Repent and Believe

Hello, everyone. Today is Monday, January the 30th. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. And you're listening to Clearview Today with Dr. Abbadon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart with the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can find us online at ClearviewTodayShow.com. If you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for future episodes, make sure you let us know by sending us a text at 252-582-5028.

That's right. You guys can help keep this conversation going on the airwaves by supporting this podcast, sharing it online. Leave us a good review on iTunes, on Spotify, Audible if that's your thing. If you want to listen to the podcast and you want to leave some reviews, you can. Some people have been listening on Audible.

Really? Can you see who listens on Audible? No, I just made that up. I just made that up. But I'm sure someone out there is listening to it on Audible.

Welcome back to the show where we deliver you fake stats. We're going to leave you guys some links in the description so you guys can leave us some good reviews and hopefully we'll lie to y'all some more. Ryan, do you want to hit the verse of the day? Please listen on Audible so we don't make liars out of it.

The line stops. Now, here comes the truth because this is time for the verse of the day. That's a good segue. The verse of the day today comes from 1 John 4, verse 18. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. Yeah. I mean, that's one thing that we do. We approach God with reverence and with awe because he's holy, right? He's majestic.

That's the nature of who he is. At the same time, I don't have to fear his presence. Perfect love casts out fear.

And if God loves me that much, then I can trust his desire is to save me and to bless me and to prosper me. And I think that's something that is, you know, we fear the Lord, but we don't fear the Lord. We're not afraid or frightened of the Lord. Exactly. Yeah. That's a great way to put it. We're not frightened of God, but fear, a healthy fear, reverence for God comes from understanding the love that we have for God and love that is made perfect in us.

God's love is made perfect in us because we have the opportunity to show that love to other people. Yeah. There's a fear, but it's not his presence that you have to fear. Right. Right.

Exactly. So speaking of love, I have kind of a confession to make. Go for it. I have been bit by the nostalgia bug very recently. Um, I've been, I've been playing a lot of Pokemon sword. So I've been playing a lot. I mean, I've gotten all eight gym badges.

My goodness, Ryan, I'm headed toward the championship. Have you played, uh, Scarlet and violet yet? I have not. So we have scarlet and violet. Hartley's playing Scarlet. No, I'm sorry. Hartley's playing violet right now. Okay.

Okay. Um, I want to play Scarlet and violet, but I want to, I'd already started sword by the time we got them. So I want to finish sword and then I'm going to jump into the new last Pokemon game I played was Pokemon white. And then I played white. I played Pokemon black. I played Pokemon white too, but then I was like, this one is not as good as the first one.

I, and I was trying to figure out why this was such a bug, why I felt so in love with this. Cause I did not feel that way about Pokemon black. It was fine, but I was like, you didn't like Pokemon black and white. It was so, it was okay. I mean, I didn't really like it. I mean, it was no soul silver, but it was nothing, nothing. Yeah.

Nothing's ever got here. What I, what I realized is Pokemon was like when it first came out, that's really when I first started getting into gaming altogether, like, like not just video games, but playing actual like card games and playing games together. It really is the perfect RPG because it's, uh, it's very lighthearted. It's got a good inventory system. It's got turn-based combat and yet you only have four moves. It doesn't overwhelm you. And that's something that I think about a lot of RPGs.

People don't get into them cause they're so overwhelming. They're so huge with Pokemon. The replayability is incredibly high because you can play through with multiple different teams. You don't ever have to have the same team of poke of six Pokemon. Pokemon understands the good, uh, the, the importance of limitations and limitations actually make you more creative. Yeah. Yeah. What I really love about it too is that you are able to break the game essentially. Like if you put in the hours, you can roll around with like level 100 Pokemon.

Oh yeah. I like a second gym. If you put in the work, you're going to get the reward. Easy. I love that word of advice to y'all start playing Pokemon. We talk about it on the show a lot for a reason is very good game. Family friendly. It is family friendly. It's a lot of fun.

I'm playing with my kids. Love it. Amen. Great time. We've got an exciting show planned for you guys today. We're gonna go grab Dr. Shaw, but if you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, write in and let us know at two five two five eight two five zero two eight.

