is in verse 30 where the Bible reads in the times of this ignorance God winked at but
now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
And what I want to preach about this morning is the subject of repentance and specifically
I want to preach about the subject of repentance in regard to salvation because this is a subject
that's very misunderstood today and there's a lot of false teaching out there under the
guise of repentance that is actually teaching a workspace salvation.
Let me just show you what the Bible teaches about repentance.
First of all, let's go back to Exodus chapter 32 because before we study repentance in regard
to salvation, let's just get an understanding of what the word repent even means in the
Bible.
Now the mistake that most people make is that whenever they see the word repent in the Bible,
they add these magical words after it, of your sins.
So whenever they see the word repent, they just automatically add of sin.
Repent of sin.
In fact, they often think that just the word repent means to turn from sin.
They just add that concept.
Well let me just prove to you that that's not true.
In Exodus 32 verse 12 it 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 thy fierce wrath, this is Moses speaking to God, turn from thy fierce wrath
and repent of this evil against thy people.
So we can see that repent means to turn, right?
Moses is telling God to turn away from his anger or wrath toward his people.
It says in verse 13, Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swearest
by thy own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven,
and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit
it forever.
Watch this, and the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.
Now that right there proves that repenting does not mean repent of your sins, because
God doesn't have any sins.
God never has sinned, God is perfect in every way, and yet did God repent in this scripture?
Yes he did.
He turned.
He turned from one course of action unto another.
He didn't turn from sin, he turned from anger.
He turned from his wrath.
He turned from the judgment that he was going to pour out.
You don't have to turn there, but later on in 1 Samuel 15, when Saul had committed some
sin, the Bible says in verse 35, And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of
his death.
Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul.
Watch this, the Lord repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.
So God made a decision to choose Saul to be the first king of Israel.
But then later, because of the way Saul behaved, he repented of having made Saul king.
Is that repenting of sin?
No, because God has no sin.
So we see that there's a different type of repentance in the Bible.
People can turn from all manner of things.
They can turn from anger, they can turn from a decision that they had made.
But go to Exodus chapter 13, this is an interesting one.
Exodus chapter 13, this is where the children of Israel are leaving Egypt where they've
been in bondage, and they're going to cross the Red Sea of course, they're going to head
for the Promised Land, eventually they're going to end up wandering in the wilderness.
But look what the Bible says in Exodus 13 verse 17, it says, And it came to pass, this
is when they're first leaving Egypt, 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.
God said, lest peradventure the people repent when they see war and they return to Egypt.
Now look, God wanted the people to leave Egypt, didn't He?
Did He want them to turn around and go back to Egypt?
Absolutely not.
So here, these people aren't repenting of their sin, they're repenting to sin if they
turn back.
He says look, if they see war, if they go through the land of the Philistines, they're
going to repent and go back to Egypt.
So in this case, repentance is not even a good thing.
This would be a bad repentance where they're repenting from doing the right thing and turning
back.
So the bottom line is, as we look at these scripts it becomes obvious that a person can
repent from anything.
They can repent from something good, they can repent of something bad, they can repent
of a decision that they made.
It's just a turning or changing course or changing direction.
It doesn't have to be repenting of your sins.
Now what's interesting is that the person who repents more than anyone else in the Bible
is God.
In fact, there are 35 verses in the Bible that deal with God repenting.
I mean that's a lot of scripture.
I read for you a couple of them, the one from Exodus, the one from 1 Samuel, but actually
repeatedly throughout the Bible God is shown as repenting.
Now what's interesting is that these modern Bible versions, the NIV and the New King James
for example, they make a lot of changes to the Bible, they corrupt scripture, and one
of the changes that they make is that they remove the word repent from 46 verses.
There are 105 times in the King James Bible, or 105 verses that is, that use the word repentance.
Well 46 of those are removed from all the modern versions, but here's what's funny about
it.
You know which ones they remove?
They don't just randomly remove 46 of them, oh no.
They specifically and purposely remove every time God repented, they remove it.
That's what they take out.
And then they take out other things that are problematic to them, like for example the
verse I just read for you from Exodus 13, 17, they remove repent from that verse.
You know they remove Judas Iscariot repenting.
You see they remove anything that can prove that repenting does not mean repenting of
your sins.
All the ones that just make it so obvious that repent does not mean repent of your sins,
that's what they specifically, purposely remove.
There's an agenda behind it, I'm telling you the devil is out there to promote this doctrine
that in order to be saved you must repent of your sins because it's work salvation.
I'm going to prove that to you from the Bible.
But let's look at this, go to Acts chapter 17.
So I've already proven to you from scripture, if the Bible is your authority this morning,
and you know some people they just have tradition and they're just, well I've heard my whole
life that you have to, I don't care what you've heard your whole life.
The Bible says that God repented, okay?
