Dark the stain that soiled man's
nature Long the distance that he fell Far removed from hope
and heaven Into deep despair and hell But there was a fountain
open And the blood of God's own Son Purifies the soul and reaches
Deeper than the stain has gone Praise the Lord for full salvation
God still reigns upon His throne And I know the blood still reaches
Deeper than the stain has gone. Conscious of the deep pollution,
Sinners wander in the night. Though they hear the shepherd
calling, They still fear to face the light. This the blessed consolation
That can melt the heart of stone That sweet balm of Gilead reaches
Deeper than the stain has gone Praise the Lord for full salvation
God still reigns upon His throne And I know blood still reaches
Deeper than the stain has gone All unworthy we who've wandered
And our eyes are wet with tears As we think of love that sought
us Through the weary, wasted years Yet we walk the holy highway
Walking by God's grace alone Knowing Calvary's fountain reaches
Deeper than the stain has gone Praise the Lord for full salvation
God still reigns upon His throne And I know blood still reaches
Deeper than the stain has gone When with holy choirs we're standing
In the presence of the King And our souls are lost in wonder
While the white rope choir sings Then we'll praise the name of
Jesus With the millions round the throne Praise Him for the
power that reaches Deeper than the stain has gone Praise the Lord for soul salvation
God still reigns upon His throne And I know the blood still reaches
Deeper than the stain has gone Thank you, Adam. And to her was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, for the fine
linen is the righteousness of the saints. And to her was granted
that she should be arrayed. And he said unto me, write, blessed
are they which called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.
And John asked, who are these? that stand with fine linen, clean
and white. And the angel said, these are
they that have come out of the great tribulation that have washed
their garments in the blood of the Lamb. I'm so very thankful
that there is a cleansing for our sin, and it's only through
the shed blood of Christ. Let's open our Bibles together
to Acts chapter 11. Acts chapter 11. I've titled this message repentance
unto life. Repentance unto life. You would think that repentance
would be something that would be easy to understand, but I
fear that most repentance is the sorrow that Paul speaks of
in 2nd Corinthians chapter 7. He calls it worldly sorrow. It's
nothing more than a sorrow that comes from the consequences of
our sin. We've all experienced that kind
of repentance. We suffer the consequences of
something and we find ourselves very bothered by it. And then
he talks about that godly sorrow, which leadeth unto true repentance
and leadeth unto life. And that's a sorrow that God
puts in the heart That's a work of grace, just like faith. Repentance
is a work of grace. A sorrow that's based on the
cause of sin, not the consequence of it. And the cure for sin,
what the Lord Jesus Christ did to put it away. Look what what the disciples said in Acts
chapter 11 when Peter came back and reported what the Lord had
done at Cornelius's. And I loved what Peter said at
the end of verse 17 when he said, what was I? That I could withstand
God. Well, there's a message in that,
isn't there? And that's what men do. They try to withstand
God. How foolish is that? To worship
God is to bow to him. It's to believe Him. It's to
submit to Him. And Peter said, what was I? What was I that I could withstand
God? I'm not going to stand in the
way of God. I'd lose that eternally. I'd lose my soul standing in
the way of God. And look what else he says in
verse 18. And when they heard these things,
they held their peace and glorified God, saying, then hath God also
to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. Then hath God to the
Gentiles granted repentance unto life. I want to try to answer
three questions in this message. What is true repentance? Where does it come from? And
what is its result? What is true repentance according
to the Word of God? Where does true repentance come
from? And what is its result? Numbers chapter 23 verse 19 says,
God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that
he should repent. Hath he said, and shall he not
do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall
he not make it good? When the scripture speaks of
God repenting, it's changing the circumstances, but it's not
changing God. Our God is the same yesterday,
today, and forever. Repentance is for us, it's not
for God. Repentance is something that
has to happen to us. Our God is not a man that he
should lie nor that he should repent. I am the Lord and I change
not. You and I are the ones that need
changing. God never changes. I love thinking about the fact
that our God's never had a new thought. He's never learned anything. He's never asked anybody any
questions. He's immutable, he's omniscient, he's omnipotent,
he's God. How could God be charged with
folly? How could God be anything but
successful? How could God repent? He doesn't. What did Peter, what did those
disciples say then? Based on what you've just told
us, then, and they were surprised, hath God granted to the Gentiles
repentance unto life. That's what you and I are in
need of. We're in need of our God to grant unto us repentance
unto life. What is repentance? Well, literally,
it is a changed mind, is what the word means. It means to have
your mind changed. Now, the Bible uses the mind
and the heart interchangeably, and I'm always a little concerned
about people who talk about having faith in their, having head knowledge,
but not having their heart changed. It doesn't work that way. Now,
can men parrot things that they've heard that they don't believe?
