Biblical Repentance

Well, we continue our study on growing together in godliness. I think we've got about three more classes, counting today actually.

! And the last two classes we've been taking a look at growing together in godliness when it comes to making specific plans for growing in godliness.

And the different steps that that might include, certainly identifying where we need to grow. We all know that there are still areas that we need to change.

We are not like Christ. God is faithful and will be faithful in continuing that work in us and transforming us into the likeness of his son Jesus Christ.

Which is really the best thing for us, even while we're here waiting for him to come again. So part of that planning is identifying where we need to grow and then making some specific plans for how we're going to grow.

It's interesting that different times you read the scriptures, whether it's in the epistles or the proverbs, on and on, that the people, God's people, are given specific instructions.

And when I read those, I wonder, well, what did they go and do then? Hopefully they were good hearers and went and did something about what they just heard.

The instruction, the commands that they were given and didn't just walk away and forget what they looked like in the mirror and then went around with spinach in their teeth all day.

And we don't want to be people like that. We want to be the kind of people that when we hear instruction from God's word, there's something specific that we do.

And at times that's going to take some planning because we are people, creatures of habit. When we do things over and over again, even times things that are not right.

It takes real specific steps, intentional steps, to change that habit and replace it with habits of godliness that are characteristic of Jesus Christ.

So that involves some planning and then, of course, putting the plan into practice. But we all know as well that from our study from God's word, people where they have not followed through on God's design, God's purposes, and we know it from our own experience as well.

We don't always love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We don't always give ourselves specifically to accomplishing our purpose, our God-designed purpose to glorify God in all that we do.

And as a result, when we go down that pathway, we learn from James chapter 1 a couple weeks ago that that pathway leads to sin and some trouble and some consequences.

And so we want to certainly avoid that and pursue our purpose in glorifying God. And in order to do that, it means that we need to learn, to understand, and put into practice what we really have to do after we do sin.

And we can be thankful again that God has provided the counsel that we need so that we can continue to grow in godliness together, and in this case, through biblical repentance.

And that's what we want to take a look at today. And I think what I'm going to do is, again, break this topic up into two weeks. This week, we'll take a look at personal repentance, what I do when I sin.

But then we want to carry this theme of growing together in godliness through next week as well, because we don't just sit here growing on our own.

We're here as a body of believers. And God calls us to that kind of ministry to each other, the kind of ministry that maybe we want to avoid at times.

You know, it's nice to be able to greet one another and show hospitality and do those easy things. But when it comes to admonishing one another, ooh, that's a little too difficult to do.

But it's necessary. And so we want to explore, well, just how do we do that in order to really grow together in godliness? But this morning, we're focusing on personal repentance and what we do to glorify God as we repent of sins that we commit.

Well, one of the things I want us to take a look at first is what we don't do. We're going to recognize the wrong responses we choose. Again, our result of that ongoing battle, that warfare that's taking place within us that we took a look at a few weeks ago as well.

In 2 Peter 2.11, remember that verse says, Abstain from fleshly lusts that wage war against your soul. Galatians 5 shows us that conflict that's going on within us.

We're familiar with that. And that's what's happening when we're in that time where we have sinned, and now we have to respond to it.

What are we going to do? And our deceitful desires, wrong thinking, are trying to get us to conclude to do something that really isn't a biblical response to our sin.

So just a question to you. What are some of those wrong responses that can take place after we have sinned? It's probably already up on the screen already, isn't it?

Okay. I don't know how many she shot through there already. But what are some of those? If you can think of some beyond the ones that have been listed up there already, what are wrong responses that maybe you've heard that other people take, not necessarily you, when it comes to sin?

I've got a whole long list, as you already know. Yeah, let's just shoot through some of these that I've got listed here then.

Certainly rationalize. We come up with some, what we think at the time is a reasonable explanation that explains why I've done what I've done.

And really it holds no water whatsoever when we compare it to God's truth. Maybe compare yourself with others. I'm not as bad as he is, after all.

And so we can excuse it that way. Or link yourself to a group of people. I'm not the only one that does that. You know, there's probably other people, probably other people in our church that do the same thing.

So, of course, that then is okay that I've done it as well. Or maybe not okay, but at least not something that get all worked up about.

Maybe find justification from others who agree with your behavior. And people might say, hey, it's normal to respond that way. Don't worry about it. You had every right to act the way that you did.

