Radio Broadcast Monday 01/16/2023

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Law & Grace P42 (01-16-23)

You Can’t Live By Law and By the Spirit At The Same Time

~ “You don’t live by principles, you don’t live by law. You don’t live by promises. You live by a life and that life is Christ Jesus the life I live, Paul said, I live by my promises. No, I live by faith in the Son of God, the One who loved me and gave himself for me. I am crucified. Nevertheless, I live by principles is that what it says? No does not. I am crucified nevertheless I live yet not it’s I but it is Christ that lives in me. I don’t live by the law. I don’t live by principles. I don’t live by my promises. I don’t live by my commitments. I don’t live by my accountability groups. I live by Christ Jesus because He lives I live. Now, that is truth out of the Word of God. Now, if we want to live some other way, that’s okay, we’ve got the right to do that. And we’ve got the will to do it. And we certainly God gave us gave you a will to exercise. All I’m saying is that is not consistent with the teaching of the abiding life in Christ Jesus, that’s very consistent with teaching, go out and pull yourself up by your bootstraps, try harder. Go out and and try to be as honest as you can try to have all the integrity that you can. And you say those are nice sounding things, they have an appearance of wisdom. And they’re neat things, if you could pull them off, there’s only one problem, you can’t pull them off. And all you’re doing is setting yourself up for more disappointment, more disillusionment. And, in many cases, extreme self righteousness. And so folks, if you can temper these things, there’s nothing wrong. In fact, there’s a wonderful dynamic that can occur, of 1000s of men getting together 1000s of women getting together 1000s of people getting together to praise the Lord and talk about the Lord. And this type of that’s a marvelous, it’s a dynamic, marvelous dynamic that can take place, not a necessity, but the dynamic. But if you’re not being taught truth, then all you’re going to do is to leave that environment, attempting to do something that you’re going to fall flat on your face, and you cannot live up to the law. You cannot live by principles. You cannot live by commitments. You cannot live by promises. You live, because he lives. I live, you live by a life, folks. And I’m not saying that, to try to perpetuate human wisdom. I’m saying that because that is precisely what the scripture has to say. The power of sin is in the law. The more you commit to do something, the more sin seizing that opportunity is going to make you desire not to do it or to do it.”

Listen in to today’s lesson with more in-depth teaching, from the Bible study booklet, A Closer Look at Law & Grace, available for purchase from our online Bob George Ministries ecommerce store.

Jesus asked how does God love and accept us? And how does he expect us to live the Christian life? To answer those questions, this insightful study explores a vital issue at the heart of the Christian experience, the biblical relationship between law and grace, understanding their role in our relationship to God will bring joy, freedom and spontaneity to your Christian life. Now, let’s take A Closer Look at Law & Grace.

Bob George 0:40
You don’t live by principles, you don’t live by law. You don’t live by promises. You live by a life and that life is Christ Jesus the life I live, Paul said, I live by my promises. No, I live by faith in the Son of God, the One who loved me and gave himself for me. I am crucified. Nevertheless, I live by principles is that what it says? No does not. I am crucified nevertheless I live yet not it’s I but it is Christ that lives in me. I don’t live by the law. I don’t live by principles. I don’t live by my promises. I don’t live by my commitments. I don’t live by my accountability groups. I live by Christ Jesus because He lives I live. Now, that is truth out of the Word of God. Now, if we want to live some other way, that’s okay, we’ve got the right to do that. And we’ve got the will to do it. And we certainly God gave us gave you a will to exercise. All I’m saying is that is not consistent with the teaching of the abiding life in Christ Jesus, that’s very consistent with teaching, go out and pull yourself up by your bootstraps, try harder. Go out and and try to be as honest as you can try to have all the integrity that you can. And you say those are nice sounding things, they have an appearance of wisdom. And they’re neat things, if you could pull them off, there’s only one problem, you can’t pull them off. And all you’re doing is setting yourself up for more disappointment, more disillusionment. And, in many cases, extreme self righteousness. And so folks, if you can temper these things, there’s nothing wrong. In fact, there’s a wonderful dynamic that can occur, of 1000s of men getting together 1000s of women getting together 1000s of people getting together to praise the Lord and talk about the Lord. And this type of that’s a marvelous, it’s a dynamic, marvelous dynamic that can take place, not a necessity, but the dynamic. But if you’re not being taught truth, then all you’re going to do is to leave that environment, attempting to do something that you’re going to fall flat on your face, and you cannot live up to the law. You cannot live by principles. You cannot live by commitments. You cannot live by promises. You live, because he lives. I live, you live by a life, folks. And I’m not saying that, to try to perpetuate human wisdom. I’m saying that because that is precisely what the scripture has to say. The power of sin is in the law. The more you commit to do something, the more sin seizing that opportunity is going to make you desire not to do it or to do it.

