Drawn to True Repentance #2

Repentance is joined with faith, with an understanding, with a conviction that Jesus Christ is the Savior that God has appointed for sinners. He is the only Savior the world has. There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved.

We're so glad you've joined us on the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hi, I'm Bill Wright, and we're wrapping up our series, Unless You Repent, with part two of a message titled, Drawn to True Repentance. Last time, Don offered the first two of three signs of true repentance. It brings about a true sense of sin and the ability to see the mercy offered in Christ. Consequently, you don't just descend into despair over your sin, you grab hold of the mercy God provides through Jesus Christ.

Today, Don has a final point to impart, so let's join him now in the Truth Pulpit. Repentance, true biblical repentance, is not a call for you to sink in unending guilt and remorse over your past sins. The idea is to move beyond that sense of conviction to realize that Christ in his crucifixion and resurrection has paid for that guilt so that you no longer carry it on your account. The idea of repentance is to turn to Christ so that he could relieve your guilt and bring you into his family with a full sense of forgiveness and acceptance by the God that you had previously rejected, and by the God whom, in your sin, you had so greatly offended. Repentance, true repentance, relieves guilt rather than leaving the sinner in guilt.

That's vital to understand. As much as I'm not impressed with Muslim visions of Christ, as much as we look at that and say, with grief, we say, that's not the real thing. With equal grief, we look at those who are bound in guilt and remorse and, oh, I've so offended God, I've so offended God, I've so offended God, and that's all that they can say, we look and say, that's not true repentance either, because in true repentance, there is a turning to Christ for mercy. Away from sin, guilt over sin, yes, but turning to Christ for mercy, for forgiveness and humility coming to Christ. You see, true repentance abandons self, it abandons sin, but it also is an abandonment of self to the point that you say, yes, I'm guilty and now Christ, I come to you as my all in all.

I come to you in order that you would take away my guilt rather than me simply staying in it on my own. Repentance sees mercy offered in Christ that's so vital, and seeing that offer of mercy turns from sin to him. Here in Acts chapter 2, the conviction led to repentance. Now let me remind you about Acts chapter 7. You remember that Stephen preached a similar message, the Jews hated him for it and they killed him, right?

They stoned him. Stephen's preaching pierced the Jews in Acts chapter 7, they killed him. That was not repentance, obviously. Here in Acts chapter 2, these brothers in Christ that we will meet one day in heaven were grieved over their sin, they disowned it, and in their grief, they turned to Christ for salvation.

Look at it there again in verse 41. They received his word, they were baptized, and that day they were added about 3,000 souls. The Jews in Acts 7 rejected the word and stoned the messenger. The Jews in Acts chapter 2 received the word, received Christ, were forgiven, were baptized, and were added to the church.

3,000 of them. I'm jealous of Peter to be able to preach with that kind of power. William Chamberlain in his book The Meaning of Repentance says this about Acts chapter 2 and Acts chapter 7. He says, from these two incidents we learn that a sense of guilt may cause very different reactions. It may lead one man to repentance. It may make another a howling demon thirsting for the blood of the man who pricked his conscience.

See, it's not just the piercing of the conscience. It's not just the conviction of sin that is true repentance. Both groups, both audiences feeling the weight of guilt, one turns to murder to satisfy the burden on his heart, the other turns to Christ for forgiveness.

And so we see that we have to look for more than simply a sense of guilt and conviction. We realize that in true repentance there is a recognition of mercy offered in Christ and a turning from sin to receive that mercy. So freely, graciously, lovingly, kindly, mercifully offered to the sinner in Christ. The Apostle Paul gives a similar distinction. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 7.

2 Corinthians chapter 7 verse 9. Paul says, I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful. You were sorrowful all right, but you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance. For you were made sorrowful according to the will of God so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us.

It's not just that you were sorrowful. You were made sorrowful all the way to repentance. And he says in verse 10, the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation.

But the sorrow of the world produces death. There's sorrow according to the will of God produced by the proclamation of Christ to sinners that produces repentance. That men turn to Christ seeking mercy in their guilt that is distinct from a simple sorrow over sin that does not lead to an actual inward turning to Christ.

These things are abundantly clear in the Bible. And so, what we say about repentance is this. Repentance is joined with faith, with an understanding, with a conviction that Jesus Christ is the savior that God has appointed for sinners. He's the savior of the world in the sense that he is the only savior the world has. There is only one savior.

There is no other. There is salvation in no one else for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved, Acts chapter 4 verse 12. And so in true repentance, there is a recognition that Christ is offered to sinners and turning to him for his grace. And when the sinner understands that, he sees Christ, he's convinced of the reality of who Christ is, that the biblical claims of Christ are true, that they are undeniable. Convinced of that, convinced of sin, the sinner flees to Christ to save him. He hurries to Christ, he cries out to Christ, says, I am guilty, you must save me.

