Video Transcript: Repentance

We've been talking about God's an answer for sinful rebellion, prompted, first of  all, by the loving kindness of the hesed of God, but also understanding that  sacrifice and atonement is necessary. But as I said in the preceding lecture a  scripture is clear that the anger of God against sin, which can be dealt with  properly only by the offering of an atoning sacrifice and, and particularly and  finally, the, the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, the only one that's sufficient to the  task. All that being true, it's equally clear that not everyone reaps the benefits of  God's loving kindness and Jesus atoning sacrifice. There's a division between  those who have been reconciled to God and those who have not. And that  difference has to do with repentance. Only the repentant are reconciled. The  unrepentant are not. So let's look at that matter of repentance. What is  repentance? It's more than regret, and more than sorrow for sin. Repentance is  really a change of mind about how to live a decision to reject a life of sin and  rebellion against God and instead, to love and serve the Lord. This change of  mind is proved by a change in behavior, the first sign of which is the  acknowledgment and confession of sin. But other actions must follow behaviors  that support a new way of living, living. Listen to these scriptural admonitions to  repent not not always define the term repent, but in every case, it's talking about the concept what is advocated is a new way of living a way that forsake sin and  pursues righteousness. Leviticus 5:5, when anyone becomes aware that they  are guilty, they must confess in what way they have sinned. Leviticus 26:40-42,  if they will confess their sins, their unfaithfulness in their hostility toward me.  Then when their uncircumcised hearts are humbled, and they pay for their sin, I  will remember their covered my covenant. Psalm 24:12, turn from evil, and do  good. seek peace and pursue it. Proverbs 28:13, he who conceals his sin does  not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces sin finds mercy. I Kings  8:47-50. This is from Solomon's prayer, at the occasion of the dedication of the  temple. Solomon prays, if they have a change of heart if the people have a  change of heart in the land, where they are held captive, and repent, and plead  with you in the land of their captors and say, We have sinned we have done  wrong, we have acted wickedly, and if they turn back to you with all their heart  and soul, then from heaven, hear their prayer and their plea and uphold their  cause, and forgive your people. Isaiah 55:7, Let the wicked forsake his way, in  the evil man his thoughts, let him turn to the Lord and He will have mercy on him into our God, for He will freely pardon. Isaiah 59:20. The Redeemer will come to  Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins. Jeremiah 8:6, I have listened  attentively, but they do not say what is right. None of them repent of their  wickedness, saying what have I done? Each pursues their own course, like a  horse charging into battle. A couple more passages. Yes. Jeremiah 26:3,  perhaps they will listen and turn from their evil ways, then I will relent and not  inflict on them the disaster I was planning because of the evil they have done.  Ezekiel 18: 21. But if a wicked person turns away from all the sins they've 

committed and keeps mine decrees and does what is just and right, that person  will surely live they will not die. Ezekiel 18:23, do I take any pleasure in the  death of the wicked declares the Sovereign Lord, rather, am I not pleased when  they turn from their ways and live? So what is repentance according to these  biblical passages and more, it is turning from and confessing sin, and turning to  God, to live life his way. There's an innate awareness in the human heart that  knows the truth about the human need to own up to and repent of sin. But  there's also by nature a deep reluctance to do this. For one thing, even if we are  truly sorry for our sins against God and against others, we may feel reluctant to  confess them because of the penalties that may result such things as fines, a  divorce, loss of employment, even incarceration, and many more things, but  even without those penalties, repentance is difficult. Repentance requires self  denial, which is never easy and also honesty about one failure. Still, lack of  repentance is more difficult in the long run. sin that is held on to or even  unconfessed, exacts emotional and psychological penalties in the hearts of all  but the most hard hardhearted. a guilty conscience is no small thing to have to  live with. And perhaps the only thing scarier is when a conscience that should  trouble a person no longer does so because it has become too callous. The  Bible does not use the word guilty conscience to describe Adam and Eve's  troubled spirits in the aftermath of the rebellion against God. But their actions  were perfectly consistent with the distress of a guilty conscience. Genesis 3:7  begins, then the eyes of both of them were open, and they realize they were  naked. The opening of Adam and Eve's eyes wasn't one of those good aha  moments that we all have from time to time when we come to a new  understanding of what is previously confused and frustrated us. Quite the  opposite. This was an O no moment of what have we done moment. That's why  is an airy very next phrase indicates Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together  and made coverings for themselves. There was something about their physical  nakedness that bothered them, something they had not experienced before.  This was partly an indication of the damage that had occurred in their  relationship with each other. They were not as at ease with each other as  before, there was some distrust and suspicion of each other that would soon be  revealed in Adam's trying to shift the blame to Eve. But the one whom Adam and Eve are most afraid of was their Creator and senior partner in life. This shows in  verse 8 which says that they heard the sound of the Lord God as he was  walking in the garden in the cool of the day. This wasn't a new sound or a new  experience for them. They were used to hearing the approach of God. But this  time it was different. Instead of being eager and willing to meet God to talk  things over or maybe go sightseeing. This time, Scripture tells us they hid from  the LORD God among the trees of the garden. They hid. It didn't make any  sense. Of course, how could they hope to hide from the one who made even the trees they were using for cover. But this was not a thought out escape. Adam 

