The Nature of Repentance

2 Corinthians 7, let’s read from verse 1.

The apostle has dealt with the unequal yoke, the impossibility of any fellowship between righteousness and unrighteousness, light and darkness, and the covenant reality that the Lord will dwell in His people, that what was true in the Old Testament is true in the New, that our God is one who dwells with His people and walks in them and will be our God, and we will be His people.

So verse 1 opens:

“Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

“Receive us; we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man.

“I speak not this to condemn you: for I have said before, that ye are in our hearts to die and live with you.

“Great is my boldness of speech toward you, great is my glorying of you: I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation.

“For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears.

“Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus;

“And not by his coming only, but by the consolation wherewith he was comforted in you, when he told us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent mind toward me; so that I rejoiced the more.

“For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season.

“Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing.

“For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

“For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

“Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you.

“Therefore we were comforted in your comfort: yea, and exceedingly the more joyed we for the joy of Titus, because his spirit was refreshed by you all.

“For if I have boasted any thing to him of you, I am not ashamed; but as we speak all things to you in truth, even so our boasting, which I made before Titus, is found a truth.

“And his inward affection is more abundant toward you, whilst he remembereth the obedience of you all, how with fear and trembling ye received him.

“I rejoice therefore that I have confidence in you in all things.”

Amen. We trust the Lord will bless the public reading of His precious Word. What you’ve heard, beloved, is the Word of the eternal God, which you are to receive, believe, and obey. And the people of God said, Amen.

Let’s pray.

As we assess the world, the time in which we live, it’s hard for us to avoid, it seems indeed very blatant and obvious, that if there’s one truth that needs to be reclaimed in the consciousness of our nation, it is that of repentance. Many are aware of shortcomings, yet even many may acknowledge the reality of sin. Many may believe that God is a God of love, and many may acknowledge that He sent His Son to be the Savior of the world. But oh, how precious few give any time to consider repentance.

Lord, enlighten us, and not just by the things said this evening, but enlighten us in our own personal experience. Let our own exploration of ourselves and our need for the grace of God help us more and more with depth and sincerity, turn away from sin and turn unto Christ. Help us now. We need Thy help. So send the Holy Spirit and extend Thy kingdom, for we pray in our Savior’s name. Amen.

All of us know what it is to be sorry. I’m sure you know that. And I’m sure you have, perhaps more than you can recollect, the ability to remember times when you had to say sorry. Times in which you had to eat your words. Times in which you had to try to undo the problem you created by your actions or by the things that you said.

We’ve been going through, just the last couple of Lord’s Days, a study in the doctrine of repentance. We considered first the fact that it is necessary, necessary that men repent. And then we considered last Lord’s Day that there are counterfeit forms of repentance. Repentance that looks like, has certain marks that appear to be repentance, and yet is not the real thing.

We looked especially at Judas, a man who felt sorrow for what he did, but there was no repentance. I made mention of Pharaoh, who also came to an acknowledgement of the fact that he had sinned, and yet there was no repentance. And there are others that could be named as well, people who felt the power of the Word or even the power of their circumstances, like Felix, trembled, but they were devoid of repentance unto life.

So we’re trying to look at this. We’re trying to understand this, because if we get this wrong, it’s not one of those areas of Christian doctrine in which if we are wrong, it’s not gonna have massive consequences. There are certain things, you can have a doctrine of all sorts of things, right? And the consequences of various doctrines are distinct and different.

If you get repentance wrong, it might mean that you perish everlastingly in God’s hell.

In this passage—and it’s not my business to expound this particular passage—but you do see that it is a principle text when it comes to the doctrine of repentance, the nature of repentance, as the apostle shows there is a distinction in forms of sorrow.

If you look at verse 10, “godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation.” There’s a certain sorrow that is tied to repentance, and its fruit is salvation. You will see the product of salvation. It is a saving grace. But there’s a sorrow of the world, and it works death. It doesn’t bring life. It doesn’t bring health. It doesn’t bring lasting change. It does not transform.

