30 - You Are Already Accepted – Stop Doubting Your Place in Christ

Johan Toet speaks into a deep struggle many believers experience: uncertainty about their acceptance before God.

The Gospel reveals a different reality. Through Jesus Christ, you are already accepted, already approved, and fully secure. This is not based on your effort, but on His finished work.

This episode will help you move from insecurity to confidence and from striving to rest in your identity in Christ.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to One Gospel, bringing you the full truth of God's Word. Clearly explained. Together with our host, Johann Tuit, we'll unpack scripture to understand what's written and grow as a disciple of Christ. Ready to take notes? Let's open the Bible.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Hi there and welcome to today's episode of One Gospel. I'm your host, Johan Tut, and as always, I'm excited to share the Word of God with you. So I have started this teaching on, you know, because of you. It's the title. And you know, basically I just I just started with my own testimony how I felt so unworthy, you know, after I accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. I felt I felt so many times unworthy, you know, to be called his son, you know, to receive his love, you know, just to just to accept the fact that he loves me and that he's not angry with me and that he has forgiven me everything, like each and everything. There's nothing that God didn't forgive, he gave forgave everything. And it was so hard for me to accept. It was so hard for me to accept that he just loves me based on who he is and not who based on who I am. And so I didn't have a full understanding of it, and it's very, it's very difficult to comprehend even the love of God because you know it goes ways goes way over our head, you know, and just but for you to receive that and accept that will change your life. But uh, you know, I felt very, very miserable, and I know it's lies from the enemy, you know, and I know it's not from the Lord, but it doesn't mean that I didn't have that until I understood finally, you know, the love of God and the grace of God and accepted it in my life. It changed me, but you know, it took a while, you know, I mean, maybe years, you know, before I truly could understand and could receive, you know, that I felt so many times unworthy, you know, and um, but I'm now worthy in Christ Jesus, amen. I'm worthy based on the sacrifice that Jesus uh brought for me. But I didn't feel always like that, you know, and so I really had to renew my mind with the word of God and get a relationship with my father to understand that it's completely the opposite, you know, that I am worthy based on what Jesus has done for me, and I'm now righteous in the eyes of God. With his righteousness, I've been made righteous. Amen. And so, but Paul, I took a Paul as an example. Paul also said, you know, that like uh you know, I am the least of all the apostles. I'm not worthy to be called an apostle because I've persecuted the church of God. He, Paul, you know, he had a lot of things to boast in. He had a lot of things, you know. I had nothing to boast in. Man, I was stripped from everything that I was and everything that I had, and I was in my prison clothes on the floor, you know, in my prison cell. You know, my number was number five, and number five was laying on the floor crying his eyeballs out because he had an encounter with the living God, and I knew I have nothing to boast for. I messed up everything big time, you know. And so Paul already felt unworthy, even though Paul he said, you know, I'm from the tribe of Benjamin, you know, I am from the house of Israel, you know, I am from what the law, I'm a Pharisee, you know, and if there's any righteousness in the law, I've been blameless, you know, I've been a persecutor of the church and all these things, you know. I've been I've been circumcised on the eighth day. You know, Paul says, you know, if anybody wants to boast, I've got even more to boast. So Paul had things to boast about. I had nothing to boast about. So if Paul already felt unworthy, you know, uh, even though he had a lot to boast about, but he counted everything as rubbish, then how much more I should feel unworthy when I had nothing to boast about, amen. But Paul says it doesn't matter whether you did a lot or did nothing, you know, it doesn't matter how many good works of performance you have, it doesn't matter how many good things you have written down on your slate to show, listen, this is all that I did, you know, it doesn't matter whether you did nothing or he did everything, everything, everything is rubbish. You know, if it comes, you know, to winning Christ, if it comes to become good with in good standing with God, if it comes for you to be righteous before God and be made righteous with his righteousness. And so Paul says, you know, I want to be made righteous with his righteousness, not my righteousness, who is in the law of in works, but in his righteousness, which is by grace, by grace through faith. And so uh, you know, I took these examples and I shared on that, you know, and then um I also said, you know, that what we received in Christ Jesus, we have received freely. And freely