If you believe the Bible that means God repented.
If you believe the Bible, you can repent from good, you can repent from bad, you can repent
from a decision, you can repent from anything, God's repenting.
And so to sit there and say that every time the Bible says repent, it means repent of
your sins is to add to scripture.
The Bible says repent, it doesn't mean repent of your sins.
Now here's a verse that people will often use and they'll say, you know, this verse
is a verse that proves that you have to repent of your sins to be saved in Acts chapter 17.
Now before I get into Acts 17 let me say this, there are hundreds of verses in the Bible
that tell you what you have to do to be saved.
And it's believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
The Bible says that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.
The Bible says verily, verily I say to thee, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
I mean over and over again when the questions asked in Acts 16, the chapter right before
the one we're reading, what must I do to be saved?
They said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
Now you see salvation is by faith alone in Jesus Christ.
Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins.
He was buried and three days later he rose again from the dead.
Look he did all the work for salvation.
We don't have to work our way in, we don't have to do our own works, we don't have to
turn over a new leaf and stop sinning.
Look we just have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved.
But there are some times when the word repent is used in the Bible even in regard to salvation.
Even when the Gospel is being preached, the word repent is being used.
But let me tell you something, it's not teaching that you have to repent of your sins to be
saved.
Let's just be honest as you look at this passage in Acts 17.
Because often people will just out of context quote verse 30 where it says, you know where
he's preaching the Gospel and he says, the times of this ignorant God winked at but now
commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
They just add he's commanding everyone to repent of their sins, which is not what he's
saying.
Let's get the context of what's being taught here.
Go to verse 22.
It says, then Paul stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, ye men of Athens, I perceive
that in all things you're too superstitious.
For as I passed by and behold your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription to
the unknown God, whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you.
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth,
dwelleth not in temples made with hands.
So here we have a people that is polytheistic.
They worship a lot of different gods.
And they have all these different altars to all these different gods that they worship.
And you know the Greek gods are Athena and you've probably heard of them, right?
I don't really care to even remember them.
But anyway, I don't know, I mix them up with the Roman gods, you know, Jupiter and Venus
and whatever, Mars, I don't know, whatever the planets are.
But anyway, all these Greek and Roman gods that they worship, well they had all these
different altars to different gods and then just in case they missed one, they didn't
want to make some god somewhere upset and make him feel left out.
So they just built an altar that was just kind of a general purpose altar just to the
unknown god.
Like, okay, we got the god of water and the god of fire and the god of love and the god
of hunting and then just in case we missed one, let's just, the unknown god, okay?
And Paul's saying, man, you guys are too superstitious.
I mean, not only you worship all these gods but then you make one of the unknown gods.
He said, well, I'm going to preach to you about the unknown god.
That's just kind of an icebreaker that he used to start preaching the gospel just to
get their attention.
And he explains that since God made the world and all things therein, he doesn't live in
temples made with hate.
He doesn't live in your little altar, your little temple to the unknown god.
And then in verse 29 it says, for as much then as we're the offspring of God, we ought
not to think that the godhead is like unto gold or silver or stone graven by art and
He's pointing out their idols, their little statues of what they call gods.
And he's saying, look, if God created the world, he's not an image that you can carve
and a statue that you make and bow down to.
That's not what the godhead is like.
And he says in verse 30, and the times of this ignorance, God winked at.
What ignorance?
The ignorance of thinking that a little piece of stone or a little metal statue is God.
He says the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere
to repent because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained where he hath given assurance unto all men and that
he raised them from the dead.
And of course he preached the resurrection and then verse 34 it says certain men clave
unto him and believed.
Some of the people believed the message that Paul preached.
But look, when he's telling them to repent here, what is he telling them to repent of?
He says, look, you're worshiping idols, you're worshiping false gods, you think that this
statue is God, the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men
everywhere to repent.
He's telling them to repent or to turn from worshiping of false gods.
He's saying, look, you're worshiping false gods, you need to worship the one true God,
you need to repent and turn from false gods to the true God.
Go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1, you'll see the exact same thing.
Go to 1 Thessalonians chapter 1.
Now look, when he said repent there, God commandeth all men everywhere to repent, was he talking
about repenting of your sinful lifestyle?
Was he telling them, you guys need to quit drinking and quit smoking and quit carousing
and you need to quit fornicating and you need to quit stealing and you need to quit lying,
you need to turn from all that in order to be saved.
In order to be saved, you need to be willing to turn from drinking and smoking and partying
and fornicating and stealing and lying and murder.
Is that what he was telling them that they needed to turn from?
But that's what's being preached today.
People take Acts 17, 30 and they say in order to be saved you must be willing to turn from
your sins and they'll say to somebody who's a drunk that they have to repent of that in
order to be saved or that they have to turn from whatever, whether it be lying, stealing,
whatever.
