Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] So what we're gonna do, last week, we, in our study of our, what we're calling the school of evangelism, we spent the last, say, four weeks talking about the essential points of the gospel. And we went through a number of passages of scripture, and we saw those essential points in the various passages of scripture. And again, what we mean by that is I had ten of them, and they're basically the points.
[00:00:28] Truths, if you will, that are absolutely essential to the gospel because they are truths that touch directly to the gospel. Touch the gospel directly. So somebody help me.
[00:00:42] Somebody help me. Give me some of those ten points just as a review.
[00:00:47] The scriptures. Give me another quick God. Just, just say God. That's because that's all included. All right, anybody else?
[00:00:57] I heard sin. Who said sin? Mister Ben. Jesus Christ.
[00:01:03] Anyone else?
[00:01:06] Resurrection.
[00:01:09] Okay, y'all decide who's gonna talk first.
[00:01:14] Nature of salvation that is saved from sin. All right, scriptures.
[00:01:22] Righteousness.
[00:01:24] Faith. Repentance.
[00:01:28] There's only one thing we've missed, I think Christ's substitutionary death on the cross. I think that's all of them. I don't have that in my notes. So I think that's it. So all of those points are essential. So what we're going to do is we're going to take a couple of those that are, of course they're all essential, but we're going to take a couple of them in our school of evangelism. And as we try to, you know, as we, as we think through this, I don't want to just have a doctrinal study of these things. The whole purpose of our study is to equip us to be able to talk to people with wisdom and understanding and to apply the truths of scripture to the people that we're trying to. Trying to share the gospel with. All right, now here's the key, though. You need to remember that the scriptures were given to us as believers. You know, almost all of the Bible, almost all the Bible is addressed to believing people. You know that. Almost all the Bible is addressed whether it's Israel or whether it's the church. In the New Testament, almost the whole bible is addressed to believers. So we take the truths that are in the scripture and then we in turn share it with others. So we have to have a good understanding of it ourselves. And with this particular subject that I want to look at today, which is, this will be multi weeks, we'll have to go over these things.
[00:02:52] Sometimes these things get a little bit confused. And so this is why I want to cover it so that we can understand them ourselves thoroughly and clearly, so that we can explain it to others when we're sharing the gospel with them. And that that subject is, it's actually two. And one is faith and repentance, or repentance and faith. So let's look to begin at acts chapter 20, and you can hold your place in acts chapter 20 and go to Hebrews chapter six as well.
[00:03:32] Now, there has been in times past, past, not so much now, at least not to my observation.
[00:03:41] There has been a period in time in which the question of faith has never really been, has never really been an issue, that faith is required. Faith in Christ, trusting in Jesus, is required to be saved, right? That's always been understood. But sometimes the subject of repentance has been questioned. And sometimes people have, like I said in the past, have taken the truth of repentance and have altered its meaning because they didn't really like the doctrine, right.
[00:04:22] In the context of salvation. And so, and so sometimes people did not like it. And what I'm referring to when I say that is there have been people, again, this is not as much now as it once was, but during the period of, you know, in the seventies and in the eighties, there was a very large, strong push for huge Sunday schools. And, you know, people were counting beans and counting heads and bragging about how many people were in Sunday school and how many people were baptized and how many people were saved and all those things. And so some of those doctrines kind of got in the way of that a little bit. Repentance as being one of them.
[00:05:12] I'm just trying to be honest. And so repentance was, for a time among those people, it was kind of redefined as basically turning from unbelief to belief. That's not what repentance is. Repentance is.
[00:05:28] That's not the context. Of course, unbelief is a sin in that way, but essentially it pulled the teeth out of repentance. So that really the question of sin, when you're dealing with a person who needs the Lord Jesus and you're witnessing the question of sin really wasn't dealt with at all. It was just go through this process and rushing somebody through some sort of form so that you could say, and that's the key, you could say, you know, you could, you know, lead them through the process of baptism. But listen, our greatest, you know, we talk about the school of evangelism and what our motives are, what our goal is. Our goal is not to count. Our goal is to ensure that people are truly converted, that people understand the gospel and come to Jesus because we can. It is possible, and it has happened many, many times to make someone twofold more the child of hell than they were to begin, because before they knew they weren't a believer, they knew they weren't saved, and now they think they are and they're not. And now they've been kind of inoculated against that, against the truth. And that is. That's a bad place to be in because I've been there, and I know what it's like for someone to lead you through a prayer.
