Repentance

My topic for today is repentance. Does anyone here believe that repentance is not a serious and important matter? No one dares to raise a hand. I thought as such. It is a very important matter. In fact, repentance is probably the most important thing that we should be doing with this precious little time God has given us, this physical existence of ours.

Let's consider a few questions as I begin my message today. Let's consider several questions in turn to a few scriptures that highlight the importance of repentance. Let's be turning to Luke 5.32 and ask this question, What message did Jesus Christ teach? Luke 5.32. I'm just going to read these rather quickly and not elaborate on them. They're rather well known. What message did Jesus Christ teach?

Luke 5.32. I have not come to call the righteous, he said, but sinners to repentance. Mark 1, verse 14 through 15. Referring to the time of Christ's ministry when it began. Mark 1, verse 14 through 15. After John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent and believe in the gospel. Matthew 4.17. Matthew 4.17. From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. And then you can jot this one down because it's one we probably know. Matthew 6.33. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

It's a suggestion that seeking God's righteousness needs to be a change of direction for those who are headed the other way. So Jesus taught that our most important priority should be to enter the kingdom of God. And from the beginning of his ministry, we see he stressed that repentance is an integral part of endering God's kingdom of receiving eternal life. And what message did Jesus Christ say must be preached to the entire world? Well, it does mention repentance and eternal life. Let's look at Luke 24.45.

What message did Jesus say must be preached to the entire world? Luke 24.45. And Jesus opened their understanding, speaking of the disciples, that they might comprehend the Scriptures. And then he said to them, Christ said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. Verse 47, And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. As these few Scriptures show, and many more could be mentioned, repentance is of utmost importance in the Gospel Jesus Christ taught.

Repentance is integral to our being accepted as first fruits in the kingdom of God. After the Father calls us to repentance, that as to turn from our rebellious ways and follow Him, it's then our choice. It's our choice to accept or reject His calling and to be baptized and receive God's Spirit in us. With God's help and our own right choices, we are capable of receiving eternal life.

But without repentance, we will not qualify. Eternal life in the kingdom of God is available only to those who live a life of repentance. Do we then take repentance as seriously as we ought to? And that is a serious question. Do you and I practice real repentance as we must? Society's influence upon us, the outcry of tolerance, may subtly affect our own view of sin in our lives.

Maybe the cares of the world and distractions of the busyness of life, the minutia of family life, keeping the job, going to school, and so much more. Maybe that causes us to become less mindful of our need to repent. Perhaps we become somewhat oblivious to our sins. Perhaps we've even become a little comfy with some of them. Too comfortable. In my message today, I want to remind us of what repentance means and to stir us up and to move us to greater efforts and success in practicing real repentance. The title of my sermon today is, Are You Practicing Real Repentance?

Let's be turning to Acts 2.37, another appropriate place to begin. In Acts 2.37, we read about the Apostle Peter preaching to the assembled crowd on the day of Pentecost. In his powerful sermon, he convinced those gathered that Jesus was indeed the promised Messiah and that their sins were responsible for his death by crucifixion. Now, how did they respond to that message?

We read it in Acts 2.37. Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? You see, these people felt the deepest pain and sorrow possible for what they heard. They were willing to do whatever it took to obtain forgiveness, reconciliation to God, and salvation. What do we do?

Continuing in verse 38, then Peter said to them, Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission means the forgiveness of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, on a later day, let's look at Acts 3.19, on a later day, Peter gave similar instruction. Acts 3.19, Repent therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come for the presence of the Lord. Now, both times, the first thing Peter said to do was Repent. And we often use the word Repent in the church. But do we?

And you young people, too, I'm speaking to you today. Do we grasp the significance of the word Repentance? Now, dictionary definitions of Repentance have the same definitions. They tend to emphasize feelings. Feelings of remorse, regret, feeling bad, penitence, even. And we feel that way for our wrongdoing, dictionaries tell us. And that's true. God would expect us to have deep feelings, feelings of godly sorrow, especially for our sins. And I'm going to talk to us more about godly sorrow a little bit later. But Repentance is more than just feelings. The Bible's biblical meaning of Repent emphasizes change. Change of heart, change of mind, change of attitude, and very much a change of behavior, a change from our lifestyle, our common practice of disobedience to God.

