Revival Through Repentance: Turning Back to God

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast,

where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh, and I want to thank you for listening to

this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen

you in the word of God.

Now, come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has

for us here today.

Well, if you have your Bibles here in our service today, we're

going to go ahead and be in Second Corinthians chapter 7.

2 Corinthians 7 · chapter mention

You can find that in your phones, in your.

On your.

On your Bible, in your Bibles, on your iPads, whatever you're going

to be looking it up here with today.

Second Corinthians, chapter 7.

2 Corinthians 7 · chapter mention

The title of this sermon this morning is Real Repentance for Revival.

Real Repentance for Revival.

And there's a lot wrapped up in that.

I do want you to understand here this morning that we're going

to be using this term repentance quite a bit, and we do

need to be able to define what repentance is before we start talking

about it at great lengths here this morning.

A lot of times people think that repentance means that I stop

doing any wrong.

Now, I think all of us in this room can realize in our lives that

none of us can get to a point in our lives where we have stopped

doing the wrong, okay?

Because we still deal with the flesh.

We still have issues in our life.

None of us are perfect.

And so repentance doesn't mean perfection.

All repentance really means is turning away from something and turning

to something else.

I'm turning away from this, and I'm turning to that.

It's actually a military term for going in and about face.

Okay?

So I'm walking one way, I'm turning and going another way.

And so for us, in the context of our faith and for the context

of Scripture, repentance is turning away from my ways, turning

away from my works, turning away from the ways of the world,

turning away from evil and turning to Christ.

We're going to talk about that dynamic here this morning in Second

Corinthians, chapter seven.

And so real repentance, right?

Because what we can have in our lives is what we would call artificial

repentance, superficial repentance.

You've heard me say this before, probably, if you've been

to our church, that I can say whatever I want to say.

But that doesn't mean it's true about me.

Like, I'm the greatest father in the world.

I'm the greatest husband in the world.

That doesn't make me the greatest father or the greatest husband.

It just makes me someone who has said a lie publicly.

Right?

And so the truth is, is that we can say that we are repentant

and there can be some sorrow in our failures, but what we can

realize is that worldly sorrow does not necessarily equate repentance.

We're going to talk this morning about a phrase, Godly sorrow

works.

Repentance.

And so for us this morning, we need to realize that just because

we say that we are repentant, just because it's our intention to

repent, that doesn't mean that real repentance has manifested in

our life.

And then the last part of that title is real repentance for revival.

Now, what is revival?

Revival is a change of heart.

It's renewed passion for God.

It's a renewed desire to serve him, to love him, to.

To love the things that he loves, to get to a point in our lives

where we want him more and more in our daily walk.

And so all of us, I hope, to some degree, want revival in our

lives.

All of us, I think, to some degree, need revival in our lives

today.

And so we see here in Scripture that repentance, real repentance,

is needed for that revival, needed for that change.

And so last week we looked at the topic of the comfort of God.

The comfort of God in the midst of difficulties.

We're all going to face difficulties in our life.

The good news is that as a believer, God gives us comfort, and

he gives us comfort in many different ways.

One of the ways that God gives us comfort is through the presence

of the Spirit.

The comforter, right, that's one of his names, the comforter.

And so the comforter comes in and gives us opportunity to experience

the peace of God and the peace with God.

But the Bible also tells us in Second Corinthians that God uses

other people who have received the comfort of God to comfort us.

And so, yes, we look for others to comfort us in the midst

of our trials.

But ultimately, that passage of Scripture was all about me receiving

the comfort of God and looking to show that comfort to other people

around me.

And so we see the comfort of God.

But with the comfort of God also comes the conviction of God.

The Holy Spirit is a comforter which we're thankful for.

We want that comfort.

We want that peace.

We want that feeling of restoration with God.

But to get that comfort, many times in our life, we have to embrace

the conviction.

What is the conviction?

That's the pricking of our hearts.

That's the.

That's the understanding that I am wrong in the sight of God and

that I need to change, that I need to repent.

And so many times we celebrate the comfort of God, but we don't

celebrate the conviction of God.

And we're going to talk today about the conviction of God through

the Holy Spirit.

And so this week, we're going to look at what the Bible says about

true repentance that leads to revival.

Repentance is necessary in the life of the believer for salvation,

for revival, for restoration, for all the things that we desire

in our life in the eyes of God.

When it comes to walking in his will, we need repentance.

And we also know that the Bible tells us very clearly that

it is God's desire for us to come to repentance.

So you're in Second Corinthians.

I'm gonna read a passage in Second Peter, 2 Peter, chapter 3,

2 Peter 3:9

verse 9.

Some of you might be familiar with this passage.

It says, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise.

Basically, God keeps his promises as some men count slackness,

but is long suffering towards us, meaning he's patient with us,

not willing that any should perish, but that all should come

to repentance.

It is the heart of God that all of us come to repentance in our

life.

Repentance for salvation, repentance for revival, repentance

for restoration, repentance to walk in the will of God, in our lives

in obedience to Him.

And so, lest you think this morning that repentance is not for

you, we just saw in Second Peter, chapter three, verse nine,

that God wants all to come to repentance.

