Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nybert. We're located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside 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 toddroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. I want to preach on repentance
and faith. Have you ever wondered what repentance
really means and what faith really is? I hope you have, and I hope
those questions will be answered by this message. We read in Mark
chapter 1, Verses 14 and 15, now after the John was put in
prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom
of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of
heaven or the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe
the gospel. repent ye and believe the gospel."
Now, this is the beginning of the public ministry of Christ,
and he came preaching. The Lord Jesus Christ was a preacher,
and it still pleases God by the foolishness of preaching to save
them that believe. I think it's interesting that
in religion preaching has kind of taken a back seat. We have
plays and skits, and the music leader is called the worship
leader. And the preaching of the gospel has taken a backstage,
but the Lord was a preacher, and He came preaching. I love
that scripture, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for He hath
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He came preaching,
and here is what He preached, the gospel of the kingdom of
God. The word gospel means good news.
I love that name, good news. Has the gospel ever come as good
news to you? If it hadn't, the Lord hadn't
done anything for you. When the Lord does something for you,
the gospel comes as good news. We read of the word of the gospel.
You see there are words that are actually spoken when the
gospel is preached. We read of the gospel of the
grace of God, the gospel of God, the gospel of Christ, the gospel
of His Son. I love when Paul called the gospel,
my gospel. It's called the glorious gospel
and the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. We read of the
truth of the gospel. The gospel is a declaration of
the truth, the truth concerning the true character of God, man,
and salvation. We read of the gospel of your
salvation. You see, when you believe the gospel, you find
out that the Lord saved you. It always troubles me when I
hear people say, I got saved. That's not the way to speak.
If the Lord saved you, you say, I've been saved. The Lord has
done something for me. We read of the gospel of peace,
the mystery of the gospel. faith of the gospel, the hope
of the gospel. The gospel is even called the
everlasting gospel in the book of Revelation, a gospel that
had no beginning and will never have an end. And he came preaching
the gospel of the kingdom of God. Now, this kingdom is like
no other kingdom. This kingdom is not of this world. This kingdom has Christ as the
king. And he said, my kingdom is not
of this world. It's not an earthly kingdom. It's called in Hebrews 12, 28,
a kingdom that cannot be moved. There are no earthly kingdoms
like that. Every earthly kingdom can be shaken and will be shaken
and will be moved. None of them will last. One will
rise today and collapse tomorrow, all according to God's appointment.
This is the kingdom, the kingdom of heaven. This is the kingdom
that cannot be moved, and the reason it cannot be moved is
because of the king. Christ is the king of this kingdom. He is eternal. He's almighty,
all-powerful, absolutely just, sovereign. omniscient. He's never learned anything.
He's never had a new thought. He controls everybody and everything
by His sovereign will. This is why this kingdom is so
sure. He is immutable. He never changes. He's just. He's gracious, he's
merciful. What a king there is of this
kingdom. There are no threats to his kingdom.
He sits on no precarious throne. The king of the kingdom is what
makes this kingdom an unmovable, unshakable kingdom. Now he goes
on to say in this passage of scripture, Jesus came into the
Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God saying,
the time is fulfilled. and the kingdom of God is at
hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel."
Now, I love the way he begins by saying the time is fulfilled. You see, God made this thing
called time so that the things or the thing that He purposed
in eternity, and every, all the things come from that, will take
place. Christ is called the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. Now, everything God does is eternal. Everything that happens in time
was purposed in eternity. Known unto God are all his works
from the beginning. Hebrews 4, 3 says the works were
finished from the foundation of the world. All that happens
in time is what God has purposed. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have taken and with
wicked hands have crucified and slain. Now Christ says the time
is fulfilled. It's fulfilled. He came, I love
that scripture in Galatians chapter four where it says, but when
the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son, made
of a woman. made under the law to redeem
them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption
of sons." And his timing is always perfect. The time is fulfilled.
The time is fulfilled. And then he says, the kingdom
of God, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Now, the reason it's
at hand is because I'm here. That's what the Lord is saying.
