REPENTANCE IN SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

2 CHRONICLES 7:14

      The last condition of revival is “turn from wicked ways.” Revival will not come without repentance. God will not hear, forgive, or heal unless His people turn from wicked ways (2 Kg. 17:13; Jer. 35:15; Ezek. 33:11; Jon. 3:8-10).

      Turning is the crucial step. A believer or church can come to the edge of revival and miss the blessing at this point. As conviction can come without conversion of the lost, reproof can come without repentance by God’s people.

      Revival comes when God’s people see the face of God, then see their sin, and turn in repentance. When you see His face, you will see your ways–you will see your wickedness (Is. 6:5; Lk. 5:8).

      God sends revival when He finds the church at the place of repentance. In 2 Chr. 7:14 God spoke of corporate repentance. If a corporate body like the church refuses to step into the presence of God and return to first love, that body will wander in a backslidden wilderness.

      The church stands in need of revival because of something members have done (2 Chr. 7:14–self, ways, wickedness, sin, land).

1. Ways (2 Chr. 6:16-23-27-30-31-34-38; Ps. 1:1, 139:24; Prov. 7:27, 13:15, 14:12-14, 16:2; Hag. 1:5; Mt. 7:13; Rom. 3:16-17).

2. Wickedness (2 Chr. 7:22; Ezra 9:13; Ps. 51:4; Heb. 3:12).

God used the plural wicked ways–individual acts, specific sins that made up the whole. When a person meets God in revival and turns from individual acts of sin, that repentance weakens the strongholds over a congregation and ignites the sparks of revival.

      Charles G. Finney once outlined how to preach a sermon so as to convert no one. He said, “Denounce sin in the abstract, but make no allusion to sins of your present audience. Finney taught, “General confessions of sin will never do. Your sins were committed one by one; and as far as you can come at them, they ought to be reviewed and repented of one by one.”

Sins of omission

•          Ingratitude

•          Want of love to God

•          Neglect of the Bible

•          Unbelief

•          Neglect of prayer

•          Neglect of the means of grace

•          The manner in which you have performed those duties

•          Want of love for the souls of your fellow men

•          Want of care for the heathen

•          Neglect of family duties

•          Neglect of social duties

•          Neglect of watchfulness over your own life

•          Neglect to watch over your brethren

•          Neglect of self-denial

Sins of commission

•          Worldly mindedness

•          Pride

•          Envy

•          Censoriousness

•          Slander

•          Levity

•          Lying

•          Cheating

•          Hypocrisy

•          Robbing God

•          Bad temper

•          Hindering others from being useful

      Believers must break the layers of fallow ground through repentance (Hos. 10:12). Sin is like a heavy crust over a believer. Sin lurks hidden within the doors of homes and hearts. You cannot cover sin–you must repent. Revival brings the latter rain to refresh and refill the drought of a barren life.

      The key to revival is turning from wicked ways. When believers turn to God in repentance, God turns to them in revival (2 Chr. 6:23-24-25-26-37-38-42, 7:19; Ps. 23:3, 51:12, 85:6, 126:1-4; Dan. 9:13; Acts 3:26).

  I. Repentance toward God (Ps. 51:4)

      Repentance means to “turn from your ways” (Is. 55:7; Lam. 3:40). The lost will not turn from ways until believers turn (Ps. 51:12-13). Andrew Murray said that Christians were either “soul-winners” or “backsliders.”

 II. Reconciliation with men (Lk. 15:18)

      A. Property (restitution–Lk. 19:8)

      Lewis A. Drummond related, “Jim Vaus, man involved in syndicated crime before his conversion in Billy Graham’s first 1949 crusade in Los Angeles, made restitution for all he had stolen. It wiped him out financially. He even changed his testimony in a court case where his perjury had sent an innocent man to jail.”

      B. Privately (wrongs known only to God, confessed only to God–Ps. 19:12)

      C. Personally (wrongs against one another and known mutually, confessed to one another)

      Recounting the Shantung Revival in China, C. L. Culpepper wrote, “Throughout the province those who had held grudges against or had been jealous and envious of their friends were restored to fellowship. Under the influence of the revival, the Christians confessed their faults openly and prayed for one another. Personal and racial problems between the missionaries and Chinese Christians dissolved.”

          1. When the offender (Lk. 17:3)

          2. When the offended (Mt. 5:23, 18:15)

      Finney said, “A revival of religion may be expected when Christians begin to confess their sins to one another.” Do not take broken relationships to the grave with you. Jonathan Edwards wrote among his resolutions, “19. Resolved, Never to do anything, which I should be afraid to do, if I expected it would not be above an hour, before I should hear the last trumpet.”

      D. Publicly (wrong against a group, confessed to the group )

      James (Jas. 5:16) said, “Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed.” Private sins call for private repentance, personal sins call for personal reconciliation, and public sins call for public restitution (not glorifying the sin with distasteful details–Eph. 5:12).

      Drummond cautioned, “Care must be taken, however that this openness never be allowed to degenerate into an airing of one’s “dirty linen” before the whole world. Some have fallen into this satanic trap.” J. Edwin Orr wrote, “Let the circle of the sin be the circle of the confession made.”