Protocol, protocol. I just forgot. I just got up. I had my mind
on other things. Anyway, let's go back to 2 Samuel
19. In this chapter, as we're studying
the life of David, this is David's return to Jerusalem after he
had fled Jerusalem and the throne was cast outside because of his
rebellious son Absalom had gathered the people unto himself and threatened
to take the throne from his father. And David had fled and of course
by this time Absalom and his armies had been defeated. God
has enabled David to triumph over his enemies and David is
returning as the triumphant king to Jerusalem and on his way back
to Jerusalem. He stopped at Gilgal. That's
the place of where all that would hinder him coming to his throne
was rolled away. That's what that term means.
That was the place where Joshua and the Hebrew children encamped
before they crossed over the Jordan River into the Promised
Land because all the hindrances was rolled away. God had removed
all obstacles. And what a great picture of salvation
that is for us. When Christ died on the cross,
all the hindrances, all the obstacles that would keep us from salvation,
keep us from communion with God, from coming into the presence
of God, were totally removed. And as one of our men pointed
out, it reminds you of the stone being rolled away from the tomb
and our Lord emerging from it triumphantly. On his way back
to Jerusalem, he met three men. He met a man named Shimei. You
know about Shimei. He's the one who stood across
the river and cursed David, threw stones at him. And that's the
one that Abishai wanted to go cut his head off, shut his mouth. And David said, no. He said,
basically, he said, I deserve what I'm getting. Let him go,
the Lord. had told him to curse me. I deserve
it. Even though Shimei's charges
against David were untrue, David knew that he was a sinner, a
great sinner. He knew that he deserved every
ounce of consequence and even physical torment and punishment
that he was going through. And of course, that strengthened
David's faith in Christ because He knew that his only hope was
Christ. You know, that's the best place
a sinner can be brought to, to know that I have no place else
to go, no one else to go to, but Christ and His cross. I was listening to a preacher
the other day who had a little three-point outline. It was a
good outline. And here's what he said. He said,
the way to God is through Christ. And that's true. I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father,
but by me." And then he said, that's how we come to God, through
Christ. And then the way to Christ is
through the cross. But now he meant our cross bearing. And that's not so. The way to
Christ, the way to God, is through the cross that Christ bore on
Calvary, the finished work of Christ. And then as a result
of that, we bear the cross with him. our cross, we bear the reproach
of the world with him. And so David came to understand
that, and he met this man Shimei. And Shimei, whatever you can
say about him personally, and there's a lot of maybe some unanswered
questions there about the man personally, but he certainly
is an illustration of what I call the beginning of repentance.
We're going to look at these three men, Shimei, then Mephibosheth,
we're going to look at tonight, and then a man named Barzelei,
or Barzelei, however you want to pronounce it. They represent three aspects,
or illustrate three aspects of repentance for the life of a
believer. Shimei, what he represents and illustrates here is when
the Lord first opens our eyes in the new birth, in regeneration. to bring us to a saving knowledge
of Christ, wherein do we see, as Paul wrote in Philippians
chapter 3, that everything, everything that we by nature think recommend
us unto God, that earn our way into God's favor, that make up
righteousness before God, is nothing but dumb, that we may
win Him and be found in Him, not having our own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ. the righteousness of God, which is by faith. And that's
that beginning of repentance. That's when a sinner, having
been born of the Spirit, comes to faith in Christ in what the
scripture describes as repentance of dead works and former idolatry. But you see, when we come to
that point, when God brings us to that point, and that's what
happens. We don't just come to it by nature
of our own wills. God has to bring us to that point,
doesn't he? by the power of the Spirit, that's the work of the
Holy Spirit in the new birth, regeneration and conversion.
