Repentance Demands Action

Announcer:

This is Today With Derek Prince. The internationally recognized Bible teacher and author presents to you Keys To Successful Living.

Derek Prince shared with us yesterday the importance of repentance in our lives. Today he continues with this theme in his message ‘Through Repentance to Faith’ by focusing on the danger of not responding to God when we have the opportunity. Stay tuned at the end of today’s broadcast for our address and this week’s special offer.

Derek Prince:

Why should we water down the message? We have no authority to do that. The only authority we have is to proclaim the message of the New Testament: repent, be baptized in water, receive the Holy Spirit. When we give the message, God gives the answer. It isn’t God who has changed, it isn’t the message that has changed, but in many cases it’s the church that has changed.

And let me say something which may shock you, but I cannot find from the book of Acts onwards any person who claimed salvation from Jesus without being baptized in water. See if you can find one. Because Jesus said ‘he who believes and is baptized shall be saved.’ What right have you or I to take out the words ‘and is baptized’? Salvation is believing and being baptized. And when you’ve done that you’re a candidate to receive the Holy Spirit. That’s the message of the church, it’s never changed as far as God is concerned.

And then we look at the ministry of Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles. We’ll see as it’s recorded in the book of Acts. First of all, Paul found himself in Athens which was a very intellectual and idolatrous city. He ended up by preaching to them. I don’t think he had any intention of doing it but he ended up where they wanted to know what he believed and he told them. He concludes his message in Acts 17, verse 30 and following, speaking about all the time that they’d lived in idolatry and ignorance of God, he says:

“Truly these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent . . .”

That says so clear, God now commands all men everywhere to repent. No place and no person is excepted. That’s God’s universal requirement from humanity. He’s willing to overlook the past if we will repent.

“And then it says:
‘. . . because He [God] has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.’”

And notice also another feature of the preaching of the apostles which is often dropped out, Jesus is not only the Savior, He’s also the judge. And He’s just as thorough and efficient in judgment as He is in salvation. If you don’t meet Him as Savior you will meet Him as judge. Again, this is dropped out of so much preaching. People talk about the Savior but they never mention the judge. Actually, in his message to the men of Athens Paul never mentioned the Savior. All he said was the judge.

And I’ll tell you, people will live very different lives if they’re not aware of the fact that they’re going to face the judgment of Jesus. There’s a carelessness and a sloppiness in so much contemporary Christianity because we have not faced up to the fact that not only is Jesus the Savior but He is also the judge. ‘God has appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness.’ What’s the issue of judgment? It’s righteousness, how we have lived, what kind of people we’ve been. It’s not a question of our denomination, our nationality, our social status . . . There’s only one issue in judgment, it’s righteousness. And in the first epistle of John, John said ‘all unrighteousness is sin.’ It’s like if you wanted to know what crooked is. I’m not a geometrician but I’ll just show you a straight line and say anything that deviates from that line is crooked. It may deviate by one degree or it may deviate by 90 degrees, but it’s all crooked. And, all unrighteousness is sin. Anything that is not righteous is sinful. There’s no third category.

I’ve observed in so many believers today, they kind of have a third category. Well, it isn’t righteous but it isn’t sinful. That category doesn’t exist in God’s thinking. Anything that is not righteous is sinful. And then we look on in Acts 20 to Paul’s description of his ministry in Ephesus where he’s had some of the greatest results of his whole ministry. He’s speaking now to the elders of the church in Ephesus because he’s about to leave them and he says, ‘You’ll never see me again in this world.’ He has this message of love and concern for those men. He says in verses 20–21 about his ministry in Ephesus:

“I kept back nothing that was helpful . . .”

I’ve often pondered on that phrase, ‘I kept back nothing.’ It implies that there might be some motivation not to preach the full truth because it might cost you your social position. If you’re a minister in a denomination it might cost you your position in the denomination. If you’re a popular society figure it might cost you your popularity. So, Paul says, ‘I thought it over and I decided that nothing was going to influence me to keep back any of the message.’

