I want to talk this morning,
and I want to use this as a text this morning, there in verse
9, 2 Peter chapter 3 and verse 9. The Lord is not slack concerning
His promise, as some yet count slackness. And that's what they
asked there, the scoffers, men walking after their own lust.
They said in verse 4, where's the promise of His coming? was the promise of his coming. Everything since our fathers
fell asleep, all things are going on just like they was. Well,
it says they're willingly ignorant of these things, they're willingly
ignorant of what God did in the Old Testament, willingly ignorant
of God's creation, willingly ignorant of God's judgment upon
people and upon whole civilizations. And so that's why the Apostle
said here, but now in verse 8, But beloved, be not ignorant
of this one thing, that the same earth that was destroyed by flood
and killed all the members of the human race except Noah and
his family, the same earth is now kept in store by the Word,
the same Word that destroyed it, the same Word now is holding
it, keeping it, keeping it. And just because you don't see
God working, because you don't see what He's saying, because
you don't see God's schedule, you don't see God's judgment,
and you don't see and don't believe. That's why He says, Beloved,
be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord
as a thousand years. And He's just showing us how
that time, a day goes by, Me and you live here for 70,
80 years, and we're gone. If a thousand years is as a day,
that means we're just here for about an hour. 15, 20 minutes at the best. That's
as far as God's concerned. I mean, it's the blink of an
eye. But the Lord is not slack. Now,
men count. Men count promises slack. He
said he promised, he promised, he promised, but he ain't kept
his promise yet. The Lord is not slack. I've had
people make promises to me, and they didn't keep them, and I
say, I'll never mention it to them again. They just won't mention
it again. Neither they will, nor they won't. The Lord is not slack concerning
His promises. Some may uptown slacken. But
now watch this. But His longsuffering to usward. Who is it usward? His people. His elect. Those that were given
to Christ in the covenant of grace. Those that the Father
loved from all eternity. those who were promised to the
Lord Jesus Christ. But His long-suffering to us,
we're not willing that any should perish. The world's going to
perish. Everybody else is going to perish.
But not us. He's not willing that we should
perish, but that everyone should come to repentance. Come to repentance. Now, what I want to talk about
today is biblical repentance. What is repentance? What does
the Bible say about repentance? Now all know this, that all of
God's people will come toward repentance. They'll come to repentance. They'll come to repentance. And
He's long-suffering toward us, all of God's elect. And everyone
of us is going to come to Christ. And they'll come by repentance
and faith. Paul says that, you know how, that I kept nothing
back from you. I went from house to house. teaching
you all things that are profitable. Repentance to Jew and Gentile,
bond and Greek, to every house, did all the like. Repentance
toward God in faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. You know now,
Lord Jesus gave us four oaks of matoms, four oaks of matoms,
and they're to be heeded, not debated, not argued about. And
let me give them to you. He said, Except a man be born
again, he can't see the kingdom of God. You must be born again. And the new birth is something
you can't do. God's got to do that for you. And he said, except
your righteousness. This is an old amenity. Except
your righteousness. Exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, you can't enter the kingdom of God. Got
to have it better than what they had. And then thirdly, he said,
except you be converted. and become as a little child,
humbled, contrite, brought down, you can in no wise enter into
the kingdom of heaven. And then one day some folks saw
a tower fall down and kill a whole bunch of people, and our Lord
said, You think they were worse sinners than everybody else,
He said, except you repent, you repent, you shall all likewise
perish. Now let me tell you something
about all four of these things. The new birth, righteousness,
conversion, and repentance. All four of these things happen
at the same time. All of them have to do with the
same experience. You can't have the new birth
without repentance. And when you have the new birth,
repentance comes, faith comes, righteousness comes, conversion
comes. They're all the same. They all come with the same experience.
They're not separate things that happen at separate times and
at different intervals. When a man's born again, that's
when he starts crying out in repentance. When he's born again,
that's when he believes. When he's born again, he gets
the righteousness of Christ there, then, immediately. He's converted. He turns to God with all of his
heart, immediately. All these things happen at the
same time. They're not separate things that happen at separate
times. And repentance and faith are like the same piece of paper.
