A Crash Course in Repentance & Faith

Sermon Transcript

Just before Easter, we got hit with a two-by-four from like right about here, from Hebrews chapter 5, didn’t we? Here was the writer of Hebrews saying, you guys ought to grow up. I mean, here’s what we got from Scripture that day: you got to grow up. You got to press on, as chapter 6 verse 1 is now going to say, to maturity. You got to be mature.

And what we learn in chapter 5 is God has high expectations for us. He says, if you’ve been a Christian for a while, He expects you to be a leader, a productive leader, a wise counselor, an insightful teacher. You ought to be taking the lead. And we can’t sit here and just sit back and coast. We’ve got to be growing. If we’re not growing and our growth is stunted in some way, or we’re not involved in leadership after we’ve been a Christian for a while, chapter 5 said we’ve got a problem on our hands. And he even diagnosed the problem, and that is that we have a propensity to want things simple and easy. And because of that, we get stuck in the binkies and bottles and blankets stage. I think we called it that, at least. And that’s a stage God wants to pull us out of. We’ve got to grow up. We’ve got to keep growing in this thing.

But then, in chapter 6, there’s a very interesting caveat. And I see it as parenthetical, and not all expositors do. But in verse number three, it seems to be saying, because I know the heart of the writer of Hebrews, he’s got a real pastoral heart. And he says, we got to move on. We got to leave behind the elementary things. But then in chapter six, verse three, he says, but you know what? If the Lord permits, we’ll get some of that in. We’ll do so.

And the “do so” I think he’s talking about is, you know, he’s just listed all these wonderful truths of the Christian life. And he says, you know what? We’ll get around to that. It won’t be in this letter, but it’d be good if we got around to that. Because here’s the thing, you really can’t press on to maturity unless you’ve mastered the basics.

It reminds me of my very first week in the classics department at the university, the Antiquities department. I was going to become this real great learned erudite, and I was going to learn an ancient language. I was going to master an ancient language. And I walked in that first week, and I sat down as a young university student, and I said, okay, I want to learn an ancient language. And so all of a sudden, I realized within about, I don’t know, a day, that I needed a refresher course in all the basics because I slept through junior high English and high school English. I don’t even think I had. So all of a sudden, now he’s talking about prepositions and pronouns and nouns and verbs and adjectives and objects and direct objects. And I’m going, I don’t remember all this.

I couldn’t go on to learn this very important language that I was going to learn at the classics department of the university unless I had a crash course and got the basics of my own language. I had to know that. I couldn’t pretend, well, I’m just pressing on. I’m going to go get the meat now. Can’t get the meat if I slept through the milk, see?

And so here is this little caveat where he says, you know what, Lord permitting, we’ll do so. Here’s the thing. We’re not constrained by writing a letter. We’re preaching every Sunday. We have the opportunity to slow down and for three weeks let his list of basics, elementary truths, become our real short three-week curriculum for us to say, well, let’s make sure we have these mastered. Because we can’t go on to maturity unless we know these things. And he lists six of them.

Take a look at them with me in Hebrews chapter 6. And let’s make sure that before we leave this next three, four weeks from now and get into this teaching of Melchizedek later in chapter 7, let’s make sure we have the basics mastered. Make sure we have them mastered.

Here’s how he puts it. I’ve already kind of summarized and paraphrased a lot of this, but let’s read it. Beginning in verse number one, chapter six, verse one: “Therefore, let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity.” We got that message loud and clear in chapter five. Thank you very much. Kind of hit us in the head. Grow up, babies. Okay.

“Not laying again the foundation of” — here’s his list — “repentance from acts that lead to death, faith in God, instructions about baptisms, laying on of hands, resurrection of the dead, eternal judgment.” I mean, these six basics are things that are very important, and I think it hits a chord with him. Man, those are just the fundamental building blocks of knowing what it is to be an informed Christian, and that’s why I think he adds verse 3. Take a look at it: “And God permitting, we’ll do so.” I think it’s a little parenthetical statement. You know what? Yeah, if the Lord permits, we’ll get to that.

Here’s the great news. We can. We can spend three weeks getting to those six things and saying, are we sure we’ve mastered these? Because you can’t really go on to being any leader, teacher, counselor, or the kind of person God expects you to be in the church unless you’ve got, let’s just start with the first two today, the basics of how to get in the family of God, unless you’ve got those things down cold. We’ve got to know that. We’ve got to figure that out. And as a matter of fact, we can’t have an immature thinking about them. We need to truly master them, and that means we need to say all the myths about these. We need to get rid of them.

So that’s the approach I want to take today. A bit more of a thematic approach than an expository approach, but let’s just take a look at this text and say, these are the topics that we need to master. Let’s start with the first one, and let’s start and utilize this method of saying, let’s just get rid of the myths.

So number one on your outline. It’s already listed there for you. Let’s take a look at it. We need to dispel the myths about repentance.

