Radio Broadcast Tuesday 06/11/2024

Classic Christianity – Book of Hebrews P117 (06-11-24)

There are Professors of Christ and Then There are Possessors of Christ. Which Are You?

~ It is time to shake up the world in which we live. There are those that say all the right things about God, and you would think that they are saved, when in reality they do NOT know the TRUTH of the word of God. They think they have Jesus in their heart because of their own faith in him, or a belief system of believing in their own faith to be saved. Yet all they want to do is to be fed on the physical level without ever coming to the knowledge of TRUTH. People will profess knowing Jesus, and then choke over his name. They can talk about God all day long, but name the name of Jesus, and watch them shrivel up and say things like, “I don’t want to talk about religion” as though Jesus is a religion. These folks don’t have a clue about Jesus. Sure they read the Bible, and maybe they even study the word of God thinking that makes them more knowledgeable about God and that God is more pleased with them since they are reading his words. But they don’t actually know the WORD of God, Jesus, God in the flesh. They do NOT know TRUTH, Jesus is TRUTH. There are even false representatives of God (which are really agents of Satan) that are able to quote scripture verses front to back, and say the name of Jesus, and seemingly say all the right things, with a constant smiley on their face (you know the type,… those con artist demons with the constant smiley faces, for they are evil to the core, with doctor of divinity before their names, and proud of it too). Don’t fall for the ruse. For Satan and the demons know the word of God inside and out. They have witnessed it for thousands of years and can repeat the word of God back verbatim to you.

The bottom line is, God wants you to be a possessor of Him, not a fake professor. He wants to place His Holy Spirit into you. And there is only one way for that to happen, and that is through Christ Jesus. For He is the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no man comes to the Father except through Him. Jesus is God. Jesus took away all your sins on the cross. Place faith in Him and Him alone today.

~ Hebrews 12:14-29

Pursue peace with everyone, as well as holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God, and that no root of bitterness springs up to cause trouble and defile many. See to it that no one is sexually immoral, or is godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. He could find no ground for repentance, though he sought the blessing with tears.

For you have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire; to darkness, gloom, and storm; to a trumpet blast or to a voice that made its hearers beg that no further word be spoken. For they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.” The sight was so terrifying that even Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.”

Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels in joyful assembly, to the congregation of the firstborn, enrolled in heaven. You have come to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

See to it that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if the people did not escape when they refused Him who warned them on earth, how much less will we escape if we reject Him who warns us from heaven? At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth, but heaven as well.”The words “Once more” signify the removal of what can be shaken—that is, created things—so that the unshakable may remain.

Therefore, since we are receiving an unshakable kingdom, let us be filled with gratitude, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. “For our God is a consuming fire.”^{Hebrews 12:14-29}

Pray to God:

“Lord Jesus, teach me the truth of the world today and give me the wisdom to know the truth and identify the lies of the devil. Thank you God.”

~ “And so we have to understand that all that glitters is not gold. And that man looks on the outside, but God looks on the heart. And God knows what is in your heart. And He knows what is in mine. And God knows whether you have followed him, whether you’re a professor of Christ, or whether you’re a possessor of Christ. Whether you have come to him not on my terms, but on his terms, and his terms are very easy. It says, Trust me. And believe me, that’s all I asked you to do. Trust me for who I am, believe me for what I am. And God knows whether we’re following him for the accolades of man, following Him, for the peer pressure of man, following Him, so that we can say I’m a Christian, following Him so that I can get in an assembly and maybe do some business, or whether or not we are truly in Christ. Now to this is what he’s speaking to the Hebrew as well, speaking as loudly and clearly today, to the Gentile, as he was back then, to the Hebrew. And so the book of, of Hebrews, from the very beginning is talking about the superiority of Jesus, the uniqueness of Jesus, there is no other name given among men whereby you must be saved. It’s a very thing we talked about on the radio the other night, with a guy that I do not understand why people need to pussyfoot around the name of Jesus. And we call him the good boy upstairs. And we refer to God as the as the guy upstairs, the Bible buddy upstairs. And anybody can talk about God. And you’ll hear him talking about God all over the place. Everyone talks about God, you tell him to mention Jesus and your guy go on it unless you know him. You gotta go on that name. Unless it’s in a shower room. As a curse word, you gag on the name of Jesus, when you don’t know him. Or you become a con artist and an actor, where you name his name, the same as you would name Coca Cola. And so we’re talking about a book of evangelism, you’re talking about a Book of Truth, you’re talking about bringing people to truth. And you find out when you’re bringing them the truth, that nothing can be a substitute for Jesus, nothing. So he is approached to the Hebrews, that Christ is greater than the angels. We studied that in the first and second chapter of Hebrews. We talked about the fact that Jesus was greater than Moses, that Jesus was greater than Abraham, that Jesus was greater than Joshua, that Joshua led them into the land of rest, but Jesus will lead you into the Sabbath rest. It talked about the fact that Jesus was greater than all the priests. I love that passage that says, in as much death as death prevented them from continuing in office. You notice how that happens. Death prohibits you from continuing in things. And it said as much as death prohibited them from continuing in office, they could not carry on with their priestly duties, but this priests lives forever in order to save completely forever interceding, on our behalf forever. That’s why we know we’re in Christ and that’s why we know we have eternal security. eternal security is not a theology. The opposite to it is an abomination to God who did it all. It’s not the case of dealing with a theology. It’s the case of whether you’re gonna say Christ, I believe you or, whether you’re gonna call him a liar. It doesn’t have anything to do with a theological persuasion one way or the other, it has to do as to whether or not you’re gonna believe God, or whether you’re gonna call him a liar. That’s simple.” ~ Bob George

