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40 Episodes with Jesus: God's Beloved Son (E1)
24 Plays8 months ago
Join Brandon and Chris as they read of the significance of Jesus' baptism and what that means for us today!
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Transcript
Introduction to Faith 168 Podcast
00:00:22
brandon g b
Welcome to the Faith 168 Podcast. It is good to have you all tuning in to this episode. We are some of the co-hosts, at least two of them. My name is Brandon, and I'm joined by a good friend of mine, Chris. How are you doing, Chris?
00:00:39
Christian McKenzie
I'm doing great. How are you?
00:00:41
brandon g b
I'll do an excellent, do an excellent. um We are excited to bring you this episode today we are going to be walking with Jesus, which hopefully all of us are already doing. I mean, that's kind of the whole point of this podcast, you know, living faithfully for Him every hour of every day. But specifically, we are going to walk through the Gospels with Jesus, looking at His life, His miracles, His teachings,
00:01:11
brandon g b
um some stories that we know really well,
Significance of Jesus's Baptism
00:01:14
brandon g b
like the feeding of the 5,000 and some stories that are little known, like the healing of the man with a withered hand and heard too many sermons on that text.
00:01:22
Christian McKenzie
Mm hmm.
00:01:24
brandon g b
And so we hope that you all will be encouraged by this and that you will be spurred and compelled to walk with Jesus as you walk with him through the Gospels.
00:01:24
Christian McKenzie
Yeah.
00:01:35
brandon g b
And we're going to start kind of where it all started in the Gospel according to Luke, in Luke chapter 3, and speak about the baptism of the Lord Jesus and unpack some of the significance of that.
00:01:52
brandon g b
Now, of course, the story of Jesus, um Robbie would tell us, ah begins in eternity past, which is true, isn't it?
00:02:00
Christian McKenzie
yeah yes start in genesis and work your way all the way to it uh we're actually going through the book of the kings at first baptist in etam and i could work you through the book of the kings too in the lineage of christ if you want to in fact let's start no i'm just kidding
00:02:01
brandon g b
you know um
00:02:17
brandon g b
yeah Right. Let's start there. Now, of course, ah you know, any anybody who has been following Christ for a while knows that his story begins um in the scripture again in Genesis, Genesis 3 15. You have that first gospel promise, but we're not going to go quite that far back. ah We're just going to dive in to where we see Jesus beginning his public ministry. And so let's talk about this. I'll read this for us and we'll just kind of go back and forth.
00:02:48
brandon g b
So Luke 3 21
Why Was Jesus Baptized?
00:02:50
brandon g b
through 22 says this, now when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove and a voice came from heaven.
00:03:05
brandon g b
You are my beloved son with you. I am well pleased. Chris, we've got a baptism scene here.
00:03:13
Christian McKenzie
ever
00:03:14
brandon g b
The first in the New Testament. What was going on here? why Why was there a baptism taking place?
00:03:22
Christian McKenzie
Well, that's a good question.
00:03:26
Christian McKenzie
In fact, this is something that that's often talked about concerning baptism is why did Jesus get baptized?
00:03:36
brandon g b
Right.
00:03:36
Christian McKenzie
And I think when we when we look about scripture concerning baptism we understand that baptism is symbolic now of us dying with Christ and rising with Christ. We read that in the book of Romans and Paul talks about the significance of the symbolic baptism and the way I see it when we when we see this baptism right here is Jesus giving us a symbol of how we should follow in his footsteps.
00:04:12
Christian McKenzie
And if our savior goes to the waters to be baptized, he didn't have any sin to be cleansed of, which was what the symbolism was before Jesus died and rose again.
00:04:21
brandon g b
Right.
00:04:32
Christian McKenzie
But I think just like a lot of things we see Jesus do, he's not doing it out of necessity for him. but as a picture of how we should follow him.
00:04:43
brandon g b
Yeah.
00:04:43
Christian McKenzie
And while baptism certainly doesn't save you, we do know this, that there's a symbolic representation with it that's important to the people that see it, and it's important to us. And it's a public profession of our faith. It's showing the old symbolism that you know we've been wiped clean of our sins and the newer understanding that we get in Romans, that we have died, that we've been buried with Christ by baptism into death.
00:05:12
Christian McKenzie
that just as Christ had been risen by the glory of the Father so shall we rise to walk in the newness of life and so what a powerful way to start a ministry in that to start with baptism and
00:05:22
brandon g b
Yeah.
Jesus's Unique Ministry Approach
00:05:28
Christian McKenzie
a very special baptism where the heavens are opened up and the Holy Spirit comes out in a and ah physical type form like a dove and declares
00:05:41
Christian McKenzie
the legitimacy of this ministry at the very beginning. You are my beloved son. With you, I am well pleased.
00:05:51
brandon g b
Yeah. Yeah, I think you you nailed it when you said, what a way to begin a ministry. You know, when you look at the life of our Lord in his public ministry, I mean, he does not do it by the book.
00:06:06
Christian McKenzie
Yeah.
00:06:07
brandon g b
You know, like there's so many ah books written today about church planting and how to grow ministry, you know, how to build great numbers and fame and plant 50 campuses, you know,
00:06:07
Christian McKenzie
yeah
00:06:20
brandon g b
But Jesus, I mean, he did things that were kind of counterproductive to the entrepreneurial type of mindset of like growing ministries and building churches.
00:06:32
brandon g b
And, you know, one one instance of this is like a lot of times he withdrew from the crowds when they were the biggest. It's like, no, man, don't be doing that.
00:06:43
brandon g b
You know, don't you want to build your base, you know?
00:06:43
Christian McKenzie
Yeah.
00:06:46
brandon g b
And a lot of times he would get away from these crowds to pray.
00:06:50
Christian McKenzie
Mm-hmm.
00:06:50
brandon g b
Or he would get away from these crowds so that he could heal individual centers on a more private basis, showing that he cared about people and not just numbers.
00:06:58
Christian McKenzie
Yeah.
00:07:00
brandon g b
And this is another instance of that, where he doesn't begin his ministry with like this. Well, like, think about the feeding of the 5,000.
00:07:11
brandon g b
He doesn't start there. He starts with baptism, which is kind of bizarre in a lot of ways, but I think
00:07:13
Christian McKenzie
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:07:17
brandon g b
One of the things that this is conveying is Christ's identification with sinners. He had no sin of his own, as you pointed out. He
Heavenly Voice and Divine Approval
00:07:27
brandon g b
had no need to be baptized other than, as he said, to fulfill all righteousness.
00:07:32
brandon g b
But he's being baptized as sinners would be.
00:07:33
Christian McKenzie
Right.
00:07:37
brandon g b
And he's he's saying, look, i'm I've come down to to be one of you, obviously, except without sin.
00:07:38
Christian McKenzie
Mm-hmm.
00:07:45
brandon g b
And by the way, that that's what was happening. is a lot of sinners were being baptized, correct?
00:07:49
Christian McKenzie
Mm-hmm.
00:07:51
brandon g b
You know, John's Baptist.
00:07:52
Christian McKenzie
Yeah.
00:07:53
brandon g b
um He's the forerunner of Christ, ah prophesied in the, ah predicted ah rather in the book of Malachi and others. and And there's a mass baptism going on.
00:08:04
brandon g b
And then against all expectations, Christ comes forward. And it's like, John baptized me.
00:08:08
Christian McKenzie
Yeah.
00:08:11
brandon g b
Now, what do you think about this message from heaven though? You know, there's a voice that comes from heaven um and it seems to be the voice of the father.
00:08:23
brandon g b
If you look at parallel gospels where he says, you are my beloved son with you, I'm well pleased.
00:08:26
Christian McKenzie
here
00:08:30
brandon g b
What do you think the heavenly father meant by that?
00:08:35
Christian McKenzie
Well,
00:08:37
Christian McKenzie
i I think there's a lot of different paths we could take with that. in In fact, I think you could almost do a sermon series for a whole year on on this, but there's an understanding, I think, in faithfulness that outside of faith you read in Hebrews, it is impossible to please God.
00:09:02
brandon g b
Right.
00:09:03
Christian McKenzie
And Jesus is so faithful to the Father in just looking at scripture and how he follows the Father's will to the point of death that as he prays, not my will be done, but yours. that That was still a tough thing. Even as Christ was facing the cross, he knew he was going to do it. He knew it had to be done, but that did take away from the pain and the humiliation that was about to be experienced in that.
00:09:33
brandon g b
Right.
00:09:35
Christian McKenzie
And yet he still said, not my will, but yours be done, Father. And we we see the the pleasing part with you, I am well pleased.
00:09:47
Christian McKenzie
I think we see the image of Christ's faithfulness, ah how he he's not divided. He's not wishy washy. He doesn't go back and forth, but we see the perfect example that we should follow in in our faithfulness to God, in our faithfulness to Christ. And then I think we see also the declaration of His authority my
Jesus as the Eternal Son of God
00:10:16
Christian McKenzie
son you know you are my beloved son making an understanding that he is the only one with the authority to go forward and do what he's about to do and he's going to be faithful to it and he's not going to vary that at any point from the plan set before him.
00:10:37
brandon g b
Yeah. Yeah, good stuff. So Christ didn't become the son of God at this point, right?
00:10:46
Christian McKenzie
Right. No, no, he was he didn't become the Son of God.
00:10:49
brandon g b
Yeah.
00:10:49
Christian McKenzie
ah this This was, you know, as we can go back to scripture and as we were talking about with Robbie earlier, we can go all the way back to the beginning and understand that that he was there.
00:11:04
Christian McKenzie
uh this was just a declaration that he is he is the only one and he is the beloved and the only begotten son of god and that uh we know that as we read through more of the new testament you can go back to the beginning of john and know that he was there in the beginning and all things were created through him you can go to colossians and you can read where
00:11:05
brandon g b
Yeah.
00:11:09
brandon g b
Right.
00:11:30
Christian McKenzie
all things were created for Him, through Him and all things are sustained by Him and so this isn't just Him appearing and this is the first spot but this is this is where things were about to get real.
00:11:36
brandon g b
Yeah. Right.
00:11:47
Christian McKenzie
Before this there were the promises of His coming and now here He is He's on the scene and He's about to get the job done and
00:11:56
brandon g b
Yeah.
00:11:56
Christian McKenzie
This is, ah I think, a big declaration. Here he is. This is who was foretold. This is who is going to accomplish God's plan. It's God in the flesh. And so here here we go. This is a testament for anyone around. And John seemed to already understand this when you look at this account and other passages ah he you know oh here's here is the perfect lame of God I'm not even worthy to unlaces his sandal strap and and he even talks to about another baptism I like that part with with John the Baptist he
00:12:29
brandon g b
me
00:12:35
brandon g b
Right, right, right.
00:12:44
Christian McKenzie
calls out and he says, I baptize you with water, but here comes the one that's going to baptize with the spirit and fire and which shows an even greater authority because the water still was symbolic.
00:12:50
brandon g b
Yeah, right.
00:12:56
Christian McKenzie
You weren't actually washing away sins. It was the condition of your heart.
00:12:59
brandon g b
Mm hmm.
00:13:01
Christian McKenzie
And you were, you were symbolically showing that you were turning away and you were repentant of your sins.
00:13:06
brandon g b
Right.
00:13:07
Christian McKenzie
And here we have Jesus coming along and he does something that does have significance. to be baptized in the Spirit and I think that's just a reference to the end-welling
Sinlessness and Righteousness of Jesus
00:13:20
Christian McKenzie
of the Holy Spirit when we really get down to it.
00:13:24
Christian McKenzie
Some people might disagree with that but I think there's a lot through Scripture to understand that being baptized in the Spirit is when you put your faith in Jesus and His Spirit dwells within you and cleans you and corrects you and convicts you oh so
00:13:33
brandon g b
Yeah.
00:13:41
brandon g b
Yeah.
00:13:41
Christian McKenzie
And I think that might be a reference to the fire too. Might be wrong there, but I think we see the fiery understanding sometimes as conviction because it's uncomfortable and it burns.
