Fruit of Repentance

Introduction and Review of Repentance's Foundation

0:02 So we highly recommend this. And then this book by J.I. Packard, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God.

0:09 We think so much of this in our own particular church. We had this as our study project in the college class for this entire Sunday school year. And his section there on what is the gospel message is worth the price of the book three times over. It's a wonderful little book.

0:26 And setting forth the biblical balance of the truth of divine sovereignty and human responsibility. And what is evangelism? A wonderful little treatise. And then this little book put out by the Orthodox Presbyterian Publishing House, Are You a Christian?

0:39 Is excellent for use not only for personal edification, but in your witness to others. If you've got someone you've got an opening with and you say, well, I just don't know how to carry the ball from here. They're willing to talk about spiritual things. It would be very wise for you to give them one of these and say, we're going to meet together once a week and go through page by page a book like this.

0:59 Do you do that in your witness to others? Some of you feel a little lost. I don't know where to go. I've got a good contact.

1:04 People who talk to me about the Lord, the neighbor. But I don't know how to go about it. Well, you take a book like this. You buy one for them.

1:10 You say, now we're going to get together Thursday morning from 11 to 12. And when we get together next week, we're going to discuss the first three pages of this. And working through a book like this can be a great aid in your own personal witness. And then this that I feel is one of the probably half a dozen prophetic utterances to our own generation by a contemporary writer, Ian Murray, who's a young Scotsman living in England.

1:33 It was my privilege to get to spend many hours with Mr. Murray when I was in England recently. A dear man of God has written this book, The Forgotten Spurgeon, in which he has reconstructed the image of Spurgeon that many of us had. Sort of the loquacious verbal pearl casting preacher of the Victorian period who talked in beautiful flowery language.

1:54 But you get a different picture of Spurgeon in this book, a far more accurate one. And it conveys a very. A very valuable message to this hour. So I hope I've whetted the appetite of some of you who have not frequented the little book table just down the back stairs.

2:07 And some will be there to take your money while you take the book. So we recommend those books very highly. Now, let me say a word of personal thanks to your pastor and your board for extending the invitation for me to come. As I mentioned the first night, I think of that verse in Romans.

2:26 I purposed to come unto you, but was hindered hitherto. And that's true on two occasions. But we're so grateful that in the providence of God, we were privileged to spend these few days together. And I can honestly say that ministering to you has brought edification to my own heart.

2:40 For I've sensed a general spirit of hunger for the word that's made it very easy and a very great delight to preach to you. Sometimes when one preaches, he feels like a 135-pound halfback bucking three 260-pound linemen. You know, it's just fight all the way. There are other times when you just feel.

3:01 You're about a 250-pound halfback going through 30-pound linemen. It's just a joy to just go right through. Well, it's been that way during these nights, and we're grateful to God for that. And trust that this has been some indication that you are receiving the word, not as the word of men, but as it is indeed the word of the living God.

3:24 Now, may we pause for a moment of prayer before we look into the scriptures again tonight. Oh, Lord, our God. Lord, consciously acknowledge tonight our gratitude for your goodness to us in these brief days together. We thank you for the word that we've been able to open together.

3:48 We thank you that at least in some little measure we have sensed the assistance and help of your spirit. And we thank you, oh, Lord, for some degree of assurance that these days have not been in vain. That we shall, by your grace, behold in the day of our lives. Lord Jesus Christ, some gold and silver and precious stone as a result of these days together.

4:13 And now, oh, Lord, we would plead on this, our last night of these special nights, that you would not leave us at the mercy of ourselves. We confess again we have no claim upon you. Oh, God, if you were to deal with us in terms of what we deserve, who could stand? But, oh, Lord, we thank you that you're a God of grace and mercy.

4:34 Magnify your grace by coming. And visiting our needy hearts with a breath of heaven that will cause the word to live to us. And then, oh, Lord, enable us to walk in its light by the power of the spirit. Speak, we pray, to those who are your own and those who are not yet savingly joined to your son.

4:54 Rebuke the enemy, that wicked, foul spirit who would blind the minds of men, who would divert the attention, who would dull our spirits. We plead the covering of the blood of Christ. And ask you to come and visit us for your glory and for our eternal good. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord.

5:16 Amen.

5:21 We have been considering during these nights together the biblical teaching concerning the great theme of repentance.

5:31 Having considered the importance of repentance in the light of the scriptures, we have for the past two nights been seeking to lay open something of the nature of that repentance. And we have tried to do so under the figure of a tree. And I will remind you that a tree must have soil in which to grow. And the only soil in which true repentance will ever take root is that soil of the grace of God.

5:57 We looked at those three texts of scripture which clearly teach that repentance is the gift of God. Though it is our responsibility to repent, it is God's grace that enables us to repent. Well, you say, how do you reconcile? Well, that I don't.

6:12 God's told me to preach His word, not reconcile things within His word. And that's my job, to declare the whole counsel of God. And the same Bible that says God commands you to repent also says that God perventure would grant them repentance to the acknowledgement of the truth. And when we embrace that declaration of God, it shuts us up to the fact that our only hope of ever repenting is the mercy and grace of God being operative within our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

6:41 And then we looked at the two roots of repentance, looking at that tree and the two roots beneath the ground, one of them being conviction of sin, and then the other root being a revelation of Christ crucified. And I would repeat what I closed with last night, that not only are those two factors, conviction of sin and the revelation of the cross, the beginnings of repentance, the roots upon which the tree initially grows, but they are the roots by which that tree, is continually sustained. And growth in grace is growth in an increasing awareness of the sinfulness of sin and an increasing awareness of the glory of Christ. It was not a new convert, but a seasoned saint who said, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And when you as a Christian find yourself getting indifferent to sin, when you find you can be peevish and lose your temper and fret and fuss, and think thoughts of jealousy and meanness and speak words that are caustic, and you find that when you come to God, your confession is just kind of a lifeless lip service and there's no contrition, you know what you need to do? You need to pause afresh and realize this thing, this impatience, this churlish attitude, this envious thought, this opened up the wounds of my Savior, this caused his dying agony,

8:08 this is the thing that squeezed the groan out. It is hard. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And then those so-called little sins for which we find it so difficult to experience any true penitence suddenly become ugly in the light of his cross.

