Good morning. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 450. 450. There will never be
a sweeter story. ? The story of the Savior's love
divine ? ? Love that brought him from the realms of glory
? ? Just to save a sinful soul like mine ? ? Isn't the love
of Jesus something more ? Isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful? Wonderful it is to me. Boundless as the universe surrounding,
reaching to the Look beyond our human comprehension Christ, how can it be? This will be my theme and never
ending. Great Redeemer, God of Galilee. Isn't the love of Jesus something
wonderful? Wonderful. Be seated we'll sing hymn number
314 314 in the arms of faith, and be
closer drawn to thee. Draw me nearer, nearer, blessed
Lord, to the cross where of grace. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, to the cross where Thou hast died. Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, ? O the pure delight of a single
hour ? ? That before thy throne I spin ? ? When I kneel in prayer
with thee, my God ? ? Thy commune has sprung with praise ? nearer, nearer, blessed Lord,
to the cross where Thou hast died. To be nearer, nearer, nearer,
blessed Lord, to Thy precious bleeding Son. ? Across the narrow sea ? ? There
are heights of joy that I may not reach ? ? Till I rest in
peace with thee ? ? Blessed Lord, to the cross where
thou hast died ? ? Draw me nearer, nearer, nearer, blessed Lord
? ? To thy precious bleeding side ? Let's read together the 51st
Psalm. 51st Psalm. This is David's prayer. After he sinned with Bathsheba,
Nathan told him that he was the man. Have mercy upon me, O God,
according to Thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude
of Thy tender mercies. blot out my transgressions, wash
me throughly from mine iniquity, cleanse me from my sin, for I
acknowledge my transgression and my sin as ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have
I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. He said, ever how you deal with
me, that'll be fine. You're God, I'm the one that's
done the sinning. That's why I want mercy. So God, when you
justify yourself, speak, you'll be clear when you judge me. Behold,
I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me. Behold, thou desires truth in
the inward parts, And in the hidden part shalt thou make me
to know wisdom, purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones which thines broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from
my sins, and blot out all mine iniquities. Create in me a clean
heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence,
and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation. Uphold me with thy free spirit. Then will I teach transgressors
thy ways, and sinners shall be converted unto thee. Deliver
me from blood guiltiness, O God, thou God of my salvation. and
my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. O Lord, open
thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise, for thou
desirest not sacrifice. If that's what you did, I'd give
it, and you delight not in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of
God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. O God, thou
wilt not despise. Do good in thy pleasure, good
pleasure, undesigned, build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then
shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness,
with righteousness, with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings.
Then shall they offer bullocks upon thine altar. Oh, our Father, our God, You're
the God, you're the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And that
makes you our God and our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ to
be our Redeemer, our Savior. The one who loved us gave himself
for us. The one who loved us with an
everlasting love and with the cords of a man drew us unto himself. Oh Lord, blessed be your holy
name. As David said, put it in our lips and open our lips that
we may sing praises and give praise unto thee with the voices
of our mouth, with the meditations of our heart, with the depths
of our soul. May we look unto you and cry
unto you and trust you. As he said, dear, the God of
our salvation, There's no salvation but what you give. There's no
salvation but what you uphold. There's no salvation but part
what you don't keep. And so, Lord, God, make us to
know that, to believe that with all our heart and soul. And,
Lord, make us to look unto you, trust you, bow to you, commit
ourselves to you. And, oh, Lord, unite our hearts
to fear thy blessed name. Lord, we've gathered here to
worship. We've gathered here to magnify your holy name. And we've gathered here and we
hopefully, by your blessed grace and the power of the Holy Spirit,
someone will be converted unto you. Someone within their heart
of hearts be spoken to by the Holy Spirit and be brought to
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And oh Lord, please bring glory
to yourself. Please be merciful and gracious
