Repentance and Salvation

Repentance and Salvation

August 12, 2013

Is in verse 30 where the bible reads “ And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:” And what I want to preach about this morning is the subject of repentance and specifically I want to preach about the subject of repentance in regards to salvation because this is a subject that is very misinterpreted today and there’s a lot of false teaching out there under the guise of repentance that is actually teaching a works base salvation. Let me just show you what the bible teaches about repentance. First of all lets go back to Exodus chapter 32 because before we study repentance in regard to salvation, let’s just get an understanding of what the word repent even means in the bible, now the mistake that most people make is that whenever they see the word repent in the bible, they add these magical words after if “of your sins” So whenever they see the word repent they just automatically add of sin, repent of sin and in fact they often think that just repent means to turn from sin, they just add that concept.

Well let me just prove to you that’s not true, in Exodus 32 verse 12 it says “Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath,” This is Moses speaking to God. “Turn from thy fierce wrath and repent of this evil against thy people.” So we can see repent means to turn right? Moses is telling God to turn from his anger or wrath towards his people. It says in verse 13 “Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.” Watch this! “And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.” Now that right there proves that repenting does not mean repent of your sins because God doesn’t have any sins, God never has sinned and God is perfect in every way and yet did God repent in this scripture? Yes he did, he turned, he turned from one course of action unto another. He didn’t turn from sin, he turned from anger, he turned from his wrath, he turned from the judgement he was going to pour our.

You don’t have to turn there but later on in first Samuel 15, when Saul had committed some sin the bible says in, ah, 35 “And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death: nevertheless Samuel mourned for Saul:” watch this! “ the LORD repented that he had made Saul king over Israel.” So God made a decision to choose Saul to be the first king of Israel, but then later because of the way Saul behaved, he repented of having made Saul king. Is that repenting of sin? No, because God has no sin. So we see that there’s a different type of repentance in the bible, people can turn from all manner of things, they can turn from anger, they can turn from a decision that they’ve made but go to Exodus chapter 13, this is an interesting one. Exodus chapter 13, this is where the children of Israel are leaving Egypt where they’ve been in bondage and you know they’re gonna cross the red sea, of course they’re gonna head for the promise land, eventually they’re gonna end up wandering in the wilderness but look what the bible says in Exodus 13 verse 17 it says “And it came to pass,” this is when they are first leaving Egypt. “and it came to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt:” Now look God wanted the people to leave Egypt didn’t he? Did he want them to turn around and go back to Egypt? Absolutely not, so here these people aren’t repenting of their sin, they’re repenting to sin if they turn back. He says look if they see war, if they go through the land of the Philistines, they’re going to repent and go back to Egypt, so in this case repentance is not even a good thing. This would be a bad repentance, when they’re repenting from doing the right thing and turning back. So the bottom line is when we look at these scriptures, it becomes obvious that a person can repent from anything, they can repent from something good, they can repent of something bad, they can repent of a decision that they’ve made. It’s just a turning or changing course or changing direction, it doesn’t have to be repent of your sins.

Now what’s interesting is the person who repents more than anyone else in the bible is God, in fact there are 35 verses in the bible that deal with God repenting. I mean that’s a lot of verses, that’s a lot of scripture, I read for you a couple the one from Exodus, the one from first Samuel but actually, repeatedly throughout the bible God is shown as repenting. Now what’s interesting is that these modern bible versions the niv and the new king james for example, they make a lot of changes to the bible, they corrupt scripture, and one of the changes that they make is that they remove the word repent from 46 verses okay. There are a hundred and five times in the King James Bible or a hundred and five verses that is, that use the word repentance, well 46 of those are removed from all the modern versions, but here’s what's funny about it, you know which ones they removed, they don’t just randomly remove 46 of them, oh no, they specifically and purposely removed everytime God repented they removed it. That’s what they take out and then they take out other things that are problematic to them, like for example the verse I just read for you, from Exodus 13:17, they remove repent from that verse and you know they remove Judas Iscariot repenting. You see they remove anything that can prove that repenting doesn’t mean repenting of your sins, all the ones that make it so obvious that repent does not mean repent of your sins, thats what they specifically, purposely removed. There is an agenda behind it, I’m telling you the devil is out there to promote this doctrine, that in order to be saved you must repent of your sins because it is works salvation. I’m going to prove that to you from the bible but let’s look that this go to Acts chapter 17,so I have already proven to you from scripture, if the bible is your authority this morning and you know some people they just have tradition and they’re just “well I’ve heard my whole life you have to “ I don’t care what you’ve heard you’re whole life, the bible says that God repented okay, if you believe the bible that means God repented, if you believe the bible you can repent from Good, you can repent from bad, you can repent from a decision, you can repent from anything, God repented and so to sit there and say everytime the bible says repent it means to repent of your sins is to add to scripture. The bible says repent, it doesn’t mean repent of your sins.

