True Repentance
Pastor Matt Bell
Sermon Summary
Pastor Matt’s sermon on Psalm 51 presents David’s repentance after his sin with Bathsheba as the biblical pattern for true repentance. He shows that when we sin, we must not deny, excuse, rename, or hide it, but run to God in humility, recognizing that Christ is our only hope, confessing our sin honestly, and asking God to cleanse, renew, restore, and uphold us. The sermon emphasizes that repentance is not self-improvement or confidence in our own sorrow, but a God-centered work of grace: God breaks the sinner’s pride, creates a clean heart, restores the joy of salvation, and produces renewed worship, obedience, and witness. In the end, the believer’s confidence rests not in the perfection of his repentance, but in God’s steadfast love, abundant mercy, and faithfulness to keep His people.
Sermon Transcript
Scripture Reading: Psalm 51
Psalm 51 is where we will be today. And so let's read the word of God. It says to the choir master, a psalm of David. When Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God. According to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against you, and you alone have I sinned. And done what is evil in your sight.
so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being. And you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out my iniquities. 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 to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you, deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation. And my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it.
You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure. Build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then will you delight in right sacrifices, and burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings, then bulls will be offered. on your altar.
Opening Prayer
Father, we do, thank you, and we praise you for your word, as we now turn our attention to this great psalm, the psalm of David, the psalm of repentance that he prayed. Lord, we pray that you would do the same for us, that you would create in us a clean heart, that you would be steadfast to us in your mercy and in your love. Lord, that you would restore us when we do fall, and when we do fail, and we do thank you that you are a gracious and merciful God to all of us. In Christ's name, we pray. Amen.
You may be seated.
David’s Sin and the Occasion for Psalm 51
The psalm begins before the first verse with a short introduction. And it's written and addressed to the choir master, And then it tells us it is a psalm of David, and then it tells us the occasion upon which this psalm was written. It says, when Nathan the prophet went to him, went to David, after he had gone into Bathsheba after he had sinned with Bathsheba.
This moment in David's life is His greatest defeat. David was a man of great victories. David was a man after God's own heart. David was a man used by God and anointed by God. But he was also a man. He was a mortal man, a flesh, really man, a human being, and he, therefore, was a sinner. And David, in this situation with Bathsheba, had sinned and sinned greatly.
David, the king of Israel, had sent his armies out to war. And instead of going out and leading his armies, he stayed back in Jerusalem, and one night as he was on the roof of his house, the palace overlooking the city, He gazed upon a woman who was bathing. Her name was Bathsheba. And David inquired of his servants, who is this woman? And they said it is Bathsheba, The wife of Uriah the Hittite. Uriah the Hittite was one of David's closest and most faithful companions. One of David's mighty men, as they were known. And he sends his servant, he says, go and fetch her for me. He brings her to him and commits adultery with Bathsheba.
Afterwards, she returns to her home, and then some days later, she discovers that she is pregnant, and she sends word to David. I'm pregnant. So now not only has David sinned, but now there's evidence. A baby. And her husband is off at war.
And so David decides, I need to cover up my sin. I need to hide my sin. And so he hatches a plan. He sends for you, Uriah, to come back from the front lines of battle. Thinking, if I bring Uriah back to Jerusalem, He'll obviously go and visit his wife. And when a husband who's been at war comes home and visits his wife, I don't need to explain to you the birds and the bees. It's obvious what will happen, and this will cover up my sin, and everything will be fine. So David sends for Uriah, Uriah comes to him, and David inquires how's the war going? Oh, it's going, this, that, and the other.
David says, okay, great. You know, just spend the night here in Jerusalem, and then you can go back to the battle tomorrow. But Uriah doesn't go down to visit his wife. Instead, he stays in the courtyard of the king. He camps out outside and sleeps at the palace courtyard. When word of this gets to David, David brings Uriah to him the next morning and says, why did you go to your wife last night? Uh, I was just kind of curious.
He says, how can I? go and take comfort in the arms of my bride? When the armies of Israel, with my companions, with my brothers in arms are out fighting for God on the front lines of battle, how in the world could I do that? You see, Uriah was proving he was an honorable man.
David decides, you know what? Oh, okay. Here's what I'll do. I'll get Uriah drunk. I'll get him so drunk, he won't know what he's doing, and he'll just sort of stumble home, and that'll be my way of hiding my sin. And so David invites Uriah to a feast with him. They feast, they drink, he gets Uriah well drunk. Uriah stumbles his way out of the palace, but yet remains in the courtyard of the king and refuses to go and visit his bride.
