Have you ever found yourself pondering whether the road to salvation is a one-time event or a lifelong journey? Join me, JJ, as we navigate through the complex and beautiful landscape of biblical salvation and doctrine. This episode springs from a sun-kissed question out of California, leading us to scrutinize the widely debated notion of "once saved, always saved." Together, we'll examine scriptural passages from Paul, Jesus, and others that indicate salvation isn't a mere moment in time but an enduring commitment, a continuous walk with God.
Embark with me on an exploration of what it means to be 'born again,' delving into the profound conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus presented in John Chapter 3. We shed light on the indispensable act of baptism, a sacrament so significant that not even Jesus exempted Himself from it. Our journey doesn't stop there; we consider the diverse impressions Jesus made on His disciples and the repercussions of these perceptions, as revealed in Matthew Chapter 16. It's an examination not just of salvation as a concept, but as a vibrant, everyday dedication to embodying God's will.
As our expedition draws to a close, we celebrate the seminal moment of the church's inception, ignited by Peter's declaration of Jesus as the Christ and the Holy Spirit's descent in Acts Chapter 2. Without the need for a guest, I take you through the transformative Pentecost sermon that sparked the faith of the masses, laying the groundwork for the early Christian community. Wrapping up, I express profound gratitude for your unwavering support and tease the thrilling prospect of bringing our conversations to life through video. This episode isn't just a lesson; it's an invitation to enrich your faith and deepen your understanding of the living word.
Have you ever found yourself pondering whether the road to salvation is a one-time event or a lifelong journey? Join me, JJ, as we navigate through the complex and beautiful landscape of biblical salvation and doctrine. This episode springs from a sun-kissed question out of California, leading us to scrutinize the widely debated notion of "once saved, always saved." Together, we'll examine scriptural passages from Paul, Jesus, and others that indicate salvation isn't a mere moment in time but an enduring commitment, a continuous walk with God.
Embark with me on an exploration of what it means to be 'born again,' delving into the profound conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus presented in John Chapter 3. We shed light on the indispensable act of baptism, a sacrament so significant that not even Jesus exempted Himself from it. Our journey doesn't stop there; we consider the diverse impressions Jesus made on His disciples and the repercussions of these perceptions, as revealed in Matthew Chapter 16. It's an examination not just of salvation as a concept, but as a vibrant, everyday dedication to embodying God's will.
As our expedition draws to a close, we celebrate the seminal moment of the church's inception, ignited by Peter's declaration of Jesus as the Christ and the Holy Spirit's descent in Acts Chapter 2. Without the need for a guest, I take you through the transformative Pentecost sermon that sparked the faith of the masses, laying the groundwork for the early Christian community. Wrapping up, I express profound gratitude for your unwavering support and tease the thrilling prospect of bringing our conversations to life through video. This episode isn't just a lesson; it's an invitation to enrich your faith and deepen your understanding of the living word.
Speaker 1:
Oh, everybody, and welcome to today's episode of walk with me. I am your host. Jj is so good to have each and every one of you here with us today, with me today. Today is a wonderful day and God made it and we're going to be glad in it. Don't care how good or bad the day goes, that's just how it's going to be. Just be glad that we have the day. Hey man, so good to have each and every one of you.
