Welcome to the For the Gospel podcast, where we're all about providing sound doctrine for everyday people. This is Costi Hinn, and I have the privilege of being your host. On today's episode, I want to talk to you about genuine repentance. I think we've all experienced a moment where we are caught in our sin. We're busted. We're feeling guilty for letting people down or hurting other people. And we want to assess our own hearts. You know, are we really feeling repentance? Or do we just feel remorse for getting caught? Or maybe you've been on the receiving end of someone's sin. In other words, you have seen their sin or you've been hurt by it. Maybe you're the confronter of your friend or your family member's sin. And they seem pretty ashamed. They feel bad about their decision. They feel bad about how it's affected other people. And you're wondering, how do I discern if this person, who I want them to certainly be repenting, but I'm not sure if they're just feeling remorseful right now. Do they just feel bad? You know, nobody wants to disappoint their kids or their coworkers, their pastors, their church friends, their spouse. But how do we really know what heart change looks like? You see, you and I understand this probably pretty well, even from when we were a child. Behavior modification is easy. Don't do bad things and you don't get in trouble, right? Pretty simple. But behavior modification is usually not about doing things the right way for the right reasons. It's just not doing bad things so you don't have bad things happen to you. Heart transformation is a God thing. It's about Him changing you on the inside. And then as a result of that change on the inside, things start to change on the outside. You could say it this way internal transformation by the power of God leads to external change in our actions. And so if we're talking about genuine repentance, let's first define the word repentance. Merriam Webster, always helpful here with a definition or two, and then I'll unpack my own expanded definition for you. Merriam Webster says repentance is to feel or show that you're sorry for something bad or wrong that you did, and that you want to do what is right. It means to turn from sin and to dedicate oneself to the amendment of one's life or to change one's mind. Pretty good definition, if you ask me. They're not always spot on over there at Webster when you compare two biblical definitions, but on this one, not bad at all. For the gospel uh puts out different definitions and different resources on some of these theological words. And here would be my own take on a fuller definition of repentance. The Greek word for repent is metanoia, it means a change of mind. Repentance is not just regret for being caught in sin or having to suffer consequences from your own sin. Repentance is a change of mind about your decisions and the sin that those decisions led to. Remorse is different than repentance because remorse is more about your feelings of guilt, but it doesn't necessarily mean you've changed your mind about your lifestyle, your decisions, or even your sin. For example, someone may feel remorse about drunk driving because they killed someone. It doesn't mean that they are repenting over the sin of drunkenness. It just means they feel remorse over hurting someone with their decision. You may feel or someone may feel remorse after being caught in adultery or some other sin because the consequences of that action. But maybe people make excuses to attempt to justify their behavior. This happens all the time. All of us have experiences with this or know people who have gone through it. Remorse causes people to feel bad about how others will view them. Remorse leads to distress because maybe you've ruined relationships or you've disappointed people. But remorse doesn't lead to a change of mind ongoing, consistently, long term. Many times people who are remorseful go back to their sinful behavior once the emotions and the turmoil of getting caught dies down. Rather, repentance is a total change of mind, whether you're caught in your sin or not. Repentance is a piercing feeling in your heart that you've sinned against God. You no longer want to. Repentance is not merely the fear of being caught in sin, it is hatred of your sin accompanied by a change of mind. It doesn't mean you'll never sin again, but it means you no longer are indifferent towards that sin. You hate it, you fight it, you go to war against it because you want to please the Lord. The repentant person sees their sin in new light. They are resolved to fight it. They embrace the grace of God. The repentant person doesn't just care about pleasing people, but rather wants to please Jesus. I want to highlight a few big repentance moments in Scripture for you because if you have these in your pockets, so to speak, they can both help you in your own life, but also in conversations and walking other people through what genuine repentance looks like. This is going to be really helpful for those of you that maybe grew up like me, or you've come out of various false teaching ideologies, and you think, man, I heard that preacher that I used to follow, or that one individual say, you know, I repent and I'm not going to teach that again, I'm not going to do that again. And then they go back to it and you think, well, what was that? Or people say, Well, I thought so-and-so repented, you know, lighten up, leave them alone. What does genuine repentance look like? And what does remorse look like when we're sort of just doing damage control? 