Change of Mind Toward Sin

The Urgency of Repentance in Light of Judgment

0:02 Chapter of Acts, the Apostle Paul declared in the conclusion of his sermon to the Athenian philosophers, The times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness.

0:25 As we come tonight to the sixth in the series of studies on the biblical doctrine of repentance, may God help us to continually keep before us as we study this doctrine again tonight that we are not studying something against the backdrop of mere academic interest. We are considering doctrine against the backdrop of the coming day of judgment that's going to nail you and nail me.

0:53 And therefore there's no place for mere intellectual objectivity, the indifference of the so-called passionless scholar, who simply looks at his materials in order to know.

1:07 We're looking at this doctrine as those who are going to stand before this great God. And if we stand before him a stranger to repentance, it were better for us that we'd never been born.

1:21 And this is one of the things that causes the mingled feelings of a servant of Christ. He longs to proclaim such weighty truths, and yet he fears that in handling them they become commonplace, and rather than do us good, do us harm. May God deliver us from that and help us to remember as we come to our study again tonight, we're studying something that has suffused through its very word and nature the awful overtones of eternal judgment and hell and the great prospect of eternal bliss and life with Jesus Christ. Having considered from Scripture the tremendous importance of this doctrine, we have in previous studies,

Review of Repentance's Roots: Conviction and Apprehension of Christ

2:06 indicated that we will work our way through the doctrine with the formal definition of the shorter catechism and with the extended illustration of a tree. And so with that two-fold help in our study and in our teaching, we have looked at the soil of repentance, which is clearly taught in Scripture as the grace of God. There will never be the true tree of repentance apart from the operations of divine grace, for repentance is God's gift to sinners. Then we looked at the roots of repentance, which are two-fold.

2:45 Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin, conviction of sin, and an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, a revelation, an apprehension, a taking hold of Christ crucified, here are the two roots, conviction of sin, and a revelation and apprehension, of Christ crucified. As I was doing some reading on my own this week, I came across a few paragraphs in John Owen that I felt would be the best review of that first root, and I'll just read his words for you at this time. John Owen, speaking of the difference between a mere natural conviction, the kind we've dealt with and called the mere prickings of conscience,

3:29 and Holy Spirit conviction, says the following words, Let us then a little try, whether your process of professed conviction has been according to the mind of God, and so whether this invincible bar in your way be removed or not. For although every convinced or convicted person does not believe for forgiveness, yet no one who is not convicted of sin will ever believe for forgiveness. Have you then, and I take John Owen's question and lay it upon your conscience tonight, have you, have you then, listening to my voice in this place, November 23rd, 1969,

4:11 have you been made sensible of your condition by nature, what it is to be alienated from the life of God, and to be opposed, exposed to His wrath? Have you been convinced of the universal enmity that is in your heart to the mind of God, and what it is to be at enmity against God? Has the unspeakable multitude of the sins of your life, have they been set in order by the law of God before you? And have you considered what it is for sinners such as you are to have to deal with a righteous and a holy God?

4:49 Has the Holy Ghost wrought a serious recognition in your heart of all these things, and caused them to abide with you and upon you? If you will answer truly, you must say, many of you, that indeed you have not been so exercised. You have heard of these things, as many times. But to say that you've gone through with this work and have the experience of them, that you cannot do, then I say you're strangers to forgiveness, because you are strangers unto sin.

5:21 But, and if you shall say that you have had thoughts to this purpose, and you are persuaded that you've been thoroughly convinced of sin, I shall yet ask you one question more. What effects hath your conviction produced in your hearts, and lives? Have you been filled with perplexities and consternation of spirit upon the thought of them? Have you had fears, dreads, or terrors to wrestle with all?

5:46 And maybe you will say, no. Nor will I insist upon that inquiry. But this I will deal with you in. Hath it filled you with self-loathing and abhorrence of yourself, and self-condemnation and abasement?

6:02 If it will do anything, this it will do. And if you come short here, it is justly to be feared that all your other pretenses are of no value. Now, where there is no work of conviction, there is no faith of forgiveness, whatever else is pretended. And how many vain boasters this sword will cut off is evident.

6:29 On the one hand, I take some comfort that if people could sit under the probing ministry of John Owen for years until he had to say, many of you have heard this many times, and you're filled with only notions, it keeps me from being utterly swallowed up with discouragement when I think of those of you who attend to this ministry continually, whom I fear as Owen feared for his hearers, may have only notions of conviction, notions of the terrors of the law and of wrath. But my friend, if you've not felt this until it's driven you to self-loathing, into that abasement before God, as Owen has rightly said, you are strangers. You are strangers to forgiveness. That root must be there.

The Main Trunk: A Thorough Change of Mind

7:12 But that will not do it of itself, for that would lead to despair. There must be this root of this revelation and apprehension, faith in, taking hold upon Christ crucified. And when those two roots are there, then the trunk and the branches begin to be manifested and we began to consider them last week. That main trunk of the tree is this thorough change of mind, this shift element of the gospel, this change of mind, that permeates the entire being and expresses itself primarily in four areas, the four main branches that come on that main trunk of the tree.