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Join Bob George in this chapter by chapter exposition of the book of Hebrews. Available for download the complete series on the Book of Hebrews. The Book of Hebrews is key to understanding the New Covenant.

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
Well, let’s turn to the book of Hebrews, as we pick up in the 12th chapter. The more that the more that you look at this book of Hebrews, the more I see this is an evangelistic book. It is deep in so many truths. But in the final analysis, it’s a book of evangelism. And it’s a book of evangelism to basically the Hebrew. Or it could be in this day and age to anyone who is steeped deeply in religion. Because what happens is religion instead of it being a supplement to becomes a substitute for, and that is exactly what religion is. And so you’re we see, as we opened up the book of Hebrews, how the author is saying to us that we’re going to be talking about Jesus, in this book of Hebrews. And you’re talking about people who had had Christ, first of all, didn’t even know who he was, or indeed knew there was a Messiah that was coming, but quite frankly, did not have any idea that when he came, he was going to be greater than what the author of the book of Hebrews is talking about, not greater than the angels necessarily, but kind of a savior for Israel. Kind of like a kind of like a human opposite of the Antichrist, where some human being is going to come and bring peace to my nation. And once again, this is this continual conflict that takes place in the world and in our own personal lives, where we’re always looking at things on a physical level. We’re always thinking of national things and physical things. And Christ is constantly teaching us spiritual things. That ultimately is the only thing that can permanently change physical things. And so we’re dealing with a with a book here that is trying to explain to people that are in all walks of life in their pilgrimage in coming to Christ. You’re talking to some people who obviously have come to Christ as who he is the Lord God. And then you’re talking to people who are followers, but not possessors. In other words, they’re professors, but not possessors. They’re following, but Judas also followed Jesus. And we have to understand that many times in the Scripture, we look at somebody as a believer, but we forget what Jesus said, in the second chapter of John, when it said, they saw all of the miracles that He did, and believed in his name. And we would say they believed his name, therefore, they’re saved. But you read on its head, but he did not entrust himself to them. For he knew man, and he did not need the testimony about man, concerning man. So there is because God sees our hearts, and he knows why someone is following him. We can’t con God. We can con our other brothers and sisters in Christ, we can con our other church members, we can even con our wives and our husbands that we live closely with every day. But you can’t con God. He sees our hearts. He knows our hearts from the inside out. And like the song goes, the amazing thing is the one who knows us best loves us most. That’s a miracle. But it is God that sees inside of man. It is the Lord Jesus who’s able to say, Yeah, you’re following me to Capernaum but the fact of the matter is, is the reason you’re following me is to get some food. You saw me feed 5000 over there, and you think you got a free lunch. You’re not following me for what I came to do to give you spiritual life. You’re only following me to feed physical All needs. You’re not following me to come to me to God, you want some kind of a miracle. You want your body healed. You want your legs straightened. You want something flashy to take place. You’re not following me, for who I am God, you’re following me for a circus. And that’s why again, in the Scripture, it says that they come to him in the end times and say, Lord, Lord, didn’t you see the miracles I did? Didn’t you see me cast out demons? Sounds like some of our TV programs. And he says, I don’t know who you are, I do not know you.

