Episode 88 - The Old is Gone, The New Has Come!

[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. Welcome back, everybody. How we all doing? Mark, it's you and me today. How are you? [00:00:27] Speaker B: I'm doing well today, Tim. [00:00:29] Speaker A: I don't know if you knew it or not, but today's Easter, so. He has risen. [00:00:33] Speaker B: He has risen, indeed. [00:00:36] Speaker A: Amen. And that's the biggest. One of the biggest celebrations of the Christian life is the fact that, you know, we don't celebrate Jesus hanging on the cross, but we do celebrate that he came back from the dead and he's brought us a whole bunch of new things. And, Mark, I think you want to get us started with a list of some of those new things and talk, get us kicked off on that direction. [00:00:59] Speaker B: I would love to do that, Tim. First of all, I just wanted to say that, as I did a concordance search, the word new is used in scripture. That particular word, and I'm sure there are many other synonyms for that word, but the word new is mentioned 280 times. So newness is a definite theme that runs cover to cover. And when you think about it, it's such a positive wor. [00:01:25] Speaker A: New. [00:01:25] Speaker B: It just sounds new, doesn't it? Shiny and new. I've got a new job, a new house, a new girlfriend, a new lease on life. New, new, new. It's such a great sound. So I wanted to start out by just mentioning a few of the terms of newness that scripture mentions, and then we can dive in after that. So Scripture tells us that in Christ we have been given new birth, new life. We are a new creation. God has put a new song on our mouths. He's given us a new self, a new attitude, a new mind, a new conscience, a new identity, a new position, a new order, a new and living way, the new way of the Spirit. We are made new. And I would add, in my opinion, and I think scripture bears up very strongly, it's all because of the new covenant in Jesus blood. [00:02:24] Speaker A: That's amazing. It is a fabulous thing. Everything new. And like you said, I love the implications of shining in that whole new smell of everything, right? [00:02:32] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. New car smell, new gospel smell. We are now the fragrant aroma of Christ. It says so. There's your new gospel smell. [00:02:40] Speaker A: I don't know, maybe we should dive into a couple of those news that you brought up. Like, I love to talk about how we are a new creature. [00:02:49] Speaker B: Yeah, that's. I've got a great scripture here for that. Tim. I love this, the overall encapsulation of the gospel in this, especially on this Easter week, as we, you know, every week is Easter week on the unveiling as we seek to look deeply and remember all that Christ did but love this scripture. It is 2nd Corinthians 5:17. The apostle Paul wrote this under the direction of the Spirit of God. And I just want to remind everybody that the Apostle Paul clearly told us that nobody taught him this gospel. Can't even talk. Nobody taught him this gospel. In fact, he did not go and study with the other apostles who walked with Christ. He didn't go to seminary. He didn't have a pastor over him. He met Christ face to face on the road to Damascus, had 180 degree turnaround, and Christ gave him this gospel directly. So when Paul speaks, he is speaking for Christ. Let's always remember that 2nd Corinthians 5:17 says, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here. All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through. Through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people's sins against them. Isn't that such an awesome thing? There are so many ways that God has told us in this new covenant that he's not counting our sins against us. He says that let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, I have washed them white as snow. Though they are as crimson, I have made them as wool, I have removed your sins as far as the east is from the west, I will remember their sins and lawless deeds no more. Let's always remember that this new covenant, this newness we came into was accomplished because our sin has been dealt with once for all. It's gone. It doesn't have to plague us anymore. We don't have to live in guilt and shame. Our focus is Jesus. And that's where all our joy is, in freedom. [00:05:15] Speaker A: Yeah, I love how God describes things. His. His. I've stolen your sins. As far as the east is from the west, you know, you can travel east forever and never get to east. You can travel west forever and never get to west. North and south, you got poles, you got destinations. There's a place, there's. It's finite. God's love and forgiveness is infinite. So the other thing I wanted to mention was we're talking about new, and Paul must be the primo example of new after that little tete a te on the road to Damascus with Jesus. Because Paul was on his way to go persecute Christians. He had been doing that for a while, but he was on his way to persecute Christians, perhaps even kill them for their faith. And Jesus met him on that road. And now we know him as the great, one of the greatest. What's the word I'm looking for? The guys who go out and preach. The gospel proponent, one of the greatest proponents of the gospel. Not just to the Jews, but he was the main man to bring it to the Gentiles. Talk about a new creature. Man. He was, oh man, he's unbelievably changed [00:06:28] Speaker B: when you think about it. He was given a new life that untold millions and millions