Repentance According to Jesus #2

The Bible does not promise salvation to people who are unrepentant. Scripture says an unrepentant person is just adding deposits and deposits to his account of wrath. Stated differently, he's building up a debt of wrath that one day God will repay. Don't refuse to repent.

The consequences are ghastly! Welcome 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, Repentance According to Jesus. Last time, Don gave us the first two of four signs of true repentance. We must recognize our sin and then mourn over it. On today's broadcast, Don will complete the picture by challenging us to turn from sin and surrender to Christ.

So have your Bible open and let's join our teacher now in the Truth Pulpit. There's this intellectual recognition of sin. There's an emotional response to sin. But you could have those things and still fall short of repentance.

Ask yourself a third question. Do you turn from your sin? Do you turn from your sin?

In other words, do you engage your will? Have you engaged your will to say, I renounce that. I may not be able to rid myself of all of the remnants of sin, and in fact you can't, but you can renounce it. You can turn from it and say, I don't want that to be a part of me.

I'll take steps to put it to death. I just want to be separated from sin. Look at what Jesus says. We've led up to this verse multiple times, but in verse six, Jesus says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Look over at Matthew chapter 6 verse 24. Matthew 6 verse 24. No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and wealth. Are you conscious of a life orientation in your heart? Are you conscious of a time, maybe a period of time in your life, where you recognize your sin, you grieved over it, and you said, I must turn away from this decisively in order to have Christ. You see, true spiritual mourning. To know whether you are merely remorseful or repentant, here's the distinction. True spiritual mourning produces in the repentant heart an unquenchable desire for holiness. It's not just that I hate the fact that I'm a sinner. It's that I want the other side of the equation. I want the righteousness that marks one who follows and knows Christ.

Is that your heart? Jesus called for that change with the rich young ruler. Also in Luke 18 verse 22.

Listen as I read this. You remember the story Jesus met a ruler who came to him and said, and good teacher said, what must I do to obtain eternal life? Jesus said, why do you call me good? Only God is good.

They went back and forth a time or two. Jesus said, keep the commandments. He said, I've kept the commandments. And Jesus said to him in verse 22, there's one thing that you still lack. Sell all that you possess and distribute it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven and come follow me. Now, he's not saying that the man could purchase his salvation by selling his things and giving to the poor.

That would be a salvation by works. That's not the point at all. That has nothing to do with what Jesus was getting at here.

What he was getting at is this. He says, I am making a spiritual demand upon you by virtue of my authority of being the eternal son of God. And what I say to you, young ruler, he speaks to him in the second person singular. He says, what I say to you is for you to go and sell everything that you have and then come follow me.

Will you do that? Rich man walked away, grieved, wouldn't pay that price because he was a man of many possessions. Jesus was confronting his will and says, will you recognize my authority to the point that you will do what I say? He said in Luke 6 46, why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I say? Why this mocking of my authority, Jesus would say.

Why this mocking of me? Why do you mock me with your lips saying Lord, Lord and pretending to ascribe obedience to me? But when it comes down to your life choices, you will not obey.

Why do we do that? Well, whatever else you say about it, we see that the will must be engaged with true repentance. You see, repentance affects the inner man. If you refuse your will to Christ, if you say I'll do this much, but I'm going to keep this much back, and you say I'm going to determine the limits of his claim on me, and I'm going to clutch this and he can come that far but no further, you're not repentant. You see, Jesus calls for an unconditional surrender of your will to him. And you recognize it in principle at a point in time, and you say yes, I break my will, I give it to Christ, I unconditionally receive him as my Lord. That's repentance. Now that doesn't mean that you won't have to work that out in practice in the life that follows. As we grow, we recognize the implications of Christ's Lordship as different life circumstances and teachings come to us. In the repentant heart, there is settled the principle of, get this, you young people can understand this, if you're three years old, you can understand this. In repentance, you settle the question of who is boss.

You say, Lord, you're the boss. Unconditionally, I wipe my hands clean. In past times I've described it, I'm going to have to change my illustration in light of the changing nature of financial institutions and bank phone apps and everything, but it's like signing a blank check. And you hand a blank check with your name on it, hand it over to Christ and say you fill in the amount.

Lord, you fill in what this means and what the cost will be. I'm happy to simply sign my name and hand it to you, and then step back from any further claim of Lordship over my own life and heart. You see, beloved, and it's just so important for us to search these things out and to think them all the way through. Most every Sunday, I will say something along the lines, as I appeal for the gospel in a message, I'll say, you know, you need to repent and believe in Christ. Well, I can't every time go through and explain everything that repentance means. So today what we've done is we've taken a stop and we've said, okay, what does repentance means? Well, do you recognize your sin?

Do you mourn over it? Have you turned from sin to Christ? You see, repentance affects the inner man. And if you refuse your will to Christ, if you say I won't have that man reign over me even though I feel guilty, you're not repentant. Repentance bows at the feet of Christ and says, yes, Lord, please take me.

You are the master, Lord, God, and King, and I bow before you from deep within my heart. Stated another way, I'm trying to define this from every possible way to drive out any corner of misunderstanding or rebellion in your heart. You see, repentance, beloved, if you want to be serious about repentance, you need to understand this. Repentance wants more than to be delivered from hell. You see, you don't have to be a Christian to say I'd rather not go to hell.

If you understand the consequences of that at any degree, you say that is a place I would rather not go. You know, there's nothing spiritual necessarily about that desire. I don't want to go to hell. But we're defining repentance here and what true repentance looks like. You know, say this prayer so you won't go to hell. Oh, no.

No. You see, true repentance wants more than to be delivered from hell. True repentance wants to be delivered from sin. True repentance wants Christ and wants His righteousness and wants that to be the dominating animating principle of His heart. An affection for Christ, a loyalty to Christ, and an increasing manifestation of the revealed righteousness of God as it is found in the pages of Scripture and in the lovely life of our Lord Jesus Christ.

It says I want to be like that. You see repentance when you understand, you start to see the way that this comes together. Here I am, I'm standing here as a guilty, condemned sinner who was not only in darkness but loved the darkness and the horror of that and the shame of that and the guilt of that.

You look at that and say, I don't want to be like that anymore. I will turn away from it all in order to go toward Christ. Does your heart know something of that kind of turning to Him? Now, whenever you teach on repentance like you mean it, inevitably there's somebody who either from sincere confusion or from misguided antagonism objects and says, aren't you teaching salvation by works when you talk that way? No, we're not talking about salvation by works at all. Repentance is not a pre-salvation effort to clean your life up. Repentance is an internal response to the work of God and the recognition of sin. It's a heart response that recognizes what God says about sin and turns away from it. Not because that turning merits and deserves God's favor, but because it is the appropriate response of one who would separate himself from sin in order to receive Christ.

It earns no merit. The Bible says that repentance is a gift from God. It's a divinely bestowed gift. Acts 11 verse 18 says that God is granted to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.

Beloved, if it's a gift, it's not something you can boast about. It's not a work that you conjure up in your own effort. It's a divinely granted response to the truth about holiness, sin, and judgment. That the repentant person gladly engages with all of his heart. Let me say this one other way.

Lots of different angles here. Encourage you to get the message downloaded after it's over and listen to this again and again if you're uncertain about whether you're a Christian after hearing a message like this. You need to think about it this way. The Bible does not promise salvation to people who are unrepentant. Romans 2 5, because of your stubborn and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourselves. Scripture says an unrepentant person is just adding deposits and deposits to his account of wrath.

Stated differently, he's building up a debt of wrath that one day God will repay. Don't be like that. Don't refuse to repent. Don't turn away when Christ is graciously showing to you what he requires in order to enter into his salvation. Don't turn away, beloved.

The consequences are ghastly. And I beg you. Oh, I beg you to take heed and to ask God to help you. Take heed. And so, repentance turns from sin and puts its faith in Christ. Faith receives Christ and rests on him alone for salvation. As many as received him.

I receive him. I rest in him. I rest my eternal destiny in the merits and shed blood of Jesus Christ alone. That's what faith is. As many as received him, he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name. So we could say that repentance rejects sin and receives Christ by faith. Believing in the promise of eternal life. Final question. Are you surrendered to Christ?

Everything we've been saying has kind of been building up to this. But are you surrendered to Christ? You see, if you would have Christ, Jesus calls you to give your loyalty to him.

To transfer your allegiance to him. All other earthly affections become secondary by comparison. Look at Matthew chapter 10. And just look at the fact we're just letting Jesus speak in his own words here. Jesus calls for your supreme final affection to belong to him and no one else. And without that surrendering of your ultimate affection to him, you cannot be saved. Look at what he says, Matthew 10 verse 37. Please open your Bibles and turn there if you haven't. You need to see the word of God with your own eyes and see that I'm not making this up. I didn't invent this.

I couldn't have invented this. Jesus said in Matthew 10, 37, He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. He goes right to the heart of our closest earthly affections and says, You cannot love them more than you love me. I demand, I call upon you, Christ says, I call upon your deepest, fullest heart allegiance without reservation.

That's what you must have if you would have me, otherwise you're not worthy of me. Verse 38, He who does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. He who has found his life will lose it. And he who has lost his life for my sake will save it. Christ Jesus confronts every human heart. Leave your life behind or you will die in your sin. Look over at the Gospel of Luke.

I'm almost done here. Luke chapter 13. Luke 13 verse 3. And then we're going to look at a passage in Luke 14 as well. Luke 13 verse 3. Jesus says, Unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. This is the repentance that he calls for.

And it comes attached with a warning. Unless you repent, you will perish. Look over at chapter 14 verse 26 of the Gospel of Luke. Luke 14 verse 26. If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters.

