Unrepentant to the End #1

Repentance is a full turning away from sin with a purpose to pursue obedience to God. And it takes place in the context of the sinner understanding that mercy is offered to him in the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you ever prayed that God would bring some hardship to an unbeliever in the hopes that such a circumstance would lead them to repentance and surrender to Christ?

Does hardship or even one's deathbed lead to repentance? Not according to scripture. And you'll see why that's so today on The Truth Pulpit. Hello again, I'm Bill Wright and we're continuing our series, Unless You Repent, with part one of a message titled Unrepentant to the End. Don will take us to the account in the gospels of the two thieves to the right and left of our Lord on the cross.

Two different people, two very different responses and outcomes. And a most instructive lesson for us today. So have your Bible handy as we join our teacher now in The Truth Pulpit. Matthew chapter seven, verse twenty one. We see our Lord saying, Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven will enter.

Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. It's a text of warning. And when you preach a text of warning, there needs to be a tone, a demeanor of warning that is involved in it as well. This is a text of warning and there are warnings that we need to take to mind.

And that's what we want to do in a message that I've titled Unrepentant to the End. We did a study called Surprisingly Far from Repentance and looked at some scriptural examples of people that would seem to be so close to being on the verge of repentance. And yet they weren't.

They were actually very far from it. And we saw a couple of principles that I want to review. We saw that first of all, the feeling of regret or the feeling of remorse by itself is not repentance. Regret alone is not repentance. Being sorry for sin is not repentance if that is just standing alone.

We illustrated that from the life of Judas Iscariot. He felt regret so much so that he gave back the silver that they had given him to betray Christ into their hands. But then he went out and hanged himself. This was not repentance unto life.

This was a sorrow and a regret that led him to suicide. That's not repentance. Repentance is something else. Stephen's preaching we saw in Acts chapter 7 pierced the hearts of the Jews, but they also turned to death in response, only they didn't kill themselves.

They killed Stephen. And so regret alone is not repentance. Conviction alone is not repentance. The other thing, secondly, that we saw is that miracles do not produce repentance. And we saw evidence of these things in the teaching of our Lord.

Abraham told the rich man in Hades that if people will not hear Moses and the prophets, it wouldn't matter if you sent to them a man risen from the dead. It's something so supernatural known to men, a man from the dead come back to preach to them would not avail them, would not drive them to repentance if they were not willing to hear the word of God. And here's what I want you to see as we're contemplating this and we're starting to think through the implications of the gospel. And we're thinking through the implications of what Scripture says about the hardness and the deadness of the hearts of men. The refusal of men to repent, even when they're under conviction and even when they are showing remorse and feel remorse, it shows how desperately hard-hearted the human race is. Now, with that said, let's just step back for a moment and answer the question, what is repentance? What is repentance unto life as follows? This is the real deal here in terms of what true repentance is. And it answers the question in this way. It says repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin and the apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ with grief and hatred of his sin, turns from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience. That's a mouthful, isn't it?

Let me say it again. 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 with grief and hatred of his sin, turns from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience. Repentance is a full turning away from sin with a purpose to pursue obedience to God. And it takes place in the context of the sinner understanding that mercy is offered to him in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he has a sense of sin, he has a sense of an offer of mercy in Christ, and he turns away from sin with the purpose to pursue obedience to Christ in his life. And this is a gift of God.

It is not a work of man, it is a gift of God. But there is a sense of sin, there is a sense of mercy offered in Christ, and with sorrow over sin you turn from sin and pursue new obedience, a whole new way of life, understanding that there's a new pursuit in your life at the heart. Well, this is what real repentance is. It is a common mistake, a common misunderstanding to think that as people draw closer to calamity, that their hearts will be softened and be more likely to turn to God in repentance. And scripture shows us that that is not necessarily the case. And so we need, as we see these things, we're going to see two things become clear and rise as it were from the ashes in our mind. Number one, how desperately dead the human heart is toward the things of God. And secondly, how desperately we need the grace of God above all things to be at work if anybody is going to be saved.

Jesus said there will be many on that last day who are sent away. And He had said earlier, as you know, because we've been emphasizing this so very much, the gate is narrow, the way is narrow that leads to life. And so we want to see this illustrated force and to kind of come to grips with it individually, come to grips with this as a church so that we would see how utterly reliant we are upon God to do a supernatural work rather than trusting in any human conditions or anything about man to turn to God on his own.

