The Role Of Repentance

Good morning.

My family and I are very happy to Be here with you again.

It's been five years Since we were here last and it's a pleasure to be able to visit you again

and to renew our fellowship and our friendship.

Before I preach I want to again just say how thankful we are for your participation

In the ministry with us there in Spain as I walked in this morning I saw that you've got our flyer on your

bulletin board right there.

It's the first thing that you see when you walk in the church.

It's a place of privilege for us and we're thankful that we're in your thoughts and in your prayers.

And we're thankful for your support, and we're hope we hope also that you are encouraged by

Knowing how God is working in and through us in Spain and you really are being a blessing.

You here in Providence Bible Church a blessing to our church in Biela Sarra de Mar and

also in the seminary and through the seminary Through the students that God has blessed

us to be able to teach as they go out to other parts of Spain.

You here in Providence Bible are blessing other churches All around the country, so we're very thankful

To be here with you, and I'm thankful also for the exemption the tie exemption that I got this morning.

You know I did bring a tie on this trip this summer actually and I wore it the first Sermon that I

preached in Phoenix, Arizona my wife said you know that's old and it's out of style.

So actually I'm sparing you the old and out of style tie right that's not that's why I'm not wearing it.

But the rest of you who preach here like Pastor Josh said you're not off the hook.

Sorry.

So I want to talk this morning about Repentance, and I thought we would begin with a little church

history quiz.

Okay, so I don't know if anybody's been studying or reading in church history recently, but

what I thought we would do Is the following.

I'm gonna read a quote from an important figure.

An important Christian figure from the past and then I want you to tell me who wrote it.

Okay.

So here we go.

Here's the quote.

When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said repent He willed the

entire life of believers to be one of repentance.

So can anybody tell me who wrote that?

Aha.

I was gonna say well you've got you got four.

I'll give you four guesses.

It's not Spurgeon.

It's not Calvin.

It's not Augustine.

It's Luther.

Yeah, so kind of the four biggies that people would typically guess.

That was written by Martin Luther.

That was the first of his 95 theses that he pinned on a door in a church

in Wittenberg in Germany for scholarly debate.

This was the first of the 95 theses and probably the most Well -known and it's an interesting

Affirmation that he makes because he says in this thesis that all of the Christian life should be one

of repentance.

Now there's a lot that we could discuss in relation to this affirmation.

But one thing that comes to my mind particularly thinking about Luther if he says all of the Christian life should

be one of repentance.

Does that mean that?

Justification is by repentance.

Is repentance necessary for justification and it's it's an interesting question.

Because Luther is the champion of the doctrine of justification by faith alone and yet He says all of

the Christian life is to be one of repentance.

Is repentance necessary for justification?

This question becomes even more interesting when we open our Bibles and there's a number of texts that we

can read that talk about repentance including 2nd Corinthians 7 and We'll get to that text in a few

minutes.

But in Acts chapter 2 you don't have to go there.

I'm just gonna you know, what happens in Acts chapter 2 we read Peter's sermon on

the day of Pentecost.

He preaches with the power of the Holy Spirit a number of people are convicted of their sin and they ask

Peter What they should do and how does Peter respond?

He says the following this is Acts chapter 2 verse 38 repent and be baptized.

Every one of you for the forgiveness of your sins.

Now if we just read this verse we would think that the forgiveness of sins and justification Depends on

repentance.

Is repentance necessary for justification?

We're gonna let that question guide us through our message this morning.

We'll come we'll come back to the question and we'll answer it a little bit later.

But before we do that, I think that you know in order to answer the question.

Well, we need to first define repentance.

What is Peter asking his hearers to do on the day of Pentecost when he tells them to repent for the forgiveness of

their sins?

What specifically is he asking them to do so we're going to define repentance and the way I want to do it is by

analyzing it according to three component parts.

Maybe it's better to say three aspects.

We talk about three different aspects of true Biblical saving repentance and there

there's an intellectual aspect there's an emotional aspect and There's a

volitional or a decision Aspect to true biblical repentance.

We're going to talk about those three aspects and try to define it.

First of all In order to repent according to what Peter was saying on the day of

Pentecost.

The first thing that you have to do is you have to know that you've sinned and that you're guilty.

It's an intellectual Component now that that sounds maybe elemental, but it's really important.

There's a historic confession of faith that was a product of the Reformation the 1689

London Baptist Confession and This confession is a chapter about repentance chapter 15 and

in this chapter It says that for a person to repent he must be made sensible of

the manifold evils of his sin.

