Please remain standing for the reading of our sermon text.
Please turn with me to second Corinthians chapter seven to read verse 10. We will look at a few passages this morning. We'll start here in second Corinthians chapter seven, verse 10. Hear now the holy, inspired and infallible word of God. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret.
Whereas worldly grief produces death, The grass withers and the flower fades. But the word of our God shall stand forever.
Please be seated.
Last time we looked at what true saving repentance is, if you were unable to join us last week, let me encourage you to go back and listen to that sermon this morning in light of what true repentance is. I want us to think about counterfeit repentance. What repentance is not it will benefit us to examine the forgery so that we can treasure and prize the real thing all the more. The sad reality is that many in the church, some even here, perhaps, are hypocrites. Perhaps there is someone here you have deceived yourself into thinking that merely because you have felt badly about things you've done, because you were embarrassed about what you did, or because you stopped doing certain things, you're under the wrong impression that you have repented and are right with a holy God. But these things are counterfeit repentance. This is not the true saving repentance unto life that God's word calls us to even if they look the same at first, there is a night and day, life and death difference between a man centered kind of repentance and a true God centered repentance. My fear is that many in the church, maybe even someone here, are self deceived and have convinced themselves that they have truly repented merely because they know the right things to say, how awful it is that we could use correct words and phrases to cover up our love of sin rather than repent of Our sin. How eternally important it is that we understand false repentance and avoid it more than the plague. Remember what we saw last time from Jeremiah, 17, nine. Our hearts are deceitful beyond comprehension. You can deceive yourself into believing you have repented of your sins when you have not you can deceive parents, teachers, friends, pastors and elders into thinking that you have repented of your sin really, because you know the right answers to give.
But make no mistake, you cannot deceive Almighty God. God's understanding of all things as infinite. Psalm, 147, five, He alone knows the hearts of all the children of mankind, first, kings, 839, and even though the secrets of our hearts may be hidden from others, everything is open and exposed in God's sight. Hebrews, 413, but the good news is Acts 1118, to the Gentiles also, God has granted repentance that leads to life true saving. Repentance is God's gracious gift to all who turn to him. All manner of counterfeit repentance is produced and approved by the world, the flesh and the devil. With this in mind, let's look at a few things repentance is not. First of all, the first thing repentance is not. Repentance is not merely feeling bad about something you did. Repentance is not merely feeling bad about something you did. See how Paul expresses this here in our passage, last time we looked at the first half of verse 10, how True Repentance involves grief over sin because it dishonors God, look now at the second half of verse 10, how worldly grief produces death.
Notice, Paul gives two kinds contrasts, two kinds of grief.
Here there is a godly grief in relation to God. This grief over offending God is part of true repentance unto eternal life.
But there is another kind of grief that leads to death, a worldly grief. Paul's language here is more literally, this grief is of the world. So these two kinds of grief, the grief in relation to God and the grief of the world, are completely different from each other, even if they appear to be the same at first glance, godly grief cares about offending God and. But worldly grief only cares about what man thinks. This can display itself in all kinds of ways. Worldly grief can look like. You're embarrassed that you got caught doing something you shouldn't have done. You're worried about who has found out about the thing you've done.
You're concerned that your reputation is damaged. You've gotten a glimpse of how unpleasant it is to have your sin come out in public, so you do your best to keep it private.
What's the problem with all this? In all these responses, you have not turned to the Lord for sweet cleansing and forgiving grace. Your focus is on how your sin makes you feel badly, or on what other people think of you, when your focus needs to be on the glory and grace of God. Charles Hodge is very helpful here. Sorrow in itself is not repentance, neither is remorse or self condemnation or self loathing or external change just because you feel badly about something you've done, this is not repentance. Just because you regret what you've done. This is not repentance, admitting what you did was wrong is not repentance. Being ashamed of yourself is not repentance, and changing your behavior is not repentance. All of these things are meaningless if God is out of the picture. True Repentance means you come before the Lord and regret offending him, but worldly grief means you only care about how you feel or about what other people think of you.
That is why worldly grief leads to death. There's no turning to the Lord to find the salvation that he offers in Jesus Christ.
