Repentance: Not What You Think it is! | Repentance part 1

[Music] all right we're going to talk about repentance tonight repent it's not what you think it is now I thank God that he allowed us space to repent he didn't have to but he's given us the occasion to repent it's important then that we know exactly what it is I'm afraid that much of Christianity has given a false definition to it and so we're going to straighten that out tonight and over the next couple lessons so I am Michael pearl and you are at the door located in Louisville Tennessee this is no greater joy ministries and you can find us at no greater joy dot org repent of your sins or heard that term you see it on the back of gospel tracts you see it in them hear it in sermons all the time it's a very popular phrase that you need to repent of your sins in fact the Bible says they were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices and jesus answered in selling them suppose he that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered such things I tell you nay but except you repent you shall all likewise perish so here was some people that Pilate killed and mingled their blood with sacrifice blood and sprinkled on the altar that was a desecrating thing to do to the temple so he said do you think these were great sinners because it happened to him he said if you don't repent you'll perish in the same way are another popular example in his day a current event something you'd find in the newspaper are those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell directing a tower boom fell on them and killed them and slew them think he that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem I tell you nay but except Europe you shall all likewise perish so this is Jesus speaking saying that repentance is essential if we don't want to perish so for that reason we better know what it is so we can make sure that we repented so what does it mean to repent now the popular answer is turn from your sin of course we sing that song and we've changed the words I do when I sing into any hell victory in Jesus then I repented of my sins and won the victory well I reckon you did if you're repented of your sins you don't even need Jesus you'd have a lot of victory there it'd be great if you repented of your sins I'd love to be able to go out on the street and say to a drunk homosexual an alcoholic all you need to do is stop sinning just repent of them put them away get rid of your sins and then God will accept you wait a minute I've been on the street quite a bit during my life and I've yet to meet the first sinner that would think that was a good message they would think that that was an exciting opportunity well all I've got to do is repent of all my sins and God will accept me in fact I'm not sure I've repented of all my sins yet have you have you discovered anything the last year that's sinful in your life something you didn't repent up ten years ago just now getting around to do you think is a good chance that before you die you will discover something else in your life that you need to repent of do you have to repent of your sins how many sins how many sins must you repent of well all of them of course well here's what a lot of people think they think that there's steps to have in fact I had gospel tracts I've given out gospel tracts said three steps to heaven or five steps to heaven or six six steps to heaven alright different ones like that and there's different ways of expressing the gospel so you put it in two steps to make it easy to understand I'm not pooh-poohing that but here is a very popular belief and this one is expressed by the church Christ's denomination they say there's six steps to getting to heaven the first one is you need to hear the gospel the second one is you need to believe on Jesus Christ now if you're a Baptist that settles it right there I mean you know it's dumb it's two steps right but the Church of Christ then add repent of your sins after you believe then you repent of your sins in that order you can't repent of your sins until you believe and repenting these sins wouldn't work if you didn't believe so they got that order then confess Jesus Christ some say even some Baptist say confess Jesus as Lord of your life let me ask you when you got saved was Jesus the Lord of your life is he the Lord of all your life yet ought to be but is let me ask your wife instead of you your husband is Jesus the Lord of his life and everything what about the husband I asked him what about your wife is Jesus the Lord of her life confess Jesus Christ and then be baptized her the proper way to say it a future crisis baptized so be baptized after you confess Jesus Christ no we hadn't gotten to heaven yet we're working our way up the ladder these steps are necessary and then maintain good works you have to maintain good works in order to be saved if you're a Church of Christ that's the reason I've never met a Church of Christ who knew he was saved I've talked a lot of them and asked him if you died right now do you know you'd go to have them and they've said to me well you can't know for sure till you die that's a little bit late now this is on a Church of Christ website called truth for the world dot org this is the third hear believe repent of your sins says third one must repent of his sins in order to be saved that's a probably 98% of Christianity teaches that Jesus commanded that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all nations beginning from Jerusalem repentance is a result now remember it when he says repentance he's talked about repenting of sins repentance as a result of being sorry for one sins in other words you get sorry and then you quit sinning when the jews on pentecost day learned from peter that they crucified the Son of God they were cut to the heart they wanted to be forgiven of their sins so they asked what shall we do they were told repent ye and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto that's not what the Bible says they changed the word there for the remission of sins they for they they're using a different homemade translation so he says