You can't have one side without the other side. Can you? You can't turn to God unless
you turn from your idols, and you can't turn from your idols
until you turn to God. And where the new birth is, righteousness
is, Conversion is, repentance is, and faith is. All, and one
of them is present, all of them are present. Now, ain't that
right? You know, in David, in Psalm
51, he's a perfect example of all these things happening to
a man at the same time. He said, O Lord, show thy loving
kindness and mercy towards me, for it's against you and you
only that I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight. Worship
me! and I shall be water to smoke. Restore unto me the joy of your
salvation. Turn me and I shall be turned.
And I cry out unto you. You desire truth in the inward
parts. And he understood that contrition,
that humbleness, that turning to, that crying out. And Paul
in Romans 7, here's another example of that man. He said, Oh, I had
a righteousness And then all of a sudden the Lord come and
I found out I was a sinner. I found out that when I wouldn't
do good, evil was present with me. What I wouldn't do, I do. So, oh wretched man! With my
mind I circle on God, with my flesh I circle on sin. Oh, wretched
man that I am! Who shall save me from this body?
There's a man crying out. There's a man because of that
birth. There's a man because of that righteousness. He needs
these things. Sorrow over sin. Humbleness,
contrition, crying out for the righteousness of another. Now let me give you a few points
here. True repentance. True repentance. Like the new
birth. Like the new birth, it deals
with the inward man, not the outward man. Repentance is of
the heart. It's not of the hand. Not of
the outward man. Yeah, let me show you over here
in Matthew 23. Let me show you what I mean. Matthew 23, verse
25. You see, the repentance is like
the new birth. It begins in the inward man,
not the outward. Look what our Lord said here
in verse 25 to the Pharisees. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! You may clean the outside of
the cup and the platter, but within they are full of extortion
and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse
first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside
of them may be clean also. They was worried about the outward,
wasn't concerned about the inward. And you see, repentance is a
thing of the heart more than it is of the hand. Repentance,
it has more to do with the motive, why you do what you do, than
the manner in which you do things. Now these fellas made everything
clean on the outside, wanted everybody to see what they'd
done, but they didn't care a thing in the world about what was going
on in here. They would wash the outside of the cup, but they
didn't care a thing in the world about how dirty it was on the
inside. They'd done things with the hand. And true repentance
has more to do with the attitude the attitude than it does the
action that a person does. That's why God says, My son,
give me your heart. Huh? Give me your heart. As a man thinketh in his heart,
so is he. Our Lord said, You know what
a man eats. That don't defile him. That don't
defile him. But what comes from within, out
of his heart, that's what despises him. Abdulter, fornication, uncleanness,
pride, blasphemy. And they said, explain this to
us. And he says, don't you know that what goes in your mouth
comes out in a draft? So that can't defy you. But boy,
when you open your mouth and you start spewing out your own
pride and your own blasphemy of your own righteousness and
your own works and your own doing, That's what's in your heart. That's the awful thing. And so
you see true repentance has to do, begins in the inward man.
In the inward man. Now listen to me. A man's relationship
with God can't always be known, cannot always be known by the
action of what he does, what he does with his hand. But it
would always be known if you could see his heart. You know
David, and we looked at that the other day. David got his
sword, and he was going to go over and kill Nabal. I'm going
to kill that fool. I'm going to kill him. He embarrassed
my men. I protected him, protected his
sheep, protected all his property, and he treated us like a bunch
of fools. I got his sword. David was on his way to kill
him. I'm going to kill him. Abigail and I said, oh, don't,
don't, don't do that. He ain't worth it. They'll charge
you with shedding blood. Now, with his hand, he's going
to kill that man. But if you look in his heart, it'd be a different story. You
look at it with his hands and say, that man can't go kill a
man. But his heart, you could never believe that here's a man
who knew God in his heart by watching what he's going to do
that way. And all beloved, a man's relationship with God isn't always
seen in his actions. All we've seen is his actions,
you know. That's Elijah. Here's another example. Elijah
stood on Mount Carmel. Faced 850 false prophets. But
by himself. And all of a sudden he prayed
a 63 word prayer when he got done and fire fell from heaven.