The Substance of Repentance: A Radical Change of Mind

8:24 And so if you would experience true repentance, not only initially but continually, there must be a coming back again and again to the plowing work of God by his law, by his standard, and a revelation of those sins in the light of the cross and of the mercy of God in Christ. Now tonight, I want us to consider the tree itself. We look at the soil, the two roots, now try to picture the main trunk of the tree and four branches coming out of that main trunk of the tree and we shall under that figure seek to bring together what the scripture teaches on the subject of repentance. Now what is the actual substance of that tree?

9:03 We've considered the roots, now what is repentance? Well, the word itself, of course, as many of you know, means a change of mood, a change of mind. But it's not a change of mind in the way we generally use it. If somebody says, well, you know, I was planning to go shopping at ten o'clock but I changed my mind.

9:19 It doesn't mean simply some kind of a reversal of a surface decision that involves very little. But it means a change of mind that involves the total man. It involves what I think, what I feel, and what I choose. That change of mind, which is the substance of true repentance, is a radical overhauling of the total being, the intellect, how I think, the emotions, how I feel, the will, what I choose.

9:50 Notice those three things in some classic illustrations of repentance in the scripture. The illustration of the prodigal son, the first evidence of any change was this. Now when he came to himself, he said, and suddenly he began to judge everything in a different light. His father's own, his father's will, his father's person, everything.

10:11 He said, I don't know. He came to himself. You see, sin has inflicted man with a moral insanity. And though the mind of man may be able to think clearly and logically on every area, when it comes to the issues of God and truth and eternity, sin has made all of us morally insane.

10:33 For we cling to the very thing that shall damn us. And we spurn the very one who would save us. And the first act, the first actings of repentance is this change of mind. Something happens in the intellect.

10:47 Then something happens in the affections. What I love and what I desire, what I hate, what I fear. And the classic example of that is found in 2 Corinthians, where Paul says of those Corinthians, For ye sorrowed with a godly sorrow unto repentance, not to be repented of. 2 Corinthians 7.

11:08 And then verse 10, For godly sorrow worketh repentance, repentance to salvation, not to be repented of. Notice, godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation. No salvation without repentance. No repentance without godly sorrow.

11:27 So one of the vital elements of true repentance is not only an overhauling of the processes of the mind, what I think, but also a radical overhauling of the affections, how I feel with regard to certain things. And then, of course, involved is not only the mind, what I think, the affections, what I feel, but the will, what I choose. And again, the prodigal is a classic example. He said, I will arise and go to my Father.

11:55 He just seemed to lay in there, groaning and moaning and rumbling, may have made him feel better, but it didn't make him any better. It was that resolution, I will arise and go. And his repentance touched his will. And so the substance of repentance, then, is a change of mind.

12:13 And if you see that tree before you with the two roots, and then the main trunk, you're right in that trunk, change of mind. Well, in what specific areas? Now, here are the four main branches, and I want us to consider them together. If that repentance that we profess to experience is true, it will always involve this radical change of mind in the what I think, in what I feel, in what I choose, with regard to four things.

12:40 Now, let me state at the outset, I am not saying, for the Scripture does not, that you're not a Christian unless you experience the change of mind in this order and under these particular terms. No. Now, I'm not being a stickler for terms or order, but when you're teaching, you've got to have one and two and three and four. You can't just give out a glob of fruit.

13:03 Sometimes you may think we preachers are doing that, just serving up a big glob, and we don't separate and help you to be able to separate the meat from the taters, so to speak, and it just looks a lot like hash. Well, I don't want to give you hash tonight. I want to give you the meat here, and the taters here, and the appetizer over here, and so we must have one, two, three, four. But please, don't anyone say that Pastor Martin said, unless you experience repentance in this way and in this order, you're not a Christian.

13:32 No. What I am saying is, the Bible teaches that wherever there's true repentance, that change of mind will involve these four things. Now, the order's not important, or even the very words, but the substance of these things will always be present wherever there is a real work of repentance. All right then, what are those four main branches?

Branch 1: A Change of Mind Regarding God

13:53 Number one, wherever there is true repentance, there will always be a change of mind regarding God Himself. Now, by nature, what is our attitude to God? Well, let the Scriptures speak. Listen as I quote from Romans chapter 3.

14:12 When Paul is summarizing the state of man in his sinfulness, and as a master lawyer indicting the whole human race before the bar of God's justice, he comes to his summing up, as the lawyer sums up his case and brings out the most salient facts in order that he might bring this criminal to condemnation. So Paul, like a master lawyer, is summing up now the state of humanity that he's been describing for three whole chapters. And he says in verse 10 of Romans 3, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. Now notice, there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. I think that's one of the saddest verses in all the Bible. There is none that seeketh after God. Now later on he mentions some of the things that we look upon as sin.

15:21 Murder and bloodshed and foul speech, the throes and open sepulchre. But Paul puts these down the line. He puts as the crowning sin of humanity is none seems after God. Well, what's so bad about that?

15:36 That's the worst thing about sin. That the creature made for God, made to know Him, made to delight in Him, made to seek after Him, made to long after Him, has turned and is utterly indifferent to the God who made Him, the God who sustains Him, the God who in Jesus Christ offers redemption to Him. By nature we have no desire after Him. By nature, verse 18 says, we do not fear Him.

16:07 There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now the fear of God is that attitude in the heart of a man which moves him to regard the smile of God as his greatest pleasure and the frown of God as his greatest dread. When the Bible says a certain man feared God, it's talking about a man who in the midst of his fellow men in society had one great regard. I long for the smile of my God and whatever I must do or pass through in order to know His smile, I shall pass through it.

16:47 And I fear nothing more than His frown, and if I must have the whole world frown, let it frown, but I don't want the frown of my God. Now this passage says, by nature no one fears God. We don't regard Him with that holy regard of which He is worthy. No desire for Him.

17:04 We do not fear Him. Notice Romans 8, 7 says, we are not subject to Him. We hate His rule, Romans 8 and verse 7, because the carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to Him.

17:18 To the law of God, neither indeed can it be so, then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Why? For the heart is in rebellion to Him. It's enmity against His law and His rule.

