Hey everyone,
I apologize for being away for so long. If anyone is interested in receiving the entire Fear of God series, email me at david@impactchurch.ca. Here are the last bits of the sermon.
Part IV: Repentance and Forgiveness
Caution: This is not a 3 step-program to intimacy with God. This is something that can help with your relationship with God. As I began to take over the duties as “prayer email guy”, I noticed that there was often a common email, “help to draw me into a closer relationship with God.” I believe that God outlines within the Bible how we can do this. Use these three things as a guide and a tool to help you understand how to come closer to God.
The first “step” in the chart has to do with repentance born out of a fear of God. I looked up in the thesaurus the other words for repent we have:
a. Regret
b. Be sorry
c. Apologize
d. Ask forgiveness
e. Feel sorrow
f. Be penitent
g. Atone
h. Be remorseful
These seem like rather strong words. What is it within us that make us want to repent to God? I feel as though we have these two sides, one that really wants to repent and walk with God, and the other side that says, well, we have screwed up way too much, why should God even care? It’s like we have the deep instinct that knows all we have to do is place our faith and our repentant to God and He will forgive, yet, there is also this survival mode that looks for any reason we can think of to not have to repent.
It reminds me a lot about the story of Adam and Eve. I have heard it said that in the story when it talks about them being ashamed because they were naked, that it was not just because they were physically naked, but because their sin was exposed. Think about that as we read this story.
Genesis 3:7-11, “Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, ‘Where are you?’ He said, ‘I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.’ And He said, ‘Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?’”
Now I am not sure what exactly happened with the eating of the fruit. It seems to suggest that something psychologically, physically, and spiritually happened. The conversation continues as God pronounces judgment upon them and executes their “sentence”.
I want to kind of focus on Adam and Eve’s reactions. Something heralded God walking in the garden. Something told them God was there, they looked down at themselves and realized they had done exactly what He had told them not too. They were caught. Anyone been trapped in a lie, or in an act of sin? Do you remember the blood rush to your head as your face turns red with embarrassment at being caught? It seems I talk of from experience. I am.
I remember as a young child I was in piano lessons, most weeks I had theory homework to do, this week however, I had not done it. My friends house was right by my piano teachers house I went there for supper and then I was going to be heading home on my bike. I had not done the theory work, so I hid the book down the street in some bushes. But what I had forgotten about was the cheque that would pay for my lessons that month, was inside the theory book. For some reason it was really late when the lessons were over, my dad picked me up instead of me riding home and I did not have time to go back and get the book. I lied to my mom telling her that I lost the book at school; obviously upset she was going with me the next day to the school to find it. I finally admitted to her the next day, after a horrible night’s sleep, that I had hid the book because I had not done the theory homework. We went got the book, and the cheque was gone.
Did Adam and Eve take responsibility for what they did? Did they beg God for forgiveness? No, instead they shifted into survivor mode and placed the blame for their sin everywhere else. I wonder what would have happened if they had had David’s heart when after being caught in his sin with Bathsheba, immediately he recognized what he did, and begged God for forgiveness.
So how does repentance work with the fear of God? God loves a repentant heart. He looks and loves to forgive the repentant heart. I believe that for good reason this is the first part of the chart. It is the start of our relationship with God, but it is not a one time event, it is something we need to continually revisit. It continues on throughout our life.
In an effort to show how seriously God takes sin, I am going to look at the law a little bit and all the reasons why the sacrifices needed to be offered. In each case afterwards, God sets out specific instructions on how the animal was to be prepared in each case. I won’t get into that, it is the first part that I would like to focus on. I think this can help us realize why we should fear God as He pretty well covers a large gamut of sin in the lives of the Israelites.
Leviticus 4:2b-3, “‘If a person sins unintentionally in any of the things which the LORD has commanded not to be done, and commits and of them, if the anointed priest sins so as to bring guilt on the people, then let him offer to the Lord a bull without defect as a sin offering for the sin he has committed.’”