Or maybe excusing what you did. I had a hard day. I was under a lot of pressure. I wasn't feeling the best. Man, I've got a lot going on in my life right now.

And we're saying all those things, trying to convince ourselves not to deal with it the way we should. And deal with it. Maybe minimize it. Hey, it's no big deal.

Get over it. Fall back on good deeds that you do. I do a lot more good than I do bad. It's my one vice, you know.

Oh, it's okay. Don't worry about it again. Or maybe wallow in guilt and regret. Where we just, you know, the tears flow over and over again.

And we withdraw. And we walk around the house gloomy and depressed. Nothing changes our attitude toward it.

Or maybe attack those who call me to repentance. You know, who are you to tell me that I've done something wrong? I've seen you do this, that, or the other thing. And so we go on the attack.

Blame my sin on others. We saw that in Genesis chapter 3 with Adam and Eve. But we've probably fallen down there ourselves as well.

Maybe thinking that we can pay the debt of our own sin. Establish my own price to pay for my wrong. Maybe, you know, I'm motivated now to do more good works around the house.

I'm trying to get rid of these feelings that I'm experiencing at this time. And so all of a sudden I'm doing all kinds of nice things for the person. Maybe I've done some wrong to or toward others.

Just trying to deal with it that way. Or maybe just to rename my sin as a syndrome or a disease. Or identify it as normal. It's just normal behavior.

And it's not even sin at all anymore. And, of course, we've seen that happen within our culture as well. Well, you know, we could probably go on and on. So there's no lack of wrong responses toward sin.

And while these sinful desires and distorted thinking that I'm experiencing, I might try to convince myself that this is the way to respond. Again, God provides us different wise counsel.

Counsel that's good for us. At the end of the lesson today, I'm hoping we have time to get to it, but maybe you can be thinking as we go through the class, what are some of those biblical truths or gospel truths that help us during that time of conflict when we're trying to decide whether to repent or excuse our sin and go on and keep on sinning?

What are some of those truths that really move us in that direction of biblical repentance? Well, we don't want to follow, certainly, the wrong responses.

God, in his love for us, even provides warnings against the wrong responses. Proverbs 28, 13 through 14, another set of verses that I've memorized in the past.

And as I read through these verses and as you see it up there, notice the contrast that he provides in these verses. He who conceals the sins, wrong response to sin, what happens?

He does not prosper. But whoever confesses and renounces them, the result? He finds mercy. And then he switches it around here in verse 14.

And he says, Blessed is the man who always fears the Lord. And we have that reverence for God. And it moves us in that direction of biblical repentance. And the result?

There's blessing in that. But then he goes back to the other individual. But he who hardens his heart falls into trouble. So good contrast, good counsel from God that we need to draw to our minds and good verses for us to memorize so that when we're in that time, the Spirit of God is drawing these truths back to our remembrance and we're not being deceived by the deceitful thoughts that are telling us, No, just do this and everything will be okay.

Well, no. God in his counsel says, If I regard sin in my heart or if I conceal my sin, I won't prosper. And if I harden my heart toward God, I'm going to fall into greater trouble.

So we always need God's truth to give us that right counsel, to fight against those deceitful desires. And God did provide that kind of counsel to Cain.

Remember Cain, when he brought his sacrifice to God, his sacrifice was not acceptable, and he became angry with God because God did not accept his sacrifice.

And so God came to Cain in Genesis 4. Isn't that nice? God's always the one coming to us. And we can rejoice in that. And that's what Cain should have done as well.

But God came in Genesis 4, 6 through 8. And the Lord God said to Cain, Why are you angry? See the use of the questions again. And by God, Jesus Christ did the same thing, trying to get him to think through what's going on.

Even helping him evaluate what's going on within himself. Why are you angry? Why is your face cast down? You know, there's the inner expression of what's going on, and it's affecting the person outwardly, in this case Cain.

And then God helps him understand, this is what you need to do. Verse 7, If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? There we go back to the Proverbs 28 verse.

You know, fear God, and you renounce your sin, you're going to find mercy. He said, But if you do not do what is right, and here's the contrast, sin is crouching at the door.

It desires to have you, but you must master it. And of course we know Cain rejected God's counsel, and he did fall into trouble. It just led to greater consequences of sin, and not just to him, but it spread further.

