The Call to Repentance C

Repentance is not a pre-Salvation attempt to get your life cleaned up. It is not a call to stop sinning so you can get saved.

Not at all. It is the thing which God produces in you when He saves you. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. It's been wisely said, he does not really believe who does not also live according to his belief. Well, you know, for each of us, there may be things we say we believe in, things like getting proper rest or exercising regularly. But our actions don't always tell the same story. That should make us wonder whether we really do believe what we say we do.

Because again, behavior follows belief. That is certainly true where believing on the Lord Jesus Christ is concerned. Today on Grace to You, John MacArthur helps you see what it looks like when someone lives out a genuine belief in Christ. It's part of John's continuing study called The Gospel According to Jesus.

And with a lesson now, here's John. We are studying together a series on the Lordship of Jesus Christ in reference to salvation. The nature of this series is that it is from selected Scriptures rather than the normal approach that I take from one given passage. It is also the nature of this series that it is polemic. That is to say, it is issue oriented. It tends to be argumentative in taking a view and posing another and wrong view as far as I'm concerned. One of the elements at stake in this very, very far reaching debate is the matter of repentance.

What is it and where does it fit? Is it an essential part of the Gospel message or is it not? And I hope as we look together at God's Word and consider some of the things that are being said by folks, that we might get a clear understanding of what the Bible has to say about repentance. The Gospel call of Jesus was a call to forsake sin as much as it was a summons to believe in Him. It was a call to turn from sin. From His first message to His last, the Savior's theme was calling sinners to turn from their sin, to embrace God, to pursue righteousness. It was not only that they had a new perspective on who He was, but that they turned from sin to follow Him.

Let me give you an illustration. Look at Luke 18. Luke 18, verse 9. It's a parable, a parable to certain ones who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, viewed others with contempt, Pharisees namely. Two men went to the temple to pray, one was a Pharisee, the other a tax gatherer. The Pharisee stood, was praying, thus to himself, God, I think that I'm not like other people, swindlers, unjust, adulterers, even like this tax gatherer.

I fast twice a week. I pay tithes of all I get. He was there confessing to God is what? His righteousness. Yeah.

Let me ask you a question. Did he believe in God? Did the Pharisee believe in God? Yes. Did he have faith in God? Yes. Was he saved? No.

Why? Because his faith was devoid of what? Of repentance. See, that's a classic illustration of the fact that here is a man who believed in God. Here is a man who's devoted to God. Here is a man who went into the temple to pray to the God he believed in. But where there was no repentance in the heart, there was no relationship. He was a fraud.

The tax gatherer standing over there pounding on his breast, crying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Jesus said, I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. That first guy never knew salvation. He was a believer who didn't repent. The second guy was an unbeliever who repented.

He was a spiritual and religious outcast, but he repented and inherent in that, of course, was the expression of faith. You cannot take repentance and strip it of its moral implications. Now, let me give you a quick definition, okay? All of that introduction comes down to what we're talking about. What is the biblical definition of repentance?

Okay, give you a few thoughts and then we'll wrap it up. What is biblically defined repentance? Number one, it's an element within saving faith. It is an element within saving faith. In fact, it can be used as an expression interchangeably with saving faith. We're to preach repentance. We're to call men to repentance. That means to saving faith. It's so inherent, it can be used as a synonym for saving faith. You could call on someone and say, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Or you could call and say, repent of your sin and embrace Christ. Same thing. It is simply all that salvation is.

But let me make this very clear. It is not a synonym in the purest sense for believe because it doesn't mean the same. It is inherent in believing and believing is inherent in repentance so that the terms can be used interchangeably, but each of those terms expresses a unique element. Believing expresses just that.

Trust, confidence, faith. Repentance expresses turning from sin toward God. They are complementary parts of the same process, said Berkov in his systematic theology. Now the Greek word is metanoia. And, you know, it comes from two words, meta, after and na-a-o to understand and it means an afterthought. So if you just took those words and put them together, it would mean an afterthought or a change of mind. And some of these people who want to say repentance is nothing more than changing your mind about who Jesus is, say you see that's what meta na-a-o means. But listen folks, that is something that you see often done with Greek words that's so unfair. Not every word is necessarily the sum of its separate parts. Because meta means this and na-a-o means this, when you put them together it doesn't necessarily mean what those two parts mean. Often it does, often it doesn't.

Illustrated in English, okay? We have a word in English, independent, right? Now if you push that too far, you could say, I know what that means. That means that independent there is a dent. No, it doesn't mean that.

It doesn't mean independent there is a dent. Because in English, in English every word is not necessarily the sum of all its parts. It's true in Greek.

