The Sorrow of Repentance

Transcript

I’d like to begin the sermon by relating a personal experience that I had. It was my first public exposure to public repentance. I’d never seen that before and actually I was six or seven years old. My father and I drove down from St. Louis, Missouri, where I was born. We went down to the Springfield, Missouri, area where he was born in a little town north of there, and while we were there visiting my great, great uncle Noah, my uncle Floyd, my dad and I, we drove to what they called a “brush arbor meeting” and I’d never been to one before and I didn’t know exactly what it was but I think in looking back it was a revival meeting and it was out in the country and the cars drove there. You could get out of your car and sit around a platform where there was a preacher who was giving a sermon or you could stay in your car. And we chose to do that and it was like being at a drive-in movie where you would stay in your car and you would watch the service and during the service the preacher was up there giving his sermon and then he began to ask people to come forward and ask them if they would give their heart to the Lord and as a little kid, six or seven years old, I’d never seen that before and people began to go up and to go onstage and began to “repent.” They began to confess their sins. They began to say that yes, they did accept Jesus Christ. Some of the ushers or deacons would walk through where the cars were and back in those days nobody had air-conditioning and the windows were down and I remember one of the ushers or deacons kind of looking in our car and asking my father and me, “Do you want to give your heart to the Lord?” And I kind of got afraid and scooted over close to my dad and obviously we didn’t go up there. 

The second experience that I had with a public exposure to repentance. I was now about 27 years old. I was in upstate New York pastoring and I heard on a radio advertisement and I would see on some billboards that an evangelist was coming to town and he was going to have a meeting and this particular evangelist had memorized the Bible and he had known and did know every scripture by heart. Now I had studied my Bible. I was a church pastor and I had memorized certain scriptures. I certainly had not memorized the entire Bible. So I decided well I would like to go see this so I went to our auditorium there and it seated 5,000 people, and it was packed. While I was sitting there and he was giving his sermon, probably about three quarters of the way through the sermon he began to play on the piano a religious song called “Just as I am.” And I don’t know the lyrics but it was something to the effect just as I am without one plea Jesus died for me. Then he asked people to come forward and to give their hearts to the Lord. It was an altar call. And as I sat there cause I was pretty uncomfortable at that point. As I sat there, I looked and there were people who were leaving their chairs, leaving their seats, and going to the stage. And as I sat in mine and I watched them, they were there kneeling on the stage and there were other people or ministers or deacons or whomever who would put their arm around them and these people began to cry and I could hear them saying certain things where they were confessing their sins. 

Now I do have a question for you. Can you work up real repentance during a one-hour service? Can you really repent in a one-hour service? Well a partial answer is, yes you can work up real emotion in a one-hour service, but what about real repentance? How emotional must repentance be? How public should repentance be? Now we know that a prerequisite for baptism is that we repent. That we repent before God, confess our sins, accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and we do that, and for those of us who are baptized, we have repented. But if we’ve repented before baptism, is there a need to repent again? Is there a need for other times of repentance? Well actually repentance is not a one-time event. It is an ongoing process. When you look into the subject of the Bible, if you look about justification, you’ll find that there is an initial justification and that is where we repent before God and that repentance leads to baptism and that baptism allows God, through our repentance, to be forgiven of our sins and we are under the grace of God and we have been justified. But there is also an ongoing justification. It’s a behavioral justification. It is something that we do in our lives. It is the requiring of the renewal of God’s Spirit within us and to be able to have that Spirit of God renewed within us we do have to repent. And repentance is not just the one-time event before we’re baptized–as important as that is. But there is a requirement of ongoing repentance. 

Now for us Passover is just a few weeks away and as a church pastor I would like to mention to you and for me that it is time for you and for me to examine the role of repentance in our lives and we need to examine that role of repentance as we prepare to take the New Testament Passover. There is a preparation that we go through to be able to come before God on that sacred night and be able to have that Passover. If you’ll turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians, chapter 7. In 2 Corinthians 7, we'll see that the subject of sorrow that leads to salvation or sorrow that leads to death is addressed here by Paul. 

