The Bryce Crawford Podcast - What Is The Gospel? (EP 17)

Episode Date: March 4, 2024

In this episode, Bryce explains what the Gospel is and how to know if you're saved.

What's going on, guys? Welcome back to another episode of the Bryce Crawford podcast. I'm Bryce, and today I've been excited about this episode for a minute by the title of the podcast audio, podcast video. You guys know, we're talking about the gospel today. What is the gospel? How to know that you know that you know. And it's not even just about the final destination because we can have communion with Jesus before we get to heaven. I mean, the purpose of the cross is so that we can have heaven come down and live inside of us before we get there. So that when we get there, we're not shocked at who Jesus is. and his character because we know I'm intimately. But before we get into it, two big announcements. Number one, guys, if you're struggling to read your Bible, I have a Bible in a year plan. You can start at any time, but you'll read the Bible on the whole year. I'm also teaching the videos on TikTok and on Instagram. You'll see some of the videos.

So if you guys want to download the Bible plan, if you're watching this on YouTube, click the description on the YouTube video, go download the Bible plan. And if you're listening to this, go to my Instagram, click the link in my bio, and you can download the Bible plan. It's free, but it'll keep you in the word. Number two, a lot of you guys will be DM.

us asking how to support our movement because we're fully self-funded. We live off of tithes and offerings and we live off of merch sales. And so if you guys want to support us, the best way you can do is go get some merch. Go get a hoodie. Go get a shirt. Support what we're doing. Support the cause. But let's get into the podcast episode. Now the Greek word in the Gospels is called Eugenelian. I don't know if I said that right. Uangelian is what it looks like. It's the Greek word that it means good announcement or good news. So when we look at the gospel, we have to understand that the gospel is good news. It's not some set of rules. It's not burdensome. It's relationship with Jesus and it's good news. Because a lot of times people are worried about being normal nowadays, but how's normal really working out?

Everything we hear, the only thing that sells on the internet, the only thing that sells on YouTube, the only clips that go viral on the internet, the only news articles, the only news, breaking news that goes viral is bad news. Seems like every time I turn on the TV, something bad's happening. Every time I open up a bump, some tragic thing has occurred. We always have bad news, but the gospel is good news. So we need to understand. The gospel is good news. And Jesus says that his yoke is easy and is burdened in his life. So if you're looking at the gospel and you're saying,

ah, this is too much for me to handle. This actually has nothing to do with you. The gospel has everything to do with Jesus and what he did for men, and all you have to do is put your faith in it. So if you think the gospel is burdensome, you need to reevaluate what the gospel is, because your identification of who Jesus is in the gospel if you think it's burdensome is totally incorrect. But the gospel itself, the definition of the gospel, would be the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,

which saves man from sin. It says all of humankind from sin. And we need to know that sin entered into the world in the garden. We see the story in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve disobey God. And because they disobey God, sin and enters in the world, shame, guilt, and fear enter into the world. And because of that, every human being is born into sin. No if-ands or butts. It doesn't matter if you were born in a church pub, you're born into sin. And so in the Old Testament, we see that you had to follow 613 laws and 10 commandments to be considered righteous. If you messed up once, you sin and you had to sacrifice a lamb on behalf of that to pay for it. It was the symbolism of the lamb.

A lamb was known as being spotless. And so you needed something clean to pay for something dirty. And it was the blood of a spotless lamb that paid for sin and covered sin for temporarily. You had to sacrifice every year. He had to sacrifice yearly. And sin separates us from God. Sin is wrongdoing and it separates us from Him. Any sin.

You lie, it separates you from God. Or if you commit third-degree murder, it's going to separate you from God. So this isn't about what sin you can and can't commit because all sin is equal in consequence of death before the Lord. So you have to know that sin separates us from God. And so when we look at the gospel, it's not about trying not to sin anymore. It's about loving Jesus. And we're going to get into that in a minute because Jesus,

says that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and when the Pharisees challenged Jesus with this, they're saying, which one out of all 613 laws and 10 commandments is the best? But instead of Jesus picking one out, he summarizes all 613

and 10 commandments into love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Because when you do that, you naturally manifest righteousness, love, peace, joy, patience, kindness, faithfulness, and self-control. You naturally manifest it. Through your life, when you love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and straight, because you naturally want to do

the things Jesus would do when your eyes are set on head and you're loving in, rather than looking at sin and trying not to do. Really powerful. Jesus Christ is both 100% made and 100% God. Jesus Christ lived in a human body and experienced the same trials and tribulations that a normal man would, except he didn't sin. So every second in Jesus's life, he never sin once. And we're going to read an excerpt in Isaiah 53 that describes Jesus, which really just blows my mind. And as I was reading it, when I was prepping this outline this morning, just reading and looking at Isaiah 53, just reflecting, wow,

