Repentance

We are in Psalm 51, and I'll start in verse 8. Let me hear joy and gladness, let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit.

And I'll skip to 18 and finish it. Do good to Zion in your good pleasure. Build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then will you delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then bulls will be offered on your altar. You may be seated.

This is the word of God. So as I've investigated the psalm for preaching, you'll remember last week we looked at verses 1 through 5 and verse 7. And before that, we looked at what was really the introduction to the psalm. And we looked at 2 Samuel 11 and 12. and as I'm looking at the rest of this psalm what I have settled on is in continuation with the alliteration request we are going to look at repentance, reconciliation and finally restoration but we're not going to do all those today so today we are going to look at repentance and so instead of kind of one verse at a time which is sort of how we took first Peter and then that's how we took second Samuel 11 and 12 and we just went in order we're going to jump around a little bit because the frankly the psalm jumps around it's almost like David is repeating these themes over and over in a cyclical fashion throughout the psalm and so rather than look at one verse and then the next and then the next verse really looked like the previous verse we're going to go a little bit topical with it in the sense that we're going to talk about repentance this week and then two weeks from now Lord willing we'll talk about reconciliation and then three weeks restoration so if you leave here today and you think well I heard all about repentance but I felt like there was more well there is more but I'm going to try to stay focused for the purpose of giving you one thing to think about this week so quick follow up from last week before I move into this week.

I have a statement that I think will sound odd at first. And if you think about it, you'll get it or I'll explain it. And that statement is this. Many of you will get to heaven with a lot of unforgiven sin. So I'll say it again, because I was waiting for people to have more quizzical looks, because it should be moderately blasphemous, almost the way I put it. many of you will make it to heaven with a lot of unforgiven sin.

Let me explain. Many of you are going to make it to heaven with a lot of other people in this world who have harbored unforgiveness for you for sins you've committed against them. But in light of Psalm 51 verse 4, where David says against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment.

Those sins that we commit against other individuals in this world are not the sins that can keep us out of God's grace because God is the one that can choose to forgive a sinner for everything that sinner has ever done because of the grace of Jesus Christ. even if people in this world choose not to forgive. When we sin against God, He's justified in His pronouncement of your forgiveness because He's the one that knows your heart. If you look at 1 John real quick, in 1 John 3.20, the Apostle John writes, For whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and he knows everything.

So if you're a forgiven sinner, even your own heart nagging at you, reminding you of what a sinner you are, or even another sinner holding unforgiveness toward you, none of that keeps you out of God's grace. And so you will, if you are a Christian, you will make it to heaven and there will be unforgiven sin. but all of your sins will have been forgiven by God. So this is an antidote to lacking assurance and protects you from the unforgiveness of men.

Remembering that God knows your heart. And that should be actually extremely comforting if you've been forgiven and you've become a Christian because it means God has changed your heart and he's given you a heart that knows the gospel. So now back to Psalm 51. So we're going to break this up into three pieces now. And what I'm going to do is we're going to start in verse 18.

And what I'm going to tell you is verse 18 to 19 is the conclusion of the matter in this case. It's a bit of almost a thesis statement. And I want you to understand that I think everything that we're going to read in Psalm 51, and everything we'll study for the next three sermons Lord willing all lead to this conclusion And the conclusion I read what it says in the psalm Do good to Zion in your good pleasure Build up the walls of Jerusalem This thing's doing the thing again.

It's not? Okay. I'm hearing it, but if it keeps distracting me, I'll shut it off. So, OK, then you will delight in right sacrifices in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then bulls will be offered on your altar. Now, we'll talk about this at some point.

But in this case, these sacrifices will be accepted by God. He'll delight in them. so the thesis at the end is that once repentance is authentic in the believer's life, once reconciliation is secured and restoration to your relationship with God is in process religious duties that are performed by men I'm going to turn this off because I'm too distracted by that sorry I wish I knew why that happened, but... Religious duties that are performed by men that are instituted by God, that is the duties instituted by God that men perform, are pleasing to Him.

