The Foundation of the Doctrine of Christ

The author discusses the doctrine of Christ and the three aspects of Jesus' ministry: as a prophet, a priest, and a king. He explains that there are three patterns in our lives: redemption in the past, representation in the present, and renewal in the future. The author uses three big words in Christianity to explain these patterns: justification, sanctification, and glorification. He emphasizes the importance of repentance and faith in salvation, stating that both are necessary for a relationship with Jesus Christ. The author encourages the readers to move past the basic principles and continue towards perfection. chapter 6, Hebrews chapter 6. We kind of got, well I didn't get sidetracked, but I kind of spent more last week than what I wanted to. We basically covered the introduction last week, but we are talking about the doctrine of Christ and it's kind of really important that we lay that foundation down in order to fully understand these next six stages that the author goes through and explains to the people of Hebrews, because we can take this life of Jesus Christ and even though we can't put it in a nice little box, a nice little separation, there was three aspects of Jesus' ministry. We look at the past ministry, he has a present ministry, and he has a future ministry. And it's presented in the three different offices that Jesus Christ held. He held the position as a prophet. A prophet is one that speaks on behalf of God, speaks what God tells him. He also had the office of a priest, which is one that speaks to God, which mediates between man and God. And then the third office that he will hold is that of king, and he rules within our heart. And so he speaks to God, he mediates with God, and then he is going to rule as God. And as we think about this, we have really three patterns in our life, three ways that this is performed. The first way is redemption. We all stand in need to be redeemed. We need redemption. Why? Because we are sinners and God is a holy God and there's none of us that are perfect, so Jesus Christ came in the past in order that he might redeem us. And then in the present, Jesus Christ works as our representative. He is seated at the right hand of the Father, ever living to make intercession on our behalf. And so he is there right now representing us before the throne of God. And then in the future, there will be this time of renewal when we receive our glorified body, because this body will be done away with and we are in the presence of Jesus Christ. And so then we will finally culminate into everything that God desires for you and I to be, not only spiritually, but also soulishly or mentally and also physically. And so he does this through three different works. His work in the past was that he saved us from the penalty of sin. Today in our present time, he is working to save us from the power of sin as we are being conformed into his image. But in the future, he will deliver us and save us from the presence of sin. There will be no more sin. He will wipe away all of the tears. Our bodies will be perfect. The presence of sin will be no more. And so we use three big words in Christianity and religious circles to explain these three different works. The first one is justification. That deals with the past. That's what we're going to look at today and next Sunday. Then the second term is sanctification. As God is working to represent us, he is sanctifying us. He is conforming us to his image. And then one day as he sits his king and rules over us, we will have the glorification. God says that when we see him, we shall be like him. And we see him all in his wonderful glory as we stand before him. And revelation, when it starts out, and a lot of people have a lot of problems with revelation because they don't understand that revelation is about Jesus Christ. The whole thing is presenting him. He tells us in Revelation 1 and verse 8, Jesus said, I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord, which is present, which was past, and which is to come, the Almighty. And so you cannot get to God without Jesus Christ. And revelation is this unfolding and showing us where God finally no longer comes and stands at the door and knocks. But now he comes as the judge. Now he comes as king and ruler. And he comes and pours his wrath out onto a world. And when you read Revelation, you will find that when God's wrath was poured out, instead of repenting, men would shake their fists and blame God and curse God. And so as we look at this, we come to Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 1. And remember that these Jewish Christians were wanting to get away. They have tasted of Jesus Christ. They have experienced Jesus Christ. But they're wanting to go back under the law. They're wanting to go back under this religious system. And the author of Hebrews is trying to show them that Christ is superior to all of this. And what he's trying to show them is, is that even in the Old Testament, Jesus Christ was presented with his past ministry, his present ministry, and his future ministry. In the Old Testament, they had to be justified. They had to be sanctified in order to be glorified. And so all of this is being taught in the Old Testament, but these Jewish Christians had totally missed it and were not able to see it. And so he comes to chapter 6 and verse 1. And he says, therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection. Now, leaving again, let us go on unto perfection. Notice what happened. Leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, in other words, the foundation of Christ, the things of the