2 Samuel Lesson 62

David’s Confession - Psalm 51

Turn to Psalm 51 we will finish David’s confession Psalm. This confession Psalm teaches many, many things. I’m only now becoming aware of some of the things that are being taught in this Psalm. I’ve tried to summarize on the sheet handed out a sort of check list format. This is a restoration procedure that is built upon the content of Psalm 51. It is taught to us through the Holy Spirit by the pen of David. And this represents a total restoration from compound carnality. Last time we covered the first part of Psalm 51. I’ll point out to you on the sheet the first item on your check list should be reading Genesis 3-4. This doesn’t mean every time you use 1 John 1:9 you go through this checklist. That’s not what the checklist is for. The checklist is for those times when you have a major problem, you’re dealing with a major problem. I’ve tried to encompass all of the content of Psalm 51 in these seven points to check on, to give you kind of an operational procedure so you can apply this doctrine yourself.

The first point is that you must go back and go to the fall of man as recorded in Genesis 3-4 and note the various things we have pointed out. This will orient you to grace, and will give you your bearings on the problem and some of the things you have to deal with. The second point, Psalm 51:1-2, is a negative and a positive; first stop all cover-up activities, just as Adam and Eve had to discard their fig leaves, so we, when we are out of fellowship must discard all of the cover-up activities that we have covered up the original rebellion with and turn to God alone for change and restoration. That was the decision David made in verses 1-2; he stopped covering up, of all the phony façade and self-righteousness and all the pretended clothing that we put on to paint our pictures better than they really should be. Stop it and turn to God, verses 1-2.

Point three on the check list is Psalm 51:3-4, and it’s a negative and a positive. Stop all blame-shifting behind the cover-up activities, which amounts to the fact of saying it’s God’s fault, not mine. And that has to be done before you can confess the heart of rebellion. Actually if you do this it actually happens together, but I’m separating it for the benefit of clarity. Then point four was stop ignoring the big problem. That was verses 5-6; remember verses 3-4 are David’s confession. I’ve taught that before but it hasn’t been impressed upon my mind, till recent events, how necessary it is to deal with the underlying pattern that leads to the sin. So it’s not just confessing a sin; yes, that gets you back in fellowship, we’re not arguing that, but God often will give you a residual guilt, so you confess your sin and then it seems like you don’t feel forgiven, it seems like you have a definite sensation of guilt, even though you’ve gone to 1 John 1:9, even though the verse says “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” That’s what the verse says and it’s true that we are forgiven from all our sins. But why do we have that nagging guilt?

Let’s take David as a concrete example. David is confessing two main sins, adultery and murder, and behind these, for these are actually the fruit of something else, lack of thanksgiving toward God. And he’s confessing this cluster of sins that happened in his life over the last 15-18 months. We can say, just for clarity, that’s a point act. In other words, it’s a cluster of sins and he’s using 1 John 1:9 which says if we confess those sins God is faithful and just to forgive us, forget it and move on, and he does this. But then he does something else, in addition, because probably David still had that nagging feeling that he was the same kind of man that could once again cop out on his spiritual responsibility; he was the same kind of man who had the same libido and could get involved in the same sin again, and he’s the same kind of man that has the murderous streak in him and he could do the same thing again.

So the second part, verses 5-6, and point four on the checklist, is that David stops ignoring the –R learned behavior patterns that led to the rebellious act in the first place. And by doing so he avoids the kiss and make up cycle, where you get in fellowship then you get back out, in fellowship, back out, in fellowship out of fellowship, in fellowship out of fellowship, in fellowship out of fellowship, same point every time. And David wants to break out of this thing and get free of it, and it’s his right as a believer, it’s your right as a believer that we not be involved in this kiss and make up cycle. We can break lose from this thing and God’s Word tells us how we can break lose from it. And David by doing this also avoids that guilt residue; he then stops ignoring these behavior patterns that have to be changed.

And so point four in your check list, be convinced that a basic change is required. Paul says the same thing, different vocabulary, Paul’s not David, “put off the old man, put on the new.” Now that’s done positionally but he’s talking about experientially and to do this David has to become, first, that the pattern is there and he has to become aware that a change is needed. And then underlined at point 4, be convinced that a definite and opposite +R learned behavior pattern is needed. If a person has trouble with thievery, according to Ephesians 4, it is not enough just to confess the act of theft, get back in fellowship and roll; God wants something else, after you get back in fellowship the next point of His will, you’re back in fellowship all right, but when you get back in fellowship the first test is going to be to replace the entire behavior pattern of lusting for material things by work and not just work, because Ephesians says “let him that steals, steal no more, but let him labor,” and labor until he has enough goods left over to give to those in need.