That is to say that acceptable sacrifices and fragrant and pleasing aromas will be the result of spirit-led religious worship. Let me repeat that. But once repentance is authentic, reconciliation is secured, and restoration is in process, religious duties performed by men that are instituted by God will be pleasing to Him. Your worship of acceptable sacrifices, fragrant and pleasing aromas to the Lord will be the result of that spirit-led religious worship.

So let's dig in. Psalm 51 David requests to be washed thoroughly from his iniquity and cleansed from his sin purged with hyssop and he shall be clean washed and whiter than snow and then in verse 13 we're going to skip a few because some of these other verses are much heavier in the restoration and reconciliation portions of how I'm splitting this up So in verse 13, David says, Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Well, that was after he wrote in verse 12, Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

David confesses that if God will basically restore the joy of salvation to him, If God will restore that relationship and give David abundantly of his spirit, that only by the upholding of God's spirit in David's life will he have this power. But David's response to what God does is repentance. Then I will teach transgressors your ways. What had David done for the past year?

I don't know everything David said for the last year since he had committed adultery with Bathsheba played the hypocrite, murdered her husband I don't know everything he said but his actions that speak louder than words sometimes had taught people the opposite of God's ways David being the king of Israel and the prophet of Israel was responsible for even the sin of the nation in that sense. It says in the Bible multiple times that he caused Israel to sin. Not David necessarily, it just says he, in reference to some leader.

So a good leader is going to lead his people away from sin, and a sinful, wicked leader will lead them to sin. This is why Saul was such a bad man, not only because Saul disobeyed God and Saul had a wicked heart ultimately, I believe, in light of God, but Saul caused other people to sin and so did David. And so David now is to teach transgressors God's ways and then he promises sinners will return to God.

There are people who are sheep and there's people who are shepherds in Christianity. There are some people who you will meet in your time here on this earth who are going to pretty much do nothing much more than what the leaders in their group say. And that's, I think, part of the design. It's part of why God holds shepherds so utterly accountable for when they act wickedly, because they're leading people who are just going to follow.

When I was a new Christian, we'll just use a very simple example. A new Christian doesn't know right or wrong sometimes. I had no idea what was right or wrong when I became a Christian. I just knew a whole bunch of stuff I used to know was wrong. But I didn't know a lot of the details. And I went to church every week.

And I went to the little home group thing that my church did. And I sat and soaked in whatever the leader said. And I soaked in some wrong stuff. And I didn't know yet that it was wrong. I didn't have the discernment to be able to tell that it was wrong. But I knew the Bible told me to submit to my leaders.

And I knew that a man that stood up and taught the word of God, who had done it for 20 years, probably knew more than I did. So I listened and I followed. And I suffered for it at times. So it's one of the reasons why it may make you uncomfortable. but it's one of the reasons why this church or at least me as somebody who a representative of this church will speak out against false teachers We will say things about men or even women who in the name of the Lord are leading people astray Because we care about the ones that are leading astray.

You also may meet people who are more on the leader side, where they're the people that are causing others to sin. if that's the case you want to recognize those people for who they are and try to find who's following them and so David will teach transgressors the right ways now now that God has forgiven him it's not a deal he made with God this isn't oh if you do this for me I'll teach transgressors what David is proclaiming is I owe you I owe you I deserve death instead my kid dies and I end up with a pretty wife out of the deal is what you know kind of you know David really didn't get punished too hard in a physical sense but the grieving that David faced over how he had grieved the Lord in this case was enough to cause him great repentance and so David in response to God's forgiveness is going to tell others about Christianity He's going to tell others about God's ways. I have a sense David was able to articulate for people the damaging consequences of sin after this. That he was able to explain to people in a very real way what pain he had brought upon himself, upon his house, upon the whole nation of Israel as the result of this. and so David will teach transgressors God's ways and sinners will return there's a hope that the people that are in the middle people like in the United States we have Republicans and we have Democrats usually and then we have the people in the middle what do they call themselves? or they call themselves moderates sometimes people like to label themselves to keep out of another label sometimes but independence is another word But a lot of times, those people are the ones you're trying to reach, right?

