Going on to Perfection

Back in the 1980s, Christian communities in this country especially underwent a revival. It was the Born Again movement. Some of you might remember some of that. The thought that facilitated that movement was taken from John 3, where Jesus Christ had his discussions with Nicodemus and the whole conversation about being born again. The evangelical Christians believed that if they publicly accepted Jesus as their personal Savior, their sins were forgiven and they became born again.

That was the conversation Christ was trying to explain to Nicodemus. He understood the concept of being born again. What he couldn't figure out was how you do that physically, which is not what Christ was talking about, and the whole conversation in terms of how that played out. The flaw in that theology, that Born Again movement, is that Christ was talking about a very real rebirth. That's not what he was talking about in that section.

Nicodemus understood the part of rebirth, but couldn't wrap his mind around how all of that took place. The flaw in the evangelical Christians' thinking or understanding is what it means to be born again. Most think that what it means is that Christ has done away with God's law by fulfilling the requirements for that individual.

He has done it in our stead. And so then him living in us makes us born again. What the problem is that the confessed sin is sin that hasn't been overcome. In other words, they lay all the sin on Christ, but nothing has changed for them individually. The sin that they see then is not something they must come to terms with, but rather something that Christ takes care of for them. But the sad reality in this line of thinking is that the sin is not really repented of. They remain in their sin. Last time I spoke, we started a series that I'm going to cover on Hebrews 6, verses 1-2.

And in those first two verses there, the Apostle Paul lays out for us the fundamentals of our calling that we are to build upon, each of those as we move to what Paul calls perfection, the perfection of our calling. What we did last time was we looked at how we needed to be grounded in these fundamentals of our calling. And today we're going to continue this review in those fundamentals, how we become perfect before God.

The next item then in the list in Hebrews 6, verses 1 is, as Paul puts it, repentance from dead works. So let's go there and let's pick up our thought as we did last time, Hebrews 6, and verse 1. And just to put it all in context, read what Paul had to write there. Hebrews 6, verse 1 says, therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, we explained all that, we went through that last time, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith towards God.

The NIV translation puts this a little differently, I think a little clearer here. It says, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death. And we'll build on that as we go along here. But what I'd like to read to you next is a statement from the Cambridge commentary here on Hebrews 6, verse 1, specifically, repentance from dead works. They write, repentance is the first lesson of the gospel. Dead works, they have in quotes, are such as cause defilement and require purification, because they are sinful and because their wages is death. This is the point I want to focus on and what I have on the screen there. But the works of the law as having no life in them may be included under the epithet, meaning the works of the law are as dead as the previous things we did before Christ called us.

Now, there's a huge flaw in that, as we'll see as we progress here. Without the law, there is no standard. Without understanding what sin is, then we don't know what to change. In reality, in practice, what oftentimes happens is that nothing of a spiritual nature really changes in a person's life. And that's not a good place to be.

What type of works then bring death? What are we talking about? Well, let's go to Romans 3, 23 there. God gives us some very straightforward definitions, if you will, explanations of what we're talking about, even in terms of a broader concept of what sin is. Romans 3, 23 is one of those verses.

It simply says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Every man, woman, and child that has ever lived or will ever live falls under this category. We sin before God. We'll elaborate that as we go along. What this means is that we have violated God's perfect law. And this is the problem that I mentioned with that born-again view. If we don't acknowledge the sin and begin to try to change from it, then what we do is continue in violating that law. We validated and accepted the decision of Adam Eve in taking of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. We take upon ourselves that we know how to live life, that we can give ourselves life, which is a false teaching as well.

At the very minimum, we've all walked contrary to God's way of life in the past. We've done things that we've needed to repent of, that have violated God's law. We have performed the works of the flesh. We have fulfilled the desires and lust of our minds, our bodies. We go into lifestyles, or we choose things, or we have a frame of mind that is in opposition to God's law. And all of that, to a large degree, is because we have followed, we've allowed our course to be set as Satan deceives mankind.

It's not the law. It's not God's standards which brings death. It's the opposite. It's the violation of the law that brings death. This is the definition of sin. Let's look at that just a couple of chapters over in Romans 6 and verse 23. There is a consequence. Most of us have jobs or have had a job at some point in life. And we have a job in order to have wages. We exchange time and expertise, a certain skill set, for money.

Well, if you look at sin in a similar way, we have exchanged something there as well. Romans 6, 23, for the wages of sin is death. The payment of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. We've exchanged our life for death. We think we have life. We think we have what we want. But the end result is death. We'll elaborate on that and all of these things as we progress here. Let's look at the next verse there, Ephesians 2.

