All right, Romans chapter two
again. Romans chapter two. I wanna read just the one verse
that I read to you a week before last and spoke somewhat from
that verse. Then I have another verse. So
Romans chapter two, where Paul writes these words, verse four.
or despiseth thou the riches of his goodness, and of course
that is God's goodness, and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. That's what
I spoke on Sunday before last. So what I want to try to concentrate
on for this morning and probably another Sunday, at least, if
not more than that, is the subject of repentance. But before I go
any further, turn to 2 Corinthians. Concerning the subject of repentance.
2 Corinthians chapter seven. And let's read Paul's words to
our brothers and sisters in Christ who gathered in Corinth. He says,
writes these words to them. 2 Corinthians seven verse nine.
Now I rejoice. Not that ye were made sorry,
but that you sorrowed to repentance. Do you see that? So this lets
me know that there must be some kind of sorrow before you'll
ever find repentance. You know, that's a give me. I'm
not an English, I'm not a Greek scholar, but I'm not even a good
English scholar. But I understand that, and you
do too. Not that I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, because
just being sorry is not enough. There are a lot of people who
when they hear a Bible message preached or some preacher preach
and they feel sorry for their sins, they think that that is
repentance. It is not repentance because
you sorrow to repentance. So they are connected, but one
doesn't equal the other. You can't repent without sorrow
first. And if your sorrow don't lead
you to repentance, it's not the sorrow Paul's talking about here.
Again, now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that
ye sorrowed to repentance, for ye were made sorry, here's another
important phrase, after a godly manner. Because there is some,
I was gonna say sorry, that's true, that would be true, but
there is some sorrow that has no godly manner to it. There's no godly manner to it.
That, Now let me read it all. Now I rejoice, not that you were
made sorry, but the sorrow to repent us, for you were made
sorry after a godly manner. And also note, you were made
sorry. You didn't work this up in yourself.
This came from without of you. No, it took place in you, but
it didn't come from you. And then he goes on that you
might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow, here
we have it. He's kinda gonna explain it in
different words, but to help us out a little more. For godly
sorrow, godly sorrow. For godly sorrow worketh repentance
to salvation. So this is an important repentance,
is it not? A lot of people repent of a lot
of things, but it has nothing to do with salvation. But what
he's talking about here is to salvation. For godly sorrow worketh
repentance to salvation, not to be repented of. In other words,
if this really happens to you, you'll never be sorry that it
happened to you. Now when it begins to happen to you, you'll
be very sorry, and it's not gonna feel good. But once it has its
full fruit, you won't be repentant of the fact that it ever happened,
that it did happen, I'm sorry. For godly sorrow worketh repentance
to salvation not to be repented of, there we go, but the sorrow
of the world worketh death. Now notice it doesn't say the
sorrow concerning the world, but it's
the sorrow of the world. So there is a sorrow that can
come from the world that may cause a repentance, but it's
not a godly manner. Now, I am not going to endeavor
to try to doctrinally define the differences between those
two, because that would just be me, from my perspective, trying
to explain this to you. But what I want to try to do,
while my subject is repentance, Paul, if you want to give a title
to this, it will be godly repentance, because there is a repentance
that's not godly repentance. but rather than just harping
against that which is not godly repentance, I want to try to
deal with what is godly repentance, and we lay down that straight
stick, and then if you ever get a crooked one, you can say, well,
that one don't match up to godly repentance. You see what I'm
saying? Now, while I may mention this worldly sorrow on occasion,
I'm not gonna try to define it all, because I would have to
start from Adam and our fallen him and go all the way through
history and all of our failures and our sins and our poor choices,
but let us remember, All repentance is not necessarily a, I'm not
gonna say scriptural, because scripture talks about repentance
that is of no value, just like it talks about a faith that is
dead that's of no value. But anyway, my subject is repentance,
but the title, we could put it this way, godly repentance. Now,
I want to give you seven things concerning repentance. And these
seven things are certainly, again, I would stress this, they will
not be an exhaustive examination of scriptural repentance, of
godly repentance, but I will say this, that everything about
repentance that's in this book will fall under at least one
or more of these seven headings. First of all, first of all, Turn
to Acts chapter 17. And some of you may already know
where I'm going, but if you don't, you turn to it, or at least listen,
and you'll find out where I'm going. Acts chapter 17. And what
we're about to read is the words of the Apostle Paul, recorded
by Luke under inspiration. Luke is recording exactly what
Paul said, at least that which we need to hear. Paul may have
said more there, but what we need to hear was recorded, okay? You follow my drift there. Acts
chapter 17 in verse 30. And the times of this ignorance
God winked at. I'm not going to go into all
of that, but that doesn't mean God said it's okay. No, that's
not the winking he's talking about. It's more of a God batted
his eyes. He batted his eyes. He batted
his eyes. He was very long-suffering. Very long, and God is long-suffering
not only to the elect, but he's long-suffering to the reprobate
as well. Look, in the times of this ignorance,
it's all of this idolatry. that took place in the eons past,
from the fall of Adam up until this day, when Paul states these
words, and the times of this ignorance God winked at. But
here, look about, this is repentance. But God now commandeth all men
everywhere to repent. You see that? God commands it.
