Psalm 86:11 “Teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you.”
The old person of the flesh raises their ugly head at times we least expect them to attack us. Even Great Awakening Pastor Jonathan Edwards, often hailed as America’s greatest preacher, after having delivered an inspired message calling thousands back to God, had to battle his own ego by lying prostrate on the floor before God. Sanctification is setting our heart before God according to His purpose, not ours, and to allow God to work within us to will and to do of His good pleasure and to delight ourselves in Him. To set ourselves apart from this world, we must remind ourselves that without God we are empty jars of clay … we are earthen vessels molded by the Master to allow His holy light to shine in us and through us.
People are divided into four categories after having heard the gospel of God. The first category is those who reject of the message of the Gospel. The second category is those who come forward but lack assurance. The third is those who think they are saved but they are not. The fourth category is those who know whom they have believed and are persuaded that Jesus is able to keep that which He’s committed unto them against the Day of Judgement. Repentance is the key to entering into the fourth category. Repentance is defined in the 1828 Webster’s dictionary as: Real penitence; sorrow or deep contrition for sin, as an offense and dishonor to God, a violation of his holy law, and the basest ingratitude towards a Being of infinite benevolence. This is called evangelical repentance, and is accompanied and followed by amendment of life.
Repentance is to turn from myself and unto God. In the book titled “The Narrow Way”, William Nichols says that when Paul spoke to the Greeks on Mars Hill, he warned them, “unless you repent, you will perish” (Luke 13:3). Repentance begins with seeing and understanding the significance of “the fork in the road” of life. It is the personal recognition of the wickedness of the fallen nature of our own fleshly heart desires. Repentance means to turn around and to change direction … to change our mind from our own will to see, to seek, and to follow God’s will, not ours. The voice that convicts us is the “hound of heaven” who relentlessly pursues us and will never leave us or forsake us.
Isaiah 55:7 says, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” Repentance is to change priority from the life of my flesh to His life in the spirit. To repent is to right the wrongs that we have done, our cleansing is forgiveness according to the payment of our debt of sin by our Savior Jesus Christ. When we repented and confessed unto salvation, He who was without sin became the perfect sin sacrifice on our behalf that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).
The story of the Prodigal Son is the story of repentance. When like the prodigal son, the pig pen of this world shakes us from the delusion of self … when we “come to ourselves” and realize that in my soul dwelleth no good thing. When we reach the bottom and there is nowhere to go but up, this is the point of changing direction. Repentance is forsaking the pig pen of this world and turning our eyes upon Jesus. Repentance is to do an about-face … it is the inflection point when we turn from the selfishness of sin and unto the righteousness of God in Christ.
There are three questions that lead to repentance:
1. Are you willing to turn away from all your sin and willfully pursue the righteousness of Christ instead?
2. Are you willing to give up the right to run your own life and submit to the authority of Jesus Christ?
3. Are you willing to believe and be obedient to Jesus Christ and to become his Follower forever?
If the answer to these three questions is “yes,” the final question is: When you heard these three questions, did they sound like a burden or did they sound like being set free from the bondage of sin? If the answer to these three questions is “no”, the final question is: Which of your sins are worth going to Hell for eternity?
When the student is ready for the answers, the teacher will come. When the time is ready, true repentance turns from sin and toward God, begging for forgiveness from sin. The moment of conviction is the point of inflection. It only takes one moment in time (transformation rebirth in repentance and acceptance of the Blessed Savior Jesus Christ) to turn a life around … Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. And the things of earth become strangely dim… in the light of his glorious grace.
Romans 2:4 says that it is the righteousness, kindness and goodness of God that leads a person to repentance. If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive our sin and the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Godly repentance brings us to the righteousness of God through the finished work of Jesus Christ on our behalf.
What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, blessed is the flow,
that makes me white as snow, no other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Matthew 3:8 “Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance.”
May God richly bless you.
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