Episode Transcript
[00:00:07] Speaker A: Hi and welcome to the unveiling. I'm Tim, one of the hosts, along with Ajay and Mark. We are three guys discussing the one true gospel. We hope you're encouraged by this episode. Let's dive right in.
[00:00:21] Speaker B: So as we. We're going to move on to the next section now, Ajay, but you have any last thought on this, on the gospel here before we move on?
[00:00:29] Speaker C: No, no, go ahead.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: I wanted. I wanted to. If you guys had indulged me for some reason when I was preparing for today, I was really struck by the Apostle John's first chapter of his gospel. John was the. The apostle that they always described as being the one that Jesus loved. He had the closest relationship with him on an earthly basis.
And I just want to read you the first paragraph here because it's important that we not only put our faith in Christ, but that we know the Christ that we're putting our faith in, because there are many Christs out there being preached by different people that are not the true historical, biblical Christ. There are people that preach Christ is just a good man, just a prophet. Other people say that, oh, he wasn't God. He wasn't the Son of God. He was just one of the many prophets. So we. I want to read you what John, his closest friend in his earthly ministry, wrote about him. He says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.
I'm going to stop occasionally here in case you want to throw something in after each of these little.
[00:01:59] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, keep going, Mark. I have some thoughts, but keep going.
[00:02:01] Speaker B: Okay. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe he himself was not the light. He came only as a witness to the light, the true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world. And though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
He came to that which was his own, meaning Israel. But his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God and children not born of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will. But born of God, the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
He who comes, John testified concerning him. This is the one I spoke about when I said, he who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me. Out of his fullness, we have all received grace in place of grace already given.
For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Christ Jesus.
I'll just stop there. Ajay.
[00:03:41] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. So this is an awesome passage, Mark. I want to point our attention to a couple of things. In the first verse, it says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
So, like, it's talking about Word, right? And then who is the Word?
And we know that, like, our Word is Lord Jesus Christ.
And if we. And it's clearly saying the Word is God.
Right.
Lord Jesus Christ is God. There's no doubt about that.
[00:04:19] Speaker B: And we know, we know he's referring to Jesus because it said, the Word dwelt among us.
Jesus came and dwelt among us.
[00:04:27] Speaker C: Yeah. So, and the verse 14 says, the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
So it is talking about Lord Jesus Christ. And then it is also saying that God became human for us.
So it's very important when it comes to the true gospel, there are two things. The person of Lord Jesus Christ and the work of Lord Jesus Christ.
And like you said, Mark, many people acknowledge Jesus, but for them, Jesus is not God.
Either they deny the deity of Lord Jesus Christ, or they deny the humanity of Lord Jesus Christ.
Some false preachers, they say, you know, Jesus never became human. He was just a spirit being. And on the other hand, some people acknowledge that, yeah, Jesus is only human. He is not God. But clearly we see that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was God.
The Word was with God, and the Word was God and Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Or we can say the Word was God and God became flesh and dwelt among us. So it's very, very important to not only acknowledge but also believe that Jesus is who he is.
He is God who became flesh, and then he died in our place and he rose again from the dead. That is the Gospel.
[00:05:58] Speaker B: Awesome point. And it also says, just one final proof here. It says that through him all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made.
And it says, in him was life.
Who else could make everything that has Been made and holds life in the palm of his hand and has given us that life. But God, it's very clear. So you who are listening don't doubt that Scripture tells and teaches clearly that Jesus is God.
And Jesus himself taught that.
[00:06:35] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. In fact, you know, if God is. I mean, this is, this one verse is a clear proof that Jesus is God, right? So it says everything that was made was made by him.
So he made everything that was made. That means if he is not God, he should have been a created being.
If he was a created being, he would have made himself.
In order to make himself, he has to exist before he was made.
So clearly he was a pre existing being before all things. So that makes him God.
[00:07:15] Speaker B: So we've talked about mankind's problem, the bad news that we are sinners, that we fall short of that mark.
