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Reprobate concerning this microphone for some reason, all right so yeah we're there in Jonah chapter 3 and so the title of my sermon this morning is what is repentance? What is repentance? You know one of the biggest things that we'll ever fight for the rest of our lives is the doctrine of repentance. What it means, what it doesn't mean, and you know it just every week, every single week, every time we go soul hunting you're gonna hear somebody say I believe that you have to turn from your sins to be saved. You know it just never fails. Today we're gonna go out soul hunting at two o'clock and I guarantee you somebody is going to say that repentance means that you have to turn away from your sins. And so we're gonna take a look at that and I understand that most people in here have a very clear understanding of the definition of repentance but we're gonna look at this thing to the point of ridiculousness so that there is no way somebody is going to be able to stump you about repentance because you know what most churches around here and I know I say that a lot but you know that it's true most churches they spend a lot of their time talking about this word repentance and what they think that it means and so when you go knock on someone's door or when you talk to a family member or a relative you know they're just filled with all this misinformation. For example it wasn't all that long ago I knocked on somebody's door you know and they told me yeah you have to repent okay well what does what does it mean to repent and they say well you know I looked it up in the dictionary and it says you have to turn from sins so I went home and I looked up the Webster's dictionary definition here's what it says it says the definition of repent the first thing it says to turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of one's life and then like a sub definition it says to feel regret or contrition and then three it says to change one's mind okay now the question that you need to have in your mind this morning is is that true is the dictionary correct and I'll tell you right off the bat that it's not correct now their logic most people's logic you know whether they've ever been to church or not is this idea that okay I know I'm not perfect I know that I'm a sinner I know that God hates sin so in order to get to heaven I have to stop sinning even though we all know that's impossible that's stupid logic that's the same kind of logic is what I'm about to read you here a firefighter friend of ours shared this with me his name's brother Scott and it's the answer to a question why are fire trucks red so just listen to this fire trucks are red because they have eight wheels and four people on them and four plus eight makes twelve and there are twelve inches in a foot and one foot is a ruler and Queen Elizabeth was a ruler and Queen Elizabeth was also a ship and the ship sailed the seas and there were fish in the seas and fish have fins and the fins fought the Russians and the Russians are always red and red trucks are always rushing around so that's why fire trucks are red okay that is stupid that is silly logic but that's actually when you think about it that is better logic than saying that Jesus Christ came to this earth to live a perfect life to die on the cross to be buried go to hell for three days three nights to pay for your sins raised from the dead so that you could stop sinning for the rest of your life and go to heaven that's dumber logic than what I just read for you I would rather believe this about the fire trucks than I would that garbage that most people out there are believing today and so this is why we have to preach this stuff all the time regularly because it's the hottest battle that we will ever fight okay listen to this here now right off the bat you will never find the phrase repent of your sins in the Bible it doesn't exist now if you have this book called the NLT okay and I call it a book they claim it's a Bible if you go down to your cut your local Christian bookstore right the Balaamite bookstore you're going to find the NLT version of the Satanic Bible basically you know what it what it's what the NLT stands for is not legit translation but anyways if you buy that book or you go online just go to Bible gateway and select the NLT and type in repent of your sins and it pops up all over the place right so what does that tell you that tells you that they've obviously got an agenda going on there and here's just one example I only picked one because it just infuriates me but Mark chapter 1 verse 15 and the not legit translation says the time promised by God has come at last he announced the kingdom of God is near repent of your sins and believe the good news okay you do you see what they're saying they're saying turn from your sins and believe the good news what's the good news it's the good news that you have to stop sending because that's not very good news because the last time I checked nobody on this planet can stop sinning the Bible says the thought of foolishness is sin and there is no one in here that can even stop having foolish thoughts I mean just this morning I got behind somebody slow going to get donuts and I just was thinking to myself man you know some out-of-state Plato's I wish this guy would just go back to where he came from you know and then that's foolish because I'm not from here right you know and I have these thoughts a lot of times I'm stuck in traffic I'm like man this guy would just get out of here you know I need to get going I got to go to church stupid but that's sin that's foolishness you know I'm confessing a fault before you this morning all right so nonetheless that is not good news good news all you have to do is live a perfect life Jesus died for your sins that's ridiculous that is absolutely absurd then you have to have that hatred for this doctrine when you go out and you preach the gospel to people right because that's how you're gonna sniff it out of people because you got you got to understand the world is confused on this now like I said the first point about this doctrine of repent of your sins that you need to understand is that it is not found in the Bible if somebody brings an NLT to you you need to let them know hey that's not really a Bible I don't know what that is but it is not a Bible that is not God's Word and you stick to your Bible which you have there so obviously keep something in Jonah we are gonna come back to it quite frequently but just for just to start off look down at verse number 9 so Jonah 3 verse 9 notice what it says it says who can tell if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not so right here they're saying hey look you know we better do this we're gonna get right with God and then they say who can tell if God will turn you're gonna find that word turn in conjunction with repent a lot of times and the reason being is because repent means to turn or it means to change your mind for example if I was headed to