Welcome to Truth Time, where you'll get a shot of the truth with no chaser.
And now, your Truth Time host, Trey Searcy.
Hey, we often hear of the faith alone objectors, giving us all sorts of misapplied scriptures and made-up scenarios of why faith alone for salvation just can't be correct.
Like one I heard earlier today, it's one that's old, tired, and just plumb wore out,
but they still use it anyway.
They say, you can't be justified through faith alone, because even the devils believe, Trey.
James chapter 2, verse 19, that's where they go, that's where they get this.
There where James said, Thou believest that there is one God, thou doest well,
the devils also believe and tremble.
Using this to object faith alone couldn't be weaker.
When Paul wrote, For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourself,
he wasn't referring to mere belief in God's existence, in Christ being the Messiah, the Son of God.
No, Paul was referring to hearing and believing the gospel.
1 Corinthians 15:1-4, The gospel of your salvation, how that Christ died for your sins, He was buried, He rose the third day, and that your belief in that alone is what saves you.
That was the focus of the, For by grace are you saved through faith.
Not the James 2, hey, James 2, that means there's a James 1.
And if you look in James 1, verse 1, you'll see James wasn't even writing to you.
All the instructions in that little bitty book over there are to the 12 tribes which had been scattered abroad.
That James 2, thou believest that there is one God, that's news the devils believed, and they trembled at that news.
But there's no salvation in believing it.
That's just man-made.
That's a man-made problem that is constructed, it's a social construct to steer you away from true salvation, which comes only by grace through faith alone.
But the objectors of this, of this good news, they don't respect context.
And the Ephesians 2:8, For by grace are you saved through faith, that has a context.
If we back up to Ephesians chapter 1, there at verse 13, there we see, In whom ye also trusted, that's Christ, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, that's 1 Corinthians 15, verses 1 to 4, in whom also, after that ye believed, that's faith alone, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise.
And there you have it.
The faith alone objectors, what they do is they abandon context.
That's how they come to this faulty conclusion.
So when someone comes back at you with that old, tired, washed up, even the devils believe, you can easily refute them by just sticking with God's word, pointing them to scripture, pointing out that not one devil has ever believed the gospel.
Not one.
They only believed in the quote unquote, there is one God.
Yeah, they believe that, but they don't trust in God and what he provided on the cross to take away all sin and that he was buried and that he rose the third day to give you eternal life.
Hey, you can be in a room full of a million people who all believe there's only one God and you can be in a room with a million people who are unsaved, because believing there's one God won't save anyone.
That's not the gospel of your salvation.
When we come to our Bible, it's important to distinguish the differences between
what was written to Israel and what's written to us.
The church, which is his body.
Israel constantly, they constantly operated under the sin management program.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
You've heard us talk about it before.
Wash, rinse, repeat.
Their wash, rinse, repeat cycle, it began with the law of Moses, and that's how things operated under Israel's time past economy.
That's not your economy.
When salvation back there was John 4:22, salvation at that time was only of the Jews.
Through the Jews.
They were the mediator.
It was a different program.
The gospel of the kingdom.
When they were John 7:19, under the law.
When the kingdom apostles, when they went about preaching to none but unto the Jews only, Acts chapter 11, verse 19, yet we've got denominations worldwide telling you they were talking to you.
Well, how can it be for you when they went about preaching to none but unto the Jews only?
If you believe your Bible, then you know they were not talking to you.
Couldn't be.
Those guys went about preaching to none but unto the Jews only.
But hey, things changed.
Salvation is no longer of the Jews.
We're under a new administration.
We're not under the law.
Paul's our apostle and no sin stands between you and God.
2 Corinthians 5:19, he stopped imputing sins.
You know what that means in the Greek?
He stopped imputing sins.
That's the good news that some want to suppress.
Romans 4:15, The law worketh wrath for where no law is, there is no transgression.
And if you turn the page, Romans 5:13, For until the law, sin was in the world,
but sin is not imputed when there is no law.
That ought to put you on shouting ground, my friend.
And if you drop down and keep reading there, verse 20, you'll find where it says,
Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound, but where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound.
Jesus died one time for all sins.
So God stopped imputing them because Jesus, 2 Corinthians 5:21, he took them upon himself.
And he's perfect, which made him the perfect sacrifice.
Meaning you were perfectly forgiven.
Perfectly forgiven means you are completely forgiven.
Not partially, but completely.
It's not a 50-50 deal.
You do your part.
Jesus does his.
No, you're 100% forgiven.
Every sin you've done or will do, Jesus paid for.
Now that's good news.
And the only ones who says that teaching this makes you want to go sin more are the ones who's never believed it.
If they'd believe it, they'd know better.
