Repentance: Sin, Self, Self-Righteousness

Introduction: The Manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church and the Elements of Conversion

0:03 The following message was delivered on Sunday morning, July 5, 1992, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now, as we have already made mention of the fact, I am sure that there is not a person here from the youngest to the oldest who is not very much aware that on this Fourth of July weekend, our nation again celebrates its formal declaration of independence. And as significant events are remembered in our national life, so we as the people of God in this congregation are being reminded that 1992 is a very significant year in our life together as a duly constituted church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is during this year that we will celebrate in the will of God 25 years of existence as a church.

1:05 However, the manner in which we are attempting to celebrate 25 years of life together as the people of God is radically different from the manner in which our nation celebrates this memorial of independence. We are using the occasion of this significant year to focus our attention upon those biblical truths which have functioned. As the very life and breath, the very nerve centers of our life together as a congregation. And the proclamation of these truths is coming to us under the general title of a manifesto of Trinity Baptist Church. And in the course of identifying, demonstrating, and applying those biblical truths which constitute the manifesto, we have come to the ninth basic affirmation. And I've couched it in these words. We are determined to maintain a balanced New Testament perspective in our teaching and expectations concerning conversion, the Christian life, and the mission of the church.

2:26 For several weeks our attention has been directed exclusively to the issue of conversion. And I have tried to define conversion in a very non-conventional way. technical way as that whole process by which sinners are turned out of the way of sin and death and into the way of righteousness and of life. And having established from the Scriptures the absolute necessity for conversion, we then observed from the Word of God accounts of conversion which clearly set before us the obvious diversity of the ways of God in the conversion of sinners.

3:10 So we began by establishing the necessity for conversion and then the obvious diversity of the work of God in conversion. And with those two issues as background, we are now seeking to address a third major area of concern with reference to the New Testament doctrine of conversion. Namely, the essential elements of conversion. That is, while we acknowledge the absolute necessity for conversion and the great diversity of the work of God in conversion, what are those common denominators that are present wherever and whenever God confers converting grace? Whether He does so, as we used the imagery last week, like the driving away of the dark of night by the gradual rising of the sun, or whether He does it in a more instantaneous and dramatic way as He did in the case of Saul of Tarsus, regardless of the particulars of circumstances, the various dimensions of God's working in conferral of converting grace, what are those indispensable, those He says,

4:33 essential elements of conversion without which no one can lay biblical grounds to his claim that he is a converted man? Well, we saw that the first essential element is this. In genuine conversion, we are brought to an acute sense of spiritual need which we become convinced can be met only in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes.

The Second Essential Element: A Lifelong Disposition of Repentance and Faith

5:03 God never converted a sinner without making him feel his need for the heavenly physician. For Jesus said, Those that are well have no need of a doctor but those that are sick. And so God makes us to feel our moral and spiritual sickness, whether in terms of a focused conviction of sin, or whether in terms of a felt need of the soul, what the Bible describes as, soul thirst and hunger, whether it is what the Bible describes as a felt fear of death, whatever it may be, God first of all brings us to an acute sense of spiritual need, which we become convinced can be met only in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then last Lord's Day, we began to consider the second common denominator, the essential element in true conversion, and I expressed it in these words. In genuine conversion, we are brought to a lifelong disposition of repentance and faith, along with the inevitable fruits of this disposition.

6:20 We are not only brought to an acute sense of need, which we become convinced can only be met in the Lord Jesus Christ, but we are brought to a lifelong disposition. Again, whether the beginning is dramatic, whether the beginning is memorable, whether the beginning cannot be marked by the converted sinner is of no consequence. What is of consequence is this. Have we been brought to a lifelong disposition, that is a prevailing bent of the soul, with respect to repentance and faith?

7:01 And? Those inevitable fruits that flow from this disposition. And so we began to concentrate then, narrowing down the field of our vision, on this issue of what is a disposition of repentance. And we demonstrated from the scripture the necessity for repentance, and then as we began to open up the nature of repentance, we had time to focus only upon one vital element of the nature of true repentance.

7:31 And it was this, that God Himself is the great object of concern in true repentance. As we examined Acts 20.21, where Paul said he preached repentance towards God. Acts 26.20, in which he said he preached that men should repent and turn to God.

7:54 When we examined the account of the conversion of the Thessalonians, in which it is said in 1 Thessalonians 1.9, that they turned unto God from their idols. Or the account of the conversion of the Gentiles in Acts 15.19, that we trouble not those that from among the Gentiles have turned unto God.

8:17 The emphasis is clear, that in true conversion, that repentance which is unto life and salvation has as its great object of concern God Himself. It may have, and it must have, attending concerns, as we'll see this morning, but I want to underscore again, one can have lesser concerns and be greatly agitated about them. But if one never rises to the place where God Himself is the supreme object of concern, there has been no true conversion. This is clearly illustrated, as we saw in the prodigal son, in the parable, seven times in those initial verses, once he comes to himself, the word Father is found. I will rise and go to my Father and say unto my Father, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight. And in Psalm 51, David's great concern, the disposition of repentance, acting in a man who had been in a state of grace for many years, against thee. And thee only have I sinned.

