This morning I'm going to read several verses from Psalm 51 to begin verses one through four, seven through ten, and sixteen and seventeen. So, I'll tell you when I jump to the next from one verse to another but we'll begin in verse one. Psalm 51 verse one. Have mercy upon me, oh God, according to thy loving kindness. According unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.

Wash me truly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. That thou mightest be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest. Verse seven, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.

Wash me and I shall be whiter snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. Verse 16, for thou desires not sacrifice, else would I give it?

Thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, oh God. Thou wilt not despise. Let's go to the Lord in prayer once more. Lord, we pray that you would work in our hearts today.

That your spirit would take the word of God and that you would do a mighty work. Lord, open our eyes to areas that we need to deal with with you. Lord, assure us Lord today. Your care and your concern Also, your desire that we be open and honest with you and confront the things in our life which need to change. Lord, thank you for all that you have done and Lord, may you do a mighty work today.

May your word not return void as you has promised. In Jesus name, amen. Uh-huh. Last week, we looked at this verse as we talked about the meaning of repentance particularly in regards to salvation in Christ Jesus. The word means to turn from one path or conclusion to another.

To have a complete change of mind or heart. If one is truly to be saved from sin, you must choose to turn from it and all other allegiances, faith, and idols to place your trust that is faith alone in the Lord Jesus to save you. You must have a change of heart. You can't put your faith in Christ unless God works a change in your heart And you repent of the path that Broadway that you were on, that leads to destruction and choose the narrow way. Jesus Christ that leads to life.

Doesn't mean reformation that you change some of your behavior. That that won't cut it. Doesn't mean that you choose to never ever sin again. When you trust Christ, indeed you do choose never to sin again. But that won't be until we stand before him perfect in heaven.

Because sadly, we do still sin even as believers. But it means to have a change of heart, a change of direction. Where you turn away from the old path and you turn to Christ. And embrace him as the Lord and savior that he is. Repentance is a vital part of salvation.

My question today is is this, is repentance also necessary for the Christian? Or just for the unsaved? Must Christians sometimes repent? Is it necessary? Does God command us to repent?

And if so, why? Again, we often use repentance in regards to the unsaved, repenting, and getting saved. But are there times in our life when we also as Christians have to turn from something? Are there times as our lives as Christians that we have to repent of a mindset that we've adopted that is contrary to God and his will? The answer to that is yes.

Repentance is also for the Christian. First, I must be clear. A Christian never need repent again for salvation. Why is that? Because you can only be saved what?

You can only be saved once. The Bible clearly states that those who come to Christ for salvation will never perish. John ten twenty eight, that they've passed from death unto life. John five twenty four, that they will never come into condemnation. Romans eight one, that nothing can separate them from the love of Christ.

Romans eight thirty eight and thirty nine. That they can know that they possess eternal life. First John five thirteen. It says that we are kept by the power of God unto salvation in first Peter one five. That he is faithful and will perform the good work that he has started until the day of Jesus Christ.

Philippians one six and that we are sealed unto the day of redemption by the Holy Spirit who he has given to us. Ephesians four thirty. Those are just a few verses to speak of the eternality of salvation. That we only get saved what? Once and we are kept by God's grace and by his power.

Just as Noah was safe and secure in the ark after who closed the door? Who closed the door of the ark? God did. When God closed the door, they were safe and secure until the judgment was over. Just as the Israelites firstborn were safe and secure from the judgment because they had placed the blood of the door, the the blood of the lamb on the doorpost.

So, are we safe and secure in the Lord Jesus Christ and no one or nothing can pluck us out of the father's hand. So you say well, if that's the case, then repentance isn't necessary for the Christian and you would be wrong. Because it is. Repentance is something that God expects from his children. Something that is necessary necessary for our growth.

Something that is necessary for our effectiveness. Something that is necessary for our assurance. And our joy as children of God. Take David for instance. Psalm 5,117, the sacrifices of God are what?

A broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, oh God, thou wilt not despise. A broken and contrite heart is the description of a repentant one. One that is broken and mortified by their sin who comes to God humbly and confesses it is truly repentant. And will see God do great and mighty things. Amen.

In their life. But you have to be willing to change. You have to be willing to humble yourself. You have to be willing to see the things in your life that are not compatible. With being like Jesus.

