Radio Broadcast Monday 10/03/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Law & Grace P07 (10-03-22)

When You Place Faith in Christ, He is Credited to You as Righteousness ~ Rest Today in His Righteousness!

~ And so and by faith, Israel was saved. They weren’t saved through the law. They were saved by faith. Moses, believed God that was credited to him his righteousness. The Israelites believed Moses, and followed him over into the desert by faith and faith alone. So that’s an interesting thing, isn’t it that that here, even the Israelites were saved by faith, not by the law, but by faith. Now, then the Israelites in the desert, wanted some law. And so God said, Well, okay, I’ll get I’ll give you some law. And then we talked about last week about what the stringency of that law is, here it is, and I’m commanding you to keep all of it, every single bit of it, and the response from the Israelite was, we will do it, Lord. In other words, don’t worry about us, we will do it.

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
You know, last week was probably as an exciting week for me as I’ve had in a long time, as we were able to, once again just pull out of Scripture, not only the purpose of the law, but to to see that the entire purpose of all of this the teaching of what was taking place in God’s economy prior to the law, what was taking place under the law, and what is now supposed to be taking place when we’ve been freed from the law. And that is to be able to enter into that Sabbath rest that God has prepared for it. Yes. And last week, we saw how that God used Moses to lead the Israelites out of the bondage of Egypt, into the desert. And that really amounts to salvation. And that was that you see prior to, to that event, which was followed by God giving the law to Moses to give to the people in the desert, yes. But it’s a picture of of salvation, which Abraham had pronounced that we that all men will be declared righteous, by their faith in God. But you see, that’s really how they were saved from the bondage of Egypt into the desert was by faith, Abraham, excuse me, Abraham had said, that’s the Abrahamic covenant, that’s the just shall live by faith. Moses believed God when He said, cross over the sea. I mean, you can imagine, say, crossover what!, I don’t have a boat. He said, Don’t worry about that. I’m going to split it. And so and by faith, Israel was saved. They weren’t saved through the law. They were saved by faith. Moses, believed God that was credited to him his righteousness. The Israelites believed Moses, and followed him over into the desert by faith and faith alone. So that’s an interesting thing, isn’t it that that here, even the Israelites were saved by faith, not by the law, but by faith. Now, then the Israelites in the desert, wanted some law. And so God said, Well, okay, I’ll get I’ll give you some law. And then we talked about last week about what the stringency of that law is, here it is, and I’m commanding you to keep all of it, every single bit of it, and the response from the Israelite was, we will do it, Lord. In other words, don’t worry about us, we will do it.

Now, the emphasis of the lesson last week was this. With everything that God does, there is an initiation that requires a response, not a work, a response. When the New Covenant was offered, there was an offer. And there’s a response. When the law was offered, there was the offer, here’s the law, here’s the righteous demands of it. And that required a response and the response from the Israelites were, we will do it, we’ll do it. Now, they were unable to do it. And Paul explained that later, in the book of Romans, and Galatians, a real emphasis in those two books, that there was nothing wrong with the law, the law is holy and good. But Paul said, when it flows through my sinful nature, it killed me. So there’s nothing wrong with the law. It’s holy, and it’s good. The problem with the law is, we cannot keep it. And in the book of Hebrews, it deals with that, that under the Old Covenant, that he found fault with the people, he didn’t find fault with his covenant at all. He found fault with the people. And the fault with the people is they couldn’t live up to what they said they would do. And that’s keep the law. So we talked about last week, how the fact that when God gave that law to the Israelites and they responded, We will do it. They wandered in a desert for 40 years. Even though for those entire 40 years, there was the land of Canaan waiting on them the whole time it was waiting on them. And that had they had to cross over the Jordan for that.

But they were fearful of crossing over the Jordan because they were giants over their words, it just looked like that just doesn’t make sense that there is a land over there whereby I can eat from trees that I didn’t plant I can drink from wells I didn’t dig. It’s the Promised Land, it’s a land of milk and honey, it’s too good to be true. Does that sound familiar? to just too good to be true. And so as a result of their unbelief, and believing that God said, here’s something that is true, they’re saying it’s too good to be true, in essence, is saying, How could God be that good? So when you’re saying that something from God is too good to be true, what you’re saying is I don’t believe God’s that good. That, in essence, is what you’re saying. And so due to that mindset, that I don’t think God’s that good, then therefore, what he’s provided couldn’t be that couldn’t be true, that couldn’t, it’s too good to be true. There’s nothing that good. As a result of that they roamed in the desert for 40 years chowing down on manna, and gagging out on that for 40 years, until finally Joshua, not Moses. But Joshua, which is the Hebrew name for Jesus led them out of the desert, into the promised land those that went.