means freely that you haven't, you don't didn't have to do anything for it, because there's a lot of brothers and sisters that I know that are not sure of their salvation. They are afraid they can lose it or they think they can earn it to keep it. So they received it by grace, but now they have to earn it to keep it. And so both of them, they are not sure whether they're gonna be saved or whether they're not gonna be saved, which is a horrible, horrible, horrible state to be in. But I understand because I have felt like that also, because I felt truly, truly unworthy. And so I said that there is only one gospel that we need to believe, and it's only one gospel that that will deliver us from those ideas, that will deliver us from that feeling of unworthiness, that that part of unworthiness that that was that will deliver us, you know, from thinking that we should add anything to it, or we can add anything to it, or that we have to deserve it ourselves, or that we can lose it. There's only one gospel that set us free from that, and that's the gospel that Jesus preached, and that's the gospel that Paul preached. That Jesus died on the that Jesus died for our sins, and that he was buried and rose again on the third day, that he is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by him. And that we are saved by grace through faith. You know, it's it's unmerited favor. We can't deserve it. It's just a gift, and we all we have to do is to believe to receive. And so basically, that's where I stayed in the previous episode, and you know, I will continue in this one, just where we left off. So, Father God, thank you for this teaching, and I pray it's gonna be a blessing for those who hear and to give you all the honor in the name of Jesus. Amen. Amen. So I've been reading from Romans 3:21, 24, and there it says that the righteousness of God, apart from the law, is being revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe. So you believe, and then you will receive the righteousness of God that is apart from the law. And there is no difference. Doesn't matter who you are, whether you're gonna be Paul, whether you're gonna be me, you know, it doesn't matter who you are, there is no difference, for all have sinned and all fall short of the glory of God. But all of us have been justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Freely, freely, and you really got to tell yourself that word like a million times. Just say to yourself, man, I received freely. I have received freely. I don't have to do anything, I cannot do anything, there is nothing I can deserve because it's all grace, unmerited favor. It has been freely, and you really get to get that into your system. You really have to renew your mind with that word freely, you know, it was freely. So every time you feel unworthy, every time you know you think that you messed up, you just say to yourself, no, freely. I received it freely, so I can I can mess it up. I'll get to that point. But that's the gospel that we need to preach, amen. And so if we are if we come to Christ through faith, if we if we come to become a son of God through faith, right, we put our faith in the grace. If we if we come to him by faith, if we come through Christ to the Father and we are saved by grace through faith, Ephesians 2 8, it says that you know we are justified by grace through faith, and that's not of us, it's the gift of God, not of works, so that no one would boast, right? So if we are being made righteous before God through faith, by grace, why in earth's name do we try to add anything to what Christ has done for us? Why in earth's name would we do that? That's not the gospel that uh Paul preached to us, that's not the gospel that Christ preached to us, it's a different gospel, it's another gospel. But the truth is, there is no other gospel. There is no other gospel. Let's go and read with me in Galatians 1, and I know many of you probably have heard this, but let's go there anyway. Amen. Galatians 1. You know, when I was preaching just in the beginning of my ministry, I was preaching and then, you know, I had preached something, and then I thought I should never preach about it again because you know I don't want to feel fall into repeating, you know, myself. You know, but then the Lord showed me. He says, Well, then you can throw away the Bible. And I said, Well, what do you mean, Lord? He says, Because you know, you read you read it once, you know, and so you it doesn't have to repeat itself, right? I said, Well, I didn't understand everything, and you know, there's so much to learn, and every time I discover new things, he says, exactly. He says, My word never changed, so you have to repeat my word on and on and on and on and on, just as long as it's necessary for people and yourself to understand fully and who you are in me, who I am in you, what you may do in me, and to teach and to be able to teach others about it and disciple others about it. And so you need to repeat it over and over and over and over and over again. And so, since that day, you know, I I am not afraid to repeat myself, you know, or to go over things again and again and again, because it will make uh will help people to understand, and it also always will give new things, new insights, you know, to