Questions People Ask About Repentance

Introduction

Ladies and gentlemen, the song that we just sang said, Because he lives, I can face tomorrow. Because he lives, all fear is gone. I hope that you’ll be back here tomorrow night at 7 30. We’re going to be talking about fearless living in fearful times. The lesson tomorrow night may be for some people the most important lesson of the week. There are some people who live in fear of almost everything that’s going on in the world today. And our God has a way that we can deal with the issue of fear. Thank you for being here tonight. I appreciate very much the opportunity you’ve given me for these few minutes to study the Word of God together. And I promise that I will not waste your time.

We’re going to look into the Bible. We’re going to see what God has to say about an important topic. You know, preachers love for people to ask them questions. Every time a preacher hears a question, he’s probably hearing about something that he ought to be preaching on. And one of the questions that I get, or a series of questions that I get quite often, have to do with uh with repentance. Repentance is something that is essential to salvation, and yet, ladies and gentlemen, it is something that many people fail to understand. Tonight in the course of our study, we’re going to look at four basic questions on repentance. What is repentance? Is it merely being sorry for sin, or is it something more than that? We secondly are going to ask the question, who is responsible?

That is, who is responsible to call men to repentance? Is that God’s responsibility, or is that a responsibility that men have? And then thirdly, how should repentance be preached? What should you expect to hear if the truth on repentance is being taught? And then finally tonight, is there a way to tell if I have repented? Will it be seen in my actions? That’s what we’re going to discuss in the course of our study this evening. And if you have your Bible, want to follow along with me, that’ll be good. If you’re not able to follow along, or if you don’t have your Bible, please pick up a copy of the outline on the way out, or you can also request the tape on tonight’s lesson or any of the lessons throughout the week.

But let me ask you a question. As you look at those four questions, where’d they go?

Folks, I’ve been making this work great on my computer. Okay, I’m going to give you those questions all over again. What is repentance? Is it merely being sorry for sin? This is part of the intro. You know, let me tell you something. I did uh I did live radio, call in radio five days a week for about twelve years. We did about two thousand seven hundred live broadcasts, call in programs, and there were times on the radio, there were times on the radio, ladies and gentlemen, where you really mess up bad, a whole lot worse than I’ve messed up tonight. And you think, well, boy, I sure wish I was on tape today, because if I was on tape, I’d stop this thing, rewind it, and start over.

1. What Is Repentance?

But this is life, it’s the real thing. Okay. Is what is repentance? Merely sorrow for sin or something more. Second question, who’s responsible to call men to repentance? Is it God’s job or is that responsibility upon men? Third question, how should repentance be preached? If it’s preached according to the Bible, what should you expect to hear? And then finally, is there a way to tell if I have repented? Will it be seen in my actions? How would you answer these questions? More importantly than how you would answer these questions is how does God answer these questions in the Bible? Well, let’s take our first question. What is repentance? The first part of our question, of course, calls for a definition. And the Greek word that is most often used for repentance in the New Testament is a word metineo.

That’s probably the wrong pronunciation, but here at least is the right spelling of the word, okay? And the word, according to Strong’s lexicon and according to Vine’s dictionary, means to think differently. That’s what repentance is is to think differently, to change one’s mind or purpose, but it always involves a change for the better. It is an amendment of one’s life. A person is going to change his life. Repentance, ladies and gentlemen, involves a change of mind accompanied by a change of life. It’s more then than just merely saying that I am sorry for my sins. And so let’s answer that second part by looking at a scripture in 2 Corinthians chapter 7, verses 9 and 10. Here the apostle says, Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance.

Notice what it says, the sorrow led to repentance. Now that tells me right off that sorrow in itself is not repentance, but it’s one of those things that should lead to repentance, should lead to the change of mind that produces the change in one’s life. Continuing the reading, it says your sorrow led to repentance, for you were made sorry in a godly manner that you might suffer loss from us in nothing, for godly sorrow produces repentance, leading to salvation, not to be regretted. But the sorrow of the world produces death. Ladies and gentlemen, if all a person has is sorrow, if that’s all they have, then they do not have repentance. Sorrow ought to lead to repentance. And if a person all they have is sorrow, then they cannot have salvation, because repentance leads to salvation.

And it is godly sorrow that leads to repentance. You know, folks, speaking in general terms, an awful lot of us, an awful lot of us, are really sorry about the mess we’ve made out of our lives. But we never repent. That is, we never really change our lives. And why is it that we don’t change? Well, it’s because it’s often the case that we’re more comfortable with the mess than without it. Now, someone says, I don’t understand that. Well, let me explain to you how it worked. Let me give you an illustration. When my daughter Jennifer, who now is some 34 years of age, well, you go back about 20 years in her life to when she was 14 or 15, and she was a teenager living in our house.

