Scripture: Topics: Repentance
Repent. Not what you think it is! We're going to be looking at part two tonight. I am Michael Pearl and you are at The Door, located in Lobelville, Tennessee. No Greater Joy Ministries brings you this and you can find us at nogreaterjoy.org.
Repent of your sins. I heard that so much when I was young. I read it on gospel tracks as what you're supposed to do to be saved. The term repent of your sins never appears in the Greek Bible, never appears in the Hebrew Bible, and it never appears in the King James Bible. You will find it in some of the corrupt, modern, commercial editions. I discovered when I was about 17 or 18 years old that the Bible did not have that term in it. I was shocked because I used it. I'd preached a few sermons and I told the guys down where they keep the drunks, what do you call it, the rescue mission. I said, "You need to repent of your sins." I looked out that those guys drinking that alcohol and I wondered if any of them actually could repent of their sins in order to be saved. I found some of them got saved, still drank for a month or two, then quit, and lived the rest of their life in righteousness. So, they didn't repent of their alcoholism before they got saved. They didn't repent of it until after they got saved.
So I began to wonder about this doctrine I'd been teaching and everyone else was teaching. I looked it up and found it did not appear in the Bible that it was false doctrine.
The Bible says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. the truth is not in us." 1 John 1:8. So have you repented of all your sins? If you have, then you don't have any. If you still have some sin, then you didn't repent of all your sin. Now, it's important, it's great, it's desirable that a Christian should repent of his sin. It's something we do every day, but it's a job we never get done. We're still working at it and I thank God I didn't have to do that in order to be saved.
Let's open the Bible and see what it has to say. In the book of Luke 13:1, "There was present at the season, some who told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. Jesus answering said to them, suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners of all the Galileans because they suffered such things. I tell you, nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." So Jesus thought that repentance was necessary to keep from perishing, very important subject. “Of those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelled in Jerusalem? I'll tell you nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish." Jesus said it twice. So something that important, I want to make sure I repent. I want to make sure that when I repent, it's God's repentance and not something out of the new international version. I want to make sure that it's something that God designed and not man.
So what does it mean to repent? Well, let's first look at repentance is not a religious word. It does not imply sin or sorrow, God or grief.
Repentance is not a religious word. It's a secular word. It's a word that's used in the Bible, but it's also used many other places. The problem with our terminology in Christianity is that we take words that are in the Bible and they become very popular doctrinally to us, which is fine, but they fall out of use in the secular circle, because they have such a connotation in the religious circle. So if you use the word repent on the news, they automatically think you're preaching or something. So people don't often use it anymore because it has such a religious connotation. The problem is the religious connotation is inaccurate and not true to the Bible.
So repentance is, first, a secular word describing a complete turnaround on any stated issue. If you decide to buy a cherry popsicle and you get there, pick it up, and then you change your mind and you say, "I want grape," then you repented and you bought the grape instead. That would be very proper use of the word. The context defines the nature repentance in regard to the subject. In other words, the context tells you what you're turning from and what you're turning to. You're turning from the cherry popsicle to the grape popsicle. That's the repentance.
Now there is a man to man repentance out of the 112 times that the word repent repentance, repentance, repenting appears in the Bible. So man to man repentance appears I think about 10 times, something like that.
Look at this, Exodus 13:17 “It came to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, lest peradventure, the people repent when they see war and they return to Egypt.” So when they came out of Egypt, God kept them away from that mighty bunch of warriors that had the giants kept them away because they weren't ready for it yet. He said they might repent. Repent what? Repent of following Moses, repent of leaving Egypt, and repent to what? Repent back to Egypt. So that had nothing to do with sin or God or righteousness. It had to do with changing the direction they were walking their location.
Judges 21:1 “Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh saying, there should not any of us give his daughter under Benjamin to wife.” They'd had a fallen out with the tribe of Benjamin because the tribe of Benjamin had killed a visiting woman, sexually abused her. When Israel went down and said, "Turn these men over to us," they said, "No, this is a sanctuary city. You're not going to be allowed to prosecute this individual. We have set him free." So they went to war against them and killed the tribe off down to just a few hundred men, 500 or 600 I think. That's all it was left. So the tribe was going to perish because they had no wives. So they said, "We're not going to give them any of our wives. They cannot marry any of our women." That means that tribe is going to die out, cease to exist.
