[0:00] Let us sing to God's praise from Psalm 25, the first version of the Psalm, Psalm 25 at verse 4.
[0:13] The first version, show me thy ways, O Lord, thy paths, so teach thou me. And do thou lead me in thy truth, therein my teacher be. For thou art God that does to me salvation send.
[0:26] And I upon thee all the day expecting to attend. Thy tender mercies, Lord, I pray thee to remember. And loving kindnesses for thee have been of old forever.
[0:38] My sins and faults of youth do thou, O Lord, forget. After thy mercy think on me, and for thy goodness great. We'll sing to verse 10, Psalm 25, the first version.
[0:51] Show me thy ways, O Lord, thy paths, so teach thou me. Show me thy ways, O Lord.
[1:06] Thy paths, so teach thou me. How do thou lead me in thy truth, wherein my teacher be.
[1:33] For thou art God that does. Tell me salvation send.
[1:51] And die upon thee all the day. And die upon thee all the day.
[2:02] Expecting to attend. Thy tender mercies, Lord.
[2:21] I pray thee to remember. I pray thee to remember. And love and kindlessness for thee.
[2:41] Have been of old forever. My sins and faults of youth.
[3:00] God, O Lord, forget. God, O Lord, forget. After thy mercy think on me.
[3:20] God, O Lord, rejoice. Give thy mercy think on me. When cloud ande Give great grace, Lord, be right aloud.
[3:35] ax If God, o Lord,ogi to kiss. God. God, o악. The meek in judgment he will guide And make it up to know The hope has all the Lord Our truth and mercy share His love and truth is carnity
[4:37] And test him all is pure Can we turn to Matthew chapter 4 And we'll read again verse 17 From that time Jesus began to preach And to say repent For the kingdom of heaven is at hand Jesus began to preach And to say repent In the account that Matthew gives to us In chapter 3 We're given some information About John the Baptist And his role as the forerunner Of Jesus Christ And we're given an indication
[5:39] Of his preaching And the content of that preaching Then we're told that John Baptised the Lord And then in chapter 4 We've given the wilderness temptation Temptations of Christ And then almost as an aside We are told that John was imprisoned And whether that is simply the way The record has it Or if it's an indication to us Simply of John's role being completed And Jesus coming to the fore But we do know That we can't think of Jesus Following as it were In the example of John the Baptist Because John was preaching repentance
[6:44] And the coming of the kingdom of the Lord But I think that's back to front Because the focus had to be On what Jesus was going to do And the fact that In order historically Jesus seems to follow John as far as his preaching Was concerned And the emphasis that his preaching Contained It is very much the fact That as the forerunner John was preparing them For the content The main body Of emphasis That was to be contained Within the preaching of Jesus Christ The need that there is To repent And to believe the gospel And we know that This is the first recorded Public word
[7:46] And where he begins It's not something he leaves Behind in his ministry His ministry may be diverse And he may have occasion To emphasize different Things But he never Moves far away From the need that there is For those who Hear his preaching And hear any preaching To have Alerted To them Brought to their attention The need that there is For all men Everywhere To repent And to believe the gospel We also need to Remind ourselves That just because We may think That we could For example Say well This is Jesus Now beginning to preach And because He is preaching repentance
[8:47] That Because he is preaching repentance That there is A greater priority Given to that message But we would be wrong Because we need to guard Against Thinking that The words that Jesus Outters Are any more Significant Than the words That we find Within the scripture Because the scripture Contains his word His word Is the word Of God And it is Equally important For us to understand That whatever the word Says It says it with the same Level Of Emphasis And need To Respond to it Just Quote from one passage In the Old Testament Prophets And there is plenty Plenty passages That we could refer to
[9:47] That you will find In the Old Testament And following on From the Gospel narrative From the preaching Of Paul And the other Apostles There is a reminder Of the need To repent But Just one example From the prophet Jeremiah The Lord Hath sent out to you All his servants The prophets Rising early And sending them But you have not Hearkened Nor inclined Your ear To hear They said Turn ye again Now everyone From his evil way And from the evil Of your doings And dwell in the land That the Lord Hath given To you And to your fathers Forever and ever Go not after Other gods To serve them And to worship them And provoke me Not to anger With the words Of your hands And I will Do you no word Yet ye have not Hearkened unto me
[10:47] Says the Lord That you might Provoke me to anger With the works Of your hands To your own heart That's just one example But the prophet Is not Preaching his own message He's not proclaiming A favourite truth Of his own He's proclaiming God's word To his generation And while we We know that Jesus The Lord Jesus Christ Is God And that he Deserves That place As God Yet when it comes To the word That he proclaims We need to understand That it's God's word That needs to be heard Whether it comes From his mouth Or from the mouth Of the prophets I think that's Important for us To understand I remember reading You know You'll maybe have Some Bibles And you'll have The words of the Lord Jesus in red And I thought
[11:49] Well this is quite Appropriate You're drawing attention To the words of Christ But we have to remember That the words Are the words of scripture And they're contained In the scripture And the whole of scripture Is God breathed And we need to give it That place And that emphasis Well we see here Something that we need To remind ourselves And you've heard it often And probably heard it Too often To your liking But I think it's important For us to To remind ourselves Of the The importance There is Placed within the scripture Of the grace Of repentance And we'll just look at What the Lord is saying here And curtail
[12:50] Our thoughts To what is being said By him Now we can ask the question First of all Why is there a need For repentance Whether it is in the Old Testament Or the New Or today Why is there a need For all men Everywhere to repent And the reason Is staring us In the face In the scripture And that is That all have sinned And come short Of the glory of God And as a sinner We are guilty In the sight of God And not only Do we have the guilt Of our own sin But we are guilty In the sight of God As those who are Descendants Of Adam He sinned And we sinned In him We fell with him And we have the guilt Of his sin Along with our own sin And The shorter catechism Is always helpful When it comes to Resolving
[13:52] Any questions That we may have Or setting light Upon any question That we have And in the In the shorter catechism The question is asked What does every sin Deserve?
