What Does It Mean to Repent?

This morning we talked about how the return of Jesus Christ to establish God's kingdom on this earth is the only solution for humanity. We also talked about the question that we all have to answer, and the question that God asked us, which is, do you want to be part of that? And if you want to be part of that, what is it that you have to do now?

What is it that you have to do now in order to have a right relationship with God so that you can be part of the solution that Christ brings when He returns? In the first two seminars we went to Mark 1, and we read a couple verses, and I'm going to go back there again.

Mark 1 and verse 14.

After John the Baptist was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, The time is fulfilled. We spent one of the seminars talking about what does that mean. And the kingdom of God is at hand. We spent a lot of time talking about what that means.

And then the next word is repent and believe the gospel. Repent. Very religious sounding word. When we do the Beyond Today program, the television program that's on WGN at 7.30 on Sunday morning, we've had some quote-unquote religious experts tell us how to do the program. These are people who actually create programs, some of the big name religious programs, on how to create a religious program. But we found out that as we had their advice come in, that it was things we could not do. Because one of the things that we were supposed to not do is never mention the word sin, because people will turn you off when you use the word sin.

And we weren't supposed to use the word repent. Well, I don't know how to preach the gospel, but don't talk about sin and repenting. So we gave them their money and said goodbye, and then threw out all the advice that they gave us.

Repent.

Jesus, that was the core of His message to people. What's very interesting is Jesus Christ came to a group of people who worshiped the true God. He didn't come to pagans. The people that He talked to, for the most part, were people who worshiped the true God. They were people who kept the Ten Commandments. They were people who went to the temple on the Sabbath. And yet they were missing something. So much that He told them, you have to repent. What does repentance mean? This wasn't a new message. Before Him, John the Baptist came and He went throughout Judea teaching the same message, preparing people for Jesus Christ's coming. Look at Matthew 3.

Matthew 3. Verse 1. In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent because this is going to happen. It's happening real fast. It's actually happening right now. It's starting right now. The kingdom of God is going to be established by Jesus Christ, but the work of that kingdom is going on right now. It's going on in the lives of those who wish to become citizens of that kingdom and members of the family of God, because you can interchange the concept of kingdom and family. God is creating a family. Verse 3 says, For this is He who was spoken of by the gospel of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah, the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way for the Lord and make His path straight. So John the Baptist was prophesied in Isaiah to come and prepare the way for the Messiah. Verse 5 says He was down in the Jordan River baptizing people. Now, it's interesting because He's baptizing Jewish people who realize there's something wrong with their religion. Baptism represents the fact that you are washed, that you're made clean. So He has people coming to Him who worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The other reason He keeps stressing this is because many times we say, Why am I already a Christian? Yet the gospel has a message for Christianity too, because there's something wrong with Christianity. It's not promoting the gospel. It's not promoting the Kingdom of God in the way that it should be. So just as Jesus came the first time to the people who were supposed to prepare the way for Him, and many of them rejected Him, Jesus will come the second time. And much of the Christianity that is supposed to prepare the way for Him will reject Him. We'll show that in a minute. So John the Baptist comes, and He's baptizing people. And it says in verse 7, verse 6 says, He was baptized by Him, or people were coming to be baptized and confessing their sins. But when He saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to His baptism, He said to them, who warned you to flee from the wrath of the cub, therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance. In other words, if you truly repent, you will see fruit. You know, if you have an apple tree and you go out, you know whether there's apples or not, don't you? If there's nothing but leaves and you go out and say, oh, look at those apples, your neighbor's going to think you're crazy.

Apples on an apple tree are a fruit you can see. What John the Baptist is saying here, when you truly repent, something is produced in your life that grows to where other people can see it. There's actual fruit. It's tangible. So when we talk about repentance, it's just a concept of, well, you know, twenty years ago I accepted Jesus, but I'm still the same person I used to be, but I accepted Jesus.