Isn't that interesting?

In order for a person to repent he must be made sensible of the manifold evils of His

sins.

That does not sound like fun but What it means is that in order to be able

to repent you have to first know that you've blown it.

You've sinned against your Creator.

That sounds really basic, but it's crucial.

The reason why I bring this up is because in our modern -day Speech sometimes we use the word

repent in non -religious ways, and that's fine as long as we know what we're doing.

I'll give you an example.

So I went out to lunch in Spain a little over a year ago with a friend of mine.

And we went to this restaurant.

We both ordered our dishes off the menu and we're talking we're having a wonderful time together.

And they brought out two plates one for me and one for him.

They set mine down and it was this big plate with about that much food on it.

Decorated in the back by the chef to make it look like it was more interesting than it really was it was gourmet vegetables

and My buddy got the ribs and the fries.

And I looked at my plate, and I looked at his Back at mine, and I repented.

I Repented but did I repent in the sense of what

Peter was asking his hearers to do in Acts chapter 2?

No, so I made an Erroneous decision or maybe not if we're talking about my waistline.

Maybe I made the right decision, but Peter was not commanding his hearers to repent of wrong

decisions.

He was commanding them to repent of sinful decisions sinful actions

sinful thoughts sinful behaviors that Offended God and were hurtful

to other people.

Peter was commanding his hearers to repent of their sins.

So it's important that first intellectually in order to be able to repent we have to understand that we've sinned.

But we can go one step farther.

We have to understand also that we're guilty because we've sinned.

We need to understand that we've sinned and therefore we're guilty and this is an important point we could say it like this.

True repentance comes without excuses.

We're really good at making excuses aren't we?

Yeah, I told that lie, but oh I had to to get out of the mess that I was in or.

Yeah, I stole that money, but you should have seen how great my need was in the moment.

Or yeah, I spoke harshly to my wife, but you should see you should have heard what she said to me.

Right we're so good at dodging Accusations we're so good at passing the blame off of

ourselves on To other people and oftentimes we're willing to recognize that we behave poorly,

but we make excuses.

True repentance however doesn't try to dodge accusations.

It doesn't blame shift.

Doesn't try to pass the responsibility on to other people or to external circumstances.

True repentance says I blew it I sinned it was my fault.

I'll own it.

So to really repent we first have to recognize that we've sinned and we have to be willing to take the blame.

That's the intellectual aspect of repentance now.

Second there's an emotional aspect the the acknowledgement of our sin in our guilt ought to produce in us

an emotional change.

Specifically as we become aware of our sin we should be sad.

True repentance must also include a change of emotions.

There should be a sorrow if the knowledge of sin and guilt doesn't produce sorrow in me.

I cannot really Repent.

Well we have to explain this carefully.

So the repentance that Peter was commanding his reader his his hearers to Included a sadness over

sin, but not just any kind of sadness.

Because a lot of times we sin and we're sad all right.

But specifically about the consequences of our sin.

So to the high school student who got caught cheating on his chemistry test.

He could be really sad about having cheated on the chemistry test.

But maybe he's sad because he's gonna get an F on the test.

And he's gonna get a bad grade in the semester, and it's gonna affect his GPA.

And he's gonna get into the college he wants to do you see sad about the consequences

or I did that shameful thing and I'm sad because somebody posted it on

social media and my reputation is ruined.

It's oftentimes we recognize that we've sinned.

But we're sad mostly because of the consequences that result from it now.

I'm not saying that we should enjoy the consequences of our sin or rejoice over them.

But what I am saying is that the sorrow that needs to accompany a knowledge of sin should be a

sorrow for having offended God and for having hurt other people.

So it should be primarily sad because we've offended our Creator now.

Do I sound like a party pooper?

This kind of talk, maybe it's not so good for church growth right.

But the Bible talks about a certain kind of sadness and sorrow that's healthy and

That's good.

That's healing in fact so back to that text that we read in 2nd Corinthians.

Now I know that I asked Josh to read that text and we're just jumping right into the middle of the letter in the middle of the chapter

without the context as.

You know we have two of Paul's letters to the Corinthians in our Bibles.

But there was we know of at least four and There was one in between our first and our

second Corinthians.

There was one in between that scholars call Paul's harsh letter because apparently he had some harsh words

for the Corinthians.

And he was worried that maybe he'd been a little too hard on them.

