Necessity of Repentance

The Inescapable Necessity of Repentance to Avoid Perishing

0:05 Now I would ask you to turn with me to one text of Scripture tonight. We'll be looking at many, but as a platform and foundation of our study together, in 2 Peter chapter 3, and the very familiar words of verse 9. 2 Peter 3 and verse 9. The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering to you word, to us word, there's a textual question,

0:45 not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

0:54 Deliberately passing over the flow of thought in this passage, as it relates to the whole subject of the second coming of Christ, and the cynicism that men have always and presently reflect when they hear people whining, who talk about the second coming, I want us to focus our attention upon one thing in this passage, and one thing only. And that is the thing that is captured in the words, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Not wishing that any perish, but that all should come to repentance.

1:40 Here, in this part of the text God sets before us this very foundational truth, that the only way to avoid perishing is to come to repentance. And I want the youngest child who can just figure out the ands and the buts, and perhaps can't even read words so long as longsuffering and repentance, at least to grasp this simple, foundational truth that in this portion of the word of God,

2:15 God sets before us this inescapable fact that the only way to avoid perishing is to come to repentance. And if you sit there and ask, well, why should that be a big deal to me? I respond by saying you and I have a responsibility to read into that word, perish all of the frightening realities that the word of God itself attaches to that word. To perish does not mean to go out of existence and back into nothingness.

2:58 To perish means nothing less than to experience in your own soul and body all of the horrible things bound up in biblical language such as this. Outer darkness where there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. Wandering stars to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.

3:29 Going into eternal fire where their worm dies not and their fire is never quenched.

3:39 And the smoke of their torment ascends up forever and ever. And they have no hope in the world now. And they have no hope in the world now. And the torment of the world comes up forever and ever.

3:43 And the darkness of the world comes up forever and ever. And they have no hope in the world now. have no rest day or night. Those are just some of the biblical descriptions of what it means to perish.

3:56 It means to be cast away from the presence of God into a place of indescribable and eternal torment in body and in soul. And according to the words of our text, the only way to avoid that reality is to come to repentance. Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And so the little term phrase, repent or perish, is deeply embedded in the clear teaching of the passage that is before us.

The Preacher's and Hearer's Common Concern for Repentance

4:37 And surely, if I as a preacher have any genuine concern for your never-dying soul, no matter what your age or background may be, if I have any genuine concern for your soul, then surely among the things that are non-negotiable with me would be that I would seek with all of my faculties and whatever life and strength God has given to make me a Christian. And surely, if I as a preacher have any genuine concern for your never-dying soul, then surely among the things that are non-negotiable with me would be that I would seek with all of my faculties and whatever life and strength God has given to make plain to you what it means to come to repentance and to beg and to plead with you that you give yourself no rest until you come to repentance.

5:20 And if you have any concern for your never-dying soul, surely hearing words like this bring you to the place where out of that concern for your own soul you say, I must understand what it means to come to repentance if the only alternative to coming to repentance is to perish. And if to perish means to experience out of darkness, weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, the undying worm and the never-ceasing torment of conscience, the worm dies not and the fire is never quenched, then surely if I have any concern for who and what I am as a being made in the image of God,

6:05 stamped with immortality, then surely the preacher's desire that he explain repentance and my desire that I understand repentance and experience repentance, we have a point of common concern. And so tonight and in two subsequent Lord's Day evenings I want to preach to you from the Word of God on this very basic theme, repent or perish, to make it more personal, have I come to repentance.

The Necessity of Repentance: God's Clear Establishment

6:42 And in our first study tonight I want us to address what is foundational to all that follows and that is the necessity of repentance. And God willing in the two subsequent nights the nature of repentance and in the third evening the fruit of repentance. First of all then tonight the necessity of repentance. Has God clearly told us that repentance is the necessity of repentance?

7:08 Has God clearly told us that repentance is the necessity of repentance? Has God taught in His Word, not basing the whole issue on this one part of one text, has God taught that it is absolutely necessary to come to repentance if we would avoid perishing? I answer with an unequivocal yes. God has clearly established in His Word the necessity of repentance.

7:34 And in laying out the evidence I want to put it in two very simple, basic categories. And they are these. The only gospel authorized by Jesus Christ contains a clarion call to repentance. Not a sub-dominant note, a little bit of background fill-in, but the only gospel authorized by Jesus Christ contains a clarion call to repentance.

8:06 And the second category, of biblical evidence that I set before you tonight is this, that the only gospel preached by the Apostles contains a clarion call to repentance. The gospel authorized by Jesus Christ, a clarion call to repentance. The gospel preached by the Apostles contains a clarion call to repentance. Follow with me then as we take up this first category.

The Great Commission Passages and Their Missing Element

8:39 The only gospel authorized by Jesus Christ contains a clarion call to repentance. Now most of you, though some of you are new to the Christian faith and some of you new to the Bible would not be aware of this, but most of you here are aware that there are four or five passages in the New Testament commonly grouped together and identified as the Great Commission passages. They have the following. They have this in common.