We'll be back after this. Good morning, afternoon, evening, clear view today. Listeners. My name is John and I'm David and we just want to take a quick second and let you know about another way that you can keep in touch with Dr. Shaw's work. And that is his weekly podcast series sermons by Abaddon shop, PhD.

As a lot of you may know, or maybe some of you don't know, you don't know you do now. And if you don't know, then maybe just hop off the podcast. David, I'm just pop off the podcast play and keep listening. Dr. Shaw is actually the lead pastor of Clearview church in North Carolina. Every single weekend he preaches expository messages that challenge and inspire us to live God honoring. One of the four core values of Clearview church is that we're a Bible believing church. So every sermon is coming directly from scripture, which is great because that guarantees that there are timeless truths that are constantly applicable to our lives. This is a great resource because whether you're driving, whether you're cleaning the house, whether you're working out, you can always benefit from hearing the word of God spoken into your life. And God's word is always going to do something new for you every time you hear it.

Sometimes it's conviction and sometimes it's encouragement, but know that every time you listen to God's word, you're inviting the Holy spirit to move and work in your life. You guys can check out the sermons by Abaddon shop, PhD podcast. First and foremost, check it out on our church app. That's the Clearview app. You can get that in the Google play store.

You can get that on iTunes, but you can also find the podcast on the Apple podcast app or on our website at Clearview, bc.org. And listen, if you've got a little extra time on your hands, you just want to do some further reading. You can also read the transcripts of those sermons.

Those are available on Dr. Shaw's website, abaddonshaw.com. And we're going to leave you guys a little link in the description so you can follow it. But for right now, David, let's hop back in.

All right. Welcome back to Clearview today with Dr. Abaddon Shaw, the daily show that engages mind and heart with the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at Clearview todayshow.com.

If you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, make sure you let us know by sending us a text at 252-582-5028. Dr. Shaw, happy Monday to you. Start of a new week. Brand new things happening this week.

Welcome to the studio. Exciting things. You know, sometimes the struggle is to know how much to share about the exciting thing. You don't want to be humble bragging. You know what humble bragging is like, you know, putting things out there at the same time saying it's not me, it's the Lord. Yeah. It's like, it's like, Oh man, I'm so exhausted from going to all these VIP parties this week.

I'm so, so tired. Right. And he can do the spiritual humble brag too.

But at the same time, let's just say God is good. A lot of exciting things are happening. Amen.

Amen. Well, if you guys are new and visiting with us, if this is your first time ever joining in on the Clearview Today Show, we want to welcome you. Dr. Abbadon Shaw is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, a professor at Carolina University, an author, full time pastor, and the host of today's episode. And you can find his work online at AbbadonShaw.com. That's right. You can follow along with him on Facebook as well on his page, AbbadonShaw PhD, public figures page where you can see all of his important content, lots of things related to scholarship and, you know, biblical understanding may help you grow in your faith and your understanding and your confidence in God's words. So make sure you follow along on that Facebook page as well. That's right.

So today, Dr. Shaw, a lot of times on the show we'll reference like previous sermons that you've preached because yeah, at this point there's a wealth of sermons that you've preached and knowledge to draw from that you have. It's not that much. It's only like 20 years. It's only about 20 years worth of content. So it's not quite that much.

It's more than half our lives. Yeah, that's true. Whatever. But today there was a message that you preached that it's still, you know, it had a profound impact on me. Right.

And I know the same is true for many people. It was talking about the relationship between repentance and belief. Right. And you know, a lot of times those terms, we use them maybe interchangeably or we use them kind of linked to one another, but they're two different things and yet they go hand in hand. That's correct.

So I'd love if we can, I'd love to talk more about that today and you know, the relationship between repentance and belief. Absolutely. Well, just like, you know, you have peanut butter and jelly, right? Peanut butter is peanut butter. Jelly is jelly, but they come together. Like you can enjoy them separately, but they're best together. Or chips and dip. Yeah, of course.

Right. Well, you can't have chips without dip. Or mashed potatoes and gravy. Can you imagine eating mashed potato without gravy? It's sad.

