Apprehension of Mercy

The Neglect and Rejection of Repentance in Modern Preaching

0:02 We shall continue this evening the series of studies which we began some weeks ago on the biblical doctrine of repentance.

0:13 This is the fourth in that series, and you will remember, those who are with us, that in introducing the series, I tried to build a case for the relevance and necessity of such a series of studies, and I received a letter this past week which greatly confirmed some of the statements I made that first evening concerning the fact that there are many whom we have no reason to doubt sincerely love Christ and claim to be preaching the biblical gospel who not only overlook the matter of repentance, but are utterly rejected as being a vital part of the gospel of Christ. This letter comes from a young airman in England who has come in contact with Paul Manzo, one of our own young men. He was now serving in our armed services, and he played some tapes to this young man, and as a result of this, the young man saw the place of repentance in the biblical gospel, and in his youthful zeal, he's only been a Christian about three months, wrote home to his pastor, said, how come you haven't preached repentance? Maybe he wasn't very wise in the way he did it. I don't have to think back too many years to remember a lack of discretion and wisdom in some of the things that were done.

1:33 In genuine youthful zeal. But then the pastor wrote back, and he has transcribed word for word the pastor's letter, and I won't read the whole of it, but having confronted this pastor with the principles of scripture, dealing with the necessity of repentance, and he tells me the very verses he gave to him, this pastor writes back saying to him, in essence, you really don't understand the gospel. What was the gospel Paul preached? 1 Corinthians 15, 1 to 4.

2:02 Christ died. Christ was buried. Christ rose. Romans 10, 9 through 13.

2:07 Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord, etc. And then he goes on to say that Paul never told the Philippian jailer, repent or perish. In Acts 8, 26 to 40, Philip preached to the Ethiopian eunuch, and he didn't tell him to repent. Now, and then he calls him by name, you need to settle this principle, whether a person is saved by faith or by one's own righteousness.

2:32 By one's own goodness or one's own works. So, you see, the understanding of this pastor is that if you preach that men must repent, that's preaching salvation by works. Now, this is not digging up a battle of bygone days. It's a matter of the very life of the gospel that's at stake, and we have demonstrated from Holy Scripture that repentance is an integral part of the only gospel authorized by Jesus Christ.

3:03 The only gospel preached by the apostles, and it is the only alternative to our perishing, and that in the biblical thinking, true repentance is never divorced from faith, and true faith is never divorced from repentance. But one is permeated and suffused with the other. And so we have sought to not only establish the importance of this doctrine and the biblical principle that either we repent or we perish. But we are now seeking to grapple with the nature of that repentance which is unto life.

The Structure of Repentance: Soil and Roots

3:39 And we're doing so under the figure of a tree. With its soil, with its roots, with its main trunk, with its branches, with its foliage and its fruit. And we're structuring that tree according to the definition of repentance given in the Shorter Catechism. And then with that definition and that illustration, we are considering a number of scriptural passages which teach these principles.

4:06 What is repentance unto life? The answer given in the Shorter Catechism is repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin and an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after a new obedience. And that is repentance unto life. And that is repentance unto life.

4:32 Now, transposing that formal definition into the figure of a tree, what do you have? You have the soil in which the tree grows. And we have considered from Scripture the fact that the only soil in which repentance will ever grow is the grace of God. Repentance unto life is a saving grace.

4:53 And we've looked at those Scriptures which teach very explicitly that repentance is the gift of God. And we've looked at those Scriptures which teach very explicitly that repentance is the gift of God. 10. He tied men to repent.

5:04 And though he requires repentance of men as their duty, man's condition in a state of sin is such that he will not repent unless there's been an operation of the grace of God. Acts 5. punt antoci den 먹고 , versi cut feeoti, 2 Timothy 2. Then, having established that the soil of repentance is the grace of God, we are now studying the roots of the tree of repentance.