[00:06:49] And I was that kid, right? I was that eight or nine year old kid who said the prayer and had no concept of sin at all. Just none.
[00:07:00] No conviction of sin. No repentance at all, really. No faith either. Just going through the motions. We gotta be better than that. We have to be biblical in our efforts to get the gospel to people and really care about their soul and whether they truly come to know the Lord. Now, we don't have all the power. Like, we can't see someone's heart, but we can do everything in our power according to the scripture to make sure that they understand. But here's the thing on the subject of repentance, here's the hard part, is repentance does have teeth. And sometimes people say no.
[00:07:42] Have you ever dealt with a salesman that manipulated you such that they never gave you a chance to say no?
[00:07:54] I hate that with a passion. But it's a sales technique. Never put someone in a position where they can say no. That means they can only say yes. Now, in sales is one thing, but when you're dealing with an eternal soul, that is.
[00:08:12] I mean, that's.
[00:08:15] That is a grievous and wicked sin.
[00:08:19] So repentance is one of those things where, you know, it really costs people things. You know, there's a cost to it, and they see that. And sometimes people, as a result of that truth, say no. And we don't like that. Right? We don't like that. But really, again, it's not us. Our job is to give the message and to let the Lord work in that person's heart to bring them to repentance. Cause he does.
[00:08:46] The message is needed. But the Lord's work is also essential to bring that person to repentance. That's actually what the scriptures say. Okay, but faith and repentance go together. And I want to show you this in the Bible. So there is no such thing as a person coming to Jesus without the question of their, maybe I can say, attitude or orientation, perspective toward their sin having been dealt with, it's not possible. That's the core of repentance. They go together.
[00:09:22] They go together. And we'll look at repentance now, and then we'll look at faith after. Let's look at acts 21, acts chapter 20. Sorry, verse number 21. I heard someone on the, you know, on the Facebook, it was one of these quotes by. It was. It was some smoke preacher. And he was reading from acts chapter 20, and he was mocking those that give the gospel in a house to house fashion.
[00:09:52] That's what he was doing.
[00:09:53] And he said, I'll just read the verse, verse 20 of acts 20. And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you and have taught you publicly and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this person was saying, this person was smugly saying, these people look at acts 2020, and they say, well, this is why we should go to house to house evangelizing. Snicker, Snicker, Snicker.
[00:10:27] They don't realize the context of acts 20, that it's not talking about evangelism. Snicker, Snicker, Snicker.
[00:10:35] But actually, what is he saying in verse 21? Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward goddess and faith, toward. He's not speaking. This is not his message toward believing people, but toward unbelieving people. So by the example given in acts, that form of evangelism as a form is valid. And really, I think some people just detest it. Because I hate when people knock on my door, to be honest with you. I hate it. I hate it. Every time somebody rings our doorbell, it's like, who's at my door?
[00:11:10] I don't like it.
[00:11:12] And you all know what I'm talking about. Maybe there was a day it wasn't so much like that, but that's the way it is now. So nevertheless, trying to get the gospel to everyone, every creature, and this is part of it. But the context of this, even though Paul is speaking to the church in the ephesian elders, even though that is true in verse 20 and 21, he is definitely talking about when he first came into Ephesus and how he gave the gospel to them. And that was one of them in verse 20. But notice in verse 21, it says, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks, repentance toward God and faith. Toward our Lord Jesus Christ. See that? They occur together. All right? See that? And I'm just trying to show you that these two things occur together for a reason. Look at Hebrews chapter six, if you would.
[00:12:07] Hebrews chapter six, verse number one.
[00:12:19] Hebrews six one. The Bible says this, therefore, leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ. Let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God. See that?
