Okay, so we're looking today at, I sure am glad I got up and printed this out. We're looking today, we're still in section 15 of the Westminster Confession, and we're looking at paragraphs three and four. That works. You'll remember that last week, yeah, Mark taught us last week. Can someone tell us what repentance is? Repentance of attrition or repentance to life? Well, yes. Yes. The title to the paragraph is repentance unto life. Okay. Repentance unto life is leaving sin behind truly. Technically, repentance means to change, to change your mind, to change your heart. If you are a disciple of sin and you're following sin and you're just letting sin rule your life and you're not resisting it anyway, in fact you may be promoting it, looking for opportunities to practice your sin, and then someone presents the gospel to you, you're faced with a choice. You either ignore the gospel and continue your sinful life or you confess your sin and then you repent. You turn your back on sin and you now follow the Lord Jesus. So repentance unto life is a turning, turning to Christ. And so paragraph three is what I'm going to try to address this morning. And I've got someone else on here to do number four. And if all else fails, I'm going to turn the computer around and maybe you can hear it. Paragraph three says this. be not to be rested in as any satisfaction for sin, or any cause of the pardon thereof, which is the act of God's free grace in Christ, yet it is of such necessity to all sinners that none may expect pardon without it. Now last week Mark mentioned this little book, This is the contemporary edition of the Westminster Confession, and it sometimes helps to smooth out some of these 300-year-old sentences. We don't say today, be not to be. We don't say that. We just don't talk that way. So here's what the contemporary version says, paragraph three. Repentance does not pay for sin, nor justify a sinful past. Repentance in and of itself doesn't save you. It is a saving grace. It's necessary. but it doesn't save you in and of itself. Pardon for sinfulness is an act of God's free grace in Jesus Christ. However, repentance is of such necessity to all sinners, none of us may expect to be pardoned without it. Okay, I vote we give up. That's all right, do that. Yes, sir. And then try it one more time. If it doesn't work, then turn that computer off. Yeah, don't trip over my wires. Thank you, that, thank you. Appreciate all these men that know how to do these things. It's still not fixed. Hang on one second. We're going to go here. And then we're going to go from the beginning. And then we're going to do this. And when it works, there we go. Well, you can't back it up. So now we're one page ahead. So that's the contemporary version says repentance does not pay for sin. Pardon for sinfulness is an act of God's free grace. Repentance is necessary for all sinners. The scriptural basis for this as you can see here is first of all. Ezekiel 36, 31, and 32, then you will remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and your abominations. You know, even after becoming a Christian, I still loathe my sin, sins of the past. I know they're forgiven. It can't be undone. Some are embarrassing. Some are disgusting. And they're there. And I know some of you, especially the men in my Saturday group, have heard me say many times that one of the things I look forward to about the kingdom is that I'm hoping the past will be gone. I'm hoping that you won't remember this garbage. And because when you remember certain things that at one point were tempting, temptation's still lurking around, you know? Temptation, sin is crouching at the door. And so that's why it's a constant struggle. That's why the apostle Paul says in Romans 7, that which I would not, that I do, and that which I ought to do, I don't, and that sort of thing. Did Paul mean that about his previous life? No, he was an apostle. He was preaching the gospel and still struggling. And so if you're struggling, don't think you're by yourself. But I want to encourage you This verse goes on to say, this is God responding through Ezekiel the prophet, and he's saying, it is not for your sake that I will act, declares the Lord God. Let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways. We are ashamed and confounded, but our salvation doesn't depend on us. It doesn't even depend on our repentance. Repentance is necessary. If a person says I'm a Christian and yet he's still just going right on the way he was beforehand, he's deceived himself. He's been deceived by the deceiver and he's deceived himself. G.I. Williamson says, In his study guide to the Westminster, we've taught this before. Some of you have seen these books that I'm holding up before because I use them every time. G.I. Williamson says, we could not more radically misconceive repentance than to regard it as a work performed. So there's nothing earned by our repentance, but it's required, it's demanded, and it's necessary. And then the next part of that sentence says, pardon for sinfulness is an act of God's free grace in Jesus Christ. And the scriptural basis for that is Hosea 14, 2 and 4. Take with you words and return to the Lord. Say to him, take away all iniquity, accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips. Remember, they weren't living after Christ, they were living before Christ. And the only sacrifices they were familiar with was bulls and goats and shedding of blood and that sort