They tell them that they have to repent of a sinful life.
Now look, which sins do they think you have to repent of to be saved?
Because I don't know about you, but I have not repented of all my sins because I'm not
perfect.
And the Bible says if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth
is not in us.
No one in here can say I've made my heart pure from sin.
Nobody in here can say I've turned from all my sins.
And people say, you know, I repented of my sin and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ
my Savior.
You know, which sins did you repent of?
Because if you're going to tell me that you repented of all of them, you're a liar is
what you are.
And let me tell you something, repenting of your sins is a daily thing.
Salvation's not a daily thing.
Salvation's a one-time thing.
You must be born again.
The Bible didn't say born again and again and again and again.
The Bible says you must be born again.
You believe on Christ and in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, you are saved, you
are regenerated, you are passed from death unto life, you are a child of God.
Now look, after that you're still going to sin.
Every single person in this room has sin in their life.
No one is perfect, myself included.
And so therefore if we had to turn from our sins to be saved, no one would be saved.
But they say, well you just have to be willing to turn.
Okay where's that in the Bible?
What about when God repented?
Was He just willing to turn from His wrath or did He actually turn from it?
Repentance is an actual turning, it's not just a willingness to turn.
And so what we see here is that what they had to turn from was idols because that's
not God.
See you can't just add God.
And look at 1 Thessalonians 1 and then I'll explain it to you, look at verse 9.
It says, For they themselves show of us what manner of entering in we had unto you.
And this is a similar group of people, the Thessalonians had a similar religion to those
that we see in Acts 17.
It says, And now you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.
Now could that be described as repentance there?
That's repentance right?
I mean they were worshiping idols, false gods.
They turned to God from idols so that they could serve the living and true God.
That was repentance.
Did that repentance save them?
Yeah because it meant that they were not believing in their false god anymore, now they're believing
in the one true God.
But was that repenting of all their sins?
Trying to turn from a sinful lifestyle?
No.
And that is a false teaching.
And if you teach that somebody has to turn over a new leaf to be saved and repent of
their sins and start living a good life, that is a work salvation.
That's not trusting what Jesus Christ did on the cross.
Now if you're turning from idols to the true God, yeah you're putting your trust in Jesus
that died on the cross.
Okay but when you're turning from sin, now it's like well you've earned the right to
be saved by giving up your sins.
And I'll prove that to you a little bit later that that's works.
But it says here that they turned from God to idols to serve the living and true God
and to wait for His Son from heaven whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus which delivered
us from the wrath to come.
So they turned from a false god to the true God.
Now here's why Paul preached this message of repentance to these people that were so
superstitious.
You see in Acts 16 when a guy asked him what must I do to be saved, he just said believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
So you say well Pastor Anderson, why didn't Paul just get up in Acts 17 and just say the
same thing?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
I'll tell you exactly why.
Because these people already had all kinds of false gods and they're more than ready
to add a new God any time.
I mean they have the altar to the unknown God.
So if Paul would have said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,
you know what they'd say?
Great.
Sure.
But you know what?
If they're still trusting in all these other false gods, okay, if they're still trusting
in Diana and whatever, I guess I don't know my Greek mythology, but Zeus, right, isn't
that one of them?
You know if they're still trusting in Zeus and Neptune and Poseidon or I don't know,
you know if they're still trusting in all these false gods and then they just add Jesus,
right?
Believe on Jesus, okay, I believe in Jesus.
That's not going to save them because you've got to believe in Jesus with all your heart.
You can't just say, well, I believe in these Greek gods and I believe in Jesus.
No.
You must turn from idols.
You must turn from a false god and put all of your faith and trust in the living and
true God.
You can't just add him on and just cross out the thing that said unknown God and just write
Jesus and now you're saved.
No way.
They had to turn from their false religion.
You see, if you today, you know, are Muslim and you say, well, I'm also going to believe
in Jesus Christ, wrong, because Islam is a false religion.
It's not God's word.
And if you're putting your faith in Islam to get you to heaven, you're not saved.
You need to turn from that and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see, Jesus is not something that you just add to your religion.
You know, well, you know, you're worshiping Mary and the saints and all that, but you're
just going to add Jesus wrong and you can pray a prayer and ask Jesus to save you.
But if you're still trusting Mary and the saints and the Pope and you're trusting idols
that you bow down to, look, your faith and trust is not 100% in Christ and you will not
go to heaven until you turn from that and repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
But again, we're not talking about turning from a sinful life.
Now look, if the Bible just tells you all you have to do is believe on Christ to be
saved, right?
That's pretty clear.
I'm not going to sit here and quote all the hundreds of verses that say, you know, for
by grace are you saved through faith and the not of yourselves, the gift of God and not
of works, the same as you both.
