A Repentant Heart

When Jesus Christ gave His very famous Sermon on the Mount, right at the end of it, He said something ominous. In Matthew 7, we'll pick it up in verse 20. He said, Therefore, by their fruits you will know them. Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father. Many will say to Me in that day, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, done many wonders in Your name? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you, depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness. Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew and beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. He's talking about salvation. He's talking about eternal life. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, verse 26, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rains descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on the house, and it fell, and great was its fall. And again, he's talking about salvation. And so it was when Jesus had ended these sayings, they were astonished at his teachings, for he taught them as one having authority, not as the scribes. He was laying it down. You want salvation? Here's how you're going to get it. So he said that not everyone who says Jesus is Lord will be in the kingdom, but many will profess to be a Christian, and they will be baptized, and they will attend church. Now, brethren, I'm not talking about the world's Christianity. Today, I'm talking to us, and only to us. Okay? So let's not think it's the other guy today. Let's think it's us today. So many will be baptized, and attend church every Sabbath, and they'll do great service in the church, like Mr. Petty talked about last week. Oh, they'll serve, but not from the heart. This even counts for the ministry, brethren. Jesus said even those who prophesied in His name, cast out demons in His name, are not exempt. This is a salvation issue for every single individual, no matter what your place in the congregation is. It doesn't matter. It's for all of us. So who's going to be saved? What is God looking for? Well, there's quite a bit. I mean, that's a huge open-ended question. I'm going to cover one little piece of that today. What's God looking for? Well, to become like Him. Okay, sermon over. So what is He looking for? Jesus said, whoever hears and does His sayings. So who does them? What kind of person hears what the Bible teaches and does it? A truly repentant heart does it. A truly repentant heart does it. That's what we're going to talk about today. A repentant heart.

Let's get some definitions out of the way to know what we're talking about, and let's gain a perspective of what it meant in the Old Testament and the New Testament, kind of like what Mr. Thompson did. When we say the word repent. Because the Hebrew word repent and the Greek word repent are actually different. Okay? And in Hebrew, the word just means to be sorry, to have regret. It's an emotional thing in the Hebrew language. Hebrew focuses in on the regret. Oh, I'm sorry. The Greek doesn't do that. It does do that, but it does something else.

So the concept in Hebrew, when you look in the Old Testament, you will often see repentance is combined with another word, an action verb. Because repentance in Hebrew, in the Old Testament, has no action involved with it.

It just means I'm sorry. So oftentimes, in fact, most of the time, when you read repent in the Old Testament, you will read repent and do something. Because repent just means to be sorry. And that's what it meant in the Old Testament. We'll see an example of that in Ezekiel, Chapter 14. Ezekiel, Chapter 14 and Verse 6.

Therefore, say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God, repent. And then he says this, turn away from idols and turn your face away from all abominations. So there's repent and then there's action. And it's almost always combined in the Old Testament. Have deep regret and then do something with that regret. But in the Greek, actually the concept is combined.

So when you say Greek, when they say repent in the New Testament, they mean to have regret and do something. So in the New Testament, it doesn't need to be combined with an action word. When somebody in the New Testament says repent, it means you have to have deep regret in your heart and you have to turn away from what you're doing. That's why oftentimes in the New Testament, you'll just see it say repent. Sometimes you'll actually say it'll say repent and do something in the New Testament also.

But it doesn't have to because the word in Greek itself means there's action involved. So both in the Old Testament and the New Testament, the concept of feeling sorry and doing something are married together.

It's the same message, no matter what language it's told in. But it's told in two different languages, so it's talked about in two different ways. I wanted to make sure that was clear. So as we're going through this repentance and true repentance, there's an emotional side to it and there's a logical side to it. There is a feeling side to it and there is action involved. And it's both. And it's not complete with just one or the other. It's not just, oh yeah, sorry, Bob, I won't do that again. I really care, but I won't do it again.

That's not repentance. That's, oh, I'm so sorry. And you do it again and again and again. Oh, but my heart just bleeds for you. That's not repentance. Neither one of those things is repentance. It has to be, I am so sorry, God. And I will never do that again until the next time we do it again.

