subjects. Acts chapter two and verse thirty-eight. Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and he shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. And verse nineteen of chapter three. Repent ye, therefore, and be converted, and your sins, that your sins may be blotted out when the kinds of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. In chapter five and verse thirty-one, him have God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Chapter eight. and verse twenty-two. Repent, ye. Repent, therefore, of this thy wickedness, and pray, God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. In chapter seventeen, verse thirty. And the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent. because he hath appointed a day in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead. And chapter twenty and verse twenty-one, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks' repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Then chapter twenty-six, and our verse twenty are last texts and acts of repentance, but showed first unto them of Damascus and at Jerusalem and throughout all the coasts of Judea, and then to the Gentiles that they should repent and turn to God and do works meet for repentance. Past Sundays we have been speaking on the subject of repentance. This will be our third and final message on that subject. Man is born with his face away from God, with his back to God. And man needs to turn around, and that's a way of illustrating repentance. Not only a change of mind inwardly, but a change of the whole person, spirit, soul, and body, a turn about faith. You're going on the way to hell, and God is shining His love on your back, hoping the heat of that love will turn you around, and you'll start facing God. And so that's why God says, Turn me, O turn me, for why will he die, saith the Lord? And also they turn to God from idols. They have been looking to idols, we read in Thessalonians, They had been looking at idols and worshiping idols. Now they turned to God from idols to serve the living and to God to wait for His Son from heaven. That's true repentance. Now repentance is not opposed to grace. Some people try and tell us that even the act of repentance or the attitude of repentance is worse. and that it has a merit to it, and in other ways reduces grace or minimizes grace. No, it does not. Repentance does not have any merit in it. Repentance more or less acknowledges, I need grace. I need grace. When a man is ill, while he goes to the doctor, and of course in going to the doctor, He more or less admits he needs that doctor. He's got a condition that he can't handle, and he goes to a doctor because his condition drives him to that doctor, gives him the wisdom to go to that doctor. Now, repentance shows us we need help. We have a situation, a condition that we can't handle. We are a patient of the ways and going, the things we've been doing, And so now that repentance drives us to grace. We need grace, and grace is unmerited favor. Grace is more or less the obtaining of something the very opposite to what we deserve. All of us deserve death and judgment. But God is sovereign grace, gave His Son to die. that we might not go on to eternal punishment, but turn up and go to heaven because He in sovereign grace gave us His Son the day that they are and give us a passport to rounds and mansions in the sky. So repentance is a complete turning about, a reverse in our direction, and repentance has no merit. It's entirely by grace we are saved, and only the repentant sinner can obtain that grace. You have a number of examples of repentance in your Bible, and this one is quite an amazing example, and that's Jew. And here this man, Jew. And God could say to Satan, as thou know my servant Job, there's none like him in all the earth, a perfect enough white man, one that fear of God, and astute evil. Here's God's commendation of this man Job. And Satan, of course, in a very sarcastic way, he said to God, Well, does Job serve you for not? Look what you've done, you've blessed him. He's the wealthiest man in the East. You've given him every desire. He shall all kinds of property, all kinds of wants, all kinds of crops, bless your money, and you've given them a good wife. He has ten children, seven sons and three daughters. What more and more do man want than that? No wonder Job fears you and serves you and worships you. You've blessed them. He needs nothing. God says, well, I'll show you that you're wrong. I'm going to take away the hedges of protection that I've had around Job, and I'm going to let you do what you like with Job and accept, take his life. For Job said all the man hath, or rather the devil said all the man hath will he give for his life. All right, we'll see. And so Satan began. to pour out his venom upon one of God's children. And you know how the storm came, destroyed all his crops, killed all his flocks, and all his houses were destroyed in all his buildings. And then, of course, his ten children were killed, and then his wife She turned against them and told them the curse is gone and die, and if that were not enough, she broke out with boils from head to foot, and there he sat on that ash outside that oriental village, scraping the oozing corruption that came from those sores. And still the Bible says Job held his integrity. And he said, God had gave, God gave, and God had taken away blessings in the name of the Lord. In all this, Job sinned not against God. Going to prove that Job wasn't believing in God, serving God, living for God, because of the material, physical blessings there were his. He had the love for God far above and beyond all material things. Quite often, you know, you're confronted with this question in visiting people, why does God allow a Christian to go through these things? Why am I allowed to suffer like this? And people don't seem to understand why if God is a God of love, He permits His children to go through hardships, and sometimes the root falls in, just about