Full Transcript

How do things like this happen? What is the common denominator? And if you have been here over the course of the last few weeks, you should have some answers to that question, as we have been studying the biblical accounts of awakening. You’ve seen stories. You’ve heard reports of how this has happened in the past, and if you have any spider sense at all, you know it needs to happen again. All in favor of an awakening? So how does this happen? What is the common denominator?

Well, we’ve seen a verse in Scripture that tells us there are four conditions of revival. In 2 Chronicles 7:14, a very familiar verse, tells us, “If my people who are called by my name…” will do four things. Humble themselves. And we’ve seen a king in 2 Chronicles who humbled himself. His name was Rehoboam. In 2 Chronicles 12, we studied how he humbled himself, and yet he stopped short of some of the other conditions.

Pray. We looked at a king who prayed. That’s a condition of revival. That was King Jehoshaphat. And he prayed, “Lord, we do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” We need to pray that same prayer if we want to meet God in awakening.

And the third condition is seeking God’s face. God invites us to seek him. Last week, we looked at a king in 2 Chronicles who sought the face of God. What was his name? (Little response from congregation.) We’ll have to start over. What was his name? Josiah. In chapter 34, we studied that passage.

And then finally, the fourth condition of revival is turning from our wicked ways. The concept of turning, in Scripture, is the concept of repentance. And please hear me, you can humble yourself, and you can pray until you’re blue in the face, and you can seek the face of God, and if you do not repent, you will never experience revival and spiritual awakening.

There is no revival where there is no repentance. Repentance brings the change. Without repentance, any claim of revival will be short-lived; a shallow, emotional experience. We need to change when we seek the face of God, we need to change when we pray, and we need to change when we humble ourselves.

We’ve seen this cycle throughout biblical history and even American history. We are supposed to be on mission and in worship, in love with Jesus Christ. And yet at times, we become idolatrous and immoral and we decline. That inevitably invites the discipline, and invites the judgment of God upon his church. And yet, if we are wise in those moments, we will cry up to God in humility, in confession of sin, in repentance, and God responds by sending revival to the Church, spilling over into awakening in the community. Getting us back in worship and back on mission with God. And that cycle happens over and over. And it certainly needs to happen again.

So this morning, we’re going to talk about “The Pivot Point of Revival,” turning or repenting before the Lord. I’m calling us as a church to repent before God in brokenness and humility and in surrender. So let’s give the concept of repentance a definition. Let’s use this.

 

Repentance is a turn away from sin, and a turn to God, after a heart-felt sorrow over the pain that my sin is causing God, others, and me.

 

Do you understand that when we sin, we bring pain to the heart of God? God loves us so much. He wants to shine himself through our lives, and yet when we fall away or we deliberately disobey, that mars the glory of God. It causes pain and grief and sorrow. God is a personal God. And we can cause him pain by our sin.

Not only the pain we cause to God, but repentance happens when I realize the pain that my sin is causing others. I would venture to say in a crowd this size, there are people who are carrying a burden for you to repent. Because what you are doing is causing such pain and heartache in their lives. Children causing pain to parents. Parents causing pain to children. And friends causing pain to friends and neighbors. It causes pain. Stop the pain. Repent.

And recognize the pain that your sin is causing yourself. What you thought was going to bring joy and happiness and fulfillment, when we sin and violate the Lord’s command, we realize it brings nothing but sorrow and pain in the long run. How do you get rid of the pain? Repent!

Repentance is the first word of the gospel. The reason I say that is because repentance was the first word of all of the Old Testament prophets. It was the first word of all of the apostles. And it was the first recorded word in Scripture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.” Where there is no repentance, there will be no revival. That’s how important this concept is.

Repentance is the way out of every ditch that you have slid into. Repentance is the way back from every wrong turn you’ve taken. And it is the way home after seasons of wandering and playing around and goofing off. God calls you back to him in repentance.

A lot of people make a mistake when they think about Christianity. They think Christianity is all about being good. If you want to be a good Christian, you should be good. That is not entirely accurate. If you want to be a good Christian, then be good at repenting.

Being a Christian is not about never falling, never stumbling. We all fall in many ways. Being a Christian is about the ongoing process of repentance in my life. Every time God shows me a need. Every time I wander away. God calls me back. If you want to be a good Christian, then get your PhD in repentance. It is something that will happen over and over in our life. Not just to begin the Christian life, but an ongoing, never-ending process.

