Repentance is a Revolution

We'll be in Acts 2:38. It is a very familiar passage. Peter has preached a sermon. The crowd that is listening to him is convicted by his words in the name of Christ, what a familiar passage that is for us and a wonderful, because it's all in one phrase, the key ideas important for Salway Bible has an economy of words somehow, where it says a lot, very, this talks about the precious, every single dinner, every single one of his sense. It also reveals the wonderful promise of the Holy spirit. It also establishes that as the proper response of space for all those who matter of fact, we often teach on and we use this group more than any other scripture to prove that that is essential for salvation. And that's correct. I'm not debating that point, prove that that's a necessary step in the process of salvation. However, acts chapter two, verse 38 also mentions another important side view that we argue less about. I've never heard anybody arguing about this particular thing. I've heard people argue about the Holy spirit. I've heard people argue about baptism, but we discussed in frequently and many times pay little attention to an equally important idea. And that is the idea of it says repent, that conjunction there dramatically for you.

The things on either side of that word are equal. We pay a lot more attention to back then. Not so much attention equally without proper repentance. I would affect that. So today I'd like us to study the idea of discounting, the other things, counting baptism, the Holy spirit. We'll talk about that. And we want to talk about, we've talked about biblical back this mirror. Notice that in our biblical faxes, I want to talk about biblical retention. Does there such a thing as biblical biblical roots, proper repent? Well, the word repentance is the original Greek. The language of mind, Peter could have said those two words as they would have stood by the audiences that now in our society, we make a difference between the mind intelligence is in the head. You know, we say, well, what are you thinking about? Someone says, well, let me think about that for a second. And you know, you've got nothing to think about. And then when we talk about our emotions, our feelings, what do we do?

We never said you hurt my feelings. You hurt my feelings. I get point to your heart as you're feeling well, the dude during the first century, those people who are listening did not make this for them. The heart was the center of both Jews. Didn't say, you know, I'll be thinking about that for them thinking it's dealing, we're both coming from the same point. And as a matter of fact, it didn't come from the heart back here. That was the center, the center of most theater people. In other words, their mind was not nearly, it was not nearly as concerning with religions. They were going to belong to it. Wasn't religious religion, but rather a call for a complete transfer

Or a revolution concerning the very part of their life goals, their thinking and their feelings today, we would say, we want a change of heart. Actually, if we were translating this and the inactive or up today, we would be saying, have a change of heart and be that high,

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Now the central force that guided their thoughts and their actions and their feelings had to change. That's what Peter was saying. Not a superficial change, but a change at the core of their being because you see, God changes us from the inside out. God doesn't change us from the outside in that's. Our society does that. We cover over the outside with clothing and style and houses. You know, we cover the outside to give it some sort of impression, but God doesn't change it like that. Sometimes he doesn't change the outside of our circumstances at all. He changes this on the inside and the change that happens on the inside works this way outside so that other people can see. All right. So that's one word mind. The core of being the thing that controls everything that we have, there needs to be a transformation there.

And then the other word is change. There needs to be a change in this light, in our lives. Now our understanding of repentance is neither complete nor fruitful, unless we understand how we are to change couple of ways that we need to change to make our retentions effective. Can they could biblical to be the kind of repentance that either was requiring of the people who spoke. And the Holy spirit requires of us as well. The change of mind, three quality necessary, three kinds of changes that are needed. First of all, the change must be complete. The change must be complete. Paul's repentance. For example, included a complete change of every aspect of his life. We read in Philippians chapter three, beginning in verse three about called former life. And permit me to read this passage. So you can get an idea of the type of change that took place in Paul's life.

He says for, we are the true circumcision who worship in the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh. Although I, myself might have confidence, even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind for confidence in the flesh, I far more circumcised the eighth day of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews. That's the law of a Pharisee as to zeal a persecutor of the church as to righteousness, which is in the law found blameless. Paul says, boy, I was perfect. I was perfect. And yet when Paul repented, every aspect of his life pain, the change in him was complete. He changed his religious beliefs. The things that he believed were changed because repentance means letting go, what is not authorized by Christ, letting go, what is not authorized by God all change those, even though what he believed was intimately connected to his culture.

He changed those things. He abandoned those things. Also, Paul also changed his purpose in life. His purpose in life was to destroy the church to destroy Christianity. And when he changed, he changed completely around. His purpose in life became to build up Christianity, the buildup, the church, Paul changed also his view or his opinion of himself. As I read in Philippians, he thought he was okay. He thought he was perfect. According to the law, he was righteous. He was an okay person, this change. And he began to see himself as one who desperately needed God's forgiveness. As a matter of fact, in first Timothy chapter one, verse 15, when he talks about this, he says, I am the chief sinner. And so repentance also brings a complete change in the view that we have of ourselves radical changes are evident in every sinner who comes to God and who's sincerely repent.

