Radio Broadcast Monday 11/28/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Law & Grace P30 (11-28-22)

No One Can Be Made Perfect Under Law and Only Perfection Will Do in The Sight of God

~ “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” ^{Matthew 5:48}

~ “I am not righteous in the sight of God, because of the club that I belong to, or the church that I belong to, or anybody that I belong to, outside of Christ Jesus. And so if a person is still out there thinking that they have salvation, because of any of those things, folks, I’m telling you, and I’m not telling you for my opinion, I’m telling you directly out of the Word of God, you are still lost. And there’s no need in staying that way. I mean, it isn’t something for that to be an insult, unless you want to remain lost working at it. But it’s, it’s to help you to recognize your condition so that you will receive His provision. You can’t do it. No one could 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 0:38
And so to a person who’s still trying to live under the law and to earn his acceptance under the law has never been saved. He may be a religious type of person. But he’s never been saved. A person who thinks that he is saved because he belongs to a certain denomination has never been saved. He is merely a member of a denomination, you may as well belong to the Kiwanis Club, for all the good, it’s gonna do you because a membership is not an issue in regard to your need. And that is life, spiritual life being given to you from outside of you. Joining the Kiwanis Club doesn’t give you live and joining a church does not give you live, life has to come from God Himself. And so if a person anyone listening to me today, has still been trying to earn their salvation, or think that they are saved, because they belong to a specific denomination, and I don’t care whether that’s Protestant, or Catholic, or Buddhist, or Muslim, or Hindu or what it is, it doesn’t make a difference. All of those things are just strictly religions. And so and they will not save anyone, anyone, then the Hebrews, who were the ultimate in the practice of religion, a religion that was given by God, not one that we made up, but given by God, if they could not be saved through practicing religion, because nobody can practice what you preach. And so in an essence, we’re all hypocrites, all of us have sinned, all of us have fallen short of the glory of God, there’s none righteous, no, not one. And we come to understand that. I am not righteous in the sight of God, because of the club that I belong to, or the church that I belong to, or anybody that I belong to, outside of Christ Jesus. And so if a person is still out there thinking that they have salvation, because of any of those things, folks, I’m telling you, and I’m not telling you for my opinion, I’m telling you directly out of the Word of God, you are still lost. And there’s no need in staying that way. I mean, it isn’t something for that to be an insult, unless you want to remain lost working at it. But it’s, it’s to help you to recognize your condition so that you will receive His provision. You can’t do it. No one could do it. If the Hebrews couldn’t do it with all of their history of trying, how do you think you’re going to, you can’t do it. And when I can’t do something, I must turn to one who can, I cannot make myself alive. Many of you listening to me right now have never realized that you are dead spiritually. I never knew I was dead spiritually. Never had a clue of it. I knew that I bounced prayers off of the ceilings. But I didn’t know I was dead spiritually. No one had ever told that to me. But God says we were all born in Adam dead, dead spiritually. That’s why you’re constantly seeking because you’ve never found. And if that is the case, that you are walking on this earth today, and you have tried to find meaning and purpose to life through religion, joining a church going to a service, belonging to a denomination doing good works, doing good deeds, getting involved in charity, getting involved in helping others. All of those things are nice, human noble things, but they will not bring life to the dead. And until you realize your condition, how are you ever going to accept His provision? If I’m not starved, if I’m not hungry, why would you want to accept food? And so folks, we have to realize that all have sinned, and all have fallen short of the glory of God.

