The Nature of Repentance, Part 5

Introduction: The Indispensable Nature of Repentance and Faith

0:02 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, September 4th, 2005, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. We come this morning to the fifth message in a series which I have entitled, Repentance and Faith, the Hinge on the Door of Salvation. And as we do, let me remind you at the outset that while with the Apostle, according to Acts 20-21, I am teaching and solemnly testifying repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ,

0:46 my ultimate goal and aim is not that you would have a better grasp upon the biblical doctrines of repentance but that you would have a better grasp upon the biblical doctrines of repentance but that you would have a better grasp upon the biblical doctrines of repentance and of faith. Rather, it is that having been instructed regarding the nature of true repentance and of saving faith, that you may with judgment day sobriety and honesty ask yourself, Am I, today, a penitent and a believing sinner? Yes, I want you to ask that question.

1:27 Am I, today, a penitent and a believing sinner? Yes, I want you to ask that question. Am I, today, a truly penitent and believing sinner? Now, by way of brief review, let me remind you of the biblical ground we've covered in the first four studies.

Review: The Soil, Taproots, and Substance of Repentance

2:10 Having established from the Scriptures that repentance and faith are both indispensable and inseparable in any saving experience of the grace of God, we then began to consider the nature and the form and the fruit of repentance unto life. And as I did begin this study with you, I informed you of the three things that would be the dominant features of the messages on repentance. Scripture will be our supreme authority, the Shorter Catechism will be our organizing framework, and the image of a tree will be our visual aid.

2:53 And so we began by quoting the Shorter Catechism. And so we began by quoting the Shorter Catechism. What is repentance unto life? Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin and an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience.

3:26 Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience. Repentance unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner, out of a true sense of his sin, and an apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ, does, with grief and hatred of his sin, turn from it unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience. obedience. And moving then into the image of the tree, we said that the soil of repentance is the grace of God. Whenever there is true repentance, it is because God in grace has powerfully worked

3:44 in the heart of a sinner. And we examined the three texts which explicitly teach that repentance is a divine gift. And then we considered, secondly, the taproots of repentance. They are, on the one hand, a felt sense of one's sin and sinfulness, and on the other hand, a believing grasp upon the mercy of God extended to sinners in Jesus Christ through the gospel.

4:15 There will be no repentance without some degree of a sense of sin and of sinfulness the degree of that will vary from one believing penitent sinner to another but that there must be a sense of sin is clearly taught in the scriptures and if there is to be repentance unto life that sense of sin must be mingled with some degree of an apprehension that is a laying hold of the mercy of God as revealed in the gospel as set before us on the basis of the work

4:58 of Jesus Christ and then we began last Lord's day to consider thirdly the substance or the main trunk of the tree of repentance we've considered the soil the grace of God the two tap roots a sense of sin a grasp of the mercy of God in Christ well what is the substance in the gospel of the Lord's day to consider thirdly the substance or the main trunk of the the main trunk of repentance unto life and if we strip away all of the prepositional phrases and dependent clauses the wonderful definition of the shorter catechism goes right to the heart of the biblical issue it is a turning from sin unto god that's the substance the essence the heart

5:41 of true repentance that is unto life and there in those words are two realities they tell us that repentance unto life is a god-focused grace it is a turning from sin unto god and we looked into the scriptures and saw three texts that explicitly teach this we looked at three illustrations of this in descriptions of people who did repent and then asked and answered the question, why must this be so? This is not an arbitrary arrangement.

6:19 That repentance is a God-focused grace is absolutely essential in the whole scheme of redemptive grace. And then we began last Lord's Day to consider together that repentance unto life is a sin-repudiating grace. We turn from sin unto God. There is no true turning to God apart from turning from sin.

6:46 There is no true turning from sin that does not issue in and is joined with a turning unto God. These things are inseparable when God works in the heart of a sinner the grace of repentance unto life. And so we consider together the scriptures that clearly teach us, that in true repentance there is always a repudiation of sin. Proverbs 28, 13, Isaiah 55, 7 and 8, Luke 3, 8 to 14, Revelation chapter 9.

The Necessity of Sin-Repudiation: Why God Must Require It

7:23 And then we illustrated this fact in the repentance of the Ninevites, of the prodigal son, of the Thessalonian Christians, and the experience of Zacchaeus. Now, what I desire to accomplish this morning is to, is to demonstrate why, why it is absolutely necessary that repentance unto life be a sin-repudiating grace. I sought to demonstrate several weeks ago why repentance must be a God-focused grace. Well, why must it be a sin-repudiating grace?

