While Biblical repentance is most often a topic of individual concern, we cannot afford to forget that repentance is also expected of local congregations.  In John’s Revelation, chapters 2 and 3, we see the risen and reigning Lord Jesus, walking in the midst of His gathered churches.  He is speaking to them, and for most, calling them to repent of corporate sins.  In this message, we will see Jesus Christ in and with His churches still today.  We will hear Him speaking to His churches.  Specific areas of sin will be addressed and we will also learn how local churches can cultivate an atmosphere of corporate repentance.

Well if you will, open up your Bibles to Revelation chapter 1. Revelation chapter 1, and while you're turning you probably wonder why I'd read from chapter 1 when the heading is with reference to chapters 2 and 3. The goal is not to give a full exposition of any one section but sort of to compile a biblical theology from a lot of different areas of the Scriptures and especially from chapters two and three of Revelation. But chapter one sort of sets the stage and gives us some clues as to what is happening as we begin to read what takes place and what is being said in chapters 2 and 3. And so I want to read verses 9 through 20 of chapter 1.

And then I'll pray and we'll dig in here. So Revelation 1 beginning in verse 9. I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus was on the island called Patmos on account of the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, Write what you see in a book and send it to these seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea. Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the lampstands, one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest.

The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and his feet were like burnished bronze refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters. In his right hand He held seven stars, and from his mouth came a sharp, two-edged sword, and his face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one.

I died, and Behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades. Write, therefore, the things that you have seen, those that are, and those that are to take place after this. As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and the seven golden lampstands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches and the seven lampstands are the seven churches. This is the word of God.

Let's pray. Lord, I pray that you would give us illumination and understanding. Father we might not know this side of eternity how far of a reach your word will make as far as the specific churches that will be affected. Lord, I pray that it would be large. I pray that it would be expansive.

I pray that it would be multi-generational. And Lord, we will give you all the praise and all of the glory. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Well already this weekend you've heard over and over and with a lot of detail concerning the doctrine of repentance and I hope that you've really considered it in your own heart this doctrine of repentance and we've heard that word over and over repentance repentance and I even noticed as I was listening behind them on the screen the whole time as they're preaching repentance you see it everywhere you've gone repentance repentance repentance and I want to ask you as you've listened and as you've heard for whom have you found this doctrine necessary When you think about repentance in the recesses of your heart, who is doing the repenting?

Who needs it? In other words, who's on your mind? We have this tendency to hear repentance and say, yes repentance, they need to repent. And I hope that's not the case. Now I would imagine in a group like this, at a conference like this, when you hear about repentance you would say and admit with all the speakers so far, It is I who need to repent.

We need to repent. And we should all be very clear that the command to repent and believe the gospel is for us. It is for believers. It's not merely for the lost family member or the lost co-worker, those who have obvious areas of sin where we might look and say, yeah, they need to repent. I mean, look at them.

But rather, it is for us, you, believer, Christian, saint, you need to repent and believe the gospel. I need to repent and believe the gospel every single day. That is our duty as we've heard over and over from Luther our life is to be a lifestyle of repentance. But I wonder how many of you have ever considered the need for repentance from a corporate perspective? We heard a little bit of that yesterday I think done very well from Psalm 130, a corporate song dealing with repentance.

But do you often think about repentance as a member of a local church, not just as an individual member and not just looking at the other members and saying well they need to repent, but have you considered what it looks like for you along with them as a body corporately in close fellowship with one another repenting if you sing the Psalms of repentance. Hopefully the idea would be that as a body we understand that we need to as a corporate body turn and repent from time to time but I wonder if you've ever considered that. Well that's what I want to do today is I want you to think about your connection with your local church as a body member, as a body part, a finger or a toe or an elbow or an eye or an ear? How do you fit in that body and what will repentance look like for that body? Now we're going to do that by looking at the letters to the churches of the book of Revelation, the introduction to which I read, and we'll begin to move into those letters very shortly.

But I believe from these chapters we learn that corporate repentance, while either overlooked or misunderstood, is of supreme importance. It's not just an individual concern, it is a corporate concern. So, let's begin by looking at the speaker. As we look at Revelation chapters 2 and 3, there is a speaker that we were introduced to in chapter 1. So who's speaking?

Well, if we look at chapter 1 verse 4 we read John to the seven churches that are in Asia. So we can say very simply, first it is the apostle John, the last living apostle of the Lord Jesus. He was the immediate penman. He wrote the letters. But in verse 18 of chapter 1, we also read this from a speaker who's now telling John what he should write.