Of course they can. People do it all the time. But
that doesn't mean they have the knowledge of that in their head.
If they've got it in their head, they've got it in their heart.
If somebody talks to you about missing heaven by 18 inches because
you've got the knowledge of the gospel in your head, but you
don't have it in your heart, how does that make you feel?
How does that make you feel? Really? I tell you what, it scares
me. It scares me. Because I know
how deceitful my heart is and I know how capable I am of having
knowledge or having, think that I have knowledge that I don't
have. So this matter of repentance is a changed heart. It's a changed
mind. I used to believe this, and now
I believe that. I used to think it was this way,
but God has changed me. The scripture says in 2 Corinthians
5, verse 15, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. All things are passed away, yea,
all things become new. Now that's regeneration. That's repentance. When God causes
you to believe something different than what you used to believe.
He causes you to think differently than what you used to think.
He causes you to know that you're not what you thought you were. You had way too high an opinion
of yourself until God gave you repentance. And then you came
to realize, behold, behold, I see something I've never seen before. I am vile. In me, that is in my flesh, apart
from Christ, there's no good thing. That's repentance. That's a changed mind. That's
changed hard. I really believe that. I didn't
believe that before, didn't even think that way. I thought sin
was just a behavioral problem that I had from time to time.
I didn't know that sin is what I was. You remember the story
of the leper that came down to see
Elisha. Naaman, he was the commander
of the Syrian army. And he had heard that there was
a prophet in Israel that could heal him. And so he came down with his
entourage. He's got leprosy. And he comes
down with gifts and with his soldiers and he's going to go
see Elisha. And Elisha would not so much
as even come out of the house. He sent his servant out. And
this man who was the commander of the greatest army in the greatest
nation in the world, who thought he was something. The scripture
says, when Elisha refused to come out, he was wroth. He was
so enraged and angry. He said, I thought the man would
come out for me. I thought he would wave his hands
in the air. And I thought that he would cleanse
the leper. That's what the scripture says.
He speaks of himself in third person. He said, I thought he
would cleanse the leper. He doesn't even admit that he's
the leper. What a picture of what God's
doing. I mean, this humble servant is sent out to tell Naaman to
go down to the river and wash yourself. And he thought he deserved
an audience with God. He didn't think that he had to
listen to a servant of God. Isn't that where we are right
now? God makes himself known through
the ministry and the words and the preaching of another sinner
just like you. a humble servant. If you're going
to come into the presence of God, you're going to do it through
the preaching of the gospel. But man in his pride thinks,
well, I thought God would come to me. I thought he'd wave his
hands and I thought he would heal the leper. Oh, and then
he's, oh, after he comes out of the Jordan River and his skin's
like the skin of a baby, he comes to Elisha and he bows before
him and he said, oh, can I take some of the dirt from Israel
back to Syria so I can worship God? He'd been humbled, hasn't
he? He's been given repentance. That's
repentance. If a man think himself to be
something when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. And that's what we do. By nature,
we deceive ourselves in thinking that we're something when we
are in fact nothing. This is repentance. This is a
work of grace in the heart. This is not, you know, I'm just
a poor sinner. No, no. Has God made you a sinner? Me, it's all on you. You can't accuse anybody or blame
anybody. You are a mercy beggar. He's given you a spirit of repentance
about yourself. If any man thinks that he knoweth
anything, he knoweth nothing as he ought to think. What I was going to say about
Naaman is the first thing out of Naaman's mouth was, I thought. I thought that the man of God
would come out and that he would wave his hands and he would cleanse
the leper. Well, that was your problem,
Naaman. Your thinking was your problem. You need to have different
thinking. You need to have repentance.
You need to have your mind and your heart changed. And that's what God did for him.
And that's what God has to do for me and you. It's what he
has to do. Believing in total depravity
and believing that you're a sinner is two different things. Two different things. I used to think that my free will had power to give me access into the presence
of God. All I had to do was make a decision.
