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 listened to a preacher
say, repent of your sins, and wondered, what does that mean? I've entitled this message, Repentance
Simply Stated. Repentance, like Every other
subject in the Bible is mangled by preachers, and they give it
a meaning that it does not mean. Did you know that the phrase,
repent of your sins, is not found in the Bible? It's not there. When a preacher preaches on repentance,
here's generally what they mean. If you repent of your sins, if
you turn from your sins, and if you're sorry for your sins,
and if you don't return to your sins, then you have repented
and you will have forgiveness. Now, my dear friend, there is
not a drop of gospel in that, and that is not what repentance
is. Question, do you have sins that
you are still habitually committing? Now, if that definition of repentance
I gave you is true, That means you know nothing of repentance. Turn from your sin. Well, you ought to. Be sorry
for your sin. Well, how sorry? Sorry enough.
When have you reached a sufficient amount of sorrow? And are there
sins that you have not returned to? Somebody says, yes. Well, I don't believe you. That's
all I know what to say. I don't believe it. You're not
telling the truth. There are sins you habitually commit. And if you're a believer, you
hate those sins. You mourn over those sins. You
cry for forgiveness. You cry for cleansing. But for
someone to say, well, I've returned from my sin, and I haven't returned
to it, Well, you might have stopped committing outwardly a few sins,
but your heart is just as bad as it ever was, and you love
the sins perhaps you've turned from. That's not true repentance. True repentance is a change of
mind. That's what true repentance is.
That's what the word means, a change of mind. You believe something,
and you don't believe it anymore. That is repentance, a change
of mind. Now, in our text, we read in
verse 4 of Mark 1, speaking of John the Baptist, He was the
last Old Testament prophet. He was the subject of prophecy.
He was prophesied in the book of Malachi and in the book of
Isaiah that he would come as the forerunner of Christ. We
read, John did baptize in the wilderness and preach the baptism
of repentance for the remission of sins. And there went out unto
him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all
baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins."
Now, John came to bear witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is He of whom I speak, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sins of the world. Now, John's baptism, was it any
different than Christian baptism? Was this some kind of baptism
where before you went under the water, you confessed to everybody
what you had done, and then you went under the water and came
back up to prove that you had repented, and this was something
different than Christian baptism? No. Paul said there's one baptism. John did not have a baptism that
was different than Christian baptism. Now, when he was baptizing,
it was before Christ died, and I suppose in that sense, maybe
there was not quite as clear an understanding, but baptism
represents death, burial, and resurrection. That's what it
means. Death, burial, and resurrection. When I'm baptized, I'm confessing
that my hope lies here. When Christ lived, I was in Him. I lived. When Christ kept the
law, I was in Him. I kept the law. When Christ died,
I was in Him. My sins were paid for. When Christ
was raised from the dead, I was raised to. That's how sins are
remitted. life, death, burial, and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, baptism, simply stated,
illustrates the gospel. Now, the only thing baptism means
is complete immersion. You go under the water all the
way up under, and you come out. You don't sprinkle people, and
you don't baptize babies. People do that in religion so
much, they baptize infants. Baptism is for believers. An
infant doesn't believe. Whoso believeth and is baptized,
the same shall be saved. Baptism is for believers. Now,
John baptized in the River Jordan, and here was his message preaching
the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Now, repentance
for the remission of sins. The word repentance is made of
two words, which means a change of mind. That's what repentance
is, a change of mind. And you and I will not have this
change of mind unless our mind is changed by God. You see, repentance
is impossible for the natural man. It's a supernatural work.
It's the gift of God, just like faith is. You know, the Scripture
says, by grace he is saved through faith, and that not of yourselves,
that faith. It's not the product of your
free will. It's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should
boast. Listen to these Scriptures with
regard to repentance. We read in Acts 5, verse 31,
"...him hath God exalted as a prince and a Savior, for to give repentance
to Israel." It's not something you work up. It's something that's
given. to you. Then hath to the Gentiles God
hath also granted repentance unto life." The reason they have
this repentance is because God granted it to them. He freely
gave it to them as an act of His grace. Peradventure—this
is Paul speaking in II Timothy 2, verse 24—peradventure, God
will grant them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.