Necessarily Related Issues of Concern: Sin, Self, and Righteousness

9:31 And done that which is evil in thy sight. Now we come this morning, following on from this truth that God Himself is the great object of concern in the repentance involved in true conversion, to take up what I'm calling the necessarily related issues of concern, without which there can be no honest dealings with God. While God is the great object of concern in that relationship, repentance, which is essential to conversion, God is not the exclusive object of concern. And while we may fasten upon lesser objects and therefore never come to true repentance, we cannot fasten upon that great object without also reckoning with these other three areas of concern. There are necessarily related issues of concern in true repentance without which there can be no honest dealings with God. And what I propose to do in the time remaining is to demonstrate from the Scriptures that those three related issues of concern are these, sin, self, and righteousness. First of all, then, the issue of sin in connection with true repentance.

10:56 We've demonstrated the necessity for repentance, the nature of true repentance. We must understand it. And by understanding it, beginning with that which we established last Lord's day, God Himself is the great object of concern in true repentance. But now, secondly, there are three related issues of concern which are essential to true repentance, and they are sin, self, and righteousness.

The Issue of Sin: Turning from Idols and Particular Wickedness

11:27 We take up the first, the issue of sin, in connection with true repentance. And here I would ask you to turn with me. the texts that we've already considered, but now we want to turn them in a different light. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. In this classic text describing the conversion of the Thessalonians,

11:47 we read, For they themselves, verse 9, report concerning us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned unto God from idols, to serve a living and a true God. Now the Apostle brings together as inseparable realities in their spiritual experience that they had turned unto God, but that they had also turned from their idols, indicating that it was morally impossible for them. To truly turn to God, unless they had turned from their idols. If they had been determined to cling to their idols, they could not have turned unto God. For no man can serve two masters. He will love the one and hate the other, or hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

12:54 That is the God of money and of things. And this text makes it very clear that though God was the primary object in their repentance, turning from the sin of idolatry was a necessary accompaniment of turning unto God. That being so, Paul does not scruple in his preaching in Acts chapter 14. I would ask you to turn to God.

13:24 I would ask you to turn to God. I would ask you to turn to God. I would ask you to turn to God. I would ask you to turn to God.

13:24 I would ask you to turn to God. I would ask you to turn to God. I would ask you to turn there for a parallel passage.

13:29 In preaching to heathen idolaters who were ready to add to their already large number of pagan deities, they are ready to add Paul and his companion and make gods out of them. And as Paul becomes aware of it along with Barnabas, we read in Acts 14.14, but when the apostles Barnabas and Paul heard of it, that is that these people were going to give them, in the names of two of the gods, they were overwhelmed with a sense of horror. It says they rent their garments and sprang forth among the multitude crying out and saying, Sirs, why do ye these things?

14:12 We are men of like passions or like nature with you. Now notice, and bring you good tidings. It is that verb which means we gospelize you. We bring you the gospel to what end?

14:26 That you should turn from these vain things unto a living God. Now you see how the order is reversed from 1 Thessalonians 1? 1 Thessalonians 1 says you turn to God from your idols. But in this passage they say we bring you the gospel to the end that you should turn from your idols unto God.

14:56 Now are these two different things? No. It is just placing the spotlight upon that which is inseparable in any true work of conversion. No one ever truly turns to God while still clinging to his idols.

15:16 Whether they be the idols made by men's hands, whether they be the idols that are fashioned in the imaginations of men and then celebrated in literature and poetry, or whether it be the idolatry of the love of things, for Colossians 3 says covetousness is idolatry, whether it is the God of sensuous passion, for the Bible says whose God is their belly, their passions and their animal appetites, whatever the idol is that claims my devotion, to which I give my energies and my time, the thing before which I bow. God says we must turn. We must turn from these vain and empty things unto the living God who made the heavens and the earth and the sea and all that in them is. Let me illustrate it this way. Suppose you were out with some friends in a boat and someone through carelessness ran into the boat and it began to sink. And on that boat there were some large party balloons and one of the children fell overboard and was able to...

16:31 to cling to this party balloon that had a little string attached to it. And the thing is leaking and he's clinging to it. He can't swim and he's fearful that he's going to be inundated by the waves and drown. And while he's clinging to that leaking balloon, that delicate, very unstable means of holding him above the waves, someone says to him or says to you, if you were that person here, and they throw out a solid styrofoam canvas-colored donut, shaped a life preserver that has sufficient buoyancy that that little child could actually put it over his head and drape his arms around it and float like a cork above the heating sea, see if that little child in his desperation clings to his flimsy, leaky balloon, he'll sink beneath the waves with a life preserver tapping his shoulder. He can't cling to the balloon and cling to the life preserver. And if he is to cling to the life preserver, he must turn from clinging to his flimsy, leaky balloon. That's what these verses say.

