What we Teach and What we Believe about Salvation - Repentance and Faith (Keith's Testimony)

We are moving along in our study of our church confession. And when I say moving along, we've made a change last week. I shared that. And I feel like we've made a good change. And I'll mention that a little bit here in a moment. I will say this. I'll say it often at the end. If you have a question about anything that we cover, there's no such thing as a dumb question, please. These are matters that churches and denominations have worked through for the centuries. And churches and institutions adopting a confession of faith is a healthy thing and a good thing. I haven't said it in a little while.

It helps us understand what we believe and what we teach and who we are. And I was sharing with-- might have been Brother Keith earlier-- really what I'm sharing tonight. I've been teaching you and teaching you. And that's a healthy, good thing. It really, really is. Much of this is not new material, but how it all comes together is. How it all comes together really is. I look forward to seeing how some of the light bulbs come on for you in that way. All right, we're going to look at several passages tonight. I'm going to ask you to turn to several passages. Forgive me if that's a hindrance. Maybe get used to going to the left and the right.

Some of you have an electronic device. See, you could be text messaging and I might not even know it. But we're going to look at several scriptures tonight that are key scriptures. And I'm going to point out some key scriptures that you need to know. Because some of what we're looking at, it hinges on one or two passages that if you know, I promise you it'll help you be going in the right direction here. Now, last week we started this section of our confession. It's really Roman numeral four, section four, the way of salvation and then the subheading, or number one or A, under that, we looked at grace and regeneration. Grace and regeneration.

Of course, everybody knows we are working from the original 1833 New Hampshire Confession of Faith. And they just took the teaching on salvation and they kind of spread it out. And we felt like it would be easier, maybe a little more user friendly if we brought all of that together. And I used an illustration, an analogy of an umbrella. See, the way of salvation is the umbrella and then everything associated with the way of salvation, not everything, is under that umbrella. Let me show you what I mean. I even kind of reorganize it in my notes, put it in the middle of the page. So section four is the way of salvation.

And then under that is grace and regeneration, repentance and faith, which is what we'll cover tonight, justification, sanctification, the perseverance of the saints, and then the glorification of the saints. And that's all a part of salvation. Now, I gave you another analogy last week. I gave you another illustration, the story of the bookends. I think we all know what bookends are. I've got some bookends in my office. Evidently they're not doing right 'cause all my books are really leaning over. Little disclaimer, don't look in my office. It's a mess. My wife asked me the other day, what are you gonna do in there?

But we have bookends, they hold books up, isn't that right? We get that, we know what they are. Well, when we're dealing with man's salvation, the salvation of man, we have two bookends. We have what God does, theologians call it election, that's taught in the scripture. That is what God did in eternity past that involves God choosing, God electing to reveal himself to some, and that pertains to salvation. And there are many erroneous views when it comes to election. But then you have glorification, that's the other bookend. Glorification, glorification is the culmination.

It's the high watermark of all of this that we deal with or understand to be man's redemption. It's the final step in applying man's salvation. Now think about that. God saves you and you live for the Lord, and then when you are glorified, when you're glorified, that's the final step in your salvation. Now, a question here, two questions. Who does this? These two bookends. Who does this work? These two bookends. This is all of God, okay? Those glorious, sometimes difficult to deal with bookends are key.

And remember, I shared last week, this needs to be seen, that there are a lot of things that pertain to salvation that are not necessarily a part of what we're gonna cover. I'll give you an example. Lots of theologians will deal with the adoption. We're adopted. We're adopted into the family of God. That's part of man's salvation. So when you study, when you read other works, when you listen maybe to other sermons or read other confessions, you might see that some have a little more information when it comes to the salvation of man. Now, in looking at the statement, the way of salvation, we know salvation is only in Jesus.

There is no other way. It's sad. These other religions that have another way, that is a false way. He is the one true and the only sacrifice for sin. Really, if you wanna see that, study Hebrews 10, one to 18, but specifically verse 12. What does it say? But when Christ had offered, that's the cross, for all time, a single sacrifice for sin. There's only one. And think about it. Are we not thankful for the love, the loving heart of God, the loving heart of God, the Son? God determined to do all of that. And we know that salvation is a grace gift. It is free, meaning that no one can earn it. You know, it's really sad.

