Let's bow in prayer. Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving, praying at all times for us as well, that God will open up for us a door for the word.
so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ. for which I have also been imprisoned. that I may make it clear in the way I ought to speak. Our Father, we're so thankful to be here this evening. to hear these children sing.
Thank you for the parents who are Guarding their own hearts that they might train these children and bring them up in the discipline and nurture of the Lord. Give them strength to do that. Thank you for your promises that they're not dependent. And the culture. or the atmosphere of what the world may be doing.
But you are faithful to your word because of who you are. And we are blessed that you would call us and. equip us to share the faith. You told us to study and show ourselves approved as workmen who are not ashamed, rightly dividing your word. And we know that while we're all beloved, we're not all approved.
And so we want to be approved. Through our study of Scripture, that we might be the man, the woman, the boy, the girl that you might use to introduce people to the Savior and to help them to grow.
So be with us in all that are said and thought tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. All right, we're going to. review just two pages very very briefly so that you're not walking in cold because it's tough to walk into the middle of a page not knowing the context so if you'll open up here we are if you're here for the first time we're in a course on how to give away your faith and much of being successful in personal evangelism is first being the right person being a spirit-filled person so in the first part of this handout this is handout number four we dealt with what does it mean to allow the Holy Spirit to fill us and to empower us because all the mechanics and all the theology mean very little if we're not filled and empowered by the Spirit while we are indwelt by him that's called the baptism doesn't necessarily mean we're filled with him we're never commanded post-Pentecost to get the spirit it is assumed you have him but we are commanded as believers to be filled with the spirit And so now we're focusing on the role of God the Holy Spirit in evangelism. And so notice where we're at here.
Again, some reviews.
Some of these blanks have been filled in just for the sake of time. Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving, praying at the same time for us as well. That God will open up to us a door for the word so that we may speak forth the mystery of Christ for which I have also been imprisoned. That I may make it clear the way I ought to speak.
So, Paul is in Caesarea by the sea. He's in prison, and he writes four letters there. And it's interesting because while he's there, of course, he's given freedom, if you remember from a recent message we did in Acts. He is not overwhelmed with his circumstances. Like woe is me, here I am locked up.
He wants to win people to Jesus. even seemingly in the worst of circumstances.
So the Spirit works through us, bringing conviction to the lost as we faithfully share. And so like Paul, we must faithfully pray for help. And when he comes, he, the Spirit, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment, concerning sin because they do not believe in me. And so that's what we're focusing on right now, how he convicts the sin. We should note that Jesus says, sin concerning sin.
not sins. Because unbelief is the root of all sin and is the basis of our condemnation. People are not sent to hell for being immoral drunkards, murderers or adulterers, but because they persisted in unbelief that drove such sins. Only the Spirit can teach that the greatest and most damning sin in this world is not believing in Jesus, God's Son, who testifies to us that He is God's only provision for sin. He is our only way of escape.
So in 1 John 5, the Apostle John will write: The one who believes in the Son has the testimony in himself. The one who does not believe, God has made him a liar. Because he's not believed in the testimony that God has given concerning his son.
So you can see why unbelief is so big in the mind and heart of God. And if you don't understand that, the way you present the gospel will be potentially distorted. and you'll focus and emphasize the wrong things. The testimony is this: that God has given us eternal life. We don't earn it.
And this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has the life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. What's the crux of it all? These things I've written to you who believe, there it is, who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
So the person choosing not to believe is like a man who has a deadly but curable disease. He refuses to take his medicine, and so he dies not just because of the disease, but because he rejected the cure. All those who go to an eternity in hell will do so not simply because they are sinners, but because they have refused God's remedy, which is why the Holy Spirit comes to convict the world of our unbelief. Again, and he, when he comes, will convict the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment, concerning sin because they do not believe. As noted earlier, when Jesus speaks of the world, he means every person, for God made provision through Christ's death for everyone, since each of us is guilty of the sin of unbelief.
Jesus' words in John 16:8 stand in direct contrast to modern-day Reformed theology that traces its teachings back to John Calvin.
So we're just reading through this. We commented on it extensively last time, but just to give you some context. Here's a quote from Calvin's Institutes. That's his work that he did at the age of people say, well, is he 25 or he crossed the line at 26? He'd been saved two years.
Now, for a guy to write an extensive systematic theology two years into the faith. It's doubtful that it's going to reflect sound theology, and I would say it does not. That's not to say everything he said was wrong. He said a lot of right and proper things in it. But someone who's two years old in the faith, I would consider a babe in Christ.
and not ready. To write a systematic theology. Here he writes in volume 3: Now, since the arrangement of all things is in the hand of God, since to him belongs the disposal of life and death, he arranges all things by his sovereign counsel. In such a way that individuals are born who are doomed from the womb to certain death. and are to glorify him by their destruction.
