1 Kings 8.22ff

Pentecost 10

Hymns: 453, 427, 436, 367

The Children of Israel wandered in the desert for 40 years be-fore God they entered the promised land, Jerusalem and areas north and south. During those 40 years the Jews did not have a place in which to worship God. They did have a temporary temple made out of canvass which they would put up and take down, like a tent, during their travels (cf Exodus 26).

950 years B.C. E. Solomon was the king of Israel and was given the task of building the first permanent temple or tabernacle in which the people could worship God (1 Kings 5 & 6). When the construction of the temple was finished Solomon led the people in a worship service to dedicate the use of that building to the praise and honor and glory of the LORD. In fact, the LORD made himself known to the people in the form of a cloud that filled the temple and the people could see his glory...could see that he was present at that dedication service.

This was a solemn but joyful occasion. This was the first per-manent building in which the people could worship God their Savior. People brought their offerings to this temple where they would see and smell the sacrifices that were offered to God as signs of one who would come to sacrifice himself as Savior of the world, that is, Jesus. In this temple the people of God would celebrate the Day of Atonement and see the picture of God’s forgiveness as the scape goat was led into the desert until it was out of sight, the sign that God does not see or hold our sins against us because Jesus the Messiah paid for all sins.

At this dedication service Solomon led the people in a solemn prayer of repentance and hope (read sermon text). On the basis of this prayer may we clearly see the meaning and the purpose of REPENTANCE: THE SINNER’S PLEDGE TO BE THANKFUL FOR GOD’S FORGIVENESS.

Throughout the prayer Solomon was asking God for forgive-ness: When a man wrongs his neighbor...when the Jews had sinned and God allowed their enemies to defeat them or when caused it to stop raining sent plagues of locusts and blight on the crops..."when the people turn back to you and repent of their sins," Solomon prayed, "then, O God...(vs 49-52).

What is the doctrine of repentance? It is the same doctrine which Solomon used in his dedication prayer, it is the same doctrine that John the Baptist applied when he called on the people to repent and pointed them to Jesus, the Lamb of God who came to take away the sin of the world; it is the same doctrine of repentance that Jesus taught (Mt 4.17) when he called on people to repent because the kingdom of God was near. And it is the same doctrine that Peter taught when he said, (Acts 3:19,20), Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out...and that (the Lord) may send the Christ who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.

What is repentance? What does it mean to repent? The act and attitude of repentance is this: when you agree in your heart that you have sinned against God, you have violated his will and therefore stand cursed by God as being guilty of sin and deserving of his eternal judgment and damnation in hell, and you confess that to him with firm conviction and with terror in your heart because of the punishment you deserve, this is the meaning of repentance.

Repentance is more than feeling badly about something you did or feeling guilty because you let someone down or regret that you hurt someone’s feelings or did something foolish that makes you feel bad. True repentance is the keen awareness that you and I deserve the anger and punishment of God because we fail every day of our lives to do what he requires of us, and that is, never to sin, never to do anything that violates his command that we live a perfect and sinless life in everything we think and say and do. True repentance is the keen awareness that we stand condemned by God because we are sinners and there is nothing we can do to undo our sin or get him to change his mind.

But there is more to repentance. Repentance is the awareness that we need God’s help to escape his eternal judgment in the same way that a condemned criminal throws himself on the mercy of the court by admitting his guilt hoping that the judge will be merciful and not punish him with time in prison. The judge stands between freedom and prison for the guilty criminal as God stands between heaven and hell for the guilty sinner...for all of us. Repentance includes the faith in Jesus who makes the forgiveness of sin both possible and real. After Peter convinced the Jews that they had participated in the crucifixion of Jesus, they were cut to the heart with guilt and asked Peter what they could do, he told them (Acts 2.38). Jesus paid for your sins by dying on a cross and rising again. Jesus paid the debt of sin so that God would not hold you and me accountable for them but so that the debt could be paid in full. Repentance is the attitude that I am guilty of sin and deserving of hell but I am thankful dear Jesus that you have paid for my sins so that I will not be punished but one day have eternal life in heaven.

What does repentance look like? Jesus did not pay for our sins so that we can choose to be controlled by our sins Paul said (Acts 26:20). After Peter denied knowing Jesus he repented and cried uncontrollably in his anguish. Zachaeus repented for hav-ing cheated people in his collection of taxes and returned their money, with interest. Jesus told a woman who admitted being a prostitute that she had to stop prostituting herself. Repentance is the sinner’s pledge to be thankful for God’s forgiveness by changing your way of life and attitude about sin.

Daily you repent of your sins...some you are aware of and oth-ers you aren’t. When you repent it is not so that you can keep on sinning. Sometimes a husband or wife will admit to each other, "I’m sorry but you knew that I had a temper or that I was this way or that way before you married me. That’s who I am." That’s not repentance. Saying something like that is a selfish way of saying, "You may not like the way I am and I admit I could be different but I’m not going to change whether you like it or not." When sin is repented of it means that it is your desire to change, to stop falling into that sin. It is the sinner’s pledge to be thankful for God’s forgiveness by eliminating that sin from our character. If it’s not found among the gifts of the Holy Spirit it needs to be eliminated (Gal 5.16-25). THEME Jesus removed our punishment for sin. Repent and thank him daily.