The Experience Of Real Repentance - Part Three
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Some may say: "Yes I know what the word repent means, I see to whom I am to repent, I see some of the examples in the Bible about repentance, but I am not sure HOW to repent. What words do I use, what should I SAY to the Father in heaven? Well friends, our Father in heaven even helps us to know what kind of words to use in coming to Him in humble repentance. He gives us examples in His word even to guide us in this end - to know what to say. PRAYERS OF REPENTANCE EZRA "Then were assembled unto me everyone that TREMBLED at the words of the God of Israel, because of the transgressions of those, that had been carried away........O my God, I am ASHAMED and BLUSH to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our INIQUITIES ARE INCREASED OVER OUR HEAD, and our TRESPASS IS GROWN up into the heavens.......We have FORSAKEN THY COMMANDMENTS........ Should we again break they commandments, and join in affinity with the people of these abominations? Would you not be angry with us till you have consumed us........"(Ezra 9:4-14). NEHEMIAH "Let thine ear now be attentive......Both I and my father's house have sinned. We have DEALT VERY CORRUPTLY against thee, and have NOT KEPT THE COMMANDMENTS, NOR THE STATUTES, NOR THE JUDGMENTS, which you commandest your servant Moses........ You are JUST........You have done RIGHT. But we have DONE WICKEDLY. Neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, KEPT THY LAW, NOR HEARKENED UNTO YOUR COMMANDMENTS AND YOUR TESTIMONIES......."(Nehemiah 1:6-7; 9:33-34). JOB "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: BUT NOW MY EYE SEETH THEE. Wherefore, I ABHOR MYSELF AND REPENT in dust and ashes "(Job 42:5). DAVID "Have MERCY UPON ME, O God.......Bot out my TRANSGRESSIONS. WASH ME THOROUGHLY FROM MINE INIQUITY AND CLEANS ME FROM MY SIN. For I ACKNOWLEDGE my TRANSGRESSIONS: and my sin is ever before me. Against thee......have I sinned......PURGE ME with hyssop, and I shall be clean......Hide your face from my SINS, and BLOT OUT ALL MY INIQUITIES. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.......Take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation......Then will I teach transgressors thy ways; and sinners shall be converted unto thee......For thou desirest not sacrifice.......You delight not in burnt offering. The sacrifice of God are a BROKEN SPIRIT: a broken and a CONTRITE HEART, O God, you will not despise" (Psalm 51:1-17). ISAIAH " .......Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of UNCLEAN LIPS......For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.......Our TRANSGRESSIONS ARE MULTIPLIED before thee, and our SINS testify against us: for our transgressions are with us. And as for our INIQUITIES, we KNOW THEM......But we are all as AN UNCLEAN THING, AND ALL OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS ARE AS FILTHY RAGS; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away"(Isaiah 6:5; 59:12; 64:6). JEREMIAH " O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do you it for your name's sake: for our BACKSLIDINGS ARE MANY. We have SINNED against you. We ACKNOWLEDGE, O Lord, our WICKEDNESS.... Let us SEARCH AND TRY our ways, and TURN AGAIN to the Lord. Let us lift up our HEARTS WITH OUR HANDS UNTO GOD in the heavens"(Jeremiah 14:7, 20; Lamentations 3:40-41). DANIEL "We have sinned, and HAVE COMMITTED INIQUITY, and have DONE WICKEDLY, and have REBELLED, even by DEPARTING from thy PRECEPTS, and from thy JUDGMENTS: neither have we HEARKENED unto thy SERVANTS the prophets, which spake in thy name......"(Daniel 9:5,6). CHRIST EXEMPLIFIES REAL REPENTANCE PRODIGAL SON "And when he CAME TO HIMSELF, he said.........I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, father, I HAVE SINNED AGAINST HEAVEN, AND BEFORE YOU, AND AM NO MORE WORTHY TO BE CALLED YOUR SON. make me as one of your hired servants. And he arose, and CAME TO HIS FATHER"(Luke 15:17-20). PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN "And He spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves, that they were righteous, and despised others. Two men went up into the Temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself: God, I thank you, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I