Sound Doctrine: Repentance and Faith

So nice to have you back, Rebecca, as you're traveling.

Take your Bibles if you would please and turn to Mark. Mark chapter 1 verse 15 is the verse that we will use today for the subject as we're teaching through the sound doctrine series. Today's subject is faith and repentance. Faith and repentance. And I'd like to mention to our little kiddos who take notes through the message that yes, stickers will be available. Bring your notes up to me after the message and I'd love to put a sticker on the notes that you take to affirm and continue to celebrate the fact that you pay attention during the messages in our family discipleship services. Thank you so much for being here to worship.

As we talk about this subject today, I want you to know that faith and repentance are required of mankind and that is evidence that they have truly and genuinely been regenerated. Regeneration comes first. And today we're going to talk about faith and repentance as a result of what God has done first in their heart. And in our lifetime we have not capitalized upon what the true gospel really is. We've been too quick to affirm a profession and sometimes they have not truly had possession of the Holy Spirit. And we see the results of fake disciples, false disciples, those who proclaim to be Christians but yet are not walking in the faith. It's a tragedy. And so today we'll talk about repentance and faith and they are required for genuine faith.

In Mark chapter 1 verse 15 it talks about repent and believing the gospel. Let's start in verse 14. Mark 1:14, "Now after John," it being John the Baptist, "had been taken into custody." Now why was John the Baptist in custody? Because Herod married his niece and that's immoral. And Herod was called out by John and he found himself in prison for that. And so now after John had been taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of God.

I want to ask you a question at this point. How long until Christians who preach the gospel of God, not the gospel of this world with analogy, because there is a gospel in this world — there are those who think that they have been redeemed or experienced redemption in a worldly way. There are those who think that their redemption or their salvation is from perhaps being accepted by the world, being popular and being vilified from their victimhood stance. There are those who think that they were done wrong and now that the world recognizes that they have been done wrong, they've had redemption. That's not redemption. That's not salvation. But the gospel of God here is very clear and how long until we as Christians will be like John the Baptist, imprisoned for hate speech for clarifying what the true gospel is. It's a good question to think about.

In verse 15 it says, "And saying the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel." How urgent is it for us to believe that the kingdom of God is at hand? There will be a time where Jesus is literally reigning here on earth and this will be so amazing because the goats will be separated from the sheep.

When Christ comes again and He is ruling and reigning, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. There will be no longer an opportunity to repent. And so now we should preach the gospel the best we possibly can. Repentance and belief is the true gospel. We've kind of experienced such a tragedy in our last decades in how an overarching idea of a cheap substitute of the gospel has ignored the word repentance. Repentance and belief in the gospel is the gospel, but skipping repentance nullifies the gospel.

Turn with me if you would to James chapter 2 verse 19. I want to prove it to you. If you skip repentance then all of a sudden you have nullified the gospel. The gospel is repentance and faith, or belief in Jesus Christ in His substitutionary death and resurrection on your behalf for your sin. In James 2:19 the Bible says, "You believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe." The demons also believe. The demons don't believe unto obedience.

True repentance and true faith produces obedience. We're going to prove it to you today. So the demons believe and they even shudder. So many today believe in Christ but they don't even shudder — at least the demons are shuddering because they know the fear of God. But somehow, some way, by and large there are untold thousands if not millions of so-called Christians in our country around the world that truly believe that they have apprehended the true Christ and yet they live like the world. This is a pseudo faith. This is an artificial faith. This is bogus. This is wrong. This is to be clarified. It's a matter of life and death for eternity. And if we shrink back from this clarity then in my opinion we are not aligning ourselves with Jesus Christ and with Paul who said I will not shrink back from telling you anything that's profitable.

And so this plastic fake faith that is predominant today puts the person at the center of their own world as if God is a gimme God who exists to bless them and lift them up. And that's all they pray for is God's blessings. The true gospel is exclusive and the exclusive truth excludes a soft and watered-down gospel. This pseudo gospel excludes and nullifies bold evangelism. This fake faith excludes a call for holiness and true conversion and true regeneration and true repentance. A pseudo faith is not singular in nature. It's pluralistic and a pseudo faith is not a call to faithfulness to God's number one plan. What is God's number one plan? To distribute His gospel — the gospel of God — to a lost and dying world, through what He designed, that being the local church. That's God's number one plan and He did not create a number two plan. And so that's the reason why we are so committed to the church, because through the church, through the believers, we study the Bible and make disciples who make disciples who make disciples who make disciples. That's how you reach the ends of the earth. That's how you reach the nations. Right here with us multiplying disciples who can reach others who can reach others who can reach others. That's how we get to the downtown streets of Orlando. That's how you get to the uttermost parts of the world by simply studying the Bible and making disciples and preaching and teaching the true gospel.