2 Peter 2, the last verse in it, verse 22, says that a lot of false teachers will go back to their old ways after, you know, washing like a cow. That's what Peter is referring to. Uh they go back in the mud. And it even goes as far as referencing vomit, saying a dog going back to its vomit. That's what a false teacher will do. They'll constantly go back to that old behavior. Well, so it is with the unbeliever who is saying, I repent, I repent, or I'm sorry, I'm sorry, but they go back to it again and again and again. So what does real repentance look like then? First example, Zacchaeus. Luke 19, 1 through 10, one of my favorite examples of repentance in the New Testament, Jesus visits with a tax collector named Zacchaeus. Now, in those days, tax collectors were greedy cheaters. They were hated by everybody because they essentially stole from hardworking people and the poor. Zacchaeus had made himself wealthy by stealing from others and taking advantage of them, and he was a corrupt sinner who deserved jail time and eventually hell if he didn't repent. Well, Jesus passes by, eventually goes to his house. Zacchaeus is up in a tree because he's really short, and he's trying to get a look at Jesus. That's why when we were kids we used to sing. Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he. He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see. Now, maybe we don't exactly know his height, and maybe he wasn't as short as everyone thinks, or maybe there's just a large crowd, and so he had to climb up in a tree to try to see Jesus. But you know, you could picture him as this short little scam artist who's walking around prideful, cheating people. Well, Jesus shows up, and Zacchaeus exhibits genuine repentance. How do we know that? Luke 19, 8 records him excited to give away his possessions to the poor, to pay back people he cheated, and to even pay people more than what he owed them, which means he he might have been doubling, tripling, quadrupling the interest that he even owed them. Did that mean that Zacchaeus paid for his salvation? Does that mean he did all these works and then he was forgiven? No. Because he was forgiven, because he was a true believer, because Zacchaeus had genuinely repented, he wanted nothing to do with the old life, the old ways, and even the old benefits. So that is a beautiful picture of genuine repentance. He didn't care what anyone thought anymore. He just wanted to be right with Jesus and doing what Jesus would do. Another really powerful example of repentance is the Corinthian church. Not just an individual, an individual, but a whole church. Second Corinthians 7, verses 1 to 16 records the response of the church at Corinth after Paul had rebuked them very intensely in 1 Corinthians. Now, maybe you've always wondered uh what are those two letters about, or you've never really thought about the backdrop. Well, here's a really fun backstory. Corinth gets established. The church is blowing up, it's going really well. And then all of a sudden, they start to act carnal. The cracks of carnality come in. And Corinth had a lot of different issues. They were new believers, it was a new church. Paul had poured into them, and like many churches, they weren't perfect. And if you ever find a perfect church, don't go, you'll ruin it, and I'll ruin it. There are no perfect churches. But listen to this laundry list of issues at Corinth. Spiritual immaturity, doctrinal division, spiritual arrogance. They had my guy versus your guy infighting. Remember, Paul says some of you say I'm of Apollos, I'm of Paul, I'm of Cephas, that's Peter. And then other people were saying, Well, I'm of Jesus. They were doing the my guy versus your guy stuff. Sexual sin was rampant, without confrontation, including incest. Christians were suing each other, 1 Corinthians 6. There were marital issues, 1 Corinthians 7. They had Christian liberty issues as well. They had communion problems, people taking communion unworthily. They were abusing spiritual gifts. There was confusion about speaking in tongues. They were forgetting about love. There was disorder in the worship gathering. And there is heresy about the resurrection. So Paul sets that straight. That's 1 Corinthians 12, 13, 14, and 15, all wrapped up in a list. Those back few, especially like heresy about the resurrection. And yet Paul calls them saints, the Greek word hagios, like holy ones. He calls them sanctified. He says they're saved. That is a sobering reminder that a lot of true and genuine Christians are going to be a little messy. And when we get confronted with our sin, here's how you know you're a true believer, and here's how we know in retrospect that the believers at Corinth were genuinely Christians. Did they respond in pride when Paul reprimanded them? No. Did they run away? No. Did they say, you know, I regret what I did because, you know, you got mad, Paul? Did they make excuses? No. In fact, they were so broken over their sin that Paul writes them again to say how proud he was of them for repenting like true followers of Jesus. He highlighted their sorrow, their indignation. He said, What godly sorrow, what eagerness to clear your name, indignation over your sin. They