G.W. North emphasizes the critical nature of repentance in the Christian faith, explaining that true repentance is not merely feeling sorry for one's sins but involves a profound change of mind and heart towards God. He illustrates that many people experience temporary blessings without understanding the deeper need for repentance, which is essential for entering into a true relationship with God. North highlights the consistent biblical call to repentance, from John the Baptist to the apostles, asserting that without it, one cannot fully embrace the eternal blessings of God. He warns against self-deception and emphasizes that true repentance leads to a transformative experience, allowing individuals to receive God's grace and forgiveness. Ultimately, North calls for a genuine acknowledgment of sin and a heartfelt return to God as the only path to salvation.

I think it was last night I was pointing out that those people who followed the Lord Jesus and stayed with him long enough, they were the people that got the sort of bonus, that after they stayed with him for about three days or so, he required nothing of them, no faith, no effort on their part, just that they stayed around, stuck with it long enough. Sat down and he showed them that there were providential blessings in the realm of grace, just like there are providential blessings in the realm of nature, because grace is God's fixed attitude arising out of his nature toward us in this dispensation. So they sat down and did nothing but say thank you, at least I hope they did, when the bread and the fish was put into their hands. And perhaps beyond what happened in the good old King's day, way back in Israel's history, when they went home all happy and they had a cake of figs and a flagon of wine, and it was all so wonderful, they went home and said we had saw a marvellous miracle, I experienced it, I sat down and I ate this food and so on and so on and so on, and then somebody said excuse me but you didn't experience a miracle at all. You didn't experience a miracle at all, you just partook of the result of it. It's not miraculous to sit down and eat food, nothing miraculous about that, and so people get out in a fantasy world, they never really get to reality. Here then is the tragedy, could overtake somebody in this conference. You can sit calm, you can be gathered and you can partake of blessings and no doubt many will abound, I feel that many have abounded so far, though we've only had two meetings and I expect you've had fellowship in the intervals between two and it's been very nice. But Jesus had come for greater purposes than that, and here is the thing that you and I have to lay to heart. Now there is no way, please will you listen, it's a terrible thing to be deceived, but the worst thing is to be self-deceived. Listen, there is no way into the eternal blessings of God, for it was only a temporary thing to eat bread and fish, they were hungry again at supper time. And this is what people are always crying out, they're all saying they're hungry. They're always saying this, I hear it in meetings, Lord we're hungry for you, Lord we're thirsty for you, or something like that. They get temporary blessings. When you come to a meeting, if you're really in the things of God, you ought not to come hungry, you ought to come so full from your knees. Or something. It's all wrong, people have got the wrong idea. If a preacher man came hungry to a meeting, whatever would you give? Nothing but the reflections of his own hunger. Perhaps that's what's happening. I don't mean particularly here, but it says in the scripture that of his fullness of all we received, and grace for grace, and that was the word made flesh, the man. And so of the fullness of the minister you receive. And that's a tremendous and glorious thing. But that's another matter. I want to say that there is no way into the eternal and abiding life and blessings of God except by repentance first on your part. And if I said to you, beyond an academic expression, so to say, well what does repentance mean? And you may be able to come up with that old fay. If I said to you, what is repentance? I wonder what sort of an answer I'd get. Now not only from experience, but also from scripture. I want to bring the truth of repentance before your heart. I hope that it has dawned on us all that God did not labour in vain when he raised up a man specially to preach repentance and ministry. And that before they ever clapped eyes on Jesus the Saviour. They had a clear period to repent before ever they saw the Saviour. Now have you got this clear? I hope so. For your soul's sake, repentance. God laid a foundation of repentance long before Jesus started to preach. And then when he came, he said the same thing. Repent, repent. That was John Baptist's message. He is one of the most important men in the whole of scripture. I hope you understand this. More important than Moses, if you happen to be of Jewish extraction in the bloodstream. He was the one that God raised up specially performing a miracle. As you know that he should even be born. And it was to get us used to the idea that God was now going to proceed along a line of miraculous births. Starting with John Baptist, a greater miraculous birth with Jesus Christ. And a more miraculous birth too for men and women because of Jesus Christ. That I cannot stay and explain at the moment. But he's proceeding along this line. Now before ever men and women got even a sight of it or got a hearing of it. They had to listen to a man saying repent, repent. Day after day they went out to John Baptist. They heard him saying the same thing. He never had a variety of sermons. He never had a black bag out of which he pulled moats to preach on. He never expounded the prophets. He never expounded Moses. Read your New Testament. You won't find a reference to it. He stood there and he went with one mighty and terrible and continuous voice. He thundered out repent, repent, repent. They heard it from morn to night. Day following day, week hard upon the hills of a week. That's how it went on. And it went on after Jesus Christ had come through. He continued it. Repent. He didn't say well now he's come. It's all over. His ministry was gradually phased out after Jesus Christ had come. And Jesus Christ took up John's word as though he was an echo of John. Repent, repent he said. Repent. I hope also that you're aware, and again I may remind you that last night we were thinking a little over this same ground, though not precisely. That he called his 12 disciples. He named them apostles. He kept them with him for quite a while. And then you can read about this in Mark 3, the first of the great selective calls. And then in Mark chapter 6, that's 4, 5 and 6 chapters in between. He sends them out. And they went out. He said I've got to give you power. He gives them cast out devils. He can heal the sick. But this was their message. They went out and preached that men ought to repent. That's what they preached. They also said be sure, Jesus told them this, to tell them the kingdom of God has come upon them. And so you see the kingdom of God can only be entered by repentance. Clear isn't it? At least I hope it