Repentance and Christianity

The Apostle Paul says, repent and be baptized. An old man once said to me, I repented and I was baptized and I refused to repent again. An elderly lady said to me one time, I read about repentance, but I don't think that I have ever done anything wrong. An elderly man said to me, I am perfect!

Jesus wiped away my sins and I am perfect. A young man recently said to me, I take full responsibility for my mistake and I hate it. And I told God that I'm very sorry for it. And this is a good thing with God, right? What is repentance? Why should a person repent? What should a person repent about? When should a person repent? What should a person who is under the new covenant perform, or be expected to perform, if anything?

Once you're under the new covenant and you've repented, you've been baptized, are you good to go? Are there some expectations that God has of us? Today we're going to examine the topic, Repentance and Christianity, and see the connections that repentance has with being a Christian. Most people consider their spiritual state to be okay. I mean, we're okay with ourself. They feel that they have a static form of goodness. It's pretty good. Not great, but okay. It's kind of static. It moves on from day to day. I'm a fairly good person. There, of course, are rare episodes of mistakes or sins that pop up.

But normally the average individual goes on in this kind of static goodness. They're okay with themselves. And they feel pretty strongly that God is okay with them as well. There was once a church official who was an adulterer. And this church official stated, he said, God understands my weakness, and He's okay with it because of the work that I do for the church. He felt a static goodness. He was okay.

When he looked at himself, life was moving along okay, and the positives and the negatives sort of balanced themselves out. I assume that the women who were involved somehow worked that out as well. There was some rational thought to their complicity in that action. Now you might say, is that shocking? Oh yeah, that's shocking.

No, it's not shocking. That's human nature. It's very common. It's human nature. Jeremiah 17, verse 9 says, The heart is deceitful above all things. That which is reality is not seen. The heart is deceitful. It deceives us into thinking something else. And desperately wicked. It's desperately wicked, but it's very deceitful about its wickedness. And then the question is raised by Jeremiah. Who can know it? Who can know it? Our human nature plays games with us, brethren. It plays games with you and plays games with me.

It's there to protect us and defend us. It's there to help us. It's there to encourage us in being human and being carnal and reaching the objectives, the desires, the lusts, the various things that we want for ourselves. And the end result is a feeling of, I call, static goodness. Kind of a, I'm okay situation.

And this heart of man protects us from the truth, protects us from seeing something in us that is desperately wicked. Not just wicked, not just evil, but desperately wicked. And yet, we're okay. You know? Our days move along. We see them as pretty good. It's human to rationalize some of the craziest things and be okay with them. And we can look at others and say, well, that's amazing what people can rationalize.

It's amazing what Hitler could rationalize. It's just incredible what people who think that they are helping others can rationalize. We see people who are warmongers, who are killing and maiming women and children, but they rationalize that they're good. Their state is the way it ought to be. It's amazing what our human nature can do. We also, with our human nature at work, get the idea that God is okay with us.

In fact, God is okay with this desperate wickedness that is in us. Because we've become okay with it, and we love God, and God loves us, and somehow it all works together, and our static goodness is fine with God as well. In Luke chapter 18 and verse 9, Jesus Christ Himself addresses this concept, this static goodness that you and I feel. Luke chapter 18 and verse 9. He also spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves.

They were pretty confident that they were okay, that they were righteous, and despised others. They saw sin. They were able to judge that in others. They thought they were good. Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector.

Now, the Pharisee was an interesting individual. First of all, the Pharisee was in the right group. Modern day, we might say, he was a Philadelphia-era Christian. He was in the true church. He was okay because of what he was associated with, who he was. He was okay. And also in some of the things that he did, and he felt confident in himself.

And he said, God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. And he could look at other men, and he could be judgmental about them. He's extortioners. He's unjust. He's adulterers.

Even as this tax collector, he could see this in other people. But did he see it in himself?

I am okay with myself because I fast twice a week. And I am okay, and God is okay with me because I give tithes of all that I possess. Because of who I am, the religious sect, affiliation, church, whatever it is, and what I contribute. My tithes, my oblations, I'm approved, you see. I'm good to go. Now here, you can see the rationale. He is desperately wicked, but even in the things that maybe he knows he's doing wrong, he's okay with those because he's in the right group, he's paying his tithes, he's fasting, he's got that covered. You know, positives and negatives are all balanced out here, and he's good to go, as they say. Verse 13, and the tax collector. Now, this guy is not in the sect. Tax collectors were renowned to be thieves and cheats. Well, in fact, they weren't just renowned. It was their job. It was their job. That's how they got paid. They had to collect the tax for the Romans, which the Jews hated anyway, so any Roman tax collector was just loathed. But then he had to collect a little extra for himself, so he had to lie a little about how much tax was owed, because the Romans weren't paying him. See, he wasn't really an official agent of the Roman Empire. Sort of worked for the local rep for the Roman Empire. It was the local representative for Rome that required the Jews to be taxed and to tax themselves.

