Are You Living Like Jesus Finished the Work? | Season 06, Episode 8 | Simple Truth Podcast

The hardest part about faith, it isn't learning what God says about you. It's building your life on it and living like it's true. You can know that through Jesus Christ, you've been redeemed. You've been forgiven. You've been made right with God and still find yourself falling back into old fears, old habits, or feeling like you have something to prove. That's where the struggle comes in. Jesus finished the work, but sometimes we still live like there's something left for us to finish. So maybe you've wondered if Jesus already settled this, why do I keep living like it's still up to me? So in this final episode of the season, we're going to bring everything together around three questions about the blood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. First, what did the blood of Jesus change about who you are? Second, what happens when you know what God says but don't live like it's true? And third, how do you build your life on what Jesus accomplished? [music] Welcome to the Simple Truth Podcast. I'm Ted Ross and this is season 6, episode 8. Are you living like Jesus finished the work? We're bringing it all together in this season finale on the blood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Last episode, we saw that through the new covenant, Jesus opened the way for you and me to know God personally and to grow close to God through prayer, through trust, and through obedience. Today, in this season finale, we're going to put the whole season together around three questions. Starting with question number one. What did the blood of Jesus change about who you are? If you want to know what the blood of Jesus has changed about your life, Ephesians 1 starts with two powerful realities. You've been redeemed and you've been forgiven. Ephesians 1 verses 7 and 8. As a reminder, all Bible verses from this episode are from the New King James Version of the Bible. So feel free to follow along here in Ephesians 1:7. We're going to see that because of Jesus's blood, you've been redeemed. Your sins have been forgiven, and God's grace has been poured out on you. Ephesians 1:7, in him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. Verse 8, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence. It is in him that's in Christ, we have redemption. Redemption, as we heard earlier in this season, it's to release from bondage. How? By paying a ransom. It means to liberate. It means to set someone free. We were released from the bondage of sin and guilt by a ransom that was paid through the blood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. And it liberated us. It set us free from the power of sin and the power of guilt over our lives. It says, comma, the forgiveness of sins, the release, the pardon from guilt and debt according to the riches of his grace, his unearned favor, his kindness toward us. We didn't merit it. We didn't deserve it. He didn't do it because of how great we were or we came from a special family or had a special education. He showed us favor and kindness that we did not deserve or earn. And that is the grace of God. It says here, if Jesus had redeemed and forgiven you, which is two of the effects, two truths you can say that happened with the blood of Jesus Christ, why do you still live like you owe God something? God gives you something. He gives you redemption and forgiveness, two of several, and you still feel like we owe God something. Stop trying to repay a debt that Jesus already paid for you. We live from grace. We don't live by guilt. And we don't live by what we earned or through works to try to get God's attention. But of course, being redeemed and forgiven, it's only part of what the blood of Jesus has made true about you and me. You're also justified. You're also reconciled. In other words, your position with God and your relationship with God has completely changed. Let's check this out in Romans 5 verses 9-11. Here we're going to see that Jesus's blood, it didn't just deal with your sin. It changed your whole standing with God, your whole position with God, and it ended the hostility between you and God. Romans 5:9, much more then, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Praise God. Verse 10. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Verse 11. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. It says, much more than having now been justified by his blood. To be justified means to be declared right before God. to be acquitted, right? That's such a powerful term. God declares us right. We are acquitted. Whatever crimes we committed, we're acquitted. And even more than just what we would think of as like not guilty, let's say in an American justice system, we have been found innocent. It's a stronger term than not guilty. Not guilty simply meant you couldn't prove somebody's guilt. To be declared innocent meant there was evidence to declare that you not only weren't guilty, but you were actually innocent of the crime. Doesn't that sound insane that God would use a word in the Greek like justified and use it repeatedly across the New Testament and state that because of the blood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ, all who would receive, all who would believe on that would be declared right before God and acquitted as if they never sinned before. I didn't make these things up. I struggle at times to believe like you struggle at times to believe. And yet we are called to believe. And we will bring our heart around to believe. And I'll tell you what, I believe so much more now than I've ever believed