Psalm 51 (Wisdom in the Secret Heart, Jeff Kliewer)

And that we are to go make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, teaching to obey everything that you have commanded, and that,

Lord, I am with you till the end of the age. That's what you teach us, Lord. And so we claim that promise right now, that you are here with us, you are in our midst, we know that that's true, we pray that you would open our eyes to see, and we pray that we would be discipled from your word in this all -important area of confessing sin.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Of all the lives in Scripture that are recorded for us,

I think David is probably the most examined. From the time of his childhood all the way up until his death, where we are told about the details of how he lay, and a young lady was brought to him to lay beside him just to keep him warm.

But from his childhood when he is a shepherd boy in the fields, and then as a teenager killing

Goliath, and then running for his life in his twenties and early thirties, and then all the episodes that happened while he was king.

I would say his life is probably the most examined, especially when you consider that 75 of the 150

Psalms are written by David. And so we get not just a biographical sketch of his life, we also get his own inner thoughts.

The imprecatory Psalms that he writes, where he's calling for God's judgment, to the

Psalms of confession like we have here today in Psalm 51. We have David's heart laid bare for us to see.

Wouldn't you love to be David? Wouldn't that be great if for all of history people could look at your every thought and your every failing, and it was held up for the world to see?

Wouldn't that be great? We should be merciful toward him. Because I think if any of us had our lives and our deepest and darkest moments put on the screen for the world to see,

I think all of us would run and hide and change. So we should be merciful to his memory and recognize that, but for the grace of God, there go each of us.

In every way that he fell short, we are also capable of those same failings and weaknesses. Consider, in the year 1035

B .C., David was born. And scholars estimate that his kingship began right around the year 1000

B .C., when he was about 35 years old. For seven years, he reigned over the southern kingdom of Judah, and then after Ishbosheth, I'll try to say that name, was killed in the north, the northern part of the kingdom was offered to him as well.

And so in the year 992, David became king over all of Israel and Judah.

So at that time, he was in his 40s, his early 40s. And so then he continued to reign.

The ark was brought back in 992. In 982, that's when he had mercy on Mephibosheth.

You remember Mephibosheth, the grandson of Saul, the son of Jonathan? That's when

David reached out in mercy and extended mercy to him. And the story of David falling into sin with Bathsheba actually happens in the year 980.

Did you ever stop to consider? David was 55 years old when he fell into sexual sin.

That's no spring chicken, 55 years old. Now, we all get there.

But it wasn't the sin of youthful lust. Something is going on here beyond that, and I think it's the issue of pride that had risen in his heart.

So there's something deeper going on. Turn with me now to Psalm 51.

Guys, if there's a psalm to memorize, maybe not word for word, but to always remember as a place to go back to throughout the course of your life, let it be

Psalm 51. Psalm 51 is David's repentance after falling into sexual sin and then into blood guiltiness, the murder of Uriah the

Hittite, the husband of Bathsheba. All of this took place, and Psalm 51 records for us

David's heart, laid bare before God and now here for us as a model of confession and repentance.

David had fallen into sexual sin. When I was a youth pastor in Kensington, I remember very often young people asked the question,

When does it get easier? When does it get easier? The sexual temptations that they were feeling.

And one young man asked a 70 -year -old pastor when it gets easier, and the 70 -year -old pastor said,

I'll let you know. Not a comfort to this young man, but his point was, it doesn't ever get easier.

I think it does. I think hormones decrease and temptations decrease.

But at the same time, even if you're a 70 -year -old man, you are vulnerable to fall.

And the one who thinks that you're standing firm, be careful that you do not fall. The answer to overcoming temptation is not willpower.

And it's not just growing older and growing out of things. It is rather to have wisdom in the secret heart.

That's what we're going to talk about today. Wisdom in the secret heart. How do you have wisdom in the secret heart?

And first of all, what is that? Anybody get a chance to listen to that song by Shane and Chain this week?

He entitles it, Wisdom in the Secret Heart. I would encourage you to look that up. Shane and Chain, Psalm 51.

Wisdom in the secret heart, or truth in the inward being, is a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

So this is bringing it to New Testament language. It's a sincere and pure devotion to Christ on the inside that comes from brokenness.

First of all, being broken by sin. Salvation, which is to be born again and made new to receive a new heart from God on the inside.

