Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. I'm glad you could join us. And if you'd like to
follow along in your Bibles today, I'm going to be preaching from
the book of Acts chapter 17, beginning around verse 30 and
31. And today I'm going to talk about
the nature of repentance. Last week I talked about the
necessity of repentance. Well, today I want to talk about
the nature of repentance. from Acts chapter 17. And I made
the point last week, and I want to make sure that this is emphasized
in this message for you to hear, is that repentance, what most
people call repentance, is not really biblical repentance. Because
what most people call repentance is reformation, changing your
life, all of that, and that's not repentance. but reformation
will accompany repentance. It may be reformation from an
immoral, irreligious life, or it may be a reformation from
false religion to the truth. If we think about Saul of Tarsus,
he was a highly religious man trying to keep the law. When
God brought him to repentance, He changed gods. He changed from
the false god of legalism to the true God of the Bible, the
God of all grace, the sovereign God. For example, how do you
think of God? Well, if your thoughts of God
are not in accordance with God's revelation of Himself here in
the Bible, you need to repent of that. Now, you won't repent
of it on your own. Last week I made the point that
repentance is a gift from God. It's a God-worked gift, just
like faith. In fact, the way that God brings
a sinner to repentance is through faith in Christ. It's a change
of mind of who God is and what He's really like. what He requires. What does God require? That's
where I want to take you to here in Acts 17. But it's not just
Reformation. Reformation will follow. And
then a lot of people say, well, repentance is feeling sorry for
your sins. Well, that's not repentance.
We should feel sorry for our sins. The Bible speaks of godly
sorrow over sins. I should feel sorry for my sins.
Sorrier than I am. And that sorrow over sin will
accompany repentance. But it's not in and of itself
repentance. Repentance is that God-given
change of mind which He gives the sinners by way of faith in
Jesus Christ wherein He changes our minds through the truth of
who He really is and what He's like and what He requires. He
changes our minds of who we are and what we are and how sinful
and depraved we are. and that if God were to judge
us based upon our best efforts to keep the law or to be devout
or sincere, we'd all be in hell. He changes our minds concerning
Christ, our judgment of Christ, who He is, what He did, what
He accomplished on the cross. You see, I used to believe that
He died for everybody upon condition of their faith or their repentance.
But that's not what Christ did. God's changed my mind. I've repented
of that. Now I see that His death on the
cross is the very righteousness of God which demands and secures
the salvation of every sinner for whom He died. With the heart
man believeth unto righteousness. And that's what Christ is. He's
the righteousness of God. And so, here in Book of Acts
chapter 17, the Apostle Paul is in Athens. And you know Athens
back then had the reputation of the philosophers, the thinkers,
even religionists. And he begins in verse 22 preaching
to these people. And he says, I'm going to preach
to you the unknown God. A God you don't know. Now everybody
today, especially in this country, thinks they know God. But again
now, I want to emphasize, if your thoughts of God are not
according to the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, you don't
know God. Listen, the Bible tells us in
2 Peter 3.9 that God is long-suffering to usward, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And most
people say, well, that means God's trying to get everybody
to repent. And He's waiting on people to
repent before Christ comes back. That's not the God of this book.
The usward there in 2 Peter 3.9 are God's elect. And what Peter's
teaching, read the context, he's teaching that Christ is not going
to come back to destroy this world and gather his people unto
himself until the last one of his children, his redeemed one,
God's elect, are brought to repentance. God's gonna bring them to repentance.
Well, what is the nature of that repentance? Well, look, here
in Acts 17, Paul's preaching the unknown God. He starts off
with the God of creation. He brings it down to this in
verse 30. He's talking about how the Gentiles,
during the times of the Old Covenant in the Jewish religion, like
about 1500 years, how the Gentiles were left in their ignorance
and in their darkness. He says in verse 30 of Acts 17,
the times of this ignorance God winked at. In other words, that's
just a way of saying that God did not immediately wipe them
out, pour his wrath down on them. I mean, God showed his wrath
in different ways and different times, but he didn't just take
the whole Gentile world and wipe them out. He forbore. Them and so he says and and he
but he didn't reveal himself to them the times of this ignorance
God winked at but look says in verse 30, but now commandeth
all men everywhere to repent Now what is it I need to repent
of well look at verse 31 This is this is one of my favorite
verses. This is one. I quote all the time. He says
because he that is God Hath appointed a day in the which He will judge
the world in righteousness." That's the standard of judgment.
