The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom fo God is at hand;
repent and believe in the Gospel
Mark 1:15
“Repent and believe the Gospel” That’s the message Jesus preached as He began his public ministry in Mark 1. “Repent” because of your sins. “Believe” because of the Gospel. By repentance we turn from our sin so that by faith we may turn to our Savior. That’s where a new life in Christ begins. It begins with repentance and faith. But not only is that how this life begins, it is also how this life is maintained! We grow and flourish in this new life with Christ by continual repentance and faith!
That’s what we’ve been looking at from an Old Testament perspective in our study of Nehemiah 9-10. So what have we seen so far?
(1) We’ve seen that repentance begins with a confession of sin. Just as Israel confessed in Nehemiah 9, so we acknowledge our sin. We agree with God that our sin is wrong, that by it we have trampled on His commands, and we’re ready to stop! We confess this in faith that He will cleanse and restore us according to His promise in 1 John 1:9
(2) Repentance leads us to turn from our sins back to God. It’s like a military “about face.” We turn “from” on thing ”to” the other. From our sin, back to God. From our idols, to Him, to gladly trust and serve Him (1 Thess 1:9). We do so confident that, in His mercy, He will receive us.
(3) Repentance results in a new life of obedience with a heart re-oriented to God. For us as Christians, that means we gladly begin to “follow” Jesus as Lord. We see Him as worthy of our trust and righteous in all He commands, so that with glad obedience we begin to follow Him daily.
That is the “fruit of repentance” we’ll be looking at this morning as we continue our study in Nehemiah 10:28-39.
Praying God gives us all repentance leading to life!!
Pastor Scott