Go back with me to Mark chapter
6. I want to begin this message with
a couple of questions. And here's the first one. Does God change? I think that's a great question. Does God change? Has He changed?
You know, He has no beginning. Try to dwell on that. I mean,
you can't. He has no beginning. He has no
end. No end. But over the course of time,
has He changed? In Malachi 3 verse 6, he said,
I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore. You sons of Jacob. Are not concerned. So no, God
does not change. But let me ask you this question.
Has his message changed? His message. What he has to say
to men and women throughout time, has it changed? Back in the fifties,
he had one thing to say. What about today? Well, look right here in Mark
six, look at verse seven. And he called unto him the 12
and began to send them forth by two and two and gave them
power over unclean spirits. Now look at verse 12. And they
went out and preached that men should repent. Repent. That's what they went
out and preached. That was God's message while
the Lord was on this earth. Look at Matthew 4 with me. Matthew 4 verse 17 says, From
that time Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand. That was God's message while
he was on this earth. That was also his message before
he was on this earth. Now I'm going to have you turn
to a few scriptures so you can just listen to some of these
if you want to. But over in Ezekiel 14 you can turn or listen. In Ezekiel 14 it says in verse
6 Therefore say unto the house
of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, repent and turn. If you're looking at
it with me, you'll see that yourselves is in italics. He didn't say
turn yourselves. He said turn from your idols
and turn away your faces from all your abominations. So that
was his message before he came. That was his message while he
was here and it was his message after he left the earth and ascended
back up to heaven. Go with me over to Acts chapter
2. Acts chapter 2 verse 37 says, Now when they heard this, they
were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest
of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter
said unto them, repent, 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. Now, just listen,
this is the last book in our Lord's book, okay? Revelation chapter 2 verse 12
says, to the angel or the pastor of the church at Pergamos, write,
these things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges.
Verse 16, he said, repent. or else I will come unto thee
quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth."
The message of repentance is his message. It has always been
his message. It will always be his message.
Repent. Our Lord said in Luke 13, except
ye repent, you shall all likewise perish. That's serious, isn't
it? So we all must repent. We all must repent. But if we're going to do that,
if we are truly going to do that, we must understand what the word
repent means. If we're really going to repent,
we must understand what the word repent means. How can we repent? if we don't really know what
the word repent means. How can we do that? It is so
vital that we understand the truth concerning repentance.
Now, here's what I want to do. I want us to, in our text, see
what our Lord had to say leading up to this, and then I want us
to find out this morning what is repentance. All right? Go
with me back over to Mark 6. Verse 7 says, And he called unto
him the twelve, that's the twelve apostles, and began to send them
forth by two and two, and gave them power over unclean spirits. I just thought about that scene
for just a minute, how precious that is. He sent them out two
by two. Two by two. It is so good when the gospel
goes out. If the gospel has to go somewhere,
it's so good that somebody go with them. It's so good, two
and two. James and Matthew, I can see
them going together. Thomas and Peter, Andrew and
John, going out in different directions, spreading the gospel.
A precious time. They had the encouragement of
each other in the ministry. They had the promise of the Lord.
He said, where two or three are gathered in my name. If they
go into a place where everybody hates it, God sent two. He said,
I'm going to be right there with you. Precious, precious time. But
he said in verse seven, he called unto him the twelve and began
to send them forth by two and two and gave them power over
unclean spirits. He gave them the ability to perform
miracles. cast out unclean spirits and
do all these things. And he did that to prove the
fact that this is the Word of God. Peter, James, John, that's
who we're reading right now. And we read this as though it
is the Word of God Almighty, because it is. That ability from
God, though, it died with the apostles. The apostles, He gave
them that ability. They could transfer it to other
men. But when they died and when those men died, it was over.
That was it. So if a man today claims to be
a healer, if he claims to have power over,
you know, I command you in the name, stay away from him. He's
not of God. That's of something else. Just
stay away from him. But verse 7, He called unto him
the twelve, and began to send them forth by two and two, and
gave them power over unclean spirits, and commanded them that
they should take nothing for their journey, save a staff only,
no script, no bread, no money in their purse, but be shod with
sandals, and not put on two coats. Now for a man who's called into
God's ministry, There is a lesson here in faith and humility. There is. He needs to run with
the message, believing God will provide for him. Don't be cumbered
with all these things. You just run with the message,
believing God will provide. He also needs to be warned of
being overtaken by fleshly things. being covetous and giving other
people the impression that he's a covetous man. Our Lord said,
you don't need two coats. You don't need that. This is
a wonderful lesson in all that. But our Lord is saying much more
than that right here. He said, I'm sending you out
to preach the message of life. That's what I'm sending you out,
two by two. You're going to tell men and women the way. Do you know why we're here today?