And what was interesting last week that we studied was that just as the Red Sea had to be split, for them to go through, the Jordan, it said, was at harvest season was an it’s flooded state. So there wasn’t a way to get across the Jordan. And so what did God do? He split the Jordan. Now that’s a that is a truth and a fact that escapes many people, and escaped me for a number of years. I just never thought about it until I started acquainting all of these things to the New Covenant that we’re in today. But he had to split that and when he split it, then the Israelites walked over into the promised land for the first time and entered into a rest, a Sabbath rest. And then in both instances, both with the Red Sea and the Jordan, what happened to the waters after they crossed? Well, it got back to where they were, which means there isn’t any going back. There were sealed, it’s sealed. It’s a turtle picture of salvation. When the Jews crossed the Red Sea, the Red Sea closed in behind them. So there’s no going back to Egypt. You can sit there saying I’m not sure that this desert experience isn’t worse than Egypt, but it says it doesn’t make any difference whether it is or not. If it is, it’s your fault, because there’s another land you can go to you cannot go back to where you came from, right? That’s Egypt, that sea is closed behind you, but you can go someplace else. And that’s called the Promised Land, when you go in there also close the river behind you. And what I have found biblically, biblically, as well as experientially is, once you cross over into that Sabbath rest, you’re never going to go back into the desert, there is no desire to go back to the desert, there is no need to go back to the desert. And that’s the last place in the world that you want to be. But until you enter into that Sabbath rest, you don’t know you’re in the desert. You know, there’s something wrong, but you don’t know what it is. And what it is, is you have not responded to that appeal of Jesus come unto me now into My rest. And I will give you peace for yourself.

I’d like to share a thought with with our listeners. When you look at salvation as an example. And equate that with the picture of Israel in bondage in Egypt, under total bondage under Pharaoh, which would, which would be a an example of Satan himself. And you see how that God took those people that were his. And he arranged for the dividing of the sea, so that they can enter into a land. That was the desert. And then he closed the sea behind them sealing the fact that they were no longer belonged to Egypt, and they were not going to return to Egypt. And so it’s the picture of the assurance of our salvation. But we’re in a desert. And in that desert, God gave the Israelites the law.

Now the law was given. It tells us in Galatians 3:19 As we Start at the beginning of our lesson, that what is the purpose of the law, it was added because of transgressions, until the seed to whom the promise referred, had come. And we’re going to read then in in 3:16, of Galatians, that the promises were spoken to Abraham and his seed. And the Scripture does not say, and to seeds, meaning many people, but to your seed, meaning one person, who is Christ. So the law, we talk about the law, and that there’s there is certainly truth to that, whereby the law will help us to see our lostness in order to lead us to Christ. But there is a sense in which the law is also used to the Christian who is born again, in the desert in order to lead him to Christ in the Promised Land, because Christ isn’t living in the desert. He’s living in the Promised Land. And he is living in Cana, in essence, in the Promised Land, in that rest, he is resting in his rest. With that constant appeal, going out to Christians who are still trying to obtain their righteousness through their deeds, that appeal is still coming out from Cana, saying, Come unto me, all ye who weary and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest for your souls. He didn’t say, Come unto me, all of you who are lost. He’s talking to Christians, all of you who are saved, but are weary, and are heavy laden, you are burdened down with the law, Come unto me, and I will give you rest, there’s only one place for rest. And that’s Christ, in His resting position, it’s not coming to Christ, so that I can be under the law with Jesus because Jesus isn’t under the law, it is coming to a point of resting where he is resting in that place of rest called today, which is the Sabbath rest, which is not a day of the week, it is a total state of being. And so he is saying, enter in to the promised land into this place of rest, whereby you now can rest from your works, just as I have rested for mine. And so there is a sense, Bob, that is kind of a relatively new insight. To me, there is a sense whereby the law as a Christian is providing the same function that it did is a non Christian. As a matter of fact, I You cannot look at biblical interpretation from experience alone. There are a lot of people say my experience shows me this. Well it doesn’t make any difference what your experience shows, it’s what is the word of God say now, if what your experience shows, matches up with the word of God, well, then you’ve got something to grab onto. But if it doesn’t, then all you’re dealing with is fleshly experience. And so but but if it’s mine that must be from God. You see, that’s, that’s the ego of man, thinking my little experience that I had is so fantastic. It must come from God otherwise wonderful me wouldn’t have it. But you see, that’s totally irrelevant. If it doesn’t match up to Scripture, because my experience can be given to me by God or it could be given to me by Satan, either one. And many times Satan is so subtle that you can’t tell the difference. And if you didn’t have the Word of God to match your experience up next to you never would know the difference.