Myth number one. Okay? Myth number one. These are things you’ll hear all the time. Repentance is optional. You can smile at that because maybe you’ve sat here at CBC and you’re used to me talking about repentance, but you know what? A lot of churches don’t want to talk about repentance, and a lot of modern Christians think, well, that’s kind of optional stuff. That’s kind of into the next phase. And you would be shocked, and I thought about taking a negative approach, and I don’t want to do that, although the outline’s a bit of a negative approach, but I don’t want to get into the quagmire of how much of the church believes that statement right there. And I’m telling you, it’s a lot, if not most.

Today, back in church history, it hadn’t been. Today, we have this view that you get into the family of God, and if you really want to get serious about God, well, then there’s a next phase, that’s called repentance, and you can get into that, and that’s kind of like this discipleship phase. But, you know, if you just want to be, you want your insurance policy to get into heaven, well, this isn’t required.

Let me just start with this statement. Jesus didn’t think so. Jesus was very clear about the topic of repentance. And a few passages I’d like you to look at, the first one being Mark chapter 1, verse number 4. Jesus didn’t think so, and then we’re going to read a verse about John, and you’re going to say, well, that’s John, that’s not Jesus. John was God’s chosen and ordained forerunner. He was the one, and he fulfilled this ancient picture of someone going in front of the chariot who came into the village first and said, hear ye, hear ye. King George is on his way, and the chargers are just down the street, and you’re going to… okay, that’s the forerunner.

Jesus’s chosen forerunner had a message with one clear imperative. Are you with me? Mark chapter 1, verse number 4. Here’s Christ’s chosen forerunner, and he camped on this imperative. “So John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins.” Now, forgiveness of sins sounds pretty basic to the Christian life. Wouldn’t you agree? I’d like my sins forgiven. That gets me into heaven. Well, there’s something that the forerunner to Christ had to say about it. It’s called repentance.

How about another verse? It’s just down here a little ways. Chapter 1, verse 14 and 15. Here comes the baton. It’s being handed off. All of a sudden now, Jesus is going to take the microphone. And verse number 14 says, “John was put in prison.” They put a sock in his mouth. “And Jesus, though, he came into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God. And here’s what he said. Verse 15, ‘The time has come,’ and he said, ‘The kingdom of God is near. Here comes the imperative. Repent and believe in the good news.’”

Pretty clear. First time he gets the microphone, he’s got a message. It’s the same as the forerunner. And the forerunner said, you guys better repent and I’m going to dunk you in water as a sign of your repentance. And Jesus comes and says, give me that microphone. Repent, everybody. Okay.

Still in the book of Mark. Turn to chapter six with me real quick. Mark chapter six. Jesus now pulls together a band of people called the disciples. He then designates them apostles. You know this. He doesn’t run around by himself. As a matter of fact, these 12 guys are going to be sent out like a football team to go attack the gridiron and go do something for him. They are his apostles. Apostolos in Greek is emissary. They speak for him. That’s what the apostles do. He sends them out.

Look at verse number seven. “He called the 12.” Do you see a capital T there? Yeah, these are the 12. This is the team. “And he sent them out two by two and he gave them authority over evil spirits,” and we get their commissioning. First thing they do when they get the microphone, look at verse number 12: “They went out and preached that people should” — what’s the word? — “repent.”

I’m building a very clear case. Are you getting it so far? Forerunner, go ahead of me and get people ready for me and go tell them to repent. He goes out and tells them to repent. Now give me the microphone. Repent. Then he says, I got 12 guys that are going to help me. They’re going to go to all these villages here. Twelve microphones. You guys go out. First thing they say is what? Repent. It’s not unclear to me at all. Jesus had a message and he wants it out there. And repentance is not only not optional, it is at the center of the whole message. Okay?

A couple of different quotes for you. These don’t make you turn to, but you might want to jot down the reference. Luke chapter 13, verse 3, is one example of Jesus’ kind of preaching. He says this kind of thing. As a matter of fact, in verse 5, he says the same exact thing again. He says, “Unless you repent, you will all perish.” That sounds pretty urgent. That sounds pretty non-optional to me.

Or how about this one? Luke chapter 24. This is when he talks about what’s going to happen when he leaves and all the subsequent generations. He says, “This is what is written. The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem.” What did he expect every subsequent generation to do? Preach a message of repentance. Is that clear? Boy, it’s clear to me. I’m thinking you’re going to have to do a lot of tap dancing to get around that. And we’ve just quoted five texts, and we could have looked at about 55 more from the Gospels alone, where Jesus got a clear message for us, and he’s handing it off, not only to the 12 apostles, but to every subsequent generation, and he says, you guys need repent.

Turn to the book of Acts with me. Jesus didn’t only think that repentance was essential. The early church thought it was essential. They didn’t think it was optional. Turn with me to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2. The very first sermon after God sets up the church. The book of Acts now is the story of the church. The very first sermon recorded from the very first church, from the very first pastor at the center of the hub of all of the spreading of Christianity in Jerusalem, was Peter, and Peter stood on the temple mount, and he had a message, and it all led up to one word.

