WEBVTT 00:00:37.040 --> 00:00:39.520 Welcome to the Stone Choir Podcast. 00:00:39.520 --> 00:00:40.720 I am Corey J. 00:00:40.720 --> 00:00:41.360 Mahler. 00:00:41.600 --> 00:00:44.960 And I'm still woe. 00:00:44.960 --> 00:00:48.720 On today's Stone Choir, we're going to be discussing the subject of 00:00:48.720 --> 00:00:53.600 repentance. This is obviously a crucial part of the Christian life. 00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:56.400 It's found throughout the Bible. 00:00:56.400 --> 00:01:00.880 And the way the way the word is used today among Christians 00:01:01.120 --> 00:01:04.720 is a pretty radical departure from what's actually in the Bible. 00:01:04.720 --> 00:01:08.000 So today we're going to be doing a word study and an 00:01:08.000 --> 00:01:12.640 examination of the doctrine of repentance and what actually means what actually 00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:13.200 looks like. 00:01:13.200 --> 00:01:17.600 Because by the end of this episode, you will all be repenting 00:01:17.600 --> 00:01:19.360 of what you thought about repenting. 00:01:19.360 --> 00:01:22.000 And we'll explain what that means throughout the uh the hour or 00:01:22.000 --> 00:01:23.680 so here today. 00:01:23.680 --> 00:01:27.200 Before we get into the details, the meat of the subject, just 00:01:27.200 --> 00:01:29.120 a bit of housekeeping for the show. 00:01:29.120 --> 00:01:32.240 First, if you're a regular listener, we apologize that we were not 00:01:32.240 --> 00:01:34.160 on schedule last week. 00:01:34.160 --> 00:01:37.520 Corey had a bit of a nasty cold that messed up his 00:01:37.520 --> 00:01:40.880 voice and probably would not have been pleasant for him to talk 00:01:40.880 --> 00:01:41.920 for two hours straight. 00:01:41.920 --> 00:01:44.480 But as we were talking about, we realized that so many people 00:01:44.480 --> 00:01:47.840 go back and listen to the archives, you know, months and years 00:01:48.080 --> 00:01:51.520 hopefully at some point in the future after these things were recorded. 00:01:51.520 --> 00:01:53.520 We've worked really hard to try to make them all sound the 00:01:53.520 --> 00:01:56.400 same. So we decide we didn't want an episode where something just 00:01:56.400 --> 00:01:59.440 sounded really weird, so we just took a bye week, so this 00:01:59.440 --> 00:02:02.880 episode is the one we had planned to do last week. 00:02:02.960 --> 00:02:07.840 Second bit of s show news this coming Saturday I am going 00:02:07.840 --> 00:02:11.040 to be appearing on on the Forrest Moretti show. 00:02:11.040 --> 00:02:13.120 Uh it's a guy on Twitter who's uh been a friend of 00:02:13.120 --> 00:02:15.040 us, Corey and myself for a while. 00:02:15.040 --> 00:02:17.440 He invited me on a brand new show that he's doing. 00:02:17.440 --> 00:02:20.400 I'm gonna be his guinea pig first guest as he works out 00:02:20.400 --> 00:02:21.360 some of the kinks. 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:23.680 So Saturday evening at nine p.m. 00:02:24.160 --> 00:02:26.960 on X, we'll be doing a live stream. 00:02:26.960 --> 00:02:30.560 And then subsequent to that, it will be on uh podcast hosting 00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:31.680 that he's doing. 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:33.760 He invited me on in part just to talk about stuff that 00:02:33.760 --> 00:02:35.680 Corey and I are never gonna talk about here. 00:02:35.680 --> 00:02:37.760 There's a lot of stuff that's off-brand for us. 00:02:37.760 --> 00:02:40.240 You know, Corey and I are both experts on a number of 00:02:40.240 --> 00:02:43.360 things that have nothing to do with stone choir subjects. 00:02:43.360 --> 00:02:45.120 So we're just never going to waste your time with it because 00:02:45.200 --> 00:02:46.400 that's not what you're here for. 00:02:46.880 --> 00:02:50.160 So if you're interested in hearing me talk for a few hours 00:02:50.160 --> 00:02:53.520 about other stuff that's not the Bible, you can check that out. 00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:56.880 After the recording, we will come back to this episode show notes 00:02:56.880 --> 00:03:00.000 and update them so that that link will be here. 00:03:00.000 --> 00:03:03.680 And we'll also put the updated uh link in next week's show 00:03:03.680 --> 00:03:06.160 notes. So if you're a regular listener, you'll be able to find 00:03:06.160 --> 00:03:06.960 it next week. 00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:08.160 So check it out or not. 00:03:08.160 --> 00:03:08.560 No big deal. 00:03:08.560 --> 00:03:10.640 Like it's gonna have nothing to do with anything we normally talk 00:03:10.640 --> 00:03:13.360 about. It's just gonna be him asking me questions about you know 00:03:13.440 --> 00:03:17.200 my life and history and some other stuff that I know about. 00:03:17.200 --> 00:03:21.440 The third item of show housekeeping is that we have some merch 00:03:21.440 --> 00:03:25.840 coming. Corey has been working on some a really cool challenge coin. 00:03:25.920 --> 00:03:28.240 He's gonna explain in a minute what that is. 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:30.640 These are completely useless. 00:03:30.640 --> 00:03:33.440 It's a two-inch circle that's very nice. 00:03:33.440 --> 00:03:36.560 Corey gifted me one he's made in the past that has the 00:03:36.560 --> 00:03:40.560 Luther seal on one side and a German quotation on the other 00:03:40.560 --> 00:03:41.760 side. It's beautiful. 00:03:41.760 --> 00:03:42.160 I love it. 00:03:42.160 --> 00:03:43.360 I keep it in my pocket. 00:03:43.360 --> 00:03:46.800 It's just it's very satisfying the heft of it and the feel. 00:03:46.800 --> 00:03:51.200 And it's a nice commemoration of having been involved in something. 00:03:51.200 --> 00:03:53.760 And so that one is focused on Lutheranism. 00:03:53.760 --> 00:03:56.960 The one that we're doing is specifically focused on Stone Choir and 00:03:56.960 --> 00:04:00.560 why we are all here together as a Stone Choir. 00:04:00.560 --> 00:04:02.240 Like Stone Choir is not two guys. 00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:04.880 Stone choir is really all of us. 00:04:04.880 --> 00:04:08.560 It's all the people who are realizing that there is something that 00:04:08.560 --> 00:04:11.680 needs to be said that's not being said in our churches and 00:04:11.680 --> 00:04:12.560 our societies. 00:04:12.560 --> 00:04:15.280 And so we are all working together to say some of these 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:18.080 things. And so in order to help you guys feel a part 00:04:18.080 --> 00:04:21.600 of it and we're to give you an opportunity to support us 00:04:21.760 --> 00:04:24.640 to support the show in a way that you get some token 00:04:24.640 --> 00:04:28.320 back. We're gonna be selling these challenge coins starting pretty soon. 00:04:28.320 --> 00:04:30.640 So Corey give the details on the timeline. 00:04:30.640 --> 00:04:33.680 I just want to make a couple things clear. 00:04:33.680 --> 00:04:36.800 One, there's a limited run of 2,000 of them, which is a 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:37.280 lot of them. 00:04:37.280 --> 00:04:39.040 It's going to take a while to sell through. 00:04:39.040 --> 00:04:42.320 Part of the reason that we're pre-selling them is that you know 00:04:42.400 --> 00:04:44.880 we want to recoup some of the money that's being outlaid to 00:04:44.880 --> 00:04:48.480 buy these because Corey is paying entirely out of pocket to produce 00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:51.200 them and then we'll get that money back over time. 00:04:51.200 --> 00:04:53.760 So we'll be in the hole for a while until enough people 00:04:53.760 --> 00:04:55.440 come in to ask for them. 00:04:55.440 --> 00:04:59.600 So initially there some pretty steep discounts on them and he's gonna 00:04:59.600 --> 00:05:01.760 give the the details on that timeline. 00:05:01.760 --> 00:05:05.280 Every coin is the same except that they're serialized and so they'll 00:05:05.280 --> 00:05:07.120 be numbered from one to two thousand. 00:05:07.120 --> 00:05:09.760 He gets number one, obviously I'll be number two. 00:05:09.760 --> 00:05:10.400 And then 00:05:11.520 --> 00:05:14.640 when you order, and the reason we're mentioning this now ahead of 00:05:14.640 --> 00:05:18.640 them being available, if you wish to have the lowest available number, 00:05:18.640 --> 00:05:20.720 you don't need to say anything, you'll get the next number in 00:05:20.720 --> 00:05:21.600 the sequence. 00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:24.480 If on the other hand you want to have a specific number, 00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:27.680 you may be the year of your birth or some special number 00:05:27.760 --> 00:05:31.680 to you, maybe have a favorite racist number from the ADL list 00:05:31.680 --> 00:05:34.800 of all the numbers that are considered to be wicked and evil. 00:05:34.800 --> 00:05:38.080 If one of those tickles your fancy, in the comments on the 00:05:38.080 --> 00:05:40.960 order form, you'll be able to list your top three requests and 00:05:40.960 --> 00:05:43.760 if it's available, Corey will fulfill that for you. 00:05:43.760 --> 00:05:46.160 If not, you'll get the next lowest number available. 00:05:46.160 --> 00:05:49.280 So that's the reason we're pre announcing it is that there's gonna 00:05:49.280 --> 00:05:52.080 be a a bit of a land rush for interesting numbers for 00:05:52.080 --> 00:05:52.960 a little while. 00:05:52.960 --> 00:05:56.800 So what we're gonna do when the art is back from the 00:05:56.800 --> 00:06:02.480 designers at CoinForce, the following Monday, whenever that is, hopefully it'll be 00:06:02.480 --> 00:06:04.800 next Monday, but if the art doesn't come back in time for 00:06:04.800 --> 00:06:06.960 next Monday, there'll be the following week. 00:06:06.960 --> 00:06:12.640 What we're gonna do on Telegram, on the Stone Choir Discuss channel, 00:06:12.640 --> 00:06:17.840 we will be linking the storefront when it's available with the art. 00:06:17.840 --> 00:06:20.400 And a few hours later I'll be linking it on Gab and 00:06:20.400 --> 00:06:22.480 on X at the same time. 00:06:22.480 --> 00:06:26.160 So if you want to get a first dab at the lowest 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:28.560 number or the most interesting most interesting number to you. 00:06:28.560 --> 00:06:32.000 Follow us in those places on Gab, it's at Stone Choir. 00:06:32.000 --> 00:06:34.160 On X, it's also at Stone Choir. 00:06:34.160 --> 00:06:36.080 And then the link will be in the show notes for the 00:06:36.080 --> 00:06:38.160 Telegram discussion channel. 00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:40.960 And that's the discussion channel on Telegram is really kind of where 00:06:40.960 --> 00:06:42.080 our community is. 00:06:42.080 --> 00:06:44.640 We have over three hundred people now in the group just talking 00:06:44.640 --> 00:06:45.520 every day about stuff. 00:06:45.520 --> 00:06:48.880 And that's I'm in there all the time answering questions, helping people 00:06:48.880 --> 00:06:52.560 out. I'm also on X answering questions for people looking for churches 00:06:52.640 --> 00:06:53.760 or whatever. 00:06:53.760 --> 00:06:55.680 So we're always available. 00:06:55.680 --> 00:06:58.000 Those are the best places to find us. 00:06:58.000 --> 00:07:01.280 We'll link the store there so you can find it and you 00:07:01.280 --> 00:07:02.800 can place the order if you're interested. 00:07:02.800 --> 00:07:05.760 Again, this is principally a way for you to help support the 00:07:05.760 --> 00:07:08.960 show to help us keep going doing what we're doing because it 00:07:08.960 --> 00:07:11.280 it takes a lot of time and it's free. 00:07:11.280 --> 00:07:12.960 You don't have to give us anything. 00:07:12.960 --> 00:07:15.600 But if you would like to, this is an opportunity for you 00:07:15.600 --> 00:07:18.400 to give us something and to get a really nice symbol or 00:07:18.400 --> 00:07:19.280 token back. 00:07:19.280 --> 00:07:22.480 And uh like I said, it's I'm absolutely confident that when these 00:07:22.480 --> 00:07:25.520 are produced, they're going to be really, really nice. 00:07:25.520 --> 00:07:27.360 It's gonna be a conversation starter. 00:07:27.360 --> 00:07:29.840 And frankly, I think that might be one of the useful things. 00:07:29.840 --> 00:07:32.880 Once you get your Stone Choir Challenge coin, you have it in 00:07:32.880 --> 00:07:35.360 your pocket all the time and you know, maybe if you're with 00:07:35.360 --> 00:07:39.280 a group of guys out drinking or whatever and something comes up 00:07:39.280 --> 00:07:41.920 and there's some reason why you might want to bring up Stone 00:07:41.920 --> 00:07:43.600 Choir, you could just whip out the coin. 00:07:44.160 --> 00:07:44.960 What is that? 00:07:44.960 --> 00:07:47.120 It so it could be a conversation starter to put on the 00:07:47.440 --> 00:07:50.240 table. Hey, there's these guys talking about this stuff, and here's where 00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:51.120 I learned about this. 00:07:51.120 --> 00:07:54.560 And it's an opportunity for you to support us to show that 00:07:54.560 --> 00:07:55.600 you're part of the show. 00:07:55.600 --> 00:07:58.240 Eventually, you know, as we are all meeting each other in the 00:07:58.240 --> 00:08:00.800 real world, you'll be able to see who has a lower number 00:08:00.880 --> 00:08:03.120 and you know somebody who doesn't have a coin will be on 00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:03.760 the outs. 00:08:03.760 --> 00:08:08.480 So it's a chance for a cool little shibleth of participation and 00:08:08.480 --> 00:08:09.440 being an insider. 00:08:09.440 --> 00:08:11.600 Or completely skip it if you think it's a grift and and 00:08:11.680 --> 00:08:12.400 we're jerks. 00:08:12.400 --> 00:08:13.120 That's fine too. 00:08:13.120 --> 00:08:13.840 Show's free. 00:08:13.840 --> 00:08:14.400 Keep listening. 00:08:14.400 --> 00:08:15.280 We love you too. 00:08:15.280 --> 00:08:18.160 So Corey, you can explain the details of what a challenge coin 00:08:18.160 --> 00:08:20.080 is and what the timeline will be. 00:08:20.160 --> 00:08:22.960 So for those who have been in the military, you're going to 00:08:22.960 --> 00:08:25.440 know exactly what a challenge coin is and I don't need to 00:08:25.440 --> 00:08:26.880 tell you anything about them. 00:08:26.880 --> 00:08:29.840 But for those who have not been in the military or in 00:08:29.840 --> 00:08:33.760 some cases attached to a political campaign, they're also very common in 00:08:33.760 --> 00:08:35.520 the political sphere. 00:08:35.520 --> 00:08:40.240 A challenge coin is as well mentioned just a very large coin, 00:08:40.240 --> 00:08:42.880 so it's two inches in this case. 00:08:42.880 --> 00:08:43.200 And 00:08:44.400 --> 00:08:48.000 the rules of how challenge coins are used is it's a drinking 00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:51.040 game. Because of course it's going to be a drinking game if 00:08:51.040 --> 00:08:53.360 it's military or politics. 00:08:53.360 --> 00:08:57.520 So how it works is if you take out your coin, you 00:08:57.520 --> 00:09:00.960 produce your coin, and you tap it on the table or toss 00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:03.440 it on the table, however you happen to do it, that is 00:09:03.440 --> 00:09:06.320 a challenge, and that's why it's called a challenge coin. 00:09:06.320 --> 00:09:10.320 Everyone else at the table has to produce a coin. 00:09:10.320 --> 00:09:13.920 If anyone fails to produce a coin, then he pays for the 00:09:13.920 --> 00:09:15.120 next round of drinks. 00:09:15.120 --> 00:09:18.400 Or if multiple people fail, they share paying for the next round 00:09:18.400 --> 00:09:19.520 of drinks. 00:09:19.520 --> 00:09:24.160 If, however, everyone else at the table produces a coin, then the 00:09:24.160 --> 00:09:26.960 person who issued the challenge pays for the next round, so there's 00:09:26.880 --> 00:09:29.360 a bit of a risk there. 00:09:29.360 --> 00:09:34.160 But But if challenge coins become a little more widespread among the 00:09:34.160 --> 00:09:39.520 right-leaning part of the population, which I think is probably likely, then 00:09:39.520 --> 00:09:41.440 there's a risk of not having your coin on you. 00:09:41.440 --> 00:09:43.920 You don't have to necessarily have our coin, but you should probably 00:09:43.920 --> 00:09:44.720 have a coin. 00:09:44.720 --> 00:09:47.120 I have a a handful of challenge coins. 00:09:47.120 --> 00:09:50.880 I usually do carry the the Luther one, the Lutheran seal one 00:09:50.960 --> 00:09:52.160 that Woe mentioned. 00:09:52.160 --> 00:09:54.400 I have one in my hand right now. 00:09:54.400 --> 00:09:57.440 But to give you the specifics for our challenge coin, I have 00:09:57.440 --> 00:10:01.200 already sent over the design information to the designer so I should 00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:05.680 be getting back the initial drafts probably I would imagine, either later 00:10:05.680 --> 00:10:06.960 today or tomorrow. 00:10:07.120 --> 00:10:09.840 There may be some revision, so may take a little time, but 00:10:09.840 --> 00:10:12.640 I would imagine we would be able to get that out an 00:10:12.640 --> 00:10:17.920 actual image of what it will look like sometime next week. 00:10:17.920 --> 00:10:21.840 And so the timeline for the coins would be we currently have 00:10:21.840 --> 00:10:25.280 a discounted price on them of twenty five dollars per coin. 00:10:25.280 --> 00:10:28.160 And that is available until the tenth of March. 00:10:28.160 --> 00:10:31.360 So we made sure there was some time available there for people 00:10:31.360 --> 00:10:33.680 to get the coins at that price. 00:10:33.680 --> 00:10:37.840 And then up until the Wednesday after Easter, which is technically in 00:10:37.840 --> 00:10:42.240 the church calendar year still called Easter Wednesday, which is the third 00:10:42.320 --> 00:10:45.760 of April, it'll be discounted to 35, and then after that it'll 00:10:45.760 --> 00:10:48.320 be a full price of Price of 42. 00:10:48.320 --> 00:10:52.960 As we mentioned, this is largely a way to support the podcast, 00:10:52.960 --> 00:10:57.040 a way to keep things going, as it were. 00:10:57.040 --> 00:10:59.840 But of course there is that initial outlay in order to get 00:10:59.840 --> 00:11:04.080 the coins, and so the first handful of hundreds of coins will 00:11:04.080 --> 00:11:05.120 just be to pay for that. 00:11:05.120 --> 00:11:07.760 The prices have gone up a little bit for metal, as I'm 00:11:07.760 --> 00:11:11.680 sure many of our listeners are aware, and challenge coins being made 00:11:11.680 --> 00:11:13.440 from metal are no exception. 00:11:13.440 --> 00:11:16.480 I certainly paid more for these than I did for the first 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:20.000 run of the Luther coins, however many years ago that was at 00:11:20.000 --> 00:11:22.080 this point it's been a number of years. 00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:24.560 But I very much like the quality, the production 00:11:25.760 --> 00:11:27.680 that is put out by CoinForce. 00:11:27.680 --> 00:11:30.960 So I know these will be very nice coins. 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:31.200 And 00:11:31.200 --> 00:11:33.280 of course you don't have to make it a drinking game. 00:11:33.280 --> 00:11:35.680 It can just be a nice memento. 00:11:35.680 --> 00:11:36.640 It's a cool thing. 00:11:36.640 --> 00:11:38.560 You're gonna enjoy it when you get 'em. 00:11:38.560 --> 00:11:40.880 And like I said, it's gonna be a good conversation starter. 00:11:40.880 --> 00:11:42.560 It's a good way to help support us. 00:11:42.560 --> 00:11:45.600 And again, more and more of you guys are meeting each other. 00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:46.160 It's funny. 00:11:46.160 --> 00:11:51.120 I've it seems like on Stone Choir discussion on Telegram, almost once 00:11:51.120 --> 00:11:55.280 a week now, somebody says, I work with a guy who's listening 00:11:55.280 --> 00:11:57.200 to Stone Choir and I had no idea. 00:11:57.200 --> 00:11:58.720 Like, talk about a small world. 00:11:58.720 --> 00:12:02.000 We have, I don't know, maybe probably in the neighborhood of 10,000 00:12:02.000 --> 00:12:04.160 listeners this point every week. 00:12:04.160 --> 00:12:07.040 Yeah, it's impossible to tell 'cause we don't have creepy tracking or 00:12:07.040 --> 00:12:10.400 anything. But just from the download numbers and kind of guessing how 00:12:10.400 --> 00:12:12.960 many folks listen together that we know a lot of people get 00:12:12.960 --> 00:12:15.040 together in listening groups, that's awesome. 00:12:15.040 --> 00:12:16.320 We love you guys. 00:12:16.320 --> 00:12:18.720 It we're guessing there's probably about ten thousand people, but there's a 00:12:18.720 --> 00:12:20.640 lot of people on the planet, and so most people are not 00:12:20.640 --> 00:12:22.320 yet listening to Stone Choir. 