We say, I'm sorry, but we mean it. We actually try to never do it again. So the concept of repentance means both to be sorrowful and to change. That's what I'm going to talk about today. What is true repentance? We need to have this repentant heart. Not everybody who says, Lord, Lord, is going to be in the kingdom. And we're going to see in just a minute that Jesus Christ and the apostles whom He taught direct those comments more to those who were already converted, more times to those of us who were already converted than to the world who's not converted.

Yes, they need to repent. Yes, that's the whole gospel message. Jesus came and said, repent. And that's to the whole world. But when we see the instruction in the New Testament and how many times it tells people to repent, it's usually talking to us, you and me. What's the deal? Well, Paul makes a dividing line. And we're going to go through the dividing line, the comparison between what true, godly sorrow is and what human sorrow is.

And there's a difference. And there's one thing that we naturally go through as human beings, and we feel sorry that we do something that blocks true repentance in our lives. And that's what I want to talk about today. This comparison between godly repentance and human repentance, and how we and every one of us have done it, play the human repentance game, and it blocks our spiritual growth.

And, yea, I say that it will keep us out of the kingdom. Let's draw that connection. Okay, so there are two kinds of sorrow. And Paul talks about this in 2 Corinthians. This is where, in 1 Corinthians, Paul rebuked them for allowing sin within the house of God. They allowed a heinous sin to exist in their congregation. Paul tells them to kick them out. So they do! The Corinthians kicked these people out. And now they're on the warpath. Paul talks about, okay, they've repented, let them back in. And we're going to jump in the middle of that passage, because Paul talks about repentance here. He talks about sorrow. 2 Corinthians 7, verse 9.

Now, I'm glad I sent it, not because it hurt you, but because the pain caused you to repent and change your ways. It was the kind of sorrow that God wants. By the way, I'm reading from the New Living Translation. That's why it doesn't sound very King James right now. So, not a word, but you know what I mean. It's the kind of sorrow that God wants His people to have. So you were not harmed by us in any way. For the kind of sorrow God wants is to the experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There is no regret for that kind of sorrow, but worldly sorrow which lacks repentance.

So there's something else instead of repentance when we get sad and we all do it. There's no regret for that kind of sorrow, but worldly sorrow which lacks repentance results in spiritual death. Just see that godly sorrow produced in you. Such earthliness, such concern to clear yourselves, such indignation, such alarm, such longing to see me, such zeal, and such readiness to punish wrong.

You show that you have done everything necessary to make things right. So in the middle of Paul talking about bringing this person back and complimenting them for making things right and making sure that the house of God is clean, he says there's two different kinds of sorrow. One that God wants that's not natural to us and one that we naturally have an earthly kind of sorrow that doesn't involve repentance. It doesn't involve action on our part whatsoever.

And while there is some regret in it, there is some regret in it. Usually we shift the blame to somebody else and almost always we shift it to God. Godly sorrow lights a fire inside of us. It makes us want to change. There's a need to change. We feel it. I bring this up first because I don't want you to hear this entire sermon thinking that God wants to punish you. Because most of us won't think that way, but some of us will. Some of us will hear a sermon like this and think, oh, yeah, I'm bad. God wants to punish me. Yeah, we're all bad. We are. We are all sick inside to one degree or another that God is not looking for punishment. So what is repentance? What's the purpose of it?

The purpose of true repentance is to turn our hearts away from sin and towards God. And that kind of sorrow leads to life. God is not vindictive, but rather wise and merciful. So how, I ask you, how does a wise and merciful God expect us to get down on our knees and bow down before Him? And every time we make a mistake, we have to say we're sorry and we have to make a change. How is that merciful? How is that not punishing us? He knows that true repentance is the only way for us to come back to Him. The other kind of sorrow, the carnal sorrow, we've all experienced it. This sorrow is the opposite of repentance, and it causes us to ignore our faults and blame others for it. We all have played the blame game. Some people play it more than others. Some people are actually addicted to this blame game. And it will cost your salvation. We cannot have this in our heart as a human being.

