Our associate pastor made a statement this morning in the sermon he gave . "God has brought Christians out of the domain of darkness into his marvelous light, so we as Christians are people who are living with the light on."
Kinda fits well with this blog name. So, I think I will use his statement somewhere on this blog.
I have been reading and studying what biblical repentance is and what it looks like. In the aspect of someone experiencing the new birth and also repentance in the life of the believer.
Repentance in a lost man is achieved by the power of the Holy Spirit awakening that individual to his sinful condition and his need for a saviour.Lost man is dead Ephesians 2:1.
What he needs, in essence ,is for God to turn on the Light switch for him. As we emerge from darkness into Christ's marvelous light we still stumble but yet we are still in His Light.
The light of Gods word ever present, like a light house beacon shining in the distance to beckon us back to safe harbor. If we drift , which we no doubt at times will, because sin is ever present in us still. We are to live a life of repentance. There is the repentance that leads one into the kingdom, then once into the kingdom we still live a life of repentance. What does this biblical repentance look like on both sides of the kingdom?
I will start a series of posts quoting some of the great puritan writers on their views of biblical repentance . I want to start these posts off with this particular verse as a diving board if you will.
John 3:20-21
For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.
EXAMINING OUR REPENTANCE
Thomas Watson(1620-1686)
If any shall say they have repented, let me desire them to try themselves seriously by those seven effects of repentance which the Apostle lays down in 2 Corinthians 7:11
1. Carefulness: The Greek word signifies a solicitous diligence or careful shunning of all temptations to sin. The true penitent flies from sin as Moses did from the serpent.
2. Clearing of ourselves: The Greek word is apology. The sense is this: though we have much care, yet through strength of temptation we may slip into sin. Now in this case, the repenting soul will not let sin lie festering in his conscience, but judges himself for sin. He pours out tears before the Lord. He begs mercy in the name of Christ and never leaves until he has gotten his pardon. Here he is cleared of guilt in his conscience and is able to make apology for himself against Satan.
3. Indignation: He that repents of sin, his spirit rises against it, as one's blood rises at the sight of him who he mortally hates. Indignation is a being fretted ,(distressed) at the heart with sin. The penitent is vexed with himself. David calls himself a fool and a beast (Psa 73:22). God is never better pleased with us than when we fall out with ourselves for sin.
4. Fear: A tender is ever a trembling heart. This hornet has stung him and now, having hopes that God is reconciled, he is afraid to come near sin anymore. The repenting soul is full of fear. He is afraid he should, for want of diligence, come short of salvation. He is afraid lest, after his heart has been soft, the waters of repentance should freeze and he should harden in sin again.
"Happy is the man that feareth alway" (Proverbs 28:14) ....A repenting person fears and sins not; a graceless person sins and fears not.
5. Vehement desire: As sour sauce sharpens the appetite, so the bitter herbs of repentance sharpen desire. But what does the penitent desire? He desires more power against sin and to be released from it. It is true, he has got loose from Satan; but he goes as a prisoner that has broken out of prison with a fetter on his leg. He cannot walk with that freedom and swiftness in the ways of God. He desires therefore to have fetters of sin taken off. He would be freed from corruption. He cries out with Paul, "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Rom 7:24). In Short, he desires to be with Christ, as everything desires to be in it's center.
6. Zeal: Desire and zeal are fitly put together to show that true desire puts forth itself in zealous endeavor. How the penitent does bestir(busy, or rouse) in the business of salvation!
How he does take the kingdom of heaven by force (Mat 11:12)! Zeal quickens the pursuit after glory. Zeal, encountering difficulty, is emboldened by opposition and tramples upon danger. Zeal makes a repenting soul persist in Godly sorrow against all discouragements and opposition whatsoever. Zeal carries a man above himself for God's glory. Paul, before conversion, was made against the saints (Acts 26:11). After conversion, was made for Christ's sake: "Paul, thou art beside thyself"(Acts 26:24). But it was zeal, not frenzy. Zeal animates spirit and duty. It causes fervency in religion, which is a fire to the sacrifice (Rom12:11). As fear is a bridle to sin, so zeal is a spur to duty.
