Transcript
The question might very legitimately be asked, “Why should we spend three nights discussing the subject of repentance?” And I think the simple, capsule answer to that question is that there is nobody in this room who will be able to live the Christian life without repentance.
Let me repeat that. Repentance is an integral part of the Christian life and an experience that will be part of each of our lives if we are at all serious in our relationship with God. Tonight I want to address particularly the relationship between repentance and forgiveness. A subject that we have deliberately postponed until tonight because it was necessary to lay some foundation for this discussion.
It seems to me that it might be the best way to approach this, to do so by dividing our material into two categories. Number one, things that are related to obtaining eternal salvation. Number two, things that are related to obtaining or maintaining harmony, or fellowship, with God.
Now I think all of us would immediately understand that at the moment of saving faith we are born again. And we received the absolutely free gift of everlasting life. I don’t even need to quote John 3:16 to you. But I think because some of our comments are going to be on the book of Acts I should read to you, you don’t need to necessarily turn here, but I should read to you a statement made in the book of Acts.
This is Acts 13:48, one of the very few direct and explicit references to eternal life in the book of Acts. “Now when the Gentiles heard this they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.”
Heh, heh. Notice that even in the book of Acts where we do have something about repentance, quite a bit about repentance, when it comes to eternal life repentance is not in the picture here.
And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.
So the book of Acts agrees with the Gospel of John that belief is the one and only condition for eternal life. Now a second thing that happens to us at the moment of saving faith is we are justified by faith. And, of course, one of the familiar references here would be in Romans 4:5.
To him that worketh not but believeth on Him who justifies the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness.
But once again, in one of the very few, I don’t know that there’s another clear explicit reference to justification in the book of Acts, we find this doctrine, however, in chapter 13. Once again, let me read you the relevant verses 38 and 39. Paul is concluding his message to the Jews in the synagogue at Antioch of Pisidia. And he says to them in verse 38 of chapter 13,
Therefore, let it be known to you brethren that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sin, and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.
Once again it is not “everyone who repents and believes is justified from all things,” but, “everyone who believes is justified from all things.” So here in the same chapter of the book of Acts, we have a clear statement, number one, that eternal life is given to those who believe. Number two, that justification is given to those who believe.
Now I suggest here in the little parenthetical comment right at this point in the overhead that A and B had been true throughout all of the ages. That whenever anyone, in the Old Testament or in the New Testament or until the Lord comes, believes, he is born again by faith. He is justified by faith. However, element C is something that is new to our day and age.
And this is the baptism or, as it is sometimes referred to, the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now the baptism or the gift of the Holy Spirit is that operation of the Holy Spirit which places us in the body of Christ. And of course you might notice the reference down here in 1 Corinthians 12:13, “By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body.” But we also know that this experience of baptism into the body of Christ never occurred before the day of Pentecost.
That was the first time in the history of the world that anyone was baptized by the Holy Spirit. So we can divide this into the subcategories, number one, in the Old Testament that this experience was unknown. Number two, in the book of Acts there is a transitional feature of the book of Acts. And when we analyze this transitional feature, we come to the conclusion that the gift of the Spirit was given to Palestinians, only after baptism.
Let me, without getting very deeply involved in it, let me read again the famous verse in Acts 2:38,
Then Peter said to them, “Repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
Now I would point out that before he even said these words he had believers in his audience who were already born-again. Who were already justified by faith. But now he says you must repent and be baptized. And then you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
A little reflection will show why this was probably required. You remember that when John the Baptist announced the soon advent of the One who came after him. He said He is the one who will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. But John engaged in a preparatory baptism that was designed to prepare the Jewish nation for the reception of Messiah and therefore for the reception of the baptism which the Messiah would bring.
It seems altogether appropriate therefore that the people who were responsible for crucifying Him. While they were eternally saved at the moment of faith, they are not inducted into the Church of God. They are not inducted into the body of Christ, until they after they are baptized. Now our good friends in the Church of Christ, however, take statements like Acts 2:38 and also Acts 22:16 as normative statements of what is required of everybody.
Remember when Ananias comes to Saul after Saul’s encounter with Christ on the road to Damascus, he says to him, “Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.” Alright, the Church of Christ people take Acts 2:38 and they take Acts 22:16 as normative requirements for the reception of the gift of the Spirit. The way to approach however a people who do that is to ask a counter question.