17:32 That's what we are by nature, every one of us. Now the manifestation of that may be more gross in some than in others. You see, someone may manifest his lack of desire to seek God and the fact that he does not fear God. And the fact that he hates the rule of God by becoming an outright outspoken atheist.

17:55 Others may be nice, polite, like Mr. County professing Christians who are strangers to a deep work of grace in the heart. But they have this in common. They do not fear Him.

18:05 They do not seek Him. They do not love His law. But oh, when God has done that work that we described in the Roots, when by His law He shows the sinner that he has offended and criminally transgressed the standard of God, when the sinner sees in the light of the cross the awfulness of sin, the heinous nature of sin in the light of the wounds of Christ, that sinner will have his attitude to God radically overhauled. And so the Scripture describes true conversion as a turning unto God from henceforth to love Him, to fear Him, to seek Him, to bow to Him.

18:48 And anything short of that is something less than biblical conversion. Notice the descriptions of this in the Scriptures. In Acts 26 in verse 18, when our Lord gave Paul his commission, He said, as you go out to preach in My name, this is the task to which I have called you, Paul, verse 18 of Acts 26, to open their eyes. That's the first word, illumination.

19:18 To turn them from darkness to light, notice now, from the power of Satan unto God. Now the phrase, to turn them, applies to those three things, or those two things. To turn them, first of all, from darkness to light, secondly, from the power of Satan unto God, so without doing any injustice, if you were to diagram this sentence, you could put together these words. To open their eyes, to turn them unto, now when a person gets converted, he is turned unto God. From henceforth, the basic drift and direction and desire and impetus of his life will be a Godward direction. And anything short of that is not biblical conversion. And so repentance always involves that change of mind to God, whereby I now see him as the one worthy to be loved, worthy to be feared, worthy to be sought.

20:29 Isn't that our Lord's description of what eternal life is? Notice his words in John 17, when he said, I have given eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Verse 2 of John 17, And this is life eternal. What is it?

20:49 That they may know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent? Our Lord described eternal life as a heart introduction to the Godhead. This is life eternal, that they may know God. Do you know God?

21:10 Not as a concoction of verbal symbols, not as a conglomeration of theological concepts, but do you know him by the revelation of the Holy Spirit to your heart so that you love this person? Do you desire him? Do you seek him? Do you bow to him?

21:32 Scripture says repentance involves nothing less than that deep change of mind to God, so that I now see him as the one worthy to be sought. My heart is drawn out in desire unto him, and my will is brought subject to him. Turn over to Romans chapter 6, where Paul describes the conversion of the Roman Christians in the following terms. Now notice he's not telling them, now that they're saved, this is something they ought to do, but he's saying the fact that they are saved, this is what's already happened to them.

22:12 Notice. Verse 20. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?

22:23 For the end of those things is death. But now, being made free from sin, not perfectly, but free from its dominion, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life. He is not saying this is something you ought to do. He's not saying now that you've accepted Christ, you ought to submit and begin to serve God.

22:49 He says this is what happened when you got saved. You were freed from the dominion of sin and you got a master. You were made the servants of God. What is that but another way of describing repentance.

23:07 That there was this change of mind about God. Remember what we think of it by nature? We see nothing in Him to draw out our most deep longings and aspirations. We see nothing about His rule that makes us delight to submit to it.

23:21 In fact, the Scripture says we hate that rule. But when there's that change of mind and affection and will with regard to God, there is now a glad subjecting of ourselves to Him and a glad embracing of His authority over us. That's why Paul could describe the conversion of the Thessalonians under the following terms. 1 Thessalonians 1 and verse 9.

23:45 For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, how that ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and the true God. Ye turned to serve. He said before the Gospel came, you did not look upon the living God as worthy of being served. You looked upon your idols and you gave your affection and your devotion to your idols.

24:16 But when the Gospel came in power, there was a work of repentance and you turned to God with an attitude of what? Of just getting something from Him? No. But of giving something to Him.

24:28 And that something was nothing less than the unreserved committal of your will. You turned to serve. And anyone who simply turns to get so he can go on his way doing as he pleases without any fear of hell, he's never repented. All true turning is not only a turning to get from God forgiveness, but to give to God allegiance and subjection.

24:52 And subjection of the will. And Paul says that's exactly what happened when the Gospel came to those at Thessalonica. A change of mind about God. You see, the Gospel does nothing less than take the sin-loving, self-centered creature and basically, not perfectly, but basically make him a God-loving, holiness-loving creature.

25:20 It changes him from a man-centered creature to a God-centered creature. And if the Gospel isn't doing that, we've got something that's less than the Biblical Gospel being operative. You see, we've emphasized the gift element of the Gospel, but we've forgotten that there's a shift element in the Gospel. And whenever God confers the gift of forgiveness, He powerfully works a shift of the whole center of a man's life from sin and self to God and righteousness.

25:51 Now, you say you have the gift? Does your life give evidence of the shift? No gift without shift. No gift without shift.

Branch 2: A Change of Mind Regarding Sin (Especially Bosom Sins)

26:06 Repentance is a change of mind about God. Secondly, now picture the tree. There's the two roots, the main trunk. Change of mind, first of all, about God.

26:16 Secondly, a change of mind about sin. A change of mind that affects how I think of sin, how I feel to sin, what I choose with regard to sin, now, what is our attitude to sin by nature? Well, the Scripture says we love it. The Word of God says, Man who drinketh iniquity like water.

26:36 We excuse our sin. We do like Adam. When God said, Adam, have you sinned? Did you do something I told you not to?

26:43 And he began to rationalize and excuse. He said, yes, but, and it's all those commas afterwards, you see, that canceled out his confession. He excused it. He rationalized it.

26:54 That process by which we look at black long enough and we want it so bad that we convince ourselves that black is gray and that gray is white. That's all this talk about situational ethics is. It's just wanting something bad enough, but knowing it's bad that you've got to convince yourself it's right so you can take it with a good conscience. That's all situational ethics is.

27:15 And all of us have a situational ethics heart that rationalizes sin, excuses sin. The Bible says we're enslaved to sin. Listen to Paul's statement in Ephesians 2. He said, You hath he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that works in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all had our conversation in time past, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.