He says, I am the living one. I died and behold I am alive forevermore." Who is that? I hope we understand when we read that description. The one who died and rose and who lives forever, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it's not just John.

Now we have the Lord Jesus Christ speaking and he says in verse 11 to John, write. So he's telling John the words to write. John pens the words of Jesus Christ. But then beginning to look at these letters look at chapter 2 and verse 7. He who has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

So we have sort of a triple layered speaker here. John is writing the words that Jesus tells him to write, and it is the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Spirit, who is also guiding John along as he writes. And so we could say, if we ask the question, who is speaking? Well, the Apostle John records the words of the risen and reigning Christ as he speaks through his Holy Spirit. Or even more simply, Christ speaks.

Our God is a speaking God. We read in John, In the beginning was the Word, and that Word was with God in the beginning, and that Word was God in the beginning. The Word became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ speaks as the complete and final word to the people of God. And so in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, we have the unchanging, eternal God in Christ by the power of his Spirit speaking to the audience.

And so that's the second point. Now that we know who's speaking, we need to understand who is being addressed. And we'll start with the original audience and then we'll sort of pan out a little bit. Notice in verse 13, we see this picture of these lampstands. There was one in the midst of the lampstands, and he's one like a son of man.

Well, hopefully we know who the son of man is. It was Jesus' favorite reference to himself. That's his title for him. I think he gets that from Daniel chapter 7, the Son of Man. But what are these lampstands?

He's walking in the midst of these lampstands. Well, the Lord Jesus tells John, and we read this in verse 20. As for the seven lampstands, they are the seven churches. So these seven lampstands are seven local churches. We're using pictures to describe these churches.

And so who is the audience? It's these seven churches. And I think it's important to notice how Christ and John references them as the seven churches. We have churches in the city of Ephesus, in the city of Smyrna, in the city of Pergamum, in the city of Thyatira, in the city of Sardis, in the city of Philadelphia, and in the city of Laodicea. And so again, the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, speaking through John, is speaking to seven specific churches.

And these churches and their cities, if you looked at a map, they're all located on sort of a clockwise postal route. If you map them all out, you would have pretty much a circle, starting at Ephesus and ending at Ephesus, which would be very obviously beneficial if you're trying to carry letters to these churches. You just start on the route and work your way around, and every church in the city on that route gets their letter. So the original audience seven particular churches in seven cities along a very important postal route in the first century. Now if Our goal is to take what's been written in these seven letters and apply them to ourselves in our own situation.

I think it's important to prove that such a transition is applicable. To go from the first century to the 21st century, is that an appropriate application? Are we allowed to read their mail and apply it to ourselves? Well, I think not only can we, I believe that we should read their mail and apply it to ourselves. Now I come to that conclusion based on several observations.

First, while John, under the inspiration of the Spirit of Christ does write to the seven churches, these were not the only churches, not even in Asia Minor. There were more. There were actually probably 10 to 15 churches in that region of Asia Minor. We also know from the Apostle Peter that there were churches in Pontus and Galatia and Cappadocia and Bithynia. There were churches sprouting all over the place.

It seems like Christ has picked these seven churches for a reason. He separated them out. I think it's also important to remember that the number seven in Scripture, biblical numerology, is very important. It represents completion, totality, the fullness of a thing. And so in a book I believe full of highly pictorial and symbolic language it would only make sense that the number seven, like almost every other number in the book points to a greater reality.

It points to something bigger than just these seven churches. I would suggest it forces us to take these seven churches as symbolic of the totality of all of Christ's churches from the time of John until the time that Christ returns. That would include our churches. Another observation. All seven of these letters are included in one letter.

It would be as if all the mail for all of the homes in your, on your street were all printed on one sheet of paper and then every household got the same sheet and you read your neighbor's mail and they read your mail. In other words, these weren't even meant to be exclusive from the beginning. They were all reading each other's mail. All of the churches would have known what was going on in all of the other churches. Their business was out in public.

And lastly, if you'll notice at the end of every specific letter to every specific church there is a reference to the author and the audience. Chapter 2 verse 7 again hear what the Spirit says to the churches. Verse 17, the churches over and over. Every letter concludes with, listen, local church, individual church, what the Spirit is saying to the churches, all of the churches. And so I think what we learn is that John, while writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit of Christ, recording the very words of Christ himself, is mediating a message to seven real-life local congregations who typify all of the local churches that will exist until Christ returns.

