God is my Janitor. That doesn't quite have the same ring as "The Lord is my Shepherd," does it? It may even rub our conscience as disrespectful. Yet being a shepherd wasn't always that prestigious either, but we don't hesitate to call Jesus our Good Shepherd.
The Spirit is my joyful Janitor. Of course, you could misuse that statement. But consider how the two are alike. A janitor cleans up other people's messes. That's what the Holy Spirit does. He hasn't made any messes himself. He is the holy God. But he cleans up that sinful mess of your heart and mine. And what a mess we've made! Even the English names for their work sound similar. A janitor's work is sanitation; the Spirit's work, sanctification.
Furthermore, just as a janitor's work is often taken for granted, how many dismiss the Spirit's vital work of cleaning hearts and instead run after what seems flashy and powerful in the eyes of the world? Even as we hear the events of David’s life, we might focus on the outward signs and miss the greater work the Spirit was doing. We see the fire of his faith as he burns a path of righteous anger toward Goliath. We hear the sound of rushing wind as he writes and sings the Psalms. His prophecies are translated into reality across thousands of different languages. All these are special miracles of the Spirit, but he uses them only as outward signs pointing his greater work. The great work of the Spirit that day was the repentance he worked in one individual heart. Through the Law packaged in a shepherd’s analogy, the Holy Spirit convicted the King of his sin and created faith in the coming Savior all over again. That's how he cleans hearts.
The Spirit can produce some fabulous outward, miraculous signs as we watch him turn up the flames of fire on Pentecost. Yet he makes no promise of speaking in tongues, faith-healing, earthly success, health, or wealth -- all things that the world might applaud.
So how do we know a janitor is at work? FRESHNESS… the smell / the sight. What signs do we look for to know that the Spirit is busy cleaning hearts? This is what he has promised: Where his true, pure word is preached and taught and where his sacraments are properly used, there he is at work as our Sanctifier. He is cleaning filthy hearts, your heart and mine. For the word and sacraments are the Spirit's tools. And when he's cleaning our hearts, that also shows in our outward behavior. The fruit we produce in our lives is external evidence of the Spirit's inner work as he cleans our hearts through his Word and Sacraments
The Spirit Freshens Up Our Life
1. To keep bringing the freshness of forgiveness to you.
1.1 A murderer sought sanitization. Recall the history leading up to Psalm 51. "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10). The Lord had made David king of all Israel and firmly established his throne. But David's heart wandered. He committed adultery with Bathsheba, while her husband, Uriah, was away fighting David's wars. She becomes pregnant. To cover up the sin, David invites Uriah back from the front line so that he'd think the child was his own. But after reporting to David, Uriah sleeps at the palace entrance. He doesn't think it right for him to enjoy the comforts of his bed while his fellow Israelites are camped in open fields for battle. How loyal a soldier! (2 Samuel 11:1-13)
David sends him back with sealed orders for Joab, the commander. Joab was to place Uriah in the front line where the fighting was fiercest and then have everyone else withdraw. If Uriah somehow happened to be killed by the enemy, David could then marry Bathsheba and pretend all was fine. But this did not please the Lord. Yet for a year David lived this lie, hardening his heart. (2 Samuel 11:14-27)
1.2 Sin runs rampant into more sin. This gives us food for thought. Our natural self wants to think: "Yes, David certainly needed his heart cleaned. What a mess of adultery and murder he made of it! I'm glad I'm not that dirty." But what do you think hurt his relationship with God more: His act of adultery and murder or his continual lying to God that he had not done anything that bad? Here's an illustration from the news. Maybe you've heard of Arnold Schwarzenegger's troubled marriage with Maria Shriver. What do you think hurt his relationship with her more: his infidelity over ten years ago or all the lies since then to cover it up?
As soon as we try to justify ourselves and claim that our hearts aren't that dirty, at least not as dirty as some people's, we're following that path of lies and cover-ups before God. Our dirt is much deeper than just this or that bad act, even if that act were murder or adultery. Do you remember how Jesus showed that lust makes us guilty of adultery (Matthew 5:28) and sinful anger makes us accountable before God as murderers (Matthew 5:21-22)? But our filth is even deeper than our thoughts. How filthy the very nature we inherited from our parents! Filthy to the core! David confessed early in the Psalm, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me" (Psalm 51:5 NIV1984). Our Messes… from Oatmeal to car accident to more.
1.3 Sin no matter how small is an attack on God's holiness. Do you see that any attempt to downplay our sinfulness, excuse our offenses and failures, or lessen our guilt drives us even farther away from God? Any sin, no matter who it hurts, is first and foremost a sin against God. We certainly deserve any judgment God sends down on us. The punishments he pronounces are truly right. "Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge" (Psalm 51:4 NIV1984), David confesses.
APP – We need to have our hearts “aired out.” If he had died thinking he had covered up his sin from God, he would have gone to hell forever. That's what we deserve. We deserve to be cast out of the Lord's presence forever. We deserve for the Holy Spirit to be taken from us once and for all. That's what David deserved. But the Lord sent the prophet Nathan to confront him. See the Spirit do his work through the prophet's words. He told David of a poor man who had a pet lamb, in fact, much more than a pet. "It shared his food, drank from his cup, and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him" (2 Samuel 12:3 NIV1984). But when a guest came to the rich man's house, rather than taking one of his many sheep, he butchered the poor man's lamb.
David's righteous anger flared against this rich man. And the prophet said, "You are man!" (2 Samuel 12:7 NIV1984). The Lord had blessed him with so much, but he took Uriah's wife and murdered him. David's self-righteous arrogance is crushed. "I have sinned against the LORD" (2 Samuel 12:13 NIV1984), he confesses. "The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die" (2 Samuel 12:13 NIV1984), Nathan answers. What joy of forgiveness! The Holy Spirit was busy as David's janitor, cleaning his heart through the prophet's words of forgiveness. Danger of Sin is like never cleaning up… germs lead to death.