To have a heart of stone replaced with a heart of flesh. And then developing into maturity that results in Christ's exalting speech.

That's what we're going to see in Psalm 51. But let's take that piece by piece so we can really unpack that. Because wisdom in the secret heart is the key to having victory over temptations.

And it's also the key to coming back to the one who can lift us up when we fall.

Psalm 51, let's begin with verse 1. And we'll read the first six verses and begin to comment. Have mercy on me,

O God, according to your steadfast love. According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me.

Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.

So that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity.

And in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth and the inward being.

And you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. First of all, the beginning of wisdom in the secret heart.

The beginning of wisdom is the fear of God. Wisdom begins with the fear of the

Lord. According to Proverbs 9, 10, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom in the heart cannot begin until we recognize how sinful we actually are.

Coming to an end of ourselves in brokenness about our own sin is the starting point of wisdom.

When we begin to compare our righteousness, which is nothing but filthy rags, compare that to the holiness of God, who made heaven and earth, and in whom there is no moral imperfection whatsoever.

The holiness of God compared to the filthiness and the wickedness of us.

That is the starting point of wisdom. Consider some New Testament saints and how wisdom was formed in them.

Peter, in his pride, after following the Lord for three years, he declared that he would never betray the

Lord. And in the day of his testing, what happened? He denied Him three times.

We're told in Luke 22, 62. He went out and he wept bitterly.

But that brokenness, that weeping, was the beginning of wisdom. On the day of Pentecost, when the

Holy Spirit filled him, and the new reborn, he was already probably born again before being filled with the

Spirit, but at Pentecost when he received the Spirit, the Peter that came out from that was very different from the

Peter that denied Him three times. The Peter of his older years was willing to be killed with Christ, to be crucified upside down.

But he had to pass through the veil of suffering. He had to be broken before he could be built up.

Wisdom in the secret heart did not begin until brokenness happened first. Consider Paul.

1 Timothy 1 .15, Paul says, Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom

I am chief. I am foremost. He identifies himself as the chief of sinners.

Paul had to come to a point in his life, blinded by the light of God, weeping for three days in the depths, broken because of his sin, in order to be built back up.

Consider John Mark. Raised in a Christian home, knew Christ from a young age, goes on a mission trip.

John Mark with Paul and Barnabas, but when the going got tough, we're told in Acts 13 .13,

and John left them and returned to Jerusalem. He had to be broken.

And from the depths of that, he was later built up, so much so that in 2 Timothy 4 .11, Paul is saying, get

Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me. A time of brokenness, and then a time of being built back up.

And as a little aside here to the young people, growing up in a Christian home, I can testify to this myself, walking with God from a young age, that doesn't mean that you won't at some point fall into sin.

And maybe even drift away from the Lord for a time. I think it's true that sometimes in our walk with God, there is a season of wandering that you go through.

At that time, you are brought to a brokenness that maybe you never knew in your childhood. There may come a time where you've fallen off into sin.

And remember this day when that happens. Someday, when the weight of your sin falls upon you and you recognize, wait a minute,

I'm just as bad a sinner as Paul was when he was killing Stephen in Acts chapter 6.

Or I'm just as bad as David was when he committed adultery with Bathsheba. I'm just as bad as Peter was when he denied the

Lord three times. There will come a point in your life where you feel the weight of your sin. On that day, remember the scriptures.

And read Psalm 51. And remember that there is forgiveness.

So let's get into the text now. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love.

According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

We read this this morning in Sunday school. And one of the young people recognized that this stood out to them as powerful.

And made a great observation that David here is not at all pleading his own righteousness.

He's not comparing his good deeds that he's done in the past, like killing Goliath and begging

God to be merciful because he'd been so good. No, he throws himself entirely on God and just asks for mercy.

Mercy cannot be demanded. Mercy is to be asked for, not demanded.

It's not owed to us. So if you look at verse 1, have mercy, O God.

On what grounds will God have mercy? Not on anything good in the sinner, but notice it's according to your steadfast love.

The character of God, the loving kindness of God, His benevolence, it's His characteristics that secures for us mercy.

It's all based on Him, nothing based on us. David throws himself on the mercy of God.

I was listening to Caleb the other day and a caller called in to say that he never says

I'm sorry, he just apologizes. And he began to make an argument that you don't need to say you're sorry, you only need to apologize.