And if that is true, then all people needed forgiven, they needed their sins taken away. And Christ Jesus did that not over and over and over again, the way under the Day of Atonement, the high priests used to perform their duties over and over and over which could never take away sin. Not the way some people teach. You have to go back every week and get your sins forgiven and get your sins forgiven and get your sins forgiven. Get your sins forgiven, or as a Protestant to go answer the altar call and get your sins forgiven or sins forgiven and sins forgiven. Or if that isn’t good enough and you don’t like altar calls within your first John one nine to get your sin sins forgiven and forgiven and forgiven and forgiven. Folks, you’re never complete that way. And that’s what the Bible very clearly says any one of those kinds of techniques will never enable you to walk in your completeness. In other words, to realize, wait a minute, it’s been done, I don’t have to ask for something that has already been accomplished, it has already been accomplished for you. And so when you come to a point of realizing I needed forgiveness, I need forgiveness, I needed forgiveness, I will need forgiveness. And Jesus said, I did every one of those things in advance for you. I took away every one of your sins that you have ever done, are doing or will ever think of doing. I have taken them away, I have dealt with this issue once and for all. And I’m not going to deal with it again. I took it away. I didn’t cover it as the blood of bulls and goats did, I took it away. There is nothing for you to go through. There is no performance for you to go through in order to activate my forgiveness. It has been done, it is completed. And it is over, and it is over. That’s why I cried out from the cross. It’s finished because it’s finished. And then you realize something else. And that is that the wages of sin is death. And when we were dead in our sins and the uncircumcision of our sinful nature, God did something. It was a necessity for spiritual life. He gave us life. When I was dead, he gave me life, the wages as soon as death, the gift of God is eternal life. How do we receive that life? by merely recognizing my condition, and realizing I did not want to stay in that condition. And recognizing that salvation is much more than just getting your sins forgiven, he already had a system for doing that called atonement. I needed my sins taken away, so that I could receive a life that’s called eternal life.

You see, folks, forgiveness is not an end in itself, it was merely the means of accomplishing the end in itself, that of restoring life to the dead. But before God could give you and me a life called eternal life, one that could never be taken away from us again by sin. He had to deal with sin once and for all, and for the entire world, and forever, and that he did at the cross. So that from that point on the Holy Spirit of God can roam through this entire earth, saying to any man and woman, boy and girl on the face of the earth, Come unto me, your forgiveness has already been taken care of, but you have to recognize your spiritual death and come unto me for what I alone can give you and that’s life. Come into me, and I will give you life. And we exist in and in our hearts are able to say, Lord Jesus, thank you for what you did for me at the cross. And I now accept your resurrected life to come inside of me, and to be my only hope of glory. Now, folks, when that occurs, we are now led internally by the Spirit of God no longer externally, by a law that kills, but internally by the Spirit that gives life so I therefore leave the law where it belongs, it did its work. And I now rejoice in the newness of life that I have come to in Christ Jesus, my Lord.

Now that we’re in Christ Jesus, as I said earlier, for some reason, we still many times think that we can make ourselves acceptable to God or more acceptable to God. So we persist in bringing the law over into this newness of life that has been given to us in Christ Jesus. And I think one of the reasons is we’ve never come to grips with the stringency of the law. So in order for us to effectively realize that I don’t have any choice except letting go of the law, we have to take a look at the stringency of it. In other words, we once again have watered down the law, the wages of sin instead of being death, why the wages sin as being out of fellowship, and it’s just God just a little disturbed. He kinda can’t look at you. Well, folks, that’s not the case at all. The wages sin is not God not looking at you. It’s not God twirling around on his chair and turned his back on you. It’s not God giving you a little paddling or taking you to the woodshed. The wages of sin is death, and it’s never been a thing one iota different than that it is death, and that is stringent. So then you have to say, well, how much sin? Well, let’s go to James 2:10. Our key verse, whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles, and just one point, is guilty of breaking all of it. So it doesn’t make any difference. Now you look at that Bob, and you say, well, that doesn’t seem fair. Well, I want to tell you something. You can live all of your life in the laws of the land and be a law abiding citizens all of your life just as law abiding as you want to be. And man, you only got One more year to live and you’re 80 years old, and you can go and do one thing in your lifetime. One thing that is against the law, and you will be deemed as someone with a criminal record for the rest of however long, you’ve got just one law on all of your life. So it shouldn’t be a mystery to us. That’s that is the stringency of the law. That’s the way the law works. So you say, well, is that just today? No, that’s in your entire lifetime, from the time you’re born till the time you die, if you want to be under the law, here’s the stringency of it. If you stumble in any time in your life, from the time you’re born to the time you die in just one point of the law, you are guilty of breaking all of it. Now folks do you still want to be under the law? Now, when Jesus came into this earth, He came as an extension of the law, he came to show us what the Law demanded. Here’s what the law demands, folks. And he spoke to people under the law. Jesus was born of a virgin under the law, and he taught under the law in order to explain to people, the stringency of the law, which should have prepared their hearts for receiving what he came to do. And that was to die for the forgiveness of those of us that could not uphold the law and fulfill it, and to bring life to the dead as a result of our inability to do anything except sin. And so he came to prepare people, his message was not an encouragement to the lost.

