Radio Broadcast Tuesday 09/05/2023

Classic Christianity – Book of Hebrews P04 (09-05-23)

God is NOT a Forgiveness Vending Machine

People love their sacred cows. In fact, they worship their sacred idols left and right, because it makes them “FEEL GOOD.” People will justify doing and promoting all kinds of things today, from their weekly ritual of listening to some pastor that they know is teaching wrong in the main area of scripture as it relates to forgiveness, but they will say, “well he is teaching good in other areas” as though someone talking against sinning is a measurement of good or not, to other areas of teaching regarding the things of the world. You can see it based on their social media posts, where they will constantly promote one of Satan’s agents of righteousness, or their human saviors for mankind in the high tech world. They justify all of this, because after all, hardly any pastor or teacher online teaches the truth as far as forgiveness is concerned by God, so they say to themselves, I’m still going to listen to this man or that woman teach on other matters. The problem with that, is all of the teaching is off track with these other people because the very foundation is built on sinking sand, instead of the truth of the word of God.

It’s one thing to have not understood other things as it relates to scripture (due to ignorance or lack of knowledge and understanding), but to NOT understand that forgiveness by God is NOT a vending machine is to deny the finished work of Jesus on the cross. In these last days, we are being given an increase in knowledge, for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. Are you listening to Him, the Holy Spirit who is living in you? For He wants to teach you All Truth and give you wisdom to understand the things of God as well as the things of the world.

The bottom line is no one “gets their sins forgiven today by God,” because all their sins were forgiven at the cross. Jesus said it is FINISHED. Most don’t place faith in that statement from God. They give lip service to it, just as many of the early Hebrews gave lip service to the word of God, because they kept going back to their day of atonement. And that is the exact same thing that is happening today. Hardly anyone has exercised faith. The book of Hebrews will make that abundantly clear as we go deeper into the study of the word of God.

~ In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. ^{Hebrews 9:22}

~ It is not surprising, then, if his servants also masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve. ^{2 Corinthians 11:15}

~ If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. ^{James 1:5}

~ But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. ^{Matthew 13:16}

~ But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. ^{Matthew 7:26}

~ I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?” ^{Luke 18:8}

—–

~ “That’s what just going to church does. It just makes you feel good. And you’ll have people say, well, it makes me feel good. It’s like people who continue to deny the finality of the cross through this mentality that we have to keep asking God to forgive us and forgive us and forgive us. What? How come? Well it makes me feel good. Well, I want to tell you, maybe it makes you feel good, but anything that makes you feel good as a salve, but have you gotten to the root, where Christ said, it’s finished, it’s over, it’s done. There is no more forgiveness to be executed on your on my behalf. If there was He’d have to come and die again, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. And if it his shed blood once and for all was not adequate for you. Then what in the world are you going to count on? For more forgiveness? When without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. What are you going to count on? What are you going to rely on a confession booth, an altar call, your first John one nining? And what are you going to count on? If you can’t trust Christ when he said it’s finished? What are you gonna count on yourself for your forgiveness? And so religion is a salve always make you feel good.

Faith is a rock, it’s not a salve. It’s a foundation. It’s a rock. So it makes you strong as horseradish. You’re not standing on feelings, you’re standing on a rock, that says God said it. And if the Lord Jesus Christ said, it’s finished, that’s what he meant it’s finished. And if by that one offering He made forever perfect in the sight of God, all of you whom he’s made holy, then that settles it, we have been made perfect. And there isn’t anything I can do to make myself more perfect. there isn’t anything I can do to get myself more forgiven. There isn’t anything I can do to get myself more saved, or anything I can do to get myself more sanctified, got a whole bunch of people trying to get more sanctified, more set apart. There isn’t anything ever again, in your mind of saying, I’m going to try to get closer to God closer to God. How can you get closer to God than when he lives in you? Little hard to get closer to someone than if they live in. And what faith says if that is true, then walk in it, walk in it, that’s the freedom that we have. Walk in it.” ~ Bob George

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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 first chapter of the book of Hebrews, as we mentioned, that the book of Hebrews is a very, very interesting book, it’s an interesting thing that before I really came to understand what the fullness of God’s grace was all about, this was the most mystifying book in the New Testament. Fact, I didn’t like it. It wasn’t that I didn’t believe it was from God, I just didn’t understand it that fully. And therefore, you know, we don’t like what we don’t understand. But it never made a lot of sense to me, until I understood the fullness of God’s grace. And today, it quite frankly, is one of my favorite books in the entire New Testament. You will see, as we mentioned earlier that the New Testament Church underwent a terrific amount of persecution in its early days. And it was in this setting that the book of Hebrews was written, It was severe. And so the intended readers in this book, unlike what many times your commentary will say, was written to people, some of whom were truly regenerated, and others who were following Christ, but had not gone all the way to combine what they heard with faith.

