Repentance

  • Restoration Fulfilled?

    2 Chronicles 36:22-23

    Even though the citizens of Judah returned to the Promised Land beginning around 538 BC, the restoration did not take place as God had foretold — on account of impenitence. Hundreds of years after the return, He sent His one and ...Read More

  • A Futile Striving

    Lamentations 2:1-5

    Because our Lord is slow to anger, we should not live in fear that He is always about to “get us” because of our sins. At the same time, we should understand that if we harden our hearts persistently, we ...Read More

  • The Revelation

    Genesis 45

    We often long for things to be “just as they were before [fill in the blank] happened” in our relationships with other people. If we are the main offending party, however, we cannot realistically expect this to happen if our ...Read More

  • A More Permanent Tabernacle

    2 Chronicles 7:11–22

    God has met us face-to-face in Jesus, and we can be assured that He will never leave the temple that He is building in His Son with us as living stones (1 Peter 2:1–11). Let us not take ...Read More

  • The Seriousness of Sin

    Joshua 7

    By our obedience to God’s commands we can by no means earn our place in His kingdom. Nevertheless, that does not mean that our faithfulness to His law is unimportant. As those converted by His Spirit through the preaching ...Read More

  • God Calls His Son

    Hosea 11

    Our culture’s leaders tell us that we need salvation from poverty, corruption, terrorism, and a host of other societal ills. However, while we do not want to downplay the severity of these ills and the desirability of rescue from ...Read More

  • Examining Calvin’s Rules of Prayer (Part 2)

    Do you pray with genuine feeling? Do you always accompany your prayers with repentance?Read More

  • Living in Exile

    Think about some of the ways God has proven faithful to you in the past, then thank Him!Read More

  • A Tragic End for Judas

    Matthew 27:1–10

    Matthew Henry comments, “Some have said, that Judas sinned more in despairing of the mercy of God, than in betraying his Master’s blood.” Neither Judas’ betrayal nor his suicide is the unforgiveable sin, only his refusal to seek the ...Read More

  • Redemptive Discipline

    Matthew 18:15–17

    In excommunication, Dr. John MacArthur writes, “the idea is not merely to punish the offender, or to shun him completely, but to remove him as a detrimental influence from the fellowship of the church, and then to regard him as ...Read More

  • The Fruit of Repentance

    Matthew 3:7–10

    One of the more neglected tools that can help us grow in our holiness is the confession of sins one to another (James 5:16). It can be difficult to admit to other people that we have sinned, but loving ...Read More

  • One Final Test

    Genesis 44:1–2

    The Lord our God puts us to the test so that we may reveal to others the true commitments of our hearts. Certainly, God knows in advance the outcome of any test that He gives us, but we are not ...Read More

  • The Joy of Forgiveness

    Psalm 32

    We can stand in right relationship to God only if the perfect obedience of Christ is put on our record. If this has happened, the Lord no longer counts sin against us. At the conclusion of our study of repentance ...Read More

  • A Contrite Repentance

    Psalm 51:14–19

    As we saw in our study of Psalm 51:4, the wrongs we do are first and foremost sins against the Lord. True repentance realizes our transgressions are heinous because they violate God’s holy character. If you have a ...Read More

  • Living Coram Deo

    Psalm 51:9–12

    In verse 10 of today’s passage, David begs the Lord to “renew a right spirit” within him. The “right” or “steadfast” disposition to love God affects our sin. We may go through extended periods of devotion, but when our ...Read More