Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - Ep 252 ｜ Wokeness & Works Can't Save You

00:00:00.000 hey guys welcome to relatable happy wednesday i hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far

00:00:06.000 today is news politics day as it typically is and we will be talking a little bit about news

00:00:12.200 and politics we'll be talking about the obama commencement speech and uh the rhetoric that

00:00:18.140 he used what it represents uh in our culture and the cultural wars that have been waging for

00:00:23.840 uh the past at least the past decade or so in this country but we will also be talking about

00:00:29.400 ravi zacharias he is the christian apologist who went to be with the lord yesterday morning we will

00:00:34.880 talk about the gospel that he preached for so long and what his ministry represents and then if i have

00:00:42.020 time i will answer a question that so many of you have asked me via instagram and that is what i

00:00:47.720 think about mlms or multi-level marketing and i have a lot of thoughts on that if i don't have time

00:00:53.760 to get to that at the end of this episode i will talk about it more thoroughly on a friday okay so

00:01:00.660 let's talk just a little bit i just want to talk briefly about this obama speech that he gave at a

00:01:06.420 virtual event called graduate together it was the high school class of 2020 commencement it was an

00:01:13.400 event that was organized by uh an organization called xq institute it's a think tank and it was

00:01:20.260 in partnership with lebron james's foundation and the entertainment industry foundation so obviously

00:01:26.980 we can guess by the fact that president obama spoke at this virtual event that it was a left-leaning event

00:01:33.160 or else maybe they would have asked the current president of the united states lebron james we

00:01:38.080 know his political views he's pretty outspoken about that and his opinions about president trump and so

00:01:44.220 they chose president obama who is you'd probably say the original uh celebrity president now there

00:01:51.760 were other presidents that have you know had friends in hollywood certainly bill clinton did and

00:01:57.600 maybe you could say that george bush george w bush kind of did too but certainly barack obama has been

00:02:05.540 fully embraced by the hollywood powers that be he has that star power more than any other president

00:02:13.500 does he is someone who is likable to the majority of the country i would say it might be a slim majority

00:02:20.680 but the majority of the country and speaking as an objective person so obviously you guys know

00:02:26.240 if you've been listening to this podcast for any amount of time that i am ideologically and

00:02:32.040 politically completely opposite to barack obama however speaking as an objective person just watching

00:02:39.860 him he is very easy to watch he's very easy to listen to you understand why people listen to him

00:02:45.380 and feel comfortable he is immediately relatable and likable and assuring he is a skilled politician

00:02:53.260 he is a compelling speaker not in the way that he is dynamic and super you know loud or boisterous or

00:03:01.160 something like that but he kind of has that calm presence that i think people especially right now

00:03:06.980 are looking for and this is very smart by the way of him to be out in public like this

00:03:13.060 all the other presidents most presidents before him have kind of just gone into the shadows after

00:03:19.040 their presidency was up they didn't speak up about the leadership and the mistakes that they were

00:03:23.300 making george w bush didn't really speak out about the mistakes that president obama was making or the

00:03:28.620 decisions that he was making that was contrary to maybe what george w bush thought that he should do he

00:03:35.360 kind of respectfully step to the side and said you know what i'm going to let this man govern and i

00:03:39.940 guarantee you that george w bush thought that there were things that president obama did that were

00:03:44.240 not wise and that he disagreed with of course they're part of two political different political parties

00:03:49.360 even though they probably do have uh some ideological overlap there were a lot of mistakes that president

00:03:55.960 obama made there were a lot of decisions that he made that conservatives that people who voted for george w bush

00:04:01.140 did not like and yet you didn't see george w bush coming out and giving these speeches that kind of in

00:04:06.960 an underhanded way slammed president obama and that's what president obama did here he is not afraid to

00:04:13.280 step out and to make his political opinions known and even his opinions about the current administration

00:04:19.600 in a way that seems subtle and i think in a way that a lot of people even see as polite so he made a comment

00:04:27.120 in this speech about how the people in charge don't know what they're doing i think it's pretty

00:04:30.940 obvious to anyone with a brain that he is talking about president trump and that you can't necessarily

00:04:37.420 trust the people in charge that you have to trust yourself and so that was a part of his message and

00:04:44.180 president obama is really good at this it's he's really good at weaving the truth together with

