Repentance (Part 1)

Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio, with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Abendroth. Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

Now, let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the scriptures, verse by verse, with No Compromise.

The Doctrine of Repentance and the Question of Salvation

The doctrine of repentance. If someone were to come to you, and they're an unbeliever, and they say to you, Do I have to repent for God to save me? Must I repent in order to be saved? What would be your response?

Do I have to repent in order to go to heaven? What is repentance? Is it a command? Is it a gift? What does it mean? How important is it? I think in our day, the lingo of the world is not repent, it's tolerate.

We tolerate things. We have a permissive attitude about everything, including sin. What does the Bible say about sin? The response, because of sin, is to repent. Let's take our Bibles and open to Luke chapter 24 this morning, as we discuss the doctrine of repentance.

It is getting pillaged and sacked from every different angle, and people are trying to attack this doctrine. So I want to make sure this morning that you understand what repentance is. And if you're not a believer, I want you to repent.

And if you're a Christian, I want you to be glad for your repentance. And if we've got a wrong view of repentance, then maybe like Martin Luther, in his 95 theses that he nailed on the Wittenberg door, to repent of our improper view of repentance.

So we're going to talk about repentance today, and what does it mean, and how do we preach the gospel, and how do we be thankful for the God of all grace. Now before we get into our passage in Luke 24, verses 36 and following, I think I'm going to read all of Luke 24 to set the stage.

Not only to set the stage, but also because I just love this chapter. I don't know if there's any chapter in all the Bible that is so wonderful as Luke 24. So let me read Luke 24, verses 1 through 35, as our context for verses 36 and following, when we talk about repentance.

Luke 24, but on the first day of the week, at early dawn they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared, and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.

While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, Why do you seek the living among the dead?

He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified, and on the third day rise. And they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all these things to the eleven and to all the rest.

Now it was Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, and the other women with them, who told these things to the apostles. But these words seemed to them an idle tale. They did not believe them. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb.

Stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths by themselves, and he went home marveling at what had happened. That very day two of them were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem.

And they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking, discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.

And he said to them, What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered him, Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?

And he said to them, What things? And they said to him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed, and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and crucified him.

But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel, yes. And besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened. Verse 22, Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early in the morning, and when they did not find his body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive.

Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see. And he said to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken!

Was it not necessary that Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.

So they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going farther, but they urged him strongly, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening, and the day is now far spent.

So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight.

They said to each other, Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose that same hour and returned to Jerusalem. And they found the eleven and those who were with them gathered together, saying, The Lord has risen indeed and has appeared to Simon.

Then they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. Now we move to our passage, verse 36. Emphasizing physical, bodily resurrection. And as they were talking about these things, Luke 24, 36, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, Peace to you.

But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And so here is Jesus now on the scene, and they think he's a ghost. And it's startling, he just appears among them. And they're amazed, they're startled.

And Jesus is going to try to comfort them. He's going to try to console them. They think they're seeing a ghost. I don't know when's the last time you saw a ghost, but probably never. But if you were to see a ghost, a Middle Eastern looking ghost, the response is not, Oh yeah, it's another ghost.

See them every day. See, even the young people, they listen. Young at heart too. Now Jesus is going to take their doubt and now reveal himself more. Look at what the text says. He's going to move from just sight to touch.

Can't touch ghosts. And he said to them, Why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your hearts? That's in fact what they were, troubled. Can we believe our eyes? You can almost imagine people who wake up in the morning and they've got to get the sleep out of their eyes so they can see properly.

You've got to get your glasses on so you can kind of navigate the French press. I can't believe what I'm seeing. Is this a ghost? Is this Jesus? Who is this? Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your heart?

See my hands. Ghosts have no hands. And my feet. Phantoms have no feet. That it is I myself. It's me. It's Jesus. The resurrected Jesus. Touch me and see. Some think maybe all of his loose clothing that he would wear, a Middle Eastern person would wear, it's hard to figure out, is there really a body in those clothes or not?

Touch me and see. Spirits, disembodied spirits, don't have flesh. They don't have bones. They don't have skin. They don't have density. There's nothing tangible. And while they still disbelieve for joy, this isn't doubt.

