Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P503 (01-16-20)
Synopsis
How important it is to study God’s word to know the author of the book, who is God. But who can understand God without the spirit of God living in Him? Nobody. But if you are not born again, having the Spirit of God placed in you, you need to hear His word because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And how blessed you will be when you hear someone preach the meaning of it to you, who rightly explains the meaning, as revealed by the Spirit of God, and you believe the message and are born again.
But if you are born again, then in order to grow in grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, you need to study God’s word, in its whole context, while asking the Spirit to reveal the meaning of the word to you. The Spirit is the one who has to reveal the meaning of it to you.
Unfortunately, there are so many who preach or teach, not God’s meaning by relying on the spirit, but relying on their own understanding or repeating what others have said through tradition and culture. So, if you have the Spirit of God living in you, and He lives in you to guide you into all truth, then you do not need to rely on men to teach you. Indeed, we are instructed to test all things. But how can you test all things if you have never opened up the bible and even read it yourself.
Another common mistake people make is just to read one scripture or passage out of its context and form an idea of what it means. How many people really know the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament? Have you read through the whole bible? Have you read the book of Hebrews? Have you read through the whole book of Romans? When you read it, how many times did you read it, and did you read it just to peruse it like a newspaper, then promptly forgetting what you read? Did you study it? And when you studied it, did you rely on your own understanding, or did you ask the Lord to explain the meaning of it to you? Do you read the scriptures like you would read a math or science book, for information, or did you read it to get to know the author, who is God?
So let us take an example of something Jesus said in the Old Testament. When Jesus said if you do not forgive your brother, then neither will I forgive you? Does that apply to you today? No. Why not? To properly answer this question, under what covenant is Jesus speaking under? The Old Covenant. Who is he speaking to? The Jew or the Gentile. He was speaking to the Jew. The Gentile was never under the Old Testament, with all its laws of animal sacrifices, laws of Moses and ceremonial laws, and other things they had to obey. Was Jesus himself a Jew? Yes. So what covenant was he living under? The Old Covenant. So then, why would Jesus say such a thing? That was what was written to those under an Old Covenant. It was not written to you, who are a Gentile. And it is not even written to a Jew, who is on this side of the cross, now that the Old Testament has been set aside. These are things that you can confirm by letting the Holy Spirit reveal truth to you as you read entire chapters and books of the bible, particularly the book of Hebrews.
So what was Jesus accomplishing by saying this to a Jew under an Old Covenant? He was using the law so they may recognize they are a sinner, to come to an understanding of their condition of spiritual death, which all men inherited in Adam, so that they might seek a Savior. Who is the Savior of the world? Jesus. Did he save anybody yet, on that side of the cross in the Old Testament? The people of the Old Testament were saved as it were under a credit card, by faith in the coming Messiah, but not until the debt is paid in full and life is given, would they have the ability to participate in the divine nature as we do today. So, the work had not yet been completed. First of all, He had not yet gone to the cross, where He would shed his blood to take away the consequence of sin, which is death, for all men. Now, were people saved by his death? We are saved by his life, but his death was a necessary preparation for life to be given. Only life can give life. This, too, you can confirm by studying the epistles of Paul, particularly Romans and Galatians, while relying on the Holy Spirit to teach you.
Now Jesus, having no sin of his own, being God in the flesh, is the only one who had a life to lay down and the only one whose life could be raised, because sin has no hold on Him. So, if you are in Christ, no longer under the law of sin and death, then does sin and death have a hold on you? No. You are not under that law any more, that leads to death, but under the Spirit of life. You are in Christ and Christ is in you. Under the law of sin and death, if you failed at just one point you were guilty of breaking all of the law, and the wages of sin is death. If you failed to obey all that is written, you are under a curse. But under grace, Christ Jesus is in you and you have been placed in Christ. He lives in you to will and to act according to His good purpose. You are no longer under condemnation, and He will never leave you nor forsake you. When did this New Covenant start? From Hebrews, we read that it was after his death. How do you reap the benefits of this New Covenant, which is eternal life? You are born again, spiritually. So under the New Covenant, what does Jesus say to you now, when someone sins against you? Forgive one another even as I have forgiven you. Love one another even as I have loved you.
