REPENT OR PERISH. To say the least repentance brings great joy to our Heavenly Father when a sinner is found and turns his heart towards home.

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1 REPENT OR PERISH Luke 13:1-5 INTRODUCTION I want to preach on the subject of repentance this morning. This past Wednesday we studied the parables of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Prodigal Son. In each of the parables repentance is central. Repentance is explicitly mentioned in the first two parables. In the parable of the lost sheep Jesus said, there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent. And in the parable of the lost coin Jesus said, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." In the parable of the Prodigal Son Jesus doesn t use the word repentance. He illustrates it when the prodigal son came to his senses and decided to return to the father, ask him forgiveness, and take him back as a hire servant. And we see the father joyfully receiving the son back home and lavishing him with love and blessings. To say the least repentance brings great joy to our Heavenly Father when a sinner is found and turns his heart towards home. We live in a day where we don t hear many sermons on repentance. There seems to be a lack of a call to repent, except maybe by a few extreme groups, who have an narrow agenda. I even looked at my sermon barrel and I only found two sermons specifically dedicated to the subject of repentance. (After this morning I ll have three sermons!) Is the lack of a call to repent in some quarters because we hesitate to call sin sin. Is it we don t want to be offensive or negative? But how could repentance be called negative if it brings joy in heaven? THE NECESSITY OF REPENTANCE Repentance is important. Jesus told the listeners in his day to repent or perish! Repentance is a major teaching of the Bible in the Old Testament as well as the New. Ezekiel 18:30 NKJV "Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways," says the Lord GOD. "Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity will not be your ruin. July 15, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 1

2 .Jesus began his public ministry with the call to repent. Mark 1:15 NKJV and saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel." On the day of Pentecost, when the people asked Peter what should they do, he replied:, "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. (Acts 2:38) In his sermon at the temple Peter preached: Acts 3:19 NIV Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, Repentance is a major teaching of the Scripture because it is necessary and essential for salvation and it is what makes God happy or to rejoice, when one sinner repents. Now we need to understand the nature of true repentance and repent to avoid counterfeit repentance. What is involved in true repentance? THREE TYPES OF REPENTANCE The 17 th century Puritan John Colquhoun speaks of three kinds of repentance: Natural repentance, Legal repentance, and Evangelical repentance. Natural repentance is that natural feeling of regret and self-condemnation of which a person is conscious for having done that which he sees he ought not to have done. This may have its virtues, but natural repentance is not the repentance that brings salvation. Legal repentance comes to a person who has a legalistic mind-set in terms of satisfying God s law. He admits that he is a great sinner, and confesses that he has broken God s law. But that is as far as it gets. Legal repentance is not the repentance that brings salvation. Evangelical repentance is a turning from sin to God because of the work of the Holy Spirit implanting a principle leading a person to godly sorrow for his sin and a heart-felt turning to God in faith for forgiveness and strength to move July 15, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 2

3 forward with God. This is the repentance that makes God happy and it is repentance which Jesus calls us to. True repentance is a turning from sin to God because of a work of the Holy Spirit in our heart. THE NATURE OF TRUE REPENTANCE To nail down what s involved in evangelical repentance or true repentance let s consider the Biblical terms for repentance. There are two of them. One is metameolmai and the other is metanoeo. Metamelomai has the idea of a feeling of concern or regret. It has the idea of godly sorrow over sin. Being sorry for our sins is a part of true repentance, but we can be sorry for our sins for ungodly reasons. We can be sorry or our sins because we were caught. We can be sorry for our sins because of the bad consequences our sins bring us. But this is not the sorrow of Biblical repentance. Judas had metamelomai but he didn t have true repentance. (Mat 27:3 NKJV) Then Judas, His betrayer, seeing that He had been condemned, was remorseful and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, The sorrow of Biblical repentance is the realization that God hates our sin. It is an affront to the love of God. Our sin is against God above all. Our sin is a great evil in God s sight. We are sorry for sin because of what it has done to God and to His reputation. David s prayer in Psalm 51 reflects a godly sorrow for sin. Psalms 51:3-4 NIV For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. (4) Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. The other word for repentance is metaneo and it means to change the mind. This word gets at another aspect of repentance. We change our mind about the direction of our life. We realize that we are going the way of destruction and we turn around. A good illustration I ve used in witness is looking at repentace like going down the highway and realizing we are going the wrong way and we make a U turn and go the other way. A funny time this happened to me is when I was in Seminary in Indiana and was going to see Lana Jo in Alabama. I was in such a rush and so excited I started out the wrong way, I realized that I was headed toward Chicago, not Alabama. I immediately repented and turn around. July 15, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 3

