Is the Gospel Really That Simple?

I sit across the table from people regularly and ask them to tell me the gospel, and I can see how nervous and anxious that question makes them. Maybe you've had that experience. Somebody asks you, what is the gospel? And, oh, I don't know how to respond. I might not say the right thing. That's because often we have made the gospel far too complicated in the way that we talk about it.

And it robs us of peace and hope and assurance that the Lord means us to have. The gospel is unfathomably deep, but it is also beautiful in its simplicity. And John and I have a conversation about that today. We hope it encourages you. Stay tuned. Hey, guys, this is Justin. Maybe you know that you are forgiven because of Jesus Christ, but you're wondering...

What does Jesus have to do with my Christian life? How is he involved in my sanctification even? Or is he concerned at all with the ways that I struggle and the way that my life goes up and down? Is there any comfort for me in Jesus when it comes to all of that? Well, I've written a book called More Than Forgiven, How Being in Christ Changes Everything, that deals with this topic from Romans 6. You can find this book. at theocast.org.

to the 300th episode of Theocast. You know, Justin, we don't number them, so people won't know that, but 300th episode. No. 300th episode. And starting our seventh year together. That's a long time, brother. I had a whole lot less gray hair when we started this thing. I was joking. I'm hoping this is the year of Jubilee.

That's right. And for our lives, man. That's right. So, man, what a special episode for us today just because of the Lord's kindness and keeping us together to be able to do this with money, donations, technology. all of it. Justin and I, in seven years, we've gone through, or six years, but we've known each other for almost seven years. We've gone through quite a bit in both of our lives, so we're just thankful that we can sit behind the microphones once again.

Yeah, brother, I mean, through many dangers, toils, and snares, we have already come. His grace has brought us safe thus far, right? High highs and low lows, man. Sometimes I feel like the Christian life is like the stock market, you know? There are times it crashes, baby. Anyways, your host today, just if you're new to Theocast, the first time you listen to this because of the episode, let me tell you a little bit about who we are. Justin and I are both pastors.

And our goal is to pull the clutter off of the gospel and give people hope. rest and clarity and focus for their Christian life. So that's where we're at today. And we do this from a Reformed perspective. If you're curious about where we're coming from, we're both Reformed Baptist pastors. Justin Perdue is the pastor of Covenant Baptist Church in Asheville, North Carolina.

And I'm John Moffat. I'm the pastor of Grace Reform Church in Spring Hill, Tennessee. I just had a guy visit my church on Sunday who's been listening to the podcast for two years. And he's like, I didn't know you're in my hometown, which means... He's skipping the intro. So don't skip the intro. Shame, shame. Yeah. Don't do that.

Justin, it's one week past when we were together in Atlanta last week, and you and I were spending some time together doing some work for Theocast and doing some recording. We had recorded an episode on Charlie Kirk. If you guys didn't, and really not just Charlie, but a lot of the things going on that week, which were pretty traumatic. The episode was really not about Charlie directly. It was more Charlie's assassination.

was an occasion for us to talk about evil in the world. And to process that as Christians. And so that's really what the podcast... It's evergreen in that it'll be a podcast people can listen to, I hope, for a long time, and it will be applicable. Yeah.

So the reason I mentioned that is that this is our 300th episode. Jason and I, as pastors, are coming out of Sunday preaching on that and back in the office and thinking through all of these things. And one of the thoughts we had about it... our 300th episode and what we love about theocast is um you know there's

By the way, if you want to learn more about Theocast, before we jump into the episode, Theocast.org, there's so much there. Books that Justin have written, I've written. There's a community that's got 2,500 people in it. It's off the internet. Sorry, it's off social media. media it's our own platform it's off we've got we've got other books we got mugs we got shirts and hats and you know stickers whatever whatever whatever make yourself available but um

So Justin, this episode is a big deal. We always say pulling the clutter off the gospel. And so today, instead of pulling the clutter off... we're going to explain in its simplest form what is the gospel and why that matters. And so I don't want to steal your thunder, so I'm going to throw it over to you, brother. 300th episode, let's do what Theocastus is known for. Let's talk about Jesus and his...

insufficiency for sinners. Yeah. Amen to all that. And we are going to talk about the sufficiency of Jesus today, for sure. I know we're going to get into the things that he has done for us. How could we not? Really, the crux of this conversation, what we want to get at is the beauty and the simplicity, more than anything else, of the gospel.

