Well, welcome to the Vineyard. Will you stand and join us? We're going to lift our voices in a song of praise.
Hello, everyone. My name is Beth Guckenberger. I am the interim lead pastor here at the Vineyard and we're going to continue our worship through offering. And really in an effort to continue to be transparent, to share open openly, with you all. I want to let you know a little bit about our current financial condition here at the church. And my heart really is just for you to feel like you're, there's, this is family business and you know what our family business is. JR had told you a little bit last week, but giving is down about 16% since COVID-19 hit, which is absolutely understandable, we haven't been meeting, our businesses are struggling, some of us aren't working as much. We app, we totally understand. But what that means is that, that's about $500,000 for us. And that impacts the ministry and the advancement of the kingdom through this church.
And so we want to continue to sustain this ministry and grow. And if you're someone, depending on your situation, who wants to be a part of bridging that gap of continuing that, I just want to encourage you to, to think about how you might continue the giving that you were doing before COVID-19 or give an additional gift to help cover that gap. If you're someone who wants to be a part of that, both JR Cifani and my emails are here on the screen. Reach out to us this week. We'd love to talk to you about that. As you respond to whatever the Lord puts on your heart.
I was reading 2 Corinthians this
week, and I was reading what Paul was saying about generous people meeting the needs of the church. This is what Paul says. He said "this most generous God who gives seed to the farmer that becomes a bread for your meal is more than extravagant with you.
He gives you something that you can then give away, which grows into full-formed lives, robust and God, wealthy in every way so that you can be generous in every way, producing with us great praise to God." We are grateful. We are humble. We are so appreciative of what God has asked this church to do, and all of our roles in that. If you'd like to be a part of offering and worship with us in that way, you can do it online. You can do it through the text to give. If you're here in the building and you want to give through cash or check, we have offering boxes; there in the lobby. But thank you. Thank you for the way that you've continued to be a part of what Vineyard is doing as they fulfill its calling in this city. Would you pray with me?
Jesus, we just lift up to you this offering. You, know every one of our stories. You know every situation going on in our life, Lord. You talk to us. You encourage us. You challenge us. You lift us up. You lead us. We'll follow you wherever and however it is that you have for us. We trust you with this church. We trust you with the future. We trust you with what you have given us. We trust you. Lead us, Lord. Most of all, first of all, lead us. We look fully and wholly and totally to you. And it is with this that I lift up your name and I pray all of these things in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Hey everyone. I'm Andy Bowman of Vineyard Kids. Whether you're with us in person or watching online, welcome to Vineyard Cincinnati Church, where we believe that small things done with great love will change the world. If this is your first visit, text the word VINE to 97000. We'd love to get to know you. That's V I N E to 97000. Right now we'd like to take just a few minutes to let you know what's going on right here at the Vineyard. As we come back to the Vineyard, you'll notice that we've gone paperless. You can get all the info you need right on your phone. Have you ever seen one of these before? Get your phones out and scan it or take a picture of it. It's called a QR code. By capturing this image, you will be taken directly to our website where you'll be able to connect with us, view you are coming events and there's even an option to give. This QR code can be seen throughout the building
and it will not change from week to week. Stay tuned for even more great improvements. The school year will begin soon and in light of the new normal teachers will face, we have a great opportunity to come alongside them as they prepare for their students to return. Join us for Serve Saturday on August 1st at 9:00 AM, where we will gather in small groups, learn the safety and health protocols and head out to serve these teachers. If you're unable to be there in person, you can still bless them through your prayers. Serve Saturday is easy, fun, and makes a great impact. Learn more and register on our website. As we seek out ways to serve our city. In our current reality, prayer is something we all have available to us and for others. That's why it's not too late to join the Cincy Prayer Adventure. Prayer is a powerful tool as we seek God's will for ourselves, our church and our city. Log onto the Prayer Adventure webpage for instructions and off you go to make a impact for your city, right from your own car. Choose a neighborhood and use the guided prompts and be sure to send us an on location selfie. It's that easy. For more details about anything you've heard today. See vineyardcincinnati.com, stop by any info area or follow us on Facebook or Instagram.
