In his Gospel, Matthew chapter 4, Matthew gives us a timestamp about the sequence of our Lord's Galilean ministry. We saw last Sunday that Jesus has entered into a phase where He will be ministering in a distinct region, in the region of Galilee, the north of Israel. Notice what Matthew tells us from that time, and I want to remind you what time Matthew has us in. This time begins after Jesus was anointed by John the Baptist at age 30, thus entering lawfully into his high priestly ministry. This time begins after Jesus heard, John the Baptist was in prison. This time begins AFTER he withstood Satan's repeated temptation, and this time begins AFTER he visited his hometown synagogue in Nazareth and was almost killed for his claims that he's the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. Notice in verse 17 of Matthew 4, and you will need your Bible, not only will you need it to look at our principle text, but we will be looking in-depth at scripture because I want to convince you that our theme today is not isolated to one text, but is found all throughout the scriptures and is indeed one of the major themes of the Bible. And so notice Matthew says, from that time, Jesus began to preach. It cannot be said too frequently that Jesus was a preacher. Jesus said this of himself. This is how he defined himself. In Luke chapter 4, Jesus said, I must preach for this purpose I have been sent. Now this shouldn't have surprised anyone since it was prophesied of the Messiah in the Old Testament repeatedly that he would come preaching the gospel to the poor. And such text should silence forever the foolish assertions of those who say that preaching is inconsequential. The mere fact that the eternal Son of God undertook the office of a preacher should establish us, should satisfy in our minds, that it is the central means of grace. I am just old enough so that when I was in seminary, preaching was under attack, and then it came under greater attack right after I came out of seminary, and there are books being written, conferences being held saying, preaching has seen its day. And so, what we need to focus on are drama ministries, or liturgical dance, or all these other sorts of means, because preaching has seen its day. Well, I want to remind you that Jesus tells us that He came to preach. He doesn't come and say, read your Older Testament, especially Genesis 3.15 and Psalm 22, maybe some Isaiah 53, that'll suffice. No, He came explaining and applying, preaching. Now I want to remind you what Jesus preached. New Testament scholars have isolated the themes of Jesus down to seven themes. When this text says Jesus began to preach, he emphasizes all through his ministry seven themes. First of all, he preaches the Old Testament. That is His text. There was no New Testament, and we'll see this within the next few weeks, that Jesus, when He stands to preach, whether it's the Sermon on the Mount or other sermons, His text is the Old Testament. The second thing Jesus preached, He extensively preached the two great commandments, loving God and loving your fellow man. And third, we will see in Matthew's Gospel repeatedly that Jesus preached coming judgment. A fourth theme that Jesus preached is He preached in parables for a distinct purpose. We will come to this about midway through our study of Matthew's Gospel. He preached in parables, He says, to both reveal and hide truth, to reveal truth to His elect and to hide it from the reprobate. A fifth theme of our Lord's. He preached a full-orbed way of life. If you look at your text right there, you will notice we're about to the Sermon on the Mount, and what Matthew 5, 6, and 7 introduce is a full-orbed way of life. How to live every day of the week, how to live in all our relationships, not just a compartmentalized gospel that's good for about two hours on Sunday. Sixth, Jesus, we are told here that even As He began to preach the gospel, He does so by announcing that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. A sixth theme that we hear from the lips of Jesus is He always preached the gospel of the kingdom. We're told this right here in our text. By this word, the gospel of the kingdom, this is what Jesus told His disciples to go and preach when He sent them out, to go and preach the gospel of the kingdom. What is this gospel of the kingdom? Look at verse 17. This gospel of the Kingdom is the good news that Jesus is redeeming a people from every nation, tribe, and tongue, and that He's extending, spreading His rule until the day dawns when every knee will bow and every tongue will confess Him as Lord. The Kingdom of Heaven is that manifestation of the sovereign rule of God in POWER, which established a new order of righteousness and blessedness in history, and in and through Jesus Christ, in fulfillment of all of God's covenant promises, which will progressively triumph over all opposition in history and will be consummated at the end of history in the Second Coming of Christ. The Kingdom of Heaven COMES in