before. And I get it through reading the scripture and meditating on the scripture and being led by God's spirit and fighting it out where my mind and my heart starts to in my old man say, "Oh, God didn't, you know, God didn't declare you're right. Oh, you know, you've got all sorts of issues that God won't forgive. Praise God. He has forgiven it. And thank God. And like I said, there's so much that's changed between now in my life versus where I was before. And I know you can also testify to the fact that you're a very different person today than you were when you started your walk with God. And I urge you to keep doing it because God is good and he's powerful and he will continue to convert and change you. But I digress. We have been justified by his blood and we shall be saved from wrath, from punishment through him and that blood. For if we were enemies before God, we were reconciled to him. So if we were enemies and God restored us to favor and relationship, if we wanted nothing to do with him, if we were running from him, if we were chasing all sorts of desires in the world and God reconciled us, restored us back into favor and restored the relationship with him. Wow. much more than having been reconciled, we shall be saved. We shall be set at safety by his life. We will be rescued. Thank God. If we were running from God and God did such wonderful things to reconcile us, how much more if we try, if we submit ourselves to him, if we pray to him, if we seek his face, if we go to church, if we worship and praise, and if we pray and read our scriptures, how much more will he rescue us and deliver us? What happens too much, saints of God, is that as we start to pursue God, then we start to feel resistance and challenges as God is conforming us, as he's sanctifying us, as he's setting us apart and making us to be the person that he wants. That sometimes we start doubting it. We start to say, "Well, I had it easy when I was just a little infant in Christ where God had to pick me up and carry me around because I was a spiritual baby." But as God starts to say, it's time for you to start walking. It's time for you to start to eat real food. It's time for you to deal with the challenges in your life so that I can then send you to help deal with the challenges in other people's lives. Then we start to doubt it. Why should we doubt it? God is so good. He who has started a good work in you will perform it until the day of the coming of Jesus Christ. We know that. And that is what the blood and the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is. It's the work that God has done before us that has delivered several truths in our life. Then God calls us to continue in those truths and to fulfill our purpose. And he's going to do that work that power and work that might through what has already been delivered? Because he's already finished the work. Praise God. So if you're justified, right, why does one bad day decide where you stand? Why is it that too often if you have one bad day, a few things go wrong, you start to ask yourself, "What am I doing? What's going wrong with me? God must be against me. God must have a problem with me. Not at all. Remember, he justified you through the work Jesus did, through the finished work that Jesus already did. Of course, one bad day doesn't change your position. God is allowing these challenges to come across you so you could seek him and pursue him and submit to him and overcome them. Praise God. What Jesus did defines your position, not how you performed today or yesterday, folks. God isn't carrying a scorecard to judge you on it. And then he gives you justification when you're a good person or he takes it away if you act like a bad person. Continue to submit yourself to the work of God. We are definitely works in progress, but we are definitely works that God is doing in this earth. And we know that Jesus's blood didn't just justify us and reconcile us. It also sanctified us and made us righteous. Here in 1 Corinthians 1 verses 30 and 31. Here we're going to see you did not make yourself righteous, holy or redeemed. God made those things true for you in Christ. So accept it and believe it. 1 Corinthians 1:30. But of him you are in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Verse 31 that it is written he who glories let him glory in the Lord. It says but in Christ Jesus who became for us wisdom. He became the skill the ability to perform the knowledge of God. He became righteousness which means that through Christ Jesus we have a right standing with God and he is working in us to create right living. In other words, right behavior before God. Praise God. We have become sanctification through Christ Jesus. He has made us holy. He has set us apart for his purposes. We are set apart to God. And much like righteousness in which you see both right standing and right behavior in that word, sanctification is the same way. He has made you holy and set you apart to God and he is making you holy. So sanctification is a one-time aspect and it is a process through the course of your life. He is sanctifying you and he's converting your soul. He's transforming you from that wiggly little caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly so to speak. It's a metamorphosis as the Greek word is. He is doing those things because he is taking you and he's setting you apart and he is calling you right and he is calling you set apart to him through the blood of Jesus Christ. And then he is converting you so you start to act the way that he has called you and we have redemption through him, right?...that release by paying a ransom or liberation. It