The only way you're truly going to repent is if God grants you
this repentance. If God changes your mind, your
mind will be changed. Paul said in Romans 2, 4, it's
the goodness of God. that leadeth thee to repentance."
Now, that doesn't mean you're led to repent because you see
how good God is. Your heart will remain hard unless
He, by His grace, leads you by His goodness, His capacity to
show mercy to sinners. It's the goodness of God that
leads thee to repentance. It's the gift of God. Now, I
want us to notice this. John did baptize in the wilderness
and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Now, does that mean that if you
repent of your sins, they will be forgiven. There will be the
remission of sins. Is that what that means? In order
for your sins to be forgiven, you first have to repent of those
sins. You have to turn from them, you have to be sorry for them,
and you have to not return to them. And if you do that, you'll
have the remission of sins. They'll be blotted out, they'll
be forgiven. Now, my dear friends, That is
salvation by works and nothing more. That's all that means. That's salvation by works and
nothing more. Repentance is a change of mind
regarding, concerning the remission or the forgiveness of sins. This
is what it is at its base. It's a change of mind concerning
the forgiveness of sins. You see, here's what we think
naturally. I need to do this, this, and
this. I need to straighten out my life.
I need to turn from my sin. I need to start reading the Bible.
I need to start praying. I need to start witnessing. I
need to start doing good works. There's things I need to do.
And if I do those things, I'll have the forgiveness of sins. When God grants you repentance,
you repent of thinking that way. You know that the forgiveness
of sins is not some reward for what you have done. Salvation
doesn't end in the forgiveness of sins at the end of a process.
If I do A, B, and C, then I'll be forgiven. Salvation begins
with the full, free, complete forgiveness of all sin. You see, forgiveness is not God's
response to you doing anything. Forgiveness is God's response
to what His Son has done. Ephesians 432 says, Be ye kind,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's
sake hath forgiven you. He didn't forgive you because
you're sorry. He didn't forgive you because of anything you've
done. He did so for Christ's sake. We read that without the
shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. He saves and gives forgiveness
for Christ's sake, and you repent of anything contrary to that.
Look down at verse 5. And there went out unto him,
speaking of John the Baptist, all the land of Judea, and they
of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river Jordan, confessing
their sins." Now, does that mean before that they were baptized,
they had to publicly confess the sins they were guilty of
committing? No. Don't confess your sins to
a man. Don't confess your sins to somebody
who calls himself a priest. Don't confess your sins to a
preacher. All those men are just as sinful
as you are. It won't do you any good to confess your sins to
them, but that's not what this means. To confess sin is to say
what God says about your sin. It's to agree with God. It's
to take sides with God against yourself. It's to say, guilty
as charged. It's not the actual admission
of a particular sin. I mean, you confess the sin you
know about, but if it's Confessing every one of them, there's not
enough time in the day. And you don't know what most of them
are in the first place. What the confession of sin is, is
it taking sides with God, agreeing with what God says about your
sin. And you know that the only way
you can be saved is by what baptism depicts. The life, death, burial,
and resurrection of Christ, and you were in him. That's your
only hope. that you were in him and that
when he kept the law, you kept the law. When he died and made
sin payment, that was the payment for your sin. When he was raised
from the dead, you were raised with him into newness of life,
delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification.
That's what you confess when you confess your sin and confess
it in baptism. Now, let me try to give you some
things the scripture says we have repentance toward. In Acts
20 verse 21 we read of repentance toward God. I love that. You have a change
of mind about God. There were things regarding the
character of God that you disliked. You didn't like the fact that
he was sovereign and that he was the first cause and controller
of everything. You didn't feel any safety in
that. You want to have some control of your own. You didn't like
the fact that if God's sovereign, that means there's no such thing
as free will. You didn't like that. It angered you. You didn't
like the fact that God elected a people and Christ died for
the elect. You said, that's not fair. There
were things about God you didn't like. He's too holy. He's too
strict. You don't like that. God gives you a change of mind,
and you love everything about Him. You love His sovereignty. You love His holiness. You love
His way of saving sinners by grace. You repent toward God. Now, most folks, the reason they
don't get mad at God is because they never hear who God really
is. They've just heard of a false God that they can control, and
they're not too upset with Him. But when they hear the God of
the Bible, that's when they get upset. But if God grants you
repentance, your mind is changed. You'll love the way God is. Repentance is a change of mind
about yourself. Job said in Job 42, 5, I've heard
of thee with the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore, I abhor myself, and
repent in dust and ashes." Now, Job's mind was not changed by
his afflictions. He was complaining with God,
feeling like God was treating him unjustly throughout the book.
But when he saw God in his holiness, When he saw who he really was,
it changed his view about himself. He quit justifying himself and
vindicating himself. He said, I hate myself, and I
repent in dust and ashes. That's what happened with Isaiah.
When Isaiah saw the Lord, he said, then said, I woe is me. I'm undone. When I've seen the
Lord, I'm undone. Daniel says, when I saw him,
my comeliness turned to corruption. When Peter finally saw who he
really was, he said, ìDepart from me, Lord. Iím a sinful man. You donít want to have anything
to do with me.î You see, when you repent, you repent concerning
yourself. You no longer believe yourself
to be a good person. or have a good heart. You might
do bad things, but you're good hearted. You see that you are
a sinner, and the only hope you have is the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. There's another thing with regard
to repentance. The Lord said, repent and believe
the gospel. Now, the gospel is how that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures, according to
the Old Testament scriptures. how that he actually put away
my sin, that he completed salvation for me, and I'm relying on him. He is all in salvation. I believe
that. I didn't used to, but I've repented,
and I'm believing the gospel. I believe that he is all, all
glory goes to him. And I love it that way. I've
repented. And then we read in Hebrews chapter
six, one of repentance from dead works. Now what does that mean,
repenting from dead works? Well, every work that I performed
religiously before God gave me new life birthed me from above,
regenerated me, caused me to be born again. Every work that
I had before then was nothing more than a dead work, performed
by a man dead in sins." Now, people will say, well, I'm saved
because I believed, or I repented, or I did this. I responded the
right way. I accepted Jesus Christ as my
personal Savior. I let God save me. I made Him
the Lord of my life. People say things like that,
and all they demonstrate by that is they've never repented of
dead works, because everything done before God gives you life
is a dead work. And you change your mind about
your works. You see they're nothing but dead
works. You used to think they were good works. You used to
think that they would recommend you to God, but you don't think
that way anymore. You've changed your mind. I love the repentance spoken
of in our text. Repentance concerning the remission of sins. I used
to think that the forgiveness or the remission of sins was
the reward of me believing, or me repenting, or me turning,
or me doing something. I repent of that. I repent of
the corrupt way I thought about the remission of sins. It's without the shedding of
blood there is no remission of sin. Hebrews 10.18 says where
the remission of these is. By what Christ did, there's no
more offering for sin. You're not gonna try to offer
up to God something that'll get Him to respond to you. Matthew
26, 28, the Lord said, this is the New Testament in my blood,
shed for many for the remission of sins. What can wash away my
sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again? nothing but the blood of Jesus."
