Sin Problem in the Christian Life, Part 3

Introduction: Salvation and the Problem of Sin in the Justified

0:02 There are few words which should be more precious to the child of God, to the people of God as a whole, than the biblical word salvation. In the scriptures, the word salvation is the word used to describe the mighty acts of God in delivering men and women from sin and its tragic consequences. Perhaps Matthew 1.21 is an excellent specimen text, giving us the pith, the heart, the essence of the use of this word in scripture.

0:42 Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he it is that shall save his people from their sins. And here you have, as it were, a distillation of the entire biblical doctrine of salvation. It is the activity of God, he it is, that shall save, that is, rescue his people from their sins. And for some very lengthy time now, we have been studying together from the scriptures what it means to come within the orbit of God's gracious salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.

1:26 We have contemplated the central figure of salvation. That salvation in the uniqueness of his person and the perfection of his work, even the Lord Jesus. And now we are examining the cardinal blessings of that salvation. We've seen that every blessing of salvation comes only in Christ, Ephesians 1 in verse 3.

1:50 But there is an order within which those blessings come to the people of God. We examine the biblical teaching concerning what I have called, the threshold blessings, calling and regeneration. The two blessings of salvation in Christ, in which sinners are actually brought out of the kingdom of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son. Now we are examining the blessings which come the moment sinners pass over that threshold and into the possession of God's salvation.

2:30 And we have spent a number of weeks examining the first and fundamental of all those blessings, namely the blessing of justification. Having examined the major biblical lines of truth relative to this doctrine, we have for several weeks been considering what I would call God's fences around that doctrine. You see, the human heart is so perverse that there is no doctrine that it will not abute the doctrine of the Word for short. not abuse and turn the meat of God's word into poison for the soul. And so having examined what it means to be justified, we are now looking at the fences which God has placed around that doctrine of justification by faith. We consider the fence of the relationship between James and Paul. We are justified by faith alone, but we are never justified by a faith which is alone. But true faith will always be attended with other graces. And

3:38 then for several weeks we have been considering the great problem of sin that yet remains in the life of a justified person. If justification involves the declaration of the court of heaven, the that I am forgiven of all my sins as to their liability to punishment, that God will never bring me into a legal reckoning for any of my sins. Every bit of punishment has been borne by Christ. Every bit of demand in the law has been met by Christ.

Four Principles for Dealing with Sin in the Justified Life

4:14 What then do I do as a Christian who still sins? The great problem of sin in the justified person. And we've looked at three principles, and we'll consider the fourth and final one this morning. Principle number one, sin in a justified person must always be taken seriously.

4:35 Principle number two, sin in a justified person must never be allowed to bring him into legal bondage. Principle number three, sin in a justified person must always be dealt with in terms of God's fatherly, dispensational, and moral responsibility. And now this morning, sin in a justified person must always be dealt with in conjunction with evangelical repentance. Sin in a justified person must always be dealt with in conjunction, in connection with, evangelical repentance.

Evangelical Repentance Defined and Illustrated from 2 Corinthians 7

5:17 One passage to which we will be referring again and again, I want to read a passage. I'm heading the framework of our study this morning, 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Paul had to write a letter to the Corinthians, severely rebuking them for their indifference to certain sins in their midst.

5:39 And the great sin of which the church was guilty was that it did not deal with the specific sins that were in its life and in its congregational experience. But Paul's letter was used of God to produce a difference. Paul has a different attitude and disposition. Having heard of that change in disposition and attitude, the apostle writes this letter, commending them for their response to his previous letter.

6:10 Now I read in 2 Corinthians 7, yes, chapter 7, beginning with verse 5. For even when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no relief, but we were afflicted on every side. Without were we. fightings within were fears. Nevertheless, he that comforted the lowly, even God, comforted us by the coming of Titus, and not by his coming only, but also by the comfort wherewith he was comforted in you while he told us of your longing, your mourning, and your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced yet more. Titus brings a wonderful report to the apostle that thrills him, and at the heart of that report, this is the news, this was the information that thrilled him. For though I made you sorry with my epistle, I do not regret it, though I did regret it, for I see that that epistle made you sorry, though but for a season, I now rejoice, not that you were made sorry,

7:18 but that you were made sorry unto repentance, for ye were made sorry after a godly sort, that ye might suffer loss by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, a repentance which brings no regret, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For behold, this selfsame thing, that ye were made sorry after a godly sort, what is it that you do not regret? What earnest care it wrought in you! Yea, what clearing of yourselves! Yea, what indignation!