00:12:22.320 --> 00:12:25.920 The fact that there could be multiple people in one workplace, yeah, 00:12:26.000 --> 00:12:28.880 let alone there are multiple people in churches who are listening is 00:12:28.880 --> 00:12:29.920 really cool. 00:12:29.920 --> 00:12:33.120 And so someday you guys are gonna have the Stone Choir Challenge 00:12:33.120 --> 00:12:35.440 coin and you'll be able to find each other. 00:12:35.600 --> 00:12:39.280 It's kind of an icthus in the world that might might necessarily 00:12:39.280 --> 00:12:42.080 be obvious to someone, but if they know what's going on, you'll 00:12:42.080 --> 00:12:42.960 be really excited. 00:12:42.960 --> 00:12:45.600 So we look forward to you guys meeting each other in the 00:12:45.600 --> 00:12:46.160 real world. 00:12:46.160 --> 00:12:49.520 More and more we're connecting people with churches where there are already 00:12:49.520 --> 00:12:51.440 stone choir listeners, and that's awesome. 00:12:51.440 --> 00:12:55.680 Like it's to meet like-minded Christians who all are on are on 00:12:55.680 --> 00:12:58.880 the same page and don't need to be embarrassed about believing what 00:12:58.880 --> 00:13:00.960 God says is a treat. 00:13:00.960 --> 00:13:03.520 So that's the that's the end of the housekeeping don't want to 00:13:03.520 --> 00:13:05.760 ramble on any longer. 00:13:05.760 --> 00:13:09.440 Today as we're talking about repentance. 00:13:09.440 --> 00:13:11.120 Like you said, it's going to be a bit of a word 00:13:11.360 --> 00:13:14.640 study, but one thing we're not going to do today is bury 00:13:14.640 --> 00:13:18.000 you in quotes from scripture for a particular reason. 00:13:18.000 --> 00:13:21.360 We're going to explain the concept of repentance. 00:13:21.360 --> 00:13:25.600 We're going to explain what scripture, what the word actually means, first 00:13:25.600 --> 00:13:29.040 in English and then in Greek, because the Greek is frankly more 00:13:29.040 --> 00:13:30.560 applicable to 00:13:31.520 --> 00:13:33.280 what we're focused on today. 00:13:33.280 --> 00:13:36.480 The way, the way the word morphed in English has kind of 00:13:36.480 --> 00:13:39.040 departed from what it actually means in scripture. 00:13:39.040 --> 00:13:42.160 And so we're going to lay out kind of the the taxonomy 00:13:42.160 --> 00:13:46.640 of the overlapping senses of the words. 00:13:46.640 --> 00:13:50.400 Rather than giving you a list of verses that use the Greek 00:13:50.400 --> 00:13:54.160 word for repentance, the point that we want to hammer home today 00:13:54.160 --> 00:13:58.160 is that as I said beginning, once you understand what scripture actually 00:13:58.160 --> 00:14:01.520 means when it says repent, you're going to find it everywhere. 00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:04.480 You're going to find it in all sorts of places in scripture 00:14:04.560 --> 00:14:07.760 that don't use the word at all, but they use the concept. 00:14:07.760 --> 00:14:12.480 They describe repentance without saying repent, because it's that fundamental part of 00:14:12.480 --> 00:14:13.200 the Christian life. 00:14:13.200 --> 00:14:14.240 In fact, repent 00:14:15.680 --> 00:14:19.600 basically is a synonym for live the Christian life. 00:14:19.600 --> 00:14:24.640 Repent and sanctification, repentance and sanctification mean the same thing. 00:14:24.640 --> 00:14:27.600 So that's the case that we're gonna be making here today. 00:14:27.600 --> 00:14:29.840 Some of you may think that sounds completely crazy. 00:14:30.000 --> 00:14:32.320 We're gonna lay out what we mean by that. 00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:36.400 So to begin, looking at the word in English repent. 00:14:36.400 --> 00:14:39.760 It's been around for about seven hundred years in the English language. 00:14:39.760 --> 00:14:43.840 The initial sense of the word was to be grieved over one's 00:14:43.840 --> 00:14:48.720 past and seek forgiveness, to feel such regret for sins, crimes, or 00:14:48.720 --> 00:14:52.560 omissions as produces amendment of life. 00:14:52.560 --> 00:14:58.400 And this came through old French via Latin, which meant to regret, 00:14:58.400 --> 00:15:02.960 and the root there was actually to make sorry from the root 00:15:02.960 --> 00:15:06.240 in Latin for penal. 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:09.840 And so the the other word I want to highlight because repent 00:15:09.840 --> 00:15:12.320 and penal, you know, that P-E-N, it's the same thing. 00:15:12.320 --> 00:15:14.960 It's the same root when you go back to the beginning. 00:15:14.960 --> 00:15:18.160 Penal obviously still basically means the same thing today. 00:15:18.160 --> 00:15:22.000 It's related to or pertaining to punishment under law. 00:15:22.000 --> 00:15:22.560 And so 00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:27.520 what we find is that in English, as it pulled in the 00:15:27.520 --> 00:15:31.200 notion of the legal penitence, the sorrow for 00:15:32.240 --> 00:15:37.040 the legal consequences, like the the the infusion of the Latin and 00:15:37.040 --> 00:15:41.520 the English bac basically resulted in what we have today where there's 00:15:41.520 --> 00:15:47.440 kind of a conflation of repenting meaning feel sorry and you know 00:15:47.520 --> 00:15:48.640 change your mind. 00:15:48.640 --> 00:15:52.000 But you're sorry for what you did and you're sorry for facing 00:15:52.000 --> 00:15:53.200 the consequences. 00:15:53.200 --> 00:15:57.440 I think when we use repent today, it's definitely in that sphere. 00:15:57.440 --> 00:16:01.760 It's in the it's in that lexical scope that we're using the 00:16:01.760 --> 00:16:08.800 word. And when we look at another word that's related, the word 00:16:08.800 --> 00:16:13.200 contrition is specifically an emotional word. 00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:17.040 Contrition is also about seven hundred years old in English, means brokenness 00:16:17.040 --> 00:16:20.880 of spirit for having given offense, deep sorrow for sin or guilt, 00:16:20.880 --> 00:16:24.880 with the purpose of not sinning again So in the order of 00:16:24.880 --> 00:16:30.160 service, when the general confession of sins is given, you'll find something 00:16:30.160 --> 00:16:34.640 similar in Lutheran churches and some others, where we say, I am 00:16:34.640 --> 00:16:38.880 heartily sorry for my sins and I sincerely repent of them. 00:16:38.880 --> 00:16:42.800 And the reason that those things are right next to each other 00:16:42.960 --> 00:16:46.400 is are closely related, but if you listen carefully and you pay 00:16:46.400 --> 00:16:49.840 attention to all the words that are present is I beg people 00:16:49.840 --> 00:16:51.920 regularly online to do. 00:16:51.920 --> 00:16:57.200 Heartily sorry for them means contrition, means I am contrite, and sincerely 00:16:57.200 --> 00:17:01.840 repent of them obviously means something different than I'm heartily sorry for 00:17:01.840 --> 00:17:04.080 them, because the sorry's already covered. 00:17:04.080 --> 00:17:07.040 And so in the general confession, we say I'm hardly sorry for 00:17:07.040 --> 00:17:10.240 my sins and I sincerely repent of them. 00:17:10.240 --> 00:17:14.080 The and there is because we're saying two different things. 00:17:14.080 --> 00:17:17.760 And I think this is where our understanding of repent in English 00:17:17.760 --> 00:17:21.360 has kinda gone off the rails because like I said, when we 00:17:21.360 --> 00:17:24.240 say repent, we usually think I feel sorry. 00:17:24.240 --> 00:17:27.920 An example I've given in a past episode was when the former 00:17:27.920 --> 00:17:34.080 chief executive at CNN got caught for decades of abuse of girls 00:17:34.080 --> 00:17:35.760 under his supervision. 00:17:35.760 --> 00:17:38.800 He put out a very tearful press release and he was very 00:17:38.800 --> 00:17:40.960 sorry for getting caught. 00:17:40.960 --> 00:17:43.600 He was sorry for being embarrassed in public. 00:17:43.840 --> 00:17:47.280 A Christian who is naively looking at that thing would think, oh, 00:17:47.280 --> 00:17:49.200 he repented. 00:17:49.200 --> 00:17:53.360 What happens in cases like that where we have these public confessions 00:17:53.360 --> 00:17:59.040 of sin in grieving and tears, Jimmy Swaggard saying, I have sinned, 00:17:59.040 --> 00:18:02.160 and he's tears streaming down his face. 00:18:02.160 --> 00:18:04.320 That is not repentance. 00:18:04.320 --> 00:18:08.480 That may be contrition, but frankly, in most cases, when someone is 00:18:08.480 --> 00:18:15.120 called out publicly, what's often happening is they're sorry they got caught, 00:18:15.120 --> 00:18:18.000 they're sorry that they're facing consequences. 00:18:18.000 --> 00:18:21.840 They've may in fact even be sorry that they did whatever wicked 00:18:21.840 --> 00:18:23.520 thing that they did. 00:18:23.520 --> 00:18:29.200 But the question of repentance is a separate question from those things. 00:18:29.200 --> 00:18:32.320 Because repentance doesn't mean I feel bad about it. 00:18:32.640 --> 00:18:35.360 It means I've changed my mind about it. 00:18:35.360 --> 00:18:41.280 So in Greek, the verb for repent, to say to repent, is 00:18:41.440 --> 00:18:43.120 meta noeo. 00:18:43.120 --> 00:18:49.360 And the underlying definition of that is properly to think differently afterwards. 00:18:49.360 --> 00:18:50.880 It's talking about a change of mind. 00:18:50.880 --> 00:18:53.120 It's talking about an intellectual 00:18:54.000 --> 00:18:58.160 switch being flipped where you thought one thing and then you thought 00:18:58.160 --> 00:18:59.280 a different thing. 00:18:59.520 --> 00:19:03.280 And so when you look at the Greek conception of what we 00:19:03.280 --> 00:19:06.800 translate as repent, what you don't find is contrition. 00:19:06.800 --> 00:19:08.400 You don't find any sorrow. 00:19:08.400 --> 00:19:11.840 You don't necessarily even specifically find anything about sin. 00:19:11.840 --> 00:19:15.760 Now in scripture, it's always talking about repenting in the context of 00:19:15.760 --> 00:19:20.000 sin, but this is why it's so crucial because what repentance means 00:19:20.000 --> 00:19:24.800 in the Bible is to think differently afterwards about your sin. 00:19:24.800 --> 00:19:29.120 So, in the case of some E-celeb or some real celebrity, some 00:19:29.120 --> 00:19:36.160 executive who publicly confesses a sin tearfully, in order to determine whether 00:19:36.160 --> 00:19:40.400 or not they have repented, they would have to think differently afterwards 00:19:40.400 --> 00:19:43.680 about whatever it was that they were confessing. 00:19:43.680 --> 00:19:47.440 So when the guy puts out a press release and says, Oh, 00:19:47.440 --> 00:19:50.960 I'm so sorry that for decades I was abusing these girls under 00:19:50.960 --> 00:19:52.000 my authority 00:19:53.040 --> 00:19:55.840 Is he actually saying, I don't want to do that anymore? 00:19:55.840 --> 00:19:58.240 That was evil, I never should have done it, or is he 00:19:58.240 --> 00:20:00.640 just saying, I'm sorry I got caught? 00:20:00.640 --> 00:20:03.280 The reality is he's saying, I'm sorry I got caught. 00:20:03.280 --> 00:20:07.040 So even if it's contrition, it is not repentance, because it's repentance 00:20:07.600 --> 00:20:11.040 is a repudiation of one's past sins. 00:20:11.040 --> 00:20:14.480 It's looking at what you did in the past and saying, this 00:20:14.480 --> 00:20:15.760 is no longer me. 00:20:15.760 --> 00:20:17.040 This is disgusting. 00:20:17.040 --> 00:20:19.680 I hate what I was doing. 00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:23.920 And the reason that's crucial is that it is it's separate from 00:20:24.080 --> 00:20:26.240 feeling bad about your sin. 00:20:26.800 --> 00:20:26.960 For 00:20:26.960 --> 00:20:31.600 those in our audience who are Roman Catholic, you're going to notice 00:20:31.600 --> 00:20:38.160 a difference between what Lutherans and Roman Catholics believe when it comes 00:20:38.160 --> 00:20:39.840 to this issue. 00:20:39.840 --> 00:20:41.600 And it is worth highlighting that. 00:20:41.600 --> 00:20:45.840 Many and in fact most Protestants are going to agree with what 00:20:45.840 --> 00:20:48.960 the Lutherans believe on this particular subject. 00:20:48.960 --> 00:20:54.720 And so historically and still to day, the Roman Catholics conceive of 00:20:55.520 --> 00:21:00.800 repentance, which they would call the sacrament of penance or reconciliation, or 00:21:00.800 --> 00:21:05.200 confession even, they conceive of it as having three parts, or a 00:21:05.200 --> 00:21:06.320 fourth part. 00:21:06.320 --> 00:21:08.880 The fourth part is implied for those who say it has only 00:21:08.880 --> 00:21:12.560 three, although most modern interpreters I believe will say that there are 00:21:12.560 --> 00:21:18.560 four distinct parts, and those would be contrition, confession, satisfaction, and then 00:21:18.560 --> 00:21:20.800 absolution which follows those things. 00:21:23.360 --> 00:21:30.400 The problem with this conception of repentance is that it turns it 00:21:30.400 --> 00:21:30.720 into 00:21:31.840 --> 00:21:33.040 works righteousness. 00:21:33.040 --> 00:21:35.440 This is what actually would make it works righteousness. 00:21:35.680 --> 00:21:38.240 We know that there are going to be some listeners who are 00:21:38.240 --> 00:21:42.320 going to think that what we are saying is works righteousness. 00:21:42.320 --> 00:21:45.520 But that is not what we're saying because what we are saying 00:21:45.680 --> 00:21:49.040 is that this is the and then what of the Christian life. 00:21:49.040 --> 00:21:54.560 That is so often the focus of Stone Choir episodes. 00:21:54.560 --> 00:21:58.080 We got justification right in the Reformation. 00:21:58.080 --> 00:21:59.680 That's done, it's settled. 00:21:59.680 --> 00:22:01.360 We're not fighting over that anymore. 00:22:01.360 --> 00:22:05.200 Yes, if we're rehashing those debates in some cases, we're fighting over 00:22:05.200 --> 00:22:06.240 justification again. 00:22:06.240 --> 00:22:09.200 So for instance, we still disagree with Rome when it comes to 00:22:09.200 --> 00:22:12.240 justification. But with other Protestants 00:22:13.120 --> 00:22:14.480 There's no real 00:22:15.440 --> 00:22:16.640 argument there. 00:22:16.640 --> 00:22:17.680 That's not the problem. 00:22:17.680 --> 00:22:22.000 We're talking about what do you do as a Christian once you 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:22.800 are converted? 00:22:22.800 --> 00:22:24.720 What is the Christian life? 00:22:24.720 --> 00:22:28.000 And the Christian life very well is repentance. 00:22:28.000 --> 00:22:34.800 And so the Lutheran and the Protestant conception of repentance is contrition 00:22:35.040 --> 00:22:36.320 and faith. 00:22:36.320 --> 00:22:38.880 Now we have to be careful about that faith part because the 00:22:38.880 --> 00:22:39.200 faith part 00:22:40.160 --> 00:22:43.280 is more encompassing than what most are going to believe when they 00:22:43.280 --> 00:22:44.560 just hear faith. 00:22:44.560 --> 00:22:45.360 Okay, faith. 00:22:45.360 --> 00:22:48.480 I I have faith, so I have therefore repented. 00:22:48.480 --> 00:22:52.480 Faith in this context means the entirety of the Christian life going 00:22:52.480 --> 00:22:56.720 forward. Read James, basically. 00:22:56.720 --> 00:23:01.440 Because the real Christian, the actual Christian, the Christian who has a 00:23:01.440 --> 00:23:06.640 living faith, is going to do certain things and not do certain 00:23:06.640 --> 00:23:09.120 things because of that faith. 00:23:09.120 --> 00:23:11.600 That is what repentance is. 00:23:11.600 --> 00:23:16.400 Repentance is that change of mind, that metanoia to use the Greek 00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:21.360 term. That accompanies an actual living faith. 00:23:21.360 --> 00:23:25.920 It is to turn away from your sin because you now recognize 00:23:25.920 --> 00:23:27.040 it as sin. 00:23:27.040 --> 00:23:29.440 You recognize it as abhorrent. 00:23:29.440 --> 00:23:32.880 If you don't have a real faith, if you're just standing up 00:23:32.880 --> 00:23:37.040 and apologizing because you were caught, which, as Wo said, is often 00:23:37.040 --> 00:23:39.760 the case, and it very much is often the case in the 00:23:39.760 --> 00:23:46.000 public realm, particularly the political realm, contrary to that sort of false 00:23:46.000 --> 00:23:51.920 repentance, real repentance is to look at the things that you once 00:23:51.920 --> 00:23:56.800 did and find them disgusting because you now think about them differently 00:23:56.800 --> 00:24:02.560 from how you thought about them before you were regenerated. 00:24:02.560 --> 00:24:04.240 That is sanctification. 00:24:04.240 --> 00:24:05.520 That is the Christian life. 00:24:05.520 --> 00:24:09.120 That is how these things are supposed to work. 00:24:09.120 --> 00:24:13.760 There's a little bit of irony here, perhaps, with the modern practice 00:24:13.760 --> 00:24:17.760 in the political realm when it comes to so-called repentance. 00:24:17.760 --> 00:24:23.120 Because historically, in the churches, in the early churches, one of One 00:24:23.120 --> 00:24:26.800 of the things that they would do with regard to repentance was 00:24:26.800 --> 00:24:31.360 have someone who had committed some sort of transgression stand up, be 00:24:31.360 --> 00:24:37.120 accused of that before the congregation, and then publicly repent. 00:24:37.280 --> 00:24:41.200 Now that led to some various problems, and so there's some reasons 00:24:41.280 --> 00:24:43.440 those things changed historically. 00:24:43.440 --> 00:24:47.520 And obviously you can recognize there's a bit of a perverse incentive 00:24:47.520 --> 00:24:51.280 there perhaps to be falsely repentant because you were accused publicly. 00:24:52.080 --> 00:24:55.680 And that's what we see happening in the political realm. 00:24:55.680 --> 00:25:01.600 For the Christian, repentance is a real change of mind. 00:25:01.600 --> 00:25:04.960 Again, it is to look at the things that you once did, 00:25:04.960 --> 00:25:08.880 and to find them abhorrent, because you have been given a new 00:25:08.880 --> 00:25:11.600 mind, you have been regenerated. 00:25:11.600 --> 00:25:15.280 You have been given the spirit, and therefore you find sin to 00:25:15.280 --> 00:25:18.960 be repulsive, you turn away from it. 00:25:18.960 --> 00:25:20.160 Which is what this is. 00:25:20.160 --> 00:25:22.240 This is a turning away from sin. 00:25:22.240 --> 00:25:23.600 It is a change in your life. 00:25:23.600 --> 00:25:27.360 It is a real and tangible thing. 00:25:27.360 --> 00:25:30.240 And there may be some who'll be thinking, well, isn't that judging 00:25:30.240 --> 00:25:34.480 someone if we decide if his faith is real based on and 00:25:34.480 --> 00:25:36.560 the answer is yes. 00:25:36.560 --> 00:25:40.560 And we did an entire episode on judgment because of this. 00:25:40.560 --> 00:25:45.360 It is entirely licit, it is in fact commanded that we judge 00:25:45.360 --> 00:25:48.000 others on this sort of basis. 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:50.880 Because you can tell if someone has had a real change in 00:25:50.880 --> 00:25:53.920 his life, you can tell if he has a living faith by 00:25:53.920 --> 00:25:55.680 what he does. 00:25:55.680 --> 00:26:00.240 If someone says, I repent of X, and then he gets caught 00:26:00.240 --> 00:26:05.840 doing X again and again and again, you very well know that 00:26:05.840 --> 00:26:08.640 that repentance was probably false. 00:26:08.640 --> 00:26:12.240 Now I'm not saying that if you have a particular sin that 00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:17.840 plagues you, you are impenitent because you fall back into that sin. 00:26:17.840 --> 00:26:21.600 That just means that the Means that the ongoing process of sanctification 00:26:21.600 --> 00:26:24.400 is in fact an ongoing process. 00:26:24.400 --> 00:26:28.560 We are all going to have certain sins that are more difficult 00:26:28.800 --> 00:26:32.400 to clean out, more difficult to eject from our lives. 00:26:32.400 --> 00:26:35.200 And we can all think of what our personal sin is in 00:26:35.200 --> 00:26:37.120 this case. 00:26:37.120 --> 00:26:41.520 Repentance in those cases is going to mean looking at that with 00:26:41.520 --> 00:26:46.320 disgust, looking at it, with abhorrence, recognizing that it is sin, and 00:26:46.320 --> 00:26:48.720 wanting to turn away from it. 00:26:48.720 --> 00:26:52.320 And you can find comfort, of course, in the words of Paul. 00:26:52.320 --> 00:26:54.640 You know, the very thing that you want to do is the 00:26:54.640 --> 00:26:57.280 thing you do not do, the very thing that you do not 00:26:57.280 --> 00:26:59.440 want to do is the thing that you do. 00:26:59.440 --> 00:27:01.280 That is part of having original sin. 00:27:01.280 --> 00:27:03.920 It is part of living in a fallen world. 00:27:03.920 --> 00:27:09.200 But repentance is that change of mind, and that desire to do 00:27:09.200 --> 00:27:10.800 differently, and working toward it. 00:27:11.920 --> 00:27:14.560 Because the Christian life is not just one of going, oh I 00:27:14.560 --> 00:27:15.840 wish things were better. 