If you would, open your Bibles
to Isaiah chapter 9. The title of the message is,
Have I Repented? I was going to move on to chapter
10. That was my intention. But I noticed in the rest of
this chapter 9, when we left off last week, there is a phrase
that's repeated three times in the rest of that chapter. For
all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched
out still. We see that in verse 12, verse
17, and verse 21. In each of those cases, the Lord's
anger is not turned away. His hand is still stretched out
in judgment. For this reason, the people did
not repent. And that brought this question
to my mind. Have I repented? Now, repentance is a very important
subject. When our Lord Jesus Christ began
his public ministry, public preaching ministry, Matthew chapter 4 verse
17 says he began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom
of God is at hand. This was the first subject of
our Lord's public ministry, repent. John the Baptist, his whole ministry,
he preached repentance for the remission of sins. Hold your
finger there on Isaiah chapter 9, look in Luke chapter 13. Tell
you how important this matter of repentance is. Every one of
us needs repentance, or we'll perish in our sins. Every one
of us. Luke 13, verse 1. They were present at that season,
some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled
with their sacrifices. And Jesus answering said unto
them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans,
because they suffered such things? I tell you nay, but except you
repent, you shall all likewise perish." Pretty important, isn't
it? Repentance is an important subject.
And one last point. Heaven itself rejoices when one
sinner repents. Heaven takes note that one sinner
has repented. So it's pretty clear that repentance
is an important subject. But what is repentance? Now what
automatically flies to our mind because of the world that we
live in is probably wrong. So what is repentance? We answer
that question and then we can find out if I repented. I want
us to begin looking at our text and look at what repentance is
not. Scripture is full of examples of what repentance is not. Our
text here gives us three of them. First, repentance is not recognized
that I have sinned. So now I'm going to start doing
better. That's not repentance. Look at verse 8. The Lord sent
a word into Jacob, and it lighted upon Israel. And all the people
shall know, even Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria, that
say in the pride and stoutness of heart, the bricks are falling
down, but we'll build with hewn stones. The sycamores are cut
down, but we'll change them into cedars. Now the people of Israel,
you don't have to be too smart to realize We're overrun and
destroyed by the enemy. But instead of calling on God
and begging God for mercy, they said, we'll just rebuild. And
they said that because their heart is full of pride and stoutness,
stubbornness. And that kind of heart can never
produce repentance. And we'll see more of that later
on. You're going to have to have a new heart that produces repentance
because this heart that we're born with is full of pride and
stoutness. It'll never repent. And they
said, well, our brick buildings are destroyed. And that happened
because our brick's not very good. We didn't have very good
technology making bricks. So we're going to rebuild better
buildings. We're going to get hewn stone
and put them together. And we're going to build better
buildings. So this won't happen to us again. And the enemies
burnt down all of our wood houses that we made from sycamore trees.
Well, that happened to us because sycamore trees don't make very
good wood. So we're going to plant cedar trees. Cedar trees
make good wood, and we'll rebuild with that good wood, and this
won't happen to us anymore. See the picture? Our buildings
are destroyed. Our buildings are these bodies.
Tabernacles, the Scripture calls them. These buildings, these
bodies, are falling down. They're destroyed in Adam. Now,
all men know there's a problem. Just in the conscience of a man,
we know there's a problem. Sin is a problem. We know we've
done wrong, and God must be appeased. That's in every man. So, we say,
well, I'm going to start doing better. And God will accept me.
I'm going to clean up my act, and God will accept me. I'm going
to build buildings out of hewn stone. Stone that will last. I'm going to build a refuge that
will endure. It will stand up when trial and
trouble come. When the wind and the rain come,
this huge stone will stand up to it. It's going to last. When
we were in Mexico, Cody took us out and we saw these ruins,
3,000 years old. And there's these pyramids, just
like they were 3,000 years ago. It's the most amazing thing.
And there's houses. Now the roofs aren't there, but
a lot of times the walls are still there. You can see this
room here, the door. They're still standing there
made out of hewn stone. Rick Williams was with us. Rick
builds stuff. I said, Rick, are you going to
build anything that's going to be here 3,000 years from now? He said,
no way. He said, if we build a house
today and it lasts 100 years, it's a miracle. Nobody building
anything today is going to last as long as these buildings did. Hewn stone looks just like it'll
last, doesn't it? But you know what I think of
every time I hear about hewn stone? I think of God's commandment,
don't you build altars out of hewn stone. You take stones and
build the altar exactly like you find them in nature, exactly
like I made them. Because the moment you put your
tool, that stone, you've defiled it. You've defiled the altar,
you've defiled the sacrifice. God himself said, don't you build
a hewn stone. And we think, if I start acting
better, I'm going to build a better house. And I'll improve, and
God will accept, and do it improved me. But the problem is we're
building with corrupt materials. Huge stone that God said don't
build, so he'll never accept that. All that is a form of repentance
that we want to change, but it's trusting our works. And God said
he won't accept it. What did God say? What does the
Word say? We need to build a new house,
don't we? We know that. That's a given. God's Word says
except the Lord build the house. They labor in vain to build it.
If we think we're going to rebuild, we're laboring in vain. We see
our buildings are destroyed. These bodies have been destroyed
by sin. So we think, well, I'm just going
to change myself. I'm going to change myself from
evil to good. I keep hearing man's evolving. We're getting better. Surely
I can change myself from evil to good. No, you can't. It's impossible. That's trusting
our nature. You know, first we want to trust
our works, then we'll trust our nature. You can't change a sycamore
tree into a cedar tree. You cannot do it. Just like you
can't change yourself from sinful to holy. Job asked that. What's man that he should be
clean? How are you going to take man and make him clean? He's
born defiled. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? You
can't bring a clean, holy baby out of an unclean. You certainly
can't change yourself from unclean to clean. See, trying to do better,
trying to change ourselves into some better version, that's not
repentance. But people think that's repentance.
I mean, just ask the people you work with. Ask your neighbors.
They think that's repentance. And you know why they think that?
They projected the Word of God. Anytime we want to know something,
it would be so smart for us to say, what does the Bible say?
What's the Word say? Don Porter says all the time,
what's the Book say? Well, if we find that out, we
make a whole lot less mistakes. God sent His Word to these people
and it lighted upon them. It stayed. By God's mercy, His
Word stayed with them. Can't the same thing be said
of us? God in mercy sent His Word to
Ashland, Kentucky. Tri-state area. All these years
ago. How many years ago has it been?
And it stayed. It lighted upon us. But people
have rejected God's Word. Look back in chapter 5. This
phrase is used in chapter 5. When people reject God's Word,
that brings the judgment of God upon them. Chapter 5, Isaiah
verse 24. Therefore the fire devoured the
stubble. and the flame consumeth the chaff,
so their roots shall be as rottenness, and their blossoms shall go up
as dust, because they cast away the law of the Lord of hosts,
and they despised the word of the Holy One of Israel." And
judgment fell on people because they rejected God's word. God
sent a great burning, a great trial, and people still did not
repent. So God shook everything. Everything they trusted in, everything
they looked to other than God's word, God shook Verse 25, Therefore
as the anger of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath
stretched forth his hand against them, and smitten them, and the
hills did tremble, and their carcasses were torn in the midst
of the street." I mean, you see this horrible trial God sent.
He's just shaking the hills. People are being killed, dead
bodies are littering the streets, and still the people didn't repent.
So, at the end of verse 25, for all this, His anger is not turned
away, but his hand is stretched out still. And here again in
chapter 9, God sent judgment, but that did not produce repentance
in Israel. Instead, man turned to his own
works, and that brings even more judgment from God. Look at verse
11. Therefore the Lord shall set up the adversaries of reason
against him, and join his enemies together. The Syrians before
and the Philistines behind, and they shall devour Israel with
open For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand
is stretched out still. For the people turneth not unto
him that smiteth him, neither do they seek the Lord of hosts."
God sent more judgment, the people still did not repent, and God's
justice, His anger, His holiness is still not satisfied. And God's
hand of eternal judgment is still stretched out, waiting to fall
upon them. Changing our behavior because
of God's judgment. That's not repentance, is it?
