5. Meet God if we turn away from sin

 We only meet God if we turn far enough away from sin

Repentance changes our thinking in certain ways.

We think differently about God and about Self.

We think differently about sin and about righteousness.

Repentance makes us see God differently.

We want to see the One that we previously ran away from.

We sought our own comfort and gain but now we are prepared to suffer for His cause.

JOB 13:15 "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him".

Even if God kills me I will serve Him. What a change in my mindset!

I used to say that I served God because he blessed me and made it worth my while.

That was the Prosperity Gospel. Serving God was all about the benefits I got and my greed knew no bounds.

"Though He slays me". I actually deserve death for my sins. There is absolutely no way in which I deserve a blessing.

God loves me as a filthy sinner with the stink and guilt of sin that clings to me. God hates that sin. I am so embarrassed by the filth that covers me but my desire to survive drives me to seek God like a new-born calf clings to its mother as soon as it can stand.

The calf ignores the messy afterbirth that clings to it. Mom will sort that out in time by licking it off. Such is the love of a mother. The calf just stays next to the mother. Much more than that is the love of God for a sinner.

The repentant sinner just wants to be close to God. God will sort things out for me. I just want to love Him and serve Him and stay next to Him.

My loathing for my sins somehow creates a mindset that sees me longing for the grace and mercy of God. My heart breaks under my burden of sin and tears the inner sins out of my heart. My strongest desire is to establish a deeply personal relationship with this Mighty God Who I somehow sense can solve all my problems and guide me on the right path.

Somehow I can sense that God loves me. Even though I do not deserve His love in any way.

If I have to pay a price, so be it.

Being in the will of God and under His protection is all that matters.

My heart is torn in grief for my sins but that leaves no room for pretence in my heart.

Tearing my heart open to expose my inner sins is beneficial. Tearing my clothes is just an outward show that produces no deep change. Caiaphas the High Priest tore his garments when he condemned Christ. That sham display of demonic fury actually ended the Levitical Priesthood who were not allowed to tear their robes.

With no Levitical Priesthood anymore, the way was clear for Jesus to take over as the High Priest of the Order of Melchizedek where every saved Christian is a Priest. All Christians are equal before God. No Christian is above another Christian. No Pastor is the head of a church. Jesus alone is the Head of the church.

Nobody stands between a Christian and Jesus. Nobody stood between a Priest and the High Priest.

God alone, with His thoughts written in the Bible, is the only Person Who can tell a saved Christian what to do.

The New Testament church never had a Pastor as the head of a church. That is copied from the Roman Catholics who put a Priest in charge of a church about 1900 years ago. The Roman Catholics got the idea from the pagan Babylonians who always had a Priest in charge of a Temple. It was a good business model and made the Priests rich.

In the New Testament, every local church was always run by a group of local elders.

JOEL 2:13 "And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil."

My faults, failures, and sins are all open before Him. I hand that whole dismal mess over to Him.

I will now seek God’s Will and leave Him to look after my needs. Not my wants. Not my greed.

MATTHEW 6:33 "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you".

We need Jesus Christ to be in charge. He alone knows what the wrath is that is to come.

So, He alone can deliver us from that oncoming wrath.

I THESSALONIANS 1:10 "And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come".

Only believe what the Bible says. Church traditions must not replace the Bible.

If anyone disagrees with the Bible, do not listen to them. They will not escape the wrath that is to come.

When we turn away from sin we must have something to turn to. That something is the Bible.

It is God’s Word which expresses His thoughts.

You cannot separate between God and His thoughts.

The most accurately translated Bible is the Old King James Bible.

There are many modern Bible versions, but they all disagree with each other, so it is safer to avoid them.

Newer versions keep getting revised which creates more confusion.

We cannot properly turn to God until we have turned away from sin and are pleading with God for present forgiveness as we rely on God for daily grace.

None of us truly realize just how awful our sins are

The more we understand how terrible our sins are, the more we will understand the depths of God’s love and grace towards us. The fact that God wants us to turn to Him as He will abundantly pardon a repentant heart that is eager for reconciliation.

But we perish if we do not repent.

LUKE 13:5 "I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish".

The knife of sorrow cuts out the cup that holds our joy.

The more we grieve over our sins, the more we appreciate God’s grace.

God owes us nothing, we owe Him everything.

There is absolutely nothing we can do to atone for sin.

We must have zero tolerance for sin in our own lives.

But we must seek persistently for wisdom to know how to love the sinner but hate the sin.

When we repent, our awful sins flow onto Christ on the cross where a cross-over effect occurs as His righteousness and innocence flows back onto us.

ACTS 3:19 "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;"

We come to God covered in sin but we cannot stay in this sin. The blood of Jesus on the cross cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

JEREMIAH 31:18 "… turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God".

We must allow God’s Spirit to enter us as God alone can effectively turn us away from the sins that so easily beset us.

When we undergo a change in our hearts then there will be a noticeable change in our behaviour and lifestyle.

We have to be inwardly humbled and humiliated to produce an outward show of holiness and obedience towards God.

A tree is known by its fruit.

Repentance is a declaration of faith in a forgiving God but it is always accompanied by works that testify to the change in heart. The forgiven heart hates sin and is careful to avoid any circumstances that may lead to sin. Sin is an offence to any person who repents so that the repented person has no desire to partake of sin again.

A repentant heart trembles in the presence of a holy God and thus avoids all sins, however small.

The repentant heart realizes how serious the sin issue is and how awful the consequences of sin are. The love of God that is awakened in the repentant heart makes that person dead scared of approaching God if he or she harbours any sin in their heart.

A repented person wants all sins rooted out and through the power of faith tries to establish a stress on virtue and godly living. The focus now is on a decent and helpful life wherewith the person can labour in some way for the glory of God.

Wanting to be obedient to the Word of God is a noticeable fruit of repentance.