Acts chapter 2, and you can guess what it is, but take a look at it. Verse 37, people heard it. “They were cut to their heart. They’d heard his message, and they cried out to Peter and the other apostles, and they said, ‘Brothers, what shall we do?’ Answer, Peter replied, first verb, ‘Repent. And by the way, just like John, let’s get you baptized to proclaim that you’re in this message, that you are a repentant person. Every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’” What’s that contingent on? Repentance. Early church didn’t think it was optional.

Cross the page. How about Acts chapter 3? Look at verse number 19. Just to give you another contingent statement about the centrality of this command. Verse 19, after this sermon, he says, “Repent then and turn to God that your sins may be wiped out and that the times of refreshing may come from the Lord.”

How about this one? Acts chapter 5. Turn the page and look at Acts chapter 5, verse number 31. Again, another punchline of another sermon in the book of Acts: “God exalted Christ to his own right hand as prince and savior that he might give” — what does he give? — “repentance and forgiveness of sins to Israel.” Wow, a lot of preaching in the first five chapters and already the punchline in every early sermon is repent, repent, repent.

How about this? I won’t make you turn there. Acts 17, verse 30. Here’s what the apostle Paul preached to the Athenians. We moved outside of Jerusalem and Samaria and now we’re starting to get to the edges of the ancient world. And he stands up and he says, “In the past, God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent.” Does that sound optional to you? You got to do a lot of crazy gymnastics to get around to saying what a lot of Christians today, and I venture to say in a lot of the circles that I run in, a lot of people today, if not the majority, say, nah, it’s secondary stuff. Doesn’t sound secondary to me.

How about Acts chapter 20? Early church, summarizing Paul’s ministry, he said, “I’ve declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.” It seems clear to me that the early church didn’t think repentance was optional. I don’t think Jesus thought repentance was optional. Therefore, I think we dare not neglect it.

I think the first thing we need to learn to master the basics of repentance from dead works is that we are not going to neglect it. It is the central message of the gospel. And if you want to water it down or remove it or tap dance around it or say it’s for secondary believers only or whatever your new theology is, you’re wrong because the Bible said you got to repent. Everybody’s got to repent. And repentance is the threshold and the doorway into the family of God.

Here’s a passage that’s just frightening. I put it up on the screen for you. Galatians 1:6–9, “I’m astonished that you are turning to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all. Evidently, some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preach to you, let him be eternally condemned.” And as if we didn’t get it, he says, “As we’ve already said, so now we say again, if anybody is preaching you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned.”

And you know the message they accepted? The one that came from Jesus and the one that came from the apostles, which always had the centerpiece of repentance. Myth number one, repentance is optional. I’d say, I don’t think so.

Myth number two about repentance. If you’re taking notes, you might want to jot this down. Repentance, then, well, it may be in there and it may be important, but it’s a synonym for faith. That’s all it is. It’s the same thing as faith. That’s what repentance means. That’s the popular belief. And again, I could really scare you by quoting a lot of people who are respected in a lot of pulpits and teaching a lot at a lot of missionaries telling you this very thing. As a matter of fact, it’s codified in some of the doctrinal statements of the most influential Bible schools in our country. But repentance really is, all it means is faith. It’s no different. It’s a popular misconception.

Two arguments for this. One is the etymology. They say the word, the word, if you’re careful to look at it close enough, you’ll find that really that’s all it means is faith. And the second argument is there’s a lot of passages that talk about being saved that don’t use the word repentance. Therefore, it must be a synonym because when it does show up, it seems pretty central, but it can’t mean anything different. There’s no nuance of difference here.

Okay, here’s how they do it. It’s what I like to call word games. They play word games with the word repentance. New Testament was written in what language? Greek. Greek prepositions played a huge role in the combinations of compound words. And here’s an example. The word metanoia. Transliterated it here for you. And those of you that have been around, heard me preach, you know this Greek word, metanoia. It really is made up of two words, meta, and really the verbal form is noeo. Metanoia is metanoeo. Meta is a preposition. Meta means after, something that comes after, something that’s behind, something that’s later, okay? Noeo means to think, I think, or I understand. Matter of fact, it’s translated mostly if it’s a verb in this form, noia or naeo, to understand. Okay?

Therefore, they say, here’s what it means. It means to think differently afterwards, to think differently. What it really means is that I think that Christ is not the Savior, but now, you know, I’ve thought about it, and now after I’ve given it some thought, I think differently about Christ. I think He must be the Savior now. I didn’t think He was the Savior, but now I think He’s the Savior. I didn’t think He could save me, but now I think he can save me. I think Jesus can save me. I just repented. Okay? That’s what I call a word game.

Let me show you another one. My kids say, oh, Dad, the green beans are awful. I don’t like the peas, Dad. They’re awful. They taste awful. Okay? Awful is made up of two words. Aw and full. Aw, of course, means reverence, admiration. A high esteem for something. Full, of course, means completely filled. So when my kids say awful, I stop them and say, what you really mean here is that you’re filled with admiration for the green beans. So eat them. Obviously, that’s what you mean. That’s the word you use, awful. That’s what it means. Full of awe, full of reverence.

