David Pawson: Repentance. The Normal Christian Birth - Part 2.

This is part 2 of The Normal Christian Birth by David Pawson. Subtitles in English. Please you are invited help to make subtitles in your own language.

The very first step of entering the
kingdom has always been

Repent.

The tragedy is so many people
are becoming Christians

today without repenting.

That God is having to tell Christians
to repent in this country.

He shouldn't need to be
telling Christians to repent.

The church should be telling
the world to repent instead.

If you are hearing from
God you know that He is

telling the church, Christians,
in Britain to repent

and catch up

on what they should
have done years ago.

So that is the first step.

But what does it
mean to repent?

Most people think it is
a matter of feelings,

of tears,

of feeling sorry for
what you have done.

But that may not be repentance.

It may be simply

regret.

A lot of people have feelings
of regret about how they lived.

I would be surprised if there
was anyone here that didn't

regret some of the decisions
they have made in life.

And feelings of regret

are about what you
have done to yourself.

What you have done
with your own life

and your own decisions.

There are other people
who have deep feelings

of what we call remorse.

And remorse is
what you feel

about what you
have done to others.

I remember meeting a man

suffering from
venereal disease

as the result of
his way of life.

And he had passed on

this venereal disease
to his daughter.

And he was filled with remorse

when he saw what he had
done to someone else.

He had deep feelings
of remorse about it.

But that is not repentance.

Repentance has
this unique feature.

That repentance is what you
feel you have done to God.

That is quite different from
regret and remorse.

Suddenly you realize that it
is God you have hurt most.

Like the prodigal son realized it
was not just his father he hurt.

He said, "Father I have sinned

against you and against heaven."

As soon as that heaven
dimension comes in

and you realize it's God
you have hurt most,

and you realize it''s
God's laws you broke,

it's God's love you refused,

it's God's anger you provoked,

it's God's judgment you deserve,

it's God's mercy you need. When
this God dimension enters in

it becomes what Paul
calls, "the godly sorrow

that leads to repentance."

Regret and remorse do not
necessarily lead to repentance.

Cain regretted bitterly

what he had done to Abel
but he never repented of it.

He never put it right,

he never confessed it.

He only regretted the punishment
he was now experiencing.

Well, that was a simple introduction.

I now want to

tell you that repentance
involves three things.

So we are looking
now at repentance.

In the New Testament
repentance

passes through three stages.

Very simply:

Thought, Word, and Deed.

Therefore repentance
takes time.

The trouble is when you
are trying to lead someone

to Christ in 5 minutes
at the end of a meeting

as the bus is waiting
for them you can't

take them through
repentance properly.

And so we make them
say a sinner's prayer,

"Lord Jesus I'm sorry for all my
sins, I invite you into my life, Amen."

That is not repentance.

In fact, I doubt if you
can repent in general.

You probably know the
general confession that is used

in Anglican churches every Sunday.

"I have left undone the things
I ought to have done; and

I have done the things I
ought not to have done;

And there is no health in us."

All this starts as miserable
sinners, which produces a lot

of miserable congregations.

We should be happy saints,
not miserable sinners.

But a general confession,
when I hear it, and

my wife and I are often in
Anglican churches.

Now aah...

One in our village...

I look at the congregation
when they are confessing

their sins and I wonder,

"Are you thinking of anything

you have done?

Or anything you have not done?

Or are you just signing
a blank check?

You see I am going to show
you that repentance is always

repentance of particular sins.

You can't repent of general sins.

You can only repent of this,
and this, and this.

And that involves these 3 steps.

It involves first of all

changing your mind

about particular things

and thinking God's way about them.

And when you do this you
come to 2 conclusions: First,

God is a much better person
than I thought He was.

And second, I am a much
worse person than I thought I was.

Usually it is the other way.

When an unbeliever thinks about God

he thinks God is unfair and himself fair.

That he is better than God.
Have you noticed that?

A number of people say,
"Why does God do this, why

does God allow that,
why should God...?"

... "I know better than God
and if I were running

the universe I could do it
better than He's doing it."

That is what they are saying.

And they are really setting themselves
as a better person than God is.

They are saying He is making
mistakes which I wouldn't.

He is treating people
in a way I wouldn't.

I am, therefore, a better
person than He is.

When you repent your thoughts
take a somersault.

And when you catch a glimpse of
His holiness and His purity

you begin to realize
how lucky you are.

And you have a much lower
view of yourself.

In fact, the higher your view God
the lower your view yourself.

Repentance is a change of mind.

