Radio Broadcast Monday 03/14/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Your Identity in Christ P01 (03-14-22)

A Closer Look at Your Identity in Christ

Just as a person’s physical growth is based on proper diet and exercise, so is the Christians’s spiritual growth dependent on regular feeding upon the word of God and application of its principles. With more false teaching, shifting opinions and general confusion in the world than ever before, Christians need a solid foundation upon which to base their beliefs and build their lives. The word of God declares that Jesus Christ is that foundation of truth. With that in mind, let’s now take A Closer Look at Your Identity in Christ.

This exciting study on A Closer Look at Your Identity in Christ, now again, folks, the reason that we are teaching these Bible studies is quite clear. There’s no other foundation that we can lay except that foundation of Christ Jesus and where we find out about Christ Jesus is out of His Word. Now once the Holy Spirit of God comes to live within us, the Spirit of God can reveal all types of things in regard to the character of Christ, as we allow Him to live His life in and through us. But there will be no Revelation from the Holy Spirit that is contrary to the clear teaching of the word of God. You do not add to it or subtract from it. The word of God is our plumb line for living. So a person’s spiritual growth, just as a person’s physical growth is based on a proper diet and exercise, the same is true in regard to our spiritual growth. It’s dependent upon a regular feeding of the word of God and the application of its truth. Now, we’re not sitting down with some kind of a legalistic form of saying, you have to read the Bible for 15 minutes every day or half an hour every day or that type of thing. It’s a regular feeding on the word of God. You’re going to feed when you’re hungry, physically. I don’t have to sit down and say, well, yeah, I’ve got to eat at seven and a half to eat again, at twelve. And then after you eat again at six or seven, or whenever we get through the radio broadcast, that my stomach tells me, it’s time to eat and I believe the same thing true in regard to our spiritual Life. If Christ is alive, living in us there’s going to be a hunger created for the word of God. Now, physically, if there is not a hunger created physically, there’s something wrong with our body, and we need to check that out, because we are made by God in such a way whereby, we will experience hunger. It’s God’s way of saying it’s time to put something in this body of ours and I believe the same thing is true in regard to the word of God, that that’s spiritually if Christ, again is alive, living in us. And He truly is our only hope of glory, that there is going to be a hunger created for the meditation upon the word of God, as well as the study of the word of God.

A Closer Look at Your Identity in Christ

Now, we’re very fortunate in as much as we have a Bible to study out of, and that was not true for the mass of humanity, prior to around 1500, when the Bible was there, for the printing, press was developed in those years and the Bible was therefore made available to more and more people, but prior to that time, much of the word of God was a spoken word and was taught in that fashion or people may have only had one book of the Bible as it was in the early church when the Book of James was the first book of the Bible that was written and I assume copied and circulated. Outside of that, there was no written material and so everything that Christ said and proclaimed had to be said verbally that still changes lives. So it is not some kind of a legalistic thing we’re talking about. I feel unbelievably privileged to be able to hold a Bible in my hands and I don’t like that translation, try another one and whatever the situation may be and to be taught by the Spirit of God living inside of me, what that means. Now that is exciting. When you stop to think about it, it’s especially exciting for me that I don’t have to depend upon my head. The Spirit could teach me now.

So, we’re talking about here in this world in which we live today, there is more and more false teaching going on, shifting of opinions, general confusion in the world I believe more than I have personally ever seen in my 61 years here on this Earth. And as a result of that, Christians need a more solid foundation upon which to base their beliefs and to build their lives. And the word of God, of course, Jesus, is that foundation of Truth. And therefore, the emphasis that we make in this Classic Christianity study series is in helping Christians to discover for themselves what the Bible actually says about Christ Jesus, which was the reason the Bible was written to begin with was to teach us about Christ Jesus. Now, these Bible studies that you’re going to be going through with us, and I hope that if you have your books, that we’ll be getting into lesson one today. If you have not ordered your books yet, I hope you will do so. The book that we’re going to be studying out of over the next number of weeks is called Your Identity in Christ. Now, this Bible study that we’re talking about is prepared for the purpose therefore teaching us about Christ. These studies are useful for the new born again Christian, the intermediate Christian or mature Christian in that they begin with the fundamental and central question of. Who is Jesus Christ? And then we build upon that foundation in a logical and progressive manner.

This Classic Christianity study series is also extremely flexible in that it can be used for individual or group studies. Now, the Book of Acts tells us that the first Christians were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to the breaking of bread and prayer. The need for a proper balance then in the Christian life is as real today, as it was in the first century. And this study series, my friends, therefore has been designed to incorporate all of these elements that are vital for your spiritual growth.

In 1 Corinthians that tells us in pre-christian 1 Corinthians 3:11, it tells us that no man could lay a foundation other than the one that is already laid. Now in a few moments after our first break, we’re going to begin in lesson number one, which is called In Search of an Identity.

