How many times have you been to the Lord confessing the same old thing over and over again? How many times have you told Him how sorry you were and that you weren’t going to commit that sin again, but deep down you knew that you would? We learn what repentance really is and how to be freed from those sins that continually ensnare us. For more messages from Charles Stanley, including this week’s broadcast, go to www.intouch.org/watch
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male announcer: “In Touch”
with Dr. Charles Stanley,
celebrating 45 years
of God’s faithfulness.
Next on “In Touch,”
“A Call to Repentance.”
Dr. Charles Stanley: How many
times have you been to the Lord
confessing the same old thing
over and over and over again?
And how many times have
you told Him each time
how very sorry you were?
And how many times, having told
Him how very sorry you were,
you told Him that you
weren’t going to do it again?
And how many times have you told
Him that you weren’t going to do
it again, that deep down
inside, you had a sneaking
suspicion, yes you would?
Well, you say, “Well, you know,
I’ve confessed and confessed and
confessed and confessed,
and somehow, I just don’t
seem to have any victory
over this thing in my life.
And does not the Bible
say, ‘If we confess our sins,
He’s faithful and just to
forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all
unrighteousness’?
Why don’t I have
victory over this
particular area of my life?”
Well, that’s what I want to talk
about in this message entitled
“A Call to Repentance.”
Now, if someone should ask
you: What is repentance?
How would you define that?
Well, we’ll see
in just a moment.
I want you to turn, if you will,
to Luke chapter twenty-four.
Last chapter of Luke, and in
this twenty-fourth chapter,
this last part of it,
beginning in verse forty-four,
Jesus is giving His
disciples some departing words.
And in the process of doing so,
He tells them exactly what the
message is to be as they are to
go out and share what they’ve
heard from Him, what they’ve
seen, and to bear testimony.
So, here’s what He says
beginning in verse forty-four,
“Now He said to them, ‘These are
My words which I spoke to you
while I was still with you, that
all things which are written
about Me in the Law
of Moses and the
Prophets, and the Psalms
must be fulfilled.’
“Then He opened their minds to
understand the Scriptures,
and He said to them,
‘Thus it is written,
that the Christ should suffer
and rise again from the dead the
third day, and that repentance
for forgiveness of sins should
be proclaimed in His name
to all the nations,
beginning from Jerusalem.
You are witnesses
of these things.
And behold, I am sending forth
the promise of My Father upon
you; but you are to stay in the
city until you are clothed with
power from on high.'”
He said the message
you have is repentance
for the forgiveness of sins.
And the Holy Spirit will
be in you, with you, and
upon you and enable you to do
that and to do it well.
Now, what does the
Bible mean when
the Bible speaks of repentance?
Well, there are two primary
words in the New Testament for
repentance, but in
essence here’s what it means.
It means a recognition of
my sin, which involves a
godly sorrow for my sin and a
commitment on my part to,
listen, a commitment on my part
for a change of direction.
That is, there’s more
to repentance
than feeling sorry about my sin.
There’s more to repentance
than being grieved about my sin.
There’s more to repentance than
just they having remorse over
the fact that I have sinned
against God about myself.
There is certainly more
to repentance
than feelings that we have.
For example, a person could feel
very sorry for their sin because
they’ve discovered what
the consequences are.
They could feel very remorseful
about their sins because
somebody else found out.
They could very–be very grieved
about their sins because of
selfishness, how it’s
made them feel
and how it’s made them look.
So when somebody says that
repentance is feeling sorry for
your sin, no it’s not.
Repentance is grieving
over sin, no it’s not.
Repentance is
sorrowful for–because
of your sin, no it’s not.
All those things are a part
of repentance but
that’s not what repentance is.
In the Old Testament, the Hebrew
word for repentance is “turn.”
When a person
repents of their sin,
they have a change of mind.
That change of mind is going to
result in a change of direction,
a change of conduct, a change
of behavior in their life.
Otherwise, what in the world
could repentance possibly mean?
It does not mean
simply sorrow, remorse,
regret over something
that you and I have done.
Now, there are
many facets of that,
which we’ll talk
about in a few moments,
but the very word means to turn.
It’s a change of mind.
When a person really and truly
has a genuine change of mind
about Christ, about
their sin, about their life,
they’re–if they have a
genuine change of mind,
change of heart, recognizing
that sin is against God,
against themselves, something’s
going to happen in their life.
