Now turn in your Bibles back
to the book of Jonah, chapter 3. Jonah chapter 3. And tonight the title of the
message is Gospel Repentance. Gospel Repentance. Now last time
I preached through Jonah chapter 3 on this subject, preaching
unto repentance. And there I spoke of how all
true gospel preaching is aimed at the goal of repentance. Repentance,
that great change that takes place within each and every born-again
sinner, regenerated and converted by the Holy Spirit, given the
gift of faith in Christ and what the Bible in several places indicates
and describes as repentance of dead works. And I believe it
has to be stated that way in most contexts because without
that we don't really know what even to repent of. You know,
man by nature does not know what to repent of. But it's repentance
of dead works and idolatry. And so, of course, we see the
example of that in the Ninevites here who repented of their idolatry.
And so tonight I want to bring you some further thoughts on
this issue of gospel repentance. I've been restudying this subject
and I believe I have some things that will help us all. And I
believe I'm going to bring some more messages on this in other
times. But the text that I want to go by tonight is verse 10
of Jonah chapter 3. Jonah 3 and verse 10, the last
verse of chapter 3. And then I want to use as a text
with that passage that Brother Aaron read, Matthew chapter 12,
because we don't have a whole lot recorded. Well, we don't
have really anything recorded in the Scripture about the Ninevites
and what they did, how they conducted themselves after this event here. It's recorded in Jonah chapter
3 of their repentance. The Bible is just silent on that
issue. I was talking to somebody the other day and he said, well,
what did the Ninevites do? Did they become Jews or did they,
how did they react? How did they worship from them?
We don't know. There's nothing recorded in history. There's
nothing in man's history. There's nothing recorded in the
scripture. But we do have the Lord's word on this issue in
Matthew chapter 12. And that's as far as I can go
with it. But there's a lot said there and we'll look at that.
But look there at verse 10 of Jonah chapter 3. He says, "...and
God saw their works, that they turn from their evil way." Now
that's repentance. When a sinner is brought to repentance,
gospel repentance, that sinner turns from his evil way. The psalmist said, I hate every
false way, every evil way. And that is a particular thing
here now. It's not just what men by nature
see as evil. You have to understand that.
If we're going to think biblically, if we're going to think... The
Bible says we have the mind of Christ in 1 Corinthians chapter
2. If we're going to follow the
teaching and the motivation and the empowering of the Holy Spirit,
We have to understand that turning from an evil way here is not
what men and women think by nature on that issue. And so it says
that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the
evil that He had said that He would do unto them. That's the
revelation of God in His wrath. You remember Jonah preached back
here in verse 4, he said, Yet forty days, and none of us shall
be overthrown, none of us shall be destroyed. I've already talked
enough about this issue about God repenting and how that doesn't
mean God changed His mind as we do. But that's the way it
appears to man sometimes, that when God acts in providence and
in history, God doesn't need to change, He's perfect. And
it said he repented of that evil, that evil not being evil in the
fact that it's sinful, but evil in the sense of his wrath sometimes
is referred to that way. It's referred that way in the
book of Isaiah. Because men look at... You see,
it's talking about... It's speaking of how we view
things. And we do that all the time now. You know, if you listen
to the weather tonight, they'll probably talk about sunrise and
sunset, you know. Well, the sun doesn't rise and
it doesn't set, but that's the way we see it. And that's what's
happening here, so understand that. And it says, and he did
it not. That is, God didn't bring his
wrath down upon Nineveh. So here is this issue of repentance
brought out, either in real gospel repentance, or at least we would
say an illustration thereof, an illustration of gospel repentance.
Nineveh was brought to repentance. Now, have you ever asked yourself
this question as a believer now? Think about it, going through
a hard trial, struggling, which we all do, common to every child
of God. You get frustrated or you may
have some things in your life you're trying to conquer, some
thoughts or actions or whatever, and you just can't get the best
of them. You ask yourself, have I ever really repented? Have
you ever asked that question? Well, if you understand gospel
repentance, you can know the answer to that question, and
that's what I want to deal with tonight. You know, there are
different kinds of repentance, but let me just simplify it.