Speaker 1:
Thank you so much for you new people who are listening, people who are coming back, people who are sharing, people who are sending us questions and we are going to deal with a question today that came from a listener. Thank you so much. I know you could be listening to any other podcasts out there there's so many but you've chosen to listen to this and I am internally humble and grateful for you guys to listen. Thank God for each and every one of you. I keep forgetting that we've been doing this now over two years, but it's just. I'm just thankful and, yes, we are. We are thinking about going to the video format. We're just waiting for God to tell us when or if to do it. It's always good to stay in the will of God, right? Okay, quick shout out to our sponsors and squids, the creations helping us with promotional products and and very soon I'll be including, especially if we do decide to go live We'll have links to order certain you know, swag and stuff like that for the show. Also, for two bars and lyricists who has helped me out so much with audio equipment the first mic I when I first got the equipment I didn't know what to buy and it kind of sounded like I didn't know what to buy, but I noticed in the huge improvement in the audio quality and I hope it is better for you guys on your end. Doesn't matter how it feels to me, just hopefully that is better on your end. Thank you so much for two bars. Thank you again for each one of you who are listening. Thank you, big shout out for those who are sending their Bible questions, their biblical questions, to walk with me Bible study at Gmail. Walk with me Bible study at Gmail. And today's show is going to come from a listener who sent us a question. So what is the question? As we got to get right into it, because this actually a little bit more involved than it sounded on the surface. So I had a listener in California. Didn't give me permission to use his name, so I'm just going to say he's in California, okay, so he had a. We had a question about what is salvation Now, being that that's a very simple question, is actually an overbroad question.
Speaker 1:
And reason why it's an overbroad question because so many people have different ideas of what salvation is. Some people think that once you are saved, you are completely saved, like there's nothing else you have to worry about. You know, forget the fact that Paul contradicts this, this thinking, this theology, in 1 Corinthians, 9 and 26 and 27, which specifically reads I therefore so run, not as uncertainly, so fight I, not as one who beats the air, but I keep my under my body and bring it into subjection. Less that by any means, when I have free stillness, I, my shelf, should be a cast away. So this kind of gives us an idea that there is no such thing as once saved, always saved. And there are a lot of other scriptures, like in Matthew, where Jesus talks about how the home was swept and garnished but it was empty. But the unclean spirit that had been cast out came back and it brought seven worse with it. Also in Revelation, as you hear, you see scriptures where Jesus said I will come unto you and remove your candlestick. So there is no biblical suggestion, there's no biblical basis for once saved, always saved. And now we got that out the way we got that out. We got that settled. Let's talk about what is saved.
Speaker 1:
The biggest problem with that is that there are so many people with so many different doctrines, and some doctrines are not even biblical, like one of the churches I grew up with. It was like you receive the right hand of fellowship, what? And so you basically came up and you shook the preacher's hand and by golly you were saved. And then you went right back out the same way you came in. Now, this is not biblical. As a matter of fact, when Jesus started preaching, the first thing he said was Repent where the kingdom of heaven is at hand. But he still did not teach the full salvation right from the beginning. He just said repent where the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So basically we have the first step of salvation is right there, repent so. And this came right after he got baptized in the John's baptism, which is the baptism of what? That's right repentance. So in addition to that we also have other doctrines where people will take verses like John 3, 16.
Speaker 1:
And they say well, you know what, as long as you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're saved. Well, that sort of leaves something out. And the reason why it leaves something out is because if you believe that someone, if you believe on someone or believe in someone, then whatever they say you will do. You believe in your doctor, someone. Your doctor says to cut your cholesterol. You cut your cholesterol. You don't just say I believe in my doctor and then stop at Wendy's, burger King, mcdonald's and the local barbecue joint on the way home. That's not how that works, but yet somehow we can. We attribute salvation to this sort of logic. Yeah, I believe Jesus exists, but I'm going to act like he doesn't. I believe he exists and I'm just going to do my own thing and sort of hope, hopefully I get saved, hopefully I do more good things and I do bad things and somehow make it to heaven.
Speaker 1:
There's a sort of popular belief that there's a purgatory which is nowhere in the Bible, but people will pull scriptures out and put them together and say that there's a purgatory and you can somehow earn your way out of purgatory, which doesn't make sense, because the only way you can get into purgatory is when you're dead. So there's nothing biblical that suggests that you can somehow earn your way out of purgatory. But there are people who have built entire doctrines around one scripture about being in Abraham's bosom or being under the throne, which is purgatory or something. And you also have other theologies where you take Romans 8 and 9, for instance, which is another belief in the Lord, jesus Christ, but now you're confessing it with your mouth and somehow just that act alone will save you.
