Change of Mind Toward God

Introduction: The Importance and Nature of Repentance

0:04 study in a series of studies on the biblical doctrine of repentance. By way of introduction and briefly by way of review, let me state first of all that the Bible is full of the great themes of God, of sin, of law, of atonement, of repentance, and faith, of holiness. And any truly biblical preaching will touch on these themes with varying degrees of regularity. You can't miss them unless you miss the Bible. However, unless there is a focus on these

0:39 given themes from time to time, distinct and clear views are never likely to be formed. So we'll have some biblical notions of God, of sin, of law, of atonement, of repentance, and faith, but then it's necessary to focus, to zero in upon some of these aspects of God's truth in a topical way in order to sharpen these themes. To sharpen our understanding of them and to have a firmer grasp upon that aspect of biblical truth. And so, moving then from our normal exposition of a given passage or sections of passages related as we did to the life of Elijah or some of the psalms as we've done

1:20 in the past year, we are covering the biblical doctrine of repentance in a topical way, seeking to sharpen our understanding of this great biblical theme. I would like to believe that any man who's been here any longer than six months is totally ignorant of the fact that repentance is a major theme of the Bible. Any man who preaches the Bible and lets the Bible say what it does say and doesn't shape it to fit his own thinking cannot help but be a preacher of repentance. But it's one thing to have the strands of this truth as they come to light woven into the fabric of the entire revelation, and it's another thing to take those strands out of the different chapters of the Bible and to sharpen our understanding of the Bible.

2:03 And so this is what we are doing in these Sunday evening studies. We have considered the importance of this doctrine. Scripture makes clear that there is no such thing as saving faith if it be divorced from repentance. We have seen from the Word of God that the only gospel authorized by Jesus Christ is a gospel, among other things, of repentance.

2:33 The only gospel preached by the apostles was a gospel of repentance. We have seen that the only alternative to perishing is to repent. Having considered the importance of the doctrine, we have spent several nights beginning to grapple with the nature of true repentance. And we have done so by working with a formal definition and an extended illustration or description. The definition coming from the shorter catechism, the description or illustration,

3:03 that of a true repentance. And we have done so by working with a formal definition and an extended illustration or description. The definition coming from the shorter catechism, the definition of true repentance. So let me give them to you again. Repentance unto life is, and now I quote,

Review: The Soil and Roots of Repentance

3:09 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. That's the definition formally stated. The illustration or description of true repentance 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 We're trying to keep before us is that of a tree. There's soil, roots, a main trunk, and four main branches, foliage, and fruit upon that tree. Thus far, we have looked at the soil of the tree of

3:48 repentance. Repentance unto life is a saving grace. And the only soil of true repentance is God's free grace. Whenever a sinner repents, it's because there's been an operation of God's free grace.

4:02 Repentance unto life is a saving grace. And the only soil of true repentance is God's free grace. It is called the gift and the grant of the ascended Christ, Acts 5, 31 and 11, 18. It's called the gift of God in 2 Timothy 2, 26.

4:15 So, if we have repented, all of our praise is directed to the God of free grace. If we long to see others repent, all of our hopes are pinned upon the operations of free grace. Now, if that tree is to be a tree, it's got to have roots. And the two roots of repentance we have considered from Holy Scripture are conviction of sin. Repentance unto life is a saving grace, whereby a sinner out of a true

4:44 sense of his sin. Let me say to you seminarians who may be wrestling with this whole matter of experimental religion, when anyone says that this is some kind of Puritan overemphasis, you take them back to the old confession of faith, where they stated, and in the catechism,

5:03 repentance unto life was a saving grace, whereby a sinner, not out of the mere acknowledgement of his sin, but a true sense of his sin. That's something felt. That's experimental religion, isn't it? A true sense of his sin. Not a mere acknowledgement of guilt, but a sense of guilt.

5:22 And there's never any repentance until God has made you to feel and own something of the weight of your sin. How much? I cannot say. But until you have felt the smart and the sting of being a fallen, depraved son of Adam, a rebel against the God of heaven, until you've known what it is to feel what one of the old writers called the pangs of a new birth, you've never come to repentance. No one ever came smiling and tripping his way doing an Irish jig into the kingdom of

5:50 heaven. He may have done his Irish jig after, when he was filled with joy unspeakable and full of glory. But God makes us mourn before he makes us laugh. That's why he says, blessed are they who mourn, for they shall laugh. That's why he says, blessed are they who mourn, for they shall laugh.

6:04 Woe unto you who laugh now, for you shall mourn later. And if you've never felt the sting and the weight of your sin, I say you're a stranger to true repentance. For the first root of repentance is a sight and sense of our sin. For our Lord said, I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.

