THE IMPORTANCE OF REPENTANCE
Repentance is key. The word repent, repents, repented and repentance appears
in the New Testament 56 times in the New King James Version.
Definition of Repentance - the humble realization and regret of one's action,
the process of repenting for misdeeds or moral shortcomings.
It is through our repenting, and being made sorry in a godly manner for our
actions shows God's Spirit is with us assuring us of our salvation. Those without
God's Spirit, without Jesus, their being sorry for their actions, still leads to death.
9 Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry,
but that your sorrow led to
repentance.
For you were made sorry in a
godly manner,
that you might suffer loss from us
in nothing.
10 For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation,
not to be regretted; but the
sorrow of the world produces death.
2 CORINTHIANS 7:9-11
Jesus came to call sinners to repentance, and that is how He began His Ministry by preaching repentance.
From that time Jesus began to preach and to say,
“Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
MATTHEW 4:17
But go and learn what this means:
‘I desire mercy and
not sacrifice.’
For I did not come to call
the righteous,
but sinners, to repentance.”
MATTHEW 9:13
When Jesus heard it, He said to them,
“Those who are well have no need of a physician,
but those who are sick. I did not come to call
the righteous,
but sinners, to repentance.”
MARK 2:17
It is through understanding that God loved us so, that He sent His Son Jesus to die for us while we were still living our sinful lives.
But God demonstrates His own love
toward us, in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for
us.
ROMANS 5:8
Confession is good for the soul, and if we confess our sins to Him, (repent of our sins) He is faithful and just to forgive us our sin.
If we confess our
sins, He is faithful and just
to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from
all unrighteousness.
1 JOHN 1:9
It is through repentance, forgiveness, faith, and knowing it was through God's
grace we were saved. Not even through good works or going to church can
your sins be forgiven. We can not pick or choose one, it is all or nothing. It is
only through repentance can we receive God's gift of the Holy Spirit who is
our guarantee we belong to Him.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith,
and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.
EPHESIANS 2:8-9
13 In Him you also trusted, after
you heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation; in whom also,
having believed,
you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is
the
guarantee of our inheritance until the
redemption of the
purchased possession, to the praise of His
glory.
EPHESIANS
1:13-15
Many
preachers are now teaching and preaching that you only need to believe, and that
just by faith you can be saved. They take one verse, one scripture to validate
their position.
Beware lest anyone
cheat you through philosophy
and empty deceit,
according to the tradition of men,
according to the
basic principles of the world,
and not according
to Christ.
3 If anyone teaches otherwise and does not consent to
wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus
Christ,
and to the doctrine which
accords with godliness, 4 he is proud,
knowing nothing, but is obsessed
with disputes and arguments
over words, from which come envy,
strife, reviling, evil suspicions,
5 useless wranglings of men of corrupt minds and
destitute of the truth,
who suppose that godliness is a means of gain. From such withdraw
yourself. 6 Now godliness with contentment is
great gain.
1 TIMOTHY 6:3-6
I have
to ask, if repenting of our sin was not necessary, why would Jesus have had to
suffer and shed His blood for our sins?
in whom we have redemption through
His blood, the forgiveness
of sins.
Why then
would Jesus have started His preaching with repent? One must search the
scriptures to understand and to find out for themselves God’s truth, not man’s.
These were more
fair-minded than those in Thessalonica,
in that they received
the word with all readiness, and searched
the Scriptures daily to
find out whether these things were so.
He came to this world to save people from their sins, and also
from God’s wrath to come through teaching them all God’s word.
And she will bring forth a Son, and
you shall call His name Jesus,
for He will save His people from their sins."
MATTHEW 1:21
and to wait for His Son from Heaven,
whom He raised from the dead,
even Jesus who delivers us
from the wrath to come.
1 THESSALONIANS 1:10
For Jesus is the Word of God, He is God’s spoken and written
Word.
In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God.
JOHN 1:1-2
When Jesus was speaking to the
churches in Revelation made it quite clear that those who don’t repent will be
cast into the great tribulation. That alone tells us how important repenting of
our sin is.
I tell you, no; but
unless you repent
you will all
likewise perish.
Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked,
but now commands all men everywhere to repent,
21 And I gave her time to repent of her
sexual immorality,
and she did not repent. 22 Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed,
and those who commit adultery with her into great
tribulation,
unless they repent of their deeds.
REVELATION 2:21-22
Those who haven’t repented care
more about the things of this world, then the things of God, and knowing they
are facing God’s wrath, they still refuse to repent of their deeds.
Do not love the world or
the things
in the world. If anyone loves the world,
the love of the
Father is not in him.
And they did not repent of their murders or their sorceries
or their sexual
immorality or their thefts.
And when people end up in the great tribulation, they will
know these plagues are from God, and even then they still will not repent of
their deeds.
And men were scorched
with great heat,
and they
blasphemed the name of God who has power over
these plagues; and
they did not repent and give Him glory.
They blasphemed
the God of heaven because of their pains
and their sores,
and did not repent of their deeds.
REVELATION 16:11
Today we can see that the hearts of many have grown cold to the true teachings
of God, and have run to false teacher who will only tell then what they want to
hear, and not tell them that they are sinners who need to repent of their sin.
