In his sermon titled 'Of Repentance Unto Life and Salvation,' Scott Brown explores the concept of repentance as outlined in the 1689 Baptist Confession, focusing on paragraph four. Brown underscores that repentance is a lifelong duty for Christians, necessary due to our inherent sin nature, referred to as the 'body of death.' He emphasizes that the church, family, and individual hearts should cultivate a culture of repentance. Brown delineates three life stages—youth, middle age, and old age—each with unique challenges and temptations that necessitate repentance. He discusses the importance of confessing specific sins explicitly, using biblical language rather than self-flattering terms, to achieve genuine humility and reconciliation with God. The sermon concludes with a call to foster a generation skilled in repentance, highlighting the refreshment and peace that come from sincere penitence.

So we're dealing with the Baptist Confession on repentance. We're dealing with paragraph four exclusively tonight. And paragraph one makes it really clear, hey, it's never too late to repent. That's such a great paragraph. The second paragraph makes it clear that God provides renewal for Christians who fall into sin through repentance, even really pernicious sin.

And the third paragraph makes it clear that repentance unto salvation is a work of grace, it's all of grace. And then in this fourth paragraph, we find our duty to repent of known sins, and it is speaking of a lifetime of repentance. You know, I used to travel to Romania to preach there, and one of the things that I learned when I would go there is that the Christians had a name in Romania. It was a curious name. They were known for something that the government Called them and everyone else in the country called them and here was then the name they were the repenters That's what the Romanian Church was called You know just before the fall of communism and the days after communism.

And the name is appropriate for Christians to be repenters. And this fourth paragraph in the Baptist Confession speaks of it. And so there are three points that I want to draw out of this tonight. And The first is that repentance is a lifelong activity, okay? Okay?

And then the Second thing is that there is a reason that we need a lifelong activity of repentance. And there's the reason. There are particularly two reasons. There are particularly two reasons. And then thirdly, how we ought to deal with our sin.

And the last phrase speaks of that. So let's look at it. As repentance is to be continued through the whole course of our lives upon the account of the body of death and the motions thereof, So it is every man's duty to repent of his particular known sins particularly." So this speaks the first phrase speaks of this lifelong activity of repentance that repentance is ongoing, that it continues throughout the whole course of our lives. The whole direction, every part of our lives as it goes forward, repentance is to be characterized by that life. We'll never outgrow our sin nature and therefore we'll never outgrow our need for repentance.

And it really speaks of how the culture of the church ought to be affected here. The church should be a culture of repenters. The heart should have a culture of repentance, the family should have a culture of repentance, and the church should have a culture of repentance at all. There's really no place for high-minded, self-righteous people in the Church of Jesus Christ. And we entered into the kingdom of heaven by repentance, and because of the depth of our depravity, We continue in every season of our lives in a state of struggle with sin Now it says here that we are I think this is I think there's there's a really interesting word here It's this word course the course of our lives I I think it's significant that they use that word because life is a journey, isn't it?

You're on a course and the course takes you through valleys and mountains, and the course of your life takes you through deserts, figuratively, through rocky places. I don't know if you're in a rocky place or a desert or you're by a mountain stream, you're existing by rivers of living water and the most succulent grass ever, but life is a course. And everyone experiences different situations on that course and that journey. And no matter where we are on the course, there are opportunities to repent. Now in this course of our lives there are various stages of your life and I want to identify three stages of our lives that are part of this course.

There is youth, there's middle age, and there's old age. Now you might want to get more granular than that, but that's as deep as I'm gonna go. David said, remember not the sins of my youth. You know, when you're in your teens and 20s and maybe up into your early 30s, that could be called the season of youthfulness. But young people have pressing concerns that really bring about tempting situations in their lives.

You know, Paul said, when I was a child, I thought as a child, I spoke as a child. You know, part of that really bears witness to that there are certain things of childhood that are childish and maybe even sinful. But young people have concerns about friendship, they have concerns about getting married, they have have concerns about making a living. I remember when I was in my teens, I thought, oh Lord, is there anyone that would possibly marry me? There can't be anyone who would be so foolish to marry somebody like me.

And I had concerns about that. I had concerns about making a living you know what I would I be able to make a living and really actually provide. I had concerns about that and you know when you're young worldliness is a huge pressure. The desire to be accepted, the desire to taste everything that everybody else is tasting, and to look the way that everyone else looks, all driven from the desire to be accepted and you know finding yourself in the place where the worst possible thing that can happen to you is that somebody might think that you are weird That's like the worst thing that can happen to you when you're young. That seems to dissipate over time, thankfully.