9:11 They are passages in the Scriptures in which our risen Lord, who has already been crucified and raised from the dead, but has not yet gone back to the right hand of His Father, speaks to His followers and lays upon them the task of taking the message of His salvation to the ends of the earth. And those passages are commonly designated as the Great Commission passages. Christ is commissioning His followers to this great task of taking the gospel to the ends of the earth. And when we look at those four or five Great Commission passages, and we would differ in terms of our persuasion

9:55 as to whether or not the last part of the Gospel of Mark was really Spirit-inspired Scripture, and I'm going to assume for our purposes tonight that it ought to be included in our understanding of the Word of God. In these five Great Commission passages, the Spirit of God has given us a wonderful mosaic of the task in its comprehensive scope. Each one of the accounts has its own distinctive emphasis and its own helpful contribution to the whole picture. Think with me quickly now of the Great Commission as it is found in Matthew chapter 28.

10:38 Matthew chapter 28. In Matthew 28, the dominant note in this passage is what I am calling the comprehensive task of the Great Commission. After directing attention to Himself and all authority being in Him and with Him, Jesus says in verse 19, Going therefore, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you. And, lo, I am with you always,

11:17 even unto the end of the world or the consummation of the age. Now, without seeking to be overly simplistic, I say the primary contribution of the Great Commission, according to Matthew, is the comprehensiveness of the task. The followers of Jesus are charged with making disciples of all the nations, baptizing those who have been made disciples, and then teaching them to observe whatsoever He has commanded. Now, when we come to Mark chapter 16, verses 15 and 16, we have another distinctive contribution to the picture, the whole picture.

12:01 In Mark 16 and verse 15, And He said unto them, Go into all the world, and preach the gospel, to the whole creation. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, and he that disbelieves shall be condemned. And here, the distinctive contribution of Mark, if this was the literature of Mark, is the sphere, the message, and the results of the task. They are to go into all the world and preach the gospel.

12:37 That's the message. That's the message they are to convey, the gospel, and the results as they do that, some will believe and be saved with a faith that openly identifies itself with Christ and His people. He that believes with a true faith that results in open confession. Baptism is nowhere taught as a saving ordinance in the Word of God.

13:01 He that believes with a true and genuine faith shall be saved. He that disbelieves, shall be condemned. So, Matthew gives us the comprehensiveness of the task, making disciples of all the nations, baptizing them, gathering them into visible communities of baptized, confessing disciples, securing an adequate teaching ministry that they might know all things that Christ has commanded. Mark's contribution is the sphere of that activity, all of the world, parallel to Matthew, among the nations, and the message is the gospel,

13:43 and the results are some will believe being saved, some will disbelieve and be damned. Then we skip over Luke for a moment and we come to the gospel of John chapter 20, and the distinctive contribution of John's account of the Great Commission is very clear in verse 21 of John 20, John 20, 21. Jesus therefore said, said to them again, Peace be unto you. As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you.

14:20 And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said unto them, Receive the Holy Spirit, whosoever sins you forgive, they are forgiven unto them. Whosoever sins you retain, they are retained. And here the distinctive contribution of the Great Commission, according to John, is highlighting, the authority by which they undertake the task. By whose authority dare we go to men and say, Believe my message and you'll be saved.

14:50 Disbelieve it and you'll be damned. Christ said, As the Father hath sent me, even so send I you. And at the heart of their message will be this announcement of sins forgiven or sins retained. In the accomplishment, of that mission, in obedience to the Great Commission, the great issue will be the sin question.

15:16 Whether sins will be retained or sins will be forgiven. And then in the book of Acts chapter 1, we have the contribution of Luke in this account. We read in chapter 1 in verse 8, The Lord Jesus speaking, You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit is come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. And here Luke's distinct contribution is that of showing that the divine enablement for this task, hinted at in John, where our Lord symbolically breathes upon them and says,

16:00 Receive the Spirit. They did not on that occasion have some additional experience in the Holy Spirit, but our Lord is showing them that the Spirit will be given in connection with Himself. He breathes upon them when the risen Lord ascends to the right hand of the Father. Peter says, He has shed forth this which you now see and hear.

16:23 And now what is hinted at in John is explicit here in Acts. You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. There's the divine enablement and the divine program. You shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth.

16:44 But now there's one great issue missing in those four accounts of the Great Commission. Can you think what it is? There's the comprehensive task in Matthew. There in Mark, the scope, all the world, the message, the gospel.

17:03 The results, some believe and are saved, some disbelieve and are damned. The authority, as my Father has sent me, so send I you. The great issue, the retaining, the forgiving, or the remission of sins and the retaining of sin. The power by which they go, the divine strategy, simultaneous witness in concentric circles as God opens those doors.

17:29 But you see, in none of those accounts do we have any clear description of what that gospel is, which is to be preached in all the world. What that gospel is, which if believed, results in salvation and disbelieved results in damnation. That gospel which holds out the remission of sins or pronounces the retaining of sins, none of these accounts of the Great Commission point us to the doctrinal content of the message. And to me it's very interesting that the least known of all the Great Commission passages is Luke chapter 24 verses 42 and following.

Luke 24: The Content of the Authorized Gospel

18:12 And yet in that passage alone do we have any fulsome description of what the message of the gospel is to be. And so we come now to Luke 24. And I trust to show from this passage that when our Lord is giving us the broad categories of the content of the gospel, He makes it explicit that the only gospel He authorizes, the gospel which is to be taken to the ends of the earth with a view to making disciples and baptizing them and teaching them, that gospel to which He promises the attendant power of the Spirit of God

18:55 to be proclaimed in His name and in His authority, the only gospel authorized by Jesus Christ contains a clarion call to repentance. Now let's look at the evidence here in Luke chapter 24, verse 44. I said 42, I meant 44. Or I should have said 44.