Speaker 1:
One of the things that happens here with these various doctors and not just touched on some of the more popular ones, but some of the things that touch on these doctrines and some of the things that's wrong with these doctrines is that we take the scripture and we don't have the context in the scripture, we don't have what those scriptures are really saying, and then, because we decide, or Preacher so-and-so, or pastor so-and-so, or doctor, deacon, theologian, so what, or you know whatever title you want to add so-and-so says hey, um, this is what it takes to be saying. We don't take any effort to Look at the scripture, or even because we give it no more than a moment start we, we don't really care, so we just say, okay, well, pastor, so-and-so, that pastor, that church, that pastor has such a huge church, he's got like 40,000 members. He must be saying something, but then if you listen to his sermons, there's no fire, there's no conviction. He's not preaching, he's only preaching like one or two verses out of the Bible. You can almost guess where he's going just by the color suites wearing, because he's gonna preach one or two things. It's gonna be our motivation on Jesus loves you and Jesus loves you and Jesus loves you and Jesus loves you and Jesus loves you, and it doesn't matter how bad you are, jesus loves you and Jesus loves you and Jesus loves you. And then see you all next week. Don't forget to put your offering in the door, in the box, on the way out. Now, this is true that Jesus loves you. As a matter of fact, the reason why we know Jesus loves us is because he Hung on the cross and died for each one of us. Let's get that straight. Let's get that straight.
Speaker 1:
But before he did that, he did a lot of preaching about a lot of different things. He taught us how to live our live for our fellow, live with our fellow men, how to live for God, and what was right and what was wrong. And then, after the crucifixion, after he Rose again and ascended into heaven, he sent out apostles to carry on what he was doing. So so we're going to start and we're going to get to where salvation is now.
Speaker 1:
Let me just go back to something I was saying earlier about salvation. No One saved always. Saved is not a valid doctrine. Getting and this is why, if you hear me, um, if you hear me talking about it I generally don't use the term saved because saved is a past tense. So, like um, I ran to the store. That means I'm, I'm already back from the store, it's already done, so it's it's done, it's a done deal. So saved is a past tense.
Speaker 1:
But what I will say is that I'm living for God. Or I'm trying to live for God, or I'm doing my best to live for God, or I'm struggling with this thing, but I am still living for God, because my goal is to be saved is when I mean God calls me home. I have fulfilled everything that God has told me to do In order to make it to heaven, because that is where you are saved, when those prote gates click behind you. That is when you are saved. When that trumpet shout, that trumpet sounds and and you find yourself going up, lifting up off the ground and transformed into a spiritual being. That's when you are saved. After before that you, you are just in transit. You're like a ups package You've been packaged, you've been shipped and you are in transit. And that's what we are. We are on the road to living for God, on our road to heaven, and that's where. That's where the whole walk with me concept came from, in case you were wondering. So let's get started. We got a lot of ground to cover. I'm hoping to get everything done. If I have to carry into a, to carry into a next session, I will, but here's where we go. We're gonna start in John chapter three. Now, the reason why we're starting at John chapter three is because this is where Jesus first laid out the entire Plum alone salvation, all right, so Real quick.
Speaker 1:
Nicodemus was a Pharisee and a priest, but Nicodemus had something in his heart. They actually yearned for the things of God rather than the things of man. So what he did is he came to Jesus and said hey, you know what I think? You really are A teacher, come from God, like he still couldn't understand the fact that this was actually God manifested in flesh. So, but he still said, um. He still said you know, you, a teacher, come from God. Nobody can do the things that you do, except God sent him, except God be with him. And Jesus brushed all that aside, he didn't even address anything. He said in verse three, barely, barely I say unto thee, accept the man be born with the water, except the man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1:
And Nicodemus proceeds to answer him a With a rhetorical question. That was only rhetorical in part, because now Nicodemus is curious, he wasn't. He wasn't like most of these other Pharisees who were just trying to get Jesus tripped up on his words. He said how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter to the second times of the mother's womb and be born?