God's judgment, trial, never produces true repentance. Ever. Even in hell. Even when man sees
this is the way it is. Even though, even in hell, that
eternal judgment does not produce repentance. The rich man in hell
did not repent. Now, he wanted Lazarus to put
a drop of water on his tongue, but all he wanted was his suffering
to be alleviated. He never repented. Even in hell he wouldn't do it.
So, second, acting religious. That's not repentance. Look at
verse 14. Therefore the Lord will cut off
from Israel head and tail, branch and rush in one day. The ancient
and honorable, he's the head, and the prophet that teaches
lies, he is the tail. For the leaders of this people
cause them to err, and they that are led of them are destroyed.
Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither
shall have mercy on their fatherless and their widows. For everyone
is a hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly.
For all this, his anger is not turned away, but his hand is
stretched out still." God sent more judgment. People got religious. They got religious. You just
let God send somebody to trial, they'll get religious. They'll
keep showing up, they'll keep acting religious, you know. But
that's not repentance. God's not pleased with that.
God's looking, He looks on the heart. And God says, I'm going
to cut off the head. Now the head are the leaders,
the ancient, the honorable people, the people who are supposed to
know better, who are supposed to lead us better. But they don't.
God's going to cut them off. And he cuts off the tail. He
says what that is. The tail's the false prophet
who's causing the people to err, to do everything but repent.
Now, they're going through the motions of religion, but they
haven't repented. And God said, I'll not have mercy
on them, even on the suffering, even on the helpless, because
they've not repented. Instead of repenting, instead
of begging for mercy, they trusted in the motions of religion. So
God's justice is still not satisfied. God's hand of eternal justice
is still stretched out, waiting to follow. Now third, this is
obvious, but yet this is what people do. Open sin, just living
the way you want to live, that's not repentance. Just doing what
you're doing and hope it's going to turn out alright in the end,
that's a poor plan. Thinking God doesn't see everything,
like we don't see everything, that's not very wise. Thinking
God's not holy. He just overlooks sin because
that's what we do. We overlook sin. That's not a
good hope for eternity. Look at verse 18. For wickedness
burneth as the fire. It shall devour the briars and
thorns, and shall kindle in the thickets of the forest, and they
shall mount up like the lifting up of smoke. For through the
wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened. and people shall be as the fuel
of the fire. No man shall spare his brother,
and they shall snatch on the right hand and be hungry, and
he shall eat on the left hand, and they shall not be satisfied.
They shall eat every man the flesh of his own arm, Manasseh
and Ephraim, Ephraim and Manasseh, and they together shall be against
Judah. For all this, his anger is not
turned away, but his hand is stretched out still." God sends
this awful judgment burning, darkness in the land. Darkness
of every kind. Spiritual darkness. Moral darkness. Economic darkness. And men still
will not repent. And instead of repenting, it
just gets worse. If God leaves us to ourselves,
if God leaves us alone, we'll do nothing but get worse. We
can't get better. Here, God just turns them over.
And they just sell out their own brothers. They eat each other
up and spit each other out. Look in Revelations chapter 9. Here these folks are, they're
in the midst of a civil war. They'd rather eat their own arm
off than beg God for mercy. Just rather than beg God to send
them food, they'd rather eat their own arm off. They're taking
it out on each other because they're mad at God. Revelations
9 verse 20. This is after God sent all these
plagues upon the earth, and the rest of the men which were not
killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of
their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols
of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood, which
neither can see, or hear, nor walk. Neither repented they of
their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor
of their thefts." did not produce repentance. So,
we know what repentance is not. Repentance is not a reaction
to judgment or trial. Judgment and trials don't produce
true repentance. Acting religious, cleaning up
the outside of the cup and the platter, that's not true repentance. And there are several examples
of false repentance in Scripture. Cain, he said he repented, but
He just didn't want to be punished. He was sorry, but he was sorry
God was punishing him. He wasn't sorry he did what he
did. He was sorry God was punishing him. Well, that's not repentance.
Pharaoh, whatever it is you want to call what he did is not repentance.
