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After the Apostle Paul addresses the Gentiles in Romans 1:18-32, he now turns to the Jew in Romans 2. First he said that the unsaved Gentiles had no excuse and are under God's wrath, and now he says that the unsaved Jews have no excuse and are also under God's wrath. All unsaved lost people who have fallen short of the glory of God, need to turn to Christ by faith and be saved from God's coming wrath.

In Romans 1:17, the Apostle Paul makes a bold statement. "For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,  just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.  As born again Christians, we have been made right with God by our faith, and not by our works so that no one can boast. That is the good news! But then in Romans 1:18, Paul makes a 180 and makes a bold warning to the unbelieving Gentiles so that they might be saved and escape from God's wrath. This is the bad news for unbelievers who are not born again. Listen in as Mike and Kevin talk about it.

Romans 1:8-17 talks about a few important things. Why was it so astonishing that the faith of the Gentiles was being reported all over the world? Next the Apostle Paul introduces that in the Gospel, that our righteousness from God comes by faith alone. What does it mean to be right with God? How can I be made right with God? Is it by my good deeds or is it something else. Transcript: Want   to   discover   your   freedom   in   Christ,   then   listen   in   as   Mike   Stone   and   Kevin   Smith   talk   about   it   today   on   Grace   Coach.   Hello,   this   is   Mike   with   Grace   Coach.   It   is   good   to   be   here   here.   And   I'm   with   Kevin   Smith.   What's   up,   Mike?   Yeah,   I   am   excited   about   this   podcast.   I've   been   looking   at   chapter   one   versus   eight   to   17,   and   there's   a   lot   here,   Kevin.   Well,   I'm   surprised   we're   not   going   to   get   through   chapter   one   in   two   weeks.   I   mean,   it's   going   to   take   us   three   weeks   to   get   through   it.   Maybe   not   even   three   weeks.   But   you   know   what?   God's   timing   is   perfect.   I   guess   I   just   want   to   review   the   first   seven   verses   in   chapter   one.   We   read   that   Paul   was   set   apart   by   God   to   be   an   Apostle,   that   God   met   him   on   the   road   to   Damascus   while   he   was   crucifying   Christians   and   murdering   them,   taking   them   to   jail.   It   also   talked   about   how   God   promised   this   gospel   in   the   Old   Covenant.   So   everything   about   Jesus   was   prophesied   in   the   old   Covenant.   We   read   that   Jesus   was   a   descendant   of   David   and   that   he   was   declared   to   be   God   by   the   resurrection   of   the   dead.   Amen.   We   talked   a   little   bit   that   he   wasn't   declared   with   power   when   he   died   on   the   cross,   which   is   the   main   message   of   Christmas   today.   But   he   was   declared   to   be   God   by   the   resurrection   of   himself,   which   was   very   cool   to   go   into   Romans   one,   verses   eight   to   17.   Kevin,   to   get   the   full   picture   and   the   impact   of   what   Paul   is   saying,   because   really   just   before   I   did   this   and   to   say   what   is   going   on   here,   why   is   he   writing   what   he's   writing?   I   really   had   to   dig   deep   into   some   verses   to   find   out   what   is   he   talking   about   in   verses   eight   to   17.   Jesus,   this   is   crazy   when   you   read   this,   even   when   I   Typed   it   out   and   read   it   in   Matthew   ten,   five   and   six,   Jesus   said   to   the   disciples,   he   says,   do   not   go   to   the   Gentiles   or   any   town   of   the   Samaritans,   but   rather   go   to   the   lost   sheep   of   Israel.   This   was   his   command.   This   is   God   himself   commanding   the   disciples,   don't   go   to   the   Gentiles.   The   Jew   first,   then   the   Gentiles.   Yeah,   only   go   to   the   Jews.   And   in   Acts   twelve   and   222,   after   the   Holy   Spirit   came   on   the   disciples   who   became   Apostles   at   Pentecost,   Peter   addresses   all   these   people   and   he   says,   fellow   Jews   and   all   of   you   who   live   in   Jerusalem.   And   he   said,   fellow   Israelites,   listen   to   this.   He   is   not   talking   to   the   Gentiles.   He's   only   talking   about   the   Jews.   He's   following   Jesus   command   of   going   to   the   Jews   and   not   going   to   the   Gentiles.   And   you   really   got   to   scratch   your   head.   What   verse   was   that?   Acts   214,   where   Peter   says,   fellow   Jews   and   Acts   222   and   he   says,   fellow   Israelites,   I'm   just   following   what   Jesus   said   in   Matthew   ten,   five   and   six,   that   he   said,   do   not   go   to   the   Gentiles.   Or   any   town   of   the   Samaritans,   but   rather   go   to   the   lost   sheep   of   Israel   and   you   see   that   happening.   You   see   Paul   and   Peter   following   that   command   until   Peter   goes   up   to   the   roof   in   Acts   ten.   And   Peter   went   up   to   the   roof,   and   he   prayed,   and   he   fell   into   a   trance,   and   he   saw   heaven   open   like   a   large   sheep   being   led   down   to   Earth   by   its   four   corners.   It   contains   all   kinds   of   four   footed   animals,   as   well   as   reptiles   and   birds.   Then   a   voice   told   him,   Peter,   get   up,   kill   and   eat.   Surely   not,   Lord.   Peter   said,   I   have   never   eaten   anything   impure   or   unclean.   The   voice   spoke   to   him   a   second   time.   Do   not   call   anything   impure   that   God   has   made   clean.   And   so   Peter   is   like,   are   we   talking   about   food   here?   These   were   Orthodox   Jews   who   followed   their   schedule   for   eating   foods   and   types   of   foods   perfectly.   And   God   is   telling   Peter   to   eat   what   is   not   clean,   what   is   not   kosher.   And   so   he   didn't   know   what   to   make   of   it   until   he   understood   that   when   they   were   with   Cornelius   in   Cornelius'house   and   Cornelius   had   a   vision   from   an   angel.   And   the   angel   told   him,   Go   get   Peter.   And   Peter   came   with   the   Centurion   soldiers,   and   they   were   in   a   home,   and   something   happened.   The   Holy   Spirit   came   on   Cornelius   and   all   of   the   Gentiles   that   were   with   them.   And   it   says   that   they   were   astonished.   Why   were   they   astonished?   Because   the   Gentiles   did   not   pursue   righteousness.   Only   the   Jews   pursued   it.   And   it   says   that   in   Romans   930,   the   Gentiles   who   did   not   pursue   righteousness   have   obtained   it.   A   righteousness,   that   is,   by   faith.   But   the   people   of   Israel   who   pursued   the   law   as   a

The Book of Romans may just be the most important book in the entire Bible. Listen in as Mike and Kevin discuss the first seven verses of chapter one. Transcript: Want to discover your freedom in Christ, then listen in as Mike Stone and Kevin Smith talk about it today on Grace Coach. Hello. Welcome to Grace Coach. I'm Mike Stone with my good buddy Kevin Smith. How are you, Kevin? Great, Mike. How are you doing? Doing good. I'm excited about what we're about to do here, going through the book of Romans chapter by chapter. Today we'll probably get through half of chapter one. But there's so much in the book of Romans, it's so exciting. Yes, it is. There's so much in the book of Romans, and it is by far my favorite book that in Hebrews neck and neck. But I would say Romans just because it's so laid out and so a lot of just foundational doctrines of the Christian faith just lays it out black and white. But yeah, Romans is an awesome book. It has a lot to do with Jesus Christ and the Grace of God that he has manifested to the world. Such a powerful book looking at. There's lots of commentary, lots of stuff on the Internet about Romans, just from what I could see, Kevin, it looks like the book of Romans is written to Christians who are both Jewish and Gentile, because there's a lot of mention of the Jew and the Gentile. And really, that makes up all of people because if you're not a Jew, you are a Gentile. So that's written to all people. Now, he was written to Christians in Rome. But even I know for me before I was a Christian, I would still go through different scriptures and you could read the book of Romans and hear it and be saved through some of these verses that our Salvation verses that you can understand. That chapter five talks about how we came into this world spiritually dead in Adam, and that was all people. And then in chapter five, he talks about that Jesus Christ is the answer to spiritual death. So it's definitely in this first chapter, there's a sin, there's a barrier that stands in between the whole world. Every person. There is a barrier that stands between you and God. There's a little booklet, the four spiritual Laws that draws out across between two mountains, and there's God on one side of the mountain and you on the other side. And the only thing that can bridge the Chasm between you and God is the cross, and you turn the page and then across there and where people have the opportunity to walk across the chasm of sin in order to become saved. So it's the Roman rose. Absolutely. When I look at what Paul wrote about Jews and Gentiles in the book of Romans, and I see that his attempt might have also been to encourage a unity in the faith between the Jew and the Gentile, because there was such a riff between the two groups as there's still a rift today, there's a wall of hostility. And as he writes to the Gentile and he goes through the history of the Gentiles, and he goes through in chapter two and three when he talks about the Jew and their history, and then he says finally in chapter three, that all have sinned, all are alike under sin. Jew and Gentile, all born into this world the same way, spiritually dead, separated from God, condemned for hell, and it's for all people. So I can see his reasoning and writing this to really unify Jews and Gentiles to say, hey, Jew, the Gentiles no different than you and vice versa to the Gentile. The Jew is no different than you. You might have different religions and different practices, but you're all coming to this world the same way, and Jesus is the only answer to both of you. The Apostle Paul did a masterful job in basically arguing his case. He lays out his case for Salvation through Christ in a masterful way in this whole that's really why I like it, because he talks to each group of people. He talks to the Jews, he talks to the Gentiles, he talks to all of them at once. He condemns everybody under the law, the Jews that are trying to live under law. There's absolutely no way you can make it to God living under the law. And he just does a masterful job of looking at every because, you know, he's had these arguments with people, and now he's putting them in the book, and he's just reiterating what he's already talked about with other people, which is so cool. Yeah, it is cool. Let's read chapter one, verses one through six, and then let's talk about it. But why don't you read one through six? Super Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an Apostle and set apart for the Gospel of God. It's going to be hard for me to read this and not stop and talk about things. The Gospel of God, the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of Holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Through him and for his name's sake, we receive Grace and Apostleship to call people from among all Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. Yeah. So let's go through some of these verses here and talk about it. In the first verse, it says, Paul's, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an Apostle and set apart for the gospel of God. And so we know that in the Book of Acts, on the road to Damas

