We're continuing in Luke chapter
3 this morning. Last week we looked at the baptism
of John and what that was about. In Verse 7 of Luke chapter 3, John
said to the multitude that came forth to be baptized of him,
O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath
to come? Bring forth therefore fruits
worthy of repentance, and begin not to say within yourselves,
We have Abraham to our father, for I say unto you that God is
able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham. And
now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees, and every
tree therefore that bringeth forth not good fruit is hewn
down and cast into the fire. And then the people asked him,
saying, what shall we do then? And he answered and saith unto
them, he that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath
none, and he that hath meat, let him do likewise. Then came
also publicans to be baptized, and saith unto him, Master, what
shall we do? And he saith unto them, exact
no more than that which is appointed to you. And the soldiers likewise
demanded of him, saying, what shall we do? And he saith unto
them, do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely, and
be content with your wages. And as the people were in expectation,
and all men mused in their hearts of John, whether he were the
Christ or not, John answered, saying unto them, I indeed baptize
you with water. But one mightier than I cometh,
the lachet of whose shoes I'm not worthy to unloose. He shall
baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire, whose fan is in
his hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor and will gather
the wheat into his garner, but the chaff he will burn with fire
unquenchable, and many other things in his exhortation preached
he unto the people." So today, the message today is entitled,
True Repentance. Because all these people, they
wanted to participate in the baptism. They wanted to participate
in the physical ceremonial thing of what was going on. Some came
with one purpose in mind, and some came with another. If you look over to Matthew chapter
3, There's a little bit more information
on that in Matthew chapter 3. In verse 5 it says, Then went
out to him Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round
about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing
their sins. But when he saw many of the Pharisees
and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation
of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come
bring forth therefore fruits of meat for repentance? And he tells them the same thing
about claiming Abraham to their father and so on. And then Jesus comes to him as
well. But we're told a great multitude
came to him for baptism and he was trying to tell them about
repentance. And so from these two scriptural
accounts of the scene before us, we learned that there was
a great diversity of people who came ostensibly for John's baptism. And today we're always looking
for what's the relative application for the church? What's valuable
to the church nowadays? What do we get out of this? And
really, there was a cross-representation of people then, much the same
as what we find today. They had the religious people.
They had the common people. They had the government people.
They had the soldiers. And they all came with something. What should we do? What should
we do? Well, what do we do? Like it's all a different answer.
But it's not. What should we do? And I was
just thinking of that hymn that we sang. There's no spot. There's no spot. And in part of the lesson today,
I was going to mention that here it says we had a couple of people
that are prominent in this block of scripture. The Pharisees and
the Sadducees came to him. And the publicans came to him.
And we have another narrative in the scripture in the New Testament
about a Pharisee and a publican that were praying. And the Pharisee
was praying to himself thus, I have no spot because I do this and I do this
and I do this. And the publican says, man, I've
got so many spots. I don't know how I could ever
be clean. Have mercy on me, Lord, a sinner. What a difference between
the two. And I think that's the kind of
representative of the difference that we see here in Luke chapter
3. The Pharisees and the Sadducees
came and they Really their main interest was, well, who gives
you the authority to do this religious stuff? And then, can
I be next? I want to be able to say, well,
I went to John's baptism but I didn't really need to have
anything that I repented of because I do this and I do that and I
fast and I tie my mustard seed and all those things that Norm
brought out in the sermon that he brought last time. What we have here in John is
just a list of things that people depend on instead of Christ. Those things don't count for
anything. Some came for show, and then some came with a genuine
display of the change of heart. In Matthew it says, some came
confessing their sin. They were like that publican
saying, oh man, I'm pretty spotted up. have mercy on me a poor sinner.
They identified themselves. We're going to get into these
terms here a little bit today. in that scripture that we read
from Matthew 3, 6, and were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing
their sins. And this word, this very term
sins, is from a root word in the Greek
that means to miss the mark. To miss the mark of being righteous.
To miss the mark of understanding anything about God. And in Strong's Concordance, it says,
they came confessing. That means to acknowledge, to
fully agree with, that they had missed the mark. We come admitting that all the
things that we depended on were rubbish. All the things that
we we did, that we clinged on to in our life, missed the mark. Being a sinner, missing the mark regarding God.
