Radio Broadcast Tuesday 08/16/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Your Identity in Christ P68 (08-16-22)

If You Are in Christ Jesus, You Have Eternal Life

~ God so loved the world, John 3:16, that he gave what? his one and only Son, this is part of the testimony of God concerning His Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have what kind of life? eternal life. If eternal life could be lost, it have to be temporal. So yeah, he didn’t give you temporal life. If he gave you temporal life, he would have testified to that fact. He gave you eternal life. John 10:28, I gave them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand. Folks did you hear that? No one can snatch you out of the hand of Jesus Christ. Are you in Christ? Do you have the Son? Yeah. What do you have? Life. What kind of life? Eternal life. Can you ever lose it? No, nobody will ever snatch me out of the hand of God.

Listen in to today’s lesson with more in-depth teaching, 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.

Bob George 0:44
Now, when God testifies about something, that’s God doing it, it doesn’t make a difference, whether I believe it or whether I don’t believe it. You know, people sit around and said, God said it, I believe it that settles, I say, baloney. God said it That settles it, whether you believe it or whether you don’t. The issue is not what my belief system is what we believe I see that in doctrine, here’s what we believe. So what you’re saying that’s what we believe. And if you don’t believe like, we believe you are not one of us. And what does it do? It separates. It doesn’t matter what we believe, at People to People, that’s irrelevant. The issue is what does the Bible say? And so we’re here to teach you what the Bible says not here to teach you what we believe. Sure. It’s irrelevant. We’re just people we might be whistling Dixie, in regard to what we believe. I don’t believe so. But we could be. So how are you going to prove it one way or the other go the Word of God, let him teach you. And then we’ll get together. And if he’s taught you the same way teaches us why we’ll have some great fellowship with each other. Right? Yeah. Now, here’s God’s testimony, again, doesn’t make a difference where you stand on it. Here’s God’s testimony, and you have to make up your mind about something folks. Do you believe God is real? Who is your God? And when you look at that, you’re you’re saying to yourself, who you thinking about most during the day yourself? Or are you thinking about your God? Is your god your pocketbook? Is your god your career? Is the god your own fleshly desires? Is your do is your mindset. Lord, not my will but yours be done? Or is your mindset Lord, not your will, but mine be done? And that helps us to determine who’s your God? Are you paying attention to him? If God says something, folks, that’s the case, he spoke this world into existence. And we certainly don’t have a problem looking around and seeing this is quite a thing, it’s quite a place that he spoke into existence. Now, here’s his testimony about his Son. And he says that, verse 10, anyone who believes in the Son has this testimony in his heart. And anyone who does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony of God that God has given about his Son. Folks, he has set the stage for something here and listen to this, this is serious business.

Anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. What is he saying? Well, God’s testifying about something about his Son. And he’s saying, if you’re a true believer in his Son, that testimony that he testified to, is going to be in your heart, your hearts going to respond to this, why? Well, the Spirit of God didn’t lie to each other, and lie to himself. And if the Spirit of God lives in you, and the Spirit of God speaks, it ain’t gonna say I don’t think I believe that. It’s going to be speaking truth, and you’re going to be responding to truth. When you’re born again, and you hear the truth of the Word of God, there’s something inside of you, you’re totally not conscious at all of it. There’s something inside of you saying, right on amen, that is true, that’s true. If you’re born again. Now, that can also occur when you’re not born again, just responding to garbage talk, because you’ll see a lot of that amen and going on to. But if you’re truly born again, you’re going to respond to the testimony about God. Now, listen to this, folks, it is vitally important. So anyone who believes in the Son of God, in other words, if you’re born again, already has this testimony in his heart in regard to the eternal life that’s been given to you. And it says that anyone who does not believe God, what do you mean, believe him and what he said about his son, in regard to eternal life. Anyone who’s did not believe God has made him, God out to be a liar. Because he has not believed the testimony that God has given about his Son. What is he talking about? that he came? no His eternal life. He said, This is the testimony. So this is the testimony that we’re about to read, that God has given concerning his Son, that says, if you’re truly born again, you’re automatically going to believe this. And if you don’t believe it, you’re calling God a liar. And you have never believed the testimony of God concerning his Son, not just in how to get saved, but are you saved or aren’t you saved? Now this is the testimony. God has given us eternal life. And this life is in His Son. And he who has the Son has life, and he does not have the Son does not have life. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know, not hope so, but know that you have eternal life. So this is the confidence that we have in approaching God if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we have asked from him.

