Radio Broadcast Tuesday 09/10/2024

Classic Christianity – Book of Galatians P20 (09-10-24)

If A Person Wants to Live Under Law, They Are Obligated to Obey ALL of It!

~ “Whoever keeps the whole law but stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” James 2:10

It’s actually quite comical today, these people who think they are law keepers, because it is easy to show them that they don’t keep ALL the law. And when you show them, even out of the word of God with Jesus stating about getting angry at someone in their heart is the same as committing murder, and looking lustfully at someone else is committing adultery in their heart they dismiss it. Or even another BIG one that is never preached on, though Paul preached on it about himself, and that is coveting things. Ever wonder why that one is not preached on today? Because it is easy to show that we are ALL guilty of that one. And yet people are blind to all of that, and they still break the law, but they give excuses. They say things like, “Well we need to TRY and obey the law to be pleasing to God,” as though trying is good enough for God. They give lip service to the word of God. And folks like this are definitely NOT saved, because they have shown by their fruit and what comes out of their mouths, that they are indeed LAW Breakers. It’s hypocrisy at its finest. These people are actors, faking law keeping for those around them, and lying to everyone, including themselves. And they lie straight through their teeth and even say they do not lie. At that point in time, all you can do is laugh at them, because you know what is really going on in their hearts, for God has made that plain to everyone who is in Christ Jesus.

So these people are not arguing with you, but they are arguing directly with God and His Holy Spirit that has declared, “that God was in Christ Jesus, reconciling the world to himself and is no longer counting anyone’s sins against them.” They throw away the word of God and discount that also. They will simply say, “Well I don’t believe that” as though that makes it right for them to believe what they want to believe. They have exchanged the Truth of God for a lie. They have placed faith in what Man says instead of the word of God. And don’t think that this cannot or has not happened to you, for this happens so easily for everyone in various areas of the Word of God, because we have all been fooled by Satan. For we placed more emphasis on what Man has said, instead of the word of God. So we all need to go back to the word of God in prayer, and ask Him for Wisdom and Understanding (in EVERYTHING), and He will give it with great abundance without finding fault.

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever rejects the Son will not see life. Instead, the wrath of God remains on him.” John 3:36

“For Christ is the end of the law, to bring righteousness to everyone who believes.” Romans 10:4

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be encumbered once more by a yoke of slavery.

Take notice: I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no value to you at all. Again I testify to every man who gets himself circumcised that he is obligated to obey the whole law. You who are trying to be justified by the law have been severed from Christ; you have fallen away from grace.

But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. All that matters is faith, expressed through love.

You were running so well. Who has obstructed you from obeying the truth? Such persuasion does not come from the One who calls you. A little leaven works through the whole batch of dough. I am confident in the Lord that you will take no other view. The one who is troubling you will bear the judgment, whoever he may be.

Now, brothers, if I am still preaching circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case the offense of the cross has been abolished. As for those who are agitating you, I wish they would proceed to emasculate themselves!

For you, brothers, were called to freedom; but do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is fulfilled in a single decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you keep on biting and devouring one another, watch out, or you will be consumed by one another. Galatians 5:1-15

Pray to God:

Do you really want to know the WHOLE Truth of what is going on today?

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7

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.”

~ “Well, let’s pick up, pick up with where we’ve left off in this marvelous book of Galatians, a book of contrast, a book that explains to us in detail that the law is not based on faith, but on the contrary, the man who does these things will live by them, and that if you’re under the law, you’re under a curse. It’s a book that explains that if you’re under the law, then you’ve got to be under all of it. You can’t be under some of it. I was listening, unfortunately, to a pastor, just briefly on television this morning as we were leaving, who was just talking about tithing and and just, you just got to plant that seed. And you know, a farmer can’t go out and pray for corn if he doesn’t plant the seed, and just screaming and going on and on. I guess when your content is low, you got to talk louder, but just screaming about tithing. And I thought, boy, that’s what’s going on in the Christian world today. Is this kind of nonsensical teaching, and we tolerate it. Paul did not tolerate it. Paul said, I wish that if you’re going to be circumcised, you’re obligated to obey the entire law. That’s an obligation that you have. You want to be under one piece of it. You’re under all of it. And James said that if you obeyed all the law and yet stumbled in just one point, you would be guilty of violating all of it. Still want to be under the law?” ~ Bob George

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Join Bob George in this chapter by chapter exposition of the letter to the Galatians. Available for download the complete series on the Book of Galatians. The Letter to the Galatians is key to understanding Law and Grace, the new covenant, and being one in Christ Jesus.

