Oftentimes, when I need a bit of a pick-me-up, I will read a sermon from Charles Spurgeon. He delivered big truths in a big way, but he did so with great clarity and conviction. I am a student pastor so, no surprise for other student pastors, I often do this on Thursday Morning. It is, for me, good for the soul.
Today I read a sermon of his on repentance. It is from 1881 and the title of the sermon is Sorrow and Sorrow. The text for the sermon was 2 Corinthians 7:10. As I read it I thought that it would be very helpful for some to read portions out of the sermon. And the reason is simply that he does a good job of clarifying what true repentance is and what it is not.
Repentance Is Not Sorrow For Sin, Though It Includes Sorrow For Sin
“Some persons seem to think that mere sorrow of mind in reference to sin is repentance; but it is not. Read the text, and you will at once see that it is not. “Godly sorrow worketh repentance.” Therefore, it is not itself repentance. It is an agent employed in producing repentance, but it is not itself repentance. There is, in the world, a great deal of sorrow on account of sin which is certainly not repentance, and never leads to it. Some transgressors are sorry for sin for a time; they are convicted of guilt, with a transitory conviction, which soon passes away. Many are sorry for sin because of its temporal consequences; and many more because of its eternal consequences. They are afraid of Hell. If there were no Hell, they would like to continue to live in sin. They would be delighted if it could be proved that there is no God. Nothing would please them better than to have the Law of the Lord and all its penal consequences abolished. They are as fond of sin as ever they were, but they sorrow because they see that it is bringing them down to the gulf of perdition. Now, that kind of sorrow is not repentance. A moth may burn its wings in the candle, and then, full of pain, fly back to the flame. There is no repentance in the moth, though there is pain; and so, there is no repentance in some men, though there is in them a measure of sorrow on account of their sin. Do not, therefore, make a mistake in this matter, and thing that sorrow for sin is, or even necessarily leads to, repentance.” – Charles Haddon Spurgeon, from the sermon Sorrow and Sorrow delivered on July 31st, 1881
Repentance Is A Change Of Mind That Changes Everything
“I heard a person say, and, as I thought, say very flippantly, that it was a great thing to know the Greek language because, in that way, you found out that repentance “simply meant a change of mind.” The brother who said that did not appear to me to know much about the English language, and I was quite certain that he did not know alpha from beta in the Greek language; but that was what he said, “it simply meant a change of mind.” Ah! it does mean a change of mind, but what a change of mind! In my opinion, such a translation of the Greek as that would not imply that repentance was anything less than it is commonly understood to be, but a far greater thing. It is an entire and total change of mind, a turning of the mind right round, so that it hates what once it loved, and loves what once it hated; – longer puts bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter; darkness for light, and light for darkness. It judges righteous judgment, for the change of mind is thorough; and I therefore say that there is no repentance, that is worth anything, which is not accompanied by sorrow for sin….There must be a deep hatred of the sin that you have committed, and even of the thought of ever committing that sin again. There must be sincere sorrow that ever you should have transgressed against God, and that you should be liable to transgress again. If there is no such sorrow as that in your heart, one of thing things which are necessary to a genuine repentance is absent.” – ibid
Repentance Is Something That Christians Do Their Whole Lives
I will say one thing here. Repentance and Faith is the response that we have to what God has done for us. We have a repentance that is directed toward sin and a faith that is directed toward Christ. So, we are turning from sin and turning toward Christ. Even though this is the response that we have toward God and what He has done for us, we do not finish with our repenting when we come to Christ. We will spend the rest of our days on earth repenting of sin.
“Sorrow for sin is a perpetual rain, a sweet, soft shower which, to a truly gracious man, lasts all his life long. He is always sorrowful that he has sinned. He is continually grieved there there should be any sin remaining in him, and he will never leave off grieving till all that sin has gone. I could almost wish that, in heaven itself, the Lord would let me mourn that I ever did sin….It is a sweet thing to be sorrowful for sin, to be sorrowful for impurity, to be sorrowful for anything that made Jesus sorrow; it is not a thing that happens once, and then is done with; the godly sorrow of a believer lasts throughout his life.” – ibid
Repentance Restores Our Close Relationship With God
When a person comes to faith in Christ they have been adopted by the Father, and they will always be an adopted child of God. But, there is something else that happens. There are times when we sin against God and damage our communion with Him. If we desire to feel this closeness with God, then we are going to have to repent of the sin in our lives that grieves Him.
