Transcription
People, as can to make that part of your life. 2 Corinthians 7:8. The Apostle Paul, of course, here writing to the church at Corinth, says this: "For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent." Again, I want you to get this picture in your mind. When we see the word "repent," what he's saying here is, "I don't turn around. I don't change my direction from what I said." He said, "I made you sorry, and I'm not changing direction." He said, "though I did repent, for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were for but for a season."
"Now I rejoice not that you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance." So there is a sorrow that should direct you. And he said, "You need to make sure your sorrow directs you in the right place." He said, "it brought you to repentance, for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that you might receive damage in us by nothing." "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of." That if your sorrow is the right kind, it will bring you to a place of turning away from sin, and you won't turn away back to sin. Godly sorrow will change your direction away from the way you used to live. It'll cause you to start walking in a new direction. And godly sorrow every day will provoke you to keep walking toward Jesus.
He said, "but the sorrow of the world worketh death." Now this is what people often think repentance is. It's shame. It's living every day beating yourself up over things that went wrong and wrong decisions. He said, "that kind of sorrow, it's of the world, and it worketh death." "For behold, this self-same thing that you sorrowed after a godly sort." Here's what godly repentance looks like: "what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, and yea, what revenge." "And in all things you have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter."
If God will help me, I want to talk to you today about the road to revenge. The road to revenge. Would you lift your hands across the house and would you begin to pray? God, we worship you. We thank you for this opportunity to come before you, to feel your presence, to open your word. I pray today that every heart and mind will receive revelation by the power of your word. Teach us how to walk like you, to think like you, Lord, to live like you. God, I pray that you would help every one of us to walk this road, to understand the doctrine of repentance. We trust you, we believe you, and we give you praise. Would you give God a hand clap of praise across the house? Thank you, Lord. God bless you. You may be seated.
I understand that my title has your attention today, uh, because there are some words that carry a lot of baggage with them. And one of them is this word "revenge." Now, when God described himself as being a jealous God, another often negative word, and says that his name is jealous. Now, that's something strange for us because that word carries a lot of baggage with it. From our perspective, jealousy is a negative attribute. But when you take all the humanity and selfishness and remove it from that emotion, then it becomes something that is pure love from God toward his people. It is protection and desire that his people would separate themselves unto him.
Now, even so, it is true with this word "revenge." We want to separate the humanity, the negative emotions, from this word and look at it according to what the Bible is saying. Now, I want to begin by talking about what I call, and what others have called, the road of repentance. Repentance is essential. It is not something that you can avoid. It is an essential part of the gospel. It is not optional for someone who wants to be saved. But if you want to be saved, you must repent. Acts 17 and 3 says, "In the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent." For those who think they've done enough good that they don't have to repent, that's the first scripture I'd take you to. That He commands all men everywhere to repent.
Acts 3:19, speaking of the Holy Ghost, said, "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that there's got to be a change." When you really repent, there will be a change in you, "that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord." That here we see in the salvation process that repentance, there's some things you've got to do to be saved, and repentance is a prerequisite for the grace of God working in your life. Mark 1:5 says this: "That the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of heaven is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel." That if you don't see your need for repentance, you don't really believe the gospel.
Before you can repent, you must first recognize your need for repentance. This is why I'm not the biggest fan of corporate "repeat after me" repentance, because it's more than just speaking some words in an effort to follow a formula. But there must be a recognition in your heart that "I have wronged God. I have fallen short of his glory." And because of that, "I have to repent of anything I've done, no matter how small or large it might seem in the eyes of man, if it's short of the glory of God, I've got to repent." And I've got to lean on the Savior. And so we've got to recognize our need for repentance and for change.
This is why we've talked about that the Acts 2:37 experience must precede the Acts 2:38 experience. That when Peter began to preach, Acts 2:37 said, "they were pricked in their heart," or they were cut to the heart. They recognized, "We have not done everything right, and we've got to repent and get things right between us and God before we can be saved." And when they saw their need for repentance, Peter said, "You need to repent and be baptized, that there's an action you need to take, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." It is the gospel message of how we must be saved. But to be saved, we must recognize our need for repentance.
Again, there are different parts inside the doctrine of repentance. It's a whole lot more than just saying "I'm sorry." But there is a road, if you will, to true repentance. I want you to think of repentance as a journey. That it's something you make a little more progress on every single day of your life, because it's more than just feeling remorse. It's more than just regret. But it's a continual process of change.
We read where Esau sold his birthright. He felt terrible. He felt remorse. He sought repentance, but he could find no true repentance, because repentance is more than just remorse. He never let the feeling of remorse he felt drive him in the right direction to find true repentance, because repentance is change. Judas went out and he wept bitterly and he hung himself. He felt remorseful, but he did not take the road to true repentance. He let the feelings of sorrow that he felt drive him to a form of ungodly sorrow. You see, remorse will kill you, but repentance, true repentance, will help to save you. That feeling of regret can drive you to repentance, but it is not repentance. How you deal with regret will either bring renewal in your life or it will bring death to your soul.
