In his sermon titled 'Repent', Douglas Campbell explores the message of repentance found in Matthew 4:17, emphasizing that Jesus' call to 'Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand' is central to the Christian faith. Campbell references the historical context of Jesus' early ministry, highlighting the darkness and silence that preceded His arrival as the light of the world. He stresses the need for Christians to recognize their sin, feel genuine sorrow, and confess their transgressions. Drawing on Thomas Watson's work, Campbell outlines six attributes of true repentance: sight of sin, sorrow for sin, confession of sin, shame for sin, hatred of sin, and turning from sin. He warns against the superficial practices of modern Christianity, urging believers to genuinely embrace repentance and faith as inseparable components of salvation. The sermon calls for a return to God, encouraging Christians to live as true reflections of Christ's light in a dark world.

This morning, if you would turn with me to Matthew chapter 4, we're going to look specifically at verse 17 today, but let's together read 12 through 17. Read 12 through 17. So that's Matthew chapter 4, and we'll start at verse 12. The word of God tells us, now when he had heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew into Galilee. And leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea, in the territory of Zebulon and Naphtali.

And so what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled. The land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea beyond the Jordan, Galilee of Gentiles, the people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light. And for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death, on them a great light has dawned. From that time, Jesus began to preach, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we thank you this morning that we might gather together as brothers and sisters in Christ. That Father, that we might gather and worship the one true God. Father, as we sang, behold our God seated on your throne. Father, this morning we pray that that would be where our hearts are, that you have changed our hearts, that you, Father, are on the throne, that Christ is our King. Father, this morning we come to you a sinful people.

Father, I pray that you would have mercy upon us, that in your mercy you grant repentance. Father, as we look to your word, we understand that is what we need. Father, this morning we pray that your Holy Spirit would give us light, that we would understand your word correctly, and that we would respond as you have called us to respond in repentance. Father, thank you for this morning. We give it to you in Jesus' name.

Amen. Amen. We haven't been in Matthew chapter 4 this morning. We've kind of taken another detour, and this morning it's important to know as we come to Matthew chapter 4, specifically verse 17, but it's polluted by verses that bring us back to Isaiah. Specifically, what was standing out to me this morning of this is the people were dwelling in darkness, and they had seen a great light.

As we find our place in the book of Matthew, we find ourselves just before the ministry of Christ was to begin. He's been alive around 30 years at this point, And for 30 years he grew up, he honored his mother and father, he worked as a carpenter, he lived much like you and I live, except for he didn't, he did it without sin, He did it perfectly. But up until this point, the world was very dark. We find hundreds of years between the book of Malachi to the book of Matthew, we find several centuries of silence from God, several centuries of darkness. Sure, religion still continued on, very corrupted religion, and yet through that time though, God saved for himself a remnant of people who did seek after Christ, but it was not what was normal of that time.

It was a time of much darkness. This morning though I'm encouraged that it seems throughout history, throughout time, that when we find ourselves in darkness and in our darkest hour, that it's in that hour that we find the light of Christ, that He responds as His people cry out to Him. So this morning as we look into our world, it's easy to look out and see much darkness. It's easy to look out and not see a lot of things to be encouraged about. But this morning, brothers and sisters, church, we have much to be encouraged about.

We serve the one true God of the universe. The one true God whom will redeem all those who turn from their sin, who repent and trust in Jesus Christ alone for the salvation. Whatever we find ourselves in, whether it be war or famine or whatever it is, you and I as believers in Christ are encouraged that this is but a short time and one day we will be with our King of which there will no longer be wars, there will no longer be famines, there will no longer be hardship. We all who are in Christ, no matter how dark life gets, we look forward to a day when the light returns. Amen?

It's much to be encouraged about. And this morning, it's what we find, in a sense, the world is experiencing at this point, that there has been much darkness. And just before Christ, his cousin, John the Baptist, was a voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way, prepare your path, repent, but for the kingdom of God is at hand. John the Baptist was preaching the true gospel. Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand.

And this morning we find in verse 17 that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, His message is exactly the same. It's not different from John the Baptist. We find that the very first part of Jesus's ministry is what? It is to preach, saying, repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. There was never a time where the message of Jesus Christ was absent from repentance.

In fact, we find in Mark 1, 14-15, similar verses that says, Now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel. Understand this morning, brothers and sisters, that true faith produces an initial and continual repentance. Right? We are saved by faith alone, but true faith, true saving faith always produces repentance.

