November 20, 2024 • 26 mins
Discover the profound difference between merely knowing about Jesus Christ and truly knowing Him in your heart. This episode of Living God's Way in an Ungodly World ventures into the depths of faith, examining how intellectual understanding alone falls short of salvation. We navigate through the core aspects of repentance and justification, emphasizing the necessity of a genuine relationship with Christ, which is vital for your eternal destiny. With a special focus on diverse listeners from regions like Nepal and Saudi Arabia, B.R.Maul clarifies the identity of Jesus as the Son of God and why a heartfelt connection is indispensable.
Prepare to enrich your daily life with spiritual practices as B.R.Maul shares insights on establishing a meaningful prayer routine amidst the chaos of everyday life. Learn how small yet significant changes like praying before meals or at the start and end of your day can deepen your connection with God. This episode not only challenges you to look inward and reflect on your relationship with Jesus but also encourages you to embrace the fleeting nature of life with spiritual focus and intentionality. Tune in for an inspiring conversation that urges you to live a life reflective of your faith, always looking forward to growing spiritually and staying safe under God’s guidance.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
B.R.Maul (00:29):
Hello and good day.
I am BR Maul and you arelistening to Living God's Way in
an Ungodly World.
I'm currently teaching in thebook of Ephesians.
However, I am taking a breakfrom that so I can talk just
more directly to you.
There's been a few things on myheart and this is one of them
(00:51):
that I'd like to talk to youabout.
After all, the podcast LivingGod's Way in an Ungodly World is
a topic that most people don'twant to listen to.
They don't want to talk aboutthat.
It's much easier to live a lifepretending that we know God and
blending in with the worldaround us.
(01:13):
The average person doesn't wantto rock the boat.
In other words, they don't wantto cause trouble, they don't
want to make people mad, theydon't want people to not like
them, they don't want to hurtpeople's feelings, and some of
that is okay.
But for those of us who arefollowing Jesus Christ and that
is who it is that I follow it isJesus Christ of Nazareth who is
(01:37):
my Lord and my King, my Savior,and it is he who I owe an
eternal debt to.
Because of him, I am going tospend eternity in the presence
of God.
I noticed there's quite a fewlisteners to this podcast over
in countries like Nepal andSaudi Arabia and other countries
(01:58):
that certainly are notAmericanized.
So I wanted to make sure that Iclarify a few things as I
continue teaching that this Godis Yahweh, the one true living
God.
This is not the God of the Kron.
This is not just another God ofthe Hindus.
Jesus Christ is his son.
(02:20):
It is God, the Father, thatgave Jesus Christ up as a
sacrifice, once and for all, foreveryone who accepts Jesus
Christ as their Savior.
One thing to clarify for all youwho are listening is that head
knowledge of God is not enoughto make it into heaven, and
Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
(02:41):
He is not a prophet.
He was not just a good man thatlived a good life.
In fact, that's impossible,because Jesus declared that he
is God numerous times.
Makes it so he doesn't qualifyto be just a good man or, for
that matter, a prophet of God,because, since he claimed to be
(03:02):
God, he was either a liar, apsychotic or indeed the living
God as a Christian.
Quite obvious that he is, infact, the living God.
The Bible points to that in somany ways.
So there's no denying thatJesus Christ is God.
We can deny it in our heart,but even the secular world
(03:26):
cannot deny that a man namedJesus from Nazareth hung on a
cross some 2,000 years ago,claiming to be the living God.
And there's proof upon proofthat there were eyewitnesses
that, after seeing him on thecross and then buried, saw him
just days later walking aboutand over the course of well
(03:52):
right now I'm trying to recallif it was 30 or 40 days, so I
apologize for that, but eitherway, a significant amount of
time that he walked the earthand hundreds of people witnessed
that very fact.
So for those who are wonderingwho Jesus is and are listening
to this, he is the Son of Godand for those who have known
(04:14):
that in their mind, that this iscommon knowledge much in the
United States, but so many otherplaces as well, around the
world, the name Jesus is knownand known to be the Son of the
Living God and a triune GodFather, son and Holy Spirit that
head knowledge is not enough.
(04:35):
So that's the other thing Iwant to talk about today,
because my heart right now isbreaking for the millions of
people right now who know JesusChrist as they would, somebody
that they have studied inhistory as somebody that from
generation to generation thename has been passed down, and
of course those are many typesof people, people from history.
(04:59):
We can read about them, whichmeans we have had knowledge of
them, but unless we actually satwith them and talked to them
and lived a life near them oralongside of them, we cannot
know a person.
We can know of people.
We all know plenty about peoplethe different presidents of the
(05:19):
United States, the differentkings and queens throughout
history, various heroes andvillains throughout history who
made names for themselves,famous people today, whether in
sports or in movies or in musicindustry, whatever it may be.
All of these people you don'tknow them in your heart.