the person and work of Christ. And the Kingdom of Heaven comes demanding absolute righteousness of its subjects. And then the seventh theme, and you'll see it in our text. The seventh theme. Nobody who gives the least bit of survey to Jesus' words can dare oppose this theme. The seventh theme of Jesus' preaching is He is constantly calling for repentance. From the beginning of His ministry to the very end, three and a half years later, He focuses on repentance. And we will dig deep into this subject this morning. Let's seek the help of the Lord now. O God, our Helper, by Your Holy Spirit, Open our minds that as the scriptures are read and your word is proclaimed, we may be guided into truth and taught your will for the sake of Jesus our Lord. Amen. There are some folks just now, as I said, repentance is one of the major themes of Jesus preaching, saying, really? I've been in evangelical churches all my life, Carl, and I've never really heard much about this. What is this thing you're speaking of, repentance? I frequently told the story, the illustration, because it was such a benchmark in my ministry. of preaching a sermon on repentance in a place long ago and far away, and the premise of the sermon was very simple, that no one can be saved without repentance. And during the sermon, there was an elder's wife who was sitting right there on the third row, not in this building, but again, a building far away. And this was a woman who shouldn't have played poker because she didn't have the face for it. But as I preached and tried to emphasize and pound home the premise, no one can be saved without repentance. This woman's eyes got bigger and bigger and they seemed to take up her old face and her sermon was sitting next to her and she within two minutes of the sermon beginning she began to look at him and she was saying and he was like And so she, by the end of the sermon, she was absolutely in distress. Her face was purple. She was shaking. And so we sang the last hymn, pronounced the benediction. And I started to walk to the back door as I always did. And this woman grabbed my arm and stopped me. And so the benediction happened. People began to leave. And this woman said, I have never heard such an idea in my life. I said, haven't you been in evangelical church? Yes, all my life. I've never heard such a premise in my life. And so we sit down and she was shaking and her husband just kind of smiled and walked away. She said, Carl, I'm hearing what you're saying is if I've not decisively repented of my sin and am marked by ongoing repentance, I'm unconverted. I said, yeah, you heard the sermon. And she said, I've never repented of sin in my life and I'm 37 years old. I said, you can repent. You can repent right now. Okay, will you tell me how? And so right there, she would date to this day, she would date her conversion to that. Now, when you pressed further and said, why did you, have you never repented? It's because she grew up in a dispensational church. And I said, well, your lucky day, because I did my undergrad in Dispensational Bible College, and I would tell you, we were taught to never repent as well. And so we went back to my office, pulled my Charles Ryrie copy of Basic Theology off the shelf, turned to page 390 where Charles Ryrie says, Repentance is only a synonym for faith. Repentance is just a change of mind about Jesus Christ. You'll notice what's absent in that definition. Sin. No addressing sin whatsoever. But such a view is neither Protestant nor Reformed, as we'll see in a moment. On October 31st, 1517, Martin Luther posted 95 theses on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg, marking the beginning of the Reformation. And the very first thesis was, and several others that follow are also the same ilk, the very first thesis of the Protestant Reformation. Luther wrote, when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, repent, he intended that the entire life of believers should be repentance from beginning to end. When Luther emphasized that all of the Christian life is repentance, he was emphasizing that turning from sin isn't a merely one-time inaugural experience at conversion. It IS that. We are converted by REPENTING and believing in Jesus Christ. But Luther was making the point that the DAILY EXISTENCE of the Christian is one of repentance. There's another reason why repentance isn't preached in some circles. I pointed it out. There's a theological school, thankfully it's on its dying legs now, dispensationalism, that says, no, you don't need to repent. That's only belief. Repentance is something we'd rather not discuss. But there's a second reason why many evangelicals don't repent. Usually it comes from the smiling preacher who tells you he has good news about how to live your best life now. Prosperity teachers who have stated they will only discuss the positive. Faith is perceived as positive, but repentance is always thought of as harsh and negative. And so for the person who doesn't want to hear biblical