people. And so, Galatians 1 6, which you probably already heard, but it's good to hear it again, amen. Galatians 1 6 says, I marvel that you are turning away so soon from him who called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel. Paul says, I marvel that you so soon are turning away from God who called you in the grace of Christ, and that you do that to turn to another gospel. You know, so where was it that you had put your faith, you know, to a different gospel, which is not another? There is no other gospel. There is no other gospel, but let's continue reading. But there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. How do they want to pervert it? To tell you that you also need to do this and you also need to do that. Yeah, it's true, you're saved by grace, but now you have to do all these things and keep all these commands, you know, and you have to, you know, be holy and walk holy and do holy and do this and do that and do that. If not, you're still gonna lose your salvation. If you don't bear any fruit for the kingdom of God, then you will lose your salvation. Jesus will, God will cut you off and throw you into the fire. That's what the Bible teaches in John 15. And so you have to do all these things, otherwise you're gonna lose it. You see, so they try to pervert the gospel of Christ, because that is that is not the gospel, that is not the good news of the gospel, where you have to deserve it yourself, or where you can lose it, where you're not sure you're saved or not saved, where you're not sure about your salvation. But he says, but even if we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you, preach any other news to you, then that what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. Wow, powerful stuff. As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you and to what you have received, let him be accursed. And Paul says, this is strong language, you know, but Paul got so upset because the Galatians, you know, they received by faith, you know, they received the grace, they received Paul, you know, as even if he was Christ himself, then he then they saw Christ being crucified before their eyes, you know, um the way that he shared them the truth. And he says, This this gospel that I've preached to you, you know, this gospel that I've preached to you, you know, did you receive, you know, the Spirit by works? Did you receive that grace by works? Did you receive the gospel by works, you know, or did you get it by faith? So how do you think that you now should do anything to keep it, earn it, deserve it, or add anything to it? Oh, foolish Galatians, he says, who have bewitted you, who have bewitched you. I don't know how to say in English. Are you so foolish? You've begun in the spirit, now being made perfect by the flesh, Galatians 2 3, verse 2. Have you suffered so many things in vain? Indeed, it was in vain. Therefore, he who supplies the spirit to you and works miracles among you, does he do it by works of the law or by the hearing of faith? You know? So you received it by grace. Now you're gonna listen to another gospel that says that you need to do anything, that you need to add to it. Are you foolish? Are you stupid? You know, that's what Paul says. You know, and so don't try to add anything that has been given to grace, uh given to you by grace. Don't try to earn what you have received in grace in unmerited favor. Don't do that. If you do that, it's a problem because now, also again, this is also a very tricky verse, but I'm gonna share them anyway. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace. Galatians 5, 4. You have become estranged from Christ, who you who attempt, attempt, because you can never make it to be justified by law, you have fallen from grace. Now, and there's a lot to teach on also, but I'm not gonna go too deep in it. It's just to make a point, you know, that you know, when you when you try to earn it yourself, then grace has no use for you. You know, it you can't use grace if you try to earn it yourself, because then it's no longer grace. And so, you know, you come you become estranged from Christ means, you know, that you know, Christ stands for grace. Christ stands for the finished work of his, you know, of his sacrifice, the finished work of Jesus Christ, by whom we are saved, through his blood. And so, you know, this is we can only receive by faith through grace. And so the moment you're gonna strike to, the moment you're gonna try to earn it yourself, you you turn away from the grace. And then you're gonna try to earn it yourself, which you can't. And that means you are fallen from grace because now it's no longer grace. Now you start, now you are trying to earn it. Don't do that. Don't be silly. You know, don't try to earn it yourself. You know, you have to choose whether you're gonna you wanna be uh righteous before God based on your own performance and your dead works, or you want to be righteous before God with his righteousness, which is through Christ Jesus. You have to choose whether you're gonna do it by works or you're gonna do it by grace, by faith. You know, he says, today I place before you death and life, curse and blessing. Now, choose life, choose blessing. Don't choose curse, which is by the law, and don't choose