00:04:53.920 uh leftist ideology he is really good at making his political opinions sound non-political uh inserting

00:05:03.080 a political statement into a conversation that has nothing to do with politics to make his statement

00:05:08.880 seem non-political and this is very smart of him to put himself out there and i started that thought a

00:05:16.480 few minutes ago and then i forgot to finish it but the reason why it's smart to put himself out there

00:05:20.900 both for him and just for the democratic party in general and for the election coming up is because

00:05:26.460 every time barack obama is up there you've got people who hate donald trump who think wow

00:05:31.620 this is what normal feels like this is what sanity feels like this is what comfort and assurance and

00:05:37.300 leadership feels like and when people feel nostalgic for president obama they are going to automatically

00:05:43.320 associate his vice president with him and think okay well i want that i want that feeling of

00:05:48.840 normalcy i want that feeling of steadiness again that i feel whenever i watch barack obama speak

00:05:55.280 and so i am going to vote for the guy who was his right hand man for eight years so we can get back

00:06:02.360 into that sense of normalcy but the only reason why things feel normal when we're watching president

00:06:09.520 obama or the only reason that people feel nostalgic yes of course people feel nostalgic who actually

00:06:14.760 liked him and liked his policies but the only uh the only reason that some people feel any kind of

00:06:21.400 sense of of peace and steadiness while watching him is it because his presidency was actually very uh

00:06:29.280 peaceful or created a prosperous united loving america there is this mythology that surrounds president

00:06:38.920 obama's um administration and his time as president that that was a very um peaceful time in our nation

00:06:46.320 that we all kind of got along and that we all showed each other some kind of basic respect and we

00:06:54.480 represented some kind of fundamental decency in our conversations and we weren't divided until president

00:07:01.280 trump came along well that's just not true like you can look at dozens of studies that show what happened

00:07:07.320 while obama was president and correlation doesn't prove causation but while obama was president the

00:07:12.900 right and the left became more polarized probably than we've ever been and we're going to talk about

00:07:17.660 some of those studies after i point out how specifically barack obama did this in his speech this thing

00:07:24.640 of uh dividing the country and splitting people up in categories without it making it seem like

00:07:32.780 that's what he's doing so in the name of unity he breaks people up into their factions like race like

00:07:41.260 class and he makes political points without it seeming political and this is very persuasive so again

00:07:48.800 this is a smart move by him politically to put himself out there it's smart for the democratic party

00:07:54.660 it's not what past presidents have done but this is a new hyper political age that i

00:08:00.580 personally believe his administration ushered in so here's part of what he says and part of

00:08:06.800 and here's one example of how he does what i kind of just explained this pandemic has shaken up the

00:08:11.880 status quo and laid bare a lot of our country's deep-seated problems from massive economic inequality

00:08:16.780 to ongoing racial disparities to a lack of basic health care for people who need it so he's talking

00:08:22.060 about the pandemic he's talking about coronavirus so let's repeat that coronavirus he is saying

00:08:26.940 has uh showed our has shown our deep-seated problems which are massive economic equality

00:08:33.100 inequality to ongoing racial disparities to a lack of basic health care for people who need it so he

00:08:39.000 makes these political social moral statements without giving us any evidence without giving us

00:08:45.240 any proof or any explanation any clarity whatsoever on how the coronavirus has shown ongoing racial

00:08:52.340 disparities there may be other things in our country that you can say uh prove that there may be some

00:08:58.760 statistics or some studies or some stories that you can point us to that show that the coronavirus

00:09:03.900 has um has uncovered racial disparities now of course it's true that unfortunately and tragically

00:09:12.660 coronavirus is disproportionately affecting minority communities but his implication here is that that's

00:09:19.420 because of racism that is because of some kind of systemic injustice there are all kinds of

00:09:26.040 characteristics that we can point to that are more prevalent in minority communities that might make

00:09:32.060 them tragically again more vulnerable to the coronavirus but here without actually overtly making the

00:09:38.860 argument obama is making the argument that coronavirus uncovers racial disparities like or because of

00:09:46.380 systemic injustice and systemic racism this is what obama does so effectively he makes the argument without

00:09:54.520 actually having to make the argument and it sounds so good and we accept it as fact that it becomes

00:10:00.520 part of our ideology quickly he also talks about massive economic inequality again not pointing to any fact not