We can talk about a lot of different examples of repentance that was
what we would call false repentance or temporary repentance. We can
talk about Esau, how he wept bitterly. But it wasn't gospel
repentance because his repentance had nothing to do with the glory
of God and the way of salvation by God's grace in Christ and
the ground of salvation. He was just sorry that he could
not change his father's mind. That's what he was sorry about.
And that's why he was crying and weeping bitterly. And that
can be a bitter thing, you know. I mean, it's not fake. It's real,
but it's still not gospel repentance. We could talk about legal repentance. Paul describes something of that
when he's talking about the continual repentance. You see, repentance
for a believer, there is an initial repentance, which we call, in
light of the gospel, when God brings us to know Christ. We
see an example of that in Saul of Tarsus on the Damascus Road
and how Paul described that in Philippians chapter 3 that we
looked at last time. You know, where he talks about
how all those things that he thought recommended him unto
God, now he sees as laws for Christ's sake. Now that's gospel
repentance right there. He said, I count them but dung
in light of the righteousness of Christ. Those things, I used
to think they made me righteous before God. I used to think they
recommended me to God. I used to think they really meant
something as far as attaining or maintaining salvation. But
when I look at my sin, and my depravity, and my impotence,
and when I see the glory of Christ and Him crucified and risen again,
and the value of His blood that had to be shed as the complete
payment for all my sins, and His righteousness alone, the
very righteousness of God, when I see His righteousness, then
I see that all that I thought so highly of that I thought was
so... I was so proud of it. Now I see
that that's nothing but dumb, that I may win Christ and be
found in Him. That's gospel repentance right
there. Paul describes something... That
is that initial repentance, but it's a continual thing now in
the life of a believer. We don't just repent one time
and then we say, well, that's it. Now we don't have... It's
a continual state of mind and heart and attitude. Repentance
is it. And Paul describes something
of that in 2 Corinthians chapter 7 and verse 10. You mark that
down and you read that whole passage there. And in 2 Corinthians
7 and verse 10 he makes this statement. And it kind of gives
us a good way to understand the difference between true gospel
repentance and every other kind that is not gospel repentance,
even though it might be sincere now. He says this in 2 Corinthians
7 and verse 10. He talks about godly sorrow. Now we know something about sorrow,
don't we? But do we know anything about
godly sorrow? Here over in Jonah chapter 3, it speaks of their
repentance and it says in verse 5 that they believed God, they
believed the God that Jonah preached, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob. He's the God of grace, He's the
God of justice, He's the God of promise, the God of the covenant,
God who justifies the ungodly. And it says, "...they proclaimed
a fast and put on sackcloth, and the greatest of them even
to the least of them." Verse 6, "...for word came unto the
king of Nineveh, And he arose from his throne, he laid his
robe from him. Remember, I told you when I think
about that, I don't know what was going through this king's
mind. I like to think that it was true gospel repentance. But
I know this, that whenever you see under the preaching of the
gospel, and that's where gospel repentance comes, under the preaching
of the gospel. I'll show you that in just a
moment. But I know this, whenever you really come to repentance,
of dead works and idolatry under the preaching of the gospel of
God's grace in Christ, which shows that you must be washed
in the blood that we sang. And our hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. When we see that, you're going
to lay aside your robe of righteousness just like Paul did. You're going
to have no confidence in the flesh. That's gospel repentance. And so, this king is expressing,
I believe, godly sorrow. And that's the kind of sorrow
it is. But you see, there's a difference here. Now, he says, and Paul
wrote in 2 Corinthians 7, 10, he says, for godly sorrow worketh
repentance to salvation. Now, what does he, and not to
be repented of? You know, there's a repentance
that you have to repent of. And that's that legal repentance.
that sinners by nature think recommends among the gods. But
he says, the godly sower worketh repentance to salvation, which
you'll never have to repent of. Now, what is repentance to salvation? Now, listen to me very carefully.
Repentance to salvation is that repentance, that gift of God,
that change of mind and heart and attitude that drives you
to Christ and Him alone for all salvation. That's repentance
to salvation. It's not you're saved because
you repent or you're saved because you've met the condition of repentance.