Root One: Conviction of Sin

5:29 sin and sneaking through it." busca junii ren Quarter Hastechos John 14. No tree grows without root. out roots, and there are two great roots to the tree of repentance. The one, conviction of sin.

5:39 Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin. That's conviction of sin. And the basic elements of Holy Spirit conviction are, number one, the recognition that my sin is basically revolt against God, as we sang tonight in the 51st Psalm, the recognition that against God we have sinned. As one author has so accurately and powerfully said, and I quote, the first and chief thing required by the law of God is supreme love to God. Therefore, the lack of love to God, the heart's disaffection for his character and rebellion against him, is our sin. Great wickedness, which we have to repent of. But it will never be in our hearts to repent until we see our blame. And we can never see our blame until we perceive that which chiefly renders us to blame. It's the excellency of God, the infinite perfections of his glorious being, which renders

6:46 him worthy and entitled to our supreme love and fullest obedience. And this is it which chiefly renders us to blame. For not having loved and served him. Now get this last sentence. Not to love so lovable an object as the God of love is the crime of crimes.

7:09 Not to love so lovable an object as the God of love is the crime of crimes. And what is conviction of sin? But some measure of recognition that this is my problem. A ruptured relationship with God.

7:27 Not a mere psychological hang-up or a pricking of the conscience. But the recognition, as David said, against thee and thee only have I sinned. Or in the words of the prodigal who said, I will arise and go to my Father and say, Father, I sinned against heaven. Conviction of sin is that recognition that we've offended God. And secondly, it involves to some degree the recognition that my problem is what I am. Not just what I've done. but foul and full of sin I am. As again we sang in the 51st Psalm that we were shapen in iniquity and in sin were we conceived that we do what we do because we are what we are.

Conviction Alone Leads to Despair: The Examples of Felix and Judas

8:14 And the picture of that publican standing afar off beating his breast is the picture of a man who feels and senses this corruption and pollution which in some degree is always involved in Holy Spirit conviction of sin. There will be no repentance unto life without the soil of grace producing first of all Holy Spirit conviction of sin. Now, and that's our review, this alone would drive a man to despair and to self-destruction. If God's dealings with men simply stopped here, showing them what they are before His law, guilty condemned rebels, guilty of the crime of crimes, failing to love so lovable an object as the God of love, creatures whose hearts are a veritable cesspool of iniquity and uncleanness and rebellion, if God were to stop there, it would simply bring hell to us now and be a preview of the hell to come. It is not the case that we are not enough to come to some sight and sense of our sin. This alone will not produce repentance, for Scripture records for us the instances of men who came to a sight and sense of sin that caused terror and dread and yet never produced repentance.

9:43 It says in Acts 24 that a man named Felix, who had some knowledge of the way of God, had in his presence one of God's eminent servants, the Apostle Paul, and it says in Scripture, as Paul reasoned to him of righteousness and of judgment and of self-control, he dealt with the demands of the law, with judgment, with God's demands upon human life and conduct. As he reasoned of these things, it says, Felix trembled.

10:16 He had that awful sense of a little preview of the day of judgment. He trembled. He says, get away, Paul, I'll talk to you another time.

10:26 You see, a sight and sense of sin, sin alone will not lead to true repentance. John Owen brings out so very lucidly and scripturally the case of Judas. Here's a man who not only, Scripture says of him, that he repented himself, he went and made restitution. He confessed his sin openly.

10:44 He gave back the money. He did all of this, but he went out and hung himself. Why? He had some measure of a sight and sense of his sin, but he knew nothing of this second route of repentance.

Root Two: Apprehension of God's Mercy in Christ

10:55 Without this second route of repentance, there will be no truth. What is true repentance? What is it? Well, let's go back to our formal definition.

11:03 Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner, root one, out of a true sense of his sin, and root two, an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ. I've sweat trying to find a way to put that in 20th century jargon that would embody the biblical concept, and I'm still not satisfied, but I'll give you what I have, and if you come up with something better, I would appreciate you sharing it with me. Here's the second route. Route number one, conviction of sin.