00:10:08.480 pointing to any statistic but simply saying it shows the inequality that is uh that had already existed

00:10:16.320 in this country he is saying that coronavirus just peeled back the layers and uh and has demonstrated

00:10:22.540 just how unjust and unequal and all the inequities uh that this country is is facing without actually

00:10:30.660 having to explain how any of that is true he makes political statements without them sounding political

00:10:38.100 and without adding any substance to the argument he goes on to say that our democracy will only work when we

00:10:45.460 think not just about ourselves but about each other and again i agree with that that we should be

00:10:51.800 thinking about each other and this is what he does he weaves things that sound true with statements that

00:10:57.840 are political that we just accept if we're not thinking critically and asking questions about what does

00:11:03.600 he mean by these statements and how can he prove them to be true he says but if you listen to the truth

00:11:09.860 that's inside yourself even when it's hard even when it's convenient people will notice they'll gravitate towards

00:11:15.400 you and you'll be part of the solution instead of part of the problem that sounds great until again you

00:11:21.080 take a step back and you say hang on a second what did you just say but if you listen to the truth

00:11:26.000 that's inside yourself even when it's hard so this is this new age post-modern subjectivist relativist

00:11:33.640 mentality that we've talked about so much on this podcast that it's no wonder that it's become so popular

00:11:39.340 particularly over the past 10 years because this is such a prevalent idea on the left in particular

00:11:45.500 although it does exist on the right but especially on the left this idea of my truth and your truth

00:11:51.080 my morality and your morality this line that he says but if you listen to the truth that's inside

00:11:57.340 yourself even when it's hard even when it's convenient people will notice but of course we don't know

00:12:02.180 what that means if i said that my truth is being an evangelical conservative that's supposed to vote

00:12:09.340 for donald trump i'm sure barack obama would have a problem with that i'm sure that he would disagree

00:12:14.900 with my truth and he would probably say that it's not my truth of course because there's not a my truth

00:12:19.920 in your truth there is one objective truth so it does as good as it sounds it does no one any good

00:12:27.320 to say that you should follow your truth but again this is how obama makes statements that are

00:12:33.440 ideological in nature without making them sound ideological he talks about building a community

00:12:40.880 no one does things by themselves that is true right now when people are scared it's easy to be cynical

00:12:47.440 and say just let me look out for myself or my family or people who look or think or pray like me

00:12:53.340 again that sounds true that sounds true and sounds good that we shouldn't be selfish we shouldn't live

00:12:59.860 in isolation we shouldn't just uh care about what's right in front of us we should look to the needs of

00:13:05.820 others it's of course biblical that we shouldn't just look to our own interests but also the interest

00:13:10.860 uh interests of others but he says he projects this identity onto america that we shouldn't just be

00:13:17.320 caring about the people who look or think or pray like me like this is a prevalent problem that we have

00:13:22.900 that most people in america he is assuming are bigots and struggle with caring about people

00:13:28.000 who don't look or think the same way that we do and i don't think that that's true for the majority

00:13:33.720 of americans but this is the picture that obama um seemingly innocuously has painted of america as long

00:13:41.960 as he's been in politics that everyone in america or that a lot of people in america a lot more people

00:13:48.480 than is probably true a lot of people struggle with bigotry and struggle with caring about anyone

00:13:54.620 outside of their circle and i just don't think that's an accurate portrayal of america but barack

00:13:59.520 obama wants you to believe that that is a pervasive problem he says but if we're going to get through

00:14:04.420 these difficult times if we're going to create a world where everybody has the opportunity to find a

00:14:08.420 job and afford college again those are loaded political statements i'm sure and if we are going to

00:14:13.940 save the environment he says and defeat future pandemics and we're going to have to do it together

00:14:18.260 so be alive to one another struggle stand up for one another's rights leave behind all the old ways

00:14:23.980 of thinking that divide us sexism racial prejudice status greed and set the world on a different path

00:14:29.980 again by pointing out these points of division which i agree that sexism that racial prejudice

00:14:36.040 that uh greed that those are all sins and that we should all be more charitable and we should all be

00:14:43.260 more truly loving and truly kind and truly gracious i believe that too he prescribes or he um points to

00:14:52.400 a problem in america that he believes is much more pervasive and is much bigger than it probably