instruction today on repentance because it's not positive, let me ask you a simple question. Would you take your car to a mechanic that would never tell you anything that was wrong with your car? And many are saying, that's what type of church I want. I want to go to a church where the minister never tells me there is anything wrong with me. And when I leave, I feel really good about myself. So what I want you to do now is at least metaphorically, some of you may want to be literal. I want you to roll up your sleeves. And I want you to listen very carefully as we go deep in terms of the Bible's teaching on repentance. Look at the words of our text in Matthew 4, 17, where we are told at the beginning of His ministry, and we will see very quickly, it marks the end of His ministry and everything in between, Jesus began to preach and to say, what is the first word of His ministry? Repent. So what I want us to do is I want to speak to the Bible's teaching on repentance under eight headings. This is our Lord's teaching on repentance under eight premises. The first premise that I would have you see is repentance is of the foundation of the gospel. Before Jesus even begins His public ministry, His forerunner set the stage, John the Baptist. John the Baptist was engaged in a word ministry and he focused singly on repentance. If you look back across the page at Matthew 3, the gospel, the chapter before this, we were told that John the Baptist, our Lord's cousin and forerunner, came preaching in the wilderness of Judea saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And so even before Jesus opens His lips, the hearers all over Israel were used to hearing, you need to do business with God in terms of your sin. That sets the tone for all of Jesus' ministry. And then the very first words we hear from the lips of Jesus when He begins His public authoritative ministry are, repent. You see it in Matthew 4.17. Now, this isn't a fluke with Matthew. In Mark's Gospel, Mark chapter 1, verse 15, Mark says, The time, Jesus came saying, the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand, repent and believe in the gospel. Now, it's very fascinating that Jesus, He begins this way and you think, well, He has to deal with that at the front end, He gets it out of the way and then He goes on to the positive stuff. No, He ENDS this way. Look at Luke chapter 24, turn your copy of God's Word, Luke 24. This is post-resurrection. Jesus has now died an atoning substitutionary death. He's been raised again. He is about to ascend into heaven. And what does he want? To impress upon his disciples at the very end of his ministry, just before the ascension. Luke 24, pick up the narrative in about verse 45. We read as Jesus is speaking to his disciples. He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the scriptures. Then he said to them, Thus it is written, It was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." At the very end of his ministry, Jesus is still found talking about repentance. And in between, what does Jesus focus on? Well, when he sends his disciples out to preach on their first preaching mission in Mark chapter six, the very first message he gives them to preach. So it's John's message. It's Jesus message. It's his disciples message in Mark six. We're told he called the 12 to himself and began to send them out two by two. They went out and preached that people should repent. So our first premise about repentance is it's foundational to the gospel. It is the disciples post Pentecost message. Think about how each of the disciples, they get it. They heard what Jesus preached. And so what would they preach? They would focus on repentance. Now at this point, there's some of you, maybe many of you saying, Carl, would you define your terms? Would you explain what you mean by repentance? I will, but I'm going to make you wait. Well, I want you to think about what the disciples preached. For example, preaching on the day of Pentecost, the first sermon of the new covenant era. Peter stands up before thousands of Jews and he preaches that these were the people who murdered Jesus. And we're told in Acts chapter two, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, Repent. The second public sermon of the New Covenant era, Acts chapter 3, Peter begins this way, repent and be converted so that your sins may be blotted out. Now, it's interesting to look and see who the disciples, as the apostles fan out all over the Mediterranean basin and they preach, it's fascinating to see who they preach repentance to. Is anybody off limits? In Acts chapter 5, after his imprisonment, Peter is preaching to the religious leaders of his day, the 70 leaders who make up the Jewish Sanhedrin. And Peter looks at these men. You think religious leaders don't need to hear repentance. In Acts chapter 5, Peter looks these men straight in the eyes and he says, the God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you murdered. by hanging on a tree. Him God has exalted to his right hand