August 26, 2024 • 47 mins
The gospel of Grace is so good that it sounds too good to be true, and that is how you know you are hearing the authentic gospel. If you are struggling in bondage to sin, the gospel’s power will set you free. In this enthralling episode of "Revealing Jesus" with Christina Perera, we revisit a captivating throwback episode featuring William Wood, associate evangelist with Global Awakening and co-founder of His Kingdom Reigns Ministries. The main focus is distinguishing between the gospel of grace and the old covenant of the law, a topic central to Christian theology.
Christina and William delve deep into the contrasts between law-based and grace-based righteousness, discussing how understanding these concepts can radically transform one's spiritual journey. They emphasize the futility of trying to earn God's favor through works, highlighting the all-sufficiency of Christ's sacrifice. This conversation, enriched with insights from the books of Galatians, Ephesians, and Romans, encourages believers to embrace the freedom and favor that comes from living under the new covenant of grace. Their discussion underscores the necessity of a shift in mindset, moving from self-righteousness to Christ-righteousness, which fosters a deeper connection with God and a life free from condemnation. "Galatians 5:4 says, if we are trying to be justified based on works, we have fallen from grace," William Wood. Listen to the end for a powerful prayer.
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Jesus, Grace, Faith, Gospel, Salvation, New covenant grace, Righteousness by faith, Law versus grace, Christ's righteousness, Bible teaching, How to receive God's grace, Difference between law and grace, Understanding new covenant, Living under grace not law, Faith in Jesus for salvation
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome to Revealing Jesus. Are you hungry to learn more about our beautiful Savior Jesus?
(00:06):
I am your host, Christina Perera, lover of Jesus, apostolic leader, licensed and ordained
minister, author, podcaster, and Kingdom Party planner. Did you know that the Bible declares
that grace and peace are multiplied to us in the knowledge of Jesus? And that simply
means the more we learn about our beautiful Savior, the more we will experience all He
(00:30):
died to give us. Join me for all things the King and his Kingdom, including revelatory
teaching, interviews with Bible ministers, media leaders, authors, and more. Come discover
the beauty of God displayed all across the body of Christ. Together we are revealing
more of Jesus to a hurting world today.
(00:50):
Hey everybody, thanks so much for tuning into this week's episode of Revealing Jesus
with Christina Perera. I am your host Christina and I'm so happy to have you with me here
today. I hope and I pray that you are doing well right where you are and enjoying the
continuously flowing favor of grace pouring from our beautiful Savior and Father in Heaven.
(01:13):
I've got a great show for you today. We are going to continue doing our summer throwback
series. And I have just loved doing this series. It's brought so much joy to my heart to go
back and listen to these amazing conversations. And today I've got a really good one for
you. We are throwing it back to a conversation I had with William Wood. In this conversation,
(01:34):
we talked about the differences between the gospel of grace and the Old Covenant of the
Law. And we did this kind of Law versus Grace episode. And if you are desperate to understand
what the gospel truly is, this episode is paramount. It's all based on the book of
Galatians and Ephesians and Romans and things like that. And it is going to help you understand
(02:00):
this new covenant that you've been invited into by faith in Jesus Christ. And it's amazing.
So hold on, buckle your seatbelts and get ready for a deep dive into the new covenant
of grace. But before we get started, I want to give a quick shout out to our Christina
Perera Ministries sponsors, Gopher Ministries, who provides all of our equipment rental,
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Life Changing Productions, who helps put together evangelistic events to reach our city for
Jesus, Harvest Family Network, through which I am licensed and ordained, and Davis Financial
Services, who does all of our financial accounting. I hope and I pray that these episodes have
blessed you. I pray that as you're listening, your faith is encouraged and inspired and
(02:43):
I invite you to sow back into this ministry so we can keep bringing you these faith building
episodes. You can find out more information on how to sow back into this ministry at christinaperera.org
slash donate or link in the show notes. Let's jump back in to my conversation with William
Wood. Hey everybody. Thanks so much for tuning into this week's episode of Revealing Jesus
(03:07):
with Christina Perera. I am your host Christina and I'm so excited to have you with me here
today. I hope and I pray that you are doing well right where you are and enjoying the
continuously flowing favor of grace pouring from our beautiful Savior and Father in heaven.
I've got a great show for you today. I have an amazing leader in the body of Christ with
(03:29):
me today. He is an associate evangelist with Global Awakening and co-founder of His Kingdom
Reigns Ministries. I have with me here back on the podcast today, William Wood. William,
thanks so much for being here today. Hey Christina, it's an honor to be back with you.
Definitely looking forward to this conversation. Oh my goodness. Well, if you guys haven't
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been listening, you need to go back and listen to my first conversation with William. It
was about his book, Every Day a Victory, and we discovered that we have a very similar
passion and message from the Lord. It's all about the difference between law versus grace.
(04:14):
Oh my gosh, William, that conversation was so encouraging even to my heart. I was like,
you just have to come back and we're just going to have to lay it out for everybody.
Thank you for that.
Absolutely. Yeah. Like we chatted about last time after the podcast interview that we did
with my book. It seemed like we had just as good of a conversation after the fact.
(04:38):
We really did. I wish I would have recorded. We went for a whole 45 minutes and it was
just like pouring out of both of us. And I was just like, you got to come back. It was
amazing. Because this is such a tricky subject. Many people don't understand these things,
but I'm so thankful that God is revealing more and more and more of who Jesus is and
(05:00):
what He's done for us and the covenant He's now invited us into. And so it's such an important
conversation. So can you share a little bit, maybe something personal with our listeners
just to help get to know you a little bit?
Yeah, absolutely. My wife and I just outside of a ministry context, we really love to go
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hiking and we live here in Enola, Pennsylvania. So we're pretty close to the Appalachian
trails. And so we'd like to go on these trails, go hike and just kind of get away from the
world in a sense and just get along with each other, get along with the Lord and just be
at a place of rest and peace. And there's something about getting out in nature that
really you gain a greater appreciation for the creator when you really get to see the
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beauty of His creation.
That's absolutely true. I love that so much. I love nature. I love gardening. I love being
in gardens. I try to create the garden all around me, but I do love to get out because
there's just something so amazing about being overwhelmed by His majesty. The mountains,
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the oceans, the vastness of creation. It makes you feel so small in such a wonderful way.
It definitely does. And it just blows me away every time I get to travel because with my
ministry I travel, I don't know, 200 days or a little over 200 days a year. And so I
get to go all over the world and just see different expressions of our creator's creativity
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and the way that He has designed this world and the different nations and the different
countries and the mountains and the deserts and the oceans. It blows me away to see it.
I bet. That is really amazing. I love that so much. Well, thank you so much for being
here with me today. I so appreciate it. You actually mentioned that you have a teaching
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out on two different kinds of righteousness. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about
that teaching?
Yeah. Well, when you go throughout scripture, particularly when you get to the book of Romans
and you get in Galatians, Paul begins to lay out this contrast of a law-based righteousness
versus a grace-based righteousness. And a righteousness that is according to the law
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is based on works, but righteousness that is according to grace is based on faith. And
so when the Lord really began to first speak to me about it, He was exposing in a sense
that I had all mentality and that I was basing my relationship with God on my works and my
performance. And so as long as I was performing well, I felt like our relationship was good.
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But the moment that I messed up, I felt that there was a fracture in the relationship and
I had to fast and pray for three weeks for Him to come back and fellowship with me. Well,
what they're really exposed was that I had a law mentality, a workspace mentality. And
I was thinking that God loved me according to my performance. And so that's just kind
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of in a nutshell, the basis of that message is really contrasting what a law mentality
will produce in your life and what a grace mentality will produce in your life.
Absolutely. And I think William, I know I've struggled with that and there's been so many
believers out there that have struggled with that as well. And it comes out of what I call
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listening to a laced gospel, which is no gospel at all. And the apostle Paul really talks
about it in the book of Galatians. He says, you who've come to faith in Christ, are you
now trying to go back under the law? And the apostle Paul actually calls it the weak and
beggarly things. And so it's not where the promises are. It's not where really the heart
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of God is. The heart of God is, I want to bless you. I want to be good to you, even
in your failures and your missteps. I want to be good to you.
Can you talk a little bit about the difference between the righteousness mentality that comes
from faith in Jesus versus the righteousness mentality that comes from the law? I know
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you've mentioned kind of the works and feeling separated from God, and that's one of the
pieces of it. Can you share a little bit more about that?
