Humble Yourselves — Richard Owen Roberts

Humble Yourselves for Revival

Now, let me come directly to the burden of my heart tonight. There are two incredibly wonderful issues involved in true revival. Now, an awful lot of people are not interested in revival. And if I thought revival was what they think revival is, I wouldn't be interested either.

I'd go home and stay there. But there are, as I said, two absolutely magnificent issues in revival that ought to lay hold of our hearts and ought to drive us to our faces before God in pleading for another great movement of the Holy Spirit.

The Manifest Presence of Christ

But the first of these issues is the more commonly spoken of. The manifest presence of Christ in the midst of His people. The first time I felt I was ready to write a book on revival, it seemed to me necessary to give some definition to what I was speaking about because there is such a variety of views as to what constitutes revival.

And so I said on that occasion, a revival is an extraordinary work of the Spirit of God producing extraordinary results. Now, I still stand by that. But my own judgment in the matter has been refined, I would say.

And now, I believe that I would define revival simply as God. God in the midst of His people. There is an incredibly lovely way in which Christ draws near. And when Christ draws near, things that we have thought little of, things that we have known, perhaps no conviction at all concerning, suddenly appear ugly in the light of the beauty of Christ's holiness as He manifests Himself.

So that revival always results in the people of God coming to levels of repentance of which they have known nothing before. Now, some confuse this issue because they are sure that Christ is always with us to the same degree.

That there's never any variation. He doesn't distance Himself. He doesn't draw near. He's always nigh. They use such assurances as, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age. And they fail to distinguish, as the scriptures do, but not by the language which I'm going to employ.

But nonetheless, the distinction is there between the essential presence of God, the manifest presence of God, and the cultivated presence of God. God says concerning Himself, I fill heaven and earth.

The presence of God is as much this very hour in some den of iniquity as it is here when you're speaking of the essential presence. You can't go anywhere but what God is present. But what is the impact of that aspect of His presence?

Do people feel restrained from drinking themselves into oblivion because God is present in the tavern? Do prostitutes suddenly cease forever their life work because of the essential presence of God? No!

The essential presence of God does not have a resting influence on sin and sinners. But when God draws near, there is a fear that develops. Some of us who are older saw some of this just in society itself.

As a young preacher, I found that people were afraid to openly sin. I wouldn't want to say they didn't sin, but I dare to say they sinned behind closed doors and under the cover of darkness because there was a sense of the fear of God.

There was at least the remnants of the presence of Christ in the churches in those years. So the church was to some degree salt and light. But it's not now. We have lost the manifest presence of Christ in the church.

And so we are burdened to pray for revival that Christ Himself may draw near. Now, I know it's somewhat artificial to distinguish between revival and awakening in terms of actual usage because throughout the centuries, the terms have been used interchangeably.

In that great movement that begun under the ministry of George Whitefield in about 1735 in England, that movement. On that side of the Atlantic was called the evangelical revival. And yet, on this continent, the same movement involving some of the same men was described as the great awakening.

So the terms have been used interchangeably. But if we have the right to give a distinct meaning to each of those wonderful terms, revival happens in the church. And when the church is revived, awakening happens in the world.

The Word of God Running Like a Flood

Oh, how we long to see a season when indeed the church is so thoroughly revived and turned into the likeness of Christ that the world is awakened and drawn in a great rush to our Savior. The other issue that I would like to speak of just for a moment or two, the second great wondrous aspect of revival is that in revival, the Word runs like a mighty flood.

Now, I don't know what you're observing, but I do get around a good bit still. And I'm away from home a good share of the time preaching in a great variety of places. But it doesn't much matter where I'm preaching.

A significant portion of the congregation that says anything at all to me will say, oh, that was interesting. And when you have preached, say, for two hours, which I often do, on a single text, a command text, and somebody steps up to you and says, oh, that was interesting.

I'll have to think about that. You want to reply, and sometimes it's appropriate to reply. Don't think about it. Obey. But there's not an awful lot of obedience to the Word that is taking place. And where an individual does obey, by and large, it stops with that person.

But in seasons of revival, the Word of God runs like a mighty flood. The Apostle Paul made reference to this matter in the second epistle to the Thessalonians, chapter 3, verse 1, in the form of a prayer request.

