Latest / The Bible Speaks Live! / Very Straight Talk On This Great Salvation | 'On Repentance And The Sinner's Prayer' Pastor Michael Jakes 10.13.26

Transcript

Very Straight Talk On This Great Salvation | 'On Repentance And The Sinner's Prayer' Pastor Michael Jakes 10.13.26 · The Bible Speaks Live!

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bible Speaks Live. I'm living in yesterday,
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  Speaker 1: it seems like. Welcome to Bible Speaks Live. This is
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  Speaker 1: our Hot Topic Tuesday. Glad you could join us, whether
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  Speaker 1: you're watching live or on the replay. We welcome all
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  Speaker 1: of you who are listening on Spreaker.com also.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you.
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  Speaker 1: And we pray that your time spent here in God's
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  Speaker 1: word will be a fruitful one.
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  Speaker 2: Amen.
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  Speaker 1: Tonight, we're going to approach a subject that we rarely
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  Speaker 1: have spoken of in our studies as we have been
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  Speaker 1: online these years.
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  Speaker 2: We're going to be.
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  Speaker 1: Talking about the sinner's prayer. The sinner's prayer. Is it
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  Speaker 1: something that is biblical? Is it something that is not biblical?
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  Speaker 2: Is it warranted? Is it necessary? What's the story?
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  Speaker 1: What's the case of the sinner's prayer? Amen.
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  Speaker 2: We're going to get into it tonight.
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  Speaker 1: We invite your questions and your comments while we are here.
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  Speaker 1: And so, once again, thank you for coming along and
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  Speaker 1: being a part of this study.
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  Speaker 2: Amen.
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  Speaker 1: We're also going to be talking about, before we get
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  Speaker 1: to the sinner's prayer, we're going to be talking about
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  Speaker 1: a very misunderstood, I believe, a very misunderstood word in
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  Speaker 1: the Christian vocabulary.
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  Speaker 2: And that word is repentance. Just what is repentance?
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  Speaker 1: Repentance, what does it mean and what does it not mean?
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  Speaker 2: We're going to be getting into that. Amen.
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  Speaker 1: So once again, we're glad you're here. Fasten your seatbelt.
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  Speaker 1: It's going to be a good ride through the word
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  Speaker 1: of God. We've got plenty of scripture. So just grab
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  Speaker 1: your Bibles and join in with us. Amen. We thank
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  Speaker 1: you for joining us. We are going to pray for
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  Speaker 1: watching live. If you're watching live, we are on Facebook
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  Speaker 1: Where Ministries. You can subscribe there. If that's something that
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  Speaker 1: you'd like to do, you can also go to our
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  Speaker 1: ministry page on Facebook and you can follow us there
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  Speaker 1: if that's something that you'd like to do. No pressure there.
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  Speaker 1: The most important thing is that we get the word
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  Speaker 1: of God out. Amen.
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  Speaker 2: That is what is first.
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  Speaker 1: And foremost in our hearts and minds as we bring
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  Speaker 1: you these studies on a weekly basis.
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  Speaker 2: Amen.
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  Speaker 1: So thank you for joining us and thank you just
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  Speaker 1: for being a part of what we do here.
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  Speaker 2: Amen.
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  Speaker 1: So we're going to pray and we're going to get
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  Speaker 1: right into the study. There's much to cover here. And
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  Speaker 1: so we're going to get right, right.
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  Speaker 2: Into it. Amen. Lord, we bless you.
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  Speaker 1: We honor you.
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  Speaker 2: We thank you, Lord.
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  Speaker 1: Once again, you've given us another opportunity, Lord, to open
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  Speaker 1: up your word. We know that these next few sessions
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  Speaker 1: are going to be talking about some quite controversial subjects.
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  Speaker 1: But Lord, we pray that you would take the lead,
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  Speaker 1: Lord Jesus, and Lord, that you might be the speaker,
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  Speaker 1: you might be the teacher, Lord, because.
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  Speaker 2: We don't know.
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  Speaker 1: We just don't know. Lord, we can do nothing. We
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  Speaker 1: can say nothing without you. So Lord, allow your spirit
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  Speaker 1: to do the speaking, Lord Jesus. And Lord, you guide
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  Speaker 1: us into what needs to be said, Lord Jesus. We
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  Speaker 1: just want to make sure that we are not doing
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  Speaker 1: any violence to your word, We don't want to move
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  Speaker 1: or direct anyone in a wrong direction. Lord, we pray
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  Speaker 1: that you might be with us and continue to lead
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  Speaker 1: us and guide us in all that we do and
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  Speaker 1: all that we say, Lord Jesus.
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  Speaker 2: And we bless you and we thank you in your
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  Speaker 2: precious name, we pray, Jesus. Amen. Amen.
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  Speaker 1: Amen. God is good.
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  Speaker 2: God is on the throne.
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  Speaker 1: Amen. We bless him. We honor him and we thank him.
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  Speaker 1: God bless you, Dana. God bless you, Kathleen. God bless you.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you. for joining us.
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  Speaker 2: Amen. God bless you. All right. Watching from, got to
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  Speaker 2: put my glasses down to see, watching from West Virginia. Amen.
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  Speaker 2: God bless you, Kathleen. Thank you so much. Thank you
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  Speaker 2: so much.
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  Speaker 1: All righty. Now, what we have been trying to do
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  Speaker 1: over the last several months, even before my little hiatus,
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  Speaker 1: we want to make these studies more We don't want
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  Speaker 1: to just speak, okay? We don't want to just speak.
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  Speaker 1: We want to make them, make you a part. And
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  Speaker 1: so we've put together these, we've put together, we've taken
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  Speaker 1: the time to put together these slides to help you
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  Speaker 1: to see the word and hopefully to understand the word
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  Speaker 1: and to understand. So as these slides come across, I'll read,
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  Speaker 1: you can read. I probably won't read it word for
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  Speaker 1: word because I'm the one who typed it all out.
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  Speaker 2: So I'm not going to read it word for word.
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  Speaker 1: I know what it says already, but we put it
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  Speaker 1: there once again, to be more interactive.