Now you see what Paul has done. What does a thief do? He not only doesn’t labor but he steals fro those who have goods. So what Paul says is look, to stop this pattern let’s devise one going in exactly the opposite direction. What’s the opposite of thievery? It’s labor. What is the opposite of taking from people? Giving to people. So Paul says what is the person to do? To decide before God that by the Holy Spirit he will now develop a godly pattern in deliberately the opposite direction from that which gave him his problem.

And so David is praying here for, whereas his –R behavior pattern went in one direction, he’s praying for a +R behavior pattern going in another direction. Put another way, if is the problem is in the area of theft, to again use Ephesians 4, it doesn’t do any good to say God, give me more love for other people or some vague thing like that. It’s not an opposite pattern; it’s a godly pattern, it fits the Word of God, but it doesn’t fit your problem. Of all the patterns of the Word of God we’ve got to pick one that is exactly opposite that will cancel out that pattern, and that is taught in Psalm 51 and throughout the New Testament. After confession what is needed? Reformation of the behavior patterns. If a person, for example, has a more subtle pattern, for example if a person has a pattern of self-pity, the world is against them, everybody is against me, God is a meany, of a billion people dwelling on this planet He picks on me. Behind that is a massive amount of conceit because it implies that God is concerned with you so much that He chases you around seeing how He can frustrate you daily. God has an active interest, but not that way, so behind the attitude of self-pity often lies a massive amount of pride and conceit.

And so if a person is involved in self-pity and they engaged in this, if they find when they’re alone they like to sulk and pout by themselves, sit there and pity their condition, talk to themselves about how bad things are; that is operation self-pity and God wants it changed. What’s the opposite of self-pity? Self-pity begins from a very prideful attitude. Self-pity is concentrated on self so obviously what you want in the +R learned behavior pattern that you’re going to pray that God bring into your life to correct that pattern, you’re going to pray that He start developing an attitude of love toward others so you’ll now be concentrating on the welfare of others instead of your own welfare. And instead of pity you want an opposite for pity and not harshness or callousness, but a love, a genuine love. So toward others a love instead of self-pity toward self.

Now this is an example of heading off at the pass future sins. Verse 5-6 is simply David’s acknowledgement that for over 30 years his sin nature has acquired learned behavior patterns that must now be dealt with. God has allowed this sin to go on in his life for 30+ years. By the way, those of you who think you can lose your salvation take a long look at this one. I want you to notice something that is tremendous about God’s grace. He has let David sit with this thing for over 30 years; David’s family has a very high libido and God has not made it an issue up until this point. Now at this point God says that must go. Now usually people who argue that you can lose your salvation always insist that I have to live a life of absolute perfection before God or He won’t accept me. How can that be, because up until this point this behavior pattern was there; David was in fellowship and he still had this –R learned behavior pattern. And God didn’t call it, God didn’t point yet to it, God accepted David perfectly, even with this sinful behavior pattern.

Now to show you from the New Testament the same thing goes on this side of Pentecost, turn to 1 John 1;8, this is talking about someone who is actively walking in the light. It’s not just any Christian, this is a Christian who is in fellowship with the Lord, who is obedient to what he knows at that point of the will of God, and yet the Bible argues don’t get works oriented, get grace oriented, because just because you are obedient to everything you know of the will of God does not mean you are obedient to everything that is the will of God, only what you know then of the will of God. So in verse 8, who is the “we” of verse 8? Previous verse, those who are “walking in the light.” And what is the danger of when we walk in the light? The danger is to draw the conclusion because I am in fellowship I have no need to change my behavior at a very deep level; in other words, status quo. Filled with the Holy Spirit, status quo; no change. And John says no-no, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,” and the sin there is the sin nature, but it’s more than just the sin nature because when sin is used singularly in John it’s not just talking about the sin nature. When hamartia is used here it is talking about patterns of the sin nature, and what John is saying is that just because you are in fellowship, even while you are in fellowship, you can have many, many, many patterns of behavior displeasing to God. And God some day will call, okay, I want this one, number two, that’s going to go right now.