And repent. There are most definitely times in life of God's children when God brings us face to face with our sin and if we are to continue to grow, if we're continue to be effective in our service for Christ, if we are to experience the assurance that he gives, people come to me sometimes say, pastor, I need assurance that I'm saved. I'm sorry. I can't give you assurance you're saved. Only God can.

I can take you to verses that tell you what I just told you that if you've trusted Christ as savior, you're safe and secure in Jesus Christ. I can take you to verses that that speak about how you're saved. But I can't give you assurance that comes from who? That comes from God. Unless we repent, we will be like David before he repent.

Psalm 51, David is repenting. What had he done? He had committed adultery. So, what he had done? He had seen to it that the woman's husband died in battle escape to being found out.

And he didn't deal with it right away Remember the story God sent Nathan, the prophet. Nathan, the prophet confronted him with his sin and David finally repented but he speaks of being broken. His bones being feeling as though his bones were broken. He speaks of feeling guilty. He speaks of being joyless.

And feeling dirty until he did what? Until he repented. Confronted with his sin. He went to who? He went to God and he humbly with a broken heart, mortified by his sin, said, oh Lord, please.

Take this from me. Show mercy. A church where people are constantly walking the aisle and weeping and wailing. But not changing. Is an unhealthy church.

But a church where people hardly ever seem broken and humbled over their sin. Enough to come to the front and pray and ask for the prayers of their brothers and sisters Is not a healthy one either. We are obviously not the former. I wonder if we are the latter. Christians sadly still commit sins.

Even adopt sinful habits, except worldly philosophies which must be repented of. If we are to prosper in the way of the Lord. You might think that once you're saved, you're not capable of sinning. That would be great and one day, when I'm rid of this flesh and this old sinful nature that I drag around like a a ball and chain wherever I go. One day, God's going to cut that.

One day, it's going to be what? Gone forever. But in the flesh now, there's a what? There's a battle that we are in. Between the will of the Lord and our new nature and the spirit of our God who lives in us and that old nature that we drag around that pulls us down.

We are still sadly capable of adopting sinful habits. Patterns of thought that are contrary to the word and the will of God. And you know that to be the case. In first John one eight, it says, if we say that we have no sin, we make a liar. God a liar.

If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving who? Ourselves. And who is John writing? He's writing professing Christians. He says, if you say that you have no sin, then, what you're doing is ignoring your sin.

We Christians are warned incessantly in scripture not to adopt or be conformed to the world. It's lifestyles and philosophies. Romans twelve two, and be not conformed to this world but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is a good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Colossians, Colossians two eight, beware, lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of man, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. Why?

Why is this? Why does God warn us? Why does God challenge us to not be conformed to the world. Because if we do not walk circumspectly, that is cautiously, purposefully with our eyes fixed on who? On Jesus Christ.

If we don't walk circumspectly and in the spirit, we will fall prey to many of the traps of the world. First Corinthians six nine through 11, know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Be not deceived neither fornicators nor adulterers nor they are idolaters nor adulterers nor feminine nor abusers of themselves with mankind nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards nor revilers nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God and such were some of you but you are washed but you are sanctified but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the spirit of our God. The apostle Paul reminds Christians at the church at Corinth that they were once many terrible things but they are not anymore. Having been forgiven and having been washed and cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ, they are no longer the children of wrath but the children of who?

God. And they need to strive by his grace to live like it. Why does God remind them of what they were and where they were headed? To warn them not to bring any of those wicked things back into their lives because if we are not on guard against them, we will. If we do, we must what?

We must repent. The church at Corinth was made up of many genuine believers in Jesus Christ but they were saved out of horrible, horrible, wicked, immoral, idolatrous culture. They were having a difficult time completely severing the ties of recognizing and discerning the way of the Lord. And the way of the world and so Paul wrote and said, this is these are the things that define the lost. Don't you be like them?

Don't you allow these things into your life? They're no longer, they no longer have a place. They do not belong. So, if you see them cropping up, what should you do? Repent.

Ephesians five, seven, and eight. Paul writes, be not you therefore partake therefore be not you therefore partakers with them. For you were sometimes darkness but now you are light, walk as children of light. Don't be partakers with them. They're going to do.

