickening of power of the holy toast create in me a clean heart oh

[13:33] God we need a new creation it is natural and what is a natural religion is wrong but it is natural for people some people to think that if they walk circumspectly which they should that they can live a life that would be presentable unto God and acceptable to him and make them acceptable to him but know my friend he will destroy the works of the devil in every one of his people and he will turn them to destruction with respect to everything else but his own salvation

[14:45] I think we mentioned it lately as Jonah he went into the belly of hell and what his experience must have been there he and God only knows but he brought him to this I will pay my vows now unto the Lord the salvation is of the Lord create there is a wonderful analogy between the work of creation and the work of grace although the one can never become merged into the other but the beginning of

[15:48] Genesis the beginning was creation in the beginning God created and exactly the same only in a different nature with grace and salvation in the beginning God creates makes something out of nothing and that is an attraction to faith and David knew it and the Holy Ghost is the creator of the new man of grace when one is born again he's born a new man a new creation a new heart new desires as before him another prospect another object create in me a clean heart oh

[16:59] God and renew a right spirit within me and this is exceedingly important for taking the world in the condition that it is it is not things that are wrong but spirit so it is individually oh how needful this is the first part it looks as if you could there be no need for anything else but renew a right spirit within me it is the spirit of men that all the strikes and confusion and violence and murders take place it's not things it's a spirit but then you put the two things together create in me a clean heart oh

[18:23] God and renew a right spirit within me you know David was speaking under the light of the Holy Spirit he was taught two things very clearly he could tell us how God made him a sinner and he could tell us how God made him a saint and if you cannot tell me how God made you a sinner I don't want to hear anything about how he is going to make you a saint all the importance of being made a lost ruined sinner crushed burdened in self despair without

[19:39] God without hope passing through this wilderness a sight of self is important and one of the main works of the Holy Ghost to bring a poor sinner right down man oh wretched man that I am who not what who shall deliver me from the body of this dead there he found it there he found a door of hope I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord and what was the effect there is therefore now no condemnation to those that are in Christ

[20:41] Jesus who walk not in the flesh but in the spirit well what a mercy then if the Lord should put the need of this salvation in your heart and this prayer cast me not away from thy presence this is grateful to be cast away from the Lord I feared it is silence when you come to read his word you will feel that he has cast your way and forbidden you get nothing from his word you try and pray and he seems to repel you instead of draw you you go to a service and

[21:49] I hoped you might get something but all you have is confusion cast me not away from thy presence you you think of it if he did but what else is there if he cast you where you can take you up where can you go the world have plenty of ways of escape but the Lord will shut his people up into self despair you must be brought there I don't know what some of you dear young people think perhaps you might say

[22:51] I wish I hadn't come well if the Lord loves you he'll bring you there and he'll bring you out of it he'll never bring a poor sinner to self despair unless he brings him to good hope through grace for heaven cast me not away from thy presence if his presence isn't with us then he does not look upon us he does not hear our prayers they feared that you know in Isaiah's day Isaiah the 40th 27th verse comes right into the subject cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy spirit from me the holy spirit as we have said is the creator of the new man of grace it is by the holy spirit that the poor sinner is born again the holy spirit is the author of all prevailing prayer he is the author of the life of

[25:14] God in the soul for he takes the things of Jesus and the things of Jesus is first his person and brings his people into an eternal a union with Jesus himself but if we're cast away as we get near to the grave my friends you make you tremble you won't be able to take things for granted if you have the grace of God in your heart but the Lord can bring his people into such a place as they fear that they are cast away from him Jonah said and then and then I said

[26:15] I am cast out of thy sight yet will I look once more toward thy holy temple there was a holy spirit in his heart he wasn't a dead man when he said it he was a living man and take not thy holy spirit from me the holy spirit is an infallible teacher it is he that reveals the truth as it is in Jesus we should know nothing about except the holy ghost reveals the truth in our hearts and when he does then what he reveals we receive it's a substance and when he takes of the things of

[27:24] Jesus and shows them to us then he gives them to us the first thing that the holy ghost gives to the people of God is spiritual life and you have he quickened who were dead in trespasses and in sins but God who is rich in mercy so you put those two things together and you will get what

[28:34] David is looking for and praying for in this chapter in the Ephesians it is you bear with my infirmities I know and you and in the fourth verse but God you take those two words in those two verses and you but God and see what there is in those we have been trying feebly to show oh blessed people if those two words and that old second of two

[29:39] Ephesians is made yours you who are dead in trespasses and sins but God who is rich in mercy create in me a clean heart oh God and renew a right spirit within me cast me not away from thy presence oh the feeling of sinking is gone you might face your room I did last night and felt that the whole of my preaching and religion was all imagination few nothing could find nothing and can't expect to live many more weeks or months and then to be cast away from the presence of the