Ephesians 2 and verse 1 we will begin. And you, he made alive, speaking of Christ, who were dead in trespasses and sins. We read those verses, Romans 3 and Romans 6. Without Christ, without God intervening in our lives, the end result would be simply death. So he made us alive. Verse 2, meaning trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works among the sons of disobedience.

Satan influences mankind, drives those wrong passions, wrong thoughts, wrong desires. Verse 3, among whom we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. That is, that if God had not called us, had not revealed to us His truth, we would be no different than the rest of the world. That's not a condemnation at this point.

Simply God working with us. Let's continue in 1 John 3 and verse 4. I was going to just reference it, but let's go ahead and read it. This is one of those simple definitions that God has recorded for us and speaks to this matter of what brings death.

1 John 3 verse 4, whoever commits sin commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. Sin is defined by the law, so if the law is done away with, then there is no sin, which means I can do whatever I want. That's a false theology. That's not what God calls us to do. We earn a death penalty by simply doing what comes naturally, sinning. We do not have eternal life inherent in us.

So at the end of this life, all we would have is death. For some, they think that's enough. But when you understand God's plan of salvation, why would you settle for that? Why would you not want more? Mankind does want more. Look at the money and the resources.

We throw it. Prolonging life. There are very few people that I've been in contact with that seek death. That's usually because there's something happening mentally. Most people fight it. They don't willingly go. I think God has built that into us. But nonetheless, there is a penalty that has to be paid in sin. This sort of balancing, if you will, of a balance sheet. It has to be paid out. Some might say, why? Why does God desire that? If he can simply cover sin, why does there have to be this balancing?

Well, there's a process involved. It's not just a matter of covering sin. There's something that is supposed to come out of that, of a positive nature. Let's continue next in John 3.16. God, in His vast mercy, has provided a way. It's not just that God is looking for His pound of flesh, if you will.

It's not just that God has such high standards and He's unyielding. There's a purpose for all of this. And the purpose of acknowledging sin is that there's a cost, as we've covered even to this point. I think a big part of it is that God wants us to see the ultimate cost of it all, and wants us to avoid it. In John 3.16, we're given insight as to what God does want. It says, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whomever believes in Him should not perish.

That is, that we would not fall under Romans 3.23 and Romans 6, that we would not at the end of the life only face death, but that we would not perish but have everlasting life. Which again, speaks to the fact that we currently don't have that inherent in us. That's what God seeks for us. Now, let me ask a somewhat rhetorical question. Can you or I pay for our own sin? Technically, yes. But then we're dead. Our blood can cover our sin, but then we're dead. And we're left at the same place. We still don't have life.

God desires that each person not have to pay that final penalty. So we can, as we read here, have eternal life. Let's go to 1 Timothy 2 next. 1 Timothy 2 and verse 4 is an interesting verse to consider in light of how Christianity as a whole is taught. Let's just read it and then I'll elaborate. 1 Timothy 2 and verse 4, speaking of God and Christ in the context here of praying for all men, says that God desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of truth.

Now, he doesn't just desire it. He has put in motion the means by which this can happen. One of the weaknesses of the world around us is that they believe they have eternal life when they don't, but more importantly, that God is failing. Those that look at it from a Christian perspective, that God is not winning, if you will, this battle for the souls of mankind. But you and I understand that God is not working with all of mankind right now.

He is working with a smaller portion. He will work with the majority of mankind later. But the end result is the same. For all men to be saved, meaning to have eternal life, as we read just a moment ago, that each of us not pay that final penalty of sin, that we can claim, as the evangelicals rightly do, the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ, for the remission of our sins. And we even go through that in our baptism ceremony. You see, one of the things that an elder will ask of an individual as they're going through the baptism ceremony is, have you repented of your sins?

Now, that's sort of a loaded question, because hopefully the answer was arrived before they're standing there ready to be baptized. And thankfully, to this point, I've never had anybody say no. But you have to come to that place of acknowledgment, don't you? You have to have had that introspection.

You have to have been honest with yourself and with God reveals in Scripture to be able to say, yes, I have repented. Then the next question you see there is, have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior? Now, that's not just a passive position. It's not just that I want what He has, I'm willing to take it, but that I'm also willing to accept the responsibility of what that represents. I'm willing to take on the fact that He did this for me, and so now I have, if you will, a debt.

