Repentance: The Missing Dimension

Thank you again, Mr. Kinsellin. Good afternoon again once again, everyone. Appreciate very much the hymn. Appreciate it all the song choices today. Thank you very much for those, and thank you guys very much for singing out nice and loud. It certainly adds a lot to the worship service. Brethren, in the Gospel accounts, we see the introduction of John the Baptist and the work that he did in and around the area of Bethany beyond the Jordan. Let's go ahead and start today turning over to Matthew 3. We're going to get started there as we pick up the story.

The other Gospel accounts give us a great deal of detail into John the Baptist. We know that he was the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth. We know that he was born under miraculous circumstances. We know that he and John were related in a distant way. We know that Elizabeth and Mary were, as the King James states, cousins.

The word that's there really describes relative. It's hard to know exactly what degree of connection there was there. But suffice to say, Christ and John were kin. John was prophesied to come. We know that he was going to come. He was given a very special calling, and that very special calling that he was given was to prepare the way for the Messiah to come.

Matthew 3 and verse 1 says, This is a unique statement that Matthew uses. He's referencing the kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. This is he who was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, Now, verse 4, So John's life and John's mission were foretold by the prophet Isaiah that he would come and he would herald the coming of Messiah. Now, we see when we read about John here, read about the description of John here, we see that his visual affect is reminiscent of the prophets of old, very much notably that of Elijah.

We see that his message was one that focused very strongly on returning to God in humble repentance, and then being baptized as the symbol of the covenant that they were entering into. Now, interestingly, the phrase that Isaiah writes that John or Matthew here, I'm sorry, eludes to, had straight.

This was a common occurrence in those days. And I say that not to discount what Matthew's writing here, but to help us to understand this was a concept that they would have been aware of at that point in time. When you had regional provincial rulers in Judea, as they would go out and kind of ride rail, we might say, as they would go out and kind of check on the various areas in their province, as you would have rulers that would come through, you would have a herald that came before that ruler.

And that herald would announce that that ruler was coming, and they would shout things like, Make way! Prepare the road! Make straight the way! In other words, clear the road so that he can travel easily. Again, a message well known to the people of that time. It meant to hop in, clear the rocks off the road, clear the brush, fill the potholes, you know, clean the ruts up a little bit, so that that ruler's travel through their region was more pleasant.

So for John to cry out these things, he would have gotten people's attention. Particularly with a population that was familiar with the prophet Isaiah and the prophecies of becoming Messiah. When they started to hear John teaching and preaching this message, they understood what it meant. Not only did it attract the attention of the regular Joseph six-pack, so to speak, but it also attracted the attention of the religious establishment at that time.

Verse 7 of Matthew 3 says, But when he saw many of the Pharisees and the Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, Brute of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come. Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance. Do not think to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father, for I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. And he says, Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.

Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down, and it is thrown into the fire. He says, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Verse 12, His winnowing fan is in his hand. He will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

He also got kind of serious, kind of quick, you know. It kind of went from just a general discussion of what was happening at that time to an end time description. John is providing a very stern warning to the Pharisees and to the Sadducees. The Israelites who heard his message, those who were in the surrounding areas that came to this part of the Jordan River to be baptized, they came, they responded, they were baptized, they confessed their sins. Those who relied on their genealogy for their salvation instead got an earful and a reminder from John that God could raise up stones to fill that role. Don't be so cocky. God could raise up stones to fill that role. Instead, what he instructed them was what he instructed everyone else in. Confess your sins, turn to God, bear fruits worthy of repentance so that the actions and the deeds of their life illustrated a changed mind and a changed heart. So just reading that one account that is contained here within Matthew, we can conclude a couple of things. First, we can conclude that rep... I would blame the mask in my mouth, but it's just my tongue not keeping up with my brain. Repentance had to do with a confession of sins.

Repentance had to do with an acknowledgement and a recognition where an individual fell short. This was related to and connected to sin. Secondly, John makes the point that there was an expectation of works as a result. There was an expectation of follow-through as a result. That action would then follow the change in their minds and in their hearts. So we can conclude, repentance, therefore, is a crucial and a life-changing event in someone's life. The words repentance, repent, they come from the Greek word metanoheo. It's G3566. If you'd like to reference that in a lexicon using a Strong's number, you can. G3566, metanoheo. And it means to undergo a change in frame of mind and feeling. To undergo a change in frame of mind and feeling, or we might say mindset, so to speak. Or, as we sometimes shorten it, we say that repentance is to change one's mind.