Now, let's consider from the Scripture what repentance actually
does. There's something that repentance
actually does. Well, do you not think we ought
to repent of our sins? Sure, we have a change of mind
with regard to our sins, but that's not—repentance is primarily
toward God. Repentance is repenting of your
views of yourself. Repentance is changing your mind
about the forgiveness of sins, how the forgiveness of sins comes
to you. Now, true repentance owns God's
holiness and my own personal sinfulness. That's what true
repentance always does. Job didn't repent when his health
was taken away and when his kids were put to, killed, and when
he lost everything he had, he didn't repent. But he repented
when he saw the Lord. And that's when he said, I hate
myself and repent in dust and ashes. True repentance acknowledges
God's sovereign right to do what he will with his own. Whatever
he does is right. Samuel tells Eli, God's gonna
kill your two sons. Eli replies, it's the Lord. Let
him do what seemeth him good. True repentance justifies God
in His judgment. David said, Against thee, and
thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mayest be justified when you speak, and clear when
you judge. Whatever God does is right. If He sends me to hell, It's
to the praise of the glory of His justice. Whatever He does
is right. If He saves me, He saves me in
a way that glorifies His justice. You see, my sin is not just swept
under the carpet. My sin is paid for by Christ,
and I'm made to be righteous before God, and I'm saved in
a way that honors His justice and His righteousness. True repentance
owns that it lies in God's sovereign right to save me or to pass me
by. The leper said, Lord, if you
will, you can make me clean. It's totally up to you. I can't
make myself clean. If you will, you can make me
clean. And true repentance gives God
all the glory in salvation. Revelation 16, eight says they
repented not to give him glory. They were scorched with great
heat, yet they repented not, the scripture says, to give Him
glory. And repentance is not a one-time
act. It's continual. Are you repenting
right now? Is your mind being changed and
renewed right now? And true repentance looks solely
to Christ for salvation and claims no past, present, or future merit. You see, wherever there's repentance,
there is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the great illustration
of repentance is found in the story of the prodigal. It's one
of my favorite stories found in Luke chapter 15, and I want
to read some scriptures to you so we can learn something about
what repentance is. Verse 11 of Acts chapter 15,
and remember in the two, twice he said there's joy in heaven
over one sinner that repenteth. There's joy in heaven in the
presence of the angels over one sinner that repenteth. That's
what is said previous to this to let us know that that's what
this is about, repentance. A certain man had two sons, Luke
15, 11, 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. Oh, he thought something was
coming to him. Give me the portion of goods
that falleth to me, that are coming my way. He had this sense
of entitlement. And he divided them his living. And not many days after, the
younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far
country, and there he wasted his substance with riotous living. This man had a lot of money,
but a fool and his money soon go separate ways. This happened
to this man. He spent all of his time partying,
having a good time, and he wasted all of his substance with riotous
living. Partying is all that means. Verse
14. And when he had spent all and
had nothing left, there arose a mighty famine in that land,
and he began to be in want, in need. He had nothing, and it
was a famine. And he went and joined himself
to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into the fields
to feed swine. Now, this is what this represents. A citizen of that country represents
somebody getting religious, joining a church, thinking that's going
to make things better. And what did the man do, the citizen of
that country? He put him to work. He put him
to work. Salvation by works. Verse 16,
and he would fain have filled his belly with the husk of the
swine did eat, and no man gave unto him. He could not find any
satisfaction in that. He couldn't find any rest in
that. And when he came to himself, He said, how many hired servants
of my father's have bread enough to spare, and I perish with hunger. Now, this is when he repented.
He repented concerning his father's house. You know, he wanted to
get out of his father's house, but now he wants to return to
it because how many hired servants have bread enough to spare, and
I'm perishing with hunger. He says, I'll rise 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. Make me as one of thy hired servants. He'd lost the sense
of entitlement, hadn't he? And he arose and came to his
father, but when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him.
You see, he'd been looking for him. And he had compassion and
ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. And the son said
unto him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and thy sight,
and I'm not worthy to be called thy son. See the depth of his
repentance. But the father said to his servants,
before he could even finish what he was going to say, bring forth
the best robe and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and
shoes on his feet and bring hither the fatted calf and kill it and
let us eat and be merry. Now that best robe represents
the righteousness of Christ. That ring, the love of Christ
that has no beginning or no end, those shoes, grace to persevere
in the gospel and in the faith. Kill the fatted calf. This is
a celebration. Now, that's what repentance looks
like, a complete change of mind. May God grant you and I this
true repentance. Now, we have this message on
CD and DVD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nyberg praying that
God would grant me and you true repentance unto life. Amen. To request a copy of the
sermon you have just heard, send your request to messages at todsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.