I prayed that God would give
me His grace, His wisdom, and His power to exalt the Lord Jesus
Christ and give the glory to God and be true to His Word on
this subject. True to His Word. I don't want
to preach that which is not true to the Word of God. And I want
to comfort. I need comfort. And I want to
comfort you. I want to deal with these subjects
of repentance. You know, when you mention the
Word, it's a fearful subject. People just sort of jump back
filled with fright. There's no reason why we shouldn't
understand the subject of repentance, at least something about it to
some degree. But here in 2 Peter 3, as Tom read a moment ago,
we're going to come to repentance. All of His elect, all of His
chosen ones, all of those redeemed by His blood are coming to repentance. That's what it says in verse
9 of chapter 3, the Lord is not slack concerning His promise.
That's his promise to Christ, his promise of life, his promise
of a people, his covenant promise. His covenant is built on two
things, his promise, his oath. As some men count slackness,
because the Lord doesn't act as quickly as we think he ought
to act, we say, well, where's the promise of his coming? That's
what they say. But he's long-suffering, patient to us, the little ones,
his children. And he's not willing that a single
one of his people perish. They're not going to. But that
all of them should come to repentance. They're not going to perish,
and they're going to come to repentance. True Bible repentance. True Bible conversion. They're
going to come to repentance. They're not going to heaven without
repentance. They're not going to perish, but they're not going
to glory without repentance. They're going to repent. They're
going to believe on Christ. They're going to experience true repentance.
Now the Lord Jesus, and I begin this message in this way, the
Lord Jesus set forth four strong ultimatums, four strong ultimatums. And they're not to be debated,
they're not to be argued, they're not to be questioned, they're
to be heeded and believed. He said, number one, except the
man is born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. All
who enter the kingdom of God will be born again, truly born
again. He said, secondly, except your
righteousness, your holiness and righteousness before God
exceed, is better, far better than the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees or the most moral people who live on
this earth, you shall not enter the kingdom of God. Everyone
who enters the kingdom of God will have a perfect righteousness,
a holy, perfect righteousness. And then he said again, number
three, except you be converted, converted, humbled, brought down,
broken, contrite, except you be humbled, contrite, and become
like a little child, you shall not enter the kingdom of God.
Everyone who enters the kingdom of God will enter most humbly
and contritely, broken in heart before God. And we will be. And then he said, fourthly, except
you repent, you'll all likewise perish. Everyone who enters heaven
is going to repent. They're going to experience a
true repentance. Now, here's something that I've
never pointed out before in a message on repentance, and I believe
it was clear as a bell to me this morning. When I looked at
all four of these statements, now let's look at them, you've
got to look at them again, except the man's born again. He cannot
enter the kingdom of God. Except your righteousness exceeds
the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you won't enter
the kingdom of God. Except you be converted, truly converted,
you won't enter the kingdom of heaven, except you repent, you'll
perish. All four of these have to do
with the same experience. They're not something that occurs
to a man born again, and then ten years later he repents. A
man's born again, and five years later he's converted and becomes
humble. A man's born again, and then
later on he secures some kind of righteousness through Mount
Sinai's law. No sir. These, every one of these,
are present in the same experience. Where one is present, they're
all present. If a man's born again, he has a righteousness
in Christ. If a man has a righteousness
in Christ, he is a humble man. He is a converted man. He is
a man with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And if a man
has a broken heart and a contrite spirit, he is repentant. Now
that's so. That's absolute. It's the same
thing as justification and sanctification. No man is sanctified who's not
justified. It's an impossibility. And no
man is justified who is not sanctified. It's the same thing as repentance
and faith. Spurgeon said one time, repentance and faith are
like a piece of paper. You can't have one side without
the other. You don't turn to God unless you turn from your
idols, and you don't turn from your idols unless you turn to
God. I want to show you two or three scriptures on that. Now,
this is so clear to me. Where you find faith in Christ,
you find repentance. Everybody here who believes on
the Lord Jesus Christ in a saving manner has repented, is repenting,
and shall repent. Let me show you that. 1 John.
You're right there already. 1 John chapter 4, verse 7 and
8. Now listen. 1 John 4, it says,
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone
that loveth is born of God and knows God. He that loveth not
knoweth not God. That's what's saying there. A
man who loves Christ, or believes on Christ, loves. A man who's
born again, loves. He is a new creature. That's
what it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. If any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. It doesn't say he ought to be,
or he's going to be, or striving to be. He is a new creature.
