Scrupulosity: Religious OCD

Today, on Truth Time, I'm in a group, and it's like when you get obsessed about things being sinful, it's called scrupulosity, religious OCD.
It's where you've been called a dirty, rotten sinner so much that all you perceive yourself as is a dirty, rotten sinner.
I'm in a support group for that, and I would say that a lot of us have come out of legalism.
At one point with all of this, I really thought, I really hate to say this, but it's the truth, I really thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown because I didn't know what I could do or what I couldn't do.
It's just sort of what I have been through, and it's made life difficult.
Think about it.
We're talking about where you're going to spend eternity, and so if you have a group
of pastors who are consistently reminding you or telling you that you're a dirty, rotten sinner and that you deserve to bust hell wide open, well, it's difficult to understand the grace of God when they say things like that.
This is Truth Time Radio.
Hello.
Hi.
Is this Misti?
This is Misti.
Okay, Misti, this is Trey with Truth Time Radio.
I'm so grateful that you called me.
I have been listening nonstop to your podcast in regards to we don't believe to be forgiven, we just have to believe we were already forgiven?
Right.
Okay, I'm just a little – so I don't have to – I'm coming out of a repent of your sins church.
All right.
So we don't – because they were already paid for 2,000 years ago, we don't have
to confess anything, turn from, none of that stuff because they were already paid.
We don't have to turn from sins to get them forgiven.
But yes, as saved individuals, members of the body of Christ, absolutely we should try to turn from every sin that we encounter.
But it won't do us any – each time you turn is not getting your sins forgiven.
Okay, if I believe the gospel that Jesus died on the cross, He shed His blood and paid my sin debt, if I believe that and I put my confidence –
And the resurrection, that He rose from the dead, that's essential.
And that He rose from the dead, and I believe that and don't trust anything else, then I'll go to heaven when I die?
Oh, absolutely.
You are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise at that very moment.
Do you have your Bible handy, Misti?
Let's see.
You know, I have a guy who's – yes, I do, right here.
I have a guy who's on my Facebook page, and he was wearing one of your t-shirts, and
I figured it was a t-shirt for an oldies radio station.
So I turned it on, and I thought, oh, okay.
And so I started reading, and then when I got to the part on your page, it's not believing that you have to be forgiven, it's believing that you already are forgiven.
And I'm like, I'm a little bit confused.
Right, right.
They don't teach that in church, and they certainly don't teach that your sins are
no longer being imputed to you, you know.
That's right.
That's why they tell you you have to repent of them.
Right.
That's what religion has done to us, and it has indoctrinated us, when the verse is
right there in the Bible.
Yes.
But they don't teach that verse.
Well, I'm 50 years old, and I have only been a Christian for three years.
And then I got involved with, I'll just be honest, a group of legalists where they
said you don't watch TV, you don't wear the color red, skirts below the knees.
They even were like, you don't eat Lucky Charms cereal because there's a pagan leprechaun on the box.
It was this list of rules and regulations that you had to do, or God was going to chasten you, or take you home early.
And it made life difficult, because I never felt like I could even please God at that
point, you know.
And your life becomes one that's kind of scary, because you can't keep up with all
those rules that the individual churches set up.
But I didn't know any different.
You know, I went to church a few times when I was a child, but I wasn't raised in church.
So, you know, when you hear a pastor say it and you don't know much about your Bible,
you assume that the pastor's telling you the truth because he's the pastor.
Right.
But that's not true.
You are absolutely correct.
You know, you can go to the doctor's office and get a misdiagnosis.
You can go to the garage and they rip you off for all kinds of money telling you the
wrong information.
And for some reason, we don't understand, and it's just our human brain, it's the way
it works, that deception is also found in the church house.
It's also found behind the pulpit.
It's just like anything else in life.
We have to go to the Scripture and test what we're being told for ourselves.
And that's what Paul tells us time and time again.
But most churches aren't centered around the epistles of Paul.
They're centered around Old Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.
Then they'll take you over to the other side, all the way over to the extreme other side of the Bible, past Paul again.
You know, they may dip in and grab a verse or two here of Paul that they like, but then they'll take you over to Hebrews through Revelation.
And so the religious system doesn't want us to be studying Paul because that is all
about God's grace.
For example, look there in Galatians chapter 5 for me.
My father is big into James and he says you can lose your salvation and your good works will outweigh your bad works and I can't even, you know, speak with him about it because it's just upsetting to me.
