This is Claire and Annie and
Matt and Andrea's first Sunday as grandparents. That must be
a great feeling. I want to remind you, next week
we're going to begin Sunday school again. And I'm very excited about
that. I'm going to start out at the
Psalms next Sunday. And tonight I'm going to be preaching
on Abraham and Lot out of Genesis chapter 13. Some 70 years ago, when Ralph
Barnard first came to Ashland, Kentucky to preach the gospel,
He made a statement that was actually quite shocking to most
of the people who were listening. He said, there are two lies being
circulated in Ashland, Kentucky. And I'm sure that got everyone's
attention. What are these lies? And he said, the first lie is
that God loves everybody. And the second lie is that Jesus
Christ died for everybody. Obviously the implication is
that he did not love all men and that he did not die for all
men. Now question, was that statement
necessary? Was it antagonistic? Was it inflammatory? Why begin
a message like that? Well, the way I would want us
to answer that question is what does the Bible teach? Well, we
know the Bible teaches that he did not love everybody because
he did not love Esau. Esau have I hated, God said. Thou hatest, the psalmist said,
all workers of iniquity. No, he does not love all men. And then Christ said, I lay down
my life for the sheep. Other sheep I have which are
not of this fold, them also I must bring, and there shall be one
fold and one shepherd. He didn't lay it down his life
for goats. Husbands, love your wives as
Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Now, the teaching
of the scripture, without doubt, is that God's love is for his
elect and that Christ's death is for his elect. Now, that's
just fact. That's what the scripture teaches. And really, if you take that
away, You're left with a system of salvation by works. God doing
his part, Christ doing his part, now it's up to you to do something
to make what he did work for you. That's called salvation
by works. Now, all that being said, the
scripture also teaches this. God commands all men. everywhere to repent. Now, let me repeat, God commands
all men everywhere. That includes me and you, every
man, woman, boy, and girl in this room. God, this is who gives
this commandment. He commands all men. everywhere to repent. Now, we are not called upon to
figure out whether or not we're one of the elect. Hear that carefully. That's not your purpose, to figure
out if you're chosen of God. You're not called upon to know
that Jesus Christ died for you. You're not called upon to know
that you've been born again. But you and I are commanded by
God to repent. At the opening of Christ's public
ministry, he began with these words, repent and believe the
gospel. Before he ascended back to glory,
after the resurrection, his words to the church were to bring this
message, repentance and remission of sins. That's the message you're
called upon to preach, repentance and remission of sins are to
be preached in his name, beginning at Jerusalem. Now, when Peter
preached on Pentecost, the first gospel message after the resurrection,
we read in verse 36, therefore, let all the house of Israel know
assuredly that God has made this same Jesus whom you crucified,
both Lord and Christ. Now, when they heard this, they
were pricked in their heart. They were scared. We're in trouble.
That's what they meant by that, we're in trouble. And they said unto Peter and
to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall
we do? Then Peter said unto them, repent, repent and be baptized every
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. I think this is very interesting
when the writer to the Hebrews gives the six foundational truths
that we must be grounded in. The first thing he mentions is
repentance from dead works. Christ said, I came not to call
the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now here's the big
question. What's that mean? I want to know, don't you? Not
only do I want to know what the Bible means by this word, I want
to repent. I want to be in a state of continual
repentance, whatever that is. Repent ye and believe the gospel. Now, when most people think of
repentance, they think of a change in behavior. Isn't that so? If you repent, you change your
behavior. That's not what repentance means. If I said to have peace means
to have turmoil in your heart, you'd say that's wrong. That's
not what it means. Well, to say to repent is to
change your behavior. He's given a wrong definition.
That is not what the word means. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm
all for a change of behavior if it's not good. You know that. I want to embody the Beatitudes. I want to be poor. If my behavior
is contrary to that, I want it changed. I want to mourn over
my sin. I want to be meek before God.
I want to hunger and thirst after righteousness. I want to be merciful. If my conduct is contrary to
that, it needs to change. I want to be pure in heart. I
want to be a peacemaker. I want to, or I want to be persecuted
for righteousness sake. I really do, I want that. I want
to embody the fruit of the spirit. I want to be filled with love,
joy, peace, long suffering. gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness and temperance. I want to embody what the Lord
said when he said, treat others the way you want to be treated.
I want to do that. I'm all for a change of behavior
and anything that's contrary to the scriptures. But let me
say this, that's not what repentance is. The word Repent is made of two
words in the original, which means change mind. That's what repentance is. It's
a change of mind. Now I want you to listen real
carefully to this definition I got of repentance from the
dictionary, from the blue letter Bible. I use that a lot, but
listen to this real carefully. Here's the definition, and I'm
quoting this. Repentance, a change of mind. And I wish it would stop there. Let's go on reading. A change
of mind that involves a turning with contrition from sin to God. The repentant sinner is in the
proper condition to accept the divine forgiveness. Foolishness. Wrong altogether. For one thing, repentance is
to turn from sin to God. Explain to me what that means.