17:40 If we would turn unto the living God, we must let loose of our leaky balloons. We must turn from our idols. And therefore the issue of sin in connection with true repentance is an inevitable accompaniment of any honest dealings with God. You see, it's not just sin in general or the sin of idolatry alone in particular, but I want you to look with me at three or four other texts and see if you can pick out the common denominator in each one of them.

The Particularity of Sin in Repentance

18:14 First of all, in Acts chapter 8. Acts chapter 8.

18:21 We have the record of the gospel coming to Samaria and a well-known sorcerer professes to be converted, but then subsequent to his professed conversion and baptism, and apparently, becoming a part of that emerging church, he even becomes a special companion of the apostles,

18:47 and he sees that as they laid their hands upon people, special and unusual manifestations of the Spirit are imparted, and he says in verse 19, Give me this power, that on whomsoever I lay my hands he may receive the Holy Spirit. But Peter said unto him, Thy silver perish, with thee, because thou hast thought to obtain the gift of God with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right, now notice, before God. Whatever you've gone through, Simon, you've never gone to the place where you've had dealings with God.

19:31 Your heart is not right before God.

19:37 But he doesn't stop there. He says, And if it ever is to be right with God, if you ever are to have God as the great object of your concern, there is a necessary attending issue that you must reckon with. Read on with me. Repent therefore, and the Greek is very emphatic, of this thy particular wickedness, and pray the Lord if perhaps the thought of thy heart shall be forgiven thee, for I see, that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.

20:15 Peter says, I perceive you don't have the root of the matter in you, because you've not have deep, thorough dealings that have made you right with God. And the evidence is, this particular wickedness is an indication that your heart is a stranger to the workings of true repentance. Then over to the Bible, the book of Revelation,

20:44 in chapter 9. Revelation chapter 9.

20:50 In a passage in which God is graphically setting forth those cycles of his judgment upon impenitent and wicked men. We read in verse 20 of Revelation 9, And the rest of mankind who were not killed with these plagues repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship God, and the idols of gold and silver and of brass and of stone or of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. And, notice now, they repented not of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their fornication nor of their thefts. Now do you see the emphasis here? Though God is pouring out these unusual judgments to get the attention of men, they go on determined to be wedded to their idol worship and their pattern of living in murders, sorceries, fornication, and thefts. And God charges them with not repenting of these specific sins.

22:07 Look at the parallel passage in chapter 16, verses 9 and 11. Again, another cycle of God's vials, of judgment being poured out upon the earth. And we read in verse 9 of Revelation 6, And men were scorched with great heat, and they blasphemed the name of God, who hath power over these plagues, and they repented not to give Him glory. There the emphasis is upon their refusal to repent in order to glorify God.

22:41 But now notice in verse 11, And they blasphemed the God of heaven, heaven because of their pains and their sores, and they repented not of their works. You see the two things that are brought together? They repented not to give God the glory. They repented not of their specific works. Now what's the common denominator of Peter saying, repent there of this, thy particular wickedness, and pray to the Lord if perhaps the thought of thy heart be forgiven thee. And these passages in Revelation, they repented not, and then the specific sins are mentioned. Well, what they underscore is that repentance will always be in terms of the particularity of the sins that are particularly the patterns of our own life. Our repentance will not merely be with respect to a general sense

23:42 of sinfulness, and with respect to sin considered as a mountain of iniquity rising up in the face of God, but the repentance will be with respect to the specific, the aggravated sins that have been a part of our own pattern of sinful rebellion against God. Listen to Professor Murray, who addresses this so powerfully. Repentance, we must not...

24:12 We must not think of as consisting merely in a change of mind in general. It is very particular and concrete, and since it is a change of mind with reference to sin, it is a change of mind with reference to particular sins. In all the particularity and individuality which belong to our sins. It's very easy for us to speak of sin, to be very denunciatory respecting sin, and denunciatory respecting sin. We must not think of sin as a particularity respecting the particular sins of other people, and yet not be penitent regarding our own particular sins. The test of repentance is the genuineness and resoluteness of our repentance in respect to our own sins. Sins characterized by the aggravations which are peculiar to our own selves. Repentance in the case of the Thessalonians manifested itself in the case of the Thessalonians.

25:13 Repentance in the fact that they turned from idols to serve the living God. It was their idolatry which peculiarly evidenced their alienation from God. And it was repentance regarding that thing that proved the genuineness of their repentance and their faith and their hope. You see the point that he's making? And the point that I would impress upon your conscience, that if indeed repentance, coming to a disposition of repentance, would be a condition of repentance, is an essential element in conversion. And if repentance has primary reference to God himself, but a necessary reference to sin, but sin not in vague generalities, but my own particular sins in particular. I ask you sitting here this morning, is the disposition of repentance implanted in you? Have you, in the presence of God, dealt with your particular sin?

