Repentance Part 2

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At the First Coming of Jesus, John the Baptist began the Gospel by preaching repentance.

Martin Luther preached the everlasting Gospel when he said we must repent by faith in Christ alone.

A powerful heavenly angel used Luther as his mouthpiece.

Melchizedek was God in a body made from a handful of dust. He gave Abram bread and wine. The symbols of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus which produced the Gospel of Salvation.

Repent and do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus. Jesus is the only important name that Satan fears.

Repentance is a continual, everlasting requirement.

The supernatural Father fully dwells in the Man Jesus Who is the visible Son of God.

Faith, blood, God’s Will, and repentance are interlinked and make us believe the Bible.

Never elevate any man to be above the congregation. The early church never had a Pastor in charge of a church.

Effective repentance makes us hate sin and it changes our behaviour.

Repentance is thus a continual path that we keep walking along.

Repentance is the beginning of the Gospel

The Gospel only begins to have an effect on our lives if we truly and deeply repent.

If we experience a genuine regret for our sins.

If we do not try to blame others for our shortcomings.

If we do not try to justify our faults or sins.

MARK 1:1   “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;”

John the Baptist was chosen by God to introduce the Gospel and then point out the Messiah to the Jews.

Look what John did as the first step of the Gospel.

MARK 1:4   “John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins”.

John preached the baptism of repentance.

Repentance was the very beginning of the Gospel.

II TIMOTHY 2:8   “Remember that Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead according to my gospel:”

Thus, the Gospel was based on the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

At the Last Supper, Jesus gave out the bread to represent His death and the wine to represent His resurrection. Wine has a spirit in it which can make people drunk. This represents the stimulation of revelation whereby the Holy Spirit reveals the truth of God’s Word that makes the Bible come alive with deeper meaning.

The death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus were the climax of His First Coming.

Thus, the whole focus of the First Coming of Jesus was for Him to take on our sins and die in our place so that we could be forgiven.

His death on our behalf held out a pardon to us so that we do not have to die for our own sins.

But a pardon is not a pardon unless it is accepted.

The only way we can accept this pardon is to repent of our sins in order to express our thankfulness that He should die for our sins.

Then when Jesus commanded that the Gospel should spread worldwide, the emphasis was that the Gospel should always start with repentance.

LUKE 24:47   “And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem”.

Other issues, like the remission of sin would also have to be explained. In other words, How do we get rid of our sins?

But the first step was always repentance.

MARK 1:14   “Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,”

When John the Baptist was put in prison by Herod, Jesus began to preach the Gospel which concerned the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God is the effect that God’s Spirit has within a person.

God wants people to believe His Word, have faith in God, and obey God’s Word.

The kingdom of God is God’s Spirit within you.

LUKE 17:21   “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you”.

MARK 1:15   “And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel”.

“Repent and believe”.

But the Gospel of the kingdom cannot be believed by people unless they first repent.

So, once again, repentance is established as the start of the Gospel.

If we have not repented then we simply are not in tune with the rest of the Gospel.

Without repentance, deep and meaningful, our Christian experience has just not happened.

Repentance is the first step towards getting God to live within our hearts.

Repentance is the everlasting Gospel

REVELATION 14:6   “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,”

Saint Paul was probably the greatest Christian that ever lived.

He certainly had an incredible effect on the early church that the apostles established.

God used him as the main apostle to establish the New Testament church amongst the Gentile nations.

Then, in the days of the Roman Emperor Constantine, the church got involved with politics and they lost their direction. Hundreds of years of Dark Ages plunged the world into spiritual darkness and man-made superstitions. It was as if the early apostolic truths of the New Testament Gospel had died and been buried. People no longer repented and accepted Jesus Christ as their Saviour. They relied for salvation on good works that the church required of them, that had nothing to do with the Bible.

Things like pilgrimages, Lent, relics of dead saints, making the sign of the cross, kissing the ring of the Pope, praying to idols that were statues of dead saints, Mary worship, and indulgences whereby they tried to buy forgiveness for their sins, etc.

People were generally illiterate and relied on regular church attendance to secure their future place in Heaven. Bibles had been banned. If a Bible was available, it was in Latin which nobody other than priests could understand.

Then God raised up a brave and indomitable preacher of Salvation, in Germany.

Martin Luther, who probably is the most well-known and effective reformer in the history of the modern church.