7.Revenge: A true penitent pursues his sins with a holy malice. He seeks the death of them as Samson was avenged on the Philistines for his two eyes. He uses his sins as the Jews used Christ. He gives them gall and vinegar to drink. He crucifies his lusts (Gal 5:24). A true child of God seeks to be revenged most of those sins that have dishonored God most...David did by sin defile his bed; afterwards by repentance he watered his bed with tears. Israel had sinned by Idolatry, and afterwards they did offer disgrace to their idols: Ye shall defile also the covering of thy graven images of silver" (Isa 30:22)...... The Israelite women who had been dressing themselves by the hour and had abused their looking glasses to pride, afterwards by way of revenge as well as zeal, offered their looking glasses to the use and service of Gods tabernacle (Exodus 38:8)....So those conjurers who used curious arts of magic...when once they repented, brought their books and, by way of revenge, burned them (Acts 19:19).
These are the blessed fruits and products of repentance. If we can find these in our souls, we have arrived at that repentance which is never to be repented of (2 Co 7:10).
From: The Doctrine of Repentance, Thomas Watson
Next up J.C. Ryle: The Necessity Of Repentance (1816-1900)
Nolan
ReplyDeleteGreat to see that you are reading up on this! Hoping to address both you and the Mrs. on this one.
“These are the blessed fruits and products of repentance. If we can find these in our souls, we have arrived at that repentance which is never to be repented of..”
As he states, these are considered fruits of repentance, but they are not repentance. These things often happen in the repentant, but they also are to be seen in hypocrites. Because these are considered fruits, many run around trying to hang these fruits on their dead tree to give themselves the appearance of life.
Quote from same chapter in the same book:
“We please God by repentance, but we do not satisfy Him by it. To trust to our repentance is to make it a saviour. Though repentance helps to purge out the filth of sin, yet it is Christ’s blood that washes away the guilt of sin. Therefore do not idolize repentance. Do not rest upon this, that your heart has been wounded for sin, but rather that your Saviour has been wounded for sin. When you have wept, say with him: Lord Jesus, wash my tears in thy blood.”
LS elevates repentance to a place nearly equivalent to the Romanist penance.
Probably the best way to explain this is like this, bear in mind these are intended to be numbers to make a point, actual numbers will be far different.
Before I was saved, God showed me 3% of the difference between the holiness of where I was and perfect holiness. This 3% caused me to fall on Christ as my hope, and my all. After I was saved I quickly got to work cleaning up that 3% that I could see. I got to the point where I washed my hands and said, “Ah there, all done.” Then the Lord in His infinite wisdom thought good to show me an additional 3%. Upon seeing it, I say, “Where did this come from, I thought I was all done?” So I got to work at cleaning that up, but not being quite so arrogant this time, I didn’t say, “All done” as before, but expected more to come. It did. Because I was growing, the Lord then showed me and additional 5%, thinking I could handle seeing this much. I have worked on that, and then he showed me an additional 10%, and I am thinking, WOW, has this been here all the time? The obvious answer is yes, so off to work on that as well. Now by this time I have been given a sight of a full 50% of the difference between where I am and what absolute holiness is, with the full understanding that it is completely out of reach. The sight would be overwhelming had I not known the Saviour, nevertheless I realize the sight of it has been given to me for my own good. It causes me to cry out with Job, “Behold, I am vile.”
Had the Lord given me a sight of this prior to coming into right communion with Him it would have driven me to despair, but as it is He thought good to save it for later, using it to draw me ever closer to Him.
This is what a true sight of God will cause in everyone. Never will one be led to believe they have “arrived”, or are keeping the commandments as the self-exalting LS doctrines imply. The doctrines of LS elevate their members in carnal superiority as they claim to progress, whereas the God of the Bible, brings lower those Christians who actually do progress.
Have I changed my mind about who I am? OH YES! I realize I am vile, I am entirely ungodly, and that ‘in me dwelleth no good thing’, but it is this which causes me to fall on Christ even more. That is repentance!
What is missing from the LS definition of repentance is humiliation. They try to move on to a transformation without the humiliation, because the humiliation is too painful. Humility is the only Christian grace that cannot be well emulated by a hypocrite. It is not when a man is humble (which hypocrites attempt to imitate), but rather when a man has been ‘humbled’ by God (which has no imitation) that he has come to repentance. It is work of God designed to bring the Christian to lower thoughts of self, leaving room for higher thoughts of Christ.
ReplyDeleteJob was humbled, Isaiah was humbled, Paul was humbled, that’s just the way it has to be....