And we also talk about, we've talked about the good news that God's provided that solution for us. Not as an afterthought because of the people he created messed up and went bad from before the beginning of create everything. He gave us free will, which gives us the ability to make the wrong choices and screw up. But part of that plan was to provide a sacrifice to give us perfect righteousness, to take our sin away and to make us his sons and daughters. So we've talked about the solution. Now we want to just talk a little bit because someone might say, okay, great, so what, What? You know, why would I want to come to God? You know, we've already talked a little bit. Oh yeah, eternal life's awesome and there's so many more things. But I asked myself, like, what would motivate God to give us such a costly, valuable sacrifice, give us his best while we were at our worst, dead in transgression, enemies of God, without God and without hope in the world. Why would God give us his best while we were at our worst? Why would Christ come from the highest of heights and step all the way down into our depths? What's his motivation? Why would he do that? And to me, that's what drew me to him, that drew me to this gospel.
And Ajay, you already touched upon it. But just read us the beginning of John 3:16 one more time, would you?
[00:08:57] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
[00:09:09] Speaker B: So there's one scripture that tells you the reason for all this was because God loved the world so much. Ephesians 2:5 says because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. And that's an important little line there.
God didn't wait for us to clean up our act. That wasn't a condition of our salvation, was to us to break our addictions, get rid of our sin. No, he loved us so much and had so much rich mercy toward us that even while we were in the midst of them, absolutely dead in sin, that's when he gives us Christ to make us alive. What a great point that is, isn't it, Ajay?
[00:09:59] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah, Mark. In fact, I want to use one more scripture to back up what you just said in Romans, chapter 5, verse 6.
For when we were still without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely a righteous man will one die. Yet perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare to die.
But God demonstrates his own love towards us that in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So the demonstration of God's love, right? You know, sometimes we think after becoming a child of God, right, after believing in God, becoming in Jesus, he loves us. No, no, he actually loved us when we were sinners. And the Bible clearly says that God demonstrated his own love towards us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
So the proof of God's love for us is he, while we were still sinners, right? He sent his son to die for us. That is a proof. A lot of people look for God's love in the wrong places.
You know, they think, you know, if I get a good car or if I'm healed of a disease, or if I get a good building, God loves us. But that's not where you look for it, right? What if you are. If you lose your car? What if you lose your health? So does that change God's love for you? But that's not what it is. So the proof of God's love is the death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:11:39] Speaker B: We just look to the cross because there's never been a more glorious display of God's love, grace and favor than the cross.
[00:11:48] Speaker C: Amen.
[00:11:50] Speaker B: I've got one final scripture here in this section, and that's Titus 3:4. And what I love about this scripture is Titus was a young pastor and Paul. This is called one of Paul's pastoral letters. He was writing a letter of instruction to this young pastor. And I would say, because we've been given this scripture, this letter is to all pastors, and he's giving them instruction on how and what to preach. He says, when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, meaning Christ, he saved us not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.
And here's I love this last line. Paul says, Paul is arguably one of the most trustworthy men that ever walked the earth. He saw Christ face to face. He gave his entire life for the gospel. In fact, he gave his physical life up at the end of his life. But he went through hell here on earth for the gospel.
And he takes the time to say this. He says, this is a trustworthy saying. Well, yeah, it's coming from Paul, but he's reiterating it by saying this is a trustworthy saying. In other words, it's worthy of you putting all your trust in. He says, and I want you to stress these things. That's why I hope Ajay and I will always stress these things. And so many pastors out there are just beating on people about their sin. They're basically motivational speakers that are trying they might have good intentions. Hey, I want to teach you how to be a good father. I want to teach you how to be a good husband. I want to teach you to be generous, all these things. But the only way you're ever going to be that is by coming to Christ as the fruit of his spirit works in your life. Let me just reiterate the things that Paul says are trustworthy and that we are to stress, he says, the kindness and love of God. We who is our Savior.