The human carnal sorrow leads to death because it makes us stubborn to change, resistant to growing, staying in our current state, and never pleasing God. This kind of sorrow we would term it in today's vernacular as self-pity. Feeling sorry for yourself. Self-pity is actually dishonest because it places all the blame on somebody else. It places everything that they did and we did onto them. And the problem with that is we never see ourselves. God's not trying to punish us. He's trying to forgive us. He's trying to give us a path into the kingdom. And we can't do that if we hold on to the very thing that's keeping us out. Self-pity is the problem, and it's often combined with anger. And there's where the relationship problems explode. They balloon. It leads to bitterness, and bitterness leads to death. And there are many good examples of self-pity, but none better than Job in the first part of the book of Job. Job 3. Verse 9. Listen to self-pity in its full bloom.

When I came from the womb, why did the knees receive me, or why the breasts that I should nurse? For I would have lain still and been quiet. I would have been asleep. I would have been at rest. With the kings and the counselors of the earth who built the ruins for themselves, or with princes who had gold and filled their houses with silver. Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, like an infant who never saw the light? There the wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at rest. Why me, Lord? Why me? Oh, we've all been there. Don't judge him. He actually behaved quite better than most of us in this room. But he couldn't see himself. He pitied himself. He was afflicted. He was in great pain. They took a lot more pain for Job to get in this than it would take some of us. He just complained to me yesterday. I was saying something nice, but I threw a little complaint in there. She's like, you always got to throw a complaint in there. Don't you, Rod? I looked at it. For a second I said, yeah, I did that, didn't I? We all do that. I mean, Job was in extreme pain to bring into this point. You and I? Usually not so much. We'll get into this state pretty quickly.

So, he didn't turn to God at first. Oh, he pleaded with God and he reasoned with God, and we'll do that. But he did not repent. Not till the end of the book. Poor Job. His story is written down for all of us to read. We might look at him and pray to God and thank God that we're not like Job.

Thank you, I'm not like that sinner. Yeah, we are, too. That's why it's written down. That's why it's recorded for all these thousands of years. So that in 2014 we could read that and go, oh, yeah, I do that, don't I? I say, poor Job, because we all do it. We all do that. So, who needs to repent?

Paul answers that question. Who needs to repent? In front of the idol to the unknown God in Acts 17. I'm not going to read it. He said, everybody needs to repent. But most of us in the room who are baptized have already repented. But have we been perfected? Because repentance, a repentant heart, is what I'm talking about today. And that repentant heart needs to be in every one of us who resides in the house of God. Because if we're not of a repentant heart, we will stagnate and we will not be in the kingdom of God.

Why do we all need to repent? Psalms 14. Psalms 14, verses 2 and 3. New Living Translation, one more time. Psalm 14, verse 2, the Lord looks down from heaven on the entire human race. He looks to see if anyone is truly wise. If anyone seeks God. But no! All have turned away. All have become corrupt. No one does good. Not a single one. That's why Jesus Christ had to come and die. Not one of us!

You thought that was just in the book of Romans, didn't you? You forgot it was in Psalms also. Romans chapter 3, verse 23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Who needs to repent? Well, we all do. But repentance isn't the one-time act.

If you're not baptized, you do need to consider repentance for that very first time and accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. But don't think that you will be a perfect human being when you get baptized. You come out of that water and you receive the laying on of hands, which is the receiving of the Holy Spirit. That's the planting of the seed. The harvest doesn't happen until the end of your life. And what I'm talking about is the trip that's in between, the growth process. From the time that that seed is planted in us until the fruit is ripe and ready to be picked. When we lay our head down to the last time and breed our last, what we do in between there matters.

And if you've kept the Passover more than a few times, you probably realize that repentance is not a one-time act. I know we all know that, and it's the basics. Brethren, we need to review this. We need to not be callous to the basics and think that we have some kind of a PhD-level education in the Scriptures. Yawn, we don't need to hear this. We do! We all do. I do. When I read this, I know. Oh, I need this sermon. We all need this, brethren. It's something that we all face until we have a spirit body. Until then, we have a war going on in our mind. We cannot let our guard down to the fact that there is a war going on. And it's not outside of us. It's not with people. It's with ourselves. Let's look at how that war is described. James talks about it first. James talks about it in chapter 4. James 4, verse 1. He starts talking about wars with other people, and then he turns it into the war inside. James 4, verse 1. Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure? That war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war, yet you do not have. Because you don't ask. You ask and you don't receive because you ask amiss that you can spend it on your pleasures. Adulterous! Adultruses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God? Adultery here is used figuratively. Remember that God cast out ancient Israel and Judea by causing them invading empires to take them over? And both Israel and Judah were made slaves by their respective captors. And they turned away from God, how? By worshipping idols. How do we do that today? Well, worshipping idols was a mixing of religions. What we would call living the double life. That's all they did. They lived the double life. Is it no big deal to live the double life? It's a salvation issue. They determined for themselves how they would worship God, when they would worship God. I'm sure they put on a good face when they went to synagogue. Do we put on a good face when we come to church? They determined for themselves how they would worship God.