If you really repent, there will be a renewal by the workings of the Holy Ghost. For Titus 3 and 5 says, "It is not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy that he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost." That no matter how bad it was, when you really repent and you turn to God, God will begin to regenerate you. He's not going to kill you. He's not going to destroy you. But if you want to turn away, God's going to renew you. God's going to give you strength. God's going to bring you closer to him and not turn you away.
Now, this is what people who have fallen from grace begin to think, "Well, God's done with me. God's going to turn me away if I go to him." But no, you've got it backwards. If you'll just change your direction and come to him, he will assuredly not turn you away, but he's going to renew you. He's going to regenerate you, and he's going to help you to change and to live a new lifestyle, because true repentance will always bring change.
When Jacob's household was returning to Bethel in Genesis 35, he gave three commands. Hands. He said, "Put away the strange gods from among you." This is the removal. This is the repentance process. Remove anything that separates you from God. Remove anything that distracts you from Him. There was a cutting away. There was a separation. He said, "You need to put away all those strange gods." And then, number two, he said, "You need to be clean." That there ought to be a change in the way you live your life. He was saying there's a cleansing from that filthy nature that you've been living in in Shechem, because if you're going to come to Bethel, which is the house of God and the dwelling of God, you're going to have to be clean, have a clean mind and a clean heart. And Jacob understood, not one person among us naturally has a clean mind or a clean heart. He said, "If we're going to be clean, it's going to be through the process of repentance. It's going to be by separating ourselves from the way that we've been living." And then, number three, he said, "You've got to change your garments." That you've got to lay aside the garments of sin and be clothed with salvation. We've got to put off that old man and we've got to put on the new man. Jacob understood true repentance. It requires change. If there's not change in your life, you've not really repented. You may have prayed a prayer. You may have cried some tears. But if you didn't change, then you have not yet repented.
If you find yourself back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, the problem is not that God is not forgiving you. The problem is not is that you are not really repenting. It's that you're not getting up from praying and going and doing the things necessary to change your lifestyle. Ezekiel 18:30 said this: "Repent and turn yourselves." It is a clear picture of what it really means. "Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin." He's telling Israel, "You've been walking in a direction. You've been committing iniquity. And if you're going to be saved from your ruin that you've chosen for yourself, you're going to repent, and you're going to change your direction, and you're going to walk in the other way." You're going to now separate yourself. You're not going to keep staying in the same place and say, "Lord, I'm sorry. Lord, I'm sorry. Lord, I'm sorry," but you're still living the same lifestyle. Neither are you going to turn and you're going to pray on Sunday, and then on Monday, you're going to go back this direction, and then on Thursday, you're going to repent and go back the other way, and then, and then by Friday and Saturday, you're going back this direction. No man or woman can live that way. It will destroy your soul and sear your conscience.
But you've got to have the fortitude to say, "I made a decision to turn away, and no matter what I have to do, I'm going to stick with what I said. I'm going to keep walking in the other direction." You see, repentance is a turning away. It's a change in your direction. Now, here's something we need to get. In the kingdom of God, direction is more important than distance. This is where, when we read the story of the Prodigal Son, the moment he began to look outward, he was still in the father's house. But when his imagination went prodigal, he was in trouble. Distance. He was still in the house, but he had already changed his direction to set it out away from the father's house. Now, then he goes out and he gets in the hog pen. And again, we see direction is more important than distance. Because when he turns around and changes his direction, we don't read how far away the hog pen was from the father's house, but we read, "while he was still a long way off," 'cause his direction had changed, the father came running to him and said, "Hey, I I see something's different. I I see you're headed back to the house." "I'm not going to wait for you to get your foot in the door, but I'm going to come running to you because I see you made a choice to change your direction."
You need to get it in your mind: "If I'll just change my direction, if I'll just change my way of thinking, God is going to help me." Direction is everything in the kingdom of God. And so, when there is a change of direction and repentance is genuine, the fruit of your life will show it. Matthew 3 and 8 said, "Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance." Bring forth acceptable things that are evidenced in your life. That in your life, people should see that you have really repented. Acts 26 and 20 said this to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works. For those that hate the idea of doing anything, he commanded, thank you, that they should do works meet for repentance, that their repentance would be evidenced by their changed behavior. Luke 3 and 8 says the same thing: "Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance." And don't say for yourself, "Well, we've got Abraham for our father." What he was saying, "I don't care what your daddy did or your mama did or who they were, but you've got to repent for yourself. You've got to change your direction for yourself, and you've got to bear fruit in the kingdom of God for yourself."
But part of true repentance is trusting God that He will honor His word, and that if you'll truly repent, that God will do what He said He'd do, and He'll forgive you. This is where Romans 8:1 said, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit." Now, that specifically ties it to those who have changed their direction. That if, if you've changed and you've repented, then there's no need for you to condemn yourself for what happened when you were going the other way. You've got to trust, if you really turned away, that God is faithful and just to forgive your sin.