Well, then my question is, I wonder if Jesus accepted you. Because if we truly repent, and we understand what that is, that's what we're going to talk about here this afternoon, fruit is created by the power of God in that person. He tells him in verse 9, don't think just because you're the children of Abraham, that that's enough to God.

Something has to happen. In fact, in verse 10, he says, And 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 thrown into the fire. He said, God is going to judge us whether we bear the fruit He wants to bear in our lives or not, whether we submit to that.

Now we're back to the concept of submitting to God. Do we submit to Satan or do we submit to God? If we submit to God, certain things are to be produced in our lives. If they're not being produced, then we're not submitting to Him. And we can claim allegiance to God. We can claim allegiance to Jesus Christ. But true Christianity is more than that. He says in verse 11, I indeed, John the Baptist says, baptize you with water and to repentance.

But He who is coming after me is mighty to the eye, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. And He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Speaking of Jesus Christ, He said, the Messiah is coming and He's greater than me, and He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. So there's water baptism, which is a command in the New Testament. I know there are many Christian denominations who claim that baptism is not a requirement for salvation.

The New Testament teaches otherwise. Water baptism and then the baptism of the Holy Spirit. But what does baptism of fire? Verse 12 explains, For His winnowing fan is in His hand, speaking of Christ, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His weeds into the barn, and He will burn up the chaff with unquestionable fire. Now, that was a very powerful statement in that society. I mean, in that society, they would go out and they would harvest wheat, barley, whatever they... different crops that they grew there around Jerusalem, depending on the time of year. This time of year would be barley.

You bring in the barley, or the early wheat. And He would harvest it. And He would take it, and He would cut it, and you would go into a threshing floor, and you would have a basket, like a sieve, and you would throw it into the air. The heavier wheat grain would fall into the basket, and the wind, because they would build the barn so a breeze would come through one side or the other, would blow all the pieces of chaff out.

By the way, we know that they didn't always get it out, because they've been able to exude some skeletons of people who lived during that time period, and they all had bad teeth. They started eating so much of the chaff that was still in the wheat, they'd ground their teeth down. But that's how they would get the chaff out. And then, that's all the little leaves and things that you're not supposed to eat.

And they would sweep that up, and they would burn it up. Now, you have to understand then what John DeBats has said. He's saying that the Christ is coming, the Messiah is coming, He says, and you will be baptized with water, He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and if you do not respond to Him, He will baptize you with fire. That's a pronouncement of eternal judgment. And verse 12 is a very scary verse.

You know, we talk about Jesus' naked mild. We forget. There's also Jesus Christ who's going to pass eternal judgment on those who reject Him. So it is important that we understand this call to repentance and how important it really is. God is calling you to repent. What does that mean? Does it mean to accept a certain set of doctrines? Well, doctrines are important. The teachings of the Scripture are important. Does it mean accepting the Ten Commandments? Yes. Including doing away with idols? Including keeping the Sabbath day? That's one of the Ten Commandments. That's all part of what we're supposed to be learning.

But there's something else you and I need. If we're really going to make the step forward to respond to the call of the Gospel, we have to understand what it means in Jeremiah 17.9. Let's go to Jeremiah 17.9.

Jeremiah 17.9.

