Episode Transcript
Transcripts are displayed as originally observed. Some content, including advertisements may have changed.
Use Ctrl + F to search
0:00
Music.
0:08
With founder and director, Dr. Charlie Bing. This podcast and other helpful
0:13
resources can be found at our website, gracelife.org.
0:18
Now, here's Dr. Bing. Happy to be here today with our friend, Dr.
0:23
Robbie Dean, at his church, West Houston Bible Church, in just,
0:30
I guess, outside of the Houston city limit, isn't it? No, we're in the city.
0:33
You're in the city limit. We're in the city limits. Yeah, this is part of the city of Houston. Okay.
0:39
And tell us about how long you've been here.
0:42
We started the church in 2004. Actually, it'll be 20 years this coming,
0:47
well, in just about three weeks. And at that time I was pastoring in Connecticut and they were using video from
0:55
the church in Connecticut until
0:57
they got enough people, got established so that I could move down here.
1:01
I'm an only child and my mother died two years before and my dad had Alzheimer's.
1:05
So it It really opened up at the right time. It was God's timing.
1:10
So we started the church, and the rest is history. Yeah.
1:15
Well, you also have Dean Bible Ministries that's come out of all of this.
1:19
And I know that wherever I go, I hear people referencing you and listening to your teaching.
1:24
You have a YouTube channel called Light from the Light.
1:27
And we'll put that information at the beginning of the podcast text so you can see it.
1:31
You've written some books like Spiritual Warfare in your booklet Bible,
1:34
God's Bible, Powerful Promises, and one for Jewish evangelism,
1:37
how to be right with God. So they'll have access to that.
1:40
Robbie's also a fellow alumnus from Dallas Theological Seminary where he did
1:45
his doctorate work and also got his doctorate bestowed upon him by Faith Evangelical Seminary.
1:52
So he's got a lot of training behind him, and he's been serving on the board
1:56
of Schaeffer Theological Seminary, for which I've taught for 24 or 23 years,
2:01
something like that. Good time. And we're going to just have a discussion today. It's going to be on the topic of forgiveness.
2:10
And I think Robbie's going to bring some good insights to that.
2:12
So Robbie, what'd you want to say about, how'd you want to start this out?
2:16
You got a text or you want to start out with the topic?
2:20
Well, I want to start with the text. I always think it's better. Let's go to Scripture.
2:25
And the passage that I think is really critical for helping a lot of people
2:30
understand what happened at salvation and what happened,
2:35
first of all, at the cross and understanding what Jesus Christ did on the cross
2:40
that is so significant and indicated as well by his last statement when he said
2:46
to Telestai, it is finished. When he said it is paid in full, what was paid in full?
2:53
And Colossians 2, 12 to 14 really helps us understand that.
2:59
And at the center of these verses in verse 13,
3:04
the last phrase is, actually it's the last clause, participial clause,
3:11
laws, having forgiven you of all trespasses." Now, what does that mean,
3:16
and when did that happen?
3:18
Some people think, well, I was forgiven when I trusted Christ as Savior.
3:23
Other people think, well, I was forgiven when I confessed sin.
3:28
And what this passage tells us is that, yes, those are true,
3:34
but we were also forgiven.
3:38
The time that it was nailed to the cross. That's verse 14.
3:42
That helps people understand where we're going with the passage,
3:46
because it's a long sentence.
3:49
It starts back at 13 and 14, as it's laid out in most Bibles,
3:57
13 is one sentence, and then you have 14 goes into another sentence.
4:02
But they all tend to run together, piling up.
4:05
And I know this kind of grammar drives people nuts, But it piles up one participle
4:10
with another, and you have to carefully think through the relationship of these
4:16
participles because they modify a main verb.
4:20
But when it's all said and done, what we learn is that as it's translated in
4:26
the New King James, the handwriting of requirements that was against us,
4:32
he has taken it out of the way and nailed it to the cross.
4:36
Well, he didn't nail it to the cross when you heard the gospel.
4:39
He didn't nail it to the cross when I trusted Christ.
4:43
He nailed it to the cross at a specific time and date in, I believe, A.D.
4:50
33. Yep. And that means that all these things that are outlined here were accomplished at that point.
4:59
So all those things. So they're obviously, we sometimes just think of forgiveness,
5:07
all of our sins are forgiven. There's some who say you don't even need to confess your sins because they've all been forgiven.