And it's a debt in the right way. Again, the evangelical Christians got all of that part right, but they missed the personal responsibility. We have to work with God to root out sin in our lives. And that's never a pleasant thing to consider. But I am firmly convinced that in the fight is the becoming, that we have to be engaged in the process. The acceptance of Jesus Christ as our personal Savior is the only means by which we may avoid pain for our own sins.

The only means. At the same time, though, God has provided the means by which we can inherit eternal life, because of what Christ has done, and because that God can now live in us, because we can have a portion of His Spirit. We now have the means to inherit eternal life. However, in order for all of this to happen, we must first repent of our sins. I suspect most of you are familiar with the sermon that Peter gave in Acts 2, and how he deeply convicted them, that he was reminding them of what Christ taught and what He came to do, and that in spite of the fact that they allowed, even in their lifetime, for Christ to be wrongly accused and executed, that was to God's purpose, and that now they had a responsibility.

That message is true for all of mankind, not just for the Jews of that day, but it's not a unique statement. Let's go to Mark 1 there. Christ made this statement as well, and I want to read the statement in Mark just to illustrate the fact that this is not a one-off from Acts.

And the fact that Christ Himself said this. Mark 1, verse 15. The context here, and I love how Mark jumps into this. Mark was, I call Mark the ADHD gospel account. If you read Mark, he's always immediately, we did this, and we straight away went here, and he's always on the go. It's now and now, now, and if you look at the beginning of Mark, he doesn't deal with any of the early history of Christ's life. He jumps right to the ministry. You know, right to the good stuff. Right to the heart of why Christ came.

But he does give a little bit of context here with John the Baptist and the baptisms that he was doing. And so then, verse 14, Christ begins his ministry. And verse 15, then he says, The time is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Repentance, simply put, is to change the way we live. It's to change direction. So if we're, you know, the old joke is, I don't know where we are, but we're making good time. That doesn't really help things, does it?

If you're not going the right direction, making good time doesn't really matter. Christ himself here is saying, The time is fulfilled. Now, the kingdom, the matter of the kingdom of God at hand, Christ was not being flippant with that.

That is always the case, no matter who we are. The kingdom was at hand for them. It was as close as the end of their life. And the same is true for any of us. The message then remains the same before we die, to repent and to believe the gospel. Now, to put a really fine edge on this, belief is not passive. I can believe in a lot of things that don't require me doing anything.

I believe that air paint will fly if you put sufficient force behind it. And as long as that force is there, it will stay flying. I believe that elevator will work the way it is designed to work when I get into it. It doesn't require any change on my part in order for that to happen. There are things that Christ tells us, though, when he's talking about belief that requires our effort, our input, our action.

How do you keep the Sabbath day if you don't put action behind it? Are any of the other doctrines that we know from Scripture? Repentance, then, is turning away from this self-indulgent carnal nature that we have and taking on God's love, taking on the aspects of serving others, taking on the aspect of obedience to His instruction.

We turn from selfishness to selflessness. So let's look at the next verse there, 2 Timothy 2. One of the things that can be easy for us humanly to come to is that we think we come to Christ. And while I understand the perspective, the reality is that that's not really the way it works. We have John 6.44 that tells us that no man comes unless God the Father draws him.

But in 2 Timothy 2 and verse 25 here, we read here, to sort of break into the context here. He was talking about approving and disproving workers. So he says, in humility, correcting those who are in opposition, this is the part I want to get at. If God perhaps will grant them repentance so that they may know the truth. It's always an interesting conversation to say with someone, how did you come to the knowledge of the truth? And some can have very dramatic experiences, something that God did in their lives.

For other people, it might be a longer gradual process. For someone like me, essentially growing up in the faith, that's a less clear thing to say. Because I was always sort of surrounded in that environment.

Nonetheless, no matter what the history was, it was God that granted repentance. God has to start the process to begin with. Because we don't think like God. We don't naturally gravitate toward those things, humanly. But when we demonstrate our willingness to change, then God applies Christ's sacrifice on our behalf. We stand before God clean. That's the whole exercise of the symbol of the symbology of baptism. We're washed and now we're clean. Let's go to Hebrews 9. Hebrews 9 and in verse 14.

The Apostle Paul again here is talking about, in context, the physical sacrifices that Israel did. And he was shortly earlier talking about how those sacrifices really could not take away sin. It's not that they were an empty exercise. They were valid, but they were temporary. They could not affect a change of heart, even if the blood did temporarily pay for the sin. So in Hebrews 9 and verse 14, he says then, in light of that, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

So remember, we're talking about Hebrews 6.1, a repentance from dead works. And so then Christ's sacrifice can cleanse us from those dead works. And Christ is able to do that because, as we just read there, he was without spot, meaning sinless, as a perfect sacrifice. But this was not just a man that was perfect. This was the Son of God, the Creator of all, whose life, if you will, was infinitely more valuable than anything he created.