“I kept back nothing that was profitable but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house . . .”

I like that, his message didn’t change whether it was in a big meeting or in a home group. It was the same message. What was it?

“. . . testifying to Jews, and also to Greeks, repentance toward God and faith to our Lord Jesus Christ.”

What comes first? Faith or repentance? Repentance. Repentance toward God. ‘God, I’m sorry. I’ve been a sinner, I’ve led my own life.’ Then faith toward Jesus. ‘Jesus, I believe you took my place. You died for me on the cross, you took my sins.’ But you cannot have true faith in Jesus unless you have first true repentance toward God.

See, the New Testament is so consistent. I think it’s something of which the church needs to repent that we have so often watered down the message, deceived people, given them a false impression of what it means to become a real Christian. You cannot become a real Christian without repentance. There is no faith without repentance.

The Bible says all men everywhere have to repent. You might say why all men everywhere? Let me give you an answer from the prophet Isaiah. Isaiah 53:6 says this:

“All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way . . .”

You see, that’s our problem. We haven’t necessarily committed murder or idolatry, or stolen anything, or maybe not even lied. But we’ve all done one thing, we have turned to our own way. And our way is not God’s way. That’s one thing we all have in common regardless of our denominational or racial background. Whatever the color of our skin, we have all turned to our own way.

“And then it says:
The Lord has laid on him [that is, on Jesus] the iniquity of us all.”

That’s a very strong word, iniquity. What is turning to our own way? It’s iniquity, it’s rebellion, it’s putting myself ahead of God. And that’s why God requires all men everywhere to repent. Because we have all turned to our own way. We’ve all been doing our own thing, we’ve been pleasing ourselves and leaving God out of the picture. God says, ‘I’ll accept you, I’ll forgive you because of what Jesus did, if you will repent.’ That’s the bottom line, repentance.

Now I want to say that repentance starts with God. Everything good starts with God; we’re always dependent on the grace of God. Apart from God’s grace, apart from the moving of His Spirit, we cannot repent. This is brought out so clearly in Psalm 80. The same phrase occurs three times in this psalm. In the version that I’m reading, it says in verse 3:

“Restore us, O God, cause your face to shine and we shall be saved.”

But where the translation says restore us, the Hebrew says turn us back. In other words, cause us to repent. That comes three times. In verse 3:

“Turn us back, O God, and we shall be saved.
Verse 7:
Turn us back and we shall be saved.
Verse 19:
Turn us back, O Lord, and we shall be saved.”

You understand? You cannot repent unless God turns you. The turning starts with God. That’s why it’s such a vital moment in our lives when God begins to turn us, because if we shrug it off and turn away we cannot repent left to ourselves. We’re dependent on God to initiate repentance.

And then in the book of Lamentations, chapter 5 and verse 21. Lamentation is the mourning of Jeremiah over the destruction of Jerusalem because of its continued rebellion against God. It says, Lamentations 5:21, and in this translation, ‘turn us back.’ It’s the same word that’s used in Psalm 80.

“Turn us back to you, O Lord, and we will be restored.”

Or returned. Turn us back and we will turn. This is a very, very solemn thought. You cannot turn unless God starts to turn you. That’s why that is such a sensitive moment in every life.

Announcer:

In tomorrow’s broadcast Derek Prince continues his topic ‘Through Repentance To Faith,’ and will teach on the relationship between faith and hope, and the difference between the two. This week’s message is available on audiocassette RC4162 and also on video. Our special offer this week is Derek Prince’s book Faith To Live By, which is a resource for every Christian who wishes to obey Scripture and receive the promises of a faith filled life. To receive your copy of ‘Through Repentance to Faith,’ write today and include a contribution of $5.00 or more for the audiocassette, RC4162m or $14.95 for the video teaching. Include a gift of $5.00 or more for the book Faith to Live By. Derek Prince also welcomes your letters and prayer requests.

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