Theme: God’s Holy Spirit gives us our spirit
1. Our spirit
that is Broken but Steadfast
2. Our spirit that rejoices and proclaims God’s glory
Psalm 51:10-17 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your
presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of
Your salvation, And uphold me by Your generous Spirit. 13 Then I will teach
transgressors Your ways, And sinners shall be converted to You. 14 Deliver me
from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, The God of my salvation, And my tongue
shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. 15 O Lord, open my lips, And my mouth
shall show forth Your praise. 16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I
would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God
are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart-- These, O God, You will not
despise.
You may have
noticed in the news this week a story about a prominent professional athlete
who committed an offensive act. Perhaps that’s not much of a surprise to you
since we’re used to headlines about public figures getting into trouble, but
the indiscretion this athlete committed was somewhat unique. The contest that this
event concerned was a professional basketball game between an American team and
a Canadian team. When two different nationalities play against one another,
it’s common to open the game with both national anthems.
Everyone knows
that it’s a sign of disrespect if you don’t stop what you’re doing and show
respect during the national anthem. However, this athlete, an American,
continued to warm up and shoot during the Canadian anthem. It was blatant and
created quite a media buzz during and after the game. It was natural for the
athlete to be questioned about his lack of respect for the Canadian people
after the contest. The public was looking for an apology and, really, the
entire situation could have been diffused with one. However, no apology was given.
The athlete’s response was, “I'm not a disrespectful person. So if anybody
thinks I'm being disrespectful towards a country, then they have no idea of who
I am.”
Not hard to
see that that’s not an apology and it’s not a surprise that this comment created
and even bigger problem. When public perception did not let up, the same
athlete came back a few days later and tried again. This time he said, "No
disrespect at all from me, I apologize for Canada thinking I would disrespect
them as a country.” A little better, but not quite there is it. Apologizing for
how country reacted to your actions is not the same as admitting fault and
asking forgiveness. In fact, it’s more an insult than anything.
I’m sure
you’ve seen apologies like this before, it’s not just celebrities that make
them. The apology is really not an apology at all, it’s an excuse. It’s an
apology that says, “I’m sorry you took things the wrong way. Not that I
actually did anything wrong.” In the end, it shifts the blame to others.
Part 1
What a
stunning contrast from this example to the words of David in our text. In this
psalm David pours out his heart when it came to his most public sins. David had
committed lust in his heart for another man’s wife. That lust led him to commit
adultery with her. That adultery led to a pregnancy. That pregnancy led to
David lying and trying to deceive one of his most loyal allies. And ultimately,
that deception led to murder.
David tried
the excuse game and it didn’t work. Like this athlete, it only spiraled down
further into a bigger problem. All excuses are offered for the same reasons,
because of fear and insecurity about losing something. David was worried about
losing respect as King and leader of the army. He was worried about losing
credibility with the people. And so he tried to cover things up one his own.
That never works. Sometimes, people get away with the cover-up, David didn’t.
But it never works, because God always knows.
When the
prophet came and confronted David with his sin, he was truly convicted for the
right reasons for the first time. Convicted by the Holy Spirit through the law
of God. David wasn’t concerned about his own self-image anymore. He writes, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, And
renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your presence,
And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.” This now, with the guidance of
the Scripture and the Holy Spirit, was David’s biggest concern. He did not want
God to leave him.
When David
pleaded with God not to cast His presence away from him, he was talking about
the gift of faith. Faith in God attaches us to God. It puts us in His presence
so that He looks favorably upon us. Think of the blessing that God first gave
to His people through the High Priest, Aaron. “The Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make His face shine upon you
and be gracious to you, the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you
peace.” We repeat that same blessing at the close of our services each
Sunday. It’s a reminder and a promise that God will not depart from us. He will
not stop looking down upon us in love because His own Son was forsaken in our
place. Yes, when Jesu was on the cross, He was cast out from His Father’s
presence. He lost the very blessing that David pleads to God about tin our
text. And Jesus didn’t deserve any of it. He did that so that our prayers of
the same, that God would not forsake us, would hold true.
David realized
that his sins had much greater consequences than public image and support from
others. The most important danger threatened his faith in God. David had risked
this gift because of these senseless acts. He knew that without God he was
nothing, yet the attachment to his sinful nature caused him to forsake this
blessing. And at the very prospect of losing God, David was crushed. He says in
verse 17, “The sacrifices of God are a
broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, these O God, You will not
despise.”
It was God
Himself who brought this weight upon David’s heart, as He does with all
sinners. The testimony of the law of God crushes any hope we have in
deliverance from ourselves. It breaks us under a weight that we cannot bear.
But the Spirit doesn’t leave us crushed. David spoke of one another thing that
the Holy Spirit generated in his own spirit, a steadfast hope in God’s mercy.