Consumed all the sacrifices. And then Jezebel said, I'm going
to have that mansion. I'm going to have that man. And
the next day, you find him sitting under a juniper tree. Lord, I'm
left alone by myself. Just let me die! I want to die. So you see, you couldn't abuse
it. You see, a man's relationship with God isn't always seen. Oh,
my! Look at that poor, poor man!
Oh, what a powerful man! What a humble man! What a blessed
man! Converted man! And then over
here, he is praying to die. See, you can't always tell a
man's relationship with God by his actions. Brethren, ain't
you glad that God always looks on the heart? Always looks on
the heart, not on the outward. And a man's relationship with
God is not always clear in his manners. in how he acts and his
manners and what he does. But his motives is always to
the glory of God. Now, we just preached on this
last week when Simon Peter denied the Lord three times. That was
his manner. But the Lord turned around and
said, Simon Peter, do you love me? He denied him. But do you love me? Do you love
me? You see, with his mouth he denied
Christ, but with his heart, He loved Christ. Huh? It's a mysterious thing, isn't
it, this business of being a believer? Huh? But his heart didn't. His
mouth denied Christ, but his heart did. And this is true with
all God's people in the Scriptures. You look at Abraham. If you'd
have been standing there with Abraham, you know, he believed
God. It was counted to him for righteousness.
Next thing you know, he's over there saying, Oh, this is my
life. This wife here is my sister. And he said, now Sarah, you be
sure to tell them that you're my sister. Because if they don't,
they'll kill me and take you. You're such a good looking woman.
If you had been standing there, how would you believe you had
a relationship with God? See, that's what I'm talking about.
You see, repentance has to do with in here, with the heart. With the heart. Like the new
birth. Like the new birth. And Noah. My soul, if you seem
low in the condition he was in, for he was one who God loved.
And Lot, sent down there to Solomon Gomorrah, had to be drug out. David, that deceiver, repentant,
beloved, is an inward work. Job said, the root of the matter
is in me. It's in me. You find all these
men coming back in repentance, coming back in sorrow, coming
back in grief, coming back in perdition. Now, there's an outward form
of repentance. It's brought about by a lot of different things.
And when you look at it, it seems more impressive than the real
thing. Huh? Oh, so that natural eye,
that looks great. But it's more impressive than
this inward one. You see, the natural eye can't
see the heart. All it can see is the external.
And it sees the external religion, it's often impressed. Look with
me in Luke 16. I want you to see this. I've
quoted this so many times, but you need to look at it yourself.
Luke 16 and verse 15. You know, the flesh is easy to
impress by false spirituality. That's why the Lord says their
works they do for to be seen of men. They make broad the phylaxis. They make wide the hem of their
garments. They want everybody to see how
religious they are on the outside. But what about the inside? What
about the heart? And that's why the Lord said
to these Pharisees here in Luke 16, 15, He said unto them, Ye
are they which justify yourselves before men. Oh my, I live right,
I do right, I walk right, I talk right, I don't run around, I
do all these wonderful things for God. I live for God and I
live so good. You are those who justify yourselves
before men, but God knows your heart. For that which is highly
esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. may be impressive
on the outside, but God's not looking on the outside. Huh? Oh, beloved, our flesh is easy
to impress by false spirituality. And secondly, there's another
kind of repentance, an outward form of repentance. There are
outward forms of religion and conversion and repentance that
are brought about by a lot of different things, like a fear
of punishment. People scared to death about
being punished. And it'll produce an outward
repentance and a form of religion. Cain says, my punishment is more
than I can bear. He had religion, but beloved,
he said, my punishment is greater than I can bear. And people would
continue doing what they would do until they get caught and
they're afraid of being punished. Simon Magus. Pray for me, because
he thought his heart wasn't right in the sight of God. People are
afraid of punishment. And another thing that will produce
repentance that's just a form, an outward form, is troubles,
trials, sickness. Do you know Pharaoh repented
nine times? He repented nine times. There
was ten flags and he repented nine of them. He said, you take
this flag off of me and I'll change my mind and I'll let you
go. Nine times he repented. Nine