You see what I'm saying here? You can't have faith without
repentance. You can't have justification
without sanctification. He that loveth not, knoweth not
God. He that is not sanctified doesn't
know God. You see that? That's so clear
to me. Now turn to Acts, or rather,
1 Thessalonians 1.9. I quoted this a moment ago, 1
Thessalonians 1.9. And Paul's given the marks of
those who are elect. I gave you these marks not long
ago, several weeks ago. He tells how he, in verse 4,
knowing, brethren, beloved, your election of God. Or verse 9,
the last line, said you turn from your idols to serve the
living God. That's the evidence that you're born of God. So you
see what I'm saying? The Lord demands that we are born again.
He insists we must be born again. That we have a perfect righteousness
before God through Christ. that we're converted and that
we repent. And I'm saying that you can't have one of those without
having the others. Where one is present, they're
all present. So the person who is born again
of the Spirit of God has the life of God within. He is born
of the Spirit of God. He is born of the Word of God.
He is a partaker of a new nature, a divine nature, a spiritual
nature. And that nature, through that
nature, and the presence of that nature, that man or woman sees
and understands the holiness of God. And that person sees
and knows his own sinfulness and his own inability. And that
person sees and rejoices in the righteousness of Christ. And
that person sees and trusts in the sacrifice of Christ. And
that person sees and loves the commandments of his Lord And
that person cares about with him all the time a deep love
for Christ, a deep desire to be like Christ, and a great sorrow
over his sins. He carries that with him all
the time. Now let me show you two examples. Turn, first of
all, to Psalm 51. And here's what I did. I looked
at all four of those ultimatums. We've got to be born again. We've
got to have a righteousness that's acceptable to God. We've got
to be converted, humble, contrite, brought down, and we've got to
repent. And I'm saying that all of those
must, they're all present in the same experience. Where a
person is born again, he has repentance. Now see if you don't
see all four of those right here in David's Psalm of Repentance.
Now look at it. And what I'm asking as we read
this, is not this the new birth? Is not this the new nature? Is
not this looking to God for righteousness? Is not this a humble child, a
contrite child praying? And is not this a man truly repenting
with godly sorrow? Now you look at Psalm 51. Have
mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according
to the multitude of Thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin. I acknowledge
my transgressions. My sin is ever before me. Against
thee, and thee only, have I sinned. I have done this evil in thy
sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest,
and clear when thou judgest. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity. In sin did my mother conceive
me. Behold, thou desirest truth in
the inward parts. In the hidden part thou shalt
make me to know wisdom. So purge me with hyssop, and
I will be clean. Wash me, and I'll be whiter than
the snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy
face from my sins. Blot out all mine iniquities,
and create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit
within me." All four of them are there. He wouldn't be praying
this way if he wasn't born again, if he wasn't born again. And
he's praying for righteousness and acceptance before God that's
not found in himself, but found in another. And did you ever
see such contrition, such humility, such brokenheartedness? It's
not manifested anywhere like it is here. And have you ever
seen such repentance against thee, and thee only have I sinned?
And you're just if you condemn me, and right if you damn me,
that's what he said. That's repentance. All right,
I'm going to show you another one. Turn to Romans 7, here in
Romans chapter 7. Now here's the Apostle Paul.
I picked David in the Old Testament and the Apostle Paul in the New
Testament. Now see, if you don't see here,
the new nature, new birth, looking alone to Christ for righteousness,
a genuinely contrite broken heart and true repentance and godless
hour overseen. Romans 7, verse 18, Paul says
there, For I know, I know that in me, that is, in my flesh,
I'm not talking about my spirit, I'm not talking about my inner
man, I'm talking about my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For the
will is present with me, that how to perform that which is
good I find not. For the good that I would, I
do not. But the evil I would not, that
I do. Now, if I do that, I would not.
It's no more I that do it, it's the sin that dwelleth in me.