Yeah, absolutely. When you have a righteousness that is according to the law, it's really
going to produce two different mindsets. The first mindset that it will produce in your
life will be a condemnation because you're basing your relationship with God on your
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performance. The issue is we will never be able to perform well enough in the flesh to
gain access to the Lord. And the way that I like to explain it is that salvation is
such a priceless gift that if I offer anything for it, it simply cheapens its value because
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it's priceless. In other words, the only way that we could have gained or received salvation
is if God gave it to us as a gift. And so one of the tactics of the enemy is to get
us to buy into this idea that we have to perform to gain access to the Lord, to be in His presence.
But the scriptures say we come before the throne of His grace, not before the throne
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of His law. So the first mindset that will take place will be condemnation. As a matter
of fact, I'll just read a passage of scripture to you just real quickly. Romans chapter 3,
verse 20 says this, Therefore, about the deeds of the law, no flesh, no flesh will be justified
in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. And so you see right here under a
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law mentality, it produces in you a sin consciousness, which now puts you in a place of condemnation
and judgment because you have this sin consciousness. You're always aware of the fact that you fall
short of the glory of God. Romans 3, 23, for we all have said that we all fall short of
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the glory of God. And so that first mindset is this sin conscious mindset that produces
judgment, condemnation, and the heart. The second mindset that a law righteousness will
produce is what I will call a self-righteousness instead of a Christ righteousness. A self-righteousness
is focused on what you do, where you begin to boast in your own performance, where you
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begin to think that God relates to you based on your works. The issue is to be self-righteous,
you have to categorize sin into two categories, acceptable sin and non-acceptable sin. Well,
it's an issue of that. There is no such thing as an acceptable sin in the eyes of God. And
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you may be wondering like, what do you mean by that? Well, first John chapter 1, verse
eight says that if anybody confesses that they are without sin, they're a liar and
the truth isn't even in them. So self-righteous people will look at only the outward acts
of sin, but not the outward inward meditation of the heart. When in fact, Jesus said in
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Matthew five, if you even look at a woman to lust for her, you've already committed
adultery in your heart. So he looked at the meditation of the heart the same as the action
or the deed itself. And so you have these self-righteous people that will point their
fingers at somebody else for the sin that they're living in while the entire time they
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have a vain imagination in which they are engaging in the same activities in the heart.
That's so good. I love that when Jesus came, he exalted the law to the heights. And what
I mean by that is just exactly what you said. He said, if you even look at a woman and lust
in your heart, you've committed adultery because they were so obsessed with looking
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at outward forms of sin and sin nature. And Jesus brought the law up to its most holy
standard. So that each and every one of us would see that it's not something we can
keep. I think believers get really confused when it comes to the law because they've
been taught that the law is for our justification, but the Bible makes it very clear just as
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you mentioned that no flesh will be justified by the law. And so when we talk about the
new covenant, it's Jesus only, it's grace only. And so let's help our listeners differentiate
between the two. Grace says, you can't, but I can, and I will, and I have. Law says, you
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must, you must, you must, and it has no room for mercy. And so I think we see that played
out in the hearts of people who are sin conscious and pointing fingers just as you said, because
they are demanding holiness from those around them, but aren't even doing the same things
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themselves. That's why Jesus, he often said to the Pharisees, you hypocrites, you clean
the outside of the cup, but the inside is filthy.
Well, that's exactly right. So the only way again to have that self-righteous mentality
is to categorize sin, is to put it into the susceptible and non-acceptable. And I even
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tell people this one, I said, you know, we point fingers at someone that may be living
in a certain type of lifestyle, but then we'll go to a buffet and just gorge our flesh and
become a glutton, but we don't think anything about that. You know, so our righteousness
of the flesh did not grant us access to the Lord. It only comes as a gift in and of itself.
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Even in Romans chapter four, when Paul begins to use Abraham and David as an example of
justification on the basis of faith, the first four verses in Romans four right here, as
a matter of fact, I'll just read it. This is what then shall we say that Abraham our
father has found according to the flesh, where if Abraham was justified by works, he has
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something to boast about, but not before God. And so he says, so Paul is saying right here,
if Abraham gained anything by the works of his flesh, well the works of the law, he has
something to boast about, but not before God, only before man, only before people. Because
then he could point out, well, look, I'm living this way more than you are. But he says before
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God, he has nothing to boast about. But then he goes on to say this in Romans four, but
what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
And verse four says this, now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace or a gift,
but as a debt. And he's basically saying this, if Abraham gained anything by his works, then
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what he received from God would be a payment for his service and not a gift of God's grace.
And so it would almost be like God would be indebted to Abraham instead of Abraham being
indebted to God. Which is just not the case. God is not indebted to no man. Let's be abundantly
clear. But you know what? I see this mindset everywhere that I travel because for instance,
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someone had come up to me at a prayer line and they'll say something like this. Well,
I know the Lord's going to bless me because I've been praying and I've been fasting for
40 days. I know God's going to bless me because I've been a pastor for 20 years. I know God's
going to bless me because I've been leaving this small group. I know God's going to bless
me because of I. No, God is going to move in your life because of who he is, not because
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of who you are. Amen. That's when he moves in our life and you'll glace in chapter five
verse four. It says, if we are trying to be justified on the basis of works, we have fallen
from grace. That's not talking about we lose our salvation. It just said we've fallen from
what grace can provide and produce in our life because we're trying to access it on
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the basis of works instead of faith.
That's so good. And you know, you've mentioned it. The law is impossible to keep. Impossible.
Even as Jesus exalted it to its original standards. And the Bible actually says that of those
who are under the works of the law, they are under its curse. So if you are trying to work
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to keep the law, it's not even that you've broken it, but that you're working to keep
it. You're under its curse.
And there's also 613 commandments that you got to keep that people don't think about.
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Because by the time Jesus came, I think they were up to like
530 some or something like that commandments that the religious leaders had created out
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of the law. It wasn't just the original 10 from Sinai. So, I mean, who can do that?
Well I know. I mean, even in James 2 10, it says if you miss one aspect of the law, you're
guilty of it all. You couldn't keep 99.9% of them and be okay. No, you had, if you missed
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the one aspect of it.
Absolutely.
All 613 commandments. And that's what people don't understand. And they think, well, I'm
keeping 99.9% of them. I should be good. Well, no, on the basis of who you are, instead of
the basis of who he is, then you got to live as perfect as Jesus lived.
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Yeah. So good. I mean, the entire purpose of the law, the Bible makes abundantly clear,
is so that we would see our need for the Savior. And, you know, the Bible also says wherever
the law is preached, it stirs the sin nature. So the more that you try to keep the law,
the more you listen to the law, the more that sin nature is stirred and the more you'll
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actually sin versus actually if you keep your eyes on Christ and receive from God that which
you cannot do, which requires great humility. I think that's one of the biggest issues
in seeing these things is that the gospel of grace requires great humility because it
has absolutely nothing to do with us. And we are completely and wholly dependent upon
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the goodness of God versus the goodness of ourselves.
Well, that's exactly right. You know, our first podcast that we did, our first interview
that we had, I shared an aspect of my story, like my journey to the Lord. You know, I was
a self-professed atheist for 20 years of my life. And I was also an alcoholic. I was a
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drug addict. When I overdosed on drugs, I found myself in ICU when Jesus appeared to
me. That's how I got saved. But the whole context of Jesus appearing to me is the fact
I was an atheist. That means I wasn't praying. I wasn't seeking him. I wasn't fasting. I
wasn't in the church. I wasn't reading the Bible. I wasn't doing anything for him to
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come save me, but by his grace. That's what people need to understand. He appeared to
me and then by the grace produced in me, the faith that I needed to respond to his gift
of salvation. Because what we need to understand is not only is salvation a gift of his grace,
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but also the faith that is needed to receive it is also a gift of his grace.
So good. I like to say it this way. We start with grace and we end with grace from the
beginning to the end. It's all grace. Because none of us, William, none of us deserves to
be saved. None of us deserves to be blessed. None of us. You know, the Bible makes it abundantly
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clear that those who reject Jesus, those who reject the Messiah will one day stand before
God and give an account of their lives. And the Bible says that all their righteousness
are like filthy rags. In the light of his glorious goodness, they will be exposed for
what they are. Our only hope is to receive by faith the gift of his righteousness so
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that we can stand and say, I am not righteous on my own account. I am righteous on the account
of Christ. And in that day, it's the only righteousness that will count.