6:23 I didn't come to heal those that are well, but those that are sick. The law is our schoolmaster unto Christ. The second root of repentance, and this concludes our review, is this saving sight of Christ crucified. True evangelical gospel repentance is never divorced from that sight of Christ crucified, which is the focal point of the gospel. A mere legal repentance

6:49 leaves a man trembling at the sense that he's broken God's law and stands under wrath, and it produces that sorrow and dread that leads to death and running from God. But that sight of my sin that is held against the backdrop of my sin is the focal point of the gospel. It is the focal point of my sin that I see God pouring out His wrath upon His own dear Son, and then setting His Son before me as a willing and enabled Savior who says, Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. It's the sight of my sin which, though it breaks me, is filled with hope, for I see God as the Savior and receiver of sinners in His own dear Son and through the work of His cross. And so that inward

7:29 sight of Christ crucified is the second root of repentance, for I see there's hope in the hope for sinners like me. I see something of the enormity of my sin, not only in the light of the law that I've broken, but in terms of the wounds that I've opened by my sin. And wonder of wonders, though I open those wounds, He pleads to me to come from those very wounds. And so true repentance is always joined, not only to conviction of sin, but to a sight, an apprehension, a laying hold of Christ crucified.

8:04 Therefore, all true repentance is in some way connected with the preaching of the law and the preaching of the gospel. Someone has said a Christian is a man who's bowed twice. He's bowed before God as His creator, humbled in the dust that He should have defied Him and broken His laws. He's bowed before the cross of Calvary, acknowledging with awe and with wonder that though He broke the holy laws of God, God has been gracious and merciful in His life.

Personal Application: Have You Experienced True Repentance?

8:35 And He's willing to be saved on God's terms, God's way. Now, have those two roots ever been sunk down into your heart? I don't want this just to be some nice lectures on repentance. Do you know in your heart of hearts what I've been talking about? As I've

8:50 been speaking, has heart answered to heart? Has deep answered unto deep? Or do you say, what in the world is He talking about? If He asked me, did I make a decision for Christ? Oh, I can

9:01 remember doing that. If He asked me if I made a prayer, I know all about that. What's He talking about? Oh, my friend, listen. Young or old, teenager, visitor, member of this assembly,

9:11 if you're a stranger to that sense and sight of your sin that's put a wound within your breast that you'll carry to your grave, and that sight of Jesus Christ that has filled you with awe and wonder and made you a guilty, polluted sinner, dare to approach a holy God through the merits of Christ. If you're a stranger to that, you're a stranger to repentance. If you're a stranger to that, you're a stranger to repentance. If you're a stranger to that, you're a stranger to repentance. You're a stranger to God's salvation. And may God be pleased to help you this night

The Trunk of Repentance: A Change of Mind

9:41 to become acquainted with that great salvation and with that wonderful Savior. Now, having considered the soil, you see it there, the two roots, what is the tree that it supports? Moving on in our definition and our consideration of the nature of repentance, what is that main trunk and what are its branches? Supported by those roots, sunk into that soil. Free grace, conviction, a revelation of Christ crucified. What is the

10:11 actual trunk of repentance? What are those four main branches? Well, the key, of course, of what that main trunk is, is the meaning of the word repent itself. Literally, it means a change of mind, an afterthought. It has to do with viewing things from a totally different perspective,

10:32 which view leads to a totally different orientation of all of my life. You see, the whole word repent focuses on the shift element of the gospel. You see, the gospel comes announcing a wonderful gift of eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. But the gospel also comes demanding a shift element, a shifting of the whole focus and orientation of life from sin and self, time, and sense to God, to eternity, to the world and realm of the Spirit. And it's repentance that

11:14 brings into focus this whole aspect of the shift element of the gospel, along with the concept of the gift element. Faith relates primarily to the gift, and faith is the hand that takes the gift. Repentance relates to the shift and is the activity, the spiritual inward activity of the gift, the shift of the whole center and focus of life. To quote from Professor Murray in his excellent treatment of this subject of repentance and faith, which I've mentioned before, he refuses to treat in separate chapters, but one chapter in his book, Redemption Accomplished and Applied, which is the only biblical way to treat the subject. I quote now,

11:57 Repentance consists essentially in a change of heart and mind and will, and it's a change of heart

12:07 respecting God, ourselves, sin, and righteousness. When the scripture says, except ye repent, ye shall perish, God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. God commandeth all men everywhere to repent. What is the very substance, the core of that which God's commanding? He's saying, have a radical change of mind that affects

12:33 your whole thinking, your whole feeling, and your whole life. And if you don't have a radical change in your whole willing, a change of mind that will radically affect the entirety of your life. Now, that's the main trunk of repentance. If I had a blackboard, I'd write in it, change of mind, but it's not hung out there on a sky hook. It's not just a change of mind in

The First Branch: A Change of Mind Toward God

12:53 general. It's a change of mind that affects specific things. So the four main branches, here's the main trunk, the four branches coming out of it, a change of mind respecting God, sin, myself, and righteousness. We'll spend all our time right here tonight. Repentance is a change of mind with respect to

13:13 God. Now, will you look at several texts of scriptures with me, and notice that when repentance is set before us, God is the primary object of that repentance, God the Father. Whereas our Lord Jesus Christ as the mediator is the essential object of faith. Acts chapter 20, Acts chapter 20 and verse 21.

