In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of being on the starting line in our spiritual journey. He encourages the congregation to be alert and ready to run the race set before them. The speaker also reflects on his own personal struggles and how he fell into worldly temptations, but ultimately found redemption through God's grace. The sermon references the story of David and Nathan, highlighting the deceitfulness of the human heart and the need for repentance and surrender to God.

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold. You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www.charityministries.org. If you would like a catalog of other sermons, please call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA, PA 17522. These messages are offered to all without charge by the free will offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry. Amen. Let's bow for prayer. Come, O come, immortal Savior. Come and take Thy royal throne. Lord, we know that that's in a day in the future. But, O God, that's the cry of our heart this morning. Take Your throne on our hearts this morning. Come rule and reign over this service, O God. Come visit Thy people today. Come meet with us, Lord. Settle down among us. Talk to us. Plead with us. Implore us. Enlighten us. And show us the way, Lord. We live here on this earth. We need Your help, God. We worship You this morning, Lord. We bring our hearts' adoration to Thee. Thou art the only true and living God, and we bring You all of our hearts' adoration. Nothing else, Lord, nothing else shall take the place of our hearts' worship, our hearts' attention, but Thee. We love You, Lord. Thank You. Thank You for this day. Thank You for this Lord's Day. Thank You for this assembly of Your people. Now be merciful to us, Father, and bless us. And give us what we need. We are trusting You for that, God. We look away from ourselves, all of us. And we look unto Thee. We look to Thee, God. Please come and minister to our hearts today. We trust You for this, God. We believe that You are, and that You are the rewarder of those who diligently seek You. Now meet our needs today. We look to You, God. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You may be seated. Greetings. In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ this morning. What a joy to be here. Gathered together with the people of God. A joy to have You visitors with us. We feel privileged that You came our way today. And I trust that God will bless you today. I trust that He'll meet your needs today. Even though you've just dropped into a congregation where maybe nobody even knows you but one or two. God knows you. And He knows what you need. And He knows what we need. So we're grateful that you're here. Just a little report to the congregation here. We were with the brethren over in Bowmansville last Sunday. It was a blessing to be there. We were saddened to not be here for the first service. But we were also glad that we could be over there with those brothers and sisters. It was a joy. Just a few insights for our encouragement. The place was buzzing with activity at 8.30. The prayer meeting had three quarters of the men and young brothers in it. And everyone was in their place by 5 minutes to 9. And we took off singing beautifully at 9 o'clock. It's a real blessing. And the message, Brother Dean had a little opening there. And the title of his little opening was, On the Starting Line. And I thought, yeah, that's good. That's nice. On the starting line. We're on the starting line. And I told the congregation, it's very evident that you're all on the starting line this morning. You know, when you're ready to run a new race, everybody is on the starting line. Everybody. And they're all there. And you know, they're down there kneeling. And they've got their eyes on the end. And everybody's alert. And everybody's ready to go. That's the way it was last Sunday morning. It was sweet. But you know, we can do the same thing right here. We can do the same thing. Or we can just say, business as usual. So, I just want to encourage us all to be on the starting line. Yea, what will God do in the next four years with this congregation? Who knows? Alright, well, the Lord has clearly led my heart this morning to bring a message to our hearts and to my heart. I've been studying the life of David in my personal quiet time. And just by coincidence, we are also looking at the life of David in the book of 1 Samuel in family devotions. So, it's David, David, David at our house. It's been very rich and very convicting to my own heart. God has been convicting my own heart about the shallow way that I have been viewing my own needs in my life. The shallow way that I've been viewing my shortcomings, my transgressions and my sins. And what I've been seeing as God has been convicting me is simply this. When we have a very shallow view of our needs, we also get shallow results from that shallow view. We get reoccurring needs from that shallow view. And we also do not find the deep cleansing that is needed for us to go on and go forward after God has shown us a need in our life. In our day of quick everything, we can easily fall into the trap of quick confession and repentance. And I'm not against crying out to God as you are in the midst of your day and asking God to cleanse your heart. I'm not against that. But I'm talking about facing the reoccurring needs that are in our lives. And I know that we all face those reoccurring needs. You know what that is? One of those things that you deal with and here it is. It comes up again and you deal with it and here it is. It comes up again and you deal with it and here it is again. God wants to take us deeper than that. We're going to be looking at Psalm 51 this morning. But first of all, I would like us to read a New Testament text. A clear New Testament text concerning this subject which you will find in 2 Corinthians chapter 7. The title of my message this morning is this. Godly sorrow, the way of revival. Godly sorrow is the way of revival. Paul said these words in 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 8. For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent. Though I did repent, for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. Notice that word season. It was a season of godly sorrow. Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrow to repentance. For ye were made sorry after a godly manner that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of. And Paul is not speaking to a lost man in that verse when he is saying, Godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation. He is not speaking to a lost man. This is the Corinthian church. Though it is true that godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation in a lost man's life, godly sorrow also worketh repentance unto ongoing reality of salvation in my life. Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. There is a godly sorrow and there is a worldly sorrow. We want to stay away from worldly sorrow. My personal opinion is that depression is worldly sorrow. And the end of depression is death for many, many people. We want to stay away from worldly sorrow. But godly sorrow, oh God, grant that to all of us continually. Why? For behold, this selfsame thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, look what it did for you, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge, in all things ye have approved yourself to be clear in this matter. Look at that. Oh, I'm disciplining myself not to preach on those words. But look what they said. That in all things you have cleared yourselves in this matter. In other words, a clearing with no question mark on it. That's it. That's it. Now let's turn over to Psalm 51, which is where we will be. Psalm 51, very famous psalm. A psalm of David. I want to describe the setting a little bit of this psalm. I think it helps us to understand how deep David went in this psalm. And again, David is not a lost man. This is the sweet psalmist of Israel in Psalm 51. This is a very godly man in Psalm 51. Amen? This is not a lost man writing Psalm 51. It's a very godly man. This is the setting. It is about one year since that dark day when David committed adultery with Bathsheba, Uriah the Hittite's wife. It is one year later. I personally believe that this grievous sin that our father David committed did not just happen. It did not just happen. Sins like that do not just happen, brother, sister. I don't know what happened. But I can imagine a busy king. Lots of work to do. Many burdens to bear. Lots of responsibilities. Running after this and that. Maybe some pride creeping in as all the people spoke about David. Maybe some pride creeping in as he sat on the throne judging this whole nation. Whatever it was, I don't know what it was, but I know that coldness of heart crept into David's life. Before that day, that dark day, when David committed adultery with Bathsheba, Uriah the Hittite's wife. It comes as a warning to each and every one of our hearts. It comes as a warning to my own heart. You can get too busy. Where your heart begins to grow cold. Slowly and subtly the heart begins to grow cold. And then all of a sudden, it happens. That which you never dreamed would happen, it happens. David did not just fall into adultery here. I don't believe that. It's one year since David committed murder. Slaying Uriah with the sword of the Ammonites. It's been one year. A son has been born to David and Bathsheba. And they have joined together in the birth of a son. Though a cloud of guilt hangs over their heads. Because they know, both of them know. God sends David a close friend. Praise God for friends. Nathan the prophet came to see David. That was not an unusual thing. For some kings it was. Many of the kings trembled when a prophet come knocking on their door. But not David. Nathan was his friend. David was a godly king. He loved Nathan. He was glad to sit and visit with Nathan. And God sent Nathan, his friend, Nathan the prophet, to address the issue one year later. To bring David face to face with reality. Because at this point, David is not facing reality. And we all know what that's about, don't we? We are all made out of the same flesh that David was made out of. And we know how difficult it is at times to just come face to face with reality. Nathan makes up a story to reveal David's evil heart to him. He tells him the story of a rich man who had many, many lambs. And many, many sheep. And a poor man who only had one little ewe lamb. And he took that one little ewe lamb and it grew up in his house like it was one of his own children. It grew up laying its head in its master's bosom. And then, a visitor came to the rich man. And the rich man looked away from all of the sheep that he had. And went down to the poor man's house and took the only one that he had. And slew that animal and gave it to his traveling guest. David reacts with extremely harsh judgment. Which, by the way, is typical of a cold, guilty heart. We are usually very, very hard on everybody else when we are guilty in our own heart. And David is a good example of that to us. He reacts with extreme judgment. Whereas the Law of Moses would have said, Restore to that man fourfold, David said, He must die! My, what a stretching of the Law of Moses there. But that is so typical of a guilty heart. Harsh judgment on everyone else. Then Nathan, after David condemns his own life out of his own mouth, Then Nathan says those famous words, Thou art the man. Thou art the man. And I can't help but believe that when he heard those words, Even before the explanation that followed, There was an arrow that stuck in David's heart, Because David knew already that thou art the man. David reproves him and reasons with him, And tells him of the judgment that is going to come upon his house. And the last thing that he says to him is that the child will die. He reasons with David over this grievous sin that he has committed. Imagine what it was like from this point on in David's life. We don't know how many days went by, But maybe a few days went by. But put yourself in David's shoes for those few days, After those words were given to you, And the word was given to you, That the child is going to die. Every corner where you turn, You will wonder, Will it be here? Will it be this? Will it be here? What will happen next? Always wondering. Then suddenly one day, News came to David from Bathsheba, That the son is very sick. In fact, the Bible says it this way, The Lord struck the child. And these are the words in the Scripture, The Lord struck the child, That Uriah's wife bear unto David. It doesn't say David's wife. It says Uriah's wife. This is one year later. And the Scripture says, The Lord struck the child, That Uriah's wife bear unto David, And it was very sick. David fell on his face, And fasted, And lay all night upon the earth. The Scripture seems clear, That he fasted for seven days. Seven days he lay on his face. Seven days he did not get up. Seven days he travailed before God. Seven days he wept and he mourned, And he dealt with his evil heart, And the sin that came from his evil heart. Seven days he was flat on his face before God. This is the context of Psalm 51. This is the context. I think once we look at the context a bit, We can understand the depth of what we find there in Psalm 51. Yes. David is going deep. David had a season of godly sorrow, That wrought repentance unto salvation, Repentance not to be repented of, A repentance that has affected millions and millions of people to this day. David's repentance. It's exemplary to all of us. We can learn from it. In this Psalm, David is coming back to God. His goal is deeper than dealing with a sin that he committed. David is coming back to God. That is what his goal is. The goal is not to get this sin taken care of. The goal is to come back to God. And brothers and sisters, There could be a big difference between the two of those, In our own life, In our own experience. But it seems clear to me that David would not be satisfied simply to deal with this sin which he committed, But his heart's desire was to go all the way back