The life of Christ being imparted, being put within us in our minds,
our hearts, our wills, our affections, it becomes part of the law of
God written on the heart is described as. When God brings us to that
point, repentance doesn't stop there. Then we, as justified
sinners, children of God, then we embark upon a life of repentance. And that's why I've entitled
tonight's message, Living the Life of Repentance. And it's
so important because it is one of the main evidences that our
faith and our profession of salvation is genuine. In fact, I'll tell
you what, I believe if you look through the Scriptures, especially
read through the Psalms, read the life of David, and read through
the Psalms that he wrote, you can really tell more about him
and where his hope is and in whom his hope is by the confessions
of repentance than you can by his triumphs. And I mean that. In fact, I'll give you a clue
about, let me just read you this one here. You remember Lot? And you know, if you read about
Lot in the book of Genesis, there's not a whole lot of good said
about Lot, is there? And yet we know he was a child
of God. You know how we know that? Because God said it. And that's the only way. I don't
know if you looked at Lot while he was in that evil city Sodom,
day by day, what you would have seen outwardly, or what I would
have seen, I don't know. But in the book of 2 Peter, chapter
2, in verse 7, it talks about how God justly destroyed Sodom
and Gomorrah. But it says in verse 7, God delivered
just Lot. Now, the word just there doesn't
mean God delivered only Lot, not only. God delivered a just
man. Lot, a sinner who had nothing
to recommend himself unto God. How was Lot justified? The same
way we're justified in Christ. Washed in his blood, clothed
in his righteousness. And he said he delivered just
Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked, for that righteous
man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing what he saw and heard
and saw. It said it vexed his righteous
soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. Lot was troubled
the whole time he was there, according to the Holy Spirit.
He was troubled. And that's the troubling of repentance.
And, of course, we know God brought him out of there, and if God
doesn't bring us out, we won't come out. Isn't that the way
it is? God doesn't bring us out? Well, here in Mephibosheth, look
back at 2 Samuel 19. We have, I believe, an illustration
of the continual life of repentance, that every child of God experiences
all the days of our regenerate life here on this earth. This
is godly repentance. It's a continual life of repentance
as we struggle. And it is a struggle. Struggle
in the warfare of the flesh and the spirit. Struggle within.
Struggle without. Struggle with the world. Struggle
with each other. We struggle with each other.
I mean, this whole life is just a struggling, isn't it? One thing
after another. Somebody said, if it ain't one
thing, it's another. And that's the way it is. Somebody
said, don't we have any moments of peace? Yes, moments. Moments. Our life, the tenor of our life
is a tenor of peace with God through Christ, but as we continually
look to Jesus Christ as the author and the finisher of our faith.
Let me tell you something now, if he's not the author of it
and the finisher of it, it's not there. And if you know anything
about yourself, you know that's so. And as we continually seek
to be conformed to Him in all things, to the praise of the
glory of His grace." Now, it does us no good to sit around
talking about, oh, how I want to be like Christ, oh, how I
want to be like Christ, and then go around justifying ourselves
in our own attitudes and sin. I mean, words mean nothing, you
see. And that's why this repentance
is a gift of God. I mean, it's a gift of God. We
don't have it by nature. It's a gift of God through Christ,
just like faith. They come together, faith and
repentance. Let's look at Mephibosheth here.
Verse 24, it says, Mephibosheth, the son of Saul. Now, we know
he was Saul's grandson, but that's the way the Scripture oftentimes
puts it. He was actually the son of Jonathan.
And it says, the son of Saul, he came down to meet the king.
And it says, and had neither dressed his feet, He didn't wash
his feet and dress them, nor trimmed his beard, nor washed
his clothes. From the day the king departed
until the day he came again in peace." Now, he must have reaped
this man, Mephibosheth. You remember Mephibosheth, don't
you? You know what his name means? Anybody remember what his name
means? It means utterance of shame. He's the man of shame. What a great illustration of
us by nature, and what a great illustration of us even as saved
sinners. Aren't we oftentimes people of
shame? Shouldn't we oftentimes be ashamed
of ourselves in the way we act, the way we think, the way we
do? That's Mephibosheth. Man of shame. You remember about
the story of Mephibosheth. You can go back and re-read it
in 2 Samuel chapter 9. What a beautiful picture of how
God saved sinners in Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth, he was the son
of a fallen king, representing our fall in Adam. We fell in
Adam. Born in sin, when Mephibosheth
was an infant, the nursemaid dropped him, his legs were broken,
he could not walk. He had no ability to walk. We're
born in sin. Trespassers in sin. Born dead
and trespassers in sin. No ability to walk in a godly
way. No ability to believe. No spiritual
ability to do anything that pleases God. That's us by nature, isn't
it? That's the fallen represented, illustrated right there in Mephibosheth.
All we are is people of shame. And we don't even know it. And
you remember, David had made a covenant long before the birth
of Mephibosheth. He made a covenant with Jonathan
that he would take care of the house of Jonathan. And you remember,
when he was established on the throne of Israel, he asked his
servants, is there anybody left in the house of Saul that I might
show merciful kindness, covenant kindness unto them? And they
found Mephibosheth. Down in where? Remember where
he lived? Lodibar. The place of no pasture. That's where we live by nature.