to those that are sick, weak, and frail in body. And Lord,
bless the gospel as it goes out today. We ask it for Christ's
sake. Amen and amen. Number 29 in our course books. 29 in our course books. On a hill
far away died the Christ of the cross. to suffering and shame. And there in His grace He died
in my place, the purpose of God to fulfill. And before His throne I'll bow
down And sing, hear the cries of the cross For He is the O the Christ of the Cross, so
despised by the world. left his glory above. To there, O I, sit on the tree. ? Sing to the Christ of the cross
? ? For he is the king I must crown ? ? In the Christ of the
cross and in the cross alone ? ? Of others' beauty I see ? Gently open my eyes ? That long
had been blind ? To behold him now on his throne So I'll cherish the Christ of
the cross Then before His throne I'll bow down I will sing For he is the King I must crown
To the Christ of the Cross I must ever be true For in love he constrains Till
all shall be gained And his glory forever I'll share So I'll cherish throne I'll bow down. I will cling to Christ of the
cross, for he is the We'll stand together and sing
the hymn of the day in the bulletin. Let them neglect thy glory, Lord,
who never of thy praise. T'was seed and will adore his
name that formed us by a word. Tis he restores our ruined frame. Oh, say does that star-spangled
banner yet wave O'er the land of the free and the home of the
brave? Now I want you to look with me
back to Mark, chapter 1. Book of Mark, chapter 1, where
we're preaching from. First was the beginning of the
gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Last week was about the voice and the messenger. Today I want to talk about repentance. Repentance. Look here in verse 4 and 5. 1
John 4 and 5. And John did baptize in the wilderness,
and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And
there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem,
and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing
their sins." Biblical repentance, what is
it? What is repentance actually? What is it? And there are so
many, many truths in God's blessed book, the Bible, in the scriptures,
and in the gospel. So many in the gospel. And you
know what? Men make works out of them. God
will give a man a gift and he'll make a work out of it. Men will
make a work out of faith. He makes a work out of faith.
Preachers tell him he's got to exercise it. God won't save you
if you don't believe this, if you don't believe that, and don't
believe something else. They make a work out of faith.
And then they certainly do make a work out of repentance. You
know, they say, repent of your sins. You know, that's not in
the Bible. Repent of your sins is not in
the scriptures. Repentance is in the scriptures,
but repent of your sins, that's not in the Bible. Not in the
scriptures at all. You know, preachers preach, turn
from your sins, be sorry for your sins. Don't return to your sins. My goodness, I'd certainly not
like to return to mine, that's for sure. I got so many to turn from, I
don't know which way to turn. You know, when you're nothing
but that, what do you turn from? And then they say, well, if you're
sorry enough, if you're sorry enough, sorry over your sins,
how sorry is enough? How sorry is enough? If you turn
from your sins, have sufficient sorrow for them, don't return
to them, then God will forgive you of your sins. There's not
one ounce of gospel in that. Not no gospel at all in that. Not a drop. Not a drop. Not a drop. John was the last
Old Testament prophet. And he is the subject of prophecy. You think the Old Testament prophets
had a different message than we have or John had or anybody
else had? John 5.39 says this, Our Lord
told them, Search the scriptures, for in them ye think ye have
eternal life. But they, the scriptures, are
they which testify of who? Me. Peter says to him, when he was
preaching to Cornelius, to him, to him, to Christ, ALL the prophets
give witness. And let me ask you this, you
think that John's baptism was different than the baptism we
have? No. No. Uh-uh. You know, Christ hadn't
died, Christ hadn't even come, but these folks were being baptized,
making a confession, making a confession of their sin, making a confession
that they had a changed mind, making a confession that they
were looking for Christ, looking to Christ and what He would accomplish
by His death on that cross. And you know when the scriptures
tells us in Ephesians 4, 5, there's only one baptism, only one, only
one baptism. Let me tell you what baptism's
not. Baptism's not sprinkling. It's not sprinkling. It's not
taking a baby and going to some priest or some rabbi or some
preacher and sprinkling water on his head and say, he's in
the covenant and he's going to be saved because he's in the
covenant. And I tell you, it's not sprinkling people. And I
do also know this, it's just not pouring. It's not pouring. And you know, here's the thing
about it. Baptists are bad. and religious people are bad.
