Repent and Believe the Gospel

We're going to pick up in this second section with where we left off in Matthew 7-21. Actually, I think there's probably a scripture on here before that. But let's get us back to where we were right before the break. You remember in Luke 12-32, Christ said, don't fear it's God's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. He wants to give mankind that. We know that salvation is a gift from God. Grace is a gift from God. The kingdom is a gift from God. What he gives, he gives freely to us. But there is something that he expects from us. You know, as the New Testament church began, and you remember in Acts 2 where Peter was talking to the people and he was explaining from the scriptures and the prophecies in the Old Testament that Jesus was the Messiah that they were waiting for.

And when they realized the truth and when they understood what had happened, there was a question that they came and asked him. They said, men and brethren, what shall we do? As God opens our minds and we begin to understand his truth, when we understand what plan he's working out below, when we understand the truth of the kingdom of God and the things that the Bible says, then there are things that are different, perhaps, than what we've learned in other places and other times. What do we do with it? Is it enough just to know? Well, we'll get back to the answer to that question a little bit, but I know you know that the answer is not, that it's not just enough to know, because in Matthew 7, 21, Christ said that not everyone that says, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven.

It's not enough to just say, you know him. It's not enough to just say, I believe in him. There's more that God requires, because what his purpose below is, is that he is looking for people, and he is looking to develop people who have the seeds of joy, who have the seeds of peace, who have the seeds of love, who have the seeds of the kingdom that he plants in them.

And it's people that have those seeds that allow God's Holy Spirit to grow in them that make up the people in a kingdom that is going to be like the distinct kingdom we just tried this morning. He who does the will of my Father in heaven. What is God's will? Peter answers the question for us in 2 Peter 3 verse 9. He says the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, and his promise is that he will return again and set up his kingdom. He's not slack concerning his promise as some count slackness, but he's long suffering toward us, patient with us, not willing that any should perish.

He doesn't want anyone to miss out on what he has prepared. He's not willing that any should reject him or not have the opportunity to live what God has planned for mankind. But he is willing that all should come, and wanting that all should come to repentance. In order to enter the kingdom of God, there's a first step, and every single person who will be in the kingdom of God will have to do it. And that's repentance. And that's what we're going to talk about here this afternoon or in this session. Back in Mark 1 verse 14, we read this this morning.

Again, Jesus came to Galilee, and he was preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and he said, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. And what did he say? Repent. Repent and believe the gospel. He's not the only one who said, Repent? John the Baptist, who paved the way for him, said it over and over again as he prepared the way for Jesus Christ. He came and he said, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent. Christ, later in talking to the disciples that were gathered around him, said in Luke 13 verse 3, You will perish.

You'll perish too. Unless you repent of your sins and turn to God. You'll perish too. Unless you repent. You won't have eternal life. You won't be in that kingdom unless you repent. And in Acts 17 verse 30, after the New Testament church began, after Christ was resurrected into heaven, or ascended into heaven, says, Truly these times of ignorance God overlooked. Or God winked at. I like the way the old King James puts it better.

The times of ignorance. The times when we didn't know the truth. When we didn't know God's way. Those times God winked at. It's still sin, not to obey it, but God winked at them. But now he commands all men everywhere to repent. Repentance is a pretty big issue. Pretty big thing. An absolute must if you want to enter the kingdom of God. It's the first step. And every single person, every single person who will be in the kingdom of God will repent. And every single one of us has something to repent of. Do you really know what repentance is?

I can turn on the TV on Sunday morning. And there's a well-known preacher that I feel probably millions listen to every week. And at the close of his broadcast he says something like, If you'll just say this simple little prayer, I repent of my sins and accept you as my Lord and Savior. If you just say that simple little prayer, he says, We believe you've been born again. Is that what the Bible talks about as repentance? Is it just saying, I repent? I repent and accept you as my Lord and Savior. Well, let's take some time and see what the Bible defines as repentance. Because if it's something that every single one of us have to do, we should know what it is that God is looking for from us. Back in Hebrews 6, our list of the doctrines of the church. In Hebrews 6, verse 1, it says, Therefore leaving the discussion of the principles of the doctrine of Christ. And he's talking to a mature group of Christians. We know the doctrines. Let's move beyond that and understanding. Leaving the discussion of the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let's go on to perfection. Let's keep moving forward. Let's keep moving toward what God wants us to become. Not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works. We lay that foundation when God calls us. We lay that foundation when we understand. Everyone has to lay that foundation in their lives of repentance from dead works. Works that don't lead to life. Works that lead to death. We know what leads to life, living God's way. We know what leads to death. Proverbs 14, verse 25 says, There's a way that seems right to a man. The end thereof is the way of death. Living our own way. Living the way apart from what Christ said. And the Bible says, that leads to the way of death. We all have something to repent of. We lay a foundation of repentance from dead works. And then, of course, the second one is faith toward God. And the third one is baptism. But repentance is at the foundation.