13:42 Text we use to demonstrate the inseparability of repentance and saving faith. Now we want to look at the text in another reference, or from another perspective, Acts 20, 21. Testifying both to Jews and Greeks, repentance with reference to God and faith with reference to, toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, Paul is not being careless. He's not being careful. He's not being careful. He's not being

14:16 careless in his use of words. He said, one of the dominant themes of my preaching was the necessity of evangelical repentance. Having set before men God as creator, God as lawgiver, God is the one to whom we are accountable, the one who searches our hearts, the one before whom we'll stand in judgment. Having shown his holy and righteous character, his holy and righteous law, that we are sinners. Having then set forth the Lord Jesus as God's mediator, God is the one who will stand

14:46 between sinful man and a holy God. Then the apostles summoned men to repentance with reference to God as creator, lawgiver, judge, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ as mediator and redeemer and savior. Now, this is not playing with words. There is a specific intent, and when we disregard this intent, we'll end up somewhere along the line in a deflection from the very heart of the gospel. Why is God the Father the specific and peculiar object of repentance

15:24 in this text? You find essentially the same thing in Acts 26.20. I'm not asking, answering the question yet. I just want to raise it in your mind. Acts 26 and verse 20. When we were considering

15:36 the fact that the only gospel preached by the apostles, we looked at this text. Now let's look at it in another light. Acts 26.20.

15:46 I've declared both to them of Damascus first, and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God. Repent and turn to God. He didn't say turn to Christ. He said turn to God. Now, the only way they could turn to God was

16:07 through Christ. But when he's dealing with the subject of repentance, he places God the Father before us in a peculiar and special way. Now, when he talks about faith, he says Christ before us. Acts 16.31. The text that John Riesinger,

16:23 Mr. Riesinger, preached on so powerfully a few nights ago. He said to the Philippian jailer, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Acts 20.21. Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.

16:36 Now, is the distinction clear in your mind? Are you convinced we're not playing games with you?

16:41 Do you see the distinction? Do you see it? Yes or no? I mean, I want you to show some. Do you see the distinction?

16:49 All right. Now, my question is why? What's the distinction? Significance. What's the significance? Is this something just to pass over lightly, or is there some true

16:58 significance? Well, there's great significance. Well, you see, repentance is this radical shift, this radical change of mind toward the living God who has made us, from whom we receive our very sustenance and unto whom we shall give an account in the day of judgment, and by nature, our whole thinking about him and feeling toward him is a change of mind. And by nature, our whole thinking about him and feeling toward him is a change of mind. And by nature, our whole thinking about him and feeling toward him is a

17:23 change of mind. And by nature, our whole thinking about him and feeling toward him and actions with respect to him are so radically wrong that nothing less than a complete about-face with reference to him would satisfy the very goal of God in redemption. God did not put forth his arm to save men with an intent that terminates upon man's happiness or man's blessedness. His end was his own glory, and the attainment of the desire of his own heart was his own glory. And the attainment

17:54 of the desire of his own heart was his own glory. And the attainment of the desire of his own heart was his own glory. And the attainment of the desire of his own heart was his own glory. And the attainment of the desire of his own heart was his own glory. And the

17:56 attainment of the desire of his own heart was his own glory. And the attainment of the desire of his own heart was his own glory. And the attainment of the desire of his own heart was his own glory. And the attainment of the desire of his own heart was his own glory. And the

17:58 attainment of the desire of his own heart was his own glory. And the attainment of the desire of his own heart was his own glory. And the attainment of the desire of his own heart was his own glory. And the attainment of the desire of his own heart was his own glory. And the

Humanity's Natural Enmity and Wrong Thoughts About God

18:02 By nature, we don't think that way about God. Let's consider how we think about God by nature. We don't think of Him as worthy of our homage. That's why we can get up day after day, week after week, and never pause for 20 seconds to think, Here's a day before me.

18:23 I've got life, sanity of mind, silence. Where'd I get this?

18:29 God gave it to me. I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. In Him I live and move and have my being.

18:36 Fall down upon our knees and say, Oh God, that you should give me the gift of life and allow me to live on all this borrowed capital, your air, your earth, all the good things of that earth, all the good things that I know and experience. No, no, that's never even entered the mind of some of you sitting here tonight. Never even passed across your mind once. You've lived day in, day out, year in and year out, giving Him no homage.

19:03 Why? Because you think wrong thoughts about Him. You don't think God. You're not worthy of that kind of homage.

19:09 You see no glory in His person that makes your heart excited. And I say that, I trust reverently, excited about the very thought of God.

19:20 You think thoughts about Him in that you try to make God like yourself. It says in Psalm 50 and verse 21, Thou thoughtest that I was altogether like unto thyself. God says, You're continually trying to make me like you are.

19:35 You forget things so you think I forget. So you consented with a thief and you say, Oh well. No thunderbolts came out of heaven and struck me dead. I took God's name in vain and He didn't cause my tongue to rot in my mouth.

19:46 I defiled His holy day and didn't spend time in the worship of His name but sat in front of my boob tube and watched the football games and I didn't have any calamity coming. Maybe God really doesn't mean what He says. Maybe God forgets. Maybe God doesn't keep His word.

20:02 Those are the kind of thoughts we think about God, isn't it? He's like us. He's not worthy of homage. He's not worthy of our reverence.

20:08 However, we think wrongly about Him. But not only do we think wrongly about Him, we feel wrongly toward Him. Scripture says in Romans 8 in verse 7, The carnal mind is enmity against God. It stands out in hostility to His ways and to His will.