Bad teaching. Apologize comes from apologia, from 1 Peter 3 .15,

to make a defense, to make an argument, to apologize means you're giving a rationale, a reason for the thing that you did.

Now there is a place for that to help a person understand where you're coming from. So it's good sometimes to apologize, but what you see here is contrition.

A genuine feeling of being sorry. Notice in verse 2, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin!

This is the cry of the sinner for mercy. There is a deep contrition in his heart.

He is sorry for his sin. And he asks for forgiveness.

That's what we're to do. Notice that he confesses sin. And this is hard for people to do, isn't it?

In our pride, one of the hardest things that we do is confess our sin.

But it is absolutely necessary, first of all, to get saved, but also to continue in your walk with God.

Very often if you feel like you're not filled with the Spirit, you're not feeling

God's presence, you don't feel the joy of the Lord, very often the problem is there is unconfessed sin in your life.

Confession is a central aspect of the Christian life. Do you see this?

David is not hiding his sin any longer. Now remember, he did hide his sin for nine months. He hid his sin.

And he thought everything was worked out. Uriah was dead. He's got Bathsheba as a wife. Everything is working out until Nathan the prophet came and called him to the carpet.

And now he is exposed. Verse 4, he recognizes who it is that he's offended.

Against you, you only have I sinned. So he did sin or do wrong to Uriah and Bathsheba.

But the issue here in this prayer is his relationship with God. Against you, you only have

I sinned. And done what is evil in your sight. He's not sugarcoating it. It's evil. So that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

Brothers and sisters, if God gave us what we deserve, each one of us would be in hell.

We would drop dead as soon as we sinned and we would depart from Him and be eternally separated.

He would be justified in that judgment. But we stand before Him justified. Romans 3, we are justified by faith because God has accomplished something on our behalf.

He has made propitiation for our sins. Putting our sin upon Christ on the cross, turning away the wrath of God, the judgment that was owed to us fell upon Him and we stand justified by faith.

All of grace. God is blameless in this. He's justified.

And He is justified to forgive us, not willy -nilly, like an unjust judge who would just...

I love throwing in willy -nilly in sermons, by the way. Like an unjust judge who just waves the hand and says, okay, you're forgiven.

Don't worry about it. You committed murder, but you can go free. Any judge who just did that would not be a just judge.

He wouldn't be justified in his decision. Because what about the victims who are grieving the loss of their loved one who was murdered at the hands of this killer?

How can God just willy -nilly throw that away? The answer is,

He does punish sin, but He pours out that wrath on a substitute named Jesus who bears that wrath and satisfies it completely so God is both just and loving.

He's justified because His wrath has been satisfied, justice has been served, and His love is demonstrated in that that wrath was given to His own beloved

Son that we go free. So He's justified in His judgment.

Blameless. Verse 5, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity. Now it doesn't say that the

Son who was born from Bathsheba was brought forth in iniquity, although that is also true.

Here David is saying, I was brought forth in iniquity. Well, Jesse and his wife, they were married and it was a godly marriage.

So how was he brought forth in iniquity? Because all of us are born in Adam and Eve's sin.

All of us are born with original sin that comes inherited from Adam through each of Adam's sons and their wives and on down to us through David.

He was born in sin. Verse 6, Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being.

And this is the verse that just caught my heart this week. And you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.

Wisdom in the secret heart. What is that? The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the

Lord. The first thing that we see in these first six verses is the wisdom of brokenness.

This is a contrite heart. A heart that no longer pleads its own righteousness.

It doesn't conceal sin. But the power of that sin has been broken. Guys, when you're feeling tempted, ladies, men, women, when temptation falls on you, the power of that temptation is secrecy.

It's concealment. It's the lie of the enemy. But light makes all things visible.

Here, David has come out of hiding his sin and has come into the light.

And that process of coming into the light with your own darkness is very painful. Confession is very painful.

We think the easy way out is to continue to conceal sin. To hide it. But in the end, that results in more pain.

The hard road of confession brings you into the light and that is the beginning of wisdom. But that's not all.

It's not enough to be broken by sin. The second thing that we need... See, brokenness is like the seedbed that is ready to receive the seed.

A proud and haughty heart that doesn't see a need for God. That heart is not ready to be born again.