That's two natures. There's the new birth, and there's
the old nature. It's not I, it's sin that dwelleth
in me. I find within a law that when I would do good, evil is
present with me, for I delight in the law of God after the inward
man. But I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind. bringing me into captivity
to the law of sin, which is in my members. Oh, wretched man
that I am. Is not this repentance? Is not
this contrition? Oh, wretched man that I was,
I used to be, I am. Who shall deliver me from this
present body of death, this old nature, this evil nature? Well,
I thank God. I have a deliverer, and I have
a deliverance. That deliverer is Jesus Christ,
and that deliverance is through Jesus Christ. I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. So then, with the mind, I myself,
my inner man, my new nature born of the Spirit of God, I serve
the law of God. I love the law of God, but with
the flesh, the law of sin. So then, faith in Christ, conversion,
rest in Christ's righteousness, a humble, broken heart before
God and men, and true repentance. All of those things must never
be separated, and they must never be considered apart from one
another any more than we would consider apart and divide the
fruit of God's Spirit. Turn to Galatians chapter five.
Let me show you what I mean. I'm saying that the new birth,
faith, repentance, contrition, humility, Righteousness, these
can no more be divided or considered apart from one another than you
could divide this fruit of the Spirit, Galatians 5, 22. The
fruit of the Spirit is love, joy. You can have love without
joy? Oh, no. Then you can leave off
peace. No, Christ is our peace. Long-suffering,
gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, they're
all present where the Spirit of God is present. All right,
here are three points now that I want to present to you on this
subject of true repentance. First of all, true repentance,
like the new birth, begins with the inner man and not the outward
man. And this is what our Lord is
saying in Matthew 23. And I want you to turn and follow
as I read. This is what our Lord is saying
in Matthew 23. True repentance, like the new
birth, like humility, Like a right relationship with God begins
with the inner man, doesn't begin with an outward act. Begins with
the inner man. Our Lord is saying in Matthew
23, verse 25, Woe unto you, scribes, Pharisees, religious people,
hypocrites, for you make clean the outside of the cup. That's
where you begin your religious works, outwardly. That's where
you begin it, and that's the wrong place to begin. That's
not where true repentance begins. You may clean the outside of
the cup and the platter, but within you're full of extortion
and excess. Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse
first. Begin within. Cleanse first that
which is within the cup and the platter, and then the outside
may be clean also. That's where you begin, on the
inside. True repentance has to do with the heart before God
more than with the hand. You see, you straighten out a
man's hand, and his heart will still be messed up. But what
Christ is saying is that if his heart gets straightened out,
his hand gets straightened out. True repentance has to do with the
motive more than with the manners. If you get the right motive,
you'll have the right manners. But a lot of people, through
determination, can for a while have the right manners and the
wrong motive. True repentance has to do with attitude more
than action. Now listen to these verses. Keep
thy heart. Out of it are the issues of life.
The Lord said, My son, give me your heart. If he has your heart,
he has you. As a man thinketh in his heart,
so is he. Out of the abundance of the heart
the mouth speaketh. Now turn to Matthew 15 and listen
to the Lord Jesus. Here, see, this is not what he's
saying here. True repentance, true conversion, true humility
begins in the heart. It's a heart work. For with a
heart man believeth unto righteousness. In Matthew 15, let's begin with
verse 7. And our Lord addresses the religious
people again, those with the outward show. Where did Isaiah prophesy of
you, saying, This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth,
and they honor me with their lips? But their heart is far
from me, and that makes useless their lip worship. That makes
useless their drawing nigh unto God with their mouths, or their
hands, or their outward deeds, if their hearts are not with
them. Read on. In vain they worship me, teaching for doctrines and
commandments of men. And he called the multitude and
said to them, Hear and understand, it is not that which goeth into
the mouth that defileth a man, it is that which comes out of
the mouth. This defiles a man. And then came the disciples and
said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after
they heard this saying? And our Lord answered and said,
Well, every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall
be rooted up, leave them alone. There be blind leaders of the
blind, if the blind lead the blind, there shall Most shall
fall into the ditch. And then answered Peter, and
said unto him, Declare unto us this parable. And Jesus said,
Are you yet, are you also yet without understanding? Don't