God gave me repentance. He changed my mind, changed my
heart, and I came to realize that all power has been given
unto Christ and that I have no power and that it's not of him
that willeth nor of him that runneth. It's of God that showeth
mercy. I used to think that I had some righteousness. I mean, there
was something about me that wasn't sinful. And now I know that in
me there dwelleth no good thing. Paul said in Romans chapter 12,
verse 3, for I say through the grace given unto me to every
man that is among you not to think of himself more highly
than he ought to think. but to think soberly, according
as God hath given to every man a measure of faith." Now that's
God speaking. I say to every man among you,
not to think too highly of himself. God gives you repentance. You
realize that if God doesn't have mercy upon you, and you remember
when Naaman did not worship God until after he was cleansed. It was after he came out of the
river and he looked at himself and he realized the leprosy's
gone. I've been made whole. That's when he bows. That's when
his mind has changed, his heart has changed. What am I saying? Don't think that if you exercise
some degree of presumed repentance that God will reward you for
that. Repentance comes as a result of salvation. Repentance is like faith. Repentance
and faith are two sides to the same coin. The Lord, regeneration
must precede both of those. The Lord has to do a sovereign
work of grace in the heart. And from that new birth, you
have faith. I've used this illustration before.
When a baby is born and it begins to breathe, it's not the breathing
of the baby that makes it alive. It's the breathing of the baby
that gives evidence that it was alive. That's in the same way
in the new birth, in the new birth. that when we're born spiritually,
we have faith and repentance. It's an evidence of God's grace
in the heart, not the cause of it. Repentance is believing that
God's way is the right way. You remember when Abraham went
down to Gath and met the king of Gath. His name was Abimelech. And Abraham feared that Abimelech
would have him put to death. And so Abraham told Abimelech
that Sarah was his daughter. And Abimelech took Sarah into
his harem as one of his wives. And that night God gave Abimelech
a dream. and revealed to him who Sarah
was. And he also inflicted all of
Gath with a disease. And Abimelech came to Abraham
and said, why did you lie to me? And Abraham said this, because
I thought the fear of God was not in this place and that you
would kill me. I thought I had a better way.
I thought, you know, I didn't trust God. I believed my way
to be the right way. What does God say? My thoughts
are not your thoughts. Neither are my ways your ways.
As the heavens are high above the earth, so are my thoughts
above your thoughts. You thought that I was altogether
such a one as yourself. And then God gave me repentance,
and I realized God's way is the right way. There is a way that
seems right unto man, a way of works, the way of free will,
the way of establishing your own righteousness seems right
unto man, but in the end that way leads to death. God's way
is the right way. God's way is the right way, not
man's way. God gives you repentance. You come to believe that. Though
every day in this world, we we look away right now, right now,
the believers are saying in their heart, Amen, I believe, I believe
that. And I believe every time I entertain
the thought of doing it my way over God's way, I'm just exposing
my own sin and my own unbelief. God has given me a spirit of
repentance. Spirit of Repentance is what
Paul experienced when he said, that which I thought was gain
unto me. I mean, here I was the tribe
of Benjamin, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews, I was a Pharisee, circumcised
the eighth day, and all these things that I thought were earning
me favor with God, I now realize are the very things that are
keeping me from God. That's repentance. That's repentance. I thought that I could earn God's
favor by something I did, and now I realize that those things
which I thought were gain are loss. The very thing that he
thought would earn him favor with God were the things that
kept him from God. Why? Because God gave him repentance.
Changed his mind, changed his heart. There was a time in unbelief
that we did not believe that God was absolutely sovereign,
absolutely sovereign. We didn't believe that. We were like Nicodemus who came
to the Lord at night in the darkness of his own belief and addressed
him as rabbi. teacher. Oh, we want to entertain
our minds and knowledge puffeth up and we want to entertain our
egos by having God teach us some things so that we can show the
things that we know over other men. And the Lord said, Nicodemus,
you don't know anything. You don't know anything. You're
a master in Israel and you don't even know these things that I'm
talking to you about. The new birth, you don't even
know what you're talking about. Sometimes we have to say that. God gave Nicodemus repentance
after the crucifixion. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea
risked their reputation and everything, and Nicodemus took 100 pounds
of myrrh and aloe and went and asked Pilate for the body of
Christ. Why? God gave him repentance.