James was not written for our day-to-day marching orders, our day-to-day instructions and doctrine.
Now, James is a great book in its proper place.
If I told him that he just needed to believe the gospel and all his sins were already forgiven, he wouldn't believe that.
He would think that probably he needed to turn from them, confess them, repent of them in order to stay saved or to be saved.
And I think that's what the majority, at least where I live.
I'm in Western North Carolina, and the churches that I've been to here that are Bible-believing churches, that's what they say.
Altar calls every Sunday.
Get up there and confess those sins, you know.
It's, I mean, my brother-in-law goes to a church, and I'm just going to call it a cult.
I went there twice with my sister and her husband, and that guy was just unbelievable.
Screaming, yelling, hollering, telling everybody they're going to go to hell if they don't quit sinning.
And by the time the service was over, I couldn't even walk.
I was so afraid.
And, I mean, that doesn't let you know that God loved you enough to die cross for your sins.
Look there in Galatians for me, Misti, and read chapter 5, verse 1.
OK, Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. And do not be entangled again in the yoke of bondage.
You made me think of that verse just a moment ago.
See, we are now at liberty, Misti, to live a fruitful and prosperous and joyful life
under this dispensation of grace.
And now that we have left religion behind, religion is in the Bible only for the Jews in time past.
God had a religious covenant.
He does not have that religious covenant with you and I.
We are under grace.
So now that we know that, we are to, as Paul tells us here, stand fast.
Therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free.
And be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
That's religion.
Yeah, it is.
I'll just be honest.
I have PTSD because of those churches now.
Yeah, I'm having to take medicine because of what happened in those churches and trying to not sin.
You know, that's just...
You know what?
When you try not to sin, you're going to sin.
And it'll make a person go crazy.
I mean, you know, I developed OCD about things being sinful.
And so it was just like...
I thought to myself, I didn't think being a Christian was supposed to be like this.
And I mean, I can sort of laugh at it at this point, but I started listening to your podcast and I was like, hmm, okay, this doesn't sound like Yankee Arnold.
Something's different here.
And he's on YouTube, but he says that Jesus and Paul taught the same thing since Jesus taught Paul.
And he's very big into the one about, if you believe John 3, I think it's John 3:16, that you'll be saved.
And there's nothing there about blood or the cross or anything.
And so he's the one that I've been listening to mostly.
And then, thank God that guy had your t-shirt on.
They pull out 1 John 1:9, and they say, after you're saved, you're supposed to confess your sins to Jesus or you'll break fellowship or he'll chasten you.
And that's a lie.
They're not lying on purpose.
They really believe that, but that's simply not true.
And if you look at Paul's epistles, he wrote 13.
And guess what, Misti?
In not one book does Paul tell us how to get our sins forgiven.
In not one book does he tell us to confess your sins to get them forgiven.
You see, he had some news that John, that James, that Peter wasn't privy to.
They did not get that revelation of the mystery that was given to the apostle Paul.
And when you don't understand that, it's a very unbalanced walk.
I mean, let's just think about it.
Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 5:19, God's not imputing sins.
No longer does Misti have on her account sins.
Now, that's clear.
That's a clear verse.
Now, think about it.
1 John 1:9.
If you confess your sins, he's faithful and just to forgive you of your sins.
Which sins?
It was confusing, but after just listening to some of your podcasts, I'm just very grateful that Danny was wearing that T-shirt in his video.
Like I said, I thought it would be like an oldie station.
And I told mom last night, I said, oh, thank God Danny had that T-shirt on.
You're ready to now go on and grow in your knowledge and to really be set free.
Let me get you to turn to 1 Corinthians 12.
Okay, so I'm in 1 Corinthians and where do you want me to go?
Yeah, look at verse 13, For by one spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free, and have been all made to drink into one spirit.
This is what happened when you, Misti, first trusted Christ and you believed Paul's gospel.
That's what happened to you.
You were baptized by the spirit into the body.
And you're sealed unto the day of redemption.
Nothing can touch you.
Satan can't have you.
And there's no sin that can separate you from Christ.
There's nothing that can take you out of fellowship.
If we're sealed in his son, how can we be taken out of fellowship?
He would have to actually carve us away because we are bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh.
You're always in fellowship with God.
Well, my mom is saved.
She believes Jesus has already paid for all of her sins, so she's saved.