In Matthew 5:48, he has said, be perfect, therefore, as your Father in heaven, is perfect. Now, if a person is trying to gain God’s acceptance through keeping the law, and the law standard is 100% perfection, which is exactly in precisely what we just read in the book of James, I keep, if I’m under the law, and yet I stumble in one point, I’m guilty of breaking all of it, that means perfect, perfect. There’s no such thing as a violation. Well, what would he have to conclude? If that is his acceptance before God? What would he have to conclude in his life? Where he is with God, if he’s living under that standard? You’d have to say, Brother, I think I think I’ve kind of messed up. I can’t do that. You remember, on another occasion, Jesus said, be perfect, be holy, how holy? as holy as your Father in heaven, that’s all that will do. Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you will never see eternal life. Well, you see, to the Pharisees, they were the ultimate an outward form of obedience to the law. And he’s saying, exceed that. How on the world could I ever exceed that? He said, now you got it, you can’t. Now you see. That’s why Paul was able to write in Galatians 3:10, that all who rely upon observing the law, are under a curse. For it is written curse. It is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the book of the law. So folks, if you’re under the law, what are the demands on it? You must do and continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law, for how long? As long as you are on this earth, and as long as you have been on this earth, because if you are and under the law, you either keep all of it and if you stumble at one point, you’re guilty of breaking all of it. Jesus demands here’s the requirement. Perfect what is perfect mean? It means perfect, it means there’s never been a violation of God’s law in your entire life.

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Bob George 14:10
There has never been a day that you haven’t loved your Lord your God with all your heart and soul. There has never been a day because Jesus came to amplify the law. And we’ll talk about that in a moment. That would mean that I have never looked at a person’s lust in my heart, it would mean I’ve never been angry at someone it means I’ve never coveted anything. I’d I could go on for just those 10. See, we’d think well, just like the Hebrews will do that, Lord, when he brought the law down, we can do that. Man, they had blown it before he ever got them off the mountain. And we don’t even take that long. And yet in our self righteousness, we think that we can make ourselves acceptable in the sight of God through obedience to a law. And the reason is because we’ve ignored his 10 and made up our own stupid ones. I mean, it wasn’t hard for me when I joined the church. hurts that really thought it was really sin to dance. I mean, you did dancing just terrible. That wasn’t hard for me. I liked that law. Didn’t have to do it had an excuse for not doing it. But I tell you did that I guarantee you that those kinds of laws have nothing to do with the Bible have nothing to do with the Bible. It’s like when I was over in Australia, and I was we were with this stage with this pastor guy that ultimately really came to understand his identity in Christ. But while we were there he was talking about and he had, boy, he had talked about the fact and over there soccer is real big that he is invited to go to a soccer game on a Sunday. No, you’ll never see me at a soccer game on Sunday. Never more. That’s the Sabbath, and I’m going to keep it holy. And I asked him because I stayed at his house. And man, he was glued to that television set all Sunday afternoon and watching the set the soccer game. And so when we were out there, he was talking about that. I said, I want to ask you a question. Do you watch a soccer on television on on Sunday? Oh, yeah, yeah. What is the where’s the sin the stadium? In other words, I will not go to the stadium on Sunday to watch a game but I watch it on television, I say can you see the hypocrisy of that? That is just sheer unadulterated hypocrisy. What’s the difference? The stadium isn’t sinful, or the television set isn’t sinful. So if I’m gonna watch it on TV, I may as well go to the stadium. But you see one sin and the other is, let’s see. Where does that come from? So you see, Bob, Jesus came to amplify these things. If we’re under the law, we’re under a curse unless we are able to absolutely for all of our lives. And if we burn it once, then you might as well just get out of it. Because you may have realized, right, then I have had it Yep.