Even in false religion, that's what it is. Lodibar. There's
no pasture there. There's no sustenance. There's
no peace there. That's why when Christ saves
us, He brings us to the green pastures of His grace. The green
pastures of His Word. He brings us from the house of
famine to the house of bread. bread of life, Mephibosheth dwelling
in Lodabar, all dwelling in sin, trespasses in sin. And what David
says, he said, go down there and plead with him and see if
he'll come to me, see if he'll crawl here. No, he didn't say
that. He told his servant, he said,
go down and fetch him, fetch old Mephibosheth. That means
go down and get him. And that's the way God does His
people who are redeemed by the blood of Christ according to
the everlasting covenant of grace. He sends the Spirit and He says,
go get them. Go get them. And that won't take
any persuasion because you'll convince them. You'll convince
them of their sin and of their need of grace. And He went down
and got them. He cleaned Mephibosheth up and
dressed him in the best robes. That's what we are, washed in
the blood of Christ and clothed in his righteousness. Set him
down at the king's table where he ate sumptuously. And that's
what we do all the days of our life. We feast at the king's
table. That's what we're doing here. But as David, and that's
a great illustration of a sinner saved by grace. He was under
the covenant and had already been brought into the king's
house to eat at the king's table, but then David was In himself,
he was taken off the throne, or he fled the throne, and on
his way back to Jerusalem, he met Mephibosheth. And here's
a great picture of God's people, a child of God, coming back to
the Lord in a state of repentance, continuing grace. And what is
it describing here? Here's this man, he didn't dress
his feet, he didn't trim his beard, he didn't wash his clothes
from the day the king departed until the day he came again in
peace. What's going on with Mephibosheth? That's the position and the way
of mourning. That's what it's talking about.
Sorrow. Taking his humility. And what's
happening here is this mourning is over one thing, the absence
of the king. Acknowledging his own weakness
and inability. He knew that if David was taken
off the throne, he was a goner. Just like we know without Christ,
where are we? We're goners. We're nothing without
Christ. And that's what Mephibosheth
was doing. He was mourning. He was in a state of mourning
continually for a long time here. Our Lord said in Matthew chapter
5 and verse 4, Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be
comforted. This is godly sorrow over sin. Look at verse 25. It says, It
came to pass when he was come to Jerusalem to meet the king,
that the king said unto him, Wherefore wentest not thou with
me, Mephibosheth? Why didn't you go with me, Mephibosheth? And you just imagine how Mephibosheth
felt. Look at verse 26. He answered,
My lord, O king, my servant deceived me. That was Ziba. You remember
Ziba? Remember, he went and he told
a lie. to David about Mephibosheth. He said, Mephibosheth thinks
he's going to take your place. He's waiting for you to be ousted
and Absalom to be killed and the house of Saul will rise again.
Well, that was a lie. And Ziba ended up getting Mephibosheth's
land. and his holdings that David had
given him as a result of that deception. And so Mephibosheth
says, O my king, my servant deceived me, for thy servant said, I will
saddle me and ask that I may ride thereon and go to the king,
because thy servant is lying. In other words, Ziba told Mephibosheth,
he said, I'm going to go to the king for you, and I'm going to
tell him the truth. But he didn't. He lied to him. Verse 27, Mephibosheth
said that Ziba hath slandered thy servant unto my lord the
king. But now I want you to listen to this now. He said, but my
Lord the King is an angel of God. Now what does that mean?
David, you're a messenger. You're a representative of God.
You're God's anointed King. That's what he's saying. You're
the one who should be on the throne. Why? Because God put
you there. And God said so. And listen to
what he says here now. He says, Do therefore what is
good in thine eyes. You do what's good in your eyes,
King, O my King. He says in verse 28, For all
of my Father's house were but dead men. Look in your concordance. What's that say? Men of death. You see, that's the way we are
by nature in Adam. We're not just dead men and women.
We're people of death. Death characterizes us, spiritual
death. Without Christ, that's all we
are. We're dead people spiritually. We bring forth dead works. And
we're headed for what without Christ? Eternal death. You see,
that's why in Christ there's life. And even this body is a
testimony to that. The body's dead because of sin.
