In this sermon, the preacher, Nathan, emphasizes the importance of repentance and the need to experience it personally. He highlights the weight of our sin and God's glory, leading us to feel crushed and hopeless. However, he also points to the cross as the solution, where Jesus took our sins and shame. The preacher then challenges the audience to consider their ways and not exchange their inheritance and birthright for temporary satisfaction. He references the scripture in Matthew 5:6, explaining that hunger and thirst for righteousness indicate a need for repentance.

Can I have an hour of your time? The word of God reads from Malachi chapter three, verse seven, even from the days of your fathers, you are gone away from mine ordinances and you've not kept them. Return unto me and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But ye said, wherein shall we return? Father, just open up our understanding that we may be able to discern and rightfully divide the word of truth. Father, I'm asking Lord for an anointing of the Holy Spirit to be able to speak the mysteries of Christ and of your kingdom to this generation. And Father, I pray that it would not be me, but yet Christ within me that speaks the truth and love. Father, prepare the soil, the ground, Lord, to receive the seed of the word of God. Lord God, that we might be a people, Lord, that are changed by the word of God into the image of our Lord. Lord, take away the scales from our eyes and the deafness of our hearing and the hardness of our heart and the stubbornness of our minds. Lord, that we may, Lord, become one with you. Lord, let the word of God come forth powerful today. Let it be alive on the inside of us, Lord, not a letter of the law, but Lord, the spirit of God that quickens or gives life. Lord, let the word of God powerfully convict us, powerfully change us, and gloriously transform us into your image. And it's for your name's sake and for your glory. And it's in your name we pray, amen. We're gonna continue today talking about the doctrine of repentance. We're in part 10 of our series, Does Doctrine Matter? And the question may arise within your mind, when will we complete this series? And the answer to that question is when it is complete. I realize that doctrinal matters in our minds are not the most exciting things to discourse upon from the pulpit. But I also can meet that by saying that it is the most important thing that we can hear from the pulpit. I agree with what Brother Richard Owen Roberts said, the lack that we have today is doctrinal lack. We lack in doctrinal knowledge, and it is because of this that we are tossed to and fro by every other wind of doctrine and every other cutting slight of man that we're tossed, we're as children, and we have never grown up into the full sense and stature of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll make inference later on in the message about those that have the mindset that I already am doctrinally secure. And beloved, we have to come to grips with the fact that the word of God is that which we know in part, but the word of God is not in part. The word of God is the fullness of the word of God, and we know in part. And beloved, doctrinally speaking, we are lacking in many areas. I am lacking in many areas. You are lacking in many areas. And I know that you think you know already what you believe, but I'm finding out the more and more I hear from the Lord Jesus Christ, the more I find out the things that I have believed have been lies. They've been doctrines formed after the likeness of man and not the likeness of God. So we must be careful when we think that we are secure doctrinally, lest we bought ourself up with pride and end up in error our own selves. I see here, and Dean said this, to exhort sinners to be saved by accepting Christ as their savior without pressing upon them the imperative necessity of repentance is dishonest, and it is to falsify God's terms of salvation. God's terms of salvation are, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. And this is the divine dictum of the church. The sinner must either repent or the sinner will perish. There is no alternative. Since all have sinned, all therefore need to repent and believe the gospel, else they will be punished with everlasting destruction. To delay repentance then is most perilous. Church, one of the greatest lacks today in modern evangelism, as well as in modern evangelicalism is the grace of repentance. Beloved, I don't know where you can go up on the earth today and find a church that faithfully preaches repentance other than a few churches which we know and are acquainted with. Times Square Church in New York City being one of them. Brother David Wilkerson. Beloved, the absence of repentance is the cause of catastrophic failure within the church. The absence of repentance is the cause of near catastrophic failure within the church. Until, listen, until the need for repentance is realized and not only realized, but seized upon, we can only expect chaos and disorder to rule and reign within the church. Not the world, but in the church. Now we need to listen. Take heed, beloved. Don't drip into mental apathy. So in the last week or so, we've been speaking upon our need for repentance. And in due time, we're gonna speak upon the means of repentance. Then we're gonna follow that by the marks of the repentant. And it's important, friends and family, that we don't grow dull in our hearing concerning these doctrinal matters because they're life to us. And I know there can come a murmuring spirit within your own heart, thinking that you already know what you believe and that you have no need to hear these timeless truths. And I must remind you of the Apostle Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 10, verse 12, wherefore, let him that thanketh he standeth, take heed lest he fall. And we can apply this to the doctrines that we think that we are