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NEW CHRISTIANS-Basics of Discipleship-True Repentence-Part I-by David NelsonPosted: 2007-01-04 19:58:03 BASICS OF DISCIPLESHIP-True Repentance-Part I Scripture verses referenced in this study: Matthew, Chapters 1-4 True repentance has to do with a walk of repentance that starts at salvation. It starts at the gate, when we first enter into the gate, and enter into a relationship with Jesus and become part of His kingdom and are transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light; that first entrance took repentance. If we were to go back to the first century church, the basic doctrines of the faith would be very stabilizing and would give us a good direction of how to walk in this Christian life. In Hebrews 6, verses 1-3, it talks about the basics of discipleship and it says, “Let us leave the elementary doctrines of Christ and go on to maturity and it sets forth the elementary doctrines as, repentance from dead works, faith towards God with instructions about baptisms and laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. So, we are studying some of the basic doctrines, to help us build a good foundation in the word of God (using both Old and New Testament scriptures as they apply). One of the basic doctrines is, “repentance from dead works.” What is repentance? What are dead works? What are true works? What is faith towards God? The writings below are for any Christian who wants to learn more about the basics of discipleship. True repentance starts at the door of salvation, when we first enter the door. Peter asks in Acts, the 2nd chapter, Do you want to be saved? Do you want to know Christ? Do you want to know that he is your Lord and Savior? Do you want to become a Christian? Do you want to flee from the wrath to come? Do you want to be saved from the wrath that is yet coming? Do you want to be in God’s kingdom? Do you want to go to heaven? The first word that came out of Peter’s mouth was REPENT and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit and you will have your sins washed away—you will be forgiven of your sins and you will receive the Holy Spirit and so on. He said, “Repent, and be baptized.” Repent means to turn around and to go a different direction. A good definition is that we must make a 180 degree turn. We were going down the “broad road that leads to destruction” and we were going nowhere, we were going to an end that is a dead end street. We were going to end up in hell, which is the broad road of selfishness and just living for self. You might be a very moral person but if you have no relationship with God and you are just living for self and pleasure and so on, that is the broad road—it is the easy road. The narrow road is the road where we turn 180 degrees and we decide that we are going to go with God. Instead of going down this broad road we are going to turn around, 180 degrees, and go on the narrow path and serve Jesus and love Jesus and do His will and desire to be like Him. So, that is what repentance means. That all started when we first became a Christian. When we first became saved, we asked Jesus to come into our life and He began to change us and to make us want to go down a new road. We decided to turn away from the old ways and go toward His new ways. Jesus says, in Luke 13:3, “Unless you repent, you will perish.” With repentance, there is a change that comes in your life where, at one time in your life you were living a human way according to human nature. Let’s say you are an oak tree and every acorn that falls from the oak tree, if you planted it, would grow into another oak tree; then that new tree would grow new acorns. Every cell in that acorn, as it breaks down and becomes a little tree, a little plant, and then a little tree, every cell that multiplies tells that tree that I am going to be an oak tree, I’m going to have oak-shaped leaves, I’m going to grow acorns some day—this is what I am. Well, maybe, at one time we were just an oak tree and all we could produce was acorns, but when God comes into our life, he makes us a fruit tree or an apple tree or something that is going to bear fruit. If an apple seed is put in the ground, it sprouts up and it grows into a little tree and it has a different shaped leaf than the oak and every cell in that little seed, and every cell in that new, tiny tree says “I’m going to produce applies, I’m going to produce applies, that’s what I was made to do.” When God comes into our life, He starts producing the works of holiness, the works of heaven, not worldly works or dead works or works that are just earthly or human nature, but God’s nature is going to begin to sprout forth from us. We are going to become an apple tree—we are changed from an oak tree to an apple tree. Repentance is when we truly want to go down this road, we give ourselves to Jesus and He begins to change us on the inside. This beginning repentance means that we will not perish, because we have come into his kingdom BUT there is a continuing walk of repentance that is needed. So, true repentance is not just the repentance at the beginning but a continuing