And they did evil and detestable things in the process. Things to each other. Even to the point of they cast their own children into the fire just to worship that idol. Now, we don't kill our children today. Well, in society, we do have abortions, which is terrible. But in the church, we don't actually kill our children. But do we send them out to the world? Do we sacrifice them to the idols of the world by living a double life and putting our stamp of approval on anything they want to do and then wonder why they left the church? God calls the mixing of religions adultery. He wants 100% in total commitment, not 50-50. That's where self-pity lies, self-justification. And that's carnal sorrow, earthly sorrow that leads to death. Are we faking our way through church because we really want to live another way? God considers that adultery. Remember that Jesus said, not everyone who calls in the Lord will be saved, but rather those who take his words to heart and do them. That person will be in the kingdom. And you know what leads to living a double life? What God calls adultery? Self-pity. It's not my fault. Yeah, it went wrong with that other guy, that other lady. It's not my fault. How many times do we say that to ourselves? It's what Job was saying. In order to have personal growth as a Christian, in order to break out of living the double life, we have to do the opposite. Jeremiah Chapter 3 lays it out very clearly. Verse 13. Only acknowledge your guilt. Admit that you rebelled against the Lord your God and committed adultery against Him by worshipping idols under every green tree, or what we would say, by living the double life. You know? What movies do you go watch? What do you fill your brain with? How much alcohol do you drink? When you're not at church. Hopefully you're not drinking right now.

Confess that you refuse to listen to my voice. I, the Lord, have spoken. How do you get out of self-pity? Confess! Yeah, okay! I did it. We've all refused God at times. You are in good company! Every one of us is this way. Nobody can point the finger. Nobody can put their elbow in their spouse's ribs. Not today. This is what James is talking about. Verse 14, return home. Repent, he says. Action is involved. Return home, you wayward children, says the Lord. I am your master. But that word master, interesting word, means husband or caretaker. It means master also. It's not that the translators were idiots. They weren't. You can use it as master. That's not what's intended here. He says, come on back, you adulterous person, because I am your husband. I'm going to take care of you. God doesn't want to punish. That has been the message throughout the entire Bible. We're not in the New Testament. This is Jeremiah. I will bring you back to the land of Israel, one from this town and two from that family, from wherever you are scattered. And I will give you shepherds after my own heart. And I will guide you with knowledge and understanding. James was talking about that very thing. It's more than just cheating on your spouse. That's not the kind of adultery he's talking about. He's talking about cheating on God, doing things your own way, letting your lusts rule over you. It's a war that burns inside ourselves. Lust and self-pity are the fuel to that war. Our unquenchable, wrong desires, our raging sorrows when we don't get what we want, or our rage when we get caught. Paul continues this discussion of this war that happens inside us. We've read it many times before, but we have to consider the fact that when Paul wrote this, when he wrote this about himself, he was already about thirty years converted. Maybe twenty years, maybe even fifteen. But he was really converted at the point he wrote this. He's writing this to the church. Does it apply to people who have not been baptized yet? You bet. In fact, we read this very scripture that I'm going to read in baptismal counseling. But it applies to you and me, because when Paul wrote this, he wasn't an unconverted person groping with becoming baptized. He was already an apostle of Jesus Christ. Romans chapter 7. Romans chapter 7 and verse 14, a very converted man says, For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold understand. For what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not practice. But what I hate, that I do. If then I do what I will not to do, I agree that the law is good. Okay, a lot of people read this and they misunderstand it. Read what he said. I agree the law is good. The law of God is not the problem here. What's the problem? It's the war inside us. Let's read on verse 17. But it is no longer I who do it, but sin dwells in me. Brethren, we know God's law is right. We know the Sabbath is right. You're here today. You're keeping the Sabbath. But there's another law inside us, and it's a war. It's a battle. And if we don't fight that battle, if we just sort of sit back in our recliner, it will overtake us.

