Radio Broadcast Tuesday 09/06/2022

Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Your Identity in Christ P77 (09-06-22)

God is Love Made Manifest in Jesus Christ our Lord

~ “And God who is love, you can’t separate those two, God is love. And so when you and I are indwelt, by Christ Jesus, we are indwelt by his love. Now, that’s true, whether you experience it or whether you don’t experience it. It’s true whether you fully understand it or don’t understand it, it still is true. That nothing can separate you from the love of God, whether you become convinced of that or not, is not the issue. The issue of truth, that is that is truth, whether you experience it or whether you don’t.”

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 0:43
When you’re talking about the subject of love, why it is an exciting subject, and yet as I analyzed with my 20, some years of being in Christ, and and dealing very closely with, with Christianity, the organized religion of Christianity, and with churches of all denominations all over this country, and then just dealing with individuals, which we certainly do an awful lot of, I see something about love, it is probably the most talked about thing in the Christian life and the least understood. And when it’s talked about, it’s normally talked about, on a cursory basis, it’s talked about on a surface level. We do not realize the implication of love. It’s the only, it is the only constant that we have in our life as a human being, and that God’s love. God is the only constant that there is in the world. We are not constant. We’re variables. Any of you that ever took chemistry, and imagine all of us who went through high school had to take chemistry, unfortunately. But when we took chemistry, why you will see in experimentation, that there has to be a constant, you can’t do a an experiment with variables, you have to bounce those variables off of a constant in order to produce a consequence. Well, the same thing is true in our life, that that we as a human being are nothing but a big bundle of variables. That’s all we are. We’re one way one day and another day than the next or don’t even have to wait for the day to end. One day, we may be extremely honest, the next day, a little white lie might be as natural as anything in the world. One day, we’re walking in faithfulness to God, and the next day we’re walking, not even trusting him and acting like he doesn’t even exist. One day, we can be joyful over our relationship with God. And the next day, we’re wondering whether we were either even in a relationship with God, we are nothing but a great big variable. But God designed man to have his consistency in his relationship with his creator. So he never intended man to have any consistency. Apart from being involved with his creator. He didn’t design man that way. He designed man in such a way whereby God in the man is not only indispensable to the humanity of the man, but in a way whereby God in the man is the only consistency in a man. And so we failed to see how love provides that constant in this experiment of life. And God who is love, you can’t separate those two, God is love. And so when you and I are indwelt, by Christ Jesus, we are indwelt by his love. Now, that’s true, whether you experience it or whether you don’t experience it. It’s true whether you fully understand it or don’t understand it, it still is true. That nothing can separate you from the love of God, whether you become convinced of that or not, is not the issue. The issue of truth, that is that is truth, whether you experience it or whether you don’t. But as as God is trying to say to us, it’s not just an oshi gushee word. It’s their only consistency that you’re going to have in your life is the love of God. And when Paul, as we picked up in our study, on page 82, talked about who can separate us from the love of God, and he talks about shall travel or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or dangerous sword and all of those things. It’s because he went through those things. They’re the variables of trouble. There’s variables in hardships that all hardships don’t hit at the same time are the same in place with the same people, or in the same intensity, you can have persecution you can have persecution, like the the Jews and the Ukrainians, the Russians, people like that, who were thrown into the gas chambers murdered by the millions. We hear an awful lot about that with the Jews very little about with what happened to the Russian people. But the same atrocities as a matter of fact more in numbers to Russia’s own people killed by their own people, then then the Jews were eradicated in the gas chambers. But we don’t hear much about that. But yet it’s true. That’s That’s what took place.

