Forgiveness & Reconciliation

Welcome to This Truth Time Transmission. I'm Trey Searcy. Today we're looking into the doctrine of reconciliation.
We don't care who likes it or not, as long as we know it's the truth.
Here in Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 8, the Bible clearly says, By grace are you saved, through faith.
Why didn't Paul say, for by grace are you saved through getting your sins forgiven?
He didn't say it because it's not true.
Sins have already been forgiven.
They're out of the way so that God can deal with you.
And now he says, for by grace are you saved through faith.
Faith is your only requirement for salvation.
Faith is the only thing you can do without doing anything in the flesh.
Faith is inward.
Faith is an inward decision, believing on Christ, believing that He alone can save you.
It did not say, by grace you're saved, if and when you get your sins forgiven.
No, your sins are already forgiven.
Paul didn't say, by grace are you saved through 1 John 1:9.
1 John 1:9 was written exclusively to the nation Israel.
1 John 1:9 was written according to the law, the Jewish law, has nothing to do with the dispensation of grace, has nothing to do with the dispensation of the gospel, committed to the Apostle Paul,
1 Corinthians 9:17.
Those who are Acts chapter 3 verse 19, awaiting to have their sins blotted out at the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's their doctrine.
Their sins will be blotted out then.
Our sins are blotted out now, and therefore it's impossible to be saved by having your sins blotted out because the world's sins are already blotted out.
There must be something else, and that is faith, faith that your sins have already been blotted out.
What we need to do is to put sin behind us, in the past where it belongs.
God did.
We need to put it out of sight.
God did.
Take it off the table.
God did.
If we'll just believe God and do what He did, we can get on with our faith.
Faith!
Without faith, it is impossible to please God.
Ephesians 2:8 is clear, we're saved through faith, not getting our sins forgiven.
Satan is putting in overtime, working to destroy the doctrine of worldwide reconciliation.
If he can keep it hid and out of the eyes and ears of most of the world, billions of forgiven people will die and join him someday.
Think about that.
Satan will be laughing at those in hell who were forgiven of all their sins at the cross, but chose to spend their lifetime trying to get their sins forgiven.
Think about that.
They were forgiven, but didn't know it.
Some of the leading pastors, teachers, and evangelists of our day, and I say leading on the basis of popularity, not truth telling, anyway, they're telling their followers that to be saved, one must get sin out of their lives, turn from it, confess, and ask forgiveness for it.
But God says, whoa, wait just a minute, concerning salvation, the sin issue that once separated me from you, well, it's already been dealt with.
My son took care of that at the cross.
Don't sing there's power in the blood if you don't really mean it.
God says, I don't need another sacrifice, what I need is your faith.
I already got my sacrifice, my perfect sacrifice for your sin.
That's now in the rear view.
So looking ahead, all I need is your faith.
Now you tell me, who's the author of this confusion?
Just who is it that's kept reconciliation revelation hidden from the forgiven, unsaved people for so long?
Satan.
Yeah, he's responsible.
He is the God of this world.
He's the God of worldwide religion, 2 Corinthians 4:4.
So, let me see if I've got this straight.
The fact that Christ did it doesn't make it so.
It's my belief in it that makes it so.
No.
Christ doing it made it so, and my belief in it makes me saved.
During this reconciliation teaching series, you're going to hear me repeat the fact that just because God has reconciled the world unto himself in no way, in no way means that the world is saved.
It's real simple.
It simply means that the world has been made ready, made ready to be saved.
Not saved, but ready to be.
God removed sin, took it off the table, got it out of the way in order to deal with individuals on the basis of faith.
Understanding this will allow you to see through the glass clearly.
Now, in the Bible, we see information that everyone could know since the world began.
Just as we also see information which no one could have known until Christ revealed it to Paul.
It was kept secret since the world began, and all you've got to do to see this is to compare Peter in Acts chapter 3 verse 21 with Paul in Romans chapter 16 verse 25.