secure within. There are many reasons why the sinful do not repent. And beloved, I'm talking to the church and into the world in general because the world has come into the church. I do take note that I'm not preaching to an audience of saints alone today. Knowing the word of the master, the way that the word of God is revealed to us, we know that coming in beside the good wheat are tares. But the reason why many sinful men do not repent, and I believe the chief reason is, is that we don't realize the need we have for repentance. Today, we're gonna continue to talk about the need for repentance. We're gonna talk about it in twofold. We're gonna talk about the actual need versus the realized need, the revelation of our need, because they're two distinct and separate things. And I want you to bear with me, and I want you to guard and garrison your mind and your heart to not allow the adversary to distract you away from the truth of the word of God that will be beneficial to you and your personal life and also into your ministry. God has called all of us into the ministry of reconciliation, and listen to me, my friend, there is no reconciliation without repentance. We can spend all of our days and our waking hours and time on our knees in prayer, but unless there is repentance, there is no restoration, and there is no vital relationship between the subjects of the Lord and the Lord himself. Last week, I made mention that one of the causes of the lack of awareness of the need for repentance is because we have a lack of knowledge of our sinfulness. We aren't aware of the sin that is seized upon us, not only the sins that we commit, but the sinner that we are, the sin nature that we have within us. Also, we are lacking in the knowledge concerning the holiness of God and also the judgment of God upon sin. Church, if you want to come to a church that never preaches against sin, I suggest to you today, you either repent of your sin, or you go find somewhere else to go to church, because this church will always preach against not only the effect of sin, but the nature of sin itself. Beloved, I have been ordained of God to preach the gospel, and the gospel of Jesus Christ is a raw and vivid confrontation against sin. Isn't it amazing how things distract us, what color was that screen? It was blue. What did I say in that last sentence? I was thinking about that blue screen, I don't know. Beloved, take heed, take heed. And so today, it's my desire to continue to speak upon the need that we have for repentance. And again, I'm gonna break it into two parts, actual need and realized need. Now, beloved, whenever I make mention of actual need for repentance, we must know that it differs from realized need, in that what it does is that it illuminates the holy standard of God, the high and lofty standards of a holy God, and it's also contrasted by the horrific iniquity of mankind without mankind being awakened unto his need for repentance. There is the actual need of repentance, which is an illumination of the lofty place of God, the lofty standards of God. The requirements of God's law. But also, it's an illumination of the degradation in the sinfulness of man. Albeit, mankind is completely unaware of his need and unaware of God's holiness. That's actual need. That's not revealed need. And we're gonna talk about that today. So whenever I make mention of this, we can speak of the righteous requirements of God. 1 Peter 1, verse 16 says, be ye holy, for I am holy. Leviticus 11, verse 44 is the same rendition in the Old Testament. Be ye holy, for I am holy. These are the mandates of God. Beloved, do you understand that God has mandated that all of mankind be holy as God is holy? These are the standards of God, not only for himself, but the standards of God for all of the subjects of his kingdom, that we are to be a people of holiness. But beloved, how many of us have this realization, this revelation? And beloved, until these truths, until these high and lofty standards are illuminated, and until the inward iniquity of our hearts is illuminated, we cannot repent. We cannot repent. And if you think that repentance is only for the unbelievers, my friend, you're grossly and gravely mistaken. And so, beloved, also these lofty and righteous standards of God, I'm going to use terminology that is old terminology, but it is very powerful and needful terminology. These lofty and righteous standards must, in the word I've chosen, is bear down. These standards must bear down upon us and illuminate our present condition, which has horrifically fallen and an ingrievous violation of God's holy and righteous standards. So the actual need is the truth about God, is the truth about God's standards, but it's also the truth about man in his present fallen condition. That's actual need. Actual need is the position of God with God's requirements. And it's also the position of man with man's lack and man's shortcomings and failures. But yet, without being realized, that's actual need. Have I lost you? Have I lost you? Do you see the distinction between actual need and realized need? Because, beloved, if it doesn't pass from actual need to realized need, there will be no repentance, there will be no pardon, there will be no forgiveness of sin, there will be no waving as it is of the indictment of guilt that is upon us, nor will there be any waving of the punishment that is to come. Actual need is not enough under repentance. It must come into a place where we feel the weight to where it's pressed down upon us, to where we feel our need to repent, we feel a sense of the enormity of our crimes against God, God's holy and just standards, that God can banish your soul to hell for eternity and be perfectly just in doing so. And feel the weight of it, that you're a sinner with a death sentence upon you. And does it shake you? It must come into the realm of the realized and revealed. In the 11th chapter of 2 Samuel, we find David, the king of all of Israel, grievously sinning against the Lord and in need of repentance. Go ahead and turn there to Samuel. Glory to God. Trust in the Lord for great things to take place today as the word of God comes forth. All the pages are here this morning. 