* Evangelist Lester Roloff*
Every man must repent of his sin. What is repentance? John the Baptist told the people to bring forth fruit meet for repentance (Matthew 3:8). I want to say this to my preacher brethren. I really mean this. We ought not to be too hasty in getting them to join the church, if they haven’t repented. It doesn’t hurt for them to prove their faith for awhile. It doesn’t hurt for them to prove that they have been saved by the grace of God and their lives are changed. John said, “Bring forth some fruit meet for repentance.” What are the fruits?
Number one would be a new heart and a new start. You’ll become new. The Bible says that “old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). One fruit of that experience ought to be restitution. I believe we ought to make right what we can make right. What if I was staying with a group of preachers and one of them stole my wallet while I was sleeping? The next day he comes up to me and tells me he is terribly sorry and asks me to forgive him. I would be glad to hear that he is sorry for stealing my wallet, but I would certainly want and expect more than that from a repentant thief. I would want my wallet back! I don’t believe he has really repented unless he brings my billfold back. I DON’T BELIEVE YOU HAVE REPENTED UNTIL YOU GET RIGHT AND SAY, “LORD, I’M GOING TO LIVE DIFFERENT FROM NOW ON,” AND BY THE GRACE OF GOD YOU WILL LIVE DIFFERENT.
I don’t believe you ought to smoke another cigarette. I don’t believe you ought to have to taper off in your liquor drinking. I believe you ought to cut out your gambling. When you get saved FROM sin, you ought to stay out of it. I’m not saying that you will be perfect the rest of your life, but I will say this: you will hate sin the rest of your life. If you can live in sin as the habit of your life, you have never been saved.
I believe that when a man really gets saved from his sin he ought to make a public profession of his faith in Christ. I don’t believe in these little secret decisions. We’ve had too much of this “Ya’ll just slip down the isle.” Slip, nothing; come a walkin’ and a talkin’ and a weepin’ and a repenting. It’s all right for the devil’s crowd to slip around, but we’re not slipping anywhere. You’re not going to slip into heaven. We’re going to go there by grace through faith!
And if you think I’m trying to get a report, with a bunch of “decisions” and a bunch of cards to haul off or share or do anything else with, in the first place, I don’t have anybody on earth that wants my report. I don’t care about a report; I want to see people saved. I want to see the church revived. I want to see the cause of Christ flourish in this city.
As sure as we live, it is God who must bring about Bible repentance. Have you repented? “…except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3,5).
Repentance is a godly sorrow for sin. Repentance is a forsaking of sin. Real repentance is putting your trust in Jesus Christ so you will not live like that anymore. Repentance is permanent. It is a lifelong and an eternity-long experience. You will never love the devil again once you repent. You will never flirt with the devil as the habit of your life again once you get saved. You will never be happy living in sin; it will never satisfy; and the husks of the world will never fill your longing and hungering in your soul.
Repentance is something a lot bigger than a lot of people think. It is absolutely essential if you go to heaven.
The previous is from a sermon by the late Evangelist Lester Roloff. It is excerpted from sermon #R03404 from Roloff Evangelistic Enterprises, Corpus Christi, Texas —
DiscernIt 
14 comments
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September 14, 2011 at 7:25 am
Craig Benno
I think your being legalistic here and not following Christ’s example. He called rough men to come and follow him and over a period of 3 years he continued to shape, transform and restore their lives.
September 14, 2011 at 8:20 am
Kim
I think what the writer is saying is that repentance is truly a turning away from sin. A total change, a turn in another direction, a picking up of a cross and denying self. What is more freeing than living for Christ instead of self?
Three times in John 14 we are told that if we love Jesus we will obey what He says.
There are hundreds and hundreds of Christ’s examples to follow in His Word.
September 14, 2011 at 8:58 am
iftruthbeknown
I totally disagree with Craig Benno here. There is only one gospel and that is the gospel of repentance. It was the first thing Jesus preached when he came out of the desert after being tempted by the devil for 40 days. It was the last thing Jesus said when he ascended up to heaven in luke’s gospel by calling it a gospel of repentance. It was the only message in town at pentecost when Peter stood up full of the Spirit and preached ..” repent then and turn to God that yours sins be wiped out and times of refreshing come from the Lord.” and Paul stod up on Mars Hill and declared to the gentile world that God commands all men everywhere to repent.
