Repentance (Part 1)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to No Compromise Radio, ministry.

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Mike Abendroth today as your host. Today is, I can't even tell you what day it is because I don't know when this show will play, but it is summertime,

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I can tell you that. And I can tell you that we like to talk about biblical subjects, and we like to talk about them in a way that provokes you to think.

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Actually sometimes I think I'm more provocative than others, sometimes I just simply teach the truth, but a delivery style that is blunt, confident, not that I have my own self -confidence or should have self -confidence, but I'm confident in what the

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Scripture says, because that's why I'm supposed to study to find out, to see if these things are right or wrong, and then teach them.

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If I'm not confident about a subject, then why teach it? Study it until you're confident. And so maybe it's bluntness, maybe it's sarcastic, maybe there's a variety of different things that we can use with our communication styles to get people to listen.

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And I'm just glad to be on WVNE, I think there are probably plenty of radio stations, Christian stations across the country, that would be afraid to have

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No Compromise Radio station broadcast go out on its station. I don't really think we're that controversial, but I guess in today's day and age where you can't say anything wrong, you can't critique, you can't judge lest you be judged, etc.,

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then it's kind of a novel thing. And so we like to talk about subjects that are in the news, that are controversial, that are provocative, you know the story.

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Info at NoCompromiseRadio .com, that's where you can write us, that actually goes right to my email.

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And I just got an email a couple days ago from a guy listening in Norway to the iTunes iPod download.

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And so I was encouraged by that. We have listeners in Norway, and so if you're listening in Norway, welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry,

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I wish I could speak Norwegian. What is repentance? Charles Hodge said, there is no duty which is either more obvious in itself or more frequently asserted in the

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Word of God than that of repentance. So he doesn't tell us what it means, but he does tell us it's an important subject.

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Of course it's important. In the Great Commission in Luke chapter 24 when Jesus says to go preach repentance for the remission of sins to all nations beginning in Jerusalem, I think that's pretty important.

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I think it's so important that if someone says to me, well, the Gospel of John doesn't contain the word repentance in it, therefore we don't focus on that, we focus on just telling people to believe.

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Well, that doesn't mean anything, because one Gospel focuses on one thing and one

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Gospel focuses on another. We have repent and believe are both truths told to us to preach to others.

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We're told by God to preach these things to other people. What is a definition, though?

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How do we describe repentance? Maybe that would help us when we analyze a situation so we can know the answer to this question.

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Should you preach repentance to unbelievers? Should you preach that repentance to believers? Do we keep on repenting?

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What is repentance? Well, there's a great little book on repentance by Thomas Watson.

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Thomas Watson is probably the easiest Puritan to read. The way he uses picturesque language and illustrations makes it easy.

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It's still tough going, because you've got to think. These people were not influenced by YouTube and the

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Internet and Xbox and everything else, and so you've got to use your mind. I like it when you have to use your mind.

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And so Thomas Watson has a great book, and I've pulled some of the things from Watson. I've cut and pasted and everything, all that to say nothing that I ever say is original.

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And so I'm a man who's received teaching, and then I pass it along. That's what Christianity is.

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It's not supposed to be novel, new. Whenever you hear a new kind of this or that, you need to run from that.

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We want to be told the old, old story, don't we? What repentance is not,

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Watson said, it's not simply terror. It is one thing to be a terrified sinner and another to be a repenting sinner.

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Repentance depends upon a change of heart. There may be terror, yet with no change of heart.

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And so it's just not enough to be afraid. You have not repented if you're just afraid.

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So if you're listening today and you're not a Christian, but you're afraid of God and you're afraid of hell and you're afraid of this all -consuming

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Holy One, that's good. I'm glad you're afraid, but that's not enough.

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Watson said what repentance is not, it's not just a resolution against sin. Once a year,

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January 1st, Americans especially are prone to have New Year's resolutions and you have some kind of vow that you make that you won't do this or you will do that.

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That's not repentance. Exchanging sins, that's not repentance.

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Instead of sinning in a certain way, you sin in another way. That doesn't deal with the heart.

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And Watson said, lastly, it's not easy. Repentance is not easy. Watson said, it is a great matter,

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I confess, to leave sin. So dear is sin to a man that he will rather part with a child than with a lust.

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That is amazing. So that's what repentance is not, and that's a way, by the way, this is the way you should teach people things.

