Let's turn to Matthew chapter
5. I'm sorry, Matthew chapter 3. Let's read these verses down
to verse 12. In those days came John the Baptist,
preaching in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, Repent ye,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that
was spoken of by the prophet Isaiah, saying, The voice of
one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord,
make his paths straight. And the same John had his raiment
of camel's hair and a leather girdle about his loins and his
meat was locusts and wild honey. Nothing about him that was appealing
to draw men to him. But then went out to him Jerusalem
and all Judea and all the region round about Jordan and were baptized
of him in Jordan confessing their sins. But when he saw many of
the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto
them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from
the wrath to come? Bring forth therefore fruits
meet for repentance. Bring forth some works that manifest
you have genuine true repentance. And think not to say within yourselves,
we have Abraham to our father. For I say unto you that God is
able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And
now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees. Therefore
every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down
and cast into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water
unto repentance. But he that cometh after me is
mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear. He shall
baptize you with the Holy Ghost and fire." That's speaking of
Christ. It says, "...whose fan is in
his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor." He will thoroughly
purge his floor and gather his wheat, his true children, into
the garner. but he will burn up the chaff
with unquenchable fire." Now, John the Baptist was sent to
prepare the way of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he was sent
to do. And the message that he was sent
to do that with was the message of repentance. He came preaching
repentance. The Pharisees and the Sadducees
came to him and they represent everybody in false religion. The Pharisees believed that salvation,
they were justified by the works of the law. They believed that's
how man was made righteous, by keeping the law. And John the
Baptist came preaching repentance. He came declaring, repent from
that false notion that you're justified by the works of the
law. Commanding a change of mind. That's what repentance is. A
change of mind. A change of the way you think
about how God saves. And commanded them to believe
on Christ. The Sadducees, they believed there was no resurrection
from the dead, but just as bad as that, they believed salvation
was by the will of man. They believed that you could
be born again by your will. They believed it was by your
will that you could do what you wanted to do. God commanded it,
and by your will you could do it. And John the Baptist came
preaching repentance, a change of mind from that false idea
that you can be saved by your will. Our will's in bondage to
our nature. Christ's people shall be willing
in the day of his power. He irresistibly draws us to him
and not we ourselves. And then most in Israel, almost
everybody in Israel expected that when the Messiah came he
was going to set up a temporal kingdom. It was an earthly kingdom.
And so everything they looked for in the scriptures When they
looked at the scriptures, they looked at them as being things
that would happen in this earth, and a temporal kingdom, and temporal
rulers being put down, and temporal enemies being put down, and a
temporal kingdom being set up, and a temporal throne being set
up. Everything was earthy, earthy,
earthy. That's what they studied. And John the Baptist and the
Lord Jesus Christ both came declaring, oh, the kingdom of God is at
hand. but it's the kingdom of heaven.
It's not the kingdom of this earth. The Lord Jesus Christ
said, my kingdom's not of this world. He said, if it was of
this world, my disciples would fight. John the Baptist saw new
Jerusalem, a new heavens, a new earth, made by God, created of
God, coming down out of heavens, adorned as a bride for her husband.
This is the true Jerusalem. This is the true kingdom of God.
This is the true church of God. And then all the others that
were there that weren't a member of the Pharisees or a member
of the Sadducees or just children of Israel, they were all living
wicked, open, wicked lives. believing that they weren't sinners,
that they didn't need to be turned from their sins, that they didn't
need God and salvation. And John the Baptist came telling
them, repent from that false idea and have a radical change
of mind. You need repentance. You are
a sinner. And the only way of salvation
is through Christ. This is what he came preaching.
