Please take your copies of the scriptures and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter seven. Continuing our work through Paul's second letter to the church at Corinth, I'll be reading verses one through 16, the entirety of the chapter this morning. 2 Corinthians chapter seven, beginning at verse one. The apostle Paul says, Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God. Make room in your hearts for us. We've wronged no one, we've corrupted no one, we've taken advantage of no one. I do not say this to condemn you, for I said before that you are in our hearts, to die together and to live together. I'm acting with great boldness toward you. I've great pride in you. I'm filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy. For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were afflicted at every turn. Fighting without, fear within, but God who comforts the downcast comforted us by the coming of Titus. and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced still more. For even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it, for I see that letter grieved you, though only for a while. As it is, I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting, For you felt a godly grief so that you suffered no loss through us. For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what earnestness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what punishment. At every point, you've proved yourselves innocent in the matter. So, although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake of the one who did the wrong, nor for the sake of the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your earnestness for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God. Therefore, we are comforted. And besides our own comfort, we rejoice still more at the joy of Titus, because his spirit has been refreshed by you all. For whatever boasts I made to him about you, I was not put to shame. But just as everything we said to you was true, so also our boasting before Titus has proved true. And his affection for you is even greater, as he remembers the obedience of you all, how you received him with fear and trembling. I rejoice, because I have complete confidence in you. We've been examining the character of true Christian repentance. I've entitled the last two sermons, this is the second sermon entitled the same, The Fruit of Repentance. This is part two. Last Sunday, to help us briefly recap, we forayed a bit more deeply into chapter seven of Paul's second letter. You'll recall that we noted that the tone of his letter differs from the previous letter. Paul's voice is gentler now. It relies more heavily on exhortation and pleading rather than rebuke, which more often characterized the voice of his first letter. In verse four, Paul says, I am acting with great boldness towards you. I have great pride in you. I'm filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I'm overflowing with joy. Clearly, the Apostle's attitude toward the church is positive. The previous situation reported to him in the church had left him deeply concerned, and concerned specifically with correction. But now Titus has come, he's reported that a very different situation exists in the church in Corinth now. In verse 6 in our text, we learn that Titus brought a good report of the church, which caused Paul to rejoice. Before the arrival of Titus, a certain measure of regret characterized Paul's heart toward the Corinthians. He had had to write a very sharp letter, and he understood that this letter of correction he had previously written had caused pain to the Corinthians. But now with the report from Titus, Paul's regret diminishes because he's learned something that causes him to rejoice. The Corinthian brethren have received his correction and they've repented. Now last week I compared the correction of the Corinthian church and their repentance with the call of John the Baptist when he began his preparatory preaching ministry as recorded in Matthew's Gospel chapter 3. John the Baptist's ministry was a call to repentance, and his baptism was, we're told, for confession of sin and remission of sin in preparation for the cleansing sacrifice of Jesus Christ. In Matthew 3.8, John called on the Jews to, quote, bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Now that command of John has been the lens through which we've looked in order to help us understand the words and the rejoicing of the Apostle Paul as he speaks of the repentance of the Corinthian church. Paul is comforted because the church has truly repented. She's not simply regretted her sin. She's not simply felt grief for sin. Paul's made it clear that sorrow alone is not true repentance. Natural, common, worldly human sorrow only leads to its natural end, death. Note verse 10. Paul is comforted because instead of expressing sorrow for sin alone, the Corinthian brethren have borne fruit in keeping with repentance. Now last week, we looked at two fruits of authentic repentance. First of all, we noted that Paul has taught us that true Christian repentance is not to be regretted. This was the first fruit. He mentions