And I asked her yesterday on the porch, I really hate that I've put my mother through so much.
She's 70 years old.
And I'm like, Mom, have you heard anything about the ministry of reconciliation?
And she said, No, but I'm sure you're going to tell me.
So I couldn't help but laugh when she said that.
It's just been a very interesting past three years.
It's just, like I said, I was so grateful that Danny had on your T-shirt and that I found your site.
Because I was listening to them yesterday, and I've been listening to them this morning.
And I'm just grateful, and I appreciate you calling me so much because I was a little bit confused about, I mean, when you have certain pastors that tell you that you should, like when you do something sinful, you should either apologize to Jesus, or you should repent of that sin and not do it anymore.
You know, I was listening to you, and it says it's believing that you already are forgiven.
So that means you don't confess the ones that have already been paid for.
That's right.
Because, like, the sins I do today, they were paid for 2,000 years ago, and the sins I do next week were paid for 2,000 years ago.
And I just don't think necessarily that a lot of pastors make people understand that they're completely forgiven.
That's right.
And that's sad.
That is sad.
And, Misti, don't let me steer you wrong.
If you want to confess, you know, we have a prayer life.
So if you want to confess to God that you have sinned and ask Him for strength through His Word to help you, that's fine.
But we don't confess to get the sin forgiven because that's actually spitting in the face of Christ, spitting on the cross.
It's a slap in the face of God because He's already sent His Son to die on the cross for that sin that you're confessing to get forgiven.
And it's already forgiven.
It's not even being imputed.
So we don't want to do it for the wrong reason.
But there's nothing wrong with confessing your sins to the Lord, just what the motivation is.
That's what we need to be clear on.
Okay.
It's not to get extra forgiveness.
No, there's no such thing as extra forgiveness.
You're just forgiven.
Yeah.
You see, I've witnessed to people in the ministry, and I don't know, it's countless times I've had people tell me, well, I don't want to get into the Bible or I don't want to go to church because I'm just, I'm too bad.
I've done too many things.
You see, that's a device that has been used by Satan.
God says, I was in Christ on the cross, and it was there that I stopped imputing your sins.
And now we have people that says, I don't want anything to do with the Lord right now because I'm so far deep in the sin.
You see how that works?
That that's a contradiction.
They shouldn't be looking at that.
But they hadn't heard this good news.
They don't even want nothing to do with him because they think sin is still standing in the way of them having a relationship with him.
And that's what religion has ingrained in them to believe.
Yeah, it does.
So I was reading some of the comments under one of your videos, and one lady had posted.
So if I wanted to speak with my father about this, because he doesn't have the internet.
So would I tell him that he just needs to believe that his sins have already been forgiven on the cross?
Is that the best way to tell him?
I mean, if he believes the gospel that Jesus died for his sins already, that they've already been paid for, and he's no longer getting sins imputed to him, then my dad would go to heaven also, correct?
That's right.
That's right.
If he believes the gospel, which is that Christ died for our sins and that he was buried and that he has risen, because we can't go to heaven with our sins forgiven unless we have a living Savior who rose from the grave.
For us to have eternal life, we have to have a Savior who has eternal life.
And that Savior who has eternal life resurrected on the third day after paying for every one of our sins.
Do you speak with your father by way of telephone, or do you actually visit with him in person?
He actually lives about nine hours away, and we haven't had a phone conversation now, I would say, in about two years.
I still send him cards and Christmas gifts and stuff on his birthday and what have you.
But two years ago, he told me that I could lose my salvation and that we were in the middle of the tribulation right now, and that if somebody continually does some kind of sin, you know that's it.
God's going to wash his hands of you.
I mean, he goes to a Baptist church, and I've sent him a couple of tracts that actually come out of Zola Levitt's magazine that he used to send out.
Well, they still did. Zola's died, but I don't know if you've heard of him.
Yeah.
So I would send him a tract by Zola, and I didn't hear anything back from him.
Or I would put a list of Bible verses in a card and send it to him, and I didn't hear.
And my sister says he still thinks that we're in the tribulation and that his good works are going to save him, and I don't know what to say anymore.
I don't know what to say, because I do love my dad very much, but he's been reading his Bible, but he's been reading it incorrectly.
And I suppose the church that he goes to teaches that it's a Baptist church that teaches you can lose your salvation.
That's the only thing that I can figure.
