THY WORD IS TRUTH
John 17:17
“Repent For The Kingdom Of God Is Near”
Is Christ our Lord or only our Savior?
What happens to those who look to risen Christ for salvation but never do what he commands?
Do those people really belong to Christ are they part of Christ flock?
The answer is in the parable of the sower that was the reading from the New Testament last week.
What about those who claim Christ as Savior but do not follow him as their Lord.
What about those who do not yield to him and are on their own agenda and not his.
What a who hear his commands but never take heed of those commands and never or seldom if ever obey those commands.
Did Jesus ever ask this question himself?
Well those who do obey Christ would remember that he did ask this question in the gospel of Luke 6:46 when he was teaching his disciples about the wise and foolish builder.
Jesus suddenly exclaims while he his teach, “Why do you call me Lord, Lord and do not do what I say?”
By His words, Christ expects obedience does he?
And he has told the same disciples in the gospel if Matthew 7 verse 21, “Not everyone who call me Lord, Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven but only those who do the will of the Father who is in heaven.
Stern warning don’t you think?
And who among the disciples was he referring to?
Jesus called Judas Iscariot to be his disciple did her not?
In fact Judas Iscariot is the only one of Christ's disciples that is from the same tribe of Jews that Jesus is from, the tribe of Judah!
And is Judas in the kingdom of heaven?
(There are many who believer that Judas was forgiven but knot from the words of Christ.
Such people are in the church today and they are devoted to the heresy of universalism!
To those who practice universalism everyone is saved and there is no Hell and this is their world view no matter what Christ says.
To the Universalist sin is forgiven without repentance and everyone goes to heaven.
The universalist is Satan's greatest worker for if what the universalist says is true there is no point to the cross in fact the atonement is completely devalued and in fact rendered worthless.
The universalist will make statements like every life style is worthy of God's love!
When Christ and the Apostolic teaching speaks otherwise. So the univeralist must ignore or explain away large sections of the bible for they have to negate the doctrine of redemption which i the major theme of the whole bible!
The universalist will actually contradict Jesus Christ and claim the Judas Iscariot is saved!
What was Judas Iscariot’s fate according to what Jesus of Nazareth said about him.
When Judas got up from the table on the night He went to betray Jesus and left the room. What did Jesus say about him. Matthew 26:24b … “Woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!"
It would have been good for that man if he had not been born."
Not exactly forgiving words don't you think!
Universalism is a powerful delusion!
Not all are Saved by the words of Christ who will be the judge of the quick and the dead.
If everyone was saved then Christ does not need to come back to judge the quick and the dead. Does He?
So what is the first command of Christ to all those who are called by Christ to be his disciples.
It is the title of the sermon and we hear Christ say this at the end of the reading from the New Testament today in verse 17 of Matthew chapter 4.
What did Christ say?
"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
And this was the start of Jesus ministry on earth for it was recorded by Matthew and also Mark that Jesus began to preach and what were his very first word out of his mouth.
"REPENT!"
I ask you does Christ expect us to repent or not?
But where did Christ get this idea?
What did we hear from the prophet Isaiah this morning in the Old Testament reading today.
The heading of the OT reading was?
It was Sin, Confession and Redemption.
The translators of the NIV came to that conclusion of what this passage from Isaiah meant!
Christ quotes from this passage from Isaiah as he teaches and what is in this passage that Jesus wants his disciples to remember.
Remember all of Jesus disciples were Jews!
What was the last line of Isaiah chapter 59, verse 20 "The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins," declares the LORD.
This verse from the prophet Isaiah is chock full of meaning and significance.
So lets think about what is means.
Who is the Redeemer?
To the Jews it is the long awaited Messiah, the Christ himself.
And who is Jacob?
The Redeemer will come to Jacob.
What was Jacobs name changed to after wrestled with the Angel at Jacobs ladder?
His name was changed to Israel. (He who contends with God).
That is what the name Israel means.
Jacob becomes father Israel and all the tribes of Israel are named after his 12 sons.
But what is the kernel of truth that we should walk away with from the sentence.
The Redeemer will come to those in Jacob who repent of their sins.
From this verse is repentance required for salvation of the Jews or not.
So does it not make perfect sense that repentance is required for salvation of the gentiles also since we are not cultivated Jews but spiritual Jews.
We are made spiritual Jews by the blood of Christ as the Apostle Paul teaches.
Does this verse say that the Redeemer will come to all who are in Jacob.
In other words to all the Jews descended from Jacob. Are all the Jews saved by this verse.
The answer is NO!
It does not say that at all.
It says that the Redeemer will come to Zion the mountain in Jerusalem to only those who are in Jacob that repent of their sins.
So what was required of those of the Jews when the Messiah comes to them?
The answer is by this passage , only those Jews who repent of their sins.
That is why Jesus open his ministry on earth with the word, REPENT!
I ask you by Jesus quoting Isaiah 59, what is his meaning in the teaching to his disciples.
The answer is, “Repentance is required for salvation.”
Otherwise, the Redeemer will not come.
And how do we know this?
Does Jesus ever say plainly and direct that repentance is required for salvation in the gospels.
The answer is "yes"!
He says so in a teaching to the crowd with his disciples present so he says this to his disciples also.
Remember the disciples will become the Apostles after the church is formed and any teaching Jesus makes or any commands that he gives to his disciples he gives to the church!
But Jesus gives this warning to both the church and the crowd those other who were not called to be his follows.
Where in the gospels does Jesus say that "you must repent"?
The disciples people come to Jesus to ask about an event that has happen just a few days before.
In the gospel of Luke 13, verse 1, "1 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 Jesus answered, "Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? 3 I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.
And then Jesus offers his own event to make his point and repeats his warning.
Verse 4, “Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem?
5 I tell you, no!
But unless you repent, you too will all perish."
And Jesus went on teaching the crowd in parables and as I said last Sunday he did this because those who are called to be of his flock will receive His Holy Spirit and will understand his parables but this who are not of his flock will not.
And several verses later in Luke 13 we see this because some ask him (verse 23), “Lord are only a few people going to be saved?
And Jesus answers, 24 "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. 25 Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.'
"But he will answer, 'I don't know you or where you come from.' And some will object Jesus told them by saying. But 'We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.'
27"But he will reply, 'I don't know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!'
From this teaching of Christ what is the narrow door and the narrow gate?
It is the door of repentance,
“For the Redeemer will come to those who repent of their sins.
Well if Christ has made His point exactly what is repentance?
What does the word repentance mean?
Well there are two words in Hebrew that might help.
The first is “nacham” spelled n a c h a m which means to be sorry.
It is used in Job when he says in conclusion of the book. "I Repent (nacham) in dust and ashes".
But in the large majority of times it is used the Hebrew word is 9 out of 12 times in the Old Testament the word is “shub” spelled s h u b which means to turn back.
This is the meaning taken from the Isaiah passage that Christ quotes!
But what does Christ mean by the word repent In the gospels?
The gospels were written in Greek. The Greek word is "metamoneo" which means to "change ones mind" or "to change ones purpose".
So that is what Christ is talking about in Matthew 4 and Luke 13.
We need to change our mind and that will result in a change in our behavior.
But what does the resurrected Christ tell us?
Remember the man Jesus of Nazareth had to go away sometime for days to pray to the Father and to know what the Fathers will was for him.
But the resurrected and glorified Christ chose the Apostle Paul to be the Apostle to the gentiles.
It is the Apostle Paul alone who teaches us about grace and what it means to the believer.
Paul's teachings were from the Resurrected Lord for Paul never saw or spoke to Jesus of Nazareth in the flesh.
But Paul spoke only to the Resurrected Jesus often and he wrote about it in almost all his letters.
What is the teaching of the Apostle Paul on repentance?
.Paul writes in 2Corinthians Chapter 7 about being sorry or being sorrowful over our sins.
Paul writes, “8 Even if I caused you sorrow by my letter, I do not regret it. Though I did regret it—I see that my letter hurt you, but only for a little while— 9 yet now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. 10 Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death.
So what is the bottom line?
Is sorrow for our sins enough?
Clearly not!
For if we turn back to our old ways and to the ways of world we become a friend of the world and that results in destruction.
Could the Elders Come Forward For Communion:
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