11:36 Route number two, a laying hold of God's mercy in Jesus Christ. Or, to state it a different way, a saving sight of the cross. I must not only have a horrible, shaking sight of my own heart and my guilt if I'm to be brought to repentance, there must be a saving sight of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, without this inward sight of Christ and God's mercy as displayed in him, there can be no repentance, simply remorse, terror, and dread.

The Biblical Pattern: Mercy Precedes Repentance

12:19 It's because of this that when our Lord commissions his disciples to preach, he makes very clear that the preaching of repentance is to follow the disciples and to display of his mercy. Go back to that Luke 24 passage, if you will, for a few moments. The passage we dealt with the first study on this doctrine showing that the only gospel authorized by Jesus Christ is a gospel of repentance.

12:48 Will you notice the order in which repentance is placed or its position in this order? Luke 24, beginning with verse 45.

13:00 Then opened he their mind that they might understand the scriptures and said unto them, Thus it is written, and, I'm sorry, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his name unto all nations, beginning from Jerusalem, ye are witnesses of these things. What things? The facts concerning the Lord Jesus in his mediatory and royal work, his work as a sacrifice for sinners. The fact of his resurrection so that he now lives to make good by his present work of intercession, that which he purchased in his work of oblation and sacrifice, and having spread the foundation of the redemptive work of Christ, then he says, press upon men that repentance which is unto the remission of sins. You will find that this is essentially the pattern which the Apostle Paul himself says that he followed in his own preaching. Turn, please, to Acts 20, a text we use to show the inseparability of repentance and faith.

14:25 Perhaps the Acts 26 passage would be better. Let's look at the Acts 26 passage. Acts 26, beginning with verse 19.

14:36 Wherefore, O King Agrippi, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision, but declared both to them of Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout all the country of Judea and to the country of the Gentiles and to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance. Now dropping down to verse 22. Having therefore obtained the help that is from God, I stand this day testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses did say should come, how that the Christ must suffer and how that he should be first by the, how that he first by the resurrection of the dead should proclaim light both to the peoples and to the Gentiles. He says, I preach that men should repent. Men should turn to God. But upon what basis? Upon the basis of the accomplishment of the redemptive work of Jesus Christ.

15:31 Without this sight of Christ and the meaning of his cross, all of the demands of the law and the sight of our guilt and our sinfulness and the necessity of repentance, I say, I repeat, can produce nothing but despair and frustration, terror and dread. Now, why must it be in that pattern? Well, you see, by nature, we would concoct and create and construct a hundred paths to God of our own thinking. God must destroy them one by one until we are driven back, as it were, and see there's no way a whole world holy God can receive a wretched creature like me. God's got to consume every bridge by which we think we can have some contact with him and he drives us back with conviction. But it would leave us in that terrible chasm with that terrible chasm between us and our God if he did not then say there is but one way to bridge the distance between the likes of you and myself. And then there's the display of God.

16:44 Christ crucified. And it's the sight of Christ crucified that gives me hope that the God who commands me to repent, to throw down the arms of rebellion, to seek mercy, is not playing games. He's bridged that gap in his dear Son. And now he bids me venture on him, venture wholly, let no other trust intrude.

God Wounds and Heals: The Devil's Tactics

17:08 None but Jesus, none but Jesus can do helpless sinners good. God says in the prophet, I am the Lord, I wound and I heal. I kill and I make alive. And it's in that order.

17:24 But blessed be God, he's not only the God who wounds and kills, but he's the God who heals and who makes alive. And just as the devil would fight men to keep them from God's wounds, oh, don't take seriously the law of God. Don't take seriously the matter of judgment in hell. Don't get wounded.

17:43 Don't begin to get disturbed about matters of conscience. You find this in Pilgrim's Progress.