Luther preached salvation by faith in Christ alone.

Only by repentance could sin be forgiven.

The printing press had just been invented and Luther’s many Gospel tracts spread like wildfire to establish a Protestant revival based on repentance and believing only what is written in the Bible.

This unleashed a massive change in society and changed the course of church history.

Luther believed that all Christians are created equal and could reach Heaven based on their own faith.

The Bible became the supreme authority, not the church. Christ is the Word of God.

By translating the Bible into German, Luther promoted literacy. People could now read the Bible for themselves and begin to think for themselves, based on what they had read.

Luther’s incredible impact on world history was due to the fact that he was the human face of a powerful angel that was operating unseen in the spiritual realm.

The real events are the battle between the angels and the devils in the unseen higher dimension world of the spirits. What we see happening on earth is just the consequences of that spiritual battle.

For example.

The king of Syria wanted to capture the prophet Elisha and sent a big host of horses and chariots to do the deed. But he failed because there were more angels around Elisha than what the king had chariots.

II KINGS 6:17   “And Elisha prayed, and said, LORD, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the LORD opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha”.

Why did Elisha have such a powerful ministry?

Because he was the visible human face of a large angelic movement that was unseen.

God used a powerful unseen angel to end the Dark Ages and re-establish repentance and faith in Jesus as the start of the Gospel in our modern times. Martin Luther was the man that the angel worked through. The angel waited until the printing press had been invented, then the angel inspired Luther to preach and publish tracts that shook the world.

Repentance was the beginning of the Gospel in the days of John the Baptist and Jesus.

When Luther preached repentance, this was the same basic Gospel of repentance that John the Baptist preached.

Thus, it is called the everlasting Gospel. It will never change.

We cannot get right with God today unless we also repent and accept Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour.

Look again at this Scripture.

REVELATION 14:6   And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,

John saw this powerful angel moving in the heavenly realms, unseen by us, as the angel pushed back the forces of evil and thus allowed Luther’s bold call to repentance and faith in Christ alone to take root in people’s hearts.

Luther’s reformation was followed by the great missionary age that continued to spread the Gospel of salvation due to repentance rather than good works. Today, the internet continues to produce websites that preach repentance and salvation so that we can truly say that the everlasting Gospel has now spread worldwide.

God came down as Melchizedek to Abraham

After the Flood of Noah, God chose a new champion, Abraham. His name was originally Abram.

God’s first major intervention after the Flood was when He chose Abraham whose descendants would be the 12 tribes of Israel.

God Himself came down as a Man. The mystery man Melchizedek who gave bread and wine to Abraham hundreds of years before God gave the Law to Moses.

GENESIS 14:18   And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God.

God picked up a handful of dust and made a body for Himself. He spoke to Abraham and then returned to Heaven as His body returned to the dust.

What is fascinating is the bread and wine that He gave to Abraham. These are the precise symbols that Jesus gave to the apostles at the Last Supper. They symbolize the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.

That is when He died for our sins.

We have to believe that by faith. We prove our faith by repenting and accepting the pardon of Jesus.

Thus, more than 400 years before God gave the Law to Moses, God was giving Abraham faith in the future resurrection of Messiah.

GENESIS 22:8   “And Abraham said, My son,

God will provide himself

a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together”.

Notice the difference.

Not “God will provide for Himself a lamb”

But “God will provide himself” a lamb.

God will be the Lamb that is provided as a Sacrifice.

If Jesus raised Himself from the dead then we can have faith that Jesus can raise us up, out of the deadness of our sins, to Eternal Life.

To get rid of our sins, all we have to do is repent.

So, Melchizedek offered the symbols of the Gospel to Abraham more than 4000 years ago.

Thus, it is truly the everlasting Gospel, as we use those same symbols today.

Peter was thus able to launch the Gospel of salvation on the Day of Pentecost by telling the Jews to repent.

Do everything in the name of Jesus

The whole Gospel revolves around one name only, the name of Jesus.

Lord and Christ (the Anointed One) are titles that we add to the name of Jesus just to show which Jesus we are speaking about

COLOSSIANS 3:17  “ And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, …”

ACTS 2:38   “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost”.

The first word of the Gospel is “Repent”.

The name is “Jesus”. He is the sacrificial Lamb. God providing Himself as a Sacrifice.

