Sermon: Furbish
by Chris Cumming
Today is the day of Pentecost. Notice as I read from our doctrine on the Annual
Holy Days.
Pentecost: Pentecost is the anniversary of the founding of the New
Testament Church. It initiates God's plan of salvation for the world. Just as
Pentecost marked the spring or first harvest, so Pentecost symbolizes the first
small harvest of individuals through God's Church. In the salvation of the
individual, Pentecost represents his receiving of the Holy Spirit after baptism.
This Holy Spirit enables him to do what he could not do before, just as the
disciples were able to go forward in spreading the gospel in a way totally
impossible before the Holy Spirit came. An example is Peter's boldness in
proclaiming the gospel so soon after clear cowardice when Jesus was betrayed. (A
late Jewish tradition holds that ancient Israel received the law from God at
Mount Sinai on Pentecost. This would make sense, since only through God's Holy
Spirit can a person keep God's law in its true spiritual intent.). ~end
quote
I now want to read from our doctrine on the Holy Spirit:
DOCTRINAL STATEMENT
The Holy Spirit is the essence, power, mind and spiritual extension of God. God
begets Christians as His sons through this Spirit. It strengthens a Christian
spiritually, converts his mind and serves as an earnest or guarantee of eternal
life.
DOCTRINAL OVERVIEW
The Holy Spirit is described in the Bible as "the Spirit of God," "the Spirit of
the Lord," "the Spirit of Jesus Christ," "the Spirit of truth," and "comforter"
or "advocate." It is the power of God, the mind of God and the extended means by
which God accomplishes His work throughout the universe. As such, the Holy
Spirit is not a separate entity, it has no independent existence as an
individual entity or person within the godhead.
It was through His Spirit that God created the earth (Genesis 1:2). It was
through this Spirit that David received his moral strength (Psalm 51:10-13).
~end quote
This year for the Day of Pentecost, I want to focus on what is said about the
Holy Spirit in Psalm 51.
Psalm 51:9-10
9 Hide thy face from my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.
How does God create a clean heart in us?
When does He do this?
What does it mean, "renew a right spirit within me"?
When should we be asking this of our Father?
Today I am going to answer these questions as I encourage all of us to maintain
a clean heart.
Maintain your clean heart.
We will begin with the word, "create" as in, "Create in me a clean heart."
CREATE:
2 Corinthians 5:17-18
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are
passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,
and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
Note: "all things are of God." This means that the creating of a new
heart is being performed by God.
Notice the commentary;
And all things are of God - This refers particularly to the things in question,
the renewing of the heart, and the influences by which Paul had been brought to
a state of willingness to forsake all, and to devote his life to the
self-denying labors involved in the purpose of making the Saviour known. He
makes the statement general, however, showing his belief that not only these
things were produced by God, but that all things were under his direction, and
subject to his control. Nothing that he had done was to be traced to his own
agency or power, but God was to be acknowledged everywhere. This great truth
Paul never forgot; and he never suffered himself to lose sight of it. It was in
his view a cardinal and glorious truth; and he kept its influence always before
his mind and his heart. In the important statement which follows, therefore,
about the ministry of reconciliation, he deeply feels that the whole plan, and
all the success which has attended the plan, was to be traced not to his zeal,
or fidelity, or skill, but to the agency of God. ~Barnes Notes
[See sermon:
Assiduity]
Ephesians 2:10
For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God
hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
Now to the word, "Clean" as in, "a clean heart."
CLEAN
Proverbs 20:9
Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?
Notice the commentaries:
Who can say, I have made any heart clean - A warning voice against the spirit,
which, ignorant of its own guilt, is forward to condemn others. ~Barnes Notes
Who can say, I have made any heart clean - No man. But thousands can testify
that the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed them from all unrighteousness. And
he is pure from his sin, who is justified freely through the redemption that is
in Jesus. ~Adam Clarke
Notice this from the Biblical Illustrator.
Purity of heart
I. Who can say, I have made my heart clean? We read of some who have clean
hands, which implies an abstinence from outward sins. A clean heart implies more
than this; it relates to the inward temper and disposition, to the bias of the
will, and the various operations of the affections, as being spiritual and
acceptable in the sight of God.