27:47 Paul said, What marks the fallen sons of men is that they're living a life that's absorbed and gratifying the appetite of the flesh and of the mind. And he says, In that condition we were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Our Lord said, Whosoever committeth sin is the bondservant of sin. That's our attitude to sin by nature.

28:11 We love it. We excuse it. We are enslaved to it. But oh, when we see our sin in the light of God's holy law, and we see that it's not just something like the measles when they come to the community.

28:22 You sit back and you get them and you don't get too upset. It's something we all have. But you see, it's my sin that's been criminal offense against God. When you see your sin in the light of the cross and realize that it was your sin that opened up his wounds, your sin that caused his agony, your sin that shrouded the heavens in blackness, your sin that opened up the wounds in that brow and in those hands, and worse than that, it was your sin that sent the agony and the arrows from the Father's quiver into the open bosom of the Son of God.

29:00 You'll experience a change of mind about that sin. You'll look at sin in an entirely different light now. You'll feel towards sin in an entirely different way and your attitude towards sin will be reflected in a different response to the enticements of sin. There will be that change of mind affecting what you think, how you feel, and what you choose, and anything less than this is not repentance.

29:27 True repentance will always involve a change of mind with regard to sin. Well, you say, what do you mean by sin? Well, sin in general. Sin, wherever it rears its ugly head, for the Scripture says in Ezekiel, Cast away all your transgressions, for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

29:45 God says to the prophet Isaiah, Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. But I want to zero in, because the Bible does, repentance many times will be manifested either in its genuineness or in its lack of genuineness by your dealing with specific sins, your own darling bosom sins. And it's interesting that in the life of our Lord, whenever He was dealing with a sinner and was about to close with the offer of mercy, He zeroed in to the bosom sin. You remember the rich young ruler?

30:22 He came to Christ, and said, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And so our Lord began to use the law as an instrument of evangelism. He said, Well, you know the commandments. Oh, yes, I know them.

30:34 Which ones? And then He gave the last six commandments, the second table of the law. And the young man said, Why, all those things I've kept from my youth up. Well, he hadn't really kept them in a spiritual sense.

30:45 He had kept them as Paul did, as an external coal that only touched where his hands went and his feet went and where his tongue stayed. He didn't use the law as the standard of God that reached and pulled up the heart. Looking at it as an external standard, he said, I've kept that. And it's as though the Lord said, All right, young man, I'm going to show you your heart.

31:06 He said, One thing you lack. And then the Son of God gave five or six commands, four or five commands. Go, sell that thou hast. Give to the poor.

31:17 Come, follow me. You say you've kept the law? I who gave the law, I who am God, I'm telling you what I'm requiring of you. For the first command is, Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

31:31 And young man, I look into your heart and I see that though you're moral and upright and you've kept the law as an external code, your heart is a heart that is idolatrous to the poor. Now, young man, I want you to take your idol. It's in the form of a dollar sign. And I want you to take it out and I want you to smash it in pieces.

31:51 Then come and follow me. When he zealed in upon his riches, he was touching his idol. He said, Smash your idol if you want eternal life. And you know what the sequel to the story is?

32:02 It says in Matthew 19 that the young man went away sorrowfully. For he had great possessions. Jesus let him go. He didn't run down the road and say, Well, you know, I was shooting for a thousand, but since I missed, I'll settle for five hundred.

32:22 You just come on and follow me and I was trying to get you to be saved and surrendered both at the same time, but since I couldn't do that, I'll settle for the next best thing. You just believe that I'm the Savior, the Messiah, and then after you've followed me a while and you learn to love me and you grow in grace, why, then you'll be ready to smash your idol. All right? Not on your life.

32:45 He let him go. He let him go. He would not deceive that young man into thinking he would come to the possession of eternal life. With an idolatrous heart that was not broken by the grace of God.

32:59 And he won't deceive any of you or me either. And he sees the darling bosom sin and he says, Until you're ready to deal with that, there'll be no life. Look at the woman at the well. John chapter four.

33:13 If you're not familiar with that story, maybe you'll want to turn for a moment. Here our Lord entered into conversation with this woman. Beautiful picture of personal work. He didn't come up and hit her over the head with a bat concocted of seventeen squares.

33:28 Scripture verses. And drive her halfway down that well. He came up and entered into conversation with her. Showed himself friendly and gracious.

33:37 Then he began to parry with her and talked about living water. Do you remember what she said? John four, verse fourteen. Whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst.

33:49 But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. And the woman said unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Ah, she's all ready to make a decision. She says, I want that water.

34:06 You told me about living water. Sir, let me have that water. She's all ready to make a decision. What does he do?

34:14 He abruptly changes the subject from water to husbands. And he says in the next verse, verse sixteen. Go, call thy husband, and come hither. This is the place of living water.

34:28 I've let living water stand before you, but before you drink me as the living water, call on your husband. Oh, but sir, I don't have a husband. He says, That's right. And the man you're now living with in a common law relationship is not your husband.

34:45 And you've had a few others before. Oh, sir, I perceive you're a prophet. And then she tries to get into religious argument. Our fathers say we ought to worship here and you say there.

34:57 You see what our Lord was doing? He was saying in essence, woman, before you're ever ready to drink of the living water, you've got to be ready to face the muddied water of your bosom's sin. And until you're ready by the grace of God to spill out the muddied waters of your immorality, you'll never drink the living waters of my grace. Call thy husband.

35:21 What's that but a beautiful illustration of repentance? That was a call to repentance. And if the woman was unwilling to call, to go back to the husband and be done with this relationship, our Lord said, you can forget the living water. For she would not have had the blast to come back again, having simply taken a walk around the block.

35:46 He said, call thy husband and then come hither. The scripture reveals that repentance is not just a dealing with sin in general, but it's a dealing with sin in particular. Even the bosom dies. Even the bosom darling sin that's as dear to us as the right hand or the right eye.

36:04 For remember the words of our Lord in Matthew chapter 25, verse 29. If thy right eye offend thee or causes thee to stumble into sin, pluck it out and cast it from thee. For it's profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. Verse 30.

36:24 And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off and cast it from thee. For it's profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into hell. What kind of radical talk is this? I've longed to hear an evangelist preach a series of messages on this as his evangelistic test.