This is a message for all of us this morning.

Whether you're walking as a Christian for 50 years or whether

you've walked into this building not knowing anything about

the Gospel of Jesus Christ, repentance is necessary for us to

have a relationship with God.

And so therefore, we're going to see this morning that sometimes

the word repentance can be misunderstood or misapplied.

Today we're going to look at what Paul has to say about the Corinthian

Church and their repentance.

We're going to also see what we can learn from this.

Hopefully we will be able to see the example of this biblical

repentance and follow with biblical repentance in our life as

well.

Let's look at this passage in Second Corinthians, chapter seven.

We're going to start in verse number eight.

And we're going to go down to verse number 12 again.

This is Paul speaking to the Corinthian Church, and he's talking

about a confrontation that happened prior to this.

He wrote them a letter.

He wrote them a letter that confronted them on their sin.

And so he's talking about that verse 8 for though I made you sorry

with a letter, I do not repent.

Meaning he's like, I don't regret this, though I did repent.

Meaning he regretted it before, but now he sees the outcome

of it and he's thankful that he did it.

He says, for I perceive that the same epistle or letter with hath

made you sorry, though it were but for a season now I rejoice that

now not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrow to repentance,

for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive

damage by us in nothing.

For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be

repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

For behold this selfsame thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort.

What carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves,

yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire,

yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge in all things ye have approved

yourselves to be clear in this matter.

Wherefore, though I wrote unto you, I did it not for his cause that

had done the wrong, nor for his cause that suffered wrong, but

that our care for you in the sight of God might appear unto you

and you might say, what?

What is he talking about here?

We're going to dig deeper into that.

He's essentially stating why he wrote this letter of confrontation.

He's saying, really, what was the result of this and how we can

learn from this when it comes to following Christ and following

him in repentance.

And so let's go ahead and pray and we're going to jump right into

our main thoughts here this morning.

Lord, I thank you for this time.

I thank you for this opportunity to study your word.

Lord, I thank you for the opportunity to receive the comfort

of the Spirit in our lives.

Lord, I also thank you for the conviction of the Spirit in our lives.

Lord, we thank you for the fact that we can change our path,

that you have given us hope, that you have given us power to not

only see the truth, but also follow you in that truth through

your power.

Lord, I pray that everyone here today that is a believer that

has come to this place of repentance in their life and trusted

in you, Lord, that this can be a day of renewal and revival and

change.

But also, Lord, I do pray for the folks that might not know you

as Savior that today can be the day of repentance to come to

life, to come to that marvelous life that was already demonstrated

through our special song here this morning.

Lord, you've taken us and you moved us from darkness into marvelous

light.

So, Lord, I pray that you remove distractions from our minds.

Lord, help us to focus on your word here this morning.

Help us to see the biblical topic of repentance not just as a

topic, though, but as an application in our lives.

Lord, I pray that you bless us in this time, teach us how we can

love you more.

We ask all these things in Jesus name.

Amen.

All right, let's look at point number one here.

If you're taking notes, you can put this down as your first point.

Truth brings the turn.

The turn.

Right.

Repentance is turning right.

We're going one way in a lifestyle or a decision.

We're going in a path that is not the right way.

And something has to turn us.

Something has to get our attention.

We're not just going to feel like, hey, you know what?

I better stop this now.

You might say, well, I've done that in my life.

I've been going the wrong path and something woke me up and turned

me.

But what I'm going to tell you here this morning is it's the truth

of God that turns us.

It's the truth of God that shows us that we're going in the

wrong path.

It's the truth of God that starts that conviction in our heart.

Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

It is the truth of God that opens our eyes to this need for a

change.

And so what we can see here, starting out in verse number eight,

is that Paul spoke the truth to them boldly.

He's like, I wrote a letter to you.

He says, I made you sorry with a letter.

I don't repent.

I don't regret it, even though at the time I did regret telling

you the truth because it hurt you.

He says, I don't regret it now because of what happened in your

life, that change that happened in your life.

And so he made the church sorrowful because he revealed to

them many spiritual issues in their life.

So what happened?

Paul's truth that he spoke to them exposed their sin.

He shined the light into their lives, and that light exposed their

darkness.

It exposed where they were wrong.

It exposed to them how much they had fallen short of the glory

of God.

That is what the truth does.

That that is the power of the Word of God, that it says in second

Timothy, chapter three, that all scripture is profitable for doctrine,

for reproof.

Reproof is telling us that we are wrong, folks.

It's okay to be told that we're wrong.

Sometimes that doesn't feel good.

All right?

I remember certain times in my life when people have come and told

me that I'm doing something wrong.

It's embarrassing, it hurts our ego, sometimes it makes us even

defensive.

But what I would tell you here is that there's nothing better for

a Christian than to realize that, hey, look, the truth of God

is telling me that I'm wrong.

And I can change that, because there's more in 2 Timothy, chapter

2 Timothy 3 · chapter mention

3.

It's for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, so that

we can change, and for instruction in righteousness.

And so the truth is a good thing, but the truth will expose

the sin in our life.

And so what Paul does is he says, I wrote you a letter, and I'm

not regretting it.

He says, but that made you sorry.

