Radio Broadcast Monday 02/19/2024

Classic Christianity – Book of Hebrews P68 (02-19-24)

Lean Not On Your Own Understanding

~ “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Proverbs 3:5-6

We get it in our heads that we think we understand everything that is going on. Yet most don’t have a clue about what is really going on in the world today. They stand by and listen to their idols, and they don’t even recognize that they have idols. They stand by their political figures, as though those political figures are going to save them from other political figures. Satan has deceived us all into thinking that there is someone that God has appointed, some figurehead that is going to save them from the evils of the world. It’s time to wake up. Only place your faith in Jesus. Don’t place faith in any Man (male or female), not even yourself. For the things we have been taught for most of our lives are lies of Satan. Only Jesus is the answer to all of man’s problems. Only Jesus will set everything right. Only Jesus is the salvation of Man, and in no other. Yet people wear their idols on their sleeves and on their hats, and on their teeshirts. They share their idols online through social media. They talk about their idols all over the place. In fact they talk about their idols more than they talk about Jesus. People can say God, but when it comes to naming the name of Jesus, they choke on His name. Yet Jesus is above ALL names. So quit worshiping others. Get rid of your Hollywood and Political idols. Recognize that they are not going to save you, nor are they going to save America or the world. Rest in Jesus alone for EVERYTHING. Go directly to the Holy Spirit to get all your questions answered by God.

If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood—and indeed the law given to the people established that priesthood—why was there still need for another priest to come, one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron? For when the priesthood is changed, the law must be changed also. He of whom these things are said belonged to a different tribe, and no one from that tribe has ever served at the altar. For it is clear that our Lord descended from Judah, and in regard to that tribe Moses said nothing about priests. And what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, one who has become a priest not on the basis of a regulation as to his ancestry but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life. For it is declared: “You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek.” The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God. And it was not without an oath! Others became priests without any oath, but he became a priest with an oath when God said to him: “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: ‘You are a priest forever.’” Because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantor of a better covenant. Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.^{Hebrews 7:11-25}

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~ “You see people many times not questioning their sincerity, but desperately trying to get in good with God through their own efforts. And this was not unlike what was taking place at the time of the writing of the book of Hebrews. And you had the the Hebrew who was steeped not only in tradition, but they were steeped in the Word of God. In the Old Testament, the problem of it is, is the Old Testament is an incomplete book, The revelation had not been made in the Old Testament, it was still a book that was proclaiming the coming Messiah. But until the Messiah came, he had to come to explain what had been proclaimed. And for the 1000s of years until he did come, all they could do was speculate on what it was talking about, but they did not know what it was talking about. Same thing with endtime prophecies today, we think we know but we don’t know anything. We just think we know. We’ll know when it’s been revealed, just like we finally do, when the Messiah came, Jesus had to come. ” ~ 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 0:28
Let’s turn to the book of Hebrews. We’re going to pick up where we left off a little bit last week and the seventh chapter. And we’re dealing here in his chapter seven, seventh chapter we’ll pick up about in verse 11. But let’s just back up for a minute as to what the author of Hebrews is trying to say to us here. As we’ve plowed rapidly through the first six verses, or chapters of the book, it’s only been a few months, we’ve seen how God is laying the foundation to strip away from the Hebrew, and it’s just as applicable to us today, to strip away all of the things that we have a tendency to put confidence in, in regard to our relationship with God. And if we acknowledge first of all, that there is a God, then the most logical thing for man to do is how can I get to know this God? Is this a God of love? Is he a God of wrath? Does he like us? Does he hate us? What kind of a God is this, that we acknowledge has to be in existence, otherwise, we couldn’t even really make an account for the universe that we live in.