Why is the resurrection of Jesus the single most important event in world history? Was it to prove the Jesus was God, or is there something more? Listen in as Mike and Kevin talk about the real meaning of the resurrection and what it might mean to you. Transcript: Welcome to Grace Coach. This is Kevin Smith and my cohost, Mike Stone. What's up, Mike? Hey, good to be with you, Kevin. Great, great to be with you, too. Yes. Today we're gonna talk about about the resurrection of our Lord and Jesus Christ. And we just got through celebrating Easter and the worldwide celebration of Jesus Christ resurrection from the dead was celebrated around the world just a few weeks ago. And we're going to talk about it today. And we're going to talk about not just the resurrection, but an aspect that you may or may not have heard about in Church a few weeks ago. Mike, what do you think about this part of what we're going to talk about today, about having died with Christ and are seated with him? What are some of your generations? Because that's really what the distinction of what we're going to talk about today. Yeah. Well, that's good because you mentioned Good Friday, which all of us are celebrating or realizing that's the day that Jesus died on the cross and he took away the sins of the world. And really, most of us just we deal with Jesus on the basis of sin and forgiveness. And the thing is that the resurrection is moving past, that the resurrection is about new life and being saved. And there are two different things. But again, most Christians, most of the time when we hear messages, they're talking about Jesus and sin and forgiveness. But again, the message of the gospel is also the resurrection of Jesus, where Jesus was raised from the dead and that for the purpose that we would be raised from the dead when we put our faith in Christ. Yeah. And that's that verse in Colossians Three. I know you want to talk about 31, where it says, since you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above. And it also says that in Ephesians 26, it says that and God raised us up with Christ and seated us in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. And when you look at that for face value, you're like, now, wait a minute, my feet are on the Earth. I know I am still here. So what is Paul talking about in these two verses that we have already been raised with Christ? Exactly. Well, like you've just said, when we talk about Easter, we talk about new life. That's really the message that we hear Friday. You died Friday, Christ died Sunday morning, he ride. That's really just the thing. But we don't talk about we died with Christ. And if you don't really catch that piece of it, I'm just going to read what you just read at Colossus Three is actually the verse that I'm going to read. It says for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. I'll read that again for you died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. So obviously, we didn't die physically. It's it's a spiritual death, right? PARTICIPANT #1 4:23 Yeah.   Not   I   think   what   this   is   saying   here,   Paul   is   saying   in   Colossians   three   three,   that   we   died   to   our   old   sinful   nature,   to   the   nature   of   being   born   in   the   image   of   Adam,   which   is   how   we   came   into   this   world,   and   we   died   to   that   nature,   and   we   were   given   a   new   nature,   a   new   spirit,   when   we   were   born   again.   So   not   everybody   is   born   again,   right?   Most   people   are   probably   still   in   the   condition   of   being   spiritually   dead   in   Adam.   But   the   gospel   is   about   coming   to   Christ   by   faith   and   being   born   again.   And   as   John,   I   think   it's   546,   I'm   not   sure,   but   it   says   that   we've   crossed   over   from   death   to   life.   That's   when   we   put   our   John   524,   we   put   our   faith   in   Christ.   So,   yeah,   we've   died   to   our   old   nature   and   our   life   is   now   hidden   with   Christ   and   God.   In   verse   four.   I   just   want   to   read,   Kevin,   that   it   says   when   Christ,   who   is   your   life   because   why   Christ   is   now   living   inside   of   you,   his   life   is   in   you   as   a   born   again   Christian.   It   says   when   Christ,   who   is   your   life,   appears,   you   will   also   appear   with   him   in   glory.   And   so   we're   talking   about   the   Rapture,   when   the   event   where   Christ   is   coming   back.   We   don't   know   what   day   that   is.   We   just   know   that   it's   going   to   happen   because   the   Bible   says   that   he's   going   to   appear   and   we're   going   to   meet   him   in   the   clouds.   And   that's   what   they're   talking   about,   that   we   will   appear   when   he   appears,   and   that's   when   we're   with   him   forever.   Yes.   I   love   what   you   were   talking   about   earlier   about   having   a   new   nature.   And   that,   again,   is   something   that   I   think   we've   been   talking   about   it   a   bit   recently.   But   you   don't   hear   this   much   in   churches   and   sermons   that   you   have   a   new   nature.   We   have   new   hearts   and   this   new   heart   that   we   have.   Even   though   we   do   the   things   that   we   may   have   done   in   the   past,   that's   not   our   new   setting.   That's   not   our   new   default   setting.   We   don't   get   pleased   by   that   in   the   same   way   we   did   before   when   we   were   in   Adam.   When   we   were   dead,   it   was   all   a

Do you remember years ago, we used to see people walking around baseball stadiums holding a sign, which said "John 3:16"? I used to think, why are those people doing that? Now I know. John 3:16 is probably the single most important verse in the Bible. What does this verse mean? Does it apply to me? Listen in as Mike goes in to detail about this key verse.   Transcript: Well, today we're going to talk about John 316 that says, For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 316 is probably the most popular Bible verse where even some non believers even recognize that verse, maybe because that verse, John 316, was on signs that people walked around ballparks and arenas, which you don't see that anymore, probably because of it. It's too exclusive for today. And it's unfortunate that we are not walking around the ballparks because this verse is really one of the most important verses in the Bible. But let's break it down. As far as what does John 316 really mean? It says for God, so love the world. Love is the very nature of God. One John 416 says that God is love and love is an action. So yes, we have loving feelings, but loving feelings are a result of a loving action. And so feelings will follow our thoughts, feelings will follow our actions. But love is more than just a feeling. And in this case, God did take an action. It says in one John four, nine, and ten that this is how God showed his love among us. He sent his one and only Son into the world, that we might live through him. This is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins. So God took an action. He sent Jesus Christ into the world. He was fully God. He was fully human, but his purpose was to take away the sins of the world. And then on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead and came back to life. And the Spirit of God is what brought Jesus back to life. And so that was the action that God had taken. Two Corinthians 514 says that Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all and therefore all died. So this love of God, this action of God that God took on our behalf, is what really compels us when we grab a hold of what this really is. There are many different views of what God's love is. Sometimes people look at God as a vending machine and that they pray for certain things and that they expect God to come through with those prayers. But yes, God comes through with prayers in our life, but not always according to what we want. Our deepest need is to know God. It's something that is so important and to have a relationship with him not based on fear, not based on worry or anger, but based on pure love. That God is love and only love. Religion has kind of taken God's love out of context because there are so many conditions that are put onto God's love. For instance, that a Christian comes to Christ and is born again and now they're required to be obedient and follow the law. And those conditions are what make people run from God. Our obedience and our trustworthiness are just byproducts of knowing the love of God. It's nothing that we have to do to earn God's love. It's because of God's love. So it's way different than sometimes we hear in the pulpit in different religions. So God loves the world. And when you see the word world, put your name in there, that's you Mike, for instance, God so loved Mike. God so loved Frank or sue or whoever. It doesn't matter. Put your name right in that spot that God so loves you. And that was an action. Now, what did God do? It says that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son. And so God gave something. He gave his only Son, Jesus, to us. And that's a gift, right? When you give something to somebody, it is a gift. And God certainly has given us the gift of the Holy Spirit when we put our faith in him. Acts four says, on one occasion while he was eating with them, referring to Jesus, he gave them this command, do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about. Well, this gift was in the heart of God from the beginning of time when he created mankind. He knew that man would fall and the Spirit of God would leave Adam at the time who was the first man, and that we are all born in Adam's image, spiritually dead. And so we need to be made alive and to be born again. And that is the gift of God is to give his life to us so that he can live his life through us and give us eternal life. And so in Acts two, one to four, this finally happened. It says, when the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. These were the disciples. Suddenly, a sound like a blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. And they saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. It says that all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. So this was the first time that the Spirit of God had ever come to live inside of mankind. Before that God was upon them. He was around them, but he was never living in mankind until Acts two, one, four, known as the Day of Pentecost. But that is the gift of God. And it's the gift of God today is to receive eternal life and be born again, just like they were born again back in those days. Galatians 220 says, I've been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me the life I now live in the body. I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So there again you see the Word gave that God sent Christ into this world to give us the Spirit of Christ living in us when we put our faith in him. And so that's this meaning here that God gave his one and only Son as a gift to all of mankind. The next part of this verse, that whoever believes so for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish. So this is a word that we need to really think through believes in Him because James 2019 says that even the demons believe there is one God. And so the word belief is different than the word faith. The word belief means that I believe that something exists. Say, for instance, a chair. I believe that this chair will hold me up and I might just stand there in front of the chair and say, I believe that chair will hold me. But faith is putting your belief into action. It's putting faith in what you believe. So when you sit down in the chair, you've just put your faith in what you say you believe. Sometimes belief and faith are used anonymously But I believe that these verses in the Book of John and other places about believing in him are referring to putting our faith in what we believe. And so we really need to know why we need to put our faith in Jesus. So God so loved this world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who has faith in Him will have eternal life. Well, that sounds a lot like John 360 NIV version, but this is the contemporary English version that says that everyone who has faith in him will have eternal life. Most of the versions do say believe in him, but believe and trust are really what the writer of the Book of John is trying to get to us to put our faith in what we believe. So why do we need to believe in Jesus? Why do you need eternal life? This is what is really missing in many sermons and many online teachings is why do I need to be born again? Why do I need eternal life? And that takes us back all the way to the garden. And we have to go back there to see why we need eternal life. Because Adam was created in the image of God. He was created alive physically, but he also was created alive spiritually. Genesis 127 says that so God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God, he created them male and female. So God created Adam and the image of himself. Genesis 27 says that then God gave the breath of life to Adam. Now that was the breath of life physically in his lungs so he could breathe. But also that's where the spirit of God was given to Adam. And that only means that God was living inside of Adam. The spirit of God was in dwelt in Adam. That's the good news of how mankind was created. Now, Genesis 216 to 17 says that the Lord commanded the man, Adam, you're free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree in the middle of the garden, for when you eat of it, you will surely die. So this story of Anna and Eve, it's been talked about and sometimes ridiculed about over the years. But really, this is the crux. This is the place where the spirit of God left mankind because Adam and Eve were confused, they were lied to by Satan. In Genesis three, four and five, it says that Satan says, you will certainly not die. Go ahead and eat from that tree. The serpent said to the woman, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be open and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So this is where Satan tricked Adam and Eve and they ate from the tree in the middle of the garden that God told them not to. God gave them only one command. And this command was, do not eat from the tree in the middle of the garden or you will surely die. Well, they did in Genesis 322 says, oh my gosh, this is an unbelievable verse. And says, And God said, the man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take from the tree of life and live forever. So that was it. And then Genesis 323 says that the Lord banished him. That's referring to Adam. But Eve was with him from the Garden of Eden, and there was a waving sword banishing and keeping them from now from the tree of life. So, oh, my gosh, this was it. The Spirit of God had left Adam and Eve and they were spiritually dead. They were condemned for hell. And this is how it all began. Genesis five, three, it says that when Adam lived 130 years, so that's how we know he didn't die physically that day when they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Here says that Adam would live 130 years altogether. He

