Herbert W Armstrong

   We've completed four days already, and today included, we have four to go. So we're at the halfway mark. Things are going quite smoothly, I feel.

   Where will you be a year from now, spiritually speaking? I don't suppose any one of us can really. Accurately answer that question.

   In one sense, it's sort of unfair, I suppose, because none of us can really know. We have our hopes, we know what we want, we know what we would like to be a year from now, but to really be sure, of course, it's difficult. And I guess the answer really depends largely upon what we do between now and then in terms of our growth, in terms of overcoming, and especially I would say it would largely depend upon how effectively we repent of the things that are still totally within our lives, our nature, the problems and sins we have yet to change and overcome. So I would say largely repentance is going to be a key to where we will be spiritually, again speaking, one year from now. But do we know how to repent effectively?

   How many of us really have a shallow repentance in our daily lives? Because repentance is a daily and continual process. Yes, we all repented at baptism.

   We buried the old self at that time. But we know we're still to continue to grow and to overcome and to root out those residual sins in our lives. But I wonder how many of us have a superficial kind of repentance.

   I wonder how many of us feel from time to time, well, I'm not really overcoming these problems as much as I would like to. I find things still in my life that I don't want to be there. I know they should not be there, but I just can't seem to do as much about it as I would like to.

   Maybe sometimes we have some other feeling: well, I'm really sorry I'm doing these things, and I sure will try better next time. And oftentimes, I feel with myself, I'm sure with others I have counseled with, we have a very superficial approach to repentance, and we don't have it deeply enough and lastingly enough.

   And it's not as effective as it ought to be. And yet, of course, change, repentance, is the everyday norm and habit of life that should be in every one of us who is a Christian.

   Would you turn with me to II Corinthians 7? I want to spend a little bit of time here in this epistle of Paul and especially concentrate on this matter of how we can repent effectively, daily, yearly in our lives, and grow more Christ-like as time goes on. As you're turning to II Corinthians, I'd like to sketch a little background into the context, the chapter, the verses that we're about to read.

   Paul wrote two letters to Corinth. The first one, at least the one we call I Corinthians, was a very corrective letter, filled with a lot of even strong admonition, a lot of things that he pointed out very seriously wrong with the Church in Corinth.

   If you read through the epistle, we won't take the time to do it. I'll just sketch in a few things. We find the church was divided. There were factions there, some following one minister and some following another. And the whole church was on the verge, I suppose, of splitting in twain or into several groups because of their favorite minister, the one they liked more than someone else.

   Many of them, their approach toward Paul, was critical, and even some of them very, very hostile and suspicious, and not at all the right kind of approach they ought to have had toward any minister, and the Apostle Paul in particular. We find others guilty of open sins, fornication mentioned specifically. Some had problems relative to marriage.

   We find others were not using properly the spiritual gifts that God had given to them for the ministry at that time. We find some did not understand the resurrection properly. Some even thought that it was past.

   And there were other heresies relative to that that were beginning to develop. I would say that brotherly love was not one of the strong suits. Of the Corinthian church.

   At least that is brought out. Some brethren were even going to lawsuit and to the courts of the land and suing one another in the church there at Corinth. Then on and on and on we could go, all down through the 15, 16 chapters that Paul wrote in his first epistle.

   He summarized the situation there by saying, You are carnal. You're not as spiritual as you ought to be. A very, very stern and corrective letter. But as we find in II Corinthians, happily so, the church had begun to work on those problems. They had begun to repent.

   They had looked at themselves. They had applied Paul's letters to their life, and now they were overcoming. And this is where we are in II Corinthians 7:8.

   And I think, frankly, if any one of us had written to a person or a group of people like Corinth, as Paul had done, After the letter was gone, I think we might feel as he felt here. I wonder if I was too strong, too corrective. I wonder if I could have said it in a somewhat different manner.

   I wonder if I did have fully the right approach I ought to have. And that's what he expresses here in verse 8 of 2 Corinthians 7. He says, Though I made you sorry with a letter, and I'm now going to translate properly these two words, repent, because they are two separate Greek words in this context, here, so I'll give the correct reading. Though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. After he had sent it, it was gone, nothing you could do about it, couldn't call it back.

   And he wished he hadn't sent it originally, and wondered what kind of reaction it would have upon them at that time. But he says, Now it made you sorry, I acknowledge that, but I don't regret doing it, because he goes on to show it had a good effect in their lives.

   And in that sense, he was glad that he had sent it and said the things that he said. So I did regret it at first, for I perceive that the same epistle has made you sorry, though it were but for a season. You know, you're no longer feeling down in the dumps.

   You felt perhaps depressed and discouraged after you got the letter, but you realized that everything I said was true. You began to work on it. You began to ask God to help you to have the right change in your life, so I don't regret having done it now, though I did for a while. Now I rejoice, he said. Not that you are made sorry, and again, no one really wants per se to have people depressed.

   No one is going to correct someone just so that you can say, aha, you know, look at all the misery I caused that person. No one is going to do that. So it's not the sorrow as such that he wanted, but that you sorrowed to a change of mind. This is real repentance. Say, there are two separate words that are used here.

   The one just means regret. Very often that's the kind of repentance that some people have. It's, well, I wish I hadn't done it.

   I'm sorry for it. That's the repentance of the world. That's the repentance of the man who may come home after a drunken bout on Saturday night, and the next morning when he's got a splitting headache, and so much so that the faintest Is enough to feel like an earthquake almost.

   He regrets what he did. He repents of what he did. He wishes he hadn't had that 30-second pint of beer or whatever it may be.

   He's sorry at that time, but of course, next Saturday night, he'll do it all over again. Chances are. Well, that's the kind of regrets some have.