to be prince and a savior to give repentance to Israel. Paul does the same thing. Paul, surely you're not going to go. Paul, don't do it. You have an audience with King Agrippa. Just say nice, fluffy things to him. Maybe you can win some concessions for the church. Paul is preaching to King Agrippa in Acts 26. He says, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus and Jerusalem, throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God and do works benefiting, befitting repentance. But then what we see is each of the apostles in their writings, whether it's Peter, Paul, John, each of the apostles fill their writings with the mandate to repent. when they're writing letters to the church. John the Apostle, five times, you remember his letters to the seven churches at the beginning of Revelation, Revelation 2 and 3. To each one, almost, to each one of the seven churches, John has a message of repentance. To the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2, John writes, remember where you have fallen from and repent. To the church at Pergamos in Revelation 2, John writes, repent or I will come to you quickly. In Revelation 2, to the church in Thyatira, he speaks of the woman Jezebel in their midst, and he says, I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, but she did not repent. To the church at Sardis, John writes, hold fast and repent. To the church in Laodicea, John writes, as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten, therefore be zealous and repent. And so that the first premise we would have about repentance is it's the foundation of the gospel, Jesus, the apostles, all of the leadership of the church. This is at the forefront of their message. If we are not preaching repentance, we're not apostolic. Second premise you should know about repentance. Repentance is never seen as an option, but a necessity. It's never seen as an option, but a necessity. It's a commanded duty. Look at Acts chapter 17, and I want you to see how the apostles preach repentance. It's preached as a commanded duty. Acts chapter 17, verse 30, Paul is preaching to the philosophers of Athens, Greece, and you'd think, Philosophically minded Gentiles. Surely Paul won't begin with repentance. Paul says in Acts 17 30, these times of ignorance, God overlooked, but now commands, commands all men everywhere to repent. And what we see, what we begin to see as we watch the apostles is you have not preached the gospel. and until you've called men to repent and believe. And Paul gives reasons, look at Acts 17, why these Athenian philosophers should repent. He says repentance is a universal duty, look what he says, all men everywhere, so no man can plead an exemption. I get to talk frequently with Jay Brantley, our missionary with the Samburu people in Kenya. And Jay has done amazing work. I can't wait till he's back and we get to hear more of what he's doing. He's going almost to a Stone Age tribe. And we've talked about where do you begin? I said, repent and believe. That's where the New Testament apostles begin. And you think, well, are some men exempt from that? No, look at what Paul says. God commands all men everywhere. Space Age and Stone Age alike. And then Paul says that God has been patient. Look at verse 30. I would preach the gospel to our culture and nation and say God has been more patient with us even than them. We have known the gospel and yet sinned in horrific ways, the slaughter of 70 million infants, rampant homosexuality celebrated at every term. Why has God not yet destroyed our nation? He's patient. but his patience has a terminal point. Look again at Acts 1730. Paul reminds that God commands repentance. If the sovereign omnipotent God orders anything we must obey, it is no small matter. And the reason why is Paul states that God has appointed a final day of reckoning where the risen and reigning Jesus will be the judge. This is the great certainty in every person's life. Paul is not trying to prove the resurrection or the judgment. He's asserting it as a fact. Repentance is never an optional spiritual discipline. It's a command. Third premise about repentance. Repentance is required of every preacher that they preach repentance. I've known men who said, you know, Carl, that's okay for you to preach, but I just like to stay on the sunny side of life. I just don't like to preach negative things. My friends, repentance is a duty for every single preacher. I want you to look, not only do you need your Bible, but you need your hymnal. Look at the back of your hymnal. I want you to turn to page 928. And there you see our public confession. This is our public theology. This is what every minister, elder, and deacon in the PCA must teach, believe. And when you turn to page 928, you see there chapter 15 of our confession of faith of repentance unto life. You see, this is our doctrine. So if you came here today for the first time, you're wondering, I wonder what Woodruff Road believes. Here it is. Here's our doctrines. We're up front