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Post by Rhema Seeker (Guy) on Jan 17, 2007 22:43:19 GMT -5
3340 metanoeo {met-an-o-eh'-o}
from 3326 and 3339; TDNT - 4:975,636; v
AV - repent 34; 34
1) to change one's mind, i.e. to repent 2) to change one's mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one's past sins
3339 metamorphoo {met-am-or-fo'-o}
from 3326 and 3445; TDNT - 4:755,607; v
AV - transfigure 2, transform 1, change 1; 4
1) to change into another form, to transform, to transfigure 1a) Christ appearance was changed and was resplendent with divine brightness on the mount of transfiguration
What is actually meant when Jesus made this commandment to Repent: Matthew 4:17, "From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
In studying this word, we find that it means more than just turning away from sins. I believe it means more than being sorrow for sins. It actually means a change of MIND. Jesus said, “ Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”. A man who is of this world has the mind of this world. This mind is self-willed and is made to please the lust of the flesh. The worldly mind walks after the god of this world. It is earthy and carnal and knows not of the things of God. 1 Corinthians 15:47-49, "The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly."
The word repent is related with the word metamorphoo {met-am-or-fo'-o}. This is where we get the English word metamorphous. It means a total transformation.. 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."
Jesus was telling man; when instructed man to repent; that you need not to stay in that old sinful life, but now the Kingdom of God is here, you can partake of this new LIFE, a life of holiness. Before man had no choice of choosing a different nature.
When a man has the faith of Christ and the work of Christ his mind now is changed into a new person. This person now knows that he is holy even as Christ is. Because of this revelation knowledge, he has no desire to sin against God, but his only desire is pleasing the Father as Christ.
Jesus Christ took our place on the cross as a sinful man and now we take His place here on earth as Holy and pleasing to the Father. We are no longer sinners, but creatures of righteousness and partakers of the Heavenly calling. 2 Corinthians 5:21, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."
We are now adopted into a Holy family, and because of that we no longer need to walk in sinfulness but we change our whole lifestyle by the leading of The Spirit of God, because of the New Name we now receive through Christ Jesus.
It is more than just turning away from sin but it is preaching to people that they do not need to live in sin unto condemnation any longer. The Kingdom of Heaven is at their feet and can receive a new life and eternal Life. They can come into a family of Holiness and Truth.
One of the greatest mistakes that Born again believers make is this. They cannot accept that they are no longer sinners. A sinner is one who is devoted to sin. A born again Christian is devoted to pleasing the Heavenly Father. Does that mean we never fall into temptation and sin against God. 1 John 2:1-2, "My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."
No, but we no longer serve sin. We are no longer devoted to sin.
Christian person, know this; you are not a sinner. In the eyes of God you are made perfect in Christ Jesus through the sacrificial Blood of the Holy Lamb of God. Perfect I tell you by His merciful Grace he has given us. The free Gift of redemption. You are pure and Holy and you have all authority that Christ has. The same Spirit that was in Him now resides in you. Take that authority now and Shine brightly and reveal the wickedness of satan and his evil work he is doing in this world and the people of this world. You will be hated even as they hated your master. But keep shining, for all that matters is that you please your Heavenly Father above.
Run the good race of faith. Receive not the lies of satan. Burn bright and SHINE, SHINE, SHINE.
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Post by oap001 on Jan 17, 2007 22:44:48 GMT -5
I believe that a person must turn from sin. I do not believe that a person can sufficiently "stop sinning". All our works are a filthy rags.
For instance that's say a person is snared with anger issues. I do not believe that he or she can simply stop being angry. I do however, believe that they can agree with God and "turn to him"....turning from sin. This is something that is likely to be a strugle...but it is God who empowers them to overcome it. They are saved when they repent and believe...not a the time they completely overcome their anger.
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Post by oap001 on Jan 17, 2007 22:48:51 GMT -5
Think of Ray Comforts sermon Hell's best kept secret. One must put on the para-shot and trust that it will save them. It's the matter of putting it on and depending in/on it totally.
This is salvation...