says, "Thus it is written." And we're just seeing scripture after scripture which is calling you and I such great and powerful things. And it's as if God is challenging us. Do you believe this? Do you believe this? You and I, we go to church, we lift up our hands, we praise God, we'll feel his presence. At times, we'll commit ourselves. We'll pay vows, so to speak. We'll say, "God, you know, your presence is so good. I feel you so strong on me. uh you know what do you want me to do Lord? What do you call me to do? He calls us to believe this. He calls us to believe when we read in his scriptures that we have a right standing with him and he is creating right behavior. We need to believe him when he says that we have been set apart for his purposes and he is making us holy which means he's converting our behavior or that we've been redeemed. We've been released from sin, from death, from guilt, and that he's paid that ransom through the blood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And we are liberated to do what? To go around sin and do a bunch of foolishness. No, we've been liberated to serve him, to walk in strength and power, and to overcome what resists us and to do it in Jesus' name. And it says, "Thus it is written that he who glories, that person who boasts, who takes pride, and who speaks confidently, let them glory in the Lord." They're not glorying in their skill or their ability or where they were born or who they know. They're glorying in God. We all have this wonderful opportunity. Truly, the only thing that matters between you and me. It doesn't matter who we vote for and it doesn't matter what city we were born in, what language we speak or what color of our skin. What truly matters is that you and I, we have submitted ourselves to be servants of the most high God. That we are Christians and we can boast and take pride in and speak confidently in something that you and I share. And that is just looking at this verse that we are righteous, we are sanctified, and we are redeemed. and we're done so through the blood of the lamb, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. If God made you righteous, why do you still try to prove yourself to God? Stop trying to earn a place with God that he already gave you. He gave you that spot. Take that spot. Be thankful for that spot and then submit yourself to him. That's what he's looking for you to do. So, let's put all these together. These aren't things that you're trying to become. These aren't things that you're trying to become worthy of. These are all realities. They're in scripture. God confirms it by his spirit, right? These are realities of what God has already given you and me through Christ Jesus as it's clearly stated in the Bible. So, what did Jesus make true about you, right? The truth about you and the blood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Let's summarize. Well, you are redeemed, which means Jesus bought you out of bondage and made you his. That is a truth in scripture. You are forgiven. Your sin has been pardoned and your guilt removed. Not because we're just great people, but because the blood and sacrifice of Jesus Christ is so great. The gift is so wonderful that if you would confess your sins and repent from them, God will forgive you every single time. Thank God. Third, you're justified. God has declared you right. You are right before God as if you've never sinned before. Fourth, you are reconciled to God. God ended the hostility. There was a hostility there because of sin and God has ended it and he has brought you into a relationship, a close relationship with him. A relationship in which he wants you to call him father and Jesus you can call brother. Right? This is a really close familial relationship that God has created and he set the terms of that relationship. So treat him as a father. Treat Christ as your brother because they have called themselves such. Fifth, you're sanctified. God has set you apart and he is working to make you more like Jesus Christ because Jesus is the firstborn among many brethren. He is your example. And as it says in First John, he who says they abide in him ought to walk like Jesus walked. We see it in scripture after scripture that Jesus was set apart for a purpose. And yes, he died, was buried, and rose again the third day. But he also was an example for Christians who follow him because what is a Christian? It's a follower of Jesus Christ, as you can see in the Simple Truth podcast, season two if you'd like to learn more about it. Sixth, righteousness. God made you right and he is shaping you to live right every single day. Praise God. And seventh, the new covenant. The blood of Jesus Christ. It set aside the old covenant as found in the Old Testament. And he established a new covenant established on better promises. And in the new covenant, God opened the way for you to know and come near to him. We saw it in the last episode on this specific topic how through the blood of Jesus Christ through his own body that he actually had his body broken and his blood shed so that you could approach boldly before the father in Jesus' name. What a powerful gift. These are seven truths regarding what the blood of Jesus Christ has done for you and for me. God says you're redeemed. You're forgiven. You're justified. You're reconciled. You're sanctified. you're righteous and you're brought near. At some point, you and I have to start arguing with these facts and start living like they are true. Which brings us to our first simple truth. Simple truth number 118. We believe and boast in what Jesus accomplished, not in ourselves. Jesus is the