And uh, when guests came over, we kept her bedroom door closed. And those of you who have teenage daughters, you may know the reason why. Now, maybe your daughter is a neat freak. My daughter was not, okay. And Lee would go in from time to time and try to straighten things up, and within 24 hours it would be in the same circumstance. Jennifer didn’t like a messy room, and I think she kind of regretted that she had a really messy room, but well, it was too much trouble to clean up the mess. And so she just became comfortable with a messy room. And that’s the way an awful lot of people are in their lives. You see, they live the way they live because it’s going to require too much effort, too much energy, too much work to clean things up.

And so there’s some people who find themselves like in that messy room, and they look at it and say, Well, I don’t like it this way, but it’s easier than trying to clean it up. And so that’s the way some folks are in their lives with regard to sin. Ladies and gentlemen, repentance is a change of mind and a change of life. And let me tell you one thing that repentance is not, and I’m speaking to the members of the church of Christ at this moment. Repentance is not you going out and committing some sin. You’ve committed maybe, maybe you’ve you’ve gotten drunk or maybe you’ve committed adultery. Repentance is not coming down and taking a seat on the front and say, I’ve repented, I’ve gone forward.

I remember a man several years ago who was a gospel preacher, and he got himself involved with a lady in the congregation, committed immorality. And the man said, I know it’s wrong, but when it’s over, I’ll go forward before the congregation. Listen, going forward before a congregation is not repentance. It might be a time when you acknowledge publicly you’re wrong, but repentance involves a change of mind that produces a change of life that says, I’m not going to live this way any longer. And when a man says, when it’s over, I’ll go forward and take a seat on the front. No, ladies and gentlemen, repentance is something much, much deeper than that. It is a godly sorrow. It is a sorrow that recognizes that I have offended my creator.

2. Who Is Responsible to Call Men to Repentance?

And I’m guilty of heinous crime against God. And I’m sorry for the way I have lived. It does not involve a mere action of walking down an aisle and taking a seat on the front. Now, let’s ask the question, ladies and gentlemen, whose responsibility is it to call men to repentance? Is that God’s responsibility or man’s? And this is an important question. I had a lady recently call me on the telephone, and she asked me this question. She said, Who is supposed to do the calling of people to repentance? She said that someone had told her that men should not call other men to repentance, but that was God’s job to do that, and we better not step into God’s territory. Now the person who told this lady this may have gotten this idea from Acts chapter 17 and verse 30, where it says, God commands all men everywhere to repent.

Indeed, God does command men to repent. And in this context, you know what God is doing in Acts chapter 17? Turn your Bible open there with me to Acts chapter 17. I want you to see in Acts 17 that God is calling men to come to repentance. In Acts chapter 17, we can begin the reading at about verse number 22. In verse 22, Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious. For as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing him, I proclaim to you. The city of Athens, ladies and gentlemen, is filled with idolatry.

Drop down to verse number 20 and read through verse 22. Verses I’m sorry, I’ve already read those verses. Drop down to verse 29. There the apostle says in verse 29, therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now God commands all men everywhere to repent. Paul here is talking about idolatry. The text is addressing people who are guilty of idolatry, and God is calling men to repentance. No question about it. But the question I’ve got is how is God doing it? Is God speaking from heaven and say, Y’all at Athens, you need to give up.

Give up your idols. Is that what’s happening here? Is God writing the message across the sky? What is God doing here? Ladies and gentlemen, God is using a man. God is using a man to call other men to repentance. And I would think it strange that anyone would go to this text to Acts chapter 17 and verse 30, that they would go to this text and say, Well, men ought not to do it. Because in this text, God is using a man to call other men to repentance. Years ago, there was a caller on my radio program who talked about an issue that required repentance. And I gave this person two or three verses that I thought would help them. And I said, Well, here’s a verse in 1 Corinthians that may be helpful.

Here’s a verse in Romans that you need to follow. And if you do what these verses say, you can change your life. And the person sort of got angry with me. This lady got angry with me, and she said, she said, Well, what you’re saying may be okay, but what I want is I want something from God. I don’t want to hear what you have to say. Let God show me. If I’m supposed to change my life, I want to hear it from God. I don’t want you to give me scripture. If God has something to say to me, let God give me scripture. Ladies and gentlemen, God has already given all the scripture that He is ever going to give. Everything that’s found in this book, this is the complete will of God.

