Knowing Jesus: Beyond Intellectual Faith

Discover the profound difference between merely knowing about Jesus Christ and truly knowing Him in your heart. This episode of Living God's Way in an Ungodly World ventures into the depths of faith, examining how intellectual understanding alone falls short of salvation. We navigate through the core aspects of repentance and justification, emphasizing the necessity of a genuine relationship with Christ, which is vital for your eternal destiny. With a special focus on diverse listeners from regions like Nepal and Saudi Arabia, B.R.Maul clarifies the identity of Jesus as the Son of God and why a heartfelt connection is indispensable.

Prepare to enrich your daily life with spiritual practices as B.R.Maul shares insights on establishing a meaningful prayer routine amidst the chaos of everyday life. Learn how small yet significant changes like praying before meals or at the start and end of your day can deepen your connection with God. This episode not only challenges you to look inward and reflect on your relationship with Jesus but also encourages you to embrace the fleeting nature of life with spiritual focus and intentionality. Tune in for an inspiring conversation that urges you to live a life reflective of your faith, always looking forward to growing spiritually and staying safe under God’s guidance.

Chapters

• 0:29 Knowing Jesus in Your Heart
• 10:02 Understanding Repentance and Justification
• 24:50 Establishing a Routine of Prayer

Transcript

B.R.Maul: 0:29

Hello and good day. I am BR Maul and you are listening to Living God's Way in an Ungodly World. I'm currently teaching in the book of Ephesians. However, I am taking a break from that so I can talk just more directly to you. There's been a few things on my heart and this is one of them that I'd like to talk to you about.

B.R.Maul: 0:55

After all, the podcast Living God's Way in an Ungodly World is a topic that most people don't want to listen to. They don't want to talk about that. It's much easier to live a life pretending that we know God and blending in with the world around us. The average person doesn't want to rock the boat. In other words, they don't want to cause trouble, they don't want to make people mad, they don't want people to not like them, they don't want to hurt people's feelings, and some of that is okay. But for those of us who are following Jesus Christ and that is who it is that I follow it is Jesus Christ of Nazareth who is my Lord and my King, my Savior, and it is he who I owe an eternal debt to. Because of him, I am going to spend eternity in the presence of God.

B.R.Maul: 1:50

I noticed there's quite a few listeners to this podcast over in countries like Nepal and Saudi Arabia and other countries that certainly are not Americanized. So I wanted to make sure that I clarify a few things as I continue teaching that this God is Yahweh, the one true living God. This is not the God of the Kron. This is not just another God of the Hindus. Jesus Christ is his son. It is God, the Father, that gave Jesus Christ up as a sacrifice, once and for all, for everyone who accepts Jesus Christ as their Savior.

B.R.Maul: 2:31

One thing to clarify for all you who are listening is that head knowledge of God is not enough to make it into heaven, and Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is not a prophet. He was not just a good man that lived a good life. In fact, that's impossible, because Jesus declared that he is God numerous times. Makes it so he doesn't qualify to be just a good man or, for that matter, a prophet of God, because, since he claimed to be God, he was either a liar, a psychotic or indeed the living God as a Christian.

B.R.Maul: 3:11

Quite obvious that he is, in fact, the living God. The Bible points to that in so many ways. So there's no denying that Jesus Christ is God. We can deny it in our heart, but even the secular world cannot deny that a man named Jesus from Nazareth hung on a cross some 2,000 years ago, claiming to be the living God. And there's proof upon proof that there were eyewitnesses that, after seeing him on the cross and then buried, saw him just days later walking about and over the course of well right now I'm trying to recall if it was 30 or 40 days, so I apologize for that, but either way, a significant amount of time that he walked the earth and hundreds of people witnessed that very fact.

B.R.Maul: 4:05

So for those who are wondering who Jesus is and are listening to this, he is the Son of God and for those who have known that in their mind, that this is common knowledge much in the United States, but so many other places as well, around the world, the name Jesus is known and known to be the Son of the Living God and a triune God Father, son and Holy Spirit that head knowledge is not enough. So that's the other thing I want to talk about today, because my heart right now is breaking for the millions of people right now who know Jesus Christ as they would, somebody that they have studied in history as somebody that from generation to generation the name has been passed down, and of course those are many types of people, people from history. We can read about them, which means we have had knowledge of them, but unless we actually sat with them and talked to them and lived a life near them or alongside of them, we cannot know a person. We can know of people. We all know plenty about people the different presidents of the United States, the different kings and queens throughout history, various heroes and villains throughout history who made names for themselves, famous people today, whether in sports or in movies or in music industry, whatever it may be. All of these people you don't know them in your heart. But we can really get to know them in our minds and we can get a feeling of knowing them in our minds.

