I want to talk about repentance
today. Repentance to salvation. There's
two verses of scripture I want us to look at here in 2 Corinthians
7 and look at verse 10. For godly sorrow worketh repentance
to salvation. We'll talk about repentance to
salvation. For godly sorrow worketh repentance
to salvation not to be repented of. But the sorrow of the world
worketh death. For behold, this selfsame thing
that you sought after a godly sort, what carefulness is wrought
in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation,
yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea,
what revenge, In all things you have proved yourselves to be
clear in this matter. Now there's two things that preachers
must be very careful about. And one is making salvation to
be such an experience. And deal with the experience
only, the disease. Talk about the disease in such
a way And all men do is sit down and look and see if they've got
that disease, examine that disease, and feel that disease. And what
do I mean by that? They never do look for the cure.
What do I mean for that? That we constantly, if preachers,
and some preachers do this, they constantly preach the fruit of
repentance. The evidences of regeneration. and how the spirit deals with
the soul in bringing sinners to see their lost condition and
only dwelling with the inner experience that people go through
and if you dwell with that exclusively and that alone And you try to
tell people what it is to be a so-called convinced sinner
and what they feel before they find peace with God, then you
got people who's always looking to see if they have those evidences,
always looking to see if they have repented or not, always
examining to see if they've had the disease. And they make the
disease to be the things they look at to see if they've ever
found peace or not. And what it does is, you know,
it makes people just, they look within all the time. They look
for evidences instead of trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. And I
tell you another thing is, is that we can preach easy believism. We can deal with the remedy alone
instead of dealing with the disease. And all we do is say, look and
live. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.
And you know what we have to be careful about and the things
that preachers need to do is that we must not come to the
place that we preach believe and live And that doesn't take
the place of you must be born again. You can deal with just
what a sinner experiences in coming to Christ and looking
always to see if they have. Or you can have this remedy alone,
just look and live and believe alone. And yet they never preach
on what it is to be born again and what it is to know Christ
Himself. But also know this, that there
must be a plowing before there can ever be a sowing. Got to
be a plowing before there is a sowing. And this is a danger. This is
a danger. And I hope I'm not guilty of
it. I know I have been over the years.
But men and women to whom we preach must never be led to think
they're healed before they know they're sick. Old Barnard used to say, preachers
are trying to give people aspirins that don't have headaches. So they can take the gospel and
believe the gospel and never know what they believed and go
out of the church believing that they've been saved and never
know anything about the Lord Jesus Christ. So we just don't
want to preach experience and what it is to come and then all
this deep experience and how the Spirit deals with a man.
And then turn around and just preach an easy believism until
people, you know, rest in Christ without ever going through the
experience of coming to Christ. And there's got to be a sickness
before there'll ever be any healing. And men's got to understand that
they're sick unto death. That's why they, you know, men
came to the Lord Jesus Christ and said, this man's daughter
is over here sick. And he said, this sickness is
not unto death. It's when they got there she
is dead. And a feral has got to be sick. And a man's got to
be clothed before they see, you know, we don't want people to
be clothed before they see themselves naked. You know, as preachers,
we don't want a fellow clothed before he sees himself naked.
We don't want people to trust the Lord Jesus Christ before
they have any reason to trust Him. I remember years ago, We
was on a trip somewhere and Dougie was with us. And you know, have
you all ever seen on these bridges and overpasses and stuff, people
write, you know, trust Jesus or Christ is the answer. We was
driving along. There's a great big thing across
the bridge somewhere up in Ohio. I forget where we was going,
but it's up in Ohio. And Doug was just a young, young
fellow. Might have been 14, 15. And I said, do you see that?
I said, somebody wrote there, right there, trust Jesus. I said,
Doogie, what does it mean to trust Jesus? Do you know what
that means? He said, I guess it means that
you trust Jesus. I said, but how can you trust
someone you don't know anything about? How can you trust someone that
you never know anything about and why would you trust them
unless you have a need to trust them? You know, Darryl broke his ankle
and so he had to go to the doctor but his need made him go to the
doctor. And he's going to have to have
surgery Tuesday. But the thing is that people's
got to know there's something wrong with them before they ever
come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Men's got to be naked before
they'll ever be clothed. They've got to be emptied before
they'll ever be filled. And so the preaching that we
must do and teaching that we must do is deal with the disease
and the remedy all in the same message. We have to preach that
men have to go through something in their experience in being
brought to know Christ. If you ever know what it is to
be lost, you understand what I'm saying. If you ever know
what it is to be a sinner, you know what I'm talking about.