Well, good evening. It's great to be with you, whether you're connecting with us online or in person. I personally prefer in person because I'm a hugger. I'm a what we can't hug. I'm sorry, but I send my hug from a distance. Before we start tonight, I just want to get to take care of some housekeeping items here. And as you know, we are in our second week of our Reckless Faith sermon series. And there is a book that goes along with this series as a 40 day devotional that Beth has written and created. There's some content on YouTube for every day. And if you're interested in embarking on this journey, there's tables at every exit where you can get your free copy of this book. So make sure that on your way out, you reach out and get one for yourself or every member of your family.
There's also a way that you can, other than individually, join us in this journey. And it is by joining an e-group. We have a Women's Community, 120 women this past week started doing a study on this Reckless Faith sermon series. We also have other 50 other individuals that started an e-group online. If you would like to get more information about how you can join one of these e-groups, make sure that go to our website. Lastly, we want to take time to thank our facilities team and volunteers. Last week was our first weekend when we reopened and they did a fantastic job sanitizing and preparing the place before we got here. And after every service, making sure that you know, everything was nice and clean and sanitized to ensure the safety of everyone that's coming. And I know some of you that perhaps are watching on us online, you're on the fence and wondering, you know, what precautions were taken? Be assured that we're going to every length to ensure that the place has fully sanitized after each service.
So we thank you also for abiding by the protocols, safety protocols, so that we can keep one another safe and show our love for one another in this way. Enough of the housekeeping, let's get into the Word. Would you allow me to pray with you guys today, guys and gals. I'm sorry. Father, in Jesus' name, we just thank you that you are here, that you are for us. So Father God, thank you, Father, that through the entrance of your word, Father God comes light. And Father, we believe and declare, Father God, that you will sanctify your people through the hearing of your Word. Father, empower us to hear what your Spirit has to say and give us a heart to obey your will. And we pray these things in the mighty and wonderful name of Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen. Don't be shy. You can join me.
I like when people talk back to me, I don't like when my wife talks back to me, but I like when people talk back to me in church. I'm just kidding, I'm really soft. My wife runs me all over, runs all over me. So we're dealing with reckless faith. And this week we're going to delve into the life of another greatest King, if not the greatest King that ever lived in Israel, right? King David. But when we talking about reckless faith, what we're really talking about is that we have a no holds barred allegiance to God and his will for our lives. That we're able to see God prodding us, calling us, beckoning us to go deeper with him. And we quickly embrace. And we say yes to God. I want you to hear this well. The yes of God anticipates, precedes your yes, but also anticipates your yes.
In other words, that God, according to Ephesians 2:10, he has prepared good words for us that we, before the foundation of the world so that we will walk in them. But nevertheless, he needs to prod us and encourages us to embrace the vision that he has, for each and every one of our individual lives. So he prepares the way for us. His yes expects and waits for our yes, but because his yes, proceeds our yes, we can be assured that he has provided everything we will need in order to embrace whatever call he has upon our lives. That is true for every man and every woman that ever walked with God, the Yes of God proceeded and anticipated. And there was clear provision for them, as they said yes to God. When we think of reckless faith of David, you know, and of everyone, right,
we can not say that people just, you know, are born spiritual, spiritually immature. People are not born naturally mature, right? Nobody was born walking or talking, right? We all needed to go through a process of development and such is the case of everyone that God calls to live a life of reckless faith. The faith of David was honed as a young shepherd boy when he had depended upon God to deliver his flock from the power of lions and for the power of bears. It was later on as he was serving as a water boy for his brothers who were in the battle front, his faith was further honed as he combated Goliath, believing that the God of the armies of Heaven was with him and for him and that he would destroy his enemy. We see throughout his life that his faith is demonstrated because he gets chosen by God and anointed by the prophet Samuel to become the King of Israel because Saul was being put to the side and Samuel was designating that he would be the next King of Israel, a man after God's own heart.