If you don t baptize infants, you know, if the Lutherans and
Catholics and them, if they don t baptize them, Presbyterians,
they baptize infants. But here s the thing about it,
the difference between baptizing an infant, which there s no scripture,
there s not a verse of scripture in the Bible that would do anything
about that, but Baptists come along and they gun them up to
the front and they lay their baby on an altar and have everybody
come up and pray over it and DEDICATE it to the Lord. But
you know what believers do if they're gonna have a child? You know what they say, Lord,
please, please do something for my child before he's ever brought
into this world. And I'll tell you what, baptism
is not sprinkling, pouring, baptizing an infant. None of these things
are baptism. And John the Baptist come preaching.
Look what he said in verse four here. John did baptize in the
wilderness and preach. He preached. He preached the
baptism of remission and the baptism of repentance. He was
actually preaching that Christ would come and do for them what
He couldn't do, but still yet they come up there in repentance.
Let me tell you something. Repentance is made up of two
words, metaneo, metaneo. Now that's a mouthful, I don't
know exactly what it means, but I did look it up and it means
baptism. And you know what baptism means? It means having a change
of mind, or repentance is. Mateo, repentance made up of
two words, mateneo. But anyway, repentance in Mateo
means this, a change of mind, a change of mind, a different
way of looking at things. And I tell you what, And we won't
have a change of mind concerning God, concerning the scriptures,
concerning the gospel, concerning anything unless God changes our
mind. Our minds have to be changed.
You know, when I talked about faith being a work and repentance
being a work, you know why I know that those people use them for
that? Because I myself did it when I first started. I was as
much of a works preacher as anybody that's ever walked this earth.
And what changed my mind? What caused me to change? What happened to me that made
me become a grace believer? What happened to me that made
me believe in the free and sovereign grace of God? What changed me
and changed my mind to make me believe in the gospel, that Jesus
Christ is only Savior? God did! And when God changes
your mind, THAT'S REPENTANCE! This idea of being so sorry over
your sins and have to go over here and pray and pray and pray
and pray and come back and hope that you'll pray enough and God
will forgive you enough, and then you've got to go back and
the first time you sin, start all over again! Who wants that? I don't want that, do you? Oh,
God changes our minds! Oh, my! And I'll tell you something
else, repentance, like faith, is the gift of God. Huh? The gift of God. I want you to
look in Acts chapter 5 with me. Keep Mark, John, Acts chapter
5. Look over here in Acts chapter
5. Look what he says here in verse 31. talking about Christ being raised
up, had been hanged on a tree, and God raised Him up again.
But in John, Acts 5, 31, Him, Him, Christ, hath God exalted
with His right hand to be a Prince and a Savior, listen to this,
to GIVE repentance, to GIVE repentance to Israel and forgiveness of
sins. Acts 11, 18, you don't have to
turn there, but let me read it to you. And when they heard these
things, they held their peace and glorified God, saying, Then
hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life."
Both of them's gifts! If God don't give you faith,
you ain't gonna believe. If God don't give you repentance,
you ain't gonna have a change of mind. That's just the way
it is. And for remission of sins, THEIR MIND IS CHANGED TOWARD
THEIR SIN. AIN'T THAT WHAT IS SAID HERE
IN MARK 5 AND VERSE 5? AND THEY WERE BAPTIZED OF HIM
IN THE RIVER OF JORDAN. WHAT WAS THEY DOING? CONFESSING,
CONFESSING THEIR SIN. OH, THAT'S WHAT DAVID WAS DOING
IN ACTS 51, JOHN, EXCUSE ME, PSALM 51. HE WAS REPENTING OF
HIS SIN, REPENTING OF HIS SINS. NOW, LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING. And the goodness of God, about
repentance, the goodness of God, the goodness of God leads, takes
a man and gets him and leads him to what? Repentance. Leads him to it. And so let's
talk about biblical repentance, scriptural repentance, true repentance,
biblical repentance, a change of mind that we're talking about,
which repentance is. It's like everything else, it
has to begin with a new birth. You've got to be born again before
you can do anything. You've got to have a new, you
have to have a new life. You have to have a, and you know
in this business of repentance has to do with the inward man.
