You can first turn to John 9
if you'd like to, with me, John chapter 9. All of you are familiar with
Job's experience, how that God permitted Satan to harass troubled
Job, how that great trials and afflictions came upon him the
loss of everything that he had, the loss of his family, the loss
of his health. And he was sitting on the ash heap, scraping
his boils, and his three friends came to visit him. They heard
of his great grief and agony and the loss of his children
and possessions. And they came to comfort him. But not only to comfort him,
but to inquire of him what great evil he had done, what great
sin he had committed in the sight of God to deserve such judgments. to bring such trial upon him
from God. They sat in his presence for
seven days and seven nights and never even spoke a word, just
sat and looked at him. Because they had the idea that
afflictions and troubles and trials come because of special
transgressions. And here in John chapter 9, the
disciples of our Lord Even the disciples entertained these thoughts
along with many people and folks today. John 9 verse 1, And as
Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from birth. And
his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin? Who committed
such an awful transgression, this man or his parents? that
he was born blind. The reason he's blind is because,
was that something he did or his parents did? And Jesus answered
and said, neither hath this man's sin nor his parents. Now, our
Lord's not saying that this man's never sinned. All that's sinned
comes short of the glory of God. He's not saying that the man's
parents were without sin. No man's without sin. He's saying
that's not the reason he's blind, because of some special transgression
or some wicked, awful sin that his parents or he have committed. But here's the reason that the
works of God should be made manifest in him. This is the permissive
or directed will of God, the condition this man is in, is
according to the will of God, that the works of God might be
made manifest in him. Now, all affliction and all suffering
and all death is the result of Adam's sin. This world didn't
know anything about sickness till Adam sinned, or death till
Adam fell, or darkness, or trial, or trouble, or tears, or the
shedding of blood till Adam sinned. Scripture says, wherefore by
one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, and disease
by sin. and trouble by sin. And so this
death passed upon all men, and all of us suffer as a result
of sin. But the error of Job's friends
and the error of the disciples here is to assume that greater
trials and greater affliction and greater troubles than the
norm are the result of some great or particular sin, and Christ
said it's not so. It's not so. You see, this is the era of faith
healers today, and Pentecostals, Charismatics, don't mind calling
them names, because this is one of their doctrines, one of their
foundation doctrines. This is the era of faith healers
and Pentecostals. They do more than suggest, they
preach defiantly, dogmatically, that good health and prosperity
is because of good works and strong faith. They teach that,
that if a person has strong faith and good works and is religious
and attends all the services and pays his tithe and goes to
church and behaves himself, he'll have good health and wealth.
That's God's intention. But if you're sick, it's because
you're not right with God. That's what they're teaching.
If you have troubles, if you have troubles with your children,
if you have troubles in your home, you're not right with God.
If one of your children died, you've done some awful sin or
God wouldn't have taken that child. If you die, your wife
loses her husband or wife, it's because you don't have faith.
That's a lie. That's evil thinking. Our Lord
condemns it. He says here, no, this is not
so, not so. Our Lord declares that sin is
the direct cause of all affliction and all death and all disease
and all sorrow, but God has a purpose in the troubles and trials of
his people. And he sends and permits special
trials and special afflictions and special troubles for the
primary purpose of the glory of God, to accomplish the will
of God and the purpose of God for that person and for others
whose lives he touches. Now let me show you that. Turn
to John 11. You remember this little family
down in Bethany. John 11, verse 4, Mary, Martha,
and Lazarus, whom Christ loved. He spent hours in their home.