And at the same time we must make the gospel declaration,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And
then turn around and say, except a man be born again, he can't
see the kingdom of God and can't enter the kingdom of God. And
our Lord Jesus Christ himself said, except you repent, you
all shall likewise perish. And so I want to deal with this
repentance to salvation. We're going to try to deal with
what happens, how it happens, and who causes it to happen. I'm going to tell you, you're
going to sit there in verse 10. For godly sorrow worketh repentance
to salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world
worketh death. Now, I want to give you, first
of all, some false conceptions of repentance and sorrow for
sin. Now, there's got to be a sorrow
for sin. There's going to be a sorrow for sin. There's going
to be an acknowledgment of sin. But he said here, the sorrow
of the world works death. What does it mean, a false conception
of repentance and sorrow for sin? Well, what's this sorrow
that works death, this sorrow of the world that works death?
What is this sorrow? Well, it's being sorry over something
that you lose temporally. Something that you lose temporally.
It's like Esau. Esau was sorry that he lost his
birthright. He said, what good is my birthright
going to do me if I'm going to die of hunger? So he asked his
brother, he said, look here, I'm starving to death here. So
he said, well, I'll tell you what, I'll give you this bowl
of porridge here if you'll give me your birthright. He said,
well, what good is my birthright going to do me? if I'm going
to die. So he sold his birthright for
a bowl of porridge. And over in Hebrews 12 it says
this, that Esau sought repentance but could not find it and his
sorrow was over the fact that he lost his birthright. It had
nothing to do with that anyway that he sinned against God. He
was sorry he lost his birthright. But it had nothing to do with
how he felt that he sinned before God, how he rebelled against
God, how little he thought of a relationship with God, how
little he thought of how God would receive him and need him,
or want him in any way that he needed God. And this being sorrow
over temporary losses. A man loses a little money, he
gets real sorry over it. He loses some honor. He gets
sorry over it. He loses some comfort. He gets
sick and loses a little comfort. He gets sorry over that. And
he loses his reputation. I don't know how many men, how
many men do you reckon, how many women have you reckoned that's
got in some kind of a trouble and was in a dire straits over
something and they said, Lord, if you'll get me out of this,
I'll serve you. And then when He gets them out
of it, they go on just like they always did. That's worldly repentance. That's the sorrow that work is
dead. Men get caught up in all kinds
of things. Like Judas. Judas. You reckon he was sorry over
his sin for selling the Lord Jesus Christ for 30 pieces of
silver? No, he wasn't. If he had, he
would have went to the Lord and asked for mercy and asked for
forgiveness and said, Oh God, I've sinned against your son. I've sinned against you. Please
forgive me. But you know why he hung himself?
Because he had a sorrow that worked death in him. And that's
the sorrow of this world. It'll work death in a man. It'll
work death in a man. A person gets sorry over some
way they treated somebody, but it don't change their attitude
toward them. And I tell you, a sorrow of this world that works
death, it's a sorrow that has nothing to do with a man's relationship
with God. And it results in not true repentance. It don't result in faith. It
doesn't result in forgiveness. It only works death upon death. Oh, people get in such a condition,
you know, and they think they're going to die. They think they're
going to lose something. They think they're going to Somebody
in their family's in such bad, bad condition, you know, and
so they go to seeking the Lord and as quick as the trouble's
over. I heard a fellow say one time,
any salvation that's born in a storm, or repentance that's
born in a storm, as quick as the storm's over, the salvation's
over. Now, ain't that right? That's
the sorrow of the world. That's the sorrow of the world.
It'll work death. There's a fella sitting up here in jail that
got drunk last night and they got picked up and they're sitting
in jail. Don't you know how sorry they
are? Don't you know that they say, boy, I'll not do this again? Don't you know that they say,
oh, they're going home and they say, honey, I'm sorry I've done
that. And they may last for a month,
may last for two months, but I guarantee you if God don't
do something for them, they'll be in the same boat again. That's
the sorrow of the world. And that works death. But oh
my! You see, men have been taught
and believed. Let me give you four things about
it. Men have been taught and believed that mere sorrow of
the mind in reference to their sin is repentance. You know,
having sorrow in their mind. That's in reference to sin is
repentance. But they're sorry over some temporal
consequences. They don't think of the eternal
consequences. And if they didn't think there
would be a hell, an eternal hell, they would continue right on
in sin. And there's no consequences. They have a sorrow of mind. And
then they've been taught also, secondly, that there can be a
repentance without sorrow over sin. That there can be a repentance
without sorrow over sin. And I tell you what, that just
can't be. All they got to do is say, well,
do you accept Jesus? Do you want to come to the front?
