We Believe... Repentance
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We Believe that Repentance is commanded of God for all and it necessery for forgivness of sins.
We Believe that Repentance is commanded of God for all and it necessery for forgivness of sins.
Todays doctrine involves a persons responce to the Gospel and what is necessery for forgivness and salvation.
Many people mistakenly think that “belief” is all that is neessery, “I believe in God, i believe in Jesus...” And they mistakenly thi k tht just beceuse they believe in God, believe in Jesus that they are saved.
This is not true.
James famously deninked this false idea, quite sarcatically.
19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
Demons beleive it all. Demons believe everythink we believe. This entire sermon series that i am preaching is known and belewieved by Demons. Yet obviously Demons are NOT saved.
Belief, though important, is not what salvation hinges upon. It is not “activates” God’s grace.
For a person to be saved, Jesus Himslrf made it clear what is required:
The very first Preaching word Jesus ever said, the first ministerial Word to come out of His mouth was:
17 From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
Jesus went on to proclaim the absolute nescesity of repentance:
3 “I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.
This message was carried on by Peter:
38 Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
19 “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;
The bottom line is simple:
You can beleiev, like the demons do, every Word in Scripture, but unless you repent you will NOT be forgiven.
So given its eternal importance, let us make sure today we understand what repentace is and ask wheather or not we have truly repented.
What is Repentance?
What is Repentance?
There is probibly not a pastor alive who has not preached on repentance, modern progressive churches aside, they do not believe in repentace, only feel good messages, and that is a problem because repentace is most definitly NOT feel good.
In fact repentance is all about FEEL BAD.
But you have heard, and i have also said that repentance is when a person turns around 180 from sin, turns towards God and follows Him.
now that is 100% true and correct. That is exacally what repentace is. However it is a rather dry explanation.
Its like describing the ingrediants of a cake, instead of experience eating a cake.
Todfay we are not going to read the ingrediants of a cake, we are going to try and eat the cake.
True Repentance
True Repentance
Lets begin by looking at God’s description of repentance.
12 “Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “Return to Me with all your heart, And with fasting, weeping and mourning;
13 And rend your heart and not your garments.” Now return to the Lord your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, Slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness And relenting of evil.
In the Old Testament, people commonly expressed great grief and anguish by tearing their cloaks. It was a kind of sign of repentance.
But more than caring about the proper “signs” of being upset about their sin, God cared that they actually grieved over them in their hearts — grieved to the point of weeping and mourning.
In David;s famous Pslam of repentance he says:
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.
True repentance is not a mechanical 180 turn. It is a broken spirit and a broken heart!
We’re not talking about the shame and condemnation the enemy wants to heap on us, but a godly grief.
We can be in the habit of going through the motions when it comes to repenting, but these passages show that the most important thing is the condition of our heart.
Does your repentance look like a heart that has been rent like a garment, broken and contrite as it beats before God?
This attitude is missing from most repentance, and it’s the very thing God is trying to teach us!
Positivity does not produce repentace, only sorrow does.
10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
In other words, to truly repent you need a broken heart. So the big question becomes:
How do i get a broken heart?
How do i get a broken heart?
That is a strange questiuon to ask. We dont want a broken heart, we want a mended heart.
Well God can only mend a broken heart. So we need to first ask God for a broken heart.
Repentance from a broken heart is granted to us by God.
25 with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth,
And true, genuine repentance yealds evident fruit.
8 “Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance;
Let me explain: If you sin, repent, and then do that same sin again, repent, and do it again and this goes on - You have NOT truly repented.
And many Christians struggle with sin like this.
They know its wrong, they feel terrible for doing it, they promise God and themsleves that they will never do it again, they reform for a few days or weeks, then they fall into again and repeat the cycle.
this may sound like you.
So what is the problem? Why cant you be rid of this sin like thge bible tells us to?
1 Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
The biggest hinderance we have to true repentance is not pride or love of sin, its a falty understanding of the relational aspet of sin.
Lets explain:
Many christians see sin as a performance issue.
They know that God wants them to live a holy life and they see sin as their failure to perform.
Illastration:
Illastration:
Imagine as a salsman you have to make 20 sales a month. At the end of the month you only made 15.
You did not perform very well and as a result you feel bad. You think maybe you could have tried harder, made a few more calls.. whatever.
You feel bad, so you make up your mind to try harder and perform better next month.
Thatr is how many christans view sin and theur failure to meet God’s requiremnts to live holy. As a performance issue.
Now while this “poor performance” does create feelings of sorrow, it is not what true repentance is all about.
Let me give you a proper illastration:
Let me give you a proper illastration:
A husband and wife. As a spouce you have a spiritual, moral and matital duty to be faithful. That is yoour goal.
Now imagine that you failed in that Goal and you were unfaithful. You cheated on your wife or husband, trampelingunderfoot the sacred vows of marriage and bonds of trust.
You would feel terrible (*or you should). This is not a performance issue like the salesman, this is a relational issue of love and trust and respect.
The sorrow you feel for cheating on your spouce because of lust should be infinitly greater than the sorrow you feel from not performing well bercause of laziness.
Well, when you sin, you NOT underperforming, you ARE being spiritualy UNFGAITHFUL to God.
Your sin does not reveal laziness, it reveals a dispising of God.
9 ‘Why have you despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon.
When we sin, we play the part of an adulterer who looks for satisfaction in another, rather than the only One who can satisfy.
That is why David said to the Lord, “against you, you only, have I sinned”
4 Against You, You only, I have sinned And done what is evil in Your sight, So that You are justified when You speak And blameless when You judge.
David rightly saw his failures in terms of relationship, and as a result his heart was grieved as it can be only when we have sinned against the One we love so much.
Your heart is not broken by your sin for the same reason the salvesman heart is not broken. He is dissapointed yes, but not broken.
You have a problem laying aside sin because you are dissapointed inyourself, which produces a short reform but not a lasting on.
Conclusion
Conclusion
You would never cheat on your spouse and if you did you would mearly be dissapointed, you would be broken.