times he repented. And you know David spared Saul
when he was in the cave. Cut off his skirt and come back
outside and we got over on another mountain and followed the way
back. You know what Saul said? He said, David, my son David,
Oh my son, David, I have done wicked, I have done evil, and
I'm sorry. I sought your life, but he said,
I'll never ever seek your life again. David said, I better get
to the land of the Philistines because I'm going to perish by
the hand of Saul. Saul said, I'm not going to ever
hurt you again. He said, you spared me, I'm going to spare
you. But Saul, at last, did you know how long that lasted? About
24 hours. That's about how long most folks' conversion lasts. That's why most people's repentance
lasts. You know, that's why you have so many backsliders, so
many people wanting to be renewed up with the Lord. That's why
folks love to come down to the front and make long prayers so
they can put on a show and let everybody know that they're getting
changed. That's why folks love to get up and give great testimonies,
talk about how bad they were and how they changed. And that's
why most churches have a turnover. It's just like a wave coming
in into oceans. The wave comes in, out it goes. The wave comes in, and that's
the way they'll just scoop them in by the bushel basket, and
out they go and another bus goes down. And they'll have another
bus come in six months, and out it is. Out it is. It's a false
repentance. And oh, when a person gets in
trouble and in trials and in sickness, oh, preacher, pray
for me, I don't want to die. And then, I tell you, there's
an outward form of religion that brings, that's really impressive,
emotional response to strong preaching and preachers. Oh my,
they get all stirred up when the preacher's preaching and
they just all carry on with all that hurry. He heard John the
Baptist gladly say, he's a holy man. Thought he was the finest
preacher coming down to Piedmont. You know what he done? Bring
me his head and a charger. His stepdaughter wanted it, there
he was. Who do you want? There he is!
Sittin' in a bunk, great big crowd of people with all the
preachers and all the court around and all his wife around and everybody
in the court around him and his drunk. There he comes in this
great big ol' bowl, great big ol' thing, and there's a head
in it! Bloody head! Taller! Bring that in there! Here's John's
head! Boy, I thought he was one of the finest preachers ever
was! Oh my! Festus trembled at Paul's
preaching and then called him a madman. Called him a madman. And then there's a temporary
repentance that mourns the loss of a benefit like Esau. Sold
his birthright for a morsel of meat and he sought repentance
bitterly with tears and there was no place found for it. No
place found for it. Well, what in the world produces
true repentance? You see, there's a world of repentance,
a world of repentance that just, you just get caught in trouble
and you get sorry over it, and your sorry lasts for a while,
and your change of attitude lasts for a while, and your change
of conduct will last for a while, and then you go right back to
where you started. So what produces this lasting
repentance, this godly sorrow, this repentance that's never
to be repented? What reproduces it? I'll show
you two things. Look in Romans chapter 2. I'll
show you two things. Romans chapter 2. Two things
that produces repentance. Oh, God is long-suffering to
us. We're not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance. And I'll ask you, have you come
to repentance? Here's a man, here's where God
says that repentance comes from. Verse 2, We are sure that the
judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit
such things. And thinkest thou this, O man,
that thou judgest them which do such things, and doest the
same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or do you
despise the riches of his goodness, and forbearance, and alone suffering,
not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?"
The goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. That's what it
does, and I'll tell you something else that leads to repentance.
Not only the goodness of God, not the judgment. Not the judgment. Tornado ain't going to cause
anybody to be converted. They had earthquakes out in California,
and the place falls all to pieces. Nobody got up and turned to God
and said, Oh God save me, have mercy on me. And turned to God
with all their hearts, no, they just said, let's get this back
together. Let's get together to build these roads back. Let's
get together to put our houses back. They wasn't interested
in their hearts, they was interested in what they lost outwardly. That rich man in hell, he was
in hell. You heard him repent? No, he
didn't repent. You know what he said? Oh, just
let somebody take a drop of water and put it on my parched tongue.
