Radio Broadcast Monday 09/26/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Law & Grace P04 (09-26-22)

Do We Really Believe it is Finished? Do You Believe Jesus Completed Forgiveness on the Cross for You?

~ Most people involved in Christianity are living like they are still in the desert, or worse, still in Egypt as a slave. They refuse to enter into the promised land by faith. Because they still have one foot in the law, and the other foot in grace, which is really not grace at all. They pretend that they are obeying the 10 commandments, and they know in their hearts they can’t obey them, so then they pretend that they try and obey them. They call God a liar by their very actions. They make a mockery of the cross. God tells us to enter into the New Covenant. Leave behind the old, and enter into the new today. Enter into the Promised Land for you!

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

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

Bob George 0:39
Now, that’s nothing new. It’s been going on since day one. And what we’re going to do is to take a look at the introduction of the law, as it was given to Israel. And as we talked about, that, that’s who the law was given to the Gentiles never were under that law. We just came along and picked up the clothes that God said to discard to the Hebrews so that they could put on the new cabinet. And we’ve gone and sought them out, picked them up out of the garbage can and brought them over and made our own Christian religion out of them, which is a commingling Law and Grace, which is what Paul talked about in the third chapter of Galatians. You foolish, idiotic, moronic, Galatians, who has hypnotized you and cast an evil spell upon you. And he asked the question, Did you receive the Spirit of God by obeying the law, or by believing what you heard? And after beginning by faith, in other words, believing what you heard, Why are you now trying to protect yourself a human effort? And so that’s what Christianity became, commingling Law and Grace, commingling the old covenant with new covenant, and it’s like trying to mix oil and water, it will not mix. And when you try to commingle those two, you become double minded. And the scriptures say that a double minded man is unstable, in all ways. You’re much better off being single minded. Man, I’m a legless from the word go, there isn’t such thing as Grace in my life. I’m a legalist. Or I’m a total gracer, and there is no law in my life. But you combine those two, and you’re going to be unstable, in all ways. Bob, the the statistics that I have heard from people, whether they’re right or wrong, I don’t know. But in many instances, I have heard people who are dealing in that arena, that 60% of the people who are in mental hospitals today receiving counseling for mental disturbances claim to be born again Christians. And you say, why would that be? When the Bible says grace will set you free truth will set you free, how could you be free and be in a mental hospital? I’ll tell you how to be a born again, Christian that was saved by grace and trying to live under the law, you become double minded and you’re unstable in all ways so when I see a person that is unstable, now the psychological community doesn’t call you unstable, that’s too simple. And you can’t charge 100 bucks or 200 bucks an hour on that one. So you call a manic depressive, a schizophrenic, multiple personalities, you can put all kinds of names on those things. But the root of each and every one of them is the fact you are unstable in all ways. And the Bible says that the reason you’re unstable is because of double mindedness. And what double mindedness is, is having one foot in the law and one foot in grace and trying to walk down the street, the only people I’ve ever seen who can successfully walk down both sides of the street at the same time is a drunk. And they do it about as successful as anyone I’ve seen. Outside of that, you’d better get on one side of the street to the other. But don’t try to straddle them, you’ll end up ripping yourself in two.

Now, in saying that, let’s go to what the law was, was for and take a closer look at this law. We started in our study in Exodus 19, three through five, when Moses went up to God, and the Lord called him from the mountain, and said, This is what you are to say to the house of Jacob, and what you are to tell the people of Israel, you yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagle’s wings and brought you to myself. And now if you obey Me fully, listen to this and keep my covenant then out of all nations, you will be my treasured possession. Now we will see that this was the law that was to give to Israel. He gave the illustration to them as what he did to Egypt. He said, If now if you obey Me fully keep my commandment or my covenant. There’s a byproduct out of all the nations. You are going to be my treasured possession.

Now we go on into Exodus 24, four through eight. Moses then wrote down everything the Lord had said, he got up early the next morning, and built an altar at the foot of the mountain, and set up 12 stone pillars representing the 12 tribes of Israel. And then he sent young Israelite men. And they offered burnt offerings and sacrificed young bulls as fellowship offerings to the Lord. And Moses took half of the blood and put it in bowls, and the other half he sprinkled on the altar. And then he took the book of the covenant, and he read it to the people. Now when he read that book of the covenant to the people, look how they responded, We will do everything the Lord has said, we will obey. Now, folks, the Israelites were not sitting there saying, Man, I gotta say something to con God. So let’s just go ahead and say well obey everything. They were sincere as a heart attack. They believe Lord, we can do this, Those 10 aren’t that tough. This covenant is not that big of a deal that we’ve made a covenant with. It’s saying that if you obey me fully, keep my covenant out of all the nations you’re gonna be my treasured possession. And, man, I can see why he had say that as neat as we are we we see why we’d be a treasured possession and obeying those that covenant everything that’s No, that’s no big deal. We’ll do it. And so saying, we’ll do it, Moses took the blood and he sprinkled it on the people. He said, This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you, in accordance with all of these words.