And they look at me and go, Dad, what are you talking about? Is that what I mean? Look at the sentence, Dad. Look at my face. Yuck, they’re awful. That doesn’t mean I’m full of admiration for them. That means I don’t like them. They will appeal to context and usage. And all you have to do is look at, when you see the word metanoia in Scripture, all you have to do is look for the word repent, and you know what? It doesn’t mean, you know, I changed my mind about Jesus. I’m kind of into Jesus now. That’s not what metanoia means. Metanoia always has something from which I move away from, something to which I go. I turn from something to something else, make a willful resolve to say no to that and yes to this. It is a turning of my behavior and lifestyle.

To help clarify, the New Testament word is metanoia. The Old Testament was written before, that’s why it’s on the left side of the Bible, and it was written in what language? Hebrew. The primary Hebrew word that expresses this concept is a word that no one can talk their way around: shub. That’s a fun word, shub. And shub translates, for instance, the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament that Alexander the Great put together. Metanoia is the word that often translates shub. That’s the same concept. And you know what? When it comes to being forgiven, the concept of turning from something bad and evil to something good is exactly what we see when we use the word shub in the Old Testament. Same concept.

Example, Isaiah 55 verses 6 and 7. One example of many. “Seek Yahweh while he may be found.” Familiar verses. “Call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way.” That’s a very common Hebrew word, a synonym of this one. This is shub. That’s azab. Those are fun words. “And the evil man his thoughts.” I’m turning away from my wicked ways. I’m taking my evil thoughts and I’m turning from them. “Let him,” here it is, “shub to Yahweh. Let him turn away from those things to Yahweh. And he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for he will freely pardon.”

If I want to get pardoned, what do I have to do? Turn. Turn from what? From sin. That’s exactly the concept of metanoia. It doesn’t mean that I changed my mind about some doctrinal aspect of Yahweh or Christ in the New Testament. It means that I’m ready to say, I’m not doing that anymore, and I’m moving over here. That’s a turning around, a resolve, to say no to sin.

But you know what, Mike? They got a point. There are passages that talk about being saved that don’t mention the word. You’re right. Here’s one. 2 Corinthians 5, verses 14 and 15. Turn to that passage because it should be familiar, unless you were on vacation last week or something. You were here and we preached on this passage. I want to show you something.

In 2 Corinthians 5, we’re clearly talking about the gospel and how to connect with God. What you will not find is the word metanoia or the word faith. As a matter of fact, it’s very interesting. He only uses any form, verbal or noun, three times in the book of 2 Corinthians. Paul uses the word metanoia or metaneo only three times. Pistis or pistua, which is the Greek word, only six times. Does that mean he never talked about how people should get right with God? Wrong. All over the place.

And since this is familiar to you, you just studied it with me last week, let’s look at it again. And just because the word isn’t there, the concept is clear. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Let’s start in verse 14: “For Christ’s love compels us.” Does that sound familiar? It’s last week. You all remember that from last week, right? “Because we’re convinced that one died for all and therefore all died.” Now remember how we had to stop and kind of turn our brain on and go, wait a minute, what’s that mean? That’s the concept we said is that I have to die with Christ’s death. That’s called, if you want to summarize it in the popular word in Jesus’ teaching, faith. I have to trust vicariously in his death that his death will apply to me.

Do you see the word faith there anywhere? No, but it’s there. Or how about the next phrase? Verse 15: “He died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and was raised again.” Did we preach that clearly last week? I hope so. The word repent’s not there. Well, sure it is. “Not… live for themselves, but for him.” That’s called repentance.

Do you see the problem? If you want to say, well, I found a passage where that word isn’t used and he’s talking about how to join the family of God, knock it off. Look for the concept of repentance because the word is clearly there when Jesus taught, John taught, the apostles taught, the New Testament is founded on it. And if Paul doesn’t use the word in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, it doesn’t mean he didn’t talk about how to get right with God. Are you tracking with me? Clearly he did. He just didn’t use the word repentance, metanoia, or pastuo, have faith in. But both elements are there.

Whenever the gospel is presented, both elements are there, whether the word is there or not. So no word games and no, hey, you didn’t use the word. Stop it with that, okay? If the concept is there, then we preach repentance. If the concept is there about putting our trust in the finished work of Christ, then faith is there, whether the catchphrase is there or not.

Jesus, by the way, used all kinds of words to demonstrate those two concepts of turning from sin and trusting in Christ. Even I just used two different words, didn’t I? Turning and trusting. You didn’t hear the word repent, and you didn’t hear the word pistou or faith. Did I not just say something that could lead someone into the family of God? No, of course I did. Turning and trusting.

Okay, is that helpful? Whether it is or isn’t, I’m moving on to number three.

Myth number three. Let’s dispel the last myth here about repentance. Repentance is feeling bad about sin. I know what repentance is because I’ve had it. I’ve experienced it. I did something wrong and man, I felt bad about it.

Okay, a couple things to note here. That’s only half the story. It’s inclusive, but it’s not all. Example, Judas. Did Judas feel bad about what he did? Super bad. Did you read the story? Bad, really bad. Okay, Scripture in no way paints this man as repentant. It shows him as excessively sorrowful. Matter of fact, those are the words that are used, not repentant.

