Thanksgiving Law & Grace P2 – Bob George (11-26-20)
Synopsis
Have you ever just redefined sin as something else than what it is? You call worry a healthy concern, or adultery an affair, or homosexuality an alternative lifestyle. Have you ever lied or stolen and knew that it was sin? We can rationalize sin away by redefining it, but it is still sin. But being born into this world we are still born under the law of sin, and that sin caused our death. So then we hear about the law, or the ten commandments from church, and we think, “Hey, I can obey that!” Well, you have just lied to yourself. For it is not very long that you find yourself even coveting after something your neighbor has. And you read that coveting is sin. Then you find yourself coveting all the more. You have just discovered the law at work in your life, condemning you. The good things you know you ought to do, you find yourself not doing them and the things you do not want to do, you do them anyway. Have you discovered this body of death in you? Have you discovered how wretched you are? Have you come to the end of the law?
As you read in the book of Romans, the apostle Paul describes the purpose of the law, to show you what sin is, and that you are a sinner, and worse than that, being a sinner, you are spiritually dead. You may not call it that, but you recognize that you are empty inside, that your prayers just bounce off the ceiling. There is something missing in your life.
What is missing in you is the life of God. You were designed to live in a trusting relationship with the living God but your sins have separated you from God. But the law was also designed to lead you to a person, the person of God in Jesus Christ. Christ is the end of the law for everyone who believes. So what do you need to believe?
Jesus died on a cross to take away that barrier between you and God. He took the punishment of death for sin, the just punishment of the law for sin, for you. He did that before you were even born. He did that so you do not have to remain under the law of sin and death. You could never meet the demands of the law in the state of spiritual death, with weakened flesh that is dead to God. Love is the fulfillment of the law. Jesus did not come to obey rules and regulations. He came to love, and being God, who is perfect love, and love does its neighbor no wrong, He fulfilled all the requirements of the law in His righteousness. We do not have that kind of righteousness. We have no righteousness of our own. So we need His. He showed us what love is by dying on a cross while we were yet sinners. No greater love has any man than that.
So you respond to that love. Recognizing that He took your sins away, never to be seen again by the eyes of God, and knowing that the righteousness is in Christ Jesus, and that He has risen from the dead, and has said He is the way, the truth and the life. He who has said to come unto Me to have new life. You accept that offer of new life. You accept the grace of God, eternal life, a person, the Spirit of God in Christ Jesus, to be placed in you, and you become a new creation, a child of God, a part of the body of Christ.
So listen now as Bob shares this contrast between law and grace as he explains verse by verse in the 6th chapter of Romans. In Christ, you no longer have to let sin be your master. Why? You are no longer under the law of sin and death. You have new ownership. The Spirit of God is your new master, who loves you perfectly and has met the requirements of the law for you, so you do not have to, and He forever lives in you, always interceding for you, and to teach you and guide you into all truth. He lives in you to will and to act according to His good purposes and He has promised to complete the work He began in you, to the praise of His glory in Christ Jesus. You are seated in Christ in heavenly places. Everything that belongs to Christ is yours. Your citizenship is in heaven. You are under grace, of liberty in Christ Jesus. You are free to live in the new way of the Spirit. You no longer live but you let Christ live in you. Christ in you is your hope of glory.
Transcript
Did I know I was under the law? I did not know it. I did not pay any attention to it. But it was still true. I was under the death penalty. I was still empty inside. I did not know I was dead spiritually. But I sure knew I was empty spiritually even though I went to church on Sunday and gave my dollar a week, if I felt generous that week.
Romans 6:23
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
So you can play church over here. And you can be aware of your emptiness over here. Why? Because scripture tells us that the purpose of the law is to manifest your sinfulness and to show you that you are sinful and to show you that there is a consequence to sin called death and you are dead spiritually and in need of spiritual life. That is the purpose of the law. Not to use it as a standard of holiness because you cannot keep it. But to show you your death. Death is final, bad.
There is no spiritual life over here. You can play church. You can dress up and go to church every Sunday. You can give tithes and offerings. You can play religion. In fact that is what Satan gets you to do. Satan says “I am sure not going to teach that you are dead and there is spiritual life available to you. So I will teach you how to be religious, teach you how to dress up and look good, teach you how to lie spiritually and teach you how to evangelize. I can teach you anything.” You can be taught anything but you are dead. It is not the case of how bad you are or how good you are but how dead you are. All through scriptures, the wages of sin is what? Death.
