Bella Vista Church of Christ

06/09/2019 P.M.

A Call To Biblical Repentance

2 Chronicles 7.14 Ezekiel 18.30 Matthew 3.1-3 Luke 13.3 & 5

Acts 2.38 Acts 3.19 Acts 17.30 2 Peter 3.9 Joel 2.12-14

What I want to do for our Sunday Evening Lessons is to examine the text Jeff uses on Sunday Morning… TAKE A SUBJECT COVERED IN THAT TEXT… And make it our Study for the Evening.

For instance… In Revelation chapters two and three… One can’t get away from the fact that the subject is REPENTANCE!!

Jesus uses the word seven times as he calls for these Seven Churches to CHANGE.

Come… Let’s see what we can learn

ABOUT THE SUBJECT OF REPENTANCE…

First… REPENTANCE IS A BIBLICAL WORD… A BIBLICAL CONCEPT.

The Old Testament Thunders Repentance…

2 Chronicles7.14 has God saying… If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways… REPENT… Then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

In Ezekiel 18.30… God says… Therefore, O house of Israel, I will judge you, each one according to his ways, declares the Sovereign Lord. REPENT! Turn away from all your offences; then sin will not be your ruin.

Matthew 3.1 & 2…The New Testament opens with John the Baptist calling for repentance…In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the desert of Judea saying… REPENT, for the kingdom of heaven is near.

Luke 13.3 & 5…Twice we hear Jesus say… I tell you…Unless you REPENT… You will perish.

Act 2.38… Interesting isn’t it that the first command on the day the church began was a call to repentance…Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Peter is saying there is… No remission of sins… No Holy Spirit gift without repentance.

Acts 3.19… Again Peter admonishes his audience… Repent and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.

Acts 17.30 has Paul saying… In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.

2 Peter 3.9… The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with us, not wanting anyone to perish,but everyone to come to repentance.

Wow…With these Scriptures in mind… Is there any doubt that God expects us to repent?

They tell us that REPENTANCE… Biblical repentance… Is a part of the Divinely Appointed Way for us to repair our sin broken relationship with God.

Secondly… We need a definition… WHAT IS REPENTANCE?

Vine in his New Testament Word Studies tells us that repentance is A CHANGE OF MIND RESULTING IN A TURNING TO GOD.

Repentance is a CHANGEOF MIND… A change of heart… That’s so strong that it results in… a CHANGE IN CONDUCT… A change in behavior… A change in lifestyle.

Repentance is…

• A180 degree turn from sin to righteousness…

• Turning from self-determinate behavior to God defined behavior.

John the baptizer called Israel to PRODUCE FRUIT INDICATIVE OF REPENTANCE.

Proof of repentance is seen in the way we behave.

Peter put it in these words… Repent and be converted… Repent and become a changed person.

Perhaps the best definition of Genuine Biblical Repentance is found in Joel 2.12-14…Listen… Even now… Declares the Lord…Return to me with all your heart… With fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity. Who knows? He may turn and have pity and leave behind a blessing--grain offerings and drink offerings for the Lord your God.

Joel says repentance is a change of heart… Not your garments…But your hearts.

Repentance is turning to God in… Sorrow… Weeping… Mourning.

The word for MOURNING here is the word used to describe mourning for the dead… It speaks of genuine sorrow.

Paul says… Repentance has its beginning in Godly Sorrow… A Godly remorse for sin.

Church…Tonight is there a burden on your heart and mine because of the sin in our life… I hope there is because it is the beginning of repentance.

But know this… Biblical repentance is NOT about how many TEARS WE SHED… But it’s about HOW MANY SINS WE FORSAKE… AMEN?

Joel says… Repentance must be proven…

John said… Let me see fruit… Evidence of Repentance… by your lifestyle…

• Repentance is turning from sin to obeying the commands of God…

• A change of heart that results in a change in behavior…

• Repentance is a change in principles…That results in a change in practice.

Listen church… Repentance is A RADICAL TRANSFORMATION of THE ENTIRE PERSON…A fundamental turnaround involving both MIND AND CONDUCT… Determining to be like Jesus in… Thoughts… Disposition… and Behavior.

I hear well-meaning people say of a good person… All he or she needs is to be baptized… UNLIKELY!!

That’s not what God says… God calls us tO A radical change in lifestyle… we must become different folk…Conforming to the image of Jesus!

Listen to Isaiah 55.7… Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. LET HIM TURN TO THE LORD… And he will have mercy on him, and to our God,for he will freely pardon.

Thirdly… Let’s examine some Biblical examples of repentance and make some applications to our own life.

First…There’s God’s behavior in the flood…

In our King James… Genesis 6.6 tells us that it repented God that He had made man and He grieved in His heart.

Notice now what God did as a result of his repentance… Verse seven… I will destroy that which I created… Man…Beast… Creeping things and birds of the air.

Repentance is a 180 degree turn… From creating sin in our life to destroying it.

Listen church… Are we grieving over our sin?... Are we really?

Are we grieving our sin behavior enough to change?

We see this principle in Jonah and his commission to go preach in Nineveh.

Instead he ran from God…

After three days in a fish’s belly… Jonah repented.

Listen…

• Are we running from God in the matter of New Testament baptism?... Why?

Why are we resisting what God plainly states must be done to enjoy the forgiveness of sin and the gift of the Holy Spirit?

• Are we running from finding our place in… Kingdom Ministry… Kingdom Work?...

• Are we running from being evangelistic in word and deed?...

• Are we running from some good works that God providentially places before us?

If so… Listen… And you will hear God calling for us to repent and change direction of our lives.

He did just that in the Seven churches of Asia and He’s doing it here in BellaVista!

Catch a glimpse of repentance in the life of David and his sin with Bathsheba.

For David… Repentance meant… A personal admission… Acknowledgement… A Confession of guilt.

Nathan told David this parable about a rich man killing his neighbor’s pet lamb.

David became irate... Saying… This man should die!

Nathan confronted David saying... Thou art the man.

For some reason today… We have the uncanny ability to dismiss our sin failure as…

• It’s no big deal… Just a human weakness…

• Besides… Everybody is doing it… It’s just a part of our culture…

• God wants me to be happy…

• It’s not my fault… It was the way I was born…

• It’s a disease.

Listen church… Repentance is AGREEING WITH GOD ABOUT THE SIN IN OUR LIFE.

• Will we agree with God on what is and is not sin in our life?... WILL WE?...REALLY?

• Will we take the responsibility for our own… SIN THOUGHTS… SIN BEHAVIOR?

Indeed…We live in a culture that says… It’s not my fault… Repentance is rising above such Devilish thinking… IT’S ACKNOWLEDGING OUR SIN FAULT… ADMITTING OUR GUILT.

John 1.9 reads… If we will… Acknowledge our faults… Confess our sins… He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

We cannot expect forgiveness unless we are willing to be completely honest in our confessions… Making no excuses for our sin failures.

How about Saul.... To be known as Paul.

He was a PERSECUTOR who becomes a PROCLAIMER.

The difference in the two was REPENTANCE…For Paul… Repentance meant turning from... PUNISHING... KILLING… Christians… To MAKING Christians…MAKING Disciples.

Biblical repentance is not just stopping our evil… Stopping our evil is only a 90 degree turn… Repentance is a full turnaround from doing EVIL to doing GOOD…

• A liar who repents stops his lying… AND STARTS TELLING THE TRUTH.

• A gossip stops his or her ugly talk… BEGINS SPEAKING OF THE GOOD IN OTHERS.

• A sower of discord stops his troublemaking… Begins working for UNITY in the FELLOWSHIP.

• An adulterer who repents stops his adultery… BECOMES FAITHFUL TO HIS SPOUSE.

• A thief stops stealing… BEGINS WORKING TO SUPPORT HIMSELF AND HELPING OTHERS.

NO!... Repentance does not demand we live PERFECT LIVES.

But it does mean that we try to be God's people and person IN EVERY ARENA OF LIFE… In every arena of life.

Perhaps the best known illustration of repentance is the prodigal son.

Two things we learn about repentance in this narrative…

1.Scripture tells us that the prodigal came to himself…

Repentance is a… Selfexamination... Seeing ourselves as the sinner we really are… Accepting what we find and dealing with it in God’s way.

2.We must leave the pig pen… Staying away from the people and the places where sin abounds… Paul says… Watch the company you keep… Evil company corrupts good character.

Repentance means leaving sin… Returning to the Father’s house… Coming home to God.

Well… There’s something else we don’t want to miss… In Repentance… Motive is everything!!... What moves us toward repentance?... What are some proper motives?...

Guilt… Shame… Godly sorrow… A desire to be right with God…

Second Corinthians 7.10 & 11 says... Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret.

Here it is folk… The real motive for repentance is that we want to be right with God!!

Secondly…There is the fear of punishment.

Jesus tells us… Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather… Fear the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

Hebrews says… It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God unprepared!!

There are those who say… We should NOT do anything religiously out of fear… But this is not what the Bible teaches… Fear is a proper motive for repentance.

There’s…The Goodness... The kindness... Of God.

2 Peter 3.9 says… The Lord is NOT slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with us, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

Romans 2.4 asks in rhetoric…Will you show contempt for the riches of His kindness… His tolerance and patience… Not realizing that God's kindness leads us to repentance?

Second Corinthians 5.14 gives us the answer... For Christ’s love compels us... Because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died.

You see… All that God has done... And continues to do for us... Should compel us to become… CHANGED people… Different People.

The promise of future reward is another motive for changing our life.

Jesus said… I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly…

Life at its best is a life in Jesus.

He Promised… In my Father's house are many mansions... I go and prepare a place for you... I will come back and take you to be with Me… So that where I am… There you may be also.

Wanting the good life that God can give us… Wanting heaven in eternity… Are proper motives for... Confessing… Acknowledging… Our sins… And turning from them.

Well… There are some wrong motives for repentance…

• Because our parents want us to…

• To please some aunt or grandparent… So we can be included in their will…

• So our fiancée will marry us…

• To keep the wife from nagging us every Sunday morning…

• To join some church…

Are wrong motives… Not God-pleasing Motives.

Can I speak to some of you here tonight?… There are those who wrongly think that Forgiveness and Salvation are a gift of God and demand… nothing… NOTHING… On our part…Those who believe that forgiveness & salvation have nothing to do with our heart or our behavior.

TRUE!... The gift of forgiveness & salvation is from God… It’s called grace.

You are not hearing me say that Repentance merits our salvation… We can do nothing to merit our forgiveness... Only the blood of Christ can do that.

But I am saying that His Salvational grace gift demands our response… demands OUR response… And that response includes some serious work on our part… Faith…Repentance… Confession… New Testament Baptism… Continued Faithfulness.

Make no mistake… God’s command to repent demands our response… we had better repent!!

Listen…Repentance is a work… If you think it’s not…

• Talk to those who are caught up in the sin of… Alcoholism… Drugs… Pornography… and are trying to quit… Repent!

Repentance… Turning from such addictions is hard work.

• Talk to those who must forsake family and friendships to confess Jesus… This is a real work.

• Talk to those who have to forgive… A Parent… Relative… Friend… Of abuse… Verbal… Emotional… Sexual… Etc.

• Talk to those who are striving daily to live in the image in the likeness of Jesus Christ.

• Talk to those Christians in the Seven Churches who were told they must live above their culture… That they could not walk with one foot in their culture one foot in the church of Christ.

Were we listening to Jeff this morning?... Repentance is… A work… A lifelong work… It is our becoming… changed… Different… People… Those who belong to God by our becoming His Holy ones.

Becoming holy… Maintaining our holyness… is a work!

Paul speaks of this work in Titus 2.11-12… For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age as we wait upon the coming of the Lord.

No wonder Paul is heard saying to the Philippian church and to us… Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

Listen…Can we hear God tonight?... Hear Him saying.. If My people… Who are called by My name… Will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways… Then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

What do we need to do tonight to be… Healed… forgiven… Saved…

Become His child by… Faith… Repentance… and Baptism?

Do we have some sins we need to… Acknowledge… Confess… And repent of?

Come enjoy the presence of God in your life tonight as we stand and sing this song together.