I think at this point only like a, well, I'm not going to say that. I had mashed potatoes without gravy last night. How was it?

It was, it was okay. You just, you just had gravy last night? I did not have gravy. No, I saw him. I looked in the way he was, he was drinking the gravy. I was fine. Just consuming the gravy.

It was really disgusting. I mean, I mean, we can keep going. Salt and pepper, pork and beans, Mac and cheese, you know, we can even talk about Tom and Jerry and Batman and Robin.

There you go. Who else do we have? Pinky and the Brain.

Pinky and the Brain. Costello. You got Arnold and Gerald.

Maybe that last one is just for the nineties kids. Oh, from Hey Arnold. Sorry.

I was like Arnold and Gerald. Yeah. Sorry. You know, those two, they are distinct and yet they go hand in hand. So also when it comes to repentance and belief, they're two distinct things and yet they go hand in hand when it comes to our salvation. Yeah. You know, repentance without belief will only lead to perpetual guilt.

Okay. So you, you just repent and then you do something wrong and repent again. There is no focus there. There's only contrition. There's only conviction.

There's only remorse, but then belief without repentance will only lead to perpetual carnality, which is like, Oh, I believe I believe in God. So I'm covered. I'm covered. I'm good. I'm good, man. Hey, God and I have a relationship, but, but the way you act and behave and live, it's not great. Yeah.

Oh no, I'm good. So if all you do is repent, you will never see the grave grace of God. Right. And if all you do is believe, believe you will never see the holiness of God. Wow. So grace and holiness meet together in repentance and belief.

That's kind of like that. The, the other side of that coin, or maybe it's the same exact coin of the mercy and truth. They always go together.

Wow. I can't truly repent unless you believe and can't truly believe unless you repent. So they go hand in hand. And so, you know, and it's scriptural.

This is not something that we conjure up or some systematic theologian from, you know, years past or present has put this together. Mark 1 14 says, now, after John was put in prison, Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying that time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. One followed right after the other.

It's, it's, it's one command with two different action steps. And then you find that again in the early church, because somebody may say, you know, Oh, no, wait. Now that's before Jesus on the cross, which by the way is not a good argument to use.

Okay. But go to Acts chapter 20 verse 20, how I kept back nothing that was helpful, but proclaimed it to you and taught you publicly and from house to house testifying to Jews and also to Greeks. What are you testifying? Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord, Jesus Christ. So what is, I feel like we should settle this up top.

What is repentance? What does that mean? Yeah.

Cause a lot of different people, I think that's going to, they're going to take that to mean a lot of different things. Right. The noun form of that word is metanoia, which is found about 24 times in the Greek New Testament. The verbal form is metanoia, which is found about 34 times.

And then of course there is another word called metamelomai, which is found about six times. And the reason I'm giving you all these statistics is because the core idea behind repentance is a change of mind or a change of thinking. Okay.

Change of mind or change of thinking. It's not just feeling sorry for myself. Right. Feeling bad. Yeah.

Yeah. If you, if you come from a Roman Catholic type background, there is the idea of penance. There is the idea of penitence where there is a sense of, you know, brokenness or, or just, just feeling very sorry for what you've done. And so repentance becomes you know, a time of sorrow. Right. But we, of course, you know, we know second Corinthians seven, 10 for godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation.

Some people say, there you go. Sorrow. Wait, the key there is godly sorrow. Yeah.

Okay. Not to be regretted. So my question to people who talk about crying and weeping during repentance is, is it regret? Because then that's not what we're supposed to be. Yeah. We tend to think that regret is what God wants. We want to, God wants us to feel bad about what we did. Yeah.

Right. That's, that's, that's the point I'm trying to make here is that may happen if you've lived a bad lifestyle, if you've done some wrong things and, and, you know, hurt people or lied about, lied about people or lied to people or just, it's just some horrible things. And then there'll be a sense of sorrow. Do you think people mistake or, or confuse regret and conviction?

Like conviction means like in their minds, conviction just means I feel bad. Yeah. That's a good point. It's like, I have to just live in shame.

I have to just at least for a little while until I get the urge to do it again. Right. Yeah. Again, I may be wrong. I've done some research on this.

