Open your Bibles, please, to 2 Corinthians chapter 7. You can just open that Bible and leave it there, mark it maybe, and we'll get there in just a few minutes. But the place where we are going is verse 11. Let me just read that one verse for you. For behold this selfsame thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you. Yea, what clearing of yourselves! Yea, what indignation! Yea, what fear! Yea, what vehement desire! Yea, what zeal! Yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter. And we will get to the seven evidences of repentance before the evening is done tonight. It will be 495 years this October 31st from the time that Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door at Wittenberg. The very first one that was on that list, actually I'm going to give you the first three, but the very first one reads as follows. When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. Thesis number two. Repentance cannot be properly understood as referring to the sacrament of penance, that is to say confession and satisfaction as administered by the clergy. That did not go down well with the Roman Catholic Church, I can assure you. Penance was a profitable profitable way of lining the coffers of the church in Rome. And then thesis number three reads as follows. Its meaning is not restricted to repentance just in one's heart. For such repentance amounts to nothing unless it produces outward signs. Luther had it right. You can repent all you want. But if there's no change in your life, if God doesn't motivate you to do what's right and stop doing what's wrong, then it's just so much emptiness, just so many hollow words. Repentance. When's the last time you repented? Christians need to be repenters. And they need to be good at it because there is much to be repented of in the heart and life of a Christian. We don't always live as we should. We sometimes do things that we ought not to do. Those are sins of commission. Sometimes we fail to do what we know we should do. Those are sins of omission. So, repenting. When's the last time you repented? The cartoon character Dennis the Menace. is kneeling at his bedside in a particular cartoon. His hands are clasped together like this and he is looking up into heaven and the caption on the cartoon reads as follows, I'm here to turn myself in. Repentance, turning yourself in to God The Puritans believed in keeping short accounts with God. An incident is told of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who suddenly stopped in the middle of the street that he was crossing, and he stopped to pray. His companion, who was walking with him, asked him when they got to the other side, why did you stop to pray in the middle of the street? And Spurgeon is reported to have said the following, A cloud came between my soul and Christ, and I could not let it remain there even long enough to reach the other side of the street. Don't you wish that we had that kind of sensitivity to sin? A sensitivity of sin, as Wesley puts it in one of his gospel songs, a pain to feel it near? In Mark 1, verse 4, the scripture reads as follows, John did baptize in the wilderness, and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan. And then the next verb is a present tense verb, continually confessing their sins. Now, in verse 14, after that John was put in prison, the Lord Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying the time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. Again, two more present tense verbs, continually repent ye. and keep on believing the gospel. God's people need to be good at repenting of sin. The revived heart, my friend, knows something of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. The Apostle Paul puts it this way in Romans chapter 7 and verse 13. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. The exceeding sinfulness of sin, the effect which the law has upon sin to make one's sins uppermost in one's thinking. to reveal sin's heinous nature so that the full hideous monster of sin might be revealed. The poet put it this way, vice or sin is a monster of so frightful men as to be hated is but to be seen. But seen too oft, familiar with her face, we first endure, then pity. than embrace. There's an extensive vocabulary in both the Old and New Testament that is necessary in order to define the many nuances of this business of sin. There are four Old Testament words and eight New Testament words that paint the awful picture or awful portrait of sin in the Bible. But I've got some great news for you tonight. And Paul wrote it in this very letter that he has written to the Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 21 reads as follows, for he hath made him to be sin for us. You think about that. We have made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now, many of us know 1 John 1 and verse 9. If we confess our sins, plural, God is faithful to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That word confession. It is a compound word made up of two different Greek words. The prefix in English would be spelled H-O-M-O. If you had cereal this morning for breakfast and you put a little milk on it, then I'm guessing that the milk was homogenized, H-O-M-O. My grandmother didn't have homogenized milk in her house. She didn't get her milk out of a bottle. She got her milk out of a cow. And if you'd let it sit for a little while and the cream would rise to the top and she would spoon it off and put it into a churn and add just a little bit of salt and sit there with a, what kind of wood did she use? She didn't have a toothbrush. Willow. She would take a little willow stick and chew on the end of it and make a brush out of it and brush what few teeth she had left while she's churning the milk. And she'd churn that milk and when it was butter, then she'd take it out of the churn and she'd put it in a soup bowl about this big. And then she would turn it upside down on the breakfast table and here would be this mound of homemade butter. And then out