past, our past relationship with Jesus Christ. Let us do what? Let us go on to perfection. That's sanctification. That's becoming like Jesus Christ. And then he says, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God. And as we look at this, we want to deal with the first half of salvation. And both of these kind of fit together. This repentance leads to faith. If you took a coin and you looked at a coin, which side of that quarter is the quarter? The heads or the tails? They're all one quarter, right? It takes both sides for salvation, for the quarter to exist. The same thing is true with salvation. It takes repentance, but it also takes faith. And repentance deals with the satisfaction of the holiness of God. God says, I am holy. He commanded us to be holy as He is holy. When you go all the way back to the beginning of the Genesis, to the beginning of the creation of man, God created man in His own image, and man was holy. But man disobeyed God, and therefore he sinned, and so he lost his holiness. But that's what God requires. And so there has to be this repentance. And then when we come from repentance, faith deals with the satisfaction of the love of God. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And so faith is understanding and trusting God and believing God that His death on the cross of Calvary, His blood that He shed for you and I, is sufficient for our salvation. It is the satisfaction of accepting His love for us. And so when we think about that, repentance and faith belong to the human side of salvation, and there's this man's response to the preaching of the Word of God. When the Word of God is preached, there always has to be a response. Repentance is the negative response. In other words, we are turning from sin. When the gospel, when the message of God is preached, there has to be this, I messed up doing it my way. There has to be this realization of repentance. But then there also has to be this side of faith, and that's the positive aspect. If my way is wrong, and I've been messing things up, then by faith I am going to trust and follow God. And so it starts with repentance, and it always leads to faith. We're leaving ourselves and turning to Jesus Christ. The very basic first principle of the oracles of God is that both the need to be accepted and the need to be preached in order for a relationship with Jesus Christ to begin. You cannot have a relationship with God without first of all, repenting of who you are and what you are, and faith, believing and trusting God. And so that is the very foundation of Christianity and salvation. In Acts 20, verse 21, Luke writes this, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Why are we repenting to God? Because God is holy and God is the one that we sinned against, right? But then on the other hand, because God loved us, He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to take on flesh and human and to die in our place. Jesus Christ never did sin, but He took sin upon Him in order that we might receive His righteousness before God. And so He says we preach that message. This message has not changed. This is the same message that was in the Old Testament. It's the same message that we preach to you, and it's the same message that you and I are still preaching and receiving today. He goes on in Mark 1, verse 15, saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent you and believe on the gospel. See the two sides of the coin? Repent and then believe. Repentance and faith. Acts chapter 26, verse 20, But it showed first unto them at Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout all the coast of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and repent and turn to God. Repentance from dead works and faith toward God. And do works meet for repentance. Both of these have to take place in order for salvation to work. And so we come back to chapter 6, verse 1, and He said here is this foundation. Here is the very bottom baseline of your relationship with Jesus Christ. There has to be repentance from dead works and faith toward God. Anything that we do in the flesh is a dead work. It's no good. It's not going to be accepted. And so when we look at this, we're really looking at the perception of salvation. In other words, what do we perceive about salvation? We perceive that we are sinners and that Christ died for us. So we repent and we believe. As a matter of fact, Jesus Christ, when He started His very first message, His very first words, we studied this a while back. Matthew 5, verse 3. What was the very first statement Jesus Christ made? Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. What is poor in spirit? It's realizing that we are spiritually bankrupt. That we are sinners. And then through that progression, what begins to happen? Our faith is now turned to God because it's not what we want or what we desire, but we now trust God and believe God, and now we begin to grow. And the whole Sermon of the Mount is getting to that place to where we are in a relationship with Jesus Christ. And so when we think about this repentance this week, and then next week I want us to look at faith, but as we look at this, I want you to understand, in the Word of God, all of the places that this attention was given to repentance in people's lives. When you start out and you see John the Baptist, when he came onto the scene, what did John the Baptist say? Matthew 3, verse 1. In those days came John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, repent you, for the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent. Repent. Before we can do anything else, before we can even come to the kingdom of God, before we can think about the kingdom of God, before we can come to Jesus Christ, the first thing that has to be done is repentance. Repent. Then he told them in Matthew 3, verse 8, Now bring forth therefore fruits, meat for repentance. If you have truly repented, there's going to be a change. There's going to be a difference, because the word repentance simply means to turn away from what you were previously doing. And we'll look at that more here in just a minute. But Jesus Christ then comes onto the scene after John the Baptist says repent, Jesus Christ comes on in Matthew 4, verse 17, and it says, From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Not only did Jesus Christ preach repentance, but then the apostles picked it up, and in Mark chapter 6, verse 12, it says, And they, the apostles, went out and preached that men should repent. Now if the message of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Jesus Christ, was repent, if the message of Jesus Christ was repent, if his apostles' message was repent, then guess what? I think it's very important that we deal with repentance, right? Because that is the foundation, that is the starting place. As a matter of fact, Peter, when he's preaching in Acts chapter 2 after the Holy Spirit fell upon them, he said in verse 38, he said, Repent, repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. If you'll notice, after that word repent is a comma. Everything after that is a parenthetical. If you go back to the verse right before that, they said, what must we do? Because Peter, it just showed them that they did what? They killed Christ. And if Christ is the Messiah, and Christ is God, and you have just killed God, then what in the world can we do for salvation? How can we be saved? And what did he say? You may have killed God, you need to repent. Because Christ, and you go on and you read that, and he tells them, Christ didn't stay in the grave, He rose again. And so you need to repent for what you did. And so the whole idea here is the focus is on repentance. It's not being baptized. But if you repent, then guess what? You are going to immerse yourself into a relationship with Jesus Christ. Because if you really repented, and you're living towards yourself, and you realize you're not holy, when you repent, then you have to put your faith and trust in God. Both sides have to work. And this is going to really, as we go through this, in these six things, you're going to see this principle brought out through the entire lesson as we study verse 1 and verse 2. And Acts 26, at the end of Acts, he said, but showed first unto them at Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout all the coast of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance. Acts 17, 30, in the times of this ignorance, God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. See, in the Old Testament, what did He do? He said don't worship gods of gold and silver and wood. He comes to Acts and He said, but what did they keep doing? They kept making gods and worshiping other gods, right? And God kind of let it a little bit slide in the Old Testament. But guess what? Now that Jesus Christ has come, now that they fully understand that God is a Person, that God is real, that God is alive, then guess what? He says now you need to repent. What you knew impartial has now been fully revealed through Jesus Christ. Nobody really had a comprehension of who God was or what God was. It's the ladies that have studied the names of God. Where do we get most of the names of God? We get them from the life of Abraham. As Abraham began to follow God, what would God do? God would step in at different situations at different times and reveal a different character about Himself. And what would Abraham do? Abraham would call Him by name of the situation that He took care of. He would build Him an altar, and all of a sudden, we have all of these different names where God will provide when He offered Isaac as a sacrifice. Remember what did God do? He said, don't kill your son. I've provided you a ram over here. And He said, Jehovah-Jireh that God will provide. See, he didn't understand that. But as he lived and as he walked by faith and he followed God, God began to reveal Himself to him. And so his character began to come out. And so what God is telling us now that we have seen Jesus Christ, guess what? We have no excuse. When you have looked at Jesus Christ, you have seen God. And He came and He lived perfect on this earth. He never once was tempted by sin in order to indulge in sin. We know He was tempted at all points as we are, but yet He never did sin. He never succumbed to it. But yet, even in our wickedness and our evilness, even as they were nailing Him to the cross of Calvary, He said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. His forgiveness, His love, His character came out. In 2 Peter 3 and verse 9, Peter writes that the Lord is not slack concerning His promise as some men count slackness. But as longsuffering to us, we're not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. I want you to understand this morning that your salvation, when we're talking about salvation, and we're talking about this foundation relationship with Jesus Christ, it begins with repentance. It begins with repentance. In Luke 13 and verse 3, He says, I tell you, nay, but except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. And if you didn't understand, He drops down in two verses later and He says it again. Except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. James, who really writes a simple book of understanding Christianity, he says, let him know that