If the Bible just teaches that faith in Christ is enough to save you, then how can there
be some other thing added that you also have to do, like, well, you also have to repent
of your sins.
Then believing's not enough.
You also have to do something else.
You say, well, what about repenting from false religion?
But here's why you have to repent of false gods.
Because it's impossible to believe in Jesus Christ if you're believing in something different.
Think about it.
I mean, how can I say I'm trusting Christ if I'm trusting something else?
So I have to stop trusting this and start trusting this.
So really that's just all included in the word believe.
Believe covers it.
But the reason that Paul is using the word repent here is because he's trying to make
it understandable and clear to the people that he's talking to that, you know, you have
to believe on Christ alone.
Just like when John the Baptist and Jesus are preaching to the Jews, they use the word
repent a lot.
Why?
Because the Jews, they claim to believe on God, but they were trusting in their own works
and following the law to get them to heaven.
The Pharisees were trusting in the works of the law.
That's what they had to repent of.
And I'm going to show you that in the Bible right now.
If you would, Acts chapter 3, I'm going to show you a few places in the book of Acts,
but look at Acts chapter 3.
Here's another scripture that people will use to say that you have to repent of your
sins to be saved.
And they'll use Acts chapter 3 verse 19.
Because the Bible says in Acts chapter 3 verse 19, 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.
See right there.
Repent and be converted that your sins may blotted out and they'll say you have to repent
of your sins to be saved.
Does it say repent of your sins and be converted?
No, it just says repent.
So let's get the context to figure out what's being repented of.
You can't just add of your sins after every repent.
You have to get the context of what's being repented of.
When we read about God repenting, how did we know what he repented of?
We got the context.
Look at verse 14, it says, but ye denied the holy one and the just, talking about Jesus.
They denied him, right?
And it says, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you.
What was that murderer's name?
Barabbas.
Remember they said crucify Jesus and give us Barabbas.
And killed the prince of life whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are witnesses.
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.
He's saying look, you killed Jesus, this guy's saved by faith, you denied Christ.
You killed Jesus.
And now, brethren, verse 17, I walk that through ignorance ye did at.
Now remember, what did they repent of in Acts 17?
They repented of the ignorance, remember the times this ignorance, God winked at but now
commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
That ignorance was the ignorant, foolish idea that a statue is God, okay?
He says I walk 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 had so fulfilled.
Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the time
of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.
So look, what is he reproaching them for?
He's reproaching them for denying Christ, for rejecting Christ.
And when he tells them to repent in verse 19, that's what he's telling them to repent
of.
He's saying look, you denied Christ, you rejected Christ, you need to repent.
You need to change your mind.
You need to turn from that decision and turn to Jesus Christ in faith as your Savior.
See the Bible says in 2 Timothy 2.25, you don't have to turn there, it says in meekness
instructing those that oppose themselves if God, peradventure, will give them repentance
to the acknowledging of the truth.
So look, whenever you repent, you're repenting from something and you're repenting to something,
right?
The people in Exodus, he said he didn't want them to repent from war and to turn back to
Egypt, okay?
God turned from his fierce wrath and he turned to his people with compassion and mercy and
forgiveness.
Okay, we see that the people in Acts 17, they turned away from idolatry and turned to the
true and the living God.
Well in 2 Timothy 2.25, what they're repenting to or turning to is acknowledging the truth.
So what are they repenting from?
Denying the truth.
See what I mean?
Denying Christ is what we saw in Acts 3, right?
He said you denied the Holy One.
Repent of that.
Here we see repent to the acknowledging of the truth.
What's the opposite of acknowledging the truth?
Denying the truth.
He's saying look, repentance to the acknowledging of the truth.
There are many people today that do not acknowledge the truth.
They need to repent to the acknowledging of the truth, okay?
So that means they're supposed to be willing to quit drinking.
No.
Willing to quit fornicating.
Willing to quit life.
Willing to live a Christian life.
Willing to join a church.
Willing to get baptized.
Those are all great things.
Those are all things we should all do.
We should all go to church.
We should all be baptized.
We should all read our Bible every day.
We should all pray.
We should repent of stealing.
We should repent of lying.
We should repent of fornication.
We should repent and repent and keep on repenting of our sins, but that will never get you into
heaven because that is the works of the flesh and you will not be justified by the fact
that you have turned over a new leaf.
Only the faith of Jesus Christ can save you and nothing else.
And so those are great things to do.
Hey, it's great to do works.
We're created on two good works which God has before a day that we should walk in them,
but works do not save and are not necessary for salvation because we are saved by faith,
not of works lest any man should boast.
Now if you would, where are you at there?
Acts 3.
Go to Acts 19.
Let's look at John the Baptist preaching about repentance because John the Baptist definitely
preached about repentance.
Jesus preached the same thing about repentance.
Look at what John the Baptist preached about repentance.
