Radio Broadcast Tuesday 03/22/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Your Identity in Christ P05 (03-22-22)

God was Reconciling the World to Himself in Christ Not Counting Your Sins Against You!

Christian’s need a solid foundation upon which to base their beliefs, and build their lives. The word of God declares that Jesus Christ is that foundation of Truth with that in mind, let’s now take a Closer Look at Your Identity in Christ.

Bob: I believe that a part, of course, from understanding the deity of Christ and the finality of the Cross and the reality of the resurrected life, living in us, which is all a part of your identity, all of that ties into it, but there’s going to have to come a therefore, sooner or later. And that therefore, is I am a child of God. Or aren’t I? And if I am a child of God, what does that mean? And how do I perceive myself as a new creation? Because it certainly doesn’t do me any good to perceive myself as an old creation because that’s not who I am anymore. I’m a new creation and old things have passed away, snd behold, all things have become new, we talked about in Romans 12:3 that for, by the grace, given to me, Paul says, I say to every one of you do not think of yourselves more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourselves with sober judgment in accordance with the measure of faith that God has given you. And we talked about in our first session, how. It’s by the grace of God, that I am who I am today and by the grace of God, therefore Paul is saying because that’s who I am today. And that’s who you are today. Why don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought to? In other words, I am who I am today in, Christ because of what Christ did not because of what I did.

So I don’t need to sit around bragging about my works of being saved or keeping myself that way. I think so many times that the mindset of the Christian world is, man you can do anything that you want to as a non-Christian and I made you, can be the most mean vile thing that ever came down the pike, an adulterer, a thief, you name it. And you’ll say, oh, Jesus loves you just come to Jesus. He just loves you to death, and we responded to Him. And then the minute we respond, all of a sudden, we enter into this room with padded cell there and say, now, on this side of the ledger, God’s there to beat the daylights out of you. In other words, He loved you when you were mean and violent, lost and everything else, but now that you’re saved, boy, he is really going to get you and you, if you have, if that’s not right.

Look at the way that many times we perceive forgiveness. God forgave all of your sins at the cross. But now that you have come to that cross and are saved, now it’s up to you to keep short accounts with God. In other words, He’s wiped them all clean prior to your salvation. But now that you’re saved, why, He’s got his little book up there, keeping track of them. So he kept track of all your sins before you were saved. Had all the marks up there. But when you were saved, He did, He cleansed those. He took him away. Yeah, but now he’s building them up again. Well, how ludicrous is that? And also totally anti-biblical. But that’s the mindset that most Christians possess today in my opinion, as I’ve observed Christianity being taught today. God loves you up until the time that you’re born again and after that, why you better toe the mark and you keep yourself righteous.

I can’t keep myself righteous. If I didn’t make myself righteous. How can I keep myself righteous? Keep yourself holy. How can I keep myself holy? I didn’t make myself holy, how can I keep myself, holy? Keep myself sanctified. Man, I didn’t make myself sanctified to begin with. I didn’t set myself apart. He set me apart. So how am I to keep myself set apart? You see what you’re getting at there? Then people say boy, you got to add to that. You got to make yourself, holy. Well, what does that say? Well, it’s what saying when Jesus made me holy, it wasn’t good enough. So, you Bob, wonderful you can make yourself a lot better than what Jesus made you. So go ahead and work for holiness. Make yourself holy. In other words, when Jesus made you, holy, He, you know, Jesus after all, He’s it’s the old fashioned 2,000 years old. He didn’t do a very good job. So you go out and improve upon that, think of the how ludicrous that is and also what an insult it is to the Lord Jesus Christ. Go out and make yourself righteous Bob and I realize God made you righteous but go make yourself more righteous always say, then how righteous did He make me? And what you’re saying, is the righteousness that Jesus gave to me is totally inadequate. Ridiculous, has no meaning to it. So add to it, add to it. You see. It’s an insult to the grace of God, making a mockery out of the grace of God. So when Jesus made me a child of God, then go out and make yourself more of a child. It’s like a baby coming out and saying well, hey there’s my, there’s a me in my baby and tell him, the baby, be more of a baby. Be more of a child of Amy and Bob. The kids said, how can I be more of a child? I’m a child. What else do you want me to do? So, there’s an awful lot of that kind of thinking that goes on today.