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  Speaker 2: We want these studies to be as interactive as possible.
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  Speaker 1: Amen. So thank you once again for joining us. And
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  Speaker 1: we pray that you're able to see when we're putting
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  Speaker 1: these slides together, on the computer, they look very large,
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  Speaker 1: but when we get it on the screen here, I
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  Speaker 1: don't want it to be too small that you can see.
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  Speaker 1: So we pray that somehow these slides will do their
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  Speaker 1: part in helping you to understand the word even more. Amen.
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  Speaker 2: Alrighty.
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  Speaker 1: So we are going to begin with, we're going to
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  Speaker 1: begin talking about the role of faith, the role of faith.
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  Speaker 2: We've already In previous weeks, we've already spoken about.
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  Speaker 1: The role of confession as it pertains to salvation. We
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  Speaker 1: learned the role of conviction, Holy Spirit conviction. We spoke
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  Speaker 1: about the ministry of conviction, the Holy Spirit ministry of conviction.
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  Speaker 1: I want to talk about the role of faith in salvation,
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  Speaker 1: which is very important. Remember, we're saved by grace through faith.
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  Speaker 1: So we're going to go through these scriptures just so
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  Speaker 1: we can understand. It says that faith Faith is the
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  Speaker 1: essential means by which unbelievers receive God's grace and the
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  Speaker 1: gift of eternal life. Forming the foundation of salvation. Faith. Okay?
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  Speaker 2: Faith.
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  Speaker 1: Acts. Acts chapter number 26 and verse number 18. These
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  Speaker 1: are the words of Jesus to Paul the apostle on
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  Speaker 1: the road to Damascus. This is what he told him.
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  Speaker 1: He says, to open their eyes. This was Paul's ministry.
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  Speaker 1: To open their eyes. and to turn them from darkness
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  Speaker 1: to light and from the power of Satan unto God,
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  Speaker 1: that they may receive, listen to this, that they may
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  Speaker 1: receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance upon among them, which
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  Speaker 1: are sanctified by faith that is in me.
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  Speaker 2: And that is Christ speaking, by faith that is in me.
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  Speaker 1: So there, Jesus says that forgiveness of sins happen when
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  Speaker 1: your faith is in me.
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  Speaker 2: When your faith is in me, that's very clear.
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  Speaker 1: We see in Romans chapter number three and verse number 25.
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  Speaker 1: This is Paul the apostle speaking, whom God has set
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  Speaker 1: forth to be a propitiation, or that word propitiation means
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  Speaker 1: a satisfaction, a propitiation through faith in his blood. hear
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  Speaker 1: that now, through faith in his blood. Now, previously we
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  Speaker 1: just read that it's faith in Jesus. Here it says
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  Speaker 1: faith in his blood. Is there some sort of a contradiction?
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  Speaker 1: Is scripture colliding with itself?
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  Speaker 2: No, no.
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  Speaker 1: To have faith in Christ is the same thing as
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  Speaker 1: having faith in his blood. You cannot separate Christ from
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  Speaker 1: his blood, of course, okay? And so, whom God has
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  Speaker 1: set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his
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  Speaker 1: blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins
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  Speaker 1: that are passed through the forbearance of God.
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  Speaker 2: So once again, this verse is.
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  Speaker 1: Saying in longhand, faith in his blood, as it says
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  Speaker 1: in Acts 26 and 18, that you are forgiven. Your sins,
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  Speaker 1: it says, your sins are remitted. They are forgiven. through
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  Speaker 1: faith in his blood, okay?
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  Speaker 2: And when our.
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  Speaker 1: Sins are remitted or forgiven, this is the road to salvation.
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  Speaker 1: This is salvation. This is salvation being delivered from your sins,
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  Speaker 1: being delivered from an eternal hell. Salvation, the word salvation
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  Speaker 1: itself means deliverance, to be healed from, to be preserved
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  Speaker 1: from a particular danger. That's the meaning of salvation. Luke,
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  Speaker 1: we see here in Luke chapter number eight and verse
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  Speaker 1: number 12, it says, those by the wayside are they
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  Speaker 1: that hear, then cometh the devil and taketh away the
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  Speaker 1: word out of their hearts that they should believe and
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  Speaker 1: be saved. That they should believe and be saved. Believing
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  Speaker 1: is faith. Believing is trusting, okay? Believing is the verb
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  Speaker 1: part of faith. When you have faith, it's because you
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  Speaker 1: are believing something. And so here he says that they
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  Speaker 1: should believe and what? And be saved, delivered, okay? And
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  Speaker 1: so this is the role of faith. There are several
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  Speaker 1: others that we could point to. We could be here
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  Speaker 1: for the rest of the evening here talking about what
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  Speaker 1: the Bible says about faith, when it comes to our salvation.
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  Speaker 1: But these three will have to do. And so we
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  Speaker 1: are saved. The role of faith in our salvation is great, okay?
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  Speaker 1: And we should not underestimate the power of faith when
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  Speaker 1: it comes to our great salvation. For by grace, I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to repeat it. For by grace are ye saved
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  Speaker 1: through faith and that not of yourselves. It is the
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  Speaker 1: gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
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  Speaker 1: Saved by grace through faith. And let me go further.
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  Speaker 1: Let me say it the way Bible commentators, many Bible
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  Speaker 1: commentators say. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone.
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  Speaker 1: How's that? No works involved. We are saved by grace
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  Speaker 1: alone through faith alone. Now, we mentioned confession and we
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  Speaker 1: mentioned conviction because those are the things that lead up
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  Speaker 1: to it. To confess means to say the same thing.
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  Speaker 1: Before any of this can happen, you have to agree
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  Speaker 1: with God that he is right concerning your own sinfulness.
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  Speaker 1: And to be convicted, unless you are convicted by the
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  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit, unless the Holy Spirit wedges your heart and
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  Speaker 1: you know, I am a sinner. then you cannot be saved.
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  Speaker 1: You cannot be saved unless there is a conviction of sin.
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  Speaker 1: It's just not going to happen. It cannot be seen.
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to say this.
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  Speaker 1: It cannot be seen as valid, a valid salvation, if
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  Speaker 1: there is no Holy Spirit conviction.