17:50 Remember, they said of Christiana, the two ill-favored ones, if she keeps thinking about eternity and her sins and the world to come, she'll end up being a pilgrim like her husband. No hope. If we just turn aside her mind from heaven and hell and judgment, then we've got her, see? So the devil does all within his power to keep the wounds of God from being inflicted upon a man.

18:14 But once the spirit of God breaks through and he's wounded, then the devil does all within his power to keep the message of God's healing work from coming through. See? Look what a miserable wretch you are. He doesn't care.

18:26 He'll tell, too. You're talking on both sides of his mouth. He'll tell us all our life we're pretty good, we don't need to...

18:30 Then when the Lord shows us otherwise, then he changes his tune and says, that tells you pretty good. Comes along and says, what a miserable wretch you are. God couldn't do it. You're too far beyond even God.

18:40 God doesn't want the likes of you. You've sinned against light. You've sinned against conscience. You've sinned against privilege.

18:45 You're no good. God can't even receive the likes of you. Then, you see, the person has got to lay hold of the principle that the same God who wounds them is the God who heals. And coming to grips with either aspect of truth for the most part is in the midst of conflict.

19:02 One of the old writers said of a certain individual who showed some signs of spiritual concern, he said, I hopefully think that so-and-so is feeling the pangs of a new birth.

19:15 And there's an awful lot of sound theology in that. He's feeling the pangs of a new birth. The pangs of God's wounds. Of God's wounds.

19:25 And then the wrestling and the struggling to lay hold of the fact that the God who wounds is the God who heals. The God who kills is the God who makes alive. May I quote from John Owen? I hope you don't mind quoting from my teachers.

John Owen on Judas's Lacking Repentance

19:40 See, you come and are taught here and I have to go to my books to get taught. And they help me. And they instruct me and lead me to God in His truth. And where they do, I want to share it with you.

19:52 Speaking of this principle that there is no repentance acceptable with God but what is built or leans upon the faith of forgiveness, John Owen says, in the case of Judas, and now I give you the points, this is abundantly clear. It is said of Judas that he repented. He repented himself. But wherein did this repentance consist?

20:13 Number one, he was convinced of his sin in general. He said, I have sinned. Matthew 27, 4. Two, he was sensible of the particular sin whereof he stood charged in conscience before God.

20:27 He said, I have betrayed innocent blood. I'm guilty of blood, innocent blood, and that in the vilest manner by treachery. Three, he comes to a full and open confession of his sin. Four, he makes restitution of what he was advantaged by his sin.

20:44 He brought again the thirty pieces of silver, verse three. All of which testify a hearty sorrow that drove him to these things. Methinks now, Judas' repentance looks like the young man's obedience who cried out, all these things have I done. Is there anything yet lacking?

21:04 One thing was lacking to that young man. He had no true faith nor love to God all the while, which spoiled all the rest of his performances. One thing is lacking in the repentance of Judas. He had no faith of forgiveness in God.

21:24 That he could not believe and therefore after all this sorrow instead of coming to God, he bids him the utmost defiance and goes away and hangs himself. There was one element lacking in Judas' repentance. It was a saving sight of the mercy of God in Christ. He knew he was sinned.

21:46 He knew his sins specifically. He was grieved over his sin. There was in some measure that first root, but there was not the second. That saving sight of the mercy of God in Jesus Christ.

22:01 And let me say to some who may sit here tonight who no longer need to be convinced that you've sinned against a holy God, you don't need one added verse of scripture to convince you that if God gave you your justice or hell would open up tonight and swallow you and as you sunk down in it would have to be with words oh God thou art just. You don't need any more wounding. May I say and my prayer is that the Holy Ghost will say it in the inner chambers of the heart unless you lay hold of this truth that God who has wounded is merciful in his dear Son. You'll go on in your misery and still be in your misery.

22:45 You'll go on in your misery. You'll go on in your misery. You'll go on in your misery. You'll go on in your misery.

22:46 You'll go on in that misery and run the risk of perishing in that misery unless you lay hold of the offered mercy in the Son of God.