Now I want to ask you a question. Is it God’s will that none should perish? And that all should come to repentance? You think that’s God’s will? Well, we don’t have to worry about that it stated, isn’t it? So if you’re lost, is it God’s will for you to come to repentance, well you say I’ve done too much wrong there in a way to do too much wrong. As a matter of fact, your salvation isn’t predicated on how much wrong you’ve done, or how much good you’ve done. Your salvation is predicated upon how dead you are. And you’re as dead as the neatest guy that ever walked on the face of the earth. If you’re the worst guy that ever walked on the face of the earth, both of you are dead. Just one of you doesn’t stink quite as bad as the other, but you’re dead. So the issue is life and death. So the issue is, have you come to Christ for life? That’s the whole issue. Now, would it be God’s will for you to do so? Well just stated, it’s God’s will it is God’s will? That’s right in the Scripture, that none should perish all should come to repentance. Are you one of the one? Well, yes, I am, though, what does it say about that? Anything you ask, according to what his will, he hears you and answers you. Is it your will, for you to come to repentance, change your mind and to be saved? Well, of course, we know that. Are you asking God? Are you willing to ask God to come into your heart and do that? Yeah. Will he hear you? Unless he’s a lie, said he hears this. What else do we know that when he hears us, whatever we ask, he’s going to do. Are you saved? It’s as simple as believing the truth that is God’s will for me to be saved. I want saved, I asked you, Lord Jesus, to come into my heart, and be my Lord and Savior. And according to the promise of God, that transaction has already taken place.

Sometimes familiarity, really does breed content, and we forget things. And one of this was one of the passages, of course, that I learned as a brand new Christian, was 1st John 5:11 through 13. And I learned it and I memorized it, I believed it, and I’ve stated it. And many times you just kind of say, Oh, I know that and kind of glance over it. But as we talked about the break, this was just kind of a, almost a new eye opener to me, as I’m teaching through it right now as to the stringency of these words that, that, that it’s talking about the fact that folks, you believe what man says, This is God’s testimony. And you know, you have people sitting in here and say, Well, my denomination says you can lose your salvation. What says, well, you’re beleiving what man says, but that isn’t what God says. So your issue is, are you gonna believe man, are you going to believe God? That’s the whole issue, man is dumb as a cluck. And God is total wisdom. So I don’t want people to believe man, you need to believe God. And this is the testimony that God gave concerning his Son. And Bobby, you we talked about that and your own life, you really can’t believe what you don’t know. And, and you might just share a little bit how Satan kind of beat you to death until you finally got into our training a number of years ago, and solidified that there’s only one way to enter into the spiritual realm. That’s by faith, there’s only one way to enter into that there’s only one door faith, it just in other words, believe what I say. You can enter into the religious world in numerous ways. In fact, you don’t need a faith at all, but into true born again, experience, true entering into the spiritual realm of Christ Jesus, entering into the presence of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, there’s only one way to enter into that relationship, and that’s by faith in the testimony of God concerning his Son. You see, it’s not just faith in God, it’s faith in God’s testimony concerning his Son.

Well, again, it says anyone who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in his heart. In other words, you don’t have to work at it. It’s there, God’s already placed the fact that I have given you eternal life in your heart. Now, folks, it makes me I realized that teaching can be bad, and you’ve been believing man. But But if there is not something inside of you saying, Yeah, I’ve got eternal life. God just said it, something’s wrong. And what it’s saying, if you have truly become a believer in Christ Jesus, that testimony is in you. So if the testimony isn’t in you, there may be a problem deeper than could or lose salvation, and maybe you’ve never understood what it is to begin with. Yes. And so if that’s the case, that’s an easy problem to solve, and we’re just going to go on and how that is solved. Now it says, If you don’t believe God, God what, in regard to God’s testimony concerning his son, then you’ve made God out to be a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given us about his Son, God, it says, was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not counting their sins against them. Is that good news? Well, of course, what’s that a testimony about his Son he was in Christ. Why isn’t he counting our sins against us? Because Christ took all of them on the cross He who knew no sin, that’s Jesus became sin, for who you in and me, so that in him his resurrected life we could become what? The righteousness of God. Now that’s the testimony. And here it is God’s given us eternal life. This life is in his Son. When do you get the Son in the sweet by and by? No, that the very moment to as many as received Him, to them, he gave the right to become a child of God, your indwelt by him, to the very moment that you believe receive, except all of those things are acts of fate, Christ Jesus, his Son, into your heart, the very moment that you do that. You have eternal life. So here’s the simplicity of it, folks, He who has the Son has life, what kind of life? eternal life he could have given us a kind he wanted no life, temporal life eternal, he chose eternal, aren’t you glad he who has the Son has life. He does not have the Son of God does not have life. Very, very simple. Folks. Are you in Christ? Do you have the Son? Yes, you’re saved? Are you out of Christ? You do not have the Son. Yes, I’m lost. Very simple. It is not a complicated deal. What is salvation then? life, having the Son living in you Christ in your heart, your only hope of glory. Now that’s what salvation is. It’s not just getting your sins forgiven. It’s life. You see, sins forgiven without an understanding of life is not salvation. That was a provision that God did on the cross for you for your sins. But He was raised from the dead. And Paul says, without the resurrection were to be pitied of all people. He didn’t say without the Christ, cross without the resurrection. Why? The resurrection is what brings life to the dead. The cross was what took away our sins in order to enable him to bring life to the dead a life called eternal life. The cross taking away your sins is what now prohibits sin from losing life. That’s why you have eternal life. The cross is what enabled you to have eternal life.