7:56 Yea, what fear! Yea, what longing! Yea, what zeal! Yea, what avenging! In everything ye approved yourselves to be pure in the matter. Now, this is just an example to which we will have occasion to refer in the course of our study of this great principle that I am seeking to open up to you. I am seeking to open up to you a great principle that I am seeking to open up to you. I am seeking to open up to you a great principle that I am seeking to open up to you.

The Nature of Evangelical Repentance vs. Legal Repentance

8:20 This morning, that in a justified man or woman, one who has laid hold of Jesus Christ as his righteousness, who by faith has fled from all confidence in his own doings, he is not looking for anything in him or done by him to be the ground of his acceptance with God, he has fled to Christ and Christ alone. When such a person, clinging to that confidence that he is accepted in Christ, there is no condemnation in Christ, when he sins, what is he to do? Well, he is not only to take his sin seriously, as we have seen. He is not only to refuse to let that sin bring him into legal bondage. He is not only to deal with it in terms of God, not as his judge, but as his Father. But he is always to deal with that sin in conjunction with evangelical repentance. Now, I must define what I mean by evangelical repentance. Well, the word repentance

9:28 basically means a thorough change of mind, a change of mind in which we acknowledge the reality of our sin. We experience grief occasioned by that sin. There is a turning away from that sin with a purpose not to return to it, and if necessary. There is, as a fruit of repentance, the willingness to make confession and restitution at the horizontal level. Now, when I use the term evangelical repentance, I am doing it purposely because there are two kinds of repentance. There is a repentance that is purely a legal repentance. It is a repentance that considers God as our Creator and our Judge. It considers sin only in the light of God's presence. It considers sin only in the light of God's presence. It considers sin

10:21 as God's law as being condemned by God's law. It seeks to turn away from sin only because conscience is miserable in the presence of that sin. And if it performs any restitution or confession, it does so with the hope that somehow that will bring relief from the sense of guilt. That is a purely legal repentance. It is the kind of repentance that Paul says works death. It's the repentance of a Judas. He confessed his sin. He went right back into the temple and said, I have sinned in that I have betrayed innocent blood.

11:02 He made restitution. He threw down his 30 pieces of silver right in the midst of the temple. He had deep grief. His grief was so heavy that the depression of it led him to go out and hang himself.

11:15 But you see, that wasn't evangelical repentance. You see, evangelical repentance is a repentance that is always permeated with the perspectives of the gospel. It is a repentance conditioned by the wonderful truths of the evangel. That is, the good news concerning God's mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ.

11:43 So in evangelical repentance, it is not merely acknowledging, acknowledging my sin in the light of God as creator and judge, but there is the acknowledgement of my sin in the light of its ugliness as seen in the cross of Christ. In evangelical repentance, I see my sin not so much in the light of the thunders and the lightning flashes of Sinai, but I see my sin in the light of the shrouded heavens of Golgotha when he who knew no sin was made a sinner. I see my sin in the light of the thunders and the lightning flashes of Sinai. I see my sin in the light of the thunders and the lightning flashes of Sinai.

12:25 The grief of evangelical repentance is not the grief that merely grows from the torment of conscience. It's the grief that I've offended so gracious a heavenly Father as that one who has adopted me into his family. It is a repentance in which I'm grieved that my sins cause such grief to Christ when he groaned, beneath the weight of them, and cried, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And the turning from sin in evangelical repentance is never a turning simply to get the pressure off my conscience.

13:03 It is a turning to serve the living and the true God. It is a turning, not hoping that somehow I will, by turning and giving up this or that, appease God or my conscience, but it is the turning that is, the result of a different disposition and attitude to that sin as being grievous to the living God. Now, in the initial actings of justifying faith, evangelical repentance is always present. The Bible never says we are justified by repentance.

The Inseparability of Faith and Repentance

13:39 But the Bible everywhere says we are never justified without repentance.

13:46 You say, that's double talk. Run it by again. All right. The Bible knows, everywhere says we are justified by repentance.

13:54 It everywhere says we are justified by faith. Faith is the open hand that receives the offered Savior and the salvation that is in Him. But the Bible, which everywhere says we are justified by faith, also asserts we are never justified without repentance. So our Lord can preach as He does in Mark chapter 1, the kingdom, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

14:22 Repent ye and believe the gospel. Paul can say in Acts 20, 21, I testify to Jews and Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And as you've heard me quote before, I quote again, repentance is the tear in faith's eye. There is no true initial justifying faith divorced from repentance.