It's that repentance that God works in you by the power of
His Spirit under the preaching of the gospel. where in the righteousness
of God is revealed drives you out of yourself and to Christ
and His righteousness alone for all salvation. Now that's gospel
repentance. And then he goes on, he says,
but the sorrow of the world, work of death. The sorrow of
the world, now there's this repentance that's worldly, a sorrow that's
worldly. What kind of sorrow is that?
Well, it can be a legal guilt, It could be social guilt. It
could be the guilt and shame of getting caught. That drives
a person to get religion. To clean up his act and get right
with God, so to speak. You understand what I'm saying?
That drives him to trying to establish a righteousness of
his own. in order to attain or maintain
salvation. They're sorry for their sins,
but it's a sorrow of the world, and it works death. And the key
is, is where do you find relief? Where do you find hope? Where
do you find peace? Where do you find satisfaction?
Where do you find salvation? You find salvation in the same
place old Simeon found it? When he held the Christ child,
he said, I'm ready to depart, mine eyes have seen thy salvation.
Where do you find righteousness? In your sorrow over sin, in your
ashamanness over sin, in your grieving over sin, where do you
find hope and peace and relief? Do you find it anywhere but in
Christ and His blood and righteousness alone? If you do, then it's the
sorrow of the world that works death. Dead works. And that's the difference. Now
again, I don't know exactly what was going through all these Ninevites'
minds. I really don't, but I know something
that all of this that they were going through. Look at verse
7 of chapter 3. He caused it to be proclaimed, the king did.
Now, this is the king of Nineveh. Now, Nineveh, you remember, a
great enemy of Israel and a great enemy of the God of Israel. Very
brutal people. It'd make you sick if I were
to sit here and describe some of the practices of these people
how they treated their enemies when they won a battle. This
is the same kingdom. This is the Assyrian Empire now.
Nineveh was a kingdom in itself, but it was the capital of the
Assyrian Empire. Later on, that's the instrument
that God used to bring destruction upon Israel as a judgment against
them for their unbelief and idolatry. And so this king of Nineveh calls
it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree
of the king and his nobles saying, let neither man nor beast, herd
nor flock taste anything, let them not feed nor drink water.
Now that's fasting. Fasting is an emblem of self-denial
and worship. And fasting was an emblem of
showing that when it's all over but the shouting, when it's all
over but anything that's worth anything, that all I need is
Christ and the grace of God in Him. All I need is His wisdom,
His righteousness, His holiness, His redemption. That's what that
was an emblem of now. And it says in verse 8, it says,
"...but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth." That
was the posture of sorrow and repentance and the garments of
repentance showing like our righteousness. Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter
64, "...our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in the sight of
God." That's what my righteousness is. You see, that's why I need
the righteousness of God. And when I come to see that,
that's gospel repentance. Right there. He says, but let
man and beast and cover with sight cloth and cry mightily
unto God. You see, they believed God. They
repented. And they cried mightily unto
God, because we've got nowhere else to go. We're like that publican,
God be merciful to me the sinner. Yea, let them turn everyone from
his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. Now again,
I don't know exactly what all was going through their mind.
He says in verse 9 here, he's casting himself upon the sovereign
mercy of God. Who can tell if God will turn
and repent and turn away his fierce anger that we perish not? Now, let me give you these things
about gospel repentance. Now, first of all, as I've already
said, gospel repentance is the gift of God by the power of the
Holy Spirit in the new birth. It's the gift of God, just like
faith is. We aim for repentance. How do
we arrive at repentance according to the scripture? Through faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, you can't repent if
you don't know what to repent from. Henry used to say this,
he'd say, you can't repent from something you don't know what
you're to repent of no more than you can return somewhere that
you've never been. You see, that's the way it is.
And you've got to know the standard of repentance. This is a revelation
of God now. This is not intellectualism.
This is not Gnosticism. This is a revelation from God
that He teaches His people when He shows us who He is, the God
who is holy and must punish sin. When He shows us who we are,
that we're nothing, that we're sinners and cannot be saved or
justified by our own works. And then when He shows us Christ,
the standard, of all righteousness, the ground of all salvation.
So gospel repentance is the gift of God. And secondly, gospel
repentance always comes under the preaching of the gospel.
