Apologetics Session 14 - Soteriology - Part 2

Dear Heavenly Father, Lord we just thank you for this time that we can come and learn from your word,

God. We just pray that you would just anoint Matt and just bring out everything that he's studied and everything that you've taught him,

Lord, that he's learned through your word, Lord God, so that he can teach us and just draw us all closer to you, we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen. Okay, so last week we covered the basic definitions of Soteriology, Doctrine of Salvation.

We talked a bit about some false views of the atonement.

We talked a bit about like the definition of Soteriology, why it's important.

We talked a bit about Greek and how it's important to understand the original language because it conveys sometimes a meaning that the translations, even if it's accurately translated, it doesn't necessarily convey.

We talked about the tenses of salvation, so we talked about justification, sanctification and glorification.

Like I said, definition of atonement, which is the means of salvation. Some false views, so the ransom view, moral influence view, moral example view, governmental view, also the right view of the atonement.

We kind of rushed through the end of that bit because we were kind of running low on time, so I want to review a little bit of the tail end of what we discussed last week and then launch into God's one condition for salvation.

So towards the end we talked about the role of the blood in the atonement, so we talked about how costly it was to atone for our sins, even though it was free to us, it did have a cost.

And so we talked about a number of verses that reference

Christ's blood, so things like Roman 5 .9, since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.

And there were a number of other, and in the documentation that I'll send you guys, it'll have all of these verses actually copied out into the text so you can actually go through them all yourself.

So where we sort of ended up was talking about how Jesus's blood was really pivotal for our salvation, and why it was so pivotal, if you look back at some of the other sacrificial systems, so in the

Old Testament all of those sacrificial systems were really foreshadowing Christ's death.

And we talked about a bunch of illustrations, and the one that kind of shocked me the most, or wasn't shocking as much as it was something that I hadn't really thought of, which was in Genesis 3 when the

Lord made garments out of skins for Adam and Eve, and the implication of that, that normally when you just think about that, you just thought maybe he manifested skins out of thin air, but in fact an animal, or maybe multiple animals, would have had to die for those skins to be crafted for Adam and Eve, and so that seems to be the first sort of sacrifice.

And then talking about Abraham and Isaac parallels to Christ's death and resurrection, burial and resurrection, and kind of how things were lining up.

So Mount Moriah, where Isaac was supposed to be sacrificed, is the same place a thousand years later that the temple was built, and a thousand years after that Christ was crucified near Mount Moriah.

And then we also talked about the Passover lamb in Exodus 12, and then obviously the one we think of the most is the

Levitical sacrificial system that, you know, culminating really in Yom Kippur, Day of Atonement, where priests would enter the

Holy of Holies. So now we're going to talk a little bit about the finality of the

Atonement. So when we think about the sacrificial system, we think about the fact that Jews of the day would bring sacrifices to the priests to atone for their sins, and then once a year the high priest would take animal, and they would have sacrifices, and the high priest would go into the

Holy of Holies and make atonement for the Jewish nation, right?

So once a year it was like they were, throughout the year, paying for their sort of incremental incremental sins throughout the year, and then once a year it was like, you know, clean slate time.

High priests would go in and sprinkle blood on the Ark in the

Holy of Holies. So when thinking about that being an imperfect sacrifice and having to be repeated year after year begs the question, you know, did

Jesus, did his sacrifice once and for all pay for our sins forever?

And some of the sort of imagery that some of the scriptures present illustrate kind of the finality of Christ's sacrifice.

So in the old system it was, you know, done over and over again, and when you think about the tabernacle, so if you go back into, and the ladies here at church went to, what was it called, the tabernacle experience or something, where they actually were able to go and see sort of a replica of what the tabernacle would have looked like and like take a tour and stuff.

And when you think about the descriptions of the tabernacle, there were, you know, pieces of furniture, there were tables and things that were in the tabernacle, but one thing that the tabernacle didn't have was a chair.

There was no place to sit down. And this is actually important because when you think about some of the scriptures where it talks about Christ essentially sitting down at the right hand of the

Father after, you know, after his ascension. So Hebrews 1 .3,

does anybody want to turn to Hebrews 1 .3 and read that, and then somebody else Hebrews 8 .1?

Whoever gets there first gets a point. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. Right, so this imagery of him sitting down, right?

Who has 8 .1? 8 .1. Now this is the main point of the things we are saying.

We have such a high priest who is seated at the right hand of the throne of majesty in the heavens.

Seated means, well, he finished his work. Yeah, so it's the fact that, you know, he's done, right?

He sat down, and so this imagery, and there are other scriptures as well, so Hebrews 10 .12,

somebody have that? Somebody else go to 12 .1 and 2.

10 .12, for when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.

Yes. Hebrews 12 .1 and 2. Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Yeah, and then lastly, there's Revelations 3 .21, which is the one who conquers,

I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my father on his throne.

And so this is like imagery of this being, you know, a finished work.

And so there's also other passages, Hebrews 9 .12

and Hebrews 10 .10, that talk about this being a one -time sacrifice.