If you're a hardcore Republican and you're talking to somebody you know is a hardcore Democrat, you almost don't even argue with them. Because like, well, I know what you think, you know what I think, and we're not going to change each other's mind. But if you find somebody kind of in the middle, you think, well, I might be able to swing them to my side.

And so I think David says sinners will return to God. Because I think there's people who legitimately are just a little bit ignorant at times. They just sort of follow the leader. That's what sheep do. That's the analogy we're given. In verse 14b, let's read the whole verse.

Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation. David, you know, forgive me of the murder. We'll talk about that next week, or two weeks. He says, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. It's not only with David's actions that are going to change as a result of his repentance, but his tongue is going to sing of God's righteousness.

And I think it means more than just showing up at church and singing or going to a choir. I think he's talking about professing who God is everywhere he goes. Like Psalm 96, say among the nations, Yahweh reigns. So we're to live a life of total submission to God. And a lot of people will say things like, well, you should evangelize and you should go to places like Planned Parenthood.

And those are good and those are fine. We do that here. It's a hallmark of this church, I guess, that we are evangelistic. We will go places and we will preach the gospel. We will hand out tracts. We will do one-on-one conversations.

We will go and talk to college students or old people. Whatever you want to do. We can start a nursing home thing. Whatever your flavor is, we can do some intentional evangelism like that. But I think that part of your life should be that you are constantly singing God's praises in such a way that everyone who encounters you ends up having no doubt who you're worshiping.

Not because your actions could save anyone or teach them enough about Jesus that they would know who he is. Bert just read chapter 20 of the Confession. No one's going to see you walk down the street and help your neighbor pick up trash and get saved because they saw you. But if you're opening your mouth and you're singing hymns while you're walking down the street, maybe people will hear that and they'll know what that means when people ask you what are you doing this weekend and if you say everything you're going to do but go to church that tells people what your mind is on if people say what are you doing this weekend and you and you are actually really excited that you get to worship the holy god on sunday and you talk about it they're going to hear it and that may open the door for evangelism so you sing aloud of god's righteousness I'm not I know people have criticized this stuff but I actually like Christian t-shirts I don't like the cheesy ones and I think some of them are actually blasphemous but there are shirts you can wear that proclaim things about our Lord that when people see them they know who you're talking about and it and it sparks conversation or if it doesn't at least maybe the person saw it and it causes them to maybe have a what is the phrase a rock in their shoe something that they're constantly thinking about.

I'll tell you what, I have that fear God and nothing else shirt and it is a non-stop commentary from people on it. And it's just amazing how it opens doors just to talk to people about God, about Jesus Christ. So sing a lot of his righteousness everywhere you go. Some of you homeschool moms are going to different places with kids. Some of you have jobs.

You go to jobs and you have opportunities to say things like praise the Lord, thank God. There's ways you can insert his name and praise him and his righteousness wherever he goes now verse 16 and 17 repentance David says for you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it you will not be pleased with a burnt offering So David knows that that not what God wants right then so he not doing it So part of repentance is doing what the person wants you to do to repent. It's changing your behavior.

In verse 17 now it says, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart oh God you will not despise so David realizes what God wants David understands what we're about to see in a whole bunch of scriptures that I hope I have time for that God desires right sacrifices and that starts with the heart of the person offering it there's a neat little phrase though at the end of verse 17, referring to the sacrifices. David says, you will not despise. So if you reposition the sentence, he says, you will not despise a broken and contrite heart, is really the object of the verb despise.

You will not despise a broken and contrite heart. it's an interesting way to say God's disposition towards someone's heart because this can be dangerous to do as scripture sometimes because you can't always read into the opposite of what it says but if God will not despise a broken and contrite heart I think it implies that there are types of hearts that God will despise and I think it's very safe to say that and I think we can prove it. Let's look at Psalm 5. We're just going to look at a few psalms.