Says in Acts 19, 4, then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of what?
Repentance.
So what was he saying?
What was he saying when he baptized with the baptism of repentance?
Saying unto the people that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is
on Christ.
So what was the repentance he was preaching that they needed to believe on Christ?
Now look if you would, you say well how does that work?
Matthew 21, 32 explains it.
Flip back to Matthew 21, 32.
Matthew 21, 32 also dealing with John the Baptist preaching.
Let's see how John the Baptist preaching of repentance fits in with believing on Jesus
Christ, not with turning over a new leaf in this context.
Look at Matthew 21, 32.
It says, For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not.
So here's John the Baptist preaching the word of God.
Did they believe him?
No.
But the publicans and the harlots believed him.
So here you've got the religious crowd, the Pharisees and Sadducees, they didn't believe
John the Baptist.
The publicans and the harlots did believe John the Baptist.
Watch this.
And ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward that ye might believe him.
So group A here, the religious crowd, did not believe on Christ.
Group B did believe on Christ.
God's saying that when group A saw that group B should have believed on Christ, at that
point they should have repented and turned from unbelief to believing on Jesus Christ.
Turned from their denial of the truth to acknowledging the truth.
Did they do that?
No.
He said you repented not afterward that you might believe him.
You see, in Matthew 3, too, you don't have to turn there, but John the Baptist preached
saying repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Did he say repent of your sins?
No, he just said repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Jesus preached the same thing in Matthew 4.17.
Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
But if we look at Mark 1.15, he gives more detail about what was preached by Jesus in
this case.
It says in Mark 1.15 saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent ye and stop sinning?
Is that what it says?
No, it says repent ye and believe the gospel.
Why do they need to repent?
Because they didn't believe the gospel.
They didn't believe John the Baptist.
They didn't believe Jesus.
They needed to repent and believe.
Turn from their false doctrine and false religion and false belief and rejection and denial
of Christ and repent to the acknowledging of the truth and repent and believe the gospel.
It's that simple.
Now go to Acts chapter 20, here's another scripture that people will often pull out
and say, hey, this says you have to repent of your sins to be saved.
Now you say, well Pastor Anderson, does the Bible ever even use the term repent of your
sins?
Not one time in this entire big thick Bible of 1189 chapters does the Bible ever say repent
of your sins.
But yet every single one of us has heard preachers say that in order to be saved, now look, isn't
salvation the most important thing?
I mean what's a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?
I mean the number one most important doctrine is salvation.
Now let me ask you something, is God trying to hide salvation from us?
No, he wrote the book of John that we might believe on Christ and that believing we might
have life through his name.
Look, if repenting of your sins was something that we had to do to be saved, wouldn't God
tell us that?
So why do all these preachers say you have to repent of your sins to be saved when the
term repent of your sins is never found in the Bible once?
I mean isn't that a fair question?
If the Bible never one time says repent of sin, and that's something that we have to
do to be saved, good night!
Why didn't he warn us?
Why didn't he tell us?
But look, I have hundreds of verses that say believe.
Why?
Because believing is what you have to do to be saved.
See the book of John is the only book in the Bible that claims to be a book written to
get somebody saved.
See most of the Bible is written to people that are already saved.
You know you look at a book like Ephesians, Galatians, Philippians, those are written
to the saints.
It says it right at the beginning of the book.
Written to the churches of Galatia.
The book of Romans is written to the saved.
It says it's to the saints which are in Christ Jesus.
Is Romans written to the unsaved?
No.
It says it's written to the saints which are in Christ Jesus.
But you know what, the only book in the Bible that claims to be written unto the unsaved
to get them saved is the book of John.
And at the end of the book of John he says these things are written that you might believe
on the Son of God, and I'm paraphrasing, but he said in that believing you might have life
through his name.
He claims that that's why the book is written.
Okay, that's why the Bible in the book of John says believe in almost every chapter.
Because if it's a book about getting somebody saved, it's going to talk a lot about believing.
That's why in John, right away in John 1-12 he says, but as many as received him to them
gave he power to become the sons of God even to them that believe on his name.
That sounds like a great book for getting somebody saved.
John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever
believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
John 3.15 says the same thing.
John 3.36 says he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth
not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
You know, right away, John 5.24, verily verily I say to thee, he that heareth my word and
believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation
but is passed from death to life.
John 6 repeatedly says that you have to believe to have eternal life, several times in it.
Verse 40, I think, verse 41, I know for sure verse 47.
You get into chapter 7, he says whosoever believeth.
You get into chapter 9, dost thou believe on the Son of God?
You get into chapter 10, it's believe.
You get into chapter 11, it's I am the resurrection and the life.
He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and
believeth in me shall never die, believeth thou this.
And the book of John says believe, believe, believe, believe, believe.