Esau, Hebrews chapter 12, says he was filled with sorrow over what he had done, and guess what? He’s not painted as a repentant man. He didn’t repent of what he did, but he felt really bad about it. A lot of people feel really bad about what they do. You can talk to my children if you’d like, and they’re not repentant. They feel bad, but they don’t feel repentant. Often that happens when you’re caught. Have you noticed that? I’m thinking of my seven-year-old. When you’re caught, man, you feel bad. It has nothing to do with a repentant heart.

Although if you want to repent you should get to that place whether you’re caught or you’re not caught. Let’s see if I gave you… oh, I gave you those two names. Great.

It’s followed by changed behavior. It’s followed by changed behavior. A passage, by the way, that you can put down next to “it’s only half of the story” is 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Good example where Paul distinguishes the difference between feeling bad and truly repenting. Feeling bad is inclusive of real repentance, but it’s not the whole story. We have to move on to repent, to actually condemn the behavior and move on to right behavior. And that’s why biblical repentance is followed by a changed behavior, a good behavior.

Let’s look at a couple of passages. How about Luke chapter 3, verses 7 through 14. As long as John the Baptist, the forerunner, makes it very clear in his short, condensed history, his concentrated history in the Gospels, of coming and preaching a one-note song — repent, repent, repent, repent — he ought to be able to help us with the understanding of what he was talking about. Let’s look at it in Luke chapter 3. Matthew, Mark, Luke chapter 3. Look at verse number 7 with me.

Got people coming out to be baptized by John. Some of them were real sinners, and he’s calling them snakes in verse 7. Very tactful guy. Pulpit committees would look right past this guy. He’s a preaching candidate. “Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” What’s the point? Man, if you come out and you really repent, you will be. Here’s the thing. He’s going to really call them between just feeling bad about their life and doing something positively. The repentance is the crux, the turning point. He says in verse number 8, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” Repentance. Repentance changes the direction. Repentance changes behavior.

And then he says, “Don’t say to yourself, I’m child of Abraham, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” “What should we do then?” the crowd asks in verse 10. John answers, “The man who has two tunics should share with him who has none.” And you got greed in your heart, you’re racking up a whole closet full of tunics. “Share some, would you? You got food, share it.”

Verse 12: “Tax collectors, what about us, teacher? What should we do?” Verse 13: “Don’t collect any more than you require to do. Be ethical in your business treatment.”

Verse 14: “Soldiers said, what about us?” “Well, don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely and be content with your pay.”

Here he is giving them examples of a changed life. You live differently when you repent. You do good deeds when you repent. Or to put it in the words of Acts chapter 26, here’s Paul, says the same thing in a great statement: “I preach that they should repent and turn to God.” That’s the concept of repentance. “And prove their repentance by their deeds.” They’re going to do good things on the other side of repentance.

Now put Judas and Esau back in the picture, did they? No. That’s why they weren’t repentant. They were sorry, but they weren’t repentant. Repentance turns you in a new direction. Repentance is not feeling bad about sin. It’s more than that. It includes that, but it’s more than that.

Dispel the myths about repentance. Let’s also dispel the myths about faith, second half of your outline. This would be helpful. There’s lots of myths about faith. Let’s just narrow it down to three basic ones.

Myth number one, faith is believing. Sounds like a song title. Faith is believing. I was going to sing impromptu for you, but I won’t.

Let me say the same thing about faith and believing that I said about remorse and repentance. Okay? It’s half the story. It’s half the story. You can’t have faith without believing, but you can believe without having faith. You can’t repent without remorse, but you can have remorse without repentance. It’s only half the story.

How do I know that? How about this? James 2, verse 19, “Even the demons believe, and they shudder.” And I’m thinking they’re not a good example of trusting in Christ, right? But they believe. Matter of fact, their theology is great. They affirm more biblical facts of theology than you do. Doesn’t mean they have biblical faith.

How about Matthew chapter 7? This is a tough passage. And I should have put verses 21 through 23, not just verse 21, but let’s take a look at that one since it’s so poignant. Matthew chapter 7 verses 21 through 23. Now this is scary. Matter of fact, it’s one of the reasons I don’t use the word believers. I grew up in that environment where everybody called it, if you’re a Christian, you’re a believer. Here we see in Matthew 7, Jesus tossing church-going believers into hell. So I’m thinking that’s not a big compliment to call me a believer.

Matthew 7 verse 21: “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.” Here are people that seem to affirm the right theology. Jesus is Lord. They believe that. “But only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Oh, much like repentance, there ought to be some kind of change that’s evident. Proof of that. “Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, look at all the things we did. We prophesied, we drove out demons, we did a lot of miracles. We think we were doing great things for you.’ And I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers.’”

That’s a tough passage. Here are church-going, church-active, committee-sitting believers who, he says, whatever you had, it wasn’t real genuine biblical faith. And there certainly is a reference here to their lack of repentance as well. It’s only half the story.