In the 1970’s, in Romania, Christians in that little country were under Communist rule. They had a dictator there. His name was Nicolae Ceausescu, who made life miserable for all of the citizens in Romania, but especially for Christians. The Christians in that little country were mocked and harassed, and one of the things the Communists did was give them a name. It was actually a derogatory name. The name that they were given as Christians was this. They were known as “the repenters.”

Not a bad name, but it was used in a mocking sense when it referred to the Christians. I had the opportunity of going to Romania in 1991, two years after the fall of Communism, two years after the removal of Nicolae Ceausescu. And two years after an incredible revival in the church that actually lead to the revolution in that country.

When I was there, I took this picture. The man in the middle is the twenty-four year old version of me. The man on the left is Dr. Adrian Rogers. He was my pastor when I was in seminary in Memphis, Tennessee. I was on staff as an intern there, and we went together with 300 people to Romania. We kind of invaded Romania and did some massive evangelism. They weren’t coming to hear me preach, they were coming to hear Dr. Rogers preach. I got to share my testimony before he preached.

But the man on the right is a man named Josef Tson. Josef Tson was the pastor in the 1970’s and 80’s and 90’s of Second Baptist Church in Oradea, Romania. Historians have traced the fall of Communism in Romania back to a revival that took place in the church where Josef Tson one day stood and made this statement. “It’s time for the ‘repenters’ to repent!”

The Christians were known as repenters. One day he stood up and said, “[paraphrasing] You know, the reason that we don’t have revolution is because we don’t have revival. And if we’re going to see anything spill over into the culture as an awakening, it’s got to start in the church. We’ve got to stop being bitter. We’ve got to stop being angry. We need to clear our debts. We need to make sure that we are expressing the love of Christ, even to those who treat us harmfully.” And so he called the repenters to repent. I think that is still a very good statement. And today, I’m echoing the words of Dr. Josef Tson. It is time for the repenters to repent.

And so here’s the first point of the message:

 

1) A repenter sees the need for repair. (2 Chr. 29:3-6)

 

Get your Bibles open to 2 Chronicles 29. In 2 Chronicles 29, we’re going to be introduced to our fourth king that’s going to show us what it looks like to turn, to repent. And his name is Hezekiah. Everybody say, “Hezekiah”. The story begins in 2 Chronicles 29, beginning in verse 3. Look at it.

It says, “In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them.” Now, first of all, I want you to notice, he didn’t waste any time. In the first year, and the first month, he went after the thing that they needed the most. Access to the place of worship.

The reason why those doors needed to be opened is because the previous generation had shut the doors. Apparently there wasn’t a whole lot of demand for a place of worship because the worship was so pathetic. And so they shut the doors for lack of interest. They shut God out of their lives and in order for them to repent, those doors needed to be flung open.

Now, those doors had been closed for decades. Can you image what those doors would have sounded like when he opened the doors? (Makes groaning, creaking noise as he motions opening a door.) Rusted hinges, door probably falling off. He had to spend some time repairing the doors. Opening the doors. That is a very important process for us if we’re going to experience revival. We must repair what has been neglected in our worship.

Not only our public worship. Not just what we do in the four walls of this church. But what we do in our private, daily lives. Every decision, understanding that I am always in the presence of God, that he always demands my worship, and every act of my life. Whether its changing a diaper or changing the calipers on your car, it can be an act of worship to God when I understand that I am always in his presence. I must repair what’s been neglected.

Maybe you’ve neglected right thoughts about God. Maybe you’ve neglected Bible reading. Maybe you’ve neglected loving your wife. Is it your marriage that needs to be repaired? Is it your heart, your mind that needs to be repaired because you’ve filled it up with so much junk?         Not only to be repaired, look at verse 4. “He brought in the priests and the Levites…” Now I don’t what they’d been doing. The doors had been shut. I don’t know if they’d been playing golf. I don’t know. But they weren’t busy. He brought in the priests and the Levites and, “…assembled them in the square on the east, and said to them, ‘Hear me Levites! Now consecrate yourself, and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers…” Happy Father’s Day.