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  Speaker 2: I feel bad. No, no, no. No, conviction is not
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  Speaker 2: feeling bad.
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  Speaker 1: It's not simply feeling bad about what you did. Conviction
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  Speaker 1: is the Holy Spirit saying that there is a holy
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  Speaker 1: God that you have sinned against and you need his forgiveness.
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  Speaker 2: That's what happens when the Holy Spirit convicts an unbeliever.
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  Speaker 1: Amen? So that's important. Let's move on to the next
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  Speaker 1: slide here. Let's move on to the next slide here
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  Speaker 1: and look at now the role of repentance. The role
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  Speaker 1: of repentance in salvation. Now, I make this statement, okay?
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  Speaker 2: And you are right. You are right, my brother Terrence.
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  Speaker 1: You are right. There must, must, put a capital must
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  Speaker 1: and circle it and highlight it. There must be conviction
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  Speaker 1: if there is to be salvation. Conviction of sin, amen?
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  Speaker 2: Repentance.
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  Speaker 1: Now, I'm going to say this. I haven't taken any
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  Speaker 1: polls or anything, but I am going to venture and
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to say that repentance just may be the
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  Speaker 1: most misunderstood word in the Christian vocabulary. It is a
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  Speaker 1: misunderstood word. Most people will tell you that repentance, well,
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to get ahead of myself because it's all,
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  Speaker 1: let's talk about it. It's a very misunderstood word, okay?
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  Speaker 1: Many believers, many believers think that repentance means number one,
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  Speaker 1: To stop sinning. The more I hear people say repent, repent, repent,
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  Speaker 1: I'm thinking they're meaning stop sinning. Stop the evil.
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  Speaker 2: Stop doing what you're doing.
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  Speaker 1: Repent. You need to repent. Okay?
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  Speaker 2: Is that what repentance means?
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  Speaker 1: Turn.
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  Speaker 2: To turn from all of your sins.
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  Speaker 1: Is that specifically what repentance means? Okay? Number three, clean
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  Speaker 1: up your life. You need to repent.
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  Speaker 2: You need to get yourself right.
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  Speaker 1: You need to repent. Okay? Is that what it means?
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  Speaker 1: You need to become a better person.
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  Speaker 2: Once again, you need to repent.
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  Speaker 1: That word repent covers all of these.
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  Speaker 2: Many believe.
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  Speaker 1: Okay? Promise God you'll.
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  Speaker 2: Never do it again.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, I repent.
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  Speaker 2: I repent.
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  Speaker 1: I'm not going to do it anymore.
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  Speaker 2: Is that what repentance means?
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  Speaker 1: Okay? There may be shades of meaning. Well, let me
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  Speaker 1: put it this way. People may think there are shades
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  Speaker 1: of meaning in all of these things, that repentance means
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  Speaker 1: all of these, okay? But what does the dictionary say?
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  Speaker 1: The dictionary says that repent is a verb. It's something
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  Speaker 1: that you do. It is an action, okay? It's to
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  Speaker 1: turn from sin and dedicate oneself to the amendment of
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  Speaker 1: one's life. Number two, it's to feel regret or contrition.
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  Speaker 1: Is that what repentance means, okay? And B, to change
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  Speaker 1: one's mind, okay? So these are the three definitions that
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  Speaker 1: I find in the dictionary, okay? Turn from sin and
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  Speaker 1: dedicate oneself to the amendment of one's life, defer regret
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  Speaker 1: or contrition, or to change one's mind, okay? But what
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  Speaker 1: does the Bible say?
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  Speaker 2: We don't have to rely on Merriam-Webster, okay?
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  Speaker 1: What does the Bible say, okay? The Greek word, and
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  Speaker 1: we are not going to make any apologies for getting
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  Speaker 1: into the Greek in these studies. We will do that
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  Speaker 1: when it's deemed necessary, okay? The Greek word, metanaio, means repent.
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  Speaker 1: And it literally means to change the mind. That is
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  Speaker 1: the base foundational meaning of repentance. To repent means to
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  Speaker 1: change the mind. And so when Jesus first came on
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  Speaker 1: the scene, You know, the first thing that we hear
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  Speaker 1: Jesus saying, repent. Well, John the Baptist, I believe, repent
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  Speaker 1: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent, repent.
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  Speaker 1: What was he saying? Was he saying, get your life
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  Speaker 1: right for the kingdom of heaven is at hand? Was
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  Speaker 1: he saying, clean up your life for the kingdom of
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  Speaker 1: heaven is at hand? What was he saying? He was saying,
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  Speaker 1: change your mind for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
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  Speaker 1: Change your mind. change your mind. That is the base
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  Speaker 1: foundational meaning of the word. The context will determine what
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  Speaker 1: someone is changing their mind about.
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  Speaker 2: Okay?
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  Speaker 1: And in the context of Christ, if he says it,
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  Speaker 1: if John the Baptist says it, if Peter says it,
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  Speaker 1: in Acts chapter number two, when he told everybody, when
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  Speaker 1: they said, what must we do? And he says, repent.
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  Speaker 1: What does he tell them to do? He didn't tell,
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  Speaker 1: repent doesn't mean accept Jesus. Okay? Repent doesn't mean make
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  Speaker 1: a decision for Christ. Repent doesn't mean receive the Lord.
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  Speaker 1: Repent means to change your mind. And once again, biblically speaking,
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  Speaker 1: the context determines what it is that you are changing
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  Speaker 1: your mind about. And so when Peter spoke, let's go
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  Speaker 1: to the book of Acts. Let's go to the book
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  Speaker 1: of Acts right quick here. And let's go two chapter
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  Speaker 1: number three let's see what he says let me see
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  Speaker 1: if i got it right myself okay all right chapter
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  Speaker 1: number three of.
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  Speaker 2: The book of.
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  Speaker 1: No chapter two i got the wrong chapter there okay
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  Speaker 1: chapter number two In verse number 38, then Peter said
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  Speaker 1: unto them when they said, men and brethren, what shall
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  Speaker 1: we do? He says, repent and be baptized every one
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  Speaker 1: of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
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  Speaker 1: remission of sins.