It don't have nothing to do with his flesh. It has to do with
the heart, it has to do with the inward man. has to do with
God taking a man and changing his nature, giving him a new
nature, making him partakers of the divine nature. And you
know our Lord Jesus Christ, and it's a thing of the heart. Most
folks think that repentance is quit doing something with your
hand. No, no, it's a thing of the heart. You can quit all the
things you want to do with your hand, but that's got nothing
to do with it. God has to give you a new heart. And I do know
this, it's like the Pharisees. God cleanses us up on the inside. But He told the Pharisees, He
said, you're like an old cup and an old platter. You wash
the outside of it, but within you're like an old rotten thing.
You're all corrupt, all corrupt. And let me say a few things about
this. I know that it's a heart. Everything has to start with
a heart. And repentance, a change of mind, and God's got to give
us a new heart. The Scriptures tells us God said
it this, He said, My son, what do you want? Give me your heart. As a man thinketh in his heart,
that's what he is. What do you think of yourself?
What do you think about God? What do you think about sin?
What do you think about having a relationship with God? What
do you think about works? What do you think about righteousness?
This is the things I'm talking about. Huh? Oh my. And I tell you what, he changes
your mind. And out of the abundance of the
heart, the mouth speaks. A man's relationship, because
of this new birth and because of this change of mind that God
gives a man when he gives him a new heart, a man's relationship
can always be known by what he does. Why he does what we say
with your hand, but it can always be known if you could look at
his heart. If you look at his heart, you know, I've, I've,
people seen me do some awful things, say some awful things,
act some awful ways, but I'm thankful that God looks on the
heart, huh? Looks on the heart. Oh my. It's like David. He was a man
after God's own heart. And this fella, Nabel, wouldn't
feed him, wouldn't give his men no food. He said, I'm going to
go down there and I'm going to kill that neighbor. I'm going
to kill him. David had a murder in it. He
said, I'm going to go down there and kill him. And his wife, Abigail,
ran out there and said, oh, don't do that. Don't do that. He's
a fool. Don't waste your time on that. And oh, my. But see, he had it in his mind
to do that. But if God looked at his heart
and said, this man got heartless like mine. You reckon if you'd
have seen David going down there to take a sword and go cut that
fella's head off, you reckon you'd have said, boy, there ain't
no way in the world David's ever don't know the Lord. See, that's
what I'm talking about. This thing's a condition of the
heart. And a man's relationship with God is not always seen in
his actions and how he acts sometimes. Oh my, it's like, here's Elijah,
this great prophet. He stands. And he's against 850
false prophets. And you all know the story. Dig
a big old ditch here. Dig it, dig it, dig it, dig a
big old deep ditch. Fill it up with all kinds of
water. But he said, first of all, whoever's God let him answer
with fire. And you know the story, I tell
you, God consumed all of his sacrifice and those fellas just
jumped and whipped and cut their self and everything. And then
the next day, Jezebel, Jezebel said this, she said, that man's
as good as dead. You know what he done? He stood
against all those false prophets, prayed a 63-word prayer. Jezebel
said, I'm gonna kill him. You know what he done? He run
like a coward. He run and hid. He got scared
till he told her to death. All these false prophets seen
the fire of God fall, And then a woman says she's gonna kill
him, and he slinks off, scared to death. Oh, you say, how many times have
you, because of your actions, you said, oh my goodness, how
can I be saved to do that? Ain't you thankful God looks
at the heart? Huh? Oh my. And I tell you what, here's
this strong man, Oh, a man's relationship with God can't always
be clear in the manners and the way he acts, but his motive is
ALWAYS for the glory of God. It's like when Simon Peter, he
denied the Lord three times, denied the Lord three times.