7:48 A change of mind about God, about sin, about myself, and about righteousness. Last week we looked just at the first. Repentance is a thorough change of mind about God. The most telling statement about all of us by nature as far as God is concerned is Romans 3, in verse 18, which says there is no fear of God before their eyes.

8:15 Whatever else is before their eyes, drawing their attention, governing their lives, shaping and molding the principles by which they live, this is true of all of us by nature. It is never the fear of God. That is, such a regard of God as our creator, the lawgiver, the great benefactor, our judge, that this thought, the thought of who he is, and our affection for him, and our desire to please him, to gain his smile and to avoid his frown, is the all-dominating principle. None of us by nature ever had that.

8:53 No fear of God before their eyes. Whatever else is before their eyes, the gratification of lust, the pursuit of happiness, the pursuit of things, the acquisition of possessions, whatever else is before their eyes, the fear of God is not before them. That's the mark of an unregenerate man. Religious or irreligious, moral, immoral, this they have in common.

9:14 They are not governed by the fear of God. But when there's true repentance, there's a change of mind about God. 1 Thessalonians 1.9 They turned to God to serve the living and the true God.

9:28 The fear of God becomes the all-encompassing motive now. A new concept of who he is. A new affection to him. A new sense, a new set of resolves with respect to him.

9:41 They turn to serve. Now all that matters basically in life is knowing him, pleasing him, honoring him. In my thoughts, in my home, in the use of my pocketbook, in the use of my time, we become God-fearing, God-serving, God-loving, God-honoring, God-seeking men and women. And in so doing, we find the purpose for which we were made.

10:08 Without that, without that change of mind to God, no man has any grounds to claim he's a Christian. For the very goal of redemption as we saw in our studies last Lord's Day, Christ gave himself for us, the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. This was his goal. Now tonight, we come to that second branch, a change of mind to God, now a change of mind with respect to sin.

The Second Branch: A Change of Mind Toward Sin

10:38 The Catechism states, it this way, 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. Grief and hatred of his sin turning from it unto God. The language of Scripture is like this, Cast away, oh, your transgressions and make you a new heart for why will ye die. That's the language of Ezekiel.

11:16 The language of Isaiah, Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Again, the language of Ezekiel, Repent and turn from all your idols. The language of Peter, Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray to the Lord if perhaps the thought of thine heart shall be forgiven thee. The language of our Lord Jesus Christ, I gave her space to repent of her fornications.

11:47 If ye will not repent, I will come and take away thy candlestick out of its place. That's the vigorous language of Scripture concerning repentance. Now, there is a teaching abroad in our own day, and it's been popular now for some 70 or 80 years, that repentance is a change of mind, but it's only a change of mind about Christ and his salvation, where once we ignore, despised it, cared nothing for it, now we've awakened to the fact that we need it, and so we say, Lord, I've changed my mind about your salvation. I'd like to be saved and go to heaven when I die, and that's what all repentance says.

12:23 Some of you were here when I read the letter from that young airman who wrote his pastor about this, and that in essence was the pastor's answer. The only thing repentance involves is a change of mind about Christ's salvation, where once we despised the gift of eternal life and forgiveness, now we'll take it. No, no, my friend. Repentance involves something more than just a change of mind about Christ's salvation.

The Natural Man's Relationship to Sin

12:48 It involves this radical change of mind, this entire shift of the whole focus of life with respect to sin. Now, consider with me, as we look at a number of Scripture passages, the nature of that change of mind to sin, then the extent of that change of mind towards sin, and if time permits, the fruit, and the extension of that change of mind to sin. And the best way I know to set forth the nature of this change of mind to sin is to do it by way of contrast, as we did last week. What is a man's attitude to God by nature?

13:26 How does he think about God? How does he feel to God? How does he act with respect to God? What is his total perspective with regard to God in a state of nature?

13:36 Then we show it by contrast when he repents, how he thinks differently about God, how he feels differently toward God, how he chooses differently with respect to God. I want to follow that same pattern because I think it may be most helpful in teaching the doctrine of repentance. So then, what is our relationship to sin by nature and experience? How do we think about sin by nature?

14:02 Well, the Bible and human experience both teach that we have very light thoughts about the guilt of sin. Very light thoughts about its guilt, about its enormity. We see a man who lives very strictly avoiding sin like he'd avoid a deadly plague, and we laugh at him and we mock him. We think, how strange.

14:25 Overall, sinners can't get too concerned about things like that. Look how strict and straight-laced that fellow is. Do you remember talking that way about meeting when you met someone who was strict and straight-laced? No doubt maybe some of you have those very thoughts about the preacher standing in front of you.

14:40 What in the world? What's he so serious about sin for? Oh, he's got his brow wrinkled when he talks about sin. Oh, he's talking about the dread and the horrors of judgment.