[30:56] Lord and his Holy Spirit and to feel not only a blank but that blank to be eternal destruction and the frown and anger of God and the burden of guilt upon your conscience cast me not away from thy presence take not thy Holy Spirit from me if he does what you've got left a nominal religious person they've got plenty left they've got a religion like an automatic machine you put your money in you take out what you want free will and their own but if the

[32:05] Lord brings you here and you say and give you to know it you're not your own and be one of the best things our dear young friends could hear the Lord should say to them as they pass through life you're not your own you thought you were but you're not you're bought with a price create in me a clean heart oh God and renew a right spirit within me cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy spirit from me now you know in reading a word like this this is an exercise soul he will not cast about and try and make some excuses and look around him and see people a bit worse than himself and neither will he give up he nearly will nearly give up because he will feel that the

[33:29] Lord has given him up but you see what he did for David he will do for you if you have the same grace cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy Holy Spirit from me but restore restore unto me the joy of salvation the joy of it in the 15th chapter of John there are two joys one is the Lord and one is people and that's just the joy that David is praying for here in the 15th of John in the 11th verse these things have spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full what are these two joys the

[34:52] Lord's joy and his people's joy what it has the same objective exactly and in the Hebrews it shows how it works out the Lord Jesus who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross and with respect to his people what is their joy what is your joy why you rejoice in the Lord he had before him the joy of the salvation of his people and when he cried it is finished oh what a joy he died in joy some people think that the

[35:55] Lord Jesus died in darkness it is finished he knew it was finished it was a joy to him and he knew for whom it was finished and that was a joy to him father I will that all those who now have given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory that was his joy and what is the joy of his people the same thing his people are his portion and of the Lord Jesus they say the Lord is my portion he has an inheritance in his people and that inheritance it is joy and his people have an inheritance in him both in the first chapter to the

[37:03] Ephesians joy joy oh if the Lord will come into your heart if you're troubled exercised if you've been brought to self despair self destruction for we destroy ourselves and the Lord should whisper in your heart thy sins which are many are all forgiveness it's the joy of forgiveness and it's the joy of the prospect create in me a clean heart oh God and renew a right spirit within me cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy spirit from me oh you may depend as this prayer entered into the ears of the

[38:15] Lord Jesus oh we touch his heart divine sympathy made known in your heart by the spirit will break you down restore unto me the joy no joy of this world we must look at it in a practical way I wonder how many of us could really truly say before God emptied of earth I find would be the world myself and all but thee only a reserve for

[39:27] Christ the Lord surrendered to the crucified all the difference between this union eternal blessed union with the Lord Jesus through time into eternity and to be without God and without hope in the world oh a touch from him a look from him it may be through the word of God that it might this world look for a poor affair and soon gone cast me not away from thy presence and take not thy holy spirit from me there's no holy spirit there'll be no life in your soul if you're a religious person your religion will be dead and you you'd have no knowledge for it is only the holy ghost that can teach those things which are spiritual for natural man knoweth not the things of the spirit of

[41:02] God thou foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned that's the difference restore unto me the joy of salvation all you will rejoice and you rejoice sometimes under the preaching of the gospel rejoice and thank God for Jesus Christ the rock of ages rejoice that sin is pardonable even if you have not a satisfactory received a pardon yet to know that it's pardonable through Jesus

[42:02] Christ and that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation salvation and the gospel is the person of Christ and the work that he accomplished and that's the power of God exercised by the Holy Ghost in a sinner's heart it'll bring all heaven before your eyes there have been one or two deaths lately and one that I've known for many years a most godly person and as she was dying she said sing the doxology well we shall soon be there my friends joy the joy of heaven if you've got your joy in the earth you will never have the joy of heaven restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and then

[43:28] I shall get on all right after that I shall be I shall manage no no all the teaching there is here cast me not away from thy presence take not thy holy spirit from me restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and then uphold me I shall need to be upheld but after he's done all this created a clean heart and a right spirit and restored the joy of salvation surely you can go on now no teaching too deep uphold me with thy free spirit you want to be upheld in your faith when when one is born again the old nature is not changed there's a conflict between the two but this is the mercy on it grace shall reign that where sin abounded oh those of you who feel it abounds in you

[45:04] I look back at my long life and I mourn over it I thought the Lord must cast me away he couldn't do anything else well may the Lord put this prayer in our hearts and answer it before we come to the grave amen God willing Mr.

[45:49] Raymond Wooden is expected to preach here this evening and we have arranged to reverse the order of the services in the coming week as Mr.

[46:02] Parker is expected to preach here God willing on Friday evening we hope to hold our usual prayer meeting on Wednesday evening which will be taken by our pastor who will also God willing preach to us next Lord's Day and Mr.

[46:23] Jabez Field is expected next Lord's Day evening I would just remind you that this is the day that we take our quarterly collection in support of the cause of truth here let us conclude by singing a part of hymn 310 tune Holy Cross number 158 we we we