Do you want to be saved? Well, of course, nobody wants
to go to hell. And they think that they must
become, and here's another thing that men's been taught, and some
of you've been taught this probably over the years, that men must
be so wretched and black and horrible, or that they have not
truly repented. Unless they're just so wretched
and so black and so horrible in their sin, and just feel the
weight of their sin all the time, that they've not truly repented.
And the fourth thing they've been taught that's not so is
that repentance happens once and then it's over. Repentance
happens once and then it's over. Well, look what Paul said here
in verse 10. He says, it's a repentance to salvation not to be repented
of. All the things that I've said
so far is a repentance to be repented of. There's lots of
folks that's got a repentance they need to repent of. They've made a decision. They've
got sorry over something they've done. They've reformed or something.
They haven't, don't know anything about sin. Some of them so wretched
and black that they just can't never get any rest. And they
think that repentance, once it's over, happens once it's over. And all those things are repentance
to be repented of. But look what it says here now.
Verse 10, for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation. Only godly sorrow does that.
Where does godly sorrow come from? Godly sorrow. Well, look
in Romans 2, 4. Let me show you. Romans 2, 4. Let me show you where it comes
from. Several places we'll look, but I tell you, godly sorrow,
not the sorrow of the world. Not the sorrow of the world. I've got family members that
have sorrow of the world. You go to places, you know, and
you see people getting so sorry, so sorry, you know, over something
they've done, or so sorry over some way they treated somebody,
so sorry over some trouble they've caused, so sorry over some situation
they got in, so sorry over some temporal consequences that happens
to them. And so they get sorry, but then
the sorrow don't last. It don't change them. But look
what he said here in Romans 2, 4. or despises thou the riches of
his goodness and forbearance and low suffering, not knowing
that the goodness, the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. Oh my, the goodness of God. Goodness is the cause of a man
being brought to repentance. Godly sorrow is the effect of
God's goodness working in a man. God's goodness is what leads
a man to godly sorrow. And repentance is the effect
of it. And where is God's goodness seen at more than any place else?
In the Lord Jesus Christ. Where is God's goodness seen
at? Where's God's blessed grace and mercy and goodness seen?
It's seen in the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, everybody says, the
good Lord this, the good Lord that. I don't like that term.
I don't like that term. You hear people saying all the
time, I'll warm y'all up a little bit. I'm sorry. Y'all look like
you're freezing to death. Got coats on. Some of you, you
know, are looking for something to cover yourself up with. I'm
going to give you a little relief here. But Godly sorrow is the goodness
of God. And the goodness of God is only
seen in the Lord Jesus Christ. Looking to Him, seeing Him, and
Him alone, that's what brings true repentance. And I'll show
you that. Malachi is the last book in the
Old Testament. Zechariah is the book right before
that. And I want you to look in Zechariah
chapter 12. And I'll show you what I'm talking
about here. When you see the Lord Jesus Christ, it's a view
of Christ. It's a view in the goodness of
God in the Lord Jesus Christ that God uses as godly sorrow. Zechariah chapter 12. Oh my! Oh, it's a view. You see, the repentance comes
from the gospel, never from the law. The law has no place for
repentance. And repentance is found at the
foot of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. And repentance,
what repentance is, is having a dramatic change of mind. A drastic change of mind. And
it's a change of mind about everything that you ever believed, and saying
everything I believed was wrong, and God changing your mind about
sin, about Christ, about salvation, about God? His Word? I mean, it's a dramatic
change of mind. I mean, there's a time that you
thought you was good. Now you know you have no righteousness
at all. There was a time you thought
God was the good Lord. Now you know He's holy and righteous
and mighty and omnipotent. There was a time you thought
sin was something you did with your hands. And then you find
out it's something that's your very nature. There was a time
that you accepted Jesus when you as a child or you made a
decision for Jesus or you got on an altar and then God saw,
you saw the Lord high and lifted up and then you said, Oh God
have mercy on me. You're like Paul, he said, I
was a Jew, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews, I had a righteousness
after the law that was blameless, but he said, and now I count
all of it but done, that I may win Christ and be found in Christ. And God, that's what repentance
is. That's why the sorrow of the world, it works death. You're
just sorry over something you've done, something you said, some
loss you've had. But oh, when God gets a hold