For I know that in me that is in my flesh nothing good dwells. For to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find. Skipping down to verse 23. But I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. And then skipping down, same passage, even though we're going to skip chapters. Paul's still writing the same letter. So continuing the thought in chapter 8 in verse 1. Therefore, I'm sorry, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, those who have repented, you and me, who do not walk according to the flesh, but we can't live a double life. But according to the Spirit, 100% of our life is to be lived in the direction towards God. Easy to say, hard to do. That's what Paul's trying to describe here. Okay? For the law of the Spirit, verse 2, is life, and Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. So the law of the sin, the law of the flesh, that is yours and my lust. Not the law of God. People get confused there and think he's talking about the law of God. He's clearly stating that the law of sin is warring in his flesh, his lust. Verse 3.

Notice two things here. The requirement of the law, in this case, the requirement of the law is death, penalty for sin, is righteous. That's a righteous requirement. Paul is not knocking the law. But secondly, notice that he's clearly saying that Jesus Christ paid that requirement, which means that God doesn't want to continually punish us. So what is repentance? Why do we punish ourselves by not repenting? By living in a pool of self-pity and never changing. And if we never change, we constantly go through the things that make us horribly miserable. Why do we punish ourselves by not repenting? Jesus Christ paid the righteous requirement of the law so that we could live according to the Spirit. So we can change.

Why do we wallow in self-pity? God doesn't hold grudges. He wants to forgive. He doesn't want us to repent so that we're constantly satisfying some need that God might have for us to grovel at His feet. He doesn't even want that. God does not want that at all. He's not vindictive. He simply wants us back. And we're so stubborn we don't see that sometimes. If we truly walk back to God and ask Him for forgiveness, He'll do more than forgive us. He doesn't want to just forgive us, brethren. He wants to do so much more. We're the stubborn ones. Ezekiel 36. New Living Translation again. Ezekiel 36. Verse 26.

And I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out of you your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart. Remember Paul said, Oh, wretched man that I am after he was baptized? That stony heart that applies to you and me even after we're baptized. First, you have to turn away from your stony heart. You have to admit that you're in your heart that I am wrong. That's a hard thing to do. That's a very personal thing to do, very private thing to do. You have to say something wrong inside me. After conversion, we have to be willing to do that. Verse 27 of Ezekiel 36. And I will put my spirit in you, that you will follow my decrees and be careful to obey my regulations. What's he saying there? He's saying, Don't worry. I'm going to do that heavy lifting for you. You have to put 100% of your effort in it, but you cannot lift an elephant. You can't do it. But you have to try. And then he'll put his arms around that elephant and lift it right off of your back. Verse 28.

That's astounding. He doesn't just want to forgive us. He wants to bless us. He doesn't just want us back. Oh, hey, Rod. Welcome back. Find yourself some food. He wants a relationship. He wants to bless. The purpose of repentant heart is not punishment. It's relationship. Verse 31. Then you will remember your past sins and despise yourselves for all the detestable things you did. Is that bad? No. Listen up. But remember, God says, says the sovereign Lord, I am not doing this because you deserve it. Oh, my people, Israel, you should be utterly ashamed of all you have done. He ends it with REPENT! Why? Why does he say, I'm going to give you all these good things and say REPENT? Because, brethren, it is a battle. It is a journey all of our lives from the time we're baptized until the time that we lay our head on that pillow and breathe our last. And everything in between is a battle. If we will be ashamed of what we are and what we've done, then God will speedily take us back and continue to cleanse us and mature us to become like Him. That's His mercy and His love. The carnal mind, every one of us, we blame others. You can't pull that one over on God. It doesn't work. He won't play my blame game. He won't play your blame game.