So this person who was without a group, he was a non-sectarian. He wasn't in the true church, you know? He wasn't in the righteous group. He had nothing sort of to link his righteousness to.

Standing afar off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breath, saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner. Notice, his mind was not about who he was or what affiliation he had.

It was because of what I do. I sin. Be merciful to me because I'm not doing what's right.

I'm doing what's wrong, and I don't like that. Verse 14, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. Now, notice something about this. Neither man had it right.

Neither one of these individuals understood or had it right at all. The first guy thought he was in good shape, and the second guy thought he was in terrible shape. The second guy who thought he was in terrible shape was actually justified in God's eyes and didn't know it. And the first guy thought he was justified in God's eyes, and he wasn't, but didn't know it. Both were firmly convinced of the reverse of what was true. And once again, the heart blinds us, doesn't it?

We don't tend to see. In Acts 13 and verse 22, here's what is said about David. And when he had removed Saul, when he had removed Saul, the bad man, Saul was the bad guy. Do you remember Saul? He was a bad king. And then Acts 13, 22, after removing Saul, he made David their king. Out with bad guy, in with good guy. And he, Jesus Christ, testified concerning him.

I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do. Notice those words. A man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do. In fact, through this, we see in the next verse, I tell you, this man, I'm sorry, no, no. From this man's descendants, God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus as he promised. Wow! Does it get better than that? God's saying you're a man after my own heart. God's saying that you will do what I command. And one of your grandchildren will be the son of the living God, the Messiah. That's really something great. Now, how would you compare yourself to King David? How would you compare yourself to King David? You know, God wrote about his life for you and me so that we would compare ourselves with King David in one sense. So that we would use him as an example.

So we are to compare. We are to consider the life of David and then look at ourselves.

Not that we're trying to be like David, but we're to compare lives and see similarities and compare and consider. But be careful. If you're not careful, you will overlook the link between the story of David and yourself. If you look closely, however, you will see yourself in the details of the life of David. You can either see it or you can miss it all. Depends on whether you have the right mind. David was a great man. Let me tell you this. You, too, are a great man or a great woman.

I have a lot of respect for each of you. I thank God for each of you. I am inspired, and so is Mr. Anderson, to be ministers of people who have spiritual integrity and are doing very well in their lives. David was a great man. David was inspired by God to develop the plans for the temple in Jerusalem. Now, you and I think of that as a building. Okay, well, he got to build a building. No. Think of this from David's standpoint. He was going to build the building that God was going to live in. He was going to build the building that his grandson, great-great-great-grandson from heaven would come down and one day occupy and rule the world from.

He got to be inspired with the plans for that holy temple, perhaps the most beautiful building that was ever made on this earth because the plans came from God.

David also worked with Samuel, the great prophet, in arranging the order of the priests.

He inspired Israel to give generously to the creation of this awesome project, this fabulous building where God would live. The temple of Jerusalem was prophetic of Jesus Christ's return and rule from Jerusalem in a temple where you and I will be with Jesus Christ if we are there with him, or he calls us pillars that will be right in the temple. We'll rule with him in his throne from a spiritual temple. David loved God's law. He was eager for the day when Jesus Christ will come and rule using that law in the temple at Jerusalem and will govern the world, and David will be over the 12 tribes of Israel. See how close David is to all these things.

It's hard to compare ourselves with an individual like that, isn't it? And yet we must.

Close the doors, and I'm going to tell you a secret about one of the chief leaders of God's church. I'm going to expose one of the sins that is deep and dark. It's tried to be hidden. He's a great man. Yes, this leader of the church is a great man. You can be sure of that. But he's tried to hide some real nasty misdeeds in his life. He likes to cover that up. Doesn't want anybody to know. Doesn't want you or me or anybody else to know. I'm going to expose him right now, so are you ready? Now I have this from a very reliable source. Don't consider this to be just rumor. Got it from a very reliable source. It's going to be offensive. Here we go.

2 Samuel 11, verse 1. 2 Samuel 11, verse 1. And it happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go back out to battle. See, kings will fight until October or so.

The rains start falling. In mid-October, it gets very cold up around Jerusalem. It even snows.

The winters are very cold and rainy and wet. And so kings didn't fight during the winter.

But there had been some battles going on the previous fall that had to be interrupted.

And so at the time when the kings go back out to battle in the spring, David sent Joab and his servants with Joab and all Israel. In other words, the armies of Israel went out. David didn't go out.

Why not? Well, there was a rule that soldiers only fought from the age of 20 to 50. And at 50, they did not go to battle anymore. And at this point, it's assumed that David was somewhere in his mid-50s. So he probably wouldn't be going out to battle. But he sent his commander, Joab, and all the armies out. And they destroyed this people of Ammon that they had been previously fighting. And they besieged Raba, but David remained at Jerusalem. Then it happened one evening, as the story goes on, that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house. And from the roof, he saw a woman bathing. She was going through probably a purification right, as the story tells us, probably in a spring-fed pool that came into a courtyard next to her home.