The church manifest in local congregations hasn't changed very much as we'll see from what was happening in John's day. And I also will take a little bit of support from history. William Perkins when he wrote The Art of Prophecy, a preacher's manual, refers to the book of Revelation as a prophetic history of the condition of the church from the age in which John the Apostle lived until the end of the world. And so Christ is speaking to all of his churches. If you're a part of a local church, you can read these letters and you can get something out of them.

And this fits with what the New Testament, even Christ himself, taught about his continued ministry with his churches until he would return. In Matthew 18 verse 20 says where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them. And he doesn't mean you ran into another family of seven at Walmart and we have a church. The context is church discipline. When the church gets together in the name of Christ, he's there with them.

Matthew 28 and verse 20 says, Behold, I am with you always even until the end of the age. Well, that couldn't have been just for those standing there because they didn't live until the end of the age. He's saying, I will be with my churches present in my spirit until I return bodily in glory. And so I do think it's safe and actually necessary to take these letters, to take their mail, and to read it and apply it to our own churches. So we know the speaker and we sort of know the audience now, these churches, but also our own churches.

So let's unpack the message that's being given. We need to understand what's being written. Surely we can agree that if the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to his churches and we are members of his churches, then whatever he says needs to be heeded and taken into account. We have a clear reference to a thus saith the Lord to us and so I believe we should we should heed that so what's the message? Well again we'll start with the original setting and then we'll pan out and it's here unfortunately we have to sort of ascend into the high and look at an overall view.

There's no way I could unpack these two chapters in six months, let alone the time that I have. And so I just want to look at three general observations that we can take from every letter that has been written. The first observation, Christ was aware of their works. He was aware of their works. We see in chapter 2 and verse 2, writing to the church at Ephesus, I know your works.

See, this church at Ephesus was very strong in doctrine and in discernment. They were known as a church that would wage war against false teachers. They had all of their I's dotted and all of their T's crossed, and yet they are loveless. They're passionless. There was no real zeal for Christ in other words they loved to be correct more than they actually loved the person of Christ can you imagine a church like that in our day I think we can In chapter 2 verse 9 he writes to the church at Smyrna and he says, I know your tribulation and your poverty.

One of the two churches that were not commanded to repent. They were slandered and afflicted and persecuted by ethnic Jews who Christ calls the synagogue of Satan. Their martyrdom was certain, we find out in chapter 2 and verse 10, they would die. He's telling them, you're gonna die. And Christ exhorts them, be faithful unto death.

Just stay faithful. Perhaps you know of some folks around the world who are in a church like that. In chapter 2 and verse 13, he writes to the church at Pergamum, I know where you dwell." He knew, Christ knew that they lived in somewhat of a cultural melting pot of paganism. And he knew that there was always this pressure to capitulate just a tad. He knew that there were already some in the church who were saying, guys, let's just go along to get along just a little bit because if we don't, we're going to be destroyed, we'll be killed, we won't be able to live in this society.

And that type of teaching was beginning to be tolerated by the others. They might not have been teaching it, but they were allowing it to be taught. As a church body, they were not harsh enough with this type of false teaching. In chapter 2 and verse 19, we run into the church of Thyatira, and he says, I know your works. He knew, Christ knew, that labor guilds and trade guilds ran the city.

He knew, again, that this church was tempted to adopt paganism just to survive, just to live. And he knew that they had began to adopt some of that pagan culture into the church. The church started to look like the world. They had taken up idolatry because that was the means of economic safety. They were the opposite of the church at Ephesus.

Ephesus was all discernment, no love. These people were all worldly love and acceptance with no discernment. In chapter 3 and verse 1, the church at Sardis, he says, I know your works. They thought they were alive. They thought they were well.

They were doing great and marvelous things for the kingdom. They were Popular and they were bustling and they had a great reputation in their community as a as a living church But Christ says you're dead. You don't know it, but you're dead They'd forgotten their purpose. They had no mission They were not a gospel threat to their communities at all. Everybody loved that church, the church of Sardis.

In chapter 3 and verse 8, he writes to Philadelphia, that church, and he says, I know your works. The second church that is not commanded to repent specifically. He says they were poor and yet they were determined. They were meek and yet they were resolved to push forward. We know that Christ loved that church at Philadelphia.

The apostle Paul actually referred to that church as his joy and crown. He loved this church. And then in chapter 3 and verse 15 we meet the church of Laodicea, probably one of the more popular references. Christ knew that they were so ineffective that it made him sick. They were believers.