So you’re going to have that kind of persecution, or the type talked about in the book of Hebrews where you’re sawed in two that’s not a bad way to go. Are you going to have persecution just among your fellow man? It’s a mental persecution. It’s an alienation. It’s being ignored, insulted, injured, rejected, all of those things are forms of persecution. But you see, the issue of life is not how much of that I have. But it’s how do I respond to those things that’s going to determine whether I’m going to live with some sort of stability in my life, or whether I’m going to be an emotional basket case. So circumstances do not cause you’re in my spirit, they just reveal your spirit, they just reveal where you’re walking at that particular moment of time. That’s why people are constantly wanting to blame their insecurities on their family, on their background, on circumstances that happen to them. And sometimes folks, bad circumstances listen to things Paul went through being beaten to the point of One more strike would have been death. That is not a real desirable circumstance to be in. And yet, it The issue wasn’t how many times was he beaten? The issue wasn’t how many times was he in trouble and hardship and nakedness and danger and the sword? The issue was, how did he respond to those circumstances? Because those circumstances didn’t cause his response. They just revealed his response. And his response was predicated upon whether his dependency was upon the Lord Jesus Christ for His acceptance, or whether it was upon the people who were persecuting and beaten him half to death. So folks, we’re so prone, are we not to one to blame our circumstances for our misery, instead of realizing that it is my response to the circumstance, that’s going to depend on whether I’m going to function in misery, or whether I’m going to be free from that circumstance. Because circumstances don’t cause your spirit, they just reveal it. Your husband cannot put mad in you. They can only draw mad out of you. Your wife cannot put mad in you. She can only draw it out of you. If it wasn’t there, it could not be drawn out of you. That’s a sickening thought. Because we would like to say as we do you make me mad. No, you don’t make me mad, you just draw mad out of me. And, and again, mad is not a very pleasant emotion. So when you do something to draw a mat out of me, it makes me mad that I got mad. And now I’m mad at you for drawing it out of me. Had you not drawn it out me I’d be a nice, sweet person, a person you see. And so it’s a vicious circle, isn’t it that takes place but we have to realize that it is not circumstances that cause your spirit. Those circumstances only are going to reveal your spirit. Now again, how you respond to circumstances of life is going to be in direct proportion to your understanding of God’s love.

This thing called Love, again, possibly the most verbalized term, and at the same token, the most misunderstood and also it’s not only misunderstood, but it is ignored in the application as it relates to the Christian life. The Christian life, unfortunately, to the average believer, is an issue of Christian ethics, an issue of Christian morality, an issue of what is right and what is wrong. In a recent book that I was reading, the author put have said this that the definitive question in the life of a believer is not, would it be wrong for me to do this, but am I abiding in Christ at this moment? In other words, am I abiding in God’s love, which is what we are to be controlled by.

But we keep thinking about what is right and wrong. Now it says an unsaved person evaluates behavior on the basis of right and wrong. But the lifestyle of a Christian is to flow from the activity of the indwelling Christ. And if the lifestyle of a Christian is built around a value system, there is little difference between that and the lifestyle of an unbeliever. Many unbelievers expressed a desire to live according to the values embodied in the golden rule, or the 10 commandments. And it relates how I recently saw a billboard with a 10 commandments printed on it, and beneath that it read the 10 commandment, commandments, God’s way to save America. Now, he said, that may sound good, but it’s wrong. The 10 commandments outline a moral code, which reflect the righteous nature of a holy God. However, the only thing that the 10 Commandments can do to America is minister condemnation and death to a nation, which is what that was the purpose of the law. The purpose of the law is to establish an awareness of need, it can diagnose the spiritual disease, but it offers absolutely no hope for a cure. Now, the billboard would have been correct at it read Jesus Christ, God’s way to save America. But I even look at that and say, God didn’t come to save America, he came to save people. And that’s another thing we get all hung up on is God save America. Well, what is America? I mean, did God come to save countries? People say I have a Christian business. That’s interesting. I guess. The this business in its incorporation papers was born again. God doesn’t save businesses. This is a Christian ministry. I’m sorry, God doesn’t save ministries. He only saves people. And we’re more interested in corporate bodies than we were our individual people. Because I don’t have to deal when it’s corporations too big for me to have to get involved with them. I just say God, save America. Now he says, Once you save once you go over and try to save your neighbor. Well, I don’t want to do that I just read their sin. God bless America. So you see, we’re talking about things always to keep us out of the action. Because that requires love. See, the other stuff requires ethics, morality, dignity, conviction, all of those type of things. The flesh just loves to boast. And unfortunately, many of the Christian leaders today and many of the people who are leadership in media are people that don’t have any interest over and above keeping America safe, so that their business will flourish. It’s not interested in people. That’s why they’ll kick off radio stations that lead people to Christ or key ministries off of radio stations that lead people to Christ and keep issue oriented things on in order to keep the political system the way it ought to be so that Americans will be saved so that they can keep money in your pockets. And we call ourselves Christians. It’s It’s hypocrisy. It’s sheer, unadulterated hypocrisy. Now, he goes ahead to say to try to impose righteousness on a nation by incorporating values based on law, even the 10 commandments is futile. Apart from Christ, can any nation observe God’s commandment? Well, the answer for a perishing to society is not values. It’s Christ.