God commands it. Now, a little bit of an example.
In the Old Testament, many Old Testament prophets cried out,
repent. And if not those words, that's
what they were calling for, Mason. Repentance, turn, turn, turn,
calling for repentance. But much of what is said concerning
repentance by the prophets was said to the nation of Israel.
And many Gentile, Hordes never even heard a word about it. God
never sent them even a prophet to warn them they needed to repent.
The times of this ignorance God winked at. He just batted his
eyes. But we also see God in his absolute
sovereignty sending a man named Jonah to a bunch of Gentile heathen. in Nineveh, doing hot. And you
see illustrations of that all throughout the Old Testament.
But again, God now commandeth. In other words, we're not just
preaching to a certain group of people. We're not preaching
to one nation, one, we're not just preaching to white folk.
We're not just preaching to black folk. We're not just preaching
to any other kind of folk. God now commandeth, commandeth. all men everywhere to repent.
So that lets me know these words. If I don't, I am rebelling against
the commandment of God. So my first point is quite clear.
God commands repentance of all men. Right? God commands repentance
of all men. But now in context of our of
our text, Romans chapter two verse four, let me say this.
God commands repentance of all men. And that is never lessened
by any other truth in the scripture. You understand what I'm saying?
Try to get where I'm going. That's never lessened by any
other truth in the scripture. God commands repentance of all
men. But God does not lead all men
everywhere to repent by his goodness. It is the goodness of God that
leadeth thee to repentance. And as we seen week before last,
that is God brings it or drives it or induces this in men and
women by his goodness. He makes it happen, in other
words. He gets the job done. When he
leads men to repentance, they will repent. But God doesn't
do that for everyone. But the problem is we must be
careful that we're not just trying to defend a set system of doctrine. I'm gonna make a couple statements.
I know there'll be some that'll probably have a little ire raised
about it, but Jesus Christ was the greatest Calvinist that ever
walked on this earth before John Calvin ever came along. But Jesus
Christ was not trying to defend mere Calvinism. because he often
cried out, repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
And he didn't immediately say, but I better tell everybody God's
the one that's gotta do it. Now did he? Do you understand what
I'm saying? It's not just about trying to
get men to understand the doctrine. It's about preaching the truth.
Repent! Repent! Repent! Wait a minute. Repent! Repent,
number two. Turn to Revelation chapter two. Revelation chapter two, this
is the second one. I'm getting along a lot quicker
than I thought I did. It might not be, but godly repentance,
part one to part two. No, that's probably, I don't
know. Revelation chapter two, verse 21, and let me look, make
sure, yeah, yeah. John here is told to write to
a church in a place called Thyatira. And there was a woman there named
Jezebel. Somebody said, well, is that a real name or was it
a real woman? Just quit worrying about that kind of stuff. Quit. People do that when they're trying
to get away from what really is gonna be said here. Was that
a real name or was God just using that to say, oh, she's a bad
woman? Or was it a man that had a woman's name? what might have
been going on in Thyatira. You see how people, that's where
people go. But look at what it says. Writing about a woman named
Jezebel. And I'm not even gonna talk about
the problem that she was causing. Look at what it says, verse 21.
It says, God speaking through the Apostle John to the church
at Thyatira. I and I gave her space to repent. You see that? That lets me know
it's like this, it's not just a little, it's not just a little
moment. You see what I'm saying? You
see what he's saying? I gave her space to repent of her fornication. What kind? Probably all kinds.
Physical it may have been, spiritual it may have been, or it may have
been a combination of both, I do not know, but it's fornication,
and fornication is a what? Somebody wanna say that loud?
