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| − | ====<FONT color="#aa0000" size="10">'''Repent or Perish!'''</font>==== | + | ====<FONT color="#aa0000" size="10">'''Be a Blessing'''</font>==== |
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| − | A growing debate in our fundamental churches is the issue of repentance. Since large churches are often built by "not scaring anyone away," it is becoming very common to hear sermons and read newsletters which proclaim a repentless salvation. That is, many are boldly proclaiming that one does not have to repent of his sins to be saved. I recently heard a message on tape by a very popular preacher who stated that every New Testament command to repent is addressed to a saved person. His reasoning was that lost people just need to trust Christ and not worry about sins. This man has preached this doctrine for many years, and many have followed in his steps. Most any Bible-believing preacher or personal worker can tell you numerous stories about the so-called "Christians" they've met who were supposedly saved after repeating a brief prayer. There was no Holy Ghost conviction, no change of attitude about the world, the flesh, or their numerous sins, and there was no evidence of a new life after their conversion. Yet, this person was "chalked up" as another new addition to the kingdom of God.
| + | `Get thee out of they country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto the land that I will show thee; and I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee; and be thou a blessing.' - Gen. 12:1,2 |
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| − | I know of a church which used to send out a monthly bulletin which gave the totals for their converts and baptisms for the month. Nearly every issue stated that between two and three hundred people had been saved in the previous thirty days. This went on for about three or four years, which means that over 7,000 people made professions. Did this church have 7,000 members? No, they did not. Did they have at least 5,000? No, they did not. At least 1,000? Nope. Maybe 500? I think not! On a big day this church might break 300. On an average Sunday, their attendance was less than 200 people. They had 200 in attendance, yet they really believed that they had been leading 200 to Christ every month for over thirty-six months straight! One of their members ran into me at the county fair one night where we were passing out tracts. He said, "Hey, we've had twelve saved tonight!" I don't know if these twelve ever made it to church, but I'm certain they made the monthly bulletin.
| + | In these first words that God spake to Abraham, we have the short summary of all that God has to say to him and to us as His children. We see what the goal is to which God calls us, what the power that carries us to that goal, and what the place where the power is found. |
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| − | The trouble is that too many preachers have been convinced that getting a profession and getting folks to church is the main thing. "If we can just get them in church, we can work on the repentance later" seems to be the rule of the day. Another rule goes like this: "We don't want to say or do anything to scare them off." Naturally, the word "repent" scares the daylights out of lost people, so repentance is forsaken in order to get the person to make a profession and maybe even come to church. As the years roll by, the church becomes a great big nursery filled with lost people and spiritual babies. Less than ten percent of the membership does over ninety percent of the spiritual work of the church. However, the weak majority still FEELS important because they have their picture in the church directory, and they get to argue and vote in business meetings.
| + | Be a blessing: that is the goal for which God separates Abraham and every believing child of His. |
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| − | This whole stinking mess started when the ambitious preacher got the "bright" idea to ignore a word that occurs over one hundred times in the Bible in its various forms. With the inspired words of God being our guide, let us study the subject of repentance and hopefully help someone to stay on the straight and narrow way.
| + | God would have him and us made to understand that, when he blesses us, this is certainly not simply to make us happy, but that we should still further communicate His blessing. (Matt. 5:34,35; 10:8; 18:33) God Himself is love, and therefore He blesses. Love seeketh not itself: when the love of God comes to us, it will seek others through us. (Isa. 43:10,11; 1 Cor. 13:5; 1 John 4:11) The young Christian must from the beginning understand that he has received grace with the definite aim of becoming a blessing to others. Pray, keep not for yourself what the Lord gives to you for others. Offer yourself expressly and completely to the Lord, to be used by Him for others: that is the way to be blessed oveflowingly yourself. (Ps. 112:5,9; Prov. 11:24,25; Matt. 25:40; 1 Cor. 15:58; 2 Cor. 9:6; Heb. 6:10) |
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| − | Repentance in the Bible has three basic elements: a genuine sorrow towards God (II Cor. 7:9-10), a genuine separation from sin (Heb. 6:1; Acts 26:20), and a genuine submission to God's will (Acts 9:6; I Thes. 1:9). In other words, repentance involves a totally changed life. II Corinthians 5:17 says, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." According to the Bible, all things are new once a man is in Christ, and old things are passed away. Repentance is certainly a requirement. Jesus began his ministry preaching, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Mat. 4:17) In Matthew 9:13 he said, ". . . I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." He upbraided cities in Matthew 11:20 "because they repented not." Repentance is required for salvation, and no honest and serious student of Scripture can claim otherwise.
