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Real talk for men who want to be better husbands, better dads, and better followers of Christ.
Hello, all you cavemen. Welcome to the caveman talk podcast. I'm pastor Jeremy. So excited to walk this journey with you and this is a continuation of just walking through the book of Proverbs. But last week we talked about the difference between, knowledge and wisdom.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:And we said that knowledge began when we understood who God is. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and wisdom. And so we understand that knowledge is our intellect, it's our grasping a concept, but true wisdom is having the faith to obey. And you know, so we can read God's word and acknowledge what it's saying, but true wisdom comes when we have the faith to obey. So in our ongoing pursuit of being a better man, a better husband, a better father, a better follower of Christ, to be a better caveman, the man God wants us to be.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:It certainly involves listening to God and then obeying God. And since we understand that that's kind of the foundation of our journey over the next several weeks, I wanna kinda take a little off ramp and just make sure that we all are on the same page. Because you know, a lot of times it's easy for us to assume when we talk about fearing the Lord and listening and obeying, it's easy to assume that everybody is saved or that, maybe it's easy for me to assume that everybody who's listening to this podcast would say, yes, I am a Christ follower. Now friend, I certainly hope that is the case and I hope that a majority of you listening or I hope all of you listening, are a follower of Jesus Christ. But I do think it's, worthy for us to just take a little off ramp from Proverbs and just revisit this whole idea of salvation.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:Now here's why. As we get into the rest of the Proverbs, like Proverbs two, we're gonna be talking about, the benefits of wisdom. We're gonna talk about how it keeps us from being entrapped and falling into those places that quite frankly a lot of men find themselves. And so, but in order for us to be able to really fully grasp that and understand what that means, We all need to be on the same page with regards to salvation. So I wanna ask you a question.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:If you died right now, if this was the last activity that you were doing on planet earth listening to this podcast and God forbid something were to happen to you and you were to die, how sure would you be that you would go to heaven? And you know, on a scale of one to five, if if if five is like, I'm very sure, I absolutely have no doubt and one would be like, I probably really I actually, I don't know. I'm very very unsure or maybe one would even be definitely not. Friend, where would you fall on that scale? Now the truth is that God desires you to know about the certainty of your salvation.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:I've been in ministry a number of years and I've talked with a lot of people and from time to time things will be said to me like, well, I hope I'm going to heaven or I'm trying to be a good person so that when I die, I can go to heaven. And maybe without even realizing it, we can slip into a workspace salvation mindset. And and today we're just gonna revisit salvation, what it is, what it means for us. And we're gonna learn that salvation is God initiated, not man initiated. In other words, we don't find Jesus, he finds us.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:And he convicts us of our sin through his holy spirit and then you and I have a choice to make. And that is whether or not to, heed that calling, heed that conviction and ask Christ to forgive us and to invade our life or whether we choose to just continue to do what we're doing apart from Christ. So we all have the choice to accept God or to reject him. But it's God's desire, number one, that we would be saved. The Bible says that it is the will of God that none should perish but that all may have everlasting life.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:And then it's certainly God's desire for you and me to know the certainty of our salvation. For you and I, when asked to be able to say, I am a five, I am definitely saved. If I died right now, I know where I would be going and I would be spending an eternity with Jesus. Now, think about your answer and then think why did you answer that way? So if you are definitely sure, how do you know?
