Episode 27 - The One True Gospel

Speaker 1 00:00:07 Hello, and welcome to the unveiling with your hosts, IJ, mark and Tim three guys discussing the one true gospel. We hope you enjoy today's discussion. Let's dive right in. Speaker 1 00:00:23 Welcome to the unveiling. This is episode 27, your usual suspects at the microphones tonight, Tim mark, and IJ. And tonight you guys hear us say all the time that we're just three guys discussing the one true gospel. And while everything we talk about is considered to be part of that one true gospel. Then I think we've done this before. We've kind of tried to lay out what is the one true gospel? What does that mean? It's good to come back once in a while to the foundations and the basics and lay, lay it out and set it up again. Because even us, even us, we've all been involved in this for quite some time. We're still learning new things day in, day out. The Lord reveals things to us. So guys, tonight, let's go ahead and do it one more time. Let's lay out this one. True gospel. Mark. Why don't you kick us off? Speaker 2 00:01:17 Sure. I'd love to Tim. How you guys doing tonight? I've been, been looking forward to this, you know, our last, uh, exciting episode of the unveiling was about monism versus synergism, which for salvation and sanctification now that's super theological sounding isn't it? But it basically just means as far as being saved and as far as living as a Christian, is that something God accomplishes in our lives for us, or is that something we do or at the very least do along with him. And as we talked about that, if those who have listened of, of course we are, are on the side of Jesus and Jesus alone in Christ alone by grace alone through faith alone. But it really calls into question the very nature of what the gospel is. And as Tim alluded to, we've talked about it many times, but we wanted to have a very pointed episode about what that one true gospel is. Speaker 2 00:02:26 And of course, there's only one final authority on that, in that scripture. So everything we're saying today comes directly from scripture. So I'm gonna start the, the, uh, program tonight by reading you a few key scriptures here that I think really lay it out in no uncertain terms. Now, Galatians one six. This is the apostle Paul addressing a church in Galatia that he himself had preached the gospel too. He had planted and started that church. And in his absence, Juer Jewish. Christians came in and were trying to lay works into their gospel to add things to by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. And the apostle Paul says this to the Galatians. He says, I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting. The one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel, which is really no gospel at all. Speaker 2 00:03:35 Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. So right there you have, what's known as bibliographical evidence within the text right there. It's giving you the answer. First of all, he says that you were called to live in the grace of Christ and someone else was coming and trying to bring them to a different gospel, which is no gospel. So right there in and of itself, it means living in the grace of Christ is the gospel. Any other gospel is no gospel. And then Paul goes on to say, people are trying to throw you into conversion and trying to pervert this gospel of Christ. So within that same little paragraph, it says, living in the grace of Christ is the gospel of Christ. I love that. It's so, so clear there, let's just hang on that one for a moment. And, and, and let me let my, uh, two, uh, comrades here, kick in any thoughts they might have. Speaker 3 00:04:39 Yeah. Mark. So as you pointed, and I always go back to this, when we talk about grace, Roman 11 and chapter six, and if it is by grace, it is no longer of works. Otherwise grace is no longer grace. And if it is of works, it is no longer grace. Otherwise work is no longer work. So what it's saying is grace and work, you know, they cannot go together. It's like, like light and darkness. Only one can remain. Right? But the problem that has been, especially in Christianity is that mixing grace and works. And then they also bring it both in when, uh, it comes to salvation or when it comes to sanctification. But the Bible is clear that if it is by grace, it cannot be by works. Speaker 2 00:05:28 So I've got, I've got three killer scriptures right here. <laugh> the second Timothy 1, 1 9 says he has saved us and called us to a holy life. Not because of anything we have done, but because of his own purpose and grace, this grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time. But it has now been revealed through the appearing of our savior Christ, Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and imortality to light through the gospel. So within that one paragraph there, it's telling us the gospel is grace and Christ is the gospel. It it's, we've talked about that quite a bit, but grace, the gospel of grace really is Jesus because the gospel means the good news and the good news is Christ himself. And I love how he says there. It's not because anything we've done, but because of his own purpose and grace, grace. And he also says that that purpose and grace was given before the beginning of time, even that was the original plan, which I learned recently is called the covenant of redemption that was before the world began, before it even time began. God's only purpose