Preparing the way to Relationship: Genuine Repentance
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Opening Scripture: Luke 3:4-10
4 As it is written in the book of the words of Esaias the prophet, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
5 Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth;
6 And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.
7 Then said he to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 Bring forth therefore fruits worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, That God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.
9 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: every tree therefore which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
10 And the people asked him, saying, What shall we do then?
John the Baptist was put on a mission to prepare the way of the coming Messiah. At the foundation of his message, would be the same message that is seen through out Israel’s history. That message being repentance.
The message of John was abundantly clear to all who were around. The problem was that those who were coming to him were Jews who were not ready to turn back to God but they were coming to John for safety of the coming judgment of God.
In Verse 7 John begins his sermon with “O generation of vipers”. This is definitely not the type of introduction that is taught in Bible college. Jokes aside, John was making clear that he was baptizing those who were seeking genuine repentance. Not just a dump in the water to feel better. There was more to it then just that.
He used that wording specifically to show that people were like vipers who were escaping before an approaching brush fire. John sensed this and it led to his sermon here in Luke 3. This led into verse 9 where he talks about the coming judgment of those who do not bear good fruit. I believe John makes clear in his sermon that true repentance is followed by action.
With this, I believe that I’ve been tasked to talk about Preparing the way to relationship: Genuine Repentance.
Pray
There is a misunderstanding within the church and it’s culture of what repentance truly is. Some get confused that it merely is just saying sorry to God and moving on with your life. That is far from what is seen within the many examples of repentance that is given in the Bible.
According to the Lexham Theological Wordbook, Repentance can be defined as, “...an act of acknowledging past wrongdoing, expressing regret or contrition, and committing to right behavior and obedience to God. It is a transformative process that involves turning away from sin or transgression and turning back to God.”
While asking for forgiveness is a part of the process of repentance that can’t be all it is. Repentance includes changing your life and turning back to God. Through your sinful disobedience you push yourself away from a Holy God. Repentance is so integral to restoring relationship that was destroyed through our disobedience.
In the New Birth, Dr. Bernard states, “Repentance removes the barrier that sin erected and allows man and God to begin a personal relationship.”
This cannot be achieved if all we were to do is apologize to God and make a recommitment at one moment and then soon after we continue in the sin that you previously apologized for. True repentance brings about change in the believer.
When you repent there are three aspects that should come out of your repentance.
First, your repentance should bring about Intellectual change. This involves a change of your views toward the sin your are repenting of.
Second, your repentance should bring emotional change. This specifically involves a change of feelings toward the sin you are turning away.
Finally, the last aspect of repentance is volitional change which means you are voluntarily changing your purpose.
This is a change or a cleansing of your mind, your emotions, and your will. This cannot come to pass through a simple sorry about this takes a process of repentance to bring about change.
12 When ye come to appear before me, Who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?
13 Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; The new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; It is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
14 Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: They are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: Yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: Your hands are full of blood.
16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil;
17 Learn to do well; Seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, Judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.
18 Come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
19 If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land:
20 But if ye refuse and rebel, Ye shall be devoured with the sword: For the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.
Here God is speaking as clear as possible to the unrepentant Jews who are continuing in their sacrifices and ritual that were given by God but there heart is far from the Lord. It is not enough to have the appearance of doing the right thing. All throughout the Bible, God makes clear that he seeks obedience over vain sacrifices.
God forbid that we would show up to church every Sunday and give of our time and money as a sacrifice to the Lord but for the rest of week you live however you want. You live with the appearance of holiness but you don’t realize that holiness starts in the heart and works its way out. It is not enough to dress holy in the house of God on Sunday but have a heart that is unrepentant and unsubmitted. God is seeking true repentance which is followed by obedience, not just the appearance of it.
I am thankful for the promises within the verses we had just read that show God’s grace. Even though his people are far from Him he still offers that space of repentance. I am thankful for a God who offers redemption and restoration through repentance. When we failed and sinned against Him, God gives us a path to turn back to Him. I’m thankful the terms are not fair because we all deserve the consequence of our sin. We serve a God who seeks to wash us clean of every sin and every guilt we have in our life but we must be proactive in our commitment to true repentance.
Throughout Israel’s history the foundation for Him to be able to do anything within His people was that they must be repentant. We cannot follow God if we are facing the other direction. We cannot hear what God is asking of us if we are turned the other way. Repentance puts our feet back on the right path so we can follow the Lord.
There are a few elements that lead to true repentance. Through these few steps we can find our path to restoring relationship with the Lord.
Elements of True Repentance:
The first step to true repentance is that you need to first recognize your sin and your ability to sin. This is a step that many struggle with because they have seared their conscience through indulging in the sin that they are guilty of. Though we are of sinful nature, God did not create us to indulge in sin.
Sin is destructive, and it’s effects are evident in humanity. His word tells us that His law is written upon everyone’s heart. All of humanity contains a moral compass and every time one sins they have to sear their conscience more and more. They see the consequence of their sin but they still indulge. The first step you have to make is to humble yourself and come to the realization that you are a sinner.
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
There is not one person who is exempt from this. The Bible makes it clear that ALL have sinned.
30 But their scribes and Pharisees murmured against his disciples, saying, Why do ye eat and drink with publicans and sinners?
31 And Jesus answering said unto them, They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick.
32 I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Here Jesus speaking to the Pharisees and the scribes, knew the condition of their heart, spoke these verses. The problem with these two groups is that they had reached the point that they had convinced themselves that they didn’t need God but instead they depended upon their own laws and rituals.
