HOPE AMONG RUINS Lesson Six: True Repentance A study of the book of Jeremiah

HOPE AMONG RUINS

Lesson Six: True Repentance

A study of the book of Jeremiahby Pastor Kris Holroyd

Sunday evenings at 6:00 p.m.

Where We Have Been

• Chapter 2—God’s incredible, vulnerable, passionate love for His people

• 3:1-18—The people’s inability to return to God. Then, God’s initiation, his pursuit of his people, and his bearing of their shame so that they can return.

• The cross of Jesus bears our shame and death.

The Call to Repentance

• God’s call to his people: v. 19-20, 22.


• Where have you turned away from God?

• Three examples throughout:– Gossip– Pornography– Greed


• We have already seen that God makes return possible.

• What does it mean to “return to the Lord”?• What is “true repentance”?

What Repentance is NOT

• The people’s heart remains with idols (v. 21-22).

• Cf. 2 Kings 23—Josiah destroys the high places.


• Regret


• 180⁰

• Turning around

• About-face


• “Sad to say, the Church has gradually lost sight of the original meaning of metanoia… [changing it to mean] the sorrow and regret which follows when one has made a mistake or has committed an error of any kind.”

–Louis Berkhof, Systematic Theology


• “Whenever repentance is marginalized in conversion, it is usually because of an inadequate sense of God’s holiness and the just demands of his righteous law. The consequence is that conversion is represented merely as moral improvement: the addition of certain distinctives of Christian piety.”

—Michael Horton, The Christian Faith


• “Moralism occurs whenever the fundamental message of a sermon is ‘be good; do good’ (or some specific thereof). Whenever the fundamental purpose of the sermon is to improve the behavior of others, so that Christ in his redemptive office is either denied or largely overlooked, the sermon is moralistic….


• “…People have obviously come to associate preaching with moral improvement (or moral scolding); they do not associate preaching with a proclamation of the fitness of Christ’s person and the adequacy of his work to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him.”

—T. David Gordon, Why Johnny Can’t Preach


• Jeremiah 3:24 “But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our fathers labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.”

• Cf. 3:3 “Therefore the showers have been withheld, and the spring rain has not come.”

• Cf. 3:10 “but in pretense”


• Gossip– Regret what I said– Wish I could take it back– Try harder next time

• Regret never results in lasting change.


• Regret• Shame


• Jeremiah 2:26 “As a thief is shamed when caught, so the house of Israel shall be shamed.”


• 2 Corinthians 7:10 “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”


• 3:25 “Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us…”

• Cf. all of chapter two!


• Pornography– Shame– Feel dirty

• Shame doesn’t produce lasting change.


• Regret• Shame• Fear


• 1 John 4:18 “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.”


• Without true repentance, that which you fear will come upon you

• 4:4 “lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.”

• Cf. Hebrews 10:31 “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”


• Greed– Lack of generosity– Sermon/book:• Lose blessing• God will take his

– Fear of punishment

• Fear does not lead to lasting change.


• Regret• Shame• Fear

TRUE REPENTANCE

• Hatred of our sinful self

TRUE REPENTANCE

• “Repentance pertains not simply to certain sins; pagans can be remorseful for their immoderate behavior. Rather, it is the revulsion of the whole soul toward its alliance with sin and death.”

—Michael Horton, The Christian Faith

TRUE REPENTANCE

• Luther calls “true inward repentance” a “hatred of self” in the third of his 95 theses.

TRUE REPENTANCE

• WSC #87 Q. What is repentance unto life?• A. Repentance unto life is a saving grace,

whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, doth, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God, with full purpose of, and endeavor after, new obedience.

TRUE REPENTANCE

• 2 Corinthians 7:10 “For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.”

TRUE REPENTANCE

• Hatred of our sinful self• Transformation of the heart

TRUE REPENTANCE

• True conversion “is a change that is rooted in the work of regeneration, and that is effected in the conscious life of the sinner by the Spirit of God; a change of thoughts and opinions, of desires and volitions, which involves the conviction that the former direction of life was unwise and wrong and alters the entire course of life.”

–Louis Berkhof

TRUE REPENTANCE

• “According to Scripture repentance is wholly an inward act, and should not be confounded with the change of life that proceeds from it. Confession of sin and reparation of wrongs are fruits of repentance.”

–Louis Berkhof

TRUE REPENTANCE

• Jeremiah 31:33 “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

TRUE REPENTANCE

• 4:1 “If you return, O Israel, declares the Lord, to me you should return.”

• Heart Allegiance

TRUE REPENTANCE

• 4:3 “…Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.”

TRUE REPENTANCE

• Hard hearts

– Gossip → heart?

– Pornography → heart?

– Greed → heart?

TRUE REPENTANCE

• 4:4 “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts.”

• Paul, Philippians (3:2), and mutilated flesh

TRUE REPENTANCE

• Hatred of our sinful self• Transformation of the heart• Life-long

TRUE REPENTANCE

• The first of Luther’s 95 Theses: “When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said ‘Repent,’ He called for the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”

TRUE REPENTANCE

• “Since our tendency even as believers is still to turn back toward ourselves and trust in our repentance, we must be driven again to despair of our righteousness or of any possibility of ridding ourselves of our sins by the law and cling to Christ.”

–Michael Horton

TRUE REPENTANCE

• Hatred of our sinful self• Transformation of the heart• Life-long• A gift

TRUE REPENTANCE

• 3:22 “Return, O faithless sons; I will heal your faithlessness.”

• “Turn back, O turning ones; I will heal your turning-ness.”

TRUE REPENTANCE

• Hymn #472, “Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Wretched”

• “Let not conscience make you linger, nor of fitness fondly dream; all the fitness he requireth is to feel your need of him; this he gives you, this he gives you, this he gives you; ‘tis the Spirit’s rising beam; ‘tis the Spirit’s rising beam.”


• Where have you turned away from God?

• Ask him for the gift of repentance.


• True Repentance:– Hatred of our sinful self– Transformation of the heart– Life-long– A gift

Turn O’ turning ones;I will heal your turning-ness.

HOPE AMONG RUINS Lesson Six: True Repentance A study of the book of Jeremiah

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