0:00:00 - 0:00:19 This uh part, this is a multipart presentation. You can find the playlist on the Upward Thought Channel under the title, The Gospel of Jesus Christ. We're going to be talking about Justification. And while this is a Mark Multipart series, I'm really trying to keep this constrained to the basics and the 0:00:18 - 0:00:42 ironically, the justification of the points that I'm making, I'm trying to keep very limited. So we don't end up citing all of scripture, which is basically possible in doing this. Um So we're gonna keep cranking through here and uh hopefully, hopefully, this is an effective presentation. Uh I, if you're 0:00:42 - 0:01:08 wa watching the whole playlist at once, uh good for you, you're probably sick of hearing this though. I I'd need to refer to my books if you're interested in these topics. That's definitely something you want to check out. Um All right, justification. Justification is, is all about obedience. Um We've 0:01:07 - 0:01:34 been using this schematic for these presentations. Um The idea of justification is one and the same is hearkening unto his voice. Now, when we get into the scriptures, we start to uh use words that aren't very common anymore. They're old fashioned and they tend to mean something very different to us 0:01:34 - 0:01:56 than they did to, to the authors. So if I were to say, um if I were to just read the scripture from second e 5921 and I say, and he cometh into the world that he may save all men. If they will hearken unto his voice, different people interpret this differently. Some folks will say, well, uh hearken means 0:01:55 - 0:02:24 harking unto his voice. Just means believe in Him. You say the sinner's prayer and he'll save you. No, that's not what it means. Some people say, hearken unto his voice means really try to make your life uh oriented towards God. No, that's not what it means. First off his voice means your current sincere 0:02:23 - 0:02:51 understanding of how He is in every way and to hearken unto that. It's not to just sort of mildly be interested in it or even to profess to care about it. It's to completely reconcile your life to it. What this verse says in the greatest degree of plainness, at least to the people who wrote it is Jesus 0:02:51 - 0:03:24 came to save everyone who lives exactly as they believe Him to be. And we read all over the place that He does not save those who do not do that in Mosiah 410, believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them and humble yourselves before God and ask in sincerity of heart that he would forgive 0:03:23 - 0:03:49 you. And now if you believe all these things see that ye do them again. This is the plainest language in the world to those who wrote it. But it's astonishing how many layers of intentional obfuscation we have plastered over this. If you ask a common Christian, what it means to repent what a sin is or 0:03:49 - 0:04:18 what sin is, what it means to humble yourself before God or anything else in this passage, they will give you the most contrived definition. I mean, you need a phd in obfuscation to do any better. It's insane. These are the plainest ideas in the world, repent of your sins and forsake them means become 0:04:18 - 0:04:38 a person who always does what they believe God would do in their place and never does what they believe God would not do in their place. I should have included in that and humble yourselves before God. So let me do that again. You must repent of your sins and forsake them means you never do what you 0:04:38 - 0:05:04 believe God would not do in your place. Never and humble yourselves before God means you always do what God would do in your place. Sincerity of heart is impossible to achieve if you don't act in asking Him to forgive you, if you don't actually stop sinning and stopping sin has to happen before you ask 0:05:04 - 0:05:25 for forgiveness. So if you pray and you say God, I'm sinning and I'm just gonna keep sinning, please forgive me. What you're actually saying is what you're actually asking is for God to ignore the fact that you are sinning and He can't do that because God is just you say, well, what about mercy? Mercy 0:05:25 - 0:05:54 is not a blank check. Mercy does not mean allowance. Mercy is an opportunity to change. It's extra opportunity. It doesn't change the, the circumstances doesn't change who you are. It just gives you more time to change who you are or another chance to change who you are in alma 1210. We read therefore 0:05:54 - 0:06:18 he that will harden his heart. The same receive the lesser portion of the word. And we talked about this in a prior presentation in this series. When you sin, you absolutely close or reduce is a better way to say it. The aperture between you and God, you absolutely do. You