By God's grace, through His Word, we're about to find out what
is the way. Okay? Everybody's searching for
the way. Right? Everybody thinks, I'm
right, they're wrong. Everybody thinks that. Everybody
thinks that. The truth is going to be revealed.
Everybody is going to get to that judgment throne, and they're
going to find out there is only one way. Now, how can we know
what the way is? That's it. It doesn't matter
what I think. It doesn't matter at all. I don't
really care what I think. And if I think something and
read otherwise, then I'm changing what I think. He said, I'm going
to send you out and you are going to go tell people the way. That's what the word journey
means right here in verse 8. He commanded them that they should
take nothing for their way. Take nothing for the way. I'm going to send you out. You're
going to go tell people the way. And you don't take anything for
the way but the staff only. Only the staff. David said, Thy
rod and thy staff, they comfort me. You know what that is? Right there. You take that only. You preach the word. I got the
word. And then a guy who got his doctorate
in, you know, some kind of doctrinal. I got a packet. I got the word
in the packet. Throw it away. He said, you take
the word only. Preach the word only, the staff
of life. You know what the staff of life
is? It's Christ. He said, I'm the bread of heaven. That's the staff of life. He said, you take the staff only. Take nothing for the way, but
Christ And His word only. He said, I am the way. I am the
way. We're all going to get before
that judgment throne, and I'm going to tell you the truth right
now. We don't have to wait to find out. We're all going to be confirmed. Christ was the only way. Christ was the only way. He said
in verse 8, don't take a script. A script was a leather pouch.
And it's where they kept their money and their food. It's where
they kept everything that served and glorified the flesh. The Lord said, don't you go out
and lie to them. I'm sending you out two by two. Do not go
out and lie to them. Staff only. No script. Do not go to them and tell them
that you have a message from me of health, wealth, and happiness. People love to pay their hard-earned
money on billboards that say things that are not in the Word
of God, and then they put dash God at the bottom, as though
God said it, and He didn't. Do not go lie to them. God loves
you. for who you are. And God wants you to be so rich. And God wants you to be filled
with everything this world has to offer. All He wants is for
you to be happy. No, He said the message is repent. Isn't that what he said? Repent. Repent. He said don't bring a
script, don't bring bread. Our Lord said beware of the leaven
of the Pharisees. Leaven is what makes bread rise. You put leaven in it and it will
rise. In the scripture it always represents this flesh right here. It always represents the pride
of self, the sin of man. I show you leaven right here.
I. That's leaven. Well, I. You want to hear unleavened bread?
He. Well, he. But you see, he. Our Lord said a little leaven
will leaven the whole lump. You mix any part of the flesh
with this message, you'll ruin the whole thing. You'll ruin
the whole thing. Have you ever heard a man preach
and thought, man, I'm going to tell you what, 95% of what he
said was really good. It was just that last little
bit when he put it back into, everything up until that, I was
like, amen, amen. But then right there at the very
end, he just put it back into man's hands, you know. If he
did that, he ruined the whole thing. Well, I'll listen to what
I can get out of it and throw away the rest. No, he ruined
the whole thing. The Lord said in Jeremiah 23, a message like
that will not profit the people at all. That's what he said.
So our Lord said, you bring the staff only, no script, No bread,
no money in your purse. That word money means to hollow
out, to lower. Do not go as a hollowed out vessel. Do not lower the authority and
the urgency of this message. Do not bring a message that can
be bought or swayed. He said in verse 9, you be shod
with sandals. In Ephesians 6, Paul said, have
your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. You be
prepared to deliver the gospel of peace. And he said, don't
clothe yourself with two robes. Don't do it. End of verse 9,
he said, don't put on two coats. There is only one robe of righteousness
for a sinner to wear. Just one. And that's the righteousness
of Christ. You know what that means? In
order to be accepted into the presence of God, we are all,
whether we like it or not, whether we want to or not, we're all
going to stand before God. And He's either going to say, Well
done, thou good and faithful servant. Or he's gonna say, depart
from me, I never knew you. In order to be accepted into
the presence of God Almighty, he must be pleased with the things
we have done. It has to be perfect. It has
to be right. What did he do, right or wrong?