you understand that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth, goeth
into the belly, is cast out in the draft? But those things which
proceed out of the mouth, they come from the heart, and they
defile the man. Out of the heart proceeds evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness,
blasphemy. These are the things that defile
a man. But to eat with unwashing hands
defileth not a man. This repentance is an inward
work. It's a heart work. And when the
heart is right before God, then the actions will be right before
God. For man's relation... Now watch this. Listen carefully
to this. A man's relationship with God, a woman, man or woman's
relationship with God, cannot always be known by the actions
of the hands. But it can always be known if
you could see his heart. Now a good example of that is
David, who was a man after God's own heart. There are plenty of
times in his life, you remember when Nabal, refused to feed his
soldiers. And David got so angry he said
to his men, he said, buckle on your swords, we're going to go
down there to where Nabal lives and we're going to kill every
male child, even their male sons, their babies. And he was on his
way with four hundred men to murder everybody in that whole
encampment. And he was met by Abigail, Nabal's
wife, who begged him not to carry out his threats or to avenge
himself, but let God avenge him. And David backed down and thanked
God that he sent her to him. Now, if you'd have met him on
that road to Nabal's house, seething with vengeance, you'd have said,
he doesn't know God. But if you could have known his
heart, as God knows his heart, you'd know even then he knew
God. See what I'm saying? A man's relationship with, that's
the reason I say true conversion and true repentance and true
humility before God and true faith cannot always be known
by the act of the hand, but it can always be known by the state
of the heart before God. Now here's another statement. A man's relationship with God,
with Christ, is not always seen in his actions. Turn to 1 Kings
19. I want you to look at this. 1
Kings 19. Now here's the man. Here's a
man called Elijah. I don't suppose a greater prophet
ever lived. I don't suppose a greater prophet
ever lived. And this man Elijah had just
stood on Mount Carmel and challenged 850 false prophets to a duel,
a duel under the sun. and whipped them, and then killed
them on orders from God. Eight hundred and fifty men.
He had stood and prayed that magnificent sixty-three word
prayer after which the fire of God felled and devoured the sacrifice
and the wood and licked up twelve barrels of water. And now I want
you to listen to it. Chapter 19 of 1 Kings. This is
the next day. And Ahab told Jezebel, one little
old woman, all that Elijah had done, and with all how he had
slain all the prophets with the sword. And Jezebel sent a message
to Elijah. She sent word to that boy. She
said, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not
your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow at this time.
And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life. And ran for his life. and came to Beersheba, which
belonged to Judah, and left his servant there. And he went a
day's journey clear into the wilderness, and came and sat
down under a Judah tree, and requested for himself that he
might die. And he said, It's enough, Lord,
it's enough. Take away my life. I'm no better
than my father. illustrations in the Word are
for our encouragement and example. Did you know that? And to help
you out. Doesn't that encourage you a little bit? If Elijah could
get in that state, it doesn't justify the state.
Now, do you understand what I'm saying? I'm just simply saying
that you can't, if you watched Elijah on the mountain, you'd
say, man, he's born again, he's converted, he's repentant, he's
God's man. If you'd looked at him running
for his life from this one Jezebel, and finally getting under a tree
and begging God to kill him, you'd have said, that ain't even
the same man. But isn't it a blessing, God
doesn't look on the outward countenance, but God looks on the heart? And
I'll tell you this, oh Elijah loved God. That's right. All right. A man's relationship
with God. is not always clear in his manners, but his motive is always the
glory of God. Turn to John 21. Now, and I use
this as an example, and I'm picking some of God's greatest men. David, who lifted his hand to
slay even babies. You think about that. Who lifted
his hand to slay babies, but his heart was lifted to God at
the same time. That's right. And God judges
and God sees repentance in him. And Elijah, whose actions are
disturbing, whose actions are disturbing, who's sitting down
and crying under a juniper tree and asking God to kill him, just
kill me, and get it, I'm no better than the rest of this crowd.
And then Peter, you know how he denied the Lord three times,
sat by that fire, and they said, well, you're one of them. Peter
was scared. I know what was wrong with Peter.
He was scared. They had beaten the Lord Jesus and put him through
all that he had gone through, and somebody said, well, you're
one of them. And he just knew they were going
to do the same thing to him, and he just said, no, I'm not.