To cause there to be a change in the way that we think, the way that we process, the way that we, frankly, look at the world around us. Sometimes, as well, we characterize repentance as a 180-degree turn. We say that you're walking in the wrong direction. You're heading in this direction. It's away from God. Your actions, your words, your thoughts, your attitudes, they're taking you away from God into the sins of the world.

You recognize the direction you're going is against God, and so you repent, and that 180-degree turn of repentance takes you from walking away from God to walking back toward God, returning to Him in repentance, returning to Him in obedience and in love.

Now, repentance, we recognize, is a beautiful thing. Repentance is a beautiful thing, and it is something that God absolutely loves to see. Luke 15, verse 7, once again, we won't turn there for... we're gonna have a few that we don't turn to today for sake of time, but Luke 15, verse 7 states that there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repents than 99 righteous who had no need. How does God view repentance? God views repentance as something that is joyous, as something that is absolutely beautiful. Now, what's interesting is that, despite that joyous occasion, despite the the joy that is in heaven when a sinner repents, for many modern Christian denominations today, repentance is akin to a four-letter word.

The concept's not often addressed, largely because it causes a hearer sometimes to experience shame, to experience judgment. Teaching repentance acknowledges the existence of sin, which is a challenge to rectify. It's hard to rectify with a teaching on sola fide, only faith. It's a very difficult challenge to justify and bring that into an understanding of justification by faith alone. I read an interview with one Christian pastor who said, I don't want to focus on the congregation's badness, quote-unquote. Instead, I want to focus on God's goodness. Now, I can completely and totally understand the desire to accentuate and focus on the positive, but the theme of repentance, brethren, is incredibly strong in Scripture. That theme is from start to finish, absolutely from start to finish. John the Baptist. I mean, you can go back into the Old Testament, but even talking about the New Testament, John the Baptist, Christ, the Apostles, Paul, John, they all wrote about it to one degree or another, sometimes not in those exact words, but alluding to and getting at those concepts, especially John. They all spoke of it. They spoke of it frequently. In fact, in Hebrews 6 and verse 1, and I asked you to jot that in your notes, Hebrews 6 and verse 1, it is one of the central core doctrines of the New Testament Church.

It's one of the central core doctrines of the New Testament Church. And yet, as we mentioned today, a large number of Christian denominations, if they do discuss it in a way of trying to make it align a little bit better with the idea of sola fide, kind of only faith, they've adjusted the definition of repentance, teaching that repentance is a changing of your mind from a disbelief in Christ as the Messiah to an understanding that Christ is the Messiah. And in doing so, they have removed all mention of sin from the picture. All mention of sin is taken out of the picture. All mentions of the desire to turn from that sin towards God is removed from the picture. When it comes to repentance, is that what God and the Bible teaches? Is that what John talked about in this passage that we just saw in Matthew 3? Did he just ignore sin? Did he completely and totally just brush it off and pretend all they had to do was believe? It appears in today's definition of repentance there's a critical component missing. Our relation to God's law, our relation to the authority of God. Title for the message today is repentance, the missing dimension. Repentance, the missing dimension. I appreciated Mr. Miller's message very much. There's a lot of dovetail that is going to end up happening today in both of these messages, and I always love that because rarely do we always talk to each other. Most of the time we're all trying to trying to get it all squared away and we rarely do end up talking to each other, so it's always nice when God puts these things together in the way that he does. This weekend, some of you might have seen, is the keynote event of a national movement that is known as the Return.