Now, here’s what Jesus came to do. Matthew 5:27 Going into the arena of people who were claiming that they were really law abiding, and it was like he’s saying, Oh, really, don’t let me tell you what the law means. I know that you know what it says, Let me tell you what it means. You’ve heard it said, do not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart, and brother, if you’re alive, and you’re a male, probably or female, either one, although this is talking about looking at a woman. So I guess he’s dealing with a man. Although you’d never know in this day and age, but at any rate, he’s saying if you look less fully at a woman, you’ve already committed adultery with her in your heart. Now, every man, if he’s alive, he’s going to have to say, ought oh, I think maybe I’ve just had it. And then, if you want to live under the law, you see, that is you mean today, Lord? no, no, I mean, from the time you’re born, till the time you die, if that little eye of yours ever gazes upon someone, in a lustful way, you have had it, you have committed adultery, and the wages of sin is death, you have had it. And not only that, it says, but if your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. Now, I’m sure that there would be those who would like to rationalize and justify their action to say, Well, okay, then I’ll just left with my left eye. But that is not what he’s talking about. He is really saying, If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It’s better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. Now, folks, and guys, I want to ask you a question. Any of you be able to stand before God in your perfect perfection? Knowing that that is one of the criteria on the law? I don’t think so. So again, what does that say about you or about me, it means that I have violated the least of these my commandments, I violated all of them. And the wages of sin is death. And I’m guilty of breaking every commandment that God has given me by the breaking of just one of them. In other words, what he’s saying is, it doesn’t matter whether you break a little one or a big one, there aren’t any bigger little ones in my sight. If you break the least of these, you violated all of them, and you’ve had it. How many of us are going to be able to stand before God and say, Lord, I have never, I have never lusted? But you see, we’ve got a religious system that now comes into effect that comes in and says, Well, yeah, but But I first John one nine, or I went to my confession booth and got that forgiven or I went back my Day of Atonement. I got that forgiven. He said, I’m sorry, folks. You’re not catching the point. You’re dead. Who got forgiven was a dead person. And the whole issue is the wages of sin by once in his spiritual death, it doesn’t make a difference how much forgiveness you think you get or don’t get the issue is, you’re dead. Now how many of us are going to live under that? And and and he goes ahead to say, if you really want to live under the law, this is where he’s burying these people, you need to pluck your eye out if it’s causing you to lust.

And I tell people today, those of you that think that you’re really law abiding and living under the law, do you realize that if you were really living under the law, that one passage right there that you’d be sitting there with sockets in your head? And I wouldn’t be able to see that. But God, would you say one passage of scripture would annihilate the entire male population at one form or another.

But Matthew 5:21, that’s a really encouraging passage. Jesus said, once again, you’ve heard it, you’ve heard that it was said to people long ago, do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But here’s the contrast, I tell you that anyone who’s angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. And again, anyone who says to his brother Raka, will be answered both to the Sanhedrin. And anyone who says you fool will be in danger of the fire of hell. So, you know, how many times a day on the freeway would that apply to any? Any of us? Anytime someone pulls in front of me in the freeway, while I’m sure I’m on my way to hell, according to this, and But folks, that’s what he’s saying, God looks on the inside, on the heart, Man looks on the outside, you see what God looks on the heart. So what he’s saying is the law is deeper than the outward command, God is looking at what’s going on underneath the skin. Now who can hold up under that, folks? Can any of you out there right now who are under the law, taught under the law, think that you’re obedient to the law, trying to live up to the righteous requirements of the law in order to get your acceptance before God going to legalistic churches whereby man, you got to dress right and look right and act right and make yourself holy. That is holier than what Jesus was able to make it, which is a little bit presumptuous in and of itself when you think about it, but that’s just how arrogant the human heart is. Jesus said, I made you holy, but we say not good enough. I’m gonna make myself more holy, but what I wear and what I don’t wear, how I wear my hair, or how I don’t wear my hair, how I do this, and how I don’t how many times I go to church, and how many times I don’t go to church, you just don’t realize God that your holiness is not good enough, I’m going to earn my own. Now, folks, how many of you get away from those kinds of laws, realize they’re not worth a flip as far as God is concerned, get away from them and just hang on to God’s ten. And let Jesus explain to you what they mean. And just with those two alone, and that’s why those two examples are the only ones who needed lust and anger. That’s all he needed. Why he nailed the entirety of humanity with those.