So that was Calvin's view.
Some people are created from the moment of conception. They are doomed from the womb to glorify God by their destruction. Expressing his wrath.
Now someone asks, well, is this like some isolated quote? And I said, no, it was not. And so here's a few other quotes I just dug out this week. For instance, he writes this on page 169 of the Institute's all things being at God's disposal. and the decision of salvation or death belonged to him.
He orders all things by his counsel in decree in such a manner that some men are born devoted from the womb to certain death. Very similar expression. that his name may be glorified in their destruction.
So he said that, even sentiment, more than once. Listen to what he says in volume 2, page 231. He says, since the arrangement of all things is in the hand of God, since to him belongs the disposal of life and death. He arranges all things by his sovereign counsel in such a way that individuals are born who are doomed from the womb to certain death and are to glorify him by their destruction. Then he goes on, he says, If God merely foresaw human events, it did not so also arrange and dispose of them at his pleasure.
There might be room for agitating the question how far is his foreknowledge has decreed these things to happen. Excuse me, how far his foreknowledge amounts to necessity. But since he foresees all things which are to happen simply because he has decreed that they are to happen, it is vain to debate about prescience, which is clear that all events take place by his sovereign appointment.
So when you see the word prescience in a theology book, that is one way of defining foreknowledge.
So Calvin defined foreknowledge of God lovingly choosing some. To go to heaven and others to go to hell. And so, of course, as we've mentioned before, all Christians believe in the doctrine of election. You cannot escape it. It's not does God elect the question because how does He elect?
And so, Prussians would say that God in eternity past knew how you would respond to His wooing and loving work. And so that doesn't change your free will. You're still a free moral agent.
Now, Calvin doesn't think so. But Precian says you're a free moral agent, and God saw how you would respond, and based on that election. Was unfolded.
So I read three quotes there, very, very similar terminology, doomed to the womb from different chapters of the Institute. Listen to what he says about the fall of man. I think this is interesting. This is in book 1, chapter 17 of the Institutes. He says, The will of God lays a necessity on all things.
that everything he wills necessarily comes to pass. God not only foresaw that Adam would fall. but he also ordained that he should fall.
So he has a very, I think, distorted view of free will. He's saying that God created Adam to rebel, to fall.
So he's not really a free moral agent. Listen to what he says.
Now, in fairness to some of my Reformed friends, they would take issue with this next statement that I'm saying. They would say, well, Calvin might have said it, but I don't. But nonetheless, you need to know what Calvin said, because that's where they're drawing their theology from. He said, has an assassin slain an honest citizen? He has, say they, executed the counsel of God Almighty.
Has someone committed theft or adultery? The deed having been provided and ordained by the Lord, he is the minister of his providence. Do you see what he's saying? He's saying that God ordains. After the counsel of his will, the thief, the adulterer, the person who assassins someone.
That to me is very warped theology, and that's not taken out of context. Read Book 1, Chapter 4, Section 4.
So we could go on and on, but again, it was in response to a question, was that an isolated quote? And the answer is no.
So we're in 103 or 102. Calvin's doctrine of election again asserts that from the moment of conception, some individuals are elected for salvation while others are preordained to eternal condemnation without any possibility for salvation. And we read that quote. Then, number 103, the above quotation is given right before Calvin quotes Proverbs 16, 4.
So I've read all these quotes in context, pages before and after, because I hate to misrepresent someone any more than I hate to be misrepresented. The Lord has made everything for its own purpose. Even the wicked for the day of evil. Proverbs 16:4 does not mean that God created people to be wicked. But rather, that he permits human sin and he uses it to fulfill his purposes.
He allows it. He doesn't ordain it. Simply put, God without being the author of man's evil can bring good even out of human evil by revealing his justice in the day of judgment.
So the non-Calvinists would say, yes, God is glorified in his wrath. For the simple reason, he demonstrates that he is a just God. The fact that he punishes sin doesn't mean that he ordains sin. Whereas Calvin would argue, God not only ordained the fall, he ordained acts of sin in order to demonstrate his justice.
Now, again, a lot of Reformed people would say, well, I think Calvin's wrong on that. He's not my pope. But I want you to know what he thought and what he taught, because this is the person that they're principally drawing this whole doctrine of election from. And of course he's drawing it from Augustine, but he quotes Augustine some 4,000 times. Simply put, God without being the author of man's evil can bring good even out of human evil.
