HUMAN EFFORT VS THE GIFT OF REPENTANCE

                 HUMAN EFFORT VS THE GIFT OF REPENTANCE 

INDEX:
- WHAT IS REPENTANCE?
- REPENTANCE IN OUR ATTITUDES
- REPENTANCE IN OUR MOTIVES
- MOTIVE TESTS
- REPENTANCE IN OUR BEHAVIOUR
- THE EXTREME URGENCY OF REPENTANCE!
- THE CALL TO ALL
- CONCLUSION - MISUNDERSTANDING THE CALL; AN EXAMPLE OF FALSE REPENTANCE

“All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” Isaiah 53:6

“I tell you, No, except you REPENT, you shall all likewise perish.” Luke 13:3

“Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteousness man his thoughts, and let return to the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” Isaiah 55:7

 

“From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, ‘REPENT, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.’” Matthew 4:17

 

“…Jesus came into Galilee preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand, REPENT, and believe the Gospel.” MARK 1:14-15


 WHAT IS REPENTANCE?
To REPENT in the Biblical sense means to change directions, in our thinking, our motives, our way. Repentance is turning from our ways to God.

 

THE INITIAL CONTACT – GETTING RIGHT WITH GOD

  There is no compromise in this. We must get right with God. We are lost sinners outside of Christ and destined to destruction if we do not repent of out sins, our attitudes, our ways. There is no other way but faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. That means everything on the altar - our life and ways for His. We must turn to Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, or we will likely turn back from following when the way get hard an the journey gets long.

REPENTANCE IS A GIFT FROM GOD

 PLEASE UNDERSTAND that the ability to get right with God comes from Him, and it is He that grants repentance unto life Acts 11:18.  We must see to it that we do not refuse Him Who speaks from Heaven Hebrews 12:25, lest we miss the grace being accorded to us due to our pride and arrogance. YOU CANNOT COME TO HIM ON YOUR TERMS! Refusal to respond can be extremely costly. The Bible lays out clearly His Laws, His Judgments, His Standards, and His terms. He calls us to repentance and faith, and leaves us with the choice. But HE NO WHERE STATES HOW MUCH TIME WE HAVE TO DECIDE, BUT WHEN WE RESPOND TO HIM ACCORDINGLY, IT IS MIRACULOUS!

REPENTANCE IN OUR ATTITUDE

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of God.” Matthew 5:3  “… for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” 1 Samuel 15:23  “…but the proud He knows afar off.” Psalm 138:6

  As long as we have to be right and no one can tell us what to do, thinking we do not need anyone’s help, not even God’s, we will never be able to fully reconcile with Him. It is His Kingdom, or ours. And if we refuse His Lordship, it will be our kingdom, and our fate will be as we deserve. This attitude can be in both the believer and the unconverted/unbeliever. “’Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return unto the Lord and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God for He will abundantly pardon. For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ says the Lord. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’” Isaiah 55:6-9 

  Regardless of our understanding, perspectives, feelings, before God and outside of Christ, we are wrong. We are sinners that need to be saved. "Let God be true, and every man a liar...Romans 3:4 As long as we feel justified in ourselves and not in need of His grace and salvation, repentance will never happen.

REPENTANCE IN OUR MOTIVES –

 Because our hearts cannot be trusted.
 “He who trusts in his own heart is a fool…The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it.” Proverbs 28:6, Jeremiah 17:9.
  We must be continually wary of our current and long term directions in life. “Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thought, and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139; 23-24. We may have started out with the right intentions, but something else may have crept in, greed, lust… Remember Balaam, the donkey, and what the angel said to him after almost killing Balaam, “…because your way is perverse before me.” Numbers 22:32

MOTIVE TESTS

- Here are some ways we can discern our motives: Proverbs 23:7 “As he thinks in his heart, so is he.” We need to regularly scrutinize our thoughts and desires and match them with the Word of God. What is it we are thinking about, and why do we think or want such things?
- Matthew 12:34  “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” Another indication of what our motives and interests are is by listening to what comes out of our mouth regularly, especially when we are most comfortable or feeling uninhibited. We can think we are earnestly desiring only what is right, and that our intentions are pure, but often our mouths will  declare otherwise. We need to pay heed.
 - Proverbs 16:7 “When a man’s ways please the Lord, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.”  If we find we are in constant conflict with people, especially with those with whom we should not be  in conflict with, then we need to consider our ways and a repentance at some level is likely in order.
- Colossians 3:15"And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts..." The Peace of God is another treasure that He gives us through the work of the cross of Christ. This amazing peace also acts as an umpire in our hearts letting us know that something isn't right when we make a decision or plan and is not in agreement with His counsel. No matter how logical or right something might sound, if we do not feel that peace within our spirits, we know that something is wrong, and need to re-examine our motives and or direction. 
- Psalm 119:105 "Thy Word is a light unto my feet, and a lamp unto my path." The Bible God’s Word, especially under the unction of the Holy Spirit, is our ultimate guide to help us discern our ways and motives. When we watch what goes on in our thoughts(heart) Hebrews 4:12, what comes out of our mouth, if we do not see our attitude, speech, or behavior bearing the fruit of the Spirit Galatians 5:22-23 nor agree with the Bible, we can know quickly that we are out of line and need to 'REPENT' - get back on track with the Lord, His addenda, and live the life He has called you to.

