Jonah, chapter three, Jonah, chapter three. We begin to give our attention to this incredible chapter last Lord's Day, and we'll do so again next week. Jonah, chapter three, let me read the whole chapter for us. Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time, saying, arise, go to the Nineveh, that great city, and call out against it, the message that I tell you. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the Lord. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city three days journey and breadth. Jonah began to go into the city going a day's journey, and he called out, yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. And the people of Nineveh believed God. They called for a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them to the least of them. The word reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, let neither man nor beast, heard northwalk, taste anything. Let them not feed or drink water, but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger so that we may not perish. When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that he said he would do to them, and he did not do it. Praise be to God for his mercy. Our Father, we need your help this morning. We need to hear from heaven today, and I have absolutely no doubt that the word that has been prepared is exactly what we need to hear. Make the timeliness and applicability of this word to our lives. So utterly obvious that we know you were the one who's been behind it all. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. Repentance. That's what we're here to talk about this morning. Repentance. If you're here, this is the message God wants you to hear. It's the word he wants you to hear. Repentance, the biblical notion that refers to the radical turning away from everything which hinders one's wholehearted devotion to God and the corresponding turning to God in faith, in love, in obedience. As we discovered last Lord's day, the call to repentance is the call of the gospel itself. The call to repentance was the call of the Old Testament prophets. The call to repentance was the call of John the Baptist. The call to repentance was the call of Jesus Christ. The call to repentance was the call of the apostolic preachers. The call to repentance dear friends is nothing less than the call to be a Christian. For the simple reason that repentance alone is the divinely appointed path to forgiveness of sins and eternal life. According to the Bible, there is no experience of salvation apart from a God-produced repentance. A repentance that emerges at conversion and subsequently becomes the life-long pattern of a person who has been authentically born again. A Christian you see is not defined as a person who, on a significant occasion in the past, repented once. A Christian is defined as a person who, for the totality of his life, keeps on repenting. We acknowledge someone to be a Christian, beloved, not because they once believed in Jesus Christ, but because they are believing in Jesus Christ. And in the very same sense, you see, we do not assume a person to be a Christian because they once repented, but because they are repenting. To cease repenting is as severe as to cease believing in either sense, it's to cease being a Christian. Of his 95 feces that sparked the Protestant Reformation, Martin Luther wrote this in his very first. When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, repent. He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. This is one of the marks of being made a recipient of saving religion. You are a Christian if you are a repentor. This, dear friends, is the experience to which the gospel calls you. Through the prophet Ezekiel God says, if a wicked person turns away, there is that word, shoo, repent, from all his sins that he is committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live. Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked declares the Lord God and not rather that he should turn from his way and live? You hear that repentance language? When the Savior Jesus Christ came to us in human flesh, he said it this way, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Two groups of people according to Jesus, righteous sinners, if you are a sinner, you need to repent. Peter says to his Jewish brethren in Acts chapter 3, repent therefore in turn again that your sins may be blotted out. Paul recollects his ministry among the Ephesians. I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, testifying to both Jews and Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is near the end of his life that the apostle Peter makes known to us the very heart of God himself when he says, the Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. You perish or you live the way to life is via repentance. Peter is clear. The alternative is to perish and love it perhaps even more touching to us. How does heaven itself respond to repentance? Jesus says, I tell you there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repent. Then over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. I tell you there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repent. If eternal life is what you want, if the blotting out of your sins is what you desire, if the heart of God is what you hope to please, if the joy of the angels is your concern, then yours dear friends is one evangelical obligation. Repentance. It is the prerequisite to forgiveness and life. And the contrast also stands. There is no salvation apart from repentance. You may have attended church regularly for all of your life. You may have gone forward when an alter call was offered to you at some point. You may have served in the ministries of the church. You may have partaken