19:21 And He said unto them, These are My words which I spoke unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must needs be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses and the prophets and the Psalms concerning Me. Then opened He their mind that they might understand the Scriptures. That is, the Lord performed an internal spiritual work upon them that they might perceive the teaching of the Old Testament Scriptures as they relate to the Lord Jesus and the fulfillment of all that the Old Testament speaks about as it relates to Him.

20:04 Then opened He their mind that they might understand the Scriptures and He said unto them, Thus it is written, That the Christ should suffer. He proved from the Old Testament Scriptures that Messiah had to suffer. Secondly, And rise again from the dead the third day. He proved from the Old Testament Scriptures that the resurrection was an essential part of the work of Messiah.

20:36 Now note, And, and, that repentance and, or repentance unto remission of sins should be preached in His name unto all the nations beginning from Jerusalem. He demonstrates from the Scriptures the same Scriptures from which He shows that Christ must suffer, Christ must be raised, that repentance unto remission of sins is to be preached among all the nations in His name. Now let's unpack this for just a few minutes. What the Lord is saying to His own is that when you go out as My heralds,

21:18 as you go out as the Cherus, you are to preach, Cheruso, you are to take the role of a herald who announces the message of His King, and in that message, here are the three essential categories of your proclamation. First of all, you are to proclaim the truths that cluster, that cluster around My cross. You are to proclaim the truths that cluster around My cross. You are to tell men and women why I had to die.

21:53 That brings us into the whole Biblical doctrine of sin. And the place of the law, for by the law comes the knowledge of sin. You are to teach them not only the necessity for My death, but the nature of My death. And one can only imagine what it would have been like to have heard the Lord Jesus expounding Isaiah 52, 12 to Isaiah 53 in the end of the chapter, showing them that the nature of His death was penal, substitutionary satisfaction to God's law, showing them that the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world is the very One of whom Isaiah speaks.

22:34 He says to them, you must go out and preach those truths that cluster around My cross, the necessity for My death, the nature of My death, the blessings procured by My death, that I died just for the unjust to bring men to God, that in My substitutionary curse-bearing My Father can be both just and the justifier of those who trust in Me. As He sends them forth, He wants them to preach the truths that cluster around His cross. Now let me ask you, you men from other churches, we've got some deacons here, I'll use you as part of my interaction

23:17 with the truth of God's Word. If you, in conjunction with the other office bearers, decided it would be good to have a series of evangelistic meetings, and you were to ask me to come and be the evangelist, and we made it very plain to one another that everyone in the church family was going to concentrate on getting unconverted relatives, neighbors, work associates, friends, anything that lives, moves, breathes, and can half-walk. You're going to try to get them out to hear the gospel. And you make it very plain to me, Pastor Martin, when you come, don't talk like anyone there is converted.

23:50 Talk like everyone there is an absolute pagan, doesn't know God from Shema, doesn't know sin from tin, absolute ignorant 20th century pagans, and come and preach the gospel for three days. Now what would you think if at the end of those three days, I had said nothing clear from the scriptures about the necessity of the death of Christ, the nature of the death of Christ, and the benefits that flow from the death of Christ? Would you say I had done my job? A lot of you are shaking your head this way.

24:23 I hope you all could shake your head and say, you did not do, whatever else you did, you didn't do what we asked you to do. How can you say you came and preached the gospel, the good news, when you didn't proclaim the truths that cluster around you? You came around the cross of Christ, and you would be right to make that judgment upon me. But now look at the second category.

24:46 Not only did he open their minds to understand the scriptures that point to the truths that cluster around his cross, but he says there are those truths that cluster around his resurrection from the dead on the third day. We see examples of some of the things that our Lord no doubt taught the apostles when we look at their preaching and read it in the book of Acts, and how they demonstrate from the Psalms the truth of the resurrection, that God had prophesied that Messiah would rise again from the dead. And so Jesus said, you are to proclaim the fact of my bodily resurrection, the meaning of my resurrection. I was delivered up for men's offenses.

25:30 I've been raised on account of their justification. The fact that I've been raised from the dead validates my identity. The fact that I've been raised from the dead makes me a living Savior, able to transform in the livingness of my power. You must proclaim the blessings procured by my resurrection, that my resurrection secures the resurrection of all who are in me.

25:55 As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive. Christ is raised from the dead, firstfruits of end at sleep. And the Lord says when you go out and preach, preach the truth that clusters around my empty tomb. And when you read the book of Acts, they did that.

26:14 This note was sounded emphatically and clearly in the recorded summary statements of apostolic preaching. Now again I ask you, if I were to come under a contractual arrangement, verbal, that I was going to preach the gospel and for three whole days I said nothing about Joseph's empty tomb, nothing about the fact of the resurrection, nothing about the meaning of the resurrection, nothing about the blessings that accrue to sinners by a living resurrected Christ, would I have preached the gospel authorized by Jesus? I hope you shake your head again, no, you would not. Whatever else you would have done, in fact, you wouldn't do it.