There’s also when we’re talking about this identity thing is this, but I guess there’s a lot of stuff that’s on my heart. That’s why we are only getting through one question I think in about three weeks, but there is also a teaching, and I realized that there is disagreement among theological circles on what I’m going to say. But there are a lot of people who teach that we have as a Christian now, two natures. Obviously, you don’t have two natures as a non-Christian. You just got one. That’s the old man, but now you’re a new creature, but you still got the old man. The new man. So you got two identities there. In other words. I got two natures, got old man, got new man.

Well, that’s a Christian schizophrenic and then we run into situations like this, where here you are controlled by the love of God, love him with all your heart, and you’re out proclaiming the Lord Jesus Christ with all of your heart, mind and soul. And then the most lousy thought can come into your mind that that you ever had.

I was sitting there as Amy and I were coming across the ferry boat from Canada and observing God’s nature. Unbelievable beauty is the islands out there, the ocean, the sky. And thinking about throwing somebody overboard. What I mean is, those kinds of thoughts could come into your mind, there’s all kinds, and then you sit there and say, why what’s wrong? That’s the old man, you know, and and then they need something kind of that man says, that’s really who you are.

I remember a guy one time it was in full-time Christian service, that he went into wholly back into the homosexuality. And again, I don’t know his full story, but he was a choir director. He could verbalize about the Lord and everything else. Then got back into homosexuality or into it. And I can remember that conflict going back and forth. Then one time him saying to me, I don’t know anymore, whether I’m a homosexual playing Christian or whether I’m a Christian playing homosexual. He didn’t know who he was anymore. You see we have to understand something that if we are truly in Christ, and that’s who we are, we don’t have two identities. There’s no longer an old man and a new man. The old man is dead. And the new man is the new creation that you and I are in Christ. You see, if we had two natures, then you kind of got the devil, sitting on one shoulder and an angel on the other, there’s the fight in the conflict taking place. But you see that is not what the scripture, I don’t believe teaches if I’m a new creation. That means I can’t be a new creation unless the old one is gone. If I’m under a New Covenant I can’t be under New Covenant and an Old Covenant. I have to die to one and come alive to the other one.

Now, the problem and the conflict that comes in and this is why we get back to say, gee I wonder if really I’m an old man, you know playing church or whether I’m really a new creation who’s playing old man, but the fact of the matter is that what we mistake, is where Satan gets us not saying, no you are a new creation. That’s why if you’re in Christ, you’re no longer an old sinner saved by grace. That’s not your identity. You are a saint created in the image of God for good works now. Did you get to be a saint where you were an old sinner that was saved by grace? But you’re not an old sinner because you said you send because you’re a sinner. As a lost person that’s you’re a dead person. How do you expect to behave like a living person when you’re dead? So when you step out of Adam and Christ steps out of Heaven into you, you step out of Adam into Christ. Christ steps out of heaven into you, you become a new creation. That’s something brand-new. And now what is the conflict? Well that new creation is still housed in a body that Paul says contains indwelling sin.

In the members of my body lives indwelling sin and that is indwelling sin is that propensity that we have to want, to believe a lie rather than truth. In other words, to be the determining factor on right and wrong and good and evil rather than leaving that up to God. I’m going to determine that. And so there’s that propensity to be god in my life and in yours. That is all comes from the flesh and the indwelling sin, that lives in the flesh. So the conflict is between the desires of the flesh and the desires of the Spirit. So there are two sets of desires that live in us. But one is coming from flesh. And the other is coming from your new nature that is being taught by the living Christ, the Holy Spirit of God, who is alive living in you, continually prodding your mind to will and to do of His good pleasure and to conforming you into the image of His dear Son. So it’s a single nature. But that single nature is housed in a body of flesh that contains indwelling sin, but you are not a schizophrenic. You don’t have two natures. You’re not an old man the new man. You’re a new man, but that new man is housed in a body that is going to die. It’s going to go to the grave. Thank God, it’s going there. It belongs there and contained in that body, everything that belongs to your humanity is indwelt by that thing called indwelling sin, and there’s your conflict. But Is that my identity? No, you see. My home is not the house that I live in. That’s the house. My home is my family and that family that home is a home. If you’re in a motel room, that home is a home regardless of where you live. I’m taking my home, my family with me, but the house is something different than the reality of the house. And if all of the members of the house die, all you’ve got is just an old house sitting there. That’s our body. But the real you are the people, the real you is the spiritual aspect of you that is housed in that old house. This old body of clay that we live in today.

Now, with that introduction and 2 Corinthians 5, when Paul was talking about this whole thing, he says that we try to persuade men and what we are is plain to God and I hope it’s plain to your conscience. We’re not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than as what is in the heart.