And so, repentance is again, it's not something we leave there at the turning point, but true repentance continues to spur you on every day in the kingdom of God. This is where Paul said, "I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling." What was pressing him? It was that true repentance. It was the Spirit of God saying, "We're not going back to being Saul of Tarsus again, but but God has changed you. God's made you a new man. God has put His anointing in you." And so repentance made Paul continue every day being what God wanted him to be.
And so, this is the doctrine of repentance. It's more than just something we rush through on our way to baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. But it again is a road that you are meant to walk every single day of your life. That you can get the Holy Ghost and you still need to keep walking that road of true repentance. It's not something you leave behind because you got the Holy Ghost. Now, neither are you meant to every day keep saying you're sorry for past sins that you've committed. But part of repentance is believing that when you repented, God forgave you. And so you don't have to keep digging up that old sin and allowing the devil to torment you with it. It's meant to be a continuing work of freedom in your life.
And so, true repentance from past sin opens the door to the gift of the Holy Ghost. But repentance continues on and builds things in you long after you've received the Holy Ghost. This is where Paul said, "I die daily." What he was saying is, every single day, as I'm walking away from my old life, there's things that try to arrest my attention and cause me to turn around. But he said, "Every day, by the help of the Holy Ghost, I've got to put my face back in the right direction, and I I've got to pray, and I've got to keep walking. I I've got to shake off every hindrance and every distraction and keep traveling the way He called me to travel."
True repentance is every day crucifying your will that you might do His will. And when you get in a habit of every day, just as the devil or as carnality tries to attach itself to you and turn you around, that every day you just shake it off, you cut it off by that sword of the Spirit and by by prayer, and you keep walking, then you're ready to walk down the road of repentance, which is given in our text, 2 Corinthians 7 and 11.
Now, remember, he said there's godly sorrow and then there's the sorrow of the world. So we want to recognize what kind of sorrow is operating in us. If it tells you you can't be saved and you've done too much wrong to turn around, and people don't believe in you, and they're against you, it is not godly sorrow. What that is is the sorrow of the world that would beat you down and crush you beneath its weight. But if it says, "Lord, I can't keep living like that. God called me to live better. God's put His hand on me. I don't want to disappoint Him. I I don't want to fail Him. I I don't want to take any chance." Well, friend, that is godly sorrow. That that's how you walk the road of repentance.
And so, he said, "You saw after a godly sort." "What carefulness it wrought in you." And here is step number one on the road of repentance, and that is carefulness. The word here, the original form, it says there's diligence. There's diligence that you've wasted enough time in sin, but now it's time for you to make up for lost time with Jesus. That for that sinner, they've been tormented 10 or 15 or 20 or 25 years, and they've they've made a lot of bad decisions. The sorrow of the world will say, "Well, you wasted too much time. God can't do anything with you now. Look, look at all that you wasted. Look at all that you've thrown away." But godly sorrow says, "I can't waste another moment. I I wasted enough time in sin. Now now I've got to be more intense than ever before. I I've got to be careful. I've got to be diligent. I I've got to be so careful with every boundary that I set and every fence that I build."
When someone's really repentant, there will be a carefulness to no longer live on the very precipice of right and wrong, but they'll go above and beyond to be free. They'll be extra cautious. They won't be reckless with their salvation because they understand the importance of what they have received. And when you're trying to repent, you've got to be careful in your life to set direction away from the edge. That maybe some other people can do some things and be okay, but you need to say, "I I know how that affects me. I I can't keep doing what I was doing. There's some people I can't be around. There's some places I can't go." Why? Because I'm being careful with the salvation that God gave me. I I'm careful to keep living a life of repentance. There ought to be a carefulness to get away from certain things that could pull you back over the edge. There ought to be an urgency to get away from the place where you fell into sin, to be as careful as you could possibly be when it comes to your salvation.
If you really understood how long eternity is and what hell is really like, there is no fence that would be too tough for you. There's no standard that would be too tough for you, but you'd say, "I want to be careful that no matter what, I will not take a chance on being lost." Maybe I don't have to do it to be saved, but if it affects me negatively at all, I'm just going to cut it away from me. I I'm I'm going to make sure nothing is hindering me. In John 8:11, Jesus speaking to the woman caught in the midst in the act of adultery, said, "Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more." He didn't tell her, "Well, because of grace, it's all good. You can just go do what you want to." But he said, "I'm not condemning you now. I'm giving you a chance to change, but go back and don't keep living the way you were living." You go back and you sin no more. That if there was true repentance, she should go back and show her carefulness to not fall back into the things that God had forgiven her of. There was a carefulness in her. That's the first step on the road to repentance is carefulness.
Step number two, according to verse 11, is clearing of yourself. Now, this refers to in the Greek, an apology, not just of words, words, but an apology of action. That this church in Corinth, they had some new converts. They were taking actions to show that they were really repenting. It was a separation from who they were, from what they'd been doing. Ephesians 5 and 10 would say it like this: "Proving, or showing, or doing what is acceptable unto the Lord; and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." That if you've really repented, there's a clearing of yourself because you say, "I I'm not who I used to be. I I don't run with the same crowd. I don't do the same things. I don't say the same things." But I'm clearing myself from the way that I used to live.