Pray that the Word may run rapidly. And dear friends, if you've studied accounts of revival, that is one of the truly exciting aspects of the revival. The Word of God is rushing forward and sweeping before multitudes of people, radically transformed by the Word of God, which currently seems to be having relatively little impact.

So for those who aren't much interested in revival, if they understand what revival is, then we know that at the heart of their disinterest is a disinterest in Christ and His Word. But for those who are interested in revival and who understand these two great issues, what could be more desirable?

What could the heart rightly long more for than the manifest presence of Christ in the midst of His people and the Word rushing forward like a mighty flood, sweeping the multitudes into the Kingdom of God?

Humility and the Promise of 2 Chronicles 7

Oh, this evening, we've listened to a family group singing and they have drawn our attention to that classic revival passage in 2 Chronicles, chapter 7. And in the light of their contribution, I believe it would be well to open the Word of God to the passage and to taste one out of the several issues of immense importance that are drawn to our attention in this passage.

So I'm reading from 2 Chronicles, chapter 7 and picking up the reading at verse 11. And while you're turning to it for the sake of a few who may not be aware of the greater context, this seventh chapter is the culmination of Solomon's great prayer of dedication of the temple that occurred in chapter 6.

And it is the Lord's response to Solomon and the prayer of which we now read. So 2 Chronicles 7, starting at verse 11. Then Solomon finished the house of the Lord and the king's palace, and successfully completed all that he had planned on doing in the house of the Lord and in his palace.

Then the Lord appeared to Solomon at night and He said to him, I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. If I shut up the heavens so there is no rain, if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people and my people who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray and seek my taste and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, will forgive their sins and will heal their land.

Now I'm not sure there are very many who have ever seriously considered the consequence of a land that is healed by God. But a wonderful way to inform your soul about the consequence of this promised healing is to familiarize yourself with Deuteronomy chapter 28.

Because in that 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, we have the blessings and the cursings that God promises to bring either upon those who are obedient or upon those who are disobedient. In that chapter, which if you are not familiar with, I would plead with you to read before you come to tomorrow morning's session.

But in that chapter, about 11 or 12 verses are devoted to blessings. And then some 50 verses devoted to curses. And when you go over the passage, it is crystal clear. America was once under the blessings and America is now under the curses.

And the curses don't go away. But God still removes curses and restores blessing. And when God says He will heal the land, He's promising to remove the curses and to replace them with the blessings. But let me read on.

Now my eyes shall be open and my ears attentive to the prayer offered in this place. For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever and my eyes and my heart will be there perpetually and as for you, if you walk before me, Solomon, as your father David walked, even to do all according to that I have commanded you, and you will keep my statues and my ordinances, then I will establish your royal throne as I covenanted with your father David saying, you shall not lack a man to be ruler over Israel.

But if you turn away and you forsake my statues and my commandments which I have set before you and shall go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will uproot you from my land which I have given you and this house which I have consecrated in my name, I will cast out of my sight and I'll make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

As for this house which was exalted, everyone who passes by will be astonished and say, why has the Lord done this to this land and to this house? And they will say, because they forsook the Lord, the God of their fathers who brought them from the land of Egypt and they adopted other gods and they worshiped them and they served them, therefore, he brought all this adversity on them.

Now the word that I wish to focus upon tonight and that I believe is at the very heart of our problem is that first word in the list of four specifics calls. If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves.

That hasn't happened. What's the sense of talking about prayer? I've been in several supposedly large prayer conferences over the last few weeks in several parts of the country. And I've been told in advance of the dozens and even hundreds of churches that were participating.

But in truth, not a fraction of those who were supposedly engaged in this conference were present and it's highly unlikely that they had any serious interest in prayer. You can't have serious interest in prayer when you're full of yourself.

The prayer is a farce. The typical local church prayer meeting is a joke. It's disgusting. It's grievous to the Holy Spirit. Some pastors jokingly and yet I suppose at least three quarters seriously say why our church prayer meeting is the organ recital.

And all the organs of the Bible are talked about and prayer is requested. And here is a nation rushing pell-mell to hell and we concern ourselves with broken fingers and pains in our side. We haven't taken prayer seriously and we can't.