To even suggest that there is some alternative means of salvation aside from repentance is a godless heresy that will benefit no man and I’m convinced arouse the judgement of God. When men in their pride attempt to change the once and for all gospel they have moved from grace to judgement.
September 14, 2011 at 9:25 am
Kim
itbk,
Thank for so boldly stating the truth.
September 14, 2011 at 7:46 pm
Craig Benno
And Kim…John also says that if we say we have no sin…the truth is not within us. He is saying this to the Church and not to unbelievers. He then goes onto say…However…if anyone does sin..we have an advocate with the father who is righteous and just and if we confess our sin, we will be forgiven and cleansed of all unrighteousness.
It’s easy to point out the external faults…the internal ones are harder within the church and if we were honest with ourselves and each other…our churches would be empty if we required a total giving away of all sin… criticism, lack of patience with others, bitterness, jealousy, lying, lack of prayerfulness, gossip, hardness of heart, self righteousness and so the list goes on.
I thank God on a daily basis that he is constantly molding and delivering me from myself and changing me into his image….
September 15, 2011 at 4:43 am
iftruthbeknown
Mr Benno, sadly you have misuderstood the nature and purpose of Christ’s redemptive work upon the cross. God in his holiness can tolerate no sin whatsoever. Christ by his atoning death upon the cross and resurection paid the price for all sin nailing it to the cross and removing it as far as the east is from the west. Only such a complete removal of sin would enable sinful man to enter into the presence of this Holy terrifying God.
To suggest that God now does not require the complete absence of sin for any kind of communion with Him is to misunderstand christianity. The only prayer that God will listen to from a sin infested man is one of repentance,hence the redemptive work of Christ. all other prayers are received in heaven from blood washed purified born again saints. The reason the Christian can fellowship with God is because all of his sin has been atoned for and removed .. Any who are in Christ have had all their sins removed and therefore can approach the throne of grace with boldness. To suggest that sinlessness is not a standard for fellowship with God is a blasphemy contrary to the clear teaching of scripture.
The scriptural passage quoted by Mr. Benno is evidence of the necessity for repentance in man’s fellowship with the Holy Lord. John states in the same epistle … ‘If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 Jn. 1:9’
To suggest that “our churches would be empty if we required a total giving away of all sin” is to misunderstand the nature of the church. Biblically the church , that is those who have been bought with the blood of Jesus and are reborn by the Spirit and the Word of God, have given away all sin. Infact it is only when they have given away all sin that they become part of the church. They are bought with a price, the cleansing blood of Jesus. It is an acceptable propitiation for sin unto God the Father and therefore qualifies man for membership into Christ’s church.
Perhaps Mr. Benno confuses personal holiness with the believers sinless perfection that we receive in Christ upon receiving salvation? The writer to the hebrews states, ” for by one sacrifice he has perfected forever those who are being made holy. Heb 10:14 this again in no way negates the stipulated necessity of repentance to initiate communion with God.
September 15, 2011 at 4:56 am
Craig Benno
I totally believe in being made right by Christ. He become sin so I may become right. My comment was made in light of the actual article under discussion…and I was making a distinction between external verses internal sins.
It’s easy to judge another of having external sins…not so easy to see their internal sins….so what I was saying is while Christ indeed has made us right…we all do struggle with sin… unless you are telling me you have never sinned since accepting Christ?
Within the context of the article – it was said we should never allow someone into the congregation if they continue to smoke or struggle with drinking… yet what about those who struggle with gossip, criticism, self righteousness, impatience and other internal sins…how do we ensure all those sins have been forsaken before we allow those people into the congregation.
So I”m not mistaken…only critiquing the article. However if the drunkard who is struggling with drink turns his heart towards the Lord and cries out…Lord forgive me a sinner and continues to struggle with his addiction – yet is pressing into the Lord…. has he no right to be accepted into the congregation as the Lords….
I will say …Let that person be accepted. For the Lord accepts him.