Verse 8, though it were for a season.

And so the truth exposed the sin.

The light revealed what was hidden in the darkness.

And so when Paul wrote this first sorrowful letter carried by

a guy named Titus, which we talked about last week, he didn't

enjoy the idea of being confrontational.

I mean, Paul is saying, I don't like, get joy in confronting

you in your sin.

I can speak from experience on that.

Some people like confrontation, okay?

If you're that type of person, okay, you're different than me, okay?

I do not like confrontation.

I don't like going to someone and saying, hey, look, this is something

that I'm noticing.

This is something that has maybe gone astray.

That.

That is not something that's enjoyable.

And Paul says, I don't enjoy that.

And so even though the Corinthian church deserve confrontation,

Paul says, I don't enjoy that.

He said, I regretted it at a time, but now I don't regret it.

Because why?

Because of the response of that confrontation.

They change.

We're going to get to that here in a little bit.

But Paul says, it was worth it to confront you in the truth because

there is revival in your heart because of the repentance.

So Paul was essentially not happy about confronting the people,

but he was happy or joyful for the effect that it had on them.

And that's why he says, I regretted it.

In the moment because I didn't enjoy it, but.

But I don't regret it now because of the result.

You all understand that principle.

Sometimes we have to do difficult things to get to a place

in our life where we need to be.

And that is repentance.

That is the word of God.

Thus saith the Lord.

Look at all the preaching throughout all the Bible.

Where does it start?

It says, repent and believe.

John the Baptist, Jesus, Peter.

If you study their sermons, it starts with repentance.

It starts with a change of mind.

Why?

Because we need to see the great need for Jesus's grace in our

life.

If we think that we can handle it in and of our own selves, we don't

think we need it.

We don't think we need Jesus.

We don't think we need his grace.

We say, hey, I'll add that to my life.

The Bible's a good thing to add to my life.

The good morals that come with it, right?

It's a good community within the church.

No, you must see.

I must see.

We all must see that the Gospel and the grace of Jesus Christ

is a necessity for us because we are all on a path of destruction

without the goodness and grace of God.

And so it is a need for us.

And so sometimes the truth hurts and sometimes speaking the

truth hurts.

But what Paul does is he says, I do this in love for you.

I do this in love for the need of God in your life.

And so the truth doesn't automatically change us just because

we preach the truth right here.

Because this is what Paul says here.

Go back to verse number eight with me if you're following along.

He says, for I perceive that the same epistle, the same letter

hath made you, sorry though it were, but for a season.

Meaning for some of you, this sorrow just ended at sorrow.

It didn't continue on to repentance.

And so just because we preach the truth doesn't mean that everyone's

just going to repent and believe and have revival.

If that was the case every church in America that preaches truth,

there would be no problems anymore, right?

So, so.

So the truth in and of itself does not change us, but it begins

to start the shift in our life.

It begins the turn in our life.

Without the truth, we cannot have repentance.

Without the truth, we cannot have revival.

Without the truth, we cannot have salvation.

If I got up here and just told you my feelings and my emotions and

the whims of this society, right?

And that changes daily.

Like if I was up here preaching 30 years ago, culture would

tell us different things, and every decade, there's different cultural

changes.

And if I got up and just preached cultural things to you,

that would not be the everlasting truth of God.

The Bible says that the word of God is everlasting.

Nothing can destroy that.

Our culture can be destroyed.

My opinions can be destroyed.

I've changed my opinions on a lot of things over the years, right?

So, for example, oh, man, I'm gonna really offend some people with

this.

Okay.

I'm gonna do it.

Okay.

When I lived in Florida and I was a Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan, some

of you don't even know where I'm going with this.

I used to think that every single person that liked the Philadelphia

Eagles was like, what they portrayed on television.

All these bad people, all these terrible fans.

And I got up here and I met some Eagles fans, and you know what

I did?

I struggled.

I was like, oh, no, I don't know what I'm going to do.

My perception of the Eagles fans changed after meeting them,

right?

Because I realized that they're good people.

They love Jesus, too.

And that's a silly example, right?

But my perception of certain types of people have changed in my

experience.

So you would say, well, what's wrong with that?

There was nothing wrong with that.

But if we see objective truth like that, like, well, now that I've

experienced this, then maybe this, what the Bible says can change.

Or maybe this can be adjusted.

Because my experience, folks, the Bible, the truth of scripture,

cannot change.

It does not bend, it does not break.

And so what we need in our lives is to understand that that's

the starting place for revival.

You can't have revival without the truth of God's word.

I can't get up here and preach a message that's going to change

people's hearts unless the word of God is proclaimed.

That's why we see so many people coming to church.

That's why we see so many people in buildings today that call

themselves Christians.

But there's no change because the truth of God is not presented.

That's the starting place.

The starting place is the truth of God.

And so the truth of God brings the turn.

But then we see number two, that sorrow sustains the shift, right?

So just as much as we need that turn, we need to shift our thinking.

And so sorrow is needed to sustain that shift.

So go with me there in verse number nine, he says, now, I rejoice

not that you were made.

Sorry.

He says, I wasn't excited about your sorrow.

Okay?

I Didn't go, yes, they're sorrowful.