Now, a synonym is turn to turn. And if you would turn to Acts 26.20, we'll see Paul using this synonym in this scripture.

And here in Acts 26.20, we can see how turn and repent do bear a very similar meaning, as Paul describes the message that he'd consistently preached wherever he went. Acts 26.20, Paul states, But I declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem, and throughout all the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent, turn to God, and do works befitting repentance.

Paul here emphasizes that real repentance also includes a change or turn of behavior, not just feelings. Very important. What we do seem to find described here in the book of Acts, these scriptures we've looked at here, we could call this the initial repentance that we often feel when we're first aware of our need to repent, of our sin, of that change that needs to come in our lives.

When we do first come to understand God, that initial repentance is really a surrender, an unconditional surrender, working it that way, a surrender to God and about face from the life we once led. It's a total change of direction. Instead of walking away from God and his obedience to his word, we start moving in God's direction, a direction of obedience.

But if you have grown up in God's Church, you may feel you have nothing to repent of. That's all I've ever known, you might say, is God's truth. But even if you've grown up in God's Church, even you must come to recognize your need for God.

You must come to recognize that you have a choice. You need to choose to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior for your sin. And we all sin. Repentance, however, is not just this initial repentance. It's not just a one-time thing. Repentance means a lifelong process. It's a process of turning away from sin and toward God. So after that first rush with the powerful need to repent, we must repent each time we realize we have slipped.

We have sinned. And this applies long after baptism and all the way until we take our last breath. After we are baptized and the Father places His Holy Spirit in us through the laying on of hands by His ministers, we must continue to practice repentance. It's a lifelong process. Whenever we stray even a little bit from the way of God, we need to repent and return to the right path, making a course correction to get back on track with God to follow in His way.

Let's be turning to 1 John 4. We have a lot of ways of saying things in the church. We often talk about God's way, following God's way. What exactly is God's way? What is God's way exactly? 1 John 4.8 God's way is the way of genuine love. John tells us in 1 John 4.8 that God is love. And then he adds in verse 16, And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.

God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. So God's way is the way of love. But I think we should know that God's way of love is not that gooey, gooey, sentimental love of a worldly sort. It's not quite like that at all. God's love, as Mr. Jim Stewart has given several messages about acape, God's love. God's love, or the Greek word acape, God's love can be very challenging to define at times. In Scripture, acape defines the love of God towards Christ, the love of Christ towards men, and the love of men towards God.

It's a very special, special love. Now God's Ten Commandments do broadly define how to love God, and how to love our neighbor, which includes everybody. No one gets to be left out. Not even those people that get under your skin, those that hate us, and even despise us. We have to love everybody. That's God's law. You can keep your finger here, if you'd like, here in 1 John. And I'm going to have us turn, or if you feel you know this very well, Matthew 22, 37, Matthew 22, 37 through 40.

Jesus summarized and taught as the two greatest commandments, He says it's love for God and love for our fellow human beings. That's the summation. Let's go ahead and read in Matthew 22, 37. Jesus said to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment, and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Now this brings us to the question of what do we repent? The answer is sin. So if you kept your finger in 1 John, let's flip back. The answer is sin in 1 John 3.4 provides in the Bible the clearest definition of sin.

There are many other places we can find sin defined, but here it's most succinct, perhaps. 1 John 3.4, Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. Lawlessness here refers to the breaking of God's commandments. Let's also flip forward and read 1 John 5.3. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome.

We put these scriptures together and they reveal to those who would love God and please God that they, we, must keep the commandments. We must be doers of his law. That's how we show love for God and love for man, be doers of his law. Now any breaking of God's law, or outright rebellion against him, or disobedience, whether it's against God or his law, it's lawlessness, it's sin. Repentance, therefore, means to turn away from law breaking and to turn towards law keeping, we could say. Repentance is about law keeping, God's law. Once baptized, then, we must continue to endeavor, to become less like our old carnal selves, the way we were before God called us, and the way we were before we were baptized. Gradually, it's not a...my experience with repentance and becoming more like God is not an overnight sensation. It's a long, gradual process. It takes time. But as the time goes on, our lives should show evidence of our becoming more and more like Jesus Christ and like our Father.