26:55 And you'd be right. But now look at the third category of truth. And, coordinating conjunction, joining matters of equal value, and, and, that repentance unto remission of sins should be preached in His name among all the nations. Beginning from Jerusalem, you are witnesses of these things.

The Three Essential Categories of Gospel Proclamation

27:22 And behold, I send forth the promise of my Father upon you, but tarry in the city until you be clothed with power from on high. Power to do what? To be witnesses of Christ in terms of the gospel. The gospel authorized by Christ.

27:41 And as surely as Jesus taught them out of the scriptures that in their gospel proclamation they are to herald the truths that cluster around His cross, herald the truths which cluster around the empty tomb, they are to herald the truth of the necessity of that repentance unto the remission of sins, about which all men must perish. Now I ask you again, suppose I had agreed to come and preach the gospel in the assembly you're attached to. And for three nights, I proclaimed from the scriptures the truths that cluster around the cross of Christ.

28:26 Different approaches, different texts, as that marvelous reality is set before us in all of its different sidelights and highlights in the scriptures. And I proclaimed the reality and fact and benefits and implications of Joseph's empty tomb. He is a risen Christ. But in three nights, I never once gave a clear, clarion call that men must repent.

28:52 What it means to repent. What are the actings of the soul in repentance. And I held out forgiveness of sins without ever mentioning repentance when I have preached the gospel according to Jesus. No. No.

29:14 And one of the tragedies is, in our day there are people at least preaching something of the truths that cluster around the cross. And next Lord's Day, people will speak much about the truths clustering around the resurrection. But in a church in this very area, they're going to celebrate the open tomb by opening their new stage. Full of showmanship to reach the lost.

29:45 When all that showmanship is an evidence they've never repented of the world, they've dragged it into the church and sprinkled it with a few Jesus tunes and charades. And no call for a radical break with this idolatry of entertainment. But they turn the church into a place of cheap theater. And the note of repentance will never be sounded in that context.

30:17 It's as out of place as anything can be. Dear people, with a passage like this before us, I trust you have no question that the only gospel authorized by Jesus Christ is a gospel that contains a clarion call to repentance. And that repentance unto remission of sins should be preached, and here's the key, in His name. What's that mean?

30:56 You stand up and say, I call you to repent in the name of Jesus? No. The phrase in His name means against the backdrop of the revelation of all that God has said and done in the person and work of Jesus Christ. So He says repentance is to be preached not in the name of Moses, but in the name of Jesus.

31:20 Repentance is to be preached not as legal repentance standing condemned before the law that was thundered from Sinai, but it is repentance to be preached against the backdrop of Sinai's thunder coming to their loudest expression and Sinai's fire coming to its most heated furnace upon Golgotha when He who knew no sin was made sin for us when the Lamb of God died to take away the sin of a world. It is to be repentance in His name. That is repentance preached against the backdrop of gospel proclamation,

32:05 the truths of His cross, the truths of His open tomb. It must be repentance in His name unto remission. But it must be repentance unto remission of sins. And the construction of that phrase is exactly the same in word order, in case, in number as the phrase that is found in Luke 3 and verse 3 where John the Baptist preached a baptism of repentance unto remission of sins.

32:35 Exactly the same construction. His repentance was preached against the backdrop of that epoch of redemptive history when God was speaking for the first time after four centuries of silence. But the repentance we preach is against the backdrop of the full revelation of God's mercy and way of salvation in the accomplished, finished work of Jesus Christ our crucified, resurrected and ascended Lord. Well, that's my first category of proof of the absolute necessity of repentance.

The Gospel's Demand: Repent and Believe

33:12 Now let me put it as crassly as I know how. If in our communication of the gospel to people we do not sooner or later articulate the absolute necessity of the death of Christ, the necessity and reality of the resurrection of Christ, we've not preached the gospel. The gospel is good news announcing the great indicatives of God's saving mercy. What God has done in Christ for sinners, that's good news.

33:41 But when that good news has been brought and the sinner asks the question what must I do to enter into the benefits of what has been procured for sinners such as I am? We're not to tell them to raise a hand and walk an aisle. We're not to tell them to, quote, make a decision. We're to tell them to repent and to believe on the Lord Jesus.

34:04 They are to repent. And we have a solemn obligation to call them to that repentance. Well, now very quickly we come to our second category of evidence of the necessity of repentance not only do we see in our Bibles that the only gospel authorized by Jesus Christ contains a clarion call to repentance but the only gospel preached by the apostles also contains a clarion call to repentance. And if someone asks why is it so important to know what the apostles preached, well, they were given that commission directly.

34:41 And they are constituted the foundation of the new covenant community, of the church, of the church. Jesus Christ is the chief cornerstone, Ephesians 2.20, but the church is built upon a foundation of the apostles and prophets and all that is built upon it is to be squared by apostolic doctrine. And so it's crucial that the gospel we preach is parallel to the gospel preached by the apostles.

Apostolic Preaching: A Clarion Call to Repentance

35:10 Did they take their Lord's directions seriously? Well, let's do a quick flyover of about six passages in the book of Acts. This is not exhaustive. Turn to the specimen passage, Acts chapter 2.

