Radio Broadcast Monday 05/20/2024

Classic Christianity – Book of Hebrews P107 (05-20-24)

Understanding Law and Grace Truth and The Lies of Satan

~ Today, many many folks have believed the lies of Satan, even within the body of believers. For many of us have camped out on the lies of Satan for law keeping, or ongoing forgiveness, or getting your sins forgiven to begin with, that it is difficult to break free of the brainwashing. We have been sold a bill of goods by many of Satan’s false teachers of righteousness. And think not that you yourself can’t be deceived into believing certain lies of Satan, even within the true church itself. For all of us have trusted in the teaching of man rather than God in various areas. And no one is immune to the deceptions of Satan. We have heard testimonials from people that when having heard (many times for the first time), that all their sins were forgiven at the cross, they discount it as it can’t be, because they would say things like “that would mean everyone is saved” or even thought of people that teach this TRUTH from the word of God, and thought of them as heretics. They will still insist that they got their sins forgiven when they came to Jesus, even though scripture clearly teaches “that without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” Hebrews 9:22. They have not exercised faith in that area of God’s word. They bought into the lie of Satan, that salvation is getting your sins forgiven. But they don’t pay attention to the details in the word of God, that Salvation is LIFE, from the dead. Yet the Holy Spirit keeps saying to them, keep listening. And it has happened to all of us, in different areas of scripture, we haven’t paid close enough attention to the details. And folks, that is where God’s discipline comes into play. His discipline feels very uncomfortable at the time when He is teaching you TRUTH, especially in an area of God’s word where we have believed the lies of Man, instead of trusting in the truth of the word of God. It’s similar to the story of Jonah preaching to Nineveh and He knows God is going to turn away His anger from them if he preaches to them. And Johah actually gets angry at God for this. And sure enough, God did spare that generation of Ninevites. And we read at the end of the story that Jonah goes out of the city to watch what would happen, and Jonah is sulking, under a tree for shade to watch, and then God causes the tree to wither and die. And now Jonah is sitting in the bright SUN, being totally exposed. That’s how discipline feels. It feels very very uncomfortable at the time. It bothers us. The flesh rebels against it. The flesh is telling you, “don’t confuse me with TRUTH, I am going to believe what I believe no matter what you say, or what the word of God says.” And thus we ALL have been exposed by the bright SON of GOD. Truth is Truth whether you like it or not. Truth is Not dependent on what you say it is or isn’t. We have ALL felt uncomfortable about God’s discipline. Jonah wasn’t the first, and he isn’t the last to feel God’s discipline on them. And that is as it should be, because when we, who are in Christ Jesus and are the sons of God, we are disciplined for our good! Praise God for His discipline on you.

~ Jonah’s Anger at the LORD’s Compassion

Jonah, however, was greatly displeased, and he became angry. So he prayed to the LORD, saying, “O LORD, is this not what I said while I was still in my own country? This is why I was so quick to flee toward Tarshish. I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion—One who relents from sending disaster. And now, O LORD, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.”

But the LORD replied, “Have you any right to be angry?”

Then Jonah left the city and sat down east of it, where he made himself a shelter and sat in its shade to see what would happen to the city. So the LORD God appointed a vine, and it grew up to provide shade over Jonah’s head to ease his discomfort, and Jonah was greatly pleased with the plant.

When dawn came the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant so that it withered.

As the sun was rising, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he grew faint and wished to die, saying, “It is better for me to die than to live.”

Then God asked Jonah, “Have you any right to be angry about the plant?”

“I do,” he replied. “I am angry enough to die!”

But the LORD said, “You cared about the plant, which you neither tended nor made grow. It sprang up in a night and perished in a night. So should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left, and many cattle as well?”

~ Hebrews 12:1-12

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with endurance the race set out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons:

“My son, do not take lightly the discipline of the Lord,
and do not lose heart when He rebukes you.

For the Lord disciplines the one He loves,
and He chastises every son He receives.”

Endure suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? If you do not experience discipline like everyone else, then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. Furthermore, we have all had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Should we not much more submit to the Father of our spirits and live?

Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness. No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it.

Therefore strengthen your limp hands and weak knees. Make straight paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed. ^{Hebrews 12:1-12}

Pray to God:

“Lord Jesus, teach me the truth of the world today and give me the wisdom to know the truth and identify the lies of the devil. Thank you God.”

