REPENTANCE (#2)
I. WHY
PREACH ON REPENTANCE
1. We are making repentance the subject of our study
this service. There are several reasons
why we need to consider this subject.
One or two may be mentioned.
2. In the first place, there
is not any subject that needs to be discussed more than the subject of
repentance.
a. In Romans
b. Paul was speaking of the world as a
whole– Jew and Gentiles.
c. And speaking of Christians, John said, “If
we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us” (1John 1:8).
d. Inasmuch therefore as sin is
universally prevalent it makes repentance universally necessary. If there has been a time in the history of
our nation when we needed, as a nation to repent, it surely is now. Our immorality-rate has never been more
alarmingly high than at present.
3. Another reason for
preaching on repentance is that it is the most difficult thing in the world to
persuade people to do.
a. I do not know any other thing that is
laid upon people as a duty which they are so reluctant to do. It is not difficult, relatively speaking, to
induce people to believe the Bible and to believe in the divinity of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
b. And when people believe and repent it
is not difficult to persuade them to be baptized. But it is a difficult matter to bring men and
women to repentance.
c. A brief survey of Bible history will
illustrate and confirm that statement.
4. We read in 2Peter 2:5 that
“Noah
was a preacher of righteousness,” and it seems likely that he may have
preached 120 years. And if during that
time he converted anybody other than members of his own family, they died
before the flood came. Certainly his
preaching did not persuade enough people to repent so as to prevent the coming
of the flood.
5. In later times we find
Jeremiah the weeping prophet pouring out his heart in moving appeals to his
people in an effort to bring them to repentance. But every student of the Bible knows that the
weeping prophet failed.
Some of the
greatest preachers of the New Testament frequently failed.
a. There was John the Baptist, a man sent
from God, and the Lord himself said there was none greater born among women
than he, and yet John sometimes failed.
1) You remember on one occasion he
preached to Antipas and Herodias.
Antipas has married his brother Philip’s wife,
but it was not a god-approved marriage and were living in adultery, and thus
lost.
2) John the Baptist very clearly said, “It
is not lawful, Herod, for you to have your brother
Philip’s wife.” [Mark
3) But rather Herodias was moved to
bitterness; she had a relentless hatred for John. And when the opportunity came she was able to
bring about the death of John the Baptist.
4) John failed to bring that couple to
repentance. He gave his life in the
effort. But I think getting rid of the
preacher is a poor substitute for repentance, is it not!
b. And even when our Master preached with
great power, reinforcing his message with a sinless life and many marvelous
works, he sometimes failed to move people to repentance.
1) In Matthew
2) Yes, even our Lord, failed to bing these villages and town along the Galilean lake to
repentance.
c. And the apostles Paul sometimes failed.
1) In Acts
24 we read that in the presence of Felix “he reasoned of righteousness and
temperance and judgment to come,” and Felix trembled beneath the
onslaught, yet he did not repent.
2) In Acts
26 we read that Paul made his moving appeal to King Agrippa and while
King Agrippa admitted that he was almost persuaded to be a Christian, yet he
never repented.
6. Yes, it is a difficult
matter to bring men to repentance. And
yet it is such a necessary thing. The
great men of the Bible have continued to preach that men should repent.
a. When Jonah went to
b. When John the Baptist began his mission
we read that we went forth and preached saying, “Repent ye,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” (Matthew
3:2) And while Antipas and Herodias didn’t repent, much of
c. When our Lord left
d. Later, when the seventy and the twelve
went out preaching, they preached “repentance.”
7. And Jesus emphasized the
importance of repentance. In Luke 13 and verse 1-5:
a. Our master emphasized the warning, that
“Except
ye repent, ye shall in like manner perish.”
b. In
Luke 24:47 she said that “repentance and remission of sins should be
preached in his name unto the nations, beginning from
c. And on Pentecost we find Peter preached
repentance to the men whose hand had been dipped in the blood of our Lord. (Acts
d. And when Paul was making his great
speech on Mars Hill, among others things he said, “The time of ignorance therefore
God overlooked, but now he commandeth that they should all men everywhere
repent” (Acts
e. Repentance, then, has been laid upon
every man who would be saved as an inescapable responsibility. Everyone who wants to be saved from his sins,
whether he be alien sinner or a backsliding saint,
must turn to God in repentance.
II. WHAT REPENTANCE IS NOT
Since it is
necessary that we repent, it is important that we know what repentance is. There is a great deal of popular
misunderstanding concerning the nature of repentance.