11th chapter of 2 Samuel. We all know this story quite well with King David, the king of Israel. We find that sin has crouched at his door. Sin has overtaken him. The king of all of Israel has sinned against the Lord grievously and he's in need of repentance. And I'm gonna show here a discourse of actual need and revealed or realized need. And so this whole sum of this chapter 11 is a chapter or a discourse of the event of David's sin against the Lord with Bathsheba. David did not sin against Bathsheba, David sinned against the Lord. He violated the standards of God, the holy righteous requirements of God and not the woman's. And is there anyone here that doesn't know the story of David, the king and Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? Do I need to go and read, do I need to read? Okay, here we go, verse one. And it came to pass after the year was expired at the time when kings go forth to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel and they destroyed the children of Ammon and besieged Rabbah, but David tarried still at Jerusalem. So the kings were going to war, but David didn't go, he stayed back. And it came to pass in the evening tide that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof of the king's house. And from the roof, he saw a woman washing herself. And the woman was very beautiful to look upon. And David sent and required after the woman. And one said, is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent messengers and took her. And she came unto him and lay, he lay with her, for she was purified from her uncleanness and she returned into her house. And the woman conceived and sent and told David and said, I am with child. And David sent to Joab saying, send me Uriah the Hittite and Joab sent Uriah to David. And when Uriah was coming to him, David demanded him how Joab did and how the people did and how the war prospered. And David said to Uriah, go down unto thine house and wash thy feet. And Uriah departed out of the king's house and there followed him a massive meat from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his Lord and went not down into his house. So do you see what's going on here? David called for Uriah. David's done had a sexual relationship with this man's wife. She's pregnant. Uriah is off at battle for it is the time when kings go to war. Joab being the captain of the army has been instructed to send Uriah back to David at the king's palace. Uriah comes back. And so David now is urging Uriah to go home and have sex with his wife, to have intimacy with his wife. Why? So whenever she began to show signs of pregnancy, that it could be that it be Uriah's. Do you see the motive here? When they told David saying Uriah went not down into his house, David said to Uriah, camest thou not from thy journey? Why then didst thou not go down into thine house? And Uriah said to David, the ark and Israel and Judah abide in tents and my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are encamped in open fields. Shall I then go into my own house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As thou livest and as thy soul liveth, I will not do this thing. David's plans are getting messed up here. And David said to Uriah, tarry here today also, tomorrow I will let thee depart. So Uriah abode in Jerusalem that day and on the morrow. And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him and he made him drunk. And even when he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of the Lord, but went not down to his house. So David now gets him drunk and tries to get him down to go to have relations with his wife. Still he will not. And it came to pass in the morning that David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah, his own death warrant. And he wrote in the letter saying, sent ye Uriah in the forefront of the hottest battle and retire ye from him that he may be smitten and die. And it came to pass when Joab observed the city, he assigned Uriah into a place where he knew that valiant men were. And the men of the city went out and fought with Joab and there fell some people of the servants of David. And Uriah the Hittite died also. Now I'm gonna stop right there. And it goes on, but we're gonna use that to make the point. Is there a violation of the holy standards of God? Had not God through his prophet Moses written the holy ordinances of God upon tablets? And in those tablets did we not find the ordinances of a holy God, the high and lofty standards, thou shalt not murder and thou shalt not commit adultery. David has committed sins against his Lord. He is in need of repentance, but that need is not realized. Do you see the difference in the distinction between actual need of repentance and realized need of repentance and it being weighed down and pressed upon you? Now, chapter 12, verse one, we see God doing something about this. The Bible says, and then the Lord sent Nathan a prophet of God to David. And he came into him and he said unto him, there were two men in the city. One was rich and the other one was poor. Now, beloved, what we are seeing is God using a prophet which is using a story or a parable to illuminate an injustice. What has David done? David has committed an injustice against who? He has sinned against the Lord. He has sinned or there has been an injustice against God's holy and righteous standards. Grab hold of this friend. He is not awakening to what he has done. He's still caught up in the lust and in the heat of the moment. He has not come into a place to where need has become realized, even though need has become actuated. There is a need for repentance, a sin, a violation has