of you, when God does something here, and that's where, you know,
the mind and the heart, they go together. And repentance is
a dramatic, drastic change of mind. And it's only when you
see the Lord Jesus Christ, is repentance born. Look in verse
10 here. Zechariah chapter 12, verse 10. And I will pour upon the house
of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace
and supplication and there is a heavenly Jerusalem Paul talked
about us being Jerusalem which is from above and God said I'll
pour out upon them the spirit of grace and supplication means
that you're asking you're pleading you got your hands held out and
listen to this and this is how it happens and they shall look
upon me I and me are the same person and they shall look upon
me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him mourn
for him that's one mourneth for his only son and shall be in bitterness for
him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. And in that
day, in that day when you see him whom you pierce, when that
spirit of grace and supplications poured on you, in that day there
shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem. And verse 12, and
the land shall mourn every family apart The family of the house
of David apart. Their wives apart. The family
of the house of Nathan apart. And their wives apart. King and
prophet. Wives and husbands. They're going
to get by themselves. David's going over here and he's
going to mourn. And he's going to weep. And over
here is his wife. She's over here by herself. There's
Nathan the prophet. He's over here by himself. Pouring
out his heart. Mourning. Over here is his wife. Why they do that? Because repentance
is an individual thing. And all the family of the house
of Levi, and their wives apart, the family of Shimei apart, and
their wives apart, all the families that remain, every family apart,
and their wives apart. You see, beloved, and it's only
when you look on Him whom you've perished, It's a view of repentance
that starts at the cross. And I'll tell you something else,
not only does godly sorrow and the goodness of God do it, it
comes from the gospel and preaching the gospel. And I'll tell you
something else, it's all of grace. If you repent, grace causes you
to repent. If you have a dramatic change
of mind, grace causes it to do it. Ain't that right? Look in
Acts chapter 5 with me just a minute. You know, Jeremiah said it this
way, Ken, the Ethiopian, change his skin? Can the leopard change
his spots? How then can you that are accustomed
to do evil do good? How can you do it? How can you
change? If the Ethiopian can't change
the color of his skin, and the leopard can't change his spots,
how can men and women that's accustomed to do evil, how in
the world can they then do good? Where is this repentance going
to come from? Where is this change of heart,
this change of mind? Huh? Look what he said in Acts
5.31. Well, in verse 30 he says this,
The God of our fathers raised up Jesus whom you slew and hanged
on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his
right hand to be a prince and a savior. Now listen to this.
To give, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Christ is the one who gives you
repentance. Christ is the one that God raised
up to do it. So anything we get from God,
we've said it a thousand times, if we've said it once, that it's
going to come through the Lord Jesus Christ. God, everything
God's got, from repentance to faith, comes from Christ. Look at Acts 11 and verse 18. You know, it's of grace. Man
can't change himself. God's got to do this business.
Look what he said in Acts 11.31. Well, let me see if that's where
it's at. 11.18, excuse me, I'm sorry.
That's 5.31 the other time. Look what he says now. And this
is after Peter had priested Cornelius' house and he came back. And when
they heard these things, they held their peace in glorifying
God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance
unto life? Christ exalted to give us a prince
to give repentance, and God grants repentance? And that's what we're talking
about, this sorrow, this godly sorrow that works repentance.
Now there's four things that nature cannot produce, that the
natural man can't do. Nature can't produce it. It can
imitate repentance. That's all it can do is imitate
it. And it can produce remorse. Or it can't produce. It can imitate
repentance. It can produce remorse. It can
produce reformation. It can even produce weeping. But godly sorrow works true repentance
as the apostle said here in 2nd Corinthians 5. And true repentance
works that godly sorrow and it always starts with God. It must start with God. True
repentance has to do with my relationship with God, not the
world or not the world's influence in what I have or don't have
or what I lose or don't lose in this world. Huh? Let me tell
you something. You all know the story of the
rich man in hell? Old timers, you know, you read some of the
books and they call him dives. I don't know where they got the
word dive, but the rich man died and went to hell. Lazarus laid
at his gate. Rich man walked by him every
day. Rolled his chariot out of there. Fared sumptuously every
day. Lazarus lay there and the dogs
was licking his sores. God sent the rich man to hell.