Now when Christ himself began preaching, He preached repentance. We read in Matthew 4.17, it says,
From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent, for
the kingdom of heaven is at hand. repent that's what he said and
then Christ commanded all his preachers all his preachers when
they went out to preach he commanded them to preach repentance in
Luke 24 46 on those those men on the road to Emmaus the Lord
Jesus appeared to them after he had risen from the dead and
he said thus it is written and thus it behooves Christ to suffer
to rise from the dead the third day, and just as importantly,
just as necessary, that repentance and remission of sins, forgiveness
of sins, should be preached in His name among all nations beginning
at Jerusalem. It was to the Jew first and then
to the Gentile. God began at Israel. So after
He raised Christ from the dead and gave Him the glory of the
head of the church to fulfill all things, the first thing Christ
did was assemble His disciples at Jerusalem. And beginning at
Jerusalem, beginning in Israel, with that people in Israel, He
sent forth Peter to preach repentance. And Peter said in Acts 3.26,
let's look there, Acts 3.26, Peter said this, Acts 3.26, he said, unto you
first, speaking to the children of Israel, he said, unto you
first, God, having raised up his son Jesus, sent him to bless
you in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. That's
what repentance is, it's being turned from your iniquities. All of these things I just mentioned,
trusting in the works of your hands under the law, trusting
in your free will, living in wicked sin, believing that the
things God's going to establish is a temporal, earthly thing,
these are our iniquities. This is what God must turn us
from, from our iniquities. And then whenever Christ sent
Peter on the day of Pentecost, he stood up there in Acts 2.38,
and look what he preached, Acts 2.38. Then Peter said unto them,
Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus
Christ for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift
of the Holy Ghost." The Apostle Paul, when Christ sent him forth
to preach, he sent him forth to preach to the Gentiles. He
sent him forth to preach repentance. Paul said, testifying both to
the Jews and also to the Greeks, to the Gentiles, Repentance toward
God. That's what repentance is. Turning
from your vain way, your vain thoughts to God. Repentance toward
God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, according
to God, according to Christ who is God our Savior, according
to the Holy Spirit, according to the Holy Scriptures, repentance
is of utmost importance. It's of utmost importance. That's
our subject tonight. Why preach repentance? Why preach repentance? Here's
why we preach repentance. We preach repentance because
through the gospel the triune God grants repentance. Turning the mind and heart of
His elect from every false way to God. To faith in Christ who
is the only way of salvation. That's why we preach repentance.
Now, first of all, we preach repentance because repentance,
like faith, is a gift that God must give. It's a gift that God
must give. Apart from God's work of grace
in our hearts, a sinner cannot do anything. We can do nothing. We can do absolutely nothing.
Whatever God commands us to do, we're totally unable to do it.
We're completely unable to do it. We're responsible to do it,
but we have no ability to do it. And our inability doesn't
negate our responsibility. We're still responsible to do
it. By nature we love sin and we hate God. By nature we love
to be right and we hate to be wrong. And so, rather than be
wrong, and confess we're wrong, and repent from our wrong, we'll
stiffen up our neck, we'll hold on to our wrong, and traditions
of men, traditions of churches, whatever it is, we'll hold on
to that, and reject God, and reject His truth, and reject
His word. Christ said, without me, you
can do nothing. So, we cannot repent, we cannot
believe on Christ, unless Christ grants us repentance and faith. It's an impossibility. Christ
said that the sinner's enmity is so great, He said that if
a sinner refuses to hear the Scriptures, He will not repent
even if a man came out of hell from the dead and came to him
and said, you don't want to go to that place. Repent. He said
he still won't repent. He still won't repent. Look at
Luke 16. Luke 16. This is Christ telling the the
account of the rich man who went to hell. And he says there in
verse 27, the rich man said, I pray thee therefore father,
he's speaking to Abraham, and he says, that thou wouldest send
Lazarus to my father's house. For I have five brothers, that
he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place
of torment. Now watch this, Abraham saith
unto him, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. They have these scriptures right
here that you have. He says, let them hear them.