Speaker 1:
Jesus said in verse five, barely, barely, I say unto thee, accept the man be born of water and of spirit. He cannot enter the kingdom of God. And he goes on to explain that If a man is born a flesh, he is flesh, that which is born of the spirit, of spirit. Now let me stop right there. There are some people who will tell you being born of the water is when your water breaks and you come out of your mother. That is not what being born of the water is, and we'll explore that Because, remember now, if that was the case, jesus had no reason to be baptized. He had no reason to be baptized because that's what the being born of the water is is being baptized. So when Jesus realized that, nicodemus well, when Nicodemus realized that what Jesus was saying, he said how can these things be? And Jesus went on into this conversation where he was saying you should know better, because You're ascribing of the speed of the gospel in Israel, you should know these things.
Speaker 1:
But there then, now we have an understanding that Nicodemus, while he was Doing his duties, was really trying to figure out what, where he was supposed to be doing, what, what Doctor, and that he was holding was missing some things. Then we looked at Matthew, chapter 16 I'm verse, we're gonna start at 15 and when he was basically telling, asking the disciples who he was. Hey guys, who do you think I am? Some say, oh yeah, you're a prophet. I'm saying you're Isaiah. Some say you're this. But who do you say that I am.
Speaker 1:
And Peter stood now as the Christ, the Son of the living God. And one thing I love about Peter is that Peter did not miss his words at all at all. But this was what actually. This is what actually led to the authority being presented unto Peter. Let's art that, well, jesus said of him. Let's start that, simon Barjona, for flesh and blood have not revealed it to you, but my father, which is in heaven, and I say also unto thee thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my church and the gates of hell. So not prevailed against it. And here's, you is the other important part I will give up to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou shall bind on earth to be bound in heaven, whatsoever shall now loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. And but then Jesus said hey, don't tell anybody, I'm that, I'm the Christ.
Speaker 1:
So this revelation was to be held by Peter. Until a certain point, the authority and the formula of salvation was given to Peter. But Peter had no idea what he had said, because Jesus said my father revealed this to you. So I'm going to build my church on this standard here. I'm going to build my church on this doctrine here and I'm going to let you know. You have the keys because you understand the revelation that God has given you, even if it's only in part. So if Peter understood what the revelation well, if Peter was given the revelation, even if he only understood it in part, and Jesus said except a man be born in the water and of the spirit to get he won't see the kingdom of God, then where does all this come together? Now, this comes together in Acts, chapter 2.
Speaker 1:
Now, remember, acts is where the entire church started. Before that, except for this verse in Matthew, the word church did not exist, the concept of church did not exist. But in Acts, the entire book of Acts is when the church was born into the world. Now let me pause right here. It do not let anyone tell you that the something I got into it a couple weeks ago, maybe a week ago now. So some guy was telling me that the age of the age of apostles is gone. But if that's the case, then there will be no more church. And if there's no more church, then none of this is even relevant. But being that the church was started in the book of Acts and, more importantly, the birth of the church started in the second chapter of Acts.
Speaker 1:
Because now we have people being baptized unto repentance, which is being born of the water, but had no one had been born of the spirit yet. And if you notice, the word spirit is capitalized. Which the spirit are we talking about? We're talking about the holy spirit, the holy ghost. No one had had that experience. Now you've had people where the spirit of God had moved upon somebody. You had this situations where God touched somebody. You had situations where God, you know, directed people, but never had it had people been born of the spirit yet until Acts, chapter 2 and we're gonna, just for the sake of time, we're gonna go down to verse 4, 2 and 4 and they were all filled with the holy ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance. Now they were speaking to other tongues.