He never said once, I'm sorry for the way I treated Lazarus.
He never said once, I'm sorry for the way I acted toward God.
He never said once, I'm sorry for the life I lived. And I'll tell you something else
that will cause repentance. When you see the glory of God,
The goodness and glory of God. Isaiah said, I saw the Lord high
with Judah, and His glory filled the temple. And when I saw the
seraphims crying, holy, holy, holy, I said, woe is me! I'm undone, and I'm a man of
unclean lips. And not only me, but I found
out everybody else is like me. Huh? The goodness of God and
the glory of God. And look over in Acts chapter
5. The goodness and glory of God. And then repentance not
only is produced by the goodness and glory of God, but it's a
gift. It's a gift. Has to be given to you. If God don't give it to you,
you know what you'll do? You'll join the church and tell
everybody how sorry you are. That you're sorry for the life
you've been through? How bad do you feel about the
way you treat your wife and your kids? And you stole this money
or you've done something else, you know? I'm going to quit my
drinking and all that and join the church. It won't last long.
Oh, if you have true repentance, it's a gift. Look here in Acts
5, verse 29. Then Peter and the other apostles
answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. The
God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom ye slew and hanged
on a tree. Him hath God exalted with his
right hand to be a prince and a Savior, for to give repentance,
to give it to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. Who gives it to you? He does. Look in Acts 11.18. If you have repentance, He gives
it to you. I understand my repentance is a gift of God. In Acts 11,
18. When they heard these things,
they held their peace and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also
to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life? Repentance is the
gift of God. He grants it. He gives it. Christ
brought these gifts and gives them to the church. Now, the
goodness of God, the glory of God, it's a gift of God. Now,
how can I tell if I've repented? How can I tell if God's given
me repentance? How can I tell if I'm one of
God's elect and been brought to repentance? And repentance
means a change of mind. That's what it means. It's a
change of mind. I mean, a change of mind is a change of mind.
You're going this way and you change your mind and say, I'm
going that way. It's like, you know, you ever got on the wrong
road and go a long, long, long, long way and say, boy, oh boy,
this don't look familiar to me. And you turn around and say,
oh, this ain't right. And you turn completely around and go
the opposite direction. That's what repentance is. You go one
way. And God grants you repentance and He takes you, you're going
this way and He takes your mind and turns it this way. And that's
what happens in the new birth. That's what happens in conversion.
God gives you this life and you're facing that way and then you
turn to Him in repentance and faith. So how can I tell I've
repented? Well, real repentance. God-given repentance. And conversion
acknowledges God's sovereign right to do what He will with
His own. If you've really truly repented, if God's given you
repentance, you will acknowledge God's sovereign right to do what
He will with His own. Won't you do that? You know,
in Samuel we said, God's going to kill Phineas and your two
sons. You know what Eli said? It's the Lord. It's the Lord. Let Him do what seemeth good.
Job lost everything. He says, the Lord gave and the
Lord took it away. He's gone. It's his. He gave
it to me. He didn't take it back. Our Lord stood and said, I thank
thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden
these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them unto
me. Why? Because it seemed good in your
sight. Ain't that right? Is it not lawful for me to do
what I will with my own? And Nebuchadnezzar, that great
king, after God turned him out like a beast, he came back and
he says this, when my understanding returned to me, when I got my
mind back, When my mind was changed from walking around saying this
great babbling that I've made, He says, when I got my mind back,
when I got changed my mind, I found this out, that all the inhabitants
of the earth are reputed as nothing. He does according to His will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and no man can stay His hand. Is that the way you feel in your
heart? and real repentance and real
conversion admits and owns the holiness of God. God is holy,
thrice holy, infinitely holy, and turns and admits of your
own sinfulness and corruption. He's highly corrupt. And I'm
down in the dust. I'm a worm in the land. I heard
about you with the hearing and the hearing, now I see you and
I bore myself. And repent in destinations. And
you come to the place, Lord, of thousands of smart iniquities,
who in the world would be able to stand? Oh God, you're holy! And in light of His holiness,
you just see how sinful and how corrupt you really are. That's
what repentance is. Has that ever happened to you?
