Two of the most important words in the Christian life. Can you imagine what those words might be? Two of the most important words in the Christian life. Well, I would imagine we could guess for a while and it would take a few minutes for you to guess the two words I'm talking about. I'm talking about the words repentance and conversion. Oh, you say, no, those are for unsafe people. Well, yes, as a matter of fact, they are used in the Bible of unsafe people. In fact, if you'll take your Bible
and turn with me, we'll see a couple of places. Luke chapter 13 is one place that we see Jesus using the word repent and referring to those who are unsaved, who are lost, not believers. He says in verse 3, Luke 13, I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. And again in verse 5, he reiterates that statement, I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. And so we see the word repent used here referring
to the repentance of an unsaved person and its necessity. Repentance in this respect is a part of faith. We don't usually speak of it as being a separate work. When one believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, there is repentance that is inherent in that. So we don't make repentance a separate step of salvation. But in genuine faith, there is repentance when a person is saved. And then turn to verse 5, Luke 13, I tell you no, but unless you repent,
there is repentance when a person is saved. And then turn to Matthew chapter 18 and verse 3. Perhaps to get the context, it would be good for us to start in verse 1 where it says at that time the disciples came to Jesus saying, Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And he called a child to him and stood him in their midst and said, Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
You shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. Jesus here is not promoting childishness, but rather he is promoting childlikeness in simplicity of faith and understanding. Simply coming to him and receiving. But tied together with that he says, unless you are converted and become like children. And in the context of this particular passage, it is referring as well to unsaved people. Turn over to Acts chapter 3 verse 19. And we'll see one final
passage and here both words are used, again referring to those who are in unbelief. Acts chapter 3 verse 19. And here we have some comments by Peter to the Jews. And part of his statement is in verse 19, repent therefore and return. That word return as it is in NASV is the word convert, be converted. Repent therefore, be converted or return that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of
the Lord. And so he commands them to repent and to turn or to be converted. And when that takes place in the life of a person, it transforms the life. There's a change there. I remember a few years ago when one of the pornography kings, Larry Flint, publisher of Hustler magazine, indicated a conversion in his life, a turning to Jesus. And yet the result of that was no change at all in his attitude toward pornography. He felt he would continue to publish that
and that was not a contradiction to his new found faith. When there is not a transformation that accompanies so-called repentance and conversion, one has every right to question that because genuine repentance and conversion produce fruit in the life. There's evidence that it's real. But so much for these words as they apply to unbelievers. I'd like for us to think about them in a relationship to Christians tonight. And again I'm going to
ask you to turn to a couple of passages. Let's turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 7 where we see the concept of repentance in connection with Christians. 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 8. The apostle here is referring to a previous letter which he wrote to them, probably 1 Corinthians, which caused them pain. And nonetheless God used that pain to bring repentance. He reflects this. He says, For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it.
Though I did regret it, for I see that the letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while, I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance. For you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, in order that you might not suffer loss and anything through us. What is he saying? Well the Corinthian church had some real problems. And in that first letter the apostle said some pretty
straight things to them. Among those things was the necessity of removing one of the members from the church because of persistent continued sin that was public and bringing disgrace to the Lord and to the church. And he said when you are gathered together you are to
turn that one to Satan, that his body may be destroyed but his spirit saved. And the understanding of that is that they were to put him outside of the church and put him into the world again where the dissipation of the flesh would take its toll upon him and physically he would suffer from it. But in the end perhaps God would bring him to
repentance, if not he would certainly be disciplined and taken home to heaven as a believer. Now the apostle also writes to the church and he says you have the wrong attitude about this. He says you need to change your mind. You are bragging about the fact that sin is allowed in your midst, do you think it's broad mindedness? It's not. And so as he began to talk to them about this it created sorrow but that sorrow was not a superficial
sorrow, it was a sorrow that was a godly sorrow. It produced the will of God in them, it caused them to repent. And so he praises God for that here in the verses we've read. And then back to the Gospel of Luke again to chapter 22. And here's a statement of our Lord concerning
Peter, a believer. Here he uses the word repentance. In Luke 22 verse 31 Jesus speaks to Peter using his name Simon and he says Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail and you when once you have converted or turned again strengthen your brothers. And so here's the word converted used of Peter who is a believer. And Jesus says Peter when you have been converted then
I want you to strengthen your brothers, the disciples. And we see that take place later on in the ministry in the early chapters of Acts. And so we see from the Bible that two important words of the Christian life are repentance and conversion. They are forgotten words these days but I tell you if we want to press on the higher ground as we prayed earlier, we need to learn what repentance and conversion are all about as Christians