But we see that from the time that he was anointed by Samuel, he needed to exercise self-restraint and wait on the Lord. There's nothing more testing in the life of faith than the time that we wait upon the Lord. When we see him waiting on the Lord until it's due time. Even in the face of the attacks of Saul, he did not respond in like manner, but he restrained himself because he knew that whatever God was calling him to do was within the arm of God to bring, to pass and to completion. We see his faith demonstrated as he combated the armies of the Philistines, the Amalekites, the Ammonites, and many other of these "ites". So we see him growing in faith progressively. There was a starting point. There was a development and such as the case for us, we need to walk into that. This great man, who was able to overcome the enemies without, without himself experience in this story that we will deal with today, a battle that almost cost him his life and his legacy.
This King, who was able to subdue and rule people, was confronted with the need that needed to learn how to rule himself. Someone has said, we have met the enemy and it is us. The Bible clearly teaches us that there are enemies without outside of us, right? The world and Satan. But many times we're attributing to Satan as only the product of our own sinful nature. Some people have said that we have a nature that cannot sin, and we have a nature that cannot do good. We have a sinful nature. We have a Holy nature. Truth of the matter is that God wanted Israel to be Holy, God wanted David to be Holy. And this battle for holiness, he would need reckless faith. David would need to say yes to God. I want to remind you that as we look at the life of David and Psalm 51, and if you want to join me in your Bibles, I want to remind you that the call to holiness was not exclusive to the people of Israel or to King David, but that the scripture say in Ephesians 1:4, that we were chosen by God before the foundation of the world so that we may be Holy and blameless in his sight.
When was the last time you heard holiness in the church? I don't remember myself. I don't even remember the last time I used it before this week. Right? I know what it's all about. I mean, I'm trying to live for Jesus, but it's not a word that, you know, that is common because if you know, some people twist it and turn it and it just becomes, you know, a designation for people who are fanatical, right? But that's one, it's not what it designates. Of course God is Holy because he is morally perfect. But holiness of God designates that he is so different from the created order, and that's why he is God and we are not. The God, the holiness of God, as goes for the Father, so are for his sons and daughters. God wants us to distinguish ourselves by showing the qualities of the character of God in our lives.
We all like David have to battle an enemy that is within us. This battle for holiness rages. And I'm going to go through four basic points tonight. I just want to share with you some of the principles that are taught in Psalm 51 regarding the reckless faith of David in overcoming the enemy. Within first of all, I want to say that David trusted fully in God's remedy .See, Psalm 51 was written when David came to confess his sin after he was confronted by the prophet, Nathan, some of you know the story. And if you don't know this story, right, it's found in second Samuel 11 and 12. David, when everyone else was going to war, David, didn't go to war. And he stayed at home and he went up to the top of the, his house to the penthouse. And next thing you know, he took a look over to the neighbor's house.
He saw this beautiful woman. He desired her, right? And then after that, he committed adultery with her and she became pregnant. David is trying to cover it up and he's trying to conceal the fact that she became pregnant by him. So he tries to bring her husband from the battlefront to come and sleep with her so that he can come out nice and clear. But his effort doesn't work. The husband, who is an honorable man, refuses to sleep with his wife when his brothers are fighting in the battle front. So he goes back to the battlefront. And when David can not cover up the fact of his sin, he says he needed to get rid of the person that could probably rat him out, Uriah the Hittite. So not only does he commit adultery, he commits murder. About 9 to 12 months, have passed. We all think that, you know, Nathan confronted him immediately. No, it took about 9 to 12 months where God gave him the chance to make things right. David was remorseful from the beginning. If you look at Psalm 32, Psalm 32 says that, when he stayed quiet, when he did not confess a sin, when he walked around, presuming on the grace of God, he said that his bones, you know what were getting sick inside of him.
