TRUE REPENTANCE

Series: RepentanceLesson #1

We are going to deal now with the thought of “REPENTANCE,” something almost forgotten in the church today, but without which there can be no real relationship with God. John the Baptist came preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mat. 3:2). Jesus came preaching, “Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish” (Lk. 13:3). The apostles went everywhere preaching repentance and forgiveness of sin in His name. We begin with this thought, “True Repentance.”

We are going to be dealing with this subject over the next five lessons and God has something to say to you. If we are going to get people saved, we have to bring them to a place of repentance. To do that we have got to understand what repentance is from God’s standpoint.

2Cor. 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

I. In This Chapter, The Apostle Refers To Another Epistle He Had Formerly Written To Corinth On A Certain Subject In Which They Were Greatly To Blame.

1. He speaks here of the effect that it had in bringing them to true repentance. They sorrowed after a godly sort. To the apostle and to God, this was the evidence that their repentance was genuine.

2. In the verse I have taken for my text, the apostle speaks of two kinds of sorrow, one working repentance unto salvation, the other working unto death.

3. He alludes here to what is generally understood as two kinds of repentance and this is the lesson that I want to bring to you today.

4. As we preach the gospel to bring men to a place of recognizing their need for God, we have certainly got to know how to get them there.

5. When you realize that less than two percent of those that come into the church altars to find Christ are ever found in the church again, you recognize something is wrong. That something is that they were not truly born of God.

6. In this lesson I propose to show you that the reason they were not born again is that they were not brought to the place of true repentance.

7. We begin with two questions:

a. What is true repentance?

b. How may it be known?

8. These two questions I hope to answer.

II. It Is Much Later Than We Think. We Must Discriminate Much More Than We Have In Regard To The Nature And Character Of The True Exercise Of Religion.

1. If we were faithful here, there would be a lot less of the false and unprofitable that finds its way into the Christian church.

2. I believe and speak without apology that perhaps eighty-five percent of those that are in the Pentecostal church are tares. That is, they have not really, truly, been born of God.

3. There is nothing I have sought more than the reason why there is so much of this spurious religion, why there are so many in the church that are only kept there by the gimmicks of religion.

4. I know why they do not want to come. It is because that is not their nature. They have not been born again. They came to an altar, they appeared to have gone through some kind of a religious experience, yet were not born again.

5. I have sought to know the foundation of this difficulty.

6. I want to pass on to you what I have come to know, so that you can avoid the pitfalls that are there. Why are there so many who suppose themselves to be right with God, who are not right, unless the Bible be wrong?

7. Why is it so many are deceived? Why are there so many who are impenitent sinners, yet think themselves to have repented toward God?

8. The cause becomes obvious. It is a want of discriminating instructions regarding the foundation of religion, especially regarding true and false repentance.

9. That is the thought that we are going to set before you in the very door of this series on REPENTANCE.

III. What Is True Repentance?

1. First of all, it is a change in opinion respecting the nature of sin.

2. This change of opinion must be followed by a change of feelings toward sin. Feelings are always the result of thought.

3. When our thoughts of sin are such that they produce a corresponding feeling, and if the opinion is right and the feeling corresponds, then this is true repentance.

4. Godly sorrow, such as God requires, must spring from such views of sin as God holds about sin. We must see sin as God sees sin.

5. The preaching of the gospel must take on a different note than most preaching heard in the pulpit today. We don’t preach enough law to bring a man to the place that he knows he is lost.

IV. So What Must Happen? First There Must Be A Change Of Opinion In Regards To Sin.

1. To that person who truly repents, sin looks very different than it does to one who has not repented.

2. The truly repentant is astonished that he could ever desire such a thing. You know that is the truth.

3. You who have really been birthed of God came out of a world of sin to the place of knowing Christ, and you wonder why you could ever desire such a thing.