Oh my! And he said that with his mouth,
but in his heart, in his heart, He still loved Christ. He still
trusted Christ. He still needed Christ in his
heart. Oh my, that's what I'm talking
about. This is what our mind changes about what real repentance
is. Our mind changes about what a
person says or how he acts or what he does or the manner he
does something in. We don't look at those things
because we know that God, he don't look at those. He looks
at Christ. If God dealt with us as we act sometimes, as we
say sometimes, as we deal with other people sometimes, we wouldn't
have a Chinaman's Change. We'd be like a snowball in a
blast furnace. You know, I know that's kind
of crass, but it's the truth. Ain't that right? And this is
true of all of God's children in the Bible. Abraham, you look
at Abraham, he done some terrible things. Lot, Noah, Jacob, and this shows
us that repentance is an inward work. Job said, The ROOT of the
matters in me. Now, let me deal with a few things
about what repentance is, really, really not. Now, I'll tell you
what, this is what most folks have in religion. There's an
OUTWARD form of repentance brought about by a lot of different things,
And it's more impressive to the natural eye than this heart work
that God does for a man. See, the natural eye, he can't
see the heart. All they see is the external
things, the religious things, the things that's often impressed. Look over here with me in Luke
chapter 16. Look in Luke 16. I'm going the
wrong way. You know, that's what happens with so many
people. You know, the flesh is easy to impress. Easy by false
spirituality. Oh, I tell you, it's so easy
to impress. Oh my, folks come in and they are easy to cry and
easy to be moved to tears and easy to be moved to emotional
state. But look what our Lord here said about these fellows
in Luke 16, 15. They was making fun. They was
deriding Christ. And He said unto them, Ye are
they which justify yourselves before men. You're interested
in how men think of you. HOW MEN VIEW YOU, BUT GOD KNOWS
YOUR HEARTS. FOR THAT WHICH IS HIGHLY ESTEEMED
AMONG MEN IS ABOMINATION IN THE SIGHT OF GOD." Oh, my. Flesh is easy to impress, very
easy to impress. Those Pharisees would stand and
pray, and everybody would say, Boy, them fellas, man, they're
dedicated. They're really something. And
then there's this outward form of religion. Oh my, that's very,
very impressive. That talks about conversion and
repentance brought by different things. People are afraid of
being punished. Being punished. You know, this
is one thing where, you know how many folks have got jailhouse
religion in their lifetime? You go up here to the county
jail right now, Go up to the county jail, and you go in there
and ask them how many folks have accepted Jesus since they've
been in there. How many of them started reading
their Bible since they've been in there? But boy, boy, I mean,
you know, they like that stuff. You know, Milton Howard preaches
at a federal prison down in Louisiana. And I've been in there several
times, and that place, you know, they'll pack that place out.
I mean, they'll just be waiting in line to get there. You know
why? They ain't got nowhere else to go. And that's the way it
is with religion. Ain't got, you know, got to do
something. I got to be, I got to do something. I got to dress
myself up. I got to change the way I do
things. Oh my. Cain had that kind of religion. He said, My punishment's greater
than I can bear. Esau had that kind of repentance.
He sought repentance, and he couldn't find it, and he cried
after it. He shed tears about it, and he
had repentance, but oh, God said he couldn't find it. Why? Because
he sold everything that was worth anything so he could have a meal
to fill his belly with. Oh my, and I tell you what, Simon
Magus, we heard about him a couple weeks ago, said, pray for me,
he got in his billfold and got his pocket out and said, here's
some silver, here's some gold, let me have this gift that you
fellas got. Simon Peter said, you're gonna
perish. You're gonna perish. You can't buy what God's got
with silver and gold. But oh my. Great trials and great
sicknesses and troubles and distress will cause people to have a kind
of repentance. Pharaoh, you know Pharaoh, it
says nine times, nine times he repented and said, I'll let Israel
go. But he didn't until God went
through there that night and killed the firstborn of every
creature. Nine times he said, I repent. I repent. Nine times he did.