26:17 Has it been aggravated by your own particular temperament and circumstances and background and negative examples, whatever the occasions of those things might be? Has it been your own sins for which you have been humbled and for which, by the grace of God, you have sought the forgiveness and the delivering power of God's grace? You see the capstone text over this matter of the issue of sin in connection with true repentance is Proverbs 2, verse 28, 13. He that covers his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesses and forsakes them shall obtain mercy. He that covers his sins, not someone else's, but his own, refusing to bring them to the searching light of God's law and the even more intense searching light of the cross of Christ, and there condemn them in our own hearts as God has condemned them in the death of His Son, determined as we read in Mark this morning to deal ruthlessly with those sins at any cost, upon pain of perishing if we refuse it. I ask you, do you know anything

27:37 of that kind of repentance? Not as a spiritual flurry when your conscience was unusually tender toward the realities of heaven and hell, when you were filled with fears on the threshold of being told that you had possible human sins. This 나는 Jesus Christ ideologons?'r WIEHREN елей HEEL Как野 possibly had some dread disease, but is this the prevailing disposition of your heart?

27:59 I didn't say the perfectly consistent disposition of your heart, but is it the prevailing disposition of your heart that those sins that are peculiarly your sins, and they may be the kinds of sins that no one knows but you and God, the pride of your heart, the envy, the jealousy, things that may never break out and shape your actions and not even your words, but God sees those sins in your heart. Do you humble yourself for those sins in particular? Do you seek the pardoning grace and cleansing of the blood of Christ in particular? When there is true repentance imparted as a prevailing disposition of the soul, there will be grief and hatred for sin and for our own particularity. Either sins, 2 Corinthians 7.10, ye sorrow, or with foregodly sorrow works repentance unto salvation, there will be a heart divorce from the sins, even when we've not yet learned how through the various disciplines of the Christian life and the privileges that are ours in Christ, we've not learned how fully to appropriate them to that need. Even though there may be a pattern of stumbling, there is a heart.

29:20 A heart divorce from the sin.

29:24 There is no signing of a peace treaty with anything we know to be displeasing to God. A willingness to deal biblically with the horizontal consequences of that sin. When did the Lord say in Luke 19 to Zacchaeus, behold, today salvation has come to this house? Was it because he was speaking in tongues or doing cartwheels in the spirit?

29:44 No, it's when he said, behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I've taken anything wrongfully, I restore it fourfold. Jesus said, salvation. Salvation has come to this house. If this tight-fisted, covetous, money-grabbing man is ready to give half of it away and restore fourfold all of the inequities that he perpetrated in his position as a Roman tax collector, as a tax collector for Rome, he said, salvation has come to this house.

30:09 Why? He saw a disposition of repentance. A disposition of repentance. Because it was those particular sins that in particular marked the pattern of Zacchaeus' life before the Lord said, today I must abide at thy house, and there is a commitment to a lifetime of repentance.

A Lifetime Disposition of Repentance

30:31 2 Timothy 2.19, this is the foundation of God that stands sure. It has this seal, the Lord knows them that are his. He knows his own.

30:42 Would I know that I am his? How can I know it? And let everyone that nameeth the name of Christ continually depart from iniquity.

30:52 To take. To take upon myself the name of Christ is to say that I am committed to a lifetime disposition of repentance. As long as sin remains, repentance will be in order. And I am determined to go to my grave a penitent, believing sinner.

31:14 A penitent, believing sinner taken out of the way of sin and death and put into the way of righteousness. In life, yes, I am a saint in that sense, yes, yes. I know that. But I am also one who carries with me the reality of my sins so that I enter into the cry of the great apostle.

31:41 To will is present with me, but to perform I know not. The good that I would, I do not. The evil that I would not, that I do. Oh, wretched man that I am.

31:55 Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank you. And God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Yes, the flesh will lust against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh.

32:05 But the mark of the truly converted man or woman is there is a disposition of repentance that has as its primary object God himself, but as its necessary attendant concern, the issue of sin. But then secondly and more briefly. There is the issue of self in connection with true repentance.

The Issue of Self: Repudiating Self-Centeredness

32:32 And what do I mean by the issue of self? Well, consider man's condition in the garden before sin entered.

32:41 When God put Adam and Eve in the garden, two perfect people in a perfect environment, perfectly supplying all of their needs, all of man's desires and appetites, his joys and ambitions were centered in God and revolved around God. In the orbit of doing the will of God to the glory of God. So if we can liken man to our own solar system, God was the central sun and all of man's appetites and capacities and faculties and ambitions were like planets in their proper place revolving around that central sun. Now when man sinned, what happened?

33:23 Did just a couple of his appetites go into a skewed orbit instead of orbiting around God? Did God went out here to orbit around who knows what? No. The sun itself was replaced.

33:37 God was driven out of the center of man's emotional and mental and spiritual and moral solar system. And you know what was put in God's place?