106. God uses even the wicked for his own purpose, but he does not create anyone solely to be damned. That's in contradistinction to what we just read. The choice of unbelief is their own. Again, he convicts concerning sin because they don't believe in me.
In sharp contrast, Jesus speaks of the Spirit convicting the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment, indicating that the offer and the possibility of salvation is made available to all people. God's provision in Christ extends universally, giving every individual the opportunity to renounce their unbelief and to respond in faith. The first step on the road to salvation is to understand that the greatest sin is to neglect or reject Jesus. And this sin God cannot forgive, which is why. Jesus singularly defines sin as not believing.
A courtroom may convict me of crimes, and my conscience may convict me of my wrongdoing, but only the Spirit can convict me of my unbelief. Only he can show me that I cannot save myself, that I need not to believe in myself. But in the one who died and gave himself for me.
Okay, now we're cutting new ground. And for those who are taking this for credit and the Institute of Biblical Studies, you'll want to fill in the blank, but I'd hope you want to fill them out anyway. Speaking of unbelief, Jesus said, He who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already. Why?
Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
So contrary to what most people think, that the judgment is way out there in the future to determine our destiny. The great white throne judgment, one of four judgments in Scripture, does not determine your destiny. It determines the amount of retribution in an awful place for anyone who goes in hell. It's a just demonstration of what our sin deserves.
So, the moment you die, the issue is settled: whether or not you're going to heaven or hell. It's not a future determination after you die, is what I'm trying to say. That's what this verse says: He who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe what is judged already. He's already guilty.
The one who believes in the Son, or in the same chapter, the Apostle John concluded this great discourse on salvation and of the necessity of the second birth, being born again, by writing these words in John 3:36, after that great discourse with Nicodemus. The one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one who does not obey. The sun will not see life. But the wrath of God remains on him.
Notice I underline those words, does not obey. The phrase, the one who does not obey the sun, can also be translated, as some marginal notes indicate, the one who. who does not believe. Thereby equating a refusal to believe with a refusal to obey.
So I want us to think this through.
Some of your English Bibles will, in the body of the text, write the one who does not believe.
Some of your English Bibles will say the one who does not obey. And if you have the NASB with marginal notes, they'll give you an alterate rendering on that verse.
So let's think it through what is being said here. Yeah. Interestingly, 1.15, when John writes, the one who does not obey, he does not use the verb a pesteto. Most of you know or have heard the verb pestuo or pesteo. And it's the simple verb that means to believe.
When you put the alpha prefix in front of something, it negates it.
So he doesn't use the verb apostao in the second phrase, he does in the first phrase, he who postaos in him. Then in the second phrase, he doesn't say the one who does not pastel. He uses a different word because he's making a different point. Which is why in the body of most English Bibles it says not obey.
So he does not use the verb aposteto, to not believe, as you might expect, but apetheo, which means to be disobedient or not to comply. Though unbelief is implied and so marginally written in most Bibles, the Apostle John intentionally uses this verb, a petho, to emphasize that unbelief is not just intellectual doubt, but it is moral rebellion. as in Romans sixteen. Think this through, follow this, this is important. How then will they call on him?
This is from Romans chapter 16, or it should be Romans chapter 10. It's a typo there. How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? And how will they believe in him in whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher?
How will they preach unless they are sent, just as it is written? How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news of good things. He's quoting Isaiah.
However, they did not heed. The good news. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our report?
So, to heed the good news, or some English Bibles render it to obey the good news. It is to believe God's good news of Jesus. Do you see the parallel he's making there? They did not heed the good news. For this reason, Isaiah says, Lord, they didn't believe.
So Isaiah is saying to believe is to heed, it's to respond. to the good news of salvation. In other words, rejecting Jesus is to disobey God's revealed command. to believe as John says in his first letter. We just read that a moment ago.
From 1 John 5, that it's a commandment to obey, and not to obey the commandment is to call God a liar.
So John says in his first letter, This is his commandment that we believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ. Recognize that the translation obey And John 3.36 is not a mistranslation. The Greek verb translated does not obey literally means to disbelieve or to refuse to be persuaded. And so to refuse to respond to a message And so, not to obey the Son means refusing to believe him.
So there's that parallel that you'll see that balance several times in Scripture. We're commanded to believe. But when we choose not to believe, We are making a willful volitional choice. This will become clearer, I think, as we step through it a little bit further, and you'll see why this is important. The verb here, apotheto, denotes a refusal to be persuaded.