The good news of salvation by God's grace wherein the righteousness
of God is revealed. Because without that revelation
through the preaching of the gospel, we don't have any idea
of what to repent of. We're just like Saul of Tarsus
in a different way. He said he was a Hebrew of Hebrews. We'd say, well, we're Americans,
we got on our coins, one nation under God. He said, I was of
the tribe of Benjamin. Well, we say we grew up on the
buckle and the Bible belt. So everybody's a Christian, aren't
they? This is the kind of thinking that Saul of Tarsus had in his
mind about Israel, the same kind that we naturally have about
us. I'm a Baptist, or I was baptized, or I walked an aisle, or I made
a confession, or a profession, or whatever, or I tithe, or whatever. Join the church. All that stuff. This is what people think recommends
them to do until they're brought under the preaching of the gospel
that reveals that all of that is nothing but dumb in light
and compared with the imputed righteousness of Christ. the
obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Gospel repentance
always, without fail, leads a sinner in conviction to take refuge
in Christ and Him alone, His blood and righteousness. Gospel repentance always brings
forth a continual sorrow over sin that continually leads you
to Christ. You brethren, have you ever noticed
that? That when you first started this race, you had no place to
go but Christ. And that's the way it is today,
isn't it? You know what? That's the way it'll be tomorrow.
And the next day. No, I'm not a fortune teller.
I just know what gospel repentance is. So here they are. They believed God. They repented.
They cried mightily unto God. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 14.
shows a gospel repentance. Look at it with me. Hebrews 9
and verse 14. He's talking about how the Old
Covenant with its elements, its tabernacle, its priesthood, the
blood of animals, could not accomplish perfection, completeness, could
not make a sinner righteous before God. Being a physical descendant of
Abraham could not make a sinner righteous before God. It's not
of blood. Being a circumcised Jew could
not make you righteous before God. Trying to keep the law of
Moses couldn't do it. And he says in verse... Look
at verse 13 of Hebrews 9. He says, "...for if the blood
of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling
on the unclean, sanctified or set apart to the purifying of
the flesh, that was an outward cleansing, it was a temporal
cleansing, ceremonial. Now if that blood of animals
could accomplish that much, and that's all that it could accomplish,
now it couldn't make a sinner eternally washed from his sins,
it couldn't make a sinner spiritually and eternally righteous, but
it did accomplish a ceremonial thing under that covenant. Now
if that blood of animals could do that, look at verse 14, how
much more, don't you love the much mores of scripture? How
much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
spirit, not a temporary thing, this is not a temporary thing,
this is an eternal thing in Christ. Eternal Spirit offered Himself,
not a bull, not a bullock, not a goat, not a sheep, but Himself,
the Lamb of God, without spot to God, the sinless, perfect
sacrifice. He was made sin. Our sin is being
imputed to Him. Purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God. That's gospel repentance. When
your conscience... What is your conscience? Well,
that's the thing that accuses or excuses you. Somebody says,
well, I feel guilty. Well, that's their conscience.
Now, what's going to purge that conscience? What's going to purge
that guilt? Well, the only thing in gospel
repentance that's going to do it is the blood of Christ. If
baptism does it, then it's not gospel repentance. If tithing
does it, if your works do it, it's not gospel repentance. You
see what I'm saying? If it's the blood of Christ, His righteousness,
that's gospel repentance. What purges your conscience?
What relieves your guilt? You say, well, I did a bad thing
today, so I'm going to go to church to relieve my conscience.
Well, I'm glad you're here. But don't think that coming here
purges your conscience. I'll tell you what purges the
conscience of a believer. The blood of the crucified Lord
of glory. Risen Lord of glory. You see
the difference? All of this, you see, shows us. Now, back in Jonah chapter 3.
Now listen to what happens here. He says in verse 10. He says,
"...and God saw their works." He's not talking about their
outward works here of putting on sackcloth and ashes. The Pharisees
would do that. Anybody can put on a posture. Why do you think the Lord had
to warn them and instruct them in the Sermon on the Mount? that
when they give, you know, don't sound a trumpet before you. When
you pray, you know, don't go into public like that and make
a spectacle of yourself. And when you fast, you remember
what he said when you fast? He said, wash your face, clean
up, put on nice clothes, don't go around, you know, rip all
that, you know, don't do that. So he's not talking about just
the outward apparel here of sackcloth and ashes. when he says he saw
their works. He's talking about the inward
works. What are those inward works? Well, what is it in gospel
repentance? It's faith in God and repentance
towards God. And yes, it's attended with what
John the Baptist called fruits, meat for repentance. You see,
he's not talking about their works aimed at saving themselves.