4. When that opinion changes, and you regard sin differently than God, then you are dead or you are dying.

5. To the repentant, sin is a very odious and distasteful thing.

6. If it is still desirous, and they believe it could end in happiness, and they would never think of forsaking it, such people have not repented. They would like to do it, if it were not for the penalty. These people have not repented.

7. There is a difference we are going to bring out very strongly between being convicted of sin and repenting of sin. There is a world of difference, and the difference is, being saved and being lost.

V. Second, There Must Be A Change Of Opinion Concerning The Character Of Sin In Respect To The Relation To God.

1. Sinners do not see why God threatens sin with such terrible punishment.

2. They love sin so much themselves, they do not see why God should judge it worthy of everlasting punishment.

3. When sinners are soundly convicted, they see sin differently, and so far as opinion is concerned, they see sin in the same light as the Christian. That is, the person that is convicted, who is in that state of conviction, sees sin just like the truly born again Christian.

4. Many a sinner is brought to see sin’s relation to God to be such as to deserve an eternal hell. Most of those who come into our altars are brought to this place. They see sin as God sees sin.

5. Now they only need a corresponding change of feeling to become a Christian. But many times the heart does not go with the opinion.

6. This is the case of devils and wicked and spirits in hell.

7. Mark then, a change of opinion is indispensable to true religion or repentance. Sin must be preached against. It is here that the law enters. We have to preach the law. We have to preach what sin is, a transgression of the law of God, to bring people to a place where their opinion regarding sin is changed.

8. The sinner sees sin as wonderful and he cannot understand why God hates it. When we preach the law of God, and man is made to see sin as God sees sin, the opinion about sin is changed. Before there can ever be corresponding feelings, the opinion of sin has to come in line with God.

9. The heart never goes out to God in true repentance without a change of opinion first. This is the reason that most of the people in the church have never been born again. This is the reason why ninety something percent of the people who have come into our altars to be saved were not born again. There has been a change of opinion without repentance.

10. There can never be a true repentance until that person is brought to the place that the opinion about sin is changed. A soul can be brought to the place where he sees sin as God sees sin, yet not repent.

11. There can be a change of opinion without there being repentance. But there can be no repentance without a change of opinion.

12. A man can see sin as God sees sin and yet never really repent of sin. Until he repents, he never feels about sin like God feels about sin.

VI. In True Repentance There Will Follow This Change Of Feeling.

1. The truly repented soul not only sees sin as a terrible thing, but like God, he hates sin with a passion.

2. What happens to a people that are brought to a change of opinion about sin and yet do not repent?

a. They see sin as God sees sin. They can see that such deserves an eternal punishment in hell, but the feeling has not changed. They still love sin. For that reason the church is filled with the unconverted. They have been convicted, but have never repented.

b. These people still love sin and for this reason they are in and out, up and down, and never spiritually stable. Their opinion is changed, they know sin is a terrible thing, and it deserves eternal punishment in hell, yet they still love it, so they are always falling back into the practice of it.

c. A person may see sin in all of its horror yet his heart still loves it. So, he is still lost.

3. If your repentance is genuine, there is in your mind a conscious change of both views and feelings in regard to sin.

4. Do you know that on this point there is a change in you?

VII. Perfect In Desires.

1. I believe we, as ministers of Christ, have to ask this question to the people we are leading to Christ. What is your feeling toward sin?

2. When repentance is genuine, the disposition to repeat sin is gone. This does not mean that a man in the place of anger or something may not slip, but the disposition to repeat sin is gone.

a. That’s what the Bible means when it says, “If any man be in Christ, there is a new creation old things are passed away and all things become new” (2Cor. 5:17).

b. That doesn’t mean that man or woman is perfected in their actions. Rather they are perfected in their desires. They do not have any desire to repeat sin. That disposition has been changed.

3. If you have truly repented, you no longer love sin. You do not abstain from sin because of fear, you abstain because you hate sin. This is the position of a truly born again man or woman.