death, which is by law. You know, just choose life. You are what you are, and you have what you have by grace. You didn't do anything to get it, and there's nothing you can do to lose it. Nothing. It is grace. The Bible says in Romans 11 29, he says the gifts and the callings of God, the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. They are irrevocable. Now, irrevocable means that you cannot revoke it. It's not to turn around. He doesn't repent. Some other translation says he doesn't repent. God doesn't repent, you know, over the fact that he called you from your darkness into his wondrous light. He doesn't repent that he has sent his son to die for you so that you could live. He doesn't repent that he washed you in the blood of his son. He doesn't repent that he pulled out your sin nature and gave you a nature that is identical to the nature of God. He doesn't repent of making your body a temple of the Holy Spirit. He doesn't repent to bless you with all spiritual blessings. He doesn't repent of the fact that he has blessed you with the blessing of Abraham. He doesn't repent from the fact that he made you holy, pure, and blameless before him in love. He doesn't repent that he called you and that he is calling, that he called you out of darkness, and that he's calling you his son in whom he is well pleased. He doesn't repent from the fact that you that he made you an heir of the kingdom of God. He doesn't repent, you know, that he calls you his son. He doesn't repent. God doesn't repent. He knew what he did, he knew what he was doing when he gave his son for you while you were yet a sinner. He knew what he did. And he doesn't repent. He doesn't repent. And he also knew how many times you would mess it up after you repented, after you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, after you became a child of the living God, he knew exactly how many times you will still mess it up. He knew because God knows everything. He's the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega. You know, He's here, He's there, and everything in the middle. There's no time with God. He knew exactly every step and every mistake that you would still do, commit, make. Know how many times you will fall flat on your face because you're just a dumb, just like me, you know. I wanted to say something else, but that's not Christian. You know, just you know that you're a fool to make all these mistakes. He knew already, but it didn't keep him from sending his son to die for you. It didn't keep him, you know, it didn't keep Christ to die for you at the cross. It didn't keep him to do that, to give his son to die for you while you were yet a sinner. Because it was it never was and it never will be based on your performance, based on your goodness. Never it's based on what Jesus did has done for you, not what you can do for him, not how good you are, but how good he is. Man, that's powerful stuff. It's really something that really needs to get into your, you know, into your heart and to your mind. You really need to get a hold of this. It's never been based on your performance and your dead works. It's always has been based on the grace of God, on the goodness of God, on his mercy. Now, trying to add will diminish the finished work of Christ. That's what I always say, you know. It's like if I want to, if I want to do something to add something, or do something to earn something, do something to receive something, you know, that Jesus already has paid for and established through his death and his resurrection, that he already had have paid for when he gave himself at the cross, for me to to to try to do that would diminish the sacrifice that Jesus gave, the which would diminish the price that he has paid for you and for me. Because by that you are actually saying that what Christ did for you wasn't enough. That's what you're saying. You're saying, no, Lord, you know it's amazing what you did, and you went the whole way. You you you you know you came far, but it wasn't enough. Now I also have to add something to it. I also have to do something, and I also have to earn something. If you do that, you diminish the finished work of Christ, you diminish what he made available for you through his resurrection, you know, and the finished work and through grace. And so, you know, and you know, um I want to go into a point that I believe that will really shake a lot of people. And I don't know if I get to get to the end of it within this episode, so I will continue in the next one, because many people will not agree with me. There will be many, many people that will not agree with me. But I believe once you are saved, you are always saved. Now I'm gonna let that sink in for a moment. But actually, instead of thinking, what I should rejoice if I were you. Once saved, always saved. Now let's quickly go to Hebrews 6. I'm really gonna do my best to see if I can finish it within this episode. Hebrews 6. Hebrews 6 it says here it says in verse 4 it is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away to renew them again to repentance, since they crucified again for themselves the Son of God and put him open to shame. Now, this one, together with uh Hebrews 10 verse 26, are verses there are used a lot to tell people, you see, you can lose