Open our Bible tonight, please, to the Gospel
of Mark.
The Gospel of Mark, chapter number 6, please.
The Book of Mark tonight and chapter number
6 in your New Testament Bible.
So good to see you.
Thank you all for coming.
Appreciate all the visitors.
Appreciate the preachers that are here.
Appreciate you folks from Valley Drive and appreciate
you Wicked Baptist on the back row.
Amen.
Thank you everybody for being here tonight.
And certainly we appreciate everybody that's here from
the balcony to the main floor.
Thank you for coming.
God bless each and every one of you.
Let's stand tonight, please, out of respect for
God's Word.
There's a lot of ground we have to
cover.
B.R. Lakin said, blessed is the preacher
whose train of thought has a caboose.
Well, mine does.
And so we've got to get started so
we can get finished tonight.
I have a new message that I just
put the finishing touches on just a little
bit before the service this afternoon and some
things that I've been just a little bit
burdened about that I'd like to share with
you.
And I hope it'll be a great blessing.
I'm going to preach the Bible tonight as
I see the Word of God and I
believe it'll be a help to you.
Now, I'm very well aware of the fact
that in a crowd this size, regardless, you
know, there's not a whole lot of people
here, but there's quite a few of us.
I'm very well aware of the fact that
the subject at hand tonight is a subject
that is very controversial and it is a
subject that maybe not everybody is going to
agree with me on every point of theology
that I preach on tonight.
But I remind you, I'm going to preach
the Word of God tonight.
I'm not going to preach something that's microwaved
and something that I've borrowed from somebody else,
but we're going to use the Word of
God.
And if anytime in the sermon, not during
the sermon, but when the sermon's over I
say something that is against the Word of
God, I'll be certainly glad to talk to
you about that after the service.
There's preachers here tonight, but I'm not looking
for any meetings.
As a matter of fact, there's a few
I'm trying to get out of, like next
week.
Just kidding.
But the truth of the matter is this,
I realize not everybody is going to agree
with what I'm going to preach on tonight,
but tonight I'm going to preach and I'm
going to do my dead-level best to
stay within the confines of the Word of
God.
And so I believe I'll be fair in
preaching the Bible and you being fair in
seeing if I do.
All right?
Mark chapter 6 and verse number 1.
Mark chapter number 6, please, and verse number
1.
The Bible says, And he, that's Jesus, went
out from thence and came into his own
country, and his disciples followed him.
And when the Sabbath day was come, he
began to teach in the synagogue, and many
hearing him were astonished, saying, For whence hath
this man these things?
What wisdom is this which he giveth unto
him, that even such mighty works are wrought
by his hands?
Is not this the carpenter, the son of
Mary, the brother of James, and Joseph, and
Judah, and of Simon?
And are not his sisters here with us?
And they were offended at him.
But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is
not without honor, but in his own country,
and among his own kin, and in his
own house.
And he could there do no mighty works,
save that he laid his hand upon a
few sick folk and healed them.
And he marveled because of their unbelief.
And he went round about the villages teaching,
and he called unto him the twelve, and
began to send them forth two by two,
and gave them power over unclean spirits, and
commanded them that they should take nothing for
their journey, save a staff only.
No script, no bread, no money in their
purse, but be shod with sandals, and not
put on two coats.
And he said unto them, In what place
soever ye enter into a house, there abide
till ye depart from that place.
And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear
you, when ye depart then, take off the
dust under your feet for testimony against them.
Verily I say unto you, It shall be
more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the
day of judgment than for that city.
And they went out and preached that men
should repent.
And tonight, from Mark chapter 6 and many
other portions of Scripture, I preach the simple
sermon, the most controversial subject in all of
the Bible.
Thank you very much.
You may be seated.
Let's bow our heads and hearts and pray
and ask the Lord to bless our time
together tonight.
The most controversial subject in all of the
Bible.
Now, dear Lord Jesus, tonight you know my
heart.
I do not in any way, shape, or
form preach this sermon because it is controversial.
I preach it because it's in the Bible
and the Spirit of God has asked me
to preach it tonight.
So I pray that I would preach it
in the right spirit and in the right
manner.
And Lord, that You would help my friends,
this congregation before me, as they listen to
the Word of God.
And Lord, I pray for the one tonight
that has come to our service but has
never come to the Savior.
I pray You would convict them of the
urgency in their heart of receiving the Lord
Jesus.
And then for God's people tonight, I pray
that You would stir us through the Word
of God.
And Lord, we have already been stirred by
the sin.
But even more so than stirring us or
continuing to do so, we pray that You
would change us tonight through the preaching of
the Word of God.
And Father, I'll be careful to give You
the honor, the glory, the praise, and I
want to uplift Jesus Christ tonight because He
said Himself, if I be lifted up, I
will draw all men unto Me.
And so Lord, tonight use the pages of
the Word of God.
Burn deep within our hearts, we pray, in
Jesus' name, Amen.
In 1875, there was a man by the
name of Dr. William Booth.
William Booth, as you know, started an organization
called the Salvation Army.
And I thank God that it's still around
today.
Certainly, it's not the fundamental organization that it
was at one time, but it still helps
a lot of needy people and a lot
of homeless folks.
But here's a man that started a rescue
mission type of a ministry.
He was a man that had compassion.
He was a man that had heart.
And in 1875, William Booth said this.
He said, the danger of the 20th century
will be...
Now, obviously, you know, by sake of time
and for sake of history, this is the
illustration that I give, but we're already past
the 20th, into the 21st century, if you
can believe that.
But yet, he said, the danger of the
20th century will be, number one, politics without
God.
Number two, education without the Bible.
Number three, happiness without holiness.
Number four, heaven without hell.
Number five, conversion without conviction.
And number six, William Booth said, the danger
of the 20th century will be regeneration without
repentance.
And in Mark 6, Jesus Christ does a
very, very controversial thing.
He goes back to his hometown.
He goes back to the town that he
was raised in as a young lad, if
you will.
He goes back to the town where he
was reared in Joseph's house, not his father's
house, because his father was God, and he
said, I am my father one.
But he went back to that town that
everybody knew him to be from when he
was a little boy and when he was
a wee little tank and when he was
a preteen and when he was a teenager.
And so he goes back, and I'd like
to remind you, this is right after Mark
5, where he performed three of the greatest
miracles of his ministry.
He cast devils, over a thousand devils, out
of a man's body, healed a lady that
had an issue of blood, and he raised
a little girl from the dead by saying,
Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.
And all three of those miracles were performed
by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then in Mark 6, he had the
same miracles that in his heart and in
his mind that he wanted to perform to
those who had seen him grow up.
And so he goes back to this town,
and he's walking around, and he's wanting to
heal the people, and he's wanting to raise
the dead, and he's wanting to do all
of these miracles.
And the people come to him, and they
hear him preaching on the Sabbath day, and
they hear him preaching in the synagogue, and
they say, Where has this man amassed such
a wealth of knowledge?
He is well beyond his years as far
as maturity is concerned, and they do not
understand the principle of the God-man.
They merely see him as a prophet.
They merely see him as a preacher, as
a man, as a healer, as a teacher
in the synagogue.
And the Bible says, when they seen him,
because if you will study your Bible, you
will find out that most people in the
Bible that served in the temple were over
the age of 40 years of age.
And so here is Jesus, and in their
estimation, He was what we would consider, or
what most people consider me, just a little
whippersnapper that doesn't know a whole lot.
And so they look at Jesus, and they
say, What does this guy know?
So they hear him preach, and they say,
Where has he amassed this wealth of information?
And the Bible says, because of his background,
because of his age, and because of the
knowledge that he had, they were offended in
and at him.
Well, Jesus still wanted to perform a lot
of miracles, but you know what your Bible
says?
They limited him.
It's not that he could not.
It's that he would not because of their
lack of faith.
It has the same idea of Psalm 78.
The Bible says that they limited the Holy
One of Israel.
Now, we don't think about setting limitations on
God, and certainly we know that God can
do all things, but He would not avail
Himself to do the same miracles that He
had done in the other towns because the
people would not listen to Him.
They would not heed to the message of
the Word of God.
They would not listen to what He had
to say.
And so He left that city, and when
He left that city, as He was walking
out, notice what your Bible says He did.
Mark 6, verse 12.
If you look at the end of verse
6, it says, And He went round about
the villages teaching.
Now notice, He's leaving town, and He called
unto Him the twelve, and began to send
them forth two by two, and gave them
power over unclean spirits.
Now, please understand, ladies and gentlemen, Jesus gave
His apostles what we consider apostolic power.
But I'm going to tell you today why
there's no such thing as a prophet, and
why there's no such thing as an apostle.
You watch TV and the rest of them
cooks on TV, and they say, Apostle so
-and-so.
They say, Prophet so-and-so.
And they talk about picking up rattlesnakes and
a bunch of crazy stuff like that.
And they talk about doing all of these
miracles and drinking poison and speaking in tongues.
Did you know at one time people did
have those powers?
They were called the apostles.
They had apostolic power given to them by
God, but the apostles are dead, and apostolic
power died with them.
And we do not have to have those
types of signs and wonders.
And I promise you, and I'm glad I
don't have to handle a rattlesnake.
All I've got to handle is an incorruptible
Word of God tonight.
And so Jesus went to this town.
They wouldn't listen, so He said, Fellas, come
here, I'll tell you something.
He gave them some power.
He said, don't wear two coats, just wear
one.
He said, just get you some sandals.
He said, don't take your sermon note, get
your script.
He said, don't take a staff, don't take
a book satchel.
Don't take any food.
Don't worry about packing pimento cheese sandwiches or
anything like that.
People will take care of you along the
way.
They were itinerants, just like Brother Robertson and
myself.
They traveled from place to place, and God's
people met their needs as they saw fit.
So Jesus said, I'm going to send you
fellows out two by two.
I don't want you to go by yourself.
I want the two of you to be
able to preach and pray and knock on
doors and this, that, and the other.
You know the story.
And Jesus said, I want you to go
to a town, and I want you to
preach a particular message.
Now, He did not yet give them the
message.
He just said, I want you to go
preach.
And He said, when you get there, He
said, I want you to preach with all
your heart.
I want you to just rear back and
preach the Word of God and say, Thus
saith the Lord.
You have to pound the pulpit fine.
If you don't pound the pulpit, fine.
If you preach fast, fine.
If you preach slow, fine.
He said, I just want you to go,
and I want you to preach, Thus saith
the Lord.
And He had not yet given them the
message.
He just told them to preach.
He said, and when you get there, you
will preach this message that I'm fixing to
give you, and if they receive you, wonderful,
glory, fine, hallelujah, amen.
But if they do not.
If that individual, if that nation, if that
county, if that province, if that church, if
you will, if those people will not receive
the message that I am about to give
you, then you walk to the edge of
the town, and you stomp off the dust
from your feet.
And that will be a symbolization that the
judgment of God is going to come upon
those people, that there will be no blessing
in their homes, there will be no blessing
on their teenagers, there will be no blessings
in their synagogues, there will be no blessing
on their marriage.
You walk to the edge of town as
a man of God and dust off your
feet, and the judgment of God will fall
upon them.
And God says, furthermore, as a matter of
fact, if that town that I send you
to does not heed to the message of
the Word of God that I'm fixing to
give you, notice what Jesus said would be
done to them.
Verse 11, And whosoever shall not receive you
nor hear you when you depart hence, shake
off the dust under your feet for a
testimony not for, but notice, against them.
Verily I say unto you, That's Jesus saying
you can bank on the fact that it's
going to come to pass.
It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and
Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for
that city.
Jesus said if that county, if that country,
if that province, if those individuals don't listen
to what you have to say, shake off
the dust from your feet and in the
day of judgment, in the judgment of the
nations, and that in the day of judgment,
in the last days as we draw to
the end of the book of Revelation, God
said, I will have more patience.
I will have more mercy and I will
be more tolerable with Sodom and Gomorrah than
I will with the nation or the individuals
that did not heed to the message that
I'm about to give you.
Can I remind you what Sodom and Gomorrah
was filled with?
It was filled with Sodomites, dear neighbor.
It was filled with the Romans chapter 1
crowd that did not like to retain God
in their knowledge and God gave Him over
to reprobate minds and God sent those angels
in there and said, Lot, you better get
up and I'll tell it out of here.
And Lot begged his family to get right
and they didn't.
He got his wife and his two daughters
and they left and she even looked back
and the two daughters committed incest.
And so really, only one man basically made
it out of the entire city and he
walks out and God destroys the whole place.
You know why?
Because their wickedness came up before the nostrils
of God and it stunk to it.
And it was ungodly and it was vile
and it was wretched and it was something
that made the heart of God break and
made the stomach of God turn.
And by the way, that sin still upsets
a holy God.
No matter what the liberals, no matter what
the modernists and the democrats say, it's not
something you're born with.
It's something you choose and it pulls the
pulse and you can be saved from it
and such were some of you, but now
you're lost.
And so Jesus said, in the day of
judgment, the group, the individual, the nation, the
country, the people, the church, if you will,
you understand the application, that does not receive
this message I'm about to give you.
When they don't receive it, you just go
ahead and shake off your feet as a
testimony against them.
And in the day of judgment, I'll be
more tolerable, if you will.
I'll have more patience with a bunch of
perverts.
And a nation full of wicked sodomites.
And I will with this nation.
What was the message He gave them?
Well, please look at verse number 12.
And they went out and preached that men
should repent.
Repentance is the most overlooked and most abused
terminology in all of the Word of God.
Now, let me just, for the sake of
an outline tonight, write down a few things.
I believe this message will be a help
if you write some things down.
Let me tell you, first of all, some
things that repentance is not.
You know, sometimes we have to explain to
ourselves what something isn't so we will know
what it is.
You understand?
Let me tell you what repentance is not.
Number one, repentance is not religion.
You see, repentance is not just dressing right,
and walking right, and looking right, and going
to church, for example.
There may be a Roman Catholic here tonight.
And you know what?
You're as just as welcome in this revival
meeting as any Baptist that's here.
But you know what?
Being a Roman Catholic is not going to
get you to the Kingdom of God.
You see?
Because the Roman Catholics have the idea, if
I pray to Mary and fall down and
kiss the statue's feet, and if I talk
to a priest, and if I count the
rosary beads, and if I do enough Hail
Mary's, and if I do all of these
religious things, then surely, God understands my heart.
And yes, God does understand your heart, but
what you must understand is repentance is not
religion because you can be religious and go
to hell.
Did you know, ladies and gentlemen, if you
study the New Testament, and there's much that
can be said tonight, and for time's sake,
I've got a long ways to go, but
did you realize if you study your New
Testament Bible, I only realized this last week.
I made this statement in Danville over at
Brush Harbor Baptist Church, and we've got some
folks from there tonight.
But I made this statement, and it was
the first time I ever made it.
It was the first time I ever realized
it.
Did you know that Jesus preached a lot
of sermons?
He preached some compassionate sermons.
He preached some very loving sermons.
He preached a sermon on the mountain to
His disciples in Matthew 5, 6, and 7.
And He just took His disciples up into
the mountain, and the Bible says when He
brought them out of the mountain, there were
great multitudes waiting to hear Him preach.
Everywhere Jesus went, they wanted to hear Him
preach.
But I'm going to be honest with you,
Jesus preached some pretty scathing and scolding sermons
in His ministry.
But you know what I found out last
week in my ministry as I started the
Word of God?
I began to go through the Bible and
see all the times that Jesus preached a
scolding, scathing message.
And you know what?
Never one time did He preach that to
the drunkard crowd.
Every time Jesus lifted His voice and beat
the pulpit as it were, every time Jesus
preached a message that was strong and straightforward,
it was always to the religious crowd.
Because they cared more about the traditions of
men than they did the doctrines of the
Word of God.
And you can be religious, but that doesn't
mean you're repentant of your sins.
And so religion is not repentance.
Write this down, number two.
Remorse is not repentance.
You can be sorry for something you have
done and still not be saved by the
grace of God.
For example, you can get a car and
you can run a stoplight and run over
a little old lady walking across the street
with her dog and got a bag of
groceries in her hand and just completely annihilate
her.
You can run over her and you can
feel bad about that, but that doesn't mean
you're going to the kingdom of God because
religion is not repentance and remorse is not
repentance.
Weeping and crying.
People have the idea that if you weep
and cry at the altar, then man, if
you don't weep and cry, you've never been
saved.
And sometimes we equate feelings with faith.
But I'm not saved by feelings.
You know, sometimes I wake up and I
don't always feel saved.
But I don't have to feel saved to
know I'm saved.
I know I'm saved by the grace of
God because the Bible says, Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved.
I'll be honest with you, I don't always
feel married, but I've almost been married for
six years.
I could look at you and say, well,
you know, I just don't really feel really
that married.
And you say, well, why don't you feel
married?
Well, for this reason, for this reason.
And I could tell you I don't feel
married, but I know I am because I've
got the certificate that says May the 25th
of 1996.
I believe I got that right.
I did.
May the 25th of 1996 that I got
married.
I've got a ring on my hand to
prove that.
I don't always feel married, but I know
I am.
I've got the record to prove it.
And I don't always feel saved, but I
know I am because, bless God, I've got
the record to prove it right here.
And repentance is not religion.
Repentance is not remorse.
It's not feelings.
It's not crying.
It's not being sorry for yourself.
It is more than that.
Number three, write this down.
Repentance is not reformation.
Repentance is not turning over a new leaf.
You know, you can turn over every leaf
in the field and still die and go
to hell.
You can quit smoking.
You can quit drinking.
You can quit chewing.
You can quit fornicating.
You can quit looking at things and listening
to things.
You can quit all of that and go
straight to hell because repentance is not reformation.
My daddy, he's one of these speakers.
He used to be a speaker, but he
kind of had some trouble and this, that
and the other.
And I'll give you the whole illustration.
But he's one of these speakers or he
was for a while.
He's still in the program.
He's in there.
You know, Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous.
Maybe he's in that next time.
I'm not really that much against it, but
I remember I was sitting with him over
dinner one day and he was telling me
about some kind of stuff and that kind
of cut my eyes, you know.
And I probably shouldn't have.
I just kind of rolled my eyes, you
know, just kind of within myself.
I thought, oh brother, here we go again
because that's all he ever talked about.
And he looked at me and he said,
son, he said, what is it that you
got against Alcoholics Anonymous?
He said, don't you believe in reformation?
I said, oh, I believe in reformation.
I said, God reformed my life.
I said, He changed me and did a
lot for me.
I said, but you know what, Daddy?
I said, you can go to N.A.
if you want to.
I said, you can go to A.A.
if you want to.
I said, you can go to Triple A.
I said, you can go to A.B
.C. D.E.F.G. if you want
to, but if a person doesn't get saved
when they come out of that program, they'll
be just as much a drunk and just
as much a drug addict as they ever
were before they went in because reformation is
not what's changing a person's heart.
And so my daddy said, Greg, he said,
what is it that you have against Alcoholics
Anonymous?
I said, I'll tell you what I got
against it.
I said, you take this scenario, for example.
I said, let's drive down the road.
And I said, you know, if we pass
by a bar right now, you'll start salivating
all over yourself.
I said, man, you'll be slobbering.
You'll be thanking yourself.
Keep both hands on the steering wheel.
I don't need a Budweiser.
I don't need a Bud Light.
I don't need a Michelob.
I don't need no Middle High Light.
I call it Low Light.
I don't need none of that stuff.
I don't need no Jim Beam.
I don't need no Winchburg Lemonade.
And I said, every time you drive past
a liquor joint, I said, you got to
fight the urge to go in that thing.
I said, but every time I drive by
a liquor joint, I say, thanks to Calvary,
I don't go there anymore.
And I said, daddy, it's not just reformation.
I said, reformation doesn't mean that you've been
saved.
I said, I don't have to drive by
a cigarette machine and say, I want a
cigarette.
I say, no, I can do the very
same things I used to do, but I
don't want to do it anymore because God
changed my heart.
Repentance is not reformation.
But ladies and gentlemen, I want you to
understand, there is something that repentance is.
By the way, for the sake of an
outline, you can also put down repentance is
not restitution.
You steal something, you take it back, and
you can take back everything in the world.
You can take back every bad thing you've
ever seen.
Take back every bad thing you ever stole,
something like that.
You know, you stole something from Wal-Mart,
you go back and weep and cry, but
that doesn't mean you're going to heaven.
So, repentance is not those things.
What is repentance?
Well, repentance is real simple.
It's the age-old definition.
It's been around for years and we're going
to prove it tonight from the Bible.
It is a change of mind that results
in a change of your actions.
Did you hear me?
It is a change of your mind that
results in a change of your actions.
You know, it's a sad thing that this
is such a controversial debate among fundamentalists.
I'd like to remind you, if you roll
back the curtain 30 years in our movement,
there wasn't one controversy over the issue of
repentance.
30 years ago, if you didn't have any
preachers that disagreed with anybody preaching on repentance
and when a preacher got up and said,
turn from your sin and turn to Christ,
the whole crowd will throw up their hankies
and say, glory to God, hallelujah, he's exactly
right.
But you say it nowadays and you'll lose
meeting after meeting after meeting and you'll lose
friends and you'll start getting and they'll say,
well, if you preach for him, you can't
preach for me and blah, blah, blah and
if you really believe that and if you
really believe that and they'll give you this
whole big story line and they wrote 15
umpteen million trillion billion books, if you will,
exaggerationally speaking.
They've written all these books on why repentance
is not a part of the gospel.
You remember Luke chapter 16?
There was a man called the rich man.
Bible says he died and went to hell
and in hell he lifted up his eyes,
verse 23.
And he said, Abraham, I've got good news
for you, pal.
He said, I've got five brothers up there
and I can't go to them but you
know what, you can send Lazarus, he can
go back from the dead and he can
preach unto them.
And if he goes back and preaches to
them, he said, they'll get right.
He said, no, no, if they don't hear
Moses and the prophets, they ain't gonna be
persuaded no one rose from the dead.
He said, no, no, you send them up
there and they will repent.
You know, it's a terrible thing that people
in hell tonight believe in repentance and fundamental
badness preachers all over the country don't do
it.
If people in hell preach on the doctrine
of repentance and fundamental badness argue over the
doctrine of repentance.
I'm gonna preach tonight three things about repentance
that will be done and go home.
Number one, I want you to see the
command to repent all over the Bible.
The command to repent.
You write down four people in your notes
tonight.
Number one, John the Baptist preached a message
of repentance.
You say, why don't you talk about Jesus
first because John the Baptist was the forerunner
of Jesus Christ.
He was his cousin six months before him.
A child of Elizabeth and the Bible says
that he was filled with the Holy Ghost
in the womb.
That's one of those things I don't quite
understand in the Bible, but I'll tell you
this.
He came out and he was a red
hot preacher.
Everywhere he went, he didn't have to beg
crowds to come hear him preach.
The Bible said all of Jerusalem and all
of Judea went out to hear this man
called John who was a Baptist.
And he would get up in that pulpit
and he would preach thus saith the Lord.
And he would preach the word of God.
And he didn't get up there and he
wasn't flashy.
He didn't have a big microphone system or
anything like that.
He was a man that wore camel's hair
and he ate locusts and wild honey.
Here's a big old bushy haired, big old
eyed fellow that would get up there and
you know what he said?
You know what his message was?
The entire message of his ministry?
Matthew chapter 3 verses 1 and 2.
In those days came John the Baptist preaching
in the wilderness of Judea and saying, Repent
ye for the kingdom of God is at
hand.
John the Baptist preached on repentance.
And he was the table setter, if you
will, for the ministry of Jesus.
Well, number two, write down, why did Jesus
preach on repentance?
Because Jesus preached on repentance a lot.
As a matter of fact, in Mark chapter
1 in verse number 15, Jesus said, Repent
and believe the gospel.
Why did not Jesus just simply say, Believe
the gospel?
Why did He say, Repent and believe the
gospel?
I'll tell you why.
Because until you change your mind about some
things, you won't believe the gospel.
Until we have put out of us that
which we've learned all of our lives and
until we're quickened by the Holy Spirit and
see our need of turning, if we never
turn, if we don't repent, then we're not
even equipped to believe the gospel.
So Jesus said, Repent first and believe the
gospel.
Basically, they're two sides of the same coin.
Repentance and faith are inseparable.
You cannot separate the two.
You've got to have both for salvation.
And then here in Mark chapter 6 in
verse number 12, Jesus told him what to
do.
He told him to go out and preach
on repentance.
You remember Luke chapter 13?
The Bible says two terrible things happened.
That Pilate had mingled some blood with some
of these martyrs with some of these people
that had died.
And Jesus said in Luke 13, 3, Except
you repent, you'll all likewise perish.
And then, hey, here's one that really hits
close to home.
He said, Or on whom the tower of
Siloam fell and slew in them fifteen men.
You know what Jesus said?
There was a tragedy there in Jerusalem and
that day there was a big tower that
fell down and killed fifteen people.
Sound familiar?
September the 11th.
We had two big ones come down and
killed a whole lot more than fifteen.
And Jesus used that tragedy of a tower
coming down as a springboard to preach on...
He even repeated it again in verse number
5.
Yea, I say unto you that except you
repent, ye shall all likewise...
So Jesus Christ preached on the doctrine of
repentance.
Of turning from sin and turning to Christ.
Now, it may be trite to say so,
but if it was good enough for Jesus
to preach on it, it's definitely good enough
for Greg Lott to preach on.
That's for sure.
So John the Baptist preached on the doctrine
of repentance.
Jesus preached on the doctrine of repentance.
And by the way, that was the first
message that Jesus ever preached.
Matthew chapter 4 and verse 17.
From those days Jesus came preaching and sang,
Repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is
at hand.
But the Apostle Paul, you write that down,
the Apostle Paul preached on the doctrine of
repentance.
Acts chapter number 17, the Apostle Paul was
at his best.
It was almost as if the Apostle Paul
had just had a supercharge from the Holy
Spirit of God.
He jumped up on a rock in a
place called Mollish Hill and there was a
bunch of educated so they thought, but really
they were uneducated because they served so many
different gods that just in case they missed
one, they put up a sign that said,
To the unknown God, just in case they
missed one.
And so Paul used that occasion to preach
the Word of God.
And he said, That one that you ignorantly
worship, him I declare unto you.
And he began to preach the faith of
the Lord.
And I mean, he started all the way
back in Genesis through Exodus and Leviticus and
Numbers and Deuteronomy.
He preached through the prophets.
I mean, the majors and the minors.
He preached through the Psalms.
He preached all over the place.
And he brought them down right to the
very end of the sermon.
And he said in Acts 17.30, And
at the ignorance of these times, God hath
winked at, but now hath commanded all men
everywhere to what?
Repent.
The Apostle Paul had a message of repentance.
He said in Acts chapter number 20, testifying
both to Jews and to Greeks, repentance toward
God and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ.
Then you write down the Apostle Peter.
If anybody ever preached on repentance, it was
the Apostle Peter.
I mean, Peter knew what it was to
have a life that was changed by the
glorious grace of God.
He stood up on the day of Pentecost.
He began to preach and we know that
3,000 people were saved in the first
sermon.
The Bible says in Acts 2.38, a
verse that the church of Christ, the Camelites,
take out of context, but it's a beautiful
verse if you read it how it's supposed
to be written.
Acts 2.38, he said repent and be.
Because you have repented, he said repent and
be baptized for the remission of sin that
your sins may be blotted out and the
Bible says ye shall receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost.
He preached up and one of the first
words out of his mouth was repent and
get right with God.
Acts 3.19, his second sermon, he said
repent ye therefore and be converted.
Now I'm not real smart, but I'm not
real stupid either.
Doesn't that stand to reason then that you
can't be converted unless you do repent?
He said repent ye therefore and be converted
that your sins may be blotted out when
the times of refreshing shall come from the
presence of the Lord.
You see, he said that was just under
the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Oh, it was under the influence of the
Holy Spirit, alright, but I'd like to remind
you 17 years later in 2 Peter 3
.9, he said the Lord is not slack
concerning His promises.
Some men can't slacken.
But His long suffering to us were not
willing that any should perish, but that all
should come to repentance and the acknowledging of
the truth.
So John the Baptist preached on repentance.
He commanded it.
Jesus preached on repentance.
He commanded it.
The Apostle Paul preached on repentance.
He commanded it.
David preached on repentance.
He demanded it.
The Apostle Peter preached on repentance.
It was a demand over and over.
How can you discount something that is mentioned
in the Bible over 175 times?
You cannot discount that.
Over 175 times.
Hey, we believe God threw the world into
existence just because we have Genesis 1.1.
That's the only verse I need to prove
to you that God made everything we see.
I only need one verse to prove to
you the dynamic divine love of God, John
3.16. That's the only verse I need.
That is the only verse I need.
That is the only verse I need to
prove to you the love of God.
And you're going to tell me that there's
over 175 verses in the Word of God
that refer to a man or a woman
or a teenager or a boy or girl
turning from their way and turning to God's
way.
You can't discount something like that when God
repeats Himself over and over again.
If God means it, He says it once.
If God really means it, He says it
twice.
But if God wants you to get through
your thick head, He'll say it over 175
times.
And still, there's some people with such thick
heads that don't believe what God's telling them.
There is a command to repent.
Number two, the controversy over repentance.
Now here's the real crux of the message.
It's easy to read through the Bible and
preach and shout and have everybody say amen
and say here's the command to repent.
But number two, what is the controversy over
repentance?
Why is it such a big deal anyhow?
Why is it that people make such a
big deal over the issue of repentance?
Well, there's three major arguments that all people
give, at least the people that I meet,
the people that I talk to and preach
to in the books that I've read.
Okay, three major arguments.
They say number one, these aren't alliterated, sorry,
but they say number one, the first reason
we argue and we have a great controversy
and a fight and a dissension about the
issue of repentance is they say, and when
I say they, I'm talking about those who
do not believe in it.
They say number one, that it's a work.
Now, there's not a person in this room
that believes more than I do that you
are saved by grace or saved by faith
and by the grace of God.
I believe that.
You believe that.
Everybody in this room believes that.
Now the Bible says in Ephesians 2 verses
8 and 9, notice something about that faith
and about that grace.
For by, get it, grace are you saved
through faith.
Now notice, and that, the word that is
referring to the two things God just told
us we need to be saved.
That, the grace and the faith.
And that not of yourselves.
It is the gift of God, not of
words.
Blessed be the name of the Lord.
Why does God say that?
Because if I save myself by my grace
and by my faith, when I got to
heaven I'd tell everybody what a super-duper
Christian I was.
But when I get to heaven I don't
have one thing to brag about.
Because it wasn't my faith that saved me.
It wasn't my grace that saved me.
It was God giving me the faith that
I needed and it was God shedding upon
His grace in my heart and He gave
me the faith to be saved and He
gave me the grace to be saved.
And that's as far as my Calvinism goes
by the way.
That's exactly right.
I believe everybody can be saved by the
grace of God.
Every, every, everybody.
And so He gives me the grace and
He gives me the faith.
But wait just a minute.
Everybody always says that's a gift, that's a
gift, that's a gift.
You're exactly right.
Now write down 2 Timothy 2.25 in
meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God
peradventure would grant unto them repentance to the
acknowledging of the truth.
Repentance is given by God also.
Somebody says, well, if you have to repent
to be saved that means you've got to
work to be saved.
No, no.
I don't work up faith to be saved.
I don't work up grace and mercy to
be saved.
And I don't work up repentance to be
saved.
God gives me that ability.
He gives me the Holy Spirit that Ephesians
2, 1 through 4 quickens me.
I'm dead.
I'm depraved.
I believe in total depravity.
I mean, I'm wicked.
I'm vile.
I didn't love God.
Didn't want to love God.
Neither did you, by the way.
We were wicked and every time we drove
by the church house we'd toot our horn
and rebellion to God.
We could have cared less.
But there was a time that I could
not choose God.
There was a time I didn't even want
to choose God.
But God quickened me through the Holy Spirit
and put something within me called old-fashioned
Holy Spirit conviction.
And by the way, if you've never been
convicted, you've never been saved by the grace
of God.
That's exactly right.
And so He convicted me.
He awakened my conscience.
He awakened my heart.
And when He did that, He gave me
all the grace, all the faith, and all
the repentance I would need to turn to
Him.
But He's not going to make me turn.
He's not going to make me believe.
He's not going to make me get saved
and make me get right.
You know why?
Because the Holy Spirit of God is a
perfect gentleman.
You know what gentlemen do in a conversation?
They'll talk to you.
They'll shake your hand.
They'll be cordial.
If they have to rebuke you, they'll rebuke
you.
But after a while, a real gentleman is
not going to pester you.
I say that reverently.
He's not going to bug you.
He's not going to keep tapping you on
the shoulder.
He's got better things to do with his
time.
And the Holy Spirit of God is a
perfect gentleman.
He'll talk to you.
He'll rebuke you when he needs to rebuke
you.
He'll tap you on the shoulder.
But you keep turning them away, friend, and
there'll come a day he'll take that gift
away and you'll have no opportunity to repent.
You won't even want to repent.
That's why you have Romans chapter number one.
Reprobate.
Incapable of ever being saved by the grace
of God because they pushed the gift away
for the last time.
And so the controversy, number one, is they
say, well, it's a work.
Well, it's not a work.
It is a gift from God.
It is a gift that I can accept
or a gift that I can reject.
Now, here's the ridiculous argument they say.
Number two, not only is it a work,
they say, number two, it's never mentioned in
the Gospel of John.
That's a funny thing to me.
And by the way, honestly, before the Lord
tonight, that is one of their biggest arguments.
I mean, there are volumes of books written
on the Gospel of John.
The Gospel of John is one of my
favorite Gospels.
But here's why they say it's such a
big deal.
They say, well, you know, you have the
synoptic Gospels as they call them, Matthew, Mark,
Luke, and then you have the evangelistic Gospel.
You have the Gospel of John.
Well, they're all Gospels and they're all evangelistic,
but I understand what they mean as theologians.
They say that the most evangelistic of the
four is the Gospel of John.
Twenty-one chapters, wonderful book for salvation, wonderful
book for Christian growth.
And you know what?
I'm on the same page with them.
It is the most evangelistic book.
Jesus led more people to crash in the
Gospel of John.
He performed more miracles in the Gospel of
John.
He did more wonderful things through the power
of the Holy Spirit of God through the
Gospel of John.
He did some wonderful, wonderful things in the
Gospel of John.
And it's very evangelistic.
He tells His disciples, I want you to
bear not some fruit, not a lot of
fruit, not many pieces of fruit.
He said, I want you to bear much
fruit.
It is a fruit-bearing book.
And so here's what they say.
Because the word repentance or repent is not
mentioned in John's Gospel, which is the most
evangelistic, then obviously, by the fact that it's
not mentioned, it's not important for salvation.
I'd like to remind you the word rapture
is not mentioned in the Bible, but we
sang about it tonight because we believe in
it.
I'd like you to take your Bible and
show me where the word Trinity is ever
mentioned.
The closest reference you ever even had to
the Trinity is 1 John 5, in verse
number 7.
There are three that bear record in Heaven.
The Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost.
And these three are one.
And I believe that.
That's all I need.
But the word Trinity is not there.
But I know that I believe in the
Trinity.
God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Ghost.
I'd be a fool not to believe that
tonight.
So they say, well, you know, the Gospel
of John never mentions the word repentance and
so therefore it's not in the Bible.
I'd like to remind you that the word
God is never mentioned in Esther, but that
doesn't mean he's not there.
He's in the whole book.
But the word Jehovah, the word Lord, the
word God, the word Jesus, the word Adonai,
none of those words.
Not one reference to God is made in
the entire book of Esther.
And you'd be the biggest fool on the
face of God if you were to say
that God wasn't in the book of Esther.
He worked providentially all the way through it.
And so it's foolish.
They call it the argument of silence.
Well, because John was silent about it, then,
you know, it must not be something that's
very important.
Now, you know, they may have some relativity
when they talk about that.
That's fine.
I don't care if he's ever mentioned in
the Gospel of John or not.
But did you know what?
Here's the great thing about it.
Now, I'm getting stirred up.
I've got goose bumps three deep right now.
I'm going to tell you something.
You know, you read the Gospel of John
and it doesn't say repent, repent, repent, repent.
But did you know out of all the
Gospels, Jesus changed more lives in the Gospel
of John than any other gospel that was
there?
Although he never mentioned it one single time,
it is evident more in the Gospel of
John than in any other book in your
life.
There was a lady who we don't even
know her name.
Thelma.
Martha.
Martha Sue.
I don't know what her name was.
It wasn't important.
She was a dirty, rotten, filthy, wretched, vile
sinner.
And she met Jesus one day.
She was a Samaritan.
She was a half-breed.
She was a dog considered by the Jews,
if you will.
And she said, what are you being a
Jew speaking of being a Samaritan and a
half-breed?
And Jesus met that woman and they began
to talk.
You know the first thing Jesus confirmed her
with?
Her sin.
Boy, that's real unpopular in the day and
age in which we live, but we're not
running for office preachers.
We're trying to preach the Word of God.
And we've got this idea that if we're
going to reach people, we can't talk to
them about their sin.
You won't reach people unless you do talk
to them about their sin.
Or, you know, what's that guy, Robert Shooter
out there at the Christian Cathedral.
He gets up in this big old long
nice robe and he says, ladies and gentlemen,
the problem in America are the preachers who
preach on sin and hell and condemnation.
No, Mr. Shooter, the problem in America is
the false preachers who won't preach on sin,
who won't preach on hell, and who won't
preach on condemnation.
That's what the problem in America is.
The problem in America from the White House,
the church house, all the way down to
your house because we won't deal with sin.
That's why we're the creatures that we are.
And Jesus dealt with that woman's sin before
anything else.
And He said, you've said right.
You don't have a husband and you've been
living with five women.
I like that.
The Bible says that she believed out of
Christ through the Messiah.
And guess what she did?
The Bible says that she went back home
and kept on fornicating.
She went back home and she kept shacking
up with that man she'd been living with
all them years.
Then she just jumped the line apart because
she went back to the house and got
full-fledged stone-cold drunk and said, Glory
to God, I met the Messiah at the
well and I prayed some sinner's prayer and
I looked at that guy and said, Amen,
I can do a thing or both too.
If you believe that tonight, you ought to
sue your brain for non-support.
Because you know good and well what your
Bible says.
It says she ran back, now I like
this, and told the men of the city.
Why does your Bible say that?
Because that's who she knew most in the
city.
So she went back and told the men
of the city, Come see a man that
told me everything I've done.
Is not this the Christ?
And she didn't go back to become a
fornicator.
She went back and became a soul winner
and brought the whole town to Jesus.
And the Bible says many believed because of
her testimony.
And you can study the Gospel of John
and life after life after life after life
was changed and they don't have to say
those persons repented because it is evident in
their life that they repented.
And so for time's sake, we've got to
keep going.
They say number one, it's a work.
They say number two, it's not mentioned in
the Gospel of John.
And they say number three, nobody can repent
of all of their sins.
You heard that one?
I've heard that in a blue janitor one
time.
They said, well, Brother Locke, I know you
believe in that repentance business.
I was preaching this preacher's fellowship about two
years ago in Alabama.
Actually, it was probably about three years ago
because I was a staff of evangelists at
the time.
I was preaching this preacher's fellowship and I
said something about repentance.
And this guy came to me at the
service and I'm telling you, he gave me
the runaround.
I mean, he put me in a mill,
squeezed me together real tight.
And he said, nowhere in the Bible.
Here's what he said.
He's a good friend.
I know this guy.
I love this guy.
He said, Brother Locke, nowhere in the Bible
does it say that a person has to
repent of their sins in order to be
saved.
I said, can I remind you what Matthew
1.21 says?
And she shall call his name Jesus, for
he shall save his people from their sins.
The very name Jesus means that He'll get
you out of the mess that you're in
when you get saved.
The very name Jesus implies the fact that
He changes you when He saves you.
He shall save His people not in, not
around, and not because of, but from there.
You see, I'm saved from the power of
sin.
I don't have to be dominated by wickedness.
I can be dominated by the Word of
God if I want to.
I've been freed, I've been loosed from the
penalty of sin.
I'm not going to hell tonight, and I
thank God for that.
Not you, not me, not the devil, not
the president.
Nobody can take me out of the hands
of the lovely Lord Jesus Christ.
I could swing over hell on a rotten
cornstalk and spit the devil in the eye
and sing Amazing Grace.
I've got salvation, and it's not moving tonight.
And thank God one day, I'll be saved
from the presence of sin.
Right now I'm saved from its power.
I don't have to be dominated by it.
Now, I still have a flesh that I've
got to fight every single day, don't misunderstand
me, because the Apostle Paul did.
And if Paul had a problem with his,
I promise you, I've got a problem with
mine.
And I have been delivered from the penalty,
and thank God one day when I drop
this world afresh and rise up into the
skies as we sing, I'm going to be
delivered from the eternal presence of sin.
I'll never see it again.
No weeping, no crying, no death, no dying,
no sorrow, and thank God, no sin in
that land.
And that's why it'll be perfect, because in
the book of Genesis everything was perfect until
sin crept in.
And that's why heaven's going to be perfect,
because the Bible says in Revelation chapter 17,
nothing shall enter in that defilement.
We have defilement because of sin.
And so, they say, well, you know, nobody
can repent of all of their sins.
Nobody can get on their face and say,
you know, Lord, I'm coming to you right
now by faith, and I'm going to confess
this.
God's not your Pope.
Nowhere in your Bible does it tell you
that we have to confess all of our
sins.
It never says that.
We'd be crazy to think we could even
remember them.
I can't even remember all the bad stuff
I've done today.
I can't remember all of my sins.
The point is not that I'm repenting of
my sins.
The point is, I'm repenting of sin, period.
I'm repenting of the fact that I've grieved
the heart of God, that I've broken God's
ten commandments, that I'm a reprobate, that I'm
ungodly, that I need to be saved.
I'm not repenting of all these little peddly
things that I've done.
I'm repenting of the initial fact that I
need Jesus Christ.
And I'm turning from my way, and turning
to His way.
That's what it means to repent.
I change my mind about me, realizing I
am nothing, I am nobody, and I turn
from what I want and turn to what
He wants for me.
That is repentance.
And so there shouldn't be a controversy, but
guess what?
There is.
There's a pretty big one.
But I'll give you number three as we
close tonight, because our time is quickly fleeing
away.
Number one, the command to repent.
Number two, the controversy over repentance.
But number three, here's my favorite part of
the whole subject.
The change because of repentance.
Now, I've been accused several times in my
ministry of preaching that we change our life
and get saved.
Now, I don't mind being quoted, I just
don't like being misquoted.
I've never said that one time on ministry.
Brother Robertson's been with us two and a
half years.
I've never one time in my life said,
you've got to change and get saved.
Because you can't change and get saved.
But you get saved and God will change
you.
Somebody says, well, I'll tell you what, but
I'll kick my habits.
I'll quit drinking, I'll quit fornicating, I'll quit
messing around.
I'll kick a few habits and then I'll
get saved.
No, no.
You get saved and God will kick them
dirty, rotten habits for you.
You don't turn over a bunch of new
leaves and say, I'll tell you what, God,
I'll quit this and quit this and quit
this.
And when I live a perfect life, then
I'll get saved.
You'll die and go straight to hell.
No, you'll never get saved if you try
to live a perfect life.
You do not change and go to God.
You go to God and God will change
you through the process of sanctification.
I believe with all of my heart a
person who is saved, a person who has
been willing to turn from their way and
turn to God's way and say, you know
what, Lord, I've been wrong, I've been walking
the wrong road.
A person that is willing to do that,
when they get saved by the grace of
God, they will stay willing to do that
and God will change their life for time
and for eternity.
I wouldn't give you the flip of a
wooden nickel and you heard it right out
of my mouth.
I wouldn't give you the flip of a
wooden nickel for somebody who says they know
the same Savior that I know, but they
never have any desire to live for God
whatsoever.
They never come to church.
They never read their Bible.
They never care anything about God.
I mean, the preacher comes and visits them
and it's almost like he's the FBI.
They lock everything down and pull out the
bulldogs and they poke through the window.
You knock on the door and they say,
nobody's here.
You're some kind of moron on a seminary.
They don't care anything about the things of
God whatsoever.
They watch things.
Now, I'm going to tell you something.
I am not scared of a person who
lays in bed at night and says, you
know what, I said something today that wasn't
right.
Man, I drank some alcohol today and I
know that was wrong.
Because I'm going to tell you something, I
believe a Christian can drink, but I don't
dare believe that a Christian can stay drunk.
I believe a Christian can commit fornication and
adultery, but I don't believe they'll live in
adultery and live in fornication.
I'm not scared of a person who messes
up and gets right with God and God
bothers them about it.
I'm scared of a person who can live
in sin and it never bothers them whatsoever.
Well, I'll tell you one thing, God don't
ever spank me.
I can get away with anything I jolly
well please.
That's because God don't spank the devil's children.
God will spank His own and if you're
saved by the grace of God, He will
wear you out.
He'll carry you to the woodshed and tear
you all to pieces when you get unright
with God.
When you begin to go down that long,
dusty road of sin like that young man
did in Luke 15.
You know what's one of the main themes
and morals, if you will, of the story
in Luke 15?
It's not the fact that the boy left,
it's the fact that the boy came home.
You know why?
Because he was the son of the Father.
You may get messed up in sin for
a while, but bless God, you won't live
in it.
You will come home one day and you'll
get right with God.
And I believe a person that's saved, I
believe repentance is something that is not a
one-time deal, it's a lifetime deal.
Because I'd like to remind you, Jesus said
to the church in Revelation chapter number three
in verse number 19, as many as I
love, that's you and me, I rebuke and
chasten.
He told the church, be zealous therefore and
repent.
Second Chronicles 7.14 is, As my people
which are called by my name shall humble
themselves and pray and seek my faith, get
it and turn.
Same word, repent.
And turn from their wicked ways, then will
I hear from heaven, we'll forgive their sin,
and we'll hear their land, a verse that
we preached on and quoted last night.
I'm going to say something for you.
I don't understand everything in the Bible, but
I do know this, when a person gets
saved by the grace of God, God gives
them new desires, He gives them a new
heart after the things of God, and they
will be a new creature in Jesus Christ.
I go to some of these camps and
go to some of these places, and I'm
telling you, you meet some of these kids,
and I mean, they were supposed to have
been raised in Christian homes, and I'm telling
you, they act worse than some of the
public school kids I preach to.
We get these kids, you know, they're 16,
they're 17, they're 18, they're 19, they're 20
years old, and they've been raised in a
Christian home all their life.
And we send them out, and in 30
days, they're wicked as the devil.
They turn 18 years old and they bow
their backs like a Benny Rooster, and they
say, I'm moving out, I won't live anywhere,
I won't do anything I want to.
I don't care if they were raised in
55 Christian families.
You give somebody an opportunity to live for
God that's saved, and buddy, they'll take that
opportunity, and they'll live for God.
And I'll tell you why we got some
of these kids that are 16, 17, 18,
19, and 20 years old who don't care
anything about God.
I don't care if their daddy's a preacher,
and if their daddy's a deacon, and if
their mama can sing like an angel in
a choir law, I'm gonna tell you something,
the reason a lot of these kids turn
out the way they do is because they've
never been saved by the grace of God.
And we filled our churches, and we filled
our schools, and we filled our youth groups
with a bunch of people who say, glory
to God, I'm saved by God's grace, and
I can live any way I want to,
not according to this Bible, you can't.
Because if you got something that'll let you
live any way you want to, you did
not get what I got when I got
saved 10 years ago.
Because I got something that put some brakes
on my wickedness.
I got something that slowed me down, dear
friend.
And those Christians say, well, I just can't
do anything now that I'm saved.
I can't drink, and I can't smoke, I
can't fornicate, I can't do this, and I
can't do that, and they talk about all
the things they can't do.
And I can't go to hell either.
I can never be lost again either.
I don't have to worry about the devil
every day of my life either.
I don't have to worry about looking at
cops over my shoulder and wondering when they're
gonna put me in a padded little wagon
again and carry me down to the police
house.
I don't have to worry about that anymore.
I don't have to worry about my mama
staying up late at night.
I don't have to worry about being put
in a children's home anymore.
I don't have to worry about waking up
at three or four o'clock in the
morning, my eyes flipping, whipping back in my
head, not knowing who I've been with, what
I've been doing, and why I'm the fool
I'm out there.
I don't have to worry about that stuff
anymore.
And there's some things I can't do, and
it's because I don't want to anymore.
Because God changed my heart.
There was a teacher in Sunday school one
day, she stood up and she said, boys
and girls, today, we're gonna learn about repentance.
Is that all right, boys and girls?
And they all shook their heads, there's about
four fifth graders.
And she said, now, repentance is something that
we don't really understand a whole lot about.
She said, I'm gonna do my best to
give you the definition.
And she wrote some little old nominal definition
up on the board.
She said, does anybody think they can add
anything to that?
Little Junior jumped up and he said, yes.
He said, repentance means you're sorry for your
sin.
And she said, well, that's pretty good.
Little old Susie, just about the time his
backside hit that side of that little seat,
buddy, she jumped up and stood right in
her chair.
And she said, no sir!
It means you're sorry enough to quit your
stinking sin is what it means.
That's what repentance is.
Sam Jones used to have a message called
quit your meanness.
He said, buddy, I was mean as the
devil before I got saved, but something happened
to me the night I got saved.
He said, I quit my meanness because God
did a new thing in my heart.
I'm gonna give you an illustration and we're
gonna be done.
I don't know about you, but I'm not
a real big doctor fan.
I hope there's no doctors in here tonight.
I'm not a doctor, I'm not even a
nurse yet, but I hear a lot of
people talk about doctors and PhDs.
By the way, I got a PhD.
Preach hellfire damnation every time I get a
chance.
I got a BA, I've been born again,
amen.
Just one time, thank God for that.
It's all I needed.
And you know, I talk about doctors and
sometimes I have to go to the doctor.
I don't like to.
And people say, who's your family doctor?
I don't have a family doctor.
I go to whatever doctor I'm sick at
when I'm on the road and I find
different ones.
And I've never cared much for doctors.
And I'm sorry, I've never cared much for
dentists or anything like that.
I've had straight teeth all of my life.
And unless I get hit with a baseball
bat, I'll have them to the day I
die, thank God for it.
I don't like dentists.
I don't like doctors.
I don't like nurses.
I don't like none of them.
They're good people, they can be saved, but
I just don't like being around them.
Now, I like being around them in church,
but I don't like being around them where
they work, amen, because I know what's coming.
I don't like that.
They stuck something up my nose not too
long ago when they was checking my throat
for these little nozzles that I got that
I was telling you about the other night.
They stuck something up my nose and man,
they pulled a trigger on that thing.
And I'm telling you, I thought they shot
more stuff up my nose than I've ever
had in my life.
Not by my leg, I got the shaking,
I got the twitching.
And I was wondering why they tied my
arms down to the side.
I'll tell you why, because he knew I'd
bust his wife if I could get my
hands free.
They shoved that stuff up my nose.
They took a camera on the end of
a thing.
I don't know, that thing was longer than
that microphone.
That thing must have been two and a
half, three feet long.
And they had a camera and a light
on the end of this little bitty old
tiny thing.
And he said, we're gonna numb you up
real good.
And he said, I'm gonna shove it up
your nose all the way down your throat
into your vocal box.
And I thought, that's exactly why you tied
me up, buddy.
He did, buddy, he shoved it.
And I'm telling you, I don't like going
to the doctor.
I don't like being strapped down in a
dentist chair.
There ain't much you can do when a
man's got a needle in your mouth.
What are you gonna say, leave me alone?
Buddy, he'll poke you to death, what he'll
do.
And they put shots in your mouth and
do all that stuff.
And I'll tell you one thing I've never
liked about the doctor.
You go and you get a physical.
And I usually go about, I don't know,
it's probably been a little more than a
year.
You know, I suppose I'm healthy.
I'm still pretty much just a little old
runny kid, 25 years old, got a lot
to learn, a lot of growing up to
do.
But I still go every now and then
about every year and a half, two years,
get a physical.
And they say that I'm healthy for the
most part and this, that, and the other.
But you know what I hate about physicals?
You go in there and they put that
silly little robe on you and you're about
to freeze to death.
And you go in and you sit down
on this little bed and they come in
and they start taking all these tests.
They say, can you breathe?
And can't nobody breathe when they put that
cool little stethoscope on the back of your
back.
You can't breathe, you can't even hardly do
nothing.
And you're trying to breathe and they say,
take a deep breath, take a deep breath,
take a deep breath.
And they do all this.
And you know, they do all this elbow
stuff.
And then they look in your ears.
They look in your eyes.
They look in your nose.
And then they start writing as if they
really saw something in your ears, in your
eyes, and in your nose that tipped them
off to what your problem is.
That's why they're practicing medicine.
They're practicing on you and practicing on me,
amen.
And so they get in there, they're writing
all this stuff down and on, they're doing
all this, that, and the other.
Here's what I can't understand.
If there's one thing I hate about a
doctor, it's when he comes in with that
little rubber hammer.
You know what I'm talking about.
He'd be all right if he hit you
in the face with it, but he doesn't,
does he?
He says, cross your legs.
And you get up there and you sit
down in that little chair and you're about
to half freeze to death and you're embarrassed
already and you cross that leg and he
comes over and he picks up that little
hammer and he touches around with his finger.
You ever notice that?
And he kind of pops here and pops
there.
He knows it's not the right spot.
He's just waiting on you.
And he rears that thing back with his
wrist and it don't even take much.
He just gets that little, what they call
a reflex rod.
And he hits that little area and buddy,
I'm telling you, pew, pew, pew, there goes
that leg.
I've been in a doctor before and I
thought to myself, you know what, wouldn't it
be great if he did that and I
kicked him square in the face?
And so, you know, I try to kick
him, you know, but you just can't get
that leg up that high, that rope wrapped
around you.
And so I'm sitting there and he comes
in there and hits that thing and I'm
telling you, I've been to the doctor on
this and when I was a kid, I'd
tell my mama, I ain't gonna move when
that man hits me with that stupid hammer.
She said, oh, yes, she will.
My mama's been a doctor all her life.
She's a chiropractor now.
She's been a orthodontist.
She's been all kinds of different things and
nurse's aide and all that kind of stuff.
She said, oh yeah, it's a reflex.
She said, it's natural.
You got to.
And I said, no, no, you watch.
And so he'd come in there.
Buddy, I'd hold that leg back.
I'd stiffen up that muscle the best I
could.
I'd grip my teeth and hold on to
the side of that thing and I'd think
to myself, come on, big boy, hit me
in the leg and see what happens now.
I wanted him to hit me with that
thing.
He could have hit me with a sledgehammer
and I was determined I wasn't gonna move.
I wasn't gonna budge.
That leg wasn't going anywhere.
And so you know what he'd do.
He'd come in there and he'd get to
talking to you.
And you know, here I was, just attention.
How you doing, Greg?
I'm doing fine, how you doing?
And I'd be gripping the side of that
chair and you'd look a little tense.
Yeah, I'm a little tense.
And he'd come over with that little hammer.
He'd say, cross your leg.
I'd cross my leg.
And in my mind, I'm thinking, you know
what?
You may have went to school and you
may know right where to hit me, but
you ain't gonna move me today.
It ain't going anywhere.
And guess what would happen when that man
would find that little spot and he'd put
it there between his fingers and he'd go,
oh, that's it.
He'd say, and he'd pull that thing back.
What'd he take from it?
Take that reflex rod.
And guess what?
Kapoosh!
There goes that leg right up there.
You can try to hold it back all
you want to.
You cannot hold that leg back when that
man hits that spot.
You know what we call that?
We call that a reflex.
I'm gonna tell you something, friend.
April the 17th of 1992, 8.30 at
night, the Metropolitan Baptist Church of Nashville, Tennessee.
My basketball coach took me in a side
room and he opened a King James Bible
and got me down on my face.
And he said, son, I'm gonna show you
some things in the Bible.
And he read me through the Romans Road
and said, I'm gonna pray with you.
I said, no, you're not.
I know what I need to do.
I grew up selling magic.
And I got on my face that night
in that little Sunday school building.
And I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, I
prayed and I scrawled and wept like a
baby.
You don't have to weep to get saved,
but this preacher did.
And I wept my way to Calvary that
night.
And when I got up, when I was
on my knees, I couldn't read my name
in boxcar letters, but when I got off
of them, I could read my name, title
D, dimensions in the sky.
I knew I'd been saved and I ain't
never doubted.
You can believe what you want to.
I've never doubted it one single time since
that night.
Maybe you have.
That don't make me more spiritual than you,
but I never have.
I got it that night and I know
I got it.
But something happened to me the night I
got saved.
God found a soft spot and He took
the refresh rod of the conviction of God's
spirit.
And He smoked my heart.
And I tried to hold back.
And I tried to do my own thing.
And I tried to live my own life.
But I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, when
the reflex rod of the Holy Spirit of
God hits you in just the right place,
you can't help it.
You will change.
You will be different.
You will change your life.
And you can hold back all you good
and jolly well, please, but that leg's just
gonna go everywhere because God's gonna change your
life whether you want Him to or not.
Because that's what it means to be saved.
Not from hell, but saved from your condition.
And I'm telling you, the night the reflex
rod hit me, pow, something happened in my
life.
And you can sit there and grunt.
And you can sit there and chew briars
like a billy goat.
And you can cross your arms and roll
your eyes and puff like a magic dragon.
And say, well, that ain't never happened to
me.
That's because you've never had the reflex of
repentance.
That's because there's never been a time when
the Holy Spirit of God, boop, put you
in just the right place.
Put you in just the right spot.
And you knew it was the real thing.
It was the real thing.
And tonight, we've dealt without a doubt with
the most controversial subject.
Your heads are bound, please.
Your eyes are closed.
You have done a superb job of listening
tonight, and I thank you so much for
that.
I'm not a prophet, nor a son of
a prophet, and I don't pretend to be
one.
I can't tell the future.
A lot of things I don't know, but
I do know this.
I do know there's somebody in this room
tonight.
The Spirit of God is doing His best
to hit you with a reflux rod of
conviction.
And He wants to change you.
It's not your religion, it's not your remorse,
it's not your regret, it's not your restitution,
it's not any of those things.
It's a willingness to turn from your way
and turn to God's way.
Jesus said, repent and believe in God.
And as sure as this pulpit is wood
tonight, I'm not as foolish as to think
that in this room, with the people that
are here, I'm not so foolish to think
that everybody's saved.
I don't believe that for a minute.
I believe there's somebody here tonight who needs
to do exactly what we spoke about and
preached about and talked about tonight.
They need to respond to that conviction.
I didn't ask you if you're wicked, I
didn't ask you if you're religious.
I asked you, have you been saved?
Have you been saved?
You're gonna have to respond to that conviction
and turn from your way in life and
turn to the Lord Jesus Christ who can
really and truly be the only one that
gives you life and life worth living.