Now here’s a verse that people will often use and they’ll say you know this verse is a verse that proves you have to repent of your sins to be saved in Acts chapter 17. Now before I get into Acts 17 let me say this there are hundreds of verses in the bible to tell you what you have to do to be saved and it’s believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. The bible says that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. The bible says verily verily I say unto thee, he that believeth on me, has everlasting life. I mean over and over again, when the questions asked in Acts 16, the chapter right before the one we’re reading. What must I do to be saved? They said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved now, now you see salvation is by faith alone in Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ died on the cross for our sins, he was buried and three days later rose again from the dead, look he did all the work for salvation, we don’t have to work our way in, we don’t have to do our own works, we don’t have to turn over a new leaf and stop sinning. Now look we just have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved but there are sometimes when the word repent is used in the bible even in regards to salvation, even when the gospel is being preached the word repent is being used, but now let me tell you something it is not teaching you, you have to repent of your sins to be saved and let’s just, just be honest when you look at this passage in Acts chapter 17 because often people will just out of context quote verse 30 where it says, you know where he is preaching the gospel and it says “ And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: “ They just add he is commanding everyone to repent of their sins. Which is not what he’s saying, lets get the context of what's being taught here, go to verse 22 it says “Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions, I found an altar with this inscription, TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;” So here we have a people who is Polytheistic, they worship a lot of different gods and they have all these different altars to all these different gods that they worship and you know the greek gods are you know what? athena and you probably heard of them right? I don’t even really care to even remember them but anyway I don’t know I’d mix them up with the Roman gods you know jupiter and ventus and all the whatever mars, I don’t know but whatever the planets are but anyway whatever these greek and roman gods that they worshipped, well they had all these different alters to these different gods and just incase they missed one, they didn’t want to make some god somewhere upset and make him feel left out so they just built an altar that was kinda a general purpose alter, just to the unknown god, like okay we got the god of water and the god of fire and the god of love and the god of hunting and then just incase we missed one let’s just do the unknown god okay and Paul says man you guys are to superstitious. I mean not only do you worship all these gods but you even make one to the unknown god. He says well I am going to preach to you about the unknown God, that’s just kinda an icebreaker that he used to start preaching the gospel, just to get their attention and he explains that since God made the world and all the things therein, he doesn’t live in temples made with hay, he doesn’t live in your little alter, your little temple to the unknown god and then in verse 29 it says” Forasmuch 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.” He is pointing out t their idols, their little statues of what they call gods and he’s saying look if God created the world, he’s not an image that you can carve and a statue that you can make and bow down to, that’s not what the Godhead is like and he says in verse 30 “And the times of this ignorance God winked at;” What ignorance? The ignorance of thinking that a little stone or a little statue is God.he says “ the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.” and of course he preached the resurrection and in verse 34 it says “certain men clave unto him, and believed: “ Some of the people believed the message that Paul preached “ But look when he is telling them to repent here, what is he telling them to repent of? He says look you are worshipping idols, your worshipping false gods, you think that this statue is god, the times of this ignorance God winked at but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent, he is telling them to repent or turn from worshipping of false gods. He says look your worshipping false gods, you need to worship the one true God, you need to repent and turn from false gods to the true God.