this in verse 10. The second fruit of true repentance is that it leads to life. True repentance always brings the center to Jesus Christ for salvation, for life, for forgiveness, for rescue, for resurrection. Now today, as we proceed in chapter seven, we'll note more of these fruits of repentance. Our goal is to be able to identify authentic repentance in ourselves and in others. In other words, we're trying to learn to authenticate repentance. Corinth needed to know what real repentance from sin truly was as she turned from her sinful practice to righteous practice, and Paul needed to be able to identify the Corinthian repentance when it appeared. hence our teaching. Now notice from our text that Paul teaches us that there's a third fruit of repentance that helps the Christian practice and identify true repentance. The appearance of the third fruit is found in verse 11. There Paul says the following, we'll be referencing verse 11 quite a bit today. Paul says, foresee what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you. Earnestness is the third fruit. Earnestness carries with it the idea of eagerness. It speaks of a pressure that has appeared and is mounting, a moral pressure. There's a moral correction that needs to proceed, and there can't be any rest without resolution. Earnestness is that pressure that a regenerate Christian feels when confronted with sin, and he or she becomes driven to strive toward repentance. What Paul is telling us is that a truly repentant person will not be able to be at rest in sin. There won't be a carelessness and slowness in dealing with that sin when repentance is required. The light of revelation shining on that previously hidden or uncorrected sin causes the disciple of Jesus Christ to writhe inwardly with unrest. he or she is spiritually stressed, you might say, by the recognized necessity to purge this uncleanness. A true Christian will turn from sin to repentance because the indwelling spirit of God is anathema to that sin. Their regenerate nature, renewed in Christ Jesus, is anathema to that sin. The very character of Jesus Christ is being recreated in the believer by the Word and the Spirit, and it's at war with sin, this new nature. Therefore, if we're a believer, if we're a disciple of Jesus Christ, when confronted with our sin, we'll be earnest, eager, unresting, we'll be diligent and allow no delay to interfere with our confession of and rejection of that sin. But beyond that, Not only will this fruit of repentance, this earnestness, urgently press us to reject sin, it will also cause the believer to urgently press toward amending the situation, toward repair, toward recompense. Sin causes damage. It causes ruin. It causes hurt. It damages reputations. It breaks relationships. It produces injury, and ultimately, as Paul's told us, death. the earnestness of a truly repentant believer will cause him or her to tirelessly work to discover and produce whatever recompense is justly required of them. Their sin has probably produced some injustice, some damage of some sort. Therefore, recompense, restoration, repair is required. To put it in a very plain manner, the repentant thief will not be slow or reluctant to hate their theft and return the stolen items. Earnestness in the believer's repentance causes him or her to even desire to go beyond mere equity and recompense. Recall, that when a thief stole something in theocratic Israel, seven times the amount stolen was required for just recompense, wasn't it, brethren? There's a lesson in that for us. The earnest penitent recognizes that his or her sin has caused damage. As new creations in Christ Jesus, our hearts should be turned to love for our brethren and our neighbors, thus the damage, the injury, the sorrow our sin has produced in their lives should compel us out of love of Christ, the love of Christ shed abroad in our hearts, it should compel us to urgently desire and pursue the full comfort of the injured when we've done the injury. That's the fruit of earnestness. When you find a truly repentant man, woman, or child, they'll not be reluctant or slow in their repentance. They'll not be difficult to motivate in repentance. Are you listening, children? Their repentance will drag you along with it. It'll be like a big dog on a leash lunging at a squirrel. That's how the repentance of a Christian should be in its earnestness. That's what true repentance is. This was the third fruit. Now, moving ahead, you'll note that in verse 11, Paul immediately identifies another fruit of repentance which the Corinthian believers exhibited. Paul says, "...foresee what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourselves." Eagerness to clear yourselves. They were eager to clear themselves. This is the fourth fruit. Now, the English translation is not, honestly, overly helpful here. It sounds almost like a repetition of earnestness. It's definitely not a repetition when you look into the meaning of the original Greek and when you focus on the word clear. clear is being used here in the sense of clearing one's name or defending oneself, one's name, one's reputation. It's more helpful and more