Radio Broadcast Monday 03/18/2024

Classic Christianity – Book of Hebrews P80 (03-18-24)

Your Sins Have Been Forgiven (Past Tense)

~ It’s so important that we understand the timeline that we live in right now. We live after the cross. So when we read the word of God, we are talking about a future event that has already come to pass. That event was the cross that Jesus went to, where he who knew no sin, became the perfect sacrifice for us, and bore the sins of the entire world. And by the way, each of us is part of the world. And you have to ask the question, If Jesus didn’t forgive the sins of the entire world, then what makes any person sure that God forgave them their own sins? You can’t have it both ways. Either your sins were forgiven at the cross or they weren’t. Jesus didn’t forgive some sins and not others. And by the way, people that think their sins were forgiven the moment they placed faith in Jesus, then it becomes your faith that causes God to forgive you instead of what Jesus did on the cross, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. So a person that lives their life like this, has to jump through illogical hoops in the word of God to justify God’s forgiveness for some, and not others. No one causes God to forgive them. God doesn’t forgive a person when they ask for it, because that was all done at the cross. To properly put faith in action is to believe in what Jesus did at the cross. And we will be heading to the faith chapter in the book of Hebrews. But this is why most people are so confused by the book of Hebrews, and they listen to the lies of men, rather than the teaching of God. Our ways are not his ways. Pay attention to the details in the word of God. And there are lots of fake details being taught from the pulpits that are actually lies of Satan. So go back to basics. And if you feel like you are getting off course in your understanding, simply ask for wisdom from the Holy Spirit and he will explain All truth to you. Faith is properly responding to TRUTH. Read the word of God for yourself. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the original meanings of Greek and Hebrew words to you. You have all the tools at your disposal online too. You don’t need to go to seminary where the lies are taught to learn the meaning of the word of God.

The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said:

“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,
but a body you prepared for me;
with burnt offerings and sin offerings
you were not pleased.
Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll—
I have come to do your will, my God.’”

First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them”—though they were offered in accordance with the law. Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, and since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First he says:

“This is the covenant I will make with them
after that time, says the Lord.
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds.”

Then he adds:

“Their sins and lawless acts
I will remember no more.”

And where these have been forgiven, sacrifice for sin is no longer necessary. ^{Hebrews 10:1-18}

—–

~ “So let’s pick up in chapter 10. The law then, you said is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves. For this reason, it can never by the same sacrifices repeatedly endlessly, year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Now folks, there is the problem. When you have not finalized the cross, and in religion today, we have not finalized the cross. We say Jesus died for your sins and then play billy goat Christianity, but but but. He died for your sins, but you got to keep confessing them to get forgiven. He died for your sins, but you got to have an altar call in order to get forgiven. And it’s not but but so the Catholics are over yes, but let’s go to a confession booth and the Protestants over there yes, but No, we can go direct to get forgiven. And Christ is in heaven saying it’s finished. What in the world do you think I did at the cross, but to complete the work for you that you could never have completed on your own and sin has been dealt with once and for all. And so the shadow was merely the law was a shadow. It was not a reality. And as we talked about before, when the sun is behind me, I see a shadow. And it’s a reflection of me. That’s what the law was for it said the law was to look into the perfect law and to see yourself for what you are. And the law was given to us. It says in order for us to see our sinfulness so that we would turn to Christ for salvation. So when the sun is behind you, the reflection is a shadow of you and your sinfulness. The law has done its work. It showed me something about myself. When I turn and I face the sun, the shadow is behind me because I’m facing the sun. And so that is what the New Covenant enabled us to do was to turn from the shadow in order to turn to the sun. Where are we now our face to face with God in a relationship with a living God. So when you are still dealing with this sin issue, the law is there continually showing you of your sin and you’re still dealing with that issue. You will never be able to draw nearer to God in perfect worship. That’s an impossibility. Otherwise, would they not have been stopped. In other words, if that sacrifice would enable you to, for perfect worship, they could have stopped making the sacrifices, but they had to keep doing them over and over and over again. For the worshipers would have been cleansed once and for all and no one would have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins because it’s impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to do what? Take away sick, but did the bowl the the blood of bulls and goats cover sins? That’s atonement, but they could never take them away. covering them and not taking them away prohibited the worshiper from what? Ever going, being able to go into God’s presence in what? Perfect worship.” ~ 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
Let’s turn the book of Hebrews chapter 10. Remember, we’ve been talking about through the book of Hebrews, that is a whole book about the completeness of Christ Jesus. It’s interesting, as Amy and I have talked so many times that when you first become a Christian, I used to look at the book of Hebrews, and it was the most confusing book that there was, I couldn’t understand it. So I kind of ignored it. Today it’s the most exciting book in the Bible, I look at that. And I see it as the richest this book, the depths of its riches is beyond comprehension. And to be able to go continually into the book of Hebrews and see the depth of what God has done for us. And what we realized through this whole thing that the author of the book of Hebrews from the beginning to end was talking about the sufficiency of Christ Jesus, and it’s all him and none of us. And when we looked at that, and the more I kept looking at that, I, this idea came to my mind that it was not nails that held Jesus to the cross, it was love that held him. Aaron and them, they did a diagram on that. It’s the love of God that took him to the cross. It was the love of God that held him on the cross until his work was completed for you and me. And that’s what this whole deal is about. We talked about the fact that the dividing line of all human history was the cross. BC before Christ AD after the cross. And we talked about that, that from God’s vantage point, the very focal point was the cross of Jesus Christ, because it was at the cross, where the New Covenant went into effect, that a will does not go into effect until the one who made it dies, when they die, it goes into effect. So on the day that Christ died, the New Covenant, the new agreement between God and man went into effect on the day Christ died, the New Covenant, the new agreement between God and man. Now, prior to that time, the agreement God was dealing with man on the basis of the law. From the cross on, he is dealing with us on the basis of the grace of God. So a new covenant, a new agreement has taken place between God and man.

