Understanding Salvation and True Repentance

Thank you. Well, the past couple of weeks we've been talking in our small groups about salvation, what it means that God has saved us. The lessons have focused on elements, different elements of what it means to be a follower of Christ, how God has intervened in our human lives to make sure that he touches us and changes us, transforms us to be like himself. The process of salvation starts with God. In the very beginning, he determined that he wanted a relationship with all of us, a relationship characterized by the Bible and the story of Adam and Eve, where Adam and Eve had a relationship with God like you and I would have with other people. God walked with them every day. He talked with them. There was a relationship that they had that was open and clear and plain. It was this relationship that God wanted to keep. Adam and Eve rebelled against God's authority and broke the relationship he had with them so that no longer were they close. There was a barrier between them. And from the very beginning of the world, God's intention was to create a place in the world where you and I could walk with God in the same kind of close relationship, this life on this earth, and then after this earth. God's intention was to rebuild that so that his creators, his creation, would be able to live in a relationship of closeness to God, no barriers between us, no isolation between us. How could this happen to a person? Well, whenever a person surrenders themselves to God, something wonderful and miraculous takes place. With this submitted person, God takes his Holy Spirit and places in that person's life. So that person now lives not in human strength but by the power of God. This power of God enables them to do things they'd never been able to do before, to serve God and to work with him. He changes their relationships by placing his love inside of their heart by means of the Spirit so they know how to treat people in a different way and all their relationships are changed. And then he gives them the ability of self-control so that when they know the things God wants them to do, they can choose to do those things. The transformation that God places in our lives is what salvation really is. But how do you get to that place where your life is open and all the power of the Holy Spirit comes inside of you? How does that really happen? Well, I want to talk about three words this morning. One of them sounds a little bit like repentance, but it's not the same. The word penance, sometimes you may hear that people talk about it as a religious activity. It used to be in the Catholic community that was what they called a particular event that they had. Today they've changed the title for that. It's now called the time of confession. But it's really a different thing than what we're talking about here. Because penance really is a way by which, in the Catholic community, a person who's accepted Christ and began to live in obedience to Christ's sins and how they remove those sins. It's a self-imposed suffering that you go through to pay for the sins that you've committed or to make right the sins that you've committed. In the Protestant community, we don't see things in the same way. Our idea is that on the cross, Christ paid for all of our sins and there's not anything that we could ever do to pay for any of them. So all that's past. And if you hear the word penance, it's not the same as repentance in the Scripture. But there's another word, remorse, that's a part of what takes place in the Bible and in all human experience. Repentance and remorse take place in a context in which there is someone in charge who gives rules and instructions. And those rules and instructions, then, are violated. You might see it take place, for example, with a child. A child may hear from his dad or mother and say, Now, we don't want you to ever get out and get in the car. And if you find the keys, don't ever turn the car on because you're not old enough to be able to do that. Well, if you tell a little boy that, the first thing he starts thinking about is, How can I get the keys and go out there and start the car? The idea of being a grown-up and being able to turn the key on and hear that motor roar and act like you're driving is a powerful, powerful temptation. But what happens whenever the parents give the instructions or rules, they set a boundary. And then the child or anyone else who has those kind of boundaries steps over that boundary. So you're out there in the car acting like you're driving. Everything's cool. Mom or dad hears it. They rush outside. Terror fills their face. They rush over to you, pull you out of the car, turn that over, and say, Don't you ever do that again. In those moments, you're remorseful about what happens. You're sorry about what you've done. You know that there's trouble coming because of what's taken place. This is remorse. Now, remorse is sorrow for what you've done, sorrow for the consequences of what takes place. But the boy might be genuinely overwhelmed by that and say in his own mind, You know, I'm never going to do this again, depending on maybe the punishment that he gets for it. But he also might say in his mind, This really did disturb mom and dad, but I don't see anything at all wrong with this. In fact, it felt wonderful to me. What did I do wrong? Maybe I should wait until mom and dad are fully asleep in the back part of the house before I try it again. Remorse morphs into a plan to continue your activity. Just don't get caught. Remorse oftentimes is a substitute in the lives of people for repentance. I've had many times people come to talk to me about their life, and they talk about the problems that they're having and the difficulties and trials that they're going through. And usually they don't come to see me voluntarily until it's really kind of the last step. Something tragic or terrible has taken place, and they realize because they know the rules of God that they've stepped over those rules, and they're not living the way God wants them to. So they often come and they're crying and upset and distressed about what's taking place in their life. I tell them that God can forgive them for what they've done. He can change their life and their future, give them hope for that. Many times they will agree that they'd like to make that right with God and kneel on the floor with me and pray a prayer of confession of their sins, ask God's forgiveness for them, and then I pray for them. And when it's over I give them a Bible and say, you know, you begin reading