accurate to change the phrase eagerness to clear, change that into defending yourself. With that translation in place, we come to understand that the fourth fruit is what I'm calling clearing, or better, cleansing defense. Cleansing defense. Now putting these ideas together, let's call this fruit a sort of defensive clearing. Defensive clearing. Any one of these ideas is appropriate. At the root of this idea is making a verbal argument that proves and reasons one's innocence. What we learn here is that true Christian repentance is recognized by a characteristic removal of all that is iniquitous. Any sin that might stick to me, any defilement of which I might be accused, any residual uncleanness, well, true repentance urgently works to defend oneself from these things. Now Corinth exhibited the presence of this fruit of repentance when she confronted, when she was rather by the Apostle Paul, confronted with the public sin of the immoral man in her congregation. We learned about that in his first letter. Their sin was multifold. The man's sin was the immoral sexual relationship. The church's sin was the acceptance of that man's sin without correction. When confronted, Corinth responded with true repentance by clearing herself. There was an eagerness to clear her behavior, her reputation, her very body and fellowship from that sin. The sinful man was removed quickly and thoroughly. So thorough was her clearing, her defense of her purity was so thorough that Paul needed to write to the church to be forgiving and to pursue restoration with the man once his repentance had fully manifested. We learned that quite a few months ago when we began the second letter. What we're learning is that true repentance bears the fruit of separation from sin. Now perhaps that's the main teaching of Paul as he expresses this idea of defensive clearing. The purpose of this cleansing separation is defense. Defense in two senses. The purpose, first, the purpose of this cleansing in terms of defense, first, our repentance causes us to defend ourselves, our souls, our reputations, our church fellowship from the evil and the injury of sin. When sin formally reigned in us, it brought captivity and sorrow. The repentant believer needs to exercise an urgent, purposeful inquisition of self to defend oneself against the ravages of sin. Not only must my reputation be free, my own reputation free from any accusation of iniquity, but the danger to my soul, the danger of injury to myself and my brethren, it's too great to permit sin to lodge in my walls. This is the first sense in which we need defensive clearing of sin in our repentance. The second sense in which our repentance exercises defensive clearing appears when we remember that when sin formerly reigned in us, it not only brought captivity and sorrow, but it also brought judgment. Before our salvation, brethren, we were under judgment. That judgment was once absolutely terminal apart from Christ. We were criminals under a death sentence who stood accused before the judge of the universe. Now, as the redeemed, that sentence has been lifted, but God will still judge His church when we do not clear ourselves of sin. It's an interesting thought. How so? I'll talk about that in a moment. Hold that thought. Defensive clearing is required of us if we would avoid painful chastening. As the writer of Hebrews reminds us, he speaks to his brethren, the church, and he says, Hebrews 12 verse 4, in your struggle against sin, you've not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. Have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? What exhortation? My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by Him. For the Lord disciplines the one He loves and chastises," that's the word scourge in Greek, every son whom He receives, Hebrews 12, 4-6. True repentance, what I'm telling you is that true repentance will always contain this element of defensive clearing. Corinth was motivated to cleanse herself out of a sense of self-preservation. This is wisdom that flows from the fear of God, which is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom as Solomon taught us. In examining our repentance for authenticity, let's be careful to remember that God will chasten our sin. He scourges every son whom he receives, the writer of Hebrews tells us. The one who claims authentic repentance, but when examined, that one's so-called repentance seems to hold no fear of God. No concern for divine chastening. Well, brethren, that one's repentance is suspect, at least. The defensive clearing that Paul identifies in Corinth was diligent to make sure that not a speck of their former negligence remained with regard to this man and this issue. She defended herself and the reputation of Jesus Christ by removing from herself every mote of the former iniquity so that none of its stickiness remained attached to her. This is the fourth fruit of repentance. The fifth fruit of repentance, as identified by Paul, is indignation. Let's read verse 11 once again. For we see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourself, what indignation. If there's perhaps a more neglected fruit of