   But Paul said here: you didn't have that kind. You changed your life. You sorrowed to the point that you changed your mind and your way of life, genuine repentance. For you were made sorry after a godly manner, that you might receive damage by us in nothing, because we don't want to harm you or cause you grief in any way, except perhaps just as a temporary measure that might be necessary to bring you to repentance. For godly sorrow works, again, a change of mind or true repentance to salvation, not to be repented of.

   We don't have to regret that or feel sorry for it in any way whatsoever. That's godly repentance.

   But the sorrow of the world works death, because it's not lasting, it's not permanent, it doesn't change anything. It's just, I wish I hadn't done it. I'm ashamed, I regret it, but you don't change anything.

   Then he goes on to say in verse 11: For behold this selfsame thing, that you sorrowed after a godly sort. What carefulness it wrought in you? Yes, what clearing of yourselves? Yes, what indignation? Yes, what fear? Yes, what vehement desire? Yes, what zeal. Yes, what revenge. So, Paul actually speaks here in verse 11, and it's actually this verse I want to concentrate on this morning.

   On what I call, if you want to look at it this way, because he is really defining it now, he is amplified. He is expounding on what repentance is all about, what it does in your life. And in fact, what we find here are, believe it or not, it works out this way.

   I didn't do it, but it just works out: seven, not six, not eight, but seven points relative to repentance. So, if you're the type that likes a title for a sermon, I see some of you taking notes that I would entitle this sermon this morning, The Seven Steps to Affection. Repentance.

   And these are the seven steps. Before I go any further, please understand I am not talking about a formula. I am not talking about ritual. I am not talking about how we have to make sure that we do seven things and seven things in a certain order. I am not talking about that. But we certainly can find here the seven points that Paul brings out.

   And whether consciously or subconsciously, I feel that we can understand a great deal more about how to repent effectively if we analyze each one of these points, if we look at them in some detail, rather than just reading over them rather hurriedly, as we can do in verse 11. Let's spend some time with these points, because we find that here was a church that beforehand was very carnal.

   Yet now, he says, they're the opposite. They are now repentant. They have changed.

   And certainly, if a church like Corinth could affect a change in their life, so dramatically. And so, total, I think we can learn from this. So, I'm going to take each one of these seven points today, as I call it, the seven steps of effective repentance, and we're going to analyze them and expound each one.

   Now, the first one he brings out is called carefulness here. Some of these have to be more appropriately translated. The word actually means more properly diligence.

   And I certainly feel that that is one of the main things that a person has to have if he is going to repent effectively. Certainly, the Corinthian church in the past was not very diligent.

   In fact, they were rather casual about their sins. They were negligent of spiritual points and principles that Paul and others had brought out to them. They took things for granted.

   They were rather indifferent to the things going on around them in their city and also in their church. But you know, that's the way it is with so many of us, is it not? So many of the problems and sins we have happened to us. I don't think most of us go around intentionally sinning, saying, I'm going to commit this particular sin, I'm going to have this iniquity, whatever it may be, come upon me or my family. I don't think most of us say, well, I don't want to teach my children properly.

   I don't think most of us say, I don't want to serve God. I think in so many respects it's because we find ourselves entrapped, perhaps, by just carelessness.

   We find ourselves doing things, and after a while we wake up, maybe it gets so intense, or the problem is so great, we all of a sudden say, how in the world did all of this happen? Here I have this huge, insurmountable problem, and I don't know when I began it or how it began to be started, yet here it is. How in the world did it happen?

   Back in Matthew 26, Christ on the night before he was crucified had a little bit to say. About this matter to His disciples, but also to us. Christ had been praying very fervently to God to ask God if it would be His will to remove from Him the manner of death that He was about to suffer.

   And I suppose He spent maybe two or three or more hours in prayer to God at that particular time, very intense, very zealous. But the disciples were somewhat tired and fatigued. After all, it was almost midnight by this time, if I recollect. And like most of us, after a while, we're no longer the night owls we used to be, I suppose. And we get tired.

   We sit down for a whivle. The first thing you know, we're nodding off and we just can't stay awake. Now, I don't think by any means that the disciples were intentionally casual about Christ's soon-coming death and suffering.

   I don't think they thought, well, that's his problem. Let him worry about it. He's over there praying and we're unconcerned.

   And after all, I didn't get too much sleep last night either, anyhow. So long and so on. I don't think they thought that.

   It's just one of those things that happens. You're tired, you doze off, you go to sleep. Well, Christ, when he came back in verse 40, after having prayed, he comes to the disciples and he finds them asleep.

   And he says to Peter, What? Could you not watch with me one hour? Even just a short time?

   Could you not be concerned and alert and caring? About me, even for just one short little hour. Again, I don't think we should attribute evil motives to them.

   They're just human, that's all. Maybe that's evil enough, but at least they're human. We can understand what they were doing.

   So he said, Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation or trial or tests. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. And this is what we all so often find: that the things we want to do, we don't do. And Paul expounded on that. The things we know we ought to be doing, we're not doing them as we should.

   On the other hand, the things we don't want to do, we find that we're doing those things. And so here is just a statement, a fact. The Spirit may want to do right things, but the flesh is so weak.

   So he said, to be sure, okay, you've got to watch. You have to be spiritually alert. Spiritually, your mind has to be open and alert to the things you should be doing.

   And Praying. Otherwise, you're going to find you don't have the strength and the character to do those right things. So we find that the disciples here, through neglect, not through intent, but just through neglect in human nature, were not doing the things that they ought to do.

   And we all have that same potential within us. We let down. We become neglectful.

   And that's exactly what happened to the Corinthian church. They let down, they became casual. They became neglectful.

   So Paul said, Be diligent, first of all. Be diligent in trying to find out those things in your life, the right character to develop, and the right spirituality to put on. We find Peter expounding on that over in II Peter chapter 1.

