WITHOUT BIBLICAL REPENTANCE THERE IS NO SALVATION!
THIS IS WHY SO MANY PEOPLE WHO "ACCEPT JESUS AS SAVIOR" NEVER SHOW UP AGAIN AFTER A PROFESSION OF SALVATION. THERE WAS NO REPENTANCE, THEY REFUSE TO GIVE UP THEIR SIN. THEY ACCEPT JESUS AS LONG AS THEY CAN CONTINUE WITH THEIR SIN. YET THEY HAD NO INTENT OF GIVING UP SIN, BUT HAVE NO PROBLEM "ALLOWING" CHRIST TO PAY FOR THEIR SINS.
WHAT REPENTANCE IS NOT
1. IT IS NOT JUST TURNING FROM UNBELIEF TO BELIEF.
2. IT IS NOT TURNING OVER A "NEW" LEAF
3. IT IS NOT JUST A CHANGE OF MIND
4. IT IS NOT JUST REALIZING THAT YOU SIN
5. IT IS NOT A CONVICTION
6. IT IS NOT RELIGIOUS PURITY
7. IT IS NOT FEELING SORRY FOR SIN
8. IT IS NOT A RESULATION TO DO BETTER
9. IT IS NOT REMORSE FOR WRONG ACTIONS
10. IT IS NOT JUST ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF SIN
11. IT IS NOT JUST BELIEVING ON JESUS
12. IT IS NOT PENANCE
IT IS A CHANGE OF HEART,
A BROKEN HEART,
A SORROW FOR MY SIN. GIVING UP THAT WHICH OFFENDS GOD!!
FROM WEBSTERS 1828 DICTIONARY
REPENT'ANCE, n.
1. Sorrow for any thing done or said; the pain or grief which a person experiences in consequence of the injury or inconvenience produced by his own conduct.
2. In theology, the pain, regret or affliction which a person feels on account of his past conduct, because it exposes him to punishment. This sorrow proceeding merely from the fear of punishment, is called legal repentance, as being excited by the terrors of legal penalties, and it may exist without an amendment of life.
3. Real penitence; sorrow or deep contrition for sin, as an offense and dishonor to God, a violation of his holy law, and the basest ingratitude towards a Being of infinite benevolence. This is called evangelical repentance, and is accompanied and followed by amendment of life.
Repentance is a change of mind, or a conversion from sin to God.
Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation. 2Cor. 7. Matt. 3.
Repentance is the relinquishment of any practice, from conviction that it has offended God.
THE FOLLOWING ARE PREACHERS
WHO BELIEVED IN BIBLICAL REPENTANCE
JOHN R. RICE
It is foolish to try to teach men to trust in Christ for salvation, unless we include in that teaching the plain need for a wicked heart to turn from sin. Everywhere the Bible says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” or its equivalent, it is understood that no one can turn TO Jesus Christ without turning FROM sin. Inevitably and necessarily, faith in Christ comes only to the penitent heart, the heart willing and anxious to do right and to please God, longing for goodness and purity. People who repent do not always do right about everything, but they want to do right. I do not mean that salvation is an extended process. I do not even mean that there are two separate steps in salvation, but it is foolish and unscriptural to teach any salvation without repentance.
DR. JOHN R. RICE
C. H. SPURGEON
While the gospel is a command, it is a two-fold command explaining itself. "Repent ye, and believe the gospel."
I know some very excellent brethren—would God there were more like them in zeal and love—who, in their zeal to preach up simple faith in Christ have felt a little difficulty about the matter of repentance; and I have known some of them who have tried to get over the difficulty by softening down the apparent hardness of the word repentance, by expounding it according to its more usual Greek equivalent, a word which occurs in the original of my text, and signifies "to change one's mind." Apparently they interpret repentance to be a somewhat slighter thing than we usually conceive it to be, a mere change of mind, in fact. Now, allow me to suggest to those dear brethren, that the Holy Ghost never preaches repentance as a trifle; and the change of mind or understanding of which the gospel speaks is a very deep and solemn work, and must not on any account be depreciated. Moreover, there is another word which is also used in the original Greek for repentance, not so often I admit, but still is used, which signifies "an after-care," a word which has in it something more of sorrow and anxiety, than that which signifies changing one's mind. There must be sorrow for sin and hatred of it in true repentance, or else I have read my Bible to little purpose.
Delivered on Sunday Morning, July 13th, 1862, by
C. H. SPURGEON,
At the
Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
LESTER ROLOFF
As sure as we live, it is God who must bring about Bible repentance. Have you repented? "…except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3,5).
Repentance is a godly sorrow for sin. Repentance is a forsaking of sin. Real repentance is putting your trust in Jesus Christ so you will not live like that anymore. Repentance is permanent. It is a lifelong and an eternity-long experience. You will never love the devil again once you repent. You will never flirt with the devil as the habit of your life again once you get saved. You will never be happy living in sin; it will never satisfy; and the husks of the world will never fill your longing and hungering in your soul.
Repentance is something a lot bigger than a lot of people think. It is absolutely essential if you go to heaven.
Evangelist Lester Roloff. It is excerpted from sermon #R03404 from Roloff Evangelistic Enterprises, P.O. Box 1177, Corpus Christi, Texas 78403