repentance in our day and age, I'm hard-pressed to find it. I think it's indignation. That is literal irritation and vexation. To express indignation is to express strong annoyance connected to anger. The sin in Corinth, when corrected, caused the Christian brethren to get angry. shouldn't surprise us. Be angry and do not sin. Paul tells this to the brethren at Ephesus in Ephesians 4 26. There is an anger that's appropriate and Corinth has repentantly expressed it in response to Paul's rebuke in his first letter. That appropriate anger was directed against sin and self. Sin, because it was sin that required the crucifixion of the Lamb of God, the glorious Son, the glorious Lord Jesus who bore our stripes. The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, upon Jesus, the Holy One of God who knew no sin. Sin deserves our anger when we consider that cost. Sin deserves our hatred. How can one have hatred without anger? Explain that to me. Sin in ourselves ought to cause a righteous indignation even against ourselves. That's an appropriate response in God's people to that which is an abomination to our God and Savior. Scripture tells us that God is angry with the sinner every day That's in Psalm 7 Psalm 7 11 tells us that God is a righteous judge and that he's angry with the wicked every day Anger against sin and the sinner is appropriate But notice that we're talking about the sinner and not about the repentant person When Paul speaks about indignation, he's speaking about a fruit of repentance, sin that needs to be rejected, cleansed, purified, separated from. Once that sin has been dealt with, Paul then commands the Corinthian church to restore the repentant man. We find that call for forgiveness and comforting to the penitent man in 2 Corinthians 2. In verses 6-8, Paul said the following there, For such a one, This punishment by the majority is enough. So you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him." Now, what do we learn when we compare this passage that I've just read to you to verse 11 of chapter 7? we learn that anger against sin and in an appropriate degree toward the sinner is in fact appropriate so long as sin is maintained apart from repentance. But once the sinner truly repents, the indignation now has no real just object. Now love is the appropriate expression. The indignation, the appropriate anger is intended by God to serve as motivation to the Christian to reject sin, to root it out. You ever get angry and then go pitch yourself into some really heavy work? That's what I'm talking about. To be opposed to this sin, to engage in an irreconcilable war with it. Now how can we not be angry with the man who's a member of the church, who names the name of Jesus as Lord and Savior, but then walks out on his wife, commits adultery, and destroys his family with that sin. He brings wreck and ruin to the lives of his wife and children, to his own soul. He scandalizes his brethren. He brings disrepute to the name of Jesus Christ. That the church feel indignation toward this man and his sin is entirely neo-natural and holy. But as Paul reminded the brethren at Ephesus, I remind you as well, be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath. We're not to marinate in our indignation. It's to be short and purposeful. The anger we feel against sin and the sinner is to be used as fuel to ignite our efforts to promote repentance and recompense and ultimately restoration. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath, brethren. Utilize that frustration, that vexation, that irritation to propel you to godly endeavors to bring errant brethren to repentance. Use that emotional motivation to do good and demonstrate righteous behavior in front of the sinner so that they see what it means to do good and not evil. That's how God intends that indignation to be used. By way of example, in Mark 3, we find Jesus in the synagogue on the Lord's Day. A man is brought to him. I know you'll recall this story, this history. A man is brought to him with a withered hand so that Jesus might heal him. And the following exchange occurs in Mark 3, verses 3 through 6. I'll read this now. And he, that is Jesus, said to the man with the withered hand, come here. And he said to them, is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill? But they, that is the leaders of the Jews, the scribes and Pharisees, the rulers of the temple, they were silent. And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at the hardness of their heart. And he said to the man, stretch out your hand. He stretched it out and his hand was restored. And the Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him how to destroy him. My point in bringing this to your attention is to show you that Jesus responds to the cold-hearted sin of the Pharisees with anger. But note what that anger motivates him to do. He heals the man. Jesus' righteous anger directed against the Pharisees compelled him to works of righteousness. The sun did not go down on his wrath, but rather our Lord promptly used that righteous anger to demonstrate to the watching sinners what a righteous act was. His wrath led to an