That's the results of sin, the consequences. But the Spirit,
the Holy Spirit, is life. because of righteousness, because
Christ died on the cross and put away my sin. So he says,
for all of my father's house were but dead men before my Lord
the King. In other words, without you we
were dead. Yet didst thou set thy servant
among them that did eat at thine own table? Look at what you've
done for me. You set me at your table to eat
at your table. What a position. What a place
to be. What a place of blessedness.
And he didn't deserve it. He didn't earn it. Grace, grace,
grace. Mercy. So listen to what he says
next. What right, therefore, have I
to cry any more unto the King? I don't have any right to ask
any more of you. You've done everything for me.
Your mercy, your goodness. What's going on here? Now, Mephitosheph,
he recognized he's been deceived. But he does not justify himself
here, at all. He doesn't do it. Do as you see
fit. Treat me however you think is
right to do. You're a messenger of God. That's
God's wisdom, God's justice, and even God's love and mercy.
My servant deceived me, but I've got no excuse, he says. Do as
you see fit and good in your sight. You know what he's testifying
of there? It's written in the book of Lamentations,
I forgot the verse, I think it's in chapter 3, but we quote it
quite often. Right now, now listen to me,
we can look back at our past lives as unregenerate people,
and we recognize the sinfulness and the depravity of it, but
right now, even as a sinner saved by grace, It's still of the Lord's
mercies that we're not consumed. Still! Even as justified in the righteousness
of Christ. I stand before God complete and
whole in Christ. As righteous as I'll ever be
in Christ. No improvement on Him. I stand
before God redeemed by the blood of Christ. I stand before God
as a regenerate, a born-again person, sinner. But I know that I still do not
deserve the least of God's mercies. My only plea, Christ died for
me. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. And that's what Mephibosheth
is saying. That's the continual life testimony. of a believer. I'm unworthy. And you think about
this. Think about what all God has
done for us. And still we gripe and complain
because we want more. We're not satisfied. We're not
content with the situation. We want this. We want that. Think
about what God's done for you and for me. It's of the Lord's
mercies right now at this second as I stand behind this pulpit
that I'm not consumed and dropped right into hell. I believe that. I have one hope, one assurance. Now, Ziba had deceived Mephibosheth. Now, let me tell you something.
You know, we can deceive ourselves, even justify ourselves in sin. We can be deceived by others.
Either way, we're still at the mercy of God in Christ, and in
ourselves deserve nothing but condemnation and wrath. If thou,
Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, who among us would stand?" Look
at verse 29. The king said unto him, Why speakest
thou any more of these matters? I have said, Thou and Ziba divide
the land. The way the construction of the
King James translation there, it sort of indicates that this
is what David had said before. But this is not what David said
before. Literally what he's doing here, he's saying, well, let's
not talk about it anymore. He said, here's what I'm going
to do. This is what David's saying. I'm going to divide the land
between you and Ziba. Now, that sounds strange, doesn't
it? Ziba had deceived David. He deceived Mephibosheth. He'd
gotten all of Mephibosheth's lands by deception. And here
Mephibosheth returns to David in repentance, in godly sorrow
over sin. And the king says, well, let's
not talk about it anymore. Here's what I'm going to do.
I'm going to divide the land between you and Ziba. What do you think
is going on here? He's testing Mephibosheth's faith. Saving Faith is going to be tested.
He is testing Mephibosheth's loyalty to him. Look what happens. He says in verse 30, and Mephibosheth
said unto the king, Yea, let him have it all. Let Ziba have
it all. Let him take it all, for as much
as my Lord the King is come again in peace unto his own house."
The King's back! The King's on the throne! That's
enough for me. That's what Mephibosheth is saying.
If Mephibosheth had only been interested in his own possessions
on this earth, and the favor of the King for his own personal
gain, the land, he would have said, why, you ought to give
it all to me instead of him. He's the deceiver. Or he said,
okay, I'll take half. But you know that land meant
nothing to Mephibosheth. He said, let him have it all.
