“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14:6)

“Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there,

But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:6-11)

“Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.” (Revelation 1:3)

“And he said to me, “Do not seal the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand.” (Revelation 22:10)

These are only a miniscule sampling of the Word of God declaring the authenticity of God’s right to say, “This is the way it is, period.” Only God can declare a ‘command’ as opposed to a ‘suggestion.’ God’s statements are very definitive. He leaves no room for opposing thought. There is no doubt in His position as God.

Most people in this world today, even those who ‘profess’ Christ, disregard the clear and irrevocable Words of God. They want to ‘make a deal’ with God, or twist His Words to cover their sins. Another large crowd, among our 21^st century ‘wise men’ declare, “There is no God!”

God says, “The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.” (Psalm 14:1), (also found in Psalm 53:1)

This 21^st century society is so far from God there is not much remaining for us but severe judgment, and it is coming (the Tribulation for those without Christ). Those who love God and respect His Word see this and cringe as the evils of our society worsen by the day.

Dr. J Vernon McGee commented once concerning how much our society has fallen away from God into sin. He died 30 years ago. If he could only see us now. If any of those who have died before us could see what we have become today, they would be shocked.

All the ‘brilliant’ ideas our leaders, both political and religious, have forced upon us have not improved us one whit. Instead, we keep sinking further into the bottomless pit of corruption.

One simple thing has caused our demise, and that is our refusal to listen to Almighty God.  Even for those who are not Christians, they too need to listen to God. He is not their Father, but He is their Creator, and He means exactly what He says.

God says there is only one way to be saved, and that is through Jesus Christ. He says we will become exactly what we have become prior to judgment. He says Jesus will return at any time and remove His own, then judge the world. Is anyone listening? Very, very few are hearing anything He has to say.

God is longsuffering, but He will not allow our obstinacy to continue indefinitely.

One segment of our society that is causing much damage is those who think they are Christian, but are not. They are religious, but they are not Christian. These wolves in sheep’s clothing rape children, have illicit sexual affairs, support and commit homosexuality, deny critical issues concerning Jesus Christ, etc. The lost world watches this religious crowd, considers them to be Christians, and sees that there is no difference between them. Then when they look at true Christians who will not compromise what God says, we are considered troublemakers.

Another segment of our society that is causing much damage is true Christians who are weak in the faith. They need to grow up. Most Christians do not communicate with God daily through Bible study and prayer. Oh, but when they have a need, here they come pleading for help!

Every true Christian should be standing up for the Truth, instead of sitting quietly in the fetal position way, way back in the corner. We should cry out to our God as did Isaiah.

“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” (Isaiah 6:8)

However, when we are listening to man instead of God how can we really know what God is saying? Most Christians rely on the man behind the pulpit to tell them what God is saying. Look folks, Moses is in Heaven. He isn’t behind your pulpit. He is not down here speaking for God today, and he doesn’t need to. Now why is that? The Israelites did not have a Bible, so God spoke to them through Moses for a while. We have the entire written Word of God. It is called the Bible. This is where we hear the Truth.

I venture to make a prediction. If every true Christian would do as the Bereans did, most would be very surprised at the conflict coming from the pulpit and what the Bible actually says.

“And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:10-11)

We need to know what God says, and we need to believe it, no matter if it conflicts with what we have been taught for years and no matter if it conflicts with our opinions. Forget what man says. Forget what we ‘think.’ Accept what God says. He says what He means, and means what He says. It’s all in His Word, the Bible.

Grant Phillips

Email: Phillip5769@twc.com

Pre-Rapture Commentary: http://grant-phillips.blogspot.com

Rapture Ready: https://www.raptureready.com/featured/phillips/phillips.html

ATTENTION! My email address has changed to Phillip5769@twc.com

Repentance
“Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.” (Philippians 2:12-13)

Two young children were asked the question, “What does repent mean?” The little boy said, “It means to be sorry.” The little girl said, “It means to be sorry and stop.”

This little girl had a better understanding of “repent” than many Bible ‘scholars’ of today.

We are being told repeatedly that repentance means to just “change your mind,” so just believe in Jesus and you will be saved. I agree that it is faith alone that leads us to salvation.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Clearly, we are saved by grace. The instrument God uses is our faith. We cannot save ourselves. It is a gift of God. Our works can never ever save anyone.

The question is, “Does repentance have any part of salvation, other than just changing our mind about Jesus?”

Recalling the two children, will feeling sorry for our sins save us? The answer is obviously, “No.” If the answer were “Yes,” we would then have to ask, “How sorry must I feel?”

So is there really any need for repentance, other than changing our mind about Jesus?

Repentance is a result of the conviction of the Holy Spirit in the life of the unbeliever (and also the believer). If the lost soul acknowledges the Holy Spirit’s conviction in his/her heart, then that seed will blossom into true repentance.

True repentance will change the mind of the unbeliever from, “I don’t need Jesus” to “I need Jesus in my life.” But what made that lost soul, the unbeliever, change his/her mind? The conviction of the Holy Spirit helped them to see themselves as God sees them; i.e. one who is knee deep in sin, bound for hell, and in desperate need of a Savior.

So what is behind the word “repent” other than meaning a change of mind? In Strong’s Lexicon ‘repent’ is defined as:

to change one’s mind, i.e. to repent to change one’s mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one’s past sins

In the above, ‘amend’ means to adjust or modify, and ‘abhorrence’ means disgust or hatred.

