Greetings to you, my friend. I’m Mack Lyon. The program is a Bible study program In Search of the Lord's Way to become and to be a Christian. Oh say! We’re glad you have invited us into your home today; we pray we’ll both be blessed.
Welcome to our Bible study In Search of the Lord's Way. We’re so glad you have tuned us in. It’s always good to hear from you, too. No, no, no we’re not asking you to write so you’ll send us money. You see, this is a different kind of religious program. We’re sponsored here by some of your friends locally. They are members of one of the many churches of Christ in the broadcast area of this station. And they could possibly be living next door or across the street from you. But, because of them we don’t spend a lot of our time pleading for money. Isn’t that great? We do invite you to attend the Bible study classes or the worship assemblies, though. I hope you will. Tell them we invited you.
John the Baptist is one of the great preachers in the Bible. It’s written of him that “In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” That is Matthew 3:1 and 2. And Jesus was born and grew up in Nazareth, but He moved over to Capernaum and began His preaching ministry there saying, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4, verses 12 to 17). Say, this message of “repentance” must be very important, don’t you think?
Well, Phil Sanders’ message today is titled, “The Gift of Repentance.” Say, I think you’ll want to hear that. Stay tuned and if you think you might want a free printed copy, a CD or an audio cassette tape of it, simply mail your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Or our e-mail address is searchtv@searchtv.org. If you prefer, you may use our toll-free telephone number to do that, and that number is 1-800-321-8633. And you might want to visit our website, too, for a devotional thought and some other matters also. It’s at www.searchtv.org. Ken Helterbrand will lead us now as we sing. Then Phil Sanders will bring us the message.
Our reading today comes from Luke chapter 5, verses 27 to 32. Read along with me. “After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, Follow Me. So he left all, rose up, and followed Him. Then Levi gave Him a great feast in his own house. And there were a great number of tax collectors and others who sat down with them. And their scribes and the Pharisees murmured against His disciples, saying, why do You eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? Jesus answered and said to them, Those who are well do not need a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.” That is from Luke chapter 5. Let’s pray together. Oh, Lord, we are grateful for the good gifts You give to us each day, but we are especially thankful for our salvation. And we are thankful, Father, that You give us the opportunity to change our lives. Help us always, Father, to do Your will. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
Gifts are wonderful things, but God’s greatest gifts don’t come in boxes and they can’t be wrapped with bows. We know about God’s forgiveness and grace. We know of His providence every day for our needs. We know He hears our prayers and promises us a home with Him in heaven. These are wonderful gifts! But there is something else that God considers a gift. That gift is as precious as anything that we have mentioned. It opens the door to a new life and it gives us hope. That gift is repentance. I hope, when you hear the word “repentance,” you don’t think of something negative. You see, repentance is a precious opportunity to make a new life that is pleasing to God. The Bible describes repentance as a gift in the book of Acts chapter 5, verses 30 to 32. The Bible says, “The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses to these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him.” Peter and the Jews rejoiced in Acts chapter 11, verse 18 that God had granted repentance to the Gentiles. And we should rejoice, too! The opportunity to repent, that is to change our hearts and lives, is a great gift. We don’t have to be stuck in a life of sin and separated from God. We can come to Him and enjoy His love and grace forever and ever. Well, how is repentance a gift, you ask?
Well, imagine with me that you’re driving down the highway and you come upon an automobile accident. When you pull over to the side of the road you find a man there who is injured; his leg is terribly broken. And he is in great agony and crying out for help. Well, you immediately get out your phone, you call 9-1-1, and an Emergency Medical Team is dispatched. Well, immediately they come and the technician gets to the scene, he hears the man with the broken leg crying out, “Give me something to deaden this pain! Give me something to deaden the pain! Just knock me out!” Well, surely the technician will give him something to help him with the pain; but that technician won’t stop there. He will also set the leg so that it can heal. If the leg is not set back into place, the man’s leg will be warped. The problem must be corrected, if the man is to be whole and healthy. Now it may hurt terribly to set that leg, but it would be far worse to leave it broken. You see, we go to the doctor to find healing.