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Bob George 14:10
So, but experience and my own salvation experience, would show me this, that the law of God became more active and more pertinent after coming to Christ than before. Before coming to Christ, the average person doesn’t even know what the law says if you ask the average non Christian what are the 10 commandments, he could name 10. It’s like It’s like somebody one of the actors, comedians one time said, Have you ever learned the 10 commandments? He said, No. He said how come said so I can plead ignorance. So no, I’m not gonna learn them this way. I can just say I didn’t know. It’s like WC Fields a that an old graci comedian. Somebody walked in when he was on his deathbed reading the Bible said, What are you doing? is I’m looking for loopholes. So if you see, you see the law is not really even know now there’s a law in our hearts that knows right from wrong. I mean, you don’t have to be brilliant to know that stealing isn’t right adultery isn’t right. worshipping idols isn’t right. Coveting isn’t right. You don’t have to be a genius to know that. It’s there. But it’s not there. But when you become a Christian, boy that’s when you really become aware of the law isn’t it? sure. And you’ve got a lot of good teachers around teaching you that you see where before, as a non Christian, you’re really not learning much about the law or about the grace of God is true. Unless you’re in an evangelical church. And there you could be learning about those things in the energy of the flesh and never be saved. So Bob, as I see this and I see the Israelites, they weren’t saved by the law, nor were they convicted by the law, they didn’t have the law. They were saved by believing God, they were saved exactly like Abraham had told them, they were going to obtain righteousness is by belief. They trusted in what God had shown Moses and said, We’ll follow you. That’d be a scary thing going across that sea with water, you know, 12, 15 feet above you and going through a little, a little valley in there, that would be pretty frightening to me. But they did, they believed him and they went through. Now when they got over there, they demanded the law, and God gave it to them. Now, what did the law accomplish to the Israelites in that 40 years? What did the law do? Well, it said that it was added because of transgressions, whose transgressions were the Israelites transgression, that the law was added because of their transgressions. So it wasn’t added to point them out. They were already there. It wasn’t add them to any added increase them they were already there. But now here they are in a point of what is considered salvation in the desert, but refusing to go to Cana, refusing to enter in the Promised Land. And so God use the law to show them their inability as a saved person, their inability to ever obtain righteousness in the sight of God to what they were doing. Is that important for us to know? If righteousness is by faith and faith alone, as a child of God, I need to know that why because if I don’t, then I will be doing what all religions do. And that is spend my life trying to make my acceptance and my love from God predicated on what I am doing instead of predicated upon what he is doing. And therefore I will be forced to go build religious institutions. Instead of allowing God to make individual relationships with man, I will be forced to put my faith back upon man and the accumulation of men and women and what they are doing, rather than what God is doing, I am forced to build a religion. So we’ve built one called a Christian religion, the Israelites had the Hebrew religion, it was given to them by God, although it said, although God was not pleased with all those things, it was given by God in order to show them that they could not accomplish it.

Now, again, Galatians 3:16, the promises that were spoken to Abraham and his seed, now the seed is Jesus Christ. So in Romans 5:20, were say the law was added so that the trespass might increase. In other words, did we just not read that the law was added because of transgressions, until the seed came, and it was added, so that the trespass, the transgression might increase, but where sin increased Grace increased all the more, so that just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring what? eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So we’re going to see that wherever we are as Christians, under the law, that you’re going to see that the power of sin is in the law. And as a Christian, when you put yourself under the law, instead of entering into where God called you to the Sabbath rest, that you’re going to find that in your desert experience attempting to find your righteousness through obedience to the law, that all you’re going to discover is that you’re sinning more either outwardly or inwardly or both. That the more you’re under the law, the more sin is going to increase in your Live. So the law was added so that the trespass might increase. Now, as a lost person, what I need my trespass to increase for, I’m already dead. But as a living person, I need to see my trespasses increase, in order to die to what is causing that increase so that I could walk into the promised land and walk under grace and the newness of life.