Which is a decisive act of disobedience, and so unbelief is inherent rebellion. You know, sometimes when you share the gospel, you'll say to people, well, there's an intellectual component to salvation. In other words, there's a certain body of truth that you have to know in order to be saved. And so, if someone doesn't know that salvation is by grace through faith and not by works, They said, well, I got saved when I was 12, and I prayed the prayer and asked Jesus into my heart. But at 18, I understood it was by grace.
So you didn't get saved at 12, man. There's a certain body of knowledge you have to know before you can genuinely believe. And these phrases we use, as we'll see as we work through the red booklet, are manufactured. Most of them have come up in the history of the church in the last 75 years, like inviting Jesus into your heart. You should never use that phrase.
and I hope to demonstrate why before we're done. With a Course, not tonight. He is not speaking about salvation by some kind of a work. But he is speaking about a decision of the will that involves rejecting Christ.
So it's not enough to intellectually have the information, though that's a necessity, nor is it enough to have had some kind of an emotional experience. We'll see as we work through the parable of the sower, it will take us a few weeks to get through it, that there are people who have emotional experiences but who aren't converted. And they confuse the emotionalism with this is salvation. No, there's a volitional decision, an act of the will. You can know in your head you're in love and want to marry someone, you can know it emotionally, but you're not married in the sight of God until you say, I will.
Unbelief is viewed as disobedience or moral rebellion. Because God throughout the New Testament commands all people to believe. As he commands all people to repent. Having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to all men everywhere to repent. And of course the word repent means to change your mind.
That's all it means. Doesn't mean clean up your act to come to Christ. You can't do that. Rejecting the gospel is an act of disobedience, not because faith is a work. but because unbelief refuses God's command to trust His Son.
This sin of unbelief that is seen as a moral rebellion is also brought out by Paul in Second Thessalonians one, when he tells the church there that God has not forgotten the abuse and persecution done to them by the lost.
So they're being beat up. I mean, the persecution is intense, which of course caused some of them, which he deals with in the second chapter, to assess, well, maybe we misunderstood Paul because we know there's coming a time during the tribulation where persecution will be intense beyond belief, and they felt like maybe we're in the tribulation. And of course, Paul says, no, you're not. But he says, notice in verse 6 of chapter 1, for after all, it is only just. for God to repay with affliction.
Those who afflict you. In other words, God's going to make every wrong right someday. And to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who don't know God, right? That's the essence of eternal life, right? Knowing the Lord, not knowing he exists.
All men know that. Those who don't know God, this is eternal life, that they might know you, the only true God. That's what this second birth allows you to know. They shall all know me, the promise of the new covenant, and Ezekiel and Jeremiah. They shall all know me from the greatest to the least, not just some select group.
Everyone can know me through the indwelling presence of the Spirit.
So, to these who don't know God, and to those who notice, do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.
Now, the Apostle Paul is inspired to use a different word picture here to describe the sin of unbelief, because the words not obey, that's a different Greek word than what we just read, is the Greek verb. That literally means to listen under. or to heed. It's the verb, it's two verbs: hupa a kao. Hupa means under.
A cow means to hear. We get our English word echo from it. And so the word comes from the preposition meaning under and the verb meaning to hear. And so it is describing someone who hears a message and responds appropriately. They listen under.
Willfully, volitionally respond to the message is the picture. In this gospel context, This word does not refer to performing works or keeping rules, but to respond in faith. to God's message. For this reason, Paul can speak elsewhere, like in Romans 1:5, in his introduction to the letter to the Romans, and then in his conclusion, what he calls the obedience of faith. We just read that in Romans 10, right, in verse 16.
They did not heed, or some Bibles say, they did not obey the good news. And so Isaiah says, who has believed our report? In other words, their unbelief was seen in the fact that they didn't respond to the message that they heard. They volitionally said no. And so when Paul wrote, They did not all heed the good news, or as rendered in the King James, they have not all obeyed the gospel.
He is emphasizing two truths that we might summarize in two equations. One, to obey the gospel is equal to believing the gospel, and to disobeying the gospel is to reject the gospel.
So when Paul writes in 2 Thessalonians 1:8 of those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel, he is giving two descriptions of the same group. They don't know the Lord, and they don't know the Lord because they don't respond. They don't listen under the message of salvation. They're unwilling. They hear it, but they don't put themselves under it.
Which is unbelief.
So, on the one hand, they do not know God, and that they have no saving relationship with Him. John 17:3, right? That's one of the most hundred-memorized passages.
Some of you are working through that, and I'm so thrilled I took the time to. to create not a hundred verses, but you know their passages. Many of you are memorizing that, you've told me, and I'm encouraged by that. But one of the most memorized verses is John 17:3 that you should know. And on the other hand, they do not obey the gospel.
