Radio Broadcast Monday 10/24/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Law & Grace P16 (10-24-22)

No Man Will Ever Draw Near to God Through Obedience to the Law ~ Only by Faith in Jesus Christ

~ “But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.” Galatians 3:11

~ “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” Galatians 2:19

~ We are told in scripture that no man, no person is justified by the law, yet people that claim to be Christians are pretending they can obey the law of God, they are hypocrites and actors, calling God a liar, and making a total mockery of the cross. They refuse to come to the knowledge of truth, because their pride of flesh is telling them that they can obey the law. Well folks, unless you come to the end of the hypocrisy of the flesh, there is no way to be justified in the sight of God. That should be a scary thought for people, and is like being hit over the head with a sledge hammer, but still people will not change their mind (repent). They are tied to the religious system of ongoing forgiveness. They still think they are living in the days of Atonement, where the Hebrews went repeatedly doing the sacrificial system of forgiveness, over and over and over again, year after year, which could never make anyone perfect in the sight of God.

Today we have most pastors and teachers that teach Satan’s lie of ongoing forgiveness. With these people, forgiveness is never finished. It doesn’t matter whether a person is a Catholic or Protestant, they are two sides of the same coin. Neither one declares forgiveness is finished. They both have their confession booths. One is an actual one, asking a priest for forgiveness, and the other is a virtual one, asking God to do what He has already done.

But God says it is Finished! Now we should be thanking Him for His forgiveness instead of asking repeatedly for what He has already done on the cross.

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 0:40
There is a need inside of me for unconditional love to be able to experience unconditional love, not conditional love, like man and woman can give to each other. But unconditional love. Why do I have that need? Well, God put it in me. It’s a vacuum that’s there, what for? so that he can fill it. I had a need as born into this world with a spirit that had the dead spirit that was dead to the life of God that had a need as strong as horseradish to be indwelt by God. How come it’s there? Well, God put it there. How come? because he wanted to fulfill it. So there is a need in the heart of every man to be able to draw nearer to God. Now that’s why people are trying so desperately to try to draw near to God In the energy of their own flesh, there is a need to know that I can walk into the presence of a living God, and be accepted and loved. And to receive mercy in my time of need, there’s a need for that. So because there is a need for it, and because we do not know that a better hope has been introduced, we try to get that need met by our performance, if I will do this, I can go into the presence of God and draw near to God, if I got all my sins confessed I can I can draw near to God because if I don’t, why I can’t draw near to God. If I go to church on Sunday, and Sunday night, and Wednesday and Monday, and then I’ll do that. So because I want to be able to draw nearer to God, and then I can go into the presence of God and say, God, see? See where I was today. I was at church all day long, aren’t I wonderful? It doesn’t matter how bad my kids had in the back seat on the way home. But we forget about that when you see where I was. Lord, didn’t you see when I when I put my tithe in the offering plate. Or when I put my money in the offering plate, and I kind of pulled it out of my wallet and flashed it around. So everybody could see how much it was? And didn’t you see that Lord? And now Now I can draw nearer to you because of what I did. And God is saying, Bob, I love you too much to even enable you to draw nearer to me on that basis. Because if that’s the way you think you’re going to draw nearer to me, you’re immediately going to be thinking, what else do I need to do? Did I do enough? Have I done too little? When will it ever come to the point where I’ve done so little that you not only kind of not draw near to you, but you don’t even know who I am anymore. All of those questions are going to permeate the soul of a man. If drawing nearer to God is predicated on what we are doing, instead of what he did. Is there a need for a man to know that he can draw nearer to God? Absolutely strong as can be. God put it there. But he also provided the way that that can occur. And it’s not through works. And so the Old Covenant because man asked for the law. Amazingly, man asked for the law after they were saved from Egypt. They were already in the desert heading toward the promised land, you had to go through the desert to get to the to the day of rest, they didn’t waht rest. They had some of them. Were thinking about going back to Egypt if the sea hadn’t been filled in again. Probably some members sitting there, say it open up, open up a second, go back. But you see, you see, they asked for the law. So in order to do so I can draw near to God. So God says, Okay, I’ll give it to you and see how that works. But it says that form or regulation, that law, that Old Covenant that God put into effect and commanded us to keep there’s the problem commanded us to keep it said you want it, you keep it, you want the law, here it is you keep it. That regulation has now folks been set aside.

