OUTLINE:

“What Is the Gospel” 
– R. C. Sproul lesson
[Summarizing] The Gospel is the good news about Jesus Christ and His work. Period.

“What Is Repentance” 
– R. C. Sproul lesson
True repentance is confidently grounded in what God says about Himself in His Word, but it expresses itself in humility toward Him.

“What Is Repentance” 
– R. C. Sproul lesson
We come before our Creator with confidence that He is faithful and just to forgive our sins (1Jn 1:8-9), but we come humbly, refusing to believe or affirm that He owes us forgiveness.

“What Is Repentance” 
– R. C. Sproul lesson
Every act of divine forgiveness is an instance of the Lord keeping His promises to pardon His people, but it is at the same time a forgiveness we never deserve.

“A MAN AFTER MY HEART”
While God is perfect and man isn’t, He affirms this statement about David multiple times in His Word (1Sa 13:14; Ps 89:20; Ac 13:22) and David, His humble servant, reveals the truth of it (e.g. a repentant heart) multiple times in the Word (Ps 32, 38, 51).

“strive”
from agonizomai - to contend for a prize, struggle: —competes in the games, fight, labor earnestly, strive; to struggle, like engaged in an intense athletic contest or warfare; where the English “agonize” comes from

“A MAN AFTER MY HEART”
While God is perfect and man isn’t, He affirms this statement about David multiple times in His Word (1Sa 13:14; Ps 89:20; Ac 13:22) and David, His humble servant, reveals the truth of it (e.g. a repentant heart) multiple times in the Word (Ps 32, 38, 51).

Context Is Key!
“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Ro 8:1). <— this is a “Positional Sanctification” issue, not an “Experiential Sanctification” one. We are “[set] free from the law of sin and of death” (Ro 8:2), that is, from the PENALTY of sin, but not the POWER of it (yet).

Context Is Key!
Repentance is not founded on sin being an inconvenience to man (e.g. incurs punishment); rather, it is remorse, as David so intimately shared from his heart, “…my sin is ever before me. Against You, You only, I have sinned” (Ps 51:3-4).

Context Is Key!
“Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Ro 8:1). <— this is a “Positional Sanctification” issue, not an “Experiential Sanctification” one. We are “[set] free from the law of sin and of death” (Ro 8:2), that is, from the PENALTY of sin, but not the POWER of it (yet).

God HATES Sin
It makes perfect sense that a “man after His own heart” would hate offending the One who’s saved Him from the throes of sin. Would we expect anything less???

David’s Example
David understood what Paul wrote in Ro 8:1 and was elated to know that God saves/delivers man, by grace, from the penalty of sin (Ps 32:1-2).

Gal 6:7
Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.

David’s Example
A humble heart confesses sin. A repentant heart turns away from it. (Ps 32:3-5)

David’s Example
A repentant heart is a remorseful one. It is the same heart that seeks salvation/deliverance by the hand of God, namely, by His grace!

“a greater grace”
The power of God’s grace alone is able to save man from sin. His grace is “greater” than all enemies opposing it (the flesh, the world, and Satan). True repentance is a GRACE GIFT!!!

“humble yourselves”
from tapeinoo - means to make low; ("show humility, true lowliness") happens by being fully dependent on the Lord – dismissing reliance upon self (self-government) and emptying carnal ego. This exalts the Lord as our all-in-all and prompts the gift of His fullness in us.

“he must deny himself”
Repentance involves the mind, heart, and will of man. A person unwilling to “deny himself” cannot follow Jesus, precluding them from His salvation.

Salvation
GOD does all the work in salvation, quickening a humble person to true repentance and saving faith in Jesus Christ. Unbelievers represent those unwilling to BE saved - as Jesus clearly stated, their issue is their attachment to the self-life (ref: Mt 8:34).

Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross I cling;
Rock of Ages - by Augustus M. Toplady

Heb 13:8
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

1Co 14:33
The quickest way to destroy His peace is to propose that there’s more than one Gospel!!!

“Then who can be saved?” (Mt 19:25)
How does an unbeliever, whose only faculty is the human flesh, go about repenting or even believing? Easy: God gives grace to the humble (Jas 4:6). “With people this is impossible, but with
God all things are possible” (Mt 19:26).

The General Truth About Demands
The Bible is chalk full of demands that are literally impossible for man to obey without the help of the One making them. While this seems paradoxical, it is nothing less than God’s grace. God is merely looking for willingness/humility in a man.

God Demands AND Solves
While God will indeed WAIT PATIENTLY for a man’s “soil” to be prepared, His demand for repentance never wanes. In a sense, He says, “I’d like to save you, are you willing to let Me? Are you done trying yourself? Let me show you My grace. Let me introduce you to My Son…”