But I can't do this for you, and you can't do this for me. I can't talk you into this, and you can't talk me into this. Oh, we can discuss it. I can give a sermon about it. We can talk about it after church. But I can't do it for you, and you can't do it for me. I can academically know this is correct and even give it in a sermon. And if I don't do it on my own, apart from you, just between me and God, everything I'm saying today is useless to me. And the same applies to you. It doesn't matter what you say about it. It matters what you do about it when you're at home and it's private and it's just between you and God. That's when it counts. You want to read that in the Bible? Let's read that in the Bible. Ezekiel 14. We'll pick it up in verse 14. Ezekiel 14 and verse 14.

As I live, says the Lord God, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, only they would be delivered and the land would be desolate. You stand on your own. It's a relationship. It's not a relationship between you, your spouse, and God, you, your children, and God. You, your parents, and God, it's between you and God. It's between you and God alone.

Verse 17. Or if I bring a sword on the land, enemy invaders come in, and the sword goes through the land and I cut off man and beast from it. Even though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they would be delivered, I'm sorry, they would deliver neither son nor daughter, but only themselves would be delivered. And he goes on, same thing about pestilence. We stand alone before God. Blaming others for what happened? That makes it even more ridiculous, doesn't it? Playing the blame game doesn't work with God, and it doesn't lead to eternal life. Feeling sorry for yourself because life has been disappointing will not lead you to the right conclusion. And since it won't lead you to the right conclusion, God won't tolerate it. He won't tolerate it because he loves you, because he wants you back. So it can seem kind of stern or kind of harsh. But when you step back and look at it from 30,000 feet above and look down over the whole picture, you see, wow, of course he can't tolerate self-pity, blaming others all the time. I won't change. I won't grow. I won't have a relationship with him, and that's the most important thing to him. Yeah, other people do bad things to me, but I do bad things too. And it's my bad things that I do to things that I am that are keeping me apart from God, things that other people do to me, which are very real, do not separate me from God. God's got my back all the time. God's got your back all the time. It's what you and I do to him that separate us from him, and that's what he's talking about, and that's what he's concerned with. So he's not being harsh to tell us to repent. He doesn't want us to grovel at his feet. He's not whipping us on the back. He wants a relationship. I don't know if I said that already. I'll probably say it again.

So feeling sorry for ourselves, because life's been disappointing, will not lead us to the right conclusion. That there's something wrong inside me, inside you. We all bear our own guilt. We all stand alone before God. Down in Chapter 18 of Ezekiel, in verse 20, moving just a little farther down the line, he says, The soul that sins shall die. The son shall not bear guilt for the father, nor the father bear guilt for the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

The really neat part about that is that God is seeking an individual relationship with you.

No one else can do it for you, because he wants you. That's why no one else can do it for you. Because you matter to him.

He wants you as his child. That's why he won't let you get away with saying, but it's someone else's fault. I'm always in trouble, because somebody else is always doing it to me. Verse 21 of that same chapter, But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, and keeps all of my statues, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live. He shall not die.

Eternal life is the reward. Eternal life with an eternal, loving relationship with God. But you know it's God, actually, that leads us to repentance. It's God that actually does the heavy lifting for us.

It's the willingness that we have to have. Let's look at that in Romans 2. Romans 2. We'll read quite a bit here. We're going to read verses 4 through 11. Romans 2.

Verse 4, Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and long-suffering? So even Paul is telling you, God has really got something great in store for you. He's very patient with you. He's very good to you. Not knowing that the goodness of God leads to repentance, he's leading us that direction. Are we following? Are we listening to him?

God isn't patient with us to show us ourselves to ourselves. If he doesn't do that, then we will be blind to ourselves, but he does. Mankind, you and I are naturally blind to ourselves. That's why we play the blame game. We are blind. So pray that God will take that blindness off of your eyes.

We have to do our part, which we'll read in just a minute, but it's very encouraging to know that God is going to do the heavy lifting. Verse 5, It's a constant journey, Paul says. You have to continue, brethren. You have to keep going. You have to have a repentant heart, a heart that's willing to have a relationship with God. Verse 8, But those of you who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth.

You know, part of obeying the truth is admitting the truth to yourself. Hey, I did this. Hey, it's true. Other people did a lot of things to me. The 10% of this problem is mine. And that 10% is enough for me to invoke the death penalty for sinning. I am sorry. I am sorry. Can I have a relationship with you again?