And he says, And he said, Nay, father Abraham, but if one went
unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto
him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they
be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. Now that is a
hard heart. That is a hard heart. I'm showing
you the scriptures. I'm going to show you tonight
the scriptures. And I'm going to show you in the scriptures
what God says. Now Christ said there, If a man
won't hear the scriptures, he won't hear even if a man came
out of hell and told him these things himself. Will you hear
the Scriptures? Will you deny God? Will you deny
the Scriptures? This is what Christ said. Christ
said He began to upbraid the cities where most of His works
were done because they repented not. Now, if repentance wasn't
important, if repentance wasn't necessary, do you think Christ
would have done that? He upbraided them because they
repented not. And he told them it'll be more
because the gospel had been preached in their midst and because they
had heard it. He told them it'll be more tolerable
for Sodom and for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for
you. That would be like saying, it's the same as saying it would
be more tolerable for Sodomites, for homosexuals, than it will
for you who have heard this gospel and repented not. That's God's
Word. So this is a serious thing, isn't
it? It's a serious matter to hear God and repent. But thanks
be unto God. Thanks be unto God. He promised
Christ. He promised Christ. And He exalted
Christ, the God-man, to be the Lord and Savior. And He gave
Him all power and all authority and all glory in our human nature. He exalted Him. to give repentance
and to give forgiveness of sins to all his elect children. God
did that in Acts 5.30. If you want to look there, Acts
5.30. Now listen to this. I want you
to just look at this now. In Acts 5.30, Peter preached
and he said, the God of our fathers, he said in that verse prior to
there, we ought to obey God rather than men. That is the truth now. We're going to obey God or we're
going to obey men. Now look at this. The God of our fathers
raised up Jesus whom you slew and hanged on a tree. Him hath
God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior. A prince and a savior for to
give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sin. Christ is
the prince. He's the prince of peace. He's
the captain of our salvation. If we have peace with God, it's
going to be because Christ worked it. If we have peace in our hearts
with God, it's going to be because Christ worked it. He's the Prince. He's the Lord. He's the head
over all things to His church with all power over all. And
He's the Savior of His body, His church. And He fills all
in all. In every one of His elect children,
He's the one that fills us. with repentance, with faith,
with all fruits of righteousness, they're all by Him. He does this
to the glory of God. Now God exalted Christ for Christ
to give God's elect Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins. That's
what God raised Him for. It's His glory to do it. It's
God's glory to do it. Do you think Christ is going
to fail to do that? God exalted Him to give repentance. to his people. Do you think Christ
will fail? There's no possibility. There's
no remote possibility that he'll fail to do that. Now if we say
that a man that dies with no repentance, no faith in Christ,
can still be with God in glory, what we're saying is Christ failed
to give him repentance. That's what God raised him for,
to give repentance. To give repentance. The preacher
can't do it. All the preacher can do is declare
the truth. Preach this truth. That's all we can do. We must
wait on Christ to purge the conscience from dead works and to make us
to serve the true and living God. Paul told Timothy, he said,
The servant of the Lord must not strive, but be gentle unto
all men, apt to teach, patient in meekness, instructing those
that oppose themselves. if God, peradventure, will give
them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. And so that's why
God's preachers don't resort to idolatrous games. I don't
try to talk you into coming down an aisle and coming to me between
you and God because I'm not your high priest. You have one high
priest. That's Christ. I urge you to
flee to Him. I don't try to lord over you
and persuade you into a vain show of repentance because you
have one master and he's able to make his children stand. I
don't try to talk you into coming to me and now let me help you
pray through and get you through all this so we can get you now
repented and believe in God because I'm not your counselor. We have
one counselor. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
God's preachers don't engage in these gimmicks. We just preach
Christ and we wait on Christ to do the work because He's the
one who grants repentance. That's what He's raised for.
Now sinner, listen to me. If you oppose the truth of God,
you're only opposing yourself. If you oppose the truth of God,
I'm not against you, your brethren are not against you, your mothers
and fathers who believe the gospel are not against you, no believers
against you. You're against yourself. If you reject God's truth, you
oppose yourself. That's what he said. You've got
to be patient teaching those who oppose themselves. Jonah
said, They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. Anything but the truth of Christ
is a lying vanity. And to observe a lying vanity
and trust in a lying vanity is to forsake your own mercy. If
you trust it in your will, if you trust in your works, if you
trust it in some vain doctrine, if God gives you repentance to
make you see that this is a lie that you're holding in your hand,
Then repent. Turn loose of it. Let go of it.