You see it shows when somebody repent because their life changes. And if nothing changes in your life, you need to be wondering about the kind of repentance that has been affected in your life. Now many times, from a personal point of view, I see people bargaining with God when it comes to repent, they think repentance bargaining, they think it's a diplomatic. A trade-off when the time to repent, they're willing to change certain things, but other things are not negotiable. You know, secrets, things, bad habits, those little things that we like, we don't want to let go of. We need to understand that in order for repentance to be repentant, it has to involve the willingness to change every area in our lives. That God points to what we think, what we say, what we do, what we feel less than. This is not repentance. Paul tells us in second Corinthians chapter seven, verse 10, concerning repentance, true repentance.

And the difference between godly repentance and worldly repentance in verse 10, he says for the sorrow, that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret. See what I'm getting at godly. Repentance produces a change without regret. I've seen Christians change, but they're so sorry for what they've left behind. The good old day. Paul says godly repentance is without regrets leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death produces that without complete, we cannot progress. So what kind of change is necessary? A complete change in every aspect of our life. Everything's on the table. When it comes to godliness. Secondly, the change must be Christ centered, a complete change, and a Christ never change. Repentance is not change for its own sake. You don't just change for its own sake. Repentance is a turning away from sin and a turning towards Jesus Christ.

We need to understand that repentance is a lot more than just a new religion. We're not just exchanging an old religion or a new religion. We're not just exchanging old rules for new rules. You know, like, well, I'm going to stop smoking, stop drugs, stop the illicit sex cheating. I'm going to be more humble and all that kind of stuff. And then, and in exchange for this, I'm going to start learning the Bible, go to church, you know, and so on and so forth. We make repentance into a little game whereby if we let go of a few bad things and add on a few good things, we win this real neat prize called heaven. That's not repent. Most of our spiritual struggles, many times, there's nothing of the sort, but nearly an ongoing negotiation with God concerning which sins we can keep and which ones we can let go.

That's not repent. That's what the Jews believe and practice. And Jesus condemned them for their hypocrisy. Just as you'll condemn us with this kind of hypocrisy as well. Repentance is not an exchange of good deeds for heaven. Repentance is heaven. Repentance is the action where one recognizes that then is destroying him and sees the hope of this life in the son of God and turns away from death to the one who can save him. We need to understand that repentance is a complete turning away from all sin and a turning towards a person, not turning towards a religion or a set of rules, or even towards the group. Before we were slaves to feelings before we were slaves to desire before we were slaves to ignorance into sin. But now we have been free from these things and call to build a relationship with a divine person.

It's just not. And the new indoctrination repentance is not indoctrinate. It is the building of a new relationship with a person. Paul tells Christians that they are to be transformed enrollments chapter as well. First don't be conformed to this world. He says, but be ye transformed, transformed. Repentance is the conscious experience of that transformation. I repeat repentance, the conscious experience of the transformation taking place in repentance. We actually see and feel ourselves changing from physical and temporal beings into spiritual, eternal Christ. Like the that's why I say repentance is a taste of heaven. Now don't get me wrong. Spiritual doesn't mean magic, right? The serious spiritual means godly and Christ, which brings me to the third quality of the chain necessary in repentance. Let me review with you what we said. We've said that repentance is a change of mind or Barbie. And we've said that repentance record, you are the change at this level.

And this change must be complete. Must be Christ, met her. And finally this D continue it since repentance is a living dynamic experience of our spiritual transformation. It must continue to be evident in our lives because the lack of it is the direct signal that we're dying spiritually when repentance is not no longer a dynamic factor in our lives. That's the red light going off and we're beginning to fade out spirits. Now, if there was anyone who had reason to boast concerning how good and how hardworking and how productive and how smart he was, it was the Paul. Again, based on these things, based on the things that he did in the name of religion, Paul could declare how spiritually alive that he walked had he done this. However, he would have been no better than the Jewish. He fought all of his life, but dynamic of repentance was continually at work in him.

And this was the witness that he was alive, spiritually, not his achievement. You get what I'm saying here? Paul could have listed, I established churches. I converted people. I did this, I did that. And had he depended on these achievements to testify that he was alive spiritually, he would have been no better off than the Jewish legalists. What I'm saying is the thing that testified to his life spiritually was the fact that he understood that he was a sinner and that he needed the cross of Christ as we sang this morning and that his ongoing struggle within this was the thing that testified that he was alive spiritually. So many times, many of us have Christianity backwards. We want to do great things for God. So we can reassure ourselves that we're alive spiritually, and that will go to heaven. So we become super crisp and super and super dependent on our work and super lost, super condensed.

