Repent
Read Time: 11 mins, 47 secs
For if we deliberately keep on sinning after receiving the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins is left for us, but only a certain fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume God’s enemies.
Hebrews 10:26-27 NET
On our way to the first Cleveland Browns game in which Shedeur Sanders would end up playing, my wife and I passed a man with a megaphone and signs arguing with the crowd and calling people to repent of their sins. You’ve probably seen demonstrations like this before. Men with megaphones stand on street corners or crowded spaces, often calling people names as they shout against hot-button issues like homosexuality, abortion, politics, dress, drunkenness, Catholicism, or Sunday vs sabbath observance.
Now, I’m not God and don’t claim to understand all of how He works. I’m sure some people may have been led to God through these methods. Maybe someone asked for a sign on something they were struggling with and found it at a Browns game. Maybe billboards about hell and sermons about fire have been a blessing to someone. I just question their effectiveness. Are these methods the most efficient and effective way to evangelize and make real Christ-centered disciples?
When the Bible says that Jesus is love and that perfect love can’t share space with fear, I’d argue that it means that preaching fear-based sermons is preaching sermons that are absent of Christ. When we’re told that it’s Jesus’ kindness that leads to repentance, I’m wondering why we’re calling people to turn from their sins with any other method than Christ’s alone.
Again, I’m sure the people who are engaging in these practices may mean well. And I’m sure God has used it in the past. I mean, He spoke through a donkey for crying out loud. I’m sure we need stronger and more uncomfortable language at times. Old Testament prophets and even Jesus showed us that love doesn’t always feel nice. But my argument isn’t that it hasn’t worked in some cases. My argument is whether or not it’s the right way to steward our time and testimony as we call people to salvation in Christ. Is standing outside of Planned Parenthood or a gay club with picket signs building a community of Christ-centeredness or a callousness to a cultic counterfeit of Christianity? My questions in these demonstrations are: What’s the goal? Is our goal and method the same as Christ's? And is that method working to do what God called us to?
I don’t think I’m alone in questioning this. And because of the hurt and harm that many dogmatic demonstrations of what some would call discipleship that may have run more from Christ than to Him, we have often reacted with disgust and disdain. Church people have hurt and harmed so many that in recent years, we’ve swung hard in an effort not to look, sound, or act like our abuser. This is nothing new.
Any Christian who isn’t Catholic is a product of what we call the Protestant Reformation. Protestant comes from the word “protest,” and reformation comes from the idea of rebuilding something. People like Martin Luther saw the issues and abuses of power that the Catholic Church engaged in and literally nailed a sign to the church door on one of the busiest days of the year, in which he listed 95 reasons he was protesting the church. He protested their sale of indulgences, which were payments parishioners made to get their deceased family out of purgatory (a non-biblical “middle place” between heaven and hell that the pope argued he could get them out of for the right price). Luther argued that this went against the idea of righteousness by faith alone because people were literally paying for salvation to a pope who claimed he had the power to forgive. As you can imagine, this led to some ideological pendulum swinging.
Worship, theology, art, language, architecture, politics, and daily life shifted so that Protestants wouldn’t look, feel, or seemingly act too much like the Catholics who hurt them. Catholics honored statues of Mary and other saints as well as their relics, Protestants abandoned those practices, often viewing them as idol worship and unnecessary, and opting for a simpler aesthetic and liturgy. Catholics focused on the sacrament, while Protestants focused on the sermons. Catholics focused on the church body while Protestants began to focus on the individual. Catholics sprinkled water for baptism, but groups like the Baptists argued for full immersion. Catholics believed that they had the authority to change the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday, but groups like the Seventh Day Baptists taught early Adventists to worship on Saturday. Catholics built state religions, and some regions wouldn’t let you hold public office or live a free life if you didn’t subscribe to the dominant religion. Protestant pilgrims founded the United States to be against forced religion so that all would have the freedom to freely worship their God in their own way. Some even started to be mean and unchristlike to the Catholics they were mad at for not following Christ. Funny right? But do you see how we shift as a reaction to what we see as wrong?
