Hello everybody, it's HoosterTol23 back with another video.
I want to do a quick sound check to make sure that the sound is working first before I get
into this.
All right, so the sound is working.
Anyway, so in this video I'm going to be talking about a single word, and that is the word
repentance, and define what that means using these scriptures.
There's a lot of confusion about the word repent or repentance because there's a lot
of heretics out there who will twist the biblical command to repent to add unto salvation.
While the Bible clearly tells us believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved,
there's some people out there who claim that faith in Jesus Christ is not enough to save
you.
Some say that we also have to repent of our sins in order to be saved.
And most people when they say repent of your sins mean turn from your sins, give up your
sins, change your life for the better, give yourself to God, forsake your old ways, etc.
Billy Graham was a popular preacher who preached this.
He defined repentance as renouncing your sins to now obey God.
Now there's many other false teachers out there who teach repentance from sins as well
as a requirement for salvation.
Ray Comfort is one who is well known for his online videos and television programs, mainly
focuses on things like arguing against atheism and supporting creationism.
But he also is somebody who constantly tells people you've got to repent of your sins.
And his buddy Kirk Cameron teaches the same thing.
And there's even a lot of Baptist teachers out there who have begun to teach this heresy
as well and claim that repentance from sin is an additional thing that you need to do,
that you also need to give up your sins alongside placing your trust in Christ.
Now there's actually some people who will erroneously use the phrase repent of your
sins simply because it's popular because there's a lot of preachers out there who use that
term and they might not really know what it means.
I've heard people use the phrase to just mean change your mind about your sins or to acknowledge
that you're a sinner.
For example, independent fundamental Baptists of the past like Jack Hyles and John R. Rice
threw out the term meaning that, but they did not mean what the modern evangelicals
and works salvationists mean when they say that.
I've heard my own pastor while in the same sermon saying it's all by faith and you can't
reform your life or turn over newly to be saved, I've heard him use that term as well
to mean just changing your mind about your sin.
So I'm not talking about the minority who understand that repentance is just a change
of mind.
And since the phrase is so popular, they just get mixed up in using it since it's just used
by so many people and they learn it from Bible colleges and things like that, thinking it
means something different from what it really means.
But in this video, I'm preaching against those heretics who claim that we need to actually
turn from our sins in order to be saved, that there needs to be a change in our behavior.
Some will say repentance is a change of the mind that results in a change of behavior.
Some will say repentance is being willing to turn from your sins, to give up your sins.
But none of these definitions are correct.
I'm going to prove this simply by using the Bible and what the Bible says, not what logins
say, which is usually where these people get it from, but what the Bible says, that teaching
that you need to repent of your sins to be saved is a false gospel and heresy.
Now, I know that people will already start angrily typing out verses saying that you
need to repent because there are certain verses out there which do use the word repent.
And for some reason, whenever you ask somebody, tell me a verse in the Bible where it says
you have to repent of your sins.
These are the verses that they use statements by Jesus and the apostles to repent for salvation,
such as the following Matthew chapter four, verse 17.
From that time, Jesus began to preach it to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at
hand.
Now, that's just one example where Jesus commands people to repent.
And this is the message which Jesus preached.
And therefore, we, of course, need to take heed unto it.
I agree.
OK, I agree that we do need to repent.
Other examples include the following Mark chapter one, verse 15, and saying the time
is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent ye and believe the gospel.
Luke 13, verse three says, I tell you, nay, but except ye repent shall all likewise perish.
Acts 3 19 says, repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out
when the times of refreshing shall come for the presence of the Lord.
Acts 17, verse 30, and the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men
everywhere to repent.
Second Peter 3 9, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise that some men count slackness,
but as long suffering to us were not willing that any should perish, but that all should
come to repentance.
Now, all of these verses are great, and I believe them all.
I believe that one does need to repent in order to be saved, because that's what the
scriptures clearly show us.
They show us that if we do not repent, they shall perish, as Jesus said in Luke 13 and
is also implied by Second Peter 3 9, that the opposite of perishing is coming to repentance.
So God commands us to repent.
We need to do so in order to be converted.
That is true.
But the problem is how people are defining that word.
All of the verses I just read simply say the word repent.
It says in Mark 1 15, repent ye and believe the gospel.
Luke 13 three, except ye repent ye shall likewise perish.
Acts 3 19, repent ye therefore.
Acts 17 30, I commandeth all men everywhere to repent, and Second Peter 3 9, all should
come to repentance.
But what not a single one of those verses does say is repent of your sins or anything
of the sort.
Repent from your sins or anything like that, okay?
Usually if you inquire to somebody where the Bible says that you have to repent of your
sins in order to be saved, these are the verses that they go to.
But every single one of the verses that I just read that they go to simply say repent
and never say repent of your sins.
It's like they just mentally add on the phrase of your sins or from your sins on the end
of the word repent, but it's not there.
But the simple reason why they can't show you a verse that says repent of your sins
is because there's no such phrase in the Bible.
It doesn't exist.
You can't find it anywhere.