[00:12:37] See the foundation being the very beginnings. You have a building. A foundation is the very beginnings of it, right? You lay the foundation. Well, the very beginnings of gospel ministry is the gospel itself. You know, the very core, the beginning of what you have to understand, and that is repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. So again, they occurred together. All right, let's pray, and then we'll. We'll move on. Looking at what repentance is. Our Lord, thank you for the chance to meet together in Sunday school. Thank you not only for our class, but also the classes downstairs and the kids and teachers there who are sharing the truth with the kids and doing activities and building relationships with them. And, Lord, I pray that you would bless those classes and those kids would be helped, and they would be. They would understand the truth that they're taught and help the teachers as well, and give them grace and wisdom. And I pray you bless our class as well. Lord, we need you to be among us. We need you. We ask you to be our teacher. Help us to understand this doctrine. And it's not just Lord, a doctrine. This deals directly with how we speak to people and what the emphasis is and how we deal with a person's soul and where they are with the Lord. And so, Lord, give us understanding, give us wisdom, help us to be skilled in the way that we give the gospel to people. In Jesus name. Amen.
[00:14:01] Okay, so what I want to look at, to begin, you can go to romans chapter seven and park there. Before we get there.
[00:14:10] We'll look at romans seven next.
[00:14:13] But what is repentance?
[00:14:16] Repentance is. Or the word repent comes from. Obviously comes from the word repentance comes from the word repent at its most basic form. You know, if you take the word repent out of the religious context, and just as a Bible study note, one of the best things you can do with theological words is take them out of the theology and look at what they mean outside of the theology. Theology, because that's the meaning, right? A lot of these words, whether it's the word church or baptize or repent or faith is another one. You could do that. You take it out of its theological context, all of a sudden it makes sense. You put it back in the theological context. Now you have all this other stuff to cloud what it means. So what does the word repent mean? What does it mean?
[00:15:06] The word repent in our Bible is translated from a word as a compound word. It just simply means change thinking. That's it. Change thinking.
[00:15:21] That's what it means in English. Obviously, that's why the word is translated that way. It just means change thinking. Now, you might hear that and you might think, well, that doesn't match the theological definition about sin and sorrow and regret and, you know, turning away. You know, the theological definition is you turn from sin, you turn to, you know, that's the theological definition I'm talking about. Just the plain definition. Right? It just means to change one's thinking. Now, hold your place here and go. We will be in Romans seven. But look at Genesis, chapter six.
[00:16:01] Genesis, chapter six.
[00:16:04] And this is a perfect illustration of why we need to understand what the word means.
[00:16:20] Verse five. Genesis, six five. The first occurrence of the word in the Bible, and it's not. Here's the interesting thing. The first occurrence of the word in the Bible is not in reference to sin, and it's not done by a person.
[00:16:37] It's done by God. Genesis six five says this. And God saw the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. Now, obviously, that doesn't mean God sinned and he's returning from his sin, right? So what does it mean? It means he changed his mind. He changed his thoughts because of what man had become. He changed his thoughts concerning the fact that he had created them.
[00:17:12] That's what it says right at its core, that's the meaning. Okay, so go to Romans seven.
[00:17:19] The key thing to understand about the definition of repentance is a change in mind. And I know that sounds kind of like weak tea, right? To those of you that are theologically inclined, you know, well, it's just change of mind. It sounds kind of weak. Well, but that's the definition. But here's the key thing to take away from that is when you talk about the word repentance, you're not talking about something that's done outwardly. It's the change of the mind and heart. It's the thoughts. It's inward. That is a key.
[00:17:53] That is a key point to understand repentance.
[00:17:57] Repentance is inward. The very definition of the word indicates it's inside of a person. It's not on the outside. And you can see that it says in Genesis six, it repented the Lord that he had made man the earth and grieved. It grieved him at his heart. Again, of course, God is the spirit, but you understand the emphasis is on the inward.
[00:18:22] So when we talk about repentance, we're not talking about the. We're not yet talking about the actions of a person. We're talking about their attitude toward sin and toward the Lord inside.
[00:18:42] Look at romans chapter seven, since we're already there.
[00:18:48] Romans chapter seven, verse number.
[00:18:52] Let's start in verse number.
[00:18:56] Verse nine. Romans seven. Nine says this for Paul. Now, Paul speaking of himself, notice what he says, for I was alive without the law once. But when the commandment came, sin revived and I died.
[00:19:15] And the commandment which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death for sin, taking occasion by the commandment deceived me and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Now notice verse 13 clearly was then that which is good made death unto me. God forbid, but sin that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
[00:20:00] You see that now in Paul's case when we read this, here's what you have to understand. Paul had sin from the beginning, right? Paul was a sinner just like we are. He had sin. But notice there came a point in his life in verse 13 by the commandment that sin became exceeding sinful. What does that mean? That means Paul's view of sin was different than it was before. Sin, which was there from the beginning, became sinful to him. It became ugly. It became wicked in his own heart and mind.