You don't realize sometimes how many people are trying to earn their salvation, trying to earn it, trying to work for it. But we know that no one can earn it. Salvation also is inclusive. It's for anyone who would confess, anyone who would believe. Romans 1.15, "For I'm not ashamed of the gospel, "for it is the power of God for salvation "to everyone who believes." But it also is exclusive, meaning that man can only be saved through the gospel. There's only one way. And we should think of salvation as a door. I didn't use this last week. Salvation is a door, and that door is Christ. John 10.9, "I am the door.

"If anyone enters by me, he will be saved, "and he will go in and out and find pasture." Christ, the gospel, is the door, the door of man's salvation. But we can't open the door. Only God can. Only God can. And listen, that statement is a must. Only God can open the door. We can't open the door of salvation because of our utter sinfulness. I can't stress that enough. Our sinfulness, man is utterly sinful, although man may do good things in the world, we may be good by other people's standards. Those are normal and good. By God's standards, we're good.

We do good things in the world, but man can never be good enough to attain salvation because God's standard is total perfection, and man is utterly sinful. All right, for man to be saved, he needs what? Grace in regeneration. We talked about that last week. God chooses to work in man by grace, and that first work of salvation begins there with regeneration. Well, it's there in your handout. If you look back at the beginning of last week's section on grace and regeneration, notice what it says. Just the first sentence. We believe that in order for any person to be saved, that person must be regenerated of God. So what do we see?

Salvation begins in regeneration. And we studied four images, and I'm reviewing this because this all ties together. These images are good, folks. You really need these. These images of this work of God in man. Regeneration is spiritual birth. It is spiritual cleansing. It is spiritual creation, and it is spiritual resurrection. I'm gonna make a little confession with you. I'm not always as balanced as I should be when I talk about regeneration. I think sometimes I talk about being born again, that spiritual birth a lot, but I think sometimes I don't talk about the spiritual cleansing, the spiritual creation, the spiritual resurrection.

I don't think I talk about those other pictures enough. There's a key verse here. Titus 3, four to five. Oh, remember Titus 3, four to five, and then that famous large portion of scripture, John 3, one to 15, where Jesus is fleshing out Titus 3, four to five, to Nicodemus. All right, tonight we're under number two. This way of salvation, that would be repentance and faith. Let's read it together, okay? Remember now it's under the umbrella of the way of salvation. Let's read it together, and then we'll get started. Now we believe that repentance and faith are sacred responsibilities.

There's a transition here, and are also inseparable works of grace brought about in the souls of men by the regenerating spirit of God. See how this all ties together. Through regeneration, man is deeply convinced or convicted of sin, of his guilt before God, the danger of eternal punishment, his helplessness before God, in the way of salvation in Christ. That's the only way. Man then turns to God in genuine conviction and confession and seeking God for mercy, while at the same time receiving the Lord Jesus Christ and his substitutionary atonement or death on the cross, relying on him alone as the only and all sufficient Savior.

So we've already learned that. He's the only sufficient sacrifice and Savior. Now when we're looking at this statement, we know that salvation is only in Jesus. He was and is the only true sacrifice for sin. We've seen that. Now I concluded last week's message with a question. Remember the question. This was kind of our homework. What comes first? Regeneration, the new birth, that spiritual cleansing, that spiritual resurrection. What comes first? Regeneration or man repenting and man believing by faith. What comes first? We'll get to that. And it might start to come on for you.

The light might start coming on brighter and brighter as we continue. But I wanted to revisit that. Now first though, we need to address another question that will arise in this section, this section of the confession. And that question is this. Is repenting and expressing faith a responsibility, meaning God expects man to do this? Or is repenting and expressing faith a gift? Which one is it? The answer is yes. The answer is yes. Go back to the first line, or the first two lines.

We believe that repentance and faith are sacred responsibilities and are also inseparable works of grace, brought about in the souls of men by the regenerating work of God. Now before we get into some verses, I want to explain what we have here. Here we have a tension between man's responsibility and God's work of grace in man. Attention. You see, man is responsible to repent and express faith in Christ. He is. But that cannot happen because man is utterly sinful. So man must have a work of grace in him and for him, and that work of grace is from God. What is that work? Regeneration. Regeneration.