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 pick up, pick up with where we’ve left off in this marvelous book of Galatians, a book of contrast, a book that explains to us in detail that the law is not based on faith, but on the contrary, the man who does these things will live by them, and that if you’re under the law, you’re under a curse. It’s a book that explains that if you’re under the law, then you’ve got to be under all of it. You can’t be under some of it. I was listening, unfortunately, to a pastor, just briefly on television this morning as we were leaving, who was just talking about tithing and and just, you just got to plant that seed. And you know, a farmer can’t go out and pray for corn if he doesn’t plant the seed, and just screaming and going on and on. I guess when your content is low, you got to talk louder, but just screaming about tithing. And I thought, boy, that’s what’s going on in the Christian world today. Is this kind of nonsensical teaching, and we tolerate it. Paul did not tolerate it. Paul said, I wish that if you’re going to be circumcised, you’re obligated to obey the entire law. That’s an obligation that you have. You want to be under one piece of it. You’re under all of it. And James said that if you obeyed all the law and yet stumbled in just one point, you would be guilty of violating all of it. Still want to be under the law?

And so the book of Galatians was written to intensify the truth that we have been called into a new way of life, and that is being led internally by the Spirit who lives in us, rather than externally, by laws written on stone. And so in spite of these clear instructions, you still have a vast majority of the Christian world that is teaching law. And you wonder, why. Do you ever read the scriptures? Do you not understand what they say? But the issue is, the answer to that is, I don’t know, but the issue is, you’re not teaching grace. You can’t commingle law and grace. There’s no room for it. And so that’s what this book is about. Is about the fact that we’re living in a new way of life.

Now, if you’ll back up just a moment into Galatians in the third chapter, and you don’t need to do that Bob, but in your own Bible’s, just turn back to the third chapter, and we’ll start in verse 21 to clarify this point, is the law therefore opposed to the promises of God. In other words, you have the promises of God and you have the law of God. And it said, Absolutely not, for if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would have come by the law. It’s not opposed to it. It upholds it. The law says that under the law, the wages of sin is death, and Grace says but the gift of God is life. So it upholds the law. So the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, so under the law, what are you? A prisoner. So that what was promised being given through faith in Jesus Christ, may it be given to all who believe. So the law has done its work, it showed you your death, so that Christ could do his work and give you life. It’s really not complicated, but we’ve made it complicated. So before this faith came, and before you and I put our faith in Jesus Christ for our salvation. We were held prisoner by the law. How we were how were we held prisoner? How are you a prisoner to something? You’re locked up. It says you’re locked up until what? Faith should be revealed. So he’s using a physical illustration that we can comprehend that if you’re under the law, you are like being in jail, locked up with no way of getting out until faith should be revealed. So before this faith came, we were held prisoners, locked up until faith should be revealed. So. Law was put in charge to lead us to Christ so that we might be justified by faith. Will anyone be justified by the law? No man will ever be declared justified in the sight of God through obedience to the law. So if you want to be justified, do you go to the law, or do you go to Jesus? You go to Jesus, and now that faith has come, now that you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ, this boggles my mind. We are no longer under the supervision of the law. Now, how can we teach that Jesus came to live within you, as we say in Texas, to help you obey the law? God came to help us, is that what he came to do to help us to obey the law? No, you’re no longer under the supervision of the law. Who are you under the supervision of? The Holy Spirit of God, who lives in us. It’s the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the life of a believer. And if you don’t know anything about the Holy Spirit, you don’t have anything to do except hang on to the law. Because if you don’t hang on to the law, you’re not hanging on to anything. And the reason you have people who are tenaciously hanging on to the law is because they do not have a clue of the indwelling Christ. And so he’s saying to us that but faith has come, you are no longer under the supervision of the law. You’re under the supervision of the Holy Spirit of God, alive, living in you, leading you into how much truth? Into all truth. And what will truth do? Set you free. And that’s what he came to do, is to set us free from the error that is in the world today.