1. Purity of heart is much to be desired.
2. It is the work of the Spirit alone to impart it. [That is, God through the
power of the Holy Spirit]
3. There is so much self-righteous pride and vanity in man that many are apt to
think they have made their hearts clean. ~Biblical Illustrator
Here is another piece from the Biblical Illustrator on keeping the heart clean:
The duty of mortification [feeling of humiliation or shame].
The trial and examination of our hearts and ways in reference to God is a duty
which, though hard and difficult, is exceedingly useful and beneficial to us.
I. The duty of mortification. The cleansing of our hearts, to be pure from sin.
1. The nature of the action. Cleansing. A word implying some change and
alteration that is to be made in us. That which is purged was formerly impure.
God is pure; the saints are purged and purified. This shows us the nature of
sin: it is a matter of uncleanness. Uncleanness is a debasing quality; a
loathsome quality; a thing odious [deserving or causing hatred; repugnant,
disgusting] in itself and for itself. Cleansing shows the sovereign virtue
of grace and repentance. It is of a purging virtue. It hath a power of cleansing
us from the pollutions of sin. It is compared to clean water, which washes away
filth. To a wind, which, passing, cleanseth. To a fire, that consumes dross and
corruption.
2. The property of the agent. The text makes us agents in this great work. Sin
is cleansed in our justification, when it is pardoned and forgiven. The act of
forgiveness is God’s alone. Sin is cleansed by mortification, and regeneration,
and conversion. The progress of these acts God works in us, and by us. His
Spirit enables us to carry forward this work which He graciously begins, and to
cleanse ourselves.
3. The circumstance of time. “I have cleansed.” Mortification is a work of long
continuance; it requires progress and perseverance.
II. The object that must be wrought upon. “The heart.” The whole man must be
cleansed, but first and specially the heart. The heart is the fountain and
original from whence all other uncleannesses do stream and flow. The heart is
the lurking-hole, to which sin betakes [to cause to go] itself. The heart
is the proper seat and residence of sin.
III. The measure or degree of mortification. “I am pure from my sin.” This is
the high aim that a Christian must set to himself, to press forward to
perfection. The text lays our sin at our own doors, and so it concerns us to rid
ourselves of it. Sin is the offspring of our will. There is the sin of inbred
and natural inclination; the sin to which our particular age disposes us:
childhood is idle, youth wanton, age covetous; the sins of our calling and
vocation: every calling has its special temptations.
IV. The difficulty of mortification. This question, “Who?” is not meant for all
sorts of sinners. It is not propounded to the profane man, to the grossly
ignorant man, or to the negligent and careless man. The question reaches to the
best sort of men, those that have made good progress in this work of cleansing
and mortification, who, nevertheless, are condemned by their own consciences;
who have still leaven to purge out; find some sins of surreption (sur-uh
p-tish-ion) [done or made by stealth; secret] will steal in upon
them. As to the question itself. It runs thus: “Who can say?” Not “Who doth
say?” or “Who will say?” or “Who dare say?” We may safely resolve the question
into a peremptory assertion, and conclude that no man is clear or free from sin.
The earnest Christian can say, “Through grace I have broken the strength and
dominion of sin.” (Bp. Brownrigg.) ~Biblical Illustrator
Note: Item IV here is speaking to the fact that the question of
Proverbs 20:9 is speaking to someone in the Salvation Process.
There is a set of scriptures in Ezekiel 11 which talks about Israel being
gathered from the captivity of the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord. It
speaks to God cleaning their hearts as they enter into the millennium and the
Salvation Process.
Ezekiel 11:17-19
17 Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even gather you from the
people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and
I will give you the land of Israel.
18 And they shall come thither, and they shall take away all the detestable
things thereof and all the abominations thereof from thence.
19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I
will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of
flesh:
What does God say to Israel in Ezekiel 18 about having a clean heart?
Ezekiel 18:30-32
30 Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his
ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your
transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.
31 Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and
make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?
32 For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD:
wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye.
This idea continues later in Ezekiel:
Ezekiel 36:25-27
25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all
your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and
I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart
of flesh.