He says, I don't rejoice that you're sorrowful, but that ye sorrowed

to repentance.

So he says that sorrow was a necessary thing to happen to get

you to repentance.

Therefore, I'm okay with it.

So he didn't want to just preach to bring them sorrow and sadness.

You know, sometimes we'll see that.

Sometimes we'll see preachers, including myself.

Sometimes we just want to hit it on the head and make sure everyone

feels like they're broken down.

But God doesn't break our spirits, right?

The way that God does is he wants to convict us.

He wants to change us, but he doesn't want to break our spirits.

And so what Paul here is saying, he's like, I just don't want

to bring sorrow to you.

I want to bring repentance.

But sometimes that sorrow is needed.

He says, but that he sorrowed to repentance.

And so Paul makes a clear separation between sorrow and repentance.

I want you to see that they're two different things.

Sorrow is needed, but it is not repentance.

One can be sorry for their sin without repentance.

Okay?

Someone can be sorry for what they did.

Like, man, I shouldn't have done that.

Maybe it was before they even got caught.

Maybe it was when they got caught.

But it was like, oh, you know what?

I feel so bad about that.

I feel terrible about that.

That in and of itself is not repentance.

That's godly sorrow.

Or maybe it's worldly sorrow.

Who knows?

We can't judge that.

We can't say, like, okay, this person's sorry because they're caught,

or they're sorry because God has got a hold of their heart.

But really what we can see here in this case is that sorrow

describes a feeling, but repentance describes a change both

in mind and in the life.

Okay?

Both in mind and in action.

So sorrow is the feeling or the motion that comes with brokenness.

But.

But it is the repentance that's actually the action of changing

from that path.

Sorrow should be brought about through exposing truth.

Sorrow, though, can fade.

Why?

Because it's a feeling.

So godly sorrow, if not addressed quickly, does not turn

into repentance.

It can just be like, man, I'm really sorry, but I'm going to go

right back to that.

How many times have we seen that?

How many times have we seen people that are like, man, I really

feel bad.

I really don't want to go back into that.

I really don't.

And it's a struggle that we all have.

But that's not repentance.

Repentance is.

I'm turning from this.

I'm giving my wholesale focus to God and not to this issue that

is plaguing my life.

So Paul made the Corinthian Christians feel bad about their sin.

But what we can see here is he did it in a godly way.

This is really interesting.

Verse 9.

He says, Now I rejoice not that you were made sorry, but that

ye sorrow to repentance, for ye were made sorry after a godly

manner.

So what we can tell with this is that we can make people sorrowful

for the wrong way or the right way.

We can make people sorrowful in the eyes of the world, or we can

make people sorrowful in a godly manner.

Paul says, I did it in a godly manner.

I pointed you to truth.

I pointed you to the word.

I pointed you to the way that God wants you to live in your life,

not just making you feel bad for your failures.

And so there's a way that we can make people sorrowful in the

flesh.

We can just make them feel bad about their failures.

Look at you.

Look again.

Look at all those mistakes that you make.

Look, you fall short so many times.

And there's a way to bring people to.

That we're going to talk about here, worldly sorrow.

Or there's a way that we can bring people to, as it says here

in verse number nine, this godly manner of sorrow.

And so what Paul says is this.

I did this in a godly way.

He used the truth, not lies or exaggeration.

There's a way that we can make people feel sorry and broken by lying

to them or exaggerating what's happened.

Paul says, I didn't do it in a worldly way.

I didn't exaggerate.

I didn't overcompensate your wrong.

All I did was point you to the truth of God.

This is how we bring people to sorrow and repentance.

I can sit up here and manipulate you with hidden agendas

and get you all to a place where you might feel like, hey, I

am a failure.

Maybe I am not so good of a person.

And Paul says, no, I didn't exaggerate.

I didn't lie.

I was honest.

I had no hidden agendas.

I had no manipulation.

He simply told the truth in love.

Not every person who does this can say they did the same thing as

Paul.

Over the years, some people have tried to make people sorrowful

in very selfish ways.

To use them, to manipulate them.

And, folks, it's my job here as a preacher not to make you feel

bad by manipulating you and lying to you.

It's my job to give you the truth of God's word and let the work

of God do that in your heart, the Holy Spirit, to change you.

I cannot change you.

I'm not the Holy Spirit.

No preacher is the Holy Spirit.

No preacher can come into your life and force you to change.

It is a relationship between you and God and that Holy Spirit

conviction through the Word of God that changes a person.

That is the only true change that can happen.

That's the only substantial, sustaining change that can happen

in someone's life.

I'm gonna tell you, I could sit here and I said this before.

I could sit here and give you a list of all the things that I think

you should do to be a good Christian.

And you could try to follow them to the best of your ability.

But that is not true change.

That is me trying to manipulate you and force you into

following some path of legalism.

I can tell you what the Bible says about being a good Christian,

but the truth is, is that it cannot happen in your life unless

it's a true change in your heart through the conviction of the

Spirit.

And so Paul says here, it is a work of God that has happened here,

not a work of me, not a work of my own doing.

And so no guilt trips, no manipulation.

Only the Spirit's conviction through the truth of God's Word brings

us to repentance and to revival.