Now, as the great physician, Jesus brings healing to our lives by correcting spiritually and morally broken places. He eases that pain, yes, and He does it through forgiveness; but He corrects the life through repentance. Now the Bible says in Luke 5, verses 30 to 32 that the Pharisees and scribes grumbled at his disciples, saying, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” And Jesus answered them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” Of course, all of us are sinners. We all have broken places. James said that we all stumble in many ways. We all need the grace of God; but, just as much, we need the correction that repentance brings. Repentance is indeed the gift of God!
I don’t know why some preachers rarely use the word repentance. I suppose they ignore it because repentance implies the problem of sin and the need to change. One well-known preacher said that people should never speak about people being sinners or needing to repent. He said that is uncouth; but that’s like the medical technician giving a pain shot but failing to set the broken leg. He is only easing the pain for a moment and isn’t doing really the patient any good. Repentance is a great gift; and it must never be taken lightly. That is why when the prophets came to Israel they preached righteousness and repentance. John the Baptist, as Mack mentioned, came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”—Matthew 3, verses 1 and 2. The Lord Jesus himself went through the villages of Galilee, everywhere preaching, “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”—Matthew 4 and verse 17. When Jesus sent out the twelve apostles to preach throughout Israel, they proclaimed that people should repent—Mark 6 and verse 12.
Then fifty days after Jesus died upon the cross, Peter on the Day of Pentecost by inspiration of the Holy Spirit preached to the people of Israel. He told them that they had crucified the Lord by the hands of godless men, but God had raised Jesus from the dead and made Him both Lord and Christ. And when the people heard this the Bible says they were cut to the heart, and they said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”—Acts 2, verses 37 and 38. You see, repentance was part of the correction, and God washed away their sins in baptism.
You remember when Paul preached to the philosophers on Mars’ Hill, he spoke of the nature of God and the need for the people to repent. The Bible says in Acts 17, verses 30 and 31, “The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this,” the Bible says, “he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.” God doesn’t want anybody to remain in spiritual brokenness, and the opportunity to repent, to change, is His gift to us. The Bible says in 2 Peter 3 and verse 9 that, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.” God’s way for you, and for me, to find healing includes repentance. Repentance is necessary. And we ought to have the same attitude toward repentance that God has. You remember the words of Jesus in Luke 15:7! He said, “I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.” In verse 10 of the same chapter he said, “Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.” We should rejoice at repentance, not groan, because repentance is God’s way to bring healing to our lives.
Repentance is "a change of heart and mind that leads to a change in life and behavior." Now, repentance is not merely admitting that I have done something wrong, that I have sinned. You see: I can confess my sin but not change my heart toward sin. Repentance is not merely being sorry for being sinful. While godly sorrow produces repentance according to 2 Corinthians 7, verse 10, sorrow alone is not a change of heart and mind. There are fruits that show repentance according to Matthew 3 and verse 8. Some think because they have walked down an aisle confessing sin or they have given their hand to a preacher in sorrow, they have repented. Repentance is more than being sorry. One must change his life. Repentance is more than just stopping the wrongdoing. While repentance means that one ceases to do evil, it also means that one turns his heart to the Lord and embraces God’s will completely. One rids of the bad and he takes on the good. That’s the gift of healing. Some people sweep the house clean of sin but they don’t fill their lives with the Lord; so sin sneaks back into their lives. One may cease to do evil, but real repentance means that one lovingly learns to observe everything Jesus commands. He genuinely lives to serve the Lord. Repentance is not pretense. You know one can pretend at being righteous; but, you know what, the Lord knows every man's heart. One may attend the meetings of the church; but if he does not clean up his life, he has not repented. Pretending service to God is hypocrisy.