about them. We state them publicly. If you'll look at chapter 15 of our confession on repentance, notice what it states there. Repentance unto life is an evangelical grace. The doctrine whereof is to be preached by every minister of the gospel, as well as that of faith in Christ. And so this is our understanding of repentance. It is required of any man who would say, I have a call to the ministry. Then my friend, you have a call to preach repentance. Every single preacher must do so because no one will receive God's mercy who doesn't repent. Pardon without repentance will never happen. A fourth premise about repentance. Repentance is a necessity. Somebody will ask the question, why? Carl, why this emphasis on repentance? Repentance is a necessity because God hates sin. He hates it in your grandma. He hates it in your sweet five-year-old daughter. God always hates sin. We're told, for example, in Proverbs 6, these six things the Lord hates, yes, seven, are an abomination to him. Proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, one who sows discord among the brethren. Again the writer of Proverbs says in Proverbs 11, those who are of a perverse heart are an abomination to the Lord. Or in Romans 1, the wrath of God, the hatred of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Repentance is a necessity because God hates sin and He's going to judge it and so therefore men must turn from it. A fifth premise about repentance. What you will notice as we make our way through Matthew's gospel, in most cases, repentance is joined like a Siamese twin with another spiritual discipline, saving faith. Repentance always goes hand in hand with saving faith in Christ. We are saved by faith in Christ, but that faith is always, always accompanied by repentance. When I was converted, the man who led me to saving faith in Christ asked me, he said, Carl, why is it that you think that you're saved? I said, well, because I asked Jesus into my heart. And he said, here's a concordance. Look it up. Does the New Testament ever tell you to ask Jesus into your heart? I did. I looked at the concordance. And within about two minutes, I looked at him with a sheepish look and said, hmm, Boy, I've kind of been putting my feet on soft ground, haven't I? He said, now let's look at the passages, dozens, dozens of them. The call of what to do with the gospel is repent and believe the gospel, repent and believe the gospel. And so repentance certainly is a co-discipline, a twin discipline with saving faith. Now, what we mean by this is it's impossible to believe when you're going in the wrong direction. How can someone who's going his own way go God's way? How can a person who's utterly committed to the world, the flesh, and the devil be utterly committed to Jesus Christ and righteousness? Only if they turn. Only if they turn from sin, that's what repentance is, and turn to Christ in faith. For example, Paul says this to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, he reminds them of their conversion. And he said, I kept back nothing that was helpful to you, but I proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly from house to house, testifying to Jews and to Greeks also, repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith always go hand in hand. So when you see the message of Jesus, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. The call to saving faith is never far behind. A sixth premise about repentance. Repentance is always a necessity in order to be in agreement with God. Let me say that again so you can wrap your head around it. Repentance is always a necessity in order to be in agreement with God. When you repent, you are agreeing with God. You're saying, yes, I concur. My sin is wicked and it must be turned from and mortified. If you do not repent, here's what you're saying. Listen to me carefully. Here are the stakes. If you go on in your sin and you will not repent, here's what you're saying. Oh, holy God, we disagree. My lying, my lust, my murderous hatred, my Sabbath breaking, my worry, my lack of trust in God are just fine. We're going to have to agree to disagree on this one, Lord. And I'm not going to trouble myself about them. We differ. And Lord, you are wrong. I'm in the right. Listen to 1 John 1.8. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. For the man who will not repent, he's self-deceived, scripture says. That's what lack of repentance always is. It's lack of agreement with God. The seventh premise about repentance. Repentance is a gift. It's a gift of God's free grace. One of the most glorious things about our understanding of salvation is every single thing that must occur for you and I to be saved is a gift of God. When God draws a man to himself, that is a gift. When someone repents and believes, both faith and repentance, we are repeatedly told in the New Testament, are given to us freely as a gift. Just like saving faith is a gift, remember what we're told in Ephesians 2, by grace you've been saved through faith, and that not of yourself, it is the gift of God. Faith, we're told, is the gift of God. If you're here today and you're believing in Christ, it's because God gave you freely that gift. Turns out repentance is also a gift. Listen to what we're told repeatedly, Acts 11, 18. God granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life. Or in 2 Timothy 2. Paul writes to Timothy, the servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient in humility, correcting those who are in opposition. If God perhaps will grant them, give them repentance. If you are here today and you have repented of your sin and continue, as Luther said, on a daily basis to delight in repentance, it's not because you somehow worked this up. It's because God gave you a broken heart over your sin as a gift of his grace. The eighth premise, which I say for the last, is a definition. The New Testament repeatedly models for us the sequence of repentance. And so if you've been saying, Carl, all this is new. I came from the positive church, the smiling, happy church, where we didn't talk about negative things. Could you please define your terms? Yes. Eighth premise. Let me walk you very carefully. And I'm doing this for your sake who said, Carl, I've never repented before. I don't know how to do this. Please tell me how." Listen carefully. Repentance, first of all, begins with a knowledge of sin. The sinner sees his thoughts and words and deeds for what they are, an offense to God. This is usually affected by the preaching of the law. Paul says it this way in Galatians 3, that the law is our schoolmaster, our tutor to lead us to Christ. Contemporary psychology wants to rename the sin. And so right now, if you're thinking, well, I don't really see my worry, that's not sin. Scripture says otherwise. to the person who says, well, okay, maybe we can call it a different name. Let's rename it. It's not where I'm just, I just live a life. I'm very concerned every day. Scripture says, be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And so we will christen our greed as wise business sense. We'll speak of our slander and we'll say, I'm just a truth teller. We'll brand the slaughter of infants as a woman's freedom. We'll identify our adultery as, I'm just really looking hard for my true soulmate over and over again. But repentance starts with a knowledge of sin. We know what it is in terms of our word, our thought, our deed, and we say, I know that's sin. The second step in repentance is naming the sin. I hope you kept your hymnal open a moment ago to our confession. It has one of the most brilliant statements about naming our sin. If you look back to where we were looking at Westminster Confession 15.5, this again is our public theology. This is what every elder minister deacon must believe in the PCA. This is what we believed and confessed for 480 years, 380 years. If you look at Westminster Confession 15.5, it says, men ought not to content themselves with a general repentance, but it is every man's duty to endeavor to repent of his particular sins particularly. Let me ask you, which type of sinner are you? Are you the idolatrous kind or the Sabbath-breaking kind? Are you the lying kind or the adulterous kind? And what our confession is reminding us is repentance is not just a glib, quick, at the end of our prayer, and forgive us of our many sins, amen. Repentance is going on record. Repentance is going into your prayer closet and crying out, Lord, I am a liar, a murderer, a thief, a covetor, a Sabbath breaker. Repentance always produces the naming of sin and the confessing of it. I love the story by our Lord Jesus in Luke chapter 18, where in Luke chapter 18, Jesus tells the story of the Pharisee and the tax collector. The Pharisee comes into the synagogue and hears his confession. Listen carefully and see if you can hear a confession of sin. This is a Pharisee. God, I thank you I'm not like other men. extortioners, unjust, he's talking about the other men, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. Lord, I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. That's it. That's his confession. Did you catch that confession of sin? No, because there was none. The tax collector said, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. The tax collector agreed with God, and he confessed he was a sinner in need of mercy, and he was ready to repent. But there's more. Repentance doesn't just begin with the knowledge of sin. It doesn't just name the sin. Repentance produces sorrow for sin. In just a few weeks, we're going to come to Matthew 5, verse 4 in the Sermon on the Mount, and Jesus is going to say, blessed are those who mourn. And what we're going to see is, Jesus is, this is shorthand for telling us, blessed are those who mourn over their sin. That's why the psalmist, a moment ago, when Pastor King read Psalm 51, the psalmist speaks of the Lord giving him a broken and contrite heart. A repenting man has a deep sorrow for his sin. He says with Paul from Romans 