Except Ye Repent

Q: What does the Bible say about repentance?

The Bible emphasizes that repentance is essential for salvation, as stated by Jesus, 'Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.' Repentance is a fundamental theme in scripture, illustrating the necessity of a change of heart and mind towards sin and God. Jesus declared in Luke 13:3 and 5 that except we repent, we will all perish. This underscores not only the seriousness of sin but the urgent call for individuals to turn from their sinful ways towards God. True repentance involves a deep realization of one's guilt before God and a heartfelt sorrow for sin. It is not merely an external act but an internal transformation imparted by the Holy Spirit, enabling a person to hate sin and love righteousness.

Q: How do we know repentance is essential for salvation?

Scripture clearly teaches that without repentance, forgiveness and salvation cannot be attained, as highlighted in Luke 13:3. The necessity of repentance for salvation is strongly affirmed throughout the Bible. Jesus' repeated declaration in Luke 13:3 and 5 that 'except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish' emphasizes the vital link between repentance and salvation. Additionally, Acts 17:30 states that God commands all men to repent, indicating that it is not merely a suggestion but a divine requirement. Repentance is not just an emotional response; it entails a complete turnaround from sin towards God, aligning one's heart and actions with His righteousness. The reality of a person’s condition before God—being guilty and deserving of judgment—reinforces the urgency of repentance as the pathway to forgiveness.

Q: Why is repentance important for Christians?

Repentance is essential for maintaining a right relationship with God and prepares believers for eternal life. For Christians, repentance is critical not only at the point of salvation but as a continual aspect of spiritual life. It cultivates a deeper awareness of one’s fallibility and reliance on God's grace, fostering humility and spiritual growth. As believers navigate their walk with Christ, the practice of repentance helps align their lives with God's will, ensuring that they acknowledge and forsake sin. This ongoing process enables Christians to cultivate a pure heart and a renewed spirit, essential for enjoying communion with God and being fit for eternal life in His presence. Repentance ultimately prepares the heart for both holiness in this life and joy in the life to come.

Q: What does it mean to perish according to the Bible?

To perish in biblical terms signifies eternal separation from God and the judgment that follows a life unrepentant in sin. In scripture, to 'perish' carries profound implications, particularly regarding the soul's destiny after death. Jesus warned in Luke 13:3 and 5 that unless one repents, they will perish, highlighting the seriousness of rejecting God’s call to repentance. This perishing refers not only to physical death but ultimately to spiritual death—eternal separation from God in hell. The Bible describes judgment for the unrepentant as being cast into the lake of fire, illustrating the dire consequences of living a life devoid of turning from sin. The urgency of repentance is emphasized, as it is the means by which individuals can avoid this fate and receive everlasting life through faith in Christ.

Q: How can Christians ensure they are truly repented?

Christians can ensure true repentance by maintaining a humble heart, acknowledging their sins, and seeking God’s grace for transformation. True repentance involves a heartfelt acknowledgment of sin and a sincere desire to turn from it. Christians can evaluate their repentance through a few vital signs: a genuine sorrow for sin, a willingness to acknowledge wrongdoings before God, and an evident change in behavior that aligns with God's commands. Moreover, understanding that repentance is not a one-time act but a continual process throughout the Christian life is crucial. Believers are encouraged to seek God earnestly, asking for the grace to grow spiritually and to develop a hatred for sin. This continuous dependence on God ensures that their hearts remain attuned to His holiness and preparing them for a life of obedience and faith.