This reconciliation revelation will be better understood after you see the difference between that which had been prophesied and that which had been kept secret until Christ imparted it to Paul.
Today, we're looking into the doctrine of reconciliation.
Let's take a look here at a listener letter.
If I can find it here, okay, here we go.
Holly writes, I've gone to church for most of my life.
I've been exposed to more than one way to be saved, even though I now know there is only one.
I have been to Baptist churches where I heard how to be saved.
I have been to Church of God churches where I heard another way to be saved.
When I visit my in-law's church, which is also Baptist, they teach a different gospel than either of those.
Help! Help!
I'm confused, not confused about what the gospel is, I've been listening to you and I'm now clear on that, but confused as to why churches preach different ways to be saved.
They all include Jesus and the cross, but give you different things to do to complete the deal.
Your teaching has helped me to see that, and well Holly goes on with a few more comments
about how the program has helped her, and thank you Holly, but she's mainly wanting to know why is it that she can go to different churches and hear different gospels.
Holly, after 25 plus years of working with local and national Christian radio programs, me too.
Well, the problem with understanding how to be saved today comes from those who are unwilling
to rightly divide the gospels, rightly divide them and teach the one that saves today.
In the Bible you can find more than one way to be saved, and what has happened is some choose one while some choose the other.
To rightly divide the gospels is precisely what 2 Timothy 2:15 commands us, and due to the neglect of doing so, many today have missed the quote, Gospel of your salvation, Ephesians 1:13.
And the reason that many, well they mean well and have great intentions, but have missed the gospel of their salvation is because they've missed the quote, Word of reconciliation.
And we find that in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 19.
That's why it's so vital that we begin discussing this issue.
It's important that we begin a dialogue about the ministry of reconciliation that God has committed unto us.
So, today we begin a series of teachings on the doctrine of reconciliation, and we'll focus on the two groups painfully being affected by it.
Satan has been very successful in keeping the minds of the masses on sin, and if their mind's on sin, it's off the cross.
Now why does he do this?
So that the saved will be oppressed and the unsaved remain lost.
That's the two groups.
Those who are saved, they trusted in the finished cross work, but then allowed some knucklehead
to lead them back into a works program.
And those who are not saved, they've always trusted in Christ, plus a work from the very beginning.
Satan has both groups right where he wants them.
The first group is oppressed and never able to meet the demands of religion, while the second group is lost, never having putting their confidence in Christ alone.
Getting saved is not getting your sins forgiven, but if Satan can convince you that it is, you'll spend a lifetime trying to get your sins forgiven.
The same sins that Christ already forgave when He died for you at Calvary.
Trying to get your sins forgiven is an expression of your lack of faith, your lack of faith in what he already did.
Getting saved is you by faith resting in the fact that your sins have already been forgiven, and that Christ arose to give you eternal life.
That's salvation.
Listen, if you'll unhook yourself from this idea that God can forgive you of sin and plug into the fact that God has forgiven you, the truth of his word, this Bible will open up to you like never before.
The devil don't want you to receive the truth of God's word.
Even though Romans 4:5 says righteousness comes to the one who does not work, the devil with his lying self says, you need to work for it.
You've got to turn from your sins and then, and then God will forgive you.
You've got to ask for forgiveness and then God will forgive you.
You've got to turn over a new leaf and then God will forgive you.
He's crafty, is he not?
Just like He did back there in the garden, he is still twisting what God said.
Lack of reconciliation teaching, which has led to lack of understanding, is the biggest problem mankind is faced with today.
Big problem, little word, sin, S-I-N, small word, big problem.
And the problem is not that we all do it.
The problem is how few understand what God did with it.
He put it onto the person of Christ.
Sin was put away and put out of God's sight, never to be brought up again.
Satan is the one that keeps throwing it up and he's using men to do it.
What God wants me and others to bring up and bring up on a daily basis is faith.
And it's that lack of faith, unbelief, that separates a lost person from God today.