reason that any of this is true about us. Why does the gospel mean good news? Why was it received with great gladness throughout the Bible? Because for those who can understand and receive the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, they can leave a completely new life and be transformed in the will and the grace of God. So our confidence and our boast should be in Jesus, not in ourselves. But you and I know that we can say we believe in what Jesus has accomplished for us, but we can still think and live in ways that contradict what God says about us. So, let's see more about this question number two. What happens when you know what God says? When you read it in the scriptures, but you don't live like it is true. You know, Jesus can settle something completely, and you and I could still spend years living like he did not. Praise God. Hebrews 4 verses 1 and 2. You can hear what God says. You can know it's true. And you and I could still miss what it should produce in our lives if we don't actually trust and believe in him. Hebrews 4:1. Therefore, since a promise remains of entering his rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to come short of it. Verse two, for indeed the gospel was preached to us as well as to them. But the word which they heard did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. It says, "Since a promise remains of entering into his rest, the writer of the book of Hebrews is addressing something he described at the end of Hebrews chapter 3. It says, "Let us fear, let us have a serious concern. Let us take God seriously." He says, "Unless any of you seem to come short, to come short of the promise that God has made." To come short means to fall short. It's to fail to reach what was been provided for you. And he says we should take it very seriously, God. And we should have serious concern regarding the things of God, unless we somehow fall short or we fail to reach what God has promised and provided for us. It says, "For indeed the gospel was preached, the gospel, the good news, the death, burial, and resurrection, it was proclaimed to us as well as to them. But the word which they heard, it did not profit them. It means it did not benefit them. It did not help them. It was not useful to them." That's the word profit. Not being mixed with faith. The word mixed means not being joined or combined together. So the word that they heard did not benefit or help them because they did not mix, they did not join or combine together the word that was preached that is the gospel with faith, right? Trust, belief, confidence in God. Remember what we're describing here. We're describing seven truths about the blood of Jesus Christ that you and I have heard. So the question for us is, are we mixing faith? Are we taking trust, belief, and confidence in God? And are we mixing it with those seven truths that we find throughout scripture? Do your choices show that you trust God or just know what God says? Do you understand? I'm going to repeat that. Do the choices and the decisions and the way you act in life, does it show that you trust God or does it just show that you know what God says? That is an important distinction. Don't just hear the truth, live by the truth. Amen. Jesus takes this even further. He says, "Hearing his words isn't enough. What matters is whether you actually build your life on them." Matthew 7:24-27. Here we're going to see that what you build your life on is revealed when life puts it to the test. Matthew 7:24. Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of mine and does them, I, that's Jesus, will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and they beat on that house, and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat on that house, and it fell, and great was its fall. powerful. Powerful. It says for everyone who hears these sayings of mine and does them. That word does, it seems pretty straightforward, but it's worth defining. Does means to do, to practice, to put into action. So those who hear the words of Jesus and they do those words, they practice those words, they put those words into action, then he will liken them to a wise person who built their house on a rock. A rock is rock. It implies a solid foundation. It's building your life on Jesus and specifically in this case Jesus's words. And it says, "But everyone who hears these things and does not do them, as in they don't do, they don't practice, they don't put into action Jesus's words, he likens them, Jesus likens them to a foolish man who builds their house on sand. Sand is sand. It's a loose foundation. It's unstable ground. Building something as heavy and as important as a home on loose, unstable ground is clearly foolish. So, which house are you? Let's take a look at simple images that show houses on rock. Remember, that's a house in which someone hears and obeys God's word versus sand, which is someone who hears and ignores God's word. For those of you on audio podcast, let me describe it to you. Here is a house. It's not a big house. It's not a grand house, but boy, this house sure looks sure and solid. And it is on solid rock and it is surrounded by water, right? And you can see the water across the outside of the images there. And when rain or when storm or when those waters come up, that house clearly has stood and has stood for a long time. This next image shows a series of houses. I purposefully chose one singular house that's sitting on the rock because Jesus said that narrow is the way, right, towards eternal life, but wide is the path and many there are that go to destruction. So unfortunately, just because there's a lot of