REPENTANCE IN OUR BEHAVIOR

“Now the works of the flesh are manifested, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness/impurity, lasciviousness/indecency, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance/strife, emulations/jealously, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, reveling/carousing, and such like, of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.” Galatians 5:19-21  

 Whatever God calls sin, as stated in the Bible, is what we need to repent of if we want to get right with Him. These are non-negotiable. They are evil, and always harmful to the victims as well as to the participants. They are demonically influenced, work corruption, and are diametrically opposed to the nature of Christ. In contrast He has called us to live by the fruit of the Holy Spirit that He gives to those who believe the Gospel of Jesus. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance; against such things there is no law.” Galatians 5:22-23

When we look at the contrast between our sinful works as opposed to His work of  godliness in our lives, there is no debate. His grievances are just, and His expectations are wholesome and healthy. Why would anyone not want to repent and turn to Him with all our hearts? Our ways lead to death, and His to life – life everlasting!" 
 
THE EXTREME URGENCY OF REPENTANCE!-
Luke 3:7 Then he said to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him, 'O generation of vipers, who has warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" The Lord warns us throughout the Bible of coming judgment and that we are to "...be zealous therefore, and repent." Revelation 3:19
 We very rarely realize the seriousness of our actions, ways, behaviors, but we are quick to condemn others and recognize how evil they are. Or we pass the responsibility on to God and accuse Him for 'allowing' all the evil in the world. People continually ask why God allows so many evil things. It is not He that does them, but He will avenge the unrepentant guilty! He gives us all a space to REPENT Acts 2:21, Ezekiel 22:23-31, but the day will come when He will put an end to rebellion, disobedience, wickedness, if we REFUSE to Repent. Therefore, when we feel the conviction for our actions, or hear the Word of God being preached, or read the Scriptures, and we realize that we are walking in sin before Him, it is up to us to humble ourselves and repent immediately for the saving of our soul! When we surrender to His will and call on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved, HE will forgive us, cleanse us, and receive us to Himself. He is overwhelmingly merciful and He loves us so much!!!
THE CALL TO ALL
There is a call to repentance to individuals, families, churches, and even nations. There is the unending call to all to Repent and Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, and there is also the call to repent of sins and behaviors in specific until He returns. The scope of our duty extends only as far as our God given responsibility when expecting reform in others other than ourselves, but we are to always walk in humility and love, and earnestly pray!

In Conclusion – Repentance is the way to life when we are outside of Christ Jesus, and the way of life in Christ Jesus. Daily we are bombarded with temptations and urges, and  we are constantly needing to adjust our thinking, motives, and our behavior, in compliance to His will, according to His Word, and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. The reward is righteousness, peace, and joy, in the Holy Spirit, and the promise of Eternal Life! Repentance is an urgent, but fantastic expectation!

  Below is an example of how we can fall into a FALSE REPENTANCE

A false repentance is when we make outward changes like abandoning the outward behaviors that are typically associated with a sinful life, and then engage in standard traditional religious activities, but our heart is still unconverted in Christ. We are still in control of our life, and yet we follow all the outward all the outward duties of a religious person, whether intentionally or ignorantly. There are those who do not get it, and in earnest they feel they are doing what is right. This is the ones I want to address in this example. 

MISUNDERSTANDING THE CALL; AN EXAMPLE

By far, the most important step in life is to get right with God our Maker. We hopefully begin to realize that we are going the wrong way, whether intentionally, or unintentionally – “All we like sheep have gone astray, each has departed to his own way…” How can we know this? First of all, His Word (the Bible) tells us what He calls right and wrong, which is also declared through preachers and teachers of the Bible. Then we have a conscience which He put in us that convicts us of wrong doing. Furthermore, as His Holy Spirit works in our life and draws and convicts us, we realize that God seems far away and hard to grasp. Then we come to the need for genuine faith and repentance.

 This is one scenario one may face.

 We may believe in God, and have no doubts that He is there, but for some reason we cannot attain to Him. We can read the Bible and hear untold amounts of testimonies of people who claim to know Him (Jesus said, “My sheep know My voice…”) and yet we stand dubious because that is not our reality. Regardless of the amount of testimonies and evidence  presented, we are still left in the dark. Furthermore we begin to realize that there are things in the world and in our lives that are not right. At that point we often lean to the next obvious step, we try religion. Surely, by being dedicated to our religion we will become a better person, and doubtless, be pleasing to God. So we carry out our rituals, including prayers, perhaps reading our holy book (maybe even the Bible), go to the meetings, and even give to charity. Then we begin to feel good about ourselves and feel confident that we have attained to true righteousness and goodness. No doubt we are closer to God and living acceptably to Him; however, we notice that deep within nothing has changed, in fact we may have perceived that we are less accepting of others that are not living like ourselves, and that they are despised in our estimation. We are more judgmental and critical, and yet justified in our own eyes, maybe even because our holy books says so (or at least appears to say so). The critical fact is that in our heart we know that nothing has really change outside of our new found efforts and activities. We are still as far away from God as before, and we are still the same old person within, merely doing different things outwardly. “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away, behold all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17.  Then what is wrong? Our motives and intentions may be right, but we need to change our thinking, what we believe – “REPENT, and believe the Gospel.” Jesus said, “I AM THE WAY, AND THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE, no man comes to the FATHER but by ME…For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is Eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” John 14:6, Romans 6:23 Religion is not what God needs or is looking for but a relationship through faith in the shed Blood of Christ Jesus His Son which washes away our sins. He then receives us as His sons and daughters having been rebirthed by His Holy Spirit. “Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” John 3:3 When a person repents and believes the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, he becomes a new person within because “God sends the Spirit of His Son into our hearts whereby we cry, ‘ABBA! FATHER!’” Galatians 4:6 And behold, He is no longer far away!

May you find the Peace of a genuine faith in our Lord Jesus Christ!