So somebody have 9 .12, 10 .10, and 10 .12. He entered once for all into the holy place, not by means of the blood of goats or cows, but by the means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.

Yeah, so it says once for all, it says eternal redemption, right?

So these things, you know, this is a once -for -all sacrifice that is forever.

Forever. 10 .10? 10 .10, by that will we have been sanctified to the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And 10 .12? You can go ahead, Erich, if you want. 10 .12, but this man, after he offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.

And 10 .14 says, for by a single offering, he was perfected for all time, those who are being sanctified.

And then lastly, John 19 .30, when Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, it is finished.

He bowed his head and gave up his spirit. So I know I don't have to tell anybody here that it is finished, or the word finished there is the

Greek word to tell us something, right? We know that because we all have shirts that say that. But this is where we go back to Greek again and the importance of understanding the

Greek language. Now, I'm not at all a Greek scholar, but I play one on TV.

And so looking at this word, it's in the perfect tense, which

I had no clue what that meant, but in Greek, perfect tense is used to describe an action or process that has been completed and has produced results that are still in effect at the time of the right.

Established forever. So essentially, it's a word that means finished in Greek perfect tense, which means finished forever.

So this is a paid in full sacrifice. Right? So when

Christ said on the cross, it is finished, he was actually saying it is finished forever.

Right? So that tells us that the atonement, right, is a once for all, finished forever, active of paying for our sins, right?

The debt is paid in full, it's paid in full forever. So, given that we've talked about the means of salvation, given that we've talked about what salvation is, given that we've talked about, right, the role of the blood, the finality of it all.

So what does this all mean to humanity, right? What must we do to be saved?

Repent of our sin and accept Jesus Christ as our savior. Right. We have to repent. That's key.

So we're going to get to that in a bit, Rich. So everyone know the sola fide, right?

Faith alone, right? So justification, right? Our salvation.

So we talked about justification, which is, you know, the act of being saved. Sanctification is sort of like I am being saved, right?

I'm actually being perfected, right? I'm becoming more Christ -like. And then glorification,

I will be saved, again, from the presence of sin, right? So in the tenses in the table that we looked at last week, there was being saved from the penalty of sin, right?

Right. And then sanctification is the power of sin, right? God, through working in our lives, you know, saves us from sin's hold over us, right?

It doesn't mean we don't ever sin. It just means that we're not in bondage to sin.

And then glorification will be saved from the very presence of sin, right?

So justification is conditioned on faith alone. Another word for faith is belief.

Now, again, this gets into, you know, talking a bit about, well, what does belief actually mean?

So we're going to talk a bit about that in a bit. But what's the most famous verse?

John 3, 16. John 3, 16, right? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Um, that is, you know, probably the most famous Christian Bible verse.

Lots of non -Christians probably wouldn't know it. Just one in a nutshell. Right? And then in John 5, 12,

Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life.

He does not come into judgment but has passed from death to life. Um, somebody have

John 6, 28 and 29? And somebody have John 6, 47? And they said to him, what must we do to be doing the works of God?

And Jesus answered them, this is the work of God, that you believe in him who sent, on him who sent, who he has sent.

6, 47? Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

Right. John 16, 8 and 9? Then I won't make you read anymore and I'll tell you.

I've got a bunch of them. John 5, 24. And when he comes he will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment.

Concerning sin because they do not believe in it. Right. John 20, 38 and 31.

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the

Christ, the Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name. Acts 16, 30 and 31.

Then he brought them out and said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.

Romans 1, 6. For I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes.

To the Jew first and also to the Greek. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9. For by grace you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing.

It is a gift, it is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast.

And Hebrews 11, 6. And without faith it is impossible to please him for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

So believe, believe, believe, believe, believe. Right. But why has God conditioned salvation on faith alone?

Anyone have any ideas? Why faith?

Why not works? Why not be a good person? We can't attain salvation by works.

Right. But God sets the rules, right? Right. Boasting. Yeah. Works and works is conditional.

It's all, it's only on a human level. And we've shown over time that we are not dependable in terms of consistency.

And it would make, eventually it would make God a liar if it depended on us and just on works. Yeah. And Drew hit it too as well.

Faith is non -meritorious. Non -meritorious. Right. He's a Greek. God's not interested in our works.

What does he say about our works? They are filthy rags. Filthy rags before a holy God. Isaiah 64, 6.

If our salvation were based on works, would it still be a gift? No.

No. No, right? It would be due payment, right? If it were based on our works, it would be due payment for good works done, right?

It wouldn't be based on God's gift. So instead, salvation is an act of grace, right?

And what is grace? Unmerited favor. Rich has been in this class before.

But why? Why would God want it to not be based on our works?

Why does God care that it's not a due payment for good things, good decisions we've made, good things that we've done?

Because we can say to God, you owe me, you know? But why does God care if he owes us, right?

If he sets the rules and he says, if you do X, Y, and Z, I'll let you in. And you do it, you get in, you don't do it, you don't get in.

Why would God care that it's a gift, that it's a work that he has to do?

Go ahead, Dick. Oh, well, if it was something that we could attain on our own, then we wouldn't require

God at all. It would just be something that, you know, we could do, and then we become like God.

We have made ourselves equal to God. By saying that we can do the salvation that God can do, what's the purpose of him dying on the cross, if we can do the exact same thing.

You're really close. You're really close to what I was looking for. Go ahead. Well, just picking up on what

David was saying, is, so Jesus Christ is, his propitiation for what he did puts us as image bearers for God, and God cannot have a relationship with anybody that has anything of sin.

That's why Jesus was the perfect sacrifice, because God wanted to have a relationship with us. That, and that relationship is buried in the blood of Jesus Christ.

Right. And you can do works and not have faith. Yeah. Also, God wants to maintain his own glory.

He's unwilling to give up his own glory. I'm not sure what that means. In Isaiah 42a it says that.

And so by inserting a work as a sort of meritorious act that warrants, you know, warrants, you know, favor, you've essentially stolen

God's glory. Because you've made it about you, right? It's about what you've done, not what God's done.

And so by making it a work, if it was wholly a work, it would be solely due to our meritorious act.

If it was both a sacrifice and a work, then we're at least, we're at least worthy for part of the glory for it.

Right? So this is, this is one of the sort of insidious things about, you know,

Sola Fide Plus. So whenever you get to, you know,

Christ plus something else, which is often the case in religions such as Catholicism, Jehovah's Witness, you know,

Mormonism, which there's a lot more flaws, obviously, with some of those. But anytime you corrupt the gospel with faith, faith plus, and usually it's faith plus some sort of work, right?

Or some sort of, you know, act to the church, right? Whether it's giving money, or whether it's, you know, undergoing certain rituals, whatever it is, there's faith plus, you've stolen a portion of God's glory.

So you made it about, about man, right? Also, faith being a gift is offensive to man's ego.

Because you can't do anything. There's nothing you can do, right? And, and the gospel is meant to offend our ego, right?

It's meant to humble us, right? And so, and that's called out in Galatians 5 .11.

So God wants the gospel to be an offense to sinful man, for man to know that he has no power in this, that it is all

God's sovereignty and his grace. So, saving faith.

What is saving faith? So what does the word believe mean, right?

What does it mean? So, in John 3 .16, right, the word believe, in John 3 .16

comes from the word, I'm going to pronounce it wrong, pisteo? Pisteo. Pisteo?

It's a verb, means to believe. It also means to be persuaded of, or to place confidence in, or to trust.

So we talk about belief, a lot of times, when you just throw the word believe around, we use it like we believe in George Washington, or we believe in, you know,

Napoleon, or, you know. And, you know, again, going back to the original meaning, it actually is deeper than that.

It means that I am persuaded that Christ is God. I am placing my confidence in him.

Right? So saving faith is a belief in Jesus for salvation, freedom from sin, and our eternal destiny.

So what is not saving faith? What is it not? What's not?

Yeah. Mental ascent? Man, I'm telling you, you've been reading my stuff, man.

I have intellectual ascent here, but still, remember me. Yeah, it's not merely intellectual ascent.

It's not what I talked about before, which is just, you know, I believe that George Washington existed. There are a lot of people that believe that Jesus existed.

There are a lot of people who aren't Christians that believe Jesus existed. There's a lot of proof that Jesus existed.

We talked a bit about some of it with the Bible and some of the archaeological evidence. But there is a lot of people that intellectually know who

Jesus is. There's even people that believe Jesus is God, but have not put their faith in him.

And I don't want to get into, because we're going to do it later with the whole, like, Mormonism believing Jesus is a

God. So there's a bit of that as well. But there's a lot of people that believe that Jesus was a real person.

They believe much of his story that he was a good teacher. I argue that point because I don't see how he could be a good teacher and not be

God, because he claimed to be God. So he was a little lunatic or a good teacher. Or, yeah, he was one or the other.

Go ahead. Yeah, part of it, too, to piggyback what you're saying, is that in the belief, it's really renouncing your self -sufficiency and what that would mean in terms of what your interpretation of God is instead of what the

Word of God is. And it's making God the starting point of that attainment of repentance and knowledge and so forth and so on.

That's the starting point, not myself. So as Paul said, I had to die to myself.

To do that is very crucial in terms of the belief -faith mechanism that's taken care of, because there's no place for any sort of...

Boasting? Well, boasting or even any sort of idea that you're any part of that.

You can never be part of that. It's totally from the starting point from God in terms of faith.

And it's very hard for people. That's why people make up different things about God, because they still want to maintain their sort of their human thinking within that.

Yeah, they want to make a God in their own image rather than being in the image of God. Yeah, and that's a corruption of the

Church today. It's a big one, right, where there are various churches who've gone away from God's Word and are essentially creating a

Jesus in their own image. I think you actually brought it up, Ivan, in one of your talks.

You know, the Church of... Yeah, the Church of Aaron. Church of, and pick your particular cause.

And then you make God all about that cause, right? Right. It reminds me of what

David Jeremiah said. One of the women in his congregation, listening to him said, my

God would never send people to hell. And David said, because your God doesn't exist.

And Jeff Durbin does this a lot when he talks to...

He'll go out and evangelize at like Mormon... Are they temples? Yeah, I guess they're temples.

Mormon temples or Jehovah's Witnesses halls, where he'll talk about the appropriation of Christian terminology in some of these religions and say, the

Christ you're talking about is not the same Christ you believe in. Because they'll argue that we both believe in Jesus Christ.

And he says, the Jesus Christ you believe in is not the same Jesus Christ that I believe in. And so there's sort of intellectual belief, which is important.

It's absolutely important. Just that's why we went over things like, you know, the textual evidence and the archaeological evidence and the evidence for the resurrection and all of the...

Because it's important to have an intellectual knowledge. But intellectual knowledge alone does not save you.

Right? Just any more than, you know, knowing about George Washington saves you. And this is illustrated in Matthew 8, when the demons show intellectual knowledge of both

Christology, which we haven't gone over yet, and eschatology, which we also haven't gone over yet. But they don't have their trust, but in Christ.

In Christ. Right? So in Matthew 8, 28 and 29, this is when

Jesus heals the two men with demons. The Gadarene demoniacs. It says, and when he came to the other side, to the country of the

Gadarenes, two demon -possessed men met him coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one would pass that way.

And behold, they cried out, What have you to do with us, O son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?

Right? So here, they called him the son of God. They knew who he was. Their Christology was spot on.

Right? They knew that he eventually would torment them. So their eschatology was spot on.

But they didn't trust in him. They didn't put their faith in him. They had intellectual knowledge of him.

It's also illustrated, this is a bit of a longer one, but I'll read it anyway.

In Acts, when the seven sons of Sceva wanted to cast out demons in Jesus' name.

But they were unbelievers. They hadn't put their trust in Jesus, and had no power to cast out demons.

So just to read, it's Acts 19, 11 through 15. It says,

And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them.

Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the

Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, I adjure you by the

Jesus whom Paul proclaims. Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this, but the evil spirits answered them.

I love this part. Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?

They had no power, because they hadn't put their trust, they hadn't put their faith in Jesus Christ.

They were using his name, and Paul's name for that matter, as an incantation. This also goes back to kind of the sinner's prayer.

This is where a lot of people get tripped up. I know we've talked about this in some of the other classes as well, that some people have sort of created this mechanism, right?

It's mechanical. Pray a specific prayer, and you will be saved. There's nothing special about the prayer, and that's not to say that praying a prayer for salvation is wrong.

You should pray a prayer of salvation, but there's nothing special about the words that you use. There's nothing special about the order in which you construct them.

It's not an incantation, you know, a spell out of a book. It's really just about understanding your own desperation, your own depravity, understanding that you are, you know, a sinner, but that God loves you, loved you so much to send his son to die and pay the penalty for your sins, and that if you put your faith and trust in him, he will cleanse you of those sins.

He will purify you. That is awesome. And so that's... Matt, so one thing

I want to add to that. One, because you hadn't mentioned yet. I know you probably didn't mention it. It's about, you know, one of the bases of our belief system is the fear of the

Lord. Having a healthy fear of the Lord. A reverence and a reverence of glorification of who he is there.

And that's a different mindset than someone who believes that Jesus is around, but doesn't carry that with them.

Yeah, so this is common, actually. I know people, since this will eventually be on YouTube, I won't say who they are, but I know people who are like,

I'm a good person. Yeah, I won't do it. I'm like, compared to what? Compared to the mass murderer in jail?

Yeah. Compared to Charlie Manson. You're a good person compared to that. But compared to a perfect and holy

God, creator of the universe? Right? That standard? You're not.

And then I've also had people tell me, well, I don't like Christianity because it makes you feel like you're worthless.

Um, and to that I say, you're a sinner, you're a lawbreaker, but you're an image bearer of God.

You are worth, you're infinite worth. So much worth that God came, you know, he condescended to take on human flesh, to die on a cross, to give you a way to be reconciled to him.

That's how valuable you are. Awesome. That's how valuable you are. So you're not worthless. Yes, you're a sinner.

Yes, you need to be humble. You need to understand the chasm between you and God that exists.

But you look at what God did to cross, to bridge that chasm, and it just shows you how much worth you actually have.

So what do you need to believe about Jesus? I probably already said too much, but what do you need to believe about Jesus to be saved?

That he was God, first of all. You have to believe that Jesus is God, step one.

Check. To say that means you must believe that Jesus had the power to do what he promised, right?

He was God, he had the power to do what he promised. What else must you believe about Jesus?

Virgin birth. Virgin birth. You must also believe that he lived a sinless life.

And that he was fully man. He was fully man, he was fully God. I don't really understand that all that well.

Hypostatic union. Yeah, the hypostatic union. I'm far less learned than our pastor sitting in the back over there,

I think. But yeah, he was fully man, fully

God. He lived a sinless life, something that none of us can do. That he died on a cross in our place as propitiation.

He stepped in between us and God's wrath, right? Is he the only one that could live up to God's standards?

Yes. He was the only one that could live up to God's standards. And also, yep.

And that he rose on the third day, just like was prophesied, just like he had said, right?

So, and it's incredible to, you know, Isaiah always fascinates me because the prophecies hundreds of years before Christ and how well they match up.

And the fact that, and we talked about this when we went through sort of the proof of the Bible and, you know, the manuscripts.

We talked about how people used to say that because the manuscripts we had were so recent that they had been doctored in some way to, you know, to make it look like the

Old Testament was actually talking about Christ. But then the

Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered and it basically proved that these were accurately translated and that those texts predated

Christ's birth. So they couldn't have been doctored. When you go back and look at those prophecies, it always fascinates me.

You know what else, Matt? What's really a mind blower is when you think about it, when Jesus died on the cross, he said, my

God, my God, why have you forsaken me? For all eternity, he had never known separation from the

Father. Only in that split second was there a separation between Father and Son, which he had never, never experienced.

Yeah. Ever. Yeah, I talked about that years ago at a

Good Friday service. And it was all of the physical, and it was terrible physical suffering that he underwent before actually being nailed to the cross and obviously during his crucifixion.

That, in my mind, probably was the worst of all. Worst of all.

Worse than all of the physical torment that he suffered. Yeah.

So yeah, so in John 8, 24, it says, I told, this is Jesus, I told you,

I told you that you would die in your sins. For unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins.

This is Jesus talking. So again, this is Jesus saying this. So the whole good teacher nonsense that people spew when they say, you know, he wasn't

God, he was just a good teacher. It is nonsense. John 20, 30 through 31.

Now Jesus did, I've already read this one before, but it talks about how

Jesus is the son of God. First Corinthians 15, one through four. Now I'll remind you brothers of the gospel

I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved.

If you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believe in vain, for I delivered to you as of first importance what

I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

John 8, 58 through 59. Jesus said to them, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was

I. John 8, 58. So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hit himself and went out of the temple.

So this statement was, you know, to the

Jews, blasphemous, right? Before Abraham was, I am.

He was, this was a claim of deity, right? So yeah, so we have to believe, we have to believe

Jesus' own words about himself. We have to believe that he died on the cross, lived a sinless life, died on the cross, rose on the third day, that he has the power to save us from our sins.

So it's much more than just intellectual belief. All right, what about repentance?

So, so we believe in him, can we just say, you know what, I believe, I believe he's God. I believe he died on the cross.

I believe he rose on the third day. I believe that he's, he's the son of God.

Great, insurance paid for. I'm gonna go back to doing what I was doing before. So what does repentance, what part does repentance play in this?

Or does it play a part at all? We talked last week about carnal Christianity or carnal

Christians. Dr. Andy Woods believes there, that there are, there is such a thing as carnal

Christians, that you can be a true born -again Christian and still live for the flesh, live for your own desires.

And I'm not talking about sinning, you know, as we all do all the time, you know, just sort of, you know, slipping up and committing sins or letting our anger get too much of us or whatever it is.

Um, I'm talking about willfully, uh, with determination to live a sinful lifestyle.

No, because if you go back to the original Greek metanoia for repentance means to turn away.

Yeah. Change. Change your mind and turn away from your sin. I just want to say that the very first words that are recorded in the

Bible that Jesus said is repent. I mean, I'm sure he said a bunch of words before that.

They're the first words that are recorded in the Bible. Both John the

Baptist and Jesus, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. So it must have been pretty important if they wrote it down that that's what he said.

Yeah. So the word, uh, go ahead. Well, I was going to say part of the, part of the issue is, is that in the

English language doesn't serve the word repentance appropriately. Correct. And, uh, so, so we'll, we'll get into that again.

I keep going back to the Greek. Yeah. And this is why I purchased the logo software. Um, uh, because it gives you a quick way of like hovering over a word and actually seeing the

Greek and then it'll like break it down, give you the, um, the root word and tell you what the word means.

And it will even give you like references to where the word is used elsewhere in the Bible. So it's really cool stuff. Um, and so the word repent or repentance comes from the

Greek word metanoia metanoio. Or metanoia. Um, and that that's respectively.

So one's repent, the other's repentance. So these are compound words. Um, the prefix is meta, um, which means to change, right?

So we get words like metamorphosis or metabolism, right? So metabolism, changing food into basically fuel for the body, metamorphosis, you know, changing form.

We talk about, you know, butterflies or, uh, caterpillars turning into butterflies, things like that. The second point, uh, noeo means understanding.

It's where we get the word notion from. Um, so it comes from the group, Greek root word, no, nose or mind.

So repent effectively means to change one's mind. Um, my dad actually told me that forever ago, but now

I actually know why. Um, so the question becomes, is repentance, um, enough for salvation?