   And he uses the same phrase that Paul himself used relative to diligence. II Peter chapter 1, and beginning here in Verse 4 (II Peter 1:4). This is right in the middle of the sentence, but it's rather long, so we'll interrupt the context.

   Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. This is what we want. This is what we desire.

   This is what we're after in God's church. We want to be like God in His kingdom. So he said, verse 5: Beside this, give all diligence. It's the same Greek word that we find back there in II Corinthians 7 that was translated carefulness back there. Here it's translated diligence, and again, a better word for it.

   Give all diligence, and add to your faith virtue, and to virtue, knowledge, and to knowledge, temperance or self-control, and to temperance, patience, and to patience, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly. Kindness and to brotherly kindness, love. Here are attributes of spirituality.

   The characteristics all of us want, we desire to have in our life. We want to replace the sin, the lust, the vanity, the greed, all of these things that are wrong. We want to replace them with these characteristics.

   But he said to do that, you have to be diligent. So we cannot search out our sins. We cannot find them with a casual approach. I hope I. Can be this way. I would like to be this way.

   We have to be diligent about it. And he goes on to say in verse 8: If these things be in you and abound, if they are growing in you, they make you that shall be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacks these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and has forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

   Wherefore, the rather, brethren. He says again, give diligence. So he begins the section by saying we have to be diligent.

   And now he ends the same way. Give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you shall never fall.

   Now again, we have this big word in the English language, if you do them. But the fact is, through the Spirit of God, as shown elsewhere, we can do them. So this is not a negative statement.

   It's not meant to depress us, but it certainly does show that if we are diligent, if we certainly have our minds attuned to what we should be and how to be that way, we can make it. He says, if you do them, you will never fall.

   That's just a blanket statement, a promise from Almighty God. So here we find that Peter says, too, that we have to have and should have an alert, eager, diligent attitude. We find over in Hebrews 2.

   Hebrews, the second chapter, and perhaps I could just begin in chapter 1, as a matter of fact, first of all, to lead into chapter 2. In chapter 1 of Hebrews (Hebrews 2:1), Paul is showing that God at different times in the past spoke to the fathers by prophets. Isaiah and Jeremiah, Ezekiel spoke to the people.

   But notice verse 2: God has in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. And that sense, we have the words directly from Christ, not just through a prophet. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's just showing here the more supreme word that we have.

   The fact that it's come all the way from Christ Himself rather than just through a human prophet. And that leads into chapter 2, verse 1. Therefore, in that sense, because Christ has spoken to us, not just a human prophet, therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.

   Because we have heard it directly from Christ. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, and showing here that many things in the Old Testament given by hands of angels or the mediator of an angel, yet they were responsible for those things.

   They were held accountable by what they heard. So if they were held accountable, Through things given through angels or prophets, what have you. Notice verse 3: How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him?

   So we are more accountable in that sense than they were because we have heard it directly from Christ and through the servants of Christ. And we have it written down. It's before us, and we're reading those very words at this moment.

   So we are are very, very accountable for it, much more so than they. And so he shows here how serious these things are for us.

   And that, first of all, to have a true and effective repentance, we must be diligent. We must have a serious approach and attitude toward our life and our sins. Not take them casually, not be indifferent, or take them for granted.v

   Point number two that Paul brings out in II Corinthians. He says there that they sought a clearing of themselves. And actually the word in the Greek means defense.

   Or I would put it, I have in my own words, seek a good reputation or seek a good name. Now, why would he say that? Well, you know, all of us want to have a good name and a good reputation.

   None of us wants to go around having people think evil about us. And I don't care who we are. We all want to have a good reputation.

   And that's, let's say, a thing that's common to everybody. And I don't think it's a bad thing in any way whatsoever. Again, going back to Corinth, their reputation was rather bad.

   Their character had been besmirched by the things they were doing. Now, I don't know how many people in the churches around the empire of that day knew about Corinth. I dare say many of them did.

   But, you know, just to put yourself in that position, suppose that you were a member of the Corinthian church with all these problems going on there, and you thought everybody knew all about it, and everybody knew about those divisions and about the open sins and about some of the heresies developing and so on and so on. Okay, you're a member of that church, and you go over, for example, to Ephesus, and you say to the deacon there, Well, I'm from Corinth.

   I'm a member of the church at Corinth. Oh, you are, you know, maybe you've heard of those things, and you know, this and that and the other.

   I think most would be rather suspicious of you. They might appoint a deacon to look over his shoulder to be sure that you don't do something you ought not to do because of the reputation that had been very, very great, I would assume, at that particular time. Certainly, their name was nothing to be proud of in that way.

   And I would think that the people there at Corinth would want to do any and everything they could to erase that reputation. And this is what he said they were doing. Now, they were seeking to clear their name.

   They were seeking to have a good name and a good reputation. Now, obviously, there's only one way you can do that: repent, change your life, stop doing the things you were doing, and now begin to do the things that you ought to be doing. They were concerned about their reputation, they were concerned about what other people thought about them.

   And again, we find here in II Corinthians, it was effective. Whereas before they had a bad reputation, now they do have a good name. Now they do have a good reputation.

   They had cleared their name. That's what he shows here. So it's not wrong in itself.

   It's not necessarily a vanity or hypocrisy to want to do that. I think that could be a fine thing. Over in Jeremiah 6, we find here that some people are not enough concerned about their name and their reputation.

   Jeremiah 6. Every once in a while you find people who say, well, they don't really care what other people think about them. I wonder if that's the way these people were back here in Jeremiah.

   Jeremiah 6:15. He says, Were they ashamed when they committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed.

   Neither could they blush. This happened to the people at that time, the open sins they were committing, the society in which they were living. And they were no longer ashamed.

   Over in chapter 8, verse 12 (Jeremiah 8:12), he says the same thing. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? Nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush.