So when He says that
we’re to preach repentance,
that is, there’s–because God
wants there to be a change in
people’s lives
because living in sin,
living in disobedience,
living in rebellion,
they’re going to
destroy themselves,
and God knows what the
consequences of sin are,
all the consequences of sin.
So repentance is
a change of mind,
a change of heart, that is gonna
result in a change of conduct
and a change of behavior.
And one of the primary reasons
that people do not get victory
over sin, they keep going back
to God over and over and over
again with the same old sin
for the simple reason their
repentance is incomplete.
It’s not complete repentance.
Now, what I’d like for us to
do is look at the place of
repentance in the life of the
person who is not a Christian.
What place does repentance
have in the life of a
person who’s not a Christian?
And then what place does it
have in the life of a believer?
Well, we saw in the very
beginning that when John was
preaching, he was preaching,
“Repent for the kingdom of
heaven is hand–at hand.”
Jesus came
preaching the same thing.
Paul said, “God has required
that all men everywhere repent.”
Jesus said, “I’ve come to
call the righteous,” listen,
“not the righteous, but
sinners to repentance.”
Now, why didn’t
He say salvation?
Or why didn’t He say faith?
Because they used those
terms interchangeably.
That is, when Jesus
said He came to call men,
not the righteous to repentance,
but sinners to repentance,
He’s calling them what?
For a change in life,
salvation for the
forgiveness of their sins.
And so, those terms are
oftentimes used interchangeably
to mean repent,
that is to salvation,
but not always that.
So you read it in its context
of what was he saying
and what did he mean by that?
Now, when you think
about that, somebody says,
“Well now, I know that he
used that for salvation,
but now what about this
whole issue of faith?
Or what about all these verses
of scripture in the Bible that
says that you’re
saved by faith?”
Repentance isn’t even mentioned,
like for example, John’s Gospel.
We said it’s not–the
word repentance
isn’t even found there.
Well, why not?
For the simple reason they
understood that faith and
repentance go hand-in-hand,
you can’t have–in other words,
if you have genuine
faith, you’re going
to have genuine repentance.
Now, watch this.
For example, when
the Bible says,
“Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved.”
That’s what the Apostle
Paul said to–for example,
the Philippian
jailer when he said,
“What must I do to be saved?”
“Believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and you shall be saved.”
He could have said,
“Believe and repent.”
But in the mind of the Apostle
Paul, those two things were
absolutely, listen, so
combined he couldn’t even
think about them
being differently.
And the issue here was to place
this man’s–place his faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, I’m going to show
you why in a moment.
For example, John writes, “For
God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son that
whosoever believes in Him would
not perish but have
everlasting life.”
Why didn’t he say
believe and repent?
Because in his mind,
in their whole concept,
belief, that is, faith and
repentance are just like
salvation/repentance.
There are two sides
of the same coin.
For example, let’s
say that I have a quarter here,
and on one side
we say it’s heads.
On the other side
we say it’s tails.
Now, this coin, if I
gave you this coin
and I gave you the whole coin,
you’d have heads and tails.
You can’t have a whole quarter
without having heads and tails.
If I gave you a sheet of paper
and I had one thing on one side
and one on the other, you
take that sheet of paper,
you got–you’ve got all of it.
You can’t have a quarter
without having heads and tails.
You can’t have salvation
without faith and repentance.
And so, faith and
repentance go hand-in-hand.
They didn’t distinguish between
the two because in their mind,
in their thinking, the whole
concept is you place your faith
in Jesus Christ,
something’s going to
happen in your lifestyle.
That’s what baptism’s all about.
What’s baptism all about?
Baptism doesn’t save a
person, but baptism is
a symbol of something, what?
That you and I have died
to our old way of life,
have been buried
in Christ Jesus.
That is, we placed our life in
Him, and now we rise to
walk, the Bible says,
in newness of life.
There has been a change.
And so therefore, that’s why we
immerse people because immersion
is the best symbolism of baptism
that symbolizes exactly what’s
happened: died to
our old way of life,
buried in Christ, risen to
walk in newness of life.
So when it comes to these–this
issue of what about belief and
why didn’t He say belief
and repent for the
same–listen, watch this.
If I really and truly have
placed my faith in Jesus Christ,
acknowledged that
He is the Savior,
acknowledge that He’s the
only one, that my sin
is against Him, He’s gonna
be my judge one of these
days, I’ll give
an account to Him.