Judges 21:6-7 “The children of Israel then repented them for Benjamin, their brother,” repented of saying, "You can't have any of our wives." “There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day. How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by the Lord that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?” You know how that worked out? They said, "We can't give you our daughters." So they took a bunch of young maidens that were of marital age and they had them go down the road to all dancing along and frenzy. They told these Benjaminites that they could hide in the bushes and steal them a woman. So that's what they did. They all came out and snatched them one and carried them off. That was their wives.
Now, the girls volunteered for that thing. It's probably the ugly ones and I don't know what it was, but they ended up getting wives in house. So, they couldn't actually go through the normal processes so they repented and let them have wives after all. That's a man to man repentance.
Matthew 21:28-29 “What think ye? A certain man had two sons. He came to the first and said, Son, go to work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, "I will not." Lazy bum, must have had some of those video games. “I will not, but afterward, he repented and went.” because his mama told he wasn't getting any supper if he didn't go. So he repented and went. That's nothing with God. I'm showing you that the word repent even in the Bible is used in a secular context.
It's not a word isolated to the religion or Bible doctrine.
Paul says, "I do not repent." He said, "I did but I don't anymore." Paul, that's heresy. What's wrong? You get a hard heart. Look at the verse.
2 Corinthians 7:8 “For though I made you sorry with a letter,” Paul wrote a letter to Corinth, “I do not repent” of having written the letter “though I did repent.” He said, "After I wrote it, I was sorry I wrote. I changed my mind." I said, "Go back, get that letter, don't deliver it." But it already delivered. And then I saw what it did. It changed you. So now I don't repent of what I did repent of. It had nothing to do with God or religion, faith or sin. It had to do with writing a letter. Have you written anything you're sorry you wrote? For I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry though it were but for a season.
Then Hebrews 12:16-17 “Lest there be any fornicator or profane person as Esau who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For ye know how that afterward when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected.” Now see, he was first in line to receive the birthright from his parents, his father, but he got real hungry one day after hunting and his sneaky little brother came up, made some soup, and said, "You give me the birthright and I'll give you a bowl of soup." He said, "I'm dying with hunger. Go ahead, I'll trade you my birthright." He despised his birthright, the Bible said. So he sold it for a bowl of soup. Later on, he changed his mind. He repented and said, "I want my birthright, I value my birthright." So he sought to get it back, but he couldn't.
Hebrews 12:17 So it says, "Afterward when he would've inherited the blessing, he was rejected for he found no place for repentance though he sought it carefully with tears." So all the tears didn't do any good. He could not get his birthright back. He could not repent in regard to what he'd done.
Now the Bible speaks of God repenting 39 times the number of books in the Old Testament. Did you know God repents? How could he ask you to repent if he hadn't repented? Sometimes he repents, sometimes he doesn't repent. He said he won't repent and he said he has repented. So we're going to look at those different verses and straighten all that out.
Genesis 6:5-6, “And God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. It repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth.” Now you know the context of that. God sees Noah down there. He looks at the rest of the world and he says, "I'm sorry I made them." What does God do when he's sorry he made them? When he repents that he made man, he killed them all. Killed everyone except for Noah and his family. So that's what it means for God to repent. He repented of having made man and it hadn't been for Noah, human race would've ceased to existed.
So it repented the Lord he'd made man Genesis 6:7, “the creeping thing, the fowls of the heaven for it repenteth me that I have made them.” So, it kills even the birds and the animals and everything except the ones on the ark. They found grace. It repented me that I've made them.
1 Samuel 15:11, “It repenteth me that I have set up Saul to be king.” People wanted a king. God didn't. They said, "We will have a king." God said, "Okay, I'll appoint you one." God appointed Saul. But God said after he saw how Saul was acting, "I'm sorry I did it." It looks like God's learning things. I mean didn't he know ahead of time? God experiences things in real time like we do and he doesn't know what we're going to do in real time anymore than we know what we're going to do.
Now, in eternity, somehow God sees everything, but as he functions with us in real time, the Bible represents him as learning. He said to Abraham, "Now I know that you feared me. Didn't know it before." Abraham had to prove it. God didn't know how Abraham was going to respond. He found out he saw it. Now if that troubles you, that's okay. I can give you 150 verses that bear that out.