1. Sometimes you will ask a
person, “What is repentance?” and he will say that repentance is “sorrow.”
a. It is true that
repentance involves sorrow but there can be sorrow without repentance.
b. I’ve already referred to the case of
Herod Antipas and Herodias. You remember
that on Herod’s birthday that Herodias’ daughter, Salome, danced before
Herod. It must have been a lascivious,
obscene performance.
c. And old Antipas was
so captivated, so carried-away that we might say he lost his head– but not in
the sense that John the Baptist lost his, however. He said that he would give her anything she
asked for, even to the half of his kingdom.
d. And she did what is ordinarily a wise
thing for a daughter to do, she sought her mother’s
advice. But it is always tragic when a
daughter has such a poor excuse for a mother as Salome had. When she asked for advice Herodias said in
substance, “You tell Herod to give you the head of John the Baptist on a
platter.” She would stop that preacher;
she did not like his message.
e. And when Herod heard the request of
Salome he was sorry. Yes, he was “exceedingly
sorry” one writer said (Mark
2. Another suggests that
repentance is sorrow along with confession. But, no, that is not repentance.
a. In Matthew
27 we read that Judas, when he saw Jesus was condemned, was sorry. His heart was swept with remorse, for such is the
meaning of the word in the Greek word in that verse. [See NASB, Matt 27:3.]
b. He brought back his ill gotten money
and he said, “I have betrayed innocent blood.” Of all the men who sinned against our Lord
during the time of his trial and crucifixion, Judas perhaps sinned more
knowingly than any other, and yet he was not as bad as he might have been.
c. He might have kept his blood
money. Some men would do that. He might have kept his mouth shut, but he did
not. He brought back the money,
confessed his wrong saying, “I have betrayed innocent blood.”
d. Yes, there was remorse, and there was
confession, but there was not true repentance as the Bible commands.
3. And then again, someone
tells us that repentance is godly sorry.
Well, godly sorrow is related to repentance.
a. In 2
Corinthians 7:10, we read that “godly sorrow worketh repentance unto
salvation, a repentance which bringeth no regret; but the sorrow of the world
worketh death.” Godly sorrow is
not repentance; godly sorrow works repentance.
b. The potter works with clay and fashions
a vessel; the potter is not the vessel, he is the producer of the vessel.
c. Godly sorrow is not repentance; it
proceeds repentance and produces it just as cause proceeds
effect.
4. And still another
suggests that repentance is restitution and reformation of life.
a. First, let me explain the meaning of
the word “restitution”; it is
making right some wrongs; an example would be returning stolen property to the rightful
owner, etc.
b. Restitution and reformation of life are
related to repentance, but they do not produce repentance. Godly sorrow precedes and produces
repentance; restitution and reformation follow repentance. They are the effects of repentance.
c. You remember when John the Baptist was
talking to the people who came to his preaching, he said, “Bring therefore fruits worthy of
repentance.” (Matt.
3:8).
1) In other words, he said, “Let your
conduct, your reformation of life be evidence of your repentance.” If a man claims to be penitent and still goes
ahead in the same sins he has committed prior to the time he claims to have
repented, then we know his repentance is not genuine because repentance
involves reformation of life.
2) If a man has been lying and repents, he
quits lying; if he has been stealing and repents, he doesn’t steal any more.
d. Restitution also is a product or an
effect of repentance.
1) You remember when the Philippian jailor
heard the preaching of Paul and Silas and believed it he took them the same
hour of the night and washed their stripes.
2) He couldn’t undo the beating; he could
not make restitution to the extent that those men be instantly healed; he could
not make restitution in that he could not make it as if those men had never been beaten. But he could wash their stripes and make them
more comfortable and do something to hasten their recovery.
3) He was making restitution as far as he
could. He was bring
forth fruit worthy of repentance.
4) We like the statement of Zacchaeus who
said, “If I have wrongfully exacted ought of any man, I restore fourfold.”
[Luke 19:8]
e. These- reformation and restitution– are
not in and of themselves repentance.
III. WHAT
REPENTANCE IS!
We have found
what proceeds repentance– godly sorrow; we have found what follows repentance–
reformation of life and restitution; but what IS repentance?
1. In Matthew
a. We turn back to the third chapter of
Jonah and read that Jonah began preaching that in forty days
b. And then we read (in v.
8) that they turned every man from his evil
works and the same verse says that they “cried mightily unto God..” Friends, here we see repentance; and we see
repentance expressing itself in a change in the manner of living.
c. That was turning from that which was
wrong, to God!
2. In
1Thess. 1:9 we find a description of the
repentance of the Thessalonians at the preaching of Paul, “ye turned to God from idols to
serve the living and true God.”
3. In Acts
a. Repentance is turning from that which
is wrong to that which is right, a turning from Satan
to God.