This new gospel utterly fails to produce a reverence for God, a fear for God. This new gospel, the pseudo gospel, reduces God down to your homeboy as if you can just talk to Him as if He's your friend and He exists as a dispensable person in your life. It utterly fails to invoke repentance initially for faith and it utterly fails to invoke repentance regularly as you go through life. It is a false gospel. If you can live without regular repentance then I would ask you to examine your faith, because the Holy Spirit of God that really truly belongs and lives inside of you produces regular repentance for the true believer because you feel sorrow and regret for your sin. God brings you low when there's something out of sorts. God robs your peace when there's something out of sorts. God wants you to kneel down before Him in reverent prayer and say, "God, I'm out of sorts with You, something is not right here." And when you are disciplined by God or brought low by God, that is evidence that you are truly saved. And if you have not ever truly repented, if you have not ever truly bowed the knee to God, then perhaps you're not really saved.

In the very first part, this pseudo gospel fails to produce a true, genuine humility. In fact, those who would proclaim to be saved would even pervert good stories like when Jesus washed the disciples' feet. Jesus washed the disciples' feet in private and He did a deed unto them that was needed and He did that for them to serve them, to meet a need privately. But yet for some reason we parade this act of humility publicly, as if someone was to say, "Look at me, I'm the humblest out of everybody. Look at me, I'm washing their feet." Does that not, like, wearing the humble tag — you know, "I'm humble" — you lost your humility there, buddy.

And besides, what really needs to be happening? Do we need to wash each other's feet today? Is that a need? No, you've got your own bathtubs. You've got clean socks, I hope.

The true act of humility that is needed today — those needs that really need to be done — are like the widows who need their AC units fixed or looked at or examined, or like the single women who are just overwhelmed with life and they need gift cards so they can feed their kids. You name it. The humble deeds behind the scenes are what need to be done. But a pseudo gospel would put on Facebook all of the good deeds — "Look at me" — that I'm doing and all of the wonderful things that I do for God, as if God needs you.

Listen, guys, this pseudo fake gospel is out there, it's everywhere, and it points to the person rather than pointing to the person of God. And so being humble before Christ is a result of true repentance and faith. The true gospel produces humility. In fact, true genuine faith doesn't want to be recognized; it wants to glorify God. Even Jesus glorified God and the Holy Spirit is always pointing upward. And so true repentance and faith produces humility, but this new gospel produces a "look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me — look at what I fly around in." "I don't drive around in like you do, I fly — right in a jet. I've got more than one jet." As if that is the goal for Christianity, for God to bless you to this point, to get multiple jets. You know what I'm saying? If you're heading in the direction of "look at me" with lack of humility, then the pinnacle of that false gospel is that. And if you add five and ten and twenty years to the direction for which you're going, if you have not yet repented, that's the only direction you're going — you are lifting up yourself rather than lifting up God.

And so a friendly, non-controversial new gospel makes the atonement universalistic, it cheapens the gospel, it doesn't test the traditions of men, and it doesn't challenge people to search the Scriptures to examine themselves to see if they are really truly in the faith. The new gospel is the wrong gospel; the old gospel is the right gospel — the old, old gospel in the Scriptures.

And so turn to Galatians chapter one verse six. I want you to see truthfully how it's a possibility for a church to get totally consumed with the wrong gospel. A church can truly get consumed with a pseudo fake plastic gospel and think that they are doing what's right but in actuality they are doing what's wrong, because you know what? To the flesh it feels good to be lifted up. To the flesh it feels good to be recognized. To the flesh it feels good to receive, receive, receive, to be the center of attention.

But that's all flesh. In Galatians chapter one verse six and following, it says this: "I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting him who called you by the grace of Christ for a different gospel." Yes, folks, there is a different gospel out there. That is no gospel. There's only one gospel but there's all kinds of different gospels out there. In verse seven: "Which is really not another. Only there are some who are disturbing you and they want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed." Now that means anathema.