They were a church. He calls them a church, but they were useless to the point of regurgitation. They were, again, of no benefit to their community. They thought they had all they needed. They thought they were alive and well, just like the church at Sardis.

They had no idea that they were only superficially well. They were making no difference in the city in which they lived. And so Christ, the Lord of the churches, is fully aware of every detail of all of their beliefs and their practices. He knows the situation in each one of their cities and he doesn't assume that they're all going to be the same or doing the exact same things. He knows that they have pressures from within the church and pressures from without the church.

He knew where they had stood strong and where they had fallen short. In other words, Christ knows what's going on in his churches. That's the first general observation. The second general observation in all of these letters is that Christ commanded repentance where it was necessary. All of the churches except two, the two that were being severely persecuted, are commanded to repent.

Turn from your ways. Change your minds with regard to sin and turn to God in faith. And the commands are given to these churches as congregations. He doesn't start naming specific names. Well, he does, and we'll get to the specific name that he references in a minute, But he commands them as a congregation.

They were expected to take responsibility for the body. The church take responsibility for all of their erring members. And Thyatira, that woman Jezebel was being tolerated. And it says, those who committed adultery with her I will throw into great tribulation and thus they repent of her works. They were going along with what she was doing and he says you all just repent of what's happening within the church.

Christ commands repentance. It's not merely a doctrine to consider, it is a command to obey. Third observation, Christ threatened judgment upon disobedience. To the churches where our Lord commands repentance, He threatens them to come in judgment, all of them but one, if they do not heed his commands. He threatens to remove their lampstand, that is their ability to be effective.

I'll take it away. Some of you probably known churches like that. Our church recently acquired some sound equipment and chairs and stuff from a church that was completely full and outfitted as a monster church and the people just got up and left and All of their stuff was sitting there their chairs their pews their sound every bit of it left It was as if Christ said you're done He threatens them He threatens to come in judgment with the sword of his mouth. He threatens to render justice according to their evil in chapter 2 and verse 23. He threatens to come upon them like a thief.

You're not going to know it. I'm not going to say, The thief's here. Behold, I stand at the door and knock, and when you open it, I'm going to come in and take everything. I'm going to come in and you're not going to have a clue, and I'll be gone. He knows what's happening.

He commands them to repent, and he threatens them if they will not repent now most of us agree I believe that that God continues to work all things according to the counsel of his will that Christ Upholds all things by the word of his power but how often when it comes to the church do we tend to carry on like whenever we got the building Christ gave us the key to the building and dangling on the key ring was the key to the kingdom of heaven and he says I'll be back just do the best you can try not to mess it up too bad. He just sort of takes off and we are left with the rule and order of the church to ourselves. We see here that is absolutely not the case. But rather every church that is named, again I believe representing all of Christ's churches in all places and all times, they are reminded that the Lord and head of the church is there, he's watching, he's examining, he's exhorting, and he's rebuking, and he's threatening. Every church.

Now how does that apply to us? Well I think it's clear if we if we take all this into consideration. We've sufficiently proven that each of these letters should be used almost like a blueprint through which we might examine our own churches but in addition to that we know Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He has not changed. He's not lowered his standard for what his churches should be or what our duty is.

We know that the churches of Christ still stand with many of the same issues that they had in that day. Again, can any of you even try to imagine a cold and passionless orthodoxy in a church? Can you imagine it? I can. Can you imagine a church that would tolerate falsehood?

It's obvious. Can you imagine a church that would compromise just a little bit with idolatry just to keep peace with the culture so that there's not too much of a rub there? Can you imagine a church that's popular with everyone and yet if you were to attend you'd say well this church is an inch deep and a mile wide. There's nothing here. What's the draw?

Or Maybe you can imagine a church that's totally ineffective and useless in their community where it stands. If it was there this Sunday, people wouldn't notice. If it was gone this Sunday, people wouldn't notice. Completely ineffective. Is that your church?

Maybe you've got a little bit of several of those sort of mixed in together beginning to creep up. Nothing's changed in Christ's churches. Christ is still aware of our works. His flaming eyes have not missed a single thought, a single action, a single intention from the leaders of the church or the common people. Christ's commands to the churches have been preserved in holy writ and the heaven and earth pass away, His word will not pass away.

And you can close it all day long, but the black ink is still going to be on the white pages when you open it back up. These threats have been recorded. They're not erased. We can't forget them. We can't move on.