A sin, a sin. I gave her space to repent of
her fornication, and she repented not. Do you see that? Why didn't
God lead her to repentance? That ain't the question. Why
didn't she repent? She's in the church. She's a
part of that local assembly. This wasn't some Jezebel up the
street from the local assembly selling her body around the bridge. This is a person inside the assembly. Read it for yourself. And I gave
her space to repent and she repented not. Oh, the countless hordes
from the days of our Lord's First incarnation, or his incarnation
through the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, how many hordes
have been given space to repent? Were there not? I even remember,
you remember a man called John the Baptist? He had some people
come to his baptism. He was baptizing a bunch of sinners
and calling on them to what? Repent, repent. And then these
really religious, self-righteous folks showed up. He said, who
warned you to flee from the wrath to come? He didn't preach the same way
to them as he did to everybody. Because even amongst sinners,
not all sinners are the same. There are some sinners who know
they're sinners and know they need mercy. And there are other
sinners who don't know they're sinners and they think they're
righteous. And Jesus didn't even come to
call that second group. He came to call the first group
to what? Repentance. Not just call on
them to repent, though he did. All I can do is call on men and
women to repent. I can't call them to repentance,
but Christ can and does. Aren't you glad God didn't leave
it up to you? But that being said, I will still
say this. It's still up to you. It's still
up to you. If you would repent after a godly
manner, it would lead to salvation. It would lead to salvation. God
told some people, he said, I called, you refused. Didn't he say that
in Proverbs, ain't it? I think it's Proverbs chapter
one. He said, one of these days, because I've called and you refused,
I called out through the prophets and through the scripture, and
you wouldn't listen. He said, I'll malk when your
calamity comes. That's frightful. That's frightful,
is it not? So again, God commands repentance
of all men. All men are accountable before
God to repent. If they don't, they will, that
is going to be my third point. If they don't
repent, turn to Luke chapter 13. Luke chapter 13. Luke chapter 13, let's look at it. Let me just read the whole thing.
I will not get through all seven of these things, for sure. Luke
chapter 13 verse one, there were present at that season some that
told him of the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with
their sacrifices. In other words, he'd slaughtered
some religious folk, right? And evidently they were in the
midst of practicing their religion, right? Pilate slaughtered and
had their blood, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their
sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto them, Because the context
is here, boy, these folks must have really been bad if God let
Pilate do that, right? Did Rome normally come in and
squash people in their religion? No, they believed in all kinds
of religions, did they not? All kinds of gods. And there
were some really immoral practices that went along with these religions.
Rome didn't come in and squash all this immorality, did it?
No, he encouraged it. Keep the people happy. Let them
have their religion. But here that didn't happen.
These people were indicating, and Christ knew what they were
indicating. He knew the hearts and minds of men. And Jesus answering
said unto them, suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners
above all the Galileans? because they suffered such things.
So he knew where they was coming from. Don't you wish sometimes
you seemed that way? But we ain't God. That's why
all we can do is preach the truth of this book and then, no, to
not turn it up, preach the truth of this book knowing that God
must accomplish the work. And if he's pleased not to touch
it, that's his business. Look, I tell you no. You see
that? I tell you no, but except ye
repent. Now he turned it right back on
him, didn't he? Except ye repent. Well, life's
gonna be tough for you. Ye shall all likewise perish. It sounds to me that's quite
solemn. Does it not to you? Look, or
those 18 upon which the tower of Siloam fell, and slew them,
think ye that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you again, he says it,
no, nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. So this is established by scripture. This fact, No, I should say these
facts are established by scripture, but they constitute the one truth. Because you can't take a part
of this. Well, I believe God commands all men everywhere to
repent, but that only applies to those that's ever heard the
truth. It doesn't matter about all those heathen out there.
Then why don't we leave the heathen alone? If it don't matter, why
go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature?
Leave them alone. If it don't matter, then why
don't we go ahead and practice as much, now I'm gonna say this,
as much abortion as we can to guarantee these little ones don't
get raised up in an idolatrous, God-hating world and take them
on to glory. Why not? Because all this is
in God's hands. We're not going to solve the
problem. We're not going to solve the
problem. So, so far we see this from the
scripture. God commands repentance of all
men. God commands the repentance of
men who ain't even heard about the fact that they need to repent
yet. Did you know that? Secondly, he gives space to some.
In other words, some people are given an opportunity, a time,
and times to repent. But if they do not, what happens
if you don't repent? You'll perish. Do you see that? You'll perish. All right, Hebrews
chapter 12. This one's a little more difficult.