It has a ripple effect, and serious consequences in this case, in killing his brother Abel. But then went even further in regard to Cain as well.

All truth coming from God to help us as his people that we need to draw on in those times of conflict. We also can learn this through David's example of one who falls into trouble when he tries to conceal his sin rather than following the path of biblical repentance.

2 Samuel 11, We know the story. David committed adultery with Bathsheba. Then instead of repenting, he sought to cover his sin.

And as a result, it led to greater sin. But after he did what he thought, and after he did what he thought would conceal his sin in an unbiblical way, this is how he describes what he went through in Psalm 32, 3-4, When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.

For day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My strength was sapped as in the heat of summer. And we've probably experienced something like that.

You know, we know that what we've done is wrong. We sinned against God and maybe some other people. We're trying to ignore it, you know, to push it away that those feelings that we're experiencing here, but they're just dogging us.

And before I know it, we're having trouble concentrating on our work. We're having trouble going to sleep at night. And David is describing those same results in his life.

And so we can learn from David and these other examples in the scriptures that we don't go down that wrong path of unbiblical repentance.

So let's take a look. What does biblical repentance look like? Well, let's understand some things about guilt and the sense of guilt or these feelings of guilt that we have.

Guilt is a violation of one's standards. And as Christians, of course, we get our standards from God's work. And we can start with the big picture or those scripture passages that are what I think of that give us our comprehensive understanding of what we're supposed to be doing, our responsibility to God.

Like Mark 12, 29 through 31, the greatest commandment, hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

And then it goes on. So the big picture for us as believers is this. I'm supposed to love God with my total being, inner and outer man. And then I think in our first or second lesson, we talked about our purpose, the direction we're going for growing in godliness and included that verse in 2 Corinthians 10, 31.

Whether we eat, therefore, or drink, or whatever we do, we do it all for the glory of God. These are the big picture verses and passages for us that where we start when it comes to making decisions during those times of do I go this way or do I go that way?

Well, many times we just apply those passages right there. We can eliminate a lot of things that would take us down this path of sin and trouble. But then we can even go further in the scriptures after these big comprehensive, big broad brush strokes that give us the big picture of what we're supposed to be doing.

There's passages from which we can draw our more specific standards for life. Exodus 20, 3 through 17, the Ten Commandments, certainly.

Ephesians 4, probably 20 through the end of the chapter there, give us some specifics about instead of speaking falsehood or lying, speak the truth.

Don't let the sun, don't give in to sinful anger, but instead, you know, solve problems today. If you've been stealing, steal no longer, but rather work.

And so we're given these specific directions for life every day. Ephesians 5, wives submit to your husbands, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church.

Going into Ephesians 6, children, obey your parents and the Lord. So now we've got these more specific directives that will help us in those times of temptation.

But when we violate one of those specific standards, we are guilty. We're culpable. We have sinned against God. And when we've done that, when we sin, we experience a sense of guilt or these guilt feelings.

How do you describe those? I describe those like an inner heaviness, a troubled soul within. We violated God's word, violated our conscience.

Pastor gave a Sunday school series on the conscience a number of months ago now, probably. But we've established certain things that are our standards for life, for daily living.

And we have violated those standards that have come from God's word, that we've trained our conscience to make decisions by daily. And we did what we believe is wrong.

And now, we have these, we are guilty, and as a result, have these feelings of guilt. And again, a lot of people start trying to think and consider, well, how can I just suppress those feelings and see those feelings as something bad, but we need to understand, no, that's good.

Those guilt feelings are good. That's a good sense that I'm having. You know, what I did was not good, but I can be thankful that God has designed me to have this sense of guilt.

It's kind of like with my vehicle, or your vehicle, you've got warning lights on your dashboard. And when one goes off, you know, just take a piece of tape and put over that and think, hey, everything's okay now.

No, it's a good thing. It's helping you understand something's wrong there. And so, I'm going to see it as my friend and recognize that I need to do something here in response to what I'm experiencing instead of trying to suppress that sense of guilt.

I need to repent and change in regard to what I've done. So, how do we respond to guilt and these feelings of guilt?

Well, again, we don't try to get rid of the guilt feelings without dealing with our inner guilt, our culpability. And this kind of question goes along a little bit with what I started out with.

