Radio Broadcast Tuesday 05/10/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Your Identity in Christ P26 (05-10-22)

Get Rid of The Old and Put on The New

Today’s Christianity is still putting the ragged clothes of self-righteousness back on their bodies. They are trying to make themselves look better instead of understanding that God has already made you righteous in the sight of God if you are in Christ Jesus. Why? Because you are standing in His righteousness, not your own.

In today’s lesson, from the Bible study booklet, A Closer Look at Your Identity in Christ, available for purchase from our online Bob George Ministries ecommerce store

Just as a person’s physical growth is based on proper diet and exercise, so is the Christians’s spiritual growth dependent on regular feeding upon the word of God and application of its principles. With more false teaching, shifting opinions and general confusion in the world than ever before, Christians 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.

I was in that condition for 36 years of my life folks. I was in church all of my life, but I was in a liberal church. It wasn’t the fact that I lived in unbelief. I’d ever been taught anything to believe. Did I believe Jesus was Son of God? Oh, of course. I would used to sing about that in choirs, and sit and listen to it occasionally if it ever came out. Did that have any meaning to me? None at all? I was lost. I was in church. I would have called myself a Christian. I wasn’t a Buddhist or a Muslim. So I’ve been a Christian, but I was not a child of God. I was never born again. Never heard that I was supposed to be. And so what I’m talking about, I’m not just talking about from a theological issue. I’m telling you from personal experience in working with hundreds and thousands of people around the country. From all denominations, that there are very few denominations today that are teaching the blood sacrifice of Jesus, teaching the deity of Christ, teaching the virgin birth, teaching the inerrancy of the word of God, teaching people that the only way they’re ever going to know what the Bible means is by studying the word of God on their own and depending upon the Spirit of God to teach them what it means, very few.

Now in the light of that isn’t it strange that our calendars are before Christ and after Christ. It is just amazing to me that here in the calendars of the world BC and AD. BC before Christ. AD, Anno Domini, a Latin terminology for in the year of Our Lord. Now, the problem is when most people think of BC and AD. They think of Christ’s birth before he was born and after He was born. But from God’s perspective that is not so because the BC really should be before the cross, because from God’s perspective humanity and His dealing with humanity was divided, not at His birth, but at the cross. So the BC should be before the cross. And if you remember that, BC, before the cross, why? Well, because before the cross, that was the old Covenant that we were under and then the AD is the Italian word, after-D-cross, so God before the cross, and after the cross, and that means that a new covenant now has come into effect and if you will keep that in mind you’re going to see scripture fall into place.

When you say that, understand God’s dealings with man was divided at the cross, you will also understand that from the time of Christ’s birth until His death, that Jesus, while He was here, physically was Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth. He taught under the law. He proclaimed, grace of God, but He taught under the law. It says He was born of a virgin under the law, therefore, subject to the law. Now, He is born under the law, subject to the law, so that He could fulfill the law because the only way that the law can never be fulfilled is a perfect life. And there’s only one man that ever lived, a perfect life, and that was Christ Jesus, from the time of birth until death, a perfect life. So in so doing He fulfilled that righteous demands of the law. Perfection. And remember what Jesus told us when he taught under the law, if you have violated the least of these, my Commandments, you violated all of them. Well, that buries everyone. The law deals with exteriors, but the meaning of the law deals with interiors, what you’re thinking, the law deals with what you’re doing. I’m telling you, God looks at what you are thinking and it buries all of us. He gets what He came to do, but he taught under the law. At his death a New Covenant was ushered in, whereby, it’s the verse that we studied, before we closed our lesson last week, Hebrews 10: 17 and 18, their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more and where these have been forgiven, there is no longer any sacrifice for sins.

So the New Covenant is saying, I’m going to deal with the sin issue once and for all. Because I got something new that I’m going to be adding. I’m going to give people life. I’m going to provide a way, whereby, I, God can re-establish My relationship with My humanity and come to live within man once again, never ever, ever with the possibility of My leaving them again by dealing with sin once and for all, I can give them a life called eternal life. If the cross did not take away sin and I gave life, the next time they sin, they would lose their life. Again that’s what the Old Testament was. So I’m going to do something new. They’re going to be a new creation, not only a new creation from an individual standpoint, but a new creation in that a man like that has never been created before. As a matter of fact, if I was speaking, as Jesus say, I was not even born that way. I was born under the law and I sinned, I would have died under the law. But I’m going to provide a way whereby because of what I’m going to do with us taking away sin. I’m going to give you a life that is called eternal life. And the reason it’s eternal is because the only thing that could cause that life to depart from you is sin and I’m going to deal with sin once and for all so that that can never happen to you again. So when you are truly born again, you’re going to be born again, forever, have a life called eternal life. And you are going to have a brand-new inheritance in Christ Jesus. Why did He do that for man? Because of His love and because of His mercy.

Now where forgiveness, where true forgiveness has to take place, it really is preceded by mercy. Jesus looked down at the cross and said, father, forgive them, they don’t know what they’re doing. The first part is asking for forgiveness. The second part is asking why I’m asking for forgiveness. They don’t know what they’re doing. In other words, God looked down on us, bunch of dummies, running around down here, and the compassion and mercy of God fell upon us. And He said those poor little critters running around down there, I’ve got indwelling sin living in them. They’ve fallen, they don’t understand God and understand our love. Don’t understand anything about it. They don’t know what they’re doing. And that’s mercy. It’s kindness. And that heart set is what brings about forgiveness. And it’s the same with us until we have and gained a merciful heart from God, we will never have a forgiving spirit. Mercy precedes forgiveness.

Let’s pick up with Hebrews 9 beginning in verse 16. In the case of a will it’s necessary to prove the death of the one who made it because a will is enforced only when someone has died, it never takes effect while the one who made it is living. Now, folks, I hope that you have a will if you don’t, obviously the government has one for you. So it would be to your advantage to certainly have one. A will is not something new. It is not something that was brought in by the United States. It’s been around since the time of Christ. And before Christ, a will was something that could be a document that could be made in order to determine what was going to happen with your assets at the time of death. In other words, who are you going to leave something too. And so, in the case of a will and you know, that today that a will that you have will not go into effect until the day you die. In other words. If I left in my will that Bob Davis was going to receive a hundred thousand dollars, that’d be a joke and having it and of course, but if he was going to at my death, then Bob Davis and have to wait until I died in order to receive that. We have people who have left money to the ministry in their will. They have established in their will that at their death their assets will go to Bob George Ministries. They desire to do that. Now, that will not occur until the day that they die, on the day they die and are buried, proving that they are dead. And then the inheritance will be passed on to whoever it was designated to by the person who made the will. And so that’s not a difficult thing for us to understand. So we’re talking about an old will, an old testament, you know, you have a will and a testament so you have an old will an old testament, and you have a new will a new testament. Now we also know that in the case of a will that you can make a will, let’s say I made 20 years ago. And in that. why I had someone else designated for that hundred thousand dollars, but then 20 years later I made a new will and in that will I had Bob named in that. Now I died. Now which one is going to receive the hundred thousand dollars? Bob, or the one 20 years ago? Well, obviously Bob. You got the old will, and now there’s a new will, and the will that goes into effect is the last one that was made prior to the death of the one who made it.

And so, in the case of a will, as we just read, it’s necessary to prove the death of the one who made it. That’s the burial, because a will is in force only when someone has died. It never takes effect while the who made it is living. It goes ahead to say this is why even the first covenant, so obviously folks, we know that we’re going to be talking here about covenants, a first one called the old covenant and then the last one called the New Covenant. The first Covenant was not put into effect without blood. In other words without death, a sacrifice, when Moses had proclaimed, every commandment of the law to all of the people, he took the blood of calves, obviously, where to get the blood from the death of the calf together with water scarlet, wool and branches of hyssop, and he sprinkled the scroll on all the people and he said, this is the blood of the covenant. In other words, the sacrifice of the Covenant, which God has commanded you to keep folks. That was the old Covenant. It was put into effect with blood. The sacrifice in that Covenant here’s a commandment and God has commanded you to keep it. That’s the old Covenant and we’re going to find out that’s going to be the problem, not in the Covenant, but in the people’s ability to keep it.

Now in the same way he sprinkled with blood, both the tabernacle and everything used in its ceremonies. In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood. And folks, if you have your Bible open mark, underline it, cross it to whatever you want to, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. In other words, folks, if there has been a violation of God’s command, forgiveness has to be paid for. God doesn’t just wink at that. It had to be paid for. In the old Covenant it was paid for by the blood of bulls and goats. In the New Covenant, it was paid for by the blood of God himself, Jesus Christ on that cross. And without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. In other words, it’s like a law, a law that had no punishment connected to it would cease to be a law to have no effect at all. And so sin had to be paid for and without the shedding of blood, there would be no forgiveness. That’s what we talked about earlier. It was the mercy of God looking down in pity and merciful heart of God, the love of God that sent his son to be the sacrifice.

Click to Donate to Bob George Ministries

Classic Christianity Radio thanks you for your support of our online and radio ministry. Bob, George Ministries offers nine in-depth Bible study guides, please visit shop.BobGeorge.net to find the Bible study books, along with many helpful materials to help you grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ. Let’s continue now, with our Classic Christianity Radio program.

In Hebrews 8, not only do we have a covenant that is going to be brand new, but we have this New Covenant Hebrews 8:6, but the ministry that Jesus has received is as superior to theirs as the Covenant of which he is a mediator is superior to the old one and it is founded on better promises. So it’s not only a New Covenant. It’s founded on better promises. For if there had been nothing wrong with the first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. In other words for another Covenant. But God found fault with the people. Now, you will notice there folks, God didn’t find fault with His Covenant, He found fault with the people and He said the time is coming declares the Lord, when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. It will not be like the Covenant I made with their forefathers when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. Why? Because they did not remain faithful to My Covenant and I turned away from them, declares the Lord. In other words, He found fault with the people. What was their fault? They didn’t remain faithful to the Covenant.

Now, this is the Covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after that time, declares the Lord, in other words now I’m going to make a new one because it’s not going to be like the old one. The old one that said here is the commandment, keep it. I’m going to make a new covenant with them. And here’s what it is. I’m going to put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. No longer, it’s going to be a law written out there on stone. I’m going to put something inside them. I will be their God and they will be my people. Then no longer will a man teach his neighbor or a man his brother saying know the Lord, because they’ll all know Me from the least of them to the greatest. For how come we will all know him from the least to the greatest? For He’s telling us why. Now, I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins? No more. In other words, He is saying here that if you’re going to know the Lord, then you’re going to have to know the Lord by realizing that your wickedness and your sins have been put behind the back of God where he remembers them no more. Otherwise, it says you can’t know God. You’re never going to go into the presence of God. You’re not going to know Him because you’re not going to know His mercy, His love, His kindness that brought about the forgiveness that was executed at the cross.

So by calling this covenant new, look at this folk, He has made the first one obsolete and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear. Now folks we want to pause here for a moment in regard to this. By making this New Covenant new, this covenant called new He made the first one obsolete. That means folks, the old Covenant, whereby you were under the law, you were under a covenant of the law. Here it is. Obey it. He made that obsolete. Why? Well, because man, he found fault with the people and man could not remain faithful to that covenant. They said they would, if you remember when Moses brought down the law, they said, we’ll do that. Why you just watch us, we’ll do that. And before he ever got off the mountain, they were making golden calves and having oragies. This is before they ever got off the mountain, but they said it. But can’t do it folks. We don’t have it in us, and so it is His love and mercy, He said I’m going to make that first covenant obsolete. And I’m going to bring in a new cabinet, a brand-new one, whereby, I will forgive not because of anything they’ve done. But because of my love and mercy, I will forgive their wickedness and I’ll remember their sins no more. Why? So that they can know me so that they could know the Lord.

And folks, when something has been made obsolete, it means it’s been replaced. You have a lot of things in your life that are obsolete that you bought years ago. They’re obsolete. They’ve been replaced. I look back on my old record collections. You probably did too Bob, well over the 10 inch and 12 inch. I believe. I don’t even think you can find a record player to play those things anymore. They are obsolete. They would still play, but they’re obsolete. They’ve been replaced by CDs DVDs. Yeah, everything else. It’s on the market today. It’s been replaced. It’s obsolete.

Now what is obsolete is aging and will soon disappear. In other words, as it is made obsolete it’s going to start aging in your life, and will disappear. In other words, you’re going to stop using it as much. And before long. It’s going to disappear from existence, but I can’t think of a better example of that than the old record player. They’re just there. I got them sitting at home. They may as well, they’ve disappeared from existence. They can’t use them anymore. Now folks, if you’ve been under the law and you’ve come to understand the New Covenant that you’re under today, the new agreement between God and you. That law has been there for a long time and it’s gone. It’s obsolete from God’s vantage point, but in your experience, you’re going to have to watch it age. And then let it disappear. It will not occur overnight. Many times a person comes to understand his position in Christ, his identity in Christ. But all that old garbage is still there. The barnacles are still there and you’ve got to give God time to get those barnacles and to have the law replaced by the Spirit of God living in us.

I just might mention that I am teaching out of notes that I have prepared out of the study of the book of Hebrews and those notes are called the New Covenant notes. And we are going to be offering these notes to our listeners, which I think you’ll give some information at the end of the broadcast. And even though this is our first lesson in doing this without the notes, you’re going to have plenty of time, if you will write for them. And I would advise you to do that this very day, to write for your New Covenant notes, or I guess they could call the 800 number for the New Covenant notes. And we’ll get those to you so that you can follow along over the next couple of weeks as we are teaching through this exciting study in the New Covenant in Christ Jesus.