I mean, I guess the problem is pride.
You know, just he wants to be right, and I mean, it'll be to his detriment.
And I heard something the other day, too, that, I mean, people are talking about the rapture big time on the internet, that we're at the end of days, and the rapture's going to be soon, and that kind of thing.
And I heard one preacher say, maybe this was Zola, that this period of time was going to be strictly for the Jews and the chances of any Gentiles actually getting saved.
It was Zola, and the chances of Gentiles getting saved during that period, it's going to be very small.
So I heard you say that if you miss the rapture, that you better find a group of Jews and start following them.
I was like, okay, don't want to miss the rapture.
And then they have to endure unto the end.
And earlier, too, I remember you saying something about someone who had told you that you had to repent from sin.
Turn to Exodus chapter 32.
A lot of people are mixed up on what the word repent means.
The word repent is not to turn from sin.
And our Bible is plain at explaining this.
However, you know, you might have dictionaries and books and sermons of men that will tell you otherwise.
Okay, I'm in Exodus now.
32.
32.
And not that we need the Greek, because we've got an English King James Bible, but the Greek word for repent is, metanoia.
And I'm not even sure even people who follow the Greek can't get this right.
I'll tell you, most of the people that I know, they are in churches that teach.
And even if you go online to a lot of Baptist churches and look at their statement of faith, it will say that you need to, A, believe Jesus died for your sins, and B, turn from sins, or B, repent of sins.
Or the repenting of sins can be first, you know, you need to turn from your sins and then trust Jesus.
Because I've looked at statements of faith to see if there was a church around here that I might like to attend, and there was only one that had the correct statement.
Isn't that something?
The Bible says, If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.
And Paul says, Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?
These institutionalized religious churches are so far removed from the truth of Scripture.
Okay, look in verse 14 of chapter 32 there in the book of Exodus.
And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.
Now think about that.
This is the Lord repenting.
Now, repent of sin.
That's what they say.
But if you read this, this is the Lord who repented.
This is one clear verse.
How does churches miss this?
You see, the Lord repented of which he what?
Thought to do.
This was in his mind.
Something to do unto his people.
And what did he do?
He changed his mind.
He was going to give them what they deserved.
But he changed his mind.
He had mercy.
The Lord never sinned.
And he never confessed his sin.
He never asked for forgiveness of sin.
Repent doesn't mean that.
Churches tell you that.
Books tell you that.
But no, it doesn't.
The Bible, God, he tells us something very different from what they say.
I'm in a group.
When you get obsessed about things being sinful, it's called scrupulosity, religious OCD.
It's where you've been called a dirty, rotten sinner so much that all you perceive yourself as is a dirty, rotten sinner.
So you look at everything as being sinful.
I'm in a support group for that.
And I would say that a lot of us have come out of legalism where they say, you know, your kids can't play video games.
You know, if you watch TV or listen to secular music, gosh, that is a big one.
If you listen to secular music, you're probably not saved.
And I'm like, I mean, at one point with all of this, I really thought, and I really hate to say this, but it's the truth.
I really thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown because I didn't know what I could do or what I couldn't do.
And I was reading in my Bible, and I didn't see anything about music being some kind of unforgivable sin.
But that's just like, it's just sort of what I have been through.
And it's made life difficult.
I'm coming out of it.
Praise God.
I'm glad you give it a name because I've had so many people.
So you're not alone.
I've had so many people to call and convey this same message to me.
What did you say that name was again?
It's religious OCD or scrupulosity.
Okay, I'll have to look that one up.
Well, Martin Luther had it.
I don't understand it very well because I started getting intrusive thoughts with this OCD too.
And it was really, but a lot of people in the support group, they have them too.
And, you know, you don't understand them.
And I think it's just anxiety that builds up and manifests itself in that way.
But I'm on medicine for it.
And I'm finally on one now where I'm not spending like four or five hours every day in my Bible, you know, feeling like I need to do that or that I'm going to be chastened by God.
Some people, when they remind you on a regular basis about the lake of fire and sins, then eventually what you focus on is the lake of fire.
Every time I would see something that had anything to do with hell or the lake of fire, I would come in here and read my Bible and make sure that I was really saved.
Well, Paul talks about this law that stirs up sinful passions.
He wrote 13 letters basically to get us out of that mindset and put our mind, you know, the problem with a lot of folk in religion is they're sin conscience.