But he comes back in 2nd Corinthians.

And he says you know I'm glad because it produced a certain kind of sorrow in you a godly sorrow.

That's good, that's that's that's the context of the passage that we read so let me read again 2nd Corinthians 7 just verses

9 and 10.

So Paul says as it is I rejoice.

Not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting.

Do you see this repentance?

There's an emotional aspect to repentance this grieving for you felt a godly grief.

So that you suffered no loss through us.

For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret you see that it's a good kind of

grief.

It leads to salvation whereas worldly grief produces death.

So there's according to Paul here.

There's there's such a thing as a godly grief over sin that leads to life and salvation.

But there's also related to sin there can be a worldly grief.

That leads to despair and death.

We can illustrate these two kinds of grief thinking about two biblical characters that appear

in the Gospels.

So at the end of Matthew Matthew 26 and 27 we see juxtaposed two guys.

Right two guys who both denied their Lord.

Two guys who are both very sad about it afterwards, but sad in different ways and with different outcomes.

Who am I thinking of?

Judas and Peter right.

So in Matthew 27 verse 3 if you have the NIV the NIV translates

verse 3 in a helpful way that Judas after he betrayed Jesus he

was seized with remorse.

So Matthew 23 27 3 excuse me says that Judas as he's handing back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief

priests and the elders.

He was seized with remorse.

It's how the NIV puts it so he's he clearly laments having betrayed Jesus.

He knew they did it something wrong, and he's very sad about it, but what does he do after that?

He goes off and he kills himself.

So that's Judas.

Peter on the other hand just a few verses earlier.

You wonder if Matthew did this on purpose just a few verses earlier in Matthew 26.

Matthew 26 Verse 75 Peter after denying Jesus three times.

Matthew tells us that Peter went out and he wept bitterly.

So Peter betrays Jesus he laments his decision.

He's very sad about it, but unlike Judas later.

He's forgiven and he's restored.

So what's the difference between Judas and Peter?

Well the difference has to do with the kind of grief that they experienced.

I think it's safe to say both Judas and Peter knew that they blew it they're probably both embarrassed.

I Think they both probably felt guilty but Judas.

Unlike Peter see Peter was concerned because he had damaged his relationship with his Lord.

He had hurt his friendship with Jesus and so Peter returns to his friend and

Judas goes the other way.

Peter was sad he had a godly sorrow because he had offended Jesus you see and that godly

sorrow led to life and to salvation ultimately to restoration.

Judas was sorrow too sorrowful too, but his sorrow led only to despair and death.

So this takes us to the third aspect of repentance you have to in order to repent know that you've sinned and that you're guilty.

Second you have to have the right kind of emotional response a godly sorrow that leads

to the third aspect a decision.

So repentance that leads to life and salvation requires a decision you have to decide to

forsake the sin that damaged your relationship with God and turn to him

seeking renewal and restoration.

So it's a decision and this this is the decision precisely that Peter took he desired to be

restored in right relationship with his Lord and so Peter was restored.

But following Peter's life We can illustrate one more thing that decision to leave behind that sin and the

purpose to walk before God in new obedience has to be sincere.

It can't be a farce.

So think of it think about Peter.

Peter was restored by Jesus.

Beside the sea of Tiberias and what does Jesus say to him?

Gives him a command doesn't he he says feed my lambs and what does Peter do?

Throughout the rest of his life.

He doesn't do it perfectly.

But he serves in the Church of Jesus Christ so you see.

That denial Peter's being ashamed of his Lord.

He wanted to leave that behind.

He wanted to walk before God in new obedience.

He made a decision in that decision bore fruit.

So true repentance intellectual aspect.

Emotional aspect it's it's a decision then but that decision if it's real will bear fruit in our

lives.

Think of Jesus's words not Jesus.

Excuse me.

It's John the Baptist.

He's baptizing and the Pharisees come to him and what does he say to them?

He says bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

You say you're repentant, but that repentance if it's real should demonstrate itself.

There should be consequences.

There should be fruit.

There should be transformation in your life.

So we can we can illustrate this by comparing two other figures and we're gonna go back to it now.

We're gonna we're gonna go to the Old Testament.

We're gonna compare two more guys.

Who seemingly repented one really did and the other didn't.

Two kings of Israel.

Two men who both sinned.

Who both verbally acknowledged their sin one was repentant and the other one wasn't.

Who am I thinking of?

Saul and David.

