Redeemed

I had a thought,
That came to my mind.
Why it stayed,
I don’t know.

It caused me distress,
And gave me no rest,
For it refused to go.

It was a prideful thought.
And I feared,
I might commit the deed,
It represented in my mind.

And still it lingers on.
Where it came from,
I’m not sure.
But I suspect,
It came from those,
Deep recesses in my mind.

It must’ve happened,
That one time,
I sank so low.

How I survived it,
I don’t recall.
But I must’ve been rescued,
And then revived.

Repentance then, summarizing, consists chiefly of two things: turning from sin and forsaking it and turning to God. We know that someone has truly done that because it shows up in their life, in their course and conversation on the outside, in their affections and in their heart on the inside. Do they ever sin the sins of which they have repented? Not as a constant course of life. If they do, then their repentance was not of the truest kind.
But it is possible, as so well said, for some to have truly repented of their sins and still be overtaken and surprised by temptations so as to fall into the commission of the same sins which they have repented of, yet they do not lie in them but get up again and with bitter grief bewail them, and return again onto the Lord. That’s repentance. You can’t preach the Gospel without preaching that. There is no Gospel without repentance.
The great British Puritan, Thomas Goodwin, wrote this, “Where mourning for offending God is lacking,” – where it’s absent – “there is no sign of any goodwill wrought in the heart to God, nor of love to Him without which God will never accept a man.” Great statement. If you don’t see mourning for offending God in the life of an individual, says Goodwin, “there is no sign of any goodwill yet wrought in the heart toward God, nor of love to Him.”
Further, says Goodwin: “Else there is no hope of amendment. God will not pardon till He sees hopes of amendment. Until a man confesses his sin, and that with bitterness, it is a sign he loves it. While he hides it, spares it, and forsakes it not, it is sweet in his mouth, and therefore till he confess it and mourn for it, it is a sign it is not bitter to him, and so he will not forsake it. A man will never leave sin till he finds bitterness in it, and if so, then he will be in bitterness for it. And godly sorrow works repentance.”
So where you have true repentance, there is bitterness and there is a sadness. There’s not just the attitude, “My life wasn’t very fulfilled but Jesus has helped me fulfill it.” There isn’t just the attitude, “You know, I needed something else to make my marriage work.” Or “I needed something else to take some fears and doubts away to remove my anxieties, and Jesus solved all those problems for me.” That is devoid of the heart repentance, the bitterness that should come to the true penitent, which is essential to the reality of salvation.
Excerpt from The Characteristics of True Repentance Audio

“Pride goes before destruction and an arrogant spirit before the fall.” Bible, Proverbs 16:18

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 6:23