Another clarification that I want to make out of Hebrews 8. We’ve been teaching through verses 6 through 13. Now we talked about the fact that there’s an old Covenant and the New Covenant. We also you’ll see in these verses talking about a covenant that I’m going to make with Israel and with the house of Judah. And so the question would audibly automatically come up. Well, is this New Covenant just for Israel, just for the house of Judah? Well, the answer to that is no. It is not. It is a New Covenant, is new, It is new to those who have an old covenant, and it’s new to the Gentiles that didn’t have any covenant. So if you could kind of envision two people, they’ve been standing behind a fence, one of them’s dressed in this old ragged clothes, a banty been beat up. It’s called the law, that is you beat him to death. That’s what the law does to you because you can’t obey it. And again when you see the righteous demands of the law, you realize it at you, realize how lost we are. It’s what Jesus came to, to do folks, when you will see Christ’s teaching before His death obviously in His physical form, He buried us under the law. His whole teaching was to bury us. He showed us what perfect righteousness was in His own life. And even Peter is able to say, when He (Jesus) stilled the waters, Peter said, Lord depart from me, you’re too much where I can’t handle this. If this is what it is what you expect out of us, I’ve had it. And He said, yeah. Yeah, that’s right. There’s nothing in your humanity that could live like deity. And so, but the righteous requirements of the law that man demanded, God gave to us. We cannot live up to it. Now, He wants us to see that folks because we’re either going to have two kinds of righteousness, self-righteousness or God’s righteousness. You’re either going to rest in the fact that you don’t have any righteousness. And therefore be willing to receive Him and His righteousness. Or you’re going to say, Lord, I don’t need your righteousness, I’ll just keep working at it. Now if you’re going to keep working at it, you’re going to be working at it for the rest of your life as a total failure, because you cannot do it folks. You cannot live the Christian life. You can’t even live the Old Testament life, and neither could the Israelites. So He said, I need a new life. That’s what He’s called us to a new life. I can’t live this life. I need a new life.

And so in order to have a new life, he had to bring in a New Covenant. In order for me to bring in this new covenant, which means God once again establishing Himself, bringing Himself to the hearts of man. He had to deal with what caused man to lose his life to begin with. That was sin. And so we’re seeing this New Covenant. Now, when I enter into that new covenant again, the one is obsolete. We’re going to realize the old Covenant, that’s the law, folks. It’s obsolete, it’s aging, let it disappear. As you understand that I’m now walking in a newness of life, not devoid of the law. And in other words, not devoid of it. It’s not the case that it’s disappeared. It’s obsolete, but it’s obsolete so that I can walk in the newness of life. In other words, He just didn’t, didn’t alleviate the law to just leave us there with nothing. He alleviated the law in our experience so that we could walk in the newness of life brought by Him.

So, as I was getting back to that in regards to Israel, if here’s this guy and he’s got these old ragged clothes on and it’s the law. It’s beat about and God comes along and says, I got to set of new clothes for you. And the guy says, praise God! These things are killing me. What’s he going to have to do with the old? Take it off. He’s going to have to take off those clothes in order to put on the new.

Now here’s the Gentile standing over there and he’s naked. Doesn’t have anything on, and He says, here’s a set of clothes. What’s he going to have to do? Just put it on, he has just got to put it on. He didn’t have to take anything off. You don’t have anything on to begin with. So he’s just gonna have to put it on. Are both of those new sets of clothes? Yes. To the Israelite, I got to take off the old and put on the new. To the Gentile just put the new on.

That, of course, we have today, as it relates to the Gentile and to the modern day Christianity, is that here we’re standing in these new set of clothes, a New Covenant, but they don’t look good enough to him. So we’ve taken those old ragged clothes off the wall and put them over our new suit. So we’re walking around in a brand new suit with all his ragged stuff hanging out on the outside of it. It looks like some of these creations people, the people are dressing them today. Some of our young people put it put on these old things. And, all we’re doing is here Gentile, you’ve received the New Covenant and you’ve put the old back on. You put it back on again. Now so in other words, folks, the New Covenant was for the entire world. To the Israelite, take off the old put on the new. To the Gentile put on the new. But as I said, unfortunately the Gentile has got himself under the law as much as any Israelite ever thought of happening. So the same message that was had to go to the Israelite back then is the same message that has to go to the Gentile today. That is put off this religion, put it off. And put on the new. Or even better, take it off. You already got the new get rid of it. Shed it. Let it kind of be obsolete. It’s gone. Put on the new.

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.