How the Cross Produces Repentance: Three Ways

22:57 Without this inward sight of Christ and God's mercy in him, no repentance. The second root must be there. But someone asked the question how is the cross God's instrument to produce repentance?

23:15 May I suggest it is so in three ways. Number one, in the cross the heinous nature of sin is clearly revealed. By the law you see what sin is in the light of God's holiness, in the light of his character. But in the cross we see an aspect of sin that can be seen nowhere else.

23:41 If God would allow us this very night to descend or ascend wherever whichever it might be, to the place where those who've died apart from a saving knowledge of Christ are being kept to the day of judgment. And if we could feel and hear and sense the agony and the grief and remorse of the damned. You think we'd come away with some kind of an adequate view of the awfulness of sin, don't you? But may I suggest if we could be transported into that situation it could give no clear view of sin or no clearer view of sin than that which is given in the cross of Jesus Christ. For why was he there? Scripture tells us. God has made him, Christ, to be sin for us.

24:37 He was there as a substitute, as a sacrifice on behalf of others. When he was there as a substitute, God putting to his account the sin of all believers of all ages. What did God do to his son? Galatians 3.13 tells us, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on the tree. What a terrible thing sin must be that when the sinless one is bearing it, the Father doesn't spare him. As Scripture says, he spared not his own son, but he brought upon him the full weight of the broken law, the terrible curse of that law, and it broke upon the head of his own son.

25:36 If ever God was to show leniency to sin, he would have shown it when his son was bearing it. There is no reason for God to be lenient with you and me, because there is everything in us by nature to provoke his wrath. But what his own beloved son is there upon the cross. This is the son of whom he spoke a short time before.

25:56 This is my son, my beloved, in whom I am well pleased. Hear him.

26:03 He looks down upon the darling of his bosom, his own beloved son, the one in whom he is well pleased, and seeing nothing in his person that has changed his disposition. The deep ties of eternal love that bound the heart of the father to the heart of the son in the mystery of the triune Godhead.

26:28 But he now reckons something being put to his son, being placed upon his son. That is our sin. And sin is of such a nature that the father doesn't spare it even when his son bears it. And as we read of the shrouded heavens, as we read of the groans and the sighs and the cries of the son of God, as you read through the gospels and see our Lord in Gethsemane sweating as it were great drops of blood staggering like a drunken man before this awful world until he's prostrate upon the ground and rises and is prostrated again.

27:07 What is all of this? Is God playing games?

27:12 No, God is among other things giving us the most accurate picture of the heinousness of sin.

27:21 Why?

27:24 My friend, if the sight of your sin is not in the Lord Jesus doesn't bring you to a change of mind about that sin. If you can look up into the form of the son of God in your mind's eye and behold him beneath those blackened heavens and hear his piercing cry, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? If you can hear all of that and then look upon your sin as something to be cherished and loved and hugged to your bosom,

28:01 then what else can God do but say, depart?

28:05 If that sight of your sin in all of its ugliness in the sufferings of Christ doesn't bring you to the place where you say, oh God, the dearest sin, the dearest idol tore it from my breast,

28:26 this is verily to run the terrible risk of trampling underfoot the Son of God and counting the blood of the covenant an unholy thing. And so many a person who is trembled before the awful thought of judgment in the light of the law but still has clung to his sin, seeing that sin in the wounds of Christ, in the groans and agonies of the Son of God, has said, oh God, by your grace I would be done with my pride, with my lust, with my rebellion. Oh God, break the chains that bind me. Second thing, second way in which the cross and the sacrifice of Christ crucified brings a man into the way of repentance is this, it's in the cross that the way of forgiveness consistent with the justice of God is revealed. You see, the great problem for the man who's got that first root, who knows himself to be lost, who knows that he's offended God, his great problem is not now, why should God damn me, but why should he do anything else? But damn me, when he was trotting around, in this fool's paradise thinking all was well, he had no problem. Well, sure, God is love.