And you who are young and you're smiling at me right now and you know how true what I just said is. You know, the Lord's going to take care of that over time, but it would be really good to get rid of it as soon as you can. You know, when you're young and you're a leader, you typically, you know, you want to be someone. You're obsessed with your vision and how different you are, how profound you are, and how you're gonna make such an impact in the world. Well, I remember thoughts like that when I was a young pastor at age 26.

You're just so full of energy and you wanna be just so relevant. That's what happens when you're young. And some of those things actually might dissipate over time as well, as the Lord works in your life. Often you end up kind of like the folk that the Bible talks about, they have zeal but without knowledge. That happens in youth.

I was reading something by an author who was writing in 1862, the sins of youth. Here was his list, disregard of parental authority, forgetfulness of God, refusal of instruction, evil company, sensuality, intemperance, vain amusements. Well, these are many of the sins of youth and sometimes they linger and continue, but they are the particular sins of youth. And if you're not a repenter during this course, this season of the course of your life, these sins set the stage for bitter remorse, severe punishment, and often very, very grave difficulty if you're not a repentor in your youth. And so it's really important that you understand the pressures upon you and the sins that you're committing in your youth.

There are actually particular sins of youth. And then we get to the sins of middle age and I'm just going to I'm going to define middle age as between 40 and Well, maybe I should make it 63 because that still puts me in middle age But let's just say middle age is more like 40 to 60 I read that somewhere that that's what middle-aged is. I kind of like to zoom, you know, ease back a little bit. You know, being on the AARP list and getting senior discounts isn't really actually the most appetizing thing I can think of. But I'm calling middle-aged 40 to 60.

Often when you hit your 40s and 50s and 60s, there might be this desire for ease. Some people call it a midlife crisis. They're things that you missed out on and you just want to do them. You have all these gaudy strange things that happen. You see 57-year-old guys with big gaudy gold chains, they're driving around in hot cars that, you know, only, you know, 28 year olds drive around and stuff like that.

And they have a midlife crisis. Narcissism is big in the forties and the fifties. And, you know, as, Hosea chapter 13 verse six says, they became satisfied and being satisfied, their heart became proud and they forgot me. That often happens. You know, a lot of times when you're in that zone in your 40s to 60s, you've burned up so much energy, you know, you've maybe even accomplished a lot, and you look back and you say, I don't wanna live the rest of my life this way.

I don't wanna live my life on a gremlin for the rest of my life. I need to make some changes. That happens to men, particularly in their mid late 40s and 50s. And they realize they've lived life really on the arm of the flesh, and they don't want to do it anymore. And I can relate to that thing there.

You know, we see examples in scripture, you know, where Solomon, he turned his wives, turned his heart away, or Joe Ash, you know, comes to the throne early, he restored the temple and then he abandoned the house of the Lord. There are various examples in scripture of this. Sexual temptations continue to be threatening during that season. And then let's just call old age 60 plus. And thankfully they're not that many people in that zone here tonight.

But they often become cynical in this season of life. They may lose their sense of conviction. They may be tired. They might want to rest so much that they don't lift a finger to mentor the rising generation. They might move to the beach and spend a decade collecting shells.

That's such a tragedy. This whole culture of retirement, stopping working, stopping giving, stopping investing is a sinful pattern of old age. And You know, is it right for a man to retire? Here's my answer. Absolutely not.

You can never retire from the work of building the true worship of God in your city. And we should give our whole lives to that until we have no breath left in us. So you have this whole course of your life. There's the season of youth, there's the season of middle age, there's the season of old age, and during all of these seasons there should be one ringing sound, the sound of repentance as 1 John 1 9 speaks of. If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The cry during all these seasons really should be the same as we read in Psalm 51 as David said, have mercy on me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me against you. You only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight, that you may be found just when you speak, and blameless when you judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.

Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part, you will make me know wisdom. So during the course of our lives, we need to be repenters, but there's a reason, and David in Psalm 51 has just Inferred it here and the reason we need to have a lifetime of repenting is twofold and first of all we have this thing called the body of death, and we also have the motions of the body of death. So therefore we need to repent. The problem number one, the body of death, is our old sin nature. And we have this burden to bear of a sin nature.

Man has two problems. He has the problem of sin, indwelling sin, and secondly, he has the problem of sins. Now these motions of the body of death primarily are focusing on this matter of indwelling sin that was passed down through Adam. Now I would like you to open to Romans chapter 7. This is one of the classic passages that refers to this body of death.

We have to understand these this reality. Here the Apostle Paul is an experienced believer and he's talking about the matters of law and grace and sin and the flesh and he's talking about how we should think about our failures and our sins and he actually explains his own struggle with sin which is really very helpful and he identifies the underlying problems of the struggle. So look at verse 14 in Romans chapter seven, and I'm just gonna bounce through sort of some major headings in this section. First of all, Paul identifies the root of his problem as a man in verse 14. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, sold under sin.