So let’s pick up in chapter 10. The law then, you said is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves. For this reason, it can never by the same sacrifices repeatedly endlessly, year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Now folks, there is the problem. When you have not finalized the cross, and in religion today, we have not finalized the cross. We say Jesus died for your sins and then play billy goat Christianity, but but but. He died for your sins, but you got to keep confessing them to get forgiven. He died for your sins, but you got to have an altar call in order to get forgiven. And it’s not but but so the Catholics are over yes, but let’s go to a confession booth and the Protestants over there yes, but No, we can go direct to get forgiven. And Christ is in heaven saying it’s finished. What in the world do you think I did at the cross, but to complete the work for you that you could never have completed on your own and sin has been dealt with once and for all. And so the shadow was merely the law was a shadow. It was not a reality. And as we talked about before, when the sun is behind me, I see a shadow. And it’s a reflection of me. That’s what the law was for it said the law was to look into the perfect law and to see yourself for what you are. And the law was given to us. It says in order for us to see our sinfulness so that we would turn to Christ for salvation. So when the sun is behind you, the reflection is a shadow of you and your sinfulness. The law has done its work. It showed me something about myself. When I turn and I face the sun, the shadow is behind me because I’m facing the sun. And so that is what the New Covenant enabled us to do was to turn from the shadow in order to turn to the sun. Where are we now our face to face with God in a relationship with a living God. So when you are still dealing with this sin issue, the law is there continually showing you of your sin and you’re still dealing with that issue. You will never be able to draw nearer to God in perfect worship. That’s an impossibility. Otherwise, would they not have been stopped. In other words, if that sacrifice would enable you to, for perfect worship, they could have stopped making the sacrifices, but they had to keep doing them over and over and over again. For the worshipers would have been cleansed once and for all and no one would have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins because it’s impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to do what? Take away sick, but did the bowl the the blood of bulls and goats cover sins? That’s atonement, but they could never take them away. covering them and not taking them away prohibited the worshiper from what? Ever going, being able to go into God’s presence in what? Perfect worship.