Be merciful to me, the sinner. You see the elements of true repentance there in Luke 18, 9 through 14. The tax collector who was unwilling to even look up to heaven because he was so convicted of his guilt, standing away from the Pharisee who was boasting in pride of who he was.

He says, I thank you, O God, that I'm not like these other men. And Jesus says there was a tax collector off to the side, unwilling to look up to heaven. And he said, be merciful to me, the sinner, as he was beating his chest. And Jesus said, that's the man who went away justified. Beloved, do you see it?

Do you see in that example as well? Be merciful to me. He cries out for mercy, simultaneous with his conviction of sin. And so he flees to Christ to save him. By faith, he receives Christ and rests in Christ alone as the sufficient salvation of his soul. True repentance, in other words, sees the finality of Christ, recognizes that in Christ, full salvation is provided. And I don't keep working to earn merit after that.

Oh, my life changes. I bring forth good works, but it is in response to Christ's favor, not to earn Christ's favor. There is a difference between heaven and hell in that understanding. Someone explained to me the entire philosophy of ministry that thinks the best thing that we can do for sinners is to entertain them and be likable and to make them laugh or to give them a little bump of self-esteem or to help them with a little bit of a self-improvement 20-minute little thing. Tell me, how in God's name do you justify a philosophy of ministry like that when Scripture is so clear about what true salvation is? What are you trying to do in that kind of ministry?

There's no excuse for that. Some, no doubt, do it out of ignorance because that's just what they were taught to do, but some know, and their culpability before a holy God will be great because there will be a stricter judgment to those who taught. I appreciated what Pastor MacArthur said.

He's doing everything he can to minimize the trauma when he stands before God. The accountability, the great accountability of teaching God's Word to sinners. There was a man many centuries ago.

The name slips me. It's a famous quote. It says, I preach as a dying man to dying men. I preach as if never to preach again, as a dying man to dying men. That's the urgency that animates the true preaching of the gospel. The preacher himself realizes, I'm a wisp, I'm a vapor.

And he looks at his audience and says, you're a wisp and a vapor also. And so there is an urgency that animates true preaching that should never be despised, that should never be compromised by suggesting by your demeanor that something less than internal matters are at stake here. Beloved, that's why we do what we do. So, there's a final aspect of repentance that we should not miss. Third point here is that repentance has a true turn toward obedience. Repentance has a true turn toward obedience. And I invite you to turn to Ephesians chapter 4.

Ephesians chapter 4. The unique and common characteristic of non-Christians, of sinners, is this, according to the Bible. They can be known by their alienation and hostility toward the true God. They are alienated from God. They are hostile to the true God.

They may be trying to pursue their own form of righteousness, but it is not according to truth, and therefore it is not acceptable to God. It would be like going to Fifth Third Bank with a stack of Monopoly money to pay your mortgage and say, look at all the money I've got here. I want to pay off my mortgage. And the bank says, don't be so foolish. That's not real currency. That doesn't pay for anything. That's God's response to those who try to earn their own salvation, who try to be good enough, who create their own system of works and say, if I do this, surely God will be pleased with me.

No, it's Monopoly money. It has no value in the bank of God. And sinners, even if they are looking for trying to work out their salvation, they can be known by their alienation and hostility toward God. Look at verse 17 of Ephesians chapter 4. The Apostle Paul says, So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer, just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart.

And they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity and greediness. That's a pretty dark picture of humanity, but absolutely accurate because we're reading the inspired, inerrant Word of God. And that is the scriptural judgment on the mind of unsaved men. But what do you find in the true Christian? What do you find in the one who has repented and forsaken sin and turned to Christ and received Him?

Verse 20, again, notice the Christ-centered nature of these things. He says, But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new self which, in the likeness of God, has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. The spirit of the mind of the one who is truly repented is marked by a separation from that former manner of thinking and life and is now animated by principles of righteousness, of holiness, of truth. And their mind, they now have a new mind that is operating at the core of their heart. Rather than being engaged with their former futility, there is an engagement, there is an embracing, there is a love, there is a submission to truth. And the mind of the old man has passed away, 2 Corinthians 5.21, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, behold, the old things have passed away, behold, new things have come.

What are those new things? It's a mind that is devoted to righteousness and truth and the pursuit of holiness in Christ. And in its seminal form, in its seed form, repentance has that. Laying aside the old mind, laying aside the old man and turning to Christ for new life. And when you remember that repentance is a work of God, that repentance is something that is granted by God to the human heart, you can see why it would be that way. That there is a power to it.

Beloved, think about it. This is part of the miracle of regeneration. By the way, I believe that God still works miracles. I believe that every time a man is born again, a miracle has taken place. Because a new mind, a new heart has been planted in him from above that he could never do on his own.