The term repent of your sins or repentance of sins or repent from your sins or repent
of thy sins or anything like that is completely absent from the scriptures.
And yet how many people out there do you hear who get up and say the Bible says you need
to repent of your sins?
That's exactly what Billy Graham taught.
You can find old clips of him in his crusade saying the Bible says you need to repent of
your sins.
No, the Bible does not say that.
It says that you have to repent, but what repentance is is defined by what the Bible
says.
You can't just add your own definition into it.
You can't just say, well, I think this means you're repenting of your sins.
Well, that's not what it is, okay?
So some might immediately apply the of your sins onto the word repent because they just
assume that this is what the word repent automatically means.
And therefore these heretics define the word repentance as turning from your sins.
Now first of all, if that is true, why do they say repent of your sins?
If repent automatically means to turn from your sins, then what they're saying is turn
from your sins from your sins, which doesn't make any sense.
But another problem with the definition is that they will not find it anywhere in the
Bible.
Again, if you actually search the scriptures, the plain definition for repent is simply
to turn or to change your mind.
Now again, what this turning, what you were turning from should be defined by the context
by what the Bible says, not what you personally want to think it is.
For example, in Exodus chapter 13 verse 17, it says, and it came to pass when Pharaoh
had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines,
although that was near.
For God said, less peradventure, the people repent when they see war and they returned
to Egypt.
Now in this case, the repentance going on is not a good thing because the Lord had just
brought them out of the land of Egypt and is trying to bring them into the land of Canaan.
Here he talks about the Israelites being afraid of the Philistines and repenting and returning
to Egypt.
Oh, in this sense, repentance is a physical thing where they're actually changing their
direction where they're going to Canaan and turn back to Egypt.
But in no way is this talking about turning or forsaking your sins.
Rather, it's the opposite.
It's turning away from the will of God and his promises to go into the land that he just
rescued them from, okay?
Now another fact which proves that the word repent does not automatically mean turning
from sin is that God repents in the Bible more than anybody else.
Over 30 times the Bible talks about the Lord repenting.
For example, Exodus 30 verse 14, and the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do
unto his people.
This is after the people of Israel had made the golden calf and the Lord had threatened
to destroy the people of Israel for their sins, but Moses had interceded for them.
And here it tells us that the Lord repented.
What it means is that he changed his mind because if it were true that repent just automatically
means turning from sin, that would create a big problem because the Bible tells us that
God is without sin in many places such as Deuteronomy 32, where it says he's without
iniquity or 1 John 3, 5 where it says, in him is no sin, et cetera.
There's plenty of other places in the Bible which show us that God is just, he is holy,
he is righteous, he is without sin, without iniquity, okay?
So if the Lord repented, what does that mean?
It just means that he changed his mind about the evil he thought to do to Israel before
he was going to destroy them, now he's not.
That's the repentance there.
It doesn't just automatically mean turn from your sins.
In fact, the first time repent is used in the Bible is in Genesis chapter 6 where it
talks about God repenting because he sees the wickedness of man before he brings the
flood and he changed his mind about the fact that he had made man.
So now he's going to start over and destroy them all with the flood, okay?
The very first time the word repentance is used, it's the Lord repenting.
That should show you something.
So he wasn't forsaking sin, just making a change or a turn in general.
Here are some other examples of where the scriptures tell us clearly that God repents.
Deuteronomy 32 verse 36, for the Lord shall judge his people and repent himself for his
servants when he seeth that their power is gone and there is none shut up or left.
First Samuel 15 verse 35, and Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death.
Nevertheless, Samuel mourned for Saul and the Lord repented that he had made Saul the
king over Israel, okay?
So this last one in 1 Samuel 15 is right before the Lord made the decision to choose another
king, okay?
And then he sends Samuel in the next chapter to choose David as the next king of Israel.
What it's saying therefore is that he changed his mind about Saul, not that he turned from
his sins because he doesn't have any sins, he's God.
This one, Jeremiah 18, 10, also shows us a reference to turning from good instead of
turning from sin.
Jeremiah 18 verse 10, if it do evil in my sight and obey not my voice, then I will repent
of the good wherewith I said I would benefit them.
For the Lord says that if they continue in their sins, he'll repent of good that he was
going unto them.
Again, if repent just automatically means turning from sin, then this statement would
be turn from sin of the good, which makes absolutely no sense, okay?
So what it means is that God is going to turn or change his mind and not do good unto Israel.
He's not going to give those blessings unto them.
Here's another verse.
Amos 7, 3, the Lord repented for this, it shall not be saith the Lord.
Amos 7, 6, the Lord repented for this, this also shall not be saith the Lord God.
And finally, this last one, which completely destroys the false doctrine that we have to
turn from our sins in order to be saved in two different ways, and that would be Jonah
chapter 3 verse 10.
It says in God saw their works 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.
Now, of course, this is another example of God repenting, showing again that the word
repent does not mean turn from sin, but just turning in general because God does not have
any sin.
Secondly, the Bible identifies in this verse that turning from your evil ways is works.
God saw their works that they turn from the evil ways, it says.