So many things, man, that we can contemplate, talk about, study, meditate upon. I mean, we can plumb the depths of the gospel for the rest of our lives and never hit the bottom. And at the same time, it is so simple that... The educated and uneducated children, they can understand it. It is not a complicated message. And why this matters to me, man, I'm thinking about not only my own life, yours.

We're thinking about people in our churches. We're thinking about Theocast listeners that we've met and engaged with. We're thinking about the listener out there that we haven't met. But we can understand enough of people's experiences that there's a lot of doubt. There's a lot of questions.

There are ways that we are assaulted by the evil one. There are ways that our consciences and our own hearts condemn us sometimes. And those condemnations and those accusations, they take different forms. And sometimes people question the legitimacy of their... standing before the Lord, or they don't have peace with God, or they lose hope because they start to wrestle with, well, have I really understood enough?

Is my grasp of doctrine, is my grasp of the gospel sufficient? And this even gets into like, well, I don't... I think I meant to be a Christian when I was younger, but maybe I wasn't even really saved. I don't know. And we started to just question all these things. Because sometimes it comes across from well-intentioned people I trust.

sincere people I trust, that if you don't have a certain level of understanding and if you can't articulate things in a particular way, then you probably should question your legitimacy. And I think it's beautiful that we're recording this. on the 300th episode, we'll talk about the gospel and what it is. Love doing that. But then want to encourage all of you out there that the simplicity of the gospel means that...

Really, this is the heart of the matter. Are you trusting in Christ or something else? Yes. The gospel is as simple as Jesus for you. Jesus for you in your place. It's that simple that you know, you don't know everything. There's a lot you don't understand, but you know enough that you know this. If I am going to live with God forever.

And if I'm going to stand before the Lord and it's going to go well for me, and I'm going to have peace and joy forevermore in his presence, the only way that that's going to happen is because of Jesus Christ and what he's done for me. Even if I can't articulate every aspect of that, even if I don't have a full grasp of my sin and the depth of my depravity and all these kinds of things, I know I need Jesus.

And I know that he came for me and that whatever he did to save sinners, he did it for me. And so it's about him in my place, standing for me. And that's the simplicity of the gospel that the... the wise and the simple, the educated and the uneducated can all understand and be reconciled to God and have peace and joy and hope in our hearts now and forevermore. That's right. Yeah, this is such an important conversation because...

when we cannot clarify the simplicity in its seed form it's the the the kernel the kernel, the baseline of like, you cannot go any lower than this. Like, if you go any lower than this, you do not have the gospel. And the reason I say that, it's not that there's levels to the gospel, right? There is the gospel in its simplest form, and then there is the fullness of the gospel. And that's why Paul even says that he was commissioned to reveal the mystery of Christ or the fullness of Christ, right?

meaning that there is what was promised that they believed in the old. The gospel was preached to Abraham, and he was justified. Well, dude, Abraham had no idea that... the gospel included the name Jesus, that he was going to die and rise again, that he was going to be born of a virgin. None of that had been prophesied yet. Those prophecies had not come. So it wasn't like...

The angel of the Lord came and revealed all these secrets to Abraham. He didn't know it. This is why it was called the mystery of Christ, right? What they were putting their faith in is God, my redeemer. Like God's going to redeem me. And I believe that God is going to save me out of Adam's failure. Like I am a sinner. I cannot fix myself and God will save me. Right. And we're not given detail, like you said.