would come the biscuits about the size of the soup bowl. and there would be a jar of sorghum on the table. If you've never had sorghum on a biscuit with homemade butter, my friend, you have not lived. Well, you can't do that with the milk that you have that you get out of the carton or out of the bottle because it's homogenized. That is, the butterfat that is in the milk, and I'm hoping you're not drinking whole milk, maybe 2% or better skim, or maybe cut the skim and the 2% together, But the butterfat that's in there is homogenized. It is of a consistency throughout. It is all the same consistency in the milk. That's this prefix. And then the word that it's attached to is the Greek word logeo, which means to say. The word confession means to say the same. What the Bible is teaching is that as God's people, when we are confronted with sin in our lives, we need to say the same thing about that sin that God says about it. We don't need to stop to make excuse. And so, if we keep on, and it's a present tense verb again, if we keep on confessing our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But rather than saying the same thing about sin that God says about it, what do we do? We start to make excuse. We want to excuse ourselves with God. What's your excuse? You may say, well, it was just a little sin. How about this? I may have sinned, but my motives were right. The temptation was overwhelming. Circumstances conspired against me. I didn't stop to think. Well, other people do it, and this one I really like. The devil made me do it. Now, the devil is a terrible person, but I'm afraid that he gets blamed for a lot of things that weren't his fault. things that we are responsible for. Confession is not praying a lovely prayer. It is not going through a litany of things that you have done wrong. It is not making pious excuses. It is not trying to impress God and other Christians. True confession is naming sin and calling it by what God calls it. We're to say that it is not an excuse or the wrong motive or temptation or any of these things. We're to call sin, sin. It simply means being honest with ourselves. God calls it envy and hatred and lust and deceit or whatever he might call it. Honesty with ourselves is the first step in repentance. and honesty with others against whom we may have sinned. It's more than just admitting the sin, it is judging the sin. Facing it squarely. Now, when should we confess our sins? You need to confess the sin as soon as you realize it. Don't wait until you get home at the end of the day. Don't make a little mental note, well, I need to ask God to forgive me tonight. So when I get down before the Lord, I'm going to say, Lord, I'm sorry for this, among other things. No, you deal with it right then. Emulate Spurgeon who stops in the middle of the street, says there's a cloud between me and the Lord. I've got to get it fixed now. Confession of sin. Verse 7 of 1 John reads as follows. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. And the blood of Jesus Christ, and here's another one of those present tense verbs, the blood of Jesus Christ keeps on cleansing us from all sin. I want you to keep your finger here in 2 Corinthians 7, and I want you to go to John chapter 13, please. And when I began to really see what this passage is about, It grieved me to think of the times that I have sinned as a Christian. John chapter 13 recounts the upper room experience. with our disciples and the Lord Jesus Christ on the eve of his crucifixion. And John recounts for us that, verse 2, after supper was over, the devil, having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's sons to betray him, Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, that he was come from God and went to God, He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments, and took a towel, and girded himself. And then he began to wash the disciples' feet. Well, the text goes on to tell us what happened when he got to Peter. Look at verse 6. Then cometh he to Simon Peter, and Peter saith unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Now, when we read this passage and hear a sermon on it, typically we will hear a message about humility and how God's people are to be humble. And that's true, and you can preach that from this text. But I think we must not overlook the context in which it is found. Our Savior is illustrating something for Peter and the disciples and for us as well. And that is this, washing in this context involves cleansing. And we're speaking of the washing of regeneration, how that a person is washed in the blood of the Lamb. And the Lamb himself had girded himself with a towel and was now on his knees before his disciples, washing their feet. So when he comes to Simon Peter, he says, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Actually, the construction, as it shows up in the text, places the word you and my first in the sentence. It would read something like this, you, my feet are washing. And that was Peter's attitude. And this illuminates a lot for us. In verse 8 we have a Greek double negative, absolutely never. He says, Absolutely never shall you my feet wash. And so the Lord Jesus goes on to say, verse 8, Jesus answered and said, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me. And so Simon Peter, being Simon Peter, says in verse 9, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Now what is he saying here? The Lord tells him in verse 10, Peter, he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit, and ye are clean, but not all. And of course he was referring to Judas Iscariot. And so, we have this illustration from Scripture concerning the washing of an individual and we are washed in the blood of Christ and we are clean. Do you not remember the day that you trusted Jesus Christ as your Savior? And did you not have a sense of being cleansed of sin and the guilt of sin was gone and you could almost run and shout and sing like Pilgrim in Pilgrim's Progress, when the burden fell from your back and was gone