But I’d like to share an insight with with our listeners in regard to this thing called a covenant. A covenant relationship is something that we do not get involved in very much over and in our world today. But back in the olden days, and even in some other countries, why covenants are still extremely valid. Tribes of Indians would make covenants with one another blood covenants where there would be an offer and an acceptance, obviously, that would take place, you don’t have two countries that just kind of get together and just simultaneously just just come up with a cup that there’s an offer, it’s made, and I want peace with you, and the others, the other nation says, and I, sir, want peace with you. And so we have a covenant with each other a promise between one another there has been an offer, there’s been an acceptance, it could be a mutual, in other words, Bob, I could say I offer you my love forever. And you say, I accept that. And then you say to me, and Bob, I offer you my love forever. And I say and I accept that. That’s it’s not that it’s just a one sided deal. It’s it’s mutual. But there’s an offer and acceptance, and it’s always between two people. Now, when God said, I made a covenant, and he said, This is the covenant that I’m going to make with you. And he talked about the fact that if you fully keep My covenant than out of the nations, you’re going to be my treasured possession. And the acceptance was, we’ll do everything the Lord has said, we will obey. And it said, Moses then took the blood and sprinkled it on the people. Because the covenant has now been accepted. It’s been it’s offered and accepted and said, This is the blood of the covenant that the Lord has made with you, in accordance with all of these words. In other words, it consisted of a promise a word.

Bob, it’s the same type of a thing as the new covenant that we have entered in to today that we’ve talked about so often in Hebrews nine. It’s a new covenant. And it did not go into effect until the one who made it died. And the one who ushered in the New Covenant, of course, was Christ Jesus, and it did not go into effect until the day that he died. But it’s a new covenant that was prophesied in Jeremiah 31, when he said, The day is coming, declares the LORD will I’ll make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. So you had the old covenant that was made with Israel and you had the new covenant that was made with Israel. Now the difference between the two again with the new covenant offered to Israel was where Israel had to take off the old to put on the new to the Gentile that was never offered the old, he just said put on the new but in both cases, if you were naked and got a new set of clothes Are you had to take off the old set to get the do the ultimate result is you’re standing in new clothing in a New Covenant. Now that New Covenant Bob, is a covenant that ties into the fact that their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more. And where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins. Now, folks, what that means is very simply that prior to that time, there was a sacrifice for sins. When the law was ushered in, you had to have priests to represent people to God, you also had to develop sacrifices for the forgiveness of those people who did not do what they promised to do. And that was keep the covenant. So that’s how sacrifices had to enter in. And so he said, Now, there is no more sacrifice, there’s no more blood sacrifices, there’s no more blood of bulls and goats. There’s there it has been demolished as far as God is concerned, because it has been replaced by the one who did it once and for all. And that’s Christ Jesus, not a continual ongoing forgiveness, but a final forgiveness were their sins and lawless acts, I remember no more period, it’s done. It’s over. Forgiveness has been dealt with by God once and for all for all of humanity for all of time. And it’s finished. That’s why Jesus cried from the cross, It is finished, it’s because it is finished. Now, remember how Paul expressed it, that while we were yet enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, how much more having been reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. We were, once were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to God, through the death of his Son, we are saved by the life of his Son. But you know, in that reconciliation, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not counting our sins against them. And he said, We are ambassadors, this is a great message that we have to give to people, God was in Christ, reconciling you, my friend unto Himself, not counting your sins against them. That is an offer of the New Covenant. That’s not just an offer of forgiveness, that’s an offer of entering into a new covenant. This is what the New Covenant is their sins and all his acts, I’ll remember no more. God was in Christ reconciling you unto Himself, not counting your sins against you, it’s a new covenant. And then it goes ahead to say, I beseech you, I beg you, therefore, on Christ behalf because he’s the one who had to die to pull this off on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God, there’s the acceptance, and then says, Why for God was in Christ reconciling you and for God made Him who knew no sin, to be sin for you and me so that in him we could become the righteousness of God. So he tells us why. So folks, when you and I come to Christ, and not just for this temporary forgiveness, that’s a part of the Old Covenant. You see, there are many people call themselves Christians today that are still under the Old Covenant, they’re still going back for ongoing, sacrificial forgiveness. And he said, There is no more sacrifice. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness, and there is no more sacrifice for sins, which means there’s no more shedding of blood. So if there is no more shedding of blood, and without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness, then either forgiveness is over, or somebody lied, or you’re going to have to get forgiven without the shedding of blood, which from God’s vantage point is an impossibility.