So they don't know God, they don't obey the gospel. and that they refuse God's call to believe the gospel. And so Paul will then go on and say: whoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. And he shows how the tongue is connected to the heart. And of course, he's speaking contextually of the Jewish people and why they are in unbelief, but the passage applies to anyone.
The truth is the same. Uh Um So, what, 134 or 133? Yeah, Paul is contrasting believers who obey the gospel with unbelievers who refuse it. Such that God's judgment comes upon those who reject God's provision in the gospel. and not those who fail to perform works.
This is not a form of workspace obedience, but a deliberate willful refusal. to believe the message God commands all people to receive.
So that's why some in the body of the text, like the older English, says, he that believes in this, you know, when you draw that contrast, say, as out in the margin, as I told you, some of the translations say, as the NAS will say, well, an alternate rendering is, you know, he who believes in him is not judged, he who does not believe has been judged already because he's not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And then he'll say a few verses later, the one who believes in the Son has eternal life. The one who does not believe It's the King James does. Or, in most English translations, the one who does not obey the sun. But it's a different verb.
It's not the verb for belief. But the King James people probably not wanting to confuse An English reader, I don't know, I can't get into their head and say, why did you say not obey? I mean, not believe instead of not obey when it's a different verb. Is on the one hand, they're correct because Paul equates not obeying with not believing.
So it's a legitimate rendering of the Greek New Testament, and so on the marginal note of the NAS. But the point is, is that when you don't believe, you're not responding, you're not listening under, you're willfully, volitionally rejecting what God has said.
Okay. All right, what number are we on? 135? Five. Yeah, thank you.
In the Greek New Testament, the idea is they hear the gospel. They refuse the gospel. And the refusal is called disobedience. And he, when he comes, he'll convict the world again concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. We're just focusing on the first ones who are concerning sin because they don't believe in me.
So when the Spirit convicts the world of sin. Jesus explains that he does so because they do not believe in me. It should be in blue. And so unbelief is the root sin. the foundational rebellion from which all other sins flow.
This is important, as we'll see. The New Testament teaches that when God issues the command to believe, Rejecting that command constitutes moral rebellion and not merely an intellectual disagreement of some kind. And Paul, by the way, will bring that out when he deals with Jewish unbelief. Let me just read it to you. Most of you are familiar with 9, 10, and 11.
9 deals with their election of the nation, 10 with their rejection, and 11 with their future restoration. Of course, Calvin has to read those three chapters through an entirely different lens because he doesn't see Israel, because he thinks the church is the new Israel, and God's done with national Israel. Though the word Israel appears 73 times in the New Testament, and in every instance, It refers, well, twice it refers to the land in one verse in Matthew 1, and in the rest of the time it refers to the Jewish. ethnicity or the nation.
So he says, Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation, for I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. And you meet people like that today, right? You have some, I remember Mrs. Wakovich. in our Roman Catholic Church, and we were always saying like she was kind of spooky to us 'cause she'd be up there lighting the candles and saying the rosary and she she had this, you know, passion, passionate zeal.
And she'd be praying at the statues, and you know, again, she was a little spooky to us as kids, but or Muslims today, they have a zeal for God, or you go to some countries where Roman Catholicism, especially where Mariology reaches a height that you don't typically see in America. I guess because we're too sophisticated for it, but there are some Catholics in some parts of the world, like Portugal and Brazil, and Spain, and the Philippines, and the like, and where they truly practice Catholicism, you see that zeal in Mariology and their worship of Mary. Or you see it with Muslims, right? They really believe that if they murder people, they're doing Folks of favor. Especially Jewish people.
For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. We'd say today they're sincere, but they're sincerely wrong, right? For not knowing about God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own, therein lies the problem. They did not hear it is subject themselves. to the righteousness of God.
That's where most lost people are at today. They don't subject themselves. To the righteousness of God. I spoke to someone yesterday, 75% sure she was going to heaven. What do you think you'd have to do to be 100?
So well, you know, there's some things I need to change. I said, you can't change your life enough. to bring it up. I'm in an office and I have to be respectful because there's other people coming in behind me. I said, why don't you take this booklet and scan the QR?
And watch it tonight. She said she would. I hope she did. But she had The mindset that these folks in Romans 10 and the average person on the street has. trying to establish their own righteousness.
That's unbelief. That's denying what God says about us. That we can't establish our own righteousness. As Paul was saying in Philippians, we need a righteousness that comes from God.