And so what we want to do, we'll continue the numbering from last time. Our third point in this series, number one was regret alone is not repentance. Secondly, miracles do not produce repentance. And thirdly, and this one is weighty, thirdly we want to see that the deathbed, the deathbed does not produce repentance. You could say the deathbed does not necessarily produce repentance.

And I want you to think with me about this. We often talk about the thief on the cross. And people often look to the thief on the cross as being a message of hope about being able to be saved even in extremity.

And that's very good and it's right that we should do that. If you would look at Luke chapter 23 with me, Luke 23, Luke 23 beginning in verse 39. We just need to think these things all the way through to the end. We need to work through it completely and not simply cherry pick the things that we like and ignore other truth that is evident right in the same passage. And so in Luke chapter 23 verse 39 through 43 we see this. One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at Christ saying, Are you not the Christ?

Save yourself and us. But the other answered and rebuking him said, Do you not even fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds.

This man has done nothing wrong. And he was saying, Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom. And he said to him, truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise. Now with this thief who turns to Christ and asks him to remember him, you see everything. You see all of the elements of true repentance. You see him acknowledging his own sin.

We are suffering justly. You see him turning to Christ, apprehending the mercy of Christ and having nothing other than the written placard above the head of Christ. This is Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. And he says, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And so in the simplicity of his repentance and in the simplicity of these words, he abandons the world, he turns to Christ, confessing his sin and asks for mercy.

And our Lord graciously and lovingly and eagerly granted it to him, said, today you'll be with me in paradise. That is one of the great evangelical texts in all of scripture about the unconditional mercy of God toward repentant sinners. This man was not baptized. Baptism is not essential. It is not necessary for salvation.

This man had no opportunity to be baptized. But you see his faith and his understanding of Christ demonstrated in what he said. And Jesus' response shows the great mercy he had, even as he was hanging on the cross. It's amazing, an amazing statement of who our Lord is and how full of mercy and self-emptying he was to look on this repentant thief with a sense of mercy and to assure him of eternal life, even as Christ himself was suffering greatly.

What a wonderful, wonderful Lord he is. And we remember that. And we know that story well.

But, beloved, I want to remind you of something that we less often call to mind. There were two thieves. There were two thieves, one on either side of Jesus.

And one of them did not repent, even though he was facing death. In his dying breath, he rebuked Christ. Can you imagine?

Can you imagine? He's on the verge of dying, and he rebukes the only one who could save him from his dilemma, the only one who could save him from his sin. And he rebuked Christ with his dying breath, said, Are you not the Christ?

Save yourself and us. He mocks him. He challenges him. He rejects him, even as he is hanging, as it were. I'm mixing metaphors here.

Hanging on his deathbed. In Matthew 27, verse 44, it says, The robbers who had been crucified with him were also insulting him with the same words. And so, when you put the passages together, you get the picture that early on in the process, both thieves were looking at Christ and insulting him. But in the course as the hours went by, the one thief looks at Christ and turns to him in repentance, as God graciously worked in his heart to save him at the last hour. And we look at that and we say, There's hope for sinners even on the deathbed.

And I agree with that, and I affirm that. But, beloved, if we're going to handle God's Word carefully and think rightly about these issues, there is an encouragement and there is also a great caution at the same time, because they both did not get saved. They both did not turn to Christ, or better stated, they did not both turn to Christ.

One of them did not. And what I want you to see in this is that a sinner can know that death is just ahead of him. A sinner can have Christ presented to him clearly. No one had Christ more clearly present before him than that other thief on the cross. And in hardness of heart, he mocked Christ, he insulted him, he refused to repent, and he entered into perdition with Christ just on the other side of his view. Beloved, history is littered with men who were in sorrow, agony, and fear on their deathbeds, and yet they did not call on Christ for their salvation. Few things, if any, in the catalog of principles that we could talk about show the hard-hearted hatred of men toward God than that. That they would hate God all the way into death and reject the one who could save them.

And here's what I want you to see. It is sobering. This is, you know, these are not easy things for us to contemplate. But what I want you to see and to have in mind is this, is that life's greatest extremity is no guarantee of repentance. There is no guarantee that a man or woman will become softer toward the things of God as death starts to come upon them. I want to just kind of expand on this with a quote from J.C. Ryle.