Now, Dr. Woods, uh, said that repentance and faith are synonyms. So he was saying that changing your mind is changing your mind about who

Jesus is. I don't necessarily agree totally with that. I think that may be that part of it, but, um,

I don't necessarily agree that that is really the, um, when you see the word repent, that it's really just really a synonym for belief, um, or faith where you're changing your mind about who

Jesus is. I think that's certainly part of it. Go ahead, Dave. I was just going to say, uh, to me, it's like a recognition of your sin.

It's an acknowledgement of your sin. Whereas maybe, you know, you were sinning before, but you didn't really acknowledge or identify your sin.

And now you, so repentance, that's why I always looked at that word.

Acknowledging that you are a sinner and you need a Savior. Yeah. Matt, the change of direction thing, um, hits home a lot.

Because you, we think of it as like, when we're living without the Lord, without Christ, uh, we're basically doing whatever we feel is right, whatever we want to do.

And when we change our mind, we follow him now.

We're not in control. Yeah. He's our master. Yeah. Yeah. And, um.

Is it a changing of mind or a changing of direction? So, I mean, the, the, the word defined is changing, changing one's mind.

But in changing your mind, you are changing your direction, right? You're, you're changing, um, you're changing, um, your mind about what, you know, about those sins, right?

So you're saying, I don't want to sin anymore, right? I want to be, um, cleansed, right?

I want to be righteous. Yeah. Well, it's, it's renewing, as Paul says, renewing of the mind.

It is the new birth. So it's not, you're not distinctly like you were before.

You're distinctly different now. Yes. Than that. So there's no, there's no going back.

So when you, when you do that. So this gets, this gets to the heart of carnal Christianity.

This gets to the heart of, is there such a thing as a carnal Christian? And this is where we start getting into the topic of lordship salvation.

So lordship salvation, um, there's a, there's a debate and a pastor actually told me a bit about the history of the debate, um, uh, briefly.

Um, but Dr. Andy Woods, um, says that lordship salvation requires both belief in Jesus, right?

Um, and reliance on Jesus for salvation, but also repentance and submission to Jesus as Lord of your life.

So, so lordship salvation sort of boiled down is not only do

I believe, but I also give my life to Christ, right? He's the Lord of my life. And that's where the term lordship salvation comes from.

Um, and Dr. Woods makes the case that this is not what the Bible teaches and that belief alone is all that is necessary for justification.

Um, and he, and like I said last week, he also believed that sanctification is optional.

Sanctification is something that is, is possible for the Christian, but not guaranteed, uh, the way that justification and glorification are.

Um, so he actually quotes Dr. MacArthur. Now, in all fairness, Dr. Woods is a fan of Dr.

MacArthur. He's not, um, he doesn't consider him not a brother or anything like that.

He just, um, actually talks about lordship salvation and posits that, um,

MacArthur read that into the Bible because MacArthur has a large church and there were obviously with a large church, you can have a variety of different types of people.

Um, and, and this is Dr. Woods's view that, that, uh, MacArthur was seeing some

Christians that were living simple lifestyles. Um, and so he feels that Dr.

MacArthur may have started injecting the lordship salvation concept to try and get those people to get their lives straight.

Right. Um, so, uh, he actually quotes Dr. MacArthur.

Um, so this is in John MacArthur's book, uh, The Gospel According to Jesus, page 140, where Dr.

MacArthur says, Eternal life is indeed a free gift, Romans 6 .23. Salvation cannot be earned with good deeds or purchased with money.

It has already been bought by Christ, who paid the ransom with his blood. But that does not mean there is no cost in terms of salvation's impact on the sinner's life.

This paradox may be difficult, but is nevertheless true. Salvation is both free and costly.

Eternal life brings immediate death to self, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin,

Romans 6 .6. Thus, in a sense, we pay the ultimate price for salvation. When our sinful self is nailed to a cross, it is a total abandonment of self -will, like the grain of wheat that falls to the ground and dies so that it can bear much fruit, uh,

John 12 .24. It is an exchange of all that we are for all that Christ is, and it denotes implicit obedience, full surrender to the

Lordship of Christ. Nothing less can qualify as saving faith. Um, also

John MacArthur in Faith Works says, Jesus is Lord of all, and the faith he demands involves unconditional surrender.

He does not bestow eternal life on those whose hearts remain set against him. So, did you want to say something?

Well, the problem is, and this is a huge debate, because reading it, reading it the way

MacArthur wrote it, you're riding the fine line of genuine salvation and saving grace and legalism.

Like, you're right, you're right there. And, um, because the, the matrix that he just laid out there is that the fruits, the fruits of your spirit, the fruit of your sanctification is going to show what your salvation is.

And, and people get stuck on that other side of the line there, on that part of it, saying if you're not showing this, or you're not behaving this, or you're not acting this, then that becomes an issue, and that's not part of salvation.

So, that needs... Yes, yes. Clarity. I'm with you, I'm with you.

Yeah, yeah. So that, that needs... So, I, I agree with Dr. Woods in principle that, that, you know, justification is through faith alone, right?

