Topic : Repentance

It was a bright Sunday morning in 28th century London, but Robert Robinson’s mood was anything but sunny. All along the street there were people hurrying to church, but in the midst of the crowd Robinson was a lonely man. The sound of church bells reminded him of years past when his faith in God was strong and the church was an integral part of his life. It had been years since he set foot in a church—years of wandering, disillusionment, and gradual defection from the God he once loved. That love for God—once fiery and passionate—had slowly burned out within him, leaving him dark and cold inside.

Robinson heard the clip-clop, clip-clop of a horse-drawn cab approaching behind him. Turning, he lifted his hand to hail the driver. But then he saw that the cab was occupied by a young woman dressed in finery for the Lord’s Day. He waved the driver on, but the woman in the carriage ordered the carriage to be stopped.

“Sir, I’d be happy to share this carriage with you,” she said to Robinson. “Are you going to church?” Robinson was about to decline, then he paused. “Yes,” he said at last. “I am going to church.” He stepped into the carriage and sat down beside the young woman.

As the carriage rolled forward Robert Robinson and the woman exchanged introductions. There was a flash of recognition in her eyes when he stated his name. “That’s an interesting coincidence,” she said, reaching into her purse. She withdrew a small book of inspirational verse, opened it to a ribbon-bookmark, and handed the book to him. “I was just reading a verse by a poet named Robert Robinson. Could it be…?”

He took the book, nodding. “Yes, I wrote these words years ago.”

“Oh, how wonderful!” she exclaimed. “Imagine! I’m sharing a carriage with the author of these very lines!”

But Robinson barely heard her. He was absorbed in the words he was reading. They were words that would one day be set to music and become a great hymn of the faith, familiar to generations of Christians:

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace’
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.

His eyes slipped to the bottom of the page where he read:

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it—
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

He could barely read the last few lines through the tears that brimmed in his eyes. “I wrote these words—and I’ve lived these words. ‘Prone to wander…prone to leave the God I love.’”

The woman suddenly understood. “You also wrote, ‘Here’s my heart, O take and seal it.’ You can offer your heart again to God, Mr. Robinson. It’s not too late.”

And it wasn’t too late for Robert Robinson. In that moment he turned his heart back to God and walked with him the rest of his days.

Ron Lee Davis, Courage to Begin Again, (Harvest House, Eugene, OR; 1978), pp. 145-147

Frederick Charrington was a member of the wealthy family in England which owned the Charrington Brewery. His personal fortune, derived solely from his brewing enterprise, exceeded $66 million.

One night, Charrington was walking along a London street with a few friends. Suddenly the door of a pub flew open just a few steps ahead of the group, and a man staggered out into the street with a woman clinging desperately to him. The man, obviously very drunk, was swearing at the woman and trying to push her away. The woman was gaunt and clad in rags. She sobbed and pleaded with the drunken man, who was her husband.

“Please, dear, please!” she cried as Charrington and his friends watched. “The children haven’t eaten in two days! And I’ve not eaten in a week! For the love of God, please come home! Or if you must stay, just give me a few coins so I can buy the children some…”

Her pleas were brutally cut off as her husband struck her a savage blow. She collapsed to the stone pavement like a rag doll. The man stood over her with his fists clenched, poised as if to strike her again. Charrington leaped forward and grasped him. The man struggled, swearing violently, but Charrington pinned the man’s arms securely behind his back. Charrington’s companions rushed to the woman’s side and began ministering to her wounds. A short time later a policeman led the drunken man away and the woman was taken to a nearby hospital.

As Charrington brushed himself off, he noticed a lighted sign in the window of the pub: “Drink Chrarrington Ale.” The multi-millionaire brewer was suddenly shaken to the core of his being. He realized that his confrontation with the violent husband would not have happened if the man’s brain had not been awash with the Charrington family’s product. “When I saw that sign,” he later wrote, “I was stricken just as surely as Paul on the Damascus Road. Here was the source of my family wealth, and it was producing untold human misery before my own eyes. Then and there I pledged to God that not another penny of that money should come to me.”

History records that Frederick Charrington became one of the most well-known temperance activists in England. He renounced his share of the family fortune and devoted the rest of his life to the ministry of freeing men and women from the curse of alcoholism.

Ron Lee Davis, Courage to Begin Again, (Harvest House, Eugene, OR; 1978), pp. 81-82

1. Pray the prayer of the psalmist: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23,24).

2. Be totally honest as you answer each question.

3. Agree with God about each need He reveals in your life. Confess each sin, with the willingness to make it right and forsake it.