36:44 Amputation or retribution. He said, there's a sin that's as dear to you and as much a part of you as your right hand. How much is your right hand a part of you? It's been with you from the time you first squawked on the delivery table.

36:59 Your right eye, that you naturally, instinctively protect. Our Lord says that sin is dear to you as the right hand and the right eye. You must be severed from it or perish. He didn't say it's a matter of rewards.

37:14 He said it's a matter of life and death. And five times in the Gospels he uses that strong figure of amputation or retribution. That there can be no deliberate countenancing of sin. There can be no deliberate covering up and preserving the darling Delilah upon our laps.

37:34 There must be a dealing with sin in particular. And I ask you tonight, if you've ever honestly faced not just sin in a general, vague sort of way, but the darling bosom sin of your heart. What is it? You know.

37:51 God knows. What is it? You see, the proof that your repentance is genuine is not the many sins you can deal with without any cost to you. But it's that particular sin that you can't deal with without losing something.

38:09 Like the right hand, the right eye. What is it in your case? That's the folly of setting up our list of smoking, drinking, card playing, going to the theater. That's the folly of that.

38:22 Because people can look at those things and say, well I don't do that, don't do that, don't do this. Or I used to, but I don't. That's kid stuff. May not cost you anything to drop those things.

38:34 What about that pride? What about that lust? What about that spirit of jealousy? What about that attitude of envy?

38:45 What about that spirit of bullheadedness? Nobody can ever tell you anything. Have those sins been faced? Have those sins been honestly dealt with?

38:56 What about that wagging tongue? What about that spirit that defiles with its bitterness and its rancor? Have you dealt with the darling bosom sin of your heart? I don't know what it is.

39:15 But you know. And God knows. And you spare that sin. And our Lord says you forfeit eternal life.

39:22 I didn't say it. He said it. He said if that hand is not cut off, that eye is not plucked out, the whole body shall be cast into hell. The sin that you spare will be the sin that damns you.

39:37 Now that's not talking of the child of God who set his entire being against that bosom sin. And with all the strength that he can marshal by the grace of God and using all the means, he's fighting against it, warring against it. He may still fall before it. He may still be cut down in moments of weakness.

39:56 But he's never signed a peace treaty. He's not lying down in its lap. He's not justifying it. He's not excusing it.

40:03 Be it the most secret sin known only to him and God, he fights against it as much as a sin that might be emblazoned out across the community. Are you warring against the sins of your heart like that? Then that's a healthy sign that God has granted the grace of repentance. When you find you're just as desired to be free from that hidden spirit of revenge that no one ever sees, that they never break out into angry words, as much as you long to be free from perhaps a volatile spirit that breaks out in angry words, when you find yourself mourning before God as much over an angry spirit as over angry words, that's a wholesome sign that you've plucked out and cut off some eyes and some hands.

40:47 But if you can sit back and say, Oh, well, I meet the list. I don't do this. Don't do that. And there's no warring against the darling bosom sins of your heart and life.

Branch 3: A Change of Mind Regarding Self

40:56 My friend, you have good reason to question the sincerity of your repentance. In particular, sin in general, repentance will always involve this, a change of mind, a change of affection and attitude, and a change of choice. And then repentance will always involve in the third place, look at the third main branch of the tree with me for a moment, it will always involve a change of mind regarding ourselves. Now again, not in this order, but this will be the substance of it.

41:35 By nature, what's our attitude to ourselves? Well, we've made ourselves the golden light. 2 Corinthians 5.15 is the best theological commentary on natural man as far as I know in all of the Bible.

41:49 What is man living for? Well, you say somebody's living for money, somebody's living for pleasures, somebody's living for prestige and popularity. But what do all those people have in common? Notice 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 15.

42:07 And that he died for all, speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them and rose again. Paul says that all men by nature are characterized by those three words. They live unto themselves. You see, when God made man, he made him a creature to be centered in himself.

42:39 So that man, with all of the gifts God gave him, all of the abilities, all of the faculties, all of the capacities, man was a creature who was subject to God and lived to the glory of God and wanted the exercise of all of his capacities to issue in the praise of God. The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. But sin entered and what happened? God was cast off as the end of man's existence, but he still had his appetites.

43:08 He still had his capacities. He still had his abilities. He still had many of his faculties. What happened to them?

43:14 They were all turned in upon himself. So now he'll gratify his appetites. For what purpose? Not to glorify God, but to please himself.

43:22 He'll use his mind not to glorify God, but simply to pop up himself. And so all of these faculties and abilities that used to be focused in God have turned inward upon himself. So Paul says that they live unto themselves. The prophet stated it in Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 6 in these words, All we like sheep have gone astray.

43:46 We've turned every one of us to what? His own way. You see, that's the common denominator of all men in sin. It doesn't say we've all turned to drunkenness.

43:55 That wouldn't be true. Probably only one or two of you in this whole building have ever been drunk. It doesn't say we've all turned to smoking. We've all turned to drinking.

44:03 We've all turned to immortality. But it says we have all turned to something. What is it? We've turned to a course of self-centeredness.

44:11 We've turned to our own way. Now, when the Spirit of God by the word and by the law and by the cross reveals to us something of our sin as rebellion against God, something of our sin in the light of the cross, and we hear the call of Christ through the word and by the Spirit, come unto me, what will happen? There'll be a change of mind about myself. I'll suddenly realize like that prodigal, I wasn't made to mean to myself.

44:42 He said, I'm going back and be a servant to my dad. I want my dad's glory and my dad's will to overshadow me. I want to be in the background as a servant. I want people to know the greatness of my Father.

44:56 That's what happens when God brings a sinner to repentance. He thinks differently about himself. He no longer looks upon himself as a creature made to be a little independent dog, all the time strutting around and like a magnet trying to draw praise to himself. He realizes, I've been made to praise God.

45:12 I've been made to glorify God. I've been made to bring honor to God. Oh God, put me in the background that your grace may be magnified in me. He begins to think differently about himself.

45:24 He realizes God didn't give me this mind to go around and impress people how smart I am. He gave me this mind to be used for his praise. He didn't give me these abilities and faculties and appetites simply as an end in himself. He gave me my powers of eating and my powers of reproduction and all these faculties to be subject to him, to be used for his glory.