and millions throughout the ages have received a new life through that preaching. One of the things I love about Paul, he said that God had set him apart in his mother's womb for the gospel, for grace. That's why he was set apart. God knew that Paul was always going to come to him. That was his plan. [00:06:58] Speaker A: And I mean it's amazing how many times he talks about people in the room or we talk see stories in the Bible about people in the room. They aren't even born yet. They aren't even fully new yet, Mark. And they're in the womb. You know, John the Baptist jumped in his mother's womb when Mary came to him, you know, came to her with Jesus in her belly. And you know, Paul was like you said, destined from his before his birth. And he tells us, I know I've known you since before you were born. I knit you together in your woman, you know, your parents womb, you know, you want to talk about new, there's pre new for you. [00:07:33] Speaker B: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And I'm also reminded of Jacob and Esau when they were still in their mother's womb. God had already chosen Jacob by faith, even though he himself definitely did not warrant it, deserve it or earn it in any way. But because he had a heart that put faith in God, he was chosen for the line Christ came from Jacob. [00:07:59] Speaker A: Yep, yep. No, that's amazing. So when you're talking new man, we. You never know just how far back new goes. [00:08:07] Speaker B: That's right. [00:08:10] Speaker A: So. [00:08:10] Speaker B: So I have another scripture I wanted to share. I love this scripture and this is one that's off the beaten path and I. There's a song I've heard before by D.C. talk that goes off this scripture, but it's really cool. It's Isaiah 43:19. And this is a prophecy. Long before Christ was born, long before he died and rose again. God says, behold, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isn't that beautiful? And I'll ask that question to our listeners today and to ourselves. Do you not perceive it, Lord Jesus? We pray that we would perceive this new thing, Lord, and that you would give our wilderness rivers. Just flood us with rivers of living water. Such a beautiful way of putting it. [00:09:05] Speaker A: It's a beautiful picture, Marcus. Rivers in the desert. I don't know, but I think it was about 15, maybe 20 years ago. I read an article about over in. I'm assuming it was Israel in the desert, but it could have been somewhere in Africa. I really don't remember. But they had literally taken a patch of desert and did nothing but irrigate it. And from that patch, without them, seeding, without them, you know, going out and doing harrowing rows and doing this, that and the other, all of a sudden this beautiful oasis grew, you know, trees and bush and it attracted animals and stuff that just wasn't there just because they added the river, you know, the waters. And that's how it nurtures our souls, you know? [00:09:54] Speaker B: I don't know if it was the same show that I watched, but I saw something similar. It was in Africa, and as the seasons changed, it became this super dry, dead desert with almost no life. But then the rain started and it created a river that flowed, I don't even know how many, maybe a thousand miles. And it turned into a lake and just life exploded untold. You couldn't even count the herds and the flocks of animals and the plants. Exploding rivers in the desert. Boy, Christ sure is a river in the desert for us, isn't he? [00:10:34] Speaker A: I think Toto wrote a song about it, didn't they? They're talking about the rains down in Africa, you know. [00:10:41] Speaker B: Don't worry, Tim. I've got an auto tuner. I can fix that in my head. [00:10:47] Speaker A: That. [00:10:47] Speaker B: Yeah, sure, I'll make it. I'll make your vocal like new. [00:10:51] Speaker A: I'm a. Yeah, there you go. Hey, I'm a preacher and a writer, not a singer, man. [00:10:56] Speaker B: Well, then maybe you should just stick to that, Tim. [00:10:58] Speaker A: I probably will. I. Don't worry. I will. [00:11:02] Speaker B: All right, so. Yeah, that. That is a great. A great picture, isn't it? [00:11:06] Speaker A: It is. That just, you know, life springing out of the death and desert is. Is amazing. And that's really what happened to us. When Jesus died on the cross that that day he went down to hell and took away the keys of the power of death from the devil. And he granted us real life and true everlasting life. And when he came back, those gifts were ours. So we went from that desert to that abundance. [00:11:34] Speaker B: Yep. And I think we'll spend the rest of our life, we're never going to exhaust learning about everything he's given us that's included in that new life. Let me read a couple scriptures here. That kind of hit me that being a musician and a songwriter, I really. These have a lot of personal meaning to me. In Psalm 40, verse 2, he says, he lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire. He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear the Lord and put their trust in him. And then Psalm 98:1 says, Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things. His right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him. The Lord has made his salvation known and revealed his righteousness to the nation, unto the nations. What I love about that term is putting a new song in our mouth. He's given us a new song, and we're not going to go too deeply into it. But if you just sit and think about what that means, having