is. It's written large upon the pages of scripture. And this is precisely, dear beloved friend, whoever you are, if you are not in that blessed state of entire salvation as God has provided it for us in Christ in this age, it's precisely because you haven't come to a true and basic repentance. Now this was not exclusive to the gospel era. If I may turn with you to scripture, you will find say in the acts of the apostles. And here I'm quoting an apostle who did not himself follow Jesus whilst he was on earth. That is Paul. You will remember at that time he was a Christ rejecter, a Saul of Tarsus, an educated Pharisee, and a Christ hater, and a church hater. And it proved a God hater though he thought he was doing God's service. Mind you Jesus had warned his disciples about it. He said the time will come when they'll think if they persecute and kill you they're doing God's service. And Saul was the great living proof of that until that glorious day when God met him. And I want to say to you that at that moment into his life there erupted a great power of repentance at that moment. Tremendous. And he went about preaching and perhaps if we just catch it up in that wonderful chapter in the acts of the apostles 20. And he says this, he's calling now for the church at Ephesus. Now you will remember that this was one of the great churches on the earth. Now he's testifying to them and they're going to bear witness. They're either going to say Paul you're a liar or it wasn't like that at all. Now listen to him. He said in verse 18 you'll know I'm in the middle of the verse from the first day that I came to Asia after what manner I have been with you at all seasons serving the Lord with all humility of mind and with many tears and temptations which befell me by the lying weight of the Jews and how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you but have showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance. He didn't say oh come and learn to dance the kingdom of heaven's here and you won't find any of them preach that not one of them will you find search and see. He went and he said this is my testimony I testified to you that you've got to repent. Jews or Greeks made no difference to him nor to God. For this man had realized something and we'll look for it in that great chapter 16. Where God where the Lord had dealt with them I'm sorry 17 and in the this time he was at Athens. Now you will know at least I hope you know that Athens was a great cultural center in the east and do you know that so far as we know nothing in scripture that there to say there was there was never a church founded at Athens. Did you know that but he stood in the midst of these people of culture and so on and he says this verse 28 of chapter 17 in him we live and move and have our being a certain also of your own poets have said for we are also his off offspring for as much then as we are the offspring of God we ought not to think that the godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone graven by art and man's device and the times of this ignorance God closed his eyes to but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent praise the name of the Lord so you will see that repentance is a tremendous message and it's a tremendous experience and may I say again and I shall say it probably again and again before we're through that except a man and a woman a boy or a girl a Jew or a Gentile uneducated or educated except you repent you'll go to hell and there is no power in heaven or earth that can prevent it except you repent and I say God raised up John Baptist especially his baptism at that time in water for people who underwent it just meant repentance that's all it meant it means a lot more in these days but in those days that's all it was for amen and listen he did not believe neither did God neither were either John or God prepared to accept that a man or woman had believed the message sufficiently to repent unless they were baptized in that Jordan that was the sign not that God merely believes in mere science but the glory of it all is that God laid this foundation so firmly Jesus Christ taking it up as we've already seen the apostles going out in preaching their primitive gospel for it was only primitive they could not at that time preach the death and resurrection of Jesus they preached the gospel they knew the same as John did the same as Moses did they all preached a gospel of a kind but here beloved they went out and they said repent even if it's into a limited belief even if it's into a limited experience you've got to repent and God again raises up this other man to whom he gave a special revelation unto whom we are eternally indebted for his great revelation and uh passing on of the message of the church which is his body what a glorious truth it is and he went out it doesn't matter where he went and it was unto the Ephesians I tell you that he gave the great revelation of the body of Jesus Christ he said I testify to you I did it publicly I came into your homes I looked you straight in the eye and I said repent that's it publicly individually repent that's what he said he's saying it to you I said last night and it's true I've lived a fairly long life now and though I haven't been all around the world as brother Edgar has at least east or west he's never gone north or south his name's not Peary or Scott he hasn't been that way but uh um wherever I've gone I've come to the conclusion that the great need in the world is the need for repentance and this is why people do not get in despite all their believing of this that and the other they do not get into God what all that God has for them simply because they've never come to a true repentance and beloved because God has exercised my heart about it and because I'm concerned and because also that God has already spoken in this meeting tonight he's already said what he would do he's already given us the call we all know that he's fully love orientated and his heart is bounding and abounding with grace then I say unto you that if you will come to a true repentance then you can answer and come up into all that God wants you to have without repentance you will not have all that God has for you is that clear to you amen now repentance you and I must understand must not be confused with such words as regret there are lots of people who have done lots of things and regret that they have done them but God did not send out somebody to call us to regret he sent someone to call us to repentance and as though John was not sufficient for it he sent his son to say it and as though those two were not sufficient he raised up his apostles to say it and as though their testimony and their age was not sufficient he raised us up penman to give us in the bible and he's raised up translators to give it give it to us in our own native tongue God raised up ministers that shall preach it in power and positive glorious truth that it may be applied to our hearts for you may as well reach for the moon as reach for the great blessings of God unless you come to repentance you say aha the moon they're getting on the moon today but you don't get onto the moon except from a launching pad even the