Conviction of Sin

Review: The Importance and Nature of Repentance as a Saving Grace

0:02 For several weeks now in our evening study of the Word of God, we have been considering the biblical doctrine of repentance. Unlike most of our studies in the evening as well as the morning in which we are settled in to a given portion of the Word of God and working through verse by verse and phrase by phrase, for these weeks we are considering in a topical manner the biblical doctrine of repentance, seeking to glean from the whole spectrum of God's Word those aspects which relate to this truth that we might have a clear understanding of what the Scripture means when it says, Repent. In our two previous studies, we have covered, first of all, the importance of this doctrine in the light of the Word of God. And we saw that Scripture makes abundantly clear that this doctrine, this doctrine is an important doctrine, important that we understand and experience true repentance because, first of all, there is no saving faith without it, Acts 20.21. It's the only alternative to perishing, 2 Peter 3 and verse 9.

1:15 It's the only gospel authorized by Jesus Christ, Luke 24, 45 to 48. We saw furthermore that it's the only gospel preached by the apostles. And we went through the book of Acts. Very quickly.

1:28 Looking at their sermons and seeing that the note of repentance was not some little embellishment stuck way off in a minor part of the great orchestration of truth, but it was the dominant note that, along with the notes bespeaking Christ's person and work, was a truly dominant note in the great chord of truth sounded in the apostolic gospel. And then we saw in the last place that it is called a foundational truth in Hebrews chapter 6. And verse 1. Now, last week we began to consider the nature of Bible repentance.

2:05 Having considered its importance, and I trust, having convinced everyone who thoughtfully listened that this is not a matter to be treated lightly, but a matter of life and of death, then we began to address ourselves to the question, what then is that repentance without which there is no faith, without which there is no true apostolic gospel or experience of the gospel or any true repentance? And we began to consider the nature of Bible repentance. And we began to consider the nature of Bible repentance. What is the true foundation upon which to build any kind of stable Christian experience?

2:34 And I indicated last week that our approach to answer that question was going to be working with a formal definition, the definition given in the Shorter Catechism, and expanding that definition into an illustration, the form of a tree, so that as we study the doctrine of repentance, we will be continually referring to this formal definition and then giving its substance to the doctrine of repentance. And I indicated last week that our approach to answer that question was going to be working with a formal definition, the definition given in the Shorter Catechism, and expanding that definition into an illustration, the definition given in the Shorter Catechism, and expanding that definition into a formal definition, the definition given in the Shorter Catechism, in the figure of a tree. And I want you to visualize with me that tree as it grows and develops. Last week, we considered simply the soil in which that tree grows.

3:10 If you're going to have a tree, it's got to have soil. And the only soil in which the tree of repentance will ever grow is the soil of God's grace. And so the first aspect of the definition given in the Shorter Catechism is this. What is repentance?

3:26 And the answer is repentance unto life. Repentance unto life is a saving grace. Not a saving work, but a saving grace. So that the framers of the Catechism and Confession, seeing in Scripture that without repentance no one can be saved, no one can believe, that there is no true apprehension of the gospel if it leaves us devoid of repentance, also recognize that salvation from beginning to end was the work of God's grace, and so they clearly perceive this biblical truth that repentance unto life was a saving grace.

4:06 The grace of repentance was their way of describing it. And so we looked in some detail at three passages of Holy Scripture which state categorically, explicitly, that repentance is the gift of God's grace to sinners. Acts 5.30 and 31.

4:27 Acts 11.18 and 2 Timothy 2.24-26. And then we closed our study with handling the most oft-repeated objection to this teaching of Scripture.

4:40 Well, if God commands men to repent, and only God can give men repentance, what kind of foolishness is this? How can you preach men must repent, and at the same time hold that only God can give repentance? Well, for the simple reason that that's what Scripture leads us to do. And God doesn't ask for repentance.

4:57 He doesn't ask us to be reconcilers or interpreters of the divine mind, but simply proclaimers. You say, well, won't that create despair? A sinner knows he's got to repent, and yet he knows he can't of himself? Hallelujah, yes, it will create despair.

5:10 Despair of looking for any help from himself. And it'll cast him upon the only one who can help him. The same kind of despair that was the best thing that ever happened to blind Bartimaeus, for when Jesus passed by, as we looked at it last week, his despair is what made him cry out, Son of David! Have mercy!

5:28 It was his despair that caused him to override all the objections of the multitude that said, Shut up! Be quiet! He's got no time for you! But it says he cried out the louder, saying, Son of David!

5:39 Have mercy! And so let's not be afraid of despair. The best thing that could ever happen to some of you sitting here tonight is to get a good baptism of godly despair that undercuts all the ground from underneath you and leaves you broken and helpless, throwing yourself upon the mercy of God. God in Jesus Christ.

Introducing the Two Roots of Repentance: Conviction of Sin and Revelation of Christ

5:59 Well, so much for our review. We come now, tonight, to begin to consider the roots of that tree. We've drawn a line across our big blackboard up here that you're picturing in your mind's eye. And that line is the soil line, and we've described the soil.

6:14 The soil of repentance is the grace of God. Now, look beneath that soil, and I want you to think of two big roots, like the ones that hold your wisdom teeth in place there. If you haven't had the happy privilege of having yours out and see those roots, that's yet to come. But you'll know then what I mean.

6:29 But beneath the line of that soil are these two roots. And the roots of repentance are two.