This is I can't believe what I'm seeing. And we're marveling. He said to them, have you anything to eat? Just think about it. They're marveling. They're disbelieving for joy. We can't believe it. It's true.

What God said was true. The Messiah, what the Old Testament said, it's all true. By the way, could I have something to eat, please? But see, he's helping them. And you can think about food. What does food do?

Well, it shows that you're a human. If I had kids, I would say, if you put some food in a ghost's mouth or what you thought was a mouth, where would the food go? Just drop to the ground because there's no esophagus.

There's no anything. It just drops down. But also, how about something to eat? Now, if I say, come on over to my house to eat, hopefully you think that's going to include fellowship. That's going to include communion and getting together and being around one another.

That's what it meant back in those days. They're realizing this is Jesus. This is kind of like the people in Acts chapter 12. Let's just pray for these apostles to get out of jail. And then when they hear the knock at the door, they're like, well, that couldn't be them.

In Luke, regularly, when you see the word marveled and they disbelieve for joy and we're marveling, it's a reaction to something that's miraculous. It's a reaction to something wonderful being taught to us.

Luke chapter 9, verse 43. I'll just give you an example. When you see the word marvel in Luke regularly, there's something supernatural going on, either wonderful teaching or miraculous events. Luke 9, 43.

While he was coming, the demon threw him to the ground and convulsed him, but Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit and healed the boy and gave him back to his father. Verse 43. And they were all astonished.

Are they marveled at the majesty of God? Something supernatural has happened. Jesus has died, he's been buried, he's been raised from the dead, and they are marveling. Joy, amazement. And Jesus is trying to remove their doubts.

What did they do? Verse 42. They gave him a piece of broiled fish and he took it. In his hands, his resurrected body, he took it and ate it before them. He has been raised from the dead, just as he has said.

Then he said to them, these are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you. Didn't I already tell you about this? That everything written about me in... Now he breaks it up, the Old Testament, into three categories.

The law of Moses, that's the first five books. The prophets, the Jews would have prophets, Joshua through second kings, and then what we call the prophets, major and minor prophets. And the Psalms, the writings, starts with the Psalms and the rest of the wisdom literature.

Everything about the Old Testament talked about me, the Old Testament is written about me, I am the topic, and it says the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled. Comprehensively, everything in the Old Testament preaches Jesus.

He is the topic. The Old Testament is a Christian book. It's a book about Jesus, with Jesus front and center. I told you while I was with you, all these things from the Old Testament, you guys should know this.

But it was hard for them to figure it out. It was hard for them to understand. Especially that suffering part, the suffering Savior, when Jesus is supposed to be the Messiah who rules and reigns on the earth.

Look at verse 45. And he opened their minds to understand the scriptures and said to them, thus it is written that the Christ should suffer. See, that's where they really stumbled. And on the third day rise from the dead.

It's pretty amazing. This is not, he taught them new hermeneutical principles. Some of you were in my hermeneutics class on Tuesday nights and we've learned things like context, context, context. We've learned description versus prescription.

We've learned different genres. Jesus isn't giving them a lecture on the art and science of biblical interpretation. He opened their minds to understand these things. Instead of the Spirit's illumination, now we have Jesus illumining the minds.

Yes, what Judaism didn't teach, that is the Savior must suffer. They should have taught it, it was in the Old Testament. It's in Psalm 31, it's in Psalm 22, it's in Isaiah 53. He gives them insight. Yes, it's all about me and this is exactly what the Old Testament prophesied.

Now this is amazing because in Luke 9 verse 45 it says right after Jesus was supposed to be delivered to death, Jesus' words, they did not understand this saying and it was concealed from them so that they might not perceive.

They didn't understand, they couldn't understand. Same thing in Luke chapter 18. These disciples could understand some of the prophecies but the suffering was a stumbling block for them. Luke 18, 34, but they understood none of these things that Jesus would be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon and flogged and be killed and rise on the third day.