Is repentance just a matter of saying, as you walk up to the front of a room, I repent of my sins?

Let's look at some principles of biblical repentance.

First of all, repentance is not just remorse. It's not just a matter of saying, I'm sorry. That's a very easy thing to do. And there is remorse that's mentioned in the Bible. It's crucial for all of us to know the difference between remorse or just feeling sorry and what real repentance is. Being remorseful comes from that Greek word that you can look at, but I'm not going to try to pronounce. It's an emotional response. We feel sorry for something that we did. You know, when we're kids, we always get caught doing something. And a lot of times when we get caught, we're sorry we got caught. And that's really the extent of it. We think, well, next time I'm going to wait until mom or dad are farther away from the thing I'm doing. And we're sorry we got caught, as opposed to sorry for what we did. And it's an emotional thing, but it's not the repentance that God is looking for. It's not the repentance that's required if we're going to enter the kingdom of God.

It doesn't involve a change of course in mind. All it is is, I'm sorry. I'm sorry I got caught. I'm sorry that I'm feeling bad at this point. Remorse is just that. Let's look, if you have your Bibles there, let's look at an example back in Matthew 27 of Judas. We all know who Judas was. He betrayed Jesus Christ. And if anyone should have had something to be sorry for or be repentant of, you would think it would have been Judas. And you remember that he betrayed Christ. And there was a point where he was sorry for what he did. Let's look at verse 1 of chapter 27.

It says, When morning came, all the chief priests and elders of the people plotted against Jesus to put him to death. And when they had bound him, they led him away and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor. Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that he had been condemned, was remorseful. And I'm reading from the New King James. Someone out there is reading from the Old King James, and I think it uses the word repentant, right? Or he repented. He had been condemned and he repented and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I've sinned by betraying innocent blood. And they said, what is that to us? See to it. And he threw down the pieces of silver in the temple, and he departed, and he went, and he hanged himself. He was that Greek word. That Greek word that is appropriately translated remorseful, as it is in the New King James, inappropriately translated as repentance, as it is in the Old King James. Judas was sorry for what he had done. When he looked at what had happened, he never expected that it was going to go that far with Christ. He thought, I don't know what he thought, maybe he just thought they were going to chastise him a little bit, and in the process he would make some money because we know, in reading about him, his real interest was money. That was what his weakness was, and he put that ahead of Jesus Christ. So when it came to the point that he realized what he had done, he was sorry for what he had done. And he went out and he hanged himself. But you know, Judas, Judas didn't repent. Judas didn't look into himself and say, what did I do? What is in me that led me to do that? What do I need to change in order that this action wouldn't occur again? Let me read from one of the commentaries, its comment on this verse. It says, a man may hate sin just as a murderer hates the gallows, but this doesn't prove repentance. If I hate sin because of the punishment, I haven't repented of sin. I merely regret that God is just, but if I can see sin as an offense against Christ and loathe myself because I have wounded him, then I have brokenness of heart. Judas went so far as to kill himself, but he didn't repent.

He was just very, very sorry for what he had done. We have another example, an Old Testament story that we read about, an analysis of it in the New Testament. You remember Esau. He was the twin brother of Jacob.

He was the firstborn who had the right to the blessing and who had the right to the birthright. You remember he sold his birthright for a cup of soup.

Then, when it was time for the blessing to be passed on, Jacob, if you remember, tricked him out of that as well. He dressed himself up as Jacob and Isaac, who he wasn't able to see, gave the blessing to Jacob instead of Esau. When Esau came back and realized what had happened, it says, well, let's turn there. Let's just turn to Genesis 27.