| + | The power for this work will be given. `Be a blessing': `I will bless thee,' says the Lord. You are to be personally blessed yourself, personally sanctified and filled with the Spirit, and peace, and power of the Lord: then you have power to bless. (Luke 24:49; John 7:38; 14:12) In Christ God has `blessed us with all spiritual things': let Jesus fill you with these blessings, and you shall certainly be a blessing: you need not doubt or fear. The blessing of God includes in it the power of life for multiplication, for expansion, for communication. See in the Scriptures how blessing and multiplication go together. (Gen. 1:22,28; 9:1; 22:17; 26:24) Blessing always includes the power to bless others. Only give the word of the Almighty God, `I will bless Thee,' time to sink into your spirit. Wait upon God, that He Himself may say to you, `I will bless thee.' Let your faith cleave fast to this. God will make it truth to you above all asking and thinking. (2 Cor. 9:8,11; Eph. 1:3; Heb. 6:14) |
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| − | But let's not stop here. The Bible offers many clear commands for preachers to deal with sin and repentance. In Isaiah 58:1, God says, "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins." | + | But for this end you must also betake yourself to the place of blessing: the land of promise, the simple life of faith in the promises. `Get thee out thy land and thy father's house,' says the Lord. Departure, separation from the life of nature and the flesh, in which we were born of our father Adam, is what God would have. The offering up of what is most precious to man is the way to the blessing of God. (Luke 28:29,30; John 12:24,25; 2 Cor. 6:17,18) `Get thee to a land that I will show thee,' says the Lord, out of the old life to a new life, where I alone am your guide; that is, a life where God can have me wholly for Himself alone, where I walk only on the promises of God - a life of faith. |
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| − | How about Isaiah 55:6-7? "Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." God is holy, and he demands that we forsake sin in order to have his fellowship.
| + | Christian, God will in a Divine fashion fulfil to you His promise, `I will bless thee.' O go, pray, out of your land and your father's house, out of the life of nature and the flesh, out of intercourse with the flesh and this world, to the New Life, the life of the Spirit, the life in fellowship with God to which He will lead you. There you become receptive of His blessing; there your heart becomes open to full faith in His word, `I will bless thee'; there He can fulfil that word to you, and make you full of His blessing and power to be a blessing to others. Live with God, separated from the world: then shall you hear the voice of God speak with power: `I will bless thee'; `Be thou a blessing.' |
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| − | We use Isaiah 1:18 a lot in dealing with lost people: "Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool." That's a great verse, but so are verses 16 and 17: "Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow." God isn't just interested in forgiveness; he's first interested in repentance.
| + | O my Father, show me the way to that promised land where Thou bringest Thy people to have them wholly for Thyself. I will abandon everything to follow Thee, to hold converse with Thee alone, in order that Thou mayest fill me with Thy blessing. Lord, let Thy word, `I will bless thee,' live in my heart as a word of God: then shall I give myself wholly to live for others and to be a blessing. Amen. |
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| − | Do you want more? Consider some words from Ezekiel: "Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, saith the Lord GOD. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" (18:30-31) "Wilt thou judge them, son of man, wilt thou judge them? cause them to know the abominations of their fathers." (20:4) "Now, thou son of man, wilt thou judge, wilt thou judge the bloody city? yea, thou shalt shew her all her abominations." (22:2) Why so much emphasis on sin? Doesn't God know that such negative preaching will scare people away?! Maybe some of the brethren need to send the Lord one of their milky and repentless newsletters to inform him of his errors. Just imagine how many souls could be "saved" if we would all just shut up about sin and repentance!
| + | 1. God is the great, the only Fountain of blessing: as much of God as I have in me, so much blessing can I bring. I can work much for others without blessing. Actually to be a blessing, I must begin with that word, `I will bless thee': then the other, `Be a blessing' becomes easy. |
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| − | Remember Achan from Joshua chapter seven? Sin in the camp was harmful to God's righteous cause. Lives were even lost because sin was present. God's Spirit was quenched and the battle was lost.