of the Lord. You may have even been baptized. But if you have fallen short of real repentance, my friend, you must not be mistaken at this point. You are not a Christian. Somehow you have missed the most important thing. The enemy of your soul has blinded you to the one thing which out with nothing else matters. And consequently, the eternal life that you have always assumed to be yours is really a mirage. Might this be true of you this morning? Does the possibility exist that this might be true of you? I don't doubt that there are some people here this morning for whom it is true. That's not to suggest anything about your own powers of self-deception. It's to acknowledge at the very least that the way the gospel is often presented today and the way people are often granted assurance has very little to do with what the New Testament teaches. People are not called to repent today when the gospel is offered. And if you've not repented, then you are not a Christian. The very real miracle in the story of Jonah is not God's manipulation of the scene, chapter 1. God's unique employment of a whale, chapter 2. The real miracle in the story is the radical transformation of a group of God haters. The repentance of the sinful, wicked, evil, notoriously violent Ninevites. It may be the most astounding display of repentance anywhere in the entire word of God. And it merits our close scrutiny friends because admittedly most of us are pretty fuzzy about what real repentance looks like. How can you know when repentance is genuine? How can you know when repentance has been authored by God birthed of the spirit of God? How can you know when repentance is real for features of real repentance emerge from this narrative? The first we considered with some detail last Lord's day. Real repentance we said is aroused by a confrontation that is devastating. Real repentance is aroused by brought to life, by initiated by a confrontation that proves devastating a confrontation with the word of God. When the word of God declared in the power of the Spirit of God meets up with the sinner who is far from God, the confrontation is devastating. It always is. And that's what took place there at Nineveh on that day. As God most often does, he put his word in the mouth of a man. And it aroused a confrontation that proved devastating in the introduction to one of his books. The British novelist David Lodge tells where he was when he first heard of the assassination of President Kennedy. Of all places he was in the theater watching the performance of a satirical review he had helped write. And in one of the sketches a character was demonstrating his nonchalance in an interview by holding a transistor radio to his ear. The actor playing the part always tuned in to a real broadcast. And on this particular night suddenly the announcement came over the radio the President Kennedy had been shot. Well the actor quickly switched it off but it was too late. Reality had interrupted the comedy and that's what happened to the Nineveh's. It was just another business as usual type day. Thousands of people stepping through their activities in nonchalances though God didn't exist. And then the radio got turned on. Suddenly the meaningless comedy of their lives was interrupted by the very voice of God himself who threw his prophet Jonah made an unexpected announcement. Not the recent assassination of one familiar to these listeners but the imminent assassination of these listeners themselves. Jonah's message was simple that into the chamber of God's fire arm around had been loaded that God's own finger was poised on the trigger and that when God shoots he shoots to kill. What took their breath away however was that according to Jonah God's target had been imprinted upon them. The radio got turned on. The word of God had come. Yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown. My friends do you recall the fate of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah? Those cities experienced such violent obliteration archaeologists can't even find their ruins. Well the word that the Bible uses to describe their experience is the very same word that God now draws upon here with regard to the people of Nineveh. In 40 days you will be annihilated blown off the face of the math with no trace left. You said well you know I'm sure glad that God doesn't speak that way today but he does. Moreover he speaks that way today to individuals. Have you ever paused to consider the New Testament counterpart to this? It's the word that God speaks to people who are not Christians. Flea from the wrath to come. It's the call of the gospel. Flea from the wrath to come. Do you remember John 3 verse 36? He who does not obey the sun has the wrath of God abiding upon him. Only the wrath about which now God presently speaks will make the scene that Sodom and Gomorrah look like a girl scout picnic. Not only because of its intensity but by virtue of its eternality. I'm always amazed friends by people who say well I like the New Testament better than the Old Testament because the New Testament displays more love and the Old Testament displays more wrath. And I wonder when a person says such a thing, haven't read your Bible lately? Because in the progress of Revelation the New Testament reveals more of both. To be sure the New Testament reveals God's love in greater ways by virtue of the gift of his son Jesus Christ. But what is also true is that the New Testament reveals God's wrath in greater ways. The future destiny of those who refuse to repent and trust Jesus Christ is not mere annihilation, not obliteration, not the cessation of human existence. It is a conscious torment that will never end. Has the radio been turned on? It had been for