Jesus is almighty, he's holy, and he's so good. We're going to read that in a moment. But Jesus is known as the Lamb of God. And like I said earlier, lambs were known to be symbolic as spotless. And so that's what they would sacrifice on behalf of sins. And in John 129, when Jesus is starting his ministry, John the Baptist looks at Jesus and says, look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

So Jesus Christ and his bloodshed has the power to cleanse sins. Wipe the slate clean just like this, as if nothing had ever happened. That's the power of Jesus Christ. And so when you look at Numbers 9, this is powerful right here. We're going to get into more of this later. But Numbers 9, Moses is describing the Passover feast, and he says when you look at the lamb in a Passover feast, you don't break the bones of the land.

You don't do it. It was in tradition, and this became traditional. over time every year at the Passover. You never broke the bones of the lamb during Passover. And Jesus Christ, when he was crucified and he had died, the Roman soldiers broke the thieves' legs on the let. He broke the thieves' legs on the right. But Jesus Christ didn't have a single bone broken in his body. They didn't break his legs. They didn't break a bone in his body. Really powerful. Didn't break a single bone in his body. He's known as the Lamb of God. Super powerful. Let's read Isaiah 53. I'm going to read it all the way through. I'm going to highlight

some stuff to you because you're going to read this. This chapter of Isaiah is known as a forbidden chapter in Judaism. So Orthodox Jews will overlook Isaiah 50, 51, 52, 54 they're overlooking because it's impossible to say that this prophecy is about anyone other than Jesus. Let's read Isaiah 53

together and read out of the ESV translation. If you have another translation, pull it up and read it with us. Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? for he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at him and no beauty that we should desire in it. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces.

He was despised and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted, but he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of a soul. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth like a lamb that has led to the slaughter,

and like a she that before it shears is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and as for his generation who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, shirk it for the transgression of my people, and they made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush it. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring, he shall prolong his days.

The will of the Lord shall prosper his hand. out of the anguish of his soul shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge shall the righteous one my servant make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities therefore I will divide him a portion with the many and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul to death

and was numbered with the transgressors yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors At Isaiah 52 or 54 I can't remember which one either before after this passage it says that Jesus was beaten unto recognition. You could have recognized him. They said he looked like an alien.

They beat him so bad. So let's go back and look at this passage Isaiah 53. It says he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. Any area with sin is considered a dry and thirsty land. So for Jesus being perfect and being 100% man and 100% God, being born into a wicked world yet living a perfect life, that's what it means when he says he's born out of dry ground. He's a root and dry ground.

because roots are sustained by water, right? And so a root being in dry ground doesn't make sense, but he had connection with the father. He was God. He was the root and dry brown. He was born into the wicked world. He had no former majesty that we should look at him. When they thought the Messiah was coming,

they thought he was going to come through royalty. They thought he was going to be born in this majestic way. But Jesus Christ was born in a manger. And so when it says that he had no former majesty that we should look at him, no beauty that we should desire in, he came humble. Jesus rode on a donkey the first time he was on earth. And when he returns, he's going to return on a white horse.

But he wrote on a donkey, he was humble. He came humble and in the appearance humble like a servant. He didn't come to be served, but to serve to show us what to do. Really powerful. He was despised and rejected by men. People didn't like him. Shirley has borne our grace and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken and smitten by God.

This is powerful. Jesus Christ bore all the sins. of mankind past, present, and future on the cross. But what it says, we esteemed him stricken and smitten by God, you would think that because he went through that death, you would think that God hated him. But it's not that. It was in the will of the Father that he was crushed on the cross,

and people thought that God didn't like him. They thought he was committing blasphemy. They thought he was blasphemy, but no, he was God himself. He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. That's very plain and simple. and brought upon him was chastisement that brought us peace. So because of his pain, we can have peace in this world.