Because we haven't humbled ourselves. Isn't it amazing? You can have a community with 35 churches and at least five of them think they're the best church in the community. You can have Christian colleges, any number of whom in their advertising material make it clear we're the greatest Christian college.

You attend pastor's fellowships. I used to try in the brief portion of my life that I was a pastor and I would go to the Monday meeting of the pastors in the city, but I couldn't handle it. They were boasting sessions.

In a very modest voice, one fellow says, well, we didn't have a very good weekend. We only baptized seven this week. Oh, I pity you, says the next fellow. The Lord is really doing things in our place.

We had 11. Huh, 11? Well, I'm sorry to tell you, fellows, we had 22. And the average pastor is sitting there saying I haven't baptized anybody for seven months. Well, if you don't mind baptizing the dead, you can baptize 22 or 50 or 100.

You can lead your convention in baptisms. But baptizing the dead, I'm speaking of spiritually dead, which the bulk of the persons who are baptized are. I mean, pastors even say they come forward Sunday morning.

We baptize them Sunday night. Then we never see them again. And they still have the outrageous courage to go on baptizing people that deep down within they know are as lost as Satan himself. I was in one of these larger churches a while ago and the pastor was very upset with my preaching.

And finally I said to him, why did you invite me here? Well, he said, I'm beginning to wonder. But I thought our people needed to hear what you had to say. Well, I preached Sunday morning on the Beatitudes.

I don't think that's very offensive. Not to the believer. But it can be quite a problem for those who think they're believers and are not. And he was mad Sunday morning. But my word, you should have seen him Sunday night when I preached on the first and the greatest commandment to love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind.

Monday morning early, he called. He said the whole staff is up in arms that we've arranged a room at the hotel where you're staying, a dining room, and we'll have a private meeting with you. And there were eight of them against this little old man.

And they didn't seem to have any qualms at all attacking me. And of course, we've had some experience along these lines, haven't we? And we know how to behave ourselves. You just sit there grinning and let them hurl their mean-spirited accusations.

But after a while, they began to feel a little sheepish and they weren't getting any reaction out of me. And so, seven of the men left and the senior staff person remained. So I turned to him and I said, Pastor, did you ever knowingly baptize an unconverted person?

Yeah, yeah, I would admit I have. How frequently have you done that? Oh, he said, I haven't really counted. I should suppose not more than a thousand times. The average pastor doesn't baptize a thousand in a lifespan.

And here this fellow admits he's baptized a thousand unregenerate people in a very few years. So I said, and why do you do that? He said, you've got to understand, I've committed myself to build a mega church.

And I said, you've got to understand that the mega church you're building is your church and it has nothing whatsoever to do with Christ. And you've got to face the fact that you're going to be accountable to God to every one of that thousand people that you led down the road to destruction.

That sobered him slightly, but he was still mad. But on the final night he came before the service. He had avoided me all week. He came before the service. He said, I'd like you to agree to go out with me after the service and have some refreshment.

Yes, I said, of course. Well, he said, when you're finished and all the people are through speaking with you, I'll come for you. So when he did, he said, now let me tell you the purpose. When we reach the restaurant, I want you to tell me everything that's wrong with me.

And I said, why would I do that? Are you telling me you intend to repent? No, he said, I would not dare say that. But what I must say is, I have two weeks in which to repent. And if I do not repent within two weeks, it'll be too late.

And I said, on what basis do you say that? He said, I know my wicked heart. I'm under incredible conviction right now. But if I don't act, it will be too late. And when we reached the restaurant, I gave him a dozen things.

But I focused upon one. I said, I have never heard you preach, but from what I've seen of you and of your church, I believe that you're a man who loves the Bible, but not the God of the Bible. But I don't want to be unfair.

Would you regard that as unfair? No, he said, that's the heart of it. I said, then you are an unregenerate man on your way to hell and leading multitudes with you. But brothers and sisters, the sad thing was I never heard from the man again.

And my deep feeling was, if indeed he had come to repentance, I would have learned that. Many of these churches that are flourishing are led either by men who have never been born of the Spirit, or men who have backslidden so deeply they don't even know the difference between right and wrong.