Would you say that the most deceitful thing of the earth is Satan? That would be a pretty good guess, right? That's not what the Bible says. Verse 9. The heart is deceitful above all things. We deceive ourselves. Now, Satan helps us. He is the great deceiver. But our own hearts deceive us. We give in to our basest emotions, our basest motivations, and we become deceived by those things. And as we are deceived by our own basest emotions, Satan manipulates us. The truth is, he can't take you and I anyplace we don't want to go. He doesn't take us anyplace we don't want to go. There's the problem. Many times we want his deceit. Our own human heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? We're not just wicked. We're desperately wicked. We are, by nature, desperate to do wickedness. If we are going to repent, it's not just a matter of listening. Here's the ten worst things I've done in my life. It is understanding that the core of who we are, we are desperately wicked. That's only when we can come to true repentance. Otherwise, it's only partial repentance. Yes, we have to understand, okay, I've lied in my life that's wrong, or I committed adultery and that's wrong, or I, you know, worship idols and that was wrong, and I took God's name in vain and that was wrong. Yes, we have to understand those things, those actions is wrong. Those are sins. But true repentance takes us another step. True repentance goes to the point where you say, before God, my heart is deceitful and I am desperately wicked. And at the core of who I am, that is who I am. You will never truly repent until you come to that point. Now, sometimes it takes a long time to get to that point. God starts working with us. We say, okay, I realize I shouldn't use God's name in vain, so you stop doing that. Okay, well, I've learned that, you know, I should not come in, so you stop coming. Okay, I've learned that I shouldn't go around slandering people, so you stop slandering. And you're taking these steps and you're learning these things and you're changing your behavior. But there is a point that true repentance doesn't happen until you come to this point that says, deep inside my heart, my very heart is deceitful. And at my core, I am desperately wicked. He said, well, I know other people like that, though. Until you and I get there, we don't repent. Now, we're not supposed to stay there. God wants to change us. Remember, God is preparing people for the return of Jesus Christ. God is making children. That's what this is about. He's creating children. And when you and I were born, we were only partly there anyways. We didn't have God's Spirit in us, yes. So we were incomplete when we were born. We were born, and very quickly, Satan comes along and corrupts who we are, and here we are, an incomplete corrupted person. Desperately wicked. Oh, there's some goodness there. We're all mixture of good and evil. You know, you weren't an Adolf Hitler, but without the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, we will all end up with the same punishment as Adolf Hitler, because we're all desperately wicked. If we don't accept that, we can become a pretend Christian, a part-time Christian who does certain things, and appears to be a Christian, but really, deep inside, is the same person he or she always was. You say, well, how could that happen? Well, let's go back to the Sermon on the Mount. I told you earlier that we were going to go back to the Sermon on the Mount. We were in Matthew 6. Let's go to Matthew 7. Matthew 7. In one part of the Scripture that frightens me.

When I read this, it actually frightens me, because it makes me realize how deceitful my heart can be. If we don't surrender to God and let God's kingdom rule, if we don't let Him rule in our lives, we can become pretend Christians. This is what Jesus said. This is how He finished the Sermon on the Mount. You know, the Sermon on the Mount begins with the beatitudes. There's all this wonderful things. There's all this encouragement. Don't worry about life. Just follow God. He tells us how to pray. He tells us how to fast. This is how He ends it. Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but He who does the will of my Father in Him. To simply profess that we follow Jesus Christ is not enough. I didn't make that up. This is what Jesus Christ says. It's not enough. He says, you have to do the will of my Father. We have to submit to the Father. We have to submit to how He wants us to live. Or just calling Him Lord is not enough. Verse 22, many will say to me in that day, I hear Jesus jumps down to His second coming, when He's now on the earth. And He says, many will come. He doesn't say a few. This is what I find disconcerting about this. He says, many will come in that day and say, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name? Do you understand what He's saying here? He says, they'll come a time when people will come to me and say, Lord, we worshiped You, we went to a church that prays You, wonders were done in our church in Your name, and we told people about You. He said, well, that's a mighty good Christian. That's impressive to me. And then notice the next verse. Then I will declare to them, I never knew You, depart from Me, You who practice lawlessness. If we have a total disregard for the laws and teachings of God, it doesn't matter to profess to be a Christian. This is what Jesus Christ says in the Sermon on the Mount. He says, I will say to you, I don't know you. But I cast out demons in Your name, but I don't know you. I think that would be the most horrible thing that could ever happen to a person, to stand before Jesus Christ and have Him say, I don't know you. Verse 24, And therefore whoever hears these things of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. He didn't just say he believes in them, but does them. True faith transcends mere belief. True faith leads to true commitment, true obedience, true life change. So that's what we have to understand. Whoever hears these things of mine and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew, a beat on that house. It did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these things of mine does not, it does not do them. Okay? Does not obey. Does not follow. He would be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew, a beat on that house, and it fell, and its grate was its fault.