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Post by tbxi on Jan 17, 2007 22:49:25 GMT -5
Jesse, I am curious with what you do with Romans 3:10-20 and 4:5 if you believe that justification only occurs after a (libertarian) free will turning to God, and then ceases upon the instant a person sins.
I am not interested in debating it, I just want to know how you see these texts. I am sure you know what I think.
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Post by Jesse Morrell on Jan 17, 2007 23:03:37 GMT -5
Romans 3:10-20 clearly shows that a sinner is totally depraved. That is, in his selfish condition, he is entirely selfish, because love and selfishness cannot dwell in the same heart.
For that reason, a person can only be entirely depraved or entirely holy. Nobody can ever be partly holy and partly sinful at the same time, because holiness and sin cannot dwell in the same heart. A good tree cannot give bad fruit, a good well cannot give bad water.
A sinner chooses his own gratification as his supreme end. A Christian chooses the glory of God as his supreme end. You can only have one ultimate end, you can never have two, you can never serve two masters. So a person is at any given time either entirely depraved (serving self) or entirely sanctified (set apart to serve God).
So a sinner is totally depraved, has no fear of God, has no righteousness, does no good whatsoever. But when he "changes his mind" and agrees with God, when he condemns himself and justifies God, and agrees in his heart, in his will, with God's moral laws, he will conform to those morals laws, he has passed from darkness to light, from disobedience to obedience, and he is thus saved from sin and hell.
Once again, repentance does not merit salvation. Neither does faith merit salvation. But repentance and faith are conditions of salvation. And God's mercy is the grounds of salvation.
Some say that a sinner does not have to repent before salvation. But that is like saying that a sinner does not have to have faith before salvation. Saying either is heresy. A sinner must both repent and believe or he cannot be saved. To believe otherwise is to say that there is peace with the wicked, that you don't have to repent or perish, that he who believes not is not condemned, that God does not punish the wicked, that the wages of sin is not death, that the soul that sins shall not die, that one does not need to be born again to see the Kingdom of God.
It would fail me to give all the scriptures in the bible that show that repentance is a PRE-condition to salvation. Luke 13:3,5 will suffice. "Unless a man repents, he will perish". It couldn't be in any clearer language. Unless a person stops sinning, the soul that sins it shall die. But if we repent of our sins, and believe in Christ, we will be saved from sin and hell, and will live and serve the glory of God and the highest well-being of all.
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Post by oap001 on Jan 17, 2007 23:07:40 GMT -5
Somewhere in there I think we may agree? How would you lead someone to the Lord?
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Post by tbxi on Jan 17, 2007 23:07:57 GMT -5
Correct me if I am wrong, but that post didn't seem to take into account Romans 4:5.
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Post by Jesse Morrell on Jan 17, 2007 23:12:54 GMT -5
Romans 4:5 needs to be compared to other scriptures, like Luke 13:3, James, Paul in Acts 7:30-31 the gospel proclamation of Jesus in the gospel. You cannot isolate a single scripture and build a doctrine, without considering the entire bible, or else you will be left with heresy. To say that believing in Christ alone is the condition of salvation, and that that belief is not a "believe unto righteousness" or does not include repentance, is soul destroying. A person must both "REPENT and BELIEVE the gospel" or else he will be condemned.
Believing and repenting must come before salvation. Until a person believes, and until a person repents, they cannot have salvation.
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Post by oap001 on Jan 17, 2007 23:15:19 GMT -5
Jesse said: A person must both "REPENT and BELIEVE the gospel" or else he will be condemned.
Responce: I totally agree but how would you lead them to the Lord? What would you tell them?
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Post by Jesse Morrell on Jan 17, 2007 23:33:26 GMT -5
I would tell them that in basic terms that they must turn from sin and turn to God. That they must repent, or stop their rebellion, and put their trust in Jesus Christ for salvation. They must stop sinning and trust Christ, in other words, they must stop their rebellion and submit to God, agree with God, and obey God, trusting in the cross of Jesus Christ for salvation.
