Radio Broadcast Tuesday 01/17/2023

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Law & Grace P43 (01-17-23)

Those In Christ Jesus Have Been Set Free From the Law of Sin and Death!

~ “I don’t think there’s a more important thing for us to get a grasp on Bob than what we’re talking about right now. Because it’s the thing that causes the conflict and people sitting bound, doubting their salvation and everything else. And especially with teaching that sometimes takes place that if you’re truly born again, why you’ll never sin again, and you’ll never have a experience a desire to sin again, and all that type of thing, which is just utter nonsense. And so what you’re what you are dealing with folks, is the fact that we are left with these bodies of ours, with something called indwelling sin living in these bodies of ours, it’s no longer I, And who am I? Well, I’m a child of the living God. That’s who you are. If you are in Christ Jesus, you’re a child of the living God. But there’s new identity this new you this being born again of the Spirit whereby God’s Spirit has now come to take up residence in your human spirit, restoring you to true humanity, restoring you to a position that, quite frankly, prior to the cross and to the resurrection and to Pentecost was never true of anyone, and that was having God’s life living in you with the impossibility of it ever departing from you. Because the only thing could ever cause the Spirit of God to depart from man is sin. And all of your sins placed at the cross 2000 years ago, is what prohibits God from vacating your spirit today, when you do sin. And so we’re a unique people. And we’re very blessed people, because we have been given a life now that is called eternal life. And that’s a life that can never depart from us again. Because the thing that caused death to begin with has been dealt with now once and for all at the cross. And therefore there’s nothing left to cause the Spirit of God to depart from you and me. Now, that is good news. And when we’re born again, we are born again forever of what? the Spirit now that Spirit lives in his body of ours, that is headed towards the grave. It is decaying, the body is not good news. It’s not being regenerated. It’s not improving, it’s sagging and bagging and headed toward Six Feet Under Sunday, or to be burnt, whichever one, whichever way your body will ultimately be disposed of, or maybe you’ll drown and just live out the rest of your bodily life in the ocean. But wherever your body goes, it’s dead.”

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
Before we pick up in the passage that where we left off, and we’re going to pick up in Titus 2:11, through 14. But before we do that, I would like for us to spend a little bit of time dealing with this Romans eight passage, which were the last three passages that we dealt with before going off of the air last Friday. In Romans eight, nine we talked about, you’re not controlled by the flesh, which is under the law, but by the Spirit if the Spirit of God lives in you, and if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he doesn’t belong to Christ. And then we talked about Galatians 5:18, if you are led by the Spirit, you’re not under the law. And then of course, 8:14 In Romans, those who are led by the Spirit are sons of God, what I’d like for us to do is to put those passages in context, because Romans 5,6,7, and eight, I quite frankly, believe that if we will get a handle on those four passage, or those four chapters in the Scripture, we really are going to have a handle on what the exchange life is all about. And so it is worthy of us just taking timed in the context, to go through these passages of Scripture, and even more importantly, to go through the chapters that are dealing with these particular issues. So what I’m going to do is to pick up in chapter eight, in the book of Romans, and which, of course, encompasses the passage, Romans eight nine that we were dealing with, and 8:14 as well. But I want to I want to put all of that in context.