The fact that she was doing this is something that she needed to do. But this courtyard was uncovered. It wasn't covered over the top. And it was probably a neighboring residence to the palace of King David. Now, just to sort of give you a view, you have Jerusalem, which is fairly high. And as you come down the eastern slope of Jerusalem, you come down to the Temple Mount and finally down into the Valley of Kidron. And sort of swinging around on the south side, that Temple Mount area also continues a journey down a hillside. Well, as it falls off below the temple, working its way down that hillside, you had King David's palace, or it's called the City of David. It was a small area that was for David and his palace. But below him, the valley kept falling away. And you had various pools that are famous in the Bible and Hezekiah's tunnel and things running down that area. So when David walked outside, he was able to look not only across at the neighborhood, but he was also looking down. Turns out that one evening, he arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the King's house. People still do that to this day throughout the east. Their roofs are flat, they have a short wall on them. And when the evening comes, the cool of the day comes, you get out of your hot house and you go up on the roof. And the breeze is nice, the temperature is nice. David went up and he saw a woman bathing who was performing this purification right. And the woman was very beautiful to behold.

Now, let's just ask a question. How should a person handle an unintentional incident like this?

Is there anything wrong with him looking out and seeing a woman who perhaps was not dressed or whatever? Who knows what the situation was? No, there isn't. It was an unintentional incident. But what do you do with that? What do you do with that? You can appreciate it for what it's worth, you can withdraw and go on about your business. Or you can allow your sensuality to be excited, but it presents you with a choice, doesn't it? That in itself is not sin and not wrong, but it presents us with a choice. In this situation, three things were working against David.

One thing was his own human nature and selfish passions. And when we're focused on ourself, human nature says, oh yeah, well that's what you want to think about or that's what you want to do or whatever. Yeah, that's good. You just keep doing that. But God's Spirit says, no, there's another way. There's a different way. It's a different way to walk, a different way to think, a different way to do. But one thing working against him then was his own human nature and passions. The second thing that was working against him was Bathsheba, who was being a modest at the least. Anyway, you look at it, she was being a modest right inside of the palace. Many commentators feel that she deliberately baited David. Now, this is not a woman who didn't know David. In fact, she was the next door neighbor within sight and she was the wife of his chief commander, whom David was very close to because David was the king, he was the head of the army, he was a warrior, and his right hand man lived next door. And that was that man's wife. Whether or not he knew her, she knew him. And women sometimes are intrigued by power and position and authority and don't mind playing up to that. And so here we see she is out doing something that is a modest in the least. The third thing he had working against him was the influence of society. Does that sound familiar? The influence of society.

The Keelan De Leech commentary says, among the acknowledged sins that God tolerated in ancient Israel because of the hardness of Israel's heart was polygamy, which encouraged licentiousness and the tendency to sensual excess. Back in Deuteronomy 1717, God had warned the kings about taking multiple wives. However, the commentary says, opposed to such a warning as God gave in Deuteronomy 1717, was to the notion so prevalent in the east that a well-filled harem is essential to the splendor of a princely court. God says one thing, but the culture and the hard-heartedness of the people had brought in polygamy, and every king in the region had multiple wives. And that was your big deal. You fill your palace with your wives and your kids, and it all, you know, it all seems to work, doesn't it? And you can kind of justify it in your mind. Society promoted polygamy, and David didn't resist it. David did not resist it. You know, whatever happened to Michael, the girl of his dreams, King Saul's daughter, whom he married, David had many wives, and David was okay with polygamy. Now, polygamists, if you think about this, polygamists are okay with checking out potential future wives. You know, you understand how this works. If you have one wife, but if you're a polygamist, you're always on the prowl. You're always on the lookout for another one.

If you've got two or three or six, you're always scanning, aren't you? And how do you obtain another wife? Well, at some point, you've got to desire her, don't you? You've got to fall in love with her. You know, that's why Jesus said over in Matthew chapter 6 that a person who looks at another woman to lust after her has already committed adultery in his heart. A polygamist cannot help but break the commandment of adultery because he's not faithful to his own wife, based on that statement that Jesus Christ made. So David had a wandering eye, didn't he? And he was okay with that. And he was lusting for other people, and he was okay with that. And so he sent, in verse 3, an inquired about the woman. And someone said, is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?

You know, you're one of your main guys there.

Maybe your husband didn't work directly for David, but maybe he was a Joab's general. You know, he was one of Joab's head guys. And David probably lived next to Joab, and Uriah maybe lived right next to Joab. So here was a situation all set up that David sent messengers and took her. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on just a second here.

Even if you're a polygamist, what about that the wife of? She's the wife of someone else.

How do you justify that? How do you rationalize that? Is it like the individual said, well, yeah, I may be an adulterer, but God's okay with that because of the work that I do for the church.

God's okay with that because I designed the temple, and I set the priesthood in order, and I go out and I fight really hard. And God understands my weaknesses.