[14:08] And we are told Every sin Deserveth The wrath And curse Of God Both in this life And that which is to come Every sin I am sure You know that You believe that But then it goes on To ask the Next question What does God Require of us That we may escape His wrath and curse Due to us for sin And if we have all sinned Then this is what We need to do Because we have sinned To escape the wrath And curse of God Due to us for sin God requireth of us Faith in Jesus Christ Repentance unto life With the diligent use Of all the outward means Whereby Christ Communicated to us The benefits of redemption So again The divines Theologians Who are responsible For composing the catechism Just drawing to Coming to the word Define there
[15:09] The simple truth The reason why We need to repent And the reason God gives For that Is that We are estranged From God We are under His judgment We are under His condemnation That will never Be resolved By any of Our own endeavours And we will be Estranged from Him For all eternity Unless that is Changed by His own hand Now in the sentence here That we are looking at And it has got a Corresponding Parallel passage In Mark's gospel Here There is the emphasis On the urgency That is Because the kingdom Of God Is at hand The kingdom of heaven Is at hand He says And that That more or less Is saying to us That This is not an option That you can leave For another day God has taught us
[16:09] In the coming Of His Son That His Purposes Are being fulfilled And that He is Dealing with sin In the passion Of His Son Jesus Christ And that Time has come That occasion Has arisen And That itself Falls heavily Upon the heart And mind Of those Who understand Themselves To be sinners But what do we Actually do When we repent And do you find A variety Of answers Given To that question What is it That we actually Do When we Repent The easiest Answer To that Is To look at The New Testament Word For repentance And that word Is A composite word Made up of two Words Meta Noia The word Meta
[17:10] Means to turn And noia It has to do With the mind Or the intellect Or the perception As I put it So It requires When we When we Indulge Ourselves Or when we Execute This requirement That we Are experiencing A change Of mind That results In a change Of attitude We are turning And One of the Commentators Charles Price I think he made A good point Which I Noted Which was That in His Preaching He would Ask his Congregation What do You do When you Repent And he Would give Them three Three Alternatives Is it
[18:12] Something You feel Is it Something You do Or is it Something That we Think So if You were Asked The question What are You doing When you Repent Are you Feeling Repentance Are you Involved In some Motion When you Are you Repenting Or is it Something that Begins With the Thought And most People would Go for the Second Because when You think About the Word metanoia It is a Turning Which is An action But it is An action That is Based First of All In the Mind In the Thoughts In the Heart However you Describe it And First and
[19:12] Foremost Before any One of Us can Repent And if We are all Believers Believers Then every Single one Of us Because we Believers Have at Some point Repented And if we Have not Repented Then we Are not Believers Repented As simple As simple As that You can't Be a Believer In Jesus Christ And not Have repented And when You think About it You cannot But conclude That Because Very often You find That there Are things That may Look on The surface To be Very like Repentance For example The The experience Of remorse The experience
[20:13] Of remorse Now repentance And remorse Are not The same Things We know One Principal Character In the New Testament Don't we He experienced Remorse And That's Judas Iscariot Whatever Was going On in His heart Or in His mind We know That he Did not Turn to God He went Out into The night And He took His own Life And That did Not involve Whatever However The thought Processes That were Responsible For that Action Worked They were Not Thought Processes That Sought A remedy That God Provided Now it is a Question I Suppose some Theologians Asked Was there A remedy For the Likes Of Judas Was there A remedy For the
[21:13] Likes Of Judas For the Sin That he Committed And most Will say On the Basis Of The Scripture Saying That He was The son Of perdition And that Was what Was awaiting Him In any Case But that's Not the Question The truth Of the Matter is That whoever It is That commits Sin Is required To repent If the Repentance Is the Repentance That God Requires Of them And is Pleased To receive From them Then whoever It is Whatever This sin May be That leaves Scope For that Repentance To bring Them to Life It wasn't The case For Judas Because he Had no Intention To Submit To the Will of God He had No intention Of sorrowing Over his Sin His grief Was that Perhaps he Was found Out or That he Understood In some