Genesis 27, verse 34.

This is, of course, 34, where he learns that Isaac has already passed the blessing on and there couldn't be two given. When Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with an exceedingly great and bitter cry. Very sorry, very remorseful for what had happened. And he said to his father, bless me, me also, my father. But Isaac said, your brother came with deceit and has taken away your blessing. And Esau said, isn't he rightly named Jacob, for he has supplanted me these two times. He took away my birthright and now he's taken away my blessing. Have you reserved a blessing for me, Father? And Isaac answered and told him and gave him the blessing. This is recorded there in verse 37. And Esau said to his father in verse 38, have you only one blessing, my father? Bless me also. And Esau lifted up his voice and he wept. He was bitterly, bitterly sorry. He was so upset for what had happened. And certainly with all those tears and all the emotion that he was feeling, you would think that there was repentance in him. How could he have counted as so little that birthright that he would have sold it for a bowl of soup? But you know, Esau wasn't repentant. Let's go back to Hebrews 12.

And the author of Hebrews hearkens back to this event in Hebrews 12 and verse 14.

Now, let's pick it up in verse... Well, let's read through verse 14. The beginning of the sentence, Pursue peace with all people and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Looking carefully, lest anyone fall short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up, cause trouble. And by this many become defiled. Lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. He counted something that should have been so valuable to him and he was willing to just give it away for a bowl of soup.

He just didn't know what was important. He certainly wasn't seeking God's kingdom first, because he was willing to give away the most important thing, or one of the most important things in his life there, for a bowl of soup. Who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know, verse 17, that afterward when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. It wasn't his...he wasn't going to receive the blessing. For he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears. He was very sorry. He was that Greek word up there. But he wasn't repentant. He didn't look and he didn't follow that remorse for what he had done with what true repentance is.

Repentance. When you see the word repent in the Bible, it should come from the Greek word metaneo. You can see the difference between those two words there. One is remorseful. One is truly repentant. And metaneo involves a change of mind. A change in the way you think.

What you did before, and when you understand right from wrong, when you understand God's way versus your own way, or another way that you follow, it changes the way you think. You can go back and you can see what needs to happen in your life, and you don't want to live that way anymore.

Jacob, not Jacob, Judas, never repented. He never took that step. He was sorry for what he had done. But he never repented. Esau was bitterly sorry for what had happened. But he never understood how he just disdained and counted for nothing that birthright. And he just went on with his life and was just angry with Jacob.

True repentance involves will and intellect. It's a choice that we make. A choice to live one way of life over another.

It includes being remorseful because when we understand God's way of life, when we understand and we love God and want what he wants us to want, we're sorry for what we've done. We're sorry that we've lived a life apart from his law, apart from the law of the kingdom.

But if all we are is sorry, it's not enough.

Repentance is more than just saying, I'm sorry.

Repentance is more than just walking down an aisle and praying a short prayer, I repent of my sins and accept you as my Lord and Savior.

Much, much, much more. And it has a dramatic effect on us.

Back in 2 Corinthians 7, Paul talks about these two kinds of sorrows that people can get confused about.

And they may think that they repented when they haven't. He says, Godly sorrow, the sorrow that God is looking for us to have. Godly sorrow produces repentance. And notice he says, leading to salvation.

Repentance leads to salvation. True repentance leads to salvation.

Without repentance, there is no salvation. Without repentance, there is no entering the kingdom of God.

Without turning from your old way to God's way, there is no kingdom. There is no future. There is no hope. There is no eternal life.

And Paul produces repentance leading to salvation. Not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world. Just feeling bad about what happened. Produce his death.

He produced death for Judas. He was very, very sorry. And he killed himself as a result of that sorrow. But he didn't repent. He was just very sorry. We want to be much more than very sorry. We want to do, and we want to repent in the way that God tells us we must repent.

What do we repent of? We repent of being a sinner.

Jeremiah 17, verse 9 speaks to all of us when it says, The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it?

You know, when we look at ourselves, when we analyze ourselves, when we see what the true motivations that we have are when God begins to open our minds and the Holy Spirit begins to work with us, we can just see how wicked our heart is. And we can see how consumed it is with just the things that pertain to us.