So since these two realities are put before us side by side, and the apostle makes this plain, of course it’s in the context in which he is rejoicing in the news that his rebuke in the first Corinthians has been received well. The church has heard what he had to say, the various admonitions that were made, they have responded, and God has worked. And their repentance has produced a fruit that brings the news through Titus of what God has accomplished through Paul’s epistle.

Now, it wasn’t everything. And in this epistle, there are still challenges in this church. But in relation to this particular issue, he is able to rejoice, be thankful that God has wrought a work in the church. And there is not this sorrow that isn’t meaningful, that they were sad, they upset Paul, they were grieved that he was grieved or whatever, but his words cut and produced a fruit in them. This brought joy to the apostle.

But given the fact that there can be various forms of sorrow over sin, expressions of regret and remorse, it is necessary then for us not just to understand that there’s a call to repentance and to have explored that there are counterfeit expressions of it, but then to plunge more positively into what really is the nature of repentance.

What does it look like? How do we identify? What can we expect? Now, we have, we touched a little bit on that last week, but I want to look at it more positively with you here this evening.

So, tonight we’re considering the nature of repentance, and very simply, I want us to consider in the first place its source. Its source.

How come these Corinthians came to this place of repentance? And indeed, if you look at anyone who comes to an experience of repentance, if you contrast, a bit like we did last week, I made mention of the fact that you have Judas and you have Peter side by side at a similar time, both of them going astray, both of them sinning against God, both of them in this sorrowful state, and yet one does not obtain or express or give evidence of the fruit of genuine repentance and the other does.

At source then, first, we must acknowledge that it is wrought by the Spirit. It is wrought by the Spirit.

A number of verses could be turned to here, but to just lay a foundation, that when you are, if you’re brought to this place, where you are awakened to your sin and you begin to express genuine repentance, it is not for you then to look back and say, how accomplished and how wise, how good, how sensible I am that I did that. It is something that God works in the sinner’s heart to produce.

In Acts 5, verse 31, as the apostle preaches, he makes reference to the Lord Jesus Christ: “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins.”

To confer, to grant, to bestow repentance and forgiveness. Now, if you just ponder for a moment forgiveness, take that angle. Forgiveness is not something that you can, of yourself, procure. You can’t make it happen. It has to be conferred. It has to be granted. It must be bestowed.

You may go to someone, acknowledge your wrong, and seek for restitution, and desire there to be forgiveness granted and conferred to you for the wrong that you’ve done, but it must be conferred. You are not, you do not possess the power. It is in the power of another to forgive.

And what Peter preaches here, what the apostles are emphasizing, is the fact that the Lord Jesus has been raised up, exalted to the right hand of power, and one of the things He is bestowing is forgiveness. He is bestowing forgiveness.

But it’s paired with repentance. He is bestowing repentance. Now, how does He do that? He does it by His Spirit. He sends the Holy Spirit in power to work in hearts and produce this within the heart of man.

It would not exist in man. Now, certain things can happen. Again, as we said last week, certain things can look like sorrow and grief and maybe even some form of repentance and yet come up short. But if it’s real, if it’s a genuine work of God, a godly sorrow is tied to the working of the Spirit of God. It’s wrought by the Spirit.

You think of men and their position as the Scripture illustrates the deadness of men. We are dead in trespasses and in sins. And to imagine for a moment that a corpse, man described as a spiritual corpse, might then have the will to generate what is a spiritual grace. It’s not possible.

If you can think of it this way, remember that rock in the wilderness? It was smitten and the water flowed from it. Can you imagine that rock trying of itself to bring forth water? There needed to be this outward influence, this divine miracle. God worked. There was something done there so that when that rock was smitten, out came the water. And it illustrates to some degree what happens in the heart of man when the Spirit of God works upon a man. It is as his heart, which is as a stone, is smitten by God, and the river of repentance begins to flow.

It’s wrought by the Spirit.

