Sir Lord, may you help me, I
would draw your prayerful attention to Luke's Gospel, chapter 5,
verses 31 and 32. The Gospel according to Luke,
chapter 5, and reading verses 31 and 32 as a text. And Jesus answering said unto
them, they that are whole need not a physician, but they that
are sick. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. Those of you children that were
in the Sunday school this morning will know that I spoke already
on this topic to you, trying to give you some understanding
of what the Lord Jesus was saying here to those which were complaining
of the fact that Jesus was mixing and dealing with these publicans
and sinners. Because Levi, which is another
name for Matthew, the one who wrote the gospel according to
Matthew, he was a tax collector and he
was sitting at that place where they collected taxes for tolls
or whatever it was that they were collecting tax on. And he was sitting there at that
position and Jesus calls him and says, follow me. In verse
27 we had that, and we read, he left all, rose up and followed
him. But it seems then that as Matthew
had been blessed with believing views on the Lord Jesus Christ,
he had a concern for his fellow men that were in the business
of collecting taxes, who were in the business of sometimes
defrauding people for getting more tax so that they became
rich themselves. They were generally known to
be deceitful and collecting more than was their due. And so, but
Levi makes this great feast and brings, you see, invites the
Lord Jesus to this feast with his other, with the other people,
his friends, as they were other workers in the work of tax collecting. But you see in verse 30, but
their scribes and Pharisees, they were the religious elite,
they were the people that were known to be the most religious
in Jesus' day, but their scribes and Pharisees murmured against
his disciples. So they didn't like the fact
that Jesus had anything to do with these people who were known to be sinful people, known
to be breakers of the law. Well, Jesus then, you see, answers
this accusation. The Pharisees and scribes asked
the disciples, but Jesus gives the answer. And Jesus answered
and said unto them, and that then is a text, they that are
whole need not a physician. In the illustration, as I mentioned
this morning in the Sunday School, it's those that are ill, those
that have a medical problem, that are found wanting to find
a doctor. They're the ones that want to
find relief from their condition, relief from their pain. They
want surgery, they want something done which will alleviate the
distress. and the difficulty that they
find themselves in. It's not that you don't go into
a hospital and find everybody in beds just perfectly well. No, they're poorly in some way
or other. Many different ways, many different
wards, for many different problems and conditions. But in some way
or other, they all need help. They all need the doctor's help. Well, the Lord Jesus is saying
that I came in such a way, I came to this earth, to be a spiritual
doctor for spiritual needs. And of course, Jesus also demonstrated
in a natural way that he could also be a natural doctor and
heal people much better than any natural doctor. And that's
why many came to Jesus. And in the chapter that we read,
he healed many. So he could do the work of a
natural doctor. But that was really an illustration
a physical illustration of something that Jesus was able to do, which
was supernatural spiritually as well as naturally. And the
Lord Jesus then was one that could heal. He could heal, but
you see, the problem was that the scribes and Pharisees, they
did not feel the need of the fact that they needed healing.
And I showed the children this morning a picture of the tables,
the two tables of stone, the Ten Commandments that were given
on that mount Sinai. To start with, they were complete,
but then when Moses carried them down the mount and the children
of Israel were breaking already the commands with worshipping
the golden calf, Moses threw down these two tables of stone
in utter sorrow of what Israel was already up to as he had been
away receiving other of God's commands in the Mount Sinai.
And it was a picture, you see, of a broken law. They hadn't
yet come down the mountain, they were broken. And you see, the
Lord Jesus came, you see, to deal with this truth of the broken
law. and all the sacrifices, all the
things that the temple pointed to, was a way to get back to
God from the dark paths of sin. And yet solemnly, and this is
so much us by nature, the very people who should have been the
most ready to receive the Lord Jesus in the sense of understanding
the spiritual significance of their need of a sacrifice and
so forth, were the people who opposed Jesus the most. And so what Jesus says here shook
the scribes and the Pharisees. And I think if you really think
in your own thinking as well, I think it shakes our understanding.
It's so opposite in one sense to what we think, and yet in
another sense it's completely obvious what Jesus is saying.
We understand that it's the sick people that go to the doctors.
It's the unwell people that need help. It's not the well people.