where he used to be. Here is a man who through coldness of heart has sinned egregious sins. He has lost the reality. And the tragedy has come upon his life because he lost the reality with God. I think it's very important for us to grasp that. Because I don't think I'm talking to too many adulterers in this room today, Although I could be talking to one. Don't kid yourself. I could be talking to one, But I don't think I'm talking to too many adulterers in this room this morning. But I could be talking to many who have a cold heart. And cold hearts bring tragedies. It only takes some time. But it brings them. David has lost the reality, And because he lost the reality, Tragedy has come. This is the sweet psalmist of Israel. This is the giant killer. This is David the prophet. This is David the apostle of the seeking heart. This is that David. And he will not cut repentance short. There'll be no quick 1 John 1,9 at this time. Not for David. No. Because David is after all that he used to have. That's what he's after. His coldness of heart, His living in unreality, His walking in his own strength, Has brought him to such a place of despair and failure. He's not going to stop short of anything but all that God used to do in his life. And brothers and sisters, That's for every one of us in this room, isn't it? That's for every one of us in this room. He will not cut repentance short. He will come all the way back to that blissful reality. Revival is what David is after, isn't it? David needs revival. As he falls on his face there, At the news of his dying son, David needs revival. The channel of the sweet psalmist is plugged and stuffed. No longer do the psalms flow out. The sound of the prophet's voice has been silenced. And it is no more. The courage of that great valiant soldier, David, is gone. And he finds himself sitting on the top of his house at the season when kings go out to war. The courage is gone from David's life. But he's not going to let it stay that way any longer. And that's what Psalm 51 is all about. Let's read the psalm. Can we do that? Let's stand to our feet and read the psalm. Let's do that. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness. According unto the multitude of Thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in Thy sight. That Thou mightest be justified when Thou speakest, and be clear when Thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part Thou shalt 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 to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which Thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 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. Then, then will I teach transgressors Thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto Thee. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God. Thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness. O Lord, open Thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise. For Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, Thou will not despise. Remember that, brothers and sisters. Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion. Build Thou the walls of Jerusalem. Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then shall they offer bullocks upon Thine altar. You may be seated. What else could David say than these first two words or these first four words that we find in Psalm 51? What else could he say at a time like this, having looked at the context of where David is at? What else could that dear man say than, Have mercy upon me. Just like that publican who came before God and beat his breast with his fist saying, Have mercy on me. Oh Lord, a sinner. That's exactly where David is at. I want us to notice, first of all, this word mercy. There's more than one word for mercy in the Bible. One of those words for mercy is the word pity. You know, like if we see somebody in a hard place and we, you know, we should have compassion on them. We should feel mercy toward them. That's one of the words for mercy, but that's not what this word is here. David is not saying to God, look down in pity on me. No, David is using a different word here and that is the word that we find for propitiation. Have mercy on me and propitiate for my sin is what David is saying to God. David is crying out to God for forgiveness. David is crying out to God for propitiation. In the New Testament we know that's a word in the New Testament and John used it when he said that he, Christ, was made a propitiation for our sins. And not for our sins only, but for the sins of the whole world. That word propitiation, David is needing propitiation from God. Not just pity. Oh, poor boy, you made a mistake. No, David is in such a state that he cannot clear himself. David is in such a state that he needs God to clear him. David is in such a helpless state that if God doesn't clear him, he's not going to be clear. And what else could a man in such a state do but to cry out from the depths of his soul, have mercy on me. That's what that word mercy means. He's crying out of an utter sense of his need. If God does not propitiate for David, there will be no propitiation. Four words for sin come out in this psalm. Three of them show up in these first two verses. Those words are transgression, iniquity, sin and evil. These are not the same words. And I believe they are not the same words because David is dealing much deeper than just one thing that he did. David is looking at his heart. He is a man who has lost his way with God and he's dealing with his heart. And when you deal with your heart, you have to see the whole thing. You have to see your shortcomings. You have to see your transgressions. You have to see your iniquity which is within. You have to see the sins that come out of that iniquity. You have to see sin in all of its scope, in all of its reality, in all of its far-reaching effects. And that's what David is doing right here. And that's why he uses different words. This man is taking a good long look at his heart. David's plea is very clear. He wants to be free. He uses the phrases there. Blot out. Blot out my transgression. Do you know what that means? I mean totally wipe it away. That's what blot out means. I mean, that's the same phrase that Moses used when he was interceding before God for the children of Israel. He said, if you won't forgive them their sins, then blot out my name out of your book. That's the same phrase. Blot out my transgression, David says. Then he goes on to say, wash me thoroughly. I like that. Thoroughly. That doesn't mean just a surface wash. That means get down below. That means like when the fuller comes, you know, and he makes something whiter than what the fuller can make it. And the fuller is the man who would come along and take stains out of materials. He had special ingredients that he mixed up together to take a spot out of a garment. And he not only took the spot out of the surface of the garden, but he takes the spot out of the depths of the garment. And that's exactly where David is in his heart. He's crying out to God and saying, oh God, wash me