Now, we can have it now. We don't have to wait. The things that you struggle with are not an incurable disease. You don't have to wait until you die, to stop struggling with a porn addiction, or stop struggling with alcoholism, or stop struggling with depression or anxiety. You don't have to wait.

Freedom is now, so because of his pain and chastisement, we can experience peace now. And it says, all like sheep, we have gone astray, but the Lord has laid the iniquity of us on him, and he was oppressed and afflicted. this is powerful he did not open his mouth if you read the accounts of the gospels he didn't back talk a single time they were taking it he had every right to speak up and say it really wasn't me i didn't do anything i'm the christ i have no reason he didn't do that he just let he kept his mouth silent

he knew the will of the father for jesus knew that the father had to treat him like barabbas so that he could treat barabbas like jesus it's really powerful i love this last thing in verse 12 it says he bore the sin of many he bore all of humankind's sin like a I said earlier, past president of future. That's what you did. Really powerful. We looked at the story of Jesus in Luke 22. It says that Jesus in the Garden of Gassimony, there's two things I want to highlight here. He invites Peter James and John to come pray with him, and he says, stay awake and pray with me, but they fall asleep. And this is powerful because when Jesus says he's coming back like a beef of the night, this is in a reference to a Galilee and wedding. When the bride was getting ready to be married, she had to be dressed in her wedding gown because she didn't know when the bridegroom was going to come get her.

and so when they fall asleep in the garden of Gathsemini this is symbolism saying we have to be awake and ready arise those sleeper and so you have to be ready and so you're saying oh I'll get saved when I'm older oh I'll commit myself to Jesus when I'm older that's a bunch of baloney you have to be ready Jesus is coming back like a thief in the night

we don't know what he's coming only the father knows when he's coming Jesus doesn't even know when he's coming back only the father knows so why would you want to live in this up in the air mentality of oh I don't know and this isn't like a fear thing I want to believe in Jesus because of the cross and what he's done, I don't want to be, you know, struck by fear, and that's why I believe in it. But there is this fear of the Lord of we don't know when he's coming back. So put your faith in trust in him now, and it will actually make your life better than you think it will be without him.

But number two, when he's in the Garden of Gassimini in Luke 2244, it says that his sweat was like drops of blood. And when I read that passage, I think that his sweat is like drops of blood, because he is realizing the weight past, present, and future of the sense he's about to take on spiritually. You have a physical body that's about to take on a spiritual weight of humankind's sins past, president, future. Why are we shocked that his sweat drops of blood? And in Hebrews 12, 2, it says we look to Jesus Christ as the author and perfector of our faith. So your works aren't going to get you into heaven.

It's your faith that gets you in heaven. And right before that in Hebrews 11, we read the cloud room of witnesses. We read Moses. We read Abraham. We even read Rahab the Prostitute. And all of these guys in Hebrews 11 are recognizing the cloud of witnesses for their fate. These are Old Testament figures that are justified by their fate. And one of those was Abraham.

Abraham is justified by his fate. And so it's your faith that justifies you in our faith that's in Jesus Christ. And in 1 John 5-7, it says this is the thing that has helped us overcome the world, our faith. The thing that overcomes the world is our faith that Jesus Christ. Nothing that you can do can save you. It's what Jesus said for you. Now I want to look at Genesis 22 because I just mentioned, Abraham is being justified by his faith in the clabbering of witnesses.

His faith, your faith is what justifies you. But the story in Genesis 22, when Abraham is going to sacrifice Isaac is really powerful and has a lot of symbolism to the story of Jesus. Number one, because he has his only son. Isaac is his only son. Then you can say, ah, Ishmael, and this is that. No, according to the covenant with God, Isaac was supposed to be his only son. And really is because Ishmael isn't there anymore.

He's like an outcast, is Heagar's son. So Abraham's only son. God tells him. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey. Isn't it interesting that he saddled his donkey and Jesus rode a donkey? Isn't that crazy? And took two of his young men with him and his son, Isaac.

