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Steve Brown: Let's travel to Ephesus and Galatia on Key Life. This is Key Life. We're here to let you know that because of what Jesus has done, God will never be angry at you again. Jerry Perrys has been teaching us all this week. Jerry serves as pastor at Christian Family Worship Center House of Grace, and he's the author of The Making of a Blended Family.

Jerry: Thank you, Matthew. This has been a great week and I hate to see it come to an end because it's been fun.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Jerry: We're we're sitting down with Dr. Jerry Perrys. And he travels a lot, and a lot of people travel with him, and he goes to places where Paul ministered and from where and to where he writes his letters.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Jerry: You know, it wouldn't be a good trip if we don't go to Ephesus.

Steve Brown: Yes.

Jerry: Ephesians 2:8 and 9 or 1:8 and 9 3:8 and 9. I'm I'm not a navigator, I'm doing the best I can for by grace you have been saved.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Jerry: And through faith, that's the that's the message of Ephesians. Tell me about Ephesians.

Jerry: Yeah.

Steve Brown: Or about Ephesus.

Jerry: Yeah, in Ephesus when Jesus died on the cross and John Jesus looked at John and said, "Take care of my mother." The scripture doesn't say this directly, but we found out that Mary moved to Ephesus.

Steve Brown: Huh.

Jerry: And she had a home there. And when we went to Ephesus, which is in Turkey, we went to the home that Mary lived in.

Steve Brown: Oh, did you?

Jerry: Yeah. Went to the home that Mary lived in and the the the the neighborhood, the home, they said it was the home, but it looked like a church now. And it was just absolutely a beautiful place by the way that they said that she lived out her life there. And and it is where you know, again, that it was outside of Jerusalem, but where Paul went and preached to the church there.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Jerry: And really again, as you said, for by grace we have been saved through faith. Not of works, it is a gift from God.

Steve Brown: Ephesians 2:8 and 9. One of the great passages of the New Testament. Yeah. Jerry, I don't want to leave Ephesus, but I do want to go to Galatia.

Jerry: Yeah.

Steve Brown: And because you were there, tell us about that place, and then we'll look at what he had to say. By the way, interesting things must have happened there in Galatians 1:6. Paul says when he writes to them, "I marvel that you're turning away so soon from him who called you to the grace of Christ to a different gospel."

Jerry: Which is not another, but there'll be some that trouble you and pervert the gospel of Christ. You know what perverting the gospel of Christ is?

Steve Brown: What?

Jerry: Mixing law and grace together. Yeah. It is a perverted gospel. Telling people that you're saved by grace, but you got to do this.

Steve Brown: Yeah. That's true.

Jerry: You know. You you got to do that. Paul says that that's a perverted gospel. You're saved.

Steve Brown: He was pretty ticked about that, wasn't he?

Jerry: He really was. He said some things that I wouldn't have said.

Steve Brown: He really was.

Jerry: To the people at the Galatian church. He's this is what he said at the end of that. He says, "If anybody preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached," and by the way, the gospel they preached was grace.

Steve Brown: I know.

Jerry: He says, "Let them be accursed." He says, "If you're preaching law and grace together in God's eyesight, you're accursed."

Steve Brown: And he said it twice.

Jerry: That's heavy.

Steve Brown: He said, "Let me repeat myself."

Jerry: He said, "Let me repeat myself."

Steve Brown: That's so much for the nice Apostle Paul.

Jerry: Yeah, he was he was heavy on that. Man, the the cross alone is what saved you. Let me say that again. The cross alone is what saved you. You can't add anything to it. The finished work of the cross is what saved you. And so in Galatians 3:1, he says, "Oh foolish Galatians, who have cast an evil spell on you. For the meaning of Christ Jesus' death was made as clear to you as it has as you have seen a picture of his death on the cross. Let me ask you this question. Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not. You receive the Holy Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ. How foolish, verse 3, can you be after starting your new life in the Spirit. Why? Why are you trying to become perfect by your own human effort?"

Steve Brown: Oh man, I do that all the time.

Jerry: I do too.

Steve Brown: I didn't think you did. That kind of surprises me.

Jerry: I do too.

Steve Brown: I do. Do you ever sometimes wake up and think, I got to work harder?

Jerry: Yes.

Steve Brown: I got to I've there are things I've got to get straightened out.

Jerry: Yes.

Steve Brown: I've got to be pleasing to God.

Jerry: Yes.

Steve Brown: And that's from the dark side, isn't it?

Jerry: Yeah. It really is. It it's from that that everything that we're taught in life that if you do this, you will be rewarded for it.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Jerry: You know, we if you go to school and get an education, you'll get a new job.

Steve Brown: And if you study you'll get good grades.

Jerry: You'll get good grades. You know, if you do the right thing, good things will come back to you. Now, all of that is true, but that doesn't work in salvation.

Steve Brown: No.