He which converted the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins. James says, man, what happens when a sinner repents? When he repents, when true repentance happens, guess what? You are saved from death, but you are also sins recovered that are there. And we're going to look at that more here in just a little bit. So I would say, based upon this, that repentance is very much important. So notice this illusion. What do we mean when we're talking about repentance? What are we actually meaning when we discuss this repentance? And I want you to understand that throughout the entire Bible, repentance is used around 112 times. But it doesn't always pertain to salvation. See, when we talk about repentance, you go back into the Word of God and you find in Genesis 6 and verse 6, it says, and it repented who? The Lord. Did God need to be saved? No. So repentance here is not doing with salvation. What did it repent? God. For He had made man on the earth and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, and the creeping thing, the fowls of the air. For again, He uses that word, repenteth me that I have made them. When you look at Jeremiah 15 and verse 6, he says, Thou forsaken me. Jeremiah's talking to God. Say it, Thou has forsaken me, or God's talking to Jeremiah. Thou art gone backward, therefore will I stretch out my hand against thee and destroy thee. I am weary with repenting. And so if repenting here had to do with salvation, then what is God doing? He's continually repenting in order to be saved. But God doesn't need salvation, so this word's not talking about salvation. Repentance doesn't always deal with salvation. So what is repentance? Let's define it this morning. Repentance is a change of mind that results in a change of action. It literally means to turn. To turn. In other words, you are going one direction, and when you repent, you immediately turn and go the opposite direction. That's what repentance is. And so that's what God in context is doing. He says it has repented Me. I created man. I created man in My image, but what has man done? He has lived and done what he wanted to do. He doesn't worship Me as Creator. He doesn't love Me as Creator. He doesn't recognize Me as the blesser of his life, the One that's going to bless him, the One that's going to provide for everything. And so what did God say? God said, I have a change of mind about his relationship and his existence. And so God said, because of that, my action toward him has to change. I can no longer love him in that condition. And so what happened? He sent the flood. And he destroyed everybody. But did he destroy everybody? No, he did not. There was Noah and seven others. His wife, his three sons, and their wives. They all went on to the ark. And so God did not destroy everybody. He saved those that was willing to do what? Repent and follow God. Have faith in God. And Noah and his family were the only ones that trusted God enough to enter into the ark. And so they were spared. So repentance is this change of mind resulting in a change of action. So what are we changing our minds about? When we talk about repentance, what are we changing our minds? First of all, we have a change in our attitude toward the way that we think about sin. In other words, when God looks at sin, God does not giggle. He does not snicker. He doesn't think sin is funny. God says, I am holy. And as a matter of fact, the Bible says that God cannot even look upon sin. And so if we are going to repent, we have got to understand that we've got to hate sin and change our attitude about sin and start seeing sin the way God sees sin. He tells us in Psalms 97 and verse 10, Yea, that you that love the Lord hate evil. He preserveth the souls of His saints. He delivereth them out of the hand of the wicked. Now what's going on? He says if you love the Lord, you're going to hate evil. Jesus Christ put it this way in the New Testament. He says you can't serve two masters. You'll love the one and hate the other. Because why? We are not created that way. We're created to go, God didn't put eyes and ears and stuff on all sides of our face and everything. We're created to go in one direction. We're created to love one thing and that is our Creator. That is our God. But when we love ourself more than we love God, then guess what? We've messed up this process of what God created us and how He created us. And so we have to change our attitude about sin. In Psalms 38, verse 18, He says, For I will declare mine iniquity, I will be sorry for my sin. In other words, the psalmist is writing here that man, I'm going to admit that I am a sinner. I have iniquity and therefore, I am going to repent for my sin. I'm going to change my attitude. I'm going to start seeing my sin as you see me. David prayed this in Psalms 51 after he committed adultery with Bathsheba. He said, The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. What does David say? When did David live? In the Old Testament. What were they to do when they sinned in the Old Testament? They were to make a sacrifice, right? And that sacrifice was a sign of what? Their repentance. I'm sorry. I messed up. Here's what God requires. So I'm going to trust God that when I give this sacrifice to Him, that He is going to forgive me of my transgression. And so they had this all through the Old Testament. This idea of repentance wasn't something new with John the Baptist. And so we see that what does he say? Even David who could walk right down to the temple and give his sacrifice, he says, God, You're really not interested in that sacrifice. Because guess what? I can come down there and sacrifice every