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Post by oap001 on Jan 17, 2007 23:53:47 GMT -5
I would tell them to understand who Christ is and what He has done...to repent..or agree and turn from sin and to place their total dependance on the finished work of Jesus on the cross. To believe....
Do you agree with this?
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Post by Jesse Morrell on Jan 18, 2007 15:13:18 GMT -5
Yes I agree.
I would explain what Christ has done and what sinners must do.
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Post by Josh Parsley on Jan 18, 2007 16:21:25 GMT -5
Romans 4:5 needs to be compared to other scriptures, like Luke 13:3, James, Paul in Acts 7:30-31 the gospel proclamation of Jesus in the gospel. You cannot isolate a single scripture and build a doctrine, without considering the entire bible, or else you will be left with heresy. To say that believing in Christ alone is the condition of salvation, and that that belief is not a "believe unto righteousness" or does not include repentance, is soul destroying. A person must both "REPENT and BELIEVE the gospel" or else he will be condemned. Believing and repenting must come before salvation. Until a person believes, and until a person repents, they cannot have salvation. Romans 4 is a great chapter! I enjoy it. Certainly part of the reason is because I am an Gentile. What Romans 4 is going into is that Abraham was declared righteous when he was in uncircumcision. Circumcision was the sign of the covenant with Abraham. Abraham was declared righteous before he was in covenant with God. This all happened in Gen 15. Gen 17 is when he received the "a seal of the righteousness of the faith." The whole gist of Romans 4 is that the gentiles, who were not in covenant with God, could be declared righteous. In like manner, we believe God before we recieve our circumcision of heart. Looking at Gen 15 we can see how this happened, just as it happens today. First, the word of the Lord came to Abram. God always initiates salvation. Always. In most of our cases this was in a revelation of our sinfulness. We would call it conviction. When a person is convicted, that does not mean they are converted. Most of the time it is a sign that they are resisting God. Second, Abram believed God. Faith is always a respond to revelation. You cannot have faith in something that has not been revealed to you. It's impossible. This faith that comes apart from the works of the law is responding to the revelation of God not obeying some rules. To be declared righteous, it CANNOT be by works. Why? Think about this. Imagine I went to a grocery store for 20 years and got groceries every week. Instead of paying for the groceries, I just put it on a tab. After 20 years of doing this I decide I will do what is right and start paying my groceries. The only problem is that it takes all my work money to pay for one weeks worth of groceries. I wouldn't have any money left over to pay on my "debt." This is exactly why we cannot justify ourselves. God demands that we love Him with everything. We have no way to pay off our "debt." Only God can "declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God. (Rom 3:25) What is our response to the revelation of Christ? Forsake all and follow Him. Yes, forsaking all means forsaking sin. Yes, following Him means believing in Him.
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Post by Jesse Morrell on Jan 18, 2007 19:47:09 GMT -5
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Post by deltadom on Jan 30, 2007 18:15:51 GMT -5
I would like to get some bible verses such as Joh 14:6 - Show Context Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me
Lu 13:5 - Show Context I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
1Co 6:9 - Show Context Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
Ro 6:23 - Show Context For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
and other verses, I have been praying that I would get some tshirts done but I have not had the money.
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Post by victorialewis on Jan 30, 2007 21:36:34 GMT -5
check out www.lifeandlibertyministries.com . It's Brother Denny Green's site, and they had some hardcore shirts and tracts. Miles would know about some other resources, I believe. He and Evan have been seen wearing some eye-catching, firey shirts bearing Scripture. ;D
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Post by Jesse Morrell on Feb 1, 2007 14:46:46 GMT -5
Thanks to a dear Brother in the Lord who owns a sign shop, I have a professionally made sandwich board! You have no idea how excited I am to use it! My wife thinks I'm weird for wearing it around the apartment. And she won't let me wear it to bed...... But it's really cool!
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Post by brobreaud on Feb 1, 2007 17:17:04 GMT -5
Looks good bro! And you can keep your hands free and preach.
