In this sermon, the preacher discusses the ministry of John the Baptist and his role in preparing God's people for the coming of the Messiah. The preacher emphasizes that John did not bring the Messiah or reveal the glory of the Lord, but rather prepared the way for God's great work. The sermon highlights the importance of repentance and the message of repentance preached by John the Baptist, Jesus, and the disciples. The preacher emphasizes that repentance and the remission of sins should be preached to all nations, as seen in the teachings of Jesus and the commission given to the disciples.

Matthew chapter 3. I remember as a young boy seeing posters that still stick in my mind. Posters of children with birth defects. These happened to be children who were crippled in their legs or had deformed limbs. And you couldn't help but look at those posters. They were posters for the March of Dimes, which is a charitable organization that seeks to help those who have suffered under birth defects and seeks to prevent birth defects. And those March of Dimes posters still stick in my mind because it seemed to me very striking and very strange that people could be born with birth defects, come out of the womb, not right, incomplete, or not just completely put together in the right way. And I think about the same principle or the same analogy into the spiritual realm. I wonder if there aren't some Christians with birth defects. And these birth defects, spiritually speaking, cripple them in their spiritual life. Now, here's the great truth about it is that any Christian who does have such a birth defect, God can heal them. But I don't think that they don't know they ever have it. What I'm going to talk to you about tonight is something that I think is a failure to recognize what I'm going to talk about tonight results in a massive amount of Christians who are born into the kingdom, so to speak, with birth defects. How many Christians do you believe there are in Simi Valley? There are 100,000 people approximately in our community. Would you say that one out of 10 people perhaps are born again? Maybe. I mean, that doesn't seem to be like a crazy estimate. You know, are there maybe 10,000 born-again believers? Wouldn't you think that 10,000 Christians should have a greater impact on our society on our community than seems evident to us? Well, then you wonder, is there something fundamentally wrong in many of these Christian lives? I think of the example of a gentleman, you might recognize his name. His name is Larry Flint. He's famous for shameful things. He's famous as being a pornographer. He publishes pornographic magazines. Well, years ago, in the 1970s, Flint said that he was born again. He said that he was led to Jesus by Ruth Carter Stapleton, who happened to be the sister of President Jimmy Carter at the time. It was a time when the whole born-again thing was very common and popular in the United States, and Larry Flint made it public that he was born again. His religious experience, so to speak, was well noted in the media. Curiously, though, there was no change in Larry Flint's life, nor in his business, nor in his practice of doing things. I guess now he was a born-again pornographer. In his first editorial in his magazine after this experience, he said that now he followed the spirit of Jesus and Buddha. And yet he said publicly and many people figured that he was born again. You see, the problem is that Larry Flint and many people who go by the name Christian and attend church regularly, they didn't understand or don't understand what we might call the first word of the gospel. Now, what is the first word of the gospel? Somebody might say the first word of the gospel is only believe. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes on him would not believe, only believe. Other people might say that the first word of the gospel is love. I mean, it all comes back to love, right? God is love. Somebody might say that the first word of the gospel is hope or heaven, or maybe somebody would say that there is so much to the gospel that it's impossible to state what the first word of the gospel is. I mean, it's so big, it's just a fallacious thing at all to say that there's a first word of the gospel. I'm going to suggest to you tonight that there is a first word of the gospel. There's a place where the gospel begins. Now, not necessarily begins in the eternal plan of God. But let me say that it was the first word in the mouth of John the Baptist. It was the first word in the public ministry of Jesus. It was the first word in the mouth of the twelve disciples as they preached. It was the first word in Jesus's final instructions to his disciples. It was the first word in the first word of exhortation in the first Christian sermon. And it was the first word in the mouth of the apostle Paul throughout his ministry. Now, if there's a common link through all of those things, don't you think that's pretty important? Well, what is it? Let's find out. Matthew chapter three, verses one and two. In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That was his message. I want you to know that in some ways I feel kind of like John the Baptist. Not that I have a hankering for locusts and wild honey. I want to ditch my clothes for camel hair things and all. But John the Baptist ministry was described by passage in Isaiah chapter four, where it says the voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for God. Every valley shall be exalted. Every mountain and hill should be made low. The crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places smooth. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken. Now, did John the Baptist? Bring the Messiah? No. Did he reveal the glory of the Lord? No. What he did was he prepared God's people for the coming of this great work. I feel that way about revival. I can't bring revival. You can't bring revival. It's sent by God. Times of refreshing come from the presence of the Lord. Nevertheless, we can and we should and we must prepare for revival and believe that God will send it. Now. That was the first word in the mouth of John the Baptist. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is a hand. Well, that was John the Baptist. He was a severe fellow, wasn't he? Surely Jesus, this great man of love and compassion, had a different word in his ministry. We'll look at Matthew chapter four, verse 17. And let's see if Jesus had a different message in his ministry. Matthew four, 17. From that time, Jesus began to preach and to say, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. That was Jesus's message. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Well, you know, surely that was just Jesus and something special for him. Not in the responsibility of us. We're followers of Jesus. We'll take a look at Mark chapter six, verse 12, and see what the first word in the mouth of the twelve disciples was. This is when Jesus sent them out to do ministry on their own. Mark chapter six, verse 12. We read, so they went out and preached that people should repent. That was their message. Well, you know, surely it's different after the death and resurrection of Jesus, right? I mean, it must be different then because it just maybe that was just all before the work on the cross. Well, what was the first word in Jesus's final instructions to his disciples? Go to Luke chapter 24. Now, I know the traditional place to go is Matthew chapter 28, but we also have a description of Jesus's commission to the disciples in Luke chapter 24, verses 46 and 47. Luke 24, beginning at verse 46. Then he said to them, Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day. And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. What were they supposed to preach? Repentance and the remission of sins. Well, maybe it was different after the day of Pentecost. I mean, when the Holy Spirit came, maybe there was just a freedom and a blessing and an outpouring of the spirit that made this talk about repentance somewhat unnecessary. No, take a look at what the first word of exhortation was in the sermon that Peter preached on the day of Pentecost. Acts chapter two, verse 38. Go ahead and turn there. Acts chapter two, verse 38. Now, this isn't the first word of instruction that Peter gives in the sermon. This is towards the end of the sermon. But this is the first thing that he tells them to do. Acts chapter two, verse 38. It says, then Peter said to them, repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Isn't it interesting? That's what Jesus told them to do in Luke chapter 24, right? Preach repentance and the remission of sins. And what's Peter doing in Acts chapter two? He's saying repent and receive the remission of sins. Well, maybe that was a one time thing on the day of Pentecost. No, look at the next sermon that's preached in the book of Acts. Acts chapter three, verse 19. This is Peter's exhortation to them in that sermon. He says, repent, therefore, and be converted that your sins may be blotted out so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. He tells them again, repent. Really, for the remission of sins, that your sins may be blotted out. Now, what about the apostle Paul? Paul was the apostle of grace. Surely we wouldn't find the same message among Paul. Well, maybe we would. Paul describes his ministry after his conversion in Acts chapter 26. He's speaking to King Agrippa to turn to Acts chapter 26, verse 19. And listen to Paul's description of his ministry immediately following his conversion. Acts chapter 26, beginning at verse 19. Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared first to those in Damascus and in Jerusalem and throughout all the region of Judea and then to the Gentiles. OK, this is the message that he preached. What did he preach? Look at it there in the middle of verse 20, that they should repent, turn to God and do works befitting repentance. Isn't that remarkable? This is Paul's message. This is what he went about preaching. Now, I don't think you can say there is any doubt that repent is the first word of the gospel, and there's no doubt about the importance of repentance. But here's the place where we come to much confusion. What does repentance mean? In the mind of many people, repentance means to feel sorry. To feel sorry about your sin, to have a sense of regret, a sense of sorrow. And I can tell you how that comes. It actually comes from the Latin translation of the New Testament and the word that they chose in the Latin to translate the Greek word for repentance actually is a word that has to do more with feeling sorry. And so it comes back. But when you go back to the original language, to the ancient Greek language that the apostle Paul and Jesus and John and they all preached in and spoken that the ancient Greek word translated repent is the ancient Greek word metanoia. Now it has two words. It's a word made up of two parts. It's a word made up of two words. Meta means to change metamorphosis. You know, meta means to change meta noia. Noia means mind or thinking. Repentance means to change your thinking. It has the idea of a changing of the mind, a turning or a revolution of thought. And it may begin in the mind, but it also affects the will and the emotions. To repent means to turn around. You change where you go. You're facing this way. You're facing south. If you repent, you change. You turn around and face north. That's what repentance is. It's a change. Friends, this shows, and I think that this is one of the most common misconceptions and one of the greatest reasons for what we might call birth defects among Christians today is they think that Christianity is the act of adding Jesus to your life. Here's my life. And the preacher presents the sermon, and maybe the preacher is presenting it well. Maybe the person just misunderstands it. Maybe the preacher isn't doing such a good job. But the impression that many people come to think is they come to believe that Christianity is a matter of adding Jesus to your life. And you pretty much live the same life you were living before. It's just Jesus makes it better. You know, Jesus helped you be more successful in the life that you were already living. And the idea of repentance, of changing, of turning is absent in the thinking of many people. No, in biblical thinking, Jesus isn't just added to your life. One's life is changed because of Jesus. Now, scripturally speaking, is it proper to say that repentance is something that God does in us or is it something that we do for God? Do you understand the distinction here? Is repentance something that God does in us or is it something that we do for God? And the answer is yes. The answer is both. There is no doubt that repentance begins with God and that it's a gift. Acts chapter five, verse 31. This is what Peter said. He says of Jesus, him God has exalted to his right hand to be a prince and a savior to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. Peter said that God gave repentance to Israel. That's what Jesus was in heaven doing. Repentance is something that's given by God. In Romans chapter two, verse four, it tells us that God leads us to repentance. Paul speaks and he says, knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance. Repentance is a gift from God. We must be led into repentance by God at the same time because of all the appeals to repent. In other words, when John the Baptist said, repent. When Jesus said, repent. When Paul said, repent. When Peter said, repent. The mere fact that they said it and appealed to the will of specific individuals to repent proves that there's something for us to do in repentance. Otherwise, you wouldn't have to say anything. All you would do is just pray, God, force repentance upon my brother over there. God, force repentance on that sister. They need to repent, God. Now, is that how they handled the issue of repentance? No. Now, they trusted that God had to do a work in that person or repentance would never happen. But that work that God does does not exclude. As a matter of fact, you might even say it requires or results. You can pick either word you want, but it certainly is connected with that person's response of a decision of their will to repent. God is not going to make a person repent against their will. He may move upon them so that they want to repent, but they will still have to exercise that wanting to repent and say, I repent. So it is a work of God in us, but it is a work that must be responded to. Now, it's totally valid for us to pray for another person. God, work repentance in that person. God, bring them to repentance. God, lead them to repentance. But that person still must decide to repent as well. Now, I believe that part of God's work in them works on their decision making capability. But as far as they feel it, as far as they recognize it, they're going to say in their mind, I'm going to repent. I'm going to make a decision to do it. The bottom line is this, friends, and these are strong words, but I believe it's absolutely certain scripturally. There is no salvation. There is no conversion. There is no justification. There is no forgiveness apart from repentance. As Spurgeon is reported to have said, he said, quote, the grace that does not change my life will not save my soul. Now, we don't repent to earn salvation. That's not the idea. Your repentance does not earn salvation. Your repentance is not an act of