Let him get his reward. You know, that's what the scripture
says. Those who pray to be seen of
men, who do these, they have their reward. You know what their
reward is? Men see them. That's what they
want. Don't care about God. Let him have it all. It's enough
for me that the king's back. The king's on his throne. Here's
my hope. That's repentance, you see. David
knew who was the true servant. You remember Solomon when those
two ladies come to him fighting over the baby? And they laid
the baby there and he came and he said, well, let's cut the
baby in two and divide him. And the real mother in her love
and in her desire for the welfare of that child, said, oh, no,
let her have it. See, this is the wisdom of God. This is what
a messenger of God would do. David found out. He knew who
his true servant was, Mephibosheth, this repentant sinner who just
gloried in the fact that the king was back and on his throne. God forbid that I should glory.
saving the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. What all these
other things that we're so plagued over and worry over, desire and
think this and think that, they mean nothing. They mean nothing. And you know, this old boy up
here, I have to be reminded of that quite often, and you do
too. To be brought to repentance. Every day. That's my life. You
see, this is true godly repentance. Turn over to 2 Corinthians chapter
7. And this repentance is to characterize
our lives. It's not just a moment, not just
at a good time or a bad time, but it's to be all our lives.
Let me give you four elements of true repentance, this godly
sorrow. And then we'll look at 2 Corinthians
7. Number one, it's a true knowledge of our own sinfulness and impotence,
knowing that if God were to judge us at any time based on our best,
we'd be damned forever. We deserve damnation. As I quoted
before, I quote this quite often, Psalm 130, verse 3, Lord, if
thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who would stand? Secondly, It's
a true knowledge of God's mercy and grace in Christ and what
He accomplished on Calvary to save us from all our sins, past,
original sin, past sin, present sin, future sin. That Psalm,
Psalm 130, verse 3, it says, Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldest
mark iniquity, who would stand? You remember what verse 4 says?
But there is forgiveness with thee. that thou mayest be feared. There's forgiveness with God. I think about David in Psalm
51 when he prayed, Lord, restore unto me the joy of salvation. I need that joy, don't you? Where
are you going to find that joy? The Bible says we have joy and
peace in believing. What does that mean? That means
our joy and our peace comes not from looking within. not from
looking at you, not from looking within ourselves or to us, but
from looking to Christ. Peace and joy. The fruit of righteousness
is peace, the scripture says in Isaiah 32. Whose righteousness? Christ. So this repentance doesn't
mean now just wallowing, as Bunyan said, in the slew of despond. It doesn't mean just going around
crying and baying at the moon all the time. It means knowing
our sinfulness to the point that we rejoice that the King's on
the throne. He's on the throne. He cannot
be taken off. And there's my hope. And you
know why He's on the throne? Because He put away my sins at
Calvary. He died, was buried, and resurrected,
and he ascended unto the right hand of the Father. And he ever
lives to make intercession for his people. And when we sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He's on the throne. And that's
all there is. And that's all there ought to
be. But here's another one. Here's the third thing. Real
repentance. Let me say this now. I want you
to listen to me. A real hatred of sin. Now, I'm not telling you, and
I'm not going to lie to you and lie to myself and tell you that
we hate sin like we ought to hate sin. I'll tell you this
much. If we hated sin as we ought to
hate sin, we wouldn't have any struggles in the warfare of the
flesh and the spirit. We wouldn't have those struggles.
Because if you really hate something, you won't have anything to do
with it. You won't go around it. You won't have any struggle
with that. You see, that's why we have the flesh and the spirit.
That's the warfare. The flesh lusteth against the
spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, so that we cannot
do the things that we want. We can't go the full swing of
the flesh in depravity and sin. Thank God. If God removed his
hand of restraint from us, and His hand of mercy and grace,
think about where we'd be and what we'd do. There's no limit.
There's no telling. But we have the Holy Spirit who
dwells within us, who's written upon our hearts the Word of God.
That's Christ dwelling within us by His Spirit and His Word,
and He won't let us go. And so we have the Spirit who
inspires our spirits, the very life of God within us, the life
that He gives through Christ, that causes us to desire to follow
Him. But we can't do it perfectly
because of the contamination, the remaining contamination of
the flesh. And so we cry with the Apostle
Paul in continual godly sorrow, O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? But we don't stop
there. I thank my God through Jesus
Christ, my Lord, for there is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ. So it is a real hatred of sin,
but you know, Psalm 119 verse 128 says, therefore, I steam
all thy precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate
every false way. And so we nurture that that's
a gift, that's a grace of the spirit, that's a fruit of the
spirit. But then fourthly, is a persistent endeavor to walk
with God in Christ, to follow Him, to be conformed to His image
in all things. You say, well, I don't do any
of those things enough. Now, that's not what I'm talking
about. No, you don't, and I don't either. But you're here tonight
for one reason, and that's to worship the Lord. Am I right?
I hope that's what you're here for, to worship Christ, to say,
thank you, Lord. You may have had to make yourself
come. That's right. You may have had to do that.