5:13
Sometimes that view is identified as hyper grace. And then there are others
5:17
who would go the other extreme and say, since all of the sins of all mankind
5:21
are forgiven at the cross, that would lead to universalism.
5:24
So how do you distinguish the kind of forgiveness that we're talking about? Yeah.
5:28
I would call this forgiveness a forensic forgiveness or a legal forgiveness
5:33
because the problem that we have is a legal penalty that when Adam and Eve disobeyed
5:41
God, when they sinned in the garden, the penalty for that sin was spiritual death, separation from God.
5:47
And that led eventually to physical death, but Adam doesn't die for another 930 years.
5:54
It's the result of spiritual death, being separated from God the Father.
5:59
So when God set up the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,
6:04
he told Adam that in the day, and that's an idiom, at the time,
6:10
at the instant you eat from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will,
6:15
and it's a really strong idiom in the Hebrew, you will surely die.
6:20
It's not like, okay, you're going going to die a thousand years later.
6:24
It's instant. And we know it was instant because the text indicates that God
6:31
would walk in the garden with them daily.
6:34
But when God came to walk with them after they had eaten the fruit,
6:39
they were afraid, number one, and they ran and hid.
6:43
They had realized they were naked. They tried to cover it up.
6:47
Then they were afraid when they They heard God coming in the garden, and they ran and hid.
6:52
They were separated from God. That eternal relationship that they were created
6:58
with was broken by their sin.
7:03
And so now God was going to provide a solution for them. So that's the legal penalty.
7:10
So what Christ has to do on the cross is to pay the legal penalty on our behalf.
7:18
Okay, so that's what you're saying is he meant by it is finished then,
7:23
and the legal penalty has been paid, but how then is it applied,
7:27
and to whom is it applied? Okay, well, everybody ought to be familiar with the word forensic.
7:33
I mean, the last 20 years, we've had these shows called CSI and NCIS,
7:39
and they're constantly talking about forensics, which has to do with issues
7:44
related to legal problems,
7:48
making a legal case, a courtroom case.
7:50
So when we talk about the forensic thing, we're talking about God solved the
7:55
problem. Now, the way I try to explain this to people is that we really are
8:01
born with three problems. The first problem is that there's a legal penalty, that we have been declared
8:08
guilty and we're under the penalty of eternal death.
8:13
The second problem is that we are born spiritually dead. That's our experience.
8:18
We're born spiritually dead. The third problem is we lack righteousness. So, that's a simplified way of expressing,
8:29
I would say, the core problem.
8:32
So, we've got a legal penalty, we are born spiritually dead,
8:37
and we lack righteousness.
8:40
So, what happened at the cross is that legal penalty was paid for.
8:45
Christ took our place. He was our substitute. substitute and
8:49
and then when we trust in christ
8:52
there is there is an action
8:55
that takes place then where we receive that forgiveness experientially now to
9:03
help us understand that i want to look at this passage just a little bit and
9:08
bring out a a few points there so if we go back to verse 12,
9:14
We go back and we look at verse 12.
9:17
It says, it starts off with the participle, the way it's translated in the New
9:22
King James, is buried with him in baptism.
9:27
Holman Christian Standard Bible translates it, having been buried with him.
9:32
So it picks up the fact that this has to do with a past tense action.
9:38
And so actually in the Greek, it's a past tense, which tells you that this action
9:42
comes before the action of the main verb.
9:49
The main verb has to do with being raised together with him.
9:54
So, in the New King James, it says.
10:00
So, it says you were raised through faith in the working of God.
10:13
That is also the same kind of past tense and aorist tense.
10:18
So when you have an aorist participle modifying an aorist tense main verb,
10:23
the action of the participle is either at the same time or it precedes the action of the verb.
10:31
So what you have here is a situation where it says you,
10:35
and I would take this as a participle of means, that we were raised with him
10:43
by being buried with him in baptism.
10:47
Baptism is identification with Christ in His death, burial, and resurrection.
10:52
So this brings in a totally different doctrine. This brings in the doctrine
10:57
of the baptism by the Holy Spirit.
11:00
And what this is telling us is that our original condition, which is then mentioned
11:06
in verse 13, is that we're born spiritually dead.
11:09
And then when we trust Christ, we were raised with him.
11:18
By being identified already. So the identification takes place first,
11:23
and then we're buried with him in baptism and raised together with him.