And at the heart of the issue with these men is the issue of pride. Now that's our focus. The role of pride over against the place of humility in the church. And the absolute necessity of humility if indeed we are to rightly hope for an outpouring of the Spirit of God.

Seeking the Lord in 1 Chronicles

Now let's focus for a few moments upon 2 Chronicles and the portions that relate immediately to it. I'm going to go back for a moment to 1 Chronicles because it relates directly to this seventh chapter.

And I invite you as I do so to notice these words out of 1 Chronicles 22. I'm reading verses 17, 18, and 19. David also commanded the leaders of Israel to help his son Solomon, saying, is not the Lord your God with you?

And has he not given you rest on every side? For he has given the inhabitants of the land into my hand and the land is subdued before you. Before the Lord, before his people. Now, set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God.

Arise, therefore, and build the sanctuary of the Lord God so that you may bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord and the holy vessels of God into the house that is to be built for the name of the Lord.

So as David speaks to his son about the project that chapters six and seven focus upon in 2 Chronicles, he gives this very straightforward warning. If you seek the Lord your God, then his blessing will be upon you.

He has given this season of rest and prosperity, but don't lose sight of that critical issue of seeking the Lord. Now, a second passage, also out of 1 Chronicles, but this time, chapter 28, a single verse that I draw to your attention.

The words that David spoke specifically to Solomon, his son. 2 Chronicles 28, nine. As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and he understands every intent of the thoughts.

If you seek him, he will let you find him, but if you forsake him, he will forsake you. Now, I don't know how any warning could be plainer, but with those two passages in mind, flip back to 1 Kings 11 and notice this very sobering statement.

1 Kings 11. Now, King Solomon loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh. Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian and Hittite women from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the sons of Israel, you shall not associate with them.

Neither shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods. Yet Solomon held fast to these in love. He had 700 wives, princesses, 300 concubines, and his heart was turned away by his wives.

For it came about when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods. And his heart was not wholly devoted to the Lord. As the heart of David, his father, had bent. For Solomon went after Ashtaroth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the detestable idol of the Ammonites, and Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.

And he did not follow the Lord fully as David, his father, had done. Then Solomon built a high place for Chinosh, the detestable idol of Moab, on the mountain which is east of Jerusalem, and for Malak, the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon.

Thus also he did for all his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. Now the Lord was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned away from the Lord, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him.

And I commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not observe what the Lord had commanded. So the Lord said to Solomon, because you have done this, and you have not kept my covenant and my statues which I commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and give it to your servant.

Is it not amazing that the man who is depicted as the wisest man in the world played the fool, forsook the command of the Lord and brought the wrath of God upon himself and upon Israel? And why? Pride.

Rehoboam and the Necessity of Seeking God

No doubt it has occurred to you that the root of sexual sin is pride. And we all know something at least of the account of what happened. And I want to read a summary statement now from 2 Chronicles 12.

Many of you will remember that Israel was divided as a result of Solomon's sin. And the ten tribes went in one direction and the two tribes in another. And then Rehoboam came to the throne. And listen to these summary words from 2 Chronicles 12, verse 14.

Words summarizing the whole of the life of Rehoboam. And he did evil because he did not set his heart to seek the Lord. Now friends, our Savior taught in the Sermon on the Mount that we are to seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

And He assured us that if we do so, all these other things will be added unto us. And then He stated very plainly, after all these things do the Gentiles seek. There is in every human breast a seeking aspect.

We are always looking for something. And if we do not set our hearts to seek the Lord, we end up seeking something else. Our Lord is assured of it. If you seek Me first and My Kingdom, all else will be added unto you.

But it is an absolute guarantee that if you don't seek Him first, you will seek something else, as did Solomon, as did Rehoboam, and you will lose the Kingdom. Do you remember the summary words concerning the situation that Asa was facing in the early days of his reign?

He said, the Kingdom is ours because we sought the Lord and He let us find Him. And we in North America must acknowledge we have lost the Kingdom because we did not set our hearts to seek the Lord. And pride is the underlying issue.

Many foolish people with whom I speak say, I don't see why you keep stressing that we must seek the Lord. I didn't know He was lost. And I say to them, there's something else you obviously don't know.