Now it's stated in John that he preached the baptism of repentance
for or unto the remission of freedom from sins. And that's that hymn we sang. When we learned that, we've got no spot. And we just
say, how can that be? We missed the mark about everything
about God concerning the way it was, that the way was to be
prepared and to make his path straight.
That's what John said. So I came here to declare the
gospel, to make the paths of God straight, to give it to the people and
they said, well, we have all these things that we've been
doing, what do we do? I love this, there was a hymn
by Augustus Toplady because the Methodist people, the Wesleyans
were always preaching You just repent, repent, repent. You just
need to be sorry. When you're sorry enough for
your sins, here's the process. We make you feel guilty, and
when you feel guilty enough, then the magic wand will tap,
and then God will have mercy on you. But actually, we always
find in Scripture that it's the other way around. And the top
lady says, Wesley, this is bunk. And so he wrote this hymn. He
took some words from a sermon from Wesley. And they were always
kind of going back and forth in the newspapers. And top lady
says, could my tears forever flow? I could never be sorry
enough. I could never cry enough to remove
my spots. Could my zeal no longer low?
I could go to church 85 times a week and just be zealous toward
God, but that for sin could not atone. Thou must save and thou
alone. And so they had this back and
forth that they went. And he says, it's not this emotional,
you have to do something. He was trying to explain to them
that repentance was a fruit of the spirit. that happened to
them, and we're going to prove that in the scriptures today,
because they take all these scriptures out of context and apply it to
man doing something in his own behalf. even a thing as basic
as repentance, where does that come from? How do we achieve
that? How do we get that there's no
spot in me? And what happens when we see
that? How did they miss the mark in
the time of Isaiah? Because in Luke, he says, He's going to come and make the
path straight of God. That was a quote from Isaiah
chapter 40 verse 3. So if we went back to those scriptures
in Isaiah, and we looked at what was going on, and we read those
scriptures, and we look at the perception that people had of
God and their relationship to Him, in Isaiah 40, 25 it says,
to whom then will you liken me? Or shall I be equal, saith the
Holy One? Lift up your eyes on high, and
behold, who hath created these things, that bringeth out their
host by number? He calleth them all by names,
by the greatness of his might. For that he is strong in power,
not one faileth. Not one thing that God has said
failed. And he says, why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest,
O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord. My judgment is passed
over from my God. And Jesus was always saying,
hey, you know what? You guys are like whited sepulchers. You
look pretty decent on the outside, but inside you're just full of
old dead man's bones. You wash your garments, and you
do this, and you do that. but it's all superficial, it's
all physical things. Has thou not known, has thou
not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of
the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There's
no searching his understanding. How can you read a scripture
like that and say, well, I look pretty good on the outside, he's
not gonna see inside me and see what I'm really like. and have
confidence in that. Malachi 3, behold I'll send my
messenger and he'll prepare the way before me. How did they miss
the mark in Malachi? In Malachi's time, how did they
miss the mark about God? In Malachi 1, it says a son on
earth is father and a servant is master. If I then If I then
be a father, where's my honor? Where's God's honor? And Norm
says, will a man rob God in his sermon? How, how, how list of
all the ways you rob God by saying, I don't need him. I have my own
righteousness. I do all these things. If I be
a master, where's my respect? Where's my fear? Sayeth the Lord
of hosts, unto you, O priest that despise my name, and say,
well, where have we despised thy name? And he said, you offer
polluted bread on mine altar and say, wherein have we polluted
thee? In that you say, well, the Lord is contemptible. We
don't need to do the things that picture the sacrifice that's
going to make us spotless. We don't need to do that. We
can just do these other things superficially and check that
box, is what we like to always say. Well, I checked the box
of, I sacrificed this little lamb that only had one eye and
was head to mange and crippled because I couldn't sell it in
the marketplace. God is not going to know any
different. He says, I know the difference. In David's time,
how did they miss the mark in David's time? In Psalm 50 verse
21 says, these things hast thou done and I kept silence. Thou
thoughtest I was altogether such a one as thyself. People, people
think that God is just like us and he is not. I will reprove thee and set them
in order before thine eyes." And when that happens, and you
have a different view of God because that's what repentance
is, just a change of mind, a turning. And you say, how can these things
be? How can I be without spot? And really all these, they're
all saying the same thing. There's a way in Proverbs that
says, there's a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the ends