This comes in verse 10. His prayer that God would cleanse his heart was spoken
for the purpose of making his own weak spirit strong.
This idea of
being steadfast means to have a fixed or established position. The Christian’s
prayer to God is that He would keep His Spirit with us to keep our spirit fixed
on the truth. The contrast to being steadfast is what Paul described to the
Ephesians, “that we should no longer be
children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by
the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting (Ephesians
4:14).” That’s a lot to take in there but it all comes down to being
positioned securely in the word of God. The Holy Spirit in the one who does
that for us.
The weight of
God’s law was indeed a strong motivator for David. But what was even stronger
was the foundation of the gospel. The Holy Spirit creates a spirit in the
believer’s heart through both the law and gospel. One crushes us, it breaks our
sinful will. The other makes us strong and steadfast in the hope of God’s
forgiveness. The key to both is that we need the Holy Spirit to lead us. He
works through His Word to enact these things in our hearts. And it wasn’t until
Nathan came to David with the Word of truth, that the Holy Spirit worked upon
David’s own heart and he was led to express the beauty of these words before us
today.
Part 2
The beginning
and the end of our text bookend the way the Holy Spirit motivates, both through
law and gospel. In the middle, David describes what this proper spirit of faith
in His Savior led him to do. David would teach sinners about God’s truth
(v.13). David would sing aloud to God with praise (vv.14-15). And David would
offer gifts of sacrifice back to God, not for atonement, but as a thank you to
God (vv.16-17).
There are many
more things we could say about a faithful response to God’s salvation. But
these things which David lists all involve a common theme. We use what God has
given us for His glory. Without the Holy Spirit’s conversion of David’s heart,
he never would have responded in these ways. We must recognize the same in our
lives. If we truly desire to serve God it must first happen by the change in
our hearts. The Holy Spirit must lead us through the spirit of brokenness and
steadfastness. And the accompanying gifts that we give back to God only come
through His power.
When God rescues
sinners, He doesn’t immediately separate them from the rest of the world. He
has a plan for all believers that begins at conversion and continues on
throughout the rest of their lives here on earth. That plan involves sharing
the Word of God with others. And each step of the way the Holy Spirit is
working behind the scenes. He works to break down. He works to build up. He
works to produce fruits. Each part is important to the Christian life.
So when David
proceeded forward from wicked thoughts and actions that brought about these
words, he didn’t just relapse to his former ways. Sometimes that does happen to
Christians. There’s no doubt that David had plenty of other sins that followed
the renewal of the Holy Spirit in the context. But they weren’t planned by
David. His heart was changed. The days of making excuses for these sins were
gone. The great cover up was exposed and was taken away by God’s mercy. The
spirit of new life given to David by the Holy Spirit would not return to these
things.
That leads us
back to where we began. If David’s apology was anything like so many of the
vain apologies we see in the world, he truly would have completely lost God’s
presence. But instead of shifting the blame, instead of hiding from what he
did, instead of making excuses; David was completely honest about his sins. It
broke him but it also created room for the Lord’s healing grace.
What are your
apologies like? When you apologize to God for your sins, is it more like the
professional athlete or more like King David. It’s tough to be completely
honest. It’s hard to know that the Holy Spirit is breaking your sinful flesh
down. No one likes how that feels. It’s easy to say the words but to mean
differently in your heart. You confess your sins but tell yourself it’s really
not that serious. It’s just something you do because you’re supposed to or
because everyone else in church is. You say you’re sorry but you know you’re
going to do the same thing again, and soon. It ends up sounding a lot like that
athlete’s apology. “I’m sorry if You took it wrong God. Clearly you don’t know
me because I wouldn’t do something like that. It’s just not me.”
How vain it
becomes. It takes a greater spirit than our own to come back to reality. God
doesn’t want your excuses. He doesn’t want your sacrifices for your sins. He
simply wants you. The true you, not the deceptions you try to get away with.
Therefore, He sends the Holy Spirit to you. To convict you of your sin and to
restore you to a steadfast spirit. Without the Holy Spirit we wouldn’t get
there.
But let’s also
remember that the Holy Spirit doesn’t work as an independent contractor for
God. He uses what Jesus has done for you. Your deliverance happens completely
outside of who you are as a sinner. Jesus died for those sins on His own,
without your help. He offers that to you on His own, without your will power.
And the Holy Spirit uses that foundation to make you steadfast, to give you
fixed point of security outside of yourself. Something that can hold you safe
throughout life’s storms. Jesus, your Savior, outside of you. The Holy Spirit,
your motivator, outside of you. He breaths into your heart the life of faith,
completely in tune with Jesus Christ. Amen.
The peace of
God which surpasses all understanding will keep your hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus, Amen.
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