when one repents he turns away from his sins that's very specific they're specifying that when you repent as you must in the ladder to get saved you must repent turn away from your sins he shows that he's repented by doing good works in other words the way you know a person is repenting and ready for the next step water baptism is that he's doing good works that's why we say many of them believe in works salvation now they'd say no it's God's working through us but they don't know they're saved yet why because their works don't add up okay look up in the concordance which I did the word repent and look up repentance repenting repented and repenteth those are the different ways repent is used in the Bible and I found that it appears 112 times in all now in my concordance it doesn't that many times about 105 in Strong's hardback it only appears 111 times but if you take the time to actually count them yourself it appears 112 times in the King James Bible now some of the other Bibles it'll be 15 or 20 times less because they're uncomfortable with the doctrine so they removed the word where they won't so of the 112 times it says repent 39 times you're in reference to God repenting did you know God repents we're going to talk about that the next lesson God repents 39 times the Bible is references God repenting or not repenting that's the number of books in the Old Testament and none of the references of God repenting or not repenting or in the New Testament they're all in the Old Testament the 39 references are found in the 39 books of the Old Covenant and then 66 times among those 112 man is repenting 66 is the number of books in the Bible the number of times man repents or doesn't and that happens to be and I just accidentally ran across this as I was I studied this back for I had a computer and I actually took a Bible's old Bibles and cut out every verse on repentance every time it appeared and laid all 112 of them on a table in front of me and so then I start gripping them into God repenting and that's how I found the numbers and man repenting and and then I saw that there was some subgroups actually six groups of six in the 66 that refer to man repenting and it just happens that six is the number of man Bibles got God's fingerprints all over it six-time man's repentance regarding sin our God in the Bible six times John the Baptist preached is repentance six times repentance and baptism are mentioned together six times the Apostles excluding Paul preached repentance six times the book of Revelation says sinners will not repent six times in the book of Revelation the church is called to repentance six of 66 having to do with man now pertaining to God repenting or not repenting seven times God is sending judgment on the people for their sin seven times God is determined not to repent he said I will not repent and then seven times God will not repent and recording - a judgment that he has sent and then regarding something non religious there seven times repentance appears something doesn't have this salvation or anything like that and then seven times there's a man to man repentance a man repents before a man and it has nothing to do with God or salvation or anything like that so there's those five groups of seven now all references to repent of sins repented of sins are repentance from sin what we're going to do we're going to take our computer we're going to type in parentheses repent of sins close parenthesis repented of sins repentance from sin so every time the Bible uses one of those phrases we're going to find it and study it to see what it's got to say so we will open our Bibles and we'll go through and find all those verses where it says that what happened to them surely they must be in there somewhere there's got to be sorry what the phrase you're looking for cannot be found it's not in the Bible none of those phrases you mean the term repent of sin doesn't appear in the Bible never not once repent from sin not once then where did it come from religion God didn't say it fossils never said it it's a made-up doctrine not once repent of sins is not in the Bible and that's a shock to you now if you've got a new international version then it yeah it will use it why because it does not translate the Greek what it does is renders the Bible in everyday pop your language with popular doctrine so it is an interpretation of what the Bible says not a translation along with the other 300 English Bibles that are available to you today so it's not there now that's Illustrated here's this guy walking along and he needs to repent he decides that he's going the wrong direction this is what repentance is so he stops and he feels sorry about the ways going but that's not repentance you know to repent if you look it up in the dictionary is to turn in another direction the opposite direction from the direction you're going and so it's not a one return isn't is a turn you know it's actually reversing whatever it is that you're discussing so this man stops and a repentance is an about-turn in regard to the issue so this man's going maybe he's going to Grandma's house and he changes his mind and he turns around and he goes back the way he came so that man has repented of going to Grandma's house now that's something that Jeremiah might need to do he comes running up to our house to find some kind of a snack if he can't get one in his house we got rid of the crackers so they can't get crackers anymore so he doesn't come as often as he used to maybe he's getting a little older so he starts off and he repents and he goes back home knowing that he's going to get scolded he's not gonna get his crackers when he comes up there I'm gonna give him a cabbage head to eat so that's what repentance is it's a reversal of direction now it could be a change of mind if the subject is about something you think in other words you could be thinking I think I'm gonna go to Vanderbilt no no changed my mind I'm going to go to the Community College and that would be a good choice now from what and to what must one turn biblically when one repents now there's a track called Chick tracts that are the best