~ “Now let me go back, the law plus punishment equals bondage. But the law without punishment equals a license. And grace plus discipline will bring freedom and Grace without discipline will put you right back into bondage. You see, people come and say I love this grace. But I don’t want to be disciplined by the Lord. I don’t want my mind to be renewed. I want to know which is just the greatest news I want to know I’m free. Man, I like that I want to know that there’s no condemnation waiting me who belong to Christ Jesus. That’s marvelous, wonderful. I want to know that I’m a joint heir with Jesus Christ. I want to know that there’s no there’s nothing I can do that will ever separate me from the love of God. I want to know all those things and that is really neat. But I don’t want the Lord to discipline me and to tell me how I should be thinking as a result of those things. Now what the Christian world has done is forgot to teach people their identity. And so I don’t know who I am and just teach you human behavior. So if ever got you behave, and you wouldn’t know who it was it was doing it. Are you behaving? Yeah, who are you? I don’t know. So you don’t know who it is, it’s behaving. But I’m assuming when I’m talking to this group here, that I’m talking to people who know who they are in Christ, if you don’t, you should now and understand your identity in the Lord Jesus Christ, that you’re a child of the living God, redeemed by his blood, preserved by his blood, sustained by his blood, you are in Christ, and Christ is in you, and you literally possess the life of the living God living in. So I’m assuming we know that. Now, if we know that, then the other issue is, is that grace? Yes, that is grace. Is that where it stops? No, that isn’t where it stops. Doesn’t it say that it is the grace of God that teaches you and me to say no to unrighteousness? And that what it says the grace of God teaches you? And it says in here, that No discipline seems pleasant at the time that it’s painful later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. What are we trained by? Well, you’re trained by the loving discipline that comes from God.” ~ 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 0:27
Now at the beginning of chapter 12, that’s where he’s saying, run this race with perseverance, run it. Keep our eyes and verse two fixed on Jesus. And that’s not visualizing some what he looked like, who is the author and perfecter of our faith. It’s to keep looking toward the sufficiency of the Lord Jesus Christ. The one who said Greater is he that’s in you, that is in the world, keep trusting the Lord with perseverance. Not giving up when things aren’t going, you’re in my way. He’s the author. He’s the perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the throne of God, he trusted the Lord Jesus Christ trusted his own father, Father, not my will, but Thine be done, carried out the act of God that was in the mind of God before any of this occurred, and went to a cross hung in there on the cross, like I said, spikes did not hold Jesus to the cross, love held him there and stayed there until such time that the world’s sin went upon him and he who knew no sin became sin for you and may so that through that transaction and being raised from the dead you and I can live today. So the this scorn that the trial, the tribulation, the suffering that he went through, was for the good and the benefit of others, which is a far cry from the selfish desires that we have, isn’t it that look out after number one, and forget about everybody else. That’s what he keeps trying to tell us constantly in regard to this Christian life, you and I are a body, we’re in the body of Christ, he is the head, you’re a part of the body, you’re a part of the body, you’re a part of the body, you’re a part of the body, we belong to one another. And if a body if we truly are a body, I see that my body is more than this finger. Now, this important fingers important, but it’s only a piece of the body, and it’s there to serve the rest of the body. And when you and I see that we have been called by God to be a part of this body, it means there’s something more important than me. And that is for the good of the body. And do we want to serve the body? Or do we want to just serve the desires of our own flesh? Now the flesh says serve me, bring me convenience, let me be happy, let me be noticed, let me be me. I me, me and I. And to serve means close look at others interests over and above that of ourselves. And that is where it takes discipline, folks, two options. The law, you cannot have the law without punishment. The law has no meaning at all does it without punishment. Drive 55 sign had that lot means nothing if you don’t get a ticket for going 65. So the law plus punishment, however, means bondage to you. There is no freedom there. It’s bondage. It’s what you have to do when the flesh has a tendency to go out of control. It’s what you have to do in a society to keep it from killing itself. The Lord came up with a deal An eye for an eye on a tooth for a tooth and we sound and we have think oh, that’s harsh. No, that is harsh. That’s what keeps humanity in check. Because we don’t go an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. You hit many I’ll rip your head off. I don’t want your eye, I want your head. You see an eye for an eye, you flirt with my girlfriend. I’ll flirt with yours. That’s an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Does man go along with that? Oh no, you flirt with mine, I’ll shoot you. You do some out like a burn down your city. That’s why you have to have laws to curtail this unbelievable flesh of ours. That’s never satisfied with an eye for an eye. It’s always I’m gonna get more, I’m gonna get my pound of flesh. And so we have to understand that law plus punishment, even though a necessity to those out of Christ law plus punishment equals bondage. We also need to understand that grace plus discipline is what equals freedom. Grace without discipline put you right back to the same bondage of law plus punishment. The law without punishment equals a license.