So in the eyes of God, when you put in the effort of getting sin out of your life, of
no longer doing evil, of changing your evil ways, turning from sin, in his eyes, those
are works.
And that should make reasonable sense considering the fact that work simply means effort.
One cannot simply get the sin out of their life and start serving God immediately.
It takes effort, it's work, and yet the New Testament repeats over and over again that
we are not saved by works, but by faith alone.
It says in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 to 9, for by grace are you saved through faith,
in that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should
boast.
So how are we saved?
By grace through faith.
But as it says in verse 9, not of works.
So are we saved from turning from our sins, or are we saved by turning from our sins?
I mean, because according to Jonah 3 10, doing so, turning from your evil ways, is a work,
and according to the Bible, we are not saved by works, but by faith in Christ.
It's written again in Titus 3 5, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according
to his mercy he saved us by the washing and regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.
And then 2 Timothy 1 9, who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began.
Okay, we're not saved by works, because that over and over again, the Bible makes it clear,
no works of righteousness, no works of the law that we can do can get us to heaven.
If you think that you need to have repentance from sin in order to be justified and saved,
then you're adding to salvation.
You are trusting in your works and you are not trusting in Jesus Christ.
The scriptures repeat over and over again that salvation is by believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ.
It's written in Acts 16 verse 30 to 31, and he brought them out and said, sir, what must
I do to be saved?
And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house.
He did not say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and repent of your sins and thou shalt
be saved.
He did not say, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou might be saved, depending
on whether or not you're willing to turn from your sins.
No, there's only one thing that you need to do in order to be saved, and that is believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
There's certainty.
If you have trusted in Christ, you're saved, period.
There's no works, no personal effort involved.
It's just believing in the heart on Christ unto righteousness.
The Bible teaches, Jesus said in John 3 16, God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
The word whosoever means anybody who does so, anybody who believes on Christ, according
to the mouth of Jesus Christ himself is not going to perish but have everlasting life.
If this excluded people who did not repent of their sins, then this statement would not
be true.
If you had to do anything besides believe in Christ, then this statement would not be
true.
But it is true and repeated all throughout the New Testament.
John 3 36 says, he that believeth on the son hath everlasting life.
He that believeth not the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
If you believe on the son from that moment, you have everlasting life.
It's not you start getting the sin out of your life and then you're given everlasting
life.
No, you believe you have everlasting life, meaning you will never perish.
You have eternal life, you're saved.
It's present tense.
Jesus said in John 5 24, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and
believeth in him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation,
but is passed from death unto life.
In John 6 47, verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
So in order to be saved, in order to have everlasting life, in order to be justified,
the Bible tells us over and over again that we need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
not do works.
Our works have nothing to do with our salvation.
The Bible says to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justified the ungodly.
His faith is kind of for righteousness.
It has fully to do with what we're trusting in, okay?
Those who think that they're saved because they're repentant of their sins are not trusting
in Christ.
They're trusting in themselves.
They're trusting in their own works.
They're like Israel of whom Paul wrote in Romans chapter 10 verse three, that they were
seeking to establish their own righteousness and have not submitted themselves onto the
righteousness of God.
That is that they were trying to be righteous in the sight of God based on their own obedience
to the works of the law.
One might say repentance from sins isn't the work of the law.
Well, yes it is because the Bible defines sin as a transgression of the law in 1 John
3.4, whosoever committed sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression
of the law.
When God commands something that's contained within the law of God, okay, whenever we look
at the commandments given in the Bible and you break that law, that is sinning.
That's what sin is.
Sin's not some magical thing.
It's just behavior.
It's when you disobey God and what he's commanded.
So again, if you cross over the line which God has set, you fringe upon his commandments,
which is the definition of transgression, that is sin.
Now these people out there who claim that you have to repent of your sins in order to
be saved, they define such as turning from or forsaking your sins.
What they're saying is instead of disobeying the law, which is sin, you have to start living
for God and start obeying his commandments.
That's what the opposite of sin is, obedience.
If you're not sinning, if you've forsaken your sins, if you've given up your sins, if
you've turned from your sins, then you're in obedience to the commandments of God.
It's simple.
And the scriptures define obedience to the commandments of God as the works of the law.
In Galatians chapter 3 verse 10, for as many as thereof the works of the law are under
the curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are
written in the book of the law to do them.
So according to the scripture, those who are of the works of the law are cursed and
then it defines why.
Because if you do not completely obey every single thing that is written in the book of
the law, you're cursed.
And therefore, since everybody is a sinner, as the Bible repeatedly declares, Ecclesiastes
7.20, Romans 3.10 and 18, Romans 3.23, 1 John 1.8, et cetera, then because they are sinners,
they all come short of the standard which God has set.
So the works of the law is defined in Galatians 3.10 as anything that is written within the
book of the law.
If you think that you need to repent of your sins, if you think that you need to stop disobeying
the law and start obeying it, which is forsaking sins, which according to the scriptures, that
is the works of the law.
That is work and you cannot be saved by works.
The Bible says in Galatians 2.16, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of
the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ that
we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, for by the
works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
Romans 3.28, therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds
of the law.