houses somewhere, it doesn't mean it's God. And here's an example in this image of a whole set of houses. I'm looking at eight, nine, maybe 10 houses and they're built on sand. and the storms came and at least a third or half of those houses are disastrous. They're completely broken down. They're fallen over and those that remain, many of them look damaged. So clearly building your house on rock has a tremendous benefit. Building on a foundation like God because what it means is as you build your life on God, God will move on your behalf to strengthen, deliver, and secure your position. But if you build it on sand, if you build it on the things of this world or your lust or your desires, who is going to come to your defense when the storm or the challenges of life come? You can hear Jesus. You can agree with Jesus and you can still build your life on something else. Both types of houses heard the truth. The difference was what they actually built their lives on. And eventually that difference showed. The challenges of life will test the foundations of which one you choose. Praise God. So why hear the truth and still ignore it? You may ask that question if it's so clear that here are seven truths regarding what the blood of Jesus Christ does and the sacrifice of Jesus does. Why would a person hear it and still ignore it? Honestly, why would we hear it and still ignore it? We can hear God clearly and still not live by his word. So why? So, I want to provide you a few examples in scripture of why would a person do that? Because I think that's the natural question when you hear clearly what God wants you to do and yet you and I know that we don't always do what God wants us to do. Well, first of all, our flesh is weak and we could be slow to believe God. We're going to see this in Luke 24:2. Jesus said, quote, "Then he said to them," Oh foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Our flesh is weak and we are often too slow to believe God when we are walking in that flesh." Secondly, we can prefer other worldly desires over what God says. So while we can hear the truth, we will ignore it because we will be chasing after worldly desires as opposed to what God has called us to do. John 3 verses 19- 21, we see an example of this where Jesus said, quote, "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. We can prefer worldly desires, chasing after money and o the opposite sex and things that make us feel good and delicious things to eat and delicious things to drink. Worldliness, we can chase all these things and we can move God to second, third, or fourth or wrong depending on where we're at. And it's Jesus said it. He says, "Here's the condemnation. And here is the judgment that the light, the beautiful, wonderful light that brings peace and strength and health and joy and prosperity and all sorts of good things and grace and mercy and love, every good thing you could say comes in through this light. Comes in through God. This light has come into the world. And yet we have loved darkness way too often rather than the light because our deeds, our actions, our tasks, our desires, they were evil. They were inappropriate. Do you understand? Third, we can care too much about what other people think. Sometimes we'll hear the truth and we won't do it because we care what other people think about us. Right? Here in John 12 verses 42 and 43 here it says, quote, "Among the rulers, many believed in him, but because of the Pharisees, they did not confess him." That's Jesus, right? They wouldn't publicly proclaim or admit that they were believing in Jesus Christ. Here it says, "Lest they should be put out of the synagogue." For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. So ask yourself this. Do you love the praise of God more than the praise of other people? Do you love the praise of God more than the praise of friends, more than the praise of co-workers, more than the praise of family members? It's a tough word. We should be submitting and serving God. And God will bring people around us who will be like-minded, who will bless us, and we will be on the same page with them. I'd like to think that you who are listening to this podcast that you and I if we met each other, we would say, "Praise God." We would have a shared spirit, a shared experience, and a shared heritage. Right? We are Christians. Regardless of what we look like, how tall or short we are, male nor female, we could look and we could say, "God bless you." Because we are walking together and we are in agreement. We are submitted to our Lord Jesus Christ. But the question is, do you find yourself loving the praise of people? loving what they have to say rather than the praise of God, that is a reason why you can hear the truth and still ignore it. So whether it's unbelief, whether it's our desires, whether it's prioritizing the approval of other people, the result is all the same. We start living like Jesus didn't really change anything. So Jesus does these seven truths and many other things we see through scripture, but we live like Jesus did nothing, like Jesus's work was unfinished. We almost despise the work that he did when he clearly did it and we can clearly overcome all things through it. So what does this look like with the blood of Jesus Christ? Well, when you know what Jesus did but you don't live it. Let's take a look. We're going to start with a column that says what the blood of Jesus did and then we're going to see when I don't believe it, what happens. So you can say it this way. We're doing this in reverse. Instead of just telling you what Jesus did for you, we're going to see what he did