been committed, but yet David is not repenting. David is not repenting. Isn't it amazing how we will not repent on our own? God always has to send a man with a message. There were two men in the city. One was rich and the other one was poor. The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing save one little lamb, which he had brought up and nourished up and it grew up together with him and with his children. And it did eat of his own meat and drank of his own cup and lay in his bosom and was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveler. This is Nathan discoursing with David. There came a traveler unto the rich man and he spared to take of his own flock and of his own herd and to dress it for the wayfaring man that was coming to him. But he took the poor man's lamb and he dressed it for the man that was come to him. Verse five says, and David's anger was greatly kindled against the man, unbeknownst to him that he was the man. Are you listening? And he said to Nathan, as the Lord liveth this man that has done this thing shall surely die. He pronounces an indictment even against himself because he's the man. Then Nathan said to David, thou art the man. Thou art the man. And now we're starting to see actual need passing and to realize need. And then we find the context of the 51st Psalm, David lamenting and repenting because realized need has brought him into a place of repentance not to be repented of. Say amen. So we see here in the story that the Lord's righteous standards had been proclaimed through prophet Moses. We see that there had been a violation, a breach of adultery and murder. That we see that David violated them by taking Bathsheba into himself and ordering Joab to have Uriah murdered. David is in actual need of repentance. He has fallen short of the glorious standards of God, although he has not awakened unto his need of repentance as of yet. His need is actual, but his need is not realized. And being so, God sent a prophet, Nathan the prophet, to reveal to the king his need for repentance. And again, chapter 12 is a treatise of revelation concerning the personal grief and the personal responsibility for sin. The personal responsibility for sin. And so we see here that the prophet uses a story to reveal his need for repentance. The story established actual need, did it not? Established actual need because it established a violation. It established a violation against the justice of God. A little lamb that was esteemed and loved had been unduly taken away from the poor man for the gratification of the rich. This injustice caused this very king of Israel to fly into a rage, proclaiming indictments against the rich man. Yet the need for repentance is still only actual and not realized. But yet the next statement, we see now the need for repentance is personally and powerfully revealed because in verse 12 of chapter seven, Nathan said to David, thou art the man. Now things have changed. There is a shift in the paradigm. David's anger towards the man is now been revealed and the indictment has come upon himself. He now begins to see the voice of the Lord speaking to him directly, revealing to him his violation of the standards of God and his need for repentance. My friend, listen, why have I spent so much time this morning upon this subject and even last week of actual need and realized need for repentance? The reason I have taken time to give a short treatise or discourse upon this subject matter is because we're living in a generation that is under the indictment of the Lord for her sins and her need for genuine repentance is great, but her realization of her need is greatly lacking. The revelation that we've sinned greatly against the Lord is the beginning means towards repentance. Nathan the prophet revealed to the king his offense against the Lord, bringing forth the repentant decree of Psalm 51, where David said in verse three and four, for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me against thee. Only have I sinned and done evil that is in thy sight that thou might be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest. My friend, the great lack today in the evangelical church is the lack of men of God that will boldly and loudly proclaim as Nathan the prophet, thou art the man that will come against our sins, that will exalt the righteous and holy standards of God and that we are personally responsible for violating them. We in the church today are greatly lacking in this prophetic voice that boldly and prophetically proclaims that you are the man. And as Paris Reid had said in the sermons that we are monsters of iniquity. And where are the men of God that stand before the people with boldness and with holy unction, bringing the actual into the realm of realized or revealed by the passing of the indictment to guilty men? Where are they? Listen, friend, we're living in a culture that shrinks back at the very thought of this type of preaching because we are living in a culture that is pure in its own eyes, but yet not washed from her filthiness. Nonetheless, the power of culture has brought so many pulpits to their knees and quieted their voice against sin for those who have boldly exposed it and it's within this very malady, it's within this very wrong that our generation today is blinded concerning her sins. Having an indictment of need for repentance without the revelation of that need because we have too many cowards wearing three piece suits standing in the pulpit. And our generation in this hour, my friend, is pure in its own eyes, although she's stained with the blood of guilt. Although the generation that you and I are living in is stained with the blood of guilt. Listen, the true gospel of Jesus Christ as it is being faithfully proclaimed is like a Nathan the prophet. The true gospel. Listen, if there are those that are attending what people call a church that are listening to the happy talks of man about