00:13:52
brandon g b
yeah Yeah, the Holy Spirit definitely does that. um But yeah, I just, I want to clarify for our our listeners, about Jesus always being God's son because, you know, this is the first declaration in the New Testament like this, and there's an ancient heresy called adoptionism that teaches Christ became the Son of God at his baptism.
00:14:05
Christian McKenzie
Right.
00:14:14
Christian McKenzie
Uh-huh.
00:14:18
brandon g b
And I don't i don't know what groups or cults perhaps still hold to this today. But um it's it's important to remember, though, um like this is why this is so significant is because Christ is God's eternal Son.
00:14:26
Christian McKenzie
Yeah.
00:14:33
Christian McKenzie
Uh
00:14:36
brandon g b
He was with the Father throughout all eternity and eternity past, which the mind can't even fathom.
00:14:36
Christian McKenzie
-huh.
00:14:42
brandon g b
And now he's on earth, you know, and being baptized. And so That that's more significant than if he did become the son of God at that moment. It wouldn't really be a big deal if he did, you know, but since he's always been his son and now he sent him into the world to be the propitiation for our sins, that's all the more significant.
00:15:02
Christian McKenzie
Yeah, I've heard it.
00:15:03
brandon g b
So.
00:15:03
Christian McKenzie
I've heard it said, too, that this is a in that same line of thinking that for him to to fulfill this process, he had to be completely cleansed and that that water was actually not just symbolic, but he was a man being cleansed of sin.
00:15:20
Christian McKenzie
And ah that was the only way that that type of connection could be completed. But then he went and sinned no more. after that i've heard that presented as a reason for these christians in fact uh when i lived in murray there was a the the street preachers that would come out which i'm not against street preaching i'm against it if if what you're doing is trying to hate people and you're you're pushing more people away from jesus than trying to draw them in and these guys would come up and they would yell at people and point at them smoking a cigarette you're going to hell and uh they had blue hair you're going to hell and
00:15:32
brandon g b
Oh, that's interesting.
00:15:50
brandon g b
Right.
00:15:59
Christian McKenzie
ah ah what What was interesting was they were preaching this gospel, let me put the quotes around it, not really the gospel, but that when you put your faith in Christ, you sin no more, just as Christ sinned no more, which which preaches this idea that before then he had sinned.
00:16:01
brandon g b
Nice. Hmm. right
00:16:21
brandon g b
That's interesting.
00:16:28
Christian McKenzie
ah and that there was some point where He continued on in faith sinless, but that's that's not so, um and that that is, as you said, that's heresy.
00:16:38
Christian McKenzie
That's completely wrong and it goes against the account of the angels coming to Mary and saying, hey, you're you're going to conceive and have a son and and God
00:16:48
brandon g b
Yeah.
00:16:53
Christian McKenzie
himself the Holy Spirit is going to knit a baby within your womb that's not going to be a baby by man and his father is going to be the father. oh So that I don't know how they account for that.
00:17:03
brandon g b
Yeah.
00:17:08
Christian McKenzie
I'm not sure I haven't looked into it enough.
00:17:09
brandon g b
Well, I mean the idea that Jesus sinned and was cleansed is contradictory to the father's own statement here with you.
00:17:18
Christian McKenzie
sir
00:17:18
brandon g b
I'm well pleased, you know, so, and I'll tell you what, actually, what's amazing about that.
00:17:20
Christian McKenzie
Right.
00:17:26
brandon g b
I've never thought about that, uh, this till this moment. Um, Jesus still had a few more years to live and there, there's hardly any recorded acts of his life prior to this point.
00:17:42
brandon g b
which does cause a lot of mystery, you know, like where's, where's the, you know, stories about his childhood and such.
00:17:43
Christian McKenzie
Okay.
00:17:48
brandon g b
And for God to still say with you, I'm well pleased indicates, you know, his sinless nature.
00:17:53
Christian McKenzie
the Right.
00:17:56
brandon g b
Um, and even Jesus talked about that in the gospels, you know, he says, you know, God's not left me alone. I always do the things that please him. And you'll remember, and our readers will probably our readers, um, our listeners will probably remember that You know, in the account of Jesus being with a Samaritan woman, uh, he's hungry and hadn't eaten in a long time and ministers to her exposes her sin and, and gives her grace.
00:18:25
brandon g b
And the disciples are gone into town to buy food.
00:18:25
Christian McKenzie
Mm hmm.
00:18:29
brandon g b
They come back and Jesus says, nah, guys, I'm good. I'm not going to eat today. I have food that, you know, nothing about my food is to do the will of him that sent me.
00:18:34
Christian McKenzie
Mm hmm.
00:18:40
brandon g b
And so.
00:18:40
Christian McKenzie
Yeah.
00:18:41
brandon g b
you know, what an example to follow man, um, that we would rather get our satisfaction from doing God's will than even eating a meal.
00:18:43
Christian McKenzie
Oh.
00:18:50
Christian McKenzie
Yeah, and you see that even in his childhood because the one little piece we get of his childhood
Trinitarian Presence at Baptism
00:18:58
Christian McKenzie
staying back in Jerusalem ah and you know his parents are upset and the he says I'm about my father's business.
00:18:59
brandon g b
Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I got a job to do, you know?
00:19:10
Christian McKenzie
And yeah, yeah, I'm not I'm not here to play games. I'm about my father's business so.
00:19:16
brandon g b
Yeah. Yeah. He was, he was about that life, man. um Yeah. And so there's, I mean, A lot of people don't think about this, and we don't want to miss this, but you learn a lot about who Jesus is from this episode of his baptism.
00:19:35
brandon g b
He identifies with sinners, has no sin of his own. He is the beloved Son of God. But something else interesting here that we certainly don't want to miss is we've got all members of the Trinity present in this episode, don't we?
00:19:52
brandon g b
In this baptism.
00:19:52
Christian McKenzie
Yeah. yeah
00:19:54
brandon g b
You've got the Holy Spirit descending on him like a dove. You have Christ being baptized. You have the voice of the Father, which is one of the pillar Trinitarian texts in the scripture, where all members are present manifesting themselves in one way or another. Now, let's continue to talk about this statement, though, that you're my beloved son with you. I'm well pleased. So has God ever said this about any sinner?
00:20:26
Christian McKenzie
here's ne it if you go back to
00:20:26
brandon g b
With you, I'm well pleased.
00:20:28
Christian McKenzie
But if you even go back to, not back to, you but jump forward to like Hebrews, the the first part of Hebrews is talking about ah Jesus not being just some angel because he's he's only been pleased with Christ.
00:20:41
brandon g b
Right.
00:20:45
Christian McKenzie
Who else has he said to ah With you you are my son and with you. I am well pleased and so you in fact actually I think in your book I'm just looking at your notes here You I think you might quote that somewhere in there.
00:20:52
brandon g b
right
00:20:59
Christian McKenzie
Yeah, God never said this about any human or angel Hebrews 1 5 so so my lot of thinking is online with what you're saying right there, but yeah, that's
00:21:04
brandon g b
Yeah.
00:21:10
Christian McKenzie
no one No one has been able to claim that the father has has expressed that about them because the only one that could be pleasing to God is one that is perfect. And the only reason that we are pleasing to God now is because of the one who is perfect, not because of us, because we're we see this imagery and revelation that we are given robes that are washed white.
00:21:42
Christian McKenzie
in the blood of the lamb and so those robes had to be given to us and they had to be washed by some other means and that's the covering of our sin you know of our shame and then you see this idea of crowns of righteousness well those crowns aren't even ours either, but they're bestowed on us by Christ. And it kind of reminds me of that passage in 2 Corinthians 5 21. He made him who knew no sin to become sin so that we could become the righteousness of God through him. And so
00:22:21
Christian McKenzie
Yeah, that's it's all it's all about Jesus. He is the pleasing one and he is the only begotten of the father and yeah.
00:22:33
brandon g b
Yeah, that's that's that's excellent to point out. um Yeah, I mean, that's why we need to look at this because there's such a contrast between the way Christ was and the way we are.