And anyone who can say, I’m going to stand before God saying, Lord, I have never violated a one of your commandments. He’s gonna get an opportunity to see, hey, have you ever been angry at someone, then you violated his commandments, it’s the same as murder. Have you ever lusted then it is the same as adultery. If you ever sit around and fantasize, it’s your soap operas. That’s the same as lust folks a way you want to look at it. It’s lust, whether it’s male or female, that make an ounce of difference, it’s lust. And it’s the same as adultery. And so how many of us can live up under just those two? Just those two? And the answer that is no one. And if you violated the least of these my commands, how many did James say you’re guilty of breaking? all of them. Now how many of us are going to be able to stand before a perfect, holy God and say, I am perfect, and I am holy, through my actions, all of my life, all my life? He say, well, that’s not fair. Bob, it just it just how you been lately? No, no, it says if you violated the least of these my commandments, as long as you’ve been alive, you violated all of them. So folks, what did God do? Well, he came to show us our hypocrisy.

And you take a look at again what Jesus spoke to us in Matthew 23:25. Woe to you teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites. You clean the outside of the cup and dish but inside they’re full of greed and self indulgence. In other words, you got the outside of your cup clean, but on the inside, it’s dirty in there. You’re gonna realize, look inside of you and me, it’s dark in there. If it wasn’t for the light of Christ Jesus, who the one who is light living inside of me, it’s dark in there. Christ is the light of the world light has no meaning at all, unless there was darkness, you wouldn’t even know you were in light if there wasn’t darkness. And so it’s dark in and of ourselves. That’s darkness. But he translated us from that darkness into the light of his own Son. Man looks on now outside God looks on the heart. And what God is saying to us is my looking at what you’re thinking, not just what you’re doing, folks, what you’re thinking. And I see some time my responses as a Christian, and I’m not just talking as a non Christian, you ought to have sense enough to realize, as a non Christian, for sure, you cannot live up to the righteous requirements of God. But you see, we’ve set up all kinds of religious systems to do what? only to keep ourselves forgiven, never to change your hearts. There isn’t a religion out there designed to change your heart just to keep yourself forgiving. And so that’s what religion is for, keep yourself forgiven. And if you get yourself forgiven, you’re qualified to take the Lord’s Supper, if you get yourself forgiven, why then you’re qualified to be in this assembly. If you get yourself forgiven while you’re then and you’re really a forgiving person, you can get named on the deacon board if you’ve got enough money. And then if you if you can keep yourself forgiven, well, you may be an elder someday, there isn’t a thing about a changed heart or maturity and in love, nothing along that it’s just religion. And Jesus is saying, Folks, that is not gonna get it. So anybody who’s lost ought to come to grips with the realization that doesn’t save anybody you know, full well, you’re not saved in that. In that case, that’s why you’re still trying to get saved, you’re still trying to work for acceptance. If you had already received acceptance, why would you still be working for and so you come to Christ, empty handed God doesn’t want what’s in your hands, he wants your hands and you come to him empty handed. And you and you admit to Him Lord, I can I I’m a sinner, I violated all of these commands according to your to your law and did. I didn’t realize that I’m dead, and you’re offering me your life. I accept that I want you to come in and be my life. Come in and take over my life. Be my Lord, be my savior.

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.