This saying was hidden from them and they did not grasp what was said. But now they get it. Jesus opens their mind and now they realize that's right, Psalm 16, that God wouldn't let the Holy One undergo decay.

That's right, He's going to be raised from the dead and He opens their mind. And what's the response to this kind of message or what's our message to the world? And here we come to our passage and our key word for the day, verse 47.

Repentance and Forgiveness Proclaimed to All Nations

And that repentance and forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations beginning from Jerusalem. Now if I ask you to respond to the words Great Commission, what would you say? What's your response to the Great Commission?

Well, some of you might say Matthew 28, right? Go into the world and you make disciples. Some of you might say, along with S. Lewis Johnson, that the Great Commission, capital T, capital G, capital C, is an eternity past where the Father sends the Son.

He gives Him the marching orders to go rescue the elect, His bride. But many have forgot that this is the Great Commission as well. It's Luke's version of the Great Commission and repentance should be proclaimed in His name.

Whose name? Jesus' name. When you think of the Old Testament, in His name, in His name, according to all Yahweh's attributes, all of His justice, all of His faithfulness, all of His omnipotence, all of His omniscience, in His name, in His authority.

Now you go preach repentance with the authority of Yahweh, that is, Jesus, the Son. Jesus, the glorified Jesus, has all authority, complete authority, utter authority. And you're to preach repentance.

This is just a wonderful word that shows the response of this kind of preaching. But where is repentance today? Who preaches repentance today? Doesn't it seem kind of easier just to tell people, well, you should believe?

Of course you should tell them to believe. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you shall be saved. But what do we do with this? If this is the goal of Christ's message, repentance and forgiveness of sins, what is repentance?

How often should we preach it? And I've got a question for you. If someone says to you, I'm enslaved to heterosexual sin, I'm enslaved to homosexual sin, I'm enslaved to drunkenness, I'm enslaved to whatever kind of sin enslaves me, and I need relief, and I realize Jesus is the only God, He's the only Savior, He died on the cross as a substitutionary sin-bearing death, He's raised from the dead.

But I try to believe, and I can't believe. I try to repent, I can't believe. I try to repent, I can't repent. What would you tell that person? Someone says, I'm enslaved to sin, I want out. What do you tell them?

Do you tell them to believe? Do you tell them to repent? Do you tell them God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life? I mean, what do you tell them? I'm enslaved to sin, I need to be rescued.

What do you tell them? What if they say this question? Here's the rubber meeting the proverbial road. Must I repent in order for God to save me? Do I have to repent? You say, Mike, this seems like it's technical, this should be kind of a Southern Baptist theological seminary class you should be teaching.

No, I want you to understand repentance, and here's why it's important, because I'm going to do everything I can from this pulpit to guard sovereign, free grace. In other words, this message today is going to try to drive you to say that Jesus is my savior, and even my view that I thought I repented, and that's what saves me, I want you to repent of such thinking.

So here's what we're going to do. In the rest of the time we have, let me give you some reasons why repentance has been ravaged or damaged, so that we can bolster ourselves against this. We want to preach repentance to unbelievers, we have to be thankful for our repentance if we're Christians, and so I want to talk about the doctrine of repentance for the time we have left.

Luther, his first thesis of his 95 thesis, he knew repentance was important, he said when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said repent, he called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.

It's important, in other words, that we understand repentance, and then I'll answer the question, when someone says must I repent in order for God to save me, what is my answer? How do I evangelize? The first reason we might need to repent of our repentance, is because repentance has been damaged by being ignored.

Sometimes we just ignore it. It's too caustic of a word, I mean today to talk about repentance, again, permissiveness and tolerance, and kind of go along to get along. I read of a certain French preacher, Southern France, Reformed Church, 1600s, he preached 50 sermons in a row from one text, and the text was, you must repent.

50 sermons, you think I go slowly. And his one sermon, they clocked at four hours and a half, on the topic of repentance. I want to say this is the kind of thing they tell you in seminary, you preach a sermon, and until the congregation gets it, you just keep preaching it.

So they must not have been getting it. Charles Hodge said, there is no duty which is either more obvious in itself, or more frequently asserted in the word of God, than that of repentance. Sometimes people just ignore it, and here's how it comes in evangelical circles.