scientists don't you've got to come on the right foundation and ground they don't start off from the soft mud of rora or rock and heath i have no preferences neither has God the great thing about it is that you've got to get on the right foundation for it so don't let's get repentance mixed up with regret regrets can be genuine enough if you've never done anything of which you have come to a place about which you've come to a place say well i regret it then you there's something wrong with you of course we regret things i hope you never regret coming to rora and don't get it mixed up with remorse remorse is going to be the cause now are you listening of those things that you read about in scripture which go like this falling from the mouth of the lips of the blessed lord himself there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth remorse remorse can take you to hell as sure as murder and lust and adultery and thieving and inward moral impurity remorse thou indulgent but that's not repentance blackness of darkness forever remorse being in torment you know who i'm quoting he lifted up his eyes and he said father abraham i'm quoting jesus send lazarus that he may dip his finger in water and moisten the tip of my tongue as burning remorse scripted he could remember it all vivid hell there's a great gulf fixed between those that suffer remorse and those that have repentance and so god makes things plain to us you know i've been in prison it's a long time ago now i sometimes like to say you don't expect jailbirds or ex-jailbirds to come and talk to but i haven't got broad arrows on me not now i've walked round inside prison walls talking to prisoners oh the remorse that grips some men's hearts not all some are so hardened they never even come to remorse but some do but they don't get out because they come to remorse they're shut up with it every night in their cell remorse oh i wish i'd never done it can't be undone only god can undo things only god while i'm on this note you'll be pleased seeing that you live quite adjacent to the palace in dartmoor prison not so long ago god saved a man i saw him only met him last week i think it was or the week before stood up tall big and tough he was making tea it was lovely god had tamed a lion made him into a lamb he got saved in dartmoor that's good news for you what a tremendous thing it is and oh to see this man and even though we were together just for a week and only two sermons a day god god worked on him and softened him he came to me several times said i can see it he found me once or twice he kept look i can see yes and he was rejoicing in the glory of the truth beloved that was transforming him inside because he'd come to a repentance there is no way that god almighty himself can put you straight blot out your sin get the record right and make you acceptable to himself unless you give him the opportunity to do so by repentance i'll say more about that later now this is the important thing i want to say also at the risk of repetition or i say this quite often this is the explanation why people after they say they've been saved and baptized in the spirit and filled with this and filled with that have still got vast areas of stuff in their life that's so contradictory to the gospel they've embraced and so on and so on and so on it's because they're sort of brought in and it's just come to jesus position and they're never told to come to repentance so it's there it's still there that's my confession to you after decades of ministry amongst men and women it's still there and so they write books on soul healing and mental this you can go into bookshops and half of them are full with how to get your emotions healed how to get this healed how to get something else healed until i get sick of it it's another gospel you don't read any about it in the new testament read it and see but we ignore the new testament and turn to these new gospelers which is a not another gospel it's a perverted gospel get a little this week come back next week six weeks time come back again god will do a little more on all this vast horror this pit inside this empty hate this terrible thing that we can't explain this that makes me act so contradictory to the thing i say i believe and all the rest of it as though the mighty blood of jesus christ under the plunging power of the spirit like fire from heaven setting the blood of coursing through you can't do the job that's why i chose the hymn would you be free from your burden of sin there's power in the blood it's not in your adept manner of applying a certain text to you there's no skill in it the heathen never had the mosaic scriptures to whom paul went the heathen never had the new testament scriptures until he wrote them part of them himself or his friends john and matthew did it's what this man read out he said it pleased god to reveal his son in me that i might preach him among the heathens called me by his grace reveal his son in me that i might preach him he didn't preach moses the early church decided you may read it in acts chapter 15 he said they said moses had read to them every week every week they had the scriptures read to them every week they went through it all oh for a mighty coming of the glorious conqueror of sin and hell and death into men and women's lives and he couldn't get in he couldn't even begin to get into his ministry until god had sent john baptist to preach repentance repentance repentance he couldn't begin he couldn't begin to come with his word but we borrowed them because they'd been written in by men and of course they're true but they're no substitute for him so we make a plaster and a poultice of words instead of him oh god we cover the lesion with a dose of romans 8 or something like that instead of him oh god repent repentance no you will know of course that that word repentance we simply want to be academic about it just means a change of mind seems so simple but don't you realize that it's the hardest thing in this world to get a person to change their mind have you ever tried it have you ever tried to get a person to change their mind and it's comparatively easy to do what we call change a person's mind compared with what god has to do in that we present an argument you see this morning not that an argument was presented and if you weren't here i'm so sorry for you i hope you i uh well i hope you had a real reason for staying away so god the lord presented truth to us this morning that i guess changed people's thinking on certain issues let them speak up and say that was a comparatively easy thing compared with what i'm talking about for when god change talks about the change of mind he changed he means changing the inward states of it he doesn't mean changing your mind about thinking what is a cherubim that we all have that done for us i went into a fruit shop the other day i'm one of the privileged people i can go into a fruit shop and pick out what i want and somebody else pays for it but don't you try that i went in and i saw a box of peaches and i looked at somebody said me well you can have some if you want one want them well i so i i he didn't say one what you want presumably i could have taken a boxful