[22:14] Way the Action that He was Guilty of But I Don't want To spend Time on That but We know That when The opportunity Arises For a Person to Repent Then that Opportunity Must be Taken by Them And sometimes It is True of Some people That although They experience Guilt and Sorrow for Sin to a Degree it Is not The sense Of guilt That drives Them to God It is Not the Sense of Guilt that Is such a Burden that They cannot Carry but They envisage That in Some way it Will be Remedied Other than God's Way and We must Understand That What God Is doing
[23:14] By way of Repentance Is to Be understood In light of What he is Doing by Way of The gospel Because if You go to The parallel Passage which We mentioned In Mark's Gospel Jesus there Says Repent And believe The gospel Now if a Person believes The gospel He believes The person That Jesus Is That God Has supplied That God Has provided Who is going To deal with Sin They will Believe that Rather than Believe that They are in Some way Able to Do something That will Take away The pain Or take away The grief Or take away The sorrow And move on From there Into something Else The word Believe As far as Jesus is Concerned Is all Important I think For most
[24:15] People I do Believe that They understand What it Is to Be a sinner They understand What it Is to Be a sinner In need Of salvation But not Everybody Has that Understanding Of what Sin is If we Think of It like This If everybody Who hears The gospel Is taught From the Word of God That they Are sinful Only by Way of God's Spirit Is that Truth Brought home To them Because There are Many people Who are Quite Exercised As far As their Mental Faculties Are concerned They may Sit under God's Word And think That they Understand What the Word of God Is saying But until Such time As that Word is Brought home To them By the
[25:15] Hand of God's Spirit Whatever Understanding They have Of this Of the Reality Of sin And the Cost of Sin And the Ultimate End of Sin Is very Limited You know If you Spoke to A person And you Ask them Do you Believe Yourself To be A sinner And they Will say Yes Do you Believe That the Destination Of a Sinner Is a Lost Eternity And they Will say Yes Now if You Were to Believe Yourself To be Heading For a Lost Eternity Would you Be able To exist In that Understanding Of The reality Of that And glibly Say That you Are still An unbeliever That you Have not Embrace The gospel That you Have not Looked To jesus Christ It's Something That people Can do And say To a
[26:15] Degree They will Agree With you And say Yes I Understand What you Are saying I believe What you Are saying But the Reality is They do Not We can Say it With all Conviction That we Believe the Bible Which says That all Have sinned And yet Not all Have that Conviction Of sin And I Think that's The problem That I've Read it Variously And repeatedly Over the Last number Of weeks And months Where we See a Generation Of people Who are Content With their Lot And they Are so Content With their Lot That sin Is not Really A burden To them What does Sin mean To them If they've Got a Comfortable Home If they've Got a Good job If their Families are Growing up Around them All of these Things are Important All of these
[27:16] Things are A salve to Their conscience A conscience Which is Sleeping Peacefully And the Last Majority Of our Generation Today Are in That Situation People will Ask well Why did So many Believe Before that And well Only the Spirit of God can Make a Person Believe You know The people Who are Asleep Today Who are Slumbering Into the Gospel It doesn't Mean that God can't Quicken them Or awaken them I heard Somebody tell Me the Other day Speak to Me in This way And this Person was A member Of the Church From the Time they Were very Young And they Were speaking About a Speaker that Was coming To their Church And that Speaker was A reformed
[28:17] Drug addict And what This person Said Why do I Need to Go and Hear These People Surely They would Have been Better if They hadn't Needed to Have their Life changed Surely it Would have Been better For them Had they Never done These things That they're Now telling Other people About Now I Think this Was a Person who Was blind Somebody Was Oblivious To the True Nature Of sin I don't Think that Person Understood What sin Was Maybe Able to Talk about It Maybe A Person A person Who Is Never Present In Church But as Far as The Gospel And its True Meaning Was Concern Little Idea Of It Because The power Of God Will Convert Sinners Whatever They are Whether They're Drunkards Or Alcoholics Or Drug addicts Or whatever
[29:17] They are Whatever They're Enslaved By John Kennedy Dingwell Has put A good Passage That he Deals With Repentance In his Own Words And he Says a Number Of things That are Worthy Of note And I think We have To understand What do you Say We have To appreciate What do you Say There can Be No Intelligent Faith Without A sense Of sin Do you Believe That There can Be no Intelligent Faith Without A sense Of sin Now I Know some People And When they Came to Faith They came To faith As young People Perhaps And their Conviction Of sin Was very Slight But I Don't Think it Was It was Invisible