But notice why then God also purges our conscience from dead works to serve the living God, to now live that way of life, to now take on those actions, those characteristics. That understanding is truly life-changing. And it is full of so much more hope than the vast majority of mankind understands. For most of mankind, this life is it. And this life is not a very pleasant thing. When you look at some of the very terrible areas of the world, with wars or with just brutal living conditions, it's not a fun life. We know that that's not what God intended. Some question why he allows it then. But even there, you and I understand, through his plan of salvation, why.

They will have opportunity to have a life, even physically, that God desired for them to have, but more importantly, so that they would understand the eternal life that he is offering. Now, to be clear, no amount of works on our part can bring about or obligate the forgiveness of our sin by God. That's not why we go through this process.

This is part of what Paul was showing there in Hebrews. As meaningful and as purposeful as those sacrifices were, these sacrificial laws he's going through here in chapter 9, and even later a little bit in chapter 10, as important as they were, they could not bring about forgiveness or clear our conscience.

They were temporary, but they were also to point them and us to something that was permanent, and that was Christ. It was also to show them the cost of sin. One of the really interesting things is when you look at Scripture in the Millennium God initially, and we don't know for how long, but there are going to be sacrifices. It's a very curious thing. Why would you do that when you have the perfect sacrifice sitting on the throne and they have access to it?

Well, I can come up with some simple reasons why. When you have a society that is as godless as it's going to be before the return of Christ, you're going to have to start with the basics. And what's more basic than coming to understand the price of sin? They're going to have some examples in their history. They're going to have seen the wars, the famine, the disease, everything. They're going to see the ugliest side of mankind that has not been seen to that extent ever.

But they're also going to understand the cost, because now you have to raise those goats and those lambs and those bulls, not for food, not for their hides or their wool or other things that you can gain in terms of resources. You're going to raise them to be a sacrifice for your sin. And you're going to understand the cost. Again, we don't know how long that's going to be. I don't know that it would last the whole millennium.

I think it's a point of check, if you will, in terms of how they think, to begin to teach them. Let's go to verse 9 there again. Hebrews 9 and verse 9. Notice, speaking of these sacrifices again, it was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscious.

They were never meant to be the final payment of sin. It was symbolic, as it says at the very beginning of the verse there. It was meant to show them to the type, meaning Christ. It was to point them to the reality that life, blood, was required to cover sin. That is how opposite God sin is.

It requires life to cover it. Those works that they did, and even any good works that we do apart from obeying God, any of it, they are dead works because they cannot and do not produce eternal life. It does not mean they're without value. It simply means they do not bring eternal life. That's not where it comes from. They are dead works because they do not qualify to erase our sin. However, once Christ died for our sin, it was no longer necessary to portray that forgiveness of sin in a type like animal sacrifices. We now have the perfect type. We have the Lamb of God, the ultimate sacrifice.

I think to further cement that understanding, God allowed the temple to be completely destroyed and never built after 70 AD. Never rebuilt, I should say. In the balance of the sermon time, I want to cover about four points to overview this matter of repentance. The first item there is that simply we are sinners needing the sacrifice of Christ. There is no conversation of repentance without acknowledgement of sin.

There simply isn't because if we don't see that there's a problem, why would we change? That's a reality of life in just about any arena you want to look at. You can't teach somebody who thinks they know it all. You can't correct somebody who doesn't think they're wrong or thinks they're always right. We can go down the list of these things humanly. Spiritually, it's no different. Let's look at this in Scripture, Proverbs 14, verse 12. Again, we're not reading these verses in any sense of guilt. That is, that we have to beat ourselves up. We read these verses simply to validate the reality of human carnal nature apart from God.

That if we want eternal life, then that carnal nature needs to change. Proverbs 14, verse 12 says, there is a way that seems right to a man. I don't know of any people personally, I'm sure they exist, that would not do something that they know is going to end in failure. We do things because we think we're right.

But the reality is that too many times we're not right. But one of the weaknesses of humanity, carnal nature, is that we have a really hard time saying that we're wrong. We'll obfuscate, we'll accuse somebody else of being the problem, we come up with all sorts of reasons, we're not wrong. This simply says we do these things because it seems right, but notice the end of the verse. But its end is the way of death.