That's exactly right. It's an imputed righteousness that we have received. And because of what
Jesus has done for us, we're able to stand before God the Father as Jesus stands before
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him. And so when God looks at us, it's like he's looking at the righteousness of Jesus.
And that repairs mind-blowing when we fully understand that there's nothing that I can
ever do to change his mind about me, that he thinks I am to die for. He paid the ultimate
price on the cross to be in divine fellowship with me. And so why would he turn right or
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around with judgment and condemnation or sickness or whatever else only when he died to set
me free from all those things?
That's right. That's right. Because, you know, the Father is not working against the
Son. Sometimes people have this idea that God puts sickness on people and the truth
is that Jesus took it. Why would God put something on you that Jesus so brutally paid for to
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take from you? And so it's just so interesting that the apostle Paul warns about these Judaizers,
these false teachers, these wolves in sheep's clothing who've come in to tear apart the
body of Christ. He warns them in the book of Galatians and many other books, just in
tears of travail for his spiritual children. And these are the things that have robbed
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the children of God from the grace, the health, the favor, the goodness, all that God has
for them. And I believe in this hour, God is raising up evangelists and ministers and
authors and worshipers who are going to exalt Jesus and his covenant only. The Bible makes
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it abundantly clear that Moses, a servant of God, does not abide in the house forever,
but the Son, the Son of God, who came and brought the new covenant of grace, abides
in the house forever. Forever we will worship because of grace. Isn't it amazing?
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Oh, it is absolutely amazing. I'm just going to read another passage of scripture. I love
the Bible.
Me too. I've got mine open. I'm letting you read. I'm just quoting it.
Yeah, I got you. Romans 11, 6, this really gives a beautiful description of the covenant
in which we live in and the fact that we cannot mix law and grace together, even though nature
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would want to do that. Verse 6 in Romans 11 says, if it be by grace, then it is no longer
of works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. But if it be of work, it is no longer grace.
Otherwise, work is no longer work. And what Paul is basically saying is, look, it's either
going to be one or the other, but it cannot or would never be a combination of the two.
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And that understanding right there is so difficult for people to grasp because they think, well,
you know, it can't be that good. Well, that's what the whole purpose of the gospel is that
it's so good that it's nearly too good to be true news. It's that good that people wonder,
man, is this real?
(25:18):
Yeah.
And I like to say it is that the gospel is so true, it takes the power of the spirit
to convince you of its validity.
It so does. It so does. I remember when the Lord was first showing me these things and
I had that exact response was, this is too good to be true. Am I really that forgiven?
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Am I really that clean? Am I really that righteous? Am I really that holy because of you, Jesus?
Yes, it is so true. You know, and I love the way Jesus illustrated this to his disciples
in the parable about the new wine and the old wineskins. You can't put new wine, which
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is the new covenant of grace, into old wineskins, which is the mentality of religious-based
law keeping. What Jesus says will happen is the wineskins will burst and you will lose
the new wine and both will be ruined. That's exactly why you cannot mix law and grace.
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It's Jesus only. If you want to live under the law and you want that, that's fine. You
are allowed to have that. But just so you're very clear, we've made it abundantly clear
on what the Bible says and what you will receive under it versus what you will receive under
grace because God gives each and every one of us a choice.
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Yeah. Well, absolutely. If people want to live under that Deuteronomy 28 curse, they
want to, they can. In Galatians 3, it's very clear Jesus redeemed us from the curse of
the law. And those are not a new covenant experience for a believer that understands
that their justification is on the basis of grace through faith. But if you so choose
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to still want to approach God on the basis of the law, then you're putting yourself,
like God, you're putting yourself back under a curse and the enemy is going to take that
and he's going to wreak havoc in your life because you are choosing out of your own will
to put yourself back over something Jesus delivered you from. And to me, what's insulting
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to Jesus is certainly for a life that's inferior to the one that he died to give me.
Yes, very much so. And I honestly, and this is why I'm so passionate about exalting Jesus
only. If you look at my ministry, you look at everything I write, it's Jesus only because
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it is an insult to the blood of Jesus to go back under the law. It is an insult to the
blood of Jesus to mix law and grace. And I got to be honest with you. I mean, this should
put the fear of God in people because it puts the fear of God in me. I do not want to stand
before the son of God and say, it was not enough. You know, that is, wow.
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You know, you mentioned Galatians earlier and Paul, he just goes after them in the book
of Galatians. It's one of my books. Starting here in verse six, he says, I'm marveled that
you are turning away so soon from him who called you of the grace of Christ to a different
gospel. And he calls this mixture of law and grace a different gospel, which is not another,
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but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. And so Paul
calls it a perversion of the gospel, which means wrong version. That's what a perversion
means. But listen to this, but even if we are an angel from heaven preaching another
gospel to you that we have preached to him, let him be cursed. That's not something that
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he would have saying. That's what Paul is saying. He's like, let that person be cursed
if they try to pervert this gospel of grace, which Jesus has inaugurated and established
for us as a new covenant experience. In verse nine, he goes on to say this, as we have said
before, so now I say it again, just in case we didn't quite understand what he meant the
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first time he said it, he repeats it. If any man preaches any other gospel to you than
what you have received, let him be cursed. And so what I think is, Christina was interesting
about this, when you get here in Galatians two, Paul goes to Jerusalem to present this
message of grace to the other apostles. And he has Titus with him, which is a Gentile
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convert. And in verse three, right here in Galatians two, this is funny to me, but this
is just what he was dealing with. Verse three says this, yet not even Titus who was with
me being a Greek was compelled to be circumcised. And so that's a whole argument that's coming
up right here is that your faith in Christ alone isn't enough. You also have to be circumcised,
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Paul is showing that Titus here, he wasn't circumcised, but he was manifesting the fruit
of the grace of God in his life. But verse four, it's what's interesting to me. And
it's very funny and he says this, and this occurred because of false brethren. So this
is when Paul goes before them, he's talking to the other apostles. Then he says, and there's
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false brethren, now pay attention to that in verse four, secretly brought in who came
in by stealth to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring
us into bondage. Well, the whole context of this, he's talking about circumcision. So
these false brethren came in to spy out if they were circumcised or not. That's why
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he calls them a pervert because in the name of the law, they're doing something unholy.
They're like a peeping Tom trying to see if it was Titus circumcised. It just calls me
away that the extent that a law mentality will produce in people is that they will become
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so rigid and so short-sighted and blinded that they begin to do unholy things in the
name of holiness. Hard, hard hearts. That's exactly what it produces. And I love the book
of Galatians. That's my message. Paul goes on to say he was so frustrated with those
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false brothers, the Judaizers. He said, I wish they would go ahead and just castrate
themselves because circumcision is no longer a sign of faith. It's faith in Jesus Christ.
We've actually received a circumcision of the heart, which is so beautiful, right? Because
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it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live, I live
unto the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. Isn't that beautiful? See,
that's what it produces. In the spirit of God, we only receive the spirit of God through
faith in Christ Jesus.
(32:31):
Hey, Ned. You know, one of the things that the arguments that people always come up with,
and this is an argument that's always going to come up with, are you just saying then
that it doesn't really matter what you do in the flesh and you just live your life in
any old way? No, that's not what we're saying at all. You know, I still live a very holy
(32:52):
life, but my holy living is not to gain access to God. That came as a gift from him. But
what holy living does do is deny access to the devil because we become slaves unto the
one in whom we obey. So if I live in sin, I'm coming under the author of that sin,
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Satan, and I'm allowing him to wreak havoc in my life. So I live holy still, but for
different reasons. It's not to gain access to God. I already have free access to God.
It is to deny access to the enemy in my life. It's to limit the influence that he could
bring about my life through sin. So holy living or righteous living is that I'm no longer
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living to prove something to God or to gain something from God, but the fact that I have
already received it by his grace and mercy, therefore I live out holiness in my life.
Does that make sense? Absolutely. You know, it's so interesting to me because I think
for those of us who really understand this concept and we've received that heart circumcision,
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Paul says it this way, like I'm no longer interested in those things because we've received
that heart circumcision. It's not a matter of being under the law. It's that's not who
I am anymore. And I'm a new creation in Christ. I've moved from being a sinner to a saint.