the gospel of Jesus Christ without the confrontation against sin, beloved, it's not the gospel of Jesus Christ, it's another gospel. There are foreigners in the pulpit. Beloved, the gospel of Jesus Christ is an open indictment against sinful humanity. And you can go to where people talk about the gospel, you can hear them make inferences to the gospel, but the true gospel is a divine mandate confronting the sinfulness of man and exalting the righteousness of God. And people flock to it like there is no tomorrow. My, my, my, how we will go and what we will give to hear something that makes us feel better about ourselves. The true gospel reveals our guilty position before God as offenders against God's person, as offenders against God's character, as offenders against God's law. Paul handed an indictment in Romans chapter five, verse 12. It says, wherefore, as by one man's sin, sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men for all have sinned. Without the faithful preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ, my friend, there can be no revelation or realization of our need for repentance. And we would err to believe that it is the pulpit alone that holds this responsibility for the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Every true follower or disciple of Jesus Christ shares in this responsibility. In a generation, my friend, that is blinded concerning its doomed position before a holy God, the church must accept this mantle that brings the need for repentance from the realms of the actual until the realms of the realized by the preaching of the gospel to those that are under the indictment of sin. It's not just my responsibility, it is yours. You say, oh, pastor preached great, he preached about sin. But what are you preaching through the week? Are you still yet in Rome? To where you've heaped upon my shoulders and upon the shoulders of laity, the responsibility that the Lord divided equally to all of us. There is an indictment of guilt against this generation, an indictment of sin. And the call of God is upon the elect of God to preach the gospel and to preach repentance than to reveal to a generation that is dead their depravity before God, and where are they at? Where have the people of God been? Cowering down to the power of culture with our voice silenced in the name of sloppy love and grace. We'll let Rome take charge and let the Pope do our work. Many see me as their personal Pope. I'm no one's Pope. I'm a voice crying in the wilderness, prepare a way for the Lord. Get the sin out of your life and your heart. Shoulder the mantle of Christ, become a steward of the gospel, be a preacher of righteousness, my friend. Your call is not to sit and warm that pew, it's to come here and to hear the truth and to go forth and blaze a trail for Christ. Our Lord never intended to place this burden upon the shoulders of those behind the pulpit alone. It's the mandate of our Lord for every true believer to preach repentance, to bring the need for repentance out of the realms of the actual into the realms of the revealed and realized. We must forsake the practices of Rome that forfeits all biblical mandates and leaves them within the hands of laity alone. The last words that Jesus spoke shortly before his ascension is found in Luke chapter 24, verses 45 to 49. Then he opened their understanding that they might understand the scriptures. And he said unto them, thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day. Listen to this, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these sayings. And behold, I send the promise of my father upon you, but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. We all talk about the need of the power of God, that we all, it's to us, our children's children, as many that will call upon the Lord will be filled with the Holy Ghost. And all the church roars, the beloved no one roars that you have a divine mandate to preach repentance to the nations. Not just me, beloved is the Holy Ghost for you? Is he for your children and your children's children? And as many as those that the Lord our God shall call, is it not true? The beloved prefacing this, it says that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And then it goes right into the very next statement, then the Holy Ghost will come. The Holy Ghost will fill you to be bold, to be strong, to be powerful. We want all, we all want to partake in that, but none of us wants to partake in the preaching of repentance and to bring the need for repentance into the realm of the realized, why? Because we're not willing to pay the price for it. Because the price is that you'll be hated by all for my name's sake. Brothers will turn against each other, parents against their children, children against their parents. The beloved is your Christianity phony? It might be. You may be a cultural Christian. Unwilling to follow the mandates of our Lord that says that we all of us as the people of God, those called by the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to go and to preach repentance and remission of sins. And I know that you've never considered yourself Catholic, but you may be more Catholic than the Catholics because it's Pastor Derek and Pastor Tim's responsibility, Pastor Chooch's responsibility. And you let us preach against sin. You let us preach repentance. You let us illuminate the divine and holy ordinances and standards of God and to expound upon them, to preach them and to preach our need for repentance and to turn away from evil and sin. But yet we do nothing ourself. We could just have a good group of practicing Catholics today. They're probably gonna take your gifts back. Listen to me, if you look at me, if I didn't love you, I'd keep silent. And if I didn't love God, I would keep silent. Where are the people of God? Where are the prophets of God? Where's Nathan in this hour? We've gotta take this mantle. You have a few more moments. The word of God is full of scriptures that are examples of realized need for repentance. And we've oftentimes skimmed over the top of scriptures and we've missed the message of them. Let me just give a scripture here that I want to talk about in Matthew chapter five, if you wanna turn there. And I pray that this is helping us. Amen. Caitlin, are you angry? Okay, we all know these as the Beatitudes. Verse five, I'm sorry, verse six says this. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. I'm sure that there are many of you here this morning that have read this passage of scripture for many years, not realizing that it's speaking of repentance First of all, I want to make mention that hunger and thirst are biological triggers that indicate a lack. Secondly, they vary in degree from slight discomfort to acute pain. And it's an according to the depth and the duration of their work. Thirdly, the only remedies for hunger and thirst are to give proper sustenance or else death, or else death. Now, the lack that's causing the sensation of pain is the lack of what? Blessed are they that do hunger and thirst after righteousness. What is the lack of righteousness? It's the absence of righteousness and it is sinfulness and evil. And I'm quite aware that you may have never thought about this glorious passage in this light. If I want you for a moment to set aside what you've always thought and see if these things that you're hearing are true. The sensations of hunger and thirst in this passage are triggered by a revelation or a realization of a horrific lack in the subject of that's hungered and thirsted after, which is righteousness. This is a man who has come into an awareness of his moral lack. He's coming to an awareness of his sinful ways and his wicked heart and being. This is the man who identifies with King David's mournful heart as revealed in Psalm 51 or Isaiah in Isaiah chapter six, whereas he said, woe is me for I am undone. The realization of our need of repentance is not the reason for celebration. It's not a reason for celebration. Listen, there are so many who by the glorious grace of God feel their need of repentance without repenting. They feel the need to repent, but yet they do not repent. And so don't celebrate prematurely. There are those who harden their hearts against the inward workings of God's grace and they resist the Holy Spirit. And many of which are setting in churches just like this one. You might say, how ridiculous, how can a man resist such a wonderful gift? Beloved, listen, there are those that love the wages of unrighteousness more than the benefits of God's glory. The word of God says in 2 Peter chapter two, verse 12 to 15, but these as natural brute beasts made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of things that they understand not, shall utterly perish in their own corruption and shall receive the reward of unrighteousness as they count it pleasure to riot in the daytime, spots they are, blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you, having eyes full of adultery that cannot seize from sin, beguiling unstable souls, a heart they have exercised with covetous practices, most of which in the name of religion. Cursed children, which have forsaken the right way and have gone astray following the way of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness. There are those that will not give up their sin because they love the dividends that it brings them, even though it is temporary. They love the pleasure of sin. And because of the fascination and the love for the pleasure of sin, there can be no breaking of the power of sin. But nonetheless, there are those who do feel a horrible sense of complete inadequacy. Those who are being crushed, remember I talked about beared down upon by the weight of their sins and the glory of God. Those who are being crushed underneath the very terrible weight of their sin, who feel the very sting of the enormity of their crimes against God's perfect law and His holy persons. And they are awakened under their condition of absolute lack. But yet in this condition, they behold the perfect lamb of God who's taken away the sin of the world. And in this age old dilemma, they call upon the name of the Lord and then they are filled with what they lacked. Their garments of filthy rags are taken away and a garment of righteousness is donned in its place. And oh beloved, as we begin to pass from the actual need to the revealed need, as the gospel of Jesus Christ awakens us to our frightful condition, we may then cooperate with the grace of God that is at work producing godly sorrow and repentance towards sin. And then this very weight is lifted and this very indictment is acquitted. But not until Nathan comes and brings it from the realm of the actual to the realm of the realized and passes the indictment upon us personally to where we can feel the weight of our sin, can feel the weight of God's glory and God's excellencies, God's purity and God's holiness. And whereby we're crushed, we're crushed with no hope. And then we look to the cross and we see the one that has taken our sins and bore our shame. It's very good to speak to you upon the doctrine of repentance. Amen. But it's better that I speak to you upon the experience of repentance. Bear with me shortly. Let me ask you a question. Have you felt the sense of hunger and thirst? Have you felt this sense of lack? What about the sinful heart that still dwells within you? What about the wrath of God that's awaiting you? Can you bear it? Have you had a sense of its awfulness, its terribleness, the wrath of God? The word of God says in Romans 2, verses five to nine, that because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God will give to each person according to what he has done. To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But for those who are self-seeking, those who reject the truth, and those who follow