We Believe in Repentance
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We Believe in Repentance
We Believe in Repentance
“Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ.”
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”
Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
Today we are going to look at the most important aspect of salvation - repentance
Upon hearing the truth about their condition, they were “cut to the heart”
The Greek word here meaning to stab or be pierced emotionally
There was something more than just an agreement with the facts
All of us have at one time or the other been “cut to the heart” over something - it hurt so deeply that we felt like we would explode
The words of Peter were so damning it struck at the very core of their being, their “heart” - not the physical structure but the very center of their existance
In the OT there is an interesting verse
Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer.
The people had hardened their hearts against God and they needed a change
“Now, therefore,” says the Lord,
“Turn to Me with all your heart,
With fasting, with weeping, and with mourning.”
David of all people knew this well
The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit,
A broken and a contrite heart—
These, O God, You will not despise.
“Blessed be the Lord, who has given rest to His people Israel, according to all that He promised. There has not failed one word of all His good promise, which He promised through His servant Moses. May the Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. May He not leave us nor forsake us, that He may incline our hearts to Himself, to walk in all His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, which He commanded our fathers. And may these words of mine, with which I have made supplication before the Lord, be near the Lord our God day and night, that He may maintain the cause of His servant and the cause of His people Israel, as each day may require, that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God; there is no other. Let your heart therefore be loyal to the Lord our God, to walk in His statutes and keep His commandments, as at this day.”
Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
Nor sworn deceitfully.
He shall receive blessing from the Lord,
And righteousness from the God of his salvation.
This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him,
Who seek Your face.
Selah
From the Old to the New Testament it was understood as the center of who a person was! The center of moral and intellectual life!
Solomon in Proverbs instructed:
Keep your heart with all diligence,
For out of it spring the issues of life.
As in water face reflects face,
So a man’s heart reveals the man.
Paul identifies the source of the problem:
But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
He goes on to remind them:
For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.
You see it is all about a heart change!
that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Repentance - to change one’s mind - adopt another view - love this! To change one’s resolve or purpose!
Kittle : “a recognition that the earlier view was foolish, improper or evil, there arises the sense of regret or feeling of remorse that affects feelings, will or thoughts
It is more than a simple wish these things had not been said or done but rather a sense of committed faults that must be corrected. It express pain of grief at what has happened. It is an alteration in the total moral attitude, a profound change in life’s direction, a conversion which affects the whole of conduct.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Repentance is not just trying to be better, becoming religious, or knowing the truth
Repentance is:
Being sorry for your sins
Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to Your lovingkindness;
According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,
Blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.
For I acknowledge my transgressions,
And my sin is always before me.
Against You, You only, have I sinned,
And done this evil in Your sight—
That You may be found just when You speak,
And blameless when You judge.
Being truthful about your sin
I acknowledged my sin to You,
And my iniquity I have not hidden.
I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,”
And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.
Selah
Turning away from your sin
He who covers his sins will not prosper,
But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
“Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets preached, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Turn now from your evil ways and your evil deeds.” ’ But they did not hear nor heed Me,” says the Lord.
Turning to right living
And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’