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Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program. On today's edition of Pathway to Victory, repentance is not just a one-time action to receive salvation.
It is the lifestyle. It is the attitude of believers. And that's what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about choosing repentance over guilt. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. You know, Romans 3 23 says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So, whenever we experience moments of moral failure, we have a choice to make.
Are we going to deny our failure or repent of our failure? Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress urges us to choose repentance over guilt. Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress. Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. As our study begins today, I'd like to inject a quick word about the Journeys of Paul Mediterranean Cruise that's on the calendar for May 5 through 16 next year, 2025. Pathway to Victory is thrilled about this exclusive 12-day vacation with a purpose, and you're personally invited to join us. Imagine getting to trace the path of the New Testament and visit major places in biblical history like Rome, Greece, or Ephesus. And all the while visiting those places on a luxurious cruise ship. Please mark your calendar and join us. Again, the dates are May 5 through 16, 2025.
You'll find all the details about this wonderful vacation at ptv.org. You know, when a challenging problem comes our way, it's all too easy to slip into a victim's mentality. That's our natural response when unwanted surprises come along, right? We feel like a victim when we get bad news from the doctor or when our employer decides to shut down the business. In these moments of disappointment, we often build a convincing case that life has given us a raw deal.
Well, none of us is immune from those natural responses, even this pastor. And unless we choose to alter our thinking, we'll become lost in a pool of self-doubt and self-pity. How much better to apply 11 biblical lessons that will make our circumstances work for us rather than against us?
I've written a highly personal book on this topic entitled Choose Your Attitudes Change Your Life. And when you give a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory, I'll make sure you receive your copy. Now it's time to get started with today's study in God's Word.
I titled today's message Choosing Repentance Over Guilt. The Internal Revenue Service received an anonymous envelope. Inside the envelope was a note and 10 $1,000 bills. The note read, Dear Sirs, for several months I've been unable to sleep due to the guilt I felt over cheating on my income tax last year. Enclosed, you will find $10,000.
If I still can't sleep, I'll send you the rest of what I owe you. You know, in our series, Choose Your Attitudes Change Your Life, we're saying that an attitude is our response to the circumstances of life. We can't choose our circumstances, but we can choose how we respond to those circumstances. And one circumstance we all experience is moral failure sometime in our life. You know, sometimes we try to cover over our failure, our failure to meet God's standard. Sometimes we rationalize it. Sometimes we did what this guy did and make a half-hearted attempt at restitution. But one of the biggest decisions we have to make in life is are we going to deny our failure or are we going to choose to repent of our failure? And that's what we're going to talk about today. We're going to talk about choosing repentance over guilt.
That choice not only affects our life right now, but it affects our eternal destiny. Now, you know, when we talk about repentance, people sometimes have a funny idea of what repentance means. They picture some scraggly street preacher out on the sidewalk with a sandwich board saying, repent, the end of the world is at hand. It's true, repentance is important for non-Christians to receive salvation. But interestingly, in the Bible, repentance is something more for Christians than for non-Christians. Repentance is not just a one-time action to receive salvation, it is the lifestyle, it is the attitude of believers. Now, what do we mean by repentance? Contrary to popular thinking, repentance is not primarily an emotion. We think it's weeping and convulsing over your failure, that can be a part of it, but that's not what the word repentance means. The word repentance in Greek is metanoeo, two words, two root words, meta, change, noeo, the mind. Metanoeo, a change of mind, that's literally what it means to repent, to have a change of mind. For a Christian, repentance, and write this down, is a change of mind that leads to a change of direction in our life. A change of mind that leads to a change of direction in our life. You've probably had this experience before, especially if you've driven around downtown Dallas.
Have you ever had the experience of driving down one of these roads and seeing all of the traffic heading toward you? And you realize you're going the wrong way on a one-way street. At that moment, you have a decision to make. You can decide that I'm right and they're wrong, and I'm going to stay and go in the direction I'm going, or you can acknowledge that in fact you are mistaken. Now, just acknowledging that isn't enough to keep from a crash. You have to do more than acknowledge it.