repentance through our whole life where we come to know the Lord. Maybe, we slip away from Him for a little bit or maybe we do not know exactly what he wants us to do and then he reveals to us, this is what I want you to do, and we say, we are going down the wrong road, we need to repent and go this way. The Lord continually works in us, over and over again, a turning back to Him, a coming back onto the path. As we veer from the path or we don’t know the way down the path, he will show us the way. There is a continuing changing in our life where we continue to repent through our whole life. Have you ever, if you have been a Christian for 5 years or 6 years or 10 years, had to repent after you have been a Christian for years, because you have been going down the wrong way and you had to turn back—that is another 180 degree turn, you were going down the wrong way in a particular area of your Christian life, and you had to turn around and go a different way. Maybe there was a lack of prayer in your life and you had to change to go in the direction of more prayer in your life. True repentance is not just at the beginning of our Christian walk but continues through our whole walk. In Luke, chapter 3, verse 8, John the Baptist had the message of repentance, he shouted out in the desert and in the wilderness, “Repent, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand, prepare the way of the Lord, repent.” John the Baptist had this message but also Jesus had the message of repentance. If you were to read the first few chapters of Matthew, up to about chapter 4, it says, also, that as Jesus went forth in his ministry he also preached a message of repentance, the exact verse is Matthew, chapter 4, verse 17, it says,”From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” So, this message of repentance is a true message. When John the Baptist went on in Luke, chapter 3, he says “Who warned you, you brood of vipers, to flee from the wrath to come.” He also said in verse 8, “Bear fruit that befits repentance, and do not begin to say to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father, for I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. Even now the axe is laid to the root of the tree, every tree, therefore, that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” What John the Baptist was saying is bear fruit that befits repentance. You can’t just say I have repented at the alter; I became a Christian and I repented once. You have to bear fruit that befits repentance. John the Baptist would not tolerate that you said you repented but you didn’t really change. We must begin to have a changed life. We must begin to produce apples. Show me that you are an apple tree. Let me know that Jesus lives in you. Even Paul said in Acts 26:20, “The gentiles should repent and turn to God and perform deeds worthy of their repentance.” So, he was saying to these gentiles, you need to repent, you need to turn around, turn from this world and from serving the prince of this world, who is Satan, and serving the desires of mind and body and flesh. Turn to God and perform deeds worthy of your repentance. This has to be created by God. He will change our nature. He will give us a new nature and we will begin to perform deeds worthy of repentance. This is necessary to bear fruit; otherwise, the tree will be cut down. In Luke, chapter 3, verse 10, John explained what the fruit would be like. “The multitudes asked, OK, What shall we do?—you say bear fruit that befits repentance—what shall we do? John said, “He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none…He who has food—let him do likewise.” The fruits of true repentance is a heart that becomes giving, for instance, sharing a coat, sharing extra food, etc. For the early disciples in the book of Acts, when the church was first birthed, no one had to tell them that they should have everything in common. But no one cared about anything that he owned, because they just loved Jesus so much that nothing else seemed to matter to them. That is the birthing that comes in our life, a life that says, “I don’t care if something is taken away from me.” In Hebrews, it says, “They joyfully accepted the plundering of their goods—knowing that they had a better reward.” They were persecuted, they experienced suffering, but even when things were taken from them or they suffered or they wanted to share their goods with others or have things in common, they didn’t care that much because their mind and their hearts were not set upon these things. So, when John says, “He who has two coats give to him who has none, he who has food do likewise,” he is saying that this is what will be birthed in you; this life of good fruits will be birthed in you and as God begins to deal with you that you are not all that you ought to be, as you read the Word, you will become convicted and you will have to work at whatever He is showing you and become repentant and go down the path that He shows. This is the continuing work of repentance that will come in your life. There is more to be said about the works of repentance.
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