In my opinion, you see this continually, and that is that you have a movement that is now taking place in abundance, saying that we all worship the same God. Have you heard that one? You heard that, all worship same God. These Muslims worship the same God that the Jew worships, that the Christian we all worshiping the same God. Is that true? Well, if it was true and we worship the same God, then what I would say to a person is, well, then let’s see what this same God that we all worship, you know, the Buddhists, the Muslims, we all worship same God. Let’s see what that God has to say. Because he gave a testimony, and in First John, it says that we believe the testimony of man readily enough. And boy, we’ll do that in the rumor mills, we’ll just believe anything it said. So we’ll believe man’s testimony. But he said, This is God’s testimony concerning his Son. So if we all worship the same God, then let’s see what that God testified in regard to his Son. And this is the testimony. It says God has given you eternal life, and this life is any Son, and he who has the Son has life, and he who is does not have the Son does not have life. And these things I’ve written unto You who believe in the name of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have eternal life. Now, do we worship the same God? So that’s a bunch of nonsense, that we worship the same God.

There are gods that people worship. The statues that the apostle Paul went into Athens said, I see you all are very religious, but I see there’s one statue there to the unknown God. Let me tell you about him. And told him about Jesus. And so we have to understand in our Christian experience, we cannot buy that kind of nonsense that there is one god, there is not one god. There is one God, but he’s not Allah. The one God is the God that revealed Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ. In times past, it said that he came and revealed Himself to us in various and sundry manners, sundry manners. But in these last days, He has revealed Himself to us through His what? Son. And there’s no more revelation after the Son. And so the Johnny Come Lately, that come along in 600 and some 14 and believe that they’ve got a theology, I’m sorry, God must have been dead for all those other years, because Jesus is the only revelation that God has ever given us, in regard to himself in person, in the person of someone. So we don’t all have the same God.

Now let’s turn back to chapter five. I’ll back up to 13, then we’ll pick up in 14 on here. You my brothers were called to be free, but don’t use your freedom to serve the flesh, rather to serve one another in love. And the entire law is summed up in a single command, love your neighbor as yourself. And if you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out, or you’ll be destroyed by each other. And my friends, that is a truth. As long as we continue to insist upon biting and devouring one another, we’ll be destroyed by one another. That’s true. In marriage, we form habits. Some of them are good habits. Some of them are bad habits. Some people have habits of doing nothing but criticizing your partner 24 hours a day, and you feel like you’re in some kind of a bondage because you can’t do anything right. You’ve never done anything right. You’re not doing anything right now, and you’re never going to do anything right. And you live in that kind of a bondage, you’ll destroy each other by that because the only defense the other person can do is to start finding things to criticize you about, and what you’re doing is destroying each other by the simplicity of your tongue, we’re destroying each other. You can do that in assembly. You can do that in a ministry where you begin destroying each other with what? Your tongue.

And so we have to understand that when it’s talking about that, if you’re going to live according to Jesus, then he says you’re going to have to quit biting and devouring each other. Now why do we do that? Well, because we want to control each other. Do you know guys deep down that when you’re talking about indwelling sin that was placed in every person on the day that Adam sinned, what does it say about women? It’s a very bad interpretation that we have, but it says you will want to control your husband. That’s what that means. You’ll want to you’ll want to control him. To the husband, you know, it’s like I’ve given up on you. You we have to understand that we’ve all become control freaks, and that indwelling sin is that internal desire to be God, not to let God be God, but to be God and to control everything. We control. Try to control each other. We try to control the government. We try to control our kids. We try to control our parents. We love the control. Why? Because we can’t trust Christ. And many times we say, well, I trust Christ with my life, but I can’t trust him with yours, so I’ve got to get in control, you see. And all of those things come down to the fact that we’re playing God, and we don’t realize it. We think we’re so good, but we’re playing God, and that’s why we bite and devour each other, is because that’s what you do when someone is not doing what you want them to do. Isn’t that when you get mad at someone is when they’re not doing what you want them to do? And so we have to understand that that is a part of this flesh that we’re going to talk about, is that insatiable desire to control everything and everybody. Why? Because we’re God and I want to control you.

