Zechariah 12:14

Four several families are here specified as examples to others in this mourning:-- [1.] Two of them are royal families: the house of David, in Solomon, and the house of Nathan, another son of David, brother to Solomon, from whom Zerubbabel descended, as appears by Christ's genealogy, Luke iii.

These promises were of use then to the pious Jews that lived in the troublous times under Antiochus, and other persecutors and oppressors; and they are still to be improved in every age for the directing of our prayers and the encouraging of our hopes with reference to the gospel-church.

Nathan--representing the highest and lowest of the royal order. Nathan, not the prophet, but a younger son of David (2Sa 5:14; Lu 3:31). apart--Retirement and seclusion are needful for deep personal religion. wives apart--Jewish females worship separately from the males (Ex 15:1, 20).

True repentance is always accompanied by sorrow. It has been said by some of those of modern times who disparage repentance that repentance is "nothing but a change of mind." These words sound as if there was merely some superficial meaning to them and so, indeed, they are intended by those who use them, but they are not so intended by the Spirit of God! Repentance may be and is a change of mind, but what a change it is!

True repentance is always accompanied by sorrow. It has been said by some of those of modern times who disparage repentance that repentance is "nothing but a change of mind." These words sound as if there was merely some superficial meaning to them and so, indeed, they are intended by those who use them, but they are not so intended by the Spirit of God! Repentance may be and is a change of mind, but what a change it is! It is not an unimportant change of mind such as you may have concerning whether you will take your holiday this week or the next, or about some trifling matter of domestic interest—it is a change of the whole heart, of the love, of the hate, of the judgment and the view of things taken by the individual whose mind is thus changed. It is a deep, radical, fundamental, lasting change. And you will find that whenever you meet with it in Scripture, it is always accompanied with sorrow for past sin. And rest you assured of this fact, that the repentance which has no tears in its eyes and no mourning for sin in its heart is a repentance which needs to be repented of, for there is no evidence of conversion, no sign of the existence of the Grace of God! In what way has that man changed his mind who is not sorry that he has sinned? In what sense can it be said that he has undergone any change worth experiencing if he can look back upon his past life with pleasure, or look upon the prospect of returning to his sin without an inward loathing and disgust? I say again that we have need to stand in doubt of that repentance which is not accompanied with mourning for sin! And even when Christ is clearly seen by faith and sin is pardoned—and the man knows that it is forgiven—he does not cease to mourn for sin. No, Brothers and Sisters, his mourning becomes deeper as his knowledge of his guilt becomes greater.