You can take this book and put it under your arm and know that this is the scripture, all the scripture, this is all of heaven’s message to mankind. And yet, this lady insisted that God is somehow going to do something in addition to this, or God is going to select verses for her. It’s her job to read the Bible and to see those verses for herself. It’s my job as a gospel preacher to read the Bible. And when I see a person in the circumstance that she’s in, it’s my job to give her book, chapter, and verse that will help her to come to repentance. You see, there are people who have the idea that somehow preachers ought not to be involved in this. God is not going to personally speak to you.

God will not personally speak to me and call us to repentance. Yes, God calls us to repentance, but he uses men. He uses men in that process. I want you to notice three passages out of the book of Acts to see how God used human agency to call people to repentance. I’m looking at Acts chapter 2, verse 38. It was the day of Pentecost. These people realized they had put to death the very Lord in Christ. They cried out and said, Men and brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized. Now, ladies and gentlemen, Acts 238 is spoken by a man. Yes, it was God’s man, and yes, God was using that man. But I want you to see here that God used a man to call others to repentance.

Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ. One chapter later, Acts chapter 3, verse 19, the preacher is the same, maybe a different crowd, but the preacher said, Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. Here again is a man giving the commandment of God, that which God had given him, he’s directing it to other men and to other women in order that they might hear the message of repentance. Notice this passage. In Acts chapter 8 and verse 22, here is a case. The man speaking here is still the Apostle Peter, but the man he’s speaking to is a man who is a Christian. In the two former verses in Acts 238 and Acts 3.19, he was speaking to people who were not Christians, calling them to become Christians, calling on them to repent and to change their lives and to obey the Lord, to become God’s children.

3. How Should Repentance Be Preached?

But in Acts 8.22, you’ve got a case here where a Christian has gone astray and he’s committed a sin, and Peter says to him, Repent of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. Here again, even within the church, among the assembly of the believers, here God uses another man to call men to repentance. Preaching repentance is an essential part of preaching the gospel. And if a gospel preacher cannot call men to repentance, then a gospel preacher cannot preach the word of God, because that is part of preaching the word of God, part of God’s plan for our lives. Now, question is, how should repentance be preached? What should be said and what should not be said?

Well, let me first suggest to you that there is a general message of repentance that must be preached, that is, that God commands all men everywhere to repent of sin. And as part of that message, we ought to preach the judgment. You see, in the text that follows this, in Acts chapter 17 and verse 31, right after verse 30, in verse 31, it tells why God has called upon all men to repent. It says, Because he has appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he has ordained, whereof he has given assurance to all men and that he has raised him from the dead. And so verse 31 tells us that God is going to judge all men by Jesus Christ.

There’s judgment coming. That’s why we need to repent. You don’t want to stand before God on the judgment day, still being guilty of your sins. That’s why God calls upon men to repent of sin. Now, look, folks, this business of repentance. This is not some idea that preachers thought of, and we’re not standing up here tonight saying, okay, what can we teach that we think will be a good idea for people? Let’s dream up some idea. Look, no, the idea of repentance, the whole issue of salvation comes from heaven. It is God appealing to sinful men to change their lives so that on that judgment day they’ll be right with God and they can enter into eternity with God. God does not want anyone to be lost.

You may be far, far away from God tonight, and I want you to know that God is seeking you. God wants you to come to him. That’s not a preacher’s idea. That’s God’s plan, and that’s God’s plan for your life. And so the whole issue of repentance is about preparing men for the judgment day, getting them right with God so they can receive heaven on that great last day. Paul preached the message then of judgment coming. And Paul preached that not only at Athens in Acts 17, but he preached it before a governor, a governor named Felix in the book of Acts, Acts chapter 24. I’m looking at Acts 24, verses 24 and 25. Paul, of course, has been arrested earlier in the city of Jerusalem, and he’s been brought now to Caesarea, Acts 24, verse 24, beginning.

It says, after some days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. Now, as he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid. If tonight you have the King James Version, the word of the Lord says, Felix trembled. This man was visibly shaken by the message. He heard a message about salvation. You see, Paul reasoned him about righteous living. Felix was a man who was living in an unrighteous relationship with this woman Drusilla. He was guilty of sexual immorality. He reasoned him about righteousness, about self-control, and about the judgment to come. Now, when the Bible says Felix was afraid or that Felix trembled, this tells us that Felix must have believed Paul’s preaching, thought that it had some credibility.