[00:20:44] Does everybody understand what I'm talking about? So his attitude toward his sin had changed. Now the question this is really getting at the word repent is not in here, but it's getting at the core of what repentance is. When we're giving the gospel to somebody, it's basically this question, what do you think of your sin?
[00:21:03] Is it just something you do, or is it exceeding sinful?
[00:21:09] And that, again, it's not about the words. It's about the person's heart and attitude toward it. That's what we're talking about.
[00:21:19] But let me ask you a question based on verse 13. Look at it, if you would.
[00:21:23] What caused Paul's attitude toward his own sin to see it as exceeding sinful? What was the catalyst that brought that about?
[00:21:35] The commandment, which is what?
[00:21:39] The word of God, in this case, the law of God. So what happened is, and this is, of course, Paul's talking about himself, but by extension and application to all of us, what happened is Paul saw the word of God and the word of God, specifically the laws of God, the commandments of God. And everybody talks, ooh, command, ooh, thou shalt not. Thou shalt. You know, everybody hates on, loves to hate on that. But the law of God is given for a reason, because it, the Lord uses the law of God to make you and to make me see that our sin is wicked.
[00:22:15] That's what it's doing to make it look ugly, because that is the beginning of repentance. You know, before, you know, before a person is, we might say, awakened to that fact. You know, they just sin. They live it up. They, you know, they're shacking up. They're, you know, they're getting drunk, going to the club. They're, you know, they're just, they're living. Or they might be religious and, you know, harboring hatred and bitterness and doing it with a religious veneer or whatever the case might be in each person is all going to be different as far as the sin is concerned. But here's the thing. When the law comes and God says, this is what God says about what you are doing. All of a sudden, what you thought was normal is ugly and sinful. And that's usually when, that's when people respond with conviction. That ping of their conscience, that guilt.
[00:23:10] That's what it's about.
[00:23:12] The word of God, the law of God is what brings that about. Now, what does that tell us? If we're explaining repentance to somebody, we cannot skirt around this issue.
[00:23:23] It is wrong to not deal with a person about their sin.
[00:23:30] That has to be the context of the gospel presentation that we might give to someone. It has to be, what's this whole thing about? You know, Sam mentioned one of the essential points is the nature of salvation. The nature of salvation is to be saved from sin. Well, we got to deal with that fact. What is sin? What does God think of it? And that's why we quote, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, there is none righteous, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher with their tongues. Have they used deceit, the poison of Asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. The way of peace. Have they not known all these descriptions in Romans chapter three of a sinner is to make a person see, my sin is exceeding sinful, is to take it from normal to it's bad, really.
[00:24:27] This is a way, this is the way that someone starts to become aware of their sinfulness.
[00:24:35] Right?
[00:24:36] Now here's the thing, when we talk about this, and we'll get into this more in just a minute, but a lot of people feel bad about their sin when the consequences of their sin start to pop up, right?
[00:24:57] But in Romans three, I'm sorry, Romans 713, what is in view is not the consequences.
[00:25:03] Everybody hates the consequences of sin, right?
[00:25:07] You know, a lady, a lady or a man commits adultery against his or her husband and then loses their family.
[00:25:17] Well, that consequence of losing the family, that's bad. Nobody likes that.
[00:25:25] But what of the actual thing?
[00:25:28] You see, that's what romans seven is pointing out. It's the thing is exceeding sinful, not the consequence, right? A guy is doing drugs and he accidentally overdoses and he gets put in the hospital and he's got to stay in the hospital because he's, you know, got sepsis from too many needles or whatever.
[00:25:49] Well, that's terrible. He's in the hospital for six weeks. That's terrible.
[00:25:53] But what of the actual deed, right? A man's looking at pornography and he gets caught. He's ashamed, you know, but what of the. Look, you see what I'm saying? There's a difference between being sorry for the consequence and knowing that the act itself is exceeding. And that is what the Lord wants us to. Because here's the reality, is that not every sin that we commit has negative outcomes immediately, right? I mean, we get away with a whole bunch, do we not? People sin sin. They drink sin like water. The Bible describes that they drink sin like water, and there's apparently no consequences, you know, especially these young people, they, you know, they're in college. I don't know what's. I mean, just listen, some of these kids, they go into college at 1819 years old and just throw themselves at sin. I mean, just throw themselves at sin in these public colleges. Maybe Christian too.