And that is show me a text in the book of Acts or in the New Testament itself that lays this requirement down for a Gentile. And there they will dredge to the bottom of the well and come up empty. As a matter of fact, they will come up with the reverse that they consider the case of Cornelius. Remember that while Peter was speaking to Cornelius the Holy Spirit falls on those who heard the word. And then but only then does Peter say, “Well, they’ve got the Holy Spirit. Let’s baptize them with water.” The exact reverse of Acts 2:38.
So I would maintain that in the book of Acts in the case of Palestinians, I have used the word Palestinians because this includes also the Samaritans of chapter 8 verses 15 and 16. And of course the ministry of Jesus as well as the ministry of John did penetrate the Samaritan community. And so it is Palestinians who are required to be baptized before they receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Now if you will read the sermon of Paul in the synagogue at Antioch of the city of which we just read from in Acts 13, he’s speaking to a Jewish audience. And he is speaking to a Jewish audience on the mission field, not in Palestine. And here, his message to the Jewish audience is the same as his message to the Gentile audience. They can believe and be justified by faith.
And there is no mention of any kind of necessity for them to be water baptized in order to receive the Holy Spirit. So my conclusion from the study of the book of Acts, is that this special requirement which is reflected in Acts 2:38, Acts 8:15 and 16, and also in Acts 22:16 is a transitional requirement applying only to Palestinians alive during the ministry of John and Jesus.
Today, however, the Holy Spirit is given at the moment of faith as it was to Cornelius. And so we’ve noted that, under number three now, when the Holy Spirit is given, there also occurs, in connection with the gift of the Holy Spirit, a special form of forgiveness. And here I would like you to turn to the passages that we have cited here, first of all Ephesians 1:7.
Verse 7 is a follow on from verse 3 where he says in verse 3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ.” Verse 7,
In Him we have redemption through His blood the forgiveness of sins.
Notice, “In Him.” The in Christo concept. In Christ. In the body of Christ. Now turn to Colossians 1:14. We’ll read 13, “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love in whom, in whom, we have redemption through His blood the forgiveness of sin.” Now flip back if you will to Ephesians 4:32.
Out of curiosity is anybody using the old King James tonight? Nothing wrong with that. If you do, that’s fine. That’s fine. I’m reading from the New King James. You’ll notice a slight but important difference here. Ephesians 4:32,
And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another just as God, the New King James correctly translates this, just as God in Christ also forgave you.
There is very clearly in the New Testament a doctrine that when a believer in Christ is baptized into the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit, and remember that that involves being buried with Him, raised with Him, seated with Him in heavenly places, that along with that wonderful sequence of events in Christ, he has the forgiveness of sin.
I think we can correctly say that just as our position in Him is perfect, dead, buried, risen with Him, so also is the forgiveness that we have in Him. Perfect. This is a positional or heavenly forgiveness. But that does not mean that we do not confess our sins in order to get down to earth everyday forgiveness.
So all I want to point out at this point is that under number C, which is the baptism of the Holy Spirit there is an aspect of forgiveness that occurs for every believer at the moment that he is baptized into the body of Christ. And we all understand that even though we are in Christ and seated in Christ in heavenly places we’re also living down here. Right? And up there, we’re completely forgiven. Down here, we confess our sins in order that He may forgive us on a regular and continuing basis.
That brings us to number two, obtaining, maintaining harmony or fellowship with God. And here, I begin with something that is almost as important as any concept I’ve talked with you about so far in this series of meetings. And that is that earthly forgiveness, I’m using the word earthly to contrast that with the heavenly or positional forgiveness that we just referred to, that earthly forgiveness produces or it restores or it maintains our personal harmony with God.
Earthly forgiveness produces, restores, or maintains our personal harmony with God. And this leads me to a distinction which is critical here, the distinction between forgiveness and justification. Because what I have found in talking to people and presenting these truths to people that forgiveness and justification are mixed up together.
And most people say if you’re justified you’re forgiven. If you’re forgiven you’re justified. But a little thought will, I think, reveal to us that we’re talking in two areas here. Let me just take a minute or two to explain this to you. I want to suggest that both in human experience and in our relationship to God, forgiveness is a personal matter and that justification is a legal or judicial matter.
Now, let’s say I get arrested for breaking the speed limit here in Oregon. I borrowed Dick and Ann’s vehicle and I raced into Roseburg and they arrested me. And they brought me into court before a judge. The judge whatever else the judge says to me this is something the judge will not say to me, “I forgive you.” Judges are not in the business of dispensing forgiveness.