I'd like to read this morning
out of this 13th chapter of the book of Luke the first five verses. The first five verses. There were present at that season
some that told him, that is told Christ, 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, I tell you no. But except ye repent, ye shall
all likewise perish. or those eighteen upon whom the
tower in Siloam fell, and slew them, think ye that they were
sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem. I tell you, nay
or no, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Now we're told here in the first
verse of chapter 13 that there was some present at that season,
some that told the Lord Jesus of the Galileans whose blood
Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And then a little
later on, there's mentioned in verse 4, 18, upon whom a certain
tower in Siloam fell and slew them. Now these Galileans, very
interesting to me to look into what the situation was concerning
them, they were followers of the opinions of one called Judas
of Galilee, of whom Luke mentions in the book of Acts. Now he taught
them that they ought to call no man on earth master. And great numbers of these followers
of Judah, refusing to acknowledge Caesar as their master, were
therefore punished by Pyrrha, because they wouldn't recognize
Caesar as their master. Now they said also that men ought
not to offer to God any sacrifice that was not ordained in the
law of Moses to be sacrificed. So they refused to offer the
sacrifices that were appointed by the people for the safety
of the empire and for the Roman people. And Pilate became so
enraged against these Galileans that he ordered them to be slain,
and their blood to be mixed with the very blood of the sacrifices
which they, according to their religious beliefs, thought ought
to be offered unto God. And so this seems to be what
these Galileans or what these Galileans suffered and what these
particular people at this time were talking about in regards
to these Galileans telling Jesus about this. And Jesus answering
in verse 2 said unto them, suppose ye that these Galileans were
sinners above all the Galileans because they suffered these things.
Do you suppose that the reason these Galileans suffered this
was because they were the greatest sinners among the Galileans? And then our Lord mentioned these
in verse 4 here. And he said, do you think that
these were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem?
These that the tower, certain tower in Siloam had fell upon
and crushed. Do you think that they're the
worst sinners that lived in Jerusalem at that time? Well, I think there's
something that we ought to learn from these verses and our Lord
of course makes haste both in verse 3 and in verse 5 to say,
no, no, it's not so. These things, these calamities
did not come upon these people because they were worse sinners
than other men. And I think one of the first
things that we ought to take heed to is that we do not draw
the rash and hasty conclusion like some have. There are many,
even among the Lord's children, that believe that every event
of providence that takes someone's life is a judgment of God on
them for their sin. There are many people that believe
that and we often hear that, well what did that person do?
Something awful happened to them and so what did they do that
was so sinful that such a calamity, such an accident would have come
upon them when someone suddenly drops dead. It is not necessarily
a visitation of the wrath of God upon that individual. It is not. Now, there were three
people that were killed this week over here on the bypass
by the road leading down to the Giant Springs. And three elderly
people. They were people that had lived
in this world, I guess, somewhere around 75 years. And all of their
lives were just snuffed out just like that. In just a few moments
they were gone out of this world. And they had lived and struggled
and only God knows what they had endured in their life to
make it to 75 years. But nevertheless, in just a moment
they were suddenly removed and taken from this world. I didn't
know these people personally. They lived right outside of Fairfield. Apparently they hadn't lived
there too many years. But they were suddenly removed and two
of the people that were killed were from California. and they
were here visiting and having a good time and out to look at
some sights and suddenly they were taken out of this world.
Well, is it because they were greater sinners than anybody
that lived around Fairfield that they were suddenly removed in
the city of Great Falls, taken their lives, taken from them. Now I'm not saying that such
is never the case. I'm not saying that God never
visits men in judgment and takes their life. I'm not saying that.
I am saying that it is a very rare thing when it happens in
this world at this time. But I enter my earnest protest
this morning against the foolish and ridiculous idea that those
who perish as those that were spoken of in our text this morning
are sinners above all sinners who survive unharmed when various
situations and calamities happen in this world. Let's reason about
this just a moment. Do we not see and observe, according
to what the Word of God teaches, that one event happens both to
the righteous and to the wicked? All men die. The Bible says it
is appointed unto men once to die. The Bible says that the
very instrument of death has already been prepared for each
one of us. All of us must die and leave
this world. We must make an exit out of this
world. There is one event that happens