4. Praise God for His cleansing and forgiveness.

5. Renew your mind and rebuild your life through meditation and practical application of the Word of God.

6. Review these questions periodically to remain sensitive to your need for ongoing revival.

Genuine Salvation (2 Corinthians 5:17)

• Was there ever a time in my life that I genuinely repented of my sin? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Was there ever a time in my life that I placed all my trust in Jesus Christ alone to save me?
  Yes ˜ No ˜
• Was there ever a time in my life that I completely surrendered to Jesus Christ as the Master and Lord of my life? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Is Christ lived out in my home and have I physically confessed Him Lord at home. Yes ˜ No ˜

God’s Word (Psalm 119:97; 119:140)

• Do I love to read and meditate on the Word of God? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Are my personal devotions consistent and meaningful? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Do I practically apply God’s Word to my everyday life? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Do we as a family discuss God’s Word often? Yes ˜ No ˜

Humility (Isaiah 57:15)

• Am I quick to recognize and agree with God in confession when I have sinned? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Am I quick to admit to others when I am wrong? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Do I rejoice when others are praised and recognized and my accomplishments go unnoticed by men? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Do I esteem all others as better than myself? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Do I rejoice when others in my family succeed? Yes ˜ No ˜

Obedience (Hebrews 13:17; 1 Samuel 15:22)

• Do I consistently obey what I know God wants me to do? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Do I consistently obey the human authorities God has placed over my life? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Do I consistently obey and honor my parents? Yes ˜ No ˜

Pure Heart (1 John 1:9)

• Do I confess my sin by name? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Do I keep “short sin accounts” with God (confess and forsake as He convicts)? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Am I willing to give up all sin for God? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Do I repent and confess my sins to others in my family? Yes ˜ No ˜

Clear Conscience (Acts 24:16)

• Do I consistently seek forgiveness from those I wrong or offend? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Is my conscience clear with every man? (Can I honestly say, “There is no one I have ever wronged or offended in any way and not gone back to them and sought their forgiveness and made it right”?) Yes ˜ No ˜
• Is my relationship right with each family member? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Do I go to bed at night with unresolved conflict with others in the family? Yes ˜ No ˜

Priorities (Matthew 6:33)

• Does my schedule reveal that God is first in my life? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Does my checkbook reveal that God is first in my life? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Next to my relationship with God, is my relationship with my family my highest priority? Yes ˜ No ˜

Values (Colossians 3:12)

• Do I love what God loves and hate what God hates? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Do I value highly the things that please God (e.g., giving, witnessing to lost souls, studying His Word, payer)? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Are my affections and goals fixed on eternal values? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Are Biblical values reflected in my selection of music and T.V./movies? Yes ˜ No ˜

Sacrifice (Philippians 3:7,8)

• Am I willing to sacrifice whatever is necessary to see God move in my life and church (time, convenience, comfort, reputation, pleasure, etc.)? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Is my life characterized by genuine sacrifice for the cause of Christ? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Do I have a servant’s heart at home? Yes ˜ No ˜

Spirit Control (Galatians 5:22-25; Ephesians 5:18-21)

• Am I allowing Jesus to be Lord of every area of my life? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Am I allowing the Holy Spirit to “fill” (control) my life each day? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Is there consistent evidence of the “fruit of the Spirit” being produced in my life? Yes ˜ No ˜

“First Love” (Philippians 1:21,23)

• Am I as much in love with Jesus as I have ever been? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Am I thrilled with Jesus; filled with His joy and peace, and making Him the continual object of my love? Yes ˜ No ˜
• How would others in my family view my love toward God on a scale of 1-10

Motives (Acts 5:29; Matthew 10:28)

• Am I more concerned about what God thinks about my life than about what others think? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Would I pray, read my Bible, give and serve as much if nobody but God ever noticed? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Am I more concerned about pleasing God than I am about being accepted and appreciated by men? Yes ˜ No ˜

Moral Purity (Ephesians 5:3,4)

• Do I keep my mind free from books, magazines, or entertainment that could stimulate fantasizing thoughts that are not morally pure? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Are my conversation and behavior pure and above reproach? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Do mom and dad approve of my friendships? Yes ˜ No ˜

Forgiveness (Colossians 3:12,13)

• Do I seek to resolve conflicts in relationships as soon as possible? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Am I quick to forgive those who hurt or wrong me? Yes ˜ No ˜

Sensitivity (Matthew 5:23,24)

• Am I sensitive to the conviction and promptings of God’s Spirit? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Am I quick to respond in humility and obedience to the conviction and promptings of God’s Spirit? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Am I sensitive to my parent’s desires? Yes ˜ No ˜