Now, Jesus, when he walked on this earth, instructing his disciples, he often proclaimed the new way of life under a New Testament that was to come. He once even spoke about how we are to live and function in a New Covenant. In the parable of the vine and the branches, that you read about in John 15, He gave a visual picture of that for us. Were we ever able to produce “agape” love in the energy of the flesh? Were we ever designed that way to begin with before sin entered the world? God in the man is indispensable to the functioning of the man. We were meant to be like a branch attached to a vine, relying on the vine to produce the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness and self control (Galatians 5:22-23).
The Spirit vacated mankind, once being alive, living in Adam and Eve, before the fall in the garden of Eden due to sin. All of mankind is now born in a broken state, spiritually dead, without the Spirit of God living in them. (You read about this in Genesis.) That is why God sent His son into this world, to do something for man he could never do for himself, to put the Spirit of God back into man. So, do you see know, how a proper understanding of the Old Covenant and the New Covenant, of the overall context of the whole bible, is important to properly understand the meaning of God’s word? Do you see how it is absolutely necessary for the Spirit of God to reveal the meaning of it to you?
Transcript
Kenny from Aurora, Colorado
Kenny: Thank you, Bob, for taking my call. I have been listening to you a number of years now. I have read the bible many times now. You talk about studying it. What is the difference between reading and studying it?
Bob: Kenny, it is like anything else. You can read the newspaper, but after reading it, you do not remember what it says. But when you study something, you really study the meaning of it. You can read something to peruse or you can read something to gain information as to what it says, but you do not know what it means. To study something is to study to know what it means. I know what it says. But I want to know the meaning of the word of God. That is the difference between reading something and studying something.
2 Timothy 2:15
15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
Bob: A computer reads the bible. A computer knows what the bible says but it does not have a clue what it means. So when studying the bible for retention of meaning, you have to then also realize what the scripture says.
1 Corinthians 2:9-10
9 However, as it is written:“What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived” –
the things God has prepared for those who love him –10 these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.
Bob: In order to understand the meaning of the word of God, you have to wait on revelation from the Spirit. Because the Spirit is the one who has to reveal the meaning of it to you. Because we do not rely upon that, Kenny, is why we have so many interpretations of scripture. We do not know the meaning because we are leaning on our own understanding instead of acknowledging Him and letting Him direct our paths and to teach us the meaning of the word of God. We lean on our own understanding, depending upon our education, depending upon the study of Greek and Hebrew. If Greek and Hebrew had any bearing at all for understanding the meaning of the word of God, how come you can hardly find a Christian in Greece and how come the people that understood Hebrew crucified the Son of God? The issue is that any person, regardless of his education, can rely upon the Spirit of God, who lives in him, to reveal the meaning of the word of God. But in order to do that, you must be studying scripture with the intent of gaining meaning, not just content as to what it says, but the meaning of what it means.
Kenny: So what I need to possibly do, is when I am reading, is speak a silent prayer, “Please Father, let your Spirit guide me to the truth.”
Bob: Absolutely, Kenny. That is great insight into what this is about. You approach the word of God with humility. “God, if you do not reveal to me what this means, I am not going to know what it means. I know what it says, but You will have to reveal what it means.” You will be amazed how God will reveal the meaning to you.
Psalm 25:5
5 Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.
Kenny: I have examples. I have something bothering me. When I open the book, it almost hits it on the nail, a lot of times. Is that what you are referring to?
Bob: Yes, sometimes that happens. I would just sit down and study the books. I do not just sit down and read the bible just to read a segment of it. I read the whole book. When I set out to read the book of Hebrews, I sit down to read all thirteen chapters of it. It does not take that long in the first place. I want to read it for understanding and meaning. That means I might need to read it a number of times, again, depending upon the Spirit of God to reveal the meaning of it to me. I also interpret, not interpreting chapter thirteen in light of chapter thirteen, but in light of all thirteen chapters. So you read to get the context of the entirety of the book. Then you go back, and when you do go back, then God can begin to open up the meaning of the individual passages you are looking at.