Romans 4.5-8, but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness, even as David also described with the blessedness
of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.
How are we saved?
By the work of the law?
By the deeds of the law?
No, absolutely not.
By faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
The moment that we trust in him, we are given everlasting life, we are justified and that
is it.
You do not need to repent of your sins, you do not need to change your behavior because
that is impossible.
The Bible says if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in
us in 1 John 1.8.
That's written to believers, to saved people, telling them if you claim that you are without
sin, you're lying to yourselves.
It's simply not true.
That's why we need a savior in the first place because without salvation by grace through
faith, all would come short of the glory of God.
We need to either live in perfect obedience, which is impossible, or believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ.
So that's how we're saved, through faith, not works, not works of the law, not turning
from your evil ways, which is works.
It's complete false doctrine to claim that you need to repent of your sins in order to
be saved, okay?
So let's recap what we've gone over so far.
The Bible tells us that we do need to repent and says that if we don't, we shall perish.
Yet we know this does not mean we need to turn from our sins because firstly, God repents
in the Bible and others repent rather from good than from sin.
And because turning from your sin is doing the works of the law, while the Bible tells
us that we're not saved by works or the works of the law, period, but only by faith.
So then what is repentance?
What does repentance actually mean according to the Bible?
If we do not need to repent of our sins as laid out so clearly in the Bible, then what
do we need to repent of?
Well, the Bible tells us that clearly as well in Hebrews chapter six, verse one, therefore
leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying
again the foundation of repentance from dead works and a faith toward God.
So here it explains what we're turning from and what we're turning to.
We turn from dead works and turn to faith in God.
So repentance as shown by the examples that I've given already means just a change of
mind or turning in general.
Turning from trusting in one thing to trusting in another in this sense, instead of relying
on dead works to get you saved, your faith is in God.
That's what biblical repentance for salvation is.
That's what you need to repent of, not turning from your sins, but of our lack of trust in
God to save us to believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
So those who say that we must repent of our sins in order to be saved, they need to repent
of their repentance because their definition of repentance is work salvation.
So according to the Bible, the foundation of our faith is repentance from dead works,
meaning works that don't produce anything, works that are unprofitable because one who
is not born again, they can do all the works that they want to, but they mean absolutely
nothing before the Lord.
All of their righteousnesses are filthy rags.
The Bible says without faith it is impossible to please God in Hebrews 11.
In order to be saved, one must stop trusting in everything else, whether it's a different
savior or a different God or their own righteousness, their own works and turn to Christ and believe
on him instead.
That's biblical repentance for salvation.
That is the repentance which saves, not turning from sins.
In fact, Paul explained exactly what it was that John preached when he preached repentance
in Acts chapter 19 verse three to four.
It says, and he said unto them, unto what then were ye baptized?
And they said unto John's baptism.
Then said Paul, John verily 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 Jesus.
So that is what John the Baptist preached.
It says that what he taught was the baptism of repentance and that which he preached unto
the people is that they should believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Was John teaching that you need to repent of your sins?
No, the Bible doesn't say that anywhere.
He taught to believe on the one which should come thereafter.
That's what repentance is.
Again, when you turn from trusting in one thing to believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Another clear statement which shows what repentance is is the following in Acts chapter 20 verse
21, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith
toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
First it says repentance toward God and then defines this more specifically as faith toward
the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now the repent of your sins heretics out there say, well, we believe that you repent from
sin toward God, which makes absolutely no sense because as already explained, repentance
is a turning or a change of the mind.
You can't turn from sin to God because they're not even the same type of thing.
You can turn from sin to righteousness, which we'll talk about that a little bit later,
or transgressing the law to disobeying the law, as I explained earlier, or you can turn
from idols to God.
You can turn from trusting in yourself to trusting in God.
And that's exactly what is said here in Acts 20 because oftentimes the Bible will have
two phrases, the latter of which will be a restating of the first.
For example, the Bible often says God and our father.
Now we know that God and the father are equivalent.
We know that the father is God.
So we shouldn't let the word and that is thrown in the middle there just throw us off.
Okay.
So likewise in this verse, this is in the other verses we've seen so far, repentance
toward God simply means faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ as shown in Hebrews 6.1, which
we read earlier that repentance is from dead works.
So that's what we're turning from.
And the faith is in God, which is Jesus Christ in this case, Jesus is God.
Okay.
We turn from trusting in our dead works to trusting rather in Christ.
That's repentance.
One of the verses which we looked at the beginning of this video demonstrates this as well.
If you actually pay attention to what it says and compare spiritual with spiritual.
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 for the presence of the Lord.
Now if you get the context, this was being preached by Peter and he preached that you
need to repent and be converted, which also means to change or to turn like the word repentance
and that the reason you are called to do so is that your sins may be blotted out.
So this is exactly one of the proof verses which these false repent of your sin heretics
will use to defend their position.
They say if you don't repent of your sins, your sins are not going to be forgiven, which
of course is ridiculous because as I've already explained earlier, you don't have to repent
of your sins and never be saved.