Albertsons to buy grape juice and then I realize or somebody tells me oh it's eight dollars a bottle there at Albertsons like most things are you know they're usually about four I better just stop right now well I'm ahead but anyways it's more expensive there and I realized wait a minute it's cheaper at Fred Meyer right so I'm headed to Albertsons I realize okay grape juice is cheaper at Fred Meyer I'm gonna repent and go to Fred Meyer now did I turn from my sins there no I didn't that has nothing to do with it so keep that in mind also that when you're reading through the Bible or somebody brings the word repent or repentance to you you need to know the context because the word simply means to turn or to change your mind and that's what we see here who can tell if God will turn and repent well does God have sin and the answer is no God does not have sin and to say otherwise is blasphemy so turn to Exodus chapter 13 Exodus chapter 13 because what are we talking about we're talking about the basic most simple right off the bat definition of repent which means to turn and I'm gonna say this a lot but you're gonna see that God repents in the Bible more than anyone and when you tell some of these people that I just flip out who are you saying that God has sin it's like no I'm saying that your definition of repentance is wrong it's not correct so turn to Exodus chapter 13 let's take a look at some more examples here so Exodus 13 verse 17 says and it came to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines although that was near for God said lest peradventure the people repent when they see war and they return to Egypt now that word peradventure there that means simply perhaps so he's saying unless perhaps less peradventure the people repent when they see war so what God's saying here is it like hey I don't want these people when they see war to get this idea that they need to go back to Egypt right God called them out of Egypt he did not want them to repent and go back so what we see here is a physical example of the word repent meaning to turn directions to change directions nothing to do with repenting or turning from your sins for salvation go down to actually flip a few more pages over to Exodus chapter 32 Exodus 32 you're gonna see this a lot in the Bible Exodus 32 in verse 12 says wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say for mischief did he bring them out to slay them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth turn from my fierce wrath and repent of this evil against thy people I remember when I first read that I was really confused I was just a young I was like 20 something years old and I was like wow what what in the world does this mean and the reason why I had those questions is because I didn't understand the context I hadn't studied enough I didn't read I didn't really understand what the word repent means and so Moses here he's just like hey you know please turn from your wrath please don't do this evil upon us and you have to remember that God does evil to people not evil in the sense of like horror movies or what but you know wicked people do right the word evil in the Bible simply means to hurt that's what it means and God does hurt people if you've read any of the Bible you should understand that I mean do you remember Ananias and Sapphira when they lied to the Holy Ghost God killed them God committed evil on them and that was righteous and that was just that doesn't make him a sinner what does the saying here is hey please repent of this evil he's just saying hey would you please turn from this evil please turn from hurting us that's all he's saying here so go back to Jonah I'm gonna read for you a few more examples here so go back to Jonah and go to Jonah chapter 2 I'm sorry go back to Jonah chapter 3 Jeremiah 18 8 says if that nation against whom I pronounced turned from their evil I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them so what God's saying here in the Bible he's saying if that nation against whom I have pronounced so when God decides to pronounce that he's going to bring judgment on a people and they say okay you know what we're gonna stop doing whatever it is you want us to do then God says I will repent I will turn I will change my direction I will change my mind and not hurt you so that's another example here's one from Ezekiel 14 therefore saying to the house of Israel thus saith the Lord the Lord God repent and turn yourselves from your idols and turn away your faces from all your abominations so here's an example of God saying hey look you need to turn from these idols you do need to turn from sins and that's another thing that you're gonna read as you go throughout the Bible is that we who are saved need to continuously repent of our sins we need to always be on the on the go and moving forward and stop sinning and getting our lives better we all know that but not for salvation that's not true at all for example here's another one Joel chapter 2 verse 13 who says and rend your heart and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God for he is gracious and merciful slow to anger and of great kindness and repenteth him of the evil and I've had a lot of liberal Christians actually take the NIV version of Joel chapter 2 and try to get me on this and it will happen to you eventually as well but simply stated here he says and render your heart what God's what the Bible saying here is that this type of repentance is from the heart so there's a physical repentance that we can see right where you turn directions or you turn from doing one thing to another or you do change your mind you do change your heart you do decide to stop doing one thing and do another but nonetheless again you're gonna see that God will repent of his evil that he was gonna do Joel chapter 2 verse 14 says who knoweth if he will return and repent and leave a blessing behind him even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the Lord your God so the word repent simply means to turn and based on the context you have to know that whether it's a physical turning or whether it's a mental or spiritual type repentance so keep your place there in Jonah and turn to Mark chapter 2 Mark chapter 2 like I said you know we're gonna have to just preach this till ridiculousness you know I mean in a few months from now we'll probably have to go over it again in some way shape or form because it's just such a battle out there I mean so many people are mixed up on it and there's a lot of different ways to learn this yourselves you know you don't have to know the way that I'm explaining it I mean there's tons of other verses that I didn't have time to go over I think the word repentance in the Bible appears there's some form of repent appears like 105 times you know so there's no way we're gonna be able to spend all the time to go over it but nonetheless hopefully this will be an encouragement unto you this will be a at least maybe a start that you can do to be able to teach other people the truth about this doctrine