8:04 And that's my only purpose and goal. In the preaching of the word this morning to demonstrate to the persuasion of your judgment, and I trust your conscience that every true act of repentance unto life, every true disposition of repentance unto life is one in which sin is repudiated, and that this is necessary in the very fact of what repentance is.

8:38 So that's my goal this morning, to demonstrate why it is absolutely necessary that repentance unto life be a sin-repudiating grace. And I have but two headings, and they are this. First of all, if God were to grant forgiveness to a sinner who would not repudiate his sin, it would constitute a contradiction of his character and his position. Were God to forgive a sinner who did not repudiate his sins,

9:14 God would be indulging in what I am called a contradiction of his very character and his very position. And then secondly, I want to demonstrate from the Scriptures that if God were to grant forgiveness to a sinner who would not repudiate his sin, God would be negating, negating the very purpose for which Jesus Christ died upon the cross. Now it's not a pleasant thing to think that anyone would entertain any notion that he or she

9:52 is a possessor of God's forgiveness through Jesus Christ at the expense of compromising God's character and God's position and compromising the very purpose for which Jesus died. But anyone sitting in this place today, who is a stranger to the sin-repudiating element of true repentance, and yet dares to claim you are forgiven and cleansed by the virtue of the blood of Christ, what you are saying is you have found a way of forgiveness in which God was willing to compromise his character and his position, and God was willing to negate the very purpose for which his Son died.

Contradiction of God's Character: His Spotless Holiness

10:36 I want to persuade you of that, so that you will recoil in horror at the very thought that there is ever any repentance unto life divorced from the sin-repudiating dimension of that repentance. First of all then, if God were to grant forgiveness to a sinner who would not repudiate his sin, this would contradict, this would constitute, I'm sorry, a contradiction, a contradiction of his character and his position as God. Now I want to say something perhaps you've never thought about, but you need to think about it. Nothing is more important in all the universe

11:19 than that God maintain the integrity of his character as God. There is something more important than your salvation and mine. There is something more important than the restoration of a falling universe. And that most important of all things is that God would maintain the integrity of his character as God.

11:50 This is why he can say in Malachi 3.6, I am the Lord, I change not. Or Moses can celebrate in the well-known 90th Psalm, from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. All that you have ever been as God, you are.

12:11 And all that you have been and are, you will ever be from everlasting to everlasting, you are God. Now in his essential character, God is utterly and spotlessly holy. Utterly and spotlessly holy. You remember when Isaiah had the vision of the exalted Lord upon his throne.

12:37 And there were these strange creatures that veil face and feet and fly about the throne and they cry one to another, Isaiah chapter 6, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. Essentially, fundamentally, changiously, utterly holy. John writes in 1 John 1.5,

13:07 this is the message we have heard of him, that is of Jesus, the Word. This is the message we have heard of him, that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. Essential, pure, unmixed holiness. God is light and in him is no darkness at all.

13:34 Therefore, if any creature is to have communion and fellowship with such a God, either God must come to and partake of the darkness, the unholiness, the moral stain of that creature, or God must do something to that morally stained creature that has a love of the darkness and of sin and make him compatible with himself who dwells in light. Who is essentially holy. And this is precisely what God is committed to do in the scheme of redemption through the Lord Jesus Christ. On the basis of what Christ has done,

14:18 God gives us a judicial holiness when he justifies a believing sinner. When a sinner, conscious that God has a controversy with him in the court of heaven, and that God could justly and righteously damn him for his sins, his sinning Adam, his own personal sins of thought and word and deed. And God reveals through the gospel that in the person and work of Jesus there is a way where God can still be just and yet justify, declare righteous the believing sinner. The sinner lays hold of God's offer of mercy in Jesus Christ and he is declared judicially holy.

15:03 That is, God has no controversy with him in the court of heaven as to having a title to be in God's presence. But what about his fitness? To be in the presence of a God of spotless light. To have communion with a God of impeccable, uncompromised holiness.

15:24 That creature is inherently sinful. He loves darkness rather than the light. He drinks iniquity. He drinks iniquity like water.

