Repentance and the Real Action from the True Church Conference

Previously, I posted an overview of wonderful experiences from the True Church Conference. While those events were fabulous highlights of the weekend, they don't comprise the true action of the conference. No, the real story from the True Church Conference is an unseen one, more difficult to express but eternal.

Of course, with the title "Wonderful Grace of Repentance" and an agenda of 11 repentance-themed sermons, one would've expected this conference to teach much about repentance. I was looking forward to as much preaching on the topic as I could get, for I knew that the repentance in my own life was lacking.

In the first session, Mr. Mbewe laid the necessary foundation for understanding this "change of mind" by expounding the Radical Depravity of Man from Romans 3. A doctrine that has been much neglected, depravity is well-summarized by Romans 3:10-12: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one."
Repentance must be a work of God alone, for man does not naturally seek God and will not / cannot change his mind to agree with God (Romans 8:7-8). I began to pray that God would use my time at the conference to work a fuller repentance in my life.

In session two, Mr. Noblit taught that the root of repentance is sorrow for sin, mourning over the offense commited against the Holy God (Psalm 51:17). This is precisely what I was convicted of lacking. At and since my conversion there had definitely been repentance, but a not daily-increasing sorrow for sin of the intensity that I saw in the lives of believers in the Bible and around me. This troubled me deeply. Mr. Noblit said, "If you cannot go to God with repentance, you must go to God for repentance." So I continued to ask the Lord to deepen my sorrow for sin.

As time progressed, several of the preachers emphasized that repentance does not end at the moment of salvation, nor is it completely mature at that time. Mr. Washer exhorted that repentance is not always greatly manifest at conversion, but will be deepened in the believer's life throughout the process of sanctification. Mr. Sims described "taking sides with God against yourself." Dr. Baucham preached from Psalm 51 on brokenness over sin.
I prayed, "Lord, show me how you see my sin, that I may be broken over it."

Upon returning from the church to our host home each evening, I had been reading over and over Romans 3, Psalm 51, and Isaiah 6 and 53. God never fails to use His Word!
In Romans 3, He showed me what I am without Him.
In Psalm 51, He taught me what my attitude must be about it.
In Isaiah 6, He reminded me of His holiness.
And in chapter 53, He demonstrated how He sees my sin against that holiness. When God saw my sin upon His perfect, beloved Son, "He was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed... the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all... He was oppressed, and he was afflicted... they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth... Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him."

In addition to His Word, preaching, and prayer, the Lord used the doctrinal lyrics of many of the songs we sang at the conference. Lyrics such as:

My lips with shame my sins confess
Against Thy law, against Thy grace:
Lord, should Thy judgment grow severe,
I am condemned, but Thou art clear.
Should sudden vengeance seize my breath,
I must pronounce Thee just in death;
And if my soul were sent to hell,
Thy righteous law approves it well.
-- Isaac Watts

Oh, to see the pain
Written on Your face,
Bearing the awesome weight of sin.
Ev’ry bitter thought, ev’ry evil deed
Crowning Your bloodstained brow.

This, the pow’r of the cross:
Christ became sin for us;
Took the blame, bore the wrath—
We stand forgiven at the cross.
-- Keith Getty and Stuart Townend

I will glory in my Redeemer
Whose precious blood has ransomed me;
Mine was the sin that drove the bitter nails
And hung Him on that judgment tree.
I will glory in my Redeemer
Who crushed the power of sin and death,
My only Savior before the holy Judge,
The Lamb Who is my Righteousness.
-- Vikki and Steve Cook

Because the sinless Savior died
My sinful soul is counted free.
For God the just is satisfied
To look on Him and pardon me.
-- Charitie L. Bancroft


I asked God to show me my sin as He sees it.
He showed me the cross.