Does that mean you don't sin anymore? Does that mean you've
finally stopped that sin and now you're repenting? You're
insincere. You're not telling the truth.
And as far as calling repentance, accepting the divine forgiveness. Now, if you sin against me in
a terrible way, and I say, I forgive you. And you say, well, I'm gonna
accept that. Oh, I withdraw my forgiveness. It doesn't work that way. Accept
forgiveness? I hate it when people say, won't
you accept Jesus? Where do you get that in the
Bible? It's just contrary. And to call repentance, if I've
repented, that means I've turned from my sin. Which sin? That's just dishonest. It's not
being real. And I've accepted, I'm in a contrite
state where now I'm able to accept forgiveness. Since when do you
accept forgiveness? It doesn't work that way. So
that view of repentance is error. It is salvation by works. It is wrong all together. That is a repentance that needs
to be repented of. If that's your view of repentance,
you know, nothing of scriptural repentance. Well, what is repentance? God commands all men everywhere
to repent. Look at Acts chapter 20. You're
there in Acts chapter 17. Look at Acts chapter 20. Verse 20, Paul says, and how I kept back
nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and
have taught you publicly and from house to house. I didn't
hold back. And what I said in private was the same thing I
said in public, not a different message. And here it is testifying
both to the Jews and also to the Greeks. Repentance. What are the next two words? Towards God. A change of mind toward God. and faith toward our Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's the way this word
is used in our text. We looked at the whole passage
last week, but look in verse 30, and the times of this ignorance,
this ignorance of God, these wrong thoughts of God, the times
of this ignorance, God winked at, but now commandeth all men
everywhere to repent. Now, what ignorance is he speaking
of? We'll look in verse 22 of this
same text. Then Paul stood in the midst
of Mars Hill and said, ye men of Athens, I perceive that all
things you're too superstitious. The word is religious. You're
too religious. Now, superstition is religion
without scriptural authority. That's what it is. And that would
describe every natural man's religion. Superstitious. In all
things, you're too superstitious. For I passed by and beheld your
devotions. I found an altar with this inscription
to the unknown God. Now, what they were saying was,
We're covering all of our bases in case we've left out some God.
We don't want to offend Him, so we're worshiping this God
we've never heard of just in case He gets offended that we
left Him out. Now, I love what Paul says, Whom
therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all
things therein, He's the Creator. Seeing that He's Lord of heaven
and earth, that means He's the absolute sovereign of the universe. He controls everything and everybody. He dwells not in temples made
with hands. He can't be confined to a building. Oh, this is the house of God.
No, it's not. He can't be confined by time
or space. He's omnipresent. Neither is
worshiped with men's hands as though he's needed anything.
He's utterly independent. He has no needs. This is who
he is. Now you repent of any God that's
not just like that. That's what he's saying. He's
speaking of the living God. And he says, God commands all
men everywhere to repent my thoughts. And this is what you referred
to a minute ago. This is God speaking Isaiah chapter
58 verses eight and nine. My thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. Psalm 50, verse 17, God says,
Thou thoughtest, and here's where we get in trouble. Thou thoughtest. I was altogether such in one
as thy self. You thought I was like you were.
You are, but I'm not. I love what Luther said to Erasmus. This is such a good statement.
He said to Erasmus, your God's too human. He has human characteristics. He's like a man. Now, God is other. He said, who will you liken to
me? God is other. Men's thoughts of God are too
low, their thoughts of themselves are too high, and their thoughts
of salvation are altogether wrong. We have God waiting on men to
see how he can respond to what they do rather than men waiting
on God. We have men thinking salvation
is dependent on man's will instead of dependent upon God's will.
Better repent. We have men seeing God's salvation
as an offer and not a gift. Better repent. We see men making salvation an
opportunity. God's giving you another opportunity.
I mean, he gives second chances and third chances. Here's your
chance. God hasn't sent you to hell yet. You're given an opportunity
to be saved and not an accomplishment. Salvation is a reformation of
character instead of a creative act of God. Do and live rather
than live and do. We've got it all backwards. Believe
and be born again rather than be born again and believe. Now,
let me ask you a couple of questions. Real simple. Is salvation by
choice or by chance? Now, nobody in here would say
salvation is by chance. Whose choice? That's the issue. Yes, salvation is by choice.
Whose choice? The Lord said, you have not chosen
me, but I have chosen you. Ephesians 1, 4 says, according
as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. Are sinners dead in sins? Or
do they retain some ability to do something to save themselves?