That'd be dead works. That's what they're to repent
of. This is the work of God. Do you think those Ninevites
repented because they were just a good bunch of folks and easily
persuaded? and a little less obstinate than
the Ninevites a hundred years later, who would not repent,
whom the prophet Nahum said the wrath of God was coming down
on? You know, a hundred years from this, Nahum came back and
he preached God's wrath against Nineveh, and later on, God destroyed
Nineveh. Now, why do you think these in
Jonah's day repented and the ones a hundred years later didn't?
Was it because these in Jonah 3 were better? Less obstinate? Less rebellious? Well, I'm going to tell you something. 99 in 44, 100% of what comes
in the name of Christianity today, if they were honest, would have
to answer that question, yes. Am I right? No, this is the work
of God. God saw their works. What were
their works? They're the fruit of repentance,
the fruit of God's grace. Those who seek salvation and
righteousness by their working, all they're doing is bringing
forth dead works and fruit unto death. These works are not the
works of men upon ourselves, but the works of God. Now, there
are some scholars who look at passages like Jonah chapter 3.
And they'll tell you that Jonah's message was nothing but God's
wrath, and that the repentance of Nineveh was no more than their
change of mind and attitude towards Israel temporarily. enemy of
Israel. Jonah preached God's wrath, and
so they changed their mind, and they were not as unfriendly and
as wickedly against Israel anymore. But that didn't last. Well, we
do know that a hundred years later, Nineveh fell back into
the same idolatry and unbelief. But what happened to this generation
of Ninevites here in Jonah 3? Well, we don't really know. Several
things indicate to me that what they're experiencing here, I
believe, is gospel repentance. And I told you some of them last
time when you go down through and read about that. But verse
10 is one of the main things that shows me that. God saw their
works. What that means is God took notice
of their works. And the indication is there's
an acceptance here from God of their works. And we know, based
upon scriptural testimony from Genesis to Revelation, that the
only way that God can accept any man's person or works is
through the blood and righteousness of Christ, by His grace and mercy. That's how he accepted Abel.
Abel's works were righteous. Now, does that mean Abel was
able to do anything perfectly sinless? Absolutely not. In fact,
if Abel could have done anything perfectly sinless, do you know
what? Abel would not have had to have brought a lamb blood
before God. The only ones who need blood
is a sinner. But Abel brought the blood. But
Abel's works were righteous because they were washed in the blood,
because he had a righteousness imputed to him by the grace of
God. And that's the case. But the
next thing that indicates to me that this is gospel repentance
is Matthew chapter 12. Now turn over there and let's
read through it just quickly. Now this is our Lord's commentary
on Jonah chapter 3. Now first of all, Who's he talking
to here? Who's the Lord speaking to? Matthew
12 and verse 38, "...then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees
answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee."
He's talking to the scribes and the Pharisees. Who were they?
They were self-righteous legalists who were trying to establish
a righteousness of their own, who were trying to work their
way into God's favor by their works. That's who they were.
Remember he said in Matthew 5 and verse 20, except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, you
shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. And then he
showed how strict the law was all the way through Matthew chapter
5, concluded it with be ye holy as your father in heaven is holy.
How in the world is that going to be? Well, he explains it in
Matthew chapter 6 and verse 33 when he says, seek ye first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these other things will
be added unto you. That's how, that's gospel repentance now.
So here he talks about the scribes and the Pharisees. Now listen
to what he says here. He says in verse 39, but he answered
and said unto them, an evil and adulterous generation. Who's
he talking about? He's talking about them. Remember,
they talked about the Ninevites repenting of their evil way.
Well, here's the Jews right here. Here's physical children of Abraham
who were religious and claimed to believe and preach the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he says, you're an evil and
adulterous generation. He says, You seeketh after a
sign. There shall no sign be given it, but the sign of the
prophet Jonah. Now he explains what that sign
is, what that signification is. Look at verse 40. For as Jonah
was three days and three nights in the whale's belly. That's
the only time that the great fish is ever called a whale.