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Bob George 14:02 But the goal of the cross was so that you could have eternal life the goal the cross was until you get your sins forgiven and be okay. No one’s okay. All of people’s sins are forgiven. He not only died for our sins, but the sins of the whole world. He died for everyone’s sins, but not everyone is saved. Because that’s that forgiveness is received in his life. In Him you have redemption, the forgiveness of sin. So that we receive salvation that was furnished for all men is received and he’s resurrected life and that’s why there’s going to be gnashing of teeth. Person sitting around thinking that this was how simple it was. You chose hell and death, rather than life. Is so simple working for it, instead of receiving it as a gift. So folks, if you have the Son you have life if you don’t have the Son of God, you do not have life and now he’s saying again reiterate these. I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God in order that you may want? Know K N O W, that you have, what? Eternal life. Now, folks, how in the world can you think that you can lose eternal life? Salvation is life. Your sins have been taken away. The only thing that could cause life to depart from you, which is what would be losing, not salvation, life. There isn’t anyplace talking about losing salvation, life is salvation. So don’t talk about salvation, talk about life, do you have life? Then you have salvation. How do you get salvation? by having life. So to lose salvation is to lose life, what kind of life and eternal life and that the dumbest thing ever heard of? How could you lose eternal life? The only thing could cause you to lose life would be sin. Where are your sins? At the Cross taken away. He did that so that he could give you not a life that’s here today and gone tomorrow. But eternal life now folks walk in it. It’s marvelous. Walk in it, believe it by faith, it’s God’s testimony concerning his Son. Very familiar passage, Bob, that people just quote in a New York minute, but do not then turn right around and negate it. God so loved the world, John 3:16, that he gave what? his one and only Son, this is part of the testimony of God concerning His Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have what kind of life? eternal life. If eternal life could be lost, it have to be temporal. So yeah, he didn’t give you temporal life. If he gave you temporal life, he would have testified to that fact. He gave you eternal life. John 10:28, I gave them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one can snatch them out of my hand. Folks did you hear that? No one can snatch you out of the hand of Jesus Christ. Are you in Christ? Do you have the Son? Yeah. What do you have? Life. What kind of life? Eternal life. Can you ever lose it? No, nobody will ever snatch me out of the hand of God. Romans 6:23, The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is II eternal life where? in Christ Jesus our Lord. Have you accepted what he did for you? Have you accepted God’s testimony concerning the Son? This is a testimony God has given you eternal life. This life is his Son. Do you have the Son? If you do you have eternal life. And those that do not have the Son, do not have life. These things I’ve written unto you once again, in order that you may know that you have eternal life. If you haven’t settled that issue, will you do so right now, during this break. We read the Scripture, the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. So you got the wages of sin, what is the wages of sin? Well, it’s death. That’s why all of us were born into this world, under the wages of sin. And the gift of God is life. If we were born into this world with life, why then you wouldn’t need the gift of life. You would need the gift of death. Who needs that gift? So we’re born into this world dead spiritually, and the gift of God as He is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. In John, this is not in our lesson. It’s just an amplified part of this. But it says in John 35 and 36, the Gospel of John chapter three, the Father loves his Son, and has placed everything everything in his hands. Now look at this, whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, period. But whoever rejects the Son will not see that life for God’s wrath remains upon him. Well, what is God’s wrath? Death, The wages of sin. Does it come upon you? No, it remains upon you. It remains upon you. I had a dear brother in Christ. He was a pastor of a church when I was in San Bernardino, California. His name’s Alan Rosenberg. And Alan, of course, came out of a Jewish heritage and tells the story in his own life of how when he was in World War Two, somebody had given his very Jewish mother, one of these big Bibles, these great these big ones, and she looked at that and said, Man, I don’t want that. that thing that’s got that Gentile Bible in it, and but she said it was too pretty to throw away. She just couldn’t bring herself to throw it away. And so she just put it down and Alan’s desk drawer. He was away at the warden in his bedroom and that was waiting on him just put it in the bottom dresser dresser door and just forgot about it. Well, after the war, when Allen came home, he had of course, set up, came back to live in the home and everything and he said one night was it was just looking around in his in his desk and pulled pulled open the bottom drawer and saw this Bible down here, Holy Bible. So he pulled it out and looked at the first part. He said, Well, there’s a Jewish Bible and then went to the second part and said, and here’s the here’s the Gentile