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WE BELIEVE THAT REPENTANCE AND FAITH ARE SACRED DUTIES, AND ALSO INSEPARABLE
GRACES, WROUGHT IN OUR SOULS BY THE REGENERATING SPIRIT OF GOD; WHEREBY BEING
DEEPLY CONVICTED OF OUR GUILT, DANGER, AND HELPLESSNESS, AND OF THE WAY OF
SALVATION BY CHRIST, WE TURN TO GOD WITH UNFEIGNED CONTRITION, CONFESSION, AND
SUPPLICATION FOR MERCY; AT THE SAME TIME HEARTILY RECEIVING THE LORD JESUS
CHRIST AS OUR PROPHET, PRIEST, AND KING, AND RELYING ON HIM ALONE AS THE ONLY
AND ALL SUFFICIENT SAVIOR.
I. "WE BELIEVE THAT REPENTANCE AND FAITH ARE SACRED DUTIES, AND
ALSO INSEPARABLE GRACES, WROUGHT IN OUR SOULS BY THE REGENERATING SPIRIT OF
GOD."
A. What is repentance? (Preliminary remarks)
1. Today there are very few sermons on repentance. There are many sermons
on salvation, but not many on repentance. I can’t remember when I have
heard a sermon on repentance. I don’t believe I have ever preached a
sermon on repentance. I may have, but it’s been a long time ago. This is
to my shame.
2. Actually, whenever we preach about believing in Christ as your
personal Saviour, repentance is always implied. Whenever we preach about
having faith in Christ so that you can be saved, repentance is implied. You
can’t separate faith for salvation and repentance. When a person has true
heart repentance, he automatically will have saving faith. Also when you
truly believe with your heart the Lord Jesus, you will have repentance.
3. Repentance is as old as the gospel, and actually a vital part of the
gospel. Today, the gospel - the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ -
is preached and the doctrine of repentance is left out. The result is not
salvation.
4. There are many people who "believe" in Jesus, but continue
in their lost condition. The reason? They have never repented of being lost,
they have never really repented of what they are; therefore, their
"believe" is not a true belief. It is a belief of the facts of the
gospel, but not a belief in a personal Saviour that has personally forgiven
them of what they are. There is a difference between repenting because of
what you are and repenting because of what you have done. There is a
difference between repenting because of what you have done, and repenting
because you got caught.
B. What you have is: "Easy Believism."
1. Many people "believing" the gospel, but not turning from
their wicked condition, or having another mind toward their sins.
2. Many people turning from their sins, without turning from their
sinfulness. (In other words, people, by the strength of the flesh, try to
stop doing things that are considered bad, but they never recognize that
they themselves are wicked, notwithstanding the things they do are bad.)
There is a lot of "moral, external, fleshly, rehabilitation,"
(which is called "salvation") without an "internal,
spiritual, reconciliation" of the sinner to a most holy God. Much of
modern religion is a "pick yourself up by your bootstraps"
religion, which will eventually land many professional religionists in an
everlasting hell.
3. Many churches are filled with lost people trying to live right. They
don’t have the will or ability to study their Bibles, or really get down
to business in praying to God or really getting into the worship services
and worshipping God. They have a lot of trouble trying to apply the truths
of the Word of God to their own lives - they’ve never really been saved,
just convinced.
4. The end result is religion that does not mean anything to anybody. It
is a "Sunday religion, which is forgotten on Monday". There is no
real application of spiritual truths in the lives of the professed
believers. Those that are truly saved become discouraged because the lives
of those "saved" people around them. Churches and families are
constantly in confusion. In short, you have what you now see around you.
C. Repentance has always been preached as an integral part of believing.
Repentance is caused by a person seeing (in the spirit) that the judgment of
God is upon them.
D. Definition of repentance:
1. Bible - to have another mind. This involves action, which comes from
the spirit of man, initiated by the Holy Spirit of God. Understand: the
Bible states that repentance is a change of mind. A person who doesn’t
have a change of mind about himself, or his actions hasn’t repented, and
is therefore lost. A person who continues in sin after stating he is saved,
is still lost, regardless of what he says. Repentance involves a change of
mind, which produces a change of will, which produces a change of living.
Repentance that does not change the mind, does not change the will, will not
produce a change of living, and is not true repentance.
2. Dictionary - To amend or resolve to amend one’s life as a result of
contrition (broken down with sorrow for sins.)