Or whatever you and I might come up with in our life. We balance out. I've got my bad points, but I've got my good points, and it all balances out. So we're okay. And God always blesses me.

God always blesses me. I've had any big cursing, so I know that he's okay. Like David, always win the battles, always win the wars. Things are going well in the kingdom. So, you know, this is working with God, too. She came to him. He lay with her. They both were happy about this. She was cleansed from her impurity. That's what the the bathing ritual was about. And she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and so she sent for David and told him, I am with child. You know, James chapter 1, verse 14 and 15, talks about sin and how sin develops. And it uses human nature. It uses our self-centered mentality. It says in James 1, 14, but each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. It's not wrong to have desires because that's just who we are. That's the first thought that comes to your head. But notice when he is drawn away by those desires.

The thought comes to your head. Wow, that pork smells and would taste pretty good. But if you walk away and say, you know, I don't need ham. I don't like trichina worms climbing around in my system and chewing holes through my stomach lining and getting into my other organs. It's just not something I like to do. Trichinosis is not for me. So I won't be eating pork. And besides, God says not to eat pork. Okay, the other person might say, well, I'm not eating pork.

Okay, the other person might say, well, nobody's here. And besides, it says in the Bible, whatever is set before you, receive with thanks.

You know, and we can begin to rationalize, can't we? And pretty soon, you know, I didn't die from it. Didn't even get sick. So I guess God's good with that. Anyway, it's drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Now, then when desire has conceived, oh, it's given birth. In other words, the desire cooked for a while. It incubated.

That baby, you know, did some growing in there. And now it's conceived. It gives birth to sin.

The whole bundle comes out. And sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. That's a different direction. So we can see here, David was headed in a course that he was not trying to stop. He didn't see it. He chose not to see it. He chose to avoid it. Even now, he has a child. He goes and has the lady's husband essentially murdered, abandoned. But he's not trying to stop. He didn't abandon. But he did it through warfare. And you know, it is noble to die in war. And this good general died nobly by himself up there against the wall. You know, when the soldiers backed off and let him die. We'll give him a noble funeral. David was okay with that. Bathsheba was okay with that. Everybody seemed okay with that. And they had the baby, and life went on.

David's carnality continued to keep things okay for himself, in his mind's view.

It was not neat. We can admit that. David would have been... it wasn't neat, but somehow it all worked in it. And life went on. Now, we might protest. We might say, oh, I would not have done that. No, no, no. If I were Bathsheba, or if I were David, I would never have done that. But who are we? Well, we're fairly perfect in our own eyes, aren't we? We are...

we're not like those sinners. Remember the Pharisee who said, I'm... thank you that I'm not like those sinners. The extortioners, the adulterers, you know, etc., etc. I'm good to go here. I'm all right. I have this static goodness, and I'm glad I'm not like that. You know, in the Bible, God's servants are not presented with the paragons of all of their sins. They don't have all their bad virtues, and often not all their good virtues. Just some of the things that need to be told so that we can have examples. Oftentimes, we see them as faulted human beings, end of being in individuals with limitations, with faults, like us. And if we don't see that in David, if we treat him as, oh, he's so specially so high, he's a man after God's owner, he's done all these wonderful things, oh, I can't touch him. And then when he makes a mistake, we say, wow, I would never do that. See what we've done?

No identity with that story. That's just one of those stories in the Bible.

But David here is not so much an outright sinner, as you and I are not outright sinners by desire, by determination, however, but we are sinful, faulted people, aren't we? We're trying to do what's right, but we are sinful and we have faults. Just as David tried to do what's right, but he was sinful, and he had faults as well. Sometimes we don't see our fault, just like he did not. So David is presented as a person like you and me. Whether you're a man or a woman, David was much like we are, a person after God's own heart, but someone who is weak and self-centered. Much as the Apostle Paul said, here's who I am and what I want to be mentally, but here's who I am and what I don't want to be physically, spiritually, character-wise. We are faulted. We are self-centered, and we are sinful. You know, like David, we have an amazing calling. You think, David, wow, he's going to be over Israel. Well, wow, you're going to be over cities in Israel. You know, it's just by degree we are going to be the same. David's going to be reigning with Christ. Wow, so are you. You're going to be on his throne with him, reigning with Christ.

There's a lot that we have in common, an awesome calling, great understanding, and a helper. He saw Jesus Christ at that time, the God of the Old Testament, as being the great shepherd that would guide and lead him through his entire life, the good, the bad, just like you and me.

Despite our miserable selves, God is there for us. And just like David, we do not recognize our sinful self. Yes, sometimes we do. Sometimes when the penalty really whaps us hard enough and we get caught red-handed, it's one of those episodic events that happens once in a while that, oh, wow, I have to admit, I guess maybe I was wrong. And we say, if I've done something wrong, please forgive me. What was that if about? Oh, I see that you're offended. Well, if I've done something wrong, forgive me. If I've said, if, if, if, if, if, if I am not taking any responsibility, I'm okay with what happened. But if you're not, you know, work it out. Drop the charges, but I'm not taking responsibility. Is that how we are with God? God, if I've sinned, you forgive me.