2 Corinthians 7:10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. 

I’m reading from the New King James Version and here in this scripture God’s Word does distinguish between godly sorrow and worldly sorrow. One sorrow, the godly sorrow, produces repentance and leads to salvation and in fact the way to look at that is a part of genuine repentance is to experience a godly sorrow and the natural result of having that godly sorrow, it does bring about repentance which does then lead to salvation. The other sorrow leads to death. A worldly sorrow leads to death. Brethren, today in this sermon I would like to focus on the subject of the sorrow of repentance. Now the elements of real repentance, there is quite a bit of course, that goes into that but let me just touch on a couple of points.

A main part of repentance is to feel sorry. That is a requirement. We do need to feel sorrow or to be sorry. But it is much more and much more profound than just saying, “I’m sorry.” It is a godly sorrow that comes within us. That godly sorrow leads to repentance and it produces change within our lives. It produces an about face, a redirection of one’s life. It’s not just a superficial, “Well I’m sorry.” 

I’m a father of three. My three children are now adults and two of them have children and the other has a child on its way, but as I think back when they were kids, and if you have children at this time you think back on your childhood or rearing your children, I remember as a parent when the kids were little when one was wrong and had done something to the other one and they were in error telling them well you’ll need to tell your sister or you need to tell your brother that you’re sorry and sometimes the sorry that they said was, “I’m sorry,” (quickly) or “I’m sorry” and it wasn’t really heartfelt. It wasn’t sincere. And then Donna and I would tell them no it doesn’t sound like you’re really sorry for what you’ve done—just a flippant or a very quick “I’m sorry” wasn’t sufficient then and brethren it’s not sufficient for us. It’s not sufficient for us as we pray to God and seek that godly sorrow. Just a quick “I’m sorry” really isn’t what God is talking about. What Paul has written in 2 Corinthians, chapter 7. Worldly sorrow, quite frankly, is a mourning for the self. It’s very much inward thinking. It’s just really a form of selfishness because God says worldly sorrow leads to death. It’s just thinking about the self. It’s just inwardly directed at the form of self-pity. It really doesn’t encompass total change. The godly sorrow that leads to repentance that leads to salvation is very deep. It’s quite profound and God does expect for us to experience that and to have that and not just at our baptism. 

Now if you’ll look with me in Luke, chapter 3, and let’s begin in verse 3. Now this is John the Baptist and he was known for the message of repentance. He was preparing the way for Jesus Christ. He was the precursor of Jesus Christ and a main part of the message that he brought in his day as he did and was a part of his ministry was a message of repentance. And he says here in verse 3. 

Luke 3:3 And he went into all the region around Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. [So he was telling them a baptism of repentance. Skip down to verse 7.] Then he said to the multitudes that came to be baptized by him,” Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’ for I say to you that God is able to raise up children Abraham from these stones….” 

When you read that, there are people who came to him in response to the message that he brought of repentance and they did repent and he baptized them. But there was a group of people there who came who quite frankly were not repentant and John the Baptist told them you have to 
bring forth evidence. You have to bring forth fruit meet, or fitting, to show God, and me as His 
minister in this capacity, to show that you have repented, that your repentance is genuine, that you have to bring forth evidence of that. There has to be tangible fruit that you’ve had this godly sorrow within you, sorrow for the sins that you have committed. I think it’s quite interesting in verse eight where he tells them, you know we have to read between the lines to a degree, but John is telling them don’t just say that you have Abraham as your father, and the lineage there going down through Moses saying in effect well we have the Law of God. I know the Law of God. Therefore I have that already. Well, that wasn’t sufficient. Not when it came to the topic of a message of repentance that leads to baptism that leads to salvation. 

