A Journey to Holiness - Repentance

Holiness Requires Repentance

This morning we come to the last sermon in the series of a Journey to Holiness, as we been looking at this series since August 13th with Understanding Holiness.

God has called us to be Holy as He is Holy, and really one of the first things we must do to be Holy is repent.

With that the title of this mornings message is Holiness Requires Repentance.

If we are going to be Holy as God and the Lord Jesus Christ is Holy then we must repent of our sins.

Therefore, Holiness requires repentance.

As a matter of a fact the message that Jesus preach was a simple but right out front message.

After fasting for forty days and forty nights, the tempter which is the devil began to tempt Jesus with three temptations, Jesus then after not falling into those temptations came into Galilee, and then settled in the land of Capernaum began to preach.

Matthew 4:17 NASB95

17 From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Pray

I. What is Repentance?

Jesus’ message was to “repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

We must understand what repent means or repentance is before we can understand or even have a journey to Holiness or a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Repentance is then the practice of asking another person for forgiveness and ceasing some sinful behavior.

It is a change of attitude and action from sin toward obedience to God.

As human beings we are born into this word with a nature of sinfulness.

Romans 5:12 NASB95

12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned—

In the Hebrew and Greek repentance holds slightly different meanings.

The Hebrew word for repent and repentance is best translated into English as return, which basically means to turn around and go in the opposite direction.

In the theological context it is to turn from a road characterized by rebellion toward God and to a road characterized by obedience toward God.

The Greek word is derived from a verb meaning to radically change one’s thinking.

Repentance refers to an event in which an individual attains a divinely provided new understanding of their behavior and feels compelled to change that behavior and begin a new relationship with God.

Therefore, when Jesus called the people to repent for the kingdom of heaven was at hand, He was calling them to leave their lives of sin, and live a life of obedience to God the Father and Holiness.

We are called to repentance also, we are called to leave our past life, our old ways, our old life for a life surrendered to God and His will.

II. Repent for the Forgiveness of Sin.

The day of Pentecost Peter and the disciples stand up in the streets of Jerusalem and begin to preach to the crowds.

After each person hears the message in their own native tongue, because the Holy Spirit empower the disciples to be able to translate it into the different languages so that the people could best understand what was being preached.

The people then ask, Brethren, what shall we do?

You have preached this great message, and in Acts 2:37, it says the people were pierced or pricked to the heart, the people want to know what to do with this.

Like do not just leave us hanging.

Peter responds to the crowd in Acts 2:38

Acts 2:38–39 NASB95

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. 39 “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”

Right here Peter explains salvation to the people in the streets of Jerusalem, he did not say, repeat this prayer after me, but said, Repent - which as we have already have established is asking someone to forgive you and turning away and getting rid of the old ways.

Once the person ask for forgiveness and rids themselves of that old way, they are to be baptized, and then be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit seals our salvation until the day we meet Jesus face to face.

Listen to me I am not saying that Prayer is not apart of it, but repentance has to be evident of it, and if there is not repentance there is no salvation.

If you did not turn from your sins, if you did not turn from your old ways, your old self, then you did not mean what you prayed in your heart.

III. Evidence of Repentance

When we have true repentance and true salvation in our life then there will be evidence of it in our life.

We will truly turn from our old ways of life, I am not saying we are going to be perfect and not make mistakes, or fall at times, but there will be evidence.

Romans 12:1–2 NASB95

1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

If we are serious about our repentance, then this should be our daily motivation, our daily goal.

To present our bodies as living and holy sacrifices, acceptable to God.

That does not mean we wake up and go out front and nail our selves to a cross in the front yard for people to see.

It means going about being used by God in any and every way that God desires to use us, no matter what is that cost.

We may have to give things up to be use by God, we may to leave home to serve God, we may have to take a pay cut to serve God, we may have to be persecuted to serve God.

But we must remember what Jesus did for us, so that we may have salvation, He freely was arrest even though He was innocent, He was freely mocked and spit on, and smacked around, He had a crown a thorns pushed down on His head with spikes sticking into His head, then He was beaten nearly to death, we are not told the number of times but we assume 39 lashes because at 40 people would die, He then was made to carry His cross to the hill called Golgotha, where He was nailed to the cross and crucified for our sins, as an innocent man.

2 Corinthians 5:21 NASB95

21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

God allowed Jesus to take on our sins so that we did not have to take the punishment or consequences of sins.

John 3:16 NASB95

16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

God loves you so much that He has made a way for you to escape the punishment of sin, that punishment of sin is Hell’s damnation, but God sent His only begotten Son to take on your sins, and my sins, so that we can be forgiven of our sins, and have salvation.

But we must repent of those sins, we must ask Jesus to forgive us and then turn from those sins and strive to live a life that is different from our old life, a life of newness.

Romans 6:4 NASB95

4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

Maybe you are here this morning, and you need to truly repent of your sins, you need to ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins, and you need to turn from your old ways, and turn to Jesus for a fresh start, a new way of life.

Today is the day of salvation.

Today Jesus is waiting for you to come to Him.

We are going to have communion shortly, and there is no better time to come and get things right with God then today.

Come repent, come get your life on track, do not worry about any body here, as Scripture tells us the angels in Heaven will rejoice because of your decision and I can promise you I will too.

Luke 15:10 NASB95

10 “In the same way, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”

It is about being right with God, and today is the first day of the rest of your life, so come and make things right today, Jesus is waiting with arms wide open.