Amen. I got a pretty precious text. A service started is from little Piper. She drew a card and her dad sent me a picture of the card. She's got a cough today and not able to be with us and said. I'll read it just or I'll say it just like it says on the piece of paper. I miss the church. To the church from Piper so Be praying for little Piper. That was precious. I want you to go back with me in your minds for just a moment. 21 years, 2004, 2004 was a big year. I, uh, graduated high school in 2004. But another thing happened in 2004 that was a little bit later in that year. There was a book came out released by Joel Osteen called Your Best Life Now. Your Best Life Now. I tried to look up how much money this book has made and it's hard to really identify. I don't know everything, but estimates say that you're looking at at least, bottom line, $40 million. $40 million. Your best life now. Its message is think positive, speak positive, believe in yourself, Think these positive thoughts and you will live your best life. Now, if you think good enough, I'm going to get this job, I'm going to get this parking space, I'm going to get the new car. If you think positively enough, then what happens is you obligate God to make your life better from the world's perspective. Of course, you can see why a book like this makes 40 million dollars. It's popular because it feeds what every human heart already loves. Self. It's easy to get up here and, you know, bash that, but the reality is, if you think about it, that kind, if you're not careful, that kind of preaching will creep into your life, that kind of preaching is present in too many pulpits today. But the gospel says actually the exact opposite of that, right? The Gospel doesn't call you to see yourself as better. It calls you to see yourself as a sinner. Not to think more positively of yourself, but to see yourself as the Bible calls you. To look not at what you can accomplish, but at what Jesus Christ has accomplished. By His perfect obedience. By His death. Under the curse of God. For wretches. like us, and by His resurrection. So the Gospel has an actually exact opposite message to your best life now. Now, God does bless His people. You know that? And we're not afraid of that. God blesses His people. The Gospel promises blessing, but it does not promise the blessing of health, wealth, and prosperity. Rather, it promises the blessing, as we'll see in our text today in Acts 3, The blessing of repentance. A life turned from sin. And reconciled to God through Christ, this is what the Bible teaches, this is what acts 326 teaches. Get rid of the positive thinking. And let us go to the gospel, and so this is what we'll consider this morning. Not your best life now, but your blessed life now. And that's taken straight from the text. So let's stand and read. Acts chapter 3. We stand and honor the reading of God's Word. And our text this morning, before getting into chapter 4 next week, is verse 26. God, having raised up His servant, sent him to you first to bless you. by turning every one of you from your wickedness. Father, help us to understand what this means. Holy Spirit, apply it to our soul. Lord, let us be a repentant church. Let us be people of repentance. And we pray, O God, that even today you would draw a lost soul to yourself and they would experience repentance for the first time, understanding what it means to see their sin, to mourn for their sin, to hate their sin, To feel shame for their sin, to turn from their sin and to turn to Christ. We pray that would happen even today. Would you help us to understand the blessing that we have in Christ to turn from wickedness? Lord, give me grace. I confess to you my great need of your grace. Help me to preach today and give us ears to hear in Jesus name. Amen. You may be seated. Your. Blessed life. Now, your blessed life. Now, we're taking this from the text, so we're going to back up for a second to verse 25. Verse 25 says, You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, and in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be, what, blessed. There's the word. God, verse 26, having raised up His servant, sent Him to you first to bless you. So, blessed, verse 25. Now, verse 26. Bless. This is the word eulogeo. Now, I don't say those all the time, but you may hear a word that we have in the English from this eulogeo. What word is it? It's the word eulogy. So we have the English word eulogy, which etymologically, meaning it's like where it comes from. The word means in English, literally a good word. OK. A good word, a eulogy is a good word. And, you know, you speak these at a funeral. Now, this word for blessing, it's different. So the word blessed is different than the word for blessing in like the Beatitudes, you know, blessed are the poor in spirit. It's a different word. I don't want to draw too sharp of a distinction between the words, but just know that our word in our text, verse 25 and 26, it has the distinction or has the idea of a relational connotation. to God's divine favor upon a soul. He doesn't merely speak a good word to someone, but he does good to them by Christ. God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you to bless you. That's what's being communicated. So this word to bless you is not that is not the idea of blessings like the stuff we have. I'm counting all my blessings. And at Thanksgiving, we count our many blessings and we sing the song, Counting Your Blessings or whatever. It's not so much that that's not wrong, but this is not so much that rather this is God's goodness to a person in Christ. And all the families, the text says, of the earth will be blessed in this way in Christ, meaning From among every nation, God will bless one united people out of every nation in Christ, that is, his church will be blessed in this way. What is this blessing? What is this blessing? Well, we might consider many things that this blessing is and that this blessing could be. But the specific reference here is the blessing of repentance. Look at the text. I'm getting it right from the text. God, having raised up His servant, sent Him to you first to bless you, and then you have the little word, by. He's going to bless you. In what way is He going to bless you? Cars, and fame, and fortune, and positive self-esteem. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. He's going to bless you in this way. By turning every one of you from your wickedness. You speak a eulogy at a grave. God speaks a eulogy at a grave as well. But the difference is his eulogy brings the dead sinner out of his grave, turning him from his sin and to Christ. This is your blessed life now. A life that turns away from self. turns away from sin, turns to Christ, the blessed life is the repentant life. You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your fathers, saying to Abraham, and in your offspring shall all the families of the earth be blessed. God, having raised up his servants, sent him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness. Listen to what Peter's saying. He is defining the Abrahamic blessing as repentance leading to forgiveness. Those in the covenant of grace that was promised to Abraham are only those who repent. OK. Now, as we've already mentioned in the acts series, repentance is a frequent word of Jesus and the apostles. So you might be in here. I don't I don't think this would be you, but you may be in here. This may be you. You may be in here and you say, look, we don't need to be like that to people. We need to think about Jesus just encouraging people and welcoming people and and healing people and just being a friend to everybody. We don't need to think about Jesus telling people to repent. We don't need to tell people to repent. Jesus wouldn't be like that. Well, if that's what you think, then you have missed the biblical Jesus. and what he has came to do. I'll just read a verse from the first three Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Matthew 4, 17 says, From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Mark 1, 15, he says, The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Luke 13, 3, he says, No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. And those aren't the only times that Jesus said it. The point is the preaching of repentance is a central aspect of the ministry of Jesus. If you leave the preaching of repentance out of the ministry of Jesus, then you don't see the biblical Jesus. And then we've already seen that repentance is present in the preaching of the apostles. So in Acts 2, 38, Peter said to them, repent. And be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And then he says it again in Acts chapter 3, verse 19. Repent, therefore, and turn again, that your sins may be blotted out. And then we have it in our text this morning. God, having raised up His servant, sent him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you. That's repentance from your wickedness. So the outline this morning is pretty simple. Number one, what repentance is, what repentance is. I have a premise this morning. I have a thesis. This thesis has been born out of 20 years of ministry, of pastoring this church, almost 10 years. Experientially and biblically, I have this thesis. And that is, a lot of people in the Bible Belt don't understand repentance. Well, let's change that today. Repentance is a turning from sin in heart and deed. It is a change of mind that results in a change of action. The best place that I could point you, and we're going to use his outline today, the best place that I could point you for this is a little book by Thomas Watson, The Puritan Thomas Watson called the Doctrine of Repentance. This is free online. Every Christian should read it. I think you can order it very cheaply from Chapel Library. Put this on your reading this. Read it before the end of the year. The Doctrine of Repentance by Thomas Watson. I'm going to highlight his six ingredients in this point for true repentance. We're asking what is repentance and Thomas Watson helps us. So here are his six ingredients for true repentance. Number one. Number one. What is repentance? Number one, there must be sight of sin. Number one, there must be sight, sight of sin. Now, a person must understand what we're saying here, what sin is. You understand what sin is? It's not, hey, I've just made some mistakes in my life. Hey, you know what? I'm just going to be a little short this month. No, no, no. Sin is defined well in our text. It says, God, having raised up His servant, sent Him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from your what? Falling short a little bit. Your mistakes. You tried your best, but you just didn't get it. No, no, no. Peter says it very plainly and very boldly. To turn you from your wickedness. This Greek word is a strong word. It is used as an adjective in Ephesians 6 to refer to the evil one. The evil One, that is the word here in our text is also used in other places in the New Testament to refer to Satan himself. What is sin? Satanic. That's the word. The issue is not that you have failed to reach your potential or you haven't met your life purpose. Get Jesus and he'll help you reach your goals. Now, that's not the problem. The problem is you're an evildoer. Apart from Christ, you're an evildoer, evil in nature, a sinner, a worm, a wretch, satanic. Listen, these words used to thunder from the pulpits across our nation. This used to be an understanding of human