4:13-14, “‘Now if the whole congregation of Israel commits error and the matter escapes the notice of the assembly and they commit any of the things which the LORD has commanded them not to be done, and they become guilty; when the sin which they have committed becomes known, then the assembly shall offer a bull for the herd for a sin offering…’”
4:22-23, “‘When a leader sins and unintentionally does any one of all the things which the LORD his God has commanded not to be done, and he becomes guilty, if his sin which he has committed is made known to him…’”
4:27-28, “‘Now if anyone of the common people sins unintentionally in doing any of the things which the LORD has commanded not to be done, and becomes guilty, if his sin which he has committed is made known to him…’”
The law continues on in chapter 5 to deal with not witnessing in a public case that he knows the facts either good or bad, touching of dead carcasses, human “uncleanness”, making thoughtless oaths and becoming aware of them, that when
(verse 5), “he becomes guilty in one of these, that he shall confess that in which he has sinned.” Verse 15 of Chapter 5, “If a person acts unfaithfully and sins unintentionally against the LORD’s holy things…”…Now if a person sins and does any of the things which the LORD has commanded not to be done though he is unaware, still he is guilty and shall bear his punishment.’” He describes one more thing in chapter 6 and that is for a person he deals deceitfully in regards to monetary matters. He to is to make “restitution for it in full and add to it one-fifth more. He shall give it to the one whom it belongs on the day he presents his guilt offering.”
Now what does that tell me? Well, if you want to know what exactly the commands are, I encourage you to look through the law. Read through Exodus-Deuteronomy, you will find out some fascinating things about how much God truly did care for His people. This also tells me that God seemed to really understand the fact that we violate His principles whether we realize it or not. He makes provisions for people to repent from sins that they committed when they did not even realize they were committing those sins. God expects that when you sin that you would immediately go to make right what you have done and if you did not realize that you had committed the sin, and were made aware of it, then you would immediately confess and offer atonement. These statutes that I just cited, are for those who did not realize they were in sin, and then when it was brought to their knowledge, then they offered atonement for that sin.
I believe this whole sacrificial system shows us also of how to enter into relationship with Him. We cannot simply enter into relationship with Him based on our own merits. There are things happening within us, due to our very nature that we cannot enter into relationship with Him. We have already looked at examples of what happened when people were placed in God’s presence and experienced His glory. As a result we can see the importance of what Christ did on the cross, how He became the sacrifice for all those things that God required.
Moses emphasizes the importance of the law and loving God with everything within them. Deut. 6:5-6, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These, words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.”
Israel later discovered that it was not just a matter of doing the sacrifices and ensuring the proper method was followed, there was also a deeper issue that God looked at. There was a heart issue that God was deeply concerned about, He not only cares about the fact that they followed the proper procedure and offered sacrifice, but also that their hearts were in the sacrifices. Not that they did these things because it was simply their religion, or set of beliefs, but that they genuinely wanted to enter into relationship with Him. There is on particularly difficult passage that I really believe talk deeply of the “heart” of the sacrificer.
o Amos 5:21-27, “‘I hate, I reject your festivals, Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies. Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them; And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings. ‘Take away from Me the noise of our songs; I will not even listen to the sound of your harps. But let justice roll down like waters And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. Did you present Me with sacrifices and grain offerings in the wilderness for forty years, O house of Israel? You also carried along Sikkuth your king Kiyyun, your images, the star of your gods which you made for yourselves. Therefore, I will make you go into exile beyond Damascus,’ says the LORD, whose name is the God of hosts.”
I believe that God is addressing two things here:
1. He is dealing with repentance without action. They were doing things that God had prescribed through the law, but God was not blessing them because their motives were not in honour of God. God set up this system, so that they could be a nation that would actually be in a relationship with their God, and that through them, YHWH could reveal Himself to the entire world, so that YHWH could bless them, and the nations could actually see that!
2. They had other things on their minds. They were serving other gods while making sacrifices to Holy God. He, His name, His ways, was not truly feared in their hearts.
Where does this leave us today?
