I WAS passing a little garden the other day, when I could not help standing to admire the beautiful order in which it was kept. Every foot of land was laid out in beds, and every bed growing something, bidding fair for fruitful crops. Peas, beans, plants, trees, everything looked well.
I thought as I looked at this garden, What man in his senses would expect vegetables and fruit, without the seed being first sown and the trees being first planted?
There must, of course, be the seed, the plant, the tree, before there can be the fruit.
Everybody knows that it is the tree that grows the fruit, and that the fruit is sure to be what the tree is. Fruit there cannot be without the tree first. It is not good fruit that makes the good tree, but the good tree that grows the good fruit.
I thought again, How many there are that are perplexed about the FRUITS OF REPENTANCE,
who might learn a lesson by this little garden!
Next to it was a piece of land that had been dug and manured some time ago, but had nothing sown in it. Oh, what docks and Weeds! I thought, That is all that mere education can do for fallen human nature. Exclude the seed, the word of the living God, and the more education the bigger the docks; and weeds.
“Do you know," said a lady to a Christian, friend, who was carrying the good news of salvation to the lost, “what sort of people those are that you are visiting? What a life of infamy that woman has led ever since she was a child! And her husband, what must he be to take up with such a woman? They must be told to repent.”
“I know all about it," said the dear Christian friend, who was about to set Christ crucified before these two unhappy persons, who were both ill; “and if I did not know that was as bad in my fallen nature as they, I should not go to speak to them of Christ.”
My friend had learned that we are by nature all alike, lost, guilty sinners, and that it is only as we are upheld by God, that we are kept from the most fearful sins.
Now, what did this lady mean by “they must be told to repent "?
She meant that they must be like this little garden before ever they could be worthy of Christ, or before it was at all proper to set Christ and salvation before them. They must be told to bring forth the FRUITS of repentance; and then these fruits would make then good trees, or Christians.
And how many would have told them to do so! They would have told them to be very sorry for their sins; to forsake them entirely; to lead a new life; to serve God, and love Him; and then they would give them a faint hope they might be saved at last through,
Jesus Christ.
One might just as well say to the crab-tree, Now you must cease to grow crabs, never grow another, and begin from this time to grow good apples: and if you do this, the gardener will come and make you an apple-tree.
That man is a poor gardener who does not know that before anything but crabs can be got from that tree, there must be a new nature; that is, apple-nature, grafted or implanted in that tree.
And that man who expects anything but sin from a sinful nature knows very little of the utter depravity of the human heart, or of what God says in His Word.
No, there must be repentance before there can be the fruits of repentance. There must be a new nature before there can be holiness, of life. An apple graft cannot bring forth crabs, and that which is born of God cannot sin. The old nature of man is sin itself, and brings forth nothing but sin; the new nature implanted by God is holy and divine.
If my friend had told these persons to bring forth holy fruits of repentance in their sinful condition, she would have denied the depravity of marl; and hypocrisy would only have been the result. But, to the praise of the God of all grace, she set at once the finished salvation of Christ before them; and they were both converted.
Many are perplexed as to what repentance is, and what difference there is betwixt faith and repentance.
This may make it simple. Suppose the inhabitants of Scotland had a very wrong opinion of her Majesty the Queen; they thought her austere and cruel, and consequently hated and dreaded her. Now she sends her son, the Prince of Wales, to make known her real character. He arrives in Scotland. Every act is an act of kindness: no expense is spared for the good of the people, and all he does is in the name of the Queen: and thus having given full proof first of her love to them, the Prince gives command that all Scotland shall now repent (or as the word always means in Scripture, to change their minds).
Now, this change of mind in Scotland would be by believing the Prince. To believe the son would change the mind toward the Queen; there could not be one without the other.
It is so as to repentance toward God. This -whole world has been deceived by Satan about God. All men have a dread of God: they think Him a hard master; and they hate Him, and in their blindness they prefer sin and Satan's world to God. The God of this world has blinded their minds (2 Cor. 4:44In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:4)). 2CO 4:44In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:4)But “GOD SO LOVED the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)). JOH 3:1616For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 3:16)
And was not every act of Jesus an act of love to lost sinners? Oh, look at Him!
When did He spurn the sinner from His presence? Hear His sweet parable of the Father's joy in receiving the lost one who had spent all amongst harlots (Luke 15). LUK 15 His arms were wide open; little children were welcome there. Ah! the woman who was a sinner gave Him more heart-joy at His blessed feet, than the Pharisee's dinner on his table (Luke 7:37-5037And, behold, a woman in the city, which was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment, 38And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment. 39Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner. 40And Jesus answering said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And he saith, Master, say on. 41There was a certain creditor which had two debtors: the one owed five hundred pence, and the other fifty. 42And when they had nothing to pay, he frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which of them will love him most? 43Simon answered and said, I suppose that he, to whom he forgave most. And he said unto him, Thou hast rightly judged. 44And he turned to the woman, and said unto Simon, Seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house, thou gavest me no water for my feet: but she hath washed my feet with tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head. 45Thou gavest me no kiss: but this woman since the time I came in hath not ceased to kiss my feet. 46My head with oil thou didst not anoint: but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment. 47Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. 48And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven. 49And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves, Who is this that forgiveth sins also? 50And he said to the woman, Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace. (Luke 7:37‑50)). LUK 7:37:50 Was anything spared to show out the love of the Holy God to lost sinners? No!
When the fearful hour for which Jesus came into this world arrived, when He said, Oh, My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt "; and again when on the cross He cried, " My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Ale? " did God spare His own dear Son? No!
And unspeakably fearful as was that hour of darkness, when the HOLY ONE OF GOD was made an offering for sin. Yet He did not save Himself; He did not come down from the cross. He who made all things endured the utmost penalty of sin.
And did not God accept that amazing sacrifice? He did, and proved His eternal satisfaction with that one sacrifice, by raising Jesus from the dead. And all this reveals the LOVE OF GOD. “In this was MANIFESTED the love of God toward us," etc. (1 John 4:9, 109In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:9‑10)). 1JO 4:9, 109In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. 10Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:9‑10)
Since Jesus, then, has proved that all men have an entirely wrong mind about God; yea, since Jesus has manifested undeniably the love of God to sinners„ God now commands all men everywhere to repent, or change their minds toward Him. Hence, if there be, by the power of the Holy Ghost, real faith in the Lord Jesus, there must be an entire change of mind toward God. The one implies the other, and where there is, by the Holy Ghost, this wondrous change of mind about God, not a mere change of notions, there is the utmost certainty that this will produce the fruits of repentance, sorrow for sin, forsaking sin, serving God from the heart, loving God, joy in God; yea, an entire change of life.
My reader, dust thou understand? There must be fruit; there must be sorrow for sin; there must be holiness of life. But thou must have life first, faith first, a change of mind toward God first, just as the seed must be put in the ground first.
CHARLES STANLEY