(05:40):
But we can really get to knowthem in our minds and we can get
a feeling of knowing them inour minds.
But please understand thatreading about somebody does not
make it so you know them.
Nobody reads about somebodythat they may be interested in
as a spouse to have a familywith and studies on them and
(06:04):
reads more.
Listen to other and studies onthem and reads more.
Listen to other people who talkabout them and then, with that
information only, without evermeeting them in person, marry
them.
That just doesn't happen.
Now, my ignorance shows,because when it comes to
prearranged marriages, that'ssomething that I know very
little about.
So I'm not saying that there'speople who don't marry somebody
(06:28):
that they don't know, but evenwith prearranged marriages,
there seems still to be a timeof courtship and so forth.
But I won't go down that rabbithole because that's not even a
good comparison, because readingabout somebody, especially
somebody who isn't even on thisearth, that's not walking this
earth.
Jesus is alive, he is in heaven, he is seated at the right hand
(06:52):
of God, the Father, but he isnot walking the earth.
So, although he is a member ofthe triune God, which means as a
Godhead, he is omnipotent,omniscient and omnipresent.
He knows everything about youand me, but he's not walking
right next to us.
In fact, it's the Holy Spiritwho dwells inside of all of
(07:14):
God's children.
So why am I making a big dealabout this?
Knowing Jesus via just readingabout or listening to sermons on
Sunday, versus knowing him inyour heart?
The reason I'm making a big dealabout this beloved is because
this is the difference betweenheaven and hell when a person
(07:37):
will spend their eternity isdetermined by their very
relationship, or lack ofrelationship with their maker,
specifically their maker's son,jesus Christ.
And without getting toocomplicated, jesus is God the
Father, jesus is the Holy Spiritand Jesus is the Son of God.
(07:58):
That is the nature of a triuneGod Three separate but equal,
making one Godhead.
We cannot comprehend that.
But nowhere in God's Word doeshe promise that he is going to
explain everything to us, and Idon't doubt that.
There's no way that we couldeven comprehend it if he did lay
it out for us.
(08:18):
So I'll leave it at that.
But there was the Mosaic Age,the Age of the Old Testament at
that.
But there was the Mosaic Age,the age of the Old Testament.
That is over with and done with.
We are now in the Church Age.
The Church Age is since Jesusbegan his ministry at the age of
30,.
We are in the Church Age, godthe Father.
(08:43):
He is the one who decided thathe is going to go from speaking
to his people through prophetsand instead will speak directly
to his people through the HolySpirit during the church age.
Well, that brings us, then, tothe point of well, how does that
happen?
There's only one way that canhappen, and that is being born
again In John 3, jesus Christ,when he speaks to Nicodemus,
(09:04):
lays it out in great detail andhe lets us know that all who
read John 3, one must be bornagain to see the kingdom of God
period again.
To see the kingdom of God period, and Jesus has already stated
as well that no one goes throughthe Father except through me.
Jesus said so.
Believing in Jesus Christ isthe only way to God the Father,
(09:28):
and that is the only way to beborn again.
When a person in their heartnot in the head, and I'll talk
more about that in just a minutebut in one's heart, truly
believe that Jesus Christ diedon the cross, that he lived a
perfect life and so, when hedied on that cross and was
sacrificed, that that blood ofhis was the perfect blood, the
(09:50):
perfect lamb of God for thesacrifice, and that when you
believe on his blood, hissacrifice for you, you are born
again, and that is belief inone's heart.
In Romans 10, we are told thatwith the mouth one confesses the
Lord Jesus and with the heartbelieves that God, the Father,
(10:12):
raised him from the dead.
That requires repentance.
Repentance is not being sorryfor what a person has done.
You're not sorry for the thingsyou have done.
You repent.
You completely want to turnaway from that lifestyle.
A person wants to be freed fromtheir sin, and so they repent
(10:35):
and they turn to God and, onceadmitting that they are a sinner
, that they need a savior, pleadto God to forgive them of all
their sins through the name ofJesus Christ.
And then, just like that,justification happens.
They are born again instantly.
There's nothing else that needsto be done.
Don't jump the gun and think ofbaptism, because that is not a
(10:58):
requirement for salvation.
Baptism is an open expression,one saying that I am born again,
that I am saved.
But justification happensinstantly.
And that happens because youare actually baptized by the
Holy Spirit.
John the Baptist even admittedthat he baptized with water, but
(11:19):
that Jesus baptizes with theHoly Spirit.
The baptism that we volunteer togo through is our open
expression.
It is our way of showing God infront of the world, maybe in
front of many people, or maybenot.
That's not the important part.
It is an outward expression.
I truly believe that one reasonJesus has us do it is because
(11:42):
of the inspiration that itbrings when we witness
somebody's baptism.
For those who are not baptized,there's an extreme curiosity.
And why is it that somebody isdoing that?