Jeremiah, God inspired him to write this. And every single person who comes to true repentance feels this about himself. He looks at himself and he realizes what type of a person he is, apart from God's Holy Spirit. Just a sinner. Just a wicked person that has wicked thoughts, that devises wicked imaginations.

Nothing good in him. Paul felt the same way in a series of verses in Romans 7, where he is wrestling with his true nature. And he's, you can feel as you read through Romans 6, 7, and 8, how he is just fighting with himself. Because he knows what he should do, and yet he's got this inner nature and these inner desires that he's trying to overcome.

He says in verse 21, See the struggle? He knows what he wants to do. He wants to live God's way, but he knows what's inside of him. And he's wrestling with it, and he has to overcome. There's only one way we overcome, and that's through God's Holy Spirit. He goes on in verse 24, and he says, Sounds like Jeremiah. What a wicked heart I have! What a wretched person I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Because if I give into it, if I allow it to dictate my thoughts, my actions, the things I do every day, it's going to lead to death. And Paul didn't want death. He knew the way to life. Who will deliver me from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. With my mind, now that I understand and God has opened it, and he had gone through repentance, I follow the law of God. That way of life, that leads to all those good things we talked about earlier today. That leads and will be the way of life in the kingdom. But if he just gives into his flesh, if he just does what comes naturally, if he just does what the world tells us to do, just be whoever you want to be. Be whatever you feel like being. It's not the way of God. If you look down at those fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5, 22, and 23, the last one there is self-control. You've got to control your own desires. We do that with God's Holy Spirit. Repent, change the way we think, live the way that God wants, and live by his law, and not the way that lives in the flesh.

Let's take a minute here and talk about sin, just so that we're all on the same page. What is sin? The sinful nature that we repent of. We talk that we're sinners. What is sin? 1 John 3, 4 gives the best definition of it.

Whoever commits sin transgresses the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. When we break the law, the law of the kingdom, the law that will be enforced when Jesus Christ returns and sets up his kingdom, the law by which the people of God live today, when we transgress it, when we act against it, we sin.

And when we sin, we earn death. James 2, verse 10 says, whoever shall keep the whole law, keep everything, all those commandments that make up God's way of life, whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he's guilty of all. You can keep them all, but if you lie, you still earn death. You don't get credit for keeping 9 of 10 right. You don't get credit for keeping 7 or 8 of 10 right.

What God expects is his people and the people in the kingdom are going to live all the law, all the law, the way of life, is what he is looking for. And many of you have heard that Christ, when he came and he died, he did away with the law.

They talk about it as being too burdensome, those 10 commandments. That Israel couldn't live by him, so when Christ came, it's almost as if, well, God realized he made a mistake, just do away with him. Did Christ do away with the law? Did he teach that? Did he make it part of the Bible that we live by every word of today? Did Jesus Christ, who the Bible says is the same yesterday, today, and forever?

The Bible that says, God, I am the Lord your God, I change not. Did he change something as basic as the way of life that was going to be in his kingdom? Or that he taught his people back then? Absolutely not. In Matthew 5, verse 17, Christ himself said in the Sermon on the Mount, Don't think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets.

It's pretty clear language. Don't think I came to destroy them. Don't think I came to do away with them. When he talks about the law and the prophets, he's talking about the Old Testament. I didn't come to do away with them. They're still there. They're still preserved. They're still part of the scripture, the Holy Scripture that Timothy says is given for correction, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness. Don't think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets.

I didn't come to destroy them. What the New King James of the Old King James says to fulfill. Again, if you look at the Greek word properly, that should be translated complete. I didn't come to do away with them. I came to complete them. The Old Testament people were required to keep those laws physically. It was enough if they just didn't kill.

It was enough if they just didn't commit adultery. But throughout the Sermon on the Mount, Christ said, there's a spiritual application of those laws. Now you're going to live them by the spiritual and physical going forth. It's not enough just to not murder. Don't even hate your brother, he said. It's not enough to just physically not commit adultery. Don't even look at another woman to lust after her. Train your mind. Let the Holy Spirit be in you. Change the way you think. Change the way you act. He came to complete the law. And he said in the next verse, Assuredly I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away.