For remorse is not sufficient to get us right with God. See remorse is deeply rooted in the inconvenience that sin may cause us. We're more afraid about our reputation, than about God's reputation. Remorse is not enough to make us right with God. And ultimately remorse leads us to a cover up. David was offered by the devil of coverup and for a little while, he tried to buy into it, but it did not work. Isn't it funny that Adam and Eve's first impulse, after they sinned against God, what did they try to do? Try to cover up. It didn't work for them either. Note to the wise, it's not about a cover up. We need to come clean.
Whereas the condemnation that David experience led him away from the only one that could help him. Ultimately, David trusted in God's remedy. In other words, he said yes to God's mercy and yes to God's grace. How do mercy and grace come to the life of David. It came in the form of conviction. He says, he said, be gracious to me, oh God. (He makes an appeal to God's grace and mercy.) According to your loving kindness, according to the greatness of your compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my inequity and cleanse me from my sin. In other words, I can't do this. I can't cover this up. I need to deal with this. There's no excuse for my sin, but there is a remedy and the remedy is in you. He said no to condemnation which only kept them hiding and away from God.
And he said yes to the conviction of the Holy Spirit that came to him through the prophet Nathan. And the moment that Nathan spoke to him and pointed out his sin, he acquiesced and he says, yes, I have done wrong. Repentance as opposed to remorse is more concerned about the reputation of God and the reputation of God or our dignity as well, which is the reputation of God in us and through us. Remorse is concerned about just our reputation. Repentance is concerned about the reputation of God and our dignity, which is restored as we make things right with God. David is saying, I'm tired of hiding. I can't do this anymore. And I cast myself in reckless faith, believing that I am in desperate need of mercy and grace. And isn't, isn't that the truth for all people that come into the world, anybody that comes into the world is born a sinner and we are need of God's grace and God's mercy.
David realizes his need to confess and to bring things into the light. And David cast himself on the grace and the mercy of God. What is the grace of God? Someone has explained grace as God giving us what we do not deserve. In other words, in order to get right with God, God has to do something. And he has ultimately, for us as believers, we know he has done it in the person of Jesus Christ, right? 2 Corinthians 5:21. He made him who had no sin to become sin for us. So that in him, we may maybe come the righteousness of God. Right? By grace, are we saved through faith, right? He makes that provision. But David had a revelation and an understanding of the grace of God, God giving to him what he could not deserve or earn.
On the other hand, mercy is defined as God withholding his wrath and not giving us what we rightfully deserve. He called out to God, God, you have the remedy, I have no merits on my own. I cannot undo what I have done and I cast myself in reckless faith. I abandoned myself to your grace and your mercy. In your mercy, show me compassionate, love and do not give me what I rightfully deserve, which is death. And in your grace lift me up so that I can live my life as I was intended to live my life. The word here, speaking of loving kindness, according the greatness of your compassion, that first word there, compassion, it speaks of the loving kindness of God. It speaks of God's covenantal love. It speaks of the faithful love of God that, in spite of us, pursues us so that we can become like him and we can live with him and have fellowship with him.
The other one is compassionate love. It says, according to your compassion, blot out my transgressions. So loving kindness. We know what it is. Compassion is God feeling for our need. God is fully aware of what our need and our condition and the lostness of our cause without his intervention. So his compassion moves Him to rescue us because that's who our God is. David says, blot out my transgressions. What is blotting out? It's erase. I remember in New York, when you go to the corner store, if you didn't have money until you got paid, right? You wanted a gallon of milk and you wanted some Italian bread. You go and you talk to the guy, says, okay, no problem. They had a credit system there. They had a little notebook. They write, you know, the items on there. And then you sign your name next, next to it.