So we’ve ignored the truth of what the law is, is there to do to a saved person. And I know him own life is I’ve it’s kind of been a teaching that the law was given, so that I would come to Christ for salvation. And there may be truth to that. But I see the law, the purpose of the law more after salvation than before salvation. And that’s to get rid of a believer self sufficiency, so that he will walk in to where? another land, not go back to Egypt, but go into Canaan, which is where God is.

You’ve got two areas that that the law is used for to the last you see, the last is trying to find acceptance in the sight of God through their works. If you were excepting by grace, why you’d be saved. So if you’re a lost person, it means there is a person who is trying to be saved by joining a church, trying to be saved by being baptized, trying to be saved by being christened, trying to be saved by being a Catholic, trying to be saved, because I’m a Hebrew, trying to be saved because I’m a Baptist or Protestant. So no one is saved, because they’re a Catholic, or Protestant or a Hebrew, or a Muslim, or a Hindu period, no one is saved by that. And yet, in each one of those categories, people are working at salvation, because of that thinking, that is my salvation, because I am a, whatever that might be. So in other words, salvation is by works. Then to the person who comes to Christ truly comes to Christ with a born again, experience by faith and faith alone, whereby they say, No, I cannot be saved for those things. I am saved because Christ came to save me. I have recognized the fact that Jesus took away my sins at the cross. But he did far more than that he was raised from the dead in order to solve my real last condition, which is death. And the only solution to death is life. So he was raised from the dead, so that that resurrected life could be given to me and raised me from the dead, so that I have a life called eternal life. And I can’t work for that. And certainly, being a Hebrew or Gentile or Catholic, or a slave or free is not going to bring that about. So Lord, I guess you’re the only one who did. And so I accept that. And I believe that and when that occurs, you’re born again, you’ve you have been given now the life of Christ living in you and have been made complete whole, you are now perfect. You are a human with a body and a soul and a spirit that is now being joined by the Holy Spirit of God living in you. Now, that’s a picture of of leaving Egypt and going into the desert, and the and and the sea closing behind you. But now we got another thing with the law.

In other words, I realized I’m saved by grace, but I’m sustained by keeping the law. And then we have the teaching, it says now that you are saved, why then God will help you to keep the law in Texas, they have helpyou. So now I’m saved so that God will help you to keep the law. We see there isn’t anything any farther from the truth, that God is not helping you to keep the law. He tried to free you from the law. But as long as you come enter into the desert, that’s desert stuff that we’re talking about. You in a desert are still now I’m going to try to keep your acceptance. In other words, I’m saved by grace, but I’m going to be accepted by works, loved by works, given my righteousness by my works, given my sanctification by my works, and I’m going to keep working under the law to fulfill the law. When Christ said, What do you think, if the cross already fulfilled it. So the law is used by God, to the last to show them they cannot be saved through obedience to the law. And then the law is used again in the desert because of man’s of man’s inadequacies, not God’s but God knows man. He said he knows what man is going to do. self sufficient lost man becomes a self sufficient saved man. And so he knows what man’s gonna do so people get back under the law as a saved person with this idea that God is going to help me now to obey the law. And so here we are in the desert trying to obey the law. And we don’t do any better in the desert than we did when we were back in Egypt. And that’s what causes people to say, I am not sure. But I think I was happier as a lost person than I was as the saved. Why was the last person now pay attention to the law. And so you know, you’re not you’re not struggling between flesh and spirit, you don’t have an experience. So you’re there in a struggle, you’re you’re just you’re just fulfilling the flesh, kind of enjoying it for a season. But there’s always this emptiness, it’s there. It’s not the deflation getting fulfilled. It’s the fact that my spirit is empty. And that’s what ultimately draws you to Christ as well as an awareness of the fact there’s something missing in my life. It’s like a solemn, and I’m fulfilling every single desire my flesh, but there’s still something missing, something’s wrong. And so as a saved person, we’re still under that law. Now, what is God doing? Is he keeping you is the law there? Because we’re to obey it. No, the law is there so that your sin will increase. So that what? where, where sin increases, Grace increases all the more you have to start depending upon the grace of God. Because what you find out is I just can’t develop enough laws to take care of all this stuff. God knows we’ve tried. So just as Sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so in this desert experience, the law will continue to show you that where sin increases, Grace increases all the more.

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.