single day and never change my attitude. He says, Well, it's not about the sacrifice. It's not about what I do, but it's about a broken and a contrite heart. It's about repentance. In other words, I have to see sin the way you see sin. And the way that I broke your heart by committing adultery with Bathsheba, I need to understand how I broke your heart. And therefore, I need to see that that is not what you want nor you desire for my life. And therefore, I have repentance. Repentance. And I accept the judgment upon you. But not only is it a change of attitude toward what we think about sin, but there's also a change in our attitude of what we think about God. See, we have to first of all look at ourselves, and then we have to look at God. Once we despised God. Once we hated God. We didn't even regard the work of Christ. We see Christ now as our only hope of salvation. And I know I'm talking to many of you this morning. You've always grown up in church, right? You've always been in church, but I can guarantee you, you have not always wanted to come to church, right? Many a times, I was dragged to church kicking and screaming, why do we have to go today? Why? But what happened? When I repented and turned my life to God and started seeking God, now what? I want to be in church. I was miserable Wednesday not getting to see everybody. I was glad that today was finally coming. I didn't even need an alarm clock this morning. Five o'clock, I was wide awake. My alarm clock was at six o'clock. I was ready to go. I was ready to be here. Because I need this. Because guess what? This is what God gave us and what God desires for us. And so we have a change about what we think about God. Yes, I've worshipped Him all week at the house. I've got more study done this week than I have in a long time. But guess what? It did not substitute me being with my brothers and sisters in Christ before God. We need this also. And so it's changing our attitude about what we think about God. Repentance is not remorse. And unfortunately, a lot of our society today thinks that repentance is just remorse. But what remorse is, remorse is really... You know, we think about remorse and we think about this uncontrollable weeping. This outward show of sorrow, right? I mean, we have got caught. We are in trouble. And so, man, we cry. We weep. We try to do everything because we got caught. That's not true repentance. Repentance is not an outward show of emotions. Repentance always involves a change of heart, a change of mind, and a change of attitude. Therefore, true repentance will always result in a change of action. When we repent, we go a different direction. Matthew 21 and verse 29, the Pharisees and the scribes came to Jesus Christ asking by what authority is He doing all of these things? And He says, well, when you show Me what authority you have, I'll show you what authority I have. And then He gives a parable of two sons. And He said, the first son, the father came to the son and told him to go out into the field and work today. And he answered and said, I will not. The son looked at the father and said, I'm not going out to work today. But then notice what it said. Afterward, he repented. And when he repented, what did he do? He went. He went. See, there's a change of action. I'm not going. Uh-oh, I shouldn't have said that. I shouldn't have acted that way. So what am I going to do? I'm going to go. 2 Corinthians 7.19 says, Godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. And so here we have in this one verse, we have the difference between repentance and remorse. In other words, repentance is godly sorrow. It's changing our attitude of sin and how we see God. Because we are sinners and God is holy. Remorse is godly sorrow and it works death. In other words, I'm sorry that I got caught. I'm sorry that I made a mistake. Esau and Judas. You remember Esau? The brother of Jacob? Esau was an example of remorse. You remember when he sold his birthright? What was he mad about? He wasn't sorry that he gave up his birthright. He was upset that his father wouldn't bless him. He was sorry that he allowed hunger, his flesh, to overcome him. Another great example of remorse is Judas. You remember Judas? What did Judas do? He betrayed Jesus Christ, didn't he? And what happened after he betrayed Jesus Christ? He went out and he hung himself. He was sorry. He said, man, I have delivered innocent blood. I've given an innocent man over. There was remorse. There never was repentance. On the other hand, you remember the apostle Peter? What did Peter do? Peter said him and Jesus' eyes met. And he went out and he wept bitterly. And then when Jesus Christ came to Peter, he said, Peter, do you love me? Right? We're testing this. Peter, did you really repent or were you just sorry? And we see that repentance took place in Peter's life because what did he do in Acts 2? He no longer was denying Jesus Christ, but he was standing there looking the same people in the eye that crucified Jesus Christ, telling them, you crucified the Messiah. You are guilty. Repent. See, there was a change in attitude. All of a sudden, Peter saw sin and saw God differently than he did previously. Judas just went out and hung himself. So notice this activity of repentance. How does repentance work? Man does not naturally repent. I've used this example here before. You know, you're walking in the hallways back there and a kid comes running around the corner and they almost run over you. And what do you do? Preacher, I say, hey, you need to quit running in church. And the very first thing that they say is, I'm sorry, you're right, you caught me. Now, what's the first