And also by the simple fact that it does not say repent of your sins, it just says repent.
They're adding that phrase in, they're adding to the word of God.
But also if we compare spiritual with spiritual, if we go a few chapters later in Acts chapter
10 verse 43, it says to him, give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever
believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
Now this is also Peter preaching here and of course also in the word of God and here
the message is simply whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
Now as I pointed out earlier, if this means that you need to do something else besides
believing in his name, because it says whosoever, if you need to do something else besides believing
in his name, then the statement would not be true.
The word whosoever means anybody who does this.
So anybody who believes according to Acts 10 43, their sins are remitted.
So if I've trusted in Christ, my sins are forgiven.
They're gone for me.
That's what the Bible says.
And yet back in Acts chapter three, the same book, the same author, the same preacher who
is preaching this, the same God who inspired it said that you need to repent to have your
sins blotted out.
Well then, as we've already seen, repentance is simply the act of changing your mind to
believe in Christ.
That's the only way these two scriptures would make sense when compared with each other.
If one meant you need to turn from your sins, then it would contradict Acts 10 43.
Now Jesus also taught that this is repentance, repentances within the gospels in Matthew
chapter 21 verse 32 where it is written, for John came unto you in the way of righteousness
and ye believed him not, but the publicans and the harlots believed him.
And ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward that ye might believe him.
First Jesus says unto the Jews, ye did not believe John at first.
Then he said, the sinners, the publicans and the harlots, they did believe him.
And then afterward ye did not repent that ye might believe him.
So what's repentance?
It's associated with faith.
He's telling the Pharisees you did not change your mind after seeing that there were others
who believe.
You did not turn so that you would believe him.
That is what repentance is.
It's not forsaking the sins in your life.
It's turning to faith in Jesus Christ.
Jesus preached in Mark 1 15, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent ye and believe the gospel.
So again, another verse which those who put a big deal on repentance often use and yet
Christ clearly tells us what repenting is to repent and believe the gospel, not repent
and start living for God, not repent and start obeying him, not repent of your sins,
but just repent or turn and believe the gospel.
Change your mind.
Stop trusting in your own words and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Trust in him.
Okay.
Now, another passage which the heretics use is completely taken out of context, act 1730,
which is probably one of the most used verses concerning repentance by a multitude of street
preachers and online ministries and Baptist churches where false prophets have crept behind
the pulpits saying that, that the Bible says you need to repent of your sin.
This is usually the verse that they throw out.
Act 1730.
Well, no, that's not what it says in the verse whatsoever.
Here's what the passage says.
Act 1729 to 31 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 and
the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent
because he has appointed a day in the which he will judge the world and righteousness
by that man whom he has ordained whereof he has given assurance unto all men and that
he has raised him from the dead.
Now, if you knew the context, Paul is in Athens.
He's preaching to the heathen concerning the unknown God and proclaiming unto them that
God is not an idol.
God is not fashioned by man's hands.
And then he says in verse 30, the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth
all men everywhere to repent.
So what is he commanding them to repent of?
You don't need to insert whatever you think it is into that verse.
If you just read the context and actually read the whole verse instead of just focusing
on that one word there, focusing on the word repent and just thinking you know what it
means when it doesn't define it that way anywhere in the Bible.
The thing that God identified that God commands people to repent from, which he winked at
before was their ignorance, particularly in context, the ignorance of believing that God
is an idol made of gold or silver or stone.
He's telling them stop worshiping idols and start worshiping the true God.
That's what he's telling them to repent of.
Bible is clear.
We absolutely do need to repent.
I fully believe that.
I believe that in order to be saved, a person needs to repent.
But the biblical definition of repentance is not repenting from your sins.
It's not turning, forsaking, stopping, sinning.
It's not changing your lifestyle.
Repentance is changing what you believe.
It's turning from trusting in one thing to trusting in Christ.
That's what repentance is and there's so many ways to prove that in the Bible.
There's only one book in the Bible where the stated purpose of writing the book is to teach
one how to have everlasting life and that's the Gospel of John.
In John 20 verse 31, it says, but these are written that you might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the son of God and the believing you might have life through his name.
Now in this verse itself, it tells us just believe and you have life through his name.
But then if we look throughout the rest of the book of John, that's exactly what it says
in almost every chapter of the book.
Just believe.
But the word repent, on the other hand, does not appear a single time in the Gospel of
John.
Now you'd think if repentance was such a big deal concerning salvation, that the book which
is written so that people might have life through Jesus Christ, you'd think that that
book would tell us to repent and yet you never find that word a single time in the book of
John.
Why is that?
Because repentance is part of belief.
Repentance for salvation is simply changing your mind about what you believe or trust
in.
And now I want to get to some possible objections, which some of these repent of your sins teachers
might try to raise, to try to argue against this simple truth, which I've pretty much
just proven from the Bible.
There's no possible way that the Bible could teach that you need to repent of your sins
based on all these scriptures that we've already seen.
The first objection might be, well, the Bible doesn't say repent of your sins, but it does
say something similar in Acts 8 22, where it says, repent therefore of this thy wickedness
and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee.