00:27:15.840 --> 00:27:19.280 No. You work toward making things better. 00:27:19.280 --> 00:27:21.280 There are works in the Christian life. 00:27:21.280 --> 00:27:25.920 We're saved by works, Christ's works, we're not saved by our works. 00:27:25.920 --> 00:27:31.520 However, once we have been regenerated and given a living faith, that 00:27:31.520 --> 00:27:36.960 faith will necessarily result in works, a change in behavior, a change 00:27:36.960 --> 00:27:40.400 in mindset, which is what we are looking at when it comes 00:27:40.400 --> 00:27:45.520 to repentance, because repentance again is the Christian life. 00:27:45.840 --> 00:27:48.880 I think one of the real problems that we all have when 00:27:48.880 --> 00:27:51.680 we're trying to wrap our heads around all these things that are 00:27:51.680 --> 00:27:58.560 related to sin and sorrow for sin, asking for forgiveness, receiving forgiveness, 00:27:58.560 --> 00:28:00.880 repenting of those sins. 00:28:00.880 --> 00:28:04.320 I think the difficulty that we all have intellectually, as we're just 00:28:04.320 --> 00:28:06.880 trying to wrap our heads around it, is that we necessarily 00:28:07.760 --> 00:28:11.680 want to look of all all those things on a timeline where 00:28:11.680 --> 00:28:14.800 you have A and then B and then C and then D 00:28:15.040 --> 00:28:19.600 where there's a causal chain where A affects B and B affects 00:28:19.600 --> 00:28:23.760 C where you sinned and therefore you're sorry because you know the 00:28:23.760 --> 00:28:27.120 law, you know God's law, and then you receive the gospel, you 00:28:27.120 --> 00:28:30.160 hear the gospel, and you receive forgiveness. 00:28:30.160 --> 00:28:31.120 And when 00:28:32.080 --> 00:28:35.040 the problem is that when we try to pinpoint, okay, well, am 00:28:35.040 --> 00:28:36.560 I forgiven yet? 00:28:36.560 --> 00:28:38.000 Am I forgiven now? 00:28:38.000 --> 00:28:42.960 Is that it doesn't approach the question the way God does. 00:28:42.960 --> 00:28:45.760 Because time is part of creation. 00:28:45.760 --> 00:28:48.160 Time is not something that limits God. 00:28:48.160 --> 00:28:51.520 God created time in order to order things. 00:28:51.520 --> 00:28:55.680 I can't even say the sentence without using order twice, because that's 00:28:55.680 --> 00:28:59.440 that's the nature of how God is structured everything. 00:28:59.440 --> 00:29:03.200 And so I think the same problem that we face today when 00:29:03.200 --> 00:29:06.560 we're trying to figure out, well, if if I'm sorry and then 00:29:06.560 --> 00:29:09.040 I'm forgiven, but then I have to repent, and if I don't 00:29:08.960 --> 00:29:10.880 repent, I'm not forgiven. 00:29:10.880 --> 00:29:14.880 It seems like we're putting causality into the mix. 00:29:14.880 --> 00:29:17.120 And so one of the things we want to highlight here is 00:29:17.120 --> 00:29:20.080 that that's not the case. 00:29:20.080 --> 00:29:25.120 When you think about Christ's satisfaction for your sins on the cross. 00:29:25.120 --> 00:29:26.800 This happened in the past. 00:29:26.800 --> 00:29:28.800 It happened 2000 years ago. 00:29:28.800 --> 00:29:31.840 It's a concrete thing in time. 00:29:31.840 --> 00:29:33.920 For us, it's in the past. 00:29:33.920 --> 00:29:36.640 For men like Abraham, they were looking thousands of years into the 00:29:37.280 --> 00:29:39.680 future for that event to occur. 00:29:39.680 --> 00:29:44.960 The same benefit that accrues to us from the cross accrue to 00:29:44.960 --> 00:29:48.880 those men who received it by faith before it happened. 00:29:48.880 --> 00:29:52.240 How? Because God operates outside of time. 00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:55.600 When Christ said it is finished on the cross, he was paying 00:29:55.600 --> 00:29:59.440 for every sin in every direction on the timeline. 00:29:59.440 --> 00:30:01.840 And this is actually one of the problems in the early church. 00:30:01.840 --> 00:30:04.880 There was a heresy that sprung up that said that anyone who 00:30:04.880 --> 00:30:08.800 wasn't alive and heard the gospel and and anyone who died before 00:30:08.800 --> 00:30:12.320 Jesus died couldn't be forgiven because they didn't know about it. 00:30:12.320 --> 00:30:16.880 That's because they were trying to look at causality being connected to 00:30:17.200 --> 00:30:20.160 time. And that's simply not how God works. 00:30:20.160 --> 00:30:24.320 Our names were written in the book of life from before eternity. 00:30:24.320 --> 00:30:27.760 God paid the price for every single sin on the cross, he 00:30:27.760 --> 00:30:29.440 redeemed the universe. 00:30:29.440 --> 00:30:34.800 Only those who reject that propitiation on the cross are damned. 00:30:34.800 --> 00:30:38.640 Everyone who receives with faith, which is itself a gift from God, 00:30:38.640 --> 00:30:40.160 is saved. 00:30:40.160 --> 00:30:42.800 And so we've done a number of episodes where we talk about 00:30:42.800 --> 00:30:47.760 how some of this can't really be logically reconciled because you're putting 00:30:47.760 --> 00:30:52.480 cause before effect and you have these double binds where you have 00:30:52.800 --> 00:30:56.080 all men were died for, but not all men received salvation. 00:30:56.080 --> 00:30:57.520 Did God fail on the cross? 00:30:57.520 --> 00:31:00.880 So we've addressed the fact that there are cases where when the 00:31:00.880 --> 00:31:04.880 human mind tries to perceive these things, it just falls apart. 00:31:04.880 --> 00:31:09.680 And it's crucial to acknowledge that sometimes our reason fails us because 00:31:09.680 --> 00:31:12.880 if you don't admit that your reason fails you, you're gonna make 00:31:12.880 --> 00:31:15.680 up lies to try to explain what happened. 00:31:15.680 --> 00:31:17.280 And so I think one of the big problems that we have 00:31:17.280 --> 00:31:21.680 today when we're talking about repentance, when we're understanding correctly that repentance 00:31:21.680 --> 00:31:26.400 is thinking differently than before about our own sin, is that there 00:31:26.400 --> 00:31:31.760 are many places in scripture that say that repentance is necessary for 00:31:31.760 --> 00:31:35.120 salvation, which goes back to what Corey was saying about the order 00:31:35.120 --> 00:31:38.080 of operations in Rome, that you have to do things in a 00:31:38.080 --> 00:31:41.520 series of events and forgiveness comes at the end. 00:31:41.520 --> 00:31:43.040 We reject that. 00:31:43.600 --> 00:31:48.560 When you are sorry for your sins, you receive the forgiveness that 00:31:48.560 --> 00:31:51.280 was paid in the past on the cross. 00:31:51.280 --> 00:31:53.200 You are already forgiven for that. 00:31:53.200 --> 00:31:56.160 You have to simply receive that forgiveness. 00:31:56.560 --> 00:32:02.240 So rather than approaching this question of forgiveness and contrition and repentance 00:32:02.240 --> 00:32:05.360 in terms of a sequence of events, I want to opt for 00:32:05.360 --> 00:32:09.760 an alternative way of viewing all the scriptural passages that talk about 00:32:09.760 --> 00:32:14.960 it that are entirely consistent with the Protestant view of justification. 00:32:14.960 --> 00:32:19.200 And as this, rather than saying this happened and then this happened 00:32:19.280 --> 00:32:22.400 and then this happened and forgiveness is somewhere in there and repentance 00:32:22.800 --> 00:32:25.840 is somewhere in there, and you try to have a timeline where 00:32:25.840 --> 00:32:27.680 there's cause and effect. 00:32:27.680 --> 00:32:34.960 Instead, view every question momentarily as either true or false, where the 00:32:34.960 --> 00:32:38.400 question in any given moment is, did I sin? 00:32:38.400 --> 00:32:42.800 Yes. If I say that I sin and I confess those sins, 00:32:42.800 --> 00:32:43.840 am I forgiven? 00:32:43.840 --> 00:32:45.520 Yes. True. 00:32:45.520 --> 00:32:48.480 If I am forgiven by God and I am sorry for my 00:32:48.480 --> 00:32:51.840 sin, am I going to persist in that sin? 00:32:51.840 --> 00:32:54.160 No. That is the repentance. 00:32:54.160 --> 00:32:56.400 When we repent, when we look at the thing that God has 00:32:56.400 --> 00:32:58.320 told us not to do, when we say, Yeah, I shouldn't have 00:32:58.320 --> 00:32:58.800 done that. 00:32:58.800 --> 00:32:59.840 That was a sin. 00:32:59.840 --> 00:33:01.600 You paid for it on the cross. 00:33:01.600 --> 00:33:05.280 I would have been damned if you had not saved me for 00:33:05.280 --> 00:33:10.880 myself. That is the beginning of repentance, but again, because we as 00:33:10.880 --> 00:33:14.000 I said earlier, repentance and contrition are separate things. 00:33:14.000 --> 00:33:17.040 Contrition is I feel bad about this. 00:33:17.040 --> 00:33:20.480 I feel bad that I nailed Christ to the cross with my 00:33:20.480 --> 00:33:24.560 stupid foolish wickedness, things that I repeat that I know better and 00:33:24.560 --> 00:33:26.480 I still struggle with them. 00:33:26.480 --> 00:33:28.000 That is contrition. 00:33:28.000 --> 00:33:31.600 It's shameful to know that we have done wickedness in the eyes 00:33:31.600 --> 00:33:33.360 of the Lord. 00:33:33.360 --> 00:33:35.440 Repentance is something different. 00:33:35.440 --> 00:33:40.160 Repentance is thinking differently afterward, and as Corey said, in the process 00:33:40.160 --> 00:33:44.000 of sanctification, which is ongoing for the entire Christian life, you look 00:33:44.000 --> 00:33:47.040 at a thing that, you know, perhaps before you were a Christian, 00:33:47.040 --> 00:33:50.560 some of you who are listening today used to not be Christians, 00:33:50.560 --> 00:33:53.360 or you were such weak Christians that you didn't pay any attention, 00:33:53.360 --> 00:33:54.000 you didn't really care. 00:33:54.560 --> 00:33:57.600 When you started caring more, or you care for the first time 00:33:57.680 --> 00:34:00.640 because you received the Holy Spirit like I'm a Christian now, when 00:34:00.640 --> 00:34:04.960 you look back at your life before, you see evil things that 00:34:04.960 --> 00:34:07.840 you shouldn't have done that either you did know better and you 00:34:07.840 --> 00:34:12.240 didn't care, or you didn't know better, and you did them anyway. 00:34:12.240 --> 00:34:15.600 Repenting is saying that is no longer who I am. 00:34:15.600 --> 00:34:18.160 To look back at that and say that was evil, that's not 00:34:18.160 --> 00:34:22.480 me. The evil thing that I did before I knew Christ's love 00:34:22.800 --> 00:34:26.160 is no longer the man I want to be, because I am 00:34:26.160 --> 00:34:27.200 a Christian now. 00:34:27.200 --> 00:34:28.480 I am a brother of Christ. 00:34:28.480 --> 00:34:33.120 I'm a co-heir of God's eternal salvation with him. 00:34:33.120 --> 00:34:36.640 When this repentance occurs, it's an ongoing process. 00:34:36.640 --> 00:34:40.640 Because remember, the definition is think differently afterwards. 00:34:40.640 --> 00:34:43.360 It's thinking, it's actual cognition. 00:34:43.360 --> 00:34:44.720 It's not a feeling. 00:34:44.720 --> 00:34:46.720 It's actually I'm thinking about this. 00:34:46.720 --> 00:34:51.600 I can evaluate as a jurist and determine, yes, what I did 00:34:51.600 --> 00:34:55.840 meets the legal definition of a sin that God describes. 00:34:55.840 --> 00:34:57.600 That's intellectual. 00:34:57.600 --> 00:35:00.800 Differently, thinking differently, is saying the thing that I used to think 00:35:00.880 --> 00:35:02.800 it was okay, I now think is evil. 00:35:02.800 --> 00:35:06.080 I used to listen to this or say this or hang out 00:35:06.080 --> 00:35:08.000 with these people or behave in this way. 00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:11.680 Whatever your own personal foibles were your first personal sentence, they're not 00:35:11.680 --> 00:35:14.480 foibles, the the evil that you did in the past. 00:35:14.480 --> 00:35:16.480 When you look at those things now and you say that's not 00:35:16.480 --> 00:35:17.200 me anymore. 00:35:17.200 --> 00:35:18.800 I'm ashamed that I had done that. 00:35:18.800 --> 00:35:20.720 I am contrite for having done it. 00:35:20.720 --> 00:35:23.920 And I now today reject who I was. 00:35:23.920 --> 00:35:27.360 The sinfulness in my past is no longer who I am or 00:35:27.360 --> 00:35:29.520 who I want to be in the future. 00:35:29.520 --> 00:35:33.600 When you look at the passages in scripture that talk about repentance, 00:35:33.600 --> 00:35:37.040 a lot of times they will say things like, Acts three hundred 00:35:37.040 --> 00:35:41.040 nineteen says repent therefore and turn back that your sins may be 00:35:41.040 --> 00:35:42.000 blotted out. 00:35:42.000 --> 00:35:43.680 Well that sounds like cause and effect. 00:35:43.680 --> 00:35:46.640 It says repent, that's that's causative. 00:35:46.640 --> 00:35:49.280 If you want your sins to be blotted out, you have to 00:35:49.280 --> 00:35:53.280 repent. Luke thirteen three says No, I tell you, but unless you 00:35:53.280 --> 00:35:56.960 repent, you will all likewise perish. 00:35:56.960 --> 00:35:58.480 Matthew four seventeen. 00:35:58.480 --> 00:36:01.920 From that time Jesus began to preach saying repent, for the kingdom 00:36:01.920 --> 00:36:03.280 of heaven is at hand. 00:36:03.280 --> 00:36:04.880 And Jesus is saying repent all the time. 00:36:04.880 --> 00:36:06.720 They're all saying repent all the time. 00:36:06.720 --> 00:36:07.680 And it's the law. 00:36:07.680 --> 00:36:11.680 It's saying repent or you will not be saved. 00:36:11.680 --> 00:36:17.280 Now, this is a problem for us when we're thinking in terms 00:36:17.280 --> 00:36:23.760 of Sin and salvation and forgiveness, because if you say you have 00:36:23.760 --> 00:36:27.600 to do something to be saved, that's works righteousness. 00:36:27.600 --> 00:36:29.440 And that would be works righteousness. 00:36:29.440 --> 00:36:32.560 If I have to do something to be saved, that is me 00:36:32.960 --> 00:36:37.760 affecting my salvation and Jesus is either a partial participant and I'm 00:36:37.760 --> 00:36:41.520 picking up his slack, or maybe if I'm a full-on Pelagian, I'm 00:36:41.520 --> 00:36:42.320 doing the whole thing. 00:36:42.320 --> 00:36:44.800 You know, just Jesus gives me a pat on the head for 00:36:44.800 --> 00:36:45.920 doing such a good job. 00:36:45.920 --> 00:36:47.600 Obviously, that's false doctrine. 00:36:47.920 --> 00:36:52.400 Obviously, we completely reject that which Scripture rejects, because at no point 00:36:52.400 --> 00:36:56.240 do we do anything to affect our salvation. 00:36:56.240 --> 00:36:58.320 So, what does it mean when we would look at all these 00:36:58.320 --> 00:37:02.480 passages in Scripture that say repent that you are not damned? 00:37:02.480 --> 00:37:05.120 Well, if you look at it in the terms that I was 00:37:05.120 --> 00:37:09.120 talking about a minute ago in terms of instantaneous evaluation of whether 00:37:09.120 --> 00:37:12.720 a statement is true or false, then becomes very simple. 00:37:12.720 --> 00:37:16.720 If I am a Christian because I know that Jesus died for 00:37:16.720 --> 00:37:19.680 me and because I confess my sins, if that is true, if 00:37:19.680 --> 00:37:23.520 I'm a Christian, if I have a saved child of God, then 00:37:24.560 --> 00:37:26.720 I must necessarily repent. 00:37:26.720 --> 00:37:31.520 The salvation has already occurred, but the fruit of that salvation, the 00:37:31.520 --> 00:37:36.080 sanctification according to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, is a life 00:37:36.080 --> 00:37:39.120 of repentance, a life of saying, the evil I was doing before, 00:37:39.120 --> 00:37:40.640 it's not me anymore. 00:37:40.640 --> 00:37:44.960 And so those passages that seem to flip the cause and effect 00:37:44.960 --> 00:37:48.480 of salvation aren't actually doing that once you understand that they're talking 00:37:48.480 --> 00:37:49.600 about the Christian life. 00:37:49.600 --> 00:37:53.200 They're talking to Christians, saying, okay, you've heard the law, you've heard 00:37:53.200 --> 00:37:56.800 the gospel, you've received them with thanksgiving from God. 00:37:56.800 --> 00:37:59.600 You now live a repentant Christian life. 00:37:59.600 --> 00:38:01.760 You think differently afterwards. 00:38:01.760 --> 00:38:04.720 And the afterwards is an ongoing thing. 00:38:04.720 --> 00:38:08.160 So you're not saving yourself by repenting. 00:38:08.160 --> 00:38:12.240 You are bearing the fruit of the Christian who lives a life 00:38:12.320 --> 00:38:15.200 in keeping with the fact that he is saved. 00:38:15.200 --> 00:38:20.400 See, just as we sin because we are sinners, we will repent 00:38:20.400 --> 00:38:22.080 because we are Christians. 00:38:22.080 --> 00:38:25.360 The sin is the fruit of our fallen sinful nature. 00:38:25.360 --> 00:38:30.000 The repentance is the fruit of our Christian sanctified nature. 00:38:30.000 --> 00:38:32.400 And the repentance is disgust with sin. 00:38:32.400 --> 00:38:36.400 The repentance is thinking differently afterwards about all the stuff that we 00:38:36.400 --> 00:38:38.320 were doing before. 00:38:38.320 --> 00:38:43.360 An example from this is in Second Corinthians seven, Paul writes 00:38:45.600 --> 00:38:48.960 For even when we came into Macedonia our bodies had no rest, 00:38:48.960 --> 00:38:52.400 but we were afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear within. 00:38:52.640 --> 00:38:56.080 But God, who comforts the downcast, comforted us by the coming of 00:38:56.080 --> 00:38:59.520 Titus, and not only by his coming, but also by the comfort 00:38:59.680 --> 00:39:02.960 with which he was comforted by you, as he told us of 00:39:02.960 --> 00:39:06.480 your longing, your mourning, your zeal for me, so that I rejoiced 00:39:06.560 --> 00:39:07.520 still more. 00:39:07.520 --> 00:39:10.560 For even if I had made you grieve with my letter, I 00:39:10.560 --> 00:39:13.840 do not regret it, though I did regret it, for I see 00:39:13.840 --> 00:39:17.200 that that letter grieved you, though only for a while, as it 00:39:17.200 --> 00:39:20.640 is I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were 00:39:20.640 --> 00:39:24.960 grieved into repenting, for you felt a godly grief, so that you 00:39:24.960 --> 00:39:27.360 suffered no loss through us. 00:39:27.360 --> 00:39:32.480 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, 00:39:32.480 --> 00:39:35.120 whereas worldly grief produces death. 00:39:35.120 --> 00:39:38.960 For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you, but 00:39:38.960 --> 00:39:43.600 also what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, 00:39:43.600 --> 00:39:45.440 what zeal, what punishment? 00:39:45.440 --> 00:39:48.960 At every point you have proved yourselves innocent in the matter. 00:39:48.960 --> 00:39:51.760 So although I wrote to you, it was not for the sake 00:39:51.760 --> 00:39:53.920 of the one who did the wrong, nor for the sake of 00:39:53.920 --> 00:39:57.040 the one who suffered the wrong, but in order that your earnestness 00:39:57.040 --> 00:40:00.480 for us might be revealed to you in the sight of God, 00:40:00.480 --> 00:40:02.960 therefore we are comforted. 00:40:02.960 --> 00:40:05.680 So here Paul's talking about this. 00:40:05.680 --> 00:40:10.400 He's talking about the law convicting the consciences of those in Corinth 00:40:11.520 --> 00:40:15.120 and what happened when their consciences were convicted. 00:40:15.120 --> 00:40:21.600 Their godly grief, their contrition produced repentance that leads to salvation without 00:40:21.600 --> 00:40:26.480 regret, because they were set free from the penalty for their sin, 00:40:26.480 --> 00:40:30.240 and they were given a roadmap to live a Christian life. 00:40:30.240 --> 00:40:34.320 Now, they didn't save themselves by following the map because they were 00:40:34.320 --> 00:40:38.160 saved they were able to, because of their repentance, which was the 00:40:38.160 --> 00:40:42.720 fruit of their contrition and of their forgiveness as Christians, they repented. 00:40:42.720 --> 00:40:43.600 They turned away from it. 00:40:43.600 --> 00:40:46.640 And they and they were indic they were indignant at their own 00:40:46.640 --> 00:40:50.160 sins. They were disgusted with what they were before because they thought 00:40:50.160 --> 00:40:51.840 differently afterwards. 00:40:51.840 --> 00:40:53.280 That is the fruit of repentance. 00:40:53.280 --> 00:40:54.400 That's what it looks like. 00:40:54.400 --> 00:40:56.080 That's what it sounds like. 00:40:56.080 --> 00:40:59.360 So when you look at scripture and you're looking at these places 00:40:59.360 --> 00:41:03.040 where it calls us to repentance, it's calling us to to be 00:41:03.040 --> 00:41:06.960 disgusted with what we were doing before and to do something different 00:41:06.960 --> 00:41:08.400 in the future. 00:41:08.400 --> 00:41:14.240 And so talking about timelines again just briefly, repentance is not a 00:41:14.240 --> 00:41:15.360 past tense thing. 00:41:15.360 --> 00:41:19.280 Repentance is the beginning of something that is ongoing. 