And it's due to the King James translators, believe it or not.
It was a great fish. I don't know what it was. But
Matthew, the King James translators translate it as whale here. But
he said, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's
belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights
in the heart of the earth. The heart of the earth there
doesn't mean the grave. He wasn't actually in the tomb
three days and three nights. But that means from Gethsemane
when Christ was in the grip of sin. Now I explained that already
and I won't go back through all that. He was in the grip of the
earth, the grip of sin. Sin imputed to Him. And He suffered. That's from Gethsemane. all the
way to the resurrection. All right? And so the son of
the prophet Jonah, Jonah was three days and three nights in
the belly of the great fish, and he was a type of Christ.
The death, burial, and resurrection of Christ to do what? To bring
forth everlasting righteousness, to finish the transgression,
make an end of sin, to put away all my sins, and to bring in
the only righteousness that enables God to be just and justify the
ungodly. But now look at the next verse,
verse 41. He says, the men of Nineveh shall
rise in judgment with this generation. Now the generation I believe
he's talking about here is his generation that's spoken of in
Isaiah 53, the ones for whom he died, his people. The men of Nineveh shall rise
in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it. Why? Because they repented at the
preaching of Jonah, and behold, a greater than Jonah is here. Now, there's nothing in the scripture
from Genesis to Revelation that indicates that lost people will
rise in judgment with that generation and condemn unbelievers. What do you mean that this generation
will rise in judgment? Well, here's what he's talking
about. He's talking about the same thing he spoke of in Hebrews chapter 11,
I believe it's verse 7, when he talked about Noah being a
preacher, preacher of righteousness, Peter said. When he built the
ark and he preached and by that he condemned the world. In other
words, the preaching, the testimony of the gospel of God's grace
You can't take it or leave it now, folks. It's to be believed,
and if you don't believe it, where does that leave you? Condemned. And that's what he's saying.
They're an example of repentance, and you won't repent. Remember
he said, except you repent, you shall likewise perish, Luke 13,
verses 3 through 5. Repent or perish, that's what
he's saying. The men of Nineveh will rise
in judgment with this generation of believers and shall condemn
it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. Well, he
goes on, he gives another illustration of that in verse 42, he talks
about the queen of the south, that's the queen of Sheba that
came to Solomon asking questions, that's recorded in 1 Kings 10.
It says, "...shall rise up in judgment with this generation,
and shall condemn it. For she came from the uttermost
parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold,
a greater than Solomon is here." Christ is greater than Jonah.
He is that prophet. He's our prophet, priest, and
king. Christ is greater than Solomon. They repented at the
preaching of Jonah. She came and questioned Solomon
about eternal matters, and she heard. but now greater than Solomon's
here. Now, what kind of repentance
is he talking about? Well, look at verse 43, he illustrates
it. He says, when the unclean spirit has gone out of a man,
that's a spirit of Satan, it's a spirit of darkness, it's a
spirit of unbelief, it's a spirit of self-righteousness, it's a
spirit of rebelliousness, lack of repentance, lack of faith. He walketh through dry places,
seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I'll be returning
to my house from which I came out. And when he's done, he findeth
it." Now listen to these three descriptions. He finds it empty.
Now, a believer, a born-again person, a regenerated person,
a repentant person is not empty. He has the fullness of Christ,
the fullness of the Spirit. But the unclean spirit comes
back and finds this fella empty. Now, you ladies, when you sweep
the floor, well, you men too. We sweep every now and then,
don't we? We sweep the surface, don't we? And that's the illustration
here. They clean up the outside. And
garnished. Garnished with what? Garnished
with religion. Garnished with outward trappings
of what men call morality. In other words, there's a change
here. There's a reformation. but there's no heart gospel repentance. And he says in verse 45, "...then
goeth he and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked
than himself and they enter in and dwell there and the last
day of that man is worse than the first even so shall it be
also unto this wicked generation." You know what he's saying there?