And he says, “…carry out the filth.” Would you just underline that phrase? “…Carry out the filth from the Holy Place.” How many of you took me seriously on my project I gave you last week? You grabbed a trash bag and you grabbed a kid, and gave him a trash bag, and you went through your house and you purged some things out of your house that were distracting you from worship. Anybody take me seriously on that? Okay, I’ll give you that assignment again, since none of you took me seriously on that.

Carry out the filth. What is it in your home? In your DVD collection? On your iPhone? iPod? In your Netflix account that is filth? Now think about this scenario here. There was an ornate, elaborate temple that was the place of worship. How did the filth get in there?  Somebody at some point must have thought, “Oh, here’s a thing.”

We don’t know what the thing was. Maybe it was a candle or a statue or something elaborate, something beautiful. “Well, that thing’s a good thing. That thing will help us worship.” And so somebody was so upside-down in their view of God’s holiness, they thought that thing would actually be helpful in their worship. And so they carried this filthy thing in.

In order for that to happen, someone had to rationalize in their mind that what God called filth was something that was actually beautiful. That’s what you do when you sin. You look at something and say, “I think that’s a good thing.” And so you involve yourself in it, or you begin to think that, or you take that action, you take that turn, thinking that’s a good thing. And so repentance is actually changing your mind about the rationalization that caused you to call something good what God called filth. And repentance is carrying out the filth.

In Romania, we actually have about seven Harvest Bible Chapels. But in Romania, we don’t call them Harvest, because for some reason in the Romanian language, the word “Harvest” doesn’t really translate well and wouldn’t make any sense to people. And so in Romania, we call our Harvest Bible Chapels over there “Metanoia”. Metanoia is the Greek word for repentance. Because the repenters must repent.

It means, “to change your mind,” which leads to a change in direction. A U-turn. And so repentance is removing the rationalization in my mind that lead me to sin. It’s detecting and destroying every rationalization that leads me to sin.

Then look over at verse 6. “For our fathers have been unfaithful…” Happy Father’s Day. Like we said last week, you may actually say the same thing about your father. You love him, you respect him, you want to honor him, but in all honesty, your father’s been unfaithful. But like we said last week, you can’t choose your heritage. But you can choose your legacy. God forbid that our children would make that statement about the fathers in this room.

“…Our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They have forsaken him and have turned away their faces…” There it is. Turned. They’ve turned away their faces “…from the habitation of the Lord and turned…” There it is again. They’ve turned “…their backs” on God.

So God calls us to seek his face. Johnny. Can you throw me that basketball? Thank you. On Wednesday night, I had the opportunity to close Vacation Bible School. Now, if you’ve got a room full of third graders, and you’re trying to talk to them about repentance, how do you communicate that concept? Well, let me just share with you what I did.

I got a basketball, and it was the day after the Warriors had won the NBA championship over the greatest player on the planet or something. Anyway, I had my basketball and I just started dribbling. And I called a little kid up here and I said, “What am I doing right now? What is this activity?” And he said…what do you think he said? Dribbling. Because he was a smart kid.

But he wasn’t a theologically astute kid, because actually what I was doing…do you know what this basketball is doing? This basketball is repenting. What is repenting? Repenting is turning. Repenting is a change of direction. And you see, when I throw the basketball down, it has one force acting on it. When it hits the ground, what does the ball do? It repents. It turns around, and it comes back.

If you’re going to be a good basketball player, you also not only need to learn how to dribble, but you also need to know how to pivot. Do you know what pivoting is? It’s when you’re dribbling a ball down the court and you see an enemy basketball player coming at you. And you realize, if I keep going, I’m going to have the ball stolen from me. And so one of the things that you have to do according to the rules of basketball, so that you don’t travel, is that you establish a pivot foot. And if you establish your pivot foot, then you can turn.

Do you know what repentance is? Repentance is pivoting. It is turning your face away from sin and toward God. It’s turning your face toward God, and your back on sin. Do you know what sin is? It’s when you turn you face toward sin, and your back toward God. A repenter sees the need for repair.

Here’s the second thing:

 

2) A repenter heeds the call to return. (2 Chr. 30:6-13)

 

Now, we’re going to skip to the next chapter here. There’s a lot of information here about what happened. We’re just going to kind of highlight some verses. Look at chapter 30, and look in verse 6. “…Couriers went out throughout all Israel and Judah with letters from the king and his princes…” What do you think was in those letters? I think I know at least one word. “Repent!” That was in the letter.