And that’s with David; David has confessed his sin, he’s back in fellowship, he has this stuff and this pattern is now pulled out and God the Holy Spirit says David, the time has come, son, for that to go. And turning back to Psalm 51, here David is going to pray that this behavior pattern be dealt with. So we move to verses 7-12 where we left off last week, David’s petition. And on your checklist it’s item five. You notice on the left hand margin of the checklist in capital letters: if compound carnality is indicated and/or major advance in sanctification called for by the Holy Spirit, then steps four, five, six and seven are to be invoked under normal processes. When you’re moving along in day to day situations, points two and three are the only ones you need, basically 1 John 1:9, keeping the record clear. But at times in your life that’s not going to work and don’t get shook when it doesn’t work because when it doesn’t work, no big deal, God is going to make a change in your life and that’s when it isn’t going to work like it used to.

So David makes petitions for several things, verses 9-12 of Psalm 51. First in verse 9, he petitions, “Hid Thy face from my sins,” plural, “and blot out all my iniquities.” Now this means that David… what happens, what is he really praying for? He’s praying for forgiveness of sins; he’s praying for relief so he can get rid of guilt, minus guilt. Now what is the effect guilt always has on the Christian. It freezes you basically, it immobilizes you, it dispirits you, you can’t hold your head high because you’re always thinking about the guilt, always thinking about what’s wrong, so guilt really drives you into pessimism. That’s one of the things guilt always does to the Christian, everything’s going wrong, pessimistic. And the reason the pessimism is there is because there is something wrong, guilt. But the problem isn’t the external something wrong, it’s the internal something wrong. And so guilt has to be dealt with.

Turn to Romans 8:15 let me show you a contrast that may heighten this understanding for us. In Romans 8:15 a contrast is made, and I can’t think of a more concrete way to emphasize the sensation of being free of guilt than this verse. It’s very akin to what’s going on in Hebrews 2-3. “For we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear,” the spirit of slavery, the spirit where you fee like you can’t really move, you’re in, you’re bound and you can’t move in the Christian life, you have no freedom to give thanks to God for what He’s done in your life, no freedom to tell others about Jesus Christ, no freedom to be aggressive in the application of the Word of God in every area, the spirit of bondage. And Paul says we haven’t received that kind of spirit, something’s wrong if that spirit’s there, we shouldn’t have this attitude of bondage. If you’re disturbed by “spirit” put “attitude,” that’s the English word that corresponds with it. “But you have received the spirit of adoption,” now what is “the spirit of adoption.” Paul is picturing the situation of a lonely child who is homeless.

The orphans in the ancient cities were just garbage, there weren’t any welfare agencies to take care of orphans in the ancient world. And so what he’s saying, the spirit of adoption, what happens when a child realizes he has a home and a resting place? Doesn’t that change his attitude. That’s the attitude of the forgiveness of sins. We “have not received the spirit of bondage to fear, we’ve received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father.” And the word “Abba” is what the Greek children would call their dad, it’s the word “daddy” is what it is, and it is one of those rare places in the New Testament where God is called by a very familiar term. And instead of referring to Him as God the Father or Heavenly Father or something like that, it’s Daddy. But it’s that sensation, the confidence that God is our Daddy, that gives the Christian bones. After all, what does it mean in the Bible when it says we’re the children of God. It means that God is our “Daddy” is what it means. Sol the opposite here, think of the opposite, the opposite of this fear that I am at loss, I’m out in the streets wandering around with no home, no place of stability, I’m just kind of lost, the opposite of that, the fact that I have a home and I have a Father that I can come to. Now that is the effect, the sensation of the forgiveness of sins.

Turn back again to the Psalm, after he asks, “Hide Thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities,” give me that new attitude instead of guilt, the “Daddy” attitude, by the way, just to head off at the pass a wrong application, calling God “Daddy” does not denigrate His authority. When the Jew, in Biblical times, called his father daddy, believe me, if that home was orthodox, he wasn’t violating his father’s authority. The Jews still respected his father’s authority, it was just that he could go to his father, that’s the point. But it wasn’t indicating the father was milk toast or something; that’s not what we’re talking about. The father still retains his authority but calling him daddy emphasizes his accessibility.

Now the second thing David prayed for; remember he’s praying for this basic gut level change in his life, first I want that attitude of “I’m at home,” that home type attitude. Second, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” We’re going to have to trace down this “right spirit” business. What is that? Isn’t David regenerated? Yes. Well then why is he praying for a right spirit within him? Well, let’s do a little tracking through the Word of God and let’s start with Deuteronomy 5:29. After the giving of the Law God revealed to Moses that there was going to be some problems. The Law had been given, the Law had been spoken, verbal revelation had occurred, it had been preached and taught. God’s Word was known. The solution wasn’t more teaching at this point; the teaching had already occurred. But in Deut. 5:19, God in talking with Moses says this: “Oh, that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all My commandments always, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!”

