Repentance

Introduction

Last night in our discussion on the Battle for your mind, Pastor Karsies dealt with taking every thought captive. As we look at this concept of the battle for our mind, we are going to be looking at it from different perspectives and there is going to be some overlap between them, but there really is an order to this battle for our minds. Before we can fight, kill wrong thoughts in our minds, we must take them captive. Tonight we are going to deal with the next step in that process. Repentance. We will be looking at Psalm 51 a little bit later if you wanna go ahead and turn in your bibles there.

I. Definition

Before we start out talking about repentance it would be helpful for us to understand what it is. In English, the word is actually a military term that means to turn around. It would be similar to saying “about face” when a drill Sargent is marching his platoon. So it carries the idea of turning around. This picture of the word is helpful but not necessarily helpful when we talk about what the word means in the bible because it makes it seem like you need to turn your life around before you can become a Christian.

In Greek, the language that the NT was written in, the word “repent” is μετανοεω which basically means “to change your mind.” This is important to the battle for your mind because as we saw Monday, every sin is traceable to a wrong thought at some point. True biblical repentance is going to produce a change in lifestyle because what you truly think is what you will do. So biblical repentance is seeing that my way of thinking and acting has been wrong and I change my mind about that behavior or way of thinking.

Eerdmans Bible Dictionary includes this definition of repentance: “In its fullest sense it is a term for a complete change of orientation involving a judgment upon the past and a deliberate redirection for the future.”

According to gotanswers.org true Repentance includes four things:

a sense of awareness of one’s guilt Psalm 109:21-22 “But do thou for me, O God the Lord, for thy name’s sake: Because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me. For I am poor and needy, And my heart is wounded within me.”

takes hold of God’s mercy Psalm 130:4 “But there is forgiveness with thee, That thou mayest be feared.”

turns our attitudes and actions away from sin, producing a hatred for sin Psalm 119:128 “Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; And I hate every false way.”

produces a pursuit of holy living 2 Tim 2:19-22 “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity. But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work. Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.”

There is one other word that is used for repentance is interesting to note. This word is found in Matthew 27:3 “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,” The word here is μεταμελομαι which carries the idea of being sad, or even regretting something. How often have we felt sad about something but not sad enought to actually change our behavior.

Think about that pint of ice-cream we keep in the refrigerator. A lot of people feel guilt for eating the whole thing especially when they step onto the scale the next day, but how many of us have enough regret that we don’t go to the fridge the very next day and grab the pint out again.

2 Cor 7:10 “For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” Repentance involves a godly sorrow, but just being sorry is not the same thing as being repentant. Some people are sorry just because they got caught. Others are sorry because now there is conflict or tension. Some are sorry because they lost out on something, but that is not a godly sorrow which sees our sin as an offence against God and hurtful to other people and seeks change.

You remember the story about the Pharisees and the Sadducees coming to the baptism of John. John knowing they were not there for spiritual reasons tells them Matthew 3:8 “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:”

biblical Repentance is going to bring about a change in lifestyle. Back in 2 Cor 7:11 “For behold this selfsame thing, that ye sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea, what revenge! In all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.”

Paul gives us 7 fruits of repentance:

diligence

defence

indignation

fear of God

longing

zeal

vengeance

II. Relation to Salvation

The doctrine of repentance is important because it is part of our salvation experience. If I were to ask you how is a person saved from their sin, you would probably answer “by faith” and you would be correct; however, there is more to understand about this answer.

Jesus said in the gospel Luke 5:32 “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.”

Luke 13:5 “I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.”

and commanded the disciples to preach Luke 24:47 “And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”

Throughout the book of Acts when the apostles were making a call for people to place their faith in Jesus that call included repentance. Acts 3:19 “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;” Acts 17:30 “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:” Acts 20:21 “Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.”

It is clear from these verses that repentance is part of salvation. To clarify repentance relates to salvation, it is helpful to think of a coin. A coin has two sides to it: heads and tails. Repentance and faith work the same way. They are really the same thing but two sides to the same thing. Repentance is a turning from and faith is a turning to. You don’t have one without the other.

In salvation, we change our mind about our sin and about the savior Jesus Christ. We think thoughts about how sinful our sin actually is, that it is an offence against God and that the just punishment for sin is an eternity in the lake of fire. We change our mind about Jesus. We no longer think that we can save ourselves, or that Jesus was just a man, but we begin to have faith that He is the only one who can save us from our sins.

Repentance is something God gives us. The bible teaches that no one comes to God except He draws them John 6:44 “No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.” In 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.” the Jewish Christians were surprised that God had granted or given repentance to the Gentiles.

God is longsuffering waiting for us to repent. 2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” and His goodness lead us to repent Romans 2:4 “Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”

God is patiently waiting for people to be saved, but he will not wait forever. He calls us all to see ours sin for what it truly is and to see Jesus for who He really is and change our mind about our sin and the savior and turn to Christ placing our faith in Him. By repenting of our sin and placing our faith in Jesus Christ, we can be saved. It is not because of the works we do, but only because of God’s grace.

Eph 2:8-9 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Now repentance is not just something lost people do when they need to be saved. It is something a Christian must continually do throughout his life.

III. Repentance in the life of a Christian

To illustrate this we are going to take a look at an OT king: David. David was known for being a man after God’s own heart. He sought to please God. Hebrews 11:32 “And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:” mentions David in the hall of faith. But David was not perfect. In 2 Sam 11:2 “And it came to pass in an eveningtide, that David arose from off his bed, and walked upon the roof of the king’s house: and from the roof he saw a woman washing herself; and the woman was very beautiful to look upon.” We read the story of David’s sin with Bathsheba the wife of Uriah. David saw Bathsheba bathing on a roof, desired her, had her come to his house to commit adultery and then tried to cover it up when she got pregnant. We would list this as one of those great sins in the bible and here was a man called a “Man after God’s own heart” committing it.

If you look at the top of the chapter in Psalm 51 there is an inscription telling us why David wrote this Psalm. A Psalm of David when Nathan the prophet came unto him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. This is what we call a Psalm of Repentance.

On being confronted for his sins, David repented of the sin and sought to make things right.

David’s prayer included 7 elements:

asking for mercy vs 1

Washing vs 2

Restore Joy vs 8

Cleansing vs 10

Don’t cast me away vs 11

Restoration and upholding vs 12

Deliver from guilt vs 14