1 Samuel 15:11& 35 “It repenteth me that I've set up Saul to be king, for he has turned back from following me, has not performed my commandments. 35 And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death. Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul: and the LORD repented that he made Saul king over Israel.” So what did God do when he repented?
He made Saul king over Israel. He appointed another king, David. David took Saul's place. So that's what happens when God repents. Things change. Any time a repentance takes place, things change.
The prophets ask God to repent. The prophets like a preacher appealing to a drunk said to God, "Repent." That's strange. He did. Some prophets preached God into repenting. I'm giving you a definition of Repent is what we're doing here.
Exodus 32:12-13 “Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say, for mischief, did he bring them out to slay them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath,” he said to God, “and repent of this evil against thy people.” This is what Moses said to God, "Turn from your fierce wrath and repent of this evil against that people."
That's praying. Moses is asking God to not do what he said he was going to do, which is wipe them out to the last man. He said, "I'll start over again with just you, Moses. You and your wife, that's going to be my people. The rest of them, they're all going to die." Moses pleads with God and said, "Please don't turn from that wrath."
Exodus 32:13-14 “I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven and all the land that I've spoken of will I give unto your seed and they shall inherit it forever. The Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.” So he reminded God of his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When Moses shoved the word of God into God's face, reminded him what he said, God repented.
You can count on God doing one thing, sticking with his promises. So when he lost it and was about to violate his own promise to Abraham, except he could have fulfilled it in Moses, Moses stopped him with a prayer. Wow, prayer's heavy duty. There's times when it makes the difference completely.
Psalm 90:13 “Return, O Lord, how long? And let it repent thee concerning thy servants,” That's David speaking. Repent thee concerning thy servants. So David asked God, repent.
Jonah 3:8-9, “But let man and beast be covered with sack cloth and cry mightily under God. Ye let them turn everyone from his evil way from the violence that is in their hand.” This is the king of Nineveh speaking. “Who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger?” So God had sent Jonah to tell them he was going to destroy Nineveh because of their sin. The king said, "Maybe if we stop sinning, God will repent and not destroy us."
So it was not them repenting of their sin. It was God repenting of his pronouncement to destroy them.
Now God testifies. Do you know God testifies? He testifies of having repented. He tells about his experience of having repented 39 times remember?
Jeremiah 15:6 “Thou has forsaken me, saith the Lord, thou art gone backward. Therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee and destroy thee. I am weary with repenting.” See, God, on again, off again. Judged Israel, threatened to destroy them, repented. Sent him into captivity, repented. Brought plagues, repented. Brought disease, repented. Brought invading armies, God repented. God's like a father that just cries every time he spanks his kid and God just couldn't handle it.
Every time he saw his people suffering, even though they deserved it, he turned around and repented. I'm glad he's repenting. God, you and I wouldn't last long if he wasn't. In fact, the cross was his repentance. The wages of sin is death. But on the other hand, God repented the gift of God's eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So “I am weary with repenting.” God said, "I'm getting tired of it."
Hosea 11:8 “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboim? Mine heart is turned within me. My repentings are kindled together.” God says he's repented so many times they're like a fire burning together.
God repents from sending evil upon his people. We're not going to look at all those passages, the sampling of them. Jer. 26:19; 42:10; Ex. 32:14; Judg. 2:18; 2 Sam.24:16; 1 Chr. 21:15; Amos 7:3; Jonah 3:10, 4:2; Ps. 106:45
Jeremiah 26:19 “Did Hezekiah, king of Judah and all Judah put him at all to death? Did he not fear the Lord and besought the Lord? The Lord repented him of the evil which he pronounced against them.” So again, God repents. And the Lord repented him of the evil which he pronounced against them.
Now there's future repentance in sending evil or judgment. Jer. 18:8; 26:3, 13: Joel 2:13, 14; Ps. 135:14; Deut. 32:36
Jeremiah 18:8 “If that nation against whom I pronounced to turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do.” So he said I was going to judge them. I won't.
So God repents of doing good as well as repent of doing evil.