They're outsiders looking in, trying to explain to you what this thing's all about.
No, you're inside this thing.
Don't let them steer you in a wrong direction to rob you of your joy.
See, those of us who understand grace, we know better.
We know that it has the opposite effect.
Knowing this good news doesn't make you want to sin more.
It makes you want to sin less.
Paul delivered the greatest news ever known to mankind.
Thank you, Lord.
And he wrote that good news down in 13 epistles for us.
He said that the God of all creation stopped imputing our trespasses.
But we have all these twistianity scripture twisters.
They come in behind Paul.
They come in behind us.
And they try to backload human effort into the finished crosswork of Christ.
And that little leaven destroys the grace of God.
They try and drag us backwards, back there to Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
for our salvation instructions, but they're not there.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John is primarily before the death, burial, and resurrection, before Calvary, Jesus said in Matthew 6, he said, If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father, He'll forgive you.
But after Calvary and through Paul, He said, Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Past tense.
Past tense.
Past tense and without the condition of you doing anything.
If you could do something, then you could take the credit.
And God's not going to have that.
We don't forgive to get forgiven.
We forgive because we are forgiven.
Different administrations, different economy, different forgiveness plan.
Jesus died once.
He forgave once.
Not going to do it again.
But the faith alone objectors, they want to keep us in the wash, rinse, repeat cycle,
trying to wash away the sins Jesus, already washed away.
God's not keeping score and tallying up your sins.
So why are you?
Most try to get themselves clean over there with that 1 John 1:9 bar of soap.
It won't work.
Unaware that there are no sins on the ledger.
If there's no sins on the ledger, what sins are you trying to wash away?
What sins are you confessing to get forgiven?
What non-imputed sins do you think is still in your account?
What non-imputed sins did Jesus miss?
Did he miss one?
Hey, if the sins were put to the account of Jesus Christ, then you can relax
because they can't also be on your account.
That don't make sense.
You know this.
The old song, what can wash away my sins?
No, what has washed away my sins?
Baptist minister Robert Lowry was on to something, no doubt, but he got it wrong.
Don't get carried away by your feelings, by the lyrics of these songs, stick with the word of truth.
Stop walking in what can happen and start walking in what has happened.
Learn to see yourself how God sees you.
Learning that is the key to your victorious thinking, which leads to victorious living.
God hates sin.
You should hate sin.
And Paul tells us to flee from it.
But we'll never be successful at fleeing from it if we don't understand what God did with it.
Don't put the cart before the horse or you'll have the tail wagging the dog.
Failing to understand what the cross of Christ achieved for us, it keeps us in bondage.
Chasing forgiveness instead of standing still in Christ.
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth.
Remember that.
Paul penned those words.
Having on the breastplate of righteousness and your feet shod with the preparation
of the gospel of peace.
You'll find those encouraging words over there in Ephesians chapter 6.
This instability, hey, that's what keeps most Christians, on the sidelines.
As long as Satan can keep you chasing your own forgiveness, you're not out there telling others about theirs.
If Jesus died once for your forgiveness, why are you asking for it?
Do you think there's more?
If Jesus died once for your forgiveness, why do you pray the sinner's prayer?
If he died once for your sins, why do you confess them to your priest?
What sense does that make?
If he died once for your sins, why would you repent and be baptized for the same sins he already died for?
The math don't math.
Your forgiveness isn't a daily ritual.
But if that's what you've turned it into, you're making Satan happy.
That I can tell you.
When it comes to forgiveness, you shouldn't be waiting on it.
You should be resting in it.
Once you learn that your forgiveness started with the cross and ended with the cross,
you can begin to get your thought life in order.
That's when you'll start pleasing God.
Walking out this grace life, the grace life he's designed for you as a member of his body, as someone in Christ.
Satan wants you thinking that instead of being blameless, you're still to be blamed.
Instead of being forgiven, you're still unforgiven.
Instead of being bought with a price, you're still on the auction block.
Instead of being thoroughly washed and sanctified, your sins have made you filthy and defiled.
That's what he'd have you to believe.
Instead of Christ in you, he'd have you thinking that he can come and go according to how good you are.
Even though God said he sealed you unto the day of redemption.
Who are you going to believe?
Satan's ministers or the word of God?
The cross of Christ wasn't the undercard.
It was the main event, the showstopper.
So when the accuser throws up your sins, you counter with the cross of Christ.
Having knowledge of complete forgiveness, it's liberating.
Not liberty to sin, liberty to serve.
Serve the one who loved us enough to sacrifice his only begotten Son.
What an amazing gift we have.
And teachers who corrupt this free gift should be avoided.
Avoid them at all costs.
Ephesians 4:29, Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister...
What? Watch this.
That it may minister grace.
Unto the hearers.