They're going to follow the lust of the flesh and the lust of eyes, the pride of life. Don't you follow them. You have a different spirit, a new nature. You follow that. In Galatians five, we're commanded to walk in the spirit that we should not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

So, clearly, Christians can and do sin and even adopt sinful habits and behaviors when we're not walking in harmony with the holy spirit. And with his word. What is God's command of the Christian who lives, who realizes the error of their way? Repent, confess, recognize it, call it what it is. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

God is faithful. God wants you to have peace and joy and assurance and and be empowered and enabled in his service and effective testimony for Jesus Christ. But sometimes for that to happen, there's something that needs to be what? Repented of. Look if you would in Revelation two.

Revelation two. Revelation chapter two. Verses one through five. Revelation two one through five. Unto the angel or the messenger of the church of Ephesus, that's a congregation of believers at the city of Ephesus.

Right. These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks. These are metaphors. They are speaking of Jesus Christ. Verse two, I know thy works and thy labor and thy patience.

How thou canst not bear them which are evil? And thou hast tried them which say they are apostles and are not and has found them liars and has born and has has and has patience. Born or endured and has patience and for my name's sake hast labored and has not fainted. Nevertheless, I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore, from whence thou art fallen and next word, repent.

Do the first works or else I will come unto thee quickly. Remove thy candlestick. Out of his place except thou repent. The candlestick represents the testimony of the church at Ephesus. We are to be the light of the one.

The light of the world. But if we lose our testimony, what happens to our light? It goes out. God warned the church of Ephesus, you need to fix something and if you don't fix it, you're going to lose your testimony and you're going to lose your effectiveness for Christ and you're going lose your assurance. You're to lose all these things if you do not deal with this problem.

Notice first of all, that the Lord addresses them at the church at Ephesus which means the assembly of Christians at after the assembly of believers. So, who's he writing to? He's writing to Christians. He's writing to believers at that congregate together in the city of Ephesus. Secondly, notice the Lord did in this case have some good things to say about this group of saints.

Matter, he had a lot of good things to say about them. They were diligent. They worked and they labored. They were not a lazy bunch of people. They were patient and they endured some persecution for the sake of Jesus Christ.

They did not turn tail and run. They did not recant their faith. They were diligent in their service. They were patient in waiting on who? In waiting on the Lord and they rejected false prophets and false doctrine.

This was something that was a problem early in the church. It's still a problem today in the church. There is much false teaching and false doctrine. He praised them because they recognized the false prophets and they recognized the false teaching and they didn't want to have anything to do with it. Again, if the majority of their congregation was unsaved, do you think God would appraise them for all these things?

I don't think so. This was a church full of believers. Full of believers who were diligent in their service, who were patient in waiting for the Lord, who had rejected false teaching and so God praised them. Sad to say that many churches today don't measure up quite as well as this one did. There are a lot of lazy and uncommitted Christians today in regards to serving the Lord.

There are a lot of impatient Christians who just can't trust the Lord and wait patiently for him. There are a lot of Christians who even despite their genuine faith, tolerate false teachers and false teaching. They should know better. Too many Christians that turn on the TV set and watch a false prophet who happens to be very popular in the minds of the world. Be careful that you don't get pulled in.

However, The Lord rebuked the church at Ephesus For a significant shortcoming, they had left what? They had left their first love. That mean they had turned their back on God altogether and no. That mean that they had lost their salvation? No.

But they were growing cold in their relationship with who? With God. They had apparently grown cold in their love of Christ and their personal fellowship with him. Substituting busyness for fellowship. The Lord rebuked Martha for that.

She was busy in Luke 10 preparing the food and and getting everything just perfect because Jesus had come to visit and that seemed like the right thing to do and what was her sister Mary doing? She was sitting over there, Jesus' feet and she wasn't lifting a finger to help Martha and Martha rebuked her sister Mary in front of Jesus and said, why is it that I'm doing all the work and there you are sitting there doing nothing? And Jesus looked at Martha and said, Mary has chosen the what? The better thing. What was he talking about?

Martha saw Christ visit as necessary time to get everything just right for her important visitor. Martha saw it as a fleeting opportunity to sit at Jesus' feet and learn from him. Now, what Martha was doing was not wrong. But what Mary was doing was better. You see, and sometimes, we end up being a lot of Martha's and not a lot of what?