And so we don't really see sins a lot, do we? Just like David, we're fairly okay with me.

In Jeremiah chapter 17, in verse 9 and 10, I'd like to turn over there and look at this a little closer. Jeremiah chapter 17, beginning in verse 9. The heart is deceitful above all things. What it's saying is the heart is more deceitful than anything that is deceitful. It is the most deceitful thing you can possibly have. And desperately wicked. It is wicked beyond wicked. It is wicked with desperation attached to it. Now here's a question. Who can know it? Hmm. Not us. Not you and me, because it is deceitful above all things, right? That's why we don't know it. Who can know it? So, you and I go through life with static goodness. The state of, I think I'm okay. I think I'm okay. The answer to who can know it is the next verse, verse 10. I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. Now here we say, I don't know. I don't think that God's finding anything wrong with me, because I'm not receiving correction. Things are working out well. I feel static goodness, and my life is relatively peaceful, except for that time the tire blew out on the freeway, and that was a trial of my life. But I prayed to God, and guess what? They sold tires at the store nearby, and wow, I'm back on the road, and I have static goodness again. You know, sometimes that's as deep as it gets. However, he says to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. Now fruit takes time to grow. Fruit takes time to develop. You can't just say, well look at that person. He just told a lie. Well, that person, you know, is a liar. Well, no, that may have been the only time in his life that person ever does it. That's not fruit. That's an incident. The person says, wow, I made a mistake. I'll repair that. Not guilty, and the person never lies again. That's not fruit, you see. Fruit is patterns of character, repeated choices that we make, and the end product is the result of our actions, of our nature, of our choices that we make. Fruit takes time to grow, takes time to mature, and God is a patient farmer. In fact, God really wants to know what our real fruit is, not just what our little episodes are. Random acts of goodness do not constitute fruit, you see. One person may say, well, you know, Jesus says that greater love has no man than to die for someone else. Okay, so here comes a bus. You're going to get hit. I'll pull you out of the way, and boom, I jump in front of the bus. Woo! I must be the most... God's going to resurrect me, and I'll probably be over-dated, because I have the greatest love of anybody. No, no, these episodes of random kindness are not fruit, okay? But laying down your life, minute by minute, decision by decision, pushing down the self and pushing up the mate, pushing up the friend, pushing up the person in the church, pushing up God and His way and denying the self. This is the sacrifice of my will. That's the living sacrifice, to put aside that which you yourself want and wish you could be to help and serve and support God and His Church.

Like David, we don't tend to see our sinful self, and yet God was waiting as this patient farmer. He's waiting for the harvest, the harvest of the first fruits. He wants to see what kind of crop he's getting. Some of that crop is barley that's growing really nice and fat, and that fruit is developed five, ten times more than the original seed. Another of it is not growing at all.

Maybe it's got one seed in it. It's not even worth harvesting. Or it's a tear. It looks like fruit, but it's a tear. And what does Jesus say? Don't go gather up the tears. No, I want to see the final product. Let it grow up together, and then when it's time for the harvest, we'll know what the fruit is. We'll really know what it is. Humans tend to use God's patience, His kindness, to justify their actions. Example, God is okay with me because, and we can add something in there, because I'm being blessed. I'm not being corrected. I'm getting away with it. So God's okay with that. He can see me. In Romans chapter 2 and verse 4, Paul dashes our maybe confidence, our self-confidence in this notion that we're okay with static goodness because God is not intervening, or the physical blessings come along. These things called physical blessings. I don't think that physical blessings really amount to much. We're supposed to be storing up treasures in heaven, not on earth. I remember one individual who was a married man, fornicating with a teenage girl over a long period of time, was finally removed from a position that he was holding. His boss told him, the man was defending himself of all things, and he says, his boss told him, you know what? You're out of here. You're unemployed. You are gone.

The guy says, well, yeah, but I'm justified, or whatever, whatever. The boss told him, he says, well, prove it. We'll see how successful you are in business. Then if you're successful in business, then we'll know that God approves you.

You know, what kind of logic is that? What kind of logic is that? If you feel like you are being blessed because you have things, does that justify your deeds and your actions? Does that give you a pat on the back? What a horrible, horrible thing that our human nature sometimes would put in our minds. Because I'm being blessed, or I'm not being corrected, or I'm getting away with it, I think it's okay with God for me to do what I'm doing. Romans 2.4, do you despise the riches of God's goodness, his forbearance, and his long suffering? Ah, that's what it's about. It's God's kindness, his goodness, his long suffering with us as the farmer awaits the crop to come in.

Not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance. If there is a goodness that we perceive of God, and we study and we learn, that's going to lead us to cleanse our ways. Verse 5, But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

Notice, God is not sending out correction on you right now. He is not sending out blessings on you right now as sort of a pattern or an indication of good and bad. He is patience.

