Psalm 51:17
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Good evening. In some forest and grasslands, fire isn't only a threat, it's actually a tool for renewal. And over time, the forest floor, it collects dry brush and dead limbs and this thick undergrowth that just comes up. It just quietly builds up. And the danger is that what seems harmless becomes fuel. Then when a wildfire finally does come, it doesn't just burn the underbrush, it turns into a catastrophe and it destroys everything in its path. That's why land managers are those people who get to make those decisions, sometimes do something that looks shocking. They intentionally set a control burn. It's planned, it's contained, it's supervised, it's purposeful. The flames clear out what's dead and expose what's hidden under the
surface, and it makes room for new growth. It can look severe, but it's actually a good thing because it prevents something worse and prepares the ground for renewal. Sometimes God's mercy feels like fire, because he's burning away what would eventually destroy you. Our verse for this evening is Psalm 51, 17. It's on the front of your bulletin. It reads, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Let me give you just a little bit of context for Psalm 51. Psalm 51 was written by King David after he had committed a serious sin. David committed adultery with Bathsheba and learned that she was pregnant. He tried to conceal his sin rather than confess it.
He actually summoned her husband Uriah home from the battlefield and he questioned him and he urged him to go home with Bathsheba so that the pregnancy would appear to be Uriah's. When Uriah refused David escalated the cover-up by getting him drunk hoping he would finally just go home when even that failed David used his royal authority to arrange Uriah's death sending orders to Joab to place Uriah on the front lines when and withdraw the the support of the troops so that he would be killed and afterward David managed the outward optics by taking Bathsheba into his house as his wife turning one sin into a chain of greater sins before God confronted him and brought him to repentance. You can read about that in 2 Samuel. David didn't put the fire out.
He kept piling brush on it until a hidden sin became an open blaze through Uriah's death and taking Bathsheba into his house. So Psalm 51 was written after Nathan's confrontation with him and probably many months after the original sin, most likely within maybe a year, but the Bible doesn't really give us an exact timestamp on this, but when David finally stops hiding and admits his guilt before God, he doesn't try to impress God with religious activity or make up for it with these empty promises.
Instead, he pleads for mercy and cleansing. He explains what God truly wants from a sinner. Not a show of religion, but a humbled heart that tells the truth. That's the setting for Psalm 51, 17. He's making a theological point here about God, What God fundamentally most requires is not a performance of religion. It's not an outward performance, but the heart posture of repentance.
So let me give you a main idea that we're working with here. My main idea is that God wants honest repentance, and he welcomes the repentant with mercy. God wants honest repentance, and he welcomes the repentant with mercy. I'm going to work through two questions. I'm going to go ahead and give you both of them. The first one is, what is true repentance? And the second one, how does God respond to the repentant sinner?
So the first one, what is true repentance? Psalm 51, 17, it's not this just abstract theology for David. I just gave you the context. It's a confession that's born out of his own failure. Before he even offered God the sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart, David did exactly what our flesh still does. He tried to restore peace through visible, external solutions.
For many of us, these are things we talk about. We think it's maybe image management. strategic planning damage control our verse corrects a deep common misunderstanding about what pleases god after sin our flesh assumes god is won back by these visible efforts some kind of religious currency we can pay to restore peace whether this is through promises that we make our own spiritual busyness if I just join this group and I do this and I just I just keep going maybe it's some type of self-punishment you give yourself or even a dramatic display of sorrow what a kindness it is for the Lord to to give us the psalms we get to see a heart cry of David Now this is David where he reaches a profound conclusion in the aftermath of many bad choices.
And this is where people get confused. The heart can put on a convincing performance. A broken and contrite heart is not merely measured by tears. Tears can be about the exposure itself. It can be about consequences that have happened or are going to happen, or self-pity. It isn't measured by fatigue.
Being tired of the fallout is not the same as hating sin. It isn't measured by time or distance from the sin. It's not the same as repentance. And it isn't measured by speed, rushing to move on without truth or ownership and change. All of that, all of those things can mimic repentance while the soul remains devoted to self-preservation.
Jonathan Edwards exposes a dangerous reality of this in his book, Religious Affections. So this is one of the formative books I read early on in college, really describing religious emotion that builds upward while the foundation remains the self. I want to read a quote. This is what he said. He said, when their affections are raised, then they view those high affections and call them great and wonderful experiences. And they have a notion that God is greatly pleased with those affections, and this affects them more. And so they are affected with their affections.
And thus their affections rise higher and higher until they sometimes are perfectly swallowed up and self-conceit and a fierce zeal rises within them. And all is built like a castle in the air. On no other foundation but imagination, self-love, and pride. So what is true repentance? Psalm 51, 17 names it as a broken spirit and a broken, contrite heart.
Brokenness isn't an emotional instability. It's the collapse of self-justification. The moment when pride breaks and the heart stops defending itself. A broken spirit doesn't argue or hide, it confesses. God is right. I have sinned and I need mercy.
And contrite sharpens that. The conscience is, it's crushed into honesty. No longer bargaining, no longer softening the truth. Repentance then is truthful humility, agreeing with God and turning from this self-protection towards mercy and obedience. So what does this true repentance look like in real life, everyday life? True repentance has recognizable fruit.