He does the heavy lifting. He'll actually lead us to that conclusion. But we can't be self-seeking. And do not obey the truth, it says in verse 8, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath. Unrighteousness. We live the double life. And then we get indignant towards each other. And we get mad at other people. And we blame other people for what is going on in our lives. When the only thing between us and God is what we do. What other people do to us does not come between us and God.

Tribulation and anguish on every soul of man who does evil. Of the Jew first and of the Greek. So no one is exempt. Both Jews and Gentiles have to repent to have a repentant heart. A heart that's sorry for what he or she has done. And is willing to take action to change.

But glory and honor, verse 10, and peace to everyone who works what is good to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God. Isn't that awesome? There's no cliques. There's no status. It doesn't matter what your position is in your job, in the church. Any of that. It's only between you and God. No one can come between it. I've heard stories of time ago. Nothing to do with Mr. Petty or the elders here. But a long time ago, ministers would tell people, I gave you the Holy Spirit. I can take it away. No, they can't. No, they cannot. It is God who gives it, and it's God who takes it away. And He's on your side. He expects you to do your part. He expects me to do my part, even after we're converted, because there's a war inside me, and there's a war inside you. And I pray that you see that, and that you do not get complacent in your Christianity, in your walk. Become like that Pharisee who's glad he's not like those other sinners. Because those other sinners have nothing to do with what comes in between you and God. It's only you.

In Matthew 9, Jesus says this, Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that beholds many tax collectors and sinners, came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? And when Jesus heard that, He said to them, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. And we already read in Psalms that everybody on the planet is sick. But I go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. In other words, that's why I'm eating with sinners. To give mercy to people. For I did not come to call the righteous, because there's no one righteous on the earth, but sinners to repentance. God doesn't desire to punish us. Repentance may be uncomfortable. This topic is uncomfortable. It's uncomfortable to talk about, and it's uncomfortable to listen to. But it is vital. It is important.

It's not a punishment. It's the only way to receive mercy that God desires to give to us. And even though I've said it probably half a dozen times during the sermon, some of you have a hard time believing that God wants a personal relationship with you. That He wants to lead you to repentance, not as a punishment, but as a cure.

But the point is very clear in the Scriptures. It's all over the Scriptures. God and His angels rejoice when you repent. It says when one sinner comes to repentance, and that certainly happens at baptism. But it also happens when you overcome a major problem, like an addiction, or something that you've been lusting after all of your life and never quit, and you finally overcome it. I'm sure there is a huge chorus of singing between God and the angels. I bet God sings along. Taps His foot.

Luke 15. Luke 15, verse 3. Luke 15, verse 3.

So He spoke this parable, saying to them, What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them? Now, what was a sheep to the man of Judea? What was a single sheep to them? If a man has a hundred sheep and he loses one, what did that mean to them? As soon as He said that, that meant something to them. They perked up. What did that mean to them? Money. Sheep were money. It was a rural economy, an agrarian society. Sheep equaled what we would call dollars. So He makes the point that they would immediately understand. I'm sure when He said that, a hundred sheep, their head just went like that. Oh, a hundred sheep? Somebody said a hundred sheep. He has their attention. What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one who's lost and finds it? Of course you would! Everybody there was going, yeah, I'd go get it. My wife would kill me. Verse 5, And when it is found, He lays it on His shoulders, rejoicing. And when He comes home, He calls together His friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice to me, I have found my sheep, which was lost. He's hugely relieved. Okay, and then He makes a huge point about you and me. We are so much more to God than money. I say to you likewise, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just people who need no repentance. There will be a huge celebration that we got one back. Or what woman, having ten silver coins, if she loses one coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? Are we remembering the picture? God wants a relationship with us. It's important to Him. Verse 9, And when she found it, she calls her friends and neighbors together, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the piece of silver which was lost. Likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one of you and me, who turns around this week and says, I'm sorry I did that. I'm sorry I'm that way. I'm turning around and going to do it a different way now. Please help me. Huge song goes up. God has a great desire for us. He wants a relationship with us. That's why He wants us to repent. That's why we're to have that heart all the way through our Christian walk. 2 Peter 3, just a few more scriptures. Two more. Now three. 2 Peter 3, verse 9. This is encouraging for those of you who doubt God wants a relationship with you, who don't understand why God wants you to repent. That He's not looking to punish you, but that you have to do it because it's the only way to have a relationship with Him. God isn't into this feel-good religion. Just say, Jesus is Lord and you're in. You're in, buddy. Nope. Doesn't work that way. 2 Peter 3, verse 9. He does want a relationship with us. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is long-suffering towards us. Not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat. This is going to come to an end some day.

