The Nature of Repentance, Part 3

Introduction: The Indispensable and Inseparable Nature of Repentance and Faith

0:02 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, August 14, 2005, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us turn again this morning, as we've done for two previous Lord's Day mornings, to Acts chapter 20, and I shall read in your hearing verses 17 through 24. Acts chapter 20, beginning at verse 17. The Apostle Paul, gathering the elders of the church at Ephesus, Luke gives this account.

1:06 Lord, with all lowliness of mind, and with tears, and with trials which befell me by the plots of the Jews, how I shrank not from declaring unto you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to Jews and to Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now...

1:37 Now behold, I go bound in the Spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, save that the Holy Spirit testifies unto me in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. But I hold not my life of any account as dear unto myself, so that I may accomplish my course and the ministry which I receive from the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God. Let us once again pray, asking God's help in the preaching and hearing of his holy word. Our Father, times without number, those of us who have stood in this place have bowed with your people prior to the ministry of the word, and confessed our need, and pleaded for grace to help us in our need. And we thank you that you've never turned a deaf ear to us. And therefore we are bold to come again this morning and ask that your spirit would be given to preacher and to hearer alike,

2:54 that together we may both be conscious that you are here, that something is at work in this place beyond that which can be accomplished by one human mind framing words and other minds hearing and receiving words. O Lord, may we be conscious that your word is coming to us not in word only, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. Do this, we pray, for the good of our souls, as we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

3:28 In the passage read in your hearing, the Apostle Paul is reviewing, in the presence of the Ephesian elders or pastors, the nature, the spirit, and the content of his ministry. His preaching and teaching ministry among them throughout the course of three years at Ephesus. And as he does this, in describing the content of his preaching and teaching, he describes it in several ways. In verse 24b, he calls it solemnly testifying the gospel of the grace of God.

4:13 In verse 25a, And now, behold, I know that you all among whom I went about preaching the kingdom. He says he solemnly testifies the gospel of the grace of God. Likewise, he was preaching the kingdom. In verse 27, he describes the content of his teaching and preaching as declaring the whole counsel of God.

4:42 And when we come back to verse 21, we find that he testified both to Jews and Greeks repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, these various descriptions of the content of his teaching and preaching ministry are not descriptions of different gospels, but various aspects of the one and only saving gospel of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and I have chosen to focus our attention on verse 21, where it is clear that repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ are set before us as an indispensable element of the gospel of the grace of God. Proclamation of the gospel of God's grace. That is his undeserved kindness, and favor to sinners in the person and work of Jesus that did not sound along with it this note of repentance and of faith.

6:01 And so I have chosen this text as the foundation and framework for a series of messages which I have entitled, Repentance and Faith, the Hinge on Which the Door of Salvation Hangs. In other words, if you ever get through the door into God's saving mercy as embodied in the gospel of the grace of God, it will be because you have personally experienced repentance toward God and toward our Jesus Christ. If you are a stranger to repentance and faith, you are a stranger to God's salvation. These two spiritual things. Graces are both indispensable and they are inseparable. They are indispensable for Jesus said, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Jesus said, he that believeth not shall be damned.

7:03 He that believes not, the wrath of God abides upon him. Indispensable repentance and faith. But they are also inseparable. As Professor Murray has so accurately said, it is impossible to disentangle.

7:18 Faith and repentance, saving faith is permeated with repentance and repentance is permeated with saving faith. Charles Hodge stated it a bit differently, but with equal accuracy. Repentance is the act of a believer and faith is the act of a penitent. So that whoever believes repents and whoever repents believes.

7:44 And yours truly has stated it this way under the imagery of a. Two-eyed look at God's Savior and his salvation. Repentance is the tear in the bright eye of faith. And faith is the gleam of hope in the wet eye of repentance.

8:05 And whenever there is true repentance unto life, there is faith in the Lord Jesus. The scripture recognizes no saving faith divorced from repentance and no repentance. Divorced from faith. We then proceeded to consider the nature of repentance unto life using that phrase from Acts 11 and verse 18.

Framework for the Study of Repentance Unto Life

8:30 Stating that scripture would be our source of authority in this series of messages. The shorter catechism would be our organizational framework. And a tree would be our visual aid. Scripture our authority.