29:50 I'm just as nice as everybody else so God must love me. Ah, but when he began to see his sin in the light of God's holy character, in the light of God's holy law, and realized that the greatest sin is not loving so lovable an object is the God of love, this is the crime of crimes. Now his problem is if God is to be true to himself, how can he do anything but judge me? If God is God and I don't want to be anything other than that, he's got to judge me.

30:19 He's just. He's holy.

30:24 And it's the cross that reveals the answer to that question. God can be just and still the justifier of sinners. God can, without relaxing one aspect of his justice, draw sinners to his heart and to his breast, adopt them into his family, call them his very own. How?

30:47 Because in the cross his justice is being satisfied.

30:51 All the demands of that broken law are being meted out upon the Son of God. He is rendering to the Father full payment of all that was our debt. On our behalf he is making payment for sin. The whole teaching of the book of Hebrews that Christ is there as our great high priest offering up himself a sacrifice unto God that God might be kindly disposed to us without relaxing the demands of his law or shaving off the rough edges of his justice.

31:32 No. This is that which gives hope to a sinner. God has brought him to that conviction that he is holy, he is just, he must punish sin. But when there's that saving sight of Christ crucified, there comes the realization God doesn't cease to be just.

31:49 Justice is on the side of the sinner who comes by way of Christ alone. If I try to approach God outside of Christ there's nothing but fiery wrath and judgment. But if I come in that way that he has paid by the cross, God smiles. He not only welcomes me, he entreats me to come.

32:11 He pleads, look unto me all the ends of the earth. And be ye saved. He entreats and in Christ's stead we beseech men to be reconciled to God. You see, if a man doesn't know that, why should I turn from sin?

32:29 If God's going to damn me, I might as well go and enjoy my sin for a few years and be damned. So there's no turning from sin and repentance apart from this sight of the hope of mercy in Jesus Christ. You see? And then the third thing, it's in the heart and it's in the cross that God displays his attributes of mercy and his disposition to pardon.

God's Display of Mercy and the Call to Look and Live

32:55 Here they are clearly displayed. Oh, his love and his kindness are displayed in sending rain upon the just and the unjust. But when he sets his son before us crucified and says, look to him in me, God is displaying in the clearest lines his attributes of love and mercy for God so loved the world. The world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

33:26 God's display of his love is in the giving of his son to be an adequate, willing, and able savior of all who come unto God by him. And it's that promise that coming God's way I shall be received that gives a ray of hope to the man who's convicted of sin without that way of hope. He won't come. The thought of God only torments him.

33:52 And it's this display of God's mercy in Christ that draws him near. Listen to the beautiful expression of it in the Old Testament. For the gospel is very clearly stated in many parts of the Old Testament. One of the clearest is in this 55th chapter of Isaiah.

34:10 Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. There's water here for you, you see. And he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat, yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which satisfieth not?

34:34 Hearken diligently unto me and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear and come unto me here and your soul shall live. Then dropping down to verse 7, verse 6, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near.

34:52 Now here's repentance. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon. Do you see the principle? That the man and the command to repent is underdue with the promise of mercy to such as do repent.

35:23 And without that conviction that God is merciful to repentant sinners, the sinner will not come. Illustrating it from the New Testament you have that beautiful picture again in the prodigal son. There is no indication that he ever had any suspicion that his father would turn him down.

35:43 The whole undergirding presupposition of his reasoning is the reasoning he came to himself and he said I'll go back to my father and I'll say Father, I've sinned against heaven. I've sinned against you. I'm not worthy to be called your son. He had no idea that he was still alright.

36:01 No, I'm undone. But you're the father and I have confidence that your heart will be a receiving heart. No indication that he had one ounce of doubt that going back he'd be received and that which is being negated and hope to go back if the father had sent a telegram and said I don't care whatever you do there's no open door for you. When he came to himself and saw his father he'd say but where can I go?