of thing. God responds in verse four and says, I will heal their apostasy. I will love them freely for my anger is turned from them. His anger was not turned by their repentance. Although they did repent and we rejoice in that, his love is not based on that. Sorry for the voice. However, the last statement of paragraph three says, however, repentance is of such necessity to all sinners that none of us may expect to be pardoned without it. And this quote that I have here now is from this gentleman. This is Carl Walter McMurray, also has a study guide to the Westminster Confession. Both these men are dead now, I think, I'm pretty sure. I know McMurray is. But anyway, he says this, although our pardon is only through the merit of Christ, yet none may expect pardon without repentance. To pardon one To pardon one who is unrepentant would be to sanction sin. Think about that for a moment. And it would be a violation of the holiness of God. To pardon one who is unrepentant would be a violation holiness. It would be to sanction sin. Now I want to stretch that out just a little bit and tell you something that I observe frequently and I struggle with this although I know in my own heart what I would do. You see a courtroom scene where someone has committed a terrible crime. Let's say he killed somebody and he's found guilty And the judge says to the family of the deceased, you may address the person now if you want to. And they come up to a lectern like this, and they'll say, I forgive you. Now, what are your thoughts about that? I think we're supposed to look at that and say, oh, isn't that wonderful? That's so Christ-like. The man never said, I'm sorry. He didn't confess, basically. I mean, he was found guilty based on the evidence. And then the family member says, I forgive you. He didn't ask for forgiveness. When Peter came to Jesus and he said, Lord, how many times should I forgive my brother or my neighbor or anybody? He said, up to seven times. And Jesus said, no. 70 times 70. And what he meant was every time he asks you for forgiveness, you're obligated to forgive him. We pray the Lord's Prayer. We're going to pray that prayer this morning as part of our liturgy. And it says, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. But again, the question is, does God forgive us without our repentance, without our confessing sin and repenting of sin? I don't find that in the Bible. God is willing, ready to forgive us when we agree with him. That's what confession means. You have an accuser, you have an accused. If the accused confesses, it means he agrees with the accusation that is made. God says to me, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All have sinned. That includes you, Ray. Then when I say, I'm a sinner, I agree with him. And then when I say, forgive me, he says, as many as confess their sins, I will forgive their sins on the basis of Christ, not on the basis of my repentance. Please. So there are sins that I have yet to commit that God has already forgiven. I haven't expressed repentance directly for those future sins. However, my heart is repentant for all of my sins. Can you speak to the future sins I think my guest speaker can do that better than me. I'm sorry that I can't get the sound to come out of here. I'm going to turn the sound up on this as high as it will go. I don't even know where the speakers are on this thing. I think they're right here in the front, so I'm going to spin this around. You'll still be able to see the video. And he will answer that question, because paragraph four is for some people confusing, and it has led some people to think that they can just send all they want to. All I got to do is just run back to the booth on a given day and say, I'm sorry, and go right back out and do it some more. That's deception. So here's what we're going to do, if I can get this thing to cooperate with me. We are going to listen to John Gershner. I need to back this up just a little bit. I'm backing it up because I want you to get used to his voice. We're looking for 15-4. He's going to address the next paragraph that we have on our study, paragraph 4. Now, John Gerstner is deceased. He was, for many, many years, decades, a professor of theology at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. He had many distinguished students, including R.C. Sproul, in his green-behind-the-ears days. And they became good friends in later years and even collaborated on a book entitled Classic Apologetics. I was privileged to take that class under Dr. R.C. Sproul. I was also privileged to take a class from John Gershner at Belhaven, is it college or university? Bellhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi. When I was a student at RTS, he was in town to do this lecture at Bellhaven. Dr. Gershner is considered the United States authority on Jonathan Edwards. He's written extensively, read everything Jonathan Edwards ever wrote, and more importantly, he seems to understand it. I can read Jonathan Edwards and scratch my head and say, what'd he say? But Dr. Gerstner is the expert, so I was privileged to take a class under him and it just confirmed that I don't know very much. So I'm going to let him teach you on paragraph four, but we're starting a little bit early so you can get used to his voice. So let me set this up a little bit. I want to turn the sound up a little bit since it's going to be coming out. Oh, it's all the way up. Okay. Thanks, Scott. So we're going to go