Paul, in Romans seven is talking about the struggle that you and I have, under the law, under the law, the things you want to do, you don’t do and the things you don’t want to do. You do and you do anyway. And as Paul says in, in verse 18, chapter seven, I know that nothing good lives in me that is in my sinful nature, or in my flesh, for I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. And folks, it isn’t the case that each and every one of us have a desire to do what is right. But the carrying out of that desire is a horse of a different color. What I do is not the good that I want to do and know the evil that I do not want to do. This I keep on doing. And that, quite frankly, is a picture of each and every one of us under the law. And because we have a tendency to vacillate back and forth from the law to grace, it would be an experience of each and every one of us even to this very day, at certain times in our life, the things you want to do, you don’t and the things you don’t want to do, you do anyway. Now he tells you the problem, what the problem is for, if I do what I don’t want to do, it’s no longer I who do it, but it’s sin living in me that does it. We live in the world today of the of the blame game. We’d like to blame mother. We want to blame our background. We want to blame our parents. We want to blame our schools. We want to blame the way we were raised. We want to blame everything else for our own misery. And Bob, when you stop to think about it, why would I want to blame anybody for anything? Unless I was miserable? I mean, how many of us say how are you doing Bob? Say man fantastic. I’ll tell you the joy of the Lord is unbelievable. And man, it’s all my mom’s fault. I mean, a when you are experiencing joy inside, are you blaming somebody for something? Well, of course you’re not. So when are you going to blame somebody? when you’re miserable inside. So the whole issue comes down well, am I miserable because of them? Or am I miserable and therefore want to blame them? Well, Paul is saying that, again, this misery that really comes within us comes from this dilemma that we’re in that the things you want to do you don’t the things you don’t want to do you do anyway. You want to do good but you can’t carry it out. And he tells us what the solution is if you want to have a blame game, we’ve got one folks, and it’s not somebody else. It’s something living inside of us. He says, If I do what I don’t want to do, it’s no longer I who do it, but it’s sin living in me that does it. And if you are indeed a child of God, and as a child of God, you’re going to have the desire to do what is right. But you’re also going to find out that you’ve got something living inside of you that could care less about doing something that is right. And there’s a conflict that is taking place in there. And that conflict is not you and your identity as a child of God, it’s something foreign to you being a child of God, and that is something living inside of your body called indwelling sin. It’s sin living in me, that does it. Well, folks, doesn’t that feel good, I really, I got a legitimate blame game. It’s no longer I who do it. It’s sin living in me, it almost sounds like a cop out. But it isn’t a cop out because I am not blaming someone outside of myself. Now I’m not sitting there blaming you say, Bob, the reason that I’m miserable because that’ll Bob Davis sitting over there, or because of Eric or because of Bob Christopher. So because my wife because my mother, my father, my background, out there, somebody out there, and I said, No, the problem is, is in you, it’s contained in your body. And so you don’t need to go any further than that. But you have a new identity if you’re a child of God. And so as a child of God, those desires are not coming from the new you. They’re coming from the flesh, they’re coming from sin that is living inside of you, and will be living inside of you until the day that you’re absent from this body. Therefore, being freed from the indwelling sin that does not live in your spirit lives in your body. And that’s the only time you’re going to be free from this. So if you really want to get free from sin, you know what’s gonna have to happen to you, you’re gonna have to leave this earth, you’re gonna have to die. But as long as you’re here on this earth, you are going to be under this dilemma of the new you the one that now as a child of God wants to do what is right, but cannot carry it out in the energy of your own flesh. And you find out that, that when you want to do good, evil is right there with you, convincing you to do wrong. And this Paul says, I keep on doing.

Now he says the problem that is there is this thing called indwelling sin when you’re born again, my friend, you are born again of the Spirit, you are spiritually made alive. You are a spiritual being, God made you made man in His image. God does not have flesh and blood, God is Spirit and you must worship Him in spirit and in truth. So the image that you are made in God was is not that you have two eyeballs, and ears and a nose. It’s the fact that he made and created man to be a spiritual being in his spiritual image. And he designed man in such a way whereby you have a human spirit. That’s the humanity of you. And that human spirit was designed and made by God to be indwelt, by his Spirit, so that you are a reflection of the spiritual aspect, the spiritual identity, that you truly are as it as a living being. Now on the day that man fell in the Spirit of God departed from man, we had to take upon another identity because we could not call ourselves child children of God any longer when we’re no longer in dwelt, by God, our Creator, we cannot say that I am led by our Creator, because we have vacated ourselves from our Creator and now are under the influence of the flesh, the world, the flesh and the devil. And so when we are born again, we’re born again of the Spirit, and that spirit comes to take up residence in you, but the residence that he lives in is a house that contains spiritual termites.