When payday comes, who come and you, you know, you pay off your debt and what happens. They erase that item from the list because you're not in debt anymore. David is appealing to God to erase, to cancel his sin debt. Then David is also saying that he wants to be washed. He wants to be, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. That wording in the Hebrew for washing is a word that describes the way that the Jews of that time would wash clothes. They would put clothes in a tub and then they would step on it and beat it so that they can beat the dirt out of that. I don't know if you've ever been in Latin America and I've been in several countries and I've seen women washing clothes in the river. And sometimes they slammed that, you know, the item, on the rock or they beat it with a stick, right?
I say to myself, you don't need to adopt this, but I know that God has beaten some sense out of my life. And good for God and good for me, right? This last expression, where he says, you know, wash me, wash me thoroughly from my inequity, cleanse me from my sin. He's appealing to the ceremonial mindset of the Jews. In order to be able to worship God again, the people needed to be cleansed from their sins so that they, once again approach God. I remember a story, a time in my life where I was dealing with a besetting sin. You know what a besetting sin is, is one of those things, habits that are, you know, you know, they're not, they're not right, but you know, some sins, God got rid of immediately in my life, but there were some others that I still struggled with,
right? And in all of it, I needed to appeal to the grace of God. But I remember this one time I failed again and here I was beating myself up. You know, why you're such a hypocrite. Here you go again. You're doing the same thing again. How can you go to God? You know, God just, you know, would not care for you. So on and so forth. And then I heard a still small voice speaking in my heart. I was trying to win the forgiveness of God by doing penitence, beating myself down. And the Lord said to me, Raul, at some point, you're going to have to accept the blood of my son, Jesus Christ, to cleanse you from all sin. In our battle against sin, just like David said, yes, to mercy and grace, we need to say yes to mercy and grace.
Secondly, David trusted fully in God's righteousness. We have here in verses three through five where he speaks and he says, I know my transgressions, my sin is ever before me. In other words, he has full acquaintance. He is fully acquainted with the fact that he has not only committed sin, but he had transgressed the law of God. Two different aspects of his sin. One of them is missing the mark when he went up to the rooftop. And when he looked up on her that first time, he didn't intend to do that. He didn't know she was there, right? So that was a sin because he did not premeditatedly think about committing that. But once he took a look and he said, I'm gonna have that woman. And he actually went and slept with that woman that was transgression because he knew that that was wrong and he still attempted to it. And David here knows that by the power of the Holy Spirit conviction has come to him and he knows fully that he is guilty of missing the mark, but he's also guilty of rebelling against God. He is fully acquainted with his sin, the two dimensions of his sins. Notice clearly here that he did not try to blame anybody. And some of us sometimes get stuck in a sin that is besetting to us because we are rationalizing and justifying the sin.
We are blaming it on our upbringing, our environment, and all those, all of those things influence how we behave and how we make decisions. Ultimately, none of us, none of us gives into sin by someone putting a gun on our head. We willfully agree to commit sin. He fully owns his guilt before Holy God. He says to the, to the Lord there in verse in verse 4, right? He says against you, you only, I have sinned and done what is evil in your sight? So David says in his faith, his reckless faith, in the righteousness of God. He says yes to his own sinfulness and yes, to the righteousness of the holiness of God. God, you are Holy. And any kind of sin is a sin against you. Ultimately, even though it was a sin against people, it is ultimately an affront against God. And many times, we're quick to wanna settle things in the personal level, in the earthly level. But let me tell you, anytime we are dealing with sin in our lives, we will be well served if we first made it right with God so that we can then have the provision of mercy and grace to make it right with the person that we need to make it right with.
As we look around our country today, a lot of people, you know, and I believe, I mean, I believe that God still speaks today, and God's speaking powerful words. A lot of people are focusing on getting to a time of renewal for our world, because this is a worldwide craziness, and everyone wants everything to be made right. They want the time of renewal, but they don't want the repentance.
