Repentance and the Power of the Gospel

Repenting of sin to fellow believers affirms the gospel and releases the power of the Spirit in your life and calling. This is a very tangible picture of how Jesus changes our hearts. If you want to experience this, consider what you need to repent of and who you need to repent to.
Have you ever had a distinct experience of the power and presence of God in your life? Scripture promises that the Holy Spirit has been given to us (Isa. 59:21; Luke 11:13; John 14:16–20), and we experience this promise in many ways. Think of a sermon that moved you to great thankfulness or to tears of conviction. Think of a “chance” encounter or text message when a brother or sister in the Lord shared a verse with you at a very specific time in your life. Think of a time of communion around the Lord’s Table or a time of praise when you’ve felt so loved by Christ and so cared for by His people. Maybe you’ve been praying for an issue to change or a mission to fulfill, and God has answered those prayers, perhaps even against all human expectation.
Yes, we are thankful for those and so many other evidences and experiences of our Father’s good grace to His children through Christ’s Spirit.
But I want to challenge you to embrace a biblical calling that, if applied, will lead to a great experience of God’s presence in your life and in the life of your fellowship. This is the call to repent of your sin.
Of course, we repent and follow Jesus when we commit to the Lord in faith. The Greek word metanoia literally means “about turn” (Acts 8:22). We are walking in darkness and in sin. We are convicted by the Spirit of Christ about our lifestyle. We “about turn” and march away from the sinful path and toward the life of righteousness. But this call to repent is more than the start of the Christian walk. It is the whole of our Christian lives. Calvin says: “The exercise of repentance ought to be uninterrupted throughout our whole life.”1
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The Compromised Church – Ungodly Discernment
We must walk in repentance always seeking the Lord’s will. This obedient walk is one of spiritual growth. Instead of works righteousness we must obey the Lord in our good works all for His glory. We will do good works, but as a product of Christ’s Righteousness in us not earning salvation by those works. Also, when we are blessed by godly pastors, elders and deacons who refuse to compromise with the World or become part of the Compromised Church, we should thank the Lord for them, pray for them, help and support them as God leads.
1 My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous; 2 and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. 1 John 2:1-6 (NASB)
One of the most tragic aspects of the Compromised Church, which is a product of its emphasis on numbers, baptisms. relavance, and worldliness is its complete lack of correct theology pertaining to salvation and assurance. Those who are believing they became part of the Kingdom of God in these churches are, for the most part, responding to a doctrine of salvation based upon some form of works righteousness which is the belief that one’s standing before God is founded and maintained by works of merit. These works begin with walking an aisle at an invitation then praying a sinner’s prayer followed by baptism. Assurance of salvation is then always looking back at that moment as when the believer chose to be “saved” by obeying the call at the invitation.
The need to repent is never mentioned in this type of “evangelical” church. It is never mentioned because no mention of why it is necessary is ever mentioned either. These preachers never mention God’s Holiness, Righteousness or Justice. His wrath against all sin is not mentioned either. Instead God is presented as a loving god who wants all people to simply seek Him and do some religious work so they can become part of His Kingdom. When people do respond to this “evangelical” invitation they are never counseled about their sin and their need to repent, deny self and take up their cross as they follow Jesus. Instead, they simply assent to whatever doctrinal statements the church wants them to agree to and that’s that. There is never a call to biblical discipleship.
Since this type of “salvation” permeates the Compromised Church their numbers are dominated by simply religious people who are, for the most part, unregenerate. They base their assurance of salvation on their religious work at that moment when they assented. They may have even prayed a “sinners prayer” before they were presented to the church for membership and baptism. However, there has been no regeneration by God because the genuine Gospel is not preached in these churches.
These works righteousness Christians, being unregenerate, are basing their salvation on their own work at the moment of their spurious conversion. When they doubt, and they will, they are told to look back to that day when they knelt and prayed that sinner’s prayer and were baptized. However, if they are ever presented with Bible passages such as the one I placed at the top of this post (1 John 2:1-6) they struggle because they have no real spiritual power to keep God’s commandments. They don’t grow in grace because they are unregenerate. They are religious, that’s all.
