And it says, John did baptize in the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance for the
remission of sins.
Now in order to understand this verse, let's keep our finger here and go to Acts chapter
19 verse four, just a few pages to the right in your Bible, you find the book
of Acts, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Acts chapter 19 verse four, because let me read that
verse again.
It says, John did baptize in the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance for
the remission of sins.
Let's see what the Bible means when it said he preached the baptism of repentance for
the remission of sins.
Look at Acts 19 four.
It says, then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance.
Does that sound familiar?
Mark one said he's preaching the baptism of repentance.
Here it says, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, watch this, saying
unto the people that they should believe on him, which should come after him.
That is on Christ Jesus.
So when he's preaching repentance, what was he preaching that people needed to do?
Yeah, believe, because he doesn't give the exact preaching in Mark chapter one verse
four.
But when we compare with Acts 19 four, he tells us what John said when he did that
preaching.
He preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
What was he preaching?
What was he saying?
He was saying that they needed to believe on him that would come after, which is Jesus
Christ.
Now this matches perfectly with Mark chapter one verse 15, jump down to verse 15.
And it says, and saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is in, repent ye
and believe the gospel.
So this shows us what the repentance is that's taking place.
It has to do with believing the gospel.
Now a lot of people mistakenly, when they see the word repent, they just automatically
add a few words to it of your sins.
So when you see the word repent, they just add of your sins and you say, show, show
me verses in the Bible that tell me that you have to repent of your sins to be saved.
They'll show you verses about repentance, but not repenting of your sins.
And people will just define the word repent as to turn from sin.
Well here's the problem with that definition.
God repents in the Bible more than anyone else.
If you look up every time the word repent is used in the Bible, the person who repents
the most is actually God.
And so to say that repenting means to turn from your sins, that doesn't apply
all the times that God repented.
Now if you would flip over to Acts chapter three, verse 19 here, here are one of the
verses.
Here's one of the verses that people will point to when they want to say, see, here's
a verse that says you have to repent in order to be saved.
But they'll just add repent of your sins to that.
And I'm going to talk about what repent means in a moment here, but look at, look
at Acts chapter three and it says in verse 19, it 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.
So right there in verse 19 of Acts three, it's saying that they need to repent that
their sins might be blotted out, but it doesn't say repent of your sins.
So let's get the context to see what they need to repent up.
And what does repent mean?
Repent simply means to turn or to change.
Now it could mean all manner of changes.
A lot of times it means just to change your mind.
Now one great example of this is when the children of Israel leave Egypt and God
doesn't want to take them the way of the Philistines.
This is in Exodus 13, 17, you don't have to turn there, but it 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, let's pair adventure.
The people repent when they see war and they returned to Egypt.
So let me ask you this, the children of Israel leaving Egypt, was that a good thing
or a bad thing?
Good.
Right.
Children of Israel are leaving Egypt.
They're going to the promised land.
They're obeying the Lord, right?
And God says, I'm afraid that if they go through the land of the Philistines, they're
going to repent and go back to Egypt.
So in that case, was repentance a good thing or a bad thing?
Repentance would have been bad because they were doing right.
They're on their way to the promised land and if they repented, that means they're
going back to Egypt, which is bad.
So that again, just proves that repent doesn't mean turn from sin or turn from an evil way.
In that case, repentance was turning from something good that they were doing.
Okay.
When we see God repent, he's not turning from sin, he has no sin.
When we see God repenting, he changes his course of action.
He was going to do one thing, but then he repents and does something different.
Okay.
That's a change in mind, change in action.
It could be any kind of a turning or change.
The word repent can be a kind of a broad word because you have to get the context
of what you're repenting of.
Now if a person believes in a false religion, they're not saved.
They need to turn from that and turn unto the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior.
They need to turn from Buddhism to Christianity.
They need to turn from Hinduism to Christianity, turn from Islam to Christianity, turn from
whatever the false belief to the true belief of Jesus Christ.
Now let's say you have somebody who is a pathological liar.
They should turn from that, right?
So that would be repenting of lying.
So you could repent of a false religion, you could repent of lying, you could decide
to go to the grocery store and then repent, meaning that you change your mind.
You're not going to go anymore.
Now we don't use that word today in our modern vernacular, but you could.