Again, humanity on their own, the way we think, the way we act, the way we live, will not bring eternal life. We have to understand that sin needs a sacrifice, in this case, the sacrifice of Christ, in order to pay for it. Let's reinforce this thought in Jeremiah 10. Jeremiah says essentially the same thing here, but I also want to read this so that we see that this is not just a one-off comment in the Old Testament.

This is a perspective that God has, that He knows us as His creation. He knows our limitations. He doesn't punish us because of those limitations. He made us that way. What He wants us to do is see those limitations, that those limitations will not get us to where we want to be, that in order to get to where we want to be, we have to live like He lives.

So Jeremiah 10 and verse 23 simply says, Oh Lord, this is Jeremiah writing, I know the way of man is not in himself. We don't know the way to eternal life on our own. If we did, we wouldn't need the sacrifice of Christ. We could do it. That's another reality we have to come to in repentance before baptism.

Can I fix the things wrong in my life? I can overcome certain things, but I will not fix the fundamental flaw.

So with that in mind, verse 23, the balance of the verse, it is not a man who walks to direct his own steps. So he says in verse 24, correct me, which is always a wonderful thing to do. If you're in error, and this can oftentimes be a rare thing for someone to say, I don't know how, please show me.

But the beauty of that position is that you can teach that person, someone unwilling or unable to say, I was wrong, won't get to this place. But the caveat is that if you're going to ask God to correct you, make sure you do the next part of what Jeremiah writes here, but with justice. Why? Because he says, Not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing. I have had a few occasions. I remember one occasion very clearly in college. There was a fellow who decided that life was going too smooth.

So he prayed the first part of this. God, please give me a trial. He thought he needed to grow, which he did. But he didn't temper it with the last part of that first sentence. He got a trial. He understood the second part after he got the trial. What would any of us do?

Think back, for those of you that are baptized, think back to that week before you were baptized. What would you have done if God had shown you everything, and I mean everything, in your life that you needed to overcome before Christ returned? Would you have gone through with baptism? I probably wouldn't have. It would be completely overwhelming, wouldn't it? Every shortcoming, every fault, every weakness, every wrong attitude, you had no context to temper that. This is the justice portion. This is mercy that Jeremiah is talking about here. Be gentle with me.

God will work with us where we are, because He knows we're human. He knows we're weak. Again, that's how He designed us. But He wants us to change, and that takes our desire, coupled with His Spirit, in order to effectively be done. If you remember back in Hebrews 6.1, Paul used the phrase, not laying again, meaning we don't go back to those things that we first repented of.

They were of no value. Why would we go back to them? They didn't bring us into a relationship with God. They're certainly not going to bring us to eternal life. So why go there? Let's look at Galatians 5 next. Oftentimes, when we turn to this section, we'll read the fruit of the Spirit. We like that part, everything that God's going to imbue us with, to help us grow in His way of living, His way of thinking, the very character that He has.

But we need the reality check, going back up a little bit earlier here. And in verse 16, Paul says, I say then, walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, they're contrary to each other. Again, humanly, we don't think like God. We're driven by passions, oftentimes wrong passions. To continue here, he says, these are contrary one to another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. And that's what Paul went through in Romans 7.

He went through that whole discourse about, you know, I understand this in my mind, and I've got it nailed down, and I know exactly what I want to do. And then the reality of my physical life hits me in the face, and I'm constantly failing. You know, as I'm doing these things, I know I'm not supposed to do them. Now, that was Paul 25 years after his conversion. And that struggle was very real, and it's not minimizing it at all.

It's just the reality of overcoming that carnality. Verse 18 then, many have a problem with. It says, if you are led by the Spirit, then you are not under the law. Well, then we've got a problem with 1 John 3, 4, don't we? What this is talking about is not under the context of the law. That is, the law is still our guide for how to live. What we're not under is the penalty of the law.

Romans 6, 23, our life doesn't have to end in death. So then, verse 19, the works of the flesh are evident. He gives just a short list here. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelies, and of the like I tell you beforehand, just as I have told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Does this list describe mankind in general? You bet it does. Does this list describe you or me? I hope not. But I can almost bet you, dollar for donuts, that at some point in our life, we engaged in some of this behavior. It's just the way mankind is. That's why we need God. That's why we need repentance. That's why we need to understand what He is offering and what we need to overcome.

Alright, then, point number two. If I can get it to advance. Mr. Warner, I need your help. It looked like it timed out or something back there. Okay, point number two while he catches up for me. What is repentance? It might seem like an easy thing to answer. We've addressed some aspects of it. But what is it?