And so we have to understand that all that glitters is not gold. And that man looks on the outside, but God looks on the heart. And God knows what is in your heart. And He knows what is in mine. And God knows whether you have followed him, whether you’re a professor of Christ, or whether you’re a possessor of Christ. Whether you have come to him not on my terms, but on his terms, and his terms are very easy. It says, Trust me. And believe me, that’s all I asked you to do. Trust me for who I am, believe me for what I am. And God knows whether we’re following him for the accolades of man, following Him, for the peer pressure of man, following Him, so that we can say I’m a Christian, following Him so that I can get in an assembly and maybe do some business, or whether or not we are truly in Christ. Now to this is what he’s speaking to the Hebrew as well, speaking as loudly and clearly today, to the Gentile, as he was back then, to the Hebrew. And so the book of, of Hebrews, from the very beginning is talking about the superiority of Jesus, the uniqueness of Jesus, there is no other name given among men whereby you must be saved. It’s a very thing we talked about on the radio the other night, with a guy that I do not understand why people need to pussyfoot around the name of Jesus. And we call him the good boy upstairs. And we refer to God as the as the guy upstairs, the Bible buddy upstairs. And anybody can talk about God. And you’ll hear him talking about God all over the place. Everyone talks about God, you tell him to mention Jesus and your guy go on it unless you know him. You gotta go on that name. Unless it’s in a shower room. As a curse word, you gag on the name of Jesus, when you don’t know him. Or you become a con artist and an actor, where you name his name, the same as you would name Coca Cola. And so we’re talking about a book of evangelism, you’re talking about a Book of Truth, you’re talking about bringing people to truth. And you find out when you’re bringing them the truth, that nothing can be a substitute for Jesus, nothing. So he is approached to the Hebrews, that Christ is greater than the angels. We studied that in the first and second chapter of Hebrews. We talked about the fact that Jesus was greater than Moses, that Jesus was greater than Abraham, that Jesus was greater than Joshua, that Joshua led them into the land of rest, but Jesus will lead you into the Sabbath rest. It talked about the fact that Jesus was greater than all the priests. I love that passage that says, in as much death as death prevented them from continuing in office. You notice how that happens. Death prohibits you from continuing in things. And it said as much as death prohibited them from continuing in office, they could not carry on with their priestly duties, but this priests lives forever in order to save completely forever interceding, on our behalf forever. That’s why we know we’re in Christ and that’s why we know we have eternal security. eternal security is not a theology. The opposite to it is an abomination to God who did it all. It’s not the case of dealing with a theology. It’s the case of whether you’re gonna say Christ, I believe you or, whether you’re gonna call him a liar. It doesn’t have anything to do with a theological persuasion one way or the other, it has to do as to whether or not you’re gonna believe God, or whether you’re gonna call him a liar. That’s simple.

Forgiveness is not a theological issue, it is an issue of either you’re going to walk, believing what Christ said about it, or stand there and call Him a liar, as it’s talked about in the sixth and 10th chapter of Hebrews, and that is to make a mockery of the cross, and to trample underfoot the grace of God that sets you apart. It’s not a theological issue, it’s an issue as to whether you’re going to call God a liar, or whether we’re going to believe what he said. And so when you’re talking about the superiority of Jesus, you’re not talking about a theology, you’re talking about a reality, is it true or isn’t it and was Christ greater than all of the priests? And he is because he is forever interceding, he is alive, and will always be alive, he’s greater than Melchizedek. And now it’s talking about, he is the initiator of a brand New Covenant. And we come to the point where he’s talking about that New Covenant and then saying, this covenant is greater than the old one. And so in every case, he states the case as to what we had. But what we now have, this is what we had, we now have Jesus, this is what we had the priests, we now have the high priests. This is what we had the Old Covenant. This is now what we have the New Covenant. And in every one of these things, it is superior in all ways to the old. And so, in verse 18, Chapter 12, the author of Hebrews is again telling the people that you’ve not come to a mountain that can be touched, that is burning with fire to darkness and gloom, and storm, you’re not coming to a mountain with a trumpet blast or such a voice speaking words, that those who heard it beg that no further word would be spoken to them, because they couldn’t bear what was commanded. And if even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned. And the site was so terrifying that Moses said, I am trembling with fear. And you’ll remember that last week, we looked at that in the in the book of Genesis and in the book of Genesis, and it’s where the people and were the people came down, and they ultimately said, Moses, speak to us yourself. And we’ll listen. But don’t have God speak to us or we will die. And that is in the 20th chapter of the Book of Exodus. And it said, When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet, and saw the mountain and smoke, they traveled with fear, and they stayed at a distance. And that’s where they said to Moses, Moses, speak to us yourself. We’ll listen to you. But don’t let God talk to us. Or we’ll die. Now, Christ, speaking through Moses, said the same thing he’s talking to us today. Don’t fear. God will be with you and keep you from your sin.