Jeremiah 18:10 “If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.” So God promises to bless us. He could promise you a blessing and then repent. God put a hedge about Job to protect him so the devil couldn't get to him. Then God repented after a conversation with the devil, removed the hedge, and let the devil have Job. Then God repented again and he restored Job twice as much as everything that he had before. God repents of good.
Ps. 110:4; Jer. 4:28; Ezk. 24:14; Heb. 7:21; Hos. 13:14; Rom. 11:29; 1 Sam. 15:29.
God determines not to repent. Now this is a verse that trip a lot of people up where God determines not to repent. People are willing to jump on one verse and leave the rest of it.
Romans 11:25 “For I would not, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.”
He simply said, "Israel doesn't see or understand the gospel and won't until all the Gentiles are saved."
Romans 11:26 “So Israel shall be saved after the Gentiles.” The church is filled out. “As it is written, there shall come out of Sion the deliverer and he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob,” That is aProphecy.
Romans 11:27-29 “For this is my covenant unto them when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they...” the Jews “...are enemies for your sakes.” because they're persecuting the Christians. “But as touching the election,” God's elected the nation of Israel through Abraham, “they are beloved for the father's sake, for the gifts and calling of God without repentance.” The gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
He's talking about God's gift to the nation of Israel through Abraham and is calling them to be a great nation. That's what he's talking about. He's not talking about the gifts of the spirit. He's not talking about some other gift. He's talking about one gift alone, not talking about salvation for Christian. He's talking about one thing. He's talking about God's gift and calling to the nation of Israel.
Now, God does not repent. Hebrews 7:21, “For those high priests were made without an oath but this with an oath by him that said unto him, the Lord sware and will not repent.” I've had people quote that. God can't repent because the Bible said the Lord shall not repent. He said “the he Lord sware and will not repent. Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.” The context only in one respect does he say God won't repent and that is in declaring Jesus Christ to be the Messiah. “Thou art the priest forever.” Jesus is the priest forever “after the order of Melchisedec.” God won't repent of that. That'll never change. Jesus will always be the priest. That's what he says there.
Numbers 23:8, “And he took up this parable and said, Rise up, Balak, and hear. Hearken unto me, thou son of Zippor. God is not a man that he should lie. Neither the son of man that he should repent.” Now what happened here was Balam was hired by Balak to put a curse on Israel. So he got all of his cursing paraphernalia and his religious symbols up and he went up on a mountain where he could see the whole bunch of the Israelites traveling through the valley there. So he opened his mouth to put a curse on Israel. Getting paid good for it. He was a preacher. Out of his mouth came blessings. The king said, "What are you doing? You can't do that." So he said, "The problem is I'm looking, it's too many of them now, just too big. I need to move back where I can see a smaller portion." So he did open his mouth again, blessed him. He said, "I'm still looking too many." We're just looking through the trees a little bit and seeing a little portion. He was afraid that big bunch. He thought maybe that he could curse him if he didn't see so many, blessed him again. Balak's paying him here and said, "What's wrong?"
He said, "God is not a man that he should repent." “Hath he said, and shall he not do it or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good? Behold I receive a commandment to bless and I have blessed and I cannot reverse it.” So he said God wants to bless Israel and he's not a man to repent in regard to blessing Israel.
I would tell you that right now today in your news, if you want to follow the news, God has determined to bless Israel. Al-Qaeda needs to know that. ISIS need to know that. Iran needs to know that. The Syrians need to know that. Russia needs to know that, that God has determined to bless his people and he will do that. He won't repent. So anybody that comes against him is fighting against God.
Now, of these issues, God will not repent. He will not repent that David, not Saul be king. He will not repent that Jerusalem will go into captivity. He will not repent that Christ will be an eternal priest. He will not repent that there'll be a great tribulation and God will restore the nation of Israel and he will not repent. I didn't cover all those verses, but they are there in the list.
Sorrow is not repentance. I heard so much, I remember preachers trying to preach everybody into sorrow and grief for their sin. Try to preach people into just feeling really low. They were trying to bring them to repentance. They were trying to work what they call godly sorrow into them. I think I did some of that too when I was younger. It takes a while to learn to be a Bible student and grow up. So I'm sure I've made that mistake. Sorrow is not repentance.