Verse nine: "As we have said before, so also I say again, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you have received, he is to be accursed." This is very, very strong language. In verse ten: "For am I now seeking the favor of men or of God? Am I now striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men I would not be a bond-servant of Christ." You cannot serve both Christ and man.

Now chapter two verse five, turn the page. Verse five, Paul continues to speak to the Galatians in a very stern way and he says, "But we did not yield in subjection to them." Who's "them"? Well, they are the ones who are trying to add parts of the law to the gospel. It's kind of like those who are trying to add social justice, woke tenets to the gospel today. They're in good churches and they're proclaiming works on top of grace, which nullifies grace. Paul is dealing with this satanic trick in the Galatian church — he's calling it out — and we too are also dealing with the same old tricks that are just repackaged today. And he is saying to the Galatians, "We did not yield in subjection to them even for an hour." And so if someone is proclaiming to you a false gospel, don't listen to him even for an hour. Cut them off. That's poison.

"Let me tell you where you've gone wrong. Can we talk about the pure true gospel?" Mark 1:15: "Repent and believe the gospel of God," not the gospel of the world. And then it says, "But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you." This is very important — the truth of the gospel. And then he repeated this in verse 14: "But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all." This is huge, folks. Paul now is going face to face with Peter. Peter, a good man, was deceived by a false gospel and drawn away for a short period of time, but thank the Lord for Paul. Thank the Lord for the boldness of Paul. Thank the Lord for your boldness who are willing to clarify what the true gospel is.

Can you imagine if Peter had not been rebuked by Paul right here? How long would Peter have been in subjection to this false gospel? Who knows. But, "I said to Cephas," that being Peter, "in the presence of all, 'If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, how is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like the Jews?'" Now Paul, he's pretty smart. That was a very strategic question. He just got straight to it right there. You could easily address a false gospel with a question and then say, "Deal with it." You expose a problem in the form of a question and draw them in.

So there is a true gospel and there is a false gospel. False gospels are always repackaged to try and pervert what is true. And then Paul kind of really goes for the jugular in chapter three verse one: "You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you? Before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified." Who has bewitched you? These things are like poison. A false gospel that perverts the true gospel is like a spell.

Wokeness is like a spell. It's almost like you're bewitched. Embracing a self-sufficient system of works as if you have earned the gospel is like a spell. There's a spell cast upon you, almost like you're bewitched, thinking you're underneath a demonic suppression of a false gospel — to think, "I have contributed to the cross, to the atonement." It's a direct attack upon the sufficiency of the priceless blood of Jesus. This gets right at the gospel, guys. To give an inch in any of these areas is to almost allow a spell to come upon you.

Good people can be deceived by a false gospel. Repentance and faith are both essential elements of the gospel. Obviously Peter here repented and got right. Now later on I believe, because of this, Peter was able to correct Simon from his false approach to Christ.

Turn with me to the book of Acts. Acts chapter 8. Simon was not saved and Peter called him out. Acts chapter 8. This is so important, folks, because this is where we are today. Acts chapter 8 is where we are. Chapter 8 talks about Philip and Samaria in verse 4.

Acts 8:4: "Therefore those who had been scattered went about preaching the word." Now verse 5: "Philip went down to the city of Samaria and began proclaiming Christ to them. The crowds with one accord were giving attention to what was said by Philip, and they heard and they saw the signs which he was performing." Verse 7: "For in the case of many who had unclean spirits, they were coming out of them, shouting with a loud voice, and many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed." Now in the early church the gifts of healing and prophetic words and all these things were to establish the early church. Cessationism would teach that that has ceased, that it didn't pass down through the apostles — it was for them. Now at this time these types of healings were happening.

In verse 8: "So there was much rejoicing in that city." Verse 9: "And there was a man named Simon who formerly was practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great."

That sound familiar? False prophets just make self-claims. They title themselves apostles. They title themselves with really long titles stacked on top of each other.

Verse 10: "And they all, from the smallest to the greatest, were giving attention to him, saying, 'This man is what is called the great power of God'" — and they were giving him attention, attention, attention, attention — "because he had for a long time astonished them with his magic arts."