That's no longer my nature, you know? And I think that's a shift in our mentality that
(34:29):
we need to make across the body of Christ is not only seeing ourselves as new creations
and saints for believers, but to shift from that simply a sinner saved by grace to becoming
a saint. And when we become that saint, when we become those things in our own eyes because
we're already those things in God's eyes, our repentance is simply agreeing with what
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God says. And I think it's going to fundamentally make a shift in that sin mentality mindset
versus that righteousness mentality mindset. You know, I'm not looking for sin under a
rock everywhere I go. I'm not examining other people. I'm not examining myself. I'm examining
that perfect lamb of God who took away the sin of the world and he is glorious. He is
(35:20):
without spot or wrinkle and he's done a perfect work. I have this opinion that God is pleased
with what he has done. And the Bible makes it abundantly clear and it's not just my opinion.
It says, for if God had not been satisfied with the work that Jesus had done, he would
not have been raised from the dead without our sin. And so the fact that Jesus is alive
(35:44):
and well and raised from the dead and no longer in our sin means that we, those who believe,
are no longer in our sin. Hallelujah. Thanks be to God.
Where in the spirit, now word in means a fixed position, immovable. That means we're firmly
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established in the spirit, which is our union with Christ, 1 Corinthians 6 verse 17 says,
the one that has joined himself to the Lord is one spirit with him. That word one means
singular to the exclusion of another. We're in total and complete divine union right now
in our spirit with God's spirit. That is where the new creation is. That's where our righteousness
(36:29):
is. That's where our authority is. Our identity is the fact that we're in Christ in the spirit
and we have full access to everything that he is at all times. Hebrews 13, 5 says, he
will never leave us nor forsake us. Why? Because he lives in us and we live in him and there's
nothing that we could ever do that would change that reality. We're in him, immovable, fixed
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position. Amen. That's right.
And, you know, I want to be really clear. We are all on this upward stumbling journey
of being transformed into the image of God, but we don't get there by beholding ourselves.
We get there by beholding Christ. And so when we do mess up, because we are human still,
(37:19):
living out this side of heaven and this new creation life, when we do mess up, it's not,
oh God, please forgive me. It's, oh God, thank you that you have forgiven me. And I am still
the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
Well, that's exactly right. You know, I think a concept that would help believers grasp
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what we're really referred to and speaking of here is understanding what 1st Thessalonians
5.23 articulates is that we are a three-part being. We're a spirit, we're a soul, and
we're a body. For example, when we got saved, you know, the next day our physical flesh,
our physical body did not become a new creation. And we had the same body that we had prior
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to salvation, after salvation. Our soul, our mind, will, and emotions did not become a
new creation right after salvation, but our spirit did. That's why John chapter 3, verse
6 says, that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit
is spirit. But when you renew your mind according to the truth of who you are in Christ in the
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spirit, what happens is that now you access the power of the spirit, the reality of that
spirit that begins to produce itself through the soul into the body for your life. In other
words, the soul is the part of your being that connects the spiritual to the natural.
If I'm preoccupied with who I am with the flesh and not who I am in the spirit, then
(38:52):
I am limiting what I can manifest through my life. I'm limiting on an experiential
level the reality of these truths that we are discussing. But when I live from the spirit,
all of a sudden now I begin to experience on a daily basis the reality of that. You
know, like you mentioned, we're going to be living in this physical form until we die
(39:16):
and we receive our new bodies. Romans 8.23 says we're still waiting for the redemption
of our bodies, but we will receive a new spiritual body. But right now we have the same resurrection
power of Christ dwelling inside of us to give life to the moral bodies now.
Amen.
Amen.
So it's something that you have to wait until you die to experience. It is something that
(39:40):
you can also experience right now, but it's to the degree that I renew my mind to the
Word of God. It's the reality of what He has already accomplished on my behalf.
Amen. Amen. Absolutely. That's one of my favorite verses to speak out. And if I'm encountering
anything in my body or anything like that, the same spirit of God that raised Jesus from
(40:03):
the dead now dwells and gives life to your mortal body. And that's so amazing. As we
live out this beautiful new creation life. Well, I wish that we could just keep going
on and on and on forever because this is so encouraged my heart. I hope it's encouraged
yours. Is there anything burning on your heart you'd like to say directly to our listeners?
(40:27):
Family, this is one thing that I want to lead you that while you were yet a sinner, Christ
died for you. Jesus thinks you are to die for. He is not going to change His mind in
regards to you. He took all of your sin, past, present, and future. He took it into Himself
(40:48):
to deal with it all across and has delivered you from the dominion of it. Family, embrace
the grace of God. Embrace the righteousness that He has freely given to you as a gift
apart from your work, apart from your performance, apart from anything that you could offer of
yourself. It is a gift of His mercy and His goodness that He loves you. So I just want
(41:13):
you to embrace that full revelation right now and let it come as a revelation to your
heart that you are accepted before God and that you stand before the Father as Jesus
stands before the Father. In Jesus' name. Amen. Will you pray for our listeners right
(41:33):
now that they can receive that by faith? Absolutely, Lord. I just ask that right now by the power
of your Spirit that you would manifest this message, these truths in their heart in such
a way that it will bring this unity, spirit, soul, and body into a reality of their life
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that even patterns of thought and ways of thinking or false beliefs will be broken off
from hearing these truths and hearing this message. Lord, I ask that by your grace and
by the power of your Spirit, you would manifest the awareness of your presence inside every
born-again believer that's listening right now. You have Jesus, the King of Kings and
(42:18):
the Lord of Lords dwelling inside of you right now with all of His fullness and you have
access to that as well. I bless every person from the top of their head to the bottom of
their feet in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much, William. That was so good.
Thank you so much for being here with me today. Absolutely. It was an honor. I absolutely
(42:42):
enjoy the subject matter that we're discussing and not many people are willing to have this
kind of discussion with me. So thank you. Absolutely. You are welcome anytime, anytime,
my brother, anytime. Well, I hope and I pray today's episode has blessed you. I will have
links from today's podcast and resources in the show notes under Revealing Jesus with
(43:07):
Christina Pereira wherever you get your podcasts. There you'll find additional resources to
connect with us and our special guest, William Wood. Until next week, may grace and peace
be multiplied to you in the knowledge of Jesus. God bless.
(43:37):
Beloved, let me introduce you to my King. He is altogether lovely. No matter which way
you turn him, he is perfection personified. He is velvet and steel. He is meekness and
majesty. He is glory and humility. He is kindness and strength. He is altogether lovely. And
(44:00):
he is my King. And he can be yours as well. All day long, he holds his hand that you might
take, that you might turn one step, one grasp, one yes, one breath away from the arms of
your loving Savior. Beloved, if you hear him, do not harden your heart. The Bible declares
(44:22):
that not one of us is guaranteed another moment upon this earth. So pray this prayer with
me today and run into the arms of the one who loves you, who knows you best. Father,
I ask you to forgive me for all of my sin, for all of the places that I have fallen short,
Father, of your glorious standard. I ask you now to send your Son into my heart, to be
(44:45):
the forgiveness of my sin, to be my redemption, to be my righteousness, to be my holiness,
to be my sanctification. I ask you to forgive me, to cleanse me, to fill me with your Spirit,
your power, your glory, that I might bring glory to your name, Father. I thank you that
(45:09):
I receive all of this by faith and the Son of God who loved me and who gave himself up
for me. I thank you that I am now a child of God, fully forgiven, fully righteous, fully
holy in your eyes. And I ask you to help me walk out this life in a way that pleases and
(45:31):
honors you, Father. I thank you, Jesus, for all that you've done. I thank you for your
love, for your kindness, for your great joy in saving me. And I thank you, Father, and
I thank you, Holy Spirit. And I pray all of these things in your beautiful Son's name.
(45:55):
Amen. If you've just prayed that prayer for the first time, I want to congratulate you
on your success. You are now a child of God and all things are now yours. Keep listening
to Revealing Jesus. Find a good Bible translation that makes sense to you. And keep hearing
(46:16):
about our beautiful Savior Jesus. Please let us know. We want to continue to pray for you.
And we want to send you a free PDF copy of our New Believer Workbook. Just go to Christina
Perera dot org slash welcome hyphen home. Enter your email address and we will be happy
(46:38):
to send this free gift. And continue to pray for your journey. God bless.