By the way, if I only had like thirteen seconds to preach a message, I mean just the most critical information, okay? It would be something like this, “Open your bible. (Pauses) REPENT! (Pauses) You are loved.” That would be it. Okay? That’s basically it. That’s it. That’s what would be in the letter.

So the letters from the king went from his princes and the king had commanded saying, “O people of Israel, return to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, that he may…” What’s that word? “…turn again to the remnant of you who have escaped the hand of the kings of Assyria.” Do you know what God does when you pivot to him? He pivots to you. If you return to him, the promise is, he will return to you.

Verse 7, “Do not be like your fathers…” Happy Father’s Day. “Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were faithless to the Lord God of their fathers, so that he made them a desolation, as you see. Do not now be stiff-necked as your fathers…” Do you know what a stiff neck is? That’s a neck that won’t bow. God’s given you some very concentrated muscles there in your neck. And it’s almost impossible for somebody to force you to bow if you have a stiff neck.

Don’t be like that. Don’t be that guy. You don’t want to have a stiff neck. And so he says in verse 8, “Do not now be stiff-necked as you fathers were, but yield yourselves to the Lord and come to his sanctuary, which he has consecrated forever, and serve the Lord your God, that his fierce anger may…” What? “…turn away from you.”

You see the word “anger” there? Just underline that word. Do you know the reasons why I want you to underline that word? Because it’s almost as if in our modern day western Christianity world, we see that word in the Old Testament, we see that word in the New Testament, but there’s just kind of a filter that filters that word out. Because many of us cannot even conceive of a God who gets angry.

The anger of God is a real thing. Do you understand that God gets angry when you sin? A repenter heeds the call to repent. In the 1730’s and the 1740’s, we saw it earlier in the video, God raised up a man named Jonathan Edwards who pastored a little congregation in Northampton, Massachusetts. In 1741, God used this man to spark the first Great Awakening in America. I read about that in my public school American history books that I’ve think they’ve taken those things out of now.

But it left such an indelible impression upon the country, that within twenty-five years, our nation would be established, and that’s why we see all the Scripture in all the documents, and the Scripture on all of our buildings that were built back in that era. It’s because of the first Great Awakening in America. Do you know one of the messages that Jonathan Edwards preached that contributed to that kind of awakening? It was entitled, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God”.

What kind of sermon would that be? Well let me tell you a little bit about what he said. He said, “The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you…” That word is not “adores,” it’s “abhors.” You. Like a spider hanging over a fire pit. That’s how God sees you. “…And is dreadfully provoked…” Provoked by what? Your sin. “…his wrath toward you burns like fire.”

He goes on and says, “He looks upon you as worthy of nothing else but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable…” Not adorable. “…abominable in his eyes than the most hateful venomous serpent as in ours.” Some of you get nervous when I say, “You’re a dirty, rotten sinner.” How do you think you could handle that?

“But I thought God loves me.” He does love you. That’s why your sin makes him so angry. You have kids? You love them? When they sin do you get angry? Yeah, because you know they’re capable of so much more. The anger of God is a very real thing. And when you turn your back on God, and turn your face toward sin, you anger the heart of God. And that’s what they had done. That’s what their fathers had done.

Look at the next verse. Look at verse 9. “For if you return to the Lord, your brothers and your children will find compassion with their captors and return to this land. For the Lord your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, if you return to him.” Do you understand that the gracious gift of God is repentance?

The fact that an angry God would actually give you the opportunity to repent requires grace and mercy. It is a gracious and merciful God that will turn his anger away from you, if you repent. The anger does not disappear. The anger of God doesn’t just “poof,” and he doesn’t act like, “Okay, I’ll pretend like you didn’t sin.” The anger of God has to be diverted from you somewhere else.

Do you know what God does when he turns his anger away from you? Do you know where he turns it? The cross. If you want to see a picture of the anger of God, get a picture of Jesus on the cross. Because Jesus absorbed the anger of God for all who would repent and believe. The anger of God, diverted from me to Jesus, is the gospel that gives me every opportunity to repent in this lifetime.

But please hear me. If you will not repent, you will experience all of the anger and the wrath and the hatred of God on you forever, in hell. And yet this gracious, merciful God is calling you to turn your face toward him and turn your back on sin. Will you do it? What are you waiting for? Are you waiting for a better offer?