He loved his family. And while he was away, Lazarus
died, sole supporter of these two sisters, their brother. And they sent word to the Lord
in John 11, verse 3, therefore his sisters sent unto him, Behold,
he whom you love, lovest is sick." He's sick. He was sick at that
time. He hadn't died yet when they
sent word. He's sick, under death. And when Jesus heard that, he
said, This sickness is not unto death. This sickness is for the
glory of God. And consequently his death was
to the glory of God. Christ raised him. But these
sisters were distressed. Their brother was dying. But
Christ said, it's not unto death, it's for the glory of God, that
the Son of God might be glorified thereby. This is going to bring
glory to God. They didn't know how, and the
disciples didn't know how, but Christ did. Then turn with me
to John 21, and here our Lord talks about the death of Peter. You know, all the disciples except
John were martyred. They were killed in different
ways. All of them were killed in different ways. But Peter
was crucified. Tradition has it that he refused
to be crucified upright like his Lord, but he requested they
crucify him upside down. I don't know where that originated,
but that's what I'm told. But anyway, here in John 21,
verse 19, Verse 18, Christ said, Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
When you were young, Peter, he's talking to Peter, thou girdest
thyself, and you walk whither you would. But when you shall
be old, you'll stretch forth your hands, that's crucifixion,
stretch forth your arms. And another shall gird thee and
carry you where you wouldn't, where you wouldest not. signifying by what death Peter
would glorify God. Here is the apostle of Christ,
Peter, such a man of reputation and
strength and purpose and power, preacher of note. And Lord let
these monsters, pagans, lay hands on him and abuse him and nail
him to a cross. And that sounds like Peter did
something awful bad. God let that happen to him, you
know. That's what generally... Like when our Lord hung on the
cross, they said, he trusted in God, let's see if God will
have him now. And our Lord said, this is the
way you're going to go if I go. in your death. And then in 2
Corinthians 12, the Apostle Paul, 2 Corinthians 12, verse 7, the
Apostle Paul. Now this man, this man Paul was
blessed of God to be used as an instrument to preach the gospel
and be a blessing to many, many people. But God sent him a trial,
a messenger of Satan in the flesh to trouble him and distress him. And he did it for a reason. Now look at verse 7 of chapter
12, 2 Corinthians. Unless I should be exalted above
measure through the abundance of the revelations, experiences
that God gave me, There was given to me a thorn in my flesh." You've
had a briar under your fingernail, haven't you? A thorn in your
flesh, just festered, couldn't get rid of it, hurt it. God gave Paul one to keep. The
message of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.
God had a purpose in this. his will. And for this thing,
I besought the Lord three times that he might remove it, depart
from me. And he said, My grace is sufficient
for you. My strength is made perfect in
your weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will
I glory in my infirmities, afflictions, that the power of Christ might
rest upon thee. Actually, to be without trial. and troubles and afflictions.
To be without chastisement is an announcement that we're
not sons of God. Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth.
He correcteth every son. There isn't a son or daughter
of God that's not dealt with by the hand of God, by the glory
of God, to accomplish the purpose of God. All right, now let's
look at this text in Luke 13. We run into this again. We run
into this again. People have written books on
this, why do bad things happen to good people. You know, you've
read those. You sit and probably didn't read them. I wouldn't
waste my time, but I've seen them advertised. But here in
Luke 13, listen to this, they were present at that season,
some that told him of the Galileans. whose blood Pilate had mingled
with their sacrifices. What's this talking about? Well,
these people reminded our Lord of an incident. There was a man
called Judas of Galilee, and he rose up and professed to be
some great leader among the Jews. And he sought to draw the Jews
away from Roman rule. He said this is what he told
them. He told all the Galileans He said, it's not right for you
to be ruled over by Rome, you're God's people. It's not right
for you to pay taxes to Rome, because we pay a tithe under
the law to God. And you're the people of God,
you're not Romans. So Pilate, who was the governor,
he sent an army down there to Galilee. And these fellows, Judas
and all of his followers, were observing the Passover. They
were sacrificing the Passover. that sacred, holy holiday. And
these soldiers came upon them and killed every one of them.
And their blood mingled with their sacrifice, which would
be a horrible thing to have achieved. But their blood mingled with
their sacrifices, polluted their sacrifices by their own blood.
