We have, for the most part, been
going through 1 Timothy for our Bible study and Matthew for our
morning message, but I felt led to swap them today. I don't really know why, I just
did. So turn with me if you would
to Matthew 21. I felt like this was a Bible
study and I believe you'll see why, but I also feel like the
other one's a Bible study. We're going to have two Bible
studies today. And I pray the Lord will bless it. We're going to pick up with verse
28. Our Lord is. Preaching in the temple this
particular week of his crucifixion. And he is preaching parables
to the people. He, he would retire in the evening
to Bethany and come back to Jerusalem the next morning. And he would
preach all day in the temple. And we're going to see, as we
continue to go through this, he's preaching many parables
to the people. He's setting forth questions
to the Pharisees. And he's being very clear on
the truth of the matter. We're gonna realize that here
in this final moment, he's just being so, so clear on the truth
of the matter. In verse 28, he said, but what
think ye? He is speaking to the chief priests
and the elders of false religion. That's who he's talking to. The
chief priest and the elders of false religion. And they just
asked him a question. We looked at it last time we
were in Matthew. They just asked him a question. They said, what
authority do you have to do what you're doing? By what authority
do you do these things? What authority do you have to
do what you're doing? And he's about to tell them.
You don't have any authority to do what you are doing. You are priests and elders of
the temple and he's going to tell them you don't even know
God. That's basically what he said
to Nicodemus. Are you a ruler of the Jews and you don't know
these things? You're priests and elders in the temple and
you don't even know God. And he's about to tell them right
now, you're going to die in your sins. Boy, that's stark, isn't
it? Look right here at verse 28.
He said, but what think ye? A certain man had two sons. And he came to the first and
said, son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and said,
I will not. But afterward he repented and
went. And he came to the second and
said, likewise, and he answered and said, I go, sir. Yes, sir. And went not. Whether of them
Twain did the will of his father, they say unto him, these priests
and Pharisees, they said unto the Lord, the first, Jesus saith
unto them, verily I say unto you that the publicans and the
harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. That's amazing,
isn't it? to be really crude about it,
the mafia and the prostitutes. That's amazing, isn't it? Verse 31, whether of them
Twain did the will of his father, they say unto him the first,
Jesus saith unto them, verily I say unto you that the publicans
and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came
unto you in the way of righteousness, and you believed him not. But
the publicans and the harlots believed him. And you, when you
had seen it, repented not afterward that you might believe him. Our
Lord said in his story, in his question to them, by way of this
story. He said, there was a man who
had two sons and he said to both of them, go work in my vineyard. One said, no, I'm not going to
do it. But he repented and he went. The other one said, I will go.
But he didn't go. One acknowledges sin. No, I'm not doing it. One acknowledges
sin, but ended up in righteousness. The other one claimed righteousness,
but ended up in sin. And our Lord said to those Pharisees,
that's how it's going to be for you. That's how it's going to
be for you. You are going to watch men and
women who were absolute sinners on this earth enter into glory
because they received repentance. He said, but you yourselves are
not going to enter in. And it's because there's no repentance
in you. No repentance. Verse 32, for
John came unto you in the way of righteousness and you believed
him not. But the publicans and the harlots
believed him. And you, when you had seen it,
repented not afterward that you might believe him. Our subject
for this is repentance. We are going to look at the subject
of repentance. A brother here just recently
brought a message to us on repentance, and it was outstanding. If you
haven't listened to it, I would very much encourage you to listen
to it. But this is the next subject matter we've come to, so we're
going to look at it again. And I believe you will see, I
just want to do a Bible study. My prayer is that this will be
as simple as possible, that we will hound a point and then we'll
be done, okay? Verse 28, but what think ye?
A certain man had two sons, and he came to the first and said,
son, go work today in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will
not. But afterward, he repented. And when? Afterward, he repented. What is repentance? You hear that word a lot. You
hear that word a lot. Our Lord, when he began to preach,
The first thing he said was, repent. At that same time, the Lord Jesus
began to preach and to say, repent. When John the Baptist started
preaching, his message was, repent. Repent. You see men get up in
pulpits and grip their teeth and scream at the top of their
lungs at people. Repent. Repent. What is repentance? The word repent has a few different
definitions and a few different meanings throughout the scripture.
When you look at a word in a concordance, it gives you the original definition
of the word. And sometimes it can say repent
in this place, repent in another place. And it has two different
definitions. And five or six different definitions.
But right here, the word means to care afterward. The word means
regret. That's what the word means, regret. Sometimes it means to breathe
heavily, to sigh, to console oneself. Sometimes it literally means
to turn from. But if we want to get to the heart
of what the word Repentance means, this is the simplest way that
I know to give it. All of the definitions relate
to this right here. They all relate to this. True
repentance is a changed mind on what saves us. That's what
repentance is. A changed mind on what saves
us. That's the clearest and simplest
way that I know to say it. Many people hear the word repentance
and they think they know what it means. But most people don't. So I wanna go through the word
and see if the word itself will help us truly understand what
repentance is. And again, this is why I felt
led to make this a Bible study. We're about to study the Bible,
okay? We're gonna turn, I'm gonna let the word speak, and we're
gonna let it tell us what repentance is. Go with me to Mark chapter
one. Mark 1 verse 4 says, John did baptize in the wilderness
and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. John
preached repentance for the remission of sins as opposed to what the
Jews thought would remit sins. obedience to the law. All right,
that's what false religion believes will remit sins. Obedience to
the law. Remit means take away. Remission. You know, if someone has cancer
and then the cancer goes away, they say the person is in remission.