We've all heard the expression, Turn or burn.
It's an expression that appeals to the flesh.
Turn or burn.
Well, half of that is right.
The problem with turn or burn is not the turn.
We should all turn from sin.
Christ told Paul to teach it and Paul tells me to teach it, so I have no problem with the turn part.
The problem is with the burn.
It's wrong to say turn or burn.
To turn from sin is a smart thing to do, but it's not going to keep you from burning.
It's not at all smart to turn from sin to be saved.
No one today can be saved by that.
If you had to turn to be saved, then that would make salvation by works, by your works, by your turning.
That's simply a lie of the devil.
Christ made sure that we will not burn for failing to turn.
I'm not here to boast of my turning.
I'm not here to boast of anything that I can do for salvation.
I'm here to boast about the finished cross work of Christ.
I'm boasting on his works.
I'm not here to give you instructions on how to save yourself.
Turning from sin has no association whatsoever with an unsaved man.
An unsaved man is in need of faith.
He's in need of faith alone in Christ alone without even one work for his salvation.
Turning from sin should be a part of the life of a saved person, a part of their growth as they grow in Christ, day by day, learning to be more obedient.
But you see, the problem is, in our emotional state of mind, which is, by the way, how Satan likes to deal with us, we don't stop to think that, hey, wait a minute.
If my sin was put on Christ for my salvation, 2 Corinthians 5:21, and if God says he took
away my guilt and is no longer imputing, no longer crediting sin into my account, 2 Corinthians
5:19, then what separates me from him?
Ephesians 2:8 faith, Romans 4:5 faith, Romans 5:1 faith, Galatians 5:6 faith, Colossians 1:4 faith.
Christ did the cross work.
Now God wants to know if I believe it.
If we'd simply think on the cross, the things of this world would grow dim.
In John 14:16, Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me.
And in Matthew 7, verses 13 and 14, he said, Enter in at the straight gate, for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and that's how many will go. But listen, Straight is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and only a few find it.
So in looking at John 14:6 and Matthew 7:13, what do we learn?
First, John says there is only one way to be saved, and that's through Jesus, period.
Secondly, Matthew says to enter, you must go by the straight gate and the narrow way.
And at the time Jesus was speaking these words, he had yet to go to the cross and give His life to reconcile God to man.
So at that time, the straight gate and the narrow way gospel was this.
Believe that Christ was the Messiah.
Get water baptized, water baptized, keep the commandments, sell all your possessions and endure unto the end.
If those Israelites could endure through the tribulation, they would be allowed to live in that earthly kingdom with Christ reigning as their King.
But now, some things have changed.
The gate is still straight and the way is still narrow.
In fact, the way is even more narrow now than ever.
It's so narrow that there's not even any room for your works.
There's no room for getting water baptized for salvation.
There's no room for keeping the commandments for salvation.
There's no room for selling all your possessions and enduring unto the end.
Getting water baptized for salvation, no, the path is too narrow.
Keeping the commandments to be saved, nope, the path is too narrow.
And how many today are selling all they own anyway?
Who's enduring through the tribulation while waiting on Christ to return?
That's not our gospel.
Never has been, never will be.
Religion has chose to mix doctrines, perverting the gospel that saves today.
Here is the gospel, the good news that saves today.
Christ died for all your sins, took them to the grave and left them there.
He has risen so that you may have new life in him.
God had to get your sins out of the way before He could even deal with you concerning your
salvation and that's precisely what He did.
On the cross he did something very special and he did it on behalf of you, on behalf of me, on behalf of the world.
And sadly, sadly most of the world doesn't know about it.
Just who do you think is laughing hysterically about that?
On the cross God did a magnificent work in Christ, a work that resulted in him reconciling the entire world unto Himself.
And since then he has not been imputing anyone's sins into their account.
And now, you, by faith, stand with God, believing that the sacrifice of his Son was enough.
By faith and faith alone you can be justified.
You can be saved.