The only problem was Felix was afraid and answered and said to Paul, Go away for this time, Paul, and when I have a convenient time, I will call for you. Folks, let me tell you, the convenient time to break with the devil never comes. The devil devil’s never going to make it easy for you to get your heart right with God. But this man, he was visibly shaken by what? By the message that said there is a judgment coming, and that he needed to repent of his sins and make himself right with God. And so there is indeed a general message of repentance that ought to be preached. And so, how should repentance be preached? What should you expect to hear? A general message that God commands all men everywhere to repent.

And God can say all men, because we’ve all sinned and come short of the glory of God. Romans 3 23. All responsible people, people like you, people like me, we’ve sinned, and so we need to repent. But there is also, listen carefully, there is also, ladies and gentlemen, a specific message of repentance. By specific message, I mean that the Bible teaches that specific sins must be dealt with. Now, if someone just tells you to repent without identifying the sin and telling what you need to repent of, that person is not helping you. Three times now tonight we’ve gone to Athens to Acts chapter 17. I want you to go back there with me again. This is the passage we began with in Acts 17, verse 30.

Remember, God commands all men everywhere to repent. But go all the way back to verse 16. And I want you to see that Paul has a specific message. It’s not just a general message. He tells these people what they’re doing wrong and what they need to repent of. In Acts chapter 17, verse 16, it says, while Paul waited for them, that is Silas and Timothy, his co-workers, while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Ladies and gentlemen, in the city of Athens, there were literally hundreds of idols, hundreds of altars and temples that were set up to virtually all the gods that were worshipped any place in Asia or in Europe or in North Africa.

They had so many gods that it was difficult to count all of them. And so Paul in verse 17 began to reason with those men and drop down to verse number 22 again. Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you’re very religious. For as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship. You see, Paul saw all these altars and temples that they had. As I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing, him I proclaim to you. And then Paul begins to talk about the nature of the true God.

He says this in verse 24. God who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. He’s saying, Look, what you all have got here in the city of Athens, that’s not where the true God is. Nor is he worship, verse 25, nor is he worshiped with men’s hands as though he needed anything, since he gives to all life, breath, and all things. And he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwelling, so that they should seek the Lord in hope that they might grope for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.

For in him, that is, in the true God, this God that you people at Athens do not know, in him we live, we move, and we have our being. As also some of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring. Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. You see what Paul is saying here? He’s addressing the question of idolatry here at the city of Athens, and he is showing these people that the true God is not like these idols that they have made with their own hands. These people, ladies and gentlemen, need to repent of idolatry. How do we know that?

Read the next verse, verse thirty. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent. He’s calling upon people to repent of idolatry. That’s what I mean then by a specific sin. There’s more, you see, than just a general message of repentance. Here we have a specific message. And Paul preached about the sin of idolatry because he knew that’s what the people were guilty of. Go with me to 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, verses 9 and 10. And Paul, of course, was at Thessalonica in the earlier part of Acts chapter 17, and he preached the gospel there. But notice what this text says. And we’ll see again the problem of idolatry at the city of Thessalonica. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, verse 9.

It says, For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come. What have these people at Thessalonica done at Paul’s preaching? They turned to God from idols. That tells me then that Paul preached about the sin of idolatry in that city. I want to go to another city where Paul was. Acts chapter 18. Paul was at Corinth, and in 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 9 through 11. We have an implication in that passage that shows what Paul preached when he was at Corinth. I’m looking at 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 9, 10, and 11.

Read those verses along with me. First Corinthians 6, verse 9. The apostle says, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. Now watch, verse 11. And such were, such were some of you. But you’re washed. But you’re sanctified, but you’re justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. Now some of these people in the city of Corinth had lived, like Paul just said here. Some of them were thieves, some of them were drunkards. There were extortioners among these people the way they used to live.

Some of them were homosexuals, he says. Some were guilty of other sins of immorality, fornication and adultery. He said, Such were some of you, but you were washed. The implication, ladies and gentlemen, is that while Paul was at the city of Corinth, that he addressed these kinds of issues. Why? Because that’s the kind of thing that he saw when he went to Corinth. This was an ungodly city that was given over to all kinds of immorality. Today. When a man stands in the pulpit to preach, you ought to hear him preach against all manner of unrighteousness. Whether it’s sexual immorality, whether it’s thievery or whatever it might be, you ought to expect preachers to tell folks the truth about sin. And let me just quickly add one point here.