They're overly sin conscious when we should be Christ conscious.
Colossians chapter 3, Be ye risen with Christ.
Paul tells us to seek those things which are above Misti, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
And he goes on to say, set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth.
So if we set our affection on Christ and what he did for us, the glorified risen Savior and his completed finished cross work and resurrection, we don't have time for this sin conscience that the religious world has tried to convince us of.
That is not the gospel.
We don't need to think about that anymore.
That's just old man religion trying to suck us in.
You know, I had you read the verse earlier from Galatians chapter 5, verse 1, and we're to rejoice and to stand, stand fast in this liberty where with Christ has set us free and to no longer return to that yoke of bondage.
And that's that sin conscience.
That's what that is.
That's the yoke of bondage.
That's in Misti's mind.
It's in Trey's mind.
It comes back to me at times.
I have to keep like a banana, the religious banana, just peel it off each day.
Paul tells us to renew our mind daily.
I do that on a daily basis now.
And I'm really grateful that you called me and that you did explain the difference there to make sure that I was believing the right thing.
I mean, 10 different churches and get 10 different messages.
Like the free will Baptist, they say that I went to one of those and they say, yeah, you have eternal security unless you, if you keep sinning that you can will yourself out of your salvation.
And I'm like, and it's, it's, it's hard.
I mean, it's, this is, it must be kind of close to the end of days because trying to find a church that has the correct message.
It's really not there.
At least not in this county.
We're so secure in Christ.
Colossians three also goes on to tell us for you are dead and your life, this is the new life, your old life is dead and now your new life is hid with Christ in God.
That's Colossians chapter 3, verse 3.
Now, can you tell me, or can the free will Baptist church tell me, is there a more secure place for Misti than to be hid with Christ in God?
If you can work your way out of that, I'd love to know how, you're complete in him.
Colossians 2:10 goodness.
Thank you for calling me back.
I didn't know if you would be able to or not.
I was hoping that you would, because yesterday I saw on a woman's Facebook page, something else that they say a lot.
I've heard my sister say this is she'll get convicted of her sins.
And that's something that you hear in a lot of these churches too, that you'll get, you know, the Holy spirit will convict you if you do something sinful.
You should turn from sin.
Absolutely.
But you don't do it from a works based performance platform, trying to earn favor with God, trying to earn salvation, trying to earn rewards.
No, you're sealed unto the day of redemption.
Ephesians chapter one tells us that you trusted Christ.
When you heard the gospel, you believed after you heard it and you were sealed until the day of redemption.
There's just no way to argue against that.
See, there's verses in the Bible that are clear.
And when you come across a verse or a passage that looks a little bit obscure, maybe it looks a little vague to you because you haven't understood it yet.
You need to always revert back to that clear verse about that subject and stand firm on that.
And then keep studying, keep praying.
And your understanding of that difficult verse may come later on.
But you can stand fast in that liberty and know that you've been.
If I'm told I'm sealed into the day of redemption, I'm not going to lose sleep over it because I know the easy verse tells me I'm sealed.
That's yeah.
I mean, I did tell my dad, I said, think about it, dad.
If it were possible for people to lose salvation, I said we all would.
Yes, that's right.
Does your dad believe that salvation is by works?
Yeah, I guess that's how he looks at it, because he brought up James and the faith without works is dead verse.
Yeah, I suppose that's where he's taking it.
And when I spoke with him, this was over a Thanksgiving, and I told him on the phone, I said, Dad, you can't lose your salvation.
You're sealed.
Yes.
And when I brought up sealed with the Holy Spirit, he became very unglued with me.
And I just he still thinks, I guess, that he has to work off some kind of debt.
I've thought about trying to call him again and talk to him about it, but he's just some people just feel like they have to be right, even though they're not.
Well, before I let you go, I'm going to leave you.
Oh, and too also in a moment, I want to get your address, if you don't mind, because I have a tract.
You may want to send, send it to your dad.
It's called the Gospel Buffet.
It shows all the different ways that religion has fed us the gospel buffet.
But they fed us all these various ways of getting saved.
And they're incorrect.
But look real quick at Romans chapter 4.
OK, Romans 4.
Yes.
I want you to read verse 4, Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.
Stop right there.
You just said about your dad working off a debt.
That's what religion does to you.
Look at that verse.
Think about what that verse is saying now to my dad that worketh.
He believes that works is his salvation.