This would be what is so confusing to me about where we differ.....I most definetly was humbled before Christ and brought to the humiliation of who I am...I am still being humbled by Him in the conviction of ongoing sin in my life. I have never been taught that we will get to a place where we are no longer sinners....the longer I live the more I see my need for a Savior.
ReplyDeleteyou said:
The doctrines of LS elevate their members in carnal superiority as they claim to progress,
Specifically where do you see this? (I am now going thru the controversial book by John Macarthur to see where these things you speak of are being taught)
I understand that constantly listening to some of the teachings by many of these men can cause you to constantly look to yourself and the things you are doing for assurance of salvation instead of looking to the work of Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit in your life...that said, I do not understand them to teach salvation by works.....just because the hypocrite can emulate some of these fruits does not negate the fact that fruit will be produced...
When we are being condemned over our sin we look to Christ to remember we are forgiven and that Satan is the accuser, when we are being convicted by the Holy Spirit we look to Christ and give thanks for His saving work, when we are praising our blessings we look to Christ in thankfulness for His goodness, when good fruit is produced and we are bearing it we look to Christ to give thanks for the work He is doing.
And there is a time that we are called to examine ourselves in light of scripture.
We are told to look to ourselves at times.....for every one look to ourselves we should have given a multitude of looks to Christ.
But you do not see this as being taught by those you would consider to be Lordship?
What do you see to be the fruit of this teaching?
Lee,
ReplyDeleteI do not believe that God requires fruit in the unbeliever prior to repentance and faith. For that most definitely creates false converts. But, none the less there will be fruit in a true believer because he is rooted in Christ. John 15:1-11. It is true that the hypocrite can and does fake fruit quite well. For you see, I know of what I speak, I was one. We know this as well by scripture , in the parable of the wheat and tares.. Even though the hypocrite successfully can produce fake fruit, that does not discount the biblical doctrine of the truly repentant showing evidences of his salvation through the bearing of fruit. A saved man doesn't produce fruit he bears fruit Col 1:10-14. When we as born again believers try and produce fruit from self, we err. That is sin, and is in need of repentance. I have to confess that I have found myself guilty of this very thing, often unknowingly. But, by the power of the Holy Spirit it is revealed. I am sure that this will be a continual battle as I progress in sanctification. The fact is that repentance, faith ,salvation ,sanctification and glorification are all works of God and not man. Not discounting the fact of human responsibility.In no way would I agree with anyone that salvation is works oriented. But, I also believe James 2:14-26.
It seems as if you say because of the hypocrite and his fake fruit production, you reject the doctrine of fruit bearing in the christians life. If that is what non Lordship advocates teach, then I reject It. I have only dialoged with only two non Lordship advocates, yourself and Jean. So, looking at the fruit , if you will, that is coming out of that type of teaching based on the comments you and Jean have made, I do not like what I see. I will not paint the whole non lordship advocates with the same brush.I am not studying repentance to refute one view or the other.
Nolan
Nolan
ReplyDeleteWhat fruit do you expect to see from a "smoking flax"?
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteWhat fruit do you expect to see from a "smoking flax"?
ReplyDeleteI see smoke
Some may think that if Christ will not quench the smoking flax—but make it burn brighter to the meridian of glory, then we need take no pains but leave God to do his own work. Take heed of drawing so bad a conclusion from such good premises. What I have spoken is to encourage faith—not to indulge sloth! Do not think God will do our work for us—while we sit still. As God will blow up the spark of grace by his Spirit—so we must be blowing it up by holy efforts. God will not bring us to heaven sleeping—but praying. The Lord told Paul that all in the ship would come safely to shore—but it must be by the use of means: "Except these abide in the ship, you cannot be saved" (Acts 27:31). So the saints shall certainly arrive at salvation. They shall come to shore at last—but they must stay in the ship, in the use of ordinances, else they cannot be saved. Christ assures his disciples: "None shall pluck them out of my hand" (John 10:28). But he still gives that counsel, "Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation" (Matt. 26:41). The seed of God shall not die—but we must water it with our tears. The smoking flax shall not be quenched—but we must blow it up with the breath of our effort.
Thomas Watson
All you can see is smoke, and yet they are saved. Is smoke of the fruit you are to look for?
ReplyDeleteIt is bearing something, Smoke. Christ was the spark that lit the flax. But, then again, the Surgeon general has declared smoking to be hazardous to ones health.
ReplyDeleteSorry, couldn't resist
It's a shame this was funny to you....
ReplyDelete