Paul, regarding what was preached to Abraham, but Paul in Galatians most pointedly picks up on Genesis 12, 3, where the Lord tells Abraham that through his offspring, the nations... The nations will be blessed. Will be saved, right? Yeah. Paul picks up on that and says the gospel was preached to Abraham. That's right. And again, we don't know all the detail, like you said, and we don't even need to speculate because we know this much, that Jesus in John 8, for example, talks about Abraham.

and says that Abraham rejoiced to see my day. So what did Abraham believe? Messiah was coming. He believed in Messiah. He trusted that there was one coming who was going to save him and save all of God's people. And that justified him. Yes. And that is how he is justified by faith. He trusts the promises of God realized in Messiah.

And he doesn't have a full understanding. I cannot imagine that he did. I don't think the prophets did. I mean, the New Testament bears that out. Yeah, they said they longed to look into it, but they didn't fully understand it. Correct. And they're searching. They're searching the scriptures to try to understand who this Messiah is going to be and when he would come and to fully understand what he's doing.

Go ahead. Not that the gospel was confusing. There's a difference between you are saved by faith in the Messiah. You're saved that God will save you through his Messiah. That's what you're saved in. And then as we are on the other side of it. We get the beauty of looking back in its still simplest form, telling children, you are saved by Jesus Christ. So we don't say Messiah as if he's nameless, but we say...

Jesus Christ, which is why there was a confusion in even, I will just say this is not part of the notes, but why in Judaism there was such a stark transition because it was like, no, he's come. He's here. And if you reject Jesus, this is why Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come to the Father unless you come through me. I'm the one the prophets prophesied from. So you've got to believe in me. And so that's where we say to be saved now.

Yeah. You have to believe in Jesus because he is the fulfilled promise that they were putting their faith in. And even in the old covenant era, because when Jesus shows up on the scene, I'm agreeing with you and you're going to agree with what I'm about to say. Jesus shows up on the scene and tells...

a Jewish audience, most importantly, the Pharisees who were experts on the law, experts on the scriptures, that you search the scriptures thinking that in them you have eternal life, but it is they that bear witness about me. When he's saying that... He's saying that all of the Old Testament, because that's the scriptures that existed at the time, the Old Testament bears witness about the Christ. That's right. The Old Testament bears witness about Messiah, and I'm him.

That's what he's saying. So again, like you're saying, it's not that it's complicated. It's that Jesus has shot through all of the Bible, and we're able now to name him. You shall call his name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins. We can name him. It's not the servant of the Lord. It's not Messiah in some general terms.

Jesus of Nazareth is all that, and he is the Messiah. And so we're clear on that part. But the main thing is we encourage everybody that to be a Christian is to hope in Christ at the end of the day. It's to believe that he has done it. And Christ, just to jump in, Christ in the Old Testament is Messiah. That's what Jesus Christ, Christ isn't his last name, by the way. No, that's a title.

Right. So Old Testament. Yeah. Old Testament believed in Christ. We believe in Christ. And Christ is Jesus. Right. Messiah Jesus. Exactly. Christ is the same. And the reason why. Yeah, this is so important to me because I want people to understand the simplicity of the faith of the Old Testament believer.

Carrie's true today. Even though we have the fullness of Christ, the simplicity is so important for us to make sure that we maintain because the New Testament maintains it. Totally. Totally. And we believe rightly. that all of the people of God from all time are saved the same way. And so the Old Testament, Old Covenant saints were trusting the promises that we trust.

Did they have all the detail and the clarity that we had? No. But it was revealed to them in ways that were adequate and sufficient through a number of different institutions and types and shadows and the promises that God made to them directly. It's revealed there. But they're believing in a person. That's right. And they're trusting in Him and what He's done for them. It's not that they do something. It's not that they even contribute something.