Psalm 5.5 and then we're going to look at Proverbs 16. And we are going to talk about a topic that bothers a lot of people. It bothers people who profess the name of Christ. It bothers people who nominally profess the name of Christ. It is the idea that God hates. and a lot of people don't think that God is capable of hate they don't think it's nice to say God hates interestingly enough some of the most hateful people I've ever met are the people that say God doesn't hate so somehow they're entitled to some disposition towards something that God's not entitled to but let me ask you if God loves all that is righteous and good how can God not hate all that is evil and unrighteous just even logically you don't even need the scripture this is something I think anyone can figure out from self revelation from the world that the creator which first of all there must be one everyone can figure that out the creator must like something and hate something or else there would just be no morality whatsoever in which case we wouldn't even have language which wouldn't make sense so as soon as we're able to have any language we know there's a God in morality but look at number verse 5 of Psalm 5 the boastful shall not stand before your eyes you hate all evil doers verse 4 says you are not a God who delights in wickedness God cannot delight in wickedness and he hates evil doers it doesn't say he hates evil it doesn't say you hate concepts of bad it doesn't say you hate the transcendental idea of evil or the metaphysical concept of that which is not good it doesn't say that it says you hate all evil doers these are real beings that are abominations to God verse 11 of chapter 7 Psalm 7 11 and 12 let's look at those God is a righteous judge and a God who feels indignation every day it's an interesting verse to understand because we are confessional and our confession will tell us that God is impassable meaning that he doesn't have feelings and yet we have scripture saying that he feels indignation every day let me break it down real easy and quick for you, I'll say simple.

It might not satisfy you, but God doesn't exist in time. So this idea that he feels indignation every day is metaphorical. It is anthropopathic. It's a word meaning God has made himself like man in emotional wording to explain his disposition towards evil. But he's a righteous judge, so he feels indignation every day. We'll use the language the Bible uses just to make sure you know what I mean.

Verse 12, if a man does not repent, here's repentance, right? God will wet his sword he has bent and readied his bow. if you will not repent God basically has a weapon of deadly destruction aimed at you repentance David is crying out repentance the entire psalm and God desires repentance he requires repentance psalm 26 verse 5 this is Jesus Christ talking okay it's David but remember this is Jesus Christ speaking he says I hate the assembly of evil doers and I will not sit with the wicked so I want to sort of Shock you into the understanding that God hates, and He actually hates, beings. He hates those beings that have not repented and trusted in Jesus Christ for their salvation because of their wickedness.

In Psalm 31 now, verse 6, I hate those who pay regard to worthless idols, but I trust in Yahweh. So now we have a statement that appears to be by the prophet David, right? But look at verse 5 for a moment of Psalm 31. Because someone might say, oh, well, David hates that, but this isn't God talking. Well, what does verse 5 say of Psalm 31? into your hand I commit my spirit you have redeemed me oh Yahweh faithful God well who said that? anybody remember who said that? yeah say it yeah Jesus said that I think it's Luke 23 46 in fact I think that's I think that's one of my other so that's the problem when you split up your sermon into three parts and then all of a sudden you can't you looking for those keys? those you look for? ok Luke 23 46 Jesus on the cross then Jesus calling out with a loud voice said Father into your hands I commit my spirit so this is Jesus Christ quoting Psalm 31 for us when Jesus Christ quotes Psalm 31 and says it with his own mouth he's pointing us back to it so when Psalm 31 says I hate those who pay regard to workless idols that's God himself saying he hates idolaters it doesn't say God hates the people who murder or God hates fornicators or God hates just Hitler or serial killers or rapists all the really really bad people that we lock up here in this world he hates those who pay regard to worthless idols and you would too if you were God you would too but somehow we don't want to give God that latitude Proverbs 6, 16-19.

Six things the Lord hates. Seven are an abomination to Him. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue. Hands that shed innocent blood. A few more. A heart that devises wicked plans.

Feet that make haste to run to evil. A false witness that breathes out lies. A one of those discord among brothers. Just proving the point that God and hate are not somehow exclusive. it actually should be very comforting because if you've been made righteous in the sight of God he has no hate for you because all of this hate we just read about that sounds really strong and for some of you it was probably shocking for some of you it's probably hard to swallow but all of this hate we just read about from this infinitely almighty and holy God who will have judgment and execute justice on the wicked all of this hate has been swallowed up by his son Jesus Christ if you're a Christian.

