God Wants This From You

Psalm 32:3-4, Psalm 51:17

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What’s the earliest that you can remember doing something bad, something that was sinful and wrong? I still have an image burned in my mind from when I was about 4 or 5, something I had done wrong and how upset my father was with me when he saw me come into the kitchen that day and I knew I was guilty. I heard a story once about an elderly man who on his deathbed sent one of his sons to find a girl that he had gone to school with, a lady who was still living, and he had treated her so badly. So that his son could go on his behalf and ask her for his forgiveness.

Our consciences can be kind of an amazing thing. Sometimes they can hold on to memories of things that happened years ago, and especially the worse things that we’ve done. King David once said in Psalm 32,

When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning day and night. Your hand was heavy upon me. (Psalm 32:3-4)

Imagine two houses on the property of your spiritual life. Okay? The first house is a small, kind of broken down house. It’s not very comfortable to be inside of it. There are pictures of all of your sins and things you’ve done wrong on the walls of that house. And inside of that house, when you’re inside of it, you are very well aware of your guilt and you realize the sins that you have. And it’s kind of a humbling place to be in. Then there’s another house on the property that’s pretty well cared for and nicely decorated. Think of that house, kind of like the house that is all the good things that you’ve done toward God and when you’ve wanted to obey his word and all of the things like that, maybe some of the gifts that you’ve given to God and to the church through the years.

Well, God would have us deal with him primarily in the first house, not the second house. I’m going to read you a passage from Psalm 51, verse 17.

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, these Oh God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:17)

Now, we may think we’d rather deal with God in that second house. Of all the good things that we’ve done and maybe the gifts that we have given, and maybe that’s where we’d like to have God see us and talk to us. But God in his word keeps ushering us back to that first house where it represents our sins and tells us, this is where I want you to deal with me and were I’ll deal with you first. This is the most important place. The worship that God prefers to receive from us the most is simply recognizing our sin. That’s why he says

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, these Oh God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:17)

How strange the Christian faith is that the greatest gift that you can bring to God is, first of all, just a humble admission of your guilt, a longing for his forgiveness. This is God’s definition of where true religion takes place. He says to us, “this is the one I esteem. He who is humble and contrite and trembles at my word.” So if you and I want to impress God, the best way is to admit to him how unimpressive our lives really are. And God then comes to us with the mercy and forgiveness he has for us in Christ. And he provides that to every sinner that there is.

There’s no sin too large for him to forgive. There’s no sin you have committed too often for him to forgive. I’d like to close with a passage from Martin Luther. He says, If, therefore you acknowledge that you have sin, if you tremble, if you are troubled by a feeling of God’s wrath and by a horror of God’s judgment and of hell, then have confidence. You are the one with whom God wants to speak, to whom God wants to show his mercy and whom he wants to save.

May the Lord always keep us in a humble position where we receive His wonderful grace and mercy that will take us someday through the doors of heaven. Amen.