forever. And you went on your way singing. Do you not remember that? He that is washed is clean. Well, how does a person get washed of his sin? It's by the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son. keeps on cleansing us from all sin. But what happens next is part of the text, and it's in the context of salvation. Daily cleansing from sin is necessary. He that is washed need not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. That phrase, he that is washed, in the Greek text it is a perfect tense. That means the present state of affairs is on view, resulting from some past action. I've been washed in the blood of the Lamb. If you're trusting Christ tonight, you've been washed in the blood of the Lamb. It happened some time in the past, and the results are on view today from what's happened in the past. And then the next word is needeth. And that's in the present tense. Need to wash one's feet continually. He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean everywhit. If the bath speaks of forgiveness of sins, then the washing of the feet does also. I want you to think about this. The Lord just impressed this upon my heart while I was preparing this message. The next time I'm tempted to sin, the next time you're tempted to do something that you ought not to do or fail to do something you know you should do, I want you to get the picture that is on display for us here in John chapter 13 back in your mind. It takes nothing less than the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse you from that sin. Picture, if you will, when you are faced with some temptation to sin, picture, if you will, the Lord Jesus Christ laying aside his garments and girding himself with a towel and getting down on his knees and washing your dirty feet. See if that doesn't motivate you a little bit. when you're faced with temptation, not to succumb to the temptation. As I thought about it, I thought of the times that I've sinned against God. I can almost hear the Lord Jesus say, what? Are you back here again? This stain that I see, it's remarkably like the stain that was here yesterday. What's up? with you anyway. And all of these thoughts began to go through my mind. Folks, it ought to be enough motivation for us not to sin. When John writes his little book, 1 John, he says don't sin, but if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So when we sin, Think of our Savior girding Himself with a towel and washing our feet. That's what the text, I think, is teaching us. The songwriter put it this way, have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Well, so much for the introduction to the message. Now, if you'll go to 2 Corinthians 6, please. Chapter 7 and verse 11 is the text that we're going to get to, and we're going to wrap up the message tonight with the seven evidences of repentance. But I want to just mention some promises that we have in chapter 6. Look at verse 16. What agreement hath the temple of God with idols? Ye are the temple of the living God. As God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, and will be a father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. So in these three verses, 16, 17, and 18, we have five promises, five statements. God says, I will dwell with you. I will walk with you. I will be your God. I will receive you. I will be your Father. And so the very next chapter begins with these words, having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. The congregation of people composing the church at Corinth was on the verge of destroying itself. The entire catalog of problems with which Paul deals in his first epistle reveals the possibility that the destruction of the church was very real. Their factious party spirit that brought division in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, their carnality in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, their flagrant immorality and their haughty spirit regarding it. in chapter 5. Their use of pagan courts for settling internal disputes in chapter 6. The continuing participation of certain members in pagan rites of cultic prostitution in chapter 6. The use of so-called Christian freedom in such a way that the weak in faith would fall back into sin and be destroyed in 1 Corinthians 8 and again in chapter 10. the rejection of Paul's teaching on the resurrection of the body in the favor of an emphasis on purely spiritual redemption." In 1 Corinthians chapter 15. This was going on in Corinth, and Paul heard about it. He had written them a letter, and that letter is lost to us. And when he writes 1 Corinthians, it's actually the second letter that he is writing to them. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 9, he refers to the former letter that he had written. Well, he learned some things when he got a letter back from them. And 1 Corinthians is an answer to questions they had concerning the church and an opportunity for Paul to address the carnality in the church in no uncertain terms. And in 2 Corinthians, in this passage, we have some interesting language. Please look at it with me. Verse 8, though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent, for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season. What's he saying there? He says, when I wrote that letter to you, 1 Corinthians, I regret having written it and sent it. But now that I know the effect of the letter upon the church at Corinth, I'm not sorry one bit. I'm glad I wrote that letter. because it had the desired effect that was on my heart when I wrote it. And that was to see repentance take place in the Corinthian church. So, we have some responsibilities, however. Paul says that there is to be no unequal yoke in verse 14 of chapter 6. We're to come out and be separate in verse 17. We're not to touch the unclean thing in verse 17. We're to be cleansing ourselves. We're to pure ourselves from everything that defiles us. And he calls it in chapter 7 as the filthiness of the flesh and the spirit. Defilement is behind this word