Sin shall not be your master. When you are under law, sin is your master. He is your owner. You are just like a slave with an owner, a mean one that takes you, manipulates us, coerces in every way, shape and form. He came to steal kill and destroy.
John 10:10
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
That is Satan. That is your landlord.
Now, what is salvation? Oh, you sinned! You need your sins forgiven. No! You know we never went beyond that. “Oh, you sinned and you need your sins forgiven.” To this day that is the major teaching in Christendom. “All you need is sins forgiven because basically you are a good person?” No! You are dead. You are a stinking corpse. Dead. I do not care how nice you look. I do not care how much spiritual perfume and deodorant you put on. You are dead. “You have to be politically correct.” “That is not nice to say that about those sweet people.” Those are nice people over there. Yes. But they are dead. Obviously nice corpses around but they are dead.
We have to understand this is what God had to come to do, not just to take away your sins. Your sins are what caused your death. “So if I did not take away what caused it, why would I give you life? If I did not take away what caused it and gave you life, the next time you sinned, you would be dead again. I had to free you from that whole realm that you live in, the whole realm of it, under control as a prisoner, locked up until faith in Christ should be revealed.
Galatians 3:22-24
22 But Scripture has locked up everything under the control of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.23 Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed. 24 So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.
Who in the world is going to be capable of taking you out of that state of death into life? Is Buddha going to do it? Is Mohammad going to do it? Is any man you know going to do it? These people that get up and say this is what religion is. They are bull. All religion is junk. All of it, including the Christian religion if that is all you have is religion. It is all dung compared to that of knowing the only one whose life was capable of being laid down, totally taking away the sins of the whole world, not covering them, but taking them away and was raised from the dead so that you and I could be raised from the dead.
Romans 7:24-25
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? 25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
New citizenship. As an example, you have let us say, we have a map of the United States and at the lower end of that map. Do we have that map on the computer? On the southern end is Mexico, and on the northern end is Canada. Let us say you were born in Mexico, and in Mexico. These are just examples. In Mexico, it is a tough life. You have a tyrant as your master, and he reigns does he not? As long as you are there, he reigns. One day somebody comes and gets you, as we showed you last week with James and his wife, and picked you up and moved you over to graceland. Now no longer over here. And that is why it says you used to live here. We died to sin, shall we live in it any more? You do not live here anymore. You do not live understanding in principle that God is not dealing with you as a born again believer. James, I wish you guys get up and move again. Let us all of you move out of here. All of you who are born again, move out of here. What I am saying is you are all under the law. So when you move, you are moving out of the law. So get out of there. Empty that place out. You are over here now in graceland. I can see you better too. Now you got one couple back there that wants to stay dead. If they want to stay dead that is their choice. But you are dead under the law and if you stay there you are going to go where you want to go because you do not want to go to graceland. You want to stay under law, dead. And you have the right to do that. You have a choice to do that. But to those who said “no, I do not want to live under that law. It kills me. I want to live under grace. I want to be led internally by the Spirit of God. Now they are here, a brand new place. They moved out of Mexico and now they live in the United States. In the United States, you can choose many places to live. That is why it is called the United States because they are states united to one another. Even though different states can have different laws but all under one law called America, the United States of what? America. You are children now of the living God. You are now not a Baptist or a Presbyterian or a Methodist. Your identity is not where you park your car on Sundays or Saturdays. Your identity is who you are. You have been made into a new creation. You are over here now. You are no longer over here.
You say, “Can I go back?” No, you absolutely cannot go back any more than a butterfly can go back to being a caterpillar. He is a new creation but you can visit close by. That is what a lot of Christians do. I know I cannot go back but I will sit on this aisle over here, close enough under law. No, I am not under it but close to it for it was my friend. Heaven forbid.
Let us read this.