It was stated there in the section on repentance and faith. Now I gotta share something else before we get into some verses. Bear with me. Here what we have is what's called a paradox. Some of you know what that term is. A paradox is a seeming contradiction. What I have stated concerning man's responsibility, his inability and his need of grace, it really all seems like a contradiction. Now you might not realize it, but the Bible is full of seeming contradictions. There are paradoxes everywhere. The top two for me are this. Who wrote the Bible, God or man? Yes. God wrote the Bible. Man wrote the Bible.

There were times Moses wrote exactly word for word what God said. Some of the Bible God wrote with his own finger. But yet when you read Paul's writings, there's all kinds of Paul coming out in it. It's all of his personality, how he feels. So all scripture is breathed out by God, but yet man wrote it, so who wrote it? God or man? Another one. This is one we've covered. Was Jesus fully God or was he fully man? Yes. That's in our minds, we can't reconcile those two. They seem like contradictions. I ran across a study. I was just doing a little extra reading on paradox, seeming contradictions in the Bible.

I ran across an article and it was from the Life Way Christian Resources, which is part of Southern Baptist work. But there was a list, 14 different paradoxes, and some of them really grabbed my attention. I'm gonna just skim a couple because we need to get this in our mind. Here's one, a paradox, worthlessness and workmanship. We are worthless servants, Luke 17, 10, but we are also his workmanship, Ephesians 2, 10. Think about that. We are Christ's workmanship, but yet we are worthless? That doesn't seem to reconcile. That doesn't seem to go together. Here's another one, the role of works.

A person is justified by faith apart from works of the law, Romans 3, 28. A person is justified by faith, not by his works, not by what he could do. But James 24 says a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. Did you know Martin Luther struggled so bad with that that he wanted to reject the book of James? James is not teaching that you are justified by your works. James is teaching, no, your justification is proven by your works. That seems to contradict each other, those verses. I'll give you one more because of time. The Christian life, is it easy or hard? Jesus said, come, my yoke is easy.

And then Matthew 7, 14, he says, how difficult the road that leads to life. Jesus said, my yoke is easy, but some of you know the Christian life, isn't that easy? What am I trying to show you? The Bible has seeming contradictions here, all right? Now, what do we do when we come across these? There are people when they come across these seeming contradictions, they say, time out, I can't take it. Some run, some reject the Bible because of that. This is what we do. First of all, we do not try to reconcile them. Because if you try to reconcile them, you will malign what's taught there. Jesus is fully God and fully man.

And I can't reconcile the two. And then second, we accept them as being beyond our comprehension. These are things that are beyond our ability to understand. And then third, we declare them as they are. We just declare them and move on. And then we do not believe or teach one at the expense of the other. That is a mistake many make. They will teach one at the expense of the other. If you're teaching on one of these difficult matters, maligns other scripture, well then you are in error. And your view could be in error. And I'm gonna get into one of those in a minute. This is gonna speak to you more than you know.

All right, number one, repentance and faith. These are responsibilities. That's the first phrase. We believe that repentance and faith are sacred responsibilities. Here's a quick definition of repentance and faith. Bible commentator theologian Wayne Grudem is just really good. This is really short. Repentance is a heartfelt sorrow for sin and renouncing of it and a sincere commitment to forsake it. That would be sin and walk in obedience with Christ. Notice he didn't mean or use the word faith, but it's there. We'll get into that. Now, I wanna build a little case here. I wanna give you some information about repentance and faith.

This is gonna help us. All right, repentance and faith require some understanding, some intellectual understanding. There must be an understanding of sin. There must be an understanding of God's word and what God's word says about sin. And there must be this acceptance of the teaching of scripture regarding sin. And a part of that intellectual understanding is knowing that there is a Christ, there is a savior, there is a Messiah, who paid for that sin? Let me pause there. When I came to faith in Christ, I didn't know Job from Job. I knew Old Testament, New Testament.

I remember sitting in church when my home church pastor would talk about Israel all the time and I thought, why is he talking about these people? And I remember sitting there when it all clicked that Jesus was a Jew and he was of the nation of Israel. Some of you grew up knowing that. But I'll tell you this, when I came to faith in Christ, I knew this. I knew I was a sinner. I knew the Bible said so, and I believed it is God's word, and I knew Christ died on the cross from me. See that intellectual ability understanding? That must be in our minds if we can truly understand repentance of faith.