00:41:19.280 --> 00:41:23.200 For whatever particular sin or ever group of sins of which you 00:41:23.200 --> 00:41:27.360 repent, when you realize that you were doing something sinful against God 00:41:27.760 --> 00:41:30.640 and you repent of it, that is a turn. 00:41:30.640 --> 00:41:33.920 And from that point, ever after, when you look at that sort 00:41:33.920 --> 00:41:37.040 of behavior, that sin, you are grieved by it. 00:41:37.040 --> 00:41:40.480 But you're not grieved as oh no, I'm still doing this thing, 00:41:40.480 --> 00:41:42.160 but that this was evil. 00:41:42.160 --> 00:41:43.440 I can't believe I ever did it. 00:41:43.440 --> 00:41:44.960 Thank God for forgiving me. 00:41:44.960 --> 00:41:46.400 I'm never going back there. 00:41:46.400 --> 00:41:48.160 That is no longer me. 00:41:48.160 --> 00:41:50.880 That is repentance and it's a permanent state. 00:41:50.880 --> 00:41:53.520 If on the other hand, you know, you do something like some 00:41:53.520 --> 00:41:57.200 of these celebrities where they're sorry they got caught, and then a 00:41:57.200 --> 00:42:00.080 few years later they're sorry they got caught again. 00:42:00.080 --> 00:42:01.280 They didn't repent. 00:42:01.280 --> 00:42:02.800 They didn't change a thing. 00:42:02.800 --> 00:42:05.680 All they did was change their tune to get out from under 00:42:05.680 --> 00:42:06.400 the spotlight. 00:42:06.640 --> 00:42:08.720 But that's not how judgment day is going to work. 00:42:08.720 --> 00:42:13.280 That God's not going to miss anything of our sins against Him. 00:42:13.280 --> 00:42:17.440 And so the only godly repentance is a turning away from whatever 00:42:17.440 --> 00:42:18.480 the evil is. 00:42:18.480 --> 00:42:22.160 It's something that's ongoing and it's a fruit of being Christian. 00:42:22.160 --> 00:42:25.920 To emphasize this, you're not saving yourself by repenting. 00:42:25.920 --> 00:42:28.400 You repent because you're saved. 00:42:29.040 --> 00:42:29.200 There 00:42:29.200 --> 00:42:34.240 are three words in play here that are rather circular in their 00:42:34.240 --> 00:42:38.000 references in English and can become a little bit confusing. 00:42:38.000 --> 00:42:41.440 And so I want to make sure that these three words are 00:42:41.440 --> 00:42:44.400 clear in the way that we are using them and in the 00:42:44.400 --> 00:42:47.520 way that Christians should think about them. 00:42:47.520 --> 00:42:53.600 The three words are repentance, contrition, and penitence. 00:42:53.600 --> 00:42:56.240 Repentance has two parts as previously mentioned. 00:42:56.240 --> 00:42:56.880 That would be contrition 00:42:58.160 --> 00:43:00.320 and faith. 00:43:00.320 --> 00:43:07.200 Contrition would be those deep feelings of sorrow with regard to sin. 00:43:07.200 --> 00:43:11.280 These are often called the terrors of conscience in the writings of 00:43:11.680 --> 00:43:14.640 particularly Lutheran theologians. 00:43:14.640 --> 00:43:18.240 So when you see the horror of your sin, the depth of 00:43:18.240 --> 00:43:22.160 your own depravity, that will result in contrition. 00:43:22.160 --> 00:43:24.800 Unless, of course you're impenitent, that would be the other option, that 00:43:24.720 --> 00:43:26.480 is the worst option. 00:43:26.480 --> 00:43:29.600 But you have contrition as a response to that. 00:43:29.600 --> 00:43:33.360 That is that it's really deeper than a feeling of regret and 00:43:33.360 --> 00:43:36.160 remorse, but that is the best way to characterize it that is 00:43:36.560 --> 00:43:43.760 comprehensible. Penitence, on the other hand, is the action of displaying that 00:43:43.760 --> 00:43:48.000 publicly. That's not what is in view here. 00:43:48.000 --> 00:43:54.080 Repentance is the turning away from that sin, the change of mind 00:43:54.240 --> 00:43:57.360 that results in a change in your life. 00:43:57.360 --> 00:44:01.600 So it is important in these discussions to keep these three terms 00:44:01.600 --> 00:44:04.080 clear in your mind. 00:44:04.080 --> 00:44:07.600 Contrition is part of repentance. 00:44:07.600 --> 00:44:14.240 Penitence in really the Roman Catholic conception of it is not part 00:44:14.560 --> 00:44:16.080 of repentance. 00:44:16.080 --> 00:44:20.400 You don't have to make a public show, as it were, of 00:44:20.400 --> 00:44:22.320 your supposed sorrow. 00:44:22.320 --> 00:44:23.680 That can be fake. 00:44:23.680 --> 00:44:24.800 That can be false. 00:44:24.800 --> 00:44:29.520 That can be the celebrity crying on the day the talk program 00:44:30.160 --> 00:44:31.200 or whatever. 00:44:31.200 --> 00:44:34.720 That could be the politician who stands up with teary eyed and 00:44:34.720 --> 00:44:35.200 all that. 00:44:35.840 --> 00:44:37.600 that's not what's in view here. 00:44:37.600 --> 00:44:38.400 That's a show. 00:44:38.400 --> 00:44:41.600 That's putting on a hair shirt and crawling somewhere. 00:44:42.160 --> 00:44:45.600 Repentance is contrition and faith. 00:44:45.600 --> 00:44:51.280 That is the Christian response to seeing the reality of one's sins. 00:44:51.280 --> 00:44:56.880 You feel that depth of sorrow for them because your sins are 00:44:56.880 --> 00:45:00.560 the reason Christ died on the cross. 00:45:00.560 --> 00:45:04.160 Yes, the Jews are the ones who crucified him, and that is 00:45:04.240 --> 00:45:08.080 of course a greater sin, but it is important to recognize that 00:45:08.080 --> 00:45:11.360 each and every one of our own sins put Christ on the 00:45:11.360 --> 00:45:15.760 cross. You feel sorrow for that, that's the contrition, and then you 00:45:15.760 --> 00:45:18.960 have faith in the forgiveness of sins. 00:45:18.960 --> 00:45:20.960 That's repentance. 00:45:20.960 --> 00:45:23.520 And then you turn and live the Christian life. 00:45:23.520 --> 00:45:25.840 That is, of course, the and then what? 00:45:25.840 --> 00:45:30.960 That is the extension of repentance out into the Christian life. 00:45:30.960 --> 00:45:35.600 Because again, as stated a number of times, the Christian life in 00:45:35.600 --> 00:45:38.800 this world is a life of repentance. 00:45:38.800 --> 00:45:42.960 You are going to be repenting of your sins as long as 00:45:42.960 --> 00:45:46.480 you're here, because you are going to continue sinning. 00:45:46.480 --> 00:45:52.400 And as sanctification progresses, you will recognize more and more things in 00:45:52.400 --> 00:45:56.720 your life that are sin that you just thought that wasn't a 00:45:56.720 --> 00:45:57.680 big deal. 00:45:57.680 --> 00:46:01.040 Because that's repentance, that's the change of mind. 00:46:01.040 --> 00:46:04.640 When you recognize the reality of the things you were doing, and 00:46:04.640 --> 00:46:08.800 that reality is that they were sin, you turn, you have a 00:46:08.800 --> 00:46:12.080 change of mind with regard to those, and then you turn from 00:46:12.080 --> 00:46:16.400 them to live the Christian life, to walk away from those things, 00:46:16.400 --> 00:46:18.880 and to walk toward the things of God. 00:46:18.880 --> 00:46:23.120 That is what it means to actually be repentant, to have actual 00:46:23.120 --> 00:46:28.160 repentance. And that is why it is vitally important to keep these 00:46:28.160 --> 00:46:29.440 terms clear. 00:46:29.440 --> 00:46:33.120 Because there is a very strong tendency to use these terms in 00:46:33.120 --> 00:46:38.160 a messy fashion, sometimes deliberately on the part of malefactors, but sometimes 00:46:38.320 --> 00:46:40.640 it's just It's just sloppiness. 00:46:40.640 --> 00:46:44.320 And if we are not clear about what we mean by each 00:46:44.320 --> 00:46:48.640 individual term, then we start to have no idea what we actually 00:46:48.640 --> 00:46:51.520 mean about the core of the Christian faith. 00:46:51.520 --> 00:46:55.120 What does repentance mean if we don't keep these terms clear? 00:46:55.120 --> 00:46:58.640 And so I want you to keep clear in your mind repentance, 00:46:58.640 --> 00:47:00.080 contrition, penitence. 00:47:00.080 --> 00:47:03.120 Penitence is sort of off to the side. 00:47:03.120 --> 00:47:04.880 It is a thing. 00:47:04.880 --> 00:47:07.840 There is some role for it in the Christian life. 00:47:07.840 --> 00:47:10.400 It's not what is directly in view here. 00:47:10.400 --> 00:47:13.120 It is not part of repentance. 00:47:13.120 --> 00:47:16.240 Because repentance is contrition and faith. 00:47:16.640 --> 00:47:20.480 So here's a scriptural example of what it looks like in the 00:47:20.480 --> 00:47:22.720 absence of repentance. 00:47:22.720 --> 00:47:27.360 In Revelation 9, it describes: the rest of mankind who were not 00:47:27.360 --> 00:47:30.320 killed by these plagues did not repent of the works of their 00:47:30.320 --> 00:47:34.240 hands, nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold and silver, 00:47:34.240 --> 00:47:38.080 and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or 00:47:38.080 --> 00:47:42.160 walk, nor did they repent of their murders, or their sorceries, or 00:47:42.160 --> 00:47:46.240 their sexual immorality or their thefts. 00:47:46.240 --> 00:47:48.720 So absent repentance, what happens? 00:47:48.720 --> 00:47:50.320 All the sin persists. 00:47:50.320 --> 00:47:54.480 All the evil that was going on before continues because there's no 00:47:54.480 --> 00:48:00.320 repentance. So So, as Corey mentioned earlier, we're talking about judging, you 00:48:00.320 --> 00:48:00.640 can 00:48:01.520 --> 00:48:06.960 generally, depending on the type of sin, judge the repentance of another 00:48:06.960 --> 00:48:10.800 man. Because again, you're not talking about did he feel bad for 00:48:10.800 --> 00:48:13.040 it? Did he say he was sorry? 00:48:13.040 --> 00:48:14.400 Totally not in view. 00:48:14.400 --> 00:48:17.200 Repentance has nothing to do with that. 00:48:17.200 --> 00:48:19.920 Repentance has to do with did he change? 00:48:19.920 --> 00:48:22.400 Did he stop doing the wickedness? 00:48:22.400 --> 00:48:25.520 Nor did they repent of their murders or their sorceries or their 00:48:25.520 --> 00:48:27.520 sexual immorality or their thefts. 00:48:27.520 --> 00:48:30.000 They kept doing all those things because they didn't repent. 00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:32.320 They were the same before as they were afterward. 00:48:32.320 --> 00:48:33.920 The Christian life is the opposite. 00:48:33.920 --> 00:48:36.880 As Corey said, the Christian life is the things you were doing 00:48:37.040 --> 00:48:40.480 that you thought were hunky dory, you now realize they're actually evil, 00:48:40.480 --> 00:48:42.320 and I have to cut it out. 00:48:42.320 --> 00:48:46.000 And then there's contrition because you're like, Lord have mercy. 00:48:46.000 --> 00:48:48.400 I was doing this for a long time and I didn't even 00:48:48.400 --> 00:48:49.040 think about it. 00:48:49.040 --> 00:48:52.400 And now that I know I'm hardly sorry for them and sincerely 00:48:52.400 --> 00:48:54.720 repent of them. 00:48:54.720 --> 00:48:58.320 Repentance is changing. 00:48:58.320 --> 00:49:04.160 To give an example that's completely outside of Christianity, but it illustrates 00:49:04.160 --> 00:49:08.400 the principle of thinking differently afterward. 00:49:09.040 --> 00:49:12.000 About twelve years ago, I visited my parents. 00:49:12.000 --> 00:49:13.440 It was after I got divorced. 00:49:13.440 --> 00:49:16.560 I think it was probably the spring or summer after that happened. 00:49:16.560 --> 00:49:18.800 I went to them just to I guess I hadn't seen them 00:49:18.800 --> 00:49:20.000 for a few years. 00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:23.360 And when I left, my mom took a couple pictures with me 00:49:23.360 --> 00:49:26.320 and my dad and you know, the family pictures together, and she 00:49:26.320 --> 00:49:27.200 sent them to me. 00:49:27.360 --> 00:49:30.560 And there was one particular picture that when I remember to this 00:49:30.560 --> 00:49:34.000 day, it makes me angry at myself. 00:49:34.000 --> 00:49:36.720 This picture was of me standing next to my dad. 00:49:36.720 --> 00:49:39.680 He's got two inches on me and probably about a hundred pounds. 00:49:39.680 --> 00:49:42.240 He was the smallest guy in his high school and he was 00:49:42.240 --> 00:49:43.520 the strongest guy in his high school. 00:49:43.520 --> 00:49:45.120 He was always very athletic. 00:49:45.120 --> 00:49:47.200 He was a big, strong guy. 00:49:47.200 --> 00:49:51.120 Never built, just incredibly powerful. 00:49:51.120 --> 00:49:54.320 He did manual labor for thirty five years, and then he became 00:49:54.320 --> 00:49:59.280 a pastor and unfortunately he kind of maintained the caloric intake of 00:49:59.280 --> 00:50:02.080 a man who had a much more active lifestyle. 00:50:02.080 --> 00:50:05.600 And on his side of the family, people get big, the men 00:50:05.600 --> 00:50:06.480 and the women. 00:50:06.480 --> 00:50:09.680 My mom's side of the family are wiry hillbillies. 00:50:09.680 --> 00:50:11.440 I more than split the difference. 00:50:11.440 --> 00:50:14.080 I definitely tend towards my mom's side. 00:50:14.080 --> 00:50:17.520 But in this picture that my mom sent me, I was standing 00:50:17.520 --> 00:50:21.440 next to my dad and I look like a skinny fat piece 00:50:21.440 --> 00:50:22.560 of garbage. 00:50:22.560 --> 00:50:25.440 I had a double chin and my second chin was starting to 00:50:25.440 --> 00:50:26.640 maybe grow a third chin. 00:50:26.640 --> 00:50:29.280 My belly was kind of sticking out a little bit from this 00:50:29.280 --> 00:50:31.280 ill-fitting t-shirt I was wearing. 00:50:31.280 --> 00:50:32.480 I had no arms. 00:50:32.480 --> 00:50:35.120 And I looked at that picture that my mom had sent me. 00:50:35.280 --> 00:50:36.320 This was like a week later. 00:50:36.320 --> 00:50:39.440 So like literally the man who was looking at the picture was 00:50:39.440 --> 00:50:40.400 in the picture. 00:50:40.400 --> 00:50:42.240 And I was disgusted. 00:50:42.240 --> 00:50:43.520 I looked at that. 00:50:43.520 --> 00:50:47.040 And the reason I'm giving this example is that one of two 00:50:47.040 --> 00:50:49.680 things could have happened when I saw that. 00:50:49.680 --> 00:50:51.280 There was contrition, obviously. 00:50:51.280 --> 00:50:52.320 Like that's gross. 00:50:52.320 --> 00:50:54.320 That's I don't like that. 00:50:54.320 --> 00:50:57.760 But one possibility would be to wallow in it and say, oh 00:50:57.840 --> 00:50:59.280 wow, I'm terrible. 00:50:59.280 --> 00:51:03.280 Boo-hoo. I'm gonna eat even more because it's all hopeless. 00:51:03.280 --> 00:51:05.680 Or I could repent. 00:51:05.680 --> 00:51:07.520 That's exactly what I did. 00:51:07.520 --> 00:51:09.680 I looked at that picture that I like I said, I can 00:51:09.680 --> 00:51:10.560 still remember it. 00:51:10.560 --> 00:51:13.040 I still get angry when I think about how I looked. 00:51:13.040 --> 00:51:16.800 Because when I looked at myself, I said in that moment, that 00:51:16.960 --> 00:51:18.720 is not who I am. 00:51:18.720 --> 00:51:21.440 Even though I was looking at myself, it was basically looking in 00:51:21.440 --> 00:51:21.760 a mirror. 00:51:21.840 --> 00:51:23.920 I said, this is not who I am. 00:51:23.920 --> 00:51:27.040 And I was disgusted by it and I changed. 00:51:27.040 --> 00:51:31.200 From that moment on until this day, 12 years later, I changed 00:51:31.200 --> 00:51:36.080 my behavior because I did not want to continue down that path 00:51:36.480 --> 00:51:39.600 because my body naturally wants to make my butt bigger and my 00:51:39.600 --> 00:51:44.000 belly bigger and I'm naturally lazy and if I just eat what 00:51:44.000 --> 00:51:47.040 I want and do what I want without any thought or consideration 00:51:47.200 --> 00:51:49.760 I'm gonna turn into a piece of crap. 00:51:49.760 --> 00:51:51.120 It's not special. 00:51:51.120 --> 00:51:53.520 I think that applies to most of us. 00:51:53.520 --> 00:51:55.920 But when I saw that, I could have gone in one of 00:51:56.000 --> 00:51:56.640 two ways. 00:51:56.640 --> 00:52:00.480 I could have wallowed and gotten even pudgier and eventually maybe ended 00:52:00.480 --> 00:52:01.520 up like my dad. 00:52:01.520 --> 00:52:03.520 Or I could have gone the different direction. 00:52:03.520 --> 00:52:04.640 And that's what I did. 00:52:04.640 --> 00:52:07.520 And so that is an example of repentance. 00:52:07.520 --> 00:52:10.640 And the reason I'm highlighting something that has nothing whatsoever to do 00:52:10.640 --> 00:52:15.920 with with Jesus or with forgiveness of sins, although becoming obese, I 00:52:15.920 --> 00:52:19.280 think is is a moral matter, it's not simply an aesthetic one. 00:52:19.280 --> 00:52:21.440 It's a discussion for another day. 00:52:21.440 --> 00:52:25.040 The simple fact is that when you look at repentance in the 00:52:25.040 --> 00:52:30.400 scriptural sense as thinking differently afterward, this is a perfect example because 00:52:31.040 --> 00:52:36.480 that moment until today for me personally has been one of repentance. 00:52:36.480 --> 00:52:38.880 I still get mad at that picture because I'm that's not who 00:52:38.880 --> 00:52:39.760 I am. 00:52:39.760 --> 00:52:45.440 And my waist size is three four inches smaller now, I've kept 00:52:45.440 --> 00:52:46.000 it off. 00:52:46.000 --> 00:52:47.440 And that takes work. 00:52:47.440 --> 00:52:49.840 And sometimes I do a little better or a little worse one 00:52:49.840 --> 00:52:51.360 season to the next. 00:52:51.360 --> 00:52:56.880 But I will never permit myself to become that again because I 00:52:56.880 --> 00:52:59.520 looked at and said that's not who I am. 00:52:59.520 --> 00:53:01.600 Repentance looks like that. 00:53:01.600 --> 00:53:05.920 And so again, this isn't a moral example, but if I had 00:53:05.920 --> 00:53:09.600 told you 12 years ago, yeah, I feel sorry about being out 00:53:09.600 --> 00:53:10.400 of shape. 00:53:10.400 --> 00:53:11.520 I repent. 00:53:11.520 --> 00:53:13.200 And then you looked at me today. 00:53:13.200 --> 00:53:16.480 You wouldn't have to introspect my mind to know whether or not 00:53:16.480 --> 00:53:18.080 I had actually repented. 00:53:18.080 --> 00:53:19.280 You could look at my waistline. 00:53:19.280 --> 00:53:20.960 Say, yeah, you kept it off. 00:53:20.960 --> 00:53:25.040 You got rid of it and you don't have you're not misshapen. 00:53:25.040 --> 00:53:27.280 You look like a proper human being. 00:53:27.280 --> 00:53:30.720 That is a symptom of repentance in that particular situation. 00:53:30.720 --> 00:53:34.880 It was a change of mind that requires daily self-discipline. 00:53:35.920 --> 00:53:42.480 Everything, every sinful proclivity that we have is one that requires daily 00:53:42.480 --> 00:53:47.920 self-discipline. Whatever appetites you have, whether they're something sinful or they're just 00:53:47.920 --> 00:53:51.600 something that's you know generally not that great for you, when you 00:53:51.600 --> 00:53:56.480 go down that path casually with indifference without thinking about it, you 00:53:56.480 --> 00:53:58.000 end up getting worse and worse. 00:53:58.000 --> 00:54:02.000 That's kind of the sinful entropy of the world. 00:54:02.000 --> 00:54:06.320 It takes actual effort and concentration on a daily basis to say, 00:54:06.480 --> 00:54:08.320 no, I'm not going to do this. 00:54:08.320 --> 00:54:10.000 I'm not going to repeat this error. 00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:12.160 I'm not going to return to that trough and go back to 00:54:12.160 --> 00:54:16.720 the sinful deeds that I was engaging in before. 00:54:16.720 --> 00:54:18.800 Repentance is observable. 00:54:18.800 --> 00:54:22.000 It's not it's not inward permanently. 00:54:22.000 --> 00:54:24.720 Now again, some sins are entirely inward and no one would ever 00:54:24.720 --> 00:54:28.160 know. But most of the things that we do wrong, most of 00:54:28.160 --> 00:54:32.080 the things that we have to actually fix, they're gonna be visible. 00:54:32.080 --> 00:54:35.200 You know, as Corey and I have been talking for years now 00:54:35.280 --> 00:54:39.920 to especially younger guys Who are becoming much more engaged in their 00:54:39.920 --> 00:54:45.520 faith in some result of joining churches and talking to us? 00:54:45.520 --> 00:54:49.520 One of the common refrains among those young guys, or anyone, is 00:54:49.520 --> 00:54:53.360 that once you become a Christian or you actually become engaged in 00:54:53.360 --> 00:54:56.160 your Christian faith, it was just sort of you're a casual before 00:54:56.320 --> 00:55:00.000 and now you actually take it seriously, your friends are going to 00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:01.040 treat you differently. 00:55:01.200 --> 00:55:03.440 They may well cease to be your friends. 00:55:03.440 --> 00:55:08.400 It's very common for someone who becomes engaged in his Christian faith 00:55:08.400 --> 00:55:12.160 to lose the friends that he had before who just aren't coming 00:55:12.160 --> 00:55:13.040 along with him. 00:55:13.040 --> 00:55:18.880 And it's not that he became some sort of moralizing, pietistical, judgmental 00:55:18.880 --> 00:55:20.960 guy that no one wants to be around. 00:55:20.960 --> 00:55:26.000 They're simply made uncomfortable by the fact that this guy no longer 00:55:26.000 --> 00:55:29.040 is interested in the evil that they are because they don't think 00:55:29.040 --> 00:55:31.920 it's evil and they don't want a guy around who's gonna say 00:55:31.920 --> 00:55:36.400 no, or that they know might think no, regardless of the situation. 