I'm the king. And the kingdom of heaven is very near to you. The kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Now, there's a lot of references in the Scripture to the Kingdom
of God and the Kingdom of Heaven. Christ came preaching the Kingdom
of Heaven. He's the King. His subjects are every believer. They're described in Revelation
17, 14, He's the King of kings and Lord of lords, and they that
are with Him are called and chosen and faithful. I love the description
of the subjects of his kingdom in the first beatitude, blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now, this kingdom Paul describes
in Romans chapter 14, verse 17, and there's not a more important
verse in the Bible than this. The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink. It's not do's and don'ts. It's not rules, man-made rules. The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink, not you'll be better off if you eat this or refrain
from eating it, or you'll be better off if you drink this
or refrain from drinking it. It's not religious rules. The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink, and that's what makes up most religion, rules But the
kingdom of God is not meat and drink. It's righteousness and
peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Now, the kingdom of God is the
only righteous kingdom, because there's nothing unfair or unjust
about it. Every believer is justified before
God, having his righteousness. And what comes out of that? Peace. The kingdom of heaven is the
only kingdom where there's true peace. Now, the only way I really
have peace is if I have no sin. And if I have his righteousness,
I have no sin. He's put it away, and there's
peace. And what comes from that? Joy, the joy and peace of believing
the gospel. Now, that's the kingdom of heaven.
Oh, what a kingdom it is. He came preaching the kingdom
of God, and he said, the time is fulfilled. completely fulfilled,
the kingdom of heaven is at hand because I'm here. And then he
said, repent ye and believe the gospel. Now, this is so simple. The word repent means change
your mind. Right now, you presently do not
believe the gospel. Change your mind and believe
the gospel. Now, that is the most simple
definition of repentance there is. You don't believe. Change
your mind. Believe what you did not believe
before. Repentance and faith. Now, the apostle Paul followed
his master, and he summarized his preaching thusly. Acts chapter
20, verse 20, and how I kept back nothing that was profitable
unto you. I didn't hold back anything. He said later on in
this same message, I've not shunned to declare the whole counsel
of God. If a man will hold back on what he believes, he's not
being honest, and God never sent him. And he doesn't really believe
what he says he believes, because you only believe what you preach
publicly. And here's Paul's public preaching. I kept nothing back
that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have
taught you publicly and from house to house. What I preach
in public, I preach in private. There's no difference in my message.
Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, same message
for everybody, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord
Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith, Paul says. It's the summary of my preaching. Now, repentance and faith, while
they are not the same thing, they can never be separated one
from the other. like a sheet of paper, the two
sides of the one sheet of paper. Repentance and faith, they always
go together, and their relationship is such that the one is the evidence
of the other. The evidence that you have repented
is that you believe the gospel. The evidence that you believe
is that you stay in this state of repentance. Now, what is repentance? People become so confused about
this. What is repentance? Well, if you repent, you believe. If you repent, you believe. You believe the gospel. The gospel
has a content that must be believed. When you repent, you believe
the gospel. What do you have to believe?
Everything God says. Now, God has given us His Word,
the Holy Scriptures. It's the inspired Word of God.
All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. That's what the Bible
claims for itself, and I don't have a hard time believing that.
Somebody says, how do you expect me to believe that? Well, you
believe God created the universe, and if you believe He created
the world, you know He has the power to inspire men to write
a book and to keep it preserved, and we've got to have the Scripture.
If we don't have the scripture, all we have is my opinion and
your opinion. And you know how worthless that is? That won't
do you any good. You need to be able to, when
you hear me preach, you've got to be able to see if what I'm preaching
is according to the scriptures. Now, the gospel has a content
that must be believed. And you repent and believe. Now, most people look at repentance
as sorrow for sin. and turning from sin and not
returning to sin. We ought to be sorry for sin.