If I understand who He is,
genuinely understand who He is
and to regret my sin and
realize that it’s against
him and against myself.
If it is a genuine belief,
there will be a genuine change.
Now, let’s think about
this whole idea of
confession for a moment.
What in the world
does confession mean?
Confession means I say
the same thing about.
So when I confess my sins
to God, it means I am in
agreement with Him about His
viewpoint about my sin.
It means that I’m saying
the same thing
about it that He says.
Now, watch this.
If genuine confession means that
I’m saying the same thing about
my sin that God says, I’m
thinking the same thing about my
sin that God thinks,
I’m looking at it
the same way God looks at it.
If it’s genuine confession,
there must be
an element of repentance in it.
Because if I see it
the way He sees it,
this is the way He sees it.
It’s wrong, it’s
against God, it’s against me,
it has devastating consequences,
or it has bad consequences.
And therefore, the way
God sees it is this.
It’s against God, against us.
It doesn’t fit in our life.
Get rid of it!
Deal with it, walk away
from it, lay it aside.
If I just come to
Him and say, “Lord,
I just want to confess my sins
to you and thank You very much.
You said if I confess my
sins, You’re faithful
and just to forgive
me of my sins.
And God I’m
disappointed in myself
that I would even do this.
In Jesus’s name amen.”
Is that sufficient?
No, it’s not.
Because I can, listen, I can
confess from the viewpoint of
most people’s idea about
confession and not have a whole
lot, listen, not have a
whole lot of remorse about it,
not have a whole lot
of regret about it.
And just say, “Lord, You
said if we confess our sins,
You’re faithful and
just to forgive us
our sins, cleanse us from
all unrighteousness.
I’m confessing this.
Lord, I just want to
thank You that I’m
forgiven in Jesus’s name.”
It didn’t even get heart level.
You see, there’s
more to confession
than just telling
God what you did.
Remember, it
means to agree with.
To confess something
means to agree with.
So if I, listen to this, if I
agree with God about my
sin, I come to Him confessing.
If I understand what
confession means and I agree
with Him about it, He hates it!
He hates it because
of its consequence.
He wants it out of my life.
He hates it!
It doesn’t fit who
we are as believers.
That sin was against Him
and against ourselves.
Now when I come to Him and I
confess and I agree with Him,
“God, this was against
You, this was against me.
This grieved your Holy Spirit.
This doesn’t fit me.
You want this out of my life.
Then I am going to make a
genuine decision to turn away
from that,” because that
is complete repentance.
Complete repentance is
not feeling sorry about it,
not because I got caught,
not because I’m shamed,
not because somebody
else doesn’t like it.
Genuine repentance is a
confession, which is an
agreement with God about
His attitude, His viewpoint.
An agreement with Him that
results in a decision whereby I
turn my back on
that, walk away from it,
and listen, and assume the
responsibility by the power of
the Holy Spirit of
getting that out of my life.
That’s what genuine
confession’s all about.
And that’s why the believer,
when any sin crops up in our
life, we need to repent of it.
And so I think so many times we
have used that word “confession”
as a very smooth, silky
kind of non-convicting
kind of only about this deep.
Well, you know, I got
disappointed in myself.
In other words,
you see, we say,
“Oh God, I know I
disappointed you.”
Can’t disappoint God.
He knows past,
present, and future.
Have to have
expectations to disappoint.
So He’s not disappointed.
Grieved?
Yes.
But the thing that I think
grieves Him most is not that we
just–that we come to
Him and confess it
as if it’s something
light-hearted.
Sin is sin in God’s eyes.
You say, “Well, does God
see all sin the same way?”
No, He does not.
There are some sins that are
worse in God’s eyes than others.
But sin is sin.
And how do you deal with sin?
You deal with sin by–it’s not
simply light-heartedly saying,
“Well, Lord, I did it again and
I’m sorry and I know you forgive
me, in Jesus’s name.”
No, I need to see it the way
God–you see, if I’m going
to agree with Him, I have to
see it from His viewpoint.
I’m going to feel something a
lot worse in my heart if I get
it from God’s viewpoint.
Now, you say, “Are you
repeating yourself?”
Absolutely!
Absolutely, because this is a
key reason for so much defeat.
And people say,
“Well, you know what?