and Eve were frantic because they knew their good relationship with God was  gone. But they weren't yet ready to meet God face to face to confess their sin  and return to serving Him if that was even possible. nor are too many people  today. All of us by nature are guilty of Adam and Eve sin of rebellion against  God, all of us by nature are similarly naked and without excuse before God and  living under the condemnation that sin brings. The question is whether we will  repent and confess our sin and take advantage of the Atonement offered by  Christ. That sounds easy on the face of it, but repentance as I've said is very  difficult thing. It was for Adam and Eve. Their trying to hide from God represents  their desire to avoid being confronted with the reality of their sin. But when Adam could not escape the confrontation, he made excuses he blamed Eve, telling  God that the woman here referred to it referred to her impersonally not as my  wife or Eve. But as the woman. She gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate  it. In other words, it's not my fault. It's Eve's fault. And then blaming her Adam  implicated God as well and saying, the woman you put here with me, as if to  say, You gave me the wrong partner and she tempted me to sin. Excuses seem  so much more attractive to Adam than facing the ugly truth about his sin. And it  was not different with Eve who in turn blamed the serpent. The fact is, however,  Adam and Eve had been partnered with each other to be partners and servants  of God. And so both were accountable. And both were culpable for their sin. And so are we all, we still are at least tempted to try to shift the blame. We're in  trouble. But it isn't our fault. We're the product of a dysfunctional family. We have children who disappoint us after all we've done for them. We have a spouse who doesn't love us enough or in the right way. We didn't get enough education.  We're the wrong color. We aren't good looking. Our health is poor. We were born in the wrong part of the world. Much of this has to be God's fault since he made  us, all kinds of excuses. Like Adam, we're at least tempted to blame others or  even God for our sins. Or as God pursues us as he did, Adam, we may use the  excuse that we're not as bad as somebody else. We're better than our  neighbors. We don't drink as much or mess around. We work hard. We're  devoted to our family. Really, what does sin have to do with us in our lives? Sin  is the big things we read about in the papers every day murders, arson, armed  robberies, kidnapping. But the Bible makes clear that sin is more than particular, unlovely acts like eating the fruit of the wrong tree. It's whatever separates us  from God, including our self righteousness and pride, and desire to do our own  thing. Our selfishness, indeed, is a major turning point for any of us to realize  that whatever our behavior, good or bad, we're selfish people. Were it not for  God's presence and grace, we would act entirely out of our own self interest.  Thank God he doesn't leave us alone. Well back to Adam and Eve. Eventually  they did respond to God's call and came out of hiding. We know this by God's  further communication with him, in which he informed them of the difficulties of  life from then on, but also overcoming offspring who had vanquish the rebellion, 

inciting serpent. But the divided courses of their offspring in the next generation  showed that the way of repentance was a hard road to travel. Cain and his line  persisted in rebellion against the Lord. Abel, and later Seth and his lines started  off honoring the Lord by their obedience but fell away over the generations until  only Noah and his family remained as God's servants. Long after the flood, the  

same tension revealed itself in Abraham's descendants. God's consistent  counsel was for them to be the obedient servants he had called them to be in for them to immediately repent of and confess any departure from his ways. And  although there were always some who did this, there were many more who  persisted in their rebellion, unwilling to change, at least to the extent required.  Some, for example, traded the law of God as an unwelcome boundary to which  the to which they would walk as closely as possible, without violating the letter of it, or the line of it. Cain had done that earlier by bringing God an offering but one  that he knew was not his best. Nadab and Abihu did it by offering incense to  God, but in a way they knew was unacceptable. King Saul did it by taking a  taking it upon himself to offer sacrifices before battle. When he knew he was  required to wait for the prophet Samuel. King Ahab did it by trying to force  Naboth into selling his vineyard when he knew that such a thing would violate  God's provision that every Israelite be guaranteed a permanent piece of the  promised land. And some of the Pharisees of Jesus day did similar things, not  actually murdering their enemies but feeling free to hate them. Not physically  violating their marriage vows, but feeling free to be emotionally and mentally  immoral, not violating their oaths, but feeling free to shade the truth in devious  ways. They ignored what they already knew to be the essence of God's law  loving God above all and their neighbors as themselves. They ignored that in  favor of attention to the smallest details of the law's provisions. There are many  more examples in Scripture to Isaiah wrote about such people and  distinguishing legal fasting from true fasting is in chapter 28. where he says  these people abstained from food and went about in sackcloth and ashes. But  did it without true humility, or concern to help others find the freedom God  intended for all his people in each case, and many more people treated the law  of God as a burden to be minimized rather than as a gift to facilitate faithful  service to God, and to delight in. Here's the general pattern found throughout  the Old Testament narratives. Those who live their lives in wholehearted service  to God found themselves richly blessed. Too often, those who were so blessed  became more enamored of the blessings than the one who blessed them and so became compromised in their service to the Lord. These compromises resulted  in the negative consequences that are inevitable for those who fall out of  fellowship with their Creator and Redeemer. And suffering then helps the people  to refocus and get back to fundamental truths like the need to repent of the need to attempt to live without repent of the attempt to live without God, and  rededicate themselves to the life for which they were created. And those who 