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  Speaker 2: Repent.
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  Speaker 1: Change your mind. About what? About Jesus. Change your mind
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  Speaker 1: about who Jesus is. Nobody believed that Jesus was the Messiah.
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  Speaker 1: And he went through the history of the Jews to
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  Speaker 1: prove this in this first gospel sermon. He proved that
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  Speaker 1: Jesus was who he said he was. And so he says, Repent.
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  Speaker 1: Many of the people standing there were the very people
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  Speaker 1: that said crucify him, crucify him. More than likely. They
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  Speaker 1: didn't believe that he was who he said he was.
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  Speaker 1: And here he says, repent. Change your mind about Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: Change your mind. He wasn't telling them. Obviously, the change
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  Speaker 1: of mind will lead to, is meant to lead someone
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  Speaker 1: to a change of action and attitude.
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  Speaker 2: Okay?
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  Speaker 1: It's meant to lead them to that. But it's a
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  Speaker 1: change of mind. It is a change of mind. That's
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  Speaker 1: the foundational meaning. And that's important that we understand that.
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  Speaker 1: When we're telling people to repent, we're telling them to
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  Speaker 1: change their mind about what you're doing. If someone is
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  Speaker 1: acting a fool and acting crazy and doing crazy things,
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  Speaker 1: these folks need to repent. They need to change their
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  Speaker 1: mind about what they're doing. And of course, what we
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  Speaker 1: are saying with our hearts, we're saying you need to
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  Speaker 1: give your hearts to Jesus.
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  Speaker 2: You need to see Jesus for who he is.
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  Speaker 1: You need to change your mind about your own sinful
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  Speaker 1: ways and see Jesus. That's what's taking place when we
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  Speaker 1: say to somebody or we say to a group that
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  Speaker 1: they need to repent. Amen. Let's go to 2 Corinthians
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  Speaker 1: chapter 7 and verse number 10. Thank you, my brother Jeff.
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  Speaker 1: Pastor Jeff Williams. 2 Corinthians. That is 2 Corinthians chapter 7.
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  Speaker 1: Let's go there. And verse number 10. For godly sorrow, amen,
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  Speaker 1: for godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation, not to be
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  Speaker 1: repented of. but the sorrow of the world worketh death. Okay?
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  Speaker 2: Godly sorrow.
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  Speaker 1: Brings about a change of mind that is meant to
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  Speaker 1: lead to a change of attitude and action. Okay? Godly sorrow.
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  Speaker 1: Not the remorse of the world. Not the remorse of
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: the world or the repentance of the world. You know,
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: change your mind and you just, you know, I'm sorry
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: I got caught. I'm sorry I got busted. But it
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: doesn't lead anywhere. Okay?
• 20:21
  Speaker 2: Godly sorrow leads to godly repentance. Okay? That's what goes
• 20:26
  Speaker 2: on there. Thank you, my brother. Thank you, my brother.
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: All right? Now, someone can repent about several different things.
• 20:39
  Speaker 2: People can repent about who Jesus is. They can repent.
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: Remember, we said context determines what they are changing their
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: mind about, about who Jesus is. People can change their
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: mind about their own unbelief. People can change their mind
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: about trusting themselves. People can change their mind about their
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: own sin, of course. People can change their mind about idols.
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: People can change their mind about a whole slew of
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: different things. But the word itself, the word repent, does
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: not mean, does not mean in essence, let me put
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: it that way, in essence, the word does not mean
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: stop sinning and come back to God. Though that is
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: the goal of repentance. That's the hope that what repentance,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: what the change of mind.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: Will bring about. Okay? Okay?
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: We pray that the change of mind will bring about
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: someone to stop their sinning and come to God and
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: turn to Jesus.
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: Amen. Therefore, the heart is changed.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: Amen.
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: Amen. Amen, Kathleen.
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: So we just want to make sure that we understand
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: what it means to repent.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: Biblical. Biblical repentance. Okay.
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: It means the mind. Change of mind that leads to,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: let's put this in there, okay? When there's a change
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: of mind, when there is a change of mind, okay,
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: and it leads to a change of action or attitude,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: that's a heart work. That's a heart work. That means
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: the heart, the heart has been and is being changed.
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: That leads to the change of attitude and action because
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: there's a change in the heart. But, but, Once again,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: foundationally speaking, the word repent does not mean to have
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: a change of heart. I know what we mean today
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: by having a change of heart. It means a change
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: of mind. I understand that. But the biblical word, biblical
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: understanding of the word is to have a change of mind.
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: I know I'm being redundant, but I just want to
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: make sure that it's clear what we mean when we
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: say that someone needs to repent.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: Amen. All righty.
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: Here we see something that we need to understand also,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: that a person cannot have faith until they repent.
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: Look what it says.
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: Look what it says in Matthew 21 and 32. For
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: ye believed him not. This is Jesus speaking. But the publicans...
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: And the harlots believed him. And ye, when ye had
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: seen it, repented not afterward that ye might believe him.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: And so you see the order? You did not repent
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: that you might believe. You did not repent that you
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: might believe. So repentance, there needs to be a change
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: of mind about Jesus and his claims before you can
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: Have faith in him.
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: You've got to change your mind about him.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: I'm not going to put my faith in Jesus if
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: I don't believe who he is. Okay? I'm just not
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: going to do it. I'm not going to change my
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: mind about Jesus if I don't believe him. So, once again,
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: you've got to repent first. That's what this is saying.
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: You've got to repent first. Okay, Mark 115. And saying,
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: at hand. And this is John the Baptist speaking. Repent
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: ye and believe the gospel. Repent and believe. Not believe
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: and repent. Repent and believe. Once again, before you can believe,
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: you got to change your mind about Jesus and who
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: he is. You got to change your mind about sin.
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: You got to change your mind about all those things
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: that we mentioned before, if that's the case. But you
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: got to change your mind before you can actually have
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: faith and believe.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: All righty? That's important. All right. So let's talk about
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: the sinner's prayer. Controversial.