were so ready to see, quote, justice done regarding their sin. That's 2 Corinthians 7, verses 8 to 11. What is that a beautiful picture of? The way you and I will respond to our sin when we are confronted, or we come to the personal realization through prayer and the conviction of the Holy Spirit, and nobody even has to confront us. We just say, God, I don't want to live like this. And we have an indignation over our sin. That's what it looks like. It's not a worldly sorrow, it is godly sorrow, and you want to make things right. The last beautiful picture of repentance, King David. Psalm 51, the entirety of Psalm 51, if you don't know this, here's a Bible knowledge nugget for you. Psalm 51 is a chapter that is in relation to David committing adultery with Bathsheba, having her husband murdered on the front lines, and brazenly using his position as king to cover up his sin. He basically could do whatever he wanted, so he did. After confrontation from the prophet Nathan in 2 Samuel 12, 1-24, and experiencing the consequences of his sin, David doesn't just feel guilt over being caught and killing Uriah, who was such a faithful warrior for him. He's distraught over sinning against God. That's why he says, Against you, and only you have I sinned, O God. He's so broken because outside of all the natural things that he damaged, like marriage and people's homes and his reputation, he was very broken over the communion with God that had been infiltrated by his own sin. See, that's what happens for you and for me. When we sin, you're not losing your salvation. Some people think, I'm gonna lose my salvation if I sin. No. But just like any relationship, your relationship with God has a wrinkle in it, if you will. That's why the fellowship isn't as deep and rich. That's why your quiet times are dry. That's why your prayer life seems powerless. That's why you're going, God, are you even listening to me? I feel like you're not. Well, a reminder, God doesn't hear every prayer. 1 Peter 3 7 is really helpful with that. When husbands are even being insensitive to their wives, God says, your prayers are hindered. So what is happening when you're sinning and you don't feel that connection with God? Does he not love you? Did you lose your salvation? No. Sin has broken the communion, the beautiful fellowship that is there when we're walking in a confessing, repenting, humble state before our Holy Father. Well, David went back to that. That's why Psalm 51, 17 says, A broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. God doesn't want your fancy sacrifices. God doesn't want you to throw your blood money back at the feet of the high priest like Judas, trying to buy back the good graces of God. God doesn't want your good works and for you to do a bunch of good stuff to pay penance for your sin. He wants you to come before him like a broken beggar, saying, God, I need your mercy. God, I don't want to be apart from you. God, I don't want to have a broken relationship with you. God, I want the communion and the deep fellowship. I want the power in my prayer life back. I want the spirit filling me. I want to walk in the spirit like Galatians 5, not walk according to the deeds of the flesh. I want to be preoccupied with the things of the Spirit. Create in me a clean heart, O God, like David prayed, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence. That is the prayer of a repentant person. Now, I do want to highlight something that I think needs to be said when we're talking about repentance. And it's to you who are maybe you're a pastor or you're you're listening to this, and you're not sure if, you know, this is the type of topic that needs to be dealt with from the pulpit a lot because, you know, the idea of, you know, repent, repent reminds you of Turner Byrne, you know, fire and brimstone Baptist preachers in some fundamentalist background or whatever character you have conjured up, or potentially really abusive people or angry people always yelling about things, but not really going for the heart. Here's the deal your past experiences and my past experiences, what makes you uncomfortable, what makes me uncomfortable, and what makes the culture angry and uncomfortable does not dictate what we do. In other words, our job is to be faithful. If you're not hearing the word repentance or repent used in your church, or if you're a pastor, brother, who's not been going back to that foundational command in Scripture, preaching it, calling for it. If you've been scared, if you've been mitigating, if you've been downplaying the idea of sin or the command to repent, let me encourage you and let me challenge you, and even command you by way of scripture, not Costi's word, but God's word. That the literal concept of repentance and the literal command to do it is in the Bible. And if you are not calling for repentance, you and I, we are not preaching the full gospel. It is good news because there's bad news. Well, what do you do, sinner, when you have come to grips with a holy God that you have offended? And the fact that Christ has died on the cross to pay for the penalty of sin and absorb the wrath of God on your behalf, you repent. You change your mind. You realize your sin is killing you, and it put him on the cross, and he paid for it. So you fall flat before him, and you what? You repent. I don't want to go my way anymore. It's