The Greek word 'metanoia' means
to have second thoughts:

'meta'- change or after:
'noia'- mind

To think again about the
way you have been living.

It begins when you
change your mind.

When you think God's way.

And then you realize not only that
your bad deeds are pretty horrible.

Amazingly you begin to see
that your good deeds are just

as offensive to God.

It comes as a shock
to many people

when they realize in their mind

that the best things they have ever
done are not good enough for God.

And that our righteousness
has to be repented of as

well as our sins.

That our good deeds as
well as our bad deeds need

to be put away.

What a revolution that is!

Most people think repentance

covers the bad things
you have done.

But in the Bible it covers the
good things you have as well.

Let me give you 2 texts from the
Bible which are a bit blunt to

a Christian congregation.
The Bible is a blunt book.

It has unfortunately been tidied up
in English for polite congregations.

But in the Hebrew and Greek
it is a very earthy book.

Isaiah said this, the ladies
will understand this,

Isaiah said,

"Our righteousness, to God,

is like a menstrual cloth."

(A disposable napkin)

That is how you feel
about your righteousness

once you think God's way.

Here is one for the men.

Paul says in Philippians 3

"When I consider the
commandments I kept,

not those I broke."

(And he kept 9 of the 10 commandments.)

He said, "When I
consider the ones I kept

I count them as dung."

He feels like a little boy who
emptied his bowels into a pot

and holds it up saying,
"Look what I have done."

And he uses a very down
to earth Greek word for

human excreta for which this is the
well known English equivalent today.

That is the Bible.

In other words you realize
that your righteousness

is as far short of God's
standards as your bad deeds.

And you leave them all
behind you and you say,

"Nothing in my hand I bring;
simply to your cross I cling."

That is to come to the
truth about yourself.

I love that story about

an old preacher in
the slave plantations

in the deep south of America.
He was preaching on the

Prodigal Son and he said...

"He took off his jacket
and threw it away.

And he took off his shirt
and threw that away.

He took off his vest
and threw that away.

And then, brothers, he
just came to himself."

You have missed the pun.

You're not quite with me.

To come to yourself means
to finally strip away all the

covering and get to the real
truth of your condition.

It is interesting, the closer you
get to God the worse you feel.

The more you understand
how good He is,

the more you realize
how bad you are.

And realizing and thinking that
way is the first major step.

But that's not the end of repentance.

The second step

is the word of repentance.

And that means
first to confess sins.

Protestants, in reaction to the
Catholic practice of confession,

have neglected confession.

If you had asked John the
Baptist for baptism

he would have said,

"Then before you
go into the water

make a public
confession of your sins."

He insisted on that.

You search the New Testament
and see how many times it

says confess your
sins, to one another.

You know I found it is therapeutic
if I am counseling an inquirer

to get them to name

the sins they want forgiven.

That does two good things
for them. First of all, it helps

them to be accountable
for specific things.

Somebody comes to me and says,
"I'd like to be a Christian."

-"Oh, you'd like your sins forgiven?"

- "Yes."

"You'd like to be saved
from your sins?"

-"Yes."

-"Then you tell me what sins
you want to be saved from."

I find that's when
repentance begins.

And somehow naming it
gets it out into the light.

My heart always leaps when somebody
says to me in those situations,

"I've never told anyone this before."

I think there is a release
coming in a moment.

It's coming into the light.

It's getting out.

Even just saying it

somehow does
something about it.

And it is specific then.

"Lord it is this

and it is this

and it is this."

There is no confession
of general sin

in the New Testament.
There are only confession

of sins, plural,

a list.

Confession also helps

to make a person responsible.

When you confess sins
you can't make excuses.

You can't say, "Well, it wasn't my fault."

Because confession is
to say, "It was my fault,

I chose that way."

Let me say something that
could be misunderstood.

There's an awful lot of
'inner healing' around now.

And I find Christians would
rather have 'inner healing'

than forgiveness.

Because forgiveness
demands repentance.

And it is so easy to blame
someone else for my sins.

And to say it was my parents
and what they did to me.

Because of what happened
to me as a child.

and to say, "I need healing,
I don't need forgiveness,

I need healing."

But listen, we are not the result
of what has been done to us.

We are the result of what we have
done about what has been done to us.

It's the choices of reaction
that we have made,

that has made us what we are.

If I am bitter,

it's because I have chosen to
resent what was done to me

rather than forgive it.

And in fact I really believe that more
people are in need of repentance

than 'inner healing'.

Although there is
still a place for that,

where the Holy Spirit can
go back and sort out

a problem from earlier years.