So it should actually bring you great comfort. Look at Isaiah 1. Let's look at repentance some more. So we're just going to survey the Bible a little bit. The Old Testament, then New. A lot of verses.

Isaiah 1, 11-28. So remember, David said, You would not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. Right? But then I told you at the end of the psalm that the whole goal of it all was David was going to give sacrifices, right? He's going to do burnt offerings, whole burnt offerings, and bulls offered on God's altar. So David goes in the span of three verses from you would not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it, to okay, here's the sacrifices, right?

So we've got to figure out how this happens. Verse 11 of Isaiah 1. First, a brief background. I didn't want to get all into this because this could be a whole series, but you get to Leviticus 1, 2, 3, 4, and you start going through the end of Exodus and there's just sacrifice after sacrifice described. There's goats and rams and sheep and bulls and they cut them off and they cut their heads off and they put their bodies on the altar and they burn them and they've got to wash out the insides of them.

And that's really neat to think about. At the very core of what these substitutes were, these animals, they had to wash them clean. Their bowels, that was the center of everything back in the day. The bowels described your very humanity. and it had to be washed thoroughly before they were sacrificed. And so there's sacrifice after sacrifice in the Old Testament.

And if you misread it, you'll see the phrase, and it will make atonement for you. And you will think that these sacrifices were what caused God to forgive Old Testament people. Did you hear what I said? I said if you misread it, you'll think that the slaughter of some goat on the altar in the tent of Israel was what caused God to forgive Old Testament Israelites of their sins rather than Jesus Christ.

And the book of Hebrews chapter 9 warns us that the blood of bulls and goats can take away no sins. So we have to reconcile. Why did God make people do all this stuff all the time and in fact say it made atonement, but then later on say it didn't? People have all sorts of machinations and gymnastics. They used to try to explain that. And of course the Reformed Baptist perspective is the right one.

So that the one we going to teach All right But Isaiah 1 Remember there sacrifices given all the time at these altars And just think of it maybe in modern terms think of it as just religious duties people performed OK, we have different religious duties we do today. What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? God is saying, I have had enough of burnt offerings and rams in the fat of well-fed beasts.

I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? He says, bring no more vain offerings, incenses and abomination to me. So these guys are doing, as far as I can tell you, the letter of the law, exactly what God required. Later on, they're going to be accused of bringing lame and blind animals, which wouldn't have been following the law.

But at this point, we'll give them some credit. They're going through the motions of the religion that they've grown up in. God says, new moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations. I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Now we're getting somewhere. He says, your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates. they have become a burden to me I am weary of bearing them when you spread out your hands I will hide my eyes from you so when you pray even though you make many prayers I will not listen your hands are full of blood what he's telling them is your repentance is non-existent because repentance from sin involves a turning away from it and a change of mind, which we will agree with completely here.

But it also involves bearing fruit and keeping with your repentance. So if somebody comes to you, let's say somebody steals $5 from you. This is a really easy example. Somebody steals $5 from you and they come to you and they say, I repent. Will you forgive me? You say yes.

And then tomorrow they steal $5 from you. And then they say, I repent. Will you forgive me? Okay, forgive them. And then tomorrow they steal $5 from you. And I hope you can kind of follow along here.

There's this every day the person is repeating the same behavior over and over. And then they say to you, I repent. At some point are you going to stop believing they've really repented? You're going to think, oh, you might be sorry in the moment. you might not like having some consequences. You may not like the break in our fellowship as a result. But I don't really think you've repented of stealing because you keep doing it.

Now we're going to keep sinning in this life. And so there's always going to be a line where we are never perfect repenters. But true repentance is going to be a change in behavior where now that you've been taught the ways of God, you will follow Him. You will do things the way God has said, because you no longer want to do things the way the world says.

So God says in verse 16, Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean. Remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes. He's saying, repent. Turn from the wicked works you're doing. Cease to do evil. Learn to do good.