Something that helps us with this, second thing you can put down, is we need to note the prepositions. Faith is used with prepositions. More times than not, when we’re talking about faith in a biblical sense, faith has prepositions that follow. Just like the passage we read in James chapter 2, the demons believe — there’s no preposition that follows that.

A preposition. Preposition has to do with direction, right? Up, in, out, beside, within, toward, away from. Those are all prepositions. In Greek, there are three prepositions that are used in concert with the word faith, pistou. In Greek, there’s some distinction. In English, they’re not usually translated any differently. En, epsilon nu, epi, which really means upon, and eis, into. In, into, and upon. Those are the three prepositions that are usually put right up next to pistou or pistis, the word faith, when it’s referring to biblical faith, which is beyond belief, mentally believing something.

And even in English, if you take the word believe and you extract it from a religious context and you put it down in some kind of usage and then you put a preposition next to it, it changes the feel of it, doesn’t it? If I say to my son — now let’s not use it. If I tell you, I went out this week online and I got my pilot’s license in six hours. It was an amazing course. Do you believe me? Okay? You might say, well, you know, Mike’s not a liar. Okay, you got your pilot’s license online in six hours. Amazing. But I believe you. Okay? No preposition.

Then if I put my little leather hat on from the mail order thing I got, and I take you out to the Orange County airport and say, here, I’m renting a plane for an hour. Now I’m saying, I got my license. Come on. Don’t you believe me? Get in. See, that’s when you say, I might believe you, but I don’t believe in you. Right? I’m not willing to put my faith on you. I’m not stepping in the plane because I don’t have that kind of belief in you. Same word, different feel. What changes it? The preposition.

And same with biblical Greek. Pistou is the same word that is used, pistis rather, the noun form, in the passage that the demons believe. They have faith. But they don’t have the faith in Christ the way we’re supposed to. Epi, en, and eis. We need to recognize that the Scripture is clear. It’s more than mental assent.

Because when I grew up, as a matter of fact, I can look to all kinds of literature and all kinds of gospel tracts that’ll say, you need to believe some facts. If you believe those facts, you get saved. That is not what belief means in Scripture. It’s not what faith means in Scripture. Faith is not believing. It’s very different. It has to do with trust. It has to do with placing my life in someone else’s hands. It has to do with stepping into my airplane on the tarmac and asking you, do you really believe in me? See, which is what we are called to do with Christ. Trust completely in what he has done for us. I’m going to get on board with him.

It’s the classic illustration. I’ve used it too many times, and I know you’ve heard it a million times, but it’s the guy who wheels the wheelbarrow across the tightrope over Niagara Falls back and forth. And everybody goes, oh, that’s marvelous. And they say, the guy says, do you think, do you believe I can put a person in the wheelbarrow and take them across? And everybody goes, oh, yes, we believe you can do that. But when he asks for volunteers, that’s when we see if you believe in him. See, that’s different. And that’s the difference between faith and believing, at least in the way we use the word.

That’s why if we took these English words, faith and belief, and scrapped them both and said, when we see the word pistou or pistis with a preposition next to it, we’re going to use the word trust instead. That makes a difference. And that might help us recognize it’s not that I’m called to believe some facts about the gospel. I’m called to put my trust in Christ, that he’s going to take me somewhere after death that I can’t go on my own.

Faith is believing. No, it’s more than that. It’s only half the story.

Myth number two. Here’s a classic one. You recovering Catholics will deal with this one with lots of interest. Faith plus works equals salvation. Catholics? What have you taken a shot at Catholics for? What’s that all about? Listen, and it ain’t just Catholics. You have so many religious groups saying this. You put your trust in Christ, and you work real hard, you’ll get to heaven. You want to put your trust in Christ alone and think you’re going to get to heaven? Nope. That’s why we have this little stopping off point. It’s called purgatory. Okay.

And that’s going to help you understand really well because purgatory, let’s just help with this. Catholics, former Catholics, current Catholics that are going to get mad at me right now. Here’s the thing. Purgatory proves that this is the equation of most people. Because purgatory — and I’ve stood on Vatican Square talking to high-ranking people with funny hats and their breezecapes, and they’re ready to tell me this — how long do I have to go to purgatory? I’ve asked them that. Well, that depends. And then we start talking about what does that depend on? Depends on your life.

Therefore, the question is, I got a question. Pope John Paul, Mother Teresa, have they popped out of that place yet? Oh, yeah, I mean, probably, I don’t know, maybe. They won’t be there long. I mean, they’re soon to get out. Checkout time soon for them. What about my cousin Vinny? Oh, no. You know, tell him a little about Vinny. He’ll be there a long time. Why is Vinny going to be there a long time? He’s a good Catholic. Well, you see, he wasn’t as good as Mother Teresa. Therefore, Mother Teresa, she pops out right away, but Vinny’s going to be in the oven for a long time. Okay? So just bank on that.

And what that means is you have to undergo some punishment because your life wasn’t good enough. See, the whole message of the gospel is this. You can receive a pardon for sin if you trust in what Christ has done. That’s the message of the gospel. What kind of pardon? Here it comes. A full pardon. And if you get a full pardon from Christ, then you know that it’s not based on what you do.

Does God want us to do good things after we become a Christian? Absolutely. But Jesus put this whole thing to rest when he was dying on a cross, looking at a criminal next to him, and he said, hey, you just put your trust in me. You win. You get to go to heaven. Win. Well, I don’t know, for you, dying criminal, not much time for good works, no penance, no… it’s going to be a long time. Is that what he says? How quick is that guy going to get him to heaven? Today. And we’re not even sure he’s going to die today. I mean, you see what I’m saying? That’s like right away. You go immediately to heaven. Why? Because it isn’t about good works. It’s about what Christ has done for you. That’s the message of the gospel.

And most people think, well, that can’t be true. Because that’ll sting me if I find out that all those people in prison who got Jesus at the end are going to be there in heaven too. I want to believe that purgatory thing. Because I want them to pay for something. Well, you want them to pay for something, then you’ve got to pay for something. That’s the whole point. Christ said, paid in full. It was all about the cross paying for you and the criminal.

And I was just sharing the gospel a week ago Friday with a guy. And we were sitting there going at it. And he was stumbling. You cannot tell — that’s where I draw the line. I will not believe that a criminal in prison can embrace your Christ and get right to the head. I just can’t believe that. If you can’t believe that, you’re stumbling over the gospel because that’s the gospel. Christ can look at a criminal on a cross with a life full of sin and say, today you’re with me in paradise. Why? Because Jesus paid it all. That’s the message of the gospel.

And we aren’t prone to believe that because this gives Christ all the credit and gives me none. And that’s the part I struggle with. And most people want religion the old-fashioned way. They want to earn it. That commercial probably hadn’t played for 30 years, but I remember it. All right. Thief on the cross. I tell you, yeah, great. Catch up, Mike.

All of grace. That’s what Christianity is. That’s what salvation is. It’s all of grace. Grace means you don’t earn it. You don’t deserve it. You don’t get it because you did something good. That’s what all of grace is about in Scripture, and that’s clearly taught.

Titus 3:5, that’d be a good one to jot down and memorize. “He saved us not because of the righteous things that we had done, but because of His mercy.” That’s what it’s all about. He saves us not because of the things that we do. Well, you get to get out of purgatory now because you did a lot of good things. No.

Or how about this one? Ephesians 2:8–10. We’ve got to look at that one. Please, open your Bibles and turn to Ephesians chapter 2. And I want to show you the juxtaposition of faith and works. It’s clear. Oh, this is so basic. This is the basic stuff. I realize that. That’s what our passage is calling for us to master. And until you can get up and teach this, which I hope most of you can, but until all of us can, we need to master the topic. So let’s hear it again. It’s good stuff. It’s good doctrine.

Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8: “It is by grace that you’ve been saved through faith. It’s not from yourselves. It’s the gift of God,” and that encompasses a lot, including the salvation that I get, this being saved. “It’s a gift. It’s not by works so that no one can boast.” I can’t say, hey, I got out fast. How about you? No, I was in a long time. Wow, you lived a better life than me. No, there’s no boasting.

Verse 10, what about works? Here it is: “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.” We don’t do good works to get in Christ. We’re in Christ to do good works, “which God has prepared in advance for us to do.”

Therefore, he wants us to do good works. Does doing good works get us into heaven? No. If I embrace Christ through repentance and faith, that minute, if someone shoots me in the head, great, I go directly to heaven. But if I don’t get killed that day, I should be doing a lot of days of good works. Good works are what God expects. He has prepared them in advance for me to do. But I’m in Christ because of grace, and then I do good works because I’m in Christ. I don’t do good works to get in Christ, and that’s where most people fail. And the guy’s knocking on the door and trying to sell you this religious equation to get to heaven, all will tell you, yeah, God did a lot for us, but we gotta do a lot, and then we’ll get this great bonus called salvation.

The real equation looks more like this. We put our trust in Christ, the finished work of what he’s done. We repent of our sin, that’s the aspect of what’s going on in my head in my life. Then guess what I get? Salvation. And for whatever many days I live after that, I start doing good works for Christ. But that may be one day, one year, five years, 15 years, 150 years. Well, I don’t know. You’re not going to live that long, but it can go on for a long time.

Faith equals salvation plus good works. If you say faith plus good works equals salvation, you’re wrong. As a matter of fact, that’s another Galatians 1 perversion of the gospel. So dispel that myth about faith.

How about this? Myth number three. Myth number three says faith can be lost. Faith can be lost. I might get this pardon by faith, but my faith can go away. Like that guy I used to know that I went to church with and he didn’t have it anymore. So he’s lost his pardon and I got to be careful so I don’t lose my pardon because, you know, I know that faith kind of comes and goes.

A couple things to note in Scripture about it. One, Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8, faith is granted by God. It is a gift of God. Not just the salvation, but the actual ability to respond to God in faith is a gift from God. It is given by God. It’s a gift from God. We don’t conjure it up.

