#318 - Joby Martin // Gospel First

Welcome to the Daily Blade. The word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary

spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin

and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

All right, day five of this week in Galatius chapter four. I mean, we just finished

Galatius chapter four yesterday. I'm going to do something a little bit different. This is one

of the things I like to do when I'm studying a book of the Bible is do a little bit of recap

because sometimes we can get so focused on a few verses that we missed the forest for the trees.

So here are just a few action steps or takeaways that just personally I have so far from the first

four chapters of the book of Galatius. Number one is this gospel, gospel, gospel, gospel. You got

to know it. You got to read it. You got to recite it. You got to repeat it. You got to hear it.

You've got to constantly preach the gospel to yourself. Consider this. If the Galatians

that received the gospel from the Apostle Paul himself, if they could be tricked, if they could

be tempted to say it's Jesus plus something that equals my salvation, then so can you and I.

And we live in a world that thinks and teaches and preaches that our performance comes before

the verdict that if we do good, then maybe a good God will let us into his heaven and you we've

have to war against that. That all that is required for your salvation, all that the gospel requires

is repentance and faith. That's it. And I know you're like, you have a what about obedience?

The gospel does not require it. The gospel produces it. Number two, this is from Galatians 1-10.

Are you seeking the approval of man or of God? Paul says that. Yes, that very question. Am I now

seeking the approval of man or of God? For if I am seeking the approval of man, I cannot be a

servant of Christ. The third thing I want to remind you that we've been over is you have to war

against anyone or anything that would bewitch you, that would take you away from the gospel.

Because if you move away from the gospel, you move away from Jesus. And this is so, so, so very

important is that we have to stay gospel centered in anyone that is trying to drag you away by

adding anything to the gospel, then may they be a curse. And then the fourth thing that we just

talking about this week is that you are not a slave, but you were a son. So if you have put your

faith in Jesus Christ, then you are not a slave to your sin that your old desires do not get to

tell you who you are. Only Jesus gets to tell you who you are. The old you is dead. You have

been resurrected to a newness of life in Christ Jesus. So when the enemy tries to tempt you with

those old things and you just remind him, I don't have to do the things I used to do because I'm not

the person that I used to be. I am alive in Christ. Nor are you a slave to religion, religious

tradition. Listen, religious traditions can be incredible as long as you understand their

means to an end and the end is your relationship with Jesus Christ. And you were not a slave to the

rules. No, no, no, no. The rules were given to us as a babysitter, but once you have been adopted

into the family of God, then the love of Christ compels us to live in obedience to his word.

You are free to live out your faith as a son in God's family. Now this is not a license to sin.

Don't be dumb. This is freedom from it. You see, we don't get to work to push back darkness

in order to earn our acceptance before God, but because Christ has rescued us and redeemed us

and adopted us and deposited his spirit on the inside of us out of a love for Christ, because

Christ first loved us, we are compelled to go to work for our Heavenly Father because he has

called us to join him in pushing back darkness in this world. Please don't ever get those things

reversed. Again, I said it this week already. You are not primarily a tool in the hand of God,

nor are you primarily even a soldier in the army of God. You are primarily a son in the family

of God. And we are about the family's business that we are saved by grace through faith and we're

not saved by works. Let's know one boast. Although we are God's workmanship and God had an idea

in us. And when he saved us, he had a work that he was calling us to. But us fulfilling that

assignment is not a precursor to God choosing us. It is because of God's great love for us,

even though we were dead in our trespasses, that he gave his only begotten son, Jesus Christ,

he knows you, he knows all of you, he loves you anyway. So receive the free gift of the grace of

salvation offered by Christ and then let that free gift of salvation compel you to leverage everything

you have, to expand God's kingdom, to share the good news of the gospel, to push back darkness

all the glory of God, amen. Thank you for listening to today's episode. Before you go, if you

want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating

and review. Stay sharp.