I'm not just like, you know, shooting from the hip. You know, this is a little bit of a Roman Catholic medieval type theology that sorta also was part of the reformation because in the reformation, I mean, these guys had just left the established church. So a lot of things that Luther did was still getting, being done in the Catholic church. Right. So maybe they carried on that same tradition of feeling sorry, feeling penitent, but I don't believe it was necessary for the early church, right? These Jewish background believers to feel sorry.

Yeah. And if they are feeling sorry, you know, the Bible talks about at Peter's sermon, they were cut to the heart. They were cut to the heart because not because they were like, we're, I'm just, we're just rotten sinners because you crucify the son of God. You crucify the very one who you were waiting for. Right. You, you took by lawless hands and nailed him to the tree. Yeah. How do you feel? And they were cut to the heart and said, what must be do now?

I'm sorry to say this, but, um, an average person getting saved today may not be cut to the heart. Right. Because I didn't put, I didn't hold those nails.

You know, I didn't hold that hammer. Theologically, I can argue with you about, you know, how you were there and, you know, in, in Adam, we all sinned and all that. Okay. I get it.

I get it in the theological system, but still as a human being, it's hard for me to say, okay, that's the reality. And I should feel bad about that. Yeah. It's difficult to connect emotions to something that happened centuries ago. Yeah. Yeah. That I, that I personally had no personal physical involvement. Right. But in some metaphysical sense, I need to be identified with that and feel the same emotions.

That's, that's, that's not, that's unrealistic. Well, that's why I appreciate what you said earlier is that the key point of repentance is there's a change of thinking, the change of mind. It's not necessarily that I feel bad or I want to do these things now so that I'll feel good. It's that I'm changing my mind and my thinking regarding sin. Regarding three things to be exact sin, self and savior.

Okay. So there is now a disdain for sin. Sin is not something to be enjoyed or cool or fun or, you know, anything that the world admires. Now you look at sin and go, that's that's evil. That's terrible.

I don't know why I thought this was, this was a good thing to do. Secondly, God is a rightful center of the universe because prior to that you are the center of the universe. Not necessarily you'd like see yourself in grandiose terms, but you do operate as if you're the only one who exists. I'm the main character in my story. Yeah. The story revolves around me.

That's right. And everybody should just do what I'm telling you to do. And then again, our culture today, the world, that's one of the primary problems is it's, it's a culture that says me, me, me, and it's very hard for, and it's going to be hard. The story hasn't been written. This we're still in the first couple of chapters of this generation's book.

Okay. And I'm talking about the past. I would throw millennials in there too, where the mindset of us, me, the center, me, the one self-preservation is very strong.

Now always has been there. You know, those ideas, self-preservation don't misunderstand me, but never like this where it's celebrated. Yeah. What do you think contributes to that? Oh, you know, partly, I think it's the way we raised the kids, right? I think so. With a camera in their face, they are winners.

And if they are a little bit gifted, then gosh, you're, you're, how do we work with you? Yeah. I remember as a kid getting participation trophies for sports that I barely even played. You know, I remember, and I know that's a meme that everybody loves to, to, you know, throw out there, but I mean, it is true.

It's true. I was, I was in school praised for the most basic of things, just doing the bare minimum. And I think over time I grew up to expect that. I grew up to expect that if you do the bare minimum, you get lauded and applauded for it. That's a good point. Raising kids with a camera in their face.

I hadn't thought about that before, but if you, if you raise kids and treat them like celebrities when they're little, they're going to grow up believing that they are celebrities and functioning like that. Yeah. Well, where it came from is Nicole and I were driving yesterday and she was just sharing that, you know, and we were talking cause we used to talk about that back in the early two thousands, that this generation, you know, the past five, 10 years and ones coming up are going to be very different. And this is the reason why, but now looking back, cause she, she's like, you know, remember that when we used to talk about that? And I'm like, yeah, I do. I do remember.

I, in fact, I have some of those clippings in my file folders at home and guess what? We're living it now. This is it. So what do we do? How do we handle that? But repentance. Okay. Going back to that prior, you, you, you, you didn't think you needed a savior.