Or to put it in the words of Hebrews 12:2, Jesus is the author and perfecter of our faith. I mean, that’s pretty clear and pretty broad. He is the one who initiates it in my life. We’ve just come off of chapter 11, if you know the book of Hebrews, this huge chapter about trusting God, and he says, you know what? He starts it and he finishes it.

If he starts it and he finishes it, I might want to put it this way. He’s going to make sure it prevails to the end. Christ will make sure it prevails to the end. Oh man, I might have good days and bad days in terms of how deeply or how perfectly I trust Christ, but you know what? It’s going to continue on a path of upward growth. I am going to have faith in Christ. If I have faith in Christ, I will have faith in Christ.

Look at this great text, 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 8 and 9: “He will keep you strong to the end.” That’s the promise. “So that you will be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He’s not going to say, well, you know, you went 22 years without it in that middle section. That’s not how it works. “God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son” — who called you? It’s not that you just discovered it and stepped into it. “He called you into it. Jesus Christ our Lord, he’s faithful.” See, who’s the faithful one? He is. I’m not faithful. I can’t maintain this. God says he’ll make sure he maintains it for me. This is a maintaining project that God takes on upon himself. He says, you know what, if you have genuine faith, I’m going to make sure it stays there because I gave it to you in the first place.

Oh, but I know a lot of people… Let’s put it this way. Temporary faith is of a different kind. The Bible is crystal clear about this. Temporary faith, a faith that’s there for eight years in youth group, and then it goes away for 20 years in college and my midlife, and then I get back to it in my senior year. That’s not biblical faith.

1 Peter 1, verses 5 through 7. And as you’re turning to that text, you might want to also think about Jesus’ parable of the seeds, sowers, and the soil. Remember that? The seed and the soils and the sower. The point is that all faith is not genuine faith and does not end up bearing fruit. There’s only one soil that bears fruit. And the soil that bears fruit and keeps on bearing fruit, it may do it in some 30, 60, or 100 fold. There are varieties of levels of fruit. But the point is they bear fruit and they keep bearing fruit, some more fruit than others.

And God will make sure that whatever you see as faith in your life is put to the test. And faith that does not pass the test is not genuine faith. 1 Peter 1, verse 5 says, “Who, through faith, are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is already to be revealed to us in the last time,” verse 6. “In this I greatly rejoice, though now for a little while we may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith, which, by the way, is really precious. I mean, it’s like gold. It’s super… it’s important, may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.”

It’s either proved genuine or proved phony. It’s either proved real or it’s not. And biblical faith, real faith that comes from God, is a kind of faith that endures and it lasts.

Well, what about that guy I went to church with for all those years? 1 John chapter 2 was written about your friend, verse number 19. Or perhaps about you, who thought you walked an aisle as a kid and kind of embraced some facts or prayed a prayer and then “I went off and lived like a non-Christian for all those years.” You know what? Maybe you need to reconsider what happened when you were a kid. Because ultimately, here’s what happens. Real faith is a gift from God. He makes sure it prevails to the end. And then here’s what it looks like if it’s phony. It looks temporary: “They went out from us,” speaking of people that had split, “but they didn’t really belong to us. For had they belonged to us, guess what they would have done? They would have remained with us. But their going showed that none of them belongs to us.”

This is not about church attendance. This is about being a part of the body of Christ. And people who turn their back on this thing and walk away from it, the Bible’s really clear. It was not genuine. It’s not real to start with. Temporary faith is of a different kind.

You cannot go on to maturity in Christ unless we understand how you get in the family of God and have it mastered. And the two words in Scripture that are used that are distinguishable but inseparable, the response that God invokes in a person’s heart, is repentance and faith. Two parts of one response that God induces in our life. Repentance and faith. They are distinguishable. We distinguish them today, but they’re inseparable. And it’s more than feeling sorry for sin and believing some facts. It’s turning from sin and trusting in Christ.

And if we understand that, then we can check off the curriculum box. Got that. Great. We’ll move on to next week and we’ll get the next two points of the curriculum so that we can make sure we have the basics in the Christian life mastered.

This review for a lot of you. A lot of you sat there going, I feel really smart. I knew all that stuff. Great. All that means is we’re ready for the meat, which is coming, by the way, in chapter 7 of Hebrews. Just wait till we get there.

Let’s pray.

God, help us, please, to make sure that we have these things wired in our lives and we can explain it at 2 in the morning. If you rock us out of our sleep, we can tell you, here’s what repentance is, here’s what faith is, and we’re not buying any of the counterfeits that are out there. We understand it. We know it. We own it. There’s no confusion in our minds, because you would have us, before we ever press on to the meat, to have that kind of milk mastered.

So God, give us proficiency in this. And one of the best ways, God, is to move all of us to be out there talking to others about it, explaining it to non-Christians that have never even heard it. God, keep us active in being teachers and sharing the message of the gospel. And as we talked about today, that the writer of Hebrews has brought up for us, the two components of the one response that you call for in our lives — to repent of our sins and to put our trust in Christ — God, I pray we would get just absolutely no confusion, nothing foggy in our minds about these things.

In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.