Seek justice. Correct oppression. Bring justice to the fatherless. Plead the widow's cause. come now let us reason together says Yahweh though your sins are like scarlet they shall be white as snow I'm going to forgive you though they are red like crimson they shall become like wool if you are willing and obedient you shall eat the good of the land but if you refuse and rebel you shall be eaten by the sword for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken a lot more here but just skip down to 27 Zion the people of God shall be redeemed by justice and those in her who repent by righteousness repentance is what God is looking for in his people Malachi 2 now we really have to jump around let's go quickly Malachi 2 Malachi is a really neat book very understandable some of the Old Testament books are hard to understand and they use a lot of places that you don't have them in your mind sometimes it's hard to figure out what's going on and they say well they went from here to here you don't know if it was 30 miles or 300 miles that's hard Malachi is not that hard to read but in Malachi 2.13 and 14 God has already given them a charge He says, and this second thing you do, he says, you cover Yahweh's altar with tears, with weeping and groaning, because he no longer regards the offering or accepts it with favor from your hand.

But you say, why does he not? Because Yahweh was a witness between you and the wife of your youth to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant. He's saying you come to the altar and you make a show like, why doesn't God accept our sacrifices? All the while knowing that you're harboring unconfessed and unrepented from sin.

And in this case, that you're bringing wicked sacrifices that aren't perfect. The sacrificial system, we'll do a little Christology for a moment here. The sacrificial system was a non-stop picture of Jesus Christ and what he would come to do. A substitute expiated the sins of the people and a substituted propitiated the sins of the people And that substitute had to be a male without blemish And it was a picture of the Messiah who would one day come Jesus Christ.

And so when these people started bringing the goats and rams, they wouldn't even themselves have eaten. God knew in their heart, well, they're not willing to give me their best. that the sacrifice that Abraham had to give of Isaac, that was his son. And that's what God did for us. He gave us his best. But then in Malachi 4, at the very end, the last things God says before Jesus comes, Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet, verse 5, before the great and awesome day of Yahweh comes.

And listen to what's going to happen when Elijah the prophet comes, John the Baptist, and he announces the way of the Lord, he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction. When Jesus comes, people will turn and they will repent. Remember, turn to Mark 1.15 now, but remember John the Baptist, what did he preach? he preached a gospel of repentance so repentance is a really bad word in the United States repentance means you can't stay same sex attracted in a Christian repentance means you can't become a Christian and keep doing all the things you were doing before some of them may have been okay but a lot of us there's a lot of stuff we have to turn from Mark 1 15 just so you know Jesus had no problem with telling people to repent Jesus came and he proclaimed the time is fulfilled the kingdom of God is at hand repent and believe in the gospel Jesus says in Mark 1.15 in Luke 13.5 Jesus says repent or you will all likewise perish when they were asking him why the tower in Siloam fell on some people they wanted to think oh these people must have been really bad sinners for this disaster to happen to them in this world.

And it's true, God sometimes judges people in these ways. And Jesus' point to them is, don't be so concerned with what bad sinners they were that maybe God did judge them or not. He didn't answer their question. He says, you repent or you will likewise perish. He didn't say, pray this prayer so you can go to heaven. He didn't say, just believe. so although it is salvation by grace through faith that saves us in Jesus Christ alone repentance is always accompanying saving faith and our confession says that so you don't like that I just said it I'm aligned with our confession Acts 4.19 this is what the apostles preached as well 4.19 Peter and John answered them I'm sorry 3.19.

I typo there. It's a good verse too though, but 3.19. Repent therefore and turn back that your sins may be blotted out. The Bible, honestly sometimes, when you read it, you will actually think the way that the apostles talk in Jesus that repentance is like part of your justification. It's so intertwined with it. Now it's not, and we can define all these parts. logically for you but repentance is so married to your justification that most people just think it happens at the same time and it happens together and they never happen without one another there may be seasons where people are like david chapter 18 of our confession says true believers may have the assurance of their salvation diverse ways shaken by negligence in preserving it and preserving it, listen, or by falling into some special sin which wounds the conscience and grieves the spirit.