I know that takes control away from us, and men struggle with this. But believe me, you want the repentance, you want the repentance that makes a difference between heaven and hell to be a work of God, not of man. You get that? If it’s the difference between heaven and hell and you have a choice whether it’s a work of God or a work of man, you choose a work of God. I’m not just saying that by logical deduction. I’m saying that to press upon you what Scripture reveals.

God does the work. Philippians 1:6. It’s God that works in us, both to will and to do. It’s God that begins the work and will finish it, complete it to the day of Jesus Christ. He begins it. He commences it.

It’s wrought by the Spirit. It’s also given through the Word. It is given through the Word. Ordinarily, you will see these things paired together in the very moment in which it occurs. Not always, however, but ordinarily. Ordinarily there is.

As one is worked upon and repentance, the fruit of repentance, begins to be manifest, often the Word is right there in that same moment or around that same time. You think of Acts 2:37 on the day of Pentecost, as the multitudes are gathered there around the apostles and there is opportunity given to preach, and we’re told, the crowd, verse 37 of Acts 2, “when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart.” There’s something that begins to work in them. There’s a conviction that begins to set in following the preached Word.

Now I say ordinarily, there are times in which there can be the resurrection of a truth preached long ago. There can be an occasion in which one is not sitting under the Word and all of a sudden they begin to ponder or feel conviction and God begins to work on them.

I’ve heard some remarkable testimonies, remarkable testimonies of people being saved, and there had been no reason—when I say no reason, I mean it had been years since they had heard the Word. And God comes, puts His finger upon them, His hand upon them.

There’s a dear woman that for a time attended the church in Ballymoney, and her testimony, I mean, if you heard her share her testimony, if you are the kind of person that’s afraid that the fact that someone is not sitting under the Word, that therefore they will never be saved, that testimony would eradicate that fear because she had heard sermons and evangelism. She lives in Northern Ireland. It’s hard to avoid it at times. But there had been no recent—when I say no, it was years—no witness, no thought of God whatsoever. And in her home, seemingly out of nowhere, conviction descended upon her. And she fell to her knees and cried out to God, sought Him for mercy. When she got up, she went straight then to a little bookshop that sold Bibles to get a Bible. Began reading God’s Word, and just an amazing story, amazing testimony.

The prodigal had been away from the Father’s influence for years. In the far country, I very much doubt he was coming into contact with any truth. I know it’s a parable, but you can envisage it. It’s a parable that is relatable because it has been illustrated by many others.

And way there, still yet, God works by His Spirit. But the Word ordinarily is there. It ordinarily is present. And so hearing the Word preached, receiving the truth, even as the Corinthians did from the hand of the Apostle Paul, the Word discovers the sin, exposes the guilt, and begins to awaken them, driving them to cry as they did on the day of Pentecost, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”

In Psalm 19, we’re told that “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.” It changes the heart of man, the Word of God.

Also, it’s exercised through faith in Christ. As we consider the source of repentance, genuine repentance, it’s exercised through faith in Christ. It’s not just the sorrow. It’s not just the grief. It’s not just the sadness. It always leads then to Christ.

When a summary is given of the apostolic work in Acts 11, we’re told in verse 21, “a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.” It’s a wonderful synopsis of what happens. They believed and turned unto the Lord. It’s never devoid of that. Christ must be preached and men turned to Him.

Christ is put before men, and as the call is given to men, exposing their sin, revealed by the Word, and they feel the weight of their guilt and their shame, there must always be a presentation, a driving towards, a leading men to the crucifixion, the resurrection of the Son of God.

There’s a really good documentary. I felt it was good anyway. I gleaned a lot from it. Probably 10 years ago it was released. And the documentary was showing in a very, if you know anything about presuppositional apologetics, you’ll know that Cornelius Van Til really is the father of that form of evangelism. But he writes in a very heady way. It’s a little heady in the way he constructs his arguments and presents his case.