And that is, you're lost. You remember the words of Isaiah 57, 15. Thus saith the High and the Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy. I dwell in the High and Lofty Place with Him also who is broken and contrite to revive the heart of the broken one, to revive the spirit of the contrite.

God has a limited habitation. He dwells in only two places, the High and the Lofty, and the heart and the spirit of the broken and the contrite. We have millions of people in our land who honestly think they're Christians because they once gave a hearty salute to Christ.

But no, Christ only dwells in the broken and the contrite. The proud and hard know nothing of God. They may have adopted religious language, but God makes it crystal clear. He holds the proud in heart at arm's length.

And we would do well to remember how long the arm of God is. So Asa says, the land is still ours because we sought Him and He let us find Him. And we say, the land is no longer ours because we did not seek God and we have not found Him.

And that leaves us at a juncture where we either get serious or it's too late. So we have the account of Solomon with all of his wisdom departing from the Lord. We have the account of Rehoboam and all the potential good that was in him departing from the Lord.

Joash, Uzziah, and Pride After Prosperity

I make reference briefly to another king. A young fellow by the name of Joash. His story is also in Chronicles. I'm referring specifically now to chapter 24. And I want to give you just ever so brief a sketch of this man and then remind you of the tragedy that happened in his life.

Joash was just a boy when he became not Joash. Joash was just a boy when he became king. And in all the early years of his reign, there was a high priest who was a godly man by the name of Jehoiada upon whom this boy king leaned.

But when the old priest died, then the princess in the kingdom spoke flattering words to the boy king and he was swayed. You see, part of the great problem in our church is a significant portion of the people are leaners.

Not leaning on the Lord, but leaning on some spiritual prop. And when that prop is gone, down they go. Here this boy king turns completely aside after several years of walking the straight and the narrow.

Then in the providence of God, the son of Jehoiada, the high priest, is a prophet and he appears and he rebukes this boy for his departure. And this foolish, arrogant young king has the prophet Zechariah put to death.

The son of the man upon whom he leaned put to death because he rebuked him for his gross failure. Let me read just a portion out of chapter 24. Picking it up at verse 17. After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came and bowed down to the king and the king listened to them.

They made obeisance to him. They abandoned the house of the Lord, the God of their fathers. They served the Asheron and the idols. So wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem. For this their guilt. He sent prophets to them to bring them back to the Lord.

Though they testified against them, they would not listen. Then the Spirit of God came upon Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, the priest, and he stood above the people and he said to them, thus God has said, why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord and do not prosper?

Because you have forsaken the Lord, He will forsake you. So they conspired against him and at the command of the king, they stoned him to death in the court of the house of the Lord. Pride grips this young king.

And most of us know at least something of the story of Uzziah in chapter 26. Look at verse four. He did right in the sight of the Lord according to all that Amaziah, his father, had done. And he continued to seek God in the days of Zechariah who had understanding through the vision of God.

And as long as he sought the Lord, God prospered him. But dropping down to verse 16, these horrifying words, when he became strong, his heart was so proud that he acted corruptly and he was unfaithful to the Lord his God.

For he entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. Then Azariah the priest entered after him and with him 80 priests of the Lord, valiant men. And they opposed Uzziah the king.

They made it clear, this is not your business. But Uzziah with a censer in his hand was enraged. And while he was enraged with the priest, leprosy broke out upon him. The issue of pride and so clearly described while he was weak, he was seeking the Lord.

But when he became strong, he no longer sought the Lord. Now friends, this has been the history of multitudes. While weak, the Lord is soft. When strong, the Lord is forgotten. This has been the story of multitudes of pastors.

This has been the story of incredibly large numbers of churches. This is the story of nations. When we were small, we sought the Lord. But now, in our great strength, we don't need the Lord. We dismiss Him.

We make a mockery of the things that He holds dear. Now friends, I'd like to give you a list of words that depict the biblical picture of pride. I've had words that I want to mention. Pride is number one, the beginning sin.

At the heart of all that transpired in the garden between Eve and the serpent and Adam and God, the issue of pride is very much in the forefront. So pride is, as I said, number one, the beginning sin.