Jerry: Salvation is good all by itself because God is good and we are not. True. And so as we stand in his righteousness. Colossians is one of my favorite books that Paul wrote too. It's not on it's not on the list, I hadn't gone there yet, but Paul talks about in Colossians that because of the blood of Jesus Christ, this Colossians the first chapter, the 19th verse. And it's and it's from the New Living Translation. Because of the blood of Jesus Christ, God has brought us into the presence of God. And we stand in his presence right now, holy, blameless without a single fault. That's the gospel that Christ did that for you, not you did that for yourself.

Steve Brown: So there are two parts of the gospel. The first is justification that we're justified in a legal sense. But there's the imputation which means that the righteousness and goodness and purity and holiness of Christ was imputed or given to our bank account.

Jerry: Yes, sir.

Steve Brown: Yes, sir.

Jerry: Don't make me don't let me scream in here like a Baptist preacher. Yes, sir. Absolutely. In fact, Romans talk about that where David says Paul says where your sins in the fourth chapter of Romans, where your sins are not imputed unto you. You know, and it's hard for people to believe and accept that.

Steve Brown: I know.

Jerry: You know, but you.

Steve Brown: Hard for me to accept.

Jerry: Yeah, yeah, man, you have imputed righteousness upon your life. You're not righteous because of what you've done, you're righteous because of what Christ done and he's added it to your account. And Paul talks about that through the book of Galatians, through the book of Romans, and in some places in the book of Corinth. And I want to encourage you that don't take out just one scripture. Start from the beginning of the letter all the way to the end of the letter and read the whole book in its context.

And you will find out that you have been absolutely forgiven for your past, present, and future sins. One of my friends I called not too long ago. He says, "Pastor, I understand that God has forgiven me of the sins that I've done. But I'm kind of confused on the future sins." I said to him, I said, "Do you know all of your sins are future?" Christ died 2,000 years ago.

Steve Brown: Good point.

Jerry: All of your sins are future.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Jerry: When you came on board, he had forgiven you of your future sins because he died 2,000 years ago. So, what do you mean that you can't believe he forgive you of your future sins? All of your sins are future.

Steve Brown: That is I've never heard that before. That is a good way to present the gospel.

Jerry: That's correct.

Steve Brown: I remember that. We do have problems with this so it's it's so counterintuitive to everything else.

Jerry: Yeah.

Steve Brown: But this is what you have seen in your travels. And when you've stood in the places where Paul stood, all of this came back to you.

Jerry: Yeah. you just you feel the presence of of the gospel there and and and you know, the sun was shining these days when I was there.

Steve Brown: Yeah.

Jerry: The wind was blowing and you just felt the spirit of the letters come alive in you. And you realized that, man, I have been forgiven. Paul, who understood the law, I mean, he understood what God required for them from the law, but he also got a revelation of the grace of God. Here, let me let me end with this.

One of the reasons that Paul came on the scene is because all of the twelve disciples, the eleven after Judas, all of the disciples were Jews. Paul was a Jew as well, but they were all concentrating on how to get Jewish people saved. Paul comes along and God sends him to the Gentiles, so that we would be included in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Steve Brown: Oh man.

Jerry: And that's the reason why I love Paul.

Steve Brown: Because he broke that wall.

Jerry: Yes.

Steve Brown: That had been the purview only of Jews. And Ephesians 1 he talks about breaking down that wall.

Jerry: Yes, sir.

Steve Brown: That we can walk together with Christ.

Jerry: Amen. That's good stuff.

Steve Brown: It's been a great, great week. Yeah, it really has. I might even go with you on one of your trips one of these I'm not sure.

Jerry: You should. You should.

Steve Brown: It's been a great week and what we've seen is that the message never changed, no matter what city, no matter what book, no matter what you read in the Bible, it's the same that God loves the world and you're forgiven, and you're his. You think about that. Amen.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Steve and Jerry for that whirlwind tour through the places visited by the Apostle Paul. If you enjoy this series, hey, I bet your friends would too. Swing by keylife.org to find these episodes and share them. And I hope you'll join us again tomorrow for another exciting and enlightening episode of Friday Q&A. It's easy to lose the primary fact of our faith. We're forgiven. We're not forgiven with a caveat or kicker. We're not forgiven if we truly repent. We're not forgiven as long as we change. We're not forgiven when we show it. We're not forgiven for just past sins, and it's now up to us. And we're not forgiven only when we're obedient.

Well, that excerpt is from a great article by Steve, and you can find it in our new digital summer magazine. You'll also enjoy articles from Jerry Perrys, Justin Holcomb, and Chad West. Get all of it on demand for free at keylife.org/digitalmagazine. And if you don't have a copy of our annual print magazine yet, never fear. Just call us at 1-800-KEYLIFE, and we'll drop a copy in the mail for you. Again, that number is 1-800-539-5433. Hey, before you go, if you've been blessed by the work of Key Life, would you help share that blessing with others through your financial support? Giving is easy. Just charge a gift on your credit card or include a gift in your envelope. And if you're the kind of person who has a cellular telephone, you can give by text. Take out your phone and text KEYLIFE to 28950 and then follow the instructions. Key Life is a member of ECFA in the States and Force in Canada, and Key Life is a listener supported production of Key Life Network.