“Whenever you have done wrong, go at once to your Heavenly Father, with godly sorrow for that sin, and get over again the sweet kiss of His forgiving love; that is not wretchedness, it is happiness of the highest kind. It is the safest and surest way to maintain communion with God that I know of…” – ibid
True Sorrowful Repentance Comes About Because We’ve Sinned Against God
“Now, mark, the true sorrow which we ought to have, and which saves men instrumentally, is sorrow on account of sin because it is sin against God.” – ibid
Spurgeon then uses the sorrowful repentance of David in Psalm 51 as an example of this. David had sinned against many people, yet he would say:
“For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against You, You only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that You may be justified in Your words
and blameless in Your judgment.”
-Psalm 51:3-4 ESV-
Why would David say such a thing after committing adultery and murder? Well, because God is the One who was ultimately offended in the matter. It was against God’s Law that David had acted, and David’s sorrowful repentance had to be directed toward God.
His point is that we can have sorrow for a number of different reasons. Maybe, I was arrested and my sorrow is because I got caught. Maybe, I got caught lying to someone or any number of other things. Maybe, I am sorrowful because of the damage I did to someone else. But, the true repentance described in Scripture is first and foremost directed toward God.
True Biblical Repentance Leads You To Faith In Christ
“…notice, that it is also a sorrow which is associated with a believing faith, for a godly sorrow must be one that makes the heart that feels it yield itself to Christ. Yielding itself to Christ, it must believe in Christ; for, if I do not believe in Christ, it is certain that I have not yielded myself to Him. Therefore, the only sorrow for sin that is worth having is that which brings me to yield myself up to the Lord Jesus Christ, and to accept God’s mercy in God’s own way. If you have any sort of sorrow for sin, which does not lead you to believe in Christ, away with it!” – ibid
True Repentance Leads To Deliverance
“It leads on also to deliverance from sin, for the text says, “Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation.” Now, what is salvation? Some people think that it means being saved from going down to Hell. That is the result of salvation; but salvation means being saved from the power of sin, and being saved from the tendency to sin, as well as being saved from the punishment of sin. That is a blessed sorrow which leads us to a change of mind that the bonds of sin are snapped, and we become free men in Christ Jesus, saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation from the bondage and the power of sin and Satan.” – ibid
Cultivate Sorrow In Your Life
This sounds like something that we do not want to do, and in fact, sounds a little crazy. But, Spurgeon speaks at length concerning the blessing of this sorrow for sin. It is a blessing because it leads us to greater communion with God and being conformed more and more to the likeness of Christ. So, one of the ways that he suggests we cultivate this sorrow in our lives is to understand who it is we have sinned against.
“We have sinned against Him who never did us any wrong, never did us an ill turn, or said a hard word to us; but who, blessed by His infinite love, went up to the cross for us, and gave His hands to the cruel nails, and His whole body to death, that He might redeem us from our sins, and save us forever. O Jesus, my Saviour, against thee have I offended! O strong Son of God, Incarnate Deity, whom, though we have not seen we do by faith unceasingly adore, it is against thee we have offended. We have sinned against Him whom we are married forever, – against Him who is bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh; – against Him, the kisses of whose mouth are sweeter than honey or the honeycomb. O my heart, thou mightest well break, though thou wert made of cast steel, to think that thou hast rebelled against Him who is all goodness and all love to thee!” – ibid
Common Experience For Those Who Draw Near To God
Speak with people in the faith long enough and they’ll tell you that they feel worse about their sin now than they did years ago. The reason is that those who draw near to God see the filth in their life more clearly now than they ever did. So, in a rather odd turn of events, their being conformed to the likeness of Christ actually causes them to see more sin in their life…even though there is actually less.
“I am sure it will be the same with you, beloved. The more your joy in the Lord, and the nearer you come to perfection, the deeper will be your lamentation,-the bitterer, yet in some senses the sweeter will be your sorrow that there should be any sin still remaining within you.” –ibid
I hope that these are helpful quotations from a powerful sermon. I also hope that Spurgeon’s insight brings clarity to your life and to your repentance.
R. Dwain Minor
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