You can't have your sins forgiven, that's already done.
But by faith alone in Christ alone you can be saved.
This is Truth Time Radio, a shot of truth with no chaser.
Same way it was last program, same way it'll be next time.
I want to teach you how to think, not what to think.
As Bible students our motto should be nullius in verba, Latin for on the word of no one.
Take nobody's word for it.
Let's not suspend our rational judgment but rather let the evidence lead.
No more philosophical baggage, no.
We must verify all statements by an appeal to the facts.
Now, a question you should ask is, have I been trusting myself and didn't even know it?
Have I let Satan make a fool of me?
Satan is the master deceiver.
I was there.
I trusted in self for many years.
But like many of you, if someone were to have point blank asked me if I was trusting in myself for salvation, I would have laughed and said no, I trust Christ.
But just like many of you, what I said contradicted what I did.
I was confessing my sins and asking for God's forgiveness to be saved and I was also adding a turn.
I was adding me turning from sin to be saved.
What did I not understand?
There's no sin to turn from, 2 Corinthians 5:19.
As far as salvation goes, there's no sin to turn from.
I'm not talking about turning from sin during this walk of life.
If you can do that, that's great but it won't save you.
And what did I not understand about 2 Corinthians 5:21?
There it plainly says Christ was made to be sin for me.
My sins, you know, the ones I thought I had to turn from to get forgiven, my sins, the ones I thought I had to confess and ask to be forgiven for, hey, they were put on the person of Christ.
He was judged for my sins.
That's good news.
He took my judgment more than 1900 years ago, and I had the audacity to think there was still something, something else that I in my flesh could do to earn God's approval, to get Him to forgive my sins.
Why didn't I understand this good news?
Because the God of this world had hid it from me.
Why didn't I understand Ephesians 2:8?
Oh, I can look at it now and see that it's clear.
You can't have salvation if you include self.
But at that time, I didn't see that, and I didn't even think I was including myself.
And people by the millions still include self as a part of their salvation.
I don't think most know it.
I didn't.
But they do.
I did.
They believe in the death, burial and resurrection of 1 Corinthians 15, but they don't believe on it alone to save them.
They believe in the cross work but not on the finished cross work.
And that's all that will save you today.
Make no mistake about it.
Make no mistake about it.
Christ will never accept you as long as you keep trusting him plus something.
Christ will never accept you as long as you're trusting in self, part him, part you.
It's him alone or nothing at all.
How hurtful it must be to have religious people add something they do to what he did.
Well, I'll continue to do my best to sound the alarm and change your thinking about this.
Because, if you continue down the part God, part you path, you're not going to wind up at your desired destination.
And it's Satan that will get the last laugh.
You see, the gospel was hid from him and he's doing his best to hide it from you.
Christ dying for the sins of humanity allowed God to hold back his day of wrath and lay aside his anger toward mankind.
Christ was made to be my sin.
He was made to be your sin.
This is the gospel.
After Christ took our sin, God stopped imputing it into our account.
How could God impute something that's already been dealt with, dealt with at the cross?
Being reconciled to God is an accomplished thing.
It's something that Christ procured on your behalf.
Now let's be clear.
Let's draw a straight line of demarcation here.
Having your sins forgiven and being justified and heaven bound are two separate things.
You need more than your sins forgiven to be saved.
You need justification.
And how do you go about that?
By faith.
By savingly believing the gospel.
While all sins of all mankind were completely forgiven at the cross, all mankind was not saved at the cross.
I reiterate, while all sins of all mankind were completely forgiven at the cross, all mankind was not saved at the cross.
Get that today.
You see, Christ made Paul a minister according to the dispensation of God, Colossians 1:25.
A dispensation of the gospel was committed unto him, 1 Corinthians 9:17.
And according to Paul's dispensational gospel, no one today can be saved by getting their
sins forgiven.
Christ, when speaking to Israel, not you, but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, Matthew 15:24.