because they have a vital role in our relationship to God. What is repentance anyway? Well let me say some things it's not. Repentance is not the same thing as reformation, turning over a new leaf or trying harder. Repentance is not penance, a concept which some of you are familiar with coming out of a certain religious background. Penance has the idea of doing something as an act or deed to help atone for sin or to express sorrow to God
for a sin. But repentance is not the same thing as penance. In fact penance is a word and a concept formed in the New Testament. Nor is repentance remorse or contrition. It's more than that, it's more than sorrow. For example, Judas after he betrayed our Lord went out and wept, was very remorseful for what he had done but there was no repentance in his life. It was a superficial sorrow. As we've seen in the Corinthian letter,
repentance goes deeper than just sorrow, it involves something more than that. Now what is that something more? Well literally the word repent means to change the mind or to perceive with the mind afterward. It is something like the proverbial afterthought or hindsight. They always say hindsight is better than foresight, right? Well repentance has that kind of an idea to it. It means that you see something afterward and you perceive it in such a way
that it brings about a change in the life. Change is involved in it and so often it's said to be a change of the mind. It means to have another mind about something. It's more than just emotions which involves remorse or contrition. Repentance involves the will. It's more than a feeling that one gets. It's a decision that one comes to. It is an act of the will, a change of the mind in the way that one perceives something. And when we
think of repentance we usually think of it in three aspects. A change of mind regarding the sin that is involved. That is instead of looking at it as something to be desired or something that is pleasurable, I look at it as something that is repulsive and therefore I change my attitude, my mind, my thinking about the sin. It means that I change secondly
my attitude regarding God. Instead of trying to hide it from God, instead of trying to run from God, rather I change my attitude and I come to Him and I am open and honest with God. That's repentance. And then repentance involves ourselves. Instead of trying to deceive ourselves and to excuse ourselves as we do so well, all of us, rather I confess and admit to myself what happened. I change my attitude with regards to myself. And so repentance
is a very thorough thing. It involves sin, it involves God, it involves myself. I believe that we see the concept of repentance illustrated for us in a very brief parable that Jesus tells in Matthew chapter 21. I'm not going to take time to read the whole context here, but the situation is a tense one in which the Jewish leaders are questioning Jesus, trying to trap Him into saying something that they can use as an accusation against Him.
And Jesus being full of wisdom turns their accusation and their question upon them. And then he says in verse 28, And what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, Son, go work today in the vineyard. And he answered and said, I will, sir. And he did not go. And he came to the second and said the same thing. And
he answered and said, I will not. Yet afterward he regretted it and went. The illustration of repentance is found in verse 30, where the young man responded to his father, I will not, and then later had a second thought about that. And as he perceived it, looking at it from a different direction, he recognized the mistake. And it was deep enough to bring a change in him. Yet afterward, it says, he regretted it and he went to the vineyard.
He did what he said originally he would not do. That's an illustration of repentance. Probably though, the very best illustration of repentance that Jesus ever told was the story of the prodigal son. The young man recorded in Luke chapter 15, who asked for his inheritance early and then went out and squandered it in immoral living. And once the money was gone, his friends left, hard times came, and ultimately he went to work for a farmer feeding
the swine. And he himself was so hungry, Jesus said, that he would have eaten what the swine were eating, the husks that they lunched on. But, it says, he came to himself and said, I will arise and go to my father. Now in that phrase, and he came to himself, is the concept of repentance. What happened? Well, the young man thought again about what had taken place. He realized the error of it. He changed his mind about himself. No longer was he the young
playboy who knew it all, but he recognized his error, his immaturity, his sin. He changed his mind about his father. His father, he had apparently perceived before as being a hard man and a square, and so he took off. But dad's not so square anymore. So he has a change of mind about dad. And instead of living like he had been, seeming a desirable thing, suddenly he realizes that was a mistake and so he wants to go back home and even be
a servant to his father. You see, there's a deep, thorough repentance in the young man. And he came back home to his father. The repentance was not only tears shed in the pig pen, but it was steps that he took as he headed toward home. How does this apply to a Christian? Well, it applies to us in a number of ways because, dear people, there are many times each week when you and I need to express repentance, when we need to realize that what we are doing
is wrong and change our mind about it. Instead of perceiving what we're doing as being something desirable and pleasurable and fun and worthwhile, we change our mind, we repent, and say this is a waste and we begin to do the right thing. We live in a day when there are very many excuses for doing wrong things. I came across a little clipping a while back that doesn't
say it perfectly, but it gets to the point anyway. It says, when a man says he can't keep awake during a 30-minute sermon and yet stays home and watches two and a half hours of football on television, who's he kidding? When a man says Sunday is his only day of rest and yet gets up at 4.30 in the morning to spend the day fishing, who's he kidding?