Number two, pride is a blasphemous sin. A person who tolerates pride elevates themself either to the equal of God or the superior to God. Now the vast majority of people in our churches worship and serve a God scarcely a half inch bigger than themselves.

And that balance is precarious. And very readily, one can go from supposing God is a little bit bigger to thinking themself equal to or superior to God. But whatever form pride takes, it is a blasphemous sin.

Not one of us has anything to be proud about. If you're proud of your physique, you didn't make yourself what you are. If you're proud of your brain power, you didn't have anything to do with that. If you're proud of your physical beauty, whatever it is we take pride in, it is God who made us and determined what we are.

And instead of pride, there should be an incredible spirit of thanksgiving. Pride is truly a blasphemous sin. Number three, pride is tragically a binding sin. A person who allows pride in their life is chained by pride itself.

All true freedom, all true liberty is gone because pride entangles a person and wraps them so much up in themself that they're worthless in terms of the kingdom of God. Number four, pride is a bizarre sin.

You take the people who boast so much of their own prowess, those who feel as if they are truly superior. It might be that anybody could find somebody who looked worse than them in some particular area.

But we are all created beings and the only one we have any right to ever compare ourselves with is Christ. And there isn't a person in this room or anywhere else that looks anywhere near decent in comparison with Christ.

Pride is always bizarre. And bizarre. But pride also, number five, is a barrier sin. It erects walls. It causes division and separation. A high percentage of the church divisions of which I've known over the years, pride is without any doubt the fundamental issue.

Problems in homes that result in divorce. Issues of pride over and over and over and over. Walls are erected by pride. But also, number six, pride is a blinding sin. On the old days when I was a youth, we had the milk wagons that came around and we had the other merchants who brought their stuff and we had the trash peddlers going up and down the streets crying, rags, rags, rags.

And as a boy, I remember all those horses had blinders on so that they had very limited, straightforward vision. Well, pride has a worse effect upon us than blinders have on horses. Pride so obscures our vision that we can't see who we are and where we're headed.

A church beset by pride is blind. They think they're eminently effective. The pastor I described baptizing 1 ,000 people. His success of going from a handful to 6 ,000 in a very short period of time blinded him to reality.

There he was leading a multitude of people to hell and totally unaware of what he was doing. And when an old preacher calls it to his attention, he gets rip-roaring mad. And then when conviction comes, he knows perfectly well, it may be too late for me.

Pride, a blinding sin. Number seven, pride is a boating sin. I know that's not the term everybody uses, but I had an old Welsh grandmother, and every once in a while, she would say, I've got the boating.

Now, if you haven't heard the term, it's an inner sense of something awful that's going to happen. Pride is a boating sin. It carries with it a guarantee. The proud in heart will not be able to see you perish.

Pride does go before a fall. But pride, number eight, is also the backslider sin. You remember the proverb, the backslider in heart is filled again with his own ways. When one comes to Christ in a true conversion, they're emptied of self and filled with Christ.

But when backsliding sets in, then self begins to return and to crowd Christ into the far corners of the heart and life. Backsliding is an issue of pride. But number nine, backsliding in heart and then I mention number nine, pride is a breeder sin.

B-R-E-E-D-E-R. It breeds other sin. I must step down where I can see clearly your eyes and make it clear to you. Most people who think they are repentant have only repented of the fruits of sin in their life.

But underneath the fruits of sin are the roots of sin. And Jude makes it clear that the three great roots of sin are unbelief, stubbornness, rebellion, and pride. If these root sins remain, you can be endlessly confessing the sins that appear on the branches of your life, but there's no change that occurs.

If I may speak very cautiously but specifically, we had a president who was caught in adulterous relationships. He denied them up and down. Finally, he could no longer get away with denying it. The evidence was mounting up so high.

He then confessed his sin. And a lot of silly people among us said, now we must all forgive him. He has confessed his sin. I said, don't be ridiculous. Confessing an adulterous relationship doesn't mean anything, especially someone who has been a habitual adulterer.

We don't have any reason to think he knows anything of repentance until his pride is broken. And I need to pause and ask, is it possible that the repentance you know is of the fruits of sin and you have never moved to repentance of the very roots of sin in your life?