example of repentance acted with divine power in their sight. This is what you should be doing, scribes and Pharisees. You should be relieving this man. That's what the rest of the Sabbath should be for this man. His wrath, Christ's wrath, led to an example of repentance that they should have copied. Not that Christ said anything to repent of, they did. This is what it means to be angry and sin not, to not allow the sun to go down on our wrath. In summary, the fruit of repentance identified by Paul as indignation, it's a natural expression of the regenerate nature against sin, reflecting the nature of Jesus Christ. When there is no anger against sin, we'll find it more difficult to wage war with our own sin. where sin has produced no vexation of spirit, a church will find itself poorly motivated to exercise church discipline. I'm trying to commit this thought to you, that you not buy into the popular weak-kneed teaching that all anger is wrong. Don't accept the lie that God loves the sinner exclusively without reference to anger against the sinner. Don't accept the counterfeit Christianity that argues that anger against sin is hypocritical, judgmental condemnation. That's nonsense, brethren. Brethren, if we are to repent of our sin and to continue in this glorious work of sanctification that Christ and His Spirit is working in us, cooperating with the renovative work of the Holy Spirit in us, we better be angry with sin, with our own sin, and sin within our own body. That is a necessary fruit of repentance. The sixth fruit of repentance is identified by Paul, also in verse 11, as fear. The original Greek word is phobos. It's the word from which we derive our English word phobia. It literally means to be afraid. The Corinthian repentance was characterized by a fear of something. This is what motivated their defensive clearing of which I've already spoken. We could say that Paul is telling us that because the Corinthians were afraid of not repenting, they consequently found themselves highly motivated to bear all the fruit worthy of repentance. Now that leads us to a question, doesn't it? What were they afraid of? Well, I think the two letters of Paul to Corinth are very helpful in identifying the fear of the Corinthians. To put it plainly, brethren, they were afraid of God. Yahweh was once known in the Old Testament by the Jews under the title, The Fear of Isaac. As already mentioned, Solomon teaches us in Proverbs that the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. The wise king exhorts us with the following words found in Proverbs 3, 7. Fear the Lord and turn away from evil. To turn away from evil is the very definition of repentance. This teaching of Solomon connects fear of God inextricably with repentance. They can't be separated. And it turns out that the Corinthian brethren had every reason to fear God when we consider Paul's teaching in his letters to the church. His first letter explains to the church how her refusal to properly order her administration of the Lord's Supper had resulted in the sharp, chastening response of God. Because of sin in handling the communion meal, some were chronically ill and some had died, i.e., God had killed them due to this sin and for lack of repentance. We read of that in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 30 when we took up our study of that letter. Paul takes his warnings in the first letter well beyond the risk of physical sickness and death. Listen to what he says in 1 Corinthians 6, verses 8 through 10. This should put fear in our hearts. Paul says, but you yourselves wrong and defraud, even your own brethren. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Don't be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolatrous, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." Now, no matter how one parses Paul's words here, the foundational meaning is unmistakable. The unrighteous will not inherit heavenly glory and immortality. Sin risks disinheritance. Now that's a terrible thought. Better to say that for the Christian alone, for the true disciple of Jesus Christ, let's say that that's a highly motivating, even terrifying thought. Unrepentant sin is antithetical to my new birth and my future inheritance of glory. An unsanctified, unrepentant life results in being barred from rebirth and citizenship in the kingdom of God. It means no matter what I call myself, I'm not a disciple of Jesus Christ, and I will not be an inheritor as a son of the Most High. Brethren, that is simply too much to risk for the regenerate child of God, isn't it? And so we repent of sin. This is what the Corinthians were afraid of, this warning. Now add to this terror the warning of Paul in 2 Corinthians 12, verses 20 and 21. We haven't got there yet, we will. There Paul offers this thinly veiled threat. Listen to what he says. that perhaps there may be quarreling, jealousy, anger, hostility, slander, gossip, conceit, and disorder. I fear that when I come again, my God may humble me before you, and I may have to mourn over many of those who sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual immorality, and sensuality that they