Now let me go back the law plus punishment equals bondage. But the law without punishment equals a license. And grace plus discipline will bring freedom and Grace without discipline will put you right back into bondage. You see, people come and say I love this grace. But I don’t want to be disciplined by the Lord. I don’t want my mind to be renewed. I want to know which is just the greatest news I want to know I’m free. Man, I like that I want to know that there’s no condemnation waiting me who belong to Christ Jesus. That’s marvelous, wonderful. I want to know that I’m a joint heir with Jesus Christ. I want to know that there’s no there’s nothing I can do that will ever separate me from the love of God. I want to know all those things and that is really neat. But I don’t want the Lord to discipline me and to tell me how I should be thinking as a result of those things. Now what the Christian world has done is forgot to teach people their identity. And so I don’t know who I am and just teach you human behavior. So if ever got you behave, and you wouldn’t know who it was it was doing it. Are you behaving? Yeah, who are you? I don’t know. So you don’t know who it is, it’s behaving. But I’m assuming when I’m talking to this group here, that I’m talking to people who know who they are in Christ, if you don’t, you should now and understand your identity in the Lord Jesus Christ, that you’re a child of the living God, redeemed by his blood, preserved by his blood, sustained by his blood, you are in Christ, and Christ is in you, and you literally possess the life of the living God living in. So I’m assuming we know that. Now, if we know that, then the other issue is, is that grace? Yes, that is grace. Is that where it stops? No, that isn’t where it stops. Doesn’t it say that it is the grace of God that teaches you and me to say no to unrighteousness? And that what it says the grace of God teaches you? And it says in here, that No discipline seems pleasant at the time that it’s painful later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it. What are we trained by? Well, you’re trained by the loving discipline that comes from God.

Now, again, where it says in here, and in verse nine, moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them for that. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits, and live? Folks, when it talks about that our fathers discipled us for a little while as they thought best and sometimes they would have they thought best wasn’t best. That’s human discipline, that many times spells itself out in punishment. But here’s the but God disciplines us, for us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness. Now, folks, punishment is always an act, an act of retaliation backwards for something that you have done that’s being punished. There is no punishment for you, who are in Christ Jesus. There is no punishment for you who are in Christ Jesus, do you all understand that? Why? Because the law of the Spirit of Life, The wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is like God’s punishment on sin was what? Death, the law of the Spirit of Life set me free from that law of sin and death. There is no condemnation awaiting you who belong to Christ Jesus. So understanding that there’s no punishment, we then understand that when God then it’s in the act of disciplining you and me, it is for our good. And the reason for it is so that we can share in His holiness. And all that means is that we can share in being set apart by the very mind of God that we possess. In other words, it’s to be able to think like God and that is what he is interested in is getting you and me who possess the Spirit of God, enabling us to understand spiritual things. It’s what enables us now to begin to have the mind of Christ and to begin to think like Christ. Now, once again, if I am thinking that everything ought to be going really good for me, because I’m in Christ, am I thinking with the mind of God? Are you or not? No, how come? Well, God didn’t say that. Does man say that? So who are we thinking like? What’s that gonna do to you? What’s that kind of thinking going to do to you? Well, that’s gonna keep you in despair. And do you want freedom? Yes, I want freedom. So Grace, and understanding the grace of God. That coupled with a discipline upon our minds is what’s going to produce freedom. That is why it says truth set you what? Free. We talk about a free country. This country will only be free whenever they get back to truth. Pussyfoot around, politicians. When do they pussyfoot around? Every time they open their mouth. Watch my lips because it’s more important to get elected than it is to tell truth.

Sit down in this day and age and it’s not one sin is any worse than another. But you sit down, and you’ve got on the books in Texas where sodomy is a crime. And so you have a deal as to whether or not people engaged in a crime ought to be on the police force or not. And they say, yeah, let them on. Let them on. It’s a crime but let a criminal go on the police force.

