The Call to Repentance B

The gospel call of Jesus was a call to forsake sin as much as it was a summons to believe in Him. From His first message to His last, the Savior's theme was calling sinners to turn from their sin. It was not only that they had a new perspective on who He was, but that they turned from sin to follow Him. Welcome to Grace to You with John MacArthur.

I'm your host, Phil Johnson. You probably know Christians who have responded to the call to be a pastor or a missionary. But there is one call that is demanded of every believer.

Have you responded to it? John MacArthur addressed that call, the call to turn from sin and yield to Christ as Lord, in a book that has prompted discussion for 35 years now. That book is titled The Gospel According to Jesus, and today on Grace to You, John continues his study by that name, helping you see the connection between saving faith and turning from sin, or repentance. So follow in your Bible if you're able as John begins the lesson.

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. Frankly, one of the clearest elements of biblical invitations to salvation is the demand for repentance. If you just took the New Testament and read it at face value, you would be pressed to conclude that repentance is an essential factor in a gospel presentation. The ministry of John the Baptist was repentance. The ministry of Jesus was repentance. The ministry of the disciples was repentance. And heaven recognizes it and rejoices when a sinner, what?

Repents. Go to the book of Acts, chapter 26. Here is Paul before King Agrippa, and he says to him in verse 19 of chapter 26, consequently King Agrippa, I didn't prove disobedient to the heavenly vision, but kept declaring both to those of Damascus first and also at Jerusalem and then throughout all the region of Judea and even to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds appropriate to repentance. Now folks, that was Paul's classic definition of gospel preaching. It is preaching repentance. And it was because he preached repentance that they seized him, verse 21 says, and tried to put me to death.

So you can see that the early church picked up on the preaching of Jesus and picked up on the preaching of John and picked up on the preaching of the disciples and was faithful to proclaim repentance from sin, turning from sin to God. Where is that kind of preaching today? Where do you hear that kind of evangelism today? It's not fashionable to preach a gospel that demands that people give up all their possessions. The gospel you hear today is come to Jesus and you'll be rich. The gospel today is believe in Jesus and he'll forgive all your sin and give you heaven. You don't have to worry about giving up anything. That's not what Jesus preached.

Repent, turn from your sin and your selfishness. Now how in the world did this essential element of gospel preaching become avoided? Where did we lose it? Because it isn't around.

You rarely ever hear the Word. We can go back to 1937. Dr. Harry A. Ironside, great man of God, Bible teacher. Dr. Ironside in 1937 noted that the biblical doctrine of repentance was being systematically diluted by those who wished to exclude it from the gospel message. Ironside said they're trying to exclude it from the gospel message. Let me quote from the book he wrote entitled, Except Ye Repent. He was a champion for repentance and rightly so. He wrote this, The doctrine of repentance is the missing note in many otherwise orthodox and fundamentally sound circles today. This is not a new battle.

This is an old battle. People today are preaching a gospel that says, well, look, just believe. Don't worry about your sin. Don't worry about your past.

Just believe and that'll all come later. Ironside fought that battle in 1937. Further, he said this. He spoke of, quote, professed preachers of grace who, like the antinomians of old, decry the necessity of repentance lest it seem to invalidate the freedom of grace.

And that was the core issue. There were some who said if you call for repentance, you're invalidating the freedom of grace. And grace is so gracious and so free, you don't have to do anything but just believe. Ironside recognized in his day the dangers of an incipient easy believism. Further, he said, shallow preaching that does not grapple with the terrible fact of man's sinfulness and guilt, calling on all men everywhere to repent, results in shallow conversions.

And so we have myriads of glib-tongued professors today who give no evidence of regeneration whatever. Pratting of salvation by grace, they manifest no grace in their lives. Loudly declaring they are justified by faith alone, they fail to remember that faith without works is dead and that justification by works before men is not to be ignored as though it were in contradiction to justification by faith before God. Harry Ironside, 1937, was on target, fighting the same battle. And if we go backwards from there, back into church history, we also note that the history of the church records the testimony of God's leaders regarding the essential nature of repentance.

