Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nyberg. I'm going to preach this morning
on this subject, faith and repentance. What is faith? What is repentance? Have you ever listened to a sermon
a man was preaching and thought, well, what does it mean to believe?
What is faith? What does it mean to repent? What is repentance? I hope by the grace of God, those
questions will be answered in this message on faith and repentance. My text is found in Acts chapter
20, beginning in verse 20. This is Paul speaking to the
Ephesian elders And he says, I kept back nothing that was
profitable to you. Now, for a preacher to withhold
information, withhold truth from the scripture because he's afraid
of how it will affect someone negatively. If he does that,
he fails to preach the gospel. Paul said, I've not shunned to
declare all the counsel of God. He said, I've kept back nothing
that was profitable to you, but have showed you and taught you publicly and from house to house. My message in private, my message
in public was the same message. What a man really preaches is
what he confesses publicly. If he doesn't confess it publicly,
he doesn't really believe it. Paul says, I've taught the same
thing publicly and from house to house. Verse 21, testifying,
not just lecturing, but testifying that which God has taught me.
You can't preach what you haven't experienced. Testifying both
to the Jews and also to the Greeks. Now, the Jews are those with
a revelation from God. They were given the scriptures.
The Greeks are those who had no revelation from God as far
as a written book, the Gentiles. Testifying both the Gentiles
and also to the Greeks, both groups get the same message. We don't adapt the message to
a people or to a culture. Everybody gets the same message. Testifying both to the Jews and
also to the Greeks, and here we have it. repentance toward
God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith. Now, the first thing I would
like to consider is this question. Are repentance and faith separate
acts? Do you repent, then you believe,
or do you believe and then repent? Are repentance and faith separate
acts? The answer is no. They are two aspects of life. They're not separate acts, they
are the two aspects of spiritual life. Now let me try to explain
that. When you breathe, you breathe
because you have life. You don't begin to breathe and
then live. You breathe because you have
life. Now, in breathing, there are
two things involved. You inhale the rich air with
oxygen, and you exhale the poison. In this one act of breathing,
There is inhaling and there is exhaling. Faith is inhaling the
rich oxygen that gives life the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance is exhaling, repenting
of anything that is contrary to that. Breathing is one act
with two aspects. The same thing is true of your
heart pumping. When your heart pumps, the arteries
take the oxygen-enriched blood that came from breathing all
throughout every cell of the body and gives it that oxygen. That's happening in the pumping
of the heart. And in the return, The veins, they bring the blood
that's oxygen depleted back to the heart to be bumped again.
So you see in the pumping of the heart. There are two things
going on, the delivery of the oxygen and the bringing back
the blood where the oxygen has already been delivered. One act,
the pumping of the heart, but two important necessary things. Now that is faith and repentance. Where you have one, you have
the other. They are never separated. Where you have faith, you will
have repentance. Where you have repentance, you
will have faith. These are the acts of spiritual
life, like your heart beating and your lungs heaving, that's
the act of life. Well, it's the same thing with
faith. Faith and repentance cannot be
separated. Faith and repentance is the act
of spiritual life. When you have light, you have
particles, and you have, I can't remember what the name of the
other, it's made of two things, particles and, it's made of two
things, I can't remember exactly what they are, but it's made
of two things, and if it's not both of those things, it is not
light. Light, particles and waves is
what it is. And if it is not particles and
waves, it is not light, regardless of what you would call it. Now,
repentance and faith are the result of spiritual life. They are the result of regeneration. When they're separated by men
as different acts, they are confounded. You don't repent, and after that,
you believe. You don't believe, and after
that, you repent. Mark 1 15 says, repent ye and
believe the gospel. These two things are always together,
and when we try to separate them, we confound what they mean in
the first place. So, understand this. Whatever
faith and repentance is, it's not separate acts. It's something
that always goes together, and it is the result of spiritual
life. Now, repentance means a change
of mind. You change your mind. You did
believe something, you don't believe it anymore. Your mind
has been changed. Faith is reliance upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. You see, when you repent of your
wrong thoughts of God and your wrong thoughts of yourself, this
always goes with it. You believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. You didn't before that, but now you do. You have no other
choice. Now Paul said, I've kept back
nothing that was profitable to you. I preach publicly and from
house to house repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord
Jesus Christ. Now that's the whole counsel
of God. He said, I've kept back nothing that was profitable to
you. This is the whole counsel of God, repentance toward God
and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I've already touched
on this, but I think it is important to repeat. Repentance and faith
are the products of life. A natural man does not repent. A natural man does not believe. A natural man cannot repent. A natural man cannot believe
because they have no spiritual life. They're dead in sins, unable
to perform the functions of spiritual life. Now, that's what dead in
sins mean. It doesn't mean that you don't have physical life.