Go to first Thessalonians chapter one you will see the exact same thing, go to first Thessalonians chapter one, now look when he said repent there God commanded everyone to repent, was he talking of repenting of your sinful life style? Was he telling them you guys need to quit drinking and quit smoking and quit carousing and you need to quit fornicating and you need to quit stealing and you need to quit lying and you need to turn from that in order to be saved? In order to be saved you need to be willing to turn from drinking and smoking and partying and fornicating and stealing and lying and murder, is that what he was telling them? that they need to turn from? No but thats whats being preached today, people take Acts 17:30 and they say in order to be saved you must turn from your sins and they’ll say to someone that is a drunk that they have to repent of that in order to be saved or that they have to turn from whatever. Whether it be lying, stealing whatever, they tell them that they have to repent of a sinful life, now look which sins do they have to repent of to be saved but I don’t know about you but I have not repented of all my sins because I’m not perfect and the bible says if we say we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. No one in here can say I have made my heart pure from sin, nobody in here can say I have turned from all my sins and people will say you know I have repented of all my sins and I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as my saviour, you know which sins did you repent of because if you are going to tell me you repented of all of them you are a liar is what you are and let me tell you something repenting of your sins is a daily thing. Salvation is not a daily thing, salvation is a one time thing, you must be born again the bible didn’t say born again and again and again and again. The bible says you must be born again, you believe on Christ and in a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, you are saved, you are regenerated, you are passed from death unto life, you are a child of God. Now look after that you're still gonna sin, every single person in this room has sin in their life, no one is perfect, myself included and so therefore if we had to turn from our sins to be saved, no one would be saved but they say, well you just have to be willing to turn. Okay where is that in the bible? What about when God repented? Was he just willing to turn from his wrath or did he actually turn from it? Repentance is an actual turning its not just a willingness to turn, and so what we see here, is that what they have to turn from, is idols because that’s not God. See you can’t just add God and look, look at first Thessalonians one , and then I’ll explain it to you, look at verse nine, it says “For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you,” and this is a similar group of people, the thessalonians had a similar religion to those who we see in Acts 17. “and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; “ Now could that be described as repentance there? That’s repentance right? I mean they were worshipping idols, false gods they turned to God from idols so that they could serve the living and true God that was repentance. Did that repentance save them? Yeah because it meant they were not believing in their false god anymore, now they’re believing in the one true God but was that repenting of all their sins? Willing to turn from a sinful lifestyle? No and that is a false teaching and if you teach that somebody has to turn over a new leaf to be saved and repent of their sins and start living a good life, that is a works salvation, that’s not trusting what Jesus did on the cross.

Now if you’re turning from idols to the true God, yeah you're putting your trust on Jesus that died on the cross. Okay but when you're turning from sin now it’s like well you’ve earned the right to be saved by giving up your sins you know and I’ll prove to you a little later that, that’s works but it says here that they “ turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.” So they turned from a false god to the true God. Now here’s why Paul preached this message of repentance to these people that were so superstitious. You see in Acts 16 when a guy asked him what must I do to be saved ? he just said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. You see you say well Pastor Anderson why didn’t Paul just get up in Acts 17 and say the same thing believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved? I’ll tell you exactly why. Because these people already had all kinds of false gods and they’re more then ready to add a new god anytime, I mean they have the alter to the unknown god, so if Paul would of said believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, you know what they’d say? Great, sure but you know what? If they’re still trusting in all these other false gods okay. If their still trusting in Diana, and in, in whatever, I guess I don’t know my greek mythology, Zeus right, isn’t that one of them , you know if they’re still trusting in Zeus and, and neptune and poseidon and I don’t know, if they’re still trusting in all these false gods and then they just add Jesus, right? Believe on Jesus, Okay, I believe in Jesus, that’s not gonna save them because you gotta believe on Jesus with all your heart. You can’t just say well I believe in these greek gods and I believe in Jesus, no you must turn from idols, you must turn from a false god and put all your faith and trust in the living and true God. You can’t just add him on and just cross out the thing that said unknown god and just write Jesus and now you're saved, no way they had to turn from their false religion. You see if you today are muslim and you say well I’m also gonna believe in Jesus Christ, wrong, because islam is a false religion and it’s not God’s word and if you’re putting your faith in islam to get you into heaven you’re not saved. You need to turn from that and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you see Jesus is not something that you just add to your religion you know, well you know you're worshipping Mary, and the saints and all that but you’re just gonna add Jesus wrong and you can pray a pray and ask Jesus to save you but if you’re still trusting Mary and the saints and the pope and you’re trusting idols that you bow down to look your faith and trust is not a hundred percent in Christ and you will not go to heaven until you turn from that and repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ but again we are not talking about turning from a sinful life. Now look if the bible just tells you all you have to do is believe on Christ to be saved, right? That’s pretty clear theres, I’m not gonna sit and quote all the hundreds of verses that say you know for by grace are ye saved through faith not of yourself the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast. If the bible just teaches that faith in Christ is enough to be save you, then how can there be some other thing added that you also have to do, like well you also have to repent of your sins then it’s not, believing is not enough, you also have to do something else, you say well what about repenting from false religion but here’s why you have to repent of false gods because it is impossible to believe in Jesus Christ if you're believing in something different. Think about it, I mean how can I say I’m trusting Christ if I am trusting something else? So I have to stop trusting this and start trusting this, so really that is all included in the word believe, believe covers it, but the reason Paul’s using the word repent here is because he’s trying to make it understandable and clear to the people that he is talking to that you know, you have to believe on Christ alone okay. Just like when John the baptist and Jesus are preaching to the jews, they use the word repent a lot why? Because the jews they claim to believe on God but they were trusting in their own works and following the law to get them into heaven. The pharisees were trusting in the works of the law that’s what they had to repent of and I’m gonna show you that in the bible right now.