Some of you may have seen this or some of you may have heard of it. It was originally developed to be a national prayer and repentance movement. It was set up and organized by Jonathan Cahn. He was an author of The Harbinger and The Shemitah and a number of other kind of messianic Jewish books, to a certain extent, and a gentleman by the name of Kevin Jessup, who is a president of a, I'm not even 100% sure how to even characterize the organization, it's called the Global Strategic Alliance, and it's kind of a economic, political, religious group that advises different aspects of society. Anyway, the event brought a large number of religious folks and leaders together in the National Mall in Washington, D.C., to repent before God for the sins of the nation. They base this overall concept on the scripture that is found in 2 Corinthians. 2 Chronicles, yeah, I tried to say that, 2 Chronicles 7 and verse 14. Let's go ahead and turn over there. We'll refresh ourselves with a wording of that particular passage. Probably a good idea for me at this point to refresh myself with the wording. In this particular passage, we know that Solomon has completed the temple. He's dedicated it. He's offered up a prayer to God, acknowledging him and asking for his ongoing forgiveness whenever Israel was to come before him in sincere repentance. In verse 36 of chapter 6, we're going to grab some context before we jump into 2 Chronicles 7. Verse 36 of chapter 6, Solomon, cutting into the midst of his prayer, says, When they sin against you, for there is no one who does not sin, and you become angry with them, and give them over to the enemy, who takes them captive to a land far away or near, and if they have a change of heart in the land where they are held captive, and repent and plead with you in the land of their captivity, and say, We have sinned, we have done wrong, and acted wickedly. Again, this is chapter 6, verse 38. If they turn back to you with all their heart and soul in the land of their captivity where they were taken, and pray toward the land you gave their ancestors, toward the city you have chosen, and toward the temple I have built for your name, then from heaven, your dwelling place, hear their prayers, and their pleas, and uphold their cause, forgive your people who have sinned against you. Now, O my God, may your eyes be open, and your ears attentive to the prayers that are offered in this place. And so in this passage, in this section, Solomon has prayed to God for him to be receptive to the repentance that comes from the individuals who turn their eyes to the temple and pray for forgiveness. God hears the prayer, he answers Solomon in chapter 7, beginning in verse 13, he tells him, I've heard your prayer, and I've chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices. Verse 13, he says, when I shut up the heavens so there's no rain or command locust to devour the land or send a plague among my people. Verse 14, this is the passage that the event was centered on, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. The organizers of the event recognize the need for America to return to God and to truly repent. They are absolutely correct. America needs to repent of the collective sins of this nation. They need to recognize their disobedience to God. They need to turn to him. They need to repent before God, changing their minds, changing the way they think, changing the way they process, thinking about how they approach the authority of God, the authority of his law in their life. They need to change their minds to that.

Brethren, before we point our fingers at everyone else, we also need to repent of our sins. We need to turn to our God and we need to seek his face as well. Know what 2 Chronicles 7, 14 specifically says. It says, if my people will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. This critical, often missing component of a true godly repentance is listed right there in 2 Chronicles 7. Turning from their wicked ways, coming under the authority of God and his law, humbling themselves, praying, and seeking his face. And brethren, this is part of the issue in the United States today. This isn't the definition of repentance that most churches are operating off of.

We got some problems because we can't agree on a definition of what this means.

Based on the definition we have currently versus what God's definition is, this nation cannot and will not repent of its sins because we're not talking about the same thing. There's something missing. There's something missing. So how do we get to this point? How do we reach this place where we find ourselves today in the modern times? How do we get to this point where this critical understanding, this critical dimension of repentance is missing? Well, with a lot of things, it started in the late first and early second centuries. Apostle Paul warned the church at Ephesus of what was to come. He said men would arise. They would come up from among them. They would lead the church astray. They said they'd be like ravenous wolves devouring the brethren.

Jude writes in Jude 3, Beloved, while I was diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, he says I found it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once delivered, once for all delivered to the saints. Verse 4, and listen to the prediction. Verse 4, for certain men have crept in unnoticed, who long ago were marked out for this condemnation, ungodly men, what did they do, who turned the grace of God into lewdness, and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Turn the grace of God into lewdness, a license for sin, we might say. Gnostic teachings, other heresies, crept into the church through this time, and as the time went on, the church shifted and it changed. True believers ended up largely moving underground, continuing to keep the teachings of Christ. There were persecutions against anyone and anything that appeared to be Jewish, whether you kept the Sabbath, whether you kept the food laws. All of that began from that predominant group of believers who began to go in the wrong direction, moving away from the truth. By the fourth and fifth centuries, the prevailing belief on repentance was that salvation began at baptism, and that when baptized, your pre-baptismal sins were forgiven.