It's gone, taken away. Well, John preached a different
way. A changed mind from what the
Jews thought was remission, removal of sin. And that way was not law, but
blood. That's what the way was. Not law, but blood. It was not immersion into the
law. Every time you see the word baptized,
it means immersion. Plunged into. Not the law. That's what people think. If I want to be saved and get
rid of my sins and wipe my slate clean, I better dive head first
into that law. Not the law. Immersion into the
blood. Immersion into the blood. John's
preaching brought a changed mind to people about that. They listened
to him. And after they listened to him,
they had a changed mind about it. A changed mind on what actually
saves us. A changed mind on remission.
All right, look at Mark 2. Verse 17. Mark chapter 2, verse
17. When Jesus heard it, He saith
unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician. but they that are sick. I came
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Sinners
to repentance, not the righteous to repentance. Sinners. What that tells us is righteousness
is not what repentance is. Going from being a sinner in
the flesh to being righteous in the flesh is not what repentance
is. Achieving righteousness, that's
not what repentance is. A sinner will always be a sinner. A sinner will always be a sinner.
A dog will always be a dog and a sinner will always be a sinner. I wrote some stuff here that
I'm not going to say, but I'll say this. I don't care what a
center identifies as. Okay. People can say, well, I don't
identify as a center. Well, guess what? You're still
a center. I don't care what you identify
as. I don't care what I identify as. Centers are always going
to be centers. They're always going to be centers.
Repentance is not the ability to no longer sin. People get
up and say repent, repent of your sins. A sinner is always going to be
a sinner. When that command repent goes
out, that command is not saying stop sinning. That's not what
it's saying. If a man says that he has no
sin, he is calling God a liar. Oh, the pride and the self-righteousness
that is in a man or a woman who thinks he or she has overcome
sin. What pride? What self-righteousness? Also known as sin. True repentance is not the ability
to stop sinning. It is a changed mind on what
redeems us from the sin that we cannot stop committing. That's
what it is. True repentance is not the ability
to finally start obeying the law. It is turning from the law
to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what repentance is. True
repentance is the realization. I can't redeem myself. Everyone's trying to redeem themselves. True repentance says, I cannot
redeem myself. Only Christ can redeem me. That's
repentance. Look with me at Luke 24. Luke chapter 24. Verse 44 says, and he said unto them, these
are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you,
that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law
of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms concerning
me. Then opened he their understanding that they might understand the
scriptures. I pray God will do that for us.
All of those years they had the scriptures, they had the laws,
they had the commandments, they had the ceremonies, they had
all those things. Then he opened their understanding,
that they might understand the scriptures, verse 46, and said
unto them, thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to
suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. and that repentance
and remission of sins should be preached in His name among
all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." Repentance in His name. Remission
in His name. What's His name? Savior. Savior. He is the Savior. I'm not the Savior. That's repentance. He's the Savior. He's the Savior. I'm going to
go quickly through a few here. You can listen or turn with me,
okay? But let me tell you what I'm
going to do. I'm going to say the same thing over and over again. We're
going to try to prove the same point. Go to Acts 11. Peter is speaking to the Jews
here concerning the Gentiles. Peter went and preached to the
Gentiles, preached the gospel to the Gentiles. And the Jews
were confused saying, why would you do that? You know, God has
a particular people and why would you go to the Gentiles? Well,
Acts chapter 11 verse 17, Peter said, for as much then as God
gave them the like gift as he did unto us. who believed on
the Lord Jesus Christ. What was I that I could withstand
God? He said, I preached to them and
they believed it. They received the same gift we
believe. Verse 18, when they heard these things, when the
Jews heard these things, they held their peace and glorified
God saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance
unto life. Repentance is believing on Christ. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
No longer believing on ourselves. That's where all of mankind starts
out in this world. Looking to self. Believing on
self. no longer looking to ourselves
and believing on Christ. Believing on Christ is unto life. Repentance unto life. Look at
Acts 19. Verse four, Acts 19, verse four. Then said Paul, John verily baptized
with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they
should believe on him which should come after him. That is on Christ
Jesus. Repentance is believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ. Not the law, Christ. Look at Acts 20 verse 21. Acts 20 verse 21, testifying both to the Jews and
also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our
Lord Jesus Christ. Saying the same thing. It's turning
from everything to God, to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. All
right, go with me to Romans 2. Romans 2 verse 4 it says, Or despisest thou the riches
of his goodness, and forbearance, and longsuffering? not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance." How does
repentance come to us? You know, this commandment is
repent, and people think, I need to repent. How does repentance
come to us? Here's the answer. It is a gift
from God. Just like faith is a gift from
God, people think, I need faith, I better get faith. Well, that
is a gift from God. And He gives it to whoever He
is purposed and pleased to give it to. The goodness of God leads
His people to repentance. It's His goodness that He would
lead anybody to repentance. And it's also true that it is
His goodness that they fall in love with. The goodness of God.