And so the biggest criticism that we have, is you teach grace to people, you’re going to give them a license to sin. That criticism again, is not new. People asked Paul when he stated that we lived by grace alone, What then shall we sin then we’re no longer under the law. Paul, what then? Shall we sin? Because we’re not under the law, but under grace? Romans 6:15. You can just hear the sarcasm in that can’t you? What are you saying that Paul? Shall we go on sinning because we’re not under law? In other words, you know, you’re no, no, no, no longer under the law. Well, then shall we just go sinning because we’re under the law as if the law kept him from sinning when the power of sin is in the law? So Paul said, Look, folks, I wouldn’t even known what sin was at the law not said don’t sin. But when it did it, I started I started coveting, I didn’t even know what it was. So the law didn’t stop me from sinning the law became the vehicle to cause me to want to. And incidentally, folks, that was the purpose of the law.

Now Paul, in the book of Philippians, tells us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. What does it mean to work out? it means to work out what’s been worked in what is fear and trembling mean? It means humility. Paul said on another occasion, when I came to you, I didn’t come to you with brilliant words and lofty ideas, but I came to you with fear and trembling. In other words, I came to you and total humility and dependency upon Christ Jesus and him alone, because I did not want your faith to stand on some great man’s ideas, but on the sovereignty and on the truth of God alone. So I came to you with humility, and in total dependency upon Christ Jesus, I came to you in weakness, fear and trembling in weakness, that is a that is not weakness, as we think of it, it means no dependency on me at all. I came to you totally in a dependency upon Christ Jesus. And I found out that his strength is manifested in my weakness. Now he said, our salvation is the result of God’s grace, and it is His grace that we are to work out. We talked about Bob that grace could be, we could talk about that as a master plan, because the Master Plan of God was to bring grace to people who needed only grace, using the law to show us that need, so that we would turn to the provision for that need. So it’s all a part of his master plan. And so our salvation is the result of this of God’s master plan of grace, and it and it is His grace that we’re to work out. Now, God, however, does not leave this task to our self efforts, because Paul goes ahead to say for it is God who works in you to willing to act according to His good purpose. He tells us that in Philippians 2:13. So we talk, you know, we quote that verse about working out your salvation, but we don’t go ahead to the next verse, For it is God who works in you, to will and to act according to His good purpose. So working out our salvation is not dependent on us. It’s the result of God working in us. And that’s why we can stand confidently in the grace of God, God would never lead us to a life of sin, He will lead us to will and to act according to His good purpose.

Galatians 2:20, Paul, spelled what I was talking about out very clearly, I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live. In other words, the Paul without the Spirit of God living in in him, that guy is dead. You are crucified with Christ so that you could be raised again with Christ. So, in order for you and me to come to Christ, we have had to, in essence, enter into a co-crucifixion with him. The old Bob, George, the Bob, George, without the Spirit of God living in him, had to die. He wasn’t worth improving. I’ll guarantee you that. And if anybody has a question about that, why they might interview Amy. So there wasn’t a thing worth improving. You have to die. So Bob, George, without the Spirit of God living in him, that guy died as far as God is concerned, he’s gone, there is no more guy like that. Never will be another Bob George, this Bob George without a Spirit of God living in him, that guy’s gone. I was crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, why do I live? Well, because I was raised from the dead by the one who came to live in me, and that is the living Christ. So even though the Bob George died, Christ’s life came to live within that corpse in essence, and raised me from the dead. So that’s why it says, it’s no longer I who live, it’s Christ, who lives in me now. Christ is my life. If Christ wasn’t here, I would have no life. Any more than a human body would have no life if the life was not there. When you look at a corpse, there’s something missing its life. Now, we don’t know what all that is. But it sure is identifiable when you see a corpse. When you don’t see a corpse. And if you’ve never seen death, it would be hard to identify. You couldn’t imagine that. They say, well, that’s when somebody lays real steel. And you may say, Oh, you mean when you’re sleeping, know when they’re real still. And you couldn’t relate to it when you see a dead animal or a dead corpse. When I looked into the casket of my father, dad wasn’t there. I was looking at a shell. He was not there. Life is gone. Now the reason that I am alive spiritually, I am the reason I’m alive physically, I have been given a physical life, the invisible me that has been regenerated by the Lord Jesus Christ. And so my life is his life living in me. That is my only hope of glory.

Where does the life in a branch come from? From the life of the vine. A branch cannot produce life. A branch cannot cause life, a branch can only bear the fruit of the life, but the source of the fruit is life. So if you’re in Christ today, your life is Christ. There’s something that has happened to you. You didn’t necessarily see it, and I’ll guarantee you don’t understand all of it any more than I do. But Christ explains what happened. You died. The old you died and I brought you back to life with the new me. And I came to live within you, and I raised you from the dead just as I was raised from the dead, and the life that I died for you, then I did so so that I can live in you now. Now Paul, there for us is the life I live in this body of mine, I live by faith in the Son of God, I live by faith in his faith, his life living through me the one who did what? love me and gave himself for me. Does that sound like a pull yourself up by your bootstraps kind of life folks? Does that sound like a life that says I’m gonna go live under the law? Is that a life that says I’m going to live according to my promises? I’m going to live according to my principles, I’m going to live according to my commitments. Well, if that’s the case, who’s doing the living? It certainly isn’t Christ, because he isn’t living his life that way. He is living his life, because that’s who he is. Now he’s saying, I Jesus and all that I am am now living in you. You can’t live the life. Why don’t you get out of the way and let me live it? It’s like saying to a branch branch. I didn’t call you I don’t expect you to produce fruit. You can’t quit trying. I didn’t expect you to live by promising to be a fruit producer. You cannot you think you can it sounds good. It would make sense to people listening to it, because they would like to get some of that fruit. But you cannot do it. I’m telling you, you can’t do it. When you got to grasp it? You cannot do it. The Greek for that is you cannot do you cannot do it. No. When are you going to realize that you’re going to be the most successful when you become the biggest failure. When you realize that when you’re trying to live the Christian life in your the energy of your own flesh, you are a total failure. Now when you come to realize that you can’t, that’s when you’re going to experience what he can.

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Bob George 13:32
And so folks, what I’m saying on here, and again, I don’t mean to be critical of any specific group of people. That’s not my intent at all. I’m not here for that purpose. I’m here to teach what the truth of the Word of God is. And this is what the truth of the Word of God is. You can’t I can he said, apart from me, you can do how much? I think he said nothing. And so what Paul is saying to us is, look, there’s a new form of life now to a religious Bob, this sounds totally idiotic. Why there’s no reality of Christ living in them. He’s saying, you’re telling me I can’t. Then I’m no longer under the law. If I’m no longer under the law, if I’m no longer living by principles, if I’m no longer living by my commitments, how am I going to live? Why would you say that because you don’t know you have a life. So when you hear people say, Get a life, there’s some reality to that. That’s what you need. You need to get a life, whose life? Christ’s life would you see if I don’t have any awareness at all that there is such a thing as not new birth, because we learned the words that experiencing Christ Jesus being alive, living in you, with the promise, I’m going to complete the work I began in you with the promise that I am involved in your life, completing the work that I have started in you, that, I am absolutely living in you to will and to do of my good pleasure in and through you, if you will let me then you and I will, like Paul come to a point of saying, well, then I guess that the only way that I can intelligently live, if he is my life, is to let him live his life through me. And I’m going to trust the one who loved me, demonstrated that by giving himself up for me. Now, that’s the abiding life folks that is free from you have been freed from the law of sin and death. You’re not free from sinning as long as there’s indwelling sin living in your humanity in your flesh and your human part of you. But what it’s saying is, I’m totally free from the results of that I am free from the condemnation of sin. I am free from the power of sin. I don’t have to give in anymore. I do. But I don’t have to. Now when you do, and you don’t have to what do you call that? Stupid. Yes, to get right down to it. Yeah. And I quite frankly, think, Bob that when we start seeing sin as stupid, I say you’re getting as you were, you’re making some great progress and understanding. Because in essence, that’s what it is, why would we want to sacrifice the peace of God? For something else? You know, that we do. Why? Because we’re stupid. And God wants to come to renew our minds, not our behavior, but our minds.

Now, it goes ahead and Romans eight and to explain to us our next question, you, however, as a child of God, it says, are not controlled by the flesh, but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you, and if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn’t belong to Christ. Now, I want to ask you a question. Can you be religious? And not have the Spirit of God living in you? Why Absolutely. How religious Do you think the Pharisees were? And the Sadducees, and all the other cees? How religious Do you think the people in America who claim to be so called Christians? How religious are a bunch of those people? How religious were all of us? I went to church every Sunday, whether I liked it or not. And I gave $1 whether I wanted to or not, I just was going to boost budget, boost the budget as much as I could. And, and I, as always said, I went in there and I parked my body down on a chair. And then I moved. And I came back right before the ending of the thing, so I could walk out of there and one person, but was religious, somebody to say, Yeah, Bob, George is kind of a religious guy, a little bit. Was saved? Of course not. On the other hand, I knew people, man, they were in church all the time. But I knew them. And I look back and say where they saved? I don’t think so. It doesn’t mean that just because the way they behaved maybe was an indicator. And it just you never heard anything. There wasn’t any change there when no one’s talking about Christ Jesus or anything. We’re just talking about church all the time. I have gone out with people that I sat in church with for years. And we’ll go out maybe in this particular case, and I’m thinking of that I haven’t been in that particular church for years, we left that church went to our own or went to someplace else but got together with old friends, and sit down. And Bob all evening long. All it’s talked about is church, church, church, church, church, our churches doing this or churches doing that a church is doing this, a church is doing this, we’re going to go to church, we’re going to say, Where’s Jesus fit in any of this? Where in the world is Jesus in any of this? So you see, you can be very religious and not have Jesus. Just as you can be lost and play church. You can also be saved and play lost. So there’s your difference between reality and acting.

If we are truly led by the Spirit and Romans eight nine is talking about you, however, are controlled or you could say led by the Spirit and dependent upon the Spirit. To be filled with the Spirit means to be controlled by or to be led by the Spirit. And that says not by the flesh, you can also add in there, not by the flesh under the law. The whole context of this is you however, are not led by the flesh under the law, but by the Spirit under the grace of God, if the Spirit of God lives in you, and if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn’t belong to Christ. Now, as we were talking about Bob, you can be lost and act religious, just like you can be saved and act lost. Now, both of those are in contrast to your identity. Your lost may be times, you don’t even know what I did not know I was lost, has never told I was lost and knew certainly knew there was something wrong. But I never knew that, from God’s vantage point that that word was lost. I certainly did not know that I was dead spiritually. I really didn’t know that. Because I know that there were times that, you know, God certainly intervened in my life, as a lost person. What I didn’t know is from his standpoint, who is not limited by time and space, that I was already in his kingdom, because he knew that was going to occur. And he knew that I was going to choose by my will, to come to Him by faith, he knew that was going to occur. And I believe that the, his preservation of me through the years until that happened at age 36, was just God’s continual intervention in my life. But I was dead, I was not possessed, I was not indwelt by the living Christ, I was a lost dead person at that time, except for my standpoint, in my human experience. And so, so God came to live within me now, as that lost person, I could act religious sometimes. And I’ve also found that as a saved person, I can act lost sometimes. And but you see, in both of those cases, I was out of my element, when I was lost trying to act religious. I really didn’t like it. But I knew that I had to thank God didn’t have to do it for too long periods of time. But I could do it. And when you’re saved, trying to act lost, it’s uncomfortable as well, you can do it, but it just is inconsistent now with who you are. And that’s why well, because God lives in you, now. Christ is ALIVE living in you now. You don’t belong to Satan in the world anymore. You belong down to Christ Jesus. And so folks, another thing that I want us to understand, in this particular passage of Romans eight, nine is, and we’ve talked about this briefly in times past, but if the Spirit of God is not live in you, then you don’t belong to Christ. There is no way to be born again of the Spirit, and then receive the Spirit, next year, or next week, or next month. That’s an impossibility. If the Spirit of God does not live in you, you’re not saved. And so there is teaching that goes around that you’re saved today, and then you receive the Spirit tomorrow. Well, I’m sorry, that is not true. If you are saved, you’re spiritually regenerated, you’re born again, save means to be born again. And what it means to be born again, is to be made alive in Christ Jesus, you have come to him not just for his death for you, but his life in you. And when you have his life in you, you have received His forgiveness for you. It was provided for all men 2000 years ago at the cross, but it is received in his resurrected life.

And so if the Spirit of God does not live inside of you, you’re not saved. There’s no way for you to be saved. You’re only saved when Christ comes to take up residence in your life, what do you saved from? death, the wages of sin is what? death. And the gift of God is what life what kind of life will eternal life. And so if the Spirit of God is not live in you, you don’t belong to Christ. So folks, there is no such thing as coming to Christ today and receiving the Spirit of God tomorrow, that is a false teaching. And it’s a false teaching that from that point gets into worst heresies. As time goes on, and worse misinterpretations of Scripture because if your premises off, your findings are going to be off and then you’re going to have to find reasons for your false findings. Now, if we understand the truth of the Word of God, you’re gonna see the word of God fall together, like a puzzle, that all the pieces are together. But when you start with a false picture, it’s never going to look right, folks, that’s just all there is to it. So if you don’t have the Spirit of God living in you, you don’t belong to Christ.

Now in Galatians 5:18, it says, But you are led by the Spirit. If you’re led by the Spirit, you’re not under the law. And in Romans 8:14 this down from where we’re talking about, it says those who are led by the Spirit are sons of God. So what does it mean on that if you if you’re led by the Spirit controlled by the Spirit, it’s all the same thing. You can’t be controlled by the Spirit, under the law. If you’re led by the Spirit, you’re not under the law. So you have to get free from the law in order to be led by the Spirit. So here we are having people getting all their sins confessed and appropriating the power of the Holy Spirit by faith. So I can walk in the Spirit, and I’m under the law of confession. I’m under a law, I’m constantly under the law of God. And I’m telling people this what it means to walk in the Spirit, folks, it’s a contradiction of terms. If you’re led by the Spirit, the reason you’re being led by the Spirit is because you’re not under the law, you’ve died to the law. You can’t walk in two camps at the same time. If you’re under the law, you can’t be led by the Spirit. And if you’re being led by the Spirit, you’re not under the law. That’s pretty dumb. It’s pretty clear. If you’re single, you can’t be married. And if your marriage can’t be single at the same time, then you’re that’s just all there is to it. Now, again, you can act married when you’re single, and you can act single when you’re married. So we’re not talking about actions we’re talking about, are you married or aren’t you? If I’m married, then I can’t be single at the same time. And if I’m single, I can’t be married at the same time. And it’s the same thing. When we come to Christ, we come to Christ by faith and by faith alone, and those who are led by the Spirit are sons of God. Now, what is he saying, if you’re led by the law, you’re not a son of God. If you’re being controlled by the law, you can’t be controlled by the Spirit of God at the same time. You can’t come to Christ by the law. That’s what Paul was saying to the Galatians. You foolish, moronic, idiotic Galatians someone’s hypnotized you. They’ve cast a spell upon you. And he asked the question, Did you receive the Spirit by believing what you heard or by obeying the law? Because if you think that you’re saved, who obeying the law, you don’t have the Spirit, you just got the law.

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 shop.BobGeorge.net. There you’ll 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.