Oh my. And how many times did Saul
repent over trying to kill David? How many times did he repent?
And then Saul still tried to kill him. And I tell you, here's
the thing that causes an outward form of religion. Very, very
impressive. It impresses the eye. An emotional response to
strong preachers and preaching. You know what it says about Herod?
He really liked to listen to John. The scripture said, he
said, he heard John gladly, gladly. But you know what he ended up
doing about John? Cutting his head off. Feelings. They brought Paul in
to preach before. Paul the apostle brought him
out of jail and brought him up there, and there they sat in
their robes, and the governor and the king and all them sitting
around, and Paul preached to them of RIGHTEOUSNESS! And all Felix heard him, and
he trembled at Paul's preaching, and then he turned around and
spoke against him. I said, this fella, he said,
listen, he said, listen to him, he said, your much learning has
made you crazy. He said, I'm not crazy, I'm not
mad. He started preaching Christ to
him, and that fella said, you must be crazy because I can't
believe what you're saying. You gonna talk to a governor
that way, a king that way? Don't you know who I am? Yeah,
I know who you are. God does too. Oh my, and then
there's a temporary repentance. Oh my, that folks has. But oh
my. Oh, I thank God, the goodness
of God, the goodness of God leads us, leads us to repentance. Oh my. And I'm gonna tell you,
somebody didn't repent. That rich man in hell, did you
ever find him saying, I'm sorry? Huh? No. No. I'll tell you something I've
been thinking about. And I told my wife, my sweet Shirley, the
other day this. I said, you know, I think about people dying. And
I think about them dying immediately. Just a heart attack, gone. Getting
shot in the heart, gone. In an automobile wreck, gone.
They don't have no time to repent. They don't have none to pray.
They don't have time to do nothing. And if they died just like that
in a snap of a finger, they're gone. And there's no repentance. Oh, how many people have been
set. Dexter died sitting at your table. As a fellow years ago. I used to, he worked on my mowers
and chainsaws and things. And he was having a big 4th of
July picnic in his backyard. They was all eating and all that.
And he was sitting there eating with them. He fell over on the
table, gone just that quick. So whatever happens in this life,
God's got to lead you to it. God's got to lead you to it.
Oh my. And I tell you, it's a gift.
It's a gift. And I'm going to show you something.
Look in Revelations with me. Look in Revelations with me.
Revelation, let me see what it is. 16. Revelation 16. I want you to see something over
here. Revelation 16, verse 8. You know what? You know David,
When he took Bathsheba, you know, God had to lead him to repentance. God had to break his heart. You know that? He was feeling
good about what, you know, he wasn't worried about what he'd
done until Nathan came along and preached to him. That's why
he said, Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. Oh, Lord,
cleanse me. And look what he said here in
verse 8 and 9, Revelation 16. And the fourth angel poured out
his vial upon the sun, and power was given unto him to scorch
men with fire. And men were scorched with great
heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over
these plagues. And they repented not to give
him the glory." He said, I'm not going to give him no glory.
I'm not going to give him no glory. I'm not going to do it. All right. Go back here to this
change of mind, what is repentance? Oh, this thing, this thing of
repentance, this thing that changes our mind. You know, when God
gives us a change of mind, and you know what real repentance
is, biblical repentance does? It acknowledges, listen, it acknowledges
God's sovereign right to do what He will with His own. Now, you've
had a change of mind about that, huh? Oh, my! God s got a sovereign right to
do with His ill. Is it not right for me to do
what I will with mine own, is what He told them in Matthew
20? Huh? Oh, Samuel went and told
Eli, he said, God s going to kill both of your sons, You know
what Eli said? Oh, that ain't fair. Oh, there
ain't nothing right about that. God gonna kill both my kids at
the same time? You know what he said? It's the
Lord. Let him do what seemeth good.