I have to mention one more thing right here. If a false prophet or even a false-converted person is in love with astonishing and enamoring and entertaining the crowds, then that method has to be one-upped, and one-upped, and one-upped, and you see that with stuff like the church at the glades. And now the show gets more and more and more ridiculous, to the point where they bring stuff like Cirque de Soleil entertainment with ladies hanging on ropes and doing gymnastics and twirling from the ceiling into the house of God. It's terrible. Shows like you would see on MTV, brought into the church and calling it worship, singing secular songs and trying to put some type of spiritual twist on it. If you go down this road of trying to astonish people and entertain people, it's just going to get worse and worse and worse, even down to the point where even magic is something that you would entertain.

In verse 12: "But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike." Now you remember what we just talked about, right? He believed. But who believed as well? The demons believed as well, in James 2:19. Simon believed here. He believed what he saw. "Even Simon himself believed and after being baptized" — he even followed through and got baptized — but it wasn't really a baptism, it was just getting wet. "And after being baptized, he continued on with Philip as he observed signs and great miracles taking place and he was constantly amazed."

See, Simon here was a magic performer. He performed magic and he was in love with enamoring the crowds and he loved the attention of the people. He saw that the people were now following Philip preaching the gospel and the crowd was now going with Philip rather than with him being able to entertain them. He was like, "Oh, I need to change occupations. Instead of performing magic I need to preach the gospel to get all the crowds." And so now he's switching gears to figure out how he can continue to enamor the people.

In verse 14: "Now when the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, for He had not yet fallen upon them — they had simply been baptized in the name of Jesus." Then they began laying their hands on them and they were receiving the Holy Spirit. Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was bestowed through the laying on of the apostles' hands, he offered them money saying, "Give this authority to me as well so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit."

Then Peter said to him — here's the correction: "May your silver perish with you because you have thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. You have no part or portion in this matter. Your heart is not right before God." Underline that: your heart is not right before God. When you recognize the motives are wrong, God has helped you to see that it's your job to say, "Perhaps brother, sister, you're not in the faith. Maybe you are not a brother or a sister. Maybe you are not saved, because I see that your motives in this whole thing are wrong from the very core of it." And what's the answer?

The next verse. Repent. Repent. When you see it, call it. Call them to repentance and faith in Jesus Christ.

Verse 22: "Therefore repent of this wickedness of yours and pray the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart may be forgiven you." I want you to see how he does the two-step here. And Simon slides out from underneath true repentance. And this is the case for those who have a rebellious heart. They want nothing to do with submitting toward God. Watch how Simon eludes, ever so slightly, true repentance with some spiritual language — what we call Christianese. You can sound like a Christian all you want, but you ain't if you have never repented.

And he eludes repentance. Verse 23: "For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of iniquity." But Simon answered and said, "Pray to the Lord for me yourself so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me."

Can someone pray for you to be repented? Well, you can pray for your loved ones to repent, but they must pray for repentance, actually experience repentance, right?

Right here the command from the Apostle Peter in verse 22 was "repent," and the reply was, "Pray to the Lord for me." He didn't want the consequences of his actions. He was sorry he got caught. He was not truly sorry.

And so there's a difference between saints and ain'ts. A lot of times the ain'ts — those who ain't saved — act like they're saved and they're in it for the wrong things. There is much debate on this subject, whether or not to call out false prophets, whether or not to question someone's faith. There's a lot of debate in this area. But for some reason it's pooh-poohed or looked down upon if you would talk about this area. And that's a lie from the evil one. The same thing as the separation between church and state — believe me, if the state is doing something immoral, then I'm going to be biblical and talk about it.

We need not to fall for these clever clichés from the evil one, but question these things and say, "Well, should I just accept the fact that someone said they were saved when they were little but they've never darkened the doors of the church? They don't love the brethren. They don't repent of their sins. They live like the world. Should I, or should I just let it be and keep the peace?" There's much debate on this subject, but I want you to know that the Apostle Paul never shrank back from declaring the truth of the gospel. And we need to be like that as well.

Turn to Acts chapter 24 and verse 5. I want you to see what Paul was known for. Acts chapter 24 and verse 5. This is great. And you know, may you too also have this reputation.

I don't know if you know this, but Paul had a reputation of being a pest. He was a pest. That was his reputation. That's what he was known for. In Acts chapter 24 verse 5: "For we have found this man a real pest." What a compliment.