posses. And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying: God, BE MERCIFUL TO ME, A SINNER. I tell you, this man (the publican) went down to his house JUSTIFIED rather than the other. For everyone that exalts himself shall be abased; and he that HUMBLES himself shall be exalted"(Luke 18:9-14). A FINAL WORD Some of you think you may be too young or too old to REPENT and serve the living Eternal God. The prophet Jeremiah thought he was too young to be called by God, but he was not. If you are a middle teenager you may not be too young for God to call you to real repentance. Even if you are still younger than a teenager God may call you to begin to know Him and His way of life. We have examples of Samuel and Jeremiah who were called to serve God while still very young. David walked with God as a young boy caring for his father's sheep. What if you are old, maybe very old? Well as the saying goes: You are never too old to learn. Whether you are 60 or 80 or 90 or 100, if God is calling you to REPENT then it is not too late to do so! Some of you have or are serving a prison term for various crimes. You may think you are not worthy for God to have mercy upon you. Well, no sinner (and that includes the ones who have never been in prison or even received a parking ticket) is of themselves worthy to be a child of the most High. But Jesus came to die for you no matter what your sins and crimes against society. You can friend, REPENT and be FORGIVEN, have your sins WASHED AWAY by the blood of Jesus and start a new life as a son or daughter of the heavenly Father. Some of you may have been or still are, prostitutes, homosexuals, lesbians, drug users, drug dealers, child molesters, alcoholics, wandering street livers with no hope only despair. Whatever your situation in life is at the present, YOU CAN REPENT AND CRY OUT TO THE LORD FOR MERCY AND HELP! You can be forgiven your sins and begin a new life in the service of the Eternal. It is never too late. Determine NOW to come out of the darkness and deception you have been living in and ENTER God's world of LIGHT and RIGHTEOUSNESS! The rewards here and now are fantastic and the eternity to come is beyond human imagination. Some of you have been let down by religious organizations and their leaders. You have seen the corruptions, play acting, hypocrisy, abuse of power, abuse of monies, you have heard the lies, experienced the cover-ups, and have come to realize you were in many ways manipulated and brain washed with a cultic mind set ruling you. Many of you have been turned off so much from "religion" that you have left serving the true God and gone back into the world of Satan, gone back into your former old man and false un- righteous ways of living that God calls sin and iniquity. You knew the basic truths of God at one time but now you have possibly thrown them to one side, cast them away like some old dirty garment. If this is you, then YOU can REPENT, it is not too late. God calls you back to SERVE HIM! He calls you back again to find that personal relationship with Him and not some organization or some human man. Maybe you are just the nice guy or gal on the block. Never done anyone any harm. Would not hurt a fly as they say. No big sins in your life you might claim. You are a good wife, husband, father or mother. You work at your job faithfully and honestly. You help in local charities, and just live a decent moral lifestyle. All that is good and commendable, but friend, you HAVE SINNED ALSO. You have said, thought, or acted at some point/s in your life CONTRARY to the Holy Law of the Lord God. You have somewhere at some time BROKEN ONE or MORE of the Ten Commandments of God. You stand as a sinner in the eyes of the Lord. You are CONDEMNED TO DIE UNLESS YOU WILL REPENT !
There is no way around it, from the hardened criminal to the Mr.Nice guy, all of us must REPENT of our sins to obtain mercy and find the pathway to eternal life in the Kingdom of God. Repentance is the FIRST STEP on the road to living for all eternity. REAL REPENTANCE is what all of us must EXPERIENCE if we are to be saved. ".........Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God is at hand: REPENT YOU, and believe the gospel" (Mark 1:14,15). ............... First written in 1987. Re-written and revised in 1997. By Keith Hunt |
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