And these, the Lord Jesus answering verse 2 said unto them, Now do
you suppose that these Galileans were sinners above all the other
Galileans that didn't die? Because they suffered such humiliation
and these horrible things. Is this because they were greater
sinners? They were busy going through
the motions of worshiping God, and God let this army come down
and wipe them all out. Had they done something horrible?
I'll tell you no. No, but unless you repent, you'll
likewise perish in your religion. That's what he's saying, in your
traditions, in your superstitions, that you think God protects you
and encircles you and hedges you about while you're playing
church and synagogue and Judaism. If you don't repent, going to
perish just like they did. Then he said in verse 4, what
about the 18? Who are these 18? Whom the tower
in Siloam, upon whom the tower in Siloam. Siloam was a bath
or a pool in Jerusalem, near Jerusalem. Christ referred to
it in John 9 when he sent that blind man to bathe in the pool
of Siloam, but there was a water that they thought had some spiritual
virtue or healing powers. And here were all these people
up there at that pool of Siloam, and there was a big tower over
it that had been erected by the Jews, and it fell on them. They
were there going through some kind of superstition and rigmarole
in religion, and the tower fell on them and killed every one
of them. Now, he says, do you think they were sinners above
everybody that dwelt in Jerusalem? I'll tell you, no. But unless
you repent, unless you cease from self-righteousness and seek
the righteousness of Christ, Unless you turn from your rituals
and ceremonies and seek the blood of Calvary, unless you repent
of your thoughts about God and about yourselves and about Christ
and seek the blood of Calvary, unless you turn and repent of
your ways and thoughts and plans and turn to his way, Unless you
repent of your efforts to establish a righteousness of your own and
submit rather to Christ, who's the end of the law for righteousness,
you're going to perish! Just like these people did in
their act of superstition and religion. Unless you repent. Now repentance won't keep us
from the grave, but it'll keep us from perishing. Read that
over again. He said, except you repent, you'll
perish. Perish. He said in John 10, my
sheep, hear my voice, I give them eternal life and they'll
never perish. Never perish. Except you repent,
you'll perish. Well, what is this repentance?
What is repentance? Well, first of all, repentance
has to do with God. It has to do with God. In Acts
20, verse 20 and 21, Paul is speaking to the elders at Ephesus. He said in verse 20, I kept back
nothing, and I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you.
But I've showed you and taught you publicly from house to house,
testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance
toward God. Repentance is toward God. It
has to do with God. Repentance, rebellion is an attitude. Repentance is an attitude. Rebellion is an attitude. It's
a spirit. Rebellion is not just an act.
I like the story of the little boy's mother who told him to
sit down, and he didn't. She said, sit down, or I know
how to make you sit down, and he sat down. She turned to walk away, and
he murdered something. She turned and said, what did
you say? He said, I'm sitting down on the outside, I'm standing
up on the inside. That's rebellion. And repentance is not crying.
of going through the motions on an outward shelf, it's an
attitude. It's a spirit. The pittance is
toward God. It has to do with God. It has
to do with a godless hour. Let me show you another key,
2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 7. 2 Corinthians 7, here Paul writing
to the Church of Collins, and he wrote to them and rebuked
them for the things they were doing. He wrote a letter of severe
rebuke. And he says in verse 8 of 2 Corinthians
7, Though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent. Though I did repent, I felt bad
about it. For I perceive that that same
epistle made you sorry, though it were but for a season. Now
I rejoice, not that you were made sorry. I don't rejoice because
anybody was made sorry and troubled. But what I rejoice about is you
sorry to repentance. You were made sorry after a godly
manner. that ye might receive damage
by us in nothing. For Godless sorrow worketh repentance
for salvation." This business of repentance is an attitude
toward God, toward his word, toward his gospel, toward his
Son, toward his covenant, toward his purpose. It's an attitude
toward God. And Godless sorrow works repentance. not to be repented of, the sorrow
of this world worketh death." What is the sorrow of this world?