tracks in the world thousands of people have gotten saved reading those tracks I used them when I was younger for a rope long track and I found them very useful and I've run into people who've gotten saved reading Chick tracts so there's still the best tracks that you can give out but uh after chick had been distributing tracks for five or ten years he changed the back where it tells how to get saved and put on it repent of your sins now I stopped using the track but within a couple of years he went back and changed it back so apparently for a short period of time he got caught up in that probably by the influence of people buying the tracks that said but you don't say repent of your sins so he changed it but now he's gone back but still it's not perfectly accurate and that doesn't prevent me from using them but uh it's not because sinners don't enough doctrine can understand what they're reading they're gonna get this message before they get to the backside with this little prayer list here notice he says number two there in his list look at a little closer be willing to turn from sin that's one of the steps to salvation then admit you're a sinner be willing to turn from sin repent believe that Jesus Christ died for you was bared rose from the dead so he's got repentance and believing as two different acts that repentance must follow and belief must follow repentance that's false now understand when you're trying to simplify things for people that they end up dissecting in a way that it it's not the animal any longer and so that's that's forgivable but just to be a nitpicker that's not accurate that's not that's false doctrine repentance and faith are the same act that occurs simultaneously we'll see that later not two separate acts one following the other now be willing to turn from your sin I have led a lot of people the Lord this cold turkey walk up 20 minutes on the street and they get saved I've never told one of them they need to be willing to turn from their sin not even when I was talking to a lesbian or homo I didn't tell them the need to turn from their sin that wasn't the issue the issue was not that they were sinning the issue was they didn't have God they didn't know God they weren't God's child they didn't have the Holy Spirit they weren't born again that was the issue and always made that the issue and so when they did get born again immediately when the Spirit of God came in they were willing to turn from their sin but never before they get saved are they willing in terms in try to get a drug addict to give up his drugs before he's received Jesus Christ drugs is all he's got why should he give it up till he has something better he's not going to give it up that's like going up to a bomb on the street who's hungry he just got into a garbage can and he dug out a biscuit that's half eaten and got a little cigarette butts smashed donut and some gravy and some jelly smeared on it so he digs out that half biscuit he brushing the cigarette ashes off of it and he's getting rid of heat and I woke up so I took that thing away he's not gonna throw that away that's his dinner he's proud of it I said get rid of that and I'll give you something better and he keeps dusting it all then that's what it is when you walk up the center and tell him you need repent of your sin instead what I do is I reach in I pull out a brand new freshly wrapped hamburger with cheese on it dripping with Alden and I said I'll give you this if you own it and he drops that biscuit in the process of reaching up and grabbing that package out of my hand he just totally forgot it why because he's not focused on giving something up he's focused on getting something something much better than what he's got so to tell a sinner to repent of your sin then you can believe on Jesus Christ is getting it all backwards in fact is it just doesn't work now this track people get saved breathing it because they don't want to reading they got saved before they ever got to this point and then when they read the message but that could be said much better so be willing to turn from your sins is what the chick says so let's search that then and see what the Bible's got to say about repent and turn let's look up those two words together we'll just type in into our computer repent repent turn and so it's going to find any verse in the Bible that's got those two words in it in any order anywhere on any subject repent and turn so we've typed that in and O one if he trespassed against these seven times in a day and seven times and a day turn again to thee saying I repent thou shalt forgive him found one that had turned and repent in it course it's not about you turning from your sin that's uh that's something else about a man forgiving a man for personal violations against him so that one wouldn't apply to our subject here's one the only one were repent and turn is used together but show first unto them of Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout all the coasts of Judea and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn from sin repent and turn to God didn't say return turn from sin it didn't say you need to want to turn from sin it said need to repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance so instead of turning from your sin it says turn to God that's kind of like the balm turning to the hamburger right in the process when you turn to God you will begin turning from sin but you know it's a lifetime experience if you were to try to wanna take the turn from sin none of us have done it enough to be saved so there's no willing to turn from your sins anywhere in the Bible as a condition to being saved not only is the phrase not there the concept is not there now I know this is strange to many of you seeing this since making you mad the reason it is is because this has been a dear doctrine to you all your life and you're sitting there thinking okay I know what he's saying he's saying people can just go on sinning after they get saved I know what you're saying you're wrong is what I'm saying at all I've got the cure from the book of Romans on of sinning the Cure on how to stop sinning and