And it says this book is written that you might believe and be saved and have eternal
life.
It's written to the unsaved, to get them saved.
How many times has the word repent found in the book of John?
Zero.
Not even once.
That's the big important thing.
Why is it never even mentioned one time?
Say wow, that's dumb because it's mentioned in these other books.
Look, if it's not written in the book of John, then John is not an adequate book to save
you if you have to do that to be saved, right?
I mean if all I have is the book of John and say well this book says it's written so that
people will get saved, I can't even show the whole gospel from John as far as what you
have to do to be saved?
That doesn't make any sense.
False doctrine never makes sense.
You know what makes sense to me?
It makes sense to me that I'm a sinner, that I deserve hell, and that I'm unworthy of being
saved no matter how much I clean up my life because all my righteousness is to God are
as filthy rags.
That makes sense.
And it makes sense that Jesus died for all my sins and paid my punishment for me and
all I have to do is just turn to Him and just believe on Him and be saved.
That makes sense.
But you know what doesn't make sense?
Telling me that I have to turn from all my sins to be saved and then turning around and
telling me oh by the way it's a free gift that Jesus did everything.
It's like Jesus did everything but you've got to make some serious change in your life.
Did Jesus do everything or not?
Is it free or not?
Is it a gift or not?
Is it faith alone or not?
We were out soul winning the other day and we asked somebody what they have to do to
be saved.
They said believe on Christ.
And they said yeah, I don't know why people make the Gospel so complicated.
It's just so simple.
Jesus did everything.
We just believe on Jesus.
It's so simple.
And I'm thinking like yeah, it is simple.
And then that same person, I asked that person if you could lose your salvation, oh yeah,
you can lose your salvation.
I mean you can't just live however you want and you do have to repent of all your sins
and if you don't live right, if you don't go to church, you're like what?
I say no, you're making it complicated.
Don't be turned from the simplicity that's in Christ to another Gospel, another Jesus,
another salvation that's not biblical.
Where did I return?
Chapter 20?
Look at chapter 20.
It says in verse 20, it says how I have kept back nothing that was profitable unto you
but have showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to
the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus
Christ.
So here we're talking about turning to God, right?
And we're talking about turning toward the Lord Jesus Christ with faith, right?
Believing on Christ.
Anything about repenting of sins in this verse?
Now go if you would to Hebrews chapter 6 verse 1 because it's interesting.
In Acts 20-21, we see repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here's a similar wording that's found in Hebrews 6 verse 1.
It says therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto
perfection not laying again the foundation of, watch this, repentance from dead works
and of faith toward God.
Now look, when we repent toward God, here in Hebrews 6 verse 1, the Bible talks about
us repenting from dead works.
You say, well what does that mean?
Dead works.
Well, think about this.
Faith without works is dead, right?
So if you have faith without works, that's dead faith, right?
So what if you have works without faith?
That's dead works.
See what I mean?
Faith without works is dead faith and works without faith is dead works.
Look, works that you're doing where you think you're serving God but you have not believed
on Jesus Christ are dead works.
Like for example, there are people out there like the Apostle Paul who are very zealous
of religion and if you remember the Apostle Paul before he got saved, his name was Saul,
he was very zealous of religion, okay?
He was very serious about the Jews' religion and he was a Pharisee and he kept the Old
Testament law to the best of his ability and he was trusting in those works that he was
doing to get him to heaven, right?
But in order to be saved, he had to turn from that and put his faith in Jesus Christ.
And you say, well, did he really turn from all that?
He said, you know what?
Those things I counted them as dung.
He said, I profited above many mine own equals in my own religion.
I excelled in the Jews' religion.
I was zealous of the Jews' religion.
But he says, but what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ.
Let me tell you something.
There are people today that are serving the Lord, they think, with dead works.
They have not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.
They do not have salvation.
They do not have the Holy Spirit inside of them.
They are working their way to heaven in their mind.
They think that they're going to earn their way to heaven.
And there are people that are serving food to the homeless today.
There are people who are ushering in their church today.
There are people who are getting up and teaching a Sunday school class today and teaching the
Bible today.
Look, I've talked to people who teach Sunday school that will tell you they don't even
believe the Bible, but they teach Sunday school just because they think it's just a good work
to do.
A good community service or something, you know, because the Bible has good morals in
it.
Look, there are people today who do not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Maybe they believe in a false religion like Mormonism, like Catholicism, like Islam today,
or Judaism today.
And they're doing a lot of works, right?
And they're doing works and they think that those good deeds and good works that they're
doing are going to get them to heaven.
Those are dead works.
Because without faith, it is impossible to please Him.
Nothing that we do, the Bible says they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
Did you hear that?
If you're in the flesh, you cannot please God.
Without faith, it's impossible to please Him.
So all the works that people are doing when their faith's not in Jesus Christ, those are
dead works.