after evil, there will be wrath and there will be anger. Friend, listen, if you are feeling a sense of guiltiness, that sensation, that sense of remorse, that sense of shame, a sense of your sin, listen, you may be a subject of the awakening of the Holy Spirit of God concerning your condition. You may be experiencing the hunger and thirst for righteousness due to the lack of righteousness that is in you. Will you resist the inward workings of God's grace and remain yet unrepentant? Will you continue in your sin, loving the wages of unrighteousness more than the glory of God? Listen to me, my friend, the sensations of hunger and thirst will subside if they're not met. I'm gonna say that once again, the sensations of hunger and thirst will subside if they are not met. Within the very final stages of starvation, the awful sensations of hunger and thirst disappear. And then death will soon seize its victim and lay claim to its own. Listen to me, my friend, I want you to listen to me intently if you've not listened to word this morning, listen now. You may have thought yourself to be Christian, but even now your soul is anxious and burdened by your sins. There's a want inside of you of a true, unfeigned righteousness and it's deep within your soul, but you're a foreigner to the grace of God. Although you've been very religious, deeply religious and even devoutly religious. There's been no victory in your life over sin, and yet sin is still your master dictating your every move. You've been a great zealous person for religious sake, but the grace of God is only a term in your vocabulary and it is not in your heart. Saul of Tarsus was a devoted man to religion. He was quite zealous as well, but yet he was void of the grace of God, void of the grace of God. My friend, have you the witness of the spirit of God that you are a child of God, or is your heart crying out in desperation for a righteousness, which is a faith that is foreign to you? Are your thoughts and your motives evil? Have you been setting through this service with your mind upon earthly things, giving no room to the things of God? Has the pattern of sin gone uninterrupted in your life except for a few attempts and the power of your flesh to resist it? Are you as King Agrippa beneath the very discourse of the Apostle Paul in saying that thou almost persuade us me to become a Christian? Has the kingdom of God been near to you without your passing from death unto life? Do you lay at night without the peace of Jesus Christ that passes all understanding? Is your heart troubled? And is your life a testimony of the, listen, is your present life a testimony to the graceless anguish and the shipwreck concerning the things of God and of faith? Have you made this world your home? Are you loving this world temporary delights? Are you satisfying yourself with its sinful, but yet forbidden delicacies? If so, my friend, you have disqualified yourself from being a soldier in our Lord's army and you are a foreigner by birth and you are not permitted to the fold. How long will you waver between two opinions? How long will you resist the grace of God? How long will this hunger and thirst work in you before it flees being rejected repeatedly? We have the promise of being filled with righteousness from our Lord. We have a promise sharing in the peace of our Lord as well as in the glory of our Lord. And will you exchange the glory and the immortality of our God for a morsel of meat? Will you trade your inheritance and your birthright for a bowl of porridge? Consider your ways. Haggai 1, five to seven says, now therefore thus sayeth the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You have so much and you bring in little. You eat, but you have not enough. You drink, but you are not filled with drink. You clothe you, but there is none warm. And he that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes. Thus sayeth the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. Consider your ways. Beloved, if the Lord Jesus Christ came in this moment, what could he claim to your life as that which belongs unto himself? Is the need for repentance only actual? And so as far as you are concerned in your life without being revealed, without the revealed need of repentance, without that hunger and thirst bearing down upon you, to without your sins grieving you and you feeling the enormity and the weight of them in light of the glorious standards of God. Friend, listen, you may be a formal religious person, but you are not converted. This is a message that has all but fallen asleep in the generation to which you and I live that is culturally sensitive and ineffective as far as the kingdom of God. There must be an awakening to the need of repentance before repentance can work its perfect work in our life. God, by his glorious and wonderful grace, which is free and unmerited, will work in us and begin to bear down upon us a sense of the enormity of our crimes and our sinfulness. Beloved, it's no means for celebration because there are those that resist the gift of God. What will we do with what God is doing and what God has done? The awakening of our hearts and our lives unto the sinfulness of sin and the glorious righteousness of God. What are we doing with it? Is the hunger and thirst working in us in so much that we respond to the Lord by faith that we might be filled with his righteousness and relieved of our unrighteousness and the subsequent terrors to come? Americans are wonderful at playing church. We're zealous at religion, but beloved, it's my heart's cry that we become zealous unto repentance, that we may inherit the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider your ways. Listen, listen, listen. You, consider your ways. If the Lord Jesus Christ would come requiring of thy soul tonight, could he lay claim to you? Or would he see a form? Would he see a house that is empty and swept with no glory, with no presence