He wanted the trials to end. He wanted suffering to end. But
that's not repentance. And I know he didn't repent because
Pharaoh never changed. Herod and Felix got religion. They were impressed with preachers.
Herod was impressed with John the Baptist. Felix was shaken
by the preaching of the Apostle Paul. That's not repentance. They may have been impressed
with the preacher, but they never came to Christ. So it's not repentance.
Judas Iscariot. Finally, he knew what he did
was wrong. But whatever sorrow you want
to call that he experienced, it wasn't repentance. He never
begged for mercy. He'd rather hang himself. and
beg for mercy. Well, that's not repentance.
Well, then what is repentance? I feel like John Gill telling
you everything it's not. Now I'll tell you what it is. Repentance
is not just feeling sorry. It's not feeling sorrow. Repentance
is a turning. Turning. Turn away from self
to Christ. Turn away from sin to God. It's
a turning. And repentance, this turning,
is just as vital to salvation as faith in Christ. You cannot
be saved without repentance, just like you can't be saved
without faith. That's why repentance and faith always go together.
You know why they always go together? The two sides of the same coin. Because they're given at the
same time in the New Birth. Look in Jeremiah chapter 31.
Now, repentance is an act of God. Repentance is not an act
that we do. Repentance is an act of God upon
us. Jeremiah 31, verse 18. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning
himself thus, Thou hast chastened me, and I was chastened, as a
bullet unaccustomed to the yoke. Turn thou me, and I shall be
turned, for thou art the Lord my God. You can turn me. If you
turn me, I'll be turned. Surely after that I was turned,
I repented, and after that I was instructed, I slowed upon my
thigh. I was ashamed, yea, even confounded,
because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim my dear
son? Is he a pleasant child? For since
I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still. Therefore
my bowels are troubled for him. I will surely have mercy upon
him, saith the Lord." And he'll be turned. David in
Psalm 80 had the same prayer. Turn us again, O God. Cause thy
face to shine and we shall be saved. If you turn us, we'll
be saved. You see, God has to do the turning.
We're in darkness. We don't even know where God
is. We can't find him. He's got to turn us. We're in
darkness and we won't turn to God unless God turns us. So repentance
is a turning. It's a change of mind about myself
and a change of mind about God. You know, I used to think when
I was growing up, I used to think, I was pretty good. Compared to
my buddies, I was pretty good. I acted a little better than
them. I knew the right doctrines. They didn't. I did. I was pretty
good. Now, I've had a change of opinion
about myself. Now I know I'm the chief of sinners. I used to hate God. Now I've
had a change. I love God. I used to hate the
way God saves sinners. I would think we wouldn't have all this trouble
if God just saved everybody. You know, this just isn't fair.
I've had a turning. I've had a change. Now I love
the way God saves sinners. I wouldn't have it any other
way. And repentance, look at Romans chapter 2. This turning
is an act of God's goodness. It's a gift that God gives. He turns his people because God's
good. Romans 2 verse 4. For despisest thou the riches
of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing
that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? Now let me
ask you, how good is God? He's perfectly good. Everything
He does is good. But look at the way Paul phrases
this. God's good. He's good to thee. It's the goodness
of God that leadeth thee to repentance. God's goodness is upon His people. And repentance is a gift that
God gives His people out of His goodness. Now, true repentance,
give me five or six things here, this is what true repentance
is. Number one, true repentance bows to God's holy, sovereign
rights. That's a change of mind about
who God is. And true repentance bows to Him
as God. Secondly, true repentance justifies
God. God, whatever you do with me
is right. Now, I'm begging you for mercy,
but whatever you do with me is right. It's taking sides with
God against myself. Isn't that what David did in
Psalm 51 that we read? You be justified when you condemn
me. It justifies God. Third, true repentance is a change
of mind about how sin is put away. It's not by me doing better. It's not by me changing. It's
not by me acting better. It's not by God overlooking my
sin. My sin is put away in the sacrifice of Christ. That's all
my hope. That's true repentance. Or true
repentance gives God all the glory and salvation. He did it
all. God had to give me repentance.