Nothing but right, well done. Now the problem for us is, this
is what the scripture says, every single thing we have done in
God's eyes is a filthy rack. The good deeds are covered in
pride. And that's the number one thing
God said he hates. He said that before murder. Pride. Everything is a filthy rag and
every single one of those filthy rags must be burned. All of the eyes have to be burned. Every single one of them. The
only deeds that God the Father is pleased with are the deeds
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He looks at him and says all
he ever did was right. Well done thou good and faithful
servant. If I try to add my deeds to his
deeds, if I try to put on two coats, it all becomes a filthy
rag again. It must be Christ alone. It has to be Christ alone. God does not love us for who
we are. God does not love us for who
we are. How could he? Really? All we are is sin. Just take five seconds and do
a little Rolodex. Roll back on your thoughts over
the last 24 hours. What have your thoughts been?
What has your heart been? This says a crown of our head,
sole of our foot were wounds and bruises and putrefying sores.
How could he be pleased with us? How could he love us for
what we are? God does not love us for who
we are. He loves us for who Christ is. All of the love of God. People
say God loves and God is love. And it's true. I can find it
in the word of God. But here's the key to it. All
of the love of God is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. All of
God's love is in Christ. And all of my hope is in Christ. And that's where I meet the love
of God, right there in Christ. It all hinges on Christ, every
bit of it. We are accepted on His robe alone. That's it. So He sent His disciples
to deliver this message. You go deliver this message.
And verse 10 says, Mark chapter 6 verse 10, He said unto them,
In what place soever you enter into and house, there abide till
you depart from that place. If they're willing to keep hearing
the message, stay there and keep preaching it to them. Verse 11,
and whosoever shall not receive you nor hear you when you depart
thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against
them. Verily I say unto you, it shall
be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment
than for that city. Man, our Lord is using some clear
and very dogmatic statements right there, isn't he? He said,
you preach Christ and his word. Whoever will not hear it, whoever
will not believe it, whoever will not bow to it. The end of
verse 11, he said, verily I say unto you truthfully, I'm telling
you this, it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the
day of judgment than for that city. And they went out and preached
that men should repent. Those men went out and this is
what they said. They said, dear brothers and
sisters, we are dealing with a holy God. We are dealing with
God Almighty. We are not dealing with the pushover
Jesus that everybody is promoting today. Mercy, truth, grace, salvation
is finding that out right now. Damnation, eternal judgment,
all of those things are finding it out in that day. We are dealing
with God Almighty and we must obey His command and repent. Verse 13 says, and they cast
out many devils and anointed with oil many that were sick
and healed them. What that means is their message
was successful. It's amazing to me how the Lord
can take his truth and when God sends it out to a chosen vessel,
when God plants a seed, it is successful. It is successful. Devils were cast out. That balm
of Gilead was applied. Those who were truly sick became
truly healed. Now here's what I want to say
to us this morning. Here's what I'm commanded to say to us this
morning. We all must repent. We all must repent. Our salvation
depends on our repentance. Our salvation depends on our
repentance. Our Lord said, except you repent,
you shall all likewise perish. So before we walk out of those
doors, Here's what I want us to find out. What is repentance? What is repentance? What does
God have to say about repentance? Not what do I think repentance
is. It won't do me any good to think
repentance is something if that's not what it is. God demands true
repentance. So what does God have to say
about it? Turn over to Luke 15. Luke 15 verse 7, the Lord Jesus
Christ said, I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven
over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine
just persons which need no repentance. Here's the first thing we need
to understand. A person who is just before God
does not need repentance. Repentance is only for sinners. It's only for sinners. So the
first thing that repentance is saying is, I'm a sinner. And I say it over and over and
over again. Let me tell you what repentance
does not say. I was a sinner. Paul said this is a faithful
saying. It's worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into this world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. You want to start a fight between
believers? No, you're not, Paul. I am. No, you're not. I am. I am. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. That's where repentance
starts. I'm a sinner. When the message
is repent, the first thing that means is you and I must acknowledge
the fact that we're sinners. That's not hard to do, is it?