4 The nature of true repentance is that it is a change of mind, but just a change of mind still doesn t get to the total nature of Biblical repentance. Biblical repentance is a change of heart. The heart is the core of our being. True repentance is a change that comes within the whole person. It includes our emotions, our mind, and our will. It is a turning from sin to God of the whole person. The idea of turning captures the basic action of repentance. It is turning from our sins to God. One of the clearest examples of this turning is in I Thessalonians 1 1 Thessalonians 1:9 NIV (9) for they themselves report what kind of reception you gave us. They tell how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, Repentance is turning to God from our idols (our sins) with our whole heart. Now the question is what will convince me to turn from my sin to God in the total way? THE SOURCE OF REPENTANCE What is the source or spring of true repentance? Is repentance something that just comes out of our natural heart? Is it something that we screw up enough resolve in our heart and turn to God? No. It is a work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. An interesting verse is Acts 5:31 Acts 5:31 NIV God exalted him to his own right hand as Prince and Savior that he might bring Israel to repentance and forgive their sins. What was the first thing Jesus did after God exalted him to his own right hand? He sent the Holy Spirit. One of the ministries of the Holy Spirit is to bring us to repentance. Now we have to do the repenting. The Holy Spirit doesn t do the repenting for us, but the Holy Spirit gives us the willingness and the power to turn from our sins to God. There are some things that the Holy Spirit uses to bring us to repentance. For one thing He brings home the reality of the eternal consequences of our sin. He convinces us that we have two choices, either repent or perish as Jesus taught. July 15, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 4

5 An even more powerful source is that He shows us the reality of Jesus death as it relates to our sins. Again John Colquhoun, a 17 th Puritan, stated it this way: The exercise of true repentance flows in an eminent degree from a deep and affecting meditation on the doleful anguish and amazing death of the Lord Jesus, our adorable Surety. When we seriously consider who He was, for whom he suffered, and what he endured, we cannot but perceive God s infinite and irreconcilable abhorrence of all iniquity. To bring us to repentance allow the Holy Spirit to show you what Jesus went through to provide you forgiveness. Think that it was because of your sins that Jesus suffered on the cross. It was for your sins that Jesus suffered rejection, humiliation, and scourging. Surely your sins put Jesus on the Cross. You should abhor your sins and turn from them because it cost the life of the Son of God. Another source of repentance that the Holy Spirit uses is a truly spiritual apprehension of the mercy of God in his offer to pardon you. We need to cry out like David when he saw the sinfulness of his sin against God. He turned to God and cried: Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. by These are the sources of true repentance. The Holy Spirit brings athe eternal consequences of our sins to our minds. He shows us the abhorrence of our sins before a holy God. He shows us what our sins cost Jesus Christ and He give us an apprehension of the mercy of God in pardoning us. CONCLUSION Let me conclude by summarizing what I understand about repentance. One, it is absolutely essential for salvation. It cannot be skipped over in our embracing Christ as our Lord and Savior. There is no salvation without repentance. Two, it is more than being sorry for our sins. It is more than just having a change of mind about my life s direction. It is a change of our total being, a deep change coming from our heart. July 15, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 5

6 Three, it is a work of the Holy Spirit. We cannot gin up the courage or the resolution out of our natural heart to repent. It cmes from the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit in creating in us a new heart. Four, we are still the ones who repent. God doesn t repent for us. We must sense a godly sorrow for our sins and we must turn in faith to God from our sins. Five, the Holy Spirit will use the reality of our eternal perishing, the abhorrence for our sin because of what it cost Jesus Christ, and the spiritual apprehension of the mercy of God to move us to turn from sin to God. Six, let me share a verse that has helped me tremendously when I think about the reality of my repentance. It is Jeremiah 31:18-19 in the KJV turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; Repentance ultimately is a gift of God. Repentance is the sinner being found by the Holy Spirit and turning their heart toward the Heavenly Father. No wonder Jesus said more than once that there is great rejoicing in the presence of God over one sinner who repents. When a person repents he is coming back to the Heavenly Father, who is waiting anxiously and lovingly to receive the son who was lost but now is found. pray Have you experienced true, Biblical, Holy Spirit induced repentance? If not, turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; Amen? Amen! July 15, 2018 Corntassel CP Church Page 6