It doesn't mean you don't have a body and a soul. It means you
have no spiritual life. Adam lost it in the garden. Remember
when God said, in the day you eat thereof, you shall surely
die? That very day, he died spiritually, and he no longer had the ability
to perform the functions of spiritual life. I must be given life before
I can repent, before I can believe. Now, chronologically, or logically,
logically, life has to come before repentance and faith. but chronologically,
they come at the precise same time. When you repent, you live. When you believe, you live. When you live, you repent. When you live, you believe. Now, repentance and faith are
both called in the scripture gifts of God. Then hath God to
the Gentiles granted, freely given, repentance unto life. By grace you save through faith,
and that not of yourselves, it, faith, is the gift of God, not
of works, lest any man should boast. Being gifts of God is
a reminder to us that no part of salvation is by works. It's the free gift of God. Every aspect of salvation is
the gift of God. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life, which is by Jesus Christ, our
Lord. Now, repentance is toward God. That's what Paul said. Now this
is a very interesting, if that's the right way to say it, this
is interesting. Do you know that the phrase repent of your sins
is not found in the Bible? Now usually when people use the
word repentant, you need to repent of this, you need to repent of
that. But the actual phrase repent of your sins is not found in
the scripture. Now what is Repentance. What is repentance toward God?
Now, most preachers present repentance as a change in behavior. Let me repeat that. Maybe it's
what you've always thought. Most preachers present repentance
as a change in behavior. You are now sorry for the sin
you've committed and you now stop committing that sin. And if you do not stop committing
that sin, you never really repented of that sin and you never had
any true sorrow for that sin. Repentance, presented by most
preachers, is being real sorry and stopping that sin. Now, a
couple of questions that come to my mind right off the bat
is, how sorry? When are you sorry enough? And
the question that comes to my mind also is what sin have you
completely stopped committing? Have you ever stopped lusting?
Have you ever stopped being jealous? Have you ever stopped losing
your temper? I mean, let's go on and on. There's
really no one sin that you've actually stopped. So if repentance
is being sorry for your sin and not committing that sin anymore,
my dear friend, me and you have never repented. That is not repentance,
and that's not the way Paul presents it. He says he preached repentance
toward God. Repentance toward God. Now, that means a change of mind
toward God. Job put it this way, I've heard
of thee with the hearing of the ears. but now mine eye seeth
thee. Wherefore I hate myself and repent
in dust and ashes. Job's repentance came from a
sight of who God really is. Isaiah said, In Isaiah chapter
six, verse one, in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also
the Lord. High and lifted up. If you ever
see the Lord, that's how you'll see him. And he went on to say
in verse five, after he had seen the Lord, he said, woe is me. That's how people respond by
seeing who he really is. Woe is me, I'm undone, I'm a
man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord
of hosts. It is repentance toward God. Now, when Elisha prophet was
in Samaria, the king of Syria sent his top general, a man by
the name of Naaman there. Naaman was a mighty general,
well-respected, and he was a leper. And he came to Elisha hearing
that Elisha had some connection with the God of Israel who could
heal the leper. Now, what I think is interesting
about Naaman is he thought he was a great man who happened
to be a leper. But the reality was he was a
leper who happened to be a great man as far as the flesh goes.
And he comes to Elisha's house and he's standing out there in
his horse and chariot and his armies and the riches that he
had. Elisha didn't even come out to
him. And he was so offended by that, Elisha sent a servant,
a lowly servant, a nobody. And he came out and said to Elisha,
you go dip in the river Jordan seven times and your flesh will
come back white, clean as a baby's. And when Naaman heard that, he
was wroth and he went away and said, behold, I thought. Here's where he went wrong. Behold,
I thought, he will surely come out to me and stand and call
upon the name of his God and strike his hand over the place
and recover the leper. He thought there'd be all kinds
of impressive things. And he went away in an anger.
What was his problem? I thought, name it. It's not
like you thought it was. Now that is what repentance is.
It is a change of mind with regard to God. I think of what the Lord
said in Psalm 50, thou thoughtest, I was altogether such a one as
yourself. That's our problem. We think
God's like us. He's not like us at all. All of our natural thoughts,
all the natural things we think regarding the living God are
wrong. You can just write that down.
Whatever you think about God naturally, your opinions, your
thoughts, they are wrong. And repentance is a change of
mind concerning God. You agree with what God says
with regard to himself. You bow. When you hear of his
true character, you bow. You hear of His sovereignty,
the fact that He controls everything and everybody, that He really
is God, being God, and you bow. You hear of His holiness, you
bow. You hear of His independence,
He has no needs, and you bow. You hear of His justice, He's
absolutely just, you bow. You hear of His immutability,
He cannot change. You hear of His omnipotence. He has the power to do whatever
He wills to do. You hear of His omniscience.
He's all wise. He's never learned anything.
He knows all things. Oh, in His wisdom, He's made
the way to be just and justify the ungodly. You hear of His
omnipresence, how you can't go anywhere where He's not. And
you don't disbelieve, you bow. Whatever he reveals of himself,
which he reveals himself in the cross, every attribute of God
is revealed in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, his true character.