Turn if you would to Acts chapter to ah three, I’m gonna show you a few places in the book of Acts but look at Acts chapter three, here’s another scripture that people will use to save that you have to repent of your sins to be saved and they’ll use Acts chapter three verse 19 because the bible says in Acts chapter three verse 19 “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; “ So they say see right there repent and be converted that your sins may be, and they will say you have repent of your sins to be saved. Does it say repent of your sins and be converted? No it just says repent, so let’s get the context to figure out what is being repent of. You can’t just add of your sins after every repent. Okay you have to get the context of what’s being repented of, when we read about God repenting how did we know what he repented of? We got the context, right look at verse 14 it says “But ye denied the Holy One and the Just,” Talking about Jesus They denied him, right? and it says “ and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; “ what was that murders name? Barrabas, remember they said crucify Jesus and give us Barabbas “And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses. And his name through faith in his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.” He saying look you killed Jesus, this guy saved by faith, you denied Christ, you killed Jesus. “And now, brethren” verse 17 “ I wot that through ignorance ye did it, “ Now what did they repent of in Acts 17? They repented of the ignorance. Remember the time of this ignorance God winked at but now commanded men everywhere to repent and that ignorance was, that ignorance foolish idea that a statute is God okay. He says “ I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; “ So look what is he reproaching them for? He’s reproaching them for denying Christ, for rejecting Christ, tells them to repent in verse 19, that’s what he is telling them to repent of. He says look you have denied Christ, rejected Christ, you need to repent, you need to change your mind, you need to turn from that decision and turn to Jesus Christ in faith as your saviour.

See the bible says in second Timothy 2:25, you don’t have to turn there, it says “In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth;” So look whenever you repent, you are repenting from something, and your repenting to something, right? The people in Exodus he says he didn’t want them to repent from war and to turn back to Egypt okay. God turned from his fierce wrath and turned to his people with compassion and mercy and forgiveness okay. We see that the people in Acts 17 they turned away from idolatry and turned to the true and living God. Well in second Timothy 2:25 what their repenting to, are turning to is acknowledging the truth, so what are they repenting from? Denying the truth. See what I mean denying Christ is what we seen in Acts three right? He said you denied the Holy One, repent of that, here we see repent to the acknowledgment of the truth. What’s the opposite of acknowledgment of the truth? Denying the truth he’s saying look repentance to the acknowledging of the truth, there are many people today that do not acknowledge the truth. They need to repent to the acknowledging of the truth okay. Does that say, so does that mean they are suppose to quit drinking? No, willing to quit fornicating life, willing to live a christian life, willing to join a church, willing to get baptized, those are all great things, those are all things that we should all do. We should all go to church, we should all be baptized, we should all read our bible everyday, we should all pray, we should all repent of stealing, we should repent of lying, we should repent of fornication, we should repent and repent and keep on repenting of all our sins, but that will never get you into heaven because that is the works of the flesh and you will not be justified by the fact you turned over a new leaf. Only the faith of Jesus Christ and nothing else and so those are great things to do, hey its get to do works were created unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them but works do not save and are not necessary for salvation because we’re saved by faith, not of works lest any man should boast.