cannot know Him as well or 0:06:18 - 0:06:44 as much when you're living in sin as you can when you stop sinning. So it's a goofy thing to think that you can live in willful sin and live with God or quote unquote, go to heaven. If you turn away from him, you're turning away from him. It's not, you don't, you don't get this reward for turning away 0:06:43 - 0:07:14 from him after you die. It's not the way this works. So when you turn away from him, you lose light and truth. In DNC 9339 we read that wicked one cometh and taketh away, light and truth through disobedience. You can't turn away from God without distancing yourself from God. It's, again, it's pretty 0:07:13 - 0:07:41 dang simple. Um And what about this idea of professing God? I believe in God, but I'm not perfect. Nobody's perfect. Well, that's not true. Jesus was perfect and he commands us to be perfect. Even as He is, it's pretty cut and dry. You can't honestly say that you believe in Jesus without living as Jesus 0:07:40 - 0:08:03 would in your place. Those two things do not connect. So when you say, well, I believe in God, but sometimes I don't do what he says, then you don't believe in God, you're a liar. So, so you're already a sinner. Don't add lying to it. Tell the truth. I don't believe God yet. You remember that guy who 0:08:02 - 0:08:25 brought his kid to Jesus? And he said, can you help my kid? And Jesus said, do you believe? And uh he looked at Jesus and Jesus looked at him and he said, no, I don't. Please help me. That's the attitude you need to have as you go online and saying, you believe in God while not actually doing anything 0:08:25 - 0:08:49 . He says, and misrepresenting the things that He says that's not going to go well for you. That is not a path of improvement and growth. It's delusion in Titus 116, Paul describes people who profess that they know God, but in works they deny him. Does that sound familiar So what follows in this verse 0:08:49 - 0:09:13 is not and they were, you know, no one's perfect but these guys were, were decent followers of Jesus. No, what he says, being abominable and disobedient and unto every good work, reprobate. It's a big deal. It's a big deal. Jesus said, don't build a tower till you count the cost. Don't go to war till 0:09:13 - 0:09:36 you count the cost. He said very plainly, if you follow me, it will cost you everything. If that's not a price that you think is worth paying, don't pretend to follow Jesus admit the truth, which is you don't want to follow Jesus. You think that you have uh better things that you can pursue that. There's 0:09:36 - 0:10:01 some other way you can't be saved without actually doing what God says. It's not about betting on the right horse saying, well, I I prayed the sinner's prayer. I got baptized in the right church or I've received this right or ordinance or whatever God can't save you from your sin. I'm sorry, God can 0:10:01 - 0:10:25 save you from your sin. He can't save you in your sin. God cannot save you in your sin while you're in sin. You cannot be with God. No unclean thing can dwell in his presence. He offers you cleansing through the blood of Christ, but you receive it by actually following Jesus by doing the things He did 0:10:25 - 0:10:57 by doing what he would do in your place and by not doing what he would not do in your place. So there's a difference between being saved and being forgiven to be forgiven is a blank slate. Your sins are washed away, but so is everything else to be saved? Salvation has two meanings. One is to be taken 0:10:56 - 0:11:22 out of a situation that overcomes you. The other is to be victorious in a situation that used to overcome you. Forgiveness will not save you from anything except the punishment due for the sins that you have forsaken. Now, that is something that is something, but that's not the point cause all it brings 0:11:21 - 0:11:46 you to at best is where you were before you were born. That's not why you were born. John 1010. He came to give life and more abundantly more abundantly than what than what you had before. Don't reduce life to a reset button. It's meant to be much more than that and the price paid was much greater than 0:11:46 - 0:12:14 that to, to be saved from sin. You actually have to change your character habits and desires. If you ask for forgiveness and you don't change, you're just going to sin again. Forgiveness doesn't make you a different person. It just takes away the the the penalties for the sins that you've committed in 0:12:14 - 0:12:36 the past. It doesn't take away the penalties for the sins that you're gonna commit in the future. There's a difference between being clean and being holy. Justification makes you clean. It's forgiveness. But sanctification is the process of becoming holy.