was that gospel was to reconcile men, to become his sons and daughters through Christ Jesus, who is the gospel, who is the personification of grace. Speaker 1 00:07:05 You know, mark, I'm a little surprised you didn't dive right into second Corinthians three. I know how much you love that book. Um, Speaker 2 00:07:11 I'm not sure I've heard of that, Tim. Why don't you explain it? <laugh> Speaker 1 00:07:14 But, but I'm gonna go past that for just a second. And I'm gonna go back to, uh, Paul talking to the church about this, this not gospel of works and, and, you know, trying to mix works in with grace. And I'm, I'm gonna say that I, I honestly believe it comes from well, intentioned flesh, if there is any such a thing. And that is because in the Bible, it even tells us, there are things that seem wise to a man or seem right to a man. And if you want, if you look at the people you respect and look up to, these are people who walk the faith, then you can, you can literally tell by looking at them, that's a Christian. They love people. They're caring. They don't, you know, they don't openly flaunt, uh, sin and things like that. But even those people aren't perfect while we might want, think we want to try and emulate them, which seems like a right thing to do. We're not doing anything as far as our salvation, because it has all been bought paid for as mark. You said two or three times already by faith through, through Christ, you know, in grace all alone. So while we may think these are good ideals, that we should be striving and working for, they're really getting in the way of the grace as AJ's first pointed out. Speaker 2 00:08:37 Yeah, that's a good point, Tim. One thing, if I might just take another minute or so here, uh, guys, and I want when hopefully for our listeners and all confirmed in their spirits by the holy spirit, that they would leave this podcast, knowing beyond the shadow of a doubt, what the very nature of the gospel is because to me, it's the most misunderstood thing in Christianity and in the world and has the most negative consequences of pretty much any misunderstanding in the history of the world. Acts 20, 24 says, this is the apostle Paul talking. He says, I consider my life worth nothing to me. My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task. The Lord Jesus has given me the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace he's. And Paul was the main preacher of the gospel. He had the full revelation to the Gentiles from Christ himself. Speaker 2 00:09:47 And his one message was the good news of God's grace here in acts 14 three. It, uh, the Luke, the historian and doctor is telling the story of Paul and Barnabas as they go on their missionary voyages preaching this gospel, they say, so Paul and Barnabas spent considerable time there speaking boldly for the Lord who confirmed the message of his grace by enabling them to do signs and wonders. So it is very evident just from the few scriptures we've given so far that the good news, which comes from the Greek word Evangelian, which means good news or good tidings, that their message was the message of his grace. The good news of God's grace, that in as simple terms as possible is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the one, this aspect of the word, grace, this is the one that gets attacked by people that are following a perversion of this gospel by adding works to it. Speaker 2 00:11:00 And, you know, they say things that we've discussed before, like grace is a license to sin. Like we need to be synergy. It's us working along with the spirit of Christ, but no gr grace means undeserved unearned, unmarried favor of God, whether you like it or not. And you should love it. God loves you. Not according to anything you've ever done or ever will do, but because in Christ you have ultimate value to him. And even before you come to Christ, scripture tells us for God's soul of the world because of his great love for us, even when we're in the midst of our dead being dead in transgression. Speaker 3 00:11:42 Yeah. So yeah, we talked about grace and we said, you know, grace is grace means it cannot be by works. And we also talked about the message of grace. So I to take a step back and look into what this message of grace is, right? We talked about the gospel, but what is a gospel? So I like to go back to the most well known verse, right? John three 16, but instead of reading, just John three 16, I would like to read, uh, couple of verses before and after. I think, you know, the things that we are talking about, Christians, understand believers, understand when we talk about grace and when they say it is all by grace and it's not works, but for someone who do not know the Lord, Jesus Christ, you know, for them to understand what the basic gospel in the most simple terms, what the gospel police, even as a small child can understand, you know, Bible and Bible. Speaker 3 00:12:36 There are some things that even a child can understand and immediately believe. And there are some things even the most learned men could not understand. So that is the awesomeness of the scripture. So I'm going to go to the most basic one, John chapter three from verse 14 to 17, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even. So the son of man must be lifted up that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life for God. So loved the world that he gave. His only begotten son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life