It reminds me of the occasion where Jesus gave the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican or the Pharisee and the tax collector. And the Pharisee stood there and he looked down, as I would envision, he looked down his nose at the tax collector and said, I’m glad Father, that I’m not like this tax collector or this publican. And I give tithes of all that I have. I fast twice a week. I do this. I do this. I do that. And then the publican all he could do, and not even lift up his eyes, just smote his breast and said, “Have mercy upon me a sinner.” And Jesus said that the publican went away justified in the eyes of God where the Pharisee didn’t. When you examine that account, the Pharisee was not asking for forgiveness. He was telling God in comparison to this other sinner what he had not done and the good that he was doing. And that didn’t really cut it with God; it didn’t cut it with Jesus Christ. It was not what was appropriate. The other man, obviously filled with emotion, and barely articulate as the account would show but all he could say was have mercy upon me, a sinner. 

When you talk about the subject of repentance that we need to have, it is a very emotional experience. It is one that is sincere. It is one where God will be looking to see do you have evidence that have you repented? Where are the fruits? Bring that forward. Don’t quote to me a law. Don’t quote to me your lineage. Don’t tell me what you have done. I want to see within you. Have you repented? Do you have that godly sorrow? 

In Acts, chapter 3, and then let’s look at verse 19. It says, 

Acts 3:19 Repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. 

Repent, therefore, and be converted. Repentance encompasses not only the sorrow that must be there but it also encompasses a conversion that is a real change. A turning about. A changing from the way that we are, that we would be converted, that we would repent and therefore be converted so that our sins could be blotted out, that God would be able to extend to us His mercy and to forgive us. What God is looking for, brethren, is unconditional surrender, unconditional surrender to God. When we sin before God, we have to repent to God in an unconditional way where there is no turning back. That we don’t hold anything back. That we open up to God and we confess those sins and we’re genuinely sorry for the sins we have committed and we unconditionally give ourselves over to Him. 

When I think of the phrase “unconditional surrender,” I think back to images that I have seen, old footage on television and other venues. Well, if you remember, you may have seen it yourselves pictures, or pictures of that when the Japanese surrendered after World War II, or that which ended World War II, and their delegates came onto the deck of the battleship Missouri and they had as a country, they had been defeated, and they had made the decision that they were going to surrender. And what the United States, the victor, required of them that they would surrender unconditionally, that there was absolutely no conditions tied to their surrender. They were giving themselves over totally to whatever the United States decided to do with them and if you remember those images, those delegates, those representatives of the nation of Japan, the Japanese Empire, they had the longest faces, and I remember watching them, they looked so sad though they had the top hats and they were dressed formally with the cutaway formal jackets and the white gloves and the bow tie, and they stood on that deck and they had the longest face because they were going to sign the papers which would state that they unconditionally surrendered to the United States. 

When you look at their culture and their history, that was something very abhorrent to them. For them to surrender, that was normally not an option that a soldier would fight to his death on the battlefield. He would not surrender and now as a nation they were surrendering unconditionally. If you think about the, quite frankly the atrocities that were committed by the Japanese against the Allies, particularly our armed forces, if you look at that war first broke out in the Philippines and our armies that were there along with the Philippines that they were being defeated throughout the islands and now they were reduced down to just one main island, their commanding general MacArthur had already been flown off. The United States did not want to lose him because it was a dire situation and those men on that island, they fought as long as they could. Their supplies were running out, food supplies, ammunition, etc. and then they surrendered. 

Now they were still a fighting force and there were thousands of them and when the Japanese accepted their surrender, quite frankly they disdained the Americans. They looked down their noses at the Americans. They really couldn’t believe that the Americans had surrendered because they were still a fighting force. All of their arms, all of their ammunitions, had not run out. They still had food though it was very much limited and then as the Japanese marched them as I said the death march at Bataan as they began to do that march, where men were dying along the way, where Japanese were actually bayonetting some of the soldiers and killing them. A part of that was their culture because they looked down their noses at someone who had unconditionally surrendered and they thought that was something very wrong. 