filthiness. Christians are to come out from among people who are defiled. It refers to defilement by sharing a pagan way of life. It includes all sorts of filthiness, physical, moral, mental, ceremonial, spiritual, of flesh and spirit. Filthiness of the flesh, some pet sin that we're hanging on to. And it defiles us regularly, daily, all the time. We are defiled by some pet sin. Filthiness of the flesh is how Paul describes it. And filthiness of the spirit. Oh, we may not be overcome by some pet sin, except maybe for attitude. the sins of the Spirit, having the wrong attitude concerning our own sin. Verse 2 tells us that we're to bring holiness to completion. There's a continual advance in holiness, continually perfecting oneself. Now, it's interesting that in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and 2 Corinthians chapter 1, the Apostle Paul refers to the Corinthians as saints, holy ones. Well, so they were. So are we, saints. We've got, I've told you before, we've got St. Joseph right back there. Raise your hand, St. Joseph. There he is. Sitting next to him is St. Helen. Raise your hand. Alright, St. Joseph, St. Helen. St. Vern just doesn't quite, it doesn't have the ring, Vern, I'm sorry. St. Bob, no, I'm sorry, were saints. So were the Corinthians. The problem is that they weren't very saintly saints. They were carnal saints. I've listed the seven characteristics of the carnal Church of Corinth. The holiness of Christ is imparted to us at salvation, but you and I will both agree with this, there is much needed improvement in our lives as far as our saintliness is concerned. Okay, seven evidences of repentance. Verse 11, Behold this selfsame thing that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what revenge. Seven statements concerning repentance. Godly sorrow results in carefulness or earnestness. Diligence, not negligence. Godly sorrow produces and repentance shows diligence. a carefulness to resist the wrong and to want to do what's right. Repentance means to turn around. And my dear friend, it takes some diligence on the part of the believer to stay turned around. We're on the straight and narrow. We're on our way to glory. And there are lots of by-paths that are very attractive shortcuts. Go off a little this way or off a little this way. They're so tempting and so alluring, and it takes diligence on the part of the child of God, carefulness to stay on the straight and narrow. That's what Paul is saying here. Number two, godly sorrow results in an eagerness to vindicate, a clearing of oneself. It is the Greek word apologion. We get our English word apology from this. Godly sorrow produces and repentance shows a clearing of oneself. It is a clearing of guilt and shame from knowing that we have brought our sin to God and we are now walking in the right way. We have had the way cleared before us. The Corinthians were eager to show Paul that they disapproved of their sinful ways. And that is indicative of real repentance. Number three, godly sorrow results in indignation. This is the only place this word shows up in the New Testament. There are translations of other words that are in the same word family. When people brought children to the Lord Jesus for him to bless them, some of the disciples stopped them. And the Lord Jesus said, Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven. And the text says that he was much displeased with what they had done. He was indignant. Indignation. Indignation not against the sinner, but against the sin. One effect of true repentance is to produce a decided hatred of sin. Do you hate sin? Do you hate the effects of sin? I've had impressed upon me just this week how devastating sin can be. How it affects people's lives. and it has such far-reaching consequences. Godly sorrow produces and repentance shows indignation. We ought to be indignant with ourselves for our foolishness in sin. This is the kind of repentance that lasts. Indignant. What does it take to get you much displeased about something? in your own life. There's an illustration of this kind of righteous indignation. When Paul saw the idolatrous wickedness in Athens in Acts chapter 17, his spirit was stirred within him. What about you? This room has got a lot of people in it. There may be people in this room who are not even complacent about the conditions surrounding them, you may be caught up in the world's philosophy. Like Lot, you vex your righteous souls with the filthy conversation of the wicked. If that's true of you this evening, my friend, you need to repent. Perhaps most of you are just complacent or apathetic. You're not great sinners, but you're just indifferent to the culture around you and the condition of the lost. If that's true, then my friend, you need to repent. A few, a precious few, may be like the Apostle Paul. Your heart is stirred with what you see around you. You're angry with sin. You're angry with the devil. And you're angry with yourself for yielding to temptation and sinning once again. Indignation. What does it take to get you stirred up? Number four, godly sorrow results in fear. And that, I think, is a fear of sinning again. I heard about an alcoholic who got saved. He was walking down the same street and he passed the very bar where he used to hang out. And he was tempted to go back in. And across the street there was a little restaurant and there was a sign in the window that says buttermilk, all you can drink, five cents. And he ran across the street and started filling himself up with buttermilk because he was tempted to go fill himself up with booze. Well, it would just take one glass of buttermilk and that'd be enough for me. And you may feel the same way about buttermilk. But it did the trick for him. Fear. Fear of sinning again. Godly sorrow produces and repentance shows a fear that we would ever fall into the same sin again. Paul is not writing about a fear of God here as much as a fear of sin. And a fear of our own human weakness when it comes to sin. Number five, godly sorrow results in a