And so here in this case, Paul says, it is done in a godly manner

that you might receive damage by us in nothing.

Meaning, I don't want to harm you in this process of bringing you

to repentance.

There's a way that I could, again, I'm gonna speak for myself

here, that I could bring someone here and break their spirit

so much and harm them with the way that I deal with them.

That we get to a place in the life where there is no hope for restoration

for them.

There is no hope for revival for them, because I've just beat

them down so much.

And Paul says, we didn't want to damage you through this process.

And this is difficult.

And I can't say that I've been perfect in this in any stretch of

the imagination.

But what Paul's desire here is this.

He says, I bring the truth to you.

I bring the word of God to you so that there can be conviction happening

Change happening and so that I don't damage you in any way.

So Paul says, we have to have a godly focus in the midst of preaching

the truth and seeing revival happening in people's lives.

So sorrow sustains the shift.

It doesn't make it happen.

So truth begins the turn.

Sorrow sustains that shift into repentance.

But again, sorrow in and of itself is not enough.

Some of us have sat here.

I've sat here and heard preaching and agreed with the preaching,

understood where I was wrong, even maybe came forward and prayed

and made decisions to say, you know what?

I don't want to do that again.

But how many of us have fallen right back into that trap because

we have not continue on to that place of repentance to turn

away from, to cut it out of our lives?

What if you came to.

What if you came to a doctor and they said, hey, you've got this

cancer on your body, in your body, and it's going to take over

your life, okay?

It's going to eventually kill you.

There's a way that we could cut it out right now, and you're

going to lose a good portion of a part of your body, but we can

take it out right now.

And some of us might say, well, I don't want to lose that.

I don't want to lose that part of me.

You understand?

That's the same thing sometimes in our life when we've

got that sin that's attached to us like a cancer.

And God says, take that out of your life and you can get that out

and you can be healed and you can be walking in the truth.

And we go, yeah, but I like that.

No, you don't like that.

You like the idea of not losing something.

You like that.

You like the benefits that you think it's coming to you.

I know in my life, there's been sins in my life that I've justified

that I felt good about.

Because you know what?

It makes me feel comfortable.

It makes me feel like I'm winning.

It makes me feel like I'm on top.

And I'm going to tell you, every time, sin is like a disease.

It will take away, it'll grow.

And the Bible says, cut that out.

That's repentance.

Getting rid of that.

And so sorrow sustains the shift.

But I want you to see lastly here, point number three.

It's real repentance that brings revival.

Real repentance that brings revival.

Look at it there in verse number 10, he says, for godly sorrow

worketh, repentance.

Repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow

of the world worketh death.

And so he says there's godly sorrow that brings repentance, and

then there's worldly sorrow.

And what does he say that worldly sorrow brings?

It worketh for death, it worketh for destruction.

Because what that means is that if I'm in my worldly sorrow,

I'm gonna go right back to it.

Eventually, when that feeling wears away and I don't feel so bad

anymore, and I become more desensitized to sin over time, and

I see other people doing that same sin, that sorrow will fade away.

And that's not true biblical conviction.

And therefore I will go back, and that brings forth death.

So he says it is godly sorrow that works repentance, not worldly

sorrow.

And so sorrow itself does not produce anything except for bad feelings.

But godly sorrow produces repentance.

And so since repentance is a change in both thinking and action,

we can tell if sorrow is really godly by seeing what it produces

in our life.

And so what kind of sorrow is this?

Well, what is being produced in my life?

If it's a change, if it's a shift into thinking about the things

of God, if it's a shift into thinking about how I can desire after

him.

Therefore, that is biblical sorrow that led to repentance.

And so godly sorrow cannot be measured by feelings.

And hear me out here.

Godly sorrow cannot be measured by feelings, tears, emotions,

but only what it is produced after what is produced after.

What is the effect of this godly sorrow?

Is there change?

If there's not any change in our life?

We haven't made a decision to change.

And obviously we know that there is the power of God that comes

into this, which we're gonna talk about here in a few moments.

You can't change of your own self.

You have to rely on the power of God.

You have to rely on the power and the grace of God.

And there's forgiveness when we fail.

First John, chapter one, verse nine.

If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our

sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

So the Bible says, hey, you know what?

There's going to be times even in your repentance that you're going

to sin.

That doesn't mean that you failed.

It doesn't mean that you quit.

It just means that you get right back up and you say, lord,

I need forgiveness.

Give me forgiveness, give me grace.

And that's not forgiveness of getting sins.

You know, I'm going to get saved over and over and over again.

What that's talking about is restorative forgiveness.

So, for example, I've used this analogy before with my children,

right?

Micah can be mad at me.

I could discipline him.

Mike is my nine year old son.

I could get him in trouble.

He could get mad at me.

He could stop talking to me.

He could run up to his room and says, I'm never talking to my

dad again.

Okay, is he still my son?

Yes.

I don't go, well, he's not talking to me today, so he's no longer

my son.

That's not how it works.

I can't deny him.

He's my son.

So the truth is that's how it is in the relationship with God.

But could our fellowship be broken?

Yes.

And it doesn't mean that I want to stop talking to him.