Now this is why it's important to look at every detail as well as the context.
And this verse, the speaker says, repent of this thy wickedness.
He's not saying your wickedness in general, but a particular thing, which he did.
And often the people who raised this objection probably have not read the whole chapter to
know who is speaking or who he is speaking to.
The speaker is Peter.
He's talking to Simon, who was a former sorcerer who had converted earlier in the chapter in
Acts 8 13, then Simon himself believed also.
And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and wonder, beholding the miracles
and signs which were done.
According to this verse, which is nine verses earlier, Simon not only believed, but he was
also baptized and he joined the church.
So Simon definitely was already a believer and therefore was already saved because as
we've seen in dozens of verses already, somebody who believes is saved.
The only requirement for salvation is faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
So the Bible says we can therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the
deeds of the law.
So at this point, because he had believed, Simon was already saved.
However, he committed sin in trying to buy miracle working and the fullness of the Holy
Ghost from Peter with money.
This was this wickedness referred to in Acts 8 22.
He's not saying turn from your sins in order to be saved.
He's saying to somebody who is already saved, heard from this particular sin that you have
just committed.
And this kind of helps me also deal with another false claim that heretics will bring up as
an attempt to attack us, people who believe in salvation by faith alone.
The repent of your sins teachers claim that we don't believe in turning from one's sins
whatsoever at all.
And I'll tell you that that's false as well.
I do believe that somebody needs to turn from their sins, but not for salvation.
What happens after salvation is completely irrelevant to this discussion.
In no way am I endorsing and living in sin, okay?
However, a Christian who is trusting their own works to get them to heaven is not saved,
but does not matter how good of a life they try to live, which is impossible anyway because
they do not have the Holy Ghost within them if they're not saved.
No matter what they do, it's not going to get them to heaven until they repent from
their dead works and put all their trust in Jesus Christ.
Yes, of course, I believe that a Christian, somebody who has already been born again,
somebody who has already been saved by putting their trust in Jesus Christ, I believe that
after salvation, of course, they should try to live a holy and a righteous life in this
present evil world.
That's what we're called to do.
That's what the Bible commands us to do.
But if they do not do that, if they live in sin after their salvation, it doesn't determine
whether or not they're saved.
Their works, their obedience unto God has absolutely nothing to do with their salvation.
What happens after salvation is irrelevant to this discussion.
It's fallacious to try to bring up that objection.
Now here's another scripture which they completely twist, Ezekiel 18, verse 21 to 22.
But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he has committed and keep all my statutes
and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die.
All his transgressions that he has committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him.
In his righteousness that he has done, he shall live.
First of all, I'd like to point out that it's funny that we need to go back and pick out
random scriptures from the Old Testament because they can't find a single verse in the New
Testament that teaches this doctrine.
So the section of the Bible which focuses on the subject of salvation and faith and
grace and eternal life and justification and all that doesn't say you need to repent of
your sins.
We need to pull this verse often without actually reading it and considering what it actually
says.
I believe Ezekiel 18 fully.
I believe this passage that I just read.
The problem is not for us who teach faith alone.
The problem is for the repent of your sins, teachers, because it says in verse 21, turn
from all his sins that he has committed and keep all my statutes and do that which is
lawful and right, he shall surely live.
Now first I'd like to point out that this verse also proves my earlier point that turning
from your sin is the works of the law.
He says that you turn from sins to doing that which is lawful.
It's not turning from sins unto God.
It's turning from transgressing the law to keeping the statutes which God has given.
And yet if this would be the way of salvation, it would contradict the dozens of clear scriptures
in the New Testament which tell us that we're not saved by the works of the law or the deeds
of the law or works or the law.
In Galatians 2 21 it says, if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Which is exactly what the heretics are making for the sacrifice of Christ.
They're ignoring what Christ did and paying for our sins, fulfilling the law because we
cannot and claiming that they could do it on their own.
Well if that were true, if you could just simply start obeying the law to be saved,
then there would be no reason for Christ to die for the sins of the world.
That's why it says, if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Meaning that Christ died for no reason.
If you could just justify yourself through your own obedience to the law, then why did
Christ even come and die on the cross?
Makes no sense.
So that's the first problem.
We're not saved by the law.
Yet if you use this passage to teach that you have to repent of your sins, the only
one which even indicates anything like that, you would have to come to the conclusion that
it is by the law.
And then you're basically denying all the teachings of the New Testament.
The problem is something they're missing when they read passages like this and that would
be the word all.
It says that in order to die, or not die, but to live, you would need to turn from all
your sins and then keep all the law.
And I agree with that.
If one is going to be justified by the law, the only way to do so is by being perfectly
obedient without error.
They would have to never sin.
James chapter 2 verse 10 and 11 says, for whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet
offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
For he that said, do not commit adultery, said also do not kill.
Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the
law.
In other words, a sinner.
God does not look at our sins like the pagan gods do.
If we do more good things than bad things, then we're not condemned.
If we do any sin whatsoever, we're condemned.