Turn from it with a new mind and a new heart to God and believe
on Him. And the fact is, if He's given
you repentance, that's exactly what we'll do. That's what we'll
do. He does this by the Holy Spirit regenerating the dead
sinner, by the presence of the Lord entering in. This is how
we're converted. And when He does this, this is
when He makes us to know our sins have been blotted out and
we have forgiveness with God. Look at Acts 3. Acts 3, and look
at verse 19. Acts 3, 19. Repent ye therefore, and be converted,
that your sins may be blotted out. Now when's a sinner going
to do so? when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence
of the Lord. You remember the child cast out
in the field, polluted in his own blood? That's a picture of
an unregenerate sinner. An aborted child thrown out in
the field, left there to die. That's what an unregenerate sinner
is, a dead sinner left in his own blood, polluted in his own
blood. But the scripture says, when I passed by thee, God said,
when I passed by thee and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was
the time of love. Thy time was the time of love.
And I spread my skirt over thee, and I covered thy nakedness,
and I swore unto thee and entered into a covenant with thee, saith
the Lord God, and thou becameest mine. That's a time of refreshing. When Christ does that, when he
comes near and he looks upon you, and he spreads his garment
of righteousness over you, and covers your nakedness, and enters
into covenant with you, and says, you're my child, and I'll never
leave you to do you good, and I'll never let you forsake me.
That's when a man has been brought to repentance. Now, that brings
us to the second point. First, we preach Christ's repentance
because Christ must give it. He must give it. And secondly,
we preach repentance because God has appointed a time. He's
appointed a time when Christ shall pass by each elect child
and work His work in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. He has
appointed a time. It's called thy time of love. Now look at Romans 9. I'm going
to show you some things that we saw last week, but we're going
to go a little further with these things. And we'll see something
else about this now. Now you know that we have in
Ephesians chapter 1, we have seen this. God predestinated
His children to the adoption of children. God appointed a
time. When His child would hear the
gospel and the Spirit of God would quicken us, regenerate
us, Christ would grant us repentance and we'd believe the gospel.
The scripture says, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will.
And verse 11 says, predestinated according to the purpose of Him
who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.
Whatever God determined to do by His will, God does that. You
know that. Whatever God's purpose to do,
God does it. He's not frustrated in bringing
His will to pass. He predestinated each of His
children to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself. And
now, we saw last week that God, the promises God made to Abraham,
He made to Christ. In Galatians 3.16, to Abraham
and his seed were the promises made. And he said, not unto seeds
as of many, but as of one unto thy seed, which is Christ. What
God promised Abraham, he promised Christ. Now Romans 9.9, we saw
this last week, but I want you to see this and then we're going
to go to Galatians 4. Look at Romans 9.9. This is the
word of promise. Here's what God promised Abraham,
this is what God promised Christ. At this time will I come and
Sarah shall have a son. What does that mean? What does
that mean? Go to Galatians 4. Go to Galatians 4. Now did you
read your bulletin on Sunday? You'll be familiar with this
if you did. Look at Galatians 4. Galatians 4. This is an allegory. An allegory,
it's an earthly picture that shows us heavenly things. Heavenly
things. Now Sarah is a type of the mother. She was a mother of Isaac. So
she's a type of the mother which is the church of God. Jerusalem
which is above, the kingdom of heaven. That's who she's a picture
of. And every elect child of promise
shall be born again according to God's everlasting covenant
promise which he made to Christ. Now Isaac is a type of God's
elect. Isaac is the child of promise. He was born free. We're born
free when we're born again according to God's promise. Now let's read
Galatians 4 beginning in verse 22. It is written that Abraham
had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a free woman. They
had two different mothers. Verse 23, But he who was of the
bondwoman was born after the flesh. You got that? He was born after the flesh.