There are a lot of preachers today in pulpits across this land that are not willing to tell people the truth about homosexuality any longer. That’s one of the things that was mentioned in our text. It called it unrighteousness. And it said that those who do such things will not inherit, will not inherit the kingdom of God. And yet today, you speak against homosexuality, it is politically incorrect. And there are more preachers today who are worried about being politically correct and being received while in the community than they are worried about standing before God on the judgment day. Ladies and gentlemen, I stand before you tonight in fear and trembling, and I would be afraid before my God to pass over something like this and without addressing it.

Homosexuality is wrong. And homosexuals are lost in that condition. But there is good news in this gospel. Because verse 11 said to the Corinthians, such were some of you, but you’ve been washed, you’ve been justified, you’ve been sanctified. They’ve been delivered from that sin, just like the adulterers have been delivered, just like the thieves and the drunkards had been delivered. You ought to hear men stand in the pulpit and address unrighteousness and tell people the truth about it. My, it just scares me, and I wonder what is in people’s minds when people stand up and say, Well, you know, I wouldn’t want to preach on that sin here because you know we’ve got three or four people in this congregation who are like that, and that would upset them, and we might lose them.

And besides, some of them are big givers, and we we’d hate to hurt our contribution by addressing things like that. Folks are more concerned about folks are more concerned about how much money goes in the collection plate than they are concerned about how many people go to heaven. If a man will not tell you the truth about sin, that man is not your friend. Is it the case that sometimes when he talks about sin that you may feel really bad inside? Is it the case that sometimes you’re going to really feel guilty? Listen, you ought to feel guilty if you’re guilty of sin, if you’ve done wrong. You ought to feel that guilt. But then the preacher ought to show you God’s will and how that that guilt can be taken away and you can be forgiven through the powerful and potent, precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Don’t expect the preacher to stand in the pulpit and cover up sin. The job of the preacher is to tell people the truth. They may not repent, but at least he’s kept his own hands clean in the matter. We must learn that sin will cost men their souls. If people are not told the truth, they will be lost, and that is why we must speak. It’s not popular today to talk about sin. But we’re not here to do what’s popular. We’re here to do what is right. And so you’ve got a general message of repentance in the Bible, but you’ve also got a specific message that addresses specific sins and calls upon men to give up those sins. But we’ve got one more question to answer tonight, and that’s this.

4. Is There a Way to Tell If I Have Repented?

Is there a way to tell if I’ve repented? Will it be seen in my actions? Well, let me just say, as a general statement, that it can be said that repentance can, C-A-N, can be seen in one’s actions. Remember the definition of repentance, that repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change of life. And if a person’s life never changes, then how can it be said that that man is repented? Let me give you some Bible examples of change, some Bible examples of repentance. I want to set before you tonight three cases. We’re going to look at these very briefly. We’re going to see the case of the Corinthians, which we’ve already seen once, but I want you to see the demonstration in the text here about a change of life.

Go with me again to 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verses 9, 10, and 11. Remember what it said? Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, no sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. Now, what does that tell you right off? Indeed, these people were unrighteous. Indeed, they were guilty of immorality. But he said, Such were some of you. That is, that’s the way it used to be with y’all. But they weren’t that way any longer. You see, now these people are living moral lives. That tells me right off that these people at Corinth had repented of these sins that they were guilty of.

Now, he’s talking about their past when he says, Such were some of you. But no longer. Now, what would you think if you went to Corinth and you went into the local church there at Corinth, and you found people in the church who were continuing to practice sexual immorality, who were continuing to steal from others, who were continuing to be drunkards, who were continuing to practice homosexuality. What would you think of those people if they’re still doing the same thing? You’re gonna ask, Well, what good did the gospel do those folks? They didn’t change. That’s right. But fortunately, when we go to Corinth, we see people who have changed. These people do not live the same way. Why? Because indeed they have repented. Let’s look at the case now of Paul, or as he is formerly known, Saul of Tarsus.

I’m going to Acts chapter 9. Acts chapter 9, verses 1 and 2. In Acts 9, verses 1 and 2, read with me those verses. This man, before he became a Christian, was a persecutor of the church. He was a hunter of Christians. That is, he hunted them down, had them beaten, arrested, thrown into jail. This is a man who hates Christians. But I want you to see what happens to him. In Acts chapter 9, verse 1, then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of that way, whether men or women, he might bring them down to Jerusalem. This fellow is not content with persecuting Christians at Jerusalem.