He might say, I'm locking my door, dad, you're never coming in

here.

It's he who is drawing that divide there.

And so for us as Christians, a lot of times when we fail in our

sin, we get so ashamed of our sin that we reject God and we turn

away from God.

It doesn't mean God has left us.

It doesn't mean that God has forgotten about us.

It means that we have turned our backs to him.

And when we come back and all it takes for Micah to come back and

to be received again and say, dad, I'm sorry, I apologize.

Can we.

Of course, let's go out.

Let's go out and do something.

That's how it is with God.

He wants us to come back in forgiveness.

And so I don't want to perceive, I don't want to paint a

picture of perception that, hey, look, you know what repentance

means?

You never sin.

It means you're Mr.

Holy.

It means that you never have any problems.

No, the Bible says that even in repentance, it happens over and

over again in our lives.

And so repentance must never be thought of as something we do

before we can come back to God.

Repentance actually is coming back to God.

Repentance describes the very act of coming to God.

A lot of people think, well, now I have to be repentant to get

back to God.

No, it's you seeking after God.

That is the repentance because you're turning away from the things

of this world.

You're turning away from that sin that so easily besets us.

It's turning away from that bondage and saying, lord, I'm turning

to you.

And so this isn't an act of will.

This isn't an act of like, well, just try harder as a Christian,

you got a sin in your life.

Just work harder.

Stop watching that.

Stop doing this.

No, it's not that.

It's not just stopping the bad.

It's turning to the good.

It's saying, I want to desire God and not the things of this world.

And so I think a lot of times for me growing up, it was this, stop

doing bad.

Just stop doing bad.

But the truth is that a lot of times in our life, if we don't replace

that bad with our desire for Christ, we're eventually going to

divert right back into that.

Because if we divert our flesh, we're just gonna go to something

else fleshly, right?

If I try to stop doing something in the flesh, I'm just

gonna go to something else in the flesh.

I'm gonna move from one vice to the other vice.

I'm gonna move from one sin to another sin, or I'm gonna go back

to the same sin.

And so it's clinging after God.

And so repentance is not what we have to do to get to God.

It is the actual act of coming back to Him.

You can't turn towards God without turning from the things that

he's against.

Hear me out on that.

You can't turn to God and still be clinging on to the things

that he hates, the things that he rejects, the things that he's

against.

And so sorrow in itself doesn't produce anything except bad

feelings.

But repentance brings true transformation.

All right, look at there with verse number 11.

He says, for behold the self.

Same thing that you sorrowed after a godly sort.

So he said, you had a godly sorrow.

What carefulness it wrought in you.

And so he's gonna explain the product of biblical repentance.

And I think this is important for us to see.

Cause you might say, well, am I biblically repentant?

Paul says, these are the signs.

These are the outward manifestations of what's happening

in your heart.

This will be a test of what happens as a product of repentance.

This is verse number 11.

Okay?

So he says here, verse number 11.

For behold this cell.

Same thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort.

What was the product?

What?

Carefulness.

It rotten you.

That is the actual idea.

That's an old way to say diligence.

Diligence.

It brought seeking after God.

To be diligently seeking after God.

So one Mark of repentance is diligently seeking after the Lord.

But then he says here, he says that you were careful, carefulness,

it rot in you.

Yea, what clearing of yourselves, clearing of yourself

in the original language here has this idea of, of justification,

your defense.

Okay, I have a defense against this sin in my life.

It means you have hope.

It means you have something behind you that you're saying, you

know what?

I'm not what Satan says that I am because I have this substance

in the Lord.

So a clearing or a defense in the wrongs that I have done because

Satan is the accuser of the brethren.

And what Satan wants to do is he wants you to think that you've

done too much wrong to see God in your life.

You've done too much wrong to be used by God.

And, and so what the Bible says is that true repentance leads

us to that place of defense.

No, Satan can't say that about me because I'm going off of what

God has said about me.

My identity is not when Satan says about me.

My identity is not in what the world says about me.

My identity and my defense is in what Jesus Christ says about me.

The great advocate, the one who is appealing for me, the one

who is the propitiation, the one who is fighting on my behalf.

And so there is a clearing, there is a confidence.

He goes on to say more.

He says, yea, what indignation.

Indignation to what?

Indignation towards sin and evil.

One of the marks of true repentance and revival in our lives

is that we hate sin.

We hate the things that God hates, we reject the things that

God rejects.

We don't have an inordinate love for the things of this world,

folks.

One of the marks of a backslidden Christian is someone

who is comfortable in the things of this world, someone who

embraces the sin of this world.

Folks, revival is, I don't like that, doesn't mean that I'm

perfect, but it means that I reject that in my life.

And so an indignation or a hatred towards sin.

He says, yea, what fear.

This is a fear or respect for God and his Word.

He says these are all products of someone who has biblical repentance,

diligence, a clear heart hatred towards sin, a respect for

God.

He goes on to say more, yea, what vehement desire this is, this

understanding of having a desire for God and his Word, having

a desire for the things of God.

And so we see that he says that there's desire there.

Yea, what zeal.

This word zeal has in the literal Greek means heat being on

fire for God.