36:26 The father won't receive me. And if he won't receive me what's the use? I might as well go ahead and cop out and bury myself in my sin. He would have been led to despair.

36:37 But it was that confidence that the father's heart and the father's door is open.

36:44 Now he didn't expect the father to come and park on the doorstep of a brothel. He didn't come expect the father to come and meet him in the far country. He didn't want to leave the far country. He knew that leaving it he'd be received at home.

36:58 Ah, there's the beautiful picture. And oh, I say tonight to some young or old or anywhere in between if you've come to that sight and sense of your sin that you know that your crime is not against some mores and standards of the church and of mom and dad and society and of the world and of the world and of the world and of the world but from your heart you can say I've sinned against God. My problem is I've offended the one who made me. And you know that your problem is as deep as your very nature and you say I know I cannot change anymore when the leopard can change his spots by mere wishing.

37:36 Oh, dear friend, may the Spirit of God be pleased to shine upon the face of Jesus tonight and show you that all of God's promises in Him are yea and amen. He promises in that comes to me I will in no wise cast out. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Seek him out in the confidence that he will have mercy.

38:01 That he will abundantly pardon.

38:05 And as the devil has sought and very effectively in some of you kept you blind for many years to your sinfulness now he lessons to keep you in bondage by causing you to cast your eyes inward and downward upon the mock and mire of your own corruption that God says look unto me as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must also the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. He says look, look, look, look. That's what he says. And looking you shall live.

38:47 And there will be no true repentance. There will be a spurious false pharisaical repentance of people who say well I've turned from this and I've turned from that and I've given up this and given up that and I do this. But it won't have that warmth and tenderness of gospel repentance if it bypasses this second root of a saving sight of Christ crucified. Oh how I wish I could give it to you but I can't.

39:15 And I felt so helpless as I've contemplated preaching tonight because here's the foolishness. All I can do is enunciate the truth of scripture and God the Holy Ghost has got to do that work. Oh that he might do it tonight for some of you. I take no delight in the heaviness that I know some of you are laboring under.

39:38 And yet I can't give you that sight that will lose the burden.

39:42 Cry to God that he would. And even as you've heard the word tonight may your prayer be oh Holy Spirit. Give me to see and to know the miracle and the mercy of God in the Lord Jesus. May I close in the reading of the hymn of Isaac Watts or of John Newton's.

40:06 This is John Newton's.

40:09 It captures so beautifully what I'm trying to say. In evil wrong I took delight unawed by shame or fear till a new object struck my sight and stopped my wild career. He said I was abandoned to my own world and to my sin until I had a sight of something I never saw before and it stopped me in my tracks. I saw one hanging on a tree in agonies and blood.

40:40 He fixed his languid eyes on me as near his cross I stood. Oh never till my latest breath shall I forget that look. It seemed to charge me with his death though not a word he spoke. A second look he gave which said I freely all forgive.

41:04 This blood is for thy ransom paid. I die that thou mayest live. Now get the words of this last verse. Thus while his death my sin displays in all its blackest hue.

41:22 Such is the mystery of grace. It seals my pardon too.

41:30 Oh some of you can say the first part. Whose death displays my sin in its blackest hue in his despair. Ah dear one listen such is the mystery of grace. It seals your pardon too.

41:46 Cast yourself upon his mercy for he says I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. That repentance which must always have as its second root an apprehension a lowly hold of the mercy of God in Jesus Christ. Mark my word if you came through those doors with the misery of the first root you'll go out with that misery deepened unless you look lay hold after the Lord Jesus.

42:26 And that's a spiritual act. That's a spiritual exercise. That's why we don't ask you to raise your hand or walk an aisle.

42:36 I'm sure the reason some people have given in to that is this sense of frustration. You can only call upon men to look and live and pray that they shall but we can't bring them. But may the Lord enable you to look right there where you sit that you might leave with a glorious consciousness of sins forgiven. Let us pray.