a new song, it's a new way of thinking, a new attitude. It emanates from us. It projects out from us as when we sing. But it's just a beautiful imagery, in my opinion. I'm reminded of the old saying, hey, you'll be singing a new tune. But in this case, it's a positive bent on that. We've got a new song. And as I was joking earlier, that song is no longer the blues. You know, it's a new song of [00:13:19] Speaker A: music is such a powerful thing. And, you know, I write a blog and I try and stay a few days ahead. So I'm currently working on my Easter blog and in my head this morning, I'm gonna date myself here with this reference. My brain started singing a song called the Easter Song by a ban called Second chapter of Acts. I don't know if you remember them. [00:13:40] Speaker B: Mark, originally by Keith Green. [00:13:42] Speaker A: Yeah, but there we go. There you go. But I had that running through my head this morning. [00:13:47] Speaker B: I love that song. [00:13:49] Speaker A: It's, it's, it's mo. Music can be motivational, it can be Building it can be informative, it can be educational. It. Music is this thing that everybody has some sort of hold on, whether they're like me and can't sing a note without. With a bucket and two handles, or whether they're, you know, like you, Mark, and making music and writing songs and doing stuff like that. But this is. Music is one of the direct connects, I think, to our. Our souls. [00:14:20] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a mystery. Scripture tells us it's good. We all know this, whether we're believers or not. How powerfully music can music move us, take us through hard times, just make us joyful. So it's tied into our emotions and our brains and our ability to think. It's such a wonderful thing. And the words to that song are that you just mentioned, the Easter song are Hear the bells ringing. They're singing that you can be born again. The chorus is Joy to the world. He is risen. He is risen. Hallelujah. Everybody go and listen to that song. Either by second chapter of Acts or Keith Green. Both such joyful songs you can listen to for this Easter to get your spirit in a good place. [00:15:09] Speaker A: In fact, I pulled it up with my Alexa this morning and she made her play it for me. [00:15:14] Speaker B: That's a great one. Yeah. So I've got another scripture, Tim, if you want to. Want me to keep or unless you've got something, go for it. So after putting a new song in our mouths, part of the reason we have that song is because he's given us a new identity. And I thought we could talk about that for a little while. This new creation that God has made us, who is that person? And it tells us in Galatians 4:4. But when the set time had fully come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem those under the law that we might receive adoption to son sonship. Because you are his sons. God sent the spirit of his son into our hearts. The spirit who calls out abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but God's child. And since you are his child, God has made you also an heir. So God has given us a new identity. Our previous identity was a slave. We were a slave to the law. And because of that, that made us slaves to sin. But now we are children of God. And much more than just children. We are the oldest inheriting child of God, the heir, A co heir with Christ of all he's accomplished for us by his death, burial and resurrection. [00:16:42] Speaker A: Amen. You know, it's worth pointing out here because I'm not sure. You say those words as you're reading those scriptures and you may not catch it all. We are not. We're adopted. We're adopted in. We're Gentiles. We were sinners. Now we're in part of the family of Christ, but we're not just adoptees. We're true sons, true heirs, co heirs with his only begotten son, you know, so when I got adopted into my family and my sister was, you know, already there, [00:17:19] Speaker B: my. [00:17:19] Speaker A: We became instantly medes together, and I had all the rights and privileges of being that person. So that's how it is with Christ. When we are brought into the family, we are, you know, it's like the prodigal son were brought in with robes and rings and hugs and kisses, you know, It's. It's a. It's huge thing, man. It's. It's not a. Well, we adopted him because, you know, the poor guy really needed to be helped out, gotten off the streets, you know, I loved him. I brought him in and I put him in the same level as my son. That's huge. It's big. [00:17:59] Speaker B: Yeah. And I love the words that Jesus used about us, that we were wild olive shoots and we've been grafted into the vine because, like, adoption is a legal thing, then you've got papers to sign and. And hoops to jump through, but this is a physical grafting into the vine. And I love when Jesus talks about the fact that he's the vine and we're the branches. He defines what our new life is. And that is, remain in me and I'll remain in you. That's the focus of our life. It's not our behavior following these rules. Do this, don't do that. It's remaining in Christ, setting the eyes of our souls upon him and just leaving it there and talking to him, communing with him, enjoying him and resting in him. It's not a life of work, although he's going to work in us and through us, but it's not us striving. And like you like to say, Tim, tightening our belt and pulling up our bootstraps and getting to work. Because now that we're saved, we got to get out there and clean ourselves up and