And it says he just ended there. And the people were astonished. That's it? You taught us all these things and you end it with, when I come, there will be many who will claim to be my followers that I will not accept. I don't want to face that. I hope you don't want to face that. So now let's talk about how we start this. How we really start true Christianity. What do we have to do, maybe, to strip our minds of what we think Christianity is?

And it all comes down to that concept of repentance. This is where you start. This is just the starting point. But it is the starting point. What is true Christianity? Let's start with repent and believe the gospel. Is that what Jesus Christ said? Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand. Okay? So let's start there. That's his starting point. He's not already taught. We can talk for a week, for eight hours a day, and never get through all the teachings in the Sermon on the Mount. But where do you start? You start with repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.

So let's talk about what repentance is. Five points about repentance. First of all, to repent means to change. People think repent means to accept. Okay, I accept that there's a God. I believe that there's a God, therefore I am saved. All you have to do is read the book of James, one of the most sarcastic comments made in the whole Bible, where James says, you believe there's a God?

Well, that's really good. Even Satan and the demons believe there's a God. So believing that there's a God doesn't equal salvation. It doesn't equal becoming a child of God. It doesn't equal submitting to the kingdom of God.

Repent means to change. It's interesting, in the Old Testament, there's two basic Hebrew words that are translated to translate in repentance. And one means to be sorry. But the one I really find interesting is a Hebrew word that means to turn and walk the other way. Hebrews are very action-oriented language. You're walking in one direction, and you turn, and you walk in the exact opposite direction. That's what repentance is. It's you're so sorry that you've been walking in one direction, you accept that direction is wrong, and you turn, and you walk back towards God.

Because we've been walking away from God ever since Eden. We've been walking away from Him ever since. We have to turn and go back. We have to go back to where we belong. We have to go back to our Father, back to our Creator.

The Greek word that's most often translated to repent means to change your mind. It means to perceive something, to understand something, and because you understand it, afterwards you say, oh, I've got to change my mind. You put those two concepts together, that's very interesting, isn't it? You perceive that you are wrong, you are sorry, you change your mind, and you turn around and walk in the exact opposite direction.

That is the core understanding of what it is to repent. Now, that's not easy, because it happens on two different levels. It happens on an intellectual level, where you and I have to learn, then, what the Bible says.

And as we learn what the Bible says, we start to change our behavior, our actions. But then it gets into the emotions and our motives. Why do I do what I do? You know, to change emotions are one of the most difficult things we do as human beings, and yet it is required.

We cannot hate. We cannot lust. We have to learn to change those things. Now, this is why Christianity isn't an event. One moment you're not a Christian, the next moment you are. It's a process. We are corrupt human beings, and God is recreating us. If we can wrap our mind around that, we'll go a long ways. Salvation is a creative act by God, where He is recreating something that is corrupt into something that is pure.

He is taking us from what we've become, and He's creating us back into what we must be. That's why concepts like the Sabbath are so important. It's part of God's creative process, where He says, Okay, once a week, folks, stop what you're doing, come back, and let's talk. Because you're running away, by the end of the week, you're all moving away from where you should be. He moves us back as part of the creative process. He moves us back into relationship with Him. He moves us back into worship of Him.

It's all a creative process by this brilliant God, perfect God, and taking corrupt, little, insignificant human beings and making us His children. That's what the Kingdom of God is. Repentance is accepting that and saying, I will not walk this way anymore. So, repentance is change. It's not just acceptance. Second point, we are not just repenting of individual sins.

That would actually be easy. You know, God doesn't say, Okay, folks, what I want everybody to do is come up here. I'm going to get a big blackboard, write down all your sins in front of everybody. All the sins you can remember. Pretend to tell us to do that. Now, we have to remember our individual sins so we don't do them again, but repentance is more than individual sins.

Because when you get down into why we sin, we have to deal with that. So, repentance is more than individual sin, or being sorry and changing individual sin. It is accepting that you are a sinner. Deep in the core of who you are and I am, we are sinners.