It always produces an initial repentance for those who come to know Christ, and it produces a life-long repentance that's growing more and more like Christ. A faith that does not produce repentance is not a saving faith. It's no faith at all. It's simply an acknowledgement of facts of which an acknowledgement of facts is not an indication that we are truly saved. In fact, Thomas Watson, the Puritan, wrote a book called The Doctrine of Repentance.

And this morning I'd like to take some time and look at the main points that he produces or brings forth to tell us of what are the signs or what are the attributes of biblical repentance? He defines the term this way. He says, repentance is a grace of God's Spirit whereby a sinner is inwardly humbled and visibly reformed. In his book, Watson describes the six marks of true repentance. According to him, if anyone is left out, your repentance loses its virtue.

It needs to be said though that on the other side of repentance is faith, and the two go hand in hand. Jesus said, repent and believe the gospel. That it's actually the belief in the gospel that saves us, but that belief is what produces repentance. They are two sides of the same coin. As we repent of our sin, we must also at the same time believe the good news of the gospel, that God sent Jesus into the world to live the life we should have lived and die the death we deserve to die in order to reconcile us to Himself.

There is not enough time in, in, I'm still reading the article, but there's not enough time this morning to go extremely deep into it, but I want to just look at those six points of—there are six attributes of repentance. The first study list is we must have a sight of sin. We must be able to see it. You must see your sin before you can repent of it. And if you've noticed as we have proclaimed the gospel many, many, many times, almost in one way or another, we always go back to the Law.

I'm sure some of you have heard me say, ask if you've ever told a lie, maybe hundreds of times at this point. But this in effect is giving us a sight of sin. In Romans 7-7 it says, What then shall we say? That the law is sin by no means, yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin, for I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, you shall not covet. We must have a sight of our sin.

We must understand what it is. And that is, in effect, one of the big reasons why God has given us his law that says, thou shall not steal, thou shall not lie, thou shall not covet, thou shall not commit adultery. And Jesus further clarifies that it's not only what you commit, but it's also what you think and what you ponder. That God doesn't just judge our actions, but he judges our hearts and our intentions. So much so that if you would even look upon a woman to lust after her, Christ says you are an adulterer at heart.

If you and I would compare ourselves to God's law, honestly we dramatically and entirely fail. We have to conclude without a shadow of a doubt that we are the utmost of sinners. We would have to agree with Paul, myself and you included. We would have to agree that I am the chief of sinners. I have much sin against God, and yet God is perfect.

His law is perfect. And if we offend it even in one way, the book of James says, we've offended it all. We've blown it all. That's why it makes sense. That's not me.

That's why it makes sense that if you've told one lie in your life, it makes you a liar. And the book of Revelation says all liars will have their part in the lake of fire. We have much sin. We've offended God greatly in our lives. Do you have a sight of sin in your life?

Not just the law, but to carry it forward. For young people, have you argued with your parents? Do you honor them as the Bible would call you to honor them? Do you steal? Do you lie?

These are greatly offensive against God. The Bible says that all sin is primarily against God, that even if I would steal from Brody, the sin is against Brody, but it's primarily against the God who says, Thou shall not steal. And in His sight, if I steal, I'm a thief. This morning, if we look at God's law, we get a very grim understanding of the site of sin in our lives. Secondly, we must have a sorrow for sin.

Watson believed that true repentance must involve sorrow, not merely for the consequences of our sin, but for sinning against God and the free grace He has given us in Jesus Christ. Look at Matthew chapter 6 verse 16. It says, And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces, and that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly I say to you, they have received their reward. In Acts chapter 2, so in Matthew 6, we get the the illusion of a fake sorrow or a fake outward sign.

So in essence, what they're saying is, if I choose to fast and to pray and to seek God for a day And I choose not to eat any food then I want to make sure that all of you know it so I can you know Look holier than all of you And I'll make my face all legal. I'm so hungry. My boy Elijah is really good at that aren't you, Elijah? Wear it all over you like oh, I'm just so starving Dave. I can't eat a blizzard.

Woe is me That's an outward sign of me looking for my reward from you and not from God. Amen. True sorrow for sin we find in Acts chapter 2, 37 through 38. It says, Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. And they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brothers, what shall we do?

And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. This morning or every Sunday or any time that you read your Bible, as we come across things in Scripture that point out that give us a sight of our sin, it should cut us to our hearts. There's, and I've said this before, there's a danger in the preacher coming forth and preaching the Word of God, And it's stomping all over your toes and then afterwards you get up and you say good message preacher that that hurt a little bit But if you leave and you don't repent if you don't change if you don't change your course You're actually worse off than when you got to church that day. It would have been better for you to not hear the message. You put yourself on dangerous ground.