33:49 Cursed, fallen, human selfhood. Man himself became the sun.

33:59 Man himself becomes the central sun. And now? All of his ambitions and his desires and appetites, all are in orbit around the service of fallen selfhood. This is why one of the most powerful and telling descriptions of sinful humanity is given to us in the words of Isaiah 53, 6.

34:22 All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way. We've turned to doing our own thing. In the language of 2 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians 5, 15, we live unto ourselves.

34:43 And we were never made to live unto ourselves any more than this planet Earth and the planets that comprise our solar system were made to revolve around our moon.

34:55 They're all made and put in place to revolve around the sun, which is the center of our solar system. And so it is with man. We were made that God himself would be the central sun. And everything that is that which constitutes us, creatures made in the image of God, was to be found in orbit around his will to his glory.

35:21 But no, that's all been reversed. And we've turned into a course of living unto ourselves. We've turned to our own way. And when a way back to God has been made through the gospel, it must necessarily reckon with this disrupted spiritual universe.

35:38 That has a wrong. That has a wrong center. Now do you see why when Jesus called men to discipleship, what was the first requirement of discipleship? Matthew 16.

35:48 Look at the language of Jesus.

35:52 It's found in the parallel passages in the gospel. Jesus said, if any man, broad, sweeping, general invitation, if any man, verse 24 of Matthew 16, if any man wills to come after me. Let him deny himself. There is the first requirement of attachment to Christ.

36:18 You've got to be detached from self as the center of your universe.

36:25 Not just be willing to have a few of the planets, maybe some of your time and some of your money and some of your interests get back into the problem. No, a death blow is dealt to the wrong center.

36:41 There must be a denying of self. And this is not the simple word for denial. It's the compound word. It's an intensified word.

36:51 There must be a resolute repudiation of self. Why? Because self has become the center. And it was never meant to be.

37:02 Listen to Lenski, the Lutheran commentator who has captured the heart, I believe, of our Lord's words. Whoever wills to come after Christ, let him deny himself. Self. Apo.

37:14 Plus arneomai. That's the basic word for deny with the preposition in front, which means to turn someone off. To refuse association and companionship with him. To disown him.

37:28 The one to be denied is here. Self. Self. Altogether and not merely some portion, some fault, some habit or desire, some outward practice.

37:38 The natural sinful self is referred to as its center. It enters in the things of men and has no desire for the things of God. As Peter later denied Jesus, saying, I know not the man. So you must say regarding yourself, I disown myself completely.

38:01 This is not self-denial in the current sense of the word, but true conversion, the very first essential of the Christian life. The heart sees all the sin of self and the damnation. And the. Death bound up in this sin and turns away from it in utter dismay, seeking rescue in Christ alone.

38:23 Self is thus cast out and Christ enters in. Henceforth you live not unto yourself, but unto Christ who died for you. Moreover, you can deny only one whom you know. A friend, for instance, by breaking off relations with him.

38:40 So here you are to deny your own old self. And. You enter into a new relation with Christ.

38:51 Now, I fear that it's here that some of you may have a fundamental problem because you have never, as it were, stood up to yourself and said to your sinful, self-centered being, I repudiate, I utterly renounce all allegiance from henceforth. And my allegiance shall be to him who died for me and rose again. And though remaining single. To fasten upon that principle that yet remains within us.

39:25 And we shall have to confess a million times before we get to glory if we live any length of days. How much our best devotions have been tainted by remaining elements of self-centered selfhood. The issue has been settled. I am no longer living for myself.

39:49 I joyfully. Acknowledge I'm not my own. I've been bought with a price. And I will live as the bond slave of Christ and of God in Christ.

40:01 This must indeed be the prevailing disposition of the soul. For you have no grounds to claim you're a Christian. That's why Jesus said whoever would save his life. Whoever refuses to have usurper self taken off the throne.

40:20 And God occupies. By his rightful throne. Whoever would save that life shall lose it. But whosoever shall lose his life.

The Issue of Righteousness: From Indifference/Self-Righteousness to Christ's Righteousness

40:33 That's what it means to be converted. It means that in having God as the supreme object of concern. The issue of sin is honestly faced. My sins in particular.

40:47 The issue of self. In connection with true repentance is faced. And then thirdly and finally the issue of righteousness. In connection.

40:57 With true repentance is also faced. You see righteousness has to do with having a right standing. Before God and with God. It is God declaring us just in the court of heaven.

41:10 And by nature man manifests one of two fundamental errors regarding righteousness. He is either willfully indifferent to the issue of whether or not he has a right standing with God. And he has to be willfully indifferent. Because he has a conscience.

41:26 And that conscience which accuses him for wrong doing or excuses him when he does what is right. That conscience is always bound up with his sense of accountability to God. And though conscience can be in measure seared. And the Bible speaks of a seared conscience.

41:47 And speaks of a conscience that is defiled. Nonetheless man must willfully put down his sense of accountability to God. And his need to have. A just acceptance before God.