Now there’s the heart of God in Scripture. God does not like to slam us around in life, but that verse contains an ominous threat, and I hope as you read through the verse you caught the threat. The verse not only shows the heart of God but it shows his serious intent in our life because it says “that they keep My commandments, that it might be well with them.” The threat is if they don’t keep My commandments it’s not going to be well with them. And He wants them, in order to keep the commandments to have a special kind of heart, and the special kind of heart is what is needed to obey the first and great commandment. Notice what it says, “that they would fear Me,” that they would bow their knee to My authority.

I am no great experienced expert in counseling but I’ll tell you one thing, I’ve never yet, never once have I met any kind of problem in counseling that wasn’t due to a violation of God’s authority at some point. I have seen people driven to the edge of insanity, I have seen people tormented by demonic powers, I have seen people in tears and in many difficulties, and always, after a while it comes out, sooner or later, there was a violation of God’s will in their life. It’s amazing when you stand back and you can get emotionally detached for a moment from somebody involved in this kind of situation, and you think to yourself, God, am I like that too. And the Bible of course says yes, but the thing that always comes to my mind is how much pain people put up with when it would be so very simple to obey God in the first place. And the only way I can think of what must go on in our hearts, and I include myself in this because I too am a fallen man, you obviously know that, so the only way we can look at this is kind of an equation type thing, that we have the pain on one side of the balance and the pain is tremendous and very weighty, but there’s another kind of pain that seems to most of us to be worse, and that’s the pain of forsaking pride and our autonomy. We will make our own kingdom, said Nimrod, in defiance of the living God. It is more painful for us creatures who are fallen to give up that prideful spirit of autonomy than it is literally to suffer insanity itself as a result of our defiance. We prefer suffering and sorrow and pain and heartache to swallowing pride and saying God, You’re right. And that’s the only explanation for why we observe such tremendous agony over such tremendous time in so many people’s lives, because it is easier to take that kind of very intense pain than it is simply to bow our knee and confess the Jesus Christ is Lord of all and bring every thought into captivity to Him.

That’s the problem, and this problem of obedience of Deuteronomy 5:29 is what David is troubled with. Now in the New Testament that new heart, or that right heart comes out in many, many places. Turn to 1 Corinthians 2, the right heart and the right spirit, it’s talking about the human spirit. Going back to our chart, God, at birth, gives us a human spirit; that human spirit is autonomous, and is sinful; it is changed by the new birth. That spirit has certain needs, it needs nourishment just like our bodies and where do you nourish your spirit? By taking in the Word of God. So here’s spiritual health, the spiritual vitamins are in God’s Word, nourishment; just like the body it needs exercise and how is the human spirit exercised. The answer: the human spirit is exercised in obedience. That’s how the human spirit is exercised. This is why parents ought very early to start exercising the human spirits of their children; whether you think they’re regenerate or not, it is important that this pattern of exercise of the spirit of the child be begun because you exercise the child’s human spirit by making it adhere to correct authority; not any authority but divinely implanted God-honoring authority. And children are exercised as they obey.

Other ways the human spirit is exercised is simply by praise and thanksgiving. The Psalms are the praises of Israel, if you want a spiritual exercise sometimes, read the Psalms aloud. That is a spiritual exercise; at that point you are exercising your human spirit, strengthening it, as you would do physically when you have physical workout. Then as the body has elimination so the human spirit needs elimination and that’s confession of sin. Now you need all three of these things or the human spirit isn’t going to hack it, and the human spirit has the indwelling Holy Spirit in it, after Pentecost; the human spirit is what gives us power for service and there is the problem. The human spirit gives us power for service but when God impresses, say an area of service upon us, we may find that we’ve not grown that much so our spirit’s aren’t read for that kind of situation. But yet if God has given us the situation then He must think the spirit is ready. How do we reconcile it. We fall back then upon a petition like David made, God give me a spirit capable of handling this situation. God will give it. It doesn’t mean He gives you a new one, that’s given at regeneration.

1 Corinthians 2:12, notice the contrast, “We have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God,” that’s the Holy Spirit, that we may know the things that are feely given to us of God.” Now that obviously leads to a problem and that is if we have trouble understanding God’s Word, instead of complaining that these things are too deep, they’re not too deep or God wouldn’t have revealed them. Petition God as David did; God, give me a heart that will understand. That is a normal and legitimate and God-honoring prayer petition.