for God, did not send his son into the world to condemn the world. But that the world world through him might be saved. So if you look at John three 16, we see for God, so loud, the world that he gave, his only be God and son that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have ever lashing life. Speaker 3 00:13:35 So here, there are multiple things, right? First of all, it's saying, it's talking about the whole world and it's talking about the problem. And it's talking about the solution and how somebody can participate in that solution. So the problem here is right. It says that we should not perish. That means the whole world is perishing, and that is a problem. And we'll come to it, why we are perishing and how we are perishing. But the problem of the world is the whole world is perishing. And the solution to that is God sent his son. And why did he send us? And the motivation for sending is God's love and how anyone can save from being perished simply by believing on him. Right? So whoever believes the son will not perish but have. And what is the solution to this is everlasting life. You know, that's where the clue is, right? Speaker 3 00:14:27 Why are we perishing? Because we don't have life. So if you go back one step further and look at Roman chapter five, it says, what is a problem of humanity? So if you go to Roman chapter five and verse 12, it says, therefore, justice through one, man, sin entered the world and death through sin and thus death spread to all men because all sinned. So the problem here is through one man's sin into the world and death spread to all men. So the problem of humanity is death. We all are under the reign of sin and death. And the solution to our problem is opposite of death. That is life, right? So what our largest Christ dead is he took our death upon himself on the cross. And before God is just God, right? He cannot just take a righteous man and punish him. That would be unjust. Speaker 3 00:15:22 So before Jesus can bear our death, you know, he had to bear our sin. That's what the Bible says in, uh, in, uh, second Corinthians chapter five, it says he knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be buried the righteousness of God in Christ. So what happened was a human problem. Everybody's problem is death. And that came through sin. So what God did is God made Jesus' sin on the cross so that, you know, he can bear the punishment for our sin, which is death. So Jesus took our death upon himself and he finished death on the cross. And he rose again on the third day. So everybody who believes what Jesus did for them can truly receive eternal life. That is a gospel, right? But the problem is the gospel is simple, right? It says, whoever believes in our Lord, Jesus Christ should not perish, but however, lasting life. Speaker 3 00:16:25 But what people have done throughout the ages is they took this one word belief and they started adding making it something. It is not. So in Bible belief is very clear, right? If you go to Romans chapter, Romans chapter four and verse five, it says faith is clearly defined as what belief is, right? It's not belief pledge doing something it's not working hard and earning from God. Bible clearly says what belief is. But to him who does not work, but beliefs on him who justifies ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. So the faith God requires us from us is the faith that does not work, but simply believes God who justifies ungodly. So they, the way we are justified is by simply believing in the Lord, Jesus. Christed when we believe that, you know, he became sin for us on the cross and he took our death upon himself. Speaker 3 00:17:28 Then he rose again on the third day without our sin. So whatever Jesus did on our behalf becomes ours. If he simply believe in him. So that's a simple gospel, right? Simply by believing we become, uh, we have this eternal life and we become the children of God. So that is a point of salvation. But even after being saved, I think we talked about it several times, but even after being saved, walking in, uh, walking Christian life or walking in holiness or scientification, whatever you call, even that is by faith. It is by grace through faith and it's not by works. So I think that's what we are, uh, uh, insisting again and again, because the thing that happens so easily is people start adding works to faith and that confuses everything. Speaker 1 00:18:21 Let me, let me take a piece or two of that and expound and explain just a little bit more. So what you're saying is that our, our problem is that we're condemned because of sin. Yep. Whether that started at, you know, with her, it started in the garden with the original sin and eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil from that point until Jesus came, forgiveness of sin was only accomplished through sacrifice and blood, the sacrifice of a perfect gift, an animal with no blemishes. And there, the blood of that animal was the only way to cleanse yourself of sin. And then you'd go out and be sinning some more. And so you had to keep going back over and over and over again, you know, you'd sin for a little while and then you'd get forgiveness. And then you'd sin for a little while and then you'd get forgiveness. Speaker 1 00:19:16 Jesus took that system. Jesus, John three 16, God gave his only begotten son. So he wasn't born in flesh. He wasn't born condemned and he wasn't born into that system. He lived a