But he of the free woman was by promise. God told Sarah, at
this time will I come And Sarah shall have a son. This son was
born by promise. Which things are in allegory?
For these are the two covenants. The one from Mount Sinai, which
genders to bondage, which is Hagar. That's who Hagar represented.
She's the bondwoman. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia. That's who she pictures. And
answereth to, she pictures Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage
with her children. Here's what he's saying. Hagar
is a picture of Jerusalem in the earth. Right now in Jerusalem,
the children of natural sons of Abraham are trying to come
to God by sacrificing. by works of their hands, by obeying
the law of Moses. And so are many people in America
that think that they're saved by the works of their hands.
It's a picture of an unregenerate child who's born of the flesh,
who thinks he's born of God, but he's born of the flesh and
he's trying to come to God by the works of his hands. That's
who Hagar pictured. Alright, now look at verse 26.
But Sarah, But Jerusalem, this is who Sarah
answers to, Jerusalem which is above is free which is the mother
of us all. Sarah was a mother. So she pictures
Jerusalem above, the church of God, the kingdom of God. All
God's born again children of promise are born through the
church. They're born through hearing the gospel which is delivered
by the church of God, the mother. Alright, verse 27. For it is
written, for it is written, now let me tell you where this is
written. We saw Sunday in Isaiah 53 how the Lord Jesus suffered.
We saw how He went to the cross and He took the sins of His people
and He laid down His life and He put away the sins of His people
by offering Himself. And the end of Isaiah 53 says,
God was pleased, satisfied, justice was satisfied, He raised Him
from the dead, He shall see of the travail of His soul and be
satisfied. By His knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many. He's going to divide the spoiled
with the strong. He's going to bring this good
news to His people. He's going to birth His children
again. He's going to give them repentance.
He's going to give them faith. He's going to bring them to see
all of these things. And so Isaiah 54 opens up with
this word right here that Paul gives. Rejoice thou barren that
bearest not. Sarah couldn't have a child.
That's a picture of us, brethren. We couldn't bear We couldn't
have a life in us. We could have no fruit. We couldn't
make it ourselves. And it says, "...break forth
and cry, Thou that travailest not." We didn't travail. Christ
travailed for us. And it says, "...for the desolate."
That's what we were, desolate. had many more children than she
which has a husband." Those who are the true church of God, this
is the description of us. We were desolate, we were barren,
we couldn't bring forth children. But we've got the true church
of God has many more children than the false church who's trying
to come to God by their works. Because we've been born of promise
by God. Now look here, verse 28. Now
we brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. Children
of promise. Children of promise. But as then,
he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born
after the Spirit, even so it is now. You see they're born
after the Spirit? That's what he's saying. We,
brethren, as Isaac was, we're born after the Spirit of God.
We've been born again. We're children of promise. Because
God said, at this time, I'll come and they'll be born again.
by my Spirit. And so we're children of promise.
We did nothing to bring ourselves into this free salvation. We're children of the free woman.
We're children of grace. He's made His everlasting covenant
of grace in our heart. Now He appointed the time when
He would do that. And He did it at the appointed
time because He promised Christ He would. Now look at Galatians 4 in verse 4. This is so important. Let me
tell you why this is so important. It's so important because to
deny this promise, to deny the fact that God's going to rebirth
all his children, it's to deny the very reason why Christ redeemed
us, brethren. is to deny the very reason Christ
redeemed us. God the Father gave Christ this
promise, that you go and redeem them from the curse of the law.