But once you've come to that end of yourself in repentance, recognizing that you need a

Savior, here's the good news. There is salvation. There is a new heart.

There is a new birth. There is a thing called the filling of the Holy Spirit that changes everything. So let's see that now.

7 through 12. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.

I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness.

Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your 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 your presence and take not your

Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.

A new heart is offered. Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 36 foretold that this was coming in the new covenant.

God's law is just not something out there, but now it's written on our hearts. Our hearts of stone are going to be replaced with the heart of flesh.

A new work that God is able to do in the new covenant, deep within us, to transform us from the inside, that gives us joy.

Now notice in verse 7, there is a cleansing. Can a sinner stand in the presence of a holy

God? Yes, if we've been washed and made clean. Purge me with hyssop.

Hyssop is like a purple herb, flowery kind of thing that's on a long stalk, and it was very important in the

Old Testament. In Exodus chapter 12, at Passover, they took hyssop branches because they were firm.

The long stalk was firm, and they dipped it in the blood of a lamb, and they marked the doorposts. They painted with those.

They turned hyssop into a paintbrush. And through that, the person inside the house was considered to be clean.

And the angel of death passed over. In Exodus 24, when God is confirming the covenant, they're told to take bowls of blood.

This is gruesome. Take hyssop branches and dip that in the bowls of blood and sprinkle all the people, thus cleansing them of their sin.

You see the leper in the book of Leviticus who comes because his leprosy has been cleansed, and he needs to be pronounced clean.

The priest will take hyssop and some cedar wood and actually a bird. They would take a live bird and dip that in the blood.

And as this bird was... There's two birds. One would be killed, and that blood would be put in the bowl.

And as the live bird and the hyssop and the wood was all put in there, there would be a sprinkling.

As this bird is trying to flop its way out, people would get sprinkled by the blood.

And then with the hyssop branch, they would sprinkle blood. And the leper who had been dirty and defiled was now considered clean.

And the other bird... I know this is a strange story, but it's in Leviticus. The other bird would be set free, which indicates that it's now set free and clean and goes off into the open field.

The same thing would be done for mold in the house, but we won't get into that. Hyssop. Hyssop had a ceremonial cleansing property to it.

Hyssop would be used so that the defiled person is now considered clean. And in the

New Testament, we don't use hyssop branches or cedar wood or the blood of a lamb or the blood of a bird.

We come to God and we find our cleansing by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ.

His blood shed once and for all washes us clean. And we are clean.

You say, wait a minute, I'm a sinner. You don't know the things I've done. Well, I'm telling you about the blood of Jesus, which is stronger than your sin.

It's stronger than hyssop. It makes you whiter than snow. Wash me and I will be clean.

Don't you love that in verse 7? The hyssop is pointing us forward to a stronger cleansing agent, and that is the blood of Jesus.

Verse 8, let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

Does God break our bones? According to verse 8, he does.

David's bones were broken when that son born to Bathsheba fell sick and just within a few months died.

David was broken for seven days on the floor pleading for the healing of this son, but that son died.

According to Hebrews 12, when we fall into sin, God loves you so much that he will discipline you.

He will break your bones. I know this doesn't sound like what you're going to see on TBN, which promises prosperity at all times.

The truth of the scripture, he'll break your bones because he loves you.

He won't let you continually persist in the same sin year after year, year after year.

Eventually, he will break your bones to break you free from that sin.

He disciplines the one that he loves. He disciplines you because he loves you.

What father doesn't discipline his son? We all know our children would run wild if never disciplined.

But discipline shows that you care enough. God cares enough.

But having accomplished discipline, it now results in, believe it or not, joy.

What was a painful wound when we're being crushed, when like fire burning dross out of silver, it's painful.

You come out refined and you're filled with inexpressible joy. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

That's not the only cause of suffering, by the way. Not all suffering is God breaking your bones to discipline you.

Sometimes you suffer for other reasons. Job found that out. Jesus knew that better than anyone. But sometimes, suffering is discipline.

Verse 9, hide your face from my sins. Blot out my iniquities. Don't you love verse 10? We need this.

Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Now I'm going to just quickly anger my covenant theologian friends by saying we need to understand this through a dispensational lens.