6:38 Those roots, without which there is no tree, those characteristics, those spiritual attitudes, without which there is no repentance, are twofold. And we look to our formal definition now to get them, and then we'll come back to the figure of the tree. Repentance unto life is a saving grace. That's the soil.

6:58 Whereby a sinner, number one, out of a true sense of his sin, and, two, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does, and then the definition goes on. But the framers of the catechism saw that the roots of repentance were two. A sinner has, number one, a true sense of his sin, and, number two, and apprehension, apprehension of the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. In other words, the roots of repentance focus upon two things.

7:38 There must be some understanding of God as our lawgiver and of the fact that we have broken His holy law and stand condemned before that law. And, number two, some understanding and grasp upon the fact that God in Jesus Christ is a gracious Redeemer, who can forgive even such hell-deserving lawbreakers as we. So, we may call these two roots, and I'm using these terms not because they're inspired, but because they're the best ones I know to use, and if you can help me to come up with ones that are more accurate or more stickable, that'll fix themselves in the mind better, I welcome such suggestions. I'm not very clever at those type things, and if you can help me, I sincerely would appreciate that and ask you to convey it to me. But here they are, and the terms that I'm using. Number one, conviction of sin, and number two, a revelation of Christ crucified. Those are the two roots of biblical repentance.

Conviction of Sin: The Prerequisite for a Sinner's Savior

8:41 Holy Spirit conviction of sin and the Holy Spirit imparted revelation of Jesus Christ crucified. The meaning of the cross as it fits the need of the sinner. Well, let's consider them in that order, and tonight we shall only have time to consider the first of those two roots of repentance, conviction of sin. Christianity is a sinner's religion.

9:11 Jesus is a sinner's Savior. One of the most beautiful summations of this is 1 Timothy 1.15. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save, sinners.

9:31 Jesus is a sinner's Savior. But, since it's a salvation from sin, which men are brought to embrace willingly and freely, the first work in its application to men is making them feel and own their desperate need of it. You see, God's salvation is not applied by osmosis.

9:59 It just goes absorbed unconsciously. Now, if God saves infants, He may have a different way of saving people. Maybe He does something that goes beyond our ideas of how He saves men now. I don't know.

10:11 If He saves imbeciles, these questions we sometimes foolishly ask, what about this person or that person? But in saving real lives, sane people like you and me, and those are the only ones we're having to deal with, and the only ones I'm having to deal with in my preaching tonight, God saves men by bringing them to the place where they willingly, and freely, with hearty desire, embraces salvation. Well, if it's a Savior, if He's a Savior from sin, and that salvation is a salvation from sin, the first thing then God must do is bring us to the place where we desperately sense our need of that kind of a salvation.

Jesus' Teaching: Physicians for the Sick (Matthew 9)

10:53 Now, that's not just some bit of clever reasoning on my part. It's the explicit statement of the Word of God. I refer you to the ninth chapter of Matthew, and would ask, to look at this passage with me for a few minutes tonight. Matthew, the ninth chapter.

11:13 The Lord Jesus has passed by and called to Himself a man of very checkered past and of a very suspicious reputation. Matthew, this chief of the publicans,

11:30 we would say sort of one of the overlords in the mafia of that day.

11:37 And he says, follow me. And wonder of wonders, he rises up to follow Him. And he's not content that just he himself find a great salvation in this Savior who forgives the likes of those who are high up in the mafia. He wants to share it with his friends.

11:53 And he hasn't been in church long enough to know that you just don't have sinners over to your house, you know. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. Have no fellowship with...

12:01 He hasn't been around evangelical churches long enough to learn some of that kind of Phariseeism. So he has no more sense than to call all his sinful cronies into his house. So look what happened. Verse 10.

12:12 And it came to pass, as he sat at need in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with Jesus and His disciples. And the Pharisees saw it, they said unto His disciples, Why eateth your teacher with the publicans and sinners? If he's what he claims to be, certainly he knows about the character of these people.

12:33 When Jesus heard it, He said, They that are whole, those that are well, have no need of a physician, of a doctor, but those that are sick. But go ye and learn what this means, if I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. Now, what's he saying? Get the setting of it.

12:58 Here Jesus is in an intimate social contact with real, sure enough, live, red-blooded sinners. The one of whom Scripture speaks and said He was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, but sitting down to meet, to eat with sinners. And enjoying His meal so much that they said, a wine-bibber and a gluttonous man, as we heard this morning. Now, that's the picture.

13:25 And as the Pharisees, the separated ones, come by, who'd never be defiled with Gentile dogs, or with these terrible betrayers of their nation, the Pharisees and the tax collectors, when they see the Lord Jesus hobnobbing with that kind of a crowd, it disturbs them. And they said, My, the mark of a true teacher is he holds himself aloof from sinners. He's a separated one, like we are. But there he is, right down in the midst of inviting, real, red-blooded contact.

13:56 Jesus heard them. And they didn't come to Him. They'd been whipped around a few times by the Lord's answers. And maybe they came indirectly, thinking they could handle the disciples a little bit better.

14:05 And so, they find some of them, and they say, Hey, see that crowd your master's eating with? How come? And Jesus, overhearing them, turns and says to them, I'll tell you why. A simple principle that you people live with all the time.

14:18 When do you send for a doctor? It's not when you get up in the morning and feel like a million bucks, and the bills are all paid, and kids are smiley and happy, and everything's great. Doctors don't have time to just come and pay little social calls with you. But when you get sick, sick enough that what you've got in your medicine chest won't help you.