It seems so awkward, so out ofplace in the world to be dunked
in water and brought back up inthe name of the Father and the
(12:03):
Son and the Holy Spirit, and,for those who have been baptized
, it brings us great joy to seeothers being baptized, becoming
a brother or a sister.
Yes, they may have been bornagain, days, weeks, even years
earlier, but it's their outwardexpression of saying hey, I am a
child of God, jesus Christ ismy Savior.
(12:25):
And they too, then, are eventelling us, those who have been
born again, that you know whatI'm, your brethren, I am a
brother or I am a sister inChrist.
So more on this knowingknowledge-wise Jesus Christ
versus in your heart.
Again, the reason this is soimportant is because Satan has
(12:45):
played his cards very well.
He's very cunning.
He is the father of lies, so heis good at it, and he has
fooled millions of people, isgood at it, and he has fooled
millions of people.
For those who are caught up inHinduism and Islam, whatever
else it may be, he has themcompletely fooled.
(13:05):
If that is you and you'rehearing this and you're
wondering who Jesus is, jesus isthe one that Satan does not
want you to know, because youcan know God in all kinds of
forms.
There are false gods all overthe place, and even in
Christianity itself.
There, among the churches, arepeople who are not worshiping
(13:26):
the same God.
They are worshiping God thatthey have in their own mind, but
they don't read the Bible.
Catholicism shame on theleaders in Catholicism.
Shame on every single one ofyou who claim that a person
needs to be learned to readGod's Word and to understand it.
That is contradictory to whatGod says, because the Holy
(13:49):
Spirit is what is needed.
His interpretation, the HolySpirit, is who teaches us God's
Word.
No one else can do that for us.
There are plenty of unbelieverswho are in the seminaries right
now.
They are in their classroom,studying or whatever they're
doing.
Maybe they're getting ready tograduate even, and going on to
(14:11):
be a pastor of a church orpriest, whatever it is that
they're doing, but they don'tknow Jesus Christ as their
personal Savior.
They know Scripture very well,they can quote it, but so what
the Pharisees could do that?
The Pharisees, they had tomemorize the first five books.
In fact, the reason the fivebooks is because that's pretty
much all Judaism reads andteaches from Even Jews, who only
(14:36):
get the first five books of theBible, who do not know Jesus
Christ and he is there, by theway, in the first five books.
I don't have time for thatright now, but the point being
is that there are so many otherbooks of the Bible that
blatantly point to Jesus, andespecially in the New Testament
right.
So head knowledge isn't enough.
(14:57):
Many of the Pharisees are goingto burn in hell for all eternity
, and that breaks my heart.
They had God's word in front ofthem, but they had God
constructed in their own mindthe way they wanted him to be,
and that's a danger that everysingle soul must be very weary
of.
You have a short window ofopportunity, must be very weary
of.
You have a short window ofopportunity, and that's in this
(15:19):
lifetime.
You may think that you haveforever, it may feel like you
have eternity, but no way.
Our life in God's word iscompared to a vapor that appears
for a short time and thenvanishes away.
That's not long at all Forthose who have a lot of access
to the knowledge of Jesus, suchas in most of the United States,
(15:41):
for starters, but plenty ofother places around the world
that have Bibles in every otherhousehold, a church, on every
other street corner.
Those individuals will have ahigher standard held to them for
accountability because theyhave many more opportunities to
know who Jesus is.
(16:03):
It's very frustrating for aChristian like myself to have
knowledge of the fact that thereare many denominations who
discourage their lay people toread God's Word because they are
afraid that they willmisunderstand God.
Maybe that is irony at itsworst, because for those
(16:24):
teachers false teachers, I'mgoing to say, to put to practice
something as horrific as that,it is the false teachers
themselves that either do notunderstand God's word or, worse,
are blatantly holding thatknowledge back because God does
not say that in any way.
Think about this Jesus Christ,when he died, he died for that
(16:49):
very reason to split the curtainthat separated the holy of
holies from everybody else.
It was Jesus Christ, when hedied on the cross, that God, the
Father, when it was over, madeit very clear.
You come directly to me, mychildren.
You no longer need a priest.
In fact, his children becomethe royal priesthood.
(17:13):
We, his children, are priests,which means we are the ones who
pray directly to God.
We are the ones who canintercede for an unbeliever.
We are the ones to open up hisword and point to other people
where Jesus Christ is in theBible.
Jesus died for that very reason, so people would not have to
(17:38):
sacrifice animals, that theywould not have to follow the
strict rituals that God put inplace.
It is the blood of Jesus thatmakes it possible for someone
like me, who is considered alayman to intellects, to be able
to drop to my knees and praydirectly to God himself.
I'm the one who brings mythanksgiving to God.
(18:01):
I am the one who brings myhurts and needs and wants to my
Heavenly Father.
He speaks directly to me and hespeaks directly to you.
If you are a child of God, tobe a child of God, you must be
born again.