September 15, 2011 at 5:40 am
iftruthbeknown
It’s a case of how many times must i forgive my brother seven…? If the drunkard repents and confesses forgive him. if he then goes back and sins again and again repents and confesses forgive him and so on and so forth… But to perpetually sin with , to use your example substance abuse, eventually the person brings into question wether or not there is any redemptive power in the gospel. Eventually men will and must ask does God have the power to free a person from besetting sin? If no then the gospel has been emptied of its power and is a lie, if yes then the sinner has probibly not truly repented, been born again and saved. To live in perpetual humility and repentance bears fruit. To live in a hopeless state of sin and defeat is a deceit that smears the name of Christ, the truth of the gospel and the purity of the church.
As J.B. stated, bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
September 15, 2011 at 5:53 am
Craig Benno
I have worked with many people whom it has taken years for them to conquer the thirst… I think of the woman whose father raped her mother, sisters and her repeatedly and would often bring his friends around to join in.
I think of the guy whose identity is mixed up because his father raped him and passed him around to his mates….another guy who struggles with male identity because of his mother and sisters used to dress him like a girl… another guy whose mother raped him until he left home at 14…
Another guy was in the middle of a sex change op – messed up big time. His father shot him and left him for dead when he was 4, shot his mother and himself dead. …he went on and was molested in foster homes….he has drug and alcohol problems…and is slowly working through his issues of identity and being healed.
I know of some people whom the Lord instantly healed of alcoholism, and I’m one of them. However others it takes longer – working through their hurts, their pain, working through the process of REAL forgiveness which is a continual cycle.
The people I’m talking to come to our church, we embrace them and love them and slowly bit by bit, memory by memory, they are becoming transformed by the Love of God.
September 15, 2011 at 5:54 am
Craig Benno
BUT…according to the gist of the post, which we are discussing…non of these people would be accepted into the congregation in the state they are in…
September 15, 2011 at 8:00 am
Kim
The writer says that a true profession in Christ should be made before one becomes a member of the church. Indeed the church are the “called out” ones.
I too have been delivered of alcoholism and a wretched past. It was not till I repented that I really began living for the Lord.
Paul said he was “the chief of sinners” so we know that even though Jesus asks us to be holy and perfect, this is not something that we can attain. The need for constant confession and prayer for help from the Holy Spirit is a very necessary thing. That is why I am glad that the Father sees us through the saving blood of Christ and that righteousness is imputed to us. It is his righteousness not ours.
None of us qualify for eternal life on our own, because the wages of sin is death. Damnation, that is what we deserve, and indeed the building would be empty except for our faith and trust in Jesus as our Savior and redeemer.
You have given some very sad circumstances of a suffering people. I thank you if you are working with them and leading them to Jesus. Discipleship is important. John 3 is pretty clear though that we must be born again to be saved. Jesus explains to the Pharisee Nicodemus one must be born of the spirit.
I took the article from the website of David Cloud, Way of Life. He was in a prison ministry and saw many who wanted Christ, many who prayed the prayer, but when released from prison, he found during the follow-ups that there was no true conversion. Why? The gospel was not presented properly and sin was not addressed.
But one must continue to work with people but ultimately it is the work of God to save men who truly seek HIm because they understand fully their sin nature and are convicted by the Holy Spirit.
Some are going to more fruitful than others and a saved person has a new attitude toward God and scripture. The saved person wants to be with other Christians and wants to learn to walk in His ways. A desire for worldly passions grows dim.
True faith also will continue…we will stumble, our faith may waiver at times, and even be riddled with doubt, all devices of Satan
September 15, 2011 at 5:04 pm
Craig Benno
Hi Kim. Thanks for your clarifying comment. You have stated it well and I totally agree with you. It seems I may have taken the article you posted out of context and I am glad that it didn’t mean what I thought it was saying.
September 15, 2011 at 6:37 pm
Kim
oh….okay…..: ) …may the Lord walk you.
September 16, 2011 at 7:23 am
iwanthetruth
I took the article from the website of David Cloud, Way of Life. He was in a prison ministry and saw many who wanted Christ, many who prayed the prayer, but when released from prison, he found during the follow-ups that there was no true conversion. Why? The gospel was not presented properly and sin was not addressed.
Yes and sometimes I wonder how many have even made this “decision” in hopes that it looks good at parole time? But then I also understand the statement in “presenting the Gospel” rightly. This is my issue with most Purpose Driven (excuse me) Dribble. Weak gospel and many have made a “decision” and are never discipled or told what hat really means!