The traditional view of the Advent season refers to the coming and birth of Jesus Christ, traditional known as Christmas. This is the first coming of Jesus. But is there more? Yes! Jesus is coming back again a second time, to meet us in the clouds, all of those who are born again and all of those who were born again and have died. We will meet the Lord in the air!     Transcript: Want to discover your freedom in Christ. Then listen in as Mike Stone and Kevin Smith talk about it today on Grace Coach. Hello. Welcome to Grace Coach. My name is Mike Stone and I'm with Kevin Evan Smith. Hello, Kevin. What's up, Mike? Yes, it is just two days from Christmas, and it's an exciting time for Christians in the world knowing that this is the day that Jesus was born. And we're going to talk about Advent, which many churches and many pastors talk about. This time is the time of Advent. So I thought we'd talk about what Advent is. Yes. Well, Advent comes from the Latin word Adventus, which means coming, and the Greek word Para Russo, which means coming also. And it's really something that the Christian Church celebrates. And this is pretty much many of the major denominations celebrating Advent season. And in our family, we actually do the whole deal. We have candles that we like, actually, because my son went to College for the first year. We haven't done it in probably 18 years. But we have a big routine we do during Christmas, first day of December. We have a book that somebody gave us and we read a section and they go and they get part of the Nativity scene. And it's all the animals. And we have it in a daily little cabinet and they pull the drawer out and they pick an animal and we would guess which animal. It's just a tradition we do in our family, but it's a way that many people just prepare their hearts for this great celebration that we call Christmas. So, yeah, I mean, there's a couple of ways that when we say the coming of Christ, there's a couple of different meanings. I just explained a very traditional way of doing it. But there's also the second coming, which Chris is going to do. The first Advent was him coming as a baby. The second Advent is when he comes to actually return to Earth for his second coming. And one of the things that we want to just maybe give each one of us a different spin on this phrase is the coming into your own heart, personally, that you can have a personal Advent if you don't know Jesus Christ, your personal savior. We would be just so overjoyed if you through this podcast, understood what it meant, what the real meaning of Advent meant and means. Yes. Like you said, Kevin traditional view of Advent is that Jesus came to Earth, he was born savior of the world, and he not only came to take away all of our sins, but he more importantly, came to rise from the dead, that anyone who would believe in him would have new eternal life. Really, Christmas is a great celebration of new life in Christ. And then, like you said, there's a second coming that's mentioned over and over in the New Testament about that Jesus is coming back and that event is known as the Rapture, although you don't see the word Rapture in the scriptures. But it's the day that we will meet Jesus in the clouds in the air, that everyone who is born again will be with Jesus and anyone who has been a Christian and has passed on from this Earth and died, they will also meet Jesus and us all in the air. And it says for us to encourage each other with these words. Yes. So that is a great hope. The hope I have really every day is to know that it could happen at any time, anytime. And I said to you earlier, it was an all blue sky. And I said to my wife, I go, I don't think he's coming today. There's no clouds. And now that's all we have is clouds. Pretty cloudy out there. Yeah. And then for sure, the coming of Christ to come live in your heart. Yes, that is Salvation. That is when you are born again and you cross over from death to life. So let's talk about a few things. One, let's talk about why did Jesus come the first time and then why is Jesus coming again? All right. Well, why did Jesus come the first time? Well, I would say the first reason is to forgive us of our sins. Hebrews 727 says, unlike other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself. So Jesus Christ came as a baby, lived a sinless, perfect life, and he was the perfect sacrifice Participant #1: for the sins of the people. And that was to cover sins. And God instructed them to do that because Jesus hadn't come into the world yet. He hadn't come as a one time final sacrifice. But there's a big difference between covering your sins and then taking away of your sins. So we no longer have to worry about whether we are forgiven people or not. We are and it's based on the word of God. There's just so many scriptures talking about that Jesus came to take away all of our sins one time. The second reason he came is to rescue us from the Dominion of darkness and of spiritual death because that's how we came into this world. We're born into this world, spiritually dead, and that means separated from God. When Adam ate from the tree that God told him not to, God promised that he would die that day. Adam died spiritually, the spirit of God left Adam and we're all now a product of Adam's decision that we are born into this world in the same way that Adam's son Seth was, and that is spiritually dead, separated from God. So he rescued us from the Dominion of darkness and brought us into the Kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins that's Colossians one, one, three, and 14. So this is something he's already done for anyone who believes you are no longer in darkness, but you now are in the Kingdom of the sun that he loves. And that's awesome. That is huge. That is absolutely huge. And if we can get a hold of that truth, that we are no longer in that Kingdom, but we are in God's Kingdom. We are part of his family, forever sealed based on his words. Because I know we don't have this verse in here and we reference it sometimes, but God made the promise to himself because the people's failure to keep the Covenant that he made with person after person after person. In the Old Testament, the Jews, the Israelites, they could not keep the Covenant. And so in Hebrews, it says, I swore by myself. I swore by no one greater than myself. And so by two unchangeable things, God and God. God and Jesus, he made the Covenant that we enjoy. We can't mess set up all the way. Try. Participant #1: Yeah. God will never leave us once now that he lives in us. So if you're born again and you're listening to this podcast, you have to know that no one can snatch you out of God's hands. No one can snatch you out of Jesus hands. Yes. It's because of the word of God. And it's really because of the fact that all of your sins are forgiven. There is nothing that will cause God to leave you. You are saved completely and eternally. As long as Jesus lives, he will be advocating for us. Yeah. And it says that he lives forever. He lives forever. Yeah. And then one, John, one five, Kevin, this is the message we heard from Jesus. And now to clear to you, God is light. And in him there is no darkness at all. And so if you've come to Christ again, you've been rescued from this Dominion of darkness. There is no darkness if you are in Christ. Right. So that's another thing. There's no darkness if you're in Christ. But think of it, flip that around. There's no darkness in God. Okay. There's no darkness in God. So we are in God. We are in God, and God is in us. John 17 I'm in them. They're in me. And so you have to look at ourselves in a new way. You can't look at yourself as this sinful. Oh, my gosh. I can maybe go on a rant here, but let's just say I've heard of preachers say that, opening up sermons and saying you're a sinner and speaking in general terms to the congregation. And I'm just like I was holding myself back. Anyway, we may send I send you. We all do sinful things. But that is not the point anymore. Our identity is no longer a sinner, just as the people in Corinth, even though they were still struggling and doing stupid stuff. Paul didn't address them as you sinners in Corinth. How did Paul address the people in Corinth? Saints. Okay. We are Saints, beloved children of God in whom there is no darkness. And we have to start owning that and really believing that about ourselves, even in the midst of our worst despair and situations and blowing it. That is true. We do blow it. And I tell you, I think as a Christian, when I think about sin and just thinking about it, that's tough because it's like this pressure, this thing that comes into your mind and you don't want it there. But I tell you, there's really joy in resisting it. And that for when it happens, when you can resist the thought of sin and then following through with it and whatever it might be, there's so many different ways we sin, but there really is joy in walking in love and walking in truth and keeping your eyes on Christ Jesus, keeping your eyes on the hope and the return of Christ one day. It does squash the sinful desires of our hearts. And I tell you, it does feel good. Yeah, absolutely. I hope nobody listens to our podcast and says walks away not really wanting to say no to sin. That is not what we're trying to say because we know sin. Whatever we do, it's never going to please us. We've got a reset in our heart right now, and we may not believe it, but sin no longer pleases us like it once did. The moment you have a fit of rage or anger or jealousy or divisiveness or you gossip or you lust or you do anything excessively, we know we're not fulfilled by that. And so that's the proof that sin just doesn't work for those who are in Christ. And so we can do it. But it's not going to please us like it once did. I want to just do a bit of a rabbit. I'll keep this really short, but a friend of mine gave me an audiobook on Andrew Murray and I haven't listened to the whole thing. I know I've rea

Today, many Christians are either mixing law and grace or completely under the law. The law was given to Israel only. It was never given to 21st century Christians from a Gentile back round. More than that, the law of Moses and the 10 Commandments ended at the cross (Romans 10:4). Find out how get to unentangled from legalism and come in to the grace and freedom of God. Transcript: Want to discover your freedom in Christ, then listen in as Mike Stone and Kevin Smith talk about it today on Grace coach, Grace be with you. Mike. It's been a while, but we are back here on a Sunday, and I know I'm excited to talk about our topic today, which is get untangled from legalism. This is like the go to podcast for anybody who is beginning to listen to our podcast or new to the new Covenant, this is like your starting point. This is the basics of the basics that we want to talk about today. And I'm excited about it because there's so many times that we were just talking about going to Church or in Bible studies. And I know my mom's going to be listening to this, but they had sent the document out afterwards. I'm not going to get to all the details, but when I read through it, it sounded good at some point. But the core of the message was legalism and just not understanding between the old Covenant and new Covenant. And I think that's the crux of the issue. If you are not clear on where we're at in the new Covenant with what Christ has done for us compared to what God did with the nation of Israel in the old Covenant, you're never going to understand what Christianity is all about. It's a revolution. That's something you really have to understand. Jesus Christ was bringing a revolution to the world religion, to Judaism, of course, initially. But it's for the whole world, every religion in the world, it's a revolution, a new way of thinking. So that's what we're going to talk about today. Yeah. Well, let's define legalism. And legalism is any attempt to gain acceptance or forgiveness from God through your own works or merits. And legalism and the word law, they're synonymous. And so when we talk about legalism, we're talking about how people get back under the old Covenant law that was given to the nation of Israel through Moses, and that is no longer in effect today. The punishment of the law that was given to Israel. And by the way, it was never given to the Gentiles to begin with. So you got to wonder how so many Christians from a Gentile background have gotten back under the law that was never given to them. It's really something that has to be talked about, like you said. So here are five signs that you're still entangled in legalism. And listen, nobody is 100% perfect with this. But let me go through the list real quick. Number one, you believe that God loves you, but that he doesn't like you. And if you think about it, it's almost like a guilty kind of love that God has to love me, almost like your parents. Maybe there's a parent who loves their child, but maybe doesn't like them. Or maybe somebody says, I love you but doesn't really show that they like you. Yes. It's so cliche. God loves you. But to get beneath that is does he like you? Does he like you for who you are as Mike Stone, who I am as Kevin Smith personally. And that's what we're saying today. God likes you personally in all of your foibles and all of the things that we struggle with. He likes us. And I really think in order to truly love somebody is that you really have to really like somebody to really love them. And that's why the fact is that God not only loves you, but he also likes you a whole heck of a lot. The second reason why you're still possibly entangled in legalism is because you're not Participant #1: 100% sure of your Salvation has anything to do with you being legalistic. Yeah, good question. I knew you would ask me that. Well, when we're not sure of our Salvation, it's really because we feel there are some sins or many sins or maybe one giant sin that I have done. I'm thinking about doing that I've done for many years as a Christian that is keeping me out of heaven. And so maybe I'm 90% sure or 80% sure. But it really comes down to not understanding that all our sins have been taken away. All of our sins have been taken away. Every single one of them is what you're saying. That's right. In order to know you're 100% sure of your Salvation, you need to know that all of your sins have been taken away at the cross, 2021 years ago. It's vital. Vital. Absolutely. Yeah. The number three reason why somebody might still be entangled or a sign that you're still entangled is you praise others only for their good deeds. That's a new one. We don't really talk about that a lot. Yeah. And if you think about that, you're kind of getting back to the law that was given to Israel and you're starting to treat people the way you think that God is treating you as a Christian today. The fact is that's how God did treat Israel. When the Israelites followed the law fully, they were blessed. When the Israelites didn't follow the law and disobeyed the law, they were cursed. And so we bring that down to Earth in the way we treat people or think about people that were praising them for the good things. And then number four sign your still entangled is you condemn and judge others for their bad deeds. Participant #1: Yeah. And that's a sure sign that you're still under the old Covenant law that was given to Israel. It's all about pointing fingers and the fingers. It's both ways for the good things and the bad things. If you are doing your performance work and you're working really hard at doing whatever you're doing, then if somebody else is not doing it, you're going to point that out because you're self denial, you're burning your rubber for God doing the works. So if they're either doing it, you're praising them for it. If they're not doing it, then you're definitely. How come you're not getting up at 04:00 in the morning doing your Bible study in your prayer time? I'm doing that. How come you're not doing that? Yeah. It's because of the way you look at God, that you're still under the law. You're still mixing maybe the old Covenant and the new Covenant, and it's causing you to praise others for their good deeds and condemn them for their bad deeds. And that's because that's how you believe God is looking at you. And that is just not true. Yes. So the fifth sign that you're still tangled and there's probably 100 signs, but we're just going to talk about the fifth one here, that you read the Bible only to check it off your list. That's a hard one, man. Those who have been a Christian for a long time, the Bible is synonymous to your Christian life. And actually, I do do that sometimes. I feel like I do catch myself on that. Whenever I say I should, I really catch myself and say, do I really have to do this or do I really want to do this? But it's just again, these are also nuanced. It's like you can look at it one way, but you got to just turn a diamond just a little bit, see clearly what the way to go is. And it's not about I should be doing something. But if I want to read my Bible and it's just a totally different perspective, that's the way I look at a commitment of something. Maybe it's a commitment in a relationship or a commitment with going somewhere or doing something versus wanting to do it. The Grace of God and the new Covenant, he changes our minds. He changes our hearts. And we do things because we want to, not because we have to. And if you're catching yourself with what you said, Kevin, with using the word should a lot, it's probably a telltale sign that you're still under the law. Yeah, absolutely. In fact, I was in a Church service recently and the pastor talked about because of COVID and everything, everybody's been not going to Church or watching the Church through Zoom online. And he made this big plea that we need to recommit to meeting together now. He had definitely scriptural backing for it. There is a version of Iowa says we shouldn't forsake the gathering of one another and we shouldn't. But again, is it a law? Is it being legalistic or is it something that it is such a highlight to your week, that Sunday morning time on Wednesday or whatever day you go to Church and you just like you're there because you want to be. It's a totally different Church service full of people who want to be there compared to people who are dragging themselves because they have to go there. I've been in those two things. I know I speak about our experience at Park Community Church in the early days, but, man, we loved going there. There was just a vibe in the air and energy. People just were, like, hungry and, man, those are some glory days. Yeah. And really, as far as relationships, when I hear the word commitment, it always makes me wary. Somebody might say a conversation that I'm committed to my wife. Well, the question is, do you really want to be with her? Not are you committed or not? I've never felt that I am committed to my relationship with my wife. I want to be in the relationship. And you could use that whole idea of wanting to do something versus a commitment in so many areas of our lives. So it's definitely a telltale sign that you're still under the law. So, Kevin, the question then is, once I find out that I fit one of these categories or a couple of them or maybe all of them, the question is, how do I get untangled? We have five ways to get untangled from legalism. Absolutely. The number one way or the first way is that I have to replace my bias, my thoughts, what I have learned about Christianity with his thoughts, with the word of God in context, because if I'm still legalistic and I'm still under the law or mixing law and Grace, that I really haven't heard the full gospel message. Absolutely. And, you know, this is really the cool thing about our relationship with God is that it's a renewing of your mind. It's not like, okay, you're going to go to Church and you're going to have your mind renewed completely, forever. It's a constant day by day, month by month, year by year, renewing of your mind. And the essence of it, for me at least, is that it's going to draw you closer to God