It's that we are trusting in God's anointed one, the one that God has sent into the world to do everything that Adam failed to do and to pay for all of the ways that... we have failed the death and the ruin and the sin and the misery that adam has plunged us into that we have doubled down upon and we would have done the same thing adam did all that ruin

the Messiah, the anointed one of God came into the world to rescue us from that. And only he could do it. And so we put all our hope in him and we put all of our trust in him. That's what it is to be a Christian at the most basic level. So Justin, I wanna...

uh if if you're good i want to there's two more things that i think we'd i'd love to cover we talked about a little bit beforehand but i'd like for us to talk a little bit about kind of the progression of someone's faith Sure. How does one progress? And then can someone on the second side of that, can someone come to faith and there actually be...

a moment where, I'll put it this way, an Ephesians 4 moment. So we'll get to that later. Yeah, yeah. So I think it's important for people to understand in that as someone is being discipled in Christ, I think that there is the baseline. Like if I think about my children, your children, or anyone who is saved as a little child, their faith is so, like it's so little.

I mean, it's like, what I mean by faith, like their knowledge of what they believe in is so little, and yet it's powerful enough to save anyone. That's the thing about it. It's so amazing. So I just want to start with that for a moment. If you're a 97-year-old person or a 7-year-old person, your faith...

In Christ, it's not your faith that saves you. You have to remember this. It's the power of the gospel, and the gospel is the good news that Jesus saves, right? It's Jesus that saves, and you're putting your faith in the object and the power of Jesus. So remember, when you stand on judgment day and God looks upon you and says, my dear child, how do you stand?

You either say, I stand in Jesus, or you stand in yourself. It's as simple as that, right? It is as simple as that. It's as simple as that. So I believe Jesus is enough. That's where we're at. Now, that being said... Throughout time, this is why the church is obligated to...

disciple and train and raise each other up so that we don't fall off into doctrines of heresy and to false teachings and we get entangled because it does and can happen. That means your understanding of the gospel... day, let's say, I'll just use me as an example, Justin. I was raised in a great home. My dad was an amazing minister, but he was raised as an independent Baptist. And so we did not believe in the doctrines of grace or things like the ordinary means of grace and things like that.

time I was 12 years old, I was very assured of my salvation based upon what Christ had done for me. That part I was pretty convinced of, and I had a pretty good working understanding of the Trinity. but very legalistic in my understanding. So I struggled a lot to think that God was happy with me. which is very different from assurance. I just didn't think he was happy with me. I remember when I discovered Calvinism and the means of grace, it felt like it was almost a second birth.

It was more of an awakening. And I would say it this way, God opened my heart to realities that were so refreshing and life-giving that it had that feeling. And I know some people think to themselves when they discover... the assurance of their salvation or the doctrines of grace or even covenant theology, that there's this awakening and that's their salvation moment. And I understand that feeling, but I think it's important to understand that deep theology does not equate your true conversion.

No, totally, man. I mean, a number of us have had these experiences. I think there are probably a number of listeners out there that would feel like, whether it's doctrines of grace, like you said, or even... The law and gospel distinction, something we talk about a lot on this podcast. I know a lot of people are like, man, that was like being born again and again. I've come to a deeper...

fresh, robust understanding. I've grown. This is deeper. It's fresher. It's all those things. And I am encouraged and invigorated and renewed. It's great. But you're right. That does not mean that what had happened for you prior was illegitimate or was insufficient.

Absolutely. We learn and we grow. We're discipled in the faith. We're taught the doctrines of the faith so that we can discern truth from error, all of that kind of stuff. That's important that we do that. And really, I think for me, I can speak for myself personally, not that I think you're... going to disagree at all. You and I believe that we preach the gospel, certainly to unbelievers, but we preach the gospel to the saints all the time, every week. When we get in the pulpit...

We're going to hold Jesus Christ out to everybody who's there. And we believe that that is what people most need to hear. This is about hope. And it's about hoping in the Lord Jesus Christ that even though we don't now see him, we love him. And even though we don't see him right now, we believe in him. And we have an unshakable hope.

an inheritance that can't be taken away from us in Christ. And so what do we want to do when we preach the gospel? We're trying to more and more ground all of us in Christ for us. So we never go beyond. the simplicity of what we've already articulated. Christ for us is the good news. But when we preach doctrinally and we hold Christ out, what are we trying to help people better understand? Well, we want you to see more of the depth.

and the wonder of everything he's done for you. We want you to see even more of his heart and the ways that he loves you and how he is better than you maybe even first knew. It doesn't mean that you're not his. It just means you're going to grow continually. in your understanding of the love and the sufficiency of your Savior in your place. So that's why it's important to talk about, well, you have sinned.