And he's our Savior, not because of anything good we've done, but he's merciful and he's washed us and he's given us rebirth and renewal by his spirit. And he didn't just give us a little bit of himself. He poured out his spirit on us generously through Jesus Christ, so that we've been justified, made completely righteous by his grace. I want to define grace, which we like to do quite a bit on our podcast, but grace. Grace is the unearned, undeserved, unmerited favor of God. And favor is just another word for love.
And. And he says that through all these things, we've become heirs, son, not just sons and daughters, but sons and daughters who inherit everything from our Father and That is our hope. He's also given, and it says he's given us the hope of eternal life as well.
[00:15:10] Speaker C: So, amen.
[00:15:12] Speaker B: So, Ajay, now that we've talked about our bad news, our sin problem, our good news, the gospel, and what God's motivation was for sending his son.
If I'm a person who's heard these things and the Spirit of God has touched my heart by them, and I'm like, I want these things, what is it I need to do? How much money do I need to give Ajay?
What sin do I need to clean up in my life first? Do I have to go to the right church? Please tell me.
[00:15:43] Speaker C: Yeah.
So Mark, as I often talk about, you know, if we wonder what Peter, what Paul preached, what is the gospel they preached, you know, fortunately it's actually recorded in the scriptures verbatim and it only takes two minutes. So we might be thinking that, you know, there was a big crusade, you know, for all night crusade and songs and this and that and one hour sermon. It's not like that. So the recorded message or the preaching of Peter is just, we can finish in 30 seconds maybe. So I want to start with that. And of course towards the end, you know, we will define what the gospel is and how anyone can be saved. But I want to start with that. This acts chapter 10. And yeah, before that, you know, Peter actually was sent to Cornelius. He was a Gentile, he was not a Jewish.
So whatever Peter preached, it is a gospel preached to the Gentiles. So it applies to us and applies to Jews as well.
Acts chapter 10 from verse 34.
Then Peter began to speak. I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism, but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.
You know, the message of God to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ who is Lord of all.
You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power and how he went about doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil because God was with him.
We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of Jews and in Jerusalem they killed him by hanging him on a cross.
But God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.
He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as the judge of the living and the dead.
All the prophets testify about him, that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.
See, as you can see, it's a very simple message by Peter. He said, you killed him.
They killed him by hanging him on a cross. It's his death.
And God raised him from the dead. That's his resurrection, is death and resurrection. And he says he was seen by many, not by everyone, but by the ones whom God chose to be seen and whom God chose to see him.
And then now he's saying that, you know, he is commanding us to preach this gospel. And what is the Gospel?
That everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name. That's it.
If you believe in Lord Jesus Christ, you will receive forgiveness of sins.
And the moment you believe that the Holy Spirit fell on them. It's as simple as that.
Go ahead, Mark. I have a few more things to say, but I'd like you to hear your response.
[00:19:38] Speaker B: Sure. I just love that preaching of the Gospel because how much time did he take to be beat the crowd over the head with their sin?
He was focused on Christ, on who Christ was and what he did for all of us.
And as he preached that message, the Spirit of God moved in their hearts. And we're told many times that Paul said he was not ashamed of the Gospel because it is the power of God for salvation.
Paul also said that when he preached, his message was always with a demonstration of the Spirit's power.
And he tells us what that message is in First Corinthians 2 by saying he forgot everything else but Jesus Christ and him crucified.
So today we're praying that as we've shared this message with you that has been imbued with the power of God and his Spirit, we're praying that that power is moving in your heart, drawing you to Christ. And we just encourage you just to ask.
That's the condition, right, Ajay, you don't have to clean up your life. You don't even have to start going to church yet if you don't want to. But we would encourage you to get into the New Testament, start in the Book of Matthew and just read for yourself. We don't want you to take our, you know, to take our opinion on it, but that God would speak to you through His Word.
[00:21:16] Speaker C: Yeah, Mark, you know, I would like to clarify one more thing and simply summarize again what the gospel is.