back to this, like that, and then we're going to do this, and start paying careful attention when he says paragraph four. Not the repentance that the deists were resting on, not the faith that some of the neo-Nomians were working on, not on the works that the Romanists were resting on, but Christ alone apprehended by faith and also expressed in repentance. Section number four says, As there is no sin, this is most interesting, as there is no sin so small. Do you still want me to try and fuss around with that or are we just going to? I'm just going to let it go now. As there is no sin so great that it can bring damnation upon those who truly repent. Let me read that again because it's only one sentence, but it packs an added volume of systematic theology. I mentioned to you in an earlier lecture, the Council of Trent and some of the other creeds, they state what they think is the truth and then they point out the error and list them and locate them and so on. Westminster doesn't do that. It states the truth along with the error and rejects it while it's expounding the truth. In this particular case, there's absolutely no doubt in anybody's mind as to what the Westminster people had Yeah, buffering, spooling, whatever. It's when the feed can't keep up with the play. Now, one of two things is going to happen. It's either going to catch up and he's going to continue, or it's just going to go blank. It's twirling pretty quickly. I know. Wanda, now do you see why I lose sleep? Okay, this is what I was afraid was going to happen because it's done at home as well. So just let me restart the whole thing. That's when it's the happiest, is when we just restart the whole thing. Well, maybe not. I'm so sorry. I'm embarrassed by it. No, don't be, Ray. It's technology. It's no one's friend. 14, 2, 14. We want 15. 15, 6. 15's section 5. If I just start this, now I don't even know how to stop it. All right. Yes, that there is a repentance is when you feel sorry for getting caught. That's exactly right. Now if I can see where he is in this. Okay, we need to run this way down. genuine acceptance of... Just give me a second. He was about 18... ...of mankind. Satisfaction is the word, you see. Remember in the great chapter on the mediator, Christ is our satisfaction. Not repentance, not faith, not any of our works. Not the repentance the deists were resting on, not the faith that... of the neo-Nomads we're working on, not only works of the Romanists we're working on, but Christ alone apprehended by faith and also expressed in repentance. Section number four says, as there is no sin, this is most interesting, as there is no sin so small, but it deserves damnation, so there is no sin so great that it can bring damnation upon those who truly repent. Let me read that again because it's only one sentence, but it packs a half a volume of systematic theology. There is no sin so small, but it deserves damnation. There is no sin so great that it can bring damnation upon those who truly repent. I mentioned to you in an earlier lecture, the Council of Trent and some of the other creeds They state what they think is the truth and then they point out the errors and list them and locate them and so on. Westminster doesn't do that. It states the truth along with the error and rejects it while it's expounding the truth. In this particular case, there's absolutely no doubt in anybody's mind as to what the Westminster people had in mind by this statement and what they were rejecting by implication. It's the Roman doctrine of sins classified as trivial or mortal. Their word for trivial is venial. They classify the sins of saints as venial or mortal. Anybody who knows anything about Roman Catholic casuistry is fully aware of that. Certainly any Roman Catholic has heard it discussed, and those of you who know anything about Catholicism are probably aware of it. What this doctrine is saying is that there are some sins which in and of themselves do not destroy, they are venial. They hurt, they wound, but they do not kill. Their other sins, the capital sins, which are more than venial, they do more than hurt, they actually destroy. They kill, they're mortal. Now in the light of that doctrine, which had been carefully stated at the Council of Trent as a part of Roman dogma to this day, and so on, Westminster is saying there is no sin so venial that it doesn't deserve damnation. In other words, there's no such thing as a venial sin. All sins for certain people are mortal. You just slighted a neighbor, for example, or as Christ would say, every idle word will be brought into judgment. You name a sin. You name the sin least significant, least heinous in your catalog. And I will point out to you that that sin is absolutely mortal. That's what Westminster is actually saying. For a person outside of Christ, every sin is mortal. For a person justified in Christ, no sin is mortal. For a person outside of Christ, the least In Christ, the most enormous, the heinous sin is not faith. Let me read that again. I think you'll appreciate the majesty of the brevity of this statement in the light of the elucidation. As there is no sin so small, but it deserves damnation, so there is no sin so great that it can bring damnation upon those who truly repent. Now, the one thing I have to add, once I make this elaboration, is an answer to what's going through your mind at the present moment. I can almost hear you saying, and I know there's a wonderful audience out