Radio Broadcast Tuesday 05/09/2023

Classic Christianity – The Book of John P41 (05-09-23)

Only by Faith in Christ Jesus Can We Be In The Righteousness of God

~ “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we a have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.” ^{Romans 5:1,2}

~ We cannot stand in our own righteousness before God, because we don’t have any righteousness of our own. We must go into the presence of God in His righteousness. For Jesus is our righteousness to ALL who are in Christ Jesus.

~ “For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.” ^{Romans 1:17}

~ “There’s not a person in this room or a person within the sound of my voice that could walk into the presence of God today in your own righteousness. If you think you can, you’re deceived out of your socks. Because God’s righteousness is not predicated on how well you’re doing up next to another man. It’s how well are you doing up next to Jesus the Man. That’s the key. How are you doing up next to Jesus? Not how are you doing up next to me or somebody else. You can always do better than that. But how are you doing next to Jesus? And when we start to understand the truth of that we find out what the Bible is true that all have sinned all have fallen short of the glory of God, there is none righteous, no, not one. And that many times we stand in our righteousness and we think in our righteousness that I’m okay but you’re not okay. And what we have to do is to come to grips with that, my friends, because as I said, what our opinion is of justice is going to determine how we live our life and it could determine where you’re going to spend eternity as your life. Because you cannot talk out of both sides of our mouth, we cannot talk out of one side of our mouth about the grace of God and live as if Grace does not occur. And many people do that. The commingling of law and grace that Paul talked about, in the book of Galatians… ~ Bob George

Join Bob George in this chapter by chapter exposition of the gospel of John. Available for download the complete series on the Book of John. Realize why Christ, Himself, is REAL LIFE and how He personally offers hope in daily living that you may:

Discover an abundant and meaningful life as a Christian.
Overcome fear with His assurance that you have His eternal life.
Experience joy during adversity.
Apply God’s wisdom in decision making, no matter how big or small.
Experience freedom as you walk by faith in His love and acceptance.

Purchase Online at Shop.BobGeorge.net

Announcer 0:12
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.

Bob George 0:29
So Christ Jesus did not come to die for good people. He only came to die for dead people. And when we have the idea that we are better than someone else, you’re going to hear the words of Jesus that Who are you to be trying to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye when you got a log in your own. There’s not a person in this room or a person within the sound of my voice that could walk into the presence of God today in your own righteousness. If you think you can, you’re deceived out of your socks. Because God’s righteousness is not predicated on how well you’re doing up next to another man. It’s how well are you doing up next to Jesus the Man. That’s the key. How are you doing up next to Jesus? Not how are you doing up next to me or somebody else. You can always do better than that. But how are you doing next to Jesus? And when we start to understand the truth of that we find out what the Bible is true that all have sinned all have fallen short of the glory of God, there is none righteous, no, not one. And that many times we stand in our righteousness and we think in our righteousness that I’m okay but you’re not okay. And what we have to do is to come to grips with that, my friends, because as I said, what our opinion is of justice is going to determine how we live our life and it could determine where you’re going to spend eternity as your life. Because you cannot talk out of both sides of our mouth, we cannot talk out of one side of our mouth about the grace of God and live as if Grace does not occur. And many people do that. The commingling of law and grace that Paul talked about, in the book of Galatians, that you foolish Galatians, who has hypnotized you and cast an evil spell upon you? You used to see the meaning of Christ’s death as clearly as I’d played, raved a place card in front of you. He said, have you gone crazy? Let me ask you a question. Did you receive the Spirit of God, by your works or by believing what you heard? And after beginning by believing what you heard, why are you now trying to perfect yourself by human effort. If we live a life as a born again, believer, if we live a life of dependency in Christ Jesus, and you feel that you are living a life, in dependence upon Christ Jesus, thank God for that. But don’t look at others as if they’re not. Or try to gauge who is and who isn’t. We have to understand folks that you cannot live your life in that way and call yourself a born again believer. If you don’t have mercy in your heart, don’t call yourself a born again believer because you’re saved by the God of mercy. If we cannot forgive others, as Christ Jesus forgave us, do not call yourself a born again believer. Because your indwelt by the one who have hung on a cross and said, Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.

And so we must understand these things, folks, that these are all attitudes of the heart, that God wants to change in us. Because there’s not a one of us, I don’t care who you are. I don’t care what how good of a life you’ve lived. If you have praise Jesus for that, guys. I say many I know many, many people who have grown up, and they grew up in a Christian home, and they grew up with Christian foundation, grew up with Christian principles and Christ is their life, who were saved, have all kinds of things in their life because of that truth. And you thank God for that people who grew up even legalistically and were saved. And you praise God for the legalism, because it scared the daylights out of you from doing anything wrong. But if it did it accomplish the purpose, until such time that you can understand that, wait a minute, this is all God’s grace. And if God has saved you, from all of these things that you can have into the world, promiscuity, drunkenness, drug usage, pornography, all of the different things that we can think of, or just being mean spirited, or being critical. Or being non forgiving. All of these things, you can’t say one is worse than another. If those things have not been a part of your life, praise God for that truth. Thank Him for it, and thank Him for His mercy that has kept you some way. Because that’s not the case with most people. On the other hand, if you’ve lived a life that wasn’t that way, and you’ve lived a life, that you were not really, you wouldn’t sit down and want to write a newspaper article about it. Praise God, He saved you. Praise God, he isn’t through with you yet. In other words, guys, start praising God. start praising him for whatever condition you’re in. If you’ve been saved from things, praise him for that. It’s His Grace that brought that about. If you haven’t paid any attention to him and periods of your life, and yet to recognize that God has forgiven you, and He loves you, praise him for everything we do is worthy of praise is it not in this world.

Now we pick up in verse 27, they did not understand what he was telling them about the Father. And Jesus said to them, when you have lifted up the Son of Man, that you will know that I am the one I claim to be. And that I do nothing on my own, but speak just what the Father has taught me. Guys, how many of you have difficulty with a critical spirit? Can I see your hands? Now let me see. Now how many, okay, now, how many of you are liars? Yeah, there we go. Do we not have a tendency to be extremely critical of others? And you know, when you get right back to it, the root of that self righteousness, I’m better than they are. But we still do it. Well, what are you gonna do with that type of thing? Well, he says that he talking about the fact that what we’re doing is not speaking what God has said through us, but we’re speaking again leaning on our own understanding. Do we have a tendency to lean on our own understanding? Absolutely. But Jesus, who was God said, I don’t say anything unless the Father tells me to say it. I don’t do anything unless the Father tells me to do it. I live in total dependency upon my Father, to do and to say exactly and precisely what he wants me to say. Now, how many times do we do that? I had to laugh this morning. Amy told me that about 630 in the morning, and next door to us, why the neighbors have a couple of hound dogs that evidently we’re chasing. Or we’re chasing some foxes or something next door, just howling at the top of their voice 6:30 In the morning, just howling from one end to the other. Now, how many of you think gee, Amy woke up and said, Praise Jesus? Don’t you thank God for your animal life. Thank you for those sweet voices go ruff, ruff, ruff at 6:30 in the morning. I don’t think she said that. She didn’t tell me what she said, thank goodness. But I don’t think she said that. It just shows us folks, that when we’re counting on our own righteousness, you may as well forget it. We don’t have any. We only are a closed in his in that good to know that we are indwelt by His righteousness, it is because of him God, that we are in Christ Jesus who has become for us, our righteousness, our holiness. He is our everything. And so Jesus is saying, I don’t speak anything unless the Father tells me to do it, don’t you wish we could do that only speak, but the Father tells us to speak. The one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone for I always do what pleases him would not be a nice thing to be able to say that all my life I’ve done nothing except what please God. But even as he spoke, many put their faith even as he spoke, many put their faith in Him.

Now to the Hebrews who had believed him. Jesus said to them, these are these were the Hebrews now that he came into his own. And he proclaimed his message of grace. And I want to tell you, folks, for a Hebrew to believe what Jesus was teaching, you talk about a miracle, that is a miracle. Those people were steeped in self reliance and in religion, were they not? They were steeped in it. They had all of these rules and laws and regulations that they never, they tried never to violate a one of them. They did, but they tried not to. And here’s this message of pure grace, entering into the population of that self righteousness, a message of grace. And some of them their hearts were open to Jesus. And they immediately responded to this good news. And they believed in his name. And so he said to them, if you hold on to my teaching, you are really my disciples. In other words, I don’t want you to grab a hold of this. And we’ll study this in one of our other lectures about the different soils. And I want you just to grab a hold of this thing, and then let go of it. You remember we talked about in the book of Hebrews, where it talks about the fact that, that, that you have this idea of forgiveness where Jesus came and took away the sins of the world, and yet the Hebrews were going back to the Day of Atonement. They grabbed a hold of this teaching that Jesus died for the sins of the world. But then they grabbed hold, and grant went back to their tradition and going back to the Day of Atonement. And that’s what he is saying is if you have heard the truth, because you’re sinning against the knowledge of the truth, that there’s no repentance, because you’ve never really changed your mind. You’ve only given lip service to it. So Jesus is saying, Hold on to this teaching, Don’t be swayed to get back under the law. Once you have come to a knowledge of the grace of God. Don’t be swayed that you got to get back under the law. And he said, if you hold on to my teaching, you really are my disciples, you have people who are called my disciples, but you really are my disciples why you’re not you’re holding on tenaciously you’re holding on to the grace of God that has been given to us in Christ Jesus, because my friends, there’s all kinds of opposition to this teaching. Is there not?

There’s all kinds of opposition to it. People don’t want to hear about grace. Why? Well, because I can’t make myself look good. How many of you think you can make yourself look good under grace? Think about it for a minute. You say Because grace doesn’t have anything to do with you. It’s got everything to do with him. How many of you think you look good under the law? Oh, I look good under the law. You’re just telling me what to do. I’ll go do it. And I’ll get the praise, and I will look good under the law. You can’t look good under grace. That’s why people don’t lie. I could. Grace is a period of humility. It’s an attitude of humility of saying, it’s all Jesus, it’s none of me. If it wasn’t for Jesus, I wouldn’t be saved. If it wasn’t for Jesus, I wouldn’t be here. If it wasn’t for Jesus, I would have no life. If it wasn’t for Jesus, I would have no forgiveness. It’s all him and none of us, but under the law you to make yourself look good to others, to others, but not to God. So he says, Hold on to this teaching. And when you hold on to this teaching, and don’t get swayed, you’re going to know the truth. And the truth will do what? Set you free. Set you free. What do you need to be set free from a lot of times, resentments? I mean, have you ever been resentful toward a body? Do you want to get set free from it? Or do we want to hang on to it? Because if you hang on to it, what’s it gonna do? Destroy you. Am I right or wrong? It ain’t gonna destroy the person. You’re resentful toward nine times out of 10 they don’t even know you are. But it’s gonna destroy you, will it not? If you’re hanging on to resentment toward people. You have people that hang on to. And you run into a lot of this they resentment for their church, because and you hear people say, Why I was church all my life, why didn’t they teach me this? And I say, did you have a Bible? If you had a Bible, you could have learned it. If you had sense enough to study it. I said that, Lord, how come you had to wait 36 years to save me? You know, how come that dumb church has it didn’t teach me right? It was like he said, Bob, did you have a Bible? But yeah, I did, but never opened it. And so we get resentful over these types of things. We build resentment into our hearts. And that all that resentment is going to destroy you and me if we allow it to continue to fester. You can’t live with resentment toward people, unless you want to destroy yourself. That’s suicide guys, that is literally committing suicide. I’m gonna destroy myself, so that I can hang on to this resentment.

Click to Donate to Bob George Ministries

If you’re enjoying the Book of John, check out our website, Shop.BobGeorge.net. There, you’ll find a whole collection of messages from the book of John, as well as other DVDs, CDs and Bible studies available for purchase. That’s Shop.BobGeorge.net. Let’s join Bob. Now as he continues the radio program.