Okay, so Think of these two guys.

Saul first in first Samuel 15.

I'll tell you the story.

You probably remember it.

Saul defeats the Amalekites and what was he supposed to do?

Supposed to destroy everything that they had.

What did he actually do?

You read the text carefully and it tells you that he destroyed the most despicable stuff.

The best stuff he saved for his own purposes.

Whoops.

Saul blew it and the Prophet Samuel comes to him and confronts him and This is the interesting

part and Saul recognizes that he sins.

So intellectually he's got it.

He says I have sinned in English is three words in the original.

It's one word.

I have sinned.

He recognized it recognizes it you think oh, maybe Saul is gonna repent.

But what is it?

What does Saul do throughout the rest of his life?

He persecutes his successor he's trying he's obsessed with killing David.

David which Demonstrates that he's not really repentance.

He's still concerned about himself and Getting his own way.

He's gonna follow his own plan.

You see so he reckoned verbally he recognizes his sin.

But he's not really repenting and you can see that by the consequences the fruit in his life.

He's he's he's going against God's will think of David.

Now what David does.

I don't know if we could put it in the scale and weigh it but it might actually be worse.

So he's he's King he commits adultery with Bathsheba and then he conspires to have her husband

killed and then he hides it.

For a while.

So as they say in Spanish muy mal bad.

Now again prophet comes in.

Nathan comes in confronts him.

And what does David say?

Anybody remember?

He says I have sinned.

It's the exact same word in the Hebrew.

I Think maybe that's not accidental either.

I have sinned the same word that Saul used he recognizes his sin.

What's the difference between David and Saul?

The rest of his life David is not perfect is he but he serves the Lord.

To an extent that the Bible calls him a man after God's own heart.

So he intellectually verbally he recognizes that sin.

But his repentance is real.

He makes a decision to forsake the sin and he purposes to follow God in new obedience

walking with him so.

True repentance.

It's more than just knowing about our sin.

It's more than just regretting what we've done.

It includes the desire to be reconciled to the God that we've offended and if that desire is

real it bears fruit in our lives.

I'm going to give you another example.

To help illustrate this so we can illustrate I think the three aspects of true repentance with this with this example.

Imagine a husband Who comes home?

He's had a bad day or whatever and he just snaps at his wife.

Ah, he's just mean to her and he's he's such a heel that she says, okay you sleep on

the couch tonight.

It's purely hypothetical.

I'm not recommending wives that this is a godly way to deal with your grumpy husbands, okay?

Husband sleeping on the couch by himself.

He should repent.

If he's really gonna repent what's it gonna look like?

Well, first of all, he has to recognize that he's blown it.

And he has to be willing to go back to his wife and say specifically I'm sorry for having done this.

If he goes back to his wife and he says well, I'm sorry for having done this but you.

Is that gonna be real repentance?

He's still gonna be in the doghouse and he's gonna stay on the couch.

He has to go back and he has to he has to accept responsibility for the way that he's acted.

So he has to recognize his sin and his guilt, but secondly, he should also be sad for what

he's done.

He should feel bad.

He should lament his actions, but there's two different ways that he can lament his actions.

He can be sad because of the consequences.

Wow, my back really hurts right?

Gee, I'm so sad that I have to sleep on the couch.

I'm not sleeping.

I feel crummy.

I'm sad.

Well that that kind of sadness.

The wrong kind of sadness that's the kind of sadness maybe that would lead him to grab the car keys and Go out and spend the rest of the night in the hole in

some hotel somewhere so that he can Sleep better would actually drive him away from his wife.

Do you see?

He should experience the right kind of said he sadness he should be sad for having offended This

precious lady that the Lord has given to him as his wife.

And so that should lead him that kind of emotional response to get up to go back apologize to his wife, honey I'm

sorry.

I'll try not to do it again.

You see so he's forsaking his actions purpose fit.

He's purposing to walk differently and to care for his wife in a new way now.

How's his when is his wife going to know if he's really repentant or not?

We'll see the next day when he comes home after a hard day from work, and we'll see how he treats her right.

So if his decision is real then there should be Transformation there should be fruit.

It's never perfect, but there should be a change in his life if his repentance is real so we can define

repentance in this way.

Biblical repentance and what Peter is commanding his hearers to do is to first of all recognize that they've sinned and they're

guilty secondly to have a godly sorrow with respect to that sin and

Thirdly decide to leave behind that sin and return to God seeking Reconciliation

and purposing to walk before him in new obedience definition.