Now if you would, where are you at? Acts three, go to Acts 19, let’s look at John the baptist preaching about repentance because John the baptist definitely preached about repentance, Jesus preached the same thing about repentance. Look at what John the baptist preached about repentance it says in Acts 19:4 “Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of “ of what? repentance saying, so what was he saying? What was he saying when he baptised with the baptism of repentance? “saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ “ So what was the repentance he was preaching? That they need to believe on Christ okay. Now look if you would, you say now how does that work? Matthew 21:32 explains it, flip back to Matthew 21:32, Matthew 21:32 also deals with John the baptist preaching, let’s see how John the baptist preaching of repentance fits in with believing on Jesus Christ, not turning over a new leaf in this context, look at Matthew 21:32 it says “For John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not:” So here’s John the baptist preaching the word of God, do they believe him? No. “ but the publicans and the harlots believed him:” So here you got the religious crowd the pharisees and sadducees, they didn’t believe John the baptist, the publicans and the harlots did believe John the baptist, watch this “ and ye, when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might believe him.” So group A here the religious crowd did not believe on Christ. Group B did believe on Christ. God’s saying that when group A saw that group B should believe on Christ at that point they should have repented and turned from unbelief to believing on Jesus Christ, turn from their denial of the truth, to acknowledging the truth, did they do that? No he said you repented not afterward, that ye might believe him. You see in Matthew 3:2 you don’t have to turn there but John the baptist preached saying “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Did he say repent of your sins? No he just said Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Jesus preached the same thing in Matthew 4:17 “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” but if we look at Mark 1:15 he gives more detail of what was preached by Jesus in this case it says Mark 1:15 “And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and “ stop sinning, is that what it says? No “repent ye and believe the gospel.” Why do they need to repent? Because they didn’t believe the gospel. They didn’t believe John the baptist, they didn’t believe Jesus, they need to repent and believe, turn from their false doctrine and false religion and false belief and rejection and denial of Christ and repent to the acknowledging of the truth and repent and believe the gospel it’s that simple.

Now go to Acts chapter 20, heres another scripture people will often pull out and say hey, this says you have to repent of your sins to be saved. Now you say Pastor Anderson does the bible ever even use the term repent of your sins? Not one time, not one time in this entire thick bible of 1189 chapters does the bible ever say repent of your sins. But every single one of us have heard preachers that in order to be saved, Now what isn’t salvation the most important thing? I mean what's a man profited if he so gain the whole world and lose his own soul? I mean the number one most important doctrine is salvation. Now let me ask you something is God trying to hide salvation from us? No he wrote the book of John that we might believe on Christ and that believing we might have light through his name. Look if repenting of our sins is something we had to do to be saved wouldn’t God tell us that? So why do all these preachers say you have to repent of your sins to be saved when the term repent of your sins is never found in the bible ONCE? Now isn’t that a fair question? If the bible never one time says repent of sin and thats something we have to do to be saved. Goodnight why didn’t he warn us? Why didn’t he tell us? But look I have hundreds of verses that say believe. Why? because thats what you have to do to be saved. See the book of John is the only book in the bible, that claims to be a book written to get somebody saved, see most of the bible is written to people already saved. Now you look at a book like Ephesians, Galatians, Philippians, those are written to the saints right at the beginning of the book, written to the church of Galatia, the book of Romans written to the saved it says it’s to the saints which are in Christ Jesus. Is Romans written to the unsaved? No it says it is written to the saints which are in Christ Jesus but you know what the only book in the bible that claims to be written unto the unsaved to get them saved is the book at John and at the end of the book of John he says these things are written so that you might believe on the son of God and I’m paraphrasing but he said that in believe you might have life in his name. He claims that is why the book is written okay, Thats why the bible the book of John says believe in almost every chapter because if it is a book about getting people saved its gonna talk a lot about believing, that's why in John right away in John 1:12 it says “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:” That sounds like a great book for getting somebody saved. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. “ John 3:15 says the same thing. John 3:36 says “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him. You know right away John 5:24 “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.” John chapter six repeatedly says that you have to believe to have eternal life.

