The True Repentance

By Pastor Young Joon Park

8-2-09

 

Mary Baxter¡¯s testimony

She had encountered with Jesus for 40 days to experience the spiritual realm.

She had visited the hell and learned how the hell was real and horrible eternity took place. She saw one lady who was regretting her sins and repenting in her horrible place, in one of the places she visited. She shouted and claimed that Jesus was the way, the life and the truth, and to other demons against her to shut up. Mary asked the Lord why she was in hell at that time.

This is what Jesus explained to Mary

She was called at her age of 30 to preach the gospel to the world, and she did preach the Gospel to the world and ministered many people, and she was holy and faithful to the Lord,

However, she found that her husband was having an affair with other woman later, and she started getting angers toward her husband and the woman, and the anger was getting worse and worse continually. And finally one day she was not able to overcome her extreme anger and killed both of them, even if she knew the Word of God that we have to forgive other people, but she did not obey the word of God that she believed. Jesus tried many times for her to forgive them, but she did not listen. The devils in her took over and lead her to kill herself.  She is in hell and tormenting eternally today, so it is very important to repent with a true heart.

 

Today I am going to share the true repentance.

Our misunderstanding about the repentance is the thought that it applied only to non-Christians, but it is for all Christians as well.

We need take it seriously and continually.

 

I am going to share Luke 15:11-32 as known the parable of the prodigal son.

 

Today we are going to meditate about the prodigal son and next week about the Father¡¯s Heart.

 

Luke 15:11-20

 

LK 15:11 And He said, ¡°A man had two sons.

LK 15:12 ¡°The younger of them said to his father, ¡®Father, give me the share of the estate that falls to me.¡¯ So he divided his wealth between them.

LK 15:13 ¡°And not many days later, the younger son gathered everything together and went on a journey into a distant country, and there he squandered his estate with loose living.

LK 15:14 ¡°Now when he had spent everything, a severe famine occurred in that country, and he began to be impoverished.

LK 15:15 ¡°So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.

LK 15:16 ¡°And he would have gladly filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him.

LK 15:17 ¡°But when he came to his senses, he said, ¡®How many of my father¡¯s hired men have more than enough bread, but I am dying here with hunger!

LK 15:18 ¡®I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, ¡°Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight;

LK 15:19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.¡±¡¯

LK 15:20 ¡°So he got up and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

 

I. The Younger Son

1. His wealth

    1) He left home and went into a distant country

    2) There he squandered his estate with loose living.

    3) He began to be impoverished because of his squanders

  2. His poverty and the severe famine

    1) He had no food to eat.

    2) He ate swine food

    3) No one was concerned about his poverty situation

3. A decision to return

  1) Remembering his father¡¯s wealth

    2) Realized his sin  

        Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight;

    3) Denied himself

      a) I am no longer worthy to be called your son;

      b) make me as one of your hired men.

    4) So he got up and came to his father.

 

 

1. His wealth from his father,

    1) He left home and went into a distant country

    2) There he squandered his estate with loose living.

 

People run away from the Lord as far as they want to go.

We went too far from the Lord and committed deep sin and lived with it.

 

Run away from the Lord to catch the worldly things

Isaiah 53:6

All of us like sheep have gone astray; each of us has turned to his own way;

But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.

 

Our worldly life style

Ephesians 2:2-3

2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

3 Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

 

The value of the worldly matter

Ecclesiastes 1:14

I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind.

 

The result of the worldly life

Romans 6:23

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

    3) he began to be impoverished because of his squander

 

John 10:10a

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy¡¦

 

This young son was full of hope and dreams to be successful when he left his father¡¯s home.

He enjoyed his life with his father¡¯s wealth everyday, but he became poor, because his estates were quickly dried out. All of so called his friends who used to be with him when he had wealth did not keep their relationship with this young son any more. There was no true relationship because these people stayed around him not because they liked him but because of his wealth. His worldly friends used him to get some benefit from him, and they turned away when his wealth was gone.

The real friend gives their hands to his friend in needs.

 

Cow or oxen are used for the hard farm work or for the milk. What do they do to them when they are getting old and useless? People do not honor these animals when they are old and useless, but they send them to slaughterhouse even after all those years that they worked for you.

 

Same as satan used Iscariot Judas to hand over Jesus to the enemy¡¯s hand to crucify Him on the cross. Satan¡¯s desire was fulfilled by Judas Iscariot¡¯s obedience to satan. Judas was the hero to satan, so satan should have given Judas Iscariot a reward because of his faithfulness and finished his mission fully for satan. But satan does not have any capacity and ability to give rewards the people who are faithful to him at all. He always gives the false hope and false reward to people, because he does not have true hope and reward, and his destiny is the eternal death judgment from the Lord. He himself does not hope, but only destruction and death. Satan could not have given Judas Iscariot any reward, but destroyed his life.