Let me give you some illustrations. Fear of punishment is not repentance.
Cain. Remember when Cain killed his
brother, and God said to him all these things that would be
true about him, and then this is what Cain said. My punishment
is greater than I can bear. He never repented. He just didn't
want to get rid of the punishment. He said, my punishment is greater
than I can bear. You've driven me out this day from the face
of the earth. I'll be a fugitive. I'll be a
vagabond. He'll come to pass that when
somebody finds me, he'll kill me. I'm disturbed because of
what's going to cost me for what I did. That's not repentance. He lost honor, he lost face,
he lost benefits, he lost influence, but he didn't repent. He got
mad. He tried to kill his brother.
And the scripture said he sought repentance with tears, but he
never found it. He never got straightened out. A close call with death is not
repentance. I've heard people talk about
being converted because they almost got killed. Well, let
me read you about a fellow who almost got killed and what he
said, and then you know what happened. In 1 Samuel 26, listen,
David could have killed King Saul. The King stood right beside
him while he slept. Saul hated David and sought to
kill him. Lord, remember the scripture,
touch not mine anointing. And he left Saul. But Saul found
out he had been there, and he said to David, hollered where
David was in camp. Then said Saul in 1 Samuel 26,
21, I've sinned, O I've sinned. David, my son, return, return
home. I'll do no more. No more do thee
harm, because my soul was precious in your eyes this day. Behold,
I played the fool. I have erred exceedingly." Was that genuine? Oh, no. Oh,
no. It didn't last. He still tried
to kill David. That was just a show. That was
just emotional. And then some people claim to
repent when they when they've made a fool out of themselves
with great sin, like Judas. You know, when he sold our Lord
for 30 pieces of silver, he brought it back to the temple. He brought
the money. After Christ was crucified, he brought the money back to
the priest. He said to them, he said, I've betrayed innocent
blood. I've betrayed innocent blood. He was so broken. And
they said, what's that there? See thou to it. He took the money
and threw it on the floor. Did he repent? where I'm hanging
there. So that's not repentance. Emotional
response to sermon. This is the thing that I believe,
I feel real confident that this is what we should do, is preach
the word in faith, in truth, in sincerity. Preach Christ. But don't put people under pressure
to act immediately on what they've heard. But urge them to repent, urge
them to confess Christ, but so often under preaching, under
emotional preaching. And something like people respond
and do things that don't last. Like, for instance, Herod. Herod
went out to hear John. John the Baptist. And the scripture
said he admired John, he feared John, he did many things. But then he turned around and
killed John. And then there was Felix, you remember the Roman
emperor that heard Paul? And he said, Now Paul, you go your way now, later on
I'll send for you. And Agrippa, he said, I'm almost
persuaded to be a Christian. when Paul talked to him. So the
power of the moment, the emotion of the moment, is not the time
to draw a net. It really is a time to preach
and tell men, leave men alone with God and women and young
people. Leave them alone with God. Leave
them alone with the Spirit of God. And when they've counted
the cost and weighed the truth, and searched the scriptures and
found these things to be so, and genuinely repented in him. They come and tell you, they
come and tell you, Lord save me, I've been broken, the Lord
taught me the truth. I know that's right. Now here's
what repentance, let me give you about four or five things
right here, listen, jot them down if you want to. is an attitude of spirit that
takes place in the heart. And first of all, it acknowledges
God's sovereign right to be God, and do with his own what he will.