John 16:13
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
Kenny: That clarifies some things. I will probably ponder on this and still be in a state of confusion for a while. I suppose it is a habit type of thing.
Bob: It is like a lot of things. I look at it like shopping. I laugh at the difference between women shopping and men shopping. A woman will go into a clothing store, and she will absolutely look at every piece of clothing that is hanging on the rack. A man would go in and take a quick look, and see if there is anything that even appears to look interesting, and then go buy it. When I go into a shopping center, I want to walk around the center, and see all the stores before I even go into one. Then I know which one I want to go into. A woman will go into every one of them and search everything that is in the store.
Bob: When you approach the bible, you need to take a tour of the shopping center. I think as you read the bible through. In my early days of being on radio, when somebody would call in and have a disagreement with an interpretation that I had, I literally would go back and start in Matthew and read through the entire New Testament every time that occurred, just to be sure I was answering this question in the total context of the totality of the bible. That was very beneficial to me because I do have a good understanding of the overview of what is taught in the New Testament. So, therefore, when you go back into an interpretation of a segment of that book, it is being interpreted in light of the whole. The more you read the better. You cannot out-read the bible.
Romans 12:2
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Kenny: It is daily that I open that book.
Bob: That is phenomenal.
Kenny: I listen to the programs, but I do not go to church because it is too many different ideas on what it says, on what each verse says. I try to let the Holy Spirit guide me. I feel He does. But I wanted to know if I was studying, if I could have done what you are talking about, looked at it, read it and went back and read it again, with the idea. The first time I read it, I came up with a prayer, “Let the Holy Spirit reveal what He is trying to tell me.”
Bob: You cannot beat that, Kenny. You keep doing that, brother.
1 Timothy 5:3-6
3 As I urged you when I went into Macedonia, stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain people not to teach false doctrines any longer 4 or to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. Such things promote controversial speculations rather than advancing God’s work – which is by faith. 5 The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6 Some have departed from these and have turned to meaningless talk. 7 They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm.
Matthew from San Diego, California
Matthew: I had a question on Luke 2:52
Luke 2:52
52 And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.
Matthew: Yesterday, I ministered to a friend of mine I have not seen in a while. I went to high school with him. He is in the ministry now. I just shared what I shared with you yesterday. I was exited about God who healed me and helped me with my depression, and freed me to serve others. I always pray. I prayed a general prayer for him and his wife. I just said a general prayer. I asked God to strengthen him in his marriage and if there is any conflict that God would guide and direct him. After the prayer, he said to me, “Matt, you need to be careful because you acted like we had a conflict. We are fine. We do not have problems. Please, just watch yourself.” Bob, I do not know if I am using that scripture correctly. I do not want to offend anybody. I love my brother. I was not praying to speak from an ivory tower. I just prayed about my brother because I know him very much in the Lord. I did not realize how to do that. I called my pastor. “This happened. I seemed to offend him.” Also he said to me that I put people in a box. There are people that have circumstances. You might think it is this or this and it is not. Sometimes when I listen to you, Bob, there is common ground. The pride in me. We all fight pride. So there is common ground. The point is Jesus grew in favor with God and man. How do I take this information. I am not distraught. How do you respond when people do not act in the way, like that. I want to grow in favor with God and man. How do you respond in something like that?
Bob: Well, Matthew I do not see anything to respond to. It just says Jesus grew in wisdom and stature with God and man. That is talking about Jesus. It is not talking about us. In verse 40 of Luke chapter 2, it says the same thing.
Luke 2:40
40 And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was on him.
That is Jesus grew in physical strength. He was filled with wisdom and the grace of God was upon him. That is no different than saying he found favor with God and man. The grace of God was upon Jesus. The same thing happened when he was baptized.