And yet, spiritually, we get it all the wrong way round. We
think these people are good people, these people are great people,
so God will be pleased with them. And these people over here, they're
sinners, they come short, they're breakers of God's commands. Oh,
he won't want to have anything to do with them. But Jesus is
saying, no, you've got everything the wrong way round. I've come
to seek and to save that which was lost. So here you see we
have this great theme that the Lord Jesus is teaching his disciples
and the scribes and Pharisees and those that were around him.
How opposite to their thinking was his thinking. And Jesus answering
said unto them, they that are whole need not a physician. And as we spoke about the law
of God, Spiritually this means those that are whole don't realise
or don't realise they need to be made right with God. Because
they think, Saul of Tarsus said this, I verily thought that I
kept the law. The Ten Commandments to him were
something that he could come to God and be in a sense proud
of and say, look God, I've kept all of these Ten Commandments. As touching the law, he said
he was blameless. He was not sick. He was not in
need of a savior. He was not in need in his understanding
of any of the sacrifices. Until he, the Lord Jesus met
him on that Damascus road. Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? And then you see, he realized,
he came to a realization that he was an enemy of God, that
he actually, though he didn't realise it, he actually was a
breaker of God's commandment. Instead of these two tables of
stone intact and beautiful and presentable to God, they were
smashed, they were ruined. He realised, he says in Romans
7, that It was the 10th commandment. Covetousness was the thing that
first made him realize that actually he sinned. He thought he was
pure in all of them, but covetousness, he realized that he was covetous.
And then it opened his mind up by the Spirit to show that he
was a breaker of all of the commandments. And of course, that same man
who says, as touching the law, he was blameless, is the very
same man who says, I am the chief of sinners. It's the same man. What is that all about then?
What happened to the Apostle Paul? Jesus answered and said,
They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are
sick. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. work of being with these Pharisees
and scribes, sorry, not the Pharisees, the publicans and sinners as
they were referred to, his work with being with them was to do
them spiritual good, to point them to the way of salvation.
So as the Lord helps, I want to focus on this great doctrine,
the vitality, the vitalness of repentance. Repentance, what
is it? Why is it so important? It's
mentioned so many times. In fact, the Lord Jesus we read
in Matthew's Gospel as he began his ministry, the first word
that came out of his mouth was repent. This is so central. It's a turning from, a turning
from something, and a turning to something else. Repent. As the Lord helps me, I want
to look at the two vital truths about repentance. And you see,
you can have one, and if you don't have the other, it is not
saving repentance. It has been illustrated that
you think of repentance as a tree. And you have a tree, it grows
in the soil, doesn't it? It has roots going downwards,
it has a trunk coming upwards, and then it has branches coming
out of it, and then it has tree leaves on the end of those branches
and the twigs. And if we think of that picture
as repentance, a picture of repentance, we think of the soil in which
repentance grows is the gift of God, it's God's gift that
there is a possibility of repentance. And indeed, we read that in Timothy,
that God would give that gift of repentance. In the second
epistle of Paul to Timothy, chapter 2 and verse 25, it says, in meekness
instructing those that oppose themselves, if God peradventure
will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth,
it's the gift of God. This soil in which repentance
grows, it's the gift of God. It's God's gift that we can come
to know repentance. But the roots, what are the two
vital roots? of this tree of repentance. And
there's two vital sides, either which missing, you miss true
repentance. And if you missed repentance,
you see, you've missed, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise
perish. Jesus said to those that were
inquiring, when there was that tragedy of the wall of Siloam
falling on certain people, like we've had in the last week, there
was this black Block of flats that have gone
up in flames. Were the people in those flats more evil than
everybody else, Jesus said? No. But except ye repent, ye
shall all likewise perish. Every one of us is heading for
eternity. Everyone is heading for the judgment
day. And the vital thing is, have
you repented? Not were you in that block of
flats or not. Ultimately, you all must stand
before the judgment seat of Christ. The vital thing then is repentance. And what are those roots? Well,
let's look at first of all that a vital root of that repentance
is true conviction of sin. It's true conviction of sin.