And that means that you deserve judgment. And we want to talk about all the ways that Jesus took your sin from you and died for it. This substitution and all these different things, we want to talk about that. Then when it comes to the fact that God's holy law requires righteousness and you ain't got any. And so how would you then come to have it? Well...

We can talk about Jesus and his life and how he fulfilled the law. He did it for you. And we want you to understand that better. The reason we want you to understand all these things better... It's just that you never confuse the categories and then end up buying into the lie that you need to be good enough somehow. You knew it. Everybody does. You knew on the front end.

When everybody comes to faith in Christ, man, we know I can't be good enough. This is why I need him. And then all we're trying to do... Even in the tagline of this podcast we use sometimes, taking the clutter off the gospel, why are we doing that? So that we don't ever get it twisted to think that I got to be good enough on the back end of this thing. That's right. Right? And you said, I'm not even worried. Is my fate strong enough? Well...

I don't even know how to answer that question on the one hand, because our faith could always be stronger, but how much faith is enough? Any. Because any faith we have is a gift to God, and it's not about the quality or the strength of our faith. It's about the object of our faith. I digress. But the point is...

Even the doctrinal pieces, John, it's not about going on to something new. It's about grounding us more deeply in Christ for us. If you're new to Theocast, you may not have heard of this word. It's called pietism. Have you ever felt like the Christian life is a heavy burden versus rest and joy? That you wake up worrying about how well you're going to perform instead of thinking about what Christ has done for you. It's dread versus joy, really.

That's pietism. Pietism causes Christians to look in on themselves and find their hope, not in what Christ has done, but what they're doing. And we have a little book for you. It's free. We want you to download it. And we're going to explain the difference between pietism and what we call confessionalism. Reformed theology, really, how it is that we walk by faith, seeing the joy of Christ. And when Jesus says, come to me.

I will give you rest. What does that look like? You can download it on our website. Just go to theocost.org. And the reason why we want to make this distinction is that unfortunately in modern... the modern day and this is true even like the confusion of the merrow men when we're going back to some of these debates where we start we start controversy 18th century church of scotland go john that's right

Yeah, The Whole Christ by Sinclair Ferguson is a great book to read. Encourage yourself. Right. What we start doing is we start manipulating and changing what I would say. adding to the gospel where the good news is now a transaction. It's not transactional, right? And this is why we have to keep it in its simplest form. If a child can understand the gospel according to Jesus, then you need to understand what that...

means. In the simplest form, that it requires us to trust in the sufficiency of Christ, the Messiah who can what? Save me from my disobedience, is what we tell children. You are disobedient before the Lord.

And that means God requires you to be perfect. Do you want to try to do that? And they're going to tell you, sure, maybe. But then you're like, okay, you have to love him and nothing else. Do you think you can do that? And you're like, well, no. I was like, okay, you don't want to try and obey him. Do you know someone who did for you? And not only that, but died so that you don't have to die.

Not physically, but spiritually. That's Jesus. Do you want that for yourself? Yes, I want that. And that's as simple as it needs to be. And if you feel like, no, there has to be more to it. Justin, I'm going to speak for the both of us here. And I say this with as much compassion as I can. That's exactly what Satan wants you to think. He wants you to think that the gospel is outside of the simplicity of a child.

He wants to complicate it so much so that your faith begins to go off of Christ and somehow on you and your intellect and your knowledge. And let me tell you right now. uh we're going to get into this here in a second but There's a lot of people who come to Christ, and they really are a believer, and then Satan gets a hold of them and gets them distracted off, and they get off into all kinds of weird churches, or they're not in a church, and they're not been discipled, they're not been...

cared for, they're not growing. Paul rebukes churches for even being weak and anemic, like you should have been farther along than you are now. He doesn't question their theology. He's like, you should have been trained. Unfortunately, you weren't.