He had a changed heart, changed mind about who the Lord Jesus
Christ really was, that he was absolutely God. That's the question. That's the question, what the
Lord asked. What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? God gives you repentance, you
say he's the son of God. He's the fullness of the Godhead
bodily. Nothing outside of his ability
or his power. He's the unchanging, holy God,
holy, undefiled, separate from sinners. He's in the heavens
and I'm upon the earth. And my words before him must
be few. He's God. What did those Pharisees say?
Well, he's the son of David. He's the promised, you know,
prophet of God. And the Lord said, if he'd be
the son of David, then why did David call him Lord? When he
said, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit thou here at my right hand
until I make thine enemies thy footstool, they didn't know what
to say. They didn't believe. What did Nicodemus, when Nicodemus
came to the Lord at night, there in John chapter three, he called
him rabbi, and then he said, we know that God be with you. For if God was not with you,
you would not be able to do the things that you do. Now here
he was talking to God He was addressing the second person
of the Godhead, the sovereign omnipotent God. And he said,
well, you know, we we're, we're discerning men and, uh, and we
know spiritual things. And, uh, and we know that you
couldn't do the things that you do. If God wasn't helping you, there was a time. when we doubted
the absolute sovereignty of God. And now we know. Like Nicodemus came to know. There was a time when we put
our hope in doctrine. There was a time when I thought,
well, if I just know some things, You know, that'll be sufficient
for my salvation. And like those Pharisees, we
searched the scriptures because we thought in them, we'd have
eternal life. And you remember when the Lord
came to Martha there in John chapter 11 and told Martha, your
brother will rise again. And Martha said, I know in the
resurrection, he'll rise again. She thought that the resurrection
was nothing more than an event to look forward to. And the Lord
said to her, Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And he that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Martha, do you believe this?
And what'd she say? I believe. I believe that you
are the son of God. What she said, she bowed, she
was hanging her hopes on a future event rather than on the son
of God who was standing there before her declaring himself
to be the resurrection and the life. God gave her repentance,
he changed her mind, he changed her heart. And that's what the Lord does.
He causes us to see that Christ is our life, and he is the resurrection,
and he is all our hope. There was a time before God made
us to be a sinner that we got this blame game down pretty good,
don't we? We've been practicing a long, long, long time. First time man was confronted
with this sin, What did he do? He blamed God. The woman that
you gave me, she did give to me and I did eat. You know every
time that we blame somebody else for our sin and for our unhappiness,
we're blaming God. We're blaming God. It's just
that simple. And the believer's saying, oh
Lord, forgive me. Forgive me how many times I've
blamed you. Lord, give me the spirit of repentance
to know what David knew in Psalm 51. Turn with me to Psalm 51. You remember what Naaman said? Naaman
spoke of himself in the third person when he said, I thought
the man would cleanse the leper. Now compare that to what David's
saying in Psalm 51, have mercy upon me. Oh God, according to
thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender
mercies, blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from mine
iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgression,
and my sin is ever before me. Against thee, and thee only,
have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou
mightest be justified when thou speakest, and clear when thou
judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, thou desirest truth
in the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me
to know wisdom. Now there's the spirit of repentance. There's a spirit of repentance.
Man looks at the outward appearance, God looks at the heart. And a
broken and contrite heart, God will not despise. Why? Because
he gave it to you. He gave it to you. David goes on to say, Lord, you've
got to purge me with hyssop. You're gonna have to apply the
blood of Christ to my sin. I can't redeem myself. I can't atone for myself. It's
nobody else's fault. Lord, this is all gonna have
to be on you. You're gonna have to fix this.
I can't fix it. That's repentance? Unbelievers don't think like
that. They don't believe that. They go about shamelessly blaming
everybody else for all their faults and all their problems. Peter was brought to repentance
when the Lord came to him after the resurrection. And you remember, after Peter
denied the Lord, Peter thought that he was beyond redemption.
No question about it. I've sinned so grievously now,
there's no way I could be saved. No way I could be saved. And
Peter needed to have his mind changed about that. And so when
the Lord rose from the dead, He told the women, he said, you
go tell the disciples and Peter that I've risen. And then when Peter met the Lord
there on the sea of God, Peter said, I go fishing. And what
he meant by that was I'm going back to my old profession because
there's no way I can be used of God in any way. I've just, I've sinned too bad. And then the Lord met him, gave
him a new heart, a new mind. He said, Peter, love us thou
may, feed my sheep, feed my sheep, feed my sheep, three times. Our minds need to be changed
about our sin. There was a time when we thought
our sin was no big deal. Well, you know, I'm just a sinner.
