“For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt-offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, Oh God, thou wilt not despise.” (Psalm 51:16-17)
It would have been a simple, fairly easy thing for David to have chosen one of his finest sheep from his flock, kill it, pour out its blood on the altar and consider his sins of adultery and murder paid for. After all, that is what the Law of Moses prescribed. But David knew what the Jews of Isaiah’s day would later fail to realize: that sacrifices can become nothing more than routine ceremonies. (Isaiah 1:1-31)
My fear is that gone are the days of genuine contrition and brokenness of heart over one’s sins, when the altar would fill with people shedding tears of contrition over their sins and the sins of the state and nation. Today it seems from pastor to people we are more concerned with building mega-churches, growing budgets, entertaining the unrepentant heathen than of experiencing true heart-felt repentance and revival. Praise the Lord for those churches who have genuine contrition and heart-felt repentance.
It is not my responsibility, nor any other preacher’s responsibility to confess your sins, nor to hear the confession of your sins. My responsibility is to confess my sins before God as David did. That is your responsibility also. How much your heart is broken and how contrite you are is between you and God. Simon Peter denied that he knew the Lord Jesus. When the rooster crowed and Peter saw Jesus looking at him, he went out and wept bitterly. How much your heart is broken over your sins depends, not on the size or shape of your sin, but on how much you love the Lord against whom you sinned.
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