But over time, there were those who would simplify it. Bahnsen was another one who came after and really simplified it, reduced it down. But this documentary was a man who was, like, street evangelizing using presuppositional apologetics. I’m not getting into all of that right now. That’s not the subject for tonight.

But there was one moment, as he is showing him dismantling the worldview of those that he is sharing the truth with. He dismantles the worldview of this person standing on the street. You can see it in them. You can see their life falling apart. If you watch it and you see this young man standing there, it’s like his whole life just collapses. Everything he believed to be true is destroyed. And there’s this void in his eyes and despair.

And the documentary kind of ends with that, right? You see this interaction, you see then this response, and then it just ends. It just ends right there. And I remember watching it the first time and going, no! You can’t end the documentary there. You’ve just primed the pump. You’ve caused him to question the falsehoods he’s been living under. You’ve exposed him. And he is sensitive and humble enough to realize, and he just sees all this coming, and then you just leave him there?

Oh, there had to be the preaching of Christ. Oh, don’t stay there. This is why God sent His Son. This is why the gospel must be preached and the gospel must be received as good news. Christ must be preached.

You must, in your evangelism, not just expose the sin, you must get people to Christ. You must preach Him up. You must present Him. You must believe in His power to draw sinners to Himself.

Oh, it’s so gracious to think that in the elevation of Christ crucified, in the remembrance, in the putting before sinners that there is this reality that God sent His Son, He took our nature, He lived in obedience on our behalf, and He died on the cross in our place, pressing upon men, this gift is for you. This gift is for you. Believe. Repent and believe.

Evangelical repentance is never Christless. I think you see it sort of illustrated in the way that we’re told about Judas and Peter. Judas’ sorrow. But Christ is not right there, is He? I mean, there’s no mention of Him. There’s no reference to Him. There’s no seeking for Him. Judas does not know where to turn, and Christ is not there. He’s not present. And it ends in that tragedy.

Whereas Peter, in the midst of his sin, in the midst of his denial of the Lord, there is Christ. There He is in the midst. There He is looking, and there He is.

We’re told in Zechariah, there’s a great prophecy in Zechariah 12, verse 10. You’ll be familiar with it, even if you’re not familiar with Zechariah, because it’s referred to in Revelation as well. “They shall look upon me whom they have pierced” and they shall mourn. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn.

The look is paired with the mourning. And if the look is paired with the mourning, then there has to be the presentation of something to look upon. Behold the Lamb of God.

There’s a presentation of One who is a substitute of sinners, stands in their place, and is the only gate into the presence of God, the only way to heaven. “I am the door,” by Me, Jesus says, “if any man enter in, he shall be saved.”

And it remains through the Christian life. It remains through the Christian life. This repentance, this Spirit-birthed and Word-shaped grace in our hearts that leads us to Christ, continually leads us to Christ in this posture of repentance. Now, the measure of it, the gravity of it, may be distinct at various times, but we never escape repentance. Never.

There seems to be in our day, of trying to address all the pains and the sorrows, the flaws, really the condition of man as a fallen creature, to look at it very pragmatically. And sometimes we do so in ways in which we understand there is a real power to negativity to destroy. We get that. We know that negative speech, negative language, negative, negative, negative, always condemning, always is destructive. And we know that. Always being critical, always being negative, always cutting and condemning is destructive to men.

And so the pendulum has swung. We’re almost fearful, then, to be in any way critical or even truthful. And so we avoid it altogether.

And you find then, even in the—in Calgary, we had, I think it was a baptism. There was a number of visitors that were there for this baptism, or maybe someone was just visiting. I can’t remember the occasion. But visitors came in, and they happened to sit beside a couple that had been attending the congregation for maybe a year or so. And God had really been working in them wonderfully, powerfully, a lot of fruit to be seen in them.

But this other young couple sat beside them, and evidently at the close of the meeting, they got into discussion, and the visiting young man happened to say things like, well, I go to such and such a church, and so on. And then it came around to repentance or confessing sin, acknowledging sin. And they say, oh, you don’t do that. You know, the Christian doesn’t have to do that. God has forgiven. Christ has bled and died and we don’t have to think upon or repent of our sins or confess our sins.