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: Controversial. If you are a minister, pastor, or if you
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: are neither and you've prayed with someone to receive the Lord,
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: you may have prayed a sinner's prayer.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: Is a sinner's prayer, is it warranted?
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: Is it biblical? Is it necessary? Let's look at it
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: from scripture. I know, listen, I've prayed with, I'll say
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: countless because I don't know how many people I've prayed
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: with over the years, a whole lot of people, many,
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: many people. I've prayed sinner's prayer with sinner's prayers with people.
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: And I've heard people say recently and over the years
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: that the sinner's prayer has led more people to hell
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: than anything. Now, is this statement true? Is there truth
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: in the statement? Okay.
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: So what's the deal? What's the story with the sinner's prayer?
• 26:23
  Speaker 2: What we.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: Nowadays call the sinner's prayer. Amen.
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: My brother Terrence.
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: It says he's reminded of the thief on the cross
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: was railing against Jesus. He repented and believed.
• 26:40
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: And remember me when you come into your kingdom.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: Amen. He repented and then he believed. He changed his mind.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: Right while he was up there hanging on the cross,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: he changed his mind. That's exactly what happened. He changed
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: his mind. And that change of mind obviously led to
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: a change of heart.
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: And he was forgiven.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: And Jesus received that statement. It was a statement of
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: faith when he said, Lord, remember me when you come
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: into your kingdom.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: Okay?
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: And so leading right up to what we're talking about now,
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: was there a sinner's prayer involved? Was there a prayer
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: or was there just simply faith? Okay, let's look at it.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Let's look at it. Okay, does Scripture allow for a
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: sinner's prayer by unbelievers seeking salvation? And what are the
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: pros and what are the cons of a sinner's prayer? Now,
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: if you're like me, you've spoken the sinner's prayer, you've
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: prayed with people, you've heard the sinner's prayer prayed many
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: times over, and What's the harm? What's the harm in
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: praying a sinner's prayer? It's a prayer. It's asking the
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: Lord to do a work in your life. Is there
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: a problem with it? Well, let's look at scripture, okay? Now,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: the Bible does not explicitly, explicitly state the exact wording
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: of a modern sinner's prayer. And it did not even
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: emerge as a standard practice until the revivalist movements in
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: the 18th and 19th centuries.
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: But does this cancel out such a prayer?
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: The foundational biblical principles, repentance and calling upon the name
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: of the Lord are clearly taught in scripture as the
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: means by which an unbeliever seeks and receives salvation. And
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: what that says is, If you're going to repent, and
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: we're just talking about repenting and believing, where's the prayer?
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: Where is the.
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: Need for a sinner's prayer? Not saying that a sinner's
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: prayer is not something that is necessary.
• 29:03
  Speaker 2: Let's move on.
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: I don't want to.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: Let's go on. All right?
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Now, here we see the biblical case for a prayer
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: of faith. Proponents of the sinner's prayer draw heavily upon
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: New Testament passages that have verbal confession and faith and
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: belief to salvation. I know I didn't read that right,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: but passages that link verbal confession and belief to salvation.
• 29:38
  Speaker 2: Romans 10.9, okay?
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Here's what it says. That if thou shalt confess with
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: thy mouth, boom, stop right there. To confess, we've already
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: talked about it. To confess means to say the same thing.
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: To say, lips, tongue, lips, mouth, It's to say, it's
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: to speak, it's to communicate, okay? That if thou shalt
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus. What does that
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: mean to confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus?
• 30:10
  Speaker 2: Okay?
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: That means to say the same thing that scripture says
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: about him. To come into agreement, to align yourself with
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: who Jesus is. And that must be spoken, it says,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: from the mouth. Lord, I believe who you are. Lord,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: you are right concerning who you are, okay? I trust
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: you and believe in thine heart, okay? Believe in your
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: heart that God has raised him from the dead.
• 30:41
  Speaker 2: Thou shalt be saved.
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: So does this verse, when you look at this verse
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: and what it says, would you think that a, quote,
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: prayer is something that would not be harmful? I don't
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: see a prayer being something that would be harmful in
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: such a case. If you shall confess with your mouth,
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus. Okay. That's what it means to say,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: to say something. Okay. And many people, we say that
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: in a prayer. Lord, I believe who you are. I
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: thank you for who you are. I don't know how
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: you're going to express it. But it's saying the same thing.
• 31:30
  Speaker 1: It's agreeing, once again, and putting yourself in alignment with scripture,
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: what it says about Jesus.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: Okay?
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: Romans 10, 13. For whosoever shall what? Call upon the
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: name of the Lord shall be saved.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: To call upon. Okay?
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: To call upon, once again, the implication is that the
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: mouth is being used again. You are calling upon. It's
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: not a figure of speech. And I know you can
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: call upon the Lord in your heart. Yes, you can. Okay?
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: Prayers don't have to be spoken through the lips. But
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: that first one there, confess with your mouth. It's very specific. Here,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord. And
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: once again, the implication is that the mouth is being
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: used to call upon the name of the Lord. Shall
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: be saved. How are you going to call upon the
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: name of the Lord? Lord, save me. You're going to ask,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved. Lord,
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: save me.
• 32:33
  Speaker 2: That's my call.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: That's my call. Lord, save me. And once again, it's
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: going to come in the form of a prayer. When
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: you are asking for something, it is a prayer. It
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: is a petition. When we ask, okay? Luke 18 and
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: verse 13. And the publican, this is a tax collector,
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: in the temple with the Pharisee who was full of
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: pride and the publican standing afar off would not lift
• 33:05
  Speaker 1: up his, would not lift up so much as his
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast saying, saying, speaking, communicating, calling, praying,
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: God be merciful to me, a sinner. Does that sound
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: like a prayer to you? Does it sound like the
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: prayer of someone who is desiring salvation? Be merciful unto me,
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: a sinner? Yes. Yes. And so these verses seem to say,
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: when I see them, these verses seem to say that
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: a prayer from a sinner or a unbeliever seeking salvation
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: is not something that should.
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: Not be done. Okay? Okay? It can be done. There
• 33:58
  Speaker 2: is biblical.