There's this carnality that we suffer under all the days of our life. And then secondly in verse 15 and 16, Paul confesses the inconsistent living that this problem, this sin creates. It causes an inconsistency in our living. And Paul says this, for what I am doing I do not understand. For what I will to do that I do not practice but what I hate that I do if then I do what I will will not to do I agree with the law that it is good and then Paul thirdly in verses 17 and 18 he identifies the core problem.

And he says this, for now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, nothing good dwells. For to will is present with me but how to perform what is good I do not find This is the body of death at work. And then in the next Paul explains his war within in verses 19 through 22. Look at verse 19.

For the good that I will to do I do not do, but the evil I will not to do that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do it is no longer I who do it but sin who dwells in me. I find then a law That evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good, for I delight in the law of God according to the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." He Paul is talking about this inward struggle of sin in the very members of his whole being. And then Paul communicates his sorrow for sin in verse 24, oh wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death. And This is exactly the phraseology that we find in the confession here.

It is this body of death. And then finally, Paul expresses his hope, his confidence in Jesus Christ alone to help him with this grave problem of his sin nature. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord so then with the mind I myself serve the law of God but with the flesh the law of sin. So it is it is Jesus Christ who delivers him from this body of death. But we we have this burden in this life to have this body of death.

We're going to continue to sin and We should expect that from one another. You should expect that in your spouse. You should expect it in your children. You should expect it in yourself. You should expect it in your pastors.

You should expect it in your deacons. You should expect it in your brothers and sisters. You should expect it. And we need to just acknowledge that we bear this burden. In some ways, you know, when you see your brother sin, there are probably a couple of ways that you can respond.

One, by prayer, but also in some ways, you can glory in it in a sense because you know you have a blood-bought sinner who's struggling with sin just like you do. In some ways when you see someone trafficking and sort of the sin that they always seem to commit, you can in one way just recognize how good God is, and you can in one way rejoice in that person that they have a savior who's delivered them. And then to be brothers and sisters that are helpful and blessed to one another, even in correction or confrontation or prayer of some kind. So The first problem is this body of death. Now the second problem are the motions of that body of death because that body of death brings about these motions.

You know, there's stuff that happens and this body of death has an impact on your life. These paths of life present temptations and we're faced with different things in these motions of our lives that give opportunity to sin. Someone might sin against us and then because of that we might sin against them isn't that terrible when that happens if it were just It's not bad enough that they sinned against us, but then we got angry and bitter and vindictive and we slandered them and we had ought against them and their sin just facilitated our own sin. And we end up having to repent, maybe even more than they might have to repent. We have trials, we compromise, we have pressures, we want to be man pleasers, we live under the fear of man, we love money, we want to serve ourselves, we want our own pleasures.

The motions of life bring us into many opportunities to sin. There's a beautiful example of repentance in this kind of situation in Psalm 130 verse 1. Out of the depths I cried to you O Lord hear my voice Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications." Have you ever fallen into bed and that was the first thing in your mind, O Lord, why did I say what I said? Why was I so dull to you? Why did I not remember you through the day?

You know, why was I so insensitive? Why was I so selfish? And verse 3 says, if you Lord should mark our iniquities, oh Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, that you may be feared. I wait for the Lord.

My soul waits. And in his word I do hope. My soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning Yes more than those who watch for the morning Oh Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord There is mercy and with him is abundant redemption and he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities When you're involved in the motions of sin it sets in motion This whole heart of repentance of crying out to God. Oh Lord have mercy on me Lord have mercy on me and heal me set my feet upon a rock put a new song in my heart, oh Lord have mercy on me." And so these two reasons for repentance is the body of death and the motions thereof. Now then we come to this third category of truth here in the confession which speaks to how we ought to deal with our sins and that's that's this section here.

How do we deal with our sins? And our sins are defined by the Apostle John. Sin is lawlessness. How do we deal with our lawlessness? And all of our sins can be summarized in the Ten Commandments.

You can take each one of the Ten Commandments and you can find a rabbit trail from your sins to each one of the commandments, because the commandments which are 10 summarize all the sin and all of God's law. One of the issues that we deal with is that we're very unskilled at confession, and because of our pride, because of our self-congratulating spirit, we become very unskilled. We stumble at repentance because of our pride. This final point really addresses this. How do you deal with your pride well one way that you deal with your pride and your self-congratulatory spirit is that you repent of particular known sins, particularly, and stating your sin with clarity and using the right words is a gateway to joy.