Three parts.

Hopefully that's clear now back to our question is Repentance necessary for

justification.

What's the answer?

Yes, but we're gonna have to qualify it aren't we.

Yes, it is.

But repentance is there's two things that it's not and there's one thing that it is.

First of all repentance is not the grounds of our justification.

In other words repentance even the the true and authentic and sincere Kind does

not make us worthy of being accepted by God.

We are worthy to be in God's presence.

To be friends with him only because Jesus Christ was worthy in our place.

Our acceptance doesn't make us any more deserving of being accepted into God's presence favorably.

Think about this the Apostle Paul.

If anybody was repentant, it was the Apostle Paul.

My goodness.

I mean he'd been persecuting the Church of Christ.

Jesus Confronts him on the road to Damascus.

Paul is converted and he's repentant.

But think about this think about what he says in Philippians chapter 3.

Remember when he's talking about all that good stuff that he'd done and all those things that he once thought.

We're gonna be like his merit his grounds of justification.

He says all that stuff is worthless.

He says in Philippians 3 9.

I want to be found in Christ.

Not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ

the righteousness From God that depends on faith.

So he's he's he's recognizing I'm righteous before God not because of anything that I do not even my

repentance and by the way parenthesis here.

There's there's a really good reason why our repentance could never be the grounds on which God accepts us.

Think about this.

God's perfect, right?

Perfect.

So his justice is perfect.

Okay, if he's gonna accept this on the basis of our goodness and our deeds, how good do we have to be?

Perfect.

Is our repentance ever perfect?

No.

So you see just right there our repentance can never be the grounds of our justification.

Why because it's never perfect only Jesus Christ was perfect and he was perfect in our place.

So we repent not to somehow score points with God or make ourselves more attractive to him.

No, our repentance has another purpose.

It has another function.

So first of all, our repentance is not the grounds of our justification now the second point.

This is the hardest part of the sermon just warning you.

Okay.

So everybody's awake.

We're feeling good.

All right ready for the hard part.

Repentance is not the instrument of our justification.

What the world?

I say this because there's some people that have taught this some people that think that this is the case repentance is not the

instrument of Justification.

What I mean by that is that repentance is repentance is not the channel through which We receive all the

blessings of Christ.

What is the instrument or the channel through which we receive all the blessings of Christ?

What is it?

Faith it's faith exactly.

So when God's giving out the gift of salvation starting with justification and then

everything else that comes along with that We can say it this way God responds only to faith.

Only to faith and the reason why that is is because faith is the only Human attitude the only attitude that we can

have that says to God.

I have nothing to give you.

I Have I have.

I can't do anything to make myself more worthy before you.

I need you.

To have mercy on me.

I'm depending totally on your provision for me in Christ, and I believe that he did everything necessary

to save me.

See only faith is that that the empty hand of the beggar.

That the beggar sticks out to receive the gift that the generous one is giving to him.

Repentance looks back at our sin.

It looks at ourselves faith looks to and clings to Christ.

That's why faith is the only instrument of our justification.

You read the New Testament from beginning to end and it never says that we're justified by

repentance or through Repentance, it's only by or through faith because

faith is that only attitude that we can have that clings to Christ for all his blessings.

So in what way is repentance necessary?

Repentance is I would suggest to you this morning the necessary consequence

of faith.

It's a necessary evidence of The presence of true faith in the life of a believer.

So if you will say it like this if you really believe in Jesus, you will repent.

If you're not repentant, you can say you believe in Jesus, but you haven't really trusted in him just yet.

So the the Reformers Luther and Calvin and Spurgeon would have said this to they say it like this justification

is by faith alone.

But never a faith that is alone.

True faith always is accompanied by evidences that demonstrate its authenticity.

So it's not hard to understand this point.

Think about it like this.

What kind of a faith can a person have?

Who's not willing to recognize that their sin that they've sinned and that they're guilty.

Can't kind of that person who doesn't even recognize their sin.

Can they have faith?

No.

What kind of a faith can a person have who's not?

Sorry for having offended God.

What kind of a faith can a person have who doesn't really desire to be reconciled to God after having offended him

you see?

We're talking about the elements of repentance.

What kind of a faith can a person have who doesn't.

Long to leave behind their sin who clearly prefers to continue in the very sin that they're asking

God for forgiveness for.

That's nothing more than a false profession of faith.

That's what some people call fire insurance.