I sincerely hope and pray today's episode has blessed you. Now it's your turn to continue
the conversation. We are all evangelists of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Like this episode,
rate it, share it with a friend. If it's impacted your life, let them know that you
(47:03):
want it to do the same in theirs. Help spread the word of the good news of Jesus. Subscribe
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in show notes or just text Jesus to 1-833-815-7778. Again, that's Jesus, 1-833-815-7778. We would
(47:30):
love to connect with you on social media. You can find us at Christina Perera Ministries
on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Until next week, may grace and peace be multiplied
to you in the knowledge of Jesus. God bless.
Welcome to Revealing Jesus. Are you hungry to learn more about our beautiful Savior Jesus?
(00:06):
I am your host, Christina Perera, lover of Jesus, apostolic leader, licensed and ordained
minister, author, podcaster, and Kingdom Party planner. Did you know that the Bible declares
that grace and peace are multiplied to us in the knowledge of Jesus? And that simply
means the more we learn about our beautiful Savior, the more we will experience all He
(00:30):
died to give us. Join me for all things the King and his Kingdom, including revelatory
teaching, interviews with Bible ministers, media leaders, authors, and more. Come discover
the beauty of God displayed all across the body of Christ. Together we are revealing
more of Jesus to a hurting world today.
(00:50):
Hey everybody, thanks so much for tuning into this week's episode of Revealing Jesus
with Christina Perera. I am your host Christina and I'm so happy to have you with me here
today. I hope and I pray that you are doing well right where you are and enjoying the
continuously flowing favor of grace pouring from our beautiful Savior and Father in Heaven.
(01:13):
I've got a great show for you today. We are going to continue doing our summer throwback
series. And I have just loved doing this series. It's brought so much joy to my heart to go
back and listen to these amazing conversations. And today I've got a really good one for
you. We are throwing it back to a conversation I had with William Wood. In this conversation,
(01:34):
we talked about the differences between the gospel of grace and the Old Covenant of the
Law. And we did this kind of Law versus Grace episode. And if you are desperate to understand
what the gospel truly is, this episode is paramount. It's all based on the book of
Galatians and Ephesians and Romans and things like that. And it is going to help you understand
(02:00):
this new covenant that you've been invited into by faith in Jesus Christ. And it's amazing.
So hold on, buckle your seatbelts and get ready for a deep dive into the new covenant
of grace. But before we get started, I want to give a quick shout out to our Christina
Perera Ministries sponsors, Gopher Ministries, who provides all of our equipment rental,
(02:22):
Life Changing Productions, who helps put together evangelistic events to reach our city for
Jesus, Harvest Family Network, through which I am licensed and ordained, and Davis Financial
Services, who does all of our financial accounting. I hope and I pray that these episodes have
blessed you. I pray that as you're listening, your faith is encouraged and inspired and
(02:43):
I invite you to sow back into this ministry so we can keep bringing you these faith building
episodes. You can find out more information on how to sow back into this ministry at christinaperera.org
slash donate or link in the show notes. Let's jump back in to my conversation with William
Wood. Hey everybody. Thanks so much for tuning into this week's episode of Revealing Jesus
(03:07):
with Christina Perera. I am your host Christina and I'm so excited to have you with me here
today. I hope and I pray that you are doing well right where you are and enjoying the
continuously flowing favor of grace pouring from our beautiful Savior and Father in heaven.
I've got a great show for you today. I have an amazing leader in the body of Christ with
(03:29):
me today. He is an associate evangelist with Global Awakening and co-founder of His Kingdom
Reigns Ministries. I have with me here back on the podcast today, William Wood. William,
thanks so much for being here today. Hey Christina, it's an honor to be back with you.
Definitely looking forward to this conversation. Oh my goodness. Well, if you guys haven't
(03:54):
been listening, you need to go back and listen to my first conversation with William. It
was about his book, Every Day a Victory, and we discovered that we have a very similar
passion and message from the Lord. It's all about the difference between law versus grace.
(04:14):
Oh my gosh, William, that conversation was so encouraging even to my heart. I was like,
you just have to come back and we're just going to have to lay it out for everybody.
Thank you for that.
Absolutely. Yeah. Like we chatted about last time after the podcast interview that we did
with my book. It seemed like we had just as good of a conversation after the fact.
(04:38):
We really did. I wish I would have recorded. We went for a whole 45 minutes and it was
just like pouring out of both of us. And I was just like, you got to come back. It was
amazing. Because this is such a tricky subject. Many people don't understand these things,
but I'm so thankful that God is revealing more and more and more of who Jesus is and
(05:00):
what He's done for us and the covenant He's now invited us into. And so it's such an important
conversation. So can you share a little bit, maybe something personal with our listeners
just to help get to know you a little bit?
Yeah, absolutely. My wife and I just outside of a ministry context, we really love to go
(05:21):
hiking and we live here in Enola, Pennsylvania. So we're pretty close to the Appalachian
trails. And so we'd like to go on these trails, go hike and just kind of get away from the
world in a sense and just get along with each other, get along with the Lord and just be
at a place of rest and peace. And there's something about getting out in nature that
really you gain a greater appreciation for the creator when you really get to see the
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beauty of His creation.
That's absolutely true. I love that so much. I love nature. I love gardening. I love being
in gardens. I try to create the garden all around me, but I do love to get out because
there's just something so amazing about being overwhelmed by His majesty. The mountains,
(06:09):
the oceans, the vastness of creation. It makes you feel so small in such a wonderful way.
It definitely does. And it just blows me away every time I get to travel because with my
ministry I travel, I don't know, 200 days or a little over 200 days a year. And so I
get to go all over the world and just see different expressions of our creator's creativity
(06:33):
and the way that He has designed this world and the different nations and the different
countries and the mountains and the deserts and the oceans. It blows me away to see it.
I bet. That is really amazing. I love that so much. Well, thank you so much for being
here with me today. I so appreciate it. You actually mentioned that you have a teaching
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out on two different kinds of righteousness. Can you tell our listeners a little bit about
that teaching?
Yeah. Well, when you go throughout scripture, particularly when you get to the book of Romans
and you get in Galatians, Paul begins to lay out this contrast of a law-based righteousness
versus a grace-based righteousness. And a righteousness that is according to the law
(07:19):
is based on works, but righteousness that is according to grace is based on faith. And
so when the Lord really began to first speak to me about it, He was exposing in a sense
that I had all mentality and that I was basing my relationship with God on my works and my
performance. And so as long as I was performing well, I felt like our relationship was good.
(07:45):
But the moment that I messed up, I felt that there was a fracture in the relationship and
I had to fast and pray for three weeks for Him to come back and fellowship with me. Well,
what they're really exposed was that I had a law mentality, a workspace mentality. And
I was thinking that God loved me according to my performance. And so that's just kind
(08:07):
of in a nutshell, the basis of that message is really contrasting what a law mentality
will produce in your life and what a grace mentality will produce in your life.
Absolutely. And I think William, I know I've struggled with that and there's been so many
believers out there that have struggled with that as well. And it comes out of what I call
(08:30):
listening to a laced gospel, which is no gospel at all. And the apostle Paul really talks
about it in the book of Galatians. He says, you who've come to faith in Christ, are you
now trying to go back under the law? And the apostle Paul actually calls it the weak and
beggarly things. And so it's not where the promises are. It's not where really the heart
(08:56):
of God is. The heart of God is, I want to bless you. I want to be good to you, even
in your failures and your missteps. I want to be good to you.
Can you talk a little bit about the difference between the righteousness mentality that comes
from faith in Jesus versus the righteousness mentality that comes from the law? I know
(09:20):
you've mentioned kind of the works and feeling separated from God, and that's one of the
pieces of it. Can you share a little bit more about that?
Yeah, absolutely. When you have a righteousness that is according to the law, it's really
going to produce two different mindsets. The first mindset that it will produce in your
life will be a condemnation because you're basing your relationship with God on your
(09:45):
performance. The issue is we will never be able to perform well enough in the flesh to
gain access to the Lord. And the way that I like to explain it is that salvation is
such a priceless gift that if I offer anything for it, it simply cheapens its value because
(10:06):
it's priceless. In other words, the only way that we could have gained or received salvation
is if God gave it to us as a gift. And so one of the tactics of the enemy is to get
us to buy into this idea that we have to perform to gain access to the Lord, to be in His presence.