Now, so far, I would, let me get to Hebrews 12 first, so I
wanna concentrate on what I'm gonna say to you. Hebrews chapter
12. But before I deal with number
four, remember, God commands repentance of all men. He gives
some space to repent, and they do not repent. And except men
and women repent, they shall all likewise perish. Now this is a little different,
a little more difficult because up to this point, much of what
I've said, now maybe not all of what I've said, but much of
what I've said will be agreed with by every denomination that's
called Christian that walks on the face of the earth. other
than a few things where I talk about God's absolute sovereignty
and that kind of, almost everybody is saying the same things I just
said this morning. The sad part is there are people
out there that listen to me and Joe and Paul and others of our
belief, others of our repentance, and then they listen to other
people out there and they say, well, they're saying the same
things. It's kind of like this, yes, we are saying some of the
same things. And sometimes we mean the same
thing, but we don't always mean the same thing when we say the
same thing. As Henry Mahan used to say, there are a lot of people
that say the same words we use, but they're using another dictionary,
a different kind of dictionary to define those words. And this
is why in our day and age, as Scott Richardson once said, it's
like talking about the absolute sovereignty of God's like calling
water wet. because that's the whole nature
of water. God's sovereignty's absolute or it ain't sovereignty.
But when a man don't know water's wet, then he probably, or a woman,
they probably need to be explained to, water is wet. That's what
that means. Dip your fingers, did you feel
that? That's what that means, wet. Pour it on your head and
your clothes. That's what it means to be wet.
All right, let me say it on this one. I'm gonna say it first,
then we'll look at the verse. Some, this is, this is again
to me, I wish I had a better word. This is frightening. This
is frightening. Some seek repentance. And they
do so carefully with tears. But they never find it. Now let
me read the verse, Hebrews chapter 12, verse 17 is talking about
Esau, and Esau, was a profane person. As a matter
of fact, it even suggests here that he may have been a fornicator.
He was definitely a fornicator spiritually. Spiritually. Verse 16, lest there be any fornicator
or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his
birthright. Now by birthright, he had birthright
to the promises. He was the eldest son. But he
was so hungry that he said, I don't care about all that. He's basically
said, I don't care about the blessings of God. I don't care
about the grace of God. I don't care about the mercy
of God. I don't care about the compassion of God. I'm so hungry. And he's seeing Jacob fixing
up some food. And he said, give me that and
I'll sell you my birthright. Now look, verse 17. For ye know
how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing,
he was rejected. Why? Because it had been given
away. But look, for he found no place
of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears. Mason, you and I talked, it may
have been years ago, about a man you heard speak about this. I
just have to say it, I think he was trying to explain this
away, or at least trying to soften the blow, trying to soften the
blow. Let me give you a couple of illustrations,
and maybe this will help you. Now maybe, I hope, especially
you men, well, I'm a woman now. Anybody of you know personally,
or I know you've seen it on TV, the prostitutes out there selling
their bodies in the street? And this is their job. You understand,
this is their job, this is their livelihood. And I'll tell you
what, if they could quit and do something else, they would. Do you understand? That drunk
under the bridge, sleeping on that piece of cardboard with
that old dirty, nasty rag, that bottle of wine, you think he
wants to live like that? But he can't change it. Pull yourself up by your own
bootstraps. Those are spiritual bootstraps, and we don't have
those by nature. Oh, cry out to God for mercy.
Cry out to God. Are you stuck where you are,
and you can't repent? Cry out to God for mercy. Esau
never sought God's mercy, because he sold that away just for a
little bit of food. Now that time's gone. if this
ever goes on TV, but I'm not done yet. Think about it. God
commands repentance of all men. But he doesn't lead all men to
repentance by his goodness. And we have to leave that right
there and take our hands off of it. Leave it right there. Don't try to figure that one
out. Don't try to figure out the who's, who are's and the
who are not's. You understand what I'm saying?
The person you think who is, may be the person who God does
not touch. And the person over here, you
say, God'll never do anything for that one. That'll be the
one God saves. And either way, we ought to rejoice in God over
that. Over that. If this one over here
is somebody I care about, because I'm connected to him and I love
him, and God leaves him alone, God is holy and righteous and
just. And if there's one over here
I don't like, can't get along with, and God Almighty leads
him by his goodness to repentance, thank you, God. Praise be to
God. Can you imagine what the believers
in the early days of the church thought when they heard Saul
of Tarsus is now a Christian? Can you imagine that? He's, oh,
wait a minute, wait a minute, he's dead. Well, that's good.
That's, I'm glad. I wonder about this one now.
Don't you think? What if all of a sudden God saved
Jimmy Swaggart? I know that one will go over
like a lead balloon if it goes out. What if God saves somebody
like that? Folks, God saves whom he will.
