Repentance

    Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry; but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. II Corinthians 7:9

    During most of my ministry in residential programs working with drug addicts and in the prisons and jails, repentance was the main theme to preach to sinners. Jesus also preached repentance, but it is my experience that most people are only sorry they got caught! True repentance is not only changing your mind or doing an about face, but also totally cutting off the food supply and the supplier of your sin!

    In other words, if your sin is lust you don't hang out at a topless bar or if drug addiction you don't go to the dope house! When I was saved God set me free immediately of my drug addiction and I moved out of our home because of the drug induced memories and the familiar surroundings that cause triggers to go off leading one back to their sin. I had the house cleaned and I had a large drawer in my bathroom vanity where I kept my drugs and paraphernalia, and I turned it upside down into the trash.

    A few days later I came back to the house to inspect it before the new renters moved in and walking back to my bathroom a little voice said, "Look in the drawer!" So, I did and there to my amazement was a gram of coke in a bottle. The voice then said no one is hereand no one will know! I immediately took the bottle and flushed it down the toilet and was never tempted with drugs again!

    For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, (and deliverance) not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death. II Corinthians 7:10

BAPTISM OF REPENTANCE

    John the baptist went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Luke 3:3

    People don't think of baptism as an act of repentance but that is what it means to start a new life in Christ! John the baptist was baptizing in the Jordan river when multitudes began to come, not to repent, but for a dead religious exercise that would only wash off the dirt from their bodies!

    Many today think to be baptized one is saved but that is not true, our baptism is our death, burial and subsequent resurrection to our new life in Christ! We are repenting of our old life and putting to death the deeds of the flesh and with it our old man! The baptism John was preaching was for the remission of sins, the cancelation of debt and forgiveness of sins!

    John rebuked those coming for a religious ritual and not to repent and they cried out saying, "What shall we do?" John, then proceeded to tell them what repentance was and what they should do to repent!

    Then he said to the multitudes that came to be baptized by him, "Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" Luke 3:7

FRUITS OF REPENTANCE

    Therefore, bear fruits worthy of repentance and do not begin to say to yourselves, "We have Abraham for our father." Luke 3:8

    Years ago, we were witnessing on the streets at a festival in Memphis when I approached a woman and asked her if she was born again. She fired back at me saying, "I am a Southern Baptist" as if that was her ticket to Heaven!

    This is what the multitudes were saying, because to them Abraham was their salvation and John told them to bring forth fruits worthy of repentance, in other words let your repentance truly be shown in your life as being real. Many think confession of sin is repentance but that is only the first step for once one has confessed, he must cut off and turn away from his sins!

    John then explained what true repentance consisted of as he exhorted the greedy, the tax collectors and the soldiers to be honorable and righteous in their professions and in their daily life dealing with people!

    "I indeed baptize you with water, but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire." Luke 3:16

CUT OFF WHAT MAKES YOU SIN

    "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you, for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell." Matthew 5:29

    Take drug addiction for instance, a form of sorcery, the Greek word is pharmakeia where we get the modern word pharmacy. One of the hardest sins to break because it sets itself up as a cycle of celebration, in other words you stop using for a few days and then the devil tells you to celebrate your so-called recovery with drugs!

    "You deserve a break today!" As the saying goes and it is also connected to many other sins such as smoking, alcohol addiction and sexual sins and so on. In order to be freed from your addiction you must cut off the food supply, that which feeds the sin, if drugs, cut them off, if sex, cut it off, alcohol, cut it off! This is true repentance that leads to deliverance!  

    In our drug addiction programs one of the requirements for entry was to cut off and expose your drug dealer to the police. If you are really committed, it has to be done. One of the men in our residential programs that died from an overdose and was raised from the dead helped us set up a sting to bust his dealer. The narcotic officer sent him in to his dealer to make a buy and they busted him. 

    "If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell." Matthew 5:30

 NO FORGIVENESS FOR WILLFUL SIN

    For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins. Hebrews 10:26

    Willful sin is knowing that you are committing sin but not repenting of it and there is no forgiveness for those who are practicing sin. Hebrews states that those who are doing this have trampled underfoot the Son of God and counted the blood of the covenant as common or unclean!

    I would say that is blasphemy, sin not repented of but asking for forgiveness and then continuing to practice it. The heart of man is likened to a field that has been hardened by the snow and the rain, a type of Holy Spirit who brings us conviction of sin, but when ignored it hardens the heart and darkens the spirit. 

    Repentance breaks up the fallow ground of the heart allowing the Holy Spirit to once again water the ground that will produce the fruit of the Spirit. Jesus said, Repent for the kingdom of Heaven is at hand!"

    Now the works (deeds, fruit) of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, heresies, envy, murder, drunkenness, revelries, and the like of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in times past, that those whopractice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21

Your servant in Christ, Timothy Laughlin
   Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