thing they say? I wasn't running. Well, it seems funny to me. You almost knocked me down, right? They deny. They deny. Repentance is not something that comes natural. When we are caught in a sin, when we recognize our sin, the natural thing is not to repent. What happens is, is the Holy Spirit, or in the example of the kid running in the hallway, Brother Donnie brings conviction, right? Because I begin to talk them through this process. You were running. You come flying around here. You was moving so fast you did not see me. You almost ran over me, right? And so whom I'm explaining to them that the proof is here that you were running, what happens? It brings about conviction. And usually, they'll end up saying I'm sorry, right? And they'll walk until they get right around the corner and then they'll take off running again, right? Because I'm out of the presence of the preacher now. Conviction comes through the Holy Spirit. See, the Holy Spirit is who convicts us. Paul said, I would have never known I was a sinner, but by the law. And it wasn't the law, because the law had always been around, right? The law had always existed. Matter of fact, Paul says I was a Pharisee above Pharisees. I kept the law. I observed the law. But what did he say? I would not have been saved. I would not have understood sin had it not been for the law. And what was the difference? Acts chapter 9. You see, the Holy Spirit met up with Paul. And when the Holy Spirit said, why do you call me Lord? The Holy Spirit said, it's hard for you to kick against the pricks and the goads. You've been fighting me. You think you're doing God's work, but you're killing my work. And what happened? Paul immediately fell upon his face and he repented. And then what happened? All of a sudden, all of these laws and everything that he had been taught and that he had studied and that he lived, all of a sudden, now it becomes a reality. And God told him, said what? Go down to this Simon of Canter's house in Joppa. And what did Paul do? He turned by faith and he followed and he went. See, that's repentance. That's how repentance works in our life. And so I want you to understand that repentance is an act of grace. What is grace? It is a gift. See, God grants repentance. And we don't a lot of times think of repentance as grace. But in 1 John 1.9, what does it say? If we confess our sins, He is what? Faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. And then to do what? Cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Do we deserve forgiveness? Nope. But God doesn't always give us what we deserve. He goes above and beyond. He says I'm going to cleanse you from all sins and works of unrighteousness. See, that's grace. That's grace. And so I want you to understand it. And I've used this word Calvinism. This idea that God has some that are designed to be saved and some that are chosen to be lost. It doesn't work. Because repentance is an act. Upon the convention of the Holy Spirit, it is a response by the individual. You get to choose by God's grace. He allows us the opportunity to confess our sins and repent. And when we do, He promises that He will forgive us. Look at this Scripture here. 2 Timothy 2.25 In meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves, if God, peradventure, will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth. And so notice what he's saying. He's saying through the preaching of the Word of God, it reveals our true condition. It reveals the folly and the futileness of sin in our lives. And so there, first of all, has to be the preaching of the Word of God. Then there has to be the goodness of God, the grace of God. Look at what he says in Romans 2.4 Despises thou the riches of His goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance. What makes God good? God didn't want to leave us in sin, but what did He do? For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever will believe on Him should not perish, but shall be saved. Now, go back and read them next verses because I quote these all the time. What brings about the condemnation? You didn't believe. You didn't believe on the name of Jesus Christ. In other words, you are condemned because you did not recognize your sin. You did not recognize your attitude on the goodness and grace of God that sent His Son Jesus Christ to die in your place because He wants to forgive you of your sin. He wants to give you eternal life. And instead, what did you do? I'll make it on my own. I'll live good works and do what I want to do. I don't need Jesus Christ to get to heaven. And what does He sum up in John 14? I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Me. See, we have to repent. I can't get to heaven. But praise God, I can get to Jesus Christ because God came to me through Jesus Christ. If I can get to Jesus Christ, then guess what? I can get to God. 2 Corinthians 7-8. He says, For though I have made you sorry with a letter... Paul's writing this letter to the church at Corinth who by all means was not living for God and doing what God wanted them to do. He says, I do not repent, though I did repent. For I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season, now I rejoice. Look at this. He said I wrote this letter and I'm sorry because it made you sorry. In other words, it made you forceful, but there was no repentance. But now look at what he says. But that you sorrow to repentance, for you were made sorry after a godly manner that you might receive damage by us in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death. For behold, this selfsame thing that you sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what revenge, in all