8:47 Shorter catechism our organization. Organizational framework. And the image of a tree our visual aid. So then we began.

8:56 The question in the shorter catechism. What is repentance unto life is answered this way. Repentance unto life is a saving grace. Whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin.

9:11 And an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ. Does with grief and hatred. Of his sin. Turn from it unto God.

9:24 With full purpose of. And endeavor after. New obedience.

The Soil and Taproots of Repentance: God's Grace and Conviction of Sin/Mercy of God

9:30 And then we proceeded with the image of the tree to consider. What is the soil. In which repentance alone can grow. The shorter catechism says.

9:43 Repentance unto life is a saving grace. Grace. It is a manifestation of the operation. Of God's undeserved favor.

9:53 To sinners. Repentance is not a work we perform. To earn God's salvation. It is the evidence of a work.

10:01 God has performed. Fitting us to lay hold. Of his salvation. And this is clearly established.

10:09 By three texts. Many others. But the three texts we consider. Acts 5.31.

10:16 Acts 11.18. 2 Timothy 2.25.

10:20 In each of which it is said. That repentance is given. Repentance is given. Therefore.

10:28 The soil of true. Evangelical saving repentance. Is nothing other than. The grace of God.

10:36 Then we looked at the tap roots. The catechism says. Repentance unto life is a saving grace. That's the soil.

10:44 A saving grace. Whereby is. In the light of these. Two dispositions wrought in his heart.

10:56 Out of a true sense of his sin. And an apprehension. Of the mercy of God. In Christ.

11:04 To put it bluntly. You will never experience. Repentance unto life. Apart from Holy Spirit.

11:12 Conviction of sin. And a Holy Spirit revelation. Of the mercy of God. In Jesus Christ.

11:19 Through the gospel. Without those two tap roots. You will never find. The trunk.

11:24 The substance of true repentance. Whenever someone is truly penitent. In a biblical sense. There you will find in the subsoil.

11:35 Of the heart of that sinner. These two tap roots. A true sense of sin. And an apprehension.

11:43 Of the mercy of God. In Christ. In other words. A felt awareness.

11:49 Of one's own sin. And sinfulness. And a believing grasp. Upon the mercy of God.

11:57 Extended to us. In Jesus Christ. Through the gospel. This is why.

12:05 Repentance must always be preached. In connection with the proclamation. Of the gospel. Otherwise it is mere legal.

12:14 Repentance. And by the way. This is why we as a church. Do not jump on the bandwagon.

12:19 Of these activities. Where by people get together. And they are going to create. In the name of Christ.

12:26 Social righteousness. There will be no true repentance. For abortion. There will be no true repentance.

12:32 For so called same sex marriages. Apart from. Holy spirit wrought conviction. Of sin in the heart.

The Trunk of Repentance: Turning from Sin Unto God

12:41 And a laying whole mercy of God. In Jesus Christ. Well now we come this morning. To the trunk.

12:48 Or the substance of repentance unto life. The soil. The grace of God. The tap roots.

12:55 Conviction of sin. And the laying whole of God's mercy. In Christ. Now then thirdly.

13:01 What is the trunk. Or the substance. Of repentance unto life. Well if we strip away.

13:08 From the shorter catechism definition. All of the prepositional phrases. And the dependent clauses. Here is the answer of the catechism.

13:17 Listen to it. Repentance is a. Saving grace. Whereby a sinner turns.

13:25 From his sin. Unto God. That's the essence. Of repentance.

13:31 That's the substance. That's the trunk that grows out of the soil. Of the grace of God. Supported and nourished.

13:40 By those two tap roots. Saving is a saving grace. Repentance is a saving grace. Whereby a sinner.

13:50 From his sin. Unto God. And I want us to consider then. The substance.

13:57 The essence. The trunk of this tree. Of repentance unto life. Under two headings.

14:03 Repentance unto life. Is a God focused grace. And repentance unto life. Is a sin repudiating grace.

14:15 Repentance unto life. Is a God focused grace. Repentance. Repentance.

14:21 Is that disposition and activity of the soul. Whereby the sinner turns. From his sin. Unto God.

14:30 Repentance unto life. Is a God focused grace. But it is one in which he turns. From his sin.

14:39 It is a sin repudiating grace. And we will have time this morning. Only for the first. Of those two aspects.