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: Warrant for a prayer for salvation, a prayer that leads
• 34:06
  Speaker 1: to salvation, okay? There is biblical warrant for it. I
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: believe scripture is clear. But now let's look at the
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: pros and cons at the same time now. Let's look
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: at the pros and cons of a sinner's prayer, okay?
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: The pros and cons, the yeses and the nos.
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: Is it good?
• 34:27
  Speaker 1: Is it bad?
• 34:27
  Speaker 2: Is it right?
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: Number one, the sinner's prayer of the pros, it helps
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: the one being prayed for know what they are praying about.
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: You know, sometimes when you have a person that doesn't
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: know one end from the other when it comes to salvation,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: sometimes There's a need to, I will use the words,
• 34:52
  Speaker 1: probably not the right words, but to help them along.
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: Because they don't know how to pray as they ought.
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: And they're not saved yet. So the Spirit of God
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: is not going to speak for them yet because the
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: Spirit of God is not yet indwelling them.
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: Okay?
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: So it helps the one being prayed for know what
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: they are praying about. OK, now there are some cases.
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: There will be some cases. And I will tell you
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: one case in particular. And you know that case if
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: you've ever listened to me. And I know I am
• 35:27
  Speaker 1: not the only one because I've heard other testimonies the
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: same way. I did not pray a prayer of salvation
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: when I got saved. There was no prayer of salvation.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: I did not.
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: I do not recall saying, Lord Jesus, forgive me my
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: sins come into my heart. I may have said that later.
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: I'm sure I may have. OK, there was a lot
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: going on. But all I, what I do remember is
• 35:48
  Speaker 1: simply saying, help. I said, help me, God. Not even,
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: I didn't even say Jesus. Help me, God. Help me, God.
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: Help. Help.
• 36:03
  Speaker 1: I had been convicted. My heart was, I was definitely
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: at that place where I told you earlier, I was
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: being convicted of my own sin. I knew that something
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: was wrong in me and I knew that I had
• 36:14
  Speaker 1: done wrong when I hadn't, before when I didn't care,
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: now I cared. Now I knew, man, this is, the
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: weight was heavy. I knew that I was in a
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: bad place and I didn't know how to express it.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: The man said to come up to the front, if
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: you know, if you want to be saved, and I
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: had Half-heartedly raised my hand and crawled, literally crawled my
• 36:40
  Speaker 1: way to, crawled on my knees to the altar because
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: I was sitting on the front row. And I just
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: stayed on my knees with my eyes closed in the dark.
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: I didn't even know what to say.
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: I just said, help me. Help.
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: Repeatedly. Over and over and over and over again. Begging almost. Help, help, help, help.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: And he heard. He heard. Okay? So, It can happen
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: that a sinner's prayer does not have to take place
• 37:09
  Speaker 1: that someone can be saved, okay?
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: Number two, a pro.
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: It fulfills biblical invitations to confess with the mouth. That's
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: what we were just talking about from Romans 10 and
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: 10 and 9, okay?
• 37:22
  Speaker 2: You confess with the mouth.
• 37:24
  Speaker 1: Okay? That seems to say, if you want to be saved,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: you got to open up your mouth and you got
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: to say something, okay?
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: Confess who Jesus is. And thirdly, it.
• 37:37
  Speaker 1: Expresses personal commitment, okay? It expresses personal commitment, all righty? Now,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: what are the cons? The cons, okay? Number one, there
• 37:53
  Speaker 1: is no explicit, technical, biblical warrant for a sinner's prayer.
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: You will not find a verse in the Bible that
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: says specifically, pray this way if you are an unbeliever.
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: Pray this prayer and you will be saved. Once again,
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: the Bible points to faith and repentance. Repentance and faith. Okay?
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: That's what happened to the thief on the cross.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: He repented and he believed and he was saved. And
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: that's what happened. I'll just use myself because I know
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: my own story. When I said help, help, help, there
• 38:42
  Speaker 1: was repentance. I had changed my mind about Jesus. Trust me,
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: when I first started coming to church, I wasn't buying it.
• 38:48
  Speaker 1: This was all funny games for me. This was fun
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: time when I used to go to church when I
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: first started. But there was a change of mind. It
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: was a change of mind. And it led to convictions.
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: And I believed.
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: And I said, help. And you're saved by grace through faith.
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: Okay? The sinner's prayer. Now, here is where we find problems.
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: The sinner's prayer, whether if you repeat it after someone,
• 39:30
  Speaker 1: it does not guarantee that salvation has taken place.
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: Now, here is that statement, these statements that you've.
• 39:40
  Speaker 1: Heard, maybe you've heard, I know I've heard, that when someone,
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: that the sinner's prayer has sent more people to hell
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: than anything, okay?
• 39:48
  Speaker 2: The sinner's prayer, if you repeat after me, and.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: Whatever the series of words it is that you repeat, okay?
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: Now you're all saved.
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: No, no, no. No, everybody, listen. I'm not trying to
• 40:03
  Speaker 2: be a pessimist.
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: I'm not trying to be somebody who's just, you know,
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: just like this here when.
• 40:09
  Speaker 2: It comes to all of this.
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: No, no, no, no. Everybody who has ever said a
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: sinner's prayer, okay? Everyone who has not Everyone who has
• 40:20
  Speaker 1: ever prayed a sinner's prayer, repeat it after someone, word
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: for word. Even those last words of someone's sinner's prayer,
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: I thank you that I am now saved, and boom,
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: and now you're saved. No, everybody who prays a sinner's
• 40:40
  Speaker 1: prayer did not get saved. That's the hope. That's the desire.
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: That's the prayer of the one who is feeding that person.
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: And only God knows, but not.
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: Everybody.
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: Yes. Yes.
• 40:59
  Speaker 2: I have a witness.
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: Kathleen says her words will help also. Yep. I know
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: what you mean.
• 41:04
  Speaker 2: That's all I knew.
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: That's all that.
• 41:05
  Speaker 2: That's all I had was help me.
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: It works. It works. So saying this in his prayer
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: does not guarantee that the person Has gotten saved. All
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: you said is in his prayer. Listen. You have a
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: room full of people. And a bunch of people come
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: up to the front. You have a meeting. A church meeting.
