Maybe your Bibles, maybe you're still in Acts chapter 20.
If you're still in Acts chapter 20,
just look at the memory verse again.
Verse 21, Acts 20, 21,
testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks,
repentance toward God.
The title of the sermon tonight is repentance toward God.
I'll be preaching on the topic of repentance.
Now, this is such a controversial topic.
I mean, just across Christianity,
across churches that should know better, okay?
If you remember last week,
I preached on salvation by grace through faith, right?
And it's so easy to prove that there's nothing we can do.
It's so easy to prove that the deeds of the law
can not get any man saved,
no matter how much you try to keep the commandments of God,
okay, and salvation is purely by faith
on Jesus Christ's death, burial, and resurrection.
And unfortunately, this message is not received very well,
okay, by my Christians.
It's not received very well by even independent,
some, I'm not saying all in general, okay,
but some independent, fundamental Baptists
can't even receive this simple teaching.
So what they do is they take the doctrine of repentance
and they add words to the Gospel using the word repentance.
And so this is a really dangerous thing
because instead of just being outright,
I would prefer someone just come out and say,
I believe in work salvation.
I'd rather just, just that honestly,
I would respect that person more
than someone that tries to hide works for salvation
using the word repentance, okay?
Now, when we look at Acts chapter 20,
I'll just see where it was at.
Look what it says in verse 29.
He says, for I know this, that after my departing
shall grievous wolves enter in among you,
not sparing the flock.
Okay, so he says, look, as soon as I leave you guys,
I'm telling you, within yourselves, within your own churches
there's going to be grievous wolves that come in
teaching false doctrines, okay?
This is what wolves do.
They go to the sheep and want to destroy
what God has put together.
They want to destroy the flock of God.
Verse 30, out also of your own selves shall men arise,
speak in perverse things,
and to draw away disciples after them.
Within yourselves.
This is what I'm telling you.
This is such a dangerous thing because you have the wolves,
they look like every other Christian, you know?
I hope there's no wolf among us today, okay?
But what they do, they go after the flock
to draw away disciples after them, okay?
To teach their wisdom, to teach their doctrines
rather than stick into the word of God, okay?
So, the first thing I want to talk about, let's see.
I'll get you guys to turn to the book of Matthew,
Matthew chapter three.
Matthew chapter three, verse one.
Turn there, Matthew chapter three, verse one.
Because this doctrine of repentance is a doctrine,
even churches that believe just like us
are afraid to preach against, okay?
And I'll tell you why they're afraid to preach against it.
It's because their churches are full of people
that believe in works gospel, and workspace gospel,
and other believers that teach it's by faith alone.
And in order to not upset their church,
in order to not cause any kind of strife or divisions,
in order to not stand on,
because look, this is the truth.
You stand on the word of God,
there's going to be opposition every time, okay?
So in order to maintain peace,
they would rather just maintain the peace of the church.
They almost like don't care
if half the church believes in a workspace gospel.
And so, you know, they'd rather just not preach on this.
Even churches that believe like us,
because they feel like, oh no, it's too divisive.
We shouldn't be teaching this stuff.
Hey, if it's a workspace gospel,
if half your church believes in a workspace gospel,
and if you love them,
aren't you going to try to teach them the truth?
Aren't you going to try to tell them
that salvation's by faith alone?
You know?
So I don't really understand their hearts.
I don't understand why they do this,
but they're afraid to bring up this topic.
Matthew chapter three, verse one.
The Bible says,
in those days came John the Baptist,
preaching in the wilderness of Jideos,
and saying,
repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
So did John the Baptist come preach in repentance?
Yes.
Right?
Repent ye.
Go to the next chapter, Matthew chapter four.
Matthew chapter four, verse 17.
From that time,
Jesus began to preach,
and to say,
repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Did Jesus come preach in repentance?
Yes.
We see this consistency so far, right?
John the Baptist,
now our Jesus Christ,
I'll quickly read to you from Mark six, seven.
The Bible says,
and he called unto him, speaking of Jesus,
he called unto him the 12,
and began to send them forth by two and two,
and gave them power over unclean spirits.
And then verse 12 says,
and they went out and preached that men should repent.
So we have John the Baptist preaching repentance.
We have Jesus Christ coming,
preaching repentance.
Then we have Jesus taking his 12 disciples,
sending them out,
and what are they preaching?
Repentance.
So the first thing I just want to bring to your attention,
do I believe in repentance?
Yes.
Do I believe it's essential for you to be saved?
Do I believe someone must repent to be saved?
Yes, I do believe that, okay?
But again, we need to understand this,
because so many will use this word,
and bring in works,
as part of their gospel message, okay?
And just like those deceiving wolves
that would come in and not spare the flock.
Now, I'm not a big fan of going back to the Greek, okay?
Going back to the Greek,
but in this case we will, okay?
Now, I'm not sure how much you guys know
about this topic of repentance,
and going back to the Greek,
but the main word that the Bible uses,
the main Greek word is the word metanoia, okay?
You guys probably have heard that before, metanoia,
but it's not the only word used
to translate repentance in the English Bible.
There's also,
and I'm probably gonna mess up how to pronounce this,
but anyway,
metanoia and metanoia, okay?
Basically, the same thing.
Every one of those are saying meta, meta, meta, okay?
And then a slightly different way
of saying that noia thing.
It's kind of like,
just like repentance with us.
We would say someone's repenting,
someone has repented,
you know, we believe in repentance,
so it's the same kind of idea,
just depends on the grammar,
why you would use a slightly different word,
they essentially mean the same thing, okay?
Now that word meta,
if you don't know, means change.
You know, when we talk about metamorphosis,
you learned that in high school,
when a tadpole becomes a frog,
we say that's metamorphosis that takes place.
When an animal is changing its form from a tadpole,
it's growing, it's losing its tail,
it's growing its legs,
and it's becoming, you know, a frog, okay?
That's metamorphosis,
or a caterpillar that transforms itself into a butterfly.
When it gets cocooned,
it goes through that process of metamorphosis,
because the word meta just means change, okay?
So metanoia also means change,
but you might say, well, change what?
What are we changing when we talk about repentance?
Well, think of the word metanoia,
and now think of the English word you're familiar with,
that's the Greek word,
you're familiar with the English word paranoia, okay?
When someone's paranoid, what are we saying?
We're saying that they're afraid,
that they're commonly thinking about things
that are scaring them, that are making them afraid.
They might be afraid to step out of the house or whatever.
They're paranoid, okay?
Paranoia, they're afraid of something, okay?
But it has to do with the mind, okay?
Something they're thinking about
that is scaring them out of their wits.
That's why we call them paranoid.
That's where the Greek word, the paranoia,
is of the mind, meta is change.
So what is metanoia?
Change your mind.
That's what metanoia comes from.
That's the Greek.
But if we can go back to the English, repent.
Now, a lot of words in English start with R-E, okay?
And when it comes to the word repent,
the R-E is a prefix of the word,
kind of like when we talk about repeat.
When we say, you know, you repeat something,
it means you do it again.
When we talk about replenishing a cup of water,
what are we saying?
If we say replenish, we're saying it has to be fueled
again and again and again, okay?
It's something that you repeat, okay?
So repent, first of all, R-E is to do it again,
then pent, say, well, what's pent?
Well, when you talk about someone being pensive,
what are you saying?
We say this person is very, you know,
if I see you there in deep thought,
I'd say, wow, you know, that person's very pensive today.
Okay, they're in deep thought, okay, pensive.
Or, you know, in Spanish, some of you guys know Spanish,
pensar, is to what?
To think, okay?
So repent is what?
Rethink, okay, that's the English etymology.
The Greek, change your mind, English, rethink,
it's the same idea, right?
You thought this, and now you think that.
You know, you've changed your mind, it was that,
but now you've changed your mind, and it's this.
That's what the word repent means.
It doesn't mean anything more than that, okay?
Now, does it mean repent of your sins?
Well, it can, just depending on the context, right?
Maybe, you know, you're all here, but I don't know,
I hope, you know, there's no one that's,
that thought of coming to church tonight,
but then they're not here, they decided not to come,
guess what, they repented, okay?
They were going to do something,
and then they decided to change their mind,
and they decided, have you ever changed your mind?
Have you ever thought of doing one thing,
and then you've just done another thing?
Then, if you've done that, you've repented, okay?
It doesn't have to be a negative thing,
it's not like you've turned from a bad thing
to a good thing, it could be,
it could be that you've turned from a good thing
to a bad thing, it could be,
it could be something from neutral, you know?
You know, you felt like having orange juice,
you decided to have a glass of water instead.
Neutral, you know, it's not good or bad,
you know, it's just, you've learned one thing,
you're doing something else, okay?
Now in Spanish, Dad, what's the word for repent in Spanish?
Arependid, yeah.
If you go to Chile, if you go to South America,
you're gonna hear that word over and over again.
It's just part of the common vernacular there.
You know, we say change, we change our mind.
They say that, you know, and that's basically repentance.
Every time they were planning on doing something,
they changed their mind, that's what you're gonna hear.
Arependid, okay?
But unfortunately, in our English language,
we don't hear that as our modern day vernacular.
We don't say that, we don't use that word repent.
The only place you hear it is within a church
sort of function, or when you're reading the Bible.
And so the problem is, when a society's no longer
using that word, you're gonna have the grievous wolves
come in and change the meaning of that word.
Because nobody can say otherwise, it could be.
It could be what they're saying, right?
Because we don't know, we don't use it in our society
anymore, and so because it's been dropped in our usage,
in our common everyday usage, it's easy to come in
and taint what it means.
And more often than not, people will tell you,
that means you've gotta turn from your sins.
You will live in a life of sin,
and now you've gotta stop doing that, okay?
You've got to basically obey the commands.
Now, repentance is all about context.
It can mean anything, okay?
You might have been driving, you thought I'll turn left,
no, you decided I'm gonna go straight, okay?
I was on my, when I landed here, I had two options.
I could have gone central to Fairfield,
no sorry, I could have gone Glenfield to Fairfield.
I changed my mind, it was quicker to go
to central to Fairfield.
I repented at that point, you know, today.
It just depends on the context.
Now, please turn to Exodus chapter 13.
Exodus chapter 13, and let's go to verse 17.
Exodus 13, verse 17.
I just wanna prove to you very quickly,
that repenting does not mean going from something bad
to something good, okay?
Let's just have a look at this.
Again, it's all about the context.
It's all about the context.
Exodus 13, verse 17.
This is the story after Israel had left Egypt, okay?
They had left Egypt, and God was concerned
that the Israelites might go back to Egypt, okay?
Look at verse 17.
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 prevent her, the people repent when they see war
and they return to Egypt, okay?
So it would have been, I guess, quicker,
a more direct way to go through the land of the Philistines,
but because there was war in that land,
God says, I'm not going to take them that way,
because if they see the war and they freak out,
they get scared, it might cause them to repent
and go back to Egypt.
Now, let me just say this.
When they left Egypt, was that a good thing or a bad thing?
It's a good thing, right?
So to go back to Egypt is what?
A bad thing, okay?
So I just want to show you the context of repentance here
is that we're doing something good
and God was concerned that they would repent
and do something bad, okay?
So repentance is not going bad to good.
Like I said, it can be either way, it can be any way,
or it can be neutral to neutral.
It really doesn't matter, it comes down to the context, okay?
Now, the big problem is this repentance from your sins.
Now you say to me, Kevin,
do you believe we should repent of our sins?
Absolutely, I do, I do, okay?
You say, do you think we should be willing
to turn from our sins?
Oh yeah, I think you should be willing to do that.
Okay, I think that shows good maturity,
good growth as a Christian.
Myself, Kevin, do you think we should be sorrowful
for our sins?
Absolutely, I think you should.
I think you should feel bad when you've sinned
against the Lord and feel guilty before him.
All those things I truly believe,
but I don't believe any of those things
are required for you to be saved.
The Bible does not teach that any of those things
are required for you to have eternal life.
As we learned last week, what's the one requirement?
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved.
Okay, so whatever repentance is,
when it comes to the context of salvation,
it must be consistent with salvation by grace through faith
without the works of the law.
Okay, it must be consistent,
otherwise God's been contradictive, okay?
Now you guys, maybe some of you guys already know this,
but who repented the most in the Bible?
Out of everybody in the Bible,
all the characters we have in the Bible,
who repented the most?
No, it was the Lord God.
It was God himself.
In fact, it was the very first person
that repents in the Bible.
I'll just quickly read to you Genesis 6, 6.
This is about Noah, the story of Noah.
It says, and it repented the Lord
that he had made man on the earth,
and he grieved him in his heart.
By far more than anyone in the Bible,
the one that repents the most is our Lord God, okay?
So that should automatically tell you,
unless you believe God's a sinner,
which, that's just crazy,
or otherwise he can't even save us, okay?
He can barely save, can't even save himself.
No, our God is holy.
Our God is without darkness.
In him is light, okay?
He's righteous, he's without sin.
In fact, God hates sins, okay?
And to say, well, the one character
that repents the most is the Lord God,
and then to define repentance as a turning from sins,
it doesn't make any sense if God has no sin, okay?
The fact that God has no sin and God can repent
automatically proves that repentance does not mean
turning from your sins automatically, okay?
I mean, that's it, we're done.
Finished, so we're finished, right?
That's how it should end, right?
We've proven it once.
God repents, he can't be turning from sin.
But unfortunately, I told you,
there are grievous wolves in good churches,
in good independent fundamental Baptist churches
that are preaching false doctrines,
using this doctrine of repentance
as their way to get works into the gospel, okay?
Now, when we talk about repenting, okay,
we're going from one thing to another thing, aren't we?
We're changing our mind from that to that, okay?
Now, in our memory verse, what are we repenting to?
What is salvation?
When we talk about salvation,
what or who are we repenting to?
Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks.
The reason why I wanted this to be a memory verse
is because I wanna show you just,
it's both the Jews and the Greeks.
The gospel is the same for both.
There's not like a special gospel just for the Jews
and then the Greeks or the Gentiles, it's some other gospel.
No, it's both.
Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks,
repentance toward God, right?
Repentance toward God.
And what does that look like?
And faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, okay?
So when we talk about salvation,
we know it's by faith and we know repentance is important.
What are we repenting to?
The Lord God.
How?
By placing our faith on the Lord Jesus Christ, okay?
That's what we're repenting to, to God.
How?
Through Jesus Christ, okay?