It's not as important as what you do when you bow your knee. But what you do when you get up, is more important than that. David vindicates the holiness and the righteousness of God. David believes that God's always going to do the right thing. And especially in a situation where he is guilty, he can trust God to do the right thing and to make it right when he can not make it right. He says, you're fully vindicated. I've sinned against you. He says, and when you judge people, you do so rightly. He didn't call his sin. Well, you know, it was a little boo boo. You know, I made a little mistake. Sometimes. I think we lose a lot when we don't use biblical words. Sin is sin. It's ugly. Have you ever heard that statement? And that person says, that's ugly as sin. Sin is ugly.
Yeah.
I've used this, sometimes. Lord Jesus, forgive me. He fully owns this. He agrees with what God says about his sin. He acknowledges his trust and confidence in God's commitment to doing the right thing. And in verse 5, he says, you know what? I already admitted that I am guilty before you. My sin is ever before me. Now he progresses and he tells God, you know why I am so guilty because I am also rotten to the core. Unless you realize that there is a nature in you. I don't know if it's happened to you. It's happened to me that sometimes you think something's gone from your life. And next thing you're put in a situation and sometimes a thought or a word comes that is way out there from left field from the old man. I guess I'm the only one here.
And you get surprised. You shouldn't be surprised. You have a nature in you. The apostle Paul spoke about that in Romans chapter 6, the things he wanted to do, he did not do. And then David says, I am rotten to the core. I was, from the moment I was conceived, I inherited original sin. So I'm a sinner by my actions. And I'm a sinner by nature. And you are ultimately Holy. God, I trust you to do the right thing. Thirdly, David trusted fully in God's redemption. There's a man that, I read some of his books and he says that we need to preach the gospel of grace to the lost and the grace of the gospel to the Christians.
Sometimes we do not believe in redemption stories. When a leader, a Christian leader falls, there's grace for everybody in the house of God, except for leaders. Why? They should have known better? Yeah. They, they should have known better, but they still have a fallen nature that they're dealing with. The same blood of Jesus that is able to cleanse you from your own sin, that is not visible to all of us is the same blood of Jesus that's able to what? Cleanse that person and renew them in the Lord. But we're content with canceling people. We take cues from our society. We write people off just because they make a mistake. But thanks be to God. Thanks be to God that his grace is greater than any of my sins. You see, here David says, behold, you desire truth. In the innermost parts, condemnation was only compounded his shame and his guilt and God offered him conviction to drive him to God.
And to confession. Confession is saying the same thing that God says about your sin. 1John 1:9, if you confess your sin, you don't call it nothing, but what God calls it. You call it the right thing. If you want to make it right, you need to confess it right. And David here is saying that God wants honesty in the innermost parts, not because God does not know, but because God awaits for us to acknowledge because before God can align ourselves with us to forgive us and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness, God awaits for us to align ourselves with his will and say, God, I have done this, and it is horrible in your sight. I deserve this, but I appeal to you for that. David did that. Part of the work of the Holy spirit in making us Holy for us New Testament believers is that the Holy spirit convicts us of sin, righteousness and judgment, right?
John 1. The Holy Spirit leads us into all truth. The Holy Spirit, when we are not truthful with God about our sin, we cut ourselves from the light of God to know our own condition. And ultimately we end up, have you ever heard of a Christian that started playing around with sin? And next thing you know, they're way out there. They're still God's children, but they're rebellious. God's children. They're addicted to something that has a hold on them. Anybody that gets addicted does not, you know, if they knew, if they knew that sin always takes you further than you want to go, they will not engage in the behavior. But the Holy Spirit - so we cannot deal in truth or appropriate the truth of God, unless we are able to be truthful with ourselves. We need to call it what it is. We need to can say the same thing about it,
as God says. The Holy spirit is always at work in us. According to Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 13, causing us to will and do of his good pleasure. And thank God for that because you're not that good. And I ain't that good either. And neither was David. John Piper speaks about the work of the Holy Spirit and Jesus. And when, before Jesus has left, in John 14, he tells the disciples, listen, I'm going away, but I will send you another counselor or another advocate. You know, somebody who'll preach your case. And he says that the first advocate, Jesus, talks to God about you and me. The second advocate, the Holy Spirit, talks to you about you for your good and for his glory. The Holy Spirit was working mightily in the life of David. 1Samuel 16:13 says that when Samuel anointed him says and the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God came mightily upon Samuel.