And God gives you a spirit of repentance, as I said earlier
in 2 Corinthians. Let's turn there, 2 Corinthians
chapter 7. Look at this passage with me. Paul had written some hard things
to the church at Corinth because of some sins that were in the
church. And then he says in verse 9 of
2 Corinthians chapter 7, now I rejoice, not that you were
made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance. For you were made
sorry after a godly manner that you might receive damage by us
and nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance
to salvation. This is the sorrow that God puts
in your heart. You see, they were proud. They
weren't addressing any of their sins or any of their problems.
They were just overlooking and thinking, you know, all is well.
And now the Lord has confronted them and they've been made sorry
with a godly sorrow. Not to be repented of, but the
sorrow of the world worketh death. As I said earlier, worldly sorrow
is caused by the consequences of sin. Godly sorrow is caused
by the cause and cure for sin. It's the work of grace in the
heart that causes you to realize what God had to do to put away
your sin. Verse 11, for behold the same
self thing that you sorrowed after a godly sort. What is it
resulted in? Carefulness, it wrought in you,
yea, clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, yea, what
fear, and he's talking about the fear of God, yea, what vehement
desire and what zeal and what revenge. That word revenge is
also the word atonement. Reconciliation. It's brought
you to salvation. You're not glib about your sin. You've been given a spirit of
repentance. You realize how serious it is
in light of what it took God to put it away. When we talk about being sinners,
we're not We're not giving license for sinful living. I don't want to
put it that way, but we're not saying we'll just violate the
law of God and not know. God gives you a spirit of repentance.
There's great carefulness and zeal for God and repentance. God gives you the spirit of repentance,
you're changed from believing that you
are at least above average to believing yourself to be the
chief of all sinners. You know, no one's been given
the light and the grace and the blessings and the privileges
and the truth that I've been given and remain as unbelieving
that I, God have mercy upon me, the sinner. It was a time before God gave
you repentance that you thought salvation was an offer made by
God to you. And then you came to believe
that it was an offering made by the Lord Jesus Christ to his
father to satisfy the demands of God's holy justice. Before the Lord gives repentance,
you think that your will is all powerful. I've got a free will. I can do what I want when I want.
I can make decisions. And then God speaks truth to
your heart and gives you the spirit of repentance and you
realize, oh, I was dead in my trespasses and sins. And it's
not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth. It's of God
that showeth mercy. My will is not able to save me. Lord, I believe that you will
this. Lord, if if thou willest, thou canst make me whole. For God gives you a spirit of
repentance, you believe that. Christ died for everybody, and
then you realize, oh, no, he laid down his life for sheep
and he actually secured the salvation of all those for whom he died. Thought, well, God must love
everybody. No, you thought that I was altogether such a one as
yourself, but no, Jacob I've loved and Esau I've hated. I've
loved my people with an everlasting love. I've had mercy upon them
from eternity past. And I love righteousness and
I hate iniquity and I love all those who are found in Christ. What a difference. Before God gives you a spirit
of repentance, you thought that, well, I'm doing pretty good and
doing my best at least in trying to keep the law of God. And then
you came to realize, oh no, the law of God's been standing in
judgment of me all along, all along. Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness. He's the one who satisfied God's
law. Now I'm under the law of grace. I'm under the law of Christ. I'm under the law of love. I'm
under the law of the Spirit. Christ in me is my life. This is repentance, isn't it? They that are in Christ are new
creatures. Old things are passed away. Yay,
all things become new. I don't believe anything I used
to believe. God's changed my mind. He's changed
my heart. And notice in our text that God
gave to the Gentiles repentance unto life. The scripture says that the way,
Proverbs chapter 13 verse 15, the way of the transgressor is
hard. The way of the transgressor is
hard. Now what that means is that sin
has its consequences. It means that, you know, You
live in rebellion against God and you're going to suffer the
consequences of that. The way of the transgressor is hard.