because this is what hangs people up the most I mean if you've gone soul-winding for any length of time you'll run into somebody where they're about you know they're just so close but there's just one thing hanging them up a lot of times this is the doctrine here so you're there in Mark chapter 2 look at verse 17 it says when Jesus heard it he saith unto them they that are whole have no need of the physician but they that are sick I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance so what are you gonna do if somebody brings this verse to you and says see right there Jesus didn't come to call the righteous meaning he didn't come to call the people that turned from all their sins he came to preach repentance unto sinners that's how a lot of people will put this verse to you but that's not what it's talking about at all the first thing you need to ask yourself is what does that mean I came not to call the righteous well if you'll remember in Romans chapter 3 the Bible says as it is written there is none righteous no not one so what does that mean when Jesus said I came not to call the righteous well let's take a look at it go to Matthew chapter 5 in verse 20 because you have to be righteous to go to heaven right that's what the Bible says I'm gonna show you that here in a second so Jesus says that he did not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance well the Bible also says that none of us are righteous we are not righteous of our own accord so if you're there in Matthew 5 look at verse 20 Jesus lays out the requirements to get into the kingdom of heaven here he says for I say unto you that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven look sooner or later somebody's gonna come at you with these two verses and you got to know what's going on you have to know how to explain it now go to Romans chapter 4 so what have we learned so far right Jesus said he didn't come to call the righteous what does that mean he didn't come to call the righteous the Bible says that none of us are righteous the Bible says that we have to be righteous to go to heaven well here's your answer in Romans chapter 4 look at verse 6 Romans chapter 4 verse 6 says even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works so how do we get that righteousness it comes from God that word imputeth there look what take off the I am and what would it say it would say putteth right God puts that on you God imputes that on you God gives that to you when you call on him when you get saved he places that righteousness on you right you have to know that you have to know how to turn here you have to know how to explain this in order to understand what Jesus said in Mark chapter 2 I came not to call the righteous because once you're righteous you're always righteous because God gave that to you without you turning from your works and then what do we read in Romans chapter 4 verse 7 says saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered they're in the bag like Moses preached on Friday right your sins are in the bag they're sealed up forever and ever and yes we'll have the video out today has been we've been busy so backed that was just a little commercial break for men's preaching night which which was great by the way so Romans chapter 10 verse 10 says for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation so Jesus came not to call the righteous because when people get saved God gives them that righteousness it's a gift without the deeds of the law so when somebody says you have to be righteous to go to heaven you know that's what the street preachers will be out there yelling right you have to be righteous they got their bullhorns and look I've seen them I've hung out with these people in the past I know how they do things I know their business you have to without if you're not righteous you're not going to heaven what they don't understand is that God gives you that righteousness when you decide to call upon the name of the Lord and it says in Romans 10 10 for man believeth with the heart with a heart man believeth unto righteousness that is your key so go back to Mark chapter 2 he says when Jesus heard it he saith unto them they that are whole have no need of the physician but they that are sick so if you are saved today you don't need to keep asking for that righteousness because you already have it you're sealed unto the day of redemption and then he says I came not to call the righteous but sinners to repent so what he's saying there is I didn't come to call the people that are already saved and on the way to heaven I came to call those who have not yet repented meaning turning from not trusting in God to trusting on his son that is all that means here in Mark chapter 2 sinners have to repent they have to turn to God remember Romans chapter 4 and this also proves that repentance as far as salvation is concerned is a one-time act it's a one-time deal once you repent once you turn from trusting in yourself or another God or whatever it is to the Lord Jesus Christ he gives you that repentance you're born again you're saved sealed till the day of redemption it is a done deal it is a one-time act Luke chapter 15 verse 7 says I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance so the Bible says here very clearly when somebody gets saved when they repent it meaning one time right you repent one time you're done you turn unto the Lord it's forever yours you're sealed no man can pluck you out of his hand it's a done deal God says that the angels in heaven rejoice and they are happy because now you can join that ninety and nine persons which need no justification or no repentance furthermore go back yeah go back to Jonah chapter 3 again now while you're turning there I'm gonna read to you what Jesus said about this chapter that we're in and Luke 30 11 32 so go back to Jonah 3 Luke chapter 11 verse 32 says the men of Nineveh shall rise up in judgment with this generation and shall condemn it for they repented at the preaching of Jonas and behold a greater than Jonas is here and somebody may come to you and say we'll see they repented of their sins and that's why they're going to rise up in judgment but that isn't true you have to understand the whole chapter here now you're in Jonah 3 look at verse number 4 look what it says and Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey and he cried and said yet 40 days and Nineveh shall be overthrown now let's stop right there you need to understand that that is not all that Jonah said I know if you've watched VeggieTales you saw that he walked in there with a fish or something said hey you guys got to stop slapping each other with these fishes but I'm sorry that's foolish that's not true that's not what happened you know what else didn't happen he didn't just walk I don't this is my opinion I don't believe he just walked into Nineveh and said yet 40 days and 40 nights in the city will be overthrown and then they just turned from their sins okay I believe there was a lot of preaching that he did that he