15:36 So what does God do? God, in the conversion of the sinner, begins a marvelous work in which he is going to take the darkness-loving, sin-loving, sin-besmirched, sin-spattered creature and make him into the very moral likeness of his own beloved Son, whom he did foreknow, he did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, he chose us in Christ that we should be holy and without blemish before him. And what does he do when he is bringing us over the threshold from the realm of condemnation,

16:18 from the realm of our deadness in sin into spiritual life and into the privileges of his grace in Christ? He so works in the sinner that this disposition, in which we have hitherto loved the darkness, been at home in the darkness, is transformed so that we become lovers of light. And we have a disposition that is at home in the light of God's holiness and desires to commune with God in the context of moral purity. And the way it operates at the conscious level is when God gives the gift of repentance

The Love of Light vs. Darkness: John 3 and 1 John 1

17:02 which, as the old Puritan said, is the vomit of the soul, in which what delighted us now sickens us. The thing that we took down with relish and we licked our moral lure in our spiritual gut and we vomited out in true spirit-wrought repentance. For our native disposition is clearly described and I want you to turn there with me in John chapter 3. John chapter 3 and verse 19.

17:46 This is the judgment that light has come into the world in the person of Jesus. Men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil. Like moles who love the darkness and have an aversion to the light, we have a moral aversion to the light of God's holiness. The exposure of what we are as sinners in thought and word and deed and desire and disposition and motive.

18:19 This is the condemnation. Light has come into the world. Men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil. For everyone that practices evil hates the light, does not come to the light, lest his works should be reproved.

18:38 But he that does evil does the truth. Here is the true child of God. The one who has experienced true repentance and faith and is now living out the realities of continuous repentance and faith. He that is doing the truth continually comes to the light.

18:59 That his works may be made manifest that they have been wrought in God. Sitting here this morning, you either love light, that exposure, that which exposes your true moral state and the quality of your moral action, or you hate it. One or the other. The one who does the truth loves light.

19:25 He has been brought over into the realm where communion with the God of light is the delight of his heart and he knows he can only experience that communion in the realm of light and therefore he keeps coming to the light, he keeps coming to that place where he is willing for any remaining darkness to be exposed and shown for what it is. Whereas the unregenerate, the unconverted, the impenitent, he hates light, he doesn't like exposure and one of the truest evidences, he hates searching, applicatory preaching. Preaching that gets down inside the corners of his soul.

20:10 Preaching that makes him make moral judgments about himself. Very uncomfortable under anything other than preaching that just floats nice little snippets of truth before the mind. He doesn't like it when the word of God becomes a mirror and then a magnifying glass. Whereas he that does the truth, he loves it because he knows each time the light exposes any area of darkness and he deals with that area of darkness his communion with the God of light is increased.

20:48 And he so loves his God and he so loves communion with his God he loves the light that exposes anything that impedes that communion. Now that's just not a logical deduction. That's the very statement of 1 John 1, 6. I want you to turn there with me.

21:07 1 John 1 in verse 6 I quoted verse 5 to you a few moments ago. This is the message which we've heard from him and announced to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship, we are in a relationship of saving communion with God. If we say we have fellowship with him and yet walk about in the darkness we lie.

21:41 And do not the truth. You hear the echoes of John 3? He that doeth the truth. He says you're not doing the truth. You're not practicing

21:52 the truth. To name the name of Christ and to say that through Christ you have entered into communion with the living God while your life is still framed by walking about in the darkness in the realm of moral uncleanness and impurity and the love of sin. You're a liar! The truth has never taken up residence in your heart but, verse 7, if we walk about in the light as he is in the light taking our clue of our moral conduct from the very moral character of God we walk about in the light as he is in the light we do have fellowship

22:36 one with another horizontally vertically and what happens the blood of Jesus his son continually cleanses us from all sin. We are not brought into a sinless conformity to God as the God of light. Yet that awaits us when we shall be like him when we see him as he is 1 John 3. But here and now we do walk about in the light. The light

23:06 is the environment of our delight not the darkness. And in that environment there is continual exposure of our sin with ongoing repentance and ongoing exercises of faith and the result is there is ongoing cleansing from all sin. Now which are you? Are you a walker about in the darkness hating the light?

23:36 How about your kids? Do you like it when mom and dad point out your sins? Or do you justify yourself and resent it? Are you always on my case? Get off my back!