Several times in verse 40, I think, verse 41, I know for sure verse 47, you get into chapter seven he says whosoever believeth, you get into chapter nine this thou believeth on the son of God, you get into chapter ten its believe, you get into chapter 11 its I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth in me, though where he were dead yet shall he live and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die, believest thou this. And the book of John says believe, believe, believe, believe, believe and it says that this book is written that you might believe and be saved and have eternal life. It is written to the unsaved, to get them saved. How many times is the word repent found in the book of John? Zero, not even once so that’s the big important thing. Why is it never even mentioned one time? You say wow thats dumb cause it is mentioned in these other books ahh. Look if its not, if its not written in the book of John then John is not an adequate to save you if you have to do that to be saved, right? I mean if I have, if all I have is the book of John it says, well it is written so that people will get saved. I can’t even show the whole gospel from John as far as what you have to do to be saved? That doesn’t make any sense, false doctrine never makes sense. You know what makes sense to me? It makes sense to me that I am a sinner, that I deserve hell and that I’m unworthy of being saved, no matter how much I clean up my life because all my righteousness to God are as filthy rags, that makes sense and it makes sense Jesus died for all my sins and paid my punishment for me and all I have to do is just turn to him and just believe on him to be saved, that makes sense but you know what doesn’t make sense, telling me that I have to turn from all my sins to be saved and then turning around and saying oh by the way it is a free gift that Jesus did everything. Its like what, did Jesus do everything, Jesus did everything but you’ve gotta make some serious changes in your life, well did Jesus do everything or not? Is it free or not? Is it a gift or not? Is it faith alone or not? Its funny we were talking, we were out soul winning the other day and, and we asked somebody what you have to do to be saved ? They said believe on Christ and they said, they said yeah I don’t know why they make the gospel so complicated, its just so simple, its just so, Jesus did everything, believe on Jesus, its so simple. I’m thinking ya it is simple and then that same person I asked them if you could lose your salvation, oh yeah you can lose your salvation, I mean you can’t just live however you want to you know, you do have to repent of all your sins and you know live right and if you don’t go to church. You’re like what you just so now you're making it complicated, don’t be turned from the simplicity in Christ to another gospel another Jesus, another a salvation that's not biblical.

Where did I have you turn? chapter 20, look at chapter 20, it says in verse a, verse 20 it says “And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have shewed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.” So here we are talking about turning to God right? And we’re talking about turning toward the Lord Jesus Christ with faith right? Believing on Christ right? Anything about repenting of sins in this verse? Now go if you would to Hebrews chapter six verse one because it is interesting in Acts 20:21 we see repentance towards God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ, here is a similar wording that is found in Hebrews six verse one it says “Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of “ Watch this! “repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God,” Now look when we repent toward God here in Hebrews 6:1 the bible talks about us repenting of dead works. You say what does that mean? Dead works? Well think about this faith without works is dead right? So if you have faith without works, thats dead faith right? So what do you have, what do you have, if you have works without faith? That’s dead works, see what I mean, faith without works is dead faith and works without faith is dead works, look works that you’re doing where you think you are serving God but you have not believed on Jesus Christ are deads works. Like for example there are people out there like the apostle Paul who are very zealous of religion and if you remember the apostle Paul before he got saved his name was Saul, he was very zealous of religion okay. He was very serious about the jews religion and he was a pharisee and he kept the old testament law to the best of his ability and he was trusting in those works that he was doing, to get him to heaven. Right but in order to be saved he had to turn from that and put his faith on Jesus Christ and you say, well did he really turn from all that? He said you know what those things I could them as dumb, he said I profited above many, my own equals in my own religion, I excelled in the jews religion, I was zealous of the jews religion but of what things were gained to me those I have counted as lost for Christ. Let me tell you something, there are people today that are serving the Lord, they think with dead works, they have not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior, they do not have salvation, they do not have the Holy Spirit inside of them, they are working their way to heaven in their mind, they think that they are going to earn their way to heaven and there are people that are serving food to the homeless today, their are people who are ushering in their church today, their are people who are getting up and teaching a sunday school class today and teaching the bible today, Look I have talked to people who teach sunday school who will tell you they don’t even believe the bible but they teach sunday school just cause they think it is a good work to do, its just a good community service or something, you know because the bible has good morals in it. Look there are people today who did not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ their saviour, maybe they believe in a false religion like mormonism, like catholicism, islam today, or judaism today and they're doing a lot of works right and they’re doing works and they think that they're good deeds and good works that they’re doing is going to get them to heaven, there dead works. Because without faith it is impossible to please him, nothing that we do, the bible says they that are in the flesh can not please God. Did you hear that? If you're in the flesh you can not please God. Without faith it is possible to please him. So all the works people are doing, when there faith is not in Jesus Christ, those are dead works, now look if you talk to people out on soul winning, you go out knock doors and talk to people, you run into people that are saved don’t you? That will tell you they are trusting Jesus to save them and they’re trusting in Christ alone right? When you run into people that are not saved, What are they usually trusting? Nine times out of ten, their works. You ask them oh you're going to heaven, how do you know you're on your way to heaven? Oh because I go to church, I live a good life, I read the bible, I you know and they say and they give off their works. So doesn’t make sense that in order to have faith you have to turn from, trusting in good works to trusting in Christ right? I mean if you’re trusting in works you can’t say well I believe in Jesus but I also believe I am going to heaven because I am such a good person. Well not you are trusting in two different things because you are trusting your works and Jesus. Thats like trying to trust buddha and Jesus, muhammad and Jesus, mary and the saints and Jesus. No, no,no it ought to be all Jesus and you can’t believe in all your greek false gods in paganism and say I believe in pagans, greek false gods but I also believe in Jesus. Well you can’t trust your works and Jesus, you must turn from idols to Jesus, you must turn from your works to Jesus and you know what your works are their dead works because they are not accompanied by faith in Christ. Now once you have faith in Christ, hopefully you should go out and do some good works right? Then you’ll have faith and works, then neither your faith, nor your works are dead, right? And you're going to receive a reward for the works that you do.