Now, repentance begins by a change of heart toward sin. A penitent person is sorry for his sins against God. He is sorry that he hurt and grieved God by his transgression of God's law and he realizes that Jesus suffered terribly on the cross for his own sin. That is from 1 Corinthians 15, verse 3. And it is this kind of godly sorrow that leads that heart to change in repentance—2 Corinthians 7, verse 10. Now, God's kindness and grace leads us to want to change our lives. Sin so grieves God that it breaks our relationship with Him. The Bible says in Isaiah 59, verses 1 and 2, “Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.” I have to ask who could love God, I mean really love God, and want to keep on sinning against Him? Who could keep on offending the Lord Jesus who bore the cross for his sins? When a person finally sees the awful ugliness of his sin, he just wishes that he could change and be rid of that sin in his life. When David sinned, he said, "For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me"—Psalm 51 and verse 3. And I have to tell you, any time a person sins, any time a person in his life sees the ugliness of what he is doing, he is not happy with himself. And that sin eats into his heart and eats into his soul. David wanted nothing more than to be clean and rid of those sins. And so he cried out in Psalm 51 verses 9 to 10, “Hide your face from my sins,” he cried out to God, “and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” Have you ever felt that way? Have there been times in your life when you so desperately wanted to be clean and to be right with God, to love God, and to be close to Him? You see, repentance is hungering and thirsting for righteousness. Oh that each of us, you and me, had that kind of zeal in our hearts!
Repentance is not merely turning away from sin; repentance is turning toward God. A penitent person's heart is changed. The penitent Thessalonians demonstrated their repentance by turning from idols to serve the living and true God according to 1 Thessalonians 1 and verse 9. When a person repents he begins to love the things that God loves and he wants to please God in every respect. There is a firm desire in his heart to do what is right. That is the way a penitent person thinks. The penitent believer is willing to take up daily the cross of Christ and to follow the Lord according to Luke 9 and verse 23. You see, he is willing to lose his life for the sake of Christ that he may find it eternally. He is neither ashamed of Christ nor of any of his teachings. His heart has so changed that he is determined to do everything the Lord asks him to do. Now the consequence to this kind of repentance is that he not only does what he ought to do, but he becomes loyal to what is right, and he also hates what is wrong; he hates what is offensive to God. The Ephesians made known their repentance by "bringing their books together and burning them in the sight of God," according to Acts 19 and verse 19. And God calls on us not only to stop sinning but also to hate the offense of sin. Now, hating sin is not the same as hating sinners. Don’t get me wrong. Christians don’t hate anyone, but they hate the evil that they do. Many people mix that up. We hate the sin, but not the sinner. You remember that God said in Romans 12 and verse 9, “Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good.” We love people, but we hate the sin.
The book of James describes repentance in this way. The Bible says in James 1, verses 21 to 25, “Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and then he goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” My friend, today is the best day to start changing your heart and life. I remember a story once about some young people who came to a wise man and asked when should they repent? Well, the wise man said, “I want you to repent the day before you die.” And they thought about it, the day before you die. “But we don’t know when we are going to die.” The wise man said, “Then repent today.” My friend, won’t you repent today? Let’s pray together. Oh Lord, we are so grateful to be Your children and we are so thankful that You have brought healing to our lives through the grace and the mercy of Jesus Christ. And, Father, we pray that You will help us to cease the evil in our lives and to always do Your will. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
Thank you, thank you, thank you Phil for that excellent message, that very positive message about “The Gift of Repentance.” Too often, I think, we have stressed the need for repentance and we’ve sort of made it kind of look like a burden and a terrible thing but it is a gift of God, an opportunity, what an opportunity to change our lives and get right with God. Phil Sanders is a blessing to this ministry, and as time goes on, we’re going to be blessed with more and more of his helpful and encouraging teaching.
If you would like a free printed copy, a CD or an audio cassette tape, all of them free, of today’s message, you may have any of it free by mailing your request to In Search of the Lord's Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083 or by e-mail to searchtv@searchtv.org. Or by telephone, the number is 1-800-321-8633. We would love to have you visit our website, too, and that is at www.searchtv.org. There is a daily devotional there, every day a new devotional, and Phil is doing those for us and you will be blessed by turning to that. Let us hear from you. We would like to hear from you that you are enjoying those devotionals each day, too. There is a new and fresh one everyday.
Join us again next week. I hope you will do that. Meanwhile, if you would like to be telling others about the program, it would be a blessing to us and to them. May the Lord bless and keep you this week. We love you.
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