Let me read you a brief helpful section from one of Joel Becky's books. Worldly sorrow is so called because it grieves over sins consequences based on the wisdom of this world, which is man centered, treasuring the ability, riches and honor of man. Worldly grief is caused by the loss or denial of something we want for ourselves. It is self centered worldly sorrow works death because it is the rebellious response of sinners to God's law, the law received without the LIFE GIVING SPIRIT.
Worldly sorrow over sin is but a foretaste of hell. Think about what he's saying. You can have an emotional response to your sin with no regard for the glory and grace of God. Think of some examples of this with me. Let's turn next in our in our copies of God's word to Matthew 27 Matthew chapter 27 and look there at verses three through five. Then when Judas, his betrayer, saw that Jesus was condemned, he changed his mind and brought back the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders, saying, I have sinned by betraying innocent blood. They said, What is that to us? See to it yourself. And throwing down the pieces of silver into the temple, he departed, and he went and hanged himself. Obviously, Judas feels very badly about what he did, about betraying Jesus, but this is not true repentance. Judas even gave back the money he got for betraying Jesus, but this is not true repentance. His conscience was pricked. He felt that what he had done was wrong.
But even for all this, he still refused to turn to the Lord and find forgiveness. Look next with me at Hebrews chapter 12.
Hebrews 12, beginning at verse 15, see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God, that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble, and by it, many become defiled, that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears, obviously, Esau was very sad that he sold his birthright to his brother Jacob. He even wept about it. But tears of sadness are not necessarily tears of repentance. Esau experienced a shallow remorse over what he did, but he did not regret his sin before the Lord Herman Bavin helps us here, there is a difference between a sorrow of the world and a godly sorrow, between regret sorrow for a sinful deed and a hearty remorse because we have provoked God's wrath because of our sin. Sin, sorrow, for a sinful deed, can also take place in the children of the world when sin is a very different consequence from what is expected, when it leads to loss and shame the world too senses regret, such as sorrow does not lead to true repentance, but leads to death and brings with it despair, bitterness and hardness of of the heart, dear friends, it is vital that we understand these things. True Repentance revolves around the glory and grace of God. If your sorrow over your sin is about you or what others think of you, this is not true repentance. You are still in your sin. Secondly, secondly, and more briefly, repentance is not merely fear of punishment. Repentance is not merely fear of punishment. Just because you want to avoid the wrath of God, this does not mean that you have come to God for forgiveness and grace. Let me read to you this exceptionally helpful comment from the Puritan Thomas Watson. Suppose a man has gone long in sin. Finally, God arrests him, shows him what desperate hazard he has made, and he is filled with anguish.
After a while, the storm of his conscience is blown over and he feels at peace, then he concludes he is truly repentant, because he has felt some bitterness in sin. Do not be deceived. This is not repentance. Ahab and Judas had some trouble of mind. It is one thing to be a terrified sinner and another to be a repenting sinner. Sense of guilt is enough to breed terror, but infusion of grace breeds repentance. If pain and trouble were sufficient to repentance, then the damned in hell would be the most repentant, because they are most in anguish. Repentance depends upon a change of heart. There may be terror, yet with no change of heart, there may be trouble of mind where there is no grieving for the offense against God. This is similar to what we saw earlier, isn't it, you can feel the bitterness of your sin. You can be terrified that your sin will lead you to eternal punishment in hell. You can avoid certain behaviors. You can have every intention of being a good person, but none of this is repentance unto life.
This is a far Fry from Calvin's description of the believer.
When Calvin says, the pious mind restrains itself from sinning, not out of dread of punishment alone, but because it loves and reveres God as Father. It worships and adores him as Lord.
Even if there were no Hell, it would still shudder at offending him alone, how awful and how sobering that there are so many ways we can convince ourselves that we have repented of our sin when we are actually still enslaved to our sin. Well, now that we've thought about counterfeit repentance, how does this help us to see and appreciate true repentance? I want to conclude by thinking about David's sin with Bathsheba and his prayer of confession.
You may be familiar with the account of David's sin in Second Samuel 11, David is at home instead of at battle with the people of Israel. So already he is not where he should be. David sees Bathsheba bathing, and he has lustful desire for her and commits adultery in his heart.