Biblical Demonstration: Repentance as a God-Focused Grace (Texts Affirming)

14:48 Of the main trunk. Of the tree. We are simply considered together. The fact that repentance unto life.

14:57 Is a God focused grace. And how will I attempt to set that before you. Very simply. I am going to set before you.

15:06 The biblical demonstration of this reality. And then I am going to give to you. The biblical explanation. For this reality.

15:15 Why is repentance unto life. Fundamentally. A God focused grace. How do we know that it is.

15:23 Why is it. Well I want to give you the biblical demonstration. Of this reality. And then a biblical explanation.

15:31 For that reality. Alright. We take up then the biblical demonstration. Of this reality.

15:38 We are going to look at three texts. That establish it. And three texts that illustrate it. Alright.

15:43 So you know where we are going. You have got the road map in front of you. I am seeking to prove but one thing this morning. From the Bible.

15:50 And that is. That repentance unto life is a God focused reality. And I am not simply trying to teach you. I want this to become very personal.

16:00 If you have never known. And if you do not sit here. Knowing this hour. What it is to have a repentance.

16:08 That is a God focused repentance. You are a stranger to God's grace. And to his salvation. Now then.

16:18 The biblical demonstration of this reality. We are going to consider. Three texts that demonstrate it. And three texts that illustrate it.

16:27 Turn please to Isaiah chapter 55.

16:31 Isaiah chapter 55.

16:34 In what is one of the most profound. And comprehensive passages. On a biblical call to repentance. This truth stands on the very surface of the text.

16:47 In the opening verses of Isaiah 55. God takes the posture. And the image. Of a hawker.

16:54 A street hawker. A street vendor. And God is offering his salvation. Free of charge.

17:01 And pleading with people to come. And to partake of that salvation. Under the image of milk. And wine.

17:09 And bread. And after giving that free invitation. Then the gospel command comes in verse 6. Seek the Lord.

17:18 While he may be found. Call upon him. While he may be found. While he is near.

17:25 Let the wicked forsake his way. And the unrighteous man his thoughts. And let him return unto the Lord. And he will have mercy upon him.

17:36 And to our God. For he will abundantly pardon. Now do you see how I emphasized in my reading. The God centeredness.

17:48 Of this call to repentance. God through the prophet. Calls upon sinning Israel. To seek the Lord.

17:57 Now they desperately need forgiveness. They desperately need cleansing. Read the opening chapter. Of the prophecy of Isaiah.

18:05 And God likens the nation. To someone who is sick. From the sole of the feet. To the top of the head.

18:12 Open sores and wounds. And polluted and vile. And detestable. These people desperately need God's forgiveness.

18:21 And God's cleansing. But when he gives his call. To appropriate that forgiveness and cleansing. There is a God centeredness.

18:30 From the very outset. Seek the Lord. While he may be found. Call upon him.

18:36 While he is near. Now here is the repentance. Let the wicked forsake his way. We will see that God willing in our next study.

18:45 That repentance unto life. Is a sin repudiating grace. And here the repudiation. Is clearly called for.

18:54 Let the wicked forsake his way. Let the wicked forsake his way. Let the wicked forsake his way. Let the wicked forsake his way.

18:55 Let the wicked forsake his way. Let the wicked forsake his way. could forsake his way in the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and here is the promise of mercy extended on the basis of the suffering servant in Isaiah 53 here's the promise that there is mercy if you will turn and return unto the Lord he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon so you see woven through the very texture of this summons to repentance through the prophet Isaiah is the emphasis of the God focus nature of repentance that in true repentance we get beyond the mere natural naggings of conscience we get beyond the sense that people around us in the religious community have condemned what we've done and what we've become and what we are we get the sense that there is something that we have to do to be able to repent and repent through the Kens hvor iz something far beyond the influence that only human beings can exert upon the soul. And the person called to repentance is called to this God-focused grace of thorough and deep repentance. Now we turn to the New Testament and we find the same emphasis, Acts chapter 20,

20:16 the text that is the basis of this entire series. And I want you to notice now carefully the language used by the apostle. He says in verse 21 that he solemnly testified both to Jews and to Greeks, repentance toward God, faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. He does not state merely repentance, but he says repentance toward God.