vehement desire, an anxious desire to deal with sin. Godly sorrow produces and repentance shows vehement desire. This is a heart that desires purity and godliness and doesn't want to sin anymore. This vehement desire is expressed through heartfelt prayer and total dependence upon God. Do you have that feeling this evening? If so, it is indicative of a repentant spirit. Number six, godly sorrow results in zeal. Zeal for the honor of God and zeal for what is right. Godly sorrow produces and repentance shows zeal. The Greek word speaks of heat. Think of someone who is hot toward God and also hot against sin and impurity. Zealous Christians. Zeal for God is indicative of repentance and a repentant heart. At number seven, godly sorrow results in revenge. And the authorized text uses a word that may be a bit misleading for us. It has the idea of avenging what is wrong, that is, to do right. Godly sorrow produces and repentance shows vindication. You're vindicated as a Christian even though you've sinned. No one can doubt it because they see a change in your life. They see a change in your direction. Spurgeon had to deal with confession of sin on a continual basis. As a matter of fact, he preached a sermon called Repentance After Salvation. It's in print and you can Google it and maybe download it and read it. Here's what he said. In repentance there is a bitter sweetness or a sweet bitterness, what shall I call it, of which the more you have, the better it is for you. I can truly say that I hardly know a diviner joy than to lay my head in my heavenly Father's bosom and say, Father, I have sinned, but thou hast forgiven me, and oh, I do love thee. Ryle puts it this way, we must sit down humbly in the presence of God. and examine clearly what the Lord Jesus calls sin. Let us see that sin is far viler and far nearer to us and sticks more closely to us than we supposed. And then we shall be led to get nearer to Christ. Much forgiven, we shall love Him much. Anything you need to repent about, search your heart this evening. Ask God to reveal it to you. When God shows something in your life that calls for repentance, then don't wait. Don't wait till that night. Don't wait for Sunday. Don't wait for an invitation and a service. Deal with it right then and there. Get it right with God. Keep short accounts with God. Repent. See if you do not exemplify at least to a degree these characteristics or evidences of repentance that Paul lists for us here in verse 11. If you have your song sheet that's been handed out to you, I want you to look at it. Before we sing it, I just want to read it And then I want to take a minute. Surely that ought to be enough time. A minute. For you to search your own heart. Because there may be some sin that is right there on the surface that needs to be dealt with. I'm going to ask you in the quietness of this hour to deal with it. And get it right with God. No, not despairingly come I to thee. No, not distrustingly bend I the knee. Sin hath gone over me, yet is this still my plea? Jesus hath died. Ah, mine iniquity crimson hath been, infinite, infinite, sin upon sin, sin of not loving thee. Sin of not trusting Thee. Infinite sin. Lord, I confess to Thee sadly my sin. All I am tell I Thee. All I have been. Purge Thou my sin away. Wash Thou my soul this day. Lord, make me clean. Faithful and just art Thou, forgiving all. Loving and kind art thou when poor ones call. Lord, let the cleansing blood, blood of the Lamb of God, pass o'er my soul. Then all is peace and light, this soul within. Thus shall I walk with thee, beloved, unseen, leaning on thee, my God, guided along the road, nothing between. I'm going to pray in just a moment. But before I pray, I just want to give this brief invitation. If the Lord has dealt with you about something, and you want to make it right with God, and you want to publicly confess that God has been dealing with you, I'm going to give you an opportunity right now just to get up out of your seat and come down here in the front on one of these front pews and just have a seat so that we can have a word of prayer. If the Lord's dealing with you, if you want to rededicate your life to God, if you want to confess some sin and make it right with God, in the next moment, while we pray silently, if you'll just get up from your seat and come down here and have a seat in the front, please. Father in heaven, thank you that you've told us that if a sinner repents seven times, we should forgive him. And thank you for the principle that you are a forgiving God, that there is infinite forgiveness to be found by thee. Thank you for this time that we've had during January and February to consider personal revival. Lord, I pray that it will not end with this service tonight, but that it will continue in our hearts and lives stir us up, cause us to be revived, cause us to have a fresh mindset concerning the sinfulness, the exceeding sinfulness of sin. Help us to have such a close walk with you in the days which are ahead that we will feel that cloud or see that cloud that comes between us and deal with it right then and there. You've told us in your Word that we are not to sin, and yet you've given us an advocate, our Savior, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is even now at the right hand of God pleading for us. So help us to come to Him. Help us, Lord, when we're tempted to sin, to think of our Savior washing the feet of His disciples and cleansing away the filth and the dirt. Impress this all upon us, I pray. Help us to go out of here tonight with hearts filled with rejoicing. that our sins are unto the blood and they've been forgiven. Help us as we sing this gospel song to let the words sink into our minds and grip us in our very heart of hearts. Help us to confess our sin and purge that sin away I thank you that you're faithful and just to do this, that you forgive all. When we call, you forgive us. Let the cleansing blood, blood of the Lamb of God, pass over our souls. We thank you for it all in Jesus' name. Amen.