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. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. And if you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to begin in the book of Luke. In
the New Testament, one of the Gospels, the Gospel of Luke,
chapter 13. And I'll be reading the first
five verses of Luke 13 concerning this subject, the necessity of
repentance. The necessity of repentance.
And I'm gonna be talking about repentance quite a bit in this
message and probably the next. because it is such a misunderstood issue today. What is real repentance? For example, most people, when
they think of repentance, they think of really what is, in reality,
reformation. Somebody changing their life
like they go from the as we used to say from the gutter to the
pew go from living an immoral life to a religious life or a
devout life and That's Reformation But Reformation is not repentance
now. Let me Listen to me very carefully
here Reformation will follow repentance. There'll be a reformation. But it may not be the kind of
reformation that you think of or most people think of. Because
when people think of repentance, they think about repenting over
sins. And that's what repentance is.
You must repent of your sins. That's what that comes in salvation. And that repentance comes through
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith and repentance. You know,
somebody, people argue sometimes they'll say, which comes first,
faith or repentance? Well, faith is the foundation
grace, which is the gift of God to his people. And those who
have been brought to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, repentance
comes with it. One man said it's like two sides
of a coin. You can't have one side without
the other. Or two sides of a sheet of paper. You've got one side
and then the other. You can't divide them. And so
I would agree with that. That if there is faith, if there
is true faith in Christ, believing the gospel of God's grace in
Christ, there will be repentance. But now reformation will follow. And what kind of reformation
is it? Well, again, most people think of it as someone who lives
an immoral lifestyle who reforms to a moral, devout, religious
lifestyle. Starts going to church, gets
baptized, all of that. But see, that's not repentance,
that's reformation. And then others think about repentance
as being, well, you've got to feel sorry for your sins. Now,
it is true if you're a believer, and I would say this for everybody,
but if you're a believer, you need to feel sorry. You need
to have what the Bible calls godly sorrow over sins. But that's not repentance. Now,
sorrow over sin will follow repentance, comes with repentance. But sorrow
over what kind of sin? And that's what people need to
understand today. So we're gonna talk about the
necessity of repentance. But let me just say this before
I read the scripture here. The word repentance in the New
Testament literally means a change of mind. Now, mark that down. It's a change of mind, and it's
a God-given, God-worked change of mind. It's not a change of
mind that you will come to on your own, or I came to on my
own, just like faith. You know, faith is the gift of
God. Man, by nature, will not believe God. Not the gospel now. He might believe a lot of things
that are true and a lot of things that are right, but he won't
believe the gospel because it's against his fallen human nature. I quote on this program all the
time. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them because
they're spiritually discerned. And what he's talking about there,
that's 1 Corinthians 2.14, that spiritual discernment is
spiritual judgment. In other words, the natural man
who's fallen, ruined by the fall, ruined in Adam, born spiritually
dead in trespasses and sins, has no real spiritual judgment. Now he has a conscience, he knows
something about right and wrong, but his conscience is defiled.
And listen to me, when it comes to issues of salvation, and a
right relationship with God, we by nature, on our own, have
no spiritual judgment. We don't know the difference
between right and wrong when it comes to salvation and a right
relationship with God. Now we know, again, we know the
difference between right and wrong with the laws of the land
and our relationships with people. God's given every man a conscience,
every woman a conscience. And they have that. Now they
can squelch that conscience. The Bible speaks of those of
a reprobate mind, a mind void of judgment, which means they've
sunk so far into sin that they no longer know right from wrong.
They call good evil and evil good. But by nature, of ourselves,
we will not believe the gospel because we don't have any spiritual
judgment. That's the natural man. So faith
is the gift of God. Well, repentance is the gift
of God too. The Bible says, for by grace
are you saved, through faith, that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And
so faith is given to God's people under the preaching of the gospel,
and they're brought to repentance. And that repentance means a change
of mind. Well, a change of mind about
what? Well, specifically, that repentance that Paul wrote in
Romans 2 about the goodness of God that leads to repentance
has to do with a right judgment concerning salvation and a right
relationship with God. And that's what the change of
mind is over. You know, most people, if they're living an
immoral lifestyle, Let's say someone who is an alcoholic and
stays drunk all the time. They know that that's wrong.