Do you need to confess your sins to God in order for God to forgive you? In other words, if you confess you sins to God he will forgive you, but if you don't, he won't? Or does 1 John 1:9 have a completely different meaning and purpose? Listen in as Mike and Kevin discuss the single most misunderstood verse in the New Testatment.   Transcript: Want to discover your freedom in Christ, then listen in as Mike Stone and Kevin Smith talk about it today on Grace Coach. Welcome to Grace Coach. This is Kevin Smith and I got our cohost. Hello, Mike Stone. Welcome, Mike. Hello, Kevin. This is going to be a great podcast to talk about one John one nine, which is used by many Christians to say that they need to confess their sins in order for God to forgive them. Yes, it is definitely a huge line of thinking in the Christian world today. And we are going to talk about how we see it and how we think the Bible speaks to the truth of this very powerful verse. This one verse, one John one nine is basically the huge verse that much of this belief is talked about. So what exactly is the belief that? What is the issue that we're talking about here, Mike on first John one nine? Well, it really comes down to Kevin reading scriptures in context because like you said, that this one verse has really confused Christians with their understanding of forgiveness. And when you're constantly asking God to forgive you over and over again after every sin and I mean, how many times a day we're not just talking about the top ten in the dirty dozen. We have worry. We have coveted. We have just a list of things that we do or think of in the day. And if we're constantly asking God to forgive us in order to get forgiven, well, I think there's something wrong with that. We can never rest in the fact that we are forgiven. Children of God. Exactly. You hit the key point. What if you forget some we send so many times and do we think that God is just going to let the few ones that we forget about asking forgiveness for slide? Is that what it is? Oh, well, you had amnesia on that sin that you committed 5 million times and didn't ask for forgiveness for. Is that God's accounting? I don't think so. I think God has a better accounting system than that. And that was the system in the old Covenant Covenant that Israel had a system and it was given by God where they offered a Bull and goat once a year, and it was to not take away sin. It was to cover sins from year to year. Problem is, once that happened, once that sacrifice happened, they had the sins of the next hour or the sins of the next day. And so that was not a complete system, but it was the only system at the time. Yes. Jesus had not come into the world yet to take away the sins of the world. No, he hasn't. That's really I love how John starts this book out similar to the gospel of John. Very similar. If you've noticed that I'll read the first verse or two, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life. The life was made manifest, and we have seen it and testified to it and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. It's just like we saw Jesus in the flesh. We touched him. He was a real person, God in the flesh, God incarnate. Yeah. And that's exactly what the problem was. There was Gnosticism in those days, which is Christian Science today. It's the same belief system as what was called Gnosticism. And what John was addressing was that the Gnostic said that Jesus neither was fully God, and he did not come in the flesh. Well, here's John is writing, we've seen them, we've touched them, we've heard of him. Right. And that was the answer to Gnosticism. Kevin, the key question first John, chapter one is who is first John, chapter one written to is it written to believers or to unbelievers? And just with you reading those first four verses in first John, that tells me that John is writing to Gnostics or unbelievers in that day. So what made you say that from what those first two verses? Well, just because the Gnostics were saying that Jesus didn't come in the flesh, saying, well, we've seen him, we have heard him, we've touched him, and this we proclaim concerning the word of life. But then if we go on to these verses first John, 1819 and 110, I think this comes out much more clearly before we do that. Let me finish up here, because this is really key to this verse three, it says that which we have seen and heard. We proclaim also to you so that you may have fellowship with us single. So he's making a distinction there. He's saying you and us. All right. We want you that don't believe what we believe, to believe what we believe so that you may have fellowship with us. And then the concluding part of the verse four says so that our joy may be made complete. So John's heart, he wants these people who are not seeing Jesus for who he was, God in the flesh from heaven incarnate. And he wanted them to see it the way he sees it, so that they could have fellowship with them. And I don't know if we're going to get into it, but in the next chapter or two, it says they were not part of us because they went out from us. So it is all over the book of first John. It's an evangelistic appeal. Absolutely. It's an evangelistic appeal to non believers. This is not written. So you can go on to verse seven, eight, nine, because that's really the heart of our thing. But if you read this thing with that context, if you make that distinction, who is it written to, believers or non believers? That's right. And that will determine what you understand when you come to one John one nine. But let's read one John one eight. It says, if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Now, let me ask you a few questions. Would a Christian ever claim to be without sin? No. That's actually the first thing you need to do in order to become a Christian is to admit that you are sinner, separated from God, that there is sin between you and God, and that you sin. That's right. Both. And so, yes, if you are saying in you don't have sin, there's a problem. We're saying that we're not spiritually dead in need of life, and we're deceiving ourselves, which is exactly what it says in one John one eight. And catch this. And the truth, who is Jesus is not in us, right? Yeah. So when you become born again and you ask Christ to come in your life, what happens is that Jesus comes to live inside of you, the Spirit of God comes to live inside of you and you are born again. And at that point, the truth, Jesus, the Spirit of God, all the same thing is now in you. But here one John one eight is saying, if we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourself and the truth is not in us. That's right. So, again, just touching back on this narcissism. It's a belief that human beings contain a peace of God, the highest good, or a divine spark within themselves, and that you have to just through knowledge, uncover this divine spark within you. So if that is your belief, then you don't need Jesus, right? You do not. You're already there divinity within yourself, and you're buying into that belief system, which if you study the New Age movement, that is a pervasive new Age thought, that we're all good and we all have this divinity within ourselves, you don't need Jesus. That's right. All right. Let's read One John 110. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar. And his word is not in us. So is this a bornagain Christian again? Does a born again Christian claim we have not sent? Absolutely not. It's a lost person who claims to be without sin. As one John one a says, and now in one John 110, same thing. If we claim we have not sinned, it's saying the same thing. And what happens? We make him, Jesus, out to be a liar. Right. You're saying you don't believe him. He says, I have come to give you life and life to the full. And you're saying, no, you're a liar. That is not true. I already have a life. I don't need you. And then it says in his word is not in us. And when you said that, this sounds like one John. One sounds like John. Well, it's the same guy, of course. But what does John one say in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God and the Word was with us and the Word came from God and so on and so forth. And the Word was God, the word of God that we read the Bible, these scriptures, it is God. It is Jesus. And that's why they're so powerful. Yeah. That's why they're so living and active. Yeah. There's a book of Hebrews says that the Word of God is living, inactive, sharper than a two edged sword. But his word is not in you. Jesus again is not living in you. If we say we have not sinned and that again is a lost person. Now let's go and read what's in between one eight and 110, which has confused the entire Christian world with whether they're forgiven or not. And let's read One John one nine. Do you want to read that, Kevin? Sure. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So let's read that in the context of one John 118 110, where if we claim we're claiming something, we're confessing something. Well, on the other hand, if we claim that we do have sin or agree with God because that's what this confess means here. You're just agreeing with God that you do sin, that you came into this world dead in your sins. Right? This is the answer to One John one eight and ten. Absolutely. He is faithful and just. And the problem is this will verse because here's this giant conditional thing that if I confess, he will forgive me. But really the Greek is that he has forgiven us our sins and purifies us from all unrighteousness. So it's just a problem with misunderstanding context here, which is the most powerful thing in a letter. How can you just pull out a verse and build your belief system on it? But yet unfortunately, many Christians have done that and it keeps them from ever knowing what they have. Kevin. They never know that God was in Christ reconciling the world, not counting your sins against you. Yeah. It is rea

The church of born again believers, began on the day of Pentecost. On that day 3000 Jewish converts received the Holy Spirit and were born again.    This is how things were until the Apostle Peter entered the home of Cornelius, who was a Gentile centurion.   The Apostle Peter and fellow Jews "were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit of God had been poured out even on Gentiles" (Acts 10:45)   God's predestination plan was to make one new man out of the two, thus making peace between Jews and Gentiles, who are born again.   For there is no difference between Jew and Gentile—the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him...(Romans 10:12).   Listen in to how this happened!     Transcript: Want to discover your freedom in Christ, then listen in as Mike Stone and Kevin Smith talk about it today on Grace coach. Hi, welcome to Grace Coach. I'm Mike Stone. Good to to be with you. And I am with Kevin Smith. What's up, Mike? It is good to talk to you, Kevin. Great to talk to you, man. How are you doing today? Real good. We're going to have a great podcast today talking about one faith for all. And that is Jews and Gentiles, which basically is everybody. Is everybody, the whole enchilada. Kevin, there's so much division in the world and especially today between black and white, and from nations, genders. There's just so much division today. But one of the greatest divisions of all time, ever since really the beginning since Abraham came on the scene, was this division between Jew and Gentile? Yes, absolutely. That is a spiritual God division, that God separated the Jews as his chosen people and therefore creating this division. Yeah. I wouldn't say that God created a division, but certainly by going to the Jewish nation, that didn't include the Gentiles, God, like you said, went to the Jewish people. Well, they were his chosen people, is what I'm saying is that he said, you are going to be my chosen people. And later on he's wringing his hands saying, you're a stiff neck people. Why did I choose you? Yeah, many times he wanted to. Just like Igshnam even I think with Abraham, did Abraham talk God into don't kill them. You'll bring shame upon your name if you destroy your people. Yeah. And Abraham was the first person to believe in one God, and his name went from Abram to Abraham, and he's known as the first Jew, the father of many nations. Yeah. So he certainly was father of the Jewish people, but he was also now the father of anyone who puts their faith in Christ. And that is Jew and Gentile. And for me, Kevin, I came from a Jewish family. Both my parents are Jewish and I went to Hebrew school. I was Bar Mitzvah. But at age 30, when I was looking into Jesus Christ and God, I came across a story in Acts Ten that just absolutely blew me away and really launched me into wanting to know more about God because that's not what I had really heard when I was starting to go to Church that God has come for both the Jew and the Gentile. And you can be a born again Jew or a born again Gentile. And that isn't something I even hear today much about. Absolutely. And there's no doubt a wall of hostility between the Jew and the Gentile. This has been going on ever since the days of Abraham, even today. Yeah, there is a wall, I would say. But it's been broken down in Christ, though, right? Yeah. There's a way through the wall for Christ. There wasn't that's right. Without Christ, there is a wall of hostility. Exactly. I'm a born again Christian from a Jewish background. You're a born again Christian from a Gentile background. That breaks down this wall of hostility because now we're both members of one body with Christ as our head. Yes, absolutely. He's a great equalizer. Yeah. So let's talk about how this all happened briefly, about how Jesus mainly first went to the Jews first mainly went to the Jews. Well, you want to read Romans 116 and 17 then? Yeah. It says, for I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God that brings Salvation to everyone who believes everyone being Jew and Gentile. First to the Jew and then to the Gentile. So Jesus first went to the Jew. He said in Matthew 1524 that I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And certainly he ministered to Romans and to people in Samaria who were Samaritans were half Jew and half Gentiles. And the Samaritan woman at the well. But Jesus went to the Jewish people. Yes, he did. That was his primary calling. But I do want to make a plug for the chosen. I may have mentioned it before, our family watches it. But that scenario where Jesus goes to the Samaritan woman at the well, I mean, we've read that story a million times, but when you see it acted out with characters and of course, they take the director's license and he puts in things that may or may not be in the Bible. But it is so beautiful portrayal of Jesus going to Samaritans. And they say, Jesus says, you are the first person that I'm making my Ministry public with first Gentile because all his disciples were all Jewish. And he went into the synagogues and tried to talk to the Jewish people and tell them about this great Kingdom that's coming. But that first person that he went public with was a Samaritan woman at the well. Yeah. In Romans 329 says, is God the God of the Jews only because that's really how it all began. Not only did Jesus mainly go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but the Apostle Paul, who was the top Pharisee who on the road to Damascus came face to face with Jesus, and he ended up writing what, 70, 80% of the New Testament, Amen. He sure did. Paul also went first to the Jew and then to the Gentile, which really tells us what Romans 116 means, first to the Jew and then to the Gentile because that's how it happened. Yeah. God's chosen people. He dearly loved them. Paul even said that in Romans later, like chapter nine, these are my brothers. I would literally die for these people if they would come to understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But as it shows, the New Testament, he went to a lot of Gentiles, planted all the churches, the Epistles Colossians would go through the whole list, but went to the Jew first. If they heard praise God, if they didn't, he went to the Gentiles also. Yeah. So after Paul had gone to the synagogues and found that the gospel was rejected in Acts 28, 27 and 28, he finally makes the statement, go to his people and say that you'll be ever hearing, but never understanding, talking about the Jews you'll be seeing, but never perceiving. For this, people's heart has become calloused. They hardly hear with their ears. They have closed their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts. And in turn, I will heal them. Therefore, I want you to know that God's Salvation has been sent to the Gentiles and they will listen. So if you ever wonder why most of the churches today are filled with Gentile Christians, this is because of what happened to the Apostle Paul. Yes. He was rejected. And we don't have a lot of time to talk about ending with the Gentile. I mean, not the Gentiles, but the Jews. But I know you're excited about some of the prophetic messages in the Bible concerning the nation of Israel in the end times. And it clearly says in the end times, the nation of Israel will be saved after all this time. So at some point in the future, the churches are going to be filled with a lot of Jewish people. That's right. My understanding, Kevin, that will be during the tribulation after the last Gentile come to faith in Christ. Yeah. It is exciting just to think about those times. And people all throughout our age of time have guessed at times. We're not doing that right now. The Bible says, don't try to figure out when that day is going to come, but just know it is going to come at some point and be prepared. And that's really our heart for everybody to be prepared. How would you be prepared simply understanding the good news of Jesus Christ? First of all, that you have an incredible need. If you don't understand that, you need a savior, you're missing the boat. You got to come to the understanding that in and of yourself you're destined for hell. And it's a hard thing. That's the stumbling block, really. You got to come over, get over that pride, and then look to God as to his answer. And his answer is Holy and solely Jesus Christ's death, burial and resurrection. That is for both Jews and Gentiles. Because all of us, Jew and Gentile, we come into this world the same way, spiritually dead, separated from God. God had a plan. He gave the law to the nation of Israel. They failed miserably at trying to uphold the law. Jesus then came to put an end to the punishment of the law and ushering a new Covenant. And then the new Covenant is for both Jews and Gentiles, where the old Covenant was really just for Israel. Participant #1: Right. The old Covenant as it was. But as we were just talking about with Abraham, God wanted the world to be saved and the Jews turned it in on themselves and didn't really go to the world. God's initial plan was go to all the nations. But they wouldn't do that. They were stiff neck and hard hearted. That's right. They wanted to come be written into the book of life by their observance to the law. Yes. Which is not going to happen. Yeah. So, Kevin, I just want to circle back to how this happened, that the gospel went to the Gentiles. I know we summed it up with Paul at the end of act in 28. But in Acts Ten, there's a story is the first time it's the account of the first Gentile to put their faith in Christ. And that happened when Peter had a vision while he was up on the roof. And I'll read this in Acts 1011 to 14. Okay. That he saw heaven open and saw something like a large sheep being led down to Earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four footed animals as well as reptiles and birds. And the voice told him, Get up, Peter, kill and eat. Surely not, Lord. Peter replied, I have never eaten anything impure or unclean. So these four footed animals were not kosher. And here was Peters, an Orthodox Jew, still under the law. I mean, ther