That's like a safety net to avoid what the consequences of sin.

I don't want to go to hell.

So yeah, I've got faith in Jesus, but I really prefer to live on the here and now my own way.

That's Saul.

That's not true saving faith.

Person who has true faith is.

Sorry for having offended God longs to have fellowship with God longs to be restored and to be

renewed in their relationship with God so for that reason.

Anybody who really believes will also really repent.

Is repentance necessary for justification.

Yes it's a necessary consequence and necessary evidence of true faith in a

person's life, so We'll bring this to a conclusion.

I want to say three more things quickly with that in mind.

Three things about repentance.

Just practical applications.

Luther was right.

He said all of the Christian life should be characterized by repentance and he was exactly right.

One reason why he was right that comes to my mind is the following.

Do we ever stop sinning?

Even as Christians the most veteran of Saints the most seasoned of believers.

Does anybody ever stop sinning before glory?

No.

That's why the scriptures say the one who will overcome.

So the one who is saved in the end is the one who continues to believe their entire life.

Continue clinging to Jesus.

Why.

Because we always need a Savior.

Why do we always need a Savior.

Because we continue sinning and for that reason we need to be aware of it.

We need to be sorrow sorry for it.

We need to continually purpose to leave that sin behind and walk before God in new obedience.

So Luther was exactly right.

He said all the Christian life is one of repentance.

It's not something that you do once and you leave it behind.

We should be repentant people as Christians.

So that's the first point the second point is That I think that we're not as repentant as we should be.

I'll speak for myself and Speak broadly for I think evangelical churches both in the United

States and in Spain.

I think that there's a lot of people who are in churches who just they're not aware that.

That they're sinful or the gravity of their sin, or they haven't accepted their their guilt.

They're making excuses all the time for the things that they recognize that they do do wrong.

They're not particularly sad because they've offended their maker.

There's a whole bunch of people who aren't really repentant and.

And I think all of us would probably say that we should be more repentant than we actually are.

Why is it that we're not repentant?

Well, probably there's a lot of reasons but one that comes to my mind is that I think we don't talk about repentance enough.

And I'll give you an example.

I heard a message on repentance by R .C. Sproul years ago.

I know it was years ago because I remember it was on a cassette tape.

And I was driving my 1986 Ford Ranger and I was listening to that tape over and over and over and I left one

series of R .C. Sproul tapes on the the dash of that Ranger and they melted but Now it's all on

mp3 and it's podcasts and whatever else so this was years ago with a cassette tape R .C. Sproul was talking about repentance and he

said He was he was he was talking specifically about the sad state of

Evangelical preaching in the United States.

And he said he was tired of hearing sermonettes.

What's a sermonette?

According to Sproul a sermonette is a little short message with lots of stories and jokes

and Anecdotes and and maybe a few helpful tips here and there about how to live the Christian life, but pretty

much devoid of solid biblical Content he said I'm tired of hearing sermonettes

in the specific example.

He gave was this he said.

Imagine a married couple in a congregation.

That's just struggling there.

They're about to get divorced.

They're in crisis.

They need help and he said better than ten sermonettes on How to

have a happy marriage for them would be one good sermon on repentance.

Do you get his point?

Better than ten sermonettes on how to have a happy marriage to be one good sermon on Repentance and

his idea the main point that he was trying to make is this that You know if we

really knew how to repent.

How much reconciliation would we see in?

Relationships and marriages and family in church.

How much renewal.

How much?

Healing.

If we really knew how to repent if we really owned our sins instead of constantly pointing out those of our spouses and

Friends and other members of the church or whatever if we really felt a godly sorrow over them if we confessed and sought

Reconciliation with one another what a difference that would make.

Sproul was exactly right.

So you see repentance isn't this like heavy burden and cross that we bear it's a blessing.

It's a wonderful thing to be able to repent.

It brings health and healing in our relationships first in our relationship with God and secondly in our relationships

with one another.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we were all more repentant people and then think of the the testimony the witness.

That that would be because people in the world don't really repent.

And people in the world may be really sad about the consequences of what they've done, but they don't really repent.

But to see marriages restored through repentance, it's the power of the gospel.

It's power of the Holy Spirit working.

Wouldn't that be attractive to a watching unbelieving world.

That takes me to our last point so we're gonna pray that God would give it to us to be more repentant because

Repentance is a grace.

It's a gift That God gives and it's by grace so so I'm saying we need to

repent we need to repent and you might be thinking well.