20:26 It may do it openly or it may do it in the more subtle form of being utterly indifferent to Him. I don't know which is worse. At least when a man says, I hate the laws of this country and I'm going to defy them, he's acknowledging that the law is there and the country has some standards. But the man who just acts as though they aren't there and just goes on and does as he pleases, I think he's the worst criminal.

20:50 He doesn't even have the decency to say, it's there, I'm going to fight it. He acts as though it wasn't there. You see, the person who says, I don't believe there's a God and if there were, I'm going to clench my fist and do as I please right in his face. I think there's in some way more hope for him than the person who just goes on living in a practical atheism who may say, oh yeah, there might be a God somewhere, somewhere, but who?

21:09 Who cares? That's the way we feel with regard to him. This spirit of enmity, this suspicion of him. We suspect him.

21:20 Religion. Doing what God wants, that'll make you the most miserable person in all the world. We have terrible thoughts of God. And because of that, there's this affection, if we may call suspicion of affection, an affection, an indifference to draw near to him.

21:34 I want to steer clear of him. And we're not only wrong in our thinking about him, in our feelings toward him, but in our actions with regard, to him, we oppose him. We run from him. We want nothing to do with his holy law and his claims over us.

21:49 We're prodigals. And wasn't that the problem with the prodigal? He thought wrong thoughts about his dad. He thought wrong thoughts about him.

21:58 And as he thought wrong thoughts about his dad, he began to feel wrong attitudes to his dad. There was this disinclination. He didn't want to be under his dad's roof. He didn't want to be in close proximity to his dad, for his dad reminded him of everything that the establishment stood for.

22:16 Law, order, discipline, standards. And this young man, because his heart was set upon gratifying its own lust and passions, he couldn't stand the presence of his father. He thought wrong thoughts about him, felt wrong things to him, and then his will acted wrongly. He says, Dad, give me what's coming to me.

22:37 I'm getting out of here. And that's what we are by nature. Creatures just like that prodigal, so that when God goes to describe us, by nature, and hears a description of the whole human race. What does he say about us in this regard?

22:51 I read now from Romans 3, beginning with verse nine. What then are we better than they? No, in no wise. We before laid to the charge, both of Jews and Greeks, that they are all under sin, as it is written.

23:08 What does it mean to be under sin? He's going to tell us. There is none righteous, no, not one, none who takes serious regard of God'sự holy law. There is none that understandeth, now here's the sad verse, none that seeketh after God.

23:29 What were you made for? God made you in such a way that you could only be a true man, a true woman, a true boy, a true girl, as God himself was your supreme goal in life. As you thought right thoughts about him, you could live rightly in his world. Think wrong thoughts about him and you'll make a mess of everything in his world. Feel rightly to God, you'll feel rightly to everything

23:52 else. Choose rightly with reference to God, you'll choose rightly with reference to everything else. But think wrong thoughts about him, refuse to seek him as your chief good, refuse to regard him as the goal of your life, and you'll botch up everything you touch. And that's the rest of this passage.

24:11 Throat is an open sepulcher, their tongues that they use deceit, poison of asps is under their lips, mouth full of cum. Cursing and bitterness, feats with to shed blood, destruction and misery in their ways, the way of peace that they not known. What's the problem? There is no fear of God before their eyes.

24:27 That is, they have no proper regard of God and of setting him as the goal and the governing principle of all of life. That's their problem. That's their problem. That's man's problem.

24:46 Want me to prove that this is your condition by nature and mine? Think of all those, prayerless days, in which you said in reality, God's not worthy to be sought. Think of all those sluggish hours you've spent in houses of worship like this, where you've mouthed words with no true involvement. What were you saying? Just as your prayerlessness said, God's not worthy to be

25:10 sought earnestly, that sluggishness in worship was saying, God's not worthy to be praised enthusiastically. Sure, the seraphim and cherubim are filled with a sanctified, restlessness as they fly about the throne and are wrapped in worship as they cry, holy, holy, holy. And the elders there about his throne incessantly fall before him and cry out, worthy is he that is upon... It's all right for them, but I don't think he's worthy of that kind

25:39 of excitement. I don't think he's worthy of that kind of involvement. Think of all the times you've come and sleepily and with mental sluggishness have barely attempted to think as his word was preached. What were you saying?

25:52 You're saying God's not worthy to be heard. Think of your rebellion to his commands. You're saying God's not worthy to be obeyed. Ah, but let your lusts cry out, obey me, and you're all alive, aren't you? Let your covetous heart begin to speak and say, give me what I want, and you're

26:10 ready to make sacrifices to do it. Let fashion cry out and say, conform to me, and you'll rid your closet of everything that's six months behind style. Very much alert and alive to the call of fashion. Very much alert to the call of the crowd. Be like us. Do what we say. You're all ears. You're all

26:31 obedience. You're all affection. Let your lusts, your passions, your covetousness, very much alert and alive. Let God say, seek ye my face. No, Lord, you're not worthy to be sought. Worship me with

26:43 holy abandonment. No, Lord, you're not worthy of that. Listen to my word with eagerness. No, Lord, you're not worthy of that. Obey me and do my will. No, you're not worthy of that. You see, that's the

26:53 way we think about God. That's the way every one of us thinks about God. That's the way we think about God. The only difference between any of us here tonight is that grace has intervened and changed that in some of us. If you say, oh, that was never me, my friend, you're living in a fool's paradise. You've

27:07 never seen yourself. This is God's description of what you are by nature. If his word doesn't indict you now and bring you to hang with head bowed before the bar of the judgment of his word crying, Lord, it's true, it's true. My friend, the day is coming when God will make you give that confession.