You actually have to do what? Turn around. Turn around. Repentance and turning around are inseparably linked with one another.
A change of mind that leads to a change of direction. If you don't believe that, listen to God's word through the prophet Ezekiel. In Ezekiel 33, 11 to 12, I love how the living Bible paraphrases this. As surely as I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but I desire that the wicked turn from his evil ways and live.
Turn. Turn from your wickedness, for why would you die? For the good works of a righteous man will not save him if he turns to sin. And the sins of an evil man will not destroy him if he repents and turns from his sins.
Do you see the relationship? To repent is to turn around. A change of mind that leads to a change of direction. Well, what is the result of not making that choice? What is the result of not repenting of our sin? In a word, guilt. Before we look at how to develop an attitude of repentance in our lives, let's talk about the opposite of repentance, and that is guilt. Guilt is one of the most debilitating of all human emotions. And one of the best illustrations of the damage guilt does in our life is in the familiar story of King David found in 2 Samuel chapters 11 to 12.
You remember the story? David was by far the most successful king in Israel's history. He had reached the zenith of his power.
The nation had never been more successful in conquering its enemies. He had accumulated great wealth. And yet, at the high point of his career, he traded all of that for a few moments of passion with somebody else's wife, a wife named Bathsheba. This temptation came about one evening while David was looking out from his balcony at a building residence across the street. And on the rooftop, this woman Bathsheba was bathing, was going through the rites of purification.
2 Samuel 11 says that it occurred at a time when David should have been out fighting with his men. But instead, the king said, you know what? I'm so successful, I don't have to do that stuff anymore.
Let the underlings do that. I'm going to enjoy the fruit of my success. I'm going to go into a time of relaxation. Could I say an aside here?
When you have a life of leisure, you are setting yourself up for Satan's temptation in your life. That's exactly what happened to David. He had too much time on his hands.
He should have been out fighting. But he saw Bathsheba. They had relations that evening. And soon Bathsheba reported to him that she had become pregnant. Now immediately, David had a choice. He could have acknowledged his sin, asked for God's forgiveness, made restitution, but instead, he chose to cover over his sin. In a cover-up scheme that rivaled Watergate, he decided that he was going to hide his failure from the kingdom.
Here was plan A. He was going to call for Bathsheba's husband, Uriah, who was out fighting, to come back home for a weekend of relaxation with his wife. And he thought if he could get Uriah to come home with Bathsheba, surely he would sleep with Bathsheba. And then David and Bathsheba could say, oh, well, the child belongs to Uriah.
So Uriah comes back. But he doesn't sleep with his wife, the Bible says. Not because he didn't want to, but because he said, how could I indulge in this pleasure when my fellow soldiers are out deprived of this pleasure?
He had more integrity than the king did. And so he abstained. So David thought, well, that didn't work.
Go to plan B. Plan B, he sent a letter to Uriah's commander and said, put Uriah on the front lines of battle and then withdraw the other soldiers. And that's exactly what happened and Uriah was killed in battle and David now was charged not only with adultery, but also with murder. Again, how did he respond? He didn't repent. He didn't acknowledge his sin. Instead, he kept silent about his sin. What happened? What did God do to him?
Absolutely nothing. For a while anyway. Days passed. Weeks passed. David took Bathsheba to be his own wife after Uriah's funeral.
And nothing happened. And David began to think to himself, maybe I have a special relationship with God and I don't have to live by the same standards of other people. Or maybe God really doesn't care that much about murder or adultery. Maybe there are other sins he's more concerned with. Maybe God doesn't even exist. And that's why he hasn't punished me. David's son Solomon years later wrote these insightful words in Ecclesiastes 8.11. Because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed quickly, therefore the hearts of the sons of men among them are given fully to do evil.