14:48 What's he so excited about? My friend, if those are your thoughts, you've never had a sight of your sin because in my most sober moments, I can't give one hundredth the picture of the awfulness of sin. By nature, we have light thoughts of sin. We have untrue and false thoughts about the sure reward of sin.

15:11 Not only light thoughts about the enormity of its guilt, but untrue and false thoughts about its sure reward. In the 50th Psalm, we have a record of this attitude. God says to the wicked, Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself. When you consented to cooperate and be an accomplice in a certain sin, and I didn't open the heavens with judgment, you thought, well, God must be like us.

15:36 We do things and forget. Maybe God has forgotten. You see, man by nature has these untrue and false thoughts about sin, as far as the certainty of its punishment, as well as the enormity of its guilt. And then thirdly, we have very inaccurate views as to the extent of its power and the depth of its influence within us.

16:00 We're like the Pharisees, who thought that if they could clean their hands and clean their faces and make their mouths say the right thing at the right time in the right place, they had rid themselves of sin's defilement. And so a Pharisee, if he dares to stand and look up into heaven and say, Oh, God, I thank you. I'm not a bad man like other people. Why?

16:21 Because I do the right things. I fast. I tithe. I don't do bad things.

16:25 I'm not like this publican. You see, he had twisted thoughts as to the extent of sin, as to the permeation of sin into the very fibers of his inner being. And all of us by nature are like the Pharisees to one degree or another. We think, oh, yes, I've sinned when I've cussed, or when I've stolen, or when I've beaten my wife, or someone has done some gross act.

16:53 They have sinned. But we can live days without any conscious thoughts of God and His claims over us. And that doesn't shock us. We don't call that sin.

17:04 That's just human frailty. You see? What is this? This shows inaccurate thinking about sin.

17:12 Not only the enormity of its guilt, the certainty of its reward, but the tremendous extent to which it has permeated the entirety of our being. And it's not a matter primarily of what a man does, but what he is. That's what we think about sin. But to see it as a terrible criminal offense, to see it in its terrible nature as deserving the wrath of God, as permeating the whole of our being, of this we are generally totally wrong.

17:45 We are totally ignorant until the Holy Ghost awakens us and brings us to true repentance. How do we think about sin by nature? Here are some of the answers. Secondly, how do we feel about sin?

17:59 Well, in the first place, we're delighted in its present rewards. Hebrews 11, verse 26, I believe is the reference. It says of Moses that he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. And in the heart of every unregenerate person, it is this temporal pleasure that sin brings, which is the very overpowering attraction of sin.

18:27 It's the dominating thought in the heart and mind of an unrepentant person. The unrepentant person is willing to push into the background every other consideration about sin except this, will it gratify some lust, some desire of my heart? That's how sin entered the world. When Eve allowed these three considerations, it looks like it will satisfy my tummy, and I know it satisfies my eye, and if the devil, if the tempter here, whoever this beautiful, subtle beast is, is true, then it's going to expand my mind.

19:03 It's going to give me new insights, and I'll have new knowledge. The Word of God which said, in the day you eat, you'll die. In the day you eat, you'll die. In the day you eat, you'll die.

19:15 That Word had to be utterly true. It was pushed into the background, and only one thing stood foremost in Eve's mind. This will bring this threefold, immediate, temporal satisfaction and pleasure. And so her affections became ensnared with this thought and every consideration that God had given, faded into insignificance.

19:38 That's the way we are by nature. Because we have wrong thoughts about sin, as to the enormity of its guilt, untrue thoughts, the certainty of its reward, inaccurate views as to its extent, our affections are wrapped up in it and we are delighted with its present delights and rewards. Secondly, we're willing to endure the pangs of conscience afterward for the joy of the pleasure now.

20:09 That's how we feel about sin. We say, I'm willing to walk with a wounded conscience there if I can have some sweetness from it now. You remember Bunyan captured this beautifully when he talked about the two little children, passion and patience. And passion was sitting there fretful.

20:30 Why? Because she would have everything now. Now. Now.

20:37 And so the thought of someone who's embodied in the figure of passion is a regard to sin that says, I'm willing to endure any pangs of conscience in the future and if there is any future punishment, I'll endure that too, but I've got to have my oyster now. I've got to have it now.

20:57 Well, how does the will act with regard to sin in a natural state? Well, the mind thinking wrong thoughts about it and the affections drawn out toward it. Then the will comes along like the dog's tail, you see. And the will chooses sin because the affections are enmeshed and the mind is blurred and distorted in its thoughts about sin.

21:20 So the will, the Bible says, becomes a will. A willing slave of sin. John 8 and verse 34, Jesus said, Whoever committeth sin is the bondservant of sin. And I want you to turn now to Romans chapter 6 as we look at a passage that gives us this doctrine in some detail, in fact, more clearly than any other portion I know of in all of the Word of God.

21:49 Romans chapter 6, beginning with verse 16. Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants ye are whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness? He says, the person to whom you yield voluntary allegiance, that person is your master. And there are only two possible masters.