It's important to understand, though, that when the Father calls us, his Spirit is with us. His Spirit is with us when he calls us. And it opens our minds to understand the things of God that we couldn't understand, or perhaps those things we really didn't care to understand. But after we're baptized and receive God's Spirit through the laying on of hands by God's ministers, God gives in places within us, in us, his Holy Spirit. Let's notice that in 1 John 14. It's a very important distinction. John 14, 15-17. In the Spirit, this aspect of the Spirit, it's often called the begettle of God's Spirit in us. Let's note John 14, 15.

If you love me, keep my commandments. Verse 16, I will pray the Father, Jesus said, and he will give you another helper, that he or it may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth, when the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

In this way, we see that our Father actually is the one who begins our process of repentance. It's his gift to us, this gift of repentance, when he calls us. And then, as we accept that calling and tell God we want to stay committed to you forever, he carefully oversees our progress into his kingdom for the rest of our lives. He's a very careful caretaker of our lives. So this process of repentance is truly an amazing gift from God. Maybe we don't often think of it that way, but it comes from God. That desire to follow God, we see, didn't originate from just our own little hearts and minds. Let's look at Philippians 2.12. In Philippians 2.12. 13, Paul tells us that the desire to turn to God, to seek God, came from God himself. And it remains with us as we choose to act upon it. When we, in essence, give in to those positive nudges when God begins to call us. You see that God has been and remains with us throughout this process, as I said. But let's read now, Philippians 2.12. Paul states, Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. We have things to do once we turn to God.

Verse 13, So Paul exhorts us here to give most careful attention to this calling, this precious gift, and to remain repentant and obedient and loyal to God. To be and to remain repentant or turn to God, it requires that we put solid effort into remaining close to God. Remember, we're building and maintaining a lifelong relationship with our Creator, with our Father, with His Son. Prayer and study of His Scriptures must become part of our process of repentance or daily practice. And we really do need to set aside time each day to give God our focused attention.

We need to give time to God alone, without those unnecessary distractions of life. I know that can be a challenge. If you have family members or roommates, it may be a challenge to create that special time with God. But I encourage all of us to do that.

We have all got to do it. We will likely need the help of our family to make that happen. And if we haven't done this before, try to make up time, letting people know, okay, I'm going to go pray, I'm going to go study. We've never tried doing that before. I promise you it will seem rather awkward at first. It will seem awkward perhaps to tell our spouse or kids, or for the kids to tell their parents, that they need private time to go pray.

They need private time with God to study. But even though it's a little awkward, I'd encourage us to go ahead and do it. God wants us to have that personal time with you, with me. But it's sadly strange, isn't it, when you think about it? See, what to our Heavenly Father is the most necessary and what should be most normal for His children to spend one-on-one time with Him, with their Father, is to the world and sometimes even to ourselves a really awkward occasion, kind of awkward thing to plan and to do.

So I'd encourage all of us to give it a try. Try to carve out that private time between you and God. Let's learn to be comfortable in saying, Honey, I need some prayer time. Perhaps there's a good reason you need prayer time.

And she may say, Yeah, you better go get it. I don't know. Or maybe we'll hear, Not now, Dad. I'm praying. Has that ever happened in your house? Wouldn't that be a pleasant sound to hear in our ears? Not just our own ears, but the ears of our Father. To remain repentant means that whenever temptations to sin arise, and we find ourselves wrestling against sinful thoughts or attitudes, we've got to be quick. We've got to be quick to control those bad thoughts. That's another part of repentance, controlling what goes on in our heads. Let's notice 2 Corinthians 10.5. 2 Corinthians 10.5. Paul tells us here, 2 Corinthians 10.5, to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

Bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Let's also notice 1 Corinthians 9.27. Paul says, But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. Carving out time and working with our families to have time with God, it's going to take discipline. But God will help us do that, but we have to put out the effort. It's part of our repentance. If we stay close to God, believe and obey Him, keep His Ten Commandments, and give in to the influence of His Holy Spirit, we will become more capable of controlling those bad thoughts, those temptations that come our way.