And that's the issue of repentance. You see, this repentance has
to do with right judgment. That's what God changes in our
minds. He gives us the knowledge of God. The knowledge of Himself
as a just God who must punish sin. And when I stand before
God at judgment, The standard is righteousness. Well, how righteous
do I have to be? Well, look at verse 31 again.
He hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world
in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained. Now there's
a man whom God has appointed. foreordained, and he says, whereof
he hath given assurance unto all, all men, in that he hath
raised him from the dead. Now who's he talking about there?
Well, that's Christ. And what he's saying is this.
Christ, whom he stated in John chapter five, is the judge of
all, and his righteousness is the standard of all judgment.
The standard by which he's going to judge me. the standard by
which He's going to judge you, all men. Now look over at John
chapter 16. That's the standard. There's no reason for you to
go through life, live and die, and then to face judgment without
knowing the standard, the measure by which you're going to be judged.
And you know what it is? It's righteousness that can only
be found in Christ. And so when you talk about love,
now you may be one of these folks who go around and say, oh, I
just love everybody. Well, you may be deceived there.
But let me ask you this, does your love equal Christ's love
for his people? Would you say it does? If you
do, I think you need to repent. I know you do. You're fooling
yourself. You say, well, I'm trying my
best to be the best person I can be. Well, are your efforts to
be the best? Do they equal Christ's obedience,
His perfection? No. We're all sinners. We come short of the glory of
God, Romans 3.23. What does that mean? It means
that as sinners, no matter how hard we try, we don't measure
up, we don't hit the mark. And what is the mark? It's the
perfection of righteousness that can only be found in the person
and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that's why
the command of the gospel is to believe on Him, rest in Him
as your righteousness, as your Savior. Submit to His righteousness
and repent of your own. That's right. And if you don't
do that, you don't know God. If you haven't come to see that
Christ's righteousness, freely imputed, charged, accounted,
and received by God-given faith, is the only standard and ground
of judgment, then I'm preaching unto you the unknown God. The Bible says God justifies
the ungodly. What does it mean to be justified?
It means to be forgiven of all my sins. Now, upon what ground
will God forgive me of all my sins? One preacher says, well,
it's your repentance. That's the ground upon which
God forgives you. Oh, no. You need to repent of
that. Some people say, well, it's your
sorrow and your efforts to try to be better that God forgives.
Oh, no. Somebody says, well, it's confession.
If you confess your sins, He's just and faithful to forgive
you. That if there's not a conditional if, it's an evidential if. And
so those who confess their sins confess that they deserve nothing
but God's wrath based upon their efforts. What is the condition
for forgiveness? I'll tell you exactly what it
is. It's the blood, the blood of Christ. God said, when I see
the blood, I'll pass over you. That's right. Somebody said,
well, but you've got to believe it, you've got to receive it.
Oh no, you will believe it. If that blood was shed for you,
you will believe it. You see, part of the blessings
of the finished work of Christ, His blood, His righteousness,
is the faith to receive it. Over in the Old Testament, God
said that. Jeremiah 31, He said, or Ezekiel 36, He said, I'll
give them a new heart. I'll put my spirit within them.
I'll cause them to walk in my statutes. Christ said, if I be
lifted up, I'll draw all unto me, all for whom he died. He
said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. He said, this
is the Father's will, of all which he has given me, I should
lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. Well,
look at John 16. Here's the issues of repentance.
Christ speaking to his disciples, and he says in verse seven of
John 16, He says, nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is expedient
for you that I go away. Now what does he mean going away?
Is he going on vacation? Or is he just going to take a
rest? No, he's going to the cross. And what does that mean? That
means he's going to die. He's going to be buried. He's
going to be raised again the third day, and then he's going
to ascend unto the Father. And he did it all for his people,
his sheep, his church, God's elect. And so he says it is necessary,
it is expedient, it's necessary for you, he said, for the disciples,
for all of God's elect, for all his sheep. The good shepherd
gave his life for the sheep. And so he says it's necessary
for you that I do this great work. That I go to the cross
as the surety of his people. What is a surety? A surety is
one who stands accountable and responsible for the debt of others. And what is our debt? What is the debt? It's a sin
debt. Listen, we sinned in Adam, we're
born dead in sin, we come forth sinning, and all our life is
sin. I'm not talking about just immorality.