Tyndale defines “repent” as:

“Repentance (metanoia, ‘change of mind’) involves a turning with contrition from sin to God; the repentant sinner is in the proper condition to accept the divine forgiveness.” (F. F. Bruce. The Acts of the Apostles [Greek Text Commentary], London: Tyndale, 1952, p. 97.)

The word ‘contrition’ above means remorse, regret, sorrow or shame.

Strong’s definition states:

met-an-o-eh’-o; from G3326 and G3539; to think differently or afterwards, i.e. reconsider (morally, feel compunction):—repent.

The word ‘compunction’ above means regret, guilt or shame.

Strong’s NT Word Study shows:

μετανοέω, μετάνω; future μετανοήσω; 1 aorist μετενόησα; from (Antiphon), Xenophon down; the Sept. several times for נִחַם; to change one’s mind, i. e. to repent (to feel sorry that one has done this or that, Jonah 3:9), of having offended someone, Luke 17:3f; with ἐπί τίνι added (the dative of the wrong, Hebrew עַל, Amos 7:3; Joel 2:13; Jonah 3:10; Jonah 4:2), of (on account of) something (so Latinme paenitet alicujus rei), 2 Corinthians 12:21; used especially of those who, conscious of their sins and with manifest tokens of sorrow, are intent; on obtaining God’s pardon; to repent (Latinpaenitentiam agere): μετανοῶ ἐν σάκκῳ καί σποδῷ, clothed in sackcloth and besprinkled with ashes, Matthew 11:21;

“I am afraid that when I come again my God will humble me before you, and I will be grieved over many who have sinned earlier and have not repented of the impurity, sexual sin and debauchery in which they have indulged.” (2 Corinthians 12:21)

“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.” (Matthew 11:21)

So from all this, it is most obvious that to be truly repentant is to feel ‘disgust,’ ‘hatred,’ ‘regret,’ ‘remorse,’ ‘sorrow,’ ‘shame,’ ‘guilt,’ etc. over the sins in our lives that have kept us from Jesus, and that He has paid in full. Because our eyes have been opened, we see ourselves as God sees us and we change our mind about our need to call upon Jesus to be saved. As a Christian, true repentance will cause us to see the need of our life being ‘modified’ (changed) through the power of God in Jesus Christ.

How are we saved? We are saved by grace through faith, any and all of our works excluded, but what brought us to put our faith in Jesus? Seeing ourselves through God’s eyes and realizing our need for Jesus led us to faith. In other words, true repentance led us to faith, and by faith we believed in Jesus Christ.

What does it mean ‘to believe’ in Jesus? First of all, what does it not mean? Believing in Jesus is not a casual, flippant, empty-hearted acknowledgment of believing ‘about’ Him. True belief in Jesus is total trust that He is who the Bible (His Word) says He is. It is a ‘commitment’ of faith that He will save me and keep me. It is an acceptance that Jesus will save me and perform all He has promised, even though I now recognize that I am not worth saving. It is the seed that grows into one who desires to follow Him and be like Him.

So we see that we cannot ‘work out our own salvation’ in assisting God in saving our soul. However, we now must see that Paul is talking to those who have already been saved. There must also be an emphasis at this point that we are not ‘working out our own salvation’ in order to keep the salvation God has given us. We can no more keep our salvation through our works than we could get it in the first place through our works. We are saved by the grace of God, and we are kept for eternity by the grace of God. In other words, once we are His child through Christ, we are forever His child through Christ.

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39)

Any person, who takes the credit for their salvation, is not saved. Yes, those are strong words, but they ring consistently true throughout the Bible. If we really are a true Christian, God did the saving through His Son Jesus and used our faith (that He provided) to get us there. If we take credit for that, over Jesus, we are not His child.

Now, I’m at the point I’ve been aiming at throughout this article. Every Christian should be ‘working out their own salvation.’ What does that mean? It means simply that as a Christian, we should be “studying to show ourselves approved unto God, a workman who does not need to be ashamed.” (2 Timothy 2:15) We need to put on the whole armor of God. (Ephesians 6:11, 13) The bottom line is: we need to start acting like a child of God, instead of trying to keep one foot in the Devil’s playground. As the little girl said in the beginning of this article, “Repent means “to be sorry, and stop.”

Millions of ‘professing’ Christians today have never truly repented, and therefore have never exercised true faith in Jesus Christ. They claim Christ, but they still live for the Devil.

Is it possible that true Christians are still living for the world and not Jesus? Yes it is, but if they are really a child of God they are not happy and they are tempting divine punishment.

I realize that Christians mature spiritually at different rates. Some mature quickly and some mature slowly, but they all will mature if they are truly a Christian. Why is that? It is true because His Spirit works with our spirit in aiding our growth, and God never fails.

If you are not committed to Jesus, perhaps you should seriously consider what the apostle Paul said to the Corinthians.

“Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test.” (2 Corinthians 13:5-6)

If you seem to be constantly failing, but your desire is to please the Lord Jesus, then persevere.

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.

Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.

For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2 Peter 1:3-8)

 

Grant Phillips

Email: grantphillips@windstream.net

Pre-Rapture Commentary: http://grant-phillips.blogspot.com

Rapture Ready: https://www.raptureready.com/featured/phillips/phillips.html