Now all throughout the bible, I’ve searched for the term repent of your sins or anything like it, I can’t find it. The closest thing that I found is in Acts chapter eight, when the term repent therefore of this thy wickedness is found and it is talking to somebody who is already saved. Simon remember Simon, Simon who was Simon the sorcerer, right? But then he believed on Christ and God saved, You say well I don’t think he was really got saved, yeah but the bible says he believed on Christ. So should I believe you or the bible? And Simon saw the great power of God that Peter had and Peter had the ability okay, the apostles had the ability, Paul had the ability to lay his hands on someone right? And they would receive the Holy Ghost so they would be filled with the Holy Spirit remember in the book of Acts how they had that ability where the spirit of the Lord came upon someone in mighty power through the Laying on of hands, like when Paul laid hands upon Timothy and he was filled with the spirit. Simon saw that and Simon wanted to have that ability, to be able to confer the power of the Holy Ghost upon others, and he wanted to purchase it with money, he pulled out money and offered it unto the apostle and said, give me this ability to be able to do this. Now look I don’t think Simon was a bad guy, I don’t think his heart was in the wrong place at all. You say well how do you know because you know what, have you ever tried rebuking people or telling them that they are wrong. How often do they react well to that? How often do they admit that they are wrong? How often do they do what David did when Nathan confronted him and said thou art the man and he said I’ve sinned. Nine times out of ten you tell someone that they are wrong, you correct someone, you rebuke them and they’re gonna get mad, they’re gonna bristle, they’re gonna, they’re gonna panic, they’re not gonna just handle it and say you know what you’re right, I’m sorry but look when Simon is corrected for his error because Simon says you know gimme, gimme the gift of the Holy Ghost, through money and, and he is rebuked very shapely repent of this thy wickedness, you’re in the gall of bitterness, you’re in the bond of iniquity and, and you know what Simon says? He says man I want you to pray for me that none of these things happen to me, he said he’s sorry. I mean right away he completely repents of it and then realizes I’ve been an idiot, I shouldn’t of offered you money for that, I was wrong. So we see that he had a good heart and look he’s not trying to buy something from them thats bad, I mean the power of the Holy Spirit’s a good thing, he wanted something good, he was just going about getting it, in the wrong way by trying to get it through money. Was he ignorant? Yes. Was it stupid? Yes. Was it sin? Yes But was he just this bad person who was just ? No, he made a mistake and as soon as he was corrected, he responded properly to that correction but humbling himself and admitting that he had done wrong, that’s great, that’s the closest thing you're gonna find to repent of your sins and its nothing to do with salvation. Its a guy thats already saved who made a dumb decision. Now look, we as christians have to repent of our sins all the time. You know what perhaps you have a sin in your life that you keep committing over and over again right? Wouldn’t you say you should repent of that? But that has nothing to do with salvation. So I’ve searched the bible and I’ve tried to find repent of your sins but here’s what interesting. I did a, I did a search on the book of mormon now who here agrees that the book of mormon is written by satan? Alright pretty much the whole room okay. So you know basically I did a search on the book of mormon, cause I mean I’ve searched the bible repent of your sins, repent of sin, it just isn’t there. Yet preachers are constantly saying it, I searched the book of mormon and it just keeps coming up. Lets, here some verses from the book of mormon, Jacob 3:8 listen to this, oh my brethren I fear that unless you shall repent of your sins that their skins shall be wider than yours, when ye shall be brought with them before the throne of God. So here in the book of mormon its teaching that you know you’re not gonna be wide enough when you get to heaven, if you don’t repent of your sins. I mean isn't that what it says Jacob 3:8 oh my brethren I fear that unless you shall repent of your sins that their skins will be wider than yours, when ye shall be brought with them before the throne of God. Because the book of mormons is a racist book that teaches that the wider you are the more Godly you are and it even talks about in the book of mormon people that start getting right with God, they keep getting wider and then other people when they sin against God they got darker and darker. I mean that is what it taught in the book of mormons folks and they can lie about it and change it but you know what do like I did and I was at a Marriott Hotel and they had a book of mormon in the drawer, I pulled out the book of mormon the new, it was brand spankin new and I opened it up and it said if you rebel against God you’re getting, you’re skins gonna get darker and, and that you know that if you’re living for God your gonna be white and that white people are better. I mean that’s what the mormonism teaches and they still believe that book to this day but isn’t it funny that the book of mormon says if you don’t repent of your sins your not going to be as white when you get to heaven and isn’t it funny that in mosiah 16:13 it says and now ot ye not to tremble and repent of your sins. Third nephi 12:19 you shall believe me and repent of your sins and come unto me with a broken heart and contrite spirit. Third nephi 9:13 repent of your sins and be converted that I may hill you. Mosiah 4:10 and again believe that you must repent of your sins and forsake them and humble yourself before God and ask in sincerity of heart to forgive you blah blah blah. I don’t have time to go through them all friend because the book of mormon tells you over and over again to repent of your sins. Why didn’t the bible teach us that? Why is this fraud, this cheap imitation, this satanic counterfeit known as the book of mormon telling you over and over and over again to repent of your sins and in the Holy bible never tells you one time? You say well the bible tells you to repent, yeah but did it say repent of your sins. It said to repent of your ignorance, repent to the acknowledgment of the truth, repent from dead works, repent of a false god, repent of false religion, turn unto the Lord your God and look there are scriptures that talk about repent of your wickedness, when you’re already saved just, just to have a christian life that’s acceptable. Repent of this thy wickedness and so forth but beware of this false doctrine my friend.