That's great.

How do I do that?

I?

Don't feel like repenting.

And am I saying to you well get your repentance face on you know bear down.

Conjure up those feelings of sadness.

Is that what I'm saying.

No, it's not we have to understand that repentance is by grace in two ways first of all

When you turn back to God in faith you're repenting.

You're turning back to God in faith.

What you see is your Savior waiting for you with open arms.

So it's true that God is a just judge.

He hates sin but by faith when we turn to him in repentance the God that we see is a

God who extends mercy and forgiveness if All God showed us were

justice.

We'd be better off running.

Luther struggled with this didn't he you remember the story of Luther's life where for so long He was the stories

about how he spent hours in the confessional right.

Or there was this famous quote where somebody asked Brother Martin, do you love God and he said love God.

He said sometimes.

I hate him.

Why did he say that?

Because all he knew was God's justice, and he thought God was going to crush him.

But then eventually Luther understood and this is something we all need to understand.

He understood that Christ was crushed for him.

So if that's the case if Christ has been crushed for you when you turn back to God.

Repenting in faith what you see is a God who's longing to accept you again and restore

you in friendship and peace with him.

We need to go a little farther with this.

Remember we said our our repentance isn't perfect, so it's not the perfection of our repentance.

That saves us or restores us with God.

So you turn to God in faith and you see Jesus.

But you don't see Jesus standing there with his arms crossed.

Scowling.

Well, you're not sad enough for your sin.

You know you need to flounder a little more in your guilt.

Maybe you need to you know be hard on yourself for a while to somehow make up for it.

You see a Jesus who says to you I paid for all of that sin.

It's done.

I Forgiven all of it, and that's why that's why we read in Romans 2.

Paul says that it's God's kindness and his mercy that lead to repentance.

Right so Jesus who says to me.

I have forgiven all of your sin.

That's the kind of Savior that makes me want to repent

so my main Message to you today is repent.

Maybe for the first time.

Maybe for the 10 ,000th time.

Or maybe you're like David.

And this is why I asked Josh to read Psalm 51 a David who for a while.

Maybe you've been hiding a particular sin.

There's a sin you don't want to deal with.

You've just covered it over.

You're not repenting of it.

How did David feel when he was hiding his sin?

He said that his bones were wasting away within him.

He felt terrible.

Until God gave him that grace and he repented and then he says he's cries out to God.

And he says restore to me the joy of your salvation.

Why do we repent to have the joy of God's salvation restored to us daily?

Constantly you don't feel like repenting.

Think about Jesus.

Think about forgiveness.

Think about assurance.

Think about renewed peace with God by faith.

That's what motivates repentance.

Repentance is by grace and There's another way that it's by grace, and we'll finish with this.

The ability to repent is not in us so left to ourselves we would

never repent.

In this way repentance is it comes along with faith, and it's like faith.

It's a grace.

It's something that God grants it's something that God has to do in us.

God has to change our hearts so that we'll be genuinely Sorry for having offended him.

He has to give us a taste for the sweetness of Jesus Christ and fellowship with him.

He has to give us eyes to see the reality of who we are.

The reality of who God is and that's what produces that right kind of emotional response and that right kind of

decision.

So twice in the New Testament we read this language of repentance being granted.

Okay, so Acts chapter 11 for example to the Gentiles God has also granted

repentance that leads to life.

God has to give it to us to repent so we're gonna close in prayer, and we're gonna ask.

That he would do that that he would help us to appreciate again his kindness and his mercy.

That he would give us eyes to see who Jesus really is and who we really are before him that he would give us a godly

sorrow.

So that we would really repent be restored and be healed.

Let's pray together.

Lord we thank you for the words of Psalm 51.

2nd Corinthians 7.

Acts chapter 2.

The examples of Judas and Peter Saul and David all the different ways that you teach us in the

Bible about repentance.

We thank you for the command that Peter issued and others to repent that just grabs our

attention.

Lord we recognize that in and of ourselves does not reside the ability to repent.

We pray that you would give it to us to repent perhaps for the first time or maybe for the

10 ,000th time.

Lord we pray that you would soften our hearts that you'd bring conviction of sin that you'd bring godly sorrow and and.

And put in us an increasing longing and desire.

To walk before you in new obedience and to just enjoy our relationship and our fellowship with you.

We pray that you would make us a repentant people for our good and for your glory.

We ask this in Jesus name.

Amen.