Meaning in the Old Covenant, under a different dispensation, the Holy Spirit had a different role than he now has in the

New Testament. And what David prays under the Old Covenant, take not your Holy Spirit from me, was possible in a different way than it is now.

When Saul was king, there were times he was so filled with the Spirit that people said, is he a prophet?

Is he a son of a prophet? And Saul would prophesy, but later on in his life, the

Holy Spirit departed from Saul and an evil spirit came over him. We see in the

Old Testament, even with a great king like David, a remarkable inconsistency.

A remarkable inconsistency. You would think the man after God's own heart who wrote these 75

Psalms that speak of Christ, Psalm 110, Psalm 22, he was a prophet.

He really was a prophet, we're told in the book of Acts. That this prophet would be more consistent than to commit adultery against his wife and with Bathsheba.

And going beyond that to murder one of his own people that he loved. A remarkable inconsistency.

Peter, before Pentecost, was remarkably inconsistent.

In the New Covenant, according to Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, the

Holy Spirit comes into us and indwells us in such a way that we are sealed and marked and guaranteed our inheritance.

And here's my belief, that as Christians, we do not have to fall into the gross sins that you see in the

Old Testament. There is no such thing as Christian perfectionism. Well, those who say there is, that's a lie. We will sin, according to 1

John 1. And if anybody says they have no sin, they're a liar. We still will fall into sin and we need to confess those sins and he'll cleanse us of those sins.

But here's what I'm trying to say. In the New Covenant, with the Holy Spirit taking this stronger,

Ezekiel 36, Jeremiah 31, role in our lives, we are no longer slaves to sin.

We do not have to continue in sinful patterns. The Lord can make us more consistent than David was in his life.

And this fear of David, in verse 11, take not your

Holy Spirit from me. We do not have to fear that he would ever do that to us.

We're sealed. We're guaranteed our inheritance. The Holy Spirit, the

Spirit of life, is in us. And we can reckon ourselves dead to sin, alive in Christ.

We can count ourselves dead, buried with him in baptism, raised to newness of life.

And though we recognize that we're still falling short, we're still chief of sinners, we have victory in Christ.

And we are to regard ourselves as more than conquerors. Brothers and sisters, if you're enslaved in some kind of sin, that's not your portion.

Your flesh is not stronger than the Spirit. You can be free. You can walk in victory.

Turn to him in faith and ask him for the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome sin.

Stop grieving the Spirit and walk in this newness of life, which is your inheritance. So this is a new birth.

Two things so far. One, brokenness. Getting to the point where you recognize how wicked you are in yourself.

But two, salvation. Salvation actually saves you. It sets you free.

It gives you a new heart. It cleans you completely from head to toe. Your sin is finished.

Now third, the maturity of speaking what is in your heart. I love how this psalm turns here at verse 13 to speech.

Because out of the abundance of the heart, the secret heart, the mouth speaks.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.

Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation. And my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.

That's the Psalm of the Saved. Only Christians can worship in spirit and truth.

Only Christians can worship as those who have been forgiven, who know the depths of our sin, yet we've been lifted out.

Only us. We're the only ones who can come to God with this kind of joy. The Psalm of the

Saved. O God of my salvation. And my tongue will sing aloud for your righteousness.

We sing about the righteousness of Christ. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.

For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I will give it, and you will not be pleased with the burnt offering.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart,

O God. You will not despise. Last week, while we were here for Easter Sunday, it was a glorious Sunday.

People were born again. It was awesome. God is doing the work. And we thank

God for that. We had brothers and sisters in Sri Lanka the same day that we were meeting here,

Easter Sunday. And some terrorists came and murdered through suicide bombs many of our brothers and sisters.

It came out in Christianity today this week that one of the churches that was attacked was a

Protestant church, Pentecostal church, Assembly of God, and it was called

Zion. CT reported that just before the bombing, the children were upstairs in a children's church, and the leader literally asked this question,

Would you be willing to die for Christ? And one by one, every one of those kids stood up and raised their hands and said,

I would be willing to die for Christ. And they walked out on the way to the sanctuary.

They were blown up and killed. The senior pastor, his name is

Roshan Mahesin, he wrote these words, We are hurt.

We are angry also. But still, as the senior pastor, the whole congregation and every family affected, we say to the suicide bomber and also to the group that sent the suicide bomber,

We love you and we forgive you. No matter what you have done to us, we love you because we believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ on the cross, he said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing.