We'll also do a better job of controlling our actions, controlling our words. We always have a choice to yield to temptation and or to continue in sin. God's Spirit in us will give us that extra strength of determination, that determination we may need to repent. And when we practice real repentance, we will be putting our sinful habits and ways farther and farther behind us as we press forward in the way of God, in the way of love.

But sadly, no matter how hard we try to resist temptations and to avoid sinning, we will sin. And even with God's Spirit in us, we do sin. But when we do sin again, we must be quick to turn, turn to God, ask for forgiveness so that we may keep that right relationship. We're trying so hard to build with Him and to maintain with Him. We need to get close to God so we don't stray any further into sin. And when we do ask God for His forgiveness for the sin we've committed, we must be sure to ask with an appropriate attitude. And that attitude is that of heartfelt repentance. What do I mean by that? The heartfelt repentance. Well, real repentance before God means we are genuinely, or genuinely, sorrowful, genuinely sorrowful for sinning against Him, for disobeying Him. Now, God has given us a conscience so that when we are aware of wrongdoing, we will feel guilt and shame and sorrow. Now, I've noticed that the world lately seems to think that feelings are bad for us, especially those feelings. And those feelings are especially bad for our children. Oh, don't make your children feel guilty. Don't let them feel shame and sorrow for what they've done. Don't let them feel bad about things like that. Those feelings are not bad things. They are not bad things if they help us to see our sin, and if they help us to see just how evil our sins are in the sight of God. When we come to see God's great love for us, especially as compared to our own lack of love, our own lack of gratitude, our own lack of righteousness, we really should feel truly sorry for what we're feeling. We should feel sorry for what we are not doing. That's called godly sorrow.

We need the godly sorrow in us. Godly sorrow is by far superior to just being simply sorry. It's better than being sorry. Paul makes a distinction between these two types of sorrow in 2 Corinthians 7.10.

2 Corinthians 7.10.

2 Corinthians 7.10. Paul states, For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation. That's not to be regretted. Don't feel bad about that. But the sorrow of the world, all that produces is death. Sorrow of the world produces death.

Clearly, we should want to have the godly sorrow, the sorrow that leads to salvation, that leads to eternal life. That's the sorrow that leads to deeper, more profound repentance. Godly sorrow is directed toward God. We grieve and mourn for having disappointed and disobeyed our loving Father. We've turned against Him to watch. And He's the one that gives us every good thing. Godly sorrow leads us to a deeper commitment to permanently change, to truly repent. Let's just look at Psalm 51.24. It's probably about the best example. There are several others. But this is one of the best examples of what godly sorrow looks and sounds like. We may hear this idea that we have to have godly sorrow, but if we don't hold up to ourselves and our children exactly what godly sorrow, true, deep, profound sorrow and regret feel like and sound like, they and we were missing out on part of our necessary education. Psalm 51, and we'll just read verses 2-4, David wrote, Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, my sin is always before me. Against you, you only have I sinned. And I've done this evil in your sight, that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge. And if you study these words, perhaps think about them later, and really think about it. You'll probably hear just how brokenhearted David feels when we read these words. Brokenhearted for breaking God's law, for doing what he knows he should not have done. And notice just how much he recognizes his need for God's forgiveness. He's without hope. He's dead for good without God's forgiveness. Now, worldly sorrow, on the other hand, is self-centered. Let's be turning to Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12, we'll see a brief example. Worldly sorrow is self-centered. It's often what we feel when we are feeling humiliated, that our wrongdoings have been exposed. Worldly sorrow is often what we feel when we feel sorry because we're being penalized. We got in trouble. Or we got caught. I remember that happening once or twice when I was a kid. Yeah, I'm adjusting many, many times. This is the sort of sorrow it seems that Esau experienced after he had foolishly sold his birthright to his brother Jacob. For a bowl of soup, he really must have been hungry to want that bowl of soup. Let's read about that in Hebrews 12-16. I hope you'll be patient with me. I'd like to read this to you from the New Living Translation. Hebrews 12-16-17. It puts it rather clearly. Hebrews 12-16-17 New Living Translation. Make sure that no one is immoral or godless like Esau, who traded his birthright as the first-born son for a single meal. You know that afterward when he wanted his father's blessing, he was rejected. It was too late for repentance, even though he begged with bitter tears.