nature. We used to understand, even in our nation, that our number one problem did not come from without. Not that people didn't have enough money. Not that people didn't have enough education. Not that everybody's entitled to health care. All these things we had. This is the problem. No, no, no. We would understand, at least a lot of people in our nation understood, the problem doesn't come from without, but from within. It's not that you just don't see your full potential. It's not that evil from without has caused you to miss out on opportunities. It's not that evil from other people is holding you back. You're just around too much negativity. No, that's not right. It is that you have committed evil against God in heart, word, motivation, attitude and action. This is the word, friends, that Peter uses, wickedness. Or you could see his help me here or his fellow preacher here, John, the Apostle John. We'll talk about that more next week, how both of them were preaching. The text makes that plain. But later, the Apostle John will write in First John that sin is lawlessness. The breaking of God's law. Doing what God says not to do. God says don't take ten steps and you take eleven just to spite Him. Or failing to do what God says to do. So God says take five steps and you say I'm not taking any. This is lawlessness. This is breaking God's law. So Peter says that sin is wickedness. John says that sin is lawlessness, so the Bible defines mankind as wicked lawbreakers. You'll never understand repentance if you don't begin to see sin the way the Bible calls sin. This is the first ingredient of true repentance. Sight of sin. Friends, do you see it? Secondly, sorrow for sin. Now, this is not explicitly in our text, other than this is what it means to repent. ingrained in repentance is sorrow for sin. Paul says godly sorrow leads to repentance. Thomas Watson has a great line. The eye is made both for seeing and weeping. You can't just have sight of sin, but also sorrow for sin. Psalm, I'll give you some biblical support. Psalm 38, 18. I am sorry for my sin. Psalm 51 verse 17, the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart. Oh, God, you will not despise. Understand this morning that before there is any outward reform or outward turning, there is inward sorrow. In this stage, I'm not worried about the consequences for my sin. I'm not worried about the fact that my sin has caused me to miss out on things. Rather, I am in tears because I've broken the law of a good and holy God. I've offended Him, and I fear His judgment, and I mourn my transgressing of His law. Where are those in our nation today who will weep over their sins? How could I do such evil in the face of a God who has been nothing but benevolent and kind and good and righteous? Do you have godly sorrow for sin? Third ingredient, Watson says, is confession of sin. So, sight of sin, sorrow for sin, confession of sin. I'm going to go back to Acts 2.38 for a moment, where Peter preaches This is an important connection. Peter preaches, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Now, we have already covered this, but just for review. Baptism is not the mechanism for the forgiveness of sins. How do I know that? Because look at chapter 3 verse 19. Baptism is not there. Repent, therefore, and turn again that your sins may be blotted out. It's not baptism that is the mechanism for you to be forgiven, rather saving faith that produces repentance. That's the mechanism of forgiveness of sins. And baptism is that outward sign of this inward reality. So in one sense, baptism becomes a public confession. There's no one that stands before you in these waters of baptism that does not acknowledge and confess that they are a sinner. But before baptism happens, there is an inward confessing to God, there is an inward confessing to self. Yes, this is me. You're not blaming others. This is the worst, not the worst thing, one of the worst things about our society today. Everybody blames somebody else. There was a football game a few weeks ago played by the Perryville Mustangs. There was a situation where there was a kid that was running into the end zone wide open. He was thrown a pass, and he dropped it. There was a fumble by another kid, and the other team recovered it. Then another kid fumbled, and the other team recovered it. And then there was a pass thrown to another kid, and he tipped it up, and the team intercepted it. Think about all those mistakes. And you know, when the game was over, do you know what some of those boys from the team put on social media? We've got bad play calling. What? You know what I was thinking about? That is the epitome of our society. We mess up, we make mistakes, we sin, we transgress the law of God. But you know what? It's not my problem. It's somebody else's. And that is the reality. Where are those who are weak? Where are those who will confess? Where are those who will blame themselves for their sins, who understand that they are the transgressor? They are the idolater. They are the wicked one. As the church says that I read one time, I am the wretch that the song refers to. Fourthly, Watson says the fourth ingredient for repentance is shame for sin. So it's not enough to just confess I'm a sinner. Some people do that with a laugh. I'm a sinner. I'm going to hell. They'll be company. They confess their sins. but they feel no shame. True repentance understands and feels shame for sin. As a society, we've made shame a bad word. Oh, no, no. Don't shame that person. Don't shame that person. But I want to say that shame for sin is a good thing. Where sin happens, shame should be present. We should be ashamed for sin. Repentance means that the ugliness of sin has caused our soul to blush. It humbles you. I am ashamed for what I have done. I have broken. The problem is in our society today, We think that the number one problem in our society is that we feel guilty. And so we do all these things, whether it's drugs, whether it's alcohol, whether it's sleeping around, whether it's trying to go to some sort of universalist, Unitarian, feel-good church or whatever the case may be. We try to do all these things to not feel guilty. But the number one problem in America today is not that people feel guilty. I will say this. The number one problem in our nation today is that people are guilty. And we should feel shame for sin. Sight of sin, sorrow for sin, confession of sin, shame for sin. Are these present? Are these present in you? Fifthly, hatred of sin. Hatred of sin. And frankly, we do not hate sin enough. Sin becomes the butt of our jokes. Sin becomes what we enjoy watching on television. Sin becomes what we listen to on music. I'm always baffled and a new artist comes out with a new. Song, the song's filthy. Well, I'm not worried about the lyrics. I just like the tune. Or, hey, when I was younger, I listened to that kind of music. It's not going to hurt my kids. No, no. We should hate sin. True repentance involves a sincere abhorrence towards the transgression of God's law. The text says that God sent Raised up his servant, God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from his from your wickedness, turning, turning. The text says turning. There's some connotations for turning the meaning, some definitions to cease doing something with the implication of rejection. That's what the word means. to cease doing something with the implication of rejection, to cause someone to turn away from a previous belief. That's what's being communicated. That's what the Greek word for turning. That's what's being communicated here. Repentance begins not with outward action, but with inward turning from loving sin to what? Rejecting it. to believing in self, to turning from that and trusting Christ, from embracing sin to an abhorrent rejection of wickedness. Repentance involves hatred of sin because it is against a good and holy God. Again, I need to emphasize this. Some people, and this happens a lot, this happens whether it's in prison or jails or even your child at home, people begin to be sorry that they got caught sorry for their consequence, and so they pretend like they hate to sin. No, no. It's not hating sin just merely because you got caught. It's not merely hating the consequences resulting from your sin, beloved. It's hating sin for sin's sake because it is a front to God. It is against an assailment of His glory. You hate it because sin is the cancer of the soul. It is the poison that is killing society, it is the putrid, rotting, foul and offensiveness to a holy and righteous God. Do you hate your sin? Ingredients of repentance, side of sin, sorrow for sin, confession of sin, shame for sin, hatred of sin. And then we have the sixth ingredient. Turning from sin. I want to point out this little word in our text from. He says that He sent Him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you, and then here's a little word in our text, from. From. It's quite impactful, actually. Here's one definition. A marker of dissociation implying a rupture from a former association. From. From. A marker of dissociation implying a rupture from a former association. From. From. It means you're breaking from your sin, a turning in your heart that leads to a turning in your action. There is no repentance without breaking from sin, without a dissociation that breaks with a former association. And where repentance is real, what's going to follow in someone's life is not a rebranding of themselves, but reformation. Rebranding is when every few years Coke or Mountain Dew, I saw a Mountain Dew can the other day and it made me think of this. They got a new label. They've rebranded. Guess what's inside? The same thing. They've rebranded, but inside it's still sugar water. They haven't reformed. They've just rebranded. I'm afraid that some of us would live this way in the Christian life. We change up a little bit on the outside, and so we look a little bit different on the outside, but in the inside, it's still sugar water. It's still sin. We haven't broken from it. We've gone from this sin, and now we just latch on to this sin. It's not reformation, it's rebranding. Reformation is when the thief stops stealing and starts being generous. That's reformation. turning from sin that is turning to Christ. Now, listen, theologically, we'll get the order right and we'll talk about that more in just a minute. Theologically, it's turning in Christ to faith that results in the turning from sin. But the point is, when one repents, they turn from sin, not to this neutral, non-sin state. Rather, they turn from sin and to obedience to God. They move in their life from hating sin to loving Christ. to loving His Word, to loving His people, to seeking now to live under the rule and reign of Christ. And this needs to be preached in the Bible, well, they love the church. They love the church. They turn from their way and they turn to God's way. This is why there is such a close connection with baptism and repentance. Because baptism is a public outward sign that says, I have given now my allegiance to Christ. As Jesus Christ was crucified, dead, and buried, so too now I am symbolically crucified, dead, buried in baptism, and risen again symbolically to newness of life. Because my heart has been changed by what God has done through the Gospel. No turning back. In fact, we might think about our heart, our mind, and our will. My heart has been changed. I love Christ now and not sin. My mind has been changed. Christ is my king, not me. My will has been changed. I walk in newness of life now and not in sin. This is biblical repentance. And without it, there is no salvation. Do you see how true repentance is so much more than just dear Jesus I know that I'm a sinner. Come into my heart and forgive me." That does not encapsulate repentance. And never further anywhere in the Bible are we told to recite a prayer or ask Jesus in our heart. It's not ever used. Ever. Ever. Rather, we are commanded to repent. Now listen, this goes out to the adults in this room. You are commanded before God to repent in this way. Right? Children, though, this is true of you. I once heard of a man who told a group of children, just ask Jesus into your heart. Don't worry about this repentance. We'll deal with all of that later. That is damning. Do you understand? That Jesus does not say, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Ask me into your heart, therefore, and believe the gospel. No, he says, now, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent. and believe the gospel. That means, little child, what do you need to do to come to Christ? Turn from your sins. Embrace Christ. Understand again, theologically, it's embracing Christ that leads us to turn from our sins. But this is what Jesus says. Repent and believe the gospel. So many claim to have asked Jesus in their heart, but they've never been blessed with repentance. They're walking in the old way. They remain dead in their trespasses and sins, and they love their disobedience. Peter has commanded his hearers now twice in these first three chapters of Acts to repent. Paul says in Acts 17 30, God commands all men everywhere to repent. And every person on the face of the earth, including every person in this room, is commanded by God to repent. And that means to see these ingredients, to see sin as sin, to feel godly sorrow for sin, to confess your sins, to feel shame for your sins, to hate your sins, and to turn from all known sin. This is the requirement to becoming a Christian. You cannot become a Christian without repentance. So now we come to another very important point, point two, where repentance originates. Now, listen to me, you cannot be a Christian apart from repentance. So I would want to know if I were you, where does repentance come from? Well, what are you telling me to do? Do I need to go home and sit in a corner and just figure this out? Listen, let's consider our text. God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first to bless you. By turning every one of you. From your wickedness, now there's two concepts that we need to make very clear, the first is We believe all the Bible, including the parts that say all men everywhere are commanded to repent. Every boy, every girl, every woman, every child, every man, every grandpa, every grandmother and aunt and uncle and cousin is commanded by God to repent. There is a responsibility upon all souls to repent, to see your sins as the wickedness that they are before God and to turn from those sins and to turn to God For His mercy in Christ, all mankind, this is an obligation for. But there's another important concept, too, and these two are not at odds. The other important concept is, do you know what ultimately turns that stiff-necked, stubborn, stone-dead, cold heart of the sinner? The sovereign grace of God. Look at the text. God, having raised up His servant, sent Him to you first to bless you, listen, by turning every one of you. You don't have to know grammar just to know this, that in this little clause here, there is an actor, and there are the actees. There is the one that is doing the action, and there is the one that is receiving the action. Who's doing the action? Who's doing the turning? It's God. Right? God has raised up His servant, sent Him to you first. God in Christ is doing the action. God in the Gospel is the actor. Who are the actees, if you will? Who are those that are being acted upon? It's sinners. He turns every one of you, the text says, from your wickedness. Now, God commands all men everywhere to repent and left to ourselves, we rather starve in defiance, that partake of mercy. But there is something you must know. The gospel of Jesus Christ secures the grace of repentance for His people. By the resurrection of Christ, we preach repentance to the nations, to every soul we encounter, understanding that God's grace is effectually going to bring sinners to repentance according to His sovereign plan. That God, that where men will not turn, God is willing in His mercy to turn them. The work of Christ has procured this blessing. Ephesians chapter one, verse three says that we are blessed in Christ in the heavenly places with the important word, every spiritual blessing, all in Christ. This includes the blessing of repentance. So when God says or when Peter says that God is going to bless his people by turning them from their wickedness, included in that blessing. Where did it come from? It was procured in the work of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came to win repentance for his people. And so he has accomplished this. Christ has won this for his people by his work and not yours. His work, he stepped into flesh. conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He, the only one ever, lived a life never needing repentance because he was never guilty of Adam's sin and he never transgressed a single law of God. Everything that God said for him to do, he did. And everything that God said for him not to do, he did not do because he never did a wicked thing. As his body was affixed to the Roman cross, God atoned for sin by punishing Jesus by pouring out his wrath on the Son in our place. And this is why Peter can preach this in verse 19. Go back to verse 19. Feast your eyes, repent therefore, and turn again that your sins may be blotted out. Blotted out. If your sin was never paid for, it could never be blotted out. But now, for those who repent of sin, their sins are blotted out, Peter says. They are erased. They are gone forever. They're at the bottom of the ocean floor. They're as far away as the east is from the west. There's no more condemnation. Why? Because Jesus died for them. And God punished Christ in our place. And he rose again from the dead in victory. And the blessing of repentance now ushered in by the Holy Spirit. Are your sins blotted out? It's only for those who are repentant. Christ's work has opened the door for repentance for the nations where God grants it according to his gracious will. Where does the repentance originate? What does the text say? God, having raised up His servant, sent Him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness. It's not you reaching down and inside yourself and deciding, hey, I'm going to turn over a new leaf. I'm going to put on new clothes. Rather, it's the sovereign grace of God turning you from wickedness. It's the voice of God standing over your grave, preaching a eulogy that causes you to raise up from death to life. Thirdly. Why repentance? Must be preached. God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness. Here, I thought about reading all of Acts three this morning, but we've already done that once. But I need you to remember something for a second. What happens in Acts three, a lot of people miss this. God healed a lame man. But him healing the lame man was not at all connected to have enough faith and all your sicknesses will be cured. If that's what you think, like, you know, you got preachers on TV who say, well, I've never been sick a day in your life. First in my life, first false. That's a lie. You're standing in front of people and you're just lying. How wicked and ungodly and satanic is that? And then next, They tell these people ridden with plague and cancer and Parkinson's and disabilities, you know why you're like this? You don't have the faith that I do. That's reprehensible. And that is nowhere in the Bible. And in Acts chapter three, it's a complete butchering of what God is doing. Because God has given the healing of this man as a physical illustration of God's ability to heal your soul. Now, think about this for a minute. Think about this, friends. Listen, listen, listen. If God were to heal this man's legs, but he never walked. Is that a real healing? No, I would suffer. It's not a real healing. So what if God were to heal your soul without you walking away from wickedness? Is that real healing? No, friend, it's not. And it would make God a cheap magician in the sky to pretend that He is restoring people and forgiving them of their sins apart from blessing them with repentance. You know what's happened in the Gospel? God's given your soul new legs. And you know what those legs do? They leap into the arms of Christ even as they run away from sin. This is what God's doing in the world today, and this is the example we have in this lame man being healed. Why must we preach repentance? Because this is what God does to sinners. God, having raised up His servant, sent Him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness. And this repentance, listen, it's not a one-time act. Your legs don't fall off after you repent once. an initial repentance of a sinner that turns into a life of continual and habitual repentance. Listen, the Christian life is not a perfect life. Far from it. Far from it. But the Christian life is a repentant life, continually seeking to conform to the word of God and the image of Christ, all by the grace of God. This is the Christian life. And that's the thing for the Christian. Listen to me here. Some of you really need to hear this. Some of you husbands, you really need to hear it. Some of you wives, you really need to hear it. Some of you children, you really need to hear it. If you're a Christian, guess what God has done for you? He's removed this great weight from your shoulders and you really can just conquer sin by doing this. I repent. I repent. Man, I shouldn't have said that. I was wrong and I'm sorry. Forgive me. You can do that. Why? Jesus Christ has tore open the door to freeness of repentance. You can actually look your spouse in the eye and say, you know what? I shouldn't have said it that way. I'm sorry. I repent. You can actually look at your child and say, I got a little heated there. I'm sorry. I broke God's law. Will you forgive me? You can look at fellow church members and say, you know what? I shouldn't have talked about you like that. I shouldn't have said this thing. I shouldn't have lived this way. I repent. What a glorious blessing that God has given His church in the freedom of repentance. God has made this holy life possible by Christ's work, by His life, by His death, by His burial, by His resurrection. You're called to be holy, so be holy. And where you fall short, repent. And let us be habitual repenters, because to not repent is the fruit of an unregenerate heart. Our confession says it this way. Chapter 20, paragraph 5. God has made full provision through Christ in the covenant of grace to preserve believers in their salvation. Now, listen to these lines very carefully. Thus, although there is no sin so small that it is undeserving of damnation, yet there is no sin so great that it will bring damnation on those who repent. This makes the constant preaching of repentance necessary. Let me say it this way. You're used to one saying. Let me change up the word a little bit. My brothers and sisters, Christ is worthy of a repentant church. Now, in verse 26, we could wrestle with the grammar. a little bit, but instead, let me just keep it concise and tell it to you this way. It is a theological reality that Christ is present spiritually in the preaching of the gospel. And I want to tell you something. Let me just read it again. God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness. This is where our hope is. Our hope is in the power of God through the gospel. Preacher, my children won't repent. They won't repent. My uncle, he won't repent. My co-worker won't repent. My boss won't repent. My employees won't repent. My neighbor won't repent. Oh, Quatro, what do we do? They just won't repent. First of all, the answer is yes, that's true. Left to themselves, they won't. But you see, there's power in the gospel that makes impossible things possible. So what do we do with a world that won't repent? What do we do with our grandchildren that won't repent? What do we do with the people at Goat Fest? They won't repent. The people in our community won't repent. What do we do with our family members far and away? They won't repent. All these people in America today, they won't repent. What do we do? What do we do? What do we do? Preach Christ. Preach the gospel. We preach the gospel because we understand that in the preaching of the gospel, Christ is present. And it's through the preaching of the gospel that God is pleased to bring His power upon the wretched, stiff-necked, hard-hearted soul that says, I ain't repenting. And God says, I got other plans. And we take the gospel to the nations. A lady walked by me at Goat Fest. She said, I don't need Jesus. I'm a pagan. Yeah, actually, that's the whole reason you do need Jesus, right? Because you're a pagan. So we preach Christ and Christ is present in the preaching of the gospel. And because he is, we have a firm hope that so long as this world remains. Now, listen to me. We have a hope that so long as this world remains, that God has a disposition in the heralding of the gospel, a disposition toward blessing. Is God going to judge people? Yeah, we're going to talk about that next week. Does God harden hearts? Yep, we'll talk about that next week. But don't miss this. A disposition towards blessing. Look at the text. God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first to bless you, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness. Listen for just a second very carefully. Regardless of who you are, or what you have done, or the image that you have of yourself, or the guilt that you carry, or the shame that you carry, or all the sins that you've ever committed in your life, whatever you have done, wherever you are this morning, whoever you are, I can tell you this, there is a God who is willing to bless you in Christ if you'll call upon the name of the Lord. Christ has proclaimed you, and under the heralding of the Gospel, He says, lay hold of His mercy, lay down your burdens, lay down your rebellion, stop looking for your best life now, repent, and turn to Christ. Turn from your sins. Turn from your evil thoughts, and your deeds, and the selfishness of your heart, and repent, repent, repent, lay hold of Christ by faith. If you do not do this, if you refuse to repent, this is not God's fault. It's yours. You cannot blame him. Oh, if he would have just given me a little more time. Oh, if he would have just given me a better preacher, if he would have just made my life better. Oh, then I would repent. That is all on you, not him. You don't repent for this reason. You don't fear him. And you love your sin. And you love your self-image. And the reason that you won't repent is on you, and you look in the mirror, and you think too highly of yourself. But will you just consider the text? God, having raised up His servant, sent Him to you first. Listen to this beauty and mercy. To bless you! To bless you! Of all the people to say this, isn't it amazing that Peter would say this? What do the disciples run and tell? Or what does Jesus say to the disciples to tell Him? Don't forget to tell Peter I'm risen from the dead. When Jesus Christ meets Peter, what does He do? Pull out His sword, ready to chop His head off or deny Him? No, He gives Him grace. So listen, what is being said when the gospel comes to you and tells you what Jesus has done and says to you, leave your sin, you're wretched, you're miserable, you're poor, you're blind, you're naked, you're satanic. When the gospel comes to you and says these things and then says, repent of this, turn from it. Do you understand what is coming to you? Do you understand what God is bringing to you? Do you get it? Do you see it in the text? Blessing. Blessing! Not wrath! Not curse! Not judgment! Blessings! Are you serious right now? Here comes the gospel? After all you've done? After all you've thought? After all the things you looked at on the computer screen? After all the alcohol you put into your body? After all the things you've smoked? After all the hatred you've had in your heart? After all the wicked things that you've done? The gospel comes to you, and what is it? It's God's kindness! Christ comes to you now in the preaching of the gospel, not with a sword to slay you, but with mercy to bless you, to turn you from your wickedness. Now, what kind of person would sit under this preaching and say to themselves, I can't go to Christ? Who would make up reasons for not laying hold of Christ in His grace this moment? Why would not every soul in this room, every child, every man, every woman, every grandfather, grandmother, aunt, uncle, every person say, yes, yes, yes. Lord, save me. Change me. I'm undeserving. But I see, I see your mercy. Save my soul. Forgive me. Turn me from my sin. Dear soul, repent and believe the gospel. Here is your blessed life now before you. And then, Church, I need you to consider something very, very timely and relevant. God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness. Now, hear me clearly. God is willing to bless sinners in Christ, but listen. How in the world Could we be so arrogant and cold hearted to withhold this blessing from sinners? And here's what I mean specifically in this way. Yes, not sharing the gospel. That's a problem. But I mean something more pointed here. To allow people to stay in their sins. To look at the homosexual. The drunkard. The glutton. The sexually immoral. The gossip, the self-righteous, the liar, the thief, the transgender. How could we look at these people knowing the blessing of God in the gospel to turn sinners away from wickedness and to withhold that blessing? How unloving does somebody have to be to look at someone caught in sin and say to them, You're okay. That's the way God made you. These other Christians, they're just being mean. Don't listen to them. Stay in your homosexuality. Stay in your adultery. Stay in your love for abortion. Stay! Stay! Stay! Stay! How wicked do you have to be? How much hatred must you have for a wretched soul to say, here's God's blessing for the repentant, but no, I'll stand in the way of it. And I will not extend it to you. If you do not preach repentance to poor and needy sinners, then we are withholding from them the very mercy and blessing of God. One of the most loving things that we can do with our friends and our family members and our neighbors and our co-workers is to explain to them what Jesus Christ has done, what he has won, what he has purchased. and that the only response that is acceptable to a just and holy God is to turning to Christ, trusting Jesus, and turning away from sin. This is how messed up the South can be. Someone sneezes. We don't even know them. We say, God, God bless you. Bless you. Someone sins. We withhold God's blessing from them. By not calling them to repentance. How could we let people we love remain in sin without telling them to repent? God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness. This repentance is not merely feeling bad for sin, it's saying sin for what it is, feeling godly sorrow for sin. Owning sin as sin and evil, deserving of hell, a holy hatred of sin, and turning from sin in thought, heart, and deed, and living a life of continual repentance. If we withhold this truth from sinners, if we make room for them to just live in their sins, then we dishonor Christ and we show hatred of our neighbor's souls. The best life that any person can live is not found in self-fulfillment. or reaching your potential, or more positive thinking, but in grace-wrought repentance, turning away from sin and turning to Christ for forgiveness. I never told you. I never told you when that book by Joel Osteen came out. It was October 12th. 2004. In the providence of God, 21 years ago. On this day. And you can still chase that positivity. Dream big for yourself. Speak affirmations. Try to obligate God into the blueprint that you've already mapped out for your life. But on Judgment Day, the best life now unravels. And you'll have no one to speak a good word for you before a holy God. But there is another way. You could listen to Peter's word. Christ comes to us through the preaching of the word with good news, not about our potential, but that our rotting sins soak Corpse. May live. God has a eulogy to preach over the old man's grave. Bringing you to life and repentance and reconciliation, Jesus paid it all. And I said before you today, life and death. Blessing and curse. You want the world. I can try to hold on to you. I can try to stand in front of you. But I can't change your heart. You want the world? You want to chase the world? You want all the stuff the world has? That's what you want? You want your best life now? That's what you want? That's what you're after? Go. Go. Please don't. But if that's where your heart's going to go, well, by all means, go. But I'm telling you this morning, you can have Christ. But you can't have both. Will the church. Will needy sinners. Will all of us look upon Christ this moment. And say that we desire. Our blessed life now. God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first to bless you. By turning. Every one of you. from your wickedness. Father. I haven't preached the best I can preach of failed in so many ways. But Lord, I believe I've been faithful to this text. Despite my. Failures. I believe that the Holy Spirit has Equipped me and helped me to preach in such a way that the gospel was communicated. Truth was communicated. So, Lord, I leave it to you. And help me to trust you. I have nothing more to give. I don't know why you use weak preachers. Other than you love to make much of your own power. How weak and futile and pathetic are words. And yet you take words. And you make galaxies. You take words and you created this world. You take words and you wrap in human flesh. Jesus Christ, born of the Virgin Mary. Righteously obedient to the law suffering for us under your wrath and rising again from the dead. And in your sweet providence, you use the pathetic, small, imprecise words of preachers. And you usher forth the voice of Christ through them. To change people. God, would you just change people? That's my prayer. Would believers in this room be changed? Would you save unbelievers? People who came in this today and thought, I don't, I don't even need to be saved or some thought I'm never going to be saved. And then today you just overpower everything in them and draw them to Christ. May we be a repentant church and a healthy church for the glory of Christ in Jesus name. Amen. Would you stand and let's sing.