And how do people try and get rid of their guilt feelings? You think of any examples of how people get rid of these feelings of guilt that they're experiencing?

Drink. Oh, which one? I said drink. Yeah, drink. Okay, yeah. They're trying to cover it up that way to give them the experience that they've had in the past from taking the drink or the drugs.

They're looking for some sort of high to overcome these feelings of gloom that they're having now. There? From personal experience, I like to eat comfort food.

Okay. I have more guilt after. Yeah, and that's the deceptiveness of those deceptive thoughts. And whether it's shopping or just, I'm going to go out for a run and exercise more or go to the refrigerator, anything to try and subdue what I'm experiencing or to replace it in some way and get my upper, my feeling back in some other way or denying our culpability it wasn't my fault or to deny the standard.

Again, I really didn't do anything wrong. And people will tell you, listen, you've established the wrong standard here, really. I understand you grew up in a home and a family where you were taught that this was wrong, but it's not wrong.

Go ahead and do it. Get over the way you're feeling about this. Now, at this time, I just got a little note here to myself to take a little break and talk about what, say, people would call false guilt.

What if I really have done something that doesn't say that it's wrong in God's word? Well, still, if you've established it within your own mind as something you shouldn't be doing, and you go ahead and do it, well, the Bible lets us understand you have sinned because you weren't convinced that what you were doing was right in the first place and that you should be doing.

A couple verses that I have here in James 4, 17. I don't think I have these in your notes. Anyone then who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, well, he sins.

That's one that comes into play here, but Romans 14, 5. One man regards one day above another, another man regards another day alike, but let each man be fully convinced in his own mind.

So if we're not convinced that what we've done is right and we've gone ahead and done it, then God lets us know that we have sinned.

Now, once we do that, well, we still need to confess that and we're going to talk about how to respond to what we've done when we have sinned.

But, so if I've established the standard, let's say, that isn't necessarily biblical, I'm going to help a person work through those steps of biblical confession, but then I'm also going to provide some instruction from God's word to help him.

Now, let's evaluate what you've been doing from God's word in case he has set up a wrong standard and there really is no biblical warrant for him not to do what he said, what he's done.

I mean, we established what we called house rules in our family when our daughters were growing up and while we thought they were wise things, some of those weren't necessarily rules that they would have to follow now in their homes.

I'm an organized person. Hey, your things have to be here in your room or in the garage or whatever. And therefore, if they disobeyed that, well, that was wrong for them to do that.

But that doesn't mean now that they're in their homes, they have to set up their shoes the same way I had them set up their shoes. So they have freedom now to set up their shoes the way they want to in their house and do it without sin, but not when they were living with me.

But that's what we're talking about when we talk about and just to clarify a little bit of that in regard to false guilt. Any questions, thoughts on that? Roger?

I think the word even refines it to the point that even though your conscience is clear on doing something and you know you have the freedom to do it, we don't do it for the sake of others whose consciences are too sensitive.

Yeah, and that comes into play as well, definitely. And we don't want to use the liberty that we have to indulge the flesh without regard to other people.

Again, that's part of our understanding that I'm part of the body of Christ here. All of us are in this growing process and what I have freedom and liberty to do here, another one might be struggling with that.

And so I'm not just going to live for myself, I'm going to live as a member of the body of Christ and be sensitive to others who are in the body of Christ. Jim? A lot of times the standard we set up, we have a pride in that standard.

Oh, yeah. Sure.

Christmas tree, they didn't have a Christmas tree. Yeah. Christmas tree, they were ungodly. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

What? Yes, so we've all experienced those kind of situations that we're going to be sensitive to.

Well, let's keep moving on. So, how do I respond to this guilt, the sense of guilt that I have, but certainly the fact that I am guilty?

First thing we need to do is accept your culpability, accept the fact that you are guilty. Psalm 51.3, David did this.

I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Against you and you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight. So that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.

Just a wonderful set of verses there, verses 3 and 4. Just seeing, you can just see and understand the freedom that he has now as he's gone down this path of accepting the fact that he has sinned and expressing that now to God.

Luke 15, 17 through 18. with the prodigal son indicates, when he came to his senses, which is indeed what's happening when we finally realize that what we've done is sin, how many of my father's hired men have food to spare?

And here I am starving to death. I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and earth and against you. So he came to that place realization, understanding that what he has done is wrong.