The identity issue is central to our lives. Who we think we are determines what we do and how we live, but it is ever changing. Jesus, on the other hand, gives us a brand new identity, which never changes. When we put our faith in Him and are born again, Christ comes to live inside us. He gives us new life, makes us righteous, perfect and holy in His sight.  Transcript Unknown Speaker 0:01 Want to discover your freedom in Christ? Then listen in as Mike Stone and Kevin Smith talk about it. Today on grace coach, Unknown Speaker 0:10 welcome to grace coach. I am Mike Stone, and I'm with my good buddy and podcast host Kevin Smith. Unknown Speaker 0:17 What's up, Mike? How are you? Unknown Speaker 0:21 Good to be with you. Unknown Speaker 0:23 Doing great. Great to be with us. Nice, beautiful sunny day in Chicago. Unknown Speaker 0:28 Yeah, we need that here. Unknown Speaker 0:31 Yeah, I know. You said you were out in your backyard with your dog. I was out in my front yard with my dog planting grass passes today. So hopefully it will grow. That's right. Well, you know, Unknown Speaker 0:43 we put down seed. And while I was watering it, I was thinking, well, Carlos, my landscaper, he put down the seed. I'm watering it. But God makes me Unknown Speaker 0:56 Oh, amen. Well, I'm Unknown Speaker 0:58 part of this Unknown Speaker 1:01 small part. But you know, you're a part. Unknown Speaker 1:03 Yeah. So Kevin, we're going to talk about our identity today, both in the world and in Christ. So it should be a great show. Unknown Speaker 1:13 Yes, I am. So looking forward to this love just talking about the most important things in the world that we can talk about. And one of the things that I love about talking about your identity in Christ is because it's vital to understand this to enjoy your relationship with God, not just a muddle through, not just to grind it out, not just oh, okay, Sunday morning, got to wake him go to church or you know, whatever activities you're doing. But when you truly understand your identity in Christ, it really well, I would even go as far to say, you can't really enjoy your relationship with God unless you understand this. Because it's just going to be a drudgery, it's just going to be a to mark off to do list and get it done and, and go on. But when you understand that you were born in Adam, and now you are in Christ, you can you can rest. And as we get into these some of the Scriptures, when I read today, our prayer is that everyone listening, if you're not in Christ, at this very moment, that you would just surrender your heart and your life to God, and enter into a new relationship with Him. And if you are in Christ, you do understand that he is your Lord and Savior, that this would be a great encouragement. And maybe you are in that drudgery aspect. And that you can just change your way you relate to God, Unknown Speaker 2:56 our identity before we were saved, you know, up to the time of our salvation, versus in our identity, after we were saved, it's like you said, it's so different, because we did go from being in Adam, to being in Christ. But I know for me, up to the time of becoming born again, in my early 30s, I really felt like a fish out of water. I never felt like I belonged. Wherever I was, even though I might have been in a club or in a neighborhood. I never really knew who I was. I just really struggled with my identity. And then also the identity that I had was really just a 30 year old guy. It really determined what I did, it dictated my choices just like as a born again, Christian. Now, my choices are dictated because of my new identity. So dictionary.com says that identity has to do with your condition, or your character as to who a person is, and that it dictates the values that you hold. And again, it dictates the choices you make. Many of us think of ourselves as an athlete, or not everyone thinks of ourselves as an athlete. We all have these identities in the world. Maybe you're a mother, maybe you're identified by your religious affiliation, as a Baptist or as a Presbyterian or it might be based on that you're a businessman. Well, that's okay until you either go out of business or sell your business, and you're no longer a businessman. Maybe you're just now you're ready retired, and now you have a new identity, but it's always changing. That's the thing about these worldly identities, they're always changing. And we're the identity we have as a born again, Christian, that never changes, once you become a born again, Christian. Unknown Speaker 5:20 Absolutely. And, you know, we're not saying that there's anything wrong with all the other identities, whether it's a mother or a father, family member, business person, a sports star, there's nothing wrong with because it's, you can't stop that. I mean, if you're going to have that, if you're a mother, you're a mother. But what what the deal is not to put your credibility or your livelihood or who you are in those identities, because like you're saying, they all they all change at some point or another. Most most, any identity that you're going to get is going to fluctuate, you're either going to be good at it, or bad at it, or maybe not that are, Unknown Speaker 6:09 then you're always comparing yourself to other people, other mothers, athletes, other Unknown Speaker 6:16 levels. Another thing it's people's opinion of you in that role, is going to change. And that's the killer of putting any stock or value in those identities. Because compared to your identity in Christ, that as a child of God, that is never going to change that is rock solid. Hebrews chapter six, verse nine, as this hope, is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls, it leads us through the curtain into God's inner sanctuary. And it's really the hope of having the hope of being in Christ. Hebrews is a great book, but that's just one of the anchored identities Unknown Speaker 7:07 that we haven't cried. And that's a great description. When do you think of a ship? And when they throw out their anchor, they're doing that so that it doesn't move any anywhere? And yeah, this anchor we have of being in Christ, it, it's an anchor for our soul, because it doesn't change, it doesn't move. Once you are born again, in Christ comes to live inside of you. So it's just awesome. You know, one of the things that we want to talk about is what does it mean? What does identity in Christ mean? What does it look like? Unknown Speaker 7:48 Yes. So what is your identity in Christ mean? Let me read Galatians 220. And it will kind of frame it up a little bit. In fact, it's a foundational verse Galatians 220 says, I have been crucified with Christ and is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me, in a life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself up for me. And if you go through the the New Testament and just look at the word in, and I know we've talked about this, about being in Adam and in Christ, but please, readers, and listeners, don't just skim over that and kind of look forward to what is going on. But that small little word in is very pivotal to really understanding where you're at. You're either in Adam, or you're in Christ. And you can see that so many times through the New Testament. Unknown Speaker 8:54 Yeah, first, john five, I believe it's a nine to 11 says that if you have the sun, you have life, eternal life, if you do not have the sun, you do not have eternal life. So we're born into this world, spiritually dead separated from God. And that's our condition. That's our identity. That's who we are. Yes, we are in Adam. And Jesus came to not only take away our sins, but to offer us eternal life that anyone who believes in Him shall not perish. And when you believe in Him, you will now have a new identity. That is a great anchor for your soul. And you are in Christ and Christ is in you. He's not around you is not in front of you. He's not behind you. He is inside of you. And living it. Yeah, that's just great confidence to have no matter where you're at no matter what situation you're in, to know that Christ is inside of you. Unknown Speaker 10:07 So let me read this Second Peter one four says, by which he is granted to us as precious and very great promises, so that through them, you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. So we have a divine nature, we're partakers of the divine nature, that is God's God is the divine nature that comes and lives inside of us, as Peter says, and that's Unknown Speaker 10:46 actually Jesus Christ Himself. Yes, he is God, and He lives inside of us. Yeah. That's why we're partaking in the divine nature. Because he's, like Galatians 220 says, it is not no longer I who live but it's Christ who lives in me. Yes, so crucial. Unknown Speaker 11:10 Yeah, just another side note on that I think a lot about Yes, the Bible says that many, many times, you know, Christ has come to live inside of you. But think about the Trinity. And it's the whole package is the Holy Spirit. Christ said, I'm going away, and I'm going to send the comfort to you. Because it's good to send a comfort to you, because Christ could not be everywhere he was, he was limited in the sense of his human body. But the Holy Spirit is not limited, the Holy Spirit can go and live in each one of us. And as, as Jesus, in the book of john, when disciples are hiding in a room, Jesus came, he breathed the Holy Spirit on that tongues of fire came to rest on him. And he just foreshadow what's going to happen in Pentecost. So it's Christ is in every single believer, get it, get it out. Unknown Speaker 12:13 And you know, Kevin, you know, so many people struggle with anxiety. I mean, this is a an epidemic, going out, especially coming out of COVID. You couldn't get into seer counselor if you wanted to today, because there are two months booked out. So many people are dealing with fear and anxiety. And there's only one answer to that. And not any specific drug which alters your thinking, until the drug wears off. But it's knowing that Christ lives in you. And I understand s