 

Jihad is full of false hope for the young Muslim people today.

They teach young peoples¡¯ heart with the false heaven, and manipulate them into giving up their lives for satan (Allah) with false hope.

They will regret eternally in hell when they explode themselves with full of bombs in their body instead of the promised.

 

Brothers and sisters, please be on guard yourself with the full armor of God daily.

It is very clear to me, any division or destruction the relationship is not from the Lord no matter what reason.

 

Satan released his demon evil spirits to Churches in every area to destroy.

 

People claim their righteousness, and they bring the destruction in all the relationships, then we have to understand that our righteousness is not real righteousness, but we are deceived by satan.

 

  2. His poverty and the severe famine

    1) he had no food to eat.

    2) he ate swine food

    3) no one was concerned about his poverty situation

 

Not just only his poverty, but his harsh and hard environment as well.

Many times people said that there are ups and downs in our lives, but we need to understand that our lives will be balanced with the difficult times and the good times. Which means there¡¯s no need to be discouraged for the difficult time nor to be excited too much in the good times.

These two events are both needed in our life under His Sovereign Plan.

 

We can overcome very well if we follow the Lord in church, but it will be hard to go through and problems if you are separated from the church and all alone by yourself.

We really need be under the spiritual cover with spiritual parents, friends and brothers and sisters as family in Church of the Lord. 

 

The Lord warned us to separate ourselves from the family.

 

Proverbs 18:1

He who separates himself seeks his own desire,

He quarrels against all sound wisdom.

 

The younger son was full of his own desire, and he separated from the family.

This younger son might have some advices from his brother, father, or other family before he left his home, but he did not concern himself at all and followed his own desire. This young man might have said that God wanted him to do.

 

Some time people claimed that God spoke to them to make some decisions even they did not have any godly counseling with leaders. Most of this kinds of words are controlled by their own voice of desires but not from the Lord.

 

It is very danger if you make any decision by your own desire and look for the right word to fit your desire, and satan is very smart professional liar and he knows who is target.

And he knows the rules and where the opening door is for sin.

Please remember Adam¡¯s wife, satan found the door to enter through her, so we all in struggle because of her.

 

He is looking for the door to destroy your personal life, in church, in marriage life¡¦

It is very easy to hear the voice of satan as the one of God¡¯s if you have open door for satan.

I have seen people do their own desires under the name of the Lord¡¯s voice.

 

One bank employee did not come to work without any notice. The Christian boss called him why he did not come to work without any notice. He answered, ¡°The Lord spoke to me to stay in home and rest.¡± This is not a joke; I have seen this kind of people who were claiming to have heard the voice of God.

 

Sometimes I¡¯m concerned about people making decisions. They came to me to notify what their decision under the name of the voice of God or prophetic word without any counseling or discussion. I could not say much about their decision, because they don¡¯t ask but just to notify.

 

Their desire is lot stronger than God¡¯s desire.

 

Ecclesiastes 4:10

For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion.

But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.

 

This young man did not have any true companion.

He was alone.

 

Jesus Himself did not really focusing on this parable much, which is why I do not want to dig too much in this area, but we know that his father did not stop him from the stupidity in life.

 

I believe that God leaves us alone to learn from it.

We learn many things through our mistakes, and it could be a good life experience of learning instead of brain knowledge.

 

Romans 1:28

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper,

 

If our heart is filled with the worldly matters and evils, then there is no space for God in our heart at all, then we are going to be in desert situation.

 

Jesus kept His silence when Peter denied Him for 3 times.

God also kept His silence while Job was going through the tremendous painful disaster.

 

We would have some questions

Why father did not stop to give younger son¡¯s inheritance portion before he died,

Why he did not stop him from leaving home,

Why he did not send people to rescue him from his prodigality.

 

The father kept his silence about his son¡¯s situation.

 

This young son chose his desire, and he received the painful consequences from his action.

 

We need to stand up and cover each other

 

3. A decision to return (This young son¡¯s true heart)

  1) Remembering his father¡¯s wealth

    2) Realized his sin  

        Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight;

    3) Denied himself

      a) I am no longer worthy to be called your son;

      b) Make me as one of your hired men.

    4) So he got up and came to his father.

 

One of the signs of the spiritual maturity is the sensitivity of sin in our life;

also realizing the seriousness of the sin to God.

We need to repent and confess continually because of Jesus¡¯ Blood until Jesus Comes.

 

 

The True Repentance

The true repentance will bring the true relationship.

The true repentance will bring the true restoration.