cleaning yourself up before you can come to Jesus. That's not repentance. Repentance is coming to Jesus and saying, I want you to turn me in the right direction, and I want to go that way. I want to forsake my sin. I want to leave it behind. I know this is what you want for me, Jesus. I want it, too. And so I renounce my sin. I hate my sin. I loathe it. I don't want it anymore. I want it far from me. Now, there are people who bring up scriptural objections to what I've just said. They say, what about Peter and Cornelius? Maybe you want to turn over there in Acts chapter 10. Peter brought the gospel to a Gentile named Cornelius. Cornelius was a Roman centurion. And when Peter brought the gospel to Cornelius, it seems that Peter didn't tell Cornelius that he had to repent. I mean, look at it here. Acts chapter 10, beginning at verse 34. Acts 10, 34. Then Peter opened his mouth and said, In truth, I perceive that God shows no partiality, but every nation, whoever fears him and works righteousness is accepted by him. The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace throughout Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all. That word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached. How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. And we are witnesses of all things which he did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they killed by hanging on a tree. Him God raised up on the third day and showed him openly, and not to all the people, but to witnesses chosen before by God, even to us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that it is he who was ordained by God to be judge of the living and the dead. To him, all the prophets witnessed that through his name, whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins. But if you take what Peter says there, especially in verse 43, you say, all you got to do is believe. You don't have to repent. All you have to do is believe. Well, I want you to notice something here. Repentance is here. It's in the subtext. First of all, what kind of man was Cornelius that Peter preached to? Well, go back to Acts chapter 10, verse 2. It'll tell you what kind of man Cornelius was. Verse 2 says that Cornelius was a devout man and one who feared God with all his household and who gave alms generously to the people and prayed to God always. What was it in Cornelius's life that he had to repent of? Not much, apparently. His issue wasn't some life sin, so to speak. Now, Peter did have to repent. Matter of fact, he did repent. Later on, I want you to notice what the report was that was delivered or that came back about this event. Go to Acts chapter 11, verse 18. In Acts chapter 11, Peter has described this whole event with Cornelius. Look at the response of the people who heard about Peter's description of this. Verse 18, Acts chapter 11. When they heard these things, they became silent and they glorified God, saying, Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance to life. So they saw that Cornelius repented. How did Cornelius repent? Well, Cornelius didn't have to repent so much of his life. He had to repent of his thinking in his mind. Salvation was obtained by what he did for God and what Peter calls him to. In verse 43 of Acts chapter 10 is that to him, all the prophets witnessed that through his name, whoever believes in him will receive remission of sins. That's where salvation is. Well, Cornelius repented before he thought it was through his good works and best efforts to please God that he was saved. But he realized, oh, I have to repent. I have to change my mind and now see that it's the work of Jesus Christ on my behalf. And I have to enter into a relationship of belief and faith and trust and love with him. So Cornelius needed to turn from trusting in himself and in his own works. He didn't need so much a change of conduct as he did a change of mind. Friends, there's no salvation without repentance. In Luke chapter 15, Jesus has a series of parables about things that are lost. Remember that the parable of the lost sheep, right? The guy has a flock of a hundred sheep. Oh, no, this is one's missing. What does he do? Say, ah, who cares about the one? I still got 99 left. No, he goes and he searches high and low and he finds that sheep. And when he brings it back, is everybody happy? Everybody's stoked. Well, and then there's a woman and she loses a coin in the house and the coin's pretty precious to her. And so what does she do? She sweeps everything, turns the whole house upside down to find the coin, just like you do when you lose your keys. The same thing, right? And she finds it and there's great rejoicing, right? And then the third parable is the parable of what? You have the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost, the lost son, because you have the parable of the prodigal son. And this is the son that goes off and riotous living and loses everything and all the rest. And he's in the pig pen and he comes to himself and he comes and he returns back to his father. And it's a very interesting thing that Jesus says after the first two stories of things lost that he doesn't