Turn with me, if you would, to
Matthew chapter 4. We're continuing our study in
the book of Matthew. As I read through the chapters
in sequence, I am very interested in why this particular set of
facts were captured for us. And I think that I can see something
of it in Matthew chapter 1. Christ is announced as the son
of David and the son of Abraham. He's the king. the son of David. He's the covenant
head, the son of Abraham. Only in Him can we be given the
blessings of that covenant. And He's the one who would save
His people from their sins. And He is Immanuel, God with
us. We only know God in Him. We can
only see God and know God in knowing the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then in chapter 2 we see how that the wise men had eyes
of faith to see the Lord of Glory in a baby in the manger, while
the scribes were blind and in unbelief. And the King Herod
tried to destroy Him, yet God preserved His Son. And He guaranteed
that He would be successful. Here we see the Eternal Almighty
God. ensuring our salvation out of
His mercy, by His power, according to His great wisdom and grace,
in order to save His people and silence the enemy. In the face
of all opposition, He quietly saves His people. through a little
baby born in a manger. And then in chapter 3 we saw
how God sent John the Baptist to proclaim before the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ that he would be coming. John preached
Christ. He said, Behold the Lamb of God
which taketh away the sins of the world. He takes away the
sins of his people throughout the world. And in taking away
their sins, he saves them by himself. It says in Hebrews 1-3,
he has by himself purged our sins. That's the one John announced. And John preached repentance,
which we're going to look at today more carefully. And he
called men to take their place before God as sinners and to
be baptized in Jordan. And Jesus then came and was baptized
in Jordan. And John, by baptizing Jesus
and Jesus by being baptized, teaches us how He by Himself
would fulfill all righteousness to God in His death and His sufferings
for His people in obedience to God in that suffering unto death. Putting away their sins and fulfilling
all God required of them by His obedience. He would do that at
the cross, but in his baptism God received the commitment of
him having already accomplished it and pronounced him saying,
this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And then in
chapter four we see Jesus engaging with the devil himself. Not as
the son of God, but as man. He comes and obeys his father,
depending in everything on his father for strength, for wisdom
and he relies on his word and he does this as man because it
was by man that sin entered into the world but by Christ that
obedience was given to God for his people. By man Men came under
condemnation. By Christ, they're justified.
By man came death. By Christ came resurrection from
the dead. He's the head of his people.
And he conquered Satan. And he would, this was one battle
in that overall fight, that overall overcoming that he did. And he
would show himself stronger than the strong man. And now we enter
chapter 4, verse 12, where we see, we're going to read through
this, and we're going to see our Lord Jesus Christ on the
occasion of Him having overcome the enemy and committing and
professing that He would fulfill all righteousness by His baptism
in His death and His sufferings under the wrath of God for His
people. We see now in chapter 4 the following verses, verse
12. Now, when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison,
He departed into Galilee. Galilee was the place called
Galilee of the Nations, Galilee of the Gentiles. It was a place
on the outskirts of the core of the nation of Israel. The Jews considered the people
there to be somewhat, quite a bit less. And that's where Christ
starts his ministry, but he doesn't begin his ministry in earnest
until John is shut up in prison. John came to prepare the way
of the Lord. Once that way was prepared, Christ
fulfilled what John professed him to be doing, which was to
save his people from their sins. And that's what we're seeing
here now. He starts his ministry at the close of John's ministry. John is put in prison, and the
Lord Jesus goes to Galilee. And it says, verse 13, "...and
leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum," which is
upon the sea coast in the borders of Zebulun and Naphtalem, that
it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet
saying the land of Zebulun and Naphtali or Naphtalim by the
way of the sea beyond Jordan Galilee of the Gentiles and this
is what he says in Isaiah the people which sat in darkness
saw great light and to them which sat in the region and shadow
of death light is sprung up Christ had just told Satan, get thee
hence. And now in the gospel account,
he goes to the place of darkness. on the completion of his overcoming
the devil in his own temptations, he goes to the place of darkness. He is the light, and he announces
the gospel. He teaches himself, and he shows
his miracles to the people there. These people were in darkness.
What is darkness? Darkness is the result of sin.
Darkness is the result of of our own slavery to sin. It says
in Ephesians 4, verse 18, it says, "...that the Gentiles walk
in the vanity of their mind, having the understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness of their heart." Darkness
is a heart issue. And Christ came to shine light
in men's heart. And the light that He shined
was a great light. A great light. It was great because
He is the light. But how is Christ being the light,
a great light? Well, That's what we're going
to see in a few moments here. It's great because how great
a salvation He accomplished by Himself. Remember the woman taken
in adultery in John 8. It was at the end of that event
that Jesus said, I am the light of the world. He saves His people
out of their sin. And He brings that salvation
to them. And in bringing it to them, it's
a great light. It's such a great light. They
see it and they don't even realize they're in darkness until the
light comes. And when the light shines, it's
an amazing grace. And they are drawn to it. They
see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That's bright
light. The glory of God. In verse 17
it says, And from that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The kingdom of heaven
is not a kingdom on earth. The heavens do rule, and there's
a king. There are kings on earth, but
the king in heaven rules over all things. There's a verse in
Psalm 100, and let me look it up here in my notes. It's... Psalm 103 19 it says the Lord
hath prepared his throne in the heavens and his kingdom ruleth
over all the kingdom of heaven is the Lord's kingdom and the
Lord is the king of that kingdom and so Jesus is saying the kingdom
of heaven is at hand because he as king is about to be exalted
as king over all He's got to accomplish the work God gave
Him to do. But on the finalization, the
finishing of that work, God is going to exalt His Son. And He's
going to set Him on His own right hand, on the throne of glory,
and He's going to reign. And so Jesus says, the kingdom
of heaven is at hand. Therefore, repent. And then he
says, And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brethren,
Simon called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net into
the sea, for they were fishers. And he saith to them, Follow
me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway
left their nets and followed him. When God calls us, when
the Lord Jesus Christ calls us, we do what He calls us to do.