And also, who follow the footsteps of Jesus Christ, we say, For the

Lord, forgive these people. That's wisdom in the secret heart.

That's an eternal perspective. That is praise to the

Lord Jesus Christ. That is supernatural. That doesn't come from the flesh.

The only person who could say something like that is someone who sings the song of the redeemed.

These are the lips of Christians and so it says in Psalm 51, Then I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you.

Many Muslims will be saved in Sri Lanka when they read the words of those victims and their families.

They're teaching sinners. There's a pastor I really enjoy listening to because he's a really interesting guy.

His name is Doug Wilson in Moscow, Idaho. Here's how he taught sinners.

He said, I want to tell you what the gospel is like. He said, It's like a student who didn't prepare well for a test and as the test came, the teacher passed it out and the student froze.

He was unable to remember anything, unable to write anything on the paper. And he said,

Here's the difference between the gospel and all other religion. The gospel is good news.

All other religion is good advice at best. And so in my story, the teacher comes up to the student and good advice would be,

Listen, calm down. Take deep breaths. Remember the things that you've learned.

You'll be okay. You're all right. Take the test. That's good advice.

Be calm. Remember what you've learned. Do your best. It'll be all right.

But good news goes like this. Slide over. I'll take the test for you.

That's substitution. And that's radical. That blows your mind.

And the teacher steps in and aces the test for you and accomplishes what you could not.

Now in that analogy, I love it because the teacher steps in representing Christ and accomplishes what the student could not accomplish for himself no matter what advice you gave him.

But the gospel does not just solve the problem of ineptitude. Our problem was deeper than that.

Our problem was a moral failing. It was an offense to a holy God. And so our

Savior stepped in not just to take a test for us that we weren't good enough to accomplish because we're unskilled.

No, He stepped in and became sin for sinners like us. This is the gospel we have to teach.

Let it come from your lips. Use analogies like that. Use whatever analogies you want but keep coming back to the scripture and listen.

The lips of the wise speak of Christ. In the book of Colossians there's a secret wisdom.

The Gnostics are teaching a deeper way to come to God through angels and all these mediaries.

In fact, there's a church in California that is trying to get people to recognize their angels and get to know them so they can go deeper with God.

And we've seen that with different cults. Mormonism have their secret temple rites and all these secret things that are just greater and hidden wisdom.

Gnostic wisdom. That was the case in Colossians chapter 1. But we're told again and again what true wisdom is in the book of Colossians.

Want to know what it is? It's Christ. Christ in you.

The hope of glory. Wisdom is to know Christ. And all the treasures of wisdom are hidden in Him.

The fullness of wisdom is in Christ. If you have Christ, you have the treasure.

You have what to speak. Verse 15. Oh Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise.

Wisdom in the secret heart pours out in gospel speech. Telling the world about Christ.

This treasure in jars of clay. Finally, verses 18 and 19. He's not looking for an outward religion.

He's looking for wisdom in the secret heart. Verse 18. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure.

Build up the walls of Jerusalem. He's not just speaking about the outer walls of Jerusalem. He's talking about the people.

Bring the people back. He's calling for a revival. Then will you delight in right sacrifices.

Bulls and goats on the altar meant nothing unless the hearts of the people were there. That's why I said in verse 17, do you see the parallel?

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart. Oh God, you will not despise.

So we bring the sacrifice of praise. And I close with this story.

In the year 347 or thereabouts, there was a man named Augustine.

Probably the most important theologian since Paul. And Augustine was a

Manachean, which was some kind of philosopher. When he was young, he began to cohabit with a woman.

He never married her. He had a son by her. And for 14 years, he was involved with this relationship.

When he broke that off, his language was interesting, how he described it.

He said, it felt like she was torn from my side because she was supposed to be an obstacle to my marriage.

It was an arranged marriage. He said, my heart, which had fused with hers, was mutilated by the wound, and I limped along trailing blood.

So when Augustine left this woman that he had been living with for 14 years, it was a wound to his soul.

But he wasn't yet saved. He began to hear the preaching of Ambrose, this preacher in his day, and began to believe the gospel.

One day, he was with his friend in a house, and began to contemplate what he knew to be true from the preaching of Ambrose and what he saw in his own heart.