These types of theological, cultural, and aesthetic shifts are nothing new. Churches went from outdoor altars to elaborate tabernacles and temples, then to cramped houses before going to spacious cathedrals. They went from plain-looking buildings to elaborate concert-like productions, and now some are leaning back towards a cathedral feel because of the damage they’ve seen from the more seeker-sensitive mega church vibe. I get it. Not all of these shifts are good, and not all of these shifts are bad. They aren’t even all that important all the time, but we have to make sure our shifts are biblical and not merely emotional.
Music has shifted culturally throughout time. Emphasis has shifted. Liturgy has shifted, theology has shifted, and the way we live it out often has too. Fiery, sin-filled, scary, and legalistic sermons and religious beliefs have been replaced by accommodation, practicality, accessibility, acceptance, and grace. This isn’t a bad thing on the surface. I’d think a lot of the progression has been done for a positive reason to make up for the wrongs of past generations. However, there’s an issue. We often swing too far and stray from the full truth of what Christ taught. Have we ignored the truth of sin, hell, and conviction because others have used it for abuse? Are we lying and saying that everyone will be saved because others have hurt us by saying no one will?
Some have beaten people with Bibles, and that’s terrible. But it doesn’t mean that being convicted and uncomfortable is bad. We can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. Just because someone made a meal with poison in it doesn’t mean you can never eat again. We have to study, pray, and lean into the Word of God enough to get it right and not just abandon what was done wrong.
This is a situational setup to quickly set the stage for our text today. So many of us in the past have made the barrier to salvific entry so high that we’ve sought to lower it. We’ve needed that at times. Jesus told the Pharisees they were doing too much, and Paul told the Jews they were doing too much. But we can’t shift so far that we miss the essentials.
Here’s the point I think we’ve missed. While you can be saved by grace through faith, you are lost without it. Period. We can’t keep lying to ourselves and act like salvation is ours without putting our faith fully in Jesus. I’m not just talking about acknowledging that He exists. That’s cool. Even the demons do that and tremble. The Bible says that real faith results in movement. It results in a life change. And many of us are too comfortable holding on to sin while claiming a Savior.
I’m trying to speak with clarity and grace, but I’m genuinely concerned for friends, family, church members, coworkers, and our greater community because many of us will be lost, and it doesn’t seem like we care. The Bible says that if we deliberately keep on sinning when the Holy Spirit tries to convict us of truth, we’re abandoning the gift of God and reverting back to the wages of our sin, death. You can’t keep playing God like this.
Now this passage isn’t saying you need to be sinless and never have made a mistake. The Bible not only says that all have sinned, but it also says that if anyone says they are sinless, they’re a liar and the truth, Jesus, is not in them. It’s not saying you need to be a perfect humanly speaking, but it is calling you to be committed to progression.
The Bible says that the Spirit gives you the desire and power to do what pleases God, and if you keep grieving the Holy Spirit and ignoring the promptings to walk in truth, you’re you’re holding on the the comfort of sin more than commitment to your Savior and as Hebrews says, you should fearfully expect the judgement and fury of fire that will consume the people like you who are enemies of God. Holding on to sin and rejecting the Savior is literally holding on to poison and abandoning the antidote.
Stop parking in your problem. Stop saying your sin is your identity. Stop setting up camp in the things that are killing you. Stop playing. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom from the supposed need to cling to our sin, and many of us are ignoring it.
The text isn’t just about messing up. God forgives. It’s about deliberately choosing that you’re going to mess up over and over and over again. It’s one thing to slip up a few times with your girlfriend, ask for forgiveness, and figure out plans to set up boundaries moving forward. It’s another thing when you buy the bulk pack of condoms again, reserve the hotel room again, pay for her birth control so you have some coverage, and schedule a rendezvous when you know her parents are out of town, while convincing her to move in with you later. And that’s where many of us are. It’s one thing to know your weaknesses. It’s another thing to plan for them and make them your personality. We have to be honest about what it means when we call ourselves Christian’s but actively ignore the Word of God in our lives. It’s one thing to mess up. It’s another thing to make the decision not to care about the conviction and choose the thing you know is wrong, and that’s what scares me. Could it be that that is proof that you really haven’t accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior or His word as a lamp to your feet and light to your path?