What's his reward?
Well, it's not reckoned of grace.
I can tell you that it's reckoned of debt.
Now read the next verse.
But to him that worketh not.
To what that worketh not.
Now we flip the coin.
The first one is the one that works.
His reward is not grace.
It's debt.
Now flip the coin.
But, to him that worketh not.
Go ahead.
But believeth on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Wow.
You're talking about a powerful passage of Scripture.
That right there.
Very powerful.
Yes, it is.
That is the nail in the religious coffin that pushes works-based performance salvation.
I'm grateful that you called because I was kind of, after I started listening to your sermons comparatively to Yankee Arnold's, some of his stuff where he talks about when you can get saved, can you live however you want to?
He says, yes.
But he says, are you going to get away with it?
He said, no.
God may have to drag out the paddle.
Yeah.
I remember that.
They pull the book of Hebrews over and talk about being chastened, and that's not even written to us.
We reap what we sow, and that has nothing to do with God and his paddle.
It's a natural law that you reap, just like a farmer would tell you, you reap what you sow.
That's here in this life, in this flesh.
We will reap what we sow.
I eat too much sugar, then I get sugar diabetes.
I eat too much pork, then I'm a good candidate for high blood pressure.
I mean, this stuff is not hard.
I walk out in front of a truck, then I get hit by the truck.
You reap what you sow.
This is nothing supernatural.
God's not up in heaven pushing buttons, pulling levers, and making things happen to us.
Yeah, he's, you know, talking about how God's going to have to take you to the woodshed, and I'm thinking, you know.
Thank goodness I never got into Paul Washer, some of those people.
Oh, no, no, no.
That ain't good for your OCD, I can tell you that.
No, it's not good for your OCD, because then, you know, when you realize that your sins have all been forgiven, but somebody's telling you that God's going to drag out the paddle, it kind of spikes that anxiety level where you avoid doing things because you don't want God to drag out the paddle.
And that's, it's just, uh.
Well, and two, what it does, Misti, is you find yourself daily looking in the spiritual mirror, trying to clean up your act, watching your P's and Q's, quit this, start that.
It's the taste-not-touch-not religious garbage.
And guess what? Now, out of a 24-hour day, it's time to go to bed.
And you've not witnessed to anyone of this beautiful grace, this beautiful reconciliation message.
You've not walked in that liberty that Christ has given you and done your job.
See, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, it's our commission.
You know, you can go over to Matthew, you can find where the Lord gave them their commission was to go into all the world and tell them that gospel, repent and be baptized, and sell everything you have, endure unto the end, and on and on it goes.
Well, we also have been given a commission.
And in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, he says the word of reconciliation, the ministry of reconciliation has been committed unto us.
Committed unto us.
That's our commission.
So, you don't get to do that when you're all the time thinking about you and what you need to quit, what you need to start, where you can't go, what kind of music you listen to.
Forget all that.
Rest in Christ.
That pleases God when you just totally give up your salvation.
Give it over to Him. Rest in Him.
And now, go start preaching behind the keyboard, a telephone call, you meet an old friend in the grocery store, it doesn't matter.
They need to hear that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself and He is no longer imputing their trespasses unto them.
Yeah, that's the best news.
And I had not, like I said, I had not heard.
I had read over it, I mean, I've read Romans, but I didn't understand, I don't think I had reached the understanding.
Like I said, churches don't really make it clear that you're completely forgiven.
They don't even know it.
I will leave you with this, and I want you to hold the line because I want to get your address, but let me leave you with this.
Romans 8, chapter 6.
There, Paul tells us to not be carnally minded.
He says to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
You see, religion, Misti, it deals with everyone on a carnal level.
Paul's 13 epistles, Romans through Philemon, they deal with us through the spiritual, the inner Misti, the inner Trey, the inner man, and what we already have, not what we can work to get, what we can work to achieve.
That's the good news, not about how good we can be to earn our place in eternity.
A lot of people think they're going to heaven because they're good.
I've heard them say it because when I would see that doctor about the OCD, I would ask him, do you know how to go to heaven?
And most people just are like, well, you know, I think if you live a good life, or if you try, or that kind of thing.
And then there's other people that they're, oh, my neighbor's daughter, she's older than me though, she's running off water baptism.
She thinks her water baptism saved her.
It's doctrine from the Bible.
See, it's not something they made up.