00:55:36.400 --> 00:55:39.760 So it's very common that guys when they get into their faith 00:55:40.320 --> 00:55:41.680 lose their circle of friends. 00:55:41.680 --> 00:55:44.480 It changes and that's it's difficult. 00:55:44.480 --> 00:55:47.280 You know, that's that's one of the ways that Satan really comes 00:55:47.280 --> 00:55:52.480 after you when when you're first getting back into God's things is 00:55:52.480 --> 00:55:53.520 it gets hard. 00:55:53.520 --> 00:55:57.680 It gets really hard for a while because there's a transition as 00:55:57.680 --> 00:55:59.440 a result of repentance. 00:55:59.440 --> 00:56:03.040 Because you think differently afterward when you're a faithful Christian. 00:56:03.040 --> 00:56:04.880 You're like, well, I can't do that anymore. 00:56:04.880 --> 00:56:06.480 I can't go to that place. 00:56:06.480 --> 00:56:09.760 I can't go with those people in that circumstance because it is 00:56:09.760 --> 00:56:13.440 sinful or because I know it will lead to me committing sins. 00:56:13.440 --> 00:56:14.720 I just can't do it. 00:56:14.720 --> 00:56:18.720 And so when you think differently after that sort of turning, it 00:56:18.720 --> 00:56:19.600 changes your life. 00:56:19.600 --> 00:56:20.640 And other people notice. 00:56:20.640 --> 00:56:23.200 And sometimes you pay the price for it, at least for a 00:56:23.200 --> 00:56:27.360 while. You know, you may have to completely change your social circle. 00:56:27.360 --> 00:56:29.120 I know some guys where that's happened. 00:56:29.120 --> 00:56:32.960 Like the they they lost their friends because their friends wouldn't tolerate 00:56:32.960 --> 00:56:35.360 a crime A Christian in their midst. 00:56:35.360 --> 00:56:40.640 And that's God, that's Satan trying to unwind that man's repentance. 00:56:40.640 --> 00:56:41.440 Saying, you know what? 00:56:41.440 --> 00:56:44.560 If you just, if you gave up on all this Jesus stuff, 00:56:44.560 --> 00:56:46.240 you could have your old life back. 00:56:46.240 --> 00:56:50.560 Wouldn't that be nice to have the routine that you're familiar with? 00:56:50.560 --> 00:56:53.600 Repentance is saying no, I don't care. 00:56:53.600 --> 00:56:57.760 I miss 'em, but if that's the price of me being faithful 00:56:57.760 --> 00:56:59.920 to God, I'll happily bear it. 00:56:59.920 --> 00:57:02.400 And repentance is sticking with it. 00:57:02.400 --> 00:57:05.520 It's the afterword of the entire equation. 00:57:05.520 --> 00:57:08.960 Because if there's no afterword, if there's just well, I I felt 00:57:08.960 --> 00:57:11.200 bad about it and then I just kept on my day. 00:57:11.200 --> 00:57:14.080 You haven't repented, even if you're contrite. 00:57:14.080 --> 00:57:18.560 If the if the thing that changed you doesn't actually bear fruit, 00:57:18.560 --> 00:57:20.720 then it was no change at all. 00:57:20.720 --> 00:57:24.160 Even if you felt it, even if you briefly thought it, if 00:57:24.320 --> 00:57:25.680 you don't stick with it. 00:57:25.920 --> 00:57:28.960 It's as I stuck with not eating so much crap that I 00:57:28.960 --> 00:57:30.640 would be gross. 00:57:30.640 --> 00:57:33.120 I it'd be very easy to. 00:57:33.120 --> 00:57:36.160 My body wants to, my my appetite wants to. 00:57:36.160 --> 00:57:38.720 I have to say no to myself. 00:57:38.720 --> 00:57:43.200 And it takes daily repentance to keep from getting fat. 00:57:43.200 --> 00:57:45.760 It takes daily repentance in whatever you're doing. 00:57:45.760 --> 00:57:51.200 Again, that personal, secular, profane example is the same sort of thing 00:57:51.200 --> 00:57:56.240 as the spiritual examples because it's the same inward mental active process. 00:57:56.240 --> 00:57:57.680 That's a crucial thing here. 00:57:57.680 --> 00:58:01.120 Repentance is active, it's mental, it's ongoing. 00:58:01.120 --> 00:58:04.160 It has a beginning, but it cannot have an end. 00:58:04.640 --> 00:58:07.120 I think that's the crucial thing to understand about repentance. 00:58:07.120 --> 00:58:08.400 It's not a flash in the pan. 00:58:08.400 --> 00:58:10.960 Your contrition is momentary. 00:58:10.960 --> 00:58:12.320 It should be, generally. 00:58:12.320 --> 00:58:14.720 Like if if you're contrite for something that you did in the 00:58:14.720 --> 00:58:18.960 past, you're hardly sorry for it, you sincerely repent of it. 00:58:18.960 --> 00:58:21.520 You leave the guilt at the cross. 00:58:21.520 --> 00:58:23.360 You know that you are forgiven. 00:58:23.360 --> 00:58:27.200 And so when you look back on it, years later, it's only 00:58:27.200 --> 00:58:28.240 in repentance. 00:58:28.240 --> 00:58:33.840 There shouldn't necessarily be ongoing shame and guilt for that past thing, 00:58:33.840 --> 00:58:36.000 but there is ongoing disgust. 00:58:36.000 --> 00:58:37.680 Like I can't believe I did that. 00:58:37.680 --> 00:58:40.880 I mentioned the past I personally have things I look back like. 00:58:40.880 --> 00:58:42.000 What were you thinking? 00:58:42.000 --> 00:58:42.640 This is disgusting. 00:58:42.640 --> 00:58:44.720 How could you possibly do this? 00:58:44.720 --> 00:58:45.920 That's repentance. 00:58:45.920 --> 00:58:49.920 It's not being weighed down by guilt or by feeling that somehow 00:58:49.920 --> 00:58:51.200 I'm not forgiven. 00:58:51.200 --> 00:58:54.720 I know that only God's forgiveness can fix those things, but the 00:58:54.720 --> 00:58:56.560 repentance is saying, yeah, it's not me anymore. 00:58:56.800 --> 00:58:59.200 I'm not going to be that again. 00:58:59.200 --> 00:59:02.000 And if it means that, you know, there's certain aisles in the 00:59:02.000 --> 00:59:06.320 grocery store that I don't walk down because my self-control ends when 00:59:06.320 --> 00:59:08.960 I'm standing in front of a certain aisle, I still go down 00:59:08.960 --> 00:59:09.840 the aisle. 00:59:09.840 --> 00:59:13.040 Other people have other challenges, and some of them again, some of 00:59:13.040 --> 00:59:15.680 them are moral, some of them are just matters of wisdom, where 00:59:15.680 --> 00:59:19.680 it's not necessarily like it's sinful to eat frozen pizza or something. 00:59:19.680 --> 00:59:23.520 I'm just saying that when you actually have an inward change, it 00:59:23.520 --> 00:59:25.520 will continue to bear fruit. 00:59:25.520 --> 00:59:31.280 And so unfortunately, especially in Protestantism, because we have fled so far 00:59:31.600 --> 00:59:36.400 from the Roman penitential system where these there are these inputs and 00:59:36.400 --> 00:59:39.840 outputs, and at the very end of the process of actions, then 00:59:39.840 --> 00:59:41.120 you're forgiven. 00:59:41.120 --> 00:59:44.640 Because we know that that's nonsense, we forget that there's still a 00:59:44.640 --> 00:59:48.720 process. The process is that you're forgiven, you're a Christian. 00:59:48.720 --> 00:59:49.680 Go and sin no more. 00:59:50.560 --> 00:59:53.760 Don't keep doing the things that you were doing before, because they're 00:59:53.760 --> 00:59:55.120 evil, you know they're evil. 00:59:55.120 --> 00:59:58.160 You hate that they were evil, you reject them. 00:59:58.160 --> 01:00:02.560 Repentance is is a turning, it is a change of mind, and 01:00:02.560 --> 01:00:06.160 it is a rejection of that which you used to be. 01:00:06.160 --> 01:00:09.040 That's sometimes it's hard, sometimes it's easy. 01:00:09.040 --> 01:00:13.520 And that's describing it as the process of sanctification is an important 01:00:13.520 --> 01:00:17.440 part of that, is recognizing what Paul said in Romans 7 that 01:00:17.440 --> 01:00:20.960 even though he knows that Jesus died for him and he wants 01:00:20.960 --> 01:00:25.600 to do good, his own sinful flesh continues to seek after those 01:00:25.600 --> 01:00:27.520 things which are evil. 01:00:27.520 --> 01:00:31.360 We're all at war with ourselves because we have our sinful nature 01:00:31.440 --> 01:00:34.400 and we have our sanctified nature at the same time. 01:00:34.400 --> 01:00:40.720 And repentance is the intellectual process of the sanctified nature rejecting the 01:00:40.720 --> 01:00:41.840 sinful nature. 01:00:41.840 --> 01:00:44.080 Basically you have to be your own nanny. 01:00:44.080 --> 01:00:45.360 You have to say no. 01:00:45.360 --> 01:00:47.600 I know that I want to do that evil thing. 01:00:47.600 --> 01:00:49.760 God says no, I'm not gonna do it. 01:00:49.760 --> 01:00:52.640 When you're an adult, there's no one necessarily around to yell at 01:00:52.640 --> 01:00:55.600 you. There's no one to know if you're doing something bad. 01:00:55.600 --> 01:00:56.880 You have to know for yourself. 01:00:56.880 --> 01:00:59.840 And so the Holy Spirit gives us the power to be aware 01:01:00.000 --> 01:01:01.920 and to resist the devil. 01:01:01.920 --> 01:01:03.280 We can't do it on our own. 01:01:03.280 --> 01:01:04.160 We don't want to. 01:01:04.160 --> 01:01:06.640 If there were no God, why would you bother resisting the devil? 01:01:06.640 --> 01:01:08.320 He gives us fun stuff. 01:01:08.320 --> 01:01:09.600 All the all the evil thing. 01:01:09.600 --> 01:01:15.520 Like people enjoy evil because there's some upside temporarily, but there's there's 01:01:15.520 --> 01:01:16.960 something juicy about it. 01:01:16.960 --> 01:01:20.960 That's how he gets people is that there's some fun, there's some 01:01:20.960 --> 01:01:22.560 good to doing evil. 01:01:22.560 --> 01:01:27.600 It's not true good, it's momentary, and it always backfires because Satan 01:01:27.600 --> 01:01:29.120 poisons everything. 01:01:29.120 --> 01:01:33.520 But it's not like when men pursue evil, it's always only ever 01:01:33.520 --> 01:01:35.520 pursuing complete destruction. 01:01:35.520 --> 01:01:38.240 There's usually some some putative upset. 01:01:38.240 --> 01:01:42.960 And so it requires conscious effort and a repentant heart and a 01:01:42.960 --> 01:01:48.080 repentant mind to know you have to guard yourself against whatever evil 01:01:48.080 --> 01:01:49.360 is in your heart. 01:01:49.360 --> 01:01:53.120 Your evil, your struggles may well be different than mine. 01:01:53.360 --> 01:01:56.560 I've talked about like food as an example, again not necessarily one 01:01:56.560 --> 01:01:59.200 of sin, although gluttony is certainly a sin. 01:01:59.440 --> 01:02:03.360 Things like alcohol abuse are another prime example of this. 01:02:03.360 --> 01:02:05.760 I have no problem whatsoever with alcohol. 01:02:05.760 --> 01:02:08.160 I have a room full of scotch in my house. 01:02:08.160 --> 01:02:10.560 If I and some people think, oh man, that you must have 01:02:10.560 --> 01:02:11.280 a drinking problem. 01:02:11.280 --> 01:02:14.640 Well, if I had a drinking problem, I wouldn't have bottles been 01:02:14.640 --> 01:02:15.840 open for fifteen years. 01:02:15.840 --> 01:02:17.600 It wouldn't last that long. 01:02:17.600 --> 01:02:20.160 I could go for the rest of my life without ever drinking 01:02:20.160 --> 01:02:21.120 alcohol again. 01:02:21.120 --> 01:02:22.480 I wouldn't particularly care. 01:02:22.480 --> 01:02:24.720 I'd be a little sad because I think it's tasty. 01:02:24.720 --> 01:02:26.080 But that's why I drink it. 01:02:26.080 --> 01:02:30.800 Some people, whether it's genetic or it's behavioral or personality, don't have 01:02:30.800 --> 01:02:31.840 that option. 01:02:31.840 --> 01:02:35.520 When they are exposed to alcohol, when they drink, they don't just 01:02:35.520 --> 01:02:39.280 have a glass in an evening or two glasses, they finish the 01:02:39.280 --> 01:02:42.640 bottle, they finish two bottles. 01:02:42.640 --> 01:02:46.800 There's a difference in the struggles that we have. 01:02:46.800 --> 01:02:50.640 And so that's, you know, I think that when when someone realizes 01:02:50.960 --> 01:02:53.760 that they're an alcoholic and I'm sure that some of you are 01:02:53.760 --> 01:02:56.960 listening struggle with this and I I give this example because it's 01:02:56.960 --> 01:03:00.480 a concrete one that I think we all have some understanding of. 01:03:00.480 --> 01:03:03.920 Now, I have no personal, I I try to be empathetic, but 01:03:03.920 --> 01:03:06.080 again, like I don't know what it's like to have that sort 01:03:06.080 --> 01:03:07.280 of desire for a bottle. 01:03:07.280 --> 01:03:09.280 Like for me, it's just it's just tasty. 01:03:09.280 --> 01:03:12.480 But it doesn't I don't seek obliteration in alcohol. 01:03:12.480 --> 01:03:14.480 It's just I think it's a tasty beverage. 01:03:14.480 --> 01:03:17.040 And that's the end of it, which is why I'm in I'm 01:03:17.040 --> 01:03:20.960 indifferent. If you are someone who struggles or you know someone who 01:03:20.960 --> 01:03:25.360 struggles with the actual addiction to alcohol where it's not, they don't 01:03:25.280 --> 01:03:26.640 care what it tastes like. 01:03:26.640 --> 01:03:30.080 They need to find whatever is at the bottom of that bottle. 01:03:30.080 --> 01:03:32.160 That's a completely different thing. 01:03:32.160 --> 01:03:35.920 And so I think the the 12-step program is parts of it 01:03:36.240 --> 01:03:42.240 are a good example of repentance because it's not simply, oh boo-hoo, 01:03:42.240 --> 01:03:43.360 I I'm an addict. 01:03:43.760 --> 01:03:44.720 it's so sad. 01:03:44.720 --> 01:03:47.200 I should feel bad about this and Jesus will forgive me. 01:03:47.200 --> 01:03:48.000 That's no. 01:03:48.000 --> 01:03:49.600 You have to amend your life. 01:03:49.600 --> 01:03:53.680 You have to stop doing what you've been doing because it's destructive. 01:03:53.680 --> 01:03:54.960 It's destructive to yourself. 01:03:54.960 --> 01:03:57.280 It's destructive to everyone around you. 01:03:57.280 --> 01:04:02.080 And so a crucial part of that process for someone fighting that 01:04:02.080 --> 01:04:05.680 sort of addiction is actual repentance. 01:04:05.680 --> 01:04:07.840 Thinking differently afterwards. 01:04:07.840 --> 01:04:12.080 And unfortunately for someone with substance abuse problems, it's usually when they 01:04:12.080 --> 01:04:13.280 hit rock bottom. 01:04:13.280 --> 01:04:17.280 It's usually it can't begin with the intellectual ascent to say, man, 01:04:17.280 --> 01:04:18.560 I'm drinking too much. 01:04:18.560 --> 01:04:19.600 I should cut that out. 01:04:19.600 --> 01:04:22.880 Or I have some other substance abuse problem, I should do that 01:04:22.880 --> 01:04:28.320 less. Usually something so bad has to happen that someone realizes either 01:04:28.320 --> 01:04:30.400 I stop this or I'm going to die. 01:04:30.400 --> 01:04:34.720 Unfortunately that's usually what it takes for the repentance to occur. 01:04:34.720 --> 01:04:38.320 And because the repentance is intellectual, from that point forward you can 01:04:38.320 --> 01:04:40.000 be intellectually committed to it. 01:04:40.000 --> 01:04:43.680 But it takes that battle of the wills, of the the man 01:04:43.680 --> 01:04:47.920 or the woman in their mind resisting their own temptation to do 01:04:48.400 --> 01:04:52.560 evil because you know if you persist in that, it's going to 01:04:52.560 --> 01:04:53.520 kill you. 01:04:53.520 --> 01:04:55.760 Now again, that's that's a secular example. 01:04:55.760 --> 01:04:59.680 Obviously that sort of addiction is it's sinful because it's harmful. 01:04:59.680 --> 01:05:02.800 It's not what God it's what God says not to do with 01:05:02.800 --> 01:05:04.080 that gift. 01:05:04.080 --> 01:05:08.000 But on the other hand, the the fact that that repentance works, 01:05:08.000 --> 01:05:09.120 it plays out. 01:05:09.120 --> 01:05:12.640 There are people who have suffered with that addiction and they are 01:05:12.640 --> 01:05:15.840 repentants and they never they never get drunk again the rest of 01:05:15.840 --> 01:05:16.560 their life. 01:05:16.560 --> 01:05:20.160 And some of them are so successful that they're able to occasionally 01:05:20.160 --> 01:05:22.400 have a glass socially with a friend. 01:05:22.400 --> 01:05:26.400 You know, the one drop rule is not strictly a part of 01:05:26.400 --> 01:05:28.080 the process. 01:05:28.560 --> 01:05:33.680 the point is that you set aside finding the bottle bottom of 01:05:33.680 --> 01:05:38.000 the bottle and if you if you're able to enjoy something just 01:05:38.000 --> 01:05:42.480 as a small drink, then it's okay because it's not sin anymore, 01:05:42.480 --> 01:05:45.120 because it's not destructive. 01:05:45.120 --> 01:05:47.920 The destruction is where the sin comes from in the repentance is 01:05:47.920 --> 01:05:50.240 understanding I can leave it all behind. 01:05:50.240 --> 01:05:52.240 I can either never have a drink again or I can actually 01:05:52.240 --> 01:05:56.800 have a drink, you know, after decades of sobriety, because I know 01:05:56.800 --> 01:05:58.560 that I can stop at one drink. 01:05:58.560 --> 01:06:02.320 And that's really the ultimate success for a recovering alcoholic is to 01:06:02.320 --> 01:06:04.960 actually be able to have one drink again. 01:06:04.960 --> 01:06:06.960 Not everyone gets there, not everyone wants to try. 01:06:06.960 --> 01:06:08.960 Maybe they know that their willpower is not there. 01:06:08.960 --> 01:06:10.320 I'm not trying to tempt anyone. 01:06:10.320 --> 01:06:13.680 I'm just saying that when you look at the question of changing 01:06:13.680 --> 01:06:17.920 the before and after, it's it's gonna be the rest of your 01:06:17.920 --> 01:06:22.640 life, whether it's some sort of addiction problem where you have to 01:06:22.640 --> 01:06:26.080 hit rock bottom before you can have an after, or if you 01:06:26.080 --> 01:06:28.800 simply read the Bible or you hear a sermon or maybe you 01:06:28.800 --> 01:06:32.160 hear a podcast or you have a conversation and you realize the 01:06:32.160 --> 01:06:35.760 thing that you were doing that you thought was okay is actually 01:06:35.760 --> 01:06:37.040 not what God says. 01:06:37.040 --> 01:06:40.720 And when you repent, the rest of your life is redefined in 01:06:40.720 --> 01:06:44.160 terms of fleeing from that and saying, That's not me anymore. 01:06:44.320 --> 01:06:44.560 To 01:06:44.560 --> 01:06:48.560 give another example, not necessarily a personal example like Wo was giving 01:06:48.560 --> 01:06:52.800 earlier, but one that will resonate with much of our audience we 01:06:52.800 --> 01:06:58.560 know most of our audience is male, relatively young men. 01:07:00.080 --> 01:07:03.360 Before I get into that example though, I want to point out 01:07:03.840 --> 01:07:09.200 those who are listening attentively will undoubtedly have noticed that we are 01:07:09.200 --> 01:07:12.880 speaking of two different but related things. 01:07:13.680 --> 01:07:18.640 Because we have been speaking of both feeling, so for instance contrition, 01:07:18.640 --> 01:07:24.640 and thinking, metanoia to think differently, to change one's mind. 01:07:24.640 --> 01:07:28.640 These are both in view, but they are in view in slightly 01:07:28.640 --> 01:07:30.240 different ways. 01:07:30.240 --> 01:07:35.600 And with regard to different sins, in slightly different ways. 01:07:36.000 --> 01:07:40.400 Certain sins, it is going to be easier to feel disgusted about 01:07:40.400 --> 01:07:43.680 those once you have that change of mind. 01:07:43.680 --> 01:07:44.000 And 01:07:45.520 --> 01:07:50.960 I've spoken previously about sins that are contra naturum or impactum cum 01:07:51.120 --> 01:07:56.880 natura, which is just Latin for against nature or in agreement with 01:07:56.880 --> 01:08:02.080 nature. And so a sin that is in the latter category, that 01:08:02.080 --> 01:08:06.400 is in agreement with nature, is going to be more difficult for 01:08:06.400 --> 01:08:10.000 you to have a feeling of disgust about it than a sin 01:08:10.000 --> 01:08:13.120 that is contrary to nature. 01:08:13.120 --> 01:08:16.160 And so, for instance, if you have been in the depths of 01:08:16.160 --> 01:08:21.840 drug use, destructive drug use, you may very well find it easier 01:08:21.840 --> 01:08:25.520 to feel disgust about that, although there's obviously going to be that 01:08:25.520 --> 01:08:30.400 biological and psychological pull still for some years afterward. 01:08:30.400 --> 01:08:34.560 But it may be easier to feel that visceral disgust because that 01:08:34.560 --> 01:08:37.120 really is a sin against nature. 01:08:37.120 --> 01:08:41.040 It is at the very least an abuse to such an extreme 01:08:41.040 --> 01:08:45.200 that it becomes a sin against nature. 01:08:45.200 --> 01:08:49.120 However, in the case of fornication, which is the example I want 01:08:49.120 --> 01:08:54.320 to give, that is a sin that is in agreement with nature. 01:08:54.320 --> 01:08:58.880 Because biologically you are designed to like having sex. 01:08:58.880 --> 01:09:02.960 Unless, of course, you are one of the rare individuals who is 01:09:02.960 --> 01:09:04.320 actually celibate. 01:09:04.320 --> 01:09:08.560 But if you are, you know, and this will have no relevance 01:09:08.560 --> 01:09:09.920 to you whatsoever. 01:09:09.920 --> 01:09:14.160 Chances are no one listening is in that particular boat. 01:09:14.160 --> 01:09:18.080 And so if in your past, in your youth, as it were, 01:09:18.080 --> 01:09:20.800 you engaged in fornication. 