In their judgment, they know that that's not right. Now, they
may not be able to stop that kind of behavior. They may not
be able to squelch it because they're an addict, a drug addict,
an alcoholic, whatever, a sex addict, a gambler, whatever.
They may not be able to squelch it, but they know in their mind
that this is wrong. This is not right behavior. This
is not productive. But repentance that comes in
salvation has to do with something that we think is right, but is
really wrong. And when God brings us to repentance,
gives us the gift of repentance, He changes our mind and then
follows reformation and sorrow over sin. You understand that?
So repentance is a God-given God worked miraculous change
of mind. Now let me lay the foundation
here from Luke chapter 13. Here the Lord Jesus Christ is
speaking to a group of people. He'd been talking about the gospel.
And he says in verse one, this is Luke 13, It says, it's recorded
here, there were present at that season some that told him of
the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. Now that's speaking of a true
historical event where some Galileans were bringing the sacrifices
of the Old Covenant, the blood of animals, as their sacrifices
according to the law, bringing them maybe unto the priest or
whatever. But Pilate, for some reason,
you know who Pilate was, Pontius Pilate, he was the governor,
the Roman governor that ruled over Judea. Apparently there
was something going on here politically or something that he wanted to
make a point and he sent soldiers in to slaughter these people
while they were bringing their sacrifices. And so their blood
was mingled with their sacrifices. Now look at verse 2. This is
the point I want to get to. Now, it's kind of natural for
people, when something like that happens, And I don't know specifically
what these Galileans were and their character and their conduct,
how they appeared before me, but it's natural for people to
look at something like that and to naturally think, well, they
got what they deserved. They must have committed some
great sin in their life or God would not have let that happen.
And most of you may know better than that, but listen to what
Christ says to the crowd. He says, verse two again, suppose
ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans
because they suffered such things. Verse three, he says, I tell
you nay or no, but except you repent, you shall all likewise
perish. If you look at those and you
say, well, they must have been greater sinners than everybody
else. Well, they wouldn't have got that. And Christ says, no,
you're thinking wrongly. Your mind's not right. You need
a change of mind. He said, because I'm telling
you, except you repent, you'll perish just like them. Somebody
says, well, they got what they deserve. Well, what if God would
give me or you what you deserve? The Bible says that all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. And then it says
that the wages of sin is death. I know it says the gift of God
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, but the wages
of sin is death. What is a wage? Well, that's
what you can earn. If God ever gave me what I've
earned and deserve right now at this moment, I would be doomed. That's what he's teaching here. Except you go through this change
of mind concerning your judgment of who deserves death. Somebody said, well, we gotta
know who deserves heaven. Nobody deserves heaven. And so
he says, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. Now
that tells us the necessity of repentance. except you repent,
you'll perish. Repent or perish. There is no
one who is saved who has not been brought by God to repentance. There's no one who will enter
heaven's glory who has not been brought to repentance. But now
let's look on here. Many of you may say when somebody
goes through something like that, you may not say, well, they got
what they deserve or something. But now let me show you another
scenario here. Look at verse four of Luke 13. He says, or
those 18 upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew them. Now, this was what we put in
the category of a natural disaster, maybe a tornado or a hurricane. And it says, and slew them, think
ye that they were sinners, the word sinners there is a debtor,
above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem. Do you think that that disaster
came upon them because they were greater sinners than the others
in Jerusalem? And of course, he says in verse
five, I tell you, nay, no. but except you repent, you shall
all likewise perish. Now, a lot of times things like
that happen in other places, and people are apt to say, well,
they got what they deserve. I remember years ago when Hurricane
Katrina came through the city of New Orleans. I can remember
preachers on TV talking about how wicked New Orleans is. and
how that God was punishing them because of that wickedness. If
a hurricane would hit Las Vegas or some infamous city, think
about in the Bible, Sodom and Gomorrah. God did bring down