So what's changing there?
What's changing when we place our faith on Jesus,
what has changed?
Our faith, okay?
Our faith has changed.
So the question is, well, we know what it needs to go toward.
What did it come from?
Well, whatever else your faith was placed upon before that.
Okay?
You guys know, you guys go door knocking, you knock doors.
You ask people if they're sure of heaven.
They say, I hope so.
You say, well, what do you think it takes to get to heaven?
Nine out of 10 people will say to you, I'm a good person.
I've done good works.
I've done good deeds.
I think I'm gonna make it to heaven based on my good works.
So what's their faith placed upon?
Themselves, their own works, okay?
So what do they need to repent from, okay?
Where their faith was.
Their faith was on their works.
Their faith was on themselves.
Their faith was on their church or whatever.
Now you need to take that faith, all of it,
and place it all on Jesus Christ.
That is true repentance for salvation.
This is why I'm saying to you, everybody needs to repent.
Even if it's just from unbelief, okay?
You didn't believe Jesus Christ could save you.
Now you do.
Oh, I didn't believe, so I take my faith.
Now I place that on Jesus Christ.
That's repentance.
That's the change of mind that takes place.
Now, there are three places in the Bible,
and I wanna give you this information
because I want you guys to be wise.
Wise as serpents and harmless as doves, okay?
I'll get, turn to Mark chapter one, Mark chapter one,
because we know what we need to repent toward, okay?
And there are three places in the Bible
that tells us what we're repenting from.
Three places in the Bible, okay?
Now, again, the wolf, okay?
The false prophet will say to you,
well, you gotta repent from your drunkenness.
That's what they'll say.
Oh, you gotta repent from your fornication.
You've gotta repent from your lying.
You've gotta repent from your wicked thoughts, or whatever.
They're gonna, that's what the false prophet's
gonna tell you, and you just tell them,
can you please show me in the Bible
how repenting from those things get you saved?
That's what you're gonna ask them.
But I wanna show you that there are sins
and pay attention now, because this is,
I want you to be wise, don't worry about it,
that you do need to turn from, okay?
Now, Mark chapter one, verse 14, Mark chapter one, verse 14.
It says, now after that, John was put in prison.
Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel
of the kingdom of God.
Now, pay attention to this.
Jesus Christ is preaching the gospel, right?
Verse 15, and saying, the time is fulfilled,
and the kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent ye and believe the gospel.
That's the message of Jesus Christ.
Repent and believe, okay?
So, what are they repenting from?
If God, Jesus Christ is telling them,
believe the gospel, that's what you need to do.
What are they repenting from?
Not believing the gospel, right?
They didn't believe the gospel,
repent from that, now believe the gospel.
Does it say here, repent of your sins
and believe the gospel?
No, it says, repent ye.
Well, what's the context?
Believe the gospel.
Otherwise, they didn't believe the gospel prior to that.
So, they're repenting from unbelief, okay?
Repenting from unbelief.
Now, Hebrews, if you guys can turn,
actually, no, turn to Acts 17.
You guys, turn to Acts 17.
While you're turning there,
Acts 17, I'm gonna read to you from Hebrews six, verse one.
The Bible says, therefore, leaving the principles
of the doctrine of Christ, let us go unto perfection.
Talking about believers, so let's leave the basic things,
let's move on unto perfection.
Not laying again the foundation of repentance
from dead works and of faith toward God.
Repentance from dead works.
That's the second thing you need to repent from.
If you're trusting in your dead works,
those that believe that they're a good enough person,
they believe they've done the works,
the Bible says those are dead works
because they're without God.
They're like filthy rags to God.
They think they're righteous, they think they're good.
God says, no, it's just dead works.
And you need to repent from those dead works.
You need to repent from trusting in those works, okay?
Because, again, it's your faith.
Where is your faith placed?
It's not like the works, it's not saying,
stop doing the works.
It's just saying, repent from that,
place your faith on Jesus Christ, okay?
It's where your faith is at, that's what's important.
That's the second thing the Bible tells us
that we need to repent from, unbelief,
and from dead works, or from works.
Now you guys are in Acts 17, look at verse 29.
Acts 17, verse 29.
For as much then as we are the offspring of God,
we ought not to think that the Godhead
is like unto gold, or silver, or stone,
graven by art and man's device.
In the times of this ignorance God winked at,
and now commendeth that all men everywhere to repent.
Okay, they need to repent.
From what?
What we just read.
They thought God of silver, of stone,
they had false gods, they had false idols
that they worshiped.
Statues, just like the Roman Catholic Church,
they've set up their statues in their images.
Hey, that's what God expects them to repent from.
Okay, to the true God.
Verse 31.
Because he have appointed a day in the which
he would judge the world in righteousness,
by that man, referring to Jesus Christ,
whom he have ordained,
whereof he have given assurance unto all men,
in that he have raised him from the dead.
So what are they repenting from?
Their idols, their statues, their gods of gold
and images and graven by art, to who?
To the one who rose from the dead, Jesus Christ.
Okay, the judge of all men.
So what's the third thing we see here?
That you're gonna repent from your false idols
or your false religions.
Okay, false religions and put all your faith
on Jesus Christ, the true Jesus Christ of the Bible.
Now, this is where they get tricky.
This is where the false prophet,
this is where the wolf will get tricky with you.
Say, well, hold on, is unbelief a sin?
Yeah, you know, putting your faith on works,
is that a sin?
Yes, it is.
What are your faith on false religions and idols?
Is that a sin?
Yes, it is.
Okay, so you're gonna repent of your sins.
There you go.
You need to repent of your sins to be saved.
But when they say repent of your sins,
first of all, yeah, it's true, I admit,
you do have to repent from some sins,
but it's the sins of where your faith was placed, okay?
The sin of where your faith,
your faith was placed on the wrong things.
It wasn't placed on Jesus.
That's what you need to repent from.
It's your faith to Jesus Christ, okay?
But this is what they'll say.
They'll say, well, see, you do have to repent from sins,
therefore you need to turn from your drunkenness.
You need to turn from your fornication.
You need to turn from whatever,
just list all the sins,
just come up with whatever sins you want, right?
It's always the big sins, it's always the big things,
because they feel like maybe they've overcome those things,
but they don't think about all the little sins
that they have in their mind,
all the wicked thoughts that they have,
or even just the fact that they preach on false doctrine.
That's one of the worst sins you could possibly do.
I mean, that's going to damn you.
People preaching on false doctrine,
people preaching on false gospel, preaching works,
they're gonna split hell wide open.
They're gonna suck that book,
because not just themselves that they're deceiving,
but they're deceiving multitudes
into going to hell with them, okay?
And so what they want to say to you,
it's a repentance of your works.
You were once doing bad works, sins,
now you've got to do the good works.
No, the repentance is not of your works for salvation,
the repentance is of your faith.
Where was your faith at?
Now it needs to be 100% on Jesus Christ, okay?
So make sure you keep that in mind, okay?
Yes, there are some sins that you're turning from,
but those sins are the sins of faith, misplaced faith,
not of your works, okay?
It's not of works, we've already seen that last week, okay?
Now, let's talk about some false repenting
for salvation doctrines that are out there, okay?
The most popular one where we discuss this
is to turn from your sins.
They'll say, in order for you to be saved,
you must turn from your sins, and they preach this boldly.