help others clean themselves up. [00:19:14] Speaker A: I feel like cable guy. Get her done, you know? [00:19:17] Speaker B: Yeah, there you go. And I would say, Christ already got her done. Yeah. [00:19:22] Speaker A: Yes, you are absolutely, absolutely correct. The other thing I wanted to mention is Paul said is no. You know, when he accepted Christ, it is no longer he that lives, but Christ in him. And that's another way we become completely new creatures. We lose our old sinful nature and our new nature is Christ. [00:19:44] Speaker B: You know, as you're saying that, Tim, one of the things that jumps out at me is this. And I know this because I'm guilty of it and have been guilty of it. We tend to read stuff like, I no longer live, but Christ lives in me as flowery. See, spiritual language. We think of the word grace. Oh, that's a pretty spiritual word. Atonement, pick and choose the word. But these are rock solid, tangible things that are even more real than anything we experience here. And it's not until we start reckoning them as real and realizing that I've died with Christ, now I've rose again with him. I think that's why Scripture is so pointed in telling us over and over again that we need to reflect on Christ, ponder and contemplate and think, to chew on it, to meditate on it, so that we can realize how real it is. Well, there's a great saying so that we can realize how real it is. Because real comes is the word, realize. Make it real in our life, because it is real. It's not just this flowery spiritual language. [00:21:01] Speaker A: You know, Mark, as you've said, with the idea of meditating on the Word. I think one of the biggest reasons that we do it is because we. When we were first Christians, we would read a verse and we'd understand it one way. But the more we meditated on it, the more layers would come from the Word, from the Bible that brought us from A to B to new understandings, new heights, if you will. Like one of my favorite examples of this is there's a verse that says, you know, I will give you the desire of your heart. And I read that completely different when I was a new Christian. I was like, oh, as long as I pray and ask for stuff, God will give it to me because I want those things. Those are the desires of my heart. But as I matured and as I pondered and I thought about these scriptures, I came to realize, at least for me, that meant the desires of my heart. The thing it would change what I wanted. Which is why we ended up in Russia for 10 years. Because it's no longer I wanted things. I wanted to go and reach people and tell people about Jesus and bring the Word. [00:22:14] Speaker B: Yeah, that's a great point, Tim. And that scripture is, delight yourselves in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. And when you think about it that becomes a self fulfilling prophecy because as we delight ourselves in the Lord, he becomes the desire of our heart and boom, you've got it right then. And when you've got Christ, you have all things. He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also, along with him graciously give us all things? That's in the second half of Romans chapter 8. When you've got Christ, you have all things. So he becomes the desire of your heart and in him. And like he said, seek first the kingdom of God in his righteousness and I will add all these things to you. And the kingdom of God is Christ and the right. Only righteousness is his righteousness. So as he becomes the desire of our heart, it's a self fulfilling prophecy. You know, I love how you can [00:23:18] Speaker A: pull up scriptures like that, Mark, and rattle them off from, you know, the entire scriptures of them. God brings me pieces of bits and pieces as I'm talking, as, as I'm writing though I have, I find I have to often go and look up the entire thing so I don't mess it up. But you did a great job with that. Thank you. So where do we go from here, Mark? We're new. [00:23:41] Speaker B: I think the way. What I'd like to focus on now is how were we made new. As I mentioned at the very beginning, all this new, we could talk about all these different aspects of our newness, but we would not have one of them if we were still under the old covenant. We have all these things because we are under the new covenant in Jesus blood. [00:24:08] Speaker A: One of the greatest news of them all, Mark. [00:24:11] Speaker B: Yeah, it is the good news. And it's funny how the word new is in news, isn't it? Okay, what I want to do is read you a few scriptures here that talk about the fact that we've been taken from the old covenant to the new. And it tells us in scripture many times Paul tells us that the old way of the written code kills, but the new way of the Spirit gives life. So the Old Testament, the old covenant was only given to bring us to Christ, to make us conscious of our sin, to make us feel guilty, to make us feel shame and condemned. Not that God for the sake of it, wants us just to feel bad, but that is supposed to show us our desperate need for a Savior, which he had already determined before the beginning of the world, before the beginning of creation, that that was the plan. Jesus Christ and him crucified before the creation of the world. And so the law was given not so that we could behave better. And can the law do that for a society that tries to uphold those values? Well, in a mild way it can. But unless we have the spirit within us, we're not going to be able to follow that law in any way anyway. So. But I think it does offer some