I don't know. Heaven and earth are still here, right? We're still walking here on this earth. I look up at the heavens. The stars are still there. The sun is moon. Moon is still there. I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away. Not one jot or one tittle will by any means pass from the law. Till all be complete. Until God's plan for this physical earth is done. Until God's plan for physical man is done. Not one jot, not one tittle. Not one dot of the I changes, and not one cross of the T changes, is what he's saying.

That law stays. That law still stands. If you want the kingdom, if you want true repentance, you understand and you live by that law, and you monitor and you measure yourself by it and the words of the Bible.

We've all sinned, Paul says. We've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Even when we didn't know it, he still holds us accountable. Says he winks at it, but remember in Acts 17, but commands all men everywhere to repent. When God opens our minds and when we understand, we repent. The people who are resurrected in the second resurrection that you read about in Revelation 20, verse 4, they will come to understand God's way of life. It says books will be opened. Understanding will come to them. What will they have to do if they're going to have eternal life? They're going to repent. You can't have salvation without repentance. You can't enter the kingdom of God without repentance. Christ said it. John said it. Every single New Testament author and apostle said it in the books. Simply, you have to repent and repent the way that God says to repent. The wages of sin is death.

But the gift of God is eternal life and Jesus Christ our Lord.

Before I go to that, let me give you a couple examples of being a sinner. Let's turn over to Job.

In Job 42, if you remember Job, he went through a tremendous trial.

And at the end of his trial, after losing everything, after arguing with his friends, and after God came and talked to him, Job saw himself or who he really was. In Job 42, let's begin in verse 5.

Job is saying, I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear. I knew who you were, but now my eyes seize you. Now my eyes are open. Now I know who you are. And I know how insignificant and who I am in comparison to you. Therefore, he says, I abhor myself. I hate who I am, and I repent. It's a Greek word, metaneo. It's a Hebrew word, the Hebrew equivalent of that. I repent in dust and ashes. I abhor myself. I hate who I am. He said, when we repent, we hate who we are. We all know who we really are if we really sit and examine ourselves. Back in Luke 18. Luke 18 and verse 13.

Let's pick it up in verse 10. Give the whole context here of what Christ is saying. 18 verse 10 of Luke says, Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed, thus with himself, God, I thank you, that I am not like the other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. Thank you, God, I'm not like these people, is what he's praying. But here's the tax collector, looked down upon by everyone that lived in that society.

In verse 13, and it says in verse 12, the man continues about what good things he does. In verse 13, it says, In the tax collector standing afar off, wouldn't so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I know who I am. Be merciful to me. The reason I live, the reason I go on, the reason I have hope, is because, God, of your mercy, your love and your compassion, and because your will is that everyone will come to repentance.

Everyone come to repentance, and everyone have eternal life. And Christ says, I tell you, this man, the tax collector, went down to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. We come to see ourselves as sinners, as base and vile and absolutely hopeless, without God leading and directing us.

Thirdly, repentance means to change. We all live one way of life before God opens our minds. But when he calls us and when we understand, our responsibility is to start living the way he called us to. Some in the world would say, Christ accepts us just the way we are. Well, he does forgive our sins when we ask forgiveness, but he's not going to, or we won't be, in his kingdom if we stay just the way we are.

Repentance includes change. Acts 3, 19 says, Repent, therefore, and be converted. Be changed. That your sins may be blotted out. You want to walk in the way that Christ walked? You want to walk in the way of the kingdom? Repent and be converted. Be changed. Repentance is a change of heart, mind, and life. In Isaiah 55, verse 7, the prophet says, Let the wicked leave their way of life. Get away from it. Leave it behind.

Once God lets you know what truth is, once you understand, leave that prior life behind, no matter how painful it is, no matter what family member gets upset, no matter what tradition that isn't part of God's word and is against his word, you may have to leave it behind. Leave it behind. Leave it behind and follow him. And follow the truth that's in the Bible. Let the wicked leave their way of life and change their way of thinking. The only way we change our way of thinking is with God's Holy Spirit. God never puts his Holy Spirit in any of us before there's repentance.