One of the definitions of someone who is in repentance and

in revival is they're on fire for God.

Folks, I'm gonna tell you that when we are.

All right, let me speak as clear as I can.

When we get annoyed by someone being excited for God, that's a sign

that we are not where we need to be.

Okay?

You say, what do you mean by that?

When someone's excited about Jesus Christ.

And we go, oh, yeah, okay.

They'll cool off in a little bit.

Folks, that's a sign that we are not where we need to be.

We all should be excited for that.

And when someone else is excited for God, we should have that

same zeal.

The Bible says In Romans, chapter 12, fervent in spirit.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

It literally means a fire boiling in our hearts, fervent in

spirit, serving the Lord.

And so one of the marks of someone who is living in repentance

and revival is that they're on fire for God.

We see more here.

He says, yea, what zeal.

Yea, what revenge.

Now, revenge is not our job, okay?

We don't do the revenge.

But what it says here is there's justice or vindication.

We're excited about God's justice.

We're excited about his holiness.

We're excited about those things that God is doing in our world.

You say, what do you mean by that?

When God judges those that are unrighteous, we should say, hey,

you know what?

Hey, that's justice.

He's working out my justice.

He's working out my vindication.

The Bible says, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.

So we're excited.

We rejoice in God's judgment.

And then we see here, what does it say more?

It says, in all things, ye have approved yourselves to be clear

in this matter.

It's a clear heart.

It's no regrets.

It's not living our lives and saying, you know what?

There's something here.

It's just I have a clear heart before God.

That's the product of repentance.

There is that diligence, that defense, the hatred towards sin,

that fear of God, that desire for God, that passion for God, that

zeal for God, the justice or vindication that God brings us in

our life, that clear heart.

And so Paul's purpose in writing the Sorrowful Letter was

not to take sides.

That's what he says in verse 12.

He says, Wherefore, though I wrote you, I did it not for his cause

over here that had done the wrong.

So he's like, I didn't write on behalf of the person that did

the wrong, nor for the cause that suffered the wrong, the person

that was the person that received the wrongdoing.

He said, I wasn't taking sides when I wrote this letter.

I wasn't taking sides and saying, I'm on this person's side

or I'm on this person's side.

He.

He's on God's side.

He says, but that our care for you in the sight of God might appear

unto you.

He says, okay, I wasn't taking sides.

All I was doing was demonstrating my concern for where

you were and the hope that you would come to conviction in the Spirit

so that you could get right with God, so that you could live

as this way with zeal, with joy, with hatred towards sin, with

love for God's word.

And so a mark of someone who's living in repentance, a mark of someone

who is living with that revival in their hearts, will desire

the things of God.

I'll boil it down to a very basic thing.

Desire the things of God, be passionate about the things of God,

hate the things that God hates, and live without any guilt

or condemnation in their life.

That's a person living in repentance.

It doesn't mean a person that's perfect.

It doesn't mean a person who's going to do everything right.

It means a person who can live without the fear of their failures

ruling and reigning in their life.

It's someone who desires the word, someone who doesn't just read

the Bible because someone's watching them, or someone who's serving

just because they want to serve, not just because they have

to serve.

That's the idea of someone that's living in repentance.

And so it is that real repentance that leads to revival.

So what does revival look like?

Revival looks like change.

Revival looks like a different path.

And so repentance leads to revival.

And revival is where we see God working in our lives.

Do we want to see God working in our church?

Do we want to see God working in our lives?

That means a prerequisite for that godly sorrow from the truth

of God.

That brings repentance, that brings a change, that allows us to

trust in the power of God.

So hear me out this morning.

I'm not talking about, hey, stop sinning, and then the God's

going to clean up your life.

That's not what I'm saying.

I'm saying turn away from that sin and turn to Jesus Christ.

That is the response.

The response is, I need Jesus.

I need his grace in my life.

I need his word in my life.

I need his transformation.

Romans, chapter 12, Be transformed.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Not conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of

your mind.

And some of you might say, well, I repented.

I was.

You know what?

We had a revival back in 1986.

And I remember that day.

I got revived.

Praise God for that.

But I'm gonna tell you, if the last time you've been revived and

your spirit was 1986, you might need a new sense of revival

this morning.

You see, I was repentant.

I was sorry that I got caught.

I told everyone that I was sorry, and I let you know, okay,

remember, sorrow is not repentance.

I hope that you're sorrowful for your sin.

Biblically speaking, we should be sorrowful for our sin.

But the true test is, what have I done next?

What's the next step after my sorrow?

Is it godly sorrow that works repentance, or is it worldly sorrow

that leads me back to that same destructive path?

These are tough topics.

Okay?

When I was going through Second Corinthians, I'm like, oh,

great, we're gonna preach about repentance.

No one loves to be preached at about repentance, but we have to

preach about it, right?

We have to preach about it.

And so the idea here this morning is this.

Have you in your life realized the necessity of repentance in every

spiritual element of your life?

So for salvation, you realize, I think all of us could realize that

there is a need to repentance to come to Christ.

But how many of us in that sanctification process, remember,

that's the spiritual growth process?

How many of us realize the necessity of repentance in that process

as well?