There, the reason that it was set aside is because it was weak, and it was useless, useless for what? absolutely useless, and enabling a man to draw near to God, absolutely useless in regard to having his work complete in your life, because there’s always a new law to obey, and a new something to do in case you don’t. So there’s no finished work to that at all that work is never finished under the law. It was weak because we are weak. The law itself isn’t weak, it becomes weak when it flows through us. It’s what Paul said, nothing wrong with the law. It’s holy, it’s good. When it flows through me, it kills me. So that former regulation was set aside because it was weak and useless. Now, folks, when something is useless, why are you hanging on to a useless thing, like a typewriter. In this day and age, it’s like those manual typewriters are just kind of useless almost. And he says the law is useless. It is useless is a former regulation, a law that was given saying you obey it, it’s useless, in regard to accomplishing what God wants to accomplish that is making you complete, and enabling you to draw near to God won’t do either one of those things cannot do either one of them. And yet man hangs on to this weak and useless thing, and sets aside the most powerful person that ever walked on the face of the Earth called the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. And we set aside that relationship in order to hang on to this old, weak, useless thing that the book of Hebrews said should disappear, become obsolete. It is obsolete and will soon disappear. So you’re hanging on to something obsolete, something that doesn’t work anymore. It’s useless. It’s weak, and we still want to hang on to absolutely absolutely still hanging on to it or say no Let’s not be talking about the 10 commandments, let’s be talking about those ceremonial law, folks. He’s talking about Mount Sinai period. Because it doesn’t make any difference, whether it’s a ceremonial law, whether it’s the 10 commandments, or it’s the laws that your church has put into effect.

I was just talking to a gentleman who’s been overseas, were in the churches in in, in those areas. And Europe in Yeah, in Europe, and in that Eastern bloc in the Balkan countries, whereby the church is so legalistic that if a girl wants to have a date, they have to go to the pastor and get permission to have a date with somebody. One of the, one of the ladies that were there, visited America, some friends, while she was there, got a permanent, and went back, and was ostracized in front of the whole church, by her own father in that church for having a permanent, I mean, we just have to think about it that that is enough to make Gods stomach turns. You know it, can you imagine. And that’s the kind of legalism that is over there. And that’s why quite frankly, we’ve been extended an invitation to go over into Hungary, and, and Poland, and some of those areas to try to get this message across the people who, now that the door is open. Legalism is flourishing. So we don’t have to wonder who gets in when the door gets open. You know, people talk about man there’s an open door and Europe said, Yeah, but there’s only one problem with an open door, a lot of flies come in.

The three elements that are contained in this particular lesson is that what the law is powerless to do, it cannot make us complete or perfect. It cannot make us righteous in the sight of God, and it cannot give life to the dead. So when you stop to think about that, you can understand why said it’s weak and useless. It is useless for providing any one of those things, that is an absolute necessity for salvation, every one of those things. Now, folks, I want you to think along with me for a moment, this former regulation, the law was set aside. Now in Hebrews 10:1 it says the law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming, not the realities themselves. So in other words, the law is a shadow, it was a foreshadowing, not the reality. If you are standing and the sun is at your back, you’re looking at your shadow, what is the shadow of? it’s not a shadow of the sun, it’s a shadow of you. It’s showing your own darkness. Now you turn and face the sun, you leave the shadow behind you where it belongs, and you’re now standing face to face. In a relationship with the sun. Before the sun was at your back, you had no face to face relationship with it, now you’re face to face with it, and the shadow is in the back of you. And that’s where it belongs. The shadow was a it was not a shadow. The law is a shadow of the good things that are coming now to us. It’s the good things that are already here. And that’s Christ, not the realities themselves. So who’s the reality? Well, Christ, Jesus Christ is reality, the law was a shadow of that reality, just a foreshadowing of what was going to come to bring us an ability to walk in righteous standing before God, life to the dead, and to be made complete.

Now it said For this reason, because the law is a shadow, not the reality. It can never the law, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly, year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. So once again, was it God’s desire in Hebrews seven that we draw near to God? Yes, it is. Is it God’s desire for people to draw nearer to God in worship? Yes, it is. It states that that’s a need that we have, why did he give us the need? so that he alone could fulfill it. Now, folks, if you have a law, you have to have punishment for a violation of the law. If there is no punishment for violation of the law, the law is meaningless. You’ve got a sign that says 55. But it is meaningless if there’s no punishment for driving 85. So for to have a law, you must have punishment. If you are going to have punishment with the law, you need representation in the case that you don’t agree with the law, or you don’t agree you were guilty of the law. And so you need an intercessor, between God and man, if God is the one who gave the Law, or in the case of here on this earth between the justice system or the judge, and man, the offender, you got a law, you got a violation, you got a potential punishment, and you have somebody to represent you. Now, when it is God’s law, and he has a law out there, there has to be a violation for disobedience to that law. And therefore, under the law, you had to have a priest, which was a representing representing God, man to God, a priest, who would be able to present and to plead your case before God, intercede for us. Now to that priest, under the Old Testament, He said the way that that sin that violation can be covered, is through a sacrifice because the wages of sin is death. Now, the wages of big sins isn’t death and the wages of little sins is just a woodshed. He didn’t say that. So there’s no numerical value on sins. Worry is the not a faith, anything, it’s not a faith is sin. So worry is a sin the same as adultery. Looking at a person with lust is the same in God’s sight as adultery. Being angry with someone in your heart is the same as murder in God’s sight, not in ours. But in his. So the law was stringent, so stringent that Jesus when he came to this earth, he literally explained the spirit of the law. That’s why he said those things. He said, You want to be under the law. Be perfect, because that’s all that will do. Now, isn’t it strange that when Jesus commanded be perfect, and he said, How perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect, that’s all it will do. And then it says that no man will ever be made perfect through obedience to the law.