Now look, if you talk to people out on soul winning, you go out and knock doors and talk
to people, you run into people that are saved, don't you?
That'll tell you that they're trusting Jesus to save them.
And they're trusting in Christ alone, right?
When you run into people that are not saved, what are they usually trusting?
Nine times out of ten?
They're works.
You ask them, oh you're going to heaven?
How do you know you're on your way to heaven?
Oh, because I go to church, I live a good life, I read the Bible, I, you know, and they
say, they give off their works.
So doesn't it make sense that in order to have faith in Christ, you have to turn from
trusting in good works to trusting in Christ, right?
I mean if you're trusting your works, you can't say well, I believe in Jesus but I also
believe I'm going to heaven because I'm such a good person.
Well see now you're trusting two different things, you're trusting your works and Jesus.
It's like trying to trust Buddha in Jesus, Mohammed in Jesus, Mary and the saints in
Jesus.
No, no, it ought to be all Jesus and you can't believe in all your Greek false gods and paganism
and say I believe in pagan Greek false gods but I also believe in Jesus.
No, well you can't trust your works and Jesus.
You must turn from idols to Jesus.
You must turn from your works to Jesus and you know what your works are?
They're dead works because they're not accompanied by faith in Christ.
Now once you have faith in Christ, hopefully you should go out and do some good works,
right?
Then you'll have faith and works.
Then neither your faith nor your works are dead, right?
And you're going to receive a reward for the works that you do.
Now all throughout the Bible I've searched for the term repent of your sins or anything
like it.
I can't find it.
The closest thing that I've found is in Acts chapter 8 when the term repent therefore of
this thy wickedness is found and it's talking to somebody who's already saved.
Simon, remember Simon?
Simon who was Simon the sorcerer, right?
But then he believed on Christ and got saved.
You say well I don't think he really got saved.
Yeah except the Bible says he believed on Christ.
So should I believe you or the Bible?
And Simon, he saw the great power of God that Peter had and Peter had the ability, okay,
the apostles had the ability, Paul had the ability to lay his hands on someone, right?
And they would receive the Holy Ghost.
They would be filled with the Holy Spirit.
You remember that in the book of Acts, how they had that ability where the Spirit of
the Lord came upon someone in mighty power through the laying on of hands like when Paul
laid hands upon Timothy and he was filled with the Spirit.
Simon saw that and Simon wanted to have that ability to be able to confer the power of
the Holy Ghost upon others and he wanted to purchase it with money.
He pulled out money and he offered it unto the apostle and said give me this ability
to be able to do this.
Now look, I don't think Simon was a bad guy.
I don't think his heart was in the wrong place at all.
You say well how do you know?
Because you know what?
Have you ever tried rebuking people or telling people that they're wrong?
How often do they react well to that?
How often do they admit that they're wrong?
How often do they do like David did when Nathan confronted him and said thou art the
man and he said I've sinned?
Nine times out of ten, you tell somebody they're wrong, you correct someone, you rebuke them
and they're going to get mad, they're going to bristle, they're going to panic.
They're not going to just handle it and say you know what, you're right, I'm sorry.
But look, when Simon is corrected for his error, because Simon says you know give me
the gift of the Holy Ghost through money and he's rebuked very sharply, repent of this
thy wickedness, you're in the gall of bitterness, you're in the bond of iniquity.
And you know what Simon says?
He says man, I want you to pray for me that none of these things happen to me.
He said he's sorry.
I mean right away he completely repents of it and realizes I've been an idiot.
I shouldn't have offered you money for that.
I was wrong.
So we see that he has a good heart.
And look, he's not trying to buy something from them that's bad.
I mean the power of the Holy Spirit's a good thing.
He wanted something good.
He was just going about getting it in the wrong way by trying to get it through money.
Was he ignorant?
Yes.
Was it stupid?
Yes.
Was it sin?
Yes.
But was he just this bad person who was a, no.
He made a mistake.
And as soon as he was corrected, he responded properly to that correction by humbling himself
and admitting that he had done wrong.
That's great.
That's the closest thing you can find in the whole Bible to repent of your sins.
It had nothing to do with salvation.
It's a guy who's already saved who made a dumb decision.
Now look, we as Christians, we have to repent of our sins all the time.
You know what?
Perhaps you have a sin in your life that you keep on committing over and over again, right?
Wouldn't you say you should repent of that?
But that has nothing to do with salvation.
So I've searched the Bible and I've tried to find repent of your sins.
But here's what's interesting.
I did a search on the Book of Mormon.
Now who here agrees that the Book of Mormon is written by Satan?
All right, pretty much the whole room.
Okay, so you know, basically I did a search on the Book of Mormon because I mean I searched
the Bible, repent of your sins, repent of sin.
It just isn't there.
Yet preachers are constantly saying it.