11:30
That's the baptism by the Holy Spirit. This is described in Romans chapter 6, verses 3 through 6.
11:37
And then he goes on to say in verse 13, describing what had happened,
11:42
he said, you, and again, it's another one of these participles.
11:47
I think it should be taken temporally when you were dead.
11:50
So that's talking about this moment in time, we are separated from God.
11:54
We're spiritually dead in our trespasses and the uncircumcision of the flesh.
12:01
These are just idioms related to spiritual death.
12:04
And so at that point in time, we're spiritually dead.
12:08
And then he made us alive together with him.
12:13
So you're living your life. you're born spiritually dead, and then someone tells you the gospel.
12:20
You believe in Christ, and at that instant, He makes you alive together with
12:25
Him. Now, hold that thought. Remember I said we've got three problems.
12:31
We have a penalty against us. Well, at the end of verse 14, we learn that that
12:39
penalty is taken care of when it's nailed to the cross in 33.
12:43
But when we trust in Christ, then he makes us alive together with him.
12:48
That solved the second problem. And the second problem is that we're born spiritually dead.
12:53
So when we trust in Christ and we're born again, we're regenerated,
12:58
we are made alive together with him.
13:01
Now, the next problem, which is that we lack righteousness,
13:05
isn't part of this passage, But that's related to justification by faith,
13:11
that at the same simultaneous actions that take place is that God not only regenerates
13:18
us, but he imputes or credits to our account the righteousness of Christ,
13:23
and then he declares us to be righteous.
13:26
So that solves the righteousness problem. problem in history
13:30
in 33 christ died for our
13:33
sins and if you look at what happens here in verse
13:36
13 the way it's described is when
13:39
we were dead at that instant he made us alive together with
13:42
him and then there's another participle and it's a participle probably of means
13:48
he made us alive together with him by forgiving us or it could be when he forgave
13:56
us which is at that same instant of all of our trespasses.
14:00
So this shows that this is an action of forgiveness that takes place at the time of faith in Christ.
14:09
The payment of the sin penalty is another form of forgiveness,
14:13
or it could be this way, that he made us alive together with him because he
14:20
forgave us of those trespasses, this is the more likely view.
14:24
And when did He forgive us of those trespasses? This is verse 14,
14:30
because He canceled them when He took it, when He nailed it to the cross.
14:36
So the forgiveness here is not
14:39
a forgiveness that happened when we were saved, when we trusted Christ.
14:43
The forgiveness here is when He nailed it to the cross.
14:48
Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead. I was going to ask you about that.
14:51
I was going to ask about that figure of speech that he uses,
14:54
which is very interesting to us. Do you have any insight about the record of debt being canceled and the nailing to the cross?
15:02
Right. What is he describing there? What's the background that would help us understand that?
15:06
The background on that, where it is translated, and it's handled a little differently
15:11
in different translations. The New King James says it's a handwriting of requirements. requirements,
15:17
but probably the Holman Christian Standard Bible and others would translate
15:25
that as a certificate of debt. And Holman translates it, he erased the certificate of debt with its obligations.
15:34
So this is talking about the idea
15:37
of a certificate of debt is that we owed something, We owed a penalty.
15:43
Now, why do you think he talks about this as a certificate of debt in the context
15:48
of talking about forgiveness? Well, tell us. Well, we go back to this word that's translated forgiven.
15:56
There are two Greek words that are translated forgiveness.
15:59
And it's interesting that both words emphasize in some context the canceling of a financial debt.
16:08
The Greek word word that is used for forgiveness in 1 John 1.9 is the word aphiemi.
16:15
That is used of canceling a financial debt.
16:19
In this passage, the word is charizomai.
16:23
So what's the difference? Well, the root of this verb charizomai is the noun charis for grace.
16:31
It emphasizes the gracious nature of the forgiveness, whereas Afi-Ami emphasizes
16:39
the total cancellation of the debt.
16:43
So they're both looking at the cancellation of a debt.
16:46
One is emphasizing the fact of the cancellation.
16:49
The other is emphasizing the gracious basis for that cancellation.
16:55
And so what we see here in this passage is that that cancellation of the debt
17:02
was taken out of its way and nailed to the cross.
17:06
So that's why I say this is the legal penalty. We had incurred a debt,
17:11
a legal debt. We had to pay the penalty ourselves.