23:48 One of the clearest marks that a child has been converted is that child loves the light giving influence of hands on getting your face on your case loving parents and teachers and pastors and Sunday school teachers One of the clearest marks you're yet in your sins I don't care what you say you believe about Jesus and God and the Bible that you're still in your sins is you don't like the light. This is the condemnation light has come men love the darkness you're constantly running like a mole excusing, rationalizing blame shifting Where are you? Come on kids

24:32 get honest God knows I've said oh God get down inside some of these kids glibly name the name of Christ but you're not light lovers and you know it that's why you're always pushing the envelope of what you can do and can't do where you can go what you can watch, what you can listen to you give your parents headaches why? Constantly pushing the margins in the direction darkness you flirt with darkness darkness is still attractive to you and what I'm saying to you is my Bible teaches that one of the marks

25:17 of true repentance as a sin repudiating grace is that it does not want God to compromise his character as a holy God in order to just get me off the hook so I don't burn in hell He's determined to take the alienated creature young or old or anything in between and bring that alienated creature back into fellowship with himself in a way that does not compromise his justice and holiness that's why Paul says because of what Christ did in bearing the wrath of God as propitiation God can be just and still justify

26:00 guilty sinners but that's only half the story he wants those sinners to be at home in the realm of who he is as a holy God and so he brings them to true repentance in which they repudiate sin the realm of darkness as the realm that they're going to love the realm that they're going to cling to the realm that they're going to welcome no he so changes them that they now walk about in the light and they love the light and they continually come to the light and they love parents that help them to see their sins they love teachers and pastors and every influence that helps them to see their sins

Contradiction of God's Position: His Unrivaled Sovereignty

26:45 because they know every time they deal with their sins and they go afresh to Jesus there is increased communion with their God the God of holiness that's why that's why true repentance must be a sin repudiating grace otherwise God would compromise his character but not only his character but his position he would compromise his position if those whom he gives are not brought to the place where they repudiate sin God would be compromising his position what do I mean by that simply this because God is God and he made us he's the only one that's got a right to tell us what to do

27:29 his position is that of unrivaled sovereign over us go to Genesis 1 and 2 God made man woman in his likeness then he didn't sit down and say now let's sit down at the table and negotiate how we're going to work things out I'm God and I made you and you're man I made you in my image so you got a brain and you can figure things out so let's set out the terms by which we're going to negotiate what you ought to do no no it says let us make man in our image and after our likeness in the image of God created he him male and female created he them and said be fruitful multiply subdue the earth God says I made you

28:10 I'm in charge listen then in chapter 2 God says Adam there's a garden I'm going to put you there and I'm going to tell you what to do I want you to dress the garden I want you to keep it see all those trees you can take from all of those see that one in the middle don't touch it if you do you're going to die now Adam see all those animals I want you to name them no negotiating God just pulled rank and wonder of wonders Adam didn't go out on a strike say unfair labor terms sit at the table and negotiate this deal no no negotiating God's position is that of creator and as creator he has absolute rights over man the creature now it's that that we

28:54 thrown off in our sin all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned each one to what to his own way Isaiah 53 6 Romans 8 7 the carnal mind is enmity against God it is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can it be you and I are born with a clenched fist to the authority of God we don't like the deal we'd like to think there should be some negotiating here some dickering now you see if God were to forgive us and not bring us to the repudiation of our sin he would be abdicating his position as the rightful sovereign over

29:37 us for at the very heart of that repudiation of sin is the repudiation of the determination to run my own life all we like sheep have gone astray we've turned everyone to his own way let the wicked forsake his way as we saw in Isaiah 55 7 and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord for he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon whom will he abundantly pardon the returning sinner who says I'm tired of trying to run the show I wasn't made to run the show I wasn't made to call the shots

30:22 God was made to call the shots to run the show I was made to glorify him by being his obedient servant son or daughter and in true repentance you embrace your place that's why it's absolute nonsense to talk about receiving Christ as Savior but not as Lord those who teach that are saying God saves sinners who still maintain their place as rebels it's blasphemous no God saves sinners who he brings back to their place as subjects that's why repentance must be a sin

Marks of Christ's Sheep: Hearing and Following (John 10 & Revelation 22)

31:06 repudiating grace because without it it would not only be a contradiction of God's character but of God's position to forgive rebels still rebels I want you to look at two passages with me that are beautiful in tying these things together in John chapter 10 where the Lord Jesus gives one of the most marvelous promises of preserving his own image under the image of a shepherd caring for his sheep in John 10 27 notice what he says my sheep hear present tense not they