When you saw God's holiness, do you see how sinful and corrupt
you are? Or are you still a pretty good
person? You're doing the best you can.
You ain't never repented if you think you're a good person. You
ain't never come close to knowing who God is if you still feel
good about yourself. If you're running around trying
to build up your own self-esteem and telling everybody what a
fine person you are and you're doing the best you can, I'm as
good as anybody else, you ain't even got close to God. You wouldn't
know who God is from a goat. And I don't mean to be ill and
hateful, but that's the way it is. And oh, real repentance and conversion. Justifies God in His judgment
against sin. Oh, where a man's got repentance
and he's turned to God, and his mind has been changed, he justifies
God in His judgment against sin. David said, it's against me and
thee only that I've sinned and done this evil in your sight.
So that when you judge, you're going to be clear. I have to
own it. It's my sin. When you judge me,
I've got nothing to say, except you're right. You're right. Let me ask you four questions.
Let me ask you four questions. Stir yourself up a minute. Let
me ask you four questions. Must God punish sin? Second question, is God just
to punish sin? Would God be just to punish my
sin? Fourth question, how then can
God be just and justify me? That's when you get your mind
changed. Oh, beloved, repentance. How
can I know I've repented? Well, I've been converted. Real
repentance and conversion. Oh, and confesses. That it lies with God's sovereign
will and pleasure to leave me in my sin or save me by His grace. He can leave me to myself or
save me by His grace. And we've all been, everybody's
ever been truly converted and had the new birth, they've come
to that place that God's either saved me or you leave me to myself. I've got a lot to say about it. Those lepers came down from the
mountain. And they came to Christ and fell down and worshipped
Him. And said, Lord, they acknowledged who He was. If you will, if you
will, it's your will that's to be done. You've got the power. You've got the will. And if you
will, you can make me clean. I'm a leper. But if I cease being a leper,
it be because it's in your sovereign will to do so." Huh? A Canaanite
woman, oh Lord have mercy on me, I'm not sent to a lost sheep
of Israel. Lord have mercy on me. It's not me to give the children's
bread to dogs, I know that so. You say I'm a dog, okay. But
even dogs, Get the crumbs from the master's table. And you know,
I'm a dog. I'm a dog. People say, I don't
like to be a dog. As long as I'm the Lord's dog,
I don't care a bit. That's what Caleb's name meant.
Faithful dog. So if you ever have any boys
and you want to have a good name for them, call him Caleb. Caleb.
Caleb. Call him Caleb. Caleb. Caleb. That means you'll be a faithful
dog. What's her name, faithful dog? Caleb? Tom Hardy's got a
boy named Caleb. And he was, when he was young,
he was a crackerjack. Tom was a principal one time.
He got a piece of paper and wrote on it, Stop! He got tired of this, wrote on
a big piece of paper and said, Stop! Oh, he was something else. Caleb
was something else. He was all boy. All boy. But that's what we'll face. We'll
face this business. God can save me or leave me.
Save me or leave me. But Lord, You don't owe me nothing. But would You have mercy on me?
And real repentance and conversion receives humbly and genuinely
the grace of God in Christ claiming no merit of its own. Now, receives humbly, genuinely
the grace of God in Christ, saying, I have no merit. If I'm saved
at all, I've got to be saved by Christ and His merit and His
work and His doing. You know, now we know that whatsoever
things the law saith, it saith them that are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped. Everybody becomes guilty before
God. And that no man is justified by the law on the side of God
is evident. For by the law is the knowledge
of sinners. So I can't run to the law. I've
got to go to somebody else that's got some merit. I don't have
any merit. Can you bow to that? Can you
bow to that? Men don't go to heaven. Because
they're good, for all are guilty, and there's none good, no not
one. Men are going to go to glory because of what Christ did in
His merit. There'll never be a time in our
lives that we'll ever do anything to merit one blessing from God
Almighty. Everything we have is given to
us for Christ's sake, and by the grace of God. When we get
to heaven, we're not going to be able to say, here, you know,
Lord, you owe me this crown for this, and you owe me a star for
that, and you owe me a place over here because I've done this,
and oh my, listen. No, no, no. The last fellow that
got a penny, just like the fellow that started that day, he worked
all day long, the last one got sacked the same everybody else.
