Wednesday Night Follow-Up (10-13-10)

Pushing the theme of application in post-preaching living, we continue our series of Wednesday night follow up posts.  So strap in for some heavy handed conviction smack-down.  Sackcloth and ashes are recommended clothing for this post.

Matt Round did another fantastic job bringing the Word from Matthew 3:1-17 (i.e. the whole chapter).  His three point outline was as follows:
I.   The voice of the fore-runner (v. 1-12)
II.  The voice of the King (v. 13-15)
III. The voice of God (v. 16-17)

The focus of today's post is the message delivered by both John the Baptist and Jesus, summarized in the singular word, "Repent."  These are the first recorded words of John the Baptist's ministry as well as Jesus' public ministry, and repentance plays a major role in any believer's life.  As such, it is good to know what it is, and what it is not.*


REPENTANCE IS NOT
Let's start with the latter.  Each of the following may be present in repentance, but they may also deceive the sinner and the onlooker both into thinking repentance has occurred.  Repentance is not:

i.   Legal terror over sin.  It is no virtue to be timorous because of sin's consequences.  Ahab felt remorse over sin and it's consequences, but salvation was not his.  Judas, wickedest of men, felt deep attrition, but which led to no contrition. 

ii.  Resolution against sin.  This one is tricky, because true repentance certainly involves such resolution, but by itself, it is not enough.  Repentance is more than such resolution, but it is not less.  After receiving the law at Mt. Sinai, Israel declared with one voice "All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do" (Ex. 24:3).  Yet their resolution against sin and towards godliness is ill-executed, as is testified to by the rest of the Old Testament.

iii.  Merely the abandonment of sinful ways.  It is very important and very difficult to abandon sin.  Yet there may be instances where this is confused with true repentance.

• A man may part with some sins and retain others.  A partial repentance is no repentance.  In Acts 8, Simon the magician gave up his craft and was baptized, but could not give up his lust for power or his bitterness (v. 23).  Peter, in fact, commands him to repent (v. 22), revealing his former confession was not genuine.
• An old sin may be discarded so that a new one may be put on. 
• A sin may no longer be in a person's immediate interest, so for prudential reasons, one may abandon it.  The business man's greed may have driven him to pay his employees less than they're due, but he will not cheat on his taxes for fear of I.R.S. crackdown.

REPENTANCE IS
That leaves us with the former category.  That which defines repentance.  It is characterized by six things:

I. Sight of sin - simple enough, as you cannot repent of a sin you do not recognize.

II. Sorrow for sin - Ps. 38:18 says "I am sorry for my sin."  It is not a superficial sorrow, but is described biblically as a breaking of the heart (Ps. 51:17; Joel 2:13).  Superficial sorrow would be concerned with how one is viewed by others, or sorrow in only one's outer actions, or merely sorrow over consequences.  But real sorrow is from the heart, over sins of the heart and produces change in the heart.

III. Confession of sin - Sorrow must have vent, and the genuine confession of sin is voluntary, particular in naming the sin and its circumstances, and resolute in determining not to sin again.

IV. Shame for sin - related to sorrow, shame for sin means knowing one is in the wrong, and wronging God.  It is the shame felt by Adam and Even upon finding they were naked.  It is the shame felt for defiling the Savior's name.  It is the shame over the very nature we are fighting.

V. Hatred of sin - There can be no repentance without a revulsion towards sin.  Though sin may entice and appeal momentarily, hatred for sin must be implacable, developed by biblical saturation, and active in opposition against sin. 

VI. Turning from sin - finally, one must inevitably reform.  One must stop the evil action, and put on the good nemesis to that evil.  The thief must no longer steal, but rather work so that he may give to others in need (Eph. 4:28).  One must not turn from only one sin, but from all sin.  One must turn from sin, and turn to God.  And one must begin practicing the righteousness for which God prepared our salvation (Eph. 2:9-10)

So, with all this mind-probing, Puritan rambling about repentance, we come to the application.

What sins are you not repentant of?  What sins are you only faking repentance on, and how are you going to change that?  Have you confessed your sins lately, to God and to others?  Since you are repenting, how are you going to ensure your heart is trained on God?

As John Owen said, "Be killing sin, or it will be killing you."

*Material extracted and paraphrased from Thomas Watson's book The Doctrine of Repentance