31:51 heard but they hear the mark of my sheep is they are hearing my voice and I know them that is I regard them with distinguishing love and affection and all of the knowledge and concern of a loving shepherd who lays down his life for me my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they are following me present tense the disposition the pattern of their life is they are attached to me in faith in love and volitionally they follow me they don't occasionally have some warm thoughts about me like to listen to the latest

32:36 CCM thing with somebody crooning about Jesus and get the goose bumps and feel all mushy about no no my sheep hear my voice which means they don't ignore their Bibles day after day week after week month after month because Christ's voice is heard in his word they don't sit and let preaching run over their heads and on the outer vestibule of the ear and family worship is not something to be tolerated wherever Christ's voice speaks they love to hear his voice he's their shepherd who loved them who died for them who's won them by his grace and then where the voice of Christ

33:19 marks out the way they are to go they are following me not perfectly but purposefully not occasionally but as a pattern of life and when my voice calls them to radical discipleship willing to deal with sins as dear as right and right hand they go to and where following him means grievous disruption of the deepest family ties they are willing for the sword of division he that loves father mother brother sister more than me is not worthy of me

34:03 I came not to bring peace but to cast a sword I came to set a man against and then all the against of the deepest family ties Jesus said if you love me you're ready for the sword of division to come furthermore he says to the apostle be not conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove in your own experience what is the good the acceptable and the perfect will of God I say Paul says that you no longer walk as the Gentiles in the vanity of their mind there is

34:46 that commitment to think through all of my activities all of my relationships all of my entertainments all of my avocations every facet of life I wanted to come through the sieve of the word of God and I want to peel off and shuck away anything and everything that is of this world that is passing away Jesus said that's my sheep that's my sheep I have experienced true repentants why because their forgiveness has come to them in such a way that they have repudiated sin in terms of

35:28 who's going to run their lives that's been dealt with fundamentally and when you find them in the glorified state it comes to it's most beautiful consummate expression this is the second passage I want you to look at right now Revelation chapter 22 in this Beautiful picture of the eternal state in the new heavens and the new earth. Much of it under the image of renewed Eden, river of life, tree of life. Verse 3 of Revelation 22, there shall be no curse anymore. Now notice, the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be therein,

36:14 and His servants shall serve Him. They're comfortable that they know who's running the show and calling the shots. The throne and of the Lamb. And they don't recoil at the idea of a throne.

36:33 That throne occupied by God and the Lamb. They love the fact there's a throne. The God whom they love and the Savior whom they love, they serve and they shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads, and there shall be no nightfall. Light there, and they shall need no light, neither light of sun, for the Lord God shall give them light.

36:56 Now notice, and they shall reign forever and ever.

37:03 They serve, yet they reign. You want to reign with Christ? You've got to become the bond slave of Christ. For that's the word that's used.

37:15 And His servants, His douloi, His bond slaves,

37:22 will be in heaven who doesn't become the, the willing bond slave of Christ on earth. Mark it down. You're not His willing, joyful bond slave here. You'll not be there about the throne.

37:37 You'll be in outer darkness,

37:40 joining the chorus of those who weep and wail and gnash their teeth.

37:48 Why?

37:51 In true repentance, God maintains the integrity of His character as holy, and His position as the righteousness, and the faithful sovereign of man, His creature. And though sin has disrupted that relationship, God, by grace, restores it. He wins and woos us into submission by the sight of His love and grace and mercy in the person and work of Jesus. And in penitent faith, we not only lay hold of the provisions of a full pardon and acceptance with God, but we join,

38:31 joyfully come under the rule and the reign of God as revealed in the Lord Jesus.

Self-Examination: Do You Repudiate Sin?

38:42 So I ask you, sitting here this morning, you say you're a Christian. If so, then you have repented and believed on the Lord Jesus. Sitting here, you say, I am a repenting, believing child of God. I ask you then, if you are,

39:00 what I'm talking about of this repudiation of sin that brings you out of this world, that brings you out of this world, that brings you out of this world, that brings you out of this world, that brings you out of this world, that brings you out of the realm of darkness into the realm of light, a salvation consistent with God's character, a salvation that brings you from rebel to subject, from independent little puppet God to willing bond slave. Is this true of you? Is that the way you live? Would anyone tracking your life last week from Monday through to Sunday morning have any clue that the only explanation for the way you live is that you're walking about in the light and you are governing your life

39:44 as a bond slave of Christ? If someone could get inside your thoughts and all your thoughts could be projected on the screen, apart from the ones that you've been humbled over and cried out to God to forgive you because you knew they were sinful and you've asked God to cleanse you, were there be any thoughts on the screen that reflect you're at home in fellowship with the God of light and you're at home with the Savior who is your Master?