20:48 And in the original, the words toward God, or literally the into or the concerning God, repentance. The qualifying words precede the noun repentance. Paul wants to make it clear that the only kind of repentance he preached was this God-focused repentance. It is the into God repentance.

21:15 It is the concerning God. It is not a repentance that merely concerns abstract moral duties and laws that people may have broken. It is not a repentance that merely addresses the sense of guilt and the fear of judgment in the heart of the sinner. It is a God-focused repentance.

21:38 It is the into God. It is the concerning God repentance. It is not self-focused. It is not issue-focused.

21:47 It is not man-focused. It is God-focused. And then we turn to Acts 26. And here Paul is summarizing his ministry, not before a group of Christian pastors, but in the presence of a heathen king.

22:04 He is before King Agrippa. And he is giving his testimony and a summary of his ministry. And notice what he says in verse 19, having spoken about his commission to the apostleship. Wherefore, O King Agrippa, Acts 26.19, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared, both to them of Damascus first, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles. In other words, my message was consistent from the very first sermons I preached after my conversion in Damascus to all of my missionary endeavors until this day. And notice his summary of his message. To all of these, this is what I preached.

22:53 That they, they should repent and to God.

23:02 He is not content to merely use the word repent, but he adds to it the essence and nature of that repentance, repent and to God. It would not be enough for them to merely acknowledge their sin and their sinfulness, to feel a measure of grief and fear and dread in the light of the holiness of God in the future judgment. No, he said, I preached that men should repent and turn to God. He preached what I've called a God-focused repentance.

Biblical Demonstration: Repentance as a God-Focused Grace (Texts Illustrating)

23:41 There was no turning with repentance that did not terminate upon hard dealings with God Himself. So we've looked at three witnesses that demonstrate this reality in terms of the teaching of the text. Now let's look at three exactly, three examples of repentance at work and see how this principle is on the very surface of the passage. We turn to the prodigal, Luke chapter 15, or the parable of the prodigal son,

24:18 which probably should be better named the parable of the gracious father.

24:25 And when our Lord describes the repentance of the prodigal, notice the language that he uses beginning in verse 17. But when he, the prodigal, came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my fathers have bread enough and to spare, and I perish here with hunger. I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven, and in your sight, no more worthy to be called your son. Make me as one of your hired servants.

25:01 And he arose and came to his father. But while he was yet, far off, his father saw him and was moved with compassion and ran and fell upon his neck and kissed him. Do you see how dominant the father is in those verses? This was relational repentance.

25:23 When the prodigal comes to himself and he thinks of leaving sin, which is part of the essence of repentance, a turning from sin. He didn't go around and see if he could get a few minutes of the gals from the local whorehouses to make their way back with him so he could shack up with them in the servants' quarters. No, no, he left the harlots. He left the hogpins.

25:48 He left all of his associations. And we will see that, God willing, in our next message, that repentance under life is a sin repudiating grace. But notice how it is a God-focused grace. It was the father.

26:03 He thinks of how the father's heart is manifested in his treatment, even of his servants. How much more of the treatment he had received as a son. And he acknowledges it was kind and gracious because he says, I'm not worthy to be your son. The way you treat your sons, I'm not worthy to be treated that way.

26:24 He has a whole different perspective about God's government, about his father's government, about his father's face, about his father's presence, his father's ways. Everything is, in his repentance, focuses upon the father. I will say to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven in your sight. No more worthy.

26:45 He arises and goes to his father. Didn't say he rises to go to his father's table, go to his father's bedroom, go to his father's banquet. He goes to his father. The father is central in the repentance of the prodigal.

27:01 Why? Because our Lord is illustrating what it means for him to repent, receive sinners, and what it is for sinners to come to repentance, causing joy in God and all the angels who enter in to his joy when sinners repent and return to God. So witness, number one, by way of example, is the prodigal. Turn to Psalm 51.

27:26 One must never think long about repentance without going frequently to Psalm 51. Here is David, pours out his heart after the prophet Nathan has come and been God's instrument to bring him to the breaking point over his sin of adultery and murder and hypocrisy and hardness of heart for the space of about a year. Notice David's prayer when his heart is broken. When the grace of repentance is going to be opened up afresh in his soul, what comes out?