00:14:58.520 actually is do racists exist do sexists exist of course do elitists exist yes of course they do but

00:15:06.340 right here he is portraying a kind of class warfare a kind of race warfare that we need to continue

00:15:13.800 waging without actually saying what is the unifying factor under which um america can move forward like

00:15:22.100 what is the thing that brings us all together what does make america uh what does make americans

00:15:28.320 americans he doesn't actually give a positive portrayal of who america is who our identity is

00:15:35.220 what actually brings us together the principles under which we operate that make us the united states

00:15:42.560 again he portrays um or he conveys his political ideology without making it sound political just

00:15:51.540 making it sound moral and matter of fact without saying anything that actually backs up his points

00:15:59.240 and this again is what obama does so well and it is so compelling i think for most people who are um

00:16:07.320 who just want to be comfortable again like they just want to feel like things are how they were before

00:16:14.160 trump took office the chaos that uh the media mostly has caused they want to be out of that they like

00:16:21.340 living in a world where the media doesn't hold an administration accountable and just compliments them

00:16:26.280 and they can kind of live in this la la land um and pretend like obama was the best president that

00:16:32.320 ever existed that he was the most unifying president that ever existed and that his presidency was

00:16:38.520 scandal free and we know for a fact that that is not true um the fact is is that president obama is

00:16:44.820 really good at making you think that he is scandal free really good at making you think that he just

00:16:51.520 wants to bring people together but that's not actually what happened under his presidency so

00:16:56.520 megan mccain made a comment the other day on the view and said you know the culture war was really

00:17:02.520 started or at least got a lot worse under president obama and everyone on twitter was like oh my gosh

00:17:08.060 this isn't true it's all trump's fault this is not true but she's absolutely right she's absolutely

00:17:14.360 right people who think that these culture wars that we became divided under trump just weren't paying

00:17:20.640 attention or they didn't want to think that we were divided under president obama or they didn't

00:17:25.120 notice because they felt like their side was winning and their guy was in charge so they thought maybe

00:17:30.560 the culture wars were non-existent or they were so small um but that's not true we became very divided

00:17:36.460 under president obama and you could say that it's been exacerbated now under this presidency you could

00:17:42.540 say that it's gotten worse over the past few years you could say that trump hasn't helped things

00:17:46.760 but it did not start under president trump so this study that i've shown or i've talked about several

00:17:52.860 times is a pew research study from 2017 called polarization and politics you can see the different

00:17:58.820 graphs and i'll put the link in the um in the description for this episode so you can see the

00:18:04.680 different graphs and you can see where the country has how the country has identified politically

00:18:10.360 since 1994 i think is the earliest that it goes but if you look from 2011 to 2017 the median democrat

00:18:19.080 moved way to the left during that time between 2011 2017 the median democrat moved way over to the left

00:18:26.820 and the median republican moved to the right only very slightly so under barack obama's president the left

00:18:33.400 moved to the left so the median democrat moved way to the left and the republicans stayed just about the

00:18:39.880 same on every issue if you look at the breakdown of this study the right has moved slightly to the

00:18:45.480 right or has remained um unchanged on an issue and uh or has even moved a little bit to the left but

00:18:53.800 the left has moved far over to the left mostly over the past 10 years mostly while barack obama was

00:19:01.000 president we have more people on the far left than we've ever had before far more people on the far left

00:19:06.040 than we have in the far right according to the study at least and you can hear this of course in

00:19:10.440 their rhetoric that changed while barack was while barack obama was president and the causes that they

00:19:15.560 stand for that were either much more moderate or not or they were non-existent 10 years ago so you've

00:19:22.200 got abortion on demand now it used to be safe legal and rare you've got decriminalizing uh illegal

00:19:27.720 immigration or decriminalizing border crossings that wasn't true 10 years ago barack obama hillary

00:19:33.800 clinton chuck schumer all uh all talked about uh the problems with the legal immigration the sexual

00:19:39.080 revolution that challenges the definition of something as basic and biological of uh as genders

00:19:45.880 that has existed for all of human history and yet just in the past few years that's been challenged

00:19:51.640 the moral and sexual political revolution of the left um got a lot quicker it was expedited

00:20:01.800 under barack obama's presidency and maybe he didn't do that on purpose but certainly his administration

00:20:08.120 and his leadership allowed for that and one of the things that we disagree on the most i think