Not a lot of Mary. You can't abandon personal time at Jesus' feet. For the busyness of life. Maybe you're doing good things. Maybe you're you're busy doing the work of the Lord but if you're not spending time at Jesus' feet, you have left your first what?

You've left your first love. And you need to repent Many Christians today have grown cold in their love and fellowship with their savior. They've allowed other things to take preeminence in their lives. They're busy as a being, an exciting life, a a prosperous career, a fruitful business, even in many various ministries, programs, and services and yet something very important, vital is missing. Their own personal walk with the Lord.

Activity has replaced fellowship. And that will ruin a Christian eventually. How long since you spend an hour in your prayer closet with the Lord? Now, I don't mean an actual closet. Though it could be a closet.

Now, how long has it been since you spent an hour in prayer with God? Or half an hour? Or ten minutes? Or five? Or is prayer just something we do before we eat?

Or is devotions, well, that's what we do when we come to church and sit for the Sunday service. Are we taking the opportunity to sit at Jesus' feet each day? Have we left our first love of just getting to know him and love him? And be fed by him for being busy That was the problem with the church at Ephesus. They were busy.

They were doing good things. They were doing them in the name of the Lord. But they had left their first love and what did God say? He said, you need to repent. You need to see this for what it is.

It's a problem. It is a problem and you need to go back to those first works when you first got saved. And you enjoyed the love and the blessing and the word of your savior. This was their shortcoming and may very well be yours. But it could be something else.

Could be eating, smoking, or drinking habits. It could be viewing habits or thought life could be an unforgiving spirit towards someone Bitterness of heart. It could be a lack of concern for the lost. Most of you don't haven't got to know Curtis very well down here but I hope he doesn't mind pointing me out him out for just a second but Curtis comes to church now every Sunday morning and he asked me where are the tracks? All of my put back there I think last week 50 tracks and hand them out.

Took the rest of that are up here this morning is going have them out I'm I'm going to have to go and have have a a thousands of em printed. And that's a good thing and you know, we can be doing more of that than we are. Maybe it's your relationship with your spouse Maybe it's your unwillingness to be used by the Lord and step out in faith is the problem. Maybe it's laziness in his service. That's a plague on Christianity today.

We're just lazy. Undisciplined. Maybe it's dishonesty. With others. Maybe it's greed, unwillingness to trust God, be content.

Maybe it's a lack of faithfulness to the church service. I don't know what it may be but chances are there's something. If there isn't today there will be next week that God puts his finger on and says this needs to want. This needs to change. It's wrong.

And what does God say to the church at Ephesus? What does God say to Christians today? If you don't want to lose your testimony, if you don't want to lose your power, if you don't want to see the blessings of God diminish in your life, well, you need to why? You need to repent. You need to confess.

Call it what it is. Ask God for help. Confess your faults one to another. Humble yourself. Let somebody else know so they can pray with you.

Repent and do the first works. Have a serious change of heart and will concerning sin in your life and trust him to help you change it. Confront your sin. Deal with it with your savior. Do the first works.

Have a change in attitude and behavior which demonstrates a sincere love of Christ and confession of sin. A more passionate prayer and devotional life. Spending real time with God and his word. A hunger and openness to the preaching of God's word. A soft heart, a true love and concern for others.

A willingness to change and cast out that those weights and sins which so easily what? Beset us, attach themselves to us. To hold us back from serving the Lord. Repent of them. Humble yourself.

Confess them before the Lord. And watch what he does. Give God back first place in your heart like when you first got saved. Before the allurements and the distractions and the doubts started making inroads. In your life.

Repent. Christian, repent. And if you hear and you've never trusted Christ as your savior you must repent to be saved. That is you must turn from whatever it is you're trusting in and living for and choose who? And choose Jesus.

He is waiting for you. Let's pray. Dear heavenly father, thank you Lord for your word for the command in it we find to repent and Lord, if there's something you put your finger on, I pray that we would not put it off another day but indeed, we would confess it before you. We would call it what it is before you. We would seek your help to rid it from our lives that we might be a bright and shining testimony for Jesus Christ.

And Lord, I pray if there's one here that's never accepted Christ, I pray that they would come today and trust Christ as the Lord and savior of their life. They would choose the narrow way, the way of life. Lord, do a mighty work, I pray. In Jesus name, amen.