both to the righteous and to the wicked. Now, sure, sometimes
the wicked fall dead. They fall down dead in the street,
but also sometimes the preacher falls dead in the pulpit. The
visible providence of God has no respect of persons. Did you get that? The visible
providence of God has no respect of persons. It is not true that
in this world God punishes men for sin and rewards men for their
good deeds. Judgment is now suspended for
the most part in this world. It is suspended until that day
which God has appointed to judge the world in righteousness by
the one whom He has ordained, even our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby
He has given assurance unto all men in that He raised Him from
the dead. God has a day in which He will
call the men of this world into judgment. and judgment for the
present time for the most part is suspended. Did not David say,
I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself like
a green bay tree? This perplexed David for a season
of time until he went into the sanctuary of God and then understood
he therein. Brother, sister, history must
have taught us that providence does not outwardly discriminate
between the righteous and the wicked. It does not. Many, many
times we're amazed at how the wicked prosper in this world
and the poor people of God are afflicted and troubled and tried
and they're chastened every day and have so many difficulties
heaped upon them that they're hardly ever to make it through
a day without groaning and sighing and wishing for their heavenly
home. We wonder about that and we are
perplexed about that often and we do feel in our own souls that
something must be dreadfully wrong that the righteous are
made to suffer in this world and the wicked seem to prosper
and do so well in their ungodly ways in this world. But brother,
sister, listen to me. I want you to know this, that
the providence of God does not outwardly discriminate between
the righteous and the wicked. That the righteous perish suddenly
as well as the wicked. And you'll notice that as you
live out your life. I'm telling you that history
shows us that. that the plague knows no difference
between the sinner and the saint. When the plague comes, it'll
not show any difference. It'll know no difference. Man,
a sinner or a saint, can be affected by the plague and his life suddenly
taken from this world. The idea that every time someone
gets killed that it's a judgment from God would make the providence
of God, instead of being a deep thing with many mysteries connected
with it, It would make it a pool so shallow that children could
wade in it. Well, as a child could understand,
certainly a child could understand, if every time someone was killed
on the highway on Sunday, It was the judgment of God. Oh,
somebody said they were killed on Sunday, were they? Oh yes,
they were killed on Sunday. That's the judgment of God upon
them because they were traveling on the Lord's day. Well, now
that's a common belief. I told you earlier, there are
many people that believe that every time something like this
happens, a tragedy befalls man, that it surely is because of
somebody's sin. Now, the providence of God is
a great deep. It's great. and it is very, very
mysterious. We've only been here, well, maybe
some of us have been here, I think one maybe 83 years, but probably
that's the longest that anybody in this congregation has been
on the face of this earth. But the providence of God has
been going on at least 6,000 years, and we're just Johnny-come-lately's,
and we do not know about the internal workings of the providence
of God. Why the whys and the wherefores
as to what's going on in this world. We do not know the whys. And we cannot explain and therefore
we should not offer our opinion. And but some do. They died. We
live. They were worse sinners than
we. What good people we must be. Favorites of the deity. We must be saved. that we have
not suffered like other people, that we've not had any awful
things happen in our family or anything awful happen to us.
We know that we have passed from death into life because we've
traveled so many miles and we've never had an accident. Well,
where did you find that in the Bible? I've never read that in
the scriptures. That must be, Carl, in that chapter
we were talking about the other night, Acts chapter 29, is where
that must be. But it is not to be found in
the Bible. We cannot indulge, listen to
me, this folly for a second. We cannot believe this. Jesus
said, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. observe
for one thing in these verses how much more ready I want you
to look at this with me just observe how that these people
on this particular at this particular season of time felt it necessary
they wanted to talk to Jesus about these Galileans whose blood
had been mingled with their sacrifices and so observe how that people
are ready to talk about the deaths of others rather than talk about
their own death, rather than discuss their own departure from
this world, they like to talk about other people's demise and
their death. At this time, this was probably
the one subject of conversation in Jerusalem and all Judea. These Galileans that had suffered,
had been slain, Tragedy it was indeed, terrible thing, Tower
of Siloam having fallen on some and crushed them to death, awful
things. We can well believe that all
the circumstances in particular were discussed by thousands who
never for one moment thought about their latter end, never
thought about their death. In our day, a murder, a sudden