Luke 3:21-22
21 When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.”
Bob: There really is nothing to be in conflict on. It is merely talking about Jesus.
Bob: You can, many times, assume there are problems in people’s lives when there isn’t. If you were assuming that, and praying for me, as an example, and there was not any particular problem in my life, I will still thank you for your prayer, because sooner or later there are going to be problems. Everything may be going great today but that does not mean it will be going great tomorrow. In other words, I really do not think there was any real offense that took place. I do not think that is something that you need to be worried about.
Matthew: Sure. I thank you for that. To me it is like, I felt like there was a flynch: “You do not need to pray for me, brother.” Wow. God help me too. When people do that, I would expect people to be grateful instead of saying I do not need any help.
Bob: I think of a person praying for somebody, and there really is not anything wrong, that is really not offensive to anybody. I think pride would say, “Hey, you do not need to pray for me because everything is okay”. Like I said, it might be okay today, but what about tomorrow? I do not think there is a problem there, Matthew.
Philippians 2:1-8
1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
7 rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death –
even death on a cross!
Matthew: Thank you for showing me that in scripture, that was written not because I need to grow in favor in God and man. That was a picture of Jesus. Sometimes I struggle with that Bob. Thank you for pointing that out. I do not need to take that literally.
Bob: The gospels are a record of the life of Jesus, not of us.
Matthew: Right. Thank you.
Doug from Hillsborough, Kansas
Doug: Good evening, Bob. How are you doing?
Bob: I am fine, my brother.
Doug: I have been listening to you for many years. I have gained much understanding from a lot of your teaching and from a number of your books and stuff. It has been a good time about learning about my Savior and Lord. It has been exciting times. I do have one question. I find myself being totally inept at loving my wife. I can do nice things for here. But truly from the heart, loving a wife, I struggle. I find we are so much different in how we think and do things, and how we look at circumstances that happen. I find that I really struggle with true love and expressing that.
Bob: Well, Doug, it is a good thing, you see. Here is the reason for that. Jesus, in essence said, “you cannot love with ‘agape’ love”. For you to come to a realization you cannot do it is the first step to getting out of the way and allowing Christ to do it through you. It is like a vine and a branch.
John 15:1-17
1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit – fruit that will last – and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
A branch cannot produce the fruit of the vine.
Galatians 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
The fruit is love, joy, peace and other things listed there in Galatians 5:22-23, but everything ties around love. You and I cannot produce that any more than a branch can produce fruit, in and of itself. It can bear the fruit of the vine, if they abide in the vine and the vine abides in them. They will bear the fruit, but they cannot produce the fruit. So if a branch was spending his life as if he supposed to produce this fruit, what happens? So man is giving it a good old grunt and try, and he is just straining every way you can strain until he finally comes to a point that I cannot do it. God is saying “Good. Now you finally got it”, because when you got it then will you get it. When you got it that you can’t you will get it that He did. So what you have to do is to rely upon the Spirit of God living in you to produce in you that kind of love. You can do ‘phileo’ love, which is friendship love, and that is the best that we can do in the flesh, is ‘phileo’ .
John 21:15-19
15 When they had finished eating, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?”“Yes, Lord,” he said, “you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my lambs.”
16 Again Jesus said, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
He answered, “Yes, Lord, you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Take care of my sheep.”
17 The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”
Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”
Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. 18 Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” 19 Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!”
Bob: Do you remember when Jesus met Peter when the disciples were out fishing. Jesus came to the shore. Peter got out of the boat and came to Jesus. Jesus asked the question. “Peter, do you love me?” The Greek explains that more in detail. He was saying, “Peter do you ‘agape’ me?” In other words, you know the difference between ‘agape’ and ‘phileo’ . Peter’s reply was, “You know that I ‘phileo’ you, that I am your friend.” Jesus said, “Then feed my sheep. Peter, do you ‘agape’ me?” Peter said again. “Lord, you know that I am your friend, that I ‘phileo’ you.” Then he said again, “Take care of my sheep.” On the third time, he asked him, “Peter, are you even my friend? Peter, do you really ‘phileo’ me?” Peter was hurt by that. “Lord, you know I am your friend.” Jesus said, “then follow me.”
Ephesians 5:24-26
24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
What he is saying there is that there is no way we can produce that kind of love Jesus is asking. “Husband, love your wife” and that would be ‘agape’ love.” You cannot love any more than a wife can obey her husband in the energy of her flesh. She also cannot do that. In all of these instructions from the Lord, “Wives submit yourself to your husband.” How is she going to do that apart from the Lord. She can try, grunting and trying and is miserable in the process. That should be as a result of abiding in the vine of Christ Jesus and letting Him produce the love, submission and all those things in and through us. We cannot do it in the energy of our flesh.
Doug: That makes all the sense in the world.
Bob: So you have come to a good point, Doug. That is the point I had to come to. “Lord, I cannot love.” That was bothering me that I cannot do it. It is like the Lord replying to me, “Finally, you big knit wit. You got it. You cannot do it in the enery of your own flesh.” There is nothing in Bob George capable of doing that which God is telling me to do. God is saying, “I am telling you what to do so you can abide in Me so you can let Me produce it through you.” In and of yourself, you cannot carry it out.
1 Corinthians 13:4-8
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.8 Love never fails.
Bob: So you look also, Doug, as to what love is. So you look at 1 Corinthians 13 and it is an explanation of ‘agape’ love. It tells you that love is patient. Try that on for size. Be patient in the energy of the flesh? Love is kind and love does not keep records of wrongs. Now, in this particular case, if you start defining love in accordance with 1 Corinthians 13, and put the “I am” always to it, Doug, everyone falls flat on their face, men and women alike, in the very instance where it says “love keeps no record of wrongs”. That gets us right there. We have got filing cabinets full of records of people’s wrongs so that we can use them when we need them. Again, there is no way that 1 Corinthians 13 love is to be pulled off in our human experience apart from abiding in the vine who can produce it. It keeps us humble.
Doug: Thanks a lot, Bob.
Bob: Does that help?
Doug: Yes, it helps a lot.
Belinda from Los Angeles, California
Belinda: Can you define the Old Testament and the New Testament? I hear a lot of people calling a lot about the tithe. Maybe they do not understand the Old Covenant. I do not.
Hebrews 9:1-28
1 Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. 2 A tabernacle was set up. In its first room were the lampstand and the table with its consecrated bread; this was called the Holy Place. 3 Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, 4 which had the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. This ark contained the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. 5 Above the ark were the cherubim of the Glory, overshadowing the atonement cover. But we cannot discuss these things in detail now.6 When everything had been arranged like this, the priests entered regularly into the outer room to carry on their ministry. 7 But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. 8 The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still functioning. 9 This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. 10 They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings—external regulations applying until the time of the new order.
11 But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that are now already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made with human hands, that is to say, is not a part of this creation. 12 He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. 13 The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14 How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God!
15 For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
16 In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, 17 because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. 18 This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. 19 When Moses had proclaimed every command of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves, together with water, scarlet wool and branches of hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people. 20 He said, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” 21 In the same way, he sprinkled with the blood both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. 22 In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
23 It was necessary, then, for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with human hands that was only a copy of the true one; he entered heaven itself, now to appear for us in God’s presence. 25 Nor did he enter heaven to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But he has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Bob: The Old Covenant was a covenant that God made with Israel. He never made a covenant with the Gentile world. Why we are playing around over there, only God knows. But the covenant was with Israel. There was an old covenant and there was a new covenant. Now to the Jew, the New Covenant is in contrast to the Old Covenant. To the Gentile the New Covenant is just a new covenant. We did not have an old covenant, just a new one.