He may say, “I declare you innocent,” or he may say, “I am going to convict you and fine you.” But forgiveness is irrelevant in a court of law. Now suppose, however, just to carry the illustration of a brother, it was the judge’s vehicle that I raced in to Roseburg in, and he is not too happy with this. And, nevertheless, he finds a legal loophole and he says, “I’m going to declare you innocent.”
And then he gets down from behind his judge’s desk, takes off his robe, and he says to me, “I’m still mad at you Zane. I let you off in court, but I’m not going to forgive you.” Of course if he’s a real nice judge, he gets down from behind his desk, he takes off his robe, and he says to me, “Zane I not only cleared you, I personally am going to forgive you.” You see the difference?
We should not confuse justification and forgiveness. Forgiveness does not have any place in a court of law. Justification is distinctly and definitely a legal operation. So when we are justified by faith, we are cleared before the judgment bar of God. And God is saying I am bringing no charges against you, not now, not ever.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he that can condemn? Even if Satan comes and says, “Zane did this and that and the other thing, and here and there, and there.” God will say, “I justified him. He’s cleared. You can’t charge him with anything. I won’t even receive it as a charge.” “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?”
So really we ought to say that justification belongs up here under number 1 as something that comes to us at the moment of saving faith. And we should not be surprised that forgiveness is something that we experience on a continuing basis all of our lives. And that is why for example in 1 John 1:9 we are told if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
As you know, I work in a community where there’s a heavy influence from Roman Catholicism. And if anybody has got this confused, the Catholic Church has got it confused. And I remember very distinctly a number of years ago that a young lady, a Hispanic lady, came to an evangelistic meeting at our particular church. The particular evangelist we had invited them while their heads were bowed to trust Christ.
And then after that was over, he said, “If any of you have done this, I would like you to raise your hand.” And this young lady raised her hand and we were able to follow her up. I remember very distinctly going to her home, and we were talking to her about the salvation experience and she said this in connection with our discussion of salvation. She said, “I know that God can forgive you for every sin except suicide.” Boom.
What was she giving me? She was giving me Roman Catholic theology. You see, the Roman Catholics, first of all, think that forgiveness of sins is a matter of our eternal destiny. And of course, they hold the view that you better be confessed up at the time of death. And unfortunately if you commit suicide you are dead before you can confess it. Right?
So that’s why the Roman Catholic person thinks, “I can’t get forgiven of my sins. I can’t get forgiven of the sin of suicide and therefore that’s gonna do me. I can get everything else confessed, but I can’t get that confessed in time.” See, first of all, that’s a double confusion because the person is really saying I’ve got to confess my sins in order to stay saved.
And secondly they’re saying there’s one that I can’t possibly confess, and that will do me for sure. No assurance. No certainty. I think it’s fairly evident that that young lady didn’t really clearly understand the biblical gospel. She’s still thought of it in terms of Roman Catholic theology. But once we get rid of the idea that forgiveness is a judicial matter, then we’re on the right track because forgiveness has to do not with our standing before the judgment bar of God. Forgiveness has to do with my personal relationship with God who happens to be the judge, whose car I appropriated and broke the speed limit in.
Okay? So let’s be very clear. Even though at a moment of faith I am born again, and I have eternal life forever, and at the moment of faith, I have been justified from everything, and nobody can bring a charge before me at the judgment of God, and even though I’ve been united with the Lord Jesus Christ by the baptism of the Spirit, I still do things that make God kind of impatient with me.
And I still have to go to Him as I would go to a dad and say, “Father, forgive me.” Now in case you were with us last night, does that sound familiar? Prodigal son out in the far country, “How many of my father’s household servants have bread enough and to spare and here I am starving to death, I will arise and I will go to my father and I will say, ‘Father I have sinned, I have sinned against heaven in your sight.’”
And that is the experience of all sons. Even if we are not in the far country at this moment all sons come to God and all daughters come to God. I’m using it generically and many, many times we say to God, “I have sinned.” But, “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Let me pause there. Let’s suppose under B that I’m walking with God. You remember what 1 John 1:7 says,
If we walk in the light as He is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son is cleansing us from all sin.
There is not a moment of fellowship with God that does not require the cleansing of the blood of Jesus Christ because at all times we have sinned whether we recognize it or not.
John anticipates somebody thinking, “I don’t have sin. I’m in fellowship with God. I’m doing this absolutely right.” But the next verse says, “If we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” If I come to the point where I say I am doing so well in the Christian life that at this moment in time, I don’t have any sin. God says, “You’re fooling yourself Zane.”
Somebody has said if we say we have no sin we do not deceive our wives. We do not deceive our kids. We do not deceive God. The only person who’s fooled by that is me. If I really mean it, I fooled myself. I will never forget one of the godliest men that I ever knew, a man by the name of English Fleming whose roots were back in the days of J. N. Darby and the vital period of the Plymouth Brethren movement.
And I loved to be with English Fleming because no matter when you sat down with him, no matter where you started with him he always led you to a conversation afterward and he did it so naturally you didn’t feel uncomfortable about it. I was sitting out on the lawn one time with him and we were looking out at the Pennsylvania mountains and I said to English Fleming, he was in his 90s at the time that I knew him, I said to English Fleming, “Aren’t those mountains beautiful?”
And he said, “Yes, they are.” And he said, “It reminds me of the Psalm that says, as the mountains surround Jerusalem, so the Lord surrounds those who fear Him.” I never forgot it. Never forgot it. But one day I walked up on the upstairs porch of the Greenwood Hills Bible Conference. And he was sitting there on the porch, a whole group of people around him and I just kind of edged up to the edge of the circle and he said something that I’ve never forgotten even more than what I just told you.
I heard him say, “I would not rest my hope of heaven on the very best moment of my life.”
And I thought to myself, if anybody’s ever had a good moment this guy has had it. And then he went on to say that even in his finest moments of fellowship with God he was aware of the movings of pride. Isn’t this a wonderful experience that I and English Fleming am having?
I never forgot that. If we walk in the light as He is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ is every moment of the day cleansing me from all unrighteousness. And if I say I have no sin, I’m only fooling myself. Therefore I should be prepared to do what? Confess it when I see it.
That’s the next verse, “If we confess our sins, He’s faithful and just to forgive us these sins, meaning the sins we confess, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” The Greek there, forgive me for giving you a little Greek here, “If we confess our sins, He’s faithful and just to forgive us these sins, meaning the sins we confess, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I never know all my sin.
I never can confess them all. I would be busy all day long if I knew them and could do it. But when I confess the sins that God shows me He not only forgives the sins I confess, but He cleanses me from all unrighteousness. And God can be saying, “Zane you don’t notice that but that’s a sin too, and you don’t notice that attitude but that’s a sin too, but you confessed the sins you know, and I cleanse you from everything.”
Every moment of every day of fellowship with God is under the magnificent sufficiency of the blood of Christ. And we have to realize therefore that we are in the most desperate way sinners who constantly, constantly, constantly need forgiveness. Now, I’m walking along here Dick serves me an over cooked baked potato. Unthinkable, he does not overcook his baked potatoes.
And I lose my temper because I’m used to the good baked potatoes. And I’ve been in fellowship with God right up to that minute. But I lost my temper. And right at that moment in my heart I can say Lord, forgive me. And there’s no point in even thinking of my being out of fellowship because, after all, even when I’m in fellowship and not aware of my sins the blood of Jesus Christ is cleansing me from all sin.
And therefore as I confess the sin I become conscious of, that fellowship for all intents and purposes continues unbroken. And at that level of experience therefore we should not think in terms so much of repentance. Maybe you can say the minute I got angry at Dick for the burned baked potato, I repented of it. That’s not too meaningful.
And what I want to point out to you is that in the New Testament, repentance usually presumes a period of time. That’s number C here. Repentance followed by a confession restores fellowship. That is true but in the New Testament, it normally follows a period of sin whether long or short. And we looked at Luke 15 last night. Right?
The lost sheep wandered away from the flock. And the Shepherd had to go after. There’s a period of time. But we don’t know how long, not specific. The coin that the woman swept the house for was lost for a while, right? And the son was away from home for a while. And I want to submit to you that the New Testament idea of repentance is relevant especially to cases where there has been some continuance in the sin.
And I won’t nail it down to five minutes or half an hour or anything like that. But that is the general picture of repentance in the New Testament. And therefore I think repentance is primarily related to those moments of time where we have drifted away from God or, alternatively, and this is very important, we didn’t discuss it last night. Alternatively, when we discover we’ve been engaged in a sin for a long time that we didn’t recognize as such.
With that in mind, will you turn back to Revelation chapter 2. The church at Ephesus, the Lord speaking to the church at Ephesus, Revelation 2. Let’s start at verse 2. The Lord says to the church at Ephesus,
I know your works, your labor, your patience, and you cannot bear those who are evil.
Pretty good, don’t you think? Works, patience, you can’t stand evil people.
And you have tested those who say they are apostles and are not, and have found them liars.
You’re not duped by people who come with false doctrine. Furthermore, verse 3,
And you have persevered, and have patience, and have labored for My name’s sake, and have not become weary.
Is that impressive or what? That’s impressive. That’s impressive.
But nevertheless I have this against you that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen. Repent and do the first works or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent.
You have done so very much for me says the Lord.
You have not accepted evil people. You have not accepted false apostles. You have labored for Me and you haven’t grown weary. But you have a sin there that can destroy the church. You’ve left your first love. You are not as warm towards Me, you are not as committed to Me as you once were.
Now I think this came as a wake-up call to the church at Ephesus. And the point here is this didn’t happen the day before the Lord wrote this letter to them. This had been going on for some time, the slide down the hill. And the Lord says, wake up to the fact that you lost your first love. Think back to how it was at the beginning. Repent and get back to where you were before.
Now obviously the repentance is called for because of the period of continuation in this condition of deteriorated love. Now look if you will at chapter 2 and verse 20. Here we’re writing to the church at Thyatira. Verse 19,
I know your works love, service, faith, and your patience. And as for your works, the last are more than the first.
Already there’s a weakness here.
You’re running out of spiritual steam and your most recent works are not as numerous as your early works.
Nevertheless, I have a few things against you because you allow that woman Jezebel who calls herself a prophetess to teach and beguile My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols, and I gave her time to repent. And I gave her time to repent of her sexual immorality, and she did not repent.
Indeed I will cast her into a sickbed. Those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation unless they repent of their deeds.
This has been going on. Right? And God says, I’ve been very patient with them. You’ve allowed this woman to teach, and to teach falsely. And I was giving her time to repent of her false doctrine and she didn’t do it.
And therefore unless she does repent pretty promptly, I’m going to take action. Notice that once again the idea here is that repentance is called for where there has been a slippage over time, or there’s been a defection over time. As I suggested to you under number B, I don’t think repentance in the New Testament is particularly relevant to that instant confession that we make when we become aware of sin that we’ve just committed.
Where repentance is very appropriate, is when we discover that we have been pursuing a sinful attitude, a sinful practice, a sinful course of conduct over time. And God says, face that. Repent of it. Turn away from it. And come back to Me. Now if we were just talking about the repentance that we met in Luke 15, we might have gotten the impression from Luke 15 that the only type of people who need repentance are the people who leave the church.
And they go off into a life of sin. And they’re away from the church for a long time. It is true that people like that do need repentance. And Luke 15 certainly emphatically shows that that is the case. But the letters to the churches in Revelation show that people can need repentance while they’re still in church. Am I right?
They can be engaged in things while going to church that are wrong in the sight of God. They can be maintaining attitudes that are wrong in the sight of God. They can be engaged in practices in private that nobody in church knows about that are wrong in the sight of God. And with regard to all of these things, God says repent.
That’s why I say to you, nobody will ever live the Christian life who does not have anything to repent of anywhere during the course of his life. And if you’re anything like me, you’ve had plenty to repent of over your lifespan. And I’m expecting to have other things to repent of unfortunately in the days ahead. Maybe things I’m not aware of at this moment that God will show me.
And I realize, Agh! I’ve been doing that for years. I’ve been saying that for years. I’ve had that attitude in me for years. And suddenly I’m confronted with it as evil in the sight of God. And God’s Word to me is, “Repent. Come back to Me. Get rid of that thing, that action, that attitude, that spirit, that habit of conversation.”
I’ve suggested on the last point that confession is the first fruit of repentance. I think it is. Of course as we know John the Baptist urged his audience to bring forth fruits of repentance. He had some specific suggestions for everybody. But when they were baptized they were baptized confessing their sins. That’s Mark chapter 1 verses 4 and 5.
And as we’ve already pointed out in Luke 15, the young boy, the prodigal son decides to go home and confess. And as we saw last night in Job where Job gets to the end of the book, or we get to the end of the book with Job, Job says, “I have uttered counsel without knowledge. I have spoken things too wonderful for me. Things that I knew not. I’m way over my head. I should have kept my mouth shut. I abhor myself I repent in dust and ashes.”
So confession is still relevant. Right? If repentance has occurred in fact it’s very very relevant. And it is probably the first thing we should do, the first step we should take. And then of course, repentance implies that we are prepared to straighten out whatever is wrong. “Repent. Remember from which you have fallen,” says the Lord to Ephesus.
And repent. It is interesting, isn’t it? He doesn’t say love Me with your initial love. He says do the first works. You know when you lose that emotional response to God that you once had, you can’t conjure it up just by willing it up? You know what you have to do? You have to remember what you were doing when you loved Him that way, and start doing it again.
And then the love wells up and is restored. So repentance should lead immediately to confession. And it should lead also to the correction of the behavior of which I am repenting. And in that sense everyone is going to need repentance.
For our final text, look therefore at Luke 24. Luke 24 verses, well let’s read from verse 44.
Then He said to them, “These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me.”
And He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures. Then He said to them,
Thus it is written and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem, and you are witnesses of these things.
Now think with me for a moment, Am I preaching the gospel to you tonight? I don’t think so. I’ve referred to the gospel, okay. It’s been part of it. But is that my message to you, get saved? Am I preaching repentance? Am I preaching the forgiveness of sin? Are you Gentiles? So am I.
I’m fulfilling the Scripture, “Thus it is written and thus it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations.” Let me conclude with a very simple distinction which is critical.
We all know, do we not, that there are four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Three of them are very much alike, which are which? Just seeing if everybody’s awake. Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Right? One of them is very different. John. One, but only one of them, does not mention repentance. Which one?
One, but only one of them, was written to bring men to faith and eternal life. Which one? What were the others written for? The Christian life. The Christian life. Discipleship. And it is in these Gospels that we learn a great deal about repentance and remission of sins.
Here’s a fact, people almost always miss. Maybe you wouldn’t. How many times does the Gospel of John mention the forgiveness of sin? Don’t jump to conclusions, don’t answer unless you know. Because it’s not zero. It’s one. You know what the passage is? Where the Lord breathed upon His disciples and He said, “Whosoever sins you remit, they are remitted and whoever sins you retain, they are retained.” Not a salvation message.
I think you will agree. That was something He gave to the apostles. Isn’t that interesting? The very same gospel that is silent on repentance is virtually silent on the forgiveness of sin. The two things that belong together in the Gospel of John are believe and eternal life. The things that belong together in Matthew, Mark, Luke, Acts are repentance and forgiveness of sin.
This is the total message. We’re not just out there to win them to Christ. We are out there to win them to Christ. We are out there to bring them to personal faith in Christ, and to bring them to eternal life. But we’re out for more than that. We’re out to make disciples in accordance with the command of the Great Commission.
And you will never make disciples unless you proclaim repentance and remission of sins. And so I hope that in the days and months and years ahead, that the Lord might give to you as individuals and as a church, that this will be part of your message, never confused with the terms of eternal life, never confused with the terms of eternal salvation. It’s made a significant, integral, vital part of your communication of the whole counsel of God.
Okay, we have some questions in the time that remain. Yes, right back here. I think both of these are His way of saying I will remove you as a church, and you will no longer be a testimony to Me. You remember that when this vision begins that the Lord is in the midst of the seven lampstands. They are light bearers. And each church is supposed to bear its light and testimony to Christ, and He is the one who either allows them to keep their lampstand or who removes it.
And of course eventually all of the churches lost their lampstands. All seven of these. But the point that He’s making here is that, “My judgment against this church if it doesn’t repent, is that I will remove it as a vehicle to reveal My truth.” If a church is unrepentant its history as a real witness for Jesus Christ is likely to be very short. I think that’s the message of this.
Let’s pray. Father You, You know us so well. We’re so glad, we’re so grateful that You save us freely by Your grace through simple faith in Christ. And yet, You know that we are a mass of contradictions and actual and potential failures and You are working with us. You are working in the church. You are working in our heart and Your Spirit wherever necessary is drawing us in the direction of repentance, and wherever necessary drawing us in the direction of the forgiveness that we stand in need of.
We’re so grateful that these things are available to us. We’re so grateful that You’re the loving Father who always takes the straying son back. And we just want to ask You to allow us in the days that You give us that lie ahead, to be men and women who are so sensitive to You, so sensitive to Your Word, that You won’t have a lot of problem showing us the things we need to repent on. That You won’t have to bombard our life to get us to come to You and ask forgiveness and to ask help in straightening out the things that we’ve done and said and felt that were wrong.
We just pray that You will help us to be the men and women that You want us to be, to be the disciples of Jesus Christ. By this shall all men know that we are Your Son’s disciples if we have love for one another. And we just pray that You will cleanse our lives, cleanse our hearts, and make us vehicles and vessels for that wonderful love. May we show it to our brethren, and may the world see it and be drawn to personal faith in Christ.
We ask it in Christ’s name. Amen.