constraints to society. But that's not the main purpose that was given. It was given to condemn us. Like Ajay likes to say, it's basically a mirror to show us who we are. Because if you don't look in the mirror, you can go around thinking, hey, look at me, I'm good looking, I'm in excellent shape, and look at me, I'm ready to go to heaven. And then you look at yourself and get a clear view of who you really are and you see your need for a savior. [00:25:59] Speaker A: Absolutely. The law was given, in fact, not to be able to be followed, but to show you that you absolutely could not follow it. And the way of the law is if you break a law, you're condemned. And if you're condemned, you're not going to be able to get into heaven. God's standard isn't good enough. It isn't. It's not good. It's not good enough. It's not pretty good. It's perfect. You have to be perfect to get into heaven. If you're going to do it by way of the law, nobody can do it except Jesus did it. [00:26:33] Speaker B: And I can hear some doubters out there saying, well, how can God, that's not fair for God to expect us to be perfect. And I would just say he doesn't expect you to be perfect. That's not why he gave the law. He gave to law to bring you to Christ, who is perfect. That's such a key point that just occurred to me there. Because as you're telling people, you can't meet perfection, you can't meet the standard. I can just hear the doubter or the agnostic saying, well, how can God expect us to be perfect? That's unreasonable. You're right, it is. And he doesn't expect you to be perfect. He wants you to come to Christ. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. The plan wasn't for you to do better, to be good, to behave and to perfectly fulfill the law. The plan was for you not to be able to do that so that you would turn to Christ for whom through whom in whom everything has been created. [00:27:38] Speaker A: And once again, I'll say we can't be perfect. So even after we accept Christ, if you think you're suddenly going to change and magically never sin again, never do anything wrong, it's not going to happen, man. It's just that God's not going to hold that against you. So when you face your eternal judgment, you're going to approach that. Clean and white as snow. You know, you talk about the robes being white as snow. Jesus took all that on him at the cross. That's why Easter is such a wonderful thing. We've been relieved. So much bad stuff and given all this new stuff. [00:28:12] Speaker B: Yeah. And you know what? If before we were saved, before we put our faith in Christ, the law was, God did not expect us to perfectly fulfill that law, why would we think now that we have been saved, now he's turned a different 180 degrees backwards and said, now I expect you to fulfill that law. And unfortunately, so many Christians live with the weight of now trying to fulfill the law. And I can tell you from personal experience, once I became a Christian and started doing just that, I lived with way more guilt and heaviness and self condemnation than I did before I came to Christ when I didn't care whether I fulfilled the law or not. And Christ doesn't want you to come to him so that you can live with God guilt and condemnation and shame. He wants you to come to him, and that's why he took care of all that for us. [00:29:09] Speaker A: And when I say grace gives us, you know, erases the consequence of our sin with God, that's. We bring this up a fair amount of times, Mark. That's up and down. But on the physical plane, we still make these mistakes. And so we may still need to pay for those mistakes in some way, whether it's trying to reheal a relationship you broke because you were angry or whether you committed a crime, you know you're going to have to pay for those things in the physical realm. But in the spiritual realm, if you've been saved rightly, then you are going to go to heaven and God will recognize you as Jesus. Clean as snow. [00:29:48] Speaker B: Yep. I mean, scripture tells us over and over again that we are no longer under the law, that we have done, died to the law and are now under grace. And where there's no law, there is no transgression against God. And that's. We always have to be careful, I think, Tim, because there are many of those throughout the ages that accuse people of living in freedom, in Christ under grace. And not under the law. They accuse them that this is going to lead you to sin more. And the Apostle Paul said, no, no, it's the law that ignites the sinful passions and arouses us to sin. But we're careful because we don't want people to misunderstand. We haven't been set free to go ahead and do whatever we want. We've been set free to live for God, to be married to Christ, to produce fruit which comes out of that relationship. So I like the fact that you continually remind us, Tim, that. That we're not saying sin doesn't exist anymore. Of course it does. I screw up. And that's just another proof that after we come to Christ, we're not expected to perfectly fulfill the law. Because even after Christ, we all still have to admit we screw up and sin against each other. So we'd be in deep weeds again and Christ died for nothing. If now we're expected to perfectly fulfill that law after we come to Him. [00:31:11] Speaker A: Well, I got a question for our listeners, and that is, are you Jewish? Were you born Jewish? Did your mother come from a Jewish line? Because Judaism comes down through the maternal line. If you are, then the law is a lot more applicable to