True Repentance

Introduction

Good morning. Please get out your Bibles if you would like to. And turn to your Old Testament. Go ahead and just go to 2 Samuel chapter 11. 2 Samuel 11. And in 2 Samuel 12, we will read a scripture out of there a few minutes from now. It is so good to be together to worship God and encourage each other. It’s been a wonderful, wonderful period of worship. I appreciate all of our brothers for doing just an amazing job leading us in our worship to God on this Lord’s day. The Bible is too hard to understand. The Bible is too hard to understand. You ever heard someone say that before?

And there is a sense in which that is true.

For example, due to all of their symbolism and apocalyptic language. Many people consider books like Revelation and Daniel and Ezekiel and Zachariah to be books that are very difficult and hard to understand in the Bible. And due to his use of poetry, which is the language of love.

Then going back to what Brother Frank read for us in 2 Peter chapter 3, verses 15 and 16. There, the Apostle Peter makes it very clear that the Apostle Paul wrote some things that are very difficult and hard to understand in the Bible. He wrote some things in books like Romans and 2 Thessalonians and 1 Corinthians and Colossians and Ephesians that require a lot of diligence and a lot of effort and a lot of study in order to comprehend. Indeed, there are a lot of things in the Bible that are very difficult and hard for us to understand. But let me suggest to you that not everything is that way. Not everything in the Bible is hard and difficult to understand. In fact, one topic that is clear and plain and simple is this topic right here.

It is the topic of repentance. Repentance. You see, repentance is a topic that is very easy to understand. Repentance is something that is talked about and defined all throughout the Bible. It is something that the Old Testament prophets constantly talked about. It is something that John the Baptist came onto the scene constantly talking about. It’s something that Jesus constantly talked about. It’s something that the apostles constantly talked about. It is a very clear and simple message that weaves its way throughout all the Bible, and maybe, just maybe, that’s something you need to do. Maybe that’s something you need to do this morning. Maybe because of sin that you are currently harboring in your life, if you’re going to truly live a transformed life in Jesus Christ, like our theme this year suggests.

1. Taking Responsibility for Our Sins

Maybe you need to repent as prescribed by God. Maybe you need to repent so that the barrier of sin can be removed between you and God. If that is the case, then what I want to do this morning is I want to urge you in love to repent and get right with God. And I want to do that by rehearsing with you what the scriptures tell us about true repentance. I want to talk with you this morning about true repentance. I want to show you several things that true repentance involves. And the first thing that true repentance involves is number one, it involves responsibility, taking responsibility, taking responsibility for our sins and for our evil actions. And we see this in the life of King David, right?

You’re in 2 Samuel chapter 11. If you recall, in 2 Samuel 11, we find a very important moment in David’s life. It is right here where his life will begin to take a downward spiral. It’s going to spiral out of control. And it begins with him staying at his palace during a time when the kings were supposed to be out in battle. During a time when kings were supposed to be with their armies on the battlefield, David stayed behind at his palace. And one morning he got up and he walked on the roof of his palace and he looked down and he saw a beautiful woman taking a bath. He saw the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of his mighty men. This woman’s name was Bathsheba.

He saw her taking a bath, and he used his power and his position to call for her. And when she came to him, he had an affair with her. He committed sexual immorality with her. She became pregnant with his child. And in the effort to cover up his sin, what did he do? Well, he set up her husband Uriah to be killed in battle. He did a lot of evil things at this at this point in his life. And after about a year goes by, he’s moving on with his life, but God sent a prophet to him. He sent Nathan to David, and Nathan confronted David with his sin. He told him a very, very, very famous parable that many of us are familiar with. And after David realized that God saw what he had done, and there were going to be negative consequences for his actions.

Notice what David says in 2 Samuel chapter 12 and in verse number 13. And 2 Samuel 12 and verse 13, after he’s confronted by the prophet with his sin, the Bible says, then David said to Nathan, I have sinned. Notice the language, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, The Lord also has allowed your sin to pass. You shall not die. Notice how after committing the sins of fornication and murder, after trying to hide his sin and cover up his sin, after trying to move on with his life and pretend as though God did not see all the evil that he had done here in this verse, we see David, he finally stops running. He finally takes some responsibility. He finally looks into the spiritual mirror.