The mercy, the kindness, the grace, that's what leads His
people to repentance. So it's not just like faith.
It's not of ourselves. It's not something we can decide
to do. I think I'll repent. That's not how it works. We don't
make the decision to do it. God has to lead us to it. In
his kindness, in his goodness, it is a gift from him. And I'll
just quote this one to you, Romans 11, 29 says, the gifts and calling
of God are without repentance. Whenever he gives it, he will
not take it back. Any gift that he gives, if he
gives it, it's ours forever. He won't take it back. If he
truly gives us repentance, if he truly gives us his new mind,
He will not take it back. I've heard it said before, one
man made the statement to a congregation, you who believe, who truly believe
on Christ, see if it's possible for you to not believe on Him.
Just see if it's possible for you to not cast your all on Him.
You who have been caused to truly look to Him, it's just not a
possibility. He will not take it back. That's
good news. He never changes his mind. The
gifts and calling of God are without. He never changes his
mind on it. God does not change. Now, there is an experience that
goes with repentance. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
7. And we're almost done. 2 Corinthians 7. There is an experience that goes
with repentance. The truth of the word that Paul
wrote to the Corinthians, it cut to their heart deeply. It convicted them and it brought
sorrow to them. If you've ever read the book
of Corinthians, Paul dealt pretty harshly with the Corinthians
and it cut them deeply. And it says in verse nine, Paul
said to them, second Corinthians seven, verse nine. Now I rejoice. Not that you were made sorry,
but that you sorrowed to repentance or you were made sorry after
a godly manner. that you might receive damage
by us in nothing, that no harm would come to you. There's a
lot of sorrow that comes with this changed mind of repentance. Number one, there is sorrow over
truly seeing ourselves. When a changed mind comes, everybody
thinks that there's a little bit of good in everybody. And
when this changed mind comes, people realize there's not a
bit of good in anybody. And before the changed mind comes,
people think, for the most part, they do good things. And then
when the changed mind comes, people see that everything they
do is absolute sin. It's absolute wickedness. Even
their goodness is just drowning in bad motive and their heart
is only evil continually and their mind, they can't stop their
mind from wickedness. It's a realization over self,
really, for the first time. And that brings sorrow. Sorrow
comes over not glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ for the high
and holy God that he is. Not seeing him as he is. Sorrow comes over living in false
religion, promoting false religion for however long the Lord let
us be in it. That sorrow makes us loathe ourselves. The longer
that a believer goes, the more he will hate his own flesh or
her own flesh. Growth and maturity in these
things is down. It is down. It is down. It brings a sorrow and it leaves
us with nowhere to turn but to Christ our Savior. It leaves
us, that sorrow leaves us with nowhere to turn but Christ our
hope and Christ our mercy and Christ our salvation. And that's
a good thing. When the Lord brings us there,
that sorrow is a good thing. Verse nine, Paul said, 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 in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance
to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world
worketh death. So the sorrow that comes from
this changed mind that God gives to his people, that's a good
thing. All right, I'm going to stop.
So let me just tell you what the rest of them are. Hebrews
6.1 says, Repentance is going from dead works to faith toward
God. Repentance is going from law
to grace. This is the same thing we've
been saying since we started. Works to grace, that's repentance. And people think that it is a,
people think it's, you know, you need to repent. Where is
repentance? People think that's just being sorry, feeling sorry.
Esau, it says in Hebrews 12, Esau sold his birthright to Jacob
and he lost his inheritance. And he tried to get it back with
tears, with great crying and tears, but he just could not
find repentance. He could not find a changed mind
about this. He could not get past his own
works and his own worthiness and his own, God's people can. He could not get past saying,
I deserve this, but I deserve this. You gave it to him, but
I deserve this. God's people can. God's people
will say, Lord, if you do not choose me, you are right in doing
so. God's people will say, Lord,
if you judge me in my sin, you are right in doing so. That's
repentance. The last one is second, don't
turn, 2 Peter 3 verse 9. It says, the Lord is not slack
concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering
to us. We're not willing that any should
perish, but all should come to repentance. Every single child
of God will receive this new mind. Every, all. All. Every, they shall all be
told of God. Every child of God. Our Lord
told those Pharisees in our text, He said, because you are clinging
to your own works and you are not pleading the blood of Christ
alone, you're not going to enter into glory. The gift of repentance and faith
toward Jesus Christ, it is so critical. I pray God will give
it to us. I pray God will give it to us. I pray He will say
to every soul here, in love and kindness and mercy, repent. I pray He will say to every soul
here, Here, here is repentance. Turn from your works to the blood
of Christ alone and live.