You got to go deeper than that. And the biblical meaning is much deeper than that. Meta na-a-a is used in the New Testament always, now mark this, it always embodies more than the literal meaning of its component terms. It always speaks of a change of purpose and it specifically always speaks of a turning from sin.

One of the helpful tools that we use in studying the Greek language is Colin Brown's work, massive tome, this big, three volumes. In the section on conversion by Goetzmann, volume 1, page 358, he's dealing with metanoia. And this, of course, from a very scholarly perspective and this is a quote, the predominantly intellectual understanding of metanoia as a change of mind plays very little part in the New Testament. Rather, the decision by the whole man to turn around is stressed. It is clear that we are concerned neither with a purely outward turning nor with a merely intellectual change of ideas.

So says the best of scholarship. In the sense that Jesus used it, repentance incorporated a repudiation of the old life and a turning to God for salvation. The other number one source for understanding all there is about Greek words was produced by Kittel. Every significant New Testament word is there in an exhaustive treatment.

Let me read you what Baim says writing on metanoia in Gerhard Kittel. Quote, the term demands radical conversion, demands a transformation of nature, a definitive turning from evil, a resolute turning to God in total obedience. This conversion is once for all. There can be no going back, only advance in responsible movement along the way now taken.

It affects the whole man, first and basically the center of personal life, then logically his conduct at all times and in all situations, his thoughts, words and acts. The whole proclamation of Jesus is a proclamation of unconditional turning to God, of unconditional turning from all that is against God, not merely that which is downright evil, but that which in a given case makes total turning to God impossible. End quote.

That's how they understand it from the technical side the meaning of the word. This would be supported, wouldn't it, from 1 Thessalonians 1, 9. Do you remember that verse?

Look at it. 1 Thessalonians 1, 9. Here is a chronicle of the elements of repentance. The second half of the verse, Paul reminds the Thessalonians how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God. Three elements of repentance.

They're right there. 1, turning to God. 2, turning from evil.

3, serving God. You turned to God from idols and all that's evil with them to serve God. Three elements of repentance. Turning to God from evil to serve God.

Beautiful summary. No, listen to me, no change of mind about who Jesus is can save until those three elements are present. Turning from sin to God to serve Him. Repentance is an element within saving faith.

Second point. It involves a redirection of the will. It involves a redirection of the will. Thayer's Greek Lexicon defines metanoia as, quote, the change of mind of those who have begun to abhor their errors and misdeeds and have determined to enter upon a better course of life so that it embraces both a recognition of sin and sorrow for it and hearty amendment, the tokens and effects of which are good deeds, end quote. In other words, it's a redirection of the will that results in a changed behavior.

It's not merely sorrow for sin, although genuine repentance always has sorrow. It is a redirection of the human will. It is a choice to forsake all unrighteousness and pursue holiness. And please, beloved, it is that redirection of the will that is the work of God.

We're not talking about something you do. We're talking about God doing something in you when He saves you. People say, well, you're teaching that this is some pre-salvation work and until you clean your life up and repent, you can't get saved. No, repentance is not a pre-salvation attempt to get your life cleaned up. It is not a call to stop sinning so you can get saved.

Not at all. It is not just an invitation to turn your back on all evil so Christ will accept you. It is the thing which God produces in you when He saves you. It's an element of saving faith that redirects the will.

J. I. Packer in his helpful little book, Evangelism and the Sovereignty of God, writes, the repentance that Christ requires of His people consists in a settled refusal to set any limit to the claims which He may make on their lives. It's not just a mental activity. There's an intellectual aspect.

Let me give you this quickly. There's an intellectual aspect. Repentance involves recognition of sin, recognition of the sinfulness of sin, recognition that sin affronts a holy God. It involves the intellectual recognition that I'm personally responsible for my sin and my guilt.

It includes the recognition that Christ died for my sin and that He as God wants to rule my life. That's the intellectual part of repentance. Secondly, it has an emotional part. That recognition produces sorrow. It produces new desires and new impulses.

It produces shame. And 2 Corinthians 7, 10 says there is a sorrow that leads to repentance. So it starts out, you see that sin is sinful. You see that you are guilty.

You see that Christ has provided intellectually. And then it touches your emotions and there's a brokenness and a sorrow and a shame and a guilt that pours out and out of that sorrow comes the third element and that is the volitional, the volitional. Finally, repentance enacts the will and brings a change of direction, a new determination to abandon stubborn disobedience and surrender your life to Christ. And then it produces a changed behavior.

Where there's no changed behavior, repentance may have been intellectual and it may have been emotional but it was never volitional. It redirects the will when it's genuine. Thirdly, and as a result, it's life changing. It's life changing. It's an element of saving faith.