You do you, but let me tell you this, you better understand that if you add one thing, just one thing to the gospel, you're not ministering grace unto your hearers.
And you're what?
You're guilty.
You're guilty of corrupt communication.
Salvation is a free gift, we don't do good works to get the gift, we do good works because we have it.
We don't work to the gift, we work from the gift.
And when someone mixes a work with grace, they destroy grace.
1 Corinthians 1:17, For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect.
Of what?
Of none effect.
Now let that sink in.
You ever heard someone preach the cross of Christ while making it of none effect?
Oh yeah.
Hear it all the time.
More often than not.
Today we have those who, they add all sorts of things to the gospel.
Some add Jesus is the Father.
Hey, that destroys the Godhead and ultimately destroys the gospel.
Making it of none effect.
Tampering with the Godhead is indeed a salvation issue.
Not one person is going to be in heaven who believes the Father died for their sins.
Not one person is saved who believed the Father was buried.
Not one person is saved and going to be in heaven who believed the Father rose from the dead.
Not one.
That's not the gospel.
That's not the gospel.
And those who say it is are 11 cans short of a 12 pack.
Don't fall for their corrupt communication.
The Son died for your sins.
The Son was buried and the Son rose from the dead.
That's the gospel of our Apostle Paul.
That's why, in Romans 1:16, he said, For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ.
Christ is the Son, not the Father.
Then Paul said, For it is the power of God unto salvation.
What is the power of God unto salvation?
Christ the Son, dying for your sins.
Christ the Son, being buried.
Christ the Son, having risen from the dead.
Don't tamper with this gospel.
Oh no.
God magnifies His Word above His own name.
And His Word says, Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, how that Christ the Son, Christ, He died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He, that's Christ the Son, was buried and rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
Not the Father.
Oh no.
And where Paul's words are ignored, false doctrine will always find a home.
2 Corinthians 11, But I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
That's Christ the Son, not the Father.
For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached?
If you fell for the Jesus is the Father heresy, as the serpent beguiled Eve, you've allowed your mind to be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Just as Paul warned.
You've received another spirit and another gospel.
There is but one God.
Not two, three, four, or more.
Only one.
And this one God is made up of Father, Son, and Spirit.
That's Bible.
This is truth and it doesn't matter if you like it or not.
It doesn't matter if you can explain it or not.
That's the way it is.
So get over yourself.
And those who deny this have created a God to fit within their own reasoning.
They're idolaters.
The Jesus they've invented can't save anyone.
They might as well be Mormons.
Mormons believe Jesus is the brother of Lucifer.
The same way they believe Jesus is his own father.
Welcome to Wackadoodaville.
That's another Jesus.
As an angel of light, Satan's ministers, they come in the name of Jesus, but they offer you a counterfeit.
As one person put it, quote, he said, It's gotten to the point where I can't make it
through a teaching without them trying to convince me that Jesus the Son is really Jesus the Father.
Yeah, we've wondered if those bent on making the Son the Father, they don't have
some sort of daddy issues or something.
It's crazy is what it is.
They corrupt Paul's gospel of Christ, the Son, by making it Paul's gospel of Christ,
the Father.
This imaginary Father Jesus is nothing short of poison to Paul's gospel.
They get away with teaching it because most of their followers are babes in Christ.
Seasoned vets, though, they don't waste their time hanging around because they know better.
So they prey on babes.
That's who they're harming.
Some are babes, and some are not even in Christ because, if a lost person believes that the Father is the one who died for their sins, they're still lost.
They're a false convert.
As one old preacher, Preacher McLean, used to say, The only thing worse than going to hell is going there and being surprised.
We'll dive deeper into this corrupt teaching, Christ the Son is actually Christ the Father, we'll address it another time.
But listen, if you add anything to Paul's gospel, it doesn't matter what it is, you make the cross of Christ of none effect.
And Satan has so many different ways of doing this.
Tell someone that Christ died for your sins.
Now you need to go and be baptized for the remission of your sins.
Well, you just corrupted the cross of Christ.
You made it of none effect.
For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.
But unto us which are saved, it is the power of God.
Underneath one of our videos, a listener, Rick, he commented saying, Law requires everything and gives nothing.
The gospel requires nothing and gives everything.
Then Ted, he comes along and chimes in and says, Jesus plus nothing equals everything.
But Jesus plus anything equals nothing.
Both comments are spot on.
When we obey God and the word of truth is rightly divided, we get a bird's eye view
of salvation through faith alone.
Moreover, we see that faith alone, it should not only dictate how we're saved, but also how we live our life.
Your walk with God, your relationship with Him, it should stay centered, stay focused
on living your grace life through faith alone.
By grace through faith alone is not only how we're justified, but it's how our relationship with God should be nurtured and sustained.