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Bob George 14:05
So he’s saying to us very clearly, I want you to think more than just coming to get forgiven, you’re coming to enter into a new agreement between God and man, man, I’ve made a new agreement with you, here’s the agreement. And that is I was in Christ reconciling you unto myself not counting your sins against you. Now enter into that. Now what is entering into it? It’s entering into it by faith. What does that mean? It’s saying, Lord, I believe you. You made a covenant with me. And it’s interesting in that book of Hebrews where it says, that was given with an oath that was given with an oath from God. That’s God’s personal promise to you, my friends, I was in Christ reconciling you unto myself, not counting your sins against you. Now, I beseech you on Christ’s behalf, He died for you. I beseech you to be reconciled to God, enter into the covenant. We see Bob instead of evangelism, enabling people to enter into a covenant into a new agreement, letting them know this is what you’re entering into. We’ve pulled forgiveness out of the new covenant and just had it over here as a separate item that we enter into. And the reason we’re so feeble, many times in our understanding of what salvation is, is because we are dealing with these things separately, out here as separate little items. You’ve got forgiveness as a little item and you got reconciliation, and you got justification. And you got glorification, you got all those ations out there. And, and we’re dealing with them out there is just dangling into space, all of those things were encompassed in circled in this thing called the new agreement between God and man, he says, enter into that folks.

Now when I entered into forgiveness, and I’m going to talk about my first six to seven years as a Christian, because forgiveness was this thing dangling out here that I was keeping, trying to get all the time. But I finally came to a point in my life where I entered into the New Covenant. In other words, God said, Bob, I made a covenant with you. Now enter into that covenant, are you forgiven? Or aren’t you? now enter into it, I was in Christ reconciling you unto myself, not counting your sins against you. Now, I beseech you, be reconciled, enter into that agreement. And there came a point in time when I entered into that agreement, what does that mean, when you enter into an agreement where your sins and lawless acts I remembered Oh, more? it means God isn’t remembering my sins anymore. Now I say all I can say to that is, thanks be to God. But it also eliminates having to go back to the day of atonement to get forgiven over and over again, or first John 1:9, myself for the rest of my life to get forgiven over and over again, or go into a confession booth to get forgiven over and over again, or climbing upstairs on your knees in order to maybe sacrificially enough get forgiven over and over again, or whatever manmade thing that we come up with and enter into a brand new agreement, a covenant that has been established by God offered to you by God, and now accepted by you. And there’s many, many people who today are walking round who have never entered into the reality of the new covenant with God. When he said, it’s finished, your sins, your lawless acts, I remember no more, I have reconciled you now be reconciled. That’s entering into an offer. Folks, if you have a contract, there’s an offer and an acceptance. An offer alone does not constitute a contract. A covenant is an offer, and an acceptance. A covenant is not just an offer, it’s an offer to everyone. But it becomes a reality when it is received. It also is a reality when it’s rejected. I have rejected the offer, or I have accepted the offer, the offer is constant. But what I do with it is the variable.

And folks, you can continue living, begging God to do what he’s already accomplished, denying and spitting in the face, which is what Hebrews 6 and 10, those passages that Legolas constantly are using to try to say that when you sin, you’re losing salvation. And the verse itself is preaching to those people preaching that thing that you’ve never entered into the New Covenant. You’ve never entered in you’ve tasted but you’ve never entered into it. You’re acting religion, religious, but you are so far out the lunch, that it’s unbelievable. And what you need to do is accept what God has offered to you in a New Covenant. That is a covenant of grace that says, I’ve done it. Now enter into it, I beseech you, I beg you enter into my covenant with me, once you have entered into that covenant, but it never enters your mind again. Let’s see, oh, by God enter your mind, but it never stays there. To go out and try to obtain what you’ve already received. With a covenant or an offer contract, there is an offer and acceptance.

Well, I don’t know. This just gets more exciting all the time to me. So let’s go to Deuteronomy 6:20. In the future, it says, When your sons asked you, what is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and the laws the Lord our God has commanded you? Here’s your son, the Hebrew Hebrew boy asked his Hebrew father, what’s the meaning of these stipulations? What’s the meaning of these decrees? What’s the meaning of the laws the Lord, your God has commanded you when he said You tell him we were slaves a Pharaoh in Egypt, but The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. And before our eyes, the Lord sent miraculous signs and wonders Great and Terrible upon Egypt, and Pharaoh and his whole household. But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land that he promised, on oath to our forefathers.