He acknowledges that he had done wrong and he owns his sin and he repents. He accepts responsibility. He doesn’t make excuses for his sins. He doesn’t lie about his sins or try to justify his sins. He doesn’t blame other people for his sins or even have the prophet Nathan killed because you know, as the king, he could have killed Nathan here on the spot. He doesn’t do that. He doesn’t express any kind of anger towards the messenger of God. Instead, he accepts responsibility. And let’s just be honest about it. What David does here, that’s hard. That is a very hard thing to do. In fact, so often we’re absolutely terrible at doing this. Unfortunately, instead of accepting responsibility for the things that we do that are wrong according to the Bible, so often our first impulse is to be full of pride.

Or maybe we blame other people. We point the finger. We don’t want to accept responsibility, kind of like Adam and Eve in the beginning. Remember them? Remember in Genesis chapter 3, after they had sinned against God by eating from the forbidden tree, God exposed their sin. And after God did that, the first thing they did was they blamed someone else. In the case of Eve, she blamed the serpent. She blamed the devil. She said, the devil made me do it. And in the case of Adam, he blamed his wife, which by extension means he blamed God because God was the one who gave him his wife. Adam and Eve didn’t want to accept responsibility for what they had done. And so often we are just like them.

For example, take the woman, take the woman who has an affair with a co-worker on her job because she says, I feel neglected by my husband. She says, My husband never spends any time with me. He never buys me flowers, he never takes me out to eat. He never shows me any kind of romance and affection. My husband drove me into the arms of this other man. She doesn’t want to accept responsibility. Or what about the husband who gets into a fuss with his wife? And he says some things to his wife that he should not say to her. He shouts at her, he screams at her. He calls her all kinds of ugly names. And instead of stopping right where he is and saying, Honey, I’m wrong.

I’ve sinned. I’ve sinned against God. I’ve sinned against you. What he may try to do is justify his evil by saying, Well, she should she should not have set me off. She should not have pushed my buttons. She should not have made me mad. She’s the reason why I said these things to her.

What about the person who just completely apostasizes and leaves the Lord because he says, Well, you know what? There are mean people in the church. He says there are hypocrites in the church. There are people in the church who are always rude to me and they shun me and they don’t shake my hand, and they are the reason why I don’t want to serve Jesus anymore. You see, so often when people are in sin, what they will do is they’ll blame others. They don’t want to take responsibility, but notice how, according to the Bible, for true repentance to occur, we have to do this. We have to do this. We have to admit that we’ve done wrong. I have sinned. I have committed evil in the sight of the Lord.

2. Feel Some Godly Regret

It’s nobody else’s fault. It’s nobody else’s failure. There’s no good reason I’m gonna be able to come up with that’s gonna be able to justify my sins. It doesn’t matter what somebody in the church did to me. It doesn’t matter who’s mean to me. It doesn’t matter if there are hypocrites in the church, it doesn’t matter what trauma I may have experienced in my past, or if I don’t agree with my parents’ rules, or if I feel neglected by my spouse. If I’m gonna truly repent, then the first thing I gotta do is I gotta own up. I gotta accept responsibility for my sins, and then after I do that, the next thing I gotta do is I gotta feel some regret. I gotta feel some regret.

Regret, regret, not just because we may have been caught in our sin, or because we feel embarrassed by our sin, or because we feel bad about what we have done. If you remember, Judas felt bad about what he did. Judas felt bad that he had sold out Jesus for for 30 pieces of silver, but he didn’t truly repent. Instead of repenting, what did Judas do? He killed himself. He threw in the spiritual towel. He committed suicide. You see, repentance involves more than just regretting the consequences for our actions. I know that’s true because the Bible says so. Go in your Bible, please, to 2 Corinthians chapter 7. And 2 Corinthians chapter 7. We read what the Apostle Paul has to say to the church in Corinth.

He is talking here in the context about how the Corinthians responded to the previous letter he had written. 1 Corinthians. Remember in 1 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul, he just lays out all the bad things the church in Corinth Corinth was doing. He lets us know that they were involved in all kinds of sins. They were involved in idolatry. They were perverting the Lord’s Supper, allowing women to usurp authority over the men in the worship assembly. They were divided.

And here in verse number 8 of chapter 7, he goes on to talk about how they responded to that. He says in verse 8, for though I caused you sorrow, now that’s the key word there. I caused you sorrow by my letter. He’s talking about 1 Corinthians there. I do not regret it, though I did regret it, for I see that letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while. I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance, for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. Verse 10. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.

You see what Paul is talking about there. Notice how Paul here is talking about repentance. He is saying that the kind of regret that produces true repentance comes from a heart that has sorrow. It has sorrow, it has godly sorrow. What is godly sorrow? Well, my dear friends, godly sorrow is the result of feeling sorrow and anguish in our hearts, not just because we know that our sins have hurt us and hurt others, hurt our family, hurt our friends, hurt the church, hurt our spouse, hurt our kids. No, it’s not enough just to feel sorrow because our sins impact people.

Our sins bring emotional pain and anguish to God. This is something we learn all throughout the Bible. For example, in Genesis 6 and verse 6. In Genesis chapter 6 and verse 6, when talking about the world in the time of Noah, we see exactly why God decided to hit the reset button on the entire world and send a global flood. As God saw all the sin and corruption in the world at that time, it says that he was sorry that he had made man and he was grieved. Notice, he was grieved in his heart. The sins of mankind brought emotional pain to God. Joseph understood this. Joseph is in Egypt as a slave in a man named Potiphar’s house. Remember that? And Potiphar’s wife feels an attraction for him.

She wants to have an affair with him. And she tries to take him by force. And Joseph says, No, this is a young man doing this. This is a young man resisting a woman. And he says, No, I can’t do this. Why? He says, How can I do this great evil and sin against God? See, Joseph knew that even though he was a long way from home, and his family didn’t even know he was alive. He knew that God could still see him. God knew exactly where he was, what he was up to, and his actions had an impact on God. Joseph understood this. And Jesus preached this in the Sermon on the Mount. And Matthew chapter 5 and verse number 4, Jesus talks about how a blessing comes to those who mourn.

What kind of mourning is he talking about there? Well, when Jesus talks about mourning there, he’s not talking about going to a funeral and mourning with someone, even though there’s nothing wrong with doing that. And we need to do that as a spiritual family. But in this context, he’s talking about mourning over sin. Grieving over our sins because we understand that our sins have an impact on God. I think we see this when we continue studying the story of David. Will you go in your Bible, please to Psalm 51? Please go in your Bible to Psalm 51. It is my belief that Psalm 51 is written after Nathan, God through Nathan, exposes David’s sin that he had committed with Bathsheba. And here in Psalm 51, David is grieving.

He is repenting, confessing his sin before God in prayer. And in Psalm 51 and verse 1, I’ll just read a few verses here if you will allow me to. David says to God, Be gracious to me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to you to the greatness of your compassion, blot out my know he’s taking responsibility. He’s taking responsibility for his actions. According to the greatness of your compassion, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only I have sinned, and I’ve done what is evil in your sight, so that you’re justified when you speak in blameless when you judge. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.

Now there David is using hyperbole. This is not literal language there. He’s not saying that he was born in sin, like the Calvinist says. He’s talking about how sin is weighing him down so much that it feels like he’s always been in sin. That’s how much his sins are weighing him down. And then in verse 6 Behold, you desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden heart you will make me know wisdom. Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness. Let the bones which you have broken rejoice, hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do you see what David is doing in those verses?

Notice how here David is grieving. He’s grieving. He’s grieving over the fact that he knows his sins had hurt God. His sins had an emotional impact on God. His sins were evil in the sight of the Lord, and they had served as a barrier between him and God. David here is experiencing godly sorrow, godly regret. And if I’m going to truly repent, that’s what I got to do. That’s what I have to do. Like David, when I’m in sin, I have to griever what my sins have done to God.