of God, with no truth? What would the Lord find if he came requiring of thy soul tonight? What would he find? Beloved, most importantly, the doctrine of repentance cannot save you, but the experience of repentance will. Beloved, we need the doctrine of repentance, but I must press upon us today our need for repentance. God forbid that I not follow the mandates of my Lord and to stray beyond scriptural truth and to think that everybody in this audience is born again and converted into Christ when the word of God says that there are terrors. There are those that come in that are not saved. Beloved, listen to me. If God is pressing upon you a sense of your sin and there's pain, there's anguish inside your heart, near to the point of being intolerable, there is repentance for you, that we can come to the Lord Jesus Christ with these sins and he will by no means cast us out. It's the work of God's grace in you to prepare your heart for the righteousness of God that is by faith. And God will translate you out of the kingdom of this earth, the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear son. You'll be changed, you'll be converted, you'll be gloriously saved, but that grace must be at work within you first. Let's close our eyes. Your church attendance will not and cannot, has not saved you. Your attempts at moral excellence cannot and will not save you. Your attempts to read the Bible and to adhere to its principles cannot and will not save you by your own strength. There must be a divine work of regenerating grace in your heart that comes and meets the heart that is repentant and contrite and broken, acknowledging sinfulness, acknowledging wickedness, acknowledging that religion has done nothing in regard to the grace of God and calling out upon the name of the Lord in a sense of complete inadequacy and helplessness. And the Lord comes in the power of his might and saves those which cannot save themselves. And my friend, which side of the Jordan River are you in upon today? Which side of the river are you on? Have you become very zealous at religion without the inward working of grace and the converting power of God? If the spirit of God has bared witness in your life, in this message, that you're in deep need of salvation, and God has began to illuminate that you are pious in your own eyes, but not in the Lord's, that you are not converted into his kingdom and you are not a citizen of his kingdom, that you're feeling the weight of your sin, the enormity of your crimes, you're seeing the justice of God, the glory of God, the standards of God, the holiness of God in contrast to your life that is shipwreck. And inside there is a stirring, a hunger, a sense of hunger and thirst to be changed and have that righteousness imputed where death and sin have formerly reigned. You can be converted and saved. You must put aside your fear of man, the intimidation the enemy tries to heap upon you. The thoughts will come, everybody thinks that I've been saved. Beloved, what matter? Is it that what man have sought? God is making an offer. Will you push his hand away and accept the hands of man that can do nothing for you? Many of you have been trying and struggling and thinking in this Christian life, I just can't keep this. And the reason that you cannot keep the ordinance of God is because your heart is still bound by iniquity. You become very frustrated. You seek counseling. You read books and nothing is changing. You still cannot get gain victory in your life. And the reason is, is you're still yet unconverted. You don't need counseling. You don't need seven steps on how to become a better you or how to feel better. The problem is, is that you're dead in your sins and the Lord's crying out for you to be born again. Don't be stubborn and resist God's grace while God's grace is available. Listen, if you're today, the word of God has spoke to you. It's illuminated in your life, your need for the Lord Jesus Christ. His word has illuminated your present position, your sinfulness and your need of redemption, your need of repentance. Pastor Lunk and I wanna take you into the back room and pray and seek God with you and see that by the grace of God and witness God's miraculous work of conversion in your life and for you to pass from death to life, from iniquity to righteousness, from the kingdom of this earth to the kingdom of God's dear son. I want you to come up here and join with me and we're gonna go to pray. I want you to think about those things that have been spoken today. I want you to think about what the Holy Spirit has spoken into your heart. I know that he's a spirit of confusion. You may have thought that you've been born again, but beloved, look at the fruit of your life or is your life producing fruit consistent with repentance? Is there change, lasting change? Are you walking in love and joy and peace, gentleness, forbearance, forgiveness? Are the ordinances of the Lord grievous to you or are they glorious unto you? Those are things that you need to check within your heart. The Bible says examine yourself to see whether you be in the faith or not. I'm not the one that pronounces the verdict concerning your soul. I don't know. I don't have the eyes that look deep into the heart like the Lord God does, but I know when the Lord reveals that to your heart, I'm willing to pray with you, to seek God for you and with you that you may have your sins blotted out and that you may find times of refreshing in the presence of the Lord. If you're here today and your soul is anxious, burdened, you feel that indictment of guilt upon you because of sins that you've committed against God and His wholly righteous standards and law. And it's pressing down upon you and you're hungry and you're thirsty for that righteousness, which is of faith, but you possess it not. Today, my friend, you can be born again, but you must get past the fear of what people think. Anyone? Let's stand.