everything happens, blow after blow falls, as I did with Job. And the simple point is this. If the Christian had everything he wanted in the moment he trusted Christ, why, he's got a promotion in his job, and he's able to get a new car, buy a new home, why everything came his way, he was prospered, people would say, my, it must be wonderful to be efficient. If you get all that from God by being efficient, I'm going to do it. God says, no, I don't want you to trust my son or accept my son because of material benefits and blessings. I want you to trust my son for spiritual blessings. You need salvation. You may not have all you want down here, but you will have all you desire up there that's glorifying to God and satisfactory to your soul. And so Christians have to suffer just like anyone else. And that's the opportunity that Christian has of showing that it pays to know God. Here's your opportunity to glorify God. And God will, with that temptation or with that kind, He'll give you grace. He'll make a way of escape that you may be able to bear. And when the Christian is suffering under circumstances adverse to our desires, God gives them a grace, and I don't know anything that can speak to others, unsaved people, like a child of God going through deep water, trying painful circumstances, and able to shake away the tears and smile and say, well, this is what God permitted. I couldn't stop it. I didn't want it. It's unpleasant, but if this is God's will, I'm going to glorify him in it, because God's preparing me for a better world. God's preparing me for a better place, a place where there's no more sin, no more sorrow, no more sickness, no more death. That's what God is looking for, and these experiences that we have are what the school of God is putting us through, that we might graduate from grade to grade until that day we'll graduate, from university I trust, and have disappeared, we'll get our reward. And so Job was a very religious man, and yet you know down in Job's heart there were certain things that his prosper surrounded him, didn't prevail. Job had a sinful heart that even he himself wasn't aware of. And it took circumstances to bring out that sinful nature. When the sun was shining and the pastures were green, everything going Joel's way, my life wonderful. welcome in the morning and take a deep breath of nice fresh fresh air and look out for sun shining in the cattle that are grazing, everything. I've got everything. Job didn't even think about it, evil, wicked heart and nature he had. When all these things were taken from them, Job met the incoming wave bravely. Let me tell you folks who go swimming at the ocean. There's something you've got to fear more than that incoming wave, and that's the undertone that will take you out. And if there's a strong one, you'll be, why you'll be very fortunate to have your life saved. Many a Christian has met the incoming tide of sorrow and suffering. They take it well. You are amazed at their fortitude during a time of trial and suffering. Only to find a few weeks later the undertow has caught him, and it will be carried out into the deep, not of destruction, but of remorse and bitterness because of what has taken place. And here is Job. He sits alone. His brethren came to see him. Three were supposed to be his brethren. And so they started their conversation. One called Job a hypocrite. One told Job he was a liar. The young one told him he was sent righteous. Now that's not rubbing salt into the wound. What is it? If Job hadn't suffered enough at the hands of Satan permitted by God, his wife besook him, And yet here are his supposed friend, and they had no mercy on him, calling Job a liar. Say that he was self-righteous. Think of that. Well, Job got his temper up, and he's as miserable comfort as are you all. Wish them will die with you. I like to read the book of Job. It's got a lot of sarcasm in them. How they argue. And they throw their sarcasm back and forth. So finally the three friends give up. Along comes another one, a young man, Al-Hugh, and he added to the situation. He's a little more gracious on Job than his three friends. Finally, Job is brought into the presence of God. And when Job is brought into the presence of God, God begins with his wisdom, his mighty power in chapter thirty-seven, thirty-eight, thirty-nine. Where were you, Job, when I created the world? Where were you when I made that wonderful beast? that powerful beast that no man can tame or tame. Who gave the good defenders to the Deuteronomy? Who made the word save? Where were you when I did all this, Job? And then God begins to tell Job of all his greatness, all his power. And Job begins to shrink, and he's already discovered He had an evil heart because this situation brought up the real nature that was in him, when he got mad at his friends and said some very unkind things about them. And although they were deserving of it, nevertheless, Job only was quite surprised to find that he had a nature in him. And like the Old Testament in the book of Judges, there was a certain man and another prophet of God plunged his knife into him, and it says that dirt came out. And if you want to see the dirt come out of another person, your direction, you stab them with a knife of criticism, and you'll see the reaction. This kind of person to his face, what he is, and you'll see the dirt come out. It won't be anything clean. But here is Job. Finally, he's brought into the presence of God. And what does Job say? I have poured myself and repent in dust and affluence. Lord, I've changed my mind. At one time I thought I was a very righteous man. I thought I really feared you. At one time I thought I couldn't do anything wrong. I couldn't use my tongue amiss. But, oh, I've gone through an experience, Lord. I've even criticized you. I've been bitter against you. I've complained. I murmured. And I'm sorry, Lord. I see my mistakes. And I pour myself. I despise myself. I repent in sackcloth and ashes. Many women have got to be brought