Because God will judge them more strictly who know. Understand that. There are remote tribes in this world and God will punish them for their sin. They will spend eternity in hell and that should motivate us to go to them and proclaim the gospel. But this morning those people in hell are not going to be punished even remotely as bad as those who did know the truth and yet rejected it.

Maybe not with their mouths, but with their actions. They reject the truth. They know what's right and they know they should do this or that, and yet it's not going to interfere with how their life is now. And so they reject it. There is no sorrow for sin.

There may be a sight, but there's no sorrow. Not enough to change. We pray that God gives us this conviction that we find in Acts chapter 2, 37-38. We pray, I pray for you, that God would cut you to the heart. That God would, that I've prayed many, many times in my life for people as they've heard the gospel proclaimed.

I pray, God, keep them awake at night. Torment them until they come to a saving faith in Christ. Torment them until they come to you. Draw them and do whatever it takes because it's far more dangerous to shrug it off In second Corinthians 7 10 We find this differentiation and I share this verse a lot with people. It says, For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

So often people will get caught doing something. Maybe they steal a car and they get caught and they go to jail and they're upset and they're hurting and they're, you know, I'm struggling with all this and even to the point where they want to go to church services in the jail and they want to do all this right. But in the end, oftentimes, it's they're struggling with worldly grief. Jails give us, they produce worldly grief. Jails, that is their goal, to give you enough worldly grief that you won't do that again.

That's the goal of the prison system. And worldly grief is this, that you are losing what you had before. So when you're in jail, you lose your freedom, you lose the ability to go here or there, to be with your family, and all of this produces grief. But this worldly grief will never produce repentance. Why?

Because as soon as they get what they want again, they will go back to doing what they were doing before. We find this also in marriages. Maybe a husband and wife will split up for a time and the one or the other will be very the one that usually is the the guiltiest of the two there's no innocent party but there's the guiltiest of the two will be upset because all of a sudden he realizes or she realizes that even though I was running all the credit cards up and doing all this stuff and having fun and I knew my husband didn't like it and now he's come to his wits end and I'm going to lose him and my family I have to do something and they they oftentimes will correct things and they will do better and they will try and they will try and then it seems that they've come to a place where this is going to work out again and they come back together. The worldly grief is now gone, and very quickly the credit card comes back out. Worldly grief will never change a heart.

Worldly grief will never make you right with Christ. You must come from a point of worldly grief to godly grief to understanding that whatever your sin is, it is primarily against God. And it should cut you to the heart. Early on in my, maybe even before I was married, I told my wife one day, and before you're married, you think that you'll never have problems and all these things. So there was a bit of foolishness to this, but it was also wise in a way that's not because of me.

I stumbled upon it, but I said, if we get married, I will never cheat on you, because I couldn't answer to God for doing that. If the reason you don't cheat on your spouse is simply because you like them too much, there's a potential you're going to fall. Why? Because married people have bad days. And bad days is typically when the enemy likes to creep in and tempt and do all the things that he does.

We must have a right relationship with God. Your problems will not be resolved apart from it. Amen? That involves repentance. It's being sorrowful, sad for our sin.

Psalm 51, 4 reiterates, it says, against you and 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. So one, there must be a sight of sin. We must understand it and see it. Two, there must be sorrow. Third, he says there must be a confession of sin.

In 1 John 1 9 it says, if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. In the Old Testament, we we find the Israelites conquering the great city and fortress of Jericho. It's such a great city and big city and seemingly impossible city to conquer, that it's almost unbelievable. That God, essentially it left it that God had to do this. God had to intervene.

And as the Israelites seek God and were led by God, we saw God use them to accomplish the miraculous. And yet just a few people within the Israelite camp decided to do what God told them not to do, and to plunder some items from their conquering and to then, what did they do with them? They hid them. Why? Because they knew it was wrong.

They hid it. As they went to the next town, Ai, which was a much smaller town, the Israelite army found themselves being decimated. Why? Because there was one family who went against God and hid their sin. This morning understand if you try to hide your sin, one, you have not hid it from God.

He knows. Two, you will be found out. And three, there's no forgiveness. If we hide our sin, there's no forgiveness. In John 1, 1, 9, again, it says, 1 John 1, 1, sorry, 1 John 1, 9, it says, If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness This morning if you have sin in your heart against God or your neighbor or your wife or your husband the key is to confess It's to come forth to to bring it forth None of us in here first John also says none of us are perfect I think it's right maybe right before right after that verse that anybody who claims to be without sin is also a liar.