say after the third one. After the parable of the lost sheep, he says, likewise, I say to you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents. After the parable of the lost coin, he says very much the same thing. After the parable of the lost son, he doesn't say that. Do you know why? Because in the parable of the lost son, repentance is evident, right? He turned and he went from the pig pen back to his father. In the parable of the lost sheep, repentance isn't evident. Is it? The sheep didn't repent. The shepherd came and picked it up and carried it back. In the parable of the lost coin, the coin didn't repent. The lady found it and picked it up. So just so nobody would misunderstand, after those two stories of the lost sheep and the lost coin, Jesus adds, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents, who turns. Friends, we have to say with all honesty that the emphasis in the church today is not on repentance. The emphasis in the church today is on enlistment. Enlist as a Christian. It's on recruitment. Recruit as a Christian. No, the emphasis needs to be on repentance. Now, here's another objection that people bring up from time to time. They say, what about the Philippian jailer in Acts chapter 16? Do you remember that? The one to whom Paul said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household. Not a word about repentance, right? Say, well, see, there it proves some people think that when you preach repentance, you're preaching a gospel of works as if you have to earn your salvation by repentance or as if you have to clean yourself up before you can come to God. No, no, no. A thousand times, no. Yet repentance is an absolutely essential element to the gospel. Again, the Philippian jailer in Acts chapter 16, verse 31, Paul did say to the jailer, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household. So where's the repentance? Listen, the repentance is in the whole demeanor of the jailer. Repentance is obvious in his readiness to repent and in the result of his repentance. Let me read you Acts chapter 16, beginning of verse 29. Then he called for a light and ran in and fell down, trembling before Paul and Silas, and he brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? Friends, that is repentance. I need a savior. I'm falling down on my knees before you trembling. I am at your mercy. I repent of all my ways. I repent of my thoughts. You need to tell me the way of salvation because I don't have it. Friends, if somebody comes to me trembling on their knees saying, what must I do to be saved? I'm going to take it for granted that they've repented. That they're ready to turn now, you say, well, I don't know about that. Look at the fruit of it in the jailer's life. It says then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who are in his house. Then he took them that same night out that same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. Now, when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household. What does he do for Paul and Silas? Washes him up, cleans their wounds, brings them into his house. He preaches to his whole house. He feeds them and he hasn't spent the night at his house. Friends, that's repentance. That's changing your ways. Now, what is the connection between repentance and faith? Turn to this passage. Mark, chapter one, verse 15. Many people fail to recognize what the connection is between repentance and faith. Mark, chapter one, verse 15. Look at what Jesus said at the beginning of his ministry. Mark one, 15. Jesus said the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Now, I'm going to suggest to you something. When Jesus said repent and believe in the gospel, he was not talking about doing two different things. He was talking about two aspects of the same thing. Friends, let me put it to you just plainly like this. You can't come to God unless you leave your sin behind. You can't. Now, you may think you are. You may tell yourself your other people may say that you are, but you can't do it. You can't come to God without leaving your sin behind. Without repenting. If God is over there in that corner and my sin is over there in that corner, I can't draw closer to God without leaving where my sin was from. Or it's like saying this. If we were talking about flying to New York from here and I was to tell somebody here now, I want you to fly to New York. Do I really need to say now you must leave Los Angeles and fly to New York? Well, you could say that repentance is the leaving Los Angeles belief is the going to New York, so to speak. You get the illustration there is that belief means to trust in Jesus. If I'm trusting in Jesus, then I trust that what he says about sin is true. If I'm trusting in Jesus, then I trust that what he says about righteousness and me is true. If I'm trusting in Jesus, I want to leave my sin behind. If I'm holding on to my sin and saying, well, I trust in Jesus and I believe in him, I'm really not trusting in him, am I? Because I don't believe what he says about my sin. Well, you're a great guy and I admire you immensely, but you just got it wrong about this sin thing in my