1 Corinthians 7:34, another verse on the care of your human spirit. In this case it’s talking about an unmarried woman and the difference between them if the unmarried woman is living a godly life. “that she may be holy, both in body and in spirit, but she that is married cares of the things of the world, how she may please her husband.” That’s not wrong, the Bible is not teaching this, it’s saying that the woman who has the gift of being unmarried, this woman has a special opportunity to develop her human spirit in the way a married woman doesn’t.

Another passage in the New Testament, speaking about the human spirit is 1 Corinthians 16:18, notice how your human spirit and mine can be touched by situations external to itself. “For they have refreshed my spirit and yours.” Now what does Paul mean my spirit is refreshed? It means that certain things have happened according to God’s will. God has done something that’s exciting and the human spirit is refreshed and strengthened in its response to seeing something God does. So you look at something and you see something. This is why, small area but one that counts, on the prayer sheets we have tried to always have a praise section. On Wednesday night we open our prayer thing by asking if there are any answers to prayer; why do we go through that? Because we want the congregation to be aware that you pray for something and God has done something so that should refresh your spirit; same kind of activity.

2 Corinthians 7:1, it is possible to have a need for cleansing of the human spirit. “Having, therefore, these promises dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” is the authority of God, and notice he starts by having these promises. What are the promises? The Word of God. Why the fear of God? Obedience to those promises. Result: cleansing of the filthiness from both flesh and spirit.

2 Corinthians 11:4, a warning concerning the spirit. I said before that spirit can be attitude. In this verse we have a problem that believers can have. “If he that comes preach another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if you receive another spirit which you have not received, or another gospel which you have not accepted,” now what is the spirit that you have received? The Holy Spirit. Then what is the other spirit that is possible to receive in verse 4? It is an evil spirit, a spirit of apostasy, and it is possible for a Christian to receive that. 2 Corinthians was written to Christians, not non-Christian.

Ephesians 1:17, see how the New Testament is concerned with the health of our human spirit. Look at the prayer petition by Paul, and this prayer petition was made by people who were already Christians, already regenerate, and yet Paul is concerned with their human spirit, even though it is indwelt by the Holy Spirit, there is still needed prayer for the human spirit. “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, [18] That your heart being enlightened may know….” So Paul is praying for deeper illumination, and not just that the Holy Spirit illuminate your human spirit as it now exists but what Paul’s praying for is something else, not only for the Holy Spirit to illuminate the human spirit as it now exists, but for the Holy Spirit to do something that will enlarge the human spirit. If you want to visualize the human spirit, I always visualize it as kind of a balloon that enlarges, and this is praying for an enlargement that the human spirit be able to take in more doctrine, more knowledge, more information. The human spirit has got to take in the Word of God or else it just rattles around the mind and doesn’t do a thing.

Ephesians 4:23, another verse about our human spirits, “that we be renewed in the spirit of our mind,” that’s talking about depression and it’s talking about the fact that it is possible that the depression has been caused by the fact, not only disobedience but of the fact that the resources of the human spirit have missing. For example, if Israel failed to occupy all her land the Canaanites and the Philistines and everybody else would come in. And what Paul is encouraging us to do, he said look, put off the former man, verse 22, all behavior patterns associated with it, “being renewed in the spirit of your mind.” In other words, let the human spirit reign in your soul, let it take over so to speak. And what this means is not some emotion; this renewing of the spirit, since conscience is part of the human spirit, what it’s talking about is that the human spirit which knows doctrine, the doctrine that you really believe is all stored in your human spirit. The stuff you’ve heard about but haven’t decided to believe is just in your mind; but the stuff you’ve heard about and the Holy Spirit has really taught you, that’s in your human spirit. And what he’s saying is that you have to kind of turn on your human spirit. Now how do you turn on your human spirit? By thinking of the doctrine that you believe, and Paul goes into it in the context here. We’re recalling, you know how, like cows regurgitate, all right, that’s what he’s talking about, vomit it up and chew it again. This means going over doctrine, going over what God’s Word has taught you, what you know to be correct about the Lord Jesus Christ, and respond to it, don’t just sit there, respond to it your human spirit.