Right? Well, no, amen to that. And even I'm thinking about the letters to the seven churches in Revelation. When Jesus rebukes, for example, the church in Ephesus, you've lost your first love. That's right. What does that mean? It means you've left what we're talking about. You've left the beauty and the simplicity, this kernel of the good news. You've left it. You've moved on from that. And I think that is an indictment on many.

I say this with humility, but with all sincerity, I think that's an indictment on many churches through the centuries, including in our own day, that what you just said is true. There's this instinct we have. individually as Christians, and I think the church sometimes doubles down on this, that, well, yeah, we got the gospel, and now we really need to move on to these other things. Or if we're going to be gospel people, now we get...

overly obsessed with particulars and how it's articulated and all of that, yeah, we're getting our eyes off of the main thing. That's right. And yeah, you can go, and what I was trying to talk about earlier, I think is really important that you can go really deep. and yet keep it so simple. That's the goal. I think it's impossible to go deep unless you start with simple. Yeah, but I'm even saying in the depth, it can be simple. Because even as an example...

I had a conversation with my kids last night. I asked my 10-year-old daughter. We were talking about baptism. And I said, you know, baptism is about our union with Jesus. I mean, I was just saying a few things. But I said, you know, when it says that we are united to Him in His... his death. What's that mean? And she goes, this is real, you know, 10-year-old. She said, well, when he died, it counted as my death. Like I died with him.

He died for me. That's what that means. Exactly. Like we've been united to Jesus that what was true for him is true for me. It's that simple. Amen. Right? It's not complicated. It's like, yeah, I'm reading language from our confession of faith on baptism and what it means, and it's like, what's it mean that you've been united to him in his death? Because when he died, it counted for me.

Exactly. Exactly. It's that simple that children can understand it. That's right. Anyway, I think we've made that point. Let's move on to where you wanted to go next. Sure. What I wanted to say is, and this is kind of where we're going to go next. So you and I both love golf. Scotty Scheffler is the number one golfer in the world right now. Yeah. And also not.

Yeah, and he's also not afraid to share his faith, which is refreshing. Bro seems to be a... i mean a sincere christian yeah yeah he seems to be sincere about his faith yeah that's that's that's what i mean yeah yeah seems very genuine yeah for sure so what's interesting about scotty is um you know what everybody says about him he's just not it's not impressive like he's sure like you don't look at the guy like a dustin johnson or tiger woods when there's something like wow you know

Sorry, I mean, not to nerd out on sports, but like, yeah, he doesn't have the same aura and the same, like you're saying, the way Tiger was in his prime. But Scotty's doing stuff that is insane. It is insane. But it doesn't have the same wow factor, like you're saying. Like Roy McRoy, when people hit it, when he hits the driver, everybody's like, wow. And when Scotty hits it, they're like, that was weird.

But he just gets the ball in the hole, bro. So the reason I bring this up is this, to get us off the nerding. Scotty talks about every time he touches a club for practice, he has the same club and it has these.

uh it has a grip like you have to hold it and so he says i start with the fundamentals every day because if i don't if i don't have that right that's his only connection to the club which hits the ball right down the chain it's gonna fall apart that's right so he literally starts with what he started with when he was six years old how to grip the club how to grip the club how to grip the club how to set up

That's right. And it's the basics. It's the fundamentals. And here's what's interesting about golf. You get the fundamentals off by, and I mean, a fraction of a centimeter and the ball will go 300 yards the wrong direction. It's insane how precise it has to be. We're talking tenths of a degree. I mean, we're talking, it's crazy. For those of anybody who knows golf, you know this. This is why it could be so invigorating and infuriating at the same time.