There can be no greater sacrifice for sin.

Jesus is the only name that Satan fears.

Then follows an amazing promise.

The simple act of repentance will never be done away with nor will it ever be replaced.

Repentance is a continual, everlasting requirement.

Repentance was and will be the basic Gospel throughout church history, until the Second Coming of the Lord.

ACTS 2:39   “For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call”.

Repentance is truly the everlasting Gospel.

Repentance is the start, then we need to grow further in grace.

MATTHEW 3:11   “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:”

Repentance is essential because it causes much joy in Heaven amongst the angels.

LUKLE 15:7   “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance”.

Seeking out the sinners is always of great importance for God’s Kingdom.

MATTHEW 14:18   “Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish”.

There is enough room in Heaven for everyone who wants to be saved.

The decision to accept salvation by faith in the completed work of Christ on the cross, rests in our hands.

The supernatural Father dwells in the Man Jesus

JOHN 3:16   “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”.

God made a human man, Jesus Christ, through the womb of a virgin. This Man is called the Son of God.

God is a supernatural Spirit, called the Father.

COLOSSIANS 2:9   “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”.

God the Father, the supernatural Spirit, dwelled fully in the Man Jesus Who thus became the Son of God.

From this we learn a lesson.

We cannot become sons or daughters of God unless we allow God to live within us.

MATTHEW 1:23   “Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us”.

Emmanuel. God living with us inside the Man Jesus.

By living in the Man Jesus, God took on the human name of Jesus and stopped using His Old Testament names like Jehovah or Elohim or Yahweh.

The Jehovah of the Old Testament became the Jesus of the New Testament.

The name Jesus gives us contact with the most powerful Person in the Universe.

EPHESIANS 2:8   “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:”

We do not even have enough faith to save ourselves.

EPHESIANS 2:9   “Not of works, lest any man should boast”.

There are certainly no good works that we can do to save ourselves.

God even has to give us that saving faith.

His decision depends on the sincerity and genuineness of our repentance.

When we really mean business with God and when we really feel terrible about our sins, then God grants us the faith that truly allows us to believe.

At the end of the day, we will realize that salvation had nothing to do with ourselves,

Our salvation was entirely in the hands of Jesus when He hung alone on the cross.

We have to realize that Jesus alone can save us.

There are no works of righteousness that we can do that can balance out our sins.

The sad truth is that even when we set out to do good, we end up doing more harm than good.

LUKE 17:10   “So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do”.

“Profitable” means we make more money than what we lose.

“Unprofitable” means we lose more money than what we gain.

An unprofitable servant does more harm to the cause of God than he or she is aware of.

Our attitude to Faith and Repentance affects us

Faith, blood, God’s Will, and repentance are interlinked.

Faith is based on our innermost feelings and desires.

Let us consider certain Bible characters and how their innermost feelings affected their faith.

Cain was the first man with a fake repentance based on his own opinions. He wanted to get saved his own way by offering God an altar with beautiful arrangements of fruit and vegetables.

These were the products of his own hard work.

Surely God will be impressed by my works and efforts to serve Him? The answer was, No! Not a chance.

Because there was no blood involved in his sacrifice.

Abel had heard Adam speaking of how he and Eve left Eden clothed in the blood-soaked skins of freshly slain lambs. They walked out under the blood of a lamb and were forgiven.

Abel realized that repentance has to be associated with the blood of an innocent lamb.

Abel’s guilt and sin flowed onto the lamb. The lamb’s innocence and sinlessness flowed onto Abel.

When Cain killed Abel, that helped to keep Abel’s revelation of repentance, that depended on faith in the shed blood of a lamb, a secret.

Even today, there are millions of church-goers who do not know that they can only be saved if they repent and rely for cleansing from sin on the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ.

All our good works, sincere works, dedicated works, and sacrificial works, simply play no part in our salvation from sin. Salvation was only purchased by Jesus shedding His blood for us.

All Abel could do was to have faith in what God did in Eden and duplicate the slaying of the innocent lamb to pay for his sins. It was a messy sacrifice with horrible blood flowing over the  stones of the altar and the uncomfortable sight of an innocent lamb with its throat cut, lying on the altar. It did not look good like Cain’s clean and beautifully decorated altar.

But Abel’s faith was in the blood, Cain’s faith was in his dedicated works.

