A Gospel of Repentance
Pastor Wesley • November 1, 2026
The Life of Repentance is Marked by Steady Growth in Godly Living.
One of the most important elements of the gospel is repentance. Isaiah 55:6-7 emphasizes this point, “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.” If you want to know what repentance is, we have here the two parts of repentance clearly stated.
First, we must forsake our wicked ways. We must leave behind the life of sin that we used to live. A life of sin doesn’t just mean doing horrible and immoral things all day, every day. That’s only one kind of sinful life. The other kind is a life of self-righteousness. This kind of sinful life is more deceptive because self-righteousness can often look very religious and respectable. But if we are living for self instead of Christ, for the things of this world instead of the things of God, we are living a life of sin. The Bible says, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him” (1 John 2:15). “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God” (James 4:4).
So wickedness can take two forms. It can look like debauchery, or it can look like decency. It is easy to tell that grotesquely immoral people are living a life of sin, but the nice, kind, decent people you know, who think they’re doing just fine without Jesus, are also living a life of sin. Either way, the Bible says the ways of both are wicked, and the gospel calls all of us—both the unrighteous and the self-righteous—to forsake such ways.
This leads to the second part of repentance. Once you have forsaken your wicked ways, you must turn around and start walking in a new direction—the direction of obedience to Jesus. Again, Isaiah 55:6-7, “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD.” Notice that word “return.” That’s the central idea behind the word repent. It means to turn around, to change course, to go in a new direction, to take a different path. Once you leave behind your wicked ways and forsake the life of sin, you change your ways and take up a new life of righteousness. You begin to walk in the ways of Jesus, to live like he lived, to walk as he walked. “Whoever says he abides in [Christ] ought to walk in the same way in which he walked” (1 John 2:6). The life of repentance is marked by steady growth in godly living.
When we repent, we forsake the life of sin and return to the God of the gospel, the God of mercy, grace, and forgiveness. In repentance, we fall on our face before God, in brokenness over our sinful hearts and lives. We cry out for his mercy and grace, and we receive his free for-giveness and full salvation by faith alone in Christ alone. But that’s not the end of the story. God also gives us his Holy Spirit so that we then rise to our feet with new hearts in our chest, new freedom in our will, a new purpose in our life, a new resolve in our mind, and new power in our soul to begin walking down a new path—to take up our cross daily and follow Jesus, our new Lord.
This is the biblical gospel. It is the gospel of a Jesus who is both Savior and Lord.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Wesley
The Pastor's Pen
Time is an inescapable reality in our lives. All of us have clocks in our home and calendars on our phone. We look forward to weekends and dread Mondays. We have schedules and face deadlines. Parents give their children bedtimes and curfews. Everyone has memories, and everyone makes plans. Time permeates our whole lives. This is what it means to be “in time.” A better word for “in time” is temporal, which refers to the quality of being related to time. There are three ways to be related to time: earlier than, later than, and simultaneous with. All the moments and events of time are related to each other in the chronological order of earlier, later, or simultaneous. Anything that falls within this chronological order is temporal. We are temporal because some moments and events of our lives are earlier than others. Whatever you are doing in any given moment, someone else is simultaneously doing something in that same moment. To be temporal, then, just means having these temporal relations of earlier, later, and simultaneous. Having temporal relations entails two additional facts: temporal location and temporal succession. Temporal location refers to the points of time, and temporal succession refers to the passage of time. On one hand, a person has temporal location if that person’s life can be mapped onto a timeline. In other words, that person’s existence, experiences, and actions are time-stamped like the segments of a YouTube video; they occur at a time. For example, some things happen now, or yesterday, or at 2:00pm, or six years ago, or in the time of Jesus. On the other hand, a person has temporal succession if that person’s life passes through a series of moments one after another. This means a person’s existence, experiences, and actions are sequential; they occur in the order of before and after. When your alarm goes off, getting out of bed precedes brushing your teeth. One action is subsequent to the other. Having temporal succession, then, means your life has a past, present, and future. You don’t live it all at once. We now have a philosophical account of what it means to be temporal beings. But what about God? Is God temporal? Is God related to time, or is he timeless? When we say that God is “outside of time,” what we really mean is that God is not temporal, that he is completely unrelated to time. Therefore, if God is timeless, he has no temporal relations, succession, or location. Now notice the implications that follow if God is not temporal. The timeless God’s life (his existence, experiences, and actions) has no chronological order. Nothing is earlier, later, or simultaneous. When God parted the Red Sea, that action was not later than creation, nor was it earlier than today. Nothing in God’s life is before or after anything else. The incarnation of Christ was not before God heard your prayers this morning, nor did God experience the 20th century after he experienced the 1st century. Strangest of all, it is false to say that God exists now. “Now” refers to the present moment, but the timeless God is not related to the present moment. So there is no such thing as now for God, or any other time. He did not exist in the days of Jesus, nor will he exist tomorrow. What do you make of these implications? Do you really believe it’s true that God does not exist now? Is it really the case that God did not create the world before he created you? Do you believe it is biblical to say that, for God, the resurrection of Christ is not later than the crucifixion, or the second coming is not after the moon landing? Is it false that God exists simultaneously with us? If God is timeless, these are the absurdities we are committed to. Why go on believing it? It makes so much more sense biblically and philosophically to see God as temporal, i.e., that God is really related to time and that he really does exist right now. The doctrine that God is “outside time” is a traditional Christian belief that most of us assume without question, but it seems to me there are good reasons to reject it. Perhaps it is time to say goodbye to the timeless God. Grace and peace, Pastor Wesley
How Do You Know God Exists?
Israel and the Church
Name It and Claim It?
Will We Have Bibles in Heaven?
Confessions of faith are extremely useful. This is true for several reasons. First, they codify the contents of Scripture in a compact form. The Bible is a big book. A confession of faith is meant to distill the great mass of biblical data into a systematic summary for the church. Second, confessions of faith clarify the central teachings of Scripture. A confession is not intended to summarize every single thing the Bible says about every single topic. Rather, the intention is to select the central doctrines and practices of Scripture and arrange them in logical sequence. This helps the church see what is more important and less important, what deserves major emphasis in the life of the church and what should be given minor emphasis. All of Scripture is the inspired word of God, but not every doctrine is equally crucial. Confessions of faith bring clarity on what is essential and what is non-essential. Third, confessions of faith simplify the central teachings of Scripture. They provide concise statements of biblical truth along with the primary passages that support that truth. If you want to know the meaning of a certain doctrine, a confession will give you a quick definition and overview of the doctrine in light of all that Scripture says. Confessions codify, clarify, and simplify the contents of biblical teaching and instruction for the faith, life, and ministry of the church. This is an extremely useful resource for pastors, teachers, and even whole denominations. As Presbyterians, we are bound by our subscription to the Westminster Confession of Faith, which was drafted and established by our Puritan forefathers in England and Scotland in 1647. It is called a “confession” because it embodies the faith that we confess to believe before God and before the world. To “subscribe” to the Westminster Confession means to pledge allegiance to uphold that confession as a secondary authority under the ultimate authority of Scripture. All ordained Presbyterian ministers are required to preach, teach, and defend what the Westminster Confession says. This requirement of subscription is absolutely necessary for the preservation of the truth and the protection of our churches. The confession keeps us in check. It’s like the guardrails that keeps us from going off the tracks into doctrinal error, heresy, and sin. The Westminster Confession provides a much needed accountability partner for pastors, churches, and the whole denomination. When we abandon our fidelity to our Confession, serious corruption looms ahead in the not-so-distant future. So I highly recommend that all of you take the time to read through the Westminster Confession, or at least the sections most interesting to you ( it’s available Here ). There are sections on the doctrine of God, the person and work of Christ, God’s covenant with his people, free will, sin, the new birth, justification, God’s law, good works, baptism, the Sabbath, worship, marriage, the second coming, and so much more. If you want to understand what our denomination believes and what the Forks of the Brandywine is committed to uphold in all that we do, the best source you can consult is the Westminster Confession of Faith. This is the faith of our Puritan and Presbyterian forefathers, it was the faith of those who founded the Forks in the 1730s, and, Lord willing, it will be the faith we confess before the very judgment seat of God on the last day. Grace and peace, Pastor Wesley
Ignite your love for the Lord Jesus
The Sabbath has its roots deep in the Old Testament. The core idea of the word “sabbath” is “rest.” The Hebrew word for the Sabbath comes from a verb that means to cease, come to a halt, to stop doing something. At the beginning of Genesis 2, we are told that God completed all the work he had set out to do in the first six days of creation, “so on the seventh day he rested from all his work” (Gen. 2:2). God ceased from the work of creation and refrained from doing any work on the seventh day. For this reason, we are told, God set apart the seventh day as the Sabbath, the day of rest, and made it a holy day (Gen. 2:3-4). The precedent that God set by his own course of action in the creation week becomes the pattern for Israel’s work week and a sign of Israel’s covenant with God (Ex. 31:12-17). In the Fourth Commandment, God instructs his people to remember the Sabbath day, follow his example, and keep the day holy by ceasing from all their labor (Ex. 20:8-11). The Sabbath, then, is that holy day on which God’s people are to refrain from all their labors, to stop working, and to rest and be refreshed. When we rest on the Sabbath, we are acknowledging that God alone is the Creator. We are answering the call of Psalm 46:10, where God says, “Be still, and know that I am God.” God invites us to enter his rest and to know him. Our lives are so busy, our schedules so full, our distractions so unending. Sabbath is about resting from all that work, unplugging from all that distraction, and giving God our full attention. Sabbath is about remembering that God is Creator, God is in control, handing our burdens to him, finding rest in his provision, comfort in his care, joy in his fellowship, and renewal in his rest. Sabbath not only points us to God our Creator but also to God our Redeemer. The God of Genesis is also the God of Exodus who liberated his people from slavery. Moses tells us to remember the redemption from Egyptian bondage as the basis of the Sabbath commandment (Deut. 5:15). Sabbath observance is a free man’s worship. We cease from work because we can. We are no longer slaves. We have no taskmasters who force us to work, for God has set us