Unrepentant to the End #2

If a heart won't repent when a man comes back from the dead, if a heart won't repent on the deathbed, do you realize how weak and helpless we are?

We need the Holy Spirit to help us supernaturally. We welcome you again to the Truth Pulpit with Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Hi, I'm Bill Wright, and we're continuing our series, Unless You Repent. Don has part two of a message titled, Unrepentant to the End. Last time Don pointed out how dead the human heart is toward the things of God. We were reminded that regret alone is not repentance, that miracles don't produce repentance, nor does even the deathbed.

Today our teacher will explain why terrible judgments also won't do the trick. Have your Bible open as we join Pastor Don Green now in the Truth Pulpit. The deathbed cannot be counted on to produce repentance. Scripture says that today is the day of salvation. If you know that you are lost and you hear the claims of Christ, today is the day for you to act upon that, because you have no guarantee of tomorrow, and even if you have tomorrow, there's no reason to think that your heart's going to be any more tender then than it is now. You might as well, if you are going to think rightly about these things, you should assume that if you push Christ away today, that you're going to push him away even more eagerly tomorrow, because your heart is being conditioned. And just like sun is baking soft clay into something hard and immovable, no longer pliable, that's what rejection of the Gospel does to the human heart.

The more you reject it, the more you should understand that you're making it more difficult to repent in the future. And so, as you have opportunity to share the Gospel, people say, well I'll consider it later, you point them to the other thief on the cross, you warn them, you help them understand that they are assuming things that there's no reason to think are going to be true in the end. It's just so very concerning to me, it's weighty to me, I lose sleep over these kinds of things, to see how lightly people tread upon the Gospel, how lightly they treat it.

And beloved, I want you to see something about your Lord in this context. When he was speaking in Matthew chapter 7, he warned everyone about this. Christ warned about the outcome.

This is not a surprise. There will be no one who can say, I wasn't told, I didn't know. Christ warned about it. People don't even care enough to open the Word of God to read what he had to say. They prefer a Christ of their own making and a Gospel that tends to their own preferences and the way they want it to be, rather than to hear what Christ said it actually is, to believe him, to respect his authority, to defer to him and to believe and submit. Well look, the outcome of that mindset towards spiritual things and towards Scripture is eternal death.

These things matter, don't they? And so, given whatever platform the Lord gives us and whatever breath the Lord gives us, we try to speak and we try to warn of these things. The people would not foolishly gamble with eternity for the sake of a few more days of sin and fleshly intoxication. So, the deathbed does not produce repentance in and of itself.

It takes the work of God. Now, fourthly, we'll see something else and this just gets even more striking. Fourthly, we see that judgment does not produce repentance. Judgment does not produce repentance. You know, Ecclesiastes says that insanity is in the hearts of men.

Insanity is in the hearts of men and few things will illustrate that truth more than what we are about to see. Men who love their sin, men who hate God, have as the ruling principle of their being utter spiritual insanity. Things that are against their own self-interest. They hate God so much when push comes to shove and when it's really brought out, they hate God so much that they prefer their own destruction to repentance.

That is how wicked and desperately sick they are. They hate God so much that the wicked and desperately sick the human heart is. And we're going to see that as we look to the book of Revelation chapter 9 and chapter 16. Turn to Revelation 9 with me if you will. Revelation chapter 9, in this look at future judgment we read in verse 13.

Revelation chapter 9 verse 13. The sixth angel sounded and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God. One saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates. And the four angels who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year were released so that they would kill a third of mankind.

The number of armies of the horsemen was 200 million. I heard the number of them and this is how I saw in the vision the horses and those who sat on them. The riders had breast plates, the color of fire and of hyacinth and of brimstone. And the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions and out of their mouths proceed fire and smoke and brimstone. Now look what's happening in the judgment that is being poured out at mankind at that time. Verse 18, a third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire and the smoke and the brimstone which proceeded out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails for their tails are like serpents and have heads and with them they do harm.

So get the picture here. A third of humanity is perishing in the midst of supernatural judgment coming from the angel of God, fire and smoke and brimstone. And there are these unthinkable, unimaginable destructions going on all around. And what's the response of those who are left and are still living? Surely they turned to God, didn't they? In light of the display of his power, in light of the display of judgment, in light of the power of judgment, in light of the evident visible consequences of sin and judgment right in front of their faces as a third of their fellow mankind perishes, in the light of things that have never been seen before. Surely they turned to God in repentance and cried out and said, God have mercy on me, the sinner, right? Surely they turned to God in repentance and cried out and said, God have mercy on me, the sinner, right? Surely that's what they did.

