Okay.
Welcome to Truth Time.
Today, we'll, we'll kick things off with listener voicemail.
I'll break it down and deal with it in sections.
Here's the first part.
You made the claim that people are forgiven of sins before they trust the gospel.
The claim that you made was backed up by a verse that you quoted out of context.
I'm going to quote Acts 26 verse 17 through 19, delivering the, from the people and from the Gentiles unto whom now I send thee to open their eyes and to take and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive, receive forgiveness of sins and inherit among them, which are sanctified by faith that is in me.
That verse is pretty clear.
You have to trust the gospel.
Yes, that verse is very clear, but nowhere in the verse does it allude to anyone having to trust the gospel to get their sins forgiven, which is what your, that's your claim.
So let's try to stand on point.
This is not about getting sins forgiven.
It's about receiving a fact, receiving the fact that your sins are forgiven.
That was something that happened back there on the cross.
But what this caller has missed is the ministry of reconciliation.
Second Corinthians.
Let's look there.
Second Corinthians chapter 5 and we'll start there at verse 18 and all things are
of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.
What is the ministry of reconciliation that we who are saved have been given?
Just what does that sound like?
This ministry of reconciliation.
We'll look at verse 19, the next verse.
Those of us with a ministry of reconciliation are to tell others, quote, That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not, now pay attention, not imputing their trespasses unto them.
This is what God hath committed unto us.
The ministry of reconciliation.
This word of reconciliation does not tell the world that if and when they believe, God will forgive them of their sins.
He will at that time stop imputing their trespasses unto them.
That's not what it says.
This is the world, not the church.
This is the world.
Their sins are not being imputed unto them.
It's not good news to tell them they need to do something.
They need to believe in order for something to then take place.
The good news is the something has already taken place and now they just need to believe it.
Here Paul speaks to the church, but who's he speaking of?
Yes, the world.
So now please tell me just where is belief required?
The caller wants us to ignore our eyes and just disregard what we can plainly read right here in the verse.
He wants us to dump our common sense and look for the deeper meaning here.
There's not one.
It means what it says.
Come on now.
Where is the required belief needed from an individual before having their sins unimputed?
Unimputed?
Where does it say that?
It does not say that.
They're not being imputed to anyone in the world.
That's plain.
It plainly says that God is not imputing sins to anyone in the world and it has nothing to do with their belief of that.
The world don't believe.
They don't need to.
Not for forgiveness.
And the reason 2 Corinthians 5:19 can say God's no longer imputing, no longer counting anyone in the world's sins unto them.
The reason that verse can say that is verse 21.
He's already charged them to the person of Jesus Christ.
You see, for the caller's skewed theory to, for it to actually work, God would have to find the sins that he put on Christ, take them off Christ and reapply them back to those who don't believe.
Not going to happen.
The sins of the world were judged once and God was satisfied.
Those sins can never be judged again.
God will never unimpute the world's sins, take them off Christ and re-impute them back to the world.
That's not theologically sound.
This is classic mixing.
This caller is mixing forgiveness of sins with salvation.
They're not the same.
No, he has to add that.
I'm simply letting God's word say what it says and to whom it says it about.
The world, their current condition, which is they are not having their sins counted
against them.
I don't care who likes this or who doesn't.
I'm not here to make a buddy, old pal, old cinnamon roll.
I don't care if it makes you feel sick at your stomach or all fuzzy with rainbows and
butterflies.
I'm not concerned.
I'm concerned with telling the truth of this gospel, the truth about the ministry of reconciliation and what that entails.
I'm not concerned one bit with how you feel about it.
We're called Truth Time for a good reason.
Now if anyone today, now I want you to think about this.
Just think if anyone today pulled up to their spiritual bank and ask how many sins are in my account, the teller will either tell them none, zero can't find a one, sir, or the teller is a liar period.
God is not imputing the world's sins unto them.
He's not counting their sins.
And if they pull up to their spiritual bank, the teller will say, it's clear.
I see no sin in here at all.
And then if someone from the world says, well, then am I saved?
Am I going to heaven?
No, your account's empty.
There's nothing in here.
It's clear of sin, but it doesn't have the righteousness of Christ.
I see nowhere here where you've been justified by faith, by believing the gospel.
Every now and then these pop up, they'll call and you can tell they've been listening to a sloppy ministry and they've fallen for this trusting in their belief for forgiveness instead of the blood of Christ saying that when Christ shed his blood, that it by itself was not enough for God to stop imputing sins unto the world tells me they could care less about what second Corinthians five 19 says.
Just sweep it under the rug.
You cannot compare second Corinthians 5:19 with acts chapter 26 verse 18.