Let God be God and every man alive. Now that's an attitude,
and that's where we start. Let God be God. Samuel came to Eli, and he said,
Eli, this is what God told me. that he was going to destroy
your sons because of their paganism and their idolatry and their
sin. And Eli answered and said, it's
the Lord. Let him do what he will. He's
God. Now that's repentance. And Job, when all these tidings
of evil and distress came to him, He didn't charge God with
foolishness. He clothed himself with sackcloth
and ashes and worshiped God. He said, the Lord gave and the
Lord had taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Turn to Romans 8, verse 29. Are you familiar with
this? Let's turn and look at it again. Romans 8, verse 29. Romans 8, verse 20. Let's read
verse 28. And we know that all things work
together for good to them who love God, to them who are called
according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he called, and whom he called, them
he justified, and whom he justified, them he glorified." Now, what
shall we say to these things? Well, if you're truly repentant,
you say, if God be for us, we can do this. I rejoice. I rejoice that God is God. My
spirit has been conquered. My rebellion has been crushed. My submission is genuine. Let God be God. Here's the second
sign of repentance. True repentance admits the absolute,
infinite holiness of God. God is holy. And in the light
of that holiness, our total depravity, infinite depravity and corruption.
God is as high as he can be, and we're as low as we can be.
God is light, we're darkness. God is truth, we're lies. God
is good, we're evil. God is holy, we are unholy. That's
what Isaiah said, he said, I saw the Lord. When King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord high and lifted up, his train filled the temple,
and the seraphims cried, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. And I cried, woe is me. I'm undone,
I'm cut off. I'm a man of unclean lips, and
I dwell among a people of unclean lips. There is not a just man
upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. In the flesh
dwelleth no good thing. In the flesh no man can please
God. If I justify myself, my own mouth
would condemn me and prove me perverse." Paul wound up in Romans
7 and said, this is a believer talking, O wretched man that
I who will deliver me from this body of death. Now, when you
can say that and mean it, when you can read Romans 3, which
says, None righteous, none good, none that understandeth, none
that seeketh after God, all that sin cometh short of the glory
of God, and mean it, you've repented. Thirdly, true repentance. Now, here's a tight one. True
repentance acknowledges that even my will This is the last
fortress to fall. This is the last fort. When this is down, you're conquered. True repentance acknowledges
that even my will, not just my thoughts and my mind and my body
and my flesh, but my will is in bondage to sin. And it lies
completely with the will of God, not my will, because my will
is in total bondage. It lies completely with the will
of God, to call me out of darkness and save me, or justly, righteously,
lead me where I am, to perish in my sin. Whew! Salvation of the Lord. An old leper came to our Lord,
and he was an awful, awful, incurable, crusty, dying, Helpless, you talk about powerless,
helpless. And he looked up at our Lord
and he said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. That's repentance. If you will. It's not if I will. That's what
the preachers are riding today. Your will, my will, somebody's
will. You had be quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. When in times past we all had
our conversation in the lust of the flesh, in the pride of
life, in this flesh. And he says here, But God, who
is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even
when we were dead in sin, quickened us with Christ. He raised us
up. He made us sit together in the
heavenly places. For by grace are you saved through
faith. And that's not of yourselves,
that's the gift of God. You will not come to me that
you might have loved. Turn to Romans 9. Let me read
something here. Romans chapter 9. Christ said no man can come to
me except my Father which sent me drawing. But let's read Romans
9. Verse 11, For the children being
not yet born, twin sons in a mother's womb, having not yet been born,
neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of
God, according to election, might stand, not of works, but of him
that calleth. It was said to her, The elder shall serve the
younger. As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I
hated. What shall we say to these things? Is there unrighteousness
with God? He said to Moses, I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion, so it's not of him that willeth, not
of him that runneth, it's of God that showeth mercy. Now if
you can say amen to that and mean it, you're repentant. A man's repentant when he can
say, my salvation or deliverance totally rests not upon my will,
but upon his will. Fourthly, see, repentance is
an attitude. It's a spirit. And that attitude
and spirit then result in outward obedience. But it's got to start
with attitude. You can put a lion in a cage,
and he's fine as long as he's in that cage. But you let him
out, he's different, because his nature's bad. And if God
changes an attitude, a spirit, a nature, a man's heart, take
that old stony rebellious heart out and give him a heart of flesh,
it makes a difference. But when a lot of people preach
repentance, they start with outward. And it can't be that way. You
don't change the heart by cleaning up the face. You clean up the
attitude and countenance by changing the heart. You don't make a man a happy
person by telling him to smile. You put a smile in here and he'll
smile out here. All right, here's the fourth
thing quickly. True repentance continually discounts
any works or merit, not only before conversion, but after
conversion. Titus says it's not by works
of righteousness which we've done, but according to his mercy
he's redeemed us. After we're saved, he doesn't
take into consideration our works of righteousness in regard to
salvation. It's Christ before, and Christ
now, and Christ in glory. This is what the Apostle Paul
said. He said, I'm not one whit behind a chief apostle, but I'm
nothing. They're nothing and I am too.