They're here. So what can we learn? Jesus Christ, through the power of his spirit, observes and analyzes and surveys his churches. Where there is sin, he commands corporate repentance and he threatens judgment, not just upon individuals but upon congregations. Where there is a true church, where there is a true lampstand, Christ is there walking in that church and I wonder how many of us would recognize if Christ wasn't there.

How would we know? Would we notice his absence or would we just assume that because our orthodoxy is correct, Christ must be here. We all agree on this point and that point Christ must be blessing sort of like Micah and his Levite in Judges chapter 17. He thought, well I've got a Levite now. Surely God will bless what I'm doing.

I'm worshiping with with some outward appearance of orthodoxy. The problem was he was worshiping an idol that he made out of silver. How many of your churches would have all of the outward frills, and when I say that, I think a lot of us are from Reformed churches, so we sort of pride ourselves in no outward thrills. So no outward thrill would be the outward thrill of a Reformed church. Perhaps you have none of the outward thrills.

You have all of the proper orthodoxy in theory, all of the right modes and all of the right forms, and yet you're worshiping an idol because you're worshiping a Christ who would never come in and demand that needs to be changed. This needs to be addressed. You need to do away with this or get rid of this person or this teaching. If your Christ doesn't continue to do that, you've got the wrong Christ. Because he still walks in the midst of his churches.

He watches them, he knows their works, he commands repentance. If you will obey there will be blessings. The utmost blessing would be his continued presence, but if you will not obey there will be there are threatenings of judgment the worst of which would would be for him to walk out the front door and turn around and write Ichabod over the door frame and lock it. You could go in and out every Sunday morning Sunday night and not have a clue what he's written over that church. And so it's the duty I believe of every church to cultivate an atmosphere of corporate repentance.

We need to understand these things. The atmosphere, this language can be kind of mystical or strange to some of you, I know it is to me, but I couldn't think of anything better. When you talk about the atmosphere of a thing, it's the pervading tone, the mood of a place. You go into a restaurant, the food might be great, but you say, well, I don't really like the atmosphere. Maybe the atmosphere is great, but the food's awful.

It's that tone, that feel that you get. And so when I refer to an atmosphere of repentance, I'm saying that the overall demeanor or attitude of our churches as local congregations, as bodies, as larger units made up of individuals should be characterized by repentance. Turning away from sin in our hearts and in our minds and turning toward God in faithful trust and obedience should characterize every congregation both inwardly and outwardly. An atmosphere is not something that's hidden. It's seen and felt and known and experienced.

So you need to labor to create that atmosphere, that air of repentance in your church. Now that's not to the exclusion of the atmosphere of love and grace and mercy and patience and truth. All of these we need to cultivate as well but the conference is not on love, grace, mercy, patience, or truth. It's on repentance and so we need to work on our corporate repentance in addition to these things. So what is that process of cultivating an atmosphere of repentance?

Well the first thing that we have to be able to do is recognize that atmosphere. Very often we think it's true of us and it's not or maybe it is true of us and we just don't know it. So I want to walk through just three things that there are obviously more but three things that will characterize a church where there is an atmosphere of repentance. The first thing is that preached repentance will be expected. Preached repentance will be expected by the church.

Remember Christ's Spirit speaks through the Word of God. The Word of God is used most commonly, most effectively, most predominantly through the week in and week out expositions of scriptures by the man or men of God that Christ has given to your church. That is the predominant way that a believer should be fed the word of God. And so when there is an atmosphere of repentance, preached repentance will be expected because that's how Christ gets the word to the church. He preaches through his preachers.

And so There will be an expectation by the people for the preacher to use the word repentance or repent as a command. There will be an expectation that the preacher will explain repentance, what it is, what it is not, why it is necessary. The people will come and they will sit expecting to hear words like, turn, change, cease, stop, quit it, cut it out, what are you doing, how dare you. That should be normal, not strange to us. It'll be expected.

Where there is an atmosphere of repentance, the elders will very often be aware of issues that are happening, taking place in the lives of the flock. They're gonna be in your business, and they're gonna be nosy, and everyone that joins our church, I say, look, I'm gonna be in your business. If you don't want somebody in your business, there are a lot of churches where you can go where nobody will be in your business. I'm gonna be in your business. He's gonna be in your business, and he's gonna preach about your sins.