It’s time that people as an example, in regard to these issues that are taking place for people to be able to stand up and say, I’m tired. I am sick and tired of being conned by the opinions of the world. Homosexuality is NOT a sickness, it is not a people. It is a sin. It’s a sin that Christ died for. Christ loves the sinner. He died for the sinner. But don’t rationalize the act as being a sickness. It is not. It is a sin. People get up and say I demand to be in the army. Or I’ve demand this near that’s not the only group demanding I demand this and we pussyfoot around the issue. It’s time to get up and say you don’t have any right to demand anything because of the way in which you like to have sex. And like the guys on our staff said, if it wasn’t for sex, why would you want to be homosexual? I mean, why would you I mean, what is their if it isn’t that? So does that give you a right to walk around and say we you know, these people, this group of people, we like to have sex this way we hadn’t like hairy better than Mary. And so, and we demand some rights because this way we like to have sex folks. Don’t complicate this issue. And if we will, if you want me to get more dramatic and more precise, I can. So don’t complicate this issue with a bunch of gobbly gook. It is a sin of man.

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Bob George 14:41
I say why don’t all of the adulterers get together and say I demand some rights? I mean there’s a bunch of them out there. Why don’t all him get together and demand the rights? How come? Why just had like to have you know done the come I was born that way. But don’t blame me. You may be able to get by with that with the media, I’ll guarantee you’re not gonna get by with your wife. But you see what we’ve done, folks, the grace of God, this freedom that we say we have in this nation isn’t any different than then we have in individual’s, there is no freedom without discipline. You can’t have Grace, God shed his grace on me on he did. But we’ve stopped discipline. And I’m not talking about gutting it out from God I’m talking about we’ve stopped the discipline of hanging on to truth as to what God said was true. And we bought the lie, whatever you have, the harebrained idea comes down the line is truth. And we have let the psychological profession come in and convince everybody that there’s medical names to everything. And instead of having been a fearful person, you’re now an agoraphobic. And if I can put a name on it like that, then with a name like and it’s got to be bad. And so I can put any name that I want on it, and therefore treat it any way I want to. Jesus called it fear. And he said, Fear not. Nothing unusual that you have in fear. There’s nothing at all unusual about any of you having fear, there’s anything unusual about me having fear, I’m full of them, aren’t you? And fear will control your life can cause you to do all kinds of things, cause you to run for help in places that aren’t there to help. It’s what runs you fear runs your right into the lure that is built on deception. Not unusual. Don’t need to go to a counselor because I’m fearful. He said you’re going to be fearful. That’s why I said Fear not I’ve overcome the world. That’s why he said don’t be anxious, fearful about anything. Cast all your fears, your cares upon me, because I care about you constantly through the Scripture, fear is discussed not as something unusual, something very usual. Quite frankly, in this world in which we live today. How in the world could you not be experiencing fear when you’re almost afraid to walk out of your house anymore? Now the only counteractant to fear is not to try to get rid of fear. It’s to latch on to perfect love which casts away what? All fear. And the only way in the world that I can ever escape anxiety, fear, worry. Is the discipline upon my mind to say, hear the words of the Lord Jesus. Fear not Bob. Fear not, I have overcome the world. Cast your fears and your cares upon me. I care about you. Look at the flowers out there. Are they toiling? No. Solomon in all his glory was not dressed like them. Why are you worrying? Oh, ye of little faith. The birds? Are they out there toiling? No, no, I feed them. Trust me, oh, ye of little faith. What he’s saying to us is very simply turn back to Me. Turn Back to Me.