This is where it comes from. Here is the verse they use.
1 Corinthians 7:8-9 “For though I made you sorry with a letter.” We saw that while ago. “I do not repent though. I did repent. For I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry though it were, but for a season.” Now the sorrow in this passage has to do with what? Writing an epistle and their response to the epistle. “Now I rejoice. Not that you were made sorry” about the epistle where he rebuked them. Probably first Corinthians where he told them to cast that man out, second chapter. Cast him out and turn him over the devil for the destruction of the flesh because he was fornicating. Now, if you got a letter from Apostle Paul that said to somebody in your church is fornicating, I want you to cast them out, turn them over to the devil, don't associate with them, pray and cast the devil into them. You're done with them. That might be hard to do, but that's what he told him to do and they were deeply sorry for it. Now the guy repented later. Second Corinthians chapter five, he tells them to receive him back and forgive him now that he's repented.
1 Corinthians 7:9 “Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but ye sorrowed to repentance.” So the repentance had to do with this man not getting saved, not ceasing to sin. It had to do with how they dealt with this man in their midst. You saw your repentance. “For ye were made sorry after a godly manner that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation.”
Their repentance, the other man's salvation who turned from his sin when he was kicked out of the church. So it's not us having a sorrow that brings about our salvation. That's not the context. You try to read it that way and you are being very dishonest with what's actually written.
1 Corinthians 7:10-11 “But sorrow of the world work of death.” The death would've come if the church had fallen into their sorrow and just divided there. “For behold this self same thing that you sorrowed after a godly sort.” So their sorrow came from their response in a godly way. “What carefulness it wrought in you.” It made them full of care. “What clearing of yourselves,” made them seek to clear their conscience? “Yea, what indignation.” They got angry at the sin and the sinner. “Yea, what fear.” They feared God And the results of not kicking this guy to the church. “Yea, what vehement desire. Yea, zeal. Yea, what revenge.” That's how he characterizes their response to that suing Christian in their midst. “In all things you've approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.”
So that's why Paul said, "I was sorry I wrote you the letter. I thought that's a little hard, but now I saw how you repented. Now I'm not sorry anymore." I repented. Now I don't repent. That's the full context.
When you look at the context of passages, it throws a lot of light on this confusion where people pull one verse out, godly sorrow and then preach a thousand sermons on how if we're sorry for our sins, then that's repentance. That's a pitiful doctrine based on nothing at all except hot air and tradition.
Eight times the word sin and repent appear in the same verse. Oh, I'm going to show you we've taken the Bible and found every single time in the whole Bible that the word repent and sin appear together. So this is going to be a clincher here. Let's find every time repent and sin appear together in the Bible. It's just eight times. We're going to read all eight verses. All right.
1 Kings 8:46-47 “If they sin against thee (for there is no man that sinneth not,)” now that's quoted in Romans, “and thou be angry with them and deliver them to the enemy so that they carry away captive into the land of the enemy, far or near. yet if they shall bethink themselves in the land.” Now what he said in the first verse is that when the children of Israel sin against God and God turns them over to a foreign power to be taken into captivity. He's pleading with God. He said, "If they shall bethink themselves..." Now what's bethink? That means rethink. That means think again. That means consider the matter. “Bethink themselves in the land wherein they were carried captives and repent and make supplication unto thee.”
Now the repentance was unto making supplication to God. The repentance was unto God. They had repented away from God and ended up in captivity. It wasn't individual sins that ended them up there. It was their rejection of God as their God in their turning idolatry.
He said, "Now they'll repent, make supplication in the land that they're carried captive." 1 Kings 8:48 “Saying, we have sinned and have done perversely. We have committed wickedness; And so return unto thee.” So it's not repent and stop their sinning. It's repent and return unto thee with all their heart, with all their soul. See, that's repentance. Even the New Testament. That's New Testament repentance. Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Biblical repentance has a direction. Repent towards God, repent from dead works. Have faith in God. Have faith in Jesus Christ. That's biblical repentance. We've sinned. “So return unto thee with all their heart, with all their soul in the land of their enemies, which led them away captive...” and so forth. Let's just read that further. 1 Kings 8:49-50 “...and the house which I built for my name. Then hear thou their prayer and their supplication in heaven thy dwelling place and maintain their cause. Forgive thy people that have sinned against thee and all their trespasses wherein they've trespassed against thee and give them compassion before them who carried them captive that they may have compassion on them.”