He could never produce that on his own. A total reversal where once he loved his sin, now he hates it. Once he was ignorant of God, now he knows him.

Truly knows him. Whereas before this precious book, once was a closed-lock book that he could not understand, now he opens and he reads with understanding, with joy surging through his hearts, with a newfound spirit pulsating through his veins. The true reality of true repentance. Because the Holy Spirit changes, renews the mind to produce harmony with God. Turn over to Colossians chapter 3 verse 9. Colossians chapter 3 verse 9 says, Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices. In salvation you laid aside that old man and all the evil that attended him, and you have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the one who created him. The old mind put aside the new mind, the new self, renewed according to the true knowledge of God as he is revealed in Scripture. Titus chapter 3 verse 4. Again, you just see these themes of mercy and Christ and newness of mind emphasized repeatedly in New Testament teaching about salvation.

Verse 4. But when the kindness of God our Savior and his love for mankind appeared, salvation came because God is kind, because he is loving, he saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit whom he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by his grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. Christ-centered mercy, a Christ-centered renewal of the mind produced by the work of the Holy Spirit. When you see this aspect of the mind involved in repentance, when you see this aspect of repentance, when you understand the biblical teaching on repentance, something really crucial emerges for you to understand. Repentance is not primarily introspective remorse that looks back to the past in shame over all of your sins. Repentance, beloved.

Oh, my hands are almost shaking here. Repentance, true repentance is a turning to Christ in a new direction of life, forsaking the old to pursue something new, forsaking trust in self, forsaking sin to receive Christ and to turn to him and to pursue him with a disposition of obedience. That's true repentance. And so we're not impressed by those who would cut themselves and inflict pain upon themselves in an effort to atone for their sins, as sometimes you see foolish people doing in the Philippines and in Catholicism and other places trying to reenact the sufferings of Christ and trying to crucify themselves. That's not repentance.

That's not real. That's foolish, a foolish effort that works in self-righteousness. Your own blood cannot atone for your own sins. It takes the blood of someone else because your blood is guilty. It takes the blood of an innocent lamb to take away sin. William Chamberlain again says this about the nature of true repentance. In true repentance, the whole of a man's nature and his viewpoints are changed when a man is in Christ Jesus. Somehow, a creative activity of God works through the message of a crucified Savior, preached by sinning men to a world in sin and revolt, and so God changes the minds of men from the mind of the flesh to the mind of Christ. Repentance is produced as the Holy Spirit works within the human life transforming its aspirations, ideals, ambitions, and viewpoints. The central theme upon which the Spirit plays is the message of a crucified Savior. The response to this infinite love is repentance.

End quote. And if I might say, amen. You see, beloved, repentance is not a one-time crisis resolved in a moment with a counselor after an invitation to a sinner's bench. Repentance, true repentance, is marked by a forsaking of sin throughout life with a new mind that is in submission to Christ and is in conformity to His will. Not sinless, not perfect, but recognizing as the fundamental controlling disposition of the heart that I am oriented toward Christ, I want to obey Him even when I fail, even when I fall short. That is repentance. That is the reality of the work of God. And so, beloved, are you aware of your sin?

Do you see mercy in the hands of Christ? Have you turned to Him in faith with an obedient mind, an obedient disposition? I want to follow you. You said, follow me, Lord, amen.

I will follow you. Give me strength, help me to do so, even as I stumble so badly along the way. Peter said in response to the third question that Jesus asked him in John 21, Lord, you know all things.

You know that I love you. John Murray in his book, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, says this, the specific character of repentance is to turn from sin to God. The specific character of faith is to receive and rest upon Christ alone for salvation. May God bless you as you seek Christ according to the revelation of God, contained in the 66 books of the Bible, and made specifically clear in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Today on The Truth Pulpit, Pastor Don Green has completed our series, Unless You Repent.

He'll have more powerful teaching from the Word of God on our next broadcast, so plan now to be with us then. But Don, is there any aspect of our faith more important to grasp than that of true repentance? Well, Bill, it's certainly one of the critical aspects that we need to understand in our modern Christian society where the idea of repentance is kind of fallen into disrepute. It's not a popular topic of discussion, but Jesus Christ himself said that repentance should be preached for the forgiveness of sin to all the nations in Luke 24. My friend, if you'd like to study this matter further, you can go to our website, thetruthpulpit.com. Do a search for the keyword repentance, and you'll find many further studies to help you understand this vital doctrine of our faith. Thanks, Don, and friend, remember, do visit us at thetruthpulpit.com for helpful study resources. That's thetruthpulpit.com. I'm Bill Wright, and we'll see you next time for more from the Truth Pulpit.