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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.

New Creation Over Religious Marks

Baptism And Communion Do Not Save

Anti Earning And Pro Effort After Grace

Grace Alone And Closing Call

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All right, welcome to day four this week of the Daily Blade. We are wrapping up our time and our study in the book of Galatians. And man, I just want to thank you before I dive in here for all of the responses that we get, for all of the support, for all of the likes, for all the shares. Everywhere I go these days, airports all over the country, I bump into people that are listening to the Daily Blade. And we just want to, Kyle and I just want to say thank you. Um, we just do this as a resource to help you and your discipleship. And so, speaking of discipleship, here we go, Galatians 6.15. Paul says, For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as for all who walk by this rule, peace and mercy be upon them and upon the Israel of God. And by the way, earlier in the book of Galatians, uh, Paul has defined Israel as the children of the promise of faith. In other words, the people that have put their trust in Jesus Christ, this is who receives the peace and mercy upon them because they are the promised children of God, Israel of God. You see, here's what Paul wants us to know the gospel does not make bad people better, it makes spiritually dead people alive. And so what we're looking for here is not religious activity, because there is no religious activity that anyone can perform that will change their heart. But when we die to ourselves and we put our faith in Jesus Christ, he doesn't just clean us up, he doesn't just fix us up, but he makes us a new creation. And so a part of the good news of this is that the gospel not only justifies you, but the gospel sanctifies you. So let me put it on the bottom shelf. You don't have to keep doing the things that you've always done because you're not the person that you used to be. You see, the old you is dead, and the new you is alive in Jesus Christ, and there is no religious activity that will make you a new creation. It is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, that saves you. And so it is not your baptism that saves you. Um here at 1122, man, we do we do a big beach baptism day. We'll baptize a couple of thousand people. And they will walk out into the water, and I will ask them, Are you ready to renounce the sins of your past, the ways of this world, and anything dark or demonic that you've ever been connected to and pledge your allegiance to Christ and Christ alone? And they'll say, Yes. And then I ask them, Who is Jesus Christ to you? And they answer, Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. And I baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and I dunk them under the water and they come out of the water. Now we just do this in the Atlantic Ocean, and there is nothing magical about that water. That baptism does not save you. Baptism is just an outward and visible symbol that Christ has already saved you. If you grew up Catholic, communion does not save you. It is not salvific, that when Christ died on the cross and said, it is finished, he did not say it's almost done, and I've got this party started, but now you have to do your part. That Christ's righteousness is not imparted to us, it is imputed to us. Confession, penance, all of these religious activities, if you are doing them because uh because they stir your affections for the Lord, like worship and confession and communion, then praise God for that. But if you are doing them because you think they earn for you salvation, Paul says in the book of Romans that for by works of the law no one will be justified before God. So circumcision accounts for nothing in regards to salvation, neither does uncircumcision. And you can put any religious activity there. If you were going to Bible study in order to draw closer to God, praise God. If you were going to Bible study to try to earn your salvation, then you are lost because the gospel is not anti-effort, but it is anti-earning. We cannot earn our salvation. But the moment we get saved, we didn't work our way towards salvation, but the moment that we get saved, we get to work to be about the Father's business. So may we continuously bring ourselves back to the gospel. That we are not bad people that are trying to be better. We are not people that are just smarter than the rest of the world because we figured out what salvation is. No, no, no, no, no. That we die to our flesh, we die to our sinful nature, we surrender our life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, we hand over the reins of our life to him, and then he crucifies our old self with him at the cross of Jesus Christ. He rips out our heart of stone and gives us a new heart, his own heart, and then we are a new creation. And because of what he has done in us, the love of Christ then compels us to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ. So if you have ever been taught that there was some kind of formula that you had to perform, whether it was say a prayer or sign a card or get baptized in order for you to be saved, that is not what saves you. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

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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 in review. Stay sharp.