I'm not one whit behind a chief apostle, but I'm nothing. I'm nothing. He said, I've labored
more abundantly than all of them, but not me, not I. It's the grace
of God. He said on one occasion, I'm
not worthy to be called an apostle. I persecuted the Church. He said
on another occasion, I'm less, get this, this is the great apostle
Paul, this is true repentance. I'm less than the least, less
than the least of all believers. And then he said before he died,
the last letter to Timothy, Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners, of whom I'm the chief. Now that's an attitude,
that's a spirit. And when you can honestly say
that, you've repented. Now, in the fifth place, true
repentance cannot be separated from faith. Now this is vital. Where there's true repentance,
there's faith. Where there's faith, there's
repentance. Repentance and faith is like this piece of paper.
It's got two sides. You wouldn't have a piece of
paper without two sides. It's impossible. It can't exist without
two sides. And faith can't exist without
repentance. You can't turn to God unless you turn from your
idols. But if you turn from your idols, you've got no place to
turn but to God. See what I'm saying? If you turn from your
idols, That's what our Lord said to the disciples. He said, Will
you go away? Peter said, To whom? We've got nowhere to go. You're
the Christ, you're the Son of the living God, you're the truth.
We believe and are sure that you're the Christ. We've got
nowhere to go. It's really impossible to tell which comes first, repentance
or faith, because they're so inseparable. To believe in Christ is to disbelieve
everybody else. No man can serve two masters.
It can't be done. When he lays down the yoke of
one, he picks up the yoke of the other, but everybody's got
a master. God is your master, or you, or flesh, or something
else is. So it's really quite impossible
to tell which is experienced first. To believe Christ is to
cease to believe anything else. and deceased from your idols
is turned to the living God. It starts in here. Repentance. And it keeps on repenting. I'll
close with this verse over here in 1 Peter. It keeps on repenting. Repentance is not an isolated
act. It's an attitude. It's a spirit.
It's God dwelling in us. 1 Peter 2. Faith is not... People
talk about, when were you saved? immaterial. Because salvation,
a man can target an experience or a feeling or an event. But the work of God in the new
birth of life, passing from death to life, from darkness to the
kingdom of his Son is a spiritual work. And it's immaterial about
when it happened, the fact that it has The results of that. Here in 1 Peter 2, Wherefore,
laying aside all malice, and guile, and hypocrisies, and envy,
and evil speaking, as newborn babes," just talking about believers,
"...desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby,
if so be ye tasted that the Lord is gracious." To whom? Coming.
We're still coming to Christ. We're still repenting. My attitude
needs an adjustment every day. Does yours? I need to follow
these lines, I need to follow the word of God. I just need an adjustment. I
have to be corrected, I have to be rebuked, I have to be reproved,
because the tendency of this flesh is to be flesh. Repentance doesn't stop. We repent
of our repentance. But it's an inward thing. Somebody
said repentance is a turning. Oh, what a turning. It's a recreation. It's a new
birth. It's a regeneration. It's a new
life. It's coming out of the darkness
into the light.