He's saying the same thing he said to the Pharisees about their evangelism,
their missionizing, their proselytizing, that's what it is. He says, you
encompass sea and land to get one convert, and when you get
that one convert, and you make him religious, and you make him
repent in what you think is repentance, and you make him reform, and
you make him do this and do that, jump through this hoop, jump
through that hoop, and what you end up with is a sinner who's
two-fold more the child of hell than you are. He was better off
without your self-righteous religion. You see, what the Lord is teaching
here is repent or perish. He preached repent and believe
the gospel. Repentance and faith mark the
beginning of new life in Christ. Not because when you repent you
do the right thing, but because that's when God takes the scales
off of your darkened eyes and you see Christ in the fullness
of salvation, the fullness of His glory as the Lord your righteousness. forgiveness by His blood, the
glorious light of the liberty of the sons of God. Now, let
me conclude with this, and I want you to listen very carefully.
This is the end of the message, and that's when people start
waning off, you see. I don't want you to wane off.
I want you to listen because I don't want you to... I want
you to understand what I'm about to say. I'm going to make some
statements that, if left to themselves, may sound shocking. But here's
the thing. Now, listen to me. Repentance
is not about what religion calls morals. Now, should we be moral
people? Absolutely. That's not even the
question. Yes, we should be the most moral
people in all the world, but repentance is not about morals.
It's not about good behavior. Should we behave in a God-honoring
way? Oh, yes. That's not the issue
now. Yes, we should be people of good behavior, but repentance
is not about good behavior. Repentance is not about doing
better. I know people who say, well,
I don't know if I've repented because I can't do any better.
Well, let me tell you something. If you ever get the feeling you're
doing better, you haven't repented. It's not about that. Should we
do better? Yes. Try to do better. Seek to do
better in every way that's honoring to God. But that's not what repentance
is about. Repentance is simply trusting
Christ for all salvation, for all eternal life, for all righteousness,
for all forgiveness, and trusting nothing in and of ourselves. Paul said it, we're the circumcision,
that's born again. Worship God in spirit and rejoice
in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. That's gospel repentance. Gospel repentance comes when
we stop trying to establish our own righteousness before God
and submit to Christ and His righteousness imputed as our
only ground of salvation. Repentance is not about promising
to be good. Should we promise to be good?
Yes. Should we act on that promise? Yes. But that's not what repentance
is about. It's not about a teeth-clenched
strain to put sin out of your life. Should we try hard to put
sin out of our lives? Yes. Should we fight the warfare
of the flesh and the spirit? Yes. Should we strive against
sin? Yes, in every way. But that's
not what repentance is about. It's trusting God to have mercy
on us in Christ. It's trusting God to fix my evil
heart. It's trusting God to be who God
says He is, my gracious Heavenly Father, my Keeper, my Redeemer. Over there in Jonah chapter 3
and verse 10, or verse 9, they ask who can tell if God will
turn and repent and turn away from His fierce anger that we
perish not. And I ask this question, how
can we know if God will be merciful to us? Is there any way that
we can know that? When sinners hear God's Word
and turn to Him in repentance, they can know for certain that
they've obtained mercy in Christ. And it's not in outward acts
of sackcloth and ashes and fasting, but it's an inward work of the
Holy Spirit upon the heart, a broken and a contrite heart over sin,
even over my righteousnesses, which I don't have. These graces
of the Spirit are gifts and fruits of His grace through Christ. Somebody said, well, how do I
know if God will give me that repentance? Well, let me ask
you this. I'll tell you what. Don't sit
around and think about that. Somebody said, how can I know
if God will give me that repentance? Let me ask you this. I'll give
you one simple question. Do you want it? You say, well, obviously, I want
it. Well, not obviously because man
by nature doesn't want it. The Pharisees didn't want it.
You remember Christ in the parable of the sower and the seed? He
said that their heart is waxed gross, grown hard, and they've
shut their eyes and shut their ears lest they be converted. They didn't want this conversion.
They didn't want this repentance. Do you? Do you want it? Do you want this salvation? Because I'm going to tell you
something, when a sinner comes to know and believe and desire
this salvation, that's repentance. That's gospel repentance. That's
faith in Christ. That's the new birth, isn't it?
Because God makes His people willing in the day of His power. So if you want it, it's because
God's done a work of grace. Isn't that right? otherwise you
wouldn't want not that if you really want