00:22:47
Christian McKenzie
Mm hmm.
00:22:47
brandon g b
He says, you always do what is pleasing to me, but God does not say that about sinners. In fact, he says the opposite. He's greatly displeased with us, that he stores up wrath against us.
00:23:00
brandon g b
In fact, Psalm 7, 11, actually tells us that God is angry with the wicked every single day, that not a day goes by where God is not furious with our transgressions of His righteous law.
00:23:13
brandon g b
But as you said, actually, God can say this about sinners if they're saved by grace.
00:23:22
Christian McKenzie
yeah
00:23:22
brandon g b
If you are in Christ, if you are united to Him by faith, God actually says this about you. You are my beloved child with you, I'm well pleased. But it's not because of something you do or something you could do, but it's it's because of that exchange you talked about from 2 Corinthians 5.21.
00:23:42
Christian McKenzie
Okay.
00:23:43
brandon g b
It's a glorious exchange there. Christ takes all of our sin and and makes it his own, even though you know he never sinned, as scripture is very clear, and pays our sin debt in full
00:23:46
Christian McKenzie
Okay.
00:23:56
brandon g b
He perpetuates the wrath of God, meaning he satisfies it. But that's not it. Like we still, like our sin that
Believers' Righteousness Through Jesus
00:24:04
brandon g b
needs to be taken care of, but we still need righteousness to go to heaven. And so in the exchange of the cross, in taking our sin upon his own shoulders, in exchange, he gives us his perfect righteousness. And so through that, our sin is taken care of and our righteousness is provided for. It's imputed to our account.
00:24:25
brandon g b
in
00:24:25
Christian McKenzie
Yeah.
00:24:26
brandon g b
Because of that, when God looks at us, he doesn't see our sin. It's not because he doesn't want to look at it. It's not because he's unaware of it, but Christ paid for it. And he sees instead the flawless, perfect righteousness of Christ.
00:24:41
brandon g b
That's the gospel.
00:24:41
Christian McKenzie
Right.
00:24:42
brandon g b
And so if we're in Christ by faith, the reality is God accepts and loves us as much as he accepts and loves his beloved son.
00:24:51
Christian McKenzie
Right. Yeah. That'll preach.
00:24:54
brandon g b
And it will.
00:24:54
Christian McKenzie
yep Yeah.
00:24:55
brandon g b
I was getting a little preachy there if you couldn't tell.
00:24:56
Christian McKenzie
Yeah. Woo.
00:24:58
brandon g b
ah Yeah.
00:24:58
Christian McKenzie
Amen. Yeah. Yeah.
00:25:00
brandon g b
Easy for us to get carried away, you know, in a good way.
00:25:00
Christian McKenzie
Well, and I like talking about righteousness with, with students a lot, because that's something that that's difficult to, to understand.
00:25:13
Christian McKenzie
But while God sees us and he sees the righteousness of his son, We're also encouraged to walk in his righteousness as we've been freed from the shackles of sin and death.
00:25:26
brandon g b
Correct.
00:25:29
Christian McKenzie
And I always teach the students that there's two ways to look at righteousness. The first way is we have now right standing before God because Christ took our sin and he gave us his righteousness.
00:25:46
brandon g b
Correct.
00:25:46
Christian McKenzie
And then the second way is right living. that as we have been redeemed by the blood of the lamb, he now gives us the ability to walk here in the flesh in a way that is pleasing to God that we couldn't do beforehand.
00:26:04
Christian McKenzie
And and so that that's a big thing to to think about because you even think about your good works here on earth before Christ, they didn't actually mean anything.
00:26:09
brandon g b
Yeah.
00:26:17
Christian McKenzie
either you look at first Corinthians 13 it starts out with this idea you can do all these wonderful things and you can speak with angelic tongues and give your body to be burned and do this and do that and be the smartest dude in all of history but without love and we know that if we went over the first John we know who love is without God it it means nothing and
00:26:18
brandon g b
Yeah.
00:26:44
Christian McKenzie
simply Simply put, we have a greater desire and a greater ability to walk within the righteousness of Christ and do his good works.
