Emotional Attendants

In this part of the sermon: The sermon begins by reviewing the series on repentance and faith as indispensable for salvation, establishing the framework of Scripture, the Shorter Catechism, and the tree…

The image of a tree is used as a visual aid to organize the components of repentance: soil, taproots, trunk, and branches.

focus our attention upon the nature and the fruits of repentance unto life. As we began our study, I informed you of three things that would be the dominant features of the messages on repentance. The scriptures would be our supreme authority, the shorter catechism would be the organizing framework, and the image of a tree would be our visual aid. We then began to consider what is repentance unto life, a phrase taken from Acts 11 and verse 18.

2:11 - 2:50 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: This section introduces the 'attendants' of repentance, likened to branches, which are captured in the Shorter Catechism's prepositional phrases: grief and hatred of sin, full…

The emotional attendants of repentance are likened to the main branches attached to the main trunk of the tree of repentance.

Today, we begin to consider what I'm calling the attendance of repentance unto life. And we may liken them in our visual aid to the main branches that are always attached to the main trunk of that tree. The soil of repentance unto life, the grace of God. The tap roots, an awareness, a felt awareness.

5:12 - 5:34 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Godly sorrow is effecting something in its working. It does not leave the person who experiences it simply buried in this sea of his own emotions of remorse and regret, but it moves him unto repentance.

Paul's grief in writing a stern letter to Corinth is compared to a parent's pain when disciplining a child, illustrating that sternness does not equate to insensitivity.

Others say no, there's enough sternness in what we have as 1 Corinthians 1 Corinthians. That Paul may be referring to that letter, but in any case, the Apostle Paul found himself in a posture where certain sins there in the church at Corinth needed a stern letter. And while he wrote that stern letter, he was grieved and pained in his soul. He wasn't this hard-hearted, right-angled, insensitive guy that says, all right, they're sinning, chop their heads off, give it to them straight, I'm a straight shooter.

14:06 - 14:39 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Until our delight in sin and our pleasure from sin is turned to grief and sorrow for sin, there will be no repentance.

God does not 'dump' the gift of repentance into an unbroken heart, but first brings the sinner to see their sin, illustrating the process of conviction leading to sorrow.

I repeat, until our delight in sin and our pleasure from sin is turned to grief and sorrow for sin, there will be no repentance. When God grants the gift of repentance, He does so by producing that sorrow for sin which works that repentance. He does not dump, as it were, the gift of repentance out of heaven into an unbroken heart. He first of all brings the heart and the mind of the sinner to see his sin, for what it is in relationship to God, in relationship to Christ

19:01 - 19:45 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Until our delight in sin and our pleasure from sin is turned to grief and sorrow for sin, there will be no repentance.

The idea of coming to salvation 'clicking our heels and whistling all the way to the cross' is used to contrast with the necessary sorrow of repentance.

and to His cross. And on the basis of that biblical spirit-wrought perception of sin, God works in the heart of the sinner genuine sorrow for sin, without which there is no repentance for godly sorrow works repentance unto salvation. And so we cannot hope that we will ever come into the possession of God's free saving grace in Jesus Christ clicking our heels and whistling all the way to the cross.

19:45 - 20:21 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin expounds on 2 Corinthians 7, James 4, Jonah 3, and Matthew 5 to demonstrate that grief and sorrow for sin are essential accompaniments of true repentance, turning delight…

The Puritan phrase 'the vomit of the soul' is used to describe the depth of sorrow and change in true repentance.

And I know the question how much sorrow? Sorry enough to quit. Sorry enough to change. Sorry enough to experience what the old Puritans called the vomit of the soul in repentance.

22:04 - 22:18 Read in full sermon

The point: Be miserable, afflicted, mourn, and weep for your sins, turning laughter to mourning and joy to heaviness.

The rhetorical question 'I thought the Bible was given and the gospel was given to make me happy?' is used to challenge superficial understandings of happiness and introduce the necessity of misery for true joy.

He says be afflicted. You know what that word means? It means be miserable. I thought the Bible was given and the gospel was given to make me happy.

24:16 - 24:26 Read in full sermon

The point: Be miserable, afflicted, mourn, and weep for your sins, turning laughter to mourning and joy to heaviness.