At that time, he said, salvation was conditional.
At that time, they had to do something to get their sins forgiven.
Matthew 6 verses 14 and 15 are clear.
Listen closely.
There, Christ said, If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
That's not hard to understand.
If they did something, God would forgive their sins.
But if they don't, he won't.
Now that's clear, is it not?
But listen to the dichotomy.
Listen to what he later told Paul to tell us, us over here on this side of Calvary, Colossians chapter 2 verse 13, You, being dead in your sins, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with Him, now listen, listen, having, having forgiven you all trespasses.
Unlike Matthew 6:14, that's present tense.
Forgiveness of sin is an accomplished, finished, done-deal fact.
Praise God!
The cross-work is what forgave us, not forgiving others, no, no, we have no such condition placed upon forgiveness.
Should we forgive others?
Absolutely, just like we should turn from sin.
But we don't forgive others, we don't turn from sin, and we don't ask for forgiveness of sin so that God will forgive us.
That's what they had to do in Matthew chapter 6, not true for us, Matthew 6 was a different time to different people and required something very different to have their sins forgiven.
Forgive to get forgiveness was a part of Israel's law program.
But it's not a part of the dispensation of the gospel that was committed to Paul.
It has nothing to do with our Ephesians 3:2 dispensation of grace.
God has reconciled himself unto us.
Getting sins forgiven for salvation is biblical.
Oh yeah, sure it is, but so is selling everything you own, Matthew 19:16-21, Acts chapter 2:45, chapter 3 verse 3, and chapter 5 verse 1, it's just not for today.
This is really so simple but has been taught wrong for so long it's hard to believe.
Some teach this time-past Bible doctrine out of ignorance, not seeing the dispensational change, while others teach it to keep their subjects in bondage.
And it makes sense when you think about it.
I mean, as long as you think that you have sin that needs to be dealt with before God, as long as you think he's angry with you, you'll stay busy.
As long as you think you have undealt with sin, you're going to need a building to run to, an altar to kneel at, a priest to confess to.
And how convenient that every one of these buildings also have tithe envelopes and offering plates.
But maybe that's just a coincidence.
God's truth is exhibited in every doctrine contained in Holy Writ.
But when you do not compare Scripture with Scripture and rightly divide the word of truth, you're left with conflicting doctrines that only lead to mass confusion.
Hence the reason for all the denominations we have today.
We look through our judgmental glasses, thinking we're separating the so-called good people from the bad people, but not God.
God at this present time is not judging according to our good or bad deeds.
He's judging according to our faith in his Son.
His Son was good for all us bad people.
Don't let your pride-fueled thoughts blur your vision and keep you from seeing this, thinking that you're good.
If you're good, it's because you're in Christ, and he's good.
That's the gospel, the good news, and as ambassadors, as ministers of reconciliation, we should take this gospel to them that don't know it.
Amazingly enough, most churches are not preaching the only gospel that saves today.
Christ died for our sins, was buried and rose to give us new life, and you can do all the confessing and asking for forgiveness you want, but God is not going to forgive anyone of any sin.
He already did.
It's already been done.
He can't do it again.
He'd have to come back down in a form of man and die on the cross all over.
God can do anything he wants to, but he won't lie.
2 Corinthians 5:19 says, God was in Christ.
Folks, this was almost 2,000 years ago.
Listen, listen, don't miss it.
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.
For almost 2,000 years, God has not been counting man's sins against him.
Could there be a more important, a more timely message than this?
The verse said, God has committed unto us this word of reconciliation.
The word of reconciliation is the gospel that was committed to the apostle Paul, and is the good news that declares that God is no longer counting sins against mankind.
We'll continue with this reconciliation series.
It's going to take a few Truth Time programs to get this truth out, but we're committed to do so.
Be sure and join me next time, and remember this, you only get two educations, the one you're given and the one you give yourself.
The one you're given and the one you give yourself.
I'm Trey Searcy, and now you know the truth.