4. The word “repentance”
literally means a change of mind which results in a change of conduct.
a. When a man’s mind is changed his
thinking is changed.
b. When a man’s mind is changed his
emotions are changed. After the change
he may love that which once he hated and hate that which once he loved.
c. And in the third place, a man’s
volition, or will [what he wants and plans to do], is changed in repentance.
1) We have a good illustration of that in
the 21st chapter of
Matthew. A man had two
sons. He came to the first and said, “Go
work today in the vineyard,” and He said, “I will not.” (Matt. 21:28-31.)
2) That has a modernistic ring, does it
not? Sounds like a lot of children
today! But later, this son repented and
went. Now before repented he was in the
attitude of saying, “I will not,” after he repented he
was in the attitude of saying, “I will.”
3) That shows how he changed his
mind. A change in thinking, a change in
emotional activity or attitude, a change in will.
IV. HOW ARE
MEN MOVED TO REPENT?
How
are men moved to repent? How do we come
into possession of repentance?
1. Sometimes people tell us
that God gives repentance. Well, in a
sense that is true.
a. In Acts
11:18 we read, after Peter had rehearsed to his brethren what took
place at the household of Cornelius, telling them about the coming of the Holy
Spirit, that they held their peace and said then that God “granted” also to the
Gentiles repentance unto life– “granted also”, in like manner, or in addition
to the Jews.
b. But the Jews were commanded to
repent! Yet, it is said that God granted
repentance unto life.
2. In what sense did God
grant repentance.
In two senses!
a. In the first place he granted
repentance in that he gave the privilege of repenting, and that is a
marvelous blessing, that is a wonderful provision of grace that God grants to
us the privilege of repenting.
b. That is more than he has done for the
fallen angels. “God spared not angels when they sinned but
cast them down to hell [to Tartarus] and committed them to pits of darkness, to
be reserved unto judgment.” [2Peter 2:4]
c. He did not grant them the privilege of
repenting. I don’t know why. Was it because of their superior nature? Was it because of their greater
opportunity? Was it
because they sinned without a tempter.
I do not know. But God has not
granted to angels the privilege of repenting.
God has granted to man that privilege.
d. And God grants to the Gentiles the
privilege of repenting as he did to the Jews.
3. In the second place,
God grants repentance in the sense that he gives the motives that move men to
repentance. I briefly mention two or
three of these motives.
a. In the first place, there is the motive
of fear. “Yet forty days and
1) “Now God commands all men everywhere to
repent, inasmuch as he hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in
righteousness by the man whom he had ordained.” (Acts
2) “Repent or perish” (Luke 13:3) These
scriptures emphasize the fear of punishment.
b. In the second place, there is the hope
of reward.
1) “Repent ye, and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the
remission of sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts
2) “Repent and turn, that
your sins may be blotted out, that so there may come seasons of refreshing from
the presence of the Lord.” (Acts
c. And then in the third place, Paul said
in Romans 2:4, “Despiseth
thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?”
1) When a man pauses to think about how
good God has been to him, it should be enough to move him to repentance.
2) When he remembers that God created him,
that God so loved him that he gave his Son to die for him, that God is the one
in whom he lives and moves and has his being, that God is the one from whom he
received every good and every perfect gift– I say it is enough to move him to
repentance.
3) Yes, the goodness of God leads
men to repentance.
d. And finally, I make mention of the fact
that the repentance of man causes joy among the angels.
1) We read that the joy among the
angels over one sinner that repents is more than over ninety and nine just
persons who need no repentance. [Luke 15:10]
2) To bring joy to others, your family,
the church, even to the angels, and to heaven above – this is a worthy motive
of repentance.
CONCLUSION
1. Repentance is not
something that involves a long period of time.
In Luke17:4 Jesus said
that if a man sins against you seven times in a day and turns and repents seven
times, forgive him.
a. That shows that a man can practice
forgiveness at least seven times in one day.
If we repent, God will forgive.
And it doesn’t take a long period of time.
b. The Philippian jailor heard the Gospel,
believed it, repented of his sins and was baptized all the same hour of the
night. Repentance is not something that
involves a long period of time.
2. I’m wondering if there
are those present today who need to repent? Either as an alien sinner outside of Christ
who needs to repent to come to the Lord in obedience,
or as a backsliding believer.
a. The Ninevites were promised forty days
in which to repent. But my sinner
friend, my prodigal brother, you do not have the assurance of forty minutes,
not even forty seconds.
b. If there are those where answerable to
the gospel invitation, we urge upon you the importance of coming now. Today is the day of salvation, now is the
accepted time.
[For
source material see J.W. McGarvey’s “Sermons” and B.C. Goodpasture’s radio
sermon,