but i anyway i i i saw a nice peach i picked it up and i looked in and then i picked up another one he said don't squeeze the fruit so i didn't do that i picked up this one and then i went and flipped up that one and then i put that one down and i picked that one from somewhere and what was i doing changing my mind it looked all right till i got hold of it and turned it right in my hand and i changed my mind said no i don't want that i want that one that's easy but when god talks about changing your mind listen he's got to change your mind from the condition that can only live with the devil and in hell forever he's got to change it into the condition that can live with god in heaven forever that's what he's got to do did you understand that it's not like changing from voting liberal in north devon because of certain events to conservative it's not that it's a great dynamic operation of god and unless you let god do it you're doomed you can believe everything i used to live next door to a man he was an organist in a church years ago now he knew every psalm i don't suppose you do and he had them all word perfect and he was as unsaved as the seat he sat on to play the tunes isn't that that won't do it to come into this world of carriage martyr that won't do it use charismatic terminology that won't do it neither will it do it using wesleyan language like lots of us do have on do it do you not see that repentance is a great deep wonderful miraculous operation of god upon you and i lay it to your heart tonight in the name of jesus christ that you are under direct commandment from god to repent commandment well this is a tremendous thing look just look back into that 17th chapter of the acts of the apostles here it is let's let's go shall we the unknown god was speaking in verse 23 speaking through his apostle apostle now you must not think that because these men were idolaters and they had effigies ugly or pretty gold or silver or studied with precious stones or made of dung like some of them were some idols and that we don't do that we know better than that that that means that we know god they didn't know god they thought he was like this people in england don't know god and they think he's like this or like that or like something else here it is god verse 24 made the world and all things in it seeing that he is lord of heaven and earth dwelleth not in temples made with hands neither is worshipped with men's hands as though he needed anything seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth are you listening carefully to this this will show you the determined plan of god in the spread of the gospel not that the church has kept pace with god all right he's determined the times before appointed and the bounds of men's habitation that they should seek the lord if happily they might feel after him and find him though he be far from every one of us for listen to it in him we live and move and have our being that's every one of us whether we be sinner or saint deserving or undeserving in this element in which our brother was speaking this morning of the aerial heaven the first heaven god is here moving and in him as we know that in this universe we exist so it is in him and by his grace that we're here and especially in this place tonight to hear his imperishable gospel in him we all live move and have our being now note the church has been chosen in christ there's a distinction here that i don't want to discuss at the moment all right let's go on your own prophets have said so verse 28 and then he says where is offspring and then he says in verse 30 that the times of ignorance god closed his eyes to but now he commands all men to repent you might say well what have i to repent of and so someone may come along and say well you didn't this you've done that you said the other but it's on this broad basis first the very fact that god is and that god created mankind and god gives you the breath to breathe and god that gives you the strength the strength where with you went into sin you drew a breath that god gave you and when it came out you lied with it he caused the food to grow on the ground that you should stretch out your hand and hurt somebody with it or take something with it or put your hand where it ought to have been and god gave you that strength that's why and presently for i'm going to take liberties with time if i may we'll read it in that great psalm of repentance david that tremendous man of old said it's against thee thee only have i sinned and done this great wickedness in thy sight in the sight of god you dared to sin using his breath living under his sunshine eating the food that he gave you've got to repent how can you stop going to hell unless you're food that's leaving out all the other reasons paul dealt with them on this reason they were ignorant of jesus christ the times of this ignorance he said you didn't know jesus christ he could have said i'm the first man that's come and preached the gospel to you and god's prepared to say all right all right but now from this moment now you can look back to your mother to your father to your grandfather to everybody else they all lived having what was god and lived in sin now that's the position do you see that that's the foundation you've got to repent of that when the message comes you say well i wasn't no you weren't held responsible for anything but once you hear the message that's it from that moment so i say to you would you be free if you would here is news for you you can blessed be the name of the lord providing providing that you come to an utter repentance in the sight of god amen it's a wonderful thing to repent come with me into the roman letter now you and i will at once understand that god must be a very good god why didn't he smite you down the first lie you told why didn't he destroy you the first time you moved against his majesty why didn't he do it well we can use the word grace we can use all sorts of things but i'm going to use the word that this man paul used it's a tremendous and wonderful truth verse one of chapter two therefore thou art inexcusable oh woman you say it says man yeah i know but i put woman in you see as well as man thou art inexcusable oh woman oh man no excuse for anybody there is no excuse for you my precious friend none you can't plead extenuating circumstances you cannot plead ignorance you cannot plead a merciless god you can't plead inexorable states you can't do it here it is thou art inexcusable oh man whosoever thou art that judges wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thyself thou that judges doest the same things but we are sure that the judgment of god is according to truth against them which commit such things and thinkest thou this oh man or woman that judges them which do such things and doest the same that thou should escape the judgment of god or despises thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering how old are you 10 20 30 40 50 60 forbearance you and i deserve to die the first sin we committed despises thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and long suffering not knowing that the goodness of god leadeth thee to repentance god is good that's why you're