14:36 Your aspirins and your band-aids and your Vaseline and any other first aid things aren't good enough. Then you get on the phone and they say, Doc, I'm in bad shape. I'm running a fever of 103. I've taken aspirin, hadn't done anything.

14:48 Can you come and see me? Now, Jesus said, if you understood the simple thing, a simple principle that's operative in your daily life physically, you'd know what I'm doing here. You'd understand it perfectly. People that are whole, people who are not conscious of desperate physical need which they themselves cannot meet, they do not call physicians, especially in our day, what their fees are.

15:12 You just can't afford to call them for a nice little chit-chat. Might have been a time when someone who was just lonely could call a doctor in a house call just to have company. But you don't do that now. Ten or twelve bucks a shot.

15:24 You don't do that. He said, if you only understood that, you'd know what I'm doing with these sinners. And they said, furthermore, and we'll come back to that, he says, you don't understand the whole end and goal of the very religious life that you're caught up in. You Pharisees, you strict ones who go up to the temple all the time, who are involved in the sacrifices and the whole the biblical system.

15:46 He says, you've missed the whole point. God says, and then he quotes from the Old Testament, Hosea chapter 6 and verse 6, he says, but go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice. What have I ordained that whole system for?

16:02 That you people might have a temple to go to and offer up some sacrifices and have some blood to shed and have some calves and some bullets to burn upon an altar? No, no. He says, the whole end of all this is to display my character as a God of mercy. I'm showing in all of this sacrificial system that though men are sinners, I delight to show mercy to sinners.

16:26 I invite them to draw near on the basis of an appointed sacrifice. And he says, you've missed the whole point of it. You're so wrapped up in all the details of it, you've missed the whole message of it. Go and learn what this means.

16:38 I will have mercy and not sacrifice. And then he brings both of these things to a glorious conclusion with reference to himself, for I came not to call the righteous. I have no message for people who are righteous. But I say, does the Bible teach that anyone is righteous?

16:57 Absolutely no. All is sin. There is none righteous. So what's he saying?

17:02 He's saying, I am not come to call the righteous, that is, those who are righteous in their own eyes. Those who do not feel themselves to be sick with the terrible malady of sin. Those who do not see themselves in need of mercy, the whole message of the sacrificial system. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.

17:24 Those who own and feel and know themselves to be undone. Those who know that their hope is not to be found in becoming like you Pharisees, just being in the right place at the right time, doing the right thing. But those who see their need of mercy from their God. Mercy that they've sensed is being dispensed through me.

Paul's Argument: Establishing Universal Sickness (Romans 1-3)

17:49 Now, if there were no other passage in all of the Bible, I could, let the case rest on this one. In saying that no one is ever brought to that true repentance which is always inseparably linked to genuine faith in Christ, who is not first of all brought to a place of true conviction of sin, that is, who is made to feel and own the guilt and the pollution of sin. Not just admit, quote, that one is a sinner, but brought to feel and to own and to sense the reality of sin.

18:30 That's why I love the old statement there in the Catechism. Repentance is a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a mere admission of his sin, no sir, they never found that in the Bible. What did they say? Out of a true sense of sin.

18:47 Sense is something personal, experimental, inward, a true sense of sin. Then one can see this saying, this same thought developed in the book of Romans. Paul announces the great theme of that book in chapter 1 and verses 16 and 17.

19:08 He says that he's not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Why? For therein, that is, within the gospel is revealed the righteousness of God from faith to faith. So he says, my great theme is going to be this, a glorious gospel.

19:28 I'm not ashamed to proclaim it. It's God's power wherever I go, wherever it's preached. It's God's instrument, God's dynamite to blast men out of that state of sin and ignorance and darkness and bondage and bring them into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. That's his theme.

19:48 Now, how does he develop it? He starts with verse 18 of chapter 1 and goes clean through the end of chapter 1, verse 32, all the way through chapter 2 29 verses all the way through chapter 3 to verse 19 and he doesn't say a thing about his gospel directly. For the rest of that section, 118 to 319 he's doing one thing. He's trying to get men to feel their sickness.

20:20 That's all he's doing. That's all he's doing. And he takes the Gentile heathen world that's never heard the gospel and says, you're sick! And he says, I'm going to show you how you're sick and he tells them.

20:30 Then he takes some of those that we'd call the moralists, the people like some of the great Greek philosophers who reacted against some of the debauchery and the fleshly indulgence of their own society and became, as it were, very upright moral men who gave great precedence to the mind rather than indulging the flesh and he takes that crowd and corrals them and says, you're sick.

20:52 Then it's as though the Jews standing on the sidelines saying, that's right, Paul. That crowd out there, those Gentile dogs living like that, they're bad off. And even those ones that aren't living quite so bad out, well, see there, Paul turns on them and says, now you Jews, you're sick too. And so in chapter 3, verses 1 to 9, he deals with the Jews and then chapter 3, 1 to 9 and then in verse 10, he says, now here's the whole human race and verses 10 to 19, he takes passages from the Psalms and the Prophets and brings them all together and he says, here's the physician's report.

21:24 There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understand. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the wilderness way.

21:33 They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. The poison of asp is under their lips. Mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.

21:43 Feet are swift to shed blood. And he goes on to his glorious climax, his sad climax in verse 19 where he says that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Now what's he doing that for? With such a glorious theme bursting from his mouth, his heart, as this gospel that everywhere he's gone in the Roman Empire, he's seen that gospel radically transform men and women, fellows and girls.