Huh? Oh, my Job said, the Lord gave,
and the Lord took it away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
That's what a change of mind God gave us. That's the repentance
he led us to. Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, he thought,
look, he went out and said, look at all this great Babylon that
I've created. Look at this thing. You know
what God did to him? Put him out. Seven years he was
out there in the middle of nowhere. He stayed out there so long,
his hair grew so long, it looked like feathers hanging down. His
fingernails grew so long, they looked like claws. And the scripture
said his reason returned unto him, and he said, this one thing
I know, that the inhabitants of the earth, including me, are
reputed as nothing. And he does according to his
will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and nobody can stay his hand. That's what he taught
a heathen king. Huh? Oh, what a change of mind
that is. I thank God he changed my mind.
Oh, I thank God he did. And I'll tell you what, here's
another thing about true biblical repentance, about a change of
mind. We own the holiness of God and own our own sinfulness
and corruption. God's holy, but I'm sinful. God's righteous, but I'm corrupt. We're like Isaiah, when we saw
the glory of the Lord, you know what the first thing we said?
Oh, Lord, woe is me! What am I going to do in light
of your holiness? What am I going to do? Job said,
I heard about you with the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees
you. What do you feel like, Job? Oh, I worry myself. I'm a whore myself, and I tell
you this, Lord, if thou shouldst mark iniquities, who would be
able to stand? And once you ever see your sinfulness
and corruption, that's one thing you never get over. That's what
makes us need Christ. That's what makes us need the
gospel. And I tell you, here's another
thing. When God gives us biblical repentance and changes our mind,
we justify God in His judgment against sin. We justify God,
listen to me, in His judgment against sin. Let me ask you,
just like David said, said, Lord, it's against thee, against thee. Oh, well, you killed Joab, but
it's against you. You took Bathsheba, but it's
against you. It's against you that I've said.
Let me ask you four questions. Must God punish sin? Must he? Is God just to punish sin? Would God be just to punish my
sin? Here's the fourth question. How
then can God be just? Just. and justify me. How can he be just? Punish my
sins, and justly so, and justify me. Bless his holy name. Jesus paid
it all. All to him I owe. He bore my
sins on a cross. As a fellow the other day, just
yesterday as a matter of fact, Friday, Friday, he had a T-shirt
on that said, I bow to the need of no man except that man who
died on the cross. And I told him how I like that,
told him how much I like that. I ain't gonna bow to the need
of nobody but Jesus Christ. That man died on the cross. I
know why he died on the cross. I know that's the only way God
could be just to justify me, because my sin must be punished. And how in the world can my sin
be punished if it's not punished in me? It has to be punished
in somebody else. And God punished Christ in my
place, in the place of everyone for whom He died. And God now
turns around and we embrace Christ, bow to Christ, and come to Christ. Then God turns around and says,
You're clear. You've got no sin. I justify
you in my own sight. Huh? Oh my. Here's another thing
about true biblical repentance and change of mind. It owns and
confesses that it lies in God's sovereign will and pleasure to
either leave me in sin or save by grace, to leave a man in his
sin or save him by his grace. That's God's prerogative. That's
God's prerogative. Don't you own that? Don't you
believe that? It's like those lepers came down
off the mountainside, and they came to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Three of them did. They three come at one time,
and you know what the first thing they said? Lord, if thou wilt, if it's your will,
you can make me clean. You know what he said? I will. Bless his name, I will. Oh, I
thank God that when I went to him, I said, Lord, will you?