are the ways of death. Proverbs 14 and Proverbs 16. It says that twice exactly the
same way. So it's important. Romans 10
verse three says, They being ignorant of God's righteousness,
and going about to establish their own righteousness, have
not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. They
said, my way is just as good as God's way. My way is okay. I fast twice in the week, and
I give tithes of everything, and I go to church three times
a week. I've been baptized. I have all
these things in my, I've checked all these boxes. The Pharisees
and the Sadducees came to John and they seemed to say, we're
qualified for baptism. We have no need of repentance
because we're already keeping the law and we're already the
children of Abraham. We were never in bondage. They have self-dependence. They're
just and right in their own eyes. And the multitude came to John,
and some of them said the same thing, but some of them came
confessing that they were sinners. They said, how can I be without
spot? How can it be that God has blotted out my transgressions
like a thick cloud over the glaring light of what's shown them up
to me. They came and they said, we're
sinners and we've been guilty of missing the mark. Jesus said
in Luke chapter 5, They that are whole need not a physician,
but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance." They're called to it. Some were
convinced by the Spirit of God that the heart they had is desperately
wicked, deceitful above all things, because it tells them, I've done
all these things. I've checked all these boxes. Who can know it? Acknowledgement
of that only comes by one way, and that's the way of the Holy
Spirit through the new birth. That's how that person comes
to that knowledge about the heart that Jeremiah talked about in
chapter 17, verse 9. The heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? So as we take
a hard look at some of these important words that are given
to us by the Holy Spirit, let's take notice of the meanings.
Let's take notice of how they're achieved. Well, sin is missing
the mark about God and His righteousness and our enmity against Him, all
the things that we deny in our natural state. Confessing is
to agree to acknowledge that we're missing the mark, that
we're We're at enmity with God. Hawker stated that it's turning
from head to heart. How succinctly he put that. It's
a turning from the head to the heart. And that heart is the
new heart that Ezekiel talks about in 36. Ezekiel 36, he says,
I'll give you a new heart and a new spirit. Take out the old
heart that's deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked,
and no one can know it. Take that away, and I give you
a new heart, a heart that knows me, a spirit from me. And I'll put that within you,
and cause you to walk in my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do
them. And you shall dwell in the land I gave to your fathers.
I'll save you from your spots, your wrinkles, your uncleanness. I'll multiply the fruit, increase
the field. Then, he says, then you're going
to look at yourself in your own evil ways and your doings that
were not good, and you're going to say, how can that be? That's the part where repentance
comes in. You look at yourself in the light
that God has shown you and say, how can I be without spot? You look at your own ways and
loathe yourself in your own sight. And you say, God have mercy on
me, a poor sinner, because that's what you acknowledge. You've
missed the mark. The word true, it's an interesting
word, because the title of the message today is true repentance.
And this word true that we find in the New Testament I don't know that I pronounced
that right, but it means not concealed, not hid. Many came to John's baptism and
confessed. They readily acknowledged being
sinners, that they'd missed the mark of God regarding his righteousness
and their need of a savior, and they recognized that the Messiah
had What had come is what John was saying. I'm here to declare
that Christ is here. To the religious, the Pharisees,
the Sadducees, they missed, and they continue to miss, the mark
about God and the need for a Savior. And they still relied on their
own righteousness and heritage through Abraham. John told them
that they couldn't depend on that. They couldn't depend on
that for salvation. The straight path to God is only
in Christ. And therefore bring some evidence
that indicates that you've turned from depending on all that junk
to turn to Christ. That you are fleeing to Christ. Bring some evidence of that.
And the people said, well what should we do? And it's really
the same answer that he gave to the Pharisees. Whatever it
is you were depending on, throw that away. Whatever it was, your profession of faith, or
you're signed here. I got baptized when I was an
infant. My parents always went to church,
and they always took me. Therefore, I've gone to church
all my life. I'm good. throw that all out, what should
we do? Show some evidence of grace in
your heart. Show some evidence of how can my spots be all clean? How could that have happened?
And it's really just a metaphor for the gospel of hope, sharing
what you have with those that have none. And that's really
true today because there's You just watch the news, and there's
a lot of people out there today that just have no hope, and they're
depending on all these things that they're used to depending
on, and they have no hope, and they're scared, and they're frightened.