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If you've got a topic, what is the topic, what is the topic, you know, what's the contrast of the topic, what's the definition, what's the anti -definition, at least for me that's how

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I learn and it's my show so I do what I want. That's not totally true that I do what

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I want. I have bounds that I cannot pass. I have bounds of the law for the

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Federal Broadcasting Commission. I have laws, contracts with WV &E and so they want me to operate within certain bounds.

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I'm an elder at a church and so the elders hold me accountable to walk within certain bounds, but as long as I stay within those bounds

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I'm free to do what I'd like. How's that? It's like with kids, you know, go play in the backyard, go do anything you want in the backyard, just stay in the backyard.

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See there's freedom with that. Westminster Catechism, quote, repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, d -o -t -h, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from, you might want to highlight that word in your mind, turn from it unto

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God. So you turn from and you turn unto with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience.

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At the root, the word repent means to change your mind, you need to change your mind.

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And in the lordship debates of the last 20 years, some have said on the Dallas Seminary side of the non -lordship debate, see it just means to change your mind.

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And you're running around trying to tell people, lordship folks, that you've got to change your life when the word only means to change your mind.

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And we've got people on the lordship side who say no, repentance is more than a change of mind, you've got to have your life changed, and if you have no change in your life then how can you say you've repented?

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And here's how I would split those, not down the middle, but here's how I would parse it when we were thinking about the topic of biblical repentance, especially in light of unbelievers' repentance.

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If you change your mind about something, you used to think God was a God of love and now you think he's a

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God of love and holiness, for instance, or if you say, I used to think my sin, just, you know,

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I was concerned about the consequences of my sin, not that it was an offense to a holy God.

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And you change your mind about something, your actions, your lifestyle, the driving forces that motivate you will change, because if you change your mind, everything else will follow.

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And so I don't need to say you need to change your life, I can just say you need to repent. If you're a practicing homosexual, practicing adulterator, then you need to repent, you need to change your mind about that.

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And if you say, well, you know, I used to think adultery was okay, and I no longer think adultery is fine, you have changed your mind, and then you will say, well, then

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I ought not to do that anymore. And so one goes along with the other. Packer said repentance means changing one's mind so that one's views, values, goals, and ways are changed, and one's whole life is lived differently.

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And so if you change your mind, it makes sense that you will change your life. Packer says, the change is radical both inwardly and outwardly, mind and judgment, will and affections, behavior and lifestyle, motives and purposes are all involved.

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Repenting means starting to live a new life. And so that Greek word, metanoio, just means to change your mind.

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And even if you look up lexically, it says the predominatingly intellectual understanding of metanoia, as change of mind, plays very little part in the

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New Testament. Rather, the decision by the whole man to turn around is stressed. Well, does that contradict what

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I just said a minute ago? Does that contradict what's just uttered by your host?

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It does mean to change your mind. That is the difference. But the way it's used in Scripture, the

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N -I -D -N -T -T is correct. It's not just some kind of, well, you know, you change your mind, but it leads to something.

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There's an engine and a caboose, and there's just not one thing. You just don't say, oh, I changed my mind and nothing happened. And so the whole turn of man, the whole of man to turn around is stress.

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That's exactly right. When you think of kids and you want to teach them repentance, what I do is I have them all stand in line, and I tell them to begin walking in the kitchen.

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And when Daddy yells out, repent, you need to turn on a dime, 180 degree turn, and walk back towards me.

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And so we made a big game out of it. That's exactly what it is. It is a change of mind that then yields itself in a change of direction.

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Spurgeon said repentance is to leave the sin we loved before and show that we in earnest grieve by doing it no more.

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And so we used to say sin wasn't that bad, and now we hate the sin because we realize that it is what

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Jesus died for was sin like that. Luther said to do so no more is the truest repentance.

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And so the idea of repentance is in the Bible with the word repentance and with other kind of thoughts and phrases that would also let us know, yes, that's repentance, but it just doesn't say repentance.

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For instance, in Joshua 24, incline your heart unto the Lord. So you used to incline your heart unto you, unto others, unto

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Molech, now unto the Lord. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, Jeremiah 4. Same thing.

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It doesn't say repent, but it's got that idea. In the same chapter, wash your heart from wickedness.

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Hosea 10, break up your fallow ground. And Jonah chapter 3, that they turned from their wicked way.

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And so we believe that the word repentance means to change your mind, which will then lead to your whole man turned around 180 degrees.

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Interestingly, repentance is both a gift and a command. You ought to be saying to yourself, well, how can

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I tell people to repent and believe? How can I say, you know, one side of the coin is repent, the other side of the coin is believe.