I don’t know for the likes of me how anyone could ever see a baby delivered. And not believe in God, I don’t know how a person could do that with their heart was cold as a brick, to see the intricacies of birth alone, to see the intricacies of the human body that separates the blood and doesn’t allow it to flow between the baby and the water to see the intricacies of, of all of those things, and not believe that there was someone bigger than that person is beyond my comprehension. And so it isn’t the case that I believe in most instances that we deny it’s the existence of God, the thing of it is, is how do we get to know him? Is it possible to get to know Him? And and what is this God like? And so in as much as this would certainly be about as logical a question as we could ask why we had God who revealed that to us. But left to ourselves without that revelation, man is left with no other alternative except to come up with all kinds of ideas, which is about the only thing I’m going to do, in other words, have some research on how we might get to know God and speculate as to what God might be like and, and come up with our own ideas and our own solutions and our own little religions. And that is exactly what had taken place by the time certainly the book of Hebrews was written. And it is no less the case today. When man does not receive what God alone gave and revealed, then we are left to do nothing else except to speculate on our own. And that’s what religion is, it’s speculating on our own, it’s man coming up with their own ideas, instead of going to the truth of the revelation of God to find out the answers to those questions. And then we come to our own conclusions on these things, and then we hang on to them, and we make doctrines and denominations out of them. And and then we set out therefore, and our identity then gets in our denomination, or in our interpretation of what we believe, is true. And then we set out for the rest of our lives to try to defend our interpretation or defend what our denomination says should be the interpretation. And instead of worshipping God, we’re sitting around, trying to become custodians of our own interpretation of the word of God. And that’s also what you see going on today.

You see people many times not questioning their sincerity, but desperately trying to get in good with God through their own efforts. And this was not unlike what was taking place at the time of the writing of the book of Hebrews. And you had the the Hebrew who was steeped not only in tradition, but they were steeped in the Word of God. In the Old Testament, the problem of it is, is the Old Testament is an incomplete book, The revelation had not been made in the Old Testament, it was still a book that was proclaiming the coming Messiah. But until the Messiah came, he had to come to explain what had been proclaimed. And for the 1000s of years until he did come, all they could do was speculate on what it was talking about, but they did not know what it was talking about. Same thing with endtime prophecies today, we think we know but we don’t know anything. We just think we know. We’ll know when it’s been revealed, just like we finally do, when the Messiah came, Jesus had to come. And even though those people were students of the Bible, and that tell you, they could have quoted it backwards and forwards and upside down. And they were the Pharisees, and they were the leaders, and they had been to seminary and had been to Jerusalem U, and they had been to all those things, you know, and, and they were smart about the Word of God and they could boy, they can bounce back and forth and quoted to you almost by memory, people who were steeped in it in those days, and yet, they did not know what it meant. Jesus had to come and explain to them what it meant. So it’s only through his explanation of the Old Testament, that they knew what it was proclaiming. They didn’t know before then they thought they knew. But they didn’t know until he came. And that’s why Jesus, when He came as an example, on a on the people to the road to Emmaus had to come. And it said, he started with Genesis, and he went all the way through the scriptures explaining where he fit into the scriptures. Because the entire Old Testament was written about Jesus who was to come. And then Jesus came and explained what was written, and then proclaimed what was going to come. And he’ll have to come back to explain what that meant too someday. In the meantime, we sit around acting like we’re smart thinking we know, but we really don’t. But there are some things that we do know. And that is what is obviously revealed today. And so in the book of Hebrews, you’re talking about people who were thinking that Moses was greater than Jesus. In other words, there’s no one greater than Moses to follow. And they say, Well, yeah, there is this Abraham. Well, that’s true. He’s the father of all of this. And there’s therefore no one greater than Moses. And then last week, they came along and said, well, there was no one greater excuse me than Abraham, then who says Melchizedek, that Moses then gave his plunder to after he had defeated the kings. Because you don’t give to someone lesser than you, you give someone greater than you. So here was a priest even greater than Abraham. And that’s a shocker until it’s explained. And so to the Hebrews, to any religious system, where it’s built around the following of a man. And so the man was Moses, it was Abraham. And then they said, Wait a minute, there was someone called Melchizedek that came along, who was a high priest, we didn’t know where he came from. And we don’t know where he’s going. All we know is that Abraham, after he had defeated his enemies, he gave a 10th of his plunder to this priest, because he was greater than him. And then last week, we talked, we studied about the fact that Jesus, as we’re bringing now into explaining Christ, in verse 11, that if perfection could have been obtained through the Levitical, priesthood, and here again, we’re talking about priests, that Melchizedek was not a part of the Levites, the 12 tribes of Israel, the Levites, were the priests. And this Melchizedek was not out of that line at all. It wasn’t even in existence yet. Jesus was not out of that line. Jesus who said is a priest on the order of Melchizedek. He didn’t come through the normal lines. He came from God. And so it’s talking about through the Levitical. priesthood, it says, For on the basis of the law, it was given to people if perfection could be obtained through that Levitical priesthood, for on the basis of the law, it was given to the people, why was there still a need for another priest to come one in the order of Melchizedek, not on the order of Aaron. In other words, not out of that line that were the Levites came. But out of this Melchizedek, for when there was a change of priesthood, there must also be a change of the law. He of whom these things are said belonged to a different tribe, and no one from that tribe has ever served at the altar. For it’s clear that our Lord descended from Judah. And in regard to that tribe, Moses said nothing about priests. So Moses didn’t talk about this line. Abraham didn’t talk about this line. No one talked about this line. This is a priesthood that was established, totally out of sync. And that’s what he’s talking about.