How many of you have the NIV Bible? Many of you out there, if you’ll see in the introduction. Do you, all of you have the introduction there, where it says title and background? It’s an interesting thing, how, just a little turn, and a little statement can influence your mind that literally can influence the way you approach an entire Bible. That’s why you got to kind of watch introductions because they’re manmade. And, and, and what I would say would be manmade, as well. So it’s not that important. What’s important is what the Bible says, but I think I looked at this the other day, and I was looking to see how subtle this type of a thing is, where in the second sentence there it says, “The intended readers seem, and that’s good seem to have been Jewish Christians who were thinking of abandoning their faith and lapsing back into Judaism.” And if you’ll grab a hold of that it seemed to have been Jewish Christians. But I think the very word seemed to have been ought to get us a clue that that is not necessarily so. And I believe a better understanding of that would be that the intended readers were, were the Hebrew people who were coming to Christ, some of whom were coming to Christ, but all of them had not yet fully come to Christ. So it’s not that they’re falling away. They’ve never been there. And you can see that same type of thing today. We have talked about that, that you can be a follower of Christ, but not be regenerate. If someone would ask me for the first 36 years of my life, are you a Christian? Say, Well, of course, I’m a Christian. You know, I’m not a Buddhist, I’m not, you know, I’m not a Muslim. Well, yes, I’m a Christian. Are you a follower of Christ? Well sure I’m a follower of Christ. Anyone who goes to his church with a cross on it’s a follower of Christ. Are you born again? Huh, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Are you spiritually regenerated? I don’t know what you’re talking about. Does God live in you? It’s the same type of thing that the apostles, again, something that has been very much misinterpreted, and we’re going to cover that over the next couple of lessons. But where they said, Have you, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? And and the and the people said, I don’t know what you’re talking about. We’re followers of John the Baptist. We believe John the Baptist message that the Messiah is coming, but we don’t know what you’re talking about with this Holy Spirit. They were followers, but they were not regenerated. They were not spiritually born again, regenerate. And you can have the same thing today. You can look out at any group. I don’t care what group you’re talking about, including this one. And you would have the People who are sitting here, some of whom are truly born again, regenerate, others in the process followers, professors, but not possessors. Now you can’t bring that on yourself. That comes to a point in a man’s life where he is fully aware of his need for has come to the point where he is fully aware of the truth of the gospel that says, not only do you have sins that had to be forgiven, but your dead as a hammer. And that’s what that emptiness is inside. That’s what that stirring that God shaped vacuum is on the inside of every man that can only be filled by His Son, Jesus Christ. Not with an acknowledgment, that Jesus existed, anyone who was alive back in those days could have seen that Jesus existed. But at acknowledgement of your need, for regeneration of your need for life, to see and agree with God when He said, we’re dead. And the only thing a dead person needs is what? Life. And Christ said, I came to give you that life. Now that is a far cry from religion, where religion could say, Well, I came to give you some salve for the breaking out on your skin. But I can’t do a thing for what caused that breaking out. I can put some salve on you. That’s what religion does.

That’s what just going to church does. It just makes you feel good. And you’ll have people say, well, it makes me feel good. It’s like people who continue to deny the finality of the cross through this mentality that we have to keep asking God to forgive us and forgive us and forgive us. What? How come? Well, it makes me feel good. Well, I want to tell you, maybe it makes you feel good, but anything that makes you feel good as a salve, but have you gotten to the root, where Christ said, it’s finished, it’s over, it’s done. There is no more forgiveness to be executed on your on my behalf. If there was He’d have to come and die again, without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness of sins. And if it his shed blood once and for all was not adequate for you. Then what in the world are you going to count on? For more forgiveness? When without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. What are you going to count on? What are you going to rely on a confession booth, an altar call, your first John one nining? And what are you going to count on? If you can’t trust Christ when he said it’s finished? What are you gonna count on yourself for your forgiveness? And so religion is a salve always make you feel good.

That’s what the book of Hebrews is about. It’s about people who have many of whom have given lip service to what they say they believe. But their feet are doing something different than their lips. And he’s saying you’re gonna have to get that together. That’s like you see people walk around you know, it’s I got the joy of the Lord in my heart. Say we ought to notify your face you know? In other words, your face and your what you’re saying are two different things, the way you act and how you believe are two different things. He said, I want you to get them together. You’ll see later on in his in the book of Hebrews, where they talk about the fact that what they believe did no good at all because they did not combine it with faith. There was no there was no faith. They’re not trusting God. They’re trusting their feelings. We’re trusting what we’re doing. We’re saying, Lord, I’m okay because of what I am doing, or what I am not doing. And the Bible has saying, No, you’re not okay, because of what you’re doing at all, either good or bad. You’re okay because of what I did. But you will never be okay because of what you did. So thank God, salvation is faith in Christ, and what he has done, not me and what I have done. And I don’t know about you, but I’m grateful to God for that.