There will be the use of personal pronouns like you in a sermon, not just we. Well, we need to do this and we need to do that. Our church and a lot of times we. No, it'll be you. You need to understand that by the time he preaches it, he's already heard it three or four times.

He's already been beat by it. He's heard you, you, you, you all week. So he's not being offensive when he says you. You should expect it. And there will be mention of specific sins known in the congregation.

There will be awkward moments where everybody knows who's being talked about, and you just deal with it. And there will be times when you personally feel like the word of God has pinned you to the back wall and everybody's turned around looking at you because your sin's being exposed. Now they may not really know that, but you'll feel that way. These things should be expected through the preaching of God's word. The congregation comes expecting that to happen.

Where there is an atmosphere of corporate repentance, those commands to repent will be received well. Because they're expected, they'll be received well. They'll not be bucked against or murmured about. They won't be ignored or swept under the rug. They won't be received with bitterness.

You're not going to hear the pastor or the preacher's commands you to repent, name your specific sin, and you think the first thought in your mind is, who do you think you are telling me to do this when you're doing... There won't be any of that. You will receive it. Where there's an atmosphere of repentance, the congregation will receive the commands to repent gladly, although sometimes very painfully. They will thank the preacher for his faithfulness and those pats on the back and what a great sermon will begin to transition into, boy that hurt, but it was helpful and I appreciate it and maybe you don't get that until an email months later or during the week but they realize repentance brings about times of refreshing this man is trying to bring me along to refresh my soul and so they receive it well.

Where there is an atmosphere of repentance, repentance is acknowledged openly. There will be personal conversations within the body and I hope you are as a body able to spend a lot of time together. But there will be personal conversations within the body where you'll be confessing your sins. You'll be talking with one another about struggles and sins that you're dealing with in your life that you're wrestling with God over, and you're struggling with in the word and in prayer, the indwelling sins that are yours specifically, your specific struggles, and you'll talk about the great victories that God is granting through repentance. It will be acknowledged normally and openly.

Changes in lifestyles and beliefs and practices and worldview brought about by the Spirit's granting of repentance will be seen and discussed. Things will come up. You'll look at this lady doing this new thing or that guy doing this new thing and you start to wonder, well, maybe I need to examine what I'm doing. Well, what's happening in your life? Well, you know, this was happening and I was reading this and the Lord really revealed this to me and I'm not trying to be ultra confrontational about it, but the Lord's dealing with me with it, and then that next person says, well, maybe I need to consider it.

Maybe I need to read it. And they go to read, and then they come back the next week. You know, the Lord told me the same thing. And that type of stuff is normal. Where there's an atmosphere of repentance, sin is not covered over or ignored, but rather it's openly discussed with sobriety.

Not to be confused with everybody just coming in and, well, we're all sinners and God knows we're sinners and he sympathizes with our sin and he knows it and it's no big deal. No, it'll be covered and discussed with sobriety, with a biblical reality that sin is an offense against a holy God. And we're wrestling with this as a congregation. We want this atmosphere to be the hours where we understand God is holy, God speaks to his people and he reveals to them their sins and that changes the way they live. It becomes normal to admit we're sinners grappling with indwelling sin and that God is granting victory over time.

Where there is an atmosphere of repentance, repentance will be preached by the preachers, the elders. The repentance will be received well by the congregation, and it will be acknowledged, it will be a normal thing. This is, we repent. Nobody claims to have it all figured out, we're not right. So, maybe that doesn't describe your church.

And maybe you're a part of what you might say is a very outwardly formal and respectable church who tends to act like sin is out there and this is our safe space that we come in from the world to get away from all of the sin, which is false, by the way. But maybe that's sort of the atmosphere. It's good to be here, away from all the sin. Ugh, get that off of me when I walk in the door. I've just been out in the sin all week long.

If that's how your church acts, then you need to begin to work on cultivating an atmosphere of repentance is not simply created and sustained by a single member or a single family. It's not possible. It has to be a corporate reality. And that means on a scale, if your church is very far from these things, these characteristics, that you may be required to labor diligently and patiently and prayerfully for many years before these things become descriptive of your church. You don't go back this week and look and say, well, they all look the same as they did last week, and then say, oh, I'm gonna find another church.

That's not it. And you can't Repent and see God working in your life and say, well, nobody else is doing it. Nobody else is following me and so I'll just go somewhere else. I believe we're far too quick to make that jump from church to church. It's not your job to force these things, but it is your job to do your duty seeking God's help through prayer for the congregation and examining your own heart.