it's not to tell a lost man he needs to quit so he can come to God and by the way how many people have you ever led to the Lord doing that not me neither okay repentance from something and to something so from what into what must one turn that's the question in repentance when he says repentance must be preached repentance turning what turning we're turning how turning from what turning to what so we research in our Bibles repent toward repent - and repent from that gives us the direction because repentance is to turn in some direction right so we look up every time that's appeared it's going to be there that I'm not fooling you again okay so we're gonna find it this time and now I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you but have showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house this is Paul's gospel message testifying both the Jews and also to the Greeks a universal message here's what he taught repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ this is Paul's summary of his gospel approach to Jews and Gentiles alike repentance toward God finally we have a direction what do your pent from what your pent to you repent to God you turn toward God and have faith toward the Lord Jesus God notice the repentance is toward God God the Father the eternal God the God of the Old Testament toward faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ the faith is in he what he did and his finished work and then we read Hebrews six therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ let us go on unto perfection not laying again the foundation of repentance from now we've got the word from dead works he's giving us the very foundation of getting saved being born again accepted by God gives it a little list and then this he starts off with repentance from dead works that's the foundation of your salvation now if the Church of Christ were right that should say repentance from sin if many of the Baptist's were right that would say be willing to repent of your sin be willing to give him up that never appears what appears he says repentance from dead works what's a dead work the writ dead works are defined in the Bible dead works are those works that we do to please God and be acceptable to him you know what the biggest dead work in the world is repentance from sin that's the biggest dead work there is the idea that you can turn from your sin and make yourself acceptable to God that's a dead work it's a work you're doing in anticipation of becoming a Christian in preparation for becoming a Christian and God rejects that dead work repentance from dead works and of faith toward God there's the from and to repentance from the dead works faith toward God what are what are your dead works some people it's water baptism some people it's going to church some people spraying some people's reading their Bible some people it's wearing plain clothes some people it's head coverings some people it's the diet they have it's their worship patterns people have all kinds of dead works they do to try to please God now repentance is unto belief look at this passage for John came unto you in the way of righteousness and ye believed him not Jesus is rebuking them for rejecting John but the publicans of ranks enter and the harlots believe him she said the low-class scum believed on Jesus but you high-class Jews did not and ye when you have seen it repented not afterward having seen him die buried and raised again see the miracles afterward you still didn't repent now what does he mean repent that ye might believe him so Jesus is defining the repentance they failed to do as believing God the publicans and harlots believed but they repented not so belief and repentance are synonyms they're repented not and stating at narrative negatively belief is stating it positively that ye might believe him and then we read in mark said the time was fulfilled the kingdom of God is at hand repent ye and believe the gospel now those who have a misunderstanding of this subject think that's step two and three in other words but they're getting it backwards Church Christ and most people have it believe in then repent he's got it repent ye and believe the gospel because that's one act repenting toward God and believing the gospel Lord Jesus Christ that is one act that's not two steps not something you do in preparation for believing example of one sinner that repenteth not my very first sermon I ever preached was this story here likewise us into you there's joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth what I've experienced that joy so many times I've been speaking and watched I can remember right now a lesbian sitting right about here in this position as I was speaking and her began to weep and I saw God save her she's still saved after 40 years still say I can remember just a couple of three years ago Deb Anaya stopping on the side of the road and witnessing to two hitchhikers and as we sat there in a gas station that was closed underneath it I saw the tears begin to run down his cheek and I saw a sinner repenting towards God and being born again took a kayaked trip down the river when I was young and oh I was a big long story won't tell it all but we got to the end of her trip and got out of the water and here was a hitchhiker standing there and I gave him the gospel of Jesus Christ and that senator repented towards God had faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ and was born again and there's joy in the presence of the Angels and there was joy in my heart watching him get saved and he said certain man had two sons now this is following verse 10 verse 11 so he's going to give us an example a parable of joy over one sinner that repenteth we're gonna get a story from Jesus that is an example of repentance do you see that coming alright then it's gonna tell us something and he said and the younger a certain man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father father give me the portion of goods that falleth me and he divided and do him is living so two sons one of them gets one half that fortune the oven gets the other half of the fortune this