01:09:20.800 --> 01:09:24.000 You are going to have a difficult time, a much more difficult 01:09:24.000 --> 01:09:29.520 time, looking at that past with the sort of disgust that you 01:09:29.520 --> 01:09:33.120 would have for a sin that is against nature. 01:09:33.120 --> 01:09:36.560 Now if you were engaging in unnatural acts perhaps it will be 01:09:36.560 --> 01:09:43.040 easier. But that is not necessarily what is exactly in view here. 01:09:43.040 --> 01:09:45.840 It is important to distinguish two different things. 01:09:47.120 --> 01:09:54.320 You can feel disgust for the sin and not necessarily viscerally feel 01:09:54.320 --> 01:09:58.400 that disgust for the act that constituted the sin. 01:09:58.400 --> 01:10:01.520 And that's what it is important to keep in mind, in particular 01:10:01.600 --> 01:10:04.640 with the sin of fornication, because there may be some who are 01:10:04.640 --> 01:10:08.240 listening and going, I can't feel disgusted about what I did with 01:10:08.240 --> 01:10:12.400 my high school girlfriend, that feels entirely like it was correct, except 01:10:12.400 --> 01:10:14.720 for the fact that it was sin. 01:10:14.720 --> 01:10:18.480 To have the repentance, to have the metanoia, to have the change 01:10:18.480 --> 01:10:21.440 of mind, is to think about it differently. 01:10:21.440 --> 01:10:24.560 That is to look back at that and recognize that it was 01:10:24.560 --> 01:10:28.240 sin and that you should not have done that. 01:10:28.240 --> 01:10:34.480 Now over time, via sanctification, you will begin to feel that disgust 01:10:34.480 --> 01:10:36.000 toward the sin. 01:10:36.240 --> 01:10:40.000 That is something that you will grow into in your Christian life 01:10:40.000 --> 01:10:43.760 as you grow into your Christian life, as you are sanctified by 01:10:43.760 --> 01:10:45.600 the Spirit. 01:10:45.600 --> 01:10:48.880 I bring up this example because I do not want anyone listening 01:10:48.880 --> 01:10:52.800 to think I don't feel disgusted by this particular sin and so 01:10:52.800 --> 01:10:54.480 I can't possibly repent of it. 01:10:54.480 --> 01:10:56.800 No, you can still repent. 01:10:56.800 --> 01:11:00.720 Because you can feel contrite with regard to the fact that it 01:11:00.720 --> 01:11:03.600 was a sin, with regard to the fact that it is one 01:11:03.600 --> 01:11:06.960 of the sins that nailed Christ to the cross, and you can 01:11:06.960 --> 01:11:08.320 think differently about it. 01:11:08.320 --> 01:11:10.320 You can recognize that it's sin. 01:11:10.320 --> 01:11:12.400 That's thinking differently. 01:11:12.400 --> 01:11:15.600 Because at the time you probably weren't thinking it was sin, you 01:11:15.600 --> 01:11:18.640 were just thinking it was fun, it was enjoyable, it was something 01:11:18.640 --> 01:11:20.160 you wanted to do. 01:11:20.160 --> 01:11:25.920 And so you can still repent by thinking differently about that sin, 01:11:25.920 --> 01:11:30.400 even if you don't yet feel that disgust with regard to the 01:11:30.400 --> 01:11:33.440 contrition aspect of repentance. 01:11:33.440 --> 01:11:37.760 So, don't despair just because you can't feel disgust for some of 01:11:37.760 --> 01:11:39.040 your past sins. 01:11:39.040 --> 01:11:43.280 That's not necessarily part of this initially. 01:11:43.280 --> 01:11:46.400 But again, you will grow into that as you grow in your 01:11:46.400 --> 01:11:47.040 Christian life. 01:11:47.040 --> 01:11:50.640 It's just like some of the you can call them smaller sins 01:11:50.640 --> 01:11:53.440 in your life that you may not recognize when you first become 01:11:53.680 --> 01:11:55.280 a Christian. 01:11:55.280 --> 01:11:58.640 But as you grow in your Christian life, as you grow in 01:11:58.640 --> 01:12:03.920 your understanding of Scripture, as sanctification progresses, you'll start to recognize these 01:12:03.920 --> 01:12:07.200 things in your life that oh well that was actually a sin. 01:12:07.200 --> 01:12:10.640 This This is a sin, I need to stop doing this, and 01:12:10.640 --> 01:12:12.800 so you think differently about it. 01:12:12.800 --> 01:12:14.400 You turn from it. 01:12:14.400 --> 01:12:16.880 That is part of this ongoing process. 01:12:16.880 --> 01:12:20.080 It's not a one and done sort of thing. 01:12:20.080 --> 01:12:22.240 This is distinct from justification. 01:12:22.880 --> 01:12:26.240 Justification is one and done. 01:12:26.240 --> 01:12:28.800 When you are justified, you're justified. 01:12:28.800 --> 01:12:30.880 Period. That's done. 01:12:30.880 --> 01:12:33.920 And the work of that was done on the cross. 01:12:33.920 --> 01:12:36.240 That is a one time thing. 01:12:36.240 --> 01:12:41.440 Sanctification is the ongoing process in the Christian life, and from our 01:12:41.440 --> 01:12:46.080 perspective that is repentance, that is this change of mind that is 01:12:46.080 --> 01:12:51.200 then accompanied by a change in behavior. 01:12:51.200 --> 01:12:56.000 And so you will find, like I said, small things once you've 01:12:56.000 --> 01:12:58.320 dealt with the big things anyway, you will find small things in 01:12:58.880 --> 01:13:01.840 your life that I need to change that. 01:13:01.840 --> 01:13:06.720 You'll think about it and realize that no, that actually is sin. 01:13:06.720 --> 01:13:09.840 I should not be engaged in this. 01:13:09.840 --> 01:13:13.920 And so for instance, we go over a a number of those 01:13:13.920 --> 01:13:17.840 issues in some of these podcast episodes. 01:13:17.840 --> 01:13:20.880 We had an episode where we went over things that were neglected 01:13:20.880 --> 01:13:22.720 matters in the Christian life. 01:13:22.720 --> 01:13:26.000 And so most Christians don't think about usury, don't think about the 01:13:26.000 --> 01:13:29.760 charging of interest as a sin, because they haven't been taught that 01:13:29.760 --> 01:13:33.600 it's a sin, and they weren't paying close enough attention reading scripture, 01:13:33.600 --> 01:13:35.680 assuming they were doing so. 01:13:36.240 --> 01:13:40.880 And so you may realize Realize I have been engaged in this 01:13:40.880 --> 01:13:46.400 particular sin for years and I didn't recognize it was sin. 01:13:46.400 --> 01:13:50.800 That recognizing that it is sin is basically the first step, because 01:13:50.800 --> 01:13:54.160 you have to recognize the thing is sin to have a change 01:13:54.160 --> 01:13:56.720 with regard to how you think about the thing. 01:13:56.720 --> 01:14:00.240 If you never recognize it's sin, you're never going to change your 01:14:00.240 --> 01:14:03.360 mind. This is one of the reasons that we need to be 01:14:03.360 --> 01:14:06.400 reading scripture every single day. 01:14:06.400 --> 01:14:09.120 We need to be in the Word of God. 01:14:09.120 --> 01:14:11.120 We need to be discussing it. 01:14:11.120 --> 01:14:13.440 Just read what Scripture says about Scripture. 01:14:13.440 --> 01:14:16.080 Discuss it when you pass by the way, write it on the 01:14:16.080 --> 01:14:21.200 doorposts of your house and on the gates of your towns, etcetera. 01:14:21.200 --> 01:14:24.640 We need to be deeply involved in the Word of God, because 01:14:24.640 --> 01:14:27.680 that is how God speaks to us, and that is how we 01:14:27.680 --> 01:14:31.200 start to recognize these things that are sin. 01:14:31.200 --> 01:14:34.640 It's one of the reasons that we do this podcast because we 01:14:34.640 --> 01:14:39.120 read scripture and we recognize things that are sin and then we 01:14:39.120 --> 01:14:41.760 look at what is going on in our society and what Christians 01:14:41.760 --> 01:14:42.960 are actually doing. 01:14:42.960 --> 01:14:49.280 And Christians are engaged in these behaviors that are sin, clearer sin, 01:14:49.280 --> 01:14:52.320 if you read the Word of God, but if you don't read 01:14:52.320 --> 01:14:56.320 the Word of God, you may never recognize their sin, and so 01:14:56.320 --> 01:14:59.600 you won't repent, because you cannot repent of that which you do 01:14:59.600 --> 01:15:02.560 not recognize as being sin. 01:15:02.560 --> 01:15:05.840 And so that is the vitally important foundation that you have to 01:15:05.840 --> 01:15:08.720 build in order to have this repentance. 01:15:08.720 --> 01:15:12.080 You use the Word of God, and you use discussing the Word 01:15:12.080 --> 01:15:15.040 of God, hearing the Word of God, in church and when you 01:15:15.040 --> 01:15:18.640 have your Bible study, all these other places where you engage with 01:15:18.640 --> 01:15:21.520 the Word of God by yourself or with other men Then 01:15:22.560 --> 01:15:26.400 that is how you build the foundation upon which you can build 01:15:26.400 --> 01:15:29.040 this repentance, this Christian life. 01:15:29.040 --> 01:15:33.600 Because when you recognize the sin that the Spirit will highlight for 01:15:33.600 --> 01:15:37.120 you in the Word, and do bear that in mind. 01:15:37.120 --> 01:15:42.240 This is not simply reliant on your ability to read well and 01:15:42.240 --> 01:15:46.160 understand. Because when you read the Word of God you are interacting 01:15:46.160 --> 01:15:46.560 with God. 01:15:46.880 --> 01:15:50.240 It is not a passive process, it's an active process. 01:15:50.240 --> 01:15:53.280 The Spirit will help guide you into truth. 01:15:53.280 --> 01:15:56.720 That is what He does, that is what God promises will happen 01:15:56.720 --> 01:15:58.720 when we read His Word. 01:15:58.720 --> 01:16:02.080 And so you will begin to recognize these things in scripture and 01:16:02.080 --> 01:16:04.080 go, well, that's a sin. 01:16:04.080 --> 01:16:06.240 And I've been doing that. 01:16:06.240 --> 01:16:09.760 And our church is engaged in that, and this group's engaged in 01:16:09.760 --> 01:16:13.920 that. And then you can repent because you can think differently about 01:16:13.920 --> 01:16:16.640 it, because now you know it's a sin. 01:16:16.640 --> 01:16:19.760 And then of course you feel sorrow for it. 01:16:19.760 --> 01:16:22.320 If you are able to feel sorrow for it again, that may 01:16:22.320 --> 01:16:25.840 come later, but you think differently and you turn away from it. 01:16:25.840 --> 01:16:27.600 That is repentance. 01:16:27.840 --> 01:16:32.640 But you cannot have that repentance if you don't recognize its sin. 01:16:32.640 --> 01:16:37.360 And so that is why we constantly recommend that you read this, 01:16:37.360 --> 01:16:39.760 that, or the other part of scripture. 01:16:39.760 --> 01:16:45.680 It doesn't matter so much which reading schedule you're following. 01:16:45.680 --> 01:16:48.320 Just be involved in the Word of God. 01:16:48.320 --> 01:16:51.920 Read the Word of God. 01:16:51.920 --> 01:16:53.840 That is part of the Christian life. 01:16:54.080 --> 01:16:57.840 And that is how you actually build the foundation for the rest 01:16:57.840 --> 01:16:59.680 of the Christian life. 01:16:59.680 --> 01:17:03.600 You can't just say I'm a Christian and then expect everything to 01:17:03.600 --> 01:17:04.400 come to you. 01:17:04.400 --> 01:17:07.920 That is what historically we have called enthusiasm. 01:17:07.920 --> 01:17:08.880 Those are the individuals 01:17:09.760 --> 01:17:12.400 who think that God is just going to strike them out of 01:17:12.400 --> 01:17:15.440 the blue with a lightning bolt of inspiration. 01:17:15.440 --> 01:17:17.680 That is not how God works. 01:17:17.680 --> 01:17:21.360 God has given us His Word because that is how He speaks 01:17:21.360 --> 01:17:22.000 to us. 01:17:22.000 --> 01:17:25.760 And so when we read his word, when we hear his word, 01:17:25.760 --> 01:17:28.640 we are hearing the voice of God. 01:17:28.640 --> 01:17:31.520 And that is how we recognize our sin, and that is how 01:17:31.520 --> 01:17:32.800 we amend our lives. 01:17:32.800 --> 01:17:35.520 That is how we have actual repentance. 01:17:35.520 --> 01:17:39.840 We have this metanoia, we have this change of mind with regard 01:17:39.840 --> 01:17:43.680 to things that we once did not think were sinful, but now 01:17:43.680 --> 01:17:45.040 we recognize they 01:17:45.040 --> 01:17:45.680 are. 01:17:46.320 --> 01:17:50.720 And you highlight an excellent point there that when someone is raised 01:17:50.720 --> 01:17:55.920 in a Christian household and properly instructed and simply rejects these things 01:17:55.920 --> 01:17:59.440 out of hand, there's no need for repentance because the thing that 01:17:59.440 --> 01:18:02.960 you believed the third the first time was correct Correct. 01:18:02.960 --> 01:18:06.640 It's only those who go down the path of of committing sins 01:18:06.640 --> 01:18:11.360 and falling into error and misbelieving, not believing what God says, they 01:18:11.440 --> 01:18:12.000 have these problems. 01:18:13.120 --> 01:18:17.280 If we're obedient from the beginning, which of course is impossible, it's 01:18:17.200 --> 01:18:19.920 not like no one, no one can possibly be perfect. 01:18:19.920 --> 01:18:23.360 Nevertheless, we all know that there are some families that are That 01:18:23.360 --> 01:18:25.040 are more Christian than others. 01:18:25.040 --> 01:18:28.480 There's some kids who are simply more Christian that would never do 01:18:28.480 --> 01:18:31.840 the things that we grew up thinking we're fine. 01:18:31.840 --> 01:18:35.600 And honestly, I think one of the problems that we have, even 01:18:35.600 --> 01:18:39.120 as Christians, is that when we see that it's often off putting 01:18:39.600 --> 01:18:43.920 when someone is actually holier than us, when they are less with 01:18:43.920 --> 01:18:49.440 sin, when they're better behaved, we we get offended, naturally very offended. 01:18:49.760 --> 01:18:54.240 It's viscerally offensive when you see somebody who just didn't make these 01:18:54.240 --> 01:18:55.440 mistakes in the first place. 01:18:55.440 --> 01:18:56.400 They didn't sin. 01:18:56.400 --> 01:18:58.160 They didn't disbelieve God. 01:18:58.160 --> 01:18:59.680 They did what he said from the beginning. 01:18:59.680 --> 01:19:01.040 They took it seriously. 01:19:01.040 --> 01:19:05.680 And when in whatever their doctrinal precepts were that shaped the view 01:19:05.680 --> 01:19:09.680 of them raising their family that way, you can't argue with the 01:19:09.680 --> 01:19:15.600 fruit. And I think that we it's it's important to emphasize 01:19:17.040 --> 01:19:19.760 that repentance is part of sanctification. 01:19:19.760 --> 01:19:23.360 I think in part to illustrate that when you don't get these 01:19:23.360 --> 01:19:28.000 things wrong, you will have a more Christian life basically for free. 01:19:28.400 --> 01:19:32.080 Not because you're not doing anything, because you're simply obeying God. 01:19:32.080 --> 01:19:34.320 And again, as we said from the beginning, and we say in 01:19:34.320 --> 01:19:38.960 many episodes, justification before God is not in view here. 01:19:38.960 --> 01:19:40.800 We are not saying, oh, look, here's all the things you do 01:19:40.800 --> 01:19:41.280 to be saved. 01:19:42.000 --> 01:19:46.400 No. Because you're saved, look at all the benefits that God will 01:19:46.400 --> 01:19:50.400 bless you with simply by doing what He's already told you. 01:19:50.400 --> 01:19:52.560 When you already know what to do and you do it, your 01:19:52.560 --> 01:19:53.440 life is better. 01:19:53.440 --> 01:19:55.440 That's a pretty good deal. 01:19:55.440 --> 01:19:58.960 And it's only in the cases where we disbelieve and we sin 01:19:58.960 --> 01:20:02.480 and we doubt and then we have to be restored, like the 01:20:02.480 --> 01:20:05.760 prodigal son, that God has to fix these things for us. 01:20:05.760 --> 01:20:06.720 And it's harder. 01:20:06.720 --> 01:20:09.840 You know, as Corey was saying, the example of someone who's fallen 01:20:09.840 --> 01:20:16.080 into those particular types of sins, it's harder to patch things up 01:20:16.080 --> 01:20:19.280 internally because you've gone down a path where something that should have 01:20:19.280 --> 01:20:22.080 been good part of it was bad in one way, and it 01:20:22.080 --> 01:20:28.160 was evil, it was something that God condemns, but it wasn't unnatural, 01:20:28.160 --> 01:20:33.760 it was just disordered, and it causes confusion and doubt and it 01:20:33.760 --> 01:20:37.680 burdens people who wouldn't be burdened if they've simply followed the rules, 01:20:37.680 --> 01:20:41.600 God's rules, God's law, from the beginning. 01:20:41.600 --> 01:20:46.400 And so ultimately, you know, these when we're talking about the Christian 01:20:46.400 --> 01:20:50.560 life and setting a Christian example and teaching Christian doctrine. 01:20:50.560 --> 01:20:52.320 It's not about getting a good score. 01:20:52.320 --> 01:20:53.840 It's about trying to 01:20:55.120 --> 01:20:59.200 make heaven more like earth the way God wants it to be. 01:20:59.200 --> 01:21:03.760 When you look at Christ's exhortations in the New Testament, he's always 01:21:03.760 --> 01:21:06.720 saying things like go and sin no more. 01:21:06.720 --> 01:21:09.440 He's always telling people to behave. 01:21:09.440 --> 01:21:11.840 That's what God says to do. 01:21:11.840 --> 01:21:14.720 You know, a lot of times when these discussions come up in 01:21:14.720 --> 01:21:19.680 the church, especially among Protestants, who again were so allergic to works 01:21:19.920 --> 01:21:23.840 righteousness that we get angry when someone says to obey God. 01:21:23.840 --> 01:21:25.040 Are you kidding me? 01:21:25.040 --> 01:21:28.320 That's how can you actually read the Bible and bl and have 01:21:28.320 --> 01:21:29.680 that response? 01:21:29.680 --> 01:21:34.320 You can't read a single book without having an exhortation to obey 01:21:34.320 --> 01:21:36.480 God because it's what God tells us. 01:21:36.480 --> 01:21:38.320 Otherwise, what's the point of the book? 01:21:38.320 --> 01:21:41.200 If everything's hunky dory, he doesn't need to tell you to do 01:21:41.200 --> 01:21:44.640 anything. It's the stuff that we're getting wrong because of our sinful 01:21:44.640 --> 01:21:49.040 nature that required God to tell us here's what godly living looks 01:21:49.040 --> 01:21:52.880 like. And even when Paul was personally ministering to people, you know, 01:21:52.880 --> 01:21:57.040 Paul's one of those people who his very shadow healed people of 01:21:57.040 --> 01:21:58.400 their illnesses. 01:21:58.400 --> 01:22:00.640 He had the power of God in a way that no one 01:22:00.640 --> 01:22:02.720 who preaches today does. 01:22:02.720 --> 01:22:07.840 He was a direct and immediate vessel for the Holy Spirit in 01:22:07.840 --> 01:22:10.800 a particular way that we haven't seen since then. 01:22:10.800 --> 01:22:11.680 And that's okay. 01:22:11.680 --> 01:22:12.960 God did it for them. 01:22:12.960 --> 01:22:14.160 He doesn't need to do it for us. 01:22:14.160 --> 01:22:15.600 He's given us the example. 01:22:15.600 --> 01:22:19.280 And yet, even in the churches that he planted, the people had 01:22:19.280 --> 01:22:21.120 the same problems that we have today. 01:22:21.120 --> 01:22:25.120 They had the same unbelief, the same doubt, the same falling into 01:22:25.440 --> 01:22:29.840 other false teachers and not remembering what Paul just told them six 01:22:29.840 --> 01:22:32.880 months or a year ago and listening to these other guys who 01:22:32.880 --> 01:22:37.440 are making stuff up, if those churches planted by the apostles had 01:22:37.440 --> 01:22:41.120 those problems, we're smoking crack if we think ours are in better 01:22:41.120 --> 01:22:43.120 shape. They're simply not. 01:22:43.200 --> 01:22:46.400 I think it's one of the very most dangerous things that we 01:22:46.400 --> 01:22:49.280 face in all of our churches today is we think we have 01:22:49.280 --> 01:22:50.560 everything figured out. 01:22:50.560 --> 01:22:54.000 We think that we're so experienced with this Christianity stuff that we 01:22:54.000 --> 01:22:58.560 have all the doctrines and we have all the right ideas written 01:22:58.560 --> 01:23:01.680 down, and therefore we're not gonna fall into error. 01:23:01.680 --> 01:23:03.440 Complete BS. 01:23:03.440 --> 01:23:06.960 If Paul couldn't achieve those results with those to whom he preached 01:23:06.960 --> 01:23:10.000 directly, your pastor is not gonna do any better. 01:23:10.480 --> 01:23:14.880 In defying what God says by refusing to tell people to obey 01:23:14.880 --> 01:23:18.400 God and to stop sinning is going to have the opposite effect 01:23:18.400 --> 01:23:22.960 of producing better Christians. 01:23:22.960 --> 01:23:26.320 Another example of repentance that I want to give is from Matthew 01:23:26.400 --> 01:23:31.440 18, which echoes something that hopefully we're all saying certainly every week, 01:23:31.440 --> 01:23:33.920 if not every day, in the Lord's Prayer. 01:23:34.080 --> 01:23:38.320 Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. 01:23:38.320 --> 01:23:43.200 In Matthew eighteen, Jesus teaches the parable of the wicked servant. 01:23:43.200 --> 01:23:45.920 Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who 01:23:45.920 --> 01:23:48.160 wished to settle accounts with his servants. 