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And when I tell people to repent and they're a slave to their own sins, they're blinded by Satan and his power, they're influenced by the world and its system, were they just going to stop and change on their own?

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Well, we need to preach repentance. We are to preach repent and believe. Turn from your sins, abandon this life of sin.

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But all at the same time, we have to remember that it is a gift as well.

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We tell people to repent. For instance, Luke 13, I tell you, no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

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Acts 3, repent therefore in return that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the

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Lord. So repentance is a command we give to the unbelievers, and it is also a gift.

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Listen to Acts 5, he is the one whom God exalted to his right hand as a prince and a savior to grant repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.

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Acts 11, 18, and when they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, Well, then,

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God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life. And then 2

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Timothy 2, verse 25, maybe the best verse that shows us repentance is more than a command, it's a gift, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps

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God may grant them repentance, leading to the knowledge of the truth. So repentance means, at its root, by definition, to change your mind, theological definition, to change your mind that will lead to a change of your life.

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And so we tell people to repent, and they are commanded to do that, and the whole time we are simultaneously praying that God would grant them that repentance.

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Because a natural man, a depraved man, a blind man cannot repent on his own. A depraved woman cannot just decide,

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I'm going to change my mind, because they have no capacity for it, they're corrupt, they're totally unable to do that very thing.

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If you think about it, it makes sense, too, because before the fall, God gave Adam commands, and Adam had the ability to do those commands, tend the garden, name the animals, whatever it might be.

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And then there was the fall, and the fall took away Adam's ability to obey

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God. That's why we need the last Adam, Christ Jesus. But Adam could no longer do what

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God had said. He no longer had the ability. For us, as unbelievers, when you're an unbeliever, you have no ability to obey, yet God has not changed his command, his standards, his law, his holiness, his requirements, his righteous demands.

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And so now, when we evangelize and tell people to believe, we know they can't believe, because it's also a gift,

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Philippians chapter 1. So we tell people to repent, we know they can't repent, and we ask

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God to grant them repentance. And that's the way of repentance. That's what it is.

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Back to Watson and what he said about repentance. He gives different elements for repentance, so you get the right view of what's going on when you tell people to repent.

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And so let me give you some of those elements of repentance that you can just pull right out of Watson's great book.

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Number one, sight of sin. You realize something's sinful.

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Luke 15, you know the passage very well, 17, but when he came to his senses, he said, how many of my father's hired men have more than enough bread, but I'm dying here with hunger.

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He saw that it was sinful. He saw that it was, in fact, what

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God calls it, sin. And he came to his senses and he realized,

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I've sinned against my father. Second element of repentance is sorrow for sin. Psalm 38, verse 18, for I confess my iniquity,

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I am full of anxiety because of my sin. Watson said a woman may as well expect to have a child without pangs as one can have repentance without sorrow.

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And so along with the delivering a baby comes the pain of childbirth, and along with repentance comes sorrow for sin.

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Peter remembered the word which Jesus had said, before a cock crows, you will deny me three times.

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And he went out and wept bitterly. It's one thing to mourn for sin, Spring said, because it exposes us to hell, and another to mourn for it because it is an infinite evil.

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One thing to mourn for it because it's injurious to others, and another to mourn for it because it's wrong and offensive to God.

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It is one thing to be terrified, another to be humbled. That's why 2

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Corinthians chapter 7 talks about a repentance that leads to salvation is a repentance with regret, with sorrow.

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And just being sorry isn't repentance, but repenting does include sorrow.

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Number three, the third element of repentance in Thomas Watson's great little book,

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Banner of Truth, Book on Repentance, is confession of sin. Confess means to say the same thing of.

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And so, God, you say this is sin and against your holy law, I say it's the same thing. It's no longer a disease, it's no longer an addiction, it's no longer a syndrome, it's no longer some psychotherapy kind of term, it is sin against you.

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And that's why Proverbs 28 says, he who conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will find compassion.

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And so, God, I agree with you that this is sin, and I know it's a sin against you.

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Psalm 32, when I kept silent about my sin, my body wasted away through my groaning all day long.

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For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me, my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.

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And so, this is, I've sinned against heaven and before thee, like the prodigal son, with all sincerity, with specific sins being confessed when realizing that we've broken

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God's law and violated His righteousness. Fourth element of repentance, side of sin, sorrow for sin, say the same thing of sin, that's confession.

