Repent Ye

Scripture Reading: Matthew 11: 20–24; 28–30.  

Text: Matthew 11: 20—“Then began He to upbraid the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done, because they repented not.”  

John the Baptist was the Forerunner of Jesus Christ, preparing the way for Him who should come after,—preparing the way for the Kingdom of God. John preached repentance until all Judea, and the regions round about were stirred. It is repentance that prepares the way for the Kingdom of God. This is as true today as it was two thousand years ago.  

When Christ began preaching He did not preach contrary to John. He preached additional truth, but He started out with the same great fundamental doctrine of repentance, and He sent out His disciples preaching repentance.  

On the day of Pentecost, when Peter preached to the multitude that they had crucified Christ,—preached it until their hearts were pricked, and they cried out, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Peter, by the Spirit, replied, “Repent, and be baptized for the remission of your sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit for the promise is unto you and unto your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.”—Acts 2: 38-39.  

And men are crucifying Christ today,—crucifying Him in their own hearts, and crucifying Him in the hearts of those around them. “Inasmuch as ye do it unto one of the least of these, ye do it unto me.” Crucifying Christ by their sins, and by their injustices to their fellowmen. Crucifying Christ in their own hearts by their coldness and indifference to the pleadings of His Spirit. And when men realize this fact, and say, “What shall we do?” the answer is ever as of old, “Repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” With all His saving power the Holy Spirit cannot work successfully where repentance is not.  

Repentance is, therefore, one of the great important doctrines,—one of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity; without which you cannot come into the Kingdom of God; without which, therefore, there is no salvation. And notice right here in the beginning, important as repentance is, it was not merely that people who knew nothing of God, and who had not heard the Gospel, did not repent; but Christ reproved those very people who had heard from His own lips His loving and wonderful words, and who most of all had seen His mighty works of love; it was to them He reproved for remaining unrepentant.  

How possible, then, that even some of you may remain unrepentant! How infinitely important that you know just what repentance is; and that you repent and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  

The word here used is one throughout the New Testament that is used to denote evangelical repentance. If you look at the etymology of the word you will find it is a compound word. One part of the word is from a noun meaning the mind, and the other part from a verb meaning to change. So that by its very formation the word means a change of mind. It is, therefore, an inner, invisible change. There are “fruits meet for repentance” that are external and visible, but repentance itself is of the inner life, the “hidden life,” hidden, as Paul tells us, with Christ in God.  

It is infinitely important, therefore, that you understand what repentance is,—that you know precisely what is required of you. And in this study we will be guided by the Word of God and by a sound psychology. If you understand something of the nature of your own mind and then apply truly the Word of God under the guidance of His Spirit, then you will not go wrong.  

We are told that the mind has three separate faculties—three distinct classes or functions. (1) It is capable of knowing, of cognition, and this is called the intellectual faculty of the mind. (2) It is capable of feeling. Philosophers call this department of the mind the susceptible, or the emotional nature and commonly we call it the heart. (3) It is also capable of one other act distinct from these two classes or functions, and that act is determination, volition or Will.  

Now let us determine in which of these divisions of the mind this all-important change, which Christ calls repentance, is to occur. Repentance is not in the first,—it is not knowledge. Knowledge may be in many ways related to repentance and may greatly conduce thereto, but repentance is not knowledge, or a change of knowledge. A man may have all the knowledge that all the universities of the world can impart, and yet be so hard and impenitent as to be able to commit the most terrible crimes.  

If you notice the text you will see at once that Christ is upbraiding these people, not for their ignorance, not because they did not know, but because of having greater knowledge than many others,—knowledge imparted by His own loving words of wisdom, and by His own works of mighty power, they did not repent. Repentance is not, therefore, a change in this department of the mind called intellect.  

Repentance may and does involve a change of feeling, and may and often does result from that change of feeling, but that change of feeling itself is not the repentance. Hear the Apostle Paul in Second Corinthians, seventh chapter, ninth and tenth verses:— 

“Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance; for ye were made sorry, after a godly manner. For Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death.” 

How clear the distinction he makes between sorrow and repentance, and yet many confound the two entirely. Godly sorrow, without which no man can repent, worketh repentance. It is not repentance, but conduces thereto.  

Now if repentance is a change of mind, and it is not in either one of the first two departments or functions of the mind,—it is not in the intellect or in the feeling, the conclusion is inevitable, it must be a change of will.  

And you can see the reason for this. Neither knowledge nor feeling, in themselves, have any moral quality. A man may have a great deal of knowledge,—the most highly educated and cultured man in the community in fact, and all this may make him no better as a man. He may have keen sensibilities, a man of very intense feeling, and yet be a very sinful man. Knowledge and feeling conduce both to goodness or sinfulness under differing directions of the will.  

The more knowledge a man has, the more intense his power of feeling, the more dangerous he is if he is an evil man; and the more helpful and the greater blessing he can be to a community if he is a good man. You cannot know anything unless you know it as it is; to know it otherwise, is ignorance and not knowledge; and given the proper conditions, you will feel pleasure or pain irrespective of whether you are good or evil. There is, therefore, no moral quality in knowledge, or in sensibility itself, nor in pleasure or pain.  