The gospel of John, the IM statements, the great miracles of John, it's written so that you might believe in the Son of God, and have faith. And the word repentance is never used in the gospel of John.

So why would we tell people to repent, when John doesn't tell people to repent? What would be your response? My response is, just because it's not in John, I just got done telling you in Luke, verse 24, that repentance should be proclaimed.

And just because the word isn't used, the concepts are everywhere in the Bible, including the Old Testament. Incline your heart unto the Lord, Joshua 24. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, Jeremiah 4.

Wash your heart from wickedness, Jeremiah 4. Break up foul old ground, Hosea 10. Turn from their wicked ways, Jonah 3 10. Turn from idols to serve a living God, 1 Thessalonians. We can't ignore repentance, it's everywhere.

Biblical Repentance as a Change of Mind and Life

Number two, biblical repentance has been ravaged by redefining repentance. It's been ravaged by redefining it. We might need to repent of our view of repentance because we have the wrong definition. What is the definition of repentance?

Say you have your kids come to you and you say, Daddy, what's repentance? What would you tell them? Daddy, what's repentance? Maybe your friend at work says, what is repentance? It's kind of a word that's out.

By the way, when my kids were little and I wanted to teach them these concepts, how do you talk about abstract concepts and repent and stuff like that? Here's what I would have them do. We'd always have kind of a visual Bible story.

I remember when we'd get to Lot's wife, they would all have to put their hand out and I'd put salt on their hands and they'd have to lick it. When we had someone anointed with oil as a new king, I'd pour the olive oil in their hands and they'd have to rub it around.

I wonder what happened when I got to the passage where David was feigning rabbit insanity and the saliva was coming out of his mouth. I let her roll. Made all the kids stand up, march around the table seven times.

That was one of them. And for repentance, I had them all stand up. They were little at the time. They couldn't walk. They just waddled. And so they would waddle and I would say, you have to keep going like this.

And when I say repent, you turn around and walk the other way. And I'd let them get to about a quarter of a centimeter, their nose to the wall. Don't stop. And then the second I'd see them get to the wall, I'd have them repent and they'd turn around to turn.

See, the word in its root means to change your mind. That's what it means. Literally, it means to think after. You do something and you think after, but more so it'd be to change your mind. And some have said that's all it means.

But if your mind has changed, everything else will change and you'll be going in a different direction. Listen to the Westminster Confession for a great definition of repentance. Who talks this way these days?

A sinner out of the sight and sense not only of the danger but also the filthiness and odiousness of his sins as contrary to the holy nature and righteous law of God and upon the apprehension of his mercy in Christ to such as are penitent so grieves for and hates his sins as to turn from them all unto God, purposing and endeavoring to walk with him in all ways of his commandments.

When you change your mind, you change your mind about who God is. I thought he was kind of like Grandpa George Burns, oh God, kind of God. I thought he was indulgent. I thought he was only a God of love.

Now I understand he's a God of love and holiness and gracious. I understand the biblical view of God. You have to understand yourself differently when you repent. You think, you know what, I'm really not good.

There's no good thing in me. I see myself as the Bible sees me. And when the x-ray MRI scan shows my soul, it just shows blackness and it shows somebody who's depraved and unable to save themselves and extract themselves out.

I'm like one of those mastodons in the La Brea tar pits on Wilshire Boulevard in Santa Monica. And once you get in the tar, you cannot extract yourself out. That's what I am. I thought I was good. We have to repent of things like religion.

I thought I could just do a few things for God and he would commend me for that and I would just do a few spiritual things, a few religious things. And when we repent, we realize our mind has changed so that Packer says so that one's views, values, goals are changed and one's whole life is lived differently.

The change is radical both inwardly and outwardly. Mind and judgment, will and affections, behavior and lifestyle, motives and purposes are all involved. Repenting means starting to live a new life.

Repentance, Sovereign Grace, and the Call to Turn to God

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible-teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life-transforming power of God's Word through verse-by-verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m. We're located on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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