thoroughly. Just, I mean, go deep down in and get that thing completely out of me. Thoroughly. And cleanse me from my sin. Then in verse 3 and 4, I want you to notice that David is seeing now. For one year, David has not been willing to see. He's not been willing to look. He just kind of pushed it off. You know how we can do that about something in our life. We just kind of push it off. We don't want to look at it. And though it's there and it's lurking in the shadows, we just kind of push it off. We don't want to look at it. We don't want to look at it fair and square in the face. But David is now looking. He is now looking. Look what he says. I acknowledge my transgressions. Plural. And my sin is ever before me. Now, that's good, David. That's where it needs to be. For a year, you've put it over here. For a year, you've pushed it aside. For a year, you've left it over on the sideline. For a year, you've turned your back and acted like it wasn't there. But now, now, your heart is in such a place that your sin is now ever before me. And praise God, we don't have to stay there. But bless God, sometimes it's good for us to take a good long look at sin. And it's ever before me. In other words, every way I turn, I see it. There it is. There it is again. There it is again. My sin is ever before me. Now he is willing to look at it. He is looking long and hard. And David is finally agreeing with God. And that's important. That's important for all of us. To agree with God. I am seeing this the way you see it, Lord. And I acknowledge it. David is looking at his sin. As he begins to look at his sin, he also, it begins to dawn on his heart that he has sinned against God. He has sinned against God. Think about it. Maybe you question that. You say, oh no, he sinned against Bathsheba. He sinned against Uriah. Yes, he did. But he also sinned against God. Think about it. His God. His Father. His Shepherd. The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want. He has sinned against his God. Who has found him a man after my own heart, God says. God said, I have found me a man after my own heart. Yes, David, you have sinned against God. You have. You didn't just sin against Uriah. Or Bathsheba. Or that little boy that's about to die. You have sinned against God. Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. And I want us to notice that. It is now dawned on David. The reality. You know, the reality was always there. God saw the whole thing. God saw the whole thing. It hurt God to see the whole thing. But it didn't dawn on David that God saw the whole thing. But now he realizes God saw the whole thing. You know, brothers and sisters, that's what the fear of God is all about. When you finally come to the grips of reality that God sees of everything I do. And you can't hide from God. Though you go behind a closed door, shut the door and turn out the light, or sneak around the back somewhere, thy God sees thee. He sees everything we do. Everything is open and naked before the eyes of Him of whom we have to do. He sees it all. David now is coming to grips with that. I did this in the sight of my God. Yes. It's like Joseph. Remember Joseph? How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? God is counting on me. God has a call on my life. God has something for me to do. God wants me to serve my generation. How can I do this great wickedness and sin against my God? Amen, Joseph. Amen. That's right. God is counting on me. And He's counting on you. And maybe I'll just interject another thought for you here. When Nathan reproved David, he said these words to David. He said, Thou hast caused the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. You know, as a young Christian, I read that and I just thought, yeah, the news will get out, and people will make fun. You know, I thought about that more as an older Christian. Nobody found out about this sin. Joab knew. You can be sure of that. And the knowledge that Joab knew tracked David all the rest of the days of his life. Imagine that. But Joab knew. When he got back to Jerusalem and found out what was happening, and this and that, Joab knew. He knew. But no one else knew. Who are the enemies of the Lord that are blaspheming? I'll just give you a thought. There was a day when the sons of God appeared before God to present themselves before His presence. And Satan also appeared to present himself. And God said to Satan, What have you been doing, Satan? And Satan said, I've been going to and fro up and down in the earth. And God said to Satan, Hath thou considered My servant David? There is none like him in all the earth. There was another day in the life of God when the sons of God came and appeared before God to present themselves before His presence. And Satan also came up there to present himself. And the conversation went a little bit different that day. Satan was now on the other side saying, Have you seen your servant David lately, God? Yes. The enemies of the Lord did blaspheme because of that which David did. I am repenting, says David, that thou, God, mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest. I'm clearing the record for you, Father. I'm clearing the record for you. I'm sorry. Then David goes from there to acknowledging the corruption that is in his own heart and the corruption that is in his lower nature and says those beautiful words which are some of the words that we base the foundation of our doctrine that we are born with a nature that sins. David says, Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. He's not saying that my mother was living in sin when she conceived me. He's saying we are all sinners born that way after the manner of Adam. And David is simply acknowledging, this is who I am, God. I, without thee, I'm nothing. I'm nothing. He's crying out to God. He goes on to say, You desire truth in the inward parts to get down below the surface. And that's exactly what God is wanting David to do. Get down below the surface, David. Get down below the surface and face your need. Who knows, maybe David even in some of the times of guilt as the year went by and his bones were roaring all the day long. Psalm 38. You read the whole psalm. I can't give it to you. When his bones were roaring all the day long, maybe David even then, you know, he thought, oh, I better do something about this. I better 1 John 1.9 this thing, you know. And you know, God, you know, forgive me. And he went on his way. No, that's not good enough, David. I desire truth in the inward parts. I want you to get down below the surface. I want you to get down there where you can deal with this thing thoroughly and truly. Thou desirest truth in the inward parts. That's right. And David is seeing that. God is holding his feet to the fire. I want you to go deep, David. I want you to go deep. Oh, may God open our eyes to see our need deeply. And I say that for my own heart, not yours. May God open my eyes to see my needs deeply. Verse 7-12. David begins pleading again for mercy from God. He is crying out for God to do what only God can do. He's crying out to God that God will