I’m gonna close with this one last verse Jonah 3:10 go ahead and turn to Jonah 3:10, you say why is this so important, you know Jonah 3:10 pretty much sums it up here, so I’ll close on this. It says in Jonah 3:10 “And God saw their works,” What did God see? Works. “ God saw their works,” comma now he is gonna tell us what those works were. “that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.” That right there says when you turn from your evil way thats your works, so if you believe that a person has to turn from their evil way and believe on Christ, here’s what you're saying you have to believe on Christ and have works and you know what the bible says salvation is without works and Jonah 3:10 says turning from your sins or turning from your evil ways is works, so that’s why this is such an important doctrine, you see the devil wants to get you to trust your works to save you, all the way back to Cain and Abel, he’s trusting his works instead of the blood of the lamb, all the way back to the tower of babel, they’re trying to do their works to get them to heaven, all throughout Galatians he warns us, its a false gospel when you think that you are justified by works, all throughout Romans he tells us we are not justified by works. I mean he warns us look trust Christ for salvation, don’t trust works, so basically the devil wants to get in the back door, he doesn’t just want to come right out and say, trust works ok. Your like well no the bible says not to trust works, so he’s like well its not works but you do have to repent of your sins, well I’m not saving it’s works but you can’t just live however you want, I mean you gotta do something right> You gotta at least go to church three times a month or something, I mean you know you gotta do something right? No you have to do nothing because Jesus did everything, you believe on Christ, his works are sufficient, we don’t have to add to his works, he paid it all.

Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer, Father we thank you so much for your word and thank you for the free gift of salvation because frankly if we had to repent of our sins to be saved, first of all none of us would be able to do it and second of all even if we thought we had done it, we’d always be wondering whether we’d done it enough, every time we made a mistake we’d wonder man did I repent of my sins, here I am sinning again. Thank you for the free gift of salvation, thank you for eternal security, thank you for eternal life, everlasting life, thank you that we are secure and saved and preserved in Christ