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Bob George 13:39
And so we have to understand that that’s a conflict inside of us, and it destroys us. It devours and it destroys each other. Our lives get destroyed by biting and devouring each other. You say, How do you destroy a ministry? Bite and devour each other. Says in the scripture were there. Where there is envy and strife and selfish ambition, there’s evil of all kinds. And so if we want to destroy a ministry, if we want to destroy a marriage, if we want to destroy a business relationship, just start biting and devouring each other, and sure enough, you’ll get exactly what we set out to do.

And so it says, I say, live by the Spirit. Now, what does that mean? What does it mean to live by the Spirit? To what? Sure walk in love. We just got through saying in there, love your neighbors yourself. And that entire law is summed up in that single command, love your neighbor as yourself. Back in Ephesians, we studied the two passages that deal with that, and that is, Be not drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be filled with the Spirit. When you don’t know what that means. It means what you want it to mean. And you’ve got one group that bark like dogs and roll around on the floor and scream and yell and all that kind of stuff. And that’s what it means to be filled with the Spirit. You’ve got some other people who sit piously and study the Scriptures till their eyeballs fall out. You’ve got all kinds of things. The peril of the pendulum is in effect, there of both extremes, and in the third chapter, it told us exactly what it means, and that’s in Paul’s prayer, where he prayed that I pray that out of his glorious riches, that he’ll strengthen you with power in your inner being, so that Christ may be at home in your heart through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how high and long and wide and deep is the love of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge, so that you might be filled to the measure with all of the fullness of God. So could you be filled to the measure with all the fullness of God and not be filled with the Spirit? No. Could you be filled with the Spirit and not be filled to the measure with all the fullness of God? No. Then what does it mean to be filled with the Spirit? It means to be controlled by love. It’s what controlled Paul. It’s what controlled Jesus, and it’s what Jesus said is to control us. So when you’re saying to live by the Spirit, it means to live in love, to live with an attitude of love. Now, folks, what keeps us from that? Are you going to love because? Are you going to love your mate because they’re perfect? Anyone have a perfect mate here? No hands? Yeah, you do? You got a perfect mate? He’s laughing. I don’t know about you, if you do, one’s unnecessary. I got people say we’ve been married for 50 years and never had an argument. Said one of you is unnecessary. Are you going to love somebody because we’re perfect? I mean, never make mistakes? Does anyone have a mate here that’s never made a mistake? So how you going to love? Isn’t that how we’ve been taught that you love when, when you when you got someone that’s deserving? Isn’t that what we’re taught that if you do this, I’ll love you, and if you don’t, I won’t? Isn’t that, how we’re told God is that if you do this, He’ll bless you, and if you don’t, he won’t?

And so we’ve got all of these mind concepts that take place about when he’s talking about live with the Spirit, which means live in love, live with an attitude of of love. Live with patience, live with kindness. Live with never keeping records of wrongs. Uh, live with with never bringing up wrongs to people. That’s what it says. Why don’t we do that? Because it says we got flesh, and the flesh wants to control, and the way you control is to control, and so I can’t control and have the spirit in control at the same time. So one of us has got to go, and guess which one goes most of the time, is the Spirit. So when it says to love, that’s an act that you and I have to do on behalf of another person, irrespective of their response. In other words, to love, whether you love me or not, to love, not because or if, but because I love you. That’s how Jesus loves us. Now we say Jesus lives in us, well, then love with his love, and that’s what we’re dealing with here. And I can’t do that. I can’t love in my own strengths. Can you? Our love is conditional. If you’ll just shape up a little bit, I’ll love you better. But God says that’s not love, guys, that is not love. That’s not what I’ve called you to is that kind of love. I’ve called you to unconditional love. I’ve called you to love in spite of the object of the one you’re loving. To love because what? I loved you. And how do I love you? Perfectly. I don’t love you if or because I just plain love you. That’s the message of salvation that we all responded to when we came to Christ. I love you unconditionally. That’s good news to most of us, isn’t it, because we don’t get that kind of love here on this earth. And so it’s saying to us, but now that kind of love is available to us, and it says that we have the privilege of participating in the divine nature that lives in us. What divine nature lives in us? Christ’s nature. What is his nature? Perfect love. Do I have the ability to participate in that perfect love? Yes, I do. I also have the. Ability to participate in my flesh, and my flesh didn’t want to do any of those things.