45:46 He gave me these lips in order to be instruments to bring words of grace and comfort and peace and warning. He gave me these energies and powers to be expended to his glory and to the extension of his kingdom. We look upon ourselves in an entirely different way. We come back to moral sanity, you see.

46:05 We feel different about ourselves. By nature, we love ourselves. Jesus said if we'd be his disciple, we have to do what? We have to hate ourselves.

46:15 Isn't that what he said? Listen. Luke 14. Listen to his words.

46:19 Luke 14, verse 25. And there went great multitudes with him, and he turned and said unto them, If any man come to me, hate not his father and his mother and his wife and his children and his brethren and his sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. Well, you say, hate yourself? What's he talking about?

46:57 Well, you know he can't mean that you're supposed to go around and be angry with yourself, for he says you're to love your neighbor in the proper sense of self-love. What's he mean? He means hate ourselves in the sense that we no longer make ourselves an object of idolatrous worship. That's what he means when he says hate father, mother, brother, sister.

47:19 Don't give them the place that belongs only to God. If obeying God means you've got to bring upon yourself the wrath or the displeasure of father and mother, this is not even an open question for a Christian. He says, how can I betray my Lord to a creature? I shall follow my Lord.

47:36 If it brings the wrath and the frown of loved ones to bad, I must follow my Lord. And the same attitude must be toward ourselves. I no longer regard myself as the one who should be the object of praise. I hate myself in that sense.

47:53 I see myself in a different light. I wasn't made to strut and parade across the stage of life clamoring for a little applause from my fellow creature. I was made to move across the stage of life in the will of God to bring glory and praise to my God even in those things when I'm most like my little dog and my little pussycat. For God says whether you eat or drink and that's when you're most like the animals when you're stuffing food in your mouth.

48:29 Isn't that when we're most like the animals? He says even in those activities when we're most like the animals we're most like the animals because we're not like the animals because we're not like the animals when we're most like the animals. You see repentance affects a change that touches this matter of my attitude to myself. I look upon myself no longer as an absorber of glory but a reflector of glory.

49:06 That's all. And then I not only I've got to hate myself in the sense that I regard that self-centered life as a despicable thing. You remember what Job said? He said, I heard of thee by the hearing of the air, but now mine eyes see of thee.

49:26 And what are his next words in Job 42? I abhor myself.

49:32 Who is this? Some kind of a bum? Some kind of a beatnik?

49:37 No, no. He was a man about whom God could say to the devil, Hast thou beheld my servant Job, an upright man in all his ways, one that feedeth God and is skilled in the world? This was the man that we'd have as the head elder in our churches.

49:55 And he says when he saw his God, he said he abhorred himself. Do you know what it is to abhor yourself?

50:05 One more text along this line. John chapter 12.

50:10 And I want to labor this point because there are so many that would make this attitude towards self. Do you know what it is? To be something subsequent to conversion. But notice the clear statement of our Lord Jesus Christ who teaches that this lies at the very core of a genuine experience of God's grace.

50:32 John 12 and verse 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life, notice now, he that loveth his life, he that loveth his life shall lose it.

50:51 He that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. Before every one of us here tonight is set one of two courses. You can love that self-centered life with which you were born and which you nursed and coddled and fondled all the days of your life. And you can say, I will preserve my self-will, my self-glory, my self-ambition.

51:17 I will not. I will do as I please. I shall lift you, my praise. Our Lord said, all right.

51:24 If you're going to preserve that life, you'll forfeit that life which is eternal. But if you are willing to forfeit that self-centered life and let it die, He says you'll find in its place that life which is eternal.

Branch 4: A Change of Mind Regarding Righteousness

51:43 A change of mind would regard not only to God, to sin, but to self. And then the fourth, the fourth branch of that tree. Repentance will always involve a change of mind with regard to righteousness. You say, now what do you mean by righteousness?

52:00 Well, there's two kinds of righteousness. One kind of righteousness is practical godliness. Jesus said, seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness. I believe in that context He's talking about a life that is godly.

52:14 But there's another kind of righteousness. That's a right standing with God. One is right walking before God. The other is a right standing with God.

52:23 Now, when I use the term that repentance involves a change of mind to righteousness, I'm speaking of this kind of righteousness, not this. A change of mind to sin affects this. But now, there's a change of mind about this kind of righteousness. Now, what do you mean by that?

52:38 Let me explain. Stick with me. By nature, every man has one of two attitudes toward this business of being right with God. Either he couldn't care less, or knowing that he ought to be right with God, he tries to get right with God in a way that's not pleasing to God.

52:54 Suppose I go down the corner of King and Queen Street tonight and see a bunch of people hanging around, a bunch of young fellows talking together. And when I get about a half a block away, I yell out and I say, Hey, fellows! And they turn around and say, What's this nut walk? I've got some wonderful news for you.

53:08 You do? Yeah. Well, come on over and tell us, all right? And so I walk over and I say, Fellows, listen.

53:13 I've got the most wonderful news in all the world. What, my old man dying and leaving me half a million? What are you going to tell me? I say, no.

53:19 I can tell you how you can be right with God. Hey, what are you, some kind of a nut? Right with God? Who cares?

53:27 I can have a good time on that. You see, they're not interested. Right with God? Who cares?

53:33 Right with God. That's the attitude of many people by nature. They couldn't care less about being right with God. Talk about money in the pocket now, a thrill now, a life now, wonderful!

53:43 But right with God? Couldn't care less. Or, on the other hand, you've got people who, because of their religious training or because of a constitutional sensitive conscience, the way they were just made, the genes that put them together, their rather sensitive temperament, they realize, I've got to get right with God. I know I've got to be right with God.

54:01 Well, what do they do? Well, by nature, they do like the Jews did. They go about to construct their own way of getting right with God and they don't receive God's way of getting right with Him. They try to be like the Pharisee who said, I thank Thee, Father, I'm not like other men.

54:16 What I am and then what I do, I fast, I tithe, these things make me right with You, God. You must look upon me with favor because of what I am and what I do. Now, all of us, by nature, fall into one of those two categories. Either we couldn't care less about being right with God or we try to be right with God on a wrong basis.