And the Bible says, well, you should
be ready to share with anybody that comes up to you and asks
about the hope that lies within you. Sanctify the Lord God in your
hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that
asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness
and fear. Not with, well, I have hope because
I go to church three times a week and I give tithes of all that
I have and I fast three times a week and blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah. I pray all the time in the open where everybody can
see me. That's not meekness in respect of God. That's just like,
I, I, I, I, I, and not Christ in me. The publicans, they ask, what
shall we do? It's just not a different question. Render unto Caesar the things
that be Caesar's, what Jesus said. You have to do that. You
remember those publicans, they were tax collectors, is just
what that word means. And the Romans were in charge
of the country and they said, you people pay me a tax. And this is how much it is. And
the tax collectors were in charge of making sure they exacted that
amount and delivered it to Rome the 15th of April every year. And how did they make money?
They got to exact whatever tax that they wanted. And I kind
of made a little joke about it years ago when we were studying
this about publicans and their taxing. They would have a wheel
tax on the cart that brought their goods. How many legs does your donkey
have? We have a leg tax on your donkey there. Whatever way they could extort
money out of the people, that's what they did. They did it a lot. Matthew said, whatever I've taken
I'll give it back seven fold. I'm really sorry for what I did.
Well, what happened to him that made him do that? God shined
a light in his heart. He says, I've been missing the
mark. The soldiers demanded of him,
what should we do? And he said, do no violence.
Do violence to no man. Well, that word violence means
to grab somebody and just shake them. It's kind of where we get
the term shakedown. I'm not going to quit shaking
you until all your money falls out on the floor and I get to
pick it up. And they would go into through
town and they would see somebody and they would grab them. maltreat
them until they paid them to stop. And then they would accuse
people of stuff. Well, we're in charge here. And if you don't pay us, we're
going to mention to the governor that you've been up to sedition,
that you're a rabble rouser, that you're a troublemaker. Okay, I'll give you my money
if you just won't accuse me, because they're going to throw
me in prison and maltreat me if you accuse me. He says, don't
do that. Show some evidence of grace in
your heart. Show why you're without spot. Show some evidence of grace in
your heart. True repentance then, is acknowledging that we're sinners
and we're turning from depending on our own righteousness to trusting
the righteousness of Christ our Savior. We have a change of mind
about God. We're not missing the mark anymore.
We say, oh, we're like Isaiah. He says, I saw the Lord. I fell down on my knees like I
was dead. It's what John said. Isaiah said,
I saw him high and lifted up. And I said, woe is me. I'm a
man. He says, I've got spots. I'm a man of unclean lips in
the midst of a people of unclean lips. And you know what? The
angel of the Lord took a coal and touched him and said, you're
clean. We've changed our mind about
God, and where were we in our old nature? We missed the mark
about God. It says we were like sheep going
astray, but we're now returned to the bishop of our souls, the
shepherd and bishop of our souls. We've been turned from where
we were to where we are now. 1 Peter 2.25, turning from what
must I do to what Christ has done. It's
all the difference in the world. What must I do? What can I do? Jesus paid it all. The Lord is
nigh to them that are a broken heart and saveth such as be as
a contrite spirit. Well, we get that contrite spirit
from Him giving us repentance, Him giving us a view of what
we were in truth, and then saying, because of what I did, I don't
see any spots. So how does one achieve true
repentance? Can we ever, by our own merits, ever be repentant? as top ladies, could my tears
forever flow? Could I ever cry enough to be
sorry enough to pay for my sins? Well, no, you can't. Firstly, the scripture says that
it's the goodness of God that leads you to repentance. It says
that in Romans 2.4. Secondly, this repentance is
a mercy that's granted by God. In Acts, the 11th chapter, verse
18 says, when they heard these things, they held their peace
and glorified God, saying, then hath God also to the Gentiles,
not only to the Jews, but to the Gentiles, granted, and that
word means to give or bestow repentance unto life. He gave
it. They didn't earn it. It wasn't
something they did. He gave it to them. Repentance
unto life. Sinners are called to repentance
by the Lord. Jesus said, I came not to call
the righteous, but to sinners to repentance. He calls them.
And those that Jesus calls effectually are the people given to him by
the Father in the covenant of grace. All that the Father giveth
me shall come to me. And John 10 says, I know my sheep. I call them by name. And they
come to me. They hear my voice. Every single
one given to the Son absolutely will come to repentance. A turning from self, a turning
to God. 2 Peter 3.9, this is one verse
that's always taken out of context and used maliciously in religion. The Lord is not slack concerning
his promise. Well, who did he make a promise
to? Let's ask ourselves that. As some men count slackness,
but is long-suffering to usward." Well, who is the usward that
he is writing to in this epistle? Not willing that any should perish.