But notice, you're treasuring up for yourself wrath not for tomorrow, but for the day of wrath. The day of wrath is the day of the Lord. It's when Jesus Christ returns in revelation of the righteous judgment of God.

Eternal life. Well, let's see. Verse 6, Who will render to each one according to his deeds? Notice, not now. He will render to everyone according to their deeds. Not now, but at the end of your life when the grain comes in. And it will be eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality. That's when the award will be given. But to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, then there will be indignation and wrath. So those are future things. Future things. Matthew 3, verse 2, Jesus said, Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of God is coming. And the end of your life is coming. And we are to repent because the kingdom of God is going to be inhabited by those who are righteous, those who have repented, those who have changed. Again, many may feel that God is okay with my sins. I'm special. I'm in the church. I'm in the Philadelphia era. I'm the favored child. I'm thankful not to be part of the world. But Ezekiel chapter 18, verses 20 through 23, we'll put this in better perspective. Ezekiel chapter 18 and verse 20. Notice, The soul who sins shall die. Notice it didn't say the Gentile who sins shall die. It didn't say the Assyrian who sinned shall die. The non-Jew who sinned shall die. The one who's not in the right church who sins shall die. It's the person, the life who sins shall die, period. It says in Romans 2, 11, that there is no partiality with God. He doesn't take the person who's big in the church or big in the ancient Israel and say, well, it's okay because he's doing so much work and he's in such an important position and he loves my law so much, I'm going to cut him some slack. It's okay if he sins. It's okay if he commits adultery. It's okay if, you know, he hates people because he's doing the work. He's got the plans for the temple. Or for you and me, it's okay because they're, you know, paying their tithes. Or they're serving in the church. No, the soul who sins will die, period.

The son shall not bear the guilt to the father. In other words, you can't pass the guilt around. You can't pass responsibility around. The son will not say, okay, well, I'll tell you what.

I'll be like the Apostle Paul. God, take my life, take my eternal life and burn me up in the lake of fire, but save my dad. Or save, like Paul said, save these people in the congregation who are running a fowl. Paul wished he could do that. God says, the son shall not bear the guilt to the father, nor the father bear the guilt to the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself. It's real fruit. It's the genuine article. It's organic, you know. God is looking for the real thing and no games.

Verse 21, but if a wicked man turns from all his sins, if he repents from all his sins, which he has committed, and keeps all my statutes and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live, and he shall not die. That's wonderful news.

Once we repent, in other words, we see and acknowledge our nature, our sins, the mentality, the mindset that we have, and we go about changing that. God is going to give us eternal life.

None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him because of the righteousness that he has done. He shall live, forgetting those things which are behind, looking to those things which are before. Philippians 3, 12. Very positive. That's how God is.

Verse 23, do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?

It says, the Lord God, and not that he should turn from his ways and live.

So that's a wonderful, wonderful thing. But we must realize that not David, not you, and not me are okay as sinning. We're not in an okay state as sinning people. And don't let any of these other things that your human nature will throw at you as giving you the green light make you think that that's okay because it's not. The heart would deceive us and fool us. In 2 Peter 3, and verse 9, we see the will of God manifest. It says, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise. We say, well, he says not to sin, and if you sin, you're going to be cursed. Well, I've done a few sins, and I haven't been cursed. I got a race. I got a new car.

I got something. I've been blessed. I'm feeling better, whatever it is. So we feel real assured.

So God is a little slack concerning his promises. He'll compromise a little.

Do not think that the Lord is slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but it is long suffering. He is long suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Repentance of our human ways, our human nature, which we define for us in Galatians 5, 19 through 21. God's nature contrasted, in Galatians 5, 22, 23. It's all there for us, but we have a lifetime to choose and to show him what we really want to be. We need to remember that Jeremiah 17, 9 says, who can know this heart? If you and I don't see ourselves, and we don't, I don't, you don't. If we don't see ourselves, how can we repent? Well, we've already read that the goodness of God leads us to repentance. What is this goodness of God? We need to open the Word and read of the goodness of God, read of the holiness of God, to recognize him as the supreme one, the perfect one, the holy one, the holy God, with the Holy Spirit, with the Holy Bible, with the Holy Kingdom.

All about God is perfect and holy, the perfect creation. Then we begin to put ourselves into a proper focus. We need to open God's Word. You know, the model prayer includes the words, give us this daily bread. We need daily to have God's guidance, have the goodness of God.

Give us our daily bread. And also it says, forgive us our sins. God will not forgive anything that's not repented of. You can't get on your knees and say, God, forgive me of my sins. He won't. Trust me, he won't. That's an empty platitude.

You can say, God, forgive me for lying, and I hate it, and I'm trying to work on it. Now, that's forgiven. But forgive me my sins if I've committed some. What do you mean? What do you mean about that? You're not repenting of anything. I'm not repenting of anything when we say that.