Evangelism (Romans 9:3; Luke 24:46,48)

• Do I have a burden for lost souls? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Do I consistently witness for Christ? Yes ˜ No ˜

Prayer (1 Timothy 2:1)

• Am I faithful in praying for the needs of others? Yes ˜ No ˜
• Do I pray specifically, fervently and faithfully for revival in my life, my church and our nation? Yes ˜ No ˜
• How much time do we spend as a family in prayer? Yes ˜ No ˜

From the Book of 750 Bible and Gospel Studies, 1909, George W Noble, Chica

To repent means to turn. In the N.T. repentance means to turn from sin. We were called by God to turn from sin. In fact, all men everywhere are commanded by God to repent of their sins (Acts 17:30). God’s longsuffering leads us to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9) as does His kindness (Rom. 2:4).

There is true and false repentance, “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” (2 Cor. 7:10).

Sorrowing over and forsaking sin, a wholehearted turning away from all that is evil. This is more than regret or remorse, attitudes that point to sorrow over sin but no more. Repentance was looked for in Old Testament times (Ezek. 14:6; 18:30). It was the first item in the preaching of John the Baptist (Matt. 3:1-2), Jesus (Matt. 4:17), and the apostles (Mark 6:12; cf. Acts 2:38). Beyond repentance, faith is needed. But repentance is indispensable. Sin must be forsaken decisively.

The Shaw Pocket Bible Handbook, Walter A. Elwell, Editor, (Harold Shaw Publ., Wheaton , IL; 1984), p. 355

Two kinds of repentance are possible in human experience. One is ‘the sorrow of the world,” a feeling induced by the fear of getting caught. Many people recognize the unpleasant consequences of their sin and are persuaded that they are guilty. This results in a superficial sorrow that may lead to a temporary reformation but not to a genuine turning to Christ for forgiveness. Godly sorrow, on the other hand, is accompanied by conviction of sin, the work of the Holy Spirit (see Acts 2:37). This stems from the realization of offending a holy God. It leads to genuine repentance.

An unknown author wrote, “There is a radical distinction between natural regret and God-given repentance. The flesh can feel remorse, acknowledge its evil deeds, and be ashamed of itself. However, this sort of disgust with past actions can be quickly shrugged off, and the individual can soon go back to his old wicked ways. None of the marks of true repentance described in 2 Corinthians 7:11 are found in his behavior. Out of a list of 10 men in the Bible who said, “I have sinned,” we believe only five actually repented. They were David (2 Sam. 12:13), Nehemiah (Neh. 1:6), Job (Job 42:5,6), Micah (Micah 7:9), and the prodigal son (Luke 15:18).” - H.G.B.

Our Daily Bread, Monday, July 16

Oh! for a closer walk with God;
A calm and heavenly frame;
A light to shine upon the road
That leads me to the Lamb!

Where is the blessedness I knew
When first I saw the Lord'
Where is the soul-refreshing view
Of Jesus and His Word'

What peacful hours I once enjoy’d!
How sweet their memory still!
But they have left an aching void,
The world can never fill.

Return, O holy Dove, return
Sweet Messenger of rest!
I hate the sins that made Thee mourn,
And drove Thee from my breast.

The dearest idol I have known,
Whate’er that idol be,
Help me to tear it from Thy throne,
And worship only Thee.

So shall my walk be close with God,
Calm and serene my frame;
So purer light shall mark the road
That leads me to the Lamb.

Olney Hymns, William Cowper, from Cowper’s Poems, Sheldon & Company, New York

The Lord will happiness divine
On contrite hearts bestow;
Then tell me, gracious God, is mine
A contrite heart, or no'

I hear, but seem to hear in vain,
Insensible as steel’
If ought is felt, ‘tis only pain,
To find I cannot feel.

I sometimes think myself inclined
To love Thee, if I could;
But often feel another mind,
Averse to all that’s good.

My best desires are faint and few,
I fain would strive for more;
But when I cry, “My strength renew!”
Seem weaker than before.

Thy saints are comforted, I know,
And love Thy house of prayer;
I therefore go where others go,
But find no comfort there.

Oh make this heart rejoice or ache;
Decide this doubt for me;
And if it be not broken, break—
And heal it, if it be!

Olney Hymns, William Cowper, from Cowper’s Poems, Sheldon & Company, New York

When darkness long has veil’d my mind,
And smiling day once more appears,
Then, my Redeemer, then I find
The folly of my doubts and fears.

Straight I upbraid my wandering heart,
And blush that I should ever be
Thus prone to act so base a part,
Or harbour one hard thought of Thee!