The question isn't do we sin or not. The question is will we hide it? Will we confess it? Will we seek help from our brothers and sisters? Will we confess it and do our best to overcome it and to try to conquer it through God's help.

Thomas Wasson writes that confessionists then may be right and genuine. These qualifications are requisite. One, he says, the confession must be voluntary. It must be with, he's writing in Puritan, compunction. The heart must deeply resent it.

We not only must confess it, it must be our idea to confess it, it must be that our heart deeply resents it, our confession must be sincere. In true confession, a man particularizes sin, which means, you know what, I messed up yesterday. Could you forgive me for that? That's the generalize. Know what true confession is, is I'm making this up, Brody.

I didn't take anything from you. Brody, you brought a really cool pen yesterday, and I really liked it. And when you went downstairs to get some pizza, I took your pen, and I'm sorry. All right, that was very specific. What exactly did I do?

And be specific as you go to God. It's so tempting in our prayers when we get into this routine of saying a prayer before we go to bed or when we get up. It's easy to get into, God forgive me for my sins for the day. True confession is, God, help me examine my heart. God, I'm sorry for the way I responded to this person when they said this.

I shouldn't have done that. It's really going through and being specific about what my particular sin is. And five, we must confess our sins with resolution not to do them again. That is what it is to confess our sin. The fourth attribute of repentance is also shame for sin.

Ezekiel 43 10 it says, ask for you, Son of man, describe to the house of Israel the temple, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities and they shall measure the plan. Are you ashamed of your sin? One of the things that has severely hurt our country, has hurt American Christianity, is this idea that we can say a prayer and everything is fine after that. There are many, many, many people walking around who have said a prayer who has never been ashamed of their sin, who have never confessed their sin, who have never come to God and really understood their sin rightly before Him. They've never been ashamed.

And in fact, it's the driving force as to why people can hear the Word of God proclaimed and yet go back into Monday through Saturday living just like the world. They don't have to change anything. And in fact, in their minds, the preacher, if it's like me, the preacher, we have kind of a preacher likes to stomp on your feet every so often. We come get our feet stomped on and we've we put our time in and we go back and live just like the world We have no hatred of sin We have no shame The fifth one is is hatred of sin according to Watson the fifth ingredient of true repentance is that we hate our sin. That thing of which we loved, before Christ changed us, we begin to hate.

That doesn't mean, again, that we're perfect. We identify with Paul when he says, the things I do are the things that I don't want to do, and the things I don't do are the things that I want to do. He had this wrestle within him that he began to hate sin more and more, but his flesh was still drawn to it. This morning, the call of repentance isn't that you're perfect. It's that the struggle is there.

It's that you are wrestling with sin. It's not that you're just blowing it off, but that you're doing everything you can. You're beginning more and more to hate the things that you once loved. The more we love Christ, the more we hate the fake substitutes. So often, the things that we love in our culture are simply fake substitutes.

They're idols. They've deceived us into loving them. They've deceived us into spending all of our time with them, neglecting the one whom truly loves us, the one who can truly give us happiness. Now I understand this morning because I am a person just like you are. And as I've become to know the Word of God more and more, there have been times where I have deeply wrestled with, God, I know that I should stop doing this or that, but God, I need to do this.

That's my flesh speaking. I need this person to be my friend. I need this person to like me. I need this activity. I need disc golf.

I need fishing. You know, otherwise I'm just going to go crazy. This morning, the true thing that I need is Jesus Christ. All of that is, and I'm not saying we can't enjoy these things, but it's all cheap fake substitutes. And they convince our flesh that they are the greatest things in the world, and almost that we would die without them.

It is deception of the enemy. We learn to hate the things of which we used to love because we begin to understand them for what they are and understand them rightly. And finally, number six, the sixth and final component of true repentance is turning from sin. Joel 12 through 13 says, "'Yet even now, ' declares the Lord, "'return to me with all your heart, with fasting and with weeping and with mourning, and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

He relents over disaster." This morning, I would even ask you to write that down. When we have disasters, our reaction should be to return to God. If we want him to relent over a disaster, it's to turn to him. Not just with outward appearance. He says, don't just rend your garments, don't just give me a show, but your heart must return to Him.

If we put our trust in other things, if we put our trust in the government, if we put our trust in pills and all these things, we are missing what God is doing. We are missing what He is calling us to do. And in fact, if we will not return to the Lord, return to God over a disaster, I firmly believe He will send an even greater disaster. He will do whatever it takes to wake up his people. This morning the question is, will we return to him?