To realise that the law of God condemns. The law of God shows
that we are sinners. And that's why the law is so
important. The Ten Commandments, the righteous
standard of God. This is God's thoughts that we
should live. This is how God has left it that
we should behave ourselves. Indeed, this is what Christ perfectly
kept when he was on this earth. And we are told to be formed
into the image of God and to be Conformed to the image of
God is what God intends for his people in sanctification, to
be conformed to the image of his son. And the Lord Jesus Christ
was the keeper of the law. I came not to destroy the law,
but to keep the law and to make it honorable. So a conviction
is a vital, vitally important. David knew it, you see in Psalm
51, he speaks. very passionately of that, how
that he realised his sin when he was confronted with it, with
Bathsheba, well Nathan confronted him regarding Bathsheba, and
he speaks very passionately in Psalm 51 verse 2, wash me thoroughly
from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin, for I acknowledge
my transgression and my sin is ever before me. So an acknowledgement
of the great truth that we're sinners. And as I stated this
morning in the Sunday School, we can have illnesses and difficulties
that we're not aware of, or they don't bother us too much to start
with. And then we don't go to the doctor.
We perhaps just live with them for years, perhaps, and don't
take too much notice of them. But it's when they then suddenly
start to become a real problem to us, they become life-threatening,
perhaps, then it is that we cannot just be neutral towards them.
we need to realise the awfulness of them. And you see here, then,
there needs to be the conviction of sin. We have it in many places. If you look in Acts chapter 17,
when Paul was preaching, to those on Mars Hill. And so
it's Acts 17 verse 30, In the times of this ignorance God winked
at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, because
he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof
he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised
him from the dead." So the fact that we have the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the apostle here is saying that the
fact that we have the resurrection is a proof that the Lord Jesus
will ultimately be the judge at his second coming. He will
judge. You see, his first coming, he said, I came not to condemn
the world, but the world through him might have life. But his second coming is going
to be different. The first coming was not to condemn
the world, but to make a way of escape, to make it possible
for repentance to be there, the gift of God. God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son. That was the gift in what
happened at his first coming. And obviously the first coming
happened something like 2,000 years ago, but we don't know
when the second coming is going to come. But the second time
he does come. it will be with condemnation for all those who
are outside of his mercy. Outside, those who have despised
his mercy, despised this way of repentance, and gone away
and ridiculed the Lord Jesus. You see, in Romans, Paul speaking,
writing to the Romans, spends, after Romans chapter 1 verse
18, right to Romans chapter 3, and verse 10 really, going through
and abolishing all righteousness that could be associated with
the Gentiles and the Jews. They had different ways of making
themselves feel righteous and so Paul demolishes both the Gentiles
and the Jews and shows that they're all guilty before God. You see, and he gets to the climax
in Romans chapter 3 verse 10, and as it is written, there is
none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They are all gone out of the
way. They are all, they are together become unprofitable. There is
none that doeth good. No, not one. what the Bible says. This is the reality. You might think, well, you see,
and Satan, he's a great deceiver. And Satan would love to take
these roots of true repentance and attack each root. And he'll
attack roots in different ways, depending on which root it is.
You see, the first root of the conviction of sin, Satan will
come along and say, God hath not said. though it's not going
to be as bad as that. You'll be alright. There's many
other wicked. Only one life. Enjoy it. He'll try and discourage
you from believing the truth of the Word of God, that there
is coming a day, and just as Christ rose from the dead, there
will be a time when Christ will stand as the judge of all the
earth, and everyone who has come short of the standard of God's
righteousness will be eternally punished. And that is what the
Bible says, and it's a great blessing, you see, when the Lord
shows us this, and makes us feel it, and makes us smart under
it. Because we've got to realize the awfulness of sin. O thou
hideous monster sin, what a curse hast thou brought in! All creation
groans through thee, pregnant cause of misery. Have you felt
that? Have you felt the awful? nature
of sin, that sin is against God, that sin is obnoxious, that sin
is basically taking the God who has created us for His glory,
who owns everything, who gives us life, who gives us wisdom,
who gives us everything that we have, and we, by nature, we
throw it back at Him. We throw it straight back at
Him. We abhor the One who made us. We will not have this man.
to reign over us. And of course you see this is
so pictured in that account that we read of the prodigal son.
His father, that good and kind and gracious father, he rebelled
against. This son, he didn't want the
rules of his father, he wanted liberty. He didn't want the Ten
Commandments, if you like. He didn't want the stability
of his father's house. He wanted to go off and enjoy
himself. He wanted his own life. He wanted his own fulfilment.