28:03 Have mercy upon me, O God. According to your lovingkindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions.

28:20 My sin is ever before me. Now notice where he goes. Against you, and you only have I sinned. Done that which is evil in your sight, that you might be justified when you speak and be clear.

28:36 When you judge. Behold, look upon me, God. I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. Do you see the God-focused nature of his repentance?

28:50 He comes to have heart dealings directly with God. And though his sin is ever before him and plaguing him, there is a greater concern. He knows he has sinned against the God of heaven. He has done that which is, which is evil in the sight of his God.

29:09 It was God-focused repentance. And then when we turn to 1 Thessalonians 1, we see the same thing as Paul describes the conversion of the Thessalonians. In the opening verses of 1 Thessalonians 1, he says in verse 4, Knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election. And how did he know their election?

29:34 Verse 5, How that our gospel came not unto you in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and in much assurance. Well, how did he know that the word had come to them in power? Because of what it did in them. And here it is summarized in verse 9, For they themselves report concerning us what manner of entering in we had unto you, how that you turned unto God from idols to serve a living, living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.

30:16 Do you see the God-focused nature of their repentance? Yes, they turned from their idols because true repentance is a sin-repudiating grace. But more dominant than what they turned from is the emphasis on what they turned to. You turned unto God with a disposition and passion now to serve this true God.

30:45 And furthermore, to wait for the consummation of his redemptive grace and power and mercy in the return of Jesus. When they left idols, they became God-obsessed. That's what happened. That's what the word of God does when it comes in power.

31:04 When the gospel comes in power, it leaves in its wake God-obsessed people. People preoccupied with God. Not just people who've taken some goodies from God. Oh, I got a little forgiveness.

31:18 Whoopee! I got a little peace. Double whoopee. Got a little structure to my marriage.

31:27 Triple whoopee. No, it leaves in its wake people of whom it can be said, you turn from unto God to serve the living and the true God and to wait for his Son from the heavens. Repentance unto life is a God-focused, God-focused grace. The biblical demonstration of that reality, we've looked at three texts which clearly affirm it.

Pastoral Application: Is Your Repentance God-Focused?

31:56 We've looked at three texts that clearly illustrate it. Now, by way of application, before we move to the biblical explanation for this reality, the scriptures are clear on the issue. And I want to ask you, I want to ask especially you young people, you second-generation people for whom I'm deeply burdened, have you ever gotten beyond mom and dad and your pastors and your peers and the rules and the regulations and the standards and all the things that have come as it were with your mother's milk? Have you come to the place where you really know what it is to have heart dealings with God himself?

32:41 And one of the biggest tests of that is do you love to pray? Not when you're gathered to the table, but is there something going on in God that drives you to pray? That drives you to pray with God,

33:04 to commune with him, to find delight in his presence,

33:10 to live before his face. That when you leave the place where you have your devotions, you don't leave God. He's with you. You say with the psalmist, I've set the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand.

33:25 And you live in his presence and you seek to please him. And when you've displeased him, your heart goes up to him instinctively in confession and repentance. And you are a God-enveloped young man, young woman. Do you know anything about that?

33:43 If you do, why isn't it more in your mouth? Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. You can talk spontaneously and freely about all kinds of things. Why is it so awkward to talk about your heart dealings with God?

34:01 I ask you, I ask you, do you know that repentance unto life which is the repentance unto life? It is a God-focused repentance. You have turned unto God.

Biblical Explanation: Why Repentance is God-Focused (Part 1: Disrupted Relationship)

34:15 I leave you to answer the question. But now having demonstrated from the scriptures that repentance unto life is indeed a God-centered grace, we move now to the biblical demonstration of this reality to consider in the second place the biblical explanation for this reality. Why is it that in the application of His saving grace to sinners, God brings such sinners to experience a repentance that is always a God-focused grace? Well, I give the answer in two parts.

34:55 Part number one, because our fundamental problem as sinners is the disruption of our relationship to God and secondly, because God's great purpose in redemption is to repair or restore a relationship to Himself. When He's working to apply His salvation, it's only natural that He will work in such a way as the very purpose of that salvation is realized in our experience. So follow with me now. Why is it that in the application of His saving grace to sinners, God brings sinners to experience a repentance that is a God-focused repentance? Here's my answer in two parts now. Number one, because our fundamental problem as sinners is the disruption of our relationship to God. We were made to know God and to find our greatest delight in that knowledge of Himself.