   Therefore shall they fall among them that fall in the time of their visitation. They shall be cast down, says the Eternal. And that will be the end result of them.

   Much like our society today. Things that are done in our society, things that are done, let's say we read about in our newspapers, in magazines, the way people live, the things they do, even I suppose 10 or 15 years ago, we would be ashamed and blush at these things. But now we've become so accustomed to it that we just take it casually and for granted.

   Things on television, things in movies, whatever it may be. Some years ago, we would be absolutely horrified, and now we're no longer horrified. We talk about even things like our co-educational dormitory.

   10 or 15 years ago, a thing that would be unheard of, unthinkable. People would be even ashamed to think of such a thing, and yet I don't suppose most people think that's too bad today. You take even a place where I live, out in Glendora, and the kind of marital situations that exist across the street and two doors down and three doors down.

   My wife was talking to a neighbor the other day, and it's amazing the amount of marital situations. And people who are living together who aren't even married to each other. And at even the house I bought, the wife ran away with the husband of the wife across the street.

   And next door, a divorce situation is very, very similar. And so we buy houses out there, it seems, because of marriages breaking up and people have to sell their homes. So divorce and remarriage just rife in the way people run off with one another and they live a few blocks down the road.

   And everybody thinks, well, that's not too bad. Well, they don't blush about it, do they? It's not an abomination to them.

   Their reputation, their name, well, they're not concerned about that. I guess they couldn't care less. Everybody is doing it, but that's not the way of God.

   In Ezra 9, we find that Ezra had a very unique approach to sin. And Ezra got a little bit glandular, as we say, about some of the things that were going on when he heard about them. He was over in Persia or the area around Babylon after the captivity, sometime after the captivity, of course. And he heard about what was going on back in Judea among those who had returned. Ezra 9 beginning in verse 1 (Ezra 9:1).

   Now, when these things were done, the princes came to me, saying, The people of Israel and the priests and the Levites have not separated themselves from the people of the lands. And so they were marrying with them and beginning to follow after their religious customs and so on. Verse 2, they have taken their daughters for themselves, for their sons, so that the holy seed have mingled themselves with the people of those lands.

   Yes, the hand of the princes and rulers have been chief in this trespass. This is usually what happens, that when the leaders of a nation or society begin to go the wrong way, the masses are going to follow them. They're going to say, if they can do it, I don't see why I can't do it.

   They justify their actions because, after all, the leaders do those things. But notice in verse 3: When I heard this thing, I rent my garment and my mantle.

   I plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard and sat down astounded. I wonder how many of us would react that way. When we were to hear about some sin, just one sin apparently mentioned here, he was so horrified, he was so shocked, he couldn't believe it.

   And he was so chagrined because of what was going on, he just ripped his clothes apart, yanked out his hair, and sat down just absolutely dumbfounded. You know, what kind of reaction is that?

   That certainly is not the reaction of a person who is just casual, unconcerned, and well, I guess that's our society, and there's not much we can do about it. Here is a person who is very, very much concerned not only with things that were going on, but as we will see here, the name, the reputation of his people. And his own name, too, for that matter.

   So he goes on to say in verse 4: Then were assembled unto me every one that trembled at the words of God of Israel, because of the transgression of those that had been carried away. Maybe a few others like him who were horrified and did tremble at the word of God. And so I sat down astounded until the evening sacrifice.

   I don't know how many hours that may have been, but for a long period of time. At the evening sacrifice, I arose up from my heaviness. And having rented my garment and my mantle, I fell upon my knees and spread out my hands unto the God of my, Eternal, rather, my God.

   And I said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you, my God. He didn't even feel, even though he was righteous in serving God, that he could even lift his face to God because he was so ashamed at what his people were doing. Very concerned with that reputation.

   Because these were supposed to be the people of God. These were supposed to be people who had learned lessons from their captivity. These were supposed to be people who were going back to rebuild the temple and the service to God and serve him in every way.

   And yet they were not doing that. And their reputation, their name, was besmirch before the heathen and the presence of Ezra and before God Himself. That's the way he felt about it.

   I am ashamed, and I even blush to lift up my face to you. For our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass has grown up into the heavens. Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day.

   And for our iniquities have we, our kings, our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, captivity, spoil, to confusion of face, as it is to this day. We haven't learned our lessons, and we still have these sins and these problems upon us. And he felt very horrible because of that.

   So again, it is right to desire a good name, to be horrified when we find that either my name as a person or your name or all of us as a group would somehow be tainted by sin or wrong things that we are doing. And it is right to seek to resolve that. It is right to have the name that is good and profitable.

   Now, if you look over in I Thessalonians, I mentioned about Corinth earlier. We might be a little bit ashamed to come from Corinth because people are going to tar us with the brush of Corinth. I don't care if we're righteous or not.

   If you're from Corinth, you have Corinth's reputation. But over here in Thessalonica, I think if I were living back there, I'd be very, very happy and pleased to say I'm from Thessalonica, because their reputation was such as we read here. I Thessalonians 1:7 and 8.

   Well, let's just look at verse 3 (I Thessalonians 1:3), first of all. He says, remembering without ceasing your work of faith, your labor of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father. He does not condemn.

   I was about to say condemn for some reason, but he does not condemn. He compliments the church there for their faith and their love and their hope. And then down in verse 7, he says, You were examples to all that believe in Macedonia and Achaia, that example of faith, that hope, that trust, the labor you were doing one for another in your own life, the way you were enduring the trials and tests you had.

   You were examples of those things to Macedonia and Achaia, all of Greece, in other words. For from you sounded out the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God is spread abroad.

   So that we need not to speak anything. Well, I would assume that if the good reputation of Thessalonica was known, how could the bad reputation of Corinth be hidden? You know human nature.

