Mark 1

Well, nice to see everybody again.

And Paul, I don't think, explained that I'm actually retired.

! I'm not a minister at the moment.

Probably will never be again.

I'm retired.

I retired back in 2013.

And I'm still an elder at the church there in Kendall.

But we've got a slightly, well, a very younger, faster than I am,

which is a great thing.

So I want to carry on from where we left off this morning.

Let's just pray before we do that.

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this parable, this parable of the sower.

We thank you for what we learned this morning about the different kinds of responses to your word,

the hard response, the shallow response, and the overcrowded response,

none of which bear fruit.

And we pray now that as we come to the good soil, the good ground,

the ground that bears fruit, the fertile soil,

we pray, Lord, that you'd help us to understand your word.

Speak to us by your spirit, we pray.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

So I want to speak tonight about two very important words.

These two words should always go together.

They're like hinges on the door, two hinges on the door.

They're like the wings of a bird or an airplane.

You need both.

And you should never think of the one without thinking of the other.

And they're very important words because Jesus used them at the very outset of his ministry.

He began to preach in Galilee after the imprisonment of John the Baptist.

And Matthew summarizes his message and Mark summarizes his message and so does Luke.

And they all agree that the message of Jesus right at the beginning of his ministry,

the words that sum up in some ways his ministry were these.

Repent and believe the good news.

Repent and believe.

The time has come, he said.

That means the decisive, long-promised moment

that God has been preparing his people for throughout the Old Testament period for centuries.

People had been, the Jewish people had been looking forward to the coming of God's kingdom.

And Jesus arrived in Galilee and he said, it's here.

It's come.

The king has come.

And the time that God's people have been waiting for has come.

The kingdom of God has come near.

And therefore, repent and believe the good news.

In those days, kings were really important.

And they had a lot of power.

Royalty in those days wasn't like royalty today.

Kings and queens these days don't have much power.

They're just tourist attractions.

And they don't have much power.

But a king in New Testament times had the power of life and death.

His word was law.

And Jesus said, the king has come.

I'm here.

The Messiah, the Christ.

God's anointed one.

The king has come.

The kingdom is here.

And you prepare for the arrival of a king.

My wife was telling me how when she was a little girl in Salford, which is, well, it was quite a grimy northwestern Lancashire town.

I'm sure you'll forgive me for saying that, Jim.

But it was.

And she was telling me that when the queen visited Salford, they were actually cleaning the pavements on which she was going to walk.

You prepare.

And you prepare well for the coming of royalty.

And Jesus is saying here, royalty is here.

God's king has come.

The kingdom is here.

You'd better get ready.

You'd better prepare.

And how do you prepare for the coming of the king?

You prepare for the arrival of the king by repenting and believing.

You don't just shrug your shoulders when you hear these words and say, well, that's nothing to do with me.

We're talking about a king with the power of life and death.

And this king says to you tonight and says to me, repent and believe the good news.

There are a wide range of phrases which Christians use nowadays to describe how to respond to Jesus.

We talk sometimes about becoming a Christian.

The New Testament, as far as I know, doesn't use that language.

The New Testament never tells us to become a Christian.

In fact, the word Christian only occurs three times in the New Testament.

And in each case, it's clear that it was used as a nickname for believers in Jesus by pagans, by non-Christians.

There's nothing wrong with talking about becoming a Christian, but that is not how the New Testament describes it.

We talk sometimes, I remember I was taught as a little child in a Christian home, to ask Jesus into my heart.

Well, the Apostle Paul writes to the Ephesians and prays that the Spirit would cause the Lord Jesus Christ to dwell in their hearts,

as the owner-occupier of their heart, and to fill them with the knowledge of God's love.

But that was written to a church.

I don't think there's anything terribly wrong with telling people to ask Jesus into their hearts,

but it's not the language that the New Testament uses it.

We talk about making a commitment.

We talk about making a decision for Christ.

The New Testament doesn't use these expressions.

What does the New Testament say we should do in response to Jesus?

It says we should repent and we should believe.

So that's what we should do.

We should repent and we should believe.

That's how we become a Christian.

I've just used that expression myself.

That's how we respond to Jesus initially.

And that's how we go on responding to Jesus.

We go on repenting and we go on believing.

That is the response to Jesus Christ.

Repent and believe.

Those are the two words I want to talk about tonight.

I want to talk first of all about repenting.

John the Baptist prepared for the arrival of Jesus by preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sin.

Jesus said unless you repent, you will perish.

After his resurrection, Jesus sent out the church to the world.

And he said repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached to all nations.

On the day of Pentecost, Simon Peter, after the very first ever Christian sermon, was asked by the hearers what they should do.

And his response was to say repent and be baptized every one of you for the forgiveness of sins.

And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The apostle Paul preaching to the philosophers at Athens.

He said God now commands all people everywhere to repent.

So it's pretty clear, isn't it?

The response to Jesus, first of all, is to repent.

So what does it mean to repent?

Well, the Old Testament word means just to turn.

To turn, that's it.

To turn.

To turn around.

The New Testament word means to have a different mind altogether.

A complete reorientation of your thinking.

Let's just focus on that word to turn.

You've got to realize that you're going in completely the wrong direction.

And if you carry on going in that direction, it will end in disaster.

And therefore, you turn around.

I remember some years ago now, preaching at Ingleton Evangelical Church, which is 18 miles east of Kendall.

I live in a lovely place.

We've got the Lake District to the west and north of us.

And to the east of us, we've got the Yorkshire Dales.

And we're right there in the middle between the two.

And I was preaching one Sunday at Ingleton Evangelical Church.

So I needed to travel 18 miles east.

And there's Kendall.

There's Ingleton, okay?

On a map of England, which I'm asking you to imagine.

And between the two is the M6 motorway.

And if you go north, you go to Carlisle.

If you go south, you go to Lancaster and Preston and places like that.

And I was worrying about a children's talk I had to give at Ingleton Evangelical Church.

If only people realized the stress that they caused preachers when they asked for children's talks in their meetings.

And I was stressing about this children's talk.

I was going through it in my mind.

And I sort of woke up and found myself driving south down the M6 towards Lancaster and Preston and eventually London and places like that.

And I thought, why am I doing this?

I'd just done it without thinking.

It was just automatic.

That's normally what I did at that particular roundabout.

And I hadn't been concentrating properly.

And, well, what did I do?

Well, you're not actually allowed to do a U-turn on a motorway, as you probably know.

And you're not allowed to reverse down the motorway either, just in case you thought that was a possible way out of the problem.

I had to go, oh, maybe 10 miles further north.

And then turn around at the next roundabout.

Go all the way 10 miles further back.

And then get on the right way to Ingleton.

And I arrived during the first hymn.

And the lady on the door looked extremely pleased to see me.

A bit like the father in the parable of the prodigal son.

She ran and fell on my neck.

Well, no, she didn't, actually.

I was going to say she kissed me.

She didn't do that.

But we had a real handshake.

And she was very pleased to see me.

I turned around.

That's what you do when you repent.

You turn around.

So repentance means turning from everything that displeases Jesus.

He's the king.

So you turn from everything that isn't his will.

Everything that he doesn't want.

You stop distancing yourself from Jesus.

Instead of running away from him, you run to him.

You stop ignoring him.

You stop disobeying him.

You're sorry and ashamed at the way you behave and the way you think and the way you speak.

You come to see that you're disobeying God in thought and word and deed.

We're doing those things that we ought not to do.

And we're not doing those things that we ought to do.

And we come to see this and it burdens us.

It deeply concerns us.

We've not loved God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength.

We've not loved our neighbor as ourself.

We don't love our neighbors as we love ourselves, as God tells us to.

We love ourselves.

Everything we do is tainted by self-love, by pride, even the good things we do.

We feel proud when we do them.

We love ourselves when we do them.

We even self-righteously condemn others for the sins we know we commit ourselves.

And it makes us feel better about our own sins when we condemn them in other people.

We're sinner.

King Jesus has given his manifesto.

We call it the Sermon on the Mount.

It's the manifesto for the kingdom of God.

I'll just take you briefly through the Sermon on the Mount.

Very, very briefly through the Sermon on the Mount.

I think you should read the Sermon on the Mount two or three times this week.

Read it carefully.

Read it prayerfully.

And ask yourself what you should be repenting of.

We're not poor in spirit.

We're not meek and humble.

We do not hunger and thirst after righteousness.

We're not starving.

We're not ravenous for righteousness.

We're not merciful.

We're much harder on other sinners than we are on ourselves.

We're not forgiving.

We're not pure in heart.

We're not peacemakers.

We don't go around trying to reconcile ourselves to people who we may have wronged or who we think have wronged us.

We don't try and reconcile other people to each other.

We don't seek peace and pursue it like a hound pursues a fox.

We're not persecuted for Jesus' sake.

I'm just going through the Beatitudes here.

We're not persecuted for Jesus' sake.

We're afraid to openly confess our Savior.

We harbor anger and resentment in our hearts.

We belittle other people with our words.

We refuse to seriously seek reconciliation.

Jesus told us if we go to church,

He actually said if you were about to offer a sacrifice,

but in New Testament times it would be if you're going to church

and you realize your brother has got something against you,

there's something not right between you and somebody else there,

you should go.

You don't wait until they come to you.

You should go and be reconciled to them

and then come and worship God.

We don't do that.

We play around with lust.

We don't even behave rightly towards our spouses.

We're not totally honest and truthful,

so that our yes means yes and our no means no.

We repay evil with evil in all kinds of different ways.

We don't love our enemies.

We don't pray for them.

We don't pray as we should have done,

and when we do pray,

it's mainly about ourselves and our families

and our physical needs.

We don't pray with God at the center.

We don't give generously to the poor.

We pretend to be more godly than we really are.

We're friendly to those who are friendly to us,

but not particularly friendly to those who aren't friendly to us.

We set our hearts on earthly success.

We lay up treasure on earth instead of laying it up in heaven.

Earthly success, earthly treasure occupies our thoughts all the time.

It's what we get anxious about.

It's what we get worried about.

We condemn others.

We're far more concerned about the faults and the sins of other people

rather than our own sins

as a way of feeling good about ourselves or better about ourselves.

We're always judging others and criticizing others

and gossiping about others.

We don't gossip about ourselves.

No, we gossip about others.

We imagine that we're more righteous than they are.

We do not do to others what they would like them to do to us.

I've just taken you quickly through the Sermon on the Mount.

Read it two or three times this week

and honestly examine yourself in the light of it

and repent and grieve that you are not like this.

You haven't even started.

And more than anything else,

you want to be forgiven

of all the rottenness in your heart.

So you see, repentance isn't just praying the prayer

or making some kind of superficial decision.

it is a deep, life-changing realization

that you are going completely in the wrong direction.

You're not as Jesus wants you to be

and you're appalled at your state of heart

and you're far more concerned about the sins of others

than about your own sins.

Sorry, you're far more concerned about your own sins

than you are about the sins of others

when you've repented.

What you want more than anything else

is God's mercy,

God's forgiveness.

The best picture, of course,

that I know of,

of repentance in the New Testament

is that lost son,

so-called,

that lost son

who forsook his father and his father's house,

left home,

spent his father's inheritance,

wished his father was dead,

and actually told his father so.

He actually said,

give me my inheritance now.

I can't wait for you to die.

And he then took that inheritance off

into a far country,

spent it all in no time,

according to his brother on prostitutes,

amongst other things,

ending up in a time of famine,

longing to feed himself

with the pig's food.

And then he came to his senses

and he turned around

and he went all the way home.

Father, I have sinned.

His elder brother

thought he didn't have much to repent of.

And he resented

his brother coming home

and he resented even more

his father throwing this party for him.

And he refused to go in.

And it was him

who was outside the father's house,

not the so-called lost son.

It was the elder brother

who thought he had nothing

to repent of very much,

who turned out to be

the lost son

in that parable.

So that's what it means to repent.

It means to turn around.

But Jesus

comes to this other word,

believe.

Believe the good news.

Or it says in the version

that you have,

believe the gospel,

which means great news,

fantastic news.

So he summons us

to repent

and then he tells us

to believe the good news.

Well, what's the good news?

Not good news so far.

So far,

all we've heard is

that we're just

sinners who need mercy.

What's the good news?

Well,

the good news

is that God's kingdom

is for the repentant.

It is for

repentant

rebels.

It is for people

who repent.

That's the good news.

This king,

and he is a king,

never forget that.

He is also called

the friend of sinners.

He is the friend

of sinners.

He is on the side

of sinners.

He came into this world

to save,

rescue

sinners.

He calls sinners

to repentance.

He didn't come

to call the righteous.

That's good news,

isn't it?

Because I'm not righteous.

He didn't come

to call the righteous.

He came

to call

the sinners.

He's like a doctor.

Doctors aren't here

for the healthy.

Doctors are here

for the sick.

And Jesus says,

it's the sick

who need a doctor.

And I'm a doctor

and I've come

for the sick.

I've come for the sinners.

sinners.

That's the good news.

He came

to save

his people

from their sins.

He died the death

that sinners

deserve to die.

He rose again

on their behalf

as their

in union

with them.

And therefore,

all those who believe

in Jesus,

his death

is their death.

and his resurrection

is and will be

their resurrection.

Jesus is the friend

of sinners.

And he calls sinners

to himself

for salvation.

So you've got to

believe that.

You've got to believe

the good news.

The New Testament

is absolutely

packed with this.

Believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ,

said the Apostle Paul

to the Philippian jailer.

Believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ

and you

will be

saved.

John is full of it.

John's gospel.

God so loved

the world

that he gave

his only son

that whoever

believes in him

should not perish

but have everlasting life.

And at the end

of his gospel

he says,

I've written all this

so that you might

believe

that Jesus

is the Christ

and by believing

you might have

life

in his name.

And Thomas,

he says to Thomas,

Thomas you've only

believed because

you've seen me.

Blessed are those

who have not seen

and yet have believed.

The New Testament

is full of it.

The Apostle Paul

is full of it.

We are justified.

We are freed

from condemnation

in God's sight

by faith,

by believing

in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So what does it mean

to believe in Jesus?

Well,

yes,

it includes

believing the facts

about Jesus.

It means,

it includes

believing

that the New Testament

is

an historical

record

of his life

and death

and resurrection.

Believing the facts

about Jesus.

You've got to do that

obviously

in order to believe

in Jesus.

And sometimes

we use the word

just like that.

We use it

in the same sense

as we might say

I believe

in the Loch Ness Monster

or I don't believe

in the Loch Ness Monster.

Some people do,

some people don't.

I don't.

My wife and I

went for our honeymoon

to Durham

where the Loch Ness Monster

is supposed

to appear regularly

and we didn't see a thing.

So we are not believers

in the Loch Ness Monster.

It includes

believing

that the story

of Jesus

is true

and may I

assure you

if there's any

doubters here

that there's loads

of evidence

for this one.

Far more evidence

than there is

for the Loch Ness Monster.

There's loads

of evidence

for the death,

for the life

and the death

and the resurrection

of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There's absolutely

no shortage

of evidence

and if anyone

tells you

there's no evidence

they just haven't

looked at it,

that's all.

They haven't really

looked at the evidence.

So if there's

anybody here

who's got a problem

about that

talk to me afterwards

and I'll take you

through some

of the evidence.

So yeah,

it means believing

the facts

about Jesus

but it means

much more than that.

The word believe

in the New Testament

means

to trust,

to rely on

personally,

to depend on

personally,

to trust

the person,

the words,

the death,

the resurrection

of the Lord Jesus Christ.

To trust ourselves

completely to Him

and just to say to Him,

I can't do it.

You know what I'm like.

I can't do it

but you can do it

for me

and I trust you

to do it.

trusting

the Lord Jesus Christ,

relying on

His death

for our sins,

believing

that His sacrifice

on the cross

is sufficient

to cover all our sins

no matter how wicked

we may have been,

no matter how long

we may have rebelled

against Him

and closed our hearts

to Him.

He calls us now

to believe in Him

and

He will

save us

if we do.

It is to rely

and trust,

rely upon

and to trust

in His grace

and His love

and His mercy

which is greater

than all

our sins.

It is to rely

on His resurrection

from the dead

as our hope

for the future

and it's to stop

relying on anything else.

That's what it means

to believe in Jesus.

There are some

other words

that the New Testament

sometimes uses

instead of faith,

coming

to Jesus.

Remember what I said

about turning round?

Coming,

instead of

distancing ourselves

from Him,

coming

to Jesus.

Come

to Jesus.

Lepers

came to Jesus.

They couldn't do anything

at all themselves

about their leprosy

but they came

to Jesus

for cleansing.

All sorts

of people

came to Jesus

and He never

turned

any of them

away

ever

and if you

come to Him

He won't turn you

away either.

He invites

people to come

to Him.

Come unto Me

all you

who are weary

and burdened

and I will give you

rest.

He invites

you

to come

to Him

this evening.

The New Testament

also talks about

receiving Jesus.

Receiving

Jesus.

It actually

says

that we've got

to receive

Jesus

like little

children.

Little

children

love

receiving

things.

Have you

noticed that?

I've got

some grandchildren

and I've had

two children

of my own

and

every Christmas

we used to

give them

gifts like

parents do

and not

once did

either of my

two children

come to me

and say

Dad

you've just

been too

generous this

year

can't accept

all this

and if I do

accept all

of it

I'll at least

have to pay

for some

of it.

No chance

absolutely

no chance

at all.

They never

ever spoke

to me

in those

terms.

They just

said

they didn't

even say

thank you

they just

said let's

bring it

on more

and more.

They love

receiving

things.

Children

love

receiving

things.

That's how

you've got to

come to

Jesus.

You've come

to receive

what he's

done.

New Testament

talks about

following him

following him

and that's

important.

If you

really come

to Jesus

if you

really turn

from yourself

to Jesus

you will

follow him

you want

to please

him

you want

to be

led by

him

your whole

life.

Near where

I live

is Morecambe

Bay

and Morecambe

Bay

is

quite a

dangerous

area

there are

lots of

quicksand

but there

is a way

across

Morecambe

Bay

and there's

a man

who's just

retired

he was

called

Cedric

and he

used to

lead walks

across

Morecambe

Bay

he used

to go

in a

tractor

actually

and

maybe

200

people

would

follow

the

tractor

and he

would

take

them

from

Arnside

to the

other

side

of the

bay

to

Grange

over

Sand

but the

point is

you had

to follow

him

if you

trusted

Cedric

you

followed

him

you

didn't

say

oh I

know

better

than

Cedric

you

didn't

wander

off

if you

did

you'd

end up

being

swallowed

up

by

quicksand

honestly

you

followed

Cedric

he was

the

guide

and he

knew

the way

and because

you

believed

in him

because

you

trusted

him

you

followed

him

and

that's

what

you

will

do

if

you

trusted

Jesus

New

Testament

also

talks

about

feeding

on

Jesus

and

drinking

of

Jesus

and that's

a lovely

picture

particularly in the light of the Lord's Supper which is coming up

soon

it is a lovely picture

of

trusting

in Jesus

my wife makes lovely apple pie

so does

Paul's wife

actually

because we had a bit

at lunchtime

they both make lovely apple pie

I'm telling you that

you can believe that

with your head

ask my wife

and she might even give you a recipe

you can believe the recipe

you can understand the recipe

you can even

make an apple pie

but if you don't eat it

you'll never taste

how good it is

you've got to

take

the Lord Jesus

as it were

to yourself

by faith

eat

and drink

anyone

who

comes to me

will never

thirst

again

there's a man called Alfred Wainwright

who

before he died

lived in Kendall

he was the

treasurer of the council

and

he was absolutely mad

on the Lake District

and he went up every

Lake District peak

and he

wrote a guidebook

both with pen and ink

on every

Lake District mountain

and his books sell like

hot potatoes

now

and you

could become an expert

on the Lake District

just by reading Wainwright's

guidebook

you could spend your

winter evenings

by the fire

reading up about

the different paths

of Skidda

and Scorfell

and Helvellyn

and so on

you could know all about it

by reading Wainwright's

guidebook

but unless you get up

and get out

onto those fowls

you'll never

experience

what it

like

to look out

from the top

of Helvellyn

and see

all those peaks

and all those lakes

below you

that's what it means

to believe

not just

head knowledge

but

acting

on what

you know

so

repent

and believe

I want to say

just two things

before I

I'm really finished

but I want

before I sit down

I want to say

two very important things

the first of these

two very important things

is that repenting

and believing

in Jesus

are ongoing

those who

repent

and believe

in Jesus

continue

to repent

and believe

in Jesus

in fact

their repentance

and their faith

deepens

as the longer

they are following

Jesus

the longer

they're Christians

the more

their repentance

and their faith

deepens

and

Hebrews chapter 11

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

is quite clear

about this

believers

continue

to believe

they believe

until they die

they die

in faith

Hebrews chapter 11

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

and

that is the mark

of true faith

and true repentance

that it continue

as we were thinking

this morning

it doesn't fizzle out

it doesn't get choked

by thorns and thistles

if it's true faith

those who repent

and believe

continue

to repent

and believe

and I come now

to the second

of the two

final

important points

and it

follows really

from what I've

just said

that repentance

and faith

are not just

the way we

start the

Christian life

they are

how we

continue

the Christian

life

when I was

a young

Christian

when I was

a teenager

and

maybe in my

early 20s

there used

to be all

kinds of

theories

and formula

how to live

what was called

a victorious

Christian life

and

there were

different groups

and different

speakers

and different

conventions

and different

books

and they all

had their

particular

catchphrases

or even

the word

secret

was used

the secret

of living

a victorious

Christian life

and I used

to go from

one to the

other

because I was

aware that I

wasn't doing

particularly well

living the

Christian life

I used to

go from

one to the

other

seeking this

secret

of how to

live a

victorious

Christian life

which is

not an

expression I

really approve

of

because a

victorious

Christian life

would be a

sinless life

if you sin

and you do

every day

you would

fail

you of not

being victorious

so this

victorious

Christian life

that I was

seeking

and this

secret

that I

was

seeking

I wish

I hadn't

bothered

to be

honest

with you

I wish

that I

hadn't gone

through that

stage

in my life

because

there is no

quick fix

there is

no secret

it's not a

secret at all

the way you

respond to

Jesus and

the way you

continue to

respond to

Jesus

is repentance

and faith

you carry

on as

you began

repentance

and faith

that's all

go on

repenting

go on

believing

go on

preaching the

same gospel

to yourself

every day

you need it

every day

because you'll

sin

sadly

every day

in thought

or word

or deed

go on

repenting

go on

trusting in

the promises

of Jesus

examine

yourself

search your

heart

every day

ask God

to show you

what you need

to repent

of

read the

sermon on

the mount

two or

three times

this week

ask him

to show

you

and keep

repenting

and keep

trusting

Jesus

the friend

of sinners

as we've just

heard from

Paul

he doesn't

write you

off every

time you

fail

he is the

friend

of sinners

keep looking

to him

keep relying

on him

relying on

his grace

trusting in

him

asking him

to go on

cleansing you

from all

unrighteousness

preach the

gospel to

yourself

every day

there's nothing

else

it's not

a secret

it is not

a secret

this is all

you need

until you get

to glory

turn from

sin

every day

and turn

to

Jesus

repent

and believe

and go on

repenting

and go on

believing

amen

to

to

to

to

!

to