His mouth was saying, his heart wasn't saying that. His heart
was not saying that. Now, I know that, because look
here at John 21. And Jesus, verse 17, in John
21, 17, Jesus said the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, do
you love me? Do you love me? And Peter was
grieved because he said to him the third time, and he said,
Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, you
know all things. What things does God know that
Peter's talking about there? You know my heart. That's exactly
what he said. You know all things. You don't
go by what people say. You don't go alone by what people
do. You're looking at the heart,
and you know alone. And is this not evident in the
life of Noah? Is it not evident in the life
of Abraham? Is it not evident in the life
of Lot? It certainly is. The true repentance
has to do with the inner man. with the inner man. And Job kept
saying this to his friends, that Job sat there under this terrible
trial, horrible experience, and everybody pointing the finger
at him. And Job finally looked at him and he said, I'll tell
you this, the root's in me. This old tree may not have a
leaf on it. This old tree may not have one fruit on it. This old tree may appear to you
to be dead and lifeless, but I've got the root. in here, the
roots in me. Not around me, not on me, not
the exhibition, it's in me. The life of God's in me. Doesn't
that help? All right, let me show you this
about repentance secondly. Sometimes, sometimes there's
an outward form of repentance brought about by various things
that's more impressive to the natural eye. than this inner
word. See, the natural eye can't see
the heart, but it sees all this external religion and it's impressive
sometimes. Turn to Luke 16, let me show
you what I'm talking about. Sometimes the fellow making the
most religious noise has the emptiest heart. Did you know
that? Somebody said this to me one time, said, what kind of
string makes the most noise? Well, the one that's the shallowest.
It's rolling over the rocks. That old river don't make any
noise, but if do. And sometimes the most clatter
and clanging and hallelujahs and poop-de-doos and praise the
Lord is coming from the emptiest heart. It impresses the flesh. It impresses the flesh. But people
who truly know God, who are truly converted, who truly believe,
who are truly repentant, aren't out to impress men. They want
God's presence and approval. We labor, whether here or there,
to be accepted of Him. That's what counts. Luke 16,
15, listen. He said unto them, you they which
justify yourselves before men. How do you justify yourselves
before men? By your outward actions. Because men can't see your heart.
So what you do is you do things outwardly and openly. You say
things. You build up your reputation religiously and all this. You
do it outwardly to justify yourself before men, to impress men. But
God knows your heart. God knows your heart. And that
which is highly esteemed among men. And you know who he's talking
to there? Look back at verse 14, the Pharisees.
The Pharisees, the religious. That's who he's talking to. They
derided him. They heard what he said and they derided him.
And that's when he turned to them and said, you justify yourself. You stand
on a street corner and make long prayers to be seen of men. When
you fast, you pull your face down and tell people how burdened
you are, and how long you've done without bread and food,
and then you give your alms to be seen of men. He's talking
to the Pharisee, and he said, that which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination to God. So there are a lot of outward
forms of religion, and outward forms of conversion, outward
forms of repentance, that are brought about by various things,
and I can give you some of those things. Number one, fear of punishment
will produce an outward repentance in religion. Fear of punishment. You remember Cain? Cain demonstrated
no remorse till God announced his punishment. God says, where's
your brother? Am I my brother's keeper? But
that wasn't the way he was talking when the Lord told him what was
going to happen to him. He said, oh, that's too much. I can't
bear it. My punishment is greater than that. Simon Magus, he joined
the bunch. He was baptized. He offered money
for the power to lay hands on people, receive the Holy Ghost.
Then Peter announced his punishment. Oh, he said, pray for me that
this won't happen to me. That's a different man. That's
a different man then. Well, that's second. If there's
something else that'll produce a different outward attitude
or outward Second thing, it's great trial. Great trial, great
sorrow, sickness, sometimes produces a form of repentance and a religion.