22:20 Sin, to whom you willingly, voluntarily yield yourself to be his master. Servant or righteousness. And above that righteousness, of course, is the God who has expressed that righteous standard. And he uses that very term later on in this passage where he says, you've presented yourselves unto God.

22:41 Now, verse 17. But thanks be to God that whereas ye were the servants of sin, what did all those Romans have in common before they were converted? They were the willing bondservants of sin. They gave, their wills over to the service of sin.

22:59 But then something happened. They became obedient from the heart to the form of teaching whereunto ye were delivered and being made free from sin. You see, here was this shift element of the gospel. This change of mind about sin.

23:16 You repudiated the sovereignty and your servitude to sin. Being made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh. For as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification.

23:41 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free in regard of righteousness. You see, his teaching in a nutshell is this. Your minds being twisted as to the enormity of the guilt of sin. Your mind thinking wrong thoughts as to the certain reward of sin.

24:01 Your mind thinking wrong thoughts as to the terrible, all-pervasive effects of sin. And your affections being drawn to sin. Your heartstrings being entangled with that willingness to enjoy the immediate pleasures of sin and even endure the pangs of conscience or run the risk of the pangs of hell you presented your way. You said, Oh, I sin, I'm your willing slave.

24:30 And the proof of it was, he said, you gave your individual members to its service. You had a servitude to sin that was no mere word servitude. Having said, I'll be your slave, you proved it. You gave your hands to things that you should not.

24:46 You gave your eyes to things you should not. You gave your ears. You gave your feet. You gave your emotions.

24:52 You gave your thoughts. You gave your energies. You gave your powers. You gave your thoughts.

24:55 You gave your thoughts. You gave yourself. The members of your body. You gave your being to sin to be a slave.

25:02 That's not me, my friend. If you don't sit there tonight and say, Oh, God, how could I have done it? If there isn't even as I speak now an answer of your own heart saying, Oh, God, that's exactly what I was. My friend, you're living in a fool's paradise tonight.

25:20 You've never seen yourself. Because God says this is what all of us are by nature. That's what a man's relationship to sin is. It is by nature.

25:31 So Scripture says of him that his carnal mind is enmity against God that isn't subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be. Scripture says man drinks iniquity like water. Scripture says that fever swift to shed blood.

25:48 Mouths full of cursing and bitterness. What does this tell us? It tells us that sin has very willing, obedient subject. That's a terrible picture.

The Repentant Man's New Thoughts About Sin

25:59 That's what we are. Now, what happens in our relationship to sin in true repentance? When the Holy Spirit on the basis of the redemptive work of Christ quickens a dead sinner to life and in the hidden springs of his being he is regenerated, he is born of the Spirit and that new life comes to expression in conviction in the revelation of Christ crucified and he lays hold of the Savior in repentance and faith. What happens to his relationship to sin?

26:30 We've seen it. We've seen his relationship to God is radically changed. His relationship to sin is radically changed. In what way?

26:38 Let's go right back over those three areas. Now, how does he think about sin? Well, whereas before he had no idea of the enormity of the guilt of sin, he excused it. He said, well, nobody can be perfect.

26:51 He had light thoughts of sin. Having seen sin in the light of God's countenance, in the light of his character and his holy law, to use the words of the Apostle in Romans 7, he has experienced something of the exceeding sinfulness. The very word sin now is not some kind of a droopy title to move him into a movie theater because the title's got the word sin in it. It's something that makes him feel sick in the pit of his stomach because he said, that's my foul moral revolt and pollution embodied in that little word.

27:33 He said, he sees my sin has been a spurning and an insulting of the God who made me. When he sees his sin in the light of the law, he realizes it's not only a spurning and an insulting of his creator, it's a defying of his lawgiver. It's an abuse of the great benefactor who gave him life and breath, the one in whom he lives and moves and has his being. He sees that it's an enraging of his judge before whom he'll stand in judgment.

28:04 What did this? What caused me to spurn and insult my creator, defy my lawgiver, abuse my benefactor, enrage my judge? Sin. And it becomes a terrible thing in his eyes.

28:19 He no longer looks upon it with light thoughts of its guilt. No longer looks upon it with shallow thoughts of the certainty of its judgment. He says, no, God's not like me. I do something and forget, but sin is so terrible that God will track it to the farthest part of his universe.

28:35 If necessary, until he tracks it down and pours out his judgment upon it. And I tell you, when a man begins to get a little dose of Holy Ghost conviction, one of the things that's always a part of him is that awful sense. God knows me right down to the last cell of my being. There's nothing hid from him.

28:54 The thoughts and the intents of my heart are naked and opened before his eyes. Every convicted sinner gets a little preview of the day of judgment.

29:06 And that day, they're going to cry out for the rocks and the rocks and the hills hide us from his face. We can't face him. One look at those eyes is a flame of fire. And our consciences which have slumbered, our consciences into whose mouth we have cried a star fist are suddenly unstopped.