Well, there was some great debate over what to do with any sins that occurred after baptism. There was some debate at that time as to exactly what to do. Eventually, a decision was made to allow a system of confession and penance to come into place. That system still exists today in a variety of different denominations. But as a result of all of the forgiveness of your pre-baptismal sins at baptism, what the church began to see was individuals who put off being baptized waiting until they neared death. Because then, their life's mistakes could be forgiven, and then they didn't have... we call this sometimes a deathbed confessional these days, right? That's the term we might use. But in this case, it was a deathbed baptism.

And the idea here being that they would wait to be baptized and then have all of those prior sins forgiven. Well, the church fathers at this time were really concerned that this practice of waiting until the very end to be baptized gave people a license to sin, which kind of did. And there were a number of debates that occurred at that time, or a lot of arguments back and forth, as to how many times a person could be forgiven for their sins. Some advocated post-baptismally, you could only get one. One strike, you're out. You mess up, you're done. Others believed that a person could be forgiven unlimited times. And this went back and forth and back and forth and back and forth. By the fifth century, the prevailing belief was that forgiveness was unlimited, that post-baptismally, you could come and confess and do penance unlimited amount of times, and you recover. Well, that was largely the belief leading up to the point of the Reformation.

At the time of the Reformation, Protestant movement began to question papal authority.

They began to have some questions about, wait a minute, why does this guy get to call the shots here? Some of the shots he's calling don't appear to be scriptural. And much of what they were teaching at the time included, again, teachings on the concepts of repentance, confessions of sins, and penance. The Protestant line of thought during the Reformation considered repentance to be a recognition of sin, the changing of one's mind, kind of the need for forgiveness, and they believed that it was essential to salvation via faith. Calvin advocated a position that at baptism, all sin, whether pre-baptism or post-baptism, were forgiven. In other words, you were forgiven for the sins you haven't even committed yet. You're good. Don't worry about it. You don't have to do confession. You don't have to do penance. You're good. It's already done.

Luther, however, felt a little bit different. He felt that a person could perish as a result of abandoning their faith in Christ and falling into sin. He said that those individuals would need to return to God in faith, kind of a, it's kind of an in-between position between Calvinism and what the Roman Catholic Church at the time was teaching. Luther wrote, and I'll just read you a quick quote here in response to the writings of Jerome. He said, you will likewise see how perilous indeed, how false it is to suppose that penance is the second plank after a shipwreck, and how pernicious it is, or pernicious in error it is, to believe that the power of baptism is broken, that the ship is somehow dashed into pieces because of sin. He says the ship remains one, it remains solid, and remains invincible. It will never be broken up into separate planks, in it are carried all those who are brought to the harbor of salvation, for it is in the truth of God giving us its promise in the sacraments. Of course, it often happens that many rashly leap overboard into the sea and perish. He says these are those who abandon faith in the promise and plunge into the sea.

He says, but the ship itself remains intact and holds its course unimpaired. If anyone is able to somehow by grace return to the ship, it is not on any plank, but on the solid ship itself that he is born to life. Such a person is the one who returns through faith to the abiding and enduring promise of God. As you listen to that, there are aspects of what he's discussing in here that are true. There are certainly aspects of what he's discussing here that are true. But in it, he provides his position on faith, salvation, and grace. He feels that a person must continue in faith both morally and doctrinally in order to receive their final salvation. So at the Protestant Reformation, both Calvin and Luther believed that repentance was a change of one's mind, that it was a recognition of one's sinfulness and their need for forgiveness in Christ. And as such, the prevailing Protestant position during the time of the Reformation was that penance was not necessary for post-baptismal sins. Instead, there needed to be a recognition of the state of the sinner, a need for Christ in their life. Now why? Why was that? Because they believed that that sin did not affect one's salvation, because salvation was entirely by grace, entirely by faith. Sola Fide, justification by works alone, or by faith alone, not works. You follow that line of thought to its logical conclusion, your actions, therefore, do not impact your salvation.

Good works are evidence of faith in someone's life, but have no effect, ultimately, on their salvation in one bit. Now as we leave the Reformation down through to today, you have the Orthodox view, which has largely remained unchanged since the fifth century, the idea that you confess your sins, you do penance, and that ultimately you are taken care of at that point in time. But then there are three basic Protestant lines of thought. Again, today as we look at these, we want to be able to say what does the Bible show? What does the Bible teach? And it's these Protestant lines of thought that have largely influenced the modern viewpoint of repentance in most churches today.