Being born again means that,yes, you were born of the flesh.
Everybody is To be a human.
(18:22):
You're born in the flesh.
You are born once.
That is the first time that youwere born.
Being born again, your spiritis awakened.
The Holy Spirit reveals to youwho God is, and that's just the
beginning of your journey.
Beloved, that is only the verybeginning, and I am sorry that I
(18:50):
look back in time and believershave fallen short, and I too,
the first part of my life, fellway short of understanding that
that even loving Jesus doesn'tend right there.
That is the beginning of afantastic journey, but we are to
live for him.
Justification happens one anddone when you are born again.
Your sins he has justified you.
(19:13):
Your sin debt is paid in fulland immediately the Holy Spirit
begins the sanctificationprocess.
And that sanctification processin short, beloved is God, the
Father molding you into theimage of his beloved Son, jesus
Christ.
And that will continue untilthe day your body expires and
(19:38):
your body returns to the earth,but your soul is in heaven.
And the day will come when wewill all be glorified.
But during this process ofsanctification, that's not
something that we do with ourfeet propped up and half asleep.
No, it's a relationship withGod the Father.
And now that we are serving hisson and now that we are his
(20:01):
children, we need to participatein this whole process of
sanctification.
And what does that look like?
That's when you open up hisword and you read beloved.
My heart just continues to breakbecause so many Christians,
those who are born again, theydon't get it.
(20:21):
Have they not heard it enough?
I don't know, being brought upin a major denomination.
I was misguided.
I really honestly believed itwas things that were done to me,
being that my parents baptizedme as a baby and then as a child
, going through confirmationafter passing my test and the
(20:43):
pastor who I so respectedconfirmed me.
That gave me a false assurancethat I was a Christian.
And so I get it.
If you are in that category, Ican understand that.
I empathize because it's veryconfusing and there's a time
period that when we discover thetruth and as we are reading
(21:06):
God's word and the Holy Spiritreveals to us the truth, yes,
there's parts that are exciting,but there's also a lot of parts
that is very hurtful because itfeels like we were deceived and
we were deceived.
And if you're still in thatcategory, you still are being
deceived.
It's not necessarily from theflesh and blood because,
(21:28):
remember, we are not up againstflesh and blood.
We are up against powers ofdarkness, of principalities, the
ruler of this world, satan andhis demons.
That's who we are up against.
And even though it is thepastors and priests who are
baptizing babies, who areconfirming people or who are
(21:51):
taking confessions, whatever itmight be, indulgences for the
Catholic Church, you name it andit sounds pretty important.
It sounds very official, butnone of it is biblical.
It is from Satan.
He is the great deceiver and heis deceiving you if you are
still caught up in adenomination that practices such
(22:13):
things or if you have seen thelight and you are at least free
from that.
But you still may hold thatbaggage, that desire, that
comfort that we can get when weare a part of something.
I didn't understand it, butlooking back, that's what I felt
a part of at my confirmation.
(22:33):
It was like I was beingaccepted into the family.
But that's not how we'reaccepted into God's family.
So next week I'm going to talkmore about this.
We'll continue in thisdiscussion, so I won't be
teaching the way I have taughtin the past, at least for next
week as well, because so much isgoing on in this world and I
(22:54):
believe that even if I need torepeat myself in different ways
over the coming weeks andemphasizing important points
that many do not want to talkabout, then so be it.
I'm not afraid of criticism.
I'm not afraid of what manwants to do to me or says about
me.
I fear my Lord and Savior.
(23:16):
I fear God.
I don't want to do the wrongthing.
I don't want to misguide peoplefor my own agenda.
And let's face it as we getcloser to the day capital D, the
second coming of our Lord JesusChrist, as we get closer to
that time, deception is gettingdeeper and broader.
(23:37):
In so many ways we are beingdeceived under the guise of
science, under the guise ofreligion, under the guise of
knowledge and education.
It's everywhere.
The deception is everywhere,coming from sources that at one
time we felt were safe.
(23:58):
And if you're not reading God'sword, if you are not in the
Bible on a regular basis andtruly, that's every single day
beloved.
Sure, a person may miss a dayhere and there, but you
certainly don't miss a day whenit comes to eating and feeding
your body.
So my question, then, is whymiss a day feeding your soul?
And we'll talk more about that?
(24:20):
Because you have time for this.
You have time.
And if you don't have time,then you need to make time.
You need to make time for thatsavior of yours, because he is
giving you all of eternity.
We all can give him the time,this little vapor that we have
right now, that is here todayand gone tomorrow.
(24:43):
We can give it all to him.
The other things you can do iscontinue to pray to him.
If you're not in the habit ofpraying, pick certain times.
Traditionally, people praybefore they eat every meal.
I say a prayer, I thank himbefore I eat anything.
Also, before you go to bed,when you get up in the morning.