You can't take these two verses and come away feeling good about yourself thinking that you got to first believe something before you get your sins forgiven.
Acts 26:18 cannot be saying that if second Corinthians five 19 means anything.
Since second Corinthians five 19 says God's not imputing even one trespass to anyone in the entire world, then you can't flip over to acts 26:18 and say, well, you've got to believe to get your sins forgiven.
Why not?
Because of the world don't believe.
So therefore that would make no sense.
That would be illogical.
And this Bible is a lot of things, but it's not that.
It's only illogical if you do not understand that you need to compare scripture with scripture and rightly divide the word of truth.
Now let's take a look at acts chapter 26:18, the verse, the callers referring to here, it says to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins.
There's no problem here.
No problem at all.
Hey, if you went, let's say you went to a group of people, okay?
And they're unaware of salvation.
They're unsaved.
And let's say you, you went up to them and told them about what Christ had done for them on the cross.
He died for their sins and they did not.
Now here's the word.
Here's the big word that seems to be troubling to some.
They did not receive that he died for their sins.
Does that mean he didn't die for their sins?
Would that make the fact that he died for their sins any less true?
Paul is simply telling them to receive something that has already occurred.
If I bought and brought you a gift to your home and you refuse to receive it, it's still your gift.
What you do with, what you do with that, that's up to you.
I can leave it.
I can leave it on your front porch.
You can grab it and throw it in the garbage.
You can bring it in, put it in the closet and never look at it again.
Do what you want to do with it.
It's still yours.
This is Acts 26, long past the finished cross work of Christ and that had to be done first so that now they can receive it.
Receive what?
What was done?
What was done?
He died for their sins.
What if they don't receive it?
So what?
He still died for their sins.
They still pull up to the bank and they say, nope, nope, there's no sin in here.
Remember what Paul said?
Christ died for your sins.
There's no sins in here.
Got it?
When you come to Acts 26:18, it does not mean that, hey, at that time, at this time,
if you'll receive it, it'll happen.
No, it already happened, but you need to receive it.
How do you do that?
By faith.
Receive it by faith.
That won't make it so, but that will make you saved.
See, this is the gospel.
They need to believe it for salvation.
Receive this fact.
Receive this truth.
Receive what God has revealed about you.
Receive it as a fact, a fact of a finished accomplishment, not waiting to be finished.
You're not going to add to this.
You're just going to receive this.
You can't add to it.
Hey, if I bring you the truth and you receive it, does it only become true because you received it?
Or was it already true before I brought it and before you received it?
Huh?
You see, Paul's not saying when they receive forgiveness of sins that their sins will be forgiven.
No, he's saying receive what has already taken place.
What has already happened, it's done.
This is clear over here in Acts chapter 26.
The forgiveness of sins has already occurred.
By now, it's in the rear view mirror.
This is well after Christ died for the world's sins.
When witnessing, you go to someone and tell them what the Lord has done for them.
You show it to them.
If they don't receive it, it does not negate what he did.
He still did it.
You can walk away knowing that you told them what he did.
He died for their sins.
They don't have to believe that to make it so.
Again, if they believe that, you'll walk away saying, Aha!
Another one into the family of God.
Another one into the body of Christ.
Praise God.
You'll give him the glory for that.
But you won't give him the glory by focusing on them and them having to believe in order to make something that's already happened so.
Some act as if there's some sort of magic that occurs at the moment of belief.
They act as if in that moment of time, a blood-stained magic eraser comes down out
of heaven and wipes away someone's sin.
Foolishness!
It's on a hill that we call Mount Calvary.
Not a Bible term, but that's what we call it.
A hill called Mount Calvary.
That's where it took place.
That's where and it was at that time.
Some 2,000 years ago.
Not at the moment of your belief.
This is about reconciliation and your understanding of it.
Reconciliation is sort of like when former enemies come to an amicable truce.
It's the process of making two parties compatible.
It's the putting away of whatever stood between them.
Christ and his shedding of his blood there on the cross, that's what put away the sin
that stood between God and man.
Not your belief.
Your belief is what saves you.
His shed blood is what allowed God to declare that the world no longer had to be his enemy.
They're not saved, but the wall of sin that separated God and man was destroyed.
Now religion won't tell you this and sadly there's some who call themselves grace teacher that won't tell you this either.
They'll run around claiming that you're not forgiven until you believe.
As if your belief, not the blood, is what forgives your sins.
That's sad.
They have you believing for forgiveness.
This hypocrisy is nuts.
They'll tell you that Christ's blood forgave your sins and in the same breath say, but you have to believe that to make it true.
What?