there, all right, Mr. Gerstner, I get what you're saying, and you're saying that that's what the Westminster divines were saying, and so on, but what I hear you inferring is this, As I am a believer in Jesus Christ, I can commit as much adultery as I want, and kill as many people as I want, and rob as many banks as I please, and so on. I can commit every sin, no matter how ghastly it may be, and how heinous, none of them are all of them. Add it up. Would be unacceptable to God. Is that what you're saying, Mr. Gershwin? I would die rather than say that. I would to God he'd stop me in my tracks, rather than let me ever say or infer such a pernicious, abominable doctrine as that. That's what we call antinomianism. Free from the law, O blessed condition, I can sin as I please and still have remission, is what we said before. Did I say that? I most certainly did not say that. Let me go over that a little bit slower this time. What the Westminster divines are saying, and what I think they are inferring, and I certainly am inferring from what they're saying, is this, that if you are truly in Christ, if you are effectually called, if you have been born again by His Spirit, if His faith and repentance are working in you, you may still be capable of committing a dreadful sin. We went through his decay. You will remember Peter and his very familiar, infamous, brutal denial of Jesus Christ. In anybody's book, I never knew the man. That would really be apostasy on the surface of it. I'm turning a blunt back on Jesus Christ, the other day. And yet the Westminster divines are saying, that was not mortal to Peter. And they were right in saying that. But if Peter had gone on denying Jesus, not dying more and more to sin and living more and more to righteousness, but living more and more to sin and dying more and more to righteousness. If Peter went on denying Christ every time he had an opportunity, avoiding martyrdom whenever it was possible, refusing to confess him before men when it was threatening, that kind of behavior would show that Peter was no prince of God. because, and we'll see this already in sanctification, but he made more evident the perseverance of the saints. No man of God could keep off committing such sins. If Peter, by definition, was a denier of the gospel, he was unregenerate. If David, by definition, was a practicing adulterer, he was unregenerate. If John the Baptist, was by definition a doubter in the messianic ministry of Jesus Christ. He was no herald of the Messiah. If any one of you is a practicing sinner, whether a murder, adultery, gossip, coveting, whatever, call it great or small, you are not born of God. born of God, every sin, no matter how venial you may esteem it, is absolutely mortal. You get my point here? You get their point? A true saint may, and we have instances of it, Abraham lied twice, maybe three times. A silent lie. He told the truth. Sarah was his half-sister. He just happened to neglect to tell a man who wanted to have her for his wife that he was also, she was also his wife. That's a ghastly crime. And Sarah collaborated with him, too. A shame. God spared actual adultery. No thanks, either to Abraham or to Sarah. Died. No one can say of the father of the faith, Abraham, but none of these persons were given over to that practice. Anybody who is given over to any sin, call it mortal, call it fetal, is unconverted. Anybody who is converted, even though on some awful occasion he actually falls into a despicable, unspeakable crime, A sin so great, there is no sin so great that it can bring damnation. No sin so great that it can bring damnation to any of you who are truly repentant. There's no great sin and there's no small sin in which you can give yourself the luxury That's somebody else's lesson. I'm not going to steal somebody else's thunder, so we'll stop that right there. And we will go back to this. This scripture, Luke 13, 3, Jesus is speaking, and he said, I tell you, unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. That's verse three, and in verse five, he quotes the same exact, he says the same exact words again, reiterating the necessity of repentance. In paragraph four, oh, I'm back over here now. I'll just do it this way. Repentance is of such a necessity to all sinners. None of us may expect to be pardoned without it. Although our pardon is only through the merit of Christ, yet none may expect pardon without repentance to pardon one who is unrepentant. We already got to that, didn't we? Yeah, that was McMurray talking about forgiving. It's paragraph four that we're on now. I want to come to the verses. that we use for that. There's more than just these one or two verses, but the Bible says in Romans 6, 23, the wages of sin, sin is death. That's any sin, every sin, All sin, that's what he was saying. There is no such thing as a venial sin. All sin is damnable. James 2.10 says this, Whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he's guilty of all. So there's no such thing as taking my chances. Has anybody ever said that to you? If you've ever had an encounter with somebody and you're trying to witness them and convince them of their need for salvation and you start talking about sin, if they're just not in, if they're not inclined to believe you and accept that, generally somewhere they'll say, I'll just take my chances. You know, I'm not so bad, I've never killed anybody. I'll just take my chances. There is no such thing as taking chances. I mean, you