Not quite. Verse 20, the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their hands so as not to worship demons and the idols of gold and of silver and of brass and of stone and of wood which can neither see nor hear nor walk and they did not repent of their murders nor of their sorceries nor of their immorality nor of their thefts. They clung to sin in the face of judgment. They refused to repent even when supernatural judgment was raining down upon their heads. Even as they saw men falling to their left and to their right, they refused to repent. God's judgment standing alone did not produce repentance in them and we see the insanity in their hearts. Where do they think this is going? Are they going to successfully resist the judgment and overcome the one that's killed 33% of humanity all around them?

Do they think that it's going to come out better for them if they're harder in heart? This, beloved, is utter insanity. This is what the unsaved human heart, this is the natural outcome of its rebellion against God. There is no inclination toward repentance anywhere in the unregenerate heart and you see that laid out plainly when it is subjected to judgment. Later on in the apocalypse we see a similar result. Look at Revelation chapter 16. Revelation chapter 16 verse 8. The fourth angel poured out his bowl upon the sun and it was given to it to scorch men with fire.

How did they respond? Men were scorched with fierce heat and they blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues and they did not repent so as to give him glory. Then the fifth angel poured out his bowl of judgment. Look at verse 10. The fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast and his kingdom became darkened and they gnawed their tongues because of pain and what did they do? They blasphemed the God of heaven because of their pains and their sores and they did not repent of their deeds.

You know, have a family member in mind with what I'm about to say who's had a very, very sad and miserable life. I won't go into the details because the details don't matter, but we are tempted to think in our worldly thinking, in our unsanctified portion of our mind, we are tempted to think that difficult physical trials will soften the hearts of the lost and sometimes you'll hear people say, well, you know, I'm just praying that God will bring something into his life and make it hard on him and maybe that'll soften him up. That's not a good way to think.

That is simply not true. Another writer said this, writing back in the mid 20th century. He said and I quote, physical pain and anguish may produce blasphemy but not repentance. A man might bitterly rue the sin that brought the wrath of a vindictive God down upon his head and at the same time blaspheme against the God who inflicts the suffering.

End quote. That's what we see going on in Revelation. They feel the weight, the full weight of suffering. They feel the weight of judgment and their response is not repentance. It's blasphemy and that gives us a sense of the difficulty of these things. And so as we are moving about amongst the lost, as we are thinking rightly about the nature of the gospel, we should not hope that outward circumstances even of the most adverse kind will produce repentance in the heart of those who are suffering. That is not the source of repentance. External circumstances, external affliction is not the source of repentance.

It's not where it comes from. And external circumstances and external trials and I would venture to say that most of you if not all of you have seen this illustrated in the lives of people you know, perhaps in the lives of people that you love, to see that affliction did not soften their heart but made them even more hard and more bitter and more resistant to any kind of talk about the gospel or of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why is that?

Why is that? Do you see, beloved, do you understand that what that is manifesting is how much the human heart loves self, loves sin and hates and resists God? Rather than turning to God in affliction, they are showing that they will not have God. They will not have God even at the great cost of their present suffering. They just hate him for the affliction rather than turning to him in repentance for relief not only from the anguish of affliction but for salvation from sin.

That is how hard the human heart is. And what it shows us as we kind of work this all the way through theologically you might say, what it shows us is the utter impossibility, the utter impossibility of humans producing repentance. I can't produce repentance in the human heart. You can't make someone repent.

If God's judgment won't make someone repent, you and I don't have the power to do it either. You see, repentance that truly leads to salvation comes from another source. It comes from something else. It comes not from external circumstances but from the work of God within. It's something that God has to grant to a man, has to grant to a woman and if God does not grant it, nothing else will.

Nothing else can produce it. Turn over to the book of Acts chapter 11 if you would. Acts chapter 11.

You may recall that Peter is giving a report of his ministry to the Jews and we'll pick up the story in verse 15 as he's talking about how his preaching had resulted in the conversion of Gentiles. He said in verse 15 of Acts chapter 11, as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as he did upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he used to say, John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Therefore, if God gave to them the same gift as he gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way. And when they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God saying, well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life. We've pointed out many times over the years that salvation is of the Lord. Salvation belongs to the Lord. It is his gift.

It is his power. He is the one who must produce it in the heart. Men are commanded to repent and believe, but God must do a work in their heart for that to take place.

And if God does not do it, no man anywhere under the sky of heaven will be inclined to do it on his own. There takes a work of God to draw a man out of sin and to draw him to Christ. Christ said in John 6, no one can come to the Father unless he draws him. In Acts chapter 16 verse 14, in the story of Lydia, you can turn to Acts 16 verse 14, a woman named Lydia from the city of Thyatira, a seller of purple fabrics, a worshiper of God, was listening and the Lord opened her heart to respond to the things spoken by Paul.