27:28 There at that judgment, when you stand in his presence, that's our attitude to God by nature. Now, God says, repent, repent. And in the context of the setting forth of his dear son who loved us and gave himself for sinners, in the context of God's gracious invitation to come, he says, repent with reference to me. Change your mind about me. Let there be this radical shift in the

The Effect of Grace: Turning to God to Serve Him

27:59 whole area of your thinking about me, your feeling toward me, and your choices with respect to me. So having looked at how we think of God by nature, let us consider tonight how we think about him by grace. And will you turn as a key text that describes this in a very beautiful and succinct form to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1. Here's what the grace of God does to creatures who do not seek after God.

28:29 Who do not count him worthy of praise, worthy to be sought, worthy to be heard, worthy to be obeyed. Here's what the grace of God does. When through the preaching of the word, men are awakened,

28:45 their hearts are illuminated. They get this sight of Christ crucified. Their hearts run out to him in repentance and faith. Here's what happens. 1 Thessalonians chapter 1 verse 9. For they

29:00 themselves will be saved. They will be saved. They will be saved. They will be saved. They will be

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29:01 concerning us, what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned unto God. You see again, the Father is the peculiar object of this shift of true repentance. Ye turned unto God from idols to serve a living and true God and to wait for His Son from heaven whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, who delivereth us from the wrath to come. Ye turned to God to serve Him.

29:38 There's the summary statement of this passage. This is the marvelous effect of the power of the gospel when the Holy Spirit quickens a sinner to life in the hidden depths of a man's being beneath the level of his own consciousness. And when it comes to the level of consciousness, he finds that there is this shift occurring in the level of his own consciousness. In his whole thinking about God, he's moved in this direction.

30:01 He hasn't sought Him. He hasn't served Him. He hasn't longed after Him. He hasn't taken strict conscience about His commands.

30:09 And as the Spirit of God deals with him, and that root of conviction goes down, and that saving sight of Christ, there is this change of mind. He finds himself turning in what direction? To the living and the true God with a disposition of heart that runs out to Him in love. Love.

30:28 Love expressed in this spirit of submission. He turned to God to serve the living and the true God. Seeing His claims as just and holy and right. Seeing His wrath that should condemn me as a righteous wrath.

Gladly Acknowledging God as Creator, Lawgiver, and Benefactor

30:47 Seeing His grace as unmerited. I turn to this God. No longer thinking unworthy thoughts of Him. No longer thinking mean thoughts of Him.

30:57 No longer trying to be unworthy. No longer trying to shape Him as a God after my own image. I say, oh God, You know me. You know all about me.

31:04 You've indicted me by Your law. You've nailed me, as it were, to the wall with the sense of my guilt. I can't say I don't know, let alone say You don't know. If You've brought me to this side of my sin that I can't escape it, how much more must You know?

31:19 And yet, wonder of wonders, God, You've showed me in Your Son You're merciful. In Your Son You're gracious. In Your Son You bid me to seek You. To find mercy and relief and forgiveness and deliverance.

31:32 And so we turn to this God, acknowledging that He is our Creator. And for the first time in our lives, we're glad to be creatures.

31:43 We stop playing God. We say, God, at this point, I'm willing to go out of the God business. You didn't make me to strut around a little creature, making my own choices, setting my own rules. No, no.

31:56 You made me to find my true glory. In acknowledging You as my Creator, with absolute rights over me. And that my true manishness, womanish, womanish, womanish, womanish. If you can say it, you're better than I am.

32:14 My true womanhood. My true boyhood. My true girlhood. How is it to be found?

32:20 In listening to what the world says, this is a real woman. You've really made it, Jane. Take out your slims and suck it in your miniskirt. You've come a long way.

32:29 Is that being a true woman? That's what the world says. Some of you girls are half-thinking, maybe that is true womanhood. You just wish mom and dad would give you a little rope to try it.

32:39 No, no. You see, it loses that young teenage girl to say, God, You made me. You made me this way. Now I want to accept my place as Your creature.

32:48 And You didn't make me a boy, You made me a girl. And Lord, I'm glad to be that kind of a creature. Now Lord, what's Your will for a young girl? What do You want me to be?

32:59 How do You want me to act? To mom? To dad? To friends?

33:03 To fellows that are interested in me? Lord, I accept my place as a creature whose glory is found in doing Your will. For the first time, You're glad to be a creature. You say, Lord, I'll stop being a little god running the show myself.

33:15 See, He didn't make you to be a little god. He made you to be a creature. You fellows, you'll say the same thing. You don't look out there to the fellows that can sneak their weeds on the side and brag about it to you and can get the pornographic literature off the local drugstore shelf and sneak you to look at it here or there.

33:32 And the boys, they don't look at it. They look at it in the ladies' room and they say, that's being a man? No, no. You say, Lord, I'm tired of that.

