Radio Broadcast Tuesday 01/10/2023

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Law & Grace P40 (01-10-23)

Jesus Forgave (Past Tense) The Sins of the Whole World!

~ “And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.” ^{1 John 2:2}

~ Yet, so many people do not believe or teach this. They want to implement their own plan for forgiveness, instead of trusting in God and His plan of forgiveness and eternal life by faith in Him and His finished work on the cross. Jesus said it is FINISHED! Now believe it and receive His Eternal Life in you.

~ “In Him, in Jesus, who was a part of this master plan, in Jesus, we have redemption through his blood. We have been redeemed, bought back, redeemed through his blood. You note it does not say that we have been redeemed through our actions, but it’s through his action through his blood. In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of man’s confession? Is that what it says? No, no, no, that was not a part of God’s plan. We are redeemed and forgiven, in accordance with the riches of God’s plan, not ours. His. Now egotistical man says I don’t like your plan. I like mine better. I don’t want to be redeemed and I don’t want to be a forgiven person in accordance with the riches of your plan. I want to be redeemed and be forgiven in accordance with the riches of my plan. Now when we look at it this way, we it gets everything in proper perspective, because grace is one of those nebulous terms that it could mean anything you want to. But if you see what grace is, it came to us as a result of God’s master plan, then what we’re saying is I don’t like your plan. I’m not gonna say I don’t like Grace, because nobody knows for sure what it means. So I’m just gonna say, Well, yeah, grace is fine. But grace means that, that I need to confess to get forgiven. And God said, that is not only not what grace means, but that it was not my plan from the beginning, you had nothing to do with my plan. My plan is my plan. It’s by my plan that you’re saved through faith, not that of yourselves. It’s a gift, not as a result of any works that you do, so that you won’t be boasting, because the minute that you do have ways that you enter into this equation, you will be boasting. So it tells us something about what God knows about us. In him, we have redemption, through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, and that is in accordance with the riches of God’s grace or in accordance with the riches of God’s master plan that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.”

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

I always say that when someone else disobeys the law, I want justice. When I disobey it. I want mercy. Mercy. Yeah. And we want mercy and God is the God of mercy. And yet we are in many instances, the most unmerciful people on the face of the earth, we have no compassion for each other. We will absolutely slander each other demoralize each other, knocked the daylights out of each other. It’s an amazing thing, how if a person goes out and murderers are one on one, you put him in prison for life. But if you murder with a whole bunch of people, like in war you make heroes out of people. It’s strange, but that’s how we are as man. It’s how inconsistent we are as men. And so because of His great love for us, God who is rich and mercy, a part of this plan because of his love for us because of His mercy. He said I’m gonna develop a plan in order to restore these people. Bob That is unbelievable. When you think about that. It seems like that God who is so rich in mercy, but we think so much about many of his other characteristics. He is absolutely holy, absolutely righteous, absolutely pure. Absolutely power. He has power to do anything that he wants to do. And yet he said He’s big enough to create the world and yet small enough to live in your in your in my heart. And you say, like the psalmist, Lord, who are we that you should be mindful of us? And that is an unbelievable question. Why would God want to mess with us? I say before, it’s a good thing, I’m not God, I’d wipe half the population off the earth, you know, because it’s not gonna mess with those people, you know, not worth it. And that’s how we are. And we have people who play God in other people’s life and make determinations, this person isn’t worth living. He’s not worth you know, this guy isn’t worth having a ministry, this guy isn’t worth existing, this guy isn’t worth this, let’s eradicate it, let’s get rid of him. Is that the mind of God? Well, of course it isn’t. It’s a mind of the very opposite of God, which is Satan. God is rich in mercy. He’s loving, he’s kind. And so because of this love for us, he developed this plan. And this plan was to make us alive with Christ, even when we were dead in transgression. So it’s not just looking down with mercy on us, but who wants to be around a bunch of corpse. Of course, you know, say, I’m gonna go and take those dead bodies and do something with them. But that’s what God wanted to do. So a part of his plan was these people are dead in their transgressions, they are spiritually dead. And I’m going to develop a plan in order to make them alive. Now there’s the problem of man, is not how sinful we are. And that’s what religion does. It concentrates on the fruit instead of the root. All religion does.

Religion is always concentrating on outward behavior, whereby God deals with your inward condition. God is not concerned with your outward behavior, because he knows that that outward behavior is as a result of your inward condition. And so until you change the condition, what good is it? Do you need to change the behavior until a man’s heart is changed, why would you need to change his actions? Because all you do have is a nice acting hard hearted human being. But he can learn to act nice, just like an actor can learn to act. And so God is dealing with our conditions, not our behavior, but our condition, our heart condition. And so God who is rich and mercy sees beyond the outward and goes to the inward and says, Those people are not worth that their condition that they are in is not worth trying to preserve, they need something new. I can’t make anything good out of that person. As they are, I’m gonna give them something new. I’m gonna give them new heart, that old heart isn’t worth saving, gonna give them a new one. And that’s what new birth is all about. Now, it’s my his plan. That is the grace of God, God’s master plan is grace. It’s all gift. It’s a gift of God. And it’s by this plan that you have been saved.