And if there's a clearing of yourself, you'll live as in 2 Corinthians 6:17, which says, "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." That if you come into church, get the Holy Ghost, and you get baptized, but you're unwilling to separate yourself and you continue touching things that are unclean and doing things that are unclean, the problem is not with the Holy Ghost. The problem is that you have not really repented enough to be willing to do whatever it takes to live a clean lifestyle. I get very weary of people constantly saying, "Well, show me that this will send me to hell," when they know very well that it affects them negatively spiritually. They know it very well, but they want to try and do everything they can do and get away with and still be saved. But friend, if that's your mindset, you are not going to make it.
At the end of the day, because all it takes is one little slip and one little misstep for somebody on the edge, and you've fallen over the brink. But the Corinthians, to whom Paul was writing, they weren't fighting about every standard. They were eager to regain their reputation. They were eager to get a good crop in the ground of the kingdom of God. I've seen somebody who's really repentant. They want their life to show evidence of their change. They want to bear fruit in the kingdom of God. They don't want to keep doing everything they used to do. They they want to be effective and fruitful in the kingdom of God. And so we repent for doing things that are against God, and then we clear ourselves, or we get away from that matter, we get away from that sin, we apologize to God and anyone we've hurt, and we make up our mind, "I'm going to get away from what I was doing. I I'm not going to justify myself. I'm not going to make an excuse. I'm going to clear myself. I'm going to clear my name. I I'm going to get away from that old lifestyle." Step number two is clearing yourself.
Step number three is indignation. Original form here says "sorely displeased" or "greatly afflicted." It's the idea that I'm so indignant about the sin I was living in and what it did to my life, that that there is almost a physical pain in me because of that. That that for these Corinthian converts, there was something they felt so deeply in their spirit that that they felt this pain and this desire to be changed and to be cleaned before God. You ought to read David's prayer of repentance in Psalm 51, and you see a man that is in anguish and distress over what he's done. Now, he's not saying, "Because I messed up so bad, I might as well just quit." But he's saying, "I'm so upset over the way I got tricked by sin and what I did. I am so upset that not for a moment will I give the devil the satisfaction of staying in that sin. I I'm going to get back up. I'm going to get off my back. I I'm not going to wait another moment. I'm not going to wait another day." But David said, "I'm repenting. I I'm clearing myself. I'm I'm angry for what sin has done to me and what it's done to my family, but I'm going to get away from it."
This is the only attitude to have when you've been living in sin. Don't come back and constantly focus on all all that's been wrong and how it's never going to change. If you're going to get angry, get angry at the devil and say, "I'm angry about the way those things affected me. I'm angry about being tricked. I'm angry about being bound." And because of that, "I'm going to make sure that it never happens again. I'm going to make sure it never happens to my family or my friends." But I'm angry at the place where I fell, and so I'm going to get away. I I'm going to run from it. I'm going to run to Jesus.
It always amazes me, the people struggling with sin, and they get mad at everybody but the devil. They get mad at the church, the pastor, their friends, their family, everybody except the devil who brought that sin into their life. You need to get indignant about the way that you've been living, indignant about the way you've been tricked by the enemy. David was indignant at both himself and at his adversary. Job was the same. Job 42 and 6, Job said, "Wherefore I abhor myself." There's a lot of people, they get that part right. But then he said, "and repent in sackcloth or in dust and ashes." He said, "I I I hate the man that I've been. I hate the way I've fallen short." But because I hate it, why in the world would I keep doing it? Because I hate it, why in the world would I stay in that place? But he said, "Because I hate that I've turned away, and I have repented, and I I'm living a life of true repentance."
And so, you need to understand the difference between taking accountability for your sin and condemning yourself for your sin. There is a wide chasm between these two things. Conviction will help you. Condemnation will kill you. Even Jesus said, "Don't think I've come to accuse you." Now, if you choose to live in sin, there will be a judgment day. But He came to convict us to repentance, and not to condemn us to destruction. But friend, when you get caught in that moment and you begin to make a huge production out of the mistakes you've made, instead of just saying, "I take responsibility. I was wrong. I committed sin, and I'm going to turn away from it, and I'm going to move on. I I'm going to get past it." Friend, when you try to stay in that place, you can think you're doing something right because we get in the idea that we have to pay penance for the things that we've done wrong. But in reality, you are destroying your soul.
When every single day you say, "Well, I I'm such a terrible person because I did this, and and I'm worthless because I did that." What you're doing is you are destroying your soul. What you need to say is, "I made a terrible mistake. I've been living wrong, and I've been doing wrong, and because I see it, I'm not going to stay in this place one more second, but I'm going to repent, and I'm going to get to Jesus. I I'm going to not wallow in my sorrow and in my misery and in my regret, and and then thinking about every missed opportunity, but I'm going to turn to Jesus and say, 'Lord, I'm running to you. I I'm coming back to you. I'm going to get things right with you.'"