33:35 You didn't make me for that, Lord. You made me the way I am. And I'm willing to be what You want me to be. Now, Lord, You tell me what You want me to be.

33:39 You see, for the first time, you accept your place as a creature. And that's the most liberating thing that ever can happen to a man. Is it bondage for a poor little fish that all its life has been flopping around, if it has any left, has been flopping around on a hayfield somewhere? Is it bondage for him to be plopped into a fishbowl or into a fishpond?

33:44 Is it bondage for a poor little fish that all its life has been flopping around, if it has any left, has been flopping around on a hayfield somewhere? Is it bondage for him to be plopped into a fishbowl or into a fishpond? And for the first time to enjoy the environment for which he was truly made, bondage? Nothing doing.

34:10 Poor little fellow just flipped his tail for joy when he finds his true environment. I say it reverently. God made us. should be our environment. And we're misfits until we take our place as creatures. But

34:23 you see, sin has so warped us and affected us that we don't want to be creatures. We want to be little gods doing what we want, thinking our thoughts about life and what's life all about and what should govern us. Ah, but when in true repentance we turn to God, we take our place as creatures and we say, God, I gladly acknowledge you as my creator. Then for the first time from the heart, we're glad that he's a lawgiver. Up till now, the

34:48 carnal mind has been enmity against God, not subject to the law of God. Now it says, oh God, a God so great as you are, who'd make me so fearfully and wonderfully as Mr. Riesinger brought out the other night, made such a fascinating, intricate machine. Fearfully and wonderfully made is this human being. And I say for the first time from the heart, oh God, you alone

35:12 know how to make me so great. You know how to direct this creature. And if you have shown your love in making me so marvelously and surrounding me with so many gifts, and above all, if you could do that and put your own son upon a cross and raise up your own hand and bring it down upon him until he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me, Lord? A God like you, anything you say is good. I want to love your laws. I want to know them. I want to do them for

35:44 the first time. The first time we really accept the fact that he's the lawgiver and we like it that way. See? That's the shift. That's the change of mind about God as creator, as lawgiver, as

35:58 the great benefactor. In him we live and move and have our being, but prior to repentance we think in terms of just our own thing. This is what my hands have wrought. This is what my ability has gotten me. This is what my sweat has wrought. Now we acknowledge that

36:13 every good and everything is good. Every perfect gift cometh down from above. We're glad to acknowledge that we have nothing that we have not received. We're glad to acknowledge it. It doesn't change the fact that it's true.

36:26 The most indifferent sinner here tonight, everything you have is God's gifts. In him you live and move and have your being. The difference is you don't gladly acknowledge it, but if you've repented, you do. And you say, God, everything I have comes from you.

Christ's Purpose: To Bring Us to God

36:43 Dear ones, this is why Jesus died. To bring people into that. To find a relationship with their God. Chapter and verse, all right, 1 Peter 3 and verse 18. Here we have an explicit statement as to the intent of the death of Jesus Christ.

37:01 And we read in 1 Peter 3 and verse 18, Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous. Now get the phrase. That he might bring us. To God. He suffered the righteous for the unrighteous that he might bring us. The totality

37:28 of our being. Bring us to God. In heaven, in the world to come. Only as the culmination of bringing us to God now. Right where we are. And he that begins this work will carry

37:45 it right on until the day of Jesus Christ. See, one of the terrible, terrible curses of the man-centered theology that is cursed. This for the past 50 years in our American church life is it has a whole scheme and thought of redemption that rules out the whole end of redemption. And it makes all thought about salvation terminate upon Jesus Christ and the goodies I can get from him. Isn't this

38:13 true? When the whole end is that he might bring us to God. So when I come to Christ truly and the Holy Spirit has brought me to Christ, what does Christ do? I say it reverently.

38:26 He takes me by the hand and leads me to bow down before the Father. To say, oh God, you are my creator and I'm glad it's so. You are the lawgiver, I'm glad it's so. You are the great benefactor in whom I live and move and have my being. Shame

38:44 on me that I've not acknowledged it till now. You are the great end whom I should seek to glorify whether I eat or drink or whatever I do. And the son smiles and says, Father, this is what you wanted when you sent me to die, isn't it? And the Father says, yes. May I say if there's anything that would grieve the heart of God,

39:09 it's when people run around professing to have a whole bunch of goodies that they got from Jesus. Forgiveness, eternal life, salvation, and never turn to the living and the true God. I don't know who gave them their salvation. It can't be this Christ because he saves with a salvation that brings us to God. Has he brought you to God?

39:40 To gladly own him as your creator, to gladly own him as your lawgiver, to gladly own him as your great benefactor. Has he brought you there? This is what the grace of God does. This is what repentance is. It's this change of mind about God. It's not only a New Testament teaching. I want us

Old Testament Call to Return to God (Isaiah 55)

40:03 to look together at one passage in Isaiah and then a closing illustration again from the prodigal son in the New Testament. In the 55th chapter of Isaiah, one of the richest veins of gospel truth in all of the Old Testament, we have that wonderfully free gospel invitation beginning in verse 1. O everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come buy and eat. Yea,

40:34 come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which satisfies? If not, you're a misfit. You're expending energy. To what end? What have you got for all of it?