Now we talked about last week what worship is and it isn’t what you do in a service on Sunday. That is I Romans 12. I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies now a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable in the sight of God, which is your reasonable worship. Worship in the Old Testament was man trying to reach up to God, people are still trying to do that. Whereby in the New Testament worship is making your body available to the living God who gave his life for you, so that he could give it to you so that he could live it through you. And worship to God is making your body available to the living God who is living inside of you to live his life through you. That’s what worship is. And only a Christian can do that. And any heathen can demonstrate and do what we call worship today in Christianity. Any heathen can sing, praise, songs get teared up over them, put your arms up, put them down, stick them in your ears, who cares if you didn’t have arms. And all of those type of things all man made exterior things that we say is worship, any heathen can duplicate those things, but only a born again, Christian. Only someone truly indwelt by the living God can make his body available to a God who lives in them. How could you make your body available to someone who lived in you if they didn’t live in you? But if Christ Jesus is truly alive, living in you, which is your only hope of glory, that only we who are in Christ have the privilege of making our bodies available now to the God who lives in us to live his life through us. That’s worship in the New Testament. That’s why I said, I don’t care I’m not hung up on whether people what they do with their hands or with they don’t do anything with them, or whether they speak in English where they speak in Angel is irrelevant. If you didn’t have a tongue who would care. That’s exterior stuff. That’s manmade stuff. God looks on the heart, not on the outside, he isn’t looking, where our arms are he isn’t looking if our tongue is wagging, he’s looking at our hearts to see what’s going on down under the skin, where we live. And down under the skin, where we live is where God is living, can to conform us teach us renew our minds. And so what God is saying to us is the fact that he, as I mentioned, in the Old Testament, when people were trying to reach up to God, it tells you something about what was going on inside. And today. It’s the same thing. We’re taught those things. But the subtlety of it is unbelievable. How we get the idea that we’re reaching up to God, when God says he’s living inside of you. If you want to do something with your hands that was consistent with what has taken place in your heart, we ought to be clutching our hearts, if we want to do something with our hands. But just see if we’re still seeking, it’s because we haven’t found. If we’re still reaching is because we don’t understand he’s still in there, unless it’s just habit. You see what I’m talking about that our exterior is going to be a reflection of what’s going on inside. And because we don’t understand many times that Christ is ALIVE living in us Our hope of glory. We have to make these exterior deals to try to reach a God that obviously has not reached us, at least from our understanding. And that’s what the book of Hebrews is saying. Folks, the search is over. I’ve done it, it’s been completed. It’s all yours. And it’s a marvelous message of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Verse five. Therefore, when Christ came to the world, he said sacrifice and burned offerings you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me. We need to go to another thing. But a body you prepared for me with burned offerings and sin offerings, you were not pleased. Then he said, Here I am. It’s written about me in the scroll I’ve come to do Your will, Oh, God. First you said sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings, you did not desire nor were you pleased with them. Although the law required them to be made. It was under the law, but it wasn’t pleasing to you. Because why? They’re exterior and God looks on the heart. Then he said, Here I am, have come to do Your will. He sets aside the first to establish the second. What do you set aside? The Old Covenant, the law that was nailed to a cross with the Lord Jesus Christ, the rules and regulations that was against us, he nailed it to the cross. How come? So that we could serve a living God in a brand new way.

Now by this will, this brand new will and brand New Testament we have been made holy, through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. What is holy? Well it means set apart. It’s the same word is as the word sanctified it means set apart. Have you been set apart? Or are you being set apart? Which is it? You have been. If you have been then do you need to work at being? No, you just realize who you are you realize what’s happened to you now walk in it. How is the only way we walk in something it’s already been done for you? If something’s already been done for your house the only way you can walk in it? By faith. If I tell you I’ve dumped a million dollars in the bank and I’m god that never allowed to you what’s the only way you’re ever gonna enjoy your million? Just by faith go and check cash or check. Now if indeed that money was in there, how much sense would be to be going out the teller said hope please mr. Teller give my money? What would you do? Well, you just go write a check why? Because it’s yours and say thank you, Lord. Now that’s what he is saying to us that this is something that has been done for us, folks.

Now day after day, again, I’m gonna gonna compare day after day under the Old Covenant. And folks, this is not just under the Old Covenant that was done away with the problem is we in Christian Christendom have brought over our old Old Covenant. We brought our old our own rules and regulations over we’ve got our own little deals. As I said, last week, we we weren’t satisfied with a canning deal, where God cleansed the jar in order to fill it. And then he sealed that jar. And he called it God’s applesauce. We’re not willing to be called God’s little jar of applesauce, we want to put our own label on we will put Smuckers on there. We will put Baptists on there and Presbyterian on there and Methodists on there. And let’s advertise those names. Because if we can get people buying those names, we can put anything we want in that jar and poison people with it. And so we’ve settled for a secondary identity. And we’re just proud as punch to be walking around said I’m a Baptist, I’m a Catholic, I’m a Presbyterian, you look like one. Your identitie is in a false identity. Christ didn’t give you that identity. Christ gave you one identity, child of the living God. Still the identity, it’s a jar of applesauce made by God, not by some man stuff. We don’t like that identity. Now to put Smuckers on it, got to put Gerber’s on it. And then we can put our own brand of applesauce in there.