have practiced." Do you hear the threat under the surface? These are the words of an apostle of Jesus Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit. Not long before this, Ananias and Sapphira had died at the hand of the Lord through the apostle Peter for lying to the Holy Spirit. Prompted to repent, Sapphira had doubled down on her husband's sin and had suffered the same death as he. When Paul speaks of the church not finding him as they might wish, He's talking about bringing correction with him when he comes. He's warning them. We know from the letters to the churches of Asia Minor at the beginning of John's revelation that because of sexual immorality in the church of Thyatira, Christ threatens to visit the church with chastening in response to her refusal to repent. He says the following. But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. I gave her time to repent, but she refuses to repent of her sexual immorality. Behold, I will throw her onto a sickbed, and those who commit adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation, unless they repent of her works, and I will strike her children dead. Revelation 2, 20 through 23. Death, sickness, mourning. Brethren, it sounds to me that Corinth had every reason to fear. It's really no surprise that her repentance was accompanied by, even motivated in part by fear. That's the sixth fruit of repentance. And here's the lesson for us. It's very appropriate. It's necessary even for Christians individually and churches corporately to maintain a state of healthy fear of God. As I've reminded you in the past of the words of C.S. Lewis, speaking of Aslan the lion in his Narnia series, I remind you again, he's not a tame lion. In the absence of reverential fear, of appropriate theophobia, It shouldn't surprise us to find that repentance is somewhat hollow and rather devoid of hearty motivation. At the heart of the Christian's authentic repentance, accompanying his or her sorrow for sin is a potent, spirit-wrought wisdom that prompts rejection of sin. It's a wisdom that is practical and born of fear of the Most High. There's a crown upon the head of this king. His hand holds a scepter and a sword is in his mouth. That is to say that this, that his word, his very voice has the power to destroy. Brethren, this is cause for fear that leads to repentance. Examine, I urge you, I urge us all, examine your attitude towards sin as you spend time in prayer and meditation, as you wage war with the world, the flesh and the devil. If you find that fear of God is lacking, then take to heart his mighty works as revealed in his word. Take to heart the warnings of Paul and John and the Spirit of Christ in his letters to the churches at the beginning of the book of Revelation. The unbeliever, the fool says in his heart, no God, no rule, no power, no crown, no scepter, no sword. But brethren, we know better. Where there is no fear of offending God, of courting His displeasure and correction, sin will abound. But where the redeemed tremble before the Almighty, repentance will abound. We've reached a seventh fruit of repentance now, which Paul identifies in verse 11 as longing. He says, for see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but also what eagerness to clear yourself, what indignation, what fear, what longing. Referencing longing, Paul is now focusing fully on the deep desires of the heart. The Corinthians repented of their collective sin because in their new hearts, produced by the new birth, they deeply, longingly desired something. Now what was that? What did they desire? What was this deep desire of their hearts? Brethren, now we could have potentially overdeveloped this thought, but I think right now the cookies are on the bottom shelf. They desired righteousness. They desired that their repentance, what their repentance was intended to produce, a freedom from sin, a removal of guilt, an escape from the natural sinful proclivities of the heart. They desired righteousness without which we're told no one will see the Lord. They desired righteousness because they desired the Lord Jesus Christ, his blessing, his fellowship, his very presence. This was the deep desire of the hearts of the Corinthian brethren, which drove them to pursue repentance. This shouldn't surprise us. In Matthew 5, 6, Jesus said, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. This declaration, this promise from our Lord's Sermon on the Mount speaks of the deep desires of the heart of the true Christian, the real disciple of Jesus Christ. We hunger, we thirst for righteousness. That speaks of longing, doesn't it? Hunger and thirst as metaphors speak of deep desires that must be satisfied. David spoke of his longing, this very kind of longing, in Psalm 51, just after Nathan the prophet had cut him to the heart by confronting him with his sin, his sin of adultery and murder. The accusation of Nathan had cut him to the heart, and David confesses his sin in Psalm 51. He offers this prayer and this song of repentance. As I read it to you now, listen carefully for David's longing, this longing that Paul's talking about. See if you can identify it. You're not going to have any trouble. David says, have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy. Plot 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 and 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 and 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. 