It activates the will, redirects it and it's life changing. That's why John said bring forth fruit, meet for repentance. You say you repent, let's see your life.

Demonstrate it. Real repentance alters the character of a person. One of my heroes, the man that I esteem highly is Martin Lloyd-Jones. One of the books that's blessed me that he wrote has to do with the Sermon on the Mount. In it, he writes this.

He's now with the Lord. Repentance means that you realize that you are a guilty, vile sinner in the presence of God, that you deserve the wrath and punishment of God, that you are hell bound. It means that you begin to realize that this thing called sin is in you and that you long to get rid of it and that you turn your back on it in every shape and form. You renounce the world whatever the cost, the world in its mind and outlook as well as its practices and you deny yourself and take up the cross and go after Christ. You're nearest and dearest and the whole world may call you a fool or say you have religious mania.

You may have to suffer financially but it makes no difference. That is repentance. It becomes an ongoing way of life. The repentance that begins at salvation starts a progressive lifelong process of confession of sin. 1 John 1, 9, we go on confessing our sin. The active continuous attitude of repentance produces the poverty of spirit, the mourning, the meekness that characterizes true believers in the Beatitudes of Matthew 5.

Repentance produces a new way of life, not just a different opinion about Christ, a new way of life. Those who heard Jesus preach knew what he was calling for. Believe me, the Jews knew exactly what he was calling for.

He wasn't asking them just to change their opinion about him. They knew what Isaiah said when Isaiah preached. What did he preach? Isaiah 1 16, this is what Isaiah preached, wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, remove the evil of your deeds from my sight, cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice and then though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be what? White as snow. Though they're red like crimson, they'll be like wool if you wash yourselves, if you make yourselves clean. The progression begins internally and then manifests itself in attitudes and actions. The end of Isaiah, or near the end, chapter 55, we find the same kind of call, two verses, rich verses on this matter of repentance.

I don't know how they overlooked these. Seek the Lord while He may be found, Isaiah 55 6. Call upon Him while He is near.

How do I do that? Let the wicked forsake His way and the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts and let Him return to the Lord and He will have compassion on Him and to our God for He will abundantly pardon. He'll pardon when the wicked forsakes His way and the unrighteous man forsakes his thoughts and turns to the Lord. That familiar text, often misused and perhaps too frequently avoided, 2 Chronicles 7 14, and my people who are called by my name humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin, when they turn, when they repent. And I'll tell you, when John the Baptist preached repentance, nobody missed it.

They knew what he said and they knew exactly what he meant. Where are the fruits? Prove your repentance by your life. And what are the fruits of repentance?

Simply righteous deeds, holy deeds, godly deeds, transformed life. In Luke 3, we have the record of that very account of which I just quoted where the Pharisees came and approached again as often they did, John the Baptist always wanting to parade their piosity. And John says to them in verse 7 of Luke 3, you brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

What are you doing here, you snakes? Bring forth fruits in keeping with repentance, he says. What are those fruits?

What are they? Verse 10, the multitude says, what do we do? What should we do? What are the fruits of repentance? He says, let the man who has two tunics share with him who has none.

Let him who has food do likewise. Some tax gatherers came to be baptized. They said, teacher, what do we do? What are the fruits of repentance? Collect no more than what you have been ordered to. Some of the soldiers came and said, well, what do we do? And he said, don't take money from anyone by force or accuse anyone falsely and be content with what your wages are.

Pretty practical stuff, right? You want to know what true repentance shows up in the character of your daily living. Do you give your cloak to one who doesn't have one? Do you make sure you don't take anything from anyone that you don't deserve? You don't force people? You don't accuse people falsely?

Are you content with whatever your wages are? That's where the genuineness of your repentance shows up. That's pretty mundane stuff folks. And beloved, I submit to you that no message that doesn't press for repentance can properly be called the gospel. Conversion to Jesus is more than a break with an old thought pattern. It's a new life. It's a new life. Beam says, writing again in Kittles volumes, to be converted embraces all that the dawn of God's kingdom demands of man. Change life.

And please understand, I don't think that anyone could miss my heart on this. This is not something you do so you can get yourself saved. This is something God's Spirit produces in you in saving you.

That's why it says in 2 Timothy, and this is an essential passage for us to grasp, chapter 2 verse 25, that God may grant them repentance. It's a gift of God. It's a gift of God. Acts 11 verse 18, that God has granted repentance to the Gentiles.

It's a gift of God. Let me close with this last passage. Matthew 21, 28. Turn to it, please.

So much to say. Matthew 21, 28. What do you think, Jesus said?

Think this one through with me, will you? Man had two sons. He came to the first and said, Son, go work today in the vineyard. He answered and said, I will, sir. And he didn't go.