[00:26:57] And you know what? They're young, and it takes time for that stuff to kind of work itself out and start hurting your body. It takes time for those wicked memories and those wicked I habits to get formed. And so they're young, they're 20, 21, 22, you know, they're just having a good time. There is apparently no evil effect of it.
[00:27:18] And as a result, they think, well, it's not hurting me. I'm happy, I'm having fun.
[00:27:23] They don't feel pain from it. And you know what? That's true for a time.
[00:27:29] But a repentant person feels the pain and regret. I. Not for the consequence, but for the deed. Even if the consequence doesn't hurt, they regret the sinfulness of the sin. Does that make sense?
[00:27:52] That's one of the biggest differences.
[00:27:56] And the way so that tells us, don't, don't go off track. What I'm about to say, you probably have heard people present the gospel with an emphasis on hell.
[00:28:11] You don't want to go to hell, do you? You don't want to go to hell, do you? Well, I mean, hell's real. People will go there. That is, you know, that's the judge. That's where people go when they do not.
[00:28:22] When they're, you know, banished from God. They cannot go into God's presence. They go to hell. Hell's real.
[00:28:28] But sometimes we use that kind of as a consequence kind of fear. But what of the sin, God, looking at your sin, what about that?
[00:28:42] It's just making sure we.
[00:28:46] And again, judgment is a fine thing to bring up, because judgment is in the context of the Lord. Judgment of sin is important, but it cannot be to the exclusion of the actual thing and what God thinks of it. That's what is. That's the core.
[00:29:01] And if we talk about judgment with someone, and we should. Right, eternal judgment, we should talk about judgment. But it has to be in the context of the outworking of the wickedness of that sin in the sight of God. You see what I'm saying? And really, we're not just talking about one sin or this sin or that sin. We're talking about sinse that are the characteristic of that person's whole life.
[00:29:26] In other words, each and every sin is evidence and demonstrates that we are sinful. Right?
[00:29:34] That we are wicked. All right, let's look at second corinthians, chapter seven.
[00:29:44] Corinthians, chapter seven, starting verse number eight.
[00:30:04] Now understand the context. First. Paul is writing a letter.
[00:30:09] He's describing what had happened with his relationship with his church. There was sin going on. Paul had to write a letter to them to rebuke the church. And as a result of that rebuke, that church had gotten things right. Okay, so that's a good thing.
[00:30:26] But the truths about repentance here apply generally.
[00:30:31] Okay, notice in verse number eight. The Bible says, for though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent. For I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season.
[00:30:49] Now I rejoice not that ye were made sorry. Now note this. But that ye sorrowed, ye sorrowed to I'm sorry I lost my place, but that ye sorrowed to repentance.
[00:31:06] For ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. Notice the first thing ye sorrowed to repentance. Now here's the first thing you have to understand. All sorrow is not the same.
[00:31:21] All regret and that pinge of guilt, or however we might describe it in this case, it's talking about sorrow. All sorrow is not the same.
[00:31:33] Verse number ten says this. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
[00:31:44] So you have godly sorrow, and you have ungodly sorrow.
[00:31:53] Godly sorrow is the variety of sorrow that leads to repentance.
[00:32:00] Now a few other points to make from this, and we'll look at another verse here. There is a difference between sorrow and repentance. Notice in verse nine. But that ye sorrowed to repentance.
[00:32:15] So you might say it like this. Sorrow is the feeling, right?
[00:32:20] Repentance. Sorrow is the feeling. Repentance is the actual change of the mind and heart. Right?
[00:32:32] The right kind of sorrow, and there is a wrong kind. We'll look at that in a second. But the right kind of sorrow will lead and drive a person to the actual change of the mind and the heart before God regarding their sin.
[00:32:45] So sorrow is good. Now notice what it says, verse ten for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be repented of. True repentance is permanent.
[00:32:58] See that.
[00:33:01] But the sorrow of the world worketh death.
[00:33:06] False repentance leads to what worse sin.
[00:33:12] Now follow me here.
[00:33:16] Keep reading verse eleven and then we'll kind of review.
