Psalm 51 “God will forgive me. lt's his job." Heinrich Heine

Heinrich Heine was a German 19"‘ Century poet. He was born a Jew but he later called himself a Protestant. The Prussian government, succumbing to anti-Jewish feelings In 1822 banned Jews from academic posts. Heine, wanting to have a university career, switched religions on 28th June 1825. As he later confessed he did so to gain"the ticket of admission into European culture". On his death-bed in 1856, for all his sins, he is said to have said: “God will forgive me. lt's his job." A clever death-bed joke. But the message is wrong.

God does forgive, but not because it's His job but because it is in His being to do so; yet not to those who abuse His mercy by holds out the ticket: please forgive me. Forgiveness is flows in and for and through a genuine relationship with Him. His forgiveness inspires and flows into our repentance, which means turning our lives to Him and His way. Becoming transformed from living in European culture, to living in the nurture of His Holy Spirit

Sin calls us to recognise that there is an utter difference between God and us.

As John tells us in his first epistle, God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.

By contrast all human beings are born into the devil's dominion of darkness,.

from which we need to be rescued by Him, by being "brought us into the kingdom of the Son He loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins." [Colossians 1v13]

God is morally pure. In Him is no deceit, no evil. He cannot be fooled. Turning up to death with a newly printed 'forgive me' card doesn't qualify.

Jesus talked of the Pharisee who stood by himself, praying, comparing himself to a sinful tax collector, ‘God, l thank you that l am not like other people——robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. fast twice a week and give a tenth of all l get.’

Like him, we assume we’re got an 'in' with God, not aware that our attitudes and actions may put us a long way from Him.

Remember King David, whom God chose to be king after Saul, because he

was a man after God’s own heart, we may close our eyes to our sin - as an event, or even as a life, because we want its treasures and pleasures.

As a man David had a God centred heart but as a man David also had a self-centred heart. He had a midnight fling with Bathsheba, another man's wife. She becomes pregnant. Scandal looms, her husband, Uriah, is a soldier fighting David’s wars. So David sends for him, encouraging him to be with his wife. But Uriah is an honourable soldier and refuses to do so, when his comrades in arms are still fighting. He doesn’t do what David wants him to do, which is to rescue David from his scandal. So David arranges for him to be killed in the fighting. There is adultery; there is deceit and then there is murder.

And David doesn’t see what he has done. Until God's prophet, Nathan challenges him with a parable of a man's scandalous behaviour. David calls for the man to be punished. hen Nathan reveals that he is the man. Then David, Ps 51 is the essence of his confession.

A psalm that may still speak to us. As Matthew Henry says in his famous commentary: Those whose conscience charges them "with gross sin should, with a believing regard to Jesus Christ,' the Mediator, again and again pray over this psalm."

God forgives sin. My sin. Our sin. Your sin. When we truly repent.

Sadly l have met people who are so ashamed of their sins that they think God cannot or will not forgive them. He’ll forgive that tax collector; He’ll even eventually forgive that Pharisee but He’ll never forgive me. Maybe some of you have met such folk or might even be such folk. Here’s the good news for them, for you. God is willing to forgive them, to forgive you. All you have to do is to stop being God over yourself. Let God be God, and let yourself be what you are, a man, a woman in need of God. Turn to Him. Trust in Him. However hopeless it may seem. Don’t be God over yourself any more. Let God be God.

Consequences may flow from your sin.

They may be hard to face.

But the one you don't have to face, is to live and die unforgiven.

When David turned to God, there were consequences, but God forgave Him.

When the criminal on the cross turned to Jesus, He forgave him. He still had to suffer on the cross, but that day he entered Paradise with Jesus.

When we turn to Him, trusting in Him, He forgives us.

But if we are like Judas, and too ashamed or proud or independent to go to Him in repentance, how can we be forgiven? We will die unforgiven.

Some people say: O, l’ve sinned against the Holy Spirit, and Jesus

said such sins can’t be forgiven. But listen if you have really sinned

against the Holy Spirit, you would be so soaked in evil you would not be able to tell

the light from the darkness and would not care tuppence to be forgiven. You would not seek it; you would neither desire it nor be able to ask for it.

However John the Apostle tells us that if we sin we have an advocate

with the Father - Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. Jesus a human

being just like us. The Christ, the anointed one of God; the

Righteous One, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

The One who makes us At One again with God.

He is the atoning sacrifice for your sins.

Like David trust that the Lord will make you clean.

That He will restore you to the joy of your salvation.

That He will refresh you in the Holy Spirit to sustain you.

The Lord accepts the sacrifices of a broken spirit.

He does not despise a broken and a contrite heart.

To the glory of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.