Last week we talked about Circumstantial Repentance. Today we want to talk about genuine repentance.
Our scripture verses will be 1 Cor. 13: 8-13
Love never fails, but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away with; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away with.
For we know in part and prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with.
All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work. 2 Tim. 3:16,17
But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come. John 16:13
Jesus said, “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes, I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. John 17: 17-26
The Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For whom among people knows the thoughts of a person except the spirit of the person that is in him? So also, the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God.
Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God.
We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.
These are all gifts Jesus gave to men to function here on earth until the complete word was complete. Think about it, these gifts will not be needed in heaven nor the new heaven or new earth the outcome God seeks.
When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, and reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things.
For now, we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known.
But now faith, hope, and love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love. 1 Cor. 13: 8-13
These are the gifts that are essential to living a self-controlled life by the power of the Holy Spirit characterized by righteous and abundant living. This is the evidence of being a successful believer.
Genuine repentance has Direct evidence and has proof of repentance, such as testimony by a witness about what that witness personally saw or heard or did. Genuine repentance has direct evidence.
Virtuous Living
Therefore, genuine repentance is characterized by behavior showing high moral standards. Your moral standards are your beliefs concerning right and wrong based on the virtues of God in your pursuit of life, liberty and happiness.
Basing your moral standards on the virtues of God is essential because God expects you to imitate Him, living a life of love just as His son Jesus did sacrificing His life for you. God says, be holy, for he is holy! Eph. 5:1,2
God tells us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable, this is our reasonable service of worship. Rom. 12:1,2
This is possible because His divine power has granted us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.
Through these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world on account of lust.
This is the grace of God, the divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in the life.
And now, these three remain faith, hope, and love; the greatest is love.1 Cor. 13:1-13
1. Love: God’s commandment to His people is to love Him with all your heart, mind, body, and soul and love your neighbor as yourself. This is agape love, the highest form of love for God and humanity.
Agape love requires no change; it inspires change, covering a multitude of sins.
Love empowers you to overcome the spirit of fear, no longer fearful of loving all humanity as God does.
There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear because fear involves punishment. Your love cannot be made perfect in fear, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. 2 Tim. 1:17
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. John 3:16,17
God did not give us a spirit of fear, but power, love, and a sound mind. Fear shows a lack of faith and trust in God’s way of life.
This is crucial to understand because fear is to the kingdom of Satan, as faith is to the kingdom of God. Fear is Satan’s number one tool in accomplishing his objective in humanity’s lives.
Remember, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.
Job said, “For my groaning comes at the sight of my food, and my cries pour out like water. “For what I fear comes upon me, and what I dread encounters me. I am not at ease, nor am I quiet, and I am not at rest, but turmoil comes.”
You see, his sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send word and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.
When the days of feasting had completed their cycle, Job would send word to them and consecrate them, getting up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, “Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” Job did so continually.
Job was praying to God out of fear of what his sons may have been doing. What are you praying for? Fear is not of God; it is of the devil. For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline. 2 Tim. 1:7
We love because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and yet he hates his brother or sister, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother and sister whom he has seen cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God must also love his brother and sister. 1 John 4:18-21
Don’t just pretend to love others. Love others genuinely. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other.
Never be lazy but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically. Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble and keep on praying. When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them.
Always be eager to practice hospitality.
Bless those who persecuted you. Don’t curse those who persecute you; pray that God will bless them. Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep.
Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people.
And don’t think you know it all! Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.
Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say,
“I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord.
Instead, “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads. Don’t let evil conquer you but conquer evil by doing good. Rom.
12:9-21″
It is in these situations that you get to experience God’s love, and God gets to experience your love for Him. Your love is complete when you trust God and His word without doubting.
2. Hope A feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. See how great a love the Father has given us, that we would be called children of God, and in fact, we are. For this reason, the world does not know us: because it did not know Him.
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope set on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. 1 John 3: 1-3
Building your new life in Christ must be built on your hope of becoming like Jesus. For those
whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters; Rom. 8:29
Therefore, you must forget what lies behind you and reach forward to what lies ahead. You must press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Phil. 3:13,14
Your hope to be like Jesus will inspire you to get up each day with enthusiastic excitement to put to death the deeds of the flesh and implement the new principles and truths of the word of God in your life through the power of the Holy Spirit. Rom. 8: 12-14
For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all so that those who live would no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose on their behalf.
Christ living in us is the hope of glory. Col. 1: 24-29, 2 Cor. 5: 14,15
And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love. Rom. 5: 3-5
Now hope requires patience. Adam, Abraham, Moses, David, and the list goes on.
3. Faith: Total assurance, confidence of what you are hoping for. Faith is so powerful; you can do what is naturally impossible in it. In it, you can speak the promises of God into your circumstances, overriding facts and natural reality.
Faith is the currency of the kingdom. Currency is a medium of exchange for goods and services.
God issues each believer a level at which they are to operate as the method of payment. God says the just shall live by faith.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. However, God is the source of all things seen and unseen.
Faith is evidence that you trust God. It is the application of what you believe. Without faith, it is impossible to please God because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Therefore, the object of our faith must be God. My soul, wait in silence for God alone, For my hope is from Him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, My refuge; I will not be shaken.
My salvation and my glory rest on God; The rock of my strength, my refuge is in God.
Trust in Him always, you people; Pour out your hearts before Him; God is a refuge for us. Selah Psalm 62:5-8
This is the confidence that we have before Him that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. 1 John 5: 14,15