   So here we find that Thessalonica did have a good name, an excellent reputation, and Paul didn't have to tell anybody about this particular group. Well, you know, sometimes I think we need to have that kind of approach and attitude no matter where we're from, whatever church area. Whatever our family may be, whatever your last name may be.

   I think we ought to desire to have a right reputation in the world, in the church, and especially before God. Well, Corinth learned, and they did clear their name. They came to a right defense, and their reputation certainly did improve.

   And that's a fine thing, a thing that we should do too. Here again is what repentance is all about. One aspect, one ingredient, desire to clear your reputation of the sins in your life. That's part of it. Point number three that Paul mentions is indignation or anger or wrath, I guess you could say, even.

   Why do we need to have anger or indignation against our sins? Well, for one reason, because it is a tremendous impetus to overcome. How can you eradicate something from your life unless you hate it? If it's not too bad, then you're not going to be that concerned about it. If it's a minor thing, something like we might call a white lie, or just a little sin, or merely a weakness or something of that nature, chances are, if we use terms or words like that to describe the things we're doing, we're going to have the same approach in overcoming.

   It'll be casual, it'll be indifferent, it will certainly not be fervent. But if you've feel and believe and think that even your least sin is a horrible thing, an evil thing, a black thing, that I think you'll have a greater impetus to overcome than if you just feel, well, it's not too bad. Again, let's go back to Corinth here.

   I Corinthians chapter 5. I Corinthians 5:1 and 2. And we look here at one of the open sins that was being committed.

   Everybody knew about it. I would even assume that people out of the church must have known about this kind of thing. It was a horrible thing upon their character and reputation as people of God at that time.

   It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. And most feel that this is referring not to his literal mother, but stepmother, his father had married somebody else, but that he had committed fornication openly and perhaps repeatedly with this woman.

   And it was well known, commonly known, certainly in the church. So, what was the church's attitude relative to it? You are puffed up.

   You have not rather mourned. You're not indignant. You don't feel horrible about this.

   Rather, you're puffed up. You have an attitude of vanity. Maybe you feel, well, we should show love to the individual.

   Maybe we have other things that would justify the presence of this person, whatever it may be that people use in their own life to justify their actions. So he says, You're puffed up, and you ought, on the other hand, to mourn.

   You ought to be indignant. You ought to be filled with anger, again, not at the individual, but at the sin that is committed. And even certain actions he begins to describe they ought to follow.

   I'm not going to take the time to read that. I think, again, we could understand why the church would feel this way. Corinth had a bad reputation as a city. I'm not just talking about the church itself. Maybe in that sense, that's why the church itself had such a bad reputation.

   They were somewhat like the city in which they lived. Corinth was a byword. And not only in the empire itself, but frankly, Corinth was a byword among all Greeks at that time.

   And I certainly feel we should not believe that all Greeks were just totally immoral that all Greeks had their favorite temple prostitute and all the rest of that. I think we can read about Corinth here and feel that all Greeks must have been that way.

   Well, they were not. There were Greeks in other towns and cities and villages who were equally as horrified as anybody ought to be about what was going on in Corinth. So Corinth was kind of a unique pocket in that sense.

   Not to excuse it in any way whatsoever, but I'm just trying to say that not every Greek was that way. But Corinth was evil, notorious, and a byword throughout the whole world at that time, even to Corinthianize, to take the name of the city and make it a verb, meant to be in every sense totally immoral and depraved and wicked.

   So here is a church. They've come out of the city, and I suppose they became rather accustomed to seeing all these things going on there. And it was nothing to be ashamed of because it was so open and so well, known, and they became inured to it, and they no longer, frankly, could be moved. They no longer could react as Ezra did and feel ashamed and chagrined or any such thing. And I guess that's why they, it says here, rather puffed up and why they did not mourn.

   They were just not accustomed to doing anything of that nature. Well, obviously, how can you repent? How can you turn from your sins if you feel the way the Corinthian church felt.

   How can you overcome anything that's wrong in your life unless you believe that everything that is against the laws of God is evil and despicable and you're ashamed of it and you hate it? How can you unless you feel that way? Back in Romans 12:9, Romans 12, which has a lot of just spiritual principles, one of them here is.

   Let love be without dissimulation. That is to say, unpretended. But then it goes on: abhor, hate that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. You have to hate evil. I mean, as much as you would hate anything you've ever hated in your life.

   Everything that that word means to you. To abhor it, hate it, detest it, loathe it, despise it, ad infinitum. This is what we have to do in everything in our life. These people at Corinth didn't. Eventually, though, they did.

   And that's why he says to them, I now see something I never saw in you before. Beforehand, you shrugged your shoulders, you were casual, you were indifferent. Now I see you are indignant at these things that are going on.

   And that's the way it has to be. We have to change our minds. This is, again, what repentance is all about: change your mind, your perspective, your way of looking at things. Beforehand, not too bad. Now you say it is totally bad.

   And that's the way it has to be. Back in Job 42, and we all know the story of Job, and of course, the verse here I'm going to turn to is the one we're all familiar with. It's almost classic relative to repentance.

   But you know, Job, unlike most of us, was righteous. The only thing is, he was self-righteous, and he never hated self-righteousness. Until God began to show him those things in his own character, not only, let's say, the things he had done, because really in that sense he didn't have to show him a lot of those things, because he had not, at least as far as the letter of the law and open sins were concerned, he was righteous.

   But as far as his attitude and approach, that had to be revealed to him. And finally, after a period of time, Job was shown by God what kind of person he was. Not in that sense did God show him the kind of things he had done, but God showed him the kind of person he was.

   And he was self-righteous, and he was vain. And he was very proud of the kind of righteousness that he maintained. But once he began to see these things, as we find in verses 4, 5, and 6 (Job 42:4-6), Here I beseech you, and I will speak.

   I will demand of you and declare you unto me. I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes sees you.