We ought to turn from our sin. We ought never to return to our
sin. But if that is what repentance is, me and you are in big trouble,
because there are sins that you are still committing, that you
committed 10 years ago, that you committed yesterday, that
you've committed today. And if repentance is turning
from sin, which we ought to do, and being sorry for sin, which
we ought to be, and not returning to your sin, how many sins do
you keep returning to? Now, be honest. Be honest. Deal
with this honestly. If that's what repentance is,
then you haven't repented. How sorry do sorry have to be? And are there not sins that you
still commit? Yes. The answer is yes. So that's
really not what repentance is. Repentance is a change of mind. Now, when we read what Paul said
about repentance in Acts chapter 20, he called it repentance toward
God. It's a change of mind toward
God. Before you were given repentance,
you either had wrong views of God or what you did know about
God you didn't like. You disliked what you heard when
you heard the true character of God described. Either you
had false views of God, you having somebody like you, and you think
you can understand him, or you hear of God's sovereignty, how
he saves whom he pleases, and he passes by whom he pleases,
and you say, that's not fair. When you hear that Christ is
a successful Savior, that everybody he died for must be saved, that
he died for the elect, and not all men without exception, you
say, that's not fair. When you repent, you change your
mind. You see, that's the only hope you have is that Christ
is a successful Savior. You have a change of mind about
yourself. When you have this change of mind about God, you
have a change of mind about yourself. You used to think that, yeah,
you made mistakes. You committed sins and weren't
perfect. I'm not perfect. You would obey
very quickly and really believe it. But as far as believing what
the Bible says about you, that every imagination of the thoughts
of your heart is only evil continually? Genesis 6, verse 5, well, I don't
know if I believe that. You mean every thought, every
motive, every action, every deed is sin? I don't know if I believe
that. But when you are granted repentance,
you change your mind. You believe that's the truth
about yourself. And you have a change of mind
about Christ. You at one time probably thought you had a pretty
high opinion of Christ and thought good things about Him, but you
didn't see Him as at all. But when you repent, when God
grants you repentance, you see Him as all. He's all you have. You don't have anything else.
He's all you have. He's all in the Scriptures. He's
all to God. He's all in salvation. He's all
in faith. He's all you have. You don't
have any other plea but Him. He is all you have. And in true
repentance, there is a change of mind regarding the forgiveness
of sins. Now here's the way the natural
man believes. If I do this, this, this, and this, and quit doing
that, this, that, and that, I'll have the forgiveness of sins.
It's the end of a process. I need to do this in order to
get the forgiveness of sins. And all that is salvation by
works. And when God grants you repentance, you repent of that
kind of thinking, and you see that salvation begins with the
complete, full, free forgiveness of sins. And there's nothing
you do to get it. You find out you've been forgiven. It really is that simple. You
have a complete change of mind regarding the forgiveness of
sins. You see it's God's work, and it's where your salvation
begins, not you doing something to get the forgiveness of sins.
That's just another form of salvation by works, but God forgiving your
sins for Christ's sake. Ephesians 4.32, be ye kind, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's sake, hath
forgiven you. repent, a change of mind, and
believe the gospel. You didn't believe the gospel,
believe it. That's the simplest definition
of what faith can be. Or what repentance is, you didn't
believe? Believe. Paul said in 2 Timothy 1.12,
I know whom I have believed. Not what I believe, I know whom
I have believed. And I am persuaded that he is
able to keep that which I've committed to him. against that
day." Now, that's what faith is. You believe He is able. Faith is toward the Lord Jesus
Christ. Faith doesn't have anything to do with what you think about
yourself. It has wholly to do with what you think concerning
Him. Paul said, I know whom I have believed, and I'm persuaded that
He is able. My persuasion is that He's able
to save me with no help from me. That's my persuasion. That's
what I believe. That's who I believe. I'm persuaded
he is able to keep that which I've committed to him. Now, this
word means I've put all my eggs in this one basket. I've committed
to him my salvation. If he doesn't do it all, there's
no hope for me. I've committed it all to Him.
I'm persuaded that He's able to keep that which I've committed
to Him, the salvation of my soul against that day. Now, we have
in the Scriptures a beautiful illustration of what repentance
and faith is. We have a lot of beautiful illustrations,
but I think the one that really hit me is the thief on the cross. Now, we know from Matthew's account
that both of these thieves were hurling insults at Christ. Both of these thieves were saying,
if you're the Christ, come down and save us and save yourselves,
if you're the Son of God. They were both hurling insults
at the Lord Jesus Christ. One continued to do so. and one
became strangely silent. He had a change of mind regarding
this one beside him. He saw what was written over
his head, Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, and he
had been insulting him and making fun of that, and now all of a
sudden he has a change of mind. That's what repentance is. His
mind has been changed regarding the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this is what repentance is.
