Simply By Grace Podcast

So who are you and what do you see when you look in the mirror? Do you see who you are or do you only see what others see?  Often times we get caught up at what other people think about ourselves and we shape our perception of reality around that. Many of us are confined by the voices of others. These voices can come from various places including the culture, graceless religion that condemns peopl...

Charlie spoke at a conference recently about discipleship. Salvation is instantaneous and free, but discipleship is lifelong and requires work. But what is Discipleship as a spiritual journey involved, and what does the Bible say about it?  What are some key differences between salvation and discipleship and why is making a distinction important for both aspects of the Christian life? To address t...

Ever fear the future? In these tumultuous times fear seems to be par for the course. People are driven by fear. Fear of rising seas, fear of politicians, fear of losing something, fear of climate change, fear of Covid, fear of death, fear of the future and what it might bring. There's so much about life that's unstable, you could have a job one day, gone the next. But should we live this way? Peop...

Have you ever envied another person's success or seen someone get a financial boost and you ask yourself, "why did God pass me by?"  What is our attitude towards someone we know who has success, or even someone we don't know? Do we revel in their blessing and become excited for them, or do we become angry? Charlie was a guest speaker recently and focused on the story of the prodigal son, but not i...

Hard work, it's what we know in this world. We're taught that if we work hard, we can earn something for it. We often joke that nothing is free as we have it ingrained into us that nothing is free and we must work for it. But when it comes to the spiritual, and becoming a Christian, does the same idea apply?  if we work hard enough do we get salvation? Charlie has often asked people around the wor...

What exactly does it take to get into heaven or the kingdom of God? What does it take to obtain eternal life? In the kingdom there will be duties, responsibilities, and rewards. There are things that we can learn on this side of eternity that can help us in the long term. Humility is one of them. As we'll see in today's podcast, humility is also essential to entering the Kingdom of God. Most peopl...

What is your ministry? What message are you sharing with your ministry and why? In this podcast Charlie speaks to 2 Corinthians 5:12-21. Paul talks about his motivation for ministry. Here we find a positive motivation that is through the love of Christ; it compelled him and it should compel us. Love is one of the most powerful forces in the world. It shines a light in the darkness. It can overcome...

Ever fail in life? I think we all have at some point. In this podcast Charlie talks about Peter and focuses on recovering from failure. They say it's the journey that is the reward, not the destination. But sometimes along that journey we fail to meet our goal, or even failure to meet what God intends for us. How do we recover and move forward? Do we wallow in our failure or do we learn from it an...

In this podcast Charlie speaks about the  parable of the soils which is found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. In this episode the focus is on Luke. The purpose of this parable is to see how people respond to God's truth and it also talks about fruitfulness as a disciple of Christ. But many use these passages to claim that only a true Christian produces fruit and that if you don't, you must not be a tr...

Water Baptism...does it save?  Is it required for salvation?  There's a lot a confusion and even controversy over baptism and what it entails and what the meaning of it really is. Baptism really comes up as a controversy as it relates to salvation, not so much the method. Baptism is misunderstood because people don't understand grace. When someone doesn't understand grace, and salvation by faith a...

Dr. Bing walks us through the parable of the prodigal son. This story is about a young man about a rumor of love, and it paid off for him. Some have called it the greatest story ever written or told. It starts in chapter 15 with an objection to people who accuse Jesus of spending time with sinners. This is one of Jesus' answers to that accusation, and his attitude towards sinners. The first one is...

In this podcast, Charlie speaks about moving from salvation to discipleship. Many come into the family of God and have a desire to move from milk of the word to the meat. But many churches today are stunted and don't move away from the milk of the word so the people starve and stagnate. God clearly teaches us that He desires for us to grow. Having a life after salvation is supposed to be abundant....

