Well, we're gonna talk about
the subject this morning of repentance and righteous judgment. That
may sound strange to somebody, repentance and righteous judgment. And I'm gonna show you where
that term righteous judgment comes from in just a moment. But you know, I've been talking
about the issues of godly repentance these last few weeks, and I've
got this message and one more that I'm gonna talk about. And
the base verse of scripture that I used to talk about these things
is in 2 Peter 3, 9. And let me just read that to
you to refresh your memory. You know, that's where the Apostle
Peter is talking about the second coming of Christ, and he's answering
what he calls the scoffers. Now, a scoffer is an unbeliever
who actually criticizes and cast off what we believe to be true
based on God's Word. If I preach to you this morning
and you don't believe what I say, the thing you need to do is to
make sure what I say is not in the Word of God. Now, if it's
not in the Word of God, you can scoff at it. But if it's the
Word of God, you better not scoff at it. believe God's word. So what I try to do, you know,
I've been accused of using too much scripture in a message and
sometimes I do, but as far as, you know, you all turn in and
all that, a lot of times I tell you, you know, don't try to turn
to every scripture, write it down and go back to it. But these were scoffers who were
scoffing at the preaching of the second coming of Christ.
And they would say things, well, is the Lord delaying his coming?
And the world hasn't been destroyed yet. And they even made the statement,
the world is going on like it always has. And of course, Peter
says, oh no, no, there was a flood that wiped out this world, except
for eight people. And that's the flood in Noah's
day. So God, be understood, let it
be understood that God is a God of judgment. He will punish. You know, people say, well, he
hates sin but loves the sinner. No, the Lord hates workers of
iniquity. That's people. And what he's
talking about there is those to whom the Lord imputes or charges
with sin. See, our only hope of salvation
is to find a way. And thank God, it's not a way
of our own invention. To find a way that I, who am
a sinner, can stand before God and not be charged with my sins.
Now that sounds unjust, doesn't it? I mean, if a guy comes up
in a human court today and he's guilty of the crime and the judge
says, well, I'm not gonna charge you, that's injustice if he's
guilty. Well, I'm a sinner and I deserve
damnation. That's what I deserve. The wages
of sin is death. I cannot put away my sins. I
can't do that. Nothing I do, if today I could
start and say, now I'm gonna be the best person I'll be every
day, and let's say I could make it, it still wouldn't put away
my sins. It takes the blood of a God-appointed,
God-sent substitute to put away sin. You see that blood, what
can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood. That blood
means just as satisfied in the death of Christ. And if he died
for me, God cannot and will not charge me with my sins. I will
have spiritual eternal life. I'm righteous in his sight. So
Peter, in 2 Peter 3, he's dealing with that. And he says, God is
not delaying his coming, waiting for something. People today,
they portray God like this is some kind of a cosmic chess game.
God makes his move, and then we make our counter move, and
then he figures out what he's gonna do. They act like the gospel
is some sort of plan B, contingency plan. It's not. This thing, this
thing about salvation of God's people was set up before the
foundation of the world, and everything's going right according
to God's plan. This is not a world out of, it's
a world out of my control. It's a world out of your control,
but it's not a world out of God's control. He doeth as he will. And so Peter answers them this
way, in 2 Peter 3, 9, he says, the Lord is not slack or slow
concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, as some
men judge this thing, but the Lord is long-suffering to us-ward,
toward us. Who is the us? That's believers,
that's his elect, not the whole world without exception. Not
willing that any of us should perish. It doesn't say of us
there, but the context demands it. Not willing that any should
perish. That doesn't mean that God's
trying to save everybody if you'll just let him. That's not the
God of the Bible. But that all should come to what? Repentance.
That's where we started at. What is repentance? Repentance
is, listen, most people have a lot of different ideas about
repentance. But let me say this, repentance is not just feeling
sorry for your sins. Now, sorrow over sin will accompany
repentance, but the actual repentance is not just feeling sorry. Should
we feel sorry? Yes, more than we are, but that's
not repentance. Now, it'll accompany repentance.