He's a real pest and a fellow who stirs up dissension. See how this is negatively stated? "Among all the Jews throughout the world" — well, the Jews felt like they were saved because they were children of Abraham. They had not truly repented. And Paul is going after them, and he really loves the Jews. He used to be a Pharisee of Pharisees and he is like, "Salvation is through Christ and Christ alone. I'm willing to be stoned and even martyred because of this true gospel. I truly love the Jews." But for his proclaiming of the gospel of God, it got him the reputation of being a pest, a real pest. "And a fellow who stirs up dissension among the Jews throughout the world and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes." That is a knock on Christians, those who follow Christ, because Christ was from Nazareth. Paul's a real pest. May you, and you, and you, and you be a real pest for God.

Go after your family. Go after your friends, your neighbors, and your loved ones. Pester them to no end. "Lest you repent, you shall likewise perish."

Luke 13:3 says that. "Lest you repent, you shall likewise perish." You shall likewise perish. Sometimes saints separate over sound doctrine. And that's okay. That's okay. If they cannot see in the Scriptures where we should rightly divide the Word of God and stand upon sound doctrine, and they shrink back, see ya. We're going to stand upon the Word of God. Amen.

We're going to continue to proclaim the truth of God, the true gospel. And so what is the true gospel? What is repentance and faith? I must clean up something from Wednesday night. Some of you were here Wednesday night and we were talking about the gospel. And man, I had studied all morning, hours and hours and hours. I had reviewed in the afternoon for a couple of hours. We were talking about prayer and the gospel and all kinds of cool stuff. And I thought, "Oh, I'm going to give everybody who comes Wednesday night a tract to encourage them to pray for their loved ones and to continue to share the gospel." I reached into my tract drawer and I grabbed this "free ticket to get to heaven," right? It's got the gospel on the back. I grabbed it and I passed it out.

Oi. It skips repentance. And it's "easy-believe this and pray your prayer." And like half of the Wednesday night crowd were just waiting for me to expose the error in the tract or something like that. I didn't even know. I didn't even read it. So, listen to me — read everything before you distribute, even if it's in your office. I don't know who gave me these, but I have thrown them all away except for this one. And this one's going into the garbage as well. It is through this kind of stuff right here — "just pray this prayer, here's your free ticket" — that has made an entire culture think that they are Christians because they prayed a prayer, because they proclaimed. Don't — let me ask you, can your words change a heart?

Can what you say do anything? No. But God, when He speaks, can He change the heart? Oh, yes. In the beginning, when He spoke, God spoke all of this into existence. He has that power. We don't.

So anyway, I had to clean that up because that was awful. So what is repentance and faith? What is it? What is repentance and faith?

Number one, I'm going to give you five points. Number one, it's conversion.

Point number one is conversion. Conversion is the human side. Regeneration is the divine side. We talked about regeneration last week. God does it. Conversion is the human side. Regeneration is the divine side. This is a twofold biblical depiction of salvation. This happens at the same time. And so man's freedom is not overridden, but penetrated and quickened so that man's will, which is in bondage, can truly be made free for the first time.

God penetrates the heart and the soul, quickens the spirit, and man's will is then used to repent and believe the gospel. So this twofold truth is this: God turns man to Himself, and then man turns himself toward God. In Acts 13 verse 48, it says, "As many as had been appointed to eternal life believed." And so, "as many as had been appointed" — God appointed some to believe. Those who had been appointed, they believed. Acts 13:48. And then in Acts 11 verse 18, we also see that God grants these things. Acts 11:18: "When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, 'Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.'" And so repentance is something that God grants. It's not only a grant but it's also a duty. These are inseparable truths that we see the Bible proclaiming. And so when we obey the Word of God and use our will to repent and place our faith and trust in the gospel, the gospel of God, we then later find out that it was God who quickened us to be able to believe.

Ezekiel 11:19 makes it clear that God puts a new spirit within you. Ezekiel 11:19: "I will put a new spirit within them." This is a new heart. It's very easy to remember this doctrine and the fact that God goes first. He always does. He always has. God has always been. God goes first. He created first creation, and then He creates a new heart first. And then the response to a new heart is repentance and faith. And so, "I will put a new spirit within them," Ezekiel 11:19. And then in Ezekiel 37:12, it says this: "I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances."

So from the new heart, it produces obedience to the ordinances. The new heart that God puts in there, a new spirit, then produces the right kind of behavior. So belief equals behavior. So these two turning points are inseparable. So here it is: converting and turning from sin is repentance, and turning to Christ is faith. You turn from sin — right? — from sin to Christ. Two things in one motion. From sin to Christ. Repentance and faith, same thing. Same action here. You're repenting, truly turning from going in the wrong direction, and turning and repenting by faith into Christ. And this is a gift of God. It's tremendous.