Understand again, don't think you can do that every day and just say, "Well, I did wrong, but I'm sorry," and go back and then go back to sin. Well, no, you're not really repenting. But what you can do is, no matter how bad the sin was, you can in a moment repent and change your direction and never go back to it a day in your life. You don't have to live falling every few weeks or months or years, but you can find a place of true freedom by the help of the Holy Ghost.
Now, God is not the author, the Bible says, of confusion. Now, the original meaning in the Greek here means drama. That God does not authorize one person here to make a drama out of your mistake or out of anybody else's mistake. God rebuke you and stop your tongue if you spend a lot of time talking about what you've done wrong or what somebody else has done wrong. If you're really repentant, you'll say, "I'm not going to make a big production out of it, but I'm going to change what I've been doing. I I'm going to change how I've been living. I'm going to get back up and I'm going to get back in the race." So we repent, we take responsibility, and we move on down the road. Jeremiah 31:19 says, "After I was turned, I repented; after I was instructed I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth." He he's angry at the way he was tricked by sin, and he changes his direction and starts living in a different way. And God says, "Because of that, I will surely have mercy upon him." That if you just get indignant about the way sin has treated you and what it's done to you and changed, God is going to forgive you, and God is going to help you. And so, number three is indignation.
Step number four on the road to repentance is fear. In the Strong's, that says alarm, fright, or exceeding terror. Proverbs 1:7 says, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge." That the very foundation is, you must fear the Lord. There must be a reverence and a respect. That's the foundation. That you can come to God because you don't want to go to hell. But at some point, you must grow past that place into a deeper level of repentance. And so, just as there are levels to repentance, there are levels to godly fear. And just so there is no confusion, there is no verse in the Bible that says that perfect love casts out all fear. It's not said in the Bible. What is said is 1 John 4:18: "Perfect love casts out fear." And if you look back at the previous verses, it's speaking about fear of the judgment. That if you've been living right, you've been walking the road to repentance, you should have no fear of judgment. You should have no fear of eternity, because godly love, or godly love has cast out that fear, because you know God loves you, you've repented, and so you need not fear judgment.
But friend, there are some things that we need to fear. We need to have a healthy fear and reverence for the Lord. And when you do fear God, you'll live in a way that causes you to follow His word directly, to follow anything He says and desires, you'll follow it. If you fear the Lord, here's another thing you should fear. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 11:3, "But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." Paul feared that the Corinthian converts would fall to a perversion of the truth. There was a group called the Nicolaitans that followed Paul's converts around, and they'd go to him and say, "Well, you don't really have to do all that to be saved." They they'd say, "Well, that's not really necessary." They they'd tell them what the grace of God means, essentially, you can live how you want and still be saved. Paul had a fear. He said, "You are a fear in your heart that you would be that you would fall and be deceived and fall to a perversion of truth that would tell you you can live however you want to live and still be saved." He said, "I'm afraid of you falling away." Paul said, "I'm afraid of falling away myself." David said, "Please don't cast me away from your presence; don't don't take your Spirit away from me." It was godly fear.
On this road to repentance, there ought to be some things you are afraid of. I pray daily, "Lord, don't let me fall away. Don't don't let me be deceived. Don't let me be distracted. Don't don't let me fall into sin. But Lord, keep my mind and keep my heart and keep my eyes and keep me fixed on you and keep me focused on you." There ought to be a fear of falling away. This is something that we ought to keep in the front of our mind. If we ever think that we are untouchable, if we ever think that we are beyond or above the effects of sin, then God have mercy on our soul, because we're headed for a fall. But you got to recognize, every day, I must have the Holy Ghost to stay free from sin. I I cannot do it on my own. I can't do it just because I know the book, but I need the Spirit to help me live clean. I need the Spirit to help me live right.
Here's another thing we should all fear. Hebrews 4:1 says, "Let us therefore fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it." "For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." He said, "This is what you need to fear. You need to fear leaving one promise of God on the table in your life." And then he says, "This is how that happens." He said, "The word was preached unto all, but only those who mix the word with faith receive the promise." That if you don't have faith to receive the word, you leave those promises on the table. It's why you think, "Well, God told me this a long time ago, it hasn't come to pass." You got to have faith to say, "Lord, I'm not leaving it on the table, but you said, and so I believe, and I believe in your timing, it's going to come to pass. I'm not going to leave anything on the table."
There ought to be a fear of not measuring up to the potential that God has called us to. There ought to be fear of not being what God has called us to be. There ought to be fear of falling back into the cycle of sin and starting over and wasting years. You ought to understand, every day, I receive resources. That time is a limited resource that I cannot recover. And so I'm afraid to waste a day. I I'm afraid to live a day and not pray. I'm afraid to live a day and not study. I'm afraid to live a day and not submit myself to God. There ought to be a fear that causes you to live right. It's not a fear that you're looking over your shoulder thinking God's trying to destroy you every day. If He wanted to, He'd already done it. But it's a fear that says, "I I fear being distracted and not hearing His voice. I I fear not fulfilling His will." And so, part of true repentance is, "I'm afraid to waste time. I'm afraid to not do right. I'm afraid to disrespect God or disobey God." There's a reverence for the kingdom that says, "Every single day, I let godly fear spur me onward to do greater works in the kingdom of God." Number four is fear.