What does it look like? Let's go to 1 Peter 5 there. 1 Peter 5 and verse 5. Peter writes this. He says, Likewise, you younger people, submit yourself to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another. This is why I made the point earlier, you may not have caught, where I said that part of our calling is in service, and service can be in submission. So, notice, though, that through that submission, that we are to be clothed with humility.

And then he quotes Psalm 3. God resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time. It might seem a simple thing to say, we are wrong, and acknowledge that wrong. But you know as well as I, that that's not an easy thing for us to do.

But when we do that, then, what we're doing is humbling ourselves. And humility is simply saying, I don't know. I don't know enough, even. God then can work with that, and this exalt you in due time. What does that mean? Eternal life! Exalt us to the highest possible extent that we can be like God in his family.

But it requires humility. What is repentance? It is humility at its core. Matthew 18, verse 3, there, is talking about, as we read that, when Christ, again, had the question posed to him, and I have to wonder how many times the apostles did this to the disciples.

It seemed to be a reoccurring theme. And they really, really, really, really wanted to know who was the best of the twelve. Again, it's a human thing, isn't it? Do I get the corner office? Do I get the sign that is the assigned parking space where nobody but me gets to park? Do I get the title? It's just the way we are, humanly. So how does he answer it? Well, he calls a little child, verse 3, then, and he says, Assuredly I say to you, unless you are converted and become as little children, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

Now, what is it that little children are good at? They're teachable. Which means humble. And in part, given, they're humble because they don't know enough to not be humble. But nonetheless, they're teachable. And you have to be even careful with that, don't you, as a parent. You have to be careful that that trust that they give you is not violated.

Because they'll believe you. And then when that trust is broken, they won't believe you. So he's talking here about having that kind of trust and confidence in God. That kind of humility that even if we don't know, God says, Trust me. And we trust Him.

God then is working in us because we allow Him to. For most of mankind, it's not that God doesn't want to work with them. It's that right now they don't want Him to. And in researching this and some of the images I came up with, I found a really sad bumper sticker. I'm sure some think that it's funny. But it was a play on the born-again Christian, and they said, Born-again atheist. Okay, so I'm going to double down on this.

I wonder how many of those people will work with. And it'll be a challenge, won't it? Because they'll have sort of cemented in their mind a certain perspective of looking at God. It will certainly take God's nature to begin to work with that. Philippians 2, 12 there simply talks about God working in us. It is God who works in us. Again, we have to be a willing, active participant. But it is God, and this is the irony of that whole born-again thing. They didn't miss the mark by much, but what they missed was huge.

Yes, it is Christ God that changes these things in us. But He cannot do that if we're not engaged. If we are engaged then, He pulls up alongside and does the heavy lifting. He doesn't do it for us, He does the heavy lifting. We still have to be engaged, as I said. So then let's look at the next point. Number three, when do we repent? For some they might think, well, it's as I approach baptism, or maybe it's each year as we approach Passover, or maybe it's when I really see something major in my life.

Well, let's take a look here in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15.

This chapter, as many of you know, is known as the resurrection chapter. Paul is talking about resurrections as a major theme, but there are other things that are touched on in this context as well. And I want to read verse 31. 1 Corinthians 15 and verse 31. Paul simply says here then, he says, For I affirm by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus. He says, The things I see in you that I have accomplished because God is working through me. He says, I want to acknowledge those things, but the last part, notice the last three words. I die daily. That's repentance. We are allowing ourselves, that old man, as we say in that baptism ceremony, that old man to die. And that has to be daily. Because the problem we have, any of you that have gone through baptism understand this. That old man does not die easily. I am firmly convinced, and it's just my opinion for what it's worth, there are going to be things in our life that we may need to work hard to overcome the rest of our life. There are other things, I knew a man one time that had smoked for, I think, at least two, if not three decades.

God was calling him into the church. He was told he had to give up smoking. Cold turkey. Next day, no cigarette. Never had another one after that. Now, there are some that say nicotine is harder to give up than heroin. I've never tried that. I don't encourage you to either. But nicotine is very, very addictive. I know other people that have struggled and struggled and struggled and struggled to overcome smoking. The point of the matter is that I think, again, there are things that we'll struggle with, but to verse 31 here, do we die daily?

Second Corinthians, just a few pages over, Second Corinthians 4, and in verse 16, Paul again writes, he says, Do not lose heart, even though our outward man is perishing. See, it's a progressive thing. That outward man is not dead automatically.