(25:04):
Those are two easy times to getin the habit of praying, and
others have more creative ways,like before you check your email
for the day, or before you callsomebody, before you sit down
to watch a show something thatyou do routinely, but then you
pray, and that helps you getinto the habit.
(25:27):
But, more importantly, it helpsto start to form that
relationship with God, theFather.
So we'll talk more about thisnext week.
So, beloved, god willing, I'lltalk to you next week.
You stay safe, stay focused onGod and specifically focus on
Jesus Christ.
He will see you througheverything if you turn to him.
(25:50):
He promises that all of hischildren he will take care of.
And until next time, god bless,thank you.
Hello and good day.
I am BR Maul and you arelistening to Living God's Way in
an Ungodly World.
I'm currently teaching in thebook of Ephesians.
However, I am taking a breakfrom that so I can talk just
more directly to you.
There's been a few things on myheart and this is one of them
(00:51):
that I'd like to talk to youabout.
After all, the podcast LivingGod's Way in an Ungodly World is
a topic that most people don'twant to listen to.
They don't want to talk aboutthat.
It's much easier to live a lifepretending that we know God and
blending in with the worldaround us.
(01:13):
The average person doesn't wantto rock the boat.
In other words, they don't wantto cause trouble, they don't
want to make people mad, theydon't want people to not like
them, they don't want to hurtpeople's feelings, and some of
that is okay.
But for those of us who arefollowing Jesus Christ and that
is who it is that I follow it isJesus Christ of Nazareth who is
(01:37):
my Lord and my King, my Savior,and it is he who I owe an
eternal debt to.
Because of him, I am going tospend eternity in the presence
of God.
I noticed there's quite a fewlisteners to this podcast over
in countries like Nepal andSaudi Arabia and other countries
(01:58):
that certainly are notAmericanized.
So I wanted to make sure that Iclarify a few things as I
continue teaching that this Godis Yahweh, the one true living
God.
This is not the God of the Kron.
This is not just another God ofthe Hindus.
Jesus Christ is his son.
(02:20):
It is God, the Father, thatgave Jesus Christ up as a
sacrifice, once and for all, foreveryone who accepts Jesus
Christ as their Savior.
One thing to clarify for all youwho are listening is that head
knowledge of God is not enoughto make it into heaven, and
Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
(02:41):
He is not a prophet.
He was not just a good man thatlived a good life.
In fact, that's impossible,because Jesus declared that he
is God numerous times.
Makes it so he doesn't qualifyto be just a good man or, for
that matter, a prophet of God,because, since he claimed to be
(03:02):
God, he was either a liar, apsychotic or indeed the living
God as a Christian.
Quite obvious that he is, infact, the living God.
The Bible points to that in somany ways.
So there's no denying thatJesus Christ is God.
We can deny it in our heart,but even the secular world
(03:26):
cannot deny that a man namedJesus from Nazareth hung on a
cross some 2,000 years ago,claiming to be the living God.
And there's proof upon proofthat there were eyewitnesses
that, after seeing him on thecross and then buried, saw him
just days later walking aboutand over the course of well
(03:52):
right now I'm trying to recallif it was 30 or 40 days, so I
apologize for that, but eitherway, a significant amount of
time that he walked the earthand hundreds of people witnessed
that very fact.
So for those who are wonderingwho Jesus is and are listening
to this, he is the Son of Godand for those who have known
(04:14):
that in their mind, that this iscommon knowledge much in the
United States, but so many otherplaces as well, around the
world, the name Jesus is knownand known to be the Son of the
Living God and a triune GodFather, son and Holy Spirit that
head knowledge is not enough.
(04:35):
So that's the other thing Iwant to talk about today,
because my heart right now isbreaking for the millions of
people right now who know JesusChrist as they would, somebody
that they have studied inhistory as somebody that from
generation to generation thename has been passed down, and
of course those are many typesof people, people from history.
(04:59):
We can read about them, whichmeans we have had knowledge of
them, but unless we actually satwith them and talked to them
and lived a life near them oralongside of them, we cannot
know a person.
We can know of people.
We all know plenty about peoplethe different presidents of the
(05:19):
United States, the differentkings and queens throughout
history, various heroes andvillains throughout history who
made names for themselves,famous people today, whether in
sports or in movies or in musicindustry, whatever it may be.
All of these people you don'tknow them in your heart.
(05:40):
But we can really get to knowthem in our minds and we can get
a feeling of knowing them inour minds.
But please understand thatreading about somebody does not
make it so you know them.
Nobody reads about somebodythat they may be interested in
as a spouse to have a familywith and studies on them and
(06:04):
reads more.
Listen to other and studies onthem and reads more.
Listen to other people who talkabout them and then, with that
information only, without evermeeting them in person, marry
them.
That just doesn't happen.
Now, my ignorance shows,because when it comes to
prearranged marriages, that'ssomething that I know very
little about.