We all have a tendency to put our hope in the things of this world. There is nothing unusual about that, it's part of our human nature. But what if we could learn to put our hope in heaven on a daily basis? Or even within each hour? What would that be like? How would that affect the way we livens? Transcript Want to discover your freedom in Christ? Then listen in as Mike stone and Kevin Smith talk about it today on grace coach. Today we're going to talk about our hope and the hope that's mentioned in the Bible. And it's all based really Kevin on this key, verse Colossians, one five, that says, the hope that is stored up for you and me in heaven, that we have a great hope to look forward to. You know, I looked up some other words that the Bible uses for heaven. And Hebrews 1116 calls it a heavenly country. Luke 23, he calls it paradise. JOHN 14, two, john calls it my father's house. And the second Corinthians Paul calls Heaven, a building from God. So it's having home in heaven. One day, the day we're absent from the body and present with the Lord. And often we put our hope in so many things down here. I do it you do it, everybody does it. And really the reason for this podcast about changing your hopers because this is something I struggle with. Amen. Lately, I've been struggling more with trying to find out where my frustration is coming in, just in, in in this life, and it really had to do with God wants to change my hope, or from the things that we spend so much time doing down here thinking about people places and things and to change our hope to the hope that stored up for us and heaven. Yes, absolutely. We depend on so many things that are like shifting sand in their in their misplaced dependencies. Because they change their variable. You know, so many things, our health, our wealth of friends, I was just talking to some guys earlier this morning. Just saying you know, you can't be a people pleaser in depend on your well being, if people are gonna like you, because people you know, are so up and down one day you like, you know, the day you don't like them. You know, you get your career, your business, whatever your whatever you're doing it, you take this dependency on that. But that could change. I mean, this last year COVID, you know, I know I got laid off when COVID struck, and a lot of people, a lot of businesses shut down. If I had my dependency of my identity on my job, I would be a wreck right now. You know, a lot of people, a lot of mothers that might be listening to us do their family and their kids, their their get a lot of their identity and dependency from their kids. But they're going to grow up and get married. And they're not going to be as influenced, you know, in your life. Always be your kids, but you can't depend on them and their love the government, every crisis, they're infringing more and more in our lives. And you know, that's a hot topic and very controversial. We won't get into too much of the weeds of that. But the fact is a fact you know, they're there. They're there. And they're growing more and more classic, like we're talking about a lot of people are giving people money in work depending on now. They're talking about a universal basic income that's going to become an amine, that's dependency right there. And if we're dependent on the government, that that could be a problem. Well, that'll change as soon as there's a new, a new term, right? That's the term is four years and that changes. Yeah. So we, we spend so much time putting out our hope and the things you just mentioned, Kevin health, our wealth, our inheritance, who likes us Who doesn't? Yeah, we do live in this world. And we have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. But God wants us to think on things above and to put our hope in heaven one day, and it's gonna happen either we're going to die as a born again Christian, and then be with the Lord that day, or will still be alive and the rapture will come and will be snatched away to meet the Lord in the air. Absolutely. Now that's a hope that is certain to happen. And we know that because the Bible speaks of it. Yeah. And we know that God's Word is true. So that is what I feel is where I get hung up. I think we all get hung up in putting too much weight, too much dependency in the things of this world, just shifting day to day. Yes, we really need to have a realistic expectation that Yeah, they they're here now. But they may not be here tomorrow. So I wanted to read a few scriptures about this hope that we have in heaven. And Romans 824 says, For in this hope, we were saved. And he's referring to the hope that is stored up for us in heaven. And he says that hope that is seen is no hope at all. who hopes for what they already have? What Paul is writing about in Romans is that we, we have this hope, of eternal life one day. Yeah, the Father's house, in Paradise, we have this hope. And that's why we were saved to be with the Lord forever, one day. And that's a great hope to hang on. Oh, I like the Hebrews verses and I know there's one that I'm thinking of, here it is right here. Hebrews 11 one Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for. The conviction of things not seen. And it goes on and on. But it's like to think hope for but we haven't seen it. unseen thing, but we're hoping for it. But it's the conviction of things not seen. Now, here's the funny thing is Yeah, that hope in heaven we haven't seen because hope that is seen is no hope at all. But here are the things that we do see those things here on Earth in our lives. We put a lot of weight in a lot of hope in and then yes, things change, people die. Our health changes. Well, we see that all the time. things just happen to our bodies. And if we just look at a picture 30 years ago, we're like Who is that? I don't recognize that person. I got head hair back then. I have a good buddy of mine. Every time we do a zoom call, he says we're racing to see who loses their forehead. Oh, fast. Boy, you should just cut the video feed there. Oh man, I love Titus 213. And tight Paul is saying to Titus while we wait for the blessed hope, the appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And so he's he's talking here about the rapture, waiting for the appearing of Jesus to come back and snatch those who are born again. And Paul is calling that the blessitt hope is a day we are in the Father's house. So again, you know, we're talking about, like you just said, when you either Christ's wrap raptures. So we go to heaven, but in the hope in Titus, one, two, in the hope of eternal life. Now, yes, once we get to heaven, you know, we're going to see God we're going to do Jesus, but our eternal life literally begins the moment we believe we're eternal creatures, but our eternal life with God begins then, you know, and that's really the hope. It's just going to be a different context. Different life. Yeah, we have a different body, Adi, we're going to see God face to face. But right now our it's really about your eternal destiny. We're all an eternal being. Just Where are you going to spend that eternity? And and how are you going to get there and all that stuff? You know, some people are going to die and go to hell, they're going to be separated from God for all eternity. And we need to be heartfully praying for those people. And those who are not, you know, we're going to be in heaven with the Father. Yeah. It just makes sense to me to put the full weight of our hope in something that we are guaranteed, right? We have a guaranteed inheritance. We know it's going to happen, the Bible speaks He speaks of it over and over. And to put our full weight and dependency on that, even though we can't see it, the Word of God says it's going to happen. And to shift away from all the hope that we put down here, Hebrews 619 says it like this, we have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary, behind the curtain. So this hope that we have that we're talking about the hope of heaven one day is an anchor for our soul. It keeps Yes, it keeps us walking peacefully. And there's contentment that comes in. When you focus on the hope of heaven one day, that hope is truly an anchor. I experienced that today. Getting ready for this podcast. Looking up all these scriptures, I experienced this hope as an anchor for my soul, as I was going about my business. Yes, you know, walking the dog doing a little work, having lunch I was it was on my mind all of these verses, and it gave me great joy and peace. Amen. So I love Hebrews, that verse you read, I'm going to backup a couple of verses, because it really solidifies the hope. So this is Hebrews chapter six, verse 16, says, For people swear by something greater than themselves, and all their disputes and oath is finally his final for confirmation. So when God desire to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise, the unchangeable character of his purpose, he guaranteed it with an oath to unchangeable things in which is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. So it's just basically 16 was like if I make an oath with you, we're we're swearing that oath by something greater than us. All right, ie God. But then it transitions. The verse verses transition to God actually making the oath. So it's not you and me making an oath to each other. But the verse transition to God making an oath. And he said, he secured the oath, by himself by to unchangeable thing, well, that's a good thing, because we would just mess it up. Absolutely. Desert, like, Did mess it up for hundreds of years. They are up and down. I, oh, yeah, God, I'll do it. And five minutes later, they're making a golden calf. Now, the good thing on this side of the cross, Kevin is that we have forgiveness. They had forgiveness year to year, but we have a one time sacrifice for sin. Where if we do blow it, if we do mess it up, when we really can't mess it up, because we have been forgiven by God completely. And that's why that hope can't change. You know, some teach that you could lose your salvation. You can have destiny, your destination in he

Do you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus Christ is not counting your sins against you? Or are you still struggling with this "too good to be true" concept, that all your sins are forgiven by God; past, present and future? Listen in as Mike and Kevin talk about how God remembers your sins no more. Transcript Unknown Speaker 0:01 Want to discover your freedom in Christ? Then listen in as Mike Stone and Kevin Smith talk about it. Today on grace coach. Hello, and Unknown Speaker 0:10 welcome to the grace coach. Unknown Speaker 0:13 What's up, Mike? Unknown Speaker 0:14 Good to see it, Kevin. Unknown Speaker 0:17 Great to see you too, man. Unknown Speaker 0:18 It's been a while. Unknown Speaker 0:20 It has been it has been, you know, we Unknown Speaker 0:22 do these monthly podcasts. And you know, after a few weeks, I'm, I'm ready to be going as a goal once a week, and then maybe we'll get them you know, maybe Unknown Speaker 0:33 twice a week. Yeah. Unknown Speaker 0:36 Once a month is a long time long time for our listeners to make them. Wait. Unknown Speaker 0:42 I know my mom tells me all the time. We can't do a podcast. That's a mom, we're doing a podcast. Unknown Speaker 0:47 That's nice. Your mom is listening. Unknown Speaker 0:49 Is that sad? I got it. Unknown Speaker 0:51 No, I said it's great. Unknown Speaker 0:56 Why? So my mom and all the ladies in our Bible study, I think are listening to sound down in Florida. Unknown Speaker 1:02 That is great. So what are we talking about today, Kevin? Unknown Speaker 1:07 We are talking about forgiveness, and not just forgiveness, but the once and for all forgiveness that we have in Jesus Christ. Yeah, amen. Talking about or what Unknown Speaker 1:21 it really is. And you know, if it wasn't for the book of Hebrews. And you know, you can go to Bible gateway and put in the words once and for all you'll see, in the book of Hebrews, it mentioned one way or another six times. Huge. It's unbelievable, because we all know what the word once means, right? One time. And for all, we know what the word all means, for everybody. Unknown Speaker 1:54 All means all. All means Oh. That's a great point. I actually doing research on this was just looking about the different religions of the world and what they believe about forgiveness. And it's really surprising a couple ways they go one of it is they talk about forgiveness between people. Like I forgive you, you forgive me, we're all good. But woba other ones that are more serious talk about, they'll mention about forgiveness from God. But it just comes with strings attached performance, and it's just like, was there any truth out there that comes even close to what Christianity offers? In a once and for all forgiveness? For all times for all people? It's not it's it's a treadmill, or it's a forgiveness of people doing nice things for each other and forgiving them because of it. Unknown Speaker 2:57 And that's certainly a byproduct of knowing that God forgives you without a doubt that we forgive because he forgave us. Sure. The Scripture says, forgive as the Lord forgave you. Yes, no, there's no doubt reconciliation between people is very important down here on Earth. But right won't happen unless we first understand the forgiveness that God has given to us. Unknown Speaker 3:28 Right, and that it's God, that's giving the forgiveness. It's his plan. It's his dealings. He has done it, he's performed it. Alice, this lady, I texted you this morning today, by just looking in Romans, about his divine forbearance. I just read it in Romans 325 set which says, whom God put for his propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This one, this was to show the God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he passed over former sin. So God has passed over former sins, to display on glory, what he did in Christ once and for all for all people. It's it's an incredible thing because even in Christianity, people misunderstand this forgiveness of God, and they go to the Old Testament forgiveness of God, you know, unless you really look at Jesus Christ, and what he did on the cross, and the way God had divine forbearance on his sins in the Old Testament, but now today 212 2000 years ago, He put on display Jesus Christ as crucified dead and buried blood that was shed for our account to provide this forgiveness. And without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. Right? Unknown Speaker 5:17 Right, right. You know Leviticus 1634, a verse I found says, This is to be a lasting ordinance to you, and he's speaking to Israel. atonement is to be made once a year for all the sins of the Israelites. So there again is the the once but this is once a year. This is not the once the one time sacrifice that Jesus did across 2021 years ago. And then it says, For all of the sins, but it's not for all of the people of the whole world, Jew and Gentile. This is for all of the sins of the Israelites. Unknown Speaker 6:02 And it wasn't for all time, because the year after Yom Kippur War, the day after Yom Kippur War, they had to start all over Unknown Speaker 6:10 again. It was never ending. Yes. And therefore the Israelites could never rest. Unknown Speaker 6:18 never rest. Unknown Speaker 6:21 God's love is acceptance is forgiveness. So, you know, I was just thinking, why is it that Christians, people in general, but Christians have such a hard time with this subject? Why are they begging God to forgive them when they sin? via verse first john one nine, which is the Christian bar of soap, right? Yeah, verse that they use, which isn't about forgiveness, but about salvation. But why do you think Heaven, we aren't hearing a complete message of God's one time sacrifice for all? Unknown Speaker 7:05 Well, I think there's probably a lot of answers to that, too, to kind of mine one, there's a spiritual blindness, that people are just blinded to the truth. They don't want to know the truth. Second, you know, we sin, we sin every day, we do stupid stuff every single day. And the human ego wants to say, I want to fix this, I love you, God, but let me just fix this little thing I'm doing here every day. And you know, it was a critical spirit, or, you know, lust, or God forbid, there's so many different things out there that people are struggling with. But they haven't come to the truth. They have not accepted the truth. Or then I think that Unknown Speaker 7:51 is that very thing that you just said, Kevin, is what I I believe, and I agree with you is the reason why many Christians don't know what they have, is because they're not going to the scriptures. They're not even urged to study the Scriptures. But if you do, and that's why we're doing these podcasts, right? Because that's all we do on these podcasts is read scriptures. If you go to the Scriptures, and you start to see how God has taken away your sins. It's it's hard to deny the fact that all of our sins have been taken away once and for all. And the only response that we should have as to thank God for taking over Harrisons after we send instead of begging him for what we already have. Unknown Speaker 8:45 Yes, why don't we read a few scriptures? If you want to start out with Hebrews 926, I'll go to 727. And then you can do 1012 if you're okay, let's just read them and then just go back and we can commentate after it. But let's just let people just soak in this truth. Unknown Speaker 9:04 Yeah, that's great, Hebrews 926 and 27. Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world, but he has appeared once and for all, at the culmination of the ages, to do with away with sin, by the sacrifice of himself. And so there it is, he is Jesus appeared one time for all people for all time, Unknown Speaker 9:37 for one people for all time. Next one is Hebrews 727, which says, unlike other high priest, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrifice for their once for all, when he offered himself, they did this for their own sins first, and then for the sins of the people referring, of course, to the priests and the nation of Israel. Unknown Speaker 10:15 So there again is that he sacrifice their sins once and for all. Unknown Speaker 10:22 Alright, you want to read Hebrews 1012 and finish it with 912. Unknown Speaker 10:25 Sure. But when this priests Jesus had offered for all time, one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God. And since that time, he waits for his enemies to me, be made his footstool, for by one sacrifice, he is made perfect forever, those who are being made holy. So there again, Kevin, a right one time sacrifice for sin has the third time in the book of Hebrews, that we see that, Unknown Speaker 11:00 yeah. And here's another one, Hebrews 912, he did not enter by means of blood of goats in calves. But he entered the Most Holy Place, once for all, by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. Unknown Speaker 11:22 So let's think through this, because let's think through what the book of Hebrews is telling us, what the writer is saying is that 2021 years ago, Jesus Christ came into this world. He was born, he did many miracles, he did many wonderful things. And then he went to the cross and took away all of our sins for all time. And we haven't even gotten to the resurrection yet. But let's just talk about the cross that one act for all of our sins for all time, if you understand that, and believe that, and then you put faith in that, because you could believe that, but not really put faith in that. And here's what I mean by that, I can believe that this chair to the next to me in my office will hold me up. But if I don't sit in the chair, I am putting faith in what I believe. And so if I'm still asking God to do what he says is a once and for all sacrifice. I don't really believe that. Unknown Speaker 12:39 Yeah, you're not putting your faith in it. I'm not putting Unknown Speaker 12:41 my faith in these truths. Unknown Speaker 12:44 Yeah, until you rest. Unknown Speaker 12:46 That's right. I'm saying, I don't believe these scriptures. And that's why I need to hedge my bet. Like, you know,