Why do you need a savior? You're fine. You're good. That's true. In fact, the world had any sense. They would realize how much I've gone through. Yeah. All of the, all of my value is in the struggles that I've endured.

It's not in, it's not in what any external human deity, what they say about me. Look at, look at how hard I've had it and look how much I've had to overcome instead of look at Jesus. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Look how good he's been to me. Yeah. So that's, that's what you have. So you need, you need a lot of change of mind, changes of mind regarding sin, self, and savior. I think, I think one thing that people either get hung up on or they always want to know is, is do I have to be, do I have to repent to be saved? Is that something that's necessary?

Not only for the Christian life, but just for salvation. Yeah. I mean, but it's not the repentance they're thinking. Oh, okay. You know, I had a man who would tell me that all the time. It's like, I know what you're doing and I know you, these people are getting saved and baptized or whatever, whatever.

But I don't know if that's a real deal. Cause I mean, I just don't see any sorrow for sin. So I'm like, um, okay. How do you biblically justify that? I mean, look at the prodigal son when he came back home. I mean, he was sorry. I'm like, right. But if you really look at it in the context, he was a son. Right.

That's a great point. He was already a son. He wasn't outside of the family. He was already in the house. He was not being adopted.

There was not this kid comes up and very sad and says, please take me father. Right. This wasn't one of the servants.

He was already in the household. Yeah. He was. Yeah. So your analogy doesn't work.

Right. And again, that was about a whole different thing. This was about the prodigal son. Of course it has some very valuable applications for our home life, our family life, our children, you know, our wayward children or whatever. But, but at its context, it's about how the establishment, the religious leaders of the day were looking down their noses at those who were living a wanton life, right.

Doing all their crazy stuff. And then, you know, want to come back home and want equal status. So Jesus gave the illustration of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son to, to illustrate something very powerful that, Hey, elder son, everything I have is yours and you've always been with me, but here your brother was lost, but now he's found we should rejoice. Yeah. You know, so, uh, it's a whole different thing, but, but that's, that's for another time. But when we talk about is repentance necessary, Luke 13, three, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Verse five, I tell you no, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish twice as mentioned. So this repentance, of course there may be some sorrow there.

There may be a little bit of conviction there, but it's really at its core. If you really look at things in this context, salvation is a change of mind. You know what that makes me think of Dr. Shah, that makes me think of your own salvation story where I know you, you were talking about, you were saved at the age of four.

Um, and, and it just got me to kind of thinking about that. Like a four year old is probably not going to have that visceral emotional, uh, reaction that people think of where I'm such a center, but a four year old can think differently. A four year old can change their mind. Um, a four year old can understand that I've been doing something this way.

I need to do it this way. You've, you've made this point before too, cause we have lots of kids who are, you know, through our, our children's ministry and through our Awana program and other outreach opportunities. We have lots of kids who are, you know, getting saved, getting baptized. And sometimes people are like, do they really understand? Yeah, because they don't see that they don't have all that emotional baggage that an adult would have. Of course, a four year old is not going to live in regret for like taking a cookie out of the cookie jar, but they can understand, Hey, that was wrong and I shouldn't do that. Exactly. They also have, they haven't had like these major life experiences where they've made, you know, tons of mistakes and they've been disobedient to God for years and they've been on the run spiritually. They're four. I mean, they, they haven't had that life. I think regret comes with time and you understand, like I've wasted so much time living for myself.

A four year old is not going to have that. And if you go by scripture, you know, scriptures to me is the final authority. Unless you are converted and become like older people who really feel sorry, sorrow for sin, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Of course. The book of what was it? Second opinion. That's right. So what does it say?

Unless you are converted and become like one of these little children, like the little ones. Yeah. So I don't know. Take it up with the scripture. I know. Right. I'm sorry it bothers you, but, uh, I don't know what to do.

Yeah. It's just crazy because we put so much of our own ideas and our own thoughts of what's, what Christianity is supposed to be. And what's crazy is we grow up, I grew up actually believing that because I thought it was just biblical because that's just makes sense that when you do something wrong, you have to feel bad about it. And so that's what repentance is. But man, you just coming and looking at the scripture with you, Dr. Shaw, and seeing that that's not at all what it is and it's so much more simpler. And when you talk about stuff like that, it gets clearer. Of course that's what repentance is. It's changing your mind. Real repentance to me is, is a believer feeling sorrow for their sin. To me, that's where sorrow comes in.