40:51 Oh, he says, don't labor for that which satisfies. Not hearken diligently unto me and eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness. He says, come to the kind of life you were made to know and enjoy. Incline your ear. Come unto me. Here and your soul shall live.

41:10 I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for a witness. To the peoples, a leader and a commander of the peoples. Here we're brought into God's covenanted mercies, coming to focus in the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus. Behold, thou shalt

41:25 call a nation that thou knowest not, and a nation that knew not thee shall run unto thee, because of the Lord thy God and for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified thee. There's the great invitation. Freely given, come. Here's the privileges. You're

41:40 misfits. Life is full of all these contradictions. You're laboring for that which you can't remember. You're a misfit. You're a misfit. You're a misfit. You're a misfit. You're a

41:45 misfit. You're a misfit. You're a misfit. You're a misfit. You're a misfit. You're a

41:46 misfit. Here is true life. True life rooted in God's covenanted mercies, revealed in the Redeemer, the Lord Jesus. And someone says, oh, now my appetite's whetted. How do

41:59 I come into all this? All right, he says in verse 6, seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. How do I seek him? How do I call him? In a

42:15 prayer. And the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord. And he will have mercy upon him, and to our God. There's the call. A change of mind about God. Let

42:30 him return unto the Lord. Forsake that way where you think wrong thoughts about him. Feel wrong things toward him. Make wrong choices with reference to his claims. Forsake that

42:42 way. Return unto the Lord. And what will you find him to do? He will return unto the Lord.

42:45 You'll find him a merciful God. A God who will abundantly pardon. He died that he might bring us to God. Repentance is that change of mind about him, whereby my thoughts about him are such that now, instead of running from him, I run to him. Instead of opposing

43:08 him, I submit to him. Instead of using his gifts as borrowed capital and never acknowledging it, I now acknowledge. Him is the source of all that I have. And we see the picture of that in the prodigal in the New Testament. Why did he leave that

The Prodigal Son: An Illustration of Changing One's Mind About the Father

43:25 household? Because of those things he thought about his father. In his father's rule and the father's ordering of the household, he didn't feel like he fit. He was a misfit.

43:36 He wanted to get out of it. But now, when he comes to himself, you see, he has this change of mind out there when he's feeding the hogs. He says, I will arise and go to my father. And I will say, I will go to my father. And I will say, I will go to my father. And I

43:47 will say, I will go to my father. And I will say, I will go to my father. And I will say, I will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. Make me as one of thy hired servants. What a change

43:58 of mind he had about his father. Look at some of them. We can't go into all of them. Whereas before, he regarded his father in such a light that he didn't want the restraints, the standards that were there. They were unreasonable. They were harsh. They were unbending. He was complaining

44:14 about the generation gap. He doesn't understand the way I'm made. He says, I've got to be in at a certain hour. He doesn't know. I've got these biological needs. I've got these

44:21 drives. I've got to give in to them. My father doesn't understand all of that. He's mean.

44:26 He shouldn't have ever set up those standards. Does that sound contemporary? These old ten commandments. God says, thou shalt not. He made us this way. We've got these drives.

44:36 We've got these urges. We've got to give in to them. It's cruel to think of a God who would impose these regulations on us. He says, I'll go back to my father. And I'm so

44:45 convinced that my father's will is good that I've watched my servants. And I've seen that he's never been so good. I've seen that he's never been so good. I've seen that he's never asked anything unreasonable of them. He's never asked anything that would be to their

44:55 harm. My father is such a gracious, benevolent man that I counted it joy to be one of his servants. That's a pretty radical change of mind about his father, isn't it? He couldn't stand the gracious rules as a father when he left. But his thinking so changed that

45:13 he said, I'll go back and be a servant. That's a change of mind. That's repentance. A change of mind about the father. What about his attitude to his presence?

45:24 He says, let me get out of here. Because every time I see my father, he reminds me of everything that his house stands for. I want to get away from the whole thing. Now, he says, I want to go back and bind myself to it as a servant. Spend the rest of my life

45:38 coming every morning and looking up to my father and saying, Mr. So-and-so, what's your will for today? Instead of wanting to run from his presence, he wanted to be bound to his presence in the relationship of a slave. My friend, that's what happens when you repent.

45:56 Instead of throwing out every thought of God that troubles you, as you and I do before we repent, we say, oh God, bind me to your heart. He turned to serve the living and the true God. See? There's the principle. You think different thoughts

46:15 about him. There's a different affection toward him. And there's a different choice with respect to his will and to his plan. When he said, make me as one of your servants, he was not only showing a change of mind about his father's will, a change of affection about his father's presence, but he was showing a change of will with regard to his father's presence.