If my repentance came from within me somewhere, then I've got to
repent of my repentance. God did it all in salvation. He had to choose me because I
never would have chosen Him. He had to love me or I never
would have loved Him. He had to send the sacrifice to put
away my sin. He had to give me repentance
and faith or I never would have turned or I never would have
believed Christ. He gave me eternal life and He's got to keep me
to the end. He did it all. I want Him. I want Him to have
all the glory. If you just give me a few minutes,
let me tell you about it. That's true repentance. Fifth,
true repentance will only look to Christ for salvation. Only
Christ can turn God's anger away. You know how he did it? By turning that anger upon himself
as our substitute. Only Christ can remove God's
stretched out hand of justice that's against us by turning
that hand against himself as our substitute, the substitute
of his people. True repentance. only looks to
Christ for salvation. He is all my salvation. And sixth,
true repentance is continual. It's not I repented and now I'm
set up. True repentance is continual. It's like faith is continual.
It's not that you believed once. You believe. You're believing
right now. Faith is continual. Looking to
Christ is continual. I didn't look once and then go
about my business. continually looking to Him. Repentance
is the same way. It's continual. Now, that's the
definition of repentance. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
7. Now let's look at an example of repentance. And we can look
at this example of repentance to see, have I repented? 2 Corinthians 7 verse 8. Paul said he's speaking here
about his first epistle that he wrote. He kind of peeled the
hide off pretty good in that first epistle. And he says here
in 2 Corinthians 7, verse 8, for though I made you sorry with
the letter, I do not repent. Though I did repent, for I perceived
that the same epistle had made you sorry, though it were but
for a season. Paul said, I don't repent. I
don't change my mind about writing that letter. It needed to be
done. I'm sorry I had to write it. But it needed to be done.
You needed to be corrected in these things. But I don't repent
of writing that letter because it made you sorry. It made you
sorry for a while because, verse nine, now he says, I rejoice. Not that you are made sorry.
My goal wasn't to make you feel sorry, but that you sorrow to
repentance. For you were made sorry after
a godly manner that you might receive damage by us in nothing. You sorrowed, Paul said, to true
repentance toward God, godly repentance. And in verse 11,
Paul gives us seven marks of godly repentance. And if you
and I have repented, we'll see these marks in ourselves. The
first one is carefulness. For behold, the selfsame thing
that you sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought
in you. Now that word carefulness means
earnestness and haste. It's not OK to be like I am.
It's not OK to stay like I am. I'm in a hurry to come to Christ. I'm earnest to seek him, to find
him, to win Christ. I'm very earnest about this.
Very earnest about seeking him. True repentance doesn't make
me presumptuous. It makes me earnest about seeking
Christ. And if you're earnestly seeking
Christ, that's true repentance. Second, the clearing of yourselves.
Paul says, what clearing of yourselves? Now, when I first read that,
I thought, you know, somebody trying to clear themselves. Well, I think in
my mind, well, I'm trying to justify myself, trying to justify
and explain away what I did. Well, no, that's not repentance.
This phrase, clearing of yourselves, means an apology, an apology. I'm sorry for what I've done.
I'm sorry for who I am. But it's not just saying, I'm
sorry. It's an apology. Apology is to someone, isn't
it? I'm sorry I did that to you. I'm sorry I hurt you. An apology
is an admission of guilt. I'm guilty and I'm begging your
forgiveness. That's an apology. That's the
clearing of yourselves. I've got no excuses. I'm not
trying to justify myself. It's my fault. I'm guilty. The
sin's mine. And when you apologize to someone,
Forgiveness is theirs to give or withhold, isn't it? You're
in their hands. That's repentance. You're begging
for mercy. The clearing of yourselves. Third,
indignation. Yea, what indignation, Paul says.
Now, this is not indignation at others. You know, that makes
you holier than thou. You know, I'm indignant at you
because your repentance is not as good as mine. This indignation
is toward myself. The word means irritation and
vexation. I've irritated myself. I've vexed
myself. I can't imagine how I've irritated
God. I can't imagine how I've vexed God. Think how God must
see me. That's taking sides with God
against myself. God, I destroyed me. I understand if you would.