The will is the executive faculty of the mind, and therefore the seat of responsibility. You are responsible for your determination, for your choice. Do you not hear the Master say, “Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life.” So if there is any obstacle between any soul and that soul’s salvation, that obstruction is in his or her own will. It is not in God’s will, for He wills that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth.  

Christ wept over Jerusalem, and said, “How often would I have gathered you as a hen gathers her chickens under her wing, and ye would not.” Christ weeps over every unrepentant soul that refuses to yield to His Spirit pleadings; and persisted in unrepentance will yield the same fruit. The Spirit will be grieved away, and your house will be left unto you desolate. 

In one of Christ’s beautiful parables, the Master says: “A certain man had two sons, and he said to them, ‘Go work in my vineyard today.’ One of them said, ‘I go, Sir,’ but went not; and the other said, ‘I will not go,’ but afterward he repented and went.” So here you have the Master’s own word that repentance is a change of will. This is the whole difficulty. God wills that all men should be saved; His Holy Spirit is striving and pleading with all men. “As I live, saith the Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked. Turn ye, turn ye, for why will ye die?” This is God’s challenge to every soul not yielded to Him.  

But, says one, are you going to have a religion of repentance, without calling into requisition a man’s intellect or his emotions? By no means. We are only showing that the deciding point,—the thing which involves all moral responsibility is repentance, and repentance is a change of will, a decision for the right.  

Knowledge and emotion have their place, and a very large and important place. They are related to conviction, and conviction must precede repentance. There can be no repentance without conviction. Conviction, however, is not a voluntary matter. God does not ask a man whether he will be convinced or not. He convinces a man whether he will or not, and there are very few, if any, who have not at some time been under conviction.  

For instance Paul and Silas and the Jailer. God did not ask the Jailer if he might convict him. He sent His earthquake, which alarmed him so that he was about to kill himself, when Paul said, “Do thyself no harm, we are all here.” The man was convicted, then he repented, and said, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul reasoned before Agrippa until he was convicted and said, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” That was conviction. God sent it to Agrippa without asking his permission but Agrippa did not yield. He did not repent. In both cases knowledge and emotion came first and without their consent. In one case repentance followed, and in the other it did not.  

Take the wonderful parable of the Prodigal Son. That boy learned a lot about the world and about his Father and the home folks by going out into the world. You can fairly see his opinions change with increasing knowledge; finding out the ways of the world. All this knowledge, but not repentance. Then he had a lot of new feelings, thinking about the old home, where there was enough and to spare; where the very servants had warmth and plenty of food, while he was perishing of cold and hunger. Don’t forget his emotions were deeply stirred, but he had not yet come to repentance.  

But the time came when he said, “I will arise and go to my Father.” That was repentance; that change of will brought the sweet fruits of repentance. Reunion with his Father and the home joys, the best robe, the feast. It all came because of repentance. 

And it is precisely because the will is the executive faculty of the mind, the one thing in the free choice of which responsibility and character inhere,—it is because of this that God does not force the will. To do this He would destroy the very thing which is His supreme quest, character and personality. The very possibility of these most precious things would be destroyed if God forced the will.  

God does lovingly here, all He can do, and not defeat His own object. He finds your will bound by an evil heredity, evil environment, and evil habits. He draws you by His Spirit until He neutralizes all these influences, and makes you capable of making a right choice. The freedom of the will that has been lost through sin, is restored for all in Christ. “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” It is thus through Christ, if you will receive it, He gives repentance to you that He may give forgiveness of sin. What more could your loving Father do than He has done?  

Repentance, not penance. Penance is futile and not necessary. God can see the sorrow of your heart, and His great heart is yearning over His wayward children, even before you are sorry for your rebellion and your sins. Nevertheless He cannot take your sins away unless you repent. It would defeat and destroy character.  

Repentance is with you and with the freedom of the choice He has given you, and even restored it to you after it was lost through sin. But that repentance is absolutely vital. Hear the Words of the Master, “Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish.”  

God shines down His light and His wonderful truth upon you, to enlighten your intellect. He pours out the unsearchable riches of His love upon you, even when you are in rebellion against Him, and are dead in trespasses and sins. He even restores the freedom of the will where you have had it destroyed through sin of your own or of your ancestors, or of your surroundings. All this God does for you in Christ, but that last final decision you must make for yourself. Unless you say, “I will arise and go to my Father,” you will never feel the Father’s arms about you; you will never know the joy of His forgiving kiss, or receive the best robe, the wedding garment of His righteousness, or know the joy of the home coming feast. 

On the contrary, the time will come when your heart, that now feels the striving of His loving Spirit, will be so hardened by resistance that His Spirit cannot reach you and your house will be left unto you desolate.  

And the greater the fullness of light that shines on your way, the more wonderfully His love has been revealed to you and manifested in Christ for you, the greater danger if you continue to resist His Spirit. No day leaves you as it finds you. You will be nearer God or farther away from Him. As Whittier says, “Tomorrow is with God alone, man hath but today.”  

“Forever round the Mercy-seat  

The guiding lights of Love shall burn;  

But what if, habit-bound, thy feet  Shall lack the will to turn?  

“What if thine eye refuse to see,  

Thine ear of Heaven’s free welcome fail,  

And thou a willing captive be,  Thyself thy own dark jail?  

O doom beyond the saddest guess,  

As the long years of God unroll  

To make thy dreary selfishness,  

The prison of a soul!”