14:51 A man who has no sense of sin, who's unwilling to acknowledge his sin, who has no grief for sin, who does not purpose to forsake his sin, all in the light of the cross,

15:05 that man knows nothing of justifying faith. He may speak very glibly about, oh yeah, I trust Christ. Fine, so what? Let's get on to other more important things.

15:13 He knows nothing of justifying faith if he's a stranger to evangelical repentance. But what is true? On the threshold of the Christian faith, when God is calling a man out of darkness and into light, when by the Spirit he quickens him, enabling him to believe the gospel, what is true on the threshold? That that faith which is unto justification is always joined with repentance is true every step upon the road that leads.

15:52 As surely as he who truly believes continues to believe, the one who truly trusts Christ for salvation and life continues to trust, so the one who truly repents continues to repent. And therefore sin in the life of a justified person must always be dealt with in connection with the gospel. In connection with evangelical repentance. A repentance that is flavored with and permeated by the perspectives of the gospel.

Element 1: Honest Acknowledgment of Sin (1 John 1:9, Matthew 6:12)

16:33 Now having explained what I mean, let me demonstrate from the scriptures how evangelical repentance is operative in a justified person. First of all, there will be an honest acknowledgement of sin. And here I direct you to perhaps the best known text in the New Testament concerning this fact. First John chapter 1 and verse 9.

17:00 John is dealing with this problem of sin in the life of the justified. And the person who says, well I don't need this sermon, I'm not only justified, I'm fully sanctified. John has strong words for that person. Verse 8 he says he's a deceiver and the truth is not in him.

17:23 Verse 10 he calls him a liar. So if there's anyone here, this morning that says, oh I don't need this, this is sub-Christian teaching. I am not only perfectly justified, I'm perfectly sanctified. Well John has some pretty unflattering words for you my friend.

17:38 He calls you self-deceived. He tells you that the truth is not in you. He tells you that you're a liar. Now I hope that will shock you into reality.

17:49 Regardless of what you feel and what you may think. But now acknowledging that sin is a real problem to every justified person, he then tells us in verse 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now the word confess in this verse literally means to say the same thing. So confession even from the standpoint of the origin of the word, involves at the most elementary level, our passing a judgment upon our sin that is parallel to God's judgment. What he calls sin, I am prepared to say the same thing about it. Now the thing that's interesting in this text is that John encourages the Christian in this matter of acknowledging his sin with the faithfulness, and the righteousness of God. Notice, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive.

19:12 Now the faithfulness of God and the righteousness of God to the impenitent and to the unbelieving ought to be a source of terror. If God is righteous and faithful, and I am not forgiven, and I am not justified, and I am not declared righteous by the court of heaven, those facts ought to strike terror to my heart. If God is faithful, it means he will fulfill his word. The wages of sin is death.

19:52 The soul that sinneth, it shall die. If God's faithful and I am not forgiven, that ought to fill me with terror. If God is righteous, then he's going to uphold his law. And his law says, every transgression shall receive a just recompense of reward.

20:12 But notice in this context, he brings in the faithfulness and the righteousness of God to encourage the sinning saint. Now how do I find encouragement from the faithfulness and righteousness of God? For the simple reason that this is confession, as a part of evangelical repentance. It is a repentance permeated with the realities of the gospel.

20:43 And the reality of the gospel is that God has punished his own dear son in the room and stead of his people. The reality of the gospel is that God has righteously meted out upon Christ the legal punishment for all the sins of all believers for all time. And therefore I can own my sin without coming under the dread of the wrath and the anger of God against that sin. I can say righteousness and faithfulness are on my side in grace.

21:24 See? Now I don't treat the sin lightly. I say the same thing about it that God does. But the God to whom I confess it is the righteous and faithful God who is no longer against me in wrath but is for me in mercy.

21:45 Do you see it in the text? If we confess, He is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse. Do you see it's precisely that point that our Lord is making in what we commonly call the Lord's Prayer. Others more technically minded like to call it the Disciples' Prayer.

22:08 In Matthew chapter 6 our Lord says in our daily experience of confessing sin, we are indeed to be honest in the acknowledgement of our sin. Yes. We are to pray, verse 12, forgive us our debts. Here sin being viewed as an unfulfilled obligation to God.