there. And you know it's self-righteous people that are the most difficult to bring to this point. They, like you, seem to think they're all right, and they live a good life, and they respect and respect. But, friend, I'll say this. The Lord Jesus Christ said to scribes and parishes those very men who depended upon their good life and... all their righteous ways, as they thought, their strict dependence at the temple and adherence to the ceremonies of the temple. Christ says the publicans and the parliats, the worst of sinners that have never been inside a temple door, will go to heaven before you, because these sinners will repent. They know that But these self-righteous people, you won't admit that. And God brings them through some experiences sometimes and makes them say like me, I abhor myself. I repent in sackcloth and Athens. A friend, you know what the Bible says? Except you repent, you will perish. Except you repent, you will perish. that round around Calvary's cross is level round. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is no difference. God sees no difference out of Christ between a crowd, parasy, and a wicked, ungodly man or woman at his side. God says there is no sin. They bumped up to the pit that they ever expect to get salvation. Then and there you have another case of that of David. Oh, David, repentant. For a while he tried to justify himself, but I know, David, you're fighting against God. You might just as well throw in the towel. I don't think. You've been a wicked man. You've committed a crime, and you've committed murder. And David says, I've sinned. I've sinned. Purge me with a fist of an eye shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. David repented. He repented in bitter tears, and God forgave. Then you have the case of Paul. Look at this crowd, educated. a zealous young Jew brought up at the feet of Gamaliel. Yes, she was a strict heresy. Such was this love for the tradition of his father. Such was his zeal for the very Moses, the law, and the prophets of the Old Testament. But when he saw one who was a Christian, had that person apprehended and taken to jail, and in some cases put to death, they laid the clothes of Stephen, the first martyr, at the feet of a young man to the name of Saul, who undoubtedly was directing this demonstration and this onslaught upon God's choice on lovely servant Stephen. Paul thought he was doing right, what Paul thought he was putting down a movement that was going to destroy Judaism. He was steeped in the tradition of his father. But you know, he had to change his mind. On the Damascus Road in chapter nine, we'll get to that when we come to that chapter. The Lord Jesus Christ met him, faced the faith, and God struck him down. Apostle Paul, that proud, conceited, zealous, educated young Jew, he sank to his knees, he trembled by a revelation of a light from heaven, the unveiled Christ. Saul, you've not only been persecuting these Christians, you've been persecuting them. I didn't know that. Yes, these are my children. They're members of my body, and he that touches them touches the apple of mine. I'm so in putting them to death, you're doing the very same as those who in the courtroom of Pilate said, Wayne, this man will not ponder over us, crucify and crucify us. My what a revelation and a revolution. Paul saw that he was wrong. He changed his mind, and from that moment on he changed his way. He became a new preacher in Christ. Paul repented. He changed his mind completely. Then you have also the case of the Israelites, the nation of Israel, and John the ministry was entirely one of repentance, John the Baptist. His message was, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent, repent, repent. And repentance, friend, comes. First, repentance before salvation. Just like John came before Christ, there must be repentance before salvation like this, travail before birth. You can't have a birth, the natural birth, without travail. You can't have life in Christ without the travail of conviction of sin and genuine repentance. I'm sure you have these various examples, and we mentioned them, I'll read one time previously. Here's a whole city. In fact, you're going to see in a day to come world repentance. Every knee shall bow on every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord of the glory of God the Father. world repentance. Then you have a city repented, Nineveh. From the king on the throne to the beggar in the dungeon, they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And the vast city was saved. They changed their mind. A whole nation is going to repent in the future. The nation of the Jews. who up till now the majority of them have not believed in Jesus Christ as the Messiah. They say he's an imposter. We're still waiting for our coming Messiah. And the one who says he's the Messiah or the King of the Jews, why are we crucified him? They have no use for Christ as far as his being their king. He's an imposter. He lied. We're still looking for our king. that mason is going to change its mind. And the days are come when Jesus Christ will descend from the skies to that mason suffering in her land and things are building up for today. I've been saying for twenty-five and thirty years, never mind these skirmishes in other parts of the world, keep their eye on Palestine. There's where you see Bible prophecy coming in. And so in this coming day, Israel passing through the great tribulation. At the end there will be sudden deliverance. Deliverance shall come from the skies. God shall send the deliverer out of the sky. And Israel, just when they thought that a will think they're going to be exterminated, deliverance has come. And who is this? She has delivered us. surrounded by mighty nations. We haven't a chance. Who is it that has caused those armies to melt and who has delivered us? That they should look upon those wounds in his hands. What are these wounds in my hands? These are they which I was groomed in the house of my friend. Then Israel