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: And a bunch of people flock to the front. And
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: you say okay everybody. Everybody stop. Everybody repeat after me.
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: I'm not trying to be sacrilegious at all. I'm not
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: trying to be sacrilegious at all.
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: No never.
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: And everybody repeat after me. And everybody repeats after them.
• 41:46
  Speaker 1: And everybody walks away. And they say. And some churches,
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: there's a card or some kind of mechanism in place
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: that they know how many people came. And they say
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: such and such amount of people gave their heart to
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: the Lord. We have such and such amount of decisions
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: for Christ. And we're going to be talking about statements
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: and phrases that we use that are not found in scripture.
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: We're going to tackle that on another study. But we
• 42:10
  Speaker 1: have so many decisions for Christ and everything. And listen,
• 42:14
  Speaker 1: I'm telling you, okay, I'm not God. I'm not Jesus.
• 42:18
  Speaker 1: I'm not the Holy Ghost. But I'm telling you, everybody
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: who has ever said a sinner's prayer did not get saved.
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: I'm telling you. And so based on that statement, it
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: leads to statement number three. It leads to statement number three.
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: My brother Terrence says true salvation will produce some fruit.
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Absolutely.
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: If a person is truly saved, there's going to be
• 42:47
  Speaker 1: some evidence. There's going to be some fruit. Okay, you're
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: going to know it. Whether anybody else sees it, and
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: I'm sure others will, but whether anybody else sees it,
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: there will be a difference in your life. Some things
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: are going to change. You have a new master. The
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: Holy Spirit is now in you and you cannot stay
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: the same. You cannot stay the same. Oh, the carnal
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: man is still going to be there. The clinging vines
• 43:24
  Speaker 1: of the fall are still going to be there trying
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: to tug and pull to get you to be and
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: to do everything that you were.
• 43:30
  Speaker 2: But you are now changed.
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation,
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: a new creature. All things are passed away and behold,
• 43:39
  Speaker 1: all things become new. You have started a brand new life.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: Once the spirit of God comes in your life, okay?
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: All right, let's look at this third con here. What
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: the sinner's prayer, unfortunately, what the sinner's prayer can do
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: to those who have spoken.
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: It and nothing happened. Because that's the case. Sometimes, sometimes.
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: I'm not trying to talk anybody out of their salvation. No, no, no.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: God forbid, I would never try to talk somebody out
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: of their own salvation. But what the sinner's prayer can
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: do for those who did not genuinely get saved is
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: they can give those individuals a false sense of assurance.
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: I'm saved.
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: I'm saved. And they walk away thinking they're good. And
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: they're not good.
• 44:53
  Speaker 2: They walk away thinking, hey, they're good and they're saved.
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: And they're not.
• 44:59
  Speaker 2: They're still the, quote, old man.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: And once again, as my brother Clarence said, there's going
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: to be some fruit. If there's no fruit, if you
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: still stay the same, the exact same. And it's not
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: about trying hard. I'm trying hard to be a Christian.
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: I'm doing my best to be a good Christian. No,
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: there's no such thing as trying hard in the Christian life.
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: I do not like when I hear people say, I'm trying.
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to be good. What are you talking about?
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to be good. I'm trying to be a Christian.
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: There's no trying when it comes to living the Christian life.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: You have the Spirit of God in you. No, you're
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: not perfect. No, you're never going to be perfect, but
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: you have the Spirit of God in you. And the
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: Spirit of God is not in you for you to try.
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: He's going to lead you and guide you to do
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: the right thing.
• 45:50
  Speaker 2: I'm trying.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: I'm trying. I think we've got to move beyond trying
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: when it comes to Christianity. And so there's what we have.
• 46:05
  Speaker 2: As it concerns the sinner's prayer.
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: Once again, I don't believe for a moment that the
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: sinner's prayer is wrong. Don't pray the sinner's prayer because
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: it's going to send you to hell. No, don't pray
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: the sinner's prayer. You don't want to be guilty of
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: leading somebody to hell. No, no. Now, though, once again,
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: as we've just said, one of the cons here is
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: it doesn't guarantee salvation and it can give somebody a
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: false sense of security. I think folk need to know
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: going in that this is not any magic incantation that
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: we're getting ready to say.
• 46:40
  Speaker 2: Okay?
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: If their heart is right, if their heart has been primed,
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: if they have been truly convicted of their sin, When
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: they say such a prayer, whether they're led in that
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: prayer or whether they say it on their own, Lord,
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: save me. Lord, I don't know. I don't understand all
• 46:58
  Speaker 1: this Christianity stuff. Lord, come into my life. Lord, I
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: know that I've sinned. I've sinned against you. Lord, save me.
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: The Lord will hear that if the heart is in
• 47:06
  Speaker 1: the right place. But if it's just a, I'm just
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: going to repeat after everybody because everybody else is saying it.
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: I'm going to repeat it too. You know, I don't
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: want to be the odd man out. I'm going to,
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: everybody repeat and I'll repeat it too. There's nothing's happening.
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: Nothing's happening. Okay. So, so I believe that scripture does
• 47:26
  Speaker 1: not abolish sinner's prayer, a sinner's prayer, but I think
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: a sinner's prayer, it must be spoken carefully, carefully, because
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: I personally don't want to tell someone, Hey.
• 47:44
  Speaker 2: You're saved now. Don't worry about it. I pray that's
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: the case. I pray that's the case. God knows. God knows. Okay.
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: Brother Clarence says, first word I remember in my life
• 47:59
  Speaker 1: was conviction of sins that did not bother me before salvation.
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: Coupled with a strong desire to be pleasing to God.
• 48:07
  Speaker 1: I also must state that there was a strong desire
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: to study the word of God.
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: Yep. Yep. Same thing here.
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. I had a, I myself had a very, very,
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: my language was pretty bad as a teenager.
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: Pretty bad.
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: I always say that some of the words that people use,
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: some of the curse words that people use, I say
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: that I'm the one that invented them. I was pretty bad.
• 48:38
  Speaker 1: I was pretty bad. But that was the first thing.