The Lord commanded us to obey all these decrees, and to fear the Lord our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. And if look at this, folks, if we are careful to obey all this law before the Lord, our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness. So, folks, what was the way that you were going to be righteous in the old covenant? Obey all of the laws before the Lord your God, and you’ll be righteous. Was anyone righteous? No. Remember, it finally said, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. And that was the promise before the law was ever given. The law didn’t come in for some 400 and some years after that. And so that was that was before all of that took place. 430 years later, now the law came in. But the promise was still in effect, righteousness is by faith. But under the law, he said, If you obey, then you’ll be righteous. He gave the Law and they and the Israelites said will obey that will do it. It’s like God says, Okay, we’ll just see how you do. If you do not want to accept righteousness by faith, which is what I gave to Abraham, then I’ll give you the law. And let’s see how you do with the law.

Now, folks, as Romans 7:14 said, we know that the law is spiritual. But Paul said, I’m unspiritual sold as a slave to sin. And even though we were not slaves to Pharaoh, Pharaoh, what does this say we were slaves to? We were slaves to the law. And that was the picture Pharaoh was a picture of the law, you’re slaves to that. I believe that the Red Sea experience was a picture of being delivered delivered into a newness of life, free from the law, and then roamming in the desert for 40 years, fearful of entering into the promised land, that is a total picture of salvation. Pharaoh represents lost under the law. The Red Sea experience represents being delivered, delivered from the law into a free country. Roaming in the desert is what we do until we enter in to the Promised Land. What does it say for us to enter into? the Sabbath Rest. What’s entering into the Sabbath rest? Entering into the fact that God made an offer to me in a covenant, Bob, your sins and lawless act I remember no more. Where these have been forgiven. There’s no longer any sacrifice for sins. Are you willing to put aside your confession booth? Are you willing to put aside your 1st John 1:9 in order to get forgiven? Are you willing to put aside the sacrificial system, just no more blood of bulls and goats can ever take away your sin? Are you willing to put aside the idea that if my good works outweigh my bad that possibly I’ll be okay with God someday? Are you willing to put aside the idea that I may have sinned? And that’s probably worth a few hours of helping my fellow man and if I will go out and do that it was good deeds were then my sins will be forgiven? Are you willing to put aside that, and enter into this new covenant that I’ve offered you and rest? Rest from your works just as I have rested for my works? I said, it’s finished, I sat down at the right hand of the Father. And I said, it’s finished, it’s over. Now, I want you to rest, I want you to rest with me, I have finished my work in regard to dealing with your sins. Now I want you to rest in what I have finished in. That’s the Sabbath rest folks. There are many of you that have crossed the Red Sea, but you’re still in the desert. And you’ve never entered into that Sabbath rest that has been offered to you and me that’s entering in to that rest. You have never gone into the land of milk and honey. You’ve never entered into the promised land where you’re drinking from wells that you didn’t dig and eating from trees that you didn’t plant where you’re in there resting in completed work of Christ on your behalf. Instead of continuing trying to earn acceptance, you’re in there resting in that acceptance.

Doesn’t mean you’re not saved yet you’re just in a desert, as miserable as the Hebrews were in the desert. complaining because they had to eat manna every day, you’re chowing down on mediocre food. It’s not that he isn’t providing food for you, because he is it just mediocre. And friends want to tell you another thing. That’s another sign of roaming in the desert. You’re constantly looking for something. In the desert, you’re constantly looking for water, the living water that is only in the Promised Land, not that you’re not saved. You’re just not satisfied. You’re constantly looking for a new experience. You’re constantly looking for a new Christian hero to follow. You’re looking for someone who, who is number one with God who is especially anointed, above all people. And folks, that is a ridiculous terminology because all of us have been anointed with the same Holy Spirit of God. And God doesn’t have any heroes with some kind of spatial ability at all. That showbiz stuff. It has nothing to do with Christianity. But you’re always looking for that. So if I can be a follower of Oh, Joe Blow over there that got this spatial anointing from God, why, then maybe some of that anointing will splash off on me. And so we around talking about everybody being anointed, as if everybody was not from God already anointed. There is no hotlines to God, my friends, I don’t have any hotline to God any more than you have. If you’re in Christ, you have the same uplink to Christ that I do, or anybody else has in this world. There’s no heroes in God’s sight. Can you imagine anyone here in this flesh being important of being of God, God being impressed with? Like he said, Where were you when you made the hit when I made the hippopotamus? But when you’re in the desert, you’re constantly going to be looking for something. You’re saved. You’re in the desert, you’re not back in Pharaoh’s land. But many times you wish you were because in essence, you were happier. You know why? you were singleminded.

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.