11 Then many false prophets will rise up
and deceive many.
12 And because lawlessness will abound, the
love of many will grow cold.
13 But he who endures to the end shall be
saved.
MATTHEW 24:11-13
3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound
doctrine,
but according to their own
desires, because they have itching ears,
they will heap up for themselves
teachers; 4 and
they will turn their ears
away from the truth, and be
turned aside to fables.
2 TIMOTHY 4:3-4
After hearing or being taught the truth that is in Jesus, they decide to leave their
church for the new and improved entertainment concept or accept changing their
church to the new and improved. Now because they have chosen to listen and
follow these false teachers, they end up returning to their sinful lives they were
once freed from.
21 if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him,
as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct,
the old man which grows corrupt
according to the deceitful lusts,
23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind,
EPHESIANS 4:21-23
[ Deceptions
of False Teachers ]
For when they speak great swelling words of
emptiness, they
allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness,
the ones who have
actually escaped from those who live in error.
Only Jesus Christ has the power to forgive our sins, not any
man or woman can, only Jesus, for He paid the price.
10 But that you may know that the Son of
Man
has power on earth to forgive sins”—
He said to the paralytic, 11 “I say to you, arise,
take up your bed, and go to your house.”
MARK 2:10-11
20 When He saw their faith, He said to him,
“Man, your sins are forgiven you.”
LUKE 5:19-21
Therefore take heed
to yourselves and to all the flock,
among which the Holy
Spirit has made you overseers,
to shepherd the church of God
which He purchased
with His own blood.
ACTS 20:28
He is the One who suffered and died in our place, for our sins, and He will come again to judge a non-repenting world.
They will give an account to Him
who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
1 PETER 4:5
He also tells us of those who will not inherit God’s kingdom,
for they would not repent, and turn from their sinful lives, and the list is
long. There will be no excuses, for Jesus told us beforehand.
8 No, you yourselves do wrong and cheat, and
you do these things to your brethren!
9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will
not inherit the kingdom of God
Neither fornicators, nor
idolaters, nor adulterers,
nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous,
nor drunkards, nor revilers,
nor extortioners
will inherit the kingdom of God
1 CORINTHIANS 6:8-10
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are:
adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, lewdness,
20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies,
outbursts of wrath, selfish
ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the
like;
of which I tell you beforehand,
just as I also told you in
time past, that those who
practice such things
will not inherit the kingdom of God
GALATIANS 5:19-21
God also requires that we must also forgive others, as He forgave us. This God
warned us about, if you don't forgive, neither will He forgive our trespasses.
14 “For if you forgive men their
trespasses,
your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 But if you do not forgive men their
trespasses,
neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
MATTHEW 6:14-15
“So My heavenly Father also will do to you
if each of you, from his heart,
does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
MATTHEW 18:35
God also requires that we as Christians must love one another, as Christ loved us.
A new commandment I give to you,
that you love one another; as I have loved you,
that you also love one another.
He who has My commandments and keeps them,
it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by
My Father, and I will love him
and manifest Myself to him.”
31 And the second, like it, is this:
‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
There is no other commandment greater than these.”
MARK 12:31
One does not just believe and receive. Being a Christian is
a process. We hear of Christians falling away from their faith or walking away.
They did not follow what God required, but believe what a pastor, minister, or
priest told them. When we see people fall or walk away, know they did not
understand, or were not taught to know what a true Christian believes. Too
often we just let them go, rather than with love, show them God’s true teaching
of repentance and forgiveness.
Brethren, if a man is overtaken
in any trespass,
you who are spiritual restore such a one in
a spirit of gentleness,
considering yourself lest you also
be tempted.
GALATIANS 6:1
in humility correcting those who are in opposition,
if God perhaps will grant them repentance,
so that they may know the truth.
2 TIMOTHY 2:25
While you still have breath, there is still time to receive
Jesus and know without a doubt that you will be with Him in heaven. First to
believe and receive, one must believe Jesus was born of a virgin, suffered and
was crucified, rose from the dead, and is seated at the right hand of the
Father. That Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead.
1. Then admit you’re
a sinner.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,
and the truth is not
in us.
2. Confess your sins
to God.
If we confess our
sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness.
1 JOHN 1:9
3. Then repent of
your sins.
I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in
heaven
over one sinner who repents than over
ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.
Likewise, I say to
you, there is joy in the presence
of the angels of
God over one sinner who repents.”
4. Only then will God
send His Holy Spirit to come and live in you.
But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name,
He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance
all things that I said to you.
JOHN 14:26
13 In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of
truth,
the gospel of your salvation;
in whom also, having believed,
you were sealed with the Holy
Spirit of promise,
14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance
until the redemption
of the purchased possession, to
the praise of His glory.
EPHESIANS 1:13-14
5. And you will serve
Him all the days of your life.
23 And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord and not
to men,
24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the reward of
the inheritance;
for you serve the Lord Christ. 25 But he
who does wrong will be repaid
for what he has done, and there is
no partiality.
COLOSSIANS 3:23-25
how much more shall the blood of Christ,
who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself
without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from
dead works to serve the living God?
HEBREWS 9:14
Now Is The Time To Repent, For The Kingdom Of God
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