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Parents And the Apostasy of Covenant Children
Among what these principles teach is that when a parent loves his family first and foremost, he neither loves God nor his family aright. One loves his children above God by pursuing their happiness rather than their Godliness, their respectability rather than their need for righteousness in Christ. Even to seek equally both happiness and Godliness is to deny God. It is to deny the primacy of a biblical pursuit of God, and that all blessings beyond knowing Christ are incidental to seeking first the kingdom of God. It’s to pursue God’s favor apart from thirsting after Christ. What can be more subtly idolatrous for the Christian?
There is nothing more amazing than the grace of salvation conferred to those who are afar off. And although conversion of covenant children is no less a matter of grace, pious parents ought not to doubt the election and subsequent conversion of their children.
Because covenant children are not among those who are afar off but are holy in Christ and members of his church, they are rightful recipients of the sign and seal of engrafting into Christ. Indeed, discipleship begins at the font.
Believers who are mindful of their vows and careful to do the commandments, statutes, and rules that God commands may have confidence God will visit their seed with the grace of salvation. (Exodus 20:5-6; Deuteronomy 7:9,11; Nehemiah 1:15) These same covenant blessings may not be anticipated by believers who are not diligent to pursue Christ and his precepts. Whenever God saves out of obscurity it’s always amazing; yet when God grafts out covenant children, it’s not nearly as surprising.
Grace begets more grace:
Believers have broken all God’s commandments. On a scale of the faithful – from the least at one end to faithful-Christ at the other – believers are compressed toward the least of the faithful relative to Christ. In that respect, all believers are in indistinguishable when compared to Christ. Notwithstanding, because God causes one to differ from another, we may not deny that one indeed does differ from another! In other words, obedience wrought in faith is a peculiar grace that we may expect to culminate in everlasting reward in Christ. (Mark 10:37,40; 1 Corinthians 4:7)
Sowing and reaping and spiritual adultery:
God is not mocked and is often pleased to operate according to a sowing and reaping principle with respect to spiritual blessings. Accordingly, when God saves the children of believers, he is often pleased to grant positive spiritual influences (usually parental) resulting in the training up of covenant children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Sadly, these formative influences sometimes come by way of examples of church members denying the faith. As tragic as that is, the grafting out of the seed of believers can be the pedagogical means by which God gets our attention and teaches parents to protect their own from the harmful influences of this present age. The manifestation of Scripture’s warnings culminating in the apostasy of covenant children works for the good of those who love God, those who are called according to his purpose.
Examples and warnings of a perishing seed are replete in Israel’s history up to this present day. Yet such examples of apostasy are often needful for faithful Christian parents, for without which they can lose motivation to persevere and not be as intentional about avoiding covenant curses for their own households.
All believers will be tested for steadfastness and perseverance; yet those who seek but do not receive are valued by God as having wrong motives. Moreover, believers are regarded as spiritually adulterous when their pursuits entail friendship with the world and behavior that is becoming of the enemies of God. (James 1:3-4; 4:3-4)
God’s decree and our responsibility:
We must be careful as we reconcile God’s predestinating grace with parental responses to God’s covenant promises. God’s covenant of grace cannot fail for it is established with Christ and the elect in him. (Genesis 17; Romans 9; Galatians 3; WLC 31)
The faithful who run in the ways of the Lord can expect their children to be fed with the heritage of Jacob as they grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful parents can expect their children are indeed elect, will come to faith in Christ, and persevere until the end. Whereas those who as a manner of life seek their children’s interests more than God’s can claim no greater than God’s abandonment of their offspring.
God’s covenant blessings are often released by the means of parental faith and obedience, though they are not ultimately based upon faith and obedience. When God sets his sights on visiting the future generations of believers with salvation, he is often pleased to grant the commensurate parental responses to receive the promises and blessings that the covenant of grace contemplates. Although not a quid pro quo, wisdom is nonetheless vindicated in her children.
Calvinism, not fatalism:
Because God’s decree cannot be thwarted, only those chosen in Christ will be saved. From that premise, Calvinists often wrongly assume that the non-elect could not have been saved had other gospel influences come to bear. That’s fatalism, not Calvinism. It is to miss that God’s ends do not fall out apart from their appointed means. God, according to his own purposes and most wise and inscrutable counsel, has withheld the election of some covenant children accompanied by the ordaining of unfaithful parents (and spiritual overseers) whom God will hold accountable along with those who have fallen away.