   I now see it. I finally have my eyes open. My perspective is totally changed now. I'm seeing things for the first time in the right way. And he says, Here's what I see. And I don't like what I see. I abhor myself. And I repent in sackcloth or dust and ashes. I change my way of life because I hate the things I see.

   Now, I'm sure that Job saw the same things before, he now saw, but he liked it before, he thought it was good, he was proud of it. But now he sees the right approach and attitude, the right mental approach he should have in repentance, and he didn't like it any longer.

   And he was ashamed and he was angry at what was there, and he was very, very indignant. So we need that impetus. If you come to the point that you can hate what you see in your life enough, you will change.

   You will get rid of it. You will overcome it, but you have to hate it, because if you like it just a little bit, you will hang on to it. There is another impetus to overcoming, and that's point 4 that Paul mentions here: fear, fear.

   I'm not going to take the time to qualify and explain that there are wrong kinds of fear. I think we should all understand that: that I am not talking, God is not talking here through Paul about. That kind of terror that is unwholesome and unsound that God wants us to flee from.

   But I am talking about a positive fear, a right frame of mind that we all have to have. And again, I say that's an impetus to overcome. That's a help.

   That's something we can have in the back of our mind. This is that kind of thing that produces safety rather than that which destroys. Now, over in Hebrews chapter 10, and Again, I want to qualify some of the things I do say here, but in Hebrews 10 (Hebrews 10:26), let's just read what we find: If we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries.

   Of course, that's the kind of fear, in one sense, that none of us want to get into. But let me ask you, which is better to have that fearful looking for on the brink, as it were, of the lake of fire...

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   ...despised Moses' law, died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sore punishment, suppose you, shall he be thought worthy who has trodden underfoot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and has done despite unto the spirit of grace.

   For we know him that has said, vengeance belongs to me, and I will recompense, says the Lord. And again the Lord shall judge his people.

   It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. And here he is speaking about that judgment, that condemnation that no one of us wants to have. We should, in that sense, fear getting into that kind of position.

   Again, let me qualify. I am not by any means saying that should be the guiding principle of our life. The guiding principle of our life should be faith and hope, everything that is optimistic, looking to the kingdom of God, expecting to be there, expecting to make it.

   All of those things from a, let say an optimistic perspective. But on the other hand, I think in the back of our minds, at any rate, there should be a right kind of fear, not again to take things casually or for granted, not to have a false sense of security, not to say, well, I'll overcome that eventually, or it's not too bad, or I'm sure that by the time Christ returns, I won't be doing those things, or I'll sow my wild oats now, and later on I'll come to repentance.

   I think a person who feels that way does not have a right kind of fear. There are many, many fears we have in this world that are good. Now, you know, we don't know if we have a problem here or not in this regard.

   Maybe people are used to the kind of roads that we drive on, especially here in Los Angeles with the freeways. Sometimes they can be a little bit frightening, especially if you have driven in traffic and systems like that. Do people ever out here get on the wrong direction on a freeway or anything like that?

   I would certainly say that we should be afraid of doing that kind of thing. I remember over at England, when they first came out with the motorway system, and people were not accustomed to that kind of roads, that it was fairly common. I mean, you know, once or twice a year, you would hear about someone getting on the northbound side of the freeway going south, which is not the healthiest position to be in.

   And oftentimes, those people would wind up killing themselves, and somebody else they would run into before they discovered they were going against the grain of the traffic. Now, again, I don't know if that happens out here or not. But I would certainly say that in driving, all of us, if we're good drivers, if we're careful and cautious and have learned to drive and do those things that we ought to, I don't think most of us get on the freeway and we're just filled with terror.

   I don't think our knees are shaking and we're absolutely frightened and scared to death of driving on this kind of system. But I do feel, I certainly do in the back of my mind, have a certain caution and fear in a right kind of way. If nothing more than looking for the smoky coming up fast behind my car, that might be the fear some of us may have.

   But anyway, we have certain fears. We watch traffic. We watch the on and off ramps.

   And we watch those who are passing. We watch what we're doing. So at least that fear can be in the back of our minds.

   We may take our children mountain climbing or maybe to the Grand Canyon or something of that nature. I took my children to the Grand Canyon a couple of years ago on the way to Tucson for the feast. And boy, I tell you, you have to be careful watching your kids. They want to get out on the farthest ledge, out on the rocks, and peering over and looking down and all of that. You know, they're young and they don't understand maybe the dangers, and you have to be very, very careful.

   And it's enough to make your heart miss a few beats from time to time when you see the way your kids may run around. I believe at the Grand Canyon, while it's very, very beautiful, I like to maintain my distance and look over where there's a good, safe, secure rail and all the rest of that.

   But children it seems some of them don't have that kind of fear. I certainly believe that when I have that kind of fear for my safety and for the safety of my family, that that is not a negative thing but a positive thing. And so, here, if I can draw that parallel, we have to have a right fear even of God, even of the lake of fire, even of punishments in that sense, simply because we don't want them.

   We don't want to go through those things, so we will fear. In order to preserve our life, to make sure we don't get into that kind of situation. So let's read a couple of scriptures in that line: Proverbs 14:16.

   Proverbs 14:16. A wise man fears and departs from evil, but the fool rages and is confident. Here are two different individuals, the one who is wise and he knows the dangers, he knows the problems that can arise, and he's careful, he's cautious, he's circumspect. He doesn't just enter into that situation without thinking about it and evaluating it. Repentance implies the same thing: that we're going to look at our life and we're going to want to immediately eradicate these things because we know the consequence, we know the dangers that are there.

   Again, it's not a terror, but it certainly is that kind of right fear. On the other hand, a person who is unrepentant is like a fool. He doesn't really understand and see the end results of his folly and his way of life.