J.C. Ryle said this, and I quote. He said, repentance, it's kind of a lengthy quote, so stay with me here. Repentance and faith are the gifts of God and are not in a man's own power. If anyone flatters himself that he can repent at his own time and, like the penitent thief, be saved at the very last, he may find at length he is greatly deceived.

Continuing the quote. There is an immense amount of delusion in the world on this subject. I see many allowing life to slip away, all unprepared to die. I see many allowing that they ought to repent, but always putting off their own repentance.

And I believe the one grand reason is that most men suppose they can turn to God just when they like. They talk of the thief that went to paradise and was saved, and they forget the one who died as he lived and was lost. End quote. Another writer says this from 300 years ago. He says most ungrateful and foolish is the conduct of those who take encouragement from the penitent thief to put off repentance to a dying moment. They pervert the grace of their redeemer into an occasion of renewing their provocations against him. They are most foolish to imagine that what our Lord did in so singular circumstances is to be drawn into an ordinary precedent. End quote.

What he's saying is this. People foolishly look to the penitent thief and say, I can be saved on my deathbed as well, and so I can put off the gospel. I can put off the claims of Christ on my life, and I'll just repent at the end, and all will be well with me, and I'll enjoy sin all the way up to the end, call out to Christ at the last moment, and everything will be well.

This is an utter delusion of the greatest and most perverted kind of sort for people to think in such terms, and let's just think through it a little bit here. What makes anyone think that if they are unwilling to turn to Christ now that pursuing sin will somehow soften their heart to him later in life? Those of you that are not in Christ right now, I ask you, on what grounds do you think that being hard to Christ now and rejecting him when he's presented to you in mercy is going to make you more likely to receive him in the end? Your trajectory of life is what you should assume is going to be the outcome. You should not presume on grace at the end when you reject it, when you're in sound mind and sound body, and it's presented to you clearly and with mercy and with pleadings from God's Word in the end.

There's no reason to think that your heart will get softer the more you harden yourself in sin. That's foolishness. That's an entirely wrong way to think.

It is a trivialization of the gospel. And also I would say this. It's a foolish assumption for any one of us to make to think that we're actually going to have time to contemplate eternal matters before we die. People die suddenly and unexpectedly all the time. They die in their sleep. They die in an accident.

They die of a stroke. There is no justification for even assuming that you'll have time to consider it in the end. There's no justification to think that your heart will be willing in the end. And beloved, having been alongside many people in their deathbeds, there's no reason to think that you're even going to have the presence of mind to think about spiritual things in the end. When death is racking and breath is hard to come by, and you have that rattle in your throat, there's no reason to think that you're going to be able to call out to Christ then.

This is a grand delusion. This is a satanic deception to lull people into sleep thinking that the end of life will bring them to a spiritual sensitivity that they don't have and they're not even interested in now. 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 just might as well, look, you might as well, speaking to sinners here, speaking as those speaking to sinners, you know what I mean, 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. Now, I realize I'm with brothers and sisters in Christ predominantly here. I understand or I hope that you'll understand the spirit in which I'm speaking and saying these things. I'm not accusing everyone in here of not being a Christian.

That's the furthest thing from my mind. We're talking about gospel principles here. 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, speaking now to you Christians, 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. As Pastor Don Green has emphasized today on The Truth Pulpit, deathbeds indeed do not produce repentance. But what about obvious judgments of God occurring all around an unbeliever?

Could that do the trick? Well, of course not. And Don Green will offer examples from Scripture once again next time as we continue our series, Unless You Repent, with the conclusion of the message, Unrepentant to the End. Plan now to be with us.

Right now, though, Don is back in studio with some closing thoughts. Friend, one of the things that I'm always mindful of when I'm here in studio is I'm mindful that there are people out in the audience that are like I used to be, thinking that they were Christians but not really having the life of God in their soul. You've perhaps read the Bible or gone to church, but you've never really turned your life to Christ in repentance and saving faith.

I was like that. I know what it's like to be self-deceived. I just encourage you, if you've just viewed Christianity as something kind of casual and not all that important, my friend, examine yourself.

See if you're truly born again, and let that work of God in your heart lead you to truth, lead you to the Scriptures, so that you would enter into the profound life that belongs only to those who are true Christians. Thanks, Don. And friend, we hope you'll visit TheTruthPulpit.com to learn more about our ministry. That's TheTruthPulpit.com. I'm Bill Wright, and we'll see you back here next time on The Truth Pulpit.