Repentance is the first step we have to take to receive the salvation that God offers us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance also will activate the Holy Spirit in our lives.
Acts 2:38 Then Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Acts 17:30 Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
A. WHAT REPENTANCE IS NOT
1. NOT JUST FEELING GUILTY
Feeling guilty about our sin comes before repentance, but is not repentance itself. No one repents unless they first feel guilty about their sin, but not all who feel guilty actually repent. (For example, Governor Felix felt guilty but did not repent.)
Acts 24:25 Now as he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and answered, "Go away for now; when I have a convenient time I will call for you."
2. NOT JUST BEING SORRY FOR YOUR SIN
Some people are very sorry because of the consequences of their sin, or because they have been caught. Many people are sorry, not for what they have done wrong, but for the penalty they receive for being caught.
2Cor. 7:10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death.
3. NOT JUST TRYING TO BE A GOOD PERSON
Many people try in their own strength to become a better person. Any self-effort has a root of self-righteousness in it, which does not acknowledge the need of repentance from sin.
Isa. 64:6 But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; we all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
4. NOT JUST BECOMING RELIGIOUS
Many people become religious and will fast and pray and go to church like the Pharisees. But they cover themselves with religious activities and never repent.
Matt. 3:7-10 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? 8 Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, 9 and do not think to say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. 10 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
5. NOT JUST KNOWING THE TRUTH
Many people know the stories from Jesus Christ and can even recite parts of the Bible. But believing with your intelligence (head) is different than believing with the heart.
Matt. 7:24-27 "Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: 25 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: 27 and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall."
James 2:19-20 You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe--and tremble! 20 But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?
B. WHAT TRUE REPENTANCE IS
1. BEING SORRY TO GOD FOR YOUR SIN
Ps. 51:2-4 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, And cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I acknowledge my transgressions, And my sin is always before me. 4 Against You, You only, have I sinned, And done this evil in Your sight-- That You may be found just when You speak, And blameless when You judge.
Ps. 38:8 I am feeble and severely broken; I groan because of the turmoil of my heart.
2. BEING TRUTHFUL ABOUT YOUR SIN
Ps. 32:5 I acknowledged my sin to You, And my iniquity I have not hidden. I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the Lord," And You forgave the iniquity of my sin.
1John 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
3. TURNING AWAY FROM SIN
Prov. 28:13 He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
4. HATING SIN
Hebr. 1:9 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness; Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You With the oil of gladness more than Your companions."
Ez. 20:43 And there you shall remember your ways and all your doings with which you were defiled; and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight because of all the evils that you have committed.
5. WHEN POSSIBLE, PAYING BACK TO OTHERS WHAT YOU OWE.
Luke 19:8 Then Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, "Look, Lord, I give half of my goods to the poor; and if I have taken anything from anyone by false accusation, I restore fourfold."
C. WHAT REPENTANCE INVOLVES
1. TURNING FROM SIN
Zech. 1:4 Do not be like your fathers, to whom the former prophets preached, saying, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Turn now from your evil ways and your evil deeds." But they did not hear nor heed Me," says the Lord.
Gal. 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Eph. 5:5 For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God.
2. TURNING FROM THE WORLD
1John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
James 4:4 Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
3. TURNING FROM YOURSELF TO GOD
2Cor. 5:15 and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.
Luke 14:26 "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple.
4. TURNING AWAY FROM THE DEVIL.
Acts 26:18 to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.'
Col. 1:13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love,
5. TURNING TO GOD
Zech. 1:3 Therefore say to them, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Return to Me," says the Lord of hosts, "and I will return to you," says the Lord of hosts.
6. TURNING TO RIGHT LIVING
Rom. 6:13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
Tit. 2:11-14 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, 13 looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, 14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.
*Let's repent and keep turning from sin as God reveals wrongdoing to us!