Dr. Jeremy Gates:And if you're somewhere in the middle, why is that the case? Or if you don't know at all, if you just are completely clueless as to whether or not you would go to heaven, why? And what I'm hoping today is that you'll, by the end of this podcast, not only will you have the opportunity to give your heart and life to Jesus Christ, if you haven't done that, But if you have, then you will know that you know that you know. That's why God tells us, in his word, through his servant John, I write these things so that you may know you have eternal life. And we don't have to spend our life or waste our time, doubting whether or not we are saved.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:We can know that we are loved, that we are saved, that we have the assurance of heaven. And hopefully with that knowledge, it gives us the motivation then to not only listen to God, but to obey him as we talked about in our last podcast. I wanna give you four simple truths about salvation. And the one the first one is this, God indeed does love you. The Bible tells you and me in John three sixteen, for God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:Now I love that word world. And in this context, it means humanity. For God so loved humanity that he gave his one and only son. And that whoever, so God shows no favoritism, whoever would place their faith in him, whoever would call upon the name of the Lord, indeed will be saved. Whoever believes in him and that belief there is not talking about just an intellectual acknowledgment, but it really harkens back to what we talked about last week.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:It is an intellectual acknowledgement that then manifests itself in action. It is one who says, yes, I know God loves me. He gave his son Jesus to die for me. I intellectually acknowledge that. In other words, I believe the bible and what it says and I believe it so much that I put action behind it and I follow through.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:So there's listening, there's acknowledging and then there's obeying. God loves you and I've said this so many times in so many different contexts. God not only loves you, but he has a wonderful plan for your life. You, right now listening to this podcast, God has a plan for you. It's easy for us to look out and see God working in other people's lives and maybe even think, well, God's really doing amazing things in his life or God's really doing great things in our church or God's really doing great things in her life.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:But friend, God wants to do great things not only in your life, but through you. God has a wonderful plan for you, but that plan always begins with a relationship with Jesus. So God loves you and he has a wonderful plan, but there's a problem. And that problem is you and I are sinful. So the second truth about salvation is that sin separates us from God.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:Now what is sin? Well, sin is really an attitude that says, I don't need God, so I'm gonna do life my own way. Quite literally in the New Testament, it means missing the mark. God has a perfection. He is holy and he has a mark of righteousness and perfection.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:And on our own without Christ, we miss that mark. And so we are in sin and the penalty for that sin according to God's word is death. And it's not talking about just a physical dying, it's talking about a spiritual death. It's more than just our bodies dying, it is being eternally separated from God. And at our physical death, this separation becomes eternal.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:Now, I don't think any of us listening would say, I don't have any sin in my life. In fact, I don't know that I've ever met anybody that has said, I'm perfect, I've never messed up. But just on the off chance that somebody may be listening thinking, you've got your act together, you're perfect, you've done nothing wrong. The Bible comes along and reassures all of us in Romans three twenty three, for all have sinned and fall short of God's glory. Listen, it doesn't matter how good you are, it doesn't matter, how you grew up, if you were in church every Sunday, if you grew up in a Christian home, if you always obeyed your parents, if you were, you know, perfect in school, it doesn't matter.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:At some point in our life, regardless of how good we think we've been, we've all messed up. We've all missed the mark of God's holiness. Jesus was having a conversation with a rich young man that came up to him and wanted to have a dialogue about eternal life and about the kingdom of heaven. And and he told Jesus, I know the law and I have kept the law since I was young. And what I find so interesting about that story is Jesus did not argue with him.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:Jesus didn't say, think again, bud. I know you. Remember, I'm God. I know everything. He didn't argue with him.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:Jesus's response to the rich young man was this, but one thing you lack, go sell everything you have and give to the poor and then you will be qualified. You will be ready to come follow me. You see Jesus wasn't argumentative. The man thought that he was perfect. He came to Jesus saying, look at my resume, look how good I've been.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:I've never messed up. I have kept the law perfectly. Now, I don't know how many of you have studied the Old Testament and done a deep dive into Judaism and the law of God. But I can tell you right now, if I had to live under that yoke, I would absolutely fail miserably. In fact, the Apostle Paul talks about that.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:He says that we are already guilty. We are penalized by the law of God. In other words, there's no way any of us could ever keep all the standards of God's law. This rich young man was saying to Jesus, I've done that. I'm perfect.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:I've kept the standards of the law. And instead of arguing with him, Jesus said, then put that into action. Let's see how that plays out in your everyday life. I want you to go give everything you have, sell it and give the money to the poor and then you're able to come and follow me. And the Bible says that the rich young man turned away from Jesus and he walked away and it uses a very specific word.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:He walked away downcast. He walked away utterly empty and sad and downtrodden. So the fact is, and I believe what was happening to him in that moment was he was realizing I'm not as good as I think I am. I've actually got some sin in my life. And I think there's a lot of us that operate day to day today thinking we're good guys.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:Like I'm a good guy. I've been faithful to my wife. I provide for my family. I'm a hard worker. You know, I've never robbed a bank.