Then as you fast forward to the end of the war in 1945 you see the representatives of that nation, of that empire, standing on the deck of the Missouri battleship saying and signing the surrender, “I unconditionally surrender.” Brethren, that’s what God expects of us. He expects of us not to give a partial repentance, not to give a partial surrender of what we’re doing but to totally surrender to God. No holds barred. We give our lives to Him. We repent of every sin that we’ve ever committed. We ask for His forgiveness and we tell Him in a heartfelt way that I give myself over to you totally. That heartfelt repentance that encompasses that godly sorrow that leads to and is a part of repentance and leads to salvation. It does have to be heartfelt. Sometimes an individual and probably all of us are guilty of this from time to time, sometimes we think that we’re doing okay and we may be. But sometimes we think that we’re doing pretty well spiritually. We realize we attend church as we should. We keep the Sabbath, we tithe, and we keep the Holy Days. We haven’t killed anyone this week, we haven’t stolen anything and this is pretty good. In fact that is good and I’m not disparaging that at all. That’s the daily life of a Christian that we need to be living. However, when we repent, we must examine our innermost feeling and ways not just the things that can be counted or looked at by people observing us, keeping the Sabbath, tithing, keeping the Holy Days, etc., but we have to look inside, into the heart. We have to examine our innermost feelings and what really motivates us. Notice in 2 Corinthians, chapter 13. 

2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?– unless indeed you are disqualified?

I’m reading from the New King James. But Paul clearly tells us as a Christian that we are to examine ourselves and let’s see how we really are. Are we really in the faith? Are we doing those things that God wants us to do? What about our innermost being? What about our heart? What about the way that we are to conduct ourselves and the way we think about the way we conduct ourselves? 

Brethren, we’re coming to the Passover in a short time and in the Passover rightly so our eyes are to be upon Jesus Christ, His sacrifice, what He has done for us, the giving of His life for our sins, the willingness to do that that His Father permitted and had designed from the beginning. And our eyes are to be on Jesus Christ and as He is the focal point of that feast, He is the central theme of all of the feasts of God but each feast, as you are aware, focuses on a different aspect of God’s plan of salvation. It also interacts with us as to what we need to be doing and learning from that particular feast. Brethren a part of the Passover when we gather to keep the New Testament Passover requires us in 2 Corinthians 13:5 to examine ourselves, to really take a close look at ourselves and ask ourselves, what is my relationship with God? What is my relationship with Jesus Christ? How am I going to come to this Passover service and what frame of mind will I be and quite frankly, brethren, the role of godly sorrow in repentance is critical to our coming before God in the right attitude, in the right way, in the right frame of mind, having done an examination before God and quite frankly brethren, I’ll be forthright and say if we wait to this year Passover being on a Sunday night or Sunday evening, if we wait to Sunday morning or Sunday afternoon, or as we get dressed for coming to the service and we say, ”Well God, “I’m sorry.” Now I’m not your judge. God is and I’m not my own judge, God is a Judge of all of us but is that the attitude that God wants? Are we not fearful that we can be guilty of worldly sorrow and not have godly sorrow that God is looking for? 

Notice back in the book of Psalms and Psalms 139. I believe that this particular scripture is important. It has been very meaningful for me over the years and I believe that if we’ll turn to this scripture and understand this scripture and have this be a part of our prayers we seek to be close to God and seek His forgiveness as we repent to Him. And I do suggest, well let me read the scripture. 

Psalms 139:23-24 Search me, Oh God, and know my heart; Try me, and know my anxieties; and see if there is any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting. 

Brethren, this is a prayer that we would say privately before God. This is a prayer that we would be as I would suggest very strongly that you and I get to a private place, be it in our home, where we can open up before God and we ask God search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me, and see if there is any wicked way in me and lead me in the way of everlasting life and to be down on our knees and really cry out to God. Now I do know there would be some because of circumstances they really can’t kneel down so that’s not the prerequisite or the point I’m trying to make, but to be able to have that private prayer, that prayer where you’re able to open up before God and you open up your heart and your mind and your being and you ask God to search me and know my heart. See if there’s any way within me that I need to change, that I need to grow and we’re asking God to point that out, and we’re asking Him in His mercy to show it to me, tell me, let me see this. I can quote you God, yes I went to Sabbath services, I went to the Holy Days, I didn’t lie this week and I haven’t killed anyone, but what about our heart? What about the way we think? What about areas that we permit ourselves to sin in, or maybe we don’t know or we’ve become quite tolerant in?