And so you’re going to see that as it began, that in in the past, God spoke to our forefathers, through the prophets at many times and in various ways. Well, the recordation of that resolved and then in the Old Testament, that’s what the entire Old Testament is about is how God spoke to us, through various ways, and in various times and through various people. And God revealed spiritual things, through his people through prophets. Folks, do you realize that when you’re dealing in the spiritual realm, that the only way that you and I could ever know anything about the spiritual realm is if it was revealed to us? Do you realize it had to be revealed by who? The spiritual realm. Now otherwise, man can sit down, dream up all kinds of ideas about what the spiritual realm is all about, and we do. And that’s where all cults come from. And that’s where all every harebrained idea that you and I have ever been exposed to in our life comes from man trying to figure out the spirit. But you see, man doesn’t speak to the spirit to tell him, the Spirit speaks to us. And if it doesn’t reveal to us, we don’t have a clue what it is. And so in order for man to know what God’s about, God Himself had to take the initiative to reveal to man who he is, what he’s like, Man can’t figure it out. Leave man to himself to try to figure it out, says you come up with every harebrained idea in the world. And so God always chose people. It’s an interesting thing that the Bible is very biographical in nature. It’s almost everything you see in the Bible is a biography of a person. The Old Testament, it’s a biography of Adam and Eve, a biography of Abraham, a biography of Joseph, a biography of Moses, a biography of all of the different people that God chose to use, he pulled out and he used those people to reveal His truth through and the Old Testament is a biography from start to finish the the Gospels have biography of Jesus, most of the book of Acts is a biography of the men that God called out to reveal Himself through. It’s a biography, the whole deal. It shows God’s importance on people as well. To be able to say, Don’t discount people, I’m going to use those people.

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Bob George 13:41
And so in the Old Testament, God revealed Himself to man through many different ways to our forefathers, through prophets, at many different times, and in many, many various ways. He is not limited to how we want God to reveal himself. Many different ways, many different people many different times. That’s what the Old Testament is about, is how he did that. Now you’re going to see the contrast, but but total contrast. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his Son. So God revealed what he wanted man to know about God, through His prophets, and the different men of God that he used in the Old Testament to let them know what he wanted them to know about God at that particular time, and in that particular way. But in these last days, he said, I am going to give you all that you can take to know about God. And I’m going to reveal something about God that was never revealed in the Old Testament. I’m going to show you about the unconditional love, and the unconditional grace of God, and I’m gonna manifest that to you in its fullness through my Son, Jesus Christ. And that’s why the Son of God, the Lord, Jesus Christ, Himself came to this world. And he was full, filled up to the major of grace and of truth. And when you and I are going to come to Christ, we’re going to have to come to him with the knowledge of His truth, and of His grace. That’s what he is full of.

And so the Old Testament revealed the judgment of God and the wrath of God. And it revealed His dealing with the nation of Israel, that he certainly did in the Old Testament. He did in the beginning stages of the introduction of the gospel, they were set on the backburner as far as the nation of Israel is concerned. And he said in the last days, I’m going to come back, there’s going to be full revelation again, and all of Israel is going to come to the Lord. In the interim period, I’m going to take the gospel app to the Gentile nations, that does not mean Hebrews as a remnant are not going to come to Christ are going to come to Christ all over the place. But as far as that final dealing with this nation of Israel, that’s going to come at a point in time, and I’m going to complete that work. And all Israel is going to be saved. That’s something looked forward to and that’s the end times I think we’re approaching them. So that’s the kind of good news and bad news bad news is we’re gonna have an Armageddon, the good news, all of Israel’s gonna come to the Lord. Gonna see Him whom they pierced and realize that is who we pierced.