7, O wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? There's another step to repentance. Repentance shows itself in a turning away from sin. It's the Greek word metanoia. It's a beautiful word. It's the word used over and over again for repentance. Paul uses this word to communicate to the church at Thessalonica in 1 Thessalonians 1 when he says, you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God. Repentance is a 180. It's a hard turn, a turn away from sin. But then the jewel in the crown of repentance is the final step. Repentance, listen to me carefully. True repentance always shows itself in a break with sin. It shows itself by forsaking the sin. The writer of Proverbs says in Proverbs 28, whoever covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them, and forsakes them, will have mercy. Isaiah writes in Isaiah 55, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Forsaking the sin, which is the final element of repentance. Oh, my friend, can you say, yes, I can see it. I can know it. I can I can name it. I can hate it. Carl, I've never forsaken the sin. I've never turned my back on my gossip, my worry, my Sabbath breaking, my idolatry. Forsaking the sin means to purpose in the power of the Holy Spirit to have nothing to do with that sin again. I know what you're saying, but Carl, my gossip, my worry, my lust, my discontentment is impossible. for me to quit. That's not true. You're lying to yourself. Listen to what Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 10. No temptation has overtaken you except which is common to man. Be God is faithful who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able, but with the temptation will make the way of escape so that you're able to bear it. My friend, there's a door you can walk out. There's a door you can walk out today and be done from the bondage of that sin. It's called the door of forsaking. There is no genuine repentance until there's a forsaking of specific sins, which is why John the Baptist, his message was, we were told just in the previous chapter in Matthew three, verse eight, bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance. The final step of repentance is always forsaking. What will God do when a man repents? The Lord gives us these glorious words in 1 John 1. He will forgive you and He will cleanse you from guilt, cleanse you from all the moral and psychological scars that sin has brought. How do we apply this word to us today? You're thinking, oh, Carl, this has kind of all been application, hasn't it? But let me say three very brief words. Let me ask you. Do you know and do you grasp clearly now how to repent? The Lord has given you models over and over in scripture. For example, Pastor King read one of them. David penned not one, but two whole Psalms, Psalm 32 and Psalm 51 after his murder and adultery. Let me plead with you. If you're thinking, Carl, I'm a little bit fuzzy on the details of repentance. Study, study Psalm 32 and Psalm 51. These are textbooks in how to repent. And so let me ask you, when you repent, when you harm another person, when you offend a holy God, do these words from Psalm 32 and Psalm 51, do they innately come out of your lips? Do you know how to repent? A second application. How often do you repent? Our forefathers used this phrase, speaking of the Christian life, that the Christian should keep short accounts with God. By this, they meant since you and I sin daily in word, thought and deed, we should confess and forsake our sin daily while it is fresh. John Calvin wrote that most Christians don't remember the hundredth part of their sin. And this is because oftentimes Christians will stretch out weeks, months without repentance. What I'm pleading with you to do is to begin the practice of daily repentance, keeping short accounts with God. The third and final application, repentance must be for the sins to which you are most prone. There are some of you who think, Well, Carl, I repent all the time of my idolatry, but that's not the sin to which you're prone. If you're a worrier, which is just simply faithlessness on steroids, if you're a worrier, you must be daily naming and forsaking your sinful fears. If you're engaged in pornography and lust, you must be daily naming and forsaking your sinful lust. The point, the reason why I plead with you on a daily basis to repent, is because very soon you will find out if you're repenting on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, those sins will quickly be embittered to you so that you have no joy in them, but only dread at the thought of them. May God have mercy upon us as he gives us in abundance the gift of repentance. Let's pray. Our Father, when we see the emphasis of your word, the emphasis of the teaching and preaching of Jesus, the emphasis of the apostles, we confess, oh Lord, that we have frequently, so often, avoided repentance. We have not seen ourselves like the tax collectors and sinners in need of cleansing. Have mercy on us, we pray, for Jesus.