Now if what we have said is even more clear if another priest like Melchizedek appears, one who has become a priest not on the basis of regulation as to his ancestry, and never anything to do with his ancestry, but on the basis of the power of an indestructible life, an indestructible life, the resurrection of the dead, Christ Jesus who could not be held on a cross or in a grave, but was raised from the dead an indestructible life. Now folks, the reason for going through all these things, is because of teaching, because of people who were believing, I am a follower of Moses. I am a follower of Abraham. I am a follower of Joseph Smith. I am a follower of the Baptists, I am a follower of the Presbyterians, I am a follower of the Mennonites. I am a follower of the Methodist, I’m a follower of whatever anything of People to People. It doesn’t matter whether it’s us or somebody else. So I’m not stepping on toes, I’ll trample on my own at the same time. And the issue is, that man has a tendency to want to follow man. And what he is saying here is, although the Old Testament was around Moses, and around Abraham, Abraham and Moses, were pointing to Jesus. And now that Jesus has come, even though your dependency, and rightfully so, to a degree, you did not have anyone else to depend upon, even though your dependency was upon Moses was upon Abraham, praise God for that, because they were the ones pointing it to Jesus, but don’t hang on to the dependency. And that same thing is true, of you and me the day. Folks, the more and the deeper that I am in Christ, the more sickening it becomes to me, of people wanting to hang on to their denominational affiliation, and to not have enough realization, to realize it’s Christ. It’s not Baptist. It’s not Presbyterian. It’s not Catholic. It’s Christ. And that’s what this book is trying to get the Hebrew steeped in much more tradition than us. If you think we got problems, and we got problems, think about them. 2000 years of that stuff, or 4000 years of that stuff poured into it. And that’s why it’s more folks than just saying, Oh, just believe in Jesus. You hear that, you know, man, there’s a reason to believe in Jesus. Were a deal the other day that all you got to do just believe in God, if you don’t believe Jesus, you’re going to hail now to where hail is, but it’s someplace in there. But you know, is Oh, you’re going to go to hail. And, and, and somebody’s sitting there. And I think to myself, somebody’s sitting there. No wonder they get adamant about Christians. No wonder people say your narrow and everything else. No wonder, with that kind of verbiage. There’s a reason for believing in Jesus. It’s just kind of, I just picked someone down there. If you don’t believe in Him, you have it. There’s a reason. And God gave us heads to think with not to just sit hats on and grow hair out of some of you. He gave us brains. And he said, use them. And God revealed truth to us. And this book of Hebrews is an unbelievable doctrine in regard to the reasoning as to why Christ is who he is, and that is God.