That's indignation. Or fear. Yea, what fear? Now this fear is not fear of
punishment, because you already saw that's not going to produce true
repentance. This fear is a reverence of God. It's a reverence of who
He is. And that also makes you afraid
of yourself. The new man is scared to death
what that old man will do. You're scared of yourself. You're
afraid of your self-righteousness. You're afraid of your sin. And
that makes me afraid to look anywhere but Christ. Fifth, vehement desire. Now this
vehement desire is a longing to be delivered from sin. It's
a longing for forgiveness. It's a longing for God's mercy
and grace. It's a longing to be washed in
the blood of Christ. It's a longing to be like Christ. I've got indignation at myself.
I've vexed myself and irritated myself, so I have a longing to
be like Christ, to not be like me anymore. It's a longing to
win Christ and be found in Him. Not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. Vehement
desire. Sixth, Paul says, zeal. Now, repentance does not produce
lukewarmness. It's not just, eh, I can take
it or leave it. Repentance produces zeal. I am not half-hearted about
coming to Christ. I'm not half-hearted about looking
to Christ. I'm not half-hearted about depending
on Christ. I'm not half-hearted about worshiping
Christ. I'm not half-hearted about the
glory of God. God Almighty sent His Son to
save me. Are you kidding me? I want Him
to have all the glory. I want Him to have all the glory
for what He's done for me. God's love for me gives me a
zeal for Him. Christ's sacrifice for me that
He would give Himself as a sacrifice for my sin gives me a zeal for
His glory. That's true repentance. And then
Paul says, yea, what revenge? Now revenge, it doesn't mean
getting somebody else. The word actually means a just
punishment. I want a just punishment for
my sin. I want that in Christ because
I can't bear that just punishment. I want a just punishment for
my sin in my substitute. I want, I need Christ to be made
sin for me. I need him to take my sin away. I need Christ to be punished
for all my sin so that I can rightly and justly be made the
righteousness of God in Christ. A just salvation is a good hope. You know, these fellows that
talk about saving today and lost tomorrow, you can lose your salvation.
You know why you can lose that? Because it's not a just salvation.
It's something you did and then you'll mess it up. So yeah, you
can lose it. But if Christ saved you, you can't lose it because
it's a just salvation. It's a just punishment for your
sin. Repentance, now it admits my
guilt, but repentance also knows I'm cleared of all charges in
Christ my Savior, because my sin was justly punished in Him. I am cleared of all charges,
because God took out vengeance on my sin on His Son. And God's
satisfied, and He'll accept me now in the Beloved. That's my
hope of forgiveness, that Christ was punished in my place. You
see how repentance and faith always go together? You can't
have any of those seven marks. You can't have carefulness. You
can't have this apology, the mission of guilt, clearing of
yourselves. You can't have indignation towards
yourself. You can't be afraid of your own
sin or have a reverence of God. You can't have a vehement desire
to be made like Christ. You can't have zeal. You can't
want a just punishment for your sin unless you have faith. Faith
in Christ. Repentance and faith always go
together. God's given you faith. If He's
given you faith to believe Christ, He's given you repentance. You've
turned. If God's given you, by faith,
a view of the Lord Jesus Christ, you're turned. You're turned
and you can't take your eyes off of Him because you've never
seen anything better. You're turned. Repentance and
faith. Let's bow. Our Father, how thankful we are
because of your goodness, your infinite, unfathomable goodness,
that you would grant repentance to your people, repentance to
sinful men and women like we are. We're thankful. We're thankful
that you, in your goodness, give faith to behold the Lord Jesus
Christ, to believe Him and cling to Him and rest in Him. He is
all. of our salvation. We lay no claim to any goodness
of our own. It's all in you. It's all in
our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're thankful. And we pray
that His name will be glorified, magnified here in our preaching
and in our lives as we go through this world. Let the name of our
Savior be magnified in our lives. He deserves all the glory. It
is in his precious name we give thanks and ask your blessing
on this message. Let your word go forth and bless
the hearts of your people. In the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, we give thanks.