you. If you're a gentile, the law was never written for you. When we were grafted into the vine, it was post law. So we were never under the line as gentiles. We were grafted into the vine, into Christ's gifts after the cross. Okay, so the law was never meant for us. So we were never under it to begin with. So back before we were grafted in, the only law we had was our conscience. And that too, it's enough to convict and maybe even condemn us, but it's not enough to save us. [00:32:03] Speaker B: Yeah, the Apostle Paul agrees with you, Tim. Or I should say you're agreeing with him in the book of Galatians when [00:32:13] Speaker A: he's talking to say it that way, [00:32:14] Speaker B: Mark, when he's talking to the Galatians, he says to them, they were Gentile believers who would by grace alone, through faith alone, they were saved through Christ alone. All of a sudden, now they're listening to all these Jewish Christians who are telling them, you need to add the law. And Paul said to them that very point, why are you trying to add the law? You were never under the law in the first place. And then he said to the Jewish Christians who were trying to make them go astray, he said, you yourself know we were never able to fulfill that law perfectly. Why are you now asking these gentile believers to do it. And that's the exact, the exact point you're making. But one thing I like to do when you bring up this point, Tim, is remind people that the law is much more than just being Jewish. I mean, there's the Jewish law, the Ten Commandments, rabbinical law, Levitical law, Deuteronomical law, if I can say that. But the law is a system. It's a mindset of earning salvation, earning sanctification, earning greater blessing by doing this and don't doing that. It's a performance mentality. It's behavior modification. It's self help. It's, you know, it's motivational speakers helping us to try harder. That's the law mentality. And we have been set free from that as well as from the Mosaic law and the laws that are part of Judaism. But that's a great point you made, that Paul made. But I just like to wider expand that so that none would think the law is just the Jewish law. It's a mentality of works, as Paul calls it. In Hebrews 6, he says we are to repent of the dead works of the law and turn to God. We love to talk about the word repentance, don't we? And when you really think about it, Tim, repentance is really another word for newness. As we're talking about today, the old is gone. The new has come because we have repented. Metanoia in the Greek, which means to change your mind. We have a new attitude, a new understanding, a new view of God, of Christ, a new view of who we are. And all these other things we've talked about have been made new because we have have repented. We have changed our mind about the gospel and come to Christ and been made new. [00:34:47] Speaker A: Amen. Amen. Mark. It's. Yeah, I. I would. I think we could probably talk about this all day. I don't want to take up everybody's Easter with it, though. I want to let them go have Easter dinner with their families and stuff. So what do you think? Have we. Have we nude everybody to death? [00:35:08] Speaker B: I think we are, Tim. [00:35:09] Speaker A: Or to life. Sure. [00:35:11] Speaker B: I want to finish up with this one scripture that I think says it all. And this is the Apostle Paul. He says, may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything thing. What counts is the new creation. And I just pray that for all of us. And I pray that for the unveiling and especially on this Easter week, may we never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. [00:35:49] Speaker A: Amen. For it is not I who live, but Christ in me, through me. And I hope that I can get myself out of the way enough to let the Lord do that through me. Because I don't want to be a barrier. So, anybody? Everybody. I hope you've enjoyed today's podcast. Hope you're encouraged because you're new too. If you've, if you've accepted Jesus, you are a new creature. You. Everything about your life now is going to be new. And I'm excited for you and I want to wish you happy, happy Easter. Or if you prefer, Resurrection Day. And Mark, before we go, you got one last thing. [00:36:30] Speaker B: Yeah. As you were speaking those words, Tim, I just want to say a few words to anybody who has not put their faith in Christ that for some reason or another found their way to this podcast. I just want to encourage you this Easter to be made new, to put your faith in Christ to realize the kind of. Well, realize is tough, but to understand understand is tough too. Just the love that God has for you, for all this world. God so loved the world, as Tim pointed out last week. Or no, it might have been Ajay that God didn't say he loved believers. He loves everybody. He loves you so much that he sent his son to die an excruciating death of humiliation and give himself, give everything he had for you because of that great love. And I would just say make this Easter your new life. Put a new song on your lips and put yourself under the new covenant in Jesus blood, which is that we are saved and sanctified and blessed by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. [00:37:42] Speaker A: The gospel. I can't add anything to that, my friend. So thank you my much for a great day of discussion, everybody. Like Mark said, enjoy your Easter week, have a great day and we'll be back again the next time. 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.