42:01 If he is ever to dwell with God. So I say man either manifests a willful indifference. Or he manifests a horrible ignorance of how to obtain righteousness. And Romans chapter 1 verses 18 and following describes the first class of people.

42:20 That they put down the knowledge they have of God. And they come under even present judgments of God. And being handed over to their appetites and their passions in love. All the while knowing the righteous ordinance of God.

42:34 That they who do such things are worthy of death. Not only do them but take pleasure in those that do them. Romans 1 verse 32. But according to chapter 10 of Romans.

42:43 There is a second great error. And that is with people who are concerned to have a right standing with God. But what do they do? Listen to Paul as he expresses his burden for his fellow Jews.

42:53 For being ignorant of God's righteousness. And seeking to establish their own. They did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. These people are concerned with having a right standing in the court of heaven.

43:09 With having God declare them just and righteous. But ignorant of God's way of attaining this. They have gone out to build their own house of cards. They sought to establish their own righteousness.

43:22 And what that means is graphically illustrated in the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. In Luke 8. And in Philippians chapter 3. In Paul's own testimony as a Pharisee.

43:32 The Pharisee went into the temple. And there he creamed his spiritual feathers in the presence of God. I thank thee I am not like other men. I don't do this.

43:40 I don't do that. And if that doesn't quite make it. I'll tell you what I do. Perform.

43:45 I fast. I get tithes of all that I possess. And Paul in Philippians 3 said. If any man wants to boast in his own attainments.

43:54 And think that these attainments will bring him to righteousness. He said I have more grounds for boasting. And then he gives the list of his background. His attainments.

44:04 His performances. The things that he thought according to Romans 7. Would be the door of life. You see that's the tragic error of people thinking.

44:15 That if I get a little religion. And do a little thing here that's kind. And read a few books. And I don't indulge in these gross sins.

44:22 Then surely God will look upon me. And think that's pretty good. Performance. And give me a sense.

44:28 Repentance of righteous. No. Those two great errors plague mankind. Willfully indifferent to the issue of righteousness.

44:37 Or horribly ignorant of the way of righteousness. And seeking to obtain it in their own way. But in repentance there is always a radical change of mind. With regard to righteousness.

44:50 So that those who've been indifferent to it. No longer can be indifferent to it. Because they know now the truth of Romans 1.18.

44:56 The wrath of God is revealed. Revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. And the burning issue to the man who's been willfully indifferent is. No matter what else I have.

45:11 I must have a sentence coming from the court of God. That I am accepted in the court of heaven. If I don't have that. Whatever else I have.

45:21 I may have the acceptance of my beers. I may have the praise of my neighbors. But in a few more breaths it's all over. And I'm gone.

45:29 And I'll stand before God. And when I stand before God. If I don't have God to acknowledge me. To have a righteousness that passes the scrutiny of His eye.

45:39 It's all over. I'll hear the words. Depart from me. I'll go to the place Jesus spoke about in our reading this morning.

45:48 Of the never dying worm. And the unquenchable fire. And when God is bringing sinners to true repentance and faith. He blasts away.

45:59 To that willful indifference. And now the great concern is. How can I have a righteousness. That will pass the scrutiny of the eye of God.

46:09 And such a man is ready to hear his good news. That in the perfect life. And in the substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Such a righteousness has been conceived.

46:21 And brought to pass by God Himself. Ready to be received in the gift of His Son. And there's a change of mind. No longer is the person willfully indifferent.

46:33 If he can but know that he's accepted in the court of heaven. Then he fears basically really nothing else. And then the person who like Paul and the Pharisee. Or the Pharisee that Paul was.

46:47 Who's been seeking to establish his own righteousness. Realizes what is the stuff of his own works. In the eyes of a holy God. It's like going out and finding rotten burlap bags.

47:01 That once held. Fish caught down at the shore. And potatoes and onions. Stinking of the vegetables they once held.

47:08 And sewing that together. And then appearing in the presence of a king. Bragging about your beautiful royal robes. Stinking pieces of rotten burlap.

47:19 Fish smelly onions. Smelly rags. And God says all our righteousnesses are just like that. But in the Lord Jesus is that robe of perfect pure.

47:32 Linen. In which we may be clothed. And the Pharisee like the Apostle Paul. Can say the things that were gained to me.

47:41 I count loss but Christ. Yea. I count all things but loss. For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.

47:49 For whom I've suffered the loss of all things. And do count them but refuse. That I may gain Christ and be found in him. Not having mine own righteousness which is of the law.

48:02 But the righteousness which is of. God. By.

48:08 He repudiates. The rags that he once stroked. In which he looked upon as a beautiful. Garment before God.

48:17 He now sees them for what they are. And that which he despised. He now welcomes as his great possession. The righteousness of God.

48:27 In Jesus Christ. So that repentance. Which is of the very essence of genuine conversion. Always has as a necessary accompaniment.