So, believers have moments where their repentance is not really sufficient to even make them seem like a believer. And we always have imperfect repentance. Thank God we had Jesus Christ die for our sins. Acts 26, the Apostle Paul, if you're one of those people that thinks, well, I just listened to Paul, Paul, first of all, you don't belong in a church like this then, but the Apostle Paul says, but declared, well, therefore, O King Agrippa, verse 19, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus, then in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God.

And then he defines what that means. This isn't an additional thing. He says, performing deeds in keeping with their repentance. He's letting them know, if you've repented, you're going to look different. If David truly repents of what he did with Bathsheba and Uriah, he's not going to do the same kind of thing again. So, how do you repent?

Turn to Genesis 19. interesting chapter to turn to repentance can be very hard because you're a you're a sinner converted into a saint but you're still like in the sinner's body okay and you wake up every single day and you still have what we'll call an Adamic nature about your flesh Adamic meaning like Adam just adding IC to the end of the word Adam you have a human nature in a sense here but it an Adamic nature a specific human but Adam means man so it like a man nature But it a specific nature where you want to sin in your flesh So even though you've been given a new spirit, you have this spirit that actually loves God. You believe the gospel. If you believe the gospel, you've been given a new spirit.

You've been given a clean heart, a new heart. But something still pulls you into the mud. Something still drags you into it. And you can't stop. And you won't stop until you die and you're glorified. So I don't mean to be hopeless.

There's promise that you'll be conformed. You'll be sanctified. You will grow in the image of Christ in this life, and that's a promise. And there's a lot of hope for that. But you will, as long as you exist in this world, always suffer from some temptation to sin. And you will have times that you will fight it, and you will have times that you will even fight it hard and you'll still fail.

And you'll always have a Savior that you can lean on in those moments. And so how do you repent? Well, the first thing I'm going to tell you is you don't repent perfectly. I'll confess, this is my problem. My problem is I'm the guy that says, I will never do that again. I'm that guy.

I am by nature kind of I think they call it type A I don't get into all the different personality test things but I'm kind of a perfectionist which has its advantages and it also itself could be considered a sin even of pride to even think there's such a thing as perfection in this world as a human and so I get very despairing when I sin and I repent and I say well I'll never do it again and I just make up my mind I'm just going to do it perfectly the rest of my life like that one thing. And in that moment, I'm actually not trusting in the Spirit. I'm actually trusting in my own strength.

I'm actually trusting in my own repentance at the moment. I'm trusting that I've been made to feel so bad about what I did that I'm going to do it. Well, that's not how the Bible tells us to repent. The Bible tells us to turn from what we were looking at, which usually is our self and our own strength, and to turn to Jesus Christ who is the one who did it perfectly.

The Bible tells us to focus on what He has done for us. And so practically speaking, you pray that the Lord would help you. Pray that He would protect you from sin. And that He would keep you from temptation. Isn't that what Jesus told you to pray? Lead us not into temptation.

And deliver us, Lord, from every evil, right? That's what Jesus told us to pray. So you pray that the Lord would help you. There's a submission there. There's a humility of saying, you know what, Lord, if actually it was left up to me, I'd fall into every big and bad sin possible. And if you don't believe me, we can talk after and we can just look at the news because there are Christians all over the place that once were considered famous in some cases in selling books.

And some of them have fallen into some pretty bad stuff. And some of them, you find out that they were doing bad stuff the whole time. But in Genesis 19, verse 13, I have a point here, so just follow along. For we are about to destroy this place, the angels say it a lot, because the outcry against its people, Sodom this is, and Gomorrah, and the surrounding cities Jude talks about.

It's not just these two cities. The outcry against its people has become great before Yahweh, and Yahweh has sent us to destroy it. So Lot goes to his daughters, his sons-in-law, and he says, Hey, get out of this place. Yahweh's going to destroy the city. And they think he's joking around. So this guy joked around maybe a little too much.

Maybe he didn't preach enough that people couldn't tell the difference between, Whoa, Dad's serious, and, Oh, Dad's making a joke. So we all have to watch for that. So as morning dawned, the angels urged them to take your wife and daughters and get out of here. Let you be swept away in the punishment of the city. So this is a picture of the final destruction.