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: When I got saved, it was gone. Except when I
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: was in competition. you know, playing sports, playing basketball, and
• 48:50
  Speaker 1: all of a sudden I would boom. And I would, oh,
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: I was mortified. I was mortified. So much so I
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: just stopped. I'd say, I'm not playing anymore. If I
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: can't stop this, if this is the only time I
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: do that, then I'm not doing it.
• 49:06
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to play.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: And I didn't play. Gym class, I didn't play. Outside,
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: I didn't play. Hey, Mike, you want to play? ball?
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: Nope, because I didn't trust my mouth yet.
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: When I thought, when I believed that my mouth was
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: in a place where I could not do that, I
• 49:25
  Speaker 1: went back to playing, and I didn't do it again, okay?
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: And also, I also had that desire to study the word.
• 49:32
  Speaker 2: I was a reader. I loved to read, and I
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: just picked up this book called The Bible, and I just.
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: I just went to town reading it, reading it, reading it,
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: reading it. So that's what the Holy Spirit will do, okay?
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: So that's it on the sinner's prayer. Now, when we
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: come together next week, let me get the bottom line
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: here on the sinner's prayer.
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: There's a final bottom line.
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: I had already said it, but Scripture does not explicitly
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: talk about a sinner's prayer by unbelievers seeking salvation, but
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: it does not require it. Salvation is by grace through
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: faith in Christ, okay? Let's put that, that's the truth.
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: Express the repentance and confession. We talked about that. While
• 50:16
  Speaker 1: prayer can be a part of a person's response to
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: the gospel, the Bible does not prescribe a specific prayer
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: formula for conversion. The focus should be on the heart's
• 50:27
  Speaker 1: belief and repentance, not necessarily on reciting a set prayer.
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: Once again, sinner's prayer, Not forbidden. I don't believe it
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: should be forbidden, but we need to be very careful
• 50:43
  Speaker 1: because once again, everybody who's ever spoken a sinner's prayer,
• 50:47
  Speaker 1: unless their heart is in that right place, then salvation
• 50:53
  Speaker 1: is not happening.
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: Okay? There must be repentance, faith. Okay?
• 51:00
  Speaker 1: Alrighty.
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: Now, when we come together next week, okay? Thank you.
• 51:06
  Speaker 2: Thank you, Kathleen, that you have three of my books, okay?
• 51:09
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: Now, next week, when we come together, we're going to
• 51:17
  Speaker 1: bring up this very much controversial subject. It's a subject
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: that will never get settled here on earth. Okay? Somebody's
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: right and somebody's wrong. And we'll get into it. How
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: saved are we? Eternal security Is it conditional or is
• 51:41
  Speaker 1: it conditional? I'll go to the next one, okay? What
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: is O-S-A-S? And that is, what is once saved, always saved?
• 51:55
  Speaker 1: We're going to get into that next week and we're
• 51:57
  Speaker 1: going to give you both sides and we're going to
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: give you both sides, okay? And we're going to see
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: We're going to see what the Bible says, okay, on
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: both sides. Because I will just jump ahead. Thank you,
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: my brother Jeff. I will just jump ahead here.
• 52:21
  Speaker 2: And say this.
• 52:21
  Speaker 1: And even this statement that I'm about to make might
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: be controversial. Some of you may not agree. That's fine also.
• 52:29
  Speaker 1: There is, there seems to be, there is on both
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: sides when it comes to eternal security, conditional or unconditional,
• 52:37
  Speaker 1: once saved, always saved, or whether you can lose your salvation.
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: We're going to talk about that.
• 52:43
  Speaker 1: Both sides claim there is conclusive evidence on both sides.
• 52:49
  Speaker 2: Okay?
• 52:50
  Speaker 1: Those who believe that you can lose your salvation, there
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: is ample scriptural evidence that says you can lose it.
• 52:58
  Speaker 1: And those who believe that you cannot, they say there
• 53:01
  Speaker 1: is ample biblical evidence that you cannot lose Here's what
• 53:07
  Speaker 1: I don't want. Both sides don't need to be at
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: each other. Okay? Those who believe that you can lose
• 53:16
  Speaker 1: your salvation should not look at those who believe that
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: you cannot lose your salvation and say that you are
• 53:23
  Speaker 1: of the devil and you're going to hell and you're
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: sending people to hell.
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: And I don't believe that people.
• 53:28
  Speaker 1: Who are on the other side who say that you
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: cannot lose your salvation should look at the other ones
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: who do, who believe that you can lose your salvation
• 53:39
  Speaker 1: and say that you just don't understand.
• 53:41
  Speaker 2: And you listen, we'll talk about it all. We'll get
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: into it next week. Okay. So join us if you can. Okay.
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: How saved are we? We're going to talk about it.
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: Alrighty. All right. Thank you everybody for joining. Once again,
• 53:57
  Speaker 1: thank you. My brother, Jeff Kathleen. Thank you. Terrence, amen.
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: Thank you all for your comments. Thank you all. Amen.
• 54:10
  Speaker 1: There's a few on YouTube that have not commented, but
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: thank you also for being there on YouTube. Thank you
• 54:16
  Speaker 1: so much. We shall return, Lord willing. We will return
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: on Sunday afternoon at 4 o'clock p.m. We'll be back.
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: So we're looking forward to that. That'll be our Sunday
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: sermon series. We're looking forward to that.
• 54:37
  Speaker 2: Amen.
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: Alrighty. So until we meet again by way of the internet, okay,
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: it's been good to be here. We pray that this
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: study has been beneficial and helpful to your life.
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: Amen.
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: This is not a church. We come together and we study.
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: The word of God. Once again, I thank you for
• 55:02
  Speaker 1: your comments. We try to get to them when we
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: can see them.
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: Everybody, thank you so much. Amen.
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: Alrighty. So we'll be, as I said, we'll be back again.
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: Lord willing, we'll be back on Sunday afternoon at 4
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: o'clock p.m. for the Sunday sermon series. Okay.
• 55:22
  Speaker 2: Until then, we will see you the next time. Have
• 55:26
  Speaker 2: a good rest of your week and God bless you.