But the basic need of mankind
is not for 'inner healing'

but for repentance that makes it
possible for God to forgive:

of saying, "I am
what I am now

because I chose

at crucial points in my life

a way that leads
to this character.

We are all a result of our choices.

And to treat someone who is
responsible for what they have

done is to treat them with
the dignity of a human being.

They are not a Pavlovian dog.

You are saying to someone,
"You are a human being.

You have the will to choose.
You have chosen."

I have heard men in court plead,

"Well, I got into bad
company Your Honor."

I have never heard a man say,
"I chose that company."

Just: " I got into bad company"

But we choose our friends.
We choose the company we keep.

We choose the
ambitions we have.

We chose, we choose.

And confession is saying
I made the wrong choice.

And I am responsible.

That is the beginning
of lifting a person

to the dignity of a
responsible human being.

And to get them to spell it out
in words is very important.

If we confess our sins-
not our sin.

If we confess our sins, which means,

to name them
one by one, individually.

Then He is faithful and just

to forgive

each one--

of our sins...

and His blood goes
on keeping us clean.

A beautiful promise.

As well as "Confession"

that is one part of
the word for forgiveness.

It is also important with certain sins

to get a person to
"renounce" that thing.

To say, in words, before God,
"I am finished with it,

I will not go back to it."

To 'renounce'.

In early baptism they were
always asked to renounce

the world, the flesh and the devil.

And to say publicly, "I
have nothing more to do

with those false masters."

To 'renounce'

Now comes the hard part

of repentance, which is 'deeds'.

Here is a part of repentance
that many people don't realize.

This is what takes time.

Repentance begins with THOUGHT

It then comes out in WORDS

but it must then
come out in DEEDS.

I'll give you 2 texts:

John the Baptist said this when
someone came to be baptized.

"Produce fruit worthy of
repentance

then I will baptize you."

They said, "What do you mean?"

If you have too many
clothes give some away.

If you're cheating with your
finance, get your books straight.

If you are bullying someone because
of your power, stop doing it.

And then here is one for today.

Be content with your wages.

Where are the preachers in
Britain preaching that today?

Preaching it to the teachers
preaching it to the nurses.

Where are the preachers
preaching that?

We're not that because we are
not preaching repentance.

But boy there is a
practical repentance.

Be content with your wages.

How many people who are
baptized in your church

do you ask them, "Are you
content with your wages?"

We laugh nervously because
we know we are just

getting them to repeat a
general confession and

the 'sinner's prayer'.We are
not pinning it to reality.

Now Paul said this,

"I was not disobedient
to the heavenly vision."

But what heavenly vision
was he not disobedient to?

I wonder if you know?

If you read the
verse it says this,

I was not disobedient
to the heavenly vision

but I preached repentance
to the gentiles

that they should turn
or convert to God

and prove their repentance
by their deeds.

And Paul's ministry was a ministry
to get people to prove

their repentance
by their deeds.

I believe we should stop baptizing
people on profession of faith alone

and baptize them on
proof of repentance.

Now just let that sink in.

Zacheus...When Jesus came to have
lunch with Zacheus, the little

man up in a tree in
more ways than one.

Jesus came to his house for
lunch and Zacheus said,

"I have been
defrauding people."

But from now on I am going to,

"I am going to honest and
straight from now on."

He did not say that

He said, "I'm going to go to
everyone I have defrauded

and pay them back
with interest, four-fold."

And Jesus said, "Today salvation
is come to this house."

Repentance is putting
the past right.

You can't put all sins right.

But there are some, the Lord
will show you, can be put right.

I preached in Canberra

in the houses of parliament
to members of both houses

from Australia.

And after the

time together, which was

pretty hot as they know
how to heckle a speaker there.

And it was hot, but after a time

one of their most
prominent politicians

as he left the room,
whispered to me,

"I'm going home to re-write
my income tax returns."

My heart lept!

There were no tears

but there was repentance.

He had THOUGHT God's way.

He put it into WORDS

And he was going home to
re-write his income tax.

That's where the rubber
hits the road, as they say.

That's repentance.

DEEDS of repentance,

doing something about it.

Putting the past right.

Bringing it to a proper conclusion,

cutting the umbilical chord that
ties you to Satan's kingdom.

Tying it off so that
you are free of it.

It may involve a negative thing
like destroying something.

The last time I was in
Ashford I had to advise

someone to go home and
burn his Freemason's apron,

which he did.

Sometimes we need to do that.

In Ephesus they burned

thousands of dollars
worth of occult books.

You read Acts 19.

this is all part the of
the DEEDS of repentance.