But I also agree with what you just said, which is that a truly saved person is going to bear fruit as evidence of their salvation, right?

Um, and so, uh, I actually don't read what MacArthur wrote there the same way that Dr.

Woods is reading it. Um, and I wrote, I wrote like kind of a, a segment to, uh, like a little email to, um, the pastor on this, just to make sure

I was thinking about it correctly. Um, so, so, all a sinner needs to do to be saved is believe in, you know, believe in Jesus Christ, believe in his finished work, and, and put their faith in him.

Um, but as Dr. Woods, uh, stated in the original

Greek, it means to put your trust in Jesus, right? It's not just a, an intellectual belief.

Right. Um, just as you rely on a pilot to fly a plane, this was an analogy that was brought up where it says you trust, you put your trust in, right?

Um, you don't, um, you don't believe that, uh, the pilot can fly the plane and then try and take the plane over, right?

Um, it, it, it doesn't, um, it, it doesn't work that way. You're, you can't say, no, I, I trust you, but, but then

I'm gonna, I'm gonna take the wheel here. Um, so it, it's more than that, right?

It's, it's actually putting your trust in. Um, so if you're true, you know, doesn't it naturally follow then that if you're truly saved, that you would submit to Christ as the

Lord of your life, right? Not as a precondition to salvation, but as a mark of salvation, right?

Um, and so, um, yeah, you know, to, to do anything else would be to, would be like saying

I trust the pilot to fly the plane, um, but then, you know, jumping in the cockpit and saying, get out of the seat,

I'm going to fly now. So the operative word truly saved. So a lot of people are deceived and they're not truly saved.

Yeah. So I think that that's true. I think that, uh, you know, this carnal Christianity, um, idea is a mark of, of false, you know, salvation of someone who's maybe appropriated

Christian terminology. Maybe they sit in church every Sunday. Maybe they're faithful to do those things, but they haven't actually put their faith in, in Jesus Christ.

They haven't actually, they haven't actually believed, right? In the sense that we're, that we're talking about here, they are sort of, you know, believing the same way you believe in George Washington, right?

That intellectual belief. Yeah, go ahead Bob. So are they really Christians even though you're tagging the word carnal in front of that word?

No, I don't think they are. I'm using, I'm using, uh, terms that Dr.

Woods was using when I say carnal Christian, but yes, I, I believe that, you know, that that's not true faith.

Um, now it does, it does, uh, to Ivan's point, ride the line, right?

Because people fall away, people sin, people have seasons of difficulty and we, we need to, you know, to, to help bring those people back around.

But, um, you know, we can't sit and say, oh, it looks like you might not be saved. Right? Go ahead.

And I'm sorry, go ahead. I'm getting mad a lot of credit here because basically you're in the same spot that Paul was in so many times because if you preach the true gospel, there are those who are going to err on the side of cheap grace and say, why not?

We sin that grace may abound. Yes, absolutely. But then there are also going to be those who say, you know what?

This salvation by Jesus is great and I'm glad he gave me this free gift, but I'm gonna, I'm going to make sure

I, I earn this and that I keep it even additionally with that, with the works that I do.

And there's errors on both sides. And Paul was constantly facing that either, you know, in the book of Galatians or the book of Colossians or the book of Romans or whatever it was.

And you're doing a fine job. And to Drew's point, well, the church had to see, and part of the issue is, is the construct of the church.

And the church does have a responsibility to not be swayed by the few who, who may actually by their behavior, persuade others to fall away.

And so there's a responsibility of the church to do that and maintain that type of order within that, within grace and humble, you know, there, but, but that discipline that has to happen.

And that's, that's true. But people who are truly indwelled with the Holy Spirit are, are compelled.

It's not, it's not a question of, and this, I don't want to jump your thing about free will, but...

We're going to save that for next weekend. Right. Yeah. But, but, but, but people who are truly indwelled with the

Holy Spirit are compelled to fear the Lord and follow the Lord. And it's not a question of if, then type of scenario.

It's, no, this is, I'm, I'm compelled because I've given up my self -sufficiency.

I'm following the Lord. I have faith in him and the Holy Spirit's in me. And I, and that combination is compelling me to follow.

And so to that point, and Drew's point, there are many people who are walking around that think they're believers, but they're not.

They're simply not. Just for that particular reason there from Jesus' promise that...

They've either superseded Christ with some cause or, you know, or, or they've superseded

Christ with their own, you know, fleshly desires. Right. So, you know, a true

Christian, someone who's truly saved, recognizes their own sinful nature, realizes, you know, and the

Holy Spirit I think convicts when, because we all sin, right? And when we do, you know, that, that's when we're convicted.

If you're not convicted, you should, you should check yourself. This is the way, the way that, the way that I've always looked at it.

So yeah. So the idea that you can truly put your faith in Christ and continually, perpetually live sinfully,

I just think it questions the authenticity of your faith.

And, you know, I just, I think it's a matter of order. I don't, I don't think it's a precondition, right? It's not get right with God and then get saved, right?