36:00 That's what we were made for. That's why the prophet Jeremiah could say in Jeremiah 9, verses 23 and 24, these words, Thus says the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him that glories glory in this, that he has understanding and knows me. For to exercise his lovingkindness, justice and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight, says the Lord.

36:39 God says, When a man, is being what he ought to be, as God created him to be, the thing in which he glories is that he knows God, not the things God may have given him, a good brain, the ability to score off the charts on the SATs, and to dazzle people with your numbers on your IQs, for no, no, no. We were made that we glory, we exult, we find our greatest delight in God Himself, not in any gifts, that God may have given to us, or with which He has endowed us. That's what we were made for. We were made to love God with our whole being, at all times, in all places, in all relationships. That's why when Jesus was asked, What is the first and greatest commandment? Matthew 22, Jesus said, Here's the great commandment, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy mind, with all thy soul, and with all thy strength. This is the first and great commandment.

37:46 We were made to glory in God. We were made to love God with the whole of our being. We were made to glorify God. We were made in His image to reflect Him.

37:57 In the area of our creaturely limitations, we were made image of God in order to reflect God, to be like God within the parameters of creaturely existence. Never seeking to be like God, never seeking to be like God, never seeking to be like God in His divine, unique attributes and existence. That was the lie that the devil gave to our first parents. Take of the fruit, you'll be like God.

38:24 Knowing God, you'll be like God in an area you're not supposed to be like Him. But God made us to be His image, to be like Him, so that our greatest joy would be so to live that no one would have a wrong thought of what God's like when He looks at us. And they listen to us. When they watch us relate to one another.

38:46 That's what we were made for. Made to glory in God. Made to love Him with our whole being. Made to glorify and reflect Him.

38:57 Made to obey Him implicitly in every facet of our lives. Read Genesis 1 and 2. When God makes Adam and Eve, He doesn't sit down and say, now let's figure out what in the world you're here for. Let's see if we can negotiate some terms of, no, no, God's telling them what to do.

39:15 Adam says, be fruitful, multiply, subdue. All of the things He tells them, we were made for that. Now, what has sin done? Turned all of that on its ear.

39:32 This horrible moral abnormality of sin. What has happened with our sin? Well, we glory in everything but God. We glory in ourselves.

39:46 We glory in our accomplishments. We glory in our gifts. We glory in stuff. We glory.

39:51 We glory in everything but the God who made us to glory in Him.

39:57 We were made to love Him with all of our being. What do we do? We take that capacity to love and we fasten it on a thousand other things. Remember when Paul came to Athens, his soul was stirred within him because the whole city was given over to idols.

40:12 Pastor Smith spoke a bit of his experience in Hong Kong recently. Well, that's what God sees when He looks at your heart and my heart by nature. Full of idols. Full of idols.

40:23 We'll make an idol of anything and everything. Idol of our face. Idol of our form. Idol of our abilities.

40:30 Idol of this. Idol of that. Idol...

40:32 The human heart is in Athens full of idols.

40:37 Glorifying God. Reflecting His image. No, we reflect the image of our father, the devil. We lie full of envy, full of the spirit of ill will, of the things that are not image of God but image of our father, the devil.

40:55 And rather than... The Bible says the carnal mind is enmity against God.

40:59 It is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be. We're all like Pharaoh. When Moses went in and says, Jehovah says this, he says, Who's Jehovah that I should obey him?

41:08 That's your heart and my heart by nature. Now that's what sin has done in the disruption of our relationship to God. We've got to grasp that. The mental problem as sinners is the disruption of our relationship to God.

Biblical Explanation: Why Repentance is God-Focused (Part 2: God's Purpose in Redemption)

41:28 Things grow out. But that's the nub of it. We're not God's great purpose in redemption.

41:39 Is it just to deal with the fruits of that disruption of our relationship to Him? No! It's to start with the disruption itself.

41:53 And then all the fruits that flow out of that restoration. When you ask the question, why did the angel visit Mary, the young virgin, and tell her she was going to conceive in her womb? And one would be conceived, who would be named Jesus, who would save His people from their sins. Why was there a Bethlehem, a wilderness temptation, the life and labors of Jesus?

