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 Niver. Has it ever come into your mind,
what does it really mean to repent? What is repentance? I'd like to read a scripture
from Luke chapter 13, beginning in verse 1. There were present
at that season some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood
Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. Now they tell him
of a current event that was very gruesome. There were some people
who were offering sacrifices that while they were in the midst
of doing that, Pilate shed their blood. He had them killed and
their blood was mingled with the sacrifices of the blood they
were offering sacrifices for. Their bloods were mingled together.
What a blood curdling, chilling tale. Verse 2, And Jesus answering
said unto them, The Lord responded to this, He said, Suppose ye
that these Galileans that suffered this horrible fate were sinners
above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things. When
they had this horrible thing take place with them, was this
some kind of special judgment of God against them for the things
they were doing and that they were in reality worse than the
average sinner? The Lord said, I tell you nay,
but except you repent. You shall all likewise perish. Don't think for a second that
you're better than these people. If you don't repent, you'll perish
just like they did." And then he gives another current event.
He said in verse 4, "...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? Do you think that because this
disaster took place and they were killed when this tower fell
on them, do you think that's some kind of special judgment
of God that proves that they were greater sinners than the
other sinners that were in Jerusalem? I tell you, nay, but except you
repent, you shall all likewise perish. Upon the very surface
of this, we see that calamities and bad things that happen to
people are not judgments from God against their sin. Now, people
are always thinking that way. I remember when the hurricane
hit New Orleans and people would say, well, this is God's judgment
against that place. Or when something bad happens
and some kind of disaster takes place, they think, well, God
is judging that person for their sin. Let me say this. Those 18
people might have all been believers. There are believers who have
died of certain diseases like AIDS and so on, where people
think that's God's special judgment. Listen, God isn't going to judge
all sin, but hell is the place of judgment. And you can't look
at any calamity anybody experiences and think, well, they must be
being judged for their sins or this stuff wouldn't be happening
to them. That's what Job's miserable comforters thought. They kept
saying, what have you done? What have you done that's brought
all this upon you? Now, that kind of attitude is
wrong. Bad things happen to believers
just like bad things happen to unbelievers. Believers get cancer. Believers get sick. Believers
are involved in accidents where perhaps many people are killed.
And to think that, well, that's God's judgment is a terribly
arrogant and self-righteous attitude. Whenever you hear preachers talk,
this is God's judgment against sin. God will judge sin, but
hell is the place of that judgment. Now, here's what our Lord is
really touching at when He makes this statement. These people were saying, well,
these men must have been more evil than others to have such
terrible things happen to them, which translated is, They're
more evil than me. I haven't suffered this, therefore
I must be better than them. A religion of comparing oneself
with somebody else. I can always find somebody that
I'm a little better than, that I feel like I'm a little bit
righteous, more righteous than, and it must be okay for me. I must be all right. Now, the
Lord says, except you repent. and stop thinking like that,
you're going to perish." And he's talking about eternal condemnation
when he says that. I have entitled this message,
Accept You Repent. Now, what is this thing of repentance? When our Lord opened His public
ministry, He opened His ministry with these words, repent ye and
believe the gospel. Change your mind, is what the
word means, and believe the gospel. When Paul gave a summary of the
ministry the Lord had given him in Acts chapter 20, he says,
this is my ministry, this is my preaching, testifying both
to the Jews and to the Greeks, repentance toward God. a change of mind toward God and
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, which is precisely what the Lord
said when He said, repent ye and believe the gospel. When
the Lord is giving His marching orders to the church after His
resurrection, right before His ascension, He told them what
to preach. He said that repentance and remission
of sin should be preached in His name. Now the Lord said to these people,
except you personally repent. You're gonna perish just like
those people whose blood was mingled with the sacrifices they
were offering when Pilate had them put to death. Except you
repent, you're no different than those people upon whom the Tower
of Siloam fell and killed them. Except you repent, you will likewise
perish. Now what does it mean to repent? What's that word mean? What does
the Bible mean by that? What did the Lord mean by that?