Now at the heart of repentance of faith is a personal decision, a personal decision to turn from Christ. There is a renouncing of sin and personal sinfulness and a decision to trust in Christ for salvation and to walk in obedience to Christ. So there is a turning from and a turning to. If you remember that, that'll help you. In repentance and faith, there's a turning from and a turning to. There is a turning from sin, and in turning from sin, you're turning to Christ. And this work takes place in the heart, it takes place in the mind, and it involves the whole person, meaning it affects the entire life.

And as a result, there is a changed life. Repentance in faith results in a life change. Repentance in faith produces a life of continual repentance in faith. I'm not gonna turn there. Second Corinthians 5, 17. If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation. See that verse reflects this repentance of faith turning from, turning to, and a continual life of repentance in faith. Now the scriptures, we most always see repentance in faith together. Sometimes repentance will be dealt with, but faith is almost like hidden in the wings. And then sometimes faith is dealt with, and repentance is hidden in the wings.

Sometimes the word belief and belief is there. It's like this package deal. Now they are different, but they're part of the same work, part of what happens in a person. They believe, they repent, they trust by faith. Now with all of that in our minds, I want us to look at a few passages. Romans 10, verses nine to 10. It's really not fair. I've had time to mark up my Bible so I can turn there quicker than you. I apologize. Romans 10, nine, 10, and 11. You know these verses, but these are key verses. Romans 10, starting in verse nine.

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Now let me pause there. Everything I taught you earlier is right there in those verses. I think you see it. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Let me pause there. Now I want us to see what's happening here. Simply this is an expression of faith. Then we have the objects of this faith, and then we have an explanation of this faith, this believing faith. We see the expressions of faith. Here we see expressions of faith by an individual.

This is a man or a woman exercising that responsibility. Paul uses the word confess and believe in verse nine, and these are expressions of faith. But these expressions are more than simply acknowledgments because what? The demons, the demons, they acknowledge truthful matters. James 2.19 says that the demons confess and believe spiritual truths, they confess who Jesus is, but they don't have true saving faith, do they? They don't. So these are not superficial works here. These are not non-saving expressions of faith. Did you know people can have non-saving expressions of faith? This is not my notes. Go to John two at the end of the chapter.

There was these great crowds following Jesus. And Jesus, it says, Jesus didn't believe in them because he knew they didn't believe in him. He knew they had superficial faith, so he didn't commend himself to them because he knew all men's hearts. So this is a true expression of faith here. This is a confession, this is a belief, this isn't superficial. And then two, or second, we see the objects of the faith. Right away in verse nine, we see the object, and the object is a who, not a theme.

Because if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, this is Jesus, but notice the specifics. This is an expression of faith believing that Jesus was in fact God, the Son of God. He was God, God in the flesh, Lord. Several commentators that I looked at just talked about this refers to the incarnation. And this expression of faith is believing that Jesus did in fact raise from the dead. The resurrection was proof that the work of redemption was in fact complete, and this expression of faith is a belief that he did in fact go to the cross, he died, and he was raised.

So this faith has an object, and Jesus is the object here. And really he's an alive object because he was raised. And then third, we see the explanation of faith. Look at verse 10. For with the heart one believes and is justified, that's made right with God, we'll get to that. And with the mouth one confesses and is saved. See to me verse 10 is an explanation, an expression of what we had seen earlier. Paul says that one expresses faith in their heart, and at that point they are justified, they are made right with God. Let me say that again. Someone truly expresses saving faith.

They believe in their heart and they are justified, they are made right with God, they are in right standing with God. Then confession comes. This one who has in fact become a believer then confesses the salvation that they have already received. One writer said it like this, I liked it, I just jotted it down this afternoon. Confession is not a condition of salvation, but the inevitable outward expression of it. You see? Confession is not a condition of salvation, but it is this inevitable outward expression of true salvation. So we have the expression of faith.

Man confesses, man believes, he exercises faith, he demonstrates faith, he confesses Christ. See the responsibility there? Let me go back. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. First with the heart one believes and is justified was the mouth and it is with the mouth that one confesses and is saved. Now the second passage. Let's move from Romans, I want us to go to Acts chapter two. Acts chapter two verse 37 and 38. There's a lot going on here with these verses. Let me, I wanna read them now and I'll give backstory here in a minute.