[00:33:21] For behold this self same thing that ye, the corinthian church, sorrowed after a godly source. So this is godly sorrow.
[00:33:29] What carefulness it wrought in you. Yea, what clearing of yourselves. Yea, what indignation. Yea, what fear. Yea, what vehement desire. Yea, what zeal. Yea, what revenge in all things ye have approved yourselves to be clear in this matter.
[00:33:48] So they sorrowed, they had godly sorrow, which led to them actually repenting, which was the change in their heart in mind regarding this sin. And the result of that repentance was all of the things listed in verse number eleven. In other words, true repentance produced an actual effect in the life.
[00:34:11] This is what is called the fruit of repentance. This is why I said at the beginning that repentance is in the heart.
[00:34:18] But true repentance, as demonstrated here and in other passages, always has accompanying fruit in the life.
[00:34:28] So if a person says, oh, well, yeah, I repented, and then they continue to do that thing unabated, that is false repentance, because true repentance has effect. Now, here's the danger.
[00:34:41] When we're talking to someone about repentance, it is very easy for us to, again, you guys know, especially in our Sunday school class, that I try to be very careful about throwing around jargon and terminology because people get confused.
[00:34:58] And so oftentimes when we think about repentance, we throw out the word repent. A person, you need to get witnessing to someone. You have to repent, believe in Jesus. And when a person hears that, what they hear is, I have to stop sinning.
[00:35:12] Well, first of all, that's it's not possible.
[00:35:15] So that's a bar none of us have reached.
[00:35:19] But number two, sometimes not because if we said anything wrong, but because of that person's predisposition, we make them think that they're essentially saving themselves by not sinning. That's not right. Salvation is by grace. Is it not right?
[00:35:38] So what does it mean to. What it means is we have to be careful when we throw around the word repentance to make sure that they understand what we're talking about.
[00:35:49] We're talking about the person's heart's orientation toward the Lord.
[00:35:57] So most people understand the word repent to mean to change what you do.
[00:36:01] But, and in the context of salvation, this could be easily understood to mean, when we say it, that you change your life to be saved. And to be honest with you, this is how a lot of people think of the word repentance. They think it means just stop sinning.
[00:36:19] Be careful. Be careful. And sometimes I'll say things like this when I'm talking to people. I'll say, even if you stop sinning right now, for the rest of your life, you still have no hope because you can't take away the sin you've already done, number one. Number two, you can't do. It's impossible for you to do that anyway.
[00:36:51] Remember that as we read this in two corinthians, what the Lord is showing us is not to use the word repentance, but to pay attention to the condition of a person's heart regarding their sin before God, whether they view it as exceeding sinful or not, or whether they are wanting out of the bad consequences of their sin.
[00:37:16] See, that's where you and I have to be skilled.
[00:37:20] What are they thinking about? Are they thinking about what God thinks of their sin and their condition before God, or are they thinking about all the bad things that have come upon them as a result?
[00:37:29] You got to pay attention to that. That's why sometimes jail ministry is just, it's fraught with trouble, because the consequences of people's sin is being thrown in their face. That's all they can see.
[00:37:44] They just want out of the problem.
[00:37:49] We must therefore describe sin and its effects in the right way, and not describe it simply as, we might say, consequence centered, right.
[00:38:06] And doing it like this, explaining, you know, someone's sin, where they stand before God, what the Lord thinks of their sins. See, look at God's commandments. Have you obeyed God's command? This is what the Lord says about us.
[00:38:20] This is how he describes us, is to ping their conscience not about all the bad things that have come of it, but about where that puts them with God. That's the whole purpose.
[00:38:32] And see, as you're. We're finished. But as you witness to someone, that's a good thing to kind of probe and see where's this person's heart at? You know, ask the right questions. And are they understanding what, what I'm saying, what the Bible is saying about their position with God? Because if there's sorrow, which is a feeling, there's going to be evidence of that, a seriousness about where they are with the Lord.
[00:39:00] And we'll get to Esau next week.
[00:39:03] But Esau was a man who cried his portal of lies out, and yet his repentance was fake.
[00:39:11] But the tears were flowing.
[00:39:15] I know we want some easy thing to see where people are, and you think tears. Everybody in jail cries crocodile tears.
[00:39:23] But that's not what it's about. It's about that person's attitude toward the Lord with their sin. Hope that's clear. We'll pick up next week.