That's like saying my dad's money bought me a car and in the same breath saying, but I got to believe that to make it true.
As if, if you don't believe it, he didn't buy it.
No he bought it whether you believe it or not.
With that sort of thinking you just put the ill in illogical.
Hey, in first Corinthians 15 verse 1, Paul talks about preaching the gospel and in Acts chapter 20 verse 24 he says to testify the gospel.
Now just turn over a few pages, turn over Acts 26:18.
Here's the verse.
The caller speaks up forgiveness of sins.
Well forgiveness of sins deals with the gospel just as in first Corinthians 15 and Acts chapter 20.
Nothing here about doing anything or believing anything to get your sins forgiven.
The gospel is that your sins are already forgiven and you need to believe that to be saved.
I noticed the caller put a great emphasis on the word receive.
He even had to say it twice.
Take the gospel in first Corinthians 15 for example.
Moreover brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received.
In your Bible there are times when receive could be interchangeable with believe.
In the case of what Paul wrote to Timothy there in first Timothy 5:19.
That's one of those places.
Watch.
Paul says against an elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.
He is saying believe.
Believe not an accusation.
Make sure you got two or three witnesses before you believe it.
It's about the gospel.
The good news of what has already happened.
And it happened well before Paul addresses it in the book of Acts.
It couldn't have happened then.
It was something that could only happen on the cross with a blood sacrifice.
And there's no blood being sacrificed at the moment you believe the gospel.
None.
That's irrational thinking.
The blood sacrifice is already taken place and it's what you must receive.
Believe in order to have salvation.
God is satisfied, satisfied with what Christ did and it has nothing to do with what you do.
Acts 26 is talking about receiving the fact that Christ died for their sins to be saved.
Over here in Ephesians 3 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.
You cannot have salvation unless you trust the gospel.
If not, sir, what would happen is if you died and you didn't trust the gospel, but you had no sin at all, what would stop you from going to heaven?
What would stop you?
Nothing would stop you from going to heaven because sin is what separates you from God.
Now the caller here, well first he makes a moot point, wasting his time and mine talking about you cannot have salvation unless you trust the gospel.
Well, okay, and your point is, I mean, we teach that all day every day.
So how about getting to something a little more worthy of dialogue.
And then he says, what would stop you from going to heaven?
So glad you asked.
Faith.
F-A-I-T-H.
Faith.
You see, it's interesting that he went to the book of Ephesians trying to argue his
point, but it's in that very book.
It's in the book of Ephesians.
He says, if everyone's sins are forgiven, when someone dies, what stops them from going to heaven?
Well, he goes to Ephesians, but he doesn't read Ephesians 2:8.
One of the most popular verses of all time.
So I'm surprised that he doesn't know it, or maybe he just didn't remember it.
But anyway, it says, for by grace are you saved through faith.
There it is, saved through faith.
Not saved by getting your sins forgiven.
Paul never tells us, not one place did he ever tell us that we're saved by getting our sins forgiven.
He doesn't say we're saved by getting our sins forgiven, and that's good, because he
doesn't tell us how to get our sins forgiven.
Have you not noticed that?
Nowhere, 13 epistles, nowhere does Paul tell you how to get your sins forgiven.
Oh, your preacher will this Sunday morning, but Paul doesn't, because unlike the preacher, Paul doesn't double speak.
So when you ask, when someone dies, what stops them from going to heaven?
No one goes to heaven, sir, without faith.
There's your answer.
Now you can take that, and you can grow on it, or reject it.
That's up to you.
Sin is what separates you from God.
Talk about spitting on the cross.
Now that's spitting on the cross.
Sin is what separates you from God, really, on this side of the cross, and through the revelation of the mystery that was given to Paul to give to us, and your claim is, today, sin is what separates us from God.
Incredible.
Total disregard for the finished cross work.
After all that Christ went through, and this fella still has sin being the issue.
Sin is an issue in everyone's daily lives, but it's not an issue for salvation.
It's an issue as pertaining to your worthy walk as a saved person in the body of Christ.
Listen, if sin still stands between you and God, then why did Jesus die?
What did that accomplish?
If it didn't break down the barrier between humanity and God, sin, if it didn't break
down the sin barrier, his death was for nothing.
This is a terrible belief system to be operating from.
Here we have those out there who tout the apostle Paul saying that they understand he's our apostle, they understand the gospel of grace, they understand the finished crosswork and what the bloodshed of Christ accomplished, yet, when given a chance, religion creeps back in and they pick up the phone and display their ignorance.
So what you're saying when people are saved before they trust the gospel by, well, you're not saying they're saved, but you're saying that they're forgiven all sins before they trust the gospel.