Now when they had heard this, they were cut to the heart. It's a work of the spirit, conviction, what we read about in the confession earlier and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, brothers, what shall we do? And Peter said to the young, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Now I want you to see what's happening here. This is a real life example. What I mean real life, this is happening in real life. This is not just teaching, this is an exhibit, exhibit A. Now let me give you the backstory. This is Pentecost. The spirit was poured out there.

Jews had come from all over the known world, thousands of them to celebrate the Jewish Pentecost. So there was a crowd and Peter stands up to preach. I love that it's Peter. Isn't God good because previously he had denied Christ. He's kind of made a muck of his Christian life there for a little while. So Peter stands up to preach, okay. But there's a message summary in verse 36. So the backstory, but then the message summary. Verse 36, let all of the house of Israel, this is Peter preaching, therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.

See, he's simply summarizing all that he had preached. First he had preached Christ was the promised Messiah, Jesus was. These were Jews there at Pentecost. So they needed to hear that Jesus was the one they were waiting on. Second, he preached Christ crucified. Then third, he preached their guilt. He said, you, he pointed the finger. You did this. And then he showed them that they were guilty. Maybe some were there screaming crucified the crucifixion, but yet spiritually they had crucified him. So Peter's message was Jesus was the Messiah. He was crucified and they were personally guilty. That's the message summary.

But the result of the message, verse 37, they were cut to the heart. This was the supernatural work of the spirit of God. Remember John three, you can't see where the spirit comes from, you can't see where it's going. But when the spirit of God moves in a heart and a life in regeneration and working and drawing sinners, you see its effects and listen without a verbal appeal or an invitation, they cried out, what shall we do? So we see the mighty work of God, the spirit of God there, a demonstration of John three. This is a result of the message. And then fourth, the command. This command, Peter said, repent and be baptized.

So he calls these convicted, guilty sinners to exercise their responsibility. He commands two things. He tells them to repent, to turn from and to turn to. You can't repent unless you turn from and to. You can't go to Christ without repenting from and you can't repent of or from your sin without going to. So he calls them to repent. And see, they were to acknowledge their guilt before God and turn from that sin and turn to Christ. And then second, he calls them to be baptized. Now this baptism wasn't for the forgiveness of sin. This was an outward confession of their forgiveness. We're gonna deal with baptism later.

So Peter calls on these sinners to repent. He called them to turn from and to turn to, to exercise that responsibility. So we have an expression of faith. This repentance, a turning from sin to Christ, they were to confess and exercise faith and repent. Now let me back up. A very brief summary of all that I've shared with you. Man's responsibility in salvation. They are to believe, they are to trust by faith in Christ for salvation. They are to repent of their sin and their sinfulness and to turn to Christ. And there are a lot of other passages and phrases and words that we could use. So we see our responsibility. It's your responsibility.

It's mine. I'll never forget the first time somebody ever exercised their responsibility to tell me it was my responsibility. I was a senior in high school. North Laurel, shopping center parking lot, hanging out with some teenagers. And some guys came by and witnessed and shared Christ. And they looked at us and said, you need Christ and called us to our responsibility. Then years later, someone in my family had gotten converted to Christ and I was at my parents house and they had a little deck off to the side there and I was outside and they got right in my face. And they said, you need to be born again. You live like this. He used you.

This is what's wrong with you. And they exercise the responsibility and they call me to my responsibility. I remember it vividly and we all have a responsibility. But here's the paradox. We can't. We can't. We can't. And we're gonna get into that. We can't in a minute, a touch more if we have time. Number two, repentance and faith or a grace gift. I'm really keen more on the first part of the confession. We believe that repentance and faith are sacred responsibilities and they are also inseparable works of grace brought about by the souls of, in the souls of men by the regenerating work of the spirit.

Now, dealing with repentance and faith is a gift. Some may be many, some have never heard this. Listen, if that is you, hold on. Sadly, in lots of our Southern Baptist churches, they are good at teaching man's responsibility. Many churches that we have come from are good at teaching our responsibility to repent and express faith. But we really haven't been good at teaching where this comes from, how this happens. And listen, when we begin to wrestle with this, we'll see the paradox. We'll see the seeming contradiction. I thought about an illustration. Maybe this will help you remember. Were any of you Beatles fans?