You could say, well, I was going to go to the grocery store, but I repented.
People are like, what in the world?
But that is what the word means.
You can repent of sins.
You can repent of false doctrine.
You can repent of travel plans to the promised land and head back for Egypt.
You can repent of all manner of things.
So to just sit there and just arbitrarily just apply, you have to repent of your sins
to be saved whenever you see a verse about repentance is not accurate.
Let's look at the context here in Acts 3.
Let's see if we can figure out what they're turning from, okay?
It says in Acts chapter 3, let's back up to verse number 14, it says, but ye, this
is Peter speaking to the Jews, it says, but ye denied the Holy One and the just and
desired a murderer to be granted unto you.
And killed the prince of life whom God had raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses.
So this is where they chose Jesus instead of Barabbas.
I'm sorry, they chose Barabbas instead of Jesus and they killed Jesus, it says,
they killed the prince of life.
It says in verse 16, and his name, Jesus' 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.
And now brethren, I want that through ignorance ye did it as did also your rulers.
But those things which God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ
should suffer, he is so fulfilled.
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, and he shall send
Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you.
What do they need to repent of?
What did they do?
They rejected Jesus.
They crucified Jesus.
And he says, I know you did that through ignorance.
So repent, and he'll give you another chance to receive Jesus.
Pretty simple, right?
But is it saying here that, you know, that girlfriend you're living with, you need
to get out of that relationship before you can be saved.
Is that what he's saying?
Is he saying, oh, you drink, you're going to have to stop drinking, you need to repent
from drinking, at least be willing to turn from drinking and fornication and all
that.
Is that what, I mean, is that anywhere in this context?
But yet people will use this verse as a proof that if you're not willing to give up sins,
you can't be saved.
And that makes it into workspace salvation.
Look at Matthew chapter 21, Matthew 21 32.
Because salvation is not based on our deeds or the works of the law.
And people will say, well, you know, it's not works to turn from your sins.
Well, actually it is.
You ever tried turning from sins?
It takes effort.
It takes work.
It takes action on our part.
In order to turn from the, think about a guy like Zacchaeus, right?
He was a crooked tax collector.
Well, he was just a tax collector, but anyway, he's a, he's a crook.
And for him, repentance turning away from that involved him saying, you know, I'm going
to give back money that I've ripped off from people.
Okay.
So that showed repentance at his heart that he, he wasn't going to continue being the
crook that he had been.
In fact, he's going to return the money.
So there you go.
That's works.
So if you think that you have to do that to be saved, you're saying salvation's by works.
But the Bible says, for by grace are you saved through faith and then not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of works that any man should boast.
If I had a gift for you and I said, I'm going to give you this Bible as a gift,
but you're going to have to start following all these rules for your life and then
I'll give it to you.
Or at least, okay, you don't have to turn, but just be willing to turn.
So you have to make a commitment to me right now that you're willing to change your life
completely and start living by my rules and then I'll give you this Bible.
That wouldn't really be a gift because you know, that would be more like a, a deal
or a transaction or an agreement that we're making.
That would be more like some kind of a deal, not, not a free, I mean, a gift is no
strings attached.
It's paid for by the giver.
It's just given unto you for free.
Look at this great verse on repentance in Matthew 21 32.
It says, for John came unto you in the way of righteousness and ye believed him not,
but the publicans and the harlots believed him and ye when you had seen it, repented
not afterward that you might believe him.
So this verse explains really clearly what repentance means in regard to salvation.
It explains very clearly what Jesus meant in Mark chapter one verse 15 when he said,
repent and believe the gospel.
He said, look, there's one group of people, the Pharisees that did not believe in Jesus.
There's another group, the publicans and sinners that did believe in Jesus.
And he's saying, you guys, when you saw that, you should have repented and believed in
Jesus, meaning you should have seen that and it should have caused you to change
your mind so that you would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So when we see the word repent in the Bible, we always have to get the context
to see what is being turned from.
Act 17 30 is another really commonly quoted verse about repentance.
The times of this ignorance God winked at, but God commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
Right before that, he had just finished talking about how they were making statues
of gods made of gold and silver and the apostle Paul saying, those aren't real gods.
The true living God cannot be formed into a statue.
And you're ignorant about that and you need to repent of that ignorance of believing
in these idols.