here tonight to hear again this glorious truth god's been good to you don't argue in terms of well you know i've been an ill person or i've not got much money or i went to university and can't get a decent job has god been good to me friend you're arguing in the wrong realms we are largely the victims of a world that's now getting too small to hold us all and too defiled and too rotten and too riddled and rattled with sin and jiggery and murder and lusting for greed don't blame god for what the devil's done don't blame god for that and don't concern yourself with those things chiefly the goodness of god to you and he has been good to you even in the things i've already enumerated the things that we might call providential in the natural realm he's been good to you and he's been good to you precisely for this reason that he should lead you to repentance the real trouble beloved if i may just refer back to that famous incident to which i've already referred that he was good to these people they sat down and they just put out their hand and they didn't have to even have to say grace how about that they didn't sing anything like man shall not live by bread alone or anything like that they didn't understand it they just took what jesus gave them and they said well isn't he good isn't he marvelous isn't it or take the wine the water that was turned into wine at the wedding of cana of galilee and this isn't he wonderful look at this our wedding would have been absolutely ruined if he hadn't done this isn't he good to us but he wasn't good to them just in order to be good to them all though he likes to do good things for the sake of it that's his nature his hope always was and still is that by a succession of good things he will finally waken you up to the need that you must repent but people want to keep putting their feet on all the good things and saying this is marvelous until they come to a place where they know they're at a full stop this is one of the great i know you'll cross me off i don't know malcolm will ever ask me to come back to roar anymore or edgar will ever want to minister side by side with me again but this is one of the great tragedies in this present praise craze that's come they say everyone thinks it's by praise so they've got to keep inventing new choruses new this we've got to express praise it's all being done by praise it's not being done by praise though i'm sure some do misquote me and think i mean that you shouldn't praise god it isn't that where are you going to in another few years time i'll praise god hallelujah that's not what i'm talking about but you see they're all sort of wrong means to get somewhere friend the goodness of god is to bring us to repentance lord my attitude to you has been wrong my thinking's been wrong but oh god i couldn't help thinking that way there was that in me we talk about blocks we talk about frustrations we talk about eruptions we talk about all sorts of things they may not use my terminology inside and i think this or this happens why precisely because you've never come to repentance repentance is the change of that condition if nobody's ever told you before that's it well you say repentance it means being sorry well obviously that's involved in it but don't think that just being sorry is repentance please for if you do you'll land up in the same cul-de-sac no through road you know that all cul-de-sacs have an entrance all cul-de-sacs have a certain distance you can proceed to them you see but isn't it terrible to have to turn around and retrace your steps to realize that this wasn't the through road at all i'm talking about some of your spiritual experiences aren't i amen now repentance what is it i'm going back to psalm 51 now i don't think that i need to recap all the circumstances from which this psalm arose suffice it to say not for me to advertise a certain person's sin that david had gone wrong he'd gotten into sin and he knew it now he didn't say come on now let's all go down the temple or the tabernacle and sing some psalms i'm feeling depressed today you understand that somebody didn't come along and slap him on the back and say now come on get up it's all okay let's go down and sort of praise god everything will be all right if god doesn't get some of these errors right out of our mind we'll never get anywhere listen to him this man had sinned that's all you need know about it what sin is not important here he comes have mercy upon me oh god according to thy loving kindness according under the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgression wash me through me from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin for i acknowledge my transgression and my sin it's ever before me you'll never get to repentance unless sin's like that with you all the time that devil can deceive you get you to switch your eyes on this get you to switch your eyes on something else read this book go there go somewhere else get your mind off it oh god keep my mind on it god kept his mind on you say man i'll go mad better go mad than go to hell that's god's eternal madhouse that's the place for the spiritual schizophrenic people that thought at one time they'd become a christian and then they didn't and they were split people that tried some road or another but never got there never got to the right one listen my sin he says it's ever before me against thee thee only have i sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest isn't this marvelous that god shuts you up to himself he doesn't say you did this to that woman you did this to that man and before that man or before that woman or before the society in which you live before this you are a sinner he shuts it up to himself he concerns us with our relationship to him and you never got there unless you have you've known all repentance never that's why all that you say of christianity is evanescent and doesn't last it's like the wine on a wedding day or food in the desert or sight in an eye it's not the reality oh god and because this man allowed himself to get shut up to god he came to revelation the revelation is this you didn't think it was revelation perhaps you said well i've always believed that this was inspiration i'm talking about revelation here it is behold i was shapen in iniquity in sin did my mother conceive me now he didn't read that in moses and he didn't read it in samuel you search for it and see this is the first time it comes in scripture when that man got before god he saw it all he saw himself as a monstrous shape of sin ever seen yourself like that have you he saw that his sin was connected to satan and he'd been conceived as satan had conceived in his heart from the moment that he rebelled against god and came against god's greatest and law most glorious creation it was conceived in the devil's heart that every man and woman that should be born from the god of eden onward would be born in sin and shapen in iniquity that was the concept in the heart of the devil the devil's your father that's what he saw it's kind of a revelation have you seen yourself as a son of satan have you seen the enormity of it have you seen the dreadfulness of it don't say well it wasn't my fault don't