You're a totally forgiven person.
Get used to it.
Go take a look in the mirror and tell yourself, I'll never be any more forgiven than I am right now.
I'll never be any more accepted than I am right now.
Stop working for it and start enjoying it.
Forgiveness doesn't come in parts.
You weren't forgiven in parts.
You were forgiven in full.
Forgiveness is not being distributed in piecemeal.
A little here, a little there.
No.
And sadly, we have individuals who occupy a church each week yet never heard this good news.
Faithful tithers, prayer warriors, yet couldn't tell you the gospel of their salvation if their life depended on it.
Which it does, by the way.
Bible-toting people in church their entire life and don't know how to be saved.
Week after week, going to that building, and don't have clarity of what the gospel of their salvation is.
Most know about the cross.
Most know about the resurrection.
But they don't know how that applies to them personally.
Not realizing that on the cross is where the Father made the Son to be sin for them.
We speak to those who have never heard this good news.
And there they are thinking they need to do something about their sins before God can accept them.
As if He's the sky police looking to write them a ticket each time they sin.
Having never heard the good news of how God's grace has done it all through the work of Jesus Christ.
God the Father made God the Son to be sin for you.
And it was a one-time event.
Forgiveness was never set up on the installment plan.
There's no account anywhere where God can go and find your sins.
No account, no record, no ledger.
When it comes to sin, Jesus has no more blood to shed.
That's how finished this thing is, my friend.
Your sins were dealt with at Calvary and God is offering you the free gift of salvation by grace through faith alone.
Alone.
Alone without anything added from you.
No amount of starting or stopping something can add to that.
If you're doing anything in your attempt to be forgiven, you have yet to adhere
to Paul's gospel.
Paul wrote 13 epistles and in not one does he explain how to get your sins forgiven.
If you're wanting a how-to, a how-to-get-my-sins-forgiven handbook, Paul's epistles,
that's not where you need to go because you can't find that.
If you want to know about how Christ was crucified to put away those sins that separated God from you, if you want to know about the eternal life that you can have in Christ, about how your life can be hid with Christ in God, if you want to know about Christ in you, the hope of glory, if you want to know how to put away all the worries that religion has thrown your way and finally have peace and rest in Christ,
then, hey, Paul's epistles, now, he can help you with that.
But don't come to Paul looking for how to go backwards to get your sins forgiven.
Paul's message is about progressing, not digressing.
We're over here on this side of the finished crosswork and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ with power-packed, valuable information for the lost and how they can be saved.
That's the mission of a minister of reconciliation.
The gospel is so amazing that your next sin has already been dealt with.
Oh, but if you tell them that, they'll just go sin it up.
What?
They do that anyway.
You don't have to tell them anything.
They don't need your permission to sin.
The truth is, the more you scream and spit, spouting off your message about how you better stop sinning, you better stop sinning, that just makes the common man want to sin more.
That's psychology 101, man.
As a minister of reconciliation, it's not my job to speak words that will only have you focusing and concentrating more on your sin.
No, my job is to get your mind off sin and on to Christ.
To help you rearrange your thinking so that you're all-time concentrating now on the finished crosswork of Jesus.
To build you up so that when the accuser, when he pays your mind to visit, you'll be well-versed and built up and edified enough to haul off and let him have it.
When he brings up your sin, you bring up God's Son.
When he brings up your flesh, you bring up Christ's blood.
When he brings up your past, you remind him of his future.
When he brings up your failures, you bring up your victory.
Do like Jesus did.
Use the scriptures against him.
1 Corinthians 15:57, But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm a winner.
Not a loser.
Satan's the loser.
His ministers of righteousness, they're the losers.
Their look at me, look at me message, that's the one that belongs in the loser column.
My full and complete dependency on Christ makes me a winner.
My future's so bright, I gotta wear shades.
Listen, my God gave me his Spirit.
He washed and sanctified me at the moment I rested my trust in him.
He sealed me with the Holy Spirit.
I'm kept by his grace and nothing I can do.
I've been made righteous and justified.
What shall we then say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us, right?
I couldn't begin to tell you how many preachers I've heard say, bless God, my sins are under the blood.
Hey, listen, my sins aren't under the blood.
My sins were totally washed away by the blood.
Covered by the blood, under the blood, both imply that they're still there, but only hidden.
But washed away, hey, that paints the real picture of them being completely gone.
Believe on him today.
And remember, you only get two educations, the one you're given and the one you go give yourself.
Now get in this word.
Got a Bible question?
Call toll-free 1-888-988-9562.
Email us at truthtimeradio.com.
Until next time, remember, when a man who is honestly mistaken hears the truth, he will either quit being mistaken or cease to be honest.
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