Took Lazarus to glory. Well, when that rich man was
in hell, you know what he asked for? Two things. He said, I want a drop of water.
And I want somebody to go tell my five brothers so they don't
come to this awful place. But you know he never once said
I'm sorry for my sin. He never said once I'm sorry
for the way I treated Lazarus. He never said once that I'm sorry
for the way I wasted all my money and fared sumptuously and everybody
else was the man sitting in my gate and I wouldn't even give
him the crumbs from my table. Instead of bringing Him in and
washing Him up and cleaning Him up and letting Him stay with
me and taking care of Him, He never said, I'm sorry over anything. So I'll tell you something, beloved,
if a man, God don't work repentance in a man and grant repentance
to him, he's going to end up the same place that a rich man
was. And I'll tell you something else he won't do. When he gets
there, he will not be sorry over his sin, no more than he's sorry
over it right now. If God don't work it in him.
My father, the day he died and perished without Christ, he's
exactly what he was in this world. And if you got anybody that you
know, this idea that you know that death changes you, it doesn't.
The Scripture tells us in Revelation that they were in hell and even
not only there would they not repent, but they actually cussed
God. And was angry at God and cussed
God. And he says when the tree falls,
that's when lame. And he also said this, he said,
he that's unjust, he'll stay unjust. He that's holy, he'll stay holy. He that's righteous will always
be holy. And so I'm telling you, beloved,
judgment and fear of hell or terror or anger, that won't produce
repentance. Going to somebody's grave or
going to your loved one's funeral and standing crying over them,
saying, oh, I'm so sorry that I didn't treat you this way.
I'm sorry I didn't say this. I'm sorry I didn't do it. And
oh, I'm going to change my ways. That won't work. You can watch your own children
die. That won't change your nature. As sin, the Lord Jesus Christ
bearing your sins on the cross, bearing your guilt, bearing your
burden, bearing your shame. That's what will change your
heart. That's what will cause you to see how desperately you
need salvation. That's where repentance is born.
And oh, let's go back over to our text. And then he goes over here, he
said, Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented
of. Now let's talk about a repentance
to salvation that's not to be repented of. And I'll tell you this, true
repentance, this salvation, this repentance to salvation, not
to be repented of, not to say, well, I'm sorry that I didn't.
Anybody sorry that they ever trusted Christ? Those of you
that's been saved by the grace of God, are you? Would you change
your mind about Christ now? Would you change your mind about
your relationship with God? Would you change your mind over
sin? No, no. We've repented of salvation and
we're not going to repent of what we believe now. Right? Nobody's going to change my mind
and make me believe something else. If God teaches you, you're
never going to change your mind again. That's what He's saying
here. And true repentance begins with
the inward man, not with the outward man. Ain't that what
our Lord Jesus Christ told the Pharisees? He said, oh, you make
clean the cup and the outside of the platter. You make sure
that everything about you outside is clean. But He said, you know
what? I know you on the inside. You're full of ravening and you're
full of wickedness on the inside. You see, beloved, true repentance
has to do with the heart, not changing the way you act. And acting, you know, real pious.
It has more to do with the attitude than the action that a man does. If you were to watch Peter, when
he was standing there and denied the Lord Jesus Christ three times,
you'd say, that man don't know the Lord. But he did. If you watch somebody's actions
sometimes, that don't give you any indication that they know
Christ and that they repent. That's what I mean. It's an attitude.