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Bob George 14:05
So if I cannot be made perfect, and I was commanded to be perfect, and I can’t make myself perfect obedience to the law, how do I make myself perfect? Figure it out folks. How am I going to do that? If the law is there prohibiting me from ever experiencing perfection and that’s what it says the law was weak and useless. It didn’t make anything perfect. And and and I need to be made complete to go into the presence of complete God that means that God is going to have to do something for me that I can’t do for myself. Because if through obedience to the law, I can’t make myself perfect. What other obedience are you talking about? I mean, just what else are we dealing with there folks? And so he said it could never be and yet there are people who hang on to that passage be perfect. See, that means boy if you’re not you lose your salvation. Well, I got news, the purpose of saying that’s already lost that by why either say it, you see, in other words, we can’t stand up to the righteous requirements of the law. So if you’re under the law, you got to have punishment for a violation. And you have to have an intercessor. Now, again, under the law, God gave the Law, he gave the priesthood. And he gave the sacrificial system, which was a way of covering your sin every year, which is a shadow of the good things that were coming, not the reality of themselves. They were a foreshadowing, covering of sin was a foreshadowing of the day that Jesus would come to take away your sin. It was just a covering, it was just a preamble to the real thing that was going to come. It just covered it until that occurred. Now for this reason, it says, under the law, under the sacrificial system, you can’t separate those two. By the same sacrifices, it can never be the same sacrifices repeated endlessly. Year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship in other words, make complete. Now once again, folks, you’ve seen this Word Perfect use. picture here a couple of times, you’ll see it all through the book of Hebrews, that it was God’s will that the law was weak and useless, and the law made nothing perfect. And in his verse talking about, for this reason, the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, can never make perfect those who draw near to worship. Now what is perfect? It means complete. You see, if the sacrificial system if I’m under the law, then as long as I am capable of violating the law, there’s got to be a sacrifice for that sin. If I went to the Day of Atonement, and I’d only sin one time that year, and you Bob, man, you sin about 100, you and I would still have to kill an animal. For the same, I’d kill one for my sin, and you’d kill one for your 100. Is that right or wrong? It’s same death has to occur wages sin is death, where it’s a little one or a big one. And so if under that system, that forgiveness, that violation of the law has never ending. The law is your constant, it’s always there staring in the face, the violation of it is ongoing. And so under the old system, you went and you got your sins forgiven, you killed, an animal was was killed, the blood was spread on the altar, your sins were transferred onto this innocent lamb. And you walked away that day with all of your sins that you had committed up to that point that day, plus all of them you had committed last year, taken away, or not taken away, covered, covered. So boy felt good. But is the work complete? No work isn’t complete. Because next day, I see it again. Now I gotta wait till next year, and then I gotta go back again on it. And then I go back and another sacrifices made? Why’d well, because without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. And so sacrifice has to be made, the wages of sin is death, someone has to die. And so I go back and I get my sins forgiven again, from that moment backwards. And then next year, I go back again, from that moment backwards. Now, I want to ask you a question. With that kind of sacrifice, sacrifice for this reason, that type of the law. It can never be the same sacrifices repeatedly, endlessly, year after year, make complete those who draw near to worship.

It is weak and useless, because that makes no one complete. In other words, when there is continually something left to do. You are not complete. You’re not complete. There’s still something left to do. When a painter paints a painting, and he finally says, That’s it, no more dabbling. Not another speck of paints going to be added to that picture. It is finished. That means it’s complete, right? It’s perfect. It doesn’t mean that it’s a perfect painting. From somebody else’s vantage point. It means from the painter’s eye, that’s as good as I can get it. It is perfect in my sight. Now, folks, it tells us very clearly, that no man will ever be made perfect in the sight of God through obedience to the law, because there’s always violation of the law and as long as there’s violation, there’s punishment. And that is ongoing. And because of that, you will never ever be able to be made complete and never able to draw nearer to God in worship, which is God’s desire for you.