00:27:00
Christian McKenzie
Still certainly saved by grace. You go over to Ephesians 2, what is it, eight through nine, where it's by grace you have been saved and not of works.
00:27:09
brandon g b
Mm hmm.
00:27:12
Christian McKenzie
It is the gift of God. And no one can boast about it, but then you go down to that verse 10. That we are his workmanship. That that we've been ah redeemed and we are now walking in his righteousness and to walk in the good works of Christ. So.
00:27:34
brandon g b
Yeah.
00:27:35
Christian McKenzie
That right living is is a ah big thing right there that he gives us the new ability to walk in his footsteps in a way we never could outside of him, outside of faith.
00:27:52
brandon g b
Absolutely. Yeah, that's important to mention here because We while we should rejoice that we are righteous in Christ. That's the beginning not the end You know, it's not as though we can add to what Christ has done or even take away from it But what it is meant to lead to is righteousness in our conduct as you mentioned um And I mean that's the only hope we have actually of being righteous in our conduct is if we're righteous in our standing
00:28:02
Christian McKenzie
and Right. Yeah.
00:28:21
brandon g b
ah the salvation we have should lead to sanctification.
00:28:21
Christian McKenzie
Yeah.
00:28:25
brandon g b
And we should identify with Christ um in that episode I just recounted in John 4 where we say, you know what? Just because of what God has done for me, my food is to do His will and to try my best by His empowering grace to do that which is pleasing to Him.
00:28:43
Christian McKenzie
Yeah.
00:28:43
brandon g b
um and And we have to really make that a discipline to remind ourselves that We live righteously out of this standing, not for it, because the temptation is to abuse it. You know, like Paul talks about in Romans six, you know, what shall we say then? If we've been set free from sin, you know, do we continue any longer in it?
00:29:08
brandon g b
I think I butchered that quote, but you get the idea. Um, and he's like, no, you know, we can't, if we've died to sin, like we've been severed from its slavery, it no longer has dominion over us.
00:29:11
Christian McKenzie
no yeah
00:29:21
brandon g b
So because of
Conclusion and Call to Righteous Living
00:29:23
brandon g b
what Christ has done for us, we can't continue in sin. We can't use our salvation as a license, as a liberty to do more sin. Like, I mean.
00:29:32
brandon g b
It says there that we're seeing increased grace abounded. So we may think, well, let's give God something to forgive.
00:29:38
Christian McKenzie
No, yeah I'm good.
00:29:38
brandon g b
You know, he loves to shed grace on us. Let's give him more sin. But that's, that's just crazy. Um, what we want to do is get away from sin and be more obedient, just in gratefulness to what God has done through us supremely in the giving of his son Christ to be our righteousness.
00:29:44
Christian McKenzie
Yeah.
00:29:54
Christian McKenzie
Yeah. and And you think about that abuse of of forgiveness too, to put it on a ah human term, a human line of thinking. you know If I were an alcoholic and I showed up at home completely blackout drunk after several nights of going to the bar over and over and over,
00:30:19
Christian McKenzie
Uh, it's pretty crummy, uh, to put my wife in this scenario and then she forgive me, but she says, please, please, please don't do it again. And I know that, well, I'll just go out and do it again because I know she's going to say the same thing when I show up.
00:30:40
Christian McKenzie
the next night and the next night and the next night because she's so loving and she's so forgiving and then I'll be surprised when one night enough is enough and she kicks me out to the curb and says, get out of here.
00:30:54
Christian McKenzie
and ah And I think there's a lot of people that misunderstand grace and they live like that and never actually truly submit to God. They never truly put their faith in Jesus because to put your faith in Jesus, you'll understand that you don't abuse his grace or even test his grace out.
00:31:10
brandon g b
Right.
00:31:13
Christian McKenzie
And those are the people I think we see that Jesus talks about in scripture that they're the ones that said, Lord, Lord. But he says, I never knew you. You know, there was there is no connection between us.
00:31:26
Christian McKenzie
I mean, I reached out to you.
00:31:26
brandon g b
Yeah.
