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"Except Ye Repent, Ye Shall All Likewise Perish" Luke 13:3.

These are the words of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist similarly preached repentance. Matthew 3:2. The Apostle Peter preached repentance. Acts 2:38. There is an aspect of salvation that if we believe the gospel, that Jesus Christ died on the cross to save us from our sins and rose again the third day, that He is the Christ and is now seated at the right hand of God the Father, and are baptized we are saved. According to that definition most people of most churches are saved.



So why did Jesus tell a couple of people to sin no more? Yes, we are saved by grace, not by works, but the Bible has a lot of good things to say about good works too. The Bible says we are justified by our works. So you were fortunate enough to have heard the gospel message, and you believed it, and you went to a church somewhere and got baptized. That's great. But what are you doing now?



The Bible says we need to "be born again." It's a continuing process. Don't say "I was born again on June 20th, 1965," say "I am born again." God wants it in the present tense. Don't say, "I got baptized in the Holy Spirit on July 28th, 1979," say "I am filled with the Holy Spirit." The Bible said "Be filled with the Spirit." Ephesians 5:18.



The churches are full of people who don't pray, they don't read the Bible, they don't praise the Lord, they don't fast, they don't give alms. The Bible says Jesus is coming back for a people looking for Him to come. Jesus said, "Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man." Luke 21:36.



Notice it's not all the Christians that ever believed the gospel message that go. It's the prayer warriors. In Ezekiel 9 God told angels to put a mark on those who were sighing and crying for the abominations done in the land. The prayer warriors were marked, and then everyone else was destroyed. Read it.



Cornelius is a good example of a man who repented. Read his story in Acts 10. He was giving much alms and was praying always. He was devout, so God sent an angel to him telling him to send to Joppa for Simon Peter to come to preach to him. Cornelius wasn't saved here in the sense that he had never heard the gospel message. He apparently had a copy of the Old Testament of the Bible, and was reading it, praying daily, giving alms to the poor, and fasting. He was finding this in the Old Testament and was doing everything he knew to do to reform his life even before he was saved.



I think these were the kind of Jews who accepted the gospel message. They were reading the Bible daily and trying to do what it said. Were they perfect? No. Were they sinless? No. But these devout people were the ones, the Annas, the Simeons, the Peters, the Johns, the Zacchaeuses, who immediately accepted and recognized Jesus as the Christ when He came. Even some Jewish women who had fallen into harlotry, but they still believed the Bible and were doing their best to follow it, accepted Jesus. John the Baptist turned away some scribes and Pharisees who came to be baptized, and told them to first bring forth fruits meet for repentance.



When Peter came and preached a short sermonette to Cornelius and his friends they immediately got saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit, for"they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God." Acts 10:46. Cornelius is our example of one who repented as well as just getting saved by believing and being baptized, and I imagine Cornelius continued to live his life with regular prayers, almsgivings, fastings, and Bible reading, only after that praying in tongues and magnifying God as well. "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish."