Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. Have you ever heard a preacher
say, repent or repent of your sins and wonder, what does that
mean? What does it mean to repent? That's what I've entitled the
message for this morning. What does it mean to repent? When the Lord began his public
ministry in Mark chapter one, verse 15, he said, the time is
fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. Now there we have the words of
the Lord. repent ye and believe the gospel. I can remember a
time in my own experience when I heard the preacher say, repent,
and I thought, what does it mean to repent? Perhaps I'd do it
if I knew what it meant. What does it mean to repent? Now this term, repent, like every
other term in the scripture, is given a meaning by man's religion
that is different than what the Bible means by this term. And let me give you an example.
When people use the word repent, they generally say, repent of
your sins. Repent of your sins. Did you
know that that phrase is not found in the scripture? Repent
of your sins. It's not found in the scripture. Now, does that mean that we're
indifferent about our sins or think sin is an unimportant issue? Of course it doesn't. It took
the death of the Son of God to put away sin. That's how evil
it is. When people think of repentance,
they think, well, you need to be sorry about your sins. You
need to acknowledge your sins. You need to confess your sins.
And you need to express the proper sorrow for your sins. And you
need to turn away from those sins and not commit them anymore. Now, we ought to acknowledge
our sins. We ought to be sorry for our
sin. We ought not commit sin. That's true. But is that what
the Lord meant when he said, repent ye and believe the gospel? Notice he didn't say, repent
of your sins and believe the gospel, but repent ye and believe
the gospel. Now, I want to make a statement
that is not for shock value, but I want you to hear this.
If I say repent of your sins and believe the gospel, I have
failed to preach the gospel. Let me repeat that. And like
I said, I'm not saying this for shock value. But if I say repent
of your sins and believe the gospel, I'm not preaching the
gospel. I'm muddying the waters. I am,
as Job feared doing, darkening counsel with words without knowledge. Now somebody says, you're going
to have to prove that to me from the scripture. I want to. So
I hope you'll give me your careful attention as we consider what
it means to repent. Now, when The Philippian jailer
said to Paul and Silas, sirs, what must I do to be saved? What a question. How did Paul
answer this question? Did he say, repent of your sins
and believe the gospel and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved? No, he didn't say that. He said,
believe. on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved. In John chapter six, verse 27,
some people ask the Lord in verse 28, what must we do that we might
work the works of God? When the Lord gave his answer
to this question, he did not say, this is the work of God
that you repent of your sins and believe on him whom he has
sent. He said, this is the work of
God that you believe on him whom he hath sent. When the Ethiopian eunuch said,
see, here's water. What hinders me from being baptized? Did Philip say, well, if you
repent of all your sins and believe in your heart, with all your
heart, you may. No, he didn't say that at all.
When that man said, here's water. What hinders me from being baptized?
If there's something that hinders me, I want to know. Give me the
truth, please. He said, if you believe with
all your heart, you may. Now, what I'm doing, what I'm
saying, repent of your sins and believe
on Christ or believe on Christ and repent of your sins. The key word is, and faith in
Christ is faith in Christ alone. And when you repent, you repent
of thinking anything different than that. When you repent, you
believe the gospel. When you believe the gospel,
you repent. It's a change of mind toward
God. It's a change of mind toward
yourself. It's a change of mind with regard
to salvation. Repent ye and believe the gospel. Now somebody says repentance
is being acknowledging your sin. Well, there's a lot of sins you've
never acknowledged because you don't even know you've committed
them. Well, it's being sorry for your sin. When are you sorry
enough? Is there a formula there that
can tell me when my sorrow is sufficient? And repentance is
not returning to your sin, not committing them anymore. Now,
wait a minute. Are there sins that you continue to commit? Of course there are. The issue
of repentance, and I would not in any way be dismissive about
the importance of understanding and hating and wanting to be
away from this thing of sin. Somebody once said repentance
is a change of mind that's caused from a change of masters. That
creates a change in motives. And then a change in manners.
This is not saying that repentance is just some kind of change of
mind. It's the gift of God. There's
no salvation apart from repentance. Repentance and faith are the
two sides of the same sheet of paper. Where you have one, you
have the other. The proof of the one is the other. When you believe the gospel,
you repent. When you repent, you believe the gospel. Now,
what is this thing of repentance? Well, a change of mind, and this
change of mind means that everything I think with regard to God is
wrong. Now, once again, I'm not saying
that for shock value. This is the truth. All of my
natural thoughts with regard to God are wrong. Isaiah said in Isaiah chapter
55 verse 8, this is God speaking through the prophet Isaiah, and
he says, for my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are
your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are
higher than the earth, So are my ways higher than your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts." In Psalm 50, verse 21, God said
through David, I was altogether such a one as
yourself. The reason you have these wrong
ideas and wrong thoughts concerning me is because you think I'm like
you are, and I am not. There's no one like God. He is other, altogether other. I think a beautiful illustration
of this is sent his servant to Naaman. Now, Naaman was a leper.
You can read this story in 2 Corinthians chapter, or 2 Kings chapter 5. He was a mighty man of valor.
He was a military high up in the army of Syria. He was a general. He's a leper. He hears that there's
a prophet in Israel that can recover the leper. So his king
sends him to Elisha, and he stands outside of Elisha's house, waiting
for him to come to him. And Elisha didn't even come out
to him. He sent a servant, a lowly, unimportant
servant, servant and told Elisha what he must do. He must dip
seven times in the River Jordan and upon the seventh time his
flesh will be just like a baby's flesh, totally healthy. Now what
was Naaman's response? After Elisha sent his servant
out to him to give him this message, the scripture said, Naaman was
wroth. He was angered by this. He said, behold, I thought. Now there's your problem, Naaman.
You think wrong. He said, behold, I thought surely
he will come out to me. Not just send a servant. He will
come out to me. I'm somebody. Surely he will
come out to me and stand and call on the name of his God and
strike his hand over the place and recover the leper. And he
talked about two rivers in Syria. They're better than all the water
in Israel. Can I not go in them and wash
and be clean? And he went away in a great rage. He fought. What about what Peter said to
Simon Magus in Acts chapter 8? Repent of this thy wickedness,
for thou thoughtest the gift of God could be bought. Now, what was his wickedness? He thought the gift of God could
be bought. Now he had a very low value. or a very low value of the gift
if he thought he could buy it. And he had a high view of his
resources to pay if he thought he had the resources to pay for
the gift of God. Now this is a demonstration of
how the thoughts of the natural man are wrong. Repentance is a change of mind. It's a change of your thoughts. I like what Paul said to the
elders in Acts chapter 20 when he said, I've declared unto you
the whole counsel of God and I've kept nothing back. He called
it repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, repentance is first of all,
a complete change of mind. And I mean a complete change
of mind about God. You see, I'm born into this world
and you're born into this world with all of our thoughts wrong
concerning God. Now somebody says, how could
that be? Do you mean to tell me that you think all my thoughts
are wrong with regard to God? Yes, I do mean to say that and
here's why. We all naturally believe that
salvation has something to do with what we do. We all naturally
believe in salvation by works. We all naturally believe there's
something we must first do before God can do something for us. And in believing that way, we
demonstrate a complete ignorance of the true character of God,
a complete ignorance of our own true character, and a complete
ignorance of salvation. So I say that with much conviction,
our thoughts naturally are all wrong concerning God. Now, if I believe in any way
that salvation is according to something I do, I demonstrate
I don't believe in the holiness of God. I think there's something
that I could do that He Himself could accept. And I deny His
holiness, His righteousness, and His justice. And if I think
salvation is according to my works, I believe salvation is
something He owes me. The Scripture says, now to Him
that worketh is the reward not reckoned according to grace,
but according to debt. If my salvation is dependent
upon something I do, that means God is my debtor to pay me what
he owes me. What a horrible view of God. If I believe salvation is dependent
upon something I do, I deny God's sovereignty in salvation. I'm
denying his character. I deny his Wisdom. I deny his immutability. I deny his independence. The belief in salvation by works
declares a complete ignorance of the character of God. God
is independent. You know what that means? He
does not need something out of me before he can do something
for me. He does something for me independently as an act of
his sovereign grace. This is who he is. Now, men sit
in judgment on God. They think they're fit to judge
God. How could God let this happen?