It's not something you do with them. That's why the Lord, that's
why He says, My son, give me what? Your heart. As a man thinketh in his heart,
that's what he is. Out of the abundance of the heart,
that's what comes out of the mouth. And now how in the world,
I'm going to get to some evidences if I can here for a minute. How
in the world can I tell if my repentance needs to be repented
of or is it salvation? How can I tell if my repentance
needs to be repented of or is my repentance to salvation? Well,
I'm going to give you a few things about that. Real repentance where
a man, God's done something for him in his heart. He acknowledges
God's sovereign right to do what He will with His own. Now that's
what I'm talking about change of mind. He acknowledges God's
sovereign right to do what He will with His own. Ain't that
right? When Samuel, God came to Samuel three different times and the
Lord told him, He said, I'm going to kill Eli's two sons. They're priests, but I'm gonna
kill them. Eli was the high priest. And
he says, Samuel, tell me what the Lord told you. He said, oh,
I don't want to, I don't want to. He said, tell me, I want
you to tell me. He said, the Lord told me, go
kill both of your sons. You know what Eli said? After
I've served the Lord all these years, man, I've been faithful. I've been dedicated, I've been
committed, I've been a preacher, I've served the Lord in His house
all these years, and then He's going to take my two sons?" No,
no, you know what Eli said? He said, it's the Lord. It's
the Lord. Let Him do what seemeth good. And Job said this after Job had
lost everything he had. and was sitting on the pot sherds. Skipping with a big old piece
of pot. Scraping his balls. Then his wife said, just go ahead
and cuss God and die. You know what Job said? He said,
why would I do that? The Lord gave. Everything I have,
the Lord gave me. And it was his to begin with,
so he just took it back. He just took it away. That's
all he done. Boy, that's repentance we're
talking about. Let me show you something in
Daniel chapter 4. This is a man who repented. Daniel
chapter 4 and verse 34. This is what I'm talking about. You
know, our Lord Jesus Christ said this, I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from
the wide and prove them. You know, our Lord said to all
the Father of heaven and earth, I thank you that it hid these
things from the wide and revealed them unto me. God, whatever seems
good in your sight, that's what pleases me. He said, it's well
pleasing in your sight. And you remember those fellas.
You know that the man went out first six o'clock in the morning,
hired some fellas to work, said, give you a penny for the day's
work. Nine o'clock went out and got some more. Twelve o'clock
went out and got some more. Three o'clock went out and got
some more. Five o'clock went out and hired some more. He got,
at the end of the day, he got out, he had a little table sitting
there, said, I'm gonna pay all you fellas now. It's payday.
It's time to pay up for the day. And I worked for fellas that
didn't pay at the end of the day. I used to work for farmers,
and you know, when they get done, they'd pay at the end of the
day. They know you might need to go buy a bologna sandwich
or something, you know. And so, you know, here you are,
and he set up his table there, and he had a stack of pennies
all across there. That last fella come in at five,
he walked up there, and he just worked one hour, handed him a
penny. That fellow looked down the line and said, Oh! What is
going on here? He said that fellow's only been
working an hour. And he paid him what he's going
to pay us? And we've borne the burden and heat of the day. He
said that's not fair, that's not fair. And that fellow was
working for a reward. And you know what that man told
him? And this is what we say about our Lord. Does thou not agree with me for
a penny? Is it not right that I do what
I will with mine own? It's mine. The vineyard was mine. The money's mine. Everything's
mine. And I'll do what I want to with
it. And if you get mad about it, that's your problem. It ain't mine. Ain't that what
our Lord said? Huh? Look here in Daniel chapter
4 in verse 30. Excuse me, verse 34. This is
Nebuchadnezzar after he'd been put out to pick grass like a
cow. That's an oxen. And he ate grass
and his body was wet with the dew of heaven. His hair was like
an eagle's feathers. It grew so long. And they didn't
cut his nails and they got so long. And then look what he says
here. And at the end of the days, Verse 34, I, Nebuchadnezzar,
lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned
unto me, and I blessed, this is when your understanding returned,
and I blessed the Most High, and I blessed and honored him
that liveth forever. whose dominion is an everlasting
dominion. His kingdom is from generation
to generation. And this is what this king said,
And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing,
and he doeth according to his will in the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his head or say unto him, What are you doing? Because he said,
I tried that and it didn't work. That's what happened to me. I
tried it and it don't work. You don't fight against God.
And let me hurry up and tell you a few more things here. True
repentance admits the holiness of God. And admits my own sinfulness
and my own corruption. God's holy. God's righteous. God's glorious. I'm corrupt. I'm sinful. And I tell you, how
come you become a sinner? Because I've seen God. I didn't
become a sinner because some preacher told me I was. I didn't
become a sinner because somebody convinced me of it. No, no. Isaiah
said, I saw the Lord, how I lifted up. What had effect on him? He said, I abhor myself. I despise
myself. I'm unclean. I'm a man undone. I'm an unclean man. Joe said,
I heard about you. Oh, I've been sitting here with
these fellows. They've been telling me about you now for days. And
now my eye sees you. And I repent in dust and ashes. I'm sorry for everything I ever
thought about you and said about you. And I'll put my hand over
you in my mouth. And I'll tell you something else
about true repentance. It justifies God in His judgment
against sin. It justifies God in His judgment
against sin. And as we know, David said, it's
against you and you only that I've sinned. Now let me ask you
four questions. And please pay attention to this.
True repentance justifies God in His judgment against sins.