48:37 Of its. Concern. Relative to God. Not only a concern about sin.

48:42 And self. But also of righteousness. And regardless of how dim and indistinct and blurred. Some of these things may be.

48:52 In a genuinely converted man. There will sooner or later come this clear conviction. Based on the word of God. That without a righteousness that passes.

49:06 A scrutiny. Of God's eye. I have no grounds to believe. I can enter heaven.

49:13 And the only way to obtain such a righteousness. Is in the gift of his son. The Lord Jesus Christ. So that to some degree.

49:22 The longing of the language of Philippians 8. That I've quoted in your hearing. Is the longing. Of the deep disposition of every converted person's heart.

49:32 That repentance has not only been. From evil works. But Hebrews 6.1.

49:38 Says repentance from dead works. We turn away from all of our own performances. As having any work. To construct a righteousness in the court of heaven.

49:49 And in the sight of God. And we gladly take what the old writers called an alien righteousness. The righteousness comprised of the fabric. Of another's doing and dying.

50:02 Even the doing and the dying. Of the Lord Jesus. Now let me press on your conscience. This very simple but urgent question.

Self-Examination: Is This Disposition Wrought in You?

50:12 Have you been brought. To a lifelong disposition.

50:18 Of repentance.

50:20 A repentance which has. As its great consuming object. God himself. His claims.

50:28 His rights. His fellowship. His person. His honor.

50:33 His gospel. Have you known what it is. To have God himself. As the great object of your concern.

50:43 In whatever you must turn from. Has it been a concern to turn to. The living God.

50:51 If so. If your dealings with God have been genuine and real. Then indeed. I've just been describing.

50:59 And you've been sitting there saying. Now I see how it all fits. Because there has also been wrought in your heart. The accompanying concerns.

51:08 Regarding sin. We don't talk anymore about little sins. We don't talk anymore about white lies. There are no.

51:16 Such things. There's truth. And there's a lie. And you know that liars have no part in the.

51:22 Kingdom of God. But have their part in the lake of fire. No such thing as a little lust. You know that Jesus said.

51:29 Just the acting of the eye. Can be the occasion of damnation.

51:35 No such thing as a little hatred.

51:39 Jesus said just to speak. In the derisive way to another you fool. Knucklehead. Said you'd be in danger of hell fire.

51:48 Change of mind regarding sin. We no longer regard it as a light thing. No longer regard it as something that you just learn to live with. Oh no.

51:58 There is wrought in our hearts. A fundamental change of disposition. With respect to sin. Our sins in particular.

52:08 The disposition is one of grief and hatred. No signing of a peace treaty. With any even the most stubborn remaining sin.

52:18 There is no capitulation. Because you see God is our great object of consideration. And we know that God never turns away from our sin. The eyes of the Lord are in every place.

52:28 Beholding the evil and the good. And as long as God knows. That that sin that may plague me a hundred times a day. How can I ever sign a peace treaty with it.

52:38 And say I turn to God. It's impossible. Impossible. I cannot be in communion with God.

52:47 And sign a peace treaty with any sin. But I'm weary of fighting it. So what?

52:55 You think God's weary of seeing it?

52:58 Christ was weary bearing its punishment.

53:02 But he nonetheless bore it.

53:05 And he continues to intercede for all of his own. At the right hand of the Father. If any man sinned. We have an advocate with the Father.

53:12 He is willing that we should come. As often as we need to come. To the fountain open for sin and uncleanness. There's no room for self-pity.

53:20 There's no room for despair in the gospel. None whatsoever. That's just a cop-out. To blame God for your love of sin.

53:31 No room for cop-out. Adequate provision is made. Even for the most stubborn remaining sin. That we can go.

53:38 If we need to go a hundred times a day. With God's promise. We confess our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive us.

53:43 And to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And no one ever went to hell. Fighting a stubborn sin. While looking to Christ alone.

53:51 For cleansing and for deliverance. No one. No one. But many will sink into hell.

53:59 Who got respectable enough to get into church. And then cease the war. And their hearts have become a veritable stinking hole of all kinds of sins that are not dealt with. The mark of a converted man or woman is that there's a lifetime disposition of repentance.

54:19 With God as its primary object. But with sin as an inevitable accompaniment.

54:24 And then there is also that constant dealing with self. There's been the fundamental repudiation. The issue's been settled. I am not going to live unto myself.

54:34 My life. My notions of right and wrong. My ambitions. My rights.

54:40 My dislikes. No. No. No.

54:43 That's been repudiated as the starting point for my life.

54:50 It'll now be living unto Him. I don't know all that's involved in that. I don't know what that means in this area and that area. But God knows I'm determined to find out.

55:01 And meanwhile I'm going to cling with all of my heart to the one unto whom I now live. Trusting Him to guide me. Trusting Him to guide me into paths of righteousness for His name's sake. In the language of Psalm 23.