I’ve tried for years and
years and years to get this out.
I’ve tried, I’ve
confessed it and
confessed it and confessed it.”
But have you repented of it?
That is, have you said, “In the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
by the power of the Holy
Spirit…I make a turn.
I choose to turn.
I walk away from it.”
Does that mean Satan’s
gonna let you alone?
No, it does not.
Does it mean that
you’ll never fail again?
No, it does not.
But if you fail
again, what do you do?
You genuinely repent
because it’s against God,
it’s against You,
God doesn’t
want it in your
life, and you turn.
And you know what?
Sooner or later, and
very soon more than likely,
whatever Satan has harassed
you with, whatever habit’s
there, listen, God’s going to
give you the victory.
And the victory really, listen,
the victory is so available and
can be so instantaneous,
if we really and truly
mean business with God.
But here’s the attitude
a lot of people have.
Well now, Lord, I know I’m weak.
And God, I just want
to thank You that You
understand that I’m not perfect.
Oh my goodness, has He
heard that so many times?
God, You know I’m not perfect.
I’m just a sinner
saved by grace.
I know You understand,
and I just want to thank
You for forgiving me.
Now, repentance in the
life of the unbeliever
is to get him saved.
That is, faith and repentance
is a salvation experience.
In the life of the
believer, listen,
it’s to keep our
fellowship right with Him.
Has nothing to do with salvation
in the life of the believer.
And so, I think because we
think in terms of repentance
in the life of the
unbeliever, we say,
“Well, that’s what
unbelievers do.”
No!
That’s, listen, that’s what
unbelievers do in the salvation
experience, that’s what we
do to keep our life clean
and obedient before God.
Repentance is godly sorrow.
I’m seeing it
from His viewpoint.
I see that it’s against Him.
It’s godly sorrow, listen,
that makes me feel
bad enough to change.
You say, “Well, why
don’t you change?”
Well, the reason
people don’t change,
they don’t feel bad enough.
They’re not under
conviction about it.
They explain it away.
They reason it away.
Genuine repentance will
result in a genuine change
of attitude, action, behavior.
And as I said
before, it will not
be the same in everybody’s life.
For example, God did not convict
every single one of us or any of
us of everything He was gonna
convict us of at some point in
our life the
moment we were saved.
What does He do?
He takes us little by little
and, listen, by the
Holy Spirit, He shows that
doesn’t fit your life.
Watch this, because sometimes
we are not ready to hear.
It’s not that we
don’t want to hear, we’re not
ready to hear.
And so God, in His grace and
love and mercy and patience and
long-suffering, He’s the
one who cleans up our life.
What’s the grace
of God all about?
The grace of God is His
forgiveness for us who are
believers when we
have sinned against Him.
And it’s not
necessarily a habit,
for example, but something
that happens in your life.
Maybe it’s a temptation or
somebody just ticks you off and
real bad and you just, I
mean, everything in you,
you just get angry and you know
it’s wrong but you’re just angry
anyway and you just got
to say something back.
Then what happens?
Holy Spirit convicts you,
you know it’s not right.
If it’s genuine
repentance, you’re going
to say, “God, I’m sorry.”
Make restitution
with the person.
“That doesn’t fit my
life, I repent of that sin,
God, I don’t want that
in my life any longer.”
Genuine, complete repentance is
not only a change of attitude,
but it is a change of conduct
and a change of behavior.
You and I have the right to
expect godly people to live
godly lives, but we’re
not fruit inspectors.
Somebody
says–somebody’s criticizing us,
“Well, I’m just a fruit
inspector for Jesus.”
I don’t think there’s any verse
in the Bible that says that He
has given any of
us the spiritual
gift of fruit inspection.
He does say this.
He makes a very strong
statement in this seventh
chapter of Matthew,
listen to what he says.
He says,
concerning this whole idea,
“Not,” in verse twenty-one,
“Not everyone who says to Me,
‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter
the kingdom of heaven,
but he who does the
will of My Father
who is in heaven.”
What’s the will of the Father?
Trusting the Lord Jesus Christ
as personal Savior.
Listen, involving repentance
in their life, change.
“Many will say to
Me on that day,
‘Lord, Lord, did we not
prophesy in Your name,
and in Your name
cast out demons,
and in Your name
perform many miracles?'”
So, when it comes to
works, they were there.