35:22 You remember the setting? The Spirit of God, according to the promise of Jesus, has come in power and God has come with the sirens blowing and the horns blowing and the bells ringing to get the attention of everyone in Jerusalem. There's this mighty wind that people hear and tongues of fire over their heads. And then they begin to speak in dialects and languages that they had not acquired in the natural way.

35:47 And people gathered there at the feast time in Jerusalem hear them in their own peculiar dialects spoken with their own accents. And they say, something's going on here. We can't explain it. And some foolishly said, well, they've been bending their elbow a little bit too long.

36:04 And Peter says, no, no, that's not true. It's too early in the morning for that. You notice he didn't say, no, that could never be because before we could get filled with the Spirit we had to sign the temperance pledge. That's the way some would want to write it.

36:16 That's just a little aside. But he said, no, we're not drunk with wine. It's only early in the morning. But what has happened here is the fulfillment of God's promise made through the prophet.

36:27 And here's an expository evangelist. This is what used to amaze me. When I was in a, quote, evangelistic ministry popping around the country in little evangelical churches becoming, some of you have seen some little cards that even had revival meetings on them. And after two, three days I'd have men come to me and say, well, you know, you're not an evangelist.

36:48 And I knew what they were saying, but I'd like to get it out. And I said, what do you mean? Haven't I preached Christ? Oh, yeah.

36:53 Haven't I opened it? Oh, yeah. What do you mean I'm not an evangelist? Well, I finally get to admit it.

36:58 Well, what they meant is you open up the Bible and you teach the Bible. You don't stand up there, quote a text, and then tell us 20 minutes of stories. When I was here and when I was there and when I did this and when I did the other thing and oh, by the way, and then quote another text. And then I would try to sit down with them and open up the book of Acts and show that apostolic evangelism was expository evangelism.

37:19 It was explaining the message out of the Scriptures. That's what Jesus prepared them to do. He opened their mind to understand the Scriptures so that when they go out to preach the truths that cluster around the cross, cluster around the open tomb, that have the clarion call to repentance and to remission of sins, they'd know what Scriptures they could use to expound those truths. So that's what Peter is doing and as he's expounding, it's like, in the power of the Spirit of God, the Lord does a wonderful work.

37:49 Verse 37 of Acts 2. When they heard this, they were pricked, they were stabbed in their heart and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? We've just been charged with murdering our Messiah. We murdered Him, but God raised Him up.

38:08 And what we see with our own eyes is the proof that our risen Messiah has poured out the Holy Spirit upon His believing community. What in the world can we do to reverse our guiltiness before this great and glorious God? What shall we do? And Peter said unto them, verse 38, Repent!

38:30 His first word of response was in strict obedience to His Lord. Repent! And be baptized, every one of you, that is, believe on the Lord Jesus with a faith that's willing to be identified with Him before men. That's what the significance of baptism is here.

38:51 Repent! Turn from your sin. Own from the heart that you've been Messiah killers. Own from the heart your wretched spiritual blindness and the apostasy of your heart from the God of the covenant.

39:06 Repent with respect to God, His being, His person, His law, His Son, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, that is, believe upon Christ as revealed now in apostolic preaching as God's Messiah and Lord whom you crucified, whom God raised. Repent and be baptized. Believe upon Him with a faith that confesses Him unto what? Unto the remission of your sins.

39:38 Echoes of Luke 24. Repentance unto remission of sin is to be preached in His name beginning at Jerusalem. Peter said, Yes, Lord. Beginning at Jerusalem, that's what they're going to get.

39:51 Repentance unto remission of sin. Do you see it with your own eyes and your own Bible? And that quieted them down a little bit. When they got quieted down, Peter didn't invite them all into inquiry room after giving them an additional encouragement for to you and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

40:10 What we have, you'll have. But you'll get it the same way we did. We've embraced Him as our Messiah. You embrace Him as your Messiah.

40:19 Be identified with Him with a penitent faith and a confessing faith and you'll get exactly what we have. Not because you wait ten days in an upper room and have an extended prayer meeting, but because Jesus has been exalted to give the Spirit and now that He's been poured out, the only condition for receiving Him is going to Him in penitent faith in a confessing faith. For to you is the promise and to your children and to all that are far off even as the many as the Lord our God shall call unto Him. And with many other words, now notice, He testified and exhorted them saying, save yourselves from this crooked generation.

41:04 He explained the current contextual implications of the call to repentance and attachment to Christ. Invisible confessing faith in baptism. He didn't whisk them in while their emotions were hot. He told them, count the cost.

41:24 You get identified with this Jesus, you repent of the mindset that put Him upon the cross and you joined with them, then you better be prepared to take it from them. Save yourselves from this crooked generation. Many other words, many other words laid out the issues and they that received His word, the whole word, not just the word promising forgiveness, but the word demanding repentance, the word explaining the implications of visible, open, public identification with Christ and His people. They that received His word were baptized and they were added unto them in that day three thousand souls.

42:06 No wonder it says and they continued steadfastly. You see, the quality of churches is often determined by the caliber of the gospel that births the churches. Churches are birthed by the gospel. Paul said, I have begotten you through the gospel.

42:25 Though you have ten thousand instructors, yet have you not many fathers. Churches are birthed by the gospel. A defective gospel births defective churches. One of the keys to the vigor of that Jerusalem church was the gospel that was brought before the minds and consciences of those who became its first wave of new members.