00:20:14.200 one of the things that has divided the country the most unfortunately is the conversation surrounding

00:20:20.120 race and that changed very dramatically while barack obama was president so this is from that same pew

00:20:26.920 research study they asked so this is how they phrased it and this is from pew research it says

00:20:34.600 growing share sites discrimination as a barrier to blacks getting ahead so if you look at 2009 2010

00:20:42.360 only 18 of the country said that they felt that racial discrimination is the main reason why black

00:20:49.000 people can't get ahead these days so again this is from pew research 2009 2010 only 18 believed that but by

00:20:56.840 2017 41 believed that so 40 from 18 to 41 believed that our ideas on racial discrimination changed a lot

00:21:08.440 while president obama was president now is that because racism actually increased during that time

00:21:13.560 or was it just because the conversation changed it's probably because the conversation changed and i'm

00:21:18.680 not saying that the conversation changed all for the worst but it did change and then we look at

00:21:25.080 the difference in perspective on race and racial discrimination at least against black people

00:21:29.960 and how different it is if you're a democrat versus if you're a republican so 2009 2010 only 28 of

00:21:37.880 democrats in 2009 2010 believed that discrimination was the reason why african americans cannot get ahead

00:21:45.080 by 2017 that had shot up to 64 so much higher than it had ever been since 1994 at least in 1994

00:21:53.640 only 39 of democrats believed that but in 2017 64 of democrats believed that discrimination was the main

00:22:03.080 reason rather than personal choices was the main reason why black people can't get ahead now again

00:22:08.440 is that because racism has gotten a lot worse since 1994 probably not but our perspective has changed whereas

00:22:16.360 for republicans in 2009 2010 only nine percent believed that discrimination was the main reason

00:22:23.160 and in 2017 that's only up uh to 14 so 64 among democrats 14 among republicans in 2017 so that gap

00:22:34.120 moved a lot while barack it opened a lot while barack obama was president and that is mostly because

00:22:40.280 democrats changed their perspective and so whatever you think about that whether you think that's a

00:22:47.240 good thing it's just a product of us talking about it more and having much needed conversations and

00:22:53.000 people raising awareness about racism whatever you think about that growing gap the fact of the matter is

00:22:58.920 that gap uh happened mostly under president obama it didn't happen under president trump so

00:23:07.000 those gaps existed president trump came in and things have just gotten worse and it's not all

00:23:13.560 president trump's fault in the same way that it wasn't all president obama's fault the media uh can

00:23:20.040 take a lot of the blame for this social media could take a lot of the blame for this all of us who are in

00:23:25.800 this sphere can take blame for this but the fact of the matter is these divisions these culture wars

00:23:31.160 um they got a lot worse if they didn't originate under barack obama's tenure i mean that's just

00:23:38.680 the fact of the matter again that doesn't mean that it's all his fault but certainly he is a master

00:23:44.360 at presenting these culture wars in a way that is much more um is much more subtle than president

00:23:51.960 trump president trump gets up in a rally and he says this is the culture war and this is what i think

00:23:56.760 about the culture war um you know democrats won abortion on demand and they think that you should

00:24:04.200 kill a baby after the baby is born which is what governor northam said but he'll just come out and

00:24:08.680 say that he'll just come out and say exactly what he thinks about the democrats and he's not demure

00:24:13.880 about it at all whereas president obama will do the same thing but he will do it in a much more

00:24:20.520 subtle and i would say deceptive way so he will say something like well the people in charge

00:24:25.480 the people in charge don't know you know what they're doing and well we need to we need to make

00:24:31.080 sure that we're coming together and looking at these racial disparities that are shown by coronavirus so

00:24:36.360 a lot less political sounding a lot more subtle and probably a lot more compelling for a lot of people

00:24:43.880 whereas president trump is just going to come out and say it but anyone who thinks that um president obama

00:24:49.960 is somehow less political and is somehow less divisive they're just not looking at what he is

00:24:56.920 saying underneath the veneer of assurance and peace and unity if that makes sense um so i just want to

00:25:04.120 touch on that because a lot of you guys asked me to talk about it okay let's talk about ravi zacharias

00:25:10.760 just a little bit so he was a christian apologist and he dedicated his christian life to helping christians