Well, if they have some ability, understand this, salvation is
by works, meaning you're in trouble. If that's the case, if there's
something you need to do in order to be saved, you and I will not
be saved. The death of Christ. Think about
this. The death of Christ. Was it for men or was it for
God? There's all the difference in
the world. Is it for men? He shed his blood for you. Now,
how are you going to respond to that? What are you going to
do with his death? Are you going to accept it? Was it for men?
Up for their acceptance or rejected? Or was it for God? Was it for
God? God making a way so he can do
something for you. Did the death of Christ make
salvation possible or did the death of Christ save? Did it make salvation potential
or was it an accomplishment as Elijah and Moses spake with the
Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration, they spake of the deceased, which
he should accomplish. Is the gospel invitation an offer
or is it a command? God commands all men everywhere
to repent. Now, whatever repentance is,
like faith, it's the gift of God. You repent. You repent. It's because God
enables you to, but you repent. I couldn't help when I was thinking
about this thing of repentance. I remember Brother Mahan coming
to Grace Chapel. I've told y'all this before,
he preached, we had 45-minute cassettes back then, and both
sides of the cassette wouldn't hold the message. It was an hour
and a half. Man, if I preached that, I'd
like to see what everybody here did. Most of you would probably
get up and walk out, but he did, and it seemed like it didn't
last 30 seconds. But he preached this message
entitled, Six Stubborn Statements. And here they are. God is either
absolutely sovereign or he's not sovereign at all. There's no in between. Men are
either dead in sins, completely unable to save themselves, or
they retain some ability to save themselves. Which is it? He said election. is either conditional
or it's unconditional. It's either conditioned upon
God seeing what you would do or it's unconditional. It's the
sovereign choice of God. Which is it? The death of Christ
actually saves or it doesn't save. Which is it? If he died
for everybody, then it doesn't actually save. It's what you
do with it that saves. God's grace is either irresistible
and invincible, or it can be resisted. Which is it? What does
the Bible teach? God's people are either preserved
all the way to the end, or they can fall away and be damned. Now, if a true believer can fall
away, that means it's up to him to keep himself if he doesn't
fall away. Which is it? Now, whatever repentance
is, Like faith, it's the gift of God. While we all are very
familiar with repentance in the sense that we change our minds
about things all the time. I mean, there are things that
you once felt strongly about that you don't feel strongly
about anymore. There are things that you Now, feel strongly about
that. At one time, it wasn't an issue
with you. You've repented, you've changed
your mind. You don't feel the same way. That's all it means.
Well, whatever repentance is, and we know that it's a change
of mind, true, genuine, spiritual, saving
repentance is the gift of God. Just like faith is. By grace
you save, through faith, that not of yourselves, it's the gift
of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast. Listen to these
scriptures. Him hath God exalted with his
right hand. This is Acts 5 31. Him, the Lord
Jesus, hath God exalted with his right hand for to give repentance
to Israel. Now, if you and I repent, it's
because God gave us repentance. This is not found in the natural
human heart as far as this thing of repentance toward God. Here's
another scripture. Then hath God to the Gentiles
also granted repentance unto life. Listen to Jeremiah. Turn thou me and I shall be turned
for thou art the Lord my God. Surely after I was turned, I
repented. When did you repent? After I
was turned. No natural man without the Spirit
of God will repent any more than he'll create a universe. Now,
listen to this. John the Baptist spake of fruit,
meat for repentance. And Paul spoke of works meet
for repentance. There's fruit and there are works
that always accompany repentance. What do I mean by that? Repentance
is not academic. Repentance is not academic. Repentance is a change of mind,
and this is a quote from Brother Mahan once again. Repentance
is a change of mind that comes from a change of masters. And
let me say this, it's not you changing the masters. Well, I've
changed masters. No, God did something for you. That's the difference. God revealed
himself to you and now Christ Jesus is your Lord and is your
master. And where there is this change
of masters brought on by the sovereign choice of God, there
will be a change of motives. God's glory. there will be a
change of manners. And the point I'm making is repentance
is not just academic. Well, I've changed my mind due
to some proper information, and now I'm more educated about something. It's not that way at all. There's always fruit and works
meet for repentance. Here's an example. Somebody says,
I've repented of salvation by works. Wait, you go to a church
where salvation by works is preached? Then you ain't repented. It's
that simple. There is a real change that comes
with this thing of repentance. Now, repentance is primarily
a change of mind with regard to God. It's a change of mind
with regard to myself. And it's a change of mind with
regard to salvation. All three of these go together. Now listen to this. This is the
words of Job from Job chapter 42. He said, I've heard of thee
with the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore, I hate myself and
repent in dust and ashes. Where did his repentance coming
from? Seeing the true character of