It's a change of mind regarding the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I want to begin reading in
verse 39 of Luke chapter 23, and here we're going to have
a beautiful illustration of what repentance is and what faith
really is. Verse 39, And one of the malefactors
which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save
thyself and us. And the other thief had been
saying that. We know that from Matthew's account. But look what
happens. But the other, answering, rebuked
him, saying, Dost thou not fear God? He knew. He had a change of mind concerning
that one who was hanging on the tree. He now believes him to
be God. Dost thou not fear God? Do you have to believe that Jesus
Christ is God? Of course you do, because that's
who he is. He said, if you believe not that I am, you'll die in
your sins. Now, how did that thief know?
The same way you know if you know God revealed this to you. This man heard the seven sayings
of the Savior from the cross. He heard the gospel, and God
granted him a change of mind, and he could see that that one
hanging beside him is God. Now, let's go on reading. Dost thou not fear God, seeing
thou art in the same condemnation, and we indeed justly? For we receive the due reward
for our sins." He believed in the justice of God. He believed he was getting exactly
what he deserved. Now when I hear people complaining
about the fairness of God, they're sitting in judgment on God. When
I hear people complaining about God choosing who would be saved,
what they're saying is, I'm more just than God, I'm more merciful
than He is, I'm more gracious than He is, I don't agree with
Him. But when God does something for you, when you're granted
repentance, your mind is changed and you believe that whatever
God does is just. And if He sends you to hell,
you're getting the due reward of your deeds. You're getting
exactly what you deserve. No more charges of injustice
with God. Now, when you repent, that's
what takes place. And look what He says next. But
this man hath done nothing amiss. Now, when you repent, you believe
that Jesus Christ is sinless humanity. Yes, you believe he's
God. Yes, you believe he's just. And
you believe he is the man that never sinned. This man has done
nothing amiss. And then he said unto Jesus,
Lord, He saw that one. who seemingly
didn't have anything about him that would make him call him
Lord. He didn't see anything. I mean,
he was nailed to a cross. All of his disciples had forsaken
him. He heard him cry, My God, my God, why has thou forsaken
me? And yet, with nothing by sight to bolster this, he knew
that that one hanging by him was Lord, Lord of creation, Lord
of providence, the one who controlled everything, including these men
being hung on a tree. Lord of salvation, salvation
was in his hands. Notice what he says, Lord, remember
me when you come into your kingdom. Now, he knew that his salvation
was totally dependent upon Christ. like the leper did. Lord, if
you will, you can make me clean. He knew that his salvation was
totally dependent on Christ. Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. And he knew that Christ was going
to come as a mighty reigning king. He knew He wasn't going
to stay dead. He knew He was going to come
back as a mighty, reigning King, as King of Kings and Lord of
Lords. He believed in the success of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
knew that whatever Christ intended to do, He would do. He believed
the gospel. He repented. He had a change
of mind concerning God. He had a change of mind concerning
himself. And he had a change of mind concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. He believed he was God. He believed
he was just. He believed that he was the sinless
being. This man hath done nothing amiss. He believed that Christ was the
Lord when everything he saw would have denied that. He believed
that Christ was the Lord in charge. He believed that he wouldn't
stay dead, that he would be successful in whatever he did and come back
as a mighty reigning king. And the Lord gave him assurance
that he never gave anyone else. Today, thou shalt be with me
in paradise. Now that's repentance, and that
is faith. Repentance toward God and faith
toward the Lord Jesus Christ. And God commands you to repent. God commandeth all men everywhere
to repent. Change your mind and believe
the gospel. Believe what God says in His
Word. Now, we have this message on
DVD and CD. If you call the church, email
or write, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Kniper. Amen. To
receive a copy of the sermon you have just heard, send your
request to tod.nybert at gmail.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.