The law can never Hebrews 10, one by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly, year after year, make perfect or make complete those of you who draw near to worship. Romans 8:3 tells us for what the law was powerless to do. And we could just add the words of Hebrews what the law was weak and useless and powerless to do, in that it was weakened, not by itself, but by our own flesh by the flesh. What it was powerless to do, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering, what the blood of bulls and goats, because that system was never over. It says, day after day, every priest stands and performs his religious duties, again and again and again, which can never take away sin. Did it cover sin? Yes, it did. How much did it cover? From that day, backwards. When you went again next year how much did it cover? From that day backwards. Was the work ever done? No. Was the work ever complete? No. Could you ever be made complete or perfect in the sight of God? No. Could you ever draw near to God in perfect worship or draw near to God, period? No, you said you did. You thought you were. But from God’s vantage point, you never were. Because no man will ever draw near to God through obedience to the law, or through a sacrificial system that is weak and useless. And that has to keep being repeated over and over and over again. Now he gave the Israelites and the Hebrew people adequate time to practice these ceremonies to practice these shadows. That were the shadow of the real thing was coming in Christ Jesus adequate time for them. If they were honest, to realize that this did not accomplish, what the deep desires of their heart was, and that was to draw near to God. You go over to Israel today, you see the Wailing Wall. And you see people standing there wailing and rocking back and forth and wailing, and we’re rocking back and forth. And what are they doing? Well, they’re trying to near draw near to God. Think you’re ever going to draw near to God, but wailing at a wall? Not a more than you’re going to draw near to God, but going and answering an altar call. You draw near to God, when you realize that you’ve been made perfect in his sight through what he did, and nothing in what you did. That’s how you draw nearer to God. You draw near to God, when you realize that this ongoing forgiveness will never enable you to draw nearer to God in perfect worship, because there’s always still something left to do.

That’s why Bob, when people finally come to grips with the finality of the cross, we all testify to the fact it’s like being born again again. But we also testify the fact of the unbelievable struggle that it is to come to that conclusion, to let go of the shadows, so that we can grab on to reality, because religion has taught us that it just doesn’t seem right that this forgiveness should not be ongoing, that you ought to be able to go back to your Day of Atonement and get forgiven all over again, go to your confession booth to get forgiven all over again. Go to your altar call and get forgiven all over again. Practice your first John one nine at home or before you go to bed at night so that you can be forgiven all over again. It doesn’t make any difference whether you’re talking about the first John keeping short accounts with God philosophy, or whether you’re talking about a sacrificial system back in Jerusalem. Every single one of those things, is a denial of the completed work of Christ Jesus, every single one of them is spitting in the face of Christ Jesus and saying, You did not complete the work that you began in me. There is no getting around that. You can’t argue with that fact. Jesus told us that he and he explained that in the book of Hebrews that without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. And there is no more sacrifice for our sins. In other words, if you’re not going to believe, the final sacrifice, the sending of his Son, the law was powerless. It was weakened by our flesh. Because if we were able to go and to the to the Day of Atonement and get our sins forgiven from all those days backwards and then never sin again, and you’d say, man, it’s complete. I don’t have to go back next year. It’s no more sin in my life. Thank God for it, but it says and that’s what it says had been complete. You’d know it you’d never feel guilty for your sins again, because you’ve never seen again. But because of our own weakness and the weakness of our flesh, we keep messing up and we I have to go back and we keep messing, I’m gonna have to go back. And so what that kind of a system was powerless and weak and useless to do in that it was weakened by our own flesh. God accomplished by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be the final sin offering for all time for all people forever. And after that sacrifice, there is no more sacrifice for sin, period, what do you say, there is no more atonement. There is no more Day of Atonement. There is no more the shedding of the blood of a bull and goat. After the reality is here, you don’t need the shadow anymore. There is no more confession booth. There is no more altar calls to get forgiven. There is no more First John one nining to get forgiven. There’s no more folks. It’s over. There’s no more sacrifice for sins. If there was any further forgiveness to be executed on your behalf, then we’d have to go back to the old system and deny the finality of the cross. If there’s any further forgiveness to be executed on your in my behalf, Jesus would have to die again. Because without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. And that’s what Hebrews 6 and 10 is talking about that if we’re not going to agree with God, after we’ve tasted and touched if we don’t finally come to a point of saying it’s over, it’s finished. Then he said, there’s no more sacrifice for sins. It means we’ve never changed our mind. We’ve never truly repented. And all we have to look forward to is the raging fire of hell that will consume the enemies of God. And when we refuse to believe in the final sacrifice of Christ Jesus, not over and over and over again. The blood of bulls and goats did that. But once and for all. Then it said all we’re doing is making a mockery of the grace of God of the New Covenant that has sanctified a set us apart and treating as an unholy thing, the blood of the covenant that set us apart.

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.