the Ninevites. Consequently it aroused the repentance that was real. We're told that the word of the Lord touched the king. It's a visceral word. In a motive word it affected him, it moved him. He himself immediately responds in repentance and then along with his nobles actually issues a decree of repentance for the people to obey. They too believed God in his word verse five tells us and their repentance was equally comprehensive. This is how real repentance is aroused. This is how real repentance begins. Mom and dad, you understand this is why we read the word to our children, not just Bible story books. This is why we use the word in our evangelistic conversations. This is why we use the word as the substance of our preaching. This is why we use the word in our approach to counseling. Real repentance apart from which no one has ever brought into a saving relationship with God is aroused by a confrontation that is devastating, a confrontation with the word of God. And if you've not had that confrontation with the word of God, whether you were converted when you were five or fifty, then you are not a Christian. Perhaps the most definitive passage where this goes, friends, is there in 2 Corinthians chapter 7 when the Apostle Paul writes to those Corinthian believers. And he refers to a former letter that he had written to them and how it had provoked them. He says, even if I made you grieve with my letter, I do not regret it. As it is, I rejoice. Not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret. It was the word that it devastated the Corinthians. It was the word that it devastated the Ninebites. It is the word that devastates any human being that has brought to faith in Jesus Christ. It is God's instrument of choice to detach us from the love of sin and lead us into a bond with Christ that can never be severed. This is what real repentance looks like, my friends. This is how God brings a person to salvation, and I might add, in the language of the New Testament, this is how God keeps saving Christian. Second, now, for this morning, real repentance is displayed in a reformation that is thorough going. Real repentance is displayed in a reformation that is thorough going. Now to be sure, friends, part of what makes this account so utterly amazing is the scope of this repentance. You'll notice it begins with the King, verse six. It extends to the nobility, verse seven, and it ultimately embraces the whole community, verse five. In fact, take note of that comprehensive statement that appears at the end of verse five. From the greatest of them to the least of them, it's called a planasm. It is the use of more words than is necessary. In other words, at the beginning of the verse, we're told, and the people of Nineveh believed God, I think some of the other translations says, and the people, all the people of Nineveh believed God. That's really the idea. Now, at the end of the verse, to stress that same point, the storyteller then adds this literary redundancy from the greatest of them to the least of them. The way of emphasizing the fact that the scope of this repentance was unanimous, that it was inclusive of every person from every social stratum. And what's more, friends, and I know this sounds very strange to you, it does to me too. Did you notice that this state policy instituted by the King even included the animal, verses seven and eight? I mean, this is amazing. The animals, which reminds me, friends, as you read this story, never forget to whom it was originally addressed. This was originally written as scripture for the nation of Israel. The nation in supposed covenant relationship with Yahweh, the nation to whom the prophets again and again pleaded for repentance from idolatry only to be met with violent refusal. But here, in pagan Nineveh, even the animals repent. After all, if the city of Nineveh is to be destroyed, so too will the animals suffer the consequences. I mean, I don't know about you, but I have never ever read of a community repentance that is so comprehensively sweeping. From my reading of the first and second grade awakening, revivals throughout the history of the church, I have never read anything so sweeping and so comprehensive. Maybe you have, but I'm not. What I want you to take note of now, however, is that this repentance evidences itself in two very distinct ways. Oh, to be sure, verse six, the King had been touched by the word and verse five, the people believed God, but how can we be certain that this response to the word of God is more than empty religion? The answer? Because of the obvious reformations that evidence real believe. You see, beloved, when the word of God is really heard and really believed, the integrity of one's subsequent repentance evidences itself in ways that are obvious because they are so thorough going. First, notice the change in heart attitude, verse six. The word touched the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, removed his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. His robe, symbolic of his dignity, is exchanged for sackcloth, a dark, thick, uncomfortable, coarse cloth of goat hair. His throne, symbolic of his authority, is exchanged for an ash heap. What's going on here? He is stripping himself of the insignia that designated him as sovereign. Now again, admittedly friends, these actions seem very strange to us, but in the ancient world, both of these actions were recognized as expression of humiliation and human worklessness. They were acknowledgments of guilt, they were displays of real repentance, and often accompanying such expressions of repentance were seasons of going without food, fasting. This is how serious we are. We're not even going to pause to eat. There will be