Let the wicked leave their way of life and change their way of thinking. Let them turn to the Lord our God. Turn your life around. Turn back to him, for he is merciful and quick to forgive. Repentance includes being sorry for the way we lived. It involves change, and it involves a change in the way we think, the way we act, the way we live. It's not a matter of just going on and thinking that Christ's forgiveness gives us the excuse to live forever in the way that we want. Paul talks about, don't lose. Don't use God's grace as license for lasciviousness.

When you're called, when you respond to the call, you must live the way of life that he called you to. And you must live by all his law. Just not just nine of them, not just eight of them. All ten. All ten. Because if we break just one of those ten that are listed there in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5, just one, we're guilty of all.

And if there's just one that we refuse or don't believe we have to keep, God says you won't be as part of the kingdom. A good example of change of mind and life is David. I won't take the time to read through Psalm 51. When you go home today, read through Psalm 51. It's a prayer of repentance that David gave. And as you read through the words that he prayed that have been preserved for us as an example of a good prayer of repentance, you can see how David recognizes himself as a sinner.

You can see how he identifies with who he was and what type of person he was that not only did he commit adultery with Bathsheba, but then he conspired to have her husband killed. He knew what was in his heart, and he poured out his heart to God and he said, Create in me a clean heart. Wash this wickedness away from me. Restore to me the joy of salvation.

That's what we should pray. Pray that God will give us a clean heart. When he calls us, he's looking to perfect us, to purify us, to make us blameless as we go through life. That year by year, decade by decade, as we walk with God, as we walk and have his Holy Spirit living in us, we become a little more pure each day. Living a little more closely to the words that are in the Bible. Becoming who he wants us to become so he can use us for the purpose that he has called us for. That's what David did.

When he prayed that prayer of repentance, and he recognized who he was, he turned his life around. He didn't turn it around. He made a choice. God turned his life around. And from that time forward, he was a man after God's own heart. In Acts 23, it says that, David, a man after my own heart, he did awful things, horrible things. But when he repented, when he changed his life, when he changed his mind, when he changed his life, when he made a choice to follow God and trusted God to give him the strength to do that, he became a man after God's own heart.

Mark 12, verse 33, says, A man must love God with all his heart, and with all his mind. See that? All. All of your heart. All of your mind. Moses said the same thing in the Old Testament. So the difference between the Old and New is not there. Moses said the same things. Love the Lord God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and with all your strength.

And love your neighbor as yourself, he says, as well. Because if you're living and being led by God's Spirit, you will have concern, the outgoing concern for other people, as is so well and aptly described in 1 Corinthians 13, when it talks about the agape love that all of God's people, who are led by his Spirit, display. 1 John 5, 3, what's the love of God? John tells us, this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments.

And there it is again. Keep his law. Live the way of life that he called us to. Live the way of life that's going to be there in the millennium, when Christ returns to earth. Live the way of life that all God's people are going to live, if they want, what he has to offer. And he says, in his commandments, his way of life is not burdensome. So repentance includes a change of mind, heart, and life. It also includes a change of direction, a change of the meaning of our life, a change in the purpose of our lives. Because God has called us to be something beyond just this physical life. He wants us to succeed, and he wants us to work hard in this life. He wants us to have careers and excel at them. He wants us to study hard and to have an education. He wants us to be productive people in this society, examples of his way of life. Good employees, good neighbors, good students, good friends. But there's a purpose beyond this life that he's called us for. There's a vision for the future and for the kingdom that he's called us to be part of, that we keep in front of us. So when we repent, and when God puts his Holy Spirit in us, there's a different purpose in our lives. Instead of seeking first the promotion, instead of seeking first whatever other physical thing it may be, we seek first the kingdom because that's where eternity lies. That's where the future lies. All these other things are important. We do them, but with an eye on the meaning of life, the purpose of life, the direction of life that God gave us. Repentance is changing our lives around so that when people see us five or six years later, they think, what has happened? You're a totally different person with a totally different meaning to life now. Romans 12, verse 2 says, Don't be conformed to this world. Don't be like them. Don't try to emulate them. Don't think you have to follow them. Don't be conformed to them. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Let God transform the way you think. Let His Holy Spirit do that. Then you'll know that you've repented and laid that foundation that every single person who will be in His kingdom has to lay.