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So far, we've got all these S's, I feel like I'm a Baptist. Always alliterate.

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Number four, shame for sin, shame for sin. Remember the prodigal?

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So ashamed that he didn't even think himself worthy enough to call himself a son any longer.

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Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, I am no longer worthy to be called your son.

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Shamed for sin. Ezekiel 43, as for you, son of man, describe the temple to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities and let them measure the plan.

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Well, what is repentance? My name is Mike Abendroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry, WVNE 760.

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The fifth element of repentance is spite for sin, a hatred for sin. What things do you hate today?

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Cruelty to animal, cruelty to people, child abuse, abortion. Well, God hates sin and God hates sinners,

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Psalm 55, thou dost hate all who do iniquity. Psalm 711, God is a righteous judge, a

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God who has indignation every day. And so, if God hates sin, repentance, changing your mind, would make you think, yes,

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I, in fact, hate sin as well. Psalm 97, hate evil.

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Psalm 139, do I not hate those who hate thee, O Lord? I hate the work of those who fall away,

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Psalm 101. Psalm 119, I hate every false way. Psalm 113,

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I hate those who are double -minded. I hate and despise falsehood. And the list goes on and on.

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I hate your festivals. I hate divorce. And so, we want to make sure we hate sin, loathe sin.

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Ezekiel 20 and Ezekiel 36 both say, loathe yourself in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.

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Loathe yourself in your own sight for all the evil things that you have done. I mean, you think about it, how can we loathe ourselves?

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That has to be a work of God. When you preach repentance to an unbeliever, they're, unless God's working, not going to loathe themselves, they love themselves.

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And then the last element, because we don't want to turn this into a multi -part series, what we think about when we think of repentance, the biggest one is the

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Hebrew word shuv, to keep all my S's here, turning from sin, to return, to repent, and not to return, but to turn, to repent.

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See, alliteration is messing me up. I try to say return and repent, but it's turn and repent.

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Turn away, Ezekiel 14, repent and turn away from your idols and turn your faces away from all your abominations.

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Isn't that a good picturesque language? And then positively we turn unto

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God, Acts 26, they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance.

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1 Thessalonians 1 .9, for they themselves report about us what kind of reception we had with you and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true

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God. And this repentance is with a whole heart, return to me with your whole heart kind of attitude, without any kind of reserves, with finality.

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I'm not going to have anything to do with this any longer. We flee fornication and then return to God.

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And so we need to make sure that we understand repentance properly.

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If repentance is understood properly, and the Bible is understood correctly, we will preach repentance to our unbelieving friends.

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Throughout the ages, repentance is preached. Why would we stop preaching repentance now after the cross?

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That doesn't make any sense. Ezekiel preached repentance, repent and turn away from your idols,

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Ezekiel 14. John the Baptist preached repentance, Matthew 3, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

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Jesus preached repentance, repent and believe in the gospel, Mark 1. The twelve that were sent out by Jesus preached repentance, and they went out,

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Mark 6, and preached that men should repent. Peter, after Christ's ascension, preached repentance.

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Peter said to them, repent, Acts 2, Acts 3, Acts 8. Paul preached repentance,

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Acts 17, therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all everywhere should, what?

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Repent. And you are to preach repentance, and that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem, Luke 24.

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You are to preach repentance to unbelievers. I actually get leery when

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I hear people just talk about only believe, just believe, only believe. Now, biblically, belief would include that idea, because it's a clinging to, it's a looking for, it's a looking toward, rather.

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And I would understand that. The Greek word for believe is not just going to make you think, oh, it's simple intellectual belief alone.

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But I think I'm going to follow along the Scriptures and talk about repent and believe. Just say that as a, you know, just a connection.

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Whenever you say believe, just tell them repent. You must repent and believe. You must repent and believe.

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And so, can believers repent? Well, that's another show. We should be repenting, believers.

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We should be repenting of our false repentance. Yes, we are to repent daily, that's true.

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But today, we're mainly talking about what repentance is, and how you should preach repentance to unbelievers.

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Should you preach repentance to unbelievers? If you believe the Bible, you should. So, my name is

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Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry. Make sure you get to our website, you can check out the Israel trip, you can check out book reviews, you can listen to Steve Lawson interviews, whatever you like, it's at nocompromiseradio .com.

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And look us up there, and send us an email if you'd like. Repent and believe. No Compromise Radio, with Pastor Mike Abendroth, is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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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.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015, and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

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You can check us out online at bbchurch .org, or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff, or management.