Now he's accepting the fact that he is guilty and has sinned against God and against his father. So this is really when the true repentance is taking place.

There's been a change that's taken place within the individual. There's a new orientation in the inner man that's certainly brought about by the Holy Spirit and it's a change that's affected our affections, who we love above myself now.

Now I'm loving God and others over myself. It's a change in our thinking and in our attitudes toward God. I think we took a look at that last week or the week before when it comes to sin or planning a new way to respond.

And to live Godly, many times it's going to require a change in my thinking, the way I think about God and the way I think about myself and what I've done. And so what we're talking about is biblical repentance.

We recognize what is happening, this new orientation within my heart. I recognize that and now I'm nurturing these new desires that I have toward God, agreeing in my thinking.

Now, with what God has said about what I've done and coming to the conclusion that yes, indeed, I have sinned and I'm agreeing with him what he says about me and my sin.

And then out of this inner change comes an outward expression of repentance, what I would identify as really one of the initial outward manifestations of this inner change that's taken place within me, and that's my confession of sin to God and to appropriate people.

And let's take a look, first of all, at our confession of sin to God. Psalm 32, 5, again, David provides us a good example of that. He says, then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity.

I said, I will confess my transgressions to the Lord, and the result, you forgave the guilt of my sin. And then a verse very familiar to us, 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Now, I understand most of you have been in church for a long time, probably know what confess means, just as a reminder, confess means to say the same thing or to agree with.

So we're saying the same thing about our sin that God has said about it in his word. I am agreeing now with God in regard to my sin. And your prayer of confession to God is your admission of your guilt.

You're expressing verbally to God your agreement with him and that you have sinned against him. And as a child of God, through faith in Jesus Christ and based on Christ's substitutionary work for us, on our behalf, his ongoing intercession before the Father as our advocate, God is faithful and he's just to forgive us of our sin.

And there's some wonderful prayers of confession. I don't have these in the notes on the screen there. Ezra 9, Nehemiah 9, Daniel 9, you'll see those prayers of confession in those passages.

And after we make that confession of sin to God, in faith we believe that God has forgiven us. You know, sometimes we still struggle with these feelings after we've confessed that sin.

And I just don't feel like God has forgiven me. So I still think I've got to do something to deal with this so that I can feel better.

Well, there's things that you do need to do that are different now. But in regard to your forgiveness of sin, God says he forgives us. So if we're going to be trying to still do some sort of penance so that we feel better, then we're just making our situation worse because we're still not acting in faith in what God has said.

And so we have to respond in a biblical way toward these feelings that are still these deceitful desires that are still trying to convict us of sin. And believe, no, God has said this, Jesus has done this.

So on the basis of what God has said in his word, I know he has forgiven me. Well, that's part of our notes as well as we go on. So confession of sin to God.

But what about confession of your sin to other people that may have been involved in your sin? We want to recognize first of all that there is a difference between inner and outer sins.

I want to move through this kind of quickly to get to some of these other things in the notes. Think of inner sins as those sins that have not yet been manifested outwardly.

They may be sinful thoughts and desires you've allowed to continue within, but now you're repentant of them and therefore ready to confess your sin to God. And they may have been wrong thoughts, sinful thoughts toward another person, but you've not expressed that outwardly yet.

So you have sinned inwardly in regard to how you've used your thoughts, your mind, and that needs to be repented of. So you're going to confess that to God, but you're not going to go to the other person and say, hey, listen, I want you to know I've had these terrible thoughts about you, and I've just done, the person is shocked to think that you would ever have been thinking those.

No, they had no idea, and it hadn't been manifested to them yet outwardly. So it's an inner sin, you're confessing that to God. But once the inner sin has found expression outwardly and been manifested toward and really has affected others, then your sin does need to be confessed to God and the appropriate people.

Those people have been affected, those people that have been affected by your sin, not all kinds of other people, those people within the circle of your sin, those are the people that you go to.

You're confessing to God and others as well. Again, you go into the person, well, that's part of our notes here that we'll go on to. That's what the prodigal son did.

I will set out and go back to my father and say to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and against you. The appropriate person was his father at that time. So I had to go back to his father and to bring that reconcile, that relationship with his father by confessing his sin.