First, it's God word. It's not merely just sorry for a mess that has happened in the aftermath. It means that you're grieved first because the sin that you have committed is against our holy God. Psalm 51.4, so if you look up a few verses, David says this earlier in verse 4. He says, against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. He recognizes that his sin is against God first.
This doesn't mean that he hasn't hurt others. But this does mean that he recognizes, he sees that, that he's Godward. His sin is against God. Second, true repentance. It owns sin without spin. There's no blame shifting here. No softening. No stories that relocate guilt to circumstances.
It's easy to blame circumstances. Some people blame their own wiring, how they're made, their temperament. Or other people. It's just clear and it's honest confession. I think the third thing is that it's teachable. Repentance, a person who is repentant is teachable. Receiving God's word and correction as kindness rather than attack.
Even when scripture cuts and exposes, we know that scripture cuts and exposes. Hebrews talks about this. For the word of God is living and active. It's sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing the division of soul and spirit, joints of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. We know that's what Scripture does through the work of the Spirit. Fourth, it accepts that repentance has weight.
So no bargaining to avoid consequences. No using forgiveness on the other side to escape accountability and a willingness to rebuild broken trust when you know that you've hurt others I think the final thing the fifth thing here is that it produces a directional change direction because the the head and the heart have been changed there are concrete steps towards obedience cutting off access to sin and forming new thought patterns through prayer and the word community accountability that over time you see a less hiding and more walking in the light.
Here's a few questions that bring repentance really out of this theory and more into the light. So I want to ask you, what do you attempt to minimize or rename right now? What is the hardest sentence or hardest thing that for you to say out loud? Without explaining it away. If the consequences would just disappear, would you still hate sin itself? Thomas Watson said, until sin be bitter, Christ will not be sweet.
As long as we keep sin wrapped in excuses, Christ will not be treasured. The sweetness of Christ returns when we tell the truth about sin. And we run to His mercy. So if Psalm 51, 17 shows us what repentance is, a broken and contrite heart, it also answers the question, every sinner fears. Will God receive me?
So this is our second question. How does God respond to the repentant sinner? Psalm 51, 17 answers the question with a clear promise. God will not despise the one who comes to him with a broken and contrite heart. David is not offering some type of vague optimism here. He's not just saying, oh, there's good things to come. David speaks with confidence because he knows that he knows God's covenant character, his steadfast love and mercy.
In other words, when a sinner stops pretending and comes honestly telling the truth, God does not meet that person with contempt or disgust. He does not treat them as unclean, embarrassing, someone that is just inconvenient to him. He receives the repentant. He welcomes confession because repentance is the posture that agrees with his own verdict and character.
It turns you toward his mercy rather than resisting it. Guilt says, I've broken God's law. Guilt tells the truth about our actions. I have sinned. Shame tells a deeper lie about our identity. I am disgusting. I should hide.
Shame says I'm beyond God's love. Psalm 51, 17 confronts that lie head on. It demolishes it. David says that when you stop performing and start confessing, when you come low, you humble yourself and tell the truth. God does not despise you. He receives you. The person who is finally uncovered, that is humble and truthful, is the very one God will not despise.
That is who he welcomes. Now, God is not, he's not casual about sin here. I mean, I don't think Psalm 51 lets him be. There is guilt to confess and cleansing to receive. But we see, even in God's holiness, he does not repeal the repentant. Holiness exposes sin and mercy invites the sinner to come.
So going just one layer deeper, Why can God welcome repentant sinners without compromising his holiness? It's a fantastic question. Because the whole Bible is moving towards this. God provides what sinners cannot. The sacrifices of Israel, they were never mere religious performance. They were signposts that were pointing toward God's ultimate provision, Christ.
Christ, the true and final sacrifice of sin. So we don't come to God saying, look what I brought. As though this type of remorse or effort could even purchase a welcome. We come saying, look what you have provided. Resting on the mercy secured outside of us in the Son, Jesus Christ. And as far as cheapening repentance here, the cross actually deepens it because it tells us two truths at once.
These are the two truths. The first one, our sin is serious enough that Christ had to die. And the second one, that God's love is strong enough that Christ was willing to die. So it's worth asking, do you believe God welcomes your confession? Or do you believe he just merely tolerates it? What payment are you trying to make before you will receive grace?
God is looking for the heart that knows how little it deserves, but how much it owes. The fire, the control burn in your life is not rejection, it's mercy. If the Lord is exposing what you have tried to manage yourself, don't assume he's pushing you away. He may be clearing what will destroy you. Bring him what he welcomes, a broken and contrite heart, and hear his promise, he will not despise you. Let's pray.
Father in heaven, we come to you in the name of Jesus, confessing that we often try to manage our own sin with performance and excuses and things that just build up our own self-protection. Lord, we ask that you would give us what you desire, a broken spirit and a contrite heart. We ask that you would give us this so that we would stop hiding, that we would stop defending ourselves and we would come into the light. We thank you for your promise that you will not despise the repentant. We ask that you would teach us to trust your mercy secured for us in Christ. And by your spirit, cleanse us and restore us and lead us as a church into a humble holiness, a deep repentance and steady joy. And we ask these things in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.