Yes, and even his own life. He cannot be my disciple. I will not have one who has a higher affection than his affection for me. Jesus calls for surrendering our entire heart, our heart affection to him. And he says if you won't do that, you can't have a part in me.

I am Lord and those who would follow me as Lord cannot have another Lord above me. You might say, where does he get off talking that way? This is the prerogative of the eternal Son of God to speak as he wishes. This is his prerogative. This is his royal prerogative to say this is what it takes to enter into my kingdom. And it is right.

It is good. Proper for a king to require his true subjects to own him as their ultimate, their all. And to not try to drag in other earthly affections that are actually supreme in your heart to Christ. These are the words of one who laid down his life blood for your soul.

By nature of who he is, by nature of his work, Jesus has, for lack of a better term, earned the prerogative to call us to that. And only a wicked, unbelieving heart would try to rip that royal scepter from his hand and say you have no right to claim that from me. You saved me on my terms. Oh, the blasphemy of it. With his royal scepter, he graciously holds it out and says, will you kiss the scepter? Will you bow to my authority? Will you acknowledge my sovereign work of salvation on your behalf and receive me as king because I'll receive you into my kingdom? I'll give you blessing upon blessing upon blessing, but the price is your affection for me. Many people, John chapter 6, when John recorded about the life of Christ, when Jesus made this claim apparent upon people, speaking to thousands, thousands walked away, said it's a difficult statement.

Who can hear it? Jesus didn't soften the demands. He turned to the few remaining disciples in the group and said, you don't want to go away too, do you? Beloved, we must let Christ be Lord and let him declare the terms of his kingdom.

And we must respond in the way that he calls us to do. So I ask you, have you repented? Have you turned to Christ in this way?

Have you turned to Christ in the way that was the capstone to his teaching after his resurrection, which we remember this day? Repentance for the forgiveness of sins must be proclaimed in his name to all the nations. Your repentance will never be perfect. In this life, we will continue to fight against sin.

Don't measure it by its perfection, but ask yourself if the sincere marks of repentance are there in your heart. Is your life oriented toward? Are your desires anchored in wanting Christ and his righteousness more than you want this world in sin? Do you love him more than life itself? Do you understand why a man would tell his wife on their wedding day, I'd rather be found dead than to love you more than the one who bought my soul?

Do you understand something of that? That's the mark of true repentance. Even if your sanctification, as it most certainly isn't, isn't yet complete. For those of us who are Christians, as we close, if sinners must repent, how much more should we repent? Charles Spurgeon said, This Christian must never quit repenting, for I fear that he never quits sinning. In the end, this is all joyful.

Why? Because repentance opens the door to grace. When we turn to God like Christ has required us to do, we find that he is waiting with untold blessing and grace and favor. I call you to repentance, not simply to leave behind your sin-filled judgment certain life. I call you to repentance. Christ calls you to repentance himself through the proclamation of his Word, because he would bless you. He would pour out blessing upon blessing upon you. He would cleanse you from all of your guilt. He would bless you with joy. He would keep you, hold you fast until you are safe in heaven.

He would do all of that. He simply lays out the cost. And no one who has ever truly repented and received Christ has found that Christ has cut him a short deal. Christ has blessed everyone who has ever received him super abundantly beyond all that that person could have asked or thought. In this life, with freedom of conscience, clearness of mind, love and peace and joy, and then still infinitely more when heaven comes, all of that blessing shows that his call to repentance is sincere and well-intended for your good. Beloved, if you walk out of here unrepentant, after everything that we've seen from God's Word today, your blood is on your own head, and there is no excuse for you if you would walk out that way. Christ Jesus has presented himself to you, said, I will save you from your sin. Come to me. I want to bless you.

He says, I want to bless you. Don't walk out unforgiven. That would be a tragedy. Walk out with Christ. That would be glory. Repentance, according to Jesus, involves recognizing sin, mourning over it, turning from it, and surrendering to Christ completely. The other side of that coin is what repentance is not, and Pastor Don Green will explore that next time here on The Truth Pulpit as he continues the series, Unless You Repent.

Don't miss a moment. Right now, though, here's Don with some exciting ministry news. Well, my friend, it's always meaningful for me to be able to preach God's Word to God's people and to share it with you here on the radio.

Recently, I completed a series that is one of my all-time favorites. It's called The Bible and Roman Catholicism. It was several messages designed to test Catholic teaching by what Scripture says. We'd like to share a copy of that with you, a full, complete CD album of ten messages.

Just go to our website and request it, or you'll find the downloads. We just want you to have this material at no cost as our gift and ministry to you. Just visit us at thetruthpulpit.com and click on Radio Offers to learn more. While you're there, you can also find out about podcasts and CDs of Don's teaching. That's thetruthpulpit.com. I'm Bill Wright, and we'll see you next time on The Truth Pulpit.