Bible. And so I said, I open that up to that Matthew, that Gentile Bible, and he said, he opened that up and, and for goodness sakes, he said, he started reading the chronology of there and started reading the record of genealogy of rather of Christ Jesus, the son of David, the son of Abraham, and Abraham was the father of Isaac and Isaac, the father of Jacob, Jacob, the father of Judah and his brothers, Judah, and the Father Perez Zara and the mother Tamar. He said, Man, those aren’t Gentile names, those are Jewish names, he started thinking. I thought this was a Gentile Bible. And yet, here’s all these Jewish names in there. So he said, he started kept on reading, read all the way through the Gospel of Matthew, went to Mark went to Luke went to John. And he said, he went right by John 3:16, read through that. And then came to this passage, whosoever believes in the Son has eternal life. And whoever rejects the Son will not see that live, but God’s wrath remains upon him. He said, he did something that a Jew doesn’t do a Jew pray, standing with his hands extended into the air, reaching for a God that he doesn’t have and doesn’t know. But he said, so that’s the way a Jew prays. And he said, but he didn’t do that. He said, He knelt, and said, Lord God, I do not want the wrath of God to remain upon me, have mercy upon me a sinner, and was saved one of the most dynamic pastors that I have ever known and one of the dearest, exemplifying the love of God, of any man that I’ve known. And that’s the simplicity of the gospel, you see, the wrath of God remains upon us. That’s what it’s talking about. That when you’re dead, the wages of sin is death. So we’re all born into this world under that condemnation, but the gift of God is eternal life. So God doesn’t send people to hell. You send yourself there by refusing life. In other words, the wrath of God is already upon us. And that’s the poor teaching of evangelism sometimes take places you better come down and get right with God, are you gonna go to hell. Well, you see, it isn’t getting right with God, it’s, it’s, you’re already headed to hell, you’re already going, you’re already in it, you’re already dead. The issue is to come to receive life, his life, that it just not a cure for what you’ve done wrong, but it’s the dynamic for a brand new life that He came to give us. So it’s a marvelous thing to understand that this life is eternal life. So Romans 6:11, Paul says, in the same way, Count yourself now dead to sin, if you’re in Christ, you are dead now, do the entire sin principle. What is the sin principle? Well, what have you been freed from? What do you did to that the wages of sin is death, that’s no longer applicable to me at all. There is no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ Jesus, condemnation doesn’t apply to me anymore. That your sin would keep you in hell under the under the wages of sin, that doesn’t apply to me anymore. I have stepped out of that realm under that law of sin and death. And I’ve stepped under and into the New Covenant whereby I am alive to God in Christ Jesus. So if that’s true, what does it say? Record yourself that way, count a true you’re dead to the all of the wages of sin, which is death, and you’re alive to God and Christ Jesus. Now, when I’m thinking I’m losing salvation, folks, and you see that salvation is life and death. How can I record myself dead to the sin principle of the wages of sin being death, and believe that the wages of sin still is death? And if I just do it bad enough, I’m going to be back down again. You can’t. You’ve never come to believe truth, folks. You believe man’s testimony. stead of God, God testimony is very clear. I have given you eternal life and that’s in your Son. Now the issue, folks, are we going to believe it? Are we not? So as a child of God, why would Paul say reckon it so? hy would Paul say there is no condemnation awaiting you? If there was condemnation waiting you what is the condemnation of God concerning sin? Death. There isn’t any death awaiting you. You’ve now been given life? John 10:10, The thief comes to steal and kill and destroy outcome that you might have life and have it to its fullness, you can’t have a full life, believing you got to lose it. There’s no way to do that, Christ came to give you life. What do you need live for? Because you’re dead, dead in your sins in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave all of your sins. Romans 5:21, so that just as Sin reigned, and death, so also grace, my drain to the righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. What kind of righteousness is he going to bring? Eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now, our last question in there as John 6:40, my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son, and believes in him shall have eternal life. And I will raise him up at the last day. If he’s a good little boy, is that what it says? No. It’s my Father’s will. Now what was it that we learned a little bit ago? Anything we asked, according to His will, He hears us and answers ud, we know that we have what the requested we’ve asked for him. Is that his will that everyone who was in his Son has eternal life? Well just got through saying it did. Are you in the Son? Is the Son in you? Yeah. What do you have eternal life. How come? Because it was God’s will to give it to you. And you say, Yeah, but Lord, I blow it sometimes. So he knew that when he died for you. The issue is it was my will. The Father is saying that you have eternal life. It’s also my will that I’m going to raise you up at the last day.

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.