And so David says, We will have to take more drastic measures. So David sits down and writes a letter to Joab, the commanders of his army. And in this letter, it says, place Uriah at the front of the battle where the war rages. The hottest. When you have placed Uriah there, have the armies pull back. so that Uriah will be killed in battle. David writes this letter, he seals it with his royal seal. He takes this letter, and he goes and he places it in the hand of Uriah. And sends it and delivers it, says, deliver this to Joab. Joab opens the letter, reads the letter, places Uriah on the front lines of battle, tells the armies to retreat, and Joab, Uriah then, is killed in battle.
Word reaches David, Uriah has been killed in battle. David then takes Bathsheba to himself, to be his wife. and says, it's all taken care of. No one will ever know. I've tidied up my mess. I've cleaned up my mess. Except for the fact that God saw all of it. God saw everything. Though it was hidden from the eyes of everybody else, it was not hidden from the eyes of God.
And so God sends one of his messengers, a prophet, a man named Nathan, to go and to confront David for his sin. And he confronts David in a very poetic way. He confronts David in a way that makes David angry. for somebody else in a different situation. And David, when he hears of this parable, this story that Nathan tells David, David says, surely that man deserves to die. And then Nathan famously points his finger at David and says, you are the man. You are that man. You are the man who has stolen another man's wife and had him murdered. to cover up your sin.
And when David is confronted with the word of God, Confronted with the realities, the depths of his sin. He repents. He is broken. He humbles himself. Much unlike his predecessor Saul. who when Saul had sinned against God, hardened his heart. made excuses, blamed others. David does the opposite. David is broken over his sin, and he repents of his sin.
What Do We Do When We Sin?
Which brings the question before us, when we sin, what do we do? When we sin, what do we do? And my, of course, my great hope and desire for you is your pastor is that you would not sin. That would be the best thing. Let's just not sin. But when you do sin, What do we do?
Do we, like Saul, deny it? Blame others? Mislabel it. Not call it sin, but Call it a mess up. I was just a little thing. It's my hang up. It's just sort of the my bad habit that I fall into. No, friends, it's sin. Let us not mislabel it. Let's not deny it. Let's not blame others. Let's not harden our hearts. Or indulge in it or hide it from others. See all of these other things. They only compound the issue and make matters worse, producing more destruction in our lives.
So if we shouldn't do those things following after the pattern of Saul, when we sin, what should we do? Well, we should follow the pattern. of the one who was called the man after God's own heart. David shows us in this psalm what to do when we sin and how we should repent.
David shows us what true repentance looks like. What true repentance looks like. And David, when he repented, he not only turned from his sin, But then he also took the time to compose this psalm, this prayer. From the repentance that flowed from his soul. He had this private moment of confession and repentance with God. But then he took what flowed from his soul in repentance, and he formed and fashioned it into this song, this psalm. Then he then, it says, entrusted to the choir master. That's the lead worship leader. who presided over the praises and the worship and the songs of God, and he entrusted what he wrote to the choir master so that it would be put to music.
that it might be sung in public worship. And thereby instruct the people of God and teaching them in the pathway of true repentance. And what it looks like to have restored fellowship with our creator. And so my hope in preaching Psalm 51 this morning as we get into the text today, is simply to highlight it for you. I want to shine the spotlight. I want to commend it to your spirit. that you would know where this psalm is in your Bible and that the pathway, the way to this psalm, that it would be well worn in your Bible. and well worn in your heart that you would know where it is and that you would be able to return to it again and again.
The Remedy for Sin
The bad news for all of us this morning is that we are all sinners. But the good news. The good news of the gospel is that there is a true remedy for sin and its destructive power. And that remedy for sin and its destructive power is found as we look to Christ in faith and confess and repent of our sins. And this psalm shows us what that looks like. You'll see in your Bible, in your text, that it's broken essentially into 5 paragraphs. And so I'm going to use the paragraphs in your Bible as five headings to show us what true repentance looks like.
1. Christ Is Our Only Hope
And the first is that Christ is our only hope. We have to recognize that Christ, when we sin, that the only hope that we have is Christ. Look at how David begins in verse one. Have mercy on me. Oh God. Look at how God centered this is. When David sins, he doesn't run from God like Adam. He doesn't hide his sin like Adam and Saul. What does David do when he has found out when he is confronted with the word of God by the prophet of God? He runs to God.
Because he realizes his only hope is in God. Have mercy on me, O God. According to your steadfast love. according to your abundant mercy. This whole psalm is so God centered. The remedy for sin. The answer for sin is not found in us. It's found in God. It's found in Christ.