free. Referring to the exodus, God says, “I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself” (Ex. 19:4). Sabbath is about celebrating freedom, leaving bondage behind, and resting secure in the God who saves. On the Sabbath, we sing songs of redemption by a parted sea and rattle severed chains over Egyptian slain. For Christians today under the New Covenant, the ultimate significance and fulfillment of the Sabbath is in Jesus Christ. Through Christ, God created all things and is making all things new (Col. 1:16; 2 Cor. 5:17). Jesus is Lord of the new creation. In Christ, God has redeemed all his people from their sins (Rom. 3:24). Jesus says that “everyone who sins is a slave to sin,” but “if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed” (John 8:34, 36). Jesus is Lord of the new exodus. This same Jesus calls us to himself and promises to give us rest (Matt. 11:28-29). When we come to him by faith, we enter the true rest that the Sabbath foreshadowed (Heb. 4:1-11). Therefore, Christians ought to rest on the Sabbath day because we are justified by faith apart from works. The Sabbath is ultimately a sign of our new covenant relationship with Jesus. It signifies that we are united to Christ, justified by faith, and enjoy his rest. Amid the bustle of life, remember the Sabbath. Keep it holy. Enter his rest. Be still and know your God. Because you are free, obey. “If you call the Sabbath a delight . . . then you will find your joy in the Lord” (Is. 58:13-14).
We Have a Thorough Conviction
Christians talk a lot about faith. That is understandable. We all know faith is vitally important. You can’t be a Christian without faith. Believing in Jesus is how we get saved, but then what? Where does faith fit into the rest of my life? What does faith do? What is faith for? Does faith really work? These are natural questions, and finding the right answer will have a tremendous impact on your Christian life. Get the wrong answer, and it could lead to a dead end in your walk with Christ. So let’s turn to the words of Jesus to figure this out. In Matthew chapter 8, a Roman soldier approaches Jesus and pleads for help. This is very unusual. Roman soldiers do not typically ask Jewish peasants for anything other than submission. Rome had conquered the Jewish homeland, and this soldier is stationed in Israel to enforce Roman law and order by any brutal means necessary. And this is no ordinary soldier; this is a centurion, an officer with a unit of 80 troops under his command. This is a man of authority. Centurions do not ask conquered subjects for help, but this time something is different. The centurion says to Jesus, “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly” (Matthew 8:6). No matter how much authority this man possesses, he has no say over sickness. Suffering and death are not his subordinates. He could command all he wants, but his servant could not obey his order to get well. He needed help from someone with much more power and authority than he possessed. That is why he came to Jesus. He felt powerless, helpless, desperate. Jesus was his last chance. Jesus does not refuse his request. He offers to go with the centurion to heal the servant in person, but, surprisingly, the centurion refuses. He says to Jesus, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it” (Matthew 8:8-9). The centurion recognizes his own unworthiness in the presence of Jesus and acknowledges that he is at his mercy. As a Roman soldier, he understands better than anyone how authority works. He merely says the word, and his soldiers obey without question. That’s how it works. He recognizes that Jesus has the power and authority to give a command that makes even sickness and death obey him. That’s how he works. What an amazing display of faith in Jesus! It was so amazing, in fact, and so unexpected, that even Jesus himself is astonished. Matthew tells us that Jesus was so astonished “he marveled and said to those who followed him, ‘Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith’” (Matthew 8:10). What do we learn from this encounter? Jesus tells us that if we want to know what faith is and what faith does, look no further than this Roman soldier. The centurion’s faith has at least three parts to it: 1. Faith is a humble, confident trust in the power and authority of Jesus. 2. Faith looks away from self and pleads with Jesus to do for us what only he can do. 3. Faith listens expectantly to the mighty word of Jesus. Faith begins with the recognition that I am powerless and weak, but he is mighty and strong. I am helpless and needy, but he is generous and all-sufficient. I am most unworthy, but he is perfectly good and full of grace. We must see ourselves as we really are in the light of who he truly is. Once we see the matchless power and authority of Jesus, we cry out to him like the centurion, “Only say the word, Lord, and it shall be done just as you say!” We put our full confidence in him, we lean all our weight upon his word, and we rest assured that his word will never fail us. True faith is an unshakeable confidence that enables and emboldens us to stake our lives on the word of Jesus, to endure all things for his sake with hope and joy, and to follow Jesus in a life that is faithful, fruitful, and fulfilling. Faith like this is what Jesus wants from his disciples. It’s the level of trust and commitment he wants from you. If you feel that you are incapable of living up to this expectation, you are exactly right— and you just completed step one for having true faith. This kind of faith is a divine gift, granted to us by the sovereign power of the Holy Spirit working in our hearts. This is good news. If faith is a gift from God, then it is yours for the asking.