bankrupt. I am a sinner. I change my mind. God, save me. Be merciful to me, the sinner. I was visiting a church recently doing some church planting research with another co-planter, trying to get a gauge on our region here in Arizona. We're planting a church called the Shepherd's House Bible Church in Chandler in February. And I was in this church just checking things out, getting to know the area, and the speaker was on the stage, and I remember him, you know, raising having everyone raise their hands who got uncomfortable with the word sin. So he said, you know, how many of you here get uncomfortable when I use the word sin? And like six people put their hands up in an in a 1500-seat auditorium. Six people. And I remember him apologizing to them and he mitigated almost every time he used the word sin, if he used it much, he would say, Now remember, no shame, no shade, no shame, no shade. He kept saying that phrase over and over. No shame, no shade here. I'm not trying to shame you. He apologized so much and distracted from the sermon. And I remember thinking, brother, just give it to me, man. Preach it. Come on, we want the truth. Like six people in this auditorium put their hands up. They get uncomfortable when they hear the word sin. Well, that's not a really high percentage of people. They're going to really respond well because you're going to teach them and you're going to preach to them, and the Holy Spirit's going to work in those six people. The rest of us, he's already working in. Please confront me because I am a mess. We are sinners. I am lost. I need to be found. Or whatever phrase you want to put in that situation, we all need to be confronted. In any given moment, from pastor to parishioner, we want the word. We need the word. Some of the most faithful, God-honoring preachers I know love to sit under exposition because they know what it does to their soul. I was at another church recently, a dear brother, a friend of mine, and I remember thinking, man, I don't want to be the guest preacher here. I'd rather just sit under your preaching. And he fired back. Brother, I love to sit under God's word. The preacher needs preaching. The preacher loves to be preached to. I know what God's word does to my soul. I want to sit under faithful exposition. We all need it. So don't apologize for it. Our politicians mitigate. You know, salesmen, they'll manipulate. But preacher, give me the hard truth. Like a doctor explaining my scans for exactly what they are. I'm broken. I need healing. Tell me why I'm broken. I need the full diagnosis. I'm a sinner. I need salvation for my soul. Don't you or I ever mitigate on sin or repentance? You don't need to apologize. No excuses. We don't need to be hateful. We don't need to be angry. We don't need to be aggressive. We don't need to be needlessly, you know, fleshly, we'll call it, overdoing it. No. But just be like Jesus and John the Baptist and the apostles, who knew the best news was the gospel. And the bad news is you're a sinner. And sin is not, you know, oopsie, you know, I'm I'm just a little bit broken, like a hairline fracture. It's just a thin little thing. I'm pretty good though. No, it's rebellion against God. We've committed treason against a holy God. But in the lowly humble state of acknowledging that, there's beautiful good news. Jesus died for your sin. Change your mind. Go his way. Die to yourself. Live for him. And so if you are a regular listener for the gospel or you're a new listener for the gospel, demand that your church and your pastor and your preacher give you the gospel and preach repentance and preach Christ crucified and preach the finished work of the cross and call on people to turn from their ways, believe in Christ, and be saved. And if that's happening already at your church, praise God. Encourage your pastor. Send him a note today. It's Monday when every new episode comes out. If you're listening to this on day one, send your pastor an email this week. Send him a note, send him a card, tell him thank you. Keep going. Stir them up. Spur them on. It's all over the New Testament. Not only the concept of repentance, but the command to do it. So, people and preachers, let's call on the world around us to truly repent and pray that the Lord does what only He can do in our hearts. My prayers, this episode has helped you to understand genuine repentance and also will help you discern not only what to expect in your own church, but what might be happening in your own heart and be able to assess whether or not you are right with the Lord. Thank you as always for listening to the For the Gospel Podcast. Keep in mind our ministry is a hundred percent donor supported, and your generosity this past year and our first year has enabled us to provide all of these free teaching resources and videos and small group curriculum and more. So thank you so much. And as you're able, please continue to keep supporting the ministry. Our new website is filled with free resources. If you haven't checked it out yet, go to forthegospel.org. And on our website, you could check out our team as well and see a lot more about what ForTheGospel is doing. If you haven't already, follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter and drop a review on your favorite podcast platform. We will be back next Monday with another episode. For now, keep on living for the gospel.