Will we repent? Isaiah 55-7 says, Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Ephesians 5.8, for at one time you were darkness but now you are light in the Lord walk as children of light This morning we find ourselves in a world that's changing very rapidly. It seems that we are entering into the darkest times that any of us have ever known.

It seems that God has given us a warning, and we've failed to repent. This morning, when we look out into the world, just as Romans 2 begins with, it says, but as for you, as for you looking out the doors of the church, we blame so many people, we blame the politicians, we blame our culture. But the Bible is very clear. We have wicked politicians because our country is full of wicked people. Our country is full of wicked people because the people whom God calls by His name will not repent.

They will not share their faith. They've made Christianity to be a checkbox that they do on Sunday morning and then get back to their real life. The problem with our country is us. If the church would be the light again, you know, in America, there are enough people who claim to be Christians that we could put anybody we want into Congress and in the White House. If we would just all vote for him.

We can make Jake be President Jake. I'd still be afraid. Not really. If all those who claimed to be Christians in America actually voted and shut their TVs off and read their Bibles and voted as Scripture would call them to vote, we would have no problems. But American Christianity doesn't typically even know what the Bible says.

We've boiled down Christianity to come forward at the end of the service and pray a prayer, and then go back and live as wickedly as your neighbor does. And when we get into hard things in Scripture that call us to live a life that's way different than the American lifestyle, we say, well, that seems extreme. Yes, it's extreme. It's extremely different than our culture. But our problem is we care more about our culture than we care about God.

That's what's being reflected in America. I firmly believe it. This morning, we're at a point in history our only hope is to repent and turn to Christ. This morning, if you're here and you don't know Christ and you examine yourself and you agree that you're a liar and a thief, your only hope is to seek Christ with everything that you have. Because there is not hope in politics.

Understand that, Christians. There's not hope in Fox News. There's not hope in the guy that's the cleverest guy that can fight the other people. There's no hope in any of it. The hope is in Christ.

The hope is that Christ would change our families to seek him, to put him to be the chief thing that we live for. The hope is that Christ would make us once again be salt and light to the world. Because a Christianity without repentance isn't a Christianity at all. A Christianity without repentance is to lose its saltiness. What we see being played out before us in the world is the church losing its saltiness by our choice.

Because we're distracted and we don't want to offend anybody. Brothers and sisters, Turn to Christ. Dig into the Scripture. If you dig into it and it calls you to live a way that's different than you're living now, repent, change, do whatever it takes. There is no hope in anything else.

I would beg of you today, if you don't know Christ, the things that are so important to you right now that you won't turn to Him and give Him your life and submit to Him. Those things that are keeping you from that are but deceptions in your mind, and they are there to destroy you. Turn to Christ. Today is the day of salvation. Turn to Christ.

There is nothing that you have, there's nothing that you do that even compares to the greatness of Christ. And He offers that to you, to all who would turn to Him in repentance and faith. I just want to keep saying that all day. I would confess before you this morning that I have been sinful in my heart because I watch the news and I hear the things that are going on and I become I become consumed by it because somehow I think if I know what's going to go on in Washington DC or in the Capitol or whatever, that somehow I can change it. I can't.

You can't change it. And I would add this morning, rebellion doesn't change it either. It's turning to Christ. It's aspiring to live as we're called to live in Thessalonians, to live a quiet life, working with your hands, searching and serving Christ as a family. Disciple your children.

Get them away from this cultural nonsense. The things, the nonsense that our culture puts out that seems to be normal, if you don't do them, you're weird, They are tools of the enemy that's there to destroy you. Don't be destroyed, don't be deceived. Turn to Christ. Amen.

Let's pray. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we Come to you this morning asking Father that you would grant us repentance. That you would give us sight of the sin that's in our lives. That you wouldn't allow us to no longer hear your word or read your word and shrug it off, but Father, let it cut us to our hearts.

Father, let it cause us to turn to You. Father, Your Word says that all who turn to You in repentance and faith, You will in no way cast out. As a Father, I pray that you would draw us like never before. Father, let us no longer be consumed with the things of this world, but let us be consumed with knowing you and knowing your word. Turn us from the average average Americans five hours a day consuming media, Father, to turn us to five hours a day consuming your word.

That your Holy Spirit might change us, that God we might be salt and light, that we might glorify you Father in these dark days. And God, whatever direction you are taking this nation and this world. Father remind us that the only thing that's going to matter when we died is how we served you. Life is but temporary for each and every one of us. Living in an extra 10 years denying Christ is not worth a hill of beans.

God, let us serve you, let us draw us to serve you with our whole hearts. Help us to rend our hearts. Bring us to true repentance, I pray. In Jesus name, amen.