“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isaiah 6:3).

Our modern world has no issues with the idea of God…as long as we are only talking about a God of love. What our world has issues with is a God who is holy, just, and righteous. What our world hates is a God who judges.

A God of love? No problem. We all love that God. Because God is love. God loves all of us.

But a God who does not get angry when evil destroys his beloved, a God who will not bring to justice and judge the evil perpetrated against his beloved, a God who refuses to acknowledge the harm and the pain caused to his beloved is not a God of love at all. Such a God is just a weak, pathetic God who can’t do anything!

If God loves his beloved, God must judge evil. If God loves his beloved, God must hate everything that endangers the peace and wellbeing of his beloved.

Yes, the God of the Bible is a God of love. And God loves so much that he cannot tolerate evil. He will judge and punish evil because he is a God of love.

“Produce fruit in keeping with repentance” (Matthew 3:8).

Because God is holy, perfect, and just, repentance is an appropriate and regular spiritual discipline for repeat sinners like you and me. But repentance is far more than feeling sorry or bad for what we’ve done. Repentance is far more than saying sorry.

The Greek word for repentance is metanoia. It certainly means to repent, but the English word repent doesn’t capture the totality of change that repentance speaks of. metanoia has in mind a complete change of mind and heart more than it does merely feeling sorry and apologizing.

That’s why, when speaking about repentance, Jesus speaks about producing fruit that is keeping with repentance. So what are the fruits that are keeping with repentance?

Glad you asked. Corrie ten Book tells us that there are four fruits or marks of true repentance:

1. An acknowledgement of wrong
2. Willingness to confess it
3. Willingness to abandon it
4. And willingness to make restitution

Imagine a world where wrong was acknowledged, confessed, abandoned, and restitution made. Wow. That kinda sounds like what the Kingdom of God might be like!

Want to be impacted by worship this weekend?

• Before coming to worship pray that God convicts you and comforts you
• Read the sermon text and meditate on it prior to Sunday
• Sing the songs and pray the prayers as if Jesus were standing in front of you
• Bring your Bible and take notes on the sermon questions
• Get in a small group to discuss the sermon from Sunday
• Commit to living out God’s word