E. God repents.
1. When God is said to repent, it does not mean God is sorry for any of
his actions. When God repents, he has another mind, or he will act
differently "in the future" toward men.
2. Numbers 23:19, "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither
the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it?
or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?"
3. I Samuel 15:29, "And also the Strength of Israel will not lie
nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent."
4. The Problem.
a. The above scriptures say God does not repent; yet the scriptures
listed below in the section entitled "Scriptures That Seem To Show
God Repenting" reveal that God does repent.
b. So the question is, "Does God repent or not?"
5. The Solution.
6. The solution to this dilemma is easily found when the word
"repent" is defined. Many people define repentance as sorrow for
sin. Thus they believe God has sorrow for some of His actions. This is not
the Bible definition. The Bible definition of repentance is "to change
ones mind toward a certain action." For the human being, there is
sorrow for sin, which accompanies repentance, but for God there is no sorrow
for His sin, because He cannot sin. When God repents, He has sorrow for the
sins of mankind and changes the way He deals with them.
7. Scriptures That Seem To Show God Repenting
a. Genesis 6:6, "And it repented the LORD that he had made man
on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart."
1) This scripture does not mean that God is sorry that he created man;
but that he is changing the way he deals with man.
2) God had been dealing with man without physically punishing him for
wrong.
3) Remember God did not kill Cain when he killed his brother Abel.
Lamech, Gen. 4:23, was not punished when he killed a young man.
4) In Genesis 6, God begins to punish those people that sin against
Him.
5) This punishment is seen when God sent a worldwide flood on the
earth. Today, the earth is waiting for another destruction by fire, II
Peter 3:7.
b. I Samuel 15:35, "...and the LORD repented that he had made
Saul king over Israel."
1) This scripture does not mean God was sorry He made Saul king, but
that He is changing His way of establishing kings over Israel.
2) There are two things to consider here.
a) Saul is a physical giant, a king after the heart of the people of
Israel. The next king, David, is a spiritual giant, a man after God’s
own heart.
b) Deut. 23:2, "A bastard shall not enter into the
congregation of the LORD; even to his tenth generation shall he not
enter into the congregation of the LORD."
3) According to Ruth 4:18-22, and Matthew 1:3-6, David is the tenth
generation from Pharez, the illegitimate son of Judah and his
daughter-in-law, Tamar.
4) When Saul was anointed king, there were only nine generations in the
family of Pharez, but when David was born, the ten-generation requirement
is fulfilled and the time is right for God to set David on the throne of
Israel.
F. It is possible to have sorrow for a particular sin without having
another mind toward that sin. True repentance does involve sorrow, but there
is a difference between Godly sorrow that there is sin, and sorrow because a
person got caught in sin. Proper repentance: Compare Matt. 27:3-5 and Luke
22:62.
Judas – Matt. 27:3-5 - "Then Judas, which had betrayed him,
when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the
thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, 4 Saying, I have
sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is
that to us? see thou to that. 5 And he cast down the pieces of silver in the
temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself."
Judas repenting but found no relief.
He continued to regret his sin.
Judas repents of a sin, but not of being a sinner.
Judas didn’t get an "relief" when he confessed his one sin.
This is shown by the fact that he went out and hung himself.
His guilt drove Him to suicide.
As long as people repent of particular sins, they don’t repent of being
a sinner in the first place.
Peter – Luke 22:61, 62 - "And the Lord turned, and looked upon
Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him,
Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. 62 And Peter went out, and
wept bitterly."
When Jesus looked at Peter, he repented.
Jesus did not "look" at Judas, therefore Judas did not
correctly repent.
Peter repented and wept bitterly. (To think differently.) He repented not
only for what he was, but what he had done.
Peter got relief when he realized he had denied Christ because of what he
was.
He received forgiveness from Christ, and from then on he was a different
person.
He preached on the Day of Pentecost and 3,000 were saved, baptized and
added to the church Jesus organized during His personal ministry, which kind
of church still remains on the earth until this day.
G. Mark 1:15 – "And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the
kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel."
1. Matthew 3:2 – John the Baptist’s message as he preached was
"repent and believe."
2. Matthew 4:17 – The first recorded message of Jesus is that sinners
must "repent and believe."
3. Acts 2:38 – The message on the day of Pentecost was "repent and
believe."
4. Repentance and faith go together, you cannot have one without the
other.
5. One who believes has repented and one who repents will believe.
H. Acts 11:18 – "When they heard these things, they held their
peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted
repentance unto life."
1. Repentance is not something that a man can work up or out within
himself.
2. Repentance is not a work of man, but something man feels in his soul.
3. The Holy Spirit is the One who brings about true repentance within a
man.
I. What is Faith?
1. Hebrews 11:1 – "Now faith is the substance of things hoped
for, the evidence of things not seen."
2. Faith is believing what Jesus said, and trusting what he said
regardless of circumstances.
3. Concerning salvation, having faith means we believe God’s word when
it condemns us of being a sinner, and of our sins.
4. We make no excuses, but fully believe we are under eternal
condemnation.
5. We understand we cannot help ourselves, but need help from outside
ourselves – and Jesus Christ is the only one that can bridge the gap
between us and an most holy, Almighty God.
J. When I was ordained, one question asked was: "Repentance and faith
or inseparable graces and we know they both happen at the same time, but if we
could separate them, – which comes first?"
1. I had never thought about that before, but I prayed that God would
give me the right answer.
2. I answered that it seemed to me that repentance is because of sin.
3. It seemed to me that repentance must come first because it would not
be right to repent of faith.
K. Other scriptures that teach this to be true are:
1. Ephesians 2:8 – Faith and grace are given to us by God; we do not
earn these, or produce these without Him.
2. I John 5:1 – Believers are born of God, they not born of or by
themselves.
II. "WHEREBY BEING DEEPLY CONVICTED OF OUR GUILT, DANGER, AND
HELPLESSNESS, AND OF THE WAY OF SALVATION BY CHRIST."
A. John 16:8 – "And when he is come, he will reprove the world of
sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:"
1. Jesus gives all the credit for the convicting of sins to the Holy
Spirit.
2. The Holy Spirit brings light to the soul of the sinner so they can see
things as they really are.
3. Man can only do what he knows to do and that is to sin. He will never
repent of his sins until the Holy Spirit convicts him that he is the sinner.
B. Acts 2:37-38 – "Now when they heard this, they were pricked in
their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and
brethren, what shall we do? 38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be
baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of
sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."
1. It is the Spirit of God wielding the Sword of God, which is the Word
of God at work here in these verses that brings these folks to cry out,
"What must we do?"
2. Baptism here is not in order to be saved, but because of their being
saved they were to identify with Christ and that is done by baptism.
C. Other scriptures that teach this to be true are:
1. Acts 16:30-31 – The Ephesian jailer was baptized; after he repented
and believed.
2. The repentance of the jailer was evident when he trembled and fell
down before Paul and Silas.
3. His belief was evident as he took Paul and Silas out of the jail and
washed their stripes that very night – even as his life was in danger.
III. "WE TURN TO GOD WITH UNFEIGNED CONTRITION, CONFESSION, AND
SUPPLICATION FOR MERCY."
A. Luke 18:13: the Pharisee and the publican.
1. Here is an example of true repentance, and complete haughtiness.
2. Taking your place as a guilty, but sorrowful sinner.
B. Other scriptures that teach this to be true are: (The following
scriptures are not necessarily speaking about repentance unto salvation, but
repentance in general.)
1. Luke 15:18-21 - The prodigal son decides to return home. This parable
is not about a sinner coming to salvation, but is coupled with the other
three parables of Luke 15 to teach Israel they should be happy when sinners
come to Christ and not upset about it.
2. James 4:7-10 - Submit to God, resist the devil, cleanse your hearts,
and humble yourself.
3. II Cor. 7:11 - The Corinthian church repented because of Paul’s
first letter.
4. Romans 10:12-13 - Jew and Gentile can turn to God for salvation.
5. Psalms 51 - David repents over the sin with Bathsheba.
IV. "AT THE SAME TIME HEARTILY RECEIVING THE LORD JESUS CHRIST AS
OUR PROPHET, PRIEST, AND KING, AND RELYING ON HIM ALONE AS THE ONLY AND ALL
SUFFICIENT SAVIOR."
A. Romans 10:9-11.
1. Jesus is received as everything the lost sinner needs when they are
saved.
2. Salvation is received by faith and confessed with the mouth.
B. When a person is saved they do not mind telling it, in fact they will
love to tell it.
C. Other scriptures that teach this to be true are:
1. Acts 3:22-23 - Jesus is that prophet spoken of by Moses in Deut.
18:18,19.
2. Heb. 9:24-28 - Christ was once offered for the sins of many.
3. II Tim. 1:12 - Paul is not ashamed, but knows that Jesus is able to
keep him safe in the Day of Judgment.
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