no interruption in our repentance. The heart is engaged. You see? Well, the king so persuaded that Jonah's word is God's word. Not only exercises repentance himself, he institutionalizes this repentance from his ash heap throne, verse 7. And he issued a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, let neither man nor beast heard nor flock taste anything, let them not feed or drink water, not the slightest morsel, not even a single drop. But let man and beast be covered with sack cloth. Well, we know that from back up in verse 5, that all the people responded. They called for a fast and put on sack cloth from the greatest of them to the least of them. I take it to be all people without exception. And that is staggering to me. If you have ever worked with people, this ought to be staggering to you. You say, what do you mean? Everybody fast. Everybody put on sack cloth. Everybody cry out to God. And what I want to know is, where's the typical whining? Where are those typical grumblers, complainers, grousing? I just hate the feeling of goat hair against my skin. Where is that woman? I'm allergic to sack cloth. If I had known the king would have called for a fast, I would have eaten a bigger dinner. Why are these leaders always coming up with some newfangled thing? No whining. Why? Very simple, because the heart was engaged. When the heart is engaged, no whining. Remember that. In addition to the sack cloth and the fasting, let them call out. Look at this word. Mightily to God. He's not saying to them, please chant this prayer over and over and over and over again as some in our day are doing and making millions of dollars doing so. He is saying, may your prayers have a violent quality about them. That's what that had for me. Be earnest, be rigorous, be urgent in the words of the old Puritans, soot God for mercy, pray with forcefulness, pray with fervor. You can't miss it. You could miss it if you were a blind man, friends. That's the great thing you see about real repentance. It's obvious. No one has to scratch their heads and wonder if such and such a person repented. It is not religious motion. It is not sacred activity disengaged from the passions. It's about the heart. It engages the heart. It penetrates into the very core of the human personality. Repentance is real when reformation is thorough going. What do I mean when I say thorough going? To begin with, it reaches the heart. Secondly, however, it alters the behavior. Some of us who have grown up in Bible church contexts have heard for years that a wedge is to be driven between confession and repentance. And so that it's possible to confess without really repenting. It's a faulty dichotomy. Real repentance alters the behavior. And the king you see is absolutely crystal clear at this point. No beg or superficial confession will do. There must be a change of behavior. Let all of this religious activity prove to be a cloak for persistence in sin. He says in his decree. Look at it. Let everyone turn. There is the word chuv. Repent. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hand. His decree is general and his decree is specific. Let everyone turn from his evil way. The Hebrew word Ra'ah. It's the general term that means any activity contrary to the will of God. Let everybody put their disobedience away. And then he gets much more particular. And from the violence that is in his hand. Now that is a word that specifically speaks of the brutal infringement of human rights. For which the Assyrians were distinctly notorious. All sin. But especially this thing. And by the way, I think that's one of the clear indicators that Jonah preached more than the five Hebrew words that are recorded for us up in verse 4. This decree of the king reveals that he was well aware not only that God had had his fill of Ninevice in generally but that in particular God's patience had come to the breaking point with regard to this vital brutality that had so characterized the Assyrian empire. This is where we must repent of all sin generally to be sure but more particularly this exploitation of human being. This blatant disregard for human life. You think of Germany in 1940. You think of Russia in 1960. That's what we're talking about here in Nineveh in the eight century BC. Notorious for the violent treatment of captive people. And the king says this is where we must repent. Beloved when repentance is real. Reformation is specific. It doesn't traffic in vague generalities. You see it addresses the specific issues of our behavior. Our relationship to God and our relationship to other people. Our relationship to the people within our own families. It has implications on how we treat husbands and wives. It has implications on how we speak to our children and how children speak to their parents. It has direct bearing on how it is that we perform our jobs with the people that we're in relationship to and for the people we're in relationship to. It has implications on how it is that we speak to our neighbors. It has profound implications on our life together. We who are in membership together in the church. Repentance lays demands upon our sinful actions upon our sinful speech and upon our sinful attitudes. It expects us to repent from all of these things from gossiping tongues and the love of money from the lust of flesh and unrighteous anger from the defiance of our parents and the laziness of our work from cheating on a test. Repentance touches all of that. I would remind you this morning, dear friends, that the way into the kingdom of heaven is narrow. The turn style into heaven will not leave room for a suitcase of pride or sex or greed or deceit or anything else. It's like a little boy who got his hand caught inside an expensive