God. I'd heard of you, but now I see
who you really are. Wherefore, I hate myself and
I repent in dust and ashes. Now, I used to believe, I'm talking
from my own experience. I used to believe that under
the right circumstances, I could get things right. I could do something that would
enable me to be saved under the right circumstances. What I meant
by that is under the right circumstance, I can please God. I repent of that. A God that
I could please, wouldn't be much to it. Or the God that would
be pleased with me by something I've done, there wouldn't be
much to it. I repent of that. I used to believe
God was too holy, too strict. I repent of that. I used to be terrified by God's
sovereignty. I don't have any control. I didn't
like that. I do now. I love having no control
and him being in control of everything. I used to sit in judgment on
God and say it's not fair for Him not to save everybody and
for Christ not to die for everybody. Election's not fair. Christ's
atonement for His election, that's not fair. That doesn't give everybody
a chance. I repent of that. I repent of
that. I was wrong altogether. I used
to thought that God's choice of His people prevented others
from being saved. I repent of that. I used to think if all I had
was Christ, that would be a scary place to be with God. I repent
of that. I don't want to be anywhere else. I'm ashamed of all the wrong
thoughts I've had of God. Repentance is not only a change
of mind with regard to the character of God. You know, when you repent
with regard to God, you take sides with God. You take sides
with God against yourself. That's what repentance is. It's
being on God's side, not on man's side, but on God's side. When you repent, you have a complete,
thorough change of mind with regard to yourself. Now listen
to this real carefully. I think that a key to understand
this thing of repentance with regard to yourself is in that
statement that's made two times in the book of Hebrews, repentance
of dead works. Now what is that? Repentance,
a change of mind with regard to dead works. You believe that
every work you ever performed prior to regeneration, when God
gave you faith and repentance, you believe every religious work,
every religious effort was a dead, rotten, wicked work. Have you ever repented of dead
works? And seen that everything that you ever did was sin? And that's it. You see, you really
believe when God gives you repentance with regard to yourself, you
really believe that you are totally depraved. Now, you might have
said, I believe in the doctrine of total depravity in the past,
but now you believe you are totally depraved. You believe that all
you do is sin. You never not sin, not one time
in your life. Have you ever been without sin?
You believe that your sin is all your fault. You're not blaming
Adam. You believe your sin is all your fault. You bear full
responsibility for your sin. And you believe because of your
own personal sinfulness, you can't look down in judgment upon
anybody for anything. And you have, by cause of your
sinfulness, no claims on God. You stand before God as guilty. And that's what happens when
folks see God, and that's what Job said, isn't it? I've heard
of you with the hearing of the ears. Wherefore mine eyes have
seen thee, and I hate myself, and I repent in dust and ashes. Isaiah. In the care of the king
Uzziah died, I saw the Lord. And then what did he say? Woe
is me. I'm undone. I'm completely destroyed. Daniel said, when I saw him,
my comeliness turned to corruption. Now repentance is a change of
mind with regard to how you see yourself. It's a change of mind
with regard to God, It's a change of mind with regard to yourself.
And it's a complete change of mind with regard to salvation. Now what do I mean by that? Everybody, I thought this, you
thought this. Everybody thinks I will be forgiven
if I fill in the blank. Whatever it is. Forgiveness comes
through, fill in the blank. Now when God does something for
you, you repent of that and you see that your salvation has began
with free forgiveness. Not God's response to something
you've done, but his response to something Christ has done. You at one time saw no safety
in looking to Christ alone. You felt like you needed something
else. Now you see no safety looking anywhere else but Christ alone. Now what is the one sure evidence
of genuine repentance? faith in Christ. That is the
evidence of repentance. You look to Christ alone and
claim no past, present, or future merit. Christ only. Have I repented? Do you look to Christ only right
now? Is he all you have? You have
no other claims. If you look to Christ only, yes. You have repented. You are repenting. You're in
a state of repentance. God commands all men everywhere. That's me and you. Well, did
God elect me? Did Christ die for me? Has God
the Holy Spirit done something for me? You don't need to concern
yourself about that. You hear? You don't need to concern
yourself about that. You really don't. But God does
command all men everywhere to repent. Change your mind about
your silly thoughts about God. Change your mind about the high
thoughts you have of yourself. Change your mind about the wrong
views you've had of salvation. And look to Christ alone. Let's pray. Lord, we ask in Christ's blessed
name that you would cause us to repent of the wrong thoughts we have
of thee, to repent of the wrong thoughts we've had of ourselves, that we have of ourselves. to repent of the wrong thoughts
we've had of thy salvation, and give every one of us the grace
to rest in Christ alone, to be satisfied with what you are satisfied
with, the person and work of thy son. Teach us what it is
to rest in him. Bless these words for Christ's
sake. In His name we pray, amen. Dwight.