for you. But what happens when you don't believe it? So through the blood of Jesus Christ, I'm redeemed. I am set free. But when I don't believe it, my past and my old patterns, they own me. They take over. When that bad habit, that bad behavior comes around, I submit myself to it because I don't even believe that I've been redeemed. And I don't access the power of God through the blood of Jesus Christ. the blood of Jesus. Through that, I'm forgiven. I'm pardoned. But when I don't believe it, I punish myself for things that Jesus already forgave. Through the blood of Jesus, I'm justified. I am declared right before God. But when I don't believe it, I try to prove that I'm good enough to God and to other people. What the blood of Jesus did? Well, it reconciled me. It restored me back to God. But when I don't believe it, I live like God is against me and he's not. Through the blood of Jesus Christ, I'm sanctified. I belong to God. I don't just belong and I'm set apart to him. He's actually conforming me and conforming my behavior to be more like him. And yet, when I don't believe it, I'll encounter struggles and they'll make me doubt if I've even changed at all because I don't believe that I'm set apart or even his in any way, shape, or form. Through the blood of Jesus, I'm righteous. I've been made right. But when I don't believe it, today's mistakes, some kind of sin I did, some mistake I made, it decides where I stand with God, it decides where my position is. So I look back at that thing I did and I say, "I'm not right with God cuz I did that one thing over there." When God wants me to repent of that thing, God wants me to confess it to him. And God wants me to submit myself to him so he can deliver me from that thing. Praise God. But I am still made right with him because Jesus's blood, it wasn't weak. It was powerful. That blood that Jesus spilled was so powerful that it could forgive and forgive and forgive and it could reconcile and it could sanctify and it could justify and it could make right not just your sins but the sins of the whole world. The scripture says, "Praise God that we put our trust in, our faith in, our confidence in because it's worth it." The blood of Jesus Christ puts me into a new covenant, right? It gives you and I access to God. But when we don't believe it, we keep our distance from God. Heck, we even run from God at times. Jesus died. He was buried. And he rose again on the third day. He already did the work. Now, what will you build your life on? That's the question. Will you keep building on what God began when you were born again? You became born again. You had this tremendous experience with God. And then God started to bring you into more and more understanding, including these seven truths that come through the blood of Jesus Christ. So, will you keep building on that experience? Will you look at that experience where God set you apart and you said, "Oh my God, I am a Christian. This thing is incredible." Will you build on that? Or will you treat God like some kind of experience that you once had while you then go chase everything else? Which brings us to our next simple truth. Simple truth number 119. You can't just hear God's word. You need to believe it and you need to live by it. Praise God. Remember, remember the difference between the house that was built on the rock and the house that was built on sand. It wasn't what they heard. They both heard the same words. The difference is what they did with what they heard. So, what can you do to actually build your life on what Jesus accomplished through his blood and his sacrifice? That brings us to question number three. How do you build your life on what Jesus accomplished? Building your life on Jesus actually isn't complicated. You first remember what he did, then you believe what he said, and then you live accordingly. So let's start with remembering. Second Peter 1 verses 5-9. Here we're going to see that Jesus finished the work. Now keep building on what he's given you. And I must ask you to bear with me. There's four verses here and I wanted to make sure to include them and include all them on this slide. So you can get all of it together. And I also went ahead and embedded definitions in italics to make it easy since there's so many placed inside of there. So let's take a look at second Peter 1:5. Quote, "But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, the word is effort. Add to your faith." Remember faith is trust. Add to your faith virtue. In other words, moral excellence. To virtue, knowledge, which is understanding. To knowledge, self-control, which is self-restraint. To self-control, perseverance, which is endurance. To perseverance, godliness, which is a devotion to God. To godliness, brotherly kindness, which is like a familial affection, right? the kind of kindness or the affection that you would have between brother and sister, you know, father and child, etc. And to brotherly kindness, love, which is that agape selfless love. Verse eight, for if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. So Peter writing here and says give all effort and add to your faith virtue and to your virtue knowledge and to your knowledge self-control and to your self-control perseverance and to your perseverance godliness and to your godliness brotherly kindness and to your brotherly kindness love. And he says for if these things are yours so he's listing off virtues and he says if these things are yours and if they abound in you will be fruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 9. For he who lacks these things, the people who don't have these virtues, who aren't