What did Paul mean by that? Now, this is a word, like so
many other words, that false prophets use and change the meaning
of. Now, my dear friends, there are
a whole lot of false prophets. When our Lord said, enter ye
in at the straight gate, what's the first warning He gave after
that? Beware of false prophets. They hang out at the gate. And
a false prophet takes biblical words You see, they come in sheep's
clothing, but within they're ravenous wolves, and they use
biblical words and change the meaning. There's so many examples
of that, like grace. They all talk about grace, but
grace is not what actually saves you. It's an offer of God that
it's up to you to accept or reject. They use words like redemption,
but it's incomplete. He may have redeemed you, but
you might be damned anyway if you don't do what it takes to
make what he did work for you. They take words like faith, and
they make faith a work. Faith is the work that you need
to do in order to be born again, in order to have the forgiveness
of sins. It puts salvation somehow conditioned
upon you, and they do the same thing with repentance. Preachers
say, repent of your sins. Now, you know that phrase is
not even found in the Bible. repent of your sins. Now, I want
to have a change of mind concerning sins, but this is what preachers
mean by that. When they say that, what you
need to do is you need to be really sorry for your sin, and
you need to stop committing it. And if you've committed it anymore,
you haven't really repented. Now, while I would agree we ought
to be sorry for our sins, and while I agree we ought not commit
them anymore, I ask the question, how sorry? when he's sorry enough. And as far as that goes, are
there sins you haven't stopped committing? If that's true, that
means you've never repented of them. There are many sins that
you and I have never stopped committing. And so if repentance
is stopping that particular sin, me and you haven't repented,
we're in big trouble. Now, what does repentance really
mean? Now, by definition, the word
means a change of mind. My mind's changed. Illustration. When I was a little boy, my parents
always made me eat what was on the plate. And there were two
foods that I despised, Brussels spouts, and tomatoes. I hated the way they tasted.
I hated their smell. I hated their texture. Oh, how
I hated Brussels sprouts, and I would hate having to put them
in my mouth and try to chew them up. You know what? It's now my
favorite vegetable. I love Brussels sprouts. I love
the taste. I love the texture. I could make
a meal of Brussels sprouts. That's how much I love them.
But you know, my attitude towards tomatoes has not changed at all. I still hate them. I still hate
the way they taste, the smell, the texture. See, I changed my
mind regarding the Brussels sprouts, but my mind remained unchanged
regarding tomatoes. Repentance means a change of
mind. And repentance, this change of
mind is both an act and a state of being. Somebody once said
this about repentance. I think this is so good. Repentance
is a change of mind, but oh, what a change. In this change
of mind, it comes from a change of masters, and what comes with
it is a change of motives and a change of manners. It's not
just a cognitive change of the mind. You believe one thing,
then you believe something else. No, it affects everything. this thing of repentance. And
repentance, like faith, is the gift of God. Scripture says,
by grace you save through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's
the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Well,
repentance is that way. You can't just work up repentance. You can't just up and decide,
I'm going to repent toward God. No, God's got to give it to you.
And if He doesn't give it to you, you will not have it. The
Scripture says, him hath God exalted to be a prince and a
savior, for to give to Israel repentance and the remission
of sins. The only way I'm going to truly
repent is if God gives me that repentance. Paul said to Timothy
to not strive, but be gentle with all men, apt to teach, meekness
in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves, if perventure
God will grant them repentance, to the acknowledging of the truth. The only way you and I will ever
truly repent is if God grants us and gives us this repentance.
It's the gift of His grace. It's part of the work of God
the Holy Spirit in the heart of a sinner. When the writer
to the Hebrews spoke of repentance, he talked about repentance from
dead works. Now, what is that, repentance from dead works? When
you repent, you see every work that you ever did before God
saved you was nothing but dead and sinful. You might have had
a high opinion of those works at one time, but you've repented
of that. You see that all your righteousness
is as filthy rags before God when you repent. You repent of
those dead works. Now, true repentance is brought
on by a spiritual sight of the Lord. Not a physical sight, but
a spiritual sight. Job said in Job 42, verses 5
and 6, I've heard of thee with the hearing of the ears, but
now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I hate myself, and I repent in
dust and ashes." He saw who the Lord really was. He'd been vindicating
himself and justifying himself, but when he finds out who the
Lord really is, it shuts his mouth, and he sees he stands
guilty before God. I think of what Isaiah said.
He said in Isaiah chapter 6, verse 1, in the year that King
Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting on a throne, high and
lifted up. Now there's significance to him
seeing the Lord in the year that King Uzziah died. King Uzziah
was a good king and he was mightily used of God. But the scripture
points out when his heart was lifted up within him, He came
into the temple and bypassed the priest, thinking he could
offer up a sacrifice without a priest. And the priest tried
to stop him, and they said, This appertaineth not to the Uzziah.