So what does a biblical confession look like? Now, a number of weeks ago, we had a series from Ken Sandy that dealt with that. And I think some of these pamphlets were handed out and made available.

You can go on his website as well, and he provides in the pamphlet and on his website, it's part of Peacemaker Ministries, what he calls the seven A's of really what's a biblical confession.

And I'll just run through those quickly. You address everyone involved, again, just the appropriate people within the circle of your sin. You're going back to them. You avoid if, but, and maybe as you go back to the person.

You know, I know I said these things to you, they were terrible things, you know, but I never would have said those had you not done this first. No, it's not a biblical confession excusing your sin.

Admit specifically what you did. It shows you know how you have sinned specifically. It helps the other person understand that, you know, if you've given this some thought, you recognize where you sinned against God and the things that you said.

You know, you don't have to go a big history lesson of everything that you've done, but you're helping the person understand you know where you were wrong and the things that you did and you said, and so that's kind of giving them some reassurance, okay, this person has thought it through and they understand where they really have violated God's word and really sinned against me as well.

Acknowledge the hurt. It shows you understand the impact on the person. Listen, I recognize that the things that I said were hurtful things and I never should have said them.

Accept the consequences. You're not just confessing to get out of the consequences that come with your sinful behavior. Listen, I understand that this may mean I lose my job or lose this portion of my salary, whatever.

That's okay. You know, I recognize that what I did was wrong and you're certainly justified to remove that from me, whatever.

Alter your behavior. You can even share with the person how you understand I shouldn't have done that, I shouldn't have said that, I thought it through, this is how I should have handled that situation in a way that would have been helpful in solving the problem and would have honored God and everything that was going on at that time.

And then ask forgiveness. forgiveness. And that's, I think, an important step to take. In asking, you know, the person, will you forgive me?

It's an important step because I think we're, it's a step where we're trying to help this person understand we want the relationship reconciled. I want to understand that you're there as well.

And you're giving that person now, as you've been moving in their direction, for them to move in your direction now. And biblically, that's what they need to do.

You're giving them that opportunity to strive to keep the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. And it will help you understand as well where you stand in that relationship.

And so when you ask forgiveness instead of just saying I'm sorry, you really don't know where that person stands and you're really putting the person in a difficult position as well.

Because a lot of people say, oh, just forget about it. It's okay, it's not a big deal. Well, it is a big deal. And so you're asking them, will you forgive me? And a lot of people even become uncomfortable with that because it doesn't happen very often.

And Carol did that with her sister, who's an unsaved individual. She was very uncomfortable with that and didn't know what to say. And so you may run into that and you may need further explanation.

But you've bounced the ball into their court, now what are they going to do with it? Well, biblically they need to bounce the ball back in your court and say, I forgive you. Now that doesn't mean everything's hunky-dory now.

You're still going to have to work at bringing that relationship back together and restoring it in very practical ways. Wow, time is gone. about the importance of that biblical repentance.

So you've done that, confessed to God, confessed to others, now what do you do? Well, you replace sinful practices with godly ones, which we go back to our other lesson.

You take some time and identify, how did I get to that place in the first place? What happened? What was I thinking? What is it that I wanted that led me to respond that way?

Okay, yeah, that's what I wanted. All right, what did I do? Yep, that's what I did. Well, what does God want me to do? Now instead, how am I going to handle those situations differently in the future?

So you're making those plans, and then your prayer, now God help me to live that out, and then you seek to live that out. You identify, plan, and put the plan into practice, all in submission to God.

Well, time is gone, so I don't have time for us to get to some of those truths, to remember, that encourage repentance. Maybe we can focus on those a little bit next week as we go into, okay, what can I do to encourage my brothers and sisters in Christ in biblical repentance?

Not just, well, for the glory of God, first of all, and for their well-being as well, but that's all next week. We won't go into it this week.

Let's close in prayer. Father, this morning we do give thanks that you are the God that you are. Father, that you have moved toward us in bringing us to yourself, bringing us to Jesus Christ.

You've worked by your Holy Spirit in convicting us of sins so that we would have faith in Jesus Christ, and you continue that work in each one of us. Now I pray that as we move through our week and there are those times that we fail, that we would not give in to wrong responses.

Father, that you would lead us down this path of biblical repentance for your name's sake and the welfare of the body of Christ and my own growth and godliness as well.

In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you.