And so what is repentance and faith? Number one, it's conversion. Number two, it's change. You see that this new heart produces new behavior. This change, it's a voluntary change of mind.

And you see sin differently than what you have seen it before. In Psalm 51, David saw that he was brought forth in iniquity, that he had had total depravity from the time that he was born. He was conceived, he was born in total depravity, in sin. He saw that differently. He saw his life differently. So it's a change of mind when it comes to seeing sin. No longer is sin to be tolerated. No longer is sin to be in your life at all. He sees sin different. It's a change of mind. It's a complete now abandonment of embracing any kind of sin.

By the way, in Psalm 51, just a little bit of sin leads to a whole lot of pain and suffering, right? David's lust towards Bathsheba, all kinds of pain and suffering. And from that little lustful act, not being checked at that point, changed his life forever and the life of others. Death and — oh, maybe a baby died, just all — married a different woman, all kinds of different changes in life. You can go back in your life and you think to yourself — I think this to myself — I wonder, as a little boy, if my parents would have said to me, "Do you want to move to Florida?" "I don't want to move to Florida, I love North Carolina."

And perhaps they would have stayed in North Carolina because their little boys — me and my brother — would prefer North Carolina over Florida.

I would never have met my wife. I would never have had my girls or my son. Everything would be changed. It wouldn't be right here, perhaps. David's entire life was changed. So we need to confess our sins as we do. We have a different view of sin right away. You do not tolerate lust. You don't tolerate anything. You change right away because it has the potency to change a lot of things. And so in that realization that sin is detrimental, you change your life.

And so true repentance and faith produces change. Number one, it's conversion. Number two, it is a change. And let me describe this change to you from Galatians chapter 5 verses 16 and following. "But I say to you, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are" — a converted person will see this for what it is — "immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these. Of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God." If Paul said that these things — if these things are a part of your life, if you practice these things — you are not going to inherit the kingdom of God. You're not saved. You're a false convert. If you proclaim that you are a Christian and you do these things, Paul said it — it's Scripture, it's real. We should also proclaim it; it's real.

But here's a transition in verse 22, Galatians 5:22. "But the fruit of the Spirit" — you see, Ezekiel gave a new spirit, a new heart — and the fruit of this new conversion is "love, and joy, and peace, and patience, and kindness, and goodness, and faithfulness, and gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law." You're not going to be condemned. In fact, these things will continue to grow in your life. You actually will feel remorse for not executing these things well, the fruit of the Spirit, the fruits of the Spirit. You will want, inside of your heart — your new heart — to love the brethren and the sisterhood more. You will want to be more patient. You will actually tremble and fear that perhaps you were not patient enough in a conversation.

Or perhaps you will feel guilt over not being joyful, that you've gone through as a negative nag all day long. You see the difference? But for those who are non-converted, they don't have that type of conviction. It's amazing. It produces change. Repentance and faith produce not only true conversion, but a true change.

Number three, faith. I told Faith that half of this message today was about her name, Faith, so I'm glad to see Faith. Faith is required for salvation. Faith is the means by which you obtain salvation. We're not saved by our faith — you cannot save yourself. We're saved through faith. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 says, "For by grace you have been saved." So it's by God's grace, His kindness, His mercy, His wonderful selection of you. It's by His grace and mercy that you've been saved.

We're not saved by our faith. We're saved through our faith. "For by grace you have been saved through faith." It's through faith. And by the way, your faith that you have is a gift from the Lord. God granted you the faith. You believe by faith because you've been granted a new heart. Faith is, by the way, not a feeling.

Your feelings are not faith.

Remember this: Jeremiah 17:9 says that your heart is deceitful and desperately wicked — all of a sudden you cannot trust it. So be careful not to make spiritual decisions off of how you feel. And this is very tricky language, because "I feel like this," or "I don't know if that feels right."

I'm just telling you, take it to the Word of God. Don't trust your feelings. Trust the Word of God, especially in the area of salvation. There are many, many, many false professions made through an emotional ploy, through an emotional story. You can watch Bambi and the biggest burly guy will cry his eyes out when little bitty Bambi dies, right? And then you ask him something — or whatever — you tell this emotional story, you bring him down and then say, "Do you want to believe in Jesus Christ?" It's an emotional story about perhaps spending eternity in hell, and then ask him to repeat this prayer. See the ploy?

God can save through our faulty means. Praise God.

But we better not be creating these pragmatic, faulty schemes just for numbers.

To build up ourselves and say, "Look who I led to Christ," or "How many souls were saved because of me" — that's a lack of humility, and humility is a necessity for ministry. It's real important for us to see that faith is a gift and it's through faith, not by faith, that we are saved. Faith is not a feeling. Faith is a true act of the will. Faith is being dependent upon Christ. It is surrendering to Him from the very innermost parts of your will, your volition, your heart. So faith is not merely knowing the facts. It is a wholehearted commitment to Christ.

And you know if you have true, genuine faith because it has been given to you. Hebrews 11:1 says that faith is our hope and our conviction. Hebrews 11:6 says that without faith it is impossible to please God. And then in James 2:17 it says, "Even so faith, if it has not works, is dead." And so you see that change is a result of true faith. All of these things happen at the same time. When you are regenerated, you're converted. When you're converted, you experience life change. When you experience life change, it produces works. It produces works because you have been saved — you don't work to get saved. So James 2:20 says that faith without works is dead. Same thing in James 2:17. You work, you do things differently because you've been converted.

And so what is repentance and faith? Number one is conversion. Number two is change. Number three is faith. And number four, knowing that these are commands. They're commands. Faith and repentance are commands in Scripture. Repentance and faith are commands. Mark 1:15: "Repent and believe the gospel." That's the reason why you preach and share the gospel adamantly. You lay the weight on their chest: repent and believe the gospel. "Lest you repent, you likewise perish." Give them the facts. Give them as soon as you can. Skip right to the chase. You love them enough to tell them the truth. Do everything you possibly can to give them the gospel while you can.

It's a command not only to share the gospel, to make disciples, to evangelize, but it's a command to repent and to believe. These are all commands. This is what Christians do. The change in your life prompts you to want to be obedient to God's commands. And so these are a regular part of your life — to command people, to be commanding, to command them to repent and believe. It's not like you're strong-arming them or twisting them and saying the word "repent." You just call them. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, Romans 10:17. So we call them to repentance and faith. Luke 13:3: "Unless you repent, you likewise perish." Acts 3:19: "Therefore repent and turn, so that your sins may be wiped out."

So number one, conversion. Number two, change. Number three, faith. Number four, commands. What is repentance and faith? Number five, they are gifts of mercy.

Gifts of mercy. They are gifts. Romans 9:15: "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy." And in that same chapter, there's a warning not to get too bogged down on this subject. This is like God's area.

Do not get too bogged down on this area. Just believe both that you are to repent and that God grants repentance. Real easy. How do you explain salvation? You explain salvation the way the Scriptures say. It's very easy: repent and believe the gospel. That's all there is to it.

In Romans 2:4, it says this: "Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and restraint and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?" God's kindness, His mercy, is a gift that leads you to repentance. And did you know that not only is repentance a granted gift, but along with this faith that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is a completely different lifestyle than Joel Osteen says that Christians are to have.

Philippians 1:29 not only grants you the faith, but it also grants you suffering. "In Philippians 1:29, it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but to suffer for His sake." It is very important for you to know that suffering is a means by which God distributes His gospel. Think of the cross. Are you now a Christian and are to live in like fashion with the cross? And so the cross is for us to see how we are to live and be. And so count it not strange when you have fiery trials. Count it not strange. Count yourself faithful when you can say, "Wow, this is really tough," and then when you see that God grants you the ability to sail through the storm, you say to yourself, "Wow, this is an empowerment of the Lord. He has made me not only to believe, but to be able to stand through the suffering. It's called grace, God's grace. It's amazing grace."

And so for the Christian, you can believe that this little short life here on earth holds for us a true element of suffering.

And so now as I conclude, I ask you: have you repented and placed your faith in Jesus Christ? Has there been a day where you knelt down and you felt the unrelenting sorrow of your sin that caused you to weep?

Have you experienced that? True conversion, true regeneration? Has God brought you low? Because 2 Corinthians 7:10 makes it very clear that godly sorrow leads unto repentance, unto salvation. This process of getting saved cannot happen unless you comprehend the cross, why Jesus died on the cross — lest you think that you had some part in it. But when you are brought low and you truly see your sin for what it is, you embrace the sorrowfulness and you weep because of your sin, which is against a holy God.