He’s getting authority from the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem to go way north up to Damascus and to arrest Christians there and bring them back under arrest to the city of Jerusalem. Isn’t that something? This is a man who hates Christians. As I said, he’s a hunter and a persecutor of Christians. But as you read on, and we don’t have time tonight to study all of this conversion. But if you read on from verse 3 down to verse 17 and verse 18, you’ll see this man being converted to Christ. Now what do you see after he’s converted to Christ? I want you to look at verse 20. Now remember, remember where the man is when we first find him. He’s a persecutor. But in verse 20, after he’s been converted, here’s what happens.

It says immediately, he preached the Christ in the synagogues that he is the Son of God. Then all who heard were amazed and said, Is this not he who destroyed those who called on this name in Jerusalem and has come here for that purpose that he might bring them down to the chief priest? But Saul increased all the more in strength and confounded the Jews who dwell in Damascus, proving that Jesus is the Christ. And so what do we find? We find the persecutor has now become a preacher of the truth. You go on and study the rest of the book of Acts, you’ll find that the hunter became the hunted. Because there were those who continued to persecute Christians, and now Paul is on the other side.

He’s on the other side, and they’re trying to hunt him down and kill him. Well, what do you see? You see a radical change in his life. Here is a man who persecuted Christians, and now he’s preaching the very gospel that he hated. That tells me this man repented. You see, you can see that in his life, can’t you? We’ve got a third case that we want to examine, and that’s found in Acts chapter 19. We’re going to find the Ephesians and the Ephesians, we’re going to start off by saying that these people were deceivers. Acts chapter 19, beginning at verse number 17. Acts 19 and verse 17. They were deceivers. There were some at Ephesus who were involved in sorcery. Remember, on Tuesday night of this week, we studied the salvation of Simon and the Samaritans.

Remember Simon the sorcerer, the man who practiced witchcraft, who had these spells and these tricks that he used, deceiving people into thinking that he was a special agent from God. Well, you had some of those folks at Ephesus. You see, that was at Samaria where we saw Simon. But here, in Acts 19, at the city of Ephesus, the Apostle Paul has worked some miracles and dropped down to verse 17. It says this became known to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus, and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified, and many, many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Folks, when the Bible says confessing here, I don’t believe it’s talking about their confession of Christ. Do I think these people confess Christ?

I indeed do believe that. But when it says confessing and telling their deeds, these people are confessing about their deception. How do I know that? Well, look, look at the next two verses, verse 19 and 20. Also, many of those who had practiced magic, like Simon a sorcerer, also many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of them all, and they counted up the value of them, and it totaled 50,000 pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. You see, you had people here who were practicing sorcery and witchcraft, and they had books. In fact, these men had books that they traded among themselves. Those who who practice these things traded these books among themselves, the value of them.

It says 50,000 pieces of silver. And what did these folks do? They did two things. One, they confessed and told their deeds. Here’s how we do our tricks. We’ve been deceiving you. Here’s how we work these tricks. And you see, we don’t really have any power from God. And then they burnt those books. 50,000 pieces of silver. However much that might be worth in our money today, I don’t know, but I I indeed would consider it to be a great amount. They publicly burned their books of sorcery. Those who were converted showed their repentance by actions that were visible to men. And so what you’ve got here, you’ve got men who start off before they hear the gospel, who are deceivers, who are frauds, who are fakes.

But by the time they’re done, these are men of honesty who have confessed their wrongs and have disposed of those things that were involved in their wrongs. And so, what’s the question? Is there a way to tell if I’ve repented? Can it be seen by my actions? Indeed, it can be. Now I will certainly acknowledge that not every case of repentance might be accompanied by visible action. I think that there are probably some sins that may occur only in the heart, and neither the sin nor the repentance is visible to others. I wouldn’t argue against that. But generally, it can be said that repentance can be seen in a person’s actions. Remember, repentance is a change of mind that leads to a change of life. But I’ve got two more examples that I’ve got to give you tonight.

And I hate to give you these two, because these are cases of non-repentance. Two Bible examples. First, the Jews and in Acts chapter 7, then the case of Herod and Herodias. Let’s go to Acts chapter 7. And this is a sad case. And I want you to learn here that this is also going to be seen in their actions. That is, you can see by their actions that they live the same way. In Acts chapter 7, and we’ll begin at about verse number 51. Stephen is the preacher on this occasion. He was one of the seven men who were chosen to serve the needy widows back in the church of Jerusalem in chapter 6. But he’s also a preacher of some character. And he’s been preaching about the history of Israel.

They’ve arrested.