And this is true. This is why this podcast matters to Justin and I, is that if you get the gospel wrong just a smidge, just a little bit off, where it leads is tremendously wrong directions. It's damaging. It's extremely damaging. And this is where sometimes Justin and I can say, well, here's why you're over here is because this is part of the gospel you got wrong.

right? And so we're always tying it back to our faith. And this is kind of where this next section is going, is that I believe someone can have a very strong... faith in the gospel. It's like, I know I'm trusting Christ, but yet, and this is going to lead into an episode we'll do next week, but I'm going to read this anyways. This is Ephesians chapter four, and I think it's important that people understand this, okay? This is really important for you.

you to hear. Paul is talking about the nature of the church and how it's to function. And if it doesn't function like it's supposed to, he says this. He says, so that... we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunningness, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. That means as children, meaning children in the faith.

That is where you are. That means if you're not being discipled and cared for, this could be true about you. This can happen. Yeah, and Justin, this is where I get a little upset because you get guys who come in.

I'm going to calm down for a second. Guys come in and start questioning people's salvation because they just haven't seen this explosive growth. They haven't seen this massive transformation. They're still being tossed about. They're still children in the faith. And the point I'm trying to make is that... We have to understand the difference between what saves us and what and how we grow, right?

The gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ is what brings us to faith. And if we aren't being discipled in that gospel over and over by more mature people, then you aren't going to see the kind of growth that we should see. There's a difference between how we grow in Christ and how we come to Christ. You cannot say if you're not growing in Christ at a certain level, then you have not come to him. That's a danger. And the reason why I mention this is that there's...

That then becomes a different gospel. You have to have a certain level of progress in order for you to be saved. That's a different gospel. 100%. I mean, we've talked about this in various ways over the years, right? We call it sometimes the gospel of sincere obedience. It becomes a different word. It's a different message that... somehow, at least in part, I'm saved by the sincerity of my obedience, my efforts to obey. We talk about it sometimes, prove it.

It's a kind of prove-it gospel. Yeah, the prove-yourself gospel, yeah. Yeah, prove yourself, right, where you have to continually do things to validate yourself, to prove your legitimacy. And that is a different gospel. For sure. Because your eyes are fixed on something other than Christ. And there is a way to do one without neglecting the other, right? Like what we want to do, like to your point.

This is why I think that gospel clarity and gospel emphasis is so important, is that you want to be absolutely sure that the gaze of the Christian, the hope of the Christian. is fixed entirely on Jesus for them. And then with that locked in, now we can talk about all the stuff pertaining to the Christian life and wisdom and obedience.

and all of these good things that the Lord has revealed to us in His Word. Yes and amen to all that. But we have to do it. We've talked about this forever, John, since we've been doing things together. Jesus always has to be in the foreground, always. And the Christian life and whatever you want to put in that bucket, that would include sanctification and obedience.

Even repentance and all these various things, wisdom, throw them in that bucket of the Christian life. Those things are always viewed through the lens of Jesus. Jesus for me. That's how it has to be done, or we are in danger, to use your illustration from earlier, of finding ourselves way off course eventually. Because at first, it's like the gospel's assumed a little bit.

At first, it's like, yeah, of course, Jesus, yes, but we got to talk about this over here. Then before you know it, the gospel is a footnote. And we're... You know, we're sincerely working and trying and striving and doing all kinds of stuff. But at the heart of the matter, I'm not even sure where my hope and my confidence lies anymore. That's right.

Yeah, it can't happen. Rest is found in my obedience instead of Christ. Yeah. You can hitch your wagon to obedience if you want to. I'd rather hitch it to Jesus. That's right. I mean, he's the wagon that's going to take us to the promised land. And so, yeah, man, this is really critical. And the reasons that we get...

geeked up about some of the doctrine, and we want to take the clutter off the gospel all the time, and we want to talk about everything Christ did, is because we're trying to continually pull the saints back onto the rock that is higher than them. Like you're tempted to look over there. You're tempted to trust that over there. You're tempted to find some hope or peace or confidence in that over there. And dear saint, while you can be encouraged by your growth and the fruit that you see.

And it's helping your neighbor. Praise the Lord for all that. Your hope and stay is always and forever. Jesus for you. That's it. And that's what we're about. The 300th episode, yeah, it's a fitting conversation. So we'll end with this. If you're listening to this and you're like, ah, yeah, I'm still kind of confused. So we'll just close with the gospel for you. If you're feeling the weight of your sin, like, man, I...