vase. And his parents saw very upset. Did everything they could. They applied soap suds with no success. And then oil, cooking oil, to no avail when they finally determined that there was no alternative but to break the vase in order to help free their son's hand. The fright little boy cried, would it help if I let loose of the penny I'm holding? What keeps us from the kingdom is our stubborn refusal to let go of sin. Has it been so long beloved since we've been in Hebrews 11? What did we see there for weeks on end? Real faith is a performative thing. Real faith works. Real faith acts. Real faith verifies its integrity and proves its divine origination by working. By faith, Noah built an ark. By faith, Abraham offered up Isaac. By faith, Moses left Egypt. By faith, the people crossed the red sea. By faith, Rayhab welcomed despise. Faith apart from works is dead. Our friend Scott Hatheman likes to say that the relationship between faith and works is so intimate that we ought not to even sing trust and obey rather we should sing trust obey. It's bad music to be sure but it's better theology and you see dear friends the very same thing is true of faith's corresponding companion repentance. It evidences itself. It proves itself. Can you hear the preaching of John the Baptist ringing in your ears? Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. Bear fruits in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, we have Abraham for our Father. Don't claim your spiritual ancestry. For I tell you God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham even now the acts is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Now you know the imagery he has in mind and the crowds asked him what then shall we do and he answered them whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none and whoever has food is to do likewise bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him teacher what shall we do and he said to them collect no more than you are authorized to do bear fruits in keeping with repentance let your repentance prove itself. Soldiers also asked him and we what shall we do and he said to them do not extort money from anyone by threats or false accusation and be content with your wages bear fruits in keeping with repentance. I mean friends he puts his bony prophetic finger right in their chest and addresses the very issues that were keeping them from the kingdom of God. You don't hear any vague generalities in the preaching of John the Baptist. I wonder how we respond if he showed up here today how it is that we would react to his preaching. I wonder when he turned the corner and began to speak specific what would it look like bear fruits in keeping with repentance give up the pornography give up the selfishness give up the greed give up the pride give up the arrogance give up the defiant attitude give up the shady business dealings give up the adultery give up the homosexuality. Give up the self promotion give up the stealing give up the lying you say whoa that's getting a little too personal now you're beginning to understand this is the very demand that real repentance makes on us. This is the proof that it is real it reaches the heart and it all turns the behavior sin is acknowledged as sin without excuse and it is forsaken. You know the best example move 19 Jesus shows up at the house of the keys and what is he saying. I've given away half of what I own and to every person whom I've exploited I returned or time as much and what's Jesus interpretation of that today salvation has come to this house. This is what real salvation is it's repentance that severe apart from this thoroughness of reformation repentance is not real and eternal life is a mirage. It's like Don Michael Corleone asking the Catholic cardinal what good is my confession if I don't repent. And the cardinal says to him you're a practical man what could it hurt but had he been a man who knew the heart of God better he would have said don't waste your time this is not moralism beloved this is not legalism it's authentic Christianity why do you call me lord lord and do not do what I tell you to do. As the radio been turned on Donald Blush writes there is only one thing worse than refusing to repent and that is repenting without being serious about changing one's life it is a dangerous attempt at mocking a God who will not be mocked. The Ninevites they know better the king turns the people turn the only remaining unknown will God turn. You say we already know the answer to that question of course God turns oh you know how the story ends but what you must never forget friends is that the people being called upon to repent do not. They're on a 40 day countdown each morning they wake up. They go to the calendar hanging by a magnet on their refrigerator door and they draw an X to cross out the previous day. And each morning they count all the X's 25 26 27 28 29 30 with each day the anxiety now God of course is under no obligation will he turn all they can do is repent they are guilty and they know it.