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Bob George 13:53
Now, he goes back then to say, folks, the mountain that is Mount Sinai, that’s where the law was given. And guys, when we look at this, and he’s saying, we don’t come to that mountain, there’s a new mountain, a better one. That indeed was a mountain. There was Moses, but there’s someone greater than Moses, there are angels, but there’s someone greater than Moses. There was Joshua, but there’s someone greater than Joshua. There is Abraham, but there’s someone greater than Abraham. There is a covenant, but there’s a better covenant. There was a mountain on which the laws of God were given, but there’s another mountain. And it’s better. It’s superior. It supersedes the old one. And that’s what he’s saying here, folks, you haven’t come to that mountain where the law was given you’ve come to Mount Zion, another mountain to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. Folks, we’re so preoccupied with the earthly Jerusalem. We don’t realize God says there’s a heavenly one. And it’s better than the earthly one. You don’t come to Jerusalem, for the sacrificial systems and to the temple. We are the temple of the Holy Spirit of God. The temple of God is not in Jerusalem. The temple of God is you who are in Christ. We spend our time preoccupied with earthly things, talking about earthly things all the time. And he’s saying to us that we don’t come to that place. We’ve got a heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God, you’ve come to a 1000s upon 1000s of angels in joyful assembly. And it says that for every person that comes to Jesus, the millions upon millions of angels rejoice when a sinner comes to repent. That’s what you and I have come to, to the church of the Firstborn. Christ, whose names are written in heaven, you’ve come to God, the Judge of all men, the one who judges justly, the one who knows your heart knows whether you’re in Christ or just pretending. You’ve come to the spirits of righteous man who have been made perfect by Christ to Jesus, the mediator of a New Covenant, not the old one, a new one, and to the sprinkled blood of Jesus, that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Now turn back with me to the book of Galatians. Once again. This covenant, the Scripture tells us that the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through who? Jesus Christ our Lord. As we’ve said, It is not that there was not law before the law. Nor is it not that there was not grace before the grace. There was law in the Garden of Eden you can eat of any tree in here except for one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the day you eat thereof, you will surely die. That was law. There was also grace in the Garden of Eden because when they did eat of the tree and fell, and then clothed themselves in their own, self made fig leaves, which is what religion is stand around your own self made fig leaves, stand around naked with some dumb look and fig leaves on and coming to God and say, Here I am. And just thinking it’s so good religious, fig leaves. That’s what our own righteousness is. And it wasn’t good enough. And so God in His grace had to slay an innocent animal they had never seen death before. And an animal that was probably their best friend had to be sacrificed in order to take the skins of that animal to adequately clothe Adam and Eve for what was ahead for when man fell, it says, All nature, even groans for its redemption. And that’s when nature even became confused. And figleaves couldn’t save them in a snowstorm. And so there was Grace in the Garden of Eden whereby a lamb was killed clothing, Adam and Eve in the skins of a lamb again, which was a foreshadowing of your and my being clothed today in the righteousness of Jesus Christ as a result of the slain of the Lamb of God, at Calvary where the lamb was slain, so that we could be clothed in his righteousness, not our own. We don’t stand today in our own fig leaves. If you’re in Christ, you stand clothed in the righteousness of Jesus, in His clothing, provided for us by God.