B.R.Maul: 5:49

But please understand that reading about somebody does not make it so you know them. Nobody reads about somebody that they may be interested in as a spouse to have a family with and studies on them and reads more. Listen to other and studies on them and reads more. Listen to other people who talk about them and then, with that information only, without ever meeting them in person, marry them. That just doesn't happen. Now, my ignorance shows, because when it comes to prearranged marriages, that's something that I know very little about. So I'm not saying that there's people who don't marry somebody that they don't know, but even with prearranged marriages, there seems still to be a time of courtship and so forth.

B.R.Maul: 6:35

But I won't go down that rabbit hole because that's not even a good comparison, because reading about somebody, especially somebody who isn't even on this earth, that's not walking this earth. Jesus is alive, he is in heaven, he is seated at the right hand of God, the Father, but he is not walking the earth. So, although he is a member of the triune God, which means as a Godhead, he is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. He knows everything about you and me, but he's not walking right next to us. In fact, it's the Holy Spirit who dwells inside of all of God's children. So why am I making a big deal about this? Knowing Jesus via just reading about or listening to sermons on Sunday, versus knowing him in your heart?

B.R.Maul: 7:26

The reason I'm making a big deal about this beloved is because this is the difference between heaven and hell when a person will spend their eternity is determined by their very relationship, or lack of relationship with their maker, specifically their maker's son, jesus Christ. And without getting too complicated, jesus is God the Father, jesus is the Holy Spirit and Jesus is the Son of God. That is the nature of a triune God Three separate but equal, making one Godhead. We cannot comprehend that. But nowhere in God's Word does he promise that he is going to explain everything to us, and I don't doubt that. There's no way that we could even comprehend it if he did lay it out for us. So I'll leave it at that.

B.R.Maul: 8:21

But there was the Mosaic Age, the Age of the Old Testament at that. But there was the Mosaic Age, the age of the Old Testament. That is over with and done with. We are now in the Church Age. The Church Age is since Jesus began his ministry at the age of 30,. We are in the Church Age, god the Father. He is the one who decided that he is going to go from speaking to his people through prophets and instead will speak directly to his people through the Holy Spirit during the church age. Well, that brings us, then, to the point of well, how does that happen? There's only one way that can happen, and that is being born again In John 3, jesus Christ, when he speaks to Nicodemus, lays it out in great detail and he lets us know that all who read John 3, one must be born again to see the kingdom of God period again.

B.R.Maul: 9:20

To see the kingdom of God period, and Jesus has already stated as well that no one goes through the Father except through me. Jesus said so. Believing in Jesus Christ is the only way to God the Father, and that is the only way to be born again. When a person in their heart not in the head, and I'll talk more about that in just a minute but in one's heart, truly believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross, that he lived a perfect life and so, when he died on that cross and was sacrificed, that that blood of his was the perfect blood, the perfect lamb of God for the sacrifice, and that when you believe on his blood, his sacrifice for you, you are born again, and that is belief in one's heart.

B.R.Maul: 10:02

In Romans 10, we are told that with the mouth one confesses the Lord Jesus and with the heart believes that God, the Father, raised him from the dead. That requires repentance. Repentance is not being sorry for what a person has done. You're not sorry for the things you have done. You repent. You completely want to turn away from that lifestyle. A person wants to be freed from their sin, and so they repent and they turn to God and, once admitting that they are a sinner, that they need a savior, plead to God to forgive them of all their sins through the name of Jesus Christ. And then, just like that, justification happens. They are born again instantly. There's nothing else that needs to be done. Don't jump the gun and think of baptism, because that is not a requirement for salvation. Baptism is an open expression, one saying that I am born again, that I am saved. But justification happens instantly. And that happens because you are actually baptized by the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist even admitted that he baptized with water, but that Jesus baptizes with the Holy Spirit.

B.R.Maul: 11:23

The baptism that we volunteer to go through is our open expression. It is our way of showing God in front of the world, maybe in front of many people, or maybe not. That's not the important part. It is an outward expression. I truly believe that one reason Jesus has us do it is because of the inspiration that it brings when we witness somebody's baptism.