life. It's really not that bad. I don't really trust him. Now, one last comment to make quickly here. You might be thinking, oh, preach it, Pastor. Man, those unconverted heathen need to hear the message of repentance. Lay it on them, Pastor. You're thinking, man, I hope they make a tape of this message. I know, oh boy, there's some people going to get this tape. Yeah, you better repent, buddy. No, what I want you to understand is repentance is also for the church. Jesus wrote or dictated, perhaps we should say, seven letters to seven churches in the book of Revelation. Do you know how many of those churches are specifically and expressly told to repent? Five of the seven are told to repent. Should we say that five of seven churches today need to significantly repent? Five out of seven Christians need to significantly repent. You see, repentance is a vital issue. It's an issue for the church. Yes, yes, the unconverted person needs to repent. But let's come back to us. Let's come back to you and I. You and I need to repent. We might describe repentance as a condition rather than an experience. If you have repented, then stay repented. If a sin or as a sin is committed or exposed, then turn away from it as a follower of Jesus Christ. In this way, repentance is very much a matter for the Christian. Now, you might say, OK, what do I, you know, what do I repent of? What do I have to repent of? Well, are you willing to let the Lord show you? Are you willing to come to the Lord and say, whatever hinders my fellowship with you, get it out of the way. I want it gone. Whatever hinders the work of your Holy Spirit in my life, I want it gone. You show me a God and I will be faithful to repent of it. Now, for some of you, you don't even need to do that much. For some of you, you know right now that there's sin in your life to repent of. For some of you, it's a sin of the flesh. Some fleshly indulgence that it's just sin before God. And God calls upon you now to turn your back on that sin. And you say, well, you know, how do I repent? I don't know. Look, it's not how are you going to repent? It's when are you going to repent? You know how to turn your back on your sin. Now, others of you, it's not sins of the flesh. It's, you might say, sins of the Spirit. And those are much more subtle and I think much more dangerous to Christians and to churches. Sins of pride, sins of bitterness, sins of backbiting, sins of criticism. Let me tell you something, that critical or backbiting or proud heart will hinder your life just as much as the drunkard or the adulterer. Don't kid yourself about that. It's a very serious thing. Oh, and you may pat yourself on the back. You may dislocate your shoulder, patting yourself on the back. Friends, God calls you to repent of it. Repent, make yourself broken before the Lord. Repentance before Him. Let me ask you, honestly now, are you a birth defect Christian? Did you get born into the Christian world not really knowing, bless you, did you get born into the Christian world not really knowing about repentance? Not really saying, listen, there's something I have to turn from. Well, God can heal you of that. And I just don't want to ask, have you repented? I want to ask you, are you in the condition of repentance? The great thing about it is that there's no other way to live. You know, as God works in my life and as I come to the Lord and say, Lord, just any little thing, I want you to work on it and challenge me on it. Believe me, He does. And it's so glorious to get those things out of the way. You think, how stupid I was to hold on to this at all. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you would challenge us to repentance. God, I pray that just with the people right now in this room, that there would be such a breaking, such a move of your spirit. That, Lord, we would be living lives of full surrender to you, of total commitment. That instead of justifying a dozen little compromises in our life, that we'd put our foot down and say, no, I'd rather have Jesus. God, I pray that you'd give us discernment between the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the condemnation of the devil. Lord, I know it's not your will that anybody should be condemned. Even with the great severity of this message, your word assures us that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Lord, nevertheless, we long for the conviction of sin. We beg you for it because we want the sin out of the way, Lord, not that we would be proud enough to think that we walk sinlessly perfect. Lord, that's not the issue that the issue is, Lord, that there's no conscious sin in our life, that there's no conscious area of withholding from you. And as soon as you make us aware of something, we keep such short accounts with you, Lord. We settle it right away. We don't deny it and resist, oh, that's not me. Lord, it is us. I pray, Lord, a special outpouring of your spirit upon these saints, that this would be, Lord, a glorious core of revival, true, great revival. Revive us again, Lord. Revive your work in the midst of the years. We pray this, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen.