REPENTING OF THEIR REPENTANCE – THEN and NOW

TITLE:REPENTING OF THEIR REPENTANCE – THEN and NOW
TEXT: [MARK 1:1-5] – [John 1:11,12]

1 The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;
2 As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.
3 The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
4 John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
5 And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.
[MARK 1:1-5]
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11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
[JOHN 1:11,12]
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The story of Jesus revealing Himself to Israel as their long awaited Messiah began with the ministry of John the Baptist preaching to prepare the people to receive Jesus when He would reveal Himself to the nation.

John Preached Repentance, a change of mind, and the people Professed to have Repented by their willingness to confess their sins and being baptized by John. Now they had taken the first steps necessary to be saved, but they still had to wait for Jesus to reveal Himself to the nation before they could take their final step needed for their salvation and that was, personally receiving Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Up to this point all they had really done was reformed.

We see in John 1:11,12 that many of those who had professed that they had repented, for one reason or another, when it got down to it, they balked and were not willing to receive Jesus when He revealed Himself and presented Himself to them as their Lord and Savior. They would end up changing their mind once again. They repented of their repentance!

We are seeing a great falling away from Jesus today in the Church. These are the same people whom John baptized, those who have just reformed and made an insincere profession of faith. They have never went all the way in their repentance and truly received Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They are now seeing the price they are going to have to pay to follow Jesus and they too are now repenting of their initial profession of repentance. They were never really saved to begin with.

Our Churches are full of baptized pagans, but they are now quickly exiting the fellowship of the truly redeemed, to go back to their own, the family of the damned.

In days like these we need to challenge people to examine their faith, to be very sure, and to make their calling and election sure. [2 Peter 1:10] Going on with Jesus is the only evidence that you have truly repented and received Jesus as your Lord and Savior.

Mark’s Gospel ends with these Words from Jesus:

15 And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
[Mark 16:15,16]

You will notice two things in these verses:

1. Since Jesus’ first coming the Church preaches that we now know the Savior, the ONLY Savior of sinful man, is Jesus and Him alone and because of that knowledge the Church now baptizes a person AFTER that person Professes to have REPENTED and RECEIVED Jesus.
A. Preach (vs. 15)
B. Believe (vs.16)
C. Baptized (vs.16)

2. Secondly, you will notice that the unbeliever shall be damned to an eternity in Hell.
Have you ever heard the Gospel? Did you then believe upon and receive Jesus? Were you then willing to go into the baptismal waters and profess Jesus before the whole world? If not why not? If not why not do it NOW, before it is everlastingl