It passes away when the trial passes away, but example of that's
Pharaoh. Pharaoh stood in his palace and
saw that dead boy lying there. He said, well, Moses, your God
is God. Wasn't that what they claimed
he said? He said, take your people and go. But when a little bit
of time had passed, he's saddling his horse going after him. Here's
a beautiful picture. Turn to 1 Samuel chapter 26 of
that sort of repentance, that sort of religion that's brought
about under trial and great sickness and sorrow. 1 Samuel 26. You remember David spared Saul's
life. Could have killed him. Could
have killed him on the spot. Spared his life in verse 21 of
1 Samuel 26. Then said Saul, Oh, I've sinned,
I've sinned. Return my son David. I'll no
more do thee harm, because my soul was precious in your eyes
this day. I've played the fool. I've erred
exceedingly. We would have all pronounced
him saved right there, wouldn't we? We would have bowed him into
the church right there. Oh, what great repentance. Why,
he was after David until three days. Now there's something else that
produces outward religion, that's emotional response to strong
preachers. Herod heard John the Baptist
and did many things, later had him killed. Felix trembled when
Paul preached, later spoke against him. And then there's a temporary
repentance which mourns the loss of benefits. Turn to Hebrews
12 and listen to what it says about Esau. Esau got to thinking,
he got to thinking about his birthright. after he realized
what he'd lost. And it says in Hebrews 12, 17,
you know how that afterward, afterward, when he would have
inherited the blessing, when he came of age, and when the
blessing would have fallen upon him, he was rejected. But he found no place of repentance,
though he sought it carefully with tears. But when did he seek
it? When he lost the benefit. when he lost the benefit. And
Judas came back and cast the thirty pieces of silver on the
floor and said, I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood. And I would show you this. Turn
to Romans 2 verse 4. Now this is something that's
interesting right along that line. It is not judgment that
produces repentance. It is not fear of punishment
that produces repentance. It is the goodness of God that
leads men to repentance. Our Lord didn't go and say, go
into all the world and preach the terrors of hell. He said,
go preach the good news of the gospel. In Romans chapter 2, verse 4,
it says this, despiseth thou the riches of his goodness and
forbearance, patience, longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness
of God leadeth thee to true repentance. The rich man in hell did not
repent. The rich man in hell did not
repent. He asked Abraham to send somebody back to the earth to
warn his brothers, but he didn't repent. There was no sorrow.
There was no cry for God to pardon his iniquity and his sins. No
repentance. And another example of this is
Revelation 16, verse 9. Listen to this. You see, repentance
has something to do with the goodness of God and the glory
of God. In Revelation 16, 8 and 9, listen
to this, you can preach hell, fire, brimstone, judgment, damnation,
condemnation, all these things that will not produce a right
inner relationship with God. It's the goodness of God in Christ,
the good news, the gospel. In Revelation 16, 8, listen to
this, and the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun, and
power was given unto him to scorch men with fire, And men were scorched,
they were burned with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God,
which hath power over these plagues, and they repented not to give
him the globes." Even when the wrath of God was upon them, there
was nothing took place in him. All they were fleeing from the
wrath, and they were hoping to get out from under it. But there
was no attitude of submission, contrition, love, and faith in
God. Now, in closing, I give you these
marks of true repentance, and I'll just give them to you briefly,
and you can look the scriptures up later. These are marks of
genuine, real repentance. Number one, real repentance and
conversion acknowledges God's sovereign right, Almighty God's
sovereign right, to do with His own what He will. Now, that's
always true in repentance. Eli said, it's the Lord, let
him do what he will. Is that right? That's hard attitude. Job said, the Lord gave and the
Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Our Lord Jesus said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and
earth. You've revealed these things. You've hid these things
from the wise and fruit and revealed them to babes. Nebuchadnezzar
said, when his understanding came back to him, the Lord God
reigneth in the armies of heaven. among the inhabitants of the
earth, and giveth it to whomsoever he will." Is that the way you
feel in here? That's repentance. Secondly,
real repentance and conversion admits the holiness of God and
admits my own sinfulness and my own corruption. Isaiah said,
I saw the Lord and I cried, woe is me, I'm undone, I'm a man
of unclean Job saw the Lord, and he said, I've heard of you
by the hearing of the ear, now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore
I hate myself. David said in Psalm 130, Lord,
if thou shouldest mark iniquity, mark it, who would stand? But there's forgiveness within
you. All right, thirdly, real repentance and conversion, watch
this now, justifies God in his judgment against sin, justifies
him. That's what I read in Psalm 51,
verse 4, that thou mightest be just when thou chargest, and
clear when thou condemnest. Four questions. Must God punish
sin? Must your God punish sin? Yes. Is God just to punish sin? Yes. Would God be just to punish my
sin? Yes. Then how can God be just
and justify me? Only in Christ. That's it, now
I'm telling you the truth. All right, fourth, and this is
where you live. This is not some vague definition of repentance
like, well, repentance is a turning. Yeah, but oh, what a turning.
Somebody says, well, repentance is a change. Yeah, but what a
change. It's a change in here. It's a
change that cannot be effected by any human work. It is effected
by God. Fourth thing, real repentance
and conversion, watch this now, owns and confesses that it lies
with God's sovereign will, not mine, it lies with God's sovereign
will, not mine, and God's sovereign pleasure to lead me in my sin
or to save me for His glory by His grace. Is that alright? Well, that's what the leper said.