Quit buying the lie of the world. Now, folks, is it easy for you and me to be duped into the lies of the world? It is so easy because many times folks, we spend so much more time listening to the world than we do to God. And in this day and age of the boob tube and radio and everything else. I tell you, we’re being bombarded from one end to the other with worldly philosophy, aren’t we? And constantly it’s the world it creating fear. I mean, how I mean, what would you feel like if you turned on the 10 O’Clock News and said, Good evening. We want to tell you some wonderful stories about this couple over here whose marriage was restored, they’re getting along great. And little Johnny Brown over there, out there and over there in Irving, Texas, just got straight A’s when a kid you know what, everybody turn that off and nobody’s sponsor it. That’s not exciting. So everything you hear is out there to create fear, the bad things that are happening, the fearful things that are happening, and it’s fanning fear all over the place, all over the place. And God says My love is the only counteract into that fear. And that’s what this discipline is about. It says our father disciplines for a while as they thought best but God is disciplining you and me for our good so that we may share in His holiness meaning in his set apartness, to share in the fact that I can think different thoughts than the world to be able to understand the truth of the fact that though the world world may be sitting out there thinking one way, I don’t have to think that way. And that’s where grace plus discipline is what equals true freedom. Grace is not just as it says, don’t use your freedom to indulge the flesh, the flesh never changes. The flesh always wants its own way. Is that true or not? Your flesh is always being corrupted, we are taught, you’re taught in Ephesians, you were taught in regard to your former way of life to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires. Romans seven, I know that nothing good lives in me that is in my flesh, for I have the desire to do what’s good, I can’t carry it out. James talks about it. If you harbor bitter envy, selfish ambition in your hearts don’t boast about it or deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from heaven, but it’s earthly. It’s unspiritual, it’s of the devil. For where you have envy, selfish ambition, there you find disorder, and every evil practice. Now folks, the world encourages selfish ambition. It encourages disorder. It encourages all of those type of things, because selfish ambition will bring about evil practices in our lives. That ambition that I’m going to get ahead, we practice the old Golden Rule Do unto others before others do unto you. And if I look out, after all a show number one here who’s going to so I got to take care of myself, which is the very opposite of what God said that you belong to one another. And therefore don’t think more highly of yourself than you ought, but look out over others interests over and above that of your own. In marriage, it’s the same type of a thing is looking out after the interest of one another over and above that of your own. And you can’t do that when you’re sitting around feeling sorry for ourselves, and acting like we’re abused. It’s the type of thing in our lives where there’s an attitude of servitude and you can’t have a servant’s spirit where after you do something for someone, you resent doing it. That’s not a servant spirit. That’s gutting it out for God or functioning out of fear that if I don’t do something, there’s going to be retaliation. Or if I don’t do something, I’m not going to get this but a true heart of a servant is you do something, and you forget it. Forget it. Because you’ve helped someone else. Flesh always wants its own way. It says what causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? Folks, how many of you have desires and battle within you? See your hands? How many of you all I guess you know, liars in here? Do we all have desires that battle within us? Anybody that misses that? Do you ever find yourself sometimes saying Man, how yucky can I get? I mean, Lord did you see what I just thought? I’m sure it did. Here I am wanting my own way selfish, selfish ambitions. What my own way feeling sorry for myself, Woe is me. I’m so mistreated. Little slave had to pick up my husband’s underwear once again. I had to go out and work and earn a living once again. What would anyone do without me? Desires constantly battling within us, aren’t they? All kinds of things battling within us. Who keeps that going? Who’s the originator of all those thoughts? Is it God? I mean, folks, if if we’re going to say that, that God wants to renew my mind that thoughts gonna have to come from without mature in within me. I mean, anything within me creating godly thoughts.

And by the same token, we’re going to have to realize there’s another source out there called satanic force, and satanic influence that, quite frankly, has dominated the world so that everything we get whether it’s TVs, billboards, school, whatever it might be, is influenced by that influence. And that’s constantly pumping into our heads. And that’s the discipline that it’s talking about in the Word of God that I’m either going to buy that stuff and be influenced by it or I’m gonna buy truth and be influenced by that. So it says these things battle within us you want something and you don’t get it. You ever done that? You kill, you covet, but you can’t get what you want. So you quarrel and you fight. How can we get in fights and quarrels? We don’t get what we want. And many times in marriage, have you ever noticed how subtle those things are? Have you ever gone back and tried to remember what you argued about last week? I mean, in it to me, it’s just it’s, it would be a great comedy routine. Because number one, you have to really think about it. And number two, when you do it’s pretty hilarious, dumb, idiotic little stuff. What it what it come from? I want my way. I want them away and didn’t get it. I want you to love me the way I want you to love me.

I can remember a number of years ago when Amy and I were having to be disciplined by the Lord. And as everyone does in marriage and here, we’re sitting there thinking, while neither one of us loved each other. And so Amy, she’s a doer. When she when she loves you then she wants to do something for you. And so she would do things sometimes shine my shoes. Some sometimes do this, cook a good meal or whatever it might be that was how she showed me that she loved me. Well to me, I’m more of a hugger. So if if I love somebody well I want to hug you. So here was a hugger and a doer together. And so she was saying you don’t love me all you want to do is hug me. I said well you will love me all you want to do shine my shoes, man I’m good I get a shoeshine boy do that. He doesn’t don’t even have cold feet. And so so. So here we are arguing with each other over the way we love each other. Have you ever done that? Well, what is that all about? Well, it’s somebody that is saying I want you to love me the way I want you to love me.

Announcer 27:11
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