   He's like a fool, and he's going to suffer for that. So here's a right fear. Also, verse 26.

   In the fear of the Eternal is strong confidence. So it's not a negative thing. You can be confident in the things that you are doing because you know that you're going to be afraid to do wrong things. You know, again, traveling on the highways. The person who is doing 55 miles an hour never has to fear the smoky, does he?

   It's all too often, though, that we're not doing the 55 miles an hour that we do have to worry about the policeman coming up behind our tails. It's funny how we are. You know, we could be obeying the laws, see a police car coming behind us with his lights flashing, and it scares us to death.

   Maybe we just know that he's pulling us aside. It's a Great relief when he goes on by. Well, we don't have to have fear if we're doing right things.

   We can be confident and know that he's after the other person rather than after us, or at least hope so. Hope he got everything straight. It says too that his children shall have a place of refuge.

   The fear of the Eternal is a fountain of life, not a negative thing, but a positive thing, to depart from the snares of death. That's why we have that kind of fear, so that we don't go the wrong way, so that we do desire to go the right way instead of the wrong way. So we're told to look and to have that right kind of fear.

   There are many, many other scriptures I could read in that regard. I'm just going to turn to one other in Hebrews. And Mr. Antien read this passage the other day, so I won't take the time to go down through it again. But in chapter 3 of the book of Hebrews, and though he was emphasizing, a different point. He shows here how Israel of old could not enter into the promised land because of their disobedience and especially because of their unbelief and their lack of faith.

   But he does warn us, the Church of God today, chapter 4, verse 1 (Hebrews 4:1), let us therefore fear, lest the promise of being left us rather, of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. So that's the kind of fear that we do have to have, a right fear.

   Don't just then assume that you will make it. Don't just assume that you will repent a year from now. Don't just assume that having sown your wild oats that you will come back.

   Don't just assume you have time. Don't just assume that you will make it. There are things to do.

   We have to work at it. And so we have to have that right fear here and now and to be afraid to do wrong things because we are afraid properly of the consequences.

   Point number five: Paul said that the Corinthian church not only had this right fear, not only had the diligence, the other characteristics I've been bringing out, but they had a vehement desire. They had a vehement desire. And again, that's so important.

   I think we would all acknowledge that: how can you change unless you really deeply want to change? If you're unconcerned, if you couldn't care less, if it's not important to you, obviously there's no way that we can change.

   So we must desire vehemently, as the Corinthian church did, to want to change. This must be our goal. This must be a paramount thing in our life: to want to be more like God daily, to be more Christ-like, to emulate their examples and their way of life.

   This has to be a major goal in our life, a vehement desire. I was speaking with a student just a couple of weeks ago who asked me a question.

   Why, he said, having been around the church all the years that I have, I forget how many, four, five, six, eight years, why is it, and he's not a young person either, he's about 25, 26. He said, why is it I have not yet been baptized? Of course, I can't really answer the question.

   Because I can't get inside his mind and rummage around and find all of the points that might be there. But I certainly believe, and I express to him one reason, similar to what Paul says here. I said, I just don't think you want it all that much, do you?

   I don't think you really see God's kingdom as much as you ought to. Because I think if you did see it as clearly as you ought to, you would desire it so quickly and so immediately that there'd be no way I could keep you from being baptized.

   Now, I don't know that the full answer, obviously, as I say. I have no way. But certainly, the point I want to bring out is this: that we cannot achieve anything in life.

   I don't care if it's a wife or a husband, you know, a family. I don't care if it's a good job, qualifications, education, the kingdom of God, anything else. We cannot achieve it unless we earnestly, deeply desire it.

   Now, we've heard physically of people in our society and world, and especially, I guess, we read about people like this in America, the last century, people like Abraham Lincoln, for example, and others. Individuals who did not have much of an opportunity for formal education.v

   And later on in life, because they wanted something, maybe they taught themselves to read and write, maybe they are somewhat basically self-educated, maybe they went on to law school much later on in life, but because of desire, they became something important in their own eyes. And in this world, they became successes. And the whole point being that ability and talent was insufficient for these individuals.

   Because I'm sure there are others who had the same talents and abilities of an Abraham Lincoln and others, yet did not achieve the same thing in life because, well, maybe they thought, well, I'll just be that way. I was born on this farm and no one's taught me to do these things. I'm just trapped by it.

   But others didn't feel trapped. They didn't feel they. were just a victim of their circumstance. They felt they could do something about it. So they had that goal, they had that desire, and they were, as it says here, vehemently desirous of this success. And they achieved it.

   Sure, they had the ability, but they also had to have the desire for it. Now, Christ tells us in Matthew 5, in the Sermon on the Mount, relative to spiritual things, in Matthew 5:6. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

   And the implication I get from this is that those who do not hunger and thirst for it won't be filled. That in order to be filled, you have to hunger and thirst. Now, we all know what hunger and thirst is all about.

   We had the Day of Atonement a week ago, or just about a week ago. We understand that, it means something to us, physically speaking.

   We go through that period of time in fasting in which we see very, very clearly how much we need, crave, desire, want right now, physical, material, food, and drink. And Christ said we have to have that same attitude relative to righteousness. I feel the same thing relative to repentance.

   We have to desire it. We must want to change. We must desire to be different from what we are.

   In I Peter 2:2, any parent will understand this. It says here: As newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby.

   How does a newborn babe desire milk? Again, every parent knows. That little baby, when it wakes up, doesn't just blink its eyes and stretch its arms and yawn two or three times and begin to casually look around the room and patiently wait for mom to feed it.

   It seems there's a built-in something or other in which, I don't know, the brain is connected to the stomach without much in between. And as soon as that four hours is up, click, the eyes open, and whaa, just like that. The baby immediately, loudly, vociferously wants food.