You go and be made a curse for them, redeem them from the curse
of the law, and I promise you, at the appointed time, I will
give every one of them spiritual life, repentance and faith to
believe upon you. I promise you I'll do that. That
was God's promise to Christ. And look at this, verse 4. When
the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. That's why Christ did it. And
because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His
Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father, wherefore thou
art no more a servant but a son, and if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ." Do you see that God promised this? Now turn
to 2 Peter chapter 3. 2 Peter chapter 3. Here's why we preach repentance. We preach repentance because
we believe God's promise. We believe God shall not destroy
this world. Christ shall not return and God
shall not destroy this world until God has made good on that
promise to Christ and has called the last elect redeemed child
to repentance. Look at here, 2 Peter 3, 7. The
heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept
in store. By God's promise they're held
in store. Reserved unto fire against the
day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. God is going
to burn this world up and everything in it. Now look at this. But
beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day with
the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years is one day.
The Lord is not slack concerning His promise. He's not slack concerning
His promise. This is the word of promise.
At this time I'll come and Sarah shall have a son. At this time
I'll come and they shall be born of me and brought to repentance.
And Christ, the promise of Christ returning, which the scripture
speaks of here, shall not happen until that last child is called
out. Now, read on. The Lord's not slack concerning
His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering
to usward, to the elect children of promise, not willing that
any elect child of promise should perish, but that all should come
to repentance. You see that? God promised Christ. God predestinated each one unto
the adoption of children. God has spoken it through all
the prophets. He's spoken it to us. He's promised
it to us, the mother of the church, that He's going to do this. God's
going to do it. That's why He says, therefore,
in verse 15, verse 15, "...account that the longsuffering of our
Lord is salvation." Now watch this, all those scriptures I
just pointed out to you, you know who God used to write them?
Paul. God used Paul to write those
scriptures. And he says here in verse 15, you can count on
it that the long-suffering eye of our Lord shall terminate in
salvation even as our beloved brother Paul also according to
the wisdom given unto him hath written unto you as also in all
his epistles speaking in them of these things, in which are
some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned
and unstable wrestle, as they do also the other scriptures,
unto their own destruction." They try to deny these things.
But this is so, brethren. Now, God promised it, God's going
to do it. Now, can you rejoice in that
or do you rejoice to know that God is going to bring every one
of His children to repentance? Or, despises now the riches of
His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance." We're on
one side of the fence or the other. Either we're rejoicing
to know God's going to lead them all to repentance and we're accounting
that the longsuffering of God is salvation or we despise this
goodness and we say, I don't believe they're going to be saved.
I don't believe they're all going to be called. I don't believe
they have to. Thirdly, that brings us to the third point. We preach
repentance because repentance is absolutely necessary for a
sinner to be saved. Absolutely necessary. Whatever
Jesus Christ preached and said was necessary, saying, except
ye, then you can bank on it, it's necessary. He said, of faith
Christ said, verily, verily, I say unto you, except you eat
the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no
life in you. And of repentance Christ said repeatedly, in Luke
13, 3 and 5, He said, Except ye repent, ye shall all perish. That's Christ, that's what He
said. Except you repent, you shall perish. That's why we preach
repentance. God sent us to give a general
call to all men to repent. Listen, Paul stood up in Athens
and he said, God commandeth all men everywhere to repent. turn
from your works, turn from your will, turn from your vain doctrine,
from your denomination's doctrine, and believe God's Word, because
He's appointed a day in which He's going to judge this world
in righteousness by that man, Christ Jesus, and He's giving
everybody an assurance of the fact by the fact He's raised
Him from the dead. That means, just like Sarah came
into the courtroom today and faced the judge, we're going
to come into the courtroom and face the judge. That's right. All of us are. And if we don't
have Christ as our advocate, our lawyer, standing between
us and God, saying, you keep your mouth shut, I'm doing the
talking, and He does the talking and represents us to God, we
don't have any possibility of being saved. So He says, repent
from every vain way and rest in Him. Believe Him, believe
Him, trust in His Word. Now, God elected a people, predestinated
them, foreordained them, that they hear the Gospel, that the
Holy Spirit give them life and that Christ give them repentance
and faith. God ordained that. That's why Paul thanked God.
He said, we thank God always for you, brethren, beloved of
the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation.
