Climbing Gods Mountain First stop Justification

Welcome to episode 145.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.

Welcome to episode 145. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I am continuing on the mountain of God, and we're going to take the first step, and that is called justification. And I know if you listen to yesterday's podcast, it was a little bit heavy. I tell you, I didn't write one word in the book. I did not write a word. I make a horrible Holy Spirit, but God's word is the truth. God's word is true. And he loves you so much that he sent his son to die for you, to die in your place. And if you think for a minute that God did not know what he was doing, I want to encourage you to go back and listen to that previous episode again, 144. And God knew exactly what he was doing. Jesus came here to die, and he started talking about picking up your cross, and he was expecting us because we're to imitate him. We are to learn to walk in his footsteps, and if he's got to die, we've got to die. But the good news is, all we have to do is bend the knee and die to self. We just have to repent. All repentance means is turn the other way, go in a different direction. And all of that means, and we're gonna talk about that today, justification. You have to know, in order to be saved, you have to first know that you're lost. You can't be found until you discover, oh my gosh, I think I'm messed up. Oh my gosh, maybe I have sinned. Oh my gosh, maybe I have missed the mark. And remember, sin, all have sinned. Romans 3:23, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So we all have been thrown into the sin bucket. If you are over the age of 18 or 20, I believe you have been placed on Hell Island. You, if you don't do anything else with your life, if you don't accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I believe you're gonna remain on Hell Island until the end of the time. I've gotta picture these things. If you've ever seen the little kids playing, and I, you may have done this, I did this, that you can't step on cracks or you can't step on the floor, you can only step on the carpet because the floor is fire. Well, I just want you to picture Hell Island is way off in this sea of fire. There is molten lava fire, and you are sitting on Hell Island. And Heaven Island, you cannot get to Heaven Island because there's no boat that can go through this molten lava. There's a big old gaping hole, and the only way to get to Heaven Island is to walk across a bridge called Jesus. And you walk across this Jesus Bridge But there's only one way to get to this Jesus Bridge, and that is by repentance. That is by bending the knee and humbling yourself. Repentance and humbling and saying, God, I've messed up. I have screwed this thing up. I see now that I am a sinner. I see now that I've messed up, and in your eyes, I am not worthy to enter Heaven Island. And so what I wanna do, Lord, is I wanna confess to you that I'm not worthy, but I also have looked and seen what Jesus has done for me and what your word says. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. And I wanna accept with this faith that you're putting into me that Jesus died for me and that I can do nothing, but Jesus has done everything. And so what I wanna do by faith, I don't understand it, Lord, but I wanna take what Jesus did for me on the cross, and I want to put that to my life, and I'm going to do this by declaring Jesus as my Lord and Savior. And as soon as you do that, the Jesus Bridge appears, and you walk right across, and you're on Heaven's Island. And from that point on, there's still all of that molten lava. There's a Hell Island, and there's a Heaven Island. Again, I don't understand all of it. I got to kind of sort of picture it. You are translated to Heaven Island. You have been transformed. In order to be on Heaven Island, you have to have a born-again spirit. So what happens at salvation is your spirit man becomes brand new. You become a new creature and you get a passport, or you get to walk across Jesus' bridge to Heaven Island. And there's only one way to get there. You know, I, I hear all these people, there's many roads to lead to heaven. I don't read that in the Bible. Now, if you're reading a different book, I mean, I, I'm going by what the Bible says because the Bible has changed my life. Again, Revelation 12:11 is my absolute favorite scripture: And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Jesus died so that I could live, and when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior my whole world changed. Now, it didn't change immediately because why? Because my body didn't change. When I was— I was 30 years old, so I— when I looked in the mirror the next day, I still saw the same face. Nothing changed. I still had darker hair. Now my hair's not as dark, but I— when I got saved at 30, I had some gray. I had a couple gray hairs. I was kind of premature gray. My— mostly my hair was black, and I couldn't change not one color of the hair on my head. My body was exactly the same. My mind, will, and emotion, my soul, it was still— it still had some of those same thoughts. It still had some of those same desires that I had before. I still like chocolate chip cookies. I know I'm trying to work through that, but I still like chocolate chip cookies. I still enjoyed pasta. Those things I still had the desires for. That was my body and my soul. My spirit man became just like Jesus. I became a new creature. I was brand new on the inside. My spirit man came alive. That is what was born again, and that is your spiritual birth. And on this map from A to B, that is the beginning of the journey. And if you don't get to Heaven Island— and I'm just making this up, of course. You, you understand that there's not a Heaven Island. But I've got to be able to picture this, and we got to take us from one place and take us to another place. And when the Bible says you are not of this world, that's what it's talking about. You are now a child of the King. You are in a whole different world, and you are justified. And that is the name of the first box on this Christian journey through life, is justification. And justified is a fancy-pants Christian word for getting to Heaven Island, and it's just as if I had never sinned. You are declared righteous right there on the spot. You get a white robe. Your spirit man is sealed by the Holy Spirit. There is no sin that can ever come into your spirit man. Your— now, your body and your soul is a different animal, and we're going to talk about that, but we are three parts But one-third of you right now at salvation is 100% wall-to-wall just like Jesus. Your spirit man is completely saved. You are 100% just like Jesus. You are born again. This is a spiritual reality, is what's going on on your spirit man, and it's what Jesus was talking about to Nicodemus, who was a teacher. And this is back in John 3:3, Jesus answered and said to him, most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And then Jesus answered him again, said, most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. You have to be born as a baby, that's water, but then you got to be born again by the Spirit. And then he goes on in 6, in John 3:6, That which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I say to you, you must be born again. Nicodemus then questions, how can these things be? And then Jesus kind of gets onto him and then teaches him a little bit. And he said, are you a teacher of Israel and do not know these things? Most assuredly I say to you, we speak what we know and testify what we have seen. And you do not receive our witness. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He who believes in him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he's not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation: that the light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God. And just so you know, I can't have a podcast episode talking about salvation without having John 3:16 in there. But there's a whole lot more to John 3, and I want to encourage you to go back and read it. Ask the Holy Spirit to quicken in your spirit what is he saying, what's Jesus saying. We got to finish up with Romans 10:9, 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 over all is rich to all who call upon him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved. And that all— that is all you have to do, is you have to see what Jesus has done for you. He was here on earth living a perfect life, and and then by faith reach over. That is called the grace of God and the redemption, is you just by faith reach over and grab the salvation that Jesus has freely given to you and I. Praise God, it's a free gift and it's yours for the taking. God, I thank you so much for your Son Jesus. Thank you for coming and dying a death that I should have died. God, I thank you for the salvation message. I thank you for the gospel. I thank you for the good news. Holy Spirit, I thank you that you would never leave us nor forsake us. Holy Spirit, I pray in Jesus' name that if anyone's listening to this and has not accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior, Holy Spirit, draw them to yourself. Father God, draw this person to yourself. I pray in Jesus' name. Father God, we thank you and we love you, and we ask it all in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, thank you for being a part of this, and I look forward to visiting with you on the next episode.

Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.