It's in the Bible, but if you don't rightly divide the word of truth, you'll never see that.
And see, again, that's the carnal man, and that's what's operating in the religious denominations.
And Paul tells us that the carnal mind is enmity, enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God.
And he goes on to say that they are in the flesh, cannot please God.
But when God looks at us, Misti, we're saved, we're sealed, we're in Christ.
He doesn't see the old Misti, but the new Misti.
The new Misti is in His Son, and not in the flesh, but in the Spirit.
He says if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
And see, you have imputed righteousness.
You didn't earn it.
You didn't work a day for it.
And there ain't no religion can tell you how to get it.
God gave it to you. He imputed it to you at the moment you believed and put your full trust in His Son.
That's great news.
Yes, ma'am, it is.
Hey, it's been wonderful talking to you.
It's been wonderful speaking with you.
And we're here for you to help build you and to edify you in the body of Christ, to grow you in grace.
You know, when you said other people have called and they had this OCD about things being sinful and they're not sure what to do about it.
Yes.
Honestly, the only thing that you can do about it is just remind yourself of why you're saved.
And try to just keep your eyes focused on Jesus and not, you know, things that pastors have called you.
But I mean, legalism is damaging.
It's very, very damaging.
There is no grace there.
That's right.
I mean, the yoke of bondages.
I mean, when you're sitting there telling people they shouldn't buy Lucky Charms cereal because of a leprechaun on the box, I mean, give it up.
Yes.
Think about it.
We're talking about where you're going to spend eternity.
And so if you have a group of pastors who are consistently reminding you or telling you that you're a dirty, rotten sinner and that you deserve to bust hell wide open, well, it's difficult to understand the grace of God when they say things like that.
That's right.
You imagine God up there looking down like, do you see what she did?
Yeah.
And when he looks at Misti, he sees his son.
That's got to be the best news you've ever heard, that he doesn't see you anymore.
Well, that's a relief.
I mean, that really is a relief because if it has sort of been planted in your head, you just end up focusing on the things that you're doing wrong instead of what Jesus did and when he finished it.
You know, it just ends up happening when that's all they talk about.
I realize some churches don't talk about sinful things at all, and that's not good either, but on the same token, if you just have one that reminds you of what you're doing that is not correct, then that's what you end up looking at is your performance.
And I would say that most people with religious OCD end up, they have a hard time not looking at their performance because of the churches they've attended.
A lot of them are ex-Catholics, which I'm not, and so, you know, it's kind of like where you would say that prayer so many times to get forgiven or whatever.
You know, they're just trying to come out of a works-based situation.
And I would say a lot of people with this, but it's getting, you know, it's good.
It's good now.
That's good.
Well, let me get your, if you want this, me to send you a few brochures.
If not, but if you do, let me get it.
I would be very grateful.
Yeah.
What is your address?
Well, you are now on the mailing list, and are you listening to the podcast or the video podcast?
I've been listening to, actually, I was listening to one when you called.
I was listening to How I Know I'm Saved, and I was going to listen to the one that's called Lordship Salvation.
It's Satan's Stairway to Heaven.
I was going to listen to that one next.
So I'm on YouTube, and I was just, and I was going to listen to that one about lordship.
And anytime you listen to one of those and you have a question, I'm here for you.
Thank you so much, Trey.
Thank you for calling me and answering my question about that believing part on that, that I'm not being forgiven, like, daily as I confess them or whatever, but that they were all taken care of 2,000 years ago.
Yes.
Such freedom in that good news, huh?
Yeah, it really is.
On some of your videos that you were playing rock music, I was like, yeah, cool.
Yeah, that made me happy.
I mean, I just, I really like ABBA.
Oh, there you go.
Yeah, I just go, yeah.
I like the Stone Ponies with Linda Ronstadt.
That's great.
It's just nice to be able to enjoy life and enjoy grace.
And I have been able to find common ground.
It's funny you mentioned that, because I have actually started conversations with people over music out in public.
And you know what?
It led them to salvation.
Now, how about that?
You start off talking about the Rolling Stones, and end up talking about the stone that was rolled away.
Yeah.
That's amazing.
Some people have just given up on the whole idea of going to heaven because they think they have to give up everything, and they just can't do it.
You know, maybe you've got somebody who is an alcoholic, and they've tried to quit, and they just can't, and they've been to centers to try to break the alcohol, and maybe they just can't.