17:15
Unless somebody paid it for us. He paid that penalty for us as our substitute.
17:20
It's the picture of the Passover lamb, where this lamb is taken,
17:26
which this typology is fulfilled in when Christ entered into Jerusalem.
17:30
The Passover lamb is chosen on the 10th of the Jewish month of Nisan.
17:36
And in the original Passover, that lamb was to be evaluated for four days to
17:43
make sure it was without spot or blemish.
17:45
So Jesus is evaluated between the day he enters into Jerusalem and the day that
17:52
they had what is known as the Last Supper, and he is interviewed and he is critiqued,
17:59
criticized by the Sadducees, the Pharisees, the Herodians, all these different
18:04
groups are going to have their shot at Jesus.
18:07
And he doesn't sin. He demonstrates that he is the Son of God and that he is
18:13
without sin and therefore qualified to go to the cross,
18:16
just as a Passover lamb would demonstrate in those four days that it was without spot or blemish.
18:23
Then the Passover lamb was sacrificed and the blood indicating,
18:29
because the shedding of blood indicates death, that shed blood was applied.
18:36
Actually, the Hebrew word there in Exodus is they struck the doorpost.
18:41
And so they'd strike the doorpost and splatter the blood onto the two doorposts,
18:46
one on the left, one on the right, and on the lintel, the cross piece at the top.
18:51
And so anyone inside that house that was, as it were, covered by the blood of
18:58
the lamb was that God would pass over the house and the firstborn would not,
19:05
the life of the firstborn would not be taken.
19:08
And so, the Lamb's life was taken in the place of the firstborn in the house.
19:15
That's a picture of what happened at the cross. First Christ is qualified between
19:20
the 10th of Nisan and the 14th, then he's crucified on the cross as our sacrifice.
19:26
He paid the penalty for our sins, and the certificate of debt is paid for.
19:31
That legal penalty is taken.
19:33
So people would say, well, why isn't everybody saved?
19:36
Because they're still spiritually dead, and they still lack righteousness.
19:41
The only way they can receive righteousness and the only way they can be made
19:46
alive is to believe that Christ died on the cross for our sins.
19:51
This is Ephesians 2.4 down to verse 9, and that it is by faith that that we
20:00
are saved not by works, lest any man should boast.
20:04
So we're saved by grace through faith. It's that whole phrase that's important. That's the gift of God.
20:11
For by grace, you have been saved through faith. And that, the word that is
20:16
in the neuter in the Greek. And two of the nouns before are feminine. One is masculine. masculine.
20:24
And when you have a collection of different gender nouns, then the relative
20:30
pronoun has to be in the neuter. And that's what you have in that case. So that that doesn't refer to the faith.
20:36
It's not, and that faith, it's not, is it the gift of God? It doesn't say that.
20:40
And it doesn't say that salvation. It is that by grace through faith, salvation, the whole concept that is not by works.
20:52
And so we make that decision, trust in Christ, and God regenerates us.
20:58
He makes us alive together with him. That's the same thing in Ephesians,
21:02
same phrase in Ephesians 2.4 that you have here in Colossians, that you are,
21:10
in Colossians 2.12, you are raised with him through faith. So the faith is the means.
21:17
Now, some people think faith is the cause, but that's not the language in the
21:21
Greek. It's very precise. It's not causal.
21:24
It is means. So if somebody were to ask us where we're sitting right now,
21:28
back in this room, somebody were to come in and ask, where's the restroom?
21:32
I would say it's through that door. The goal would be the restroom. That's analogous to to the goal of salvation.
21:39
How do you get there? Well, you have to go through the door.
21:43
The door represents faith.
21:45
So what comes first, faith or salvation?
21:48
Well, in our analogy, we've got to go through the door to get to the restroom.
21:54
So what the passage says, you have to go through faith before you get to salvation.
22:00
So faith must precede salvation. Some people teach that regeneration or salvation
22:08
precedes faith, but that's not how the language works in Ephesians 2, 4 through 9.
22:15
Yeah, absolutely. Faith is the instrumental means, is the way I often put it.
22:20
Grace is the effective means. We say that water goes through a hose. If we're saving ourselves from thirst, we're saved by the hose.
22:31
We could say that. But we're actually saved by the water.
22:33
The effective means, the hose, would just be the instrumental means.