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Bob George 14:42
And folks, that’s what religion has done. It has come to this earth and perverted and distorted the true message of the gospel, which is is all Jesus and it’s none of you. I didn’t give you an identity a man made identity I gave you an identity from God Himself. The very moment that I stepped out of Adam into Christ, and Christ stepped out of heaven into me, he made me a child of the living God. And that’s who I am forever. And any of these other identities that I put on myself are totally secondary. And they’re all man made, and they don’t amount to a hill of beans. So God came and he told me that we’ve been made holy set apart by the sacrifice of Jesus once and for all. Now, again, comparison day after day, every priest stands and performs his religious duties again and again, he offers the same sacrifices, which can never what? Take away sins never can take them away. Cover them Yeah, take them away, No. But contrast. When this priest is offered for all time, one sacrifice for sins, what did he do? Well, he sat down at the right hand of God. And since that time, he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool. Look at this one, folks, because by one sacrifice, he has made perfect not only have we been made holy, we’ve been made perfect forever those who are being made holy, who’s being made holy, those who have been made holy. So you’ve been set apart by God, you’ve been made perfect in the sight of God by God. How do you enter into that? The only way you can when something’s already been done for you. By faith. It’s either believe it or call God a liar. People think they walk away from God because they sin. You don’t walk away from God because your sin otherwise none of us had ever knowing. I don’t think anyone in this room never say you’ve stopped sinning have you? You don’t walk away from God because you sin you walk away from God, when you forgive what refused to believe what he did in the midst of your sin. It’s the very thing when we fall away and let Satan come in and say, I’ll see you there, he didn’t like you anymore. You’re never gonna stop sinning if you understand what sin is from God’s vantage point. The Bible says that that which is not a faith is what? Sin. Wow and ask you a question is worry a sin? Can you worry and have faith the same time? How many of you out there have been a Christian for say, over 20 years? How many have you ever stopped worrying? How come? What are you? What are you been doing for 20 years? Persistent sinning. You’re not going to walk away from God because of what you do. What you do is what I stopped believing Christ and what he did in the midst of what I did. So if you’re going to grow in grace, my friend, you’re going to have to grow in grace by putting your faith in Christ and what He continually is doing in the midst of whatever you are continually doing. The very moment you take your eyes off of the provision of God, in the very moment, we can get God out there some place, he’s gotcha. The very moment that we can teach people that God’s hack that she’s got his back turned on you that is not true under New Testament, that is not true. Because of this New Covenant that took place where God ever turns his back on you and me. He made you perfect. It’s like turning your back on your body. How can I turn my back on my hands? My body is apart, my hands are part of my body. You can’t turn your back on your own body. And the minute that you can get people believing that type of thing, then you’ve got a person then saying now I’ve got to have to do something, do something, do something to to get back in graces with God. And the minute he’s you get into that mentality he’s gotcha. There’s only one way that we could walk and the fact that he made me forever perfect, not because I act perfect, not because I think perfect. But because he made me that way. And the only thing in a world and the only way in a world that I can continually enter into that is by faith. And that saying, Lord Jesus, thank you. I don’t understand this. Thank you. That is what draws you nearer to the love heart of God.

That’s what grace enables you to do. It is the grace of God, as Titus says, that teaches you to say no to unrighteousness. It’s not the law of God. The power of sin is in the law. Keep person under the law, you keep them under the power of sin. The grace of God is what teaches you to say no to unrighteousness because it’s the grace of God that keeps pulling it to a God of love. It’s the grace of God as the prodigal sons wallow with a pig’s that says, my father’s servants are living better than me. Father didn’t lay a law down on him. Said whenever you’re tired of the pigs come home. And the son returned home with the grace of God the full knowledge my father would accept me. Had his little forgiveness speeches little First John one nine planned gotta go back home first John one nine dad that never gave him a chance to came out and hugged him and kissed him, took him in and put a robe on him, had a party for him, never gave the son a chance to give his little speech. Because the forgiveness toward the Son from the Father was not predicated on what his son said to the Father. It was predicated upon the heart of the Father for the son. This whole thing is what God has done, not what you and I do.