So, this is the mother sin, the foundational rebellion from which all other sins flow. The New Testament teaches that when God issues the command to believe, rejecting the command, again, is not some moral rebellion, not merely intellectual disagreement, it's of some kind. God is clear that unbelief is willful rejection of God's command. Revelation. The Spirit convicts people of the reality that they do not believe in Jesus as their Savior.
Remember, when the Spirit of Truth comes, he'll convict of sin. Concerning sin, what? Because of their unbelief. That's what he's honing on, and that's what you should hone on. They're unbelief.
That's what's keeping them from becoming a new creature. That's what's keeping them from the Potentiality of being able to change whatever baggage they bring. when they meet the Lord.
So he convicts them of the reality they do not believe in Jesus as their Savior, such that when a person persistently refuses, saying no, no, no, there eventually comes a time when they die in unbelief. We'll be studying that as we work through Mark's gospel. You see it all over the New Testament. It is the sin of unbelief that, in the end, consigns them to hell. Because unbelief is the decisive refusal to receive God's provision in Christ, and it is the root rebellion that leaves all other sins unforgiven.
The individual acts of personal sin determine the degree of torment in hell.
So I hope that's not a surprise to you. In general terms, Hell is terrible for anyone who goes there.
So, when Jesus describes it generally, it's terrible, it's horrifying. But in specific terms, in the perfect justice of God, it's not the same for everyone who goes there. Woe to you, Bethsida, and Khorazin and Capernaum. If the miracles that were done in Sodom and Gomorrah were done in you, they would have repented in sackcloth and ash. But as it is, it will be more tolerable for the people of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.
That tells you there's degree. Paul speaks in Romans 2 about people storing up wrath for the day of wrath. I didn't give you that passage. Revelation 20, right? The books are opened.
Why are the books open, the books of deeds? One, to show that someone has not believed. But two, because he's getting ready to consign them to eternal retribution. Why does God wait until the very end of time? After the current heaven and earth is destroyed, right before we enter into the eternal state, why does he wait for the great white throne judgment, which as you know has only unbelievers who are present?
Why does he wait to the very end of time? Because he's waiting until the final T is crossed and I is dotted in terms of the consequence of our sin. People are committing sin today, and the sin that they are committing when they die continues to go in and on and impact other people.
Some guy produces a dirty movie and he dies, and yet his dirty movie is seen for another 30 years.
So God in His perfect judgment waits until the very end. And those are some passages that deal with degrees of retribution. But it is a sin of unbelief that results in a person's entrance there. Acts of sin. Whether immorality, profanity, or any other violation of God's law are manifestations of a fallen nature, but they do not determine one's eternal destiny apart from our response to Christ.
It's not adultery or homosexuality or murder or stealing that condemns one, but rather it is unbelief in Christ as Savior that brings God's wrath. And this is important because while you never soft sell sin and sometimes and again, listen, anyone who's out there trying to share the gospel, I'm behind them 10,000% because so few Christians are doing it today. But it's not like you're trying to trick them. Do you ever tell a lie other than you're a liar? Have you ever stolen someone, you're a thief?
Have you ever lusted a woman and you're adulterer? No, we got you nailed here, man. It's a sin of unbelief. The damn sound. And it's the root problem of unbelief that causes lifestyles that people adopt.
So, yes, the law is like a tutor that leads people to faith in Christ. But ultimately, what they need to see is unbelief because if someone, say, is wrapped up in the gay lifestyle, They don't think there's any possibility that they can change. I meet people like this often. This is just the way I am. I cannot change.
No, you cannot until you believe in Jesus. It is your unbelief that consigns you to that lifestyle. It is that lifestyle that demonstrates that you're in unbelief.
So Paul can say, don't be deceived. The unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. What happened?
You're justified. How are you justified? You believed.
So, you give people a sense of hope. Listen, the reason you are the way you are is because of your unbelief.
So, you put the focus and the emphasis where the Spirit of God puts it. He puts it on their unbelief, and that's where we should put it. 144. Is that where we are? Yeah.
Inherit in true faith. is a spirit of submission. To Christ, which then brings a new birth and changes our life from the inside out.
So, you know, you get into this whole issue of Lordship salvation. And sometimes people front-load the gospel with Lordship salvation, and they leave you with the impression that you need to clean up your act to come to Christ. When Jesus said, no, the man who sins is a slave to sin. He can't clean up his act. But he comes to Christ and Christ cleans up his act.
But there is a dimension to the Lordship of Christ when you come to him, because when you believe, you are listening under, you are submitting your will to what God says. And that begins the process of sanctification. But you don't want to blend justification with sanctification. There's three tenses: I've been saved from the penalty of sin, that's justification. I am being saved from the power of sin.