So he’s saying, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh or the sinful nature. But its best, best translation is flesh. So you’ll notice that it does not say, clean up your flesh, and you’ll be spiritual. Many people, and that’s what religion does. Religion says, If I could just clean up my flesh, I’ll be really spiritual. Guy called the other night and informed me he was extremely spiritual. And I kind of ignored his question and say, let me ask you one. Why do you think you’re extremely spiritual? Well, he said, because I studied Hebrew. And I said, Well, if studying Hebrew made you spiritual, how come the people that didn’t have to study Hebrew, but spoke Hebrew crucified the Son of God? Then he changed it, I studied Greek. Well, I said, How come you can’t find a born again Christian, hardly in Greece? So the whole deal was, he’s a King James only here, 1611, King James. I won’t tell you what I did with him, but he’s saying, doesn’t say, clean up, flesh, you’ll be spiritual. It doesn’t say that the desires of your flesh will go away. It says when you are living in love, there’s a byproduct of that, and that is that you will not be gratifying the desires of the flesh. You’re always going to have desires of the flesh. Are you not? Has anyone eliminated those? We don’t eliminate them. They’ll be with us until we die. So the issue is, are we willing to allow the love of God to control our lives, to be controlled by love? Because the flesh doesn’t want to be controlled by love. The flesh wants to get even the flesh wants to criticize, the flesh wants to control. And it says, Are we willing to live in love? That’s a choice. We can choose one way, or we can choose the other, but it’s a choice. Am I willing to live with a spirit and a habit of love?

Now it says the sinful desires, the sinful desires that is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit is contrary to the desires. That means that living in you and me, we have two sets of desires, do we not? You got your fleshly desires, and you got the desires of God. Remember, when it talks about, delight yourself in the Lord, and he’ll what? Give you, what? The desires of your heart. So those are his desires. Why? Because you’re delighting in him. You’re delighting in the Lord. You love the Lord, learning to love his people. You’re living in love. And he says, I’ll give you the desires of your heart. Now, when he gives them to you, whose desires are they? They’re his, but who do they, whose do they become? Yours. And so again, he’s the source of your desires, but your flesh is also the source of desires. Who feeds those desires? Satan, and you better believe it. That’s the conflict that we’re in. They’re in conflict with each other, we’re told, so that you don’t do what you want. You ever find that? Remember Paul in Romans seven, the things I want to do I don’t do things I don’t want to do. I do anyway. You ever live that way? You ever not live that way? No. First time I read that, I thought someone was peeking on me.

Now, verse 18, if you’re led by the Spirit, you’re not under law. And you say, What’s that got to do with anything? Where did that come from? I thought we were talking about flesh and Spirit, but he said, says here that if you are led by the Spirit, you’re not under the law. Now, what does that mean, guys? Is there any law to love? No. And what he’s saying is, if you live in love, you’re not under the law, because you can’t live in love under the law. What is the law always demanding your flesh to do? Behave. Can it? No. So what do you end up doing? Beating yourself to death because you can’t do what the law is demanding you to do. Is that love for yourself? No, is it love for others? No, there’s no love under the law. That’s why people under the law are mean as Hornets. I’ve never meet an exception to that, that of true legal. What do you think these people are bombing the centers are. I mean, have you ever heard of legalism like that? You women want to go live like that? That’s legalism that’s according to their religious belief, that that’s the way women are supposed to live, like a piece of chattel, covered up. Suppose that stops those guys from lusting. I don’t think so. Probably like the eyeballs, I don’t but that’s religious stuff. That’s religion. And mean is Hornets, if you don’t do according to the law, we’ll kill you, dragged the lady out, committed adultery, shot her right there in the square. Want to live that way? Is that your God? Not mine.

Now it’s saying that if you’re led by the Spirit, you’re not under the law. Your law is always demanding your flesh to behave, and until you die to the law, you cannot come alive to Jesus, folks, that’s as simple as you can get it that when you’re under the supervision of the law, you cannot be under the supervision of Jesus. And so you’ve got two things here. You’ve got the law that is stirring up sin in us, because it says the power of sin is where? In the law. Is there a purpose for that? Yes. To show us what? That we’re sinners. And then there’s a consequence to sin. What’s that? Death. So it shows us you’re a sinner, and it shows you the consequence to being one, dead. And then there’s the gift of life through Christ, Jesus. And you’ve got people trying to live under both things, the law and under grace, you cannot do it.

Announcer 27:11
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