I don’t think there’s a more important thing for us to get a grasp on Bob than what we’re talking about right now. Because it’s the thing that causes the conflict and people sitting bound, doubting their salvation and everything else. And especially with teaching that sometimes takes place that if you’re truly born again, why you’ll never sin again, and you’ll never have a experience a desire to sin again, and all that type of thing, which is just utter nonsense. And so what you’re what you are dealing with folks, is the fact that we are left with these bodies of ours, with something called indwelling sin living in these bodies of ours, it’s no longer I, And who am I? Well, I’m a child of the living God. That’s who you are. If you are in Christ Jesus, you’re a child of the living God. But there’s new identity this new you this being born again of the Spirit whereby God’s Spirit has now come to take up residence in your human spirit, restoring you to true humanity, restoring you to a position that, quite frankly, prior to the cross and to the resurrection and to Pentecost was never true of anyone, and that was having God’s life living in you with the impossibility of it ever departing from you. Because the only thing could ever cause the Spirit of God to depart from man is sin. And all of your sins placed at the cross 2000 years ago, is what prohibits God from vacating your spirit today, when you do sin. And so we’re a unique people. And we’re very blessed people, because we have been given a life now that is called eternal life. And that’s a life that can never depart from us again. Because the thing that caused death to begin with has been dealt with now once and for all at the cross. And therefore there’s nothing left to cause the Spirit of God to depart from you and me. Now, that is good news. And when we’re born again, we are born again forever of what? the Spirit now that Spirit lives in his body of ours, that is headed towards the grave. It is decaying, the body is not good news. It’s not being regenerated. It’s not improving, it’s sagging and bagging and headed toward Six Feet Under Sunday, or to be burnt, whichever one, whichever way your body will ultimately be disposed of, or maybe you’ll drown and just live out the rest of your bodily life in the ocean. But wherever your body goes, it’s dead.

Now, he goes ahead to say that if I do what I don’t want to do, if I do, and I don’t want to do, it’s no longer I who do it, but it’s in living in Me that does it. So there’s a law at work, Paul says, When I want to do good, and if you’re a child of the living God, that is a desire of ours. But there’s something right there with me. And it’s called Evil indwelling sin that is evil as can be living right there with us. In my inner being, in other words, in my spirit, where God and I live together, I delight in, in God’s law. And what you’re talking about there is the law that has been given to us, which is the law of love. And it’s talking about the fact I did light in this, but I see another law at work, were? in the members of my body. And that law that is at work in the members of my body is the law that when you want to do good, you don’t when you don’t want to do good, you do it anyway. Or when you want to do bad, you go ahead and carry that out you you want to do good, but you can’t carry that out. That’s a law that’s at work within where? the members of your body. And it says that law is waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. So you’ve got a law there that indwelling sin lives within these bodies of ours. And that indwelling sin that is living there is at war against the law of my mind. In other words within my mind, I have two available inputs into my mind today. As a child of God, Jesus lives there. The Holy Spirit of God came to live inside of you and me in order to lead us into all truth. Teach us the things of Christ Jesus, take the things of mine, Jesus said and make them known unto you. And so the Spirit of God is living there for the purpose of renewing your mind.