death, an accident, a fire, or an earthquake will completely
occupy the minds of a whole neighborhood or town, and it'll be on the
minds of about everyone that we meet. Everybody seems to be
discussing something that has taken place. And these same people,
they would be offended if you were to bring up to them and
if you were to speak to them about the fact that they were
going to die too. That the time was going to come
when the obituary, column in the paper, would carry the facts
about their having left this world, about their having made
an excellent from this world. Now in religion, men are ready
to talk about anybody's business rather than their own. They're
always willing to talk about everybody else's situation, and
they don't deal with their own case. The state of our own souls
should always be our first concern. Is that right? It ought to always
be our first concern. Now, if we hear of someone's
sudden departure from this world into eternity, we ought to ask
ourselves, am I ready if this were to happen to me? If this
were to happen to me, am I ready? If I turn in the morning in front
of a car and I'm killed and taken out of this world, am I ready
to make my exit? Am I ready to depart this life? Am I ready to face God? Am I
ready? Well, it happens every day and
we know that. Our own heart, our own soul,
our own life, our sins, have I repented of them? Have I dealt
with my own case? Have I considered my latter end? The scripture says that if we
were wise, we would consider our latter end. We would consider
that it's going to happen to us one day and that because we're
living in a body that we're going to die like other men and we're
going to have to face God in the judgment. Who makes us to
differ? Why am I spared? Why have I been spared all these
years? What kept me off the road just
at that certain time when a terrible, terrible calamity and accident
occurred and men were killed and taken out of this world?
Well, what was it? Now, I certainly believe that
it was the grace of God that has spared me and kept me to
this day. And I believe the same is so
with you. But let us never forget to look
at home and to learn wisdom for ourselves from all that happens
to other people. Let us always remember that,
to look at home, to look at our own situation, to look at our
own life and our own soul state and consider ourselves. Notice
next then how strong our Lord lays down the universal necessity
of repentance. Our Lord here twice declares
emphatically, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Our Lord emphatically declares
that men must have a change of heart that they must be given
a disposition by God Almighty whereby they hate sin and come
to love righteousness and holiness, whereby they change their mind
about themselves and where they humble themselves. The song that
we sang a while ago said the sinner don't be proud but be
humble and certainly for a sinner to ever become humble, God will
have to give him a disposition of heart. And I've said it many
a time that repentance is much more than an act. It is a disposition
of the heart. And until God gives you a disposition,
you're not going to repent. But our Lord declares, He said,
except you repent, you shall all likewise perish without repentance
toward God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ no man
can be saved. You see our Lord here is dealing
not only with the with the death of the body but he's dealing
with the soul of a man. A man has a never dying soul
and our Lord says the only way that soul can be kept from perishing
is that you repent of your sin. Now the nature of true repentance
is clearly, I think, and unmistakably laid down in the Holy Bible,
in the Scriptures. God is the giver of repentance. The Bible teaches that our Lord
Jesus Christ was raised from the dead and seated at the right
hand of God to give repentance and remission of sins. Our Lord
must give a man repentance. He must give him space to repent. He must give him a heart to repent
and the ability and the disposition that we said earlier to repent. I think that begins with the
knowledge of sin. It begins with a man understanding
that he's broken God's holy law. That he's broken all of God's
law. He's guilty of every part of
the law of God. And then it begins also, I think,
when God works sorrow for this sin in the heart of a man. God
works this sorrow in the soul, and he feels terribly guilty
before God. He feels that there's something
oblong upon his soul that he cannot get off. That there's
no way that he can get this black guilt off of his soul. Something
will have to be done and he's not able, he cannot wash with
soap enough. There's no way that he can get
it off. And this leads a man ultimately
to the confession of his sin. It leads him to own. It leads
him to acknowledge his sin and his offense toward God. To acknowledge
it. The scripture says in Proverbs
28 and 13, he that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but he
that confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy of the
Lord. It shows itself, I think, this
repentance which our Lord is talking about here before men
by a thorough breaking off from sin. It means that a man, when
he's converted, when God saves a man and grants him repentance,
he becomes a new creature in our Lord Jesus Christ and old
things pass away and all things become new. A man's old ways
are given up and his ways become new ways because they become
the ways of God, the ways which God has spelled out in the scriptures
for his feet to take. It's a new way, the way of the
Spirit, the leading of God's Holy Spirit in the life. It's
God's way that he takes. He's in Christ. He's a new creation. God has made him and that's why
it says he's a new creation. because he's been made over anew
in the heart, in the soul. Now then, true repentance is
the leaving the sin that we loved before and showing that we truly
and genuinely have ceased from that sin by doing so no more. It also causes a man to cast
himself upon the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. When a man
truly repents and God gives him repentance, God does not leave
him in that place where he feels the awful guilt of his sin, and
where he feels that he is in such terrible state that he'll
never have any more peace in his heart, and terribly miserable.
He'll lead him to that one who has given himself for that sin
and for that guilt that is upon the soul. So without repentance,
there's no forgiveness, there's no pardon. There's no cessation
of sin. There is no faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. And you may be here today and
you say, Preacher, I have no faith in Christ. I've never felt
what you're talking about. I've never felt guilty before
God. I've never felt like that I was
a sinner before God. Beloved, your sin is yet upon
the record, and you will face God one of these days and give
an account for your sin. Now repentance, as far as the
Word of God is concerned, is set forth as a duty and responsibility
for all men. The Bible says in Acts chapter
17 that God has commanded all men everywhere to repent. It's
the duty and the responsibility of all men to repent before God. to have this disposition whereby
they love God, whereby they love the things of God, and whereby
they hate sin and the ways of evil. They hate it because God,
they abhor it because God has done this for them. However,
it is set forth as your responsibility to change your mind and for you
to change your attitude and for you to come up with that which
God demands and that is true repentance of soul. Now that
puts you in quite a difficult position. But nevertheless, that's
the way the scripture teaches it. You're commanded to repent. You'll only do so as God enables
you to. But my friend, you must seek
it with all of your heart that God will give you a true disposition,
a true godly sorrow for sin. Now, there was never one washed
in the blood of the Lord Jesus who did not feel and mourn and
confess and hate his own sin. Without it, there can be no meekness. for heaven. You cannot go to
heaven unless you truly have repented of your sin. Now a man
could not be happy if he reached the kingdom of glory and of God
and he had not had his heart changed. If he had not repented
he could not love God and be in the company of saints and
angels in heaven above. He would have no pleasure there
if he had an unregenerate heart. He could not enjoy heaven even
if God would take you there when you die unless you truly repent. Repentance gets our souls, as
one old writer said, in tune for an eternity of holiness. for an eternity of holiness.
Can't you see what I'm talking about? That a sinner, a man who
loves sin, a man who loves this world and the ways of the flesh
would not be satisfied in glory above even if God was to let
him go up there. He certainly would not be satisfied.
I tell you, repentance gets a man, gets his soul ready for an eternity
of holiness. And I thank all the people of
God while they still have a body that is of a nature that is sinful,
and they're caring about this body in which many sins have
been committed. Nevertheless, in their hearts
and souls, they say amen to God's nature, to God's holiness, to
God's ways, and that which is right. Now, we know that where
God is, we can never come then, except you repent. Except you
repent, you shall all likewise perish, our Lord Jesus said. Now we've heard of repentance
with the hearing of the ear, but have we truly repented? Have we repented? I've told you,
God commands you to do it. And you'll go to hell if you
don't do it. But have you repented? Have we
cried to God about our sins and sought forgiveness at the throne
of grace? Now if you die impenitent, without
a new heart, you'd be better off if you'd never been born. You'd be better off if you'd
never breathed one breath of life. If you die with a heart
that is hard toward God and a heart that is not concerned about truth
and the things of God and the ways of righteousness. Now, Philip
Henry said this, he said, some people do not like to hear much
of repentance. But I think that it's so necessary
that if I should die in the pulpit, and he was a preacher, Philip
Henry, he was the father of Matthew Henry, who wrote the commentaries. He said, I should desire to die
preaching repentance. If I die in the pulpit, I want
to die preaching repentance. And he says, if I should die
out of the pulpit, I should desire to die practicing, practicing
repentance. I think that's good. I really
do. You see, because most of us here
that are believers in the Lord Jesus know that repentance is
not a once for all act. That repentance is a lifelong
process. We just keep on changing our
minds about what's right and what's wrong in this world. And
we just keep on changing our minds to what God says and what's
right and trying to do that which is right in this world. Now lastly,
the Lord Jesus said, except you repent, he said, you shall all
likewise perish. He said, you're going to perish
unless you repent. Perish! What does it mean? Well, I think that every sinner
here this morning, everybody here that's got any concern whatsoever
for their never-dying soul ought to be concerned about what it
means to perish. If you're intending on going
ahead and living your life without any faith toward God, without
trusting the Lord Jesus Christ, without repenting and turning
about from your sin, then you ought to be concerned about what
it means to perish. Our Lord Jesus said, except you
repent, you're going to perish. Just like these people, these
Galileans and those upon whom the tower fell and crushed. They
perished physically. You're going to perish spiritually. And you ought to know something
about what it means. First of all, to you who are
unrepentant, the word resurrection. Have you ever heard the word
resurrection? This word has no music in it
for you. This word has no, listen, there
is no flash of joy in your soul when you hear somebody talking
about the wicked dead being raised from the grave. And we know that
a man dies and his body is buried in the grave and his soul is
taken off to wherever God Almighty purposes to take it. And we know
there's coming a day, the Bible says, when men are going to be
raised from the dead. God's going to raise bodies from
the graveyard. Yes, the day is going to come
when you're going to look over a graveyard and there's going
to be a tremendous cloud of dust come up from the graveyard and
God's going to raise the bodies of men out of the dust of the
earth. The Bible teaches it and teaches
it plainly. But for an unrepentant soul,
listen to me, hear me well, you cannot look forward to that with
joy because your dead body is coming out of the grave God's
going to give it life to come before the judgment, and it's
going to meet up there with your soul, and there it'll be judged. There is no joy in the resurrection
of the wicked, of the wicked damned. Your body has been partnered
with your soul in sin, and it shall share with your soul in
the punishment for sin. I'm talking about a man perishing
because he's never repented of his sin. He is able, the Bible
says, God is able to cast both body and soul into hell. Now the next word, the first
word then to explain What it means to perish is resurrection,
the resurrection of the wicked damned. The next word is judgment. The book shall be opened, the
Bible says, and the judge shall open the book for your complete
history is recorded. Let me read it to you out of
the Word of God. In the book of Revelation, chapter
20, we read these words. And I saw a great white throne
and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the
heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And
I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. And the books
were opened, and another book was opened, which is the book
of life, and the dead were judged out of those things which were
written in the books according to their works. And the sea gave
up the dead which were in it, and death and hell delivered
up the dead which were in them. And they were judged every man
according to their works, and death and hell were cast into
the lake of fire. This is the second death. And
whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast
into the lake of fire. The crowd will go up in that
day, in that day of judgment when the books is open. And everything
you've ever done in your life is on the pages of that book.
And you'll stand before God there to face the righteous and Christ's
holy God. And you stand before Him there
and the scripture says that men will cry, hide us hide us from
the face of him that sitteth upon the throne and from the
wrath of the Lamb. Judgment will be meted out on
that day. God judging men for their sin
and their willful ways. The sentence is now passed. The
terror of punishment shall begin upon the soul. Now, we believe
that the souls of men who have died, but men who have died and
they were unconverted, they'd never been regenerated by the
Spirit of God, they were not Christians, they were not believers
on the Lord Jesus Christ, that they're already in torment. The
Bible says they died in their sins. And Jesus said, if a man
doesn't repent, he'll die in his sins. And he said, if you
don't believe that I'm he, you will die in your sins. Now we believe that this judgment
that we're talking about will cast both body and soul into
the lake of fire, which is described as being the second death. Hell,
listen to me now, let me talk to you a little bit about it.
You don't hear very many preachers talking about hell, but I want
to talk to you that Jesus said, except you repent, you'll all
likewise perish. And you're going to perish in
hell, that's where you're going to perish. And hell is a place
of absence from God. It is a place for the development
of sin where every passion will be unbridled and every lust unrestrained. It is a place where God punishes
night and day those who sinned night and day and had no repentant
heart. It is a place where there is
not a grain of hope All hope is gone. There'll never be a
morning, dawn, when you'll have one ray of hope in your soul. All eternity, all hope gone. It'll echo throughout the quarters
of hell. All hope is gone from this place. You come here, there is no hope
in this place. A place where no comfort is ever
given, where there's not a drop of water that will be given. A drop of water will be denied
the thirsty soul in hell. You remember our Lord Jesus.
He was the substitute of His people. He died in our place. He took my hell upon Him. He
suffered my hell in our place. And you know what the scripture
says? It says, He cried, I thirst, I thirst. Now the Lord Jesus
thirsted on the cross. because he went to hell on that
cross for all those who believe on him. Jesus was dying in the
room instead and place of those that would believe on him and
those that would trust him. All of his people that he had
chosen from the foundation of the world. He died in their place
and he suffered in their place. And so he was suffering, my hell,
and so he cried, I thirst. Hell is a place where men and
women and boys and girls will thirst for all eternity. A place
where pleasure never breathes, where light never dawns, where
anything that resembles consolation and comfort will never be heard
of. You'll never have any in this
place. It's a place where vengeance
reigns and shakes his chains and brandishes his sword. A place where fire and fury rules. Well, it's a place where men's
torment will be day and night, the smoke of their torment will
ascend up day and night. No rest, no rest, no rest. Well, rather than preach anymore
about this, let me tell you to flee from it. Let me tell you
to repent. Don't go to this awful place. That's what the rich man in Luke
16 said, I want to go back and tell my brothers. I want to warn
them so they won't come to this awful place. It is an awful place. Hell is a dreadful, dreadful
place. Now listen to me. I just tell
you to flee this morning. from hell, I tell you to repent
and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust Him and trust His
finished work. Who knows but that the last grain
of sand is about to run through our hourglass. Only God knows
how much more time we have. Be you ready, the scripture says,
for in such an hour as you think not. The Son of Man cometh. Oh,
some calamity were to befall you this day, and your life suddenly
removed and taken from this world. Are you ready? Are you ready
to meet God? Are you ready to face judgment? Are you ready to receive and
hear the Judge of all the earth pronounce the sentence upon your
soul? Are you ready to hear it? Are
you prepared to hear it? I press this upon you and I want
you to remember this. We are not living creatures. We are dying creatures. Every one of us are in the vestibule
of death. There is a gate leading out into
eternity wherever one of you are seated this morning, where
I'm standing. We can leave this world and we
will most surely leave this world. The scripture says He that hath
the Son hath life. That means eternal life. It means
they won't perish. And he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life. You will perish if you do not
know Christ as your Lord and your Savior. Lord, I know thou
canst not lie. Heal my soul or else I die. My whole life depends upon the
Lord Jesus Christ and upon the healing that God gives in giving
repentance and faith. And if I don't receive that from
the Lord, then I will die and I'll perish. One of these days,
this pulpit will be vacant. One of these days, we'll no longer
see you come in the door. Somebody will say, what happened
to you? What happened to that individual? What happened to
that soul? And we'll just say, we'll say, well, the Lord took
them. They were taken out of this world.
What happened to that couple out on the highway? They were
suddenly removed. They were taken out of the world. Well, now I
feel impressed here this morning to tell you that our Lord says
emphatically, except you repent, you're going to perish. And I've
tried to tell you what it means to perish. May you begin to seek
repentance from the Lord. Begin to ask God, Lord give me
a disposition of heart where I'll hate sin and hate the ways
of evil and hate the corruption of my nature and where I'll be
able to mourn over what I am before you. Give me a heart that
enables me to rejoice in the things of the Spirit. the things
of God, the truth of God, and your holy word, and the teachings
of your word. Give me a heart, Lord, to where
I want to do what you would have me to do, and where I want to
serve your will in my generation. Give me that heart, oh God. And I hope that somebody here
this morning will be set to seeking after a heart from the Lord that
is a heart that can genuinely repent and serve our God. Well, let us have a word of prayer
and then we're going to have a hymn in closing. Our Father,
in the bloodstained name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we plead with
you that you might work repentance and salvation in some heart here
today and that some poor soul might remember what they heard
from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, that they might remember
that it's His voice that spoke these words, except ye repent,
ye shall all likewise perish. And Lord, may they be turned
and moved, and may they begin to seek after a heart that's
right with God. I pray it in Jesus' name, and
for his sake alone, amen.

Except Ye Repent

What does the Bible say about repentance?

How do we know repentance is essential for salvation?

Why is repentance important for Christians?

What does it mean to perish according to the Bible?

How can Christians ensure they are truly repented?

Sermon Transcript

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Books

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Except Ye Repent

What does the Bible say about repentance?

How do we know repentance is essential for salvation?

Why is repentance important for Christians?

What does it mean to perish according to the Bible?

How can Christians ensure they are truly repented?

Sermon Transcript

Comments

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