In other words, you've got to start with yourself. So what's your duty? I would say first what you can do this week when you go home is acknowledge the presence of Christ with your church. As we've already seen, Christ promises to be with his people both individually and corporately. And his spirit dwells in every believer.

His spirit resides in his churches as they gather under his authority. In other words, if we can keep the picture in our mind, he walks in the midst of the lampstands, always. He's always there. Now more often than not our failure to live in light of that truth is because we very rarely stop and meditate on that fact, on that picture. We very rarely acknowledge it to be true in our hearts.

And so, one thing you could do is as you prepare your heart to meet with the gathered saints in corporate worship, take the time to meditate on Christ's personal, spiritual presence with His people. Just stop for a second and say, Christ is going to be here. As a matter of fact, when we read the language in Matthew 18, it's not as though you all gather and then He shows up and He says, we're two or three are gathered, have been gathered in My name. It's almost like when whoever unlocks the door opens it, Christ is already there on the front row saying, I've been waiting on you to get here. He's there with his churches.

Claim that promise in prayer. Ask for his presence to be manifested clearly to all who were there. Live in that reality, that experiential reality. You could pray something like this, Lord Jesus, as your people gather to worship you, I know that you've promised to be with us. You said that when your people gather in your name you would be there.

You said that the Holy Spirit, or by the Holy Spirit, both Father and Son now make their home in each of us. May that reality resonate in my heart. May every word and deed be carried out in light of these truths. Please, make your presence known to your people through the inner working of your spirit. Work in an effectual and eternal way in our hearts and our minds.

Conform us to your image as we talk and as we pray and as we sing, as we hear your word, as we participate in your table. Pray that or something like that. Acknowledge it. Just maybe this is that day where you say, Oh, that is true. Okay.

And maybe that's all you need to do, but I would say regularly remind yourself Christ is here. It's not just a bunch of people getting together. Christ is here. Acknowledge his presence. The Lord Jesus, remember, speaks to his people, especially through the preaching of the Word of God.

In Ephesians 2.17, Paul writing to that church says, And he, speaking of Christ, came and preached peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near. Now, if we're paying attention, we might ask, well, when did Christ go to Ephesus? I don't remember that. When did he preach to the Ephesians? Well it was when Christ's man, Paul, went and preached to them.

Christ sent his delegate. Christ has given gifts to his church like Paul and like John extraordinarily, but also even very ordinary men like pastors and teachers. Ephesians 4 says these are gifts to the church, these men who are given the task of speaking to his people on his behalf through the preached word. If you don't acknowledge that reality then you're going to sit every Sabbath day listening to a well-dressed man who's maybe very smart, very skilled, but it's just him giving you his opinion and you can go home and say well that sounded great but you know I don't agree or whatever if you don't acknowledge that truth but if you acknowledge that the man or the men given to your church are gifts from Christ sent to speak on behalf of Christ through the preached Word, then that man's message is going to mean a little bit more to you when you hear it. Your ears hopefully will perk up.

It will carry more weight than the opinions of mere men. So start there. Just acknowledge his presence in your heart and in your mind. Secondly, we need to listen to Christ. Again, if he's promised his presence and he's given his men, then surely you see the importance of listening intently, being careful how you hear the preaching of the Word of God.

Listen to this from the second Helvetic confession, which is one of the most popular reformed confessions from that time period. During the Reformation there was a return to this biblical view of preaching. And if you listen and read much you learn that even the architecture of the church buildings begin to change as they put the pulpit back in its proper place. They exalted the preaching of the Word of God. Listen to this.

They say, and this is sort of hard for some of us unless we take it in the right context, the preaching of the Word of God is the Word of God. Now let them clarify, wherefore when this Word of God is now preached in the church by preachers lawfully called, we believe that the very word of God is proclaimed and received by the faithful. Now that doesn't mean it's prophetic that we should open the back of our Bibles and write what's being said because they go on and that neither any word of God is to be invented, nor is to be expected from heaven. In other words, this is not new revelation. He says, and that now the word itself, which is preached, is to be regarded, not the minister that preaches.

Maybe he's not that well-dressed, and maybe he's not that very, not all that skilled. Don't listen to him just as a man. He says, for even if he be evil and a sinner, which I would, I know I am as a pastor and a teacher, I'm a sinner, even if he be evil and a sinner, Nevertheless, the Word of God remains still true and good. In other words, the Reformers believed that when a man rightly called and separated apart by the church rightly exegetes the Scriptures, And the application of that exegesis is you repent of your sin. It's your job to think, that's Christ telling me to repent.