He told Peter and Andrew, Follow me, and they followed Him. They
left their nets and they followed Him. They were nobodies. They
were fishermen. They were not educated. They
were not nobles. They were not recognized of having
anything to contribute to the important things of society.
They were just fishermen. But He calls them, and it's what
He did for them that made them able to be effective. Verse 21,
He's going to lay on these men, these apostles. He's chosen them.
He's going to lay The mysteries of the kingdom of God on them
to proclaim to lost sinners. The mysteries that were hidden
from the foundations of the world, they are going to carry and reveal.
And God is going to bring his people out of darkness through
them. Like fish caught in a net, God
is going to save his people through the preaching of the gospel that
they bring. And verse 21, And going on from thence, he saw
two other brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his
brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets.
And he called them, and they immediately left the ship and
their father, and followed him. If God calls us, we come. If we don't come, it's because
He hasn't called us. And Jesus went about all Galilee
teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the
kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of
disease among the people. And his fame went throughout
all Syria and they brought to him all sick people that were
taken with divers diseases and torments and those that were
possessed with devils and those that were lunatic And those that
had the palsy, and He healed them. You see that? The Lord
Jesus Christ is set before us at the end of this as the Great
Physician. He heals men who were sick in
their bodies. They had the palsy. He heals
men who were tormented by the devil. They were possessed. He
heals men who were sick in their minds. They were lunatic. He
heals all kinds. He healed all that were brought
to Him. He is a Savior who is almighty.
He is a Savior who is merciful and compassionate. And He's a
Savior who is the great physician. Why are men sick and why do men
die? The wages of sin is death. And there would be no sickness. There would be no tormenting.
There would be no affliction, no palsy. None of these things
would come on us except for sin. That makes Christ the Physician
all the greater. If Jesus could just heal our
bodies, then we would think He's a doctor. But He heals our souls,
therefore we know He's our Savior. Healing men of sickness teaches
us that Christ must heal us from the sickness of our souls. To
heal us of the sickness of our souls means He has to take away
the affliction that God put on us justly for our sins and that
He must satisfy God and therefore God removes that affliction and
He heals us. And so Christ is that kind of
a physician. He heals his people from their
sins. All these things teach us that
salvation is of the Lord. You see that? Just in these few
short verses we see a net. Broadly cast throughout all Galilee,
it says he went throughout all Galilee preaching the gospel
of the kingdom. The net is cast broadly. Many
are brought into that net. He brings his disciples, irresistibly
calling them to the vocation of being his disciples, to be
apostles. And then he announces his coming
and he himself is the message of his sermon. He, His own power
shows that His message is, that He is from God and that His message
is true. And He's the one that we're to
trust. Let us never miss the importance of what happened here
at the end of this chapter. Christ is brought to the sick. The sick are brought to Him.
And they, face to face, the Lord Jesus Christ meets their needs.
Later in Matthew, we're going to see individual cases blind
people, leprous people, devil-possessed people, all kinds of cases brought
to him one-on-one. But here we're seeing the summary
of that in what Christ would do. Now, if Christ can heal our
sin sicknesses, as is said here in type through these sicknesses,
all these sicknesses that He healed, if He rejected none who
were brought to Him, Doesn't that give us confidence that
He can do anything that we need? All that we need from God is
found in Him. And I say all that to prepare
you for the painful part of the message here. Because sometimes
when we hear the sting of God's rebuke, we immediately do what
Adam did and we hide. We hide from ourselves. But never
forget who sends the command. And never forget that the judge
before whom we have to stand is the only savior of our souls.
We have to come to Christ. We have to find all that he requires
of us in himself. And so, notice these words here.
He begins to preach, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And what
does he say? Repent. Repent. What does it mean to
repent? I want to talk about that today.
What does it mean to repent? And the first thing we want to
see about this word is that as soon as the word comes to us,
repent. What does it mean about us? It
means we need to repent, doesn't it? Who needs to repent? Jesus said in Matthew chapter
9, a little later on, I'll read this to you. He says to the Pharisees,
He says, I want you to go learn what this means. Because they
were concerned about many things that were insignificant. He says,
"...but go and learn what that meaneth. I will have mercy and
not sacrifice. For I am not come to call the
righteous, but sinners to repentance." That's Matthew 9, 13. When the command is issued from
the king, repent. And we cringe at that command
and we are irritated by it because of lots of reasons. Not the least
of which is we don't think we really need to repent. Maybe
we're concerned that we can't repent. And for whatever reason,
we immediately put up our shields and our roadblocks. Realize this,
that unless that command finds us as sinners, then we don't
need a Savior. Jesus said, I didn't come to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. So unless we take
our place as John prepared the way before Jesus, as sinners
before the Lord Jesus Christ, then we don't need a Savior.