That just drives me insane.
Turn from your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
and you know full well the man's saying
that it's full of sins.
You know full well that man has not gone a single day
without sinning once, and they're telling you,
you've got to turn from your sins, okay?
As soon as someone says that,
you know they're a false prophet, pretty much, okay?
Because it's something they haven't even done.
Now, I don't know, where should I get you to turn from?
I'll get you to turn to, just to get you guys prepared,
turn to Romans chapter three, Romans chapter three,
Romans chapter three, and I'm going to read to you
from 1 John 3, four, 1 John 3, four,
and then you say, Kevin, it sounds so good,
you're gonna repent of your sins to be saved.
I'll find out my whole life.
1 John 3, four, the Bible says,
whosoever commit of sin transgresseth also the law,
for sin is the transgression of the law.
I want this to sink in into your hearts.
I want you to understand this.
I preached about this last week.
I really want to make sure you fully understand
when someone says to you, what is sin?
Turn to 1 John 3, four, whosoever commit of sin
transgresseth also the law,
for sin is the transgression of the law.
No one debates that.
Everyone agrees that's what sin is, okay?
So think about this.
Kids, I really want the kids to pay attention now.
If sin is breaking God's laws,
and you say to someone, you need to turn from your sins,
you need to stop sinning, what are they saying?
If sin was breaking the law, but stop sinning,
what does that mean?
It means keep the law, okay?
Because if you're not sinning, what are you doing?
You're keeping the law of God.
Now this is how tricky they are.
They come behind the pulpit,
so you got to repent of your sins.
But really what they're saying, you got to keep the law.
You got to keep the 10 commandments.
You've got to keep the commandments of God,
but they won't say those words.
That's why they're so deceptive.
They won't say those words,
because they know people in the church will stand up
and say, hey, you're teaching a false gospel.
You might be a false prophet, get this right.
So instead of saying that,
instead of just saying what they truly believe,
oh, you got to repent your sins, stop sinning.
Which means without them saying it, keep the law, okay?
So we know what it means to transgress, to break God's laws.
Now it's the thing about sinning, guys,
it's not just doing wrong, okay?
We know that, sin is the transgression of the law.
I'm just going to read from James 4.17, the Bible says,
therefore to him that knoweth to do good
and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
Sin isn't just breaking God's laws and doing wrong.
Sin is when you've got something that's right to do,
something good to do, and you don't do it.
You should read your Bible every day.
You should be confessing your sins to the Lord.
You should be maintaining a close fellowship with the Lord.
You should be going to church,
but those are all good things.
But if you don't do that good thing, guess what?
You've just sinned.
You may not have done something bad,
you haven't lied or stolen or done anything like that,
but it was a chance to do good.
If you refuse to do that good, that's a sin.
There's a sin in the eyes of God, okay?
So there's two ways of understanding sins.
That's the sin of commission and the sins of omission.
The sins of commission is when you transgress the Lord God
and the sins of omission, omission means to remove something
is when there's something good
and you don't do that good thing, okay?
There's those two sins.
Now, you guys are in Romans 3.
Romans 3, verse 24.
Because honestly, think about these preachers.
You must repent of your sins.
What are they saying?
It's always the sins of commission.
They never talk about the sins of omission
when they preach that stuff, right?
Because I'm sure there are things that they could have done,
there was good things that they could have done
that they didn't do that day.
Okay, they've sinned.
They don't talk about that kind of stuff, all right?
But we know what sin is.
We know that sin is the transgression of God's law.
Romans 3, 24.
Being justified freely by his grace.
Guys, we're justified freely.
It's a free gift by his grace.
We didn't deserve it.
How?
Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
whom God have set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood.
You guys know what that word propitiation means?
It means it's all sufficient.
It's all taken care of, okay?
So God have set forth to be a propitiation.
How?
How is it all taken care of?
Through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness
for the remission of sins that are passed
through the forbearance of God.
Verse 26, to declare I say at this time his righteousness.
Whose righteousness are we declaring when we get saved?
It's his righteousness.
It's not your ability to turn from your sins.
It's not your ability to keep the law of God.
And sometimes I ask, it scares me.
I ask people that I think are saved,
you know, tell me about your testimony.
How did you get saved?
Oh, I repented on my sins.
I started to go to church when I was this much old.
I was preaching behind the pulpit when I was doing this.
I'll never forget, I knocked on the door
of a guy from the Salvation Army.
You know, and I got used to it while everyone's,
you know, trusting in their words, trusting in their words.
Finally knocking on this guy's door, he goes,
oh, it's my faith.
And I'm like, oh yeah, maybe this guy's saved.
You know, I got excited.
And I said, well, and then I asked him,
well, what's your faith on?
What are you, you know, expecting?
Say Jesus, right?
What's your faith on?
Well, I've been serving the Salvation Army for 40 years.
I was doing this, I was doing that, I was doing this.
Of course I'm saved.
It's like, oh man, are you kidding me?
Whose righteousness are you declaring?
Whose righteousness are you rejoicing in?
His own righteousness, not even the righteousness of Christ.
But look, if you don't understand this,
you're gonna think, oh, that guy's saved.
That guy's a Christian, talks about Jesus.
He talks about, no, he's trusting in his own righteousness.
Okay?
So I don't know where I went up to.
Verse 26, to declare I say at this time his righteousness,
that he might be just, and the justifier of him
which believeth in Jesus.
Where is boasting then?
That's what they're doing.
I've done this, I've done that.
I've gone to church my whole life.
I was in a choir.
I was a Sunday School teacher.
I was this.
No, verse 27, where is boasting then?
It is excluded.
By what law?
Of works?
Nay, but by the law of faith.
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith.
That's not how it finishes.
Without the deeds of the law.
So if you're telling someone you gotta turn from your sins
to be saved, what they're saying is
you've gotta keep the law.
No, without the deeds of the law.
Justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
So important, guys.
Don't take it for granted that as a church
we stand strong in these things.
Don't, because there are so many churches
that will tell you, yeah, yeah, yeah,
we believe by grace through faith
and then behind the poor faith,
oh, you gotta repent of your sins to be saved.
You know they haven't even done it themselves.
How can any man stand behind the pulpit
and say, look, I've repented of all my sins.
I'm so good.
Look at me.
No, boasting.
Okay, they're trusting their works.
And I don't know, where can I get you to turn next?
I'll get you to turn to Luke 24, 47.
Luke 24, 47.
Because there are, and as you're turning,
I'm gonna read to you from John 3, 10.
I think a lot of you guys know this one anyway.
Because people say to you, no, no, no, Kevin,
you're so confused, Kevin.
Repenting from your sins is not a work.
It's not a work, okay?
Okay, well, John 3, 10, I'll just read it to you quickly.
And God saw their works.
You guys know the story of Jonah?
He went to Nineveh, he preached judgment and damnation.
He didn't even tell them to clean up your lives.
He didn't say anything to them.
He said, look, God's gonna judge
and gonna destroy your city.
Thank God that city had enough fear of God
just going, you know what, man,
we better give this one last shot.
Let's fix ourselves up before God
so he doesn't destroy our city.
And they do, they do fix themselves up.
Even God's impressed, okay?
And then he says this, God says in verse 10.
And God saw their works
that they had turned from their evil way.
This is a good thing.
They had turned from their sins.