You got a son like that? He came to the second, said the same thing. He said, I will not.

Afterward, regretted what he said, went. Which of the two did the will of his father? Crowd said, the latter. Jesus said to him, truly, I say to you, tax gatherers and harlots will get into the kingdom of God before you, potent, my friend. Jesus describes two kinds of people.

You ready for this? People who pretend to be obedient, but are actually rebels in their hearts. They pretend to be obedient, but they're rebels in their heart. And people who begin as rebels, but do what? Repent. He told it for the benefit of the Pharisees who pretended to be obedient to God, but were rebels in their hearts.

And then there were the harlots and the tax gatherers who started out as rebels, but repented. There's no salvation apart from repentance. Let's bow together in prayer. I'm reminded, Lord, tonight of the words of James, submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep.

Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord and he will exalt you. Father, give us an understanding of the call to repentance. My prayer right now is for anyone here who has pretended to be obedient, but in the heart is a rebel, who says to God, I will go and does not.

Oh God, transform that life. Bring true repentance. And I would pray for the tax gatherers and the harlots, the outcasts, the rebels who live in open rebellion against you, but are open to repentance.

Move their hearts. Work that mighty, gracious work of repentance in every needful life, for Jesus' sake. Amen. There is no salvation apart from repentance. That's a powerful statement from John MacArthur, Chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, teacher here on Grace to You, and John's current study is The Gospel According to Jesus. Now, John, this tendency among churches to eliminate repentance from the gospel message, I know you've been concerned about that trend at least since you began as pastor here in 1969, and then in the late 1980s you addressed this issue in your book, The Gospel According to Jesus, which generated quite a response.

Talk about that for a minute. Well it was really epic. I remember the publisher said, I think this book will sell 25,000 copies. Well at the end of the first year it had sold a quarter of a million copies. Because as it turned out, the book stepped on the oxygen hose of a lot of evangelicals and cut off their hair. Yes it did.

Yeah, they were screaming and gasping. So yeah, it had a huge effect. Because what had happened was, there was a particular seminary that was training faculty for all the Bible colleges across this country, and they were populating with teachers who were denying that repentance had anything to do with salvation. And this was so egregious to me, but it was pervasive. So when I went after this, it was a shock to the evangelical community. Because it had unmasked something that was being propagated at the most respected seminary in the country, and ending up in other very respected Christian institutions. And books started coming out that were more defenses of a no-repentance, no-submission, no-lordship gospel. It got so much traction. You'll remember, Phil, there was a complete organization that started to propagate no-lordship salvation.

And so it was on the march, and so I felt we needed to tackle that. Again, why would people remove repentance out of the gospel? Not because it's not in the Bible, it is. But it's what people do when they lack the courage and conviction to tell people the truth. They're afraid they'll offend.

You know, we're trying to win people. We're trying to make the gospel attractive and acceptable and embrace them. I mean, even Jesus didn't do that. John the Baptist didn't do that, and he lost his head. Jesus didn't do that, and he lost his life. The apostles followed up and were martyrs. And then you have 2,000 years of people being killed because they confronted sin. And Jesus said, the world hates you, and they hate me because I tell them their deeds are evil. What creates the no-repentance, no-lordship, no-submission lie is a lack of courage to speak the truth, and also a lack of faith that if you speak the truth, God's going to do the saving anyway, and he only does it when the truth has been proclaimed. Oh, by the way, if you haven't ordered a copy of The Gospel According to Jesus, do that today. Yes, do. And thank you, John.

Friend, if you have not read The Gospel According to Jesus, I encourage you to pick up a copy. It's reasonably priced in hardcover, and you can order yours today. Just call our customer service line at 800-55-GRACE. You can call 730 to 4 o'clock weekdays.

That is Pacific time. Our number again, 800-55-GRACE, or you can shop anytime online at GTY.org. The Gospel According to Jesus costs $15 in hardcover, and shipping is free. Again, to order, call 800-55-GRACE.

That number, by the way, translates to 800-55-47223. Or you can go to GTY.org. And to dig deeper into the many scripture references in The Gospel According to Jesus, the MacArthur Study Bible can be a great help. It includes detailed introductions to each book, more than 140 charts and maps, and 25,000 notes written by John, all of them designed to help you understand and apply the transforming truth of God's Word.

It's reasonably priced in three English versions and several non-English translations. You're sure to find a MacArthur Study Bible that's right for you. If you'd like to order, call 800-55-GRACE, or go online to GTY.org. Now for John MacArthur and the entire Grace To You staff, I'm Phil Johnson with a question. What is the cost of becoming a Christian? Consider that when we return tomorrow with another 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, on Grace To You.