know, the Bible already tells us any sin, every sin, all sin, the wages of sin is death. And death doesn't mean just that this life, this body stops living. It means condemnation from God, a separation from God for eternity. There's a part of each of us, we are spiritual beings, there's a part that will live somewhere forever. You're gonna either live with God by His grace through Christ, or you're gonna live apart from Him. And what makes the difference is whether you believe what the Bible says, what God's Word says about what Jesus did for your and my sin. He died for it. The littlest one, the biggest one. Romans 5.12, therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, that one man, of course, is Adam. Adam was innocent. He had no sin. He was innocent. And then God gave him the covenant warning and promise. He said, don't eat of this tree. It doesn't matter what the tree was. He said, don't do this. He did it. And he fell from a state of innocence to a state of guilt. And he never, ever again resumed the state of innocence because he was guilty. Even though God forgave him, something radically changed. And that is to say that his nature changed. The nature changed from being innocent to being guilty, to being a sinner. And that's why the verse goes on to say that just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, so death spread to all because all sinned. That's our nature, it's our inclination. We're born with a fallen nature which is inclined to sin. If you don't believe it, just watch Little Babies. By the time they hit two, you're going to believe it. They have a mind of their own, a will of their own. They learn the word no really quickly, and I'm not against children. I love them, but I'm just saying we need to help them to understand. that they have this fallen nature. Matthew 12, 36, I tell you on the day of judgment, people will give account to every careless word they speak. Again, this is Jesus speaking. All right, let me go to the next slide. I know if I had it loaded right, it would just hit the space bar, but it's not loaded right. Also, there is no sin so great that it can bring damnation upon the truly repentant. Isaiah 55, six and seven. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man or woman, his thoughts, her thoughts. Let them return to the Lord that he may have compassion on them and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. And on what basis does he pardon? He does that on the basis of what Christ has done for us. Christ has paid for our sins by the shedding of his blood. The Bible says that without the shedding of blood, there's no remission of sins. Well, I can't shed enough blood to remit my sins, but Christ did because he doesn't have a fallen nature. He is God in the flesh, and yet He paid the ultimate price in my place and in your place and the place of everybody else that will believe in Him. Romans 8.1, there is there now for no condemnation to those who are in Christ. Isaiah 118, come, let us reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall become as wool. And here is where I was going to show the Gershwin video, but we got ahead of ourselves and that's fine. So any question or comment? We're almost out of time. But does the fact that I have forgiveness in Christ And if I truly am in Christ, I cannot commit a sin that would condemn me to hell. Does that fact give me license to sin all I want to? Now, I hope you understand that's a ridiculous assumption. And that's what Jim was asking, I think, is that we assume, you know, well, you know, it doesn't matter if I sin in the future, he's got it taken care of already. That's looking for an excuse, I think, so let's not go there. Yes, sir? a good mafioso and yet at the same time a good Catholic. That's exactly what they believe. They can go kill and steal and commit all kinds of heinous sins as long as they go and confess that to the priest. They don't even confess it to Jesus, they confess it to this priest. In Roman economy of credits and debits, you get regenerated by your baptism. but it's not one you can't lose. So you have to mind your P's and Q's or your menials and morals. And like he was saying, you have to confess frequently. Yes. Okay. Yes, please. Okay. This, this may be a really pedestrian question, but what about sins that I've committed in the past that I have not realized that they were sins, therefore I have not repented. As they are brought to your attention, yes. I'm going to be dealing with that next week. Ta-da! Thank you. Ta-da! Are you going to be here next week? I was sitting there leaning against that bookshelf thinking, what else could go wrong? And it started raining. I mean, you know, this thing can get really loud with this metal roof on here. All right, that's all I have today. Let's pray and we'll be dismissed for our worship service. Father, I thank you for my brothers and sisters in Christ and for their attendance here today. It's an indication to me that they want to grow, they want to learn. I do as well, and it's my privilege and my pleasure to be among the men who have been asked to teach through the Westminster Confession. And I pray that it would be beneficial to me and to everyone else as well. Please go with us now as we go into the sanctuary for a time of joint worship in your presence and to receive a message from your word by our pastor. We pray that you would bless him. May your spirit be upon him for that hour in Jesus name. Amen.