From that day on for forward, he was acquainted with the work of the Holy Spirit, but he had resisted the work of the Holy Spirit for almost a year. And now he's at that place of breaking. And the moment he's able to own his stuff, the moment he's able to speak truthfully, it says, and in the, innermost parts you will make me to know wisdom. What is wisdom? It's practical intelligence. You can know the truth and not obey the truth. That's intelligence. But what he's talking about is that when we make it right, God teaches us. God not only makes us aware of the things that are right, but he empowers us to do the right things. Just keeping it real, my brothers and my sisters, is insufficient. We need to, you know, sometimes I excuse myself when people say, and they say, well, you know, they they're talking about whatever topic and I want to connect with them. And I say, yeah, you know, sometimes I struggle with this and that, you know, just keeping it real, bro.
And it's okay. As long as it doesn't become an excuse for me to justify that behavior that is less than God's ideal for me. Need to go beyond just keeping it real to making it right. Hate that word David says, wash me, cleanse me. And he says, you know, he says, purify me with hyssop. And hyssop is some branches that were used by the priest so that they would sprinkle blood on the altar for sacrifices. So the moment that David is appealing to this, David knows for a fact that a sacrifice, a sacrifice needs to happen. Somebody is going to need, somebody, going to have to die. Blood is going to have to be spilled in order to make me right with God and what he is, what he is thinking of in the future. What is prefigured, in the sacrifices of the old Testament, in the sprinkling of the blood was consummated once
and for all at Calvary for us brothers and sisters. Ephesians 1:7 says in him, we have redemption the forgiveness of sins in accordance with through his blood. I'm sorry. In accordance with the riches of God's grace. David believed in the power of the blood of Messiah. There is something in the words of David that communicates that he has full trust in the blood of Jesus. 1John 1:7 says to us as believers, that if we walk in the light, meaning we are truthful in the inward parts, even as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another. And the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. That's God's word to us.
David appeals to God in verse 8 and 9. And he says, God, you know what? You know, these bones that you have broken, set them together. He's appealing to him believing that God is able to, now that he has confessed in sin, the discipline that he was enduring is going to be lifted from him. Lastly, in verse 9, he tells Him, hide, he's you know, he's telling him to hide your face from my sins and blot out all my inequities. In other words, he's saying, God, now that we've dealt with this stuff, can you file the case that weighs against me? Can you expunge the conviction that weighs against me? Lastly, David trusted fully in God's restoration. In other words, he said yes to the renewal by the Holy Spirit. We have already seen in 1Samuel 16:13, how the Spirit came up on him, mightily, it says that from that day on, it was upon him and here David makes an appeal to the grace of God, for renewal in his life, for restoration in his life.
And he says, create in me a clean heart O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence. Do not take your Holy Spirit from me. David knew what it meant to be anointed by God, the experience of the presence of God upon his life. And just as the beginning of this Psalm, he expresses his utter dependence of God in order to make right the wrong that he had committed. At this time, he acknowledges that without the aid and the help of God by the Holy Spirit, he's not able to make things right. In this journey to pursue holiness, to become more and more like God, we are going to be in need at all times. And on the mercy and the grace of God, on the forgiveness of God, repentance confession should be part of our toolbox. But so should be our trust and our confidence in the power of God to restore us. David knew that without the power of the Holy Spirit in his life, he will not be able to be led into all the truth. Knowing rightly and thinking rightly, and doing rightly. Romans 8:13 for us parallels this for us New Testament believers, where it says that we are to put to death the misdeeds of the flesh. How do we do it? By the Holy Spirit. I can't do it. I don't have the willpower.