3. Reformation: I Have to Change

And having godly sorrow, godly regret. But in addition to that, another thing that’s involved in true repentance is reformation. Regret and reformation. What do I mean when I say reformation? Well, when I say reformation, what I mean is after I take responsibility for my sins, and after I have godly sorrow and regret over my sins, I have to change. I have to change. I have to transform. I have to turn my life around, turn away from the sin, and I gotta start doing right. And I want to show you a passage from the Old Testament and the New Testament to make this point. First go with me to the book of Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 55, and Isaiah chapter 55, as Isaiah talks to the wicked people of Israel of his day.

He says in Isaiah 55 and verse 6. In verse 6, he tells the people, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Watch this verse 7. Let the wicked forsake, that’s the key word. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return, forsake and return to the Lord, and he will have compassion on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. That’s repentance. Forsaken evil, turning to the Lord. Do you see that? Paul talks about this same thing to the Thessalonians in 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. And 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 and verse number 9, as Paul talks about the repentance of those in Thessalonica who were Christians. He says in 1 Thessalonians 1 and verse 9, for they themselves report about us what kind of reception we have with you and how you turned, notice, how you turn to God from idols to serve a living and a true God.

That’s repentance. That’s what repentance involves. Repentance, according to the Bible, involves turning away from sin, turn away from wickedness, and turning to the Lord. It involves having a change of mind towards sin that leads to a change in our lives. It involves stopping the sin, and we’re going to really start living for the Lord. It’s not enough just to come forward and ask for prayers.

It’s not enough just to say to God, well, you know what, God? I’ve sinned and I repent and please forgive me. It’s not enough just to confess our sin and acknowledge our sin and even cry over our sin. No, we gotta stop the sin. We gotta do all we can to stop the sin. We gotta turn away from the sin. We gotta turn away from the drinking. We gotta go home and we gotta get all those beers and we gotta pour them down the drain. We gotta stop the lying. We gotta stop the cursing. We gotta stop the gossip. We gotta stop the backbiting. We gotta stop verbally abusing our spouse and treat them like trash. We gotta move out and stop living with that boyfriend or that girlfriend.

We gotta stop having that affair. And we gotta repent to God and we gotta repent to our spouse. We gotta stop surfing the internet when everybody goes to bed at night because we know that every time we do that, we get ourselves in some trouble. We start looking at stuff we’re not supposed to be looking at. We gotta maybe turn that internet service off completely because we know we can’t handle that. Having internet service constantly leads us down a path of sin. We gotta get rid of those streaming stations. Got to get rid of that Netflix. I may can’t handle Netflix, can’t handle HBO Max, can’t handle Showtime. I gotta get rid of that stuff. Got to shut down maybe my social media page because I know that every time on social media, I’m being divisive.

4. Make Some Restitution

I’m dividing the brethren, especially with politics. I gotta maybe look in the mirror and say, hey, I gotta put on some more clothes. I gotta stop being bitter. I gotta stop being jealous. I gotta stop being resentful towards other people. If I’m gonna truly repent before God, I have to change. I gotta transform. I gotta change my thinking. I gotta start doing what John the Baptist told people to do in Luke chapter 3 and verse 8, and bear fruits of repentance. I gotta have regret. And I gotta be willing to reform my life according to the will of God. And then another thing I may need to do if I’m going to truly repent is I may need to, I may need to make some restitution.

I may need to make some restitution. Someone says, Where are you getting that, preacher? But go on your Bible, please to the book of Exodus. Look at Exodus chapter 22. This is where I’m going with this. In the book of Exodus, as God is talking about his law and his requirements for the people of Israel under the old law, he says some interesting things to them in Exodus chapter 22 in verse 5. In Exodus 22 and verse 5, it says, if a man lets a field or vineyard be grazed bare and lets his animal loose so that it grazes in another man’s field, he shall make, here’s our word, restitution from the best of his own field and the best of his own vineyard. Drop down to verse 12, please.