1 Corinthians 3:11
¹¹ For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.

And my friends, I do not think that there is a more important subject than what we’re going to be talking about over these next number of weeks together. Quite frankly, it’s through, I believe, an understanding of this study that is where I have seen more lives changed than in any other study that we’ve ever done. It’s talking about Christ and what He has done in and through you. And by the time we finish this study, I don’t believe that you will ever doubt again or ever have a misconception again in regard to your identity in Christ Jesus. And so, I’m excited about getting started.

If you, or let’s say, I all of a sudden found myself at my age, I never knew that I was alive before and here I found myself out on a deserted island. All there was was a palm tree and a lot of ocean and standing out here didn’t know a soul, never met another person, just me all by myself. Just Me Myself and I. And looking around wondering. Who in the world am I? And a voice would come out of the sky and say, who are you? And man, I’ve looked down at my feet, my arms and all around and say, I do not have a clue. I don’t have a clue because in and of ourselves, we would have not a clue as to an answer to that question. Would we? And all of a sudden, why I see this thing that I now know is a ship coming toward that island and off walks this guy, Bob Davis gets off. He walks up the island, says hi, my name is Bob Davis, and I’m your father. And a voice comes out of the sky. Again, says, who are you? Would I now have an identity? Why, absolutely. I’m Bob Davis’ son. Immediately I would know who I was. I was Bob Davis’ son. So my identity comes from who I am identified with, not in and of ourselves.

Now, that’s a strange thing because you would think that we would have that identity in and of ourselves, but you see when God created, man, did Adam have an identity in and of himself until God put his life into him? Absolutely not, and neither do you and I. Because God in the man is indispensable to the humanity of the man and also indispensable to the identity of the man. And until man is restored to true humanity as God meant humanity to be, whereby God is living back in his creature, His creation, man, has no identity at all. Or none at all. Cause he’s 2/3 whole and the third that’s missing happens to be his identity. So that’s why before we come to Christ, and unfortunately many times after we come to Christ, that we are still searching for this identity. And of course, in many instances, the phony part of the Christian world is very anxious to give you a new identity with a denominational label on it rather than a child of God. And that’s why I said, for 36 years with a denominational label on me and I did not know the Lord from a spook. But I would have called myself a Presbyterian, or called myself a Methodist, or a Baptist, or whatever it might be. Because we assume that because you belong to a church that you’re a child of God. Well I belonged to a church for 36 years and I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a child with God. I had never heard the term. I’d never realized particularly, I knew that I was a sinner, but I’d figured that out on my own so I didn’t need someone to tell me that. I had not a clue as to what born-again, had never heard the term born again.

And so we assume that because we are sitting in a church on Sunday on the corner of walk and don’t walk that we are a child of God, but that is a very poor assumption. But until we come to grips, you see, with the fact that the world is doing everything, everything in its power, under the control of Satan, who is the prince of the power of this earth; doing everything to get our identity away from Christ or hiding the fact that we have no identity apart from Christ. Because if a man was truly confronted with that issue, that you’re 2/3 whole and you could prove that. I mean, if there was a way of proving that physically. If I walked up to you and you didn’t have an arm and I had your arm in my hand and said, Bob, you’re not whole until you get this arm. I think you’d say put that thing on me and lay it on me quickly. He’s walking around fat, dumb and happy thinking he’s okay when he isn’t okay, and then, you’ve got books out. Like, I’m Okay, You’re Okay when the fact is there isn’t anyone okay. But the fact of the matter is that until we come to grips with the fact that God in the man, as I said earlier, is indispensable to his humanity, then we will walk around, like I said, fat, dumb and happy thinking everything is somewhat okay, but this is as good as it’s going to get. But we do not have an identity. That’s why we’re very anxious to say, well, I’m a housewife, I’m a doctor, I’m a preacher, I’m a lawyer, I’m a banker, I’m a fireman.

I’m a schizophrenic, that’s a better identity than none, you know, so if you got to have one, you don’t know who you are with, is we’ll latch onto that one. Literally, I’ve had people say, whew, now. I know who I am! See, I’m a schizophrenic, paranoid, manic-depressive. See, that’s exciting news. We will latch onto psychologically, any identity that comes down the pike. We will latch on religiously to any idea that comes down the pike. We will latch onto vocationaly to any identity that comes down the pike. It absolutely doesn’t matter where it comes from, just lay it on me because I don’t know who I am apart from Christ. And therefore, I will latch onto any kind of an identity that comes my way.

