Is Repentance Essential?

“And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there.” —Acts 20:20–22

From these verses we get the apostle’s conception of true Gospel preaching. He believed that repentance toward God should have a prominent place in the preacher’s message. We do not hear many sermons on this subject in these days, not as many as we used to hear twenty or thirty years ago. We hear about “citizenship” and “individual liberty” and a whole lot of other things along that line, but few are the preachers today who, like the apostle Paul, reason of “righteousness, temperance and judgment to come.”

I was talking to a brother preacher a little time ago who takes the modern view of the Bible. He asked me if I preached “the same kind of gospel that Moody used to preach.”

“We at The Moody Church today believe the same truths and try to emphasize them in our poor weak way,” I said.

He replied quickly, “I long since concluded that the day of preaching that kind of sermons is past.”

“Why, do you really think so, brother?” I asked him.

When I pressed him for some evidence of change in the moral and spiritual condition of the church and the world he was somewhat confused.

A Sad But True Verdict

Just recently, one of the most venerated citizens of the United States, in the city of New York, a man who for half century has been identified with nearly all the great events of this country, a man noted for his wisdom, made the statement that in the eighty years of his life he had never known about such an epidemic of crime and lawlessness as that through which we, as a nation, are now passing. If that verdict is correct, then we with Paul must reason of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come.

There are two things that never change, the human heart and the Gospel. God gave us the Gospel to meet the need of the human heart and it is the only thing that can solve the problem of the human heart and the only thing that can meet the need of the human life. There has been no change in God’s prescription for sin. I want to say that I believe that wherever the Gospel is preached it results as it has in days that are gone. The churches today that are bringing men out of darkness into light, that are training missionaries and evangelists, and sending them to the uttermost parts of the earth—and standing behind them with prayer and money, are churches that believe the Gospel as our fathers used to do.

When that gentleman in New York said that the condition of the world morally and spiritually was worse at this moment than at any time during this long life, he was rendering a verdict that any honest man will render today, if he looks the world fairly in the face.

At the beginning let me say a word as to my belief in the Gospel of the grace of God. I believe in “the righteousness that cometh by faith.” I believe all sinners who come to Jesus Christ are “justified freely, without works.” They are “justified by grace through the redemption which we have in Christ Jesus.” It is “to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. His faith is counted to him for righteousness.”

On the other hand, one may get an erroneous conception of these glorious truths.

Safe In Christ

I was talking the other day with a man who was drinking rather heavily. He was then partially intoxicated, and I spoke to him about the evils of intemperance. He said, “Why, preacher, I am a saved man.”

“Oh,” I said, “how do you make that out?”

“Well, I believe in the security of the saints.”

I said, “That’s good. So do I. I believe that He giveth His sheep eternal life and they shall never perish, that no man is able to pluck the sheep of the Father’s flock out of His hand.”

He said, “So do I.”

“But there is another passage in the Bible. Have you read 1 Corinthians 6:9–10?”

He replied, “Well, I don’t recall it just now. What is it?”

So, I read it to him. Paul said to the Corinthian church, “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate nor abusers of themself with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”

In the 21st chapter of the book of Revelation, we are told that no drunkard will enter the kingdom of heaven.

“Don’t you believe in the security of the saints?” he asked.

“Oh, yes,” I said, “security of the SAINTS. I believe if any man is IN CHRIST he is just as safe as if he were in heaven, but he must be in Christ.” And if any man is in Christ he is a new creature. Old things ARE passed away and all things are become now. It is in Christ you are secure, and no place else, and when you are in Christ you are a new creature.

Jesus said, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” You have a right to judge a man by his life. So have I. And no drunkard shall enter the kingdom of heaven. Say, what is the vital difference between a man who professes to be a Christian and is a drunkard and a man who does not profess to be a Christian and is a drunkard? No difference, only that the one is a hypocrite as well as a drunkard. “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Ah, friends, this is not only a Gospel of grace, but a Gospel of righteousness.

Now John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus, we are told came preaching repentance. He stirred Israel from her center to her circumference by calling on the nation to repent. You say, “He was the last of the Old Testament prophets.” But you find that when Jesus came He also began calling on the nation to repent and to believe the Gospel. Mark tells us that when John was cast into prison that Jesus himself came into Galilee preaching the Gospel and saying, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe the Gospel.” You see, Jesus made repentance essential and necessary to a saving faith.

Then you remember when they came to Him with the story of the disaster which the Pharisees thought was a mark of God’s displeasure a tower had fallen upon some men, Jesus said, “Suppose ye that these people were sinners above all sinners? I tell you, nay. Except ye repent ye all likewise shall perish.”

“Repentance and remissions of sins must be preached to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem,” He told His disciples.

When Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, preached the first sermon on the day of Pentecost, men cried out, “What must we do to be saved?” “Repent every one of you,” said the apostle, “and be baptized for the remission of your sins.”

Again, a day or two later in the temple, a great crowd gathered and Peter exhorted them to “Repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out.”

Peter was the apostle to the Jews, you will say. It is Paul who speaks the words that we have taken for our text. He tells us he was commissioned by God to go to the Gentiles. He said that when he met Jesus on the way to Damascus that the Lord told him that He wanted him to go to the Jews and the Gentiles alike and “turn men from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, that their eyes might be opened.” In telling that story to King Agrippa, he adds these words, “I was not disobedient to that heavenly vision.” He began at Damascus and went to Jerusalem, and on tot he Gentiles, “preaching repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

For this cause they sought to kill Paul. You see, the human heart does not like the Gospel of repentance. We want to be saved and still go on in our sins. But the Gospel of the grace of God is to this effect: If your faith is not strong enough to separate you from sin, it isn’t strong enough to save your soul.

What Is It?