And what do you do? You bow. That is repentance toward
God. It's seeing who he is. Now, I used to think that I could
please God, or at least I had the potential to please God.
But when I saw him, I quit thinking that way. I used to believe that
if I was put in the right environment and all my cards were lined upright,
that I could keep from sinning and do something to make myself
savable. I do not believe that anymore. When you see God, and not until
then, when you see God, you see something of your own sinfulness. and your need of His mercy and
His grace. I used to think God's law was
too strict. I repent of that. It's wholly
just and good. I used to believe God to be unfair
if He elected some and passed by others. I repent of that. Whatever God does is fair. I
have no business sitting in judgment on God. I used to think it would
be unfair that Christ didn't die for anyone but the elect.
And that's what the scripture teaches. He didn't die for all
men with that exception. He died for the elect. I used
to think, well, how could that be fair? I don't think that way
anymore. Whatever God does is just, right,
holy, and true, and it's only seeing Him that enables you to
see yourself. If you ever see Him, you will
understand that you are nothing but sin in and of yourself. The reason people have such high
opinions of their own righteousness is they've never seen the living
God. You ever see who God is? He'll take the wind out of your
sails. It'll take the starch out. You'll be like Peter. When
he saw who the Lord was, he said, depart from me, Lord. I'm a sinful
man. You don't want to have anything
to do with me. When you see God, you'll quit being His judge and
start seeing your need of His mercy. But not only did He speak
of repentance toward God, wherever you have this repentance toward
God, this always accompanies it. It always comes with it. There is faith toward our Lord
Jesus Christ. You see, when you have repentance
toward God, you see who He is, and consequently you see who
you are. You have no other option but
to look to Christ alone. Not Christ and, you don't have
anything else, but Christ alone, faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Now he's called our Lord Jesus
Christ. Who is the our? Our Lord Jesus Christ. Who is
the our? Well, the elect. Those who believe. He is their Lord Jesus Christ. Those for whom he died. Our Lord
Jesus Christ. Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. He is Lord. He's everybody's
Lord. Someone says, he's not my Lord.
Yeah, he is. He's Lord both of the dead and the living. If you're
dead in sins, He's your Lord. You're in His hand. He's gonna
do with you whatever He's pleased to do. If you're saved by His
grace, oh, He's your Lord. You willingly receive Him as
Lord too. You're glad He's Lord. He's Lord
of creation. He's Lord of providence. He controls
everything. Most especially, He's Lord of
salvation. He is our Lord Jesus. Oh, what a name! Thou should
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. He's the Lord, our Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ is his offices as the
anointed, the Messiah, God's prophet, God's priest, God's
king. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if I ever repent toward
God, my only hope is faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, my
hope of heaven, and I have a hope, I have a hope that when I die,
I'm on the last end of my life anyway. I mean, I'm 62 years
old, I might live till I'm 70, I might die tomorrow, I might
live till I'm 80, but I'm still at the last end. Here's my hope
of heaven. The Lord Jesus Christ stood as
my surety before time began and agreed to bear the full responsibility
of my salvation. In time, He became flesh, and
He kept the law for me. And in keeping the law for me,
He was still nailed to a cross. Why? My sins became His. When he drank that cup in Gethsemane,
that was the cup of the sins of his elect. He bore our sins
in his own body on the tree. And my hope of being saved is
because he took my sin, my sorrow, and he made it his very own,
and he put it away so that I have no sin." And he gave his perfect
righteousness to me. And I stand before God without
guilt because of him. He by himself purged our sins. No contribution from me. Faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ is relying only on him as all in my salvation. I don't have anything but Him. That is faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. If my salvation is dependent
upon my ability to repent, my ability to believe, my holy living,
my ability to stop any certain sin, I have no hope. But He by
Himself purged, made an end of our sins. Faith is trusting him. Now, if you ever repent, have
repentance toward God, you'll have faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. I love the scripture in Romans
chapter four, verse five. And this is the stuff of faith,
to him that worketh not. There's the repentance part.
You see, because of who God is, you can't be saved by your works.
And you have no hope of being saved by your works. To him that
worketh not, until you have been brought to the place to where
you see salvation by works in any way, to any degrees, impossible
for you, you've never repented. To him that worketh not, but
believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly." You believe that
what Christ did actually justified, made clear of all guilt the ungodly
sinners that he died for. Their sin was put away and he
is righteous and He gave His righteousness to them, and they
stand before God just, having never sinned." Christ never sinned,
and His perfect righteousness is given to His people so that
they have never sinned in Him. Now that, my dear friends, is
repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
I hope this message has been helpful and a blessing to you.
This is Todd Nyberg, praying that God will be pleased to make
himself known to you. That's our prayer. Amen. To receive
a copy of the sermon you have just heard, send your request
to todd.nyberg at gmail.com. Or you may write or call the
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