here. You've promised God that you're going to change your life. So here's the way you do it. You start reading what God wants you to hear, and you start noticing the things He tells you to do that you're not doing. You notice the things He tells you that you shouldn't do that you are doing, and you stop and you admit that to God and you ask for His forgiveness. And you should be in church on Sunday morning and Sunday night and Wednesday night, and you should read this book every day. Most of them never come to church more than one time, and I don't see them again. They were crying when they came to see me. They were heartbroken when they came to see me. They were in deep sorrow, and they were in remorse. But remorse makes you feel better for a little while, but it does not change your life. God knows the difference between the person that's saying, okay, God, I want out of this. I want all this pain relieved from me. I don't want to have this anymore. I'd like to get back to the life that I really enjoy. He can tell the difference between what's going on in our minds and the words that we say. And repentance never comes to people with just remorse. Someone asked me one time if Judas was ever saved after he did what he did with Christ, and the only place in the Bible where the word remorse is used is with Judas. He didn't repent of what he did, but he was remorseful enough to kill himself. Remorse appears to be a change of life. If you were sitting in the room with people who make these prayers and make these promises to God, you might think this person's life is going to be different from now on out. But it isn't. Because what happens to them is they're sorry and they're afraid of the future and they want out of the trouble that they're in, but they do not want to turn their life over to the power and authority of God. Repentance is quite different than remorse. Yes, it has some of the same symptoms. For example, whenever God begins to deal with you in repentance, He does confront you with your sin. He will let you know that there are things in your life that you're doing that you should not be doing. He will let you know that there are some things that you should be doing that you aren't doing. And you will see those rules and you will know that you violated them. Now let me stop and just address something else. Knowing that the rules are wrong does not mean that you know you violated what God wants for you. I'll give you a good example, I think. You have a child who's growing up in your home and you tell them that you want them to do certain things or not do certain things. And they know what the rules are. And you say, now, I'm the parent and you should obey me. But when a child is growing up, they have to learn the difference between obedience to parents because of their rules and instructions, which are common to all raising children. Kids don't want to do what you tell them if there's another way to do it. I remember a story of our own family where we had a three-year-old and a one-year-old in our family. We were at the table, the one-year-old's in the baby chair, the high chair. And he was taking his spoon and getting food on his spoon and throwing it in the floor. His three-year-old brother thought this was the most hilarious comedy event that he'd ever seen in his life. And he was just laughing and laughing and laughing. So our one-year-old takes his spoon and looks at his older brother with stuff in it and he throws it on the floor with laughter. Mom and Dad both responded in a very different way. We got on to him. We told him, no, don't do that. You don't throw your food on the floor. And we were as strict and rough as we could in our voice and our tone and our facial expressions. And we may have even slapped his hand. I don't remember. But then he took the spoon and put it back in his stuff, raised it up to put it on the floor, looked at us, looked at his brother, and you could tell he was deciding, do I want to make my brother laugh or do I want to make my parents mad? And he took the spoon and threw the stuff on the floor. No repentance whatsoever. Just remorse that difficulty would come as a result of what he had done. But it was worth it. He was a comedian. You see, a child at that stage only knows what the parents say they should do as parents. As a child grows older than one year of age, they get to the place finally in their Sunday school if they're brought to hear the Ten Commandments where it says, God says to you, obey your parents. To take your spoon and throw stuff on the floor is not a sin even though your parents told you not to do it. Because it's not rebellion against God. It's just a child doing what they think they ought to do. The time comes in every human being's life whenever you come to understand that there are rules that God has for you. And those rules indicate whether or not you really allow God to control your life and your behavior. So when a child gets older and they start making choices, now they have two things. One is their parents have rules for them. And the other is that God has rules that say, obey your parents' rules. Now when you come across and are disobedient to your parents, you have two issues. One is your human parents. And the other is your Father in heaven. It is at this point that a child now becomes alienated from God when they purposely look at God and say, You told me not to steal things. But boy, it sure would be nice to have things that belong to other people that I don't have. What am I going to do? Have this treasure in my hand or do what you tell me? And then they look at what's in their hand and listen to what God says and they reach out with their hand and they take it. All of a sudden they've stepped over that line with God. It's not necessarily the parents, but it's with God. And from that moment on, the alienation between that child and God continues to grow. Now what God is at work doing from that early time in our life all the way through our life is to try to redirect us back to the place where we're ready to say, Whatever God tells me to do, I will do. There is a sorrow that comes into your life when you know that you've disobeyed what God tells you to do. A remorse, a feeling of remorse, and at that moment the pain or the sorrow that you feel feels exactly like remorse. They feel the same. But there is a great difference. In 2 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul is writing to the Corinthian church, Even if I cause you to sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it, I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while. Yet