01:23:48.160 --> 01:23:50.560 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed 01:23:50.560 --> 01:23:54.400 him ten thousand talents, and since he could not pay, his master 01:23:54.400 --> 01:23:56.960 ordered him to be sold with his wife and children and all 01:23:56.960 --> 01:23:59.120 that he had, and payment to be made. 01:23:59.120 --> 01:24:02.640 So the servant fell to his knees, imploring him, have patience with 01:24:02.640 --> 01:24:05.360 me and I will pay you everything, and out of pity for 01:24:05.360 --> 01:24:09.200 him the master of the servant released him and forgave the debt. 01:24:09.200 --> 01:24:12.000 But when the same servant went out, he found one of his 01:24:12.000 --> 01:24:16.000 fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he 01:24:16.000 --> 01:24:18.720 began to choke him, saying, Pay what you owe. 01:24:18.720 --> 01:24:22.480 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, have patience 01:24:22.480 --> 01:24:24.080 with me and I will pay you. 01:24:24.080 --> 01:24:26.880 He refused and went to put him in prison until he should 01:24:26.880 --> 01:24:27.920 pay the debt. 01:24:27.920 --> 01:24:31.200 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place they were greatly 01:24:31.200 --> 01:24:34.400 distressed, and they went to and reported to their master all that 01:24:34.400 --> 01:24:35.520 had taken place. 01:24:35.520 --> 01:24:38.400 Then his master summoned him and said to him, You wicked servant, 01:24:38.400 --> 01:24:41.840 I forgave you all that debt because you had pleaded with me. 01:24:41.840 --> 01:24:45.040 And should not you also have had mercy on your fellow servant 01:24:45.040 --> 01:24:46.800 as I had mercy on you? 01:24:46.800 --> 01:24:49.840 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers until he 01:24:49.840 --> 01:24:51.680 should pay all of his debt. 01:24:51.680 --> 01:24:55.760 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you 01:24:55.920 --> 01:24:59.600 if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. 01:25:00.880 --> 01:25:07.520 Now this is about repentance because superficially the wicked servant was contrite. 01:25:07.680 --> 01:25:10.400 His master dragged him in and said, Pay what you owe, and 01:25:10.400 --> 01:25:12.320 he said, I can't, please have mercy on you all. 01:25:12.320 --> 01:25:13.840 I'll pay it all back. 01:25:13.840 --> 01:25:16.480 And his master didn't even take him up on the offer to 01:25:16.480 --> 01:25:19.680 pay it all back, which is Corey said in the previous uh 01:25:19.840 --> 01:25:25.440 episode, the amount of silver that this servant owed was almost incalculable 01:25:25.440 --> 01:25:28.320 in terms of wealth, is far more than any man could ever 01:25:28.320 --> 01:25:30.240 conceivably pay back. 01:25:30.240 --> 01:25:34.480 So when the the servant really falsely said, I'll pay you back. 01:25:34.480 --> 01:25:36.320 The master didn't take him up on it. 01:25:36.320 --> 01:25:38.400 He said, I forgive all your debt. 01:25:38.400 --> 01:25:40.240 It's gone. 01:25:40.240 --> 01:25:44.400 The reason that there was no repentance, even though there was contrition, 01:25:44.400 --> 01:25:47.760 even though he was very sorry for his debt, there was no 01:25:47.760 --> 01:25:51.520 repentance because he didn't have a new view of debt. 01:25:51.520 --> 01:25:52.560 What did he do? 01:25:52.560 --> 01:25:54.960 He turned around to a fellow servant and grabbed him by the 01:25:54.960 --> 01:25:59.120 throat. As soon as his master got him back to zero from 01:25:59.120 --> 01:26:02.480 being effectively infinitely in the hole, when he got back to zero 01:26:02.560 --> 01:26:05.600 he turned to his fellow servant, grabbed him by the throat and 01:26:05.600 --> 01:26:08.320 said, Pay what you owe, so that he could go up, so 01:26:08.320 --> 01:26:11.760 that he could have more at the expense of someone else. 01:26:11.760 --> 01:26:15.840 His lack of repentance surrounding debt, the fact that he did not 01:26:15.840 --> 01:26:19.440 view it differently than before, because there was no repentance. 01:26:19.440 --> 01:26:24.160 And therefore, God threw him to the jailers until he could pay 01:26:24.160 --> 01:26:27.360 it all back, which is hell, which is eternity, because there was 01:26:27.360 --> 01:26:29.040 never paying that back. 01:26:29.040 --> 01:26:33.280 And so Jesus says, So also my heavenly Father will do to 01:26:33.280 --> 01:26:34.640 every one of you. 01:26:34.640 --> 01:26:38.240 And then he says, if you do not forgive your brother from 01:26:38.240 --> 01:26:45.280 your heart, which is another part of repentance, versus contrition, when it's 01:26:45.200 --> 01:26:49.360 possible to separate those, because saying forgive your brother 01:26:50.960 --> 01:26:53.840 on one hand, that could simply be contrition. 01:26:53.840 --> 01:26:56.880 It could be, okay, well, you know, you owed me a bunch 01:26:56.880 --> 01:26:59.280 of money and you didn't pay back, so I forgive it. 01:26:59.280 --> 01:27:00.240 It it's forgiven. 01:27:00.320 --> 01:27:01.760 I don't worry about it. 01:27:02.080 --> 01:27:06.080 But in your heart, you still are bitter that the guy never 01:27:06.080 --> 01:27:07.200 paid you back. 01:27:07.200 --> 01:27:09.920 That's not actually forgiving in your heart. 01:27:09.920 --> 01:27:14.640 It is not enough to wipe the slate clean physically and mechanically. 01:27:14.640 --> 01:27:17.520 You have to wipe it clean in your heart to say the 01:27:17.680 --> 01:27:22.480 man, there is no debt, whether it's sin or it's actual monetary 01:27:22.480 --> 01:27:24.240 debt, whatever it is. 01:27:24.240 --> 01:27:29.280 If the beginning of your contrition is not in your heart, then 01:27:29.760 --> 01:27:33.200 what happens downstream is not going to be repentance. 01:27:33.200 --> 01:27:35.360 This is what Jesus illustrates here. 01:27:35.360 --> 01:27:39.600 It's an example of someone who was contrite, he was sorry, he 01:27:39.600 --> 01:27:40.720 wasn't repentant. 01:27:40.720 --> 01:27:43.680 He didn't change anything about how he thought. 01:27:43.680 --> 01:27:46.000 He thought he got away with it, and he was going to 01:27:46.000 --> 01:27:48.400 go out and make sure that the next guy wouldn't get away 01:27:48.400 --> 01:27:49.200 with it either. 01:27:49.200 --> 01:27:50.320 That's wickedness. 01:27:50.320 --> 01:27:52.400 That's what God calls wickedness. 01:27:52.400 --> 01:27:54.880 So in all the passages that you can read in scripture that 01:27:54.880 --> 01:27:58.080 say repent and be saved, this is why. 01:27:58.080 --> 01:28:02.320 And again, this is why the the order of operations argument simply 01:28:02.320 --> 01:28:04.960 has to be put out the window if we want to be 01:28:04.960 --> 01:28:09.760 consistent about what the doctrine is regarding forgiveness and justification. 01:28:09.760 --> 01:28:13.040 Because if you try to say, well, if this happens, then this 01:28:13.040 --> 01:28:16.960 will happen and this is a result, and therefore we place forgiveness 01:28:16.960 --> 01:28:20.640 here, mechanically that doesn't work. 01:28:20.640 --> 01:28:25.040 The question must be an instantaneous true or false question. 01:28:25.040 --> 01:28:28.000 Was the servant Christian? 01:28:28.000 --> 01:28:33.200 The answer was no, because his immediate response after having been forgiven, 01:28:33.200 --> 01:28:36.640 was to lash out wickedly his fellow servant. 01:28:36.640 --> 01:28:39.680 He was not a Christian, therefore he was not forgiven. 01:28:39.680 --> 01:28:44.320 The cause and effect wasn't that because he failed to repent anyway 01:28:44.480 --> 01:28:48.560 he was unforgiven, it's that he was not a Christian at all. 01:28:48.560 --> 01:28:53.760 In his lack of repentance demonstrated the fruit of a rotten spirit. 01:28:53.760 --> 01:28:57.200 And that's what God punished, was the wickedness where there was no 01:28:57.200 --> 01:28:59.520 repentance because there was no faith. 01:28:59.520 --> 01:29:02.400 So all of this is not about cause and effect, it's not 01:29:02.400 --> 01:29:04.240 about trying to save ourselves. 01:29:04.240 --> 01:29:09.040 It's recognizing when we're Christian, here is how we behave. 01:29:09.040 --> 01:29:12.560 That's why we've mentioned earlier and we mentioned frequently the Epistle of 01:29:12.560 --> 01:29:16.640 James is written to Christians about the Christian life. 01:29:16.880 --> 01:29:19.840 If you read James and you try to figure out, okay, well, 01:29:19.840 --> 01:29:24.480 here's how I can save myself, which is effectively what Rome does 01:29:24.480 --> 01:29:26.560 with portions of that. 01:29:26.560 --> 01:29:29.840 If instead you understand this is talking to Christians saying, here's what 01:29:29.840 --> 01:29:32.800 the repentant life looks like, it all makes sense. 01:29:32.800 --> 01:29:33.920 Is someone a Christian? 01:29:33.920 --> 01:29:35.840 Yes. Here's the repentant life. 01:29:35.840 --> 01:29:38.640 Here's what they'll do: they'll do what's in James. 01:29:38.640 --> 01:29:42.000 If they're not a Christian, they won't do what's in James, they 01:29:42.080 --> 01:29:43.440 won't do what's in the Bible. 01:29:43.440 --> 01:29:44.640 It's that simple. 01:29:44.640 --> 01:29:45.600 Are you Christian? 01:29:45.600 --> 01:29:47.440 You believe in God, you do what He says. 01:29:47.440 --> 01:29:48.880 Because you're Christian. 01:29:48.880 --> 01:29:50.240 It doesn't make you Christian. 01:29:50.240 --> 01:29:54.960 It's the fruit of the Christian spirit. 01:29:55.040 --> 01:29:58.480 So to tie into the episode that we did two weeks ago 01:29:58.480 --> 01:30:05.600 on slander, I can give another good example A general example of 01:30:05.600 --> 01:30:09.680 what it looks like to actually repent, and we spoke about this 01:30:09.680 --> 01:30:13.520 to some degree in the episode on slander. 01:30:13.520 --> 01:30:17.520 But if you have slandered someone, if you have spoken falsely, if 01:30:17.520 --> 01:30:24.400 you have borne false representation against your neighbor, you need to repent 01:30:24.400 --> 01:30:28.240 of that, and one of the components of that sort of repentance 01:30:29.040 --> 01:30:34.640 is to go to those to whom you slandered this other man 01:30:35.760 --> 01:30:38.640 and speak well of him. 01:30:38.640 --> 01:30:42.080 You have to undo, you have to attempt to undo anyway, because 01:30:42.080 --> 01:30:46.640 you probably cannot actually undo, but you have to attempt to undo 01:30:46.640 --> 01:30:49.440 that harm that you caused. 01:30:49.440 --> 01:30:54.480 You spoke evil about your neighbor, you harmed his reputation, probably in 01:30:54.480 --> 01:30:57.920 a way that you cannot actually undo. 01:30:57.920 --> 01:31:02.640 But part of repentance in that case is going to be that 01:31:02.960 --> 01:31:06.400 work to undo the harm that you caused. 01:31:06.400 --> 01:31:10.160 So you need to find those who heard the slander that you 01:31:10.160 --> 01:31:14.400 spoke, and undo it as best you can. 01:31:14.400 --> 01:31:19.520 And very likely the slander at that point has probably spread beyond 01:31:19.680 --> 01:31:24.080 the individuals to whom you spoke it. 01:31:24.080 --> 01:31:28.080 Because often slander does not stop at the first level, as it 01:31:28.080 --> 01:31:31.200 were, the second level, depending on how you want to count. 01:31:31.200 --> 01:31:34.560 And so you may have told another neighbor, well, he may have 01:31:34.560 --> 01:31:41.200 told additional neighbors If you are truly penitent, you need to attempt 01:31:41.200 --> 01:31:45.200 to undo the harm that you caused, which is going to include 01:31:45.200 --> 01:31:51.120 going to those who heard the slander that you spoke second hand. 01:31:51.120 --> 01:31:54.400 That's going to be very difficult in some cases, which is why 01:31:54.400 --> 01:31:56.320 we did an entire episode on slander. 01:31:56.320 --> 01:31:59.360 It is a sin that is very difficult to utter to undo, 01:31:59.360 --> 01:32:01.280 very difficult to ameliorate. 01:32:01.280 --> 01:32:05.760 And again, in many cases you simply cannot actually undo the harm 01:32:05.760 --> 01:32:07.120 that you caused. 01:32:07.120 --> 01:32:10.960 But part of repentance is going to be thinking differently about what 01:32:10.960 --> 01:32:16.080 you did recognizing it was slander Recognizing it was wrong, and then 01:32:16.080 --> 01:32:21.600 attempting to undo it, attempting to do the right thing, attempting to 01:32:21.600 --> 01:32:25.120 restore that man's reputation. 01:32:25.120 --> 01:32:28.560 So you need to go to those to whom you slandered him 01:32:29.040 --> 01:32:31.200 and confess. 01:32:31.200 --> 01:32:34.640 Not in the sense of confession and absolution that you would go 01:32:34.640 --> 01:32:38.560 to, say your pastor, but in the sense of saying, I spoke 01:32:38.960 --> 01:32:43.120 falsely and wickedly against this other man. 01:32:43.120 --> 01:32:45.040 I should not have done so. 01:32:45.040 --> 01:32:46.480 That was sin. 01:32:46.480 --> 01:32:50.080 In fact, here is what I think about that man, and then 01:32:50.080 --> 01:32:51.920 you speak well of him. 01:32:52.480 --> 01:32:57.600 That is part of what it means not to speak falsely about 01:32:57.600 --> 01:33:01.200 your neighbor, not to slander your neighbor. 01:33:01.200 --> 01:33:06.000 We won't rehash exactly the contours of slander in this episode because 01:33:06.000 --> 01:33:08.240 we have an entire episode on it, so you can go back 01:33:08.240 --> 01:33:12.160 and listen to that episode from two weeks ago. 01:33:12.160 --> 01:33:15.120 But the reason that slander is such a good example when it 01:33:15.120 --> 01:33:18.640 comes to repentance is that it highlights that certain sins 01:33:19.600 --> 01:33:23.360 are going to be very difficult when it comes to repentance. 01:33:23.360 --> 01:33:25.200 Some are going to be easy. 01:33:25.200 --> 01:33:29.280 You know, you stole someone's pen, you return the pen. 01:33:29.280 --> 01:33:30.880 You say, I'm sorry for stealing your pen. 01:33:30.880 --> 01:33:32.880 That was wrong, I should not have done that. 01:33:32.880 --> 01:33:34.400 Here's your pen. 01:33:34.400 --> 01:33:35.280 You're done. 01:33:35.280 --> 01:33:36.800 Very easy. 01:33:37.120 --> 01:33:40.880 But when it comes to something like a man's reputation, if you 01:33:40.880 --> 01:33:44.000 steal that from him, if you destroy that, if you harm his 01:33:44.000 --> 01:33:48.880 reputation, that is a harm that it is very difficult to undo. 01:33:48.880 --> 01:33:52.320 And that is the case with a number of sins. 01:33:52.320 --> 01:33:56.400 Fornication is another one where the consequences may be much more difficult 01:33:56.960 --> 01:34:01.280 to undo depending on the particular circumstances. 01:34:01.280 --> 01:34:05.360 That one's going to be particularly complicated in some cases. 01:34:05.360 --> 01:34:10.880 But some sins have greater, more complicated, more difficult 01:34:11.920 --> 01:34:14.720 consequences in this life than others. 01:34:14.720 --> 01:34:20.160 This doesn't necessarily even correlate with whether or not the sin in 01:34:20.160 --> 01:34:23.600 question is a greater sin or a lesser sin. 01:34:23.600 --> 01:34:28.160 There may be relatively small sins that have enormous impact that is 01:34:28.160 --> 01:34:32.560 very difficult to undo, and there may be heinous sins of which 01:34:32.560 --> 01:34:35.040 it is much easier to repent. 01:34:35.040 --> 01:34:38.080 And so for instance, if you violate the fifth commandment, if you 01:34:38.080 --> 01:34:38.560 murder someone, 01:34:39.600 --> 01:34:42.960 the repentance for that is probably going to be easier in a 01:34:42.960 --> 01:34:48.240 practical sense than the repentance for violating the eighth commandment for slander. 01:34:50.720 --> 01:34:54.800 Just because a sin is a greater sin does not mean that 01:34:54.800 --> 01:34:57.920 the repentance for that sin is going to be more difficult, and 01:34:57.920 --> 01:35:01.120 just because a sin is a lesser sin does not mean the 01:35:01.120 --> 01:35:05.120 repentance for that sin is going to be easier. 01:35:05.120 --> 01:35:09.600 But the point is not the difficulty of the repentance itself. 01:35:09.600 --> 01:35:13.520 The point is that repentance is part of this. 01:35:13.520 --> 01:35:17.840 And part of repentance is attempting to undo that harm that you 01:35:17.840 --> 01:35:23.120 caused. Because if you think differently about this thing that you did, 01:35:23.120 --> 01:35:27.440 if you have turned away from that sin, part of that turning 01:35:27.440 --> 01:35:30.960 away from the sin, and moving away from the sin and toward 01:35:30.960 --> 01:35:34.000 the things of God, is doing what is right. 01:35:34.000 --> 01:35:38.800 And part of doing what is right is restoring what is rightfully 01:35:38.800 --> 01:35:43.440 the property of another, or at least attempting to do so as 01:35:43.440 --> 01:35:46.720 best you can given the circumstances. 01:35:46.720 --> 01:35:50.560 Now of course there are as it were limitations to this and 01:35:50.560 --> 01:35:53.600 so we do not want to slide into 01:35:54.480 --> 01:35:58.240 the old Roman Catholic way of thinking and say that absolutely every 01:35:58.240 --> 01:36:03.840 single tiny sin you've ever committed must be explicitly confessed and you 01:36:03.840 --> 01:36:07.280 must do X, Y, and Z with regard to it. 01:36:07.280 --> 01:36:08.800 That's not what we're saying. 01:36:08.800 --> 01:36:11.760 If you stole a piece of gum from the person who sat 01:36:11.760 --> 01:36:16.000 next to you in elementary school, yes that was a sin. 01:36:16.000 --> 01:36:18.320 You've covered that when you've prayed the Lord's Prayer. 01:36:18.320 --> 01:36:22.480 You don't need to obsess over that, find that person and give 01:36:22.480 --> 01:36:24.000 him back a piece of gum. 01:36:24.000 --> 01:36:26.240 That's not what we're saying. 01:36:26.240 --> 01:36:29.040 What we are saying is that as best you can 01:36:30.000 --> 01:36:30.640 with regard 01:36:31.760 --> 01:36:34.720 to your current situation, where you are in life, all of these 01:36:34.720 --> 01:36:36.480 things. This is a matter of wisdom. 01:36:36.480 --> 01:36:39.120 There are many matters in the Christian life where it is a 01:36:39.120 --> 01:36:40.160 matter of wisdom. 01:36:40.160 --> 01:36:44.240 It is not a simple formula where if X, then two Y. 01:36:44.480 --> 01:36:47.520 That's not how this works. 01:36:47.520 --> 01:36:49.360 Taking into account 01:36:50.640 --> 01:36:54.480 wisdom, your conscience, all of these other factors, you are to do 01:36:54.480 --> 01:36:57.120 the best that you can to undo the harm that you have 01:36:57.120 --> 01:37:02.800 caused, because that is part of turning away from the sin, recognizing 01:37:02.800 --> 01:37:07.200 that it is sin, and attempting to do not just the right 01:37:07.200 --> 01:37:10.000 thing, but the Christian thing. 01:37:10.000 --> 01:37:13.200 The thing that God would want you to do. 01:37:13.200 --> 01:37:17.600 And as we've mentioned before, each of the commandments has this foil 01:37:18.240 --> 01:37:23.600 to the statement of the command, the bare statement of the commandment. 01:37:23.600 --> 01:37:26.480 And so when it says thou shalt not murder it also means 01:37:26.480 --> 01:37:27.920 to help your neighbor. 01:37:27.920 --> 01:37:30.960 When it says thou shalt not commit adultery, it also means to 01:37:30.960 --> 01:37:34.480 help your neighbor maintain his relationship with his spouse. 01:37:34.560 --> 01:37:38.560 When it says thou shalt not bear false witness, it means to 01:37:38.560 --> 01:37:41.680 speak well of your neighbor. 01:37:41.680 --> 01:37:44.400 So this is part of the Christian life. 01:37:44.400 --> 01:37:48.880 You turn from the evil and you do the good. 01:37:49.040 --> 01:37:49.280 They 01:37:49.360 --> 01:37:52.240 The example of slander highlights another important 01:37:53.200 --> 01:37:58.160 facet of repentance, which is that often repentance cannot be secret. 01:37:58.160 --> 01:38:02.480 It's not simply an inward turning of your heart, because it's necessarily 01:38:02.560 --> 01:38:04.960 how you're gonna live the rest of your life. 01:38:04.960 --> 01:38:07.440 And if you didn't used to be a Christian, now you're a 01:38:07.440 --> 01:38:11.200 Christian, your naturally repentant life is just going to look Christian. 01:38:11.200 --> 01:38:14.800 And if there are particular sins of which you need to repent, 01:38:14.800 --> 01:38:19.520 for which others were involved and must necessarily be involved again because 01:38:20.400 --> 01:38:25.440 as part of repudiating your evil past, you have to somehow make 01:38:25.440 --> 01:38:28.240 amends if it's appropriate, as Corey said. 01:38:28.240 --> 01:38:29.440 It's not always appropriate. 01:38:29.440 --> 01:38:34.560 It may well be that for you to try to patch things 01:38:34.560 --> 01:38:38.800 up, to try to make amends, would actually make worse whatever situation 01:38:38.800 --> 01:38:39.760 there was. 01:38:39.760 --> 01:38:40.720 That's a matter of wisdom. 01:38:40.960 --> 01:38:44.880 It's not saying you have to do this because you're already forgiven. 