How could God allow that to happen? How could this bad thing happen?
How could it be fair for God to save some and pass by others? How could it be fair for God
to elect some and not elect others? How could it be fair for Christ
to die for the elect and not die for everybody? We have these
men sitting in judgment, and that's the way we all are by
nature, criticizing God, not understanding the depth of the
sinfulness of our own character and how we have no business to
sit in judgment upon God and say, I agree with this or I don't
agree with that. God's God. You and I are sinful. evil, ignorant
men. God is God. Whatever He does
is right. Let God be true and every man
a liar. I repent of that. When I repent,
I repent of all my wrong thoughts of God that came about from me
believing in salvation by works. I repent. I change my mind. God is God. God is altogether
glorious, and I'm altogether sinful. It leads to the second
thing I want to say. When I repent, I have a change
of mind about myself. You know, I used to think I had
some kind of control in salvation, some kind of ability to do something
to change my state before God. I used to believe I have a free
will. I didn't understand the depth of sin. I used to believe
that if I was given the right circumstances, I could please
God, I could do something right, I could be good. When I see who
God is, I repent of all of that. Just like Job, he said, I've
heard of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now mine eyes
seeth thee. Wherefore, I hate myself and
repent in dust and ashes. Repentance is a change of mind
with regard to the character of God, but it's also a change
of mind with regard to your own character. When you see who He
is, you see who you are, and you see that you're altogether
sinful. And if you haven't seen that
about yourself, if I haven't seen that about myself, I've
never had repentance. It's a change of mind about yourself. And when I repent, my mind is
changed with regard to salvation. You see, I used to think The
forgiveness of sins. And perhaps this is the way you've
always believed. Listen carefully. I used to believe
the forgiveness of my sins came at the end of salvation. Here's what I mean. If I do this,
and if I stop doing that, And if I become this way and quit
being that way, I'll have the forgiveness of sins. That, my
dear friends, is salvation by works. That is all that is. That's salvation dependent upon
something you do. I used to dislike the thought
of God being absolutely sovereign and me being in his hand. I don't
dislike that anymore. I like it. I see it's the only
place to be. I used to dislike the fact that
the Bible taught that God elected a people before the foundation
of the world, and I couldn't make myself one of those people.
I love it now because I see this as the sinner's hope that God
has chosen a people to save. I used to dislike the thought
of Christ only dying for the elect. I thought, how can that
be fair? Oh, now I see it's my only hope, his death. I don't
muddy the waters. His death is my only hope. And if you tell me that he can
die for someone and they wind up in hell anyway, I know I'm
going to end up going to hell. I repent of those wrong thoughts
of salvation. Now, repentance, like faith,
is the gift of God. It's not found in a natural man's
heart. It's given to him when God births
him into the kingdom of heaven. When you believe, you repent. When you repent, you believe,
which comes first. They come at the same time. Repentance
and faith, the gift of God's grace. Then hath God also to
the Gentiles granted, freely bestowed, graciously has given
the gift of repentance unto salvation. Now, understand the evidence
of repentance is faith. The evidence of faith is repentance. You cannot have one without the
other. And my dear friends, there is
no salvation apart from this thing of repentance, this change
of mind, with regard to God, this change of mind with regard
to yourself, this change of mind with regard to salvation that
you now see it's not in any way dependent upon something you
do, but it's completely dependent upon what He does for you. Salvation
is not what the sinner does for God, it's what God does for the
sinner. And you repent of anything that brings men glory. Now there's no salvation apart
from repentance. The Lord said, except you repent.
you shall all likewise perish. There is no salvation apart from
repentance, and this repentance comes the same way faith does.