Jesus is going to return. He's going to destroy things. He's going to win in the end. And you don't want to be here when that happens. You want to be one that's with Him. Not that you don't want to be here alive.

Like if you're alive, then He'll take you with Him. So don't misunderstand me, but you want to be His. It says, but He lingered. So the men seized Him and His wife and His two daughters by the hand. the Lord being merciful to him. And they brought him out and set him outside the city. Sometimes God just kind of drags people out of their own sin.

And you need to remember that when you compare yourself to other more wicked sinners than you, you need to remember that the difference between the more wicked sinner and you is the merciful hand of God on you. And that's the only difference. People say Calvinism is prideful. we literally think we're the scum of the earth, the low of the low, the most debased and lowly.

And we're no different from even the worst sinner that ever existed, but by the hand of God touching us. Nothing more prideful than Arminianism. Anyway, listen to what they say in verse 17, though. And they brought them out. One said, escape for your life. Remember, this is a picture of salvation.

It's a picture of the final judgment. It says, escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. And then they have this little debate about how far. Lot is not an impressive man at this point. But again, compare yourself to Lot and just remember we're no better, right?

We have the benefit of reading Lot's errors. But then, which verse is it down here? Amen. We get pretty far down here, don't we? 26. Just skip to 26.

But Lot's wife, behind him, she wasn't with her husband. She was behind him. Looked back. And she became a pillar of salt. So she was punished. She looked back, though.

What does it say in verse 17? And as they brought them out, they said, escape for your life, do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. And so repentance, repentance is not looking back fondly on your sin. Jesus Christ in Luke 17, wonderful preacher of God, he says in Luke 17, verse 32 to 33, thanks for be impatient with me. Jesus said, remember Lot's wife.

She gets a special mention by the Lord Jesus. He says remember Lot wife So what her example to us Her example to us was she trailing behind her husband Maybe it wasn a bad thing that she was behind him Maybe they single file for some reason so don make too much of that But she looked back and God judged her for it Remember Lot wife 33 Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. The implication of her looking back is not just that she was running along and just wanted to see what was behind her.

The implication is that she's looking fondly back on her life in Sodom. She's remembering the friends she had and the people that she did things with, and maybe even some of the evil that she participated in. That's the implication. She had not repented. So don't turn back. Some of us look too fondly on the sins of our past.

I remember as a new Christian, being with some old friends from college, and people were telling stories. And I realized, I found all of the stories from college repugnant all of a sudden. They were true stories. And there were actually some funny elements to them, I guess. But some of the things that I did when I was in college, it was all so repugnant, I didn't even want to repeat it.

And then some of these other guys that professed to be Christians they still wanted to tell the stories And they were like chuckling about it And some of it a little funny There different levels of debauchery So some things you know I can see the humor in the situation without the humor in the sin maybe But some people, I think, just look back on their old life with a fondness, where they haven't really repented and become Christians. They've just started worshiping a new God of their own understanding, basically, and they named him Jesus. but in Revelation 3 19 Jesus Christ says those whom I love I reprove and discipline so be zealous and repent so David gives us a picture of repentance so that we may know what it looks like David sins in an extremely grievous way for our benefit and for our learning Lot's wife similarly gives us a picture of what repentance doesn't look like so judgment's coming your repentance won't be perfect but you can even repent of how unworthy your repentance is and you can ask God to fill you with His Spirit and you can ask God to ensure that you made holy and you made clean in his sight so that you will on that day know that you're standing before him washed and cleansed by the blood of his son oh Lord God in heaven thank you for your word and thank you for the prophet and King David he models for us what a heart that has turned to God ought to look like in the end. And each one of us, as we stumble in many ways, trust that it is by the grace of Jesus Christ that we also can be saved.

Thank you, Father, for your word that gives us hope. We pray, Lord, that you would grant us repentance, that we would be willing to have our eyes opened Lord to ways we ought to repent that we have not yet repented of and that we would be conformed to the image of your son and prepare us for that day that he will come again Amen