truly repented again found themselves richly blessed by God. And the cycle  repeated itself. Let me give just a few examples of this in Scripture, elder Israel  in the wilderness between Egypt and the promised land, the people were  ecstatic at several points. This is a read through Exodus, after their in Numbers  and so on, after their deliverance from Pharaoh's army, through the miraculous  passage opened up through the Red Sea, overjoyed by God's provision of  manna for their sustenance, great, at completion of the tabernacle, and their  delighted astonishment with God making his home in their midst at the end of  Exodus. But in each case, after being ecstatic after being overjoyed, they  quickly returned to taking God for granted and grumbling at the hardships they  faced. And time after time, they repented only after suffering the consequences  of living life their way. And then again, they would find blessing, which lasted  only until they again became compromised in their service to the Lord. Another  example, King David, God had singled him out for great honor and blessing,  specifically a kingdom that would endure forever. But in the midst of enjoying a  measure of rest from his enemies all around, David indulged the lust of his eyes  and misuse of power, his position to engage in adultery, lying and murder. He  came to realize the enormity of his sin only through the intervention of the  prophet Nathan. Then David repented and prayed that God would not cast him  from his presence but cleanse him and restore to him the joy of his salvation.  David's sin brought severe consequences but after repentance, God answered  his prayers and David again, found the Lord's blessing. Another example of a  showdown on on Mount Carmel between God's prophet Elijah, in the false  prophets of Baal and Asherah. Israel suffered for three years without the  blessing of rain, evidence of the anger of God against the false worship of his  people. And so when the people finally with divine help sorted out in their hearts, who the real God was and how awful had been their rebellion against Him, when they finally repented, and again made the true confession. The way was open  for a restoration of a covenant with all its blessings. Another example, maybe  the biggest of all the exile of God's people from the promised land. That was the  greatest of God's punishments for the persistent unfaithfulness of his people. It  meant not only the loss of the promised land, but the loss of God's presence.  Finally, after seventy years of repented waiting in prayer, some of the exiles  were allowed to return, but the blessings they experienced were never as great  as those they'd lost. And there would be many more centuries of waiting until the Promised Messiah finally arrived as God's ultimate answer for Sin. In each of  these cases, and in many similar episodes recorded in the Old Testament, those who departed from the Lord's Prescription for Life Whether through neglect and  attention or through overt rebellion, those who departed suffered the negative  consequences of sin. Some of them never did repent and stayed alienated from  God. And even in the case of those who opposed Elijah on Mount Carmel lost  their lives to God's judgment. But those who did repent found mercy and a new 

life. And repentance still remains the only remedy for sin and its consequences.  In his mercy, God has provided the perfect sacrifice to atone for sin, but to take  advantage of Christ's Atonement requires repentance, a change of mind, a  change of life, about how to live a decision to reject a life of sin and rebellion  against God in order to love and serve him. instead. This is much more than  intellectual theology. That is, it doesn't do any good to believe in the 10  commandments or the golden rule. And to recite them on Sunday if you don't  apply them the rest of the week, on Monday to that temptation that threatens to  trip you up. And on Tuesday to the way you treat your family and on Wednesday to what happens at work and on Thursday and Friday and Saturday. God bent  over backwards as it were to help his old covenant people live repentant lives, in anticipation of the complete salvation he was laboring to bring through Jesus  Christ, in the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. And he continues today with a  world he so loves. There are only two possible responses, repentance, or the  refusal to repent. And each one brings one closer to an inevitable end, all who  end up in heaven get there via the road of repentance. All who ended up in hell  get there by their persistent refusal to repent or there postponement of it at  least. As CS Lewis put it there are only two kinds of people in the end. Those  who say to God, thy will be done and those to whom God says in the end, your  will be done. You're getting your way. You'll never see me again.