The answer for sin isn't simply be better. Stop sinning. That is not the answer for sin. In and of ourselves, we do not have the strength to overcome sin. The answer to sin is to look to God, to look to Christ, the sacrifice for sin that God has provided. And God has provided this sacrifice according to his steadfast love, his faithful love. That even when we are sinners, God still loves us. What wonderful news that is.
God not only loves us when we are walking in faithfulness and walking in victory over sin, God loves us even when we do sin. God loves sinners. God loves you. And his love is a steadfast love. It is a steady love. It's not a love that is hot and then cold. It is not a love that wanes and waxes. It's not a love that increases and decreases. God's love for you is steadfast. It is faithful. It is more sure than the ground beneath your feet. It is more sure than the sun in the sky. God loves you. And God will have mercy upon you, not according to your goodness, or your ability to walk in faithfulness, or your, you know, devotion to him, that is not the basis of God's mercy and forgiveness to you.
No, the basis of God's mercy to us is his love for us. It is steadfast. that is faithful, that is sure, It's not like the horizontal love that we experience in this life. His love for us is perfect. And it says, according not only to his steadfast love, according to his abundant mercy. I'm so glad that God's mercy isn't just mercy, but it's abundant. Abundant mercy. The Bible says his mercies are new. Every morning. New every morning. Every morning you wake up, there is more mercy for God for you and your sins. Why are his mercies new every morning? Because you used them all up the night before? His mercies are inexhaustible.
New every morning. Whatever faces you today, sin and temptation before you, there is mercy for you. Abundant mercy from God. David says, cleanse me. From my sin. I haven't even addressed what sin is this morning. The Bible tells us what sin is in 1 John 2.1. It simply says that sin is lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness. transgressing God's law, breaking God's commandments. And all of us have done that.
All of humanity has broken God's law, broken his commandments. Some of you are thinking, well, who is God to be able to tell me what to do? Listen, God's the creator. He made the world. He made everything in it. He made you. He made you a moral creature. responsible to him for how you live your life.
Though the world would teach us that we're just animals, The Bible tells us, no, we are image bearers. That means we are morally responsible to God for our lives. And he has given us his law. He's given us a conscience. He's written his commandments there. He's given us his word that teaches us explicitly, And all of us have chosen, in one way or another, to break God's law.
That is sin. And sin has a defiling effect in our lives. Sin has a destructive effect in our lives because sin separates us from God who is holy. We sang that this morning that God is holy, holy, holy. Sin separates us from a holy God.
God is the source of life. When you cut something off from its source, it produces death and decay. And so the wages of sin is death. Our sin must be dealt with, or we will enter into at the end of this life eternal death.
That's not God's desire for any of us. And so, God sent his son Jesus. to offer up his life as a sacrifice for our sin. to shed his blood, to wash us clean. And so we look to God, we look to Christ as our only hope, cleanse me from my sin. Wash me from my sin.
That's what the cross is all about. It's Jesus going and offering his life, bleeding and dying because we deserve death. But he died for us. in our place for our sins, so that we might look to Christ and call out for him to cleanse us, cleanse me, O God, David prays.
You see, friends, Christ is the only means by which God is provided for us to be cleansed. There's no other way for us to be washed clean. If we're looking to our own good works or our own good deeds or whatever else it might be to wash ourselves up, friends, it will fail every time. If Christ does not cleanse us, we will not be cleansed. If Christ does not wash us, we will not be forgiven of our sins. This is not according to our good deeds. No, it's according to God's grace, God's mercy, and God's steadfast love which he has shown to us in Christ. Look to Christ.
He is our only hope.
2. We Must Confess Our Sin
The second thing that we see in this next section is that we must confess our sin. We must confess our sin, and this is what David does in verses 3 through 6. He makes a confession. He's not hiding his sin anymore. He's been exposed. He's been called out. The word of God has been preached and declared to him, and his actions and his deeds have been laid bare.
He's not hiding from anybody. He thought he had got away with it, but he heard the word of God. God revealed to him, I see it, I know. And so David says, I will humble myself under God. God, David confesses his sin. He says, I know my transgression. And my sin is ever before me against you, and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.
David says, I'm not hiding it anymore. I'm confessing it. God, you are right. I have sinned against you. So David confesses his sin, and so must we. If we're going to walk this pathway of repentance and renewed fellowship with God, It starts with us looking to Christ as our only hope, but then we must confess our sins.
What is confession? It is an admission of guilt. That's what a confession is. Admitting that you are guilty. It's a declaration of wrongdoing. And ultimately, it's a wrongdoing against God. as the ultimate. David says, against you, and you alone have I sinned. You know, I read that and I think, well, Uriah might have something to say about that, David.