What is meant by repentance? What would you term Bible repentance? First of all, let me say that it is not remorse. It is not simply being sorry for your sins. God bless your soul, the jail is full of people that feel like that! I have seen men that have been on the brink of despair for their wrong-doing. Remorse is not repentance. Judas had enough remorse to go out and hang himself. If Judas had repented, I believe the Lord would have saved him. Had Judas not gone out and hanged himself, had he turned to Christ and confessed his sins (for after all, his sin wasn’t so much worse than the sin of Peter) I believe Christ would have saved him.

Penance is not repentance. That is a shame and a sham. It suggests that you can bargain with God Almighty to do wrong. You can’t bribe God by climbing stone steps on your knees or going without food. You can’t purchase forgiveness by afflicting your body. That is penance, but is not repentance. The Greek word from which the word “repentance” is translated suggests that it is a change of attitude toward former things. One of the greatest sermons Mr. Moody ever preached was on repentance. He defines it this way. “There is a soldier marching down the aisle. His commander says, ‘Halt.’ He stops, ‘Right about face.’ He turns quickly. ‘Forward, march.’ He starts the other way. That is repentance.”

Jesus Gives Examples

Christ gives us two illustrations. One of these was of a man who had two sons (Matthew 21) and he had a big vineyard. He went to these two boys who were evidently loafing and he said, “I want you to go into the vineyard and work today.” The one fellow said, “I won’t do it.” He believed in individual liberty. He said, “I won’t go.” But Jesus said, “Afterward he repented and went.”

Then in that matchless story that we all know so well and yet every time we read it, it talks to us from a new angle—the story of the prodigal son, there is an illustration of repentance. First of all, this boy realized his desperate condition. “He came to himself.” It is great when we get to that place. We do so much looking at other folks and other things, but when a fellow gets right down to himself he will find that he hasn’t found much after all. You may have heard of the old minister who was preaching on the subject of the prodigal son and he illustrated it like this: “You know he got down there in the far country and he was perishing with hunger and so the first thing he did was to pawn his watch and chain. Then he pawned his top coat. He was still hungry and so he pawned his other coat and finally pawned his shirt. And then he came to himself but he couldn’t pawn that—it wasn’t worth anything.”

“He came to himself.” Blessed moment! He said, “Here I am perishing with hunger.” I tell you, friends, when you have got that far toward the kingdom of God you have taken a big step.

I was praying with a man in the hospital the other day and he said, “Oh, God, but I am such a sinner.” I had been reading passages about God’s grace and love. But this man realized his desperate condition.

The prodigal decided on action. “I will arise and go home.” A fellow is doing big things when he is thinking along that line. There are a great many people who never think sanely for five minutes about their soul or spiritual things. David said, “I thought on my ways and I turned my feet to keep the Lord’s commandments.” “I will arise and go home” said the prodigal and the next verse tells us, “He arose and came to his father.”

There are three things that I notice. First, the contrition of spirit. You remember how he came to his father. Boasting was excluded. He said, “I am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants.” That is the contrite spirit with which God is well pleased. David in that wonderful prayer which he offered after he had cried out for God’s spirit to come back to him, said, “Sacrifice dost thou not desire.” In another Psalm he says, “Had He required the fat of a thousand rams I would have given it to Him.” But God did not require sacrifice. It was the broken spirit and contrite heart with which He was well pleased.

It was an unqualified confession; no excusing, no condoning. He said, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight.” A critical translation of that verse puts it this way. “My sin has reached heaven, even against thee.” When a man comes in that spirit to God, that is Bible repentance indeed. When the father saw him a long way off, he ran to meet him covered him with the best robe, and rejoiced that he was found.

Who Suffered Most

I have a friend who several years ago came to this city and sometimes preached in The Moody Church. He was a great orator, a great preacher in Scotland. God made him a mighty blessing to the people there. He had a boy who was just as Scotch as his father and just as stubborn as the father would have been had it not been for the grace of God in him. When this little boy came to the home, the father and mother made up their minds that they would make a model child of him. Young John came along very well until he got up to the Ishmaelite age. It seems that there is a time in every boy’s life when he thinks everybody’s hand is against him and his hand is against everybody. One day in their home, the boy had trouble with the maid and he said some very wicked things to her. His parents were shocked.

The father made up his mind that he would have to punish John. He took him out and talked to him for a little while, but the boy was very stubborn. “You will have to go to Mary and tell her you’re sorry,” the father said.

“I won’t!” came the staunch reply.

He put his nightie on and said, “Laddie, I am going to take you up in the attic and leave you in that bedroom and you will stay there without anything to eat until you can come downstairs and tell Mary that you are sorry.”

After taking the boy upstairs, the father went to his study and waited. He could not read. He tried to study, but he was always listening for a footstep coming down the stairs—a footstep which never came. All afternoon he waited. Along about dark, Mary, the Scotch maid, said, “Won’t you please let me take the wee lad a bowl of bread and milk?”

“No, Mary, not a thing shall he have until he repents.”

And so the hour came when it was time to go to bed. They had not anything to eat at suppertime, and now they were trying to sleep. John knew his wife wasn’t sleeping. They are waiting, waiting. Ten o’clock, eleven o’clock, twelve o’clock. Every move, every little sound on the sidewalk made them think the boy was coming. One o’clock, two o’clock, three o’clock, and then the father thought he heard the knob of the door turn. He called out, “Laddie, is that you?”

“Oh yes, father, I am so sorry, I am so sorry.” In a moment Old John was up and Mary was up and the whole family sat down to a banquet at three o’clock in the morning!

But who suffered most?

Oh, brother, God is asking you to do one thing which is absolutely essential to forgiveness.

The Gospel calls you to turn your back on sin and to come home to God. It is only asking you to do the reasonable thing. Will you do it?