Now, so the law came through Moses, the law and the grace came through Jesus Christ our Lord, but the grace of God, which gave us salvation by faith, came from a promise to a Abraham that superseded the law. Now in the third chapter, then of the book of Galatians, chapter six, he’s just jumping on this. Paul is just bringing up the same things that Hebrews is talking about. And again, the point of all of this is, look, quit playing religion. We’re talking about believing, and we’re not talking about an 80% Jesus. We’re not talking about coming to Christ, with a Brilcream, a little dab will do me. You’re talking about new identity. You’re talking about coming to Christ, and putting away what you were in before. You’re talking about forgetting about being a Hebrew. And being grateful for being a child of God, you’re talking about putting aside being a Gentile. And being grateful for being a child of God. You’re talking about quit being preoccupied with earthly things. And to get preoccupied with heavenly things. You’re talking about the fact that there is an earthly Jerusalem, it’s going to be shaken off the face of this earth. And there is a heavenly Jerusalem, that’s going to last forever. And do not substitute for what Christ came to do. He’s saying, Put it away, folks, put it away.

We have people today that quite frankly, would rather be a Jew than they would be a child of God. Christians who are so preoccupied that they would rather be Jewish than they would be a child of God. And thank God, we got people who are born Jewish who would rather be a child of God be Jewish. But those are people who have learned truth.

And that’s what this book of Hebrews is trying to get to us as folks. There is no double mindedness. You either get on one side of the fence or get on the other side of the fence, but you can’t walk strangulated. straggle legged down that fence. You’re gonna rip yourself up in all the wrong places. Yeah, you can’t do it. And so he’s talking about consider Abraham. He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. That’s all he did believe God. Understand, then catch what it says here, that those who believe are children of Abraham, you won’t know who the children of Abraham are people who believe those are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the children, the Gentiles by faith and announced this gospel in advance to Abraham, when he said that all nations will be blessed through you. So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, who is the man of faith. Now all who rely upon observing the law are under a curse. So if you’re relying on your acceptance with God, on obeying the law, in order to be accepted in the sight of God, you’re under a curse. That’s pretty plain isn’t it? Can’t you see some Legolas sitting there saying, Hey, I wonder what the Greek for that curse is? Well, it’s curse. Because it is written cursive is everything who does not do everything written in the book of the law.

Folks, I wonder sometimes where people came up with the 10 commandments. It’s funny in a Bible, he just said, here’s what God said to the Israelites, and he named off 10. And then he went on to name off about 100 and some other laws. And we want to separate those because that because when we say your law, there’s a group says, Oh, well, those are ceremonial laws that were not under. You don’t go to Mount Sinai period. You don’t go there for any of them. You go to Zion. And that’s what again, the author of Hebrews and Paul is desperately trying to get people to see. And I want to tell you, the Christian world has sucked up this legalism, as in dedication, that in many instances would make the Jew look sick today. And we’re relying upon our acceptance before God in our observance of the law. And he said, you’re under a curse. And he goes and say, here’s why you’re under curse. The reason you’re curse is because if you don’t do EVERYTHING written in the Book of the Law, you’ve had it. You say, You mean today, Lord, no, I mean, your lifetime. From the time you were born to the time you die. If you didn’t live in sinless perfection, it won’t do. Now, do you still want to live under the law? And we say, yeah, just just give me a little time, Lord. I’m sure you grade on the curve. And if I could just manage in my life to do more good than I do bad, why I’m sure you’ll accept wonderful me into Your presence says no. Only perfection will go into the presence of a perfect God. You don’t put garbage in a refrigerator. Only pure holiness will go into the presence of a purely Holy God, only pure righteousness will go into the presence of a righteous God. And you say, Lord, I’ve had it and he says, I know what I’m trying to get you to see. That’s why I gave you my righteousness. That’s why I clothed you in the skins of my righteousness. That’s why I gave you my holiness. That’s why I gave you perfection. You couldn’t do it yourself. And when you’re relying on doing it yourself, you’re under a curse. I don’t know how much clearer it could be. You’re under a curse. And then people again we want to get back and say well, you you know forget about what you’re doing for a minute. You know that song forget about yourself. How’s that go? Forget about yourself. Something what is it? magnify the Lord and praise his name. Forget about yourself. So everybody wants to deny this because they were you just are you just saying you just go out and sin you can just forget about what you’re doing. Think about what he’s doing. Once you grasp what he’s doing, you want to have think about what you’re doing.

Announcer 27:11
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 BobGeorge.net. There you will 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.