And this has been so
neglected in our preaching.

It is no wonder that the Lord
is having to tell Christians

to go back and repent
and put things right.

But when they do there
is a tremendous relief.

I was preaching in Aberdeen
for 3 nights in the Central Theater.

And after the second night
a girl came up to me.

She was very upset,
she was blotchy faced.

She was crying,
she was shaking

and she said, "Oh Mr. Pawson
you are frustrating me.

I want to be a Christian;
I've tried to be a Christian.

I've gone forward
at every evangelistic

meeting in Aberdeen
for 18 months,

including the Luis Palau Crusade."

She said, "Nothing has changed

nothing has happened,
I've signed cards, I've been

consoled, I've been to classes.

Nothing has happened. I'm
beginning to doubt

if there is anything in it.

But I still want to be a Christian."

What do you do
with a girl like that?

I looked her in the eye,

I said, "Who are you living with?"

She said, "I live with a young man."

I said,

- "Are you married to him?"
- "No."

- "Are living like you are married?"
- "Yes."

- "Why aren't you married?"
- "He doesn't believe in it,

he says it is just a legal bit of paper.

As long as we love each
other that is all that matters."

I said, "You have a very
difficult decision to make.

I wish I could make it for you but
I can't. You've got to make it.

You've got to decide which
man you want to live with,

that young man or Jesus."

And then she really got angry.

She said, "No one else
told me I had to do that."

I said, "But you've told me you are
getting nowhere with any of the others."

I said, "Jesus won't join
in an arrangement like that.

You've got to decide."

Now if this were a preacher's
story, I would tell you she fell

on her knees, confessed
and was gloriously saved.

But it is not a preacher's
story, it is the truth.

So I better tell you the truth.
She ran out of that theater

sobbing her heart out.

And I have thought of that girl
again and again and again.

I know how Jesus felt about
the rich young ruler who

wouldn't give up his money.

Do you know what
the problem was?

Everybody that consoled that girl
had told her to believe in Jesus.

They hadn't started
by saying "Repent".

Do you see?

And so she was stuck.

And so often that
is the problem.

We have started
at step number 2.

Jesus and John the Baptist and
Peter on the day of Pentecost

all started with
the word "repent".

Now, at the practical level

to help someone to repent

you need to help
them to do 3 things.

The first thing we need
to help them to do

is to be serious.

Because repenting
is a serious business.

It can't be taken lightly.

I am going to repeat the words
of the marriage service now.

These words should not be
taken lightly.

I can't remember them

I knew I said them.

Well now how do we help
someone to be serious?

I doubt very much
if they will be serious

unless something of fear

is in the relationship

the fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom.

And we need to help people
into the right kind of fear

to be serious.

And I think you can best
do that by pointing out

where their present way
of life will lead them.

The word I found most helpful
for people to realize that

is the word 'perish'.

I say, "Do you realize

what it is to perish?"
Now that word, in English

means exactly the same
as it does in the Greek.

If you have a perished hot
water bottle,

what do you have?

Is it still a hot water bottle?

Hands up of those who say
it is still a hot water bottle?

Hands up those who say it
is not a hot water bottle?

Hands up those who
don't like putting hands up.

[The audience laughs]

Well is it still a hot
water bottle or isn't it?

It looks like one, doesn't it?

It can't hold water. But is
it still a hot water bottle?

Listen, when a hot water
bottle is perished or a tire

it can't be used for the purpose
for which it was made.

It still looks like one,

it may feel like one,

but it can't be used as one.

A 'perished' human being still
looks like a human being,

feels like a human being,

but can't be used
as a human being.

What do you do with
something that is perished?

You throw it away.

Or you burn it in the incinerator.

Hell is God's incinerator

for 'perished' people.

They don't cease to be people

they are just no more use.

I think that is the most
terrible destiny that a

human being could ever have

to become utterly useless.

Unemployment and redundancy

is enough to destroy
your self respect.

But to know that you have
ceased to be of any further use

to God or to anyone else,

that is what 'perished' means.

And God so loved us that He
didn't want us to 'perish'.

That's what hell is.

It is a place where you
are no use to yourself,

to others or to God.

And you spend the
rest of your existance

with people who
are no use to you

or to themselves or to God.

I can think of nothing
more terrible than that.

That is the end product
of living without God.

The fear of becoming
utterly redundant

in God's universe.

That's the fear of the Lord.

Jesus said something
about nuclear disarmament,

He said, "Don't fear those
that can kill your body.

Rather fear Him who can
destroy body and soul

in hell."

'Perished' people.

