REPENTANCE: The Forgotten Word in Positive Preaching
Acts 17:30-31
By Dr. Franklin L. Kirksey
INTRODUCTION
“Repentance has been called the forgotten word in positive preaching. Dr. Don M. Boone, pastor of First Baptist Church, [Vancleave], Mississippi, has written a helpful book titled What Happened To Repentance? in which he says, "There are many today who preach faith without repentance. We have filled our churches with people who claim to know Jesus Christ in power and full salvation, and yet there is no sign of repentance in their lives. What happened?"1
Preaching to those in the Areopagus in Athens, Paul boldly declares: “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:30-31)
We find the other universal command in 1 John 3:23 which says, “And this is His commandment: that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment.”
The apostle Paul tells the Ephesian elders: “I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you, and taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20:20-21).
I. The Necessity of Genuine Repentance
Charles G. Finney published his Lectures of Professing Christians in 1837. One of the lectures is titled “True and False Repentance”. While we may not agree with all of Mr. Finney’s theology we must admit that repentance is much more than a cheap “I’m sorry,” and it involves more than merely saying, “I have sinned.”
A good Bible concordance will allow you to trace this phrase through the Bible. For example in the life of the Pharaoh of Egypt, he said, “I have sinned” (Exodus 9:27) and there was no change in his behavior. After being confronted for stealing the accursed things, Achan said, “I have sinned” (Joshua 7:20) but it was not genuine repentance. Saul, King of Israel, said, “I have sinned” (1 Samuel 15:24, 30) and yet it was not the repentance that God requires. Judas said, “I have sinned” (Matthew 27:4) after betraying our Lord Jesus Christ, but he then committed suicide. Someone has said, “David was a great sinner and a great repenter”. Examples of David’s repentance are recorded in 2 Samuel 12:13 and 24:10.
The “prodigal son” (Luke 15:18, 21) illustrates genuine repentance as well.
We see the necessity of genuine repentance in the following passages:
“Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: ‘Repent, turn away from your idols, and turn your faces away from all your abominations” (Ezekiel 14:6).
“For they themselves declare concerning us what manner of entry we had to you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 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 1:9-10).
“There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.’” (Luke 13:1-5).
“Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:46-47).
John writes in his first epistle: “This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1 John 1:5-10).
II. The Nemesis of Godly Repentance
A nemesis is a formidable and usually victorious rival or opponent.
Jesus warns us about the nemesis of the flesh, when He says, “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matthew 26:41). Paul further explains the secret of victory over the flesh in Galatians 5:16-18: “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.”
John warns about the nemesis of the devil, when he writes, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
Also we find mention of our third nemesis, the world system, in the words of Paul to those in Corinth: “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death” (2 Corinthians 7:10).
After his denial of our Lord Jesus Christ, Simon Peter illustrates this godly repentance, while Judas Iscariot after his betrayal of our Lord Jesus Christ, illustrates an ungodly repentance.
III. The Neglect of Granted Repentance
Paul tells Timothy about those in the church that are not right and he makes a very informative statement: “if perhaps God will grant them repentance” (2 Timothy 2:25). We read the statement in its context from: “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will” (2 Timothy 2:24-26).
In Revelation 2:21, John writes about a woman called Jezebel, that Jesus said, “I gave her time to repent”. This is the language of opportunity. In addition, we read in Hebrews 12:17 about Esau, who found no place of repentance though he sought it diligently with tears. When a man asks a woman to marry him if she rejects his offer, it may never be offered again. It is an opportunity that might pass by forever.”
The Puritans often spoke of “the gift of tears” referring to repentance.
Oswald Chambers writes in My Utmost for His Highest (December 7): “Strictly speaking, a man cannot repent when he chooses; repentance is a gift of God.”
Evangelist J. Harold Smith preached a sermon titled “God’s Three Deadlines” in pulpits all over America. Solomon dramatically explains this theme, when he writes, “He who is often rebuked, and hardens his neck, / Will suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy” (Proverbs 29:1).
In Hebrews 3:7-4:10 we are warned: “Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, / In the day of trial in the wilderness, / Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, / And saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, / And said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, / And they have not known My ways.’ So I swore in My wrath, / ‘They shall not enter My rest.’” Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, / Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.” For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it. For indeed the gospel was preached to
us as well as to them; but the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: ‘So I swore in My wrath, / ‘They shall not enter My rest,’” although the works were finished from the foundation of the world. For He has spoken in a certain place of the seventh day in this way: “And God rested on the seventh day from all His works’; and again in this place: ‘They shall not enter My rest.” Since therefore it remains that some must enter it, and those to whom it was first preached did not enter because of disobedience, again He designates a certain day, saying in David, ‘Today,’ after such a long time, as it has been said: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.’ For if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His” (Hebrews 3:7-4:10).
Paul records these inspired words of the Lord in 2 Corinthians 6:2: “For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, / And in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.”
Stephen, a deacon in the early church, preached a powerful sermon, in which he said: “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you” (Acts 7:51).
God’s overtures can be resisted and rejected.
Paul writes in Romans 2:4: “Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”
From Hebrews 2:3 we read: “How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?”
CONCLUSION
Dr. Kerry L. Skinner has written an informative book titled The Joy of Repentance. The following comes from the book description: “A shift has occurred within our contemporary Christian culture a departure so contrary to Scripture that an alarm must be sounded. The Joy of Repentance rings that alarm with a truthful, loving, and restorative call that illuminates the heart of every believer and prompts the church to rehabilitate its intimate union with Christ. In many ways, the Body of Christ has forsaken the biblical mandate to repent, defining the process as negative and burdensome. But in reality, sin produces a yoke of bondage and consequence, while repentance provides a roadway of reconciliation. The suffering Christian, soiled with the residue of this world, is only a repentant prayer away from resolution and healing. When Scripture is followed, potential is restored, and God is magnified. The Joy of Repentance is a message of hope, structure, and biblical teaching that provides a framework for personal revival.”2
Return with me to Acts 17:22-34 as we hear Paul addressing the Areopagus: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD.
Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.’ And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, ‘We will hear you again on this matter.’ So Paul departed from among them. However, some men joined him and believed, among them Dionysius the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.”
Mordecai Ham once said that until we get some of God’s people right, we cannot hope to get sinners regenerated.
When Dwight L. Moody went to England the first time he preached the grace of God. When he went the second time he preached repentance. He had become convinced that unless there is a genuine turning away from know sin in life and thought, there could be little permanency of change.”
May we return to repentance: the forgotten word in positive preaching!
ENDNOTES
1 Franklin L. Kirksey, Sound Biblical Preaching: Giving the Bible a Voice (North Charleston, SC: BookSurge, An Amazon.com Company, 2005), p. 72 [Also available on the WORDsearch 8 Preaching Library DVD-ROM from WORDsearch Corp., Austin, TX]
2 Available from: http://www.amazon.com/Joy-Repentance-Kerry-L-Skinner/dp/0964874342 Accessed: 01/25/08
By Dr. Franklin L. Kirksey, pastor
First Baptist Church of Spanish Fort
30775 Jay Drive Spanish Fort, Alabama 36527
Author of Sound Biblical Preaching: Giving the Bible a Voice
http://www.webspawner.com/users/franklinlkirksey
Available on Amazon.com and WORDsearchbible.com
fkirksey@bellsouth.net (251) 626-6210 ©January 27, 2008 All Rights Reserved