showing them, who aren't practicing them, who aren't doing them, they are shortsighted even to blindness and have forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Wow. Powerful. Powerful. It says, "For they who lack these things are shortsighted even to blindness and have forgotten." To for be forgotten is to fail to remember, to lose sight. They have lost sight that they were cleansed from their old sins by the blood of Jesus Christ. That means they experienced it and they forgot it. They failed to remember. They lost sight of what they experienced and they didn't continue to practice and to keep God's word and submit to God's truth and live according to it. So, let me ask you this. Which truth about Jesus's blood, those seven items we listed, do you forget first when life gets hard? Do you forget you're righteous? Do you forget you're redeemed? Do you forget you're justified? Ask yourself that question when the challenges of life come against you and things get hard. Which one of those seven truths do you quickly forget or forget too fast? Even though they're true. When life gets hard, return to what Jesus has already made true. You know God is true. You've experienced God. You wouldn't be listening to this if you didn't want to know him and to follow him. But life has a way of making us forget what we already know, right? Pressure comes, emotions change, we fail, we fall short, suddenly we start thinking like that old person again. So keep reminding yourself of what Jesus already did. Then trust it enough to believe on it. So let's go from remembering now, right? The first thing we described that's important when it comes to living out the blood of Jesus Christ in your life. Let's go now from remembering to believing. And let's take a look at Galatians 2 verse 20. Here we're going to see, right? Remembering it brings the truth back in front of you. And then faith is choosing to trust and rely on and live your life based on it. So you go from remembrance to belief. Galatians 2:20, quote, I have been crucified with Christ. Paul writes, "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I have been crucified. I've been This is for you and me and Paul, folks. We have been put to death. Our old life died at the cross. We have been crucified with Christ. Thank God. It is no longer I who live. Right? That word live is alive, continues living, experiences life. It is no longer I who experiences life or continues living. Why? Because that old life I so to speak died at the cross. He writes and the life which I now live in the flesh. You're still physically alive. That is true. We're still animated. We're still walking around, breathing, drinking, eating, talking. Right? That is true. But the life that I now live, Paul writes, right? That life that I now experience, I live by faith. I live by trust, belief, confidence in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That word gave means he handed himself over for our benefit. When did he do that? The cross where he shed his blood and his body was broken. Praise God. Is it amazing that the New Testament constantly comes right back to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ? The book of Genesis, it foreshadowed and it prophesied that the gospel would happen. The devil came to try to get Jesus to sin in the wilderness to prevent it. The devil gave Jesus pressure and persecution at the Garden of Gethsemane to keep him from doing it. And Jesus did it. And when he did it, he said, "It is finished. Praise God." Hallelujah. And he was given the keys to hell and death. Thank you, Lord Jesus. That is the God that you serve. That is the Lord that you trust in and put your trust in and build your life on. And that is a wonderful thing to do. As the scripture says, I was young and now I'm old and I have never seen the righteous forsaken nor their seed begging bread. God is faithful. God is so faithful. And I understand sometimes you'll feel like it's been the challenge or it's been longer than you'd like. Keep yourself close to God. Submit yourself to God. I'm just one person here acknowledging and testifying and telling you that every ounce of energy that I put into submitting and serving God and to giving up the desires of the flesh and giving up my own life to be crucified with Christ like Paul said and to live by faith in the son of God. Every ounce that I put in has come back to me multi-fold. God has done so many wonderful things in my life for the people around me in the city that I live in and the nation that I live in. and he has done it through grace and through mercy and I just look to him and I acknowledge him and it's been the literally the best decision I've ever made in my life was to become a Christian. So does faith does it still shape everyday life or was it only how you started? Do you have faith now? Are you applying faith every day or did you have faith back when you became born again? The Christian life it starts by faith and it keeps going by faith. So remembering keeps what Jesus accomplished right in front of you. We saw that in the last slide. Then faith and belief that we see in this slide, it means continuing to trust him and to build your life on what he says is true. And that faith isn't meant to stay in your head. It should begin shaping your choices, your priorities, and the way you live every day. So let's go now from believing to living it out. 1 Peter 1:17-19. Jesus didn't redeem you for you to keep living the same way. What he paid for you should change how you live and how you act. 1 Peter 1:17. And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one's