as a nation will change its mind. It's been wrong down the centuries. This was indeed our Messiah, and we rejected him. And he turned to the Gentiles, and the one that we have fought has been the blessing to the Gentiles. They have changed their mind. Israel shall repent, and they shall receive him, and he will receive them. So you have a nation repenting, a world repenting, You have a city of repentance, but friendless individual repentance. You've got to repent. God wants you as an individual, as not an evil. Tread it to you, or comfort, to think about the world that's going to repent in the day to come, and a nation's going to repent, and a little of the repented in the past. The thing is, what about you today? That's why the message of the gospel is repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Does God ever repent? Does God ever change his mind? Does he change his mind about sin, about his son, about salvation, about judgment to come? No. God is not a modernist, not one percent. God is paramount, God is the fundamentalist. He has no time for the changes of theology, the new theology that we hear about today. That comes direct from the text. All is modern. God has not changed his mind relative to sin. Sin is still sin to God. God has not changed his mind either. about the fact that salvation is only in his Son. In no other way he will be saved. God has not changed his mind. God has not changed his mind about the punishment of sin. And the one who misses heaven because he didn't receive Christ will be in a lake that burneth with fire in Brisbane which is the second death. There shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. For the lost and God hasn't changed his mind. God is not a modernist. He doesn't change his mind. What do you read over in the Old Testament? Number twenty-three, nineteen. God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. That he said and shall he not do it. For happy spoken and shall he not make it good? God won't change his mind, but he comes to sin and salvation and judgment. Then you also read this in Romans eleven and twenty-nine, for the gifts and callings of God are without repentance. In a long time I was dealing with a Christian who thought he could be lost again. And I had known this scripture, but the force of it never came home to me till I was in that conversation. The gifts and callings of God are without repentance. God gives us Christ. Salvation is a free gift. And when God gives us salvation because we trust Him in His Son, God says, I'll never change my mind. I've saved you. I've promised you eternal life. I've told you your sins are all forgiven. I've told you you'll never perish. I've told you I'll conquer you, and I'll lesson you unto my son. You'll be with me, and my son is heaven forever, and I haven't changed your mind. God never changed his mind. As we mentioned in defining that expression, the only time God changes his mind is when you change your mind. When you say, Lord, I've been wrong, and I'm going to accept Christ as my Savior, I'm going to do it right now. There's no other way, there's no other way. Then God does change his mind as far as you are not going to hell. He won't let you go to hell. And he'll certainly take you to heaven. You change your mind and accept Christ, and God will change his mind. and accept you. And what he has said concerning the wicked and the eternal punishment will not come upon them. And also we read in the Bible, God says, I am Jehovah, I change not. Therefore, ye sons of Jacob, are not concerned. Why should we repent? Because it is a great necessity. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. because Christ commands it. That's the world. Another reason why we should repent. Read that over in Acts, verse seventeen, thirteen, one of the scriptures we read. God commands men everywhere to repent because he had appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man who can be ascertained and raised him from the dead. And because the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Christ has come and the end is near. This is another reason why you should repent. And also because Christ is at God's right hand to give you repentance. It tells you that in Acts five and thirty-one. What does it say? King hath God exalted with his right hand to be a prince and a savior for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sin. Christ is alive at God's right hand to give you repentance or respond to your repentance. And the moment you change your mind and line your mind up with the mind of God, and lay aside your traditions and the doctrines of men, and just take this book. This is God's will, this is God's word, this is God's faith, you might as well bow to it. But God's not going to come up with a new addition. He's not going to rewrite the New Testament for you or anybody else. This is God's will, and God's not going to change. And what you've got to do instead of banging God, go away, you're going to have to bang God's way if you ever expect to be in heaven. And so Jesus Christ is at God's right hand to give repentance. and God sometimes can force you to repent. We've noticed that in connection with Job. And don't forget that God, although you Satan, that okay, he can use other things to bring a man or a woman to repent us, Saul, Saul, it is hard for you to kick against the curse. God was goading Saul. He wanted this young man, and he was goading him. finally a revelation of Christ brought him to repentance. And God will bring us through deep waters sometimes. Dark skies, low clouds, oh yes, days of darkness will come at some times to bring us down. God may bring a sinner very low to the very gates of death as you read in Job thirty-three to bring you to repentance. Repentance can be too late. Take the case of Judas. Judas, when he saw what he had done, he took again the thirty pieces of silver, and he took it to those Pharisees, to whom he had made the bargain, and he cast the money down. He said, I sinned. I