But the scriptures say we come before the throne of His grace, not before the throne
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of His law. So the first mindset that will take place will be condemnation. As a matter
of fact, I'll just read a passage of scripture to you just real quickly. Romans chapter 3,
verse 20 says this, Therefore, about the deeds of the law, no flesh, no flesh will be justified
in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. And so you see right here under a
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law mentality, it produces in you a sin consciousness, which now puts you in a place of condemnation
and judgment because you have this sin consciousness. You're always aware of the fact that you fall
short of the glory of God. Romans 3, 23, for we all have said that we all fall short of
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the glory of God. And so that first mindset is this sin conscious mindset that produces
judgment, condemnation, and the heart. The second mindset that a law righteousness will
produce is what I will call a self-righteousness instead of a Christ righteousness. A self-righteousness
is focused on what you do, where you begin to boast in your own performance, where you
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begin to think that God relates to you based on your works. The issue is to be self-righteous,
you have to categorize sin into two categories, acceptable sin and non-acceptable sin. Well,
it's an issue of that. There is no such thing as an acceptable sin in the eyes of God. And
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you may be wondering like, what do you mean by that? Well, first John chapter 1, verse
eight says that if anybody confesses that they are without sin, they're a liar and
the truth isn't even in them. So self-righteous people will look at only the outward acts
of sin, but not the outward inward meditation of the heart. When in fact, Jesus said in
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Matthew five, if you even look at a woman to lust for her, you've already committed
adultery in your heart. So he looked at the meditation of the heart the same as the action
or the deed itself. And so you have these self-righteous people that will point their
fingers at somebody else for the sin that they're living in while the entire time they
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have a vain imagination in which they are engaging in the same activities in the heart.
That's so good. I love that when Jesus came, he exalted the law to the heights. And what
I mean by that is just exactly what you said. He said, if you even look at a woman and lust
in your heart, you've committed adultery because they were so obsessed with looking
(13:06):
at outward forms of sin and sin nature. And Jesus brought the law up to its most holy
standard. So that each and every one of us would see that it's not something we can
keep. I think believers get really confused when it comes to the law because they've
been taught that the law is for our justification, but the Bible makes it very clear just as
(13:31):
you mentioned that no flesh will be justified by the law. And so when we talk about the
new covenant, it's Jesus only, it's grace only. And so let's help our listeners differentiate
between the two. Grace says, you can't, but I can, and I will, and I have. Law says, you
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must, you must, you must, and it has no room for mercy. And so I think we see that played
out in the hearts of people who are sin conscious and pointing fingers just as you said, because
they are demanding holiness from those around them, but aren't even doing the same things
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themselves. That's why Jesus, he often said to the Pharisees, you hypocrites, you clean
the outside of the cup, but the inside is filthy.
Well, that's exactly right. So the only way again to have that self-righteous mentality
is to categorize sin, is to put it into the susceptible and non-acceptable. And I even
(14:41):
tell people this one, I said, you know, we point fingers at someone that may be living
in a certain type of lifestyle, but then we'll go to a buffet and just gorge our flesh and
become a glutton, but we don't think anything about that. You know, so our righteousness
of the flesh did not grant us access to the Lord. It only comes as a gift in and of itself.
(15:05):
Even in Romans chapter four, when Paul begins to use Abraham and David as an example of
justification on the basis of faith, the first four verses in Romans four right here, as
a matter of fact, I'll just read it. This is what then shall we say that Abraham our
father has found according to the flesh, where if Abraham was justified by works, he has
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something to boast about, but not before God. And so he says, so Paul is saying right here,
if Abraham gained anything by the works of his flesh, well the works of the law, he has
something to boast about, but not before God, only before man, only before people. Because
then he could point out, well, look, I'm living this way more than you are. But he says before
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God, he has nothing to boast about. But then he goes on to say this in Romans four, but
what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
And verse four says this, now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace or a gift,
but as a debt. And he's basically saying this, if Abraham gained anything by his works, then
(16:14):
what he received from God would be a payment for his service and not a gift of God's grace.
And so it would almost be like God would be indebted to Abraham instead of Abraham being
indebted to God. Which is just not the case. God is not indebted to no man. Let's be abundantly
clear. But you know what? I see this mindset everywhere that I travel because for instance,
(16:40):
someone had come up to me at a prayer line and they'll say something like this. Well,
I know the Lord's going to bless me because I've been praying and I've been fasting for
40 days. I know God's going to bless me because I've been a pastor for 20 years. I know God's
going to bless me because I've been leaving this small group. I know God's going to bless
me because of I. No, God is going to move in your life because of who he is, not because
(17:03):
of who you are. Amen. That's when he moves in our life and you'll glace in chapter five
verse four. It says, if we are trying to be justified on the basis of works, we have fallen
from grace. That's not talking about we lose our salvation. It just said we've fallen from
what grace can provide and produce in our life because we're trying to access it on
(17:24):
the basis of works instead of faith.
That's so good. And you know, you've mentioned it. The law is impossible to keep. Impossible.
Even as Jesus exalted it to its original standards. And the Bible actually says that of those
who are under the works of the law, they are under its curse. So if you are trying to work
(17:47):
to keep the law, it's not even that you've broken it, but that you're working to keep
it. You're under its curse.
And there's also 613 commandments that you got to keep that people don't think about.
Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Because by the time Jesus came, I think they were up to like
530 some or something like that commandments that the religious leaders had created out
(18:13):
of the law. It wasn't just the original 10 from Sinai. So, I mean, who can do that?
Well I know. I mean, even in James 2 10, it says if you miss one aspect of the law, you're
guilty of it all. You couldn't keep 99.9% of them and be okay. No, you had, if you missed
(18:35):
the one aspect of it.
Absolutely.
All 613 commandments. And that's what people don't understand. And they think, well, I'm
keeping 99.9% of them. I should be good. Well, no, on the basis of who you are, instead of
the basis of who he is, then you got to live as perfect as Jesus lived.
(18:55):
Yeah. So good. I mean, the entire purpose of the law, the Bible makes abundantly clear,
is so that we would see our need for the Savior. And, you know, the Bible also says wherever
the law is preached, it stirs the sin nature. So the more that you try to keep the law,
the more you listen to the law, the more that sin nature is stirred and the more you'll
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actually sin versus actually if you keep your eyes on Christ and receive from God that which
you cannot do, which requires great humility. I think that's one of the biggest issues
in seeing these things is that the gospel of grace requires great humility because it
has absolutely nothing to do with us. And we are completely and wholly dependent upon
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the goodness of God versus the goodness of ourselves.
Well, that's exactly right. You know, our first podcast that we did, our first interview
that we had, I shared an aspect of my story, like my journey to the Lord. You know, I was
a self-professed atheist for 20 years of my life. And I was also an alcoholic. I was a
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drug addict. When I overdosed on drugs, I found myself in ICU when Jesus appeared to
me. That's how I got saved. But the whole context of Jesus appearing to me is the fact
I was an atheist. That means I wasn't praying. I wasn't seeking him. I wasn't fasting. I
wasn't in the church. I wasn't reading the Bible. I wasn't doing anything for him to
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come save me, but by his grace. That's what people need to understand. He appeared to
me and then by the grace produced in me, the faith that I needed to respond to his gift
of salvation. Because what we need to understand is not only is salvation a gift of his grace,
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but also the faith that is needed to receive it is also a gift of his grace.
So good. I like to say it this way. We start with grace and we end with grace from the
beginning to the end. It's all grace. Because none of us, William, none of us deserves to
be saved. None of us deserves to be blessed. None of us. You know, the Bible makes it abundantly
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clear that those who reject Jesus, those who reject the Messiah will one day stand before
God and give an account of their lives. And the Bible says that all their righteousness
are like filthy rags. In the light of his glorious goodness, they will be exposed for
what they are. Our only hope is to receive by faith the gift of his righteousness so
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that we can stand and say, I am not righteous on my own account. I am righteous on the account
of Christ. And in that day, it's the only righteousness that will count.
That's exactly right. It's an imputed righteousness that we have received. And because of what
Jesus has done for us, we're able to stand before God the Father as Jesus stands before
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him. And so when God looks at us, it's like he's looking at the righteousness of Jesus.
And that repairs mind-blowing when we fully understand that there's nothing that I can
ever do to change his mind about me, that he thinks I am to die for. He paid the ultimate
price on the cross to be in divine fellowship with me. And so why would he turn right or
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around with judgment and condemnation or sickness or whatever else only when he died to set
me free from all those things?