We don't need a Savior. Remember what we read in Hosea
chapter 2? This woman, through a life, a
life of deliberate departure from her husband. All of the
things that he provided for her, she considered those blessings
as coming from her lovers, her illegitimate lovers, and she
went after them. Shamefully, vilely, lewdly, And
the Lord tells us in that chapter, in that entire book, that He
deliberately took away the things that He gave to her, because
she considered them from her lovers. He deliberately put a
wall in her way and shut her up, and then drove her into the
wilderness, took away her water, her bread, her wine, all the
things. Even took away her covering, so she was left barren and naked
in her sin. That's what the mercy of God
does to us. He first comes to us and He says,
repent. And that word has to find us
as sinners. And if He doesn't find us as
sinners, then we cannot have the grace of God. That's the
way God says it. The fact of the matter is, until
we are unable to trust ourselves, we will never trust Christ. Until
we find no hope in ourselves, we'll never find hope in Christ.
Until we are without a sin payment, we'll never trust the only sin
payment for our souls. And until we have no righteousness
of our own, we'll never appreciate and worship God for all of our
righteousness in Christ. Repentance comes to us as sinners.
And God meets us as sinners because He wants to lay us bare and put
away all that we trust in. That's what repentance requires.
Abandoning all of our confidences. Abandoning all the things we
seek intimacy illegitimately apart from God. And coming to
Him in all the nakedness of our need. and Him in all the plenitude
of His grace, with nothing in between, and our souls with Christ,
and finding in Him all that we need as sinners. Then we will
begin to worship, then we will begin to be thankful, and then
we will begin to repent. And that's what repentance has
to do with. Realizing that what we are is sinners. Now, Sometimes
I know this word repentance does rub us the wrong way. I want
to think about why that is a little bit. Why does it bother us to
hear the word repent? Does it bother you? I know, I'm
telling you the truth, it bothers me. I don't like to hear people
to tell me I'm wrong. I don't like it. If you ever
tell people, you'll hear people say, oh I'm a sinner, I'm a sinner,
I'm a sinner. And then you say, and then you
find somebody actually accuse them of a wrongdoing. You're
a liar. And they immediately get all
indignant and defensive and self-righteous. Isn't that what we do? Someone
accuses you of doing something even small. You did that wrong. I did not. Or I'm not nearly
as bad as such and such or so and so. We immediately put up
all of our defenses. Because when we hear the word,
the command to repent, it makes us feel inferior compared to
others. But we have this problem is that
we don't understand that our sin is not against men, but it's
against God. And so true repentance will bring
us to that point to see it's not a matter of what people think.
It's not a matter of what I think. It's what God thinks that counts.
But why do we chafe? Why does it feel like it irritates
us to hear these things? I think part of it is because
of some of these reasons as I examine my own self. Because I don't
want to give up what I like to do and have habitually come to
do. I don't want to stop doing what
I'm doing. because it's pleasing to my flesh. Maybe it's an issue with pride. Maybe it's an issue with lust.
Maybe it's an issue with all these things. But whatever it
is, I don't want to give that up. I want to hold on to that
thing that gives me satisfaction in some way. Another reason is
because I think this is something that I think as the gospel comes
to you, I concern about the word repent because I wonder if I've
ever really repented. And if I've never really repented,
then what claim do I have on God's grace? Does that ever concern
you? Have I ever really truly repented
before God? What is repentance anyway? And
so I get all concerned about that. And then I try to say,
well, if repentance is this, then I'll do that. If it's being
sorry for my sins, then I'll be sorry for my sins. If it's
confessing my sins, then I'll confess my sins. If it's stopping
to do what I have done in the past, then I'll try to reform
my life. Are those things repentance? You see why these things begin
to be a concern to us? But the other reason I think
that this command to repent is irritating to us is if I admit
that I need to repent and I haven't repented, then I am admitting
in some sense that I've been a hypocrite, haven't I? That
I haven't done what I know to do and I've left undone the things
that I ought to do. And I'm concerned that I don't
feel sorry for my sins adequately. And all these things come into
my mind and I can't face the thought of being so utterly sinful
that I can't repent. All these things and more, I'm
sure, are reasons for being concerned about this command to repent. Does that describe you in any
way? Do you see, when we read about this woman taken in adultery,
or this woman who was a slave to her sin, that was exposed
in her lewdness, in her own sinfulness, or even pushing back on this
command to repent, does it describe, in some sense, someone you know? There's a mystery with this scripture.
a mystery that God reveals to us in the scripture about our
helplessness and our captivity to sin. But as I said before,
Christ will never be great to you until your case is hopeless
before Him. Christ will never be good to
you until you're a sinner needing repentance. But unable in yourself
to produce it, you will never come to Him for repentance. Repentance is not what we bring
to God. Repentance is the gift of Christ
as our reigning king because of his triumph over sin and death
and the devil. He was exalted, it says in Acts
5 31, God exalted him to his right hand to be a prince and
a savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.
They're both together. Repentance is a gift of God. And the mystery is this, that
when God tells us to believe, when he tells us to repent, when
he tells us all the things that we're to do in the scripture,
we immediately, as proud sinners, we imagine ourselves somehow
capable, given all the right circumstances, on a good day,
In my best health, I'm in a good frame of mind and people aren't
upsetting me and everything's just right, I could somehow actually
do the things that God requires. Don't we think that? I think
that if I had the right influences and certain vices were taken
from me by their influences, I could actually concentrate
long enough to break through with God and get things right.