So I'm not saying that there'speople who don't marry somebody
(06:28):
that they don't know, but evenwith prearranged marriages,
there seems still to be a timeof courtship and so forth.
But I won't go down that rabbithole because that's not even a
good comparison, because readingabout somebody, especially
somebody who isn't even on thisearth, that's not walking this
earth.
Jesus is alive, he is in heaven, he is seated at the right hand
(06:52):
of God, the Father, but he isnot walking the earth.
So, although he is a member ofthe triune God, which means as a
Godhead, he is omnipotent,omniscient and omnipresent.
He knows everything about youand me, but he's not walking
right next to us.
In fact, it's the Holy Spiritwho dwells inside of all of
(07:14):
God's children.
So why am I making a big dealabout this?
Knowing Jesus via just readingabout or listening to sermons on
Sunday, versus knowing him inyour heart?
The reason I'm making a big dealabout this beloved is because
this is the difference betweenheaven and hell when a person
(07:37):
will spend their eternity isdetermined by their very
relationship, or lack ofrelationship with their maker,
specifically their maker's son,jesus Christ.
And without getting toocomplicated, jesus is God the
Father, jesus is the Holy Spiritand Jesus is the Son of God.
(07:58):
That is the nature of a triuneGod Three separate but equal,
making one Godhead.
We cannot comprehend that.
But nowhere in God's Word doeshe promise that he is going to
explain everything to us, and Idon't doubt that.
There's no way that we couldeven comprehend it if he did lay
it out for us.
(08:18):
So I'll leave it at that.
But there was the Mosaic Age,the Age of the Old Testament at
that.
But there was the Mosaic Age,the age of the Old Testament.
That is over with and done with.
We are now in the Church Age.
The Church Age is since Jesusbegan his ministry at the age of
30,.
We are in the Church Age, godthe Father.
(08:43):
He is the one who decided thathe is going to go from speaking
to his people through prophetsand instead will speak directly
to his people through the HolySpirit during the church age.
Well, that brings us, then, tothe point of well, how does that
happen?
There's only one way that canhappen, and that is being born
again In John 3, jesus Christ,when he speaks to Nicodemus,
(09:04):
lays it out in great detail andhe lets us know that all who
read John 3, one must be bornagain to see the kingdom of God
period again.
To see the kingdom of God period, and Jesus has already stated
as well that no one goes throughthe Father except through me.
Jesus said so.
Believing in Jesus Christ isthe only way to God the Father,
(09:28):
and that is the only way to beborn again.
When a person in their heartnot in the head, and I'll talk
more about that in just a minutebut in one's heart, truly
believe that Jesus Christ diedon the cross, that he lived a
perfect life and so, when hedied on that cross and was
sacrificed, that that blood ofhis was the perfect blood, the
(09:50):
perfect lamb of God for thesacrifice, and that when you
believe on his blood, hissacrifice for you, you are born
again, and that is belief inone's heart.
In Romans 10, we are told thatwith the mouth one confesses the
Lord Jesus and with the heartbelieves that God, the Father,
(10:12):
raised him from the dead.
That requires repentance.
Repentance is not being sorryfor what a person has done.
You're not sorry for the thingsyou have done.
You repent.
You completely want to turnaway from that lifestyle.
A person wants to be freed fromtheir sin, and so they repent
(10:35):
and they turn to God and, onceadmitting that they are a sinner
, that they need a savior, pleadto God to forgive them of all
their sins through the name ofJesus Christ.
And then, just like that,justification happens.
They are born again instantly.
There's nothing else that needsto be done.
Don't jump the gun and think ofbaptism, because that is not a
(10:58):
requirement for salvation.
Baptism is an open expression,one saying that I am born again,
that I am saved.
But justification happensinstantly.
And that happens because youare actually baptized by the
Holy Spirit.
John the Baptist even admittedthat he baptized with water, but
(11:19):
that Jesus baptizes with theHoly Spirit.
The baptism that we volunteer togo through is our open
expression.
It is our way of showing God infront of the world, maybe in
front of many people, or maybenot.
That's not the important part.
It is an outward expression.
I truly believe that one reasonJesus has us do it is because
(11:42):
of the inspiration that itbrings when we witness
somebody's baptism.
For those who are not baptized,there's an extreme curiosity.
And why is it that somebody isdoing that?
It seems so awkward, so out ofplace in the world to be dunked
in water and brought back up inthe name of the Father and the
(12:03):
Son and the Holy Spirit, and,for those who have been baptized
, it brings us great joy to seeothers being baptized, becoming
a brother or a sister.
Yes, they may have been bornagain, days, weeks, even years
earlier, but it's their outwardexpression of saying hey, I am a
child of God, jesus Christ ismy Savior.
(12:25):
And they too, then, are eventelling us, those who have been
born again, that you know whatI'm, your brethren, I am a
brother or I am a sister inChrist.
So more on this knowingknowledge-wise Jesus Christ
versus in your heart.
