Matthew 3:8 - Repentance: Genuine, Godly Sorrow or Counterfeit, Worldly Sorrow.

Matthew 3:8 - Repentance: Genuine, Godly Sorrow or Counterfeit, 
Worldly Sorrow. 

Mat 3:8 (KJV)  Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:

Mat 3:8 (TEV)  Do those things that will show that you have 
turned from your sins. 

Mat 3:8 (NLT)  Prove by the way you live that you have really 
turned from your sins and turned to God.  

Mat 3:8 (CWK)  If you're truly sorry for your sins you need to 
act like it. 

John compared people who claim they believe in God but don't 
live for him to unproductive trees that will be cut down. Just as a 
fruit tree is expected to bear fruit, God's people should produce a 
crop of good deeds. God has no use for people who call themselves 
Christians but do nothing about it. Like many people in John's day who were 
God's people in name only, we are of no value if we are Christians in 
name only. If others can't see our faith in the way we treat them, we 
may not be God's people at all. To be productive for God, we must 
obey his teachings, resist temptation, actively serve and help 
others, and share our faith. How productive are you for God? [Life 
Application SB] 

Our corrupt hearts cannot be made to produce good fruit, unless 
the regenerating Spirit of Christ graft the good word of God upon 
them. And every tree, however high in gifts and honours, however green 
in outward professions and performances, if it bring not forth good 
fruit, the fruits meet for repentance, is hewn down and cast into the 
fire of God's wrath, the fittest place for barren trees: what else 
are they good for? If not fit for fruit, they are fit for fuel. John 
shows the design and intention of Christ's appearing, which they were 
now speedily to expect. No outward forms can make us clean. No 
ordinances, by whomsoever administered, or after whatever mode, can supply 
the want of the baptism of the Holy Ghost and of fire. The purifying 
and cleansing power of the Holy Spirit alone can produce that purity 
of heart, and those holy affections, which accompany salvation. 
(Matthew Henry's Commentary)  

According to Gallup surveys, confirmed by other polls taken over 
the past fifteen years, 33 percent of all Americans over age 
eighteen indicate they are evangelical or "born again" Christians. That 
translates into 59 million Christians, or one in every three adults, who 
experienced a turning point in their lives as they made a personal 
commitment to Jesus Christ. 
This information should grip us with terror. It means that the 
greatest revival in history has so far been impotent to change society. 
It's revival without reformation. It's a revival which left the 
country floundering in spiritual ignorance. It's a change in belief 
without a corresponding change in behavior.... 
How did the building blocks of the gospel become glued together 
with the cement of self-centeredness? The American gospel has evolved 
into a gospel of addition without subtraction. It is the belief that 
we can add Christ to our lives, but not subtract sin. It is a 
change in belief without a change in behavior. It is a spiritual 
experience without any cultural impact. It is revival without reformation, 
without repentance.... 
The proof of religious conversion is to demonstrate that we have 
both added a relationship with Christ and that we have subtracted sin 
(repentance). And we multiply proof to a weary world by what we do - our 
deeds, our obedience. What we do must confirm what we say. Our deeds 
are the proof of our repentance.... 
A changed life is one that has added Christ and subtracted sin, 
that attracts a world weary of worn-out words. Obedience is the 
proof. (From Walking with Christ in the Details of Life by Patrick 
Morley) [Inspirational SB re Jude] 

REMEMBER THERE ARE TWO BASIC TYPES OF REPENTANCE:

2 Cor 7:10 (KJV)  For godly sorrow worketh repentance to 
salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh 
death. 

2 Cor 7:10 (NIV)  Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to 
salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. 

No man can empty himself of self.  We can only consent for 
Christ to accomplish the work.  Then the language of the soul will be, 
Lord, take my heart; for I cannot give it.  It is Thy property. Keep 
it pure, for I cannot keep it for Thee.  Save me in spite of 
myself, my weak, unchristlike self.  Mold me, fashion me, raise me into 
a pure and holy atmosphere, where the rich current of Thy love can 
flow through my soul.  COL159 

Genuine, spiritual mourning for sin is the work of the Spirit of 
God... penitence never shows itself in sinners except divine grace 
works it in them. If thou hast one particle of real hatred for sin, 
God must have given it thee,... True repentance has a distinct 
reference to the Saviour.... True sorrow for sin is eminently practical. No 
man may say he hates sin, if he lives in it. Repentance makes us see 
the evil of sin, not merely as a theory, but experimentally--as a 
burnt child dreads fire. We shall be as much afraid of it, as a man 
who has lately been stopped and robbed is afraid of the thief upon 
the highway; and we shall shun it--shun it in everything--not in great 
things only, but in little things, as men shun little vipers as well as 
great snakes.... each night we shall close the day with painful 
confessions of shortcoming, and each morning awaken with anxious prayers, 
that this day God would hold us up that we may not sin against him.... 
Sincere repentance is continual. Believers repent until their dying day... 
Every other sorrow yields to time, but this dear sorrow grows with our 
growth, Morning and Evening by Charles H Spurgeon 

The test of conversion is a transformation in the life. [SDA 
Commentary]