perfect life. He was unblemished and he was offered up as a sacrifice. So the old whole old Testament loss system of sacrifices was just the foreshadowing of Christ. So now Christ took on all our sins and gave us forgiveness for all of our sins. God can't abide sin. So if he saves you and cleanses you and gives you the holy spirit, you are no longer a sinner in the eyes of God, you can't sin. You can't be put back into that system where, oh, okay, you're clean today. But tomorrow you're gonna do some more stuff that you're gonna have to get forgiveness for. You are forgiven in the eyes of God from start to finish, period. Speaker 3 00:20:14 That is a such an important thing. Uh, Tim, I think one of the points you're bringing up is, you know, believers, once they know, you know, when they were born again, they were, uh, forgiven, right? When they place their trust, you know, Lord Jesus Christ. But they think, you know, they have to go back and get forgiveness on a daily basis, right? So they had, they come up with different kind of things they need to do to get forgiveness. But, uh, one of the prominent things is they say, no by confession, you continually get your forgiveness, but the Bible is clear about it in, uh, Colosians chapter two, which, uh, from verse 13 it says, and you being dead in your trespasses and the unction of your flesh, he has made alive together with him having forgiven all your trespasses. So here again, it says, you know, before we were made alive, our sin had to be forgiven. Speaker 3 00:21:14 That's what the meaning of this verse and you being dead in your trespasses. That's what we talk about it. You know, again, the gospel whole gospel is summarized here in collation, chapter two verse, certain our condition was death. You being dead, you know, trespasses and circumcision of the flesh. He had made us alive together with him. How having forgiven all your trespasses. In other words, even if one trespas was not forgiven, we couldn't be made alive. You know, it's not a simple thing, right? So it's not that, you know, it's not a theological argument. We are saying, okay, doesn't matter. Some believe that they're since are forgiven. And some believe that, you know, they are not, we need to continually get forgiveness, but the requirement for life is our sins must be forgiven because the consequence of sin death, that means if sin remains on us, death will be the consequence again. Speaker 3 00:22:13 So what Le Jesus Christ did is he took our sin upon himself. He died in our place, and then he procured forgiveness of all our sins. In other words, he made us righteous. You know, no sin is imputed to us by implication. We become righteous. And because of our righteousness, we, he made us alive together. So that is the thing, right? So the, you cannot, I think in other words, right, you cannot just say I'm alive in Christ and still I am unforgiven. Those two are mutually exclusive. If you're alive, your sin are forgiven. And if your sin are not forgiven, you cannot be alive. Speaker 2 00:22:53 And another that's awesome point that you can't even put a value on something like that. But, um, one of the keys to that is that you touched upon there that is, he's taken all our sin and he's given us his righteousness. And to do that now he's taken us out from under the judge of, of the O the judge that condemns us the law. We're not, once we come to Christ, we are no longer under law. So when we mess up, screw up downright sin in this world, it no longer has the same effect and consequence in our relationship with God that it had before we came to Christ, oh, death, where is th sting? That's right. We do not sin anymore. And some, some people are gonna freak out when they hear me say that. And, uh, Tim is always quick to point out that we're not saying we don't sin in this world because we still make mistakes. Speaker 2 00:23:58 And we still have the choice at times to return to our old ways. Okay, God, doesn't, you know, impose, you know, make us little robots that do everything perfectly, right? But as far as our relationship with our dad, our father in heaven, it is not countered as sin anymore against us. CR what happened on the cross was so thoroughly, perfectly complete that, you know, every pass sin has been wiped out, you know? And when he, when it says that he's removed it, as far as east is from the west, that's not even as far as when he says, I will remember it no more. Cuz he could remember taking your sin and taking it as far as east is from the west. That's that's hyperbole to show how far removed is your sin. But God actually says, I will remember their sin and lawless deeds no more. And you have no more sins and lawless deeds once you come to Christ because you can't break the law anymore. You're not under the law anymore. That's freedom, man, is that freedom. But the opponents of that pure hospital are gonna say, oh, that freedom's gonna lead to sin. Now that's a total misunderstanding of who Christ is and that he does not lead to sin in our lives. In fact, as we walk through this life, we're gonna have less and less taste for that sin. Speaker 3 00:25:30 Yeah. Mark, I want to back up what you just said, uh, with this scripture. In fact, you know, that's another important point, right? As believers, we are not under the law anymore. In fact, you know, before God could save us, he had to, not only, uh, he had to take us out of the law before he could save us. Because if you go back