22:31 You see all my obligations to God are just as real now as before I was justified. My obligations are no less, they're greater. And I'm conscious I don't fulfill them all. They are sins.

22:48 They are trespasses. They are unfulfilled debts. And I am to ask Him to forgive me. But notice.

22:55 Forgive us our debts. Two conditioning elements. As we also have forgiven our debtors. That's the first conditioning element.

23:08 What does that mean? It means that I have so partaken of the Spirit of the Gospel. I am so reveling in the glory that the Almighty God of heaven and earth has forgiven me a little worm of the dust. That the Spirit of the Gospel permeates my heart.

23:28 I counted my privilege to forgive my brethren. You see a man under a legal spirit can't forgive others because his heart is not permeated with the Spirit of the Gospel. The Lord Jesus is saying, when you confess your sins, confess them in a context in which your heart feels the present glory of the Gospel. And then the second conditioning element is in this prayer we are addressing God how?

23:55 Not, O holy Judge, who sits upon the throne of the universe. No. When ye pray, say, Our Father, who art in heaven. And when I come to confess Him, confessing sin, I don't shift the perspective of my prayer from my Father to a dreaded judge.

24:20 I have got to maintain the perspective of mind and heart with which I addressed Him initially right on through the confession of my sin. Now if you and I do not learn how to acknowledge sin in a manner consistent with the Gospel, we'll end up doing one of two things, both of which are tragic to the state of our souls. We will be driven to a hardness of heart by seeking to push under the sense and reality of our sin because we get so weary of the bondage that it brings. You follow me? Every time we acknowledge our sin, if we let it bring us into legal bondage, bring us under the terrors of the law, we'll get so weary of that that we say, no, I'm just not going to look at my sin because every time I do, it brings me nothing but misery. It's like the person who knows.

25:27 Every time he eats raw carrots, he gets a bellyache. Every time he sees a raw carrot, bellyache, he wants nothing to do with it. Now I've seen this happen to people. Because they would not lay hold of this perspective, they got so weary that they began to just push under the consciousness of their sin.

25:49 And whenever you do that, it leads to hardness of heart. On the other hand, people have said, well, I must not do that. That dishonors God. I must acknowledge my sin.

26:01 I dare not act as though my sin is not real. I cannot war with my conscience. That's to trifle with my soul. So they continue to honestly acknowledge their sin, but they do it in the context of a legal repentance.

26:16 And then they're constantly in despair. Now those are not attractive alternatives. Hardness of heart that can put a man on the high road to apostasy and despair, the least it can do is make him a misery to himself and all who touch him, and a poor witness of the gospel, or it too can put a man on the high road to apostasy. He just gets so weary, he says, what's the use?

26:44 Throw the whole thing over. Now the key to this, my brethren, and we're not dealing in abstractions, these are real issues. The key is to understand that I must deal with my sins in the context of evangelical repentance. I must never look at my sin in isolation, but always in the light of the cross of Christ, the intercession of Christ, the largeness of the Father's heart, the fullness of His provisions, in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Element 2: Genuine Grief for Sin (Psalm 51, Luke 22)

27:25 That second element will not only be found in this matter of an honest acknowledgement of sin, but there will be genuine grief for sin. Now again, this grief is not that of the cringing criminal, but it is the grief that is born of the knowledge of offending a loving Father, dishonoring a gracious Savior, and grieving a kind Spirit who indwells us. As we turn to the 51st Psalm for an Old Testament example of a saint, a justified man, and don't let anyone tell you that David didn't understand justification. Paul quotes David from Psalm 32 when he's demonstrating justification by faith in the book of Romans, chapter 4. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. That's justification. Well, here's a justified man who's confessing his sin and confessing it with true grief.

28:27 Look at verses 16 and 17. How real is the grief. Thou delightest not in sacrifice, else would I give it. Thou hast no pleasure in burnt offering.

28:41 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. That's real grief. He says, I offer to you, Lord, the sacrifice of a broken and a contrite heart.

29:02 But oh, my friend, that's not legal grief. It's not the grief of a Judas who is held in the pinch of an accusing conscience and will do anything to get those barbs of accusation out of his conscience. No, no. This is a man who is grieved for sin, but in the spirit of evangelical repentance.

29:23 Where does he begin the Psalm? Look at it. The opening words. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

29:40 Verse 7. Purify me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Verse 12.