That's sanctification. I will someday be saved from the very presence of sin. That's glorification. And so, in the Lordship Salvation camp, well, how much must he be, Lord, to be your Savior? And so now we're bordering almost a works righteousness.
How do you measure that? And people who have been down that road 20 years in the process of sanctification, very often they forget what they were like when they were new believers. Or maybe they grew up in a Christian home where they didn't have all the baggage that some people walk into Christianity with. And they begin to make judgmental statements. And we saw it horrified, you know, but put in concrete when this leading Reformed Calvinist ended up being revealed for having shacked up with some 28-year-old girl when he's 72 or whatever it is.
Oh, he's lost. He wasn't lost. I know the man. I spent a day with the man. He was out of fellowship with God.
That's the problem, and there'll be consequences at the judgment seat of Christ. But he went lost. But you get into this measuring thing of, oh, he mustn't be saved. There'll be some people you'll meet in heaven that. You'll be surprised that they're there.
There'll be some people that you would expect to see there. Who won't be there?
So, I'm not saying we water down the truth. We hold God's standard firm, but neither do we mix sanctification with justification. It is the sin of unbelief that damns people. And so, He does a new inside job, 2 Corinthians 5: If any man is in Christ, He's a new creation. His old life has passed away.
All things have become new. Without faith, a person remains under God's wrath because they have refused the only means by which forgiveness and righteousness are given. As we have seen, unbelief is not a passive or neutral stance, for it is an active moral rebellion, a refusal to entrust oneself to God's Son. The Holy Spirit's ministry toward the unbelieving world is precisely to expose this root sin. And to call individuals to faith in Christ.
Interestingly, John, who writes with an evangelistic purpose, right? John 20. There's no other book in the New Testament that has that appellation at the end. Many other miracles Jesus did in the presence of his disciples, but these were written. Why?
That you might believe Jesus is the Messiah, and believing you might find life in his name. That's not to say that Romans, the Romans road couldn't be used evangelistically, but it's not an evangelistic tracks. He's writing Romans to grow people in grace. But John, among other reasons, is given as a polemic to convert people. And that's important because John, who writes with an evangelistic purpose, not exclusively, also that you might have life in his name, secondarily, never once does he use the word repent.
The verb repent, metana'al. Because his theological emphasis is on faith as the sole means by which eternal life is received. Therein lies a problem for people who abuse repentance. You gotta repent, you gotta repent, you gotta repent.
Well, what does that mean? And John never used it once. Not once. Was John diluted? Was he confused?
I think not. But I meet these people who come out of these reformed churches and they say, Have I repented enough? And they have a distorted view of what real repentance is. Metaneto and the noun as well just means it's a change of mind. That's all it means.
And so, what did they need to repent of in Acts 2? You said Jesus was just a man. You crucified the Lord of glory. You have to recognize He's God. What must we do, brethren?
Repent. Change your mind. Change the assessment that you made about Jesus. He's God in human flesh, the promised Messiah who died for you. John uses believe Pastuo nearly a hundred times more than any other biblical writer as the exclusive response required for salvation.
Okay. If we truly understand biblical repentance, Then we will know that conceptually it is contained within believing. Because when we deal with our willful unbelief, we are changing our spirit towards God.
So when Peter is asked, what must I do? Repent. When Paul is asked, he says, believe. It's the flip side of the same coin. If you truly believe you've repented, you've changed your mind.
But sadly, many today are making repentance a work where people cannot hear, where people hear they need to clean up their act to get saved when they cannot. What did Jesus say in John 8:34? Truly, truly, amen, amen, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. And only by faith in Jesus can we be freed.
So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed him, if you continue in my word, then you are truly disciples of mine. And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free. That's what the new birth does. It brings continuance. It brings a new lifestyle.
Because if any man is in Christ, he's a new creation. They answered him, we are Abraham's descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, you will become free? Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever.
The Son does remain forever.
So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
So John does not ignore the reality of new life. But he simply embeds the concept of a changed life when we trust Jesus to save us. When John describes the judgment in John 5, 28 through 29, you know that verse: He who does the good to a resurrection of life, he who does the evil, And in italics, works is added there because it's implied. He does the evil or the evil works to a resurrection of judgment. Why?
John is not ignoring that your life changes. Because if you're in Christ, you're a new creation. But he's putting the emphasis on faith that creates that change.
So inherit in true faith. is a decisive reorientation of heart towards Jesus. While the explicit vocabulary of repentance Is absent in John's Gospel. The concept is implicit in genuine faith. The Bible is clear.
That the Bible is clear that if a person dies in unbelief, they are condemned because they have rejected the only remedy God has for sin.