So many of us things, when we hear an average think, when we hear an average sermon or average preaching of the gospel, it almost appears that, you know, we have to do something. Yes. Yeah.
Jesus did so much for me. He died and he rose again. But, you know, there is something I need to do in order to actually take advantage of what Jesus did for us. So that is a big error. In fact, even things like, you know, in some of the Crusades, we hear in the invitation, they say, you repent of your sins, you turn for your sins, or you clean up your life, you start going to church and then believe in the gospel. So they put some conditions, and if you put those conditions, you know, there's nothing wrong with those things, but those conditions that they are putting, we simply cannot do it. So basically, they are preventing people from receiving Christ.
And many, many people because of ignorance, are kept from Christ because they think that, you know, God is placing some big demands on them before or they need to qualify themselves in order to receive Christ. So none of those are necessary. I want to just read this and clearly, clearly define what the Gospel is and clearly define how anyone can be saved.
Romans, chapter four, it says.
I'm going to read from verse four, from verse chapter four, from verse one.
What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh, discovered in this matter.
If in fact Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God, what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness.
Now, to him who works, the wages are not credited as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the one who does not work but trusts in God, who justifies ungodly, his faith is credited for righteousness.
So it's very important to understand that, that the faith that makes us righteous is the faith that does not work, but believes unto him, that does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness. So we need to come to God as ungodly, not as godly and righteous people, but we come to God as ungodly and sinners and believe on God as the one who has the power to justify the ungodly.
So the gospel is just preached in one sentence here. Abraham believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness. Similarly, for us, we must not work. We should not bring anything to the table, neither the good works or the bad works. Nothing is necessary.
We don't need any repentance, we don't need any confessions. We don't need nothing.
Simply believe on the God you know as God who justifies the ungodly. Then that faith, the faith that does not work but believes that faith is counted for righteousness.
So I just want to go to one more verse and then Mark I'll give it to you for closing comments.
So if you ask what must I do to be saved, here is the answer.
Romans, chapter 10 and verse 8.
But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.
That is the word of faith that we preach that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For the scripture says whoever believes on him will not be put to shame.
For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is rich to all who call upon Him.
For whoever calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved.
So all anyone needs to do is confess the Lord Jesus and believe in their heart that God raised him from the dead and that is their righteousness and that is their salvation. We must not work but believe in the resurrection of Lord Jesus Christ. Again, it's going back to who Christ is and what he did for us.
Christ is the Son of God. He is God who became man and he died and rose again on the third day. By believing in our heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, we are saved.
[00:26:33] Speaker B: Ajay, I'll just close up now by you just used a word that I think believer and unbeliever alike have heard probably many times in their life and probably doesn't have a good connotation for them. But that that's the word repent.
Now repent has got nothing to do if at all with sin. It's not about changing your life or conditions. The word repent simply means it's the Greek word metanoia which means to change your mind.
Like phonetically meta means re and noia means think. So it literally means to rethink.
If you have yet to come to Christ yet and you're listening to this podcast, we just want to encourage you to consider the words and the scripture we brought today and rethink who Christ is, rethink what he's done for you and rethink all the wrong information you've probably been collecting in your life that you've heard who knows where on the street, from friends, from false teaching.
We've all heard so many things and our worldviews tend to get skewed. But we just ask you to rethink who Christ is and understand how much God loves you. So much that he sent Christ for you.
So Ajay, thanks for an awesome night.
And everybody, we will see you again next week. God bless you. Bye bye.
[00:28:08] Speaker C: Amen.
[00:28:11] Speaker A: Thanks for listening today. We hope you were encouraged and uplifted. If so, we encourage you to subscribe and share our podcast with your friends and family.
You can listen and subscribe on most popular podcast apps. Well, that's it for us today. As always, God bless and we will talk to you the next time.
[00:28:34] Speaker B: All my days, Lord, I will delight in you.
Days of my life, you, I will delight you. I will light.