Let me take you all the way back. How about the early church fathers, 150 A.D., okay? Fifty years after John, the apostle died. That's early. Let me read you from the second epistle of Clement in 150 A.D.

This is what it says. Let us not merely call him Lord, for that will not save us. For he says, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will be saved, but he who does what is right.

Thus, brothers, let us acknowledge him by our actions. This world and the world to come are two enemies. This one means adultery, corruption, avarice, and deceit, while the other gives them up.

We cannot then be friends of both to get the one, we must give up the other. That's repentance. That's repentance. That's exactly what James said. Friendship with the world is enmity with God.

You are either the friend of the world or the friend of God, not both. That's repentance. How about Martin Luther? In 1517, Martin Luther fired the shot that's been heard around the world when he pinned to the church door at Wittenberg his 95 theses. He postulated 95 principles that he thought the Roman Catholic Church ought to acknowledge.

I don't know if you're aware of what those 95 were, but after tonight, you're going to be aware of what the first three were, because here they are. Number one, this is what was on the door at Wittenberg. Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, in saying repent ye, meant the whole life of the faithful to be an act of repentance. Number two of his 95 theses, this saying cannot be understood of the sacrament of penance, i.e. of confession and absolution, which is administered by the priesthood. Three, yet he does not mean interior repentance only. Nay, interior repentance is void if it does not produce different kinds of mortifications of the flesh. So said Martin Luther.

Three main points. One, repentance is a way of life. Two, it has nothing to do with church sacraments, confession and absolution.

Three, it's not just inward, it produces mortification of the flesh. Martin Luther was right on target. Let's move to the next century, 1674. In 1674, the theological masterpiece known as the West Minister Shorter Catechism was assembled, and in that catechism, which some of you have perhaps read or even studied if you come from a Reformed background, there's a series of question and answers. That's what catechetical teaching was, question and answer, question and answer.

You taught your children the catechism and eventually they memorized all the elements of theology. One of the questions in the West Minister Shorter Catechism is this, what is repentance unto life? What is repentance unto life? Answer, repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ doth with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience.

Great statement. It is a saving grace, that is it comes from God, whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ doth with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience. Further, the catechism says, repentance unto life doth chiefly consist in two things. One, in turning from sin and forsaking it. Two, in turning to God.

And comes the next question in the catechism. What is that turning from sin which is part of true repentance? Answer, the turning from sin which is a part of true repentance doth consist in two things. One, in turning from all gross sins in regard of our course and conversation. Two, in turning from all other sins in regard of our hearts and affections. In other words, it's turning from sin in what you do and turning from sin in what you think.

The next question. Do such as truly repent of sin never return again unto the practice of the same sins which they have repented of? Answer, such as have truly repented of sin do never return unto the practice of it so as to live in a course of sin as they did before. And where any after repentance do return unto a course of sin, it is an evident sign that their repentance was not of the right kind.

Some have truly repented of their sins although they may be overtaken and surprised by temptations so as to fall into the commission of the same sins which they have repented of, yet they do not lie in them but get up again, and with bitter grief, bewail them and return again unto the Lord. So says the Westminster Catechism. How about the Puritans? What did they believe about repentance?

Goodwin is representative of them. The British Puritan wrote this. We're mourning, that is weeping, for offending God is wanting or lacking. There is no sign of any good will yet wrought in the heart to God, nor of love to Him, without which God will never accept a man. In other words, he's saying if there's no mourning over sin, it's evident God hasn't worked in the heart.

Else there is no hope of amendment. God will not part until He sees hopes of amendment. Now until a man confesses his sin, and that with bitterness, it is a sign that he loves it. Whilst he hides it, spares it, and forsakes it not, it is sweet in his mouth. And therefore till he confess it and mourn for it, it is a sign it is not bitter to him, and so he will not forsake it. A man will never leave sin till he finds bitterness in it, and if so, then he will be in bitterness for it. And godly sorrow works repentance. Of all the statements that I have read on the subject, the strongest one comes from Charles Haddon Spurgeon.