29:50 Restore unto me not the possession of thy salvation. He knows he has that salvation. He says, restore unto me the joy that is the natural accompaniment of that salvation, but a joy which I have forfeited because of my sin. But he doesn't doubt the salvation which is the basis of the joy.

30:13 He could never pray that prayer. He would have to say, restore the salvation and with it the joy. But he doesn't say that. He says, restore the joy.

30:22 He says, restore the joy of that salvation. The joy that was lost and forfeited because of sin. But the salvation, the reality of which he would not relinquish even in the face of his sin. Then in the New Testament we have that wonderful example.

30:46 In the case of Peter, turn please to Luke chapter 22. We're just seeking now to illustrate that in the dealing with sin in a Christian, there will not only be an honest acknowledgement, but genuine grief. We've seen the example of David. Now the example of Peter.

31:08 Luke chapter 22. You remember the incident. Peter has cursed and sworn that he does not even know Christ. Miserably failed in the hour of trial.

31:24 Yet we read in Luke chapter 22 verses 61 and 2 these words. And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how that he said unto him, Before the cock crow this day, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out and wept bitterly.

31:52 Now what was this grief? Was it a legal grief? Did he fear he had sinned himself, clean out of the state of grace? Absolutely not.

32:00 For if he had remembered the word that Jesus said before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice, he also remembered the word of verse 31 in this same chapter. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you that he might sift you as wheat. But I made supplication for you that your faith fail not. And do thou, when thou hast turned again, establish thy brethren.

32:30 When the Lord said, The Lord would predict Peter's own denial, he lets him know that he still regards Peter as his own, the object of his intercession, an intercession that will actually secure Peter's being converted, that is, turned from that course of denial back into the way of open confession. And so Peter's grief was real. Peter's grief was deep. But Peter's grief was not legal.

33:01 It was evangelical. It was grief that was produced not by thunder in the heaven, but by a look from the eye of the Son of God. There the Lord Jesus is standing in His hour of rejection, just prior to His crucifixion. There our Lord stands as the object of scorn.

33:29 And He looks, and just a look from that Savior, thinking of all that the Savior had done from the moment He had called Peter there by the Galilean shore, and all through those years together, the kindness, the patience, the long-suffering. And when the Lord looks at him, the mind reflects on that awesome fact. Have I treated so gracious a Lord so foully? Can I have ringing in my ears my curses and my oaths for one who has done nothing but good to me?

34:09 And it breaks his heart. And my friend, if you are a Christian, there is no power to break your heart like the power of a look from the Son of God. As you contemplate all that He has done, and all that you have in Him, and all that He has borne for you and with you, the grief is real, yes. But it's not the legal grief of a Judas.

34:37 It's the evangelical grief of a Peter. And then, of course, the very passage with which we introduce the study. It is the classic passage dealing with this same principle. There will be genuine grief for sin in a justified person.

34:57 Yes, so much so that Paul uses language indicating that without that grief there is no repentance. Verse 8, For though I made you sorry, , though I made you sorry with my epistle, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. It was painful for Paul to write that epistle that raked them up one side and down the other, but they needed it. It was the only medicine that would work.

35:26 The situation was desperate. They needed something more than a little sugar water. He gave them a strong purgative, as the old writers would say, went down bitterly, but he said, Though it grieved me to put the spoon to your mouth, I see the results, and now I'm no longer grieved. I'm glad.

35:44 Why? This is why. I now rejoice that ye were made sorry. Not that ye were made sorry.

35:53 I had no kind of sadistic glee in seeing you full of grief, but that you were made sorry unto repentance. For ye were made sorry after a godly sort, that ye might suffer loss by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, a repentance which bringeth no regret. Godly sorrow is, as it were, the handmaiden, the forerunner of a true repentance.

36:28 It's when the heart is grieved and broken for sin that the will will then turn from sin. Now let me try to illustrate the difference in these two things, and I do so with the prayer that the Spirit of God will bring light to some of your hearts on this point. How would you feel as a parent, and I have tried to think how I would feel as a parent, but I won't make it personal. I'll ask you, how would you feel as a parent who has established a relationship of love and concern, reasonable standards, reasonable authority, gentleness and patience mingled with your firmness, your word is law but your word is also love? I'm speaking now of the context of a wholesome relationship between the parent and the child. Now what would you think of the child who after he had willfully and deliberately violated one of his father's precepts, one of his father's directives, the child just came tripping lightly into the presence of his father and said, Hey, Pop, you know what I just did? What did you do, son? Daughter? What did you do?