Further Apostolic Examples of Repentance Preaching

42:50 So Peter checks out the first time. Let's see if he carries on. Chapter 3. He's now preaching in a situation where apparently there isn't an unusual pricking of hearts.

43:02 Peter's preaching the same Christ, the same gospel out of the Old Testament scriptures. He's charging these who hear him with sin. Verse 14. You denied the holy and righteous one and asked for a murderer to be granted unto you and you killed the prince of life.

43:18 But Peter says, boy, you talk about someone who didn't understand the principles of a user-friendly message. You killed the prince of life. It tells him that was true. You killed the prince of life.

43:35 God raised from the dead. Whereof we are witnesses. Luke 24. You're witnesses of these things.

43:41 He said, all right, Lord, we're going to witness to what you told us to. The reality of your death. The blessed reality of your resurrection. And by faith in his name has this man been healed.

43:53 And now, verse 17. And now, brethren, I know that in ignorance you did it as did also your rulers, the things which God foreshadowed by the mouth of all the prophets. Look, that the Christ should suffer. Sound like echoes of Luke 24.

44:08 He showed them how the Christ should suffer, be raised again on the third day. He thus fulfilled, verse 19, repent ye therefore and turn again in order that your sins may be blotted out. He promises no blotting apart from repentance. Repent that your sins may be blotted out.

44:29 No repenting, no blotting. Repenting, they are blotted. Blotted on the basis of the work of the one whom you murdered. Now then, Acts chapter 5.

44:39 Acts chapter 5. Peter again is preaching. And Peter is preaching to the people of the world. And Peter is preaching to the people of the world.

44:52 And Peter is preaching to the people of the world. And this is, this is more we might call less than a formal preaching setting. He is interacting with those that have abused them and told them to shut up and stop their preaching. But God puts his hand upon them and they continue to preach the Word of God and now in verse 30, Peter, verse 29, Peter and the other apostles answered and said, you tell us to shut up, whom you slew, hanging him on a tree.

45:28 Him did God exalt with his right hand to be a prince and a savior. A prince and a savior. He has a crown as well as the marks of his death. Those hands and that side that apparently be the only scars in heaven.

45:47 In the glorified body of Christ. They shall look on him whom they pierced and shall mourn for him. Him did God exalt with his right hand to be a prince and a savior. To give repentance to Israel and remission of sins.

46:04 Remission in conjunction with repentance. A repentance which issues in remission. No repentance, no remission. Repentance, there is remission.

46:17 And as we'll use this text for another purpose in the subsequent message. Simply to note that when. Peter preaches he thinks of no remission of sin. That has any connection with the crucified ascended Christ.

46:31 That is not found in conjunction with repentance. He gives the repentance and he gives the remission. Well then Acts chapter 8 we have an instance. Where one of God's servants is preaching to an individual.

46:46 Peter is preaching. And as Peter and John go down to Samaria. And God is making it evident that as the gospel goes out from Jerusalem and Judea into Samaria. That these Samaritans when they believe on the Lord Jesus.

47:03 They will get everything that the Jews in Jerusalem got on the day of Pentecost. So God's going to make it plain to them. So they do not receive the spirit in some unusual spectacular way upon believing. God wants these heads of the church.

47:19 These foundation stones to come. Many call this the extension. Of Pentecost some call it the Samaritan Pentecost and as Peter and John pray for them in the spirit is given there is some visible manifestation of his coming and this character of whom it is said he believed and was baptized he made a profession of faith verse 13 Simon also believed and being baptized continued with Philip beholding the signs and the great miracles that he wrought. Then most of you know the story when he sees.

47:53 What the apostles are able to do he says hey give me this power that on whomsoever I lay my hands they can get the Holy Spirit and how does Peter respond to that look at verse 20 but Peter said unto him your silver perish with you because you have thought to obtain the gift of God with money you have neither part nor lot in this matter your heart is not right before God it's not right before God you want to get it right Simon.

48:22 Here's the way look at the next verse repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray the Lord if perhaps the thought of your heart shall be forgiven you for I see you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity you've professed faith you've been baptized but it's obvious your heart has never been changed and if it's going to be changed it'll be changed in the way of repentance repent of your wickedness.

Paul's Universal Command to Repent

48:52 If perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven no repentance no forgiveness the message is clear then we come to act 17 here we have an example of Paul preaching to a group of pagan philosophers in the Areopagus I've always been fascinated says these guys had nothing else to do but go around and talk about some new thing I wonder if they were collecting unemployment or disability or what. It's just like.

49:25 These crowds that can always gather for this or that demonstration and I wonder what in the world who's earning the bread so they can go out and hold the sign and demand rights on this and protest about the other apparently no new thing under the sun so you had these characters they love to get around and jaw about the latest philosophy and what's your insight and what's mine etc. And so they put Paul in that category and they allow him to speak and Paul proclaims to them the God whom they ignorantly worship. He's taken. His clue from an altar to an unknown God the unknown God and he said that's the God the true and living God I will proclaim to you the God that made heaven and earth and he starts out with the basic facts of biblical theism who God is.

50:09 He's made the world it depends on him he doesn't depend on it and then in bringing his sermon to a climax notice what he says in verse 29 of Acts 17 being then the offspring of God we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone. Even by art and device. Man the times of ignorance therefore God overlooked but not. But now he commands men that they should.