Didn't they sing a famous song, "Let It Be"? Just remember the Beatles when you get to a paradox. "Let It Be". "Let It Be", okay? There could be one person here when we start talking about this being a gift, they get nervous. You see, this is where the paradox will begin to come out. At one level, you do believe whether you know it or not, you do believe that this is a gift and this must come from God because I've taught you this so much, whether you know it or not. Now, I want us to look at Ephesians 2, verses 8, 9, and 10. We've already dealt with these verses. This is one you really need to know, folks. Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and 10.

Mark this one. Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and 10. "For by grace you've been saved through faith." And this is not of your own doing, this is a gift from God. By grace, gift of God, two times. Not a result of works, so that no one can boast. "For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which he prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." We know these verses, but these are foundational. Now, let me get going here. Now, I'm not gonna break down these passages, but I'm gonna point out what's happening here. Paul is declaring that man's salvation originates from God. How? By grace.

It is God who takes the initiative in providing salvation for God. Listen, can man save himself? No. Can man do anything to take one step toward salvation? Please know Romans 3. Romans 3. And in Romans 3, Paul is quoting the Old Testament. I need to read it because this shows you that we can't. Verse 10. "No one is righteous, not even one. No one understands, no one seeks God." No one seeks God. No one. "All have turned aside. Together have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of course.

A curse is in bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed innocent blood. In their paths are ruined in misery. In the way of peace they have not known." And notice the last verse, verse 18. "For there is no fear of God before their eyes." So you tell me, can man save himself? Listen, salvation is a grace gift. Man is unable and unworthy. And in verse nine, it is a key here. If I could repent and believe by faith completely on my own that I would have something to boast about. That verse eliminates that possibility. And to me, verse 10 kind of is a bow on the package. Verse 10, I'm back in Ephesians again.

"For we are his workmanship." We are his workmanship, yes. In salvation we're created in Christ and it goes on to say that we're created in Christ for good works, which he prepared beforehand. You know what that means? Forever ago there were good works created for me to live out in Christ. That's a verse that's really rocked Brother Keith's world. It's been a part of his testimony. I'm putting him on the spot. He's nodding his head. You get him to share with you what those verses have meant to him. Now here's a statement, all right? I want you to get this. All of salvation is a gift. It's a grace gift. Remember our umbrella?

Remember our umbrella, the way of salvation? Everything under that umbrella is a grace gift, folks. So first, Ephesians 2, 8, 9, and 10. Those verses are loaded. Second, I want us to see several verses that fall in line with what I've just shared. We're not gonna turn to these verses. Acts 5, verse 31, God created him at his right hand as leader and savior, that's Jesus, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness for sin, to give repentance. Acts 11, 18, when they heard these things, they fell silent and they glorified God saying, then to the Gentiles, also God has granted repentance that leads to life.

Now there's two different things going on and the same thing going on in these verses. We have two different circumstances, but one teaching. First in Acts 5, we have the Messiah. As the Messiah, Jesus relates to the Jews. Jesus came to the Jews to Israel first, the Jewish people. But in Acts 11, we have really the beginning of the Gentiles coming to faith in Christ. And if we follow the work of the New Testament church, we see the Jews coming to faith, coming into the church, and then we see the Gentiles coming to faith and coming into the church. We dealt with kind of those conflicts this past Sunday. But notice what we have here.

With both Jew and Gentile, repentance is a gift. It comes from God. It's a part of that grace gift, folks. One more verse, Romans 2, 4. Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? See, it's God's kindness. Remember that love of God the Father and God the Son? God provided salvation in Jesus, and it is God's kindness that leads us center to repentance. It's part of the grace gift. So quickly, we see that repentance and faith are a grace gift. Ephesians 2, 8, 9 tells us that man's salvation is a grace gift.

And passages like Acts 5 and Acts 11 specifically tell us that repentance is a grace gift. Did you know that? See, this is how it works. You're like me. You kind of don't know Job from Job, or maybe you do. Oh, and you come to faith in Christ, and you don't know all that happened. You just know you were sick of your sin, and you wanted Christ. And oh, I mean, you just rushed to Christ. You were happy to be converted to Christ, and you're just living for the Lord. And then all of a sudden, these kind of things are taught, and you look back and say, "That's exactly right. I was so vile. I was so wicked. I could not have repented.