I'm talking about our ignorance and our false judgment of the
realities of salvation and a right relationship with God. Not believing
the gospel. Ignorance. Deception. All of
that. We come forth with that. We run
up a debt. to God's law and justice. We
talk about criminals today who get caught and they get sentenced
to prison. We say they're paying their debt
to society. Well, by nature, in Adam, we owe the debt. We
can't pay. But our debt, the debt of God's
people, for whom God chose before the foundation of the world and
gave to Christ, and for whom Christ was sent to die on the
cross, their debt was charged to Christ. He's our surety, the
surety of the covenant. the everlasting covenant of grace.
And he came having the sins of his people charged to his account. And then in order to pay the
debt, he had to substitute himself in their place under the wrath
of God and shed his blood unto death to pay that debt and redeem
them. He's my surety, he's my substitute,
he's my redeemer. And as my Redeemer in His death,
He paid that debt in full, the ransom price, the scripture says,
as all our iniquity was laid upon Him, He paid it in full,
and He brought forth what the Bible calls the righteousness
of God, an everlasting righteousness of infinite value, whereupon
God could be just to forgive me of my sins. And that righteousness
is imputed to me. It's impute, all who believe
the gospel give evidence that Christ's righteousness has been
imputed to them. And they stand justified in God's
sight. So God justifies the ungodly.
He doesn't justify me based upon anything that he foresees that
I would do. He didn't justify me based upon
my faith and repentance. He justified me based upon the
blood of Christ. He justified me based upon the
righteousness of Christ imputed, charged, accounted to me. Christ
took my debt, He gave me His value, His merit. And so I stand
before God righteous in Christ. Now how do I know that I'm righteous? Because I believe in Him. I rest
in Him and I've repented of dead works. Those are all gifts from
God. You say, well look back at this John 16 now. That's what
Christ is talking about. It's necessary for you that I
go away. Verse seven, for if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come unto you. That's the Holy Spirit. But if
I depart, I will send him unto you. Now the work of the Holy
Spirit in the realm of salvation is to apply what the Father purposed
before the foundation of the world and what the Son purchased
on the cross, eternal life, righteousness, to each and every one of God's
people, each and every one of His sheep. And He does it in
the new birth. You must be born again. And when
you're born again, what happens? God imparts by the Spirit from
Christ spiritual life from the dead, spiritual knowledge ears
to hear, eyes to see. He changes us, you see. We're
changed from unbelief to faith in Christ, and He brings us to
repentance. that change of judgment that
comes about through Him. As we see everything in His light,
the light of the glory of God revealed in the face of Jesus
Christ. And what are the elements of that change of mind? Well,
look at verse eight of John 16. He says, and when He has come,
when the Spirit comes and does His work, when you're born again,
He will reprove, the word reprove means to convince, It's a conviction. He'll bring God's people to a
conviction, and he says he will reprove the world. Now that's
not everybody without exception, folks. Don't get drawn in to
the wicked interpretations. That anytime you see the world
all and every and world, that it means everybody without exception,
it does not. Here the word world refers to
those who are convinced. And who are the ones who are
convinced? They're believers. And God has a people all over
this world, not just among the Jews. He has an elect people
among the Jews and the Gentiles. He calls them in Romans 11 a
remnant according to the election of grace. And the reason that
the word world is emphasized in the book of John is because
the Jews, they wanted to confine the gospel to themselves. And
whenever the lost unbelieving Jews, they wanted to confine
salvation and a right relationship with God unto themselves and
their Jewishness. And what they would do is they'd
go out and try to get Gentile converts and they'd say, now
salvation's by grace, but you've got to be circumcised. You've
got to try to keep the law and keep these feast days and Sabbath
days. You've got to become a Jew, a proselyte. Remember what Christ
told him in Matthew 23? He said, when you get one convert,
you make him twofold more the child of hell than you are. Because
he's ensconced now in a false refuge, false religion. And the
message of the gospel is not, it's only for the Jews. It came
first through the Jews. But it's not only for the Jews,
it's for anybody who wants it, Jew and Gentile. Now the problem
is, is that by nature we don't want it. Not God's way, we want
it our way. But he changes our want to. And
how does he do it? Well, he says in verse eight,
when he has come, he will reprove, convict, convince the world of
sin. Now am I in this world here that
he's talking about? Well, am I convinced of sin?