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:I've never killed anybody. Like I'm a good guy. But if we're all being really honest with ourself, we've all messed up. There are things that we have thought, things that we have done, things that we have said that we regret. And if we could go back and change, we would.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:There are decisions we've made that have been immature and certainly not wise. And we wish we could go back and change things, but we can't. So we find ourselves at the place where this rich young man did and that is the reality. We've all messed up and the Bible is very truthful with us. God is very truthful with truthful with us to tell us all have sinned and fall short of God's glory.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:But it gets worse because what we deserve for that sin is death. A couple of chapters later in Romans chapter six verse 23, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. That is a very horrifying verse and yet the second part of it then is a very, comforting verse. If the verse stopped with the wages of sin is death, that would be the saddest verse in the entire Bible. What you and I deserve for our sin is to be eternally separated from God forever.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:But praise God, there is a solution. It says, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. We've all messed up. We all deserve death and eternal separation from God forever. But God loves you and me enough that he gave his one and only son.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:And if we place our faith in Jesus, if we believe with our mind and then show that with our actions, in other words, we're all in, we will not taste spiritual death. We have the gift of eternal life. And what's really interesting about this chasm that was put between us and God because of our sin is that it is so incredibly huge that it is impossible for us to do anything in our own strength to connect us back to God. There's an amount of good works we could do to ever earn our way back to God. So the third truth is Jesus died for our sins to bring us back to God.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:In John chapter 14 verse six, Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. Listen to that. Jesus said, I am the way back to God. Your works, your good deeds, you growing up in a Christian home, you going to church all your life, you attending Christian school, whatever.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:That's not the way. Those things are good and they have their place, but that is not the way back to God. Jesus said, I am the way. He said, I am the truth. There are a lot of falsehoods out there.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:There are a lot of false truths, if you will. And I know that's kind of an oxymoron, but there are a lot of people who are believing things as truth that are indeed false. There are a lot of people who think there are many paths to God. There are many ways to God. But according to Jesus, he is the only way and he is the truth.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:He didn't just speak truth, he embodies truth. He says, I am the way, I am the truth. In other words, if you hear anybody speaking to you another message other than the simple message of Jesus Christ, who came from God, who died for your sin, who rose again, then it's a false message. Even if they're talking about Jesus, even if somebody quotes the Bible, there are a lot of false religions and cults that will use the Bible, that will use the person of Jesus as a prominent figure in their theology or their doctrine, so to speak. But if it doesn't line up with God's word, if it is not the truth of his word, friend, it is a false gospel.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:Jesus told us to watch out for this. He said, watch out. There are many wolves in sheep's clothing. There are many who will go out in my name and they are false. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth and the life.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:No one comes to the father except through me. There are not many ways to God. There's one way and that's through Christ. In Romans chapter five verse eight, it says, God demonstrated his love for us in this, that while we were in our sin, Christ died for us. Friend, grab this, let this soak in.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:This is how much God loves you. He loves you that before you even existed. God demonstrated his love for you by sending Jesus to die on the cross. And so God does love you, he has a plan, sin separates us from that love and plan, and Jesus is the one who brings us back to God. And then the fourth truth of salvation is we have a choice.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:The bible says in Romans 10 verse nine, if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Okay. If you confess with your mouth. You know, there's another place in scripture where Jesus said, whatever is bound up in your heart, it will proceed out of your mouth. In other words, whatever is really your core belief, that is what's going to come out when you're talking with people.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:And you maybe can hide some things for a while, but eventually it's gonna come out. You know, when you meet somebody for the first time, and and and you get to know them and all, you know, they can tell you anything they wanna tell you. They can put on a front. But if you're around that person long enough, you're gonna begin to see the real them emerge. Jesus said, whatever is your belief system, whatever is bound up in your heart, it will proceed from your mouth.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:So it is so hugely important that we confess Jesus as our Lord. Why? Because we believe that in the deepest part of our being. We believe that Jesus did come to save us, that he did die, that he is the way, the truth, the life. He died for me.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:He rose again. He conquered death. And when he did that, he conquered death for me. And I believe that so much that I make that confession with my mouth. It falls out of my mouth.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:Somebody else has said that that word confession means agreeing with God. When we confess our sin, we agree with God, we have sinned. When we confess that Jesus is Lord, we agree with God and his word that Jesus indeed is Lord. So Romans ten nine says, if you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and then look at the second action, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Now there's some other verses that talk about salvation.