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Bob George 14:00
Why does my mind need renewed? because it’s full of garbage. Why does my mind need to be enlightened? Because it’s unenlightened. Why does my mind why is my mind so important? Because as a man thinks, so is he. And so you see a law that is taking place, there’s a war that is taking place, with my mind and in my mind. And it says that this law that is at work within the members of my body is waging war, against the law in my mind against the law, that is that Christ now lives in me and is there to renew my mind. There’s a war against Jesus input and the input of the world. And this, this, this bodily, this worldly thing that I’m continually being exposed to, it says is making me a prisoner of the law at sin at work within my members. In other words, there is a degree folks in which We are imprisoned in this body of ours, the Spirit of God is like imprisoned in a body that is contrary to us. It would be like an innocent person imprisoned in a, in a in a jail. Like a person who is totally innocent, convicted of a terrible crime and sentenced to life in prison. What is that? that’s someone totally innocent, imprisoned in a prison where he doesn’t belong. But he’s got to learn to live there. He’s in it, but he’s not offered. He doesn’t deserve to be there, it’s just the case, that’s where he’s going to have to live his life. And Bob, if you were a born again, Christian, totally innocent of a crime that was charged against you. And you were condemned to live in a prison for the rest of your life. And the law stated it, there is there’s no getting out. You’re just gonna have to adopt to the fact that I’m in prison, I don’t deserve to be here. I was not guilty. But I’m in prison. And so I’m going to make the best of it. It’s where I’m going to have to live. Well, it’s similar to that as a child of God that as a person who is born again, spiritually, I am forced, if I’m going to live here on this earth to live in prison in a body that contains indwelling sin. And so therefore, when you if you’re a totally innocent person, but you’ve been condemned to a prison, how are you going to be treated? like a prisoner. And that’s not fair. But but that’s the system. And so there’s going to be a conflict, because there’s people treating you like you’re guilty when the fact of the matter is that you’re innocent. That’s where your body treats you. And it says that, that this law is at work within the members of my body, waging war against the law, my mind and making me a prisoner now, because that’s where I live of the law of sin at work within my members. And he says, What a wretched man that I am, who will rescue me from this body of death, where am I ever going to be rescued from? And the only answer to that, folks is not to go to therapy. It isn’t to take drugs. It isn’t to think positive. It isn’t to develop a positive mental attitude. It isn’t to make some promises that it is that isn’t going to happen anymore. It isn’t that I’m going to live now by principles, or I’m going to live by the law. There is only one solution to this conflict that we are in. And folks. And there is a sense in which we did not put ourselves in this conflict. We were born into this world, totally under the influence of sin and death. We were born into this world, under the law. And so as a person born dead spiritually, the very moment that I chose spiritual life, I became alive spiritually, but again, imprisoned in this body of sin and death, and this body of mind is still going to die. And it says, there is a conflict there is there’s conflict between this an indwelling sin that’s screeching out to my mind to fulfill the the less of its flesh. And then there is the voice of God that is continually screaming out to my mind to walk in the newness of life. But there’s a conflict there in there, folks. Now, you see, when we recognize that conflict, we realize that I have a problem much deeper than what I am doing. And that is you have a problem as to who you are. I am a child of the living God born spiritually in dwelt in a human prison. And I can look at that and say, wretched man that I am, who’s going to free me from this body of sin and death? And folks, have you ever asked yourself that question? Have you ever been to a point in your life where you’ve wondered about this conflict that you have, as a human being? Do you see yourself that, that, in essence, you are helpless and hopeless under that situation? If you have to correct it in the energy of your own flesh in accordance with what you do? You find yourself I don’t know how to do that. Any more than if you found yourself to have terminal cancer that you could develop something internally to cure that you’re in a wretched state.

Religion Bob keeps you constantly dealing with what that flesh is doing. constantly dealing with what the flow she’s doing. As a matter of fact, religion keeps you dealing with what the flesh is doing both what we would consider evil and religious, because religion functions out of the flesh, not out of the spirit. Life functions out of the spirit, God’s Spirit and everything to do with religion. It’s only the flesh that practices religion, whereby the flesh can either condemn itself for doing bad or praise itself for how wonderful we are. In both cases, the prayer, the praise, and the condemnation is at least placed in the right spot towards you, because God and everything at all do with any of that, that’s just you and what you’re doing. And we have to realize that religion will always deal in behavior, whereby Christ came to cure a condition. And there is a condition that we are in as a born again, Christian, there was a condition we were in before we were born again, we were absolutely without hope. We were absolutely without the life of the Spirit of God living in us, and to be pitied of all people. Now as a born again, Christian, alive, spiritually prisoned imprisoned in his body of ours. We asked the question, who’s going to rescue me from this? There was one answer in verse 25. Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ, our Lord, period. Folks, that’s when we come to understand that I don’t need Jesus just when I sin, I need Jesus every moment of the day. Because as long as I have something called indwelling, sin living in me, I cannot cure that it can only be controlled, and it can only be controlled by the Christ, who lives in me.