27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes,
and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Jeremiah is a book about how God tried to save Jerusalem. He sent Jeremiah there
to preach and warn. Along the way he talks about the cleansing of the heart.
Actually he is asking why they won't be clean.
Jeremiah 13:27
I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom,
and thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem!
wilt thou not be made clean? when shall it once be?
As the narrative of Jeremiah continues we get to part where God is talking about
the future in the millennium. Notice what He says.
Jeremiah 32:37-44
37 Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them
in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again
unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely:
38 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God:
39 And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever,
for the good of them, and of their children after them:
40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away
from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they
shall not depart from me.
41 Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this
land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul.
42 For thus saith the LORD; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this
people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them.
43 And fields shall be bought in this land, whereof ye say, It is desolate
without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.
44 Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe evidences, and seal them, and
take witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and
in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of
the valley, and in the cities of the south: for I will cause their captivity to
return, saith the LORD.
Note verse 39: One heart, one way, that they may fear me forever. God is
doing this with us now. This is what the Day of Pentecost shows.
Did God include the concept of a clean heart in the Sermon on the Mount?
Matthew 5:8
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Notice the meaning here:
Blessed are the pure in heart - That is, whose minds, motives, and principles
are pure; who seek not only to have the external actions correct, but who desire
to be holy in heart, and who are so. Man looks on the outward appearance, but
God looks on the heart. ~Barnes Notes
Notice the Adam Clarke:
Pure in heart - In opposition to the Pharisees, who affected outward purity,
while their hearts were full of corruption and defilement. A principal part of
the Jewish religion consisted in outward washings and cleansings: on this ground
they expected to see God, to enjoy eternal glory: but Christ here shows that a
purification of the heart, from all vile affections and desires, is essentially
requisite in order to enter into the kingdom of God. He whose soul is not
delivered from all sin, through the blood of the covenant, can have no
Scriptural hope of ever being with God. ~Adam Clarke
Now to the People's New Testament:
Blessed are the pure in heart. - The Jew, under the tuition of the Pharisees,
cared little for the state of the heart, so that outward forms were duly kept.
Jesus, however, demands that the heart, the affections, the mind, shall be
purified, as the fountain from whence flows the moral and religious life. A pure
heart begets a pure life; an impure heart, a corrupt life. ~People's New
Testament
In Acts 15, we find ourselves at the Council at Jerusalem and the question of
Circumcising the Gentile converts. Clearly the circumcising was an outward
cleansing. However the church was now focusing on internal/spiritual cleansing.
Acts 15:7-9
7 And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men
and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that
the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.
8 And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy
Ghost, even as he did unto us;
9 And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.
Next we go to the letter Peter wrote to the scattered churches and speaking to
the Salvation Process.
1 Peter 1:19-22
19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and
without spot:
20 Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was
manifest in these last times for you,
21 Who by him do believe in God, that raised him up from the dead, and gave him
glory; that your faith and hope might be in God.
22 Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit
unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure
heart fervently:
Notice some commentary on verse 22.
Seeing ye have purified your souls - The apostle passes to another exhortation,
namely, to brotherly love; the ground of which he makes to be, the purification
of their souls; and which supposes that they had been impure; and indeed, their
whole persons, souls and bodies, were so by nature; even all the members of
their bodies, and all the powers and faculties of their souls: it is internal
purity, purity of the heart, that is here particularly respected; though not to
the exclusion of outward purity, for where there is the former, there will be
the latter; but there may be an external purity, where there is not the inward
one: this the apostle ascribes to the saints themselves, but not without the
grace of God, the blood of Christ, and the operations of his Spirit; as appears
by a following clause; but they are said to purify themselves, inasmuch as
having the grace of faith bestowed on them, they were enabled, under the
influences of the Spirit of God, to exercise it on the blood of Christ, which
cleanses from all sin:
Note: Let me put the first part of this commentary in
summarization: The exhortation is to have a pure heart. Peter acknowledges
that alone, we are not clean or pure. He also makes a clear distinction
between being clean outside from being clean inside. It is possible to be
clean on the outside only. Wolves in sheep's clothing do this all the
time. Firstfruits know that if we focus on a clean and pure heart, the
outside will be clean and pure also. He goes on to say that none of this
operation is possible without the shed blood of Christ, the Salvation Process [grace],
and without the Holy Spirit in us. We are to invoke this operation
continually.