That's not this guy that I had lunch with last. This is Christ. You're listening to Christ through his preacher. And very often, the preacher may not give a very clear call to repentance for a specific sin. Sometimes the Spirit just speaking through, maybe he read a big chapter, He's only looking at two verses and the Spirit points out something from the first two verses he reads.

He doesn't mean to preach on those but then you read it and you begin to feel the conviction of the Spirit with regard to what's being said there but it's not been mentioned specifically. Don't brush that off as strange. Oh, that's just my conscience because the preacher's not preaching on that right now. So don't listen to that. That's not the point of the sermon.

No, listen to Christ through his Spirit and repent. Listen to him through his preachers, through his spirit, as he calls you to repentance. The third duty is that you need to obey the command to repent. All of the acknowledging and all of the hearing in the world is absolutely useless in the congregation if the congregation and the individual members are not willing to obey the command from Christ through his preachers and spirit to repent. As James would say, don't be hearers only, deceiving yourselves, be doers of the word.

When they preach it, you gotta then do something. So when you're listening to the preacher preach and he begins to delve into specific sins of the heart or the mind or the actions, do not then begin to surmise, who in the congregation is he talking about? I think I can figure this out because he said that they do this and this. Don't do that. Listen to sermons for you.

Just assume he's preaching to you. Ask, is that my sin? I've had people do that to me. Were you talking about so and so? Were you talking about them when you said this?

Or even in a prayer I prayed for somebody and they thought that I was talking about somebody in the congregation and I said well no I didn't have them on my mind at all and don't do that just assume I'm praying for you ask is that my sin am I on my pastor's mind hopefully you are maybe you are So you need to listen to sermons for yourself. And then before you listen and after you listen and While you're listening, ask the Lord to examine your heart. It is certainly helpful and necessary that we pray for our congregations and our fellow church members and the congregation as a whole, but your job is to examine your heart first and foremost. Pay attention to yourself first and remember as a member of a church there will be no congregational repentance apart from your own personal repentance. You've got to start with yourself.

And so, listen for yourself. Ask the Lord to examine your heart and then live in such a way that your progress will be seen by all. True biblical repentance we've heard over and over and over again this weekend cannot be proven or confirmed in the least apart from the works of righteousness that accompany it. You can say all day long, well I've repented and I'm working, but if there's no fruit growing from that root, that tree, then we have to say, well keep trying, but we can't confirm true repentance. Repentance leads to different actions that flow from a changed heart.

One of the most effective means of corporate repentance and transformation will be the openly proclaimed repentance of your life. When you live differently, when you talk differently, when you act differently with your congregation, they will begin to see your repentance. They'll see your turn. And more often than not they will either be offended at your holiness and they're gonna get upset because you're what now all of a sudden you're holier than thou you're you're so you're so pious that you can't maybe that's not it that they're either going to be offended at your holiness or your legalism or they'll be convicted and convinced and they will they will seek out that same change. They'll be able to see the holiness and the work of God and they'll want to follow you.

They'll want to know what's the Lord doing in your heart. Help me to see that. In other words, live out what God is working in you. So as you go home, that's what you can do when you gather with your church. Maybe it's not this Sunday, but the next Lord's Day.

You gather with your church, and that's what you can do as individuals. Acknowledge the presence of Christ with your congregation. Listen to what Christ says through his preachers and obey the command to repent. If you will start there as individuals, then it may spread, and it may not. Sometimes after years and years of fighting and working, the Lord will say, I wrote Ichabod over here a long time ago, let's move over here, but don't jump to that and assume that.

If we desire to have strong gospel-centered churches that please our Lord, and we desire to receive from Him the blessing of his continued presence with us, we have to be individuals who repent, but we must also labor to cultivate an atmosphere of repentance in our own local churches. Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word. Lord Jesus I pray that you have saw fit to speak and that Anything that I've said that was not in accord with your holy name would be striped from the memory of everyone here and that you would forgive me. Lord, I pray that what was in accord with sound doctrine and sound teaching would reverberate and echo in our hearts.

Lord, I pray from this that you would build churches where you are pleased to dwell, that we would honor You with our church life, our doctrine, our practice, our home life as individuals and families, that everything we do would resound to Your glory and Your praise, so that when You return, You will be glad to see your churches thriving in obedience. Bless the rest of this weekend. Continue to feed our souls. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.