Just think if you were on trial for murder right now in this world.
If you started talking about all the works which you've done and how great of a person
you are, that's not going to factor into the decision about whether or not you've committed
a crime and whether or not you're guilty.
You can't say, well, for the most part I've been good, I just messed up one time and get
away with not being convicted.
And that's exactly how the judgment of God works as well.
God demands perfection.
If you break even just one law out of all the commandments which he has given in the
book of the law, you're guilty, you've sinned and therefore have died in your sins.
We saw that earlier too in Galatians chapter 3 verse 10 that if you do not continue in
all things that are written in the book of the law to do them, you are cursed.
That's precisely the reason why it says that those who are of the works of the law are
cursed because none of them, no person who thinks that they're justified by the works
of the law has actually kept the law because nobody has kept the law.
It is true that hypothetically those which have kept the whole law would be saved as
it explains in Romans chapter 2 verse 7 to 10, to them who by patient continuance and
well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life, but unto them that are contentious
and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish
upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile, but
glory, honor and peace to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile.
If you read the whole book of Romans, Paul is developing doctrine by starting with the
subject of God's judgment that if you were to continue in well-doing patiently, you would
have eternal life.
But to every soul of man that doeth evil, God's wrath is upon them according to verses
8 and 9.
So it doesn't matter who you are, if you have transgressed God's law even just once, His
wrath is upon you according to the Bible.
In order to have glory, honor and peace and eternal life from God, you need to work good.
Yet if we continue reading into the book of Romans, there's a problem with that.
Romans 3 10 to 12 says, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.
There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God, they are all
gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable, there is none that doeth good,
no, not one.
Romans 3 23, for all hath sinned and come short of the glory of God.
The issue with seeking to be justified by the law is that it's simply impossible.
It tells us in Galatians 3 that if there had been a law which could have given life, verily
righteousness should have been by the law, but the scripture hath concluded all under
sin.
If it weren't for that, but there, then we should receive righteousness by the law.
And yet we're all sinners, okay?
Everybody, not a single person on this earth has not sinned.
The Bible says there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not.
And even for those who have claimed to have repented of their sins, the sinless perfectionists
out there, they're lying.
Because 1 John 1 says, which is written by a believer to other believers, it says, if
we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
Ezekiel chapter 18 is simply saying the same thing that Romans chapter 2 is saying.
That if you were to do this thing, then you would have life, but as we see repeatedly
through the scriptures, it is impossible to do it.
So it's impossible to be justified by the law and therefore you're not going to have
righteousness, you're not going to have life through the law.
And that's why Christ came and that's why we're justified through faith in him.
There's a very intense danger for those who believe that repenting of their sins is what
saves them.
And there's a lot of people these days who believe it, even people who go to churches
that in time past taught a different plan of salvation, taught that it was just by faith,
but some false prophet crept behind the pulpit and started teaching these Danable heresies.
I've already proven that this has worked salvation, salvation by the law, that they're not trusting
in Christ, but in their own righteousness.
The scriptures say of the Jews in Romans 9, 31 to 33, but Israel, which followed after
the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness, wherefore, because
they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled
at that stumbling stone, as it is written, behold, I lay in Zion, a stumbling stone and
rock of offense, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
According to the Bible, the physical nation of Israel, even though they had tried to attain
to righteousness, they ended up not being righteous, they ended up not being saved because
they did not seek righteousness by faith, but by the works of the law.
Anybody who seeks righteousness by the works of the law is still condemned according to
the Bible.
It says again in the next chapter, Romans 10, 3, that they're not saved because they're
seeking to establish their own righteousness and have not submitted themselves unto the
righteousness of God.
Galatians 5, 4 tells us that those who are justified by the law are fallen from grace.
It's absurd to think that anybody needs to repent of their sins in order to be saved.
It's taught absolutely nowhere in the Bible.
It's just another form of work salvation, lordship salvation.
Anybody who teaches it, anybody who believes that it's going to get them to heaven is unsaved
and they need to repent of that repentance to turn to Christ and to trust in him alone.
They need to put their faith on the Lord Jesus Christ and not in their own works, not in
their own righteousness.
So hopefully now you understand what repentance is.
It's turning from unbelief or turning from trusting in something else to trusting in
Christ.
That is repentance.
Okay.
So when I got saved, the thing that I repented from was trusting in my own righteousness
because I was in the Hebrew roots movement.
I believe that obedience to the Torah, obedience to the law of Moses was what would save me.
I believe that I would go to heaven and escape from the lake of fire because of all the great
things that I did for God and keeping the Sabbath and all these other commandments.
But what I did was I stopped trusting in that and I put all my faith in Jesus Christ.
That's how I got saved.
And that's how anybody who trusts in the works of law is going to be saved by stop trusting
the works of the law, by stop thinking that their own works are going to get them to heaven
and placing their faith in Jesus Christ and calling upon the name of the Lord.
So that's it for this video.
Looks like I have a few comments here.
Isaiah Ryder, I know you're busy, but do you have a video exposing street preacher, sinless
perfection heretics that say we have no sin nature?