Sin is part of us. Oh, can't use that word. People won't watch it on television if we use that word. And they're right. We know every time we use the word sin, 2,000 people, 3,000 people, they just turn it off. We know that. 10,000 people, we don't know. There are thousands who turn it off. But you know what? You can't preach the gospel without talking about sin. It's not possible. It's not possible. Because sin is what's killing us.

Sin is what's destroying us. Sin is anything that's in rebellion against God. It's anything that's not the way God wants life to be. The Ten Commandments are just the starting point of sin. How you think, how you feel, how you treat your husband, how you treat your wife. It all is against God the way God wants and left us in accordance with His way.

We sin all the time. And at some point we come to grips with, I am a sinner. First John, chapter 3, verse 4. Here we have, late in the first century, at least 60 years after the death of Jesus.

John is a very old man here. First John 3, 4. Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness. And sin is lawlessness. The reason God gives us the law is because I can be saved by the law. The law is a definition. It tells us what is wrong. The law doesn't even tell us always what is right. It just tells us what is wrong. So without that definition, we will continue to destroy our relationship with God.

But we also have to deal with the motivations. Look at the same book, First John. Look at chapter 1 and verse 16. 1, 16. I'm sorry, chapter 2. There is no 1, 16, is it? Chapter 2, 6. There isn't my Bible, do you?

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. See, many of the times, Christianity, we don't go here. It's so much easier to deal with, you know, my neighbor committed adultery.

Therefore, my neighbor is a sinner, but I'm a good person. Well, yes, your neighbor is a sinner. It shouldn't commit adultery. And if they don't repent, they'll be judged by God. Hopefully they repent. Well, how about your motivations? What's motivating you? What's driving you? Why do you do what you do? The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, that's all whole sermon in itself. What that even means. So we have to understand that we're just not repenting of what we've done. We're repenting of who we are. Three, repentance is more than just sorrow. Repentance, strangely enough, repentance produces a lot of very difficult, hurtful emotions, and then produces very positive emotions.

You go through a very difficult time in the early stages of repentance, because you come to grips with, I'm lost. Without God, I'm worthless. I have no hope. I'm a pretty messed up, dirty person. Yes, that's where we come to, but we're not supposed to stay there. It's very interesting if you read 1 Corinthians. Paul wrote a letter to those people condemning... It's one of the most scathing letters in all the New Testament.

It's like an Old Testament prophet. I mean, he just tears that church apart. They have all kinds of sins and problems. They have adultery. They had men going to the temple prostitutes, the pagan temple prostitutes. They had people getting together at church services and fighting and arguing and hollering and screaming. They had... It just goes on and on, the problems they had. People got together to keep the Passover, and they were getting drunk. It was horrible! And he said, the letter, he says, you've got to clean this up.

2 Corinthians, then, is a letter he sends to them afterwards. So let's go to 2 Corinthians, verse 7. 2 Corinthians, verse 7.

You cannot repent without some very hard, hurtful emotions, because it's coming to grips with who you really are. It's looking at the deepest part of you and seeing how ugly part of you really is. And you face that, and then you ask God to forgive you and to change you. 2 Corinthians, verse 7.

You work through that.

So we're really sorrowful because there's a bad consequence. Paul said that these people had changed because they realized it wasn't just because they got caught. It's because they looked at themselves and said, what are we doing? This is horrible! We better get caught. We better get cleaned up. We better repent. And notice, I will go through this piece by piece because this is a... It would take an hour to go through the next couple verses. But you start to see what happened to these people. Verse 11.

We will never truly experience the full forgiveness of God until we get down to the full complete ugliness that is there. But see, we can pretend Christianity and we don't have to go there. We can be half Christians and not have to go there. But that's not what God wants from us.

The fourth point about repentance is it produces a change of life. A change of life. What are going to Luke 14 here? Because Luke 14 really sums this up. Verse 25. Great Malbecues come to Jesus. Verse 26, he says, If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

Now, the word hate there, there's no English word to translate that into. It means, in Greek, that you love this so much that comparative is like hate. He doesn't mean you actually hate something. No, it's like, I love, I like broccoli, but I love ice cream.

