Our Wednesday Evening Message for April 10, 2024

                           

                                              "Praying For Cleansing"

                                                   Text: Psalm 51: 1-7

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​​ In our Wednesday night Bible study, we are walking you through the various prayers found in the Old and New Testament. There are 100 of them  found in your Bible.

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In this study, we examine a psalm of David. It is David's prayer of confession for his sin of adultery with Bathsheba that we read in II Samuel 11.

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So as we examined this psalm, we need to ask ourselves a question. That question is "What is the most priceless thing in your life?" Now you might respond by saying it is your health, or your spouse, or even your children. Yes, these things are great things in our lives, but they are not the most priceless thing. No, the most priceless thing according to God's Word is our soul. The Lord Jesus confirmed this truth when He asked these questions to His disciples, "For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (Matthew 16:26)

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The Lord Jesus not only preach the value of our soul, but He also demonstrated the value of our soul by going to Calvary. At Calvary, we see the value of a person's soul by Christ redeeming all humanity form our sins by His death on the cross. As sinners all of us struggle with sin. Our old nature that God saved us from is constantly trying to pull us down. There is a war going on within us between our old nature and our new nature in this current life.

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When you and I sin, there are different approaches that we can take. As you may know, our sins does not affect our relationship with the Lord only our fellowship. Our relationship with God was paid for at Calvary, and cannot be altered by anything that we may do. However, our sin takes away the joy of the Lord from our Christian lives, and prevents us from having fellowship with our Savior.

 

We can choose to cover it up as if nothing has occurred. This is the choice David made when he sin with Bathsheba, until a year later Nathan the prophet pointed out his sin. At that time, David confessed his sin which led him to this prayer of confession we see in Psalm 51 and Psalm 32.  Another option is to confess our sin which is the best path to follow. We are told by John what is the consequences of confessing our sins immediately, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from  all unrighteousness." ( I John 1:9) 

 

As we study this psalm of confession, we see David making three request in his prayer. He prays for God to cleanse him (v.1-7), to restore him (v.8-12), and finally to use him (v.13-19).

 

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So if you find your self in David's predicament, there is a remedy. Go immediately to the Lord in prayer and ask for His forgiveness. He will not only cleanse you of your sin, but will restore you back in having fellowship with Him. What a great Savior we have that no only forgives us but also restores us back to where we were before we had sinned!

 

 

 

                                                        Pastor Michael R. Martin

 

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