37:41 Oh, I just broke one of your rules. Sorry about that. Turns on his heel and walks out. Suppose you observed such a scene.

37:48 What would you think of that child? If you saw him just trip lightly into the presence of a father who was gracious, reasonable in his demands, and very lightly in a cavalier flip way say, Oh, by the way, Pop, I broke one of your commands. Sorry about that. What would you say?

38:07 Well, I think I know what all of you are thinking. You're saying he's playing games. He doesn't really feel any true sorrow. If he did, he'd evidence it, at least in his tone of voice.

38:21 And you're right. But what would you think of that same father with that same child if it came supper time and he wasn't around and didn't come to the table? And he goes out in the neighborhood looking for him and he can't find him. And he begins to be concerned and he looks all over the place and he says, Well, I don't know.

38:39 Maybe something happened. He was going for his bike in the garage. Maybe a fowl bumped his head. And he goes out in the garage and there he finds the child over in a corner all huddled over and shivering and looking back up over his shoulder.

38:52 And the moment he sees his father, he begins to shake and his head drops. And he comes over and says, Son, what's the matter with you? And the son can hardly put two words together, but when he finally does, he gets it out that he had broken one of his father's rules and he was afraid to come near to him and tell him. What would you think then?

39:15 He'd say, Well, everything I've heard about that father being a gracious, reasonable father is suspect. Or that son doesn't have any appreciation of what his father is. That would be a dishonor to the entire relationship if he cringed like some kind of criminal who had just murdered ten people and was afraid that the law was going to apprehend him. Well, you see, dear people, the flesh coupled with our own native personality and the influence of teaching that we've received will lead us to one of those two extremes.

39:53 We will either be like the kid who just flippantly comes into the presence of his dad and says, Oh, Dad, I broke one of your laws. Sorry about that. Turn in our heel and walk away. No, without godly sorrow there is no repentance.

40:09 But on the other hand, oh, dear people of God, how it dishonors our father who has bared his heart upon Calvary and has shown his patience and his love if when we sin we go off in the garage for three days and we shiver and we don't come to God and we don't approach Him with the liberty of a son or daughter of God. Do you see the grief and the pain you bring to the heart of God? How would you feel as a father if you found your son in hell in that state? You'd say, My son, what in the world has your father done that you'd shrivel and cringe and stay at a distance for hours? Am I the kind of father that's going to be harsh and unreasonable in dealing with the thing that you've done? And I wonder if God doesn't say that to some of us. My son, my daughter, why do you treat me thus when you sin against me?

41:16 Why do you run from me? Why do you cringe in the corner and in the shadows? Why do you not do what I bid you to do? If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive.

41:34 No, there is to be true grief. There is no such thing as evangelical repentance without grief, but there is a grief that works death. It is the grief that keeps us. It keeps us at a distance from God.

41:50 And that is not godly sorrow. That is a sorrow that worketh death. And oh, may God be pleased to give some of us grace to put it behind us. Well, I must hurry on.

Element 3: Accompanying Resolve to Be Done with Sin

42:05 There will not only be in this evangelical repentance in the life of a justified person the honest acknowledgement of sin, true grief for the sin, but thirdly, there will be an accompanying resolve to be done with the sin. Now notice my language. I did not say there will be an immediate ability to conquer the sin. There will be an accompanying resolve to be done with the sin.

42:36 And here I must quote the verses quickly because time is getting away from us. In Psalm 85, verse 8, the psalmist speaks of the forgiveness of God to His people, but then he adds a warning, let them not return again to folly. Paul in the 2 Corinthians 7-11 says their repentance was one that caused them to clear themselves and to make themselves approved in this matter of their sin. Now listen carefully as I say something that could be very easily abused, but it must be said.

43:12 Even though we know that the sin or sins we are confessing are such that we may well commit them again before the sun goes down, at the point we confess them, there is a resolve to put it away even though we acknowledge that we may fall before it again before the sun goes down. You say, Pastor, how in the world can that be scriptural? How can you genuinely confess a sin and forsake it, even though you say you know you may go back to it? Well, let me illustrate.