And then it prompts you to repent. And believe me, when that true repentance starts to flow and is genuine, there is no saving your integrity. You're just bawling your eyes out because God is doing it. There's nothing else, nobody else really exists because you're just pouring out your repentance. When God grants you that, the God of the universe, the Creator of the universe, now invades and transforms your heart. This is change, new hearts, conversion, regeneration, all at the same time. Everything changes.

And so have you done this? Have you repented? If you do not repent to be saved, then you will be sentenced. That's all that's left for you. And so have you repented, or have you been sentenced? That's the case. You're already sentenced to hell for eternity. You're under God's wrath if you have not repented.

So I plead with you, as well as I plead with anybody who hears — do not be judged on the wrong side of judgment. Be judged on the right side of judgment. Acts 17:31 says, "Because He has set a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness." There is a day. God already knows that day. We don't know that day, but there's going to be a day where God will judge in righteousness. And Hebrews 10:30 says, "The Lord will judge." He will. That's a promise. Hebrews 10:31: "It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of a living God."

And so Jesus says, "Come to Me, all you who are weary and heavy laden. I will give you rest." That true rest, that true peace, that true salvation — "I will give that to you if you come to Me." Mark 1:15 says, "Repent and believe the gospel." 1 Corinthians 15 talks about the gospel being the death and the burial and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ — all of those supernatural, miraculous events on your behalf to pay for your sin. There's no way that you could die for your sin and be resurrected and do it yourself. It takes a divine Savior. And I pray that you've repented and placed your faith and trust in the true gospel and not the American false gospel of easy-believism that enables false converts to live worldly, to be unsympathetic to the brethren, to live in sin without remorse and sorrow.

I pray that you have truly, truly, truly repented and placed your faith in Jesus and now you're in Christ and you've experienced this new life, this new behavior. You no longer enjoy your sin, you hate sin, you struggle with it, you hate when you revert, and it causes you to confess your sins as you do them. You come to Jesus. Repent and believe. This true faith can be granted to you when you comprehend and turn from your sin and turn to Jesus. Let's pray.

Father, I pray that You would help us as a congregation to embrace sound doctrine, to see this world in error but You in righteousness. God, I pray that You would help us, Lord, to see that sound doctrine includes repentance and faith in the true gospel — not a pseudo gospel, not a fake gospel, not a plastic gospel. Lord, I pray that You would help us to see the truth here and to repent and believe. If there's anyone here who has never truly bowed in their inner posture toward You in reverence and in holiness and said, "Lord, forgive me, I have sinned against You," God, I pray that You would draw that soul by the power of Your Holy Spirit low, help them to experience the sorrow of their sin, help them to kneel down and take time to repent and to confess everything that they possibly can, but most assuredly their sin that is in opposition to You. God, help them to cry out to You and to say, "I believe that You died on the cross and rose again for my sins. Please save me." God, grant them the ability to well up from within themselves a true confession, that is a true conversion from being regenerated.

Lord, we love You and we believe that it's the power of God unto salvation and that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So we commit to continue to spread the true gospel. God, I pray that You would give this congregation a new boldness, a refreshed and renewed perspective to the urgency to spread the gospel, to pass out tracts, to call people, to love on them, to share with them.

Did you know that in Acts chapter 8, Peter revealed to Simon that he was not saved? Did you know that that story is in the Bible? Did you know that Simon was in it for the wrong reason? It was Peter who did a good deed, who was able to have a hard conversation, and I want to do the same. Lord, give us the boldness to care enough to be able to share with those who are truly unconverted and living in a worldly way that they can be renewed if they would repent and believe. God, I pray that You would help us to spread the gospel and make disciples. God, I pray that through this local church great things would come because of our faithfulness to You and our boldness.

Help us not to shrink back, help us to be willing to also be arrested and thrown in prison like John the Baptist was. Help us, Lord, to follow in the path of not only the apostles who were martyred for their faith, but the reformers before us who created a pathway forward for us to be able to spread the gospel in this great nation. Lord, help us to see the urgency now for us to participate in Your kingdom-building plan and to think to ourselves, "What else are we here for truly, other than to worship You and spread the gospel?" Help us, Lord, we pray in these areas. We'll give You all the praise and all the glory for our good and Your glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.