Romans 6:1-2
What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin;
You are over here. Where you lived, sin and death, you died to that. Guys, do you realize that God is no longer dealing with you on the basis of sin and death. Do you realize that? He is not dealing with you on the basis of sin. Not if you are over here. You say, “I did it again. ” “What again?” “The sin I committed yesterday.” “It is taken away.” “Well, the sin I am going to do tomorrow.” “It has been taken away. What are you doing with me on the sin issue? I dealt with it 2000 years ago. I dealt with it at the cross. Your sins were judged. The verdict was guilty. The punishment was death and I took it all.” That is why there is none left for you. That is why it says in the bible.
Romans 8:1-2
1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death.
Why is there no condemnation awaiting you? I deserve some condemnation. He says that is not the issue. “The issue is I dealt with it. I dealt with it in the most harsh way I knew. I crucified My Son on that cross where His blood was shed for you so that blood could be put on you and you could be identified with Him and through that identification be freed from sin. So I am not dealing with you on the basis of sin today.”
That is a far cry from that continual teaching that says, “Joe, you keep on sinning brother and God is going to get you. You keep on sinning, Jim, and God could take your business away from you. If you keep on sinning and I will take your cowboy tickets from you.” That is a far cry. That is not true. Do we deserve punishment? Yes. Do we get it? No. No condemnation.
Why? Because that was God’s plan. “I am not going to be drinking around with you for thousands of years. I am going to deal with it one time and judge it and eliminate it. To all of those who come to Christ by faith, you are under a different realm. You live in a different country. You no longer live in Mexico. You live in the United States, no longer live in Canada. You are under the rule and reign of the United States, a different ruler. Our ruler is Jesus. Their ruler was Satan. Which do you want to live in, Satan’s world or God’s world? You have a choice. Over there, what does this world bring you? Misery, doesn’t it? It sounds so good. It sounds so tempting but the end of it is death.
Romans 6:2-4
How can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
How many of you remember New Years parties when you were lost? Is that not the dumbest thing in the world? You sit around and blow these dumb things out, twirl yoru little deals and get half drunk. “Oh, what fun”, you say, but you have such a headache. “I cannot walk today.” Fun? The most boring thing you go to in your life. Boring. We make it look good. You see all this stuff on television. You see these young ladies, scantily clothed, and who say, “It is fun to be bad”. Have you ever been in that realm, giving your bodies up like a piece of chattel, like a toilet seat, and turning your bodies over to any Tom, Dick and Harry that wants to come along and use you to make you feel good? You feel like a tramp. Do not tell me you feel good. We know better. The sexual stuff going on today with teenagers is unbelievable to me, the stuff that is going on. Yet we sit back and say, “Oh, boys will be boys and girls will be girls.” Nonsense! You better teach your children and teach them that these things will drive them to destruction. Guys, and especially girls, have to live with that for the rest of their lives. Instead of men having respect for women and having the respect to treat a girl decently, that is not the thing to do anymore. That is law land. That is over there where you do not even know right from wrong. The purpose of the law is to define what sin is. We rename sin. If you rename it you can redefine it. But it is there to teach you what sin is and what the consequence of sin is.
So guys, you now live in a new realm. You live in a new location. This is called graceland. In graceland, there is no condemnation awaiting you who belong to Christ Jesus. Under graceland, you are not people who get forgiven. You are forgiven people. You are not people who asked if you are going to walk by faith because this is graceland and faith and over there is law land. Over here you are living in a new realm altogether. To ask for what you already have would be ludicrous. You have eternal life. You have been given an eternal inheritance in Christ Jesus. You have all of the promises. Everything that belongs to Christ belongs to you.
Ephesians 1:3
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
Romans 6:2-4
How can we live in it any longer? 3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
What He is saying here is that you have been identified now with Christ. You have been baptized. What is interesting is when the focus is on the physical baptism when instead it should be on the spiritual baptism.
Romans 6:3
3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
Instead of glorying in the fact you are in Christ, now we start paying attention to baptism. We put the emphasis on baptism. Well, guys, there is a physical baptism and there is a spiritual baptism. Remember what John the Baptist said.
Luke 3:16
16 John answered them all, “I baptize you with water. But one who is more powerful than I will come, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
So when you come to Christ Jesus, the Spirit of God comes to live in you, to indwell you. The bible says this.
Romans 8:9
9You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.