Only blood cleanses sin. Abel, unknowingly, was following the pattern of Calvary.

Cain’s own revelation totally failed.

He refused to kill a lamb as a sacrifice and shed blood. So, he ended up killing his brother and shedding his blood.  Then Cain, the killer, became a fugitive who feared being killed.

Sin requires death.

The death of your animal sacrifice or your own death. The wages of sin are death.

Abel knew his sacrifice had already died, so his own death was not required. Abel had made his peace with God. His faith was in the blood of his lamb. That was God’s required sacrifice.

Lot and his family had a chance to escape from the destruction of Sodom.

Lot’s wife liked to have a lot of items. So, her inner faith revolved around the Prosperity Gospel. Accumulate wealth and useful items. That made for a comfortable lifestyle which she could not easily say goodbye to. Instead of hating the city for its disgusting homosexual lifestyle, she valued what was in the city. She turned back to have a final look because her soul longed after what this city had. And she died. Faith comes from our innermost being. If my innermost thoughts love the homosexual environment of the modern world, then my faith cannot grow.

Balaam was a prophet of God who gave a beautiful prophecy of the future Messiah.

NUMBERS 24:17   “I shall see him, but not now: I shall behold him, but not nigh: there shall come a Star out of Jacob, and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel, and shall smite the corners of Moab, and destroy all the children of Sheth”.

Balak the king of Moab was scared of Moses and the Israelites. He asked Balaam to curse them.

Balaam said no. But when Balaam was offered a big promotion, he rejected God’s initial advice and went for the promotion and the money that went with it.

Balaam wanted to obey God with his great gift of prophecy, but deep down he was actually focused on the money.

This led him to his death when the Jews conquered the Promised Land.

NUMBERS 31:8   “And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of them that were slain; namely, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword”.

Having supernatural power and a gifted ministry does not stop a person replacing their faith with greed.

Ahab was a king who never had enough.

Rather like Putin who rules the world’s biggest country, Russia, but then insists he also needs Ukraine, the biggest country in Europe. Big is just never big enough.

An innocent man Naboth was killed so that Ahab could get his vineyard. Ahab was a terrible person. But then he humbled himself and walked softly. So, God postponed His punishment until his wicked son ruled.

Ahab was not a proper repentant person. He never restored the stolen vineyard to the family of Naboth. But he was sorry for his sins to some extent and that spared him from immediate punishment. But most of his sorrow was because of his pending punishment. He was not very sorry for his past sins as he made no obvious recompense for his sinful theft.

Orpah and Ruth from the land of Moab married the Jewish sons of Naomi.

Their husbands died and they decided to return to Judah with Naomi. Naomi kept telling them to go back to their families. Eventually, Orpah agreed and we never hear of her again as her Moabite gods were not the truth. We are the same. We accept Jesus as Saviour but when enough things go wrong in our lives we give up and go back to what we were. We tried Christianity but gave up as it was just too hard.

Ruth was convinced that Naomi’s God was the true God. So, Ruth kept following Naomi, married Boaz and became part of the bloodline of Messiah.

We have to decide Who is the true God. And when we are convinced that it is Jesus, then we must just keep following however difficult the path becomes.

We cannot have faith if we have any desire to give up.

Tamar married the eldest son of Judah whose birthright was to be in the bloodline of Messiah. The eldest son sinned and died. The Law required the second son to give her a child in the name of the eldest son. The second son refused. That would have ended the line of Messiah so God killed him. The line of Messiah was essential for God’s salvation plan. If you interfere with God’s salvation Plan, God will kill you. The third son still had to grow up so Judah was lax about giving him as a husband to Tamar.

Tamar saw the big picture. As the wife of the oldest son, she alone could bring forth the line of Messiah. So, she acted as a prostitute to seduce Judah and produced a son by him.

Thus, Tamar saved the bloodline of Messiah and very surprisingly emerges as a heroine of the faith. You do not have real faith unless you are obeying the will of God.

Rahab was a Gentile harlot, a bad woman. When two Israelite spies came to her, she hid them and saved their lives. She realized that their God Who had stopped the River Jordan from flowing so that they could cross the River, was the true God. So, she accepted the God of Israel, served Him and saved her own life and her family.

We Gentiles must accept the God of Israel. We must realize that the Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New Testament. That becomes our true faith.

From these Bible characters, we see that if their innermost desires were to believe in the God of truth, then they bowed in obedience to Him. God then organized their lives.

If they had any ulterior motives, then their faith failed to develop and they fell.

Esau carelessly gave up the vital firstborn birthright which put him in the bloodline of Messiah. He sold that birthright for a meal. Modern preachers preach unscriptural ideas because a church will pay them to do so. Preaching has become a meal ticket. A well-paid career. Thjere is no emphasis on being strictly Scriptural.

The Bible never has Christmas, 25 December, Sunday Sabbath, or Good Friday.

Do not elevate any man above the congregation

The New Testament never had a man elevated to be in charge of a church as the Pastor.

Today we have “Pastor and Son" in charge of the church. A good business model as it keeps the money in the family.

They claim that is how the Levitical Priesthood operated. The eldest son taking over from the father as Priest. But the High Priest was not allowed to tear his clothes. When Caiaphas condemned Jesus, Caiaphas tore his clothes. That ended the Levitical Priesthood which no longer exists.

Then the Melchisedec Priesthood took over where every saved Christian is a Priest, which forms a royal Priesthood.

No Priest is above another Priest, even if a Priest has a ministry.

I PETER 2:9   “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,”

There was no elevated Pastoral Priesthood in the New Testament.

Elevating a man to be the head of a church is a Nicolaitan belief that conquers the laity or congregation. God hates that.

The church is a brotherhood where all men are equal, despite some having different ministries.

Peter got scared and denied the Lord in fear of his life when Jesus was arrested and a spirit of Fear filled Jerusalem. He repented bitterly and Jesus forgave him for denying Jesus when dead scared.

This unfortunate scene had to play out as proof that Peter would never be a future infallible Pope. The Word Pope is unscriptural.

The word Pope comes from Pappas which means Father.

We must never call a church leader Father as if he has spiritual authority over us.

MATTHEW 23:9   “And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven”.

A Pope always takes on a new Christian name like Pope Francis.

But Peter is a surname.

MARK 3:16   “And Simon he surnamed Peter;”

JOHN 13:6   “Then cometh he to Simon Peter:”

Simon was his first name. Peter was his surname.

So there never was a Pope Peter. If they made him Pope, which they did not, he would have been called Pope Simon.

But Judas Iscariot was a very different case.

He cold bloodedly betrayed Jesus for financial gain.

This relates to preachers who preach unscriptural doctrines because the church pays them for doing so.

MATTHEW 27:3   “Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,”

Judas tried to repent. Not very effective because he was mainly afraid of the consequences of his actions, rather than of the actions themselves.

“He repented himself”. He tried unsuccessfully to set up his own method of repentance.

He threw the 30 pieces of silver back into the Temple. But there is no salvation by works.

When you betray the Word for money then there is no forgiveness, however much you despair.

“Repented himself” is simply remorse for his actions that had gone terribly wrong.

Judas is an example of what not to do. He was an apostle, a church leader.

He made his own decisions for his own selfish benefit.

Church leaders often cover up sin in their church in order to protect the church’s reputation which protects their own salary.

Love of money causes church leaders to make corrupt decisions that betray the righteous standards of the Gospel, which is God’s Holy Word.

Herod killed John the Baptist who began the Gospel of Jesus Christ and introduced the Messiah.

Killing a Scriptural prophet who brought the truth was equivalent to blaspheming the Holy Ghost. There is no forgiveness for that.

Blaspheming the Holy Ghost is to call the works of God the works of the Devil.

When Jesus, after His trial by Caiaphas, was sent to Herod for a trial, Jesus never said a Word. He refused to speak to Herod.

Jesus is the Word. If we blaspheme the Holy Ghost we will never get a deeper revelation of Scripture. The Bible becomes silent when we read it. We cannot see the deeper mysteries.

We must never contradict what is written in Scripture.

MATTHEW 13:12   “…but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath”.

Do not call people devils just because they disagree with you.

You may be wrong and they may be right. Then you are in trouble with God.

Effective Repentance

True repentance humbles us as we become totally dependant on God for forgiveness. We can do nothing to save ourselves.

As a result, we have no desire to compare ourselves with another.

No desire to try to feel superior to another person.

The prodigal son was willing to come back as a servant, if only his father would forgive his wild ways. Repentance makes us return humbly to God as we crave His forgiveness and realize that we have done absolutely nothing to deserve His forgiveness.