42:20 Why was there a Gethsemane in its bloody sweat? Why was there a Golgotha and all the horrors and all the brutality and all the speakable agony of the cry of dereliction? What's the purpose of all this?

42:38 Listen to Peter. 1 Peter 3.18. He gave Him, Himself for us, the just for the unjust, that He focused...

43:06 Remember what Jesus said in His high priestly prayer in John 17? Words could not be more clear. Our Lord here, very conscious of why He came, He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son that He may glorify You.

43:27 Even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all who have given Him, He should give eternal life. And this is life eternal, that they should be confident they won't go to hell when they're...

43:42 No. Life eternal that they should know their inconscience. No. This is life eternal that they should know Thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.

43:59 He said, I came from heaven to give eternal life. You've given me authority to give it. This is the life I've come to give. A life in which they know You and they know You as revealed in Me, Your only begotten Son.

44:16 And when redemption is all completed and all of God's purposes come to fruition in space, time, history, and God renovates the heavens and the earth as we now know them, and all of His redeemed are completely glorified, glorified, sinless souls inhabiting deathless bodies. How is it described? Listen to it. I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth are passed away, and the sea is no more.

44:49 And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle, the dwelling of God, is with men, and He shall dwell with them, and they shall be His people's. God Himself shall be with them and be their God. That'll never get you excited until you've come to true repentance that is a God-focused repentance.

45:25 You mean the only things we're going to know God?

45:38 Love Him sinlessly, made to glory. God says, When I'm done with my people, that's what it's going to be.

45:48 They shall dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God shall be with them and be their God. He shall wipe away every tear. Now you see the secondary perks. Wipe away every tear from their eyes.

46:00 Death shall be no more. Be no more mourning, no more crying, no more pain, for the first things are passed away. But listen to me. To the person who's experienced true repentance, if all it said was, I heard a great voice saying, Behold, all things are new.

46:21 Behold, no more crying, no more death, no more mourning, no more pain. The person who's experienced true repentance will say, But where is the hymn book I use in my devotions? Jesus, all perfections rise and end in Thee. Heaven itself without Thee, dark as night would be.

46:52 Heaven without God would be hell.

46:57 Why? Because in the heart of every true believer, every true penitent believer, he or she has experienced that God-focused repentance in which the purpose for which we were made has been restored in redemptive grace and power. Now then do you see how right and how reasonable it is for God to command us to repent with a God-focused repentance? By nature, our relationship, our relationship to God is all wrong, but in grace, God has sent His only begotten Son to remove all of the legal barriers to deal with our sins and to establish a righteous foundation on which He can restore us to the fellowship of Himself. He can be favorable to us in Jesus Christ. He made us for Himself to know Him, to love Him, and to glorify Him and obey Him. Therefore, in repentance, He turns us away from a life of indifference to Him, idolatrous love of people and things, indifference to our purpose to glorify Him, and turns us away from our rebellion against Him.

Final Exhortation and Comfort

48:21 Then, believing He's merciful in Christ, we repent with an unto God repentance. We repent and turn to God. Isaiah 55, 6 and 7 becomes our experience. Yes, we do know repentance as a sin repudiating grace, but we know it fundamentally as a Godward grace.

48:50 And so I want to press on your conscience this morning. Do you, sitting here this morning, do you know anything of this radical reorientation of your life into a God-oriented, focused orbit of existence?

49:08 Let me repeat the question. Do you know anything of this radical reorientation of your life? Not perfectly, but fundamentally, do you know anything of this radical reorientation of your life into a God-focused orbit? Can it be said of you?

49:27 The gospel has obviously come to you not in word only and in power. Why? Because you have turned from your ideas into idols unto God to serve the living and the true God. Whatever your calling, whatever the sphere in which you carry out your hours and days in obedience to God, this is the bottom line of who and what you are,

49:52 the living God, and of His Son, Jesus Christ. Can you say that your only point of glorying when you're true to your true self in Christ is glorying in the fact that you know God? And you know His Son. Can you say that though you mourn the pathetic measure and hopeless inconsistency of your heart's affection, can you say, with all my heart's passion, I want to love Him with all my heart, with all my soul, with all my mind, with all my strength? You're still wedded to intellectual pride? Some of you, they've got a pretty good noggin. God's stuffed a good bit of gray matter in between your ears.