22:14 It's the power of God. And he says, here's my theme. Well, why in the world didn't he get to his theme? He announces it in chapter 1, verse 16 and 17 and he never picks it up again until chapter 3, verse 21.

22:26 Why'd he do it?

22:28 He had a definite purpose in doing it. He knew that that gospel would never be good news until men had been brought to sense and feel and own the malady of sin. And so he labored to establish it. He labored to establish this principle.

The Beatitudes: Blessed are the Poor in Spirit and Those Who Mourn

22:49 Our Lord does the same thing in the Beatitudes. I'm only taking these passages in a random way to show you that this is the whole mood and thinking of Holy Scripture. He begins the Beatitudes by describing the blessed man, those who've attained to true blessedness. Isn't that what all men seek?

23:04 Blessedness? They don't seek it, God's way. And they don't know where in true blessedness is found. But Jesus opens his mouth there in the Sermon on the Mount and says, all right, do you want to know the blessed man?

23:16 Blessed is? Blessed are? And what does he say? Blessed are the poor in spirit for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them.

23:33 Blessed are those who mourn. They'll get comforted.

23:40 How strange, as that sounds to the human ear. Blessed is? Why, that's when you have all your psychological hang-ups resolved and you've got self-confidence and you know you're a well-integrated personality. Blessed are those who are confident in spirit.

23:55 Jesus said, no, not in my kingdom, it's the other way around. Blessed are the poor in spirit. What's he saying? The only man who's ever blessed is the man who's experienced the stripping work of the Holy Ghost, who's been brought to see that he is nothing, he has nothing and can do nothing and stand up and stands in need of all things.

24:18 The only man who's ever known true happiness is the man who's been broken over his sin.

24:26 So whether you turn to our Lord's statement in Matthew 9, the whole structure of the book of Romans or the Beatitudes and their other sections in the Word of God, what do we confront? That the first root of true repentance is this work of Holy Spirit conviction, this stripping work of God bringing us to the place where we feel and sense and own the truth of our desperate need of His saving grace.

Distinguishing Holy Spirit Conviction from Conscience

24:53 Now I want to state at this juncture something that we mentioned in our adult class the other morning and about, I imagine, a half of you were there, but I do want to repeat it for the sake of those who are not with us as we are studying it in another light. There's a qualitative difference in the mere naggings of conscience and this true Holy Spirit conviction of sin. Romans 2, verses 14 and 15 indicate that the heathen who have no confrontation with the gospel, who've never heard of the Savior and obviously are strangers to repentance, nonetheless know what it is to have a nagging conscience. For we read in Romans 2, 14 and 15, for the Gentiles that have not the law, when they do by nature the things of the law, these not having the law are the law unto themselves in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience, bearing witness their word and their thoughts one with another accusing or else excusing them.

26:00 Man cannot escape his true manishness and one of the things that makes you a man and not a dog or a chimpanzee is that you are made in the image of God. And part of that image was the stamping of God's holy law and will upon the heart and weaving it into the very fabric of man's nature so that though man has fallen, and much of that has been blurred, it's not been obliterated.

26:26 So the man who would least want this fellow conscience to be his companion can't shake him. He's there. In the quiet of his own thoughts when he retreats from every human contact and there works out his plans and conceives his sinful desires, conscience is there to be an accuser and take some of the joy out of his plans. And when he goes out to promote his plans, to sin, in secret or in open, conscience is there to be a worm in the joy and pleasure of his sin.

26:59 Why? Because he's a man. Now, conscience can be seared. Conscience is a poor reflector of times.

27:06 But nonetheless, there is that accusing or excusing. That is no evidence of Holy Spirit conviction that a man does. If your conscience ever bothered you for wrong, it sure has. All right, man, you know you're a sinner.

27:17 Now let me tell you about Jesus. Oh, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Let's not be so quick.

27:21 The mere admission of guilt is not the only thing. It is not Holy Spirit conviction. The mere acknowledgement of a conscience that's troubled is not Holy Spirit conviction. Well then, what are the elements that are always present in true conviction?

27:34 And let me say, because as I preach, I know some of you that are like tender reeds. And this is one of the problems of preaching. The truth that ought to blister some people leaves them untouched and that ought not to blister and hurt others wounds them. Now listen carefully.

27:49 I am not saying that unless God in these dealings with you brought you to himself with these concepts in these words and in this order you're not a Christian. I'm not saying that. I have no grounds to say that. The ways of the Spirit are like the wind.

28:04 God never saved two people the same way.

28:07 And he's never going to. Unless we begin to think we can put God in the box and say you've got to work this way. But there are certain fundamental principles that are true in all whom God saves. See?

28:20 Now it's these principles but I have to preach them in some order and I've got to use certain words. But don't bind your conscience to the order or to these specific words but try to grasp the heart of what I'm saying. And I say without any fear of contradiction from Scripture if you haven't come to experimental acquaintance with the heart of what I'm saying not this order necessarily or these words but the substance then you have no grounds to claim that you're a true Christian. Because this first root has never been sunk down into your heart by the grace of God.

Element 1: Sin as Grievous Revolt Against a Good God (Psalm 51)

28:55 What are then the essential elements of true Holy Spirit conviction? I would suggest two. Number one it is seeing our sin as a grievous revolt against a good and a gracious God.