4. It can only happen when that person truly repents of their sin. First, the word is presented. As the word is presented there comes conviction. In that state of things, you see sin just like God sees sin, but at this point there is still love for sin. With conviction, God gives you the power to repent. That is, to turn from it. No matter how much you love it, He gives you the power to turn from it. In that repentance, your whole feeling toward sin is changed. The desire toward sin is broken. You do not desire sin, you hate sin.

5. How is this with you? Look at the sins you used to practice. How do they look to you? Do they look pleasant, and would you really love to practice them again if you were not afraid of being lost?

6. If that is true of you, you have the disposition to sin. You are only convicted. Note: Conception (or conviction) is not birth.

7. This has to be made clear to the people that we are bringing to Christ, or they will continually repeat the past. Bringing people to this place of conviction and not leading them on into a deep repentance where they are truly born of God has filled the church with tares.

8. Your opinion of sin may have changed, but if your love for sin remains, you are still a sinner.

VIII.Genuine Repentance Brings A Change Of Conduct.

1. With conviction comes the power to repent. With repentance comes the grace of faith to believe.

2. Many people have said to me, I really would like to be a Christian, but I just don’t have the faith. That isn’t your problem at all. The problem isn’t faith. The problem is with true repentance. If you still have the disposition to sin, and you still love sin, you are only in a state of conviction. You have never been birthed of God.

3. I believe this to be what is intended in our text, “Godly sorrow worketh repentance” (2Cor. 7:10).

4. Godly sorrow worketh a change in conduct, otherwise it would be a repetition of the same idea, or saying that repentance produces repentance.

5. The Apostle Paul was speaking of a change of mind that produces a change of conduct ending in salvation.

6. So again we have the question: “Have you been changed?” Have you forsaken sin? These questions weigh a ton. They are the determining fact as to whether a man has been born again.

7. I have no right, and no other altar worker has the right to give assurance to a person that they are saved. You can not just lead them down what we call “The Roman’s Road” and then assure them that they are saved. We have no right to do that.

8. Are you changed? Has your disposition toward sin changed? Not only do you see sin as God sees it, but do you feel about sin as God feels about it? Do you hate sin?

9. The question is, are you going on the same way, simply having added church to your activity?

10. Genuine repentance leads to a change of conduct.

IX. Then Genuine Repentance Leads To Confession And Restoration.

1. The thief who continues to keep the money has not repented.

2. If you have injured someone and have not righted the injury as much as possible, you have not repented.

X. Paul Says False Repentance Is Worldly (The Sorrow Of The World, That Is). It Is A Sorrow For Sin, Arising From Worldly Considerations And Motives Connected With The Present Life. It Has No Regard To The True Nature Of Sin.

1. In our time we have witnessed some of the biggest names of religion caught in sin and immorality. Their lives were a terrible mess, and it had been going on for years. When it was found out, when they were caught, we had all of this weeping, and sometimes a great show on television of brokenness.

2. Why are they weeping? It is not godly sorrow. It is sorrow of the world. They are just sorry they got caught. They have lost an empire. Had they not been caught, they would have gone on in sin.

3. It leaves the feelings unchanged, because we see most of the time they are right back into the same mess they were in before they were caught. Such repentance is temporary. It leaves the feelings unchanged. It works death.

a. The individual is continually relapsing into the old sins.

b. The reason: The disposition to sin is not gone. It is only checked and restrained by fear.

4. This was Israel’s trouble. They continually returned to sin and idolatry. They had only worldly sorrow.

5. True repentance changes the conduct and disposition to where I hate sin like God hates sin. That is a position of a truly repented born again believer. And you don’t have to spend all of your time trying to get these kind of people to go to church. They hate what they were.

6. The Bible says we will love what we hated and hate what we loved. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death. This message has to be renewed, revived, and preached if we are going to see men and women truly birthed of God and brought into the purpose of the Almighty.