In obeying the truth - of the Gospel, by receiving, believing, and embracing it
in the love of it; which teaches outward purity, and is a means in the hand of
the spirit of inward purity, and of directing to the purifying blood of Jesus,
who sanctifies and cleanses by the word:
Through the Spirit - this clause is left out in the Alexandrian copy, and some
others, and in the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions, but is in the
Arabic version, and ought to be retained; for, as Christ died to purify to
himself a peculiar people, the Spirit of Christ does from him purify the heart
by faith in his blood; by sprinkling that on the conscience, and by leading the
faith of God's people to the fountain of it, to wash it for sin, and for
uncleanness; even both their consciences and their conversation, garments;
whereby they obtain inward and outward purity: ~John Gill
We will end the study into Psalm 51 on this Day of Pentecost by looking at the
words in verse 10, "Renew" and "Right."
Renew: ...as in "renew a right spirit within me
Romans 12:1-2
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service.
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of
your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect,
will of God.
Ephesians 4:22-24
22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is
corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness
and true holiness.
Colossians 3:10
And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of
him that created him:
Titus 3:5
Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he
saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
Right: [or, constant] ...as renew a right spirit.
Acts 11:23
Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them
all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.
1 Corinthians 15:58
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in
the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in
the Lord.
Key Points:
1] Maintain your clean heart. ~Psalm 51:9-10
2] All things are of God. ~ 2 Corinthians 5:18
3] God reconciles us to Himself by Jesus Christ. ~2 Corinthians 5:18
4] We are God's workmanship. ~Ephesians 2:10
5] God ordained your clean heart that we should do good works. ~Ephesians 2:10
6] All men are unrighteous and sin. ~Proverbs 20:9
7] A clean heart denotes a cleansing of the firstfruit from the inside out.
8] Cleansing of the heart is a process over time that demands progress and
perseverance.
9] The whole man must be cleansed but first the heart. The heart is the
residence of sin.
10] We must press forward to perfection.
11] Firstfruits cleansed will be welcome into the Kingdom of God.
12] God wants us with one heart and one way. ~Jeremiah 32:39
13] Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. ~Matthew
5:8
14] A pure heart begets a pure life; an impure heart, a corrupt life.
15] We purify our souls by obeying the truth through the Holy Spirit. ~1 Peter
1:22
16] Be not conformed to this world. ~Romans 12:1-2
17] Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. ~Romans 12:1-2
18] Prove what the will of God is. ~Romans 12:1-2
19] Renew yourself by full immersion in the Word of God.
20] Put on Christ and thus put off the old [impure] man. ~Ephesians 4:22-24;
Colossians 3:10
21] Be you stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord. ~1
Corinthians 15:58
Specific answers to your questions...
How does God create a clean heart in us?
1] All things are of God. ~2 Corinthians 5:18
2] God reconciles us to Himself by Jesus Christ. ~2 Corinthians 5:18
3] God cleans the firstfruit from the inside out.
4] We are agents in the cleansing of our heart. This means that God is doing
this with and through us.
5] Cleansing of the heart is a process over time that demands progress and
perseverance.
6] God wants us with one heart and one way. ~Jeremiah 32:39
7] He gives us the Holy Spirit. ~Acts 15:7-9
When does He do this?
1] At one's calling to repentance, baptism and the receiving of the Holy Spirit.
2] Continually in the Salvation Process.
3] Ultimately, and for all souls, at the return of Jesus Christ and throughout
the millennium. ~Ezekiel 11; Jeremiah 32
4] When we repent. ~Ezekiel 18
What does it mean, "renew a right spirit within me"?
1] Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. ~Matthew 5:8
2] Be not conformed to this world. ~Romans 12:1-2
3] Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. ~Romans 12:1-2
4] Prove what the will of God is. ~Romans 12:1-2
5] Renew yourself by full immersion in the Word of God.
When should we be asking this of our Father?
1] As long as you are in the Salvation Process. ~1 Peter 1:19-22
2] Continually and fervently. ~1 Peter 1:19-22