He wanted to spend his life for his glory, not for God's glory,
not for his father's glory, not for doing his father's will.
He wanted to do his own will. And you see, that's us by nature. And conviction of sin, you see,
makes us realize we're guilty. And you see, that man, when he
came, had spent all his money, and there was a great famine,
he came to his senses. He came to realize that he'd
been a fool, that he'd wasted everything he had, and that he'd
nothing left. And you see, but then you see,
and that is what we need to do. We need the Lord to show us this
vital route of conviction. But you see, there's another
route. Well, before I come to the other route, I just want
to travel down a very, very sad account. of what takes place
if you have only one root in your repentance. If you only
have this root of conviction, and that's all you have, this
is where it ends. Matthew chapter 27 and verse
3. Then Judas, which had betrayed
him, that's the Lord Jesus, when he saw that he was condemned,
Jesus was condemned, repented himself. This is repentance with
only one root. He repented himself and brought
again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders. So he realised that he was wrong
in what he'd done to the Lord Jesus. He then tried to rectify
what he'd done. He brought back the money to
the chief priests. He was honourable in this. These
are good points. These are good things in repentance.
And in verse 4 saying, I have sinned, it's acknowledgement
of his sin. This man seems a very good repenting man. I have sinned
in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. He realised that the Lord
Jesus was innocent and that he had betrayed and been completely
wrong in his behaviour. So far so good. Yes, it seems
to completely agree with this root of the conviction of sin
that I've tried to describe. And they say, what is that to
thee? When he came back and gave the silver, what is that to thee?
See thou to that. And in verse five, and he cast
down the pieces of silver in the temple. So he gave back all
the gains that he'd gained by his wrong ways. Judas Iscariot
did. And he departed. and went and
hanged himself. That is the end of a man who
has a one-route conviction. Very good as far as it went,
but it only had the one route. of the breaking of the law, the
realising that God is holy, that you've offended him, that you've
put to death the Lord of life and glory, that he was chargeable
for that. What was lacking? The lacking
was the second root. The second vital root of true
repentance is an appreciation. of the mercy
of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is what Judas solemnly did
not behold. He was correct in everything
he did in terms of confessing his sins, of giving the money
back, of declaring that he was a sinner, but he had no apprehension
of the mercy of God in Christ. And beloved friends, either of
those true roots missing will cause you to miss true repentance,
and it will cost you your eternal soul. It will cost you eternally. If you do not consider the mercy
of God in Christ, if you say, yes, I've sinned, I've been like
Judas, I've betrayed him, I've done wrong, I've done this, I've
done that, And you see, here you see, Satan, as I said, he
attacks the first root. He doesn't want the law of God
to sound against sin. He wants the law of God to be
dumbed, as he desires to do in our land, so that the evil is
spoken of as good, and good is spoken of as evil. He wants to
completely obliterate the Word of God. Let us break their bands. Let us cast them from us, as
in Psalm 2. That's what Satan wants to do
with the first route. But what does he do with the
second route? Well, if somebody's got to the stage, like Judas,
that they do confess their sin, that they do realise they're
a sinner, he leaves them there, but denies the second route. He leads them to despair. He
does not lead them to the second route, that there is mercy in
the Saviour. And you see there's two vital,
vital points in true repentance. It's seeing that we are breakers
of God's law. God's law is right. It's righteous. It's what God's standard of righteousness,
and that we should honour Him. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy
strength, and thy neighbour as thyself. Can we put up our hand
and say, yes, that's what we do? No, we come short. Though
we desire to do it as the people of God, we should desire these
things, but we come short. We come short, we come short.