29:22 They scream out at us and it's as though every sin we've ever done, every thought we've ever thought, every motive that's been a deviation from his law, it arrives before us. Let the rocks crush us, but don't let us face him. My friend, when you begin to see your sin in some little measure in the light of God's holy law, you get a little preview of the day of judgment.

29:44 You don't think lightly of its guilt. You don't have light thoughts of the certainty of its punishment. No, no. No, no.

29:52 You begin to think true thoughts about sin. You begin to see sin as God sees it. Not extensively. Not quantitatively.

30:03 But qualitatively. You see it as God does. And then when you see it in the light of the cross of Christ, you say it's this terrible thing. That necessitated God being pressed into the confines of a virgin's womb.

30:25 Infinite God. Maker of heaven and earth. Compressed into a virgin's womb. You say, why?

30:33 I don't understand that. Why? The nature of sin was such that the only way God could blot it out, having determined to blot it out, was to compress deity in a virgin's womb. When you see that, you establish, you say, my sin necessitated this humiliation.

30:51 My sin, sin necessitated the crucifixion, the shrouded heavens, the piercing cry, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And having seen our sin not only in the light of the law, but in the light of the cross, we don't call it a small thing. We don't call it a little thing. We don't comfort ourselves while we're all in this together.

31:13 It's as though there's only two people in the world when you stand at the foot of the cross. The Son of God who dies and the sinner for whom he died. There's only one great issue. The sin that put him there which should have been upon me, but God has reckoned to him.

31:30 And seeing one sin in the light of the cross, no one ever came away saying, wouldn't it be wonderful? We're forgiven freely and all the rest. Who cares about being holy? We don't need to think about sin now.

31:39 We don't need to be morbid. We're just happy, happy, happy, joyful, joyful, joyful. Anyone who has that idea of Christianity has never been bent and broken at the cross. They've made their own shiny little cross and they've adorned it with all kinds of fairy story niceties.

31:54 But they've never stood before the cruel, bloody cross set in the context of a blackened heavens and ran through with the piercing cry of the Son of God. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? You stand before that cross, my friend, and you'll have sober thoughts about sin until the day you die.

The Repentant Man's New Feelings About Sin: Godly Sorrow

32:16 We've always got different thoughts about sin now. The man who's come to repent, he thinks differently about sin. But he not only thinks differently, he feels differently. Prior to repentance, he had these wrong thoughts about sin.

32:29 He had these wrong, wrong desires towards sin. As we saw earlier in our study tonight, the thought of sin was anything's worth its immediate gratification, the immediate gratification of the flesh. Anything. Ah, having seen his sin in the light of the cross, in the light of God's law, he has new feelings about sin, feelings of genuine grief and sorrow.

32:51 Turn to 2 Corinthians 7 for this succinct statement of the Word of God concerning the new, feeling that comes in repentance as far as sin is concerned. And I use the word feeling without any fear that I'm moving into some kind of mysticism. The words grief and sorrow are words describing feeling. Now it's not feeling set in isolation.

33:20 It begins with new views of sin. But as the mind thinks differently, so the affections will feel differently. And we read in this passage concerning the repentance, that the Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 7, beginning with verse 9, I now rejoice not that you were made sorry, but that you were made sorry unto repentance. For ye were made sorry after a godly sort, that ye might suffer loss by us in nothing.

33:49 For godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, a repentance which bringeth no regret, but the sorrow of the world worketh. Godly sorrow worketh repentance. Wherever there's true repentance, its handmaiden of godly sorrow will be present. Sorrow over what?

34:14 Not primarily sorrow in this done to me. No, no. Go back to those two roots. It's a sorrow consistent with those two roots.

34:26 Whatever grows up here on that second branch of true repentance, it shares the nature of the roots of the tree. That's just, the basic lesson of horticulture. Whatever's out there on the branch is of the same nature of the root. And if the root of conviction is the site of my sin in the light of God's law and in the light of His cross, my sorrow for sin will be rooted in those two principles.

34:54 I see my sin in what it's done to my God. It's sin that caused me to dare to insult Him, to spurn His grace, to defy His law, to squander His gifts. It's sin. It's sin that caused me to think all I was here for was to please my flesh instead of honor my God.

35:18 It's my sin that did this to Him. And when I see Him in a new light and have this change of mind about Him, you see, I can't help but be broken about my sin. Sorrow that my sin should have treated Him so. And then sorrow that my sin should have treated Him so.

35:35 Should have opened up the wounds of Christ. Sorrow that my sin should have caused His groans, should have caused the shedding of His blood.

35:46 There's a new feeling about sin now the most important thing in life is how can I get forgiveness. Not how can I gratify this affection for sin at any cost, but how can I find forgiveness at any cost. The words of the true penitent are these. As if thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquity, who could stand?

36:11 Psalm 130.

36:14 Have you ever uttered those words from the heart? Oh God, if you don't do something to scratch out the sin, how can I stand? Have you ever uttered those words from the heart? From the heart.