Do you hear what he's saying? We tend to think because God doesn't zap us the moment we sin that he doesn't care about it. That we're getting away with something. Do not confuse God's tolerance with God's mercy. Don't confuse God's tolerance for sin with his mercy. Don't think because God hasn't punished you yet, he does not care about your sin. The only reason he's delayed his discipline in your life is to give you another chance to repent. But there is a day God's mercy comes to an end. There is a day there is no further opportunity to repent. David was confusing God's mercy with God's tolerance for sin. And yet even though there was no visible sign of God's judgment or discipline, there was inner turmoil David was experiencing during that six months up to a year that he refused to acknowledge his sin.
He writes about that period in Psalm 32 verses 3 to 4. He said, When I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groanings all day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me, and my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. Will you notice first of all the physical effects of guilt? Guilt actually affects our bodies physically.
He talks about my body wasting away, my vitality being drained. But there are emotional effects of guilt as well. It affects us emotionally. One of the most common side effects of guilt is depression.
That's what David talks about when he says my groaning all day long. By the way, it's very important to note that depression over your sin is not the same as repentance from your sin. Repentance is not just feeling sorry about your sin. It's feeling sorry enough to change. A lot of people aren't willing to go to that next step. Do you know people like that? They wallow in their circumstances. They feel terrible about their circumstances, but they never make the changes. Yes, some of the emotional effects of guilt result in depression.
Another common side effect of guilt is anxiety. We talk about that in our message, Choosing Faith Over Worry. For six months to a year, David experienced fear that one day he would open the Jerusalem Times and right there on the front page would be the exposé of his guilt. He was scared to death that was going to happen. And then one morning he got up, and on a day that began like any other day, something was about to change. He went into the palace, asked his secretary for the daily schedule, and he saw, oh, the prophet Nathan is coming to see you today. Fine, he liked Nathan.
He always liked a good sermon, so he welcomed Nathan in to see him. Nathan, what is going on? Nathan said, oh, king, I came to inform you of something terrible that is going on in your kingdom. David said, well, what is that? He said, well, there is this very poor man living here in Jerusalem.
He is so poor that he had only one you, one little lamb in his possession, and then a wealthy man came and he stole that one lamb that that poor man had. David stood up. He was outraged. He said, I cannot have this going on in my kingdom.
I demand to know who is that man who did such a thing. Nathan pointed his bony finger in the face of David and said, you are the man. And immediately, David knew, everyone knew. And listen to what Nathan went on to say, 2 Samuel chapter 12. Thus says the Lord God of Israel, it is I who anointed you, David, as king over Israel, and it is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul. Thus says the Lord, behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household.
Indeed, you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and under the sun. There are finally spiritual effects to guilt, not just physical, not just emotional depression, anxiety, but there are spiritual effects of guilt. He says in Psalm 32 verse 4, for day and night, God, your hand was heavy upon me. It affected his own relationship with God. How does that happen in our life? Guilt produces, first of all, a distance from God. Remember in James chapter 1 verses 14 and 15, James explains how sin actually happens.
I call it the temptation equation. Remember he says in James 1, 14, that each one of us sins when we are enticed and drawn away by our own lust. That is, when our sinful desires meet an external temptation, it is like a sperm and an egg coming together.
They come together, and if you think that's an outlandish example, that's exactly what he says in verse 15. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death. When you have lust and an opportunity come together, you have sin, and when sin is fully accomplished, it does its work, it produces death. Death. That word death means separation.
Thanatos means separation. What does James have in mind when he says that sin produces death? Is he talking about physical death?
Well, in a general sense, yes. I mean, the reason all of us die is because of Adam's sin, and we've inherited that sin virus in our life, and so we all die physically. 1 Corinthians 11, 28, and 30 says, Furthermore, some Christians die prematurely, at least from their point of view. You can live in such a state of rebellion against God that God decides you're an embarrassment to him and to the cause of Christ, and he takes you home prematurely to be with him so you can't do any further damage. 1 Corinthians 11, 28, and 30 talks about that.