Well yes, actually I made a video against Colin Michael who I think, I mean you said
street preacher, but I think he's a street preacher.
I think he's done some street preaching, but he mainly makes videos on YouTube.
I made a video back in April, so you should just scroll down a little bit on my video
page and it's called Exposing Colin Michael or something or One Reality Ministries, which
is his YouTube channel or used to be his YouTube channel.
He calls it One Reality Ministries and it's like a really long video that's two parts
or actually three parts.
The first part's like two and a half hours.
The second part's like an hour and 40 minutes and the third part's like half an hour or
something like that.
Very long video and I basically talk about a lot of the things I talked about in this
video in that video.
So that one and then there's another video where I talk about Wayne Levi Price and the
best way to find that would be going on my most watched videos on the main channel page
because it's one of the most watched videos on my channel.
They use Ecclesiastes 7.29 to say God made all men ephorite if Jesus said go and sin
no more, how is that possible if you always sin all the time and try to use the parable
of the prodigal son.
Prodigal son to say you can constantly lose and regain salvation.
Well, the prodigal son has nothing to do with losing your salvation because the fact that
he had gone into sin, the fact that he left his father because there's the prodigal son
who left his father, that didn't make him not his son anymore.
Just like when we drift away from God and we get into sin, that doesn't mean that we're
unborn, that doesn't mean that we are separated from the family of God, we are still his children.
I mean, it's absurd to say that you're unborn, you need to be born again, again, you'd be
born again, again, you know, born a third time, born a fourth time, like these Methodists,
you know, now you're saved, now you're not kind of thing.
Use all these Old Testament verses about national salvation to prove you need works to not have
a dead faith.
Yeah, that's another thing which I didn't mention in this video, but there's a difference
between God restricting his wrath upon a nation and individual salvation from hell.
And I read from Jonah 3 10, which proves that you do not need to repent of your sins in
order to be saved in two different ways.
First because it says that God repents and second because it calls repenting of your
sins a work.
But that chapter of Jonah chapter three, Jonah had been preaching to the city of Nineveh
and it says that they had believed and it says that they had also repented, okay?
And they say, well, look, the people of Nineveh repented and God didn't bring his wrath against
them.
Well, that's a nation, okay?
He was going to destroy the city, he was going to destroy Assyria, has nothing to do with
individual salvation.
People try to say the NASB is more accurate than the KJV because they always got to attack
the KJV versus that, say, belief on the sun or change to obey the sun.
I don't really know what that has to do with, well, I guess I did read John 3 36 where they
changed that.
Well, if it were supposed to say obey the sun, that would contradict multiple scriptures.
And even then, I guess people could interpret that several different ways.
See if somebody came to me and they weren't King James only and they tried to use John
3 36 to say that you need to start obeying God in order to be saved, the appropriate
way to counteract that, in my opinion, would be showing them the verses that show that
believing the gospel is also called obeying the gospel because there is a command from
God to believe and to repent.
We saw that in Acts 17 30, it says God commandeth all men everywhere to repent.
Now it's not the law of Moses, it's not turning from sin, but there is still a command from
God that you need to put your trust in Jesus Christ.
That's the way that he has set forth for you to be saved.
So that's called obeying the gospel in Romans 10 16 and in 2 Thessalonians 1 8, it talks
about how Jesus will destroy in flaming fire those that know not God and obey not the gospel
of our Lord Jesus Christ.
So that's the way that I would counteract that if somebody just wouldn't listen to the
King James only position and just read the King James Bible.
But yeah, I think it's wrong to change that verse there in John 3 36.
It's not too late when you read this.
They'll try to compare God's forgiveness to an earthly judge where if you are set free
from all charges for murder, etcetera, you won't be forgiven for future crimes.
Well no, that has nothing.
No because the thing about justification is that Jesus Christ righteousness is imputed
onto us.
It's not just our sins are forgiven.
It's also in Romans 4 8, it says that the Lord will not impute sin unto us.
So it's not just our past sins are forgiven and they're just removed from us.
Now we need to make sure that we never sin again or otherwise we'll still be condemned.
It says the Lord will not impute sin unto us because Jesus Christ righteousness has
been placed onto us according to Romans 3 22 and second Corinthians 5 21 and Philippians
3 9.
If you had charges drop this time, they say, okay, that's the same thing.
Sorry for so many messages.
It's all right.
I like answering at the at the end of the video, but I think you get the point everybody
who's watching.
You don't need to repent of your sins in order to be saved.
There is a very specific definition of what repentance is in the Bible and it is not what
they claim it is.
So don't be deceived by these people out there.
I hope that you understand the scriptures and understand the use of the word repent
in the Bible.
God repents.
Repent does not mean turn from your sins.
It just means to turn and the context helps you to understand what that is.
Every time that the context tells you about salvation, if you just compare spiritual with
spiritual and actually read the verses such as Matthew 21 36, I believe it was, it's always
telling you that the thing you need to repent of is not trusting in Christ for salvation.
So thank you everybody for watching.
That's it for this video.
God bless you and goodbye.