You better get out of here. And Uzziah's heart was lifted
up, and he went ahead and tried to offer that sacrifice without
a priest, and God turned him into a leper just like that. Isaiah saw how unapproachable
God is in His holiness apart from Christ, and he said, In
the year King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord. And listen to
what he said about himself. I said, Woe is me! I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips, and
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes
have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." Daniel, when Daniel
saw him, he made this statement. He said, no strength remained
in me, for my comeliness was turned to corruption, and I retained
no strength. When Peter first found out who
he was, he just thought he was a great man at first, but after
one of his miracles, he found out this is the God man. And
you know what his reply was to the Lord? He said, depart from
me, Lord. I'm a sinful man. You don't want
to have anything to do with me. Depart from me. Now, he wasn't
doing this in wickedness. He just thought, how could the
Lord in his holiness have anything to do with somebody like me?
Depart from me. I'm a sinful man. Oh, Lord. Now, when the Gadarene demonic
saw the Lord afar off, the scripture says, he ran and worshiped him,
saying, what have I to do with thee? What connection is there
between us? You're holy, I'm evil. You're
good, I'm bad. You're light, I'm darkness. You
and people have this high attitude about themselves, mighty and
high-minded, and they believe they have a personal righteousness
that God can accept. They think there are things they
can do. All they prove by that is they've never seen the Lord. If you and I ever see the Lord,
I'll tell you this, we'll see ourselves in a completely different
light. We'll see ourselves as filled
with wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, and we'll see ourselves
as sinners and nothing more. Now, this thing of seeing the
Lord is not a physical sight. It's brought on by hearing the
Word of God. In Luke chapter 16, after that
rich man had been sent to hell, and he asked Father Abraham to
send back Lazarus with a cup of water so he could dip some
water on his tongue. He said, I'm tormented in this
flame. Abraham said, it can't be done. And then he said this,
the rich man in hell. Then he said, I pray thee therefore,
Father, that thou would send him to my father's house, Lazarus.
For I have five brethren that he may testify unto them, lest
they come into this place of torment. And Abraham saith unto
them, They have Moses and the prophets. They've got the word
of God. Let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham,
but if one went unto them from the dead, they'll repent. If
they saw somebody who had actually been in hell and can come back
and testify of what a terrible place it was, or if somebody
came back from heaven and testified what a wonderful place it was,
if they could hear somebody that was raised from the dead, they'd
repent. And He said unto them, If they hear not Moses and the
prophets, neither will they be persuaded. The one rose from
the dead." Now, repentance is a change of mind. First of all,
it's a change of mind regarding God. Paul called it repentance
toward God. Now, I used to dislike things
about God. I disliked his holiness. I thought
he was too strict. I disliked his justice. I disliked
his way of saving. I thought it wasn't fair for
him to save some and pass by others. I disliked his way of
saving. I didn't have any love for God.
I didn't love his attributes. I would have changed him. If
it would have been in my power, if I could have done it, I would have changed
him to suit me the way I would like for him to be. But you know
what? I've repented. I've changed my mind. I love
God's way of saving. I love God's way of saving by
His sovereign grace. I love God's distinguishing mercy. I love the power of the blood
of Christ. Those things that I used to hate,
I now love because my mind has been changed. My mind's been
changed about myself. You know, I used to think I had
a free will. I used to think I could just up and whenever
I decided to, I could turn around and get things straightened out.
Or if the circumstances were right, I could make myself okay
with God. I used to believe things like
that about myself. Oh, true. I commit sins and I make mistakes
and I do bad things. But you know, I've repented of
that. I really believe right now while I'm talking to you
that I'm the very chief of sinners." That's what Paul said he was.
He said, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of
whom I am chief, and someone who has truly repented views
themselves that way. And oh, how that person changes
their mind about how God saves sinners. What I once hated, I
now love. I love God's sovereignty in salvation. I love that salvation is of the
Lord and He gets all the glory in salvation. I love the fact
that he elected a people freely for Christ's sake and that Christ
accomplished salvation for everybody he died for. It wasn't merely
an offer and God's grace is invincible and irresistible and God's people
persevere all the way to the end. I love that. I used to not
love Christ's requirements. When he says, if any man will
come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow
me. Oh, that seems so difficult.