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:I think about Ephesians chapter two verses eight and nine, for you were saved by grace through faith, not of yourselves, it is a gift of God. And and the reason that is, is so that you and I can't boast and brag about our good works. Right? So we are saved because God loved you and he did for you what you could not do for yourself. And when you made the decision to believe the simple truth that you without Jesus were gonna go into a Christless eternity, That there was no hope for you.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:There was no way for you to get back to God except through Christ. When you made that confession, the Bible says, that's when we are saved. When you did that friend, you got saved. So I wanna ask you again, on a scale of one to five, how sure are you that when you die and if you die today that you would go to heaven? And if it's anything but a five, I just want you to know God loves you, he has a plan for you, that plan begins with a relationship with Jesus and that's very simple to initiate.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:It comes by admitting that you have messed up, believing that Jesus died for your sin and you rose again, and then making that confession. Not because you're just going through the motions, but you're confessing it because it is your deep heartfelt belief. Now something amazing happens when we get saved. God puts his holy spirit within us. He gives us a desire to be better men.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:And when we do mess up, his holy spirit convicts us and shows us, hey, this is wrong. You need to stay away from this or hey, you don't need to go there. So the next podcast, we're gonna be diving into Proverbs two and we're gonna be talking about just how wisdom saves our life. And that wisdom comes from God and for you and me, it comes by abiding in Christ because we have his holy spirit speaking in and through us, giving us wisdom as we take each step of each day. So if you're anything but a five, you can literally stop this podcast right now and you can hit pause and you can make that confession.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:Lord, I know I've messed up. I believe you died for me and today I make that confession. Come into my life, forgive my sin and fill me with your holy spirit. And friend, when you do that, God is faithful to his word and he will indeed do exactly what he said he will do. Those who call upon the name of the Lord indeed will be saved.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:Man, that's just the best news in the world. Now, for us cavemen who have given our heart and life to Jesus Christ, I just wanna challenge you in some things. Regardless of where you are in your spiritual journey, there is room to grow. And one of the things that we've asked you to do as a caveman is to be willing to connect with other men on a weekly basis and just having listened to the podcast come together and just discuss life. Discuss these podcasts, discuss the subject matter.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:You know, what's one thing that you are getting from it and and what's one thing that stood out to you? What's one thing you can apply to your life this week in order for you to become a better man, a better husband, a better father, a better follower of Christ. And so I really wanna encourage you to spend some time after, this podcast to do some self evaluation, evaluate your your journey with Christ. Where are you? So if you've established that you've been saved, where are you on the journey?
Dr. Jeremy Gates:And would you consider yourself young in the faith? Would you consider yourself somewhere in the middle, like middle aged in the faith? Would you consider yourself old in the faith, wise in the faith? But regardless of where you are, there's always more to learn. And regardless of where you are, don't miss this, there's always someone behind you.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:Okay, so I just want you to picture you being on a road right now. Okay. And somewhere in front of you is a fellow caveman following Jesus. Okay. He may be a little older, maybe he's been, he's walked with Christ longer or maybe he's just pursued Christ deeper, okay?
Dr. Jeremy Gates:So he's in front of you and he's just a little more mature. But if you look in your rear view mirror behind you, there's guys behind you. There's guys that are still on the journey, but they don't know what you know yet or they've not experienced what you've experienced yet. Okay. So there's I said to you last week, there's always someone watching, learning and listening, and you don't have a choice in that, but you do have a choice in what they see, what they hear and what they learn from you.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:So today, I just want to remind you that in that same context, there's always gonna be somebody in front of you. Okay, so don't envy them, don't be jealous of them, don't feel like you can never catch up to them, but but gravitate to that man. Build a relationship with him and maybe that's gonna be somebody that becomes a mentor for you. Okay? And then look in the rearview mirror, there are guys behind you that need to learn from you.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:They need to learn from your life's experiences. They need to hear your struggles. They need to hear of times in your life when you've completely blown it, but yet you've seen the faithfulness of God and how God has redeemed you. Don't be afraid to share your story. Don't be afraid to be transparent.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:And I'm not asking you to do that with hundreds of men or even a ton of men. I'm just asking you to do it, be willing to do it with one or two. Whoever's in your rear view mirror, whoever God puts in your rear view mirror for you to see they are behind you and they've got some ground to cover, would you be willing to just be the brother to them they need you to be and be willing to speak into their life as God gives you wisdom and opportunity to do so. And then would you be willing to model for them what a mature follower of Christ looks like. And I think every time we really, take that seriously, then it does several things.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:Number one, I think it draws us closer to God. Number two, I think it draws us closer to our families and if you're married, definitely closer to your wife. And then, number three, it draws us closer to other brothers in the Lord. It draws us closer to other cavemen who are just trying to live life and be a good man. So I hope you'll take some time to do that today.
Dr. Jeremy Gates:Who's in your windshield? Who's in front of you? Alright, that you wanna catch up with, that you wanna learn from? Who's in your rearview mirror that you want to affect, that you want to pour into, and then just be willing to have the faith and the obedience to do both. Alright?
Dr. Jeremy Gates:And I hope this blesses you and I hope you will continue to have an awesome day and go make someone's day better, cavemen. God bless you.