And that's why true Christians are not people that come to the
house of God as perfectly healthy Christians in that sense. They
come as wounded. I was looking at, thinking about
this hymn, this sermon this morning. My thoughts went to hymn 731. Hereless Immanuel, here we are,
waiting to feel thy touch, deep-wounded souls to thee repair and saviour. We are such. You see, that's
not coming as the scribes and the Pharisees. That's not coming
as those that are saying, well, you know, they're too bad. They're
people who know the law, and they're people who love the law,
true Christians. But they're people who acknowledge
and realize that they're breakers of that law. They hate the fact
that they are, but they have to acknowledge they're breakers
of the law of God. They're breakers. But you see,
This second vital root in true repentance is to apprehend, to
lay hold. I believe the first sermon I
preached here was on that word, lay hold upon the eternal life. lay hold on eternal life. And
you see, it's the Lord's people are led not to have any problem
with the fact that they've come short of the glory of God. The
Lord Jesus doesn't say, no, you're not so bad a sinner. No, you
haven't broken the law that badly. No, the law is just and right,
and you've broken it completely. You're completely guilty. He doesn't change that. But what
he does is show that there's another way. Shows that there's
a way of mercy. That this God that you've offended,
this God that you've despised, this one that you've sought to
pull off his throne and say, I will not have this man to reign
over me. I want to live my life my way,
for my ends, for my glory, for my earthly pleasure, for my advantage. And I don't want the law of God.
I don't want his commandments. I don't want his ways. when we're broken to realize
the foolishness and the sinfulness of such a way of carrying on.
And such were some of us. We're all like that by nature.
Then to come and apprehend, I think that's a beautiful word, to apprehend
the mercy of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, this is
the beauty of the gospel. The gospel, you see, and Satan
would seek to ruin repentance in either way. Either he'll want
us not to say that this is wrong. He'd like to say that everybody
is, no, nobody's really sinned, and that's a lot of the so-called
Christian thinking in our day. Don't preach sin. Don't talk
about sin. Don't say that people are sinful.
But that's what the Word of God says. We've all sinned and come
short of the glory of God. That's what the Bible says. There's
no mincing of words. But the beautiful gospel is that
there's For sinners, Christ has a way of mercy. And you see,
it's the cross of Christ that is so precious to the people
of God, because it's a way whereby justice is satisfied. We sang it really very much in
our middle hymn 534. of the mercy speaks by Jesus'
blood. Hear and sing, ye sons of God.
Justice satisfied indeed, Christ has full atonement made. You
see, and either thing that Satan would seek to attack will lead
us to not true repentance. It will lead us to, you see,
Judas, you see, he did not appreciate the mercy of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He only saw his justice. He only
saw the unbending standard of righteousness, which was true.
But he didn't also perceive that God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should
not perish, but have eternal life. You see, that's the other
side. The other side. And you see, we need both these
two vital roots in true godly repentance. And what will these
two vital roots then have? We've just talked about this
tree, and this morning we talked about the soil as being the grace
of God. It's God's mercy, you see, that
there is a way back. You have a standard of righteousness. We need to come, you see, to
the Lord Jesus, because he says, come unto me, all ye that labour,
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. It's not that
you're good in your own righteousness, it's not that your sins haven't
been a stench in my nostril, it's not that you haven't been
obnoxious in my sight, but an apprehending of the mercy of
God. in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
may you each here know that. Dear friends, these two truths
need to be known by every one of you here. Every one. Every
one needs to know these two truths. And Satan would attack both of
these legs of truth. so that you will be kept from
the kingdom of God. Except ye repent, ye shall all
likewise perish. We've had it set before us in
what's taken place in the last week. People perishing. Perishing,
taken from time into eternity. Except ye repent, ye shall all
likewise perish. You may have a respectable burial.
You may have a respectable way that you come to your end. But
if you come sure to the glory of God, if you've not truly repented
to God and truly come back to God, then where will you be? In Deuteronomy, we have these
words, Deuteronomy chapter 32. Verse 39, see now that I, even
I, am he, this is God talking, and there is no God with me.
I kill and I make alive. I wound and I heal. and I heal. You see, it's the two vital legs. I wound, and it's a wounding
time. It's been described as the pangs
of the new birth, just as there's pain and labor, isn't there,
with natural birth. The mother labors and is in pain
and great discomfort as that baby is brought forth into the
world. There's the pangs of the new birth. As one is being born
again, there's pangs, there's pain, there's bitterness, there's
sorrow. I'm a breaker of God's law. The
law is loud as thunder cries. the soul that sins against me
dies. That there's no place of refuge.
There's no place of self-righteousness. And you see the Lord Jesus wanted
to show these people who he was speaking to the truth of this.