Speaker 1:
Now it does not say that they were all speaking the heavy language, heavenly language to them. All of them were not. Some of them were, and it's important to understand this because if you, if you don't understand this, then the Bible might seem to contradict you later on, when there were people from all over the world saying, hey, these people are from Galilee, but they're speaking in my language. But they weren't speaking. It is just that the holy ghost was so prevalent in that building that these people were beginning to understand the praises that were coming out of the people who had the holy ghost. I know it's a little bit of a twist, because these people were not in Jerusalem, maybe speaking Spanish, but they were speaking with the person who was on the other end of that was comprehending them in Spanish, but they were speaking in other tongues. They're speaking in heavenly tongues.
Speaker 1:
So, um, peter got up then because, you know, people were mocking. People were mocking the people who had just got the holy ghost and and yeah, um, there is such a thing as being drunk in the spirit, I know because the, the people who are observing them say, hey, man, these people are full of wine, they must be drunk. But Peter said hey, man, these guys are not drunk. This is only this, only nine o'clock in the morning. I know the Bible says third hour of the day, but Peter understands that the Jewish day starts at six am, not midnight like ours does. So six am, so it's only nine o'clock. They're not drunk yet, but this is what was spoken up by the prophet Joel.
Speaker 1:
And so we go down and eventually, at some point, the men who were standing there listening got convicted because they realized that they were a part of Jesus being crucified, they had a direct connection in it, and so, and then there were other things that convicted them too. So everything that, um, everything comes to this point, everything draws up to this point. This is where it happens. Peter says well, let me go back In verse thirty, that therefore, all the house of Israel know it surely, that God has made that same Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Thirty seven. I went and they had heard this, they were pricked in their heart, they had a conviction, they had a bad feeling, they felt like something, they needed to do something. And they said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles men and brother, what shall we do Now?
Speaker 1:
Peter used that opportunity, as Peter does, to just say exactly what God told him to say. God didn't tell him to hey, go and accept the Lord as your personal savior. God didn't say just believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and everything will be OK. God didn't say. Peter didn't say. God said just, you know, give me the right hand of fellowship. What he said was repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins can be remitted, because you have to repent to get them forgiven, and then get baptism in Jesus' name to get the remitted forgiven remitted Two different things and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. So now you have the burial, which is a repentance, but now you have born of the water and a rebirth in water and you get born in the spirit for the promises unto you and to your children that are all that are far off, even as many as Lord, our God, shall call.
Speaker 1:
Now you will go through in various parts in the book of Acts and we will cover them next session. We'll go through in a lot of different sections and you will see people have not even having heard there was a Holy Ghost. They were baptized into repentance and then they got the Holy Ghost and some people. But this is all in the book of Acts. So when we take a verse out of Romans, we take the verse out of Corinthians, we take a verse out of Hebrews, we take a verse out of Jude or 1 Peter or anything after the book of Acts. We ought to understand somewhere in our heads, somewhere in our heads, that everything from Romans to Jude was written to a church that was started in the book of Acts. That's where the church started.
Speaker 1:
So let's not get out of pocket here and say stuff like the age of apostles are gone and you can just believe in the Lord, jesus Christ. Remember now, if you are already in that church, you've already a part of the church. Then you've already repented of your sins and been baptized in Jesus' name and gotten the Holy Ghost. And we know you got the Holy Ghost because you were speaking in the tongues after the Spirit gives the utterance. Anyway, it was in Acts 2 and 4. Now, I'm not talking about that. This is kind of a fake hook on my side Time I tie and I drive a red Hyundai. That's not what we're talking about.