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Bob George 14:08
He makes a statement in an era highly recommend that you give up your Christian values. Now, isn’t that a statement? You may find this statement startling, but I wanted to shake you into some serious thought. I’m not advocating moral anarchy, nor am I suggesting that how you live is unimportant. But what I am saying is that focusing on a value system is not God’s intended way for you to live. God never proposed your lifestyle to be built around the principle of right and wrong and to do so is damaging in several ways. One, when I My lifestyle is built around this principle of right and wrong, I have an obsession with myself and I become self conscious instead of God conscious. Before the Fall, good and evil were irrelevant. Adam and Eve, they weren’t sitting around thinking about what was right and wrong. Their focus was not on their own behavior, but instead, they built their life around the relationship with God, they weren’t sitting around thinking about that. Focusing on behavior would make them self conscious. And God’s purpose was that they focus on him. Now after the fall, what happened to them? Well, they suddenly became aware of their own identity separated from God. Until that time, they had been called God conscious to such an extent that they were unaware of their own nakedness. That’s really God consciousness. In a matter of speaking, they hadn’t even looked at themselves. And when they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they became egocentric they became, and began to evaluate their own appearance, their actions, and their attitudes and their eyes were off of God and onto themselves. That’s a picture of religion. Yes.

Now that’s what concentrating on good and evil will do to you. And until you and I come to understand the fullness of the grace of God, we’ll spend considerable time and energy and self analysis. Every word we start thinking, Is that right or wrong, every thought? Is that right or wrong? every deed? Is that right or wrong. And when we began to find that we began to make more entries in that wrong column, we began feeling guilty and nothing robs a person of joy in his Christian life like guilt. Well, as a new creature, a new creation in Christ, one who is in Christ Jesus in Christ, Jesus is in us, do you measure your life by right and wrong? No, you measure your life, simply, am I abiding in Christ? Or am I not abiding in Christ? Am I being controlled by love? Or aren’t I being controlled by love? Our attitude and actions are expressed, because Christ is expressing them through us. That’s what it means when it says that we have the privilege of partaking in the divine nature, and that’s Christ nature. My new nature is not mine, it’s Christ, Christ living in me is my new nature. And I have the privilege of participating in that nature that lives in me, My old man, my old nature, the one in Adam is dead. My new nature is Christ. And I can participate in that. So that’s what it’s dealing with. Am I participating in His divine nature? Am I plugging into that I’m abiding in it, or am I listening to the desires of the flesh.

Now, when you’re under the law, the law is going to be demanding your flesh to behave. And it’s also going to be demanding your flesh to not behave. In other words, I’m going to be demanding your flesh to behave the way I Satan wanted to behave. So when you’re under the law, the power of sin is in the law. So Satan tries to keep you as a born again, Christian functioning under the value system of right and wrong instead of abiding. Because if he can get your eyes off of what it is to abide, and just get you back into the value system, you quite frankly, are living your life, absolutely no different than a last person who is under his own value system. And so he loves to get you under that law so that you will live under that value system, because you can’t walk in the Spirit and walk under the law at the same time, as I said, if you are under the law, you’re going to have to serve the law. And when you’re under grace, then you serve the God of grace. And so he keeps you under those value systems. And it sounds so noble and we walk around so proud that I’m such a such a moral, ethical person and remind ourselves of the obnoxious, religious man who looked over and said, Oh, I thank God that I am not a sinner like they are. In other words, my standing before God is based upon my righteousness instead of his.

Now, when I fail to abide in Christ, my actions have no godly value, even if they were a mix of —- and —-. It just doesn’t make any difference when I’m not abiding in Christ. It doesn’t make any difference what my actions are. They are of no value at all. They’re wood, hay and stubble. They are actions produced by the desires of the flesh to bring accolades to the flesh instead of to Christ Jesus. And then if you ever noticed how we’ll get up and you see these people prancing around on the stage on television with their Buffon, hairdos and all this type of thing and knocking people over and just strutting around and all this type of thing and then again very, very lovingly say, Praise God, it’s all Jesus and not me. Well, if it’s all Jesus, him why he go home, you know, it’s all of this self accolade draw attention to myself, and then kind of Throw in praise the Lord. Now, folks, we can be fooled some of the time, but hopefully you’re not going to be fooled all the time. And there’s going to come a point in your life, when you’re going to have to get rid of this self absorption and self analysis. And to spend instead of spending your days in some kind of perpetual clinic, where you’re yourself are both the doctor and the patient.