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And so that’s why in many instances, and I didn’t necessarily mean to get into this, because the lesson, we haven’t started it yet. This is all introduction. But the fact that matter is, that’s why people, sometimes who have problems with drunkenness and they are then told you’re an alcoholic. And that identity, they will desperately hang on to that identity. In other words. Don’t tell me, I’m not, because number one that’s my rationale. That’s my excuse for drinking too much. That’s my excuse for the problem that I’m having. But even more than that, that’s my identity. That’s who I am. And that’s why we’re very anxious to get up and say hi, I’m Bob George. I’m an alcoholic. Now again, when I’m saying what I’m saying, folks, do not believe that I am being critical of AA or any of the other ministries or organizations that are out there that help a person to get saved or to get sober. Because any organization that will help you to get sober either through alcohol, abuse or drug abuse, I say praise the Lord if they can help you to get sober. But being sober is not the utopia of life, being saved is.

So if someone has got you sober, praise God for them! Now. I want to help you to get saved! And if you do come to the Lord Jesus Christ, you’re going to have a new identity and it is no longer going to be that of an alcoholic. Now. I don’t care what the organization tells you to get up and claim about yourself. If you are indeed a child of God, please do not call yourself an alcoholic because you are putting your identity in your one major weakness of your life. It’ll be like me getting up every week and saying hello, I’m Bob. I’m a critical spirit. And so you see that is not. That is not who I am or whatever, you’d want to, whatever handle, you’d want to lay on yourself. So folks, you see if you are truly a child of the living God, I don’t have any qualms at all as to what meetings you want to attend. But if you want to help somebody permanently, not temporarily, if you want to help somebody more than just getting them sober because the vast majority of the population of the United States is already sober and there in as big a mess as you are.

So if you want to truly help somebody permanently, then they’re going to have to come not to a tree or refrigerator, which is whatever God, whoever you might think it is, but you’re going to have to come to the only One who can give you what you don’t have. And that is life. And a tree can’t give you life. A refrigerator can’t give you life. Buddha can’t give you life and Muhammad cannot give you life. There’s only One source of life, and that is Christ Jesus, our Lord, the One who said, I am the way and the truth and the life and no man can come to the Father, except through Me. The One who claimed, I am the resurrection and the life. Now Buddha didn’t claim that neither did Muhammad, but only Christ Jesus alone, can give you what you don’t have. And that is life and a brand new identity and being a Jew can not give you that kind of spiritual identity, and yet we will latch onto that that I am Jew. Well, I’m Gentile so big deal. What is the difference? I mean, what is the big deal there? Because do not think that because you’re a Jew or a Gentile, a Baptist or Presbyterian or Methodist that you’re a child of God because you’re not. You’re a child of God when you have received Christ to as many as received Him, Jesus to them He gave the right to become what? A child of God. So you’re not a child of God because of physical birth. You’re a child of God because of spiritual birth, and please do not confuse those two things and don’t sit around thinking that because I was born into the Mormon faith or born into Jehovah’s Witness faith or born Into the Presbyterian or Methodist or Baptist, again or Jewish. It doesn’t make an ounce of difference that I am some kind of a spatial. So a person in the sight of God, you’re no more special than anyone else. And that what makes us special is that God desires that none should perish and all should come to repentance. So the specialness is of us is the fact that God desires me to be made whole. He desires me to be made his child.

And that’s for every person on the face of the earth Jew, Gentile slave and free. It doesn’t make an ounce of difference. And so, when we come to understand that, that’s what made me spatial before I was saved. God was seeking me out. God was looking for me. God was appearing to me. And what I mean by that is His Spirit was saying, come to Me, come to Me, come to Me. And I ignored that for a lot of years, but there finally came a time when I had to come to the end of this thing called Bob George. And come to the beginning of Him, which was life and the beginning a new identity. My new identity began the day I accepted Christ who that day became a child of God, and I didn’t understand the ramifications of that for many years because of the subtlety of the religious system that ignores the fact that you are a child of God and immediately, put some kind of a denominational label on you, and that’s what you call yourself.

And so, Bob, it is so subtle that we have to realize that Satan is extremely subtle. And Satan is extremely deceptive and when God says that we need the wisdom of God himself, and only Christ is our wisdom that we need to draw upon that. And to ask ourselves the question. Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going? Now those questions every person on the face of the Earth is going to wrestle with. And the answer is that what we adopt is going to determine the total direction of our lives.

So today, this search for identity will fall under the concept of self image. We call it self image and every person has some kind of an image of himself. It could be a healthy positive self-image, or it could be a poor negative one. But regardless of which it is, that self-image is going to determine his self-worth in this life, whether he’s a success or a failure.

We’re talking about this thing called a self-image. In other words. It’s your search for identity. And in this day and age, why that identity terminology falls under that concept of self image. But folks your identity or your self-image is what literally affects, for better or for worse, a person’s attitude and behavior toward others, and also circumstances of life that come your way. And with all that is at stake in regard to that it’s easy to see why people are in search of a good self-image. See, and of course, that’s very popular writing material is how to establish a good self-image and you have people who are positive thinkers and how to have a positive self-image. Well, I want to tell you back at my sales days and back before knowing Christ. Why, I had a relatively good self-image, but when I could get that boosted, why my sales increased and my relationships with people were better. There’s no question about it that if you have a positive outlook on life, you’re probably going to be a much happier person than when you have a negative one. And it isn’t so much a negative attitude toward life as it is a negative attitude towards yourself. That’s what makes you have a negative attitude toward life and you have a positive attitude toward yourself while you’re probably going to have a more positive attitude, attitude toward life. But then I get down to that is so w and either direction. So it makes you gain a little bit more money that you’re never satisfied with after you get it. So, you live in a little bigger house after you’ve lived in for two weeks, it’s just a place to come and hang your hat. So you really have to say to yourself. So, what, so you’ve made a little bit more money, made a few more friends. So, what you’re still going to die, you’re still going to age. You’re still going to do all of those things. So what good is it do for me? But will it ever bring you something like Joy or peace or patience or kindness or goodness, or long-suffering, because those things are the fruit of the Spirit. And even though I can go to the world, to get some happiness. I can also go to the world and get unhappiness. So there is a word unhappy, but there is no word unjoy, and because Joy comes from God, and happiness comes from circumstances or unhappiness comes from circumstances.

So we get down to this debate of learning how to develop this good self-image. Many psychologists and counselors, and unfortunately church leaders, believe that to develop a good self-image a person needs starts loving himself more. And how many times have we heard this? You, you need to love yourself more. Isn’t it strange that the psychological profession and counselors, and like I said, unfortunately church leaders in many instances, trying to tell people to love yourself more, when we see that, philosophically that this is totally contrary to the teaching of the word of God? Where Paul writes in second Timothy 3:2, that in the last days, men will be lovers of themselves. Now, if that was, if that was an admonishment, he wouldn’t be putting it that way in the last days are going to be terrible times. They are already terrible times. And indeed, we are lovers of ourselves.

What has taken place in this world, today is the number of years ago, under a president, and I’m not going to name. But they came out with human rights and all of a sudden everybody had human rights and that is being carried on today, in unbelievable proportions are ones that got our human rights. Well, if that’s all the world is, is just a bunch of human rights, is that not indeed, man loving himself, saying that? Anything I want to do is okay, and I want a right. And If I’m a homosexual and I want to adopt a kid and I want to bring him into that homosexual community, I’ve got a right to do that. And the world says, well, yes you do. And it doesn’t make any difference that I am made by God, a man, I want to be a woman, and I got a right to be one. So I go get a sex change and everybody says, oh, that’s okay. In other words. It has nothing to do with what benefit these things have to the overall population of the world. But as I said the other day that the paragraph is more than the sins, and the chapters more than the paragraphs, and the book is more than the chapters, and the library is more than a book, and all the books in the world are more than a library. There’s something more important folks in this world that you and me. My family is more important than me. I can’t sit down and say

I want to do, I want to do this. I want to go. I want to go have an affair. I got a right to do that, doesn’t make a difference where the family is going to be destroyed by it. Kids destroyed by it, doesn’t make an ounce of difference. I got a right to do that and before long I suppose it will be one of the human rights to that, and will happen. I have a right. I have a right to be happy and I’m not happy with this family relationship. Therefore, I’m going to go start another one. And so it doesn’t make any difference what kind of destruction something is being done to a family or to children. That’s irrelevant. I have a right to be happy and so human rights have become a god in America today and around the world today.

In America, we have more psychiatrist and psychologists than the entire population of the world combined. And, to me, it is only an indicator of people, totally preoccupied with themselves. Because that’s the reason that I need to go for that kind of counseling, is to find out what’s wrong with me, and why me, why me isn’t more happy? And why me is doing this, and it’s a me me, I mentality that has come about and has been fanned by every wave of doctrine that is contrary to the clear teaching of the word of God. And so we have become ego, I people and that’s what our, and that comes from this philosophy, or from the teaching of the word of God saying, then in the last days. And I certainly believe that we are, that men will be lovers of themselves. And all of these things are merely indicators of being a lover of ourselves.

I have a right to have healthcare now. Folks, don’t get me wrong. I’m not getting into political issues there, but I don’t have a right for anything. And when we’re sitting down, saying that I have a right for this and I have a right for this and I have a right for that, before long, what this country has an example is headed toward this the same philosophy of countries that are devastated today, communist Russia, socialistic England. They are bankrupt. They are at the taxes at are 60 and 70 percent, and that’s where we’re headed. That’s where we’re headed because I have a right for the government to pay for my medical bills. I’d have a right for the government to take care of me. I Have a right. Well, who’s the government? It’s bunch of you’s and me’s. And who’s going to be paying for that? Yous and Mes, but I have a right for it you see.

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.