54:36 But, when the law of God does its work, those attitudes will be changed. You see, that fellow on the corner who said, right with God, who cares if I can get Him aside and the Spirit of God was pleased to use me and I begin to tell him, look, fella, you're going to die someday. And when you die, you're going to stand before God. And when you stand before God, He's going to judge you on the basis of His law.

54:58 His law, what's that? Well, let me tell you. And I begin to open up the law which says, thou shalt, thou shalt not. And I show him where God says, cursed is everyone that continues not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do them.

55:11 And I tell him that the wages of sin is death. And I explain what spiritual death is. Hell, the lake of fire, the judgment of God. And if the Spirit of God was pleased to own my witness, that young man would begin to say, look, look, half an hour ago I told you I didn't care about being right with God, but I realize there's nothing else that matters.

55:30 How can I be right with God? You see, when the law does its work, a man sees, I've got to be right with God. If I'm not, I'll meet Him as my judge and all my sins will rise up like a mountain and God will let that mountain crash down upon my head and press me to the deepest hell. Sir, what must I do to be saved?

55:49 How can I get right with God? And then you think that, that person that says, yeah, I know I've got to be right with God, but I think what I am and what I do make me right with Him. He begins to see the meaning of the law and he realizes that all his prayers have flowed from a selfish heart full of pride and are unacceptable to God. He begins to realize that though he's kept the law outwardly, like Paul, he sees that his heart is full of evil desire, that adultery is in the thought as well as the deed, that murder is in the attitude as well as the act.

56:20 That man says, oh, my, my praying, all my going to church, all my morality is a thin, flimsy fabric and the righteousness of God will consume it. And he says, I've got to get right with God on some other basis. Well, you see, that's where the gospel comes in because the gospel is the good news of how sinners can be right with God no matter how long they've been on the basis of what somebody else has done.

56:50 Romans chapter 1 says the gospel is the power of God to salvation why? Because therein is the righteousness of God revealed. Follow me close now. Don't let anything distract.

57:03 This is so crucial. Listen. Paul says the gospel is the power of God unto salvation for in it the righteousness of God is revealed. What is the core of the message of the gospel?

57:16 Righteousness is revealed as a gift from God. There's a basis by which God can save the guilty sinners who were indifferent to righteousness or who tried to be right on the basis of what they were and what they had done. The gospel says look God has worked out a righteousness in the person and work of his son. God has worked out a righteousness and he puts that to the account of believing sinners and the man who's been plowed by the law and who's seen in the cross of Christ the wrath of God poured out upon his son he experiences a change of mind about righteousness.

The Prodigal Son: An Illustration of All Four Changes

57:54 He sees I've got to be right with God I can't be right with God on the basis of what I've done I must commit myself to the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ and he's willing to be justified on the basis of God's free grace. We turn in closing to Luke chapter 15 as we see as an illustration of these four great principles of repentance see them illustrated in the life of the prodigal. Now I hope that you'll take time to meditate on this on your own but notice these four principles.

58:34 When this prodigal left home he had no use for his father he didn't want his father's companionship it's obvious if he simply wanted freedom from his house he would have gone next door and rented an apartment and come on over and seen his dad but he didn't want his father's friendship he didn't want his father's rule he didn't want his father's presence he didn't want anything to do with it he left the whole kitten kaboom but now notice what happened when he came to himself notice his words verse 17 when he came to himself he said how many servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare and I perish with hunger I will arise and go to my father verse 19 and say I'm no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of thy hired servants all his mean thoughts about his dad were gone here he couldn't stand it being his son with all the privileges of a son now he says I'll go back willing to be his servant you see he looked upon his dad in an entirely different light no longer did he look upon him as a cruel tyrant who was cramping his style no no he looked upon him as a man full of benevolence and good will and righteous standards and he says I want to go back to my father that's the first thing I want to be back in his presence under his smile in his fellowship and under his rule he had a change of mind about his father that's the first principle of true repentance have you ever experienced that have you had a radical

60:04 change of mind about God the God who made you the God before whom you'll stand in judgment and have you seen him by the Holy Spirit as the one infinitely worthy of your devotion and your love and your adoration and your praise and your homage and your subjection have you turned to God have you have you turned to God have you experienced the shift from a man centered life to a God centered life have you second thing he experienced a change of mind about his sin when he left home you know what he had in his heart he had those hog pens of the brothels and the dens of iniquity we read in verse 15 I'm sorry in verse 14 when he had verse 13 and he wasted his substance with riotous living he reached out with great desire for his sin but now he says I will go back to my father's house you see he didn't call up his dad long distance and say dad come and set up your tent next to my brothel he said I'm leaving the hog pens of sin I'm going back to my father's home and in so doing he was declaring to the world I'm done with this life and I want the life of my father's home with all of its purity and its uprightness and its equity he was done with his sin he had a change of mind about his sin he no longer wanted it he longed to be delivered from it

61:33 have you experienced the change of mind about your sin now look I'm not talking about the sin of that fellow down the street who cusses his wife I'm talking about your sin your sins general particular have you seen them in the light of the law is that which exposes you to death have you seen them in the light of the cross is that which opened up the wounds of the son of God have you had a change of mind about sin then he had a change of mind about himself when he left home he thought he was big stuff ha ha ha I've come of age I don't need to do what my old man tells me who's going to tell me what to do I may commit for me now he comes back saying dad make me like one of your hired servants I'm so stupid and made such a mess of things I don't even know how to live right I need to come every morning like one of your servants and get orders and he says dad that's the only safe course for me low at your feet as a servant that's a pretty big change of mind about himself he thought he was pretty big stuff he thought he was made to run his own life but when he came to himself he saw I don't have sense enough to run in the way I ought he said I'll go back and I'll say to my father verse 19 make me as one of my hired servants I'll take the place of those servants who come every morning and they look up into my father's face and they say sir what is your will for us today and they go out into the day having all their activities ordered