00:31:29
Christian McKenzie
I presented, you know, here's the scripture. Here's my word. Here's the command to repent and believe. I knew who you were. I knew the number of hairs on your head.
00:31:41
Christian McKenzie
I knew the contents of your heart, but you never belonged to me. And I see it like that a lot of times because it's it's not a true relationship if you abuse it and and take advantage of it in every way like that. And so I think that was one of the things that Paul was trying to get out and and help people understand.
00:32:08
Christian McKenzie
So yeah, His grace forgives us past, present, future. it It covers us. His grace is so great that wherever sin is, His grace abounds much greater.
00:32:21
Christian McKenzie
So what should we do then?
00:32:21
brandon g b
amen
00:32:23
Christian McKenzie
Should we sin and sin and sin so that His grace can abound? Certainly not. Or in the King James Version, I like this version, God forbid.
00:32:30
brandon g b
Amen God forbid. Yeah Yeah, that captures the urgency of it absolutely
00:32:33
Christian McKenzie
Yeah, God forbid, so...
00:32:40
brandon g b
Well, I think we've pretty much covered this introduction to the life of the Lord Jesus. And by the way, shameless plug here, but you listeners may have noticed, um Chris said, my book talking about a book.
00:32:55
Christian McKenzie
here Yeah, whoops.
00:32:56
brandon g b
um So some of the inspiration for this series of episodes actually comes from a book that I have on Amazon right now in hardcover called 40 days with Jesus.
00:33:09
brandon g b
And like I say, shameless plug here, but I hope you will use it as a tool to help you walk with Christ. ah There are devotionals in it, similar to the discussions that we're having here through the Gospels. And the aim is the same. It's all about walking with Christ through his life and ministry, listening to his teachings and goes all the way from his baptism, all the way to his crucifixion and resurrection.
00:33:34
brandon g b
And so if you're interested in getting that, just top my ugly name in on Amazon and 40 days with Jesus and you should be able to find it. So anything to add Chris before we wrap it up?
00:33:47
Christian McKenzie
No, I got nothing other than if you enjoy these episodes and you enjoy the content that we put out here at Faith 168, I would encourage you to jump on Amazon and get a copy of this book. This is something that you can use to help you as you walk faithfully with Christ, 168 hours of every day.
00:34:11
Christian McKenzie
And hey if you buy it you can you can kind of keep up with these episodes and even know what we're going to talk about and some of these different episodes or maybe you'll even see something before we record some of these episodes that you want to discuss or you want to bring up that we could talk about.
00:34:27
Christian McKenzie
I encourage you as you read through these devotionals and spend 40 days with Jesus that you could become someone that helps us out as we spend 40 episodes with Jesus here at the Faith 168 podcast.
00:34:43
brandon g b
Absolutely. or folks, if you have a wood stove at home and you just need some material to get the fire started, get my book and burn it up after you read it.
00:34:51
Christian McKenzie
Yeah, yeah, yeah, read it, then run it.
00:34:53
brandon g b
um Yeah, there you go. Don't share it with anybody.
00:34:56
Christian McKenzie
And if you're going to burn it by at least 10 copies.
00:34:59
brandon g b
Exactly. Yes. Help help help a brother out. Well, thank you all for tuning in. We hope you gleaned something from this. Chris, why don't you pray for us before we go?
00:35:09
Christian McKenzie
All right. Father, I thank you so much for an opportunity to spend time with my brother and with these listeners to just praise your name and Lift your name high and and bring glory to you. It's just such a wonderful thing to read your word. and
00:35:32
Christian McKenzie
and see how it transforms us and guides us and helps us to walk closer to you and more faithfully to you here in this world. That's what we ask, Father, as we continue to meet, as we continue to do these podcasts, that we just grow closer to you and more faithful to you while we're here in this world. Help us to point others to you and to live faithfully for you every week. It's in Jesus' name that I pray all these things. Amen.
00:36:01
brandon g b
Amen.
00:36:02
Christian McKenzie
All right, well, y'all have a wonderful day and tune in here soon as we continue to produce more content on the Faith 168 podcast.