Number five is vehement desire. The Strong's says it's an earnest longing. I think of Matthew 5 and 6, which says, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." There's a lot of desires in the house today. I hope that your desire is toward righteousness, because He said, "If you make that your desire, it's a guaranteed answered prayer." That if you say, "Lord, I I'm hungry for you. I I want to be holy after you. I want to be righteous after you." God says, "That's a prayer I'll answer. That's a person I'll feel. That's a person I can work with." It's got to be more than a sideline business. You got to have a desire for His presence that becomes overwhelming. It's the largest part of who who you are. That you don't spend the whole day chasing the dollar and five minutes at the end of the day chasing God, but you say, "Every moment and every day, everything I do, somehow my direction must be for Him. I I'm trying to be pleasing to Him. I'm trying to get closer to Him." David said, "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: When shall I come and appear before God?"
There's some saints of God, you need to get a deeper desire in your heart today. You need to rekindle that fire, that that love you had for Him at the beginning. It's part of that continued work of repentance. You say, "Lord, I've got desire for you. I I've got hunger for you. I've got to get to you." When you get this far down the road of repentance, there's no more indifference when it comes to the kingdom of God, but you start to be purposeful and intentional on the road. There there's no room for you to be lukewarm on a church pew, but but you understand, "I've got to stay hot. I've got to stay in the fire. I I've got to stay involved. I I've got to stay praying."
Sin doesn't have to turn you against God to make you ineffective. It doesn't have to turn you against God to separate you from God. All it has to do is make you apathetic or indifferent to the desires of God for your life. Sin wants to make you cold on a church pew, indifferent to the movement of the Holy Ghost. I want to tell you, it is not your personality. It's the effects of sin in your life. If the Holy Ghost is moving and you can't ever get involved and you can't ever surrender yourself, it's not because you're mellow. It's not because you're shy. It's because you're disconnected from the movement of the Holy Ghost. And you got to make up your mind, "My desire is toward Him. I'm focused. I I've got a vehement desire in my heart to touch Him and to reach Him and to hear from Him." Passion came from God, and it's to be used to direct you towards God. And so, every part of what you do matters. What you become matters. You can't just throw up your hands and indifferently say, "Well, I I've already messed up, so there's no use now." But no, there's a vehement desire that's got to come in your heart that you've got to say, "I cannot ever go back to that place again. I I've got to be transformed. I've got to be changed. I I've got to prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."
That when you get to this place, your marriage may have been in trouble, or your family may have been in trouble, but you make up your mind, "I I've got a a vehement desire to fix things. I I've got a vehement desire. I I'm going to push as hard as I can push and pray as hard as I can pray. I want to entertain thoughts of failure. I want entertain thoughts of giving up, but I've got a vehement desire for health in my mind and health in my heart and health in my home and health in my marriage." You got to have a vehement desire to see things change. That you might have given up on doing anything special for God, but when you get to this place on the road of repentance, there's a fire that is sparked in your heart, and all of a sudden, you are overwhelmed and consumed by a desire to be what God has called you to be. That it's part of repentance. That that if you don't have a desire to do something for God, you need to repent again. You need to start walking that road again. Because if you really repented, you'd say, "Lord, I gave that time to the devil. I'm going to give you better time. I'm going to give you better works. I I'm not going to be indifferent. I'm not going to be apathetic. I I'm not going to waste my time or your time, but Lord, I'm going to let desire spur me to do more, to be more." There's desire, and over time, that desire becomes something even stronger.
Step number six says that if you're walking this road to repentance, you're going to get to a place called Zeal. And Zeal here, that definition means the jealousy as of a husband. That in the same way that a father or a husband would fight to the death to protect his family, there's a Zeal in you for the kingdom of God. That it's it's an overwhelming desire. This is where Jesus goes into the temple and He begins to throw over the tables and He says, "Don't make my Father's house a house of merchandise." And when they see what He's doing, they remember a scripture, and the scripture said this: "The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." Now, if you just stay angry all the time, that's not Zeal. That's just anger. That's just a problem you got to get fixed. But if you're zealous for the kingdom of God and protective of the kingdom of God, and if when you see sin destroying someone's life, you get angry, not at them, but you get angry at the devil, that is godly Zeal.