That's what I want to do more than anything else now. My biggest
problem is myself. I want to deny myself. And I
want to take up my cross willingly in confessing Christ before men
and follow Him all the way to the end wherever He tells me
to go. You know, I used to dislike the thought of holiness. I love
it now. I want to be holy. I want to be just like the Lord
Jesus Christ. I have repented. Now, more than
anything else, I want you to listen to me real carefully,
because if you would understand repentance, here's where the
rubber hits the road. Quite often in the Scripture,
we have these two things mentioned together, repentance and the
remission of sins. When the Lord ascended, he said
repentance and remission of sins were to be preached in his name.
John the Baptist preached the baptism of repentance for the
remission of sins. Now when you repent, this is
so glorious, if God gives us eyes to see it, when you repent,
you have a complete change of mind regarding the forgiveness
of sins. Now, here's the way we naturally
think. The forgiveness of sins is given to us if we fill in
the blank. If we do this, if we stop doing
that, if we start doing this, if we become more spiritual,
if we stop this kind of conduct and start this kind of conduct
to show that we're real and sincere, and if we're really sorry and
if we ask the Lord to take it away and we promise we won't
do it anymore. We think the forgiveness of sins is something that comes
at the end. If I do this, then I will be
forgiven. Now, beloved, all that is, is
salvation by works. That's it. Somebody believes
that way, they don't believe grace, they don't believe the
gospel. When you repent, you see salvation does not end with
the forgiveness of sins. You see that salvation begins
with the full, free, frank, complete forgiveness of all sin, past,
present, and future. You've not learned what forgiveness
is until you see that salvation begins with the free, complete
forgiveness, the blotting out, the canceling of all your sin. You repent of thinking that there
was something that you could do to achieve the forgiveness
of sin, but you believe that The forgiveness of sin is given
to you wholly for Christ's sake, not because you ask, not because
you're sorry, not because of anything you do. You really believe
that scripture, Ephesians 4.32, be kind, tenderhearted, forgiving
one another even as God for Christ's sake has forgiven you. Now let me close by giving you
seven marks regarding true repentance. Number one, true repentance owns
God's holiness and my own sinfulness. Job didn't repent when he was
afflicted. He didn't repent when his children were killed, when
his body was diseased, when he lost everything he had. He didn't
repent during any of those things. He just held on to justifying
himself. But when he saw the Lord, he
said, I hate myself and I repent in dust and ashes. I'm a sinful,
sinful man. True repentance owns God's holiness
and my own personal sinfulness. It's one thing to believe in
the doctrine of total depravity. It's another thing to believe
you're totally depraved, and that is what true repentance
does. Number two, true repentance acknowledges
God's sovereign right to do what He will with His own. When Samuel says to Eli, God's
gonna kill your two boys, you know how Eli responded? It's
the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. True repentance believes whatever
God does is right. Whether I understand it or not,
shall not the judge of the earth do right? And whatever he does
is right, and he doesn't have to answer to anybody for what
he does because he's God. True repentance owns God's sovereign
right. And thirdly, true repentance
justifies God. David said against thee, thee
only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou
mightest be justified when you speak and clear when you judge. You justify God in whatever sentence
he pronounces against you or anybody else. Whatever he does
is just and right. Fourthly, true repentance owns
that it lies within God's sovereign will to pass me by or to show
me mercy. Whatever he does is right. And
you know, the leper understood this. When he came into the Lord's
presence, he said, Lord, if you will, You can make me clean. He didn't say, Lord, I will that
you make me clean. I'm going to let you do this
for me. I'm going to let you have your. No, he knew that Christ
could save him or Christ could pass him by. Christ could make
him clean or he could leave him in his uncleanness and was totally
up to the sovereign will of Christ. Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean and real repentance. True repentance gives God all
the glory. Revelation 16, 8, we read of
those who repented not to give Him the glory. Those who truly
repent give Him all the glory, and true repentance continues
to repent. It's not merely a one-time act,
but it's a continual state of being, of repentance toward God.
And lastly, real repentance looks solely to Christ for salvation. It doesn't look to itself in
any way. Real repentance looks only to
Christ for all of his salvation, claiming no past, present, or
future merit. Except you repent, you'll likewise perish. Now we have this message on DVD
and CD. If you call the church or write
or email, we'll send you a copy. And we'd like to invite you to
services at Todd's Road Grace Church. Our services begin this
morning at 1030 and this evening at 6. And you'll hear a message
where the gospel of God's grace is preached. To request a copy
of the sermon you have just heard, send your request to messages
at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.