All right, and of righteousness. He will convict the world of
righteousness. and of judgment, God's judgment. Now, how does
he do that? Well, look at verse nine. Now,
here's how he convicts the world of sin. Verse nine, of sin, because
they believe not on me. That word sin there is the same
word used in Romans 3.23, all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God. We've missed the mark. And so
the conviction of sin here is not just conviction over what
men and women naturally see as the bad things I do, I used to
think it was that when I was a teenager and I tried to go
to church, but I went out and sold my wild oats and I had to
go either be baptized or I had to go rededicate. And what I
didn't see at that time was the very religion I was in was false.
But it's a sin in relation to Christ because they believe not
on me without Christ. Now, let me say this to you.
In God's eyes, if we stand before God without Christ, without being
washed in His blood, without believing Him, it's all sin.
Depart from me ye that work iniquity. It all falls short. And that's
a matter of repentance. What I used to think recommended
me unto God, now I see is loss, even dung, Paul called it in
Philippians chapter three. So it's of sin, we're convinced
of sin by the Holy Spirit to see that without Christ, I'm
nothing. And then he says in verse 10,
he says, of righteousness, because I go to my father and you see
me no more. How can a sinner be righteous
in God's sight? Now what you naturally think
about that, you gotta repent of. And that's where God brings
us to repentance by showing us that righteousness can only be
found in the crucified, resurrected Christ. He is my righteousness. God's gonna judge the world in
righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained and that he
hath given assurance unto all men and that he hath raised him
from the dead. I have no righteousness before God, but Christ's righteousness
imputed to me. And I repent of thinking anything
else. Should I try to be obedient?
Yes, but my obedience is not my righteousness. Should I preach
the gospel? Yes, but my preaching is not
my righteousness, Christ is. He is, in the Bible twice, Jeremiah
used this term, Jehovah Sidcanu, he is the Lord my righteousness.
You'll find that in Jeremiah 23 and Jeremiah 33. Their righteousness
is of me, the psalmist said, of God. I have no righteousness
to plead before God, but the imputed righteousness of Christ.
Go learn what that means. And I'm convicted of that. I'm
convinced of it. And then verse 11, of judgment,
because the prince of this world is judged. When Christ died on
that cross, the prince of this world, who is Satan, was judged. He was cast out. He's called
the accuser of the brethren. accusing them day and night before
God. But his accusations do not stick. His judgments do not stick. Why? Because Christ was judged
in my place as my surety, my substitute, and my redeemer.
The full wrath of God that I earned and I deserved fell upon Christ. And therefore I am justified. I am righteous in God, so I'm
forgiven. Why? Because I'm so good? No. Why? Because I believe? No. Why? Because Christ died. That's the
key. He was judged and he put down
all of Satan's accusations. In Revelation 12, when it talks
about how the great, how the dragon, accuses God's people,
it says, and they turn him away, they turn him back by the blood
of the lamb and by the word of their testimony. And what is
the word of our testimony? It's Christ died for me. I'm
washed in his blood. I'm clothed in his righteousness.
I used to think it was because I made the difference. I used
to think it was because I made a decision, walked an aisle,
Well, do we make a decision? Yes, but that's not the ground
of salvation. That's the evidence of it. I
am saved, justified, sanctified, forgiven, sure for heaven because
of Christ and what he did, who he is. He's God in human flesh
and what he accomplished on Calvary. And that's where our standard
of judgment came. Now, what's valuable to me now? Well, my
works, you know, I believe that God's people should be obedient,
and that is valuable. There's some value to that, but
the value there is to the glory of God, not to the glory of the
person. The value there is the work of
God. You see, what I really value
is making the difference between heaven and hell is the blood
of Christ, the imputed righteousness of Christ. It's the same thing.
and I'm convinced of it. And let me tell you something,
if you're convicted of this, if you're convinced of it, if
you've been reproved of it, there's three things I know about you.
Number one, you cannot deny it. You can't deny it. If you can
deny it, you haven't been convinced. That's what believing is all
about. Paul said, I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded
that he is able. Notice what he said there. Not
that I'm able, but that he is able to keep that which I've
committed unto him against that day. So you can't deny it. You
cannot ignore it. I know people who claim to believe
it, but they ignore it, especially when it comes to religious friends
who believe a false gospel. You cannot deny it, you cannot
ignore it, and you can never leave it. You can never apostatize. People who say, well, you can
believe and then be lost, not if you believe the truth. not
if you're saved by the grace of God and brought into a right
relationship with Him through Christ. I hope you'll join us
next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7, contact us
by phone at 2-2-9-4-3-2-6-9-6-9, or email us through our website
at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today, and may the Lord be with you.