Turn with me to Matthew, chapter 15, and for our young people, our teens and young adults, if you haven’t personally prayed that scripture on your knees asking God to search you and to know your heart, I strongly recommend that you do and in your prayer, in your seeking repentance from God and you’re confessing your sins, that you ask God to examine you and to show you the areas that you would be weak in. In Matthew chapter 15, notice verse 17. 

Matthew 15:17 Do you not yet understand whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? 
There was a controversy over the ceremonial way that Pharisees were washing their hands and Christ is telling them it’s not if you eat something with maybe unclean hands as they would define unclean hands. It’s not talking about clean and unclean meats. It’s quite clear as you read the subject matter it’s about eating food with hands that hadn’t been washed in the way that the Pharisees dictated, but that did not make you unclean by not going through the ceremony that they had adopted. 

Verse 17-20 Do you not yet understand whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and is eliminated? But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. These are things which defile a man but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man. 

Brethren, sin begins in the heart. Out of that heart proceeds the blasphemies, proceeds the murders, the adultery, the thoughts that are there, those are the things that defile a man and that sin begins in the heart and it comes out through the mouth and through the arms and through the legs and through our torsos and the way that we are and God is telling us that we need to look at that. That’s what’s important, not if you ate something with unwashed hands. But what about that heart? What is in there? 

In Hebrews, chapter 3, brethren sin can be very deceitful. Sometimes we don’t understand it. Sometimes we think that we do, probably the majority of us have been walking this way of life for many, many years. And I know that we know God’s way and I know that we understand it and I believe that we seek to live that way. But regardless of our tenure in God’s church or walking this way of life, sin can still be deceitful. Sin can trick us. Sin can be there when we don’t know that it’s there. It can actually have taken root within us that we just don’t understand that it’s there. We don’t understand how difficult it is to rid ourselves with God’s help of that sin. 

Hebrews 3:12-13 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily while it is called “today” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 

That we would become hardened or inured to sin, that we become comfortable with sin, that we have been deceived and are actually practicing sin that we may not know that we’re doing it. Or we may have given it a blind eye and God doesn’t want us to do that. God doesn’t want us to be comfortable with that. God doesn’t want us to allow sin to deceive us where we don’t realize how violent it is and how harmful it is and how it has to be thrust out with the help of God and the way to get that sin out of our lives is to ask God to point it out, that we open ourselves, we lay ourselves bare before God and we ask God to search our heart and see if there’s any way within us and lead us into the way of everlasting life. 
Verse 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. 

That it is something that we have to have a continual confidence in the sacrifice of Christ that God is anxious to apply that sacrifice to us obviously at the Passover and the time of the Passover but leading up to the Passover and throughout our year from Passover to Passover that we ask God in our confession to God, to point out that sin. Don’t let that sin deceive us. Don’t allow it to trick us. Don’t allow it to be buried in there that we don’t know what it is or we don’t acknowledge it. That’s not pleasing to God. 

Back in Jeremiah, chapter 17, and let’s look at verse 9. 

Jeremiah 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings. 

Brethren, true repentance is more than just a few cosmetic changes. It’s more than just changing a few things that people can see or measure or observe. It has to do with our heart. And the Bible’s quite clear that heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. What is being addressed there is that carnal nature. The nature that we have. The carnality that is there where the human being with our approach to life and our innate selfishness that we have and you juxtapose that to the way of God, the way of giving and the way of repentance, of being forgiven of sin, of seeking the Holy Spirit of God that we can be imbued with that power from on high. It is so different when you contrast the human heart that is there and the way that God wants to create a new heart within us. It is more than just beginning to change a few things. It is a prayer before God and this would be tied into Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24. 