Salvation is an act of God. It's an act of God. So again,
God commands all men everywhere to repent, but he doesn't lead
every person everywhere to repent by his goodness. He gives some
people space, time to repent, and they do not. And if you do
not repent, all who do not repent shall what? P-E-R-I-S-H. And then some people seek it
carefully with tears, but they can't find no, what does that
say there? found no place of repentance. He couldn't truly change his
mind and his heart about this thing. He couldn't do it. Therein is our problem. Our minds
and our hearts. I mean, if we weren't absolutely,
totally depraved, when we first heard the truth, we'd fly right
to it. We'd fly right to it. but also
God is absolutely sovereign in this matter. Because he called
upon two cities to repent, but he said it's gonna be worse for
you in the day of judgment than Sodom and Gomorrah. Now who wants
to be called? If God give you a good job tomorrow
and it was called Sodom, the city the business was in, would
you move there? Think about that, I mean really
think about that. Where do you live? I live in Sodom. Just mull that
one over for a bit. But think about it. He told that
it's gonna be worse for you and the judgment than Sodom and Gomorrah
because had the mighty works been done in Sodom and Gomorrah,
had they heard what you'd heard, they would have repented and
remained. Now chew on that one for a while. Let me give you this summary.
So I'll have to find another summary for part two. Let's talk
about this thing of repentance. Turn to Revelation 16, I'll close
with this, Revelation 16. Now think about this. Some people say preacher, you
know, repentance, men being responsible, accountable to repent, God commanded
men to repent, but yet, if a man really does repent, it takes
an act of God. And God gives some people space to repent,
but he doesn't lead them to repentance by his goodness. I can't wrap
my mind around it. I don't understand it. I understand
that. I do, I agree with you. But look,
we gotta bow to what the book says about God, not how we think
God ought to be. And we got to bow to the truth
of what the book says about ourselves and not think highly of ourselves
at all. Look at Revelation, what did
I tell you, 16, yep, 16 verse eight. and the fourth angel poured
out his vial upon the sun. Now somebody says, preacher,
when is that gonna happen? When is the fourth angel gonna
pour out his vial upon the sun? I'll tell you exactly when it's
gonna be. Right after the third angel pours out his. Now is that the absolute truth
of God or not? Okay, there you go. Now I believe, now listen,
I believe these things have a literal, actual, and still spiritual fulfillment
to come. But man's always been depraved. Evil seducers shall wax worse
and worse, but it doesn't say our sin is going to be worse. We are sinned by nature. But
look at what the book says about this. Verse eight, and the fourth
angel poured out his vial upon the son, and power was given
unto him to scorch men with fire. You ever seen people suffering
this day? Great calamities come upon a community or a country
or a city, huh? Look at the world right now under
coronavirus. Are men flocking to the Messiah
of God, Jesus of Nazareth? No. Oh, a little spurt when it
first happened, but now we're used to it, hmm? We've become
accustomed to trying to deal with the difficulties of it,
aren't we? We're getting our vaccines, we're still wearing
our masks, all of these things. But look what it says. And men
were scorched with great heat. Ain't that a good time to fall
on your face before God? Hmm? Yes! But look what it says. And men were scorched with great
heat and blasphemed the name of God. which hath power over
these plagues. Now wrap your puny little mind
around that one. And look, and they repented not
to give him glory. When God brings me down, even
because of my sin, if he works repentance in my
soul, I'm gonna give him glory for it because I know I deserve
far worse than what I'm getting. But if you can't, God's never
worked repentance in you. Look at it. They repented not
to give him glory. And the fifth angel poured out
his vial upon the seat of the beast. Now again, now do you
know exactly when this fifth one's gonna pour out his? After
the fourth one and after the third one. So we've got that
down pat. We've got our timeline right in order there, don't we?
So we don't have to worry about that one. And the fifth angel
poured out his vial upon the seat of the beast, and his kingdom
was full of darkness. And they gnawed their tongues
for pain, and blasphemed the God of heaven because of their
pains and their sores, and repented not of their deeds. These people
knew God existed because you don't blaspheme Santa Claus,
do you? Do you blaspheme the Easter,
do you go on a tirade against the Easter bunny? You understand,
I know those are silly things. You only blaspheme God when you
know God is God. Or God shows you he's God and
you don't like it. And what? And repented not of
their deeds. My summary is this, yes, To be
absolutely doctrinally accurate, you will never repent unless
God Almighty brings you to it, leads you to it by his goodness.
But I'm here to still proclaim to me and to everyone else, except
we repent, we shall all likewise perish. God don't repent for
you, he leads you to it. He don't need to repent. He doesn't
repent. He ain't gonna repent for us.
We're going to repent or we perish. Mason, would you close us in
prayer, please?