36:28 Do you know what it is? Have you?

36:32 The true penitent does.

36:37 And he's not just uttered them once. The child of God's come down that road time and time again. Oh God, if you should mark iniquity, even now as a so-called advanced, mature believer, you see how you've sinned against life and sinned against privilege. Sometimes you come groveling into the presence of God and say, oh God, if you'd mark iniquity, who could stand?

37:01 There is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. Isn't that strange? Forgiveness that thou mayest be feared. Yes.

37:13 Because when you learn forgiveness by way of forgiveness, by way of Holy Ghost conviction, it leads you into the fear of God and into the dread of sinning again.

37:25 When you learn a so-called forgiveness by way of mere human logic and by way of mere human thinking, you learn forgiveness in such a way that you can not only dispose of the fear of God and go on sinning without any fear of consequences. Say, by grace, to make it what I do, Christ will keep me. I know you learn forgiveness at the foot of the cross, by the Holy Ghost, and you'll rise up filled with the joy of forgiveness to walk in the fear of God. Different feeling about sin.

37:56 To illustrate it from the Scripture, that new feeling about the sin is the feeling of the prodigal who struts off away from his home, caught in the door that he knows the meaning of life. He comes back with his head hung upon his chest and the bitter tears streaming down his face, ashamed. Of the ways lived. That's the sorrow of repentance.

38:25 It's the picture of the publican who would not even draw near to the place of worship. But the Scripture says in Luke chapter 18 he stands afar off and doesn't even lift his eyes up to heaven.

38:40 Picture being that those eyes were cast upon the ground. Perhaps he thought, I'm much more like the dust that's there and the worms that crawled and the God who sits upon a throne of infinite peace. Glory. And he beats upon his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

39:00 That's the new feeling to sin. Genuine grief. The grief of a returning prodigal. The grief of a smiting publican.

39:09 The grief of a pleading David in Psalm 51. Have mercy upon me, O God. According to the multitude of thy tender mercies, it's the grief of a weeping Peter who having cursed and denied that he knew his Lord, has his gaze meet the gaze of the Son of God and conscience smites him. And it says he went out and he claimed 1 John 1.9.

39:36 No, it says he went out and he wept.

39:41 True grief. True sorrow. Scripture tells us in Psalm 34.18, The Lord is nigh unto them that be of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

39:55 God never saved anyone if he wasn't of a contrite spirit. My friend, if this is true, I fear for our own generation that has learned the clever little manipulation of verses and with the application of modern psychology how to manipulate people into getting the verses and the people together and sending them off with some idea that all is well. And there are other strangers to that brokenness of heart that is the mark of true repentance. You say, Mr. Martin,

40:32 are you saying that we must spend X number of hours or days in literal weeping? No, because the Bible doesn't say so. Are you saying that we must actually be convulsed with physical weeping? No, because the Bible doesn't say so.

40:46 But I'm saying, my friend, if you don't know what it is to have a broken heart over your sin, you better take heed and beware of where you stand because you say that such as be of a contrite spirit. Isaiah 57.15, Thus saith the High and the Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity whose name is Holy, I dwell in the High and Holy Place with him also that is of a humble and a contrite spirit.

The Repentant Man's New Actions Toward Sin: Repudiation

41:17 So we have a different feeling about sin. We think differently about it. We feel different about it. And then, you see, the will follows in line.

41:25 How do we act or choose with reference to sin when there is true repentance? Ah, there is this heart repudiation. May I use a figure that's common to all of us? There's a suing for divorce.

41:40 Sin has been our spouse and we've delighted in the relationship. Oh, we haven't liked her when she's nagged us after we've courted her. But it's sure been fun courting. We sue out a divorce and say, I'm putting you away.

41:57 I'm done with you! We pull off the ring and throw it away. Isn't that what Romans 6 says? You were the slaves of sin.

42:07 There's been a semblance and you're married now unto righteousness. Romans 7 actually uses the figure of marriage. There's a repudiation, a change of masters, and every man in our supposed different thinking about sin and our different feeling to sin. Everything's abortive unless it leads to a divorce, a forsaking, a casting away, a putting off, a cutting off.

42:34 These are the words that Scripture uses to use the words of Proverbs. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. What is the new response of the will with respect to sin? Repudiation, forsaking, denial, cutting off, a doing away with.

The Extent of Repentance: All Sin in General and Specific Sins in Particular

43:02 That's the disposition of the heart that's been quickened to life in Jesus Christ. Now having considered what is the nature of that change, now briefly, what is the extent of that change? And I would suggest two things. Number one, all sin in general and my sin specific sins in particular.

43:26 In other words, when there's true repentance, this change of mind with respect to sin has to do with anything that comes under the category of sin. Anything that I now know and anything that God shall in the future reveal to me. It's a resolve to be done with sin in any shape, form, whatever, within, without, overt, covert, mind, hand, feet, eyes. Lord Jesus, you've come to be a Savior from sin and to take up your work in me and to this day begin the work and carry it on until the day of Christ.