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. Take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God. O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it. You'll not be pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken heart, a broken and contrite heart, O God. You'll 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." Now, listening to that prayer, the song of repentance, do you see why I say the Corinthian longing and David's longing is a deep, almost painful desire for righteousness? freedom from sin, freedom from its guilt, its power, its pull, its very presence. Brethren, isn't that the longing of the heart of every true disciple of Jesus Christ? Don't we hunger and thirst after righteousness? Isn't that what we find so beautiful about Jesus Christ? Is it not the holiness of the Spirit of God that is His glory to us? Is it not in the hallowed name of the Father that we joyfully pray? We long for righteousness, and so did David, and so did the Corinthians, and that longing never becomes so deep and compelling, disturbing even, as when we are faced with our prevalent sin. Our repentance is driven by that spirit-wrought longing for righteousness. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we longingly desire to be filled, to have a terrible thirst assuaged. We thirst for righteousness, and until we have the water of life, fully quench that thirst in a heavenly kingdom, we will not, we cannot be satisfied. Our sin makes us starve for that righteousness which we see and admire in Jesus Christ, which is ours by faith in his death and resurrection. But until we are fully glorified, until our sanctification is complete, we long. This is the seventh fruit of repentance. It authenticates true repentance by its presence in believers. This is part of what prompted the Corinthians to deal with their public sin. The presence of the sin was a painful reminder of what had not yet been fully achieved in them, their complete sanctification. The sin stood out as a blemish, a challenge, the very antagonist to their longing. So long as the sin was there, so long as it was part of their lives, it made their hunger and thirst after righteousness unbearable. They had to cry out like David and purge themselves of the sin in pursuit of the righteousness of their Lord. Brethren, this is my final thought to you this morning. This is what David cried out for. This is what Paul hoped for in Corinth, that God would produce a deep, hearty yearning after righteousness in his people. That's how sanctified repentance, true repentance, proceeds in the people of God. We need to have desire for sin and its pleasures powerfully replaced with hunger and thirst for righteousness. Where we find that longing weak or absent, God forbid, sin will grow strong and become prominent in our lives. Pray for the power of God to work in you to long for righteousness. Pursue the means of grace, especially the Word of God, its study, its preaching, so that the Spirit of God has good material with which to build a godly desire for righteousness in you. This is in some ways the most vital fruit of repentance. When a man or woman or child truly repents, it produces greater and greater desire for and pursuit after righteousness. If we're trying to authenticate repentance and we don't see sin, we don't see leaving sin, abandoning sin to pursue righteousness, then this fruit that I'm talking about, brethren, it's dangerously absent. The soul without this fruit, no matter there may be an outward appearance of repentance, even grief, the soul without this fruit of a longing is spiritually dead. Life must be miraculously kindled in that soul, and with life comes hunger and thirst. Isn't that true? There's enough medical people out here to know that that's true. With life comes hunger and thirst. Now, if you don't know this hunger and thirst for righteousness that I've spoken about this morning, then sorrow for sin is irrelevant. feeling bad about your sin, grieving even, irrelevant. It will only lead you to death. What you need is new life that breathes spiritually and hungers spiritually like a newborn baby desires its mother's milk. Pray to your Creator, the very God we read about this morning who called this world into existence. Pray to this God who gives life that he would make you spiritually alive to crave the righteousness of Jesus Christ. This is your only hope to stand in the presence of God. You must be and have the righteousness of God himself. Now that only comes as a gift from Jesus Christ. If you desire this righteousness, then look no further than Jesus Christ. He has paid the price of your receiving that righteousness. Believe and accept the gift that he has paid for. Cry out to God for it and be comforted with the words of Jesus Christ. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. Amen. Let's pray.