So you got Isaac and two men. Notice how Jesus Christ was crucified with two thieves on either side of him. And he cut wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place. Why would? Jesus was nailed to wood. on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes the third day Jesus resurrected on the third day

stay here with the donkey eye and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you gosh just thinking about when we believe in the cross when we believe in the finished work of the blood of Jesus

it is an act of worship when we look at the cross and say Jesus you are so holy look at the true facts of who he is this character and him being God and sacrificing on the cross, saying, wow, I just want him lift up a shout of praise. I just want to lift up a shout of praise. So basically the story goes, and he's about to sacrifice Isaac,

and right before he does, God stops him. And keep in mind, as I've seen him up here, he made a promise with Abraham that he would provide a lamb on this mountain. So he says, hey, I'm going to provide a lamb on this mountain, and that he tests him and sends him to go sacrifice Isaac, and right before he stops him. and in the thicket bush is called a ram. There's a ram, and they sacrificed the ram, but you say, Bryce,

I thought you said that God promised him a lamb to be sacrificed on them. Yeah, he did thousands of years later on that same mountain that Abraham went to sacrifice Isaac, the Lamb of God Jesus Christ, would be sacrificed for all humankind's sins, past, present, and future. And so God still remains faith, wellness promises, no matter the time frame. And so God knew that because he was going to be the Father of many nations through Isaac,

that this payment, the Lamb of God, had to be sustainable for Abraham's many nations. We are a part of that. Me, you, and I are descendants of Abraham. Everything goes back on the family tree up to Adam and Eve. We're all descendants of that. We receive that. So that payment on that mountain is for you and me. Jesus Christ on that mountain. Really, really powerful. So here's the gospel. This is the gospel. If you want to know what the gospel is, and you might be listening to this and going,

I, this is you, you might be getting rocked, you might be getting convicted, you might say, man, I don't even have a full trusted Jesus right now. Well, I'm going to give you the gospel. This is the gospel. We are sinners. We have done wickedness. Any outside of it, we've been born into it. We have sin had fallen short of Jesus. And sin needs justice.

If I murdered someone, I would go on trial. And I would deserve punishment. In the same way, we did, because of sin, we deserve punishment. And if I murdered someone and I was going before a trial before a judge, I would probably get the life sentence, depending how bad the murder was. It might even give me the death penalty. And our sin is justifiable enough to give us the death penalty. That's the reality. There's nothing we can do to save ourselves.

We stand before God, guilty, dirty, deserving of death. But God, being rich and mercy, set his only son to live a purpose. perfect life and John 316 says for God so love the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life for God did not send his son into the world to condemn it but so that he might save it so he says Jesus Christ Jesus Christ lives a perfect life he's healing the sick cast the devils out of people bring in freedom to people and when you look at the story of Jesus as you're going through you know, Jesus gets arrested and you see

that the Jews had a tradition where every year on Passover that they would release one prisoner on death row. And so Pilate stands on this on dacious stage with Jesus being arrested looking before the Jews and he presents two people. He says, Jesus, son of the living

God or Barabbas the thug and rebel. Barabbas was a murderer. Some accounts even say that Baravis was a rapist. He was the leader of an insurrection. He was a rebel. He hated Rome. Rome had a reason to put him in jail. And back in this

time period, people even prepared their own crosses before their crucifixion. So Parabas was going to be crucified. And so he stands on this audacious stage and says, who do you want? And this seems like blasphemy, because you look at Parabas and you say he deserves the chains, he deserves the crucifixion.

He's a murderer, he's a supposed rapist, he's a leader of an insurrection, he hates the government of Rome, and then you look at Jesus and you say, what has he done? He's only healed the sick, he's open blind eyes, open deaf ears. And so you look at those and you think it's blasphemy. And when he offers us to the crowd, they say, we want Barabbas.

Yeah, give us Barabbas. So Piling goes and he unchains Barabbas and he lets him free. And, you know, there's no account of Barabbas looking back at Jesus and going, hey, man, I owe you my life, you really saved me. He never did that. He's probably walking down like, yeah, man, these people love me. I don't even know who this Jesus guy is, but man, I'm free, I'm out of here.

But Jesus was silent. And Jesus' silence came in agreement to the love that he had for Barabbas. For he knew the will of the Father. He knew that the Father had to treat Jesus like Barapus so that he could treat Barabbas like Jesus. And so Jesus Christ was beaten 39 times with the Cat of Night Tales whip.