The second thing we
need to do for people,

to help them to repent is
to help them to be specific.

To confess sins. (plural)

To name them,

to get down to the nitty gritty.

If you ask someone, "Do you
want to be saved from your sins?"

"Oh yes."

"Which sins do you want
to be saved from?"

"Oh, all of them."

"Which ones shall we start with?"

It is too easy for people to say,
"Oh yes I'm a sinner,

everybody is, everybody
has sinned. I'm a sinner."

"In what way have
you sinned, then?"

We need to help people to be
specific. So how can we do that?

There are three ways.

The first way is a
guided conversation.

In which you steer them.

Now you must keep their
confidence. They must feel

you will keep their confidence.

But just steer them:

"Then, what is your besetting sin?"

What is the one you
would most like to free of?

Because Jesus wants
to set you free of it."

"What's the one you
most hate yourself for?"

A guided conversation
can become specific.

The second way is to
give them a detailed list.

And a friend of mine has actually
prepared a list of all kinds of

things that people get involved in.

Before he consoles someone
he gives them a sheet of paper

and says, "Go through this list.

Have you you been involved
in any of these occult things or

in any of these perverted habits.

And they go through
and they tick them

and then he's able
to console them.

It is a very practical
way of doing it.

The New Testament
contains about thirty lists.

And between them
they cover 120 sins

which God counts as sin.

And sometimes it helpful
to have a detailed list

and help them to through it

and mark them off.

A third way:

This is available
to the counselor

who is moving in
the Holy Spirit.

It is an immediate revelation.

Sometimes I have asked the

Holy Spirit to show the
person I'm counselling

what the root problem is,

what the tap root is.

At other times I've
ask Him to show me

what the root problem is
and then surprise them

by asking them about it.

But the Holy Spirit wants
to reveal the tap roots.

As a illustration, I found that

behind every homosexual
man that I've counselled is

a sad history of
a father and mother

who exchanged roles.

Where the mother became
the dominant authority figure.

and the father
the comfort figure.

That is why so much
homosexuality is being produced.

Why the roles
are being confused.

And it is the children and
grandchildren who suffer

from confusion.

And I was counselling
a lovely school boy;

lovely Christian.

But he was just
crippled with this

temptation, which he
gave way to regularly.

I felt sorry and said,
"When did this begin?"

He said, "At boarding school."

Now, boy's boarding schools have
a lot to answer for, believe me.

But I said, "No, the Holy
Spirit is telling me

it began long before that."

And he said, "No, I can't remember it
beginning before boarding school."

I said, "But the Holy Spirit
tells me it was before that."

"So tell me about your parents."

It was a sad case of a wife who
had been through 3 husbands.

A dominate woman who just changed
partners when she wanted to.

He was the product
of the third husband.

And the wife had taken the
authority role in the home.

She had dominated.

The result was that when
he wanted comfort

he climbed into bed with
his father not his mother.

And did not realize that
the father was not getting

comfort from the mother.

And was getting it from the son.

The whole thing emerged.

And it was necessary for the
Holy Spirit to reveal this.

So that we could get down
to the real root problem.

These are the 3 ways to
get down to the specifics.

A guided conversation,

a detailed list

and an immediate revelation.

And finally, and this
must be in one minute.

To be sensible.

That is necessary in 2 ways:

First: to be sensible as
far as the emotions

of repentance are concerned.

Sometimes people have an
exaggerated sense of guilt

over the wrong thing.

Their feelings
have deceived them.

It is possible for men
to feel more guilty

about masturbation, which
is not mentioned in the Bible

than murder.

So we need to help them
to be sensible in emotions.

And not let their feelings
get things out of proportion.

Psychological guilt
is not moral guilt.

And it is moral guilt
that Jesus cures.

Not what we feel guilty of,
but what we are guilty of.

And the other way we
need to be sensible

is in the actions
of repentance.

You can't go back and
put everything right.

So we need to help them to be
sensible about what they do.

One friend of mine went
to the police and confessed

to a crime he had committed.

Taken to court he was
given the lightest possible

sentence of two months,

went into prison,

preached Jesus and the
prisoners called him the bishop.

So when he came out he
confessed to another crime

and got back into another
prison and preached

the gospel there.

He proudly told me I am
the only evangelist in Britain

entirely financed by
Her Majesty the Queen.

[Laughing]

Now that was within the
realm of common sense.

He might have
gone overboard on it.

We need to help people
to be sensible about what

can be put right
and what can't.

But is this way we have
helped them to repent.

In the next talk we will talk
about how to help people

to believe.