Just like the Bible talks about in 1 Timothy chapter 2 or 2 Timothy 2, repentance unto
the acknowledging of the truth.
You know, when you believe a lie, you repent of that and believe the truth.
So when it comes to salvation, there's only one thing you have to do to be saved.
Believe on Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
That's it.
Whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.
So you say, well, what role does repentance play in salvation then?
Well, the only role that repentance would play is if there was something that was stopping
you from believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, you'd have to turn from that and start
believing in Jesus instead.
And an example of that would be that if you thought that you have to go to church
and perform sacraments in order to be saved, then all your faith's not in Jesus.
In fact, it's impossible for you to put all your faith in Jesus as long as you still
have some of your faith in those rituals that you're performing.
So in order to be saved, you'd have to turn away from those rituals only so that you
could put all your faith in Jesus.
But still, faith is what's the only prerequisite.
But is it possible for me to believe in Jesus with all my heart if I still believe
in Buddha?
He said, if thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest.
So if I still believe in Buddha, I can't believe in Jesus with all my heart.
That means I have to turn from Buddha or repent of Buddhism, repent of Catholicism,
repent of Hinduism, repent of Islam, because there's no room for both.
There is no room for being saved by Jesus and being a Muslim and being a Buddhist and
being a Catholic, because you can't do both.
Because Jesus says you have to put all your faith and trust him.
But here's the thing.
Can you believe in Jesus and still commit sin?
Yeah, everybody does it, who's saved?
So to sit there and say, well, you have to turn from your sins before you can believe
in Jesus.
That's not accurate, because you look when you get saved, hopefully you're going to
turn from some sins in your life.
And hopefully, as you're saved for a longer time period, you'll turn from more and more
sins as time goes on.
Because you don't just get saved and then just overnight, you're just living a perfect
godly Christian life.
It's a process of growth.
The Bible says as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow
thereby.
We don't give birth to a baby in 2014 and then say, okay, now that we've cut
the cord, you're on your own, buddy.
I mean, you've been born.
You're on your own.
You're no longer relying on mom's blood through the umbilical cord feeding you and
giving you nutrition through the placenta.
You're on your own, pal.
No, he's going to still need to be diapered and fed.
And as he grows, he's going to slowly take on more responsibility for himself.
He's going to get smarter, more mature.
It's the same thing with people when they get saved.
When they first get saved, they might be continuing in a lot of the sins that they've
been doing.
And some of those things, they might not even know that they're wrong yet.
And they have to learn over time and then they learn and they grow and you say, well,
but there's just a willingness to change and, you know, you have to be willing to
change.
You have to be willing.
But here's the thing.
You're just adding to the Bible now because there's no place that says be willing to
change and thou shall be saved.
And it might sound good to just say, well, but you got to have the desire to change,
but it doesn't say desire to change and thou shall be saved.
It says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved.
Well, but if somebody really gets saved, they're going to desire to do what's right.
Hold on a second.
The spirit will, but their flesh will not desire what's right.
Their flesh is never going to desire what's right because the carnal mind is enmity
against God.
It cannot be brought under subjection to laws of God.
The flesh is always the flesh and my sinful flesh will always be sinful.
Your sinful flesh will always be sinful until we die or until the resurrection takes
place.
We're going to sin.
Not because of the spirit, but because of the flesh.
So you're right.
If a person gets saved, the spirit will desire to do what's right.
The new man, the new creature, but the flesh is still there.
And so if we walk in the flesh, we're going to desire all the wrong things.
And when we walk in the spirit, we're going to desire the right things.
There are people who are saved who have not turned from various sins in their life,
but they're still saved because they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior.
And let's not add to the gospel.
A lot of people want to make the gospel an emotional thing about feelings and they
say people have to feel an intense sorrow for their sin in order to get saved.
But some people are more emotional than others.
Sometimes when people get saved, they are crying and they are sorry for their sins.
Other times when people get saved, they're just really joyful and happy.
It is the good news after all, but some people want to see crying every time.
I want to see you cry.
I want to see you sad, you know?
And if you're not sad, if you're not crying, if you're not in grief and pain and agony,
I don't know if you're really getting saved.
But honestly, it's good news.
Some people might just be happy about it.