22:37
So some good insights from the language there and the different verbs used for
22:41
forgiveness, especially. I like that. And you mentioned 1 John 1, 9. So the forgiveness there is often used by Christians.
22:50
And how would you relate what you've been talking about? The legal concept and aspects of forgiveness that cancel the sin and that allow
22:58
God's righteousness, which, by the way, reminds me of 2 Corinthians 5.21,
23:02
for he made him who knew no sin, Jesus, to be sin for us, that we might become
23:06
the righteousness of God in him. So justification is not just the canceling of our sin, but it's also the imputation
23:12
of God's righteousness. So we're declared righteous, but yet 1 John is telling us to confess our sins,
23:22
or is that written to unbelievers? What do you think?
23:25
Well, 1 John is talking about believers. That's very clear. All the way through,
23:30
it's talking about believers. It's contrasting.
23:33
It contrasts two types of believers, those who are walking in the light and
23:39
those who are walking in darkness. And this is what John makes very clear. This is the message which we have heard
23:46
from him and declare to you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
23:51
If we believers say that we have fellowship with him, that word for fellowship here is very important.
23:57
Most people think of fellowship as some sort of, you know, spiritual,
24:01
you know, some sort of a spiritual interaction or a social interaction.
24:08
Like we talked about, well, let's go out and have some fellowship around lunch.
24:11
That is not exactly what this word means.
24:15
It indicates a partnership between two parties that are moving toward a common goal.
24:22
So there's a tighter intimacy and connection there.
24:27
So when we, it's like the connection, you start off when we trust Christ as
24:33
Savior, we're adopted into God's family.
24:35
And so that's our new identity. That's our new legal position.
24:39
Okay, so we talk about forgiveness. I talked about a forensic forgiveness that
24:45
applies to everybody because Christ paid the penalty for sin.
24:48
The legal penalty is paid for, but that doesn't change our relationship.
24:53
That doesn't happen until we express faith in Christ.
24:57
And at that point, when we do, along with being born again, being regenerated,
25:02
or being declared righteous, we are adopted into God's royal family.
25:07
That is a legal position that we now have.
25:10
So there's legal forgiveness that's related to our position in Christ, our identity in Him.
25:19
When we're part of a family, whether we were legally adopted into a family or
25:23
were born into a family, we can't change that status. That's secure.
25:29
But we can do things that disappoint our parents, that make our parents very
25:35
upset and angry, where it causes a breach in the family dynamics,
25:41
the closeness, the intimacy. And so, what we have to do is to confess our guilt to our parents that something
25:51
has to happen to repair the relationship so that that original intimacy and
25:57
close partnership with our parents within the family dynamic is recovered. uncovered.
26:03
And see, so some people say, well, 1 John 1, 7 says that if we're walking in
26:10
the light, the blood of Christ, which refers to his death, cleanses us from all sin.
26:16
So we don't need to confess our sin. Well, if that's true, why did John even write verse 9?
26:24
Because if we're automatically cleansed from sin throughout our lives,
26:28
then why does he say, if we confess, which doesn't mean to show remorse.
26:35
Sometimes that happens. I mean, let's be honest with ourselves.
26:40
I'm in my eighth decade now, 71, and I've always had a problem with patience.
26:49
I tend to be an impatient person. And when I was a teenager and I would be impatient,
26:55
I'd get upset, I'd get angry, I'd lose my temper.
26:58
I felt really bad about it. And sometimes I would just, Lord, just forgive me.
27:04
I just felt so bad about it.
27:06
But maybe by that time in my life, I'd only really lost my temper or really
27:11
been impatient maybe 2,372 times. Right.
27:15
But since I was 14 or 15, I have probably been impatient and upset and angry
27:21
at least 5,000 times a year just driving on the freeway.
27:24
And so after another 50 years of life, you don't get quite as upset with yourself
27:32
when you get a little impatient, you get a little aggravated with people, or you lose your temper.
27:38
You know it's wrong. You're not trying to justify it. But you just don't generate
27:42
that same kind of remorse that you did when you were young and you were 12 or 13.
27:48
Oh, I can't believe I did that again.
27:51
And so there's no remorse there. Let me give you another example.
27:55
Let's say you get a traffic ticket. Let's say you've had too many traffic tickets.