Oh God, I was horrible. You did that." And then what happens is you look to heaven and praise Him in a new and a unique way, because that truth, that reality is made known to you in a different way. You can't know all of these things when you come to faith in Christ. Now, what do we do here? We hold these two realities out there. You hold them out. You're responsible to trust, believe, and repent. What Peter say? You better repent now. And then over here on the other side, it's a grace gift. We hold them out, and we can't make all that work in our minds. We accept it by faith. But practically, this is what we do. This is how we live it out.

We command, we call, we beg sinners to repent. We beg our children and our teenagers to trust in Christ. We call men to do what they can't do. And then we wait on God to do what only God can do. We call men to repent and believe, but God enables men to repent and believe. It is God's gift of repentance and faith. And listen, don't make the mistake of getting into God's business. Don't. We declare it and preach it and pray, and then we wait. Now, I want us to look at the rest. We're not really gonna cover this. Forgive me if I struggle here. I highlighted it in blue, and it's kind of hard to read. I don't know why I highlighted it in blue.

Notice, I'm gonna read it all, but notice the transition. And I'm comfortable that you get a lot of this other because I've taught you this. We believe that repentance and faith are sacred responsibilities, and are inseparable works of grace brought about in the souls of men by the regenerating spirit of God. I've taught you that. Rough and tumble. Through regeneration, man is deeply convicted of their sin, his guilt before God, the danger of eternal punishment, his helplessness before God, and the way of salvation in Christ. Let me pause there. Go to the Gospel of John.

John chapter 14, 15, 16, where Jesus is explaining the work of the Holy Spirit. All of this is right there. Man, he then turns to God in genuine conviction and confession and seeking God for mercy while at the same time receiving Jesus. See, seeking God for mercy at the same time receiving Jesus. And his substitutionary death on the cross, relying on him and him alone as the only and all sufficient savior. Really, the last part, the bigger part, is fleshed out, fleshing out what was explained in the first two sentences. So, what comes first? Regeneration, what God does, or what man does? Lots of people don't get this.

Listen, folks, man cannot. God does. It is God that does this. And listen, you can live your whole Christian life and not understand this, and that's okay. But we do need to understand this. We need to ask this question, what comes first? And I'm fixing to show you why this is extremely important. Now, some of you might not know this, but I am a recovered, recovering decisionist. You ever known somebody who was a recovering alcoholic? You remember our old friend Bruce Dowell passed away? You know, Bruce had a lifestyle, an old lifestyle of drugs and alcohol. He would not mind me sharing that with you. He was converted out of all that.

And you know, he used to go to Alcoholics Anonymous, AA. He said, I'd go there, and once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic, he said, he looked around and went, man, I'm not an alcoholic anymore, God saved me. And he left, and he had gotten past that. Well, I am past being a recovering decisionist. Now, let me explain what I mean by that. I was converted and came to Christ, and my home church really was a little out of balance here. Lots of decisionism. I mean, lots of heavy alter calls, emotionalism and revivals and decision, and lots of people made decision after decision after decision, and it really was a lot of emotions.

And you know, after years of being in that, and years of doing it, I did it. It began to bother me. I just began to be bothered. I had people who made decision after decision and never had peace, didn't understand what was going on, and it bothered me. And what did I do? I got into the scriptures, and I began to study, and I began to dig into the Word, and I began to question what I had been taught and really what had just been modeled from me, and I began to study, and I began to learn these truths, and then I finally got to the place where I understood who the Holy Spirit was. The Holy Spirit isn't an it. The Holy Spirit isn't an influence.

The Holy Spirit isn't like this invisible force like on Star Wars. It's the third person of the Trinity. This is God here. And then I began to understand what the Holy Spirit does in salvation. Who's the active agent in regeneration? The Spirit of God, not an it or a thing. And then I began to realize from the scripture, wait a minute, if God is drawing somebody, and if God saves them, I don't have to do all that. I was liberated, set free. Now, I wasn't a recovering decisionist as in I struggled, no. I quit doing all that, and I completely changed my programming, and this is what I did.

I said, Lord, I'm gonna preach your word, and I'm gonna trust in you. You came to die for all sinners. You wanna save people more than I do. And it's the Spirit of God that convicts and reveals lostness and does what only God can do. And I said, you're God, and you can get people to the point like you did at Pentecost where they cry out, what do I gotta do? So all I did was preach, and all I did was preach and make myself available, and all of those crazy, goofy decisions went away. See why understanding theology matters. It dictates what you do. We grew up in Baptist churches, the invitation system.

I'm not against the invitation, but so many times it's abused. But if you'll notice, I give an invitation all the time. I'll give you an example of that. My friend Brandon, who came and visited this past Sunday. I'm gonna be out of town this Sunday, and Brother Keith is, he doesn't have the ability to sing right now, and so Brother Jared's gonna share the word, and Brandon's gonna come and help lead worship. So our friend Brandon will be back. He had never worshiped with us here. And I was interested in his response. And one thing he said, you gave an invitation from the time you started to the time you got through.

You know what my invitation looked like this? You know what it was? We're here to pray. We're here to study God's word. You have a responsibility to study. You're here to pray. You're here to open up your Bible. You take notes. You adjust your life to this. You study it during the week. We're gonna dodge it. It's invitation after invitation after invitation. And the Spirit takes what's taught, and the Spirit does this work in you. And when it comes to salvation, this is how it works. You teach and you teach and you teach. And finally somebody steps up and says, pastor, I gotta talk. That goes on more than you know.

Years ago, we had a family visiting. They were never members. They had a hard time with the fact that I did not give an invitation. So how do people get saved? I explained this to 'em. I'm not making fun. They didn't understand that you don't have to have an invitation. If God can't save somebody, save somebody, without me begging them to come, what kind of God do we serve? It's the Holy Spirit that does this work. See, this matters. I know it's a lot. Some of it's repetitive. Some of it's new. And look, we can't rectify all of this. I heard it said like this. This is how you rectify all this in glory. Somebody dies, stands before the Lord.

And they knew the Lord. This is what they'll say. God, thank you that you saved me. But if somebody dies without Christ and they stand before God, they're culpable. God will show 'em all the times they should have repented. I don't know how to rectify all that, but that's in the scripture, okay? It's a lot. It's a lot, but it's truth. And it dictates what we do. Now, let me share this and then we'll close. We have the way of salvation, regeneration, grace and regeneration, repentance and faith. All of this gets all tangled together, but we've separated it so we can see it. It's all together.

And when we get to the end of this, you're gonna see how it all fits. And you'll have a better understanding because we've taken the time to separate it and then put it together, all right? Two or three prayer needs. Y'all continue to pray for Keith with his vocal cord issues. He goes back pretty soon when you go to the specialist. The ninth. So he's doing what the doctor ordered, which is no singing and limiting his teaching. Yeah. 18 years ago. (audience member cheers) All right, now, all right. I'm glad you said that. We are at a youth event. It's when I was youth minister at East Haven.

Sermons preached, hundreds of teenagers there, Brother Keith led worship. I'm telling it because I need to explain something. After the event, I'm tired, worn out, I go to my office. He walks in the door and you look like somebody that hit him in the shins with a brick. And he looked at me, he said, man, I don't know if I'm lost or saved. I'm not making this up. I looked at my cement, I can't help you. I can't help you. It didn't I say that? I can't see him a little bit. I said, you gotta see God. You gotta hear from the Lord because I knew this truth. I did not, I wasn't gonna lead him in some cheap prayer.

Now, if he'd have fell out into Florida, I don't have to lead somebody in a prayer. The thief on the cross just cried out. He drives home, gets into bed with his wife. If I was telling it wrong, tell me. He's quiet, she says, what's wrong with you? He says, I don't know if I'm saved. She says, what are you doing in the bed? She kicks him out of the bed. So he gets on the floor at his den, wallows in the floor, seeking the Lord. And when did God save you? It's a work of the spirit folks. See what I mean? I got ridiculed. I got corrected, super corrected because I didn't lead him in a prayer in my office. Exhibit A right there.

This is real stuff. I'm not gonna manipulate your children. I'm not gonna manipulate them at VBS. But I'm gonna tell you, if your eight year old comes out crying, wanting the Lord, we're just gonna rejoice. God saves eight year olds, 18 year olds, 88 year olds, see? We don't know where the wind's blowing. We don't know where it comes from. But we see its effects. That's a praise.