I wonder how Rick Warren deals with that verse in Scripture in his book "The Purpose Driven Life" when he wrote 'God's not mad AT you, He's mad ABOUT you.'"
Brobreaud
Brobreaud
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Post by deltadom on Feb 1, 2007 18:14:46 GMT -5
I have been wanting one, we had a roll up one , when we were preaching in canterbury. It was really popular I have wanted to actually get one. Dom
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1611isperfect
Full Member
Publick preaching in Tallahassee, FL
Posts: 140
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Post by 1611isperfect on Feb 4, 2007 22:47:40 GMT -5
I took an old, dark blue jacket out of my closet, and bought a "Bleach Pen" from Wal-Mart (got the idea from my pastor...'redneck scripture shirts' ;D) and put on the back STOP SINNING & TRUST JESUSthanks for the idea, Jesse .
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Post by Jesse Morrell on Feb 8, 2007 22:39:05 GMT -5
You cannot put the gospel any simplier then "STOP SINNING" and "TRUST JESUS". That covers in the plainest terms, "repentance towards God and faith in Jesus Christ".
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Post by Josh Parsley on Feb 19, 2007 11:22:10 GMT -5
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Post by alan4jc on Feb 19, 2007 11:56:52 GMT -5
Great sign Josh.
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Post by Jesse Morrell on Mar 11, 2007 18:00:43 GMT -5
Josh! That is a GREAT sign! I mean really, that's awesome!!
--------------------------------
A good scripture I may use one day is:
GREAT is the WRATH of the LORD
2Kings 22:13
and also
THIS IS a WICKED GENERATION
Luke...
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Post by joem on Apr 16, 2007 14:19:57 GMT -5
I am having a large sign made which will be on a 2 sided plastic A-frame 3 1/2 feet tall and 2 feet wide. The front reads; Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek." at the top followed by "Do you understand the gospel of Jesus Christ?" and then at the bottom Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The back of the sign has a combination of things from the flip chart I use which includes a chart showing the reliability of the NT, Science and the Bible, Kent Hovinds $25k Evolution Offer, The 10C's and verses expounding upon being Born Again.
As I preach in the heart of the Bible-belt, I hope the question posed on the front will get the attention of those who truly have questions as to the true gospel of Jesus Christ. We are saturated with relegion, not much biblical Christianity though.
This is being made by a sign shop down the street and is being printed on aluminum. I will let you know how it looks when it is done.
Grace and Peace, Joe
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Post by alan4jc on Apr 16, 2007 14:30:07 GMT -5
I might leave off the Kent Hovind offer. He is in jail for tax evasion
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Post by joem on Apr 16, 2007 21:05:31 GMT -5
//I might leave off the Kent Hovind offer. He is in jail for tax evasion //
Yeah, I was thinking about removing it. It is a shame though, its a great illustration.
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Post by joem on Apr 27, 2007 9:48:25 GMT -5
I got my new sign today and it looks great! I am looking forward to taking it to Fayetteville with us tomorrow for the Dogwood Festival. I would post a picture, however I am not that technically advanced yet. The front is as I described with Romans 1:16 at the top followed by "Do you understand the gospel of Jesus Christ" and then Romans 6:23 at the bottom all written in royal blue. The back has a combination of images and scripts from my flip chart including a chart comparing the NT with other books in Antiquity along with Signs of the Times, Atheism, Science and The Bible and the 10C's from the LW's flip chart. The front is much less abrasive and should separate me from some of the "turn or burn" antics of other local groups, which repel rather than attract crowds in this area. I am trying to concentrate on engaging the public rather than arguing with them, which is why the sign poses a question that automatically leads into a biblical presentation of the gospel. We do many events with young people and find that they respond better to venues where they are encouraged to ask questions. I will let you all know how it goes this weekend. Grace and Peace, Joe
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Post by Kerrigan on Apr 27, 2007 9:56:08 GMT -5
That's good stuff Joe. Wish I could be there with you. If it wasn't for this broken leg!
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Post by joem on Apr 27, 2007 12:51:09 GMT -5
I wish you could be there too! It was great last year, this year should be even better!
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