David knows that Bathsheba is married to Uriah, and he still invites her to be with him.
David gets Bathsheba pregnant, committing adultery outwardly.
Then David continues to sin by attempting to cover up his sin.
He brings Uriah, Bathsheba, his husband home from battle, so that Uriah will spend the night with Bathsheba, and no one will know that it was David who got her pregnant. But Uriah refuses to go home to be with his wife.
He refuses to enjoy the comforts of home while his brothers are in are at battle, away at the battlefield. So the next day, David has Uriah over for dinner, gets Uriah drunk so that he'll go home to spend the night with Bathsheba, and no one will suspect that it was David who got Bathsheba pregnant. But once again, Uriah refuses to go home and be with his wife. So the next day, David sends Uriah back to battle and tells him, Uriah, I have this letter for Joab, the commander of the army. Can you give it to him? For me? In this letter, David says to Joab, the commander, when Uriah gets back to the battle, put him in the worst part of battle so that he will be killed. It, and Uriah, in fact, is killed in battle because King David so ordered it. So what has David done here?
He has neglected his responsibility as king, staying home instead of being in battle with the people of Israel, he has committed adultery inwardly in his heart, and he has committed adultery outwardly with Bathsheba. He has attempted to hide his sin, bringing Uriah home, and he has ordered the murder of Uriah Bathsheba, husband, David, has not loved his neighbor as himself, has he?
David has been a bad leader. He took advantage of Bathsheba and made her impure. He manipulated Uriah for his own selfish ends, and he forced Joab to carry out a foolish strategy that led to the death of a faithful soldier in the Lord's army. David's sin damaged his relationships with many people, didn't it? Here's what I want us to think about.
What if David only apologized to all the people he wronged? What if his response to his sin was merely to give every person in his life an apology, something like Bathsheba? I'm sorry that I looked upon you when you were bathing. I'm sorry that I let our relationship get physical, that we committed adultery together. I'm sorry that I tried to cover it up bringing your husband home from battle, and I'm sorry that I had your husband killed your eyes parents. I'm sorry that I had your son killed people of Israel. I'm sorry that I was at home instead of with the army in battle like I should have been, Joab, I'm sorry that I wasted your time in battle telling you how to fight so that Uriah would be killed, just to cover up my mistake is this true repentance.
Let's see how David repents and turn finally, to Psalm 51 let's read all of Psalm 51 together, have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to Your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions, Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin, for I know my transgressions and my sin is ever before me against you. You only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity and in sin.
Did my mother conceive me?
Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart, Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me, Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with a willing spirit that I will teach transgressors your ways and sinners will return to you, deliver me from blood guiltiness. Oh God, oh God of my salvation and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. Oh Lord, open my lips and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice or I would give it. You will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. O God, he will not despise do good to Zion in Your good pleasure. Build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in right sacrifices, in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then bulls will be offered on your altar. Notice, after all the damage that David made of his relationships with other people.
Isn't it amazing that none of them show up in this prayer of confession? There is no mention here of the people of Israel, of Bathsheba, Uriah or Joab. That is because David's sin was not ultimately against any of these people. David's sin was against the Lord. That is why only God is mentioned here in this prayer of repentance for all that David did against the people of Israel and Bathsheba and Uriah and Joab, his sin, ultimately and at every point, was against the Lord. And isn't it amazing how David knew this right away after his conscience was convicted of his sin. You go back and read in Second Samuel 12, how Nathan the prophet rebukes David for his sin. David instantly responds, i. I have sinned against the Lord Second Samuel, 1213, if David had merely apologized to everyone around him, he would not have truly repented. When David's eyes were opened by God's grace, He saw his sin for what it truly essentially is an offense against a holy and merciful God, regardless of anyone, of anyone else who may have been impacted, David realizes that his sin affected the people of Israel and Bathsheba and Uriah and Joab, that it was wicked only because it was rebellion against God's holiness and grace as foolishly, as selfishly as David had lived here, he has the clarity, by God's grace, to see that everything he did was before God's face and in relation to God's glory and law. David saw, as you and I need to see, that all of our sin inwardly and outwardly, big or small, is inherently against the law, glory, holiness and goodness of the one, true and living God.