Both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you be in holy conduct to godliness? Looking for the hastening and the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? Nevertheless, we, according to His promise, look to the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness dwells. Let's go back, brethren, to the story of Job. God wants a relationship with us. God will work hard with us. And He'll even do the heavy lifting. He needs us to have a willing heart. He works hard with Job. Very hard with Job. Oh, He let hard trials come on Him. Hard trials come on you, brethren. Hard trials come on me. Self-pity is not the way out. Job found the way out. God let him through it. It's a great success story. He went through trials. He lost His wife, His health, all of His children, and all of His great wealth. If I lost all my wealth, it wouldn't be a big deal. Job lost his wealth? That's a big deal. Through all of it, he argued with people who came up to him and told him how they knew more than him. And usually, he knew more than them. The people were usually wrong during his trial. Their advice wasn't good at all until the very end. The problem was that Job was self-reliant. Are you self-reliant? Do you defend yourself when you're in trouble?

He was wise and he was wealthy, but he didn't see his own depravity. Oh, I'm baptized. How long have I been in the church? I've been baptized for 20 years, brethren. More than two decades! Well, I don't need this sermon anymore. I'll just close this and walk away. That's the way Job was at one point in his life. He was far better at this Christian walk thing than I am. He was self-reliant. He couldn't see his human nature inside. But finally, God showed Job how small he truly was and how far he truly had to go. That's a hard thing to see. I'm glad God shows me that and pieces. Because if he showed it to me all at once, I would be terrified. But Job's sorrow changed from self-pity to true repentance, from that carnal sorrow that Paul talked about to a godly sorrow. One that combined both regret and action. You can't have one without the other. True repentance is regret with action. And Job finally turned from blaming other people and blaming God to where the blame lied. Can you and I do that? Can we do what Job said in Job 42, verses 5 and 6? Job 42, verses 5 and 6.

I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show you my repentance. The humility of that great man, and he was greater than most of us in this room. He was far greater than me. How much more do we have to say this? What is repentance? Deep regret with action. Who needs to repent? Every single Christian who has been baptized. Yes, so does the world. That is the gospel message. It's just not my sermon today. My sermon was for us, for you and me. Why do we repent? Not because God wants to punish us, but because He wants a child out of you. And you can't become that person when you're stubborn and unyielding, when you're deceitful in your self-pity, in your self-wallowing, when you're deceiving yourself.

But in Matthew, chapter 7, Jesus said on the Sermon on the Mount, Therefore, by their fruits you shall know them. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, not everybody who comes to church on the Sabbath will enter the kingdom of heaven. But He who does the will of my Father in heaven. We've got to mean it, brethren. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name? And I could say, didn't I give a sermon on repentance? And it won't matter. That's not it. Cast out demons in Your name, done many wonders in Your name, and then I will declare to them, I never knew You, which means You don't have my spirit. I don't have time to show you that, but that's exactly what that means. You are unconverted. You do not have the Spirit of God. I never knew You. Whenever He says that, You don't know Me, He's talking about the Holy Spirit.

Where am I? Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness. And for us, brethren, in the Church, lawlessness represents that double life, where half the time we actually kind of try to be a Christian. And the other half the time, we have our foot in the world. We go see whatever movie we want to see. We drink too much alcohol or whatever it might be that our particular problem is. But it's lawlessness. Won't be in the Kingdom. Got to stop that. Got to have a repentant heart. Therefore, whoever hears these things of Mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on a rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house. And it did not fall. Talking about eternal life. For it was founded on the rock. So, who will be in the Kingdom, brethren? Those who hear and do God's will. Only the humble, moldable, repentant heart can do that. Stop blaming others for your mistakes. Don't do it. It'll cost you your life. Lower your guard before God, not necessarily before others, but before God. Put your arms down. Unclench your fists. Lower your guard. And repent. It's not a punishment. It's the cure.