In verse 12, it says, but if it is actually stolen from him, he shall make, here’s our word again, restitution to its owner. Notice how the Bible here uses the word restitution. What does that mean? Well, the word restitution comes from a Hebrew word that means to make amends. It means to restore, it means to pay again, and certainly, and listen to me carefully, certainly that can’t be done in every case.

Certainly, it’s just not possible to make restitution in every circumstance. I mean, there are times when we do wrong towards other people, when we sin towards other people, and we can’t make amends. We can’t restore, we can’t make things right, but if we can’t do that, if we’re trying to truly repent, we will do that. We will make restitution if it’s possible. And this is something that Zacchaeus understood. Go into your Bible, please, to Luke chapter 19. In Luke chapter 19 and in verse number 8, remember Jesus spent time in the home of Zacchaeus. Our kids know that song. The wee little man who climbed up in a sycamore tree. Well, Zacchaeus was a man who knew how to repent also. He was a man who really wanted to get right with God.

And in Luke chapter 19 and in verse number eight, as Zacchaeus is speaking to Jesus. Luke chapter 19 and verse number eight, it says Zacchaeus stopped, and he said to the Lord, Behold, Lord, half of my possessions. I’ll give to the poor, and if I’ve defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much. Zacchaeus there is saying, I’ll make restitution. If I’ve stolen from anybody, if I’ve taken anyone’s possessions, anyone’s money, I’ll give it back, and I give back more so. He’s trying to make restitution here. That’s that’s part of his repentance. And I think we also see this with the jailer. If you go to Acts the 16th chapter and look at verse 33, as the jailer is trying to get his life right with God.

Remember, there is an earthquake in Philippi, and Paul and Silas are in prison and they get released, and the jailer is touched by that. He he wants to hear the gospel. He wants to hear about Jesus. And after he hears some teaching from Paul, in verse number 33, it says, and he, the jailer, took them that very hour of the night, and he washed their wounds, and immediately he was baptized, he and all his household. Now, so often when we go to this text, we really emphasize the baptism part. And rightfully so, rightfully so. But notice what it said before the baptism part. He washed their wounds. Evidently, he had beaten them before he put their feet in the stocks. He had beaten them, and he’s trying to make that right.

Look at Acts the 19th chapter, please, as we look at what happened when Paul was in Ephesus. As the apostle Paul’s preaching in Ephesus, and he’s doing miracles to confirm his preaching. It says in Acts 19 and verse 17, this became known to all, both Jews and Greeks who lived in Ephesus. And fear fell upon them all in the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified. Many also of those who have believed kept coming and confessing. And watch this, disclosing their practices. And many of those who practiced magic, the magic art, sorcery, they brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of who? Everybody. And they counted up the price of them and found it 50,000 pieces of silver. These people, as part of their repentance, they exposed their deception.

They were involved in the magic arts and sorcery, deceiving people. And they let that be known. They’re trying to make things right with the people that they had deceived and they had hurt. What I want you to see is sometimes restitution is involved in our repentance. Sometimes we need to look in the mirror and examine ourselves and say, well, you know what I need to do? I need to return that money I stole from somebody. I need to go to somebody in the church. I need to confess to them that I’ve lied to them. I have deceived them. I need to try to help repair somebody’s name that I have slandered and destroyed through my gossip. I need to get out of that unlawful marriage. I need to stop being married to somebody that I’m not bound to, and that I don’t have a scriptural right to be with.

5. True Repentance Can’t Be Relegated

I need to come to the realization that I can’t truly repent and remain in a relationship that violates Matthew 19, 9. See, all that’s part of restitution. I gotta have regret and I gotta reform. And sometimes, in some cases, I may need to make some restitution, but in addition to that, another thing we need to know about true repentance is true repentance is something that can’t be relegated. It can’t be relegated. Someone says, Well, what in the world does that mean? Well, this is what I mean when I say this. What I mean is is as we go out into our community, preaching the gospel and trying to win souls for God, we gotta make sure that we don’t de-emphasize repentance. We gotta make sure that we understand that repentance is something that cannot be understudied, it cannot be under-discussed.

