Radio Broadcast Monday 01/15/2024

Classic Christianity – Book of Hebrews P53 (01-15-24)

Apart From Jesus You Can Do Nothing!

~ A simple statement in the word of God, yet most discount it. Jesus said, “Apart from me you can do nothing.” Yet we pass over those words of God so quickly, because we want to do things our way. The word “Nothing” is very encompassing, yet people think they can do a little something for God. They think that they are basically okay, but every now and then when they sin, then they need God to take care of that sin. Or they think that once they are in Christ Jesus, that now they can begin to work for God as though they are some kind of “big deal” because of all the “good” things they do for God. Folks, when are we going to get it into our heads, that we can’t do anything good apart from Christ Jesus living in us and through us? All we can do is offer our bodies as a perfect sacrifice to God (Romans 12:1), to allow him to live his life in and through us. There is nothing else we can do for God. NOTHING. Most people think that verse means to go out and, in the energy of their flesh and do fleshly things for Jesus. That type of work is evil in the sight of God. It sets up pride in their own flesh. All of that done in the flesh is worthless to God. Only the works done by Him through us is what counts. So quit trying to perform for God. Trying to perform for God only makes you a hypocrite, an actor, a pretender in the sight of God. And make no mistake about it, God knows our hearts, and most are pretenders today, they have a form of godliness but deny His power. Have nothing to do with these type of people.

Jesus showed us how to live. He demonstrated to us what the perfect MAN of God is like. He did nothing, other than what the Father told him to do. He said nothing, than what the Father told him to say. Jesus being God, was always obedient to the Father. Allow the Holy Spirit to teach you all Truth, and let Him guide you through life. Trust in Him and Him alone for everything.

~ “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.” ^{John 15:5}

~ “Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.” ^{Romans 12:1}

~ “For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.” ^{John 12:49-50}

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~ “The grace of God says there’s nothing for you to do. It forces you to see in and of yourself is no good thing. Man doesn’t want to see that we’re cocky little creatures. And the younger we are in the Lord the cockier we are when I say you know, it’s amazing, isn’t it when you’re young, how much you think, you know. It’s amazing to me how wise my dad got in my fourth year of college. We’re the same way I understand went through that as a Christian to three years couldn’t understand why everybody couldn’t understand all the Bible I did. Acted like it. 22 years in the Lord, you find out that that’s not so you’re learning every day. And the older you are in the Lord, the more you learn, the deeper it gets, the meaning of things come clearer and clearer. The longer you’re in the Lord.” ~ Bob George

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Join Bob George in this chapter by chapter exposition of the book of Hebrews. Available for download the complete series on the Book of Hebrews. The Book of Hebrews is key to understanding the New Covenant.

Announcer 0:12
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.

Bob George 0:29
The grace of God says there’s nothing for you to do. It forces you to see in and of yourself is no good thing. Man doesn’t want to see that we’re cocky little creatures. And the younger we are in the Lord the cockier we are when I say you know, it’s amazing, isn’t it when you’re young, how much you think, you know. It’s amazing to me how wise my dad got in my fourth year of college. We’re the same way I understand went through that as a Christian to three years couldn’t understand why everybody couldn’t understand all the Bible I did. Acted like it. 22 years in the Lord, you find out that that’s not so you’re learning every day. And the older you are in the Lord, the more you learn, the deeper it gets, the meaning of things come clearer and clearer. The longer you’re in the Lord.