Jesus makes clear here that you must first acknowledge that you are a sinner ,to bring about repentance. The pharisees and scribes were not the exception, they were sinners as much as those that Jesus was around. The difference was that the people that Jesus was eating with acknowledged their sinful state and that’s why they are following Jesus in the first place.
God help us if we ever get to the point in our relationship with you where we think we’ve graduated true repentance. Help us to always seek you and humble ourselves before you as we seek forgiveness for our sins.
The Second Element of repentance is confession of sin.
13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: But whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
When we confess our sins we are not telling God anything that He doesn’t already know. God requires of us honest confession to ourself and God.
We confess to God because he is the only one who has the power and authority to forgive us of our sins. Jesus is the mediator between God and man. There is no other man who can step in the gap for you and God. Throughout the book of Psalms, we see evidence of countless times where man cries out in confession to God of their sinfulness.
The Third element of repentance is contrition of your sin.
This means you are experiencing godly sorrow and mourning of your sin.
10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
This is not too be confused with condemnation. When you have godly sorrow it will lead you right back to God while condemnation will make you feel that God could never love you or forgive you. The enemy would love to trap you in condemnation.
This time of contrition is good for the believer because it is through this mourning for your sin that brings about change in your life. There are many who are sorry for their but they refuse to turn from it. Most of those type of people are more sorry that they were caught within their sin than repentant. We must allow the time of godly sorrow to point us back to God and motivate us to change and not look back to the sin we previously indulged in.
The final element is forsaking your sin.
20 But shewed first unto them of Damascus, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the coasts of Judaea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, and do works meet for repentance.
Of course we are not forgiven because of our works but instead our works demonstrate that our repentance was genuine. This looks like the next time the opportunity comes where you are stuck in the temptation to sin, you decide to remember your commitment to God and respond in obedience. When we make a altar of repentance,God knows if our commitment is true in that instant or whether it is just vain promises.
God is calling us to live a life of repentance that is proven through the change that is displayed through our works.
The biggest issue most christians face is that they will show up on Sunday ready to repent for all of the willful disobedience they indulged during the week. Then they will have an emotional altar experience and leave the same way. It would be sad to see how many people in our churches today who are living in this constant cycle.
We see this behavior all over the Bible. Israel obeys the voice of the Lord which leads to deliverance, after a while of enjoying the blessings of their obedience they begin to trust in their own understanding which leads them to disobedience which in turn leads them to a place of crying out to God for their deliverance because of the situation they got themselves in.
1 Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,
Here the Apostle Paul is talking to the original audience of Jewish converts about how they must mature on past the elementary things of the faith.
Paul here is speaking on how we must not remain at the principle things of the faith but it is God’s will that we continue to be perfected by Him. In this sense, there are many who come thinking because they repented from their sins, were baptized in the name of Jesus, and were filled with the gift of the holy ghost, that that is enough. People who live this way still live in the very sin that they indulged in before. When you live this way you are diminishing the work of God in your life. God desires you to continue to grow in the knowledge of Him till the day you die.
This is the case with repentance too, as you grow in your walk with God you shouldn’t have to repent over the same things that you did before. God seeks to continue the process of perfection in you, till you are with Him for eternity. That’s why we emphasize sanctification, holiness, and righteousness here in our teaching. God is preparing you for heaven and it takes a process of true repentance which leads to growing in spiritual maturity.
I love how this writer put it, “the Christian life is one of continual striving, in faith, to “put to death the deeds of the body” in order to “live by the Spirit” ). Justin Stratis, “Repentance,” in Lexham Survey of Theology, ed. Mark Ward et al. (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018)
Repentance is something that we will do for the rest of the life. When we are saved, we do not lose our sinful nature but through the Holy Ghost we grow in the power to overcome what we used to struggle with.
45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.
46 And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?
47 Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:
I was really challenged by these verses when I first read them because there are times in my life where I have cried Lord, Lord then moments later I’ll walk in disobedience. This scripture speaks to the fact that it is an expectation that we must be not only a hearer of his word but we are to be a doer of it. I thank God for the opportunity that we have before us to live a life of repentance. We are going to make mistakes because we are not perfect but God has given us a means to turn from our sin and to begin to obey His word.
Conclusion
19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;
20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
I am so thankful for a God who through His grace offered us the opportunity to repent. Repentance is not a sure thing that had to be offered to us. God loves you and He wants relationship with you so much that He paved the way Himself. No matter what mistake you’ve made, you are no too far from His grace. All He asks of you is to truly repent and turn from your wicked ways.
When we turn from our sin in genuine repentance, God forgives us and blots out our sin. That means God does not hold that sin against anymore, he doesn’t remember the sin that you committed. I am thankful for that in this place today.
Humanity was created with the purpose of fellowship with the Lord but through the disobedience of Adam and Eve that relationship was destroyed. In the pages of this Bible are 66 books which s God’s plan of restoring fellowship with his people. God didn’t leave us in our sin but He went before us and prepared a way to restored relationship with Him.
God desires relationship with every single person in this room today. From the oldest saint to the youngest new convert God seeks relationship with you. That begins with genuine repentance. You may think you are exempt from this but today I ask you before we transition into our next service, to ask God “search my heart” “Lord if there be anyway in me that is not pleasing to you reveal it to me cause I don’t want it to keep me from relationship with you.”
Prayer of repentance be sensitive to the spirit