Four questions. Must God punish sin? Must God
punish sin? Is God just to punish sin? Would God be just to punish my
sin? Well then how then can God be
just and justify me? Huh? There's only one way and that's
through our Lord Jesus Christ. God punishing us. Our sins were
punished. But they were punished in a substitute.
God was just to punish us for our sins. But bless His holy
name, He did it in another. And I'll tell you something else.
True repentance owes and confesses that it lies with God's sovereign
will and pleasure to lead me in my sin or save me by His grace. true repentance, owns and confesses
that it lies with God's sovereign will and pleasure to leave me
in my sin or save me by His grace. They can do that. Them lepers came to Him and said,
Lord, it's the first word out of their mouth, Lord. They're
lepers. They can't change themselves.
They can't heal themselves. They're unclean. And the first
thing, next thing they said, if you will, if you will, you
can make me clean. I'm already what I am and I can't
change what I am. So I'm here and you're the Lord. You've got the power. You've
got the authority. You've got the will. You've got
the right. If you will, you can make me clean. Or you can just
leave me sent here as a leper. And you know what our Lord said
to him? I will. Be thou clean. I tell you, I've taken way too
long. I need to preach more often here, don't I? True repentance receives humbly
and genuinely the grace of God in Christ, claiming no merit
of their own. Whoever through repentance is,
it looks outside itself to the Lord Jesus Christ. They say,
rock of ages cleft for me. Let me hide myself indeed. You
see, it's not our grief, but His grief that God looks
at. It's not our tears, but His blood. Can you bow to this? that men
don't go to heaven because they're good, because all men are guilty. And this is something you're
going to have to, you know, if you've never dealt with it before,
you're going to have to deal with this, and this is what repentance
does. Then people say when they start hearing the gospel, what
about my relatives? What about my relatives? They
were so good people. They were good people. They even read the Bible, went
to church some. I tell you something, repentance
justifies God even in punishing sin and those we love. God can save our children or
leave them alone. God can save your wives or leave
them alone. God can save your husbands or
leave them alone. And you know what we'll say? You're God. You're God. Repentance bows to
salvation by sovereign, free grace, not by works, not nobody's
works. And the Apostle said here, and
I know this for a fact, and I'll hurry, hurry, hurry. True repentance
keeps on repenting. If you've ever repented, you're
repenting now. Ain't that right? Godly said
here, Godly Saul works, worketh. Worketh. I repent, oh man, I've
repented so much today before I got here. Forgive me for not understanding
my notes more. Forgive me, oh Lord, for not
being able, you know, just forgive me for not taking my mind more
serious and taking the things more. There are so many things.
Repentance and faith is a state and condition of the heart. And
I know this, beloved, true repentance is on God's side and agrees with
God whatever He does. Now, oh my, men can reproduce
religion, but only God can produce life. Men can impress other people
with affectation, with all their crime and all their religion,
but only God can produce the root, the life, Christ in the
heart. and a love for Him and allegiance
to Him. Only God can do that. Christ
in you, the hope of glory. I'm going to show you one thing
and I'm done. 2 Peter 3, verse 9. 2 Peter 3, verse 9. Oh my, it's a change. Oh, repentance
is a change. But oh, what a change it is.
It's a turning, but oh what a turning it is. Look what he said here
in 2 Peter 3.9. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering
to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance. Now this tells us that all of
God's people will come to repentance. Every single one of them is going
to come to repentance. You know why? Because the Lord is not
slack concerning His promise toward us. He made a promise
to Christ, I'm going to give you a people and every one of
them is going to come to you. I made a promise in the covenant,
Abraham will have a seed like the stars in heaven and the sands
on the shore. And He made a promise to His
children. I am the children which thou
hast given me, I will bring." I will bring. Well, that's repentance
to salvation. Anybody got here repentance they
need to repent of? Oh my, bless the Lord for working
in our hearts to enforce what only He can do. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, Thank you for giving us this time this
morning. God, it's only you that can take the things that's been
said and make them real, alive, and effectual. Lord, if all they
heard is my voice, but Lord, if they heard the voice of the
Spirit of God, and if you'll take these things of Christ and
make them known, make them real, make them alive, make them vital,
then there be salvation wrought in the heart of a sinner. So
Lord, we trust you. Trust you to do the work. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. There is a name I love to hear. I love to sing His praise. It sounds like music in my ear,
the sweetest name on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Amen. Amen.