Bob George 14:19
How many of you have ever been injured or insulted or rejected by another person? Show your hands. Let me ask you another question. How many of you have ever insulted or injured or rejected someone else? It would appear to me that the same number of hands doesn’t it? What does that tell us? In this world, you’re going to have what? Tribulation. What is that tribulation? Getting injured, in assaulted, rejected by other people. Folks, again, when that happens to you, you have options available to us. We have options that say I’m gonna hang on to that rejection, I’m going to hang on to that resentment, I’m going to continue hanging on to that just like a dog hanging on to a towel. Or I’m gonna let go of it. I’m gonna put it into the hands of God and, and let go of it. And we have an option to that don’t we? We can choose either direction that we want to go. I can live with resentment, or I can let go of it. If I were to ask you the question, how many of you have ever experienced any kind of abuse from somebody? Maybe in your childhood, from your parents, even sexual molestation, or whatever it might be. If I asked that question today, I’ll guarantee I would see hands go up in this room. And within the sound of my voice, the issue is what are you going to do with that? Are we going to hang on to it all of our lives? Are we finally going to release it into the hands of God? And say, God, you fought you cried out from the cross Father, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing. And whoever this person was, that did something to you, you can cry out the same thing, Father forgive them they didn’t know what they were doing. Was it evil? Absolutely. He was evil. Was it bad? Absolutely. It was bad. Can God take it and use it for good? Yes, he can. How? By teaching you about his comfort, by showing you what it means to be comforted by the hand of God. And so that we can reach out to others with that verse of scripture, what a great God and Savior we have, who comforts us in all of our problems, so that we too can comfort others, with the same comfort that we have received from God.

Why does he allow us and when I say that allow us the reason he allows us to go through trials and tribulation is because he gave free will to men. And men as much as man has a free will, and man is going to choose to do evil if he so chooses to do so. And God allows that because he isn’t going to take the free well away from men. But why do we go through these things? Why do we go through these trials and tribulations that we go through? To give us comfort. You know, if we never had a trial or tribulation, how do we ever understand grace? To give us comfort. How come? So that we can turn around and comfort others with the same comfort that we have received from God.

Forgiveness. How many of you have somebody in your heart that you’ve never truly forgiven? You know, when you don’t forgive a person, you not only punish yourself, but you absolutely punish the other as well. Forgiveness, to be able to say, I forgive you. You screwed up. And I forgive you. Greatest word you’ll ever hear. It’s almost got commercial, thank you. Great words, I forgive you. And to allow that to be true in your life that I know that there have been trials and tribulation, I know that there have been things that you have done and I have done that are so far out of God’s will, that we don’t even need to talk about it. But I forgive you. The greatest word you’ll ever hear. Jesus Christ came to forgive, he died on a cross and suffered to forgive. And he says, Forgive one another in the same way as I forgive you, given you forgive one another. And yet our old prideful hearts will sit there and hold on. I’d like to do that. But if I do, I might get hurt again. How may have ever thought that if I ever if I if I forgive this person, they’re gonna do it again to me. What’s that called? Speculation, fantasy. You don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know what’s going to happen. What I have learned in life that 90% of the things that I worry about, never do come about. How may have you ever seen that take place? So Jesus was saying to us if you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free, free from all of these demons, so to speak, that grab a hold of our minds, and grab a hold of our souls and keep us in bondage. Because if you need to be set free, it’s because you’re not free. And no one is free apart from being set free in Christ Jesus, there’s no way to be free, apart from being set free from the error that binds us. And the error that binds us is all through this world that we live in today. And the only truth that we’re ever gonna go to, to find out what is real, is to go to the Word of God. It’s the only book on the face of this earth that you can go to and know that when you pick it up you’re going to read 100% truth, and that truth will set you free from the error that occupies our minds.