“Then will I declare to them,
‘I never knew you;'” that is,
as one of My
children, “‘depart from Me,
you who practice
lawlessness.'”
“Lord, Lord, haven’t
we done many
wonderful things in Your name?”
“I never knew you.”
It is the
condition of the heart.
If there’s going to, listen,
if there’s going to be genuine
salvation, it means,
listen, a change of attitude.
The instant change is from
unbelief about who He is to
belief in who He is and
repentance is so vitally wrapped
up in that you
cannot separate the two.
It is God who makes the changes.
And the change instantly
happened the moment you moved
from unbelief to belief in Jesus
Christ as your personal Savior.
That was the first
thing that took place.
And so, which do you put
first, the change or the belief?
You don’t put either
one of them first.
You’ve got two sides of a
coin, you’ve got belief
and repentance for salvation.
When it comes to the
believer, you and I have the
responsibility–we are, listen,
we are accountable to God.
We’re responsible to God
for the life that we live,
and repentance must be
a vital part of our life.
Only thing we’re doing,
here’s what happens.
Confession without
repentance equals what?
More and more
confession, and confession,
confession, because
there’s not gonna be a change.
It’s–it is the
repentance that, listen,
that puts the strength in that
confession because the two are
really vitally linked together.
If it’s a genuine
confession, it is going to
be involved with repentance.
Change of mind, change of
heart, change of conduct.
So, when a person
says, “Well, you know,
I’ve confessed and confessed and
confessed and I don’t know why
I don’t have any victory.”
Well, have you
ever stopped to say,
“God, this doesn’t
belong in my life.
I repent of that sin, and by
the power of the Holy Spirit,
I choose here and now to walk
away from that in my life.”
He says, “Well, I don’t
know that I can walk away.”
You have the power of
the Holy Spirit within
you to enable you to walk away.
Now, listen carefully, this
is the deceitfulness of sin.
This is the awful
deceitfulness of sin,
that Satan says,
“One won’t hurt you.
Two won’t hurt you.
Three won’t hurt you.
Four won’t hurt you.
Oh, everybody makes a mistake.”
Until finally that chain has
wrapped itself around you and
you come to repent
before Almighty God
and you have a
terrible struggle.
This is why when you
deal with, listen,
when sin crops up in our life,
the time to deal with it is
right then, before it
gets a hold on your life,
and you find
yourself repenting of sin.
And what happens?
Doesn’t last very long,
because you’ve allowed
Satan to get a big
hold in your life.
Can God break that?
Yes, He can!
Will He?
Yes, He will!
The struggle is not
whether God can or not,
the struggle is do I
want Him to or not?
You see, a person
who is in some habit,
the truth is they
enjoy the habit so much.
It’s become such a
part of their life,
the truth is, on the
one hand they say,
“Well, God, I don’t
want this in my life.”
But deep down inside, they
don’t want to give it up.
Don’t want to give it up?
That’s not genuine repentance.
There’s got to be a decision
made to deal with it and to walk
away from it,
which a person can.
So, I want to encourage you,
if you’ve never trusted
Jesus Christ as your Savior and
you’ve been waiting to get your
life cleaned up, forget it.
That’s not your job.
God will clean up your life.
You need to ask the Lord
Jesus Christ to forgive you
of your sins, recognizing that
your sin is against God and
against you, that He died
through His Son, Jesus,
at the cross, and that He
paid your sin-debt in full.
And at the moment you’re
willing to say to Him,
“Yes, I do believe that Jesus
Christ is who He says He is.”
You’ve suddenly changed.
Sudden change has taken place.
I’m placing my
life in His hands,
I’m trusting Jesus Christ for
the forgiveness of my sins.
You have made a dramatic change
in your life, and that change
will show itself instantly
and over the rest of your life.
If you are a believer, you’ve
been bringing in the same old
stuff back, over and
over and over again.
Getting down by
the bed at night,
or getting in the bed
or whatever it might be.
“Lord, here’s what You
said, First John one
nine, I’m confessing it again.
God, why don’t I have victory?”
Because more than likely you
have not been willing to face up
honestly with the nature
of that sin, the consequences of
that sin, and listen,
feeling sorrowful enough about
that sin that you
choose to walk away.
You choose to say no to it.
You choose to forsake it.
And my friend, you choose to
forsake it and all the power of
God is there to
help you to do it.
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