Speaker 1:
And once you get the Holy Ghost and for me to explain it here on this podcast without showing it and I would never do that because that's really bad, it's really bad form but once you get the Holy Ghost, you can tell who has the Holy Ghost and who doesn't, who just right in their mouth and who isn't. This is where it gets a little real. But you can speak in tongues and not have the Holy Ghost. I've seen people, just I don't know, I can't even I don't even want to call it speaking gibberish, and I've seen people who are literally like having the Spirit. Just I can't even explain it. It's like your spirit, your body is being rung out, almost because the Spirit of God is cleansing something out of you and it's coming out. Your spirit is crying out to God in other tongues. So in my other tongue we're not talking about Spanish or we're not talking about a heavenly language, and this is why you know, this is why it's not understandable.
Speaker 1:
Now, there are such things. Let me just let me just touch on this and we'll wrap it up for today. There's such a thing as tongues and interpretation. This is not what we're talking about. This acts a completely different thing, and I've only seen I've only seen that done about four times and I've had the Holy Ghost since off and on, because I I've actually for a while, but I I've had the Holy Ghost off and on since about 94 and I had I've only seen that about four times, and we could talk about that another subject.
Speaker 1:
But that's a completely different thing than you get in the Holy Ghost. Praying through and getting the Holy Ghost, yes, and I've never seen anybody Just just get it and just sit on the pew and fold their hands. I guess a wonderful thing. Life is so much better with it. It does different things to your level of faith and Stuff like that, but the idea is, once you, once you have done this, you've repented of your sins, you've been baptized in Jesus name and no, I did not say the name of the Father, Son, the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit, or no, I said in Jesus name, repented baptism in Jesus name at getting the Holy Ghost. Once you've done that, then you start your journey to salvation. The I, the the thing is now is to stay within the will of God and to stay out of sin and allow that Holy Ghost to guide you out of sin, things that you struggle with Until you actually make it to heaven, and then you're saved.
Speaker 1:
All right, once you get the Holy Ghost to get born again, you, you just started. You know living for God. You got a whole different Lifestyle to learn, just as if, when you were born of the natural, you were born of your mother. You took you several years to learn everything. So this is it. Don't feel away just because you know. You say you got the Holy Ghost and you don't know anything. That's just like a baby. You don't know anything. All you know is you got the Holy Ghost, your life has changed and you're on your way to heaven. That's it, that's all you got to know right now, and then that's when your daughter start teaching you. You have other resources, hopefully, and you know, maybe, maybe even this podcast will help you. That's just. This is what we believe. So, and because this is what the Bible says, this is exactly what the Bible says, and Taking other scriptures out of context is, it's always been a thing, and this, I guess this is why we always say in this book, in this podcast, we say Read a verse or two above, or the first or two below, but preferably the whole chapter.
Speaker 1:
Why? Because context is key. That's right. The key to the kingdom of heaven is the key to life. It's the key to understanding the word of God. It's the key to just everything that you want to believe in, to just everything that you want to look for, even even outside of Biblical Biblical world or church world, or I don't want to use the word religion. I don't want to say that because that's. Religion is so tainted nowadays. I stay away from those horses, excuse me. I stay away from the word religion. I stay away from the word saved. But just in your regular life, when you, when you hear someone say something of someone else, you should always ask yourself what is the context, and you should always be looking for the context, because that is key. All right, I hope that helped.
Speaker 1:
We will get more in depth to it. Um, and how the bible supports that. Um, that repentance, baptism in jesus name, getting the holy ghost. Matter of fact, next week we are going to take a a little bit more of a journey through the book of acts, um, and see where other churches were born. Um, and we will do that next week. But I know we're out of time right now.
Speaker 1:
Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for listening. Thank you, guys. I'm getting the donations. Thank you very much. Thank you, guys are so generous. Uh, yes, we will be going to a video format. I just don't know when. And, uh, I know I've. I've been talking about it for a long time and been kind of chickening it out for a long time, but I think god is telling me now it's time, so we will be working on that. Thank you so much. God bless you. Tell somebody that you love them, tell somebody that jesus loves them and know that for yourself that jesus loves you too. All right, all right, god bless you. All Love you. Bye.