So if you got a bunch of people around there, a bunch of legalists, which he’s talking about, who want to take pride in what is seen, well, he says what you are seeing in us isn’t bad either. So we want you to be able to take pride in us, in what you see as well. Although that’s not what the real thing is. What it is, is the heart. But you know that and I know it. But if people want to look on the outside, why you can take a look at what we do as well. If we’re out of our mind, is for the sake of God, if we’re in our right mind, it’s for you. For, Christ’s love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all, therefore, all died. And He died for all that those who live should no longer live for themselves. You see it’s what we’re talking about a couple of weeks ago, that this whole area of human rights has destroyed the scripture that says that we should no longer live for themselves. Because all human rights is give me all the to do to me, and that my human individual rights are far more important than the rights of my family, the rights of my city, the rights of my country, the rights of the world. In other words. I am number one.

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All that human rights deal is, I am the center of the universe. Now, universe serves me. Government serve me. Family serve me. Ministry serve me. Pastor serve me. I am the center of the universe and I want to be served. That’s opposite of what Paul is saying because of what Christ did for us. Those of us who live in Christ, should no longer live for myself, but for Him who died for them and was raised again and in verse 16 or so. From now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. In other words, I’m not going to look at me anymore from a worldly point of view. It really doesn’t make any difference to me what fraud Freud, excuse me, says about man. Or what Skinner or Lang or the rest of them say about man. I’m not going to look at man from a worldly point of view. Anyway, like Jesus said, I know man and I do not need the testimony about man concerning man. I don’t need man, your testimony about yourself. I made you. So Paul says I don’t either regard any one from a worldly point of view though. We once regarded Christ in that way. Just looking at him from human in human eyes. We no longer do so.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, and if you are out there, listening to me right now, have come to Him by faith, you are in Christ. And Christ is in you. If you are in Christ, it says, you are a new creation. The old has gone. So that old guy’s gone. The new has come. Well, who was that old man? It was me, it was Bob George back in 1968 without the Spirit of God living in me. Well, who’s the new? Bob George 1969 with the Spirit of God living in me. If any man be in Christ Christ, in you, you in Christ, you are a new creation. When did I become a new creation? The moment, the Spirit of God came to take up residence in me, restoring me to true humanity. So all of this it says is from God. I don’t have anything to do with it. That’s why it’s saying I don’t need to think more highly of myself than I ought to. I don’t have anything to do with this except receive it, recognize my condition and receive His provision.

All of this is from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and He gave us this ministry of reconciliation that God was reconciling the world to Himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. It’s good news, folks. And it says He’s committed to us this message of reconciliation. That’s why I have the ability on the radio and the right to get on and say folks, God was in Christ reconciling you unto Himself, not counting your sins against you.

That’s not, maybe that’s not temporarily. That is forever. Why do I have the authority to say that it was given to me by God who wrote it here in this book and said to me, and to you that Bob, you are a minister of reconciliation, therefore going to the world and give them the good news that God was in Christ reconciling them under themselves unto himself. Not counting their sins against them. Now He says He’s committed to us the message of reconciliation. He gave it to us, committed it to us.

And we are, therefore, Christ’s ambassadors. So, that’s another thing I need to understand about my identity is not only am I a new creation. But this place that we live in is not my home. I’m an ambassador here. My citizenship is in heaven. I live here on this Earth, but my citizenship is in heaven, and one of these days I’m going to go back to my real country in heaven and I’m going to live there. Without all this disturbance it’s down here. But in the meantime, he says, Bob in exchange for living with me, eternally, never to see sin again, death, illness, always in my presence. I want you to be my Ambassador. Want you to be a representative for me here on this Earth. So what is an ambassador? Folks, what does an ambassador say? I’m an ambassador to France, is my role to go over to France and picket Moulin Rouge? To tell all the French people how immoral they are and sensual and sexual and whatever else I could dream up? Go out and try to change the French government? Try to get somebody elected or appointed that I wanted rather than somebody else? Is that my job? As an ambassador, not announce my job as an ambassador to be in France, but not of France, you’re in the world, but not of the world. Your citizenship is in heaven. You’re an ambassador. What’s an ambassador there to do? Represent the United States of America. To be a representative in a foreign alien land of another country. What is our role as a child of God as an ambassador? The same thing? I’m here to represent the kingdom of God. I’m not here to change the government. Wouldn’t do any good anyway. I’m not here to repel against the government. That’s also stupidity. I am here to represent the Lord Jesus Christ. There are people who are spending their lives and rebelling against the government over certain issues. That’s a stupid to be rebelling against. The government is being enthralled with the government. The government is not the solution to your peace or anyone else’s peace. It’s the Lord Jesus Christ. And that’s who we’re here to represent. We’re not here to talk about how lousy Clinton is or how good he is.