It's a whip that had shot. shards of glass rock and nails and when it would latch under your back and they would rip it it would rip your flesh off 39 times just in case they miscounted they added a next turn and they only did 39 because 40 was the legal limit so they did 39 just in case they miscounted he was beaten he was stripped naked imagine being naked in front of all your classmates at school or all your co-workers really embarrassing shamefully there's a reason why we're we wear clothes. Jesus was stripped naked. They put a crown of thorns on his head

and called him the king of Jews out of mockery. They cast a lots for his clothes they gave up for his clothes. And imagine carrying a wooden cross with your back being ripped open and all the splinters entering into your back. And you have to carry it for miles. And then not only that,

they stick six to eight inch long nails through your wrists and through your feet nailing you to that flat on the ground and then they lift you up. And so that now your weight is dragging you down and the nails are dating through your flesh and you have to force yourself up through the nails to catch a breath before you go down because when they hang you up with their hands above your head like this you can't breathe it's suffocation so you have to leverage the nails to lift yourself up and breathe

catch a breath and go down and he stays silent all the time and jesus looked up and to heaven and said it is finished offering his soul and his last breath and when he did this He was sacrificed on Passover All of sins Past, present and future Paid for The Bible says In Malachi

That God casts our sin Into the sea of forgiveness So when you come before Jesus And you repent and you give your life to Jesus He drops our sin in the sea of forgiveness And it's as if it never happened Right when Jesus gave his last breath The curtain

the curtain of the tabernacle. The tabernacle was the only place where the priest could go through. Only the priests could go in there and experience the presence of God. If they messed up one ritual, then they would die on the spot. Because the holiness of God was so intense. And the second that Jesus dies, the veil is torn in half, meaning that all human beings have access to God, intimate relationship with him. It doesn't matter who you are, what family you come from, how much wrong you've done.

You have access to him. That's what it means. This four-inch curtain was torn in half without anyone touching it. and hell was shaken, the gates of hell were crushed, and Jesus Christ died for all sins. And three days later, he rose again. And so you're looking at herself, and you say, oh, man, that's good, brother. I'm a sinner saved by grace through faith. But, man, I got to just shake myself out of these chains.

I got to get myself out of this nicotine addiction. I got to get myself out of this alcoholism. I got to help my marriage. My marriage is struggling. You know, I'm a sinner saved by grace, but, man, I got to fix this. What are you talking about? You can't fix anything on your own. That's the point of the cross.

You think you can shake yourself away from your porn addiction? You think you could fix your marriage on your own? You think that you can fix your alcohol problem, your nicotine addiction, your drug addiction. You can't. You can't. You need Jesus. You can't shake yourself free. You can't do it.

Jesus is enough. Jesus is the purpose. Jesus is the reason. And so all you have to do is put your faith in Jesus Christ. Romans 10 9 says, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you'll be saved.

And so right now, if you're saying, man, God, I'm wicked. If you're reflecting on the things that you've done, your wickedness, your sin, the way that you've messed up in your marriage, the way that you've struggled with drug addiction or alcohol addiction or the things that you've done, the nastiest of sinners, it's not too much for God. If you're reflecting on that, and you want to give your life to Jesus, we're going to pray in a moment.

but Romans 109 says that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and you believe in your heart that you really did resurrect from the dead you will be saved and the Holy Spirit will become the seal in your heart so that you know that you know that you know so Jesus I just thank you for everyone listening right now God I just pray for anyone listening if they give their life to Jesus right now if you want to give your life to Jesus on the phone I mean on the podcast or watching this we just pray in prayers God, I'm a sinner in need of your grace. I have sinned and fallen short. But Jesus, I believe that you have died on the cross and resurrected for my sins.

Jesus, I believe that you are the Christ. I believe that you are holy. I believe that you are God. So right now, Jesus, I ask for forgiveness for my sins. And I put my faith in Him. In Jesus' name. Amen. And God, I just pray for everyone else listening or watching this.

God, I just pray for a fresh. baptism of the Holy Spirit, God, where you just cloak people in power. And God, I just pray for anyone that's given their life to Jesus or maybe even recommitted their life to Jesus, God, will you just ensil a fresh buyer in them? A fresh, holy burning fire. God, just thank you for everyone watching or listening to this. Love you. Thank you so much, guys, for watching this. I love to you guys. If you guys have found it a great time to listen to our podcast, go follow us on Instagram and Bryce Carford Podcast. Subscribe to us on YouTube. Guys, love you guys. Stay tuned for the next episode. We'll see you guys next time.