now I am happy, not because I made you sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended, so you were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret. But worldly sorrow brings death. See what this godly sorrow has produced in you? What earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern. You see, the conviction of sin that comes to someone who has violated the instructions of God results, if they are aware of God's presence, it results in powerful things taking place in their life. Here is what this godly sorrow produces. An earnestness. I am going to get serious about my life. An eagerness to clear ourselves. I would like to get rid of the guilt that comes inside of me. Indignation. How could I do such a stupid thing? Why am I living like this? What alarm. If I don't stop this, my destination is absolutely determined. What longing. God, I wish I could be a different kind of person. What concern. God, how can I change what's in my life? What readiness to see justice done. God, I know what you think. I want to live in a way that sits exactly what you ask. At every point, you have proven yourselves to be innocent in this matter. So even though I wrote you, it was not on account of the one who did wrong or the injured party, but rather before God, you could see yourselves how devoted to us you are. By all this, we are encouraged. So Paul writes about worldly sorrow and the godly sorrow that leads to repentance. It is when a person looks at their life and they see that they've drifted away from what God intended for them, that remorse or godly sorrow comes to their life. This is a sign of the Holy Spirit working inside of you. God will use all kinds of little things to remind you of what it is. I remember one time a person came to our church and had come several times and didn't come anymore. And I went to see them and talked to them and the person says, I don't like coming to your church. I said, why is that? They said, well, when I start walking in the door, I start feeling guilty and ashamed. I just feel overwhelmed with the feeling that I'm doing something wrong. In fact, they said, you know, when I go through town, I don't go down any street that goes by your church because just going by the building causes me to begin to feel overwhelmed with guilt and shame because of what my life is. This is the power of God to bring godly sorrow into the life of a person. What he's trying to do is to get your attention to say, your life is headed for disaster. If you don't recognize what you're doing and abandon that and place me in charge of your life, you're going to have terrible trouble all the rest of your life. So if you can get away from God and get away from the church and get away from the Bible, it will be better. But that doesn't keep the disaster from coming. For God's warning sign is, the bridge is out. The road is nice, but the bridge is out. Do not continue down this road the way you're going. Now you can ignore the sign and you might drive a long way before you finally come to the bridge that's out. But it's God's warning for us. Repentance always begins with godly sorrow, regret, and remorse over what's taking place inside of you. What God wants is the transformation to that. The recognition that the disaster that is coming, you are aware of, and that you want to see it changed. Jesus came. I'm going to read a passage from Luke chapter 5 if you'd like to find that to read with me. Jesus, when he came, was on the lookout constantly for people who had stepped over the line with regard to God. If they were stealing or lying or doing anything that was contrary to the will of God, he knew that the Holy Spirit was convicting them of their sin. That conviction results in godly sorrow. The sorrow comes to us as a result to motivate us to do something to get rid of it. In verse 27 of chapter 5, after this Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at the tax booth. Follow me, he said to him. Levi got up and left everything and followed him. Tax collectors in the days of Jesus were sort of like independent contractors. They weren't government employees. And if you had a job, you had a tax to pay, the tax collector would bid on the opportunity to collect the taxes. And if you made some money, if you made an income of $1,000, your tax might be $50. And the tax collector would make a bid on all the taxes in the town, but he had a chance to charge you any amount he wanted. So if your tax was $50, he could charge you $100, and he kept the $50. So every Jewish person saw the tax collector as a greedy person out to rob from them. There was no accountability as to how much they might charge you. And they had all the power of the Roman government in hand to enforce their collections. So Jesus comes to a man who is in that business. He must have known what was in his mind, the conviction, this is not the thing that I want to do with my life. I am sick and tired of the situation that I'm in and the job that I have. And Jesus said, would you quit that and come and live a life of righteousness and holiness? He left everything in his business, walked out. He turned his back because of godly worry and concern. We know that's what happened. Now he left behind his job, which is repentance. I am no longer going to do what I was doing. My life has changed altogether. So what the man did was invited all of his other friends who were in the same kind of thievery business. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house. A large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees, the church people, and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples. Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners? People are doing bad things. Jesus answered them, it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Repentance is a call that God makes to people who have violated his own laws. I know that you've stepped over the line. I know what God has said you ought to do, how you ought to live, how you ought to talk, the things that you ought to do. And you've stepped over the lines. So Jesus sought out the people who needed transformation. That's a clue for you. If you feel guilt and shame and remorse about something in your life, it's a sign that God has stuck his hand in your life and he's shaking you to say, listen, this is not right. You've stepped over the line here and you should feel shame and you should feel regret and you should feel remorse. But if you believe in the healing power of God, you should also desire to be set free from whatever it is that holds onto your life. Just as Jesus sought people who were sinners, so God does that today. Even in a service like this, when you're hearing this, God may flash to your mind some things in your life that need to be changed. Things that you don't see as very bad. Maybe no one else even sees them at all as being bad, but you know this is not what God wants for you. So every time you think about it, you feel guilty and ashamed. You may push it out of the way, but it's still there. Maybe nobody else in the world would even feel bad about it. If you tell your friends, you know, I really feel terrible about the fact that I'm not praying for someone to come to know Christ, they might say, well, that's not a problem. You're a wonderful person. You go to church. Everything's nice about it. But you know, God says it's wrong. What God wants is out of this sorrow and grief for you to stop and say, God, I'm sick and tired of this. Forgive me for what I'm doing and how I'm thinking and what my life is like. Change me. Forgive me for what I've done. And from this moment on, I promise as best I can to never do this again or to start doing what you're telling me I should do. Out of this grief and sorrow and remorse, God wants to bring new life and healing. Now, it doesn't stop there. For once you give your life to Christ and you start living this life, you discover things in your life that have stripped away from God. And all of a sudden, one day you wake up and say, I didn't realize what my life had done, what's happened to me. And all of a sudden, you feel remorse again. It's not that you need to be saved again, but you need to restore that relationship the same way you started it. By saying to God, You are the Lord. Take my life and rule it. And our repentance comes again and again and again throughout our lives. It's like any kind of relationship where you do something that hurts another person's feelings. You don't just forget it because you once had a good relationship with them. You stop and say, I don't want that relationship to be broken. I go back and say, I'm sorry for what I did and said. Forgive me. And then the barrier is removed and the relationship is sealed and healed. But godly sorrow is not the only way that God changes us. There's a powerful thing that happens to us too. It is when we see the sinfulness of our own nature against the great love that God has for us. In Romans chapter 2, Paul is writing to the Roman church. This happened to me one time. I had someone I was talking to about coming to know Christ. And I read them the story of the crucifixion and said, All this happened in Jesus' life for you. They broke down and started crying. How could God go through that for me? And their heart was broken. Therefore, you have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at what point you judge others, you condemn yourselves because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when a mere man passed judgment on them yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of His kindness, tolerance, patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance? You may have experienced sometime the overwhelming sense of your own sinfulness and then just be in awe that God hasn't done something terrible to you for what you've done. And you break down and cry because you know God has been patient and kind with you when He had every right to bring judgment. And it causes you to turn to God and say, God, you're so wonderful to me. And I'm so rebellious to you. I'm overwhelmed by your love and forgiveness and compassion. And it causes you to fall on your knees and say, God, forgive me for what I've been and done. I will from this moment on never do that again as best I can. Repentance can come because of fear of what's going to happen. It can come because of overwhelming sense of love and gratitude from God. But the same thing happens. A person confesses what they've done, asks for forgiveness, makes a promise to God to let their life be changed so that the sin they're in is past and gone. And their life is now renewed to the presence and power of God. Would you bow your heads please for a moment. Let me ask you if you, in your times of coming to church or even praying, if God continually reminds you of something in your life that needs to be changed. Something you refuse to do that you know God wants you to do. Something that you're doing that you know God hates. You feel guilt. You feel shame. You feel remorse. But if you're stuck there, you'll never be free from it. What he wants you to do is to say, God, I admit what you're telling me. I ask you to forgive me for what I've done. And I promise you from this time on, as best I can, this is out of my life. Give me the power and the self-control to live in obedience to you. When you do that, if it's the first time you've ever done it, the Spirit of God comes inside of your life. And he begins to change you from the inside out. Has that ever happened to you? That's how God wants to live with you. Now if you've done that with God and you find yourself down the road slipping back into things that you know are upsetting to God, you will feel the same kind of separation. But it's a separation between friends and not enemies. And your friend is wanting to say, Do you want this changed? Acknowledge what you've done. Ask my forgiveness. And allow me to change you so you never do this again. Repentance provides a means whereby you and God can be at one with each other. If there's a distance between you and him, that's the problem. What does God want from you? What has he been telling you that you should do that you haven't done? Get rid of the remorse and the grief and the sorrow and live with a pure heart. Do today what God wants you to do. So Lord, bring to our mind an awareness of who we are and where we stand with you. Make clear to each of us exactly what we need to do today to grow in our relationship of submission to your authority. Help every one of us to be willing to do whatever it takes to be obedient to you. I'm going to ask the pianist to play. If God has spoken to you today about something in your life that needs to change, you can settle this with him right now. If you feel the need to come and ask for prayer, I'll be here, Hazi will be here, Debbie will be here. And maybe to confess your sin to God, it may be to ask for forgiveness, it may be to accept Jesus as your Lord or become a part of the fellowship of this church. What God tells you either leads to peace if you do it or sorrow if you don't. Leave here with peace.