I know I'm not good. I know I'm a sinner. Great. That is step one. You need to understand your condition, and that is important. Now, understand your condition. It's not the gospel. No, it isn't. And the law is not the gospel. That's actually law in a way. That's law. That's right. Right. Yeah. So, and by the way, you may say, I don't, I don't. feel guilty enough over my sin. You most certainly don't. You never will. You will never know how sinful you are. Because if you did...

I don't even want to think about what that would do to the psyche of the human mind. It'd be too much for us. It would be too much for us to understand. So God in his mercy even keeps back how bad you are before him. He just says this, look, it's bad enough that... you're my enemy. That's not good. You do not want to be the enemy of God. And then he says, but while you're my enemy, dear child, I've come to you and I love you. If you can even hear those words.

that Christ died for you and will wash away your sin and he will forever take care of you. Just think about it this way. Don't think you have to understand everything. Can Jesus take care of me before the Father out of love? Yes. Not out of transaction, out of love. Do you believe that? Then great. we can add so much more to your faith. But what you need to trust is this. Don't trust your sincerity. Don't trust your repentance. Don't trust your faith. Don't trust any of that. Trust that Jesus...

can save, and he can give you everything that you need, and he will never let you go. He says, all those who come to him, he will never let them go. And how is it you have the power to come to him? Because he gave you that power. That's the gospel.

And let's start working on building your faith. Let's start working, get you in a good church. Let's start getting you discipled because you can find rest and there is rest. And the fact is that you don't have it. That's not because the gospel, that's because you've been lied to by Satan. And we're going to clean that up. Super quick. Just some good questions to ask others. And if I were sitting with you and I wanted to encourage you in the heart of what Christ has done for you.

But yeah, you just ask, hey, have you obeyed God's law perfectly? You would say, well, no. And I would say, well, in God's Word, it says that if we don't, then we deserve death and we deserve judgment. Did Jesus do anything about that for you? And you would say, well, yeah, I know he died on the cross for me. And I would say, amen. And then it would say, okay.

Can you, I've already asked you this, but I just want to double down on this. Can you keep God's law to earn God's favor? Well, no. Well, do you think that Jesus did that for you? Was he perfect? Well, yeah, I think, I believe he was. Amen. I agree with you.

He was that for you. You're dying just like me. You're going to be put in the ground one day. Did Jesus do anything about that? Does the Bible say anything about Jesus conquering the grave? And you're like, well, he got up from the dead. Yes, he did. Amen. He did that for you. You have an enemy who's the ancient serpent, the devil. Did Jesus do anything to defeat him? Yeah, he did. He conquered him. Yeah, he did that for you, didn't he?

And do you believe that? And you would say, yeah. And I'd say, amen, brother, sister, I'm with you. He's the only hope we could ever have. And he's enough. He's done it all. So let's... Let's keep trusting him, right? I mean, that's it. Those are the kinds of conversations that we want to have with each other. You can have them with your kids. You can have them with other adults. You can have them with anybody. That's right. Let's make the gospel great again.

In its simplest form. Hey, thanks for listening. If you've been encouraged by this, this is a great community that you can be a part of. Other like-minded brothers and sisters, this is not a replacement for your church, but it is a great way to find.

kingdom help and kingdom encouragement as we do the work of the kingdom all around the world there's people from all around the world in there we'd love to see you in there justin and i are always encouraged by the interactions that are in there so if you'd like to come join that you can go to theocast.org Thanks for listening. God bless you guys. And hopefully on this 300th episode and the start of our seventh year, you've been encouraged. May the Lord give us many more.

Hey guys, real quick. Some of you are listening to this and it's encouraging to you, but you have questions. So where do you go? How do you interact with other people who have the same questions and share resources?

We have started something called the Theocast community, and we're excited because not only is it a place for you to connect with other like-minded believers, all of our resources there, past podcasts, education materials, articles, all of it's there, and you can share it and ask questions. You can go check it out. The link is in the description below.