Oh! let me then at length be taught
What I am still so slow to learn,
That God is love, and changes not,
Nor knows the shadow of a turn.

Sweet truth, and easy to repeat!
But when my faith is sharply tried,
I find myself a learner yet,
Unskillful, weak, and apt to slide.

But, O my Lord, one look from Thee
Subdues the disobedient will,
Drives doubt and discontent away,
And Thy rebellious worm is still.

Thou art as ready to forgive
As I am ready to repine;
Thou, therefore, all the praise receive;
Be shame and self-abhorrence mine.

Olney Hymns, William Cowper, from Cowper’s Poems, Sheldon & Company, New York

Two fellows opened a butcher shop and prospered. Then an evangelist came to town, and one of the butchers was saved. He tried to persuade his partner to accept salvation also, but to no avail. “Why won’t you, Charlie?” asked the born-again fellow.

“Listen, Lester,” the other butcher said. “If I get religion, too, who’s going to weigh the meat?”

James Dent of Charleston, W. Va., Gazette

• A. T. Robertson, The Minister and His Greek N.T., p. 54
• C. Colson, Loving God, re: gangster Mickey Cohen
• Charles C. Ryrie, So Great Salvation, (USA: Victor Books, a Division of Scripture Press, 1989), pp. 91ff.

When I was in South Africa, a fine, handsome Dutchman came into my service, and God laid His hand on him and convicted him of sin.

The next morning he went to the beautiful home of another Dutchman and said to him, “Do you recognize that old watch?”

“Why, yes,” answered the other. “Those are my initials; that is my watch. I lost it eight years ago. How did you get it, and how long have you had it?”

“I stole it,” was the reply.

“What made you bring it back now?”

“I was converted last night,” was the answer, “and I have brought it back first thing this morning. If you had been up, I would have brought it last night.”

Gipsy Smith, The Bible Friend

Professor Drummond once described a man going into one of our after meetings and saying he wanted to become a Christian.

“Well, my friend, what is the trouble?”

He doesn’t like to tell. He is greatly agitated. Finally he says, “The fact is, I have overdrawn my account”—a polite way of saying he has been stealing.

“Did you take your employer’s money?”

“Yes.”

“How much?”

“I don’t know. I have never kept account of it.”

“Well, do you have an idea you stole $1,500 last year?”

“I am afraid it is that much.”

“Now, look here, sir, I don’t believe in sudden work; don’t steal more that a thousand dollars this next year, and the next year not more that five hundred, and in the course of the next few years you will get so that you won’t steal any. If your employer catches you, tell him you are being converted; and you will get so that you won’t steal any by and by.”

My friends, the thing is a perfect farce! “Let him that stole, steal no more,” that is what the Bible says. It is right about face.

Take another illustration. Here comes a man, and he admits that he gets drunk every week. That man comes to a meeting, and wants to be converted. Shall I say, “Don’t you be in a hurry. I believe in doing the work gradually. Don’t you get drunk and knock your wife down more than once a month?” Wouldn’t it be refreshing to his wife to go a whole month without being knocked down? Once a month, only twelve times in a year! Wouldn’t she be glad to have him converted in this new way! Only get drunk after a few years on the anniversary of your wedding, and at Christmas, and then it will be effective because it is gradual!

Oh! I detest all that kind of teaching. Let us go to the Bible and see what that old Book teaches. Let us believe it, and go and act as if we believed it, too. Salvation is instantaneous.

I admit that a man may be converted so that he cannot tell when he crossed the line between death and life, but I also believe a man may be a thief one moment and a saint the next. I believe a man may be as vile as hell itself one moment, and be saved the next.

Christian growth is gradual, just as physical growth is; but a man passes from death unto everlasting life quick as an act of the will—”He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.”

Moody’s Anecdotes, pp. 99 - 100

There’s little difference in ethical behavior between the churched and the unchurched. There’s as much pilferage and dishonesty among the churched as the unchurched. And I’m afraid that applies pretty much across the board: religion, per se, is not really life changing. People cite it as important, for instance, in overcoming depression—but it doesn’t have primacy in determining behavior.

George H. Gallup, “Vital Signs,” Leadership, Fall 1987, p. 17

In his book I Surrender, Patrick Morley writes that the church’s integrity problem is in the misconception “that we can add Christ to our lives, but not subtract sin. It is a change in belief without a change in behavior.” He goes on to say, “It is revival without reformation, without repentance.”