work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. says if you call on the father who without partiality judges that means he evaluates he decides he passes judgment he judges according to each one's work so we were just talking about belief in faith and now Peter talks about work and that the father will judge according to each one of our actions right our work and it says conduct yourselves that means live behave order your life throughout the time of your stay here here on this earth. Do it in fear, right? Reverence, awe, a serious respect for God. Take God seriously, knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold or concrete or drywall or you name the material from your aimless conduct received by the tradition your fathers, but you were redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Do you live like Jesus finished the work or do you live like nothing changed? Don't just believe the work is finished. Live like the work is finished. Right? So, this is where everything comes together. Remember what Jesus did. We listed seven truths according to the blood of Jesus. Believe and trust in it. Put your faith and your confidence in it. And then live it out. Let it change the way you live. Test it. Try it. And you tell me if it's not true or not. Which brings us to simple truth number 120. Jesus finished the work. And you need to live like it's true. Jesus finished the work. You don't need to add to it. You don't need to earn it. You don't need to prove it. You need to believe it and build your life on it. So what does that actually look like in everyday life? Well, what should I do now? Okay. So Jesus has already finished the work. Praise God. Through his blood, he has changed many things about you and your relationship with God. Now you have to build your life on it. I know that I need to remember, right, what Jesus already accomplished for me. I need to believe and hold on to what God has said about me, especially when old thoughts or fears or feelings try to tell me differently. And I need to live it out by making choices in line with what God says. So ask yourself, which truth about Jesus's blood and sacrifice do you know, but you still struggle to live like it's true? Right? Which one of those seven items, several maybe of those seven items, right? You know it. You've read it. You went through this entire episode and you understand those things are true about you. And you can see them in scripture. The scriptures we listed. Heck, you could research more scriptures. There's a ton of scriptures about these truths, but you still struggle to live like they're true. If you struggle with any of them, take that item and try this for the next seven days. We call it the live like it's true 7-day challenge. Okay. Day one, find a gap in your faith. Look at the seven truths from this season. Right. Simple truth podcast, episode 6.1 through 6.7 and choose one that you believe but have a hard time living like it's true. Could be redemption, could be sanctification, could be justification. You find one of these out. It is totally worth your effort and you'll find a gap in your faith. Then tell yourself, finish the sentence, because of his blood, I have been and name that truth. Because of his blood, I have been made righteous. Because of his blood, I have been justified and declared right before God. These are excellent confessions and professions for you to make. Go back to the episode either on YouTube or at simpler.org or and write down one key scripture about that truth that you selected. So if you were chose redemption, go to that episode and find the verses the scriptures as they're listed on the website or in the YouTube description and find a key verse. Days 2 through 7, catch it, correct it, and live it. Okay? Read your key scripture each day and remind yourself because of Jesus I have been redeemed or justified or sanctified or brought close through the new covenant. Whatever it may be, read that key scripture daily throughout the day. Meditate and remind yourself because of Jesus, I have been blank. Remind yourself of that truth. And when something in you resists that truth, it could be a thought. It could be an action. Pause. Remind yourself of that truth and take an action that lines up with what God says instead of what that thought or that pressure or that resistance is trying to do. Take control of your life. Take control of that action and say, "Thank you, Father, that through the blood of Jesus Christ, I've been redeemed. I don't have to do that anymore." Or, "Thank you, Father. I've been declared right and I cast down that thought." Right? So, catch it, correct it, and then live it. And then in days 3 through 7, I recommend you build on it. Okay? Watch Simple Truth podcast episode 6.7, the last episode on can you know God personally and use the truth that you chose, whether it's redemption or sanctification or righteousness. Use the truth you chose as a reason to draw closer to God and not pull away. God bless you. God bless you as you examine yourself to see whether you're in faith or not. As you catch that gap and you correct it and then you live according to God's truth and you build your life one day at a time according to what God says. God bless you. And for this week's challenge, I recommend as we stated, you watch episode 6.7. Can you know God personally? On the screen, you'll see a link to it. And keep building your life on what Jesus has already done. And don't miss the next episode as we begin season 7, the basic teachings of Christianity, starting with what real repentance actually looks like. So subscribe for more simple, biblical, and essential truth. [music]