43:49 Those of you who are husbands and wives know that occasionally husbands and wives say words that are less than kind and loving. I hope it's only occasionally in your marriage. Now let me ask you husbands something. The last time you said some nasty things to your wife and you agreed, and you came to her and put your arm around her and said, honey, I'm sorry.

44:14 I'm sorry I said those things. I shouldn't have. They were sin. I've confessed them to the Lord.

44:21 Will you forgive me? At that point, do you purpose in your heart never to say those kind of words again? Yes or no? You do, don't you?

44:31 But if I were to ask you three seconds later, do you think you ever will blow your cork with your wife again, what would you tell me? Hmm? Come on, be honest. What would you tell me?

44:41 Huh? You'd say I'm afraid it may happen once or twice before we have our 50th wedding anniversary? Huh? You see the point I'm making?

44:53 The fact that you know the nature of that sin is such, and the context of the intimacy of the marriage relationship which puts such pressure upon that area of your weakness, even though you know that you will probably have to confess it again in a day or two or three, it doesn't change the fact that at the point you confess it, you have a purpose never to do it again. And what is true at the human level is true in our relationship to the Lord. At the point of our confession, there is the purpose not to return to the sin, but the nature of certain sins we confess are so woven into the fabric of what we are, it's not something we can simply leave. And the grief is real, and the pain is real, but there is no sin that is greater than the grace of God. I think of another illustration, and this is very vivid to me because it takes me back to my teenage years when I had a growth spurt. My hands and my feet were about half the size too big for the rest of me.

46:07 And it seems I hid everything, stumbled over everything, until my father used to say again and again, Albert, you've got a gift. And he wasn't speaking about preaching or teaching. Well, I can remember more than once sitting at the table, and the table would all be set, and my glass of milk would be in its place, put there by my mother, and I'd go to pass something, and there it would go. I'd knock over the glass of milk, and when I'd see the milk go splattering, clashing on one of my many brothers or sisters' trousers or skirt, and all over the tablecloth.

46:42 Do you think I felt real grief that I had upset the meal again? You bet your boots I did. I was grieved. I'd caused inconvenience.

46:48 I'd messed up the table. I'd messed up my brothers' britches, messed up my sisters' skirt. And I'd say, I'm sorry. I really am.

46:56 I didn't mean to do it. I'll try never to do it again. But I knew sure as shooting, before the week was out, there'd be another glass of milk on the table. Why?

47:11 Because that was so much a part of that present stage of my physical development, in my eye to hand and motor coordination, that I knew I wasn't simply going to be transformed like that overnight. But it doesn't mean that my grief wasn't real, and my purpose never to do it again was real. Now the same is true in our relationship to the Lord. There are certain sins that are so much a part of our very constitution.

47:42 The way we were put together, sin has so insinuated itself into elements and aspects of our human personality. With someone, it's irritation. With someone else, it's suspicion. With someone else, it's jealousy.

47:57 With someone else, it's unusual problems with lust. With someone else, it's laziness. With someone else, it's this. And we're such a strange combination.

48:07 Of all these things that have caused certain patterns of sin to entrench themselves, that it is unrealistic to think that if I'm really sincere in my repentance, and really sincere in asking the Lord's deliverance, somehow I'll rise above this thing, never to go down again. That is simply not the reality of Scripture. And it's not the reality of the holiest men and women who've ever lived, in the Bible and out of the Bible. And so dear child of God, let me encourage you this morning.

48:40 Let me seek to encourage you that if the resolve not to return is genuine, you need not come under bondage if you must confess the same sin again, and again, and again, and again. Isn't Jesus more realistic when he says, part of our daily prayers is to be this very matter. Forgive us our sins. And then I quickly close now with the fourth element of true evangelical repentance.

Element 4: Willingness for Horizontal Confession and Restitution

49:11 And it is this, that there will be a willingness to make horizontal confession and restitution where necessary. Very quickly now, Luke chapter 17, verses 3 and 4. Take heed to yourselves, if thy brother sin, rebuke him. If he repent, forgive him, and, now notice, if he sin against thee seven times in the day, and seven times, turn again to thee, saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him.

49:41 Now the major point of this passage is that if my brother in seven different areas sins against me, certainly not the same area over and over again, and just is simply playing with words, unless again, it's one of these kinds of things that's so ingrained into him, but most of the commentators take the position, and I would agree, that he's talking about a brother who offends you in seven different areas. The number of perfection, in other words, you don't keep accounts, and he turns and says, I repent. The Lord says, forgive him, forgive him, forgive him. But though the emphasis is upon the duty of forgiveness, it is assumed that when the man repents before God, he'll also acknowledge it at the horizontal level.