I have my static goodness. And just in case I've sinned, forgive me of my sins, but I ain't seeing any. I'm not looking for them. See? If you want to be forgiven, you have to repent. Give us your daily bread so that we can see the goodness. You can open our minds to what's wrong. And then forgive us our sins. I didn't say if. We need to name those sins to God. One reveals the other. This word is a mirror by which we look in, and we see ourselves, and then we see our sin. Following that, we should hate that sin, we should repent of it, and God is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. God is not going to forgive something that we don't repent of, that we hold on to, we overlook, and say, oh, I think I'm good to go. I feel good.

Consequently, we've got to enter a state of repentance before baptism and continue in that state of repentance throughout the rest of our life. That is the term of the New Covenant.

You know, the New Covenant isn't pages deep. It's only got one term in it that I know of.

It's a real easy covenant, really. It has one term. You pick up a covenant today, a contract by a house, and you know, you get paperwork that deep. But God's contract has only one term, and it's a simple term. It's real simple. It's defined for us in Revelation 21.7.

The term of the New Covenant is laid out. He who overcomes shall inherit all things. That's the term of the New Covenant. If you enter a state of repentance before baptism and continue in that state until death, and you are an overcomer of sin, you will be in God's kingdom. That is the term of the New Covenant. It's a wonderful thing. It's simple in that sense of understanding it. It says in the next verse, verse 8, But the sinners, and it defines the sinners, will have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. I guess if there's a second term to the New Covenant, it would be that one. Though that's not really a term of... that's not the intent of the contract. It's not to kill people. So what shall we do? Pray for repentance. Pray for repentance.

We need to get close to God and ask Him, since He's the only one that can try our heart, know our mind, ask Him for repentance. The understanding, the view from His perspective of what is wrong with me. And as I read your word and as I think about it, as I pray about it, show me what is wrong with me. Please, show me what is wrong with me. So I can see my sins, and then I can repent of them, and I can change, and I can be forgiven for them.

Mr. Anderson recently mentioned in a sermon that this term, repent, is metanoeo, and it's a term that metamorphosis is drawn from or is associated with. You think of metamorphosis in the butterflies he mentioned, and I couldn't help but think of the caterpillar that crawls along the ground, often has a bunch of furry hair and spikes and funny things, and it eats leaves, gobbles them up from the side, and next thing you know, this thing attaches itself to a leaf and then curls up and informs this chrysalis or pupa or whatever the thing is, and it's in there, and it kind of turns into a goo, I think he said, and then, you know, the outcomes of butterfly. And there's no comparison. There is nothing on the last animal that was on the first one. There's no similarity whatsoever, at least on the outside. I mean, one's a pilot, you know, and the other's down there, you know, getting eaten by things that fly. Just no similarity. And so to repent, Thayer's defines this Greek word, metaneo, as to change one's mind for the better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one's past sins, to change, to totally become something different in regards to how we would think.

If we repent, then we change in a process, and we are forgiven. You know, John 1, verse 8 and 9 says, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. Does anybody ever in this room say I have no sin? I do. I have static goodness, you see. I feel okay a lot of the time. On an average day, I would go through, and I can, I think it's all pretty, the equilibrium is there. I'm good, and God's good with it. Now, I know I'm a sinner, but I don't, if you want me to define that, I would have a tough time, wouldn't I? I'd have a tough time, because my human nature makes excuses for everything, covers everything, sees fault in other people, but I'm left with this fairly static goodness. And so I must say that sometimes I say I have no sin. Well, maybe I don't say that, but I feel it. I feel okay. Then he says we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us about that matter, because the heart is desperately wicked, and more deceitful than anything. You see how this works together? And then the truth is not in us, because we're saying, I'm okay, but that's a lie. I'm not okay. I just don't see where I am. I'm not okay. But verse 9, if we confess our sins, notice, if we didn't just say, if we ask for forgiveness for sins, if we've committed something, just in case, no, if we confess our sins, wow, how do you do that? Then he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We, as Christians, have to be repenting all of our life. And in order to repent, we have to let the goodness of God shine on us to illuminate those sins. Passover is a tribute to the wonderful saving grace of the Father through His Son Jesus Christ, through the blood that He shed for us. In John chapter 3 and verse 13, this one who is such an integral part of our being saved from the death penalty by forgiveness, make some statements. John chapter 3 and verse 13. Jesus said, no one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. Verse 14, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him, faith without works is dead. So whoever believes and lives this way of life that God has put for us, should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him, not just on Him, but has that faith with works, should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. So here's the process that we're invited into, if we're repentors. He who believes in Him is not condemned. In other words, faith with works, that involves loving God's way, loving His laws, and performing them. We are not condemned. But He who does not believe is condemned already. If you don't have the faith, you don't have the actions, you're not keeping the commandments, the law condemns you to death. Verse 19. And this is the condemnation that the light has come into the world and men love darkness. Now here's where the rubber meets the road with you and me. In our static goodness and in those days when we feel we're okay, the light has come into the world, but we prefer the darkness. We don't want this today.