And those of you that got converted in your last years, you're going
to get to go to glory for the rest of us, and you're going
to get everything the rest of us is going to get. You're going
to get your pen. Everybody gets the same. We all get grace in
Christ. And why would you think that
God ought to reward you for something Christ did? Why should God reward you? Because
He put it in your heart to love Him. He put it in your heart
to believe the Gospel. He put it in your heart to come
in fellowship with God's people. He put it in your heart to read
the Bible. He put faith in your heart to believe Him. He put
repentance in your heart to turn. So what in the world would make
you think that God would owe you anything? When He's everything
you've got, He gave it to you. Oh, that's what repentance is,
renouncing everything from Him. That's what conversion is. But
what about my relatives who live so good? Repentance justifies God in punishing
sin in me, in my wife, in my children, in my mother, in my
father, in my grandma, in my grandpa, no matter where they
come from and what they did. Ain't that right? True repentance
bows to salvation by free grace, sovereign grace, not by works,
nobody's works, except Christ. Can I tell you something else? How can I know I've repented?
Through repentance. Through repentance. That repentance
that God brings us to. Not willing that any should perish,
but that all should come to repentance. Through repentance. If you've
got it, it keeps on repenting. See, repentance and faith is
a state, it's a condition of the heart. You can't always tell what's
in a man's heart by what he's doing outwardly, but if you could
look at his heart, David said, God said, David's a man out of
his own heart. If you'd seen him with that sword going after
Nabal, you'd have said, that ain't no way. But God said he's
a man out of his own heart. You see, repentance and faith
is a state and condition of the heart. And you know when we'll
quit believing, and you know when we'll quit repenting? When
we leave this world, the moment our eyes close in death, we won't
need repentance or faith anymore. But right up to that time, that's
what we'll be doing. That's right. Sit right here
and say, oh God, how wicked is my mind. I've got to get up and
preach, and my mind is so wicked. All the things that I think,
the things that I feel, the things that... Oh! When will I quit changing my
mind? When will I quit abhorring myself? When will I quit crying
out to God for mercy? When will I quit saying, Oh God,
help my unbelief? When will I quit doing that?
When will you quit doing that? When you close your eyelids in
death. True repentance is on God's side. Always on God's side. Always
agree with God. And it's a change. Repentance
is a change, but oh what a change it is. Repentance is a turning,
and oh what a turning it is. It's a turning from darkness
to light, from death to life. A change of mind about yourself
and a change of mind about God. A change of mind about your heart
and a change of mind about the work of God. A change of mind
about your goodness and the goodness of God. Man can produce religion,
but only God can give life. Men can impress other men and
produce affectation, tears, carrying on, and a spirituality very impressive,
but only God can produce the root in a man. The life of Christ
in a man. Christ in his heart, and a love
for him, and allegiance to him, no matter what goes on in this
world, or what goes on in your own heart. Oh my, how can this
be? As God gave you repentance, when
you heard these things about what real repentance is, did
you say, that's what I feel. That's what goes on with me. It goes on with me. If it ain't,
may God work it in your heart. Our Father, in the precious holy
name of the Lord Jesus, O God, you sit on your throne, there
at God's right hand, to grant repentance, to give repentance,
to give that change of heart, to give that change of mind,
to give that life, to give that conversion, to give that new
birth, to give that righteousness, to give that faith. And I pray,
O Lord Jesus, that you'd come, work it in hearts, work it in
minds, work it in wills, because we know, Lord, that if you don't
do it, it won't be done. But we look to you and trust
that you will. We bless you in Christ's holy
name. PRABHUPÄ€DA Well, let's sing number one. Number
one. We have sung number one. Let's
sing that and then we'll be to go.