The Holy Spirit removes the germs even of sins like murder, adultery, and lying to God. So great is the Lord's mercy and love! No wonder David begins Psalm 51 saying, "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin" (Psalm 51:1, 2 NIV1984).
As you rely on the Lord's mercy and call out, "Create in my a clean heart, O God," the Holy Spirit is already at work. He washes you in the blood of God's Son, Jesus Christ. Day after day he cleans your heart to keep bringing you the joy of forgiveness. For the blood of Jesus Christ, God Son, "purifies us from all sin" (1 John 1:7 NIV1984). The Spirit washes you cleaner than any janitor could. In fact, washed in Jesus' blood and clothed with his righteousness you stand before the holy, all-seeing God, and he calls you his saints, his holy people. What great work the Holy Spirit does in your heart! What joy his forgiveness brings! The joy of salvation! "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 unto me the joy of your salvation" (Psalm 51:10-12).
2. To sustain a willing spirit within you.
2.1 The Spirit cleans our hearts and makes them new so that our character and behavior change. David knows that the Spirit's work doesn't stop with forgiveness in the heart. He changes us from the inside out. This is the willing spirit the Holy Spirit works in us and sustains in us. This willing spirit shows itself in our attitude, words, and actions. David prays: "Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me" (Psalm 51:12 NIV1984).
2.2 The joy of salvation shines out in willing obedience to our Savior. When the Holy Spirit cleans our hearts, why would we want to dirty our lives? Rather we desire to do what our Lord wants. As the Psalm continues David shows that willing spirit within him. He wants to teach sinners the Lord's ways. He wants to open his mouth to declare God's praises. He wants to offer God not just outward sacrifices but a broken and contrite heart that knows its sin and the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit.
So many today imagine that once they know the Gospel of forgiveness, then they need to move on to other things if they are going to clean up their lives. So, they try to make themselves better Christians by running after seven rules or twelve steps or a forty day plan. But the vast majority of these leave the Gospel on the sidelines. Rather than focusing on what Jesus has done for us, they focus on what you should do. But that's not where a willing spirit comes from. They may have some helpful advice. They may talk a lot about the Holy Spirit. But when they sideline the Gospel of Jesus and his sacraments, they sideline the Holy Spirit, whether they intend to or not. Just as janitor uses his tools to clean, so the Holy Spirit uses the Gospel in Word and Sacraments to clean not only our hearts but also our lives, sustaining a willing spirit within us. TOOLS of the TRADE… compare cleansers to Word/Sacrament.
2.3 With the Gospel he feeds your spirit empowering you to live a godly, righteous life. And just as the Holy Spirit uses the Gospel in God's Word and Sacraments to bring you the joy of salvation, so also he uses the same Gospel in Word and Sacraments to sustain the willing spirit within you. HEALED by the HYSSOP’S HANDLER -
In Psalm 51, David prayed to be cleansed with Hyssop! Being cleansed by Hyssop had a rich history with the Jewish people. The Hyssop was a plant with a straight stalk. Its leaves and branches were kind of hairy which made it very easy for liquids to adhere to them. They were used in various types of religious services. The Hyssop branch would be dipped into the sacrificial blood and sprinkled over a person who needed healing. The same procedure was used for the cleansing of mildew. And, it was also used to make people ceremonially clean. The most famous event that occurred in Jewish history using the Hyssop was during the first Passover. The Jewish people were still in bondage in Egypt. God had sent nine plagues against Pharaoh and the tenth plague, the plague of death for all the firstborn, was about to begin. God told Moses to tell the people to take a branch of Hyssop, dip it into the blood of the sacrificed lamb, and smear the blood on the top and sides of their doorframe - so the angel of death would “pass over” the house and not bring death - hence the name Passover!
What I believe hurt and affected Jesus the most was the same thing that had helped, healed, and saved the Jewish people for centuries - the Hyssop Branch! The Hyssop branch with the blood of the lamb smeared on the doorframe that saved the firstborn of the Jewish people! The Hyssop branch was used in religious services for healing and cleansing! The Hyssop branch that David sought after, cried for, and prayed for - that did take away his sins! It was that same Hyssop Branch that came to Jesus on the Cross in John 19:29-30. Instead of being saved, healed, or cleansed by the blood of the sacrificed lamb - this Hyssop Branch was filled with the sins of the whole world - and all the despair sin brings to the world. Jesus, The Lamb of God - took on all of our sins and nailed them to his Cross. Jesus, who knew no sin, became the greatest sinner of all time - by taking on the sins of the world, and all sins of all time - being separated from God as sin does and having to die! I believe that was the hardest thing Jesus would have to suffer.
APP – In the context of the whole story, David progresses from lowly Shepherd to Great King. How did this happen? God knew his heart. He was a man who asked for wisdom, and yet he too needed cleansing! We see David, throughout the blend of Psalm 51 with our text from 2 Samuel, seeking, crying out, and praying for - God’s grace and mercy. He sought to hear joy and gladness again and not feel and have the despair of a broken and crushed spirit. David was seeking to feel and have the glory he once had - and the freshness and freedom of his salvation restored. And so can we!
Conclusion: Learn to recognize the great work of the Holy Spirit. What a janitor he is! He cleans our hearts. Through the Gospel, he brings us the freshness of forgiveness, no matter how torn up, beleaguered, or messy is our sin. Through the Gospel, he sustains a willing spirit within you, so that in your behavior and life you can freely serve your Lord, whose blood has washed you clean.