We must not confuse God’s decree with God’s assessment of human culpability.The apostle Paul was innocent of the blood of all because he faithfully declared the whole counsel of God. (Acts 20:26-27)
Jesus warns that we can cause others to stumble from the kingdom of God. And although such demise will come to pass as God has determined, woes are preached to those by whom they come. (Matthew 18:3-7)
Lastly, Jesus would have gathered the children of Israel as a hen gathers her brood under her wings if not for the sins of their parents. (Matthew 23:37)All that to say, election presupposes how the chosen are led to Christ.
The principle of not growing weary in well doing pertains all the more to parents who have been charged (even vowed) to lead their children to Christ.
For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. And then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. GALATIANS 6:8-10
Although one cannot lose his salvation, the branch of future generations is often cut off and thrown into the fire because of spiritual neglect, over confidence, and even willful disobedience. (John 15:5-6; Romans 11:19-22)
Because being careful to keep God’s commandments is the way of grace, parents play a prominent role in leading their children to close with Christ. That God is pleased to save the children of Godly parents should induce parents unto Godliness, not complacency. Conversely, it is God’s prerogative to graft out those born of believing parents whom God has not seen fit to ordain unto the grace of parental diligence and fidelity.
Practice to reflect reality:
Scripture and life-experiences teach that God delights in saving the children of faithful parents who strive to live out the reality of their children’s positional holiness in Christ. Because covenant children are set-apart in Christ and members of the visible church, faithful parents seek to nurture a home-life that’s commensurate to the spiritual reality that covenant children are born into.
Because Christian parents are to protect the deposit of faith, parents who believe their children are set-apart can have that gospel conviction vindicated by providing a well guarded home suitable for spiritual flourishing. Parents who recognize that a child’s heart is soil for the word of God will treat it ever so tenderly and do all within their earthly power to make it fertile. This includes vigilant prayer and helping to keep one’s child unspotted from the world with all appropriateness.
Faithful Christian parents have a sanctified vision for their children and strive by grace to raise them according to their biblical convictions. The pious parent loves his children by loving God more than them. He is single-minded, and sometimes the object of extended family and Christian ridicule. (Such a parent’s reward is great!)
But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. MATTHEW 6:33
The prophet Malachi proclaimed that God had cursed the offspring of the priests for not honoring his name. Judah profaned God’s covenant, yet wonders in tears and groaning as to why they have fallen out of favor with God. They had fallen out of favor with God because parents did not pursue the one thing God was seeking, a Godly offspring. (Malachi 2)
Eli honored his sons above God, which resulted in his household being cut off. His failure as a father was that he esteemed his sons more than God. This resulted in Eli’s sons being counted as worthless men for they did not know the Lord. (1 Samuel 2)
Jesus taught that anyone who loves their child more than him is not worthy of him and his inheritance. (Matthew 10:37)
Among what these principles teach is that when a parent loves his family first and foremost, he neither loves God nor his family aright. One loves his children above God by pursuing their happiness rather than their Godliness, their respectability rather than their need for righteousness in Christ. Even to seek equally both happiness and Godliness is to deny God. It is to deny the primacy of a biblical pursuit of God, and that all blessings beyond knowing Christ are are incidental to seeking first the kingdom of God. It’s to pursue God’s favor apart from thirsting after Christ. What can be more subtly idolatrous for the Christian than pursuing the gifts more than him, the giver?
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Dangerous Families
I know we like to think that political engagement, social movements, big seeker-sensitive churches, and things like that will win the day. But they won’t! Satan is not attacking families as hard as he is for no reason. Godly, Christ-honoring, fruitful, and multiplying families are dangerous to the kingdom of darkness. If we want to win this battle, then we need to start waging our war accordingly.
INTRODUCTION
I normally avoid disclaimers, but if you understand what I am saying in this article, then you will not only understand almost everything you need to know about spiritual warfare, why this country is the way it is, and how Christians can wage war against it, but you will also come to see how the antidote is dangerous families.