Or we see that there are a lot of sins in our lives that are in the way of doing great things and we become discouraged and we don't even try to deal with them. And we think we're lost because we didn't do all of those wonderful things for God. When in reality, we're lost because we didn't repair the way to be saved the way to be spiritual. Christ's like dynamic, pleasing to God, mature in Christ is to repent completely in cross continually every day of our lives. Paul said for me, or to me to live is Christ and to die is gain Philippians chapter one, verse 21. And Paul could say this because he had consciously experienced the transformation within itself, powered by a sincere spiritual and ongoing repentance in his life. It's this struggle. It's this wrestling around with repentance day in and day out.

That tells me that I'm still alive spiritually. And so many times people who come to me and we talk about the Bible and we talk about spiritual things are discouraged for the very thing that ought to encourage them. They say, well, I'm always struggling with sin. Praise the Lord. That's a signal that you're alive. That you're moving ahead, that your eyes are rolling. That you know who you are, that you're close to the cross of Christ. The people I worry about other people say, well, what's the problem. I don't have any struggle with sitting. Everything is okay. Those people, those are the walking dead. And it's so sad because they don't even know the trouble that they're in.

Let's face it. If Paul, the apostle at the end of his life could say, I'm the chief of sinners. Certainly all of us need to be able to relate to our did not depend on his work for salvation, which one of us depends on what we do in order to be right. Can we say the thing? Can we say the thing is Paul says, for me to live is Christ and to die is gain. Can we say that Christ is our very life? And that death will be an increase. Ever wonder what an increase will be. Paul says to him to live is Christ and to die is gain. And what he's saying is when I die, what I will gain is more of Jesus Christ because my sinful flesh will no longer be in the live is Christ. And to die is more of Jesus Christ or is our actual situation. One that says for me to live is blank. And you fill in the blank with whatever is the center of your life. For me to live is work for me to live is pleasure for me to live is power. For me to live is security for me to live is whatever phase.

Well, if that's what's in the blank, I can finish the sentence for you. Because if, if, if it is for me to live is money and Jesus is not at the center of your life. Then I guarantee you that death will be at the end of your life because without Christ death reeds the spirit only to eternal box, not to return a lot. I asked you this morning, do you want to repent? Do you understand what this means? Do you really, and truly repent now and has you, and will you repent every day after? Is that what you want? If you do a couple of things to help, first of all, make the decision that there is no sin in your life that you will not abandon for. Jesus' cross. You really want biblical repentance. Then you put it on the table, that there is nothing that you are willing not to give up for.

Jesus' cross, whether you're able to let it go today or not. What I'm saying to you is decide today that you are willing to completely repent and ask God to accomplish this thing in your life. Starting today, begin living your Christian life and your Christian life is lived out in the church and through study and prayer and service on and so forth. Begin living your Christian life as if it is a relationship with a person, not a relationship with a religion after all, all the things that we do as Christians is really a networking of our relationship with the person. For example, church, right, is our public worship to the Lord, not to our history church of Christ. We're not celebrating our, our, our restoration history. There's no day in the calendar. When we celebrate this brother Campbell or stuff, we don't do that. Worship is our relationship to the Lord. Prayer is our private talk with, with the Lord study is our instruction from the Lord. Service is our work for the Lord. Live your life. As if it is a relationship with a divine person, I will not die for an institution.

I will not lay myself down for an institution or a person or the Lord yet for, and finally recognize that dealing with them and dealing with ignorance is that the core of the Christian experience here on earth recognize that the sign that we are alive and dynamic and mature is our daily experience of the struggle to continually repent. The continual repentance is the sign, that the word and that our faith and that's the Holy spirit is truly having an effect in changing our will. Your struggle is your sign. God is in you. Christ is working out yourself. I asked is repentance causing a revolution in your life. A revolution of change at the core of your being. Is there a need for you to begin today to repent? If you're not a member of the body of Christ, if you're not a Christian, we go back to acts chapter two, verse 38.

If you're willing to have this kind of change in your life, then the next step is to be varied in the waters of Vestas and that you might wash away your sins and receive the Holy spirit and learn more of the things. And if you are a Christian and perhaps you have fallen away or become worldly or separated from Christ because of an improper understanding or sinful lifestyle, and you need to repent, you need to change that, decide to change and receive the ministry of prayer from the elders, whatever your needs, please make it known. Now as we stand and as we sing, our songs

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