I'll show you more about that next week, but repentance is
not reformation. We need to learn the difference
between true godly repentance and reformation. Now, reformation
will accompany repentance, but it's not the actual repentance.
It springs from repentance. In fact, both sorrow over sin
and reformation falls under this heading. John the Baptist said
it in Matthew 3 and Luke 3. When he looked at the Pharisees
and the Sadducees, and you know what he told me? He said, bring
forth fruits, meat for repentance. That is fruits that are worthy
of repentance, consistent with repentance, appropriate to repentance. Now that's where godly sorrow
over sin and where reformation, whatever reformation you need
to go through, that's where it comes in. It's not repentance
itself, it's the fruits that are appropriate to repent. It's what springs from repentance,
faith and repentance actually. Well, I spoke to you of issues
of repentance. What is repentance? It's a change
of mind. Now that doesn't mean it's all only merely head and
intellectual or anything like that, but it's a change of mind. What do I change my mind about?
It's a change of mind concerning salvation. It's a change of mind
concerning my sins and how a sinner like me can have a right relationship
with God. That's where repentance comes
in. You understand? You say, well, what about these
immoral people, these drunks and these, don't they need to
repent of that? Yes, they do. But that's not what we're talking
about right now. And again, that kind of reformation will accompany
repentance to some degree. But repentance has to do with
this question. How can a sinful man or a sinful
woman be justified, that is forgiven. How can I be declared righteous
in the sight of Almighty God? And God be just to do that. He's
known by His judgment. And let me tell you something,
in God's court, there's no perversion of justice. It's in a human court. Job asked that question. He said
in Job 9.2, I know it is so of a truth, but how should man be
just with God? Well, what's the problem there?
Man is a sinner. That's the problem. How should
a sinful man be just, be made right with God? Now, whatever
you think about that subject, now listen to me very carefully.
And it goes on, later on, one of Job's friends, I think it
was Bildad, asked the question in Job 25.4, he said, how then
can man be justified with God, or how can he be clean that is
born of woman? Now you think about that question.
And whatever you think the answer is, if it's not God's way revealed
in his word, you need to repent. You need a change of mind. And
I pray God will give you that, because it's a gift from God.
How sinners can be brought into a right relationship with God
and attain spiritual and eternal life. How sinners can be cleansed
from all their sins. How God saves sinners by His
grace based on the righteousness of Christ. I brought out how
righteousness is the issue in repentance. Isn't that right?
God, in Acts 17, 30 and 31, God has commanded all men everywhere
to repent because he has appointed a day in the which he will judge
the world in righteousness. What is that righteous standard?
By that man whom he hath ordained in that he hath given assurance
unto all men and that he hath raised him from the dead. That's
what repentance has to do with. The issue of repentance is righteousness.
Think about it. The nature of repentance, I'll
tell you what the nature is, it's turning away from myself
and turning to Christ. Turning away from my works that
I'm so proud of and coming as a sinner, broken, bankrupt spiritually,
having no righteousness, no right, no title, and being brought by
Almighty God to rest in Christ for all salvation. You know, Paul, or the Apostle
Paul wrote in Romans about the unbelieving Jews who were going
about trying to establish their own righteousness. Now how were
they trying to do that? By being moral, by being religious,
by being sincere. Thinking all the time that that's
what makes them right with God. And you know what he said of
them in Romans 10? He said, they don't know God.
Listen to me. People today say, well, are the
Jews and the Christians worshiping the same God? Well, in Christ,
there's no Jew or Gentile. But let me tell you something,
there's no unbeliever, I don't care what they call themselves
or how more that knows God, knows the God of this book. You see,
like Cain, who came to God seeking salvation and blessing based
on his works, In his mind, he believed in a God who would accept
that, who would look upon that favorably. But the God of the
Bible won't. And that's what God said. He
rejected Cain, but he accepted Abel who brought the what? Blood
of the Lamb. You see, if you think salvation
is conditioned on you, you don't know God. Is that too hard? It's not. I'm just telling you
the truth. Man by nature will not repent
until God gives him a new heart and a new mind, till God reveals
himself to him. Repentance, like faith, is the
gift of God. And then I talked about the need
for repentance. Christ said, except you repent, you shall
likewise perish. Look at somebody you know is
an unbeliever or that they deserve hell, death and hell, and I'm
telling you, Except you repent, you'll perish too. Unless you're
brought to Christ, turning away from self, turning away from
your own works, and depending wholly upon Christ as the author
and finisher of my faith. Repentance is the gift of God.
It glorifies God. Christ said there's more joy
in heaven over one sinner that's brought to repentance than over
the 99 that need no repentance. That's the way it is. He said,
I came not to call the righteous. Didn't he say that? You remember
what happened in there? He was eating dinner with publicans
and Pharisees, people that the religious Jew knew were not right
with God. And Christ sat down and had dinner
with them and was teaching them. And they came to the disciples
and said, well, we know there's nothing to your master. He's
eating with that bunch of ingrates. You know what he told him? He
overheard him and he said, I came not to call the righteous. If
you're already righteous, you don't need Christ. You know that?
I didn't come to call, but I came to call sinners to repentance. Last week, I talked about the
way of repentance. Repentance is the gift of God,
which he brings his people to through faith in Christ. We looked
at Philippians three. Paul said, everything that I
used to highly value, as recommended me unto God. I was a Hebrew,
I was circumcised, I was keeping the law. Everything that I highly
valued and thought God was pleased with, I now repent of it. It's dung, he said. Strong words,
isn't it? I'll tell you, that fella had
a change of mind, didn't he? Well, I wanna talk about repentance
just a few moments and righteous judgment. Over in John chapter
7, in John chapter 7 and verse 24,
the Lord speaking to His disciples, and there were Pharisees there
too. And in John 7 and verse 24, He
tells His disciples, and you have to understand now, The Pharisees
were people that men looked at and admired and esteemed as being
the most spiritual and the closest to God. The Pharisees, when you
hear the word Pharisee, you're just talking about an unbelieving,
self-righteous person. You're not talking about somebody
who's got fangs and horns and carrying around a pitchfork.
They all weren't mean. Some of them were nice and kind,
just like people today who are unbelievers. And people would
look at them and they would say, now, that guy there, if he's
not saved, who can be? And here's what Christ told his
disciples in John 7, 24. He says, judge not according
to the appearance. Don't judge by what you see.
But judge righteous judgment. Righteous judgment. Now here's
my question. Now go back to John 16. How can I, who am a sinner, Judge
anything righteously. Let me give you the short answer.
Judge things by the word of God. Whatever God says is true. If
God says something about me, it's true, whether you see it
or not. If God says something about you,
it's true, whether I see it or not. Now if I judge one way,
and God judges another way, guess what? I need God to bring me
to repentance. You understand what I'm saying
now? Well, what does God, how does God judge things? Well,
look here at John 16, verse seven. Christ says in verse seven, talking
to his disciples, and I want you to notice too, this is in
the context that the world will hate you. They'll throw you out
of their church, out of their worship services. And why do
they do it? Because they don't know me nor
the Father. They're ignorant of God. They've got a God of
their imagination. And so he says in verse seven,
or verse six, he says, but because I have said these things unto
you, sorrow hath filled your heart. Nevertheless, he says,
I tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that
I go away. Now, what is he saying? He's
saying it's necessary Then I go away from you. Well, where was
he going? Was he going on vacation? Taking a trip to Panama City?
No. I'm just being facetious. You
know that. Where was he going? He was going to the cross to
die for the sins of his sheep. He was going to be buried, raised
again the third day, spend a few more days, and be ascended unto
the Father. He's going to his Father. That's what he said. But he told
his disciples, don't sorrow over that. It's necessary for you
that I do that. Why was it necessary for them?
Because they were sinners who needed salvation by the grace
of God. But now look at the next line
in verse seven. For if I go not away, if I don't do this great
work, the comforter, that's the Holy Spirit, the advocate will
not come unto you You see, what does this Holy Spirit do? He
applies powerfully and invincibly the life of Christ to his people. That's the new birth. He raises
us from the dead spiritually. He gives us a new heart, a new
mind, new life. He gives us eyes to see and ears
to hear. Christ said, you must be born
again, born from above, born by the Spirit, or you cannot
see or hear the kingdom of God. You see, unless you're born again,
you're not going to really see the reality and the value of
what God says in His word, what I'm preaching today. You'll just
scoff at it. That means you'll either deny
it or you'll just ignore it. And he says, but if I depart,
I'll send him unto you. And look at verse eight. He says,
and when he has come, he will reprove the world three things.
Now he's not talking, the world there doesn't mean everybody
without exception. How do you know that preacher? Because he's
talking about conversion here. He's talking about sinners being
convinced of something that prior to this, they weren't convinced
of. And so he says three things you're gonna be convinced of.
Every one of them have to do with repentance. Faith in Christ
and repentance. And he says when he's come, he
will reprove the world of sin. He's gonna convict or convince
his people all over this world, Jew and Gentile, his elect, his
sheep, of sin. And then of righteousness. And
then of judgment. What do you mean by that, Lord?
Verse nine. He's going to convict his people all over this world
of sin because they believe not on me. Now what does that mean? That means he's going to bring
sinners to see the reality of sin in the light of Jesus Christ. Let me give you this. In repentance,
God the Holy Spirit changes our judgment of things. Don't get
bogged down with these people who misuse Matthew 7.1. Somebody said that John 3.16
is the most misused verse in the Bible. I heard a man say,
no, Matthew 7.1 is. You know what Matthew 7.1 says?
Judge not that you be not judged. Is Christ there forbidding us
to judge anything? Absolutely not. First of all,
realize we judge everything. And if you say you don't, I judge
you to be a liar. You say, well, I don't judge
preachers. Yes, you do. You're judging right now whether or
not I'm telling you the truth or telling you a lie. Isn't that
right? And if you say, well, preacher, I don't care what you
believe. Well, you've judged that what I have to say is not worth anything.
Either way, you've made a judgment. You judge everything. I judge.
What's the problem then when Christ says judge not? That's
self-righteous judgment that he's forbidding. Remember, he
says, you look at a sinner and you say, well, he deserves hell
or she deserves hell. And you want to take that splinter
out of the eye, you know, that's metaphorically speaking, you
want them to repent of their sin. But he said, what about
that big log that's in your eye? That's the problem. He's forbidding
self-righteous judgment. Right after that passage in Matthew
7, 1, he makes this statement. He says, beware of false prophets. Now, how are you gonna beware
of them if you don't judge them to be false? You see, that wouldn't
make sense. And how are you gonna judge them
to be either true or false? You go by God's word. So how
do we judge righteously? We judge by God's word, what
God says, not by what we think, not by our opinions, not by the
majority. Somebody said, well, you know,
there's a thousand people that go to that church. They must
be right. Oh, really? Christ was one and the world
was against him. In Jeremiah's day, he preached
the truth and there were 500 or more false prophets who spoke
peace where there was no peace. Well, the Holy Spirit changes
our judgment. And he changes our judgment of
who God is and what God requires. Before we understand through
the revelation of truth in Christ Jesus, we don't really understand
who the true and living God of this book is and what he requires
and how he has set it all up to remedy our situation. He's known by judgment. We read
that in Psalm. Bible speaks in the Old Testament
of those who pray unto a God that cannot save. I'll tell you
right now, and I'm not being too hard, the God of this generation,
of the vast majority of those who even call them Christian,
is not the God of this book. The Bible tells us this God is
a sovereign God who works all things after the counsel of his
own will. Do I understand all that? Absolutely not, but you
know why? I'm not God. He doesn't come down on my level
to explain His sovereign providence and all things. Why does God
do this? I know two things about that that the Bible tells us.
It's for His glory and for the good of His people. He's a just
God. He must punish sinners to whom
sin is charged. And if He saves anyone, And he
must find a way that he can save them in mercy and love and grace
that's appropriate and essential to his justice. God's not going
to just look over your sins. He's got to deal with them. The
soul that sinneth must surely die. The wages of sin is death.
We've all sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's Christ,
the standard of Christ. Salvation is not by works, no
matter how much we try, no matter how hard we try, no matter how
many works we do, it cannot put away our sins and make us righteous
before God. And yet, in Isaiah 45, we're
told, when he says, look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends
of the earth, for I'm God, there's none else, how does he identify
himself? In the verse prior to that, a
just God and a Savior. God is a saving God. but not
without his justice. God is a mercy of God. He delights
to show mercy. But he says, I'll show mercy
to whom I will. I'll be gracious to whom I will.
Somebody says, well, God's not fair not to show mercy to everybody.
Well, you're gonna have to deal with that God. That's how he
reveals himself in the world. I heard a man say to Brother
Mahan one time, he says, your God's a monster. And Brother
Mahan said, well, get ready to deal with a monster. You say, that sounds so cruel.
What it is, it's a wake up call. Seek the God of this book. He's
a merciful God. He's a loving God. He's a gracious
God, but not without justice satisfied. And if you've ever thought of
God in any other way, you're worshiping a God that cannot
save. I pray God will bring you to repentance. You change gods.
That's what repentance is about. You go from worshiping this namby-pamby
God, this cosmic chess player, who operates at the whims and
the wills of men, and you turn to the true and living God in
Christ. Then our judgment of ourselves
and our sins change. Look back at John 16, of sin
because they believe not on me. People say today, well, you need
to repent of your sins. Let me tell you something, we
don't even know what sin is until the Lord brings us to repentance. Oh, we have a natural conscious,
we know that drunkenness is a sin, murder is a sin, adultery is
a sin, we know those. But what about those sins that
deceive people, those that religious, those religious efforts sought
in order to be made righteous? By nature, we call light darkness
and darkness light, good evil and evil good. Look over at 1
Corinthians 2, let me show you this. Whenever sin, here's what I'm
saying, here's what Christ is saying there, sin because they
believe not on me. What he's actually saying there is that
without Christ, without believing in him and knowing him and resting
in him, it is all sin. The word for sin there is that
word you find in Romans 3.21, we've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. It means we fall short. It doesn't mean,
when it says for we've all sinned and come short of the glory of
God, it doesn't mean necessarily that we're all at this stage
in life immoral perverts. Doesn't mean that we all don't
go to church somewhere and got baptized and all that. It means
we all fall short. What do we fall short of? The
standard that God requires, the perfection of righteousness that
can only be found in Christ. That's what you fall short of.
That's what I fall short of. Well, look here in verse 14 of
1 Corinthians 2. He says, the natural man, that's
how we are naturally born, receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. They are foolishness unto him, neither can he know
them because they're spiritually discerned. The natural man or
woman is born dead and trespasses it, has no spiritual judgment.
How do you judge the things that I'm preaching to you out of the
Word of God? You say, well, I don't believe him. If what I'm preaching
is out of the word of God, you don't believe God. Your problem
was with God. But look at verse 15. But he
that is spiritual judgeth all things. Yet he himself is judged of no
man. The world won't know us, but we'll know the world. Verse
16, for who hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct
him? But we have the mind of Christ. Now think about that
for a moment. If you're a believer, if you're
a sinner saved by grace, chosen before the foundation of the
world, justified by the blood of Christ based on his righteousness
imputed, redeemed by the blood of Christ on the cross, and regenerated,
born again by the Holy Spirit, a believer, the Bible says you
have the mind of Christ. Now does that mean that our thoughts
are always pure like Christ's thoughts were? His thoughts were
always pure. Does that mean my thoughts are always pure? No.