Bob: So what we did, as dumb Gentiles, we went over and stole the law from the Jews, because He never gave it to us to begin with. I pull that old ragged clothes and put it on over that new clothes of grace, walking around saying “I am looking good”. The issue is the Old Covenant was covenant. This is the covenant I will make with you for you to obey it. That was the reason He gave it to them, to obey. The reason He gave a New Covenant is because He found fault with us, you and me. We could not obey the covenant. So He said, “I will usher in a New Covenant, a covenant of grace.” Under the Old Covenant was a covenant of law. Under the New Covenant, it is a covenant of grace.
Bob: So we do not go back to the Old Covenant. It was for the Jews. It is just a New Covenant altogether.
Belinda: How do we determine what we are covered under?
Bob: You are not covered under anything under the Old Covenant. You are living under a New Covenant. When there is a change in the law, there must be a change in the priesthood. The purpose of the law was to lead you to Christ. You are told in Galatians 3 that the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ so we might be justified by faith.
Galatians 3:11
11 Clearly no one who relies on the law is justified before God, because “the righteous will live by faith.”
Bob: So no man will ever be justified in the sight of God by obedience to the law. The law is what kills us. Paul said it was through the law I died. When I died, I died to the law. Clearly Galatians 3:11 says that no one is justified by the law for the righteous shall live by faith.
Bob: We have to understand the truth of that. The Old Covenant is covenant of the law. “This is what I am commanding you to keep.” Then it goes on to say you could not do that. He found fault with the people so He ushered in a New Covenant of grace. That is where we live. We live on this side of the cross, not on the other side.
Bob: There is nothing in the Old Testament at all that has any bearing on how you live your life today. In the New Covenant, it is Christ living in you, the hope of glory. That was not in the Old Testament. There was no Christ living in people before Christ came. The Holy Spirit of God would come upon different people as He did for David and Saul for divine purpose and service but never to permanently indwell them. That is why David would pray, “Do not take your Holy Spirit from me.” (Psalm 51:11). You and I would not pray that today because we are told the Holy Spirit of God will be alive in you forever ().
Hebrews 13:5b
because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”
Bob and Belinda: He will never leave us or forsake us.
Bob: We are under this phenomenal covenant of grace. It is the grace of God that teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions.
Titus 2:12
12 It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age
Bob: They use the law of God to try to do that. They cannot do that. The grace of God is sufficient for you and me. We are made perfect in our weakness, not in our strength. It is all of Jesus and none of us.
Belinda: None of us. (echoing in agreement)
Bob: We just walk by faith in what Jesus provided for us.
Belinda: Thank you. God bless you.
Bob: Does that help, Belinda?
Belinda: Yes, it does. Thank you.
Bob: In Hebrews 9, you will see. Read through all of Hebrews, but read through Hebrews 9 and it will talk about a New Covenant that came into effect. A covenant does not go into effect until the one who made it dies. It never goes into effect while a person is alive. So the New Covenant went into effect at the death of Jesus, not at the birth of Jesus. Therefore, Christ did not teach under the New Covenant. He taught under the Old Covenant.
Hebrews 9:16-17
16 In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, 17 because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living.
Belinda: Because we are covered under the blood?
Bob: He had not taken away the sins of the world yet. So He taught under the Old Covenant proclaiming the new. He was literally showing people, and bearing the self righteousness of people, who were thinking they were right in the sight of God. He literally buried us with the law. That was His purpose. If Christ Jesus had not convinced the people He was speaking to, as to what righteousness is, and you are not, you would have never come to the cross. So His whole message here on earth was to bury us of our self righteousness, so we would be prepared to come to Christ and be saved by His work and not by ours.
Romans 9:30-31
30 What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; 31 but the people of Israel, who pursued the law as the way of righteousness, have not attained their goal.
That is why the Jews said, “Are you saying the Gentiles who did not pursue righteousness have obtained it but we, Jews, who had pursued it have not? ” “You got it.” Why not? Because they pursued it not as it were by faith but by works. When we get a handle on the difference between the Old and the New, the whole scripture will fall together like pieces out of a puzzle.
Belinda: Okay, I am going to study that one, Hebrews 9. Thank you.
Bob: Thank you. Thank you for your call. You call any time.
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