28:00
That happened to me when I first moved to Connecticut back in 97,
28:04
because on a comparable highway in texas the
28:07
speed limit would be 55 or 60 in connecticut it
28:10
was 45 and within three months i got pulled
28:13
over three times oh boy i when i go before when i went before the judge on the
28:19
third one he says well are you guilty or not well i have no remorse i'm more
28:25
angry at myself than anything but i really don't have any remorse i just say
28:29
yes sir i i was i was speeding i'm sorry i'm.
28:33
I'm from Texas, and they found out I was a pastor, so they let me off.
28:39
Pulled the pastor card on them. That's right. Pulled the pastor card on them.
28:42
So what I'm saying is that when you are in a court of law and the judge is,
28:49
you're indicted for something, the judge says, are you guilty or not?
28:54
It doesn't matter how you feel about it. He doesn't want to know,
28:58
are you remorseful, are you sorry, none of that. You're just simply guilty or not guilty.
29:03
And so when we confess our sin, this is a legal term. And so we're saying,
29:07
Lord, I did this. Now, sometimes we're going to have remorse.
29:11
Sometimes we're going to feel bad. But that's not inherent to the word.
29:15
That's a secondary idea. And so that's what you get. Go back to Psalm 31, Psalm 32. David says,
29:23
I acknowledge, I admit my sin.
29:25
So that's what this means. We just admit our sin because we know Christ died for it.
29:30
And because Christ died for it, when we admit our sin, God instantly forgives
29:35
us of the sin that we mentioned, and then in His grace, He goes on to cleanse
29:39
us from all unrighteousness.
29:42
And that, to me, is the really key idea, because if you go back,
29:46
trace this all the way through the Old Testament,
29:48
the idea of being cleansed from sin in order to enjoy that intimacy with God,
29:56
whether it's in the worship of the temple or whether it comes in the spiritual
30:00
life of the church-age believer, we have to have that recovery from failure, from sin, to be restored to that walk by the Spirit.
30:11
And if you study these terms all through in John 15, you either abide in Christ
30:18
or you don't. It's not a little bit of abiding and a little bit of not abiding.
30:22
You don't have have one foot on one side of the line and one foot on the other side of the line.
30:26
You're either walking in darkness or walking in light. You're either, in Ephesians 5.
30:33
5.16, 5.15, 5.16, you're either walking in wisdom or walking in foolishness.
30:39
All the way through Scripture, it's light and dark. These are absolute categories.
30:43
And when we sin, whether we know it's a sin or not, I don't think matters,
30:48
because sin itself violates the righteous character of God and is going to breach
30:54
that intimacy and that dependence upon God.
30:58
And even if we didn't know it was sin, once we commit some sin,
31:01
then we'll probably ignite another sin off of it.
31:06
And we'll go, oh, yeah, well, I need to confess my sin, get back with the Lord
31:10
and return to walking by the Holy Spirit.
31:13
So Romans 8, Ephesians, Colossians 5, rather, Romans 8, you're either walking
31:19
according to the spirit or walking according to the flesh or the sin nature,
31:24
either one. But they're mutually exclusive.
31:27
I've always liked 1 John 1, 9 in that it says, We'll cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
31:33
In the Old Testament, sacrifices were made for sins that people were conscious
31:37
about, but they're also, they covered their sins of ignorance as well.
31:43
So, I mean, you and I probably sinned today and not realized it in some ways,
31:46
you know, and what we maybe neglected to do.
31:49
Maybe we didn't pray or maybe we didn't share the gospel with somebody that
31:52
was, God had obviously put in front of us.
31:54
So even the sins of ignorance are covered in 1 John 1, 9, and that restores
31:59
our fellowship. Well, those are some good insights about forgiveness.
32:02
Robbie, we appreciate that and appreciate your knowledge of the Word that you bring into the grammar.
32:07
Also, that'll help us appreciate it even more and appreciate what you're doing
32:12
with the Schaeffer Theological Seminary Pastors Conference.
32:16
There's a lot of good people here from all parts of the country,
32:19
and they're here to hear more about the Word of God. and you want to just say
32:25
a final word about what you're doing here with Schaefer Seminary or with your
32:28
church and your ministry. Yes. So we started Chafer Seminary probably about a little over 30 years ago.
32:36
It was an offshoot of an in-church Bible Institute that George Meisinger had
32:41
at his church in Southern California.
32:44
And we had this pastor's conference had actually been going on for several decades before that.