under the law, in this fallen, uh, um, uh, body still right in this world, if you go back under the law, the consequence will be still death again. So he had to take us out of the law. So Paul puts it clearly here in Galatians chapter two. And towards the end, it says from verse 18, if I build again, those things, which I destroyed, I make myself a transgresor. So he's talking about the law again, after becoming a believer. Speaker 3 00:26:19 If I go back under the law, I'll become a transgressor in verse 19. He says for I through the law, died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. So when we were crucified with Christ, right when Christ died for our, on our behalf and for our, since the Bible also says that we died with him. So for through the law, I died to the law. So the law says the wages of sin death, the sinner must die. And that's what happened right? In Christ. We died. So even in this world, right, if, uh, the law condemns someone to die, like through gives a death punishment, right? Punishment through death. And once that is executed, that guy is dead, right? He's no longer alive to the law. That law cannot go back and kill that person again. And by some miracle, the person who is executed comes back to life. Speaker 3 00:27:11 Law has no power over that person. It's over under the law, the punishment was death. The punishment was executed. It's done. So it says for through the law, I died to the law that I might live to God I've been crucified with Christ. So that is a thing right through crucifixion. We also died to the law and it is important to die to the law because it says through the law, I died to the law that I might live to God. In other words, if we didn't die to the law, we couldn't live to God. It's so important because people think, you know, if we say that, uh, we are no longer under the law, you know, we're saying, oh, okay. You know, we are just going. And we are telling people to go and live in sin, like a devil, but the requirement to live unto God is that we should die to the law. In fact, they are telling the opposite, right? Whoever is saying that we are still under the law. They are, uh, preventing people from living to God because in order to live to God, we must first die to the law. Speaker 2 00:28:07 That's an awesome point. Speaker 1 00:28:09 And Paul tells us pretty clearly it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. So yeah. We just further cementing that idea. Speaker 3 00:28:18 Yeah. Yeah. Let's uh, read the whole thing. Right? So great point, Tim. So let me read the whole thing, right? It's a beautiful, uh, passage, everything connected for through the law. I died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I live, but Christ lives in me and the life which I live in this flesh. I live by the faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. So there are two things, right? You know, if he's saying that if you, if after Christ died, you're still hanking after the law, basically Christ died in Wayne. You're not accepting what he did. And the second thing he's saying that in order for Christ to live in me, I should die to the law. Speaker 3 00:29:08 If I don't die to the law, Christ cannot live in me. You see it's such an important thing, but people are taking it lightly and putting the believers back under the law and saying that, oh yeah, law will keep you on tracks. Oh, you need law that guide. And you need to fulfill the law, but they don't seem to think through the implications of saying that because here clearly we see, you know, if you go back under the law, we cannot live unto God and Christ cannot live in me. Why would I want to go back under the law? Speaker 2 00:29:39 And yeah, that's such a great, great, um, illustration. And the way it plays out in this world is you've got these two choices. You've got putting yourself back under the law. I'm just talking to Christians right now. You put yourself back under the law, or you put yourself in Christ. There are millions and millions of people in this world that are going to church every Sunday that don't realize what they're doing flies right in the face of the scriptures that AJ just presented there. They don't realize that they have not come to the gospel of Christ Jesus, but they're living under the Christian religion. Religion is about do this. Don't do that. Uh, it's rules, regulations, it's empty. It's just empty. And it's only leads to condemnation and failure. And Christ says, you know, Paul said it is for freedom. That Christ sets you free. Don't be burned again by that yoke of slavery, referring to that law after he did so much to take us out of it. Why in the world would he return back under it and try to mix that it it's, it does not mix, you know, you've got this pure water and then you've got death that you're mix it, trying to mix in with it basically. Speaker 3 00:31:10 Yeah. In fact, you know, after being saved and after being delivered from the law, if you go back to the law, it is like committing spiritual adultery. And I want to read a couple of scriptures. You know, that clearly states that in Romans chapter seven, it says, starting from verse one, or do you not know brethren for, I speak to those who know the law that the law has dominion or a man, as long as he lives for the woman who has a husband is born by the law to her husband as long as he lives. But if the husband dies, she's released from the law for husband. So then if her husband