01:38:44.880 --> 01:38:48.240 Again, as I said online and we missed an episode last week, 01:38:48.240 --> 01:38:52.640 the you are forgiven episode is a counterpart to this, especially if 01:38:52.640 --> 01:38:55.680 your conscience is burdened at the end of this episode, go back 01:38:55.680 --> 01:38:58.800 and listen to you are forgiven, because that's a part of it. 01:38:58.800 --> 01:39:02.640 But as we said, because this stuff is not on a timeline, 01:39:02.640 --> 01:39:05.920 we're not bound to get these things in the right order, because 01:39:05.920 --> 01:39:09.600 it's often the case that you're forgiven and then you continue to 01:39:09.600 --> 01:39:13.520 repent. It's not necessarily going to be secret. 01:39:13.520 --> 01:39:16.080 I think one of the most important things to take away from 01:39:16.080 --> 01:39:22.240 this, once you understand what repentance actually is, is this simple point. 01:39:22.240 --> 01:39:26.080 Repentance does not occur at church on Sunday morning. 01:39:26.080 --> 01:39:29.520 The only case where repentance would occur at church on a Sunday 01:39:29.520 --> 01:39:33.520 morning fully is if you did something to someone else at church 01:39:33.520 --> 01:39:37.600 and you needed to confess your sin to them to be patched 01:39:37.600 --> 01:39:40.720 up to be forgiven before you go to communion. 01:39:40.720 --> 01:39:44.080 But your repenting is the rest of the day and it's the 01:39:44.080 --> 01:39:45.040 rest of the week. 01:39:45.040 --> 01:39:47.680 You're repenting is for the sins that you're committing. 01:39:47.680 --> 01:39:51.440 And so maybe your conscience is convicted by a sermon. 01:39:51.440 --> 01:39:54.560 And so you repent during the sermon for something. 01:39:54.560 --> 01:39:59.040 But the repentance isn't located in the pews in the morning when 01:39:59.040 --> 01:40:00.240 you hear the sermon. 01:40:00.240 --> 01:40:03.280 The repentance is the change of heart that you take with you 01:40:03.280 --> 01:40:05.280 for the rest of the day and the week and the month, 01:40:05.280 --> 01:40:07.120 and hopefully for the rest of your life. 01:40:07.120 --> 01:40:08.800 That's the repentance. 01:40:08.800 --> 01:40:12.240 So even if it has a birthplace and a moment, it's a 01:40:12.240 --> 01:40:13.760 new part of you. 01:40:13.760 --> 01:40:14.960 That's the whole thing. 01:40:14.960 --> 01:40:17.760 Repentance is not a moment that's isolated. 01:40:17.760 --> 01:40:20.320 My mom sent me that horrible picture of me. 01:40:20.320 --> 01:40:22.000 The repentance is continuous. 01:40:22.080 --> 01:40:24.080 It's like that's not me anymore. 01:40:24.080 --> 01:40:26.080 I that's just not me. 01:40:26.080 --> 01:40:28.320 That's the way this works. 01:40:28.320 --> 01:40:32.400 It's a permanent new state of affairs. 01:40:32.400 --> 01:40:35.040 Last passage I want to read is from Matthew three. 01:40:35.040 --> 01:40:39.120 It's one we read a couple weeks ago from John the Baptist, 01:40:39.120 --> 01:40:41.360 as he was baptizing Jesus. 01:40:41.360 --> 01:40:44.320 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to 01:40:44.320 --> 01:40:47.680 his baptism, he said to them, You brood of vipers, who warned 01:40:47.680 --> 01:40:49.760 you to flee from the wrath to come? 01:40:49.760 --> 01:40:54.000 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance, and do not presume to say 01:40:54.000 --> 01:40:57.520 to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father, for I tell you 01:40:57.600 --> 01:41:00.960 God is able from these stones to raise up children of Abraham. 01:41:00.960 --> 01:41:03.600 Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. 01:41:03.600 --> 01:41:07.840 Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down 01:41:07.840 --> 01:41:10.320 and thrown into the fire. 01:41:10.320 --> 01:41:15.360 When John contrasted the wickedness of the Pharisees and their lack of 01:41:15.360 --> 01:41:20.640 repentance with their claims that Abraham was their father, he was describing 01:41:20.640 --> 01:41:21.600 us too. 01:41:21.600 --> 01:41:26.080 Every church today has its traditions and its confessions. 01:41:26.080 --> 01:41:28.800 Some of them, one in particular, has a pope. 01:41:28.800 --> 01:41:32.160 We've all got something that functions as a pope in our churches, 01:41:32.160 --> 01:41:34.800 even as just some doctrinal position. 01:41:34.800 --> 01:41:39.840 And the threat that these doctrines pose to us is not that 01:41:39.840 --> 01:41:44.640 they're false necessarily, although obviously as Lutherans, we would disagree with many 01:41:44.640 --> 01:41:47.760 of you about certain doctrines that you hold. 01:41:47.760 --> 01:41:52.640 When the doctrine that a particular denomination holds becomes an idol for 01:41:52.640 --> 01:41:58.640 that denomination, it rapidly turns into the Farisacle situation, where there are 01:41:58.640 --> 01:42:01.680 many Lutherans to say we have Luther as our father. 01:42:01.680 --> 01:42:04.320 How can I possibly be guilty of sin? 01:42:04.320 --> 01:42:06.480 You say that I have some false doctrine. 01:42:06.480 --> 01:42:08.480 I confess the book of Concord. 01:42:08.480 --> 01:42:12.000 You know, Presbyterians and others, you have your Westminster confession and all 01:42:12.000 --> 01:42:16.240 these other things, and you say, I hold proudly to this doctrine. 01:42:16.240 --> 01:42:21.440 Well, if that is your basis for a claim of salvation, you're 01:42:21.440 --> 01:42:23.280 missing the point of scripture. 01:42:23.520 --> 01:42:27.680 Because if you're doing something that's sinful and God warns you to 01:42:27.680 --> 01:42:32.000 bear fruit in keeping with repentance, and your answer is, I don't 01:42:31.920 --> 01:42:35.520 need to think differently afterwards, I have the right confession. 01:42:35.840 --> 01:42:38.000 God warns that that's crap. 01:42:38.000 --> 01:42:39.120 That's BS. 01:42:39.120 --> 01:42:43.840 There's no such thing as having a true confession without having true 01:42:43.840 --> 01:42:48.640 fruit. If your confession is true, but you are false in confessing 01:42:48.640 --> 01:42:51.760 it, then you make yourself a liar by the very confession that 01:42:51.760 --> 01:42:52.320 you make. 01:42:52.320 --> 01:42:55.280 And if your confession is false, then it's worthless anyway. 01:42:55.280 --> 01:43:00.240 But the fruits in keeping with repentance are the Christian life. 01:43:00.240 --> 01:43:04.000 That's why the Epistle of James is so crucial, because it describes 01:43:04.000 --> 01:43:05.120 a Christian life. 01:43:05.120 --> 01:43:09.120 It's an exhortation to be Christian. 01:43:09.120 --> 01:43:13.120 And so to leave you for this week, go read your Bibles. 01:43:13.120 --> 01:43:16.240 I would recommend as your is the reading for this. 01:43:16.240 --> 01:43:17.600 Go read Colossians. 01:43:17.600 --> 01:43:18.400 Just read the whole book. 01:43:18.400 --> 01:43:19.520 It's not very long. 01:43:19.520 --> 01:43:21.680 It's an epistle about repentance. 01:43:21.680 --> 01:43:25.200 When you read it in view of thinking differently afterward, it's what 01:43:25.200 --> 01:43:26.480 the whole thing is about. 01:43:26.480 --> 01:43:30.560 Paul's talking about waging war with the elemental spirits of this age 01:43:30.560 --> 01:43:33.040 and struggling with these things. 01:43:33.040 --> 01:43:38.000 It's talking about the Christian life in view of rejecting that which 01:43:38.000 --> 01:43:42.480 is worldly, that which is fleshly, and embracing that which is godly, 01:43:42.480 --> 01:43:45.360 that's repentance, that's sanctification. 01:43:45.360 --> 01:43:49.920 If you are Christian, you are being sanctified continuously by the indwelling 01:43:49.920 --> 01:43:51.040 of the Holy Spirit. 01:43:51.120 --> 01:43:51.920 And that means 01:43:53.040 --> 01:43:55.840 Daily experiencing repentance. 01:43:55.840 --> 01:43:59.200 And every day you're going to be repenting for something new. 01:43:59.760 --> 01:44:02.800 certainly if you're living in the Word, and if you're not, then 01:44:02.800 --> 01:44:03.760 that's something to repent of. 01:44:03.760 --> 01:44:04.880 So you know, I should read more. 01:44:04.880 --> 01:44:05.760 I'm guilty of it. 01:44:05.760 --> 01:44:06.960 I don't read the Bible every day. 01:44:07.200 --> 01:44:07.920 I try to. 01:44:07.920 --> 01:44:09.920 I s frequently fail. 01:44:09.920 --> 01:44:11.280 Or I don't read enough. 01:44:11.280 --> 01:44:12.880 Like I I should do more. 01:44:12.880 --> 01:44:15.040 And it's not oh I gotta read the Bible to save myself. 01:44:15.040 --> 01:44:16.480 It's this is God's stuff. 01:44:16.480 --> 01:44:19.040 What am I doing wasting my time and setting around reading the 01:44:19.040 --> 01:44:20.080 Word of God? 01:44:20.080 --> 01:44:24.080 The more time that we spend in His Word, just reading it 01:44:24.160 --> 01:44:28.400 and meditating on it, taking it seriously, the less opportunity there is 01:44:28.400 --> 01:44:32.240 for sin, and the more God's word will armor our hearts and 01:44:32.240 --> 01:44:35.280 our minds to be able to recognize, hey, this thing that this 01:44:35.280 --> 01:44:37.600 guy is saying over here, this thing that my friend wants me 01:44:37.600 --> 01:44:40.560 to do, I shouldn't actually do that because it's not true. 01:44:40.560 --> 01:44:42.960 It's actually sinful. 01:44:42.960 --> 01:44:49.040 To think differently afterward is the description of the Christian life. 01:44:49.040 --> 01:44:51.840 Repent is the description of the Christian life. 01:44:51.840 --> 01:44:54.320 It's not a feeling, it's a thought. 01:44:54.320 --> 01:44:58.240 It's an ongoing process because it's the process of sanctification. 01:44:58.400 --> 01:45:01.200 And when you look at the words that are involved, you can 01:45:01.200 --> 01:45:02.800 go read the definitions for these words. 01:45:02.800 --> 01:45:04.400 We're not playing any games here. 01:45:04.400 --> 01:45:06.400 We didn't change anything around. 01:45:06.400 --> 01:45:09.760 And then you understand that think differently afterward is literally what repent 01:45:09.760 --> 01:45:12.480 means. When you look at all the places in the New Testament 01:45:12.880 --> 01:45:18.240 epistles that basically say think differently afterward, it's talking about the entire 01:45:18.240 --> 01:45:19.360 Christian life. 01:45:19.360 --> 01:45:22.480 This is something that's largely missing from a lot of our preaching 01:45:22.480 --> 01:45:26.400 today. Now, some churches are getting better and some regards in some 01:45:26.400 --> 01:45:30.240 areas, but the whole counsel of God is for all of this. 01:45:30.240 --> 01:45:33.600 We don't get to pick and choose, like a buffet, which parts 01:45:33.600 --> 01:45:36.480 we want and which parts we're just going to leave. 01:45:36.480 --> 01:45:40.800 The Christian life of repentance is one where we have everything that 01:45:40.800 --> 01:45:42.400 God wants to give us. 01:45:42.400 --> 01:45:46.640 And it's only by refusing to think about what God says, to 01:45:46.640 --> 01:45:49.680 believe what he has told us, and to live a life and 01:45:49.680 --> 01:45:54.080 bearing with those fruits that we miss out on everything God wants 01:45:54.080 --> 01:45:54.960 to give us. 01:45:54.960 --> 01:45:58.720 And the more you do that, the more you ultimately endanger your 01:45:58.720 --> 01:46:03.040 salvation by master of degrees just not caring. 01:46:03.200 --> 01:46:05.920 It's not that if you momentarily screw up, you're going to. 01:46:05.920 --> 01:46:07.440 We sin every day. 01:46:07.440 --> 01:46:09.200 We need forgiveness every day. 01:46:09.200 --> 01:46:11.520 We ask for it and we receive it daily. 01:46:11.520 --> 01:46:14.800 We receive forgiveness that was one at the cross. 01:46:14.800 --> 01:46:18.240 Repentance means thinking differently afterward. 01:46:18.240 --> 01:46:22.640 As long as we're doing that, we're living the godly life. 01:46:22.640 --> 01:46:24.640 And that's what we would wish for everyone. 01:46:24.640 --> 01:46:26.240 You're not going to save yourself. 01:46:26.240 --> 01:46:27.520 You're already saved. 01:46:27.520 --> 01:46:28.560 So live like 01:46:28.560 --> 01:46:28.880 it 01:46:29.760 --> 01:46:35.360 want to leave you with one of those denominational distinctives that Woe 01:46:35.360 --> 01:46:40.000 has referenced throughout this episode, but in a way that is useful, 01:46:40.000 --> 01:46:43.360 that is profitable, and will maybe annoy some people just a little 01:46:43.360 --> 01:46:49.760 bit. Last week, before I lost my voice due to that cold, 01:46:49.760 --> 01:46:53.680 I wrote a homily on the readings for the week and the 01:46:54.080 --> 01:46:55.440 core topic was repentance. 01:46:55.440 --> 01:46:57.920 Now that I have my voice back, I will record that and 01:46:57.920 --> 01:47:00.000 put it in the show notes. 01:47:00.000 --> 01:47:03.680 But what I want to highlight to close out this episode is 01:47:03.680 --> 01:47:06.560 that really this is law and gospel. 01:47:06.560 --> 01:47:08.560 And I know many Lutherans will be happy to hear me say 01:47:09.360 --> 01:47:13.360 that. And so you have contrition, because that is the law. 01:47:13.360 --> 01:47:18.160 The law in the terrors of conscience drive you to contrition, and 01:47:18.160 --> 01:47:23.440 then the gospel is that second part, faith. 01:47:23.440 --> 01:47:28.560 But really the word repent itself is gospel, if you think about 01:47:28.560 --> 01:47:30.720 it in the right light. 01:47:30.720 --> 01:47:34.320 The first words of Christ recorded in the Gospel of Mark are 01:47:34.480 --> 01:47:38.080 the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, 01:47:38.080 --> 01:47:40.720 repent and believe the gospel. 01:47:40.720 --> 01:47:44.800 I would contend that the entirety of that, for the Christian, is 01:47:44.880 --> 01:47:46.800 gospel gospel. 01:47:46.800 --> 01:47:49.840 And the reason for that is simple. 01:47:49.840 --> 01:47:56.080 If Christ, if God tells you, repent, God does not command us 01:47:56.080 --> 01:48:02.240 to do that which is pointless or fruitless, meaningless. 01:48:02.240 --> 01:48:07.280 And so if God commands us to repent, the gospel is necessarily 01:48:07.280 --> 01:48:09.600 entailed by that command. 01:48:09.600 --> 01:48:14.480 Because in order for repentance to have any meaning, to be worth 01:48:14.480 --> 01:48:20.000 doing, to be something that is not fruitless, there must be forgiveness 01:48:20.000 --> 01:48:21.440 of sins. 01:48:21.440 --> 01:48:25.280 And so the fact that we can repent Because that is what 01:48:25.280 --> 01:48:28.080 Christ is saying when he orders us to repent, he is saying 01:48:28.240 --> 01:48:33.040 repentance is possible, and so the fact that we can repent means 01:48:33.040 --> 01:48:35.200 there is forgiveness of sins. 01:48:35.200 --> 01:48:37.680 That is the word of both the law and the gospel there 01:48:37.840 --> 01:48:40.000 together in one word. 01:48:40.000 --> 01:48:44.560 Repent, turn from your sins, think differently about these things that you 01:48:44.560 --> 01:48:46.160 have done in the past. 01:48:46.160 --> 01:48:49.600 Feel contrition for the evil you have committed. 01:48:50.400 --> 01:48:54.480 But the good news is, there is forgiveness of sins. 01:48:54.480 --> 01:48:56.720 You can turn from those things. 01:48:56.720 --> 01:49:00.560 You can be given the free gift of faith, and in that 01:49:00.560 --> 01:49:02.880 faith your sins are forgiven. 01:49:02.880 --> 01:49:05.840 And so we have both the voice of the law and the 01:49:05.840 --> 01:49:09.120 voice of the gospel here in the first words of Christ, as 01:49:09.120 --> 01:49:12.560 recorded in the Gospel of Mark. 01:49:12.560 --> 01:49:16.560 And so I'll leave you with a flowchart that is actually good 01:49:16.560 --> 01:49:22.960 news. For once in the entirety of the existence of flowcharts. 01:49:22.960 --> 01:49:28.160 When you sin, there are two possible reactions initially you can be 01:49:28.160 --> 01:49:33.120 impenetent, or you can be penitent in the sense of contrite. 01:49:33.120 --> 01:49:34.720 So that's contrition. 01:49:34.720 --> 01:49:41.360 The Christian will feel contrition, will respond to that sin by being 01:49:41.360 --> 01:49:46.080 contrite. Now the impenitent, high handed sinner, we know where that leads. 01:49:46.080 --> 01:49:49.360 We can leave him aside. 01:49:49.360 --> 01:49:53.680 But once you have that contrition, this is where there's a real 01:49:53.680 --> 01:49:55.360 fork in the road. 01:49:55.360 --> 01:49:57.840 Because we see contrition for 01:49:58.880 --> 01:50:02.240 for instance in two men in Scripture. 01:50:02.240 --> 01:50:07.440 The first is Judas, and the second is Peter. 01:50:07.440 --> 01:50:09.840 Judas is most certainly contrite. 01:50:10.160 --> 01:50:14.880 He feels the terrors of conscience and he feels great sorrow for 01:50:14.880 --> 01:50:18.880 the evil he committed in betraying Christ. 01:50:18.880 --> 01:50:21.840 But he chooses the first option and he despairs. 01:50:22.800 --> 01:50:24.640 And so he's damned. 01:50:24.640 --> 01:50:29.360 He will spend eternity in hell, because he was contrite, but he 01:50:29.360 --> 01:50:34.240 despaired. The second option is what Peter does. 01:50:34.240 --> 01:50:36.400 Peter also betrays Christ. 01:50:36.400 --> 01:50:40.480 He denies him three times, after emphatically saying that he would go 01:50:40.480 --> 01:50:44.240 to death with him, before denying him. 01:50:44.240 --> 01:50:50.000 But Peter does not despair Because Peter is propped up by Christ. 01:50:50.160 --> 01:50:53.520 He is brought back into communion with Christ. 01:50:53.520 --> 01:50:56.960 He is given a restored and a renewed faith. 01:50:56.960 --> 01:50:59.040 And so Peter has hope. 01:50:59.040 --> 01:51:00.160 He has faith. 01:51:00.160 --> 01:51:04.240 Ultimately, those are really the same thing. 01:51:04.240 --> 01:51:06.400 That is the Christian life. 01:51:06.400 --> 01:51:08.880 You don't despair because you sinned. 01:51:08.880 --> 01:51:11.760 You don't despair because you feel contrite for your sins. 01:51:11.760 --> 01:51:13.200 In fact, when you feel contrite 01:51:14.240 --> 01:51:18.800 for your sins, you should recognize that as a good thing, because 01:51:18.800 --> 01:51:22.640 the alternative to that is to be that impenitent sinner. 01:51:22.640 --> 01:51:26.480 If you do not feel contrition with regard to your sins, that 01:51:26.480 --> 01:51:28.400 is when you are impenetrable. 01:51:28.400 --> 01:51:32.400 But if you feel sorrow for your sins, you recognize you've committed 01:51:32.400 --> 01:51:35.920 this evil, and then you turn and think differently about it, you 01:51:35.920 --> 01:51:40.880 repent. That is when faith comes in, and you have the forgiveness 01:51:40.880 --> 01:51:42.400 of sins. 01:51:42.400 --> 01:51:47.280 Not because you repent, not because you feel contrite, but because that 01:51:47.280 --> 01:51:48.960 is how God works. 01:51:48.960 --> 01:51:52.480 He uses the law to drive you to the gospel. 01:51:52.640 --> 01:51:56.640 Because the law drives you to repentance, it shows you your sin, 01:51:56.640 --> 01:52:00.880 it holds up the mirror, and points out to you, you are 01:52:00.880 --> 01:52:05.680 a sinner, you have committed great evil, you have transgressed, you are 01:52:05.680 --> 01:52:09.760 the reason Christ was nailed to the cross. 01:52:09.760 --> 01:52:11.760 But that's the gospel. 01:52:11.760 --> 01:52:16.400 Christ crucified for sinners. 01:52:16.400 --> 01:52:21.600 That is good news because in that you have the free forgiveness 01:52:21.600 --> 01:52:28.480 of sins given to you by grace in faith. 01:52:28.480 --> 01:52:32.960 And so when you hear the word repent, don't just think law. 01:52:32.960 --> 01:52:36.480 Don't just think, oh, this is something that I have to do. 01:52:36.480 --> 01:52:40.800 This is something, some work, this some burden that is placed upon 01:52:40.800 --> 01:52:45.200 me. Recognize in the word repent that both the law and the 01:52:45.200 --> 01:52:48.880 gospel are present, and that it is actually in fact good news 01:52:48.880 --> 01:52:51.120 for us that we have God's law. 01:52:51.120 --> 01:52:55.360 Because as Christians, yes, the law will always accuse us in this 01:52:55.360 --> 01:52:58.560 life. But it is Lex Sperakusat. 01:52:58.560 --> 01:53:00.480 It is the law always accuses. 01:53:00.480 --> 01:53:03.040 It is not the law only accuses. 01:53:03.040 --> 01:53:06.800 Because the law does not only accuse, the law also guides us 01:53:06.800 --> 01:53:08.240 in the Christian life. 01:53:08.240 --> 01:53:10.160 It aids us in our sanctification. 01:53:10.160 --> 01:53:16.000 The law itself is good news, for those with ears to hear, 01:53:16.000 --> 01:53:21.040 and eyes to see, and hearts of flesh and not stone. 01:53:21.040 --> 01:53:23.840 That is what you need to hear when you hear the word 01:53:24.080 --> 01:53:29.040 repentance. And so, yes, it may seem like this episode was heavy 01:53:29.040 --> 01:53:34.000 on law, and perhaps accusations, and do this and don't do that. 01:53:34.000 --> 01:53:37.440 But it's because that is part of the Christian life, and that 01:53:37.440 --> 01:53:41.360 is a good thing, because this is how Christ is pulling us 01:53:41.360 --> 01:53:45.920 out of this sinful world, and preparing us for eternal life with 01:53:45.920 --> 01:53:47.520 him in paradise. 01:53:47.520 --> 01:53:50.960 And that is very good news.