Now, let’s go over to Ephesians, one, seven and eight. In Him, in Jesus, who was a part of this master plan, in Jesus, we have redemption through his blood. We have been redeemed, bought back, redeemed through his blood. You note it does not say that we have been redeemed through our actions, but it’s through his action through his blood. In Him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of man’s confession? Is that what it says? No, no, no, that was not a part of God’s plan. We are redeemed and forgiven, in accordance with the riches of God’s plan, not ours. His. Now egotistical man says I don’t like your plan. I like mine better. I don’t want to be redeemed and I don’t want to be a forgiven person in accordance with the riches of your plan. I want to be redeemed and be forgiven in accordance with the riches of my plan. Now when we look at it this way, we it gets everything in proper perspective, because grace is one of those nebulous terms that it could mean anything you want to. But if you see what grace is, it came to us as a result of God’s master plan, then what we’re saying is I don’t like your plan. I’m not gonna say I don’t like Grace, because nobody knows for sure what it means. So I’m just gonna say, Well, yeah, grace is fine. But grace means that, that I need to confess to get forgiven. And God said, that is not only not what grace means, but that it was not my plan from the beginning, you had nothing to do with my plan. My plan is my plan. It’s by my plan that you’re saved through faith, not that of yourselves. It’s a gift, not as a result of any works that you do, so that you won’t be boasting, because the minute that you do have ways that you enter into this equation, you will be boasting. So it tells us something about what God knows about us. In him, we have redemption, through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, and that is in accordance with the riches of God’s grace or in accordance with the riches of God’s master plan that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

We’re studying for a moment in Ephesians one, verse seven and eight. In Him, we have redemption through his blood. Now, I want to ask you a question. Those of you that are listening to me right now, are you in him? And I say, Well, what does that mean? It means are you in him? As a result of him being in you? Have you come to a point in your life, where you recognized your absolute condition, and have received his absolute provision? In other words, have you seen the absolute depravity of your ability to ever achieve righteousness through your own works? Have you come to a point in your life of realizing what Paul did that the things that you want to do you can’t do? And the things that you don’t want to do? You do them anyway. Have you come to a point in your life where you recognize that all of my deeds and all of my activities, I’m still bouncing prayers off of the ceiling, that I have no personal relationship with the Living God. I know about him, just like I might know about the President of the United States. But I don’t know him. I realized that he existed on this earth, I believe that just like I believed that Abraham Lincoln and George Washington existed on this earth. But I didn’t know them. I’ve read about them, but I don’t know them. And so we realized that I have a need, I realized that I’m a sinner, I realized that if I am a sinner, and if I am under the law of sin and death, than I am also what God said, was dead, dead in my sins and the uncircumcision of my sinful nature. If that is true, that I am dead spiritually, then now I see the true essence of my condition. And that is spiritual death. Before I was only looking at what I was doing, and as the scripture says, once you are alienated in your own minds, not in God’s minds, but in your minds, once you’re alienated in your own minds, by your behavior, but now you have been reconciled to God through Christ, physical death, in order to bring you to God.

So in other words, we have camped upon our behavior. And God has to show us that there’s something more drastic than our behavior. And that’s our condition. And that our behavior is because of our condition, that you cannot expect living things out of a dead spirit. And so we come to grips with our true spiritual condition. And folks, I want to say to you that the joining of a local congregational church, local church, whether it be a Protestant church, a Catholic church, a Buddhist temple, a Muslim temple, or a Jewish synagogue cannot give you a relationship with a living God. You don’t come in contact with spirit by joining a physical organization. No man is ever born into God by being born from mom and dad. Your ancestry has nothing to do with your relationship with God. There is no church that can bring you salvation, no synagogue that can bring you salvation, no temple that can bring you salvation. Those are man made organizations. And so we have to come to grips with the with that fact. So no one is being anti Catholic, anti Protestant, anti Buddhist, anti Muslim, all of us are dead, regardless of where we place our bodies on Saturday or Sunday. All of us are spiritually dead, born into this world spiritually dead until such time that we recognize what God said about us. Not what Buddha said about us, not what Mohammed said about us, not what the Pope says about us, or not what a Protestant preacher says about us, including myself. But what does God say about you? And God says, All have sinned, all have fallen short of the glory of God. There is none righteous, no, not one. We are all dead in our sins. So he’s let us see our condition, because apart from that, we cannot see our spiritual condition anymore, then we can see our physical condition until an x-ray many times is put on us. We can be sitting there possibly not feeling too well. But we do not know that we may have cancer inside of us until someone takes an x-ray and discovers that you have cancer growing inside of you. You didn’t know it. You just know you didn’t feel quite right. Well, it’s the same thing with religion. We can sit there and say, Well, I’m practicing all this religion but there’s I just don’t feel real right? And so God shines his spiritual x-ray on you and let you know why you’re not feeling too well. It’s because you have spiritual cancer. It’s called death.

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Bob George 14:20
And so we come to a point in our life where we see our spiritual condition of being dead. And we hear the voice of God that says, Bob, your problem of your sins was taken care of 2000 years ago at the cross when I came to this earth and took upon myself your humanity, and I took that humanity to the cross. And there at that cross I Who knew no sin became sin for you. So that in me you could become the righteousness of God. And I took away your sins once and for all. I did that for every human being on the face of this earth, not only back to Adam but forward To all eternity, there is no one exempt. I died for the vilest, just like I died for the most self righteous, because as far as I’m concerned, all of them have sinned. And all of them have fallen short of the glory of God. And there is none righteous, no, not one. So it doesn’t make any difference, whether you’re an unrighteous person doing a lot of good deeds, or an unrighteous person who have done vile deeds, all of you are dead. And I came to give you life, and I’m offering that life to you, I came that you might have life, because you’re dead. And you can either choose because I did give you a free will. And you can either choose to remain dead, you can choose to say I don’t like your plan of forgiveness, I’m going to keep exercising my own. After all, my priest told me that this was the way it is. My Protestant preacher told me this is the way it is, my Buddhist monk told me this is way it is, or whoever else it might be. And I’m going to believe them. And God says that your choice, but you’re going to die in your sins. You see, folks, when God had a plan for man, I said, he didn’t consult man, we have to understand that. And when God has a plan, man, puny little man didn’t sit down here and say, God, it didn’t like that plan of yours too well, I’m gonna change it. I’m sorry, you can’t do an amendment to God’s plan. He knows us. He knows precisely what we need and how we need it. And so he developed the plan. It’s called a plan of grace. Now, at that moment that we understand this, we invite the living Christ to come into our hearts as our personal Lord and Savior. I’ve recognized my condition, I’ve accepted His provision by faith alone. And I was able to say, Lord Jesus, I thank You that You died for the forgiveness of my sins. I thank you that you’re offering me your life. I accept you into my heart as my Lord and Savior, take control my life, apart from you, I can do nothing. I thank you, you’ll never leave me nor forsake me. I thank you that you’re going to complete the work you begin in me, I thank you for giving me eternal life. And we’re born again. Now at that very moment, the Spirit of God comes to live within you bringing Jesus to your heart. And it then says that the Spirit of God baptizes, or places you into the body of Christ, that’s why you are a part of the body of Christ, just like I am a part of the body of Christ, we have the same head, but many parts to the body. Now, that’s what it means to be in him. He comes to live in you, that’s Christ in you your hope of glory, and then places you in him, that you in him as the body of Christ, it’s a completed deal. He’s in me, I’m in him.

Now, if you are in Him, you have something according to Ephesians, one, seven, and eight, plus the entirety of the New Testament. In Him, you have redemption, through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace, or in accordance with the riches of God’s plan, that He lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. Now again, when asked you the question, are you in him? Then what do you have? Well, what’s the scripture say? Well it says you have redemption. What else? Does it say that you have? forgiveness of sins. Now, if you have something, then can you get what you already have? I asked you a question. And I asked some of these people who take exception with the teaching in regard to the finality of the Cross, which makes you wonder why you can put across on top of your church, if you don’t believe in the finality of it. You ought to put a bull and goat up there and keep going back to it. Do you have redemption? Are you in Christ? How many of you ask God to redeem you every day? How many every time you sin, you ask God to redeem you again? Buy me back again, Lord, evidently got out of some fellowship, relationship, something got out of something. So I want you to buy me back again. How many of you do that? How many of you get down on your knees at night and say, oh, Lord, please redeem me. Again. Thank you very much for redemption. How many of you walk aisles over and over and over again to get redeemed? I don’t hear anybody coming back. I don’t think it’s just because we don’t have any phone lines open. I think anyone who’s listening to me would say, not me, I don’t ask God to redeem me again. You say, Why don’t you? Well, because I’m already redeemed. Well, take another look at this verse in him, what do you have? redemption. That’s how that’s how you know you’re already redeemed. And you have that redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin. So if you are redeemed already, then why would you not think that you’re forgiven already? And if you don’t ask Christ to redeem you every day because you’re in him and if you’re in him, you have redemption, then why would you ask God to forgive you every day? If in him, you are forgiven. Not in accordance with the riches of your confession, but it according to the riches of God’s plan, his grace, that He lavished upon you with all wisdom and understanding. So it’s a good question.