And God says, I saw their works.
So when someone says, I've turned from my sins,
what are they saying?
I've worked, I've done the works.
And then it says, and God repented of the evil.
And this is what's funny, it's God that repents.
God repented of the evil.
And by the way, evil does not mean sin.
Okay, we'll cover that some other point, other time.
And God repented of the evil,
which he had said that he would do unto them
and he did it not.
So it's God that repents.
God has no sin, he didn't turn from sins.
It's Nineveh that repented of their sins,
they repented of their wicked ways.
And God says that was works, he saw their works, okay?
So we need to understand the Holy Spirit
is the narrator of the Bible.
And the Holy Spirit says, repenting from your evil ways,
from your wicked ways is works.
So am I going to trust a preacher?
I don't get you to be, that says to me,
repentance of your sins is not works.
Or am I going to trust the Holy Ghost
that wrote the Bible to tell me that it's works?
That's what you have to decide on.
The Holy Ghost tells us this,
or I'm going to trust this well-known preacher
that says you got to turn from your sins.
Anyway, guys, turn to Luke, are you guys in Luke 24, 47?
Luke 24, 47?
Because I've had a pastor say this to me, Luke 24, 47,
that he should know better and he does know better.
Okay, both those things.
He should know and he does know better, okay?
He said to me, no, no, Kevin, you got it wrong.
Repenting from sins is in the Bible.
Now, first of all, if you think repenting of sins
is in the Bible, you need to show me
where it is in the Bible, okay?
And it's not in there, okay?
Nowhere in the Bible does it say
you have to repent of your sins to be saved, okay?
Nowhere.
You know where it's found?
In the Book of Mormon.
That's where it's found.
It's found in the Book of Mormon.
So if you want to be a Mormon
and think you can be saved by repenting of your sins,
well, that's, you know, get out of here.
This is not the church for you.
You know, this church believes in the Bible, okay?
And there's nowhere in the Bible
that says you have to repent of your sins.
You know, that's a shock to a lot of people.
I don't know if you ever, you know, but it's true.
But this is what I got.
No, no, here it is, Kevin, here it is.
Luke 24, 47, let's have a look at it.
And that repentance and remission of sins
should be preached in his name among all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem.
There it is.
Do you see it?
There it is, guys.
You know, the sermon was a waste after all.
There it is.
There's the repenting of your sins
that you need to do to be saved.
Now, it says, and that repentance,
and we really know what repentance means,
means to change your mind and remission of sins
should be preached in his name among all nations,
beginning at Jerusalem.
Now, the reason I wanted to bring this up is, again,
I just want to make you guys wise.
And by the way, when it says remission of sins,
our remission basically means to be released
or to be discharged, okay?
So obviously, we want to be released or discharged
from guilt of our sins,
from the punishment of our sins, right?
Now, the question is,
how do we get that remission of sins, okay?
So I want you to understand this,
because they might use this against you,
and they found the word repent,
and they found sins,
and kind of, there it is in one verse.
Okay, now you guys turn to Acts chapter 10,
Acts chapter 10, verse 43,
Acts chapter 10, verse 43.
I'm not going to turn to all the references,
just so we can speed along.
Go to Acts 10, 43.
I'm going to read to you from Matthew 26, 28.
Matthew 26, 28.
That's where I'm reading from.
You guys go to Acts 10, 43.
The Bible says in Matthew 26, 28,
Jesus speaking,
"'For this is my blood of the New Testament,
which is shed for many for the remission of sins.'"
So Jesus tells us the vehicle, right,
of how to have our sins remitted.
He goes by the blood of the New Testament,
His own blood.
Picturing the great juice
that they were about to partake in the Last Supper, okay?
So now we know what the vehicle is.
It's through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
Now you guys go to Acts 10, 43.
Acts 10, 43.
Now we know what it takes to have that shed blood
remitted upon you,
oh, sorry, applied upon you, okay?
It says there in verse 43,
"'To him give all the prophets witness,"
talking about Jesus,
"'that through his name whosoever," what?
"'believest in him shall receive remission of sins.'"
So is it repenting of your sins
that gets you,
have your sins remitted off?
No.
It's by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Why is that important?
Because his blood, right,
was the vehicle of having our sins remitted off.
That's how you explain Luke 24.
I mean, first of all, Luke 24, 47
is not even saying you gotta repent your sins, okay?
I just want to show you how easy it is
to disprove that it's not,
it's by believing on Jesus.
It's our faith on him
that has our sins forgiven or remitted,
discharged off on our account.
Now, the other thing,
the other way people get around this is they say,
they say, okay, yeah, you know what?
They admit that repenting from your sins
is not in the Bible.
They admit that.
They admit that phrase is not in the Bible.
So what they say then is,
well, repentance just means turn from your sins.
Just like that word alone,
repentance means,
I mean, just the whole thing,
means turn from your sins, okay?
So if I say to you,
I repented from drinking,
I repented from drinking oranges to water,
in their minds,
well, you must turn from sins, okay?
Because that's what the word repentance means in,
you know,
we're already proven that that can't be true
because we know God has repented more than anybody else,
okay?
But the problem with that is,
and this shows you just how foolish they are,
is that it doesn't make any grammatical sense.
Because if repentance,
that one word already meant turn from your sins,
then why do they say you have to repent of your sins?
If repentance already means turn from your sins.
Think about that logic.
Repentance already means turn from your sins.
So why do you say repenting,
repent of your sins?
So what you're saying is,
turn from your sins of your sins.
Doesn't make any grammatical sense whatsoever, right?
It's like me saying to you,
you say to me, Kevin,
what must we do to be saved?
And I say to you, believe.
And I just leave it at that.
Cause your thought,
and let's say to me,
believe that one word means believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ.
So you say, Kevin,
what must I do to be saved?
Believe, you go, believe what?
Do I believe in New Life Baptist Church?
Do I believe in you, Kevin?
Is that what I need to do to be saved?
Believe what?
Do I believe in myself?
That I'm good enough to get to heaven?
No.
Obviously, believe needs context.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because if believe already meant
on the Lord Jesus Christ,
I'd be saying,
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It wouldn't make any grammatical sense.
And so these foolish people that tell you,
repentance means turn from your sins,
then it's so stupid for them to say,
repent of your sins, right?
Do you get what I'm saying?
Repent of your sins of your sins.
Doesn't make any sense whatsoever
in any grammatical language,
in any language.
Doesn't make any sense at all.
It's crazy.
But this is what they do.
They wanna bring in their works.
They wanna bring in,
hey, you gotta be good enough to be saved.
You know, it's like,
it's so hard for man to admit,
man, now I finally realize I can't do enough.
There's nothing I can do.
There's nothing that I can bring to the table.
That's quite hard for a lot of people.
You know?
And it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I get Jesus did something for me,
but I still need,
I still need to do something.
No.
To let go, let go of it.
Place all your faith,
100%, believe with all your heart
on the Lord Jesus Christ.
That's what gets you saved.
The next thing they'll say to you is,
I'm trying to think of where to go next.
Sorry guys.
I've got a lot to get through.
Oh, they'll say, okay.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
No, no.
You don't have to actually turn from your sins.
We know nobody can really do that,
but you need to turn from habitual sins.
Right?
You need to stop being a habitual sinner.
And because in their mind,
when they sin,
oh, it's by accident.