B.R.Maul: 11:48

For those who are not baptized, there's an extreme curiosity. And why is it that somebody is doing that? It seems so awkward, so out of place in the world to be dunked in water and brought back up in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and, for those who have been baptized, it brings us great joy to see others being baptized, becoming a brother or a sister. Yes, they may have been born again, days, weeks, even years earlier, but it's their outward expression of saying hey, I am a child of God, jesus Christ is my Savior. And they too, then, are even telling us, those who have been born again, that you know what I'm, your brethren, I am a brother or I am a sister in Christ. So more on this knowing knowledge-wise Jesus Christ versus in your heart.

B.R.Maul: 12:41

Again, the reason this is so important is because Satan has played his cards very well. He's very cunning. He is the father of lies, so he is good at it, and he has fooled millions of people, is good at it, and he has fooled millions of people. For those who are caught up in Hinduism and Islam, whatever else it may be, he has them completely fooled. If that is you and you're hearing this and you're wondering who Jesus is, jesus is the one that Satan does not want you to know, because you can know God in all kinds of forms.

B.R.Maul: 13:18

There are false gods all over the place, and even in Christianity itself. There, among the churches, are people who are not worshiping the same God. They are worshiping God that they have in their own mind, but they don't read the Bible. Catholicism shame on the leaders in Catholicism. Shame on every single one of you who claim that a person needs to be learned to read God's Word and to understand it. That is contradictory to what God says, because the Holy Spirit is what is needed. His interpretation, the Holy Spirit, is who teaches us God's Word. No one else can do that for us.

B.R.Maul: 13:59

There are plenty of unbelievers who are in the seminaries right now. They are in their classroom, studying or whatever they're doing. Maybe they're getting ready to graduate even, and going on to be a pastor of a church or priest, whatever it is that they're doing, but they don't know Jesus Christ as their personal Savior. They know Scripture very well, they can quote it, but so what the Pharisees could do that? The Pharisees, they had to memorize the first five books. In fact, the reason the five books is because that's pretty much all Judaism reads and teaches from Even Jews, who only get the first five books of the Bible, who do not know Jesus Christ and he is there, by the way, in the first five books. I don't have time for that right now, but the point being is that there are so many other books of the Bible that blatantly point to Jesus, and especially in the New Testament right. So head knowledge isn't enough.

B.R.Maul: 14:57

Many of the Pharisees are going to burn in hell for all eternity, and that breaks my heart. They had God's word in front of them, but they had God constructed in their own mind the way they wanted him to be, and that's a danger that every single soul must be very weary of. You have a short window of opportunity, must be very weary of. You have a short window of opportunity, and that's in this lifetime. You may think that you have forever, it may feel like you have eternity, but no way. Our life in God's word is compared to a vapor that appears for a short time and then vanishes away. That's not long at all For those who have a lot of access to the knowledge of Jesus, such as in most of the United States, for starters, but plenty of other places around the world that have Bibles in every other household, a church, on every other street corner. Those individuals will have a higher standard held to them for accountability because they have many more opportunities to know who Jesus is.

B.R.Maul: 16:03

It's very frustrating for a Christian like myself to have knowledge of the fact that there are many denominations who discourage their lay people to read God's Word because they are afraid that they will misunderstand God. Maybe that is irony at its worst, because for those teachers false teachers, I'm going to say, to put to practice something as horrific as that, it is the false teachers themselves that either do not understand God's word or, worse, are blatantly holding that knowledge back because God does not say that in any way. Think about this Jesus Christ, when he died, he died for that very reason to split the curtain that separated the holy of holies from everybody else. It was Jesus Christ, when he died on the cross, that God, the Father, when it was over, made it very clear. You come directly to me, my children. You no longer need a priest. In fact, his children become the royal priesthood. We, his children, are priests, which means we are the ones who pray directly to God. We are the ones who can intercede for an unbeliever. We are the ones to open up his word and point to other people where Jesus Christ is in the Bible. Jesus died for that very reason, so people would not have to sacrifice animals, that they would not have to follow the strict rituals that God put in place.

B.R.Maul: 17:45

It is the blood of Jesus that makes it possible for someone like me, who is considered a layman to intellects, to be able to drop to my knees and pray directly to God himself. I'm the one who brings my thanksgiving to God. I am the one who brings my hurts and needs and wants to my Heavenly Father. He speaks directly to me and he speaks directly to you. If you are a child of God, to be a child of God, you must be born again. Being born again means that, yes, you were born of the flesh. Everybody is To be a human. You're born in the flesh. You are born once. That is the first time that you were born. Being born again, your spirit is awakened. The Holy Spirit reveals to you who God is, and that's just the beginning of your journey. Beloved, that is only the very beginning, and I am sorry that I look back in time and believers have fallen short, and I too, the first part of my life, fell way short of understanding that that even loving Jesus doesn't end right there. That is the beginning of a fantastic journey, but we are to live for him.