old father you know the young man says I want my half now so he gets his half so they sell off cows and different stuff they take money out of banks and then get rid of property and this young man gets his inheritance and off he goes goes off into the city I left a lot of it out here because I don't have time to read all but he wasted wasted his substance with riotous he's bought boobs and drugs and women and parties and pretty soon he'd spent all that great fortune and when he had spent it all he ended up eating with the Hogs nothing left sick frail diseased a shame and embarrassment to his daddy and when he came to himself he said how many hired servants that my father have read enough and despair and I perish with hunger get to thinking about those servants back home slaves they were living in their slave quarters eating really good food I will arise and go to my father now saying him father I have sinned against heaven and before thee I'm no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of the hired servants now this young man wants to go back to his father back under his father's care why because he knows he blew his whole life away it's gone good example of repentance the sinners got the cup of the place to where they know they've messed their life up and he wants something different that's true but that's not repentance but this guy is going through this self-awareness he said I'm no more worthy to be called thy son make me as one of the hired servants and he rose and came to his father and when he was yet a great way off his father saw him had compassion and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him now apparently the father was looking down the road as he may be often did hoping that son would come back home might had heard word of him that he'd hit on hard times he knew there was a famine in the area where his son located so the father runs out falls on his neck kissed him and his son said to him father I've sinned against heaven and in thy sight no more worthy to be called thy son do you see anywhere in this passage that he's repenting of his sins that he ceasing to sin that he's stopping his sin what he's doing he's coming to the Father he's coming back home and the father said unto his servants without any promise without any change then he changed other than coming home other repenting towards the father the father said to his servants bring forth the best robe and put it on him put a ring on his hand shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it let us eat and be merry for this my son was dead and is alive again he was lost and is found and they began to be merry now before this son has made any lifestyle changes before he's made any promises or commitments the father receives him embraces him loves him and exalts him now I don't know what happened to the son after that it could be that he took advantage of the old man could be tried to go back out and hang out and spend what money could get drugs and stuff but I doubt it I expect that the experience he had the kind of love the father displayed toward him broke his heart I kinda I like to think of him as becoming the most faithful diligent and humble servant to his father and being very thankful for anything and everything that he got I see his heart as being changed by the love of the father towards him and that's a beautiful example of biblical repentance as Jesus said it was that's his example of it alright 2nd Timothy 2:25 and meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure give them repentance to stopping sinning then what it says repentance to the acknowledging of the truth repentance results in acknowledging the truth so we'll finish up here repentance and belief are one event two sides of the same coin one side of the coin is that's the negative statement one side of the coin is belief that's stating it positively we'll go into this in following lessons but Jesus never told a sinner to repent the only people he told to repent were the scribes and Pharisees who were hanging on to their good works he told them to repent from their dead works all of the sinners he came across publicans and sinners and harlots he didn't tell them to repent he told them to believe why because they already were in a lowly state and they didn't have any hope they were hopeless he just gave them hope but those who had a false hope he told them to repent of their false hope turned from their dead works and believe the gospel two sides of the same coin so here's a man he is told to turn from unbelief turn from independence of God and to turn to God in faith that's what repentance is you see what Adam lost what he threw away was his fellowship with God salvation is a restoration of fellowship with God it's coming back to allow God to be God and you to be the humble needy one and that's repentance and faith one act repentance is turning from that which takes the place of God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ now I know that you have a half a dozen verses and listening this you saw that's not true I know I'm gonna answer all your verses I've got all that I've written a book on the subject called repentance it's covers every single verse gives you detail on all of it so it's not like I haven't looked at all yet I just can't do it all in one little in here so finally you stand in the place of decision will you repent toward God and lay aside all your religion or will you continue to cling to religion and self-help and self advancement and continue to claim to your repentance you must repent of your repentance if you're going to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and him only so this has been the door no greater joy ministries you can locate us at no greater joy dot org and we will have part two later

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Keywords: door, michael, pearl, bible, teaching, sermon, lesson, preaching, faith, christian, christianity, god, bible study, scripture, jesus christ, repentance, sin, salvation, belief, turn

Id: pnsqPuFgGlI

Length: 38min 36sec (2316 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 30 2018