And we won't remember all of our sins, but what the authors of this confession are saying is that specific sins need to be named. We cannot be vague about our sin. We ought to name our sin with the right name. Isn't this one of the hardest things to do? We would rather use different words to communicate about our sin.

We like to refer to our sins in more self-flattering terms. We call our sins things like mistakes, lapses of judgment. We call them errors. And we'd rather say, I was stressed out rather than I was faithless before the Lord. There are things that we would rather say.

In this sense, we should teach ourselves and our children how to speak of sin in terms of the biblical categories. One of the great things that happened at the end of the 20th century is a movement really of the sufficiency of scripture began to rise up called the biblical counseling movement. And the biblical counseling movement said, we don't think we should use the words of Freud and all the great psychiatrists to describe human behavior and human problems. We need to use the Bible words. Let's deal with people on the basis of the Bible because we know that's true.

And they began to use the Bible words about sins and categories of sins. You know, when you're teaching your children about sin, there's something very, very important to recognize. And maybe we need to teach ourselves this first, but we should teach our children not to say, I'm sorry, but rather to say, will you forgive me for grabbing your toy? Or will you forgive me for my lack of gentleness? Will you forgive me for my anger?

Will you forgive me for my lack of gentleness? Will you forgive me for my anger? Will you forgive me for my laziness? That's what it means to confess particular sins, particularly. And these sins that are confessed particularly they are known sins you know We won't be able to confess all of our sins.

We can't get to the depth of our depravity, but to confess our known sins and to confess our sins quickly, to keep short accounts. Now, there are usually two classifications of sin. There are sins of commission, the things we did on purpose, and then there are the sins of omission, the things we should have done but that we didn't do. And those are the kinds of sins that we deal with. And so there is this particular known sins, particularly what when you when you confess your sins your particular sins particularly it it gives you the opportunity to actually deal with your heart on the matter and not to congratulate and flatter yourself about your sin.

The Bible talks about repentance as rending the heart because it's real and it comes from the heart. It's the essence of a broken spirit and a contrite heart. A broken spirit and a contrite heart is different than a self-sufficient, self-defense mechanism. But it's something where the heart is actually broken down and there's true sorrow before God for the sin. And so sin should be repented of particularly.

Isaiah chapter 1 gives us a really good illustration of this. You may remember this passage in Isaiah chapter 1 when we were preaching through it a couple of years ago where Isaiah actually names particular sins. He says seek justice, rebuke the oppressor, defend the fatherless, plead for the widow. And then he says, come now, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow.

Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts." So naming sins is critical because it does more damage to the pride that's damaging us and it helps us to speak reality. It keeps us from living a double life and thinking wrongly about ourself. One of the things that I've learned about myself over the years is that I think more highly of myself than I ought and so I might be tempted and I know I have been tempted to use code words for my sin and the this this confession helps us to address that. And God uses the process of repentance in our lives and he even causes it.

I think it's important to remember that five of the seven churches in Revelation were called to repent. I think that what we ought to derive from that is that since we are a church, we should consider if we are like one of those five. Well, I'm sure we are, that we need to repent. The Church of Ephesus had left their first love. Pergamum was involved in immorality.

Thyatira, immorality. Sardis had fallen. Laodicea was lukewarm. Those are particular words that explain the sins of those churches. And so there you have it.

You have this threefold explanation of repentance. First of all, there's this lifelong activity of repentance. And then there is the reason we need to be repenting all our lifelong because of the body of death and the motions of the body and then we ought to deal with our sins particularly. That's the way we ought to deal with our sins. God has given us repentance to refresh us, to bring reconciliation between us and God and between us and man.

God does desire to humble the proud heart. We're all proud of heart. There are quarters of pride in all of us where we exalt ourselves, we congratulate ourselves, we flatter ourselves about our thoughts and our ways. But God actually desires a broken spirit and a contrite heart. And the word of God makes it clear that God favors the broken spirit and the contrite heart.

You're always doing yourself a favor when you're broken for your sin. When you're proud and lifted up and you're using code words for your sin, you have to understand what's happening and that is that you're depriving yourself of refreshment. You know the Apostle says what benefit did you receive from your sins? Really no benefit at all. What benefit can you receive from your repentance?

Enormous benefit in happiness, in reconciliation, and in peace with God and man. What a blessing. Let's pray. Lord, we pray that you would give us hearts of repentance, that you would teach us not to flatter ourselves so much and that you would give us understanding of our sins so that we could speak of them rightly instead of to deceive ourselves and others about our sins. I pray that you would help all of the children here to learn that sin is real and that they ought to repent in a real way as they grow up.

I pray you would give us a rising generation of children who are better at repenting than our generation has been. Amen.