things you have approved yourself to be clear in the matter. Not only have you repented, but you have faith. You've changed this attitude. Revelation 3, verse 19, Jesus said, As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore to what? Repent. Repent. And so the acknowledgment of repentance. Notice how we acknowledge repentance. How do we actually do this? First of all, there has to be a confession to God. We have to change our opinion about God. Look at what he says in Luke 18, verse 13. You remember the publican and the Pharisee that both went to the side of the temple to pray? He said, The publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Did him or the Pharisee walk away justified? How are we justified? Because I never sin no more? No, I am justified because of the blood of Jesus Christ. I repented and I accepted His sacrifice. Remember, we're dealing in the past. We're dealing with justification. How did he get justified? By repentance. By repentance. He did not even recognize his sin. But that Pharisee over there said, I thank God that I'm not like this man, right? Not only is there this acknowledgement with God, but there's also a confession of false command. See, and this is where we mess up a lot today. We will repent to God. And I've dealt with this so many different times. You know, when you deal with somebody, even through church discipline, or you point something out in somebody's life, well, I've got things right with God. Well, that's great. That's wonderful. I hope you have. You've got to get things right with God first. But repentance also gets right with things with man. Because see, we have sinned before man. In Luke 19, you remember a man by the name of Zacchaeus? What was Zacchaeus? He was a tax collector, wasn't he? And how did he make his living? The Roman government said you have to go to your people, the Jews, and you have to acquire this amount of money. This comes to me. But whatever you can get above that amount of money, that's for you. Because guess what? The Jews are not going to get near as mad at you taking their money than if we walked in and took their money. And so, Zacchaeus was a very wealthy man. He had made a good living off of the people. But look at what happened when Jesus came to his house. Zacchaeus stood and said unto the Lord, Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And so, all of his wealth, all of it, where did he acquire his wealth? Off of people, right? And so right off the get-go, when he meets Jesus Christ, he says, you know what? I have repented. I am looking differently upon my sin. I am looking differently upon God that I am trying to serve. Therefore, I'm going to take half of my possessions and I'm going to give to the poor people. And then look at what he says. And if I have taken anything from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. What does he mean by how do you get taxes by false accusation? You make up extra stuff that you've got to pay for and stuff. He said, oh, these people, because I deliberately wronged to get more money out of them, I'm going to pay them back fourfold. And look at what Jesus said to him, because this is where we need to understand. And Jesus said unto him, this day, this day is salvation come to you of the house, for as much as he also is a son of Abraham. When did God tell him salvation came to his house? When he invited him to come to his house? No. When he repented and he says, you know what, I'm going to make everything right with man. I'm going to make things right. Bam! Immediately, salvation came. James 5.16 says, Confess your faults one to another. Pray for one another that you may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. You know, I put that in the bulletin about our prayers. What makes you a righteous man? What is righteousness? Our standing before God, right? What makes us righteous? You have to be justified. And what makes us justified? You have to repent and accept Jesus Christ. See, that's what this thing is saying. Not only do you confess to God, but you also confess to mankind. And then you pray for one another because we're all sinners. We're all going to mess up. We're all going to make mistakes. And so we continue to pray for each other and through the praying of each other and recognizing that we are all sinners like that publican that smote upon his breast and said, God be merciful. See, he wasn't pointing fingers at the Pharisee. He was pointing fingers at himself first. And then he says, you may be healed. Then, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. It's also a forsaking of sin. See, we've got to forsake sin. 1 Peter 3.10 says, For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile, let him eschew evil and do good, let him seek peace and ensue it. In other words, we're not living for ourselves no more. There's a change in attitude. Now we are doing good. Now we are working. See, we go from being justified to now to being sanctified. It's a process. But you can't start being sanctified until you have been justified. What is the aftermath? And we're fixing to close. And I don't have time to show you all this, but what is the aftermath of repentance? What happens if I truly repent? And I turn and I follow God? Listen to these things that happen, the Bible tells us. There's joy in heaven. He says the angels shout when one person on earth repents. There is joy in heaven. Because see, Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for your sins was not done for no avail. But when you repent and you accept His sacrifice, there's joy in heaven. There's also pardon and forgiveness. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. And cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Then, there is the gift of the Holy Spirit. See, when we repent and we get ourself out of the way and we have faith in God, what happens is the Holy Spirit comes and lives within us. See, the Holy Spirit and Christ cannot live in you until you get out of the way. Remember, Christ is the King. He is the Ruler. He is the One that sits on the throne. And then, the Bible says that once we repent, there's blessings. We receive God's mercy. His prosperity. You know, this prosperity gospel that so many are preaching today, not one single time do you hear them in this prosperity gospel speak of repentance. But you cannot have prosperity without repentance. You can give as much as you want to the church and live however you want to during the week. God's not going to bless that. God is only going to bless true repentance. He said He gives you life. He gives you answered prayer. Let me show you one more Scripture that I know you're familiar with. He says, If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves... See, it takes humility. I've got to hear the words of the Holy Spirit. I've got to see the conviction of the Holy Spirit enough that I respond. And I can only respond through humility. And so I humble myself and I pray. God, what do You want me to do? How do I fix this? How do I get self off the throne? He says, Seek my faith. Seek God. I've been trying it and living it all wrong. Now, I want to live for You. And turn. See, turn. Turn from your wicked ways. Your dead works. What is that? That is repentance. That is repentance. But notice how faith is going all through here because you're seeking God. You're wanting to figure out why is our relationship bad? Why is things being messed up? Why am I condemned to hell? And He's saying, Repent. And when we do that, when we turn, He said, Then, then, then, then. What does then mean? Then cannot happen until it's a sequence of events. That first part has to take place. Then. Then. Every bit of that has to be fulfilled. You can't just seek His face. There's a lot of people in church today that are seeking His face, but they won't repent. They're going to walk out of church today and go right back into their house watching the same thing they've been watching. Listening to the same stuff they've been listening to. Doing the same stuff they've been doing. Oh, but we sought God this morning. Now what did He say? You've got to humble yourself. Pray. Seek His face. Turn from your wicked ways. Repent. And then will I hear from heaven and will forgive your sin. And then He said, I'm going to go even further. When I get through taking care of your sins, I'm going to heal the land. How's God going to heal the land? Because guess what? If God can forgive my sin, then guess what? He can forgive your sin. And so when I go start telling people, God saved me from my sin. All I had to do was confess my sin and turn and God wiped away all of my sins and accepted me not as a servant, not as a slave, but He adopted me to be His Son in a joint heir of Him. And guess what? That's where the Gospel takes place. And when the Gospel has affected you, guess what? You can't help but go tell other people. And as you share the Gospel, guess what? The Holy Spirit's going to take that Gospel. Faith that we're going to talk about next week. The other side of this coin. Faith cometh by hearing. And hearing by what? The Word of God. And how shall they hear the Word of God unless somebody tells them? You know how many houses in America today have a Bible in their house? A whole bunch of them. You know how many people in them houses that have Bibles in their house picked up their Bible and read them this week? A whole lot less of them. You know, it's amazing. We were snowed in. How many of us got behind on our Bible readings this week? How much time did we take with the Bible? And see, so we need people to remind us. We need people to share the Word of God. And guess what? We need to repent and come back to God. And He says, I'll forgive you. And then we start trusting God. And we start believing God. And we start following God. As we stand for a verse of invitation this morning, are you willing this morning to admit that you are a sinner and you're out of a relationship with God? Until you're willing to read that. Listen, if there was ever a time in your life that you was closer to God than you are right now, guess what? You're sinning. You're out of the will of God because the process of sanctification gets us closer to God, not further away from God. And so, man, if you go back to your salvation, man, I was close to God. You remember how clean and how pure when everything was confessed? But what happened? We've allowed unconfessed sin to build up in our life. We've allowed disobedience and disrespect and that repentance. All of a sudden, when we repented and turned to God, we have found ourselves slowly doing what? Turning back away from God and going back to the world. That's why he tells us in 1 John 1 and verse 9, he's not writing to lost people. He's writing to saved people. See, saved people can fall out of a relationship with God. His people can fall out of a relationship. That's why he said, humble yourselves. Pray. Seek my face. Then, I will restore. We have a lot of Christians today that think, man, I'm saved, but I can continue to sin. I can continue to do what I want to do. And God's just happy and pleased with me and I can't wait until He returns. God says we have to change our attitude on what we think about sin and what we think about Him. That's repentance. As we sing, what hymn? Page 634.