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Bob George 14:46
And so he’s saying to them, that there is someone that has come not on regulation not according to his ancestry, but on the power of an indestructible life. Moses is in his grave. David is in his grave. Abraham is in his grave. The only grave that’s famous for who isn’t in it is Jesus. He isn’t in it. He was raised from the dead. Folks, that is not up for grabs, either. The only speculation was in how the grave got empty, but there was no speculation on the fact that it was empty. The speculation came as to how it got that way. But anybody could have gone and seen that there wasn’t anybody in there. So the issue is how to get out. And there’s all kinds of harebrained ideas that people come up with that way. But the fact of the matter is that Christ was raised from the dead. And as Paul said, if he were not raised from the dead, our faith is futile, and were to be pitied of all people. Because if he were not raised from the dead, we have no resurrected life, he is not alive, he is dead and he’s just another priest on the order of any other Levite. So we’re talking about a person Christ Jesus different than Moses, different from Abraham, different from anybody else who’s ever walked on the face of the earth, because of an indestructible life, he was raised from the dead, indicating who he was God in the flesh. Now it says before it is declared, This is by God, you are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. The former regulation, therefore it’s talking about was set aside because it was weak and useless, for the law made nothing perfect. And a better hope is introduced by which we draw near to God. Folks, I don’t know how much clearer you can get it than that the law made nothing perfect. And we have people today are saying, whereas Oh, yeah, I believe you’re saved, but great, but you gotta obey the law. Well, lot’s of luck. You can’t even obey the first one. That’s something all of us know deep down our hearts to love your God with all of your heart and with all of your soul. Man, we’ve we can’t even hit that one. Let’s be realistic. And yet people walk around saying, Oh, you got to obey the law. Try it. But you realize what the law was given for. It says that anyone who is under the law is under a curse, because cursed is everyone who does not do what? Everything written in the Book of law, you want to be under the law, you’re under a curse. Unless you think you can do it all. And it says if you have violated the least of these, my commandments, you violated how many of them? Well, all of them. Now what is the wages of that violation? It’s called death. So your dad is a hammer, if you think you’re under the law. The righteous requirements of the one who gave the Law is perfection. It is total obedience to the law from the time you were born till the time you die. It’s not one of those things we’ll learn. I’m trying. Tell that to a policeman when you’re speeding. I was trying to I know you were trying, you were trying to get there faster, and you should have been, you see, the law doesn’t have mercy. Let’s talk to a brother just a minute ago, got a little ticket, they don’t have any mercy. Guilty. You’re speeding, guilty. That’s it. That’s the law doesn’t have any mercy to it at all. Just cut and dry. And the difference between the law that we have is, well, I can get a ticket today and go pay it and then go speed again, that wasn’t the case with the law of God. He said if you sped once and your whole lifetime, that’s it. You violated all of them. Now that’s the stringency of the law of God. Now try to be under that. And so he’s saying that the law could make nothing perfect, how come? Because we can obey it. It’s what Paul said there’s nothing wrong with the law. It’s wholly in good but when it flows through me what to do, it kills me. Nothing wrong with it. It’s okay but I’m not, and we know that folks and again, the thing of it is is we like to talk about those laws that don’t commit adultery and all that and of course, you know, you can manage that and stick somebody in jail not do that. Or just be real ugly. Rattled, I shouldn’t have said that I guess but at any rate, that was things aren’t hard. You can do all kinds of stuff with that. But try that first one on for size, love your God with all your heart and with all your mind with all your soul. Try that one on. Which we have seen when you love someone like that, rather they’re your priority. And we look just to see how much God is really a priority all the time their lives.