That was worldly sorrow. He regretted it when he finally couldn't get what he thought he could keep. Worldly sorrow does no real good. It doesn't really bring us closer to the real repentance, the true repentance that leads to eternal life. But it's very difficult, isn't it, for human beings to see our own faults? It's hard to see our own faults and admit them. It's really hard to say, I'm sorry to apologize. It's in our nature to find fault with others instead, play the blame game, or to create lots of excuses for our faults. But real repentance requires confessing our sin to God. Not to a priest, not to a minister, but to God. And telling God just how profoundly sorry we are for sinning against Him. And then we humbly and sincerely ask that God would forgive us.

And as we ask for His forgiveness in our deep, sorrowful prayer, we must determine within ourselves, grit our teeth, and determine to change. Determine to turn. And God will help us. He will help us with His Holy Spirit and help that determination become stronger and more assured. And we will make progress against sin. Let's also turn to 1 John 1.9. And notice an important word of assurance about God's forgiveness. 1 John 1.9. Let's notice this about God's forgiveness. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. From all unrighteousness. If we do our part, we can totally trust God to forgive us and remove from us our sins. And the penalty of death, they hold against us. When God forgives us, they're gone. They're forgotten. As a friend of mine always reminds me, when God forgives, they're gone. And so we see that it is crucial for us to have godly sorrow when we go before God in humble repentance. But do we? That's the hard question, isn't it?

We need to have godly sorrow when we go before God in humble repentance. But do we? Do we repent before God with this type of sorrow? Or has our sorrow perhaps become a little more worldly? You know what that sounds like. Sorry, I thought bad thoughts. Sorry for losing my temper again. Oh yeah, I'm sorry for not doing what you said I should do. Is this how we repent before God and seek His forgiveness? With the casual, with the casual sorry, with the casual sorry God, my bad. Is that the attitude we have when we go to God? My bad. That's slang for I apologize.

I hope we don't approach our God, our Father, with that sort of casual attitude. If that's the sort of casual approach we have to God when we repent, if that's the sort of sorrow we have, a simple sorry, then we are truly in a sorry relationship with our God, with our Father. That is sorry if that's how we treat God. But I suspect we probably all need, including myself, we all need to spend more time on our knees before God and in heartfelt repentance. Breaking God's holy and good laws and most serious offense before God. Sometimes we may forget that if we let the world get too much into our heads. When we sin and do not repent and seek God's forgiveness, we are jeopardizing our eternal life. And I know how much we all want that. So it is critical that we repent. When we do approach God's throne, seeking forgiveness, let's be sure we have a right attitude, that we are truly sorrowful. And that will take time and privacy. And hopefully our families and others will help us have that time with God. It's vital that we have a proper understanding and that this is all part of real repentance. And please, it's very important that we help our children understand that. Help our children understand it's more than just saying, I'm sorry. Even when they talk to their brother or sister for popping them up the back of the head, on purpose. That's sorry. You don't really mean it. Sometimes we have to help them understand what real sorry means because we have to help them learn to be real sorry, sorrowful, before God.

Now, as I draw to my conclusion, some of you may be wondering, why am I delivering a message about repentance in this time of the year? It's January! After all, we're still months away from Passover, days of Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and Atonement was far behind us. Those are the holy days and times when we traditionally emphasize our need for repentance.

That's typically what we do in the church. I've noticed that some time now. But my own experience has been that sin and our need to repent are not limited to any season. Are they? Sin follows no calendar. Sin follows no calendar.

And so I encourage all of us to give serious thought and attention to repentance.

I encourage all of us to take stock of our own hearts and our own minds and ask ourselves this final question. Am I practicing real repentance?

Am I practicing real repentance?

And if we don't like the answer, then let's be sure to go before God, with profound Godly sorrow, and seek His forgiveness. And He will help us. And He will guide us and direct us. And if we do that, I'm confident we will all be worthy of receiving His gift of salvation and eternal life in His Kingdom.