That is why our sin is wicked, and that is why you and I need to confess our sins to the Lord and trust in his free grace, in Jesus Christ. That is what true repentance is, acknowledging you have rebelled against the glory of God before the face of God, and resting only upon the free mercy of God. For sinners, David has no counterfeit repentance here, does he? He's not sorry that he got caught. He's not worried about his reputation.
He's not embarrassed as he wonders what people might think about him. He doesn't feel bad about what he did. He's not scared of punishment. He's not concerned about any secondary issues or consequences regarding his sin. All David cares about is what is primary, what is central, what is essential, the glory of God. That is why he prays there in verse four against you. You only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. Nothing else comes into consideration for David, here only his own guilt and the glory of God, and nothing else that shows true conviction of sin and true repentance, no excuses, no blaming others, no blaming circumstances, no half hearted qualified apologies.
True Repentance means you condemn yourself and acknowledge the glory of God. This is the heart of true repentance, not being concerned with secondary consequences of sin. Don't misunderstand, when your sin has affected someone else, you need to go and be reconciled to them, which is another discussion, but we're talking about the heart of true repentance. The heart of true repentance is the conviction, the regret, that you have rebelled against a holy and merciful God. Everything else must revolve around this.
Everything else must be subjected to the glory of God.
Everything has its meaning only in relation to the glory of God, without this conviction about the centrality of God's glory and grace, you are stuck with a superficial bad feeling, and you are still lost in your sin. So my dear friends, let us all make Psalm 51 our close companion and our constant prayer. Learn from this psalm what true repentance is. Learn from this psalm how to notice, how to avoid all forms of false repentance that arise in your heart. True Repentance starts here and determines everything else. You are a hell deserving sinner, without excuse and without hope in your works, intentions or feelings, and it is God Himself whom we have offended. No doubt about it. It is a bitter, a painful experience to see something of how awful, how repulsive your sin is in light of God's majesty and purity. But friends, you must know that this bitter, painful experience is the working of God's loving grace.
It is God's grace that He does not allow us to stay naive or careless about our sin. It is God's grace that He awakens us and opens our eyes to show how truly awful our sin is, so that we will run to Him for the forgiveness and cleansing we desperately need. It is good that we have this sorrow in relation to God, because this sorrow brings it with it, the good pleasure and joy of God's salvation, true repentance is certainly a bitter awareness of our sin against God, but it as it is just as certainly. A deep joy and gladness, because our God is far more Abundantly Merciful than you could ever comprehend. The good news that God is merciful means that he forgives us of all of our awful sins. When we turn to Him, David is not hiding from God, even though his sin is great. You can see how David is not afraid of God, that he's that God's going to crush him like a bug for his sin. David is confident, not in himself, but in God's abundant mercy for sinners like him.
David knows that as great as his sin against God is God's mercy is infinitely greater. Our God is not like you and me. He does not hold a grudge. He's never slow to forgive. He's never unwilling to forgive. He's not make a stay on the doghouse for a time. Every time you humble yourself before the Lord, acknowledge your sin to him and go to Him for forgiveness. He will forgive you. He will cleanse you. He will receive you into His favor and friendship.
It is more certain than the rising of the sun. God never turns away anyone who comes to Him in true repentance. God's mercy removes all the obstacles that we have set up between us and Him in our sin. And that is what David pleads for here. That is what the tax collector pled for, that God would restore relationship, that David would know the joy of communion with God again, that David would be cleansed of all selfishness that would distract him from God's glory, no matter how great your sin is, God's mercy is infinitely greater. You have nothing to fear. You have nothing to worry about when you confess your sins to God, because He forgives, He cleanses and restores all who turn to him. And what David knew in type and shadow, in the hyssop and the animal sacrifice, you and I know in fulfillment and substance, in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the finished work of redemption, the Lord Jesus has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of His own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption. It is in Christ that we find grace upon grace, redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our sins according to the riches of his grace. You who are weary and heavy laden, come to Jesus Christ, and He will give you rest to him who shed His precious blood, who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without blemish To God be glory throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.