So he’s saying there had to be something new introduced. And he said, the law made nothing perfect and a better hope is introduced by which we draw near to God and answers the question we’re talking about. How do you draw new to this God? I said, I’m going to show you. Man comes out and said, Well you’ll draw near to God because God is boy he demands perfect righteousness. So a lot get out there and I’ll get perfect righteousness that will make me draw nearer to God. And so we give that a try. And and God, boy, he had demand me to get dunked in some water so if I get dunked in some water without your drama near to God, so I’ll get dunked in water I’ll look like a prune after while I’ve been dunked so much. And now that’ll get me in there. And then God loves faithful civil boy if I go to church on Sunday morning and Sunday evening and then visitation on Monday and prayer meeting on Wednesday and everything else boy that’ll do it gotta be pleased to that how could he not be pleased with it? It’s exhausting me. So man is coming up with all kinds of ideas and ways and means of doing what? Drawing nearer to God, that’s all your that’s all religion is trying to do, folks is find a way to draw near to God to please this reluctant God that really doesn’t like me. But if I work hard enough, try hard enough, try hard enough, maybe I can draw near to Him. Probably not gonna get real close to him if I can just ease up on him.

God solved that. Is that a problem to man? Of course it is. If there’s a God, I want to know him. I mean, if there’s a God that’s big enough to call his universe into existence, that He’s big enough to annihilate me. And if that’s the case, I’d like to find out how to get in good with this God. I want to know, how can I draw nearer to God? How can I draw nearer to God? That tells us, there is a new and a better hope that was introduced by which we can draw near to God, there’s a new hope. We’re gonna say, well, let’s read on then.

And his hope that it talks about was not without an oath. Others became priests without any oath. But he Christ became a priest with a nose when God said to Him, the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever. Now, because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee of a better covenant. A guarantee of a better covenant. Folks who determines the worth of a guarantee? The guarantor is the one who does it mean you can get all kinds of guarantees, but the business is gonna go out of business in the year What good’s the guarantee? So the guarantee is only good if the one who does the guaranteeing is good. Now how long do you think God’s gonna be around? I think quite a while hopefully now. So and again, because of the oath that was made by God, then Jesus is the guarantee of a better covenant of a better covenant. Folks, this is the crux of the entire Christian faith, that I was a Christian for years and years and years and never heard about New Covenant. And it is preparing us for these next chapters, the most exciting chapters in the Bible, about this brand New Covenant that has been made between God and man, whereby through the act of Jesus Christ, he said, their sins and their lawless acts, I will remember no more. That’s it. I’m gonna deal with sin once and for all, and that’s gonna be the end of it. And all that religion. And the majority of the Christian religion today, unfortunately, has done is look into the face of God and call Him a liar. And act as if that New Covenant never has been in existence. Now this is an oath that was made by God, to Jesus, Jesus, you are a priest forever. So because of this oath, Jesus has become the guarantee now have a better covenant. That’s our hope. Was there any hope under the Old Covenant? Do this and you shall die if you if you if you disobey any of the laws, you’re going to die. Was there any hope in there, and if you’d like to run away, and still live under that?

So there’s this brand new agreement that has been made and it was made with an oath from God, a guarantee of a better covenant, now it goes ahead keep explaining. Now there have been many of those priests since death prohibit them from continuing in office. That is one way to get a guy at office is death and death prohibited these priests from remaining in office. Most of us kind of live on the 200 year plan, like we’re gonna be around forever, but we’re not. And neither were the priests gonna be around forever. But, because Jesus lives forever, because he lives forever he has a permanent priesthood. Not one is going to come today and go tomorrow because he lives forever a permanent priesthood. Any of you know any physical priests that are gonna live forever? Anyone know like that? I don’t either only Christ with the permanent priesthood that is going to live forever that’s why he is a guarantee of a better covenant. Therefore now when you see a therefore you ask what is it therefore? Okay, therefore because he is a permanent priest, gonna be there forever introduced a brand New Covenant. In as much as there is no way for you and meet even began to live under the law. There is no way for you and me to draw near to God under the law period. I hear people sometimes say Oh, this this legalistic pastor or that he loves God. Said, No, he doesn’t. You love God because He loves you first and you can’t not understand the love of God under the law. So a person who is a legalist who says I love God is a liar. You can’t love God under the law. You can’t love someone that’s going to zap you every time you do something wrong. You can’t love your wife that way. You can’t love your husband that way.

Announcer 27:11
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