Now it says the Holy Spirit also testifies about this to us. He says, This is the new cabinet that I will make with them. I’ll put my laws in our hearts, I’ll write them on my minds, he adds their sins and lawless acts, I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, there’s no longer any sacrifice for sins. If you’re not going to accept the forgiveness of Christ Jesus once and for all, not on and on. If there was Christ was forgiving you today and then forgiving you tomorrow, and you’re talking about no different than an Old Testament sacrificial system. Jesus Christ it says was today, forever interceding on our behalf. What’s he interceding for? Because of the accuser. The accuser zooming up saying you see what, Bob just did? And Jesus saying, Satan, did you see what I did? Or didn’t you see that sin Bob just committed? Didn’t you just see the depth that I died for? bed before Did you see what how much I’m doing for the church? Did you see how much I did a Calvary? It’s all Jesus, all interceding on our behalf. We’re walking by faith in His provision. And not ours. There is no longer any sacrifice for sin, if there was any further sacrifice to be executed, if there was any further forgiveness to be executed on your behalf. If without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. What would he have to do? He’d have to die again. Is he gonna do that? What do you conclude? By that one offering He did it all. Now it says in Second Corinthians, all of this is from God, all of it. It doesn’t leave anything for us, does it? If all of us from God, how much does that leave for us to do? Nothing. Who reconciled, past tense us to Himself through Christ and He gave us this ministry of reconciliation that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not counting men’s sins against them. He’s committed to us this message of reconciliation. That’s a message of a Christian to a lost person. The message of a Christian to a lost person is how can get your sins forgiven… That’s not the message. It’s not that if you don’t get your life cleaned up, God’s gonna zap you boy. That’s not the message. That’s not true. The message that God gave on to us, is God in Christ, reconciling you unto Himself, not counting your sins against you. That’s why we’re called Christ ambassador. An ambassador is someone who represents another kingdom. If I was an ambassador to France, my job would not be to go into France and try to moralize the French. It would not be to go into France and pick it Moulin Rouge. It would not be my job to go in and try to bring morality to those drinking Frenchmen. My job would be to go into France and represent the United States of America to be an ambassador and represent my country. The Bible tells you and me that our citizenship is where? It is in heaven. That’s why he calls us an ambassador. If our citizenship was here, he couldn’t call you an ambassador. Our citizenship is in heaven.

We are an ambassador in a foreign land in the world but not of the world. And the job of our ambassadors to represent another kingdom. And the kingdom that we represent is the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God. That up peered in the form of Jesus Christ on this earth who came to the earth to say, through this one act on the cross. I’m gonna make people perfect in the sight of God, not because of what they’ve done, but because of what I do. And our job is letting people know that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not counting your sins against you. When was that true? Well, the Bible tells us when we were yet enemies that’s lost. We were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more having been reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. You’re not saved by the death of Christ, you’re saved for the life of Christ. The wages of sin is death, and the gift of God is life. I came that you might have life because you’re dead. When you were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave HOW MANY OF YOUR SINS? All of them. It’s amazing to me how we can say I understand this and then turn right around and tell people first John one nine is for the Christian if you confess, we’ll forgive you when he already said already have. That’s total double talk. It’s the very thing that negates and strips Jesus of the fullness of the cross is double talk. It says a double minded man is unstable in all ways. And it makes Christians unstable. But the reason that that is not taught is because we’re scared to death from the pulpit or from teachers to tell people that all of your sins are forgiven. Why? Because most of us have never progressed to their understanding of salvation beyond getting their sins forgiven. If Christ is ALIVE, living in you, that’s an insult to God to say that a Christ living in me is going to lead me to a life a lasciviousness, that Christ alive, coming to live in you, Bob, it is gonna give you a license to sin, as if I needed a license to sin I don’t know about you, I sin quite well, without a license.

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.