Symbolically, we go through that. As I joke with Psalm at Baptism, I only put you under as long as there's bubbles. But if I didn't bring you back up, you would die, wouldn't you? We can't breathe underwater. That's the symbology. That's a grave. We come up out of that. That old man begins to die, but it's not completely dead. That outward man is perishing, yet by the inward man, Christ living in us, God's Spirit working with us, that inward man then is renewed day by day.

So not only is it the repentance that we need to do every day, we need to be reminded that in order for us to repent, we need God renewed in us day by day. That old man needs to be continually set aside day by day.

Romans 8, 36 there, Paul talks about being killed, I use that in quotes, killed all day long. Not literally. And it's not a matter of beating ourselves up again. It's a matter of perspective, a reminder that if we don't, that carnality creeps back. If we're honest with ourselves, we know that. When we're not close to God through prayer and Bible study, regular fasting, when we don't meditate on His word, I know you know that that can creep back into our minds. We'll say things, we'll do things that we know we shouldn't be doing.

Last point, then. Number four, why? Why must we repent? Let's go back to Romans 8. I touched on this a little bit in passing, meaning referencing it, but I want to read the verse now. Romans 8 and verse 7 simply says, because the carnal mind is enmity against God. Various translations translate the word enmity in different ways. Some can say hostile, some say in opposition to. The point is that they're not compatible. The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor can be, meaning naturally.

On its own, it's not subject to it. And again, we see that replete in the world around us. There is good in mankind. After all, the tree was the knowledge of good and evil. There is good out there, but the end result is death, as we've touched on. We need to remove that carnality in order to be subject to it, to understand it, to have our minds opened to why it's important. The next verse there, Jeremiah 17, verse 9. Jeremiah takes it a little bit further in terms of being brutally honest.

Jeremiah 17, verse 9. He says here, the heart is deceitful above all things. You might say, well, that's a little harsh, but look at what mankind justifies. Look at what you and I justify in our lives. The reality is we don't sin without justifying it. He goes on then to say, the heart is desperately wicked.

Who can know it? This even goes back to Proverbs 14, the way of man is not in him. On our own, this is the way we're going to act as a whole. It will lead us down a path where this will become the norm. We can again see it in mankind that is separated from God. We don't say those things to condemn them. Again, we know their time is not now.

But ours is. We need to see this so that it does not change us. Again, Paul said, don't lay again the foundation of dead works. Why would we go back to that? That's one of the saddest things in my lifetime. Many of you know these things as well. I have zero of the friends I grew up with when I was a teenager still in the church of God. Zero. There are a lot of reasons as to why.

I'm not judging them. But that shows you how vitally important this is. You can't just play churches, some will say. It's too big a deal. In Psalm 51 there, this is David's Psalm after his situation with Bathsheba. What I find interesting in that is that he says there in verses 2 to 4 to sort of summarize, he says, against you only have I sinned. Now think about that. David wasn't alone in this. It wasn't just him. There was Bathsheba, there was certainly Uriah, there was the baby that died, there was even the nation that paid a price for it.

Sin has a huge price. But what David was saying there is that in acknowledging his sin, it was God primarily that he sinned against. It was his law, his standard, his character that he rejected. Because again, David justified this in his mind, as we all do. He was blind to it. One of the really interesting things is he was completely blind to this for over nine months. That shows you how dangerous this can be, how easily we can deceive ourselves to the point of the verses we read in Proverbs and Jeremiah earlier.

What this comes down to is that no amount of physical human work can affect the forgiveness of sin. We don't obligate God through anything we do. That does not mean we don't change. But it does mean that in our change, God is not obligated. So there's no way we can make up for sin. If I live the rest of my human life perfect, it doesn't undo my past sin, does it?

It's still there and has to be dealt with. Whether it's repeating certain prayers, or whether it's traditions in various churches and various applications of penance or fastings, I mean, look at the Pharisees in Christ's day. How often did they fast? One of them said twice a week. But did it change the heart? It was an outward action to impress other people. They did it for the wrong reasons, so it didn't have the change it should have had behind it. All of that doesn't erase the guilt of sin. We cannot punish ourselves for our sins and thus avoid God's punishment.

I mean, think about this in the bigger context. God designed us as weak humans, didn't He? Why would He then be mad when we're weak humans? The point was not to make us weak humans so that He could punish us. The point was to make us weak humans so that we were challenged to overcome. Because character is in choices.

We choose all the time. We choose to get upset. This is something we tried to impress very deeply into our children when they were younger. No, the other person didn't make you mad. They may have done things to upset you, but you choose your reaction. We all do. And we can forget that. Only a repentant spirit will bring about God's mercy. That's why I put that on the slide. Only then can God work with us.