I get it. It’s hard. But we have to believe God is better than our emotional desires. We have to believe God can give more than we’re giving up. We can’t be half in and half out, only wanting the blessings we understand and not the ones we have yet to understand.
We have to trust God enough and yield to the Holy Spirit so we can start fleeing from temptation and stop planning to fall. Stop ignoring the Spirit and making excuses. Jesus said that if anything is causing you to sin, take drastic measures to cut it out of your life. Break up if they aren’t committed to even trying to live right. Set boundaries. Set blockers. You can hit me personally if you want more practical steps on how you can flee from temptation and practically get up out of the grave of your sin.
My dog growing up knew that he wasn’t supposed to use the bathroom inside the house. So instead of going outside, he’d use the bathroom in a room no one was in and try to eat it before we could find the evidence of his sin. Crazy right? But this is how we look. The Bible says that going back to your foolishness is like a dog going back to eat its excrement.
God has revealed the truth to you, and you need to take heed. Sin is real, and not everyone will be in heaven. It’s not because they weren’t invited but because they refused to accept the gifted robe of righteousness that would act as their access card.
While your works don’t get you into heaven, they’re proof that you have the key. The Holy Spirit, whose job is to convict you of sin and lead you into truth, is the sign of salvation. That means that if you aren’t convicted and committed to moving towards the truth, you may not have really accepted the gift of salvation. We’re saved by faith, and a faith that doesn’t result in something isn’t faith. If you are in agreement with your sin and militantly fighting God's leading, it may be because you aren’t really living by faith.
Yes, Jesus sat with sinners, and not all of them repented, look at Judas. But that doesn’t mean you have an excuse not to. The wages of sin are death, but the gift of God is eternal life for sure. But you have to actually accept the gift. And accepting the gift is living like the righteous who live by faith. No, it’s not by your own power or know-how. I want to be clear about that. Some are shifting into legalism, judgment, and self-righteousness by forgetting that their best is still trash. The Holy Spirit will do the work, but you can’t keep ignoring it.
I’m not saying you’ll always get it right. I’m not saying mistakes disqualify you from grace. I’m not saying you won’t fall sometimes. But a righteous man keeps getting up. Don’t give up. Don’t throw in the towel.
God's grace is shown through this gift of salvation. Grace is getting something you don’t deserve. God has shown His grace multiple times in my life by giving chance after chance when I have countless times ignored, argued with, and gone against the Holy Spirit's voice in my life. I don’t deserve to have salvation. I really don’t, and you don’t either. But God has delayed His coming just for us. He’s giving us a chance to recommit. He’s giving us a chance to be counted in that group of the righteous who live by faith. He’s giving us more time to really give ourselves over to Him and allow Him to kick sin out of the throne of our hearts and allow the Savior to take up residence. Will you capitalize on this opportunity of grace?
Will you call others to do the same? I’m not saying you need to get a billboard and be hateful. Please don’t do that. Kindness leads to repentance. Real and loving relationships are the key. But don’t be so kind that you’re afraid to follow the Spirit’s promptings and hurt their feelings momentarily if it means saving their soul eternally. You have to be ok with not being liked for a while if it means actively loving someone. Love doesn’t mean standing idly by as someone throws away their life on earth and promises of heaven away.
Jesus’s first messages were the same as John’s. Repent. Turn from what you’re doing that’s not working. Listen to the Spirit and walk into what’s better. I know the transition will be uncomfortable. The conviction may sting a little. But I promise it’s worth it. Will you take heed to that message and call others to the same?
If this message was hard for you to read, I’m asking that you take it boldly to God in prayer. Be honest about not wanting to honor your parents. Be honest about not understanding what He is saying. Be honest about not getting why you shouldn’t be having premarital sex or watching porn. And be honest about how hard it is to stop. Talk about the pride, greed, fear, distrust, and hurt you’re feeling. Be honest about what you’re using to fill the void He is asking you to allow Him to step into. Ask Him for the desire and power to do what pleases Him and trust that He will. He’s done for me in many areas, and I’m trusting He will keep moving. The same is true for you. The desire you have to at least want to have the desire to understand and walk a little closer with God is proof that He hasn’t given up on you.
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