Now folks, when we are talking, the reason that people do not want to latch on to the totality of the grace of God, as I said, it forces you to total elimination of self effort. We walk around with an idea that I’m about 80% okay. And we’ve got a Brylcreem theology. A Little dab will Do you. And I just need a little babba Jesus. And I am really okay. But I do admit that sometimes I sin just occasionally. It just might happen to do that. And so you hear these dumb prayers that you’ll hear some time, Lord, forgive us, wherein we fail, you know, where it’s just like in the event that I might happen to failure, just just an event that that could possibly happen. Just forgive me in case forgot one. Is because of the idea that I am 80, 90%. Okay, and I just need about 10% of grace to cover the times that I’m not okay. And because of that feeling that I’m 80% okay, that now puts me in a position of saying, you’re only 60%, okay. Because you didn’t come last Sunday. And if you miss prayer meeting, you’re down to about 40% okay. And then we began to say, I’m getting okayer. Because I’m starting to do some neat things for God. But occasionally, I do sin. And when I do, I need some grace. I’ll admit that to you. And that’s why I say people I understand grace, I understand grace. Folks, that is a lie out of the pit of hell. I don’t need grace when I sin. I need grace to live. It isn’t the thing that I’m 80% okay, and I need a little 20% grace sprinkled on me when things aren’t going too well. A branch doesn’t sit there and say I need a little life. I need a little life in that vine. You know, I’m pretty good. He needs total life of the vine if he’s ever going to see fruit produced in you. The Lord Jesus Christ didn’t say you’re 80% Okay, you need 20% of me. He said, what part for me you can do how much? Nothing, that’s destitute. The grace of God, folks forces you to a thing called faith. You don’t need faith under the law. The law demands flesh to behave. You don’t need faith on that you just keep gutting it out. I’ll just drive better, I’ll just do this better. I’ll work on this little thing in my life that’s not quite so good. You don’t need faith for that you just need a works orientation, just some determination, some discipline. The grace of God that says the way you were saved, is by grace alone. It is all by the grace of God it is for by grace that you are saved through faith and not that of yourself. It is a gift of God not as a result of work so that no man can boast. And folks, as he saved you at salvation, He is saving you today. Most people think you’re saved but grace and sustained by works. I came to Christ by the grace of God but I live now by the law of God because grace of God may be live under the law.

Friends there is no faith connected with the law. If righteousness could be gained through obedience to the law, then Christ died for nothing. If you want to look at legalistic obedience under the law, Paul said I’m without equal because law is dealing with outward behavior. But underneath the skin was a man standing there holding the coats of the people who were stoning Steven to death. Which incidentally is the heart of any legalist sooner or later. And so what you’re dealing with is the fact that under the grace of God is when you’re coming to the point of saying, Lord not my will, but Thine be done. It’s no longer I want it my way. You can’t stand up and sing Sinatra’s song I did it my way you look like you did it your way Sinatra.

Remember oh Tony Bennett’s if I ruled the world what a wonderful places would be. God and doing too good. But if I ruined it, it’d be okay. Unbelievable what man’s pride will do to it. The grace of God reduces you to nothingness and that’s why it’s fought folks. And unfortunately in many of our denominational churches today the reason that they are adamant against the teaching of the grace of God. A huge church out in Modesto, California with radio status. So you put those people on we’re going off. Radio station, analyze that you’re on on Sunday, they’re on every day. See you later. Why? Well Because grace is taught and tithing isn’t. You let some slob get on radio and try teaching my people you’re not gonna have to tie brother we’re gonna be in trouble. Well, if people don’t want to come to your church, it really can’t stand it but they have to on obligation or to keep God on good side don’t really want to give but I better give her God’s gonna zap me in some capacity comes along teaches that you are in trouble. And you need to be. There isn’t anybody that should show up in this room because you have to because you don’t have to. You’ll be a child of God, if you stay at home next week. You’re in a buy here that has to tie there or give. That’s a privilege that we have. I don’t got to I get to. And that’s what’s called freewill giving. That’s brought about by the grace of God that says, There is nothing in your flesh that can please me. Flesh and blood is never going to inherit the kingdom of God. It’s only my Son. Folks, the grace of God is only an understood theory, a theology until it becomes a reality of showing you and me the total devastation of our flesh, to be able to come to Paul saying, wretched man that I am. How do you come to that? By seeing the grace of God? It’s only when you see the grace and the magnitude of God that you see our own wretchedness. We walk around and underneath the skin we’re selfish as can be. I want my way. Our minds can think of the most rotten things you ever want to think in your life. Is that right? Or am I the only nuts standing around in here? The older you get, the more the better it gets. I have trouble memorizing Scripture. I can remember almost every dirty joke ever heard before I was saved. Stuck in there like spaghetti on the wall. And we walk around saying I’m okay. You’re okay. Why do bad things happen to good people? Because they’re only good people. I’m gonna write one. Why did good things happen to bad people?

Folks, until we see to allow the grace of God to get out of some theoretical theological verbiage. And bring us to the end of ourselves our own inadequacy, our own self sufficiency, confidence in the flesh. The grace of God is nothing but a word to us. It’s known but not understood. When it says it is the grace of God that teaches you and me to say no to unrighteousness the only way that we can say no to unrighteousness is when the grace of God shows me in and of myself is no righteousness only he is righteous and the grace of God points me to him who alone says no to unrighteousness. It is not an act of mind it’s an act of his. It’s getting us to see it’s all Jesus and none of it none of us. To getting us to see that we can come on and have an intellectual go right off of the wall it is meaningless. There are some people come along and say how can that intellectual over there not believe in God? But what’s the intellectual in? I mean you can be smart in law and dumb as a cluck in medicine. There isn’t everybody smart in everything we’re just smart in our own little little deal over here. That’s the only place where big deals too. We walk around acting like we’re smart like we’re big deals. We’re not.

Chuck Swindoll is a well known preacher. He walked into an ATand T meeting they wouldn’t know who he was. Guy grew up with President of ATandT he walked in here and no one told you and know who he was. He isn’t a big deal here. Jimmy Carter got paid all kinds of money to be President of the United States. I wouldn’t pay him 10,000 bucks to work for me. I could name many others like that. How’d you like to have Nixon on staff? Yeah, they made a big, big deal. I wouldn’t have him I wouldn’t pay him a dime to work for me. And they wouldn’t pay me a dime to work for them. Everybody walks around thing. We’re big deals. We’re not big deals.

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Announcer
If you’re enjoying the book of Hebrews, check out our website BobGeorge.net. There you will find a whole collection of messages from the book of Hebrews as well as other DVDs, CDs and Bible studies available for purchase. That’s Bob George dot net. Let’s join Bob now as he continues the radio program.

Bob George 13:42
We’re flexible little creatures down here. Fragile as can be. Not only our bodies fragile, so our nerves and our nerve points and our sensitivities because somebody’s insulted me. God forbid we’re sensitive, insecure, little rabbits run around, trying to act like we’re something that we’re not. Now folks that would be a pretty negative message of one for Christ would. Because the only solution to that is try harder, work harder. study harder. And the grace of God says, Trust is so sweet to trust in Jesus. Just to take him at his word. Now this is what the book of Hebrews is trying to get us to see, that the grace of God is not just going to get you to see the grace of God. The grace of God has got to get you to see our own depravity. It’s only when we see Him in His glory that we can see us and our depravity. I’m not talking about being depraved to the point that you can understand or seek God, man all over the world seeks God. I’m talking about being depraved in regard to the point that apart from me, or in and of myself, there’s nothing that in and of myself I can do to please God. That comes from a relationship with this Jesus that the author of Hebrews is talking about the one greater than the angels, the one greater than Moses, the one greater than Joshua, the one greater than priests, the one greater than Melchizedek. But the one who has God himself who came to this earth and walked on this earth, in order to teach us truth that would set us free. Man thinks that we can go it alone, we think we can build marriages on our own. And my idea of a successful marriage is Amy and family doing everything I want to do. I mean, that’s a real successful marriage, I just get my wife do everything I want to do successful marriage, wives do the same thing. If I just get my husband do anything I want to do got successful marriage. There’s only one problem with that doesn’t work. A marriage is two people I like sheep, for to say called dumb sheep. Both of us want to do our own thing. And there’s only one thing folks that will ever pull two dumb sheep into unity. And that’s somebody in between. And that happens to be the shepherd of the sheep. And that’s the Lord Jesus Christ, you take him out of your family, you’re on your own. You are on your own. And your marriage is gonna look like a marriage that was put together on your own. There’s no two people on the face of this earth, that can get together, continually apart from Jesus. Oh, you can go through the motions, live together, exist together. But to have what God wanted to have as a marriage of unity, it cannot be done apart from him in the center of your life. You don’t have a decision maker in your home, you’re the decision maker, right or wrong is irrelevant. This is where I want it. And when Christ is the center of your home, you approach problems is what is truth from his standpoint. And that is what pulls you together down here. There is no marriage that will survive, apart from Christ at the center of it. That’s what he’s trying to get us to see individually and collectively. If you’re an individual, that’s true. And in marriage, he says, I see the two of you as what? One. So it’s the same thing. Apart from me, you can do nothing. We’re in an age of entertainment. We’d rather take our kids to get entertained than we want to get them taught truth. We pick our churches that way, who’s got the best entertainment program for the kids. That’s where I will send them so there’ll be happy. Doesn’t make a difference where they’re getting a truth or not. Just let them have some fun. Because that’s what we live for fun. And so we build Disney lands, and we build Christian Disney lands. So that our kids can have fun and never learned that. We went to church for years, my daughter finally had to steal a Bible out of the church, hopefully to take it home to see if there’s anything in it. No, no, I’m serious.

My friends, when we see that the grace of God is the only thing in the world that is ever going to point us to truth about him. And in so doing point us to the truth about ourselves. That is the only thing when we see those two things, the glory of him and the fact that apart from him, I can do nothing which shows us what we are, that we are now in a position of saying, I’m ready as the Lord Jesus Christ learned obedience from what he suffered because it’s in our sufferings that we learn. We talked about that last week, in regard to the book of Hebrews, that suffering is what produces perseverance. We absolutely raise our kids like idiots trying to protect them from any kind of problems, trials tribulations, where the fact of the matter is that the Bible says it’s those trials and tribulation that produces character that apart from character, what are we? And if you don’t let your kids fall on their face while they’re at home, I’ll guarantee you they will when they’re at college. And the difference is there’s no one there at college to pick them up. So let them fall on their face when they’re at home. Like we don’t want anything to happen to my precious ones. Because they’re mine. Pride isn’t it folks. Were soaked with it. I don’t want my kid ever have any because they’re my kid wouldn’t care if his your kid had some problems, but not mine. Why? Because of pride.

Now folks, He learned obedience from what he suffered. And it became the source of eternal salvation, folks. Jesus is the source of your salvation. You don’t have anything to do with maintaining it. He maintains it, all we do is receive it. Who is the source of the water you get out of your fountain? At home? Where’s the source of that? Oh, water company, and what do you do work at getting some water? You just go there and turn the thing on? Don’t you know how you get water? Get ready to shower. You don’t sit there and work at it, do you? You just turn on the faucet because there’s a source of water available to you. And some, you know, some people get to nitpicks that, turn it on is work. Come on friends, faith isn’t work, just plain intelligence. If you know there’s a source of water in there, and you can’t produce water on your own, that’s worth washing in. The thing that you better do is go turn on a faucet. Is that true or not? The water is the source of that one. You didn’t laugh, it’s okay. It was meant to be fun. The water company is the source. All we do is turn it on. That’s all just receive it. The difference is that we got pay for that service, we don’t have to pay for the source of salvation. But he alone is it.

Now let’s turn back again to the book of Romans chapter five. Let’s go back up to Chapter four for a minute, we’re gonna pick up in verse 18. And going down to five. against all hope, Abraham in hope. So we were talking about hope believed and so became the father of many nations just as it had been said to him, so shall your offspring be. Without weakening in his face, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead since he was about 100 years old. And it says wound was also dead. Yet he had he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and he gave glory to God. Being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what He had promised. That is why it was credited to him as righteousness. These words that was credited to him were written not for him alone. But for us also, not written just to the Hebrew it’s written to everybody. It was credited to him as righteousness. Why? Because they believe God, to whom God will credit righteousness for us who believe Him who raised Jesus, our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have gained access by that faith into the grace in which we now stand. We came to Christ by grace we live by grace, we live by faith in the grace of God. We came to Christ that way. We live that way. We stand in it. You see, folks, it’s back to that deal. A little dab will do you. It isn’t a little dab of do you’re alive in Christ because of the grace of God. I don’t need a little grace when I sin. I need total grace to be alive. Not only so but we rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance and perseverance, character and character hope and hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out His love into our hearts by His Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. You see it just the right time when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man though For a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates His love toward us. In a while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now since we have become or been justified by His blood, that’s his life. The life is in the blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him? For if when we were God’s enemies, we were passed tense, reconciled to him through the death of his son? How much more having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life? Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation, to receive it, to be reconciled to God now turned back again to second Corinthians 5:17. We’ll pick up there again, if anyone is in Christ, he has a new creation. Why is it a new creation? Because he’s in Christ. The old is gone. You without Christ living it yet a guy’s gone. The new has come, who’s new? Christ living in you, your only hope of glory. All of this folks, every ounce of it is from God. If it’s all from God, how much is there for you? It’s all from God, where you enter into that? If the total source of the water supply is the power company, what do you where do you enter into that? If you want some water, what’s all you can do? Again, receive it’s the same thing. All of this is from God, who he’s the initiator, the source reconciled as to Himself through Christ. And he gave us this ministry of reconciliation. What is this ministry? That God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not counting men’s sins against him. That’s the message.

Announcer 27:11
Thank you so much for tuning in to Classic Christianity with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord find more information online at BobGeorge.net. There you will also find available CDs, DVDs and Bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith be good to one another and praise the Lord. Amen.