Are you guilty this morning are you guilty this morning guilty before God the Christian gospel which goes out for me to all people is a call to turn to repenting. If God had no concern for your eternal well being my friend he would not call he would not command he would simply do nothing until you face him in eternity. The universal call of the Christian gospel however is his word to guilty people like you and in a nutshell it goes like this. The times of ignorance God is overlooked but he now commands all people everywhere to repent because he is fixed today on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed. And if this he is given assurance to all by raising him from the dead you know what the resurrection of Jesus Christ means judgment is coming. Because the judge has been raised and I tell you three very quick things about repentance Christian repentance and we're done from this little passage at 17 first of all take note of the fact that it is a command. But now God commands all people everywhere to repent men and women if you forget everything else that I say this morning do not forget this call to repent is a command it is not an invitation it is a summons to refuse it then is not to decline it is to defy. It's to disobey it is to add to your guilt it is to add to your condemnation please young men and women especially understand the seriousness of this business the call to repentance is God's command. Just like the command of the king in this story this is the royal decree of the king of heaven repent second it is a command directed to all people without exception. He now commands all people everywhere to repent no one is excluded from the scope of this command if it helps you think in categories of people young old sophisticated simple affluent impoverished educated self taught atheist agnostic religious. Take your cue from the story beloved from the greatest of these to the least of these every one of you must hear this command from God as something spoken directly personally and intimately to you God has spoken to you today he has spoken to you today you must repent it is a command that demands immediate obedience. The times of ignorance God is overlooked but now he commands all people everywhere to repent now you hear the contract times of ignorance now while the day of opportunity is held out to you while the reality of his command is still prodding your conscience. While the forgiveness of sins and gift of eternal life are still available to you now now dear friend now young men and women now boys and girls now does God hear deathbed repentance if it's real but it very rarely is and what's more. You have no promise from God that you will be given such an opportunity the great pure in Thomas man said it this way whoever delays his repentance does in effect upon his soul with the devil if today seems too soon to repent and please be mindful of the fact that tomorrow may be too late to repent not because your life may end tomorrow but because the sovereign word is free to do. The opportunity may be permanently resented and like you saw though you seek repentance God will not grant it Jesus said it like this. Thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in his name. Ladies and gentlemen on the basis of the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ I now urge you I urge you at this very moment to repent from your sin and to turn to the God who is the father of Jesus Christ our Lord for the forgiveness of your sins and the gift of eternal life. Has he turned the radio on I pray that he had the times of ignorance God is overlooked but now he commands all people everywhere to repent would you bow your heads with me please your friends with your head bowed in your eyes closed I want to talk to you moment before we pray together. I can't imagine hearing these things and then standing up walking out of the room and starting to talk about the 49 of things though what has been said and not been said I want to give you a moment right here in the privacy of your own heart to respond to God's call. If you are a Christian you have enlisted yourself in the ranks of those who are life-long repentance and for some of us here this morning there may be issues of repentance that need to take place immediately for those of you who are not Christian maybe you thought that you were but you come to realize I've never repented I've never turned from my sin I plead with you respond to the call of God in your life. Now learn from those things that will only destroy you return to the Savior that God himself has provided. Would you take a few moments right now dear friends to do that very thing. Our Father in heaven you talked to us during sermon and it is amazing how pointed you can get. You can very obvious to us that you know our hearts you know our excuses our rationalizations and you keep coming after us. And for as much as that aggravates us at times we're thankful that you don't leave us alone happy go lucky in our sin only to face you on the great and final day. I'm thankful that you have come to us and that you've spoken to our hearts and minds and consciences and we have heard your call to repent O Lord and God. I pray O Lord for my brothers and sisters who are Christians along with praying for my own life my own heart O Lord and God I pray that you would have those areas of our lives that we've caughtled and cherished and held on to that we know to be displeasing to you. That you would not give us one moment of assurance in our salvation while we possess a settled resolution to continue in sin O Lord and God we turn from it today. We turn from it and we pray that you would give us the grace to keep turning from it and to not respond in the slightest way to any inclination back toward sin. And Father we pray for those who are not Christians who have never repented O Lord and God may they know today that the answer is not in praying the right words going through proper steps and motions. But you want is a right heart that evidences itself in right behavior. I pray O Lord and God that such men and women and boys and girls at this very moment would turn from their sin and run to Jesus Christ and hold on to Him as their only Savior. Father please do that work today. Father we love you. Make us quick to repent. Slow to sin. We know that this is how you will take us to heaven. We thank you for this and the great name of our Savior Jesus. Amen.