lives, she married to another man she'll be called an adult. But if her husband dies, she's free from the law. So that she's no adult though. She's married to another man. Speaker 3 00:32:03 Therefore my brother and you become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another to whom who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. So here it is clear, right? It's saying you were under the law. That was the previous husband and you were dead to the law so that you can be married to another man. So if after believers, after being born again, after being married to Christ, if they go back to the LA, what are they doing? They're committing adultery right here. The picture clear, there are two husbands compared. One is the law. And one is Christ. And if law is alive and you try to be married to Christ, then you're committing adultery. And while Christ is alive and you are, um, going back to the law, then you're committing spiritual, right? Speaker 3 00:33:00 Only one person has to live in your life. Either Christ is alive or law is alive. Both can't be alive. So what the law did is, you know, it's, again, it clearly says, right? Therefore, my brethren, you become dead to the law, through the body of Christ. When Christ died, we also died to the law that you may be married to another, our law, Jesus Christ. So after being married to our law, Jesus Christ. If you go back to the law, you are also committing spiritual adultery. So there are so many implications to going back to the law, but people don't seem to realize they're just exalting the law about Christ and saying that, oh yeah, we need law in believers life. But they don't seem to understand all the repercussions of what it means. Speaker 2 00:33:50 RJ. Today, I was listening to a pastor and he said something. I really liked something very similar to what Tim has said in the past. He paraphrased it this way. He said, the law can only show you how to live. It has no power at all to bring you life. The life is in Christ. He said, I am the way the truth and the life we're meant for life. That's, you know, that's why God fashioned us in the first place. The apostle Paul told us for life. There's no life in the law, only condemnation and death. Speaker 1 00:34:30 The law tells us what to do, but doesn't give us the ability to do Speaker 2 00:34:35 It. Or as you said, Tim, that, um, how did you put it? You put it, um, the law, wasn't a given wasn't given to show us how to do it. Right. It was given to show us that we can't do it. Right. And we are in need of a savior. And that's so powerful. Speaker 3 00:34:54 Yeah. Yeah. So you also just said, you know, lock cannot give us life. So our lock can show us is we are dead and we need life. You know, salvation is not about just bad people becoming good people. It's dead. People becoming alive in Christ. So no matter what you do, the dead man cannot come to life and law cannot give us life. So it has to be Christ or we are dead. Speaker 2 00:35:21 And what I love about this message that I alluded to earlier is that this message that we've just been articulating, especially what AJ was just saying. It is from before the beginning of the world, before time, it was part of God's purpose and creation for creating anything in the first place was to create sons and daughters. It wasn't an afterthought. Oh, let's put 'em under the law for a while and watch him perish and watch 'em do real bad. And then maybe I about come up with another, another plan, right? <laugh> this gospel goes back to before the beginning of time, it was, it was pictured in the old Testament, you know, through the sacrifices themselves that Tim talked about. Those actually didn't take away any sin because Hebrew says the, the blood of bulls and goats can never cleanse from sin, but what it was thousands of years ahead of time, it was a picture of Christ that the perfect lamb of God would come to take away our sins once and for all. Speaker 2 00:36:29 And so that gospel was first pictured in the garden of Eden and through the patriarchs scripture tells us it was first announced to Abraham. And then it was announced to David through the Psalms prophecy. And then it was revealed to the prophets. And then it was revealed to the last prophet, John, the Baptist, and then Christ came, you know, one thing occurred to me today and this, hopefully this is not a sidetrack, but Christ, since we're, since Christ is the gospel, he did not come to preach to the gospel. Although he did it times tell people, come to me. When he said, come to me, that was the gospel. When he said, believe in the one he sent referring to himself, that was the gospel. It it's, it's all Jesus all the time. It can't be a synergy it's it's monism, as we talked about in the last thing, Christ and Christ alone. Speaker 1 00:37:28 So to put this in slightly Le more layman terms, it is taking the focus off of ourselves completely. We can't do anything. It is putting our focus on Jesus Christ. That is where the power to save us, to change us, to, to keep us righteous all is. And so we, we are too easily led away from looking at God to seeing inside ourselves. And I want, you know, some people go, well, I, you know, God could forgive me, but I can't forgive myself. And I think to myself, how arrogant that you think you are most, so much better than God, that you can't forgive you when he's already done everything that has to be done. And, you know, again, it falls into that category