My willpower got me into the mess that it got me into before I was a believer. I was living a willful life straight to hell, headed to hell. That word is not mentioned in churches any longer either. It must be because I'm an old man, but it's the truth of God's word, right? Galatians 5:16 says, walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the loss of the sinful nature. Just like David recognized that he needed the Holy spirit in order to not only to make it right, but also to live right. We need to recognize our dependence on the Holy Spirit to enable us and endow us with the power that we need to live right. David, in verses 10 through 12 appeals to the work of the Spirit in creating him a pure heart, giving him purity. There's something about God taking the others, the desire of sin from our hearts in order for us to be delivered. When you allow God to work in your life, at some point you don't have the light or pleasure in the things that you use to have pleasure before, and you might try it. I know some people. I know myself, who's tried to engage stuff from the past.
I can't do it. It's not me. Things that didn't bother me, bother me now. And it's not because I'm good, it's because the God that lives in me is good. The Holy Spirit is working in me. He appeals to God for the power. He says, you know, grant me a willing spirit to sustain me. He knows that he has no power over sin and he needs the power of the Holy Spirit to empower his will. So he can will in accordance to the will of God. He appeals to God for power. And then he says, restore unto me the joy of my salvation. He knew what it was like to be in the presence of God and to feel the presence of God and seeing, sense, the anointing of God. And now that he was walking in sin, he was the pride from the presence of God.
And so it is for us as believers, as believers, we are safe. Once we're saved, we're always saved by the grace of God. We always have a re, we always have a relationship with God. We're always his children. Even when we're rebellious, children. It's not the relationship that's affected. It's the fellowship. It is the closeness of the relationship that's affected. And since there's no remedy for sin, no excuse for sin, but there's a remedy for sin. 1John 1:9 tells us, you know, that we are to confess and he's faithful and just like he forgave David, he will forgive us. Some of us are walking around living lives that are less than what God desires for us because we can not forgive ourselves or get over the fact that we committed a certain sin. I'm here to tell you today. David had full faith in the renewal of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
He trusted fully in the fact that God can restore people. Will you believe that today? There's no sin too great that the blood of Jesus cannot cleanse. And then David says that after God will do that, the fruit of his appeal of grace to God, he would have our renewed testimony. He will be singing and praising God. His thanksgiving will be renewed. And lastly, he will have a tenderness, a broken and contrite heart before God. I know, I, in my own life have experienced what it feels like to live life on my own terms, even though being a Christian and being a pastor, being self led, presuming that I know the will of God and doing my own thing. Ultimately the pride in myself of the benefit and the greatest blessing in the life of any person, which is to experience close fellowship with Jesus Christ. But I thank God that God did not leave me where I was, but that he convicted me of my sin. And ultimately by the power of his Spirit, beckoned my heart, back to him. God will do that for you. In conclusion today,
understand that that the Yes of God precedes your yes and anticipates your yes. Whatever the Lord is calling you to, He has already made the way and made provision. In the journey of reckless faith this is true, and particularly in our battle to overcome the enemy within; the battle for holiness. I wonder if for some of us, there might be something in our lives that we need repentance from? My intent tonight is not that we go into a witch hunt, but that we ask God, honestly, to show us if there is anything in our lives that grieves His heart and keeps us from living at our best as he has assigned us to live. For some of you, there might be nothing that he puts his finger finger on. Bless God for that. But would you join me in prayer for the rest of us who might be in need of repentance as we battle the enemy within. Would you stand with me?
It's heavy stuff, but it's good stuff. There's hope for you. There's hope for me. There's hope for restoration and renewal in God. There's power in the blood of Jesus. Walk and cleanse away your sins. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. If you're hiding, come out of hiding and let God, let God make you right tonight. Let's pray. Father make us Holy. We say to you, whatever you want, you get. So help us to align ourselves with your word that we may embrace your will, walk in your ways and do the words that you have appointed for us before the foundation of the world. We pray these things in Jesus Christ's name. Amen.