So, as we share Christ with lost people, we need to place our emphasis on the sin of unbelief because that's where the Spirit places His emphasis. The Holy Spirit convicts the world of one foundational sin, and it is the sin of unbelief because it is unbelief that shuts the door to grace. Every other sin, though serious and offensive to a holy God, can be forgiven through the blood of Christ. But when a person who keeps On saying no to the Spirit's call, they remain under God's wrath. We have seen that unbelief is not an innocent hesitation.
But a moral rebellion against God's Son. Therefore, if someone dies in their unbelief, they have rejected the only remedy for their sin.
So, salvation hinges on faith in Jesus because the sin of unbelief leaves a person without cleansing. without righteousness, without hope. If you're in your own righteousness, you're alive, physically, spiritually dead. When you, by faith, believe on the Lord Jesus, you're credited with His righteousness. Then you're cleansed, you're regenerated, you're made new, and you have the potentiality to change.
And it gives you, when we use the word hope, LPDIS, it's not, well, I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow. It has a lot more steel and concrete in it. It speaks of something that is guaranteed in the future. The New Testament consistently frames eternal judgment as contingent upon one's acceptance or rejection of the gospel.
So, for instance, in these two verses, he who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already because he's not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And then that chapter closes: he who believes in the Son has eternal life. He who does not obey or not believe, again, obedience means to believe, by the verb he uses, the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.
So in sharing Christ, keep in mind that unbelief is not merely intellectual deficiency, but a volitional and moral resistance to God's initiative. I've tried to say this about five times because I want to sink in. The key point we must not miss regarding the conviction of unbelief is that God's judgment ultimately depends on what a person does with Jesus. The final issue is not the sin question, but the son question. You know, I meet people that say, oh, you know, you don't use the word repent enough.
Okay, maybe you don't think I do. And I met some reform people like this. I said, do you think all the 3,000 plus baptisms I've done that they're all lost? I'm sure some of them are. They pre they baptize lost people and Acts 8 in Samaria.
We know there will be some people who are baptized who are still, no.
So I was talking to one reformed pastor, and he's got four people in his church, three who are in the ministry, because they came to Christ through this ministry. Say lost. Ask him if I ever use the word repentance. I might have, but only contextually, biblically.
So we've got these distorted views. That keeps people, if anything, out of the kingdom and the forgiveness that God has. This is important to remember as we share the gospel because while we may recognize specific issues in a person's life that need to be addressed, Our focus should be less acts of sin and more the root cause, namely unbelief. Of course, the worldwide convicting ministry of the Spirit that happens before conversion should not be confused with his coming to dwell the believer. Once he believes Resulting in eternal life.
And so that's where we'll pick it up next time. And we'll deal with how He, the Spirit of God, convicts not just of sin, namely unbelief, but of righteousness. And how that is relevant, what he does when he convicts us of righteousness to our presentation of the gospel. Let's bow in prayer. And those who are coming to pray, they make their way.
Don't catch up on your prayer life tonight. Just say it loud enough so we can agree with you.
Now, our Father, we love you and thank you. That you so loved the world that you gave your only Son that whoever simply believes in him. will not perish but have eternal life. Help us to be faithful to your word to make the gospel clear. Help us to Be use of you.
By the Holy Spirit. We know He doesn't work in a vacuum, but as we've studied, He works through us. People who will share on his behalf what it is that they need to know.
So help us to be good stewards of the gospel, to rightly divide the word of truth. That we might introduce people to forgiveness and introduce people to a new life that can make them different from the inside out. We ask it in Jesus' name and for His honor. Devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving. Praying at the same time for us as well that God will open up to us a door for the Word.
That we may speak forth the mystery of Christ, for which I have also been imprisoned, that I might make it clear. the way I ought to speak. Father, thank you for this apostle. Thank you that he was not moaning and groaning and licking his wounds while incarcerated. But praying and asking even their incessori about the sea for opportunities.
to share the good news. And that he might make it clear. Father, we think if the great apostle had to ask you for help to make it clear, what must our need be? But thank you, you have not left us as orphans. You've sent the Spirit just as you promised.
That he is able to come alongside and to help us and to combine spiritual words with spiritual thoughts. If there's someone even now between This evening in the next Lord's Day on Sunday, that you would want us to speak to, reach out to, in some way, help us to be sensitive to that opportunity and to care for their souls. We love you, our Father, and thank you for your incredible grace and the new eternal standing that we have, a righteousness that we did not deserve. But purchase with the precious blood of your Son, and we give him praise and thanks in Jesus' name. Amen.