40:17 You see, if it isn't touching us where we live, where we think, what we listen to, what we watch, what we say, then folks, it's all a bunch of talk.

40:31 That's all it is,

40:38 where we really are.

40:41 If I'm one walking in the light, my greatest burden is that I still sin.

40:48 My greatest burden is that I still sin. My greatest grief is when I do sin. My greatest desire is to be done with sin. Is that you?

40:57 Then take heart. Take heart. You've repudiated sin. If sitting here this morning you can say, my greatest burden, if someone came to me and said, I've got a magic wand, if I wave it over you, I'll give you anything you want, if you could say, what I want is to be done forever with sin.

41:18 What's your greatest grief? When you get caught up in sin, caught in your sin, or when you sin, known only to the eye of God. And your greatest desire is to do the will of God,

41:30 to be done with sin. My friend, that disposition never grows on Adamic soil that hasn't been touched by the power of God. That shows you've repudiated sin as the native sphere in which you once lived and in which you delight. But now, very quickly, I want to come to my second head.

Negating Christ's Purpose: Why He Died

41:52 I've said I want to demonstrate under two headings why it is the necessity of repentance being a sin-repudiating grace. And we've seen the first, that apart from this, God would be negating, compromising His own character and position. Secondly, if God were to grant forgiveness to a sinner who will not repudiate his sin, then He would negate the very purpose for which Christ died. Let me give it to you again.

42:25 If God were to grant forgiveness to a sinner who would not repudiate his sin, God would negate the very purpose for which Christ died. What was the purpose for which the second person of the Godhead came to Mary's womb and there took to Himself a true human soul and a true human body? What was the purpose for which He lived in poverty? Taking upon Himself all forms of verbal abuse and neglect.

43:00 Son of man hath not where to lay his head. Say we not well that you're a Samaritan and you have a demon. We'd be not born of fornication. Called Him an illegitimate child.

43:12 Said He was possessed with a demon. He was in league with the very head of the demons. Why? Why?

43:20 Why was there a Gethsemane where He staggers and He falls down? He falls to the ground and in an agony He prays until He bursts some of the surface capillaries in His brow and they fall to the ground as it were. Sweat drops like blood.

43:39 Why? Why? Why the back laid bare to the bone with the lictor's lash? Why the crown of thorns?

43:49 Why the nails in hands and feet? Why? Why the darkened heavens? Why?

43:55 Why? Why the cry of dereliction? My God, my God. Why have you forsaken me?

44:01 Why the cry I thirst? Why? Why? Why?

Christ's Purpose in Titus 2: Redemption and Purification

44:06 Well, I want you to look at two passages with me that speak directly to the issue we're contemplating this morning. The first is Titus chapter 2. Titus chapter 2. Titus 2.

44:21 Verse 11 to 14. For the grace of God has appeared bringing salvation to all men. Better rendered saving to all men. The grace of God saving grace has appeared instructing us to the intent that denying ungodliness and worldly lust we should live soberly and righteously and godly in the present world or age looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God in our Savior Jesus Christ who gave Himself for us in order that He might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself

45:04 a people for His own possession zealous of good works. Now let's look briefly at the teaching of these verses. Verse 11. God's saving grace has been revealed in space, time, history in the person of Jesus.

45:21 Verse 11. Grace of God has appeared saving to all men. There has been an appearance of God's gracious good will to hell deserving rebel sinners in the person and work of His own beloved Son. Salvation is its intention.

45:42 Verse 12. The instruction of that grace is a sin repudiating instruction. Verse 12. Instructing us this grace that has appeared in Jesus in space, time, history with a view to bringing and revealing salvation available and accessible and suited to all men instructs us to the intent that denying ungodliness we could take that Greek verb and say repudiating ungodliness and worldly lust we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world.

46:23 What does it say? This grace that has appeared is a sin repudiating instructing grace. This grace that has appeared instructs us to repudiate what? Repudiate ungodliness.

46:38 All that is against God and unlike God and in opposition to God. Repudiating ungodliness. Grace teaches you to say no. No to ungodliness.

46:50 And not only to ungodliness but to worldly lusts. Lusts that rise out of this world system that has its standards of what is good and what is desirable and what is acceptable in entertainment, in dress, in conversation, in music. It has its standards for everything. And what is it rooted in?