29:12 The sight of our sin as a grievous revolt against a good and a gracious God. The great fact of Scripture is that you and I are God's creatures made in His image made to do His will made accountable to Him and that the God who made us in His image made us accountable to Him is a God of infinite love and graciousness and holiness whose designs for His creatures are consistent with His love and His graciousness. So that what He requires is for our good as well as for His glory. And that will which is good acceptable and perfect or as Paul says in Romans 7 that law which is holy and just and spiritual that law is the expression of the creature's good and gracious design for man the creature. Now what is it to be a sinner? It's to take a position of foul revolt against this God particularly in the light of what He requires of me. So that to be a sinner is to stand in defiance against the God who made me and though He made me to do His will to reflect His glory and to find my bliss I say God

30:40 I'll try to find my bliss my own way even if I have to turn aside from Your glory and the doing of Your will. Now what is Holy Spirit conviction? It's just seeing that thing as it really is. Beginning to see that that is what my sin is.

31:01 That's what it is in fact but that isn't what I call it in my own eyes. I look upon my sin in terms of what it does to me or in terms of what it does to society or some other relationship but Holy Spirit conviction is that operation of God whereby the sinner is brought to see his sin for what it truly is grievous revolt against a good and a gracious God. A clear example of this of course is in Psalm 15 I hope those of you who worked through this psalm with us a year and a half two years ago or so will not be weary of looking at one or two verses again.

31:41 As David is smitten with conviction through the ministry of the prophet Nathan he draws aside to pray and as he prays he pens the words of this beautiful psalm and after acknowledging his only hope is in the mercy of God we'll see that the Lord willing and look at the first couple of verses next week in our study of that second root of repentance after pleading that God would have mercy and that God would wash him he says in verse 4 of Psalm 51 these words that troubled me for years against thee and thee only have I sinned and done that which is evil in thy sight that thou mayest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest.

32:44 My temptation is I think I may have mentioned when we studied this a couple of years ago to say well let's give David some liberty for poetic license. The psalms are poetry and poetry can partake of a literary form that would make it something less than true if you were stating it as actual narrative. In poetry David can talk about the hills leaping and the trees clapping their hands but if he came into the room tonight and said you know I took a trip to Grover Cleveland Park today and as I walked through the park and he gives us narrative he says the trees began to clap there we'd say wait a minute you've been taking some of that stuff that some of the kids are fooling with over there. You see if narrative comes out that way we begin to trust the credibility of the narrator but in poetry there is you see it's a different literary form when you say you believe the Bible literally what you mean is you interpret poetry as poetry it's inspired poetry every word of it but when it says the trees clap their hands you don't mean that David actually looked up one day and saw the trees bending their boughs and flapping their leaves together no you understand that well it was my tendency to say well David has such a sense of his overpowering guilt that you know this is sort of poetic license against thee and thee only have a sin but really that isn't what it is what brings him to pray this way it can't be that his conscience is insensitive

34:11 for that's the condition it was in prior to Nathan's visit and Nathan's visit was the thing that probed his conscience and dug down to the deeps of his soul and caused him to cry out I've sinned against the Lord so his conscience was at a very keen sensitive position or in a very keen and sensitive state and that's the very thing that made him cry out this way against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight why? because David came to the recognition and this is what broke him that before he could ever take Bathsheba when he looked out upon the rooftop and saw her and lusted he first of all had to do something with God's holy law and with the God who gave that law David well knew the commandment thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife and when he looked upon Bathsheba and the first thought flashed through his mind of desire toward her the law of God thundered to his conscience thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife and when he pushed as it were that commandment aside and the lust began to burn the seventh commandment stood in his way thou shalt not commit adultery and then he pushed that commandment aside and after his deed and then it began to catch up with him and he finds out she's going to have a child

35:38 and he tries to get Uriah to come home to cover up his own deed and when he can't get him to do it and he schemes and plans his murder and he sits down to write that note to send up to the front of the battlefield before he can sign it and put the seal of the king upon it God's commandment comes thou shalt not kill and he has to take the commandment and throw it aside before he could ever hand the letter to the messenger and each time he took one of the commandments thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife and throw it aside thou shalt not commit adultery throw it aside thou shalt do no murder throw it aside David realized that God's law was not some impersonal code of conduct it was the expression of his own character and was the revelation of his own gracious will for his creature and to dispose of the commandment was in reality to dispose of God and at that moment to say God I want to do this I want to be a practical atheist I don't want your claim over me because I can't think of you without your law and I can't think of your law without this impingement upon my own desires so when he takes the commandment thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife thou shalt commit no murder thou shalt not commit adultery he can't dispose of the law

37:04 as some impersonal kind of code of conduct that's just hanging there in space no, no, you read the 190 Psalm and he understood that God's law was inseparably joined to himself with my whole heart have I sought thee let me not wander from thy commandments and all the way through the 119th Psalm you don't find the impersonal term commandments, precepts it's thy commandments thy precepts thy ways and a man who thinks biblically can't separate the law of God from the God of the law and now as David is broken and brought back and brought back to conviction by the ministry of Nathan and the Holy Spirit the truth that grips him is surely I sinned against Bathsheba surely I sinned against Uriah surely I sinned against myself and against the nation but the crime of my crime is that I sinned against a good and a gracious and a holy God and that's what breaks him against thee and and thee only have I sinned and done that which is evil in thy sight I want to ask you a very personal question tonight has your sin ever come home to you in that light?

38:31 how about you young people?