The Lord searches the heart. We’re asking God to do that. We must realize how wrong an individual that we really are and I don’t say that to try to beat you down or try to beat myself down but we have to understand carnality. We have to understand what it’s like to be human beings. When Christ said, “Why call me good? There’s none good but One” and Christ was reflecting His humanity because as Hebrews shows, He was tested in all things. He knew what it was like to have the pull of the flesh. He knew what it was like to have Biblical terms that heart within us to pull us in the wrong direction, that carnality that we have, and God wants us to acknowledge that and realize that we have to unconditionally surrender to Him and put our lives before Him and seek that full repentance after experiencing true godly sorrow, the sorrow of repentance. 

I’ve had the opportunity as our other pastors have to baptize individuals and it’s such a joy to be able to do that. Fort Worth, where I pastor, is a congregation that we have a large number of young adults, a large number of teenagers, individuals who have been blessed to have been reared in God’s church and to counsel them for baptism. Quite frankly, from the viewpoint of a pastor, it is such a wonderful event to sit down and to counsel an individual. Now sometimes when I counsel a young adult for baptism and they have been called through their parents’ exposure to God’s truth and teaching them God’s truth and them being at church services and walking in this way and as I begin to talk with them on the subject of repentance, I’ll be quite frank. It’s very uplifting to me when I talk with some and their confession is to God. They don’t confess to me. It is God who forgives them but in talking with them and trying to ascertain if they have repented, do they understand what repentance is? And to go through that and then to realize that well here this person, quite frankly, they’re not an inveterate liar. They do keep God’s Sabbath. They eschew working on the Sabbath. They don’t steal things. They haven’t committed adultery. They haven’t committed fornication. They don’t take God’s name in vain. They do want to walk this way, and quite frankly that is extremely uplifting and that is not to be apologized for. That is the fruit of having been exposed to God’s truth, hearing it, learning that and being sheltered from those sins that are so prevalent in the world and when they come before God, they don’t have to repent of having murdered someone or having necessarily stolen something or however their life has been.  

For young adults, that’s not to be apologized for and your repentance before God is just as genuine as other individuals who I have counseled as I know many ministers have. I have come out and counseled people who have committed murder, who have been inveterate liars, who have stolen as a lifestyle, who are fornicators or adulterers, for taking God’s name in vain, who have broken God’s Sabbath, who have done the things that God would cry as wrong and evil within His Bible. When they come and their repentance, they would go through all of that and confess that God and let God know that they are sorry of that. So I’m not trying to contrast well if you’ve been in the church and you haven’t done these things that your repentance is not as genuine or if you’ve done these things, what a horrible rotten person you are. Sin is sin. We have made mistakes. The point I’d like to make is, if you haven’t done those things, that is such a wonderful thing before God but there is still within you and within me that heart that is deceitful above all things. It is desperately wicked. There is the deceitfulness of sin and we need to acknowledge that before God and ask God to point out that area or areas that we are wrong. Now notice in Matthew, chapter 19, verse 16. A young man comes to Christ and he does want to know what he can do to inherit eternal life. Let’s read the account.

Matthew 19:16-17 Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” So He said to him, “Why do you call me good but no one is good but One, that is, God, But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” [Now that was a part of acknowledging the roll of behavioral justification that we need to be practicing those things which God tells us we are to do.] 

Verse 18-22 He said to Him, “Which ones?” Jesus said, “ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘ you shall not commit adultery’, ‘ you shall not steal,’ ‘ you shall not bear false witness,’ ‘ honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘ you shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ ” The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?” [Now that is a wonderful statement, the first part of verse 20. I’ve done these things. Then he asks a critical question: What do I still lack?] Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow Me.” But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. 