The the issue of this whole area of teaching is the fact that folks, you and I have a problem much bigger than what we do. It’s a problem of who we are. That’s not a problem before in Christ were a child of God. But it is a problem as to where that child of God has to live. And that’s imprisoned in this body of ours that contains His indwelling sin that creates the conflict that we’re talking about. But the only solution to indwelling sin, we are no match for Satan, folks. We’re no match, it cannot be cured by positive thinking. As I said, it cannot be cured by your promises. It cannot be cured by your commitments. You can see that by people answering all their calls every week, it cannot be cured by trying to obey the law because you can’t, it cannot be cured by living by all kinds of principles. It has to be cured by a life. This is a living thing living inside of us and dwelling sin is alive, it lives in us. And the only thing can control a living sin is a living God. And that’s why Paul was able to say, who will rescue me from his body of death? and there’s only one solution to it. It’s not a thing, it’s a person, and that person is Jesus Christ our Lord. So he goes ahead to say so then I myself, and in other words, the new me, in my mind, in my reasoning in my spirit, I’m a slave to God’s law, and that’s the God that’s the law of love. I’m a slave to God’s will. I want to know His will, I want to do it. But in my flesh and my sinful nature, and by flesh, I’m a slave to the law of sin. In other words, those indwelling sin living in my body is never going to want to do anything except sin. And so there’s the conflict.

Now, here’s the good news. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Because through Christ Jesus, the law of the Spirit of Life, set me free from the law of sin and death. Under the law, the wages of sin is death. And the gift of God is life. There was no human solution to that, folks, there was only a godly solution, and that is through the only one who could give you and me life and that’s Christ Jesus. Why? verse three For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature. What was the law powerless to do? We talked about that a couple of weeks ago, it was powerless to bring life. If life could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing. It was powerless to bring righteousness to a person. It was powerless to bring justification, if we could be justified through the law again, that Christ died for nothing. It could not do anything good. It could only condemn. So what the law was powerless to do and that it was weakened by us ourselves. He said God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so He condemned sin in sinful man, in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met now in us who do not live any longer according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. So in other words, if you’re in Christ, you don’t live anymore according to the flesh, I don’t have to live according to the law of sin and death, because I’m not under the law of sin and death anymore. Thank God that is a hopeless condition. I am not under that anymore. I am under the law of life. Now those that says who live according to the flesh or to the sinful nature, have their mind set on what that nature desires. When you live, separate from the Spirit of God living in you, your mind has to be totally set on what the only nature that you have desires, and that sin, but those who live in accordance with the Spirit, why they have their mind set on what the Spirit desires, the mind of the flesh of the sinful man, the mind on the flesh is death. But the mind control by the Spirit is life and peace. The sinful man is hostile to God. It doesn’t submit the God’s law, nor can it do so. And those controlled by that flesh or that sinful nature, cannot please God without faith. It’s impossible to please God and you don’t live by faith, under the law last, you live by the law, you don’t live by faith you live by obedience or disobedience. Now, it goes ahead to say that you, however, are not controlled by the flesh, but by the Spirit if the Spirit of God lives in you. So folks, if the Spirit of God lives in you, then you have the total capability of being controlled by that spirit. In other words, when I’m lost, I had no ability at all to be controlled by the Spirit, I wasn’t even enveloped by the Spirit. But now that the Spirit of God has come to live within you, you have the wherewithal to be controlled now by the Spirit of God.

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.