What David is saying in this is that his yes, he sinned against Uriah, no doubt. But his sin against God was so much greater. The affront to God, as perfectly holy and perfectly just. is so much greater. It's such a greater offense. That he can say against you and you alone have I truly, ultimately, sinned.
Yes, he had done wrong against Uriah. But the one to which David is ultimately responsible is God and God alone. And so a confession is this admission of guilt, this declaration of wrongdoing against God. God, I have transgressed your law. God, I have broken your commandments. God, I have disobeyed what your word teaches.
We must confess our sins if we will receive forgiveness of them. The New Testament teaches us this as well, 1 John 1:9, if, We confess our sins. Notice that word there. If. It's a conditional statement. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If you are not willing to confess your sin to God, it means that you're not looking to Christ to forgive your sin. If you're not admitting that you're a sinner, that you've sinned and violated God's law, You're hardening your heart like Saul. The refusal to confess sin is exposing in you that you are not looking to Christ and trusting in Christ. This is why this is a conditional statement.
We must confess our sins, and then he is faithful and just, and this is beautiful to forgive us and to cleanse us. to wash us clean. James 5:16 says, therefore, confess your sins to one another. And pray for one another. that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
Confession is part of the Christian life, confession of sin. Declaring it to God, and even at times confessing it to our fellow man that we might receive prayer, and thereby be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.
So if we are taught to confess our sins to God and even to one another, Why is it that we oftentimes do not? What is it that stops us from confessing our sin? Is it not pride? Is it not pride? Is it not us wanting to maintain some sort of our own goodness? within our own hearts, and in front of others. Isn't that not the truth?
If we refuse to confess our sin to God, if we refuse to admit our guilt before God who is holy, is it not that we are trying to maintain our own righteousness somehow before God? Is it not that we are trying to maintain some sort of a facade? On the outside? before others.
Truly, there's no place for pride within the church. Because admitted to the church begins at the cross. Where we say, we are sinners who need a savior. How in the world can we then say we are not still, we don't sin. We haven't sinned. No, I'm not sinning.
The gospel is that we have sinned and we need a savior. That's the point of entry, and that's the place in which we stand, the apostle Paul says. We must stand on the gospel. We must rid ourselves of every notion of our own self goodness, our own self righteousness. We must affirm what the scripture says about us, that our righteousness in the eyes of God who is holy is as filthy rags. If there be any goodness in us whatsoever, it's only because of the grace of God in our lives.
He goes on to say in verse 6, that you delight in truth in the inward being. Confession is walking in the truth. In the inward being. Being true with God, being honest with God, Jesus says that God is seeking those who will worship him in spirit and in truth.
Not hiding from God, not being like David, thinking that he got away with it, that God didn't see it. No, God sees it. So you might as well confess it. God delights in it. delights in us being truthful, confessing our sin and walking in the truth.
It begins on the inside. We have to stop lying to ourselves. We have to stop wanting to put on this holy facade in the eyes of others. that why do and why do we do that? Because we want praise and glory. Listen, God's the only one who deserves the glory.
All of us have sinned. All of us will sin. That's the reality. If you don't understand that, you will walk in so much pride. Which by the way, is a sin. that must be confessed to God. God delights in truth on the inside.
He says, teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Teach me the wisdom of your word, of your ways.
3. God Must Do His Work in Our Lives
The third thing that we see in this, after we look to Christ and confess our sin, is that God must do his work in our life. We see that God must do his work in our life. God must do his work. David cries out to God. Look at all the things David asks for in verse 7 through 12. Purge me. wash me. Let me hear the joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins. Blot out my iniquities, create in me a clean heart. Renew a right spirit in me. Cast me not from your presence. Take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit. Notice God is the one doing all of this action. God is the one who saves us. God is the one who cleanses us. God is the one who washes us and heals us.
And even breaks us. breaks our hearts that we might learn not to trust in ourselves and our own righteousness, but that we might trust in him. that we might cling to him and cling to the cross. God must do his work in our lives.
If we are going to walk in repentance and renewal. It won't be us looking to ourselves and our own strength. It will be us looking to God and saying, God, cleanse me. God, wash me. God, forgive me. God created me a clean heart. Wash the sin from my life. You see, God has to break our hearts.
God has to break our hearts for us to look to him. And David was a man whose heart was broken. David says, create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit. That right spirit is right desires. that we would want what God wants, that we would desire, what God desires, that we would align our soul, our emotions, our desires with what God's word says, that we would not desire sin. The temptation would lose its strength in our lives. That is what a right spirit is. that the desire for sin, that it would be broken in our lives. that we would delight in God's law, that we would delight in keeping God's commandments and obeying his word.