You may have said, boy, I just went straight home and gone to
sleep. It's raining. Good nap time. But you know what? There's a spirit within you,
within His people, that says, you know what? I need to feed
on that green pasture of God's Word. I need to grow in grace
and knowledge. I need to hear about Christ.
Think about the kings on the throne. Mephibosheth said, It
doesn't matter about all these other things that we get involved
with that would take our attention away. The King's on the throne. And let's go worship Him together
in love and unity of faith. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
7. You know how the Corinthians
were having so many problems. Paul wrote letters and he sought
their recovery from their very scandalous sins. He wanted to
make them sorry. He says in verse 9, he says,
Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed
to repentance. In other words, Paul said it
worked. The Holy Spirit empowered the letters that he wrote to
bring these Corinthians, these believers now who were in disobedience,
to repentance. But Paul said, I'm not rejoicing
just because you were made sorry. You know, you make people sorry.
Cain was sorry. He said, my punishment is greater
than I can bear. Esau was sorry, but not to repentance. That's
right. He said, I'm not I'm not really
rejoicing just because you were made sorry. We're a sorry bunch.
We are. Think about it. But that you
were made sorry, sorrowed to repentance. It brought about
a change, a change of attitude, a change of heart, change of
mind. And he says, for you were made sorry after a godly manner,
according to God. that you might receive damage
by us in nothing. Paul said my intent wasn't to
just beat you up with the whip of the law, to beat you down,
to leave you in the slew of the spawn and damage you. My intent
wasn't just to make you hurt. I want to make that person hurt.
Paul said that's not what godly sorrow is all about. He said,
verse 10, for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation. Now,
you know why it's repentance to salvation? Because it's repentance
that always brings a sinner to Christ. It always brings a sinner to
Christ. Listen, if any repentance doesn't bring you to find peace,
hope, assurance, and comfort in Christ, you know what it is?
It's a legal repentance. It's a natural conscience repentance
that you need to repent of. He said, look here, verse 10,
for godly. So our work is repentance to salvation, not to be repented
of. Would you repent of looking to
Christ as your only hope? No, sir. I repent of looking
to myself. I repent of depending upon what
I do. I repent of not loving him enough,
not following him enough, not worshiping him enough. Not growing
enough, I repent of it, but I never have to repent of depending upon,
looking to, resting in Christ and His finished work on the
cross. You don't have to repent of that because that's acceptable
to God. That's a gift of God. And he
says, but the sorrow of the world, verse 10, worketh death. That's
the natural legal conscience. You know, people, like I said,
people can be made sorry, but if it doesn't bring you to lay
at the feet of Christ and rejoice in the fact, like Mephibosheth,
that the King's on the throne, and here's my, as long as He's
on the throne, I'm safe. As long as He's on the throne,
I'm saved. As long as He's on the throne,
I'm sure for heaven as if I were already there, as long as He's
on the throne. Because He's my hope. But the sorrow of the world works
death. And look at verse 11, for behold, this self same thing
that you sought after a godly sort. Now, what's the what's
the result of what carefulness it wrought or worked in you?
You became more careful about things. Now, that's your attitude
about our our witness, about how we act. And he says, yea,
what clearing of yourself. Now, that's not that clearing
of yourself is not justifying yourself. But what he's talking
about is you want to be conformed to Christ. To be like him, to
love like he loved, to forgive like he forgave, to believe like
he believed. You see what I'm saying? And
he said, I want to be cleared of all the contamination of sin.
And he says, yea, what indignation, that's righteous indignation
against sin, our own sin now. Yea, what fear? That's not fear
of hell, that's reverence to God. He says, yea, what vehement
desire, that's an intense desire, yea, what zeal, that's a determination,
yea, what revenge, revenge against sin, against every false way. And in all these things, all
things you have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. And
over this kind of repentance, evidences, a heart for God, a
heart for Christ. This is the broken and contrite
heart that God, listen, that is the creation of God, the making
of God, and that God receives. It affects our minds, it affects
our emotions, it affects our attitudes, our wills, it affects
our walk. But it's also, now, it's not
just brokenness over sin, it's also a true heart in full assurance
of faith, sprinkled from an evil conscience by the blood of Christ,
knowing, knowing that I'm in Him, and that I'm safe in Him,
and that in Him I stand before God complete and justified. And
one day, I'll be delivered from the body of this death, and I'll
be perfectly like Him in every way. And that's something. All
right.