00:25:17.400 critically think about their own faith and critically read the bible and to be able to defend their faith

00:25:26.440 against apologists for other faiths and really there was no one like him um that did exactly what

00:25:34.600 he did in the way he did it he was such a good thinker such a good philosopher so creative in the ways

00:25:42.200 that he biblically defended the faith and his ministry will live on and i've just been praying

00:25:47.880 that god would continue to be glorified through his ministry that even in his death that god would

00:25:54.520 bring others to himself and share his gospel and soften hearts and we know that he can do that

00:26:00.520 because he brings all things together for the good of those who love him who have been called according

00:26:06.600 to his purpose and we know that ravi zacharias loved him and was called according to his purpose

00:26:12.680 and um god's glory is our good so i pray that god would be glorified through this and we know that

00:26:19.400 ravi zacharias is now um in heaven celebrating with the lord exactly where he has wanted to be from the

00:26:26.520 second that he uh came to faith by grace through faith and that is what we are going to talk about

00:26:34.040 by grace through faith because i posted a quote by ravi zacharias that said that i do want to

00:26:40.200 clarify actually but he said repentance and faith in jesus christ is the only thing that's going to

00:26:45.160 save you no amount of religious activity is going to get you there only true faith in jesus christ and

00:26:50.680 i want to clarify that by saying um and i don't think he meant this but just in case anyone misinterpreted

00:26:56.520 that i don't believe that your uh willpower to repent saves you that can't save you the power

00:27:05.160 that you have to repent when you come to a saving faith in jesus christ even that power is given to

00:27:11.480 you by god i don't believe according to what scripture says that we can take any credit for salvation at all

00:27:18.040 except for the sin that makes it necessary as the saying goes so i just wanted to clarify that that

00:27:24.680 repentance is a product of faith it is not a prerequisite of faith and that also goes there

00:27:30.840 is a debate that broke out on my instagram post and i just want to speak to that that also goes for

00:27:36.920 good works unfortunately there are a lot of people out there there are some protestants who believe

00:27:41.560 this there are a lot of catholics who believe this that it it is faith plus works equals salvation so

00:27:47.800 if you have a faith in christ plus you do good works that's what gets you into heaven if you

00:27:53.720 don't have good works if you don't do enough good works if you don't do the right things then you

00:27:58.920 won't get into heaven and i want to go to the word of god to make sure that we are clear on this because

00:28:05.400 missing that misses the gospel like you miss freedom and you miss joy if you think that the burden is on

00:28:12.840 you to prove your salvation or to earn your salvation through works now the verse that people who believe

00:28:20.600 that is faith plus works equals salvation the verse that people typically go to is james 2 26 most of you

00:28:27.000 are probably familiar for as the body apart from the spirit is dead so also faith apart from works

00:28:33.880 is dead now a lot of people who cite this verse think that people like me are just ignoring that

00:28:39.400 verse that we just are uncomfortable with the book of james and we are very uncomfortable with james 2 26 and

00:28:44.760 we just forget like it's we just forget that it's there and we just act like it's not there but that's

00:28:49.880 not true me as a reformed protestant who believes in by grace alone uh by grace alone through faith

00:28:57.640 alone in christ alone i read james 2 26 and i say amen absolutely i believe that the bible is the

00:29:04.840 inerrant word of god therefore it is without error therefore it does not contradict itself and so when i

00:29:11.320 read james 2 26 if i have a question about that if i'm thinking okay well does that mean that i earn

00:29:18.360 my salvation does that mean that i have to do good works in order to be saved i have to just like i do

00:29:24.040 with every verse that i'm reading look at the entirety of scripture as i've said many times on

00:29:29.320 this podcast if you ever get to a verse or a passage that seems to contradict another verse or another

00:29:35.720 passage you don't throw one out in favor of the other you look at both verses and you look to reconcile

00:29:42.280 the truth that is in both passages with more scripture like with more truth you don't say

00:29:47.480 well that one doesn't make sense to me or that one doesn't fit into my preconceived notions of

00:29:51.160 who i want god to be or what my denomination has said or what my pastor has said so i'm just gonna

00:29:57.160 throw out this this i'm gonna throw this out no that's not what you do you say okay this is the word

00:30:02.920 of god this is inerrant truth doesn't contradict itself i am going to work go deeper into scripture