Some people believe the water baptism in necessary for salvation. Some people believe that because Jesus was baptized with water, they need to. What do the Scriptures say about baptism? Tune in as Mike and Kevin talk about it.   Transcript Want to discover your freedom in Christ? Then listen in as Mike stone and Kevin Smith talk about it today on grace coach. Welcome to grace coach. What's up, Mike? Hey, Hey, Kevin. All right, man, glad to be with you. Today, we're gonna have a great show. And we're gonna be talking about baptism. And there are so many things, so many, a wide variety of different comments about baptism. And it's just amazing, as I stated last couple of days. might tell me about yourself, what was your story on baptism? Yeah, thanks for asking. I was one to a messianic church where we went to the beach, in the Chicago area. And they were baptizing anyone who wanted to be baptized. And so I went through that process, but surely really didn't understand what I was doing. I wish I would have had this podcast to listen to. But I kind of knew a little bit was about identifying myself with Jesus and the water was a symbol. And we're going to read some scriptures today. But I think some of the, the the thoughts about baptism, what they people believe, is some people believe that water, water baptism is necessary for salvation. They even take it a little further some other religions that infants need to be baptized in order to make sure they're saved, and go into heaven. So via an infant can even make a decision for Christ. They are baptized with water, aka baptismal regeneration. And others believe that because Jesus was baptized, that I need to be baptized. Yeah, let me get back to you. What did that mean to you? Because like you just said, some people, there's beliefs out there that when they get baptized, that is, you know, they're becoming a Christian. At that moment. baptismal regeneration is what would they call it? A lot of major denominations believe that. Catholics believe that. But so but Jewish people that you brought in what was what was going on for you personally, when you got baptized? Was it just a symbolic thing at the end of a your? I forgot the word that Jewish people do when they become adult Jewish people into the journal mitzvah. Bar Mitzvah. Yeah. So is that was it part of your bar mitzvah? Or was it just something people do in general? Or how does it how it is with Jews? Well, so I was going to a church. I was a new believer. And basically, Kevin, the answer your question is, I was just doing what they told me I should do. It was this the Messianic church? That was Yes, it was. Okay. So that's different than what I was thinking. I was thinking that you're talking about your when you went to church as a kid before you went to MSI. So yeah, okay. I get that with the Messianic that they would be doing stuff like that. Yeah. And so yeah, like I said, I didn't really understand about baptism. I wasn't really reading the scriptures that much. I was doing like so many other people, you know, going to church, just listening, what the pastor was reading, and then just doing pretty much what they asked us to do. And water baptism in the lake was one of those things. Man, let's do it. Yeah, yeah, but a baptism. The more I look at it, I can, I can see how it came about, although you won't find the word baptized in the Old Testament. But if you ever went to the temple of Israel, the Wailing Wall, on the south side of the Temple Mount, were cleansing baths known as mitzvahs. Right, and they've been there seen that? Yeah, yeah. And so those were used to cleanse people prior to them entering the temple. They were also used as monthly menstrual cycle cleaning for females. Yeah. And if you had come in contact with a dead body, that was also a way to be cleansed of any diseases or germs and today, Orthodox Jews actually believe that if you're a Gentile want to convert to Judaism. That you would need to dip yourself in a mikvah bath in order to become Jewish right there reminds me when Jesus healed I think the blind man, he said, go to the temple and cleanse yourself. That's probably exactly what he did. And so they know exactly what he was talking about, may not have known that this was a spiritual cleansing that Jesus was talking about. But I wanted to take a look at some scriptures, Kevin, first and First Peter 319. And 21. Great verse, I didn't read that one. It talks about Noah being saved in the ark. And it says, so he went and preached to the spirits in prison, those who disobeyed God, long ago, when God waited patiently while Noah was building his boat, only eight were saved from drowning in that terrible flood. And that water is a picture of baptism, which now saves you that by removing dirt from your body, but as a response to God, from my clean conscience, it is effective because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So this hair clearly says that this water, it and they really were saved in the ark, right? They were saved from the water. But yeah, the saving process of being in the ark was a picture of baptism. And that spiritual baptism, which saves us today, that when we're born again, Christ comes to live inside of us, and were baptized into the Holy Spirit. I love that a picture of baptism, it's it's goes to the symbolic thing. And I know the church, I basically spent a lot of time at Park Community Church in the city. That's really what the mantra was there. You know, it's a, what was the phrase? Is it inward? No, it's our expression of an inward transaction, basically. Yeah. And that's really, I think, the depth of what people understood baptism to be, you know, it's just like, Alright, there's something to happen. I accepted Christ, and I'm gonna go and get dunked in the way we did it, and like Michigan also. So anyway, is a picture of it. But I think I hope that we at the end of this podcast today, are able to take people to a much deeper, richer place in their understanding of what actually happened in that spiritual context of baptism. And I read this verse, this next verse, First Corinthians chapter 10, verses one through two. And then we'll kind of dig into some more things by says, I don't want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago, basically talking about Moses in Israel, all of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them. And all of them walked through the sea, on dry ground, in a cloud and in the sea. All of them were baptized as followers of Moses. So what, what this verse does and what the verse you just read, basically, is identifying these people with a person, Moses, in this case, no. And the other case, all right. And so that is really the the the meaning of baptism is that you're, you're being dipped down in the water, you're being identified with someone now as a Christian, we're being identify with who with Jesus, with Jesus. Absolutely. That is really the crux of the issue is who we're being identified with. Now, it's also you're being identified with His death, burial and resurrection. All right, I think that is kind of some of the points that a lot of people don't really understand. Is that not just a symbol of you being going down in the water and coming up, you know, you died, your old self died, and you've become a new self. And we've talked we talked about this new life a lot but it's so funny how this is where you get to with a lot of this is the message of the Bible is that we died and we've we raised up in a new life, you know, we're dead to sin. That's that's a Another benefit of baptism. We're not like dying to self every day. It's your dead, your old self was dead and you are raised a noose, new self? And what does the Bible tell you about that? It says, you have a new heart, not the hardest stone anymore, but a heart of flesh. And that is, I think, for me is, is the biggest point of baptism is that we have a new heart, a new water, we want different things, even though we do dumb things. We say this a lot. But that's not our nature, we have a new cart, a new score of who we are those beautiful, so it is very beautiful. What do you think my? Well, I like it. And as I mentioned the beginning, some people want to be baptized with water. And there's nothing wrong with it, if you want to be baptized with water is terrific, but just you don't want to mix that with the spiritual baptism of the Holy Spirit. Because, you know, good can be the enemy of what is best. It's good to be baptized with water. If that's what you want to do. There's certainly no requirement for the church and x. They were baptized with water when they came to believe. Does that mean you should well there's the people who say yes, because an X 238. What shall we do? They ask, we should be baptized with water. That's what they did. The Book of Acts is not a doctrinal book. It's a historical book. But but it's the book of Acts that we're not doing today. That's right. On the other hand, when I say good can be the enemy of what is best if you miss this message of salvation, that you were dead, spiritually dead, as you were talking about, and now have crossed over from death to life. And Christ, then comes to live inside of us. It's that baptism, it's that identification is Christ coming to live inside of us, which is what must happen for us to be saved and go to heaven one day, and we don't want to miss that. And that's, that's what I mean, that good can be the enemy of what is best. But I want to also talk about Jesus and why he was baptized. And we can see that in john 131, to 33. And I love this Kevin, every time I read it, yes. It's like, Is it really in there? So I'm going to read it for us. I myself did not know him. And this is john the baptist. But the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel. Then john gave this testimony, yes, I saw the Spirit come down from heaven, as a dove, and remain on him. And that's the dove that remained on Jesus's shoulder. And I myself did not know him. But the one who sent me to baptize with water, told me the man on whom you see the Spirit come down as a dove, and remain is the one who

In our last podcast, we mentioned Bible verses about eternal security and that once we are saved by Jesus, we are saved completely and forever. In this podcast we discuss verses in the Book of Hebrews, that some use to teach Christians that they can walk away from God and lose eternal life. God forbid. We hope that after listening to this podcast, you will be fully convinced that you are eternally secure, forever and ever.  Transcript Want to discover your freedom in Christ? Then listen in as Mike stone and Kevin Smith talk about it today on grace coach. What's up, Mike? Hey, hey, good to be with you, Kevin. Great to be with you too, man. Yeah. How's everything going? This Christmas week? You know, it is a really crazy Christmas this year with COVID. And the whole deal with that. I mean, it's just so, so many traditions, we do a lot of traditions in our family that, you know, they're not huge things, but they're just things that we do every year. We're not doing and is I just like this war, I woke up and I just felt like, Am I depressed? Now? This lack of this, the regularity of this very, very special season of the year. And so yeah, that's kind of where I'm at. And I think even our family, I mean, Shelley and I are talking about, you know, what kind of traditions Can we start doing this year. And it's kind of, you know, a few days before Christmas, and we don't have much. You can do a zoom tradition, or start that we are we did talk about that. One of the things we do we have a, we have a Jesus birthday party every year, we have a few close friends over. And we have a birthday party for Jesus, and we make it a Jesus birthday cake. And so we were thinking about making a cake and bring a cake and a bottle of wine to these families that usually join us. And then doing a zoom call, and everybody can eat cake and sing happy birthday to Jesus. So that might that might still happen. That's on deck. What about you? What do you what kind of traditions do you do? Yeah, we've had to tell most of our extended family that they're not invited this year. And my daughter has a small baby, only two, two and a half months old. So we just being cautious about this? And yes, but still, the bottom line is Christmas is all about Jesus Christ. And it is all about Jesus Christ. Yes. And he came into this world, maybe 19 187 years ago or so. But he came to take away the sins of the entire world. And then three days later, he rose from the dead. And now anyone who believes in Him shall have eternal life. Yes, eternal life. So Mike, is that Tell me about that eternal life? Is that eternal life secure? Can we lose that eternal life? If you're going to use the word eternal? And we can go to Webster's or any online dictionary and look at the definition of eternal it means forever? Okay, so we talked on our last podcast about eternal security and why we have it. And we thought we would talk today about some of the tensions that are out there. For some who believe that you could have eternal life, you can have Jesus living in you, and then you could walk away from Jesus, or ask them not to be a part of your life anymore. Anyway, a look at it. You can't call it eternal life. If it's something that is temporal, you should call it temporal life. And that's not in the Bible. I don't think temporal life. I haven't seen that word temporal, but I know what that means. It means only for a short time, or for a certain period, eternal life. And the word forever. All they all they mean the same thing. And so as I'm doing this podcast today, I'm looking at the windows and everything. I'm looking at the trees, my office, the computer, you Everything is temporal, right? Yes, it's only for a certain time. If we fast forward to 200 years, none of what we're looking at, would be here. It would be gone one way or most likely, most of what the things we're looking at what all not be here, right but to clarify that the things of the world Yes, but the two things that I would say that are eternal are us. We are eternal, whether we're going to be an eternally in heaven, or eternally in hell. And then the other thing that's eternal is the word of God. So we're I'm looking at the Word of God right now. And I believe it is eternal. I think we'll have it in heaven with us. As funny that you don't really, I don't know, I was gonna say, there's not stories in the Bible, I can Revelation where they're reading the Bible in heaven. But I guess we're not going to get into that, but just a random thought. But I do believe we'll have the Bible in heaven, is my point. Yeah. And I think we will be in heaven, our souls, they these bodies know, we'll get new bodies, but souls will be with new transformed bodies. So let's get into some verses that people really get tripped up on when they look at, can I lose my salvation. And I know there's a lot of them, I had a list of the day, which was about five or six. But we're just going to look in our short time today at the book of Hebrews. So if you've got your Bibles, feel free or pop your phone out to Hebrews. We're going to start in chapter two, and verses one through three. Mike, do you want to read? Do you want me to pop it? Yeah. And these, these verses are really just warnings from the writer of Hebrews. Yeah, who is writing to Hebrews, that I believe I know, you believe there are both lost and saved Hebrews. Many of you read the book of Hebrews believe that it was written to only Christian Hebrews. And so it really depends who you think this book was written to in the first place, is how you will look at these verses. But let me read Hebrews 2123, we must pay more careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard so that we do not drift away. For if the message spoken by angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received as just punishment, that's referring to the law, how can we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? So here, the writer of Hebrews is not wanting the reader to miss such a great salvation. He's saying, Please pay more careful attention, so that you do not drift away from this great salvation. And so I believe you would not say that to somebody who was saved. But you would say, say it to somebody who was maybe on the fence? Absolutely. And I think that, and I'll just re emphasize what you just said, because I think it's crucial to really understanding the book of Hebrews. And that is the fact you got to consider the audience that Paul was writing to, and when you do, you can really see Paul's heart. He is like, brothers do not walk away from this. And who was he talking to? He was talking to Hebrews, Jewish people who were in the temple that would maybe come to their house churches access. You know, there wasn't any mega churches in, you know, Paul's time, there was gathering in house churches there, he was sharing the message. And people would come from the temple. They weren't really buying into this thing. They were just kind of taste testing. I want to just give a shout out to our one of my favorite guys, Andrew Farley, he, he talks about, you know, going into the grocery store aisle and kind of taste testing, you know, the little snacks that they give you in order for you to buy the package. That's a great analogy to what Paul's doing here. These Hebrews were basically just taste testing, they weren't really buying the whole deal, okay? They were just nibbling at the edges, right? that's crucial to understanding this thing. And even as I was studying this, for this podcast, I would even go further and say there's that group of people who just came to visit and then went back to the temple. But Paul's also in some of these verses, talking to people who were in the, in the house church, that was part of them. And that was saying, he was saying to them eagerly, you know, like, Don't walk away from this hold on to it. And really the point of it is and I know I'm ramblin here is that eternal security, eternal salvation is the absolute we have to hold on to, if somebody can walk away somebody in your church or in your Bible study, and they leave and kind of renounce, I don't believe this anymore. I think what you have to say at that point was that they were never never Christians. They were never genuinely a believer. They tasted it, they were checking out, they took a spot in the Pew on Sunday. But then eventually, as the parable, say, the cares of this life choke that way. And I know you mentioned Paul a few times, in your I guess you're assuming that Paul wrote the book of Hebrews, although it's really not mentioned who the author is here. It certainly is his style. Yeah, no doubt about it. But I just want to mention that. Yeah, unlike most of Paul's other letters, he, you know, says, Hey, this is from Paul to the Corinthians from Paul to the Romans. He doesn't say that in here. But and there's is a great debate on who actually wrote it. But I would say, I feel like as Paul, I don't think anybody has the mind of God, like Paul did, wrote two thirds of New Testament. I personally think it was Paul, even though he didn't sign it himself. But that's a great debate. I'm not sure. It certainly sounds like him. But I know it's really the Holy Spirit. whoever wrote the book. I mean, God Himself. He wrote the scriptures. He used them as he's using people today. Absolutely. So do you want to say anything more about this? Hebrews two, one through three? Yeah, no, I just, I know that the same thing is mentioned throughout the book of Hebrews, the same heart of the the writer of Hebrews, not wanting the Hebrews to drift away and fall to the other side. Yes, you know, one on the fence, and then fall away from the grace of God. Absolutely. Because they're boring, such a great salvation. Right? God does not want that. You want I mean, all men to be saved. You have this great salvation in Christ, or contrasting it to keeping the law on the temple and spiritual death and hell, yes, God does not want that for any Yeah, that's the law of spirit and death. Which is not a good thing. So moving on to Hebrews, chapter six, verse four through six, which is kind of that one of the classic verses that people would point to about losing their