Knowing what you know and having what God has given to you by his grace. Why did you do that? Yeah. That should bring sorrow.

Yeah. You know, that's, that's the place for true sorrow to happen. And ultimately who gives us the ability to repent? It is the Holy spirit, right? So John 16, seven, nevertheless, I tell you the truth.

It is to your advantage that I go away for, if I did not go away, the helper will not come to you. But if I depart, I will send him to you. And when he has come, he will convict who?

The world. The world doesn't say believers, doesn't say the child of God, the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. So this is in the context of salvation, no sorrow involved. There's conviction for sin and righteousness and of judgment to come, man. I thank you for, I appreciate you sharing that. That clears things up, you know, for us sitting here on the show, hopefully it clears it up for you listening at home as well. If you enjoyed today's topic and you have suggestions for future episodes, make sure you let us know by sending us a text at two five two five eight two five zero two eight.

You can also visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. And I would challenge the people, you know, when you, when you think about this, um, if you know someone who really felt sorrow for sin when they got saved, that's fine. Yeah. Yeah. You know, so don't, don't think that, well, you have to feel great.

If you do feel sorrow for sin, maybe you had a rough life, maybe you are really feeling that burden. That's okay. But doesn't mean it's the standard for everybody. Right. That's right. Oh man. It doesn't mean it's the standard for everybody.

Yeah. Your sorrow is not what every Christian has to feel. They don't have to feel your level of sorrow.

You don't have, you don't have a checkbox that says tears that you have to take care of. Amen. And don't forget that on the website clearviewtodayshow.com you have the opportunity to partner with us financially to support us as we're getting the message out as Dr. Shah is sharing from his heart as we're reaching people with the hope of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's what we're about here on Clearview today. And we appreciate your partnership for that.

Amen. I got a question that came in from Brian H. I don't know. It's my dad.

I don't know. Brian. Oh, it could be Brian H. Well, I was going to say, is your dad been listening to some Clearview gossip? Cause I don't know how this got out. I don't think it's him.

This is a, this is a tightly guarded Clearview secret. I don't know how this got out. The word through the grapevine is that Dr. Shah is a street fighter fan. My question is, who did you main?

What do you mean by that is who did you, who was your, who was your main character? My goodness. Street fighter. We're going back to, um, 1993 days. That's like 20 years ago. I would say M. Bison.

M. Bison is, M. Bison is, is a good choice for sure. Yeah. I liked him.

And then the Indian guy who was just like, would levitate. Oh, I don't even remember his name. I know who exactly. Dalsom. Yeah.

Dalsom. Yeah. Yeah. I was, uh, I was always Ryu.

I just went straight for Ryu. And then there was that, that Bianco, Bonco. Blanca, I think is his name. The big monster monster. He was, he was weird.

Yeah. And then, um, uh, Ken, nobody liked Ken. Ken was just a palette swap for Ryu. But, uh, E. Honda.

I also like E. Honda was good. And Chun-Li when she starts kicking. Yeah.

Chun-Li starts kicking. You're done. Yep.

You're done. I think I just played, I didn't play a lot of street fighter. Oh really? I played, I played more, uh, I didn't, I wasn't really into fighting games, but I played, was it Ryu? Ryu? Yeah. Yeah. I played him. Yeah.

Just cause he's like the most recognizable. Street fighter was good for kids because like at the same time, mortal combat was coming out and a lot of parents didn't like that. So they were like, well, it's too rough. So they were like, let's go with street fighter. So street fighter actually got a lot of success because mortal combat was too rough.

Yeah. Well, you guys write in, let us know who your main was in street fighter. Hopefully we'll get, we'll learn something and, you know, get some suggestions for when we sit down and play street fighter on an episode of the radio show. Amen. Maybe we'll add that. I don't know. We'd love you guys. We'll see you next time on Clear Read Today.