00:30:09.240 to figure out what this means so i can draw truth from it i'm going to ask god for wisdom to give me

00:30:15.960 clarity and understanding on this i'm going to go to biblically solid resources and help me understand

00:30:21.080 this too many of us when we get confused by scripture we step away from scripture and we go

00:30:26.040 into our own minds and we try to make our own um our our our own uh ideas of how we reconcile what

00:30:35.160 seems to be contradictory and too often we end up with a faulty theology instead of going out of

00:30:41.480 scripture and into our own minds we need to go out of our own confusion and into scripture and seek

00:30:47.480 wisdom so when i look at james 2 26 and i read faith apart from works is dead and the rest of the

00:30:52.840 chapter talks about being justified by works and how abraham was justified by works and that's confusing

00:30:58.360 because other parts of the bible says say that abraham was justified by faith so what is it

00:31:03.000 i have to look at all of scripture well in order for me to make sense of this statement that faith

00:31:08.760 apart from works is dead i go to ephesians 2 8 through 10 that says for by grace you have been saved

00:31:15.880 through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of god not a result of works so that no one

00:31:22.840 may boast for we are his workmanship created in christ jesus for good works which god prepared beforehand

00:31:31.640 that we should walk in them now let me just repeat this because if any of you out there and i know

00:31:37.240 there are some of you who listen to my podcast who believe that it is faith plus works equal salvation

00:31:41.640 let me just read to you this passage again and how apparently important the holy spirit thinks it is

00:31:48.680 for you and i to understand that we are saved by grace through faith that it's not our own doing

00:31:54.840 just listen to how many times that idea is reiterated over and over again in these three verses

00:32:02.040 for by grace you have been saved through faith okay so that's one time by grace you have been saved

00:32:11.080 through faith what is grace it's unmerited favor so by nature you cannot earn grace for by grace you have

00:32:18.280 been saved through faith and what and this is not your own doing okay done this is not your own doing

00:32:26.680 really simple look at it in the original greek you're not going to find anything different and this is not

00:32:31.480 your own doing so we already got it just in two sentences uh one and a half sentences for by grace you

00:32:37.320 have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing let's keep going it is the gift of god okay so

00:32:43.480 again we are uh it's reiterated the same idea it is the gift of god what is a gift a gift is something

00:32:50.840 that you didn't earn if you mow a lawn and you earn ten dollars the ten dollars that you are given is not

00:32:56.760 a gift it is uh your it's your it's the money that you earned it is um you could say a reward of some kind

00:33:05.080 but you actually earned it it is not a gift a gift is something that you did not earn so already

00:33:13.320 in two sentences and oh a little more than one and a half sentences we hear for by grace you have

00:33:18.680 been saved through faith then we hear it is not your own doing and then we hear it is a gift of god

00:33:23.640 and just to drive it home even more not a result of works not a result of works so by grace i've been

00:33:32.440 saved through faith it's not my own doing it's the gift of god it's not a result of works like it's

00:33:39.000 very important apparently to god uh that we understand this concept because he says it in

00:33:45.720 several ways in just two sentences just to make sure that our thick skulls understand for by grace

00:33:52.760 you have been saved through faith and this is not your own doing it is the gift of god not a result

00:33:57.400 of works why so that no one may boast i don't know how it gets more clear than that and then we go to

00:34:04.840 the verse that reconciles these two ideas so it's so crystal clear in ephesians 2 8 and 9 that okay

00:34:11.960 it's by grace that means we didn't earn it it's a gift it's not by works so that i cannot

00:34:17.480 boast and then how we reconcile that perfectly crystal clear idea with james 2 that says that

00:34:25.000 faith without works is dead and that works are very important this is what reconciles these two

00:34:30.840 seemingly contradictory ideas is ephesians 2 10 for we are his workmanship created in christ jesus for

00:34:39.800 good works which god prepared beforehand that we should walk in them so what does that verse tell us

00:34:47.480 that verse tells us that the good works that we do are a product of the saving faith that was given to

00:34:54.760 us by grace and not a prerequisite of our saving faith or not a prerequisite of our salvation we're

00:35:03.320 not creating a resume with our good works these are good works that we can't even take credit for

00:35:09.640 at all because this verse says that god prepared those works beforehand that we should walk in them

00:35:16.280 so this is the fruit of our salvation that was given to us by grace through faith this is not a salvation

00:35:27.000 that we earn if we could earn salvation if we had to earn salvation we would all be out of luck completely

00:35:35.480 out of luck what does the bible say about us the bible says that our heart is corrupt like our heart is

00:35:40.840 wayward our heart is desperately sick who can understand it the bible said our righteousness

00:35:46.360 is as filthy rags to the lord there is nothing that you can do to earn god's favor jesus earned

00:35:53.560 your favor earned god's favor on your behalf that is the freedom that is the freedom of the gospel that

00:36:00.040 is the beauty of the gospel and for you to believe that you have to earn your salvation is to do what

00:36:05.320 romans 8 tells us not to do to fall back into the spirit of fear to fall back into the spirit of

00:36:11.960 slavery but instead we are free in christ to call out to god abba father because he saved us through

00:36:18.920 no merit of our own but because of his goodness and his grace remember a really good way to figure out

00:36:25.720 if you've got the right theology is to ask yourself does my belief give more glory to god or glory to me

00:36:32.760 the belief that gives glory to god is that you were saved due to nothing good that you've done

00:36:38.760 that you were saved by grace through faith the belief that gives more glory to you is the belief

00:36:45.560 that you did something to earn it that you're kind of deserving of it that is uh that is a desire to

00:36:52.600 give glory to yourself that my friend you do not deserve let's look at some more passages of scripture

00:36:58.040 that support the idea that we are saved by grace and that works have nothing to do in earning your

00:37:04.280 salvation they're a product of your salvation they don't earn your salvation let's read romans 5 6

00:37:09.560 through 11 for while we were still weak at the right time christ died for the ungodly for one will

00:37:14.840 scarcely die for a righteous person though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die but god

00:37:20.760 chose his love for us and that while we were still sinners christ died for us since therefore we have

00:37:27.640 now been justified by his blood did it say by his by our works no it says by his blood much more shall

00:37:35.800 we be saved by him from the wrath of god for if while we were enemies we were reconciled to god by the

00:37:43.240 death of his son much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by his life more than that

00:37:49.080 we also rejoice in god through our lord jesus christ through whom we have now received

00:37:55.640 reconciliation amen and let's read titus 3 4 through 5 but when the kindness and the love of god our

00:38:02.280 savior toward man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done like it's so

00:38:07.800 important to god apparently that we get this not by works of righteousness which we have done but

00:38:13.880 according to his mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the holy

00:38:20.600 spirit like i don't want you to miss that if you miss out on that you miss the gospel you miss christianity

00:38:28.280 but when the kindness and the love of god our savior toward man appear not by works of righteousness

00:38:33.240 which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of

00:38:38.680 the holy spirit now if you are already a reformed christian you're like ally why are you repeating

00:38:44.520 this so much well you can go to my instagram post and you can see the debate that was breaking out and

00:38:49.240 you can understand that i've got a lot of people that listen to me that buy into this false that this

00:38:55.640 false um leading to hell a false gospel that says that you have to or you have the ability to

00:39:04.920 earn your salvation glory be to god that we cannot that we will not ever earn our salvation you can try

00:39:13.080 and try and try all you are doing is exhausting yourself that is a worldly burden that you are

00:39:19.160 bearing right now if you are trying to be good enough if you're trying to say enough prayers or the

00:39:24.040 right prayers or have all the right do do enough sacraments and go to confession enough

00:39:30.680 you are wasting your time and you're wasting your energy god has already declared victory

00:39:37.240 for you if you are in christ you don't have to try to keep earning it in fact you can't you can't

00:39:43.640 that is the gospel that ravi zacharias knew that is the gospel that his ministry represents and i'm

00:39:50.920 so thankful for his legacy and the legacy of all christians who have been faithful to god and faithful

00:39:57.800 ministers of the gospel and may we be faithful as well may god grant us strength and grant us wisdom

00:40:05.400 to stick to the truth and not be afraid to share it and not be afraid to live it um okay i don't have

00:40:12.200 time to talk about the mlms today i know a lot of you wanted me to talk about it i'll talk about it on

00:40:16.280 friday okay i promise you that i will be back here then have a great rest of your week

Relatable with Allie Beth Stuckey - May 20, 2020

Ep 252 ｜ Wokeness & Works Can't Save You

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