Faith cometh by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. Well, repentance
comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. You hear
what God says. That is what creates this repentance. And here's a real clear example
of what I'm trying to say. Do you remember in Luke chapter
16, the rich man that went to hell? And he asked for Abraham
to send Lazarus, the beggar, who had also died. And he was
in Abraham's bosom in paradise, in heaven. And he said, would
you send Lazarus here with a drop of water to place it upon my
tongue, for I'm tormented in this flame? Abraham said, there's
a great gulf fixed between us. And you can't get here, and we
can't go there. This great gulf is fixed. So
the rich man said, I've got five brethren. And I don't want them
to come to this awful place. Would you send Lazarus back to
earth and warn them about this horrible place so they don't
go to hell?" And listen to Abraham's reply. Father Abraham, would you send
him there? He said, they got Moses and the
prophets. Let them hear them. And he said, nay, Father Abraham,
but if one went to them from the dead, they would repent.
And Abraham said, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, the
word of God, neither will they repent, though one rose from
the dead. Now, any kind of repentance that's
not founded in scripture is a false repentance. It's a repentance
that needs to be repented of. Now, the great, illustration
of repentance is found in Luke chapter 15, the story of the
lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son, the prodigal. We have the story of the lost
sheep, the shepherd going after the one lost sheep and bringing
it back. And when the Lord summarizes
what this meant, he says, I say unto you that likewise joy shall
be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth. This has something
to do with repentance. You say, well, I don't see repentance
in the shepherd going after the sheep. The sheep was lost. He
wasn't calling out for the shepherd. The shepherd went after him.
And then we have the next story of the woman with the lost coin. The coin's lost in the dirt,
and she sweeps the house till she finds it. And then the Lord
says about this, likewise I say unto you that there's joy in
the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.
Now these are stories of repentance. You say, well, where's repentance
in that? Well, the story of the prodigal tells us exactly what
repentance is. Let me read these verses. A certain
man had two sons and the younger of them said to his father, father,
give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. He had a
sense of entitlement. He thought these things were
things that he deserved. And he, his father, divided into
him his living, and not many days after, the young son gathered
all together and took his journey into a far country, and there
wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent
all, the money ran out, there arose a mighty famine in the
land, and he began to be in want, in need." What a blessed place
to be. And he went and joined himself
to a citizen of that country. He joined a church, a natural
man's religious church. And he sent him into his fields
to feed swine. And when he would fain have filled
his belly with the husks of the swine that eat, no man gave unto
him. And when he came to himself,
all of a sudden he thought differently about his father. He wanted away
from his father. Now all of a sudden, he says,
how many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and
to spare, and I perish with hunger. My father so good, even the lowest
servants have bread and enough to spare. Now he at first wanted
out of his father's presence. Now he wants back in it. He says,
I will arise and go to my father, and I'll say unto him, Father,
I've sinned against heaven and before thee, and am no more worthy
to be called thy son. He had a complete change of mind
about himself. At one time, he had this sense of entitlement.
Now, he says, I'm not even worthy to be called your son. Make me
as one of thy hired servants. And he arose and came to his
father. But when his father was yet a great way off, his father
saw him. had compassion on him and ran
and fell on his neck and kissed him. Father, I've sinned against
heaven in thy sight. I'm not worthy to be called thy
son, but the father said to his servants, bring forth the best
robe, the righteousness of my son and put it on him. and put
a ring on his hand, my eternal covenant of love, and shoes on
his feet, the grace to walk in the gospel. For this my son was
dead and is alive. He was lost and he's found. May the Lord grant us this true
repentance, this change of mind about God. change of mind about
myself. And a change of mind about salvation,
Christ Himself is salvation. To receive a copy of the sermon
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