The people answered him, were Abraham’s descendants. And have never been a slave to anyone, because it didn’t understand who he was talking about. We never been a slave here. These people were absolutely in bondage to the legalistic system that they were a part of in bondage to the rules and regulations. But they were saying, no, no, we’re we’re not slaves. How can you say that we need to be set free? There are people today are sitting there. What do you mean, I need to be set free, I’m already free. Jesus replied, I tell you the truth that everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now, folks, look at this. Everyone who sins is a slave to sin. How many of you out here in this room and in the sound of my voice could say that you’re a slave to sin? If it says anyone who sins is a slave to sin? How many of you have sinned? How many of you have sinned today? What is he say you are? You’re a slave to sin. Now, he says a slave has no permanent place in the family. But a son belongs to the family forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed, if you’re a slave to sin, you have to be set free from that. Now, what does that mean? Set Free that you’ll never sin again? There are people who believe that that you come to Christ and lead a sinless life. Have you ever heard that one? You never sin again? I had a guy tell me that one time I said, Let me interview your wife. And he had the audacity to do so. He put her on the phone. But he she didn’t stay on very long. Folks when you’re talking about being freed, you’re talking about that if you’re a slave to sin, there’s a consequence is there not to sin? And again, what is the consequence? Death. And you’ve got to be freed from that. It’s not that you and I, as a born again, believer, if we ever sit down and think that when I became a born again, believer, I’ll never sin again. That is that practical? I mean, is there anyone who will go along with that, then this room is just full of lost people. And you shouldn’t be listening to me because I’m lost too. Are we together on that. But the issue is that we’ve been set free from being a slave to sin. We have been set free from the consequences of sin, which is death by the gift of God, which is life and when the Son has set you free, you shall be free indeed, and free for how long? How long have you been set free from the consequence of sin which his death? Forever.

He said, I know you’re Abraham’s descendants. And yet, you’re ready to kill me. Why? Because you have no room for my word. Now, folks, these are religious people. These are people who know the Word of God from beginning to end. And many times had the majority of the Old Testament memorized. And yet he’s saying that you have no room for my Word in your heart. Now, is there any difference between what Jesus was speaking and what the Old Testament was saying? I mean, what is it all that the Word of God? What was the difference in what Jesus was saying? He was teaching us the meaning of the word of God. The Bible taught what it said, Jesus came and said, I’m going to teach you what it what? Means. I want to ask you a question guys. Do you put your faith in what the Bible says? Or what the Bible means? Which is it? All together what is it? What it means. If you don’t know what it means, you don’t know what it says. And so a computer knows what the Bible says. But a computer does not know what the Bible means. Neither do you and I, unless Jesus reveals it to us. And that’s why you can be teaching in a Bible study. And if a person is not born again, you as we’ll be talking to a rock, and you can teach a person with a Bible says, and you can then teach them what it means because you are born again. And the Spirit of God has revealed to you what it means. And you can teach what it means to somebody who’s lost, as clear as a bell, as logical as you can get. And they sit there and say, Oh, I don’t understand that. How many of you ever run into that? Or stand that? You see the hands. How many have ever taught a Bible study or been in one where somebody’s sitting there? That is just dumb as dirt? I mean, they just don’t understand anything. Why? Because the Spirit of God doesn’t live in you. The Bible tells us that if you don’t have the Spirit of God living in you, you do not understand what the Bible means. Now, you may be able to quote it all day long, just like an actor as to what it says. But if you don’t know what it means you don’t have a thing to put your faith in. And so he says, even though you know what the Bible says, You have no room for the word that I’m giving you, which is what it means. You don’t have any room in your heart for that, because you’ve already determined what it means by leaning on your own understanding. And so you don’t have any room for true understanding. All you’ve got room for is your man made understanding. You have people today who have grown up with false teaching, unbelievable type of false teaching. And there’s when you tell a person truth about that there’s no room in their heart for it. This is what I believe this is my tradition. I’ve been taught this. So don’t tell me these other things, because I don’t believe them. There’s no room in my heart for truth. So he said, I’m telling you what I have seen in my Father’s presence. And you do what you have heard from your father, I’m telling you what I have seen in the Father’s presence, and you do what you have heard from your father. And they said, Abraham was our father, they answered. Jesus said, If you were Abraham’s children, then you would do the things Abraham did. Catch this one, as it is, you are determined to kill me, a man who has told you the truth that I heard from God. Abraham did not do such things. You are doing the things your own father does. We’re not illegitimate children. They protested there. The only father we have is God Himself. And Jesus said to them, If God were your Father, you would love me for I came from God and I’m here. I’ve not come on my own, but he sent me.

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.