The Prodigal Son: Sin Against Heaven (Luke 15)

38:34 all these rules and regulations that mom and dad imposed upon you here's looking at them these regulations hanging out there in the sky somewhere God's holy law that says love me with your whole heart honor my day honor constituted a trial father and mother do you see those things as expressions of the law of your creator? the gracious God who designed you as he did fearfully and wonderfully made you showered upon you a thousand gifts that none of us deserves has it ever got you right down in there until it's stung and hurt that you've revolted against that God and that every breach of his law has been a breach of his law until you can echo the cry of David if not the same degree quantitatively at least qualitatively you've come to see it against thee and thee only have I sinned you find the same principle essentially in the history of the prodigal that young man that had enough of the restraints of home and mom and dad and all that was attached to home and said I'm going to go out on my own and I'm going to find myself in a place like home and I'm going to find myself in that place true happiness. Happiness comes in doing your own thing, with nobody to say, that's not

40:01 your thing for now. That's the whole idea that this is new. It's not new, it is right in the Bible. Who is that young man? He says, I want to do my own thing, and I don't want anybody to stop me. Happiness is found in doing your own thing. So Pop gives what's coming to me, I want to go and do my own thing, leave me alone. So he did his own thing. Isn't it interesting what the thing is? It's never going out, is it? Seeking the Lord and his salvation and conforming to his ways, but feeding the flesh, no restraints. That's what happened to him. So he wasted his substance with riotous living, chasing down harlots,

40:42 flighting from one night spot to another, until he ends up in abject poverty and says, I'd fill my belly with a husk if I could. And then it says he came to himself. You see, he was in a state of moral and spiritual insanity. God who gave him life, that that life might be lived to his glory, he's squandering all that capital that was never his. God invested that capital in him and said, now you put it to good use and bring the return to me in glory and in praise. He was squandering capital that wasn't his own. What did God do? God didn't haul him into court for embezzlement, he let him go, continued to give him breath to breathe, strength to live, that with that very breath and that very strength he might squander his capital.

41:26 You talk about the grace of God to sinful men. That's what God's doing every day. Sends his rain upon the just and the unjust. He keeps pouring down all this capital upon us, which has as its end that we should live to his glory and to his praise, and we squander it. We're guilty of spiritual embezzlement. Every one of us. He was. Until he came to himself, and then he began to see things in their proper light. And when he came to himself, he said, I'll tell you what I'm going to do. And I read now from Luke chapter 15. And he says in verse 17, when he came, he said, how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough in despair, and I perish here with hunger. I will arise and go to my father and say unto him, Father, I made a mess of things and put holes in my pocket and brought a bad name to the family reputation. No, he doesn't say anything

42:26 about the family to begin with. He doesn't say anything about himself to begin with. He says, Father, I have sinned against heaven. Heaven. Where in the world did heaven get into the passage? I don't read anything in the narrative.

42:45 You read it. It says in verse 11, a young man had two sons. The younger said to his father, give me the portion of the substance that falls to me. Divide it unto them as living. Not many days after, the younger son gathered all together, took his journey into a far country, and wasted his substance with riotous living. When he had spent all, there's no indication of any thought of heaven when he leaves home. What is he leaving in his own life? I'm leaving these restricting bodies. I'm leaving these restricting bodies. I'm leaving these restricting bodies. I'm leaving the binding restrictions of my father and my mother. I'm going to get away from their mores, their old puritanical mores. All these laws that just hang out there that they're imposing on me. Obey us. Honor the Sabbath day. Come to worship with the family. All that business passed on has no authority. It's just laws and rules out there. My parents hanging them there on a sky hook and then telling me to bow to them. That was his attitude when he left. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Who gave those rules? Well, my mom and dad.

43:39 It's just a law. It's just a law. It's just a law. It's just a law. It's just a law. It's a rule. A rule. A law that the church has hung out there. Mom and dad have hung out there and they're trying to put me under it. Not on your life. I'm going to do my own thing. I'm going to do my own thing. Ah, but listen. When he came to himself, he saw that that law that said honor thy father and thy mother, that wasn't hung out there on a sky hook. God, who made the creature, who ordained the family structure, said for the good of the child and for the glory of his own name, honor thy father and thy mother. And he sees that when he turned in foul revolt against the authority of his parents, he wasn't revolting against mom and dad and an isolated law hanging on a sky hook. I've sinned against heaven. I've revolted against the God who put that law there. When he went out and wasted

44:36 his substance with riotous living, with the harlots in the night spots, dragging his buddies and his friends into his same sin, he realized that command. He realized that command. He said, and thou shalt not. And those commands, thou shalt. They weren't just out there hanging in the sky. God gave them. And he saw that his whole life was one series of foul revolts against the God who made him. And it broke him. It broke him. It broke him. He didn't turn around and say, oh, isn't that wonderful? My dad's back home. Got a wonderful plan for my life. I think I'll go cash in on it. My dad will give me something better than what I got here in the hog pens. I've sinned against heaven. And when he recognized the authority of heaven, he said, there's only one thing for me to do. Let's go back where I belong as a son. Under the place of my father's protection, provision,

45:31 and direction. He says, I'll go back and be a servant. Has the Holy Spirit brought you to moral sanity? To where you've seen your sin? Not as against some isolated laws and rules. Oh, dear young people, how I long it is I pray for you. This is my prayer for you. Because I know, I know how some of you feel. Oh, if you could just throw off the shackles, these binding shackles. These shackles of this church and your family. You'd be free. No, you wouldn't. Those aren't laws. That's why I'm so careful about not making laws that God doesn't put in the book. They don't have laws. Can't go to movies, can't smoke, can't drink, and all this stuff.

