Repent Ye, and Believe the Gospel
Mark 1:14-15 says, "Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel." Repentance is changing your will and believing the will of God. It is a total turn around of what you believe, or have been brought up to believe, and believing the gospel. And the gospel is that Jesus died, He was buried and He rose again. So you need to change what you believe, and believe the power that raised Jesus from the dead - which is the gospel.
Repentance always takes place in the heart and it will produce salvation in your life. It is not 'lip service'. That change from what you believe and trust in, to believing the power that raised Jesus from the dead will take place in your heart. The gospel always deals with the heart of a man. It is not saying 'I'm sorry'. II Corinthians 7 :10 says, "For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death." When that change takes place in your heart, then you will start speaking it out of your mouth. For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. If you have doubt and unbelief in your heart and all kinds of lies or deceit in your heart, that is what will come out of your mouth. But when you get this gospel in your heart, you will start speaking it. You will go around saying, "Jesus died, He was buried, He went to hell and rose again for me." You will say, "When Jesus was raised from the dead, He healed all my sicknesses, made me rich, forgave all my sins, made me a king and a priest to rule and reign in this earth through the gift of righteousness, redeemed me, justified me, sanctified me and made me righteous." And righteousness will be imputed to you, just as it was to Abraham in Romans 4, when you believe. Believe what? Believe the gospel - the power that raised Jesus from the dead.
If you will go to Romans 10:8-10, we will see something. It states in these verses, "But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." You confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead and you can be saved - made sound, set at safety.
Did you know that it is not God's will that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance? (II Peter 3:9). One thing you will have to repent of is your religious background, your religious denomination, your religious heritage. Jesus did not ordain denominations - you cannot find them in the bible. What He did ordain was the body of Christ. Are you a member of that? That is the church that Jesus is coming back after - not Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Pentecostals, Presbyterians, or any of the others. All of these denominations are nothing but man's tradition, and in Mark 7 it says that tradition of man makes the word of God of none effect. Let's read that. In Mark 7:6-7 Jesus says, "Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. Howbeit in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." In verse 9 He states, "Full well ye reject the commandment (or word) of God, that ye may keep your own tradition." And it goes on in verse 13 to say, "Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye."
Jesus was, and still is, a man of love and He called religious people hypocrites. And He still does to this day. That in itself should make one want to repent, or change from his way to God's way. Notice that hypocrites honour God with their lips, but their heart is far from Him. And like I stated earlier, the gospel always deals with the heart of a man. That is where changes take place - in the heart of a man. This gospel will change you from being a hypocrite to being a Christian. And a Christian is one who has been conformed to the image of Jesus - walking as Jesus walked. So you can see, we all have a ways to go. But thank God that this gospel will make the changes in us that need to be made in order to become a Christian. This is a process and it doesn't take place in one night. You have to take up your cross (the gospel) daily and follow Jesus. Let Him lead you in paths of righteous to deal with your soul. Because the soul of a man is what needs saved - made sound, set at safety. The soul is contrary to the Spirit, and that soul will have to be purified by faith in the gospel. (The soul is the will, the intellect and the emotions.)
Now there are probably people having a problem with what I just said about being a Christian. But in John 1:11-12 it states, "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, to them gave He the power (the right or privilege) to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." And in Romans 8 it says that those that are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. When you receive the Lord Jesus, or you could say when you are born again, you have the right or privilege to become a son of God. Not until you are led by the Spirit of God are you a son of God. This is what the bible says - not me. And when you are walking in this earth as Jesus walked, doing the works of Jesus and even greater (John 14:12), then you can call yourself a Christian. And that is what I am working on becoming. I am being conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ daily.
Getting back to Mark 7 - Man's tradition makes the word of God of none effect. The gospel will make an effect in your life. Let's go to I Thessalonians 2:13. "For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe." That word that Paul is talking about is the gospel. You can read that in verses 2, 4 and 9 of this same chapter. The gospel will effectually work in those that believe it - trust in, rely on and adhere to it.
There is nothing greater in this earth that a person can do than to walk upright in this gospel - serve God with their spirit in the gospel. There is no greater honour that a man can have on his life than to walk in the power that raised Jesus from the dead. All I care about having in this earth is the honour of God on my life. If you believe the gospel, that is all you will want. Many years back the Lord spoke John 5:44 to me. It says, "How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only?" If you want man's honour, then you are not believing God. There was a change made in my heart immediately concerning my unbelief and about wanting God's honour only. There is nothing to compare to His honour!
I would encourage you this day to repent and believe this gospel. When you do, God is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all that you can ask or think, according to that power (the gospel) that worketh in you - (Ephesians 3:20). Until next time, God bless you.
