Repentance Have You Done It

When the Apostle Paul stood on Mars Hill, in the city of Athens, and addressed the intellectual pagans of his day, he told them in no uncertain terms, as seen in Acts 17.30, In the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. And I will say this, friends, that message still stands today to our generation of pagans as well. I'd like to focus on the doctrine of repentance today, friends, because we live in a day of the only-believed gospel, so I believe we don't really know what repentance really means, and many are strangers to it.

I believe the fault lies at the door of our churches for failing to explain what biblical repentance really is, and failing to preach man's duty of repentance. The result of this among church folk is a cloud of confusion that has arisen from both a lack of understanding and a lack of experience. Nevertheless, Jesus said, Except ye repent, ye shall likewise perish.

And that means if you don't repent, you will bust hell wide open when you die. I believe the two most ignored doctrines in our churches today are the doctrines of repentance and regeneration. Well, like we say in the South, I'm going to give you the oil straight from the can, which is the undiluted truth about your duty of repentance.

I know what I'm talking about, because I spent years inside the churches of this country, and I was a stranger to repentance. Most pastors I heard never mentioned it. The few who did made it sound like it was not necessary to salvation, but you should at least be sorry for your sins.

They made it sound like repentance meant that you confess to God that you were a sinner, and that took care of it. But that didn't get the job done for me or anyone else. Biblical repentance was a whole different ballgame.

Repentance means to throw down your shotgun of rebellion at the nail-pierced feet of a sovereign lord and get out a sledgehammer and completely smash all your idols and make a clean break with your darling sins. That's repentance. Have you done it? And that's the title of my message today, friends.

I'll say this. Most pastors will avoid talking about repentance, because if they do, then they have to preach against sin. And if you preach against sin, then you have to warn folks about going to a place of punishment for sin, which is called hell.

And if you start preaching like that, you will have a disturbance in your congregation, among all your lost members, and soon the deacon board will ask for your resignation. The fiercest opposition I've faced in churches for preaching repentance arose from the good deacons. I've had men stand toe-to-toe with me in a church sanctuary with hate and fire in their eyes.

But try as I may, friends, I'm going to tackle the doctrine of repentance today, for we live in a dangerous day and a solemn time when there is a multitude of baptized folk in our churches who call themselves Christians, but who have never been born from above and washed in the blood. In the Gospel of Matthew, in chapter 3, we find a passage dealing with repentance. As John the Baptist has come to town saying, Repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

We will pick up our text, beginning in verse 6 and following. And were baptized to him and Jordan, confessing their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Bring forth fruits, meet for repentance.

Well, let me pause here, friends, to say that the religious leaders of that day saw no need to repent because they felt pretty good about themselves. They had Abraham as their father, and they had their traditions, and that was good enough for them. They only came by the Jordan River that day out of curiosity to see this strange preacher called John who wore camel hair and a leather belt about him.

And John the Baptist looks at these religious lost leaders and he heads them off before they can open their mouths to defend themselves. And he tells them, And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father, for say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. Meaning, don't be fooled into thinking that because you are the seed of Abraham that you have nothing to repent of.

One of the most dangerous things in the world is to sit upon a false foundation from a good opinion of oneself. But John's not afraid to call a spade a spade, and he calls them out for their religious hypocrisy by calling them a bunch of snakes. Then John the Baptist utters a solemn warning to these religious phonies by telling them judgment is coming.

In verse 10 we read, And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire. John the Baptist stands toe to toe with these lost religious leaders and informs them they are marked for ruin and cannot avoid it.

But by an urgent, sincere, heartfelt repentance. Because repentance is seated in the heart and we make a mockery of God if we call ourselves followers of Him and say we are sorry for our sins but still persist in them. I want us to see four aspects from our passage today, friends, that pertain to this duty of repentance.

Number one, Reformation. In verse 8 John says, Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance. What he means by this is that a changed life will result in changed living.