But let's face it. If death were always the punishment for sin, none of us would be here today, would we? So he can't be primarily thinking about physical death. Some people say, well, maybe he's talking about eternal death. Eternal death is the separation of our spirit from God for all eternity. If we die without having confessed Christ as Savior, we're separated from God.
Is that what he's talking about? I don't think so, because after all, James is writing to Christians here. I think what he's talking about is a death-like existence for Christians who sin and don't receive God's forgiveness. When we as Christians, now listen to this, when we as Christians sin, our position with God doesn't change.
We don't become unjustified or unborn again. Our salvation is forever. We are never more forgiven than the day we trust in Christ as Savior. God doesn't change his attitude about us when we sin, but we change our attitude about God when we sin. That's what sin does in the life of a Christian.
It changes our attitude about God. That's why Isaiah said to his own people, the Israelites, he said, your sin has become a barrier between you and God. Remember in Genesis chapter 3, after Adam and Eve sinned, they went to hide themselves. Genesis 3, 8, God came searching for him. God said in verse 9, where are you? Verse 10, Adam said, I heard the sound of thee in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself. Adam and Eve's first inclination after sinning was to hide from God. We do that. God doesn't change his attitude about us, but when we are living in unconfessed sin, we don't feel like hanging around God. We don't feel like going to church. We don't want to read his word.
We don't want to be convicted any further. Let me illustrate that for you. Have you ever talked about somebody behind their back? You know what you're doing, and you just don't want to be around that person, do you? You're uncomfortable around them. They haven't changed their attitude about you, but you've changed it about them.
You feel guilty. I think about the couple that was driving home from their 25th wedding anniversary dinner. As they were driving home, the wife started to complain. She said, you know, honey, our relationship has just changed. He said, what do you mean it's changed? She said, well, just look at us.
When we first started dating, the first couple of years of marriage, they sat so close together in the car, snuggled with one another, and now look, you're over there, I'm over here. He said, I haven't moved. You know, that's the truth in our relationship with God. When we sin, it's not that God moves away from us. We move away from God. And that's one of the spiritual ramifications of guilt instead of repentance. If you feel an emotional distance from your Creator, it isn't God who has moved away.
He's never left your side. And our hope is that today's pathway to victory causes you to move closer to Him. Well, I'm convinced that sometimes we allow our difficult circumstances to drive a wedge between us and God.
Things like guilt, shame, and worry, these emotional responses tend to alienate us from our Father in heaven. And in my book, I come alongside you with 11 ways to bridge the gap. My book is called Choose Your Attitudes, Change Your Life. Life is difficult, there's no getting around that. And we can either let the challenges sharpen our character or destroy us. The healthier choice always begins with shaping our attitude. And in my book, I'll help you understand how to choose things like repentance over guilt, relaxation over stress, and contentment over comparison.
11 lessons in all, making this the perfect choice for your book club or small group Bible study. Request your copy today of Choose Your Attitudes, Change Your Life. My book is yours when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of pathway to victory. And remember, when you give a generous gift, you're allowing someone you may never meet this side of heaven to engage in the same life-changing truth you've come to experience on this program. So thanks for investing your personal resources in this worthy cause. We couldn't possibly provide this daily program without the partnership of friends just like you.
David. Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. You're invited to request a copy of the book by Dr. Robert Jeffress, Choose Your Attitudes, Change Your Life, when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of pathway to victory. To request your very own copy of the book, call 866-999-2965 or go online to ptv.org. Now, when your gift is $75 or more, we'll also send you both the CD and DVD sets for the Choose Your Attitudes, Change Your Life teaching series.
Plus, you'll receive a study guide for individual or group study. To request the complete package of resources, call 866-999-2965 or go online to ptv.org. You could write to us if you'd like. Here's that mailing address, P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222.
Again, that's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas, 75222. I'm David J. Mullins, inviting you to join us next time for part two of the message, Choosing Repentance Over Guilt. That's right here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in His Word. To become a Pathway partner, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.