2 Corinthians 5, verse 17, Paul writes, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, he is a new person, all things have passed away, behold, all things have become new. We're talking about repentance. The next doctrine is faith, believing the Bible, believing God. And then the doctrine of baptism comes after that. When we repent, when we believe God, when we believe the gospel, when we believe what He says, we give our lives to God. And when we are buried in baptism, when we're immersed in that water, we're washing the old life away. We're symbolically telling God, we don't want anymore the life that we had before. Bury it. Keep it buried. It was going nowhere. It was leading to death. And when we come up out of that water, we come up as a new creation in God's eyes. Sins washed away. The first time in our lives where God sees us as a pure person, and then hands are laid on us so that we receive the Holy Spirit. The old has passed away. He's a new creation. All things have become new.

Paul knew what he was talking about because he's a very good example of this phase of repentance in his life. You remember, as he was on the road to Damascus, in his prior life, he hated the principles of Jesus Christ. He didn't like Christians. He gloried in the fact that they would be put to death, and he delighted in the fact that he could arrest them and cause them problems.

That was what he was about, an eager and a zealous man working against Jesus Christ. But on the road to Damascus, God allowed them to be blinded. And he laid there for three days, and Christ appeared to him and asked, Why are you kicking at me? Paul, why are you wrestling with me? And then his eyes were opened, and he saw. And Paul was a changed man from that time forward. When his cronies saw him after that, they looked at him and thought, Wait a minute, you're against these Christians. But no, he had become for them. His life was totally turned around. That life was buried when he repented. That life was passed. Now he was a new creation, and now he lived and gave his life preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. The same gospel that Jesus Christ preached when he was on earth. The same gospel that Peter preached. The same gospel that John preached right until the time that they end. The same gospel that the church of God preaches today. Paul was changed. Paul truly repented. Paul had change of mind. He had change of life. He had change of direction, meaning, and purpose in his life. And what happened to him happens to everyone that truly repents. The reason is, do you believe? Do you believe the words of the Bible? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is returning? Do you believe that he's going to set up a kingdom, and that kingdom is going to be like the kingdom we described from his own words and his own Bible this morning? Do you believe that he wants us to live by every word of the Bible? Do you want what he has to offer? Do you want to be in the kingdom of God? Well, I hope what we've done is answer the question for you that we began with. If you believe it, if you see it in the Bible, if you go home and you read the words again, if you take some of the literature on the back there that'll explain more and be able to fill in some of the blanks that I don't have time to do today. And you see from your own Bible, with your own eyes, what Christ's will and God's will is, what do you do? Do you just pray a prayer as you walk up to the front of a building and say, I repent and accept you as my Lord and Savior? Is that all it is? No. Now you know what the Bible says. Now when you read what Peter said to the disciples then, and the same thing that he would say to us today, and Christ would say to us today, repent. You know what that means. It's much more than a momentary thing. It's a lifelong change in the way you live. A lifelong change to the direction of living by every single law of God.

Every single one, including the one that the world's Christian churches would tell you you don't have to do, and that's keeping his Sabbath day holy, and keeping his holy days holy, and following his plan, and recognizing it, and doing, and letting him live in you. Peter said, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins. That's what we do. We follow Christ's will. We follow what he says every single person who's going to be in that kingdom is going to have to do. The very same words that Jesus Christ said back there at the beginning of his ministry that he repeated over and over and over again while he was on earth.

He preached the gospel of the kingdom of God, and he said, repent. Repent and believe the gospel.

Well, I thank you all for coming today. I hope we've given you some things to think about. And I hope you'll stick around and talk for a while. It looks like there's plenty more cookies and drinks back there and coffee, so feel free to stick around as long as you want. If you have any questions at all, I'll be more than happy to answer any questions you have. You'll also find back there on the table a lot of literature. I didn't realize how much we had available, but it's like we've got just about every booklet that the church offers back there. Let me point out a few of them to you. There should be a Ten Commandments book back there that will explain to you the law of God, the spiritual and physical application of that. A booklet on the Sabbath day and a booklet on transforming your life, letting God turn your life around. And you can find all these booklets on the flyer that you were handed when you came in. You can find them at the website ucg.org. Just click on Media, I believe it is, in the Booklets section.