When Jesus was here in His earthly ministry, as He passed through towns and villages, all who encountered Him experienced change. The blind did not lose their sight after they were healed by Him. The deaf didn't need to go back to using their hearing aids anymore once Jesus touched them.

And if you have an encounter, friend, with a revealed Christ, it will radically change you as well, like the old gospel hymn declares, shackled by heavy burden beneath a load of guilt and shame. But then the hand of Jesus touched me and now I am no longer the same. He touched me.

Oh, He touched me. And oh, the joy that floods my soul. Something happened and now I know He touched me and made me whole.

Is that your experience, friend? Oh, I hope it is. What John the Baptist is saying here is that if you have exercised repentance toward God, you will bring forth the fruits of it in a reformation of our daily living. A sin that we once enjoyed will now be distasteful to us.

Company that we once kept will no longer amuse us. Entertainments that once held us in a trance will be foolishness to us. Only things of eternal worth will occupy us as our sights are set on heaven.

Have you ever come across somebody who was really saved and they were on fire for God? You can't be around a person like that for long without becoming thirsty for Christ in eternity. The most important thing in the world to a saved individual is the glory of God. You will be jealous for God like an Elijah.

And you will be consumed with a burden for the souls of men. Sharing the gospel will be as natural to you as drinking water. You will lose your fear of men and only fear of God.

Our trouble today in many of our churches we have pastors who fear the chairman of the deacons more than God. That's what we get for giving the reins of our churches to prominent businessmen in our community just because of their money and position rather than humble men who have a vital prayer life with a holy God and who are under the discipline of the Lord Jesus. A changed heart will result in a changed life.

Number two. Good fruit. The fruits of repentance from reformation will be a forsaken of all sin.

Here is where many stumble. They give up some of their more glaring and gross sins that folks can see like swearing and drinking and stealing and lying. But they secretly find a lapet sin that they refuse to let go of.

And a day will come when judgment is coming and like a small bullet will sink a ship just as easy as a cannonball. One's sin unrepented of and hugged like a little darling to one's breast will surely send you right down onto hell when you die. What has killed us in our day is the philosophy that you can be saved by taking Jesus as your Savior.

And if you want to go deep with God at some point in the future you can then make Him your Lord. Most folks never get to that point and die in their sins with their name on a church roll but a vacancy in the Lamb's Book of Life. Now the next two aspects I want us to see friends is the contrast between the wheat and the chaff.

In verses 11 and 12 we read I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance but he that cometh after me is mightier than I whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire whose fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his wheat into the garner but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. This fan spoken of is a winnowing fan or a pitchfork used to toss the wheat into the air to separate the wheat from the chaff.

I remember years ago I was discipling a man at church who was a traveling salesman for a farm equipment company and his work took him to rural farms in West Tennessee and Arkansas. He was at a mill one day and saw a pile of chaff on the floor and he scooped up a handful of chaff and put it in his pocket to give to me because I was teaching him about the spiritual distinction between chaff and the wheat and this man came and saw me and he took the chaff out of his pocket and he poured it into my hand and as I gazed at that little pile of dry scaly casings I saw firsthand how worthless and valueless chaff really is. It has no purpose whatsoever other than to be waste material plowed into the soil or burned.

In our text John the Baptist talks about the day coming to all men at a future judgment when the widow in Christ as the judge of all the earth will one day separate the wheat from the chaff. All true born again believers are as wheat they're substantial useful and valuable while they're here on earth and after that they will spend eternity in heaven in the blissful presence of Christ the chaff on the other hand are the unsaved they are merely hypocrites like chaff their empty religious profession of faith was only light and empty, useless and worthless like the chaff they represent and when it comes time for them to die they'll die in their sins outside the merits of Christ's blood and they're cast into an oven of a burning furnace of unquenchable fire in damnation and torment in a burning hell this is serious business friends well I hope through this little message today it's given some of you a better understanding of what biblical repentance is and has shown you how God demands repentance from sinners repentance, have you done it? let us pray