do what only God can do. But oh, how beautifully God can do it! How thoroughly God can do it! How sweetly and cleanly God can do what only God can do. Notice the words that David uses in these verses. Purge me. Wash me. Make me to hear. Hide thy face. Look at that. Once you begin realizing that God was looking at the whole thing, then it's, please God, turn your face away from my sin. Don't look at it anymore. I want to get it so clear that you don't have to look at it so that the enemies of God don't have to throw it in your face anymore. Hide your face from my sin. Purge me. Wash me. Make me to hear joy and gladness. Hide your face. Blot out. There it is again. He uses these words. Create. Renew. Cast me not away. Take not. Restore. Uphold. These are all things that only God can do in David's situation. Only God can do it. And David has been brought face to face with that reality. If anything is going to happen, it's going to be God. I can't pull myself out of this one. I can't restore myself. There is nothing that I can do except break before God and cry to Him. And brother, sister, it is the same for us. And God isn't asking us to do anything else except to just be honest. And face it. Fair and square. Whatever it is. Purge me. Wash me. Make me to hear. Hide your face, Lord. Blot out. Create. And all those words. Again, we can see David is going all the way. He is going to get the gold out of this one. Nothing short of all that he had before. That's what David is pursuing. Notice the powerful words of reality that follow these words of what God and only God can do. Notice them. They are also very beautiful. Clean. Clean. Whiter than snow. Oh, hallelujah. God can do that. Praise the Lord. Whiter than snow. Joy and gladness. You know, that's something you can't work up. Oh, you might be able to laugh. You might be able to tell a joke and make some laughter about it. But you can't pump up joy and gladness. It comes from God. It's a fruit of the Spirit, isn't it? Joy. Gladness. Clean heart. Right spirit. Thy presence. Thy presence. Thy Holy Spirit. The joy of thy salvation. Thy free spirit. Do you know what David is doing here? David is describing his past. He's describing the way life used to be. He's describing the beautiful flow of the grace of God upon the sweet psalmist of Israel. That's what he's describing. These are all the things that he lost. And these are all the things that only God can give him back. But he's coming to the place where he knows that he can get them back. You have lost them. God can give them back. Hallelujah. These are powerful words. These are words that speak of the reality of a saved and a sanctified heart. Amen? That's what it is. Joy and gladness and free spirit and a right spirit and a clean heart and thy presence again. And don't take your Holy Spirit away from me. Hey, that's New Testament reality, isn't it, brothers and sisters? That's what God wants for every one of us. And may I say this? If we, any one of us, have truly been born again, we know what those things are. We know that joy, that gladness, that free spirit, that clean heart, that white as snow, that sweetness of God's presence, and we know those things. Then, after all that godly sorrow, the result, the reality of all these things comes back into the life. The result of that godly sorrow is that the reality of all these things comes back into the life. And, some other things come back too. When these come back, ministry comes back also. Fruitful ministry. Look at verse 13. David's tongue has been silent for well over a year. I don't think he's been preaching to anybody over the last year. He's not been moved with compassion to go to some sinner and say, By the way, sinner, God can help you. He hasn't been singing much and picked up his harp much. He hasn't been testifying much. He's just kind of been there. But, when all these beautiful things happen, verse 7 through 12, Then will I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Look at that. Then I'll teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Why, that should have been in the New Testament. Look at that verse. Right there in the Old Testament, as David is on his face before God. He goes on. Deliver me from blood guiltiness. He is guilty of shedding innocent blood. O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness again. The tongue is loosed when the heart is free. O Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise. So see, David knows the result of his heart is all these other things. It's ministry. The prophet comes back. The psalmist comes back. The king comes back. The valiant warrior comes back. All those things come back. Your ministry comes back, David, when you get right with God. Your ministry comes back. Verse 16 and 17, David is seeing way beyond the ceremonial sacrifice here. He sees way beyond it when he says, Thou desirest not sacrifice, else would I give it. That's not gonna reach. A bullock is not gonna reach this time, David. Else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt offerings. But David has discovered what God does want. You know how our human nature so easily goes after religion, doesn't it? Even when it's guilty. In fact, people can get very religious when they get guilty. It's human nature to just think, Well, you know, I'm not ready to deal with the deep issue in my heart. But, I can do a little more. And I can be a little more. And it's very easy. Human nature quickly goes to the religion. To the performance mode. To the form of things. Very easy to do that. But David sees way beyond that. And he knows that is not what God is after. If you want to know the depths of God's heart in the midst of your guilt, It is not come to church, read your Bible, or sing the songs. A broken and a contrite heart is what God is after. First things first. And may I say this this morning? God is not after spotless, sinless perfection, brothers and sisters. He's after a broken and a contrite heart. That's all. I'm not laying it on you this morning. Don't misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm not up here telling you, You better toe the line and get everything right. I'm not saying that God is after a broken and a contrite heart. Truth in the inward part. That's what God is after. If God will have that and stay that way continually, All those other beautiful things which God does want in our lives will come. It will come. Verse 18 and 19, this turns to revival in the church. You know? And think about it from David's perspective. He is the king of Israel. And whether he sees it or not, The whole congregation of Israel is suffering for the last year because of David's sin. The whole congregation. Two, three, four million people. But when everything gets right, And everything gets clear, And everything gets open again, And the grace of God begins to flow again, And yea, then do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion, And build thou the walls of Jerusalem. And that's exactly what happens, brothers and sisters. That's what happens. God then comes and visits us corporately. When we