Again, the reason this is soimportant is because Satan has
(12:45):
played his cards very well.
He's very cunning.
He is the father of lies, so heis good at it, and he has
fooled millions of people, isgood at it, and he has fooled
millions of people.
For those who are caught up inHinduism and Islam, whatever
else it may be, he has themcompletely fooled.
(13:05):
If that is you and you'rehearing this and you're
wondering who Jesus is, jesus isthe one that Satan does not
want you to know, because youcan know God in all kinds of
forms.
There are false gods all overthe place, and even in
Christianity itself.
There, among the churches, arepeople who are not worshiping
(13:26):
the same God.
They are worshiping God thatthey have in their own mind, but
they don't read the Bible.
Catholicism shame on theleaders in Catholicism.
Shame on every single one ofyou who claim that a person
needs to be learned to readGod's Word and to understand it.
That is contradictory to whatGod says, because the Holy
(13:49):
Spirit is what is needed.
His interpretation, the HolySpirit, is who teaches us God's
Word.
No one else can do that for us.
There are plenty of unbelieverswho are in the seminaries right
now.
They are in their classroom,studying or whatever they're
doing.
Maybe they're getting ready tograduate even, and going on to
(14:11):
be a pastor of a church orpriest, whatever it is that
they're doing, but they don'tknow Jesus Christ as their
personal Savior.
They know Scripture very well,they can quote it, but so what
the Pharisees could do that?
The Pharisees, they had tomemorize the first five books.
In fact, the reason the fivebooks is because that's pretty
much all Judaism reads andteaches from Even Jews, who only
(14:36):
get the first five books of theBible, who do not know Jesus
Christ and he is there, by theway, in the first five books.
I don't have time for thatright now, but the point being
is that there are so many otherbooks of the Bible that
blatantly point to Jesus, andespecially in the New Testament
right.
So head knowledge isn't enough.
(14:57):
Many of the Pharisees are goingto burn in hell for all eternity
, and that breaks my heart.
They had God's word in front ofthem, but they had God
constructed in their own mindthe way they wanted him to be,
and that's a danger that everysingle soul must be very weary
of.
You have a short window ofopportunity, must be very weary
of.
You have a short window ofopportunity, and that's in this
(15:19):
lifetime.
You may think that you haveforever, it may feel like you
have eternity, but no way.
Our life in God's word iscompared to a vapor that appears
for a short time and thenvanishes away.
That's not long at all Forthose who have a lot of access
to the knowledge of Jesus, suchas in most of the United States,
(15:41):
for starters, but plenty ofother places around the world
that have Bibles in every otherhousehold, a church, on every
other street corner.
Those individuals will have ahigher standard held to them for
accountability because theyhave many more opportunities to
know who Jesus is.
(16:03):
It's very frustrating for aChristian like myself to have
knowledge of the fact that thereare many denominations who
discourage their lay people toread God's Word because they are
afraid that they willmisunderstand God.
Maybe that is irony at itsworst, because for those
(16:24):
teachers false teachers, I'mgoing to say, to put to practice
something as horrific as that,it is the false teachers
themselves that either do notunderstand God's word or, worse,
are blatantly holding thatknowledge back because God does
not say that in any way.
Think about this Jesus Christ,when he died, he died for that
(16:49):
very reason to split the curtainthat separated the holy of
holies from everybody else.
It was Jesus Christ, when hedied on the cross, that God, the
Father, when it was over, madeit very clear.
You come directly to me, mychildren.
You no longer need a priest.
In fact, his children becomethe royal priesthood.
(17:13):
We, his children, are priests,which means we are the ones who
pray directly to God.
We are the ones who canintercede for an unbeliever.
We are the ones to open up hisword and point to other people
where Jesus Christ is in theBible.
Jesus died for that very reason, so people would not have to
(17:38):
sacrifice animals, that theywould not have to follow the
strict rituals that God put inplace.
It is the blood of Jesus thatmakes it possible for someone
like me, who is considered alayman to intellects, to be able
to drop to my knees and praydirectly to God himself.
I'm the one who brings mythanksgiving to God.
(18:01):
I am the one who brings myhurts and needs and wants to my
Heavenly Father.
He speaks directly to me and hespeaks directly to you.
If you are a child of God, tobe a child of God, you must be
born again.
Being born again means that,yes, you were born of the flesh.
Everybody is To be a human.
(18:22):
You're born in the flesh.
You are born once.
That is the first time that youwere born.
Being born again, your spiritis awakened.
The Holy Spirit reveals to youwho God is, and that's just the
beginning of your journey.
Beloved, that is only the verybeginning, and I am sorry that I
(18:50):
look back in time and believershave fallen short, and I too,
the first part of my life, fellway short of understanding that
that even loving Jesus doesn'tend right there.
That is the beginning of afantastic journey, but we are to
live for him.