communicated the leadership and to the people and he basically preached you know the hey you do need to stop doing this because God is gonna overthrow you he is gonna destroy the city but he also preached them the gospel I believe that he taught them that they have to stop trusting in whatever they were trusting in and turn to the living God and the reason why I believe that is because the next verse so the people of Nineveh believed God and proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest of them even to the least of them so before we read about what they the Ninevites did in Jonah 3 10 you need to understand that in verse five they believed God they believed first and then they decided to get right and that is how it should be right you know that after a person gets saved we should exhort edify one another so that they stop sinning that's why you come to church because you we you know God obviously wants us to hold fast our profession of faith he wants us to live right he wants us to be a peculiar people he wants us to be sanctified but nonetheless none of that stuff is what's going to get you saved nor keep you saved and you can even read that in here I mean what does it say right verse four Jonah began to preach verse five the people of Nineveh believed God you have to understand that first because people will use this to turn it on you and you have got to be smarter than them we need to know the bible better than the people that we're talking to here so just realize when somebody comes at you with this stuff that they believed first okay that's what it says they believe first and then jump down to verse 10 it says and God saw their works now hopefully you have this highlighted and you can remember to come back to this because if somebody's genuinely hung up on this a lot of times this is a great verse to explain what the word repent means so Jonah 3 verse 10 says and God saw their works now we know we are not saved by works I think we've beaten that to death right but you know what as much as we've beaten that to death we're going to have to keep doing it because we are literally almost alone in this doctrine here salvation apart from works but nonetheless is and God saw their works that they turned from their evil way so what do you learn there right what does that teach us that teaches that turning from sins turning from your wicked ways is works and you know it is right it's going to take a lot of work for me to not get mad at people that have that are driving slow in traffic I mean it's gonna it look some of you you know like talk to Mike and Rick okay and you know that it is work to get right with God okay right talk to their wives they know you know I mean they have to put up with it you know it's it's a hard thing to turn from evil ways but nonetheless and God saw their works that they turn from the evil ways so you know that is a good way to explain it now read the rest of the verse and God repented of the evil that he said he would do unto them and he did it not so the order of events Jonah goes to Nineveh he preaches they decide okay whoa not only do we not want to get destroyed we're gonna believe God we're gonna we're gonna get right so they believe God and then afterwards they they say okay you know what we're gonna turn from our sins we're gonna we're gonna repent of our sins even though that's not what it says they turn from the evil ways but that's the same thing and what I'm saying is that is works they decided okay you know I'm all in we're gonna just do the works here and then who repents in the verse who repents here God does right and God repented of the evil all that saying is that God was gonna destroy them they did something and God said okay now I'm not going to destroy you that is the perfect verse to explain to somebody repentance because you get a lot in here right you get the definition of turning from your sins which is works you get the definition of repentance which is turning and then hopefully you can remember what the word evil means in the Bible and that is simply to hurt and just say hey look all this means is that God was going to do something and he decided not to so we can see that turning from your evil ways is sins I'm turning from your evil ways or your sins is works and we are not saved by works now go to Romans chapter 9 because I have to to talk about this we have to preach this we have to all understand this we are not saved by our works and there's a great example here so Romans chapter 9 look at verse 30 after this we're going to go to Titus Romans chapter 9 look at verse number 30 it says what shall we say then that the gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness even the righteousness which is of faith but Israel which followed after the law of righteousness hath not attained to the law of righteousness what that's saying there is that they followed God's righteous law but they did it in vain because they didn't do it by faith right what we read in Jonah is that they did it by faith they started following God's laws but they believed first so they had the right righteousness that was given to them by God after they believed and then they said okay we're going to turn from our evil ways which is works and God said that was a blessed deed now look at verse 32 wherefore because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law for they stumbled at that stumbling stone as it is written behold I lay and sigh on a stumbling stone and a rock of offense and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed so right there we read in verse number 32 that following the works of the law apart from being saved is not blessed by God it's vain it's empty and you can read all about that in Galatians for example Galatians 2 16 says knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified so again one more time the people of Nineveh they believe God and then they turn from their evil ways right so when we turn from our evil ways God says okay I'm going to bless that I'm not going to chastise you now I'm not going to come after you I'm not going to I'm not going to bring you into bondage or whatever he was going to do to you but rather he turns away from that because you're doing it with the right righteousness in your heart so go to Titus chapter 3 and look at verse 5 right so again in Jonah 3 verse 10 we saw that they had their works Jonah or Titus 3 5 says not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost I mean look there's verse after verse after verse page after page chapter after chapter in the Bible stating we are not justified we are not saved by the works of the law we're not saved by turning from sins the word repent of your sins is not found in the Bible anywhere right what do we read here Titus 3 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done right so there are righteous things I mean think about it I mean I remember somebody sent me this video of this Buddhist program that these Buddhist people they go into these jails and these prisons and they