He came and kneeled down and worshiped him and said, Lord,
if you will, you can make me whole. If you don't, well, that's
all right, too. The Canaanite woman came to the
Lord and he said, not a word the first time, and then he said,
I'm not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
And then he said, it's not right to give the children's bread
to dogs. And that woman stayed at the foot of the table. And
she said, yeah, but dogs eat crumbs from their master's table.
That's right. David Brainerd faced that and
handled it. And that's manifest real repentance. By the way, when you get around
to repentance, being me sorry because I stole that watermelon
six years ago, I ain't going to get around to it at all. If
your heart's right with God, you're sorry you stole it, but
you did a whole lot of things worse than that. You see, that's what we've done.
We've isolated this repentance business. It's like this woman
wrote over here in this little brief note about this giving
business I preached on. She said, this is another letter,
Brother Mann, I thank God for your message Sunday on the grace
of giving. It released me from a lot of
guilt. I've been so confused. Why in
the world would a person be laboring under a sense of guilt because
they couldn't meet some taxation laws laid down by a preacher?
Now you think about that. Guilt. You see, fifthly, real repentance
and conversion receives humbly the grace of God in Christ, claiming
no merit and no works on my part at all. Can you do that? Humbly,
receiving humbly the grace of God in Christ. Turn to Romans
3, and here's what I'm talking about. Romans chapter 3. Here's where we are, and here's
where we start. Romans 3, verse 19, Now I know that what things
soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped. That's my mouth too. And all
the world become guilty before God. That's you too. Therefore
by the deeds of the law shall no flesh, mine, yours, anybody
else's, be justified in the sight of God. Can you bow to that?
In here now, genuinely. And I get this everywhere I go. Yeah, but what about my dear old saintly
uncle, who was a freewill Methodist
preacher, who never knew anything about the grace of God? You mean
he's not in heaven? Does that change this? Your dear
freewill Armenian saintly old uncle doesn't change what it
says here. You see, you haven't repented
yet. You haven't fallen before God and justified Him to send
your saintly, free-will, Arminian, lovable old uncle to hell. You
see that? It's a heart problem. We haven't
fallen yet. We haven't bowed. We haven't
been broken. We haven't been converted. If God sent him to
hell, he deserves to go to hell. Is that not right? And you can
bring it a lot closer home than that if you want to. I hope my mother knew the Lord.
I hope my father knew the Lord. But if they didn't, he's still
the Lord. Now you write that down. I hope I know the Lord. But if
I don't, he's still God. And there's no man deserves to
be in heaven except one way, and that's because Christ died
for him. And Christ obeyed the law for him and gave him a perfect
righteousness. Your experience don't change
God's Word. We've got to quit this. If we
really repent, we'll quit it. Real repentance acknowledges humbly before God
that salvation is by free grace alone, not by works. And I mean
nobody's works. And I don't mean to get mean
or hard. I'm just saying that we're going to have to take sides
with God in this matter. I'm just tired of trying to or
just a message to fit somebody's experience, or just a message
to fit somebody's family, or just God's message to fit you
or me or anybody else. It's unadjustable. It's non-compromising. And Paul said, I don't care if
an angel from heaven come down here preaching something else,
let him go to hell for his trouble. Let God damn him. That's right,
my friend. We just can't afford to compromise
the character of God to squeeze somebody into glory because we
love him. Can't afford to. Because folks love him more.
Folks love his character, his holiness, and his righteousness
more than we love anybody else. If any man comes to me, let him
hate his mother and father and his brother and sister and his
husband and wife and his own life also. He can't follow me.
Cannot be my son. We're going to have to get on
one side or the other. You can't play on both teams.
If we're going to have to justify God, we're going to have to say,
blessed and holy and righteous are his judgments, even while
the smoke of her torment ascends up forever. That's repentance,
Charlie. Attitude is repentance. It's heart. It's humility. That's the reason, unless they've
been born again, he's repented. If he believes on Christ, he's
repented. If he's converted, he's repented. If he has a righteousness,
he's repentant. If he ain't repentant, he don't
have any of those things. And sixthly, real repentant keeps
on repenting.