The other young man who attended our church was telling me this story afterwards, and he was saying, I think I went a little overboard. He was a little apologetic because he got really animated and upset. And so he was telling me, I don’t think they’ll be back. I think I went too far.

And I was trying to settle his mind. There was an inner encouragement in me that the people sitting in front of me had an awareness and enough of a conviction to confront the folly of this, and to say, no, that’s not right.

Our Lord Jesus teaches us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer. And we are not to delete from it: “forgive us our debts.” Acknowledging our sin is an evidence of grace. It is an act of faith. Never be afraid of deepening repentance.

He said, well, maybe you only have to pray that once. Well, is that what you do for bread every day? “Give us this day our daily bread,” and forgive our debts. It would seem to me that those things coincide as daily occurrence. This is an ongoing thing.

This is what Luther hammered home. This was at the head of his 95 Theses. This was the driving principle that this idea that the Christian life, a misunderstanding of repentance, what it means to turn, do penance and go and do these religious activities, instead of the spirit, this grace that we constantly live in of a penitent frame toward the living God whom we have grieved with our sin and daily grieve, must then constantly be confessing and resting in the finished work of Christ, both together.

I fear even here, I fear amidst all the religiosity of this environment, that we can forget this daily confession of sin, daily confession of sin. You wonder why people become hard, indifferent, why they become callous to their spouse, why there becomes fractures in the family, why all these things begin to fall out, and you wonder, what happened there?

You know, you look at these preachers who fall. Where did it begin? I’m gonna tell you where it began. When you go back and you start assessing it, it’s gonna begin with a lack of meaningful repentance for sin. And what I mean by that is the little things. We were talking about this morning. The thing that they thought, where it is in the mind. And not recognizing the power and the influence of that, ignoring then the repentance required, and the thing snowballs.

It remains through the Christian life.

The Lord Jesus was not afraid to go to the seven churches, and in a number of cases, the vast majority in fact, to call them to repentance, Revelation 2 and 3. “Repent,” and do the first works. Change, turn, acknowledge, confess, bring this matter before Me.

When the apostle addresses the Corinthians, he’s not afraid that there was repentance wrought in them. He was looking for it and rejoiced in its presence, though they had long put their faith and trust in Christ.

So its sorrow—consider its sight. I’ll be really quick and just touch on some of these things.

Its sight. What is the sight in the nature of repentance? Well, first of all, the sinner sees the reality of sin. The sinner sees the reality of sin. You have to see it. Oh, to see it.

I think we can talk about sin today and no one really feels the horror of it anymore. There was a brother praying in the meeting just before tonight, and praying over the sense that there seems to be a loss of the fear of God, a fear of real reverence before God, and I doubt anyone in that room would have disagreed. We don’t see sin for what it is. We praise it, we’re entertained by it, all of us, and we’re not horrified by it.

And what does that say about our inner soul?

David, Psalm 51, he acknowledged that my sin is ever before me, the reality of my sin. Paul in Romans 7 speaks, I had not known sin but by the law, and the law came and showed me, and it stripped me of all my self-righteousness and the refuge of lies that I had hid under. And there’s real honesty then.

Not saying this is just, we have to change with the times, right? Those things are no longer problematic. Sin is sin. God doesn’t change. The grief He had in the garden is the grief He still has today over similar sins in Greenville.

The sinner sees the reality of sin.

The sinner sees the root of sin. Oh, again, Psalm 51. It’d be good to turn there. For those who don’t know, I preached an entire series through Psalm 51, so 10 or 12 sermons on that entire psalm. It’s a worthy study for every Christian because it mines out the Christian life, dealing with sin generally as well as in times where there has been great, great sin against God.