Don't we think that way? darkness. That attitude is complete
blindness. You see, the grace of God has
to teach us that we cannot in any way rely on what we find
in our experience, or in our ability, or in our own repenting,
even in our believing. We can't sit down and decide
to believe. We can't sit down and will ourselves
to do what God has said. Have you ever tried it? I remember
as a young child thinking, I'm actually going to stop sinning
right now for one minute. and try not to think some bad
thought, or say some stupid thing, or look some, just the appearance
of evil was all with me, and I couldn't even do it, not even
for a minute. I found myself, right away, someone says something,
irritated me, boom, I'm off again. That's the blessing of having
brothers and sisters. Because they don't let you rest,
do they? But you will never, as I said
before, you will never be able to trust Christ until you're
unable to trust yourself. That's repentance. Until God
has exhausted all of your resources and all hope for help in yourself,
you'll never trust Christ. But if you're guilty, and if
you can't come up with a payment for your sin, and you can't produce
any righteousness, And if God in mercy shows you that Christ
has done all for sinners, then you know what? You will embrace
Him. That's what God said in Hosea. I will allure her into
the wilderness. I will speak comfortably with
her. Look at Isaiah chapter 40. A well-known passage of Scripture,
but look at this again. Isaiah 40 verse 1. Comfort ye. Comfort ye my people, saith your
God." God is going to allure her into the wilderness and he's
going to speak comfortably to this harlot, this lewd, perverse,
shameful, filthy woman that represents us in our attempts to gain intimacy
with God, comfort, The comfort that should only come from God
and satisfaction from our own abilities to come to Christ,
trusting in a religion or a righteousness or finding satisfaction in sin,
whatever it might be. We find comfort in all these
things, but God strips us and He takes it away and He says
no. And then He says now, now that you're barren and have no
hope, yourself then he says comfort ye comfort ye my people saith
your God speak comfortably to Jerusalem and cry into her and
here's the comfort that her warfare is accomplished that she that
her iniquity is pardoned for she hath received of the Lord's
hand double for all her sins salvation that requires something
of me if you do this then God will do that that's not good
news But salvation that comes to me exposed in my filth and
shame and weakness and utter inability to come to Christ and
produce anything that God could accept. Even a weakness unable
to make myself as good as my neighbor. And then God comes
to me and says, now that you have no ability in yourself,
let me tell you, Christ has done it all. It's all finished. Salvation has been paid for.
Righteousness established. Redemption obtained. Inheritance
secured. Reconciliation is made. Peace
established. Listen to this verse. In Hosea,
a little later in Hosea, it says in Hosea 13, 9, Oh Israel, thou
hast destroyed thyself. And you would think that's God's
justification to kick her out, to divorce her and to leave her
to her filth and shame. But he says, But in me is thine
help. You've destroyed yourself, but
look to Christ. Look unto me, he says in Isaiah
45, 22. And be ye saved, all the ends
of the earth. And then in Isaiah, I mean, in
Psalm 50, verse 15, he says, Call upon me in the day of trouble. And I will deliver thee, and
thou shalt glorify Me." How are you going to glorify God? By
being the object of His saving grace in Christ Jesus. That's
the only way. You cannot glorify Him in another
way. You cannot save yourself. You cannot participate and contribute
to your salvation. Christ will either save you by
Himself, or He will leave you to Himself. And it says this
in Psalm 25 11, For thy name's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity,
for it is great. My iniquity is not small, therefore
I need a Savior who is the Lord Himself. Pardon mine iniquity,
for it is great. So this is how the command to
repent comes to us. And this is a command coming
from the King. Because it comes from the King,
it comes with urgency. you The King is Jesus. His kingdom is about to come
because He is about to be crowned. And He says, repent. And in His
command, He's exposing sin, isn't He? He's exposing sinners as
sinners in need of God whom they have rejected. That's what our
state is. Isaiah 55 describes it as those
who have labored and spent all their money on water and food
that doesn't satisfy. And then he says, listen to me
and your soul shall live. So he comes with an urgency in
his command because the heavens rule. And if we are not found
in Christ, when the King comes, then we'll be found to be the
enemies of the King of heaven. And his command comes with authority. Have you noticed that the sequence
here in Matthew 5 follows his temptation? He has authority
over the devil. Now he has come the stronger
than the devil. It says in Luke chapter 11 that
when a strong man keeps his goods in his palace, he's at peace.
But when a stronger than he comes and takes from him what he trusted in formerly,
then he's able to spoil his goods. And this is what Christ is doing
here. He speaks his command to repent with authority. And he
comes with power over Satan to spoil his kingdom. Christ is
strong in battle, and He sends His command to those who are
slaves of Satan. The Spirit of Christ is coming
into the darkness of this world, and He's preaching salvation
by His own finished work, liberating men's souls and freeing them
from this darkness and this depravity and this bondage of sin, the
condemnation. He's going to destroy the works
of the devil. What were the works of the devil?
Well, the devil's work was to bring sin into the world and
then bring God's wrath and condemnation on men for their sins according
to God's justice. But Christ removes their sin,
taking it to himself, enduring that wrath himself, and therefore
God shows mercy and grace to sinners and the works of the
devil are destroyed. He doesn't achieve his intention
by his work. His works are taken away. And
so Christ comes. Now at this point He hasn't yet
gone to the cross. He has not yet bruised Satan.
He hasn't bound the strong man. But in His baptism, God the Father
has received a full commitment from Him to actually complete
that work. So when Jesus speaks about his
death, he often speaks about it as an accomplished work before
it's finished. John 17 is a classic example. He says, Father, I have finished
the work which you gave me to do. Yet he hadn't gone yet to
the cross. And in John 12 he says, Now is
the prince of this world cast out, but yet Christ had been
lifted up. But here we see that same thing. When the Lord Jesus Christ committed
in the everlasting covenant to save his people by himself, to
be the lamb slain before the foundation of the world, the
one whose blood would be the redemption price given for our
liberty, Then God received from him at that time full payment
in principle. It was as if it was done because
he knew he could rely on his son to do it. And so the same
thing here. He sends his word in power to
those in darkness. He brings his disciples out of
it. He brings these people who were bound with sickness and
possessed by the devil, tormented by him, lunatic in palsy, and
he brings them out by his power. And this is the urgency of His
command and the authority of His command in His command to
repent. And then notice, as I've already
mentioned, the condition and character of those He commands
to repent. It's a call to the guilty. It's
a call to the guilty. And therefore, we don't want
to reject His command, do we? Otherwise, we have no Savior.
But notice, because it's a command issued by the sovereign, because
it's a command issued by the one who overcame the devil and
gave righteousness to God for his people, therefore, isn't
this command bringing with it the warrant, the basis of our
own coming to Christ and trusting Him? It says in Acts 17 30, God
has commanded all men everywhere to repent. Isn't that therefore
my warrant to trust Christ? Isn't that the basis of why I
can come? Because God has given me this
command? Repent. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
It is. Don't look to yourself, but look
to the one who with the command brings the power to obey it.
And so our response indicates who actually called us. If God
calls us, we will come. He commands us to repent and
to turn. And you know what God's people do in response to that
command? They say, turn us again, Lord
God of hosts. Cause your face to shine and
we shall be saved. In Jeremiah 31, why don't you
turn with me there, Jeremiah 31. Notice that the people of
God don't presume on their own strength in this matter of repentance. They do not presume on it. They
receive the command and they look back to the one who gave
the command as the only way they can fulfill it. He says in Jeremiah
31 verse 18, God says, I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning
himself thus. Thou hast chastised me, and I
was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke. I wasn't trained
to bear a yoke. I couldn't bear the yoke. I was
like a wild beast and God put it on me and chastised me and
made me wear it. He says, Turn thou me. Ephraim, this is a prayer of
God's people to him. He says, Turn thou me. Lord,
turn thou me. And I shall be turned. For thou
art the Lord my God. Surely after that I was turned,
I repented. And after that I was instructed,
I smote upon my thigh. I was ashamed, yea, even confounded,
because I did bear the reproach of my youth." You see that? God
is the one who turns us. He has to. It's not a process that we find easy. The ox who's unaccustomed to
the yoke doesn't find putting the yoke on the ox and making
him wear it and pull the load an easy thing. Repentance is
brought about by the work of God on the inner workings of
our soul. And it causes us to feel the
pain of not being able to repent, feel the guilt of our sin before
God, and wondering, how am I ever going to be able to answer to
God? How can I ever come to Him? And so Job says it this way in
Job 33, 27, God looks upon men, and if any say, I have sinned
and perverted that which was right, and it profited me not,
he will deliver his soul from going down to the pit, and his
life shall see the light. Isn't that a wonderful promise?
Lord, my sin hasn't profited me. All of my attempts to make
myself pure in your eyes, and to come to you, and make myself
a Christian, and to believe, and repent, all these things,
they haven't delivered my soul. I'm still as wicked as I was
before, and it didn't profit me. And God says, He sends His
command, and His command is issued from the throne of heaven. Deliver
His soul. from going down to the pit, his
life shall see the light. That's the promise of God. And
so, look at Hosea 14 again. Notice how when God works repentance
in us, it causes us to go to Him and take His own words as
promises of His grace to receive from Him the life we need to
live and the faith we need to believe and the repentance we
need. Hosea 14, I love these verses, the first four verses.
Oh, Israel, return. That's another word for repent,
isn't it? Return unto the Lord. If you've never turned, then
turn. If you've turned, but you've left the Lord, then return. Return
unto the Lord, thy God. For thou hast fallen by thine
iniquity. Never miss this. Sin is all your
fault. It's all your fault. Don't try
to put it off on someone else. Well, it was my brother. He poked
me and therefore I had to poke him back. That's not an excuse. And I just
use that in a light way. But look here, it's all my fault,
Lord. I fell by my own iniquity. Take
with you words here. You don't even know what to say.
I'm gonna give you what to say. This will be acceptable to God. And turn to the Lord and say
to him, take away all iniquity and receive us graciously. So will we render, not the calves
on the altar, but the calves of our lips. Asher shall not
save us. That's the strength of our flesh,
strength of a horse. We will not ride upon horses.
Neither will we say any more to the work of our own hands.
You are our gods. For in thee the fatherless, the
helpless, the abandoned find mercy. I, the Lord says, will
heal their backsliding. I will love them freely, for
mine anger is turned away from Him." Do you see there? The promise
of redemption, the accomplishment. It's already done. God has done
it. And so we see that, and we turn to the Lord. Now, I want
to list a few things that we mistakenly consider as repentance. I want to talk for just a moment
about what repentance is not, because I think it's helpful
to see what things are not. Oftentimes the scripture does
that, doesn't it? You're not saved by your works, but by grace. He says, knowing that a man is
not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. God often gives us the nots of
truth, and this is the not, the things that are not true repentance. But these are things we often
confuse with repentance, because we're naturally inclined to be
religious people. We're naturally inclined to think
that our thoughts and our ways are religious and right. That's
what we naturally think. And so we have to dispel the
wrong thoughts about repentance. First of all, repentance is not
stopping some terrible habit. I mean, how many times have you
thought, if I could just stop this habit, I would repent and
then God could accept me. But many people stop terrible
habits. The world is full of processes
by which you can stop terrible habits. There's the 12 steps.
There's anger management. Throw a man in prison. Keep him
from doing things. He stopped doing certain things,
didn't he? You see the foolishness of that? It's not just stopping
doing certain things. It's not stopping doing terrible
things. What happens when we stop doing
certain things? Well, we begin to get proud. I used to do that, but I don't
do that anymore. Why don't other people stop doing
that? I did. And we begin to compare
ourselves with others. Now I'm a proud, what is it? The pig returns to his vomit.
I'm a proud pig. I'm a proud dog. I just eat my
vomit now and then. I don't do that anymore. And
so we do stupid stuff like that. We think stupid thoughts like
this, that if God will accept me because I stop doing certain
things. Remember, repentance is not what we bring to God.
Repentance is what we receive from Him. It's a gift. Don't
come to God with your repentance. Come to Him for repentance. So the second thing that I think
that people often confuse with with true repentance is confession. Confession is not repentance.
How many times have you seen pictures of people on TV in a
little isolated booth with a guy on the other side and you can't
see between them. I'm telling you everything I've
ever done. That's confession. That is not repentance. It's
not repentance. Confession is not repentance.
Achan. Remember Achan? He took a wedge
of gold and a Babylonian garment from the city of Jericho. God
said, don't do it. Achan confessed. Joshua said,
tell what you did. He said, well this is what I
did. I did this and that. What happened to him? Joshua had him
stoned and all of his house with him. Confession didn't help Achan. Pharaoh confessed. He admitted,
I and my people have sinned against the Lord. The Lord's righteous,
but he hardened his heart. Judas confessed that he had betrayed
innocent blood, but then he went out and hanged himself. So confession
is not repentance. Many things we think about as
repentance are not true repentance. I want to say this too about
repentance. And this is something that I think that we really get
confused about repentance. Sorrow for sin is not repentance. Godly sorrow works repentance
to salvation, but the sorrow itself is not repentance. It
says in 2 Corinthians 7.10, if you want to look at that with
me. Sorrow for sin. I'm really sorry. I'm really sorry. Well, you ought
to be sorry, but that's not repentance. And it certainly doesn't give
you any leverage with God. Because there's lots of reasons
for being sorry, which we're going to touch on in just a minute.
2 Corinthians 7, verse 10. For godly sorrow worketh repentance."
You see that? That's a true sorrow. That works
repentance. But the sorrow itself is not
repentance. And it works repentance to salvation that does not need
to be repented of. But the sorrow of the world works
death. And that's what I want to talk
about for a minute here, is the sorrow that doesn't work repentance.
Why are men sorry for sin? Why are men sorry for sin? Remember
Cain? He was very sorry for his sin.
Why? Because God drove him out. God
said, you're going to be marked. And Cain said, my punishment
is greater than I can bear. He was sorry. I killed my brother. I'm sorry that you drove me out
for killing my brother. Was that sorrow to repentance?
Not at all. Cain was sorry that he received
the punishment that was deserved him for his sin. He was sorry
for the punishment. He wasn't sorry for sin. Right? You see that with Cain? Saul
was sorry. Saul was sorry that God was going
to take away his kingdom from him. And that his men would look
at him as being a wimp. And so he prayed to Samuel. He
said, Samuel, come on back with me and offer the sacrifice so
that my men will honor me. That was Saul's sorrow. It was
a sorrow that he felt because he felt shame before men. Cain
felt the punishment of God and was sorry that he had to experience
that. Saul was sorry that his sin might
make him appear small before men, but neither of those is
repentance. And neither of them is a godly
sorrow. Esau was sorry. He was sorry that he had lost
a blessing that was given to Jacob. He even bitterly cried
to his father Isaac, but he didn't seek Christ for salvation. He
didn't consider the inheritance God promised Abraham as the only
thing he needed. He was content with his mountain,
Mount Edom. And he was content with his army,
his 400 men. And so he never sought salvation.
Therefore, he was rejected. So sorrow is not repentance. And then neither is this repentance. And this is something that I
think that I have personally experienced. All these things,
I've gone through them. Haven't you? Haven't you felt,
I really wish I didn't have to go to hell for my sin? Haven't
you felt that? Haven't you felt, I don't want
to feel the punishment of my sin? And I don't want men to
discover that I'm a sinner. I'm gross, wicked, perverse.
I'm an ignorant, stupid sinner. I don't want men to know that.
I want to hide it. I want to make people think I'm
a good person. But those things are not repentance.
And this is the other thing repentance is not. Repentance is not a long
period of mourning over my sin and doubting that God will save
me or not. And this is something we fall
captive to. This sense that if I mourn over
my sin, I really need to feel my sin weighing down on me to
a point where I feel the grief of it, and then I can really
trust Christ. And God is really reluctant to
heal me And to forgive me, so I need to beg him and beg him
and beg him and beg him. That is not God honoring. You
know what honors God? Faith in Christ. Coming to God
as a sinner. Listen to the words we've already
read. Lord, pardon mine iniquity, for it is great. Remember what
David said? Have mercy upon me according
to, not my sorrow, but thy lovingkindness. That gives God glory. What if
a son comes to his father and says, Father, I'm really sorry.
That was a stupid thing I did. And I really wish I hadn't done
it. But I know that you won't forgive
me, even though I'm coming to you as your son, and sorry for
that. What does that say? That means
the boy doesn't even think, what kind of a monster does he think
his father is? He withholds kindness and forgiveness
to his son who comes to him with an honest repentance. I know
you won't forgive me because, because what? Because you're
reluctant to be good even though I'm prone to do what's right. You see the stupidity of that
wickedness? Unbelief does not honor God.
It's not commendable, it's condemnable. Unbelief. God has said, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Look unto me all ye ends of the
earth and be ye saved. Mourning for sin gives us a secret
satisfaction that somehow we're making an atonement in our own
souls for what only Christ can do. That's a false repentance. That's a sinful mourning. Neither
is mourning good when we think, I hear people all the time, when
I go to church, I hear people all the time saying, Christ came
to save sinners. Oh, I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner.
Why? I'm so bad. I just feel so bad all the time
about my sin. And I start confessing sins that I don't even know I'm
guilty of, because I want to be a bad sinner. That's just
propping up another kind of self-righteous. We are so crafty little devils
that we think that we can come to God by something that we do
and produce. That we do these things. Even
God has given us a command to repent and we find ways of getting
around it in order to prop ourselves up. Instead of just laying our
face in the dirt and saying, I am vile and I have nothing
to claim. on your mercy, except what Christ
has done. And I look to Him only, and I
trust Him only, and I find in Him all I need. My every answer
to God is in Him. So these things are all evidences
of a false repentance. And I want to leave you with
those things to think about them. Remember that the hymn, Could
my zeal, could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal, no rest
no. These for sin could not atone. Thou must save and thou alone.
And when God brings us to that point, you know what that is?
Repentance. When we say, I repent of all
my self-trust and I flee to Christ and I lay myself at His feet,
Hebrews 4.3 it says, we who have believed do enter into rest. And Hebrews 4.10 says that we We not only have entered into
his rest, but we, let's see, what does it say in Hebrews 4.10?
I gotta find it, because I don't want to misquote it. He says
this in Hebrews 4.10. He says, he that has entered
into rest has ceased from his own works as God did from his. All works of any kind, not trusting
in anything. So what is true repentance? It's
kind of, We kind of see what it's not. But even though we
see what it's not, we still find these inclinations towards false
repentance. What is true repentance? Well,
I'm going to give you an illustration that maybe it will help. And
this happened to me. And I'm ashamed to admit it,
but maybe if it'll help you, I'm happy to tell it to you.
I had a little brother. His name was Terry. I still have
a brother. His name is Terry. He's not littler
than me now. He's bigger than I am. But all of the time when
we grew up together, I can never remember a time... when Terry
ever did me anything wrong. He was three years younger than
me. And so I was stronger than him. There were seven of us boys
and two girls, but five of the oldest boys... slept in one room
with four bunk beds. So Terry and I were the youngest
of those five, and we slept in the upper one. He slept on the
inside, I was on the outside. We were always doing something
together and he was a very simple and straightforward brother.
I really loved Terry. One time we were in the backyard
and I'm on the ground being the horse and Terry's riding on my
back. And he fell, because I was bucking. He fell backward, and
he landed on my feet, and my toes were bent back, and he landed
on my feet. Oh, man, it hurt so bad. I jumped up and just
got so angry, and I slugged him two or three times as hard as
I could in the arm. And I'll never forget the tears
in his eyes and the shock in his face looking at me for doing
that to him. I wish that I could have taken
it back. I felt like such a monster. You know what? I felt that because
he had always been good to me, my sin in light of his goodness
was even more sinful. Repentance is the work of grace
in the heart of a man that constrains us to loathe ourselves for our
sin because of the goodness of God
in Christ and His love for us. I'll say that again even though
I said it differently than what I wrote it down here. Repentance
is the work of grace in the heart of a man that constrains us to
loathe ourselves for our sin in light of the goodness of God
in Christ and His love for us. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
5. He says this in verse 14. He says, For the love of Christ
constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all,
then we're all dead. And that He died for all, that
they which live should not henceforth live to themselves, but unto
Him which died for them and rose again." Do you see that? The
love of Christ causes us repentance. What did God promise that He
would do to Gomer in the book of Hosea? And in type, what is
He promising He would do to each one of His people to bring them
out of their sin to look to Christ only. He would bring her first
to the end of herself, take her to the wilderness where there
was nothing but Christ to depend upon, and then give himself to
her in his finished work on the cross. Faith in Christ. It's the goodness of God, it
says in Romans 2, that leads us to repentance. True sorrow
is sorrow that I could be so evil against God who has only
shown me goodness. He chose me. He redeemed me. He has borne long with me in
my life. He called me, and He did all
of this by His grace. He upholds me. How can I be so
perverse against one who is so good, so faithful, and so true? Only my wickedness can explain
that. And that makes me cry out, O
wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this
death? You see this? Look at Ezekiel
chapter 36. I want to show you these verses to support my claim
here. Ezekiel 36, verse 31. He says here, verse 31 of Ezekiel 36, "...then shall you
remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not
good, and you shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities
and for your abominations." That's God bringing us to repentance.