Here is the argument.
THE ARGUMENT FOR DANGEROUS FAMILIES
POINT 1: Satan is the enemy of God. He hates the things God loves. He tries to pervert what God calls good. And he attacks the things God makes.
POINT 2: As a matter of warfare, Satan has focused his attack on the most precious thing God ever designed, that which God has called VERY GOOD (See Genesis 1:26-31)
POINT 3: The thing God called VERY GOOD, is a male and female, human, sexually healthy, covenantally faithful, child producing, monogomas marriage. Or to say that in a different way, a family.
POINT 4: God installed this VERY GOOD family as the basis for, and the most central unit, of all society (see Genesis 1:28)
POINT 5: Knowing this, one can reasonably assume that Satan’s most ferocious attacks, and the heart of all spiritual warfare, will be leveled against the family.
THEREFORE: The way we fight back is by raising up the kind of families that are oriented back toward’s God VERY GOOD vision, that threatens Satan, thwart his plans, resist his temptations, and will eventually topple his kingdom.
But, before we get into that, let us look at how Satan is waging an all-out war on the family. Below, I list a litany (although not an exhaustive list) of examples.
MODERN EXAMPLES OF SATAN’S ATTACK ON FAMILY:
This list could be pages upon pages long. But, here are some obvious examples of how Satan is attempting to destroy the family, which means destroying godliness, men, women, marriage, and children.
Gender confusion, perverted (woke) cartoons, divorce, sodomy, adultery, pornography, lesbianism, fornication, godless schools, cross-dressing, effeminate men, passive husbands, domineering women, pronoun confusion, feminism, transgenderism, hook up culture, woke college campuses, birth control, abortions, sex-ed curriculums, intersectionality, government propagated sexual perversion, subsidizing the murder of babies, etc.
HOW DO FAMILIES FIGHT THESE PERVERSIONS??
The reason we learn about spiritual warfare is not to sit down in victimhood, but to rise up as victors. This is impossible apart from a relationship with Jesus Christ, but for the Christian, spiritual warfare does not end there. Like soldiers, we do not put on the uniform of Christ and think the battle is magically over. There is training, education, fighting, deploying, war-waging, raising up new soldiers, and the eventual triumph after a long and hard-fought campaign.
Below is another non-exhaustive list of activities we can be doing, as soldiers of Christ, to successfully wage war against the serpent. (P.S. it has everything to do with the recovery of the family)
Read the Bible and submit to its truth, pray continually, commit to a local church, get baptized, take communion weekly, love Jesus, and be discipled. Then, while you wait on Jesus to return, guard your virginity, date with purity, protect your eyes and your heart from Satanic perversions, get married to a godly believer, and be faithful to your spouse physically, mentally, and emotionally. Have frequent godly sex so that you are not tempted, make lots of babies, raise them up in the Lord, and refuse to send them to our perverted public schools. Instead, disciple them to grow up and have godly, fruitful, and multiplying families, teach them to worship Jesus fiercely, and to storm the gates of hell advancing Jesus’ Kingdom. If you cannot have children, adopt children, help others raise their children, and be the kind of member of your church that cheers for and supports godly families. If you have kids, do not forget to teach them how to date, how to marry, and how to raise children the same convictions, so that they can make for you an army of grandbabies, that you will assist in preparing for the war.
If you are fortunate enough to live to see your grandchildren marry, then you will get to encourage another generation to take up the blessing of godly, fruitful, and multiplying family life, and you will get to die with an astounding heritage and legacy.
WHY WILL THIS KIND OF FAMILY WARFARE WORK?
Because every Satanic attack listed above is meant to pervert the family. Satan has exhausted all of his energy and effort to pervert boys, soil girls, poison marriages, and stop women from having children. In fact, I believe this is the very reason Satan attacks women as ferociously as he does, since it is the woman who will carry the next generation of serpent crushing Christian children in her womb. If he can cause a society to be confused about what a woman is, then the battle seems nigh to its conclusion.
But, this is exactly the point we have to stand up and fight with dangerous, Satan threatening, families! Because, we will certainly win if we just get in the battle and stop standing on the sidelines in confusion! We will win if we engage as God intended!
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