First, the idea that repentance is turning away from sin, which requires a change in behavior. That is one of the Protestant positions. For example, in this scenario, the thief must no longer steal to receive salvation. Okay? So that's one position. The second position is that repentance is a recognition of sinfulness, and there is a willingness or a resolution that is made to stop sinning, even though change may not occur. In other words, the thief really wants to stop, maybe makes efforts, but may not be successful.

The third is that repentance is simply a change of thinking, recognizing our sinfulness, acknowledging Christ as our substitute. No change of behavior needed. That's the third thought process. That is the idea that the thief realizes they are a sinner. They are thankful for Christ taking their place, and they keep on stealing. Now that's obviously kind of characterized in a maybe a little bit different way, but that doesn't necessarily tell the whole story either, though, because among modern Protestants today, a great number feel that your salvation is locked in and cannot be changed by circumstances or actions, while others believe that salvation is not permanent and that it is unchanging, or that it's not permanent or unchanging, and it can be lost as a result of that action, those actions. So what that gives us is six distinct positions, six distinct positions. The repentance is turning from sin and continuing to do so to maintain salvation, which can be lost. Repentance is turning from sins to obtain an eternally secure salvation.

Position number two. Position number three is repentance is being willing to turn from sins, and then after conversion turn from those sins as a manner of gaining and keeping salvation.

Fourth position is repentance is being willing to turn from sins to obtain an eternally secure salvation. So being willing to turn for this eternally secure salvation. Number five, repentance is being willing to change your mind about yourself and Christ to gain salvation, and to turn from your sins as a manner of life thereafter to maintain that salvation. The sixth position is that repentance is being willing to change your mind about yourself and Christ to obtain eternal salvation. So moral of the story, we're all over the place today with regards to what we see repentance as being. You ask various denominations, even amongst the Protestant faith, they're all different. There are many that are different, although the vast majority do hold to one specific viewpoint. They do tend to hold to one specific viewpoint, but this is where we find ourselves today. Six different viewpoints, and then you have the orthodox viewpoint of confession and penance. So which of these viewpoints is accurate? Which of these viewpoints is accurate? Which of these is biblical? Does it even matter? Of course it matters. You know, if we, as Christians, are truly interested in what God desires from us, if we really truly are wanting to please our God, then we have to focus on and work toward implementing what He teaches us. So what we're going to start doing today, with the remainder of the time that we have left, is start chipping away at some of these positions to come to the one that is biblical. We're going to start with one thing we can do to knock out three of these seven positions right off the bat, and that is, is salvation guaranteed? Once saved, always saved. Is that biblically accurate? Mr. Miller alluded to Matthew 24, alluded to Luke 12 today in the split sermon, and talked about parables of servants that had lost their way. Parables of servants that had had some challenges, right? They began to mistreat their fellow servants. They began to maybe not work like they were supposed to work, and as the master was out and about, you know, as the master returned, he didn't quite find those servants so doing when he came back. But these are servants that believed that the master delayed his coming, and so they beat and they mistreat their fellow servants.

They mistreated others while again not recognizing their own shortcomings.

There's a couple things to keep in mind about both of the parables that we see in Matthew 24 and in Luke 12. This is a master-servant relationship. There's a master-servant relationship. These are not people on the outside. These are not individuals who have no knowledge of Christ. They don't understand Christ. These are individuals who have come to Christ.

They are following Him. They are serving Him, and then He leaves, and He is gone for a time.

That's the position we find ourselves in now. Our Lord and our master, our husband, is away, but He is returning, right? These are individuals who have been called. These are individuals who know the truth and know what was expected. Yet, what do we see from the words that are described in Matthew 24 and in Luke 12 in those parables that deal with the unwise servants?

We see that as a result of their actions and their choices, they lost out on the promise of salvation.

And, as it mentions in the passages, there was weeping and there was gnashing of teeth.

This was a situation where salvation was lost to those individuals. We see dozens of passages in the New Testament that talk about the need to endure to the end, the need to endure to the end to receive salvation. And in that vein, salvation, that receipt of eternal life, comes at the end of our walk, even though the process begins much sooner. Let's go ahead and turn over to 1 Corinthians 9.