   It doesn't gradually begin to cry, it's full force. And you see the breath expelled and the chest sink in, and it sucks in a deep breath and another whaa until finally it's fed. And that's why he said this undoubtedly, Peter must have been a father. At least he understood it. So he says, as, you know, the simile, the figure of speech, just like a newborn babe, desire the milk of the word, that you may grow.

   And that's what I want to point out: that if we are going to grow, as we should, as we must, we must desire. It. We must want it.

   We must want these things cleared up in our life. In Psalm 51, which, as we know, is, again, I guess, the classic chapter that we all refer to when it comes to seeing an attitude of repentance, here's what David said: Psalm 51:1 and 2: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin.

   And I get the definite impression that David is crying out with the utmost sincerity and intensity in his life. Wash me, cleanse me, scrub me, bathe me, you know, totally and completely. Get rid of these things in my life.

   That's what he desired. That's what he wanted. Also, down in verse 7, purge me with hyssop. And I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. As I understand, some of these things that he is talking about, hyssop and so forth, almost like the roughest lye soap you could think of, you know, that really burns and penetrates and scrubs.

   And bleach me, as it were, and pour any and every other kind of chemical in there to get rid of every bit of filth and dirt that you possibly can. Scrub me and wash me and make me white as snow. That's what he wants. And that's the kind of attitude and approach we have to have. Again, Corinth did.

   They began for the first time, I guess, in many of them, their spiritual lives, to vehemently desire to change. And they did. Finally, then, point number six, I'm sorry, it's not point six, it's not finally at any rate.

   Point number six is zeal. Zeal. And again, so many people don't change because they're not as zealous as they ought to be.

   Now, over in Revelation 3 and verse 19, Revelation 3:19 Christ says to the Laodicean church, which was the very opposite of a zealous repenting church, this statement: As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. So he tells them, Be zealous, therefore, and repent.

   You have to have the zeal, the drive, the continual effort. Laodicea lukewarm. Casual, indifferent, mañana. We'll take care of it one of these days. It'll happen. But he says, No, you've got to be zealous. I'm rebuking you. I'm chastening you, he says. Be zealous, repent, and change your life.

   Over in Galatians 6:9, and again, I want to read this in this context too, because many of us maybe have been in the church for many, many years. And there's a danger we all have. Again, I'm not saying that we're all this way by any means.

   Please don't misunderstand, but I'm. Just saying, here's a danger we need to look to. Galatians 6, verse 9, it says, Let us not be weary in well-doing.

   That's just an admonition. Don't just assume, well, I've been around a long time, and these things are going to be right and profitable and happen, and so on. No, it says, Don't be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

   Continue that zeal, continue that love, continue that determination. To follow and serve God completely and totally. And now, point number seven, which is the last point of these seven.

   And a rather interesting word that he uses: revenge, which means to vindicate that which you have done. It doesn't mean that you will forgive what you have done. Christ's blood does that.

   It doesn't mean you atone for it. Christ's blood does that. It doesn't mean that you can erase it by any fruit or action you do.

   But on the other hand, this means that you recognize what you have done, and that recognition leads you to correct that which was wrong. It has to do with correction, doing the right thing now, improving, growing, and eradicating those things. It does not mean, obviously, to forgive.

   Now, over in I Corinthians 15, and I think Paul expresses here the best that any of us possibly could what this will do in our life. Because Paul, who had persecuted, the church, even though that was wiped away by the blood of Christ, nevertheless had this interesting approach. I Corinthians 15, and beginning here in verse 9 (I Corinthians 15:9), I am the least of the apostles, he said, that am not meet or proper to be called an apostle because I persecuted the church of God.

   He recognized what he had done, but by the grace of God I am what I am. And his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

   So Christ's mercy forgave the sins. Christ's blood atoned for all of the past. But nevertheless, Paul wanted to correct that which was wrong, revenge it in that sense.

   And because of that, he was so intense, labored so abundantly. He did all of these things, even he says here, more than the others, because he recognized the evil of his life. Again, that's the kind of approach that we should and must have: to look at our past and to correct it, to see the things that we have done, and to now lead a right life and do those things that are profitable rather than injurious.

   So, finally, brother, what is the end result of all of this? How do we put it together? Well, again, let's go back to I Corinthians.

   II Corinthians rather chapter 7. Let's put it all together. II Corinthians 7, beginning, verse 10 (II Corinthians 7:10).

   It shows here that godly sorrow is going to work a change of mind that we should not regret or be sorry for in any way whatsoever. Though the sorrow of this world works death. For behold, this selfsame thing: that you, the Corinthian church, formerly, you know, we're a certain way, but now, He says, you sorrowed after a godly sort.

   What diligence you have had to overcome? What clearing of yourselves you now have a right reputation and name? What indignation?

   Yes, what fear? What vehement desire you manifest to overcome? Yes, what zeal and what revenge.

   And putting all of these steps of repentance together, what is the fruit? Notice the latter part of the verse: In all things. You have proved yourselves to be clear in this matter.

   Your sins are forgiven. This is the end result. And this is what we all want to hear before God.

   That as we come before God in repentance and in prayer and asking for help to overcome our sins, this is what we want to hear: that God will say, your sins are forgiven, they're wiped away, they've been removed from us. So we just as Corinth.

   We're as human as they. we make many of us the same precise mistakes that they have made. I think that's why God has that epistle in the Bible, so that we can see the kind of things that we as human beings do.

   We're still, you know, any one of us, still carnal, largely so. Yet we can see that Corinth followed a process, a process of overcoming that brought them to repentance, that changed their mind and their way of life. So brethren, let's turn back to II Corinthians 7 from time to time.

   And let's read what we have here from time to time. And let's emulate their example and meditate upon these principles that are brought out here and see how we can, as individuals, have a much more effective repentance in our life and be the kind of person that we ought to be spiritually a year from now.