his judgment on them because of their sins. Think about the
world before the flood. God brought His wrath in the
form of that flood and wiped them all out because of their
sin. But now here's the point. How am I to view that? Well,
I'm to view it this way. All sin deserves death. Now that's right. You say, well,
I had a man tell me one time, he says, well, I know I'm not
perfect, but I've never done anything to deserve hell. And
I told him, I said, all sin deserves death. If we could say one sin,
yes. How about a million sins? But
now we are sinners. We've committed a multitude of
sins. And those who deny that deny
the scriptures. They haven't been brought to
repentance. And so all sin deserves death. And somebody said, well,
that hurricane hit New Orleans because that's such a wicked
city. Well, my friend, I can tell you about tornadoes and
hurricanes that hit Albany, Georgia. And there's a church about on
every street corner around here. And this is the Bible Belt. Some
people say it's the buckle on the Bible Belt. Did we get what
we deserved? You see what I'm saying? Now
this issue of repentance brings these things to mind. That's
what God does. He brings them to mind so that
we can understand what he means. And that's how he gives the gift
of repentance. Well, here's the point. Here's
one of the biggest points in that change of mind that God
brings about in repentance. And that's for every one of us
alike, all have sinned. and come short of the glory of
God. What does that mean? Well, that's Romans 3.23, and
it means that every person, every man, woman born of Adam is born
in a state of spiritual death, and we all come forth from the
womb, we sin, and even our best efforts to be good fall short. All have sinned and come short. missed the mark of the glory
of God. And what is the glory of God?
Well, the glory of God is Christ. It's the glorious person and
the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so repentance
is a change of mind. Now listen to me very carefully.
Repentance is when God, through his word, by the power of the
Holy Spirit, changes our minds concerning who God is, what He's
really like, in His holiness, His justice, His judgments, all of that. Yes, His mercy, His grace and
His love, but not apart from His holiness and His justice,
His righteousness, His truth. You see, God must judge according
to truth. The Bible teaches us that over
in the book of Romans chapter two. Look over there with me.
Listen to this. Here in Romans two, he'd been
bringing in the first chapter, beginning at verse 18, the apostle
was led by the spirit to bring the whole human race into guilty
before God based upon their best efforts who obey, and then he
showed how the Gentile world had descended into such horrible
sinful practices. But then in chapter two, he turns
to the religious Jews. And listen to what he says in
Romans two and verse one. He says, therefore thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. All right, make a judgment. Now, don't get that confused. with judging righteous judgment. And I'll talk to you about that
in a moment. But the Bible does not, God's word does not forbid
all judgment. You know, people use Matthew
7, 1 as a watchword to that and they misuse it where it says,
judge not that you be not judged. Well, what he's forbidding there
in Matthew 7 is self-righteous judgment. And that's what he's
talking about here in Romans chapter two. Self-righteous judgment. The kind of judgment that would
look at the city of New Orleans and say, well, they got destroyed
because they're great sinners, but we're not destroyed because
we're better. That kind of judgment, judge
not that you be not judged. That's self-righteous judgment. But now righteous judgment is
judging based upon God's word. And my friend, it's no good for
you to look at yourself and say, well, I don't judge anybody.
You judge everything. You might as well face it. You're
judging me right now. You say, well, no, I'm not. Yes,
you are. You're judging whether I'm telling you the truth or
telling you a lie. Now, on what do you base your
judgment? Do you base your judgment on
the fact that you don't like what I'm saying? Or do you base
it upon the fact that it's not what you've heard all your life?
Well, that's self-righteous judgment. Now, if you want to judge me
properly, righteously, judge me according to this book. Am
I telling you what God's Word is? And if God ever brings you
to repentance, that's where you'll come to. But now here in Romans
2 in verse 1, therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever
thou art that judges. For wherein thou judgest another,
thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest doest the
same things. Now, the Jews, the religious
Jews, who judged the immoral Gentiles lost, They could say,
well, now we're not doing the same things those Gentiles are
doing. We're not engaging in homosexuality
and open idolatry and immorality. No, but they were still sinners.