47:18 John tells us all that is in the world. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the vain glory of life is not of the Father, but is of this world. You see, a lot of you are hopelessly naive. You think that this world system is out there in some neutral state.

47:39 Has no opposition to God. It has no driving force. No. Remember what Paul said in Ephesians 2.

47:46 He said, wherein we walked according to the course of this world, according to the Spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature children of wrath even as the rest. God's saving grace has been revealed in the person of Jesus. Secondly, the instruction of that grace is a sin repudiating instruction.

48:13 Thirdly, verse 13, the instruction of that grace is a hope producing other worldly focus. Look at verse 13. Looking for the blessed hope in appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior, Jesus. Christ.

48:30 That grace teaches us to sit loosely to this world. It identifies us as strangers and sojourners who have here no abiding place.

48:43 And our hearts are set upon all that will be ours at the consummation when Jesus comes. Now look at verse 14. The basis of that instruction that is sin repudiating, hope producing, heaven longing instruction. What's the basis?

49:01 Look at verse 14. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify to himself a people for his own possession zealous of good works. The basis of the instruction that grace gives us is the purpose of the death of Jesus on our behalf. You've got to get hold of that.

49:25 Look at it in the text. Why is this instruction given as the outflow of the revelation of God's grace? Because Christ gave himself for us that substitutionary atonement in order that here's the purpose that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify to himself a people for his own possession boiling hot on fire for doing good. Not always playing around with the margins.

50:00 What's wrong with it? What's bad with it? What's bad with it? Why can't I?

50:03 No! A whole new focus! I want to do that which is good that which glorifies my God and my Savior. Why?

50:12 Because he died to redeem me from all iniquity to purify me to himself as his own possession and as his possession set apart unto him in the virtue of his blood to be zealous of good works. Now, put that into the context of what we're studying. Why must repentance be a sin-repudiating grace? Because it's always joined with saving faith.

50:44 And saving faith embraces the Savior as he's revealed for the purposes that he's been revealed. And the grace of God saving grace has been revealed. Salvation comes in the announcement of that grace in the person and work of Jesus to what end? To the end that we might be redeemed from all iniquity.

51:09 That we might be purified unto Jesus as a people of his own possession boiling over with passion to do good. That's why he died. So if that's why he died, then when God is giving the grace of repentance, what does he do? He works in the heart of every penitent sinner a disposition consistent with the purpose for which Christ died.

51:36 He died that we might deny ungodliness and worldly lust. So in repentance we do take a stand against ungodliness in our own hearts as a way of life, as a pattern of existence. We do take a stand against allowing the world to dictate how we're going to live, how we're going to think in all of these facets that I've already touched upon. And we turn unto God through Christ with the desire that we will be holy his and become marked as a people's zealous for good works.

Christ's Satisfaction and Our Distinctiveness

52:14 That's why he died and marked it. Isaiah 53 says, He shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Jesus will have what he died for in all his people. If he doesn't have that in you, what right do you have to say he died for you?

52:32 And that you've embraced his saving death.

52:36 You see, it's so easy. You say, oh yeah, I'm trusting Jesus. I'm trusting Jesus. I'm trusting Jesus.

52:38 Jesus be my only Savior. Oh, are you? Is he realizing in you what he died for? My Bible says, He shall see of the travail of his soul and not be disappointed, be satisfied.

52:51 He's going to look down in everyone whom God by the Spirit brings into the possession of his salvation and say, oh Father, thank you. Thank you, Father. That's what I died for. Father, look at him.

53:04 Look at her. She's denying ungodliness, worldly lust, she or he is absolute sovereign and master and lordly acknowledging they're not their own that I bought them with my blood. Look at him, Father. They're now learning how to be zealous.

53:24 Oh, Father, thank you. That's what I died to get. Father, I'm satisfied.

53:32 He shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied.

53:39 The Bible says it. I didn't write it, folks. It's there in your Bible.

53:44 Is he satisfied with what he sees in you? Is he getting what he died for? Well, if you're truly repentant, he is. He is.

53:55 He's getting what he died for because his death will not be frustrated. Well, I'd hope to look into Galatians 1-4 as a second text to prove this, but I don't have time to. But it speaks in that very passage that Christ gave himself for us that he might deliver, literally rescue us out of this present evil age. And it's not speaking of what he'll do when we die or when he comes.

54:24 It's talking about what he does here and now. He died to rescue us out of this present evil age.