your salvation. Verse 26, uh Hebrews 10, verse 26, for if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversities, adversaries. People use these verses and put a lot of fear into the hearts of my fellow brothers and sisters. And it's not right. It's not right. First of all, what Paul here is talking about is someone that is an adult growing up uh adult Christian who walks in all the fullness of God, who has tasted you know the heavenly gifts there who were enlightened and because. Partakers of the Holy Spirit, they have tasted and received the good word of God, and they have seen and tasted and experienced the powers of the age to come. Now, let me just ask you this. You who maybe are not yet walking in that fullness, you don't walk in raising the dead, casting out demons, healing the sick, tasting all the goodness, you know, or you know, are flooded, you know, through the presence of the Holy Spirit because you have such an intimate relationship with Him and you know the Word by from God by heart, and you just know and know and know who you are. And mean you just walk in that fullness. You're like a general of the kingdom of God, you know. And and you you you are not there yet. You are just like in the beginning, you know. We just start to understand who we are in Christ. We just understand, you know, who he is for us, you know, and and what he asks from us, you know, and all these things. We just start to understand. You know, you in that state where you are now, would you ever consider to renounce Jesus? Would you ever consider to say, you know, I don't want this anymore, it's not for me. I mean, I'm I'm talking about, you know, you feeling unworthy and all this kind of things, which you know we are talking about, but I'm not talking about that kind of stuff, or you know, you committed sin or things like that, which I will get into also. But you know, it's nearly to be impossible for someone who truly knows Jesus, who has an intimate relationship with Jesus, who had this supernatural encounter with Jesus through the Holy Spirit, who has tasted of his goodness, who has tasted of his grace and his unmerited favor, who has tasted and have seen those supernatural things, you know, who have tasted and has an intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit. It's almost impossible to think that someone like that would renounce it. Impossible. That someone would say, I don't want that anymore. I mean, I can I cannot even imagine. It's like near to impossible. But let's say that someone would be so mentally ill that he would do that, that somebody would be so led astray by the enemy, which is nearly impossible if you know who you know and you know the word of God, but you know, that goes so far and fall away. You know, that that person, it says, it's not that God doesn't want him anymore and that God doesn't love them anymore. That's not what it says. Look what it says. It is impossible for those to renew them again to repentance. That means that they themselves, once they have fallen away from something that they were so close and be so involved in, for them to come to repentance again. They won't repent anymore, they won't turn back to the Lord anymore once they make this life-changing decision to renounce it. Doesn't mean that God doesn't love you anymore, that He doesn't want you anymore. So they they twisted it and said, you know, listen, if you have tasted of all these things and then you turn away, you know, then God doesn't, then you are not no longer a son. It's impossible for you to become a son again. No, you are a son of God. His callings and his gifts are without repentance and are irrevocable. It's, you know, if you if you revoke it, you know, after you have done all this and been all there, you know, and been so adult, and you revoke it, you know, you will never come back to repentance again. Not it's not God, it's you. And so this is not about you losing your salvation. If you make a mess of it, if you make a mistake of it, you know, if you if you said, No, I'm tired of it, I don't want to know nothing of it anymore. Don't talk to me about it anymore because you're just angry because you don't understand fully or comprehend fully, you know, who Christ is and what he has done for you. You don't have that full comprehension, you know, and you're just angry for a while, you know, and you come back to God, you know, nothing changed. God is still the same, his grace is still the same, you're still his child. You were just a foolish child that walked away and stood and lived in his flesh for a little while, you know, and you come back to God, you know, and he loves you, he's still there, he's never gonna leave you nor forsake you. That's what the Bible teaches me. This is for somebody who doesn't want it himself. You cannot bring that person back to repentance because he knew what he left. You will never come back to that, you know. And so, anyway, I don't have time enough to just get into all that. I'm already in my 26th minute. Well, I will continue this in the next episode. So please bear with me, and I'm gonna see you again in a new episode of the One Gospel. God bless you. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_00 26:22

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