63:01 by the master that's repentance have you ever come by the grace of God seeing in the Lord Jesus the only one who is worthy and fit to rule your life oh I trust dear young people listen to me living in this age of anarchy the whole spirit of this age breathes of this concept when we come of age you kick off every strain the restraints of society the restraints of past standards and freedom is found in absolute liberty to do as you please what and you know why we're in them the mess we're in the hellish mess we were never made to do as we please it's like putting all those cars in that parking lot cranking on the engines and setting the throttles at enough RPMs to make them go 50 miles an hour putting them in gear and then all jumping out of the way and letting them go hell to scouter all over Lancaster County they'll be a trail of death and bloodshed and wreckage why those cars were never made to go at the whims of their own accelerators and their own steering wheels they were made to be governed by intelligent creatures you and I were never made to go hell to scouter willy-nilly wherever our wheels would lead us we were made to be governed of God and all the mess of the world is man's trying to be an autopilot

64:29 when he was made to be piloted by the living God have you been brought to see that oh what a blessed place to come broken to the feet of the Lord Jesus saying Lord Jesus what a fool I've been thinking that I could find fulfillment in life doing as I please what a fool that's what that part of him came to realize he said the only safe place is back to my father and then I think we have a picture I wouldn't say a type but at least a beautiful analogy of this matter of a change of mind to righteousness notice this when he was a great way off his father saw him verse 20 and had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him and the son said unto him father I've sinned against heaven and in thy sight I'm no more worthy to be called thy son but the father said notice what's the first thing bring forth the best robe and put it on him can you picture the son standing there with his physical appearance a loud witness to the state of his heart and life his sin had brought him to rags he wasn't fit to look upon and an instant of time in the place of those rags and tattered clothes that screamed out to all the witnesses this young man has played the fool if they had turned away for an instant and looked back suddenly they couldn't believe their eyes for now all of that filth

65:58 was covered by a pure what a beautiful picture of what God does to repent and believe in sins the moment they look unto Christ despairing of being accepted on any other basis but his mercy just that quickly God puts to their account the righteousness of his son and as Isaiah said he clothes us with the garments of salvation a garment that can stand the scrutiny of the eye of God any garment that you hope to have that covering your sin will be utterly consumed by the gaze of God except the garment of the righteousness of Christ for it's a garment he's made and it can stand his gaze so the prodigal is a beautiful illustration of that change of mind to God to sin to self and to righteousness he's a beautiful picture of godly sorrow you see he didn't come tripping up to the front door and say hiya pop I hear your heart's been breaking for me and I've decided to come on home where's the robe where's the cap now if you read the story carefully the picture is that when he came over the brow of the hill it says the father ran to him and the father hugged him and the father kissed him the picture there is of a man ashamed of himself perhaps not so much as even lifting up his head in deep self-condemnation and the father takes the initiative to embrace him to clothe him to welcome him

Conclusion: Call to Repentance and Prayer

67:28 oh would to God that this night the holy ghost would bring some of you there and give you a change of mind about about sin about self and righteousness and if he has brought you there you know what the proof is bring forth fruit's meat for repentance the proof that you've had a change of mind about God is that you do walk that God-centered life not perfectly but purposely you do continually turn from sin you do have your heart set against uncleanness and poor holiness you do have your heart set against yourself and poured him and you do gladly confess with Wesley tonight Jesus thy blood and righteousness my beauty are my glorious dress midst flaming worlds with these arrayed with joy shall I lift up my head bold shall I stand in thy great day for who ought to my charge shall lay fully absolved from these I am from sin and fear and death and shame you meditate on what you're going to say when you stand before God you ought to do it because you're going to stand there and I find when I think about that God if I should be somehow summoned by an angel that I was going to die in the next moment and stand in your presence Lord what would I plead would I plead oh God by your grace I've served you for X number of years by your grace I've been an instrument to see others but no no for in my holiest deeds

68:57 there is something of the stain of sin and self and what a delight it is to lie upon one's bed and say God if I died tonight and stood in your presence my only plea would be this Jesus thy blood thy righteousness my beauty are my glorious dress is that your plea no sinner ever perished thus clinging to the Savior may God grant his blessing upon us upon these truths of his word and I trust that they shall have an immediate effect upon some a long range effect and blessing upon all and may God grant that in that day we shall be found as men and women who were the objects of that grace which leads unto repentance and to those of you who are strangers to that grace by the agonies of the damned already in hell and by the cries of the Son of God upon the cross may God and by the blood that dripped down from his dying wounds I plead with you repent and believe the gospel let us pray O Lord our God we thank you for that grace revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord which has in a most mysterious way

70:24 changed our whole thinking and attitude to yourself to sin to ourselves and to righteousness Lord we don't understand how your spirit wrought this work in us but we thank you but we're painfully aware that so often we become callous and encrusted in our coldness Lord make us we pray deeply penitent men and women for those among us who have never like the prodigal come to themselves Lord bring them to themselves break the terrible spell of moral insanity cast over them by the God of this world give them to see themselves as you see them O Lord and to see your mercy in Christ and may they flee to him for mercy Father seal your word bless this assembly O we pray for its pastor and its men and its women for those young people represented may it be an instrument in your hands to herald abroad in this area the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray for the visitors and every church represented that you might visit this county with a mighty visitation of your grace and spirit that we shall see sinners smitten by your law until they cry out in agony of soul what must we do to be saved O Father may we yet witness

71:54 those mighty works of which we've read in your word which we read in the history of the church when men were so plowed up by conviction that they were not able to see that they were not that they were not that they were not that they were not that they were not that they were not that they were not that they had no rest day nor night until they sought mercy from the Lord Jesus O God for those young people here tonight who are blinded by the God of this world who are still setting themselves up as little gods have mercy upon them O Lord lest they destroy themselves for those who perhaps have heard the gospel for years and who have denied and refused the overtures of grace O Father penetrate that hard wall of resentment and resistance and bring them broken to the feet of the Savior O God we've asked much of you tonight but you're a mighty God hear us in our prayer not for our sake Lord we're going to leave this place but for your sake O for the honor of your Son hear us in our cry and move upon our hearts be pleased now to dismiss us with your blessing the blessing of conviction where needed the blessing of comfort the blessing of instruction hear us now hear us O Lord and accept our praise for your goodness and mercy to us through Jesus Christ our Lord we're dismissed and we would imagine again the ministry of the book table and let me say if there are any of you who are exercised

73:23 in mind of spirit and feel you need someone to talk with you from the scriptures why we're here for that purpose and we'll stay as long as possible to be of any help that we can