say that listen to god any place for your mind to go winging off the truth and god can do nothing for you as he wants to do say bring you back to the foundation of the truth upon which he works to say he got a revelation because he didn't indulge in excuses because he didn't say well i'm in the grip of this i get in the grip of that i lose my temper something rises in me and i don't know what all the sorts of things oh god will you listen to the truth only the truth can set you free jesus himself said it it's the truth that set you free let's go on behold he says thou desirest truth in the inward paths listen what's that voice answering in you now what's the thing that's being you you're saying inside now in your inward path rebellion against the word of god resistance to the glorious truth isn't that satan satan is nothing else than the manifestation and the proof that light can turn into darkness his name was lucifer son of the morning and that's what jesus said if he said it's the light that's in you his darkness oh how great is that darkness he's thinking of something that peter's going to write by the spirit blackness of darkness forever oh god it's enough to make the very pillars of the earth tremble and you can sit there and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom listen allow me to say to you beloved until god has made you know wisdom you're a fool say it to me it's all right i'm not calling your name i'm aware of the dangerous ground i'm on until he makes you to know wisdom you're a fool and you're like your father who was the biggest fool that's ever been lucifer son of the morning some of all god's wisdom and glorious creation until adam came and he was a fool he thought he knew it all and he threw everything away on one gamble and he lost you'll lose if you gamble against god you'll lose you have no chance bless it be god for a glorious gospel bless it be god for a way of escape bless it be god that he came bless it be god that someone came and said i'm the way what news what good news i'm away he said well there's no way when you've tried a thousand ways when you've ducked when you've turned when you've made some kind of profession or confession some people preach that penance should be substituted for repentance and it's a lie you can do nothing nothing to make amends for your sin nothing glory be to the name of the lord here then is the glory of our blessed jesus but let me hasten on oh he says purge me purge me with hyssop and i shall be clean wash me and i shall be whiter than snow oh glory he just got to the place he said you will have truth in your part his mind went back to a time when a nation at the word of god took a bowl of blood from the slain lambs and took some hyssop and sprinkled it on the doorposts and on the lentil and he thought of it all and he was said oh yes lord but that was all outward it was on the outward shell make me an old truth inside i've had enough of this outward shell there are so many people are in the outward shell of it hallelujah he says inward parts lord purge me purge me make me clean i just don't want to be safe only i want to be clean i want i want the sin to go out of me i want to go out of my fiber i want it to go out of the spring of my being i want it to go out of my reasoning i want it to go out of my imagination i want it gone gone i just don't want protection from it i just don't want this from it i want it gone i offer no excuses lord i'm a sinner i'm the sinner he's got it right now god make me to hear joy and gladness i'm a broken man i've broken your bones says god i've broken your bones and when your bones are broken you've got no resistance anymore that's where god has to bring you no not an argument not a word not a plea at the mercy of god at the mercy of god what a place to be now he's prepared to talk about joy good job some well-meaning but idiotic fella hadn't come along say come on david why not let's sing of these lovely psalms the lord's my shepherd i'll not want go away go away i want i'm broken what is it that god says about the prophets and shepherds of israel of old he said you've healed the hurt of my people what superficially that's all that's my fear in these days people are getting some superficial healing some superficial bliss some momentary alleviation i say momentary as against the ends of eternity alleviation from something god when all my resistance is gone lord lord let me hear joy now he wrote in another psalm blessed are the people that hear the joyful sound this is what he was wondering what was the joyful sound it was the shofar or ram's horn that they blew on the day of atonement oh god the sins are atoned for oh god the sins are gone make me hear the joy he says i want my bones to rejoice hallelujah i want the bones that you've broken to get up say thank you lord thank you for breaking my resistance thank you for smashing me thank you lord thank you thank you thank you thy dead men shall rejoice says isiah thy dead men shall rejoice listen hide thy face from my sin listen did you see what he said he's gone beyond the day of atonement for in the day of atonement he hid sins from his face but here he's saying hide your face from my sins glory glory glory lord it must be terrible for you to look upon my sins oh lord perhaps this is why with two wings the cherubim covered their face hide thy face from my sins lord oh lord and there was darkness over the whole earth for three hours and god hid his face they said my god my god why that's not the same thing he hid his face there's no excuse for you nothing it's all been done in christ just creating me a clean heart oh god renew the right spirit within me cast me not away from thy presence wouldn't that be terrible think of it on that day go from my presence go i'm no one to plead for you no one tonight beloved jesus please tonight beloved god speaks again you can repent but listen not like judas let's go shall we into matthew for did you know that jesus repented he'd sold jesus he was sorry for it hmm chapter 27 when the morning was come all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against jesus to put him to death and when they had bound him they led him away and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor then Judas which had betrayed him when he saw that he was condemned repented but listen it was a wrong repentance he repented himself i'll make amends i'll make restoration here's the man that can repent himself he brought the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders saying i've sinned i've sinned in that i have betrayed innocent blood and they said what is that to us that's the world you've been living with that's the sinner that's the attitude seed out of that cast down the pieces of silver in the temple departed went and hanged himself a repentant man why because he'd repented himself you can't work up repentance you can repent yourself how many times people said i've got down and i've told god i'm sorry i've done this and i've done that and still it happens repenting yourself thank god you haven't got so far as to hang on the end of a rope yet of your own slinging he repented himself he saw that he was wrong jesus had been