50:37 Everywhere repent. In as much as he's appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. Where are these given assurance unto all men in that he raised him from.

50:53 Paul says God now commands all men. men everywhere that they should all repent. Why? Because a day is coming when the resurrected Christ will judge all men and there's only one thing that will stand you in good stead in that day. Have you truly come to evangelical repentance? Paul said, he commands. It's a

51:15 gracious gospel command. You see, the command to repentance is not law. It's gospel. If God commands me to turn from sin with the promise that in turning from sin and to His Son I shall have forgiveness, that's grace. That's not law. That's grace. God is showing

Paul's Summary of His Ministry: Repentance and Faith

51:35 the serious goodwill of His heart to sinners by commanding all sinners everywhere that all should repent that He might confer gracious gospel forgiveness upon them. And then the two texts, and I shall never forget when these came to my heart as a very young believer in a sin. A sea of gospel preaching that didn't mention repentance, that called repentance something for the Jews. Acts chapter 20 and verse 21. We're coming to our last two texts and then

52:05 we'll be done after a point or two of application. Here Paul has gathered the Ephesian elders around him. He's ministered for over three years at Ephesus, the longest place of a stated ministry that the apostle had in his whole missionary and apostolic ministry. And now he's ministered for over three years at Ephesus, the longest place of a stated ministry that the apostle had in his whole missionary and apostolic ministry. And now he's ministered

52:24 for over three years at Ephesus, the longest place of a stated ministry that the apostle had in his whole missionary and apostolic ministry. And now he's reminding them of the patterns of his life while among them. He then gives them a summation of the major pivots of his teaching and preaching in verse 20 and 21. How I shrank not from declaring unto you anything that was profitable, and teaching you publicly, and from house to house. I had

52:46 one message wherever I went. And here were its two great pivots. Testifying both to Jews and to Jesus. And now I'm going to read a particular passage in that parable in verses to Greeks. He didn't have a message

52:55 for Jews and a different one for raw pagan Gentiles. He said, I have the same message for Jews and non-Jews. When you see Jew in Greek, that means Jews and non-Jews. If you weren't a Jew, you were a Greek.

53:08 Didn't mean you had pure Greek blood flowing through your veins and you could trace your ancestry back to Athens or Thebes or some other well-known place in Greece. No. You're either a Jew or a non-Jew. And he said, this is what I preach to both groups. Repentance

53:24 towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. And now, behold, I go bound in the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there, except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying, bonds and afflictions abide me. Now look at verse 24. But I hold not my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may accomplish my course in the ministry which I receive from the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.

53:56 One is a gospel that faithfully proclaims the grace of God. One that has these two great pivots, repentance towards God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. A repentance that has primarily in focus, as we shall see if God spares us to gather together next Lord's Day evening and look at the nature of this repentance. It has primarily to do with the person and being of God as creator and lawgiver and judge and His rights and His law over us. The fact

54:33 that He made us for Himself and we've turned away from Him. Each of us to His own way, indifferent to communion with Him, indifferent to His laws, indifferent to His glory. And if we would ever know the forgiveness of that God, there must be repentance with reference to this God.

54:52 And if we're to be right with that God, all of our legal accounts have got to be settled. There's got to be a way where the justice of heaven can welcome us back into His presence and give us the status of sons. That's where faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ comes in. For no man comes to the Father, said Jesus, but by me. And Paul

55:14 says these were the two great pivots of my message. Not just faith in Jesus, but faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, the whole Christ in the whole of His messianic and redemptive identity and repentance towards God. And then our last text, Acts 26 and verse 20. Even more comprehensive than the Acts 20-21 passage,

55:43 for here the Apostle is reviewing his whole lifetime of ministry up to that point. And notice how he expresses it in Acts 26 and verse 19. Whereupon, O King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared both to them of Damascus first. First place he preached after he got converted. God got him on

56:09 the road to Damascus. And after the Lord got him, he ends up in Damascus. And he said, from the first time I preached, this is what I preached. And then at Jerusalem, and then throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, this is what I preach.

56:25 Wherever I went, that they should trust Jesus as their personal Savior. How in the world did that term become acquainted with orthodox evangelical Christianity? How did it? Yet people unthinkingly parroted tracts, spewed out by the thousands.

56:46 No, that isn't what Paul preached. He said, this is what I preached. That they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance. Paul's gospel was a gospel of works.

57:01 He just said works in the right place. You try to put any works between the guilty, hell-deserving sinner and the naked embrace of Christ, and Paul says dead works, no good. Repent of them. Then you say, well, I've repented and I've embraced God through Jesus Christ.

57:16 He said, you bring forth fruits that prove it. If you don't, you're trying to fool yourself, but you're not fooling God. And he said that was part of his gospel. That's what he preached. Wherever he went, that men

57:27 should repent, turn to God. This idea that you just tip your hat to Jesus and get all fixed up, and then you can have all that the world has with a little of its grosser manifestation stripped away, and worship can be turned into a show, a multimedia spectacular show. God have mercy on us. That thing is shaking me to the roots. Some of you know what I'm talking

57:54 about. It's haunted me all day. Next week in our county, an evangelical church will show off its new stage and its multimedia presentations all with the express purpose to reach the younger generation by means that they feel comfortable with. Got a generation going to hell with wild rock music dulling its conscience.

