Now I'm going to show you in 2 Chronicles many examples of this in the Bible, just like
we saw with Ahab, where when people humble themselves, they find mercy.
And when they don't humble themselves, they end up suffering.
Look at 2 Chronicles 7-14, the famous verse, "If my people which are called by my name
shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then
will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land."
Go to chapter 12.
All throughout 2 Chronicles, we see that principle that's found in verse 14 of chapter 7.
We're going to see that playing out throughout 2 Chronicles.
He gives us the principle in 7-14 saying, "Look, if you'll just humble yourself, if
you'll just pray and seek my face and turn from your wicked ways, I will hear from heaven,
I will forgive your sin, I will heal your land."
And look, this is the whole crux of what repentance means.
You know what the word "repent" means?
To turn or to change, okay?
And as Christians, we need to constantly be repenting in our lives.
Why?
Because we're not perfect.
We haven't arrived, therefore we continually need to repent.
We continually need to be turning from sin and turning from bad things in our life.
Now, of course, there's a false doctrine out there that says, you know, in order to be
saved, you have to turn from your sins.
Well, okay, well, I guess none of us is saved because have any of us really turned from
all our sins?
No.
We sin every day.
And a lot of people, they mix up repentance when it comes to salvation because when the
Bible talks about repentance in regard to salvation, it's repent and believe the gospel.
You know, it's repent and believe.
It's repent of, you know, dumb idols and false gods and false religion and turn unto the Lord
Jesus Christ as your Savior.
But the Bible talks a lot about repentance for those that are already saved.
Those of us that have been saved for a long time, we're the ones who really need to do
the repenting in our lives.
God uses the word repent most toward believers.
Like for example, the seven churches in Asia, He's telling them to repent, repent, repent,
repent.
And what does that mean?
Change something.
Turn something.
Fix something.
None of us is perfect.
And what repentance is, is where we're committing a sin, somebody reproves us, somebody rebukes
us, and instead of getting mad at that person, or instead of just bristling, or instead of
just saying, "Well, that's just the way I am.
That's just who I am."
Basically, we're willing to change that, and repent of that, and fix that.
Okay?
And look, it takes humility, doesn't it?
Because pride says, "I don't need to change anything.
I don't need to fix anything.
I'm fine.
What do you know?
Leave me alone."
But humility says, "You know what?
Maybe I do need to change.
Maybe I can improve in that area.
Maybe there is something that I need to fix here."
Okay, and that's what repentance is.
You see, people often have a tendency, when they commit a sin, they have a tendency to
think, "Well, too late.
I already committed that sin.
Might as well just continue with it now."
I mean, I've already done it anyway.
And you know, a perfect example of this is fornication.
You know, people will commit the sin of fornication.
And then here's what they'll think, "Well, we've already fornicated now.
What's the difference if we do it a second time, a third time, a fourth time, a fifth
time, a sixth time?"
Are you listening?
And look, obviously, once you've fornicated, yeah, there is damage that's done.
No question about that.
But let me say this, though.
If you want to find mercy from God, because that is a serious sin, because that is a major
sin in the Bible, if you want God to be merciful to you, what you're going to do is you're
going to humble yourself, admit that it was wrong, and you're going to pray and turn from
your wicked ways there and say, "You know what?
Okay, so I've committed fornication, but you know what?
I'm sorry.
It was wrong, and I'm going to change."
When you humble yourself and pray and turn from your wicked ways, God will be much more
lenient on you than the person who says, "Well, I already fornicated with this person.
You know, I've already blown it.
I've already messed up."
Might as well do it 50 more times.
No, because if you just keep on doing it, then God is going to look at that and say,
"You know what?
This person doesn't want to repent.
This person does not want to hear reproof.
This person is not willing to humble themselves before me and turn from their wicked ways,
and therefore God is going to come down on you like a ton of bricks, when if you would
confess and forsake it, He'd back off on His wrath from you."
And look, I'm not saying there's going to be no punishment.
Ahab was punished.
I'm not saying that you're not going to suffer, but you're going to suffer a lot more if you
harden your neck.
You're going to suffer a lot more if you refuse to change and refuse to repent.
Think about this with your children.
You know, what if you caught your children committing some kind of a sin, right?
And then you went to them and tried to correct them and said, "Hey, you've done wrong here.
You're going to get a spanking.
You've done wrong.
You broke the rules."
Okay, if you did that and they had a truly penitent attitude and they said, "You know
what?
I'm really sorry.
It's my fault.
I shouldn't have done that," you're going to show them mercy.
You're still going to discipline them, obviously, because you don't want to teach your kids
that they can talk their way out of every situation.
You're still going to bring the discipline, but aren't you going to be a lot more merciful
than if you went to them and said, "Look, you've done wrong, you've broken the rules,"
and they just said, "Well, it wasn't my fault, and here's all the reasons why it wasn't a
big deal, and I thought you were kidding when you made that rule," or, "I didn't hear you
when you said that," or, "It was actually my brother, he made me do it and try to implicate
everybody else."
You know, when they don't want to change, or when they show no intent of changing and
they do the same thing the next day, and the same thing the day after that, and the same
thing the day after that, you know what, you're not going to be very merciful because you're
going to look at that and say, you know what, this person is refusing to listen and I'm
going to have to get their attention, apparently the verbal rebukes aren't working, you know,
they're going to need a more serious punishment here, okay, and so what I'm saying is it stands
to reason that when we are corrected by God or hear a reproof from the word of God, we
should not say, oh well, no big deal, I've already done it anyway, I might as well keep
doing it.
No, we should say, you know what, if I change now, I mean, Ahab could have said, well, what
do I do, Naboth is dead, what do I do about it?
It's too late anyway, might as well enjoy the vineyard.
I mean, we've already murdered an innocent man here, we can't bring him back to life.
Might as well enjoy the vineyard.
But instead he didn't enjoy the vineyard, instead he put on sackcloth, he prayed, he
fasted, he humbled himself, and God showed mercy.
God's a very merciful God.
He's very merciful, and thank God he is.
And he's merciful, but he resisted the proud and giveth grace to the humble.
Did you hear me?
If you're proud though, and if you're too prideful to admit that you've done wrong and
confess and forsake it, you know what?
He is going to chastise you much more severely than if you'll just admit it, humble yourself,
and walk before him in humility.