A Clean Heart

Greetings in the name of Jesus! This is Rob Haymes. This is 15 Minutes With Jesus. Wherever two or three are gathered together in My name, Jesus said, there am I in the midst of them. To those of you who love Him in truth, mercy unto you and peace and love be multiplied.

Before we begin the program, I just want to take a moment to thank the Lord; to thank the Lord for this program: 15 Minutes With Jesus. We’ve been doing this program now for three years. On March 29, 2020 the Lord gave me this program. He said, I want you to do a 15 minute program. And He’s been with me all this time, and I just thank Him: I thank you Father; I thank you Jesus, for how you have been with me, doing this program now for three years. Every single week you’ve given me a program by your Spirit, except for two weeks: once when we were in the hospital, and once when we got Covid. I just give you thanks Father; I give you thanks Lord for this program, Amen. 

Today we’re going to talk about A Clean Heart. Most of you know about King David, and how he sinned by taking Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, for himself, and then having Uriah killed in battle. This thing that David did displeased the Lord and He sent Nathan the prophet to him to judge him. Before we go any further, it is very important to understand that God loved David, and David loved God. You can read about this in the Scriptures. God said that David was a man after His own heart. Let’s turn to 2 Sam 12:1-14, Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him: "There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds. But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him. And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him." So David's anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, "As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die! And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity." Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if that had been too little, I also would have given you much more! Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in His sight? You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword; you have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me, and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.' Thus says the Lord: 'Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house; and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun. 

For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.' " 

So David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." And Nathan said to David, "The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die." You can read on, and you will find that the child did surely die. After all this, David wrote Psalm 51. Let’s turn there now. 

Psalm 51:1-19, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight—that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part You will make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and uphold me by Your generous Spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners shall be converted to You. Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Your praise. For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise. Do good in Your good pleasure to Zion; build the walls of Jerusalem. Then You shall be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering; then they shall offer bulls on Your altar. Verse 17, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise. Verse 7, Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Hyssop refers to the blood of the sacrificial lamb.

Let’s turn to Psalm 32:1-7, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, And in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; My vitality was turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin to You, and my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord," and You forgave the iniquity of my sin. For this cause everyone who is godly shall pray to You in a time when You may be found; surely in a flood of great waters they shall not come near him. You are my hiding place; You shall preserve me from trouble; You shall surround me with songs of deliverance. Many people like to quote verses 1&2, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, sometimes leaving out the last part of verse 2, and in whose spirit is no deceit. If there is no deceit in your spirit, when the Lord’s hand comes upon you for your sin; when God judges you, or corrects you; when He shows you your sin, you will acknowledge your sin to Him; you will confess your sin to Him, and because of the sacrifice of His beloved Son Jesus on the Cross for you, He will forgive you your sin, and He will wash you in Jesus’ precious Blood, which He willingly shed for you; which will wash you thoroughly and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. Then you can say with David, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. The Blood of Jesus covers your sin when you confess it to Him, with a broken and a contrite spirit: a heart deeply affected with grief. True repentance begins with godly sorrow for your sins, and finishes with a true change in your behavior. Then you can say with David, Restore to me the joy of your salvation. 

But if you have deceit in your heart, you will be attracted to those who are speaking deceitfully. They say things such as, All your sins are forgiven, past, present, and future; you are under grace; sin is not imputed to you. All your sins are covered; you will not surely die. And as we said last week, this is the lie, and it is all through the Church of Jesus Christ in this hour. Remember: sin is not imputed to you when you truly repent of your sin and confess it to God. Righteousness is imputed to you through your faith in Jesus’ sacrifice for you. The Apostle John said, Little children, let no man deceive you: he who does righteousness is righteous. He who practices sin is of the Devil. Our Father in Heaven has made every provision for us to overcome sin through the gift of His Son, as we walk in the light, confessing our sins and turning from them. Psalm 24:3-5, Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. He shall receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 1 Tim 1:5, Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith. The Apostle Paul said, I exercise myself daily to have a conscience void of offense toward God and man.  The whole purpose and fulfillment of all of this is love. God loved David, and David loved God, and after he was forgiven, he went on with Him, enduring His judgment, and remaining faithful to Him until his death. God so loved us that He gave His Son. Greater love has no man than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends.  Jesus laid down His life, His sinless life, for us to save us from our sins because He loves us. Beloved, if God so loves us, we also should love Him, and love one another. If we love Him, we will keep His Words; we will love His Words. His Word is the truth. If we do not love Him, we will not receive the love of the truth, and God will send us strong delusion that we might believe the lie: You shall not surely die, that we all may be condemned who did not believe the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. 

Heb 10:19-31, Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience ( cleansed in the Blood of the Lamb),  and our bodies washed with pure water, (the washing of the water of the Word). Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching. For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries. Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay," says the Lord. And again, "The Lord will judge His people." It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Remember, Jesus said in Rev 3:19, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.

Song: Create in Me a Clean Heart

Create in me a clean heart O God

And renew a right spirit within me.

Create in me a clean heart O God

And renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from thy presence O Lord

And take not thy Holy Spirit from me.

Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation

And renew a right spirit within me.