And Jesus answered and said unto them, they that are whole need
not a physician. Are you whole spiritually here
today? Are you complete? Are you satisfied
that you've kept the 10 commandments? Are you satisfied? Or perhaps
are you in a state where you don't care? You don't care. So
what? My friends don't do it. The people
I know don't do it. The people I look into and admire,
they don't bother about the Ten Commandments. They that are whole. They're
complete, they don't need Christ, so they think. The Apostle Paul
didn't need Christ, so he thought, when he was a hounding men and
women into prison and thought that he was a keeper of the law.
But when the Lord came and touched his heart with true spirit work
conviction, then he came to this place where that he had sinned. And you see, this aspect of the
sin is not just what we do, it's what we are. That's an important
difference, isn't it? We're sinners, not just because
we sin, but we're sinners because we are sinners. David makes this point in Psalm
51, I was born in sin and iniquity did my mother conceive me. And
that wasn't talking about that her relationship was wrong, that
brought about his conception, but that he felt that in his
very being, he was a son of Adam. and had the fall in him. He was
a sinner and therefore he was by nature going away from God,
speaking lies. Well, as we think then of this
great important subject of repentance, what it is, that it's all because
of the mercy of God. There could have been a standard
of righteousness and that's the standard and that's it. You either
make it or you don't make it. And we would all become sure,
we would all be eternally lost. But God in his infinite wisdom
has made a way of escape. He's made a way whereby those
who are sinners can come and find mercy with the Lord Jesus. And you see, it's portrayed,
you see, in this, what we read regarding the prodigal son. He came to himself
and he then had a recollection of his father's house and realized
that it was actually quite good there. There was food and he
had an apprehension. that his father would receive
him. He didn't expect to receive him
as he did receive him, but he did have an apprehension that
the father would receive him. Although not as a son, just as
a servant, he would still be a son, but to be treated as a
servant, he was happy with that. But he had some inclination of
the mercy of God, the mercy of the Father. And it's interesting,
you see, when he comes back to his father, he says, Father,
I have sinned against heaven. Not just against you, Father,
but against heaven. He realized that this was to
do with that he was fighting against God. He'd gone in the
opposite direction. He'd gone away from God, speaking
lies. He'd wasted the substance with
riotous living, we read. but he had an apprehension of
the mercy. And you see, as you come to the
Lord Jesus, as we come in true repentance, may we have an apprehension
of the mercy of God in Christ. No, we won't fully understand
the goodness of God. We won't understand it. And as
we come to the cross of Christ and see what he did there, that
he was standing in the place of sinners, that he was bearing
the curse of our sins upon him, the one who had never sinned,
the one who always delighted to do his father's will, the
one who said, I delight to do thy will, oh my God. He was the
one that was suffering. He was the one that was bearing
the ignominy and shame on our behalf. And then, you see, we
start to see what our sin cost us. And you see, that can change.
When we see what our sin has done to the Saviour, it can change
our thoughts about sin. John Newton describes it like
this in him, 1025. In evil long I took delight,
and awed by shame or fear, till a new object struck my sight
and stopped my wild career. I think it might have been John
Owen who described sin as being the greatest awfulness of sin
is not to love the most lovable object in the universe. Not to
love God is the most heinous sin. He is the altogether lovely
one and yet by nature we're totally blind to see it. In evil long
I took delight, unawed by shame or fear, till a new object struck
my sight and stopped my mad career. I saw one hanging on a tree,
in agonies and blood, who fixed his languid eyes on me as near
his cross I stood. Sure, never till my latest breath
can I forget that look. It seemed to charge me with his
death, though not a word he spoke. My conscience felt and owned
the guilt and plunged me in despair. I saw my sins. His blood had
spilled. I'm guilty. I've done this pain. I've caused all this trouble
to the Son of God and helped to nail him there. A second look
he gave which said, I freely all forgive. This blood is for
thy ransom paid. I die. Thou mayst live in apprehension
of the mercy of God in Christ. Well, may the Lord help us then
as we've looked at the beginning of these two great roots of repentance
to think of the trunk of the tree as being a complete change
of the way of we think and the branches you see, a change of
attitude to sin, a change of attitude to God, a change of
attitude to ourselves. the change of attitude to righteousness. All these branches that all come
from this tree of repentance that has these two roots of true
hatred to sin and a true apprehension of the mercy of God. Well, as
the Lord helps, I want to speak of that this evening, as the
Lord helps. Amen.