You see the root of sin. David confessed, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.” The problem is in me. My very nature is the problem. He’s not talking about if she hadn’t been there, if she hadn’t, if I hadn’t been exposed to the manner of her conduct on that occasion. No, it’s me. It’s on me. It’s the very fruit of a corrupted nature.

Christ says in Mark 7:21, “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders.” The problem is the nature.

And we just think we’re great. We think we are great. It’s an interesting thing. I love this country, I do. And it’s really interesting at times to just see distinctions and so on between where you were raised and where you are. And one of the things that is very clear to me is, America tends to be full of encouragers, right? There’s a lot of encouragement in America. I don’t know, because you’re surrounded by it, whether you realize it, but there’s a lot of very positive encouragement in America. And in the UK, there’s not at all.

In fact, we take great pride in just cutting people apart. Anyone who achieves anything, we kind of find ways to make little of it or not give them praise. And it’s part of character development, right? Fundamentally, we know that they may be worthy of it, but we just don’t want it. We want to develop their character.

And there’s a part of me that appreciates that, because it toughens you up. And it does make you a little, I’m not dependent on the praise of men. And yet, and yet, it’s in this country where you find people actually getting up and doing things and doing what they ought to do in regards to life and not being so dependent on others and so on and so forth.

But there’s a danger, there’s a danger that in the encouragement we can lose sight of the fact that we’re sinners before God.

I want our children to be encouraged. I want our children, I want all our parents to speak encouragingly to your children and help them, support them, and speak believingly to them. Enable them to not have a sense of constant oppressive self-doubt. It’s crippling. But never undermine fallen nature.

The sinner also sees the reach of his sin, the reality, the root, and the reach of his sin. You begin to see the consequences of it and what it might do, and you begin to be fearful of it.

In Luke 12, our Lord said, verse 47, 48, speaks of a servant that knew the Lord’s will, knew his master’s will, “and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes.” But he that knew not, he who was ignorant, did commit things worthy of stripes, “shall be beaten with few stripes.” And there’s a sense then of culpability, that with greater opportunity and greater light comes greater responsibility.

And that’s one thing that happens when there’s real genuine repentance. As part of what ought to be real in this congregation is a deep awareness of how much light and mercy and kindness God has shown. And that means with all the light, all the blessing of our nation, of our spiritual influences, of the pastors we’ve had and the truth we’ve sat under and the churches to which we belong, for which we can thank God if we can genuinely.

All those things ought to press upon us. How come with all of this, yet I am still, still far less grateful? Someone in some other place where their nation would love to kill them for believing on Christ, where the economy keeps them oppressed, where their families have rejected them, and where there’s nowhere, nowhere to find the truth and no church to go to. And yet their devout spirit, their love for the Lord, their gratitude could outshine most of us.

That ought not to be so, and that ought to deepen repentance in us. Because there’s a real work of God in your heart and in mine ought to feel the sense of the weight of the light we have, the privileges that are ours.

And if you have nothing else to repent of—and you do—but even that one truth you take away and you say, Lord, what is wrong with me? Deepen repentance because I am so unbelievably favored in this land, in this day, in my context. How come my love is so feeble?

Source, sight, finally its sorrow. I have to be quick, and let me just name these things.

First, it grieves sin before God. It grieves sin before God. “Rend your heart, and not your garments,” Joel 2:13, “and turn unto the Lord your God.” I don’t care about the rending of your garments. Rend your heart. Feel the grief, the sorrow in your heart. The nature of repentance is such that the grief is felt deeply within.

Secondly, it confesses sin before God. It doesn’t just grieve and feel that grief within the soul, it then confesses. “I acknowledge my sin.” And there must be confession. What is confession? It is agreement with God. It is outward, verbal consent that God is right and I’m wrong. God’s accurate, I’m not, and I am agreeing that God, and how He has revealed the awfulness of this, I’m agreeing with Him.

The prodigal said, “I have sinned against heaven,” before thee. He’s confessing it.

He grieves sin before God, confesses sin before God, is ashamed of sin before God. Yes, shamed. There’s a sense of shame. The opposite of pride and glory, shame.