Listen to what Spurgeon said. There must be a true and actual abandonment of sin and a turning under righteousness in real act and deed in everyday life. Repentance, to be sure, must be entire. How many will say, sir, I will renounce this sin and the other, but there are certain darling lusts which I must keep and hold. Oh, sirs, in God's name let me tell you, it is not the giving up of one sin nor fifty sins, which is true repentance. It is the solemn renunciation of every sin.

If thou dost harbor one of those accursed vipers in thy heart and thus give up every other, that one lust like one leak in a ship will sink thy soul. Think it not sufficient to give up thy outward vices, fancy it not enough to cut off the more corrupt sins of thy life, it is all or none which God demands. Repent, says he, and when he bids you repent, he means repent of all thy sins otherwise he can never accept thy repentance as real and genuine. All sin must be given up or else you will never have Christ. All transgression must be renounced or else the gates of heaven must be barred against you. Let us remember then that for repentance to be sincere it must be entire repentance. True repentance is a turning of the heart as well as of the life. It is the giving up of the whole soul to God to be His forever and ever. It is the renunciation of the sins of the heart as well as the crimes of the life."

Strong enough? What Spurgeon is saying is and what he's reflecting is the teaching of the church through all its centuries that the sinner beats on his breast and says, God, be merciful to me, a sinner, and is compelled to seek deliverance from all his sin, though it's not necessary that he recite every single sin. There's a desire in his heart to be freed from all of it. And Spurgeon is saying, if you come to Christ and say, I want you to be my Savior and I want you to give me forgiveness and I want you to promise me heaven, but there are some sins I want to keep holding on to. That's not sincere repentance. So we've looked at the Scripture, a message of repentance. We've looked at the history of the church, an affirmation of repentance. Beloved, in spite of all the Scripture and all that the history of the church reflects, there are some people who continue to declare that preaching repentance to the unsaved violates the gospel.

Did you get that? They teach that preaching repentance to the unsaved violates the gospel. For example, no less an eminent theologian than Louis Sperry Chafer writes in volume three, page 372, that repentance is one of the more common features of human responsibility which are too often erroneously added to the one requirement of faith or belief. Absolutely incredible statement. Repentance is a human responsibility erroneously added to faith? It seems to me that it's interchangeable for saving faith in the biblical record. You say, well, where does that come from?

I mean, how can a person hold that view? Well, Chafer pointed out that in Acts 16, 31, Paul did not tell the Philippian jailer to repent. He's right. You know what he said to the Philippian jailer as recorded in Scripture?

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you'll be saved. Chafer says this. Paul did not tell the Philippian jailer to repent. Then he says this. That silence, he called, and I'm quoting, an overwhelming mass of irrefutable evidence, making it clear that the New Testament does not impose repentance on the unsaved as a condition of salvation, end quote. I find it hard to understand that.

What reasoning is that? You want to know something else Paul didn't say to the Philippian jailer? He didn't say Jesus was God, according to the record of Acts 16, 31. He didn't say Jesus died on the cross. He didn't say Jesus rose from the dead.

You want to know something? He probably said all of that, including all there was to say about repentance, but it was all summed up by Luke when he penned it under the inspiration of the Spirit just to give him that one statement, because believing implied repentance and the Lord Jesus Christ implies all that He is and all that He did. But to argue from silence and cancel out every other element of repentance in the record of the New Testament and say that because it's not there, that's an overwhelming mass of evidence is mind-boggling. And one popular local pastor said, repentance does not mean to turn from sin nor change one's conduct. Now, you see, the reason they have to say that is because they have to deal with the word repentance. It's there. Another well-known teacher of the Bible says repentance means to change one's mind, not one's life.

Aha, now we're getting close to the issue. Because you're asking yourself, how in the world can people say repentance isn't an element if it just says repent, repent, repent all the time? And what you have to understand is they redefine repentance. And what they say is that repentance means to change your mind about who Jesus is, nothing more.

Repentance is a change of mind about who Christ is, has nothing to do with turning from sin, has nothing to do with abandoning self-rule. It is utterly devoid of the recognition of personal guilt. It has no element of intention to obey God.