Another verse on spiritual care, Ephesians 5:18; I’ll let you in on a little exegetical secret, this verses has long been debated by scholars as to which spirit is referred to here, whether it’s the Holy Spirit or the human spirit. I’ve never made an issue out of it because as far as day to day practice in the Christian life it doesn’t make any difference. But there is a genuine source of problem with the Greek word pneuma as it is used in verse 18, because it appears to be used that way, like Paul when he uses it everywhere else, he seems to use pneuma this way when he wants to indicate the human spirit. Now of course being filled with the Spirit means the Holy Spirit is doing something, but if this refers to the human spirit, then… the doctrine doesn’t change by the way, again because the Holy Spirit is doing the same thing, so I’ve never bothered with the controversy since doctrinally it doesn’t make any difference. But if you just read it for a minute as the human spirit, maybe you’ll learn something about the doctrine that you didn’t see before. Whichever way you take pneuma, that doesn’t matter, but I think if you just read it one time as the human spirit you’ll see something here if you haven’t seen this before.

“Be controlled with your human spirit,” then what are the immediate activities of being filled with the Spirit according to verse 19-20, the first two things that happen. The first thing that happens is “Speaking,” not to yourselves in your heart, it means “among yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,” so there is an immediate overt manifestation in groups of Christians of praise. And the kind of overt response are given there, the psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs. Good music is the vehicle for the filling of the Holy Spirit, actually; the filling of the Holy Spirit, the first place it is shown is in praise; the songs are the praise. This is why I say in times of depression, if you are having this kind of problem, your first tool, your first thing you should do before you reach for your tranquilizer is go to the Psalms and start reading them out loud. In other words, this is activating your human spirit. Otherwise it just kind of sits there dormant; it’s like physical exercise, the praising is an activation of the human spirit.

Then notice verse 20, [tape turns “Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”] … after the praise is given, then we can give thanks for all things, “unto God and the Father.” Now the giving thanks doesn’t occur first, that’s the interesting thing. The giving of thanks can’t begun because you know, you just don’t feel like giving thanks when you’re depressed. You go through the words but you know you’re not really giving thanks for it, that’s what it says, yeah… but you’re not doing it. So how do you get your human spirit in the position of really moving to be able to give thanks. You can’t get there directly and the way you go to verse 20 is through verse 19. Verse 19 is the stopping point or the intermediary point before you can get into an attitude of thanksgiving; praising God actively from the Psalms.

Another verse on the human spirit, 1 Thessalonians 5:23; see why David is interested in this in Psalm 51. This indicates the human spirit, even though regenerate, that’s the big point to notice here, David had a regenerate spirit but just regeneration does not give you sanctification. Regeneration gives me the capability but I have to use that capability actively in history. And that’s why in 1 Thessalonians. 5:23 it says, “And the God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless,” with the implication being that it might not be, so the sanctification is not just of the mind and how you think, and the sanctification isn’t just of the learned behavior patterns of your body and your over behavior, but the sanctification also includes the power of the human spirit, putting muscle on the human spirit.

1 Timothy 4:1, another danger. The emphasis, notice, in all these passages on the spirit. The first “spirit” here is the Holy Spirit. “Now the Spirit speaks expressly that in the latter times, some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and docs of demons.” It is possible, since the world is filled with demons, as Martin Luther said in A Mighty Fortress is our God, that you have God here giving out justice, +R, and He is immutable, so God gives the Word of God, the Word of God comes to the human being, it comes externally through the Bible. God is not adding to the canon of Scripture today; there is no new revelation occurring today, if there was new revelation occurring today the corollary would be we’d be writing a book after the book of Revelation. Since we’re not, the canon is closed. Therefore, God is going to teach us through the Bible; that’s why you get it in your hands and get it functioning when you have a problem, that’s the first place to run. The Bible comes, but the Bible itself, the Word of God from the outside and the Holy Spirit from the inside teach. The Bible was written by the Holy Spirit through the prophets.

Now watch because 1 Timothy 4 argues there’s another spirit that whispers. Our spirit, human spirit, though regenerate is still partly rebellious and autonomous. We have the same thing if we let it go and God restrains His grace, we have the same thing Nimrod had, that same defiance of God’s will. And since we have that on the inside and we have Satan on the outside, and we have demonic forces on the outside and teachers, then ideas can be sown; this can be done through human intermediaries, false prophets; it can also be done directly as Jesus Christ Himself had a thought put in His mind by Satan. Here’s Christ’s mind, Christ was perfect, and yet by Satan by some method we don’t know can drop a thought right in the mind of Jesus Christ. Now if Satan can drop a thought in the mind of Christ, can’t he drop a thought in our minds? Of course he can. We’re bathed with the thoughts of Satan and the more you know of the Word of God and the more you are diligent to apply it, the more sharply acute you become to these thoughts that are dropped in day after day after day. Watch yourself next time you’re in a pressure type situation and just think of your mind as a billboard, and start reading it, where are these thoughts coming from. Paul says watch out for “seducing spirits and doctrines of demons.”