Quoted in John The Baptizer, Bible Study Guide by C. Swindoll, p. 16

The sure test of the quality of any supposed change of heart will be found in its permanent effects. ‘By their fruits you shall know them’ is as applicable to the right method of judging ourselves as of judging others. Whatever, therefore, may have been our inward experience, whatever joy or sorrow we may have felt, unless we bring forth fruits meet for repentance, our experience will profit us nothing. Repentance is incomplete unless it leads to confession and restitution in cases of injury; unless it causes us to forsake not merely outward sins, which others notice, but those which lie concealed in the heart; unless it makes us choose the service of God and live not for ourselves but for Him. There is no duty which is either more obvious in itself, or more frequently asserted in the Word of God, than that of repentance. - Charles Hodge

Evangelism, A Biblical Approach, M. Cocoris, Moody, 1984, pp. 65ff

• One thief on the cross was saved, that none should despair; and only one, that none should presume.
  - J. C. Ryle
• If there are a thousand steps between us and God, he will take all but one. He will leave the final one for us. The choice is ours. - Max Lucado
• The man who knows his sins is greater than one who raises a dead man by his prayer. - Isaac the Syrian, Preaching Resources, Spring, 1996, p. 71.
• If we put off repentance another day, we have a day more to repent of, and a day less to repent in. - Mason
• It is much easier to repent of sins that we have committed than to repent of those we intend to commit. - Josh Billings
• Many people use mighty thin thread when mending their ways. - Daily Walk
• According to Scripture repentance is wholly an inward act, and should not be confounded with the change of life that proceeds from it. Confession of sin and reparation of wrongs are fruits of repentance. - L. Berkhoff, Systematic Theology, p. 487
• Can true repentance exist without faith? By no means. But although they cannot be separated, they ought to be distinguished. - John Calvin, Institutes, p. 311.
• Moreover, true repentance never exists except in conjunction with faith, while on the other hand, wherever there is true faith, there is also real repentance. The two are but different aspects of the same turning—a turning away from sin in the direction of God…The two cannot be separated; they are simply complementary parts of the same process. - L Berkhoff, Systematic Theology, p. 487
• It is not repentance that saves me; repentance is the sign that I realize what God has done in Christ Jesus. The danger is to put the emphasis on the effect instead of on the cause. Is it my obedience that puts me right with God? Never! I am put right with God because prior to all else, Christ died. When I turn to God and by belief accept what God reveals, instantly the stupendous atonement of Jesus Christ rushes me into a right relationship with God. By the miracle of God’s grace I stand justified, not because of anything I have done, but because of what Jesus has done. The salvation of God does not stand on human logic; it stands on the sacrificial death of Jesus. Sinful men and women can be changed into new creatures by the marvelous work of God in Christ Jesus, which is prior to all experience. - Oswald Chambers

Wabush, a town in a remote portion of Labrador, Canada, was completely isolated for some time. But recently a road was cut through the wilderness to reach it. Wabush now has one road leading into it, and thus, only on one road leading out. If someone would travel the unpaved road for six to eight hours to get into Wabush, there is only way he or she could leave—-by turning around.

Each of us, by birth, arrives in a town called Sin. As in Wabush, there is only one way out—a road built by God himself. But in order to take that road, one must first turn around. That complete about face is what the Bible calls repentance, and without it, there’s no way out of town.

Brian Weatherdon

We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven. We have been preserved, the many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to God that made us It behooves us, then to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

President Abraham Lincoln’s Proclamation for a National Day of Fasting, Humliation and Prayer, April 30, 1863

The predominantly intellectual understanding of metanoia as change of mind plays very little part in the N.T. Rather the decision by the whole man to turn round is stressed.

NIDNTT, Vol. 1, p. 358

“The Romans sometimes compelled a captive to be joined face-to-face with a dead body, and to bear it about until the horrible effluvia destroyed the life of the living victim. Virgil describes this cruel punishment: ‘The living and the dead at his command were coupled face to face, and hand to hand; Till choked with stench, in loathed embraces tied, The lingering wretches pined away and died.’”

Without Christ, we are shackled to a dead corpse—our sinfulness. Only repentance frees us from certain death, for life and death cannot coexist indefinitely.

Paul Lee Tan’s Encyclopedia Of 7700 Illustrations

Not too many years ago newspapers carried the story of Al Johnson, a Kansas man who came to faith in Jesus Christ. What made his story remarkable was not his conversion, but the fact that as a result of his newfound faith in Christ, he confessed to a bank robbery he had participated in when he was nineteen years old. Because the statute of limitations on the case had run out, Johnson could not be prosecuted for the offense. Still, he believed his relationship with Christ demanded a confession. And he even voluntarily repaid his share of the stolen money!

Today in the Word, April, 1989, p. 13