The forgiven son will be full of gratitude as he cheerfully and willingly becomes obedient to the will of his father and has a strong desire to serve Him.

Zacchaeus, when Jesus changed him,  wanted to pay back those he had wronged. He was a greedy taxpayer who overcharged the people.

He did not begrudgingly admit his faults.

He enthusiastically punished himself as he felt so bad about his sins that he readily agreed to more than compensate his victims.

His response was immediate. The money-taker was turned into a giver by his repentance. The thief now wanted to help others. He did not delay his change in attitude. He sprung into action right away.

If we delay, we easily cool off and lose our desire to serve God fervently.

He now moved forward in a totally different manner, strictly and accurately focusing on his many faults. He had no mercy on himself. Sin was going to be rooted out at all costs.

His big bank balance was no longer his idol.

LUKE 19:8   “And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord; Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold”.

If we really repent, we seek forgiveness for any offence that we caused.

We should unreservedly and unconditionally repent of wrong actions. Although we may also have been wronged by the person or persons that we are repentant towards, our thoughts and actions should not be based on the actions of others.

If they wronged us and refuse to admit it, we must still apologize to them for what we did wrong.

Genuine repentance will always produce a change in behaviour.

The change that people see in a repentant person’s life is the surest testimony that he or she did get saved.

The reality of a repentance will bear fruit as that person begins to clean up their life and habits.

Gedara was a Gentile area south of the Sea of Galilee.

A Gentile man lived there who was classified as mad. This was the result of having evil spirits or devils in him. Though he was mad, he still came to Jesus for help.

The big lesson we learn here is that Jesus can help anybody. Nobody is so far gone in sin or devil-possession that they cannot be saved by Jesus.

The devils begged to be allowed to enter a herd of nearby pigs. The result was that they inspired the pigs to drown themselves. A man was saved but 2000 pigs were lost.

We then see that the nature of the local people was focused on their money. They begged Jesus to go. If I lose money by repenting and becoming a Christian then I do not want to be a Christian.

People regard losses in this present world as more important than gaining Eternal Life.

But the healed man wanted to stay with Jesus. Jesus however wanted him to evangelize the Decapolis area, the Ten Cities, which were Gentile territory. Thus, this Gentile man became the start of God’s great outreach to the Gentile nations that would produce the seven church ages that covered the 2000-year history of the Gentile church.

When a person meets Jesus and repents, that person gets a great desire to tell other people what Jesus has done for that person.

After repentance, a person becomes keen to testify about the grace of God and the love of Jesus.

Jesus told a story of a proud Pharisee and a humble bad guy, who was a tax collector.

There is no word Pharisee in the Old Testament.

That is a position of “church” leader (the Jews called it a synagogue) that the Jews picked up when they were captive in Babylon for 70 years.

Being an unscriptural religious leader, the Pharisees had a high opinion of themselves. Pride tripped up the Pharisee who thought he was a great Jew. Many Christians equally make the same mistake and think that they are something great in God’s eyes. That leaves God very unimpressed.

But the tax collector prayed a prayer that described himself as a sinner. He confessed his own hopeless fallen state and begged God’s mercy which is what repentance is all about.

“God be merciful to me a sinner” was his classic sinner’s prayer.

Jesus was very impressed with his attitude.

That is the kind of prayer that attracts God’s attention.

Repentance changes people’s behaviour and beliefs

When we repent, God begins to open our eyes to His Scriptures and this will change the way that we believe.

The Gospel is tough as it is wisdom that comes from above that is very different from how we humans tend to believe.

“Love your enemies”.

That is a hard one to obey. Human nature readily seeks revenge. In order to love those we would normally prefer to hate, requires a deep personal conviction and a huge change in our mindset.

A deeply sincere repentance will cause these big changes in how we think.

The Gospel says, “It is more blessed to give than to receive”.

Our mind is enriched by what we receive, our heart by what we give.

We Gentiles tend to rejoice in receiving and we begrudge paying out.

It is truly uplifting to see individuals who prioritize generosity and compassion over their own comfort; such actions genuinely reflect a spirit of giving.

Repentance makes us focus less on ourselves and more on others as we focus more on Scripture.

Only God can encourage us to walk in that direction.