The other thing about repentance is that repentance, the true
repentance, not only is a work of grace in our heart that constrains
us to loathe ourselves for our sin for Christ's sake, that God
would be so good to us and makes us cry out, oh wretched man that
I am. But here the other thing about
repentance is that repentance is the twin sister of faith. It's like repentance and faith
are bookends on the same salvation, the same truth of our salvation.
If we haven't believed on Christ, I don't care what you've done
in your life, you haven't repented. And if you say you've believed
on Christ, and yet you haven't turned from your sins, then you
haven't believed Him. They're bookends. Repentance,
Acts 20, 21. Repentance towards God and faith
towards our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at that. Look at that. Turn
to the book of Acts. I'll read a few verses to you.
Look at Acts chapter 20. This is what Paul says. He says
in Acts to the Ephesians, Acts 20 verse 21. He says that this
is what he did. He went from house to house testifying
both to the Jews and also to the Greeks. They're all sinners
so I got to tell them all. Repentance toward God and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Twin sisters, without faith,
I don't care what sins you've put away, you might have put
yourself in a monastery, you might have cut off your body
parts, you might have done everything to rid yourself of your sin,
but unless you have faith in Christ as the only answer to
your soul, for your soul to God, and trust His righteousness alone,
and come to God rejoicing in what He has done, confident that
God has received Him, and not you without Him, and resting
in Him alone, then you haven't repented. And at the same time,
if I say, well, I believe God, but because we're saved by grace,
I can do what I want to do and live like I want to live, then
you haven't believed. You see, these things go hand
in hand. Repentance is the forerunner and the twin sister to faith.
We turn from something to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Turning
without believing is not repentance. and it arrests men to know their
need. Repentance arrests men to know
their need, exposing their sin and commanding them to do what
they cannot do, and then brings us to Christ to find that His
finished work is all that we need. So repentance begins with
the gospel. When the gospel is heard, look
at Acts 2, chapter 2. I'll take you to this verse. Peter preached the sermon in
Acts 2, and at the end of his sermon, It says in verse 37,
Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart,
and said to Peter, to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren,
what shall we do? You see, they were brought to
the end. They realized they were guilty for killing the Lord's
Christ. And Peter said to 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. Change your
mind about Christ. Change your heart Take the stony
heart out and put the fleshly heart. How can I do that? You
can't. But God can. Looking to Christ is your only
hope. He's the only one who can do it. So repentance comes. It's
the work of God for us. And I've already given you a
number of scriptures to show you that repentance is the gift
of God. It says in Acts 3.26, God raised
up Christ to bless you and turning every one of you away from his
iniquities. God exalted him to his right
hand as a prince and savior to give repentance to Israel and
the forgiveness of sins. And when the Gentiles heard these
things in Acts 11-18, they glorified God and said, God has also to
the Gentiles granted repentance to life. So that's what repentance
is. And I hope that these thoughts
will help you. This thing of repentance can
cause us great concern. It can cause us great concern
because we know we're sinners. When we're honest with ourself,
we know we cannot generate what God requires. We know that God's
requirements of us are valid. We know ourselves to be sinners
when we're honest. But when the gospel comes to
us, he shows us that all of our hope is in Christ. Everything
is found in Him. And when we come to rest on Christ
and know that all God requires of me, He looks to His Son for. and all I need from God comes
by His grace, then we come openly, freely confessing who we are.
Sorry that we could be so perverse against such a great and loving
God to give His Son for us. And we lay ourselves low and
we loathe ourselves, we hate ourselves for our sin, but we
rejoice in Christ. It's a sweet experience of grace
to lay your head on your pillow at night and say, Lord, Thank
you that even though I'm perverse in myself, you've promised that
I can come to you as a sinner and receive grace from you to
look to Christ and turn from my sin. Lord, turn us again. Cause your face to shine and
we shall be saved. Let your hand, it says in Psalm
80 verse 17 through 19. You see the prayers of God's
people? God has shown them by His grace. Only He can do this
work of grace in our heart. And the work of grace in us teaches
us what Christ has done for us and convinces us that His work
for us is His love to us and all we need before God. Let us
now go to Him for grace to do what He commands. Lord, turn
us again. Let's pray. Father, we pray that
when we hear what Christ said, we would know that this came
with the authority and the power of the King of Heaven. He sees
us as we are. He knows what we need. He tells
us to repent. Lord, give to us what you require. Give us faith in Him. Help us
to find Him to be our all and not trust ourselves. And turn
us, Lord. Turn us today. Turn us tomorrow.
And keep turning us so that we will always be coming to the
Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, as our Lord, our Master. and
give us this faith, Lord, to look to Him only. In Jesus' name
we pray, amen.