I had a conversation I was talking about this on the radio the other day, I’ll never forget a conversation that I had with a rabbi in San Bernardino, California. And it was a dear guy, and we sat down and and, in fact, we went up to arrowhead springs where I was, and we stood up there and talked at great length about the things of the Lord. And it was at a period of time when there was a little bit of anti semitic overtones that were taking place. I don’t remember why that was occurring. But it was occurring. And I had mentioned to him I said, Rabbi, if you are ever in a situation where persecution hits the Jew in this country, again, the one place that you will be able to go for refuge are the born again, Christians, not the World Council of Churches that you’re relying on. But Born Again Christians, true regenerate, born again, Christians. In a born again, Christian, is a supernatural love for the Jew. And we talked about that. We went through many of the misconceptions that had that he Christians looked say that Jews are Christ killers, and I rabbi I killed Jesus. We all killed Jesus. man sins is what killed Jesus. It’s interesting that he used both the Jew to encourage and the Gentile to carry it out. So it’s all involved. We’re all involved in that deal. You never heard that before. Interesting, never heard of before. We talked on and on. I asked him the question rabbi, do you believe that the Messiah at the Messiah is going to come? Yes, I do. What kind of a person do you think he’s going to be? And he went ahead to explain. And I said, let me ask you a question. How much better do you think this Messiah that you’re talking about is going to be than Jesus was? How many more miracles do you think this Messiah is going to perform? How much more love do you think this Messiah is going to have toward the fellow man than this Jesus did? Just how much greater is this Messiah that you’re looking for? Going to have to be than Jesus of Nazareth? He just sit there and look. And I finally said, Rabbi, let me ask you a question. In the end times, when the Messiah does come, and He indeed I also believe he will. What if, when you look upon him, it turns out to be Jesus of Nazareth. And he looked at me and grand and said it was And surprise me one bit. So that’s the good news that is going to occur. And in the meantime, the revelation all that God wanted you and me to know about the Word of God, and to know about him, has been revealed in the person of Jesus Christ.

Now it goes ahead and to say that all in these last days, he has spoken to us now so that we can know the completion of God, by His Son, Jesus, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe. Everything then was created by Jesus, all things were created, as we talked about last week by Him and for Him, and nothing was made that was not made by him. He therefore said that the Son Jesus, and he’s now talking about him in his physical form, he’s talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, conceived by the Holy Spirit of God, born of a virgin, conceived by the Holy Spirit, came into this earth, taking upon himself, our Earth suit, our humanity, this Jesus, that God, allowed to be made to be born, He is the first born from among the dead. And God engineered that himself. Whereby, in essence, it’s like the Trinity setting and saying, in order to show these people, these, the man that we created to show them what we are really like, because they sure are confused, let’s take upon ourselves, their humanity, until they can see the exact radiance of God, not only to see what God is like, but to enable them to see for the first time since Adam before the fall, what man is to be like, that is man from God’s vantage point, not the puny representation that we see today. But God from man from God’s vantage point. And so in Christ, we saw for the first time what true man was meant to be, since before Adam fell, if you took a person from a planet who came to this earth, and before coming to the earth, set up there and said, we understand that we can know God. Is that right? Yes, we understand that. How do you figure that he said, Well, I heard as this person living on another planet, that God made a creature called man. And that that man, this creature called Man, is the exact representation of God himself. So if we could get to the earth some way and look at man, we can know God, see God, what he’s like. And the people on this other planet say that is a worthy goal. Let’s put our heads together and see if we can develop some kind of a spaceship ship, in order to get us from our planet to this earth so that we can know what God’s like.

And so they put their heads together and their minds together, and they’re ingenius together and their money together. And one day they develop this spaceship that can take them from another planet, and arrive here on Earth. And they land with great anticipation. We’ve landed on this planet earth, that we heard was a place where God had made a creature called man. And he’s the representation of God Himself. And with great anticipation, why they get out of this spaceship, and they look around and they see the trees and maybe they could have seen the ocean on the way down and the beauty of this planet. And as they approached it, they say, I can hardly wait to see this man, this planet, it’s gorgeous. And they look around and they see the different things that they could see and then all of a sudden, why they come in contact with this creature called man. And they look and they see in the gutter. Man, dying and drowning in his own vomit from a drunken stupor and people walking around sticking needles. in their veins, and people walking around killing each other and engaged in all kinds of sexual perversion. They see people cursing each other with the same tongue that they praise God, they curse man. And they ran out and see this human being. They say if this is a representation of what God is, let’s get back in our ship, and go back to our planet, and give up our search for God. And so God looks at this humanity, this fallen humanity. And says, I, once again, as I created Adam, perfect and exact representation of what God was. This time, I’m going to let my creation be more. And they’re going to see what God’s like. And so as I said, from the first time since Adam was created, man got a glimpse of what man was supposed to be like, that is man from God’s vantage point, not from what we have become. And once again, we looked at the Son, Jesus Christ, who was the exact radiance of God’s glory, and the exact representation of his being. So that once again, if you want to know what God was, like, look at Jesus. And you could tell what God was like. Sustaining all things he said, by his powerful word. And the meaning of that, my friends is very simply, and and very pointedly that from the Garden of Eden, where God put a tree in the middle of that garden that was called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, to say, if you want to know what is right and wrong, good and evil. This is it. This is it.

Announcer 27:16
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’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 in praise the Lord. Amen.