50:47 That's what you glory in. Well, big deal. You've got a little more gray matter than someone else.

50:55 God can cause one little blood vessel to burst.

51:00 It's all over.

51:03 What do you glory in? Glory in your brain, in your athletic ability.

51:10 What is the passion of your life? Fun and games? Acceptance of your peers?

51:17 Adoration of your latest pop music stars? Slavery to fashion? Come on, get honest! Get honest!

51:26 Without the repentance that makes you a God-obsessed man or woman, boy or girl, you are yet wedded to your sins.

51:37 Repentance is no little flick of the soul. It's a radical upheaval and disruption of everything we've lived for. And a total reorientation.

51:51 Get honest. Do you know anything about this?

51:56 If not,

51:59 I beg you, don't just go out of here and say, well, another message Pastor Martin got, worked up, big deal. You're going to stand before God someday.

52:09 And I'm going to stand and give an account of whether I've been faithful to your soul.

52:17 Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ does with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it unto God.

52:36 And since repentance is not the act of a moment, I'm not asking if you've had some coat of many colors Damascus Road experience of this. I've put the emphasis on where you are in the disposition of your soul sitting here today. For repentance is not the act of a moment, but the acquisition of a disposition that lasts for a lifetime.

52:59 And so if you have ever truly repented in the past, the proof is you're repenting today.

53:06 And the things that would challenge the God-obsessed, God-centered life, you look upon them for what they are. And you seek to put them in the right place. You seek to put them to death, the things we heard about in the previous hour. You don't just shrug them off when the arrows of God find you.

53:23 Rather than try to pull them out, you push them in and ask God to help you to have honest dealings with him until issues are resolved. Is knowing God your passion, loving God, your pursuit and your desire, glorifying him, your goal, obeying him, the pattern of your life? If it isn't, I urge you, stand by the cross of Christ and dare to gaze at his immolated body. Dare to hear his dying groans.

53:58 Dare to hear his cry, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And ask yourself, did he do all of that just to cosmetize me with a little bit of orthodox Reformed Baptist religion?

54:16 Did he do that just at our I might be a respectable church member of Trinity Church?

54:26 Or did he do all of that to radically disrupt all the patterns of my self-centered life and make me a God-obsessed man or woman? Why did he do it?

54:37 He died the just for the unjust to bring us to God. This is life eternal that they may know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

54:52 The times of this ignorance, Paul said, God winked at but now he commands all men everywhere to repent because he's appointed a day in which he'll judge the world in righteousness. My friend, if you have felt a little bit of the sobering reality of the day of judgment, what will it be like when that actual day comes and you stand before him impenitent? Oh yes, orthodox, religious, decent, respectable,

55:21 but you've sat there this morning and said, I don't know what in the world he's talking about. God-obsessed life? What's that? I mean, I go to Jesus when I sin and my conscience bothers me but then I've got to get on with more important things.

55:36 God help us. God search us. And the word of comfort is this, that sitting here this morning you can say, Oh God, with judgment day honesty, by your grace, by your grace, Oh God, my heart's passion is to glory in you. My heart's desire is to love you with all my being.

56:00 My heart's desire is, Oh God, to obey you. It is that you might be reflected in all that I am and all that I do. And my greatest grief is when I don't reflect you. Take comfort.

56:17 You didn't get that way on your own.

56:20 The soil of that kind of repentance is the grace of God. Repentance unto life. The repentance that's brought you into that sphere of reference as the very chemistry, as it were, of your soul. God has done that work and having begun the good work in you, he's going to carry it on to the day of Christ.

56:42 Blessed be his name. Let's pray.

56:52 Our Father,

56:55 we hang our heads with shame that we have set our heart's affections on so many tawdry toys when all the while you, the infinitely beautiful, glorious, magnificent God,

57:12 call us to know you, to enjoy you, to be filled with the wonder of who you are and all that you've done for us in Christ. We pray that you would take the preaching of your word and make it effectual this day that some who came into this building this morning, strangers, to that repentance unto life of which we have spoken, would leave this place by your grace, having turned from sin unto you,

57:47 God grant it, we pray for your praise and honor. Amen.