44:04 Lord Jesus, I comply from the heart with your design in salvation, namely, to make me a holy man, a holy woman. You came, your name is Jesus, to save a people from sin. Lord, that's the kind of Savior I want. Did you come to redeem a people from all iniquity and purify them to yourself?

44:23 Lord, Lord Jesus, that's the kind of salvation I want. Did you choose me in Christ that I should be holy? Lord Jesus, that's what I want to be. That's what I'm talking about.

44:33 That radical, revolutionary change to sin in general, but, secondly, our specific sins in particular. I love the quaint wording of the old confessions and catechisms. Will you listen as I read? From the confession of faith under the section on repentance, Article 5.

44:57 Men ought not to content themselves with a general repentance, but it is every man's duty to endeavor to repent of his particular sins particularly.

45:12 That's quaint, isn't it? But it's biblical. Everyone ought to repent of his particular sins particularly.

45:21 In other words, the proof that there is a general attitude of change or an attitude of change in general is what you do with the particulars. You come home and tell your wife, Honey, I feel like a new man. I've been to the doctor. He's given me a ton.

45:35 My appetite's come back. I'm a new man. I'm hungry. I'm full of life.

45:39 And she puts the food on the table and you don't eat this. You don't eat that. You don't eat that. You go in the living room.

45:44 You've got no life. You lay around the bed and say, Hey, wait a minute. You told me you've had this great radical change, but when it comes to this food, that food, this food, and that food, you're still the same fellow. You say you've had this great radical change.

45:54 You've now got bounding energy and you're full of zips and dents. And yet there you are, lazing around, laying around, never doing anything. Where is this great change if it doesn't come to light in what you eat and how you act? She said, It's all up in your head.

46:08 And she's right. It's all up in your head. And we say, Oh, I've had that great change to sin. Have you?

46:14 Here's the proof. What particular sins, your particular sins, have been sinned? What sins has God excised and cut out? What sins have God excised and what sins is He progressively subduing in your life?

46:29 What lust mastered you a year ago that are more and more under the foot of Christ? What passions governed you that are more and more under the discipline of Christ? What ambitions drove you that are less and less a factor in your life?

46:45 What specific sins are repented of? God says repentance must deal with particular sins. In Revelation 9, 20 and 21, He speaks of people who repented not of their evil deeds. Specific sins.

47:01 Peter said to Simon the sorcerer, Repent therefore of this, the thought of thine heart. Specific sin, the sin of thinking the Holy Ghost could be bought for money. That's why Jesus said to the rich young ruler, One thing you lack. You think you've had a change of mind to sin in general?

47:18 I'm going to show you you're kidding yourself. And he zeroes in on one particular sin and says, Deal with that.

47:25 The young man said, Nothing doing. And the Lord let him go, showing him that he never had a change of mind to sin in general. The woman at the well who's all ready to drink of the water of life, call your husband. And then there's that beautiful example of Zacchaeus.

47:42 Beautiful example. Our Lord comes to a man, calls him down from the tree, goes to his home, and no indication the Lord preached a sermon to him on his specific sin. But as he who called him effectually worked in his heart and brought him to subjection to his own authority and salvation, the first, first expression of that was this particular sin of Zacchaeus was dealt with particularly, the sin of covetousness. And he says, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor and where I've wronged anyone, I'm going to give it back fourfold.

48:17 And Jesus said, Salvation's come to this house. The evidence being his particular sins were dealt with particularly. And I press upon the conscience of every man or woman, fellow or girl in this place tonight, is this true of you? Has that darling right-hand sin and right-eye sin of yours been plucked out and cast from you?

48:41 I'm not asking if you brought it under full subjection. I am not asking if you know total release and total victory, but I am asking, have you set yourself against it with all holy resolve? Are you applying yourself to every legitimate means for its subjugation, for its crucifixion, for its mortification? Are you just holding it off long enough to get a little assurance that you're the Lord's and then going back and hugging it and caressing it and fondling it and cuddling it to your bosom until your conscience screams and then you throw it out of your bosom again until you get a little peace that all is well and then you go back again and you hug it to your bosom until conscience torments you and then you throw it out again.

49:24 My friend, this will not do. Pull the ring off and throw it away and sue out a bill of divorce.

49:35 Not enough to plow it off. Don't pluck out the right eye. You've got to cast it from you, Jesus.

49:41 Don't pluck it out holding it until you get over the pain and then sticking it back in again. Cut off the right hand, he says, and cast it from you. Don't cut it off and leave it laying around until you convince yourself, well, I must be all right because I sure dealt with that sin. I cut off the hand.

49:58 Now I can afford the luxury of picking it up again.

50:03 No, no.

Warning Against Cherished Sins: The Example of Herod

50:05 I was reading again in my own devotions. It's been so good to get back in my own study. I can tell you something more than just my thoughts as I see them in Scripture. And in my own parallel reading, I read this statement from Bishop Ryle speaking of Herod who heard John gladly, who feared him, who heard him preach often.