I searched the Book of Mormon and it just keeps coming up.
Here's some verses from the Book of Mormon.
Jacob 3.8, listen to this, O my brethren, I fear that unless you shall repent of your
sins that their skins will be whiter than yours when ye shall be brought with them before
the throne of God.
So here in the Book of Mormon it's teaching that, you know, you're not going to be white
enough when you get to heaven if you don't repent of your sins.
I mean isn't that what it said?
Jacob 3.8, O my brethren, I fear that unless you shall repent of your sins that their skins
will be whiter than yours when ye shall be brought with them before the throne of God.
Because the Book of Mormon is a racist book that teaches that the whiter you are the more
godly you are.
And it even talks about in the Book of Mormon people when they started getting right with
God they kept getting whiter.
And then other people when they sinned against God they got darker and darker.
I mean that is what is taught in the Book of Mormon, folks.
And they can lie about it and change it, but you know what?
You like I did and I was at a Marriott hotel and they had a Book of Mormon in the drawer.
I pulled out the Book of Mormon, it was brand spanking new, and I opened it up and it said
that if you rebel against God your skin's going to get darker and that if you're living
for God you're going to be white.
And that white people are better, I mean that's what the Mormonism teaches.
And they still believe that book to this day.
But isn't it funny that the Book of Mormon says that if you don't repent of your sins
you're not going to be as white when you get to heaven?
Isn't it funny that in Mosiah 16, 13 it says, And now ought ye not to tremble and repent
of your sins?
Third Nephi 12, 19, You shall believe me and shall repent of your sins and come unto me
with a broken heart and contrite spirit.
Third Nephi 9, 13, Repent of your sins and be converted that I may heal you.
Mosiah 4, 10, And again, believe that you must repent of your sins and forsake them
and humble yourself before God and ask in sincerity of heart that he forgive you and
blah blah blah.
Look, I didn't have time to go through them all friend, because the Book of Mormon tells
you over and over again to repent of your sins.
Why didn't the Bible teach us that?
Why is this fraud, this cheap imitation, this satanic counterfeit known as the Book
of Mormon telling you over and over and over again to repent of your sins?
And the Holy Bible never tells you one time.
You say, well the Bible tells you to repent.
Yeah, but did it say repent of your sins?
It said repent of your ignorance, repent of the acknowledging of the truth, repent from
dead works, repent of a false god, repent of false religion, turn unto the Lord your
God.
There are scriptures that talk about repenting of your wickedness when you're already saved,
just to have a Christian life that's acceptable.
Repent of this thy wickedness and so forth.
But beware of this false doctrine my friend.
I'm going to close with this one last verse, Jonah 3, 10.
Go ahead and turn to Jonah 3, 10.
You say, why is this so important?
You know, Jonah 3, 10 pretty much sums it up here.
So I'll close on this.
It says in Jonah 3, 10, and God saw their works.
What did God see?
Works.
God saw their works, comma, and now he's going to tell us what those works were.
That they turned from their evil way and God repented of the evil that He had said that
He would do unto them and He did it not.
That right there says that when you turn from your evil way, that's your works.
So if you believe that a person has to turn from their evil way and believe on Christ,
here's what you're saying, they have to believe on Christ and have works.
And you know what?
The Bible says salvation is without works.
And Jonah 3, 10 says turning from your sins or turning from your evil way is works.
So that's why this is such an important doctrine.
You see, the devil wants to get you to trust your works to save you, all the way back to
Cain and Abel.
He's trusting his works instead of the blood of the lamb.
All the way back to the Tower of Babel, they're trying to do their works to get them to heaven.
All throughout Galatians he warns us it's a false gospel when you think that you're
justified by works.
All throughout Romans he tells us we're not justified by works.
I mean he warns us, look, trust Christ for salvation, don't trust works.
So basically the devil wants to get in the back door.
He doesn't just want to come right out and say trust works, okay?
You're like, well no, the Bible says not to trust works.
So he's like, well it's not works, but you do have to repent of your sins.
Well I'm not saying it's works, but you just can't live however you want.
I mean you got to do something, right?
You got to at least go to church three times a month or something.
I mean, you know, I mean you got to do something, right?
You know you have to do nothing because Jesus did everything.
You believe on Christ, his works are sufficient.
We don't have to add to his works.
He paid it all.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.
Father we thank you so much for your word and thank you for the free gift of salvation
because frankly if we had to repent of our sins to be saved, first of all, none of us
would be able to do it and second of all, even if we thought we'd done it, we'd always
be wondering whether we'd done it enough.
Every time we made a mistake, we'd wonder, man, did I repent of my sins?
Here I am sinning again.
Thank you for the free gift of salvation.
Thank you for eternal security.
Thank you for eternal life, everlasting life.
Thank you that we are secure and saved and preserved in Christ.