B.R.Maul: 19:05

Justification happens one and done when you are born again. Your sins he has justified you. Your sin debt is paid in full and immediately the Holy Spirit begins the sanctification process. And that sanctification process in short, beloved is God, the Father molding you into the image of his beloved Son, jesus Christ. And that will continue until the day your body expires and your body returns to the earth, but your soul is in heaven. And the day will come when we will all be glorified. But during this process of sanctification, that's not something that we do with our feet propped up and half asleep. No, it's a relationship with God the Father. And now that we are serving his son and now that we are his children, we need to participate in this whole process of sanctification. And what does that look like? That's when you open up his word and you read beloved.

B.R.Maul: 20:13

My heart just continues to break because so many Christians, those who are born again, they don't get it. Have they not heard it enough? I don't know, being brought up in a major denomination. I was misguided. I really honestly believed it was things that were done to me, being that my parents baptized me as a baby and then as a child, going through confirmation after passing my test and the pastor who I so respected confirmed me. That gave me a false assurance that I was a Christian. And so I get it.

B.R.Maul: 20:53

If you are in that category, I can understand that. I empathize because it's very confusing and there's a time period that when we discover the truth and as we are reading God's word and the Holy Spirit reveals to us the truth, yes, there's parts that are exciting, but there's also a lot of parts that is very hurtful because it feels like we were deceived and we were deceived. And if you're still in that category, you still are being deceived. It's not necessarily from the flesh and blood because, remember, we are not up against flesh and blood. We are up against powers of darkness, of principalities, the ruler of this world, satan and his demons. That's who we are up against.

B.R.Maul: 21:42

And even though it is the pastors and priests who are baptizing babies, who are confirming people or who are taking confessions, whatever it might be, indulgences for the Catholic Church, you name it and it sounds pretty important. It sounds very official, but none of it is biblical. It is from Satan. He is the great deceiver and he is deceiving you if you are still caught up in a denomination that practices such things or if you have seen the light and you are at least free from that. But you still may hold that baggage, that desire, that comfort that we can get when we are a part of something. I didn't understand it, but looking back, that's what I felt a part of at my confirmation. It was like I was being accepted into the family. But that's not how we're accepted into God's family.

B.R.Maul: 22:40

So next week I'm going to talk more about this. We'll continue in this discussion, so I won't be teaching the way I have taught in the past, at least for next week as well, because so much is going on in this world and I believe that even if I need to repeat myself in different ways over the coming weeks and emphasizing important points that many do not want to talk about, then so be it. I'm not afraid of criticism. I'm not afraid of what man wants to do to me or says about me. I fear my Lord and Savior. I fear God. I don't want to do the wrong thing. I don't want to misguide people for my own agenda.

B.R.Maul: 23:25

And let's face it as we get closer to the day capital D, the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, as we get closer to that time, deception is getting deeper and broader. In so many ways we are being deceived under the guise of science, under the guise of religion, under the guise of knowledge and education. It's everywhere. The deception is everywhere, coming from sources that at one time we felt were safe. And if you're not reading God's word, if you are not in the Bible on a regular basis and truly, that's every single day beloved.

B.R.Maul: 24:07

Sure, a person may miss a day here and there, but you certainly don't miss a day when it comes to eating and feeding your body. So my question, then, is why miss a day feeding your soul? And we'll talk more about that? Because you have time for this. You have time. And if you don't have time, then you need to make time. You need to make time for that savior of yours, because he is giving you all of eternity. We all can give him the time, this little vapor that we have right now, that is here today and gone tomorrow. We can give it all to him. The other things you can do is continue to pray to him.

B.R.Maul: 24:50

If you're not in the habit of praying, pick certain times. Traditionally, people pray before they eat every meal. I say a prayer, I thank him before I eat anything. Also, before you go to bed, when you get up in the morning. Those are two easy times to get in the habit of praying, and others have more creative ways, like before you check your email for the day, or before you call somebody, before you sit down to watch a show something that you do routinely, but then you pray, and that helps you get into the habit. But, more importantly, it helps to start to form that relationship with God, the Father. So we'll talk more about this next week. So, beloved, god willing, I'll talk to you next week. You stay safe, stay focused on God and specifically focus on Jesus Christ. He will see you through everything if you turn to him. He promises that all of his children he will take care of. And until next time, god bless, thank you.