I will, I will, I will. It's like that Canaanite woman,
she brought her daughter, said, oh, Lord, my daughter's such
a bad shape. She's in such bad shape. Lord,
please help me, please have mercy on me. It's not fit to take the
children's bread and cast it to the dog. Oh, Lord, that's
so, that's so, that's so. But oh, Lord, even the dogs get
the crumbs from the master's table. And he said, oh, your
faith, oh, great is thy faith, go. Oh, my. Well, well, well, real, genuine,
biblical repentance. receives humbly, humbly and genuinely
the grace of God in Christ, not claiming any merit of our own.
We own nothing. We have nothing. We know we're
nothing and can do nothing. And we don't bring anything.
We don't bring anything. You know that old song, the old
rugged cross? And I lay my trophies down. I
remember the first time Henry Mahan, when he was preaching,
he said, somebody started singing that song. He said, you ain't
got to stop that. You ain't got no trophies. What
trophies are you going to lay down? We ain't got no trophies.
Anything we got, God gave it to us. That's what conversion
is. That's what repentance is. Trophies? What trophies? We're His trophies. He did it
all, what in the world we gonna, what we gonna bring? Oh my, can you bow to that? Can you bow to that? Humbly,
genuinely, believe the grace of God in Christ, claiming no
merit of your own. Men go to heaven, men are saved
because of God's grace, not their goodness. Men get to go to heaven,
not because they're good, but because Christ is good. They
didn't go to heaven because of their works, because Christ did
a work. But people always say, well,
what about my granny? What about my uncle? What about
my brother? What about them? If we believe the salvations
of the Lord, we'll leave them in God's hand. True repentance
bows down to salvation by free, sovereign grace by Christ, in
Christ, and through Christ. Ain't that right? Now let me
tell you something, and I'm gonna quit, get done here in a minute.
True repentance, where you have biblical repentance, and God
leads you to repentance, and He gives you repentance, you
never, ever stop repenting. Once you start, you don't never
stop. How many times a day do you reckon you repent? How many
times a day do you say, oh Lord, forgive me, oh Lord. You get
to feeling bad about yourself and your corruption. I told dear
Shirley the other night coming up here on Wednesday night, and
I've told y'all this before. I get ready to come preach and
I said, I feel so sorry for them people have to get up and listen
to me, have to listen to me. Lord, have mercy on them. That's
repenting of my, you know, we just repent of the feelings we
have, the emotions we have, the thoughts we have, the words we
speak. It's just a constant, it's like
believing. Once you believe, you always
believe. And once you repent, you never
ever stop. Huh? Oh my. Repentance and faith is a condition
and state of the mind and the heart, and they're constant,
constant, constant. Oh my, what it does is we agree
with God in absolutely everything He says. Don't you? Even if I
don't know it, if it's in there, if God says it, I agree with
it. Oh, it's a change. It's a change
of mind. But oh, what a change of mind
it is! And it's a turning, but oh, what
a turning it is! Man can produce religion, but
only God can produce life. Man can impress other men and produce affectation, but only
God can produce the root and life of Christ in the heart and
put the love of God in him. and make him own allegiance to
the Lord Jesus Christ the rest of his life. Amen. Oh, blessed Savior, great and
glorious, blessed God in heaven and earth, this earth and everything
in it belongs to you. And Lord, we acknowledge in our
heart of hearts that whatsoever you do is absolutely right. Absolutely right. How you deal
with any individual is right, perfect, just. And so, Lord,
we kiss your blessed providence. We kiss the blessed glory of
God and the free grace of God in Christ. Oh, we love it. We
need it. We got to have it. Thank you
for meeting with us today. Bless the gospel. Bless these
words to the hearts and minds of your people. We ask it for
Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Oh, how merciful. merciful, blessed Lord, how merciful
thou art to me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful,
Blessed Lord, how merciful thou art to me. See, tonight at 6 o'clock, God
willing, we're going to take the Lord's Supper this evening. And most preachers would tell
you to go home and examine yourself, see if you can. But I'm not going
to tell you that.