When you see people beating people down and and gossiping and backbiting and destroying people, you get zealous for the kingdom and you say, "Hey, we're not going to behave like this. We're not going to do this. We're we're not going to talk like this." That's the Zeal of the Kingdom. That that's the Zeal of the Spirit. And when you get zealous, you'll get very defensive about things that before did not even concern you. You'll stop being so defensive of yourself and you'll start defending the kingdom of God. You'll start to care about the church, everything happening at the church. You'll want to help any way you can. Personal ambition will be changed into Zeal for Him. As you understand, it doesn't matter if anybody sees me or not. It doesn't matter if they appreciate me or not. It doesn't matter if they'd pat me on the back or not, because you understand, we're not building our kingdom, we're building His kingdom. We're we're not working for the affection of those around us, but we're working for Jesus. We're trying to be pleasing unto Him. And so you got passion that come from within, and it's not coming from desire to be recognized, but it's desire to know Him and to make Him known.
And this kind of zeal only comes through true repentance. This zeal will actively help someone to get free of their indifference. Because when you really believe what you're saying, people can tell that you really believe it. There's a zealousness in you. They can see they're not just saying something, they're stating what they know works. You can tell them, "The Holy Ghost can work for you," because friend, if it changed me, it can change anybody. There ought to be a Zeal in you where it's not just you toss it out in front of them, but you say, "Hey, you've got to be saved. There's a place called Heaven that you got to make your home." There's a Zeal in you to tell people about the.
kingdom of God and finally step number seven, the final step on the road of repentance. And when you understand this seventh step, this becomes more than just a stopping place, but this becomes something you'll do every single day of your life. This seventh step is meant to become part of the culture of this church, every day from this day until our last day.
Now, all seven of these are meant to be continuing works, all seven steps. But there's something very special and powerful about step number seven. He said, "You saw it after a Godly sort, what carefulness, step one. It wrought in you, yay, what clearing of yourself, step two. Yay, what indignation, step three. Yay, what fear, step four. Yay, what vehement desire, step five. Yay, what zeal, step six. And step number seven," he said, "yay, what revenge."
Now, revenge here comes from the word justice, which biblically, justice demands action. It's not just a recognition that something has been done wrong, but for there to be Godly justice, there must be action that takes place to correct what has been done wrong. And so, we understand biblically, we must love what God loves, and we must hate what God hates. We are not authorized to hate anything or anyone that God does not hate. And so, you never get a license to say, "Well, this person messed up, so I am against them." Oh, no. We're against the sin that took them captive. We're against the devil that deceived them. We're not going to become their enemy. We've got an enemy, and it's the devil. You've got to keep your eye on what is right and who we're really fighting against.
And so, in the same way, this is not a license for your own vengeance or your own revenge. But remember, we're taking all the human stereotypes or connotations out of this word. But God said, "Vengeance is mine, and I will repay." And so, this revenge does not belong to us, but it belongs to the Lord. But thank God, there are times when God will allow us to be His instrument of vengeance against the devil. 2 Corinthians 6:11 speaks of punishment, of vindication, of retribution against Satan. Psalm 149 gives the same idea, speaking of spiritual warfare. He said, "Let the saints be joyful in glory, let them sing aloud upon their beds, let the high praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand to execute vengeance upon the Heathen and punishments upon the people."
That when you come into the house, and you've had a rough day, and things ain't been going right, but you begin to lift your hands, and you begin to lift your voice, he said, "What you're doing, you've got a sword in your hand. You're taking vengeance against the adversary. You're you're taking revenge on the devil for what he's done to you." That maybe you've had a bad week, or a month, or a bad year, but you say, "God is not my enemy. The church is not my enemy. But I'm going to take revenge on the devil. I'm going to do it by praising. I'm going to do it by singing. I'm going to do it by having joy. I'm going to do it by having peace." You understand, when you develop the fruit of the spirit, you're taking revenge on a devil. They wanted to lock you up in the devil's hell with him. He wanted to beat you down. He wanted to cause you to live consumed by doubt and fear and unbelief. But when you lift your hands, you're letting the devil know, "I'm free. He made me free. I lift my hands because He's worthy. I lift my hands because it gave me joy and it saved my soul." Come on, there's some saints of God, you ought to lift your hands and give God praise. Come on, right now, you're taking revenge on the devil. You're taking revenge for every season of sin you had to live through, every day the devil told you God wouldn't forgive you, every time he told you that God would never hear your prayer. When you praise, you're taking revenge. When you lift your voice, you're taking revenge. When you sing aloud, come on, there ought to be some people giving praise right now. Come on, the devil hates the praisers. The devil hates those who know they've been brought out of sin and brought into His marvelous light. Come on, right now, let's take a moment and give God praise. Come on, this church is moving into a place of revenge against the devil. He's going to regret the day he ever messed with you. He's going to regret every shackle he put on your hands, on your mind, on your heart, because God has made you free.