32:51
And George had taken it over back in the mid-70s. And so he made it part of
32:56
this new entity, this this new seminary.
32:59
And a lot of the pastors who came to those conferences were saying that we needed
33:04
to go back to the fundamentals of training pastors to equip the saints to do
33:12
the work of the ministry. They needed to get back to the fundamentals of learning the languages.
33:17
They needed to get back to the fundamentals of the sufficiency of Scripture.
33:21
They needed to get it back to the fundamentals of teaching or instructing people
33:26
from the Word and getting away from a lot of the programs and a lot of the extraneous
33:32
things that might not even be part of the mission of the church that are so
33:37
distracting in so many churches. So we started this school. George took the lead, and then he formed a board
33:45
to separate it from his church in the early 2000s and asked me to serve on the
33:50
board at that time, along with some of these other pastors.
33:54
A couple of years later, he lost his event planner in Southern California and
33:59
asked me if we could do it here. And my secretary had been a former event planner.
34:05
So we took it over. So this is the 19th year that we have hosted the Chaffer
34:09
Seminary Pastors conference. And the focus, everything that we've done is free. We don't charge.
34:16
We do take up an offering. But everything that we provide is on my Dean Bible Ministries website. You go to conferences.
34:27
There'll be a tab for Bible studies. On the left-hand side, it will say conferences.
34:31
You click on that, and you can go back and listen to all of the teaching,
34:37
all of the instructions. We've had conferences where the topic was creation evolution.
34:42
We've had topics on the spiritual life where the whole conference is different
34:46
issues on the spiritual life. We've covered a range of issues that are very important.
34:53
This year, we're looking at Israel, past, present, and future.
34:58
And especially in light of the war that began last October 7th in 2023, that we have Dr.
35:07
Randall Price speaking at night, going through the topic of Israel at war.
35:12
What are the underlying elements? What does the scripture say about who owns
35:17
the land? What does the Scripture say?
35:19
Right now, Dr. Mike Stallard is talking about biblical ethics and reporting on the war.
35:26
So these are very practical issues, but they go to the Scripture for their answer.
35:32
And all you have to do is go to DeanBibleMinistries.org. You click on the Bible
35:38
Studies tab, left-hand column.
35:40
You go to Conferences. You can find your way to the Chafer Conferences that
35:45
are stored there for the last 20 years.
35:47
And then you have more information and more teaching there.
35:53
And then, of course, everything that I've taught for the last 25 years is on
35:58
that website as well. So it is a wealth of information.
36:01
Plus, I've had many, many different guest speakers over the years,
36:05
and all of their material is up there on the website as well.
36:10
Well, I hope people do check out those websites and look at the conference.
36:14
It's being live streamed now, and it's being recorded and archived.
36:17
So be sure to check that out. You know, God's grace is so great that it's amazing.
36:23
That's why we call it amazing, and it forgives us all our sins.
36:25
There's no sin that God cannot forgive. So no matter what we've done, what you've done, God can forgive that sin.
36:32
As an unbeliever, no matter what you've done, don't let your sin keep you from
36:36
knowing Jesus Christ as your Savior. He died for such as you.
36:40
And for us who are believers, we mess up too, and we need God's grace continually
36:45
every day, and we need to continue to walk in fellowship with Him.
36:49
So, Robbie, thank you for those insights. We appreciate that, and we appreciate your ministry, and we appreciate you joining us today.
36:56
So we'll talk to you again. Thank you very much, Charlie. Charlie,
37:00
it's been a real pleasure, and I'm just thankful for your ministry.
37:05
Back when we first got to know each other, which was several decades ago,
37:09
when we were both working on our doctoral degrees at Dallas Seminary,
37:13
and you wrote your dissertation on Lordship Salvation,
37:17
you quoted me in your very first footnote from a newsletter that I had written on Lordship Salvation.
37:25
So our connection goes back many, many years. and I'm very grateful for our
37:31
friendship and partnership in ministry.
37:34
Well, I say amen to that. And I forgot about that footnote. I don't go back
37:38
and read my stuff too much, but appreciate that so much.
37:41
Well, thanks for joining us today and we'll see you again. Bye-bye. All right. Bye-bye.
37:45
Thank you for listening. For more resources or to help spread the message of
37:49
God's life-changing grace, visit our website at gracelife.org.
37:54
Music.
Podchaser is the ultimate destination for podcast data, search, and discovery. Learn More