46:15 You won't hear those things preached from here. Now, I'm not telling you to go out and drink and smoke. You can go watch any old filthy slop that comes out of Hollywood. But we try to be awfully careful here to make sure what we bind the consciences of men to is the law of God. You as parents better be sure of that. You better be sure of that.

46:31 That's what you bind the conscience of your kids to. And what is the true expression of the law of God, young people, when you revolt against that? That's not the church's standards, mom and dad's standards. That's foul revolt against the God who made you. The very God who lets you breathe the breath with which you carry out your revolt. And he lets you keep on breathing it. You talk about grace and patience. The very mind that conceives those thoughts and plans those sins and carries them out.

47:05 Who keeps that mind functioning? If you're not up on the hill there, the border of Rome and Cedar Grove tonight, God does. When that comes home to you, that I've used this mind, I've used this breath and all this invested capital to carry out my own lustful plans and purposes, you'll cry with the prodigal, I've sinned against heaven. That first root will go down into your heart, that root of conviction of sin. May I quote from a little booklet of A.W. Pink on the subject of repentance? He says this far more accurately, and it's beautiful in its accuracy, though it's terrible in its content. What is sin? Sin is saying,

47:58 I renounce the God who made me. I disallow his right to govern me. I care not what he says to me, what commandments he has given, nor how he expostulates. I prefer self-indulgence, indulgence to his approval. I'm indifferent to all he's done to me and for me. His blessings and gifts move me not. I'm going to be Lord of myself. Sin is rebellion against the majesty of heaven. It is to treat the Almighty with contempt. Oh, how vastly different a thing is sin from what the world supposes. How insensible are the unregenerate to the glory of God and that which is due unto him from us. The natural man supposes that sin cannot be consistent in some great evil or injury done to us. For a creature which is absolutely dependent to assume an attitude of haughty independence is the sin of sins. To despise

48:55 one who is infinitely glorious and infinitely worthy of honor, love, and obedience is an awful abomination. To be more concerned about pleasing fellow rebels than to seek the favor of God is turpitude of the blackest dye. Oh, listener, if you've never seen the book of Romans, you've never seen the book of Romans, you've never seen the great evil of sin, then you're a stranger to God and blind to his surpassing loveliness. You're under the blinding power of sin. Weigh well what is now being presented if you value your soul. The deceitfulness of sin may hitherto have closed your eyes to the terrible condition you're in. If so, are you willing now to be undeceived? Are you willing to really see yourself? Then make no mistake upon this point.

49:40 Now follow closely. Every sinner pardoned while he was impenitent, and never was any soul truly penitent while insensible of the great evil of sin. And never did a sinner perceive the great evil of sin till he became acquainted with the infinitely great and glorious God against whom he has sinned. You may indeed have been sorry for sin on other accounts, as exposing you to shame before men, as having injured your reputation, or because it's brought you to sin. But you ought not to put down God's chastening hand upon your body or temporal affairs. But if you've never seen the great evil of sin as it is against that God who is infinitely glorious in himself, then your repentance was not genuine, and God has not pardoned you. No one repents unless he's sensible of the evil of sin. No one is sensible of the evil of sin until he sees it as criminal offense against God. Has that come home to you?

Element 2: Sin as an Expression of Our Polluted Nature (Psalm 51)

50:43 Subtitles by the Amara.org community That all those lies in your youth were revolt against God. The cheatings in school, the rebellious attitudes, the lustful, prideful thoughts. You adults who've come into contact with the gospel in your adulthood, has this come home to you? That all of that profanation of the Sabbath, all of that dishonesty, all of the gossip, all of the rancor and bitterness of spirit, that this has been revolt against? Not an angry judge who sits upon a throne of the throne with a frown from morning till night, but a God who though he is judge of the world is the gracious benefactor who showers his gifts upon you. As Paul says in Romans 2, and know you not that this goodness has as its intention to lead you to repentance? That looking up to that throne and saying, look, this God who sends me health and strength and life and sanity, look what I've done. I've thrown up the very spew of my rebellion

51:43 into his face. And he hasn't brought down the stroke of his judgment. And that comes down on a man who crushes him. And he says, amazing grace, amazing grace, infinite kindness. Has that come to you? Then, secondly, and with this we close tonight, the second aspect that's always present in true Holy Spirit conviction of sin, not only seeing our sin as grievous revolt against a good and gracious God, but secondly, seeing our sin in spirit as a great measure, as an expression of what we are. Seeing our sin in some measure. I can't dictate the measure because I don't see that scripture does, but in some measure seeing our sin as an expression of what we are. Another great fact of scripture is not only that we were

52:39 made in the image of God, made to do his will, but that we were made upright and like him and that something's happened to make us so unlike him. We've become polluted. And again, we see the example of this in the 51st Psalm. For as David went on to confess his sin, he moved from the acknowledgement of its guilt as criminal offense against God to tracing the sin backward to its source. And he says in verse 5 of Psalm 51, behold, what does the word behold mean? It says pay attention, look at something. When John said behold the Lamb of God. He was saying whatever else you're looking at, look at this. Don't let anything else keep

53:24 your gaze. Look at the Lamb of God. David's praying. And he moves from his praying to almost commanding God to do something. He's saying, oh God, I've sinned against you. Have mercy. Forgive me. I plead. And then he says, God, look. Look, Lord. Pay attention not only to what I say, but to what I am. Look at me, God. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother die. My mother conceived me. He's saying, God, I did what I did because I am what I am.