Hearing what is in Scripture and believing it and obeying it is the most important aspect of modern life.

We suffer from confirmation bias. People only find the data that supports their position.

We must check that what we believe is written in Scripture.

One of the meanings of life is to help others find the meaning of their life.

Do not water down the Gospel for this offended generation. Do not tip-toe around people’s feelings.

We are at our best when we serve others. But we must know how to serve them.

We have an obligation to learn the truths of the Bible. That requires a lot of hard work.

In the same way, an engineer has to first learn the hard laws of engineering which explain how Nature works. Only then can he produce safe and useful projects that benefit society.

Humility does not mean we must think less of ourselves, but rather that we must think of ourselves less.

We need God to control our lives as pleasure calls loudly but self-control whispers. We need God to give us enough character to resist the calls of pleasure.

A repentant heart develops the humble realization that anything good and wise and pure and true must have come from God. God speaks to us from the Bible.

If we do not have the right information from the Bible then we cannot make the right decisions.

Otherwise, our illusions crumble under the weight of reality.

Past glories are poor feeding. No ship sails on yesterday’s wind. We must seek where God is today.

God’s wisdom allows us to hit a target that others tend not to see.

Bible Christianity is unpopular. Popular Christianity is unbiblical.

Christmas. 25 December. Celebrate the Lord’s birth. Good Friday. Easter Monday. Sunday sabbath. The Pastor is the head of the church. These are all unbiblical ideas, but very popular.

Tik Tok, like Christmas, is addictive because it only shows you what you want to see.

If you get what you want, that is God’s direction.

If you do not get what you want, that is God’s protection.

You may not understand His ways but you just have to trust His will.

Prayer may not change your situation but it will change you.

Have patience. Wait on God. What do waiters do? They serve.

Self-effort tends to produce self-indulgence. We have to check our motives very carefully.

The sun is a symbol of Jesus, the Light of the world. A shadow is a symbol of doubt and darkness. But if we face towards the sun (by being Scriptural) then our shadows form behind us and do not stop us from moving forwards towards the light.

Cleansing from sin is a continual process.

It began when we repented and accepted Jesus as our personal Saviour.

That was the initial step.

But our further walk with God requires that we must keep on repenting due to the fact that we keep on sinning.

In this body of flesh we cannot live a perfect life.

ZECHARIAH 13:1   “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness”.

A fountain of fresh water bubbling up allows us to daily cleanse our sins away.

The source of this River of Life is the Cross of Calvary.

EPHESIANS 5:26   “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,”

Believing and obeying the Scriptures enable us to be washed clean by the Word of God which is represented by pure water.

Understanding the Bible gives us a deeper conviction of sin which drives us to be more zealous of repenting in order not to disappoint the Lord. Our deepest desire, out of gratitude, is to stand in His righteousness.

There are both sins that we commit when we do wrong and also sins that we omit when we fail to do something.

A Christian can easily backslide as Satan is a powerful adversary whose job is to lead us away from Scripture.

Satan does not fear you or me and our efforts to oppose him.

What Satan does fear is what is written in the Bible. That alone defeats him.

Dedicated Christians, being close to the Holy Spirit of God, are always feeling inadequate and not good enough. That makes them rely totally on God’s guidance, provision, and strength.

The closer a person gets to Christ, the more convicted we become about our sins.

His Presence makes us realize just how hopeless we are in comparison with Him.

Repentance is thus a continual path that we keep walking along.

PSALM 34:18   “The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit”.

God cannot fix our hearts until we first admit that our hearts are broken.

Contrite. We are helpless in the clutches of sin. We cannot escape by our own efforts nor cleanse ourselves by any good works.

A holy fear for God will remind us of the horrors of sin.

Satan rages against us in a continual battle. Thus, we must be very diligent to avoid sin.

We must hate sin and want to eradicate it from our lives.

Then we can become zealous for good works that add to God’s glory.

Repentance can cut out our deep sins which is painful when we submit to the grace and incredible power of Jesus that helps us to rise above sin.

Deep sorrow for sin produces a lasting joy of sins forgiven.

Sensibly, we choose to forsake our sins as we strive to reach Heaven rather than indulge in our sins as we head for hell.

Fortunately, the Lord is gracious, merciful, and full of forgiveness.

He gets angry slowly but has great kindness.

He will abundantly pardon the genuinely repentant heart.