And in that sense, they do the same thing. All have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. Jew and Gentile. Over in Romans
chapter three, Paul says, the scripture hath concluded all
under sin. And he says, are we better than
they? Are we better off than the Gentiles? No and no wise.
Jew and Gentile. You see, salvation is by grace. And that's for the Jew and the
Gentile. That's for the man in the gutter
and the man behind a pew worshiping an idol, a false god, or a false
gospel, or a counterfeit Christ. They are both just as much in
need of God's grace and mercy through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ as each other. There's not one better than another
when it comes to salvation and a right relationship with God.
They are both in need of a righteousness they cannot produce. And the
religious person who does not know Christ and does not know
the true and living God, who believes a false gospel, is no
closer to that righteousness, to salvation, to a right relationship
with God, than the man in the gutter. That's what I'm telling
you. That's the change of mind. And
that's what he's saying. Look at Romans two and verse
two. But we are sure that the judgment of God is according
to truth against them which commit such things. And verse three,
thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things,
and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of
God? Now look at verse four. Or despisest thou the riches
of his goodness? Now riches of his goodness is
in the gospel of salvation for sinners who deserve nothing but
death. Sinners who have earned nothing
but death. sinners who cannot save themselves,
sinners who are by nature enemies of God and alienated from God
in their mind by wicked works, which is their deeds. And he
says, and he says, and thinkest thou this, or despisest thou
the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering,
not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. You see it there? Leads you to
a change of mind. If you ever see how God saves
sinners by his free and sovereign grace through the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ, his righteousness, because you don't have one and
I don't have one, there's none righteous, no, not one over in
Romans 3.10. None that doeth good. If you ever see the reality
of God's grace to save me and to keep me and to bring me to
glory by His mercy based upon the righteousness of Christ,
freely imputed to me, charged to me, not because of my works
or my will, wasn't on my free will. If you ever come to repentance,
you'll see that your will was just as much in bondage as everything
else about you. If you ever see that, that means
you've been brought to repentance. Repentance. The Bible calls it
repentance of dead works. What's a dead work? It's a work
that leads to death. It can appear moral in the eyes
of men. It can appear religious and sincere. The Jews sought after righteousness
by their works. That appears good to men. But
if you're brought to repentance, God brings you to a change of
mind about that. You say, Now, all right, I'm
thinking differently. I'm judging differently. I have
a different value of things. And so, look over with me to
1 Corinthians 2. Let me show you this. Because
this shows you the essence of repentance. This repentance of
dead works. It's 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14
that I read all the time here and quote all the time. where
it says in verse 14, But the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto
him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. He has no value for these things. When I tell you
about the gospel of Christ and those who are ignorant of or
not cemented to His righteousness are lost, Do you have any value
for that? Is that your standard of judgment?
But look at verse 15. But he that is spiritual, that's
a believer, a repentant person, judgeth all things, yet he himself
is judged of no man. What judgment is he talking about
here? He's talking about judgment of who God is, of who we are,
of saved and lost, what it takes. That doesn't mean that I know
everybody who's saved and everybody who's lost. It means that I know
this, everybody who's saved They come to God begging for mercy
through the Lord Jesus Christ based on his righteousness alone.
And everybody who's lost, they come pleading something else.
Their works, their will, they believe salvation's conditioned
on them. But look at verse 16. He says, for who hath known the
mind of the Lord that he may instruct him? But we have the
mind of Christ. Now how can it be said, even
as a believer, that I have the mind of Christ? Does that mean
I don't have any sinful thoughts, impure thoughts? No, I do. I have the flesh to deal with.
How do we have the mind of Christ? When God brings a sinner to faith
in Christ and repentance of dead works and idolatry, that change
of mind concerning who God is, He changes gods. That's what
happens. The God I worshipped when I was
brought up in church, In my mind, He's a false God. Changed God. How do we have the mind of Christ?
We think like He does in the sense of His Word. We see things
as He saw them. What He calls dead works, we
call dead works. What He calls good works, we
call good works. That's the issues of faith and
repentance. Do you have a righteousness that answers the demands of God's
law and justice? Well, I'll talk about that next
time in more detail. But that's what repentance is.
That's the necessity of repentance. 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. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.