And he began to plummet into the depths of despair because he realized that his knowledge, his mental understanding of who

Christ was, was running up against so basic desire as sexual gratification.

Something so high as this calling to eternal life versus this low, debasing desire, him being unmarried at the time.

And he realized he didn't have the strength to overcome sexual temptation. And so he couldn't come to Christ.

He couldn't repent and he wouldn't take Christ. The distress in his soul got so bad that he told his friend he had to go be by himself.

And he went across the way and began to cry. He began to weep recognizing how sinful he really was.

He described it like this. When a deep consideration had from the secret bottom of my soul drawn together and heaped up all my misery in the sight of my heart, there arose a mighty storm bringing a mighty shower of tears.

He was a broken man. He had come to the end of himself. He had no righteousness to plead and he was recognizing how base his heart really was.

How sinful and wicked. In those tears, he was disrupted by the sound of a child on the other side of the fence.

And he heard the words, pick it up and read. Pick it up and read. And he thought to himself, I've never heard a song like that.

Is that a game? I don't know any children's game that says pick it up and read. He couldn't tell if it was a boy or a girl.

Just a little kid saying, pick it up and read. Pick it up and read. And the thought gripped him in that instant, go read the

Bible, which he had left beside his friend. So he ran back to where his friend was seated.

He writes in his, this is in the 17th chapter of his book, Confessions. He says, eagerly then,

I returned to the place where Olypius was sitting. For there I had, for there had

I laid the volume of the Apostle. When I arose thence, I seized, picked it up and read, in silence, that section on which my eyes first fell.

So he just let the Bible fall open, and it opened to Romans 13, 13.

Turn with me there. We're closing with this. Romans 13, 13.

His eyes fell. Let us walk properly, as in the daytime.

Not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires.

As he read those words, a light bulb went off. He says, no further would

I read, nor needed I. For instantly, at the end of this sentence, by a light, as it were, of serenity, infused into my heart, all the darkness of doubt vanished away.

Salvation came through the word of God. All doubt left him, because God had directed him to a passage that spoke directly to his struggle, and he was saved.

So in Psalm 51, you have to come to brokenness, you have to come to salvation. But what comes next?

Proclamation. He says, then putting my finger between, Romans 13, 13,

I shut the volume, and with a calm countenance I walked over and made it known to Alpius.

Without any turbulent delay, he joined me, himself believing. Thence we go into my mother, we tell her, she rejoiceth, we relate in order how it took place, she leaps for joy, and triumph and blesseth thee, who are able to do above that which we ask or think.

For she perceived that thou hast given her more of me than she want to beg by her pitiful and most sorrowful groanings.

For thou convertest me unto thyself, so that I sought neither wife nor any hope of this world, standing in that true rule of faith, where thou hast showed me, unto her in a vision, so many years before.

Now catch this, and thou didst convert her mourning into joy, much more plentiful than she had desired, and in a much more precious and pure way than she required, by having grandchildren of my body.

Her name was Monica, and when Augustine was finally converted, her joy overflowed beyond what words can communicate.

She had been praying for the return of her son to the faith that she taught him when he was young, and when it happened, her joy spilled over unspeakable.

That's a good word of encouragement to any of us that have prodigals that have wandered away. The Lord is able to do this, and it's far more important than grandchildren or any other thing.

And so from Psalm 51, take three things away. Number one, brokenness, contriteness of heart.

Don't hide your sin, but come vulnerable to God and confess it. Number two, salvation.

He is able to give you a clean heart and a new heart so that you would be like that pastor, even forgiving your enemies.

And number three, joy, speaking, proclaiming. They had a little worship service in that house when

Augustine got saved, and his friend along with him. So let's close in a word of prayer, thankful for Psalm 51.

And the worship team, come on up. Father, we thank you so much for Psalm 51.

Lord, there's no difference between us and David. We all, every last one of us, fall short of your glory.

Help us to come to you with a broken and contrite spirit, which you will not despise.

And we thank you, Lord, that you are our savior. Wash us,

Lord, again. Renew a steadfast spirit in us. And let our lips praise you for your righteousness.

Release this people in this building free today, cleansed. And if there's any here that are harboring secret sin,

I pray right now in their spirit that they would confess that to you. So church, with your heads bowed and eyes closed, just between you and God, confess what you know you need to confess to him.