Okay? So I'll eat broccoli, and it's okay. But compared to ice cream, I hate broccoli. Okay, that's the, actually I like broccoli, but most people don't. So there, we can compare those things. Actually, I went into a restaurant the other day, you would be so proud of me.

And sort of the fries, I got a giant bowl of broccoli. That was so I could get the unlimited root beer float. Wow, that's a good one. Anyway, disciple is a very important word. Disciple doesn't mean student, it means imitator. To be a disciple meant you imitated the master. Disciples of Jesus Christ are people who accept Jesus Christ. Disciples of Jesus Christ are people who imitate Jesus Christ. Christianity has plenty of accepting people. What God wants are imitators.

That we live our lives imitating Jesus Christ. We think like Him, we talk like Him, we act like Him. That's what He wants. He says, if you're going to be my disciple, it's got to be everything. What does God want from you in repentance? He wants everything. This is why so many people really won't go. They become half Christians and they stop because He wants everything. He's going to give you everything.

It's only fair He asked for everything. He only gave you everything. He gave His Son for you. He's going to give you the Kingdom. And only He asks is everything back that you give Him your life. Pretty fair trade. It's a pretty fair trade. In fact, it's not fair at all, as we don't deserve that at all. And whoever did not bear His cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. How far did you carry a cross? It doesn't mean much to me today. I don't carry a cross around. Back then, if people were carrying a cross, they were carrying it to be nailed to it.

They were carrying it to die. He says, you pick this up, and you live Christianity to your nail to it. How do we want to go there? We like sort of soft, easy Christianity. We want to live too much like the world. It's too easy. There's too much money. There's too much entertainment. It's too easy. He wants disciples who carry that cross to the day we're nailed to it.

He says, for which of you, intending to build a tower does not sit down first and count the cost when there is enough to finish it? The question he's asking is, do you understand the commitment that you have to make? Do you understand the commitment you have to make? It's a complete change of life. And then the last point about repentance is that it is unconditional surrender to God. Unconditional surrender to God.

I have a piece of sheet music from World War II at home. I collect World War II memorabilia, and I have a piece of sheet music. God is my co-pilot. Have you ever thought about God being your co-pilot? Well, He's right there beside me. Well, then you got a wrong idea. It's time to switch seats. It's time to switch seats. Become the co-pilot. Let God fly the flight. It's total surrender. It's yes, Lord. We've been talking about the Kingdom of God for three seminars, talking about why the world doesn't work, what God wants from us.

But there is a point in all this. There is a point in all this. For this to go from the point of knowledge and excitement, because, oh wow, looks at the prophecies that are taking place, to the point of, yes, Lord. That's where it has to go. Nothing held back. I wish to be an imitator. I wish to be a disciple, because I wish to be a brother, a sister of Christ.

I wish to be a child of God. Repentance is the most important decision in your life. There's no altar call to come out and give your heart to the Lord, because you have to decide and go through that process of repentance. The question I ask you, if not now, when? If not now, when? When is it right to say, I want to be forgiven, I want to become your child, I want to be in your family, I want to be part of your kingdom, I want to help Jesus Christ change the world, I want to be changed now.

When is a good time to do that? When is a good time to receive that? If not now, when? Isaiah, the prophet, wrote, seek the Lord while He yet may be found.

Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake His way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let Him return to the Lord, for He will have mercy on Him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. Turn to the Lord.

Repent! Turn and go the other way. God wants to give you the kingdom, but He won't give it to us the way we are. God will not give the kingdom to people who are desperately evil, and every one of us at our core is desperately evil.

Would you? Would you give the universe to beings who will be forever desperately evil? That's why we have to be changed. He wants to give it to us. Are we willing to go beyond being a professing Christian and become committed disciples? Move beyond Christianity as a simple sort of a collection of ideas to actually become a family member in God's family. Salvation is about creation, re-creation. Salvation is about surrendering to God so that He is ruling in your life. And it's about submitting to His kingdom now.