54:01 Here's a man in his 50s tracing the root of this sin all the way back before he even drew the first breath of day. He said, there in my mother's womb, when that which is now David, 50-year-old man, when that which is now David was first conceived, that which was conceived. Was sinful in its very essence. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. And he's acknowledging that sense that always comes to a man under Holy Ghost conviction. That sense of pollution. That what I've done is the expression of what I am. He's not content to merely pray for forgiveness. He prays for forgiveness, but

54:56 he also prays for purgatory. Purging. Forgiveness for the guilt of sin. Purging from the pollution of sin. And a man who's been brought under Holy Ghost conviction in some degree acknowledges those two things. Guilt that needs forgiveness. Pollution that needs purging. In other words, he's not content to just have his record book juggled up in heaven. Ever hear it said, you admit you're a sinner? All right. Trust Christ you can go to heaven when you die. Someone says, sure, that's a good idea. What's the premium?

55:30 Nod your head to the fact. You mean you don't need to pay so much a month? Not a thing. It's all free. Someone says, that's a good idea. I think I'll do that. So he said, all right, what do I do? You pray this prayer after me. Oh God, oh God. I ask you to go through all emotions. And then someone says, now your record book's all juggled up in heaven. It's all fixed up. That's a pretty good deal. Three minutes, a little prayer. What about what you are? Anything happen there?

55:58 You see, no man wants to be delivered from what he is until he sees that what he is is polluted and foul and revolting in the sight of God. He's not content to just have his God. Any man who's got any kind of fear and dread of judgment to come would like to have his record book changed. No man, until he's wrought upon by the Holy Ghost, wants the foul fountain of his iniquity changed. And that's where sin starts in what I am. For Jesus said in Mark 7, for from within, out of the heart, proceed. And then he mentions all those forms of sin. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And true conviction of sin involves, to some degree, that recognition.

56:39 Behold, The problem is not my environment. I'm going to stop blaming my upbringing. I'm going to stop blaming society. And I'm going to stop blaming this and that. And I'm going to say, God, I did what I did, because I am what I am. And that's not only true of the sinner coming through the narrow gate into life. It's true of the child of God at every point of true confession of sin in his own life. I sin, Lord, but it's because I was tired.

57:14 No, it's because you were conceived in iniquity.

57:18 That's why you sin. Don't blame your tiredness. Lord, I sin because my wife or my...

57:25 No, you sin because of what you are. And the sooner you just get honest about it, the sooner you'll know the Lord doing that peculiar something that I can't explain, but in the process of sanctification, God actually does something to renovate. He renews us. The Scripture uses the term, the inner man that is renewed day by day.

57:48 Have you had that in some measure? That painful awareness of pollution? That you've done what you've done because you are what you are. If you want to trace it out further, you read the seventh chapter of Romans, the first fourteen verses, because that's the Apostle's testimony.

The Means of Conviction: The Law of God

58:05 He said, When God's holy law zeroed in on me, it showed me that I had a bad heart, that in me was all manner of evil desire. Or you say, Pastor, I don't think I've had that. Where does it come from?

58:20 Repentance is a saving grace. God in grace must give this sight, but he's been pleased to ordain a certain means to bring it. You know what that means? It's by the law cometh the knowledge of sin.

58:36 The best thing that could happen for some of you is to sit down at the foot of Moses for a few weeks

58:42 and you say, Oh, God who made me and gave this holy law, I want you to show me from that law just what I am. You begin to meditate upon those holy precepts. You begin to read through the Sermon on the Mount and see the breadth of that holy law as it touches the very first springs of the attitudes of the heart and the motives of the inner life. Until you begin to see something of that foul source from which all sin has flowed and something of the terrible revolt against God.

59:15 And then maybe the gospel will begin to be good news that there's somebody that's willing to take the likes of you and accept him graciously.

Ongoing Conviction for Believers and a Call to the Unconvinced

59:26 And child of God, the pattern and cycle is exactly the same qualitatively as we grow in grace.

59:36 What do we need to do as Christians? We need to pray, Lord, show me what my sin really is. You know, we begin to just, well, I've broken some rules. Yeah, what rules?

59:45 Whose are they? You see, we depersonalize God's standards, right? Despise not prophesying. Well, that's just a rule.

59:53 No, no. That's God's rule. So if I find at the end of the Lord's day I fail to properly prepare my mind as we considered this morning and I missed what God would say when I got on my knees to confess it, Lord, this is sin against you. You said despise not prophesying.

60:09 Lord, you said grieve not, quench not the spirit.

60:14 Just meditate upon it. Who said it? The God who loved me. The God who cares for me.

60:19 The God who showers his gifts upon me. The God who gave his greatest gift, his own beloved son. The God who's given me his spirit, who's given me the earnest, the down payment, of all the glory to come and meditate upon who he is and what he's done until the thought that you've sinned against that God breaks your heart and sends you down in your face crying against thee and thee only have I sinned. I wish there's some way you could sort of get this attitude in your hip pocket and just carry it around with you like your wallet.

60:50 But you can't. And you have to come back again and again and again.

60:58 What is repentance unto life? Whatever it is, its only soil is the grace of God and its first root is conviction of sin. If you're a stranger to that, my friend, don't just walk out and say, well, there'll be something else next week. Maybe that'll make me feel better.

61:15 Friend, please, if there's been some unholy, some holy disturbance and some holy restlessness, don't treat that lightly. But you get down before the Lord and say, God, do I really have the root of the matter in me? If you do, nothing's lost by asking if you do, you'll just come up the other side more sure of it than ever. But if you don't, it might be the beginning of a true work of grace in your heart.