Repentance
A Sermon on Repentance
Scripture
Sermon Description
What is the difference between repentance and remorse? In this sermon on repentance, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones addresses the incredible weight of these topics that separate eternal life from death. Repentance is a turning from sin to Christ. It is a genuine regret and full confession of sin. But how does it differ from worldly remorse? Dr. Lloyd-Jones carefully explains that while repentance involves feelings of anguish and guilty remorse, it is repentance that results in a change of mind. Worldly remorse will cry, but not forsake and turn away from sinful activities. The gospel message must call others to submit their life to Christ, not just feel bad about their sin. Only once one has been saved can they come to know the joy of discipleship, forgiveness, and move forward in Christian living. For the gospel message to be believable, the world must see transformed lives, lives redeemed from eternal death.
Sermon Breakdown
- The term repentance means to think again or reconsider. It involves changing one's mind and regretting previous wrong views and conduct.
- Repentance is brought about by the grace of God through the preaching of the Word. God grants repentance.
- Repentance engages the whole person - the mind, emotions, and will. It involves gaining knowledge of sin, feeling sorrow for sin, and turning from sin.
- Repentance deals with one's view of God, self, the relationship between God and man, life, death, and eternity. It leads to a changed view of all these things.
- The experience of repentance involves:
- A changed view of God's holiness, greatness, justice, mercy, and love
- A sense of guilt, unworthiness, and pollution due to sin
- A realization of one's weakness and helplessness
- A hatred of sin and love of holiness
- Grief, sorrow, self-loathing, fear, longing for deliverance, confession of sin, and a desire to please God
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Crying out to God for mercy
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Repentance differs from remorse. Remorse involves sorrow for failure and fear of consequences. Repentance is godly sorrow that leads to a change of life. It gives a sense of offending God, pollution from sin, hatred of sin, longing for holiness, and hunger for righteousness.
Great Biblical Doctrines
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.