they have these guys build sand castles or something silly I can't remember the whole thing but anyways you know and then they these people you know they do this it's like a patience building exercise right and then they get out and it's supposed to help them go through life well you might look at that and say well that's a righteous thing you know they're no longer living that way they got they got help in jail and it was from a Buddhist he wasn't from God you know and I've heard people say things like that and it's like yeah but that's a work of righteousness that's apart from Christ and therefore it is not righteous it's vain it's empty it means nothing what does it profit a man to gain the whole world but to lose his very own soul that's what the Bible says here so when when these people turn from their their their wicked ways when if they did it without believing in God it would be in vain you know and that goes back to that stupid logic thing right if we're saved by turning from our sins then why did Christ die in fact the Bible says that he would have died in vain if that was the case that is ridiculous so again Jonah 3 10 and God saw their works that they turned from their evil way and God repented of evil that he said he would do unto them and he did it not remember this fact again God repents in the Bible more than anyone else and God is not a sinner that he should repent which leads me to the next portion of the sermon which we understand okay God doesn't have sin but that's going to bring us to some hard questions turn you turn to first Samuel 15 first Samuel 15 because you're going to read a statement like this in the Bible here so you guys turn to first Samuel 15 i'm going to read for you out of numbers 23 so numbers chapter 23 verse 19 says God is not a man that he should lie neither the son of man that he should repent hath he said and shall he not do it or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good so now we have a problem now we have a tough question that we need to answer because the Bible does say in numbers and in other places it says that God is not a man that he should lie we understand that we understand God doesn't have sin neither the son of man that he should repent well what does that mean what are you going to do if somebody comes at you and says see the Bible here does say in the King James Bible that God doesn't repent what are you going to do with that because okay so you're there in first Samuel look at verse uh first Samuel 15 look at verse 28 we're going to read from this verse all the way to verse 35 just to get to context so remember the Bible said that God doesn't repent but we read that God repents more than anyone look at verse 28 and Samuel said unto him the Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day and hath given it to a neighbor of thine that is better than thou now he's talking about David there and what's going on here is that Saul was commanded to destroy the Amalekites he was commanded to get them all out of the land but he disobeyed that command from God that's what we're reading about here now look at verse 29 he says and also the strength of Israel will not lie nor repent for he is not a man that he should repent so there's that statement again so what man pastor joe what are you talking about you know you just said that God repents more than anyone in the Bible and then the Bible says that God doesn't repent well you have to understand the context see it always goes back to the context you have to understand the context of the word repent look at verse 30 then he said i have sinned this talking about Saul right so Saul's like now now all of a sudden Saul's gonna repent i have sinned yet honor me now i pray thee before the elders of my people and before Israel and turn again with me that i may worship the Lord thy God so Samuel turned again after Saul and Saul worshiped the Lord verse 32 then said Samuel bring ye hither to me Agag the king of the Amalekites and Agag came unto him delicately and Agag said surely the bitterness of death is past verse 33 and Samuel said as thy sword hath made women childless so shall thy mother be childless among women and Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord and Gilgal see Samuel said i'm gonna prove a point to you your repentance is garbage it doesn't mean anything right now you're just sorry you got caught you're just sorry you're in trouble and that's the wrong kind of attitude to have obviously right so Samuel does what Saul should have done and destroys Agag with no mercy look at verse 34 then Samuel went to Rama and Saul went up to his house to Gibeah of Saul verse 35 and Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul and the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel so we read here in verse 29 that God doesn't repent and then in verse 35 it says and the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel it's not a contradiction in the Bible all it is is context when it says that God's not a man that he should repent all that's saying is he's not a man that he needs to get saved that's all that means right God doesn't repent like we have to we have to repent we have to turn to him for our salvation for our righteousness right but God does repent in the sense that he's going this direction okay i'm going to destroy you you did this now i'm not going to destroy you and that's all it is if you can remember that one thing it will save you embarrassment it will save you from being ashamed in front of other people at work at school in the you know out in the marketplaces wherever it is that you're at to get people saved just remember that because there are people that are sharpening their tongues as we speak there are people sitting in mega churches this morning telling you the exact opposite of what i'm telling you right and they just badger these people and they fill it up they fill up their hearts with lies and deceit and some of these people are intellectually smart and they can make you look foolish if you do not understand this and you don't know what you're talking about so again please just understand this fact that when you hear the word repent or repentance or someone takes you to a verse you have to know the context you have to know how to properly explain that to them because this is not a contradiction in the bible here God did repent he said you know what i'm sorry that i made kinks all over Israel you know it i regret that you know and God doesn't make mistakes he's just grieved in his heart he's like you know you know obviously God knows the end from the beginning but he's just saying hey look you know it's too bad that you didn't do right Saul you know i chose you amongst your brother you were meek you were humble at one point in your life but you got prideful and now it's time for you to be done i'm going to install David as king and destroy you and that's exactly what winds up happening so again how do we solve this it's by understanding context now go to Acts chapter 2 Acts chapter 2 