[30:18] I don't Think it Was Non-existent Perhaps When you Compare Their Experience Of what Sin Was To others Who had A shaking Above Hell Their Experiences Were Different But I Find it Difficult to Understand The same Way as Kennedy Does How you Can Appreciate Salvation From sin If you Don't Have An Idea Of what Sin Is If you Don't Have An Awareness Of what Sin Has Done If you Don't Have An Understanding Of The Way that It is Impacted On your Own Relationship With God In the First Instance In the scripture We are Told That the Law Comes That the Offence May Abound But the Gospel Comes That the Offender The person Who is The law Breaker
[31:18] May have Hope And that's Where the Hope Of the Gospel Comes It Comes To a Person Who Is Sent To the Law And Who Is Feeling The Grief Of A Broken Law Even As They Themselves Have Committed It And this Conviction Of Sin Is The Doing Of The Holy Spirit It's Not Something I Can Create It's Not Something That You Can Generate It Is God's Work By The Holy Spirit Kennedy Suggest That This Is Something That You Can Think About It's Worth Reflecting Upon He Says There Is A Preliminary To Faith There Is A Repentance That Is A Preliminary To Faith How Does That Work How Can You Repent If Faith And Repentance Are As Close As Twins Happ�
[32:28] Christ in the gospel. And when we think of that, we have to compartmentalize it. We have to put time into it. But when God works, he can work in an instant.
[32:43] He can quicken the soul that is lost and make them aware of their lostness and at the same time fix their eye on Christ.
[32:55] And the Christ that their eye is fixed on is revealed to them as the one through whom God is saving sinners. There is the change of mind of which repentance speaks that is the result of regeneration.
[33:15] The change of mind that is the work of the spirit when a person is born again. And there, when that happens, it is not a motion into the dark but a motion towards God.
[33:32] It's a movement towards God. In fact, I think among many theologians the insistence is that we need to understand that this is a day, this is a quickening effect of the spirit where a person is made willing in a day of his power.
[33:49] nobody comes to Christ unwillingly. I don't care if I've said it before and I have, I'll say it again. Nobody becomes a believer in Christ unwillingly.
[34:04] Nobody. They are made willing by him in a day of his power. And the sinner is in that instant embracing the grace of God in Christ Jesus.
[34:22] Submitting to the power of Christ. Understanding what Christ is saying here that you repent and believe the gospel. What do you believe from the gospel?
[34:33] What is the gospel? The gospel is however you want to make it. It is God's provision for sinners. in the passion of Jesus Christ.
[34:47] And every passion here who has experienced the grace of repentance need not look back upon their past to find evidence of it and to be as it were scrabbling a boat in the dust looking for evidence of that repentance.
[35:18] That's not the way it is. Repentance is an ongoing experience. the believer takes Christ at his word the believer trusts in what Christ has done in the light of his word and the believer insists that only Christ is able to save us.
[35:43] Bishop Ryan who says that for every sinner they must understand that this is an ongoing experience and we need to experience it every day daily stirring up he says the deeper repentance what you are saying if I had that repentance that I had at the beginning today if only but if Bishop Ryan is to be believed not only should you have it but you should have a greater understanding and appreciation of what sin is whenever you encounter it in your heart and not only that we are told that we are to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ our faith also needs to be increased we need to believe and to appreciate more and more as we go on the validity of the salvation that we possess through him and to be able to resist the devil and flee from him whenever he comes you remind yourself of the context in which this teaching appears it's not totally divorced from what
[37:15] Christ encountered in the wilderness he didn't need to repent he had no sin to repent of but he needed to teach his people about the need that there was to understand what sin was and how damaging it is and how they needed to look to him to be prepared to deal with it as they should when God encourages us through his word to think on these things Lord help us to believe your word and to trust your word and to trust the Christ of whom this word speaks may we know everything there is to be know about the grace of repentance the sorrow of heart the turning from sin to God the embracing the truth that speaks to us of Christ and all he is to his people the altogether lovely one may he be to us all these things grant mercy for our sins in him amen our closing psalm is psalm 43 psalm 43 from the last two versions two verses of the psalm o man come a look a o a mish nish shias this come a o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
[39:08] Thank you.
[39:38] This gave them death to this day.
[40:00] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[40:36] Thank you. Thank you.
[41:36] Thank you. Thank you.
[42:08] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
[42:24] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Amen. Thank you. Thank you.
[42:36] Thank you. Thank you.