This is why David says, uphold me with a willing spirit in verse 12. Uphold me with the willing spirit. We must be broken over our sin, and David says that you've broken my bones and let these bones, let them rejoice. Let me rejoice that you have convicted me of my sin. that you have exposed this for me.
This is the heart of a true believer who is trusting in the gospel. that even when we are confronted of our sin, and yes, it is painful, it's like a bone being broken. We can rejoice because we're looking to Christ. We can rejoice that God loves us in His mercy to expose this in our lives that we might be healed and set free from it. And this is why David says, restore to me the joy of your salvation, that we would rejoice in the gospel, rejoice in the grace of God, and that in this rejoicing, The power of sin would be broken in our lives.
4. God’s Work Enables Our Response of Faith
The fourth thing we see is that the work of God, the work that God does in our lives, enables us to respond in faith. So God's work, God the initiator, God the one who is purging, washing, cleansing, creating a clean heart, restoring God's work in David's soul enables him to respond to God the right way. God the initiator. Us, the responder.
So look at the right response. What is this? In verse 13 through 17. David says, then, then, so after you have healed me, created in me a clean heart, washed me, purged me, then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you.
All of this here in these verses are what flows out of God's work of renewal in our lives. It shows us how we should respond to the grace and mercy of God. We should then teach others the word of God. To teach others. This is what God's word says.
He says, then I will teach others your ways, transgressors your ways, and sinners, the result of that is sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. Verse 15, O Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise.
What's a right response to the work that God does in our lives? We sing his praises. We worship him. We don't just have, like, warm fuzzies that we bottle up inside, like some stoic, you know, philosopher or whatever. We praise God. with our lips.
Has God forgiven you? Sing to him. Has God delivered you and washed you? Praise him with your lips. Praise him with your mouth. Declare the praises of your God, who is so gracious and merciful. Oh Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise.
He says, for you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. You would not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. We need to allow the word of God, just as David did, when the prophet Nathan went to David, declared to him the word of God, it convicted him, it broke his heart and his spirit, and we must likewise do the same as the word of God is declared and preached, that our hearts would be broken.
That we would have a broken spirit and a contrite heart. It says, God does not despise these. To be contrite means to be deeply sorrowful, remorseful, not to be hardened, but to be softened, broken. over our sin and broken by the love and the mercy of God, who is so good and is so faithful and does not deserve us to sin against him, and yet we have how that should break our hearts.
And when our hearts are broken over our sin, God does not despise this. In fact, this is what God is looking for in our hearts as a symbol of true repentance. Not just praying a prayer with our lips, but having true heart brokenness on the inside.
And it is his work in our lives that enables our response.
5. Renewed Confidence in God’s Faithfulness
Which brings us to number five, the conclusion of this is David ultimately has a renewed competence in God's faithfulness. Confidence, not in his work, not even confidence in his repentance, confidence in God's faithfulness in who God is. How can we be sure that our sins are forgiven? Because God is faithful to his people.
Look at what he says. He says, do good to Zion in your good pleasure. Build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in right sacrifices and burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings, then bulls will be offered on your altar. What David here is saying is that God is going to be faithful to his church.
God is going to take pleasure in Zion, his people. God is going to protect them, guard them. He is going to build up the walls of Jerusalem. He's going to keep his people. Jesus says that no one can snatch us out of his hand.
He is protecting us. He is watching over us. He is keeping us. In fact, the Bible says that God will not allow us to be tempted beyond our ability to resist temptation, that with every temptation God provides for us a way of escape.
He is watching us. He is keeping us. No weapon formed against us will prosper, and we can be confident that our sins are forgiven. Not because we have repented the right way, that's us still trusting in ourselves. But because God is good, and God is faithful, and God's word is sure, and God's word is true, and God is going to be faithful to Zion, to his people, to the church. He will delight in our sacrificial praises, and he is always faithful to his word.
Conclusion: The Pathway of Repentance
This is the pathway of repentance. This is the pathway of renewal. Looking to Christ in hope. Not trusting in ourselves, but trusting in Him. Humbling ourselves, confessing our sin, allowing God to do his work in our lives, not resisting him, but allowing him, even though that process oftentimes is painful.
knowing that his work in our lives produces good fruit, a clean heart, a renewed spirit, upholding us with a willing spirit. And in the end, ultimately, our confidence is not in us, but is in God and God alone. Amen.