of, there are things that seem wise and right to a man, but God takes these things, these simple things and confounds the whys. Speaker 3 00:38:29 So Tim, that leads, uh, right into, you know, one just, uh, one point or one call I might want to make is, um, if someone is wondering like, what much should I do after hearing all this? What, what much should I do to be saved? Because they might be thinking, you know, I've done this, I've done this thing, I've done this thing. You know, I'm living in sin, I've committed many, since I've done things, you know, that I'm not supposed to do. And I can't clean my life up and I can't do anything about it. So what must I do to be saved? So this is my favorite coat. And I, it personally helped me. So I want to read it. It's from Walter Marshall. It says, if you are wondering, you know, what much should I do in order to be saved or in order to receive our Lord Jesus Christ. Speaker 3 00:39:17 Are there any qualifications? Are there any conditions that I need to fulfill? I want to read this. We are not to imagine that our hearts and lives must be changed from sin to holiness in any measure before we may safely venture to trust on Christ for the sure enjoyment of himself and his salvation. So I'm going to read it again. We are not to imagine that our hearts and lives must be changed from sin to holiness in any measure before we may safely venture to trust on Christ for the sure enjoyment of himself and his salvation. So there's nothing you need to do. You don't need to clean up your life. You don't need to start going to church. You don't need to give to the church or help the poor, or you don't need to break out of your sin. Just simply come to Jesus as you are. And you can take hold of him. Simply believe that Lord Jesus Christ died for you. And he rose again on the third day. And if you simply accept that fact, you'll be saved. Nothing more you need to do. Speaker 1 00:40:25 It is so powerful. Belief in Christ is so powerful. There was the woman who touched the hem of his garment and was healed. And, and he, he knew it had happened, but it wasn't. He, he, I think he said it was her faith that saved her or healed her in that case, but that's all it takes for your life to change. Speaker 2 00:40:48 And that brings up another great scripture, uh, from Romans that Romans, uh, one 17 for in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed a righteousness that is by faith. From first to last, the righteous will live by faith. Speaker 1 00:41:08 We only had 40 some odd minutes here to discuss this. And it seems to have gone by in the blink of an eye, but as it as is my tradition, I wanna give you each a last shot before we sign off for this episode. So flipping the coin, mark, why don't you go ahead and give us your last thoughts for the evening? Speaker 2 00:41:26 Sure. I guess I would say our desire is for people to come into the freedom of that pure, perfect gospel to come out from under the law and religion, do this. Don't do that self, you know, what is the modifying your behavior? Self-improvement trying hard to be good. That's not the life God has for you. His life for you is as a son and a daughter to come in and be free and have a life filled of joy and love and to live by the power of his spirit. It it's just, there's the counterfeit out there that millions and millions are deceived by. It's not the pure gospel, it's religion. We need Jesus. And that's all we need. Speaker 3 00:42:17 Yeah. So I would say if it is by grace, it is no longer by works. Otherwise grace is no longer grace. So for our salvation, it's very simple believing in the finished work of our Lord Jesus Christ. On our behalf, we are saved by believing just as we are saved. We walk in Christ by believing there's nothing for us to do to be saved. There's nothing for us to do in order to continue in the salvation. We begin by faith and we continue by faith. It is by faith from first to last. Speaker 1 00:42:50 Great. I will add my last thoughts tonight and say, I call myself. And I think you guys do too, a reformed Christian, because we have found the freedom of this message of grace and love andness. We used to come out of services of how to be a better husband, how to have a better prayer life. Do the, you know, do this, don't do that defeated before we even started, because we couldn't, we couldn't keep up with the message of last week. And now we've got another whole new set of goals. We know we can't keep up with we're free of that performance system now. I mean, are we becoming better people? Well, if we're keeping our eyes on Jesus, I find it hard to fathom how we couldn't. So that freedom alone of just being able to enjoy the presence of God and being in his, you know, being in his presence is so wonderful guys. Again, this has just been a great discussion and I want to encourage anyone listening. If you've got questions, please feel free to reach out to us through your email. Uh, we'd love to hear from you, and we'd love to address your questions. God bless. And we'll talk to you the next time. Speaker 1 00:44:06 We would like to thank you for listening to the unveiling. We hope you have enjoyed it enough to consider subscribing and sharing with others. We welcome your questions, comments, and feedback. You can reach us via email at the unveiled gospel, yahoo.com or find our Facebook page at the unveiling podcast for AJ, mark and myself. God bless. And we will talk with you next time.