2 Timothy 1:7, many Christians are troubled with fear, as we said earlier, fear that is guilt in gender, fear that comes because they’ve learned to be afraid of certain things, certain phobias. But the Bible says “For God has not given us the spirit of fear,” so where you see the spirit of fear you know it can’t be from God, God doesn’t give that kind of a spirit, God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of…” but the word pneuma should be before that, He has given us “the spirit of power, the spirit of love, and the spirit of a sound mind.” Now I can’t explain this because I don’t really understand what the spirit world is like and I don’t think any human being does, but let me tell you something about the way the Word of God presents this so you won’t get confused.

One spirit can have multiple forms, for example, in the book of Revelation, the seven spirits before the throne, now if you trace that down in a concordance do you know what that is? That is a spirit, the seven spirits are infused by Jesus Christ into local churches to build them in the book of Revelation, and the seven spirits are distinguished, seemingly they are all one spirit, but it’s like you have one spirit with, kind of nodes on it, so you have a spirit, say of love, here a spirit of power, a spirit of a sound mind. Now in one sense they’re individual spirits but in another sense they’re all the same spirit. Now how one spirit can be many spirits God only knows, but I’ll tell you something, when you look in the Bible you have the weirdest experience because you have passages like 1 Kings that talks about one lying spirit goes before God and says I will become a lying spirit in the mouth of all of Ahab’s prophets. Now that means that one spirit had to divide into 400 pieces to inhabit all of Ahab’s prophets. Now how can one spirit inhabit 400 different people. I don’t know but the Bible teaches it. So we have this peculiar thing, the spirits can divide.

For example, in the exorcism of the demon of Gadara, the demon is called legion. Do you know what that means, he is three thousand parts in one man; three thousand parts to one spirit. Now how can spirit have three hundred pieces; I don’t know how one spirit can have three hundred pieces; in my mind the only way I can visualize is like an amoeba that just kind of splits up but that’s the only picture I get from Scripture; all I know is the Scripture teaches the these spirits can split, multiply, divide, contract, come back together again, do all sorts of things. And obviously God hasn’t seen fit in the canon of Scripture to give us revelation; this would drive us crazy, you think you have problems with the Trinity, what would you do with this kind of stuff. Maybe we’ll never know how this works but all we know is that the Scriptural data teaches this kind of thing.

So when you see something like this, “the spirit of power, the spirit of love, the spirit of a sound mind,” don’t think of that as three extra spirits of the Holy Spirit or something, what that is talking about is the creation apparently of nodes on the human spirit. And when you see an attitude of fear you can say that’s not God’s will, that’s what he’s trying to argue here. Don’t put up with the spirit of fear he’s saying, because it’s not of God and it’s not God’s will for you. And you ought to take a defiant attitude toward it, you know that is not God’s will for you to be afraid and there’s a problem somewhere and it had better be dealt with. But it is not of God and it should not be accepted as from God, that’s the point he’s making.

1 John 4:1, another passage on the human spirit similar to 1 Timothy 4:1, and here’s a test and this is a very important one because people are fond on point to what they think are various spirits by all sorts of intuitions. “Beloved, believe not every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” Now do you test the spirits, as he says here, by saying hey God, is this the right spirit or the wrong one? No, in verse 2-3 he tells you, “By this you know,” and he gives a point of doctrine, so the test for the spirits is the test of the standards of God’s Word, God’s canon. It’s [can’t understand word] to realize that we as Christians sharing our position in Jesus Christ and knowing the Word of God, we know that even the spirits have to be regulated by God’s Word. They may not like it but they have to be. The same Word that regulates us regulates them, and that Word is the standard for all creatures, not just men.

Another passage, Revelation 22:17, this is the attitude of the strong spirit, the spirit that faces the kingdom of man in Babylon, fights the battle, but all the time it’s fighting, in one verb in this verse of Revelation 22:17 is the mental attitude toward history of a strong regenerate spirit. “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” Now “the Spirit and the bride” the Spirit there is the Holy Spirit in the Church, but therefore His attitude is manifested in the human spirit’s of the believers. And what therefore is our attitude? Jesus Christ come.

Now if you stop and think for a moment, that implies that we’re ready for Him to come, doesn’t it. If we are welcoming His coming tonight, we’d better be prepared for His coming. You don’t welcome something that you’re not ready for. Have you ever noticed the reaction of a housewife when a husband invites someone home and he hasn’t told her. Ooh, the house isn’t clean, it looks clean but for some reason they always think it’s not. But the thing is, they’re not ready for him and so they react. They don’t welcome the guest. But the attitude of welcoming means that you’re ready for it, so therefore, when the Spirit says “Come Lord Jesus,” it is saying we are ready for You Lord Jesus. That’s implied.