Only then can He extend mercy. You have to have the law to have mercy. You can't have mercy without the law. You have anarchy. Because knowing the law then allows you to know when you can extend mercy, and to what degree you extend mercy. Our courts are losing this battle because they think mercy trumps justice.

Look how many individuals we'll hear of on a regular basis. Somebody has an accident because they're drunk, and they've had 15 or 18 or more DUIs dismissed. We have to be repentant before God will extend the mercy. Let's look at the last couple of verses. Let's go back to Isaiah 66. What is God looking for? If we can boil all this down, if we're not going to go back and lay the foundation of dead works, what is it that God wants? Isaiah 66 verse 2. For all those things... In verse 1, He's talking about everything that He's made in heaven, everything in earth, the things around His throne.

God says, what are you going to bring to me? All of this I've created. So verse 2, He says, And all those things exist, says the Eternal, because of me. I made them all. But notice, He says, but on this one will I look. This is the person, this is the type of individual that will have my attention. On Him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word, poor there does not mean financially.

Poor there means humble. Poor means poor of spirit. I do not think highly of myself beyond measure. It's not a false humility. It is simply an acknowledgement of my shortcomings, what I can and can't do. And that then leads to someone trembling, meaning is respectful, deferential, pays careful attention to what God is saying. God recognizes a broken spirit and a humble spirit as one that is seeking forgiveness and mercy. How hard is it to work with someone who doesn't want to do something different?

You ever worked with someone that you know doesn't know what they're doing? A new employee in the team, some new process, and you can tell they don't have a clue what they're doing. And you do. Maybe it's because you've been there longer, you've had more training, whatever, and you try to show them, look, let me help you out.

No, no, no, I don't need your help. I know what I'm doing. You can't teach them, can you? They don't have this poor and contrite spirit. God will honor the attitude of all who are willing to turn from works and deeds which are sinful and result only in death.

I think, even in this lifetime, there is mercy that He will extend to those who don't understand His plan of salvation. When they do, do this. Let's read the last verse there in Matthew 3. This is the same time period, if you will, of what we read earlier in Mark 1 concerning John the Baptist. And John the Baptist became viral, if you will, in his day. Many had heard of what he was doing and baptizing people there in the Jordan.

A lot of people had generated a lot of buzz. There was an excitement, to some degree, of what he was doing, and it captured the attention of a lot of people. Nonetheless, not the least of which, I should say, were the Pharisees and Sadducees. And so they went out to see what John was up to. What was all this about? So Matthew 3 and verse 8, John recognizes that they didn't come out to be a part of this. They didn't come out in any aspect of what we're talking about today in terms of repentance.

They came out simply to see if it was worth their time. John wasn't cutting them any slack here. In the end of the verse previous there, he calls them a bunch of snakes. And he says, Who warned you of what's coming? So in verse 8, then he cuts to the chase. He says, If you're really serious about this, he says, bear fruit worthy of repentance. Show me. How do you know someone is real? If they do what they say? In anything in life, it doesn't matter what we're talking about. Religion, certainly, and probably most importantly. Because people will see through the fluff. They'll see through the bluster. They'll see through the smoke. And they'll know it's not real. This is what God is looking for us. He's looking for fruit worthy of repentance. Are we serious? Because true Godly repentance is a gift from God. We read that earlier.

True repentance represents a permanent change of direction, going back to what repentance means. It's a commitment to a course in which there is no turning back. I try to emphasize that in baptism counseling that I do. This is not, as a marriage vow is, until death do we part, this is literally forever. Is this what you want? It's not a temporary emotional response. It's something much deeper and vastly more profound. Because it represents that total commitment. It places us on a course directly into eternal life. It represents a complete forsaking of the dead works of our former way. If those things could work, and if those things had worked, we wouldn't need Christ, would we? Is it any wonder, then, that God includes repentance from dead works as one of the basic and most fundamental of all Christian doctrines? As I conclude today, I want to let you know that I have out on the information table a handout. You probably won't be able to read it, and that's fine, but this is just a sample of a three-page handout that's out there. That is part of a study guide that I give to all who ask for me to be involved in baptism counseling. If you're interested in going through this in a deeper way, feel free to take one of those handouts. There's plenty out there, enough for one for each person, if you would like one. But as we go on to perfection, let us remember not to lay again the foundation of repentance from dead works. But rather, let us be worthy of and showing our repentance in everything that we do.