Here is a sermon I feel God wanted me to write. It shows how important repentance is.

Sincerely, Dennis Christian

Today I want to address a concern – that some of you who think you are saved may not be. How tragic it would be to die and then discover you were not saved after all. So, I will attempt to make it clear what God requires, what Christ Himself expects for a person to be made right with God and have assurance of heaven when they die.

Can a person who thinks he is a Christian be lost? Well, think about this:

Maybe you know people who profess to be Christian but go on sinning as if it were OK or not important. Or you know others who abide by God’s standards in most things but have one or two sins they refuse to give up. Are those the attitudes or behaviors of people who are truly saved? Scripture says, “Should we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid!”

I know that all of you either believe or have heard it said that belief in Jesus is the only requirement for being saved. Theologians have a term for this view – sola fide – Latin for belief alone. Reducing the gospel to two words means that other essentials are assumed. For instance, faith has to have content – faith in what? There are some preachers today who preach this – simply believe in Christ and you will be saved. They go too far by leaving out some of the essentials. Some add just believe, and God will cause you to prosper.

They emphasize the point by stating that you are saved by faith in Christ plus nothing. To those of us who know the gospel, this may seem right on the surface. After all, we can do nothing to save ourselves – Christ did all the work on the cross to suffer and die in our place and pay for our sins. Salvation is a gift from God to those who have heard and understood and believed.

But did you know there is a passage of scripture in the book of John where people believed in Jesus but their belief was not accepted? Yes, that surprised me too when I read it and took notice for the first time. Let’s turn to that scripture – John 2:23-25. It reads:

“23 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. 24 But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, 25 and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.”

It was right that these people believed in Christ having observed the signs and miracles that proved Jesus was of God. This belief or assent to the fact of who Jesus was is what is known as intellectual assent – believing something to be true. God wanted them to believe Jesus was of God, so, what was wrong with their belief that Jesus did not entrust Himself or commit Himself to them? First, notice that Jesus knew something was wrong because He knew what was in man. He knows our hearts, our thoughts, and our minds. God the Father is all-knowing and revealed these things to God the Son.

This reminds me of a scripture in Matthew that talks about how we judge people versus how God judges them.

Mathew 7:16-23:

“16 You will [a]know them by their fruits. [b]Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 So then, you will [c]know them by their fruits.

21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many [d]miracles?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’

Verses 16 to 20 express how we judge people – by their fruits or by their actions and behaviors. We don’t know for sure what’s in their hearts, we go by what they say and do.

But notice from verses 21 to 23 that God knows their hearts, for even if they do good works, He still knows their hearts were not right. “I never knew you,” He says.

So, back to our scripture in John, Jesus knew the hearts of the people who believed in Him and something was not right that He could not accept them. What was it? What was missing? Intellectual assent must not be enough.

Jesus, Himself gives us the answer. When John the Baptist sent his disciples to ask Jesus if He were the Messiah (Matthew 11), Jesus cited the miracles He was doing as proof along with the gospel being preached. {I think Jesus included that the gospel was being preached because Satan, who can also do supernatural things, would not preach the gospel} Then in Matthew 11:20-21 Jesus shows what response, other than intellectual assent, the miracles and truth of who Jesus is (God Himself come to earth) should evoke from us:

“20 Then He began to denounce the cities in which most of His [a]miracles were done, because they did not repent. 21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the [b]miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in [c]sackcloth and ashes.”

When people realize that they are in the presence of God or His Savior Jesus Christ, it should evoke a response of reverence and repentance.

Some who preach sola fide – belief alone – don’t think repentance is necessary, but its need is stated throughout the Bible. Here are just a few scriptures:

From the Old Testament here is Job’s reaction when he has seen God, “5 “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; 6 Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes.” Job 42:5-6

John the Baptist preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 3:2

A little while later Jesus preached, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 4:17……..exactly the same as John the Baptist preached.

In Luke chapter 3 Jesus said twice (Vs 3,5), “…unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

After the resurrection and just before He ascended to Heaven, Jesus told His disciples, “Thus it is written, that the [a]Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance [b]for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed [c]in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. Luke 24:46-48

On the day of Pentecost Peter preached, “Repent and let each one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins…” Acts 2:38

And the Apostle Paul preached, “…repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.” Acts 20:21

So, scripture is clear that repentance is necessary. But, can repentance alone save you? No. You may repent and be contrite and sorry for your sin, and then set out to earn your salvation by not sinning and doing good deeds. That will not result in being saved for scripture says, “8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and [a]that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” What Paul said was right. It is repentance toward God AND faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

Faith or belief and repentance go hand in hand. Said another way, faith must be with an attitude of repentance.

So, why would a person believe the truth of Christ but not repent? Christ answers in John 3:19, “19 This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.” Some people don’t want to give up their sin, so they won’t repent. Then how could they think or claim they are Christians? One way is they delude themselves. They reason, “God loves sinners so sent Christ to die for me and save me. So, I a sinner must be saved.”Another reason people may think they are saved is that false teaching or preaching misled them. Those who emphasize sola fide or who preach a gospel of prosperity may have left out the need for repentance. One other possibility of a person believing and not repenting is that he or she sees the free offer of salvation in a purely selfish way – a free ticket to heaven leaving them free to do the sin they don’t want to give up. Their belief in Christ is a license to sin and still go to heaven.

How sad! Scripture is consistently clear – saving faith is faith in Christ in an attitude of repentance. Genuine repentance means you change your mind, your attitude about sin, and you ask for God’s forgiveness with the genuine intent not to sin again. When you repent you are agreeing with God that sin is wrong and you are going to do your best from now on, with God’s help, not to sin. Before believing in an attitude of repentance, we were willfully sinning. Afterward, we are sincerely trying our best not to sin. Now, when we stumble and sin in a weak moment, we have done what we did not want to do, and we admit or confess it to God who forgives us. (1 John 1:9)

What about you? When God looks into your heart, does He see someone who has truly repented? Has Christ accepted your belief because you believed in an attitude of repentance, OR will He say to you, “Depart from me; I never knew you?”

Today I repeat to you the invitation of John the Baptist, Peter, Paul, and Jesus – repent and believe in what Christ did on the cross for you for the forgiveness of sin and peace with God.