It's, it's, you know, fall on your face before a holy God, take his free gift, put your trust and faith in him, and he will help you get your life straight.

Um, and, uh, you know, and that's not to say that you're not going to, to fall down, but it really comes down to, you know, your salvation.

Your justification is faith alone. And Christ's Lordship naturally follows. Go ahead, David. I was just thinking in, uh, about the justification and Paul talks about it in Ephesians, uh, that once you're justified, you're sealed.

And he was using that analogy because, uh, in, in, in Roman times, when the emperor, he had a seal, much like you would have a wax thing on it.

And if you made a decree, it would be sealed and, you know, kind of like out of that movie Bose's, so let it be known, so let it be done kind of thing.

Okay. And, um, everybody kind of had to live by that. Or I like to think of Star Trek. Yeah, exactly.

But, but, um, I, I always liked that analogy of that Paul uses that once we're justified, we are sealed.

So yeah, we, we are not going to be perfect creatures. I mean, Paul himself says, I do the things that I don't want to do and I don't do the things that I do want to do.

So, I mean, and he's not somebody that really lived his life in a sinful way and yet he's still sinned.

So, um, you know, we do have to recognize that we are going to be, you know, we are going to fall short, but we just have to work at it and be able to have that recognition and that repentance that you were talking about is kind of the recognition.

I don't know, some people call it their conscience, but it's a recognition that when you are sinning, at least you identify, okay, that's something

I got to avoid. And so I love the analogy, but it's not through, like,

I never think that I am like through sheer force of will, going to be able to will myself to not sin.

Oh no, there's no way. It's, it's always, um, it's always goes back to being, you know, to surrendering it to God, surrendering it to Christ and saying, help me, help me to not be drawn to whatever the thing happens to be that, you know, help me not to get angry and scream at that guy at work, whatever it is.

Right. Um, it's, you know, it's, it always goes back to, uh, the

Holy Spirit working through us, not, you know, I'm going to roll my sleeves up and through sheer force of will, you know, straighten this out in my life.

Right. Says with every temptation he provides a way of escape. So, yeah, somewhere in there.

So, um, we're able to actually, uh, get through everything up into the point of election and free will, which is going to be a really fun conversation, which we'll save till next week.

Um, I was hoping we would be able to fill the time with the content that I had before getting an election free will, because I don't think, um,

I don't think half a session would really do that justice. So next week, not next week, next week we have congregational meeting.

The soteriology will go on for one more week. So we'll have to push the schedule out a week, um, which

I'm sure is fine with Drew, gives him more time to study, gives me more time to study for sure, uh, for our next topics.

Um, and, uh, and next week we'll just go through doctrine and free will. I have a feeling, uh, so I'm going to,

I'm going to probably take about, if I had to guess, maybe 30 or so minutes just talking about it.

Um, and then we can save like half a class to just discuss it, um, and have a, a nice discussion time on it.

Go ahead. Matt, is somewhere in that discussion going to be, can you boost your salvation? Okay.

That's part of the Arminian, Arminianism and the Tulip stuff and all of that. So we're, we talked about finality and now we'll talk about eternal security when we get into the doctrine, uh, when we get into election and free will.

Um, so yes, that, that will definitely be part of it. Um, and so, um, you know,

I'll, I'll talk a bit about, uh, some of the lexury parts of like, um, the origins and stuff of, of some of these doctrines.

We'll talk about passages of scripture that are essentially proof texts of each, both

Arminianism and, uh, Calvinism, um, which are sort of the, the two, um, kind of big, um, ways that, that they are categorized.

Um, and we'll, uh, and then we'll just kind of open it up and talk about what people think. Um, it will be loving conversation.

We want everyone to keep their fingers and toes and arms and legs. We're not going to get mad at each other, but, um, this is, this is kind of a bit of baseball for, for Christians.

I think pastor put it well, um, that this though is, I don't want to demean the importance of it.

Um, while it is, you know, there are people that land brothers that land on both sides of the argument.

And this is an argument that's been debated for centuries. Um, that doesn't mean it's not important, right?

Just like some of the eschatological, um, stuff that we're going to talk about, uh, in future sessions, um, you know, you can land on multiple sides of this and there are brothers that land on different sides that, that I deeply respect.

Um, but are, um, but it doesn't, doesn't devalue the importance of it. So we'll, we'll spend a good, a good portion of time talking about it a week after next because we'll have a congregational meeting next week.

Um, and then I think we have one session, then we have July 4th and then on from there. Yeah. Something like that.

Something like that. So the, the last part of soteriology will come like in that in between time and then we'll have

July 4th and then we'll pick up from there, um, with I think theology. So, all right.

Um, Jack, why don't you close us out tonight? Father, thank you for this time of fellowship and study.

Thank you for using that to teach new word in this doctrine and thank you for the atoning sacrifice of your son,

Lord. Without that we would be still dead in our sins and we'd have no hope.

But we have that eternal hope that security that guides us through this life and Lord, just pray that we all take this information that we learned and we meditate on throughout the week and that we be armed with the truth and that we would defend your word.