betrayed innocent blood. He changed his mind. But it didn't work. It's too late, humans. It's too late. And you know what happened? He committed suicide. And the thirty pieces of silver was the price paid for the fuel of blood. And he was the first one to be buried in that grave. Think of the case of Esau. Hebrews, twelve and seventeen. For ye know how that afterward when he that as he saw would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with him. What does that mean? He'll change his mind. He saw what a fool he had been in selling his birthright to Jacob. What does that mean he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with Jacob? found no way to change his father Jacob's mind. He saw him with tears trying to get Jacob to change his mind. Or his father Isaac to change his mind. No, no. His father's not going to change his mind. Oh, just be so. You do not have a blessing, and you do not say the blessing to the family, no. I've spoken Jacob's has the birthright, and he has the special blessing. And it's through old Jacob, softened a little bit, and gave Esau a few things materially. But Esau could not change his father Isaac's mind. He found no place of repentance, though he sought it fairly with tears. Friend, you'll find no way of changing God's mind at the judgment. You may weep and you may plead, you may argue. God will look at you with eyes gray and as cold as steel and stone. And there will be no leniency with God as there was with old Isaac. God will stand firm. There is no repentance. It's too late for you to see the family. We also have other cases of repentance too late. Over in Hebrews chapter six and four, for it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and had tasted of the heavenly gift and were made for taste of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come if they shall fall away to renew them again unto the peasants, seeing they crucify themselves the Son of God of flesh and put into an open shade. These apostates, these Jews, went back to Judaism. They went back to the blood of animals and rejected the blood of Jesus Christ. And he said, it's impossible to renew them again unto repentance. They once were convinced that this was their Messiah, but it was not an all-out commitment. And they went back from the life they received. He went back and once again embraced Judaism, possibly more firmly than ever. And God says it's enough to renew them again unto repentance. Then you have another case, and that's over in Matthew eleven, verse twenty. Then began he to upgrade the cities where in most of his mighty works were done because they repented not, were unto thee. pervasion. Whereon to thee, Bethesda, for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sack of the nation. But it shall, I say unto you, it shall be more probable. It will be easier for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you. These cities saw the Lord Jesus perform his wonderful works. They saw his perfect magnetic play. They rejected him and his ministry and his miracles. God says people who have been brought so clear to the source of all light and turned from it, they go back into darkness. And you'll suffer more of the judgment. Your penalty will be more severe than those of Sodom and Gomorrah. who were destroyed by fire of the Thessalonians. Yes, here's the repentance too late. Those of Sovereign, those of Bethesda and also Papernian, these other cities we've spoken of, Galatians and Bethesda. Too late. You saw the light you didn't receive it. Once we'd be on, when our time was up, men, transcend, it seems, until they haven't got the will to turn. They reject the life so much, until it seems to blind them, and they can't see the truth anymore. And it seems that God's goodness now, and God's wrath to come, will not bring some people to repentance. How tragic this is? We're not going to conclude this this morning. We'll just have a few words, possibly next Sunday to say on this. But I want to say right now that you can be saved. You can be saved right this minute. God loves you. Christ died for you. Lord Jesus said this in the upper room, having loved his own which were in the world. He loved the month of the end. And he still loves me. And why he loves me, I'll never know. But he told me he loved me. He died for me. And he said he had loved me unto the end. He said he had kicked me unto the animals. And he hasn't changed a lot. That's the kind of Savior he presented. The old college woman said, the Lord must have done love me before I was born, because he hadn't seen any of me. I would love me. Yes, he loved us. He loves you. And you can only be saved through what Christ did to you on the cross. If you think of any other way, you change your mind. And if you think you've got lots of time, you change your mind. Now is the accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. If you say, I'll wait and come back next Sunday and settle this question. I've got plenty of time. You better repent. You better change your mind and settle it now than may not be on next Sunday. or another son. Shall we pray? Our Father in heaven, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we commend to thy presence, be asked thy blessing, upon thy word. May souls be stirred and brought to Christ. May thy people hear, some may be living out of fellowship with thee. May they change their mind. How empty light must be, how hollow, one is out of fellowship with thee. And may they, like David, depend of their ways, return to thee, and be received. You have thus asked thy blessing on thy word in the Lord Jesus, precious name. Amen. Shall we sing number two, Hundred and Thirty-six. Two Hundred and Thirty-six. The result of the Savior's previously and haven't yet publicly confessed them, or if you are here this morning and found them during the service and you'd like to make it known to us, or if you are anxious and can't quite see the light as yet, you'd like us to show it to you. Come up as we stand and sing this hymn.