You cannot be saved apart from the life of Christ. The Spirit of God who now comes to live in you, baptizes or places you into His body. He is now the head. You are the body. You are not the body of Christ over here. There are only two of you over there. There is the body of Christ. There is the graveyard. Here is the body of Christ. There is the dead. Here is the living. He says to us in Romans now.
Romans 6:4
4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death
We get all hung up on the baptism instead of the fact this is an act of God. This is not an act of man. This is an act of God where he places you into His body.
Romans 6:4
in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
I am identified with the one who died to take away my sins. I am identified with the one who was buried in order to prove his death. I am identified with the one who was raised from the dead so I could be raised from the dead. I am in Christ. All that belongs to Christ belongs to me. He is seated in the heavenlies. So am I. You say, “No. You are here.” But spiritually I am there. I am already there.
Ephesians 2:4-7
4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
This negates the idea that you can lose salvation. That is nonsense. Someone tried to stop our program when we were in California. He was going to pick at the church for sponsoring us there because we teach eternal security. Dumb and dumber. Anybody who thinks you can lose salvation does not know what salvation is. You just do not know what it is because if you can lose it, it is all tied up in sin, that you can out-sin the grace of God. You cannot out-sin the grace of God. As a matter of fact, if you are in Christ, your sins are wiped away never to be seen again. So how are you going to walk away? If you are in the light as He is in the light, how are you ever going to get in darkness?
At any rate, everything that belongs to Christ is yours. That is your inheritance. Is this good news? It seems to me it should be good news.
Romans 6:5-7
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
What does it say? Anyone who has died has been freed from the law. Again, back to the discussion of law. You are not under the law. Do you understand that? If you are saved, you are not under the law. You may be saved and be stupid in your teaching and get yourself back under law, or keep yourself under the law. If you are saved you are not under it from God’s standpoint. You are just following around, just pretending you are over here but you aren’t from God’s standpoint. That is not where you are. You are over here. What are you doing hanging over there for? That killed you. Do you not know the wages of sin under law is death? That killed you. Why are you hanging onto that for? People are hanging tenaciously hanging onto that. They are either lost or have never known their identity in Christ. Never known it, Sad.
The dynamic of evangelism is not just for you to get your sins forgiven. It is the fact you have been placed into Christ. That is the dynamic God has placed you, in the Son. You are in the Son.
Galatians 2:20
20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
That is who you are. Transferred. No longer over there. It is empty. No longer there. You do not belong to that over there. Stay away from it. Rejoice in what you have.
Romans 6:8
8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
In the same way, king James uses the word “reckon”. I reckon so. Count yourself. Count on it, guys. In other words, believe it. Put your faith in it. Quit talking like you are one way over here when in essence you are still over here. Is there anything law can do to you today as a born again believer? No. Not really. Can you make it appear that he is doing something to you. You can imagine it but it is all imagination. It is not real. We believe that we live with Him. He cannot die again. He died for sin once and for all. He will not die again. Is there any more forgiveness to be executed by God on your behalf? Is there? If there was, what would He have to do? Die again. Is he going to do it? No. How many of you believe Jesus is coming back?
Hebrews 9:28
28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
What did He say He was going to do when He comes back? Is He going to come back to bear sin? No, but to bring salvation to those waiting for Him. Why is He not coming back to bear sin? It seems like there was a lot of it since He was last here. He has already done it.
The quality of the life of God. Life is in the blood. It is not just a liquid you are talking about. You are talking about the life of Christ. He laid His life down for you and me. The forfeiture of His life was of such quality that it was capable of reaching back to Adam and forward to this very day and on.
Romans 6:11-12
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
Is there sin in our mortal bodies? He says it is there, but do not let it reign. You do not need to let it reign. How does it reign? By the law. What is the reign of sin under the law? What control does that have over you? The wages of sin is death. We are not under that any more.
Romans 6:13-14
13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.
Why? Look in your bibles, folks. Here is the answer.
Romans 6:14
14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
This means that if you are under the law, sin is your master. Someone says, “Well, I know a lot of people under the law, but they are sure nice acting people.” I do not care how nice they act. That is not the issue. The bible says if you are under law, sin is your master. You are being mastered by someone other than the one who came to master you, and that is God.