So he's praying to God when Israel does end up in captivity for God to restore them to himself. Again, he's calling on God to repent.
Now here is Mark 1:2 “As it is written in the prophets, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which will prepare the way before me.” That's John the Baptist. “The voice of one crying in the wilderness. Prepare ye the way the Lord make his paths straight. John did baptize in the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.” Repentance for the remission of sins. Notice that does not say repentance of sin. It says the repentance would result in the remission of sins. Do you see that, the repentance will result in the remission of sins?
Now next week, we will show you that repentance is synonymous with faith. It's one act. It's the negative side of faith. We'll show you that repentance is the single thing required in several passages to be saved. If you repent, you're saved. Why? Because to repent is to turn to God. That's all that's required.
Luke 3:3 “And came into all the country about Jordan preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.” So this was a Jewish baptism of repentance concerning the coming of the Messiah. It resulted in the remission of sins.
Luke 24:47 “And the repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name throughout all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.” That repentance, notice there's no faith in that? No belief? Just repentance and remission of sins. Repentance is the sole requirement. Why? Because repentance includes faith.
Acts 2:38 “Peter said it to them, Repent.” Didn't say anything about believe. Why? Because what he just told them was you have crucified the Christ. You put him to death. God raised him to death. God has restored him, exalted him to his right hand. So now you need to repent. “And be baptized everyone in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.” So there's your word, repent and sins in the same verse. Nothing about repenting from sins but repenting in regard to having crucified the Messiah.
Acts 3:19 “Repent ye therefore and be converted.” Again, there's nothing in that passage about belief or faith. Repentance results in conversion. Why? Because repentance and faith are the same act. I will show you later, but Jesus never told a publican or a sinner like the women possessed with devils or the street women or the woman that washed his feet with her hair. He never told them to repent. Never.
The ones he told repent with the scribes and Pharisees who had a false hope, who had dead works, they needed to repent from their trust in Judaism and turn to trust in Christ.
So today, it would be proper if you were street preaching and witnessing to not use the term repent on people on the street, but simply tell them about the Lord Jesus Christ. Encourage them to believe on him.
But if in the process, Jesus' name only, preacher comes up to you on the street and he says, "You need to be baptized in Jesus' name for the remission of sins or you won't go to heaven, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost with evidence of speaking in tongues." I'd say to him, "You need to repent or you're going to hell. You've got some dead works you're trusting and hat's not going to save you. You need to repent." I wouldn't say believe. I'd say repent because he's got a false hope. He's got a false foundation. So I'm telling him to believe in reverse. His belief has got to start with his rejection of another foundation other than Jesus Christ. That's exactly the way it's used in New Testament, 112 times it appears. Just read all of them about a dozen times. Let's soak in. Think about it. You'll see it.
Acts 3:19 “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.” Repentance would result to the blotting out of sins.
Acts 5:31 “Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and savior for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.” Notice of forgiveness of sins. Notice again. No belief. Just repentance. Why? Because repentance is belief.
2 Corinthians 12:21 “Lest when I come again, my God will humble me among you that I shall bewail many which have sinned already have not repented of... This is as close as you'll get. This is the only passage you'll get like this. “...not repented of their uncleanness, fornication, lasciviousness, which they've committed.” You see, this is Christians. He's not talking about people trying to get saved. He's talking about Christians need to repent of their uncleanness, of their fornication, of their lasciviousness, which they have committed.
So Christians need to repent from sin. Christians need to repent from every sin. Christians need to repent all the time from every sin. But to lay that burden up on the sinner is to lay more than he'll ever bear, because you never bore that burden. You never repented of all your sin in order to get saved. If you think you did, then you deceived yourself and the truth's not in you because the Bible says that you are still a sinner.
Now, Christians need to repent of sins and sinners need to repent to God. You keep that straight and you'll be able to preach a clean gospel without preaching any of man's false gospel. So this has been Michael Pearl at The Door. No Greater Joy Ministries, nogreaterjoy.org. You can find us there and all these messages and more.