| + | 2. In order to become a blessing, begin on a small scale: yield yourself up for others. Live to make others happy. Believe that the love of God dwells in you by the Spirit, and give yourself wholly to be a blessing and a joy to those who are round about you. Pray God to shed abroad His love in you still further by the Spirit. And believe very firmly that God can make you a greater blessing than you can think, if you surrender yourself to Him for this end. |
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| − | Question: How can a man be born of the Holy Spirit (John 3:8) while at the very moment of his conversion he is quenching the Holy Spirit by justifying and hanging onto his sins? Does the Holy Spirit say, "Look, I know you have no intention of cleaning up and living for me. I know you'll never go to church, pray, or read the Bible, but I'm going to give you the new birth anyway?" Is that how it works? Chapter and verse please? How can the Holy Spirit be "holy" if he has no standards?
| + | 3. But this surrender must have time in solitary prayer, that God may obtain possession of your spirit. This is for you the departure from your father's house: separate yourself from men that God may speak with you. |
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| − | I know that some of these passages are dealing with God's people, not the lost, but there are other passages which are just as clear concerning repentance and lost people. For example, have you considered Acts 17:30? It says, "And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent." Those words were preached by Paul to "Ye men of Athens" (vs. 22). There is a Bible-believing preacher telling lost people to repent of their sins, yet we have preachers today teaching that repentance is only an issue between God and his own people.
| + | 4. What think you? Was Abraham ever filled with regret that he placed himself so entirely under the leading of God? Then do you likewise. |
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| − | The trouble has to do with the actual meaning of the word. Webster defines it this way: "Real penitence; sorrow or deep contrition for sin, as an offense and dishonor to God, a violation of his holy law, and the basest ingratitude towards a being of infinite benevolence. This is accompan- ied and followed by amendment of life." As we shall see, Webster has it right. Repentance begins in the heart (sorrow, deep contrition) and then is followed by outward fruit. John the Baptist told the Pharisees and Sadducees to "Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance." (Mat. 3:7-8) Well, no one can bring forth such fruit if they haven't purposed in their heart to do so. Repentance begins in the heart and is then followed by an outward action.
| + | 5. Do you now know the two words which are the source of all promises and all commands to the children of believing Abraham? The promise is: `I will bless thee.' The command is: `Be a blessing.' Pray, take them both firmly for yourself. |
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| − | For this, let us consider the law of first mention. The first case of repentance in the Bible is found in Genesis 6:7: "And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them." Notice how God's repentance is an inward thing pointing to an outward action. He makes up his mind about the flood, and he then sends the flood later.
| + | 6. And do you now understand where these two words to Abraham are fulfilled? In separation from his father's house - in the walk in fellowship with God</font> |
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| − | Here lies the answer--if only the brethren would accept it. Preachers who do not believe that repentance is a requirement for salvation often believe that repentance involves an immediate turn from all sin with an immediate life of holiness being manifest. They realize how this is practically impossible for most people, so they throw out repentance altogether! If only they really believed the Bible!
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| − | When I stand on a street corner and say, "Repent, or ye shall all likewise perish," I am not saying that my listeners can't be saved until they quit their drinking, their smoking, their fornicating, their cursing and their rock-n-rolling. I am not saying that they must stop all those things and start living a holy life before they can trust Christ. Indeed, that would constitute a works-based salvation. When I say, "repent," I am speaking of a Biblical repentance which begins with a simple change of heart (Gen. 6:7). Since the mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart (Mat. 12:34), I can expect the candidate for salvation to say some things that indicate a changed heart about sin and righteousness. He may not overcome his smoking habit for a good while, but he readily admits that it is wrong and it displeases God. He may not immediately "break up" with his shack-up honey, but at least he now admits that God is not pleased with his way of living and some action needs to be taken. It's the change of heart that we need to seek because, if the heart changes, God has begun a work, and he will continue it: "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." (Philip. 1:6)
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| − | <font size="4" color="#000027">'''Do you have a ministry or a business'''</font><br>
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| − | Do you have a called of God ministry where your whole purpose is to '''"feed the sheep"''', and God '''supplies your needs''', <FONT color="#aa0000" size="4">or do you have books, tapes, videos, etc. that you '''SELL''' for a "donation", or just outright '''SELL''', and your buyers supply your needs?</font>
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| − | There is nothing wrong with being in business and selling things. However, if you are a church or any kind of "ministry", you may want to check your motive for how you are conducting the work of the Lord.
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| − | '''Remember the money changers in the temple where JESUS turned over the tables and threw them out. They were selling things in the "CHURCH"'''. <br>
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| − | https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-television-program/when-demons-are-real'''(God made it quite clear to us that we were not to charge for anything, that HE is our source.)'''</font>
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