The call to repentance is described as shattering 'our glass house of careless giggling,' illustrating the radical shift in perspective required.

Brethren, this is the Word of God. This call to repentance clearly indicates that there is this emotional attendant to true repentance that we call grief. Does with grief, as well as hatred for his sin, turn from it unto God. It is a call for such a radically different, different view of God and of ourselves as to shatter our glass house of careless giggling and see ourselves as we truly are, whether unconverted or as the people of God when repentance is the order of the day.

25:21 - 26:03 Read in full sermon

Driving home: In a day when the God of self-esteem is worshipped both within and without the church, the very use of that term probably sets some of your teeth on edge. Self-loathing? No! Whatever we do, we must stroke our self-esteem…

The worship of self-esteem in society and the church is likened to the worship of the Philistine idol Dagon, highlighting its idolatrous nature.

Self-loathing? No! Whatever we do, we must stroke our self-esteem. The God of self-esteem is the Dagon that is worshipped.

32:51 - 33:02 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Countering the modern emphasis on self-esteem, Martin uses Ezekiel 20, Ezekiel 36, and Job 42 to show that true repentance includes self-loathing, a humbling sense of unworthiness…

A story of a godly man who said the most sickening sight he ever saw was his own heart, illustrating the depth of self-loathing that can accompany true repentance.

I shall never forget hearing a godly man known in his generation as an unusually godly man saying the most sickening sight he had ever seen was his own heart. The most sickening sight he had ever seen was his own heart. And when God gives us just a little sight of what this heart is and what it's capable of, and yet this God who could consume us has not done so, but come to us in grace and mercy through the gospel and offered his son and a free salvation in him, we are filled with self-loathing.

41:49 - 42:32 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Addressing the 'shameless society,' Martin argues from Ezekiel 16 and Romans 6 that shame for sin is an emotional attendant of repentance, particularly shame that arises from…

The modern societal ethos of 'nobody's supposed to be ashamed of anything' is contrasted with God's teaching on shame in repentance, highlighting the cultural shift.

And then, briefly, let's look at several verses that point to the presence of shame in connection with repentance unto life. And again, this goes counter to the whole ethos of our society. Nobody's supposed to be ashamed of anything. Come out of the closet and tell who you are.

42:33 - 42:52 Read in full sermon

Driving home: It is not shame prior to the gift of forgiveness. It is shame that grows out of divine forgiveness.

Ezekiel 16's depiction of God's relationship with Israel, where Israel is likened to an unwashed baby raised and then becoming a promiscuous bride, illustrates the depth of their sin and the context for their shame.

This chapter hardly fit to read in mixed company. Likens God's relationship to Israel to that of someone who found Israel like an unwashed baby just born. Washes that baby, brings it to maturity, enters into a marriage covenant, and then the bride becomes a whore. Indiscriminate.

43:27 - 43:51 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin explains that grief, self-loathing, and shame are necessary because true repentance involves coming to a right view of God's heart through the Gospel, recognizing His love…

The prodigal son's state before returning to his father is described as 'moral, spiritual madness,' illustrating how distorted views of God lead to sin and how 'coming to himself' involves a right view of the Father.

His law was unreasonable. His standards were absolutely off the wall. And like the prodigal, we have left the Father's presence and left the government of the Father's house because we have distorted views about the Father. But it's interesting in Luke 15, Jesus said, but when He came to Himself, in other words, He was in a state of moral, spiritual madness.

49:03 - 49:34 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The second reason for these emotional attendants is a right view of sin in light of Christ's sufferings on the cross, which reveals the immense cost of sin and breaks the heart.

A couplet from an unknown hymn, 'A bleeding Savior I have viewed and now I hate my sin,' is quoted to illustrate how seeing Christ's suffering leads to hatred of sin.

But then there will always be grief and there will always be self-loathing and some measure of shame in true repentance because we've seen our sin in the light of the sufferings of Jesus. When God confers His mercy, we know He confers it on the basis of what His Son has done. And what His Son has done is He has borne the curse that was our due. And as one hymn writer said, I love this little couplet and I've been trying to track down the hymn from which it is taken and I can't find it.

55:06 - 55:42 Read in full sermon