Justification happens one anddone when you are born again.
Your sins he has justified you.
(19:13):
Your sin debt is paid in fulland immediately the Holy Spirit
begins the sanctificationprocess.
And that sanctification processin short, beloved is God, the
Father molding you into theimage of his beloved Son, jesus
Christ.
And that will continue untilthe day your body expires and
(19:38):
your body returns to the earth,but your soul is in heaven.
And the day will come when wewill all be glorified.
But during this process ofsanctification, that's not
something that we do with ourfeet propped up and half asleep.
No, it's a relationship withGod the Father.
And now that we are serving hisson and now that we are his
(20:01):
children, we need to participatein this whole process of
sanctification.
And what does that look like?
That's when you open up hisword and you read beloved.
My heart just continues to breakbecause so many Christians,
those who are born again, theydon't get it.
(20:21):
Have they not heard it enough?
I don't know, being brought upin a major denomination.
I was misguided.
I really honestly believed itwas things that were done to me,
being that my parents baptizedme as a baby and then as a child
, going through confirmationafter passing my test and the
(20:43):
pastor who I so respectedconfirmed me.
That gave me a false assurancethat I was a Christian.
And so I get it.
If you are in that category, Ican understand that.
I empathize because it's veryconfusing and there's a time
period that when we discover thetruth and as we are reading
(21:06):
God's word and the Holy Spiritreveals to us the truth, yes,
there's parts that are exciting,but there's also a lot of parts
that is very hurtful because itfeels like we were deceived and
we were deceived.
And if you're still in thatcategory, you still are being
deceived.
It's not necessarily from theflesh and blood because,
(21:28):
remember, we are not up againstflesh and blood.
We are up against powers ofdarkness, of principalities, the
ruler of this world, satan andhis demons.
That's who we are up against.
And even though it is thepastors and priests who are
baptizing babies, who areconfirming people or who are
(21:51):
taking confessions, whatever itmight be, indulgences for the
Catholic Church, you name it andit sounds pretty important.
It sounds very official, butnone of it is biblical.
It is from Satan.
He is the great deceiver and heis deceiving you if you are
still caught up in adenomination that practices such
(22:13):
things or if you have seen thelight and you are at least free
from that.
But you still may hold thatbaggage, that desire, that
comfort that we can get when weare a part of something.
I didn't understand it, butlooking back, that's what I felt
a part of at my confirmation.
(22:33):
It was like I was beingaccepted into the family.
But that's not how we'reaccepted into God's family.
So next week I'm going to talkmore about this.
We'll continue in thisdiscussion, so I won't be
teaching the way I have taughtin the past, at least for next
week as well, because so much isgoing on in this world and I
(22:54):
believe that even if I need torepeat myself in different ways
over the coming weeks andemphasizing important points
that many do not want to talkabout, then so be it.
I'm not afraid of criticism.
I'm not afraid of what manwants to do to me or says about
me.
I fear my Lord and Savior.
(23:16):
I fear God.
I don't want to do the wrongthing.
I don't want to misguide peoplefor my own agenda.
And let's face it as we getcloser to the day capital D, the
second coming of our Lord JesusChrist, as we get closer to
that time, deception is gettingdeeper and broader.
(23:37):
In so many ways we are beingdeceived under the guise of
science, under the guise ofreligion, under the guise of
knowledge and education.
It's everywhere.
The deception is everywhere,coming from sources that at one
time we felt were safe.
(23:58):
And if you're not reading God'sword, if you are not in the
Bible on a regular basis andtruly, that's every single day
beloved.
Sure, a person may miss a dayhere and there, but you
certainly don't miss a day whenit comes to eating and feeding
your body.
So my question, then, is whymiss a day feeding your soul?
And we'll talk more about that?
(24:20):
Because you have time for this.
You have time.
And if you don't have time,then you need to make time.
You need to make time for thatsavior of yours, because he is
giving you all of eternity.
We all can give him the time,this little vapor that we have
right now, that is here todayand gone tomorrow.
(24:43):
We can give it all to him.
The other things you can do iscontinue to pray to him.
If you're not in the habit ofpraying, pick certain times.
Traditionally, people praybefore they eat every meal.
I say a prayer, I thank himbefore I eat anything.
Also, before you go to bed,when you get up in the morning.
(25:04):
Those are two easy times to getin the habit of praying, and
others have more creative ways,like before you check your email
for the day, or before you callsomebody, before you sit down
to watch a show something thatyou do routinely, but then you
pray, and that helps you getinto the habit.
(25:27):
But, more importantly, it helpsto start to form that
relationship with God, theFather.
So we'll talk more about thisnext week.
So, beloved, god willing, I'lltalk to you next week.
You stay safe, stay focused onGod and specifically focus on
Jesus Christ.
He will see you througheverything if you turn to him.
(25:50):
He promises that all of hischildren he will take care of.
And until next time, god bless,thank you.
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