54:32 He died to make us a people with an alternate mindset, alternate goals, alternate standards for the totality of life. And listen to me, dear people. We have never indulged by God's grace in externalistic, legalistic rules, in the law, in the law, in the law, in the law, in the law, in the law, in the law, in the law, in the law, in the law, in the law, in the law, in this place, about the books you can read, the movies you can watch, the clothes you should wear. Never.

54:57 And we have no intention. But I want to tell you something. The more this society slouches, no longer slouching toward Gomorrah, it's running headlong toward Gomorrah.

55:08 The more you and I are going to have to be willing to be different in ways that will stand out in externals.

55:19 Where once there was a fabric of common grace in which in externals, in matters of entertainment, in matters of music and of dress, all of those things, there was some element in certain areas I can remember in my own lifetime, in great areas, common grace has been swept away. More and more, you and I are going to have to be willing to be marked.

55:52 Just common decency and courtesy. Saying thank you and please.

55:57 People look up at you like you've dropped out of Mars.

56:01 When you're entering the mall and you hold a book, you open the door for a woman and they look at you. Where'd you come from?

56:08 Thank you. Please. Excuse me, ma'am. Little things.

56:13 But dear people, that's the thrill of being a child of God. You see, the darker the night, the brighter the match shines. Light a match out here in the parking lot when you go out here and nobody will see it. But if we could turn off all the lights tonight,

56:29 light that match, you could see it all the way up a quarter of a mile on Changebridge Road.

56:36 And rather than feel irritated, well, why do I have to be different? You say, I can be different for Jesus' sake. Not odd and kooky, but determined that I am going to conduct my life as the purchased property of Jesus. I am going to be determined that He will have everything for which He died in me.

57:00 And you see, if that thought does not cause you to say, Lord, that's what I want with all my heart. If your thought is, well, look, you better ask yourself whether you've ever come to true repentance. Whether you have ever experienced deep, thorough repudiation of sin as a way of life and your particular sins that are the manifestation of it.

Conclusion: Salvation from Sin Requires Repentance

57:27 I close with this quote from the master from another generation who has summarized what I've tried to say so well. Not that I've said so well, but he's summarized it so well. No man need wonder therefore that God who requires nothing but what is right and who can require nothing less commands all men everywhere to repent. The salvation offered in the gospel, though it is the salvation of sinners, is also a salvation from sin.

58:03 The heaven which it promises is a heaven of holiness. The rivers of pleasure which flow from the right hand of God are filled with the pure waters of life. No man, therefore, can be a sinner. No man, therefore, can be saved who does not by repentance forsake his sins.

58:23 This is itself a great part of salvation. The inward change of heart from the love and service of sin to the love and service of God is the great end of the death of Christ who gave himself for his church that he might sanctify and cleanse it. It is a salvation for sinners, therefore,

58:50 without repentance. A salvation, I'm sorry, for sinners, therefore, without repentance is a contradiction. A salvation for sinners without repentance is a contradiction. Dear people, the day will soon come when I will stand before God and give an account for the stewardship of my ministry to you.

59:16 These hands will either be red with blood or be red with blood or be red with blood or be red with blood or be free from your blood.

59:22 It was in the context of Paul saying, I solemnly testified repentance toward God and faith toward the Lord Jesus that he said, I take you to record this day I'm pure from the blood of all men. I want to be clean of your blood. And I want you, I want you to ask the question honestly in the presence of the God before whom you'll stand in the last day. Do I know this sin repudiating essential element of repentance?

60:03 To claim to be a forgiven sinner without it is to say that God has violated his own character in giving you forgiveness. He has compromised his own position and he has negated the very purpose for which his son died. May you make no such claim that denigrates God and his son the Lord Jesus. Let's pray.

60:36 Our Father, we have engaged our minds and hearts in very searching and sobering realities and we pray that the Holy Spirit will take them and apply them with such power that some would mark this day as the day when they engaged you in true spirit wrought repentance and faith. We pray for those who are your true people that what they've heard today will confirm them in their confidence that they are yours as they see in their hearts and lives things that have no explanation

61:19 but that you by grace have brought them to repentance unto life. We plead with you Lord Jesus that you will have more and more in us all that you died to have. We're ashamed. We are ashamed of you.

61:36 We are ashamed of you. We are ashamed that we give you such poor returns. Have mercy upon us and help us. Seal your word we pray and dismiss us with your blessing.

61:48 We plead in Jesus' name. Amen.