58:20 Now we'll give them some of that in the name of Christ.

58:25 Entertainment crazy. Visually numb so that they can't think and can't speak. Image bears of God. Grunt, grunting, like you know, like wow it's grunt, grunt, like wow you know, like fantastic, awesome.

58:43 What a tragedy. And now we're going to pander that junk in the name of Christ. Paul says, no, I preach that men should repent, turn to God. That's serious business.

58:54 You can't tickle people into getting serious about God. He's an awesome being. Can you not, you who are here in the seminar, still see Dr. Tripp with his fist clenched and his eyes looking up at that beam closed. The God

59:08 we present to our children is a glorious, awesome God, worthy of their reverent worship and their deepest devotion and love. Oh, when I hear God set forth like that, I get the goosebumps and everything in me says, God, that's the God I know. That draws me with His beauty and yet repels me with His majesty. And you're drawn and repelled at one and the same time.

59:36 You say, depart from me, oh Lord, I'm an unclean man, while all the time you're saying draw me and we will run after thee. Do you know that paradox of the soul? Do you know that? That was Paul's aim in his evangelism to get people who could go to their pagan temples and do their little ritual with their God and then go away and live like the devil.

59:56 And then go back the next week and do their ritual. Paul said, no, I want people to become God-obsessed. So I preach when I proclaim the gospel that through Christ you can know this great God who made heaven and earth, upholds all things by the word of His power, who's an awesome, glorious God, worthy of your whole heart's devotion and love and adoration. Repent with respect to that God. Turn to

Personal Application: Are You a Penitent Believing Sinner?

60:25 Him through Christ. Then bring forth fruits that answer to that professed repentance. Well, I ask you, did the apostles do what their Lord told them to do? They preached the truths clustered around the cross.

60:40 Clustered around the open tomb. Clustered around the call to repent unto the remission of sins. Now this has been basically just establishing that one simple fact of the necessity of repentance. But I hope in all of this it's not just been an intellectual exercise. Or you've enjoyed

61:03 me working up a sweat.

61:06 But from your heart you're persuaded, if I don't experience what Jesus said must be experienced, I'm lost. And I'm lost forever. If I do not do what the apostles said I must do, if I'm to have remission of sins, namely repent, it would be better for me that I'd never been born. Are you persuaded of that? If you are,

61:31 then you won't give yourself any rest until you know that by the grace of God, you are a penitent believing sinner. That's the basic difference between us here tonight. All of us are sinners. That's level ground. Some of us,

61:46 by grace, are penitent believing sinners. Note that I didn't say we have repented and believed, pointing to an act. I'm pointing to a state of soul. We are penitent believing sinners.

61:59 For repentance and faith are not the acts of the moment. They are the acquisition of an attitude that will be with us until repentance is no more necessary and faith merges into sight. Until then, those on their way to heaven are penitent believing sinners. If you're not one of those, I pray God you'll give yourself no rest until you become one. You go to God

62:23 and say, Oh God, I've seen it with my own Bible, in the opening up of the Scriptures, that there's no hope that I will ever know forgiveness of sins. If I'm a stranger to repentance, Oh God, show me my heart. Oh God, in grace and mercy, enable me to lay hold of the offered pardon in your Son, to break off with every idol I have known, all the purposes to serve myself and worship myself. Choose my own standards and set up my own gods.

62:54 Lord, I've turned from the whole shooting match, and I want to be yours. Yours entirely, yours now, yours forever. You know what happens in heaven when that happens? When you read Luke 15, parable of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son, people so often say, well, the angels rejoice.

63:17 In each of those instances, you see, it was the seeking person who called others to rejoice with him. The shepherd gathers his friends and says, rejoice with me. The sheep that was lost is found. The woman who finds her coin says, she gets her friends and says, rejoice with me. And it's the

63:35 father who embraces the son who says, hey, we're going to have us a party. Bring out the fatted calf, bring the best robe, bring the ring. Jesus said, likewise, there's joy in heaven over one sinner repents. Likewise, in this manner, when the sinner repents, God gathers all the glorified spirits and angels and says, rejoice with me.

63:55 Another one's come home. But what must God feel when people are told they can have pardon without repentance? May God grant that there'll be joy in heaven tonight as the Lord Jesus receives more of the reward of his suffering by some of you repenting and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Father, we thank you.

64:28 We thank you that your word is alive. A lamp to our feet and a light to our pathway. We thank you for the clear teaching of our Lord Jesus concerning the gospel that he authorizes. Thank you for the obedience of the apostles and the record that Luke has given us by the guidance of the Spirit here in the book of Acts. And we pray, Lord,

64:51 that you would ground us in this truth, not only intellectually, though we ask for that, but in our own experience. O God, have mercy upon those who are deluded, who think because of something they've done, they must of necessity be yours, but who are strangers to repentance, to faith. We pray for others who may be struggling with assurance that you'd use the things preached to bring them to a place of settledness as they see that by your grace they do turn from their sins. They do delight to acknowledge your rights and your claims over them and they rest solely in

65:34 the work your Son has done for sinners. Father, bless your word across the broadest spectrum of need represented in this building tonight and get to yourself praise and honor and glory. We ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.