I don't like going to God and saying, God, show me where I'm wrong because I'm afraid He'll beat me up. I'm afraid I'll see things that are ugly and not nice. And I am a nice guy. You know? I am. I'm a nice guy. And I'm doing okay. And so, not today. I'm having a good day, thank you.

But we sometimes don't want to see the light. We don't want to say, okay, God, show me where I'm sitting. I'd rather stay in the dark where I can't see myself.

Men love darkness rather than light. Why? Because their deeds were evil.

Didn't necessarily know their deeds were evil. They suspected there might be some problems, but they preferred to stay in the dark. And that's me. And that's you. Any day, we don't want to repent. Any day, we don't want to be shown by God and have our weaknesses exposed. Any day, we want to shell out of the new contract, which is repent and you'll be in the kingdom. And we say, hmm, you know, I want to be in the kingdom, but I don't feel like repenting today. I don't feel like really getting involved in that. Maybe we'll do that another day.

Verse 20. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light. You ever find yourself maybe not praying, not studying? Because maybe you feel maybe things aren't just right and you don't want to come to the light because you're practicing evil. Notice, lest his deeds should be exposed. This will expose my deeds.

It will. This will expose your deeds. This will expose your mental concepts. This will expose everything. And with God's Holy Spirit working in you, he will bring into sharp focus.

Maybe one thing now, another thing later that we can be working on for the rest of our life. Verse 21. But he who does the truth, not just has the truth, knows the truth, he who does the truth comes to the light so that his deeds may be clearly seen. I want to come to the light.

I want to know what's wrong with me. I want God to test drive me and show me where I'm deficient.

He desires repentance and change and prays for it daily and loves it and likes to see the growth and likes to be closer to God and likes to be a better person to others around.

And his deeds, it says that they have been done in God, with God, with his Spirit, with his help. In conclusion, David's example did not end with this Bathsheba event.

David came to the light. He actually sought out the light. It had to be brought to his attention.

An individual showed him what was wrong, and it was a rude awakening, and he really hated it. It's funny, the thing that should have been so obvious to him, his human nature convinced him didn't exist. And yet, when he was told about it, because of his heart, he had heartbroken repentance. In Psalm 53, we read the writings of David, a song that he wrote following this awakening that took place, and his response to it. Again, this is why David is so far up there, as it were, and remains up there, even though he was defective, like you and I, in character at times. Psalm 51 says here, a prayer of repentance to the chief musician, a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba.

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. His transgressions, he wanted to blot it out. He's recognizing them. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

It's defined. It's even defined in the heading of this psalm. For I acknowledge my transgressions.

And my sin is always before me. I acknowledge that I was wrong. Against you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight, that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge. Verse 7, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. You want God to purge you? Well, it depends. Do you want to be clean? What kind of cleaner do you want to be purged with? One that really cleans you up?

Kind of depends, doesn't it? Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me hear joy and gladness that the bones you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Verse 10, create in me a clean heart of God and renew a steadfast spirit within me. And do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me.

Verse 14, deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed. I killed a man. I killed a person loyal to me who would give his life for me and then I just took it so that I could take his wife.

Deliver me from that guilt.

A heartbroken repentance is what our Father wants. That's all he really wants. He wants us to repent. And those who are repentant regularly, daily, will be in the kingdom. And when we come to the light, his word drives deep into our hearts like a two-edged sword. You know, it checks us out.

It checks out every little joint and marrow, actually, of the mind, of our intent, and it'll reveal where the faults are and where they're not. God really is the only one that can know that. You can't just sit around and beat up on yourself and be accurate any more than the Pharisee of the public could. But God can, and David knew that. And the result is that we will see that against God, I have sinned and done evil in his sight. And when we see that, we can hate that, and we can repent of that, and we can change that and be forgiven of that. And guess what? Then we're okay. We are okay, and we're okay with God. Repentant people are okay, and they are okay with God. They're called holy, they're called righteous, they're called children of God.

It's when we're not repentant that we feel we're okay, and we think we're okay, that we're not okay because we've deceived ourselves, and the reverse is true. Jesus holds up King David as a model to whom we can scarcely compare ourselves. But God gives us both sides of David's life for our own good so that we can understand. Repentance is first a change of the heart and the mind.

That Greek metanoia and the record of David's righteousness and his misadventures form a long, lifelong story that admonishes us to embrace God's law, embrace his commandments, to shun evil and embrace righteousness, and to desire as he set us forth the example to come out of the dark, to seek the light, be bold and say, I want to be like God, I want to be repentant, I want to be like Christ. Let's learn to develop this heart of David and realize that Christians and repentance are the same thing. Christians and repentance are the same thing. Repentance is what makes a Christian, and without it we are not Christ-like. David's many Psalms point the way for us, and the way is salvation through constant repentance. So as we approach this Pass overseas and in every day in our life, let's remember the importance of repenting every day. And if we do that, then we will be children of God now and forever.