Repentance is a command. Repent! But here’s what we need to understand. Repentance is also a gift from a gracious God. That’s why 2 Timothy 2:25 says, “God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth and they may come to their senses…” For everybody that’s a Christian, there was a point where you finally came to your senses. And you realized the direction you were heading was not helpful. It was harmful. And you turned your back on sin and you turned your face toward God. “…And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil.” Repent. Turn your face toward God. And that’s not just a one-time process. We’ll talk more about that later.

Here’s the third thing:

 

3) A repenter has reason to rejoice. (2 Chr. 30:21, 26-27)

 

Quickly, look over at verse 21. “And the people of Israel who were present in Jerusalem kept the Feast of the Unleavened Bread seven days with great gladness…” Underline the word “gladness.” “…And the Levites and the priests praised the Lord day by day, singing with all their might to the Lord.”

Man it was great to see these men up here. They sounded awful. But what they lacked in beauty they made up for in volume. And made a joyful noise to the Lord with all their might. That is the kind of praise that comes from a repentant heart. If you’ve never been able to open your mouth and experience the joy of the Lord, you come into this place and you’re just burdened and heavy. It’s like, “I don’t’ know what these people are so happy about.”

It’s because you’ve never repented. Because a repenter has reason to rejoice. Look over at verse 26. “So there was great joy in Jerusalem, for since the time of Solomon the son of David King of Israel there had been nothing like this in Jerusalem.” Verse 27, “Then the priests and the Levites arose and blessed the people, and their voice was heard…” Where was their voice heard? “…Their voice was heard and their prayer came to his holy habitation in heaven.” Their voices were heard in heaven. Sound familiar?

“If my people that are called by my name will…turn from their [sin], then I will hear from heaven, I will hear their prayer and forgive their sin and heal their land.” It’s a demonstration of what he promised in 2 Chronicles 7:14. Their prayer, their rejoicing was heard in heaven because the result of repentance is a new freedom and a new praise in our relationship with God.

In 1904 and 1905, there was a twenty-six year old young man in the nation of Wales. Wales is a country just off the coast of Ireland, population of about a million people. And this young man began to pray over and over that God would bend him. His cry eventually became, “Bend me, Lord. Bend the church. And save the nation.” God began to put on his heart a burden to see revival and awakening in his own country, and he had an opportunity to preach his first sermon in his little church.

And he had four points to his message. Those four points he just continued to preach everywhere he had a chance to preach, that became known historically as “The Four Points That Changed A Nation”. Here’s what he preached.

 

1. Confess all known sin.
2. Remove every doubtful thing.
3. Instantly obey every prompting of the Holy Spirit.
4. Profess Christ publically.

 

Find your mouth, and open it, and let people know the source and the sender of revival. So Evan Roberts at the age of twenty-six began to be used by God and people started to respond to that message. As a matter of fact, in six months time over 100,000 people repented of sin, placed their faith in Christ.

Now, think about that. In a nation of 1,000,000 people. Ten percent of the population came to Christ. If God was to do that in America today, what God did in Wales in 1904 and 1905, over 30 million people would come to faith in Christ. All for 30 million people coming to faith in Christ? Say “Amen!” Amen. Some of it needs to start here. Some of you need to come to Christ by repenting of sin.

There was such change that took place in the culture, it was said that two Christians could not meet on the street without spontaneously breaking into one of those great Welsh hymns. Can you imagine going to Walmart tomorrow, bumping into somebody and just starting to sing “How Great Is Our God?” and within a few minutes you’ve got five hundred people gathered around you in aisle 12 in Walmart as you praise God?

That’s what was happening in Wales. There was so much change in the culture. There was record bankruptcy. How does revival impact bankruptcy? There were so many bars and taverns and brothels that had no business, they went bankrupt. Can you imagine strip clubs in Chicago and even in our area going bankrupt because they had no business? There was no demand for those types of services?

It was said that they had to have town meetings to decide what to do with the police. They gave the police white gloves symbolizing, “There’s no crime. You have nothing to do.” And so they decided to form gospel quartets and just go to different places in the community to sing hymns. Can you image in South Bend if we just kind of disbanded the police department and had a big spontaneous police choir, just singing the praises of Jesus in little sections of the community? Because they had nothing else to do. There’s no crime.