That's right. That's right. Because, you know, the Father is not working against the
Son. Sometimes people have this idea that God puts sickness on people and the truth
is that Jesus took it. Why would God put something on you that Jesus so brutally paid for to
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take from you? And so it's just so interesting that the apostle Paul warns about these Judaizers,
these false teachers, these wolves in sheep's clothing who've come in to tear apart the
body of Christ. He warns them in the book of Galatians and many other books, just in
tears of travail for his spiritual children. And these are the things that have robbed
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the children of God from the grace, the health, the favor, the goodness, all that God has
for them. And I believe in this hour, God is raising up evangelists and ministers and
authors and worshipers who are going to exalt Jesus and his covenant only. The Bible makes
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it abundantly clear that Moses, a servant of God, does not abide in the house forever,
but the Son, the Son of God, who came and brought the new covenant of grace, abides
in the house forever. Forever we will worship because of grace. Isn't it amazing?
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Oh, it is absolutely amazing. I'm just going to read another passage of scripture. I love
the Bible.
Me too. I've got mine open. I'm letting you read. I'm just quoting it.
Yeah, I got you. Romans 11, 6, this really gives a beautiful description of the covenant
in which we live in and the fact that we cannot mix law and grace together, even though nature
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would want to do that. Verse 6 in Romans 11 says, if it be by grace, then it is no longer
of works. Otherwise, grace is no longer grace. But if it be of work, it is no longer grace.
Otherwise, work is no longer work. And what Paul is basically saying is, look, it's either
going to be one or the other, but it cannot or would never be a combination of the two.
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And that understanding right there is so difficult for people to grasp because they think, well,
you know, it can't be that good. Well, that's what the whole purpose of the gospel is that
it's so good that it's nearly too good to be true news. It's that good that people wonder,
man, is this real?
(25:18):
Yeah.
And I like to say it is that the gospel is so true, it takes the power of the spirit
to convince you of its validity.
It so does. It so does. I remember when the Lord was first showing me these things and
I had that exact response was, this is too good to be true. Am I really that forgiven?
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Am I really that clean? Am I really that righteous? Am I really that holy because of you, Jesus?
Yes, it is so true. You know, and I love the way Jesus illustrated this to his disciples
in the parable about the new wine and the old wineskins. You can't put new wine, which
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is the new covenant of grace, into old wineskins, which is the mentality of religious-based
law keeping. What Jesus says will happen is the wineskins will burst and you will lose
the new wine and both will be ruined. That's exactly why you cannot mix law and grace.
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It's Jesus only. If you want to live under the law and you want that, that's fine. You
are allowed to have that. But just so you're very clear, we've made it abundantly clear
on what the Bible says and what you will receive under it versus what you will receive under
grace because God gives each and every one of us a choice.
(26:43):
Yeah. Well, absolutely. If people want to live under that Deuteronomy 28 curse, they
want to, they can. In Galatians 3, it's very clear Jesus redeemed us from the curse of
the law. And those are not a new covenant experience for a believer that understands
that their justification is on the basis of grace through faith. But if you so choose
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to still want to approach God on the basis of the law, then you're putting yourself,
like God, you're putting yourself back under a curse and the enemy is going to take that
and he's going to wreak havoc in your life because you are choosing out of your own will
to put yourself back over something Jesus delivered you from. And to me, what's insulting
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to Jesus is certainly for a life that's inferior to the one that he died to give me.
Yes, very much so. And I honestly, and this is why I'm so passionate about exalting Jesus
only. If you look at my ministry, you look at everything I write, it's Jesus only because
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it is an insult to the blood of Jesus to go back under the law. It is an insult to the
blood of Jesus to mix law and grace. And I got to be honest with you. I mean, this should
put the fear of God in people because it puts the fear of God in me. I do not want to stand
before the son of God and say, it was not enough. You know, that is, wow.
(28:20):
You know, you mentioned Galatians earlier and Paul, he just goes after them in the book
of Galatians. It's one of my books. Starting here in verse six, he says, I'm marveled that
you are turning away so soon from him who called you of the grace of Christ to a different
gospel. And he calls this mixture of law and grace a different gospel, which is not another,
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but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. And so Paul
calls it a perversion of the gospel, which means wrong version. That's what a perversion
means. But listen to this, but even if we are an angel from heaven preaching another
gospel to you that we have preached to him, let him be cursed. That's not something that
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he would have saying. That's what Paul is saying. He's like, let that person be cursed
if they try to pervert this gospel of grace, which Jesus has inaugurated and established
for us as a new covenant experience. In verse nine, he goes on to say this, as we have said
before, so now I say it again, just in case we didn't quite understand what he meant the
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first time he said it, he repeats it. If any man preaches any other gospel to you than
what you have received, let him be cursed. And so what I think is, Christina was interesting
about this, when you get here in Galatians two, Paul goes to Jerusalem to present this
message of grace to the other apostles. And he has Titus with him, which is a Gentile
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convert. And in verse three, right here in Galatians two, this is funny to me, but this
is just what he was dealing with. Verse three says this, yet not even Titus who was with
me being a Greek was compelled to be circumcised. And so that's a whole argument that's coming
up right here is that your faith in Christ alone isn't enough. You also have to be circumcised,
(30:17):
Paul is showing that Titus here, he wasn't circumcised, but he was manifesting the fruit
of the grace of God in his life. But verse four, it's what's interesting to me. And
it's very funny and he says this, and this occurred because of false brethren. So this
is when Paul goes before them, he's talking to the other apostles. Then he says, and there's
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false brethren, now pay attention to that in verse four, secretly brought in who came
in by stealth to spy out our liberty, which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring
us into bondage. Well, the whole context of this, he's talking about circumcision. So
these false brethren came in to spy out if they were circumcised or not. That's why
(31:05):
he calls them a pervert because in the name of the law, they're doing something unholy.
They're like a peeping Tom trying to see if it was Titus circumcised. It just calls me
away that the extent that a law mentality will produce in people is that they will become
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so rigid and so short-sighted and blinded that they begin to do unholy things in the
name of holiness. Hard, hard hearts. That's exactly what it produces. And I love the book
of Galatians. That's my message. Paul goes on to say he was so frustrated with those
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false brothers, the Judaizers. He said, I wish they would go ahead and just castrate
themselves because circumcision is no longer a sign of faith. It's faith in Jesus Christ.
We've actually received a circumcision of the heart, which is so beautiful, right? Because
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it's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live, I live
unto the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. Isn't that beautiful? See,
that's what it produces. In the spirit of God, we only receive the spirit of God through
faith in Christ Jesus.
(32:31):
Hey, Ned. You know, one of the things that the arguments that people always come up with,
and this is an argument that's always going to come up with, are you just saying then
that it doesn't really matter what you do in the flesh and you just live your life in
any old way? No, that's not what we're saying at all. You know, I still live a very holy
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life, but my holy living is not to gain access to God. That came as a gift from him. But
what holy living does do is deny access to the devil because we become slaves unto the
one in whom we obey. So if I live in sin, I'm coming under the author of that sin,
(33:13):
Satan, and I'm allowing him to wreak havoc in my life. So I live holy still, but for
different reasons. It's not to gain access to God. I already have free access to God.
It is to deny access to the enemy in my life. It's to limit the influence that he could
bring about my life through sin. So holy living or righteous living is that I'm no longer
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living to prove something to God or to gain something from God, but the fact that I have
already received it by his grace and mercy, therefore I live out holiness in my life.
Does that make sense? Absolutely. You know, it's so interesting to me because I think
for those of us who really understand this concept and we've received that heart circumcision,
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Paul says it this way, like I'm no longer interested in those things because we've received
that heart circumcision. It's not a matter of being under the law. It's that's not who
I am anymore. And I'm a new creation in Christ. I've moved from being a sinner to a saint.
That's no longer my nature, you know? And I think that's a shift in our mentality that
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we need to make across the body of Christ is not only seeing ourselves as new creations
and saints for believers, but to shift from that simply a sinner saved by grace to becoming
a saint. And when we become that saint, when we become those things in our own eyes because
we're already those things in God's eyes, our repentance is simply agreeing with what
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God says. And I think it's going to fundamentally make a shift in that sin mentality mindset
versus that righteousness mentality mindset. You know, I'm not looking for sin under a
rock everywhere I go. I'm not examining other people. I'm not examining myself. I'm examining
that perfect lamb of God who took away the sin of the world and he is glorious. He is
(35:20):
without spot or wrinkle and he's done a perfect work. I have this opinion that God is pleased
with what he has done. And the Bible makes it abundantly clear and it's not just my opinion.