That addiction is not going to keep them out of heaven.
The way a lot of church pastors teach is that if you have some kind of addiction, and let's say you keep falling off the bus, they'll either tell you that you were never safe to start off with.
And that's a sad thing.
It's just a sad thing.
Everybody has their own path, and everybody is at different levels at different times.
That's why you can't be fruit inspectors.
You must have heard the gospel two nights ago and be just as saved as the man who heard it 30 years ago.
You're going to the same place as he's going to, not because of your behavioral modification or your bad habits that you stopped, but because of what you believed in your heart and who you believed on.
That's correct.
Well, all right, Misti.
I've thoroughly enjoyed speaking with you.
It looks like you and I could probably talk two more hours on this good news.
Probably so.
I appreciate you calling, and thank you in advance for sending the brochures.
Yes, ma'am.
Have a good day.
Yeah, and I'll get those to you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
So enjoyed speaking with Misti.
We certainly hope this helps, for we know that so many struggle with some of these same issues brought on by religion.
Here's a Pauline passage we can take great comfort in.
2 Timothy 2:13, If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
Hey, life is hard.
And when we fall short and succumb to the struggle of it all, feeling as if we have no faith left, God remains faithful.
So today, if your weary soul aches for rest, realize that we have been adopted into the family, Ephesians 1:5, and can never be disowned.
We're members of His flesh and bones, Ephesians 5:30, meaning that we have an eternal connection with Him that can never be severed.
For us to suffer loss of salvation, God would have to spiritually mutilate His Son's body.
Think of that.
Our salvation is immutable.
No matter how much time has passed, it is unchangeable, unable to be changed by anyone or anything.
Even when we're faithless, the Lord remains faithful.
Faithful to keep His promise and finish what He begun in us.
We are to be, Philippians 1:6, confident of this very thing that He, God, which hath begun a good work in you, the believer, will perform it.
It's His performance, not mine, until the day of Jesus Christ, when we're caught up with Him in the air.
Praise the Lord.
That's news to rest in.
Whereas my future at one time was rather bleak, through Christ, my Redeemer, hope has been restored.
Never lose hope, saints.
Hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us.
For when we were without strength in due time, Christ died for good people?
No, the ungodly.
Romans 5:5.
My, when understood, the Word of God is the most exciting news to land on your ears.
While talking to Misti, I was reminded of the story of Ruth, of her and Boaz.
Naomi, the mother of Boaz and Ruth's mother-in-law, gave her some very comforting and sound advice.
Ruth 3:1, Then Naomi her mother-in-law said unto her, my daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?
And in the last verse of the chapter, verse 18, Naomi said, Sit still, my daughter, until thou know how the matter will fall. For the man will not be in rest until he have finished the thing this day.
The chapter began with talk about rest, and it ended with talk about rest.
And the story continues in the next chapter.
It's a beautiful grace lesson for us all.
Ruth could find no rest until Boaz finished the work and completed the deal to purchase her.
We too have been purchased.
Acts 20:28, purchased by the blood of Christ.
We should take great comfort and rest in that and in that alone.
We shouldn't allow religion and its tentacles to insert themselves into our grace life, bringing us back under the yoke of bondage.
Just rest in what the Lord has done.
In Ruth 3:13, Boaz told her, As the Lord liveth, lie down until the morning.
The same is true for us, dear saints.
Morning is coming. Morning is coming.
But until then, until the dawn breaks, just rest in Jesus and what He has accomplished in your behalf.
In His perfect justice, God cannot lie, and He's obligated to keep His word and complete the counsel of His own will.
This account of Ruth and Boaz is a great reminder of grace, love, and rest.
But from our vantage point, from our perspective, on this side of the cross, we're not waiting on a Boaz.
Our Redeemer has already came.
Great is the mystery of Godliness.
God, manifest in the flesh, took the cross and done away with the enmity that stood between Him and the world.
It was there that God the Son was made to be sin for you and I.
What He accomplished allowed a big, beautiful door of grace to swing wide open for all the world to enter.
Today, 2 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 2, is the day of salvation.
As an ambassador for Christ, I'm mandated to inform you that while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son.
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, He was buried, and He arose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
Believing that won't save us, but believing that alone will.
Don't add to it. Just receive it as a free gift.
2 Timothy 2:15 says, go educate yourself.
So remember, you only get two educations.
The one you're given, and the one you decide to give yourself.