Well, we’re talking about God’s plan, aren’t we? over and above ours. And so again, if you are in Him, and you’ve been redeemed through his blood, you’re not redeemed through your confession, you’re redeemed through his blood, you’re redeemed by faith in his blood. You’re also forgiven by faith in his blood. You’re not redeemed over and over again, nor are you forgiven over and over again, you are forgiven in accordance with the riches of God’s plan, which was Jesus dying once and for all stated very clearly in the book of Hebrews, in regard to the New Covenant by that one offering, he made forever perfect in the sight of God, those whom he has made holy. He took away your sins, unlike the high priests that had to, that had to perform his religious duties over and over and over and over again, which could never enable a believer to draw near to God in perfect completed worship. So it’s as clear as a bell folks what Christ came to do. He said, I’m not coming to die over and over again for your sins. When I return, he says, I’m not coming to bear sin, but to bring salvation for those awaiting on me, Why isn’t he coming to bear sin? It’s already done that I’m not gonna do that, again. I suffered once, it should be enough for you. And so that one act by the blood of God, not the blood of a bull and goat, but the blood of God himself, was of such value that it was able to take away the sins of the entire world. That’s God’s plan. Our plans, and no, no, that’s not right. I don’t go to my confession booth, I want to do my altar calls, I want to do this, I want to go back from a Day of Atonement. And that’s man’s plan. And he said, and that was the problem wasn’t not that instead of accepting the righteousness that comes from God, were told that they sought to establish their own. And that’s what we’re doing. We said, I’m not going to by God’s plan, I’m going to establish my own. And so we’ve come up with our first John one nine mentality of getting forgiveness through our confession, instead of confessing because of our forgiveness. Everything spiritual dyslexia, everything backwards, do this, and God will, instead of God has therefore do. Now, He lavished that on us with all of his wisdom and understanding none of ours, thank God.

Now in Hebrews two, nine, and then 14 and 15, let’s see what it says. But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and honor, because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God or so that by the master plan of God, he might taste death for everyone, that was God’s plan, that he Jesus might taste death for everyone. Now, what does everyone mean? It means everyone. Amazing. In the Greek That means everyone, everyone back to Adam, forward to eternity, Jesus tasted death for everyone. Now look at this and verse 14, since the children, that you and me folks have flesh and blood, he to shared in their humanity. So in other words, God made him. In other words, in the beginning was the Word the Word was with God, the Word was God, the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us as the only begotten Son of the Father full of grace and truth. Our attitude should be like that of Christ Jesus, who though he regard did not consider equality with God, something to be grasped or held on to, but he humbled himself and became a man took upon himself our humanity. So back to the verse since the children have flesh and blood, he to share it in their humanity. So that look at this folks, by his death, he might destroy him, who holds the power of death, that is the devil. So what did Christ come to die for what was a part of the master plan of God? God had to destroy the devil. He had to destroy the one who held the POWER OF THE WAGES OF SIN being death, that is the devil and to destroy that power over the devil, so and to free those who all their lives were held slavery by their fear of death. And folks, anyone outside of Christ is a slave to a fear of death. And Christ came so that by His substitutionary death on the cross, that He might destroy satan. He Satan thought he had us. He thought when here’s God’s creation, and I know, because I heard God say that, and you could just hear Satan’s reasoning. I hear God say that on the day Adam, you eat thereof, you will surely die. And Adam didn’t even know what death was. But Satan did know what death was. Because he, as a fallen angel had already experienced death from God. So he’s the only one who knew what death was, besides God Himself. Adam didn’t he had never seen it before. And he said, Boy, if I can get him to eat of that fruit of that tree of good and evil, he’s gonna die. He’s gonna die. What was Satan’s plan for Adam and Eve? to get them to die. Why? He didn’t like God’s creation. Why? Because God placed the human being in a higher position than that of an angel. And Satan is nothing but an angel, a fallen angel. And here, he was putting this creation called man in a higher position than me. I’ll not have it, I’ll destroy that creation. And so he tempted them, to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and to become like God, and they died. And he said, I got em, I got em. I got em. I have destroyed man’s creation. And there’s no way that a man is going to go into the presence of God. So what did God do? Came up with a plan. And that plan was that his Son was going to come to this earth and walk on this earth, fulfilling the very law that killed us, and fulfilling that in its entirety, ultimately fulfilling it by becoming death for us, tasting death for everyone, and dying for the forgiveness of that. And therefore being able to give now to man, a life called eternal life that cannot be taken away from him by sin ever again because of the finality of the cross.

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.