Quite an interesting account. Quite frankly it fits in hand and glove with the subject of worldly sorrow and godly sorrow and what God is looking for. That young man had kept God’s Commandments and that’s to his credit. But he had a problem. He was covetous. He had great possessions and he coveted those. He was not willing to give that up. Not that it’s wrong to have possessions, but his relationship to the possessions that he had he coveted those. He asked Christ, “What do I still lack?” Brethren, that’s the question that we’re asking in Psalm 139:23-24. Search my heart. Is there any way within me (If I may paraphrase) that I’m sinning? Point that out. Point me in the right direction. Lead me to the way everlasting. That’s the prayer that we ask. Yes, we may have been doing these things and keeping God’s Law. That’s wonderful and that’s great and not to be apologized for, but what do I yet lack? When we say that to God, we’re opening ourselves up unconditionally and God what do I lack? Where is the sin that can deceive me? Point that out. When it was pointed out to this young man that (if I may paraphrase again), you have possessions and that’s your God and you’re not willing to give up, you’re not willing to surrender that to me and follow me. He was sorry but you know it was worldly sorrow. He went away sorrowful because he wasn’t willing to give up these possessions. That’s what held him back. For us, brethren, it is a godly sorrow that we open up and say, God lead us in the right way. Tell me where I’ve been wrong. 

Psalm 51 in my view is a psalm which as I might say is a textbook recipe example of how we can come before God on our knees and open up unconditionally to God confessing our sins to God. True repentance extends from godly sorrow. It is an emotional experience. It is a private, deep-set, emotional experience as we communicate with our Father in heaven and when we repent before God, the repentance is directed to God. It is to Him that we have broken His Law. Now when we repent, it may also encompass other individuals of what we may have done but the aggrieved party is God. We have broken His law. We’re asking Him to forgive us. Psalm 51. This is after David had committed the sin with Bathsheba. It was brought to his attention and now he understood exactly how grievous that sin was. 

Psalm 51:1 Have mercy upon me, O God, According to your lovingkindness, According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions. 

I would like to suggest that you and I between now and the Passover that you and I take this our Bibles, open up to Psalm 51, and read it out loud to God, on our knees if we can and go through this heartfelt repentance and apply it to ourselves after we have asked as Psalm 139 says, search me and know my thoughts and try me and see if there is any way that is wrong within me and lead me into everlasting life. David said 

Verse 2-7 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin for I acknowledge my transgression, and my sin is always before me. Against You, You only, have I sinned [We’re asking forgiveness from the God of this universe]. And done this evil in your sight that you may be found just when you speak, and blameless when you judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts, And in the hidden parts You will make me know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. 

We’re asking for correction. We’re asking for love and mercy. We’re asking to be cleansed. We’re asking to be corrected. We’re asking for God to point these things out and we acknowledge that which we see and ask Him to help us see that which is not obvious. 

Verse 8-11 Make me hear joy and gladness, that the bones that You have broken may rejoice. Hide Your face from my sins, And blot out all of my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 
 
We need to ask God to examine our motivation. We need to ask God to point out to us why do we do what we do? Why do we think what we think? And then lay that before God and ask Him to see that and ask Him to forgive us and ask Him to help us to have the right attitude in what we do see. Then we ask God to refashion us, to take us in His hands, to mold us that we would have that malleable spirit within us that we’re willing to change, that there’s not something that we hold back but that we’re willing to change. Brethren, Christ had to die for every sin that we’ve ever committed, every sin that had taken root within us, every sin that had grown from a bad habit or a wrong thought and He had to die for every sin that we have committed and He’s willingly, willing to extend that forgiveness for us because He has paid the price. He has taken the penalty. We have to acknowledge that. We have to see His role. We have to call to Him and ask Him to give us the strength that we need. If you notice in Ephesians, chapter 4, and verse 17. 

Ephesians 4:17-24 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind. [He’s contrasting them who know God’s truth to those who didn’t know God’s truth.] Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you have not so learned Christ, [This is not what we have been taught. We have been taught a different way, a way of life that is right and good, a way of life that works, that is wholesome and pleasing to God] that you have not so learned Christ if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. 