We're sinners. John 1 John 1 10 says, if we
say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word
is not in us. I'm a sinner. So we must acknowledge
to God almighty that very thing. I'm a sinner. Now here's the
second thing to understand about repentance. Go to Hebrew six. Hebrews 6 verse 1 says, Therefore,
leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go
on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance
from dead works and of faith toward God. Although the world
wrongly tries to make repentance a work. What must I do? You have to do
something if you want to be saved. You have to do something. Although
the world wrongly tries to make repentance a work, the truth
is it's the exact opposite. True repentance is from dead
works. What that means is a man cannot
repent on his own. That's what it means. And I'll
prove that to you in Hebrews 12. Look over at Hebrews 12. Verse 16 says, lest there be
any fornicator or profane person as Esau, Jacob and Esau, who
for one morsel of meat sold his birthright. For you know how
that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing,
he was rejected. For he found no place of repentance."
If you have a margin in your Bible, it says, way to change
his mind. Though he sought it carefully
with tears. After it was too late, it was
too late, he wanted that inheritance, he cried for that inheritance,
he begged for that inheritance, but he could not bring himself
to repent. He couldn't. He couldn't bring
himself to change his mind. He couldn't do it. True repentance
says, I can't, you must. True repentance turns sinners
from dead works. That's what it does. That's what
it does. It acknowledges, I'm a sinner. And I have no ability to help
myself. None. That brings us to the third
thing that God has to say about repentance. Go to Acts 5. Acts chapter 5 verse 29 says, Then Peter and the other apostles
answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. Buddy,
you want to hear some wisdom? I don't care who the man is.
We ought to obey God rather than men. He said, 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 forgiveness of
sins. True repentance is a gift from
God. It's a gift from God. Our Lord
said, He did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to
repentance." He said, I came to call them to repentance. I came to give them repentance. It's a gift and a calling of
God. And just listen to this. This
is Acts 11 verse 18. It says, When they heard these things,
they held their peace and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also
to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life. He has given it. He
gave it. Who gets the glory in repentance?
Who gets the glory in repentance? Romans 2 verse 4 says, It is
the goodness of God that leadeth thee to repentance. God does
it. True repentance says this is
all a gift. It is all a gift. Every bit of
it is a gift. This is all because of your calling. This is all because of your goodness
alone that led me to Christ. Your goodness alone has turned
me from my idols. You know where my idol, you know
who my idol was? You turned me from my idol, turned
me from dead works to the true and living God. Here's God's
commandment. Turn. That's his commandment. Turn. True repentance says this. Turn thou me, and I shall be
turned. That's true repentance. We all must confess to God, I'm
a sinner. I can't do anything for myself.
And my only hope is in the goodness of your gift and your calling. That's true repentance. Now,
our Lord said our salvation depends on that repentance, that changed
mind and changed heart. Our Lord said it's not in our
ability to produce that changed mind and that changed heart.
But here's his promise to every single sinner that he chose to
do this for, chose to give this repentance toward God, repentance
toward Christ. And I'm going to close with this.
Go with me to 2 Peter chapter 1. 2 Peter 1 verse 1 says, Simon Peter,
a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained
like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and
our Savior Jesus Christ. The reason I read that was to
show you that it does not say the world. It does not say Peter,
a servant, apostle of Jesus Christ, to every single person on planet
earth. He said, to them that have obtained
light, precious faith with us through righteousness of God
and our Savior Jesus Christ. That's who he's writing to. Now,
go to 2 Peter 3 and look at verse 9. The Lord is not slack concerning
His promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering
to usward. Every single sinner that God
chose to give that faith to, put them in that robe of righteousness. Put them in Christ. He's long-suffering
to us. We're not willing that any should
perish. But that all should come to repentance. Every single one of them. God
in mercy is going to give every child of his a heart. A heart
that cries, I'm a sinner. That's my favorite thing to cry.
That's my favorite thing to cry. Because all through this word
it says, Christ came to save sinners. I'm a sinner. I'm a
sinner. I can't do anything for myself.
Nothing. And my only hope is in the work
and it's in the gift and it's in the goodness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That is repentance unto salvation. Now let's all repent. Let's all
repent. And then let's give God all the
glory for it. Every ounce of it. Let's all repent and say,
I'm a sinner. I can't do anything for myself.
My only hope is in the gift of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you
did it all, start to finish. Author, finisher, everything
in between. All the praise and the honor
goes to Christ alone. That command, when God says,
you think it's so hard at first, he comes up and says, repent.
That's his goodness to a sinner. You know, that's the mercy. He
comes up, I bet you, from that time Jesus went forth and he
began to preach and to say, you get to repent. You have been
chosen to be allowed to repent. May God bless us all with the
precious gift of repentance. All right, let's stand together.