We’re here to represent the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s the one that I know is good and always and He’s the only one that we could ever say, was reconciling you unto Himself, not counting your sins against you. There’s no president or vice-president that can do that. So, I’m an ambassador in an alien country in an alien world and we’re here to give out the good news of Jesus Christ. And that’s why he says that as though God, we’re making his appeal through us, we beg you on Christ’s behalf. Be reconciled to God, and tells you why. For God made Him who knew no sin to be sin or sin offering for us. So that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. That’s what we’re here to proclaim. We’re talking about ambassadors. We are in the world. We’re told we’re to be in the world, but not of it. And I wonder sometimes, as I think back, what in the world are we thinking about in this world called Christianity? He also said that our problem John said is we’re in love with the world. An, if we love the world that the love of the father is not in us.

And yet we become engrossed with this world. We’re just totally engrossed with them. And I look at that and say have we totally lost our perspective? Have we? Are we playing spiritual hopscotch through the Bible? Pulling out verses that we like to grab ahold of and not taking it in context of the whole. It is very clear my friends, that if we are Christ’s ambassadors, that an ambassador’s job is to represent another country. As we talked about, it’s very clear, is it not, you’re not going to argue with me on this that our citizenship is supposed to be in heaven. If truly you’re born again of the Spirit of God, and that means it’s not here.

So, I need to find am here and my citizenship is someplace else. It means that I’m an ambassador where I am, and I’ve been named one of those. And so, have you by the living Christ. It seems like that would be thrilling. If you got a presidential appointment to become an ambassador that I’m in a place, you’d be known as one big deal. And yet, here we are, as children of God who by God created this universe, has named you an ambassador here on this Earth. That’s who you are. Whether you want to believe that or not, you will act according to what you believe, but the fact of the matter is, that’s what you are, an ambassador. And what that means is, God is saying Bob, Bill, Mary, Amy, whoever it might be on this Earth that you’re in but not off, you’re my ambassador. You’re my representative. They’re in this foreign land that you’re living in in his alien land, that is not for me. They’re against me. In this land, that would rather believe the psychiatrist than to believe the terminologies of God, the truth of God. In a land that would rather believe lies than truth. In a land that says that human education is more valuable than spiritual education. And that it is more profitable to distribute condoms in schools than it, is to distribute the word of God. Now, that’s the world we live in, and I, quite frankly think the garbage can that we’re seeing today ought to be a benefit to us to see that isn’t anything new. This is always been there. This is what’s been underground. Maybe it’s more open today, but it’s only open because it’s always been there.

And the country in many instances is like a snow covered country during the winter months in New England. Where the ground is totally covered with snow and it looks beautiful and white. But underneath it is a garbage pit. And so all we’re seeing is the reality of the world coming forth in all glory. The evilness of man, coming forth in all glory. It’s always been there. It’s just coming forth.

I’ve seen that with people. That I have come in contact with people that I’ve worked around that what I see coming out today of spirits of unforgiveness, and slander, and conceit, and treachery and, and conceit, and no self-control and brutal. And all the things talked about in second Timothy 3:1-5. I say, where did that come from? And it’s like God said, it was always there. It was just being hidden. It was under a snow bank. What was always there?

That’s, that’s the heart of a person who has a form of godliness but denies its power that we talked about last week in second Timothy 3. It’s always there. It just now the snow just melted. You’re just now seeing it. And so folks, we have to come to grips with something that that we live in a world today, that even in this world that we sometimes referred to as the Christian world. That it is a world that many times, the so-called establishment, the leaders, the owners of stations and all kinds of things, not all. But some have substituted programs, that deal with social issues and psychological issues at the expense of people are trying to teach the word of God. In other words, that’s not important, let’s get a social issue on. Let’s get something where some money can be made to make a difference with people’s lives are being changed or not. That’s irrelevant. Let’s just get some money. Let’s get some issues out there because we’ve been conned into believing that’s what people want to listen to, it’s controversial and exciting. And so that’s all you hear anymore on so-called many times Christian radio and Christian television.

And folks, it’s a time to return to the classic Christianity. It’s time to get back to the original. It’s time that we wake up and smell the roses to realize that political solutions are no solutions and all that financial solutions are no solutions at all. That the problem with man is inside of his heart, not in his pocketbook, not in his voting record. It’s in the heart. Until you change the hearts of people, you’re never going to change people.

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.