55:13 And I've had a change of mind and disposition regarding righteousness. No longer do I regard the matter of having a right standing in the court of heaven with indifference. Nor do I regard it as something I can attain in myself. It has become my burning concern.

55:30 And it has become my joy to rest in God's way of righteousness. Which is to trust in the Lord Jesus. To trust in Jesus Christ and receive the righteousness of another.

55:43 Now my friends, this is what the Bible teaches about repentance. That's why you can't separate repentance and faith. Some of you have been sitting there saying, Pastor, that last heading is more faith than repentance. Yeah, I know that.

55:54 Because you can't separate them. It's repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus. And until we see that God has come to us graciously in the gospel, we will never turn to Him. Would you walk, if you had your sanity, straight into a burning billow of consuming fire?

56:14 Well, that's what God is outside of Christ. Nothing but a consuming fire. But it's when we realize that in Christ He has stretched out His hands in mercy to hell-deserving sinners. And it's in the context of the proclamation of the gospel that sinners are converted.

56:33 And so they have this change of mind. Not only with respect to God as the primary object, but with respect to sin. To sin, to self, and to righteousness. And that becomes the abiding, lifetime disposition of the soul.

Repentance: A Gift and a Command

56:51 If these things are true of you, dear child of God, you have only one to thank. And that's not yourself.

56:59 Because the scripture tells us in Acts 11, 18, Then they held their peace and glorified God, saying, He has granted unto the Gentiles repentance unto life. It was God that gave you eyes to see what you were, either in your willful indifference to righteousness, or in your pharisaic ignorance of God's way of righteousness. It was God that opened your eyes. It was God that inclined your heart to see how foolish it was to think that you could in any way find your true fulfillment with the wrong son in your universe.

57:42 That the root of what? That what you were as a sinner was to be found in your unblessed sinful self occupying the place of the central sign. And you've come to see that denying yourself is the dawn to life. Because it means that once again, as creatures made for God, to know Him, to do His will, we come home to what we really are to be.

58:08 Only through the gospel can we realize that it's God that brought us there. And if you're not there, you better take seriously Acts 17.30. And on that text I closed this morning.

58:23 The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now He commandeth all men everywhere to repent. You say, Pastor Martin, God has His cake and eats it too, doesn't He? You stand here and you tell the Christians if they've repented, all the credit goes to God. And now you turn to us who aren't and you say God commands us to repent.

58:44 My friend, if you've got a quarrel, go tell God about it. I'm just quoting His Word. He gives repentance, yet He commands you to repent.

58:53 You say, well, I can't figure it out. You're not asked to figure it out. You're asked to take it seriously enough. And when you do, you know what will happen?

59:00 You'll say, oh God, You're God and I'm the creature. And the place of the creature is not to be cavilling and smart-mouthing God. And God, if You command me to repent, it must be that I need to repent and I must repent! But oh God, I can't repent.

59:16 Would You not work in me? Would You not work in me? Would You not work in me? Would You not work in me?

59:18 Would You not work in me? Would You not work in me? Would You not work in me? You will find the promise of God true.

59:23 He shall seek me and find me in the day that You search for me with all Your heart. Be the prophet, pride, and I shall return.

59:35 You're convinced You must. You'll go to God that You may.

Prayer for True Repentance and Growth in Grace

59:40 May God grant that we'll give ourselves no rest until we know that a disposition of true repentance has been wrought in our hearts and our pattern of life validates our profession. Let us pray.

60:03 Our Father, we pray that You would take Your Holy Word and burn it into all of our hearts. We think especially of those sitting among us today who are strangers to evangelical repentance. Oh God, we ask if they are in the category of the Pharisee seeking to construct and fabricate their own righteousness that You will open their eyes. If they are being willfully indifferent to the issue of righteousness that You would trouble them, cause them, no longer to put down that which they know that they must answer to You.

60:39 We pray, oh God, that there be some darling sin that keeps any man, woman, boy, or girl from wholeheartedly turning unto You. Oh Lord, may that idol be seen for what it is. May they not be numbered amongst those of whom we read this morning that they repented not of their idols made with their own hands. And oh God, we plead for any who are wrestling with this whole issue of refusing to say no to themselves who've lopped away at one thing or another but who've never dealt with the central issue.

61:14 Oh God, in mercy have dealings, we pray that this day they may be liberated from the tyranny of being their own boss. Oh God, we ask for Your dear people who can testify that by Your grace they have indeed been brought to a radical, fundamental change of mind respecting Your Son's self and sin and themselves and righteousness. Oh God, we pray that the grace of true, spirit-wrought repentance will be increased in all of us. That we may be more thorough and more honest in our dealings with sin.

61:49 More sensitive to the first outcroppings of that remaining selfhood that would run ahead of You and run and walk against You. Oh Lord, when we would retreat into any posture of the world, the Pharisee, and seek to find some place of rest in anything we are or do, bring us back again and again that we shall glory in none other save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Seal then Your word to our hearts, we pray. In Jesus' name, Amen.