Do we truly crave God’s Holy Spirit, the renewal of God’s Holy Spirit? Do we really want God to stir up that Spirit, to renew it, to have it flow through us because we are not stopping it that by our actions, our thoughts, from the deceitfulness of our hearts? That we’re not precluding God’s sending to us that Spirit of His that can be within us that will tell us and show us and lead us how to live, how to conduct ourselves? Do we crave God’s Holy Spirit? Do we want the mind of Jesus Christ to replace our selfishness? Our selfishness, quite frankly, is to do what we want to do and continue doing those things that we want to do. Deep, heartfelt repentance, that godly sorrow of repentance, it does have emotion. It has emotion for us to cry out, to be moved, to be pricked in the heart that we know that we’ve done wrong and we’re seeking forgiveness but it’s more than just emotion. It is a commitment to God, a conviction, a purpose that we have to determine to change. Notice back just a few pages the Book of Romans. Paul says

Romans 2:4 . . . do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance? 

And I’d like to stress this point in this scripture and we’ll turn to another briefly. God does grant repentance. I think as we study the subject of godly sorrow as a part of repentance and understand the fullness of what that means; I would be the first to admit I can’t do that on my own. I can come up with an emotional feeling. I can emotionally say “I’m sorry” and that’s right and that’s fine but the true depth of repentance has to be granted by God. It is in fact a gift of God’s goodness so as you read these scriptures, as you hear this message and you say, “That’s not my personality,” or “I’ve never done that” or “It’s been a long time since I have gone through that” or “I remember that type of repentance when I was being baptized and leading to baptism, I really haven’t done that” or “It’s been so long” or “I know I fall short.” 

What we need to do, brethren, is to ask that God grant me repentance. Allow me to have repentance. The last part of verse 4 once again: Not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance and that’s what we ask. It’s not something that we just embark upon ourselves. It is something we ask God to grant us repentance. Notice the instruction in 2 Timothy. In chapter 2, Paul is instructing Timothy, a younger minister in the faith, and he’s telling him how to conduct himself and pointing certain things out and I’d like us to focus on one point because the message is not only for Timothy, the message is also for us.

2 Timothy 2:24-26 And the servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility, correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. 

Middle part of verse 25: If God perhaps will grant them repentance. Brethren, repentance is a gift of God. True repentance is a gift of God because only God can cause us to see ourselves as we really are. To know the truth, to be convicted of the truth, to know where we fall short because we’ve asked Him to look within our heart and create a new heart, a new being, a new person, and we lay that before Him in an unconditional surrender, and that comes from God and we can receive that from God, but we have to ask. We ask God grant me repentance. Help me to know what it is that I need to do and give me the strength to do it to see us through His eyes, His godly eyes. Job 42, the last scripture I’d like to turn to. Job chapter 42 and verse 5. Job is cited as one of the three most righteous men of the Old Testament so we know that he did keep God’s way and he wanted to and you read the Book of Job cover to cover and you will see where he did obey God and he turned to God but at the end and he saw all the things that he had gone through, then he was convicted in his heart and he says

Job 42:5-6 I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you. Therefore, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. 

And in comparison, in juxtaposition between Job and God, there was no comparison and he’s showing that he wanted to be like God, follow God in a righteous way and when he compared himself to God even as powerful as Job was and talented, and all the things that he can do, and all that he had lived through he said therefore I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear but now I see you, now I understand how great you are. My comparing myself to you, I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes. Brethren, when we have the godly sorrow, the sorrow of repentance that leads to salvation, we come before God and we throw ourselves upon the mercy of God. We come before that mercy seat of God and figuratively we grasp the horns of the altar and we ask God to forgive us and we ask Him to blot out our sins and He’ll do it and He’ll give us the thought, He will give us the right attitude if we seek it but it has to be a total surrender on our part. Repentance is a continual process in our relationship to God. We’re so thankful as we prepare for Passover that we can now as Christians focus upon that aspect and more heavily weight the aspect of godly sorrow and repentance as we come now as those beginning feasts, that festival year of God begins once again. 

Let’s continue to ask God to grant us a repentant and malleable heart that He can shape, that we can repent and when we do, God graciously extends forgiveness to each and every one of us for the sins that we have committed and we give God the thanks and we owe everything to Him for what He has done for us.