There was one courtroom trial that was reported. There was a man who had committed a serious crime and they brought him in. They had him in the witness box and the lawyers were asking him questions. He finally, under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, just broke down in tears and began to weep and began to confess, “I did it. I’ve sinned and I’m so sorry.” He was a broken man.

The judge stopped the trial. He said, “Listen, look at me. I want to talk to you as a man, not as a judge.” And in the next few minutes, he presented the gospel of Jesus Christ to him. The man repented of his sin, placed his faith in Christ. The jury was so overwhelmed with what had happened that they stood up and broke out into praise. They turned the whole thing into a church service right in the middle of district court in Wales.

There were work stoppages in the coal mines. Why was there work stoppages in the coal mines? They had to retrain the mules. Those mules were so used to being cussed at and beaten by those coal miners that all of a sudden they’re down there singing and praising God, they had a brand new vocabulary and the mules had no idea of what they were saying.

That’s the kind of rejoicing that happens when sinners repent and experience an awakening. Very quickly, I want you to turn over to 2 Corinthians. We’ve got one more point. We’re going to move very quickly now. But 2 Corinthians 7 gives us the evidences, the genuine marks of repentance. And we want to look at them very quickly here.

So, here’s the first thing that we see.

 

4) A repenter lives life with no regret. (2 Cor 7:1, 8-11)

 

A repenter lives life with no regret. So here’s five marks of genuine repentance. If we repent today, these are the types of things that we will see. First of all:

 

Five Marks of Genuine Repentance

1. A new hunger for holiness. (v. 1)

 

Look at verse 1, 2 Corinthians 7:1. “Since we have these promises…” Stop right there. What promises is he talking about? Well, just let your eyes go up the page one verse into chapter 6, verse 18. What’s the promise? What promise is he talking about? This promise: “I will be a father to you.” Happy Father’s Day.

You didn’t have so good a father? You had a faithless father? God says, “I’ll be your father. I’ll be your daddy.” “…And you will be sons and daughters to me says the Lord Almighty.” You want a father upgrade? How ‘bout God? He’s a father to the fatherless.

So he says, based on that promise, then do this. In verse 1, “…Beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God.” A hunger for holiness is the recognition that there is some unfinished business in my life. And I’m going to open the doors of my heart and give an all access pass to God to come and bring holiness into the unholy parts of me. That’s the first step, and the first mark of genuine repentance.

Here’s the second thing:

 

2. Godly grief over my sin. (v. 8-10)

 

Look at verse 8. “For even if I made you grieve with my letter…” By the way, this is probably the third or the fourth letter that Paul wrote. We have two of them preserved for us in Scripture. And these letters are the longest letters that Paul had to write to a church. Do you know why he had to write long letters? Because he had to deal with so much sin in the church. And so he says, “Yeah, I made you grieve with my letter.” It was a hard letter. You know what he was telling them in the letter? “Repent!”

And “…I do not regret it – though I did regret it, for I see that the letter grieved you, though only for a while.” So a little insight into a preacher’s job. Do you think I like getting up here every week and pointing out your sin? Think it makes me happy to watch you crumble under the weight of that? No! But I don’t regret it because you need to repent.

Look at verse 9, “As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.” What does godly grief feel like? It feels like heaviness. It feels like a thousand bricks have been dumped on your heart. It sometimes feels like you can’t breathe. It sometimes feels like I’m far from God. Sometimes it feels like I’ve got to change. That’s a godly grief.

But notice, there’s another kind of grief in verse 10. “For godly grief produces repentance that leads to salvation…” See the word salvation there? That’s not just talking about the point of your justification when you begin a relationship with Christ. Even though, please hear me, there is no salvation where there is no repentance. The idea that you can come to Christ and love him and somehow not change, that is foreign to the gospel represented in Scripture. Where there is no repentance, there is no salvation.

But the word salvation has a broader meaning. It’s not just talking about the point of justification, it’s talking about the process of sanctification as well. Repentance is the regular exercise of a healthy Christian. It’s what you do every day of your life when God shows you areas where you must change.

And so, repentance leads to salvation without regret. There’s our word. “…Whereas…” here’s the contrast, “…. worldly grief [leads to, or] produces death.” What’s the difference between godly grief that leads to salvation and worldly grief that produces death?