And Satan is going to have a terrific amount of fun with sensitive and conscientious souls given into introspection. When you’re given into that, you’re going to be connoisseurs of your own moods, you’re going to be specialist and self examination, and to end and you’re going to give all kinds of time to this one, too. This is another one of these subtleties examining your sincerity. And everyone who is in introspective is going to be examining his sincerity they worry because they don’t pray enough, maybe I wasn’t sincere enough, they worried because they don’t read the Bible enough, testify enough, rejoice enough. And very often, people who are troubled like this will never find relief by increasing their performance and stepping up the quality of prayers turned out or chapters read very likely, they’re going to be whipping up jaded nerves already exhausted and will merely increase their load of guilt that they’re under. And so we have to realize, folks that these are subtleties. These are interceptors that Satan has put in the way of keeping us abiding in Christ. Paul said, it’s no longer I who live. So get rid of the self examination. It’s Christ who lives if you want to get to know you, you’re going to need to get to know Him. And if you’re going to get to know him, you’re going to have to get to know His love. And when you get to know His love, you for the first time in your life have stability, and a constant in your life.

Bob, this subject of love, is, you know, whenever you talk about God’s love, we everybody just kind of sits back and says, Oh, good, we’re going to hear some nice stuff to make you feel good. Oh, I’m going to tell you. God’s love has legs to it, it has actions to it, it isn’t something to just talk about. It’s something that he says I want you to experience and I want it to be a part of your life.

I ran into a situation the other day that I’ve thought a lot about whereby a business that is owned and operated by people who are born again Christians. And they’re, they’re their brothers and sisters in Christ. And they have employees. And so in that business, why they talk about that we subscribe to Christian ethics and Christian principles. And we’ve built our, our business on Christian principles. And you know, you can do that. I mean, there’s, there’s phenomenal principles in the Bible, that you can build a business on our family on lost or saved or you know, take things out of Proverbs and, and other biblical books of the Bible, and you can get some some great principles out of there. The Psalms or Proverbs are full of wisdom, God’s wisdom, supposed to you’d have to be saved to put those into effect, but but they it’s just plain wisdom to do so. And so, there was a situation where one of the employees did something it was certainly inconsistent with with what you would want to do if you personally as a child of God, but it wasn’t one of the biggies. I mean, it wasn’t adultery or stealing or any of those types of things. It was just being at the wrong place at the wrong time.

And the guy got fired from his business. And the the grounds for for firing him was that it doesn’t match up to our Christian ethics. And I thought to myself, Christian Ethics What are you talking about Christian ethics, Jesus said, The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through one love, not ethics. Love. And we talking about ethics. If you’re talking about ethics, are you ethical, or you know how many of us in our hearts are totally ethical? How many in our hearts are totally moral? How many in our hearts have we ever lusted, then if we have Jesus said it’s the same as adultery. How many of us therefore can stand before God saying, I’m a righteous person because of what I do and what I don’t do? None of us are When is the Christian world going to understand this? Now you see if I want to set an ethical standard as an example, in my own life and say, Well, I’m not going to go into a bar, personally. Well, that’s why how come well, because Jesus doesn’t belong in there and Jesus lives in me and I just don’t want to be there. And I could say, I’m so proud because that isn’t where I want to be. But I’m gonna go over there and forget to throw if the little green light going through the Tollway is on green. And I’m getting ready to throw my 50 cents in there, but it’s already on green, I stick it back in the pocket and drive on through and don’t think anything of it just robbed the city out of 50 cents, but that’s okay. You see what I’m getting at. And so here’s all of this, who in the world is 100%? Ethical in all things you see? But again, that’s, that’s my doing. But Bob, if you went into a bar, and somebody came back and said, Bob Davis was at a bar, am I gonna say you’re fired? Because we, we ascribe to Christian principles? I, first of all, if I’m going to be in Christ, and if then I’m going to see how am I going to respond to that I’m going to talk about where I would want to be. But you fell temptation to something gave into the flesh and there you are in a bar. Okay. Now, the issue is, how am I going to deal with you on that basis? I mean, if if, if I’m supposed to deal with you, if I’m an employer, how in the world am I going to deal with you on that basis? Under Christian ethics? That’s not the issue. It’s, am I going to walk in love? There’s the whole issue, am I not what you’re going to do? Am I going to walk in love? Were you walking in dependency upon Christ? If you went into the bar? No, I don’t think so. Were you thinking of what that might do to your wife? If something? I don’t think so. And incidentally, it’s illustration. You haven’t been the bar. But what I’m saying no, but that’s you. That’s between you and God.

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.