.  Living Hope Fellowship Church....Sermons by the Pastor 

TRUE REPENTANCE (Part 1)

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

            John 9:31 says, “Now we know that God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth.”  This is the basis for all repentance.

            Our nation has been estranged from God.  Our nation is now being propagated as a nation of freedom loving people - free to do as they please.  They worship the god that they will, to live with one another in harmony, but our country was not founded in such a way.  Our country was founded Christian, and Christianity is not compatible with other gods.  The only way that will get you to God is through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

            We can’t even repent except the Spirit of the Lord deals with us (see John 6:44).  The Bible says the wicked and all nations that forget God shall be turned into hell (see Psalm 9:17).  This denotes that the true God was at one time their God, as we see in the United States of America.  The only hope for America is for us to cry out to God for mercy.

            God does not adhere to all religion.  God is not ecumenical or group oriented.  God is holy and righteous.  God is pure and clean, and He calls for His people to be likewise.

            The only time that God will hear a sinner is when he cries out for forgiveness when God is dealing with him.  It behooves us as Christians to pray that God will deal with sinners, and that God will deal with Christians who have let down their guard and let the world creep in.

            Repentance is a powerful thing.  The Bible says that a broken and a contrite heart God will not despise.  He will not turn away from it.  The word contrite means “bruised”.  If we are not repentant, we cannot get to heaven.  God is near to all who are of a broken and contrite heart.  Tragedy comes to us from time to time to break our hearts.  It may break our hearts for somebody else, but generally He has to allow it to come to us personally, because that is when God is near.  When your heart is broken that is when you are sincere.

            Being contrite is not being melancholy.  God wants us to come to Him broken.  The only way that our nation will be healed is for it to be broken.  The only way that God will hear a sinner is for him to be broken down.  The only way God will hear a Christian who has gone back from his first love is for him to repent.

            We will not get miracles until we learn repentance, until we learn contrition, humility, and brokenness before God.  I want you to search down deep into your soul.  Have you ever tried to be sorry for something that you really weren’t?  We hear the term, and we chuckle at it, Excuse ME!  The words are spoken, but the heart is far from it.

            That which is unclean cannot make itself clean without help from another which is greater.  We need Jesus, and I’m talking to the Christian as much as I’m talking to the sinner and the backslider.

            If we cannot come to a place of repentance, God is deaf to us.  The Pharisees prayed and fasted often, but Jesus said in Matthew 5:20, “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”          

            You will be challenged about seeking the Lord and your humility.  The devil cannot understand brokenness, because he has sealed his destiny.  Satan is proud, arrogant, selfish, and rebellious.  These are his traits, and human beings can take them on easily.  There is a place when God gets fed up with things.  He told Jeremiah in Jeremiah 7:16, “Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.”

             Joshua and all the children of Israel had won battle after battle, and the glorious victory of Jericho was still ringing in their ears, but they couldn’t overcome Ai.  They got down on their faces after being defeated and asked God why.  God spoke to them as they were seeking Him in brokenness, and God told Joshua that it was because there was sin in the camp.  Joshua 7:1 says that Achan, “. . . took of the accursed thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.”

            Achan had compromised their ability to fight.  He put holes in the hedge where the enemy could rout them out. They got rid of the sin, and Verse 26 says, “. . . So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. . . .”

            2 Peter 3:9 tells us that God is longsuffering, and He is, “. . . not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.”  However, Genesis 6:3 says, “And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man. . . .”

            The Bride of Jesus Christ is supposed to hold the truth, but 1 Timothy 4:1 says, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;”

            God wants His Church pure.  1 Peter 4:17 says, “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?”