are willing to go deep in our own personal life before God, Then that begins to flow out to those around us. And God begins to affect the church corporately. And builds the walls of Zion. And the more we open our heart like that, And the more of us that open our heart like that, The more God builds the walls of Jerusalem in a beautiful way. And God is pleased with our sacrifices of righteousness. Yes! Get clear and then come! Come! Come to church! Come with anticipation! Come and sing! Come and worship! Come and hear the word of God! Come and fellowship! Come and bear testimony! And all the other things which God gives us as beautiful holy forms in our worship, Come and do them! For God will be pleased with our sacrifices of righteousness. A little history may be good here, in closing. Seventeen years ago, remember? Before God visited us, God did visit us. There is no doubt in my mind what God did. But you know, before God visited us, God broke us. God brought the public humiliation of a church spit into our midst. The public humiliation. Everyone was watching that charity group. And God brought the public humiliation of a church spit right into our midst. And it humiliated us. And it brought us low. It did. It broke us. It caused us to hang our proud heads in shame. Which is good for us. Then He gave us an opportunity for a season of godly sorrow. The one prepared the way for the other. And we spent one week groaning over the sin that was among us. And again we hung our heads in shame. As all of a sudden it began to come out just how much corruption was in all of these fine people. But during that week, God began to visit us. God began to visit us. The atmosphere changed night by night. And a holy hush settled down over that meeting. I mean, you didn't want to say anything. Because God was there. The transgressors heard and started coming. And many were converted. The walls of Zion were built in those days. And real church life began. Sacrifices of righteousness began to flow out of the hearts of this little cleansed church. 17 years ago. You know, I thought about it this morning, early this morning. I don't think she'll mind me saying this. We all heard it in the testimony. We all rejoiced a couple of months ago at the testimony of our sister, Stacy. Remember? That beautiful testimony of how God healed her spirit, soul and body. Hallelujah. I don't know if Stacy is here this morning. Remember that testimony? Did you catch some of the things that happened before all that happened? The travail. The godly sorrow. That preceded those healings. Brethren, let us make this a foundation stone in our new church. The way up is down. It hasn't changed. The way up is down. That's the way it is. As I mentioned in the beginning. God has been graciously showing me my need the last couple of weeks. Life is full. Full of responsibilities. Full of work. Family. Church. Churches. And I just have to be honest this morning. You can get pretty busy in all those things. And your heart starts to cool. Starts to cool. I've grown weary in the battles. Hardened by continual criticisms. I just want to acknowledge that this morning. Cooled off by too much activity. Oh, all good things. All good things. I'm not running out to the shops. I'm not going into secret places and doing evil things. Oh, just good things. Good things. That's the plague of Lancaster County, right? Good things. Lots of good things. But they become the enemy of the best. As somebody prayed yesterday morning in our prayer meeting. I don't know who it was. I can't remember. But those good things become the enemy of the best. And the heart begins to grow cold. And I, for one, I decided I'm going to wake up before a tragedy. So I've been pushing the reset button. I want to say this again in closing. There's a big difference between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow. One is motivated by God out of a desire to be right with God. It's motivated by God. I want the reality of God in my life at any cost. And I'm going to sorrow over my needs. That's godly sorrow. But worldly sorrow worketh death. Worldly sorrow, I believe most of the time, the root of it is motivated by self-pity. Poor me. I messed up again. Yeah, it's me. And it's motivated by self-pity. And that self-pity will destroy you. It will bring you into a place of discouragement. It will take that discouragement and bring you to a place of depression. If you live in a state of depression for a long period of time, it changes the very chemical balances inside of your body. And it messes you up. So I just want to give you that this morning. Godly sorrow is motivated out of a sincere desire to walk with God. The other worketh death. Well, it doesn't fit the program this morning. But I think I should give an invitation. It doesn't fit the program, I know. I'm sorry. But I think I should give an invitation. I'm just going to sing a couple of verses of a song and give you an opportunity. If there's a hurting one among us here, if you need to get honest, truth in the inward parts, if you lost your way, I just want to give you an opportunity here this morning to do that. What is the hymn, brother? 512? You come. Is thy heart right with God? Are you hurting this morning? Dear hurting one, you come. Is thy heart right with God? We'll sing one more verse and then be done. You come. Amen. Humble and lowly, right in the sight of God. Let's bow our heads together. Bow our heads, close our eyes a moment here. Our Father in heaven, God, we need you. We can't go forward without you, God. We need you, Lord. I know we lack. I know I lack, Father. Oh, we just pray, God, you will deliver us from playing church, from going through the motions of things, Father. Deliver us, God. Please, Lord, look down in mercy upon this congregation. Yes, God. And help us to see where we are. Would you gift us with that, God? I know I say that trembling. Would you gift us with that, God? The gracious gift, Lord. Oh, that sinners may be converted to thee. And our tongues would sing forth your praise. And testimonies would flow out of every mouth, in every place, all around this community, God. Free and open testimonies. I know that's your will, God. And I know that's revival. I know it. Please give us wisdom, Lord, to know what to do. Those of you at the altar, if you feel like you need to do further business with the Lord, or you need a counselor, someone to talk with, you can just rise to your feet and make your way downstairs. Sisters can go into the couch room. Brothers can go into the next room and just find a corner there. Otherwise, you can go back to your seat. If you feel like you don't need any extra time, you're welcome to go back to your seat. Yes, could we have a few counselors? Those of you, cell group leaders and sisters who are used to counseling. Can you move your way downstairs? Jeremiah, it says in Jeremiah 17, it says that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart. I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. And in verses 5 and 6 it says, Thus saith the Lord, Cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert and shall not see when good cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. I guess my question this morning is, what is the fruit of your doings? Is your heart and life dried up like that heath in the desert? Like I said, in verse 10 it says, Even to give every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. What is the fruit of your doing this morning? What is the fruit that is coming out of your life? Are you dried up like that heath in the desert? And then it says in verse 7, Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is. For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters and that spreadeth out her roots by the river and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaves shall be green and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit. So examine your heart and life this morning. Is there or are you like that tree that is planted by the rivers of water where you are continuously bearing fruit? It mentions here that even when heat cometh, her leaf shall be green. Even through trials and difficulties that we as Christians go through. Is your tree green? Are the leaves on your tree green? Is your tree producing fruit? Or are you drying up under the heat of the battle and under the heat of the difficulty? And maybe it's because there's an issue in your life and there's something that needs to be taken care of and perhaps your heart has grown cold. So, God's Word has been piercing to us this morning. It's been very searching to us all. And may we take heed. You know, I think of how it says in Deuteronomy or Numbers where Moses said, if you don't take care of the enemies in your life, they will come back to vex you and to be thorns and pricks in your side. So, let us take care of the issues of our life and the needs that are there and deal with them at the root. Have a clear walk with God, a clear conscience. Just like these who are entering baptism this afternoon. Baptism is the answer of a clear conscience toward God. The answer of a clear conscience. Is your conscience clear this morning? Okay, we need three more brethren to help counsel and two more sisters. Move your way downstairs. Brother Kenny, can you move your way down and a few other sisters here. We need one more brother, one more sister. Any of you that have been experiencing counseling? One more sister? Okay, Susan, yes. Okay, anyone share to testify or confess maybe a need in your life or just give a testimony of what God has spoken to you about this morning through this message. Raise your hand. Raise them up high and keep them up so that the ushers can see your hand and bring a mic to you. Anyone care to share what God has done in your hearts through this message? Up front here also. Go ahead, Sam. And the Lord has spoken to my heart this morning and the last couple of weeks. As I shared on Wednesday that I have a hard time opening up my heart and sharing my needs or that I was meditating on the way I am and the way I was and repenting from my sin. And I was sitting there and meditating on that. The Lord asked me, Do you have anything to lose by being real? And I just had to admit, I don't. And then He said, Then you have nothing to hide. And the verse came to my mind in Philippians where it says, The Lord Jesus made Himself of no reputation but He humbled Himself even to the death of the cross. And this morning I know I am not where I used to be. I remember in the first couple of years of my Christian life I had this joy and this overflow and the peace of the Lord and I spent a lot of time in Psalm 51. And I want to be the way and I want to go back where I used to be. And by the grace of God I will. And I also want to share that we have needs in our own family at home. Things have not been going good. And our oldest daughter is not with us right now. She is with our laps up at Union County. And I know the Lord is doing a real work in my heart and in my family. And I praise His name for that. If anybody has any more details about it, come and talk to me after church. God bless you. Thank you for praying for us. Thank you, Sam. May God give you that clearing that Denny spoke about this morning. Where what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal. In all this, he said to the Corinthian church, you have approved yourselves clear in this matter. May He give you that clearing, Sam. As you continue to deal with your need. Aaron. I'm just blessed to be here this morning. And thank you, Brother Denny, for sharing that message and humbling your heart, acknowledging where you're at with the Lord. And it just spoke deeply to my own heart. The Lord has been dealing with my heart in this area of being too shallow a view, taking too shallow a view of the needs and failures and sins in my own life. And that I'm not where I once used to be. And I just acknowledge that before the congregation this morning. And do ask your prayers. I do desire to be restored and to go in a place where I'm not a hindrance to the Spirit of God and I'm not a hindrance to the Spirit of God working and moving in this congregation. But to be a blessing to you all. And so I couldn't just sit here this morning and say, well, Lord, work in other people's lives. But I need God to work in my life and to deal with me that I can see clearly from His perspective of who I really am. And allow the Lord to do a deep purging in my own heart and restoring that joy of my salvation. So thank you to you as a congregation. And let us continue to be open and transparent with one another in seeking the Lord for revival. Thank you very much. I think of David, you know, when he in his statements sometimes that he made, one of them is in Psalms 139. He says, And search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. And I think in light of this message that we've heard this morning, let's make that a prayer of ours this week. God, search my heart. Is there anything that You want to deal with? Anything that You want to expose in my life that needs to be dealt with? Any issue? Any need that You really want me to see? You know, it takes God's Spirit working in our hearts for us to see our needs. And let's just make that a prayer of ours throughout this week. Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. And I believe we all desire to be led in that way everlasting. But David precedes that and says, God, search my heart so that I can walk in that way continuously every moment of the day. I'd like to thank Barney for the timely message. What did I learn from that message? What did we learn from that message? If we have time, we could turn to 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 22. And in that verse it says, abstain from all appearances of evil. In David's case, he lingered. And let us not forget that word, linger. He lingered. And before he found himself into this particular trouble that he got into. And every day we're confronted with a lot of temptations, whether it be magazines in Iraq in the supermarket, or other temptations. Let us remember that word, linger. Do not linger. Don't hang around. Flee all temptations. And therefore, God will be right with us to protect us. And that word to me, linger, has helped me in my life, 80 years that the Lord has given me, to flee. Don't linger. These are the words that came to my mind. Don't linger. David, linger. Flee all appearances of evil. I want to thank you very much, and God bless each and every one of you. Thank you. Thank you, Victor. It's good to hear that from an older brother who is still living faithfully for Christ and giving an exhortation like that to us. To flee temptation. Abstain from all appearances of evil. Thank you, Victor. Any more? Yes, amen. I've brought back some memories of my own life there in Psalms 51. And as Brother Denny spoke in that, it showed how God has worked in our lives and restored back unto me His mercies. He has been merciful to me. Just to give you a little of my testimony back. If anyone wants to hear our testimony, you can get the tapes. They're here. Those of you that have heard our testimony, I pray that you've seen some difference in our lives and that God is really working. But when I became a mailman, I worked the first four years I was there. I was a testimony to God. But my next four years there, we can't boast in it. And many people on my route told me and asked me, are you a minister? Are you a preacher? And I'd say, no, I'm just a layman. But in my second part of my four years there, many of those same ones told me, watch out. Be careful what you're doing. Try the Spirit. You know, God gave me some warnings there, but I didn't heed to them because of my heart. My heart is deceitful. And our hearts are deceitful. And we can't follow the lust of our flesh. And therefore, being in the world more than I was with my family and with God, I fell to the world. But God met me still as I sat in that mail route and that mail truck and asked God. And God put me in a corner and said, you've got to make a choice. Do you really want to serve me? Do you really want me first in your life? Or do you just want the rewards of it and just do what you want? That's where God met me. He put me in a corner and I had to make a decision. Do I want to follow God? Do I want to see others come to Christ? Or do I want to keep pleasing my flesh? God brought revival to our family that year. And it shows that in Psalm there, when David breaks, when the leaders break, it breaks the whole family. It breaks the body. And we come to repentance. And we came to repentance in our whole family and brought revival. And I believe today that God has restored under our soul the joy of our salvation. He has taken us on further and He's allowed it to come back as it was in the first. And amen. I can only praise God for it. And I don't want to boast in that. I'm not boasting in that this morning. I'm just showing you that it's a living testimony. Keep living for Christ. And He will restore it unto you if you live it faithfully. And you truly want to see to minister to others that they will repent. And you can show them that that's not the way to go. That's not the direction to follow. That will lead you into more destruction. Believe me. You know, sometimes experience is the best teacher. But you don't have to experience it. Just live for Christ. Don't let it grow cold. Don't get in that confidence that everybody's patting me on the back and they see Christ in me. Don't. You know, that's a danger there. At least you fall, you know. Any of us are subject to falling and falling into the sins. But it's guarding our hearts. It's keeping there and staying there and striving for it as Apostle Paul did. Thank you for all of you praying for us and continue to pray for us, please. You know, I think of what Ricky said there about everybody thinking he was a preacher. You know, God is... In Corinthians it says that in such trust have we through Christ to God not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God who has made us able ministers of the New Testament. May we all be preachers. May we all be those able ministers of the New Testament that people wonder sometimes if we're a preacher. Amen. I appreciate that testimony, Ricky. Any more yet? Jeff? On this past Thursday we went into the city. Some of my family went with me to go visit someone at Conestoga View who was there that we care for and love. We went there, we sang a few songs and read the Psalms, but it seemed kind of empty. And we went and visited this man's daughter and there was a lot of difficulty in the home at that time. And I didn't know what to say or what to do and I felt very empty. And I was reminded by the Lord that years ago we had left the church here for about six months and I came back and I had confessed a critical spirit. And I feel like that's rising up in my heart again. It's been a while. It's been a long time. But through some of the meetings we've had on Wednesday nights and through some of the personal testimonies and issues, I built up walls against you all and I want to repent of that. I really do love you. I love this church. And I'm sorry that I put up these walls. I don't want to have a critical spirit. I want to be a brother. We hear a lot about brotherhood here. And sometimes I even kick at that because I say, how can I be a brother when this one thinks this way and that one thinks that way? And yet God has convicted me. It's how I view things. And so I repent of that. I want to do that. I have repented to God, but God says repent to your brothers and your sisters here in the church. And so I do that. I want to be a brother. I want to be filled. I want to be used by God. I've also noticed that sometimes that critical spirit gets translated to our children. And I wanted to repent to my children of that too. I want to lift that off my life. So pray for me. I'd appreciate it. And I know God is faithful. Thank you. God bless you, Jeff. Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may be healed. God bless you, Jeff, for sharing. Let us pray one for another as we're sharing these needs this morning in our lives. Sister? I just want to thank God that He is faithful. And I want to thank you all publicly for your prayers during the last couple months and my coming home. And I also want to thank God for the way that He's used this experience to help me to see my need of Him and how utterly impossible it is for me to keep going in my own strength. And I just want to keep looking to Him. And my testimony is a verse from Psalms 103 verse 4. I like the way it pictures it in Spanish. It says, God is the one who brings my life, who rescues my life out of a hole and crowns me with favors and mercy. And I just want to thank God because that's what He is doing in my life. And please keep praying for me that He will keep doing that. Thank you all for your prayers and for your support. God bless you. Oh, the tender mercies of our God. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us. That's how we can dwell in His house all the days of our life. Thank God for His mercies. Because even after we're Christians, we need His tender mercies. How I thank God for His mercy on my life.