When Ezra heard of the circumstances of his day, Ezra 9:6: “O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God.” Have you ever been there? I’m ashamed. It ought not to be. I’m ashamed. I blush to lift up my face. Your sin put the Son of God on the cross. And yet with a boldness for which there are no words, we run headlong into sin yet again. What is wrong with us? We need to be ashamed.

It hates sin before God. It hates, learns to hate. Hates it. It’s not just to gain the consequences. It’s not just upset that it happened. It’s like hatred for it. It’s like Psalm 119:104: “I hate every false way.” I hate it. God hates sin. I hate sin. I hate what God hates. I love what He loves.

Someone was praying that just before the service too. It’s not just a passing feeling of hatred, it’s a settled sense of enmity. I am going to do battle with sin.

It turns from sin unto God. It turns from sin unto God. Real repentance turns us to Him. Acts 26:20, “that they should repent and turn to God.” These things go together, and do works meet for repentance. Going to God and getting your new marching orders. Lord, how am I meant to live? Or as Paul said in Acts 9, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” It’s that submission to His will, doing works that are meet, that show the fruit of Him.

We’ll get to that next time, the fruits of repentance.

And it finds salvation in God. It finds salvation in God. It brings us to this, this “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.” We find the comfort of pardon, and all that sin and all my sorrow and shame, and I go to a God who can see it and knows it and the depth of it beyond what I do, and yet He communicates to me His love through His Son. And He tells me, He bids me, He invites me, He says, I know your sin. I know all your sin. And as you come and confess it and acknowledge it and regret it and are ashamed of it, here, here, here’s the solution. Here’s the salve. Here’s the ointment of the gospel. Here’s the blessed hope.

There’s life for a look at the crucified One. Life at this moment for thee. Look and live.

Oh, what? I’m amazed. I’m amazed. He keeps on, He keeps on inviting us, doesn’t He? And pursuing us. Calling us. Loving us and setting His Son before us.

Oh, tonight, believe on Him. Believe on Him, please. In God’s name, believe on Him.

Why treasure your sin? Why hold on to the most destructive thing in your life? The amazing thing, people talk about toxic people and they have to get away from toxic people, but they never do it about sin. In some cases, they will never do it about sin. Sin in their life, and you expose it to them, you tell them about it, and that’s the most toxic thing man has to come to terms with, his own sin.

Your sin, your sin, your sin. Corruption breeds death. Come to Christ for life.

Yes, that is our only hope. Repentance, turning from it and turning unto. I trust what we’ve considered tonight helps illumine in your mind a little more about what is the difference between some kind of fake sorrow and a genuine work of God.

Let’s bow together in prayer.

Are you saved? Do you know yourself to be saved? Do you know the relief, the blessed relief that the blood of Jesus brings? The blood of Jesus that cleanses from all sin, that washes it all away. And we can come every day and acknowledge and confess every shortcoming, every sin, every breach of His law, and still the blood of Jesus cleanses.

Come. Come tonight. Seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He is near. This night, repent, believe the gospel.

Lord, bless Thy Word. Have mercy. Breathe in Thy life-giving way. Breathe into the heart of men and women, and boys and girls. Let none here tonight leave yet in a state of spiritual death. Oh, may they come to Christ for life. Oh, Lord Jesus, look with pity. Oh, blessed Spirit, work by power here in every heart.

And may all of us, all of us, dear God, we’re so—we do not appreciate how merciful Thou hast been. Let us not receive stripes. Grant we may listen to the Master. Grant we may live up to the light we are blessed with. Fill us then with power, so to do, and grant it may be so this week.

Thank You again for all Your mercy. Give us rest tonight, strength for the week ahead, and again, above every other blessing, grant that by Christ Thou wilt send the Spirit with power to fill us and use us this week. Hear and answer prayer.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus, the love of God our Father, and the fellowship of the Spirit be the portion of all the people of God, now and evermore.