How many of us have realized, hey, I need to get back on the right

track.

How many of us have realized, you know what?

I need to get back into my scripture reading, because sometimes

it's repentant for things that we're doing.

There's sins of commission, meaning I've done this wrong.

I need to stop doing that.

But we haven't really planted a lot on this morning about the sins

of omission.

You know what I mean by that?

Sins that mean that I'm not doing what I should be doing.

Sometimes that's the tougher one.

Sometimes I need to be doing something in my life, but I haven't

been doing that.

Maybe I need to repent about that maybe I need to turn away from

my apathy.

Maybe I need to turn away from my carelessness in my family.

You know, transparency.

I'll tell you the truth here.

There have been times in my life as a father that I've had to

repent from not caring enough about my children to lead them in

a godly manner.

You say what?

A pastor?

Yeah.

Cause guess what?

Pastors get busy.

Pastors have, believe it or not, we don't just work on Sunday

mornings for one hour.

Okay.

Or hour and a half.

So there's sometimes there have been long days in my life, long

workdays that I come home and my kids are there and I go, you know

what?

It'd be a lot easier for me to say, hey you guys, it's an early

night to go to bed, go to bed.

My dad just needs to relax.

I have to confess that before God and say, lord, I have failed

in that I need to be actively pursuing my role as a father within

these children's lives.

And so I need to repent from my lack of action.

And so some of us, it's like, hey, I need to repent from my actions.

My actions are bad.

And we can do that.

But there's also times in our life where we need to repent from

those non active moments where we should be doing something for

the cause of the gospel.

How many of us haven't shared our faith with anybody for decades?

I'm going to tell you folks, we need revival to see that, hey,

we need to start sharing our faith.

We need to start telling people about Jesus Christ.

And so just as much as this is turning away from an action, it might

be turning to an action away from inactivity when it comes to

our life.

And so the challenge is out there, here this morning, Number

one, have you come to a place in your life in repentance that you

need?

That you realize that you need Jesus for your Savior, that you need

Jesus for your forgiveness.

You can't earn it yourself.

You can't be good enough.

You know, folks, Jesus came and died on a cross because we were

not good enough.

Jesus came and died on a cross so that he could pay the price that

none of us could pay.

And we must be in a place of repentance to realize that we have

to turn away from our own works and turn to Christ for our

salvation.

That's the first step of repentance for a Christian's life.

But secondarily, how many of us have said, I've trusted in that.

But over time I've allowed myself to drift away from the truth.

And I live a life of just.

You know what?

I'm satisfied with what I have in my flesh.

I'm satisfied with what I have in this world.

Folks, it might be time where we get dissatisfied with the things

of this world and get more satisfied with the things of God.

I encourage you to think about that here this morning.

This is tough.

And I will tell you this this morning, as I am preaching to you,

I am preaching to myself.

Lest you think that Pastor Josh is up here saying, hey, I've

got it, all right?

And you guys need to repent, folks, we all need to get back to

that place of repentance in our life, brokenness before God.

Lord, I need you.

Every hour, I need you.

And let's amend that song.

Every minute, I need you.

Every second, I need you.

Folks, we need Jesus in our life.

We need to see that.

And when we see that need, when we come to that place of thanksgiving,

like Christina sang about this morning, when we think about what

Jesus Christ has done for us, and that brings us a spirit of thanksgiving,

that also should bring us a spirit of a contrite heart, of a

broken heart before God.

Lord, I need you.

I don't deserve what you've given me, so I give it all over to

you.

So this morning, if that's something that's been speaking to

you, we're going to have a time of reflection.

We're going to have a time of invitation.

I'm going to ask everyone if you're able to stand with me.

Every head bowed, every eye closed, no one looking around.

As the music plays this morning, you have an opportunity

to respond.

Respond in repentance, respond in conviction, respond in humility.

Respond in your brokenness.

You don't have to get it all clean and get it all right to come

before God.

He wants you in your brokenness so he can mend you, so

he can restore you, so that he can revive you.

How many of us want revival in our church?

How many of us want revival in our families?

How many want us have revival in our own lives?

Hey, today is the day you say, lord, that's a change in my heart.

That's a change in my life.

Before I look for anybody else, I need to look to you here

this morning.

Some have already come.

If you need to come forward and recommit your life to that repentant

spirit, hey, come give that to him this morning.

If you need Jesus as your personal savior, we're going to be

up here we can show you in the Word of God what it means to come

to him in repentance and trust in him in faith.

But folks, if you're a believer this morning, but you need

to commit to Him.

Hey, come for this morning.

First John, Chapter one, Verse nine if we confess our sins, confess

just means to agree with him about what our sin is.

If we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us our

sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Lord, I pray that you be with us in this time of invitation, work

in hearts and lives.

Pray that you can lead us in the truth, lead us in that conviction,

lead us in that change in Jesus name.

Amen.

As the music plays, some have already come Follow as the Lord leads

here this morning.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church

Podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

You would like to find out more.

Information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at

middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also email me directly at joshmasaroiddletownbaptistchurch

dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast.

Please subscribe and follow along for future podcasts and updates.

Thank you so much.

God Bless.

Have a wonderful day.