condemned i didn't mean that why did you do it then where did it all come from if you didn't want him condemned if you're saying now it's all wrong then you're sorry why did you do it i know it's inside love of money the root of all evil he hanged himself a suicide and in chapter one of the acts of the apostles it says that he went to his place that's what death will do for every one of us you'll go to your place when you die that's what will happen that he might go to his place written in the scriptures he repented himself now these self-made repentances avail nothing of god did you know that this seeing the result of your action wishing you'd never done it and we all ought to have been there and saying i'm sorry lord i repent i repent you've never got to repentance darling until something tremendous has happened in you far beyond what you can work up for yourself if you could work up repentance you would be responsible for your salvation listen the scriptures shall teach us hmm we'll turn into the acts of the apostle shall we and hear what this mighty man peter says had we read in the last verses of the 26th the uh the chapter preceding where we read in them in matthew we would have read that peter had denied them peter at the night and listening to what he says he's speaking in chapter five of the acts of the apostles the god verse 30 the god of our fathers raised up jesus whom you slew and hanged on a tree him hath god exalted hallelujah the exalted jesus and i want to say the exultant jesus now exalted with his right hand a prince and a savior for to give repentance once he commands repentance and you may say i haven't got it i haven't got it he says i'll give it to you i'll give it to you repentance is a gift glory he gives as a prince gives hallelujah and not the princes or gnomes of zurich either or the opec shakes hallelujah he gives repentance and forgiveness he doesn't give forgiveness before he gives repentance and don't you think he does he gives repentance and forgiveness to israel we are his witnesses of these things that's what peter said i told you just before we read in matthew he just denied the lord with an oath and and uh and he jesus is condemned judas comes back and repents himself flings the money away blood money i don't want it blood money enough to drive any man demented to betray the son of god peter oh blessed be god jesus had gone to him to have given him repentance i know what happened when they said jesus he's alive he and he's he's been defeated he gave him repentance he gave him repentance hallelujah he said i'm a witness of this this blessed prince this prince of all virtues and love and grace this prince of men and of god and of angels this prince in his manner and manners oh he gave me repentance i'm the witness of it i'm the living evidence that god gives repentance and i saw my hallelujah i stand with my blood brother peter for like him i was in sin and god gave me repentance he gave it to me oh god it plumbed my depths it reached the heights it broadened my spirit it enlarged my understanding i came to a place where i told god that i'd go to hell if he sent me because i knew i deserved it i knew it was right i said i don't want to go lord and unless you know it's right that you should go to hell you haven't really begun on this great road of repentance you haven't begun though god's been good to you he's withheld the thunder clouds of his wrath he's held them back he's been good to you he's done marvelous things for you more marvelous than you'll ever dream of or i either until i get beyond the pale he's been wonderful wonderful wonderful oh he gives repentance he gives forgiveness this blessed prince this glorious god what can i say of him how can i describe him he'll give it yeah he'll give it would you be free from your burden of sin would you be free from your passion and your pride would you be whiter much whiter than snow there's whiteness upon the everlasting hills of god his heavenly zion that will make snow blush with shea and its filthiness comes out of the purity of god who imagined and created snow to give us some idea some dim picture of what his righteousness and holiness and purity is burning whiteness beyond the cold whiteness of snow a whiteness that snow has never known make me clean oh lord make me clean if you ever come there it's all a gift don't labor anymore to bring your unwilling feet into the way of righteousness don't labor anymore to come to some kind of sorrow of your own for listen god will give you such sorrow if you let him paul wrote to the corinthians and this is what he told them in his second letter to them in the seventh chapter this great great truth of repentance listen to it oh thank god for the times my heart has gone over this section think not will you i don't know i'd like to ask brother edgar i don't think i need men who have to minister in these things of god their mind always goes over these things listen my mind goes over it again and again and i turn to it and class the book to me again to read it here it is paul writing to these people he says let's start in verse eight we're breaking in i'm aware that time is going on and he says i made you sorry with a letter i don't repent so i did repent here's one of the times i tell you when dear old paul was absolutely shattered inside first i repented when i'd written it i said oh god what have i written to these corinthians when you read that first corinthian letter you read it with tears because you'll never read it rightly and that's why the scripture is a mystery to so many people they can't explain it or understand it they don't come in the right attitude they can't they're a long way from it he wrote it with tears it was though he dipped his pen in his blood if not in his blood in his tears to write it he said and i was sorry i repented i told you these things i told you those things i said to you if you defile the temple of god god will destroy you and he'd been there and out of his own life's heart blood and truth he preached these people into being in god he said you have so many teachers you can't have many fathers i declared the truth to you in his breaking heart he wrote that first corinthian letter they'd sullied the communion table they'd ruined the gifts of god they'd done everything laid their sin upon the pure things of god he said i was sorry they said no i'm not sorry all the conflict that went in on in this man he talks about inward conflict not the thought about sin the thought for souls that's right and he says this i perceive in verse eight in the middle of the verse that the same epistle has made you sorry though but for a season praise god hallelujah what is that verse that says that weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning when it's the morning of god and you're weeping at the tail end of night's sin now i rejoice not that you were made sorry but that you sorrow to repentance for listen to this every word is worth its weight in gold listen you were made sorry after a godly manner that you might receive damage by us in nothing for godless sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death now you're going to see it's godly sorrow only that