46:33 When he said, make me as one of your servants, I'll bind myself to do what you want me to do. I thought the meaning of life was found in binding myself to do what my passions and lust drove me to do. And now I've spent all in riotous living and chasing around with harlots and going out with the crowd. And I've given my will to the dictates of passion and lust. But I've come to

46:56 myself and I see I was never made for this. Oh, my friend, is the great discovery ever come. You are never made to simply do what you want. You are never made to do what you want. You are never

47:04 made to simply be a little obedient slave to all the whims and fancies of your corrupt heart. You weren't made for that. You were made to be the bondservant of the living God, to find your true mannishness, to find your true womanhood, your true boyhood, your true girlhood in being a servant of the living God. You see, unlike the prodigal, because you can't have everything in a parable, he came straight back with no cross between him and his dad. And this is where the

Repentance and the Cross: How We Return to God

47:38 teaching of the parable breaks down, because we can't come back to that God simply by what we might call a raw change of mind. I say it reverently, even if God by the Spirit produced that change of mind and we were to say, God, I've been thinking wrong thoughts about you. I want to come back as we move toward him. There would be his law saying, this do and thou shalt live. This fail to do and

48:00 thou shalt die. We'd say, well, how can I come back? He's put it into my heart to draw near, but his holy law drives me back.

48:09 Repentance is always linked to that sight of Christ crucified, for it's in Christ crucified that that law has been satisfied. As we heard so beautifully the other night in the courtroom of God, Jesus Christ presents exhibit A, exhibit B, exhibit C, his wounds, his own righteousness, his perfect sacrifice. And as I draw near to God and face that awful, awful spectrum of a broken law, specter of a broken law, and the thought of God, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, I'm going to see wonders of God's wrath. I see them swallowed up in the wounds and righteousness of Jesus Christ,

48:46 and I can be brought nigh unto God through him who died the just for the unjust. So you see, true faith is intermingled with true repentance, and true repentance is always intermingled with faith. You can't separate. Now, my question as we close tonight is this. Have you experienced

Concluding Application: Is God Your Delight?

49:09 this that I'm talking about tonight? You had this radical change of mind about God, your creator, your lawgiver, the one in whom you live and move and have your being. Can you say tonight where you sit, I'm glad I'm his creature, and God didn't make me to be God. I'm glad he's God. I want him to be that to me. Can you say that?

49:34 Can you say I'm glad to acknowledge that all that I have comes from him, and it's unthinkable that I should have any other desire in myself. I'm glad that I have him. I'm glad that I have him. I'm glad but that all that I am should issue in praise to him. Can you say that? Can you say that? Can you

49:52 say in your sober spiritual moments, all that I want in life is to serve this great God in the light of who he is, in what he's done in Jesus Christ. How unthinkable that I should reserve any area of my life for myself, but that all my ransom powers should be his to live to his praise. My friend, if you can say that, I don't care by what road God brought you. Somewhere along the line, He's put that first root in.

50:20 He's put that second root in. And the tree of the grace of repentance has begun to grow in your heart. But if not, I don't care how much you know about the Bible. I don't care how much you know about Christ.

50:32 I don't care if you've got written in the fly leaf of your Bible the night you made a decision for Christ.

50:38 You're a stranger to grace if Christ hasn't brought you to God.

50:46 You're a stranger to grace. You're a stranger to grace except you repent, you'll perish. What is repentance?

50:58 It's a saving grace whereby a sinner out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension of the mercy of God in Christ does with grief and hatred of his sin turn from it unto God. There it is. With full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience.

51:16 And remember, whenever there's true repentance initially, it always produces true penitence continually. So that if you've ever experienced genuine repentance initially, the evidence is that you are in that penitent state continually. Not without some periods when there may be little evidence of it, but as the general drift of your life, you're never more at home with yourself than when God is God to you. When you're gladly living as His creature, as His subject, gladly, gladly, for His law to be over you, to guide you, to command you.

52:01 Is that your experience? And when you're out of that relationship,

52:06 no matter what else you have in the way of His gifts, all is bitterness.

52:12 If you can't look up into His face and say, I delight to do Thy will, O my God, yea, Thy law is within my heart. My friend, that's what heaven is in perfection.

52:25 No longer with the remains of corruption, no longer with an evil world and a wicked devil to taunt us into sinning, to seek to drag us back to that old way of thinking about God. Thinking mean thoughts about Him, distrustful thoughts, suspicious thoughts.

52:41 We'll see Him as He is and think nothing but right thoughts about Him and feel nothing but right feelings toward Him and choose nothing but right choices with respect to Him. That's heaven. Does that get you excited? It's prospect.

52:57 If it does, there's good evidence that God has begun a work of graceing. But if that leaves you kind of bored and says, is that all? You feel cheated? Would you feel cheated?

53:06 That that's all heaven had? Knowing Him perfectly? Loving Him perfectly? Doing His will perfectly?

53:12 Does that get you excited at the prospect? You say, oh God, hasten the day. That's what I'm made for. Ah, dear friend, you have reason to believe God's done a work of graceing.

53:23 But if that doesn't excite you, I'm sorry, my friend, you'd be out of place in heaven. Wouldn't be too much to interest you. For it says, His servants shall look upon His face and they shall follow the Lamb with us wherever He goes. That's heaven.

53:38 Is that heaven? Heaven? Heaven? Is that heaven for you?

53:39 May God grant that if it isn't, you'll seek the Lord while He may be found. Call upon Him while He's near. Cry out to Him that He would reveal to you the glories of His Christ and His salvation. And don't rest until you know there's been that change of mind with reference to God.

54:00 The Lord willing, next week we'll take the next branch in that tree, the change of mind with regard to our sin.