as long as you can understand the different ways that the word repentance used in the bible you're not going to get stumped and nonetheless you know you're not going to get stumped in your own personal bible reading because if you don't understand this and you make it a goal to read through the bible which hopefully everybody in here is and you come to a difficult passage you can remember hey that's you know okay now i i see how this may be a little bit difficult i need to read the verses before maybe a little bit slower and the verses after maybe a little bit slower and just take your time right it's going to cause you from becoming discouraged so you're there in acts chapter 2 you know just keep that in mind there is a physical repentance meaning i was going one direction return to win another and there's that mental uh turning right that change of mind i was going to do this to you now i'm not going to i was trusting in my works at one point now i'm trusting on jesus christ that is repentance it's it just depends on how the word is used so you're there in acts chapter 2 look at verse number 38 it says then peter said unto them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of jesus christ for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the holy ghost now the pentecostals love to use this verse they're going to say see peter said to repent meaning you have to turn from your sins then he said you have to be baptized they'll say if you're not baptized in water or if you're not baptized in the holy ghost and spoken tongues then you're not saved now that's reading a whole lot into this and that is simply not true it says then peter said unto them repent right so turn from trusting in your works turn from not trusting on christ to be to trusting on christ and be baptized so we see here when these people repent when we repent you are baptized in the name of jesus what does the word baptized mean it means to be placed into to be immersed right so when you repent and you become born again god places you into the body of christ that's all it's saying here he baptizes you into his family that's not talking about water baptism here so he says then peter said unto them repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of jesus christ for the remission of sins that is another key point of this verse here the word remission means cancellation right so when you turn to christ he places you into the body of christ and cancels your sin debt that is how you explain this verse but you've got thousands and thousands of pentecostal people out here and lukewarm weak watered down liberal so-called christians that will tell you otherwise do you see how important it is to know these definitions in the bible this is not a game people's souls rest on what they hear about the bible it is our job to bring them the truth look we've got the mega soul winning marathon coming up some of you are going to get into trouble at the door if you don't understand what the bible teaches about this subject i can't explain i cannot express to you enough how important it is to know the definitions of words in the bible remission means cancellation all peter's saying is turn to christ get saved he will place you into his body and cancel your sin debt that is what this is talking about right here now go to acts chapter three acts chapter three you know another verse that people will come at you with is luke 24 47 where jesus says and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at jerusalem and again somebody comes out you say well doesn't luke 24 talk about repents yes it does no problem let's go there let's talk about this it says repentance and remission of sins meaning people need to turn they need to turn to christ not from their sins they need to turn from not trusting in him to trusting in christ for the remission or the cancellation of their sin debt that's the gospel message that's what jesus christ preached and that's what we preach here at this church so you're there in acts chapter three let me turn there myself we're going to look at verse number two acts chapter three verse number two i'm sorry verse number 12 let's see acts three verse 12 it says and when peter saw it he answered and sent to the people you men of israel why marvel ye at this or why look he's so earnestly on us as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk so what happened here is that peter ran into a guy that was homeless basically right guy that had no money he's poor he's lame he can't walk peter heals him right because he says silver and gold have i none but this i have peter does a miracle and the guy can walk now and he's praising god and that's where we pick up the story here because now he's under persecution now he's under fire because he did that look at verse 13 it says the god of abraham and of isaac and of jacob the god of our fathers hath glorified his son jesus whom ye delivered up and denied him in the presence of pilot when he was determined to let him go but ye denied the holy one and the just and desired a murderer to be granted unto you remember they said we didn't want jesus remember pilot gave him the choice they said we don't want jesus we want barzah but we want the other guy look at verse 15 it says and killed the prince of life whom god hath raised from the dead where of we are witnesses and by the way this chapter here is illegal to read in some countries because it tells the truth it tells the fact that these jews here did not trust on christ they were not saved they were they they hated god they hated christ you know they didn't want him and then verse 16 he says and his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong whom ye see and know yea the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all verse 17 and now brethren i want not oh i'm sorry i want that through ignorance you did this as did also your rulers and what peter's saying he's saying hey look i know you guys did this through ignorance right i shouldn't say that he they they didn't necessarily hate god not all of them hate god obviously some of them did but they just didn't know they were ignorant they didn't believe on christ they didn't trust him they're trusting in the law to save them they're trusting in their works and this is important here look at verse 18 but those things which god before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets that christ should suffer he hath so fulfilled and then verse 19 he says repent ye therefore so from verse 12 all the way up to here he basically tells him hey christ died for your sins you know he's preaching to them he's like you you're the ones that killed him your people the jews you killed christ you put him on the cross you rejected him he says repent ye therefore right he's not saying hey cover yourselves in sackcloth and ashes and turn from all your sins and go to church three times a week and give all this money and just be a good boy right for your sins he's saying because of this reason he's like you need to repent you