1 Corinthians 9, we see the writing of the Apostle Paul here. 1 Corinthians 9, verse 27. You know, the Apostle Paul had a great deal of analogies that he utilized. I think it's one of the reasons I enjoy his writings as much as I do, but he used a number of analogies to really help bring things to life and to help individuals to understand the things that he was talking about. He likens this way of life and this race that we run, he likens it to a race. You know, he likens it to something that you have to strive for, something you have to run in order to obtain.

He talks about, you know, boxing and he doesn't just kind of go through the motions. He's out there to obtain this prize, to receive the prize. That's the way he said he runs. That's the way he said he boxes. In 1 Corinthians 9 and verse 27, he says, "...but I discipline," he says, "...thus I fight," beginning kind of contextually into 26.

"...thus I fight, not as one who beats the air," he says, "...but I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest when I have preached to others I myself should become disqualified." Again, speaking of the prize of the kingdom of God, speaking of salvation, he said that was the reason that he disciplined his body and brought it into his objection, was so that he would not be disqualified, that he would not lose out on salvation as a result of his actions while those he taught received it. The Apostle Paul understood that this was something that could be lost.

This was something that was not guaranteed, in that you could walk away from it. Everyone has free will, right? Everybody can make their choice. Hebrews 2, if you want to turn over there, Hebrews 2, we're going to pick it up in verse 1. Hebrews 2 and verse 1. Again, seeing an example here. Hebrews 2 and verse 1.

We're going to read verse 1 through verse 3. Hebrews 2 verse 1.

Hebrews 2 and verse 1 says, therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things that we have learned or have heard, lest we drift away. For if the words spoken through angels said fast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by those who heard him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, various miracles, gifts of the Holy Spirit according to his own will. Brethren, how can someone drift away if their salvation is eternally secured? How can someone neglect the promise of salvation, which leads to an inability to escape the consequences if that salvation is eternally secured? You know, there's a number of other passages that we can go to. You know, for sake of time today, we're not going to go to them, but there's a number of other places that you can go that illustrate that this doctrine of, you know, once saved, always saved, or this eternal security of salvation, frankly, it's not biblical. It's not biblical. Now there's aspects of it that are true. There's certain aspects of it, again, as often happens with things. There's aspects of it that make sense. But this doctrine of eternal security is not biblically accurate. Scripture clearly indicates that we can lose out on eternal life through our attitudes, our actions, and our choices if we choose not to continually repent and continually come to God and continually stay close to Him, that we can lose out. So what we had before of seven options of what true godly repentance is, once you remove the eternal security aspect, becomes four. It becomes four. You have repentance requires confession of sins and penitid acts, the orthodox viewpoint, and then you have the three Protestant viewpoints. Repentance is turning from sin and continuing to do so in order to maintain a salvation which can be lost. Repentance is being willing to turn from sins and after conversion, then turn from those sins as a manner of gaining and keeping salvation, or repentance is being willing to change your mind about yourself and Christ to gain salvation and turn from your sins as a manner of life thereafter to maintain that salvation. So let's knock off another one. Let's go ahead and remove another one here. What about the need for penance? What about the need for penance?

In the orthodox faith, penance is essentially a punishment that is inflicted upon someone for the things that they've done wrong. Following confession of the sins to the priest, typically it'll involve saying certain prayers a certain number of times before certain alters.

You know, you may have heard it jokingly in the movies about a certain number of Hail Marys or a certain number of this type of prayer or that type of prayer, whatever it might be.

But the idea is that the priest who is listening to the confession determines the punishment necessary for those sins to be absolved. And through the process of penance, through the process of confessing those sins, the priest absolves the individual of their sins. Let's go over to Hebrews 4. Let's go to Hebrews 4 because, again, we want to understand what does the Bible say about repentance? What does the Bible teach about repentance? Because, again, there are so many different opinions out there as to what it is and how it operates. Hebrews 4. Hebrews 4. And we're going to go ahead and pick it up in verse 14 of Hebrews 4. Hebrews 4 and verse 14. It says, Seeing then that we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin. Verse 16 says, Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Brethren, Jesus Christ is our high priest. He is the mediator of the new covenant. He was tempted in all points as we are yet remained without sin. As a result of that, we can come boldly before the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. There is not an intermediate between us and God except Jesus Christ. He is our intercessor.