 

Sin is ¡°Missed the target of the God¡¯s Will and His Heart.¡±

 

The true repentance is

 To realize how much far away that his action of his heart as sin is from God¡¯s Will and His Heart,

To commit his life to the Lord fully

To follow Him with truthful heart

And to never go back to the old way again

Until you breathe your last breath or Jesus¡¯ coming

 

The true repentance is to turn around from your way to His Way immediately, come to His Heart, and never go back to sin again.

 

 

The false repentance.

Sometime we do repent by our mouth only, but not from our heart.

This is a false repentance. And that we go back to the old way again very easily and quickly.

 

The same thing for the salvation

Romans 10:9

if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

 

We have to believe in Jesus from our heart, not by our mind, then and only then our mind and body follow the heart to confess with our mouth Jesus as our Lord.

 

The salvation comes when we believe in Jesus in our heart.

There is no salvation if we believe Jesus in our mind.

 

Our flesh mind does not have capacity to repent, but possible to understand the concept of wrong or right.

 

We are addicted in many different ways. One of my addictions was watching TV.

I repented because of waste time in my mind, but I could not get out from it.

It is repeated every day, because my mind repented, but not my heart.

My mind knew it was wrong, but my heart did not have any urgency of this problem.

 

3. This young son¡¯s True Heart

 

This young son did repent from his heart before he met his father.

1) He realized that he was wrong and sinned to his father; also he realized that his sin was not against his father only, but also to God as well.

¡°Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in your sight¡±

 

2) And he chose to deny himself and to humble himself to the rock bottom as to carry his cross.

¡°I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me as one of your hired men.¡±

 

Jesus said,

Luke 9:23-24

23 And He was saying to them all, ¡°If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.

24 ¡°For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.

 

 

3) The Greatest Action of the repentance

This young son turned his way to his father¡¯s home.

The hardest part is to come out from the place to go to God.

So he got up and came to his father.

There will be no true repentance until you come out from the dark place.

 

We really need to come out from the place where we should not stay quickly without any hesitation.

When my heart repented, my willingness from my mind was strong to come out from the addiction by the Holy Spirit.

 

Exodus 12:11

Now you shall eat it in this manner: with your loins girded, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste—it is the LORD'S Passover.

 

During the first Passover, God gave the instruction to Israelites how to eat the Passover meal. It sounds like that they had to get ready to move out quickly.

Israelites left Egypt after the last plague of Egypt that killed all the first born sons in Egypt. There was no time to stay, and they had to leave right away.

 

When we repent, we have to act to get out right away, and no time to waste.

Remember that Egyptian Pharaoh tried to recapture the Israelites after they left Egypt.

 

Our past no longer exists when we leave the dark place.

 

Israelites feared that they¡¯ll be captured by the Egyptian troops.

Listen what Moses decreed God¡¯s promise to His People before God destroyed all of the Egyptians chariots who chased after Israelites only to drown in the Red Sea divided by God¡¯s Hand.

 

Exodus 14:13

But Moses said to the people, ¡°Do not fear! Stand by and see the salvation of the LORD which He will accomplish for you today; for the Egyptians whom you have seen today, you will never see them again forever.

 

Our past is no longer with us any more because of Jesus¡¯ Blood.

 

When you believe in Jesus our old origins no longer belong to us, but the new generation as Jesus¡¯.

 

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

 

We are His Chosen Generation as Jesus¡¯ Generation.

 

Conclusion

 

Luke 15:20

So he got up and came to his father.

But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion for him, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.

 

The main point of these parables

There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.¡±

 

We need to repent

n      Relationship with the Lord

n      Relationship with the Church of God

n      Relationship with Parents

n      Relationship with Leaders

n      Relationship with family

n      Relationship with brothers and sisters

n      Relationship with the Lost

Hebrews 12:14

Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.

 

Story: one son who was in jail because of crime, he found Jesus in the cell, and realized how much his sin damaged his family, especially to his parents.

He wanted to restore the relationship with his parents, but he was afraid of their rejection. Before he was freed from the jail, he sent a letter to his parents.

He will be freed from a jail on a certain day, and he will take a train that usually passes close to his parents¡¯ house. He asked his parents to tie one white handkerchief on the tree that is in his parents¡¯ house if they will accept him as his son again. Then he would stop by his parents¡¯ house, otherwise he would keep going.

 

As the trains is getting close to his parents¡¯ house, he was feeling nervous and feared the way of his parents¡¯ heart. So he asked one of passengers who was sitting beside him if he could find a handkerchief on the tree at a certain house, because he was afraid to see their rejection, and he kept his eyes closed. The man who was sitting beside him said, ¡°I cannot see a handkerchief, but I saw this one old couple are holding a huge banner which said, ¡°Welcome Back our Son!¡± also I see the tree is full of white cloth.¡±

 

 

 

The truth to remember

Mt 15:18 But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart¡¦

 

Gal 5:21 ¡¦ I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this (Galatians 5:18-21) will not inherit the kingdom of God.