need to turn to christ you need to turn to the one that your people slew and hanged on a tree now look at the rest of the verse he says repent ye therefore and be converted that's important right turn and be converted get saved become born again why look at this next part that your sins may be blotted out what sense in the world does it make that christ came to this earth lived a perfect life died for us just so that we could try to do the same live a perfect life from here on out never sin again so that we can get saved makes no sense right he says repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the lord that is simply saying that when you get saved you're baptized your sins are remitted the remission of sins they are cancelled it's a done deal it's the same thing just using different terminology here now turn to second timothy chapter two second timothy chapter two if you guys remember simon the sorcerer in acts chapter eight you remember what he did remember he was uh he was a sorcerer you know and he he basically bewitched the people of samaria and taught that he was some great person well he winds up getting saved so you turn to second timothy too but i'm just saying if you remember he gets saved right and we know that once you're saved you're saved forever well simon the sorcerer if you remember he wanted to buy the gift of the holy ghost he wanted to buy that power to heal people and to do miracles and remember what peter said he said this in the acts 822 he said repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray god if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee so there's a lot of examples in the bible of people that are saved that are born again they get into sin they get backslidden and they have to repent every single person in here needs to repent of something all of us do especially if you're honest with yourself so you're there in second timothy chapter 2 look at verse 23 it says but foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender stripes so just remember this too when someone's out there mocking you and they're just wanting to argue and waste your time at the door about anything about anything especially repentance if you're showing them the stuff and they just don't get it you know what it says but foolish and unlearned questions avoid just walk away just get out of there because you're wasting your god-given time it is not profitable for you in any way verse 24 and the servant of the lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if god paradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth you know if you're a soul winner you'll probably understand what this first means have you ever tried to give the gospel to a mormon missionary or uh uh somebody that's high up in the jehovah witness religion or somebody who is high up in their false religion i mean it's like you're talking to a wall right i mean it's you can show them this stuff and it just bounces right back in your face and that's an example of somebody whom god has not given the possibility of repentance to because it is a good it is a gift if you remember reading ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 what does it say it says for by grace are you saved right what is grace god's unmerited love right the bible says but god commended his love toward us and then while we were yet sinners christ died for us so you have to understand when it says for by grace are you saved that by god made it possible that we could even be saved because we are all deserving of hell so when you read this here it says in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves those that contradict themselves those that say i know it's all by faith but if you don't have the works then you're not safe that would be an example of that if god paradventure if god perhaps will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth you just got to know there are some people out there whom god has made reprobate concerning the faith they cannot be saved because they are trusting in the works and maybe they've crossed that line now that's a difficult situation it's hard for us to know that in fact i'd say it's almost impossible right who can tell whether or not god will eventually give that person i mean if i were to meet the apostle paul if i were to meet saul back before he was the apostle paul i would probably be calling him a reprobate and all these mean things right but what happened he got saved the reason why he got saved though was because he did those things in ignorance that's what the bible teaches here's an example acts 531 says him hath gotten it's not talking about paul but says him hath got exalted talking about jesus him hath got exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior to give repentance to israel and forgiveness of sin so god what that's saying is that god has made it possible he's given repentance he's given us the chance the free will to accept him and this also disappears calvinism if you think about it right god is giving us free will to be able to repent to turn to him for our righteousness instead of trusting in our works and then second timothy 2 look at verse 26 it says and that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taking captive by him at his will so we see that there are people that we will talk to there are people that we will deal with that are taken captive by the devil right it is our job to get them out of there we talked with the lady on thursday who got saved she grew up being woman her parents would not let her own a bible in fact the bible that we gave her was the first one that she has ever owned you know and thank god that god had given her pens given her the ability had not given her over yet because she you know she she got saved she believed this but the reason why she believed this obviously because she didn't continue on to the point of crossing or the point of no return rather so back up to verse 25 again it says in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if god paired eventual give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth you just got to know like i said there's some people that may never get to that point there are some people who god has removed that from so why am i reading this why am i telling you this because somebody may come at you with this verse and say see god chooses who gets saved god chooses who can repent that is simply not true all i'm saying is that there are people out there that are captive they have been taken captive they are bound by the devil and look go talk to a mormon missionary i'll look we'll take you to one this afternoon if you don't believe me in this verse these two verses they will make a ton of sense to you after you try to get one the gospel you will be banging your head like a jew against this wall outside here for the rest of the day okay all right all right we're going to move on here we're almost done i i didn't want to preach this sermon without going over this example so go to matthew chapter 27 and let's