Judas Repented Of Sin, But Not From Unbelief

Matthew 27:3-4, “Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.”

We are hearing the false teaching in most churches today that to get to Heaven you must repent of your sin. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, the Bible says  in our text passage that Judas repented of his sin. That is, Judas was sorry for the sins that he had done. Judas brought the 30 pieces of silver back to the wicked Pharisees, admitting that he had betrayed innocents blood. That is what some wicked Judas did this week to Pastor Steven Anderson, falsely accusing him of murdering his family. Police stormed the house, helicopter and all! Hell will be hot for that wicked person!

Not one verse in the inspired King James Bible teaches to repent “of your sin” to get to Heaven. Repentance in the Bible concerning salvation simply means a change of mind. It is a change of mind from unbelief to belief. I know that 100% because the Gospel of John simply teaches that the way to be saved is to BELIEVE. We find the word “believe” 88 times mentioned in John, but the word repent is not mentioned even once. That speaks volumes! It simply means that repentance is automatic, and is included with belief.

Dr. John R. Rice made this truth very clear:

There are those hyper-dispensationalists who think that John the Baptist preached a different Gospel from Christ when he commanded repentance (Matt. 3:2). But it is the same repentance Jesus commanded in Matthew 4:17, in Luke 13:3 and 5, and the same repentance that Paul preached in Athens that God “now commandeth all men every where to repent” (Acts 17:30 31). Repentance is not a different plan of salvation from having faith: it is part of the same plan of salvation. Or rather repentance is simply another way of describing or looking at the plan of salvation. One who turns from sin to God has done so by trusting in Jesus Christ. A change of mind toward sin is necessarily involved in saving faith.

Everyone who genuinely repented under the preaching of John the Baptist put his trust in the Saviour John the Baptist preached, and was regenerated. There is no such thing as being “a disciple of John the Baptist” in any honest sense without being a disciple of Jesus, that is, without trusting Christ for salvation. [emphasis added]

SOURCE: Evangelist John R. Rice, “Acts: Filled With The Spirit,” pp. 251-252; Sword Of The Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee; ©1963

Oh dear friend, that is so beautiful. The person who has saving faith has repented. Any preacher who separates repentance from faith, requiring repentance from sin as a separate step to salvation than to simply believe, is preaching another Gospel.

Pastor Jack Hyles further clarifies this important matter of repentance:

2. You can repent of something other than sin.

Matthew 7:3, "Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders." Notice that Judas repented. Now what does it mean? It means he repented about keeping the money. He had sold our Saviour for thirty pieces of silver; he changed his mind and took the silver back. A change of mind and change of direction took place, but it had nothing to do with salvation. He had made a bad deal; he regretted he had made that bad deal, and he tried to correct it.

Everybody who lives in sin eventually repents, but they do not repent of unbelief. They change their mind about sin. No one lives in sin without realizing later that it did not bring the joy, happiness, peace and contentment that it claimed to bring. I talk to people every week who are tired of their sins, unhappy in their sinful life or living a miserable, wretched life because of the results of sin. What have they done? They have changed their mind about sin, and in some cases, they even quit their sin - at least that sin which was most predominant in their lives. You can repent of sin without repenting of unbelief. Such was the case with Judas. No doubt he repented that he had done wrong. He certainly repented of the bad deal he had made. He turned around, changed his mind and brought the money back, but he did not repent of that thing from which he must repent in order to be saved, and that is unbelief. ~ Pastor Jack Hyles, 'Misunderstood Repentance: An Enemy Of Soulwinning'

The truth dear reader is that you don't have to repent of your sin to be saved. You don't have to stop one sin to be saved. You don't have to keep God's law to be saved (Romans 3:19-20). Telling someone that they must turn away from a lifestyle of sin to be saved is putting them under God's law, which is a false plan of salvation. To be saved, a man must simply acknowledge that he or she is a guilty sinner in God's sin, and BELIEVE ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST (Acts 16:30-31). Nothing more is required or permitted by God.

Beware of these dangerous false teachers today (which include Jeff Redlin at Pensacola Christian College, Chuck Phelps at Colonial Hills Baptist Church, Steve Pettit at Bob Jones University, Marty Herron at Faith Baptist Bible College And Theological Seminary, and John MacArthur) who preach that salvation is by grace through faith alone, but then they lie by saying that faith is not alone, it performs works, and if you don't have works you are not saved. That is a counterfeit gospel. Works has no place in God's free gift of salvation, neither before, at the time of, or thereafter!

God is not a trickster like the serpent in the Garden of Eden. The serpent promised one thing, but Eve received something very different than what she had been misled to expect. The serpent had promised Eve godlike powers, as if she would become like the God of the universe; but instead, she only become the god of her own life and destiny, and suffered the consequences of it. Satan lied to Eve! The Devil is a beautiful liar! That is what Marty Herron and Steve Pettit do, they lie to people.

They preach deceitfully that salvation is by faith alone, which is true; but then they pollute the truth into a dirty lie, by teaching that if your faith doesn't produce a changed life, with works and dedication to serve God faithfully for a lifetime, then you go to Hell forever! It is a false religion of fear and uncertainty, where you must continually strive to maintain works in your life, lest you fall away and prove to the world that you were never really saved at all. This is the demonic crap that the preach!!! (backup article). Sadly, Dr. Steve Pettit is a false prophet, an unsaved infidel, a predator in the pulpit today. Just like Judas, the Bob Jones crowd foolishly think they are going to Heaven because they have repented of their sins, but in fact that have still never wholly rested in the finished redemptive work of Jesus Christ through Calvary's cross. If you want to go to Heaven, simply BELIEVE that Jesus did it all for you.

You are a guilty sinner friend. But God loves you so much that He chose rather to die on a cross than to live without you! Jesus died in our place, paid the price for our sins with His precious blood; He was buried and resurrected bodily three days later for our justification. Whosoever (meaning anybody) that will simply put their childlike faith in Christ will be instantly, irrevocably and forever born-again. You have God's promise of it! John 6:47, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”