Is that anybody in the world, or is he writing to a specific
group of people in this epistle? But that all should come to repentance. Not should, in our modern vernacular,
you should stop that. That means you ought to stop
that. But in Strong's Concordance it says that word really means
to pass or enter. All should enter. He's not slack
concerning his promise to the church. not willing that any
of his people should perish. He'll not lose a single one.
But all should enter into repentance, is what that really, what that
word means. Not should come into, or not
should come to repentance. Like, we just come to a state
of mind where, well I guess I better go repent. He causes us to enter into a
state of repentance, and when we do that we say, How can it
be? I love that song, that hymn. How can I be without spot? Jeremiah. Well, let's back up a little
bit because true repentance is just not a show, which is what
John was dealing with here. Not all the cases, but in a lot
of the cases it was just something else to do, another box to check
for this baptism. It was just another box to check. Joel, in chapter 2 verse 13,
he says, rend your heart, not your garment. Isn't that succinct? Isn't that
a telling? I'm so repentant I'm just tearing
up my clothes so everybody will know that I'm... And he says,
true repentance is rending your heart and saying, I'm a sinner. God have mercy on me. Rend your heart, not your garments
and turn unto the Lord your God, he said. So true repentance and
trusting God comes from above and cannot and will not be by
myself. Isaiah In chapter 30 verse 15
he says, Thus saith the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel,
in returning and rest you'll be saved. In quietness and confidence
it'll be your strength. But you know what he says then?
That you would not. That's how we are by nature before
he works on us. You would not. Jeremiah. Some of these Old Testament
scriptures, they just put it so plainly, like Ezekiel. I'll
give you a new heart. Then, you're going to look at
yourself and you're going to be saying, how can that be? Well, Jeremiah in chapter 31,
verse 19 says, Surely, after I was turned, I repented. Now, how much plainer could that
be? After I was turned, I repented. And after that, I was instructed
And he said, and then I smote my thigh and I was ashamed. Confounded. He said, I was confounded. Because he says, how can it be? How can I be without that spot?
He says, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. He looked
back and says, all these years I missed the mark. and I tried
to deny God or say I did all these things. After I turned, I repented. I had a change of mind about
God and about missing the mark there. In closing, we are about
out of time here, but turn with me to Acts chapter 3. I just
love this narrative that's given to us in Acts chapter 3. And there was a man, crippled
man, a beggar, lame from his mother's
womb. It's just a picture of how we
are spiritually. no ability, no power, and he
laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful,
to ask alms of them that entered the temple. He was asking for
money. And that's what he depended on. That was his dependence. Even
a beggar, a crippled guy that couldn't walk, he clung to this,
well, Here's what I can do, I can beg. Give me money. And they walked by. Peter and
John were about to go in the temple and he looked at them
and he said, give me money. I'm a cripple. I'm clinging to
that. And they said, well, silver and
gold we don't have. But such as we have, we'll give
you that. And they gave him the gospel. We're going to cut to the end
of the chapter, to verse 26, and then we're going
to kind of back up a little bit to get the meat of it. But this guy, they took him up and
he walked. In verse 26, unto you, first
God, having raised up his son Jesus, sent him to bless you
in turning away every one of you from his iniquities. That
is the blessing of God through his son that he gives to his
people. He gave us his son to turn us
away from his iniquities. And then back up to verse 16. And his name, that's the name
of Jesus, through faith in his name, hath made this man strong,
whom ye see and know. Yea, the faith which is by him,
that's Christ, not that this man had any faith, because he
was saying, give me money. And they gave him the gospel. The faith which is by him, by
Christ, hath given him this perfect soundness. You could underline
that in your Bible. Faith in what Christ has done
hath given him perfect soundness in the presence of you all. Isn't
that just, that guy got up and says, I don't have a spot. I don't have a wrinkle. The lane made to walk, perfect
soundness. So true repentance, it's not
just, well, I think I better go down and repent of my sins
tomorrow and turn over a new leaf. It's having that light
shined in you by the Holy Spirit that says, Christ died for your
sins, and you have no spot, and you say, man, I had so many spots,
I don't know how that could happen. How can these things be? All right, we'll close there.
Thanks for your attention.