In this podcast Charlie speaks about the topic of evangelism, specifically addressing the lack of winning people for Christ. What can we do to help improve the status and win people of Christ? How can we get the message out, how should we share the gospel? Have you ever led someone to faith in Christ?  In Matthew Chapter 4 we see Christ inviting a few  disciples to come follow him, and he will mak...

What is Lordship salvation and how does it affect the gospel for the unbeliever and also the believer?  In this podcast, Charlie is speaking at Bear Creek Bible church and gives an overview of Lordship and Free Grace. He focuses on four aspects that are key in the debate: Faith,  Repentance,  Lordship, and Discipleship. For example, faith, to those who espouse Lordship, equals submission, as oppos...

Have you ever despised doing something around the house or taking on a job that you hated?   Can you imagine what it would be like for the God of the universe to take on the job of sending His son to become human to deal with this this fallen world? It's hard for us to imagine God stepping down to become human in order that we might have a relationship with Him. What was going through God's mind t...

Ever been accused of a wasted life? Have you ever regretted doing something or maybe not doing something? I think we all have regrets to one degree or another and I think we would all change something about our lives. In this podcast, Charlie walks us through Paul's view of his life, one of joy, despite his circumstances. In Philippians 1:19-26 we find out three characteristics in making a life of...

This weeks' podcast was used with permission from Learn the Word podcast where Charlie was a special guest with Academic Dean Paul Weaver at the Word of Life Institute.  Charlie and Paul discussed James chapter 2, arguably the most misinterpreted passage of scripture. Key topics discussed are the context of James, who is James talking to and why?  What is faith?  Are there "kinds of faith" in the...

In this podcast Charlie looks at what the key is to Christian unity.  Ever been around Christians you can't stand? Ever wonder why there are so many different denominations? How many church splits have you heard of? When we have problems on the horizontal level with one another, it usually stems from a vertical problem towards God.  But it's important to have unity for many reasons, one being it a...

Charlie spoke at a conference on the topic of moving towards a deeper fellowship  with a focus on the book of First John. Some of the passages in  First John are difficult to deal with, challenging to the believer  not only to understand but also in practice. Charlie helps unwind some of the  issues by  explaining the various views. One view  says that First John is a series of tests of salvation....

There are some people who believe disciples are born not made. In other words they claim that every Christian is a disciple. That is to say, when a person first  believes they must meet all the conditions of discipleship in order to be saved. This is simply not the case though, it creates an impossible standard. Disciples are made not born. This is clear from the life of the Apostle Peter. He is a...

There are many organizations in this world that have standards for entrance into the "club." Some charge fees, while other say you must have a certain income level or be from a certain family lineage. But what does it take to get into heaven, what is the standard that must be met? What is the condition for salvation?  Is salvation easy? Is the idea of faith alone in Christ alone lowering the stand...

In this podcast Charlie gets detailed and focuses on the book of John and its intent. Specifically that it's an evangelistic book. There are three aspects that Charlie touches on and the second one is the primary focus of this podcast. 1. Jesus is a divine son, John begins and ends focusing on Christ' deity. 2. Presentation of belief as a proper response to Christ's offer.  3. Eternal life is the...

Someone once said "Christians are the only army that shoots its own wounded."  I think we've all seen this before where Christians will place burdens on others that are based on their own standards and not God's, and if they fail to meet the test, or if they're different, then they're out. Christians, in other words, can be extremely intolerant of imperfection or even perceived imperfection in oth...

In this podcast, Charlie focuses on the issue of Lordship. What is it, what does it mean, and how does it relate to salvation and discipleship?  Charlie walks you through the Lordship controversy and focuses on three passages.  In a nutshell, the Lordship view is the belief that Jesus Christ must be recognized as Lord and Master of one's life as a part of salvation. In other words, a person must b...

In this episode, Charlie walks through a very controversial passage, James 2:14-26. It's controversial because it's often misunderstood and consequently misapplied. James says some strange things that seem to contradict Paul like "Faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead." But it can be confusing if you don't understand the context and the distinction between discipleship and salvation....