will lead you to repentance it's godly sorrow about sin that'll make you feel burdened with it cluttering up to your inside can't get rid of godless sorrow amen he'll make you see that the things in which you took pleasure broke his heart the things you did the attitude you adopted this thing that you transacted broke his heart you and a wasted heart is nothing is nothing listen here it is have a good look at it verse 11 behold this self-same thing that you sorrowed after a godless thought here's the proof of whether you sorrowed after a godless thought here's the test what carefulness it wrought in you what clearing of yourselves oh glory yea what indignation yea what fear yea what behemoth desire yea what seal yea revenge in all i'm going to put these things the things as i tell aside isn't in the greek in all these things you have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter amen that's what true repentance does clear of it gone out of the substance of your being gone gone glory to god no longer creeping about doing things gone glory be to the name of the lord glory that's true repentance godless sorrow godless sorrow worketh repentance it's all a gift praise the name of the lord what do you think happened in gethsemane gethsemane i'd like to be able to preach on it for the rest of my life i'd like to become acquainted with all the glorious fullness of it all i would when he couldn't cry anymore he could stand and weep outside lazarus's tomb he couldn't shed a tear in gethsemane it was beyond it all godly sorrow gripped him and his tears came out through pores of his flesh sorrow sorrow sorrow godless sorrow presently not far distantly his sweat mingled with his blood sorrow sorrow sorrow then they pierced his side and what couldn't come out of his eyes rushed out of his ribbonside sorrow sorrow oh god you gotta repent deeply deeply it's a miracle i wish god would do this miracle for me i wish god would do that miracle for me i wish you listen beloved this is the miracle oh lord do it for me with sorrow i say this to you there's some people get to such a place that even god has to say it's impossible to bring them to repentance paul writes about i'm quoting the hebrews now now paul writes about them and he says they're implacable implacable or again that was the first chapter in the second chapter he says after thy hardness and thine impenitent heart thou heapest up wrath against the day of wrath are you heaping up wrath in god's heart against you this god of love this god of grace this god of blood this god of redemption you say don't talk to me about it tell me about his love it's in love i tell you it's in the scripture i shall preach about love i dare say sometime this week but never greater love than this that a man should lay down his life for his friends out of his own lips it came and you can have it will you be free will you let him do it will you respond from the depths of your beings as the blessed jesus responded from the depths of his when father said son it's the cross yes it'll break my heart father you've got to have yours broken son you're gonna have it broken you're gonna have the stiff stubborn bony framework of you and now one last word you've been patient i love to tell this story i don't make them up i can't be a storyteller i guess i just want to tell you the stories of jesus a certain man had two sons you know what i'm going to say the younger one said to his father father give unto me the portion of goods that falleth unto me his father did it not long after he gathered together all went into a far country and there he wasted his substance on riotous living he was absolutely in riot against god perhaps that's your condition rioting against god rioting you know what a riot will do let a riot go unchecked and it'll overthrow a country that's why god stopped the devil's riot in heaven same spirit same seed same thinking same attitude same works and you know the rest of the story bless god let me come quickly to it as he finished up at the swine troughs he sat there and when he came to himself he said how many hired servants have my father served bread enough and despair and i perish with hunger i will arise and go down my father and say father i've sinned against heaven and before thee see he's in exactly the place where david was he said against thee the only have i done this grave wickedness in thy sight down before thee listen you did it before the lord you shut yourself in a private place there was no one there except god you did it right in front of his face the darkness cannot hide thee if i make my bed in hell thou art there if i take the wings of the morning fly in the light to the uttermost parts thy spirit in there too you said come let's go to our closet let's do this let's do that and in the sight of god you did it you ever heard the expression about flying in the face of the almighty and the almighty stooped yet lower to bear his heart for more completely that you may know that he still loves you he arose and he went to his father while he was yet a great way off his father saw him and he ran he fell on his neck and he kissed him and he said father i've sinned against heaven and in thy sight i am no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of our hired servants and he said bring forth the best robe i put the best robe on this repentant spirit that's right god gives repentance the best no no you know he'd been sitting at the swine toss you know he stank he literally stank of pig manure then does god put a robe round the dirt yes he does the outward dirt because inwardly he was already clean he'd repented and god says well we'll deal with the rest now all these sort of outward blemishes we'll just put him in a tub he'll soon be clean he got rid of the sin by repentance his attitude had changed his mind had changed in its substance yes we'll deal with the rest put a ring on his finger put shoes on his feet come on let's rejoice now that's what god's attitude to you is if you repent you might say but i've got this to get rid of i've got this at home i've been doing that with somebody else listen come on you you'll get rid of that come on have you repented son i'll give you repentance absolutely don't you sit there trying god sends a man to preach repentance god says repent repent repent you're under command to repent you're under the preaching of repentance they went out and preached everywhere that men should repent wherever they could find them you're being apostle to god whether publicly or privately talking to you in your home and straight to your face repent repent peter how did you get there where you got i came by the road of repentance how did you get there oh i realize that the sacrifices of god for a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart oh lord now not despised john how did you get there i came via the road of contrition andrew how did you come i repented whatever you do don't sit there as though you're innocent don't sit there so you're going to brazen it all out don't sit there thinking none of these people know me god does he loves you he loves you can anyone say more if you will repent not what i am saying lord i will repent i will