John K. Jenkins Sr - Bible Study, Repentance - Part 1

All right, I am so grateful for your presence. For the next several weeks, I will be teaching foundational principles. I know that may not sound fascinating-people don’t get excited about it-but what I have learned about the Lord is that He reveals newer, deeper things to us when we have an understanding of prior teachings. Some of us haven’t been able to progress to the next level of comprehension and understanding certain concepts because we haven’t moved past the first grade. They say, «You haven 't passed the first grade; stop trying to pursue graduate studies when you’re still in the first grade.» Amen! Praise the Lord! Glory to God! Bless His name!

I feel compelled to do a couple of things. First, as we move into this dimension of doing life together, what we’re truly after is for you to be pastors in your own homes. I desire for you not to have to call the pastor because you know the Scriptures well enough that, if someone approaches you with an issue, question, or concern, you will have the capacity and ability, through your own study and understanding of the Scriptures, to know how to respond and handle it. For a long time in the church, people would talk to their friends and say, «Well, I don’t know where it is in the Bible, but just go talk to the pastor.» I’m telling you, people ask me questions all the time, and sometimes they share things that are just not true. People are making choices and decisions and acting in ways that are not biblical, and I believe it is critically important that, as we move forward, we ensure our core members understand basic truths: What is repentance? What is faith toward God? What does it take to get saved? Is it just faith alone? The Bible says the devil believes- notice how it keeps going lower and lower.

So come on! I want us to spend these next few weeks diving into these foundational principles. What is resurrection? Is it dead? When does resurrection happen? Who gets resurrected? What are eternal judgments? Who stands in judgment? What do we get judged for? How do we get judged? Laying on of hands-what does that mean? Does it matter who lays hands on me? It sure does! We have people who go out and pay for ministerial licenses and then come back expecting the pastor to accept the credentials they obtained elsewhere. That isn 't how it works! The Bible says, «Don 't lay your hands suddenly on anyone.»

So we want you to understand these things. The main thing I want is that when the people you relate to and engage with ask you questions, I want you to have a solid foundation and understanding to provide answers without depending on someone else. It 's been 15 years since I’ve discussed these matters, and I’m coming to realize that we have many new people coming into the church who don’t understand certain concepts, while some long-time members might have forgotten, and others never learned in the first place. Just because people join the church doesn’t mean they think they can mature by merely attending on Sundays-they are gravely mistaken! Thank you for that rousing affirmation after 15 years!

So tonight, we’re going to talk about repentance. That 's a nice graphic right there, Pastor. The way you deacons did that is a nice job, Pastor Dee! [Applause] Let 's go through and discuss what repentance means tonight. What does it mean to repent? How do you know if you have repented? What evidence is there that you have repented? How is repentance expressed? We will spend some time delving into this. I have a lot of material and many Scriptures, so please try to keep up with me!

Repentance is defined in both the Old and New Testaments, and I want to give you the definitions from both. Let me start by telling you that one of the Hebrew words for repentance means to grieve, to lament. It conveys having intense or aroused emotions; it means you have a passionate pain about what you’ve done. It means that you are not sorry for getting caught; you regret doing it in the first place. That grief is so intense that it brings about a radical change-somebody say «radical change!» A radical change in one’s attitude towards sin and toward God; it’s about how you’re going to respond to God and what you’re going to do with Him. It’s a radical change, an about-face, a turnaround situation-it is a radical change.

Now, we see many people who come to church, join the church, and get baptized, but their lives do not change. Someone on your row fits that category-go ahead and look up and down and see if you can figure out who it is! We look at people and say, «Well, I thought they were supposed to be a Christian.» The truth is that just coming to church and saying you believe is not evidence of conversion. You need true repentance and faith. We will discuss this a little later, but I’m running ahead of myself.