Now going back to Psalm 51, let’s finish up what David’s petitions were. We’ve seen David petition for a right spirit, verse 11, we explained last week sufficiently, that was his calling, it’s not talking about the Holy Spirit in the sense of indwelling as we know it; verse 11, “take not thy Holy Spirit from me” means let me still be king. So verse 11 now gets into the area of learned behavior patterns. David is saying Lord, forgive me, cleanse me from my guilt, verse 9; verse 10 give me the human spirit that is adequate to obey. Think back, what was the first verse in the chain we just went over, Deuteronomy 5:29, oh that there was a heart in them to obey. So before David prays verse 11, for God’s will in his life once again, he knows enough doctrine to realize I can’t pray for God’s will in my life until I first pray for a spirit of obedience before I know the will of God for my life. So that’s why verse 10 occurs before verse 11. Verse 10 is the spirit that is necessary for consistent obedience. Then after that we have verse 11, now Lord, “Cast me not away from Thy presence,” that’s the throne, Lord, keep me on the throne, don’t be like Saul; take thy spirit from me meant I am the dynasty. So that means God’s will for David.

Then verse 12 is David’s reaction in the area of his service, give me a willing spirit, that means in all details of his job of verse 11. The basic spirit is verse 10, the mental attitude and specifics, verse 11, the joy and the willingness, “uphold me with a willing spirit” should literally read let a willing spirit uphold me. And references on that would be Exodus 35, the whole chapter, it talks about the willing spirit, and Exodus 35 is filled with what people are doing for God. So verses 11-12 of David’s prayer is an anticipation of overt activity.

Then verse 13 through the end in one passage, verses 13-17, and then 18-19 is David’s praise. You can’t get out of it, everywhere you go in God’s Word we find praise. In Ephesians 5 what was the result of the filling of the Holy Spirit? Praise; specifically how? Verbalizing the psalms, verbalizing hymns about God. And here in Psalm 51 what does David anticipate when he gets restored? What is the first thing he does, [13] I will teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto you. [14] Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of Thy righteousness. [15] Lord, open Thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise.” That is public overt praise.

Now something to recall and remember in this day when there’s confusion around, if you look carefully at verses 13-15 is this praise a gibberish or is this praise a known human language. Obviously what is it, if he’s going to teach transgressors it’s got to be in the language of the people he’s trying to teach. So true praise has got to be in the language so that other people can share with it. The praise has got to be this way, that’s the function of it in the first place. So he will sing aloud of righteousness. Then in verse 16-17 he reflects upon this praise, “For You desire not sacrifice, else would I give it; You delight not in burnt offering.” Obviously David’s sin violated everything in the law. [17] The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart…” and so on.

Now up to verse 17 the praise is focused on what has happened in David’s life. Now verses 13-17 I’ve contained in point six on your checklist and you’ll see there where we are to praise God for specific changes He brings into our life. “Specific changes He brings into our life” means what He does in answer to your prayer when you get out of the pile. When you are under the pile and you’re praying to get out from under it, when you’re out on a real toulies trip of toulies trips and you’re considering getting back again, back in the far reaches of your mind some place, and when you’re really serious with God, there ought to be this thought: when I get out of this I am going to share with others what God has done for me. Don’t be silent. If you have petitioned God to get you out of a jam, then you have an obligation to tell others what He has done for you.

And finally, verses 18-19, it’s the same thing except this is praise for His eternal master plan. This gets off just yourself and it’s a healthy balance and a healthy conclusion, this is not introspection. You can get to introspective about this thing if you don’t keep it in balance, and verses 18-19 give the proper balance. That is the eternal grand plan of all history, I am excited, David says, about this plan. [18, “Do good in Thy good pleasure unto Zion; build Thou the walls of Jerusalem. [19] Then shalt Thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering; then shall they offer bullocks upon Thine altar.”]

All right, we’ve gone through Psalm 51, next week we’ll deal with Nathan and how he deals with David and I hope now you have background to appreciate Nathan’s problem. Here’s what Nathan has a problem with, here’s what he’s going to have to do. David is totally out of it when Nathan walks up to him. What’s Nathan’s job? How do you take a believer who’s been 15 months in the toulies and change him around within 15 minutes. Nathan does it and how he does it is one of the most dramatic stories in the book of Samuel.

With our heads bowed…