He is our high priest. When we confess our sins to God, Christ is the intercessor. It is His blood that enables us to come before God. There is no longer a wall of separation between the people and God. When Christ died, the veil was torn. That was symbolic of people having access to God all the time, not just once a year on the Day of Atonement, all the time. Christ's death made a way for us to be able to come to the presence of God, to come before Him in prayer, as it discusses in Hebrews 10. Again, you can jot that down if you would like, but in Hebrews 10 it discusses this access that we now have to God as a result of what Christ did. But as a result of all those things, we now have confidence. We now have confidence. Notice it says, come boldly before the throne of grace, not with your tail tucked between your legs. We should certainly feel sorrow. We should certainly feel like, you know, when we make mistakes. But we come boldly to God. We come boldly before that throne, knowing that He promises us that repentance, that sin is His gun. It's as far as east is from west, and we go forward in that newness of life.

But, brethren, there's not a priest on this earth that is our intercessor in that way. I am not an intercessor in that way for you. That relationship is between you and God the Father through His Son, Jesus Christ. That's the relationship. That's the covenant that we are asked to enter into. Not to mention, you go through the entirety of the New Testament. There's not a record of penance being required for sins throughout the entirety. You don't see it being taught by Paul. You don't see it being taught by John. You don't see the apostles talking about Go and, you know, do these specific things right here. In fact, the Apostle John taught in the 90s A.D., one of the last known writings that we have of anyone who was there, the method which God intends us to approach this. Let's go to 1 John 1. 1 John 1, and we'll see how did God intend us to approach when we have to come before Him in repentance. Now, John doesn't use the word specifically, but he's alluding to the concept here as he as he discusses this. 1 John 1, and we'll pick it up in verse 5. Those of you that have been going through the Bible study we've been doing on the epistles of John, we've been through here quite a bit. But 1 John 1 and verse 5, he says, this is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie. We do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. So he hasn't anywhere stated that sin doesn't matter anymore, that it's not important. He very much says, no, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from our sin.

If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. Verse 9, if we confess our sins, He, capital He, is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Those sins are confessed to God. They're confessed to God.

If we say that we have not sinned, verse 10, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us. Chapter 2 and verse 1, my little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin.

And then what does He say? If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. John writes that if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, not with the local priest, not with the archdiocese, not with whatever it might be. When we sin, we bring that confession before God. And this is the model we see upheld in the model prayer. This is the, you know, the system that we see upheld in a number of other places in Scripture.

Notice again, no mention of penance, no mention of various acts to punish oneself.

Instead, as it talks about in Psalm 103, as you come before God, you confess those sins, you repent, you turn to Him, you endeavor to do better going forward, you endeavor to change, and you have a recognition, and you come away with that with a strong recognition and understanding that that sin is taken away as far as east is from west. So we can see this orthodox model of confessing your sins and doing penance is also not scriptural. It's also not scriptural, which leaves us with the three outstanding remaining Protestant models.

Over and over in Scripture, when we see repentance being discussed, when we look at the discussion of repentance, it's in a very specific context. It's in a very specific context. It's in a discussion of turning away from sin, turning away from what we might say are wicked ways. We saw that in the example that we started with in Matthew 3, as John was teaching those who were coming to Him, the importance of repentance and baptism. We saw that in the passage that we read in 2 Chronicles 7, that there was a turning from the wicked ways that they were doing, a turning from their sin.

We see it in the words written by David in Psalm 51. Let's go ahead and turn to Psalm 51.

We won't read the entirety of it. This is a passage we've been through a number of times.

Probably one of the best examples of a truly repentant heart you can find in Scripture is the entirety of Psalm 51. It's a pretty incredible recognition of wrong and a pleading with God to remain with Him. But the entirety of the context of Psalm 51, the whole entire passage, what's it about? It's about the sin that He committed with Bathsheba, and the aftermath of that, and the restoration that He's attempting, the repentance that He's having before God, the restoration and reconciliation of that relationship. He says, have mercy on me, verse 1, O God, have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving-kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.

And then He says in verse 4, against you, you only have I sinned and done this evil in your side.

David understood that his sins had separated him from God. He desired to return to God. He desired to come back into His presence, to have that relationship restored, to have those sins forgiven, to have the guilt of his bloodshed removed, and he was focused. The whole focus is turning from sin, restoring a right relationship with God. That's the whole context of Psalm 51.

You don't see Him anywhere advocating that His acts didn't matter, you know, that they weren't important because, you know, it was faith alone, sola fide. No.