take a look at a guy who repented who repented of sin and still went to hell so matthew 27 look at verse three matthew chapter 27 verse 3 sometimes i'll show this to people and it clicks you know they're like okay that's right let's talk about judas here matthew 27 look at verse 3 it says then judas which had betrayed him when he saw that he was condemned repented himself and brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders so what do we see here what did judas do he betrayed the son of god he realizes uh-oh i'm condemned i shouldn't have done that and he repents in himself right he repented well here's a guy who repented of his sins right isn't that what it says it doesn't say sins but he repented himself right he's grieved he's like i shouldn't have done that i don't agree that i did that it's wrong and he brought again look he even did some works look he brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and the elders but it was too late verse four saying i have sinned in that i have betrayed the innocent blood and they said what is that to us see thou to it you see the world doesn't care about you these pastors out here they're teaching a false gospel they don't care if they send these people to hell because they are wolves in sheep's clothing verse five and he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple and departed and went and hanged himself and he went to hell john 6 70 said jesus answered them have not i chosen you 12 and one of you is a devil march chapter 14 verse 21 the son of man indeed goeth as it is written of him but woe to that man by whom the son of man is betrayed he says good were it for that man if he had never been born i've had people tell me that because that is foolishness again look i'll give you guys a copy of that fire truck thing and when somebody says you might as well just believe this because that's better than believing that look we're gonna laminate copies and hand it out and i'm gonna say here i've got this to you in fact i've got a five million dollar bill i want to sell you right now too it's it's retarded but i i just wanted to leave that with you as an example hopefully you can come to that if you ever need that tool it's there a guy who repented himself he did works but he didn't go to heaven repenting of your sins isn't in the bible as far as salvation is concerned it's not true it's a lie we're done right here i just want to leave you with four things to think about four things that we talked about the phrase repent of your sins is not found in the bible it is not found anywhere in this book number two repent means to turn or to change your mind right turning from sins to the savior makes no sense that's like saying i turn from making cupcakes to working on appliances that is there's just complete absurdity right you don't turn from sins to the savior you turn from trusting in yourself or trusting in your own works or trusting in another god or another religion whatever the case may be to the lord jesus christ number three judas repented of his sins and he still went to hell number four god repents in the bible more than anyone else and has no sins and i lied there's actually five number five is we need to remember and understand and know the context in which the word repent is used in the bible here's i just want to read these verses for you don't have to turn there second corinthian 7 8 says for though i made you sorry with a letter i do not repent though i did repent for i perceive that the same epistle has made you sorry though it were but for a season this is a chapter where you really have to understand context what paul's saying here hey i wrote you first corinthians i wrote you that rebuke i wrote you that letter and i felt bad at first but now i don't feel bad because it caused you to turn it caused you to get right with god god you know paul when he wrote the letter to the corinthians he didn't say hey you're suffering that fornicator to be amongst you you guys are doing all these sins you need to get resaved he doesn't say that does he he says you just need to get right with god because god is planning to destroy you verse 9 he says now i rejoice not that you were made sorry but that she sorrowed to repentance for ye were made sorry after a godly manner that she might receive damage by us and nothing and if somebody takes you here you need to understand that their repentance did not have to do with their salvation and going to heaven their repentance was so that god would not destroy the churches in corinth verse 10 for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of but the sorrow of the world worketh death and what that's saying there if somebody comes at you with that just know that when in second corinthians with the corinthian letters these epistles here it's talking about repenting from what they were doing wrong it's talking about turning from their sins but not for salvation it's so that god would not bring down these churches verse 11 for behold this self same thing that she sorrowed after a godly sword what carefulness it wrought in you so he's saying hey this this this letter that i wrote you it grieved you it caused you to repent it caused you to turn and then it says yea what clearing of yourselves yea what indignation gay what fear what vehement desire yay what zeal yay what revenge in all things you have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter so remember that in the book of second corinthians especially chapter seven when someone brings you there it's not talking about salvation it's simply talking about the fact that the corinthians got right with god they repented they read the letter from paul they read it amongst themselves they said uh-oh we're in big trouble we need to get rid of the fornicator we need to stop being foolish we need to stop being stupid and then what did paul say he writes them another letter second corinthians and says hey i do i don't repent that i wrote that i don't repent that i made you sorry i'm glad i did because you turned from those things god's not going to destroy you and you are now clear in this matter so point number five just remember we need to be we need to be short of we need to remember context repentance and context just remember those two things you don't remember anything else when someone comes at you with any of this repenting your sins garbage in the bible you need to know the context you need to know how that you need to know what the storyline is behind it otherwise you're going to get destroyed you're going to become ashamed and we don't want that we don't want to be a church that gets ashamed we want to be a church that continues to preach the gospel to people and get people saved so let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer lord thank you for this opportunity to preach i pray you bless all these people that came here lord i thank you for them and i pray you bless the soul winning this afternoon lord and the services tonight and coming week lord in jesus name i pray amen