I believe that for us here today we can take away two things in regards to repentance:
1. There is our initial repentance that begins our journey with Christ. It is the exciting message that began with John the Baptist, a message that called for repentance. He started making these claims that he (John the Baptist), baptizes with water, but the one coming after was going to baptize people with the Holy Spirit. Then Jesus in Mark 1:15 says, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel.” Then throughout the gospels Jesus begins to call people to believe in Him, and to place their faith in Him. I encourage you to read Acts 3:11-26, it is titled “Peter’s Second Sermon”, it really stresses the importance of placing your faith and trust in Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
2. The one that I especially deal with is the ongoing repentance. Paul says something really incredible in 2 Corinthians 7:8-12, “For though I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it; though I did regret it–for I see that that letter caused you sorrow, though only for a while–I now rejoice, not that you were made sorrowful, but that you were made sorrowful to the point of repentance; for you were made sorrowful according to the will of God, so that you might not suffer loss in anything through us. For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter.”
In the first two parts, we have looked at how the very nature of who God is causes a fear reaction from us that comes by very virtue of His glory, when He is even partly revealed it causes within us a true terror and fear. Yet we can discern through Scriptures that in spite of this, He still calls us to enter into relationship. We looked at the law and how God made provisions to atone and sacrifice for everything that would cause a hindrance to our relationship with Him. Once we have repented, we need to have the faith that God will forgive us! Fear for Him, motivates us to repentance, and repentance sown in faith brings us to His forgiveness which is born out of His love for us!
A careful study of the New Testament shows that Jesus has now become that sacrifice for us. If this is the case, think back to the laws for sacrifice. Were they able to make these atonements once in their life and never worry about it again? No, God prescribed when they were to make these sacrifices and it was to happen on an ongoing annual basis. Now that Jesus is our sacrifice we claim Him as our atonement for all those different things that we looked at in the beginning of the service.
Based on what we have talked about I would like to offer a few things to bear in mind:
1. Have a read through Leviticus 4-6, incorporate it into your prayer life, and use is it as a confession, or a repentance guide. God made provisions for atonement for those kinds of sin, ask God to bring to mind times that we have committed sins that would fall under some of those categories.
· To give an example of this, I had a bit of a lesson in this when I was trying to quite smoking. I had just rededicated my life and service to God, and was trying to quit. There were so many times where I would take the pack in frustration and was just like, “God I promise that was the last one!” Well the initial excitement of my new walk with God had worn off, and I felt like I had hit a wall with my walk with God. I could not figure out why. I prayed and asked God why, He laid it on my heart that all the times that I had said, “I promise God”, “I swear to God”, and I had not followed through, in particular with my many vows to quit smoking. I earnestly asked God to forgive all the oaths that I had made and not followed through on, or made carelessly, and I kid you not, I felt peace, and a huge sense of relief. Now before you all think I am crazy, Leviticus 5:4-5, “Or if a person swears thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, in whatever matter a man may speak thoughtlessly with an oath, and it is hidden from him, and then he comes to know it, he will be guilty in one of these. So is shall be when he becomes guilty in one of these, that he shall confess that in which he has sinned.”
2. Check your motives and your heart. God is clear over and over again about what He really looks for, is a contrite heart as people enter into relationship with Him. If you are at a point here at church, at home, or anytime that it would just be lip service and the right thing to do, take time to stop and ask God to reveal to help check your motives in prayer and in bible study. What can help your motives to become proper is sowing your repentance with faith, faith that God will forgive.
· Psalms 51:16-17, “For You do not delight in sacrifice, otherwise I would give it; You are not pleased with burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise.” And Isaiah 57:15, “For thus says the high and exalted One Who lives forever, whose name is Holy, ‘I dwell on a high and holy place, And also with the contrite and lowly of spirit In order to revive the spirit of the lowly And to revive the heart of the contrite. For I will not contend forever, Nor will I always be angry; For the spirit would grow faint before Me, And the breath of those whom I have made.’”
3. Sorrow, guilt, things that seem to follow sin, in particular habitual sin, according to what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians, is an important part of change on the part of believers. Do not let it kill you, be genuine in your repentance, and allow it to motivate change.
4. My last point, stop dwelling on it, if you have sown your repentance and asked for your atonement, believe that because of God’s love, it is gone! That is the scandal of grace. God has been with us from the beginning, and has seen every possible sin. Yours isn’t particularly special, unique or shocking to God. God has forgiven you!!
I will leave you with this verse, Psalm 103:11-13, “For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. Just as a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.”