He recognized what He had done was wrong. Verses 16 and 17 says, you don't desire sacrifice or else I would give it. You don't delight in burnt offerings. He says the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken spirit and a contrite heart. He says these, O God, you will not despise. You know, it wasn't just about His recognition as a sinner and His need for God. It's a recognition that if sacrifices were enough, He would do it, but He recognized that God was looking for something else. He was looking for a broken spirit. He was looking for a humble and a contrite heart, a willing obedience from His people out of their great love for Him.

See, in other places in Scripture, Christ upheld this concept in His interactions with the woman caught in adultery. Woman caught in adultery in John 8. He didn't condemn her, but what did He say? Go and sin no more. Part of that process is turning away from sin. Turning away from sin.

So this final option that we saw on our options of various definitions for repentance that we just simply recognize that we're sinners and that Christ is our substitute having done it for us, that's not entirely scriptural either. While the recognition is an essential starting spot in the conversion process, it isn't the extent of it. Christ's sacrifice forgives our sin, but God also expects that we'll make the effort to change.

In that same vein, it isn't enough to desire to turn from our sins, yet continue in them.

The expectation of God is that we will overcome, that we will turn from evil and do what is good.

And again, in these there are aspects of truth.

But we will fail. We will stumble. We will have issues. We will have struggles. And the sacrifice of Christ and the grace of God is there when we fall. We need to come to Him in repentance when we do.

God works in stages. When we're baptized, we recognize this need of God in our life. We accept the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf, repenting of our sins. We come under grace.

Paul talks about that in Romans 6. He says, we're no longer under the dominion of sin and death. We are under grace. Provided we remain close to God, not turning away from His calling, we are saved, quote-unquote, by that grace. This is an ongoing process in our lives. It's not a one-time event. We, as Christians, recognize we will make mistakes. We will stumble. We will sin.

And in those circumstances, we have to renew that repentance. We have to come before God, come before that throne of grace, renew that repentance, return to God, remain close to Him.

Provided we continue to do that, provided we continue to recognize the error of our ways, we continue to repent. We remain under grace. We are then justified. We are realigned with God. We're realigned with His ways. But if we neglect it, and if we cease repenting for our sins, we run the risk of falling away and the consequences thereof. There's a wide variety of thoughts today on the concepts of repentance. Many of those thoughts are missing a critical dimension, and that is the recognition of the authority of God and His law in their lives and the sin which comes from breaking it. The recognition of the importance of turning away from those sins back to God, we recognize repentance is a 180-degree turn away from the way of wickedness, drawing near to God in His righteousness. It's not a one-time event. It's a lifelong process. It's a constant state in which a Christian must find themselves, humble and contrite, willing to obey, submitting themselves to God in His way, recognizing that we do make mistakes, that we come to Him when we do, that we repent, that we return to Him. We ask for forgiveness. We renew that repentance when we slip up, when we stumble. And when we do this, and when we remain under that grace, our sins are forgiven and we continue to grow to become more like God and more like Christ. Today, there are a number of groups that are gathered at our nation's capital advocating for a national repentance and return to God for our nation. The issue, it's not a bad thing overall. It is absolutely needed. The issue is that the number of those groups have very different ideas of what repentance really means. In that group are folks that are of the Baptist persuasion, folks that are Pentecostal, folks that are a number of different Protestant denominations, which many have different definitions of what repentance is. If the repentance that they are advocating at this rally today is in word only and not in deed, if those who have come before God today in our nation's capital are not sincere in their desire to truly turn to Him, truly turn to Him, to turn from their individual sins as well as our national sins, not just point the finger at the U.S. and say the U.S. is doing it wrong, but recognize I'm doing it wrong and I need to change. If that's not present, if they're not willing to accept His teachings, to live His way of life in its fullness, their efforts will not meet with success, and to be quite frankly, they could be standing on very dangerous ground. They are not wrong. This nation needs desperately to repent. Its people, ourselves included, need desperately to repent and to return to God. But true godly repentance is not showmanship. It's not lip service. It's outward action and deeds from the Spirit of God dwelling within. It's a change in behavior. It's a change in attitude. It's a change in action, a change in the way that we think, the way that we process, the way that we examine and interact with the world around us. It's a change in which we are becoming more and more like God and Christ with each passing day.