God's Kindness Produces Good Things

This evening is Ash Wednesday, which officially marks the beginning of the season of Lent.

Lent is the six-week period before Easter, which is marked by a heightened sense of prayer, devotion and personal sacrifice, as we prepare to observe our Lord’s sacrifice on the cross and resurrection from the dead.

Candace Lucey writes:

“Lent is meant to be a time of repentance. These 40 days are set aside to praise and worship the Lord, to read the Bible more and to pray more often. Christians who observe Lent correctly anticipate deeper intimacy with the Lord.”

The application of ashes by Catholic and Lutheran churches is that sign of repentance in the Old Testament, as in “sackcloth and ashes,” which symbolizes humility and self-abasement.

The opposite of repentance is pride. And there is a lot of pride in our culture today. People are proud of many things that they should not be proud of. And it seems that with pride comes an absence of self-awareness.

It is the presence of pride that invites God’s judgement. Remember it was pride that led to Lucifer’s ouster from heaven (Isaiah 14:12-17). In our Scripture for tonight, Paul identifies those things that signal God's displeasure and that He will one day judge.

They are the following:

A self-seeking spirit (someone who is consumed with what is best for him, at the sacrifice of others).

One who does not obey the truth (someone who is indifferent to God’s loving instructions and the generous gift of His Son.)

One who obeys unrighteousnesses in their flesh and carnality.

The subject of God’s wrath is an odd one for Valentine’s Day and maybe for a communion service. Nevertheless, there are some observations from Romans that are important to know.

For one, His wrath is revealed against those who suppress the truth. Romans 1:18-19

Romans 1:18

18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

All of creation testifies to the existence of God. Romans 1:19-20

Romans 1:19–20 ESV

19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

Man has a propensity to seek idols for himself, either replicas of him or what he adores. Romans 1:21-25

Romans 1:21–25 ESV

21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

And so part of God's judgment in such cases is to hand people over to what they worship. And so God judges individuals by removing Himself and giving them over to a depraved mind and heart. (“Giving them up” is mentioned three times in this brief passage). Romans 1:26-32

Romans 1:26–32 ESV

26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

All of this is to say, that we must not condemn others, but to witness to them and pray for them. Why, because it is God’s kindness that leads to repentance. Romans 2:4

Romans 2:4 ESV

4 Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

So if God's kindness is designed to lead us to repentance, let us talk about its importance in our lives.

What is repentance? The Greek means “to turn; a change of heart and mind.” Repentance is also one of three acts instrumental in a person becoming a Christian. One is confession of sin. This is when we ask God to forgive us for the sins we’ve committed. Confession is to agree with the Holy Spirit. To ask for God’s forgiveness, made available to us because of Jesus’ shed blood on the cross. We can have our slate wiped clean; we can go from being morally and spiritually filthy in God’s eyes, to being clean; white as snow as Isaiah 1:18 states. We have offended God with our actions and need to be cleansed (1 John 1:9).

Repentance is related to faith and confession, but not the same thing. Repentance is an action word. It implies a redirection. To go from our way of living to God’s way of living. It is not solely an act of the will, but is a gift of God’s grace as the Holy Spirit works in a person’s life. It is the “proof that is in the pudding,” that one is a Christian. Repentance is the opposite of easy believism.

God delights in repentance. Jesus says twice in Luke 15:7: “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” God is blessed when we go from our way of living to His way of living. As a loving Father, God is concerned with the direction our lives are taking. He sees those destructive habits. He observes the way that we ignore His loving instruction. It angers, but also saddens Him when we don’t repent.

Some of you have had children who have taken the wrong direction in life. You weep and plead for God to change their lives. It oftentimes takes a person to hit rock bottom before there is a redirection. I visited with a woman last summer whose daughter was living on the streets of a city in the south, living from fix to fix. It took her to hit bottom before she got clean.

It doesn’t have to be that way. God calls. Do we respond? If we do not, it is rebellion and the consequences are oftentimes harsh.

From the Old Testament, repentance was always God’s expectation on His people. God is a god of second chances, providing that we amend our lives to His way and not just a better way in our own minds. We are blessed when we repent. Take for instance, God’s words to Solomon as the latter was dedicating the temple. The Lord spoke to him in 2 Chronicles 7:14:

"...if My people who are called by My name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land."

If we repent, God will accept and restore. Isn’t that wonderful?

Repentance and faith are essential to a relationship with God.

The timing of repentance is crucial. There are two different types of times that we repent. First, at the time that we come to faith in Jesus Christ.

As we think about our lives and then our death, we must recognize that it is not through being a good person or adhering to a moral code that someone is accepted by God. Human nature always grades on a curve, yet God’s standards are irrefutable and perfect. We can never be good enough. Only Jesus was good enough. It is through Him that the gifts of repentance and faith come (Acts 11:18). Jesus preached at the outset of His ministry in Mark 1:14: “The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"

We spend the rest of our lives repenting and redirecting back to God.

There is no time like the present. One is that the present time, today, this very moment is a gift from God. It is an opportunity for us to repent and get right with Him. To illustrate this concept, Jesus tells a parable found in Luke 13:6:

“Then he told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. 7 So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?' “'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. 9 If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.'"

The parable of the barren fig tree teaches of the mercy of God associated with repentance. Time is the resource that is often squandered. Time is never to be taken for granted. God is patient, but you do not know how long you have! Each day is to be cherished and you and I must repent of our sins often! The point of the parable is that now is a time of mercy and opportunity. Paul states in Romans 2:4:

“Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?”

After one dies, there is no second chance. Hebrews 9:27 reminds us: “It is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment.” But when we repent,

we experience a cleansing (1 John 1:9),

a renewal and refreshment (Acts 3:19–20 “Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, 20 that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord… .”

and the knowledge that we are a son or daughter of God (1 John 3:1).

Repentance is a way that we can return to a place of usefulness to the Lord.

CONCLUSION

The good news is that God allows U turns. In the laboratory of the great chemist Faraday a workman accidentally dropped a very valuable silver cup into a tank of strong acid. He and the other workmen stood over the tank mournfully watching the quick disintegration of the cup. But Faraday, seeing what had happened, poured a chemical into the tank. The silver was precipitated to the bottom and recovered, and the shapeless mass was sent off again to the silversmith to be refashioned into its former likeness.

So the grace of repentance and of faith can recover what has been lost and restore it to its former usefulness and beauty.

In just a moment, we will have a time of silence. This is a time to meditate on the Scriptures and draw near to God.

After which, I will lead us in the unison prayer.

Then we’ll have the words for the bread and the cup, then you’ll be dismissed by rows to come up, place a nail in the cross, receive the elements, and return to your seats from the outside aisles.