And what happens is people get sick and tired of being sick
and tired, and they turn over a new leaf, and they get reformed,
and they reform their lives, and they change their behavior,
and they stop doing the things that are destroying them, and
they get religion, and they find God, and they think they've got
repentance. That's not repentance. That's not repentance. Second Timothy chapter 2 verse
25 says, Paul speaking to Timothy as a pastor and he says, in meekness
instruct those that oppose themselves per adventure, God would give
them repentance. Yeah, there's things we ought
not to be doing. There's things we ought to be
doing. But repentance is a work of grace in the heart that God
does. And it will lead to those things
that are right and the avoidance of those things that are wrong.
But it's a work of, it's a work in the heart. It's a changed
mind. It's a changed heart. Don't, Don't be deceived and
thinking, well, you know, I don't do the things I used to do and
I'm doing this and I'm better than that person, so I'm repentant. Turn with me. Turn back. You
were there in Acts 9. Turn back just a couple pages
to Acts chapter 5. Acts chapter 5. Look at verse 29, then Peter
and the other apostles answered and said, we ought to obey God
rather than men. The God of our fathers raised
up Jesus whom ye slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath God exalted
with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance
to Israel and the forgiveness of sin. for to give repentance to Israel. What did those apostles say when
Peter came back? Oh, God gave to the Gentiles
repentance unto life. Peter, you didn't do that. They
didn't do that for themselves. God did that. You say, well, doesn't the Bible
command us to repent and to believe? Yes, it does. Yes, it does. It also commands us to come to
Christ, and everything that God commands us to do, he must enable
us to do. All that God requires, God must
provide, and God will get all the glory. What am I saying? Lord, give me that spirit of
repentance. Change my mind, change my heart. And I close with this, well,
I'm not going to close yet. Let me take you to another couple
passages. Romans chapter 11. Turn with me to Romans chapter
11. This is such an encouragement. If the repentance that you have
was given to you of God, it will remain. It will remain. If it's nothing more than a religious
reformation, and a proud change in life, it won't. It won't. I've seen it. People
come, people go. People jump on the bandwagon,
they act like they've got repentance, and before you know it, they're
gone. Why? Because God didn't give them
repentance. God gives you repentance, you're
secure. Let me show you that. Look at
Romans chapter 11. at verse 28, for the gifts and the calling
of God are without repentance. The gifts and the calling of
God are without repentance. If God has gifted you with the
gift of repentance, if he's gifted you with faith, he's not gonna
repent of that. It came from God. They shall
all be taught of God. If God's taught us, nobody can
unteach us. If what you have learned you
only learn from a man, another man can talk you out of it. But
if God's taught you, it's secure. You can't not believe. You can't not repent. I know
it's a double negative, but you get my point. You can't do it. What is the result of repentance
in our text? Life. Life. When those Jews heard
the gospel from Peter on the day of Pentecost and they were
cut to their heart and they said, men, what must we do? Peter said,
repent therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted
out when the time refreshing shall come from the presence
of the Lord. Repent therefore and be converted. Oh Lord, give
me repentance. It is grace that would cause
us to see our need for repentance. Can you, can you prostrate yourself
before God Almighty and say, God, give me a new heart. Most people don't want a new
heart. No, I want control of my own heart. I don't want somebody else calling
the shots for me. I'll not have that man reign
over me. I'm gonna do it my way. Acts chapter 2 verse 37. Repent
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of your sins and you shall receive the Holy
Ghost. Now people read that and they
say, well if I repent then it'll result in the forgiveness of
my sins. No. I've used this illustration before.
If you saw a poster that said Jesse James is wanted for robbery,
you could come to one of two conclusions. We're looking for
Jesse James so that we can hire him to perform a robbery. Or Jesse James is wanted for
a robbery that he's already committed. You know the latter is what it
means, right? So when God says repent and be
baptized, every one of you for the remission of your sins, the remission of your sins is
what causes one to believe and repent and be baptized. The scripture says, except you
repent, you shall all Likewise, perish. Repentance is necessary, absolutely
necessary for salvation. And like everything else that
is necessary for salvation, we do not have it in ourselves. God must provide it. Lord. Change my mind, change my heart,
give me a spirit of repentance so that I can be. In agreement
with you. Our Heavenly Father bless your
word to our hearts. Forgive us for our sin. We ask
it in Christ name. Amen. Number 9 in the spiral him. Now
let's stand together number 9. you