Worldly grief just means you feel bad. You’re sorry. You might even say, “I’m sorry. I feel sorry. I feel bad. I wish I could do better. I’m lame. Boy, preacher, you really stepped on my toes today. I just feel like a worm when I come to church.” You are a worm. Be a worm that repents. And if I’m stepping on your toes, tell your toes to repent.

And produce in you a sorrow of grief that leads to life and freedom and joy. Not a heavy burden where you just feel bad all the time and you become depressed and “I don’t think I even want to live anymore. And just compared to everyone else, I just can’t get it right.” You’re just experiencing worldly grief. That’s not what God has for you. Turn your face toward God and turn your back on sin, and you will experience a godly grief that leads to life.

Here’s the third thing:

 

3. Hatred of my sin. (v. 11)

 

Verse 11, “For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you…” The word “earnestness” is a word related to hurrying. Making haste. No delay. No procrastination.

9 o’clock yesterday morning, I got a text from Michelle Helmkamp. This is what it said. It said, “Good Morning.” Michelle’s so nice. And then she says this, “I’m inside the church and the smoke alarm has gone off. I smell smoke, so I did not call off the firemen. They’re here now. I will keep you posted.”

Like, what do you do with that? I’m ready to grab a squirt bottle and a water gun and race to the church. There’s a sense of urgency! There can be no delay here. You’re smelling smoke in the church? I mean, what is going on? Fortunately, it turned out there’s an air conditioner that went bad, and a blower, and we need to replace that. But the church was on fire for a few minutes yesterday.

And we took care of it and everything, but there’s a sense of urgency when you realize you are on fire. If you are in sin, please understand, you are on fire. Please have some earnestness, some urgency about you to repent. Don’t wait until Thursday to call the fire department. Repent now. There’s a hatred of that which is causing such damage in your life and you’re damaging your relationship to God, damaging your relationship to others. And so there is an earnestness, a hatred of sin.

And a:

 

4. Restitution toward others. (v. 11)

 

Look at verse 11. Halfway through it says, “…but also what eagerness to clear yourself.” He goes on in the last part of that verse, “At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter.” When repentance is genuine, your feet are moving toward the people that your sin has damaged to do everything you can to make restitution, to clear your name, to make it right. Sometimes that’s impossible, but a repentant heart says, “I not only need to deal with the pain that my sin has caused me, I need to deal with the pain that my sin has caused others.” That’s an evidence of genuine repentance.

And then finally:

 

5. New fear of God. (v. 11)

 

Look at in verse 11 again. “…What indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment!” You hate sin so much, you know that it grieves God’s heart so much, that you’re going to do everything you can to extinguish the sin, turn your face toward God, turn your back on sin.

Fear of God is not something that causes you to cower from his presence. The fear of God is something that motivates you to get closer in his presence because fear, the fear of God is something that seeks a relationship with the source of the fear, right? So we need to repent. I need to repent. And you need to repent.

Now, my great fear is that we would talk about repentance and nobody would repent. So I’m going to give you a little assignment. If you came in and received a bulletin, would you please take out that little page inside that bulletin? You see that little page in there? And the question at the top of the page is this: “What Do You Need to Turn From?”

Here’s the thing. I just spent forty-five minutes preaching a message on repentance. But I really didn’t mention any specific sin. So here’s your homework project. Here’s sixty-five sins. You say, “Sixty-five sins! I didn’t know there’s so many sins.” This is about one-fourth of the sins mentioned in the Bible. So I’m cutting you some slack, okay?

Here’s what you do with this list. You get alone in the presence of God. And you look and you say, “Lack of love.” Get your Bible open. You read that verse and you call out to God and say, “O God, I’ve had a lack of love in my heart. A lack of love for you, a lack of love for my family, a lack of love for the lost. O God, I love myself. And today God, I want to confess that to you. I repent. I’m turning my back on a lack of love. I’m turning my face toward you, God. Fill my heart with love.”

Go to the next one. Judging. “O God I’m so quick to judge others. I’m so quick to see the sin in everybody else, and so slow to see the sin in me. And God, I’ve judged other people that are weaker than me, [or maybe another color than me, or somebody that acts different than me.] O God, I am not the judge. You are the judge and I repent.” Go to the next sin. And keep this in your Bible because this is not a one time exercise. The repenters need to repent.