When a man says the church seats are too hard and uncomfortable and then goes some Saturday to sit on a bleacher for hours in a drizzling rain to watch 22 men push one another back and forth across a mud lot, who's he kidding? When a man says he can't afford to tithe but lives in a comfortable home, drives a good car, eats well, closes family well, and
makes payment on his home, who's he kidding? When a man says he doesn't have time for Christ and the church and then spends his evenings shopping or bowling or watching television or going to clubs or having evenings out, who's he kidding? Surely not God. It doesn't cover every possible situation, does it? But it gets to the heart of the whole issue. How easily we deceive ourselves. We're not deceiving God. I think there is a need for all of us
to live in the attitude of repentance. I believe that's what genuine revival is. Revival is not a week of meetings you have at the church every fall, whether you need them or not. Revival is a continuous attitude of repentance. It is an examination of my life and when I realize there is something wrong because God reveals that to me, I immediately change my mind about it. Repentance, coupled with repentance, is conversion. What is conversion? Well, conversion
is not the same thing as being born again or regeneration. That's something else. Conversion is not good works. Conversion is not justification. Conversion is turning towards some object. It means to turn around or to turn about. It is used in Matthew 5 verse 30 in a physical sense. This defines the word beautifully here and what takes place. Our Lord is in a crowd of people and there is a woman there who has a problem, a physical problem. She simply
reached out and touched the hem of his cloak in faith and was healed. It says in verse 30, and immediately Jesus, perceiving in himself that the power proceeding from him had gone forth, turned around in the crowd and said, Who touched my garments? Can you imagine a statement like that in the press of the crowd and Jesus says, Who touched me? But the point I want to get to is that it says, Jesus turned around. That is the very word convert. So
what does it mean to convert? It means to be heading this direction and to turn around and go that direction. Some people get the idea that repentance is that and it's hard to separate the two. Technically though, repentance is the first step. It's the change of the mind and the attitude about something. Whereas conversion is the second step. They are like twins. They work together. I change my mind about it and therefore I turn around. I am
converted. It's used in a number of places in the New Testament. We've pointed out some which is used of unbelievers. Let me just show one more to you. In 1 Thessalonians 1 9, because this is such an instructive verse, 1 Thessalonians 1 9, in writing to these dear believers with whom Paul had been only a few days, he recalls with thankfulness their salvation and he says to them, You know your testimony, your witness is being heard like rumbling
thunder all across this area. He says in verse 9, they themselves, that is those who have reported to us about your testimony, report about us what kind of reception we had with you and how you turned to God from idols. Now there the word turn is the word convert. He says you turned to God from idols. Now I want you to notice that in that conversion there is a positive and a negative aspect. And notice which comes first. He doesn't
say you turned to idols from God. There are some translations that put it in that order and they missed the point, or at least one of the points. He says you turned to God from idols. You see salvation doesn't begin by giving up something. It begins by receiving someone, turning to someone. There are a lot of people who have the idea that before they can turn to God they have to give up something else first. The fact is that we turn to God
and when we turn to him automatically we turn from whatever else it may be. There are a lot of people who say, well I'll get saved but first I'm going to quit smoking. I'm going to turn to God but first I'm going to give up this or I'm going to change that. But you see the proper order is to turn to God and those things then fall into place.
He says you've turned to God from idols. You've been converted. Now we've read the passage in Luke 22 in which this word is used of a believer and there it is used of Peter. What was happening? Well Peter was walking in the direction of self-confidence in improper
sense. He felt he could handle anything and here Jesus was talking about some tough things that were coming and Peter was confident that they would never affect him and Jesus said, Satan has desired that he may sift you but I have prayed for you and when you're converted, when you get turned around, strengthen your brothers. As far as Peter was concerned at that point he didn't need to turn around. It was within a few hours of that that he
denied the Lord three times just as Jesus said that he would. You know what it says there in Luke 22? It says that immediately when the cock crowed, crude, whatever a cock does, it says Jesus looked at Peter. Not a word was uttered, not a word, but there was Peter standing beside the fire, Jesus over there with those who were judging him and when that sound was emitted, Jesus turned, Peter turned, their eyes met for an instant
and in that instant Peter did a lot of thinking. Suddenly he realized that that self-confident person that he thought he was didn't exist. He had absolutely blown it and that rethinking of it resulted in his turning around and he literally turned around and ran out and it says he wept bitterly. Now so did Judas, but the result of Judas' tears was suicide. It was not repentance, it was only remorse. But with Peter it was a genuine repentance. He
was broken hearted that he had failed the Lord that he loved so much. Three days later when Jesus rose from the dead, it's very interesting, because those who came to the tomb were given the orders, go and tell his disciples and who? And Peter that he has risen. Isn't that interesting? The Lord made sure that Peter got a special word. He wanted Peter to know that he was restored. I like that. And why was Peter restored? Because he repented
and was converted. He turned from that self-confident, egotistic person that he was and repented and came to the Lord broken. That's what revival is all about. I don't believe that any of us will turn around until we've changed our minds about what we think we are and what we're doing. Who needs to be converted? Well the answer to that is anybody who's going the wrong direction. I'm talking to some people tonight, undoubtedly, who need that.