You know?
Because the way they sin is someone that's not saved,
they sin on purpose,
but now that they're saved,
when they sin, it's just by accident.
You know, I didn't, I was so dumb.
I didn't realise I'd sinned.
I mean, it's just ridiculous.
It seems like when they got saved,
they became more stupid
because now they don't even know when they're sinning.
That's all by accident.
That's not what the Bible teaches.
The Bible teaches when we sin,
it's coming from the lust of our own heart.
Okay?
It starts here.
And then I said, we can't blame the devil.
Okay, yeah, I know that the devil's a tempter,
but it comes from our own flesh.
It comes from our own heart when we sin.
Okay?
And the next thing,
when you think of a habitual sinner,
like when you do something out of habit,
you pretty much do it every day, right?
I mean, if I,
people that drink coffee every day, right?
Someone that drinks coffee every single day,
wouldn't you say they're a habitual drinker of coffee?
Or someone that needs to smoke every day,
you'd say, oh, man, that person's a habitual smoker.
But what if they just smoked one cigarette?
Like they just needed one every day, just one.
That's still a habit.
It's a bad habit,
having to do that every single day.
Or you think of a drunkard,
someone that needs to drink alcohol every day,
you'd say, that person's a habitual drinker, wouldn't you?
The fact that they do it every day.
Now, to say you have to stop being a habitual sinner,
how in the world,
when every person sins every day of their life?
Everyone's a habitual sinner, everyone.
Even the words that say you need to stop
being a habitual sinner.
They're the worst sinners.
Okay?
Sinning every single day,
it's a habit because they've got the flesh.
The flesh is still here.
The old man, the sin nature is still here.
That's, I'm not giving you free pass.
Kevin says we can just go ahead and sin.
No, I'm just giving you the reality.
This is the reality that we sin every day of our life,
which is why we needed a savior.
That's the whole purpose for Jesus Christ
coming to shed his blood on our behalf,
because he knows we can't do it on our own.
Okay?
It cannot be done.
He had to do it for us.
The next thing I'll say is, okay, okay, yeah.
We'll realize, yep, that you can't turn from your sins,
but you must be willing to turn from your sins.
You know, you must be willing to do it.
Now, Simon, Matt, I don't work for you guys anymore, right?
But pretend, pretend like I didn't resign.
I pretend I didn't resign and I was like,
but I stopped coming to work, right?
Like I resigned, but I didn't really do it officially.
I just stopped coming to work altogether.
You guys would give me a call and say,
Kevin, what's going on?
I'm like, yeah, you know, I'm willing to go to work,
but I'm not doing it.
Would you accept that?
Would you go, well, hold on.
Kevin's at least willing to do it.
Would you still pay me every fortnight?
What if you were paying me?
I can't even pay, was it every fortnight?
Whatever.
Wait, you guys, this is stupid.
Why isn't he coming to work?
No, I'm willing to do it.
I'm willing to do it.
At least I know it.
There's no profit in you willing to do it.
You've got to be here and do the job.
All right?
I'm willing to turn from what I say.
Hey, look, who cares if you're willing to do it?
If you're not, like, yeah.
If you're going out, you know, getting drunk,
committing fornication, you know,
sleeping with prostitutes or whatever,
but I'm willing to stop.
Are you kidding me?
You get no credit for winning.
It's a good thing to will,
but it's only valuable if you do it.
And we know that nobody can truly turn
from all the sins anyway.
And people say, well, no, no,
it's the condition of my heart, Kevin.
That's what you don't get.
You know, God can see my heart.
You know, I'm trying my best.
I'm trying to stop.
But Jeremiah 17 verse nine says,
the heart is deceitful above all things
and desperately wicked.
Who can know it?
You say, my heart's good, Kevin.
I'm trying.
You can't even know it.
You don't even know your heart.
The Bible says it's desperately wicked
and it's deceitful above all things.
Is that how you want to face God on judgment day?
You know, you come to God, God,
I couldn't stop sinning,
but I was willing to.
You could see my heart.
God says, no, it's wicked.
Get out of here.
You know, I never knew you.
Apart from me, you curse
instead of lasting fire.
I don't know if I caught it that right.
But anyway, that's what God's going to say.
Because he's not looking to see
how clean your heart is.
He's looking to see whether the righteousness
of Jesus Christ has been applied to you through faith.
Okay.
And the last thing they'll say,
you know, people that get defeated after a while,
it's like, okay, okay, yeah, okay.
I realized that, you know, I can't stop sinning.
I realized that, you know, I've been willing,
so what?
But you've got to have sorrow, okay?
If you weren't, you know,
crying in sackcloth and ashes and weeping,
then you're not really saved.
I've heard that.
Like, I've heard people say this.
If you weren't crying,
bawling your eyes out about how much of a sin you are,
then you're not even saved.
Now, first of all,
I don't believe that,
people that believe this,
I don't believe they're unsaved.
I believe they're saved, okay?
Because I don't believe an emotion is a work.
An emotion is not a work, okay?
When you get saved, you feel all kinds of emotions.
You might feel sorrow, you might be genuine.
You might really feel sorry for your sins, you know?
You might feel joy.
You might feel really, you might feel relieved.
Oh, I finally understand it.
I get it now, you know?
It doesn't matter what you feel, okay?
But these people, it's like,
no, you've got to feel the sorrow.
You've got to feel the sadness.
That's how we know you're saved.
And of course, they'll turn to,
and I haven't even got this in my notes.
Oh, wait, here it is.
They'll turn to 2 Corinthians 7.
Can I get you to turn there?
2 Corinthians 7.
2 Corinthians 7, verse 9 and 10.
They'll turn to this and say,
no, no, here's the proof.
Here's the proof that you need to feel sorrow to be saved.
2 Corinthians 7.
Actually, let's just read verse 10.
2 Corinthians 7, verse 10.
The Bible says,
for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation,
not to be repented of,
but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
And if you're not wise,
you're going to be like,
oh, wow, maybe it is sorrow.
Maybe you do have to sorrow.
Look, it says there,
sorrow worketh repentance to salvation.
Amen.
Maybe I really need to,
you know, maybe I'm not saved,
and I need to cry and cry and cry
and get these things right with God.
No, that's not even what it's saying, okay?
In fact, this verse proves that sorrow is not repentance.
Why?
Look at it again.
For godly sorrow worketh repentance.
So is it saying sorrow is repentance?
No.
It's saying that in this verse here,
that sorrow brought the Corinthian church to repentance.
By the way, it's the Corinthian church.
They're saved, okay?
Read 1 Corinthians, chapter, verse one,
and you'll see sort of the way
they're called the saints of God, okay?
Now, it says here that one thing brought to another.
If you know the story of the Corinthian church,
if you read 1 Corinthians,
you'll know this church was really messed up.
This church had a lot of problems.
They had a great sinner in the church.
They were divided.
They had their favorite preachers.
They were fighting over doctrine.
They weren't even taking the Lord's Supper together.
I mean, major problems.
And Paul has to correct them,
rebuke them sharply in the first letter.
And then the second letter, 2 Corinthians,
he says, man, he says, if you read it in the chapter,
he goes, I must repent it for writing what I wrote,
but I don't repent, he says.
He goes, look, it caused you to have godly sorrow.
It caused you to repent to salvation.
