Repentance Leads to Restoration: Being Right With God, Pt 3

7.  We disagree on "how" repentance comes about.  Is it merely through the libertarian freedom of the will in cooperation with divine grace?  Or, is it through the Spirit of God and the Word of God alone?  The question should be asked, can man even cooperate in light of the fact that he is dead in sin and iniquity?  I suggest to you that a person cannot repent through the spiritual cooperation of their free will with divine grace, because the apostle Paul says that man is no good and nothing in him dwells what is good.  We ought to understand that all sin is against the Lord.  I remember when I encountered the Jesus of the Bible.  "Do you mean that all your sin means that you want to belong to Me?"  The Lord turns sin on its head and leads us back to Him alone.  We ought to understand, however, that all sin is ultimately opposed to the Lord because He is holy and just.  We are not holy and just by nature.  We are sinful and polluted by nature.  Iniquity causes a wall between us and a holy God.  It breaks up our spiritual relationship.  We ought to mourn for the harmed we have caused.  If we mourn over the pain we have caused in our sin, we begin to see what repentance is because we turn and return to God alone for His spiritual forgiveness.  We ought to have a broken and contrite heart.  I suggest to you that God will not despise a broken and contrite heart.   He welcomes us with a broken and contrite spirit.  We draw nigh unto God for comfort.  He provides us with comfort.  He gives us forgiveness and restoration.  We ought to turn to the Holy Spirit because He enables us to forsake sin.  We ought to mend our broken and shattered relationship with God through our Savior Jesus alone by heeding to the divine command of repentance by His hyper-grace.  The essence or core of repentance is asking for forgiveness because we have offended God.   If we have harmed someone else, we ought to apologize.  However, if we get right with God all things fall into place.  We ought to have a right heart attitude before God and man.  God says to return to Him with all our hearts.  He wants us to fast from the world, weep over sin because we have offended God and mourn over sin because it has broken our relationship with God.  We ought to rend our hearts by His Word and Spirit.  People will continue to sin even until death, but the question is what do you do with your sin before God?  His written Word says to repent and believe the good news.  Its not that repents saves us but only the Holy Trinity in His spiritual work in our souls. 

8.  People struggle with sin in their daily walk with God.  There is no doubt that there are different sins that we struggle with.  Someone may struggle with stealing or lust or coveting.  Whatever sin we struggle with, we ought to bring it before God in contrite prayer.  We ought to forsake our sin. Watch out! Your sin may sneak up on you and grab you by the throat!  You must rule over it and master it by His divine grace. You ought to never hate our neighbor or gossip about our enemies or our friends.  There is no doubt that everyone has sinned.  I would like to point out that we have all sinned against a holy God.  It profits no one to compare our sinful natures with each other, because the Bible says that everyone has fallen short of the glory of God.  If we did compare our sinful natures, we would discover that we are sinners.  There is no doubt that some are great sinners and some are small sinners.  Whatever the case, no one is better than another because none of us are good and none of us are righteous.  Jesus says to repent or perish in Luke's Gospel.  We ought to give God total allegiance and not to our ourselves or to some ungodly world system.  Sin at its basic level is all about idolatry.  We love things over God's absolute holiness, justice and righteousness.  My friends, I suggest to you that this should not be so!  We ought to cherish God's character over our sins.  However, I am personally convinced that there is no sin that God will not pardon through His Son's Cross. 

9.  We see that the nation of Israel struggled with idolatry or the worship of graven images.  They loved other "gods" or images.  Indeed, they worshiped other images of stone and wood.  People involved in the occult practice serious immorality.  The nation of Israel practiced Baal worship and corrupt sexual rituals.  The Canaanite religion in the nation of Israel involved "sexual rites" with "ritualistic worship."  We ought to never justify sexual immorality.  If we do, we have sinned a great sin.  The nation of Israel had a wandering heart, because they served Ashtaroth and Baal.  People nowadays do not practice this occultic activity anymore.  However, immorality and impurity is still around that rises its ugly head in our culture.  God blessings us with the human responsibility to repent because He will control the outcome of spiritual consequences.  If Israel obeys, He makes them have victory over the Philistines.  He will give us victory over Satan and human enemies if we repent because we have offended Him.  I would like to ask, do you love God because of His benefits or because of His holy character?  Where is your allegiance before God and man?  I suggest to you that you ought to repent to be restored!  Watch out for idolatry.  It comes against us at elusive times and uses its strangle hold upon us, but we assuredly have His Spirit and Word to guide and direct us into all spiritual obedience in repentance and faith in the glad tidings of the gospel of His imputed merit.  Amen.