I've heard some great missionary sermons which said, the last word of Jesus Christ to the church was to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Wrong. That was not the last word of Christ to the church. You know what the last word of Christ to the church was? Vance Havner writes about this and has a sermon on the subject. Some of you may have heard it. The last word of Jesus Christ to the church was repent. Isn't that interesting?
Turn over to Revelation chapter 2. We're just going to take a quick scan through the letters to the seven churches. This is 90 A.D. Our Lord is glorified. He's in heaven. He is dictating letters to the apostle John who's on the Isle of Patmos. He first dictates a letter to Ephesus and here in the middle of the letter he says, I have this against you, verse 4, that you have left your first love. In other words, the fervency, the enthusiasm,
the excitement, the emotion of your first love is gone, as busy as you are. He says in verse 5, remember therefore from where you have fallen and repent and do the deeds you did at first. That's really what conversion is. Then he says, or else I am coming to you and remove your lampstand out of its place unless you repent. Verse 16. Here to the church of Pergamum, repent therefore or else I am coming to you quickly. Skip on down to verse
21. Here he speaks about Jezebel in the church of Thyatira. He says, I gave her time to repent. She does not want to repent of her immorality. Notice she does not want to repent. Repentance is a matter of the will and the mind. Then down in chapter 3, verse 3, he says to the church at Sardis, remember therefore what you have received and heard and keep it and repent. Then in verse 19, in the letter to the church at Laodicea, he says, those whom
I love I reprove and discipline. Be zealous therefore and repent. Why is it that we live in a day when so many Christians are involved in worldliness and are not turning from it? It's because they are not repentant. For repentance produces conversion. This is not a small issue. Just back up a few pages here to the book of James. Here are a couple of
verses that have caused a few people to stay up late. James 5, verses 19 and 20. My brethren, if any among you strays from the truth, and one turns him back, and there is the word convert as it is in some translations, and one converts him, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins. Context those. This is a word to believers, number one. This is not
for unsafe people. This is talking to believers. My brothers, if any among you, if any among you strays from the truth and one converts him, turns him around, let that one know that he will save that one who had strayed from death and will cover a multitude of sins. The death that is spoken about here is the discipline of God. We dare not think lightly about sin, folks. We are going to be talking more about this on Sunday mornings, but I
judge myself when I find myself thinking casually about sin. We need to realize how serious sin is. And I'm thinking not only of the great sins as we think of them, but I'm thinking even of little sins, quote unquote. Sins like lying. Sins like being deceitful to parents or to husband or wife. Sins like promising to do something and not to do it. Or promising
to be somewhere for a meeting and then not to show up. Keeping our word. Sins like anger and bitterness, which we hide down inside but is like a root that goes down into the soul and then eventually produces all kinds of fruit. Those kinds of sins you see produce death or God's discipline in our lives. And do you know what is said here? That you
and I who are part of the family have a responsibility to watch out for one another. In other words, if you see me straying from the truth, whether it be in doctrine or in right living, God expects you to come to me and to say, Gillen, I have noticed some things and I'm concerned about it. Can I talk with you? And then to sit down and share with me, resulting in hopefully my turning, my conversion, my repentance. In so doing, my track record of sins will
be forgiven and covered up and I'll be spared God's discipline. You see, we have that responsibility for one another. We don't like that, do we? We are afraid to go to one another and yet we must do that. Not only must we go to one another but we must be willing to receive the admonition of a brother or sister who loves us and to consider what is being said and to repent and to be converted. I believe that the need of our hour is for continuous
revival. Continuous revival is not some mystical kind of an experience. It's not Pentecost repeated. All revival is is just for repentance and conversion to be a part of the Christian life. So if we press on toward the higher ground, toward maturity, toward growing, let's
remember what we've learned tonight in the Word about repentance and conversion. Now God I pray that tonight wherein each of us needs to repent and to be converted, that we will follow through with that kind of a spirit and action so that we will be spared discipline and so that we will not have to be ashamed of ourselves when we stand before
you. And I pray Father that you will give us the kind of genuine love for one another which will result in our being willing to risk admonishing one another in love, taking care that the beam in our own eye has been dealt with first. In Jesus' name, amen.