What was being said when you read this context
is that church, it's not about the salvation of their soul.
It's about being saved from being a destroyed church
because they had so much sin.
But notice that sorrow, that work of repentance.
So it's not the same thing.
One thing led to the other, okay?
So I'm just gonna quickly read to you
from Romans 5, verse three.
I'm gonna read to you very quickly this.
The Bible says, just to show you somewhere else
in the Bible where it says this,
And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also.
Now pay attention to this.
Knowing that tribulation worketh patience,
and patience experience, and experience hope.
Patience those words.
You know, tribulation worketh patience.
Is the Bible saying that patience is tribulation?
You know that's ridiculous.
No, tribulation is persecution from the world,
and patience has just been long suffering.
But the Bible's teaching that if you go
from persecution to tribulation,
it's going to work patience.
You're gonna be a more patient person.
And then it says patience experience.
So once you have patience, you're going to learn experience
and experience hope.
Once you have experience,
you have a greater hope in the Lord, okay?
One thing leads to another.
But is tribulation patience?
No.
Is patience experience?
No.
Is experience hope?
No.
One thing leads to another.
The worketh is one thing to another.
So Godly sorrow is not repentance.
But in this case, yeah,
Godly sorrow can lead a church to repent
to fix things up in their own church.
So it's amazing because I feel like
the people that teach this stuff,
it's almost like they've gone down this charismatic road.
Have you ever talked to Pentecostals
and about their salvation?
They'll often talk about their salvation experience.
They'll be like, oh no, I know I'm saved
because I had this experience.
And they're talking about some emotional high.
Some emotional experience.
Now I know I'm saved.
It's like, now Baptist are doing that.
Now you gotta cry and sorrow.
And now you know you're saved.
It's not about your feelings, okay?
Because your feelings come and go.
Sometimes you're not even excited about your own salvation.
Your feelings come and go.
And when you're not excited about salvation,
when you start to lose interest in the Bible,
you stop coming to church.
If you think salvation is based on how you feel,
you're gonna get to a point where you're like,
man, I don't know if I'm saved anymore.
Why?
Because you're not basing your salvation
anymore on the Lord Jesus Christ.
You're basing it on you.
You're looking at yourself.
You know, am I feeling right?
Am I doing the right works?
Am I doing the, hey, salvation's not about you.
It's about Jesus Christ, okay?
And as soon as, and that's the big problem.
Even though, I'm not saying these people
that teach this are unsafe,
because they're not adding works to the gospel,
but what they do is add a lot of doubt to the church, okay?
Because again, people are gonna be like,
man, did I repent?
Did I sorrow enough?
Was I really sad enough for my sins?
Was I sad enough for all my sins?
You know, was it genuine?
I don't know.
Was I real about it?
Did I cry?
Maybe I didn't cry.
Now I need to get saved again.
I need to go into God crying about it.
Oh, see how it adds doubt and confusion
when you start basing your salvation on your feelings.
It's just crazy.
I'm surprised independent bachelors even teach this stuff.
But it's happening.
It's happening.
Now again, why is it serpents, guys?
Harmless as doves, okay?
Wise, be wise.
Just because someone says you have to repent
of your sins does not mean
they're an unsaved wolf in sheep's clothing, okay?
A lot of people that I've met in my life
say this phrase, say these words,
and they don't even know what they mean by that word, okay?
Now I remember in one of my previous churches,
there was a guy that preached against
repenting your sins for salvation.
Praise God, you know?
He preached the truth.
He preached the Bible.
But then one of the deacons,
later on he caused some discussion,
and one of the deacons says,
well, of course you have to repent of your sins.
Like he was critical about the sermon.
He goes, of course you have to repent of your sins.
And I said to him, well,
what sins do you have to repent of?
And he said to me,
well, you gotta repent from the sins that you know about.
And I'm like, well,
what about the sins that you don't know about, you know?
Because I mean, if you've been saved later in life,
you probably don't even know all the sins that you've done
until you started reading the Bible.
Until you started to go, well, what?
I mean, I remember when my wife got saved,
she was like starting to read the Bible,
and she was like, wow, my life is like full of sin.
She didn't even realize what she was doing was sinful, right?
And I said to him, well, okay,
so are you saying that, you know,
let's say you got two people,
this one, you know, they both live with their girlfriend,
they're both committed fornication,
but one knows it's a sin,
and the other one doesn't know it's a sin.
Because here's the thing,
most people in this world
just don't even realize that's a sin.
They don't realize fornication is a sin.
It's so widely accepted by the society,
they don't even think there's anything wrong with it, right?
So are you saying the one that knows it's a sin,
he has to turn from it,
but the one that doesn't know it's a sin,
he doesn't have to turn from it?
I mean, is salvation now just
on your own personal knowledge of sin?
Because no, no, actually, that's not what I mean.
What I mean is that you have to repent in sins,
you have to admit that you're a sinner in the sight of God.
You know, you need to admit that he's a holy God,
he's a righteous God,
and that you're not good enough,
that you're a sinner in his sight,
and you're deserving of help.
And I'm like, yeah, I agree with that.
I don't agree that's what repenting of your sins means,
but I agree with you that someone else realized at first
to understand that you have a need for a savior.
But do you realize now this man, he was saved,
but he's using a phrase that he thinks is in the Bible,
because he's heard it preached behind the boardwalk,
but he knows nobody can truly turn from their sins.
He knows that.
But the way he used it was wrong,
but he wasn't actually teaching a workspace gospel.
He just had a wrong definition
for what it means to repent in your sins, okay?
So be mindful, like, you know, someone says you've got to,
you know, when you knock on someone's door
or you talk to a fellow Christian and so forth,
and they say you have to repent of your sins,
don't jump down their throat and try to destroy them.
That person might well be saved,
you just need to help clarify some definition of terms, okay?
Be mindful about that.
Don't just automatically jump down
and think that some wolf in sheep's clothing.
You know, I remember, I'll just give you another example.
There's these really popular tracts,
they're called stock tracts.
They're from a Baptist pastor in Australia,
he's putting together.
And I kind of like the tracts,
because the tracts have like little images, diagrams,
and it helps try, like, it really does help explain
what it means to be forgiven, you know, by Jesus Christ.
But on the tract, the big problem with the tract
is it asks the question in one place saying,
are you, and I don't, I'm not,
I might be phrasing this wrong,
I mean, it says something like,
are you willing to turn from your sins, all right,
on the tract?
Now, obviously we don't believe you have to do that
to be saved, but anyway,
the pastor that put this tract together
has a video series on YouTube,
teaching how to use his tracts to go soul with him, right?
And as he's going through the video,
explaining how to use his tracts,
how to go, you know, from, you know,
from the beginning to the end,
he gets to that point where it says, you know,
are you willing to turn from your sins?
And in the video, he says,
but of course we know that nobody can truly turn
from all their sins.
It's like, what?
So he knows the truth.
He knows nobody can turn from their sins.
He knows it's impossible.
Then why are you putting it in the gospel tract?
And I've told you, I told you before,
this is why they don't, this is why they do it.
Because they know that churches are filled with people
that know the truth, salvation by grace with faith,
and the other half, that's by works, by repenting sins.
In order to maintain, making everybody happy,
he's still gonna put that in his tracts,
even though he himself knows it's impossibility.
You're asking the sinner to do something.
He knows it's impossible.
It's crazy.
This is why this needs to be preached on.
We need to make the gospel crystal clear, guys, you know?
And I hope I'm helping you understand this
in a little bit more detail as well.
Let me just think if I've got another thing to get through.
Okay, just one more thing I wanna talk about before I,
I do have some other notes, but I'll wrap it up here,
is again, be wise, be wise, okay?
You might go to a church, you might go to a church,
and I've heard this in the last sort of five years, roughly.
I never heard it growing up.
I never heard this 10 years ago,
but what in the last five, six, seven years,
I've started to hear people say, preachers,
saying behind the poor, but repentance is,
and you think, all right,
they're going to explain what repentance is.
We're gonna see if it's their true gospel,
or we're going to find out if it's a false prophet.
We're gonna find out, right?
Repentance is a change of mind.
You're like, yeah, okay.
Change of mind that leads to a change of heart
that leads to a change of action.
I don't know how you feel about that.
If I stood behind you, if I just said that to you,
that's what repentance is,
a change of mind that leads to a change of heart
that leads to a change of action.
Now, you might go, that works, Kevin.
Well, hold on.
There's nothing wrong with that, okay?
Give me a second, all right?
There's nothing wrong with that definition whatsoever.
The problem with it, this is the problem with it,
is that it contains zero information.
The preacher doesn't tell you what the change of mind is,
he doesn't tell you what the change of heart is,
and he doesn't tell you what the change of action is.
And then this is the problem.
Again, you've got the churches that believe in works,
some of them, and then others in the congregation
that believe it's by faith alone.
And both people can agree to that.
Why?
People that believe like us, a change of mind,
oh yeah, my words can't save me,
my false religion can't save me,
which leads to a change of heart.
Oh man, I need to humble myself before God
because he's a holy God, and I'm a sinner,
and I need a savior.
Change of action, I'm going to receive Jesus Christ.
Because believe, believe is a verb, it's an action.
I'm going to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm going to call upon the name of the Lord and be saved.
So you can see how that terminology
can fit even salvation by grace through faith.
But then the ones that believe by works,
keeping the law, repenting of your sins,
will be like, yeah, change of mind.
You're a sinner, and that leads to a change of heart.
You're now broken down, and you realize God's holy,
and I'm a sinner, which leads to a change of action.
I'm going to start keeping the law of God.
That's what's happening, guys.
Preachers behind the pulpit are afraid to be honest,
afraid to be true, afraid to say what they truly believe,
because they're afraid the church is going to split.
They're afraid the church is going to cause problems.
Let's just try to keep the peace.
I don't care if they're unsaid, it's crazy.
They should care.
They should just preach the truth, okay?
And if people get upset, that's a good thing,
because now you know they believe in a false gospel.
You know they believe in a workspace gospel.
Hey, preach the gospel to them so they can get saved,
because if you keep it so vague and open,
anybody can make that mean whatever they want.
I'm sure if I gave you enough time,
with that definition of repentance,
you can come up with anything.
That can mean anything, anything.
All right, guys, just in conclusion, just in conclusion,
I want to just, because I've had accusations made about me,
about this doctrine, that I've changed my view on it.
I no longer teach what I used to believe,
or I no longer teach what my previous churches
used to believe.
That is a lie.
I believe exactly like my previous churches.
I got saved when I was four years old,
and then when I was about 20,
I went to my first independent fundamental Baptist church.
They're called Southland Baptist Church now.
They used to be called Bethany Baptist Church
back then when I was there, okay?
And that's where I got baptized.
And of course, when you get baptized, what are you saying?
You're identifying with the gospel
that's being preached in that church, aren't you?
Are you not?
Okay, the gospel of the death,
burial, and resurrection of Christ?
That's where I got baptized.
That's the gospel, that's the church,
the gospel that I was in agreement with,
and that's where I got baptized.
Now, let me read to you
from that church's statement of faith.
That's what it says.
We believe that the blessings of salvation
are made free to all without obligation for payment,
that salvation is not earned or merited
in part or in whole by works,
rites, or rituals,
that it is the immediate duty of all
to accept salvation,
now look at this,
by repentance, we talk about repentance,
by repentance of any trust in self or works
to merit God's forgiveness,
and to trust wholly and solely
in the blood of Jesus Christ as the payment
and full provision for the forgiveness of sins.
So how do they define repentance?
A repentance from trust in your own works,
your own self, right?
That's what we were talking about, right?
Where your faith was,
now your faith is on the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
Now, not only that,
but at the back of this church,
they had a booklet.
It was called,
I can't remember what it was called,
but it's on our website.
If you go to our website,
you go to heaven,
oh, that's what it's called,
what about repentance?
That's what the booklet was called.
And I got permission from the writer
to put it on our website,
which slightly edited a few things
to some little mistakes that were on there.
But this is what it says in that booklet,
written by the pastor who baptized me, okay?
I want you to understand this,
this isn't just me coming up with my own ideas
or me following some online preacher.
No, this is the church that I was baptizing.
In the booklet, it said,
we should not therefore be calling upon people
to repent of their sins in order to be saved.
This is unscriptural and confusing for the sinner.
Christians should be commanded to work and to do works,
make for repentance.
So something Christians ought to do,
turn from their sins,
but to command a sinner to do this for salvation
under grace is called another gospel.
That was the position of the church that I was at.
I've not changed.
No, I've not changed on that.
Now, if the other churches have changed, that's different.
Maybe they've changed, but I've certainly not changed.
I'm in full agreement with that.
Anybody preaching you gotta repent of your sins
for salvation is preaching another gospel,
another gospel, a gospel by works.
And I didn't get to print out victory Baptist church,
but basically the church I was in for nine years,
I was there preaching every month.
I was a Sunday school superintendent.
If you look at the statement of faith on salvation,
basically saying the same thing.
Salvation should not be earned or merited by works
or personal merit.
It says something like solely relying on your faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, something like that.
You guys can look it up if you want.
I've not changed.
And of course the church in Punchbowl,
a lot of you guys are from there originally.
You guys know the stance on repentance
in that church as well.
That repentance is where your faith was placed,
needs to be placed in the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's not a repenting from your sins for salvation.
So look, I've had that accusation in front of me.
You've changed.
No, a lot of other people are changing.
And that's why it's so important that we have a church
that stands true on this doctrine.
When we go and knock doors, we teach the right doctrine.
A lot of people say, yeah, I believe in Jesus.
Then you ask them, how do you receive salvation?
I don't repent of my sins.
Please be smart, be wise.
I understand that a lot of people
that are so-called Christians are not saved.
They're still trusting, still boasting in themselves,
still boasting in their good works.
And now before I conclude,
do I believe you have to repent of your sins as a believer?
Yes.
Do I believe you should be willing to do it?
Yes.
Do I believe you should have sorrow when you sin?
Yes.
As a believer, not for salvation,
but to clean your life up, to be holy,
to be blameless before God,
to maintain a good fellowship with the Lord.
And when you sin, what do you do?
You go to the Lord and confess those sins to him,
not for salvation.
You do it to maintain a good fellowship with the Lord,
abiding in him so he can be blessed in your life.
He can be helping you be more like the Lord Jesus Christ,
help you develop until at least until you get to heaven
where you don't have to worry
about this sinful flesh anymore.
Okay, let's pray.