The doctrine of eternal security is one of the most important doctrines in the Scriptures. Knowing that God will never leave you, no matter what, is the very essence of the New Covenant and of the love of God. Listen in and see why you can never lose your salvation, once you have it. Transcript Unknown Speaker 0:01 Want to discover your freedom in Christ? Then listen in as Mike Stone and Kevin Smith talk about it today on grace coach. Unknown Speaker 0:12 What's up, Mike? pillow? Kevin, we're gonna talk about one of our favorite topics. Absolutely eternal security. eternal security is the good news of the gospel. I love to know I'm secure. It is a foundational belief of the Christian faith. JOHN Calvin calls it the perseverance of the saints. Yes, if you just persevere in the Scriptures, as we'll do today, we're going to go through a lot of scriptures that talk about why once we're saved, we can never lose our salvation, aka eternal security. It's a great topic. I wish there were more pastors talking about this. And really, everything in the New Covenant is all about eternal security, and that once Christ comes a live inside of you, he'll never leave you again. Unknown Speaker 1:17 It is, without a doubt, one of the Unknown Speaker 1:23 best doctrines that you could live the Christian faith in, if you don't have clarity around this issue, your relationship with God will be topsy turvy, up and down a roller coaster ride. And if we can just encourage people today with the fact that they are eternally secure that their relationship with God is guaranteed by the deposit of the Holy Spirit. And as we're getting to get into some of the Scriptures, we can read them. But that is that is the fact the reason that you have the Holy Spirit is a deposit guaranteeing by God that you are Unknown Speaker 2:16 say that you are secure. Let's write a fusions Ephesians 113. And 14 says it like this, it says and you were included in Christ, when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, when you believed you are marked in him with a seal, the promise Holy Spirit, who just like you're saying Kevin is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are in guy's possession, to the praise of his glory. Wow, you know what I'm going to read from this systematic theology book that I have a gut from when I was a student at Moody Bible Institute. The Greek word translated in that verse guarantee is our baronne and is a legal and commercial term. That means the first installment deposit downpayment pledge and represents a payment which obligates a contracting party to make further payments. Unknown Speaker 3:26 All right, the contracting party in that then this agreement that we're talking about here is God and you and God is going to make further payments. Unknown Speaker 3:38 On this contracting, you no obligation, which is a beautiful thing, and that that further payment is going to be when we see him face to face, and we have glorified bodies and renewed spirits is going to be Unknown Speaker 3:59 incredible. Yes, it will be I can't wait. You know, with the excitement of eternal security, knowing we could hit that God will never leave us or forsake us ever against once we are born again, comes much controversy. I have met many pastors, and I've been in churches, hearing sermons, that you could lose your salvation, that you are not secure in Christ, that you could walk away from God. Walk away from the faith. Anyway, you say, there are those who say that you could lose Christ, once crisis living inside of you. But for a Christian to lose their salvation, Kevin, God would have to erase the mark on a Christian, withdraw his spirit, cancel the deposit that we just Unknown Speaker 5:00 Read was guaranteed to break his promise, why revoke the guarantee and the gift. And I love this keep his inheritance. Unknown Speaker 5:14 That's why this is such an important topic, it's important for Christians to know that they have that one, yes, always saved, and that they can never lose their salvation. Unknown Speaker 5:28 We Christians need to know that. And that's why we thought this topic is so important today in what you just read, Mike, we've got about 20 scriptures that we've come up with, that are all over the New Testament that basically encapsulate the thoughts that you just said. And it's, it's on, you know, pretty much you can't hardly ever look at, I mean, the parables that Jesus talked about, it's amazing when you just look at some of these things, through the lens of eternal security, that this is what Jesus was talking about, that you know, you are secure, I'm casting these branches out that never were part of the Divine, you know that that parable is part of just this whole thing that we're talking about. And so it's It is amazing that, like you're saying, the controversy that is out there, because it is a controversy that, I think that we want to say in the first here is that we are not here trying to say, we know who's a Christian and who's not a Christian, we're not saying who's in who's not in, it's more about a very personal thing, that each person can live their Christian life with this truth with this doctrine of eternal security. So, so we're not trying to say, Oh, you can go look at people and say that they did this, or they didn't do this. And they are in or they're not in. It's really at the death of a person that your eternal security is sealed. Because you could have some really an errant views. And we're all having our mind renewed as to the truth of the gospel. And we could be believing some stupid stuff. But God's not done with us yet. Unknown Speaker 7:39 You know, Kevin, apart from some of the Scriptures, that we're going to read just the word eternal, right? If it was not eternal, then it would be temporal, right? But the fact that, you know, john 316, whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. That's forever. Yes, no one believes that they can lose their salvation. They don't know what the word eternal means. Eternal means forever. Yes, for forever, no matter what. So I want to look at a few verses with you today, Kevin, john 637, to 40 are some of my favorite, it says that all those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never drive away. Unknown Speaker 8:37 Never means never, for I have come down from heaven, not to do my will, but to do the will of Him who sent me. And this is the will of Him who sent me that I shall lose none of those. He has given me. Right, rather raise them up. On the last day, just like you were saying, when Jesus comes back, either we're here and we're Ramsar to meet him in the year or we might have died before the rapture, and then we'll meet the Lord in the air also. That's the last day and he says, I will lose none of us, none of them, no matter what, no matter what. Absolutely. Unknown Speaker 9:25 I love verse 39. This is the will of Him who sent me that I should lose none of all those he has given me, the raise them up at the last day. So it's really about God and Jesus. Unknown Speaker 9:42 You know, not losing any of us in when we start saying, I am doing something to earn, maintain or establish my salvation, then we're going to be part of the the eternal equation, but when you understand Unknown Speaker 10:00 That it was a gift from God, and He secures it and maintains it just have to endure to the end is their understanding of salvation, Kevin, is that Jesus died for my sins and it stops there. Yes, then if I'm a born again, Christian, and my lifestyle is caught up in sin too much, I'm gonna think there's something wrong with me. There's something wrong with God, there's something wrong with the Word of God, because I'm trapped. I'm addicted. And I can't get out of this trap, amen. And I gonna walk away from God. And that's a person who might say, I was saved, and I am not. The problem is their understanding. Salvation is too small. Salvation is crossing over from spiritual depth of spiritual life. And Jesus comes to live inside of us. It's not about what we do and what we don't do. It's not about our sins. It's about that Jesus took away our sins and then rose from the dead and offers life to the spiritually dead. It's a yes, no complete message. It's a full message. And when you understand that, you won't struggle with eternal security, you won't struggle that your sins caused you to walk away from God. Yes, I think that is so true. Because we're when you do you just said, when you look at your sins, and we all sin, we all do things wrong. You know, we're not saying that we don't. But we're saying that those are not Unknown Speaker 11:49 those who had been done away with that, then forget Christ, Jesus Christ, you know, and so, yeah, we screw up every day. And that it's, we should be thankful for that that is done for us, and that our sins are forgiven, and that we have new life, that you know, sin is always going to be part of our experience. Anything is out of faith is sin. Right? And we can we can be do something not have faith. I mean, we talked about in our Bible study last week, and we really kind of nailed that out that you could do whatever you're doing when you're doing something stupid. It could be whatever you were believing something is going to give us, you know, happiness or joy or achievement. And you know, that's not we're not having faith, we're putting our faith in the wrong thing. Unknown Speaker 12:48 Right. But as we're, as you're saying, and we're talking about the fact that we will sin until we die, nobody has will ever stop sinning, we all anything. It's not a faith of sin. So we're all going to have that issue. But God is not going to leave us because of our sins. That's why he took away our sins, He sealed us with the Holy Spirit. And that because he took away our sins, the Spirit of God will never leave us. Never leave us know not only do people struggle with a too small understanding of salvation, their understanding of forgiveness isn't complete enough, either. You have to come to the point that you know that God is taken away your sins one time at the cross. Unknown Speaker 13:42 Yeah. Un

In the Bible, the word righteous mean to be right with God. How can we know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that we are right in God's sight?  Does it come by works or by faith or a combination of the two?  Listen in to find out how this happens.

Most Christians would describe salvation this way...."Jesus died for my sins". Is there more to the message of salvation than Jesus's death on the cross for our sins? Romans 5:10 describes it this way..."For if, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!" Listen in as Mike and Kevin discuss this most important topic and verse.

One day Jesus is coming back to get his Church, those who are born again or who have died and were born again. This day is coming soon and we will be with the Lord forever. Listen in as Mike and Kevin talk about our home in heaven.

Jesus used an ancient Galilean wedding to describe what the rapture will be like. After the bride accepts the bridegroom's offer, they both wait and prepare, until the bridegroom's father says "it time to unite and marry". When the bride hears the trumpet call, she knows the bridegroom is coming to get her. In the same way, when we, as born again Christians, hear the trumpet call, we know Jesus is coming back to take us to be with him forever.