You're saying that they don't need to trust the gospel because they don't have sins that would separate them from God.
You see what you're doing?
No, but I see what you're doing.
I see that we're right back to the fact that you don't understand what separates someone from God.
Your testimony is proof that you don't understand that one's faith, their belief is what saved them and not getting their sins forgiven.
If you're going around teaching this to others, you may wind up making some false converts, leading others to think that their belief took the place of his blood.
And the only thing worse than going to hell is going there and being surprised.
You need to get this right.
But this is what happens when you wrongly mix forgiveness of sins with salvation.
They are not the same.
As I've often said, two separate calendar dates, two separate calendar dates, they do
not even occur at the same time.
Salvation and getting sins forgiven.
Sins were forgiven on the cross, but salvation doesn't happen until the moment of belief.
One deals with Christ and his bloodshed.
The other deals with you and your belief.
Get it?
Now, you're rightly dividing the word of truth a lot.
You're making a lot of good points, but you've twisted verses out of their context here.
You do not have forgiveness unless you trust the gospel.
What you're doing is you're spitting in the face of Jesus Christ that gave the gospel
of the grace of God to Paul by saying people are saved or saying they have forgiveness before they're saved through the gospel.
So no.
Because that's really what you're doing.
You can't do that.
We have to be teachers.
We have to show the revelation of the mystery unto all.
That's the important part.
Yes, it is important.
But more importantly is the fact that you need to educate yourself and learn it.
Learn it in order to teach it.
And by the words from your mouth, it's evident that you do not know it.
The revelation of the mystery deals with what Christ completed on the cross for the world.
Those outside the covenants and promises made to Israel.
It's about what he finished and how it pertains to us.
God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, and not as you claim, only reconciling those who believe.
God cleared the way for all to be saved.
All are not saved.
But the way has been made clear.
And it wasn't made clear by my belief.
No.
Clear by the blood of Christ.
That's good news.
You.
Me.
We get no credit at all.
For those who want a little credit, sorry, it's too late.
We're on this side of the cross.
We missed it.
We were not there and we had nothing to do with it.
This gentleman's problem is he's most likely been listening to an ex-Baptist preacher, or at least an ex-denominational preacher, who now claims to understand Paul's mystery, but has decided to drag some of his denominational luggage with him.
And this is the result.
God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself.
Not saved.
Reconciled.
If you and your spouse, let's say you split, but later reconcile your differences, does that mean you're automatically back together?
No.
It means the way has been made clear for you to get back together.
The wall has been broken down.
There's nothing that stands in the way of the two of you restoring your relationship.
But that restoration hasn't happened yet.
We need to have faith.
That completes the deal for salvation, not for getting your sins forgiven.
If it did, then all the world is saved and going to heaven.
Because verse 19 says there is no sin in anyone's account.
So if that's all that's needed, if all we need is to have no sin in our account, the
whole world is going to heaven and all the universalists are right.
But they're not.
Because you have to have imputed righteousness.
You have to be justified.
You must believe that Christ died for all your sins.
He was buried and he has risen to give you eternal life.
And it's faith in what he did for you alone.
You can't add nothing to it.
That poisons the gospel.
It's that faith in Christ alone and what he accomplished for you that saves.
It does not get your sins forgiven.
Getting your sins forgiven is a part of the gospel.
The gospel says your sins were forgiven, not you can get them forgiven.
The good news is they were forgiven.
That's about like saying he will rise again.
No, it doesn't say he will rise on the third day.
No, he has already risen on the third day.
And he won't forgive you of your sins.
He has already forgiven you of your sins.
See how this works.
It's all about the accomplishments of Christ and what he did for us on the cross.
The path has been made clear.
I hope this is a blessing to you.
Thank you for your time.
No, I can't say that it was.
But I'll be blessed when you can call back and better articulate the ministry of reconciliation.
When you grow in your understanding of what actually occurred on the cross.
You've been listening to the wrong one and that's quite evident.
The wrong person or maybe a group.
Maybe this is the group think we often speak of here.
Whatever it is, it's error.
It's flawed.
Break away from the herd and go back and take a fresh look at God's word.
And while you're searching the scriptures to support your claim.
And I welcome you to call back.
But go find that one verse.
Just one.
Not two.
Just one.
Where our apostle Paul tells us how we can go and get our sins forgiven.
He wrote 13 letters.
So you search them and you call me back and let me and my audience know where we can go and find that.
But I believe, I certainly do, that if you'll do some searching for yourself, you'll find that in not one of his letters does Paul write that forgiveness of sins is a future event.
Nowhere.
Study and rightly divide the word of truth makes all the difference.
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