How then can I say I have the mind of Christ? I'll tell you
how. Because by the power of God, in Christ through the Holy
Spirit, He's changed my mind and I see things differently. I see things as Christ saw them.
You know, people today, they see religious, sincerely religious
people, and they say, oh, they've got to be Christian. Christ looked
at a bunch of them. He said, depart from me, you
that work iniquity. What were they doing? Preaching,
casting out demons, doing many wonderful works. Matthew 7, 21
through 23. If we saw something, by nature,
if we see somebody preaching in his name, Casting out demons,
doing many wonderful, we say good and well. Christ said, you
that work iniquity. What was their problem? Is there
anything wrong with preaching in his name? No, if you preach
the truth. Is there anything wrong with casting out demons?
No, if you can do it, cast them out. Is there anything wrong
with doing many wonderful works? No, but that's not the righteousness
that we need before God. Look at verse nine. or back in John 16, look at verse
10. Now he's going to convince you
of sin because they believe not. What he's going to show us that
if it doesn't measure up to the perfection of righteousness that
can only be found in Christ, it's sin. If you think your prayers
merit or earn blessings from God, You need to repent. You understand what I'm saying?
Your worship services, your charitable giving, if you think that is
your righteousness before God, my preaching, if I think that
my righteousness before God is what I'm preaching, the act of
my preaching, the only thing I'll hear at judgment is depart
from me. I preach Christ, and I'm telling
you that my preaching is not my righteousness, Christ is.
That's repentance. Change of mind. And then he says
in verse 10, of righteousness, because I go to my father and
you see me no more. That is the righteousness of
Christ. That's the merits of his obedience
unto death. You see, that's what he accomplished
in his death. You see, the gospel is about
who Christ is and what he accomplished, not what you do or I do. It's
about a work done and completed for by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Did he die for me? I'll tell
you how you can tell. Has God brought me to faith in
Christ and repentance of dead works? If he has, then I know
he died for me. If you end up perishing in your
self-righteousness, he didn't die for you. If he died for me,
justice is satisfied. God will not impute or charge
sin to me. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's Christ, it's God that justifies.
Who can condemn me? It's Christ that died. You know what the Apostle Paul
went from? He went from glorying or boasting
in his works, in his religion, to saying this. God forbid that
I should glory or boast except in the cross." That's my brag,
the cross of Christ, not me. And he said, by whom the world
is cursed, crucified unto me, and I unto the world. You see,
before he was converted, He looked at his religious efforts as being
pleasing to God and good. But when God brought him to faith
in Christ and repentance of dead works, he said, I count all that
but loss. I count it but done. And then
look at verse 11 of John 16. He's gonna convict the world
of judgment because the prince of this world is judged. Now,
I believe the force of that text is talking about the judgment
that God exacted upon His people through Christ on that cross.
Because it was there on that cross that our sins were purged
away. The whole debt of our sins was
paid for. Complete. Not part of it. It's not that Christ did all
He could, now the rest is up to you. If that's true, we're
gone. You see, I know I know that my
sins are put away and I'm declared righteous before God because
Christ died. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. He changes our mind. If the Christ you believe
in died for people who perish, that's a counterfeit, you need
to repent. I'm serious. And then our judgment
of saved and lost is changed. That doesn't mean that we know
everybody's saved and everybody's lost. But we know this, a saved
person trusts the God of this book through the Christ of this
book based upon the work that is described in this book. I
know if you're saved, you believe this book, you believe this gospel
wherein the righteousness of God is revealed. And if you don't,
you're lost. That's right, you're lost. And
so this repentance and righteous judgment is what God, by the
Holy Spirit, through the word of God, brings his people to.
And what do we pray for? We pray that God will bring us
to faith in Christ, repentance, and that he'll keep us like he
says he would. That's the issues of repentance.