It has no element of an intention or a desire for true righteousness. It's just to change your mind about who Jesus is. You say, well, what in the world do they do with things like Jesus saying, if you want to come after me, you have to deny yourself, take of your cross, follow me. What do they do with the words of Jesus? You have to hate your father, your mother, your sister, brother, and so forth and so forth and so forth.

What do they do? They say, oh, all of that is directed to people that are already saved, and that's calling them to the highest level of spiritual commitment. That doesn't fly, folks, because it's in that very passage that He said, what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own what?

He's talking about your eternal soul. But they then have to take every one of Jesus' statements that call people to total commitment to abandon everything to follow Him and make them statements directed at already saved people, calling them to the higher life. And so they conclude that when Jesus called someone to be a disciple, He was calling a believer to a second level, and a Christian is one thing and a disciple is another. But they say, yes, you repent in the fact that you change your mind about who Jesus is. It has nothing to do with turning from sin.

It has nothing to do with abandoning self-rule. It has no recognition of personal guilt, no intent to obey God, and no desire for true righteousness. And I submit to you that that is not what Jesus intended by 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. And Luke in chapter 24 and verse 47 said that when you go to preach, Jesus said, preach repentance for forgiveness of sins. And if you're coming to Christ for forgiveness of sins, the thing that leads to it is what? Repentance. By the way, Luke is the only gospel writer who gives the content of the message that is inherent in the Great Commission.

The other writers just give the commission, go and preach. Luke says, this is what you preach, repentance, which leads to the forgiveness of sins. And so, for repentance, it's always linked to sin. It's not just changing your mind about who Jesus is, oh, I thought He was a man, now I know He's God.

Not just that. It implies turning from sin. It's John MacArthur, chancellor of the Masters University and Seminary, showing you the connection between repentance and the gospel according to Jesus.

That is the title of John's current study, The Gospel According to Jesus. And again, John, you showed today that repentance clearly is part of the gospel message. What some people may be thinking, though, is that repentance is the basis on which God saves us, that it's a work we do in order to receive salvation.

So what about that? Is that what you're saying? That by repenting, a sinner earns favor with God? That would be outright blatant heresy, because that would be salvation by works, something you did. No, when God saves someone, He grants them faith and repentance. It's not that you mustered up in your own heart any more than you muster up saving faith. Both repentance and faith are gifts from God. That's what Peter said about Cornelius' faith, that God has granted him repentance. And Paul talks about that as well in the Pastoral Epistles, about God granting repentance. No, repentance is an element, a necessary, blessed element of the saving gift that God gives you, which includes the knowledge of saving truth, faith in Christ, and, I think, love for Christ, and hatred of sin, and a turning from sin. That's the package. All of those things are kind of bound together, aren't they?

Well, they are. You can't turn to Christ without turning from sin. No, and why, if you believe that salvation is a work of God, it's not a work so any man should boast, why would it be difficult to allow for repentance to be a part of that gift from God? That is how we have to understand it. In fact, all the panoply of soteriological blessings are granted the sinner conviction by the Holy Spirit, regeneration, new life, justification, adoption, conversion. If you pick any of them, all those great aspects of salvation are all wrapped up in the grace gift of salvation.

Yes, and thank the Lord for that. Thank you, John. And, friend, if the series is helping you grasp aspects of the gospel and your salvation that you've never considered, let us know. We'd love to hear from you. Contact us today. You can write to us at Grace2U, Box 4000, Panorama City, CA 91412, or send an email to letters at gty.org. We look forward to hearing from you, and thanks for remembering to mention this station's call letters when you write to us. And even if you don't have a story to send along just now, let me encourage you to ask to start receiving John's monthly letter if you don't already receive that from us. Those letters allow you to hear from John about issues affecting the church as well as important ministry news, and with every letter you'll receive an offer for a free book or a study guide or a booklet by John. To sign up for our monthly updates, send an email to letters at gty.org, or go to gty.org and click the subscribe button at the bottom of the page, or just give us a call at 855-GRACE. Now for John MacArthur, I'm Phil Johnson. Look for Grace to You television this Sunday on DirecTV channel 378, and be back tomorrow to see how what you believe about Christ should influence how you live. It's another half hour of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You.