And He didn't leave it there. He says, "...through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you
by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus
Christ." All three persons get glory in this. God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And to deny the work
of one in this work of salvation is to deny the work of all of
them in this salvation. There are people who say if you're
elected unto salvation and Christ redeemed you, you don't have
to hear the gospel, you don't have to believe, you don't have
to repent, you'll be saved anyway. That's a lie! According to God's
Word, we should believe God and not men. So, if you're hearing
this, and God Himself, you hear God Himself speaking here, that's
who's speaking in this word we've been reading, and a man objects
because he's been taught by the tradition of men, by his denomination,
that it's not necessary for an elect child to hear the gospel,
to repent or to believe, then that person's in need of repentance.
They're in need of repentance. And a man will get mad and stiffen
up his neck, and it'll take God to break it. Take God to break
it. The doctrine that such a man
holds is a false doctrine to be repented of. To reject Christ's
doctrine, preferring the doctrines of men, is to reject Christ. So repent and believe on Christ. The Master declares repentance
is absolutely necessary, for without it you'll perish in your
sins. Now let me tell you something about this repentance. Look at
Philippians 3. Repentance. Remember those Sadducees
and Pharisees came and John said, Who warns you to flee from the
wrath to come? And he said, Bring forth fruits, meat for repentance.
And don't think to say that because Abraham's your father, you're
an elect child of God. He said, God's laid the axe to
the root of the trees now. They were willing to come and
profess Christ in believer's baptism as long as they could
hold to the belief that they were saved by something done
in their flesh. As long as they could hold on
to the fact that they thought they were children of God because
they were natural sons of Abraham. As long as they could hold to
the truth, to the fact, they thought they were saved by works
or by their will. If they could hold all of that
and be baptized and profess Christ, they'd do it. John said, no,
you can't do it. You have to renounce that. You
have to renounce that. The God a man believes saved
him is the God a man believes. The God that saves, the Christ
of this Bible, died for a particular people. He put away their sins.
He is risen as the head of the church. He sends His gospel.
He calls them by His gospel. He sends forth the Spirit and
regenerates them. He gives them repentance. He
gives them faith. He grows them in grace and knowledge
of Him. He keeps them all their days.
He raises us from the dead. He glorifies us with the Father.
And we reign with Him forever and ever. And all is by the work
of our Redeemer. And the Jesus that men preach,
that wants to and can't, that died for every man, even men
who are in hell right now, that God don't even resemble the true
and living God. I can't profess Christ and say
I believe Christ and I believe the truth of Christ, but say,
but I believe that other Jesus saved me. No, sir. You see, repentance is not professing
to believe Christ and true doctrine while claiming to have been saved
by that other Jesus. That's not repentance. It's not
repentance. Repentance is not simply believing
a false gospel and joining with God's people under the sound
of the true gospel. It is renouncing all our former hope, which we
once counted to be the truth, and resting in Christ. That's
true repentance. Now here it is. Paul did it.
Where are you going to have repentance? You're going to have works. This
is the work you're going to have accompanying with it that manifests
as genuine repentance. Verse 4, he says, Though I might
also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man think that he
hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more. And he gives
all those things he trusted in. But now here's true repentance.
Verse 7, But what things were gained to me, those I counted
lost for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but lost for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and to
count them but done, that I may win Christ and be found in Him,
not having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith, that I might know Him and the fellowship of
His suffering, being made conformable unto His death, if by any means
I might attain to the resurrection of the dead. Is it going to be
sorrowful whenever God works this work of repentance? If He
does, oh, it's going to cause a lot of sorrow. And you can't
run and try to soothe the sorrow even though you don't want to
see people sorrow needlessly. You cannot soothe the suffering
of this sorrow because godly sorrow work with repentance to
salvation not to be repented of. And so you let it work. You let God do what he's going
to do and stay out of the way. Stay out of the way. But if you
are sorry, do enter into sorrow, because remember the words of
God our Savior. As many as I love, I rebuke and
chasten. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Amen.