It cannot be something that we treat as unimportant and not as significant as baptism for remission of sins. And I want to show you that in the Bible. Look back at Acts, please, Acts chapter 2, because so often what we like to do, if we’re not careful, is we want to make baptism the end all be all when it comes to salvation. And that’s just unbiblical. That’s just plain unbiblical. And Peter made that point very clear in Acts chapter 2. As he’s preaching the gospel in the city of Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost to thousands of Jews.

And in verse 38, Peter said to them, Be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Is that what your Bible says? It’s not what mine says. But so often that’s exactly what we make it say. In verse 38, Peter said, Repent. And each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. That’s what the Bible has to say about it. Notice how while baptism is absolutely necessary, in order for one to receive forgiveness of sins, notice the prerequisite for Bible baptism is repentance. We must repent and be baptized. For Bible baptism to occur in someone’s life, they must first repent. They must first have godly sorrow over their sins.

They must first resolve to turn away from their sins. They must first determine in their hearts to start living transformed lives for Jesus Christ. That step must be taken before baptism. But the truth is so often it’s the most difficult step for a person to take. That step must be taken before baptism, but that is probably the most difficult step in God’s plan. You see, while it is true, and I want to be clear on this, while it is true that most of the religious world believes and promotes false things about baptism and the necessity of baptism, at the same time, we need to understand that repentance is a lot harder for a person to do than baptism. Repentance is a lot harder for a person to do than allowing them to get dunk in some water.

That takes between three and five seconds.

Repentance involves a commitment, a commitment to change, a commitment to give up sin, a commitment to live for the Lord even after I come up out of that water. Repentance. That’s where real transformation takes place.

And get people in the water. We got to invest a lot of time helping them understand that if you get baptized, but then you turn right around and go back to that denominational church that you just came from. Or you go back to drinking at the bar and going to the club on Saturday night, or you go back to living with your boyfriend or your girlfriend, or you go back to adultery or gambling at the casino or abusing your body with drugs. If you get baptized and go right back to doing that stuff, all you did was get wet. All you did was take a bath in front of everybody. You didn’t get baptized the Bible way.

6. Rejoicing in Heaven

Rejoicing. And the best chapter to see this is a chapter many of us are very familiar with. Luke chapter 15. In Luke chapter 15, Jesus tells three of his most famous parables. There is the parable of the lost sheep, there’s the parable of the lost coin. There’s the parable of the lost boy or the prodigal son. All three of those parables are designed to emphasize the same point. How those in heaven, God and his angels rejoice every time one sinner repents.

Conclusion

Those in heaven, they celebrate. They have great joy. They throw a spiritual party. They rejoice that sinners are truly repenting because that means that spiritual restoration has taken place. That means that spiritual renewal and spiritual life has been regained. That means that a broken relationship between a sinner and God has been repaired, and forgiveness and access to heaven has been granted. That’s why those in heaven rejoice. When a sinner repents. And the question is, do you need to do that? Do you need to do that? Now that we’ve rehearsed what the Bible says about true repentance, do you need to truly repent? Do you need to make the decision to truly transform your life? Do you need to give those in heaven and even the brethren a scriptural reason to rejoice to give glory to God?

If that is what you need to do, then my dear friends, I want you to know that you can do that. You can do that today. Today you can repent, you can change, you can choose to reform your life and turn away from sin and commit yourself to living for the Lord. In fact, we will help you do that. If that means we need to take your confession, that you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, we will baptize you in water for the forgiveness of your sins, according to Acts 2 and verse 38. Or if you are a Christian and you’re living in sin and you need to repent, we would love to pray with you and pray for you because we love you.

And as your spiritual family, want to we want to encourage you and help you go to heaven. Is there anyone here who needs to get right with God? If there is, the song is for you. Come to the front. Let’s stand. Let’s sing together.