50:27 He has these comments upon Herod.

50:31 Herod went further than many. He feared John. He knew that he was a just man and a holy man and he observed him. This is what Scripture says.

50:42 He heard him and did many things in consequence. He even heard him gladly. But there's one thing Herod would not do. He would not cease from adultery.

50:51 You remember Herod had taken his brother Philip's wife. It was an adulterous relationship and John had said, it is not lawful for thee to have her. He would not give up Herodias and so he ruined his soul forevermore. Let us take warning from Herod's case.

51:06 Let us keep back nothing. Cleave to no favorite vice. Spare nothing that stands between us and salvation. Let us often look within and make sure there is no darling lust or pet transgression which Herodias light is murdering our souls.

51:24 Let us rather cut off the right hand and pluck out the right eye than go into hellfire. Let us not be content with admiring favorite preachers and gladly hearing evangelical sermons. Let us not rest till we can say with David I esteem all thy commandments concerning all things to be right. And I hate every false way.

51:47 Oh, young people, listen to me. What is your right hand tonight? Some of you, it's a spirit of lying. You've become so adept at lying you can lie with a straight face to God himself.

52:01 God says you better turn from that lying and you'll have your part in the lake of fire. Some of you, it's a spirit of independence. You're gonna do what you wanna do and mom and dad can go to what they wanna do. Oh, young person, you better have that spirit of rebellion bent and become a loving, submissive son or daughter or the wrath of God will break upon your head.

52:27 You can learn all you want in those Sunday school rooms and you can give all the right answers and you can say all the right things. But if cherishing that lust for independence at the cost of submitting to your parental authority is the sin to which you cling, it'll damn you. Some of you, it's ambition. Some of you, it's pride.

52:51 I'll never admit I'm a filthy, undone sinner. My friend, take that right hand of pride and cut it or you'll perish.

53:02 Others of you, you know what it is. God the Holy Ghost has zeroed in even tonight. I trust he has. That attachment to the world, that love of things, that love of station, that love of the praise of men.

53:16 This is why you can't make a little list and say you gotta quit this, this, this and this. You can never complete the list. The human heart is such a thing. It's such a large fountain of uncleanness and was set upon some darling luck here in one and here in another.

53:31 We cannot make a list. But we can insist in the light of the word of God, my friend, whatever depths the Holy Ghost is plumbed and he says one thing thou lackest deal with this. You better deal with it. For there's no ground to believe your repentance is sincere.

53:49 For the extent of this true repentance unto life, all sinning, in general, my own darling specific sins in particular.

Repentance as a Continuous Attitude and Development

54:03 What is true at the inception of life and true repentance, whether that exception comes climactically and we can point to the day and hour of its beginning, or whether it's come as a dawning where we cannot know where we passed out of the state of nature into a state of grace, but where those beginnings are genuine, those same principles will follow right through in the Christian life. Repentance, true repentance is not the act of a moment, it's the acquisition of an attitude. And the only proof of the reality of repentance is its continuance and its development. And all of these principles that apply to the entrance into life apply to the development of that life.

54:47 And so, child of God, if you and I have those two roots that are continually feeding in us true repentance, constantly regarding our sins, in the light of God's countenance, and in the light of the face and sufferings of Christ, there will be that constant change of mind about Him and we'll come back again and again ashamed that we've treated Him in such a terrible way, the One who's not only made us and created us, but saved us. And the grief of a child of God against His Redeemer God many times is deeper than that of a returning prodigal at the sight of his sins against his Creator God. And we'll know what it is

55:32 to deal with our particular sins particularly and we'll call them by name and we'll bring them to the cross for cleansing and then we'll come to God for grace and enablement to subdue them and put beneath our feet and then we'll use every ability and every means at our disposal to see them conquered until that blessed day when Jesus comes again and He Himself shall put His foot upon the neck of every last lust and sin and we'll be like Him and we'll see Him as He is. Oh, may the Lord hasten the day for sin-weary saints who are no strangers to the grace of true repentance.

56:15 Is that your longing? God, hasten the day when the battle will be over.

Final Exhortation: Be Dead in Earnest About Repentance

56:21 Now you sit there and say, what in the world is that crazy preacher talking about? My friend, you better find out what I'm talking about pretty soon or you'll wish that day had never come.

56:34 I'm not up here making my money tonight. I could preach 30-minute sermons and only put half of myself into it and I'd still get my check.

56:44 I'm dead in earnest for you.

56:47 You adults, visitors, I'm dead in earnest. The day is coming when everything is going to be wrapped up. What you think about this preacher and what he thinks about you don't amount to a hill of beans. The only thing that's going to matter is did you repent?

57:03 Did I repent? I won't be saved by talking about it. I better know what I'm talking about or I'll miss it. And you better know.

57:10 Just hearing me talk about it won't do anything. May God help us to listen. May God help us to ask honestly.

57:19 May God help us to experience. Let us pray.