50:26 The brother will turn to thee and say, I repent. You see, our Lord is assuming that part of his repentance is his confession to the brother against whom he has sinned. Matthew 5, 23, the same truth. If thou art leaving thy gift at the altar, and there remembereth thy brother hath ought against thee, go be reconciled to thy brother, then come and offer thy gift.

50:50 2 Corinthians 7, 11, what clearing of yourselves, that's the element. And so in evangelical repentance in the life of a justified person, it is his joy. I say this carefully, it is his joy to seek the forgiveness of his brethren when he knows he has received the forgiveness of his God. And he goes to confess sins to his brethren and to his sisters, not with the sense of a Judas who's trying somehow to do penance to get relief for his conscience.

51:26 No, he knows he's accepted before the God of heaven. And because he's accepted before the God of heaven and his conscience is at rest with his God, he wants his conscience to be at peace with his brethren. And it's no great thing, it's no big deal for him to go and say, brother, I sinned, will you forgive me? I acknowledge my wrong in this area, will you forgive me?

The Consequences of Refusing Evangelical Repentance: Grieving the Spirit

51:52 Now in the life of the justified man or woman, boy or girl, sin must always be dealt with in a manner consistent with evangelical repentance. Because if we don't, you know what's going to happen? It's the Spirit who takes the things of Christ and makes them real to us. It's the Spirit who gives us the joy of our acceptance in Christ.

52:19 It's the Spirit who bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. If we grieve the Spirit by refusing to deal with sin in the way of evangelical repentance, we quench Him. And a grieved and a quenched Spirit becomes in that sense a withdrawn Spirit. We will not know His joy of acceptance and pardon and all of those things to which He bears witness.

52:47 But now, follow closely. He is not only grieved when we refuse to acknowledge the sin and confess it and turn from it, but listen carefully, He's grieved when we don't believe His testimony about what God has done with that sin. When we don't believe that the Spirit has come to bear witness to the perfection of the work of Christ. And if when we confess sin we dishonor the work of Christ by not believing that we are forgiven, how does the Spirit of God feel when we will not believe His testimony?

53:26 He's grieved. How do I feel if you won't believe my testimony? You say, where were you last night? And I tell you, I don't believe you.

53:35 That creeps me. I'm bearing witness to facts and you won't believe me. The Spirit is bearing witness to facts when He says, what grieves in Christ is justified. No condemnation for past, present, or future sins.

53:52 That's the testimony of the Spirit. Grieve Him by not believing it? Every little sin bring you back under condemnation and judgment? Oh, my friend, don't grieve the Spirit with such wicked unbelief.

54:10 But say, I venture upon this mighty Savior. The promise of God is my only plea. I will dare to believe that there is no condemnation and deal honestly with my sin. Not let it bring me into legal bondage.

Exhortation and Prayer

54:34 Deal with it in the light of my Father's countenance. Deal with it in a way of evangelical repentance. And for you who know nothing of any repentance, my friend, I wouldn't exchange places with you for all the wealth of the world. To be without repentance of any kind is to be without Christ, and to be without Christ is to be without hope.

55:03 May God grant that considering your sin in the light of God's gracious provisions in Christ, some of you who've never known those initial actings of repentance will flee from your sins and find refuge in so mighty and able a Savior. And may we as God's people learn how to deal with our sins as justified people, all the while rejoicing in what we are in Christ and yet honestly reckoning with the sins that grieve and dishonor Him. Is it too much to expect that we can by the grace of God hold that biblical tension in the midst of our sins? May God help us. May we cry to Him for the Spirit's aid that we may honor Him by dealing with our sin in the way that is consistent with the Word of God. Let us pray.

56:08 Our Father, we recognize that we have been dealing with matters that touch the deepest springs of Your honor and of our well-being. We pray that the Holy Spirit will give us understanding and then give us grace to be obedient to that Word. Take from our hearts wicked unbelief. Take from our hearts all insensitivity and hardness.

56:34 Oh, that we may reflect a genuine love to Your dear Son who loved us and gave Himself for us. Hear our prayer and seal the Word to our hearts. Dismiss us with the blessing of Your presence resting upon us. We ask in Jesus' name.

56:51 Amen. Amen.