The Lord opened her heart and she responded to the things that were being spoken by Paul. In John chapter 1 verse 11 and 12, John chapter 1 verses 11 and 12, we read this in verse 13, he came to his own and those who were his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God even to those who believe in his name.

Where was the, what was the source of the power for them to believe? Verse 13 he goes on and expands, who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man. The will of man cannot produce this result on its own but of God. And finally one last passage in 2 Timothy chapter 2.

I'll just read it, you don't need to turn there. 2 Timothy chapter 2 beginning in verse 24 says, the Lord's bondservant must not be quarrelsome but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth. God opened Lydia's heart. God granting repentance. The will of God leading people to believe in the name of Christ. God granting repentance to the Gentiles.

First of all, as we look at that, we realize, let's start with ourselves if we are in Christ. Do you realize how utterly humbling this is to us if we are in Christ? It was not my superior wisdom, my superior insight compared to another man that has me now in Christ compared to someone who has not. God had mercy on my sin-sick rebellious soul and opened up my heart to believe the things that I had heard about the gospel to turn to Christ. God gave me a gift that I did not deserve, that I would not have sought on my own when I repented all those years ago.

The same is true of you, beloved. If you are in Christ, God has had mercy on you and you should glorify him, you should have gratitude in your heart toward him for that, but the last thing that should be in your mind is any kind of sense of superiority compared to someone who did not. You are simply on the receiving end of mercy you did not deserve. And that humbles us, that does not, as is so often falsely charged against Calvinism, that does not lead us to a sense of pride, it leads us to an utter sense of humility. Grace was given to me that I wasn't looking for, that I did not deserve, that I had spat at in the past. And yet, as it were, the Lord looked at me and said, today you'll be with me in paradise.

A mercy given to one that was not given to the other. Secondly, beloved, I would want to encourage you as you're sharing with family, as you're sharing with others in the workplace, in your neighborhood, and people just won't listen. Beloved, do you see where the problem is? The problem is in their dead and cold and stony heart. And you cannot make them repent. If God's judgment won't produce repentance, what are our pipsqueak words going to do? Unless the Spirit of God helps and does a work in their heart to open their heart like he did Lydia. Where does this leave us? If we're in Christ, it leaves us with a sense of profound, humble gratitude.

God, thank you for saving me. When it comes to evangelism, when it comes to sharing Christ, how do we help people? We point them to the Word of God. We abandon the thought that there is some magic argument that I can use that will automatically produce repentance.

That's not true. There is no such argument. Beloved, if there was such an argument that by the sheer force of human reason would force someone to repent, we could convert the entire world. All we would have to do is go out and make the argument.

But it's not like that. And so what we do is we point them to the Word of God where the power resides. We point them to Christ crucified, Christ risen for sinners. We point them to the Christ who freely offers himself in mercy.

And we bid them to come. And as we do that, we ask God to help us by the work of his Holy Spirit to do that work in their heart which is beyond our power to do. We are dependent as we share Christ. I am dependent as I preach the Word of God.

I can't persuade anybody by the sheer force of my eloquence or lack thereof. We need the Holy Spirit to help us supernaturally. Because if a heart won't repent when a man comes back from the dead, if a heart won't repent in the presence of miracles, if a heart won't repent even when it's feeling remorse over its own sin, a heart won't repent on the deathbed, a heart won't repent in face of the judgment of God, do you realize how weak and helpless we are unless the Spirit of God comes down? It helps you understand why one of my favorite hymns is, Brethren, we have met to worship because there's a line in there that says, all is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down.

That's how dead and hard the human heart is. That's how great the power of God is, that any one at all is converted shows the power of God over the human heart. And we ask him to do his work as we minister his word in private and in public. And when people are converted, when we're converted, he gets all the praise.

He gets all the glory. If miracles, the circumstances around death, and even terrible judgments from above won't lead a person to repentance, you can clearly see now why nothing short of the supernatural intervention of God through the Holy Spirit will suffice. That's important insight today on the truth pulpit. Pastor Don Green will continue our series, Unless You Repent, on our next program.

Be sure to join us then. Right now, though, here's Don with some exciting ministry news. Well, my friend, today I have an opportunity to offer you something for free that goes beyond what we've done on our radio broadcast. It's a 10-message CD album titled The Bible and Roman Catholicism.

It's a series I recently completed at Truth Community Church, taking scripture and evaluating what Catholics teach and believe about the pope, about Mary, about the mass, and about the whole nature of salvation. It's a resource that you really need to have in your hands, either for yourself or for your friends and loved ones, to know how to interact with them. And it's available for free at the place that Bill's going to point you to right now. Just visit us at thetruthpulpit.com and click on Radio Offers to learn more. I'm Bill Wright, inviting you back next time when Don Green presents more from The Truth Pulpit.