It says, for if God had not been satisfied with the work that Jesus had done, he would
not have been raised from the dead without our sin. And so the fact that Jesus is alive
(35:44):
and well and raised from the dead and no longer in our sin means that we, those who believe,
are no longer in our sin. Hallelujah. Thanks be to God.
Where in the spirit, now word in means a fixed position, immovable. That means we're firmly
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established in the spirit, which is our union with Christ, 1 Corinthians 6 verse 17 says,
the one that has joined himself to the Lord is one spirit with him. That word one means
singular to the exclusion of another. We're in total and complete divine union right now
in our spirit with God's spirit. That is where the new creation is. That's where our righteousness
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is. That's where our authority is. Our identity is the fact that we're in Christ in the spirit
and we have full access to everything that he is at all times. Hebrews 13, 5 says, he
will never leave us nor forsake us. Why? Because he lives in us and we live in him and there's
nothing that we could ever do that would change that reality. We're in him, immovable, fixed
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position. Amen. That's right.
And, you know, I want to be really clear. We are all on this upward stumbling journey
of being transformed into the image of God, but we don't get there by beholding ourselves.
We get there by beholding Christ. And so when we do mess up, because we are human still,
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living out this side of heaven and this new creation life, when we do mess up, it's not,
oh God, please forgive me. It's, oh God, thank you that you have forgiven me. And I am still
the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
Well, that's exactly right. You know, I think a concept that would help believers grasp
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what we're really referred to and speaking of here is understanding what 1st Thessalonians
5.23 articulates is that we are a three-part being. We're a spirit, we're a soul, and
we're a body. For example, when we got saved, you know, the next day our physical flesh,
our physical body did not become a new creation. And we had the same body that we had prior
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to salvation, after salvation. Our soul, our mind, will, and emotions did not become a
new creation right after salvation, but our spirit did. That's why John chapter 3, verse
6 says, that which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the spirit
is spirit. But when you renew your mind according to the truth of who you are in Christ in the
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spirit, what happens is that now you access the power of the spirit, the reality of that
spirit that begins to produce itself through the soul into the body for your life. In other
words, the soul is the part of your being that connects the spiritual to the natural.
If I'm preoccupied with who I am with the flesh and not who I am in the spirit, then
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I am limiting what I can manifest through my life. I'm limiting on an experiential
level the reality of these truths that we are discussing. But when I live from the spirit,
all of a sudden now I begin to experience on a daily basis the reality of that. You
know, like you mentioned, we're going to be living in this physical form until we die
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and we receive our new bodies. Romans 8.23 says we're still waiting for the redemption
of our bodies, but we will receive a new spiritual body. But right now we have the same resurrection
power of Christ dwelling inside of us to give life to the moral bodies now.
Amen.
Amen.
So it's something that you have to wait until you die to experience. It is something that
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you can also experience right now, but it's to the degree that I renew my mind to the
Word of God. It's the reality of what He has already accomplished on my behalf.
Amen. Amen. Absolutely. That's one of my favorite verses to speak out. And if I'm encountering
anything in my body or anything like that, the same spirit of God that raised Jesus from
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the dead now dwells and gives life to your mortal body. And that's so amazing. As we
live out this beautiful new creation life. Well, I wish that we could just keep going
on and on and on forever because this is so encouraged my heart. I hope it's encouraged
yours. Is there anything burning on your heart you'd like to say directly to our listeners?
(40:27):
Family, this is one thing that I want to lead you that while you were yet a sinner, Christ
died for you. Jesus thinks you are to die for. He is not going to change His mind in
regards to you. He took all of your sin, past, present, and future. He took it into Himself
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to deal with it all across and has delivered you from the dominion of it. Family, embrace
the grace of God. Embrace the righteousness that He has freely given to you as a gift
apart from your work, apart from your performance, apart from anything that you could offer of
yourself. It is a gift of His mercy and His goodness that He loves you. So I just want
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you to embrace that full revelation right now and let it come as a revelation to your
heart that you are accepted before God and that you stand before the Father as Jesus
stands before the Father. In Jesus' name. Amen. Will you pray for our listeners right
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now that they can receive that by faith? Absolutely, Lord. I just ask that right now by the power
of your Spirit that you would manifest this message, these truths in their heart in such
a way that it will bring this unity, spirit, soul, and body into a reality of their life
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that even patterns of thought and ways of thinking or false beliefs will be broken off
from hearing these truths and hearing this message. Lord, I ask that by your grace and
by the power of your Spirit, you would manifest the awareness of your presence inside every
born-again believer that's listening right now. You have Jesus, the King of Kings and
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the Lord of Lords dwelling inside of you right now with all of His fullness and you have
access to that as well. I bless every person from the top of their head to the bottom of
their feet in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Thank you so much, William. That was so good.
Thank you so much for being here with me today. Absolutely. It was an honor. I absolutely
(42:42):
enjoy the subject matter that we're discussing and not many people are willing to have this
kind of discussion with me. So thank you. Absolutely. You are welcome anytime, anytime,
my brother, anytime. Well, I hope and I pray today's episode has blessed you. I will have
links from today's podcast and resources in the show notes under Revealing Jesus with
(43:07):
Christina Pereira wherever you get your podcasts. There you'll find additional resources to
connect with us and our special guest, William Wood. Until next week, may grace and peace
be multiplied to you in the knowledge of Jesus. God bless.
(43:37):
Beloved, let me introduce you to my King. He is altogether lovely. No matter which way
you turn him, he is perfection personified. He is velvet and steel. He is meekness and
majesty. He is glory and humility. He is kindness and strength. He is altogether lovely. And
(44:00):
he is my King. And he can be yours as well. All day long, he holds his hand that you might
take, that you might turn one step, one grasp, one yes, one breath away from the arms of
your loving Savior. Beloved, if you hear him, do not harden your heart. The Bible declares
(44:22):
that not one of us is guaranteed another moment upon this earth. So pray this prayer with
me today and run into the arms of the one who loves you, who knows you best. Father,
I ask you to forgive me for all of my sin, for all of the places that I have fallen short,
Father, of your glorious standard. I ask you now to send your Son into my heart, to be
(44:45):
the forgiveness of my sin, to be my redemption, to be my righteousness, to be my holiness,
to be my sanctification. I ask you to forgive me, to cleanse me, to fill me with your Spirit,
your power, your glory, that I might bring glory to your name, Father. I thank you that
(45:09):
I receive all of this by faith and the Son of God who loved me and who gave himself up
for me. I thank you that I am now a child of God, fully forgiven, fully righteous, fully
holy in your eyes. And I ask you to help me walk out this life in a way that pleases and
(45:31):
honors you, Father. I thank you, Jesus, for all that you've done. I thank you for your
love, for your kindness, for your great joy in saving me. And I thank you, Father, and
I thank you, Holy Spirit. And I pray all of these things in your beautiful Son's name.
(45:55):
Amen. If you've just prayed that prayer for the first time, I want to congratulate you
on your success. You are now a child of God and all things are now yours. Keep listening
to Revealing Jesus. Find a good Bible translation that makes sense to you. And keep hearing
(46:16):
about our beautiful Savior Jesus. Please let us know. We want to continue to pray for you.
And we want to send you a free PDF copy of our New Believer Workbook. Just go to Christina
Perera dot org slash welcome hyphen home. Enter your email address and we will be happy
(46:38):
to send this free gift. And continue to pray for your journey. God bless.
I sincerely hope and pray today's episode has blessed you. Now it's your turn to continue
the conversation. We are all evangelists of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Like this episode,
rate it, share it with a friend. If it's impacted your life, let them know that you
(47:03):
want it to do the same in theirs. Help spread the word of the good news of Jesus. Subscribe
to the mailing list and get episodes, articles, downloads, and more sent right to you. Link
in show notes or just text Jesus to 1-833-815-7778. Again, that's Jesus, 1-833-815-7778. We would
(47:30):
love to connect with you on social media. You can find us at Christina Perera Ministries
on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. Until next week, may grace and peace be multiplied
to you in the knowledge of Jesus. God bless.
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