I want you to hear me. We're almost done. Paul, in the same letter, begins to write, and first he talks about revenge, and then he explains how we take it. He said, 2 Corinthians 10 and 4, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." That you don't fight the devil with natural means. You don't fight him with your skill, or your bank account, or your ambition. But you say, "This is a war that's fought in the spiritual realm, and the weapons of warfare, they're not carnal, but they're mighty through God." And when we use the weapons, we begin to pull down every stronghold of the devil. That's why it's so important to fight the spiritual fight. You make up your mind, "When I'm in trouble, I'm going to praise. When my family is struggling, I'm going to praise. When my mind's under attack, I'm going to praise." Why? Because I know praise pulls down every stronghold. Praise fights against the enemy. Praise gives me the victory. Come on, there ought to be some people to help her out. Come on, let's give the Lord some praise in this place. Come on, you're taking revenge against the enemy. Stand across the house. Musicians, come.
He said, "They pull down every stronghold." And this is what they do next. "They cast down imaginations." That every thought of your mind that is against the plan of God, every thought of your mind that says, "Maybe God won't use you," or "Maybe God won't hear you." It is to be pulled down, cast away, and destroyed by the help of the Holy Ghost. He said, "You need to cast down that wicked imagination. Any high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, you need to bring into captivity every single thought to the obedience of Christ." That every thought pattern that tries to drag you back into doubt and into sin, you cast it down. You say, "No, by the help of the Holy Ghost, I will not go back. That's not who I am. That's not who I live. God really did forgive me. God really did change me." You see, Jesus said, "If you'd repent, that He'd forgive you, and that He'd fill you, and keep you full of the Holy Ghost, if you'll just keep walking with Him." So, when God, God decides that He's not done with somebody, anything that is contrary to that knowledge is not just to be ignored, it's to be cast away, and it is to be destroyed. If God is willing that all, as the Bible says, that all would come to repentance, that nobody would perish, then any thought of your mind that is contrary to that principle, that thought must be cast down, and it must be destroyed. It is a spirit that is against God, and that spirit is to be rebuked in the name of Jesus. This is why you get your nose in that Bible and you start reading about repentance, and you start reading, and let the devil and every demon hear you as you read. You say, "His word said He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. His word says, 'I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, and that my soul, my soul knows beyond a shadow of a doubt.'" David said that God will forgive, that God will cleanse, that God will do a work in me. And he said this, and we're about to open the altars, he said, "Having a readiness to revenge, revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled." Paul was letting them know, "The first step, be obedient. Believe. Receive. When you've been obedient, then you're ready to revenge every act of disobedience." That it's about the kingdom of God, and to take revenge on the devil, you've got to be obedient and submit yourself and be cleansed of your ego, so that God can use you. And the best way to take revenge on the devil is for every time you told God no in the past, now you tell Him yes. You take revenge against that old spirit of rebellion by stepping under a spirit of meekness and submission. And every act of obedience becomes a slayer of your old acts of disobedience. The more you get under the yoke of God's anointing, the more power you've got to cast away every spirit and cast away every lie of the devil.
In Matthew 8, Jesus calms the storm. He gets to the other side of the sea. There are devil-possessed men waiting. The Bible says they came running out of the tombs, exceeding fierce. And when they see Jesus, the demons cry out out of those men's mouths, and they say, "What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? Art thou come hither to torment us?" I think these are the demons speaking to Jesus. They didn't just say, "Are you here to cast us out?" They said, "Are you here to torment us before the time?" Now, the demons know they're headed to a place of torment. But what he just did there, I want you to catch, because every word out of the devil's mouth reveals some part of his makeup. So, he reveals the only time in the Bible the devil compares anything to hell is losing one of his playthings, losing someone that he had possessed, losing someone that he had controlled. And for the demons, when God rips somebody out of their grasp, there's nothing closer to hell for them. There's nothing that feels like torment to the devil more than when a sinner repents and makes up their mind, "I'm done with that old lifestyle. I'm done with that old addiction. I'm done with that old struggle." The one thing that could bring the devil pleasure is bringing people to hell with him and destroying people's lives. But the thing that brings him pain and torment and agony is when somebody that he thought he had, he thought he had their fate sealed, locked, stock, and barrel, but when they all of the sudden, they do the unexpected and they say, "I, I can't live this way anymore. But devil, I'm going to get something you never got, and I'm going to get repentance. I'm going to get forgiveness. I, I'm going to have my sins cleansed by the help and grace of God."
I want every hand lifted across the house. This altar is open right now. If you're a person who has been tormented in the grip of sin, I want you to know God came to rip you out of the devil's hand, 'cause you are not His property, but God bought you with a price, and God purchased you with His blood. And no matter how long you